Portal:Current events/2011 December 15

• Russia circulates a draft resolution condemning the violence in Syria. (Al Jazeera)
• The United States flag is lowered in Baghdad marking the end of U.S. military operations in Iraq after eight years of the Iraq War. (BBC)

• The 2010 United States Census shows 1 in 2 people are classified as low-income or poor. (Associated Press) (NPR) (CBS News)

• A truck drives into a restaurant in Ningxia, China, killing seven people. (China Daily)

• Police in Bahrain detain prominent blogger Zainab Alkhawaja during a protest near the capital Manama. (BBC)
• The United Nations calls for the protection of LGBT rights worldwide, in its first report on the issue. (Reuters)
• Former President of France Jacques Chirac is found guilty of embezzlement and violating trust due to his hiring members of his party to fill non-existent jobs while Mayor of Paris. (France 24)
• Former editor of The Sun and the News of the World Piers Morgan is called to give evidence before the Leveson Inquiry, and will appear next week. (The Guardian)
• A French court convicts Venezuela-born terrorist Carlos the Jackal of organising four deadly attacks in the 1980s. (AP via Google)

• A by-election is held in the UK constituency of Feltham and Heston following the death of Labour's Alan Keen. (BBC)
• Negotiators from the United States Senate and House of Representatives reach a budget agreement. (Washington Post)

• The US National Institutes of Health places a temporary moratorium on new studies using chimpanzees in response to a report that claims nearly all medical research on the animals is scientifically unjustified. (Washington Post)