Diary of Events International

8/7/2019 Diary of Events International

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DIARY OF EVENTS 2010

JANUARY

Jan. 1: Ninety-Five people arekilled in a suicide attack during a

volleyball match in Shah HassanKhel in Lakki Marwat district in Pa-kistans North West FrontierProvince.

Jan. 2: Afghanistans Parliament

rejects 17 of President Hamid Kar-zais 24 nominees for a new Cabinet.Nitin Garg, an Indian youth is

stabbed to death in Melbourne,Australia.

Jan. 4: Burj Dubai, the worldstallest tower at 818 Metres (2,684feet), is opened by Dubais rulerSheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid alMaktoum.

Jan. 6: A U.S. Grand Jury indictsNigerian youth Umar Farouk Abdul-mutallab over a plot to blow up aplane with 290 aboard on ChristmasDay as it approached Detroit,Michigan.

Jan. 11: Editor and veteran Tamiljournalist J.S.Tissainayagam sen-

tenced to 20-years RI by the HighCourt of Colombo is granted bailpending appeal by the AppealCourts.

Jan. 12: At least 230,000 peopleare killed and 300,000 more injuredafter a powerful 7.0 magnitudeearthquake devastates the Carib-bean nation of Haiti. The capitalPort-au-Prince bears the brunt. ThePresidential palace and Parliamentbuilding collapse. The head of theU.N. peacekeeping mission, Tuni-sian Hedi Annabi among dead. TheU.N. headquarters wrecked.

Jan. 14: The Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud

is feared killed in an air strike inNorth Waziristan.

A federal grand jury in Chicagoindicts Pakistan-American JihadistDavid Coleman Headley and hisCanadian accomplice Tahawwur Ra-na for their role in organising recceoperations before the November2008 Mumbai attack.

Jan. 15: Russia ratifies EuropeanHuman Rights Convention.

Jan. 16: The U.S. President Ba-rack Obama pitches bank tax.

Jan. 17: Ukrainians cast ballots inpresidential polls.

James Camerons science fictionblockbuster Avatar fetches for himBest Drama and Best Director at the67th annual Golden Globes Awards inBeverly Hills, California. Meryl

Streep gets Best Actress award forJulie & Julia.

Martin Scorsese is presented theCecil B.DeMille lifetime achieve-ment award at the Golden Globes.

Billionaire Sebastian Pinera iselected Chile President after win-ning a run-off vote.

An Iraqi court sentences to deathAli Hassan al-Majid widely known as Chemical Ali for a 1988 gas attackthat killed 5,000 people.

Jan. 18: Taliban gunmen launchan assault on Afghanistan capital Ka-bul with suicide bombers blowingthemselves up at different locations. A fourteen-member Cabinet issworn in amidst the violence.

Mehmet Ali Agca who shot at Pope

John Paul II on May 13, 1981 inSt.Peters Square, Rome is freed af-ter spending 29 years behind bars.

Jan. 19: British chocolate barmaker Cadbury is bought by U.S. gi-ant Kraft Foods in a $19 billion dealending more than 180 years ofhistory.

In a major upset, Republican ScottBrown wins the Massachusetts Sen-ate seat held by Edward Kennedy fornearly half a century defeating thestate Attorney General Martha

Coakley.Top Hamas Commander Mah-

moud al-Mabhouh is assassinated inhis hotel room in Dubai by an 11-member hit team.

Jan. 21: The U.S. Supreme Courtlifts a 63-year-old ban on corporatefunds for U.S. federal elections. Banon paid issue ads too goes.

Jan. 22: U.S. astronaut TimothyTJ Creamer aboard the Interna-tional Space Station becomes thefirst person to tweet live from space.

Jan. 25: Ninety people aboard anEthiopian Airlines plane are killedafter it catches fire and crashes intosea shortly after takeoff from Beirut.

Ali Hasan al-Majid widely knownas Chemical Ali is hanged in Iraqfor the 1988 poison gas attacks which

killed more than 5,000 Kurds.Jan. 26: Over 70 per cent of the 14

million plus Sri Lankan voters castballots in presidential polls.

Jan. 27: Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa is re-elected fora second term. Bangladesh executesthe five convicted killers of the na-tions founding President SheikhMujibur Rehman (on August15,1975) at Dhakas Central Prison.

Jan. 29: China unveils a newdraft law on land acquisitions.

Jan. 31: A.R. Rahman wins twoGrammy awards for his song Jai Hoand outstanding soundtrack for thefilm Slumdog Millionaireat the 52nd

annual Grammy Awards in LosAngeles.

Beyonce wins six trophies, includ-ing best female pop vocal for Halobecoming the most decorated wom-an on a Grammy night. Taylor Swiftbags four awards, including the Al-bum of the year, for her best-sellingFearless.

FEBRUARY

Feb. 1: The U.S. President BarackObama unveils a $ 3.83 trillionbudget.

At least 46 persons one killed andover 122 injured as a woman suicidebomber detonates an explosives beltwhile walking among a group of pil-grims on their way to Karbala inIraq.

Feb. 3: Twentythree persons arekilled and 147 injured as a blast ripsthrough a crowd of Shia pilgrims onthe outskirts of Karbala, Iraq.

Feb. 5: A landmark deal isclinched by Northern Irelands ma-jor political parties, the DemocraticUnionist Party and Sinn Fein pavingthe way for grant of full autonomy tothe province envisaged in the 1998Good Friday agreement.

Feb. 7: Ukrainians cast ballots inthe bitterly fought presidential runoff.

Laura Chinchilla is elected thefirst woman President of Costa Ricaby a landslide.

Feb. 8: Sri Lankas former Army

Chief and Opposition presidentialcandidate General (Retired) SarathFonseka detained for committingmilitant offences.

Viktor Yanukovych wins Ukrainepresidential polls narrowly beatingPrime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Feb. 9: Sri Lankan President Ma-hinda Rajapaksa dissolvesParliament.

Feb. 11: Flamboyant British fash-ion designer Alexandar McQueen isfound dead at his home in CentralLondon.

Iran, a nuclear state, says thePresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejadat a mammoth rally in Tehran.

Feb. 12: Podila Gopi Kumar anIndian-American professor and twoothers are killed after Amy Bishop, a

neurobiologist opens fire at a facultymeeting at the University of Alaba-ma at Huntsville.

