Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Charles Dickens (born 7 Feb 1812 in England-Died 9 Jun 1870) is generally considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. His graphic imagery stems largely from personal experience of grim times. Dickens 2012 is an international celebration of his life and work. The BBC plans special programs, and The Royal Mint will produce a Special Edition Dickens 2012 coin. In being featured on British currency, Dickens joins Charles Darwin and Florence Nightingale.
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Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Maastricht created the European Union but split European governments and popular opinion right down the middle. The Treaty led to the adoption of the Euro, the world s second most traded currency but its most problematic, with fiscal chaos looming in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. Technically titled the Treaty on European Union, its legacy is still controversial.
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Mon, 06 Feb 2012
The Vatican has invited bishops and the leaders of religious orders around the world to a conference, called "Toward Healing and Renewal," on ways to prevent and respond to abuse of children by clergy members. Held at Rome s Jesuit University, It represents the Vatican's response to the disapproval and anger among Catholics and others after revelations of widespread abuse of children and adolescents around the world.
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Mon, 06 Feb 2012
The year 2012 is a crunch year for the Church of England. It must vote on divisive issues such as the ordination of women bishops and the proposed Anglican covenant, a set of principles intended to bind the Anglican Communion amid differing viewpoints on human sexuality and biblical interpretation. Long-standing divisions between liberals and conservatives are fragmenting the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, and the vote could cause further fragmentation.
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Mon, 06 Feb 2012
Elizabeth II ascended the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 Feb 1952. The February anniversary serves as a warm up for the main event, the celebration in June of the coronation anniversary, and could be a convenient date for an announcement about the Royal succession. Prime Minister David Cameron wants a change in the ancient rules that restrict the chances of female royals inheriting the throne.
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Wed, 01 Feb 2012
The Ocean Health Index, envisaged as a new world standard for gauging ocean health, is being assembled by experts around the world with the aim of guiding decision markers in the actions they take and raising global public awareness and support for ocean conservation. The team sees the Index as a measuring stick to show whether efforts to improve ocean governance and health are successful.
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Wed, 01 Feb 2012
New restrictions on visitors to Ecuador's Galapagos National Park, Charles Darwin's living laboratory, start on Feb 1. Experts see an impending threat to the islands' unique species from the growing tourist numbers and other ecological pressures. The regulations are aimed at protecting native animals at sensitive sites. They will affect some 50 cruise companies operating in the marine park. The new system forbids ships from visiting most island sites more than once in a 14-day period.
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Wed, 01 Feb 2012
Daniel Pearl, an American and the South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, was killed in Karachi on 1 Feb 10 years ago, following his abduction by extremists on 23 Jan 2002. The 10 years has seen a dramatic deterioration in United States-Pakistan relations, and a spread in the hatred that took Pearl's life. Daniel Pearl World Music Days, in October each year, was founded to address the causes of that hatred and to promote a tradition of fearless journalism.
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Mon, 30 Jan 2012
It has taken 40 years for the British government to admit its paratroopers were wrong to shoot dozens of unarmed Irishmen and their boys on 30 Jan 1972, but the next Bloody Sunday anniversary may yet find those soldiers responsible for the massacre behind bars.
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Mon, 30 Jan 2012
The 27-member European Union has added a summit to the usual four per year. The stated focus of this extra summit, the first of the Danish presidency, is jobs, but the leaders will be expected to put financial stability and growth in Europe first. The European Parliament and Commission will spend January in negotiations for an intergovernmental pact that tightens fiscal rules for the euro zone. If the talks prosper, it is possible the leaders will be ready to sign at the January summit.
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Sun, 29 Jan 2012
If this were a pre-revolution election for the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, the president would choose a third of the members of the body. As the country won't have a new president by Jan 29, and the last one, Hosni Mubarak, was ousted in February, the election rule had to be amended. The number of seats was lowered from 390 to 270, with two-thirds elected through closed electoral lists and a third from single candidates.
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Wed, 25 Jan 2012
Egyptians are likely to mark the first anniversary of an 18-day struggle during which ordinary Egyptians eventually forced former president Hosni Mubarak from power by asking what happened to the national euphoria that followed the overthrow. The country recently held elections for a parliament that will choose the people who write the country's first constitution, but there is the question of whether the military will hand over to civilian government in June as it promised.
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Wed, 25 Jan 2012
When some 2500 of the world s government and business leaders and probably more heads of state than usual gather for the 2012 World Economic Forum at Davos, they will meet amid a continuing crisis. The forum theme, "Mastering complexities has emerged as the core competence demanded of leaders tasked with ensuring the well-being of their stakeholders, belies any sense of crisis, yet developments that include extreme stock market volatility are stoking fears of a global financial meltdown.
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Tue, 24 Jan 2012
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce, live, the nominees for the 25 categories of its annual awards, the Oscars, in February. The Academy, which changes rules for selection, the categories and the awards ceremony from time to time, made a new round of changes In June. The number of Best Picture nominees will now float instead of being limited to five or to 10, the most recent change. And the rules for two other awards have changed.
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Tue, 24 Jan 2012
Prime Minister Stephen Harper holds a long-awaited Crown-First Nations summit with chiefs of Canada's aboriginal groups to talk about federal aboriginal policy, particularly regarding health, housing and education. The touchy issues include the 1876 Indian Act, the proposed Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines, and a proposal that would allow natives to own private property within the communal land of reserves.
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Mon, 23 Jan 2012
Chinese couples are known to favor timing the birth of children for a Year of the Dragon, a year said to be auspicious for producing strong leaders. The year 2011 could give them second thoughts: a host of leaders have a target pinned to their back. The Year of the Dragon invites debate about the nature of leadership and the point at which strong leaders become tyrants. Ex-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was a dragon baby. So were Julius Caesar and Joan of Arc.
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Mon, 23 Jan 2012
China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Siam, the United Kingdom and its territories began the global fight against drugs on 23 Jan 1912 with the signing of the International Opium Convention. Related conventions have sought to control marijuana, hashish and certain synthetic drugs. A century on, the headlines point to a thriving drug trade, begging the question of whether the treaties are worth the paper they are printed on.
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Fri, 20 Jan 2012
On 20 Jan 1942 at the Wannsee Conference near Berlin, 15 high-ranking Nazis approved the Final Solution of the Jewish Question, the systematic annihilation of Europe's Jews. The plan moved the killing, already under way, to an industrial level. Later known as The Holocaust, it wiped out millions - homosexuals and Roma people as well as Jews. As the trials of perpetrators dwindle with passing time, the Wannsee and related anniversaries become more important for keeping the memory alive.
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Thu, 19 Jan 2012
At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Hollywood veteran Robert Redford will again have center stage at the festival he founded, with the news focus on a recent environmental pursuit and his new film. An activist as well as an actor and film director, he has created a stir with his campaign against the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada through America's heartland. With that battle won temporarily, he is focusing on the controversial development of Canada's oil sands.
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Wed, 18 Jan 2012
Christmas comes but thrice a year in the Middle East, so the Armenian Orthodox festival offers one final opportunity to celebrate the occasion, following the Roman Catholic and Protestant Christmas of Dec 25 and the Greek/Syrian/Russian Orthodox services of Jan 6.
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