The situation in Mali has reached boiling point following the failure of the West Africa bloc to contain the conflict which intensified in 2012.  The Tuareg rebellion was part of the 2012 northern Mali conflict ostensibly aimed at independence against the Malian government in the Sahara desert region of Azawad. They were led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, MNLA, as part of a series of insurgencies by traditionally nomadic Tuaregs dating back to 1916.

 
Even before his second term begins, President Barack Obama is about to throw down the gauntlet. No one had expected gun control to be so high on his list of priorities, but the killings at the Newtown Hook Elementary School seem to have changed everything. 
Recently, a lone gunman shot and killed his mother, then drove to the school where she reportedly taught shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children, before turning a gun on himself.

 
Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, was on January 7 sworn in for a new term with a big task to heal the wounds occasioned by the bitterness of the elections that brought him into power.  The main opposition, New Patriotic Party, NPP, boycotted the ceremony held last Monday at the Independence Square in the capital, Accra. Speaking immediately after taking the oath of office, Mahama promised to work towards making Ghana “less polarised” even as the New Patriotic Party has started a court case claiming Nana Akufo-Addo won the December 7 poll. 

The gang rape of a 23-year old university student on a moving bus in the Indian capital, New Delhi, is stirring the hornet’s nest over sexual abuse of women in the country. Following the December 16, 2012 attack on the woman which resulted in her death, the subject of rape once hidden in the shadows of Indian society has finally been brought to light. 

Two years ago when Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, was getting ready to sell his fruits and vegetables in the rural town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia, the police asked him to hand over his wooden cart, he refused and a policewoman allegedly slapped him. Angered for being publicly humiliated, Bouazizi marched in front of a government building and set himself on fire triggering off the Arab spring.

It appears Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, already had in place a game plan on how to react to the United Nations, UN vote recognising Palestine as a non-member observer state. Shortly after the vote, Israel responded swiftly by revealing that they will build 3,000 more homes for Jews on Israeli-occupied lands which the Palestinians claim belong to them. 

The year 2013 may bring hope for many nations, but for the government of the United States of America it is a year full with apprehension. This is because the country’s economy managers fear that the combination of tax increases and deep spending cuts will set in automatically at the end of the 2012 following the expiration of the Bush administration’s budgetary allocation.

The occasion was supposed to be a moment of joy and one of sober reflection but aggrieved persons seized the opportunity to stage a protest against the regime of President Paul Biya. A member of parliament and opposition leader, Jean Michel Nintcheu, told the press after they were brutalised by state police for protesting against Biya’s 30 year rule that, “what happened to us here in Douala represents what Cameroon has been going through during his 30 years in power.