1. NATO rejects Iran charges

    NATO’s secretary general on Monday rejected charges by Iran’s armed forces* chief. The chief pointed out that the Western alliance was risking a world war with plans to put Patriot anti-missile systems* near Turkey’s border with Syria. But NATO said the move was purely defensive.

    NATO agreed this month to send Patriot missiles to Turkey to protect its ally against possible attack from neighboring Syria. Turkey has some Syrian rebels* and refugees*.

    2. Park wins presidency

    The daughter of a former president won South Korea’s presidential election on December 19 and will become the country’s first female leader, saying she would work to unite the nation.

    The 60-year-old conservative*, Park Geun-hye, will return to the presidential palace in Seoul where she served as her father’s first lady in the 1970s, after her mother was assassinated by a North Korean-backed gunman.

    3. Egypt’s prosecutor general to quit

    Egypt’s prosecutor general*, appointed to the job just last month by President Mohamed Morsi, agreed to resign* this week.

    The protesters gathered at the prosecuting general’s office at the High Court on Sunday, objecting to Talaat Abdallah’s appointment by Morsi. The prosecutor general is not welcomed because of his connection with the Muslim Brotherhood. The protesters refused to leave unless he agreed to resign.

    4. Latin Americans the happiest people

    A poll released on December 19 of nearly 150,000 people around the world says seven of the world’s 10 countries with the most positive attitudes are in Latin America.

    Many of the seven do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war. It has one of the highest homicide* rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions.

    5. U.N. helicopter shot down

    South Sudan’s army shot down a U.N. peacekeeping helicopter in Jonglei state on December 21, killing the four Russian crew members on board, U.N. and military officials said.

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack on the “clearly marked” helicopter and in a statement called “on the government of South Sudan to immediately carry out an investigation and bring to account those responsible for this act.”

    6. Russia insists Assad will not flee

    Despite the growing pressure from a civil war that neither side can win, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not flee*, Russia’s foreign minister said.

    Syria’s civil war has entered a hard time, but international efforts to persuade Assad to quit would fail, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on December 22.

    Rebels seeking to overthrow Assad are fighting on the edge of the capital Damascus and expanding southwards from their northern strongholds in Aleppo and Idlib into the central province of Hama.

    7. Kerry named as U.S. secretary of state

    U.S. President Barack Obama nominated John Kerry as U.S. secretary of state on Friday.

    Kerry will be the leading Cabinet member charged with tackling pressing global challenges, including trying to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.

    The Israeli prime minister welcomed the appointment of Kerry. But Kerry is critical as his predecessor of Israel’s policy of settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

    (SD-Agencies)