December, and the year 2007, ended with the shock assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister and opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto.

Bhutto's death on December 27 shocked the world but also reverberated deeply throughout Dubai, the city she and her family had called home for the past decade. 

Speaking to our sister publication Time Out Dubai in 2006, Bhutto had described life in Dubai as ‘idyllic' and expressed a degree of sadness that 2007 would mark the end of that period.

"Coming to Dubai was my lucky break," she had averred. "God willed that I should come here."

Earlier in the month, on December 2, ArabianBusiness.com unveiled our list for the 50 Richest Arabs in the World in our annual special report. HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al-Saud, as with most of our features this year, was no.1 in the list, setting him a class apart from the rest.

ArabianBusiness.com also surveyed the top business executives in the Gulf, with many delighted they made the list and others phoning afterwards to ask how they can get in next year's list - exactly the same as with the Rich List.

It was also the month of the sacred Hajj, Christmas and the New Year, with holidays in the region aplenty. The top story was naturally Eid holiday announced.

It was also a very show-business month in the Gulf. Popstar Justin Timberlake ended his world tour at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi before actor George Clooney opened the Dubai International Film Festival and Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah launched the world premiere of the first film about the July 7 2005 bombings in London, Shoot on Sight.

Andrew White aired his views in December, posing the question whether 2008 would be the year of the Dubai International Financial Centre.

• Dubai International Film Festival
• Time Out Abu Dhabi Restaurant Awards 2007
• George Clooney in Dubai
• Justin Timberlake in concert
• MEP Awards 2007

2007 Dec 1
In northwestern Pakistan former PM Benazir Bhutto launched her election campaign, a day after unveiling her party's platform despite calls from other opposition groups to boycott the Jan. 8 vote.

2007 Dec 1
Dubai police conducted a series of simultaneous raids on suspected brothels, landing 247 suspects in jail in the emirate's biggest anti-prostitution sweep to date. Human was trafficking rampant in this wealthy Gulf city.

2007 Dec 3
Lawmakers from Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc ended their boycott of parliament over the "house arrest" of their leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, who also attended the session.

2007 Dec 3
Hundreds of civil servants protested in front of Egypt's Cabinet, demanding wage increases to cope with rising prices and inflation.

2007 Dec 3
In Qatar Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reached out to Gulf Arab states, proposing security and economic pacts free of "foreign influence" in the first appearance by an Iranian leader before a summit of a key group of Persian Gulf nations. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed shortly after the outbreak of the 1980 Iran-Iraq war, partly to counter the spread of Iran's Islamic revolution.

2007 Dec 7
In Zagazig, Egypt, 3 students were killed and dozens injured when a fire broke inside an Al-Azhar university campus building in the Nile Delta.

2007 Dec 9
Iran signed a contract with China's Sinopec for the development of Iran's huge Yadavaran oil field, the kind of energy deal the United States has been trying to prevent. Hundreds of Iranian students angry over a crackdown on activists protested at Tehran University, the second such demonstration in less than a week.

2007 Dec 11
Pakistan's military vowed a strong response to any international attempt to seize its atomic arsenal as the army successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile.

2007 Dec 17
Nine Egyptians were killed and seven injured when a car crashed into a group of people celebrating a religious festival on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

2007 Dec 17
Al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned of "traitors" among insurgents in Iraq and called on Iraqi Sunni Arab tribes to purge those who help the Americans in a new videotape posted on the Web.

2007 Dec 17
Japan and the United Arab Emirates signed an accord to strengthen economic ties, including a deal for Japanese banks to extend a multibillion-dollar loan to a state-owned Abu Dhabi oil firm.

2007 Dec 17
It was reported that the US was investigation allegations that Public Warehousing Co. owned by Kuwait's Sultan Al-Essa family, had solicited as much as $80 million in kickbacks under cover as discounts from US suppliers.

2007 Dec 17
Dubai ruling Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pardoned 377 inmates of Dubai prisons this week on the eve of Eid al-Adha, an important Islamic holiday. The pardon included Bert Tatham, a Canadian UN official who advised the Afghan government on eradicating opium poppy crops. Tatham (35) was granted amnesty, six months after being sentenced to four years in prison on a drug smuggling conviction. Tatham was arrested April 23 during a one-hour stopover at the Dubai International Airport, after being caught with a half a gram of hashish, and two poppy bulbs.

2007 Dec 18
A human rights group said that Syrian authorities have arrested two activists, raising to at least seven the number detained following a recent meeting of opposition groups in Damascus. The two had attended the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change, a Dec. 1 gathering of numerous opposition groups and activists calling for democratic reforms in Syria.

2007 Dec 21
Bahraini security forces stormed the houses of the country's most outspoken Shiite opposition group at dawn, arresting at least seven of its members. Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain's 450,000 citizens, but the ruling family is Sunni.

2007 Dec 21
In Saudi Arabia the annual 5-day hajj come to a close as some 3 million pilgrims participated.

2007 Dec 22
In Egypt a policeman was killed overnight in a shootout with Bedouin tribesmen smuggling African immigrants into Israel. A minibus fell off a ferry and sank in the Nile River in southern Egypt, killing 16 people including six children.

2007 Dec 22
In Bahrain Security forces conducted sweeps through Shiite villages, arresting several protesters involved in a week of demonstrations against the Sunni-led government.

2007 Dec 22
In northwestern Pakistan clashes started, four days after the Shiite Turi and Sunnite Mengal tribes signed a ceasefire agreement following weeks of fighting which left more than 100 people dead. The rival tribes were using heavy weapons and by Dec 30 the death toll had reached 63.

2007 Dec 23
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said police have arrested 28 men for allegedly planning to attack holy sites around Mecca and Medina during the recently finished Muslim hajj.

2007 Dec 24
A 12-story building collapsed in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least 35 people. Shoddy materials, illegal construction and a culture of corruption were blamed for the deaths.

2007 Dec 27
Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally. Doctors reported that Bhutto died from a bullet wound.

2007 Dec 27
In Bahrain more than a dozen people detained during recent Shiite protests were charged with attempted murder, illegal assembly and rioting.

2007 Dec 28
In Pakistan hundreds of thousands of mourners, weeping and chanting for justice, thronged the mausoleum of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty in a raw outpouring of grief for Benazir Bhutto.

2007 Dec 29
In Pakistan an Islamic militant group said it had no link to Benazir Bhutto's killing and the opposition leader's aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The government said mass rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.

2007 Dec 30
President Nicolas Sarkozy said France will have no more contact with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon end its current crisis and appoint a new president.

2007 Dec 30
Bilawal Zardari (19), Benazir Bhutto's son, was chosen to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party, while her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, will serve as co-chairman, extending Pakistan's most famous political dynasty to another generation.

2007 Dec 31
In southern Egypt a bus plunged into a canal alongside the Nile River, killing 17 passengers and the driver.

2007 Dec 31
Syria's state-run media called on the US to begin a direct dialogue, a day after an influential US senator said Washington could "bridge the gap" between Israel and Syria.

2007 Dec 31
The Arab world's top best-selling pop singers Amr Diab and Elissa perform at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai.