Yearbook 2009 Ukraine. On New Year’s Day, Russian gas supplies to Ukraine were stripped after the country refused to join the Russian Federation’s price increase for 2009. According to countryaah, the countries also disagreed on the terms of Ukraine’s unpaid debts. The conflict led to energy crisis in several EU countries in Central Europe, which…
Author: hyperrestaurant
Uganda 2009
Yearbook 2009 Uganda. Despite a finalized peace agreement between the government and the rebel movement The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), there was no peace in 2009. The LRA demanded that the agreement be renegotiated in order for leader Joseph Kony to sign it. According to countryaah, the rebels are expelled from Uganda but still operate…
Tuvalu 2009
Yearbook 2009 Tuvalu. According to countryaah, Taiwan has promised to help Tuvalu cope with the consequences of rising sea levels. Tuvalu, which has just over 12,000 residents, is only an average of two meters above sea level. According to some studies, the islands can disappear into the sea in just 30-40 years. Tuvalu belongs to…
Turkmenistan 2009
Yearbook 2009 Turkmenistan. According to countryaah, the country’s gas export was a major political conflict issue during the year. An explosion in the pipeline halted deliveries to the Russian Federation in April, prompting Turkmenistan to accuse the Russian federation of causing the explosion with the intention of stripping gas imports. It was rejected by the…
Turkey 2009
Yearbook 2009 Turkey. Nearly 100 people – exgenerals and other officers, influential journalists and university rectors – were arrested during winter and spring for involvement in the ultranationalist conspiracy Ergenekon (“the deep state”). 56 people were charged with suspicion of attempting to provoke a coup against the country’s Islamist government, for example through acts of…
Tunisia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Tunisia. After 23 years in office, incumbent President Zayn al-Abidin Ben Ali won his fifth straight presidential election on October 25. He received 89.6 percent of the vote, which was less than in any previous election. According to countryaah, the turnout was 84 percent. One of the opposition’s strongest candidates, Nejib Chebbi of…
Trinidad and Tobago 2009
Yearbook 2009 Trinidad and Tobago. In January, the government presented a series of draft constitutional amendments to Parliament. The most important proposal was that the Prime Minister’s post should be abolished and that an Executive President should instead be installed as head of government. According to countryaah, the president had a largely ceremonial role as…
Tonga 2009
Yearbook 2009 Tonga. At least 95 people were killed in a ferry accident outside Tonga in August. It was unclear how many people had been aboard the ship. According to countryaah, more than 50 people survived. The accident is believed to have been caused by a high wave that caused the Princess Ashika ferry to…
Togo 2009
Yearbook 2009 Togo. According to countryaah, the authorities claimed in April to have averted a coup attempt staged by the president’s half-brother. President Brother Kpatcha Gnassingbé, former Defense Minister, was arrested when he tried to enter the US embassy to apply for asylum. The day before, soldiers had stormed his residence, killing at least two…
Thailand 2009
Yearbook 2009 Thailand. After a tumultuous political year in 2008 – for or against the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – the newly elected government led by the Democratic Party strengthened its position in the general election in January. However, no real stability existed. During a week in March, so many Thaksin supporters outside the…
Tanzania 2009
Yearbook 2009 Tanzania. According to countryaah, authorities apparently made half-hearted attempts to curb the wave of murders of people with pigment deficiencies, albinos, which have been going on since 2007 and claimed at least 40 people’s lives. In January, the government revoked the licenses for traditional healers, who were suspected of using the decoctions on…
