After a military coup ousted the country’s democratically-elected government in March, an insurgency in Mali’s vast north rapidly gained ground. The rebels have de facto control over more than half the country, including the historic cities of Timbuktu and Gao. Meanwhile, the chaos has fueled a growing humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands displaced。
军事政变在三月推翻了民主选举产生的政府，马里北部的武装分子活动在这之后开始攻城掠地，反对派武装已控制了马里一半以上的领土，包括历史名城廷巴克图和加奥。与此同时，混乱加剧了人道主义危机，数百万人流所失所。
4. Netanyahu’s Year of Living Dangerously 内塔尼亚胡的一年
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scarcely been out of the headlines in 2012, whether for warning of a possible war with Iran, launching a military offensive to stop Palestinian rocket fire out of Gaza, or appearing to signal a preference for Republican candidate Mitt Romney to win the White House in November。
以色列总理内塔尼亚胡2012年多次出现在媒体头条上，包括警告要对伊朗动武、对加沙发动攻势以制止巴勒斯坦人的火箭弹攻击、表态支持罗姆尼成为美国总统。
At the U.N. in September, Netanyahu warned that at current rates of progress, Iran would likely cross Israel’s “red line” for action by next summer. And as the year draws to a close, the Israeli leader’s response to the Palestinians’ quest for U.N. recognition — initiating planning on new settlement construction in the West Bank — has prompted a flurry of Western pressure on Netanyahu to back down. On one front or another, it’s a safe bet that the Israeli Prime Minister whose reelection appears likely this January will remain a key player in the international headlines next year。
9月在联合国大会上，内塔尼亚胡警告称，伊朗可能在明年夏季之前跨过以色列的“红线”。以色列为了应对巴勒斯坦成功入联而宣布将在约旦河西岸建设新的定居点，这使西方加大了对内塔尼亚胡作出让步的压力。内塔尼亚胡可能在明年1月的大选中获得连任，将继续出现在明年的国际新闻头条上。
3. The Eurozone Crisis
欧元区危机
Debt-ridden Southern Europe continued to reel from the fiscal nightmare gripping the eurozone, and clouding the prospects of the global economic recovery. Mass protests and general strikes became routine in 2012 in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere, as infuriated publics rallied against austerity measures imposed on their countries as the condition of bailouts from further north。
债务累累的欧洲南部国家继续受到欧元区危机的重压，这给全球经济恢复的前景蒙上了阴影。大规模抗议、罢工成为西班牙、希腊、意大利、葡萄牙和其它国家的家常便饭，愤怒的公众举行集会，反对强加的经济紧缩措施。
Steep cuts in public spending have done little to promote the growth needed to right the listing ships of the Mediterranean economies. Instead, hardship and inequality have deepened, and unemployment has skyrocketed — nearly a quarter of Spain’s workforce is out of a job。
对公共支出的大幅削减无助于推动使地中海国家经济转好的增长。事实上，这些国家的困难和不平等加剧，失业率大幅增加，四分之一的西班牙劳动力没有工作。
2. An Arab Winter
阿拉伯之冬
After the Year of the Protester, came the Year of the Politico. The next phase of revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia saw previously marginalized Islamist political forces make dramatic gains. Once banned or fringe parties now hold the levers of power: In Tunisia, Ennadha, a previously outlawed moderate Islamist movement, now commands a majority in the legislature and may set about overhauling the country’s relatively laissez-faire, secularist societal mores. In Libya, the Sept. 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi brought into stark relief both the security conundrum and growing radicalism。
在经过示威者的一年后，又迎来了政客的一年。在埃及、利比亚、突尼斯革命的下一阶段，先前处于边缘地位的伊斯兰派政治势力取得了重大进展，一度被取缔或者处于边缘地位的政党现在掌握了权力。在突尼斯，一度被取缔的持温和立场的伊斯兰复兴运动已在议会上获得了多数席位。在利比亚，美国驻班加西领事馆9月11日遇袭事件说明了安全难题和不断增长的极端主义。
1. Syria’s Bloody Stalemate
叙利亚的流血僵局
As 2012 draws to a close, Syrians approach the second anniversary of a bloody civil war with little immediate prospect of resolution. By some estimates, more than 40,000 people have been killed since a peaceful uprising against President Bashar Assad in February 2011 morphed rapidly into a bloodbath.
在2012年接近尾声的时候，叙利亚正迈向血腥内战爆发二周年的日子，这场内战看不到任何立刻解决的希望。一些机构估计，自2011年2月针对阿萨德总统的抗议示威开始以来，已有4万多人死于冲突，抗议示威快速转变为流血事件。
Western powers are reluctant to be drawn into yet another conflagration in the Middle East in which an authoritarian secular state is being torn apart along lines of religious sect. The chaos is being further fueled by regional proxy-war agendas and has spilled over Syria’s borders into such tinderbox polities as Lebanon and Iraq。
西方国家不太愿意卷入另一场中东地区的冲突，作为独裁统治的世俗国家叙利亚，因为不同的宗教派别而被四分五裂。地区代理人战争日程进一步加剧了动荡，并蔓延至叙利亚边境以外的黎巴嫩和伊拉克。