Feb. 14:Viktor Yanukovych is of-ficially declared winner in the Ukrai-nian presidential polls.

Feb. 19:

Roman Polanski wins the best di-rector award (Silver Bear) at the60th Berlin Film Festival for his po-litical thriller, The Ghost writer. The

Golden Bear is bagged by a Turkishfamily drama Bal(Honey) by direc-tor Semih Kaplanoglu.

Feb. 20: Kathryn Bigelows Iraqwar movie The Hurt Lockersweepsthe BAFTAs picking up six gongs out

of eight she was nominated for.Feb. 23: Abdolmalek Rigi, leader

of Jundallah, a high-profile anti-Iran

militant group is arrested afterthorities force his plane to lanthe southern port city of BaAbbas.

Feb. 24: Dawn Brancheatrainer at The Sea World USArine Park, Orlando is drowned12,000 pound killer whale Tiliduring the Shamu Whale Show.

Feb. 25: Victor Yanukovysworn in Ukraines President.

Feb. 26: Six Indians and 10 otare killed in coordinated suicidtacks by the Taliban at two hotethe Afghanistan capital Kabul. Tplayer Nawab Khan part of an Itroupe and Major Jotin Laishragifted doctor among dead.

Feb. 27: Seven hundred peare killed as an earthquake meaing 8.8 on the Richter scale roChile setting off a tsunami.

Feb. 28: The tsunami triggby the Chile earthquake hits Jap

main islands and the shores of sia.

India and Saudi Arabia sign antradition Treaty and the Agreemfor the Transfer of Sentenced sons in Riyadh after talks betw

Prime Minister Manmohan Sand King Abdullah bin Abdul Az

MARCH

March 1: The Prime MinManmohan Singh addresses Shura Council and is conferrehonorary doctorate by the King University.

March 3: The Ukrainian Pament passes a no-confidence mo voting out the Yulia TymoshCabinet.

March 5: The U.S. House of resentatives passes the Hiringcentive to Restore Employmenta jobs bill of $15 billion.

March 7: Iraq war dramaHurt Locker bags the Best PicOscar at the 82nd Academy Awin Los Angeles. Kathryn Bigelow

comes the first woman to be awaBest Director. Sandra Bullock

INTERNATIONAL

Nitin Garg Ali Hasan al-Majid

Haitians walk past quake damaged buildings in the c apital Port-au-Prince.

A girl who had sustained injuries after a bombing in Karbala, Iraq.

The Burj Dubai, the worlds tallest building, in Dubai, United AEmirates.

Dream Dare Win www.jeywin.com

www.jeywin.com Dream Dare Win


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Best Actress Award (The Blind Side)Jeff Bridges strikes gold in the BestActor category.

Voters cast ballots in Iraqs secondparliamentary election amid wide-spread violence which claims 35lives.

March 9: The Israeli governmentgives nod for the building of 1,600new settlement homes in occupiedEast Jerusalem.

March 10: An American womanColleen R. LaRose a.k.a. JihadJane is indicted for her bid to wagea violent jihad in South Asia andEurope.

March 11: Myanmar promulgatesnew poll laws targeting democracycampaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.

March 12: Sebastian Pinera issworn in Chile President.

March 14: Katie Spotz (22) be-comes the youngest person to rowsolo across the Atlantic Ocean andthe first American to row a boatwithout help from mainland tomainland. She left on January 3 fromDakar, Senegal.

March 15: Indian born BritishLabour MP Ashok Kumar (53) isfound dead at his home in Middles-brough, north east England.

March 16: Courtmartial pro-ceedings against the former Sri Lan-ka Army Chief General (Retd.)Sarath Fonseka for alleged role inpolitics while in uniform begins inColombo.

Double Falsehood, a play of dis-puted authorship is found actually tobe a version of Shakespeares long-lost play Cardenio.

March 18: Pakistan-AmericanLeT operative David Coleman Head-ley accused of plotting the Mumbaiterror attacks pleads guilty on all 12counts before a U.S. court inChicago.

The U.S. President Barack Obamasigns into law the $17.5 billion HiringIncentive to Restore EmploymentAct (the HIRE Act).

March 19:Atom Smasher sets re-cord as beams of protons circulate at3.5 trillion electron volts in both di-rections around the 27 km tunnelhousing the Large Hadron Colliderunder the Swiss-French border atGeneva.

March 20: Girija Prasad Koirala(86), Nepals five-time Prime Minis-ter, freedom fighter and political he-ro dies at his daughters house inKathmandu.

A volcano under a glacier in Ice-land erupts after almost 200 years .

Oscar, a Spanish man undergoesthe worlds first full face transplantat a Barcelona hospital.

March 21: The U.S. House ofRepresentatives passes the Senateversion of the healthcare reform billby a narrow but firm margin of 219-212.

March 22: Tejdeep Singh Rattanbecomes the first turbaned Sikh in ageneration to join the U.S. Army.

March 24: The Abel Prize forMathematics for 2010 is awarded toAmerican Mathematician John Tor-rence Tate for his work in AlgebraicNumber Theory.

March 25: The former premierIyad Allawis secular Iraqiya blocwins Iraq polls.

March 26: Fortysix South Ko-rean sailors aboard warship Cheo-nan are killed in a torpedo attack byNorth Korea in the Yellow Seawaters.

March 29: Forty persons arekilled and 70 injured as women sui-cide bombers blow themselves up attwo Metro stations Lubyanka andPark Kultury in the Russian capitalMoscow.

March 30: Scientists at the Eu-ropean Centre for Nuclear Researchnear Geneva smash proton beamsinto each other with record energy at

a nano-fraction of a second slowerthan the speed of light using theLarge Hadron Collider.

March 31: Mauritius Prime Min-ister Navin Ramgoolam dissolves the70-member National Assembly andcalls for elections on May 5.

Belgium votes to ban veils.APRIL

April 2: A report of the Commit-tee on Constitutional Reforms is ta-bled in Pakistan National Assembly.

April 5: The Discovery spaceshuttle blasts off from NASAs Ken-nedy Space Centre in Florida withseven astronauts, including threewomen mission specialists on a 13-day mission aboard the Internation-al Space Station.

