The British Royal Yacht Britannia arrived in Dubai where it will host trade talks between British and government officials. Britannia, which left Britain on January 20, will host the inaugural meeting of the United Kingdom-Dubai Joint Trade Committee which is aimed at further promoting trade and investment between the two. The yacht, which has already visited Malta and Yemen, is due to visit Qatar next in a 17-nation tour of the world, which will end in June in Hong Kong when the British colony is handed back to China. British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jeremy Hanley has praised President His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s initiative to mediate a negotiated settlement for the conflict in Sudan and expressed the hope that the initiative would be successful. “We very much appreciate His Highness Sheikh Zayed’s wise efforts to help solve disputes and conflicts in the region,” he said.
Other important events:
1924 The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company is renamed the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
1943 Soviet forces recapture Rostov from Germans during the Second World War.
1945 Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador join the United Nations.
1946 The first all-electronic computer is introduced at the University of Pennsylvania.
1958 Iraq and Jordan form Arab Federation with King Faisal as head of state.
1960 Ayoub Khan is elected President of Pakistan.
1972 US trade restrictions against China are relaxed, putting China on same basis as the Soviet Union.
1979 Four armed men kidnap US ambassador to Afghanistan Adolf Dubs, who is later killed during a shoot-out with police.
1981 48 people killed in Dublin nightclub fire.
1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut.
1989 Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issues a ‘fatwa’ calling for the death of British author Salman Rushdie.
1990 Indian Airlines passenger jet crashes on landing at Bengaluru airport, killing 91 people.
1993 Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides wins an upset victory over incumbent George Vassilou in Cyprus’ presidential election.
1998 A series of 17 bombs kills more than 50 people in the south Indian city of Coimbatore, triggering riots and arson.
2000 Indonesian President Abdur Rahman Wahid suspends his powerful security minister, General Wiranto, from the Cabinet.
2002 The state of Bahrain is declared the Kingdom of Bahrain.
2005 Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated.
2007 Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov is sworn in as Turkmenistan’s new president after winning the country’s first poll with more than one candidate.
2008 Burj Khalifa sells the highest office floor in the world for Dh44 million to a European investor.
2012 A massive fire sweeps through an overcrowded prison in Comayagua, Honduras, killing more than 350 inmates.
2013 South African double amputee Olympiad, Oscar Pistorius, is charged with murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp in Johannesburg.
2014 Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal resigns after being in power for 49 days.
2015 Michele Ferrero, Italy’s richest man and the owner of a global chocolate and confectionery empire, dies at the age of 89.
2016 Central African Republic votes in elections towards restoring democratic rule and ending years of violence.