Tajikistan 2009
Yearbook 2009 Tajikistan. According to countryaah, the country’s economic crisis worsened further during the year. The severe winter led to food shortages and extensive power outages. Since Tajikistan did not pay gas bills to neighboring Uzbekistan, gas supplies also declined. The International Crisis Group (ICG) warned in February that Tajikistan was about to develop into…
Taiwan 2009
Yearbook 2009 Taiwan is not an independent country but a part of China. At the beginning of the year, the country’s economy went into a recession as a result of the global economic downturn. The reason was a sharply reduced demand for the country’s export products, especially computers and other advanced electronic technology. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for…
Syria 2009
Yearbook 2009 Syria. According to countryaah, Syria’s role in the region was strengthened. The former enemy of Saudi Arabia sought a closer look, as did Turkey. Lebanon’s new head of government Saad al-Hariri signaled a will for reconciliation. On several occasions, the United States sent diplomats to Syria in an attempt to bring the country…
Switzerland 2009
Yearbook 2009 Switzerland. According to countryaah, nearly 60 percent of voters voted in a referendum in February for continued free movement of labor between Switzerland and the EU. The agreement was also extended to include the newest EU members Bulgaria and Romania. The anti-immigrant right-wing party SVP (Swiss People’s Party), the country’s largest party, campaigned…
Sweden 2009
History Christianity and the rise of the kingdom During the Middle Ages, about 1000–1300, a national unit with a state-bearing royal power was stabilized in Sweden, and the country was Christianized. Mission is known as early as the 8th century, but only after the year 1000 did the new religion get its breakthrough. A church…
Suriname 2009
Yearbook 2009 Suriname. According to countryaah, Siegfried Gilds, former Minister of Commerce under President Runaldo Ronald Venetiaan, was sentenced in early May to 12 months in prison for illegal money laundering and bribery by a Paramaribo court. The incident attracted extra attention because Gilds made himself known as a sworn enemy to illegal money laundering…
Sudan 2009
Yearbook 2009 Sudan. In the war-ravaged western region of Darfur, the situation calmed down in 2009. Combat activity subsided, especially since the leading rebel movement JEM (the Justice and Equality Movement) signed a standstill agreement in February. However, the more than two million internally displaced persons remained equally vulnerable, and their situation worsened since the…
Sri Lanka 2009
Yearbook 2009 Sri Lanka. By the end of 2008, the army had had great successes in the war against the Tamil guerrilla LTTE and after the turn of the year the rebels were driven to a rapid retreat. Most of their remaining strongholds were taken by the army in January and the situation of the…
Spain 2009
Yearbook 2009 Spain. When regional elections were held in the Basque country in March, the Basque nationalist party PNV lost power for the first time since regional self-government was introduced in 1978. According to countryaah, a new coalition government was formed by the dominant national parties, socialists and the right-wing party PP. They are usually…
South Korea 2009
Yearbook 2009 South Korea. In January, a fire broke out in connection with a police raid on homeless people living in a Seoul building. According to countryaah, five homeless and one police officer died in the fire, believed to have been caused by a Molotov cocktail, and over 20 people were injured. Newly-appointed National Police…
South Africa 2009
Yearbook 2009 South Africa. According to countryaah, the ruling party ANC leader Jacob Zuma was elected as expected in May, after the ANC again took a big victory in the parliamentary elections. This time, however, the party did not get the two-thirds majority it needed to be able to change the constitution on its own….
