2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 3
Argos–Shimano and FDJ–BigMat looked to set the tempo on the front of the peloton, in the hopes of getting their respective sprinters John Degenkolb and Nacer Bouhanni towards the front if a sprint finish materialised. It was those two teams who gradually brought back Maté and Martínez for the majority of the parcours, but as the race drew nearer La Clayette, more teams put men into the relay and the breakaway was ended inside the final 15 km (9.3 mi).


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 3
Omega Pharma–Quick-Step held their riders on the front of the peloton in the closing stages, with Sylvain Chavanel, seventh overall, being protected by his team-mates before setting the pace at times. Degenkolb's chances for the stage ended with around 2 km (1.2 mi) remaining due to a puncture. Philippe Gilbert attacked for BMC Racing Team with 1.5 km (0.9 mi) to go, gaining an advantage of a few seconds but was caught with around 300 m (980 ft) left.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 3
RadioShack–Nissan looked to get Tony Gallopin in position for the sprint, while behind, Ricardo Garcia (Euskaltel–Euskadi) clipped the barriers, and fell back into the path of the sprint causing the majority of the field to be hampered; all riders that were impacted by the crash were eventually given the same time. Up front, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) launched his sprint off the wheel of Gerald Ciolek (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step), and won the stage by a bike length from Ciolek with Astana's Borut Božič completing the podium.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 3
Due to the crash in the closing metres and the resultant nullification of any time gaps, Boasson Hagen's team-mate Bradley Wiggins maintained his one-second lead in the general classification over Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), despite his earlier reservations of holding the lead into the time trial due to the skinsuit type provided by the race organisation compared to that of his team. Evans also lost the lead of the points classification to Gallopin, who achieved his third consecutive top-ten finish at the line; adding the points jersey to the young rider jersey that he had already achieved, after Boasson Hagen was dropped the previous day.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
Unlike the third stage time trial in 2011, in which the course used in Grenoble largely set the route for the penultimate-day time trial in the Tour de France a month later, the time trial in the 2012 event was held on an independent course, running from west-to-east between Villié-Morgon and Bourg-en-Bresse, with an undulating parcours that only amounted to a 61 m (200 ft) difference in altitude from start to finish.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
As was customary of time trial stages, the riders set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Thus, Arnaud Gérard of FDJ–BigMat, who, in 172nd place – of the 175 starters – trailed overall leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by thirty minutes and forty-nine seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage. However, he was not the first to finish as he was passed by the two riders directly behind him on the start order, that started at one-minute intervals, Dan Martin of Garmin–Barracuda and Orica–GreenEDGE's Travis Meyer.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
Meyer recorded a time of one hour, seven minutes and fifty seconds as he was first to reach the line; his time held for around a quarter of an hour, as no rider could get within twenty seconds of his time, until his team-mate Luke Durbridge, the prologue winner and incumbent under-23 world time trial champion crossed the finish line in a time of one hour, four minutes and forty-nine seconds, just over three minutes quicker than Meyer.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
Durbridge's time held top spot for over two hours, as the majority of the field failed to match his time for the 53.5 km (33.2 mi) course. It was not until Wilco Kelderman of the Rabobank team – starting 143rd as opposed to Durbridge starting 19th – had set quicker times at each of the intermediate timing points that Durbridge's time came under threat from another rider, and Kelderman ultimately beat Durbridge's time by twelve seconds, despite almost overshooting the final corner, narrowly avoiding the barriers on the outside of the corner. At the end of the stage, Kelderman stated that his performance came as "a surprise", taking the lead of the young rider classification from Tony Gallopin (RadioShack–Nissan) in the process.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
The first of four Team Sky riders to start within the final twenty-five riders, Chris Froome got within eight seconds of Kelderman's time, but it was not until another of the team's riders, Michael Rogers, that the lead changed hands. Although he trailed at the first intermediate point, Rogers overhauled the time of Kelderman at the finish by fourteen seconds; he held the lead into the final five starters, where it was then taken by the world time trial champion Tony Martin, riding for the Omega Pharma–Quick-Step team.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
