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Jan 1 Cyprus and Malta change their currency to the euro.

Jan 1 Ghana struggles with democracy as election violence takes more lives and a church filled with people is torched. In Iraq, violence continues with a suicide bomber killing thirty at a funeral of a bomb victim. In his New Year mass, Pope Benedict XVI suggests that this violence is something more than small-mindedness, political immaturity and unnecessary intolerance. He describes family values as the foundation of world peace. "Whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family," he states, "undermines peace in the entire community."

Jan 1 In Berlin, Cologne and Hanover, new regulations require motorists to display color-coded stickers certifying that their car has normal exhaust emissions. Drivers of cars without such a sticker face a fine of 40 euros.

Jan 2 The city of Milan begins charging up to 10 euros ($14.65) for each car entering the city, cars that are not electric or hybrid. The city predicts a cut in pollution levels of 30 percent and plans to spend the money received on rapid transit, buses, cycle paths and "green vehicles."

Jan 3 In its thirty-third year of publication, the Arab News, published in Saudi Arabia in English, praises Benazir Bhutto for having struggled for democracy and describes "her opponents, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Ladin and all of his followers [as] fighting for a suffocating form of leadership where dissent is not allowed and where women are treated as second-class citizens." The writer, Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, adds that "Benazir unfortunately never really was a good leader while in office."

Jan 7 In Kenya's capital city, Nairobi, some shops and businesses have re-opened and mini-bus taxis are running again. Approximately 600 are estimated as killed since the election results of December 27.

Jan 8 In Bolivia the four provincial governors who threatened separation have joined with President Morales in conflict resolution. Their agreement provides, among other things, greater state control of the economy and more autonomy for indigenous communities.

Jan 9 Hashim Thaçi, former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army and now president of the Democratic Party of Kosovo and Kosovo's Prime Minister continues to push for independence from Serbia. He promises that his government will act "to create a climate of tolerance in relations with minorities, especially with the Serb community."

Jan 12 Iraq's parliament allows former members of the Baath political party to return to government jobs or to receive their pensions. This excludes Baathists convicted of crimes - a criterion that could have been used in 2003 rather than the de-Baathifican now considered one of the "coalition" mistakes. Parliament's move is done in the interest of justice and hope that the measure will help reconcile Sunni and Shi'a.

Jan 12 President Bush speaks. "There's no doubt in my mind, when history is written, the final page will say: Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world."

Jan 12 Calling for change, Taiwan's old Guomindang political party wins 81 seats in parliament. Its rival, the DPP, the party of the incumbent president, wins 27 seats. The DPP has angered China by favoring independence. The Guomindang favors closer ties with China.

Jan 13 In Saudi Arabia, French President Nicholas Sarkozy describes the kingdom as a key ally of France and a "pole of moderation and stability" in a troubled region.

Jan 13 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has made a statement about the role that President Johnson played in getting the Civil Rights Act passed into law, a statement that in no way diminishes Martin Luther King's heroic role in the civil rights movement. A few Democrats opposed to Clinton's candidacy, including presidential candidate John Edwards, demonstrate their struggle with language and logic or their willingness to invent. Edwards: "I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change came not through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King but through a Washington politician."

Jan 14 In Mexico, another narcocorrido singer, Jorge Antonio Sepulveda, 20, is assassinated.

Jan 15 In Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov is sworn in for his third term. He won 88.1 percent of the vote last December. The media in Uzbekistan is state controlled, and critics accuse him of human rights abuses.

Jan 22 In South Waziristan, Pakistan's army chases with forces loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, blamed for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. On each side, one or more are killed.

Jan 22 President Sarkozy of France decides not to take his romantic interest, Carla Bruni, with him on an official visit to India, where a man traveling with a woman with whom he is not married is a scandal.

Jan 22 In the United States, a credit crisis and expectations of a decline in economic activity send stocks plummeting worldwide - the rush to sell stocks the result of fears that the value of their stocks will not grow or will decline in the near future.

