International and Bilateral Issues:

North Korea warned the world on Friday to expect no policy changes under Kim Jong-Un
The tough statement came a day after the Communist nation ended 13 days of mourning for Kim
Jong-Il, and proclaimed his son Jong-un as new supreme chief at a massive memorial ceremony.

On December 23, protesters, largely from the opposition parties but claiming to be part of an NGO, sought to label President Mohamed Nasheed, a “bad” Muslim. He was accused of trying to open up the country to other religions, and some of those claimed that spas and massage parlours in resorts were actually promoting commercial sex trade. One opposition party wanted a blanket ban on alcohol.
The government responded by asking the Tourism Ministry to issue a circular to all resorts to close down their massage/spa parlours.
The rallies and the government's reaction will certainly hurt the Tourism industry, said a promoter.

Citing flagrant violations of the Muslim community's rights by the New York Police Department, a group of inter-faith leaders in New York City has declined an invitation to attend an end-of-year breakfast event hosted by city Mayor
They had decided to “respectfully decline” his invitation in the wake of a series of leaked police documents obtained by the Associated Press, which detailed how, throughout the 9/11 decade, “the NYPD has been monitoring and profiling virtually every layer of NYC Muslim public life, often with no suspicion of wrongdoing”.
- NYPD's attempts to monitor and collect data on New Yorkers at about 250 mosques, schools, and businesses throughout the city
Park51 project, the so-called “Ground-Zero Mosque” aimed at fostering communal harmony at the site of the 9/11 attacks, the letter noted that the inter-faith group appreciated Mr. Bloomberg's “principled position in defence of Park51 and American Muslims", but it does not worked as many are opposing that too.
NYPD surveillance issue, saying, “There is widespread recognition that both law enforcement agencies and Muslim communities need one another to safeguard against extremists activities. It is in the best interest of the public that NYPD work closely with Muslim communities to re-build trust and increase cooperation.”

A Russian nuclear submarine got badly damaged in a shipyard fire, but its two reactors are safe and there has been no radiation leak
The submarine had its two reactors switched off and all its nuclear missiles and conventional ammunition removed before entering the dock
Yekaterinburg is a Delta IV class submarine which can carry 16 ballistic missiles, each with four nuclear warheads.

In keeping with the government decision to open afresh a military hospital in Tajikistan, the Army Medical Corps (AMC) is ready to send a team of 70 personnel, including 10 officers, within an hour of getting orders. India closed down a hospital run by it there a decade ago.
Tajikistan shares border with Afghanistan and the decision to re-open the hospital comes ahead of the proposed drawdown by the U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2014.
The AMC now operates four medical camps in Afghanistan

The first-ever Punjabi International Film Academy Awards (PIFAA) function would be hosted in Toronto on August 4, 2012, and noted actor of yesteryear Dharmendra would be the brand ambassador-promoter of the event
The popularity of Punjabi films has been increasing outside India due to the rapidly growing Punjabi Diaspora as well as the improvement in the quality of the films in recent years.