The following are the top 10 world news events of 2001 selected by Xinhua. The top 10 world news includes those cocerning the important issues and events in politics, economy, sci-tech, sports, etc. The events are arranged in chronological order:
1. India's Worst Quake in 50 Years Leaves 2,250 Dead, More Missing
India's Worst Quake in 50 Years Leaves 2,250 Dead, More Missing
The quake, also felt in Pakistan and Nepal, cast a tragic shadow over India's annual Republic Day celebrations and was described as a "calamity of national magnitude" by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Indian officials measured the quake's magnitude at 6.9 on the Richter scale, but foreign seismologists put it at up to 7.9.
The quake struck at 8:46 am (0316 GMT) with the epicenter located 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of the medieval Guajarati town of Bhuj.
PTI said more than 1,000 people were reported killed in Bhuj -- the epicenter of the quake -- with 5,000 people either "missing or trapped in the rubble."
"The toll is likely to go up once the debris is cleared," it said.
Officials said communication lines went dead and people were out in the streets fearing further tremors.
PTI put the total death toll at more than 2,250 with about 300 people dead in coastal Gujarat's main city of Ahmedabad and 150 people dead in Rajkot, 250 kilometres (155 miles) west of Ahmedabad.
Jamnagar, Surendranagar and Patan, all adjoining Rajkot, accounted for more than 170 people dead.
The agency did not give a breakdown for the rest of the death toll.
Witnesses said the only hospital in Bhuj was jampacked with patients, mostly with fractured bones.
"There are very few doctors around to help us. Air Force relief teams are still coming in. We have only three to four doctors attending to hundreds of patients pouring in," a resident said.
A government official told AFP that in Bhuj's neighbouring town of Anjar, about 650 people were reported dead with the "main bridge connecting Bhuj totally destroyed."
"This has been a major drawback in relief operations," he said.
Cabinet spokesman Pramod Mahajan put the number of confirmed dead in Gujarat at 651, but added the toll "could be higher," while Home Minister L.K. Advani, who flew to Ahmedabad from New Delhi put the figure at "1,000 or more."
Officials in Ahmedabad said hundreds of people were believed to be trapped in the rubble of buildings that simply folded in on themselves when the quake hit.
Seismologists recorded more than 80 aftershocks, one of which measured 5.6 on the Richter scale.
The army, air force and navy were all brought in to help relief operations, with Advani ordering two army battalions to the affected areas.
Floodlights had been set up in Ahmedabad to help relief workers using long iron crowbars and their bare hands to prise away rubble from demolished buildings.
The evening temperature was around seven degrees centigrade and special army posts had been set up to distribute blankets and first aid.
"There have been some tragic incidents. Like a school which collapsed, trapping at least 30 students," said an official at the city's relief control room.
Gujarat is one of India's economic powerhouses and home to the country's largest petroleum refinery, which was undamaged.
The state is earthquake-prone, but cost-cutting means that buildings are rarely designed to withstand quakes and officials said many of collapses were of new high-rises.
An air force base in Bhuj was also badly hit.
"We are still assessing the total damage, but there has been loss of life and property," said Air Force spokesman R.K. Dhingra.
Doctor Vikram Parjhi, head of casualty at Ahmedabad's main civil hospital, said his team had received hundreds of casualties.
"Sixty-four of those were dead on arrival," Parjhi said, adding most of those treated suffered head injuries and fractures.
The quake struck barely one hour before the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.
"I am deeply pained and distressed to know about the devastating earthquake," Prime Minister Vajpayee said in a statement, and put government aid agencies on a war-footing to help the victims.
Tremors were felt across central and northern India, in New Delhi and Bombay, as well as Madras and Pondicherry in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and in the eastern metropolis of Calcutta.
In Pakistan at least ten people were killed as the quake rocked major cities.
The last big earthquake to hit India was in March 1999. Measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, it killed 100 people in the Himalayan foothills. Friday's was the largest since a quake registering 8.5 struck the northeastern state of Assam in 1950, killing 532 people.
2.World's Scientists Reveal the Secrets of Human Life
World's Scientists Reveal the Secrets of Human Life
The head of China's gene research team said Monday that the Human Genome Project (HGP) will publicize its version of the human genome in Nature, a well-known magazine based in London, on Thursday.
The HGP team is a consortium of academic centres, mostly from the United States and Britain but with members in France,Germany, China and Japan.
China has finished 1 per cent of the finished sequenced map, according to Liu Qian, director and professor at the China National Centre for Biotechnology Development.