April 6: British Prime MinisterGordon Brown announces generalelections for May 6.

April 7: Kyrgyzstan PresidentKurmanbek Bakiyev flees the nationafter two days of violent mass pro-tests leaves 75 killed and 400 injured. Prime Minister DaniyarUsenov quits. A Cabinet of peoplestrust headed by Opposition leaderRoza Otunbayeva in place.

India and China sign an agree-ment to set up a hotline betweenPrime Ministers Manmohan Singhand Wen Jiabao, after talks inBeijing.

Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit

Vejjajiva promulgates emergencyfollowing a brief gate crash by pro-testers at the Parliament premises.

April 8: Low turnout in Sri Lank-an parliamentary polls.

Presidents Barack Obama andDmitry Medvedev sign a StrategicArms Reduction Treaty at a meetingin Prague.

Pakistan National Assembly pas-ses the 18th Amendment Bill thatseeks to bring back the 1973Constitution.

April 9: President Rajapaksa-ledruling alliance in Sri Lanka recordsan emphatic win in polls.

April 10: Polish President LechKaczynski and a high level delega-tion are killed after a plane carrying97 persons crashes in thick fog nearthe Smolensk airport in westernRussia. Poland declares a weeks offi-cial mourning.

French doctor and explorer Jean-Louis Etienne makes the first Arcticcrossing aboard his balloon the Gen-erali Arctic Observer after taking off

from the Norwegian archipelago ofSpitzbergen on April 5.April 11: Voting begins in Sudans

national election. April 12: British-Indian author

Rana Dasgupta wins the Common-wealth Writers Prize for 2010 for hisepic tale Solo. Australian GlendaGuests Siddon Rock adjudged BestFirst Book.

April 13: Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh announces Indias de-cision to set up a Global Centre forNuclear Energy partnership at theNuclear Security Summit in Wash-ington.

April 14: At least 600 people arekilled and more than 10,000 injuredas a 7.1 magnitude earthquakestrikes a remote border area in Chi-nas Qinghai province. Yushu countyin a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecturebordering Siachen is the epicentre.

A 5,466-foot volcano under theEyjafjallajokull glacier in Icelanderupts spewing smoke and steam in-to the air.

April 15: The U.S. and Russia an-nounce a plutonium eliminationdeal. Russia shuts down its lastweapons-grade plutonium reactornear the Siberian town ofZheleznogorsk.

The volcanic eruption in Icelandcreates massive ash cloud disruptingflight services in Europe.

Pakistan Senate passes the 18th

Amendment seeking to stripresidency of its powers and resthem to Parliament.

Deposed President of KyrgyzKurmanbek Bakiyev steps dowter earlier leaving the country foneighbouring Kazakhastan.

April 18: Pakistan President Ali Zardari signs the 18th Amment Bill restoring parliamendemocracy.

Panel orders recount of votesin Baghdad during the March 7 election.

April 20: Shuttle Discoveryits astronauts return to earth wping up their 15-day, 9.7 million journey to the International SStation.

The Deepwater Horizon rig oated by British Petroleum sinkthe Gulf of Mexico following anplosion leaving 11 workers dead

April 21: Dissanayake Mudiselage Jayaratne is appointedLankan Prime Minister.

Britain and other European ctries lift the ban on flights aftedays following the volcanic crises.

China declares a day of natimourning in remembrance of2064 lives lost in the Qinghai quMore than 12,135 left injured.

April 22: The Brazilian govment headed by Premier Yvesterme quits following a linguspat between the coalition partover a bilingual voting district.

Chamal Rajapaksa is electedLanka Parliament Speaker.

April 23: G.L. Peris is designSri Lanka Foreign Minister and Rajapaksa is assigned the newlyated Economic Development Mtry as a 76-member Cabinet toffice.

April 24: The Hubble Space T

Director Kathryn Bigelowaccepts the Oscar for BestDirector for The Hurt Locker atthe 82nd Academy Awards.

Girija Prasad Koirala

Lech KaczynskiA fresh cloud of ash rises from the volcano under theEyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland.




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scope celebrates the 20th anniver-sary of its launch on April 24, 1990.

April 25: The Austrian President,Heinz Fischer, wins a second six-year term.

April 26: Sudans PresidentOmar Hassan El-Bashire registers adecisive election win.

April 27: The Russian and theUkrainian Parliaments ratify a land-mark agreement to extend the leaseof a key Black Sea naval base in Se-vastopol to Moscow by 25 years.

Oh Eun-sun, a South Koreanmountaineer becomes the firstwoman to scale the worlds 14 high-est mountains.

The U.S. extradites the formerPanamanian dictator Manuel Norie-ga to France.

April 28: The 16th SAARC sum-mit opens in the Bhutan capitalThimphu.

April 29: India and Pakistanagree to resume high-level dialoguedisrupted since the November 28Mumbai terror attacks followingtalks between Prime Ministers Man-mohan Singh and Yusuf Raza Gilaniat Thimphu on the sidelines of theSAARC summit.

Belgiums Lower House of Parlia-ment votes to ban wearing burqa in

public, becoming the first state inEurope to do so.

MAY

May 1:A major bomb scare rattlesNew Yorks Times Square.

May 2: The European Union andthe IMF approve a $146 billion pack-age to rescue debt-ridden Greece.

The Maoists launch an indefinitegeneral strike in Nepal seekingthe formation of a national

government led by them.May 3: Sri Lankan journalist J. S.

Tissainayagam is pardoned by thePresident Mahinda Rajapaksa.Court martial hearing against for-mer General Sarath Fonseka issuspended.

Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-bornU.S. citizen is arrested in connectionwith Times Square Car bomb inci-dent, after authorities recall a flightsoon after takeoff from New YorksJohn F. Kennedy InternationalAirport.

May 5: Mauritians cast ballots ingeneral elections.

Nigerian President Umaru YarAdua passes away after a long illness.

May 6: Britons cast ballots in aclosely contested general election ina generation.

Goodluck Jonathan is sworn inNigerian President.

The three-party alliance of PrimeMinister Navin Ramgoolam wins 41of the 60 seats in the Mauritius Na-tional Parliament.

Researchers announce sequenc-ing of the genetic blueprint of Nean-derthals from bones found inVindija, Croatia.

