Peer-reviewed Two eight-year-olds publish a significant peer-reviewed study in the Biology Letters journal of the Royal Society, examining the spatial memory of bumblebees.
Montenegro Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović resigns, citing a need for new leadership, and his intentions to turn to business.
Zac Goldsmith British millionaire Tory MP Zac Goldsmith is not to be reported to police over his election spending allegations but some other concerns are expressed by the Electoral Commission.
Liberal Democrats The fears of British Liberal Democrat government ministers over policies relating to welfare and tuition fees are secretly recorded by "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper.
U.S. President President of the United States Barack Obama signs into law the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which will bring an end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of discriminating against the presence of openly gay people in the country's military. More than 13,000 people were sacked by the United States under this policy.
Jorge Rafael Videla Jorge Rafael Videla, the former "de facto" President of Argentina, is sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
Metropolitan Police Authority The chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority's civil liberties panel describes as "appalling" and "ghastly" a kettling video and encourages students subjected to this procedure to make official complaints against the British police.
Belarus 7 out of 9 presidential candidates, charged with organizing mass disturbances, may receive 15-year sentences in Belarus, according to human rights groups.
European Commission The European Commission rejects efforts by several ex-Soviet bloc countries for the European Union to legislate against the condoning or denial of totalitarian crimes.
WikiLeaks Mauritius sues the United Kingdom due to prevention of the return of 2,000 residents forced out of the Chagos Islands during a 1960s lease to a U.S. air base.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launches WikiLeaks Task Force or WTF, a taskforce intended to examine the impact caused by the released cables.
Julian Assange discusses the time he spent locked up in Wandsworth Prison in an interview with the "El País" newspaper.
United Nations The United Nations office for torture issues in Geneva investigates an abuse complaint concerning United States Army private Bradley Manning, suspected by the United States government of passing classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.
Tibet Three Tibetan Buddhist monks are unaccounted for after being sentenced to long prison terms by Chinese authorities earlier this year for participating in a peaceful protest march by Drepung monastery monks in 2008.
The Russian government is "forced to take an adequate corresponding measure" following Britain's expulsion of one of its diplomats.
A newly released cable Newly released cables reveal that New Zealand threatened Fiji's military chief Frank Bainimarama and his wife.
U.S. diplomats applied pressure on Bangladesh to allow the London-based Global Coal Management company to reopen a large open-cast coal mine in the Phulbari area that was closed due to violent protests over foreign ownership of Bangladeshi resources succeeded in closing the mine.
McDonald's attempted to pressure the U.S. government to stall the implementation of the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement until El Salvador appointed "neutral judges" in a $24million lawsuit against the company in 2006.
Documents are released outlining pressure the U.S. used in an attempt to stop Italy from indicting the CIA agents who kidnapped Abu Omar in Milan, then flew him to Egypt to be tortured. The documents show Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi to be on the American side and recorded him "vent[ing] his rage at his own country's judicial system."
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, is documented ordering all U.S. ambassadors to pressure their respective nations' media into not being critical of the U.S. aid program in Haiti, days after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
New cables show that the British government was involved in the training of the Bangladeshi Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary force widely criticised for human rights violations, including torture and over 1,000 extra-judicial killings since its 2004 inception.
United Nations The United Nations votes in favour of restoring a reference to sexual orientation in a resolution banning the unjustified killing of minority groups.
United States Senate The United States Senate votes to ratify the New START Treaty with the Russia, which halves the number of deployed strategic nuclear missile launchers maintained by each nation.
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives decides not to take up a resolution declaring the mass killings of Armenians early last century a genocide, helping the administration to avoid a diplomatic clash with Turkey.
United States The United States approves more than $4 billion assistance for rescuers and residents whose health was affected after the September 11 attacks in New York City in 2001.
Aceh A UN Development Programme report concludes that Aceh's recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami is "beyond anything imaginable six years ago" but that more needs to be done concerning poverty and natural disaster impact.
Rome Thousands of students march peacefully through Rome as part of nationwide demonstrations in Italy prior to a Senate vote which threatens education funds.
Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI announces a BBC Radio 4 Christmas Eve message, the first such message for one of the countries he visited last year.
Israel A senior Israeli army officer tells the BBC that another Gaza War is "a question of when, not if" should Hamas continue to control the Gaza Strip.
South Korea South Korea announces it is to hold its biggest ever live fire drill near the North Korea border.