Martin bettered the time of Rogers by 37 seconds, but it was not to last as Wiggins was cementing his overall lead. Wiggins made up a deficit of seven seconds to Martin at the first intermediate point, and turned it into a 36-second lead in the space of 22 km (13.7 mi), eventually taking the stage victory by 34 seconds over Martin.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 4
Such was Wiggins' performance, which he later deemed "satisfying", that he was almost catching Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) on the road, despite Evans starting two minutes before Wiggins; Evans ultimately finished the stage in eighth position, 1' 43" down on Wiggins' time. RadioShack–Nissan rider Andy Schleck, another of the overall contenders for the Tour de France along with Evans and Wiggins, lost over ten minutes to Wiggins on the stage after a crash and a puncture.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
The first of three mountainous stages to conclude the Dauphiné, the fifth stage of the race was seen as a precursor to the tenth stage of July's Tour de France, with the majority of the day's route making up the parcours of that stage to be held on 11 July.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
Three categorised climbs were part of the 186.5 km (115.9 mi) parcours of the day, notably the hors catégorie Le Grand Colombier – making its début in the race – with an average gradient of 6.9%, reaching up to an altitude of 1,501 m (4,925 ft), but the summit of the final climb – the Col de Richemond – came with 45.5 km (28.3 mi) remaining of the stage.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
Mini-attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, which was carried out a quick pace, with the peloton covering 48.3 km (30.0 mi) in the first hour of racing. After Ag2r–La Mondiale rider Blel Kadri escaped out of the peloton to take the honours at the first summit of the day, the Côte de Corlier, it was not until the uncategorised Col de la Berche several kilometres later that a group of riders managed to get clear.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
A total of ten riders went clear, and quickly gathered a five-minute lead over the rest of the field. At the foot of Le Grand Colombier, another seven riders formed a chase group on the road ahead of the peloton, which was later reduced to just Christophe Kern (Team Europcar) and Brice Feillu (Saur–Sojasun), after Kern had upped the pace in the group.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
At this point, Kern's team-mate Kévin Reza was dropped from the lead group, and the peloton itself had been slimmed to around fifty riders, with Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) and David Millar (Garmin–Barracuda) – both in the top ten of the general classification overnight – along with Astana's Alexander Vinokourov among those that did not feature within the peloton.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
On the descent from the climb, a group of BMC Racing Team riders including Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Tejay van Garderen broke out from the peloton, in the hope of pulling Evans nearer the overall lead of Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins, following his time loss the previous day in the individual time trial.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
Having caught Kern and Feillu on the road, the group lost ground to the peloton and with Wiggins later joining up with the group, Evans' efforts were in vain; with the group now back together as a whole, their efforts went back to the original break. Kern was part of another six-rider wave that went clear on the descent from the Col de Richemond, with the highest-placed rider being ninth-placed Luis León Sánchez of Rabobank. Team Sky took up station on the front of the main field, not allowing Sánchez to gain too much ground.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 5
The gap peaked out at around the 30-second mark and with nobody looking to help Sánchez with the pace-making in the group, they sat up and allowed to be reabsorbed into the peloton. FDJ–BigMat's Arthur Vichot attacked out of the lead group with around 7 km (4.3 mi) to go, and soloed away from his breakaway companions to take the victory by 26 seconds from the rest of the group. The peloton crossed the line around one minute down on Vichot, with Wiggins maintaining his 38-second overall lead as he was part of that group.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 6
The queen stage of the 2012 Dauphiné, the penultimate stage consisted of six categorised climbs during its 167.5 km (104.1 mi) parcours, the first of which coming after only 11 km (6.8 mi) with the first-category Col de Plainpalais. After a pair of third-category passes, the field tackled another first-category climb, the Col de la Colombière coming with 65 km (40.4 mi) remaining of the stage.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 6
