Events

DECEMBER 2014

15—A 17-hour hostage drama in which an Iranian refugee held 17 people, including two Indians, hostage at a Sydney cafe ends after the police stormed the eatery leaving the gunman and two hostages dead.

16—More than 100 children are among 126 killed in Taliban attack on an army school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

18—Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches its heaviest rocket GSLV-Mk III as  also successfully tests the atmospheric re-entry of a crew module—CARE.

24—Curfew imposed in parts of Assam after suspected tribal guerrillas of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland kill more than 60 people in a series of attacks in retaliation to an offensive against them.

28—The US-led coalition in Afghanistan formally ends its combat mission, more than 13 years after an international alliance ousted the Taliban government for sheltering the planners of the 11 September 2001 attacks on American cities.

29—An AirAsia plane with 162 people on board disappears amid thunderstorms while on its way from Indonesia to Singapore.