May 7: The British electionthrows up a hung parliament and the

Labour Party handed down defeatafter 13 years in Power. ShahabanaMahmood and Yasmin Qureshi be-come Britains first women MuslimMPs.

Myanmars National League forDemocracy led by Aung San Suu Kyiceases to exist.

World Wide Web launches ArabicURLs, Egypt begins registeringnames under the .misr domain

A massive peace assembly is heldin Nepal capital Kathmandu.Maoists withdraw indefinite generalstrike.

May 9: The European Union an-nounces a 750 billion special Eu-ropean fund to bailout failing eurozone economies.

May 10: At least 66 people arekilled and 146 wounded as terroristsunleash a wave of violence in Iraq.

Filipinos cast votes in generalelections.May 11: British Prime Minister

Gordon Brown resigns.May 12: Conservative leader Da-

vid Cameron assumes office as Bri-tains Prime Minister and LiberalDemocrat Nick Clegg takes over asDeputy Prime Minister. WilliamHague is the new Foreign Secretaryand George Osborne the Chancellorof the Exchequer.

At least 103 people among them 70Dutch nationals are killed as a Li-byan Airbus jet crashes while tryingto land at Tripoli Airport.

The Thailand Prime Minister Ab-hisit Vejjajiva cancels a proposedNovember 14 election and calls offtalks with anti-governmentprotesters.

May 13: Social activist Ela Bhattreceives the Niwano Peace Prize for2010 for her contribution to the up-lift of poor women in India.

May 15: Australian schoolgirlsailor Jessica Watson sails into his-tory becoming the youngest personto circumnavigate the globe solo,non-stop and without help.

May 16: A number of major air-ports across the U.K. are closed dueto renewed threat from Icelandicvolcanic ash.

Rima Fakih, a Lebanese immi-grant is crowned Miss USA in LosVegas making her the first ever Arab-American to win the title.

May 17: Iran signs nuclear fuelswap deal with Brazil and Turkeyafter 18 hours of negotiations in

Tehran.The U.S. President Barack Obama

signs the Daniel Pearl Freedom ofPress Act into law.

May 18: The Obama administra-tion announces deal with majorpowers to impose new sanctions onIran.

May 19: U.S. geneticist Craig Venter creates synthetic life bybuilding the genome of a bacteriumfrom scratch and incorporating it in-to a cell.

Thailands security forces crush atwo-month protest by Red Shirts af-ter storming a barricaded campsitein Ratchaprasong in Bangkoks com-mercial district. At least six persons,including a foreign journalist arekilled.

The French Cabinet approves a

draft law to ban burqa from publicspaces.

Anglo-Irish writer J. G. Farrell isposthumously awarded a specialone-off lost Booker Prize for hisnovel Troublespublished in 1970.

May 22: Arjun Vajpai (16), aschoolboy from New Delhi becomesthe youngest Indian to successfullyclimb Mount Everest. Apa Sherpaclimbs peak for a record 20th time.

Jordan Romero (13), from BigBear, California becomes the young-est person in the world to conquerMt. Everest.

May 23: Thai director Apichat-pong Weerasethakul wins the PalmedOr at the Cannes film festival for asurreal reincarnation tale UncleBoonmee Who Can Recall His PastLives. Javier Bardem and Elio Ger-mano share best actor award.Frances Juliette Binoche is namedbest actress.

British screenwriter Simon Mon- jack, husband of late actor BrittanyMurphy is found dead at his Holly-wood Hills home in Los Angeles.

May 24: South Korea announcesfar-reaching trade restrictionsagainst North Korea.

May 25:Argentina turns 200.The Pakistan Supreme Court up-

holds Lahore High Courts decisionto free Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief HafizSaeed from house arrest.

May 26: Shuttle Atlantis wraps

up a 25-year career, including 32missions covering 120 million milesand lands at NASAs Kennedy SpaceCentre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

May 27: President Pratibha Patilseeks Chinas backing for a perma-nent UNSC seat for India during thesummit meeting with President HuJintao.

North Korea scraps pact withSouth Korea on the prevention ofnaval clashes between them.

Reducing Emissions for Defores-tation and Degradation (REDD+), aninternational programme to protectforests, gets nod at a meeting in Oslo.

May 28: Ninety-five peoplekilled and 70 injured in terroritacks on two mosques in LahPakistan.

Nepal parties agree to extendterm of the Constituent Assemba year. Prime Minister Madhavmar Nepal to step down.

Ready for a new starting potop Chinese leaders tell PresiPratibha Patil. An Indian-style

ple is dedicated to the people ofna in Luoyang Henan province.May 30: David Laws, Brit

Chief Secretary to the Treasursigns over charges of abuse of pamentary expenses rules.

Colombians cast ballots in pdential polls.

May 31: Nine persons are kafter Israeli commandos attahigh-profile Gaza-bound six-shiflotilla, trying to break the nblockade of the Gaza Strip byAviv since June 2007.

The German President HKoehler resigns following critiof his comments about the natmission in Afghanistan.

JUNE

June 2: Japans Prime MinYukio Hatoyama resigns over thsue of letting a U.S. base remaOkinawa prefecture.

Afghanistan President Karzai escapes bid on life aftthree-member Taliban susquad targets a peace meet in K

June 3: To test endurance dua simulated 520-day return fligMars, six researchers are lockeinside a mock spacecraft built Moscow where they will spendnext 18 months.

Sir Paul McCartney is awardeGershwin Prize, the highest Aican award for popular song.

June 4: Naoto Kan is electepanese Prime Minister.

Indian-American Anamika Vemani wins the Scripps NatiSpelling Bee contest.

June 5: Israeli troops take trol of MV Rachel Corrie, an flagged aid ship bound for Gaza.

June 6: The 160-metre CaGate tower in Abu Dhabi is renised as the furthest leaning mmade tower in the world by Gness World Records.

June 8: India and the Czechpublic sign three agreementJoint Commission on EconCooperation is set up.

June 9: The Dutch cast balloparliamentary polls.

The U.N. imposes fresh sancagainst Iran.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy PrimeMinister Nick Clegg (Left).

Anamika Veeramani of Cleveland, Ohio, displays her trophy aftwinning the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest.

