Over the past week, the world saw a devastating earthquake in New Zealand, continuous unrests or clashes in some countries in the Middle East and Africa as well as formidable oil price spirals. Peace and stability are what the world is most craving for.

On Tuesday, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island city of Christchurch. The confirmed death toll there rose to 145 on Saturday evening, while the number of missing people surpassed 200.

Although the authorities have started to clean the ruins of the quake, people are still expecting any miraculous return of those missing people, including 23 Chinese nationals.

Also, families in various countries are waiting to meet their family members or relatives who have been withdrawn or will be withdrawn from turbulent Libya, a key oil producing country located in North Africa.

So far, more than 20,000 Chinese citizens have been evacuated from Libya safely due to swift, efficient efforts made by the Chinese government.

Influences caused by social unrests were even worse.

In Cote d'Ivoire which is mired in disputes over the country's presidency, violence has been escalating in the past week and the security situation is deteriorating.

Since the presidential election in November last year, conflicts caused by the disputes over the election results have left more than 300 people dead. Prospect of mediation by the African Union is dim and the Western African country comes closer to the brink of civil war.

The security situation in the Middle East and North Africa is also uncertain, bringing about great social impacts and economic losses.

As the world's main oil producing area, the disturbance in this region has made global oil prices soar and world stock markets plunge, casting a heavy shadow on the global economic recovery.

In turbulent Tunisia, its pillar industries, including tourism, have been significantly hurt and the direct economic loss suffered by the North African country has amounted to more than 2 billion U.S. dollars.

Political turmoils in Egypt also have cost the country 17 billion dollars.

In the past week, the daily oil production in the world slumped sharply due to the escalation of domestic instability in Libya, spurring the world oil price above 100 dollars per barrel for the first time since October 2008.

The expectation for higher oil prices also will quicken the rises of grain prices, thus bringing higher consumer prices and increasing the global inflation pressure.

Some economists pointed out that, if the oil price rises to 120 dollars per barrel, the world may slip into a new round of economic recession.

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