He said the findings were the first complete look at a genetic document of extraordinary strangeness and complexity.
Scientists have found there are far fewer human genes than believed, probably a mere 30,000 or so -- only a third more than those in the roundworm. They have found vast expanses of desert-like regions, where the human genome sequence contains relatively few or no protein-coding genes at all.
Roughly a quarter of the genome could be considered desert, with lengthy gene-free segments.
The findings also show that more than a third of the genome contains repetitive sequences, suggesting that this so-called "junk DNA" needs further study.
In addition, every human being on the planet shares 99.99 per cent of the same genetic code with everyone else. Individual variations represent just 0.01 per cent, or 1,250 different letters, of the entire sequence.
These genetic instructions are all contained within 46 large DNA-containing molecules called chromosomes - 23 from each parent.
Liu quoted genome scientists as saying that the completed human genome sequence is expected to spur on medical advances in diagnoses, pharmaceuticals that reflect individual genetic variations, and possibly gene therapies targeting segments of the code responsible for disease.
"The new findings are historic and unprecedented and the discovery is fundamental and basic," he said.
Liu said the public should remain calm because there were still gaps in the findings and the breakthroughs could as yet only bring certain benefits.
He said ongoing research would go much further.
"The next step is to research the functions of repetitive DNA, the regulation of gene expression, protein interactions, signalling, the effects of the environment and other mechanisms that could contribute to an organism's complexity.
Liu also said that China was willing to work with scientists from all over the world to make discoveries.
"Team work has resulted in these findings and we need to continue the co-operation not only between national scientists, but also with those worldwide," Liu said.
Last May, scientists from six countries, including China, declared they had completed a draft of the human genome sequence.
With State input of about 50 million yuan (US$6 million), Chinese scientists joined about 1,000 scientists from 16 institutions around the world in the final sprint to map out the genetic code.
China has more than 30 national biotechnology research laboratories, more than 20 of which are involved in gene research in some way.
3. No Talks with Palestinians under Sharm el Sheikh Deal: Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday that Israel will not resume peace talks with the Palestinians under the understandings reached at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh last October.Addressing a meeting of Israel's National Security Council and other senior security officials, who was preparing for Sharon's upcoming visit to the United States, Sharon said that his new government is not obligated to any peace deals reached with the Palestinians by former government led by Ehud Barak.
So his government will not conduct peace negotiations with the Palestinians based on the Sharm el Sheikh deal, according to Sharon's office.
At the meeting, head of the National Security Council Uzi Dayan proposed the new government resume talks with the Palestinians under the deal, which Israel reached with the help of the United States, the United Nations, Egypt and Jordan as well as representatives of the European Union.
After the outbreak of widespread violence between Israelis and the Palestinians in September, Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met in Sharm el Sheikh in October trying to reduce the level of conflict.
They later reached several understandings on ending the conflict, resuming security cooperation, lifting closure on the Palestinian territories, forming an international inquiry committee to probe the cause of clashes and resuming Israel-Palestinian peace talks with the help of the United States.
However, both sides failed to carry out the agreement on the ground.
Sharon, who was elected on February 6, insisted that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks be resumed only after the Palestinians end anti-Israel violence and incitement, saying that he will tell the US administration about this during his maiden visit as premier.
Moreover, he said that he will propose to the US administration that Arafat will not be invited to visit Washington before the violence ends.
Sharon will leave for the US on Sunday and is scheduled to hold talks with President George W. Bush in Washington next Tuesday.
This will be his first visit to the United States after taking office on March 7.
4. "African Union" to Replace OAU
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Sunday that the envisaged "United States of Africa" would replace the current Organization of African Unity (OAU), and would focus on the economic regeneration of the continent as well as on political matters.The new body would not take on the form of a federation of African countries, but would instead be a loose union with member states retaining their own sovereignty, cabinets and ministers, Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Newsmaker Program.
She said the envisaged body could not be likened to the United States of America, but rather to the European Union.
"We believed that the OAU needed to be radically re-organized in order for it to be able to take the challenges that face us," she said.
Asked what would be the fate of countries refusing to become part of the new African union, Zuma said all countries have agreed to the concept in principle.
Namibia and Angola, she said, did not attended the recent OAU summit on the topic, not because they did not support the formation of such a union, but because they objected to holding the summit in Lome, Togo.
The union would come into effect as soon as two-thirds of African countries ratify the proposal.