Everest conqueror, ArjunVajpai

President Pratibha Patil presenting a souvenir to the authority of

White Horse Temple after dedicating an Indian style Buddhisttemple in Luoyang, China.

Thai director ApichatpongWeerasethakul poses with the

Palme dOr.




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American novelist Barbara King-solvers The Lacuna wins the years30,000 Orange Prize for fiction,Britains highly-regarded literaryhonour for women writers.

June 13: The first results fromBelgiums general election confirm abreakthrough for Flemishseparatists.

Iran, Pakistan finalise gas pipelinedeal.

June 14: U.S. geologists discover$ 1 trillion worth of untapped miner-al deposits in Afghanistan.

June 15: The toll in Kyrgyzstanethnic strife touches 170.

Swiss MPs approve tax deal withwith the U.S.

June 16: British Petroleumagrees to pay $ 20 billion into an oilspill fund.

June 17: An Australian teenageris arrested in a Melbourne suburbfor the January 2 murder of Indianstudent Nitin Garg.

The European Union approvessanctions that target Irans key ener-gy sector.

June 18: Pakistani-American ter-ror suspect Faisal Shahzad is indict-ed by a grand jury in the U .S. DistrictCourt of Manhattan in the botchedTimes Square car bombing.

June 20: Poles cast ballots insnap presidential polls.

Iran hangs Abdolmalek Rigi, lead-er of the Pakistan-based Jundallahgroup for violent incidents in thecountry.

June 21: Pakistan-born Ameri-can Faisal Shahzad pleads guilty tothe Times Square car bomb bid 100times.

June 23: The U.S. President Ba-rack Obama removes General Stan-ley McChrystal as the top NATOcommander in Afghanistan.

June 24: Julia Gillard is sworn inAustralias first woman Prime Min-ister. France is paralysed by a gener-al strike in protest against the

governments decision to revise theretirement age from 60 to 62.

India, Pakistan resume Compos-ite Dialogue process, on hold sincethe 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

June 26: The G8 summit in Can-ada renews its ban on the sale ofenrichment and reprocessing tech-nology to India.

June 27: The Prime MinisterManmohan Singh warns against a

double dip recession at the G20Summit in Toronto, Canada.Guineans cast ballots in the West

African nations first democraticelection since independence in 1958.

Kyrgyzstan voters approve a newConstitution in a referendum back-ing radical changes from a presiden-tial to a parliamentary form ofgovernment.

India and Canada sign a civil nu-clear cooperation agreement inToronto.

G-20 leaders agree on a timetablefor cutting deficits. Joint declarationwelcomes resumption of India-Pa-kistan talks.

June 28: India and Japan begintalks on civil nuclear cooperation inTokyo.

June 29: China and Taiwan sign ahistoric pact the Economic Coop-eration Framework Agreement inthe southwest Chinese city ofChongqing.

The Maldives Cabinet resigns af-ter a standoff with the Opposition.

The U.S. arrests a couple and nineother members of an alleged Russianspy ring in the last three days.

June 30: Nepals Prime MinisterMadhav Kumar Nepal resigns afterbeing at the helm for 13 months.

The U.S. House of Representativespasses bill to revamp the financialregulatory system.

Benigno Aquino III is sworn in thePhilippines President.

JULY

July 1: Christian Wulff (51) be-comes Germanys youngest-ever

President.Jayant Patel Indian-born U.S. citi-

zen dubbed Dr. Death in Australiagets a seven-year jail term for astring of botched operations.

Russias math whiz Grigori Perel-man turns down a $ 1 million prizeawarded to him for proving the 106-year-old Poincare Conjecture.

July 2: The United Nations Gen-eral Assembly votes to create U.N. Women (UNW) for acceleratinggender equality and womensempowerment.

July 3: Rosa Otunbayeva is swornin Kyrgyzstasns President in the

capital Bishkek and becomes thefirst woman head of state in CentralAsia.

July 4: Bronislaw Kamorowskiwins Polands run off presidentialelections.

U.S. Army General David Petraeusassumes command of the 130,000-strong international force inAfghanistan.

July 5: Russia, Belarus and Ka-zakhstan launch a customs union.

Iceland authorities exhume thebody of chess legend Bobby Fischerto carry out a paternity test to settlea dispute over his estate.

July 7: A Solar Impulse airplanetakes off on a pioneering round-the-clock flight attempt at Payerne air-port in Switzerland.

July 8: Solar Impulse, a giantglider-like aircraft completes thefirst night flight propelled by solarenergy.

The European Parliament givesnod for a legal blue-print for the for-mation of the European External Ac-

tion Service, a 97,000strongdiplomatic corps.

Ten persons suspected of spyingfor Russia in the U.S. are swapped forfour Russians accused of being U.S.double agents in Vienna, Austria.

July 10: The European spacecraftRosetta performs a flyby of Lutetia, amassive potato-shaped asteroid.

July 12: The Swiss governmentdeclares French-Polish film directorRoman Polanski under house arrestat his chalet in Gstaad a freeman.

The International Criminal Courtat The Hague charges SudanesePresident Omar al-Bashir with geno-cide in Darfur.

July 13: Frances Lower House ofParliament votes to ban thewearing of the burqa and the niqabor full face Muslim veil in public.

Arun Kumar Narote, an Indianstudent hailing from Hyderabad isshot dead at a provision store inBridgeport city in the U.S.

July 15: Argentina becomes thefirst country in Latin America to le-

galise same-sex marriage followlandmark Senate vote after a 15-debate.

The U.S. Senate passes an unpedented and game-changing Street reform bill.

July 16: Germany and Chinaseries of deals reportedly wortheral billion dollars.

July 17: Australian Prime Mter Julia Gillard calls for gen

election set for August 21.NASAs wide-field Infrared SuExplorer or WISE completes itssurvey of the entire sky.

July 18: The world celebNelson Mandela InternatDay as the anti-apartheid turns 92.

Syria bans niqab the full Islveil at universities.

July 21: The U.S. Presidentrack Obama signs into law the DFrank Wall Street Reform and sumer Protection Act.

July 22: Kosovos declaratioindependence from Serbia in Feary 2008 legal, says the Internatal Court of Justice in a grobreaking ruling.

Balochistan province in Pakis smothered by floods.

