anniversary

It's 5 years since Gilad Shalit, a Franco-Israeli soldier, was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid in Gaza. Shalit was 19 and doing his military service when he was captured. Almost all young men and women in Israel undertake military service after leaving school. It's therefore easy to understand why so many Israelis identify with the Shalits and have joined an organisation known as "The Gilad Shalit friends' army".

It's been exactly a year since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 people and spilling 780 million litres of oil into the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. While cleaner beaches might suggest things are getting back to normal, residents say life is anything but. Although some fisherman and others are still trying to eke out a living from the sea, locals say the area is yet to recover fully.

On Sunday, Poland marks the first anniversary of the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other people, including the First Lady and a number of dignitaries. While the tragedy brought the Polish people together, the unity didn't last long; Kaczynski's supporters, including his twin brother, have hit the government with a series of accusations over his death and the crash investigation.

Wednesday 12th January 2011 was the first anniversary of one of the worst earthquakes ever seen. It was never going to be easy to rebuild after a quake of 7.0 magnitude, capable of killing 230,000 people. But in Haiti, it's been especially difficult. The capital, Port-au-Prince, and its surroundings are still "tent cities", with more than a million people still homeless a year after the disaster.