According to Zuma, the union would not be headed by a secretariat, but rather by a body comprising the different African heads of state. It would furthermore be made up of a commission and a number of specialized committees, looking at issues the continent has to tackle jointly, such as education, health and human resource development.
Zuma denied reports that she would become the foreign minister of an envisaged "United States of Africa".
The body would not even have such a position, she said. "There is no such thing," she added.
5. Terrorists attacked U.S in an unprecedented widespread scale
Terrorists attacked U.S in an unprecedented widespread scale
In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan around 8:45 a.m. local time, followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers collapsed, no figure of either casualties or injuries were available while an average 15,000 persons, including tourists, visited the towers.
American Airlines confirmed that it lost two planes in "tragic accidents". Flight 11 from Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard and Flight 77 from Washington Dulles airport with 58 passengers and six crew aboard. Both planes were en route to Los Angeles.
About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed.
United Airlines Flight 93 airliner headed from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania. Police said initial reports indicated no survivors. It was not known if this was connected to the attacks. United also said it was "deeply concerned" about Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles.
The Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington evacuated.
In the first ever national ground stop of aircraft, all flights nationwide have been stopped at their departure airports. All international flights were diverted to Canada.
Israel has evacuated all its missions around the world.
President George Bush canceled an appearance in Florida to return to Washington, calling the crashes "apparent terrorist attack" and "a national tragedy."
The Sears Tower in Chicago were and the United Nations headquarters in New York were evacuated.
The Centers for Disease Control was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they became necessary.
The New York Port Authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city. And U.S. stock markets were closed after the New York attacks.
| 6. Northern Alliance opposition forces on Thursday apparently captured some senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, a senior US official said. |
| Northern Alliance opposition forces on Thursday apparently captured some senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, a senior US official said. "We have heard that the Northern Alliance may have come into possession of some Taliban leadership earlier today," the official said, adding that the group did not include senior Taliban leader Mullah Omar or Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden, head of the anti-Western al Qaeda network. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the Northern Alliance had informed Washington of the capture. The official said the United States would be extremely interested in any intelligence information obtained from the Taliban leaders on the whereabouts of Mullah Omar and bin Laden, who is accused by the United States of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed more than 4,500 people. "There was some communication" from the Northern Alliance on the capture, said the official in Washington, who did not know where or how the Northern Alliance had taken the leaders. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that his country will find Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden even if he leaves Afghanistan. While Taliban rule appears to be weakening, bin Laden could escape the country that has shielded him for several years but not US grasp, Rumsfeld said at a press conference at Pentagon. Bin Laden is considered a "prime suspect" by the US authorities in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. "I think we will find him, either there or in another country," Rumsfeld said in Washington. The Pentagon chief said that the US military was "highly unlikely" to participate in any peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Asked if the United States would take part in a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said that his country may at some point want to put additional forces on the ground for activities such as repairing an airstrip or making improvements to an airport. Latest Developments"We have heard that the Northern Alliance may have come into possession of some Taliban leadership earlier today," Reuters quoted the official as saying. However,the group did not include senior Taliban leader Mullah Omar or Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden, head of the anti-Western al Qaeda network, the official added. While Taliban rule appears to be weakening, bin Laden could escape the country that has shielded him for several years but not U.S. grasp, Rumsfeld said at a press conference at Pentagon. Straw told the BBC that like post-World War II Germany, Afghanistan now, with the Taliban routed from much of the country, is devastated and its governing apparatus collapsed. At a news conference in central London, Blair told reporters that with Taliban resistance largely broken the chances of ensuring a stable future government for the war-torn country had improved dramatically. In an interview with Xinhua, Ambassador Ibragim said the eventual cessation of hostilities still needs time, but that won't take too long. He said the people across 80 percent of Afghanistan now feel that "they have been liberated from the Taliban forces," who now mainly concentrate in Kandahar, Herat, and Farah Provinces. In the northern province of Kunduz, over 20,000 Talibs, most of them foreign nationals, are still resisting. 