Gloom, pageantry mark 2012 at international scene

By Paul Arhewe

The outgoing year, like previous ones, witnessed its share of awful and gloomy moments and some instances for jubilation, merriment and pageantry.

Syrian war

The Arab spring crisis which began in December 2010 in Tunisia continued in Syria war as a full blown war that has claimed more than 44,000 lives. The conflict began in this Arab country in March 2011 with peaceful protests, before degenerating into a large-scale deadly conflict.

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad tenaciously held on to power, even when some of his generals had fled to the rebel side. Many efforts to bring peace to the country has failed, as world powers divided over what has become an majorly sectarian strife between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

By December 12, United States and other western countries like United Kingdom, France, Turkey and some Gulf states recognised the opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

US Presidential election

The United States’ 2012 general election, no doubt was one remarkable event at the international for the outgoing year.

President, Barack Obama, beats his Republican presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, to clench his second term for another four years as leader of the world’s leading economy in the November 6 general polls. Obama won 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

The 2012 election was adjudged to be the most expensive in US electoral history.

Obama and Biden and their families celebrating

Candidates flooded the airwaves with relentless attacks on each other, with accusations of lying, deceit, fabrications and other chicanery — even renewed charges over the long discredited claims over whether Obama had been born in this country — which flew for almost a year.

Obama questioned Romney’s lack of a specific plan for reviving the economy while branding the challenger a candidate who changed his positions to suit the shifting political winds.

Romney, 65, went after the president’s economic policies touting his own success in business as the skill most needed in tough times. He also sought to portray Obama as weak on foreign policy but neither strategy pried enough of the nation’s independent voters to his side.

Hurricane Sandy

The United States’ East Coast region was battered when Hurricane Sandy makes landfall on October 29. At least 128 people were killed and more than $71 billion worth of destruction was recorded.

The ‘superstorm’, with its torrential wind and rain knocked out power in major US cities. More than 8.1 million peoples in 17 states were left in the dark at the aftermath of the storm.

In terms of its outage impact, hurricane Sandy was roughly on par with hurricane Irene, which in August 2011 knocked out power to more than 9.3 million customers along the East Coast and in Puerto Rico – about 6 million in 13 East Coast states.

But Sandy's impact was more concentrated than Irene's, doing the bulk of its damage in fewer but more heavily populated states. Most of the outages were in eight states: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and West Virginia – some 7.4 million.

Costa Concordia

The fatal accident for year 2012 began when Costa Concordia, a 950-foot luxury ocean liner struck a rock and ran aground off the island of Giglio in Italy on January 13. The accident claimed 32 lives.

Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ship, was criticized for leaving the vessel before all the passengers were safely ashore. Among his accusers was Coast Guard officer Gregorio de Falco, who ordered the captain back to his ship. Schettino, who admitted he took the $570 million ship within a few hundred feet of the island to perform a "maritime salute" (perhaps to impress a blond Moldovan passenger), faces possible charges of manslaughter.

In October, the raising of the Costa Concordia began in earnest, with more than 450 workers attempting what's been called the biggest sea salvage effort of all time. The $400 million operation is expected to take at least eight months.

UK’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee

The United Kingdom Queen Elizabeth II this year marked 60 years of her accession to throne upon her father King George VI demise on 6 February, 1952. Celebration marking the diamond jubilee occurred throughout the year.

UK royal family

On 2nd June, The Queen attended the Epsom Derby. On 3rd June the Big Jubilee Lunch and the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant took place, where tens of thousands of people gathered along the Thames to rejoice with the royal family. On 4th June a concert was held at Buckingham Palace and a network of beacons lit throughout the UK and the Commonwealth. On 5th June a Service of Thanksgiving was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was followed by a formal carriage Procession.

Protest against anti-Prophet Muhammad film

The low budget US film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ which mocked the Prophet Muhammed sparked a violence international response, especially for Muslim countries.

The 14-minute film trailer was posted on YouTube, prompting riots throughout Muslim communities. Libyan protesters were said to have exploited the situation after the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was attacked by al-Qaida terrorists on September 11. The US ambassador in Libya, Chris Stevens was among four Americans killed in Benghazi.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a man identifying himself as Sam Bacile, a 52-year-old California real estate developer said he had made the film. The Associated Press, though, said "Sam Bacile" was an alias for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, aka Mark Basseley Youssef. Using an alias was a violation of Nakoula's probation for a check fraud conviction, and he was jailed. The Egyptian-born Coptic Christian and others involved in the film were sentenced to death in Egypt, a largely symbolic gesture.

Attempted assassination of Pakistani teen human rights activist

Yousafzai

On October 9, Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist, was shot in the head and neck by Taliban gunmen while returning home from school—a place the Taliban have, at times, banned girls from attending. Yousafzai was hospitalized in critical condition and eventually transferred to a U.K. hospital, where she continues to recover.

And in November, Time magazine nominated Malala as one of its 2012 "Person of the Year" candidates. Malala, Time said, "has become an inspiration not only in her native Pakistan—where the culture wars over women's rights and religious diversity have taken many violent turns—but all around the globe."

WikiLeaks founder takes refuge in Ecuadorean embassy

Assange

On August 16, the founder of the whistle blowing website, Julian Assange was granted asylum  in the  Ecuadorean embassy in Britain. Ecuador defied the British government, which threatened to storm the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, in order to extradite him to Sweden for questioning about cases of alleged rape and sexual molestation. Three days later, Assange emerged from a window onto a small balcony of the embassy to denounce what he called an American-led "witch hunt."

"I ask President Obama to do the right thing," said Assange, who has been staying in what accounts describe as poor, dark quarters in the embassy since June. "The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks."

The White House declined to comment.

Mali’s crisis and Tuareg, Islamist rebels’ insurgency

Mali’s government was thrown into dilemma when on March 22 President Amadou Toumani Toure was ousted in a coup detat over manner he handled the conflict in the northern part of the country where Tuareg fighters and Islamist group Ansar Dine had seized part of the country from the control of government.

Mutineer soldiers, under the banner of the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State, (CNRDR) suspended the constitution of Mali, although this move was reversed on 1 April.

The Islamist group Ansar Dine, too, began fighting the government in later stages of the conflict, claiming control of vast swathes of territory, albeit disputed by the MNLA. As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Northern Mali's three largest cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days. On 5 April, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive. The following day, it proclaimed Azawad's independence from Mali.

After the end of hostilities with the Malian Army, however, Tuareg nationalists and Islamists struggled to reconcile their conflicting visions for the intended new state.

Members of the sub regional body have proposed and offered troops to intervene in restoring peace in this volatile West African country.

Ghanaian President Attah Mills dies

On July 25, Africa and the rest of the world were dazed with the sudden death of Ghanaian president John Evans Atta Mills. The Ghanaian leader was 68 years and died of cardiac arrest at a military hospital in Accra. He was buried August 10.

Atta Mills became third president of Ghana in 2009 after losing twice. He previously served as vice president.  He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election. He was Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The incumbent Ghanaian leader who took over from Mills after his demise, John Dramani Mahama was elected December 10, 2012 in a closely fought presidential poll.