July 26: In one of the bigleaks in U.S. military history, onwhistleblower WikiLeaks brinlight a huge cache of secret U.S.exposing truth of the failing wAfghanistan.

A Spanish man Oscar, who unwent the worlds first full face trplant on March 20 at a Barcehospital, appears on television.

July 28:All 152 people, inclusix Youth Parliament memberboard a Pakistan aircraft are killit crashes into the Margalla skirting the capital Islamabad.

The Bangladesh Supreme Cnullifies the controversial Amendment to the Constimade in 1977 that gave legitimamilitary-led governments.

July 30: Nepals Supreme Cupholds life term for Charles hraj for a crime he committe1975.

At least 800 people are killed three days of rainfall causes wspread flooding in Pakistan.

India and the U.S. signagreement for reprocessing snuclear fuel in Washington.

July 31: Chelsea Clinton mainvestment banker Marc Mezviat Astor Court in Rhinebeck, York.

AUGUST

Aug. 1: The Convention on C

Australian Prime MinisterJulia Gillard. Rescue workers looking for survivors in the wreckage of a plane

that crashed in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Mars500 isolation facility is seen before the arrival of the crewmembers.




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ter Munitions, a landmark interna-tional treaty to ban cluster bombstakes effect.

Aug. 4: Kenyan voters over-whelmingly approve a new Constitu-tion in a referendum.

Aug. 6: Pakistan says recent mon-soon floods biggest-ever disaster inthe nations history, with 1,32,000sq.km. affected in Khyber Puk-htoonkhwa (formerly NWFP) andPunjab provinces alone.

Aug. 7: India and Bangladesh signan agreement on a $ 1-billion line ofcredit extended to Dhaka by NewDelhi.

Aug. 8: At least 127 people arekilled and nearly 1,300 go missingafter mudslides sweep away homesin Gansu provine, NorthwesternChina.

Aug. 9: Rwandas President PaulKagame wins a second term gaininga landslide victory.

Aug. 11: British researchers an-nounce the emergence of a new classof antibiotic-resistant superbug NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-betalactamase-1)

Aug. 16: A Boeing 737 jetlinerwith 131 passengers aboard crashesand breaks into three pieces on land-

ing on San Andres island inColumbia.

Aug. 19: Last U.S. combat brigadeleaves Iraq seven years after leadingthe invasion of the nation.

Aug. 21: Australians cast ballotsin snap national elections.

Dutch solo sailor Laura Dekker(14) begins her round-the-world re-cord bid from the Portuguese port ofPortimao.

Aug. 23:After a ten-hour hostagecrisis, six passengers of a tourist busare killed in the Philippines capitalManila by a sacked police officer whois later shot dead by security forces.

Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete iscrowned Miss Universe 2010 at the59th annual pageant held in LasVegas.

A Federal Court in Washingtonblocks most government financingfor embryonic stem cell research.

Aug. 24: Six MPs among 30 killedin a rampage at a hotel in the Somaliacapital Mogadishu.

Fortytwo persons are killed whena passenger jet overshoots a runwayin northeast China.

Aug. 26: The High Court of Ban-gladesh declares illegal the SeventhAmendment to the Constitution thatlegalised the autocratic rule of Gen-eral Hussein Muhammad Ershad.

Aug. 27: Kenyas President MwaiKibaki signs a new Constitution intolaw.

Aug. 28: China passes a first-of-its-kind law to set up mediationcommittees to handle conflicts at

the grassroots level.Aug. 29: Russias Prime Minister

Vladimir Putin opens oil pipeline toChina.

The Sinabung volcano on the In-donesian island of Sumatra eruptsfor the first time in 400 years.

Modern Family, Mad Mensweep the 62nd Primetime EmmyAwards announced in Los Angeles.

Aug. 30: The Sri Lankan Cabinetapproves changes to the 1978 Consti-tution and lifts ban on a third term in

office for President MahindaRajapaksa. Aug. 31: The President Barack

Obama announces the end of theU.S. combat mission in Iraq.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 2: The Israelis and the Pal-estinians begin direct peace talks inWashington.

Sept. 3: India and South Koreasign landmark memoranda of under-standing on defence, in Seoul.

Sept. 4: A 7 magnitude earth-quake devastates New Zealand.

Sept. 5: Basque separatist groupETA declares a ceasefire in its bloody42-year campaign for a homeland in-dependent of Spain.

Sept. 6: Rwandas President PaulKagame is sworn in for a secondterm at the capital Kigali.

Sept. 7: Australian Prime Minis-ter Julia Gillard wins a 17-day politi-cal marathon to lead a minoritygovernment in a hung Parliament.

A general strike against pensionreforms throws life out of gear inFrance.

Officials hoist a 70 foot steel co-lumn salvaged from the rubble afterthe September 11 2001 attack on theWorld Trade Center at ground zeroin New York.

Sept. 8: The Sri Lankan Parlia-ment approves amendments to the1978 Constitution, including liftingthe two-terms limit on the post ofPresident.

Hyundai Motor unveils BlueOn,South Koreas first full-speed elec-tric car in the capital Seoul.

Sept. 10: India commits wide-ranging aid to Laos after talks be-tween Presidents Pratibha Patil andChoumally Sayasone in Vientiane.

Sept. 11: The former AustralianPrime Minister Kevin Rudd is allo-cated Foreign Ministry. WayneSwan is Deputy Prime Minister andStephen Smith gets Defence.

Sofia Coppolas Somewhere bagsthe Golden Lion Prize at the 67th Venice Film Festival. The SilverLion for best director goes toAlex de la Iglesia for Balada triste deTrompeta(A Sad Trumpet Ballad).

Sept. 15: Russia and Norway signThe Treaty on Maritime Delimita-tion and Cooperation in the BarentsSea and the Arctic Ocean, in the Rus-sian seaport of Murmansk.

Sept. 17: A court marshal recom-mends a three-year jail term for for-mer Sri Lankan Army Chief SarathFonseka.

Sept. 18: Afghanistan holds cru-cial parliamentary polls despite astring of rocket attacks.

Philippe Croizon, a Frenchmanand quadruple amputee swimsacross the English Channel using legprostheses that have flippersattached.

Sept. 19: China suspends con-tacts with Japan.

