America’s Congress voted to allow gay members of the armed forces to serve openly by repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell”, a policy under which thousands of homosexual men and women have been discharged. It had looked as if the measure might not pass, but eight Republican senators eventually backed it. Barack Obama quickly signed the act into law, though it does not take immediate effect.

Also before Christmas, Congress agreed to Mr Obama’s deal with Republicans that extends the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy in return for more stimulus spending. The Senate ratified a (much-delayed) nuclear-arms treaty with Russia. Legislation that would have put the children of illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship, the DREAM bill, failed to pass, and is unlikely to be reconsidered in the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives. See article

The first tranche of statistics to be released from America’s census showed the population stood at 308.7m on April 1st 2010, a rise of 9.7% from 2000. Texas gained more people than any other state, up by 4.3m to 25.1m, fetching it four more congressional seats in the House. See article

Opponents of Venezuela’s leftist president, Hugo Chávez, accused him of launching a coup against other branches of government, after the outgoing national assembly approved measures to allow him to rule by decree for 18 months, to tighten government control over universities, NGOs and the media, and to appoint new supreme-court justices. The measures came days before a new legislature with a large opposition minority is due to be sworn in. See article

In Argentina Jorge Videla, a former military dictator, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of political prisoners following a coup in 1976. His trial came after an amnesty was set aside. Mr Videla complained that former leaders of the left-wing guerrillas whom the army fought are now in the government.

Bolivia’s government increased the price of petrol and other fuel by more than 70%, prompting a strike by bus and lorry operators. The government said that the cost of subsidising fuel had risen from $80m in 2005, to $380m, and that cheap fuel was being smuggled to neighbouring countries.

Pressure mounted on Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire to admit defeat in an election run-off held in late November and cede the presidency to his rival, Alassane Ouattara. At least 170 people have been killed in the election’s aftermath. The presidents of three west African countries (Benin, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone) flew to Abidjan, the Ivorian commercial capital, in a vain effort to persuade him to step down—or be removed by force.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague asked it to summon six prominent Kenyans to face charges of inciting violence after the disputed election of 2007, when at least 1,200 people were killed. The six include Uhuru Kenyatta, the finance minister who is a son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding president, and William Ruto, a leader of the powerful Kalenjin tribal group. See article

South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak made a surprise call for a resumption of denuclearisation talks with North Korea. The North has so far refrained from any armed response to the South’s latest military exercises. See article

Indian officials warned that members of a Pakistani militant group which was blamed for an attack in Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people had again entered the financial capital. Security forces in India’s biggest cities were put on heightened alert.

The Japanese government approved a draft budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins in April. It caps new bond issues at just below this year’s expected level, but they will still outstrip tax revenues.

The People’s Bank of China increased interest rates by one-quarter of a percentage point for the second time in just over two months, the latest in a series of actions taken by China’s central bank to try to tame rising prices.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an imprisoned Russian oil tycoon, was found guilty of stealing oil in a second trial that many saw as a test of the Russian government’s stated commitment to the rule of law. America and Germany criticised the verdict; the Russian foreign ministry said: “We expect everyone to mind his own business.” See article

Violence erupted in Minsk after Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the president of Belarus, was declared to have won re-election with 80% of the vote. Hundreds of protesters, and seven of the nine opposition candidates, were arrested. Mr Lukashenka’s main challenger was badly beaten by riot police. In a strongly worded newspaper article, four European foreign ministers said the European Union would not “stand indifferent to gross violation of [its] values.” See article

Nine men were arrested on December 20th in three British cities and charged with conspiring to bomb several high-profile targets in London in the run-up to Christmas. The targets allegedly included the London Stock Exchange and the American embassy.