Famous World News Stories of January 2014

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The beginning of a new year is usually met with enthusiasm: will it be a good one for me or for the world? What major news events might happen this year? Celebrity deaths? Sports events? Will my team / country do well? Naturally, this optimism doesn’t last for long, especially when the year begins with disaster such as the first item on the list’¦

1. UK Flooding

UK Flooding
UK Flooding

December started off quite badly for storms in the UK but nobody could have foreseen quite how bad things would get in the first month of the year. For citizens of Britain, it felt almost like a conveyor belt of storms bringing intense rain and wind. As soon as one passed, another would sweep in from the Atlantic. The Somerset Levels were heavily flooded costing billions of pounds in damagers. The historic railwayline at Dawlish built by Brunel ‘ the only mainline route linking the western half of Devon and Cornwall with the rest of England ‘ was destroyed.

2. Ukraine Protests

Ukraine Protests
Ukraine Protests

Trouble had been brewing for years since the Orange Revolution in 2005 when Viktor Yushchenko lost to Viktor Yanukovych in what was believed to be rigged elections. Viktor Yanukovych would go on to become President of the country in 2010 but would soon find himself confronted with protests for his pro-Russia policy against a population in the western half of the country that favoured (as did Yushchenko) closer ties with the European Union. Protests began in Kiev early in the month and soon descended into violence.

3. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito Conviction

Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox

The media circus surrounding the tragic murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 took its final twist in January. The initial conviction of American Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was overturned on several technicalities and a retrial immediately ordered. That trial came to a close in the month of January with guilty verdicts for the pair. Knox ‘ who was back home in the USA ‘ vowed never to return and the Italian government is presently considering its options in seeking her extradition.

4. Polar Vortex in North America

Polar Vortex in North America
Polar Vortex in North America

While Siberia experienced its warmest winter of record, most of North America experienced its coldest on record. A huge cold front covered everything east of the Rocky Mountains extending as far as Florida and NE Mexico. Heavy snowfall and unprecedented low temperatures swept over American states and Canadian provinces for those that were not used to them. Flights were cancelled, schools closed and many businesses shut up shop because customers and workers could not reach them. A change in the jet stream is said to have affected both this event and the UK storms that caused so much flooding

5. Justin Bieber in Trouble with the Law – Twice

Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber

The former clean-cut pop icon spent most of 2013 in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. If it wasn’t a crass error of judgement at Anne Frank’s Museum, it was urinating in a cleaning bucket. In December, he was accused of assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto following a hockey game; and on 29th January he surrendered himself to the Canadian Police and following day he was charged with assault. The previous week he had been arrested in Miami for drag racing, being DUI and resisting arrest. Bieber was further criticised for smiling in his mug shot in Miami

6. President Rouhani at Davos: End Our Isolation

President Rouhani
President Rouhani

The new President of Iran, it appears, is making great strides towards cordial relations with the west. At the historic Davos World Economic Forum he declared that Iran would not use nuclear technology for weapons. Sceptics point to incendiary words from previous leaders but Rouhani had a historic telephone conversation with President Obama at the end of 2013 in which relations were said to be good. Former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu cast doubts on Rouhani’s embracing of technology by pointing out the limits placed on the internet in the country

7. UK opens for Romania and Bulgaria

Romania
Romania

Temporary bans on economic migrants wishing to move to the UK from Romania and Bulgaria came to an end on the 1st January. Concerns about the economy, the lack of jobs and ‘Benefits Tourism’ led to the previous Labour government seeking a ban. The Tory-Lib coalition attempted to get it extended but the EU refused. Former MP Keith Vaz greeted the first flight on the opening day ‘ and found only a handful of people coming from Eastern Europe. Critics believe that up to 50,000 could arrive every year but a report at the end of the month stated the numbers were far lower than expected

8. King Senebkay Confirmed

King Senebkay
King Senebkay

In a tomb near Abydos, Egyptologists discovered the body of a previously unknown king. Wider ramifications came to light as it revealed the existence of a previously unknown dynasty. Tomb robbers had previously discovered and ransacked the body but his skeleton was left intact in his tomb. The dynasty existed at Abydos during a period known as The Second Intermediate Period ‘ a time between the collapse of one Kingdom (Middle Kingdom which probably came to an end thanks to the explosion of Thera) and the rise of Egypt’s most famous period (The New Kingdom).

9. EU Targets 40% Cut to Carbon Emissions by 2030

EU Targets 40% Cut to Carbon Emissions by 2030
EU Targets 40% Cut to Carbon Emissions by 2030

Some say it is all talk but with the world increasingly experiencing greater levels of and more intense extreme weather, most likely due to climate change, the European Union set out clear and definite plans to cut carbon emissions by 40% before 2030. The target will also require member states to produce 27% of its energy from renewable sources. It was the first and biggest of meetings for nations to set targets ahead of the UN climate meeting at the end of the year

10. Gay Protests with Countdown to Sochi

 Gay Protests with Countdown to Sochi
Gay Protests with Countdown to Sochi

With the Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi, Russia in February it became the scene of a most unlikely series of protests. With a recent law introduced in Russia to outlaw ‘promotion of homosexuality’ which is as vague as it is controversial, protests began around the world to draw attention to the possibility of homophobic attacks in the country. The law came into effect at the end of 2013 and a series of protests asked for Olympians to boycott the games. In January, Putin sought to clarify: ‘We don’t have a ban on non-traditional sexual relations. We have a ban on the propaganda’.

Conclusion

A mixed start to 2014 it seems, with a mix of top political stories, sports events, natural disasters and celebrities on the slide into self-destruction. The optimism of the old year quickly evaporates as the world witnesses more of the same.

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