Hung House in Sweden after par-

liamentary polls.Sept. 20: European leaders offer$ 1.3 billion on the first day of athree-day summit on the Millenni-um Development Goals at the Unit-ed Nations, New York.

Fredrik Reinfeldt is re-electedSwedish Prime Minister.

Sir Mota Singh, the United King-doms first Sikh and Asian Judge re-ceives the Pride of India Award 2009instituted by the India InternationalFoundation, in London.

Sept. 23: The 2010 World States-man Award is presented in absentiato Prime Minister Manmohan Singhin New York.

Sept. 24: A U.S. court sentencesPakistani neuro-scientist Aafia Sid-diqui to 86 years in prison for shoot-ing at American soldiers inAfghanistan.

Sept. 25: Chocolate maker Ge-orges Larnicol sails his 3.5 metre-long 1.2-tonne boat made of choco-late in Concarneau Port, WesternFrance.

Balaji Sadasivan (55), SingaporesSenior Minister of State for ForeignAffairs dies of cancer.

Sept. 28: About 1,000 people arefeared killed after a hillside collapsesin southern Mexico, burying up to300 homes.

Sept. 29: Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa approves a 30-month rigorous jail term for the for-mer Army chief Sarath Fonseka.

OCTOBER

Oct. 1: Chinas lunar probeChange2 is successfully launched

from the Xichang Satellite LaunchCentre in Sichuan province.

Oct. 3: Brazilians cast ballots inpresidential polls.

Oct. 4: Dr. Robert G. Edwards,British scientist and IVF pioneer,who created Louise Brown theworlds first test tube baby in 1978 isawarded the 2010 Nobel Prize forMedicine.

Oct. 5:Andre Geim of the Nether-lands and RussianBritish nationalKonstantin Novoselov are jointlyawarded the Nobel Physics Prize fortheir works on graphene, the worldsthinnest and strongestnanomaterial.

Life term for Faisal Shahzad, thePakistan-born U.S. citizen, chargedwith the May 1 Times Square bomb

plot.Oct. 6: Richard F. Heck of the U.S.

and Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzukiof Japan are chosen for the NobelPrize for Chemistry for the devel-opment of palladiumcatalysedcross-coupling.

Oct. 7: Mario Vargas Llosa, cele-brated PeruvianSpanish author ischosen for the Nobel Prize forLiterature.

Oct. 8: Jailed Chinese politicalactivist, Liu Xiaobo is awarded theNobel Peace Prize.

Oct. 10: Kyrgyzstan voters castballots in landmark parliamentarypolls.

Parade in Hanoi to mark millenni-um of the Vietnamese capital.

Oct. 11: Peter Diamond and Dale

Mortensen of the U.S. and British-Cypriot Christopher Pissarides win

the Economics Nobel for their workon explaining demandsupply gap inthe labour market and elsewhere.

Oct. 12: India is elected a non-permanent member of the UnitedNations Security Council.

British writer and journalist Ho-ward Jacobsons novel The FinklerQuestion bags the Man Booker Prize2010.

Oct. 13: Thirtythree minerstrapped since August 5 in the col-lapsed San Jose mine in Chiles Ata-cama desert are pulled out safelyusing the Phoenix rescue capsule.

Oct. 15: Israels government endsan unofficial freeze on new buildingin east Jerusalem.

Oct. 19: Author J.K. Rowling ispresented the first Hans Christian

Andersen Literature Prize.Oct. 21: Three senior peers

cluding Labours Lord Swraj Pare suspended from the BrHouse of Lords over their expeclaims.

Oct. 22: The French UHouse passes the law raising thtirement age from 60 to 62 anationwide strikes and protests

In the largest classified milleak in history , WikiLeaks rele400,000 secret American dments on the Iraq war.

Oct. 23: Legendary Everest cber Chhewang Nima Sherpa (4feared killed after being swept aby an avalanche while fixing rfor a climbing group on the 7metre Mt. Baruntse.

Oct. 25: At least 413 peoplkilled in a tsunami triggered by

magnitude temblor in IndonesiaOct. 26: China unveils the wo

fastest bullet train linking Shanand Hangzhou, which will run akm per hour.

The Iraq High Tribunal senteto death former Deputy Prime Mister Tariq Aziz.

Paul, the octopus, who fascinfootball fans with its predictduring this years World Cup dian aquarium in the German ciOberhausen.

At least 30 people are killed Indonesias most volatile volMount Merapi erupts.

Miss Mexico Jimena Navarretecelebrates after being crownedMiss Universe.

Technicians assembling Change II, Chinas second unmannedlunar probe.

Peruvian-Spanish author MarioVargas Llosa.

British physiologist Robert G. Edwards, left, attends the 30thanniversary of the worlds first test tube baby Louise Joy Bro

right, holding her son Cameron. At centre left is her mother, LesBrown, at the Bourn Hall, in Bourn, England.

Nepalese mountaineerChhewang Nima Sherpa




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Oct. 27: Frances Parliamentgrants final approval to a bill raisingthe retirement age from 60 to 62.

The former Argentine PresidentNestor Kirchner (60), dies in Buenos

Aires after suffering from severeheart trouble.

India signs the convention onSupplementary Compensation forNuclear Damage at the IAEA head-quarters in Vienna.

Oct. 30: Alexandria Mills fromthe U.S. is crowned Miss World 2010at a glittering ceremony in Sanya,China.

Oct. 31: Brazilians vote in presi-dential run-off.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 1: Dilma Rousseff becomesBrazils first-ever woman President.

Nov. 2: Britain and France sign anunprecedented 50-year nuclear deal.

The Republican Party sweeps topower in the election to the 112th

United States Congress. Democratsstrength in Senate slashed. NimrataNikki Randhawa Haley is electedSouth Carolina Governor.

British Labour peer Swraj Paul re-signs as Deputy Speaker of theHouse of Lords.

Nov. 3: Indonesias Mount Mera-pi erupts with its biggest blast yetshooting searing ash kilometres intothe air.

Indian-American Kamala Harriswins election for Attorney-Generalof California.

Nov. 4: All 68 people on board aCuban plane are killed after it crash-

es in a remote area near Guasimalvillage in Sancti Spiritus province.

Nov. 5: Nearly 70 worshippersare killed in the suicide bombing at amosque in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa,Pakistan.