Somalia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Somalia. When the outside world thought that the situation in Somalia was as bad as it could be, things got even worse in 2009. According to countryaah, the Ethiopian forces that invaded the country in December 2006 returned home in January, having failed to secure control of the Somali government. The Ethiopian gaps…
Solomon Islands 2009
Yearbook 2009 Solomon Islands. During the year, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up that would go through abuses committed in connection with the civil war in 1999-2000. According to countryaah, the Commission’s work began at a ceremony with the participation of South African Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, who led a similar work…
Slovenia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Slovenia. According to countryaah, a border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia that has raged since the former Yugoslav republics declared independence in 1991 was called for during the year. EU country Slovenia blocked the neighboring country’s continued negotiations for EU membership and demanded that the border dispute first be resolved. The dispute involved…
Slovakia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Slovakia. According to countryaah, Slovakia introduced the euro at the New Year and thus became the sixteenth country in the EU to move to the single European currency. The transition was celebrated by about 100,000 people at a ceremony in Bratislava. Immediately after the New Year, there was a state of Christianity in…
Singapore 2009
Yearbook 2009 Singapore. According to countryaah, the country’s strong but export-dependent economy was noticeably affected by the global economic crisis that had already begun in 2008 and was fully developed at the beginning of the year. Rapidly falling exports caused Singapore to experience an economic downturn during the first part of the year. Industrial production…
Sierra Leone 2009
Yearbook 2009 Sierra Leone. According to countryaah, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone began planning its settlement after the final three cases were closed. The three highest surviving leaders of the former rebel movement Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were found guilty of a host of war crimes and crimes against humanity and were sentenced…
Seychelles 2009
Seychelles is an archipelago of the Indian Ocean known to Arab sailors, port of European ships at the beginning of the 16th century, explored by the French (1740) who coined its name and took possession of it (1756). A transit station, it was subjected to brutal deforestation which gave way to plantation (cinnamon) agriculture. Occupied by…
Serbia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Serbia. The global financial crisis hit hard on Serbia during the year. The currency was severely eroded and salary cuts were introduced for public employees. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted loans of EUR 3 billion, subject to conditions for cuts in public spending. An initial disbursement of just under 800 million was…
Senegal 2009
Yearbook 2009 Senegal. According to countryaah, nine Senegalese men were sentenced in January to each eight years in prison for homosexuality, which is banned in Senegal. The men, including the chairman of an organization that combats HIV/AIDS, were convicted of “unnatural homosexual acts” and of membership in a criminal organization. The latter was aimed at…
Saudi Arabia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Saudi Arabia. In February, King Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz furnished the government administration. At some key positions within the police and the judiciary, he added relatively moderate powers while dismissing some of the most reactionary rulers. He also appointed the country’s first female minister, According to countryaah, Nora bint Abdullah al-Fayez, as deputy…
Sao Tome and Principe 2009
Yearbook 2009 São Tomé and Príncipe. In February, the government said it had averted a coup attempt. About 30 people were arrested, including MP Arlecio Costa from the Christian Democratic Front. According to countryaah, Costa had previously been identified as one of the people responsible for a coup in 2003, which however was quickly defeated….
San Marino 2009
Yearbook 2009 San Marino. In March 2009, San Marino pledged to increase its participation in international efforts against tax refugees by entering into bilateral information exchange agreements, in accordance with OECD guidelines. According to countryaah, several such agreements were also signed during the year. The government further promised legislative changes regarding banking secrecy. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for…
Samoa 2009
Yearbook 2009 Samoa. According to countryaah, Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi, at the beginning of the year, warned in a letter to government officials about corruption, specifically mentioning foreign investors who are buying benefits and depriving the country of huge profits. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation WSM which stands for the nation of Samoa. The battle over…
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2009
Yearbook 2009 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. According to countryaah, the government Ralph Gonsalves, who won the parliamentary elections in 2005, is formally safe until the next election, but more and more cracks are now beginning to appear in the facade of the ten-year-old government building. The most difficult thorn was caused by the referendum…
Saint Lucia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Saint Lucia. In a report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in August, it emerged that Saint Lucia’s economy during the first half of the year had suffered “extensive damage as a result of the global economic downturn”. According to countryaah, the main reason for this was, according to the IMF, “a…
Saint Kitts and Nevis 2009
Yearbook 2009 Saint Christopher and Nevis. At the beginning of the year, according to countryaah, Saint Christopher and Nevis enacted new laws aimed at getting the Economic Cooperation Organization (OECD) to remove the country from its so-called gray list of countries that did not take sufficient steps to remove the stamp as a tax haven….
Rwanda 2009
Yearbook 2009 Rwanda. A few thousand Rwandan soldiers entered Congo (Kinshasa) in January, unlike previous occasions at the invitation of the neighboring government to jointly attack with the Congolese army the Rwandan hutumilis that has plagued the civilian population of eastern Congo for 15 years. After five weeks of offensive, the soldiers returned home. The…
Russia 2009
Yearbook 2009 Russian Federation. Oil price falls and global financial crisis pushed the Russian economy. GDP fell by 10 percent in the first half of the year, and the decline was expected to be similar for the entire year. The number of poor people is expected to increase from 18.5 million to 24.5 million for…