Notable Elections across the World 2011 1.

. Sinde law is an anti-internet download law in Spain which allows for a judicial order to close down any web page which shows links to illegal or illegal downloads of copyright content. The 2011 Spanish protests also referred to as the 15-M Movement and the Indignants movement, are demonstrations in Spain whose origin can be traced to social networks. The protests started on 15th May. The 2011 Chilean Student protests were a series of student-led protests across Chile from May 24-25, 2011. It broadly related to demanding free, quality education for all in Chile. South Sudan has become the world's newest independent nation on 9th July, 2011. Its current capital is Juba. Will be moved to Ramceil later. UN's 193rd member state The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa has become known as the "Arab Spring". And sometimes as the "Arab Spring and Winter", "Arab Awakening" or "Arab Uprisings even though not all the participants in the protests are Arab. On 23rd October 2011, the 1st free election held in Tunisia since the country's independence in 1956. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi is the head of government for Tunisia. (Ennahda party) This is also the first election in the Arab world held after the start of the Arab Spring. Tunisia is credited to have started the Arab Spring. Tunisian revolution is called the Jasmine Revolution after Tunisia's national flower. But Tunisians call it the 'Dignity Revolution' marked by suffering and martyrdom. The revolution began in Sidi Bouzid when a street vegetable vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, set fire to himself in front of the governor's office on 17th December 2010. Following Bouazizi's death, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepped down on 14th January 2011, after 23 years in power. The prestigious TIME magazine's Person of the Year in 2011 went to The Protester. In 2011, Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize jointly along with four others for his and their contributions to "historic changes in the Arab world". The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25th January 2011 and ran for 18 days. Tens of thousands gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on 1st February 2011 for a peaceful "march of a million people," demanding that President Mubarak step down. On 11th February, following protests and pressure, Mubarak resigned from office. Hosni Mubarak served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 - 30 years. Stage one in Egypt's 1st parliamentary elections since President Mubarak was driven from office was held on 20.

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28th and 29th November, 2011. The presidential election will be in June 2012. (Muslim Brotherhood) On 20th October 2011, Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed attempting to escape from his hometown, Sirte. The National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya and the official end of the war on 23rd October 2011. Gaddafi seizes power on 1st September, 1969 in a coup against King Idris. He ruled Libya for nearly 42 years. In Yemen, Human rights activist and politician Tawakel Karman called for a "Day of Rage" on 3rd February, 2011. And 20,000 protesters demonstrated against the government in Sana'a, others participated in a "Day of Rage" in Aden. On 23rd November, Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a powertransfer agreement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, ending his 33-year reign. Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician and senior member of the of Al-Islah political party, and human rights activist who heads the "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005. She is called the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution." She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize and the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate. The 20112012 Bahraini uprising, sometimes called the February 14 Revolution is a series of demonstrations, in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. The Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the majority Shia population. It later expanded the call to end the monarchy of King Hamad, following a raid on 17th February against protesters at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, known locally as the Bloody Thursday. Algeria on 24th February 2011 lifted a 19-year-old state of emergency in a concession to the opposition, to keep out a wave of uprisings sweeping the Arab world Daniel Ortega Wins Nicaragua Presidential Elections for the 3rd time and Otto Perez Wins Presidential elections in Guatemala. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has accepted the rejection of his nuclear power plans and other policies in a popular referendum. Silvio Berlusconi loses his job over the eurozone financial crisis, resigning amid Italy's 1,900-billion-euro debt burden. He is replaced by technocrat Mario Monti. A referendum on constitutional reforms was held in Morocco on 1st July 2011. Following the referendum, early parliamentary elections were held on 25th November 2011. Singapore's former deputy prime minister Tony Tan won the presidential election to be the country's 7th President. Denmark held a parliamentary election on Thursday, 15th September, 2011. Helle Thorning-Schmidt has become Denmarks first female prime minister after promising more welfare spending in exchange for higher taxes.

37. A referendum on whether the Saeima should be dissolved early was held in Latvia on 23rd July 2011. An early parliamentary election was held on 17th September 2011. The PM is Valdis Dombrovskis. 38. A general election was held in Zambia on 20th September 2011 to elect a President. Michael Sata had won. 39. Paul Biya is the victorious presidential candidate of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) in the 9th October, 2011 polls. 40. Cristina Fernandez has been re-elected as the Argentina president on 23rd October 2011 41. Michael D. Higgins is Ireland's President after the polls 27th October 2011 42. Kyrgyzstan PM Almazbek Atambayev won the presidential election for which voting was held on 30th October 2011. 43. The election in Spain was held on 20th November 2011. Prime Minister is Mariano Rajoy. 44. The New Zealand general election was held on 26th November 2011. John Key was reelected as PM. 45. The Croatian parliamentary election was held on 4th December, 2011. The Prime Minister is Zoran Milanovi. 46. Legislative elections were held in Russia on 4th December 2011. 47. The Legislative Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry were held on 13th April 2011. 48. The West Bengal state assembly election was held in six phases between 18th April and 10th May 2011. 49. In Assam it was held in two phases on 4th April & 11th April. 50. Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK won in Tamilnadu with 151 seats. 51. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 72 seats in the 140-member Assembly in Kerala. Oomen Chandy is CM. 52. All India NR Congress in alliance with AIADMK won 20 seats in Puducherry. N. Rangasamy is CM. 53. Mamtha led TMC-Congress combine won 225 of the 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal. 54. Hat trick for the Congress in Assam. Tarun Gogoi the CM for the 3rd consecutive term. 55. On 12th March, 2011 The worldwide 50-city Dandi March II was organized by People for Lok Satta and India Against Corruption 56. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses and border guards protesting over pension reform staged Britain's first mass strike for more than 30 years on 30th November, 2011. Public sector employees in the United Kingdom take part in the biggest strike since the Winter of Discontent in the 1970s. 57. The 2011 anti-cuts protest in London, also known as the March for the Alternative, was a demonstration held in central London on 26th March 2011. 58. Occupy Wall Street is the original protest that began the worldwide movement beginning 17th September, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City. It is initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. 59. The protesters' slogan - We are the 99% refers to the growing income and wealth inequality in the U.S.

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between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. The protests are against social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government particularly from the financial services sector. The Occupy movement, which went global after protests against Wall Street last year, is camping in igloos to bring its argument with the super-rich to the WEF in Davos, Switzerland 2012. On 21st Jan, 2008, the Sensex saw highest ever loss of 1,408 points at the end of the session. Due to weak global cues amid fears of the US recession. On 22nd Jan, 2008: The Sensex saw its biggest intra-day fall when it hit a low of 15,332, down 2,273 points. It recovered and closed at a loss of 875 points. Trading was suspended for one hour at the Bombay Stock Exchange after the benchmark Sensex crashed to a low crossing the circuit limit of 10 %. Earthquakes + Nuclear Reactors

65. Richter scale is used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes. Richter scale was developed in 1935 by Charles Richter in partnership with Beno Gutenberg. 66. The 18th September, 2011 Sikkim, India earthquake occurred in the mountainous region of northeast India near the Nepalese border. The epicentre was about 69 km northwest of Gangtok. 67. On 11th March 2011, the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake hit the east coast Japan, and the resulting tremor and tsunami caused the deaths of thousands of people. One of the most devastating in recent years was the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, or Kobe Earthquake. 68. The disastrous meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was caused by the March 2011 undersea earthquake and ensuing tsunami. 69. The deliberate contamination of a drinking water tank with radioactive waste in the Kaiga nuclear power plant in Karnataka led to 86 employees showing higher than normal traces of tritium, a radioactive substance, in their routine urine discharge test on 23rd Nov, 2009. 70. The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26th April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. (erstwhile USSR) 71. India's nuclear power plant operator NPCIL is building two 1,000 MW nuclear power reactors with Russian technology and equipment in Kudankulam, around 650 km from Chennai. 72. The government, which is battling protests over Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, is in for another shock with two leading geologists warning that Jaitapur in Maharashtra is not immune from large earthquakes. 73. The NPCIL, which plans to build the power plant at Jaitapur with reactors from France, maintains that the site falls in the seismic zone III, where earthquake risk is low. 74. The nuclear plants at Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu) and Jaitapur (Maharashtra) are being built in cooperation

