1.  The United States, India and Japan will hold their first trilateral meeting in Wasington on Dec 19 to discuss “a range of Asia Pacific regional issues” among three leading “Asia-Pacific democracies.”

2. 20 tonnes of concentrated Sulphuric acid leaked from a factory in China, led to billowing acid smoke over the area. The incident took place Monday in Hukou county of east Jiangxi province. 

3. Bulgaria’s 52-year-old Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, who occasionally takes to the football field, has been voted the country’s best footballer of the year.

4. NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet “Kepler 22b” in the habitable zone the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.

5. Former Miss USA Rima Fakih, 26, has been arrested on charges of drunk driving in Detroit, Michigan.

6. India will host the meeting of Mekong-Ganga Cooperation grouping that will bring together foreign ministers of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, later this month to explore ways to boost economic and cultural linkages in the region.

7.  India is hosting the 4th International Tax Dialogue Conference (ITD) Global Conference on Tax and Inequality.

8. President Pratibha Patil became the first Indian president to ride in a battle tank when she boarded a T-90 in the desert terrain of Rajasthan.

9. Colombian film ‘Porfirio’, dirercted by Aljandro Landes and produced by Franciso Aliure, won the Golden Peacock award and cash prize of Rs 40 lakh in the 42nd edition of International Film Festival of India.

10. CNN is awarding Amol Gupte as the Indian of the Year for being Hindi film industry’s most innovative and differentiated film director.