One hundred and ninety one peo-ple are killed as Indonesias MountMerapi unleashes its most powerfuleruption in a century.

Nov. 7: Low turnout marks

Myanmar polls being held after twodecades.Nov. 8: Exodus following deadly

clashes between Myanmar troopsand Karen rebels in Myawaddytown.

Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian ishanded down death penalty forblasphemy.

Nov. 9: Rolls-Royce signs a record$1.2-billion deal to sell jet engines toChina Eastern Airlines.

Nov. 12: G20 summit in Seoulagrees to curb persistently large im-balances in saving and spending.

The 16th Asian Games gets off to acolourful start in Guangzhou, China.

Nov. 13: Aung Suu Kyi, Myan-mars celebrated pro-democracyleader is freed from house arrest inYangon.

Nov. 19: Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa is sworn in for asecond term in Colombo.

Nov. 22: At least 350 people arekilled and 750 injured in a stampedeon an overcrowded bridge at a Cam-bodian water festival.

Sri Lankan President MahindaRajapaksa unveils a 90-memberCabinet.

Nov. 23: Two south Korean ma-rines and two civilians are killed and16 others injured as North Koreashells Yeonpyeong island in the dis-puted waters of the Yellow sea.

Nov. 24: The worlds first tigersummit wraps up in Russia, withleaders giving nod to a Global TigerRecovery Programme.

Nov. 27: The fuelling of Irans

first nuclear plant in Bushehr iscompleted.

The 15-day 16th Asian Games inGuangzhou, China concludes.

Nov. 28: WikiLeaks, the Whis-tleblowers website, leaks to mediaoutlets of more than 250,000 classi-fied cables sent from U.S. embassies.

Alassane Ouattara wins the sec-ond round of Ivory Coast presiden-tial polls. Incumbent LaurentGbagbo refuses to accept verdict.

Nov. 29: The 10-day 16th UnitedNations Framework Convention onClimate Change opens in Cancun,Mexico.

DECEMBER

Dec. 4: Indias Nicole Faria iscrowned Miss Earth Talent 2010 inHo Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

An explosion derails the Thar Ex-press near Dhabaji, in the Sindhprovince of Pakistan.

At last 41 people are killed in afour-day inferno triggered by a for-est fire in Israel.

Dec. 6: Forty persons are killedand 60 injured as two suicide bom-bers in police uniform target a tribalarea in Pakistan.

Dec. 7:WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is arrested by the Britishpolice following surrender at a Cen-tral London police station.

Iran should fulfil its obligations tothe IAEA, says the Gulf CooperationCouncil summit in Abu Dhabi.

Dec. 8: At least 83 inmates of aChilean prison are killed in a fire setoff by rioting fellow prisoners.

Space X, a private U.S. firm con-ducts a perfect launch into orbit andback of the Dragon Capsule.

Dec. 9:A teenager is sentenced bythe Supreme Court for the J anuary 2murder of an Indian youth NitinGarg in Cruickshank Park in Mel-bourne, Australia.

Dec. 10: Chinese dissident Liu

Xiaobo is awarded the Nobel PeacePrize in absentia at an Osloceremony.

India and the European Unionagree on a new initiative to improvecultural ties, among other things, atthe EU-India Summit in Brussels.

Dec. 11: Car bomb blasts rock theSwedish capital Stockholm.

Dec. 12: Kosovo votes in its firstelections since declaring independ-

ence from Serbia in 2008.Dec. 13: Irans President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad dismisses For-eign Minister Manoucher Mottaki.

Richard Holbrooke (69), the U.S.President Barack Obamas SpecialRepresentative for Afghanistan andPakistan passes away at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington of complications from21 hours of surgery to repair rup-tured aorta.

Dec. 15: At last 48 refugees onekilled after their wooden boat shat-ters after crashing into rocks atChristmas Island, Australia.

Thirtynine persons are killed in asuicide attack in the south-easternIranian city of Chabahar.

The Facebook founder MarkZuckerberg is named Time maga-zines 2010 Person of the Year.

The U.N. Security Council easessanctions on Iraq. Curtains on oilfor-food programme.

Dec. 16: WikiLeaks founder Ju-lian Assange is freed.

Dec. 17: U.S. missile attacks leave54 killed in Pakistans Khyber tribalregion.

Venezuelan lawmakers vote to letPresident Hugo Chavez bypass Par-liament and rule by decree for 18months.

Dec. 18: The U.S. Senate votes torepeal the Dont Ask, Dont Tell lawthat will allow the military to permitgays to serve openly.

Dec. 19: Belarus President Alex-ander Lukashenko wins a fourthstraight term in office.

Dec. 21: Iraqs Parliament con-firms Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Min-ister for a second term.

Dec. 22: The U.S. Senate passesthe New START treaty with Russia.

Australia apologises and makes apayout to Indian doctor MohamedHaneef for wrongly detaining andcharging him with involvement in aterrorism plot in Britain in 2007.

Dec. 23: The International Con-vention for the Protection of all Per-sons From Enforced Disappearanceenters into force.

A commemorative coin markingthe engagement of Britains Prince

William and Kate Middleton leased in London.

Dec. 24: The Russian Parliamgives preliminary approval for START treaty.

Dec. 25: At least 49 personkilled and over 100 injured afwoman suicide bomber targets ple at a World Food Programmetre in Bajaur tribal agencyPakistan. An earthquake causminor tsunami in the South Pac

Jayachandra Elaprolu, a stufrom Andhra Pradesh, is shot dea robbery at a gas station in Pasacity of Texas state.

Dec. 27: The jailed former sian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorsky is found guilty of stealinfrom his firm Yukos in his setrial.

Dec. 30: The former Israeli Pdent, Moshe Katsav, is held guilrape by a Tel Aviv court.

A Moscow judge hands do13.5-year jail term to former ocoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Dec. 31: Australias northebattered by floods. Forced evation in Rockhampton town.

Brazils President DilmaRousseff. Richard Holbrooke

Liu Xiaobo

Relatives of a miner react whilewatching on a TV screen therescue operation at the campoutside the San Jose mine nearCopiapo, Chile.

Mark Zuckerberg, chiefexecutive officer of Facebook

Inc.



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Diary of Events International