There are stories that have enormous consequences on the lives of Americans but are regularly under-reported or misrepresented by the mainstream media.
Project Censored, the US media watchdog group, has released their annual report examining the shortcomings of reporting in 2012.
Amongst the key topics: the rising police state and the erosion of civil liberties, climate change and the destruction of oceans, and the rising disparity between the one percent and the 99 percent.
Project Censored argues that the lack of proper reporting on issues like these by the corporate media is leading to an erosion of democracy.
Hugo Chávezhas suffered "new complications" following his cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president said, describing the Venezuelan leader's condition as delicate.
Vice president Nicolas Maduro delivered a solemn televised address from Havana, saying he had spoken with Chávez and that the president sent greetings to his homeland. Maduro did not give details about the complications, which he said came amid a respiratory infection.
"Several minutes ago we were with president Chávez. We greeted each other and he himself referred to these complications," Maduro said, reading from a prepared statement. Maduro was seated alongside Chávez's eldest daughter, Rosa, and son-in-law Jorge Arreaza, as well as attorney-general Cilia Flores.
AFRICA
CAR President Bozize set to share power with rebels
Central African Republic President Francois Bozize has agreed to talk with Seleka rebel leaders about forming a national unity government. This could end fighting which has left the government with its back to the wall.
Following a meeting with President Bozize in the capital Bangui on Sunday, the chief of the African Union (AU), Thomas Boni Yayi said that the way for a new government had been paved.
The President had agreed not to run for office again in 2016, but would be "ready to go to Libreville this very day if his peers ask him to" for talks with rebels, "which should lead to a national unity government," the AU chairman said.
India is still waiting for the $50 tablet
December 31, 2012 - 3:41PM
Pamposh Raina, Ian Austen, Heather Timmons
NEW DELHI — The idea was, and still is, captivating: In 2011, the Indian government and two Indian-born tech entrepreneurs unveiled a $50 tablet computer, to be built in India with Google's free Android software. The government would buy the computers by the millions and give them to its schoolchildren.
Enthusiasts saw the plan as a way to bring modern touch-screen computing to some of the world's poorest people while seeding a technology manufacturing industry in India. Legions of customers placed advance orders for a commercial version of the tablet, thrilled at the prospect of owning tangible proof that India was a leader in "frugal innovation."
Even the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, lavished praise on the audacious project, called Aakash, the Hindi word for sky.
31 December 2012Last updated at 00:21 GMT
Is Belgium still the capital of chocolate?
By Maddy SavageBBC News, Brussels
Belgium invented the praline in 1912 and soon became known for making the best chocolates in the world. But 100 years on, the supremacy of local chocolatiers is under threat from international competition.
The smell of warm, melted cocoa is wafting around the kitchen as Ryan Stevenson meticulously pipes a rich, buttery filling into dozens of delicate chocolate shells.
Tall and slim with a ginger beard, the 36-year-old grew up in Toowoomba, Australia.
Since moving to Brussels in 2005, he has twice won the title of Belgian Chocolate Master. In 2009, he took the Best Praline prize as a finalist in the World Chocolate Masters competition.
"I am not actually a chocolatier by trade, I trained as a pastry chef," he says, with a grin.
New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent
It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.
"FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) … reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat … The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conductingsurveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country."
"This production [of documents], which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI's surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement … These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America."
It is more than just a sport, more than tournaments and trophies, more than big business.
"Discrimination is not in our game. Discrimination is in the world. We are a mirror of our world, in football. And you have discrimination and you have racism in football. We are fighting against that, but it can only be by solidarity." Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA
The game can be an engine of conflict or a force for change, transcending borders and cultural backgrounds and forging new affiliations and identities.
Football has become a big-money business, and as football teams soar in value, they have become toys for billionaires.
In 1992, Rupert Murdoch signed a satellite TV deal with the newly-formed Premier League, making him a major force in globalising the game. Earlier this year, the league signed broadcast deals worth some $4bn.
Today, half the Premier League is completely foreign-owned – with US Americans owning five teams.
Manchester City, the 2011-2012 champions of the Premier League, is owned by Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi, who is said to have pumped nearly $1bn into it. Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways paid a fortune to name the stadium. And an Argentinian player the team spent more than $40m to acquire, scored the winning goal of the last season.
Whatever you might have thought of George Osborne a year ago, he began 2012 with a pretty decent reputation in Westminster as a political strategist. Then came his March budget – an "omnishambles" that unravelled day after day and all but destroyed Osborne's career with it. It was the politics, more than the economics, that were awful. The decision to drop the upper (50p) rate of tax in the thick of painful austerity at the same time as imposing taxes on pasties, caravans and even charity donations (the spring from which the "big society" was supposed to be watered) was a catastrophe and a gift for Labour.
