POLITICS

Almost all the countries in the eurozone face the risk of a credit downgrade.

Hamas is making contingency plans for the potential fall of the Syrian regime, Reuters reported Sunday.

The case of a Tunisian actress who posed semi-nude for a local magazine has underlined a growing trend in the Arab world for activists to use their bodies as part of a political or social protest.

David Cameron's announcement that NHS records will be shared with private companies has been criticised by patient support charities.

Russian websites monitoring reports of election violation have allegedly been hacked by pro-Putin cyber criminals. It is believed that the majority of the world's most sophisticated and effective cyber attacks originate in Russia.

The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has acceded to German demands and is now advocating a new treaty to integrate the eurozone member states.

Gone are the days when an act of war meant dropping bombs, shooting the enemy and marching thousands of troops across borders. Now the battle is taking place online and it is the computer geniuses in their bedrooms, rather than the battle-hardened soldiers in tanks, that are keeping governments awake at night.

While this year will be remembered as the year of the hacktivist, it was in South America that cyber activists sprang up to protest against human rights violations, corruption and restrictions on internet freedoms.

Read through the International Business Times hind-sight look at hacktivism in the year 2011, as it runs through the key points that changed Anonymous from a "hacktivist" collective into a global political movement.

Italian welfare minister Elsa Fornero broke down in tears at the weekend as she anounced pension reforms as part of the country's new austerity measures.

Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast president is expected to make his first appearance at the International Criminal Court where he faces four counts of crimes against humanity.

Jeremy Clarkson made headlines last week after publicly announcing that the striking public sector workers should be taken out and 'shot'. The TV presenter has now sparked fresh controversy by calling suicide victims 'selfish'.

The Israeli government has dropped an advertising campaign by the Ministry of Absorption warning expatriate Israelis against assimilation into American society.

Syria's state-run media says the army test-fired missiles while the air force and ground troops conducted exercises "similar to a real battle," over the weekend in the latest sign of defiance of Damascus.

Haunting images of four women's final moments on death row have appeared on the internet eight years after their excecution in China for drug smuggling.

Egyptians headed to the polls for the run-off of the first round of parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as leader.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn his extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes, a High Court judge ruled on Monday

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy are meeting in Paris Monday in an eleventh-hour bid to save the euro from total collapse.

Belgium has a Prime Minister after going more than a year and a half without a government.

The Prime minister of Singapore is the highly paid political leader among his contemporaries.

A prominent American-Syrian blogger and activist was arrested at the weekend while she was crossing the Jordanian-Syrian border.

A leading Rwandan journalist and editor was gunned down in Kampala, where he was living as a political refuge.

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan tops the list of intelligence agencies in the world in 2011, followed by the United States of America's CIA and United Kingdom's MI6.

It is impossible for film buffs not to love and adore "Po" the Panda, the modern-day Kung Fu master from China in "Kung Fu Panda" film franchise.

Chantelle Taylor, a woman medic, killed an enemy fighter in combat in Afghanistan.

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Britain is powerless to prevent some "very unsavoury individuals" entering the country under the guise of protecting Russia''s Olympic team, Dr Fox has reportedly said.

Yates, who resigned from his post in the Met Office in July following his alleged role in the News of the World phone-hacking investigation, has been asked to overhaul the police service to ensure its procedure meets international human rights standards, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary, is keen to introduce a legislation to commit 0.7 percent of the national income on overseas aid.