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The past year was filled with stories and insights on passion, persistence, perseverance, the human spirit, leadership and more. Here, I want to focus on three events that gave us interesting lessons on change management and can serve as powerful examples for business organisations.

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The execution of a top Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on 2 January has provoked a backlash against the Saudi government, ripples of which were also felt in India as Shia Muslims across the country staged demonstrations against the kingdom.

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It's the time of new beginnings and new resolutions. So, how about starting off the New Year with conversations that can make a difference to your child's life in the long run? I am going to outline three conversations that you must have with your kids so that they understand the importance of good money habits early on in their lives.

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When I woke up on New Year's morning, it occurred to me that nobody had bothered to investigate how Christmas and the year end were different in my adopted home town of Bournemouth from what played out on the streets of Pala. Did the good people of Bournemouth start the day with an alcoholic beverage too? Did New Year celebrations include a visit to the emergency room with a stab wound or two?

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We went to Barcelona in mid-December and spent three days there. The first SMS that I received when I landed in the city was "Beware of mobile phone thieves in Spain". Needless to say, this did not give a good impression of Spain. Most of the friends I had spoken to also didn't speak highly of the safety in the country. With this perception in my mind, I went about my trip with my family...

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Most of us are busy setting a gameplan for 2016 -- all the things we'll do, all the places we'll visit, all the successes we'll accomplish. But as I contemplate how 2015 treated me, I find myself resolving to not do certain things this year. To break certain patterns that have not served me well and to see where this takes me.

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At the last Democratic debate held on 19 December, Hillary Clinton confidently stated that Donald Trump had appeared in recruitment videos for ISIS. Trump then demanded an apology from Clinton, whose staff replied with an emphatic "hell no". And then, a terrorist group Al-Shabaab released a new recruitment video featuring Trump.

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The conflict between the Sunni-majority Saudis and the Shiite-majority Iranians is not about theology. It's a battle for supremacy between the two most powerful countries in the region.

The people who are currently the most vocal about the New Year's Eve attacks make life difficult for women in Germany 364 days of the year.

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Japan must do more to counter false histories. This issue will never be closed if school textbooks and official memorials continue to misrepresent the truth. Too often, Abe's government has ignored or enabled the spread of dangerous narratives about the country's past -- narratives that continue to drive tension today. He must back efforts to continue educating his constituents on the facts. South Korea, for its part, also has more work to do pitching its citizens on the agreement.

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The anti-Soviet mujahideen of the 1980s morphing into Taliban and Al Qaeda in the 1990s and now mutating into the virulent ISIS becomes possible when there is a continued demand for their lethal product. Pakistan's consistent use of jihadism as a tool of statecraft and foreign policy over the past four decades has created a jihadist ecosystem which would require much more than tactical measures like the military operations it has undertaken so far.

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Only days Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Lahore promised to put India-Pakistan relations back on track, a terrorist attack on an Indian Air Force base in Punjab this week has threatened to derail talks all over again. The challenge for New Delhi would be to learn from history and ensure that terrorists don't get their way again. A good starting point would be to frame some clear ground rules towards talks with Pakistan. Here are some pointers.

Tushar Dhara

Ambhora is a village that has been abandoned, left to the ghosts. All the people are gone. The houses are breaking and nature is reclaiming the habitation. The village lies on the banks of the Wainganga and in more habitable times, in the not too distant past, boys played cricket and held wrestling matches on the sandy banks. As the water level rose due to the damming of the river families started leaving. Ambhora has not disappeared, yet, but the water is not far away.

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If the media were to make resolutions for 2016, here are five that would be long overdue. Here, I'm framing them as commandments that if followed could make news coverage far more balanced and pleasant for viewers.

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New Year's resolutions are infamous for being abandoned with as much gusto as with which they are formed in the first place. Only 46% have any success for at least six months. In fact, about 25% of the resolution makers won't even last a week. So why is it so hard to stick to decisions that are good for us? Whatever be the reason, here are a few time-tested ideas that might help you stick with it.

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In the late summer of 1979, the Second Secretary of the Indian embassy to Morocco received a cable that undid his considerable years of training and left him floundering. The message read simply: 'Elephant en route.' Was it some sort of code? Further investigation only deepened his confusion.