Inside the final 40 km (24.9 mi), the day's two remaining climbs were ascented; the third-category Côte de Châtillon, and the race's second and final hors catégorie climb, with the Col de Joux Plane – reaching an altitude of 1,691 m (5,548 ft) – being the start of the run-in towards Morzine, with the summit of the climb coming with 12 km (7.5 mi) to go of the stage.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 6
Nineteen riders went clear of the peloton almost immediately after the start of the stage; among those riders were the two combatants for the mountains classification, Blel Kadri of Ag2r–La Mondiale and Liquigas–Cannondale's Cayetano Sarmiento. Sarmiento took out maximum points at each of the first two climbs, and thus extended his points advantage that he held over Kadri. With RadioShack–Nissan's Tiago Machado being the best-placed rider of the group at almost six minutes down on overall leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Wiggins' team-mates were leading the peloton around four minutes down on the lead group.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 6
Astana rider Andriy Hryvko, who had been in the top three earlier in the race, then joined the group after attacking out the front of the peloton. Saur–Sojasun's Brice Feillu accelerated out of the lead group on the Côte de Châtillon, and soon picked up a gap of over a minute ahead of his former breakaway companions, while the peloton had fallen a little further away from Feillu, as they were almost four-and-a-half minutes behind on the climb.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 6
FDJ–BigMat rider Anthony Roux attacked out of the peloton, holding station off the front for a period of time but was soon brought back by the peloton, still led by Team Sky with assistance from Jurgen Van den Broeck's Lotto–Belisol outfit. The group was brought back on the Col de Joux Plane, with only Feillu remaining off the front, almost 90 seconds clear. Nairo Quintana of the Movistar Team then attacked out of a diminishing favourites group, later followed by BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 6
Quintana was too far ahead for Evans to catch him back, and eventually achieved his first World Tour victory by sixteen seconds ahead of Evans, with Team Katusha's Daniel Moreno leading a group of eight riders, including Wiggins – and team-mates Michael Rogers and Chris Froome – as well as Van Den Broeck, across the line eight seconds later. With Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Tony Martin being dropped on the stage, Wiggins opened up his lead to 1' 20" over Rogers, with Evans moving into third – taking the points classification lead in the process – ahead of Froome. RadioShack–Nissan's Andy Schleck, one of the favourites for July's Tour de France, abandoned during the stage  citing a knee injury from his time trial crash.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
Although the stage was relatively short at 124.5 km (77.4 mi) in length, the parcours still featured five categorised climbs – of which one was to the finish in Châtel – reaching its highest point with the first-category Col du Corbier. Mini-attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, with the field remaining as a whole for the first hour of racing after the attacks were closed down within minutes.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
It was not until a third of the way through the stage – some 40 km (24.9 mi) in – that a move was allowed to be established on the road, as Team Europcar rider Pierre Rolland, Saur–Sojasun's Jérôme Coppel and Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil–DCM accelerated out of the peloton. They were later joined by five more riders as Omega Pharma–Quick-Step pairing Sylvain Chavanel and Stijn Vandenbergh, Astana's Dmitry Fofonov, Yaroslav Popovych of RadioShack–Nissan and Christophe Le Mével representing the Garmin–Barracuda team provided some assistance to the breakaway move.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
Coppel was the best-placed rider of the octet, as he was in fifteenth place overall overnight around four-and-a-half minutes down on race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky); as such, the breakaway's advantage was not allowed to gather momentum and the gap remained between two and two-and-a-half minutes for the majority of the stage. Team Sky allowed BMC Racing Team to carry out most of the work in the peloton, with Wiggins keeping an eye on their rider Cadel Evans, who had made a late-race attack the previous day and gained time back to Wiggins.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
Coppel, Westra and Rolland, the break initiators, then went clear again on the second-category Côte de la Vernaz, but the peloton were still closing in on them, after chasing down a group that had got clear on the climb. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas–Cannondale) remained off the front, and tried to close down the leaders.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
Rolland and Coppel dropped Westra on the descent from the following Col du Corbier climb, where he was eventually joined by Nibali, but the solo move that he had put in was starting to show as he could not stay with Westra, and was eventually caught by the BMC Racing Team-led peloton with around 10 km (6.2 mi) remaining.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
