We were in this together

The HINI virus shook the worlds fragile health systemfrom Mexico to North Korea,and almost every place in between.

H1N1

The HINI virus shook the worlds fragile health systemfrom Mexico to North Korea,and almost every place in between. It also exposed governments ill-preparedness to such a crisis. So while North Korea refused international assistance to deal with the virus,Egypt took to the mass killing of pigswhen the pink snouts had nothing to do with it.

Brand Obama

Obama may not be the most travelled US president yet but he has already covered a lot of groundfrom countries like Egypt and Russia,to continents like Latin America,Europe and Asia. With every moment of his presidency snapped and captured,Obama has fed the Obama mania with some great lines and large doses of charm.

Climate change

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2009 made two things clear: the climate is suffering,and we are not doing enough about it. This was to be the annus mirabilis for the environment,when we would know how serious the world was about addressing climate change. And what happened? Tokenism. The Copenhagen summit closed with a promise that a deal would be worked out in 2010.

New governments

Lebanon,Iran,Afghanistan,Israel,India and Japan and South African were among those that went to the polls this year. In Iran,President Mahmoud Ahmedinejads win sparked off allegations of vote rigging and Afghanistan saw a tense face-off between President Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah before Karzai finally clung on to his job.

The Economy

In early 2009,nobody knew how long the recession would last. Long and shallow,people worried. But effective government actionco-ordinated across the worldseems to have seen off the worst of those fears. Though the growth numbers suggest a recovery,job growth hasnt picked up. Oh,and it looks like the bankers got away with it.