7. China Says APEC Shanghai Summit Is A SuccessIn an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Tang said China, as the host of the summit meeting, is satisfied with the results of the summit which he said is a "centennial event at the focus of world attention." All the leaders of the 21 member economies of APEC, exceptTaiwan, took part in the two-day informal summit that ended in Shanghai on October 21. The summit this year is the ninth of its kind in APEC history and has as its theme "Meeting New Challenges in the New Century: Achieving Common Prosperity through Participation and Cooperation. " During the summit leaders of APEC economies conducted extensive consultations and reached consensus on the economic scenario of the world and the Asia-Pacific region, the direction of APEC development in the future, human capacity building and other issues. A declaration of the leaders was issued at the end of the summit. "The meeting represented a steady step forward for Asia-Pacific regional cooperation, consolidated and strengthened friendly and cooperative relations among APEC members, and has also offered an opportunity for the rest of the world to understand China better and vice versa," the minister said. "This is a successful meeting. It has an important and far-reaching impact. As the host of the meeting, China is satisfied with the achievements of the meeting," he added. Tang noted that the summit has been held at a time when humanity has just entered a new century, and the whole world, including the Asia-Pacific region, is facing severe challenges produced by economic globalization and a knowledge-based economy. "As the most important economic forum in the region, how to strengthen regional economic cooperation for the promotion of common development in the face of new opportunities and challenges is the historic mission of the summit," Tang said. He noted that the Shanghai Accord endorsed at this year's APEC meeting has reiterated the members' determination to attain the Bogor Goals in the pursuit of common prosperity, enriched the content of APEC cooperation and enhanced its cooperative mechanism. In addition, the e-APEC Strategy adopted by the meeting will have a positive impact on narrowing the digital divide among member economies and promoting the development of the information industry in the region. All in all, Tang said, the summit will have a lasting impact on the future of APEC and is expected to help promote a sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific regional economy. As the host of a series of APEC meetings, Tang said China has taken into full consideration different situations facing APEC members and their different concerns and pushed for the discussion of frontier issues facing the global economy and economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region as the focus of the meetings. China has also worked hard coordinating the positions of different countries. It is thanks to all these efforts on the Chinese side that the participants have reached consensus on a wide range of issues of common concern and made substantive progress on major issues discussed at the meetings, Tang said. "China has played an irreplaceable, important role in the successful holding of the meetings, for which it has won the praise of all members," Tang said. He noted that since it joined the APEC in 1993, China has actively participated in all APEC activities in a cooperative spirit, and that its positive and constructive stance has always drawn praises from other APEC members. With the deepening of its domestic reforms and its economic development, China will have much closer ties with other economies in the Asia-Pacific region, and it will play a more important role in setting the APEC agenda, Tang said. Tang noted that APEC was established in the late 1980s when profound changes were taking place in international political and economic fields. Since its establishment, APEC has advanced trade and investment liberalization and economic and technological cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and made positive contributions to regional and global economic development. "The APEC meetings in Shanghai have enhanced the confidence of APEC members in the economic development of the Asia-Pacific region and laid a solid foundation for APEC's development in the new century," the foreign minister said. Along with an ever changing international situation, APEC will continue to play a guiding role in solving some outstanding issues in global and regional economic development, boosting the development of a multi-lateral trade system, contributing to economic and trade cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and meeting new challenges with full respect given to diversity. In this way, APEC will march firmly toward attaining the Bogor goals and common prosperity. Talking about Sino-U.S. relations, Tang noted that the U.S. is the biggest developed country and China is the biggest developing country. Both are key members of APEC and can cooperate in a number of fields such as trade, investment, the new economy, and economic and technological cooperation. The Shanghai APEC meetings are favorable to strengthening economic and trade cooperation and promoting a sound and steady development of bilateral relations, Tang said. In their first meeting, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. President George Bush exchanged views and reached consensus on bilateral relations, APEC cooperation as well as international and regional issues of common concern. "Their meeting has given a vigorous push to the improvement and development of Sino-U.S. relations and laid a fine foundation for a relationship of constructive cooperation between the two countries in the new century," the foreign minister said. Chinese President Jiang Zemin also met with many other leaders of APEC member economies. The meetings played an important role in stabilizing and developing relations between China and the world powers such as the United States and Russia, promoting good neighborly ties between China and its neighbors, and contributing to regional and global stability and prosperity. "The successful hosting of the APEC 2001 meetings exhibited achievements China has made since the country's reform and opening and raised China's international status," Tang said, adding that the success was a good beginning for China's diplomacy in the new century. Responding to a question relating to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Tang said the negative impact of the incident on the global and regional economy has become apparent. Leaders of APEC members exchanged views and made a joint statement in this regard. They condemned the terrorist attacks and expressed the wish of strengthening cooperation and making efforts to mitigate the incident's impact on world economic development as soon as possible. |
8. China Signs WTO Accession Protocol |
 Shi Guangsheng, Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, signed Sunday the protocol on China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). |
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