Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was elected the very first permanent president of the European Union. He will assume the post on December 1, 2009 as mandated by the European Union Treaty of Lisbon.

One of Iraq’s Vice Presidents, Tariq Hashimi, vetoes a recently approved elections law putting a possible problem for the national elections to push through early next year. This will also put on hold the plans of the United States to withdraw its troops from the middle east country.

Delta and its SkyTeam Alliance will offer Japan Airlines (JAL) $1 Billion to lure it away from American Airlines Oneworld Alliance.

Transparency International released its 15th annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) – a measure of domestic, public sector corruption with New Zealand winning as the least corrupt country in the world. The United States ranked 19th.

The mystery of how arsenic has widely spread in Bangladesh waters was finally solved. The culprit is the tens of thousands of man-made ponds that were designed to protect villagers from unclean and disease-ridden surface waters.

Kosovo held its first elections since declaring itself as an independent nation. Kosovo broke away from Serbia last February 2008. Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo as independent. The polls were generally peaceful.

Google Street View, the famous Google product which showcases views of major cities of the world from the street is under attack again from an authority in Switzerland.

The 21 leaders from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit had different results for discussed issues ranging from climate change to currencies.

The 16-country Eurozone left the recession after Germany and France posted further growth during the third quarter.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Philippines to strengthen ties with the nation and to give help and support to victims of recent typhoon floods.

A year after Japanese manufacturer Toyota took the number 1 spot as world’s largest automaker from General Motors, the crown was wrestled away and took in by a German manufacturer.