The EU wins the Nobel peace prize
In October, like manna in the depth of famine, the EU was awarded the Nobel peace prize for six decades of ceaseless, tireless work in pursuit of unity in Europe. In the UK, eurosceptics condemned the award, while in Brussels it was accepted as proof that occasionally something good can lighten the darkness in the midst of the eurozone crisis. Stunned and a little wrong-footed, David Cameron suggested that rather than him attending the acceptance ceremony, the EU should send along a group of schoolchildren instead.
Indian gang-rape victim's body cremated as six men face death penalty over her murder
The body of a young woman who was gang-raped and brutally beaten on a moving bus in India's capital has been cremated.
Indian police have charged six men with murder in the December 16 attack, which shocked the country and triggered protests for greater protection for women from sexual violence.
The murder charges were laid yesterday, hours after the woman died in a Singapore hospital, where she had been flown for treatment.
Her body was cremated in a private ceremony today in New Delhi soon after its arrival from Singapore on a special Air-India flight.
SYRIA
Syria envoy warns of Syrian 'hell' at Moscow talks
The international community's envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has stressed the need for political dialogue between the government and rebels. Moscow has called the Syrian opposition’s refusal to hold talks "a dead end."
UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said the unacceptable alternative to political engagement in Syria was "hell."
Brahimi warned that, without a political process, the situation in Syria could become similar to that in Somalia for two decades after that country's government fell in 1991.
"If the only alternative is hell or a political process, then all of us have to work continuously toward the political process," said the envoy after a meeting on Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Rebels in the Central African Republic have seized another town in their advance on the capital, forcing an army retreat.
The rebels, who already have control of four other regional capitals in the centre and north of the country, faced no resistance as they entered the town of Sibut around 150km from Bangui, a military official told Agence France-Presse.
The streets of Bangui were deserted on Saturday night, according to an AFP journalist, after a curfew was imposed from 7pm to 5am (6pm GMT to 4am GMT).
Many shops were being guarded by men armed with machetes. "The bosses fear looting so they are paying guards," said one guard.
Officials on both sides said the rebels of the so-called Seleka coalition had also repelled army soldiers trying to recapture Bambari, a former military stronghold in the landlocked country, one of the world's poorest despite vast mineral wealth.
A military official described "extremely violent" fighting over the town, with detonations and heavy weapons fire audible to witnesses some 60km away.
For the past 12 months we have tracked the coverage of the fighting – the casualty figures are all over the place: Estimates of those killed since the unrest began now range between 30,000 and 52,000 people and since the beginning of 2012, more than 30 media workers have lost their lives there.
With journalists thin on the ground, that information vacuum continues to be filled by citizen journalists and that means we have got used to that one key line delivered by the news anchor: "The authenticity of these images cannot be verified."
2012: the year when it became okay to blame victims of sexual assault
The myth that women can be held responsible for men’s sex crimes has returned, writes Laura Bates
At Caernarfon Crown Court earlier this month, a 49-year-old man was convicted of raping a teenage girl. Jailing the rapist, the judge told him: “She let herself down badly. She consumed far too much alcohol and took drugs, but she also had the misfortune of meeting you”.
It was the latest in a wave of examples of victim-blaming, a phenomenon that Christina Diamandopoulos, of the Rape Crisis charity, describes as the “myth that women are responsible for men’s sexual behaviour. From this stems the idea that what a woman wears, says, where she goes, or what she does can make her responsible for the crime committed against her.” The problem is compounded by common misconceptions, such as the idea that all rapists are strangers, who attack in dark alleys at night. In fact, Ms Diamandopoulos says, “most rape is committed by partners, ex-partners and men who are known to the woman”.
CRIME
Indian rape victim dies in hospital
A 23-year-old Indian woman who was raped by six men on a bus, has died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital. The hospital said in a statement she "died peacefully," after almost two weeks fighting for survival.
Mount Elizabeth Hospital said in a statement that the young Indian woman died of her injuries early on Saturday morning. She was gang-raped, beaten and then thrown from a bus by six men on December 16.
"We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4.45 a.m. [local time, 2045 UCT on the previous day] on 29 December, 2012," Kelvin Loh, the chief executive of Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said in a statement. "Her family and officials from the High Commission of India were by her side. The Mount Elizabeth Hospital team of doctors, nurses and staff join her family in mourning her loss."
