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Convergence and Union, a conservative nationalist party won the regional election in Spain's Catalonia region, defeating the incumbent left-wing coalition led by the socialist PSOE party which forms the national government. The result was interpreted as further evidence of the unpopularity of Prime Minister Zapatero.

WikiLeaks released some 250'000 cables sent by US embassies to Washington since 2008. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the release of this confidential material as “an attack on the international community” and spoke personally to several government leaders whose opinions given to US diplomats on sensitive issues had become public. Other opinion in the United States and elsewhere saw the leaks as an important development in access to otherwise secret policy-making.

The Obama administration banned new offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast. The decision reversed approval for such drilling given earlier in the year before the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. n England was humiliated by the FIFA voting for the location of 2018 World Cup when only one independent member of the Executive Committee supported its bid despite the last-minute lobbying.