INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2011

INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2011

• The Pakistan supreme government ordered “memogate“ scandal on 30 December.
  
• The leaders of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) nations on 21 December 2011 agreed that the deployment of foreign bases in their territory would be done with the approval of all partners of the defence alliance. The CSTO summit was held in Moscow. CSTO includes Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
  
• The Protester was named Time magazine’s 2011 Person of the Year on 14 December 2011.
  2011 witnessed unprecedented rise in both peaceful and sometimes violent unrest and dissent from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movement. People across the globe in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya dissented and demanded even when they were answered with tear gas or a hail of bullets. The Mideast was the centerpiece of the year’s protests. US Special Operations Command and overall commander of the secret US mission into Pakistan in May 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden, came in at second place on the Time list. Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei came in at No 3. In 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named the Person of the Year.
  
• The National Constituent Assembly (ANC) of Tunisia elected the leader of the party, Council for the Republic (CPR), Moncef Marzouki as the new President of Tunisia on 12 December 2011. He became Tunisia's first elected president since the North African country's revolution sparked the Arab Spring.
  
• The Government of Canada announced that women who aspire for Canadian citizenship can’t wear burqa or Islamic hijab when they take oath of citizenship. Belgium, France, Australia and Netherlands have also banned women from covering their face in public. The government received complaints from lawmakers and judges that they found it difficult to know whether women who masked their faces were actually reciting the oath or not.
  
• The US military officially ended its mission in Iraq on 15 December 2011. As per Pentagon statistics, approximately 4487 US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq war in action. Despite the official declaration of ending its mission in Iraq, US military still has 2 bases in Iraq and 4000 troops. While in 2007, there were 505 bases and more than 170000 troops. However, these two military bases will be closed and the final US troops will be withdrawn by 31 December 2011.
  
• The 34-member cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa of Yemen's national unity government sworn in to lead a three-month transition period until early polls in February 2012.
  
• Greek Parliament on 7 December 2011 approved a budget for 2012 pledging tough fiscal goals demanded by European Union partners in return for fresh loans. The austerity budget projects a modest primary surplus excluding interest payments on debt. A broad majority of the parties backing Lucas Papademos' caretaker administration secured the economic blueprint's passage by 258 votes to 41, after the vote concluded. Greek has been relying on loans from other euro zone countries and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) since May 2010. In return, Greece cut salaries and pensions and hike taxes to reduce budget deficits.
  
• Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party has seen sharp drop in parliament elections of Duma from 64 percent in 2007 to 50 percent in 2011. The ruling party won 238 seats out of 450 total number of seats in Duma. This is a decline from 315 seats in 2007 to 238 seats in 2011.
  
• Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah dissolved the State Parliament by issuing a decree in the interests of the nation. The Parliament has been dissolved for four times during the last six years by the Emir.