Talk or you try running the West Bank, Abbas tells Netanyahu
December 29, 2012
JERUSALEM: The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has warned he will disband his Palestinian Authority if there is no Israeli movement towards renewing peace talks after Israel's elections on January 22.
In an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz, Mr Abbas said that if such a situation arose he would hand full responsibility for the occupied West Bank to the Israeli government.
''If there is no progress even after the election I will take the phone and call [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,'' Mr Abbas said. ''I'll tell him … Sit in the chair here instead of me, take the keys, and you will be responsible for the Palestinian Authority.
''Once the new government in Israel is in place, Netanyahu will have to decide - yes or no,'' Mr Abbas said.
Central African Republic's neighbours are to send soldiers to intervene in the troubled country, where rebels are trying to overthrow its leader.
Representatives from the 10-nation Economic Community of Central African States meeting in Gabon, though, did not specify how many troops they could contribute nor did they outline how quickly the military assistance would arrive.
President Francois Bozize had pleaded for international help on Thursday as fears grew that the rebels would attack the capital of 600 000 next. Former colonial power France already has said that its forces in the country are there to protect French interests and not Bozize's government.
"We are now thinking about the arrangements to make so that this mission can be deployed as quickly as possible, said Gabon's Foreign Affairs Minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet.
Venezuela: South America's most dangerous country
According to calculations made by a respected NGO, Venezuela is now far and away the most dangerous country in South America, with Caracas one of the most dangerous capitals in the world.
The Venezuelan Observatory Of Violence (Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia) has released a study on homicides during 2012 putting the national homicide rate at 73 per 100,000 of the population, with Caracas registering 122 per 100,000. As a point of comparison, neighboringColombia, still in the midst of the civil conflict, last year registered just over 31 homicides per 100,000.
The study was conducted by the NGO working with six national universities. It put the number of homicides during the year at 21,692, a significant increase on 2011 (19,336), which had gone down as the most violent year on record in Venezuelan history.
According to the government, the homicide rate for 2011 was just over 48 per 100,000 of the population. Even at this level Venezuela was one of the most dangerous nations in South America.
29 December 2012Last updated at 00:17 GMT
Sex, lies and videotapes: A year in Chinese microblogs
By Samanthi Dissanayake and Zhuang ChenBBC News
The year 2012 was meant to be a stable one for China as it prepared for its once-in-a-generation leadership change.
But things didn't quite go to script as lurid scandals emerged across the country featuring officials from the all-powerful Communist Party, some of whom were local and some very prominent.
One of the most notable features was the number of scandals unearthed by angry microbloggers determined to root out official corruption.
China's emboldened microbloggers?
As growing concern about corruption and abuse of power spread through China's microblogs, netizens began a quest to expose what they saw as official malpractice themselves.
All of this took place despite official measures such as in March when millions of microblog users, initially in Beijing, had to register with their real identities to post online. It was an effort by the authorities to prevent the spread of what they called "unfounded rumours".
When the governments of Eastern Europe fell in in 1989 it happen as a result of a sudden up welling of outrage by the citizenry. Those governments fell their citizens had been exposed to western television programs and commercials which contradicted the propaganda broadcast on T.V. and in the print media. As with any authoritarian government the need for indoctrination of the populace so they remain passive is imperative. Once exposed to the truth even a semi-educated populace will rise up against their oppressors.
China has tightened its rules on internet usage to enforce a previous requirement that users fully identify themselves to service providers.
The move is part of a package of measures which state-run Xinhua news agency said would protect personal information.
But critics believe the government is trying to limit freedom of speech.
The announcement will be seen as evidence China's new leadership views the internet as a threat
In recent months, the internet and social media have been used to orchestrate mass protests and a number of corrupt Communist Party officials have been exposed by individuals posting criticisms on the internet.
Organisation of mass protests via social media forced officials to scrap environmentally-questionable projects in Shifang and Qidong
Shaanxi official Yang Daca sacked after internet campaign exposed his many expensive watches, deemed unaffordable on a provincial official's salary
District-level Party boss Lei Zhengfu sacked after a video clip of him having sex with an 18-year-old girl appears on the internet
The new measures come a month after a new leadership, led by Xi Jinping, was installed by the ruling Communist Party.
The new man in charge of the internet, Liu Qibao, has a reputation for taking a hard line on media control. He recently called for "more research on how to strengthen the construction, operation and management of the Internet and promote mainstream online themes".
WASHINGTON — President Obama will meet with Congressional leaders on Friday, and House Republicans summoned lawmakers back for a Sunday session, in a last-ditch effort to avert a fiscal crisis brought on by automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to hit next week.