Westra was caught not long after that as the lead duo's advantage was diminishing by the kilometre, as they held a half-minute lead into the final 8 km (5.0 mi). Argos–Shimano's Alexandre Geniez attacked out of the main group, and caught his two countrymen up the road but the breakaway was not to succeed as they were caught with 2.3 km (1.4 mi) to go.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stages, Stage 7
Team Katusha took the front in the hope of a second stage win for Daniel Moreno, but Fabrice Jeandesboz attacked in the final kilometre for Saur–Sojasun but was closed down by Richie Porte, protecting his team leader Wiggins. Moreno and Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez battled it out for the stage honours, with Moreno edging out his compatriot for the victory. Wiggins crossed the line ten seconds behind the nine-man lead group, but was sufficient enough for a second consecutive Dauphiné title by 1' 17" over team-mate Michael Rogers. Evans later stated that he was beaten by "the better rider", but remained pleased with his performance of third place, a stage victory and the points classification title.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Classification leadership
In the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, the leader received a yellow jersey with a blue bar. This classification was considered the most important of the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Classification leadership
Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a green jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing highly in a stage. For the first three mass-start stages – stages 1, 2 and 3 – the win earned 25 points, second place earned 22 points, third 20, fourth 18, fifth 16, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 20th. For the prologue, individual time trial and final three stages, the win earned 15 points, second place earned 12 points, third 10, fourth 8, fifth 6, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 10th.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Classification leadership
There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a red and white polka-dot jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists. Each climb was categorised as either hors, first, second, third, or fourth-category, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Classification leadership
Hors catégorie climbs awarded the most points, with 20 points on offer for the first rider across the summit; the first ten riders were able to accrue points towards the mountains classification, compared with the first eight on first-category passes and the first six riders on second-category climbs. Fewer points were on offer for the smaller hills, marked as third-category or fourth-category.


2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Classification leadership
The fourth jersey represented the young rider classification, marked by a white jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders born after 1 January 1987 were eligible to be ranked in the classification. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum
A referendum on the EU accession of the Republic of Croatia was held on 22 January 2012. Croatia finished accession (membership) negotiations on 30 June 2011 and signed the Treaty of Accession on 9 December 2011, setting it on course to become the bloc's 28th member state. The Constitution of Croatia requires that a binding referendum be held on any political union reducing national sovereignty, such as via European Union membership. On 23 December 2011 the Croatian Parliament made a preliminary decision on EU accession and determined that the referendum would be held on 22 January 2012. The 2012 Croatian EU accession referendum was the first referendum held in Croatia since the Croatian independence referendum held more than 20 years earlier, in 1991.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum
The Croatian EU accession referendum campaign officially began on 3 January 2012; a yes vote was supported by both the political parties in government and the larger opposition parties in Croatia. The largest parties' joint support of EU membership existed since 2005, when the Alliance for Europe (Croatian: Savez za Europu) was set up as an informal alliance aimed at achieving membership as a strategic goal of Croatian foreign policy. Opposition to Croatian EU accession was voiced by non-parliamentary parties only.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum
The pro-membership and informational campaign – which included television promotional videos, addresses by leading government and opposition politicians, and information booklets mailed to every household in Croatia – was announced to have cost 4.8 million kuna (c. €640,000). Opinion polling was regularly carried out by three different agencies; since May 2011, percentages supporting EU membership ranged between 55% and 63%. The Croatian State Election Committee was in charge of vote organization, ballot counting and result publication.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum
The EU accession referendum passed with 66.27% votes cast in support, 33.13% against the proposed joining of the EU and 0.60% invalid or blank votes; it also passed in all Croatian counties. The greatest support for the referendum was recorded in Međimurje and Brod-Posavina counties, at 75.73% and 72.61% respectively. The lowest support for EU accession was recorded in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, where 42.22% of votes were cast against the proposal. The average official turnout for the referendum was 43.51%; the highest official turnouts were recorded in the city of Zagreb and in Varaždin County at 55.13% and 53.66% respectively. The result was binding on the Croatian Parliament; as a consequence, it ratified the accession treaty on 9 March 2012. The outcome was welcomed by all political parties represented in Croatia's parliament; some right-wing politicians objected to the low turnout and what they consider a loss of independence.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Background
Following the signature of its Stabilisation and Association Agreement in 2001, Croatia applied for European Union (EU) membership in 2003, the European Commission recommended making it an official candidate in early 2004, and the European Council granted candidate country status to Croatia in mid-2004. Accession negotiations, while originally set for March 2005, began in October of that year. Croatia completed the accession negotiations on 30 June 2011; on 9 December 2011 it signed the Treaty of Accession, changing its status from a candidate to an acceding country as it prepared to become the 28th EU member state.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Background
The ratification process by the Parliaments of all 27 current EU member states was expected to be concluded by the end of June 2013, and Croatia's accession to the EU was expected to take place on 1 July 2013. In addition to ratification by the current EU member states, Article 142 of the Constitution of Croatia requires that a binding referendum be held on sovereignty issues such as Croatian EU membership.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Background, Voting issues
The Croatian Parliament tasked the Croatian State Election Committee with referendum voting organization, ballot counting, and result publication. The committee scheduled the referendum vote for 22 January 2012 starting at 07:00 and lasting until 19:00, at regular polling stations in Croatia, in Croatian military units, in Croatian diplomatic missions abroad, on Croatian-flagged vessels and in prisons: 6,750 polling stations in all. For the referendum, all polling stations were grouped in a single district.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Background, Voting issues
Voters traveling abroad were permitted to vote in the Croatian diplomatic missions as with Croatian presidential elections; however, the initial instructions by the Ministry of Public Administration did not allow voters within Croatia who were away from their place of residence to vote in the referendum, nor did it allow absentee ballots. GONG, the Croatian election supervision NGO, requested that the authorities correct this. One restriction was removed by 3 January, when voters were permitted to register to vote in Croatia away from their legal residence. Registration was possible until 7 January, in person, by fax, or by e-mail. When the registration process completed in early January 2012 ahead of the referendum, there were 4,504,686 voters in the voter registry (the same one used in parliamentary and presidential elections).


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Background, Voting issues
The State Election Committee defined the polling stations's appearance and their immediate surroundings up to 50 metres (160 feet) away, prohibiting campaigning and displaying of promotional materials there as with elections in Croatia. Unlike Croatian elections, there is no mandatory halt to campaigning before a referendum. GONG appointed approximately 300 observers to monitor the referendum voting. The Election Committee announced that it would start publishing voting results on its web site two hours after the polling stations in Croatia closed, and it would expect to determine the referendum's outcome by midnight.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Background, Voting issues
If a proposed question was supported by a simple majority of those voting, the proposal would be considered passed and the result binding on the Croatian Parliament pursuant to §87, paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Croatian Constitution. Since the referendum passed, the Croatian Parliament was required to ratify the Croatian EU accession treaty. Amendments (from 2010) to the constitution provide that referendums are valid regardless of actual turnout. If the referendum proposal were to have failed, it could have been repeated in six months or a year. It is estimated that a referendum rejection would have cost Croatia approximately €1.6 billion in lost EU funding until 2014.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
In November 2010, the Croatian Parliament decided to hold the EU accession referendum 30 days after the treaty was signed; since the treaty was signed on 9 December 2011, the referendum was consequently (originally) scheduled for 9 January 2012. In November 2010, the Croatian Government proposed to hold the EU accession referendum simultaneously with another referendum aimed at altering general referendum rules.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
Days after the 2011 parliamentary elections in early December 2011, it was suggested by Vesna Pusić – already recognized as the future Minister of Foreign and European Affairs – that the referendum should be postponed until March 2012 to allow better preparation for the poll. The suggestion was soon followed by a similar request made by GONG that the referendum be postponed until mid-February or later; its request was also supported by five major trade unions.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
GONG's request was made because of what they stated to be: poor information provided to citizens; undefined procedures for voter registration away from a voter's permanent residence; unclear directions for voting abroad; no legal provisions specifically defining the composition of ballot counting commissions; no provisions for referendum vote monitoring by partisan, non-partisan and foreign monitors; no legal provisions regarding referendum funding (since the 2011 state budget did not appropriate any funds to cover referendum expenses); no legal provisions funding the pro-referendum campaign or allowing the campaign itself; and the lack of restrictions against campaigning on the day of the referendum.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
The union support for this request was due to the government's ultimately not putting forward the other referendum (altering the conditions for referendums from citizens by changing the number of petitioners required and the time allowed to gather their signatures), which they had earlier agreed to do. Another request to postpone the election was made by more than a thousand signatories of a petition to the government, demanding that the referendum be postponed until after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) returned the final verdict in the case against generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač. They cited concerns over EU support for the ICTY, which they describe as biased; they therefore questioned if the EU favoured some nations over others.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
On 23 December 2011, the Croatian Parliament made a preliminary decision on EU membership and determined that the EU accession referendum would be held on 22 January 2012. Furthermore, no other referendum question would be presented at that time. The preliminary accession decision was supported by 129 MPs, with the 6 Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) MPs abstaining. During the debate that preceded the vote, the HDSSB MPs requested that the EU accession referendum be postponed for three to six months in order to allow a broader discussion on EU accession.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
Their specific concern was that Croatia might lose elements of its statehood and sovereignty, and the postponement was requested to present to the voters the effects of the Treaty of Lisbon on Croatia before the referendum was held. The parliamentary decision to hold the referendum on 22 January 2012 was supported by 124 MPs, with 6 HDSSB MPs and 6 Croatian Labourists – Labour Party MPs voting against the decision. The Labour party advocated postponing the referendum until 12 February in order to give more time to provide information on the consequences of EU membership.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Date
The referendum question was announced by the newly elected Prime Minister designate Zoran Milanović as "simple and bare": "Are you for the membership of the Republic of Croatia in the European Union?" The 2012 Croatian EU accession referendum was the first referendum held in Croatia since the Croatian independence referendum in 1991.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Campaign
The Croatian EU accession referendum campaign officially started on 3 January 2012, with a declaration that it was aimed at providing to Croatian citizens clear, concise and transparent information on the EU accession negotiations and EU membership. The campaign included television promotions and addresses by leading politicians such as: the President of Croatia, Ivo Josipović; the prime minister, Zoran Milanović; the foreign minister, Vesna Pusić; other government members, such as Milanka Opačić, Radimir Čačić, Neven Mimica and Željko Jovanović; and former prime minister and opposition leader Jadranka Kosor. (All of these supported the referendum in their addresses.)


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Campaign
A telephone information hotline was also set up, and 2.15 million EU information booklets were prepared for mailing to every household in the country. Finally, summaries of the accession treaty, negotiation documents and governmental report on the EU accession negotiations were published online, as were the original documents. It was announced that the campaign cost 4.8 million kuna (c. €640,000).