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with Russia and France. The sites in Kovvada (Andhra Pradesh) and Chhayamithi Virdi (Gujarat) have been allocated to US companies. If built, the total capacity of 9900 MW will make the Jaitapur nuclear reactor park the largest in the world. Cloudbursts and flash floods on the intervening night of August 5-6, 2010, have killed and injured scores of people in Choglumsar, 13 km from Leh. A cloudburst is defined as an extreme form of rainfall. The downpour is always voluminous and leads to flash floods. It does not last for more than a few minutes but is capable of causing great damage Volcanic Eruption on Nyamuragira in Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the Africa's most active volcano. Eruption in Nyamuragira on November 15th showed it to be active in recent days. Biological disaster in Nepal with outbreak of Bird Flu. H5N1 is found in chickens in area of Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, Nepal.

TIME Magazine - Imp Revolutions & Protest Squares 80. Boston Tea Party, 1773 - Protest against the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Co. to sell its tea at reduced cost, thus giving the British-governmentcontrolled company an effective monopoly. The colonists stormed the ships as they pulled into the harbor and chucked some 46 tons of tea overboard. 81. Salt Satyagraha, 1930 - Indians were forbidden to extract and sell their own salt and instead were forced to pay the far higher price of salt processed in and imported from the U.K. In March 1930, Gandhi embarked on a 24-day march from the city of Ahmedabad to the small seaside town of Dandi to break the law. 82. Civil Rights March on Washington, 1963 - The more than 200,000 people who descended on Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963 and stood for hours in the stifling August heat as musicians and orators appealed for equal rights for African Americans and, really, all minorities. 83. Stonewall, 1969 - The riots following the June 28, 1969, police raid on New York City's Stonewall Inn became the catalyst for a national movement on gay rights. 84. Moratorium Against the Vietnam War, Nov. 15, 1969 More than 500,000 people marched on Washington to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It remains the largest political rally in the nation's history. Despite their cries, the war toiled on for six more years, ending with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. 85. Muharram Protests in Iran, 1978 - On Dec. 2, 1978, more than 2 million people took to Tehran's Shahyad Square to call for the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and the return of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from exile. 86. People Power, 1986 - When Corazon Aquino's husband Benigno a much loved, pro-democracy Philippine politician was slain in 1983, allegedly by the repressive regime of Ferdinand Marcos. She returned to the Philippines and took up her husband's mantle.

87. Tiananmen Square, 1989 - On June 4, 1989, the government gave the green light for troops and tanks to open fire on the square. 88. Purple Rain Protest in Cape Town, 1989 - When thousands of antiapartheid activists took to the streets in Cape Town four days before parliamentary elections, police turned water cannon with purple dye on them in an effort to halt the demonstrations and mark the protesters for identification and arrest. 89. Egypt, Jan. 25, 2011 - After 30 years in the top spot, Mubarak received his first serious challenge on Jan. 25, 2011, when more than a million protesters, fueled by political unrest, massive unemployment and socialmedia organization, assembled in Tahrir (Liberation) Square. 90. Tahrir Square or Liberation Square, Cairo is the heart of protests in Egypt Revolution. 91. Tiananmen Square, Beijing - Chinese university students seeking democratic reform in their communist-run country slept, ate and demonstrated in and around the heart of Beijing's Tiananmen Square. 92. Wenceslas Square, Prague - In late November 1989, hundreds of thousands of people filled Wenceslas Square to demand the overthrow of the ruling Czechoslovak Communist Party in what became known as the velvet revolution. 93. Azadi Square, Tehran - n 1979, thousands of Iranians gathered in Azadi which means Freedom Square for numerous protests that eventually led to the overthrow of the Shah. 94. Trafalgar Square, London - In the 19th century, Trafalgar Square became the gathering place for Londoners both in times of celebration and times of dismay. 95. Independence Square, Kiev - When Viktor Yanukovych was named the victor of Ukraine's 2004 elections, supporters of Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko poured into Kiev's Independence Square, claiming that their candidate had won. Protesters all wore orange, the color of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party. 96. Union Square, New York City - On April 20, 1861, an estimated 100,000 people hosted what the New York Times called a "mass meeting" in New York City's Union Square to "uphold the authority of the Government" after the attack on Fort Sumter that started the American Civil War. 97. On May 12, 2011, India became the 152nd country to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). The UNCAC which was originally adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003, and entered into force on December 14, 2005.