Republicans expressed a flicker of hope Thursday that a deal could still be reached to at least avert most of the tax increases on Jan. 1, to prevent a sudden cut in payments to medical providers treating Medicare patients and to extend expiring unemployment benefits. But both parties’ leaders said time is running out.
Food fight complicates Ikea's entry into India
Minister rallies behind Swedish chain's investment plan – meatballs and all – amid opposition to government's reforms
Ikea's Swedish meatballs, gulped down in their thousands each weekend in store cafes around the world, are the subject of a bureaucratic tug-of-war in India that could hit local consumers' hopes of sampling the joys of flatpacked furniture in the near future.
The retailer plans to invest about £1.25bn in India to exploit demand from the growing urban middle class. Though growth has slowed recently, Asia's third-largest economy is still set to expand by between five and eight per cent this year.
Ten Ikea stores are planned over a decade, to be followed by 15 more, as part of a bigger push to enter emerging markets. However, last month officials told Ikea it was only allowed to sell furniture products, and that selling food and drink would infringe on regulations.
ARMED CONFLICT
US evacuates Central African Republic embassy
The US has evacuated its embassy in the Central African Republic. The State Department ordered its diplomats to leave the country as rebels advance on the capital of Bangui.
The US said Thursday it was suspending operations at its embassy in the Central African Republic.
The move comes amid increased security fears as rebel forces continue seizing land in the north of the country.
The State Department said it had not broken off diplomatic ties with the Central African Republic, but warned its citizens not to travel to the country while unrest continues.
State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the ambassador and other embassy personnel had left the country. Some 40 people in total were flown out of Bangui on a US Air Force plane to Kenya.
Mortgage NightmaresEvictions Become Focus of Spanish Crisis
By Helene Zuber
After a record number in 2012, evictions in Spain have become the symbol of a crisis that shows no signs of improving. Next year isn't likely to be any better, but with more attention now being paid to those losing their homes, relief in the form of legal reform may soon be on the way.
Joan Peinado Garrido, 59, can't sleep at night and he's lost his appetite. He takes various medications and has resumed stuttering when he's upset. The frail man gently guides his 86-year-old mother, María José, from the tiled kitchen to the living room.
The old woman uses a cane and is dependent on her son's help for more than just walking. For half a century, the family has been living in the white corner house at 52 Avenida Mediterránea in the town of Vidreres, near the provincial capital of Girona northeast of Barcelona. Now, Peinado has to vacate his home -- and he has no idea where he, his unemployed daughter Mireilla, 28, his seven-year-old grandson and his mother will find lodging.
Why Latin Americans top the happiness rankings
A global index on happiness shows several Latin American countries topping the list. The report cites centrality of family as a key reason.
Experts have suggested many reasons for the results. One includes the ability of Latin Americans to look beyond immediate problems and live life day-by-day, despite what is going on externally. It suggests that constant problems make people adapt and live positively, perhaps because it is difficult to constantly fear the worse and still live a productive life. Other explanations include cultural aspects that teach Latin Americans to keep a positive face on things, even if there are personal problems.
These are both interesting suggestions. The fact that having less might make someone feel as if he has more to be positive about could come from an appreciation for the smaller things in life.
Predictions for 2013: BBC correspondents
Lyse Doucet
World affairs correspondent
Remember that infamous phrase "axis of evil"? This year tough decisions will be made on Syria, Iran, and North Korea.
2012 ended with strong statements by some Western leaders that they will accelerate support to Syrian rebels. This will be the year of a post-Assad order but "transition" looks set to be bloody.
What is the "or else" if negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme don't succeed by the Spring?
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to win elections in January and will push world leaders to take action on Iran.
President Hamid Karzai will be under pressure as Afghanistan heads towards elections and a Nato troop pull-out in 2014. Some Taliban commanders will engage in secret talks and some won't.
On a more peaceful note, Malala Yusufzai will leave hospital and help galvanise adults to improve girls' education worldwide.
Mark Mardell
North America editor
In news terms it will continue to be the Arab uprisings, but I am more interested in whether the US and China co-operate or clash in the Pacific.
The US economy will come back strongly and, surprisingly, manufacturing will play an important role. This will be largely based on growing US energy independence. Europe will slip further back, with crisis as the new normal.
Can US president Barack Obama be bold and push his own agenda for a strong legacy? I think the answer will be yes. If John Kerry becomes US secretary of state he will want to make a mark, and if former Republican senator Chuck Hagel becomes defence secretary it will enrage the right who label him an anti-Israeli traitor.
I think the new Chinese leader Xi Jinping may be a breath of fresh air in terms of style, but not in substance.