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Campaign
The leading parliamentary political parties in Croatia have jointly supported EU accession since 2005, when a group called the Alliance for Europe (Croatian: Savez za Europu) was set up as an informal alliance aimed at achieving EU membership as a strategic goal of Croatian foreign policy. Opposition to the referendum was voiced by the Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević, a political party holding a single seat in the Croatian Parliament, claiming too little information provided to the voters, rather than the party being eurosceptic. Further opposition was voiced by several non-parliamentary parties.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Campaign
The most substantial opposition to the accession came from the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), which demanded that the government fund its television campaign against EU membership. HSP also printed leaflets advocating rejecting EU accession. The party also organized other activities at 150 locations in the country aimed at the referendum proposal's rejection. During the 2011 parliamentary election campaign, HSP declared itself as the only party advocating rejection of Croatian EU accession; it failed to win a single seat, receiving 3% of the votes. Further opposition to the Croatian EU membership came from a group of non-parliamentary political parties organized as the Alliance for Croatia (Croatian: Savez za Hrvatsku) claiming that the move jeopardizes Croatian independence, but the alliance's December 2011 protest in Zagreb drew only 150 people.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Campaign
The government's campaign was criticized as having poor promotional videos, especially lacking in informational value. The final days of the campaign were marked by events in support of and opposition to joining the EU, as the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs set up an EU information event in Zagreb, while a protest against EU accession at the main city square drew 200 (some arrests occurred). The Croatian Bishops' Conference called on citizens to vote in the referendum, reminding Croatians that Croatia is a part of European culture while refraining from directly advocating either position.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Campaign
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts also supported joining the EU with 93 academicians in favour, 2 against and 1 abstention; they said that the event represents a great opportunity for Croatia. In contrast to EU accession opponents' request to postpone the referendum until Generals Gotovina and Markač were released by the ICTY, Gotovina himself urged citizens of Croatia to vote in the referendum and said that he would vote in favour of joining the EU.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Opinion polls
Opinion polling regarding Croatian EU membership was regularly carried out by the CRO Demoskop, Ipsos Puls and Mediana Fides agencies. Since 2008, these polls overall indicated support for Croatian EU membership; in May 2011 and after, support ranged between 55% and 63%. The highest support since 2008 was 64% in the first half of November 2010. The lowest level of EU membership support (between 23% and 38%) was reported on 15–16 April 2011 in the wake of the ICTY's guilty verdict for Generals Gotovina and Markač.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Opinion polls
In early January 2012, an NGO advocating voting against the referendum called the "Council for Croatia – NO TO EU" (Croatian: Vijeće za Hrvatsku – NE U EU) reported that they had contracted a Canadian company (one unknown to the Croatian public) called the "Business Knowledge Corporation" to conduct their own poll on the issue; they stated that with 1,942 polled, 57.2% were against the referendum while 41% declined to answer the poll question. The NGO said that the apparent gross disparity between these results and the results of all other recent polls was due to government manipulation.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results
The EU accession referendum passed with 66.27% of votes cast in support and 33.13% against EU membership for Croatia. There were 0.6% blank or invalid votes. Even though all Croatian citizens were voting in a single constituency for the referendum's purposes, the State Election Committee published the results by individual counties, cities, and municipalities. The referendum passed in all Croatian counties. The greatest support for the referendum was recorded in Međimurje and Brod-Posavina counties at 75.73% and 72.61% respectively. The lowest support for the EU accession was recorded in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, where 42.22% votes were cast against the proposal.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results
The Croatian diaspora voted 83.13% in support. Only 18 out of 556 cities or municipalities in Croatia voted against the referendum proposal. Of those, six are in Split-Dalmatia County, four in Koprivnica-Križevci County, two in Zagreb and Dubrovnik-Neretva counties each, and a single municipality in Istria, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Šibenik-Knin and Zadar counties each.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results
