In Our Opinion: An eventful year, 2011 saw numerous notable headlines

As 2012 approaches there will doubtless be no shortage of analysis pieces of the biggest stories from the past year.

It's been an eventful year. Internationally revolutions in the Middle East overthrew long entrenched dictators. There were economic crises threatening to topple democratic governments, ongoing wars and armed conflicts and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Natural disasters always grab our attention and dominate the headlines, and the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan was one of the worst.

Closer to home we face a slow economic recovery, a dysfunctional and detached Cong...