Jan 22 In the United States, FactCheck.org is busy trying to keep of with the inaccuracies stated in political campaigns. Today FactCheck.org writes of Hillary Clinton: "Clinton falsely accused Obama of saying he 'really liked the ideas of the Republicans' including private Social Security accounts and deficit spending. Not true. The entire 49-minute interview to which she refers contains no endorsement of private Social Security accounts or deficit spending, and Obama specifically scorned GOP calls for tax cuts."

Jan 24 In South Waziristan, Pakistan's army continues to clash with "militants," the army using artillery and helicopters and reporting 40 militants killed and 30 captured.

Jan 24 In Mexico City, busses for women-only offer women welcomed relief from male harassment.

Jan 26 Kofe Annan, former Secretary General of the UN, describes the change in purpose that has appeared before in bloody conflicts. He says the continuing violence and slaughter in Kenya may have been triggered by an election dispute but that it has evolved into "something else."

Jan 26 George Habash, Palestinian Christian and founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which participated in airline highjackings, dies of a heart attack. Mamoud Abbas, Fatah leader and Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), calls him a "historic leader " and orders flags flown at half mast.

Jan 29 In Kenya, people inflamed by passion continue their violence. People of Kuo ethnicity have been killing Kikuyo, the tribe of President Mwai Kibaki, and the Kikuyo are killing Kuo. As of today more than 800 have been killed. People have been pulled from cars and stoned to death, or burned to death in their cars. Homes and busses have been torched.

Jan 30 In Syria, which has hundreds of political prisoners, a prominent dissident, Riad Seif, is said to have been detained for having attended a pro-democracy meeting. He is said to be have been charged with having harmed the image of Syria. Seif is under a slow death sentence, forbidden from leaving Syria for treatment of prostrate cancer.

Jan 30 Foreign Policy magazine writes of Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, having a "vast system of patronage" and of the head of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Samuel Kivuitu, having recently admitted that "he was pressured by the president’s office to announce results before he could verify their authenticity."

Feb 1 Saudi authorities believe they have a more than 70 percent success rate in their program re-educating imprisoned young men away from what had been their violent and "deviant" form of Islam. Those who have successfully completed this "de-radicalisation" program, according to a BBC report by Frank Gardner, "can be offered government help in starting a business, securing a job, a car, or even a wife."

Feb 1 Former NATO commander and Marine Corps Commandant, General James Jones, testified yesterday before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "Make no mistake," he said, "NATO is not winning in Afghanistan." Canada announces that its soldiers will not stay in Afghanistan unless NATO deploys more troops in southern Afghanistan, and Germany rejects a U.S. plea to send more troops there.

Feb 3 Norway is leading the United States in per capita GDP, and it's judged by a United Nations index as the best place to live in the world (despite its cold winters and high tax rate). Meanwhile, Norwegians are concerned about the lack of knowledge of history among its high school students. Sixty-five percent are said not to know who Pol Pot was. Sixty-four percent do not know what the Gulag means. More than 25 percent of students polled could not identify Mao Zedong, and 75 percent had never heard of the Great Leap Forward.

Feb 4 Serbia's president, Bosris Tadic, was challenged in yesterday's election by Tomislav Nikolic, described by the BBC as a pro-Moscow candidate. Tadic is looking forward to Serbia's membership in the European Union. The elections were orderly and ended with cordiality.

Feb 6 In the bellwether state of New Jersey, Republican candidates running for their party's nomination for president together garnered 554,894 votes. Democratic Party candidates garnered 1,104,101 votes - almost twice as many. (With 99 percent of the pricincts reporting.) For Missouri, another bellwether state, it was 820,453 to 584,618 in favor of the Democrats. The Republican Party, the party of President Bush, is in trouble regarding elections coming in November.

Feb 7 The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, approaches the realization that al Qaeda has been pursuing a losing political-military strategy - as we have seen recently in hostility toward al Qaeda in Iraq. McConnell tells Congress that "Most victims of al Qaeda attacks are Muslims." He adds that "In the last year to 18 months, al-Qaida has had difficulty in fundraising and sustaining themselves."

Feb 11 Norway's Police Security Service (PST) reports that Russian spying in Norway has reached levels as high as during the Cold War

Feb 11 In the U.S., four are arrested, accused of passing secret defense information to China.

Feb 12 In the Philippines, 16 women and four of their husbands, described as economically poor, are going to court to force a decision whether local government officials can ban family planning services.

Feb 13 The international criminal and killer of numerous innocent civilians, Mughniyeh, has been assassinated. He was on Europe's terrorist list and the U.S. most wanted list until replaced by bin Laden in 2001. Hezbollah identifies him as one of their senior commanders and "a great jihadist leader " - while it denies that it is a terrorist organization. The Syrian government describes the assassination "a cowardly, terrorist act" and expresses "condolences to the martyr family and to the Lebanese people."

Feb 14 The end-of-winter worry about honey bees is approaching. The Varroa mite, considered responsible for destroying bees, is reported to be developing resistance to chemicals that have been applied to kill the mites. It's an evolutionary process: those few mites that are resistant survive and mulitiply while the non-resistent mites die.

Feb 15 New York's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, trashes the stimulus package signed into law by the President on the 13th. He joins those who want sacrifice for the future rather than party now and deficit spending. Bloomberg, a Republican, praises candidate Obama's plan for a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to stimulate the economy by rebuilding highways, bridges, airports and other public projects.

Feb 15 Data from the United Nations suggest that 75 percent of crop varieties in the world have become extinct in the last one hundred years.

Feb 17 Kosovo's parliament declares Kosovo an independent and sovereign state. The United States, Britain, France and other European Union states are in support of the will of the majority in Kosovo. Serbs are opposed. Russia is expressing its opposition in the UN Security Council.

Feb 17 In the U.S., the television program Sixty Minutes has a piece describing the Danes as the "happiest" people. The Danes pay taxes that are 50 percent of their income. Humor, perhaps: although lower taxes serve individualism, lower taxes do not necessarily serve happiness.

Feb 18 In appearing for a news conference with the former president, George H.W. Bush, candidate McCain faults those who have not supported the surge. He says that had the U.S. followed their advice, al Qaeda would have won in Iraq. Some who question McCain's judgment do not credit al Queda's tactics as effective and suspect that without U.S. troops al Qaeda would have become no more popular in Iraq than they are now.

Feb 19 In parliamentary elections, voters in Pakistan reject religious fervor, leaving Islamic parties with little support. The political party that had been led by the late Benazir Bhutto and the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif together gain more 50 percent of the vote. The party of President Musharraf wins only 13 percent of the vote.

Feb 20 Spain opens a high-speed rail link between Madrid and Barcelona, transport that reach 300 kilometers (186 miles) per hour.

Feb 25 It is widely reported that an increasing demand for energy in nations with a growing middle class, as in China, raises the price of energy and the price of food. Also demand for bio-feuls are cutting into the availability of food. The UN reports today of these developments creating an inability to maintain current food aid levels.

Feb 26 A vault deep in an arctic mountain, for every variety of seed specie, opens in Norway. The seed collection is organized by Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Feb 28 Cuba signs two human rights agreements at the United Nations, committing it to freedom of expression and association and the right to travel abroad.

Feb 28 In Kenya, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, overcomes bickering by creating a power sharing agreement between President Kibaki and opposition leader, Raila Odinga. Remaining to be accomplished is reconciliation among Kenyan citizens.

Feb 29 In the U.S., election campaigns are challenging thought processes. An hispanic woman in Texas, supporting Hillary Clinton, complains that blacks have not been adequately supporting her community, as if Barack Obama represents blacks in general. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton asked people not to vote for her because she is a woman, but in the debate on the 26th she reversed herself and made such an appeal. We will not hear Obama asking for votes because he is black, and largely the public is gauging Obama as an individual. People in the U.S. are displaying some fair-mindedness. A gallop poll from a year ago states that 5 percent would not vote for a black, 11 percent not for a woman, 42 percent would not vote for someone over 72, 43 percent not for a homosexual and 53 percent would not vote for an atheist. We'll probably see some new figures on this subject soon.