The average turnout at the referendum was 43.51%. The figure includes the voters living abroad, whose turnout was only 3.51%; they comprise more than 9% of the total Croatian electorate. The highest turnouts were recorded in the city of Zagreb and in Varaždin County, at 55.13% and 53.66% respectively, while the lowest turnout in Croatia was recorded in Lika-Senj County at just 34.52%. There is no turnout threshold for a referendum to be legally valid.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results
The low turnout was attributed in part to poor voter registry maintenance. The registry allegedly contains up to 900,000 nonexistent voters due to poor database maintenance, especially in updating the registry using death certificates and change of residence records. This allegation was supported by the 2011 census. The poor voter records were subsequently cited as the cause of the low formal turnout, which would otherwise have exceeded 50%. It was later estimated that the actual turnout in Croatia itself, without the diaspora, was 61%.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results, Reactions, Domestic
After the result's announcement, President Josipović commented that the day was of great significance to Croatia, defining the nation as one with a European future. Prime Minister Milanović welcomed the decision as historic and as the first such decision made by Croatians alone; he also said that the referendum represented a turning point for Croatia. Croatian Parliament Speaker Boris Šprem said that a new chapter of Croatian history and better fortune for the nation was dawning. The Croatian Minister of the Economy, Radimir Čačić, concluded that Croatia's credit rating would have been downgraded if the referendum had not passed.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results, Reactions, Domestic
He also stated that, since the referendum passed, it was a good opportunity to upgrade the rating. Minister of Finance Slavko Linić stated that he was pleased with the result, but not with the voter turnout. He disagreed with Čačić that the credit rating could be saved by this result, since everybody had already counted on Croatian entry to the EU. Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić commented that the result was good news for Europe, which faced internal problems.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results, Reactions, Domestic
Former Speaker Vladimir Šeks said that the low turnout was caused by external factors – the debt crisis in Europe and a loss of confidence in Croatian political parties and institutions. Luka Bebić, also a former speaker of the Parliament, added that it was good that Croats had voted to join the EU. Former Croatian foreign minister Gordan Jandroković commented that the result is especially important for the nation's youth, and former Croatian President Stjepan Mesić stated that Croatia should be competitive and use EU funds, adding that it is not enough to be happy with entering the EU. He also commented on claims that joining the EU was tantamount to entering a new Yugoslavia, saying that "only idiots think that Yugoslavia should be renewed".


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results, Reactions, Domestic
On the other side, the HSP president Daniel Srb argued that the referendum was illegitimate since 71% of Croatian voters had not taken part in the referendum or had voted against the entry of Croatia into the EU, and warned that only 28% of Croatian voters had supported joining the EU. Srb also added that Croatian citizens had shown distrust of the Croatian Government. Željko Sačić, a right-wing politician, stated that the government destroyed the concept of Croatian citizens and created an impression that Croatia was unable to govern itself.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Results, Reactions, Domestic
Sačić stated that the government had brought Croatia into a decaying organization in an illegitimate way, adding that the referendum result was a defeat of Croatian independence and they would challenge its validity in court. By the 3 March 2012 deadline, the Constitutional Court of Croatia received 22 appeals challenging the referendum's legality; it ruled against them all.


2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum, Aftermath
Pursuant to the referendum's outcome, the Croatian parliament ratified the accession treaty unanimously (with 136 votes in favour) on 9 March 2012.


2012 Croatian Football Cup Final
The 2012 Croatian Cup Final was a two-legged affair played between Dinamo Zagreb and Osijek. The first leg was played in Osijek on 2 May 2012, while the second leg on 9 May 2012 in Zagreb.


2012 Croatian Football Cup Final
Dinamo Zagreb won the trophy with an aggregate result of 3–1.


2012 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season
The 2012 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season is the 46th in the club's history. Coached by Shane Flanagan and captained by Paul Gallen, they competed in the NRL's 2012 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season 7th (out of 16). The Sharks were then knocked out of contention in their first game of the finals against the Canberra Raiders.


2012 Cross River State gubernatorial election
The 2012 Cross River State gubernatorial election occurred in Nigeria on February 25, 2012. The PDP nominee Liyel Imoke won the election, defeating Usani Uguru Usani of the ACN.


2012 Cross River State gubernatorial election
Liyel Imoke emerged PDP candidate candidate. He picked Efiok Cobham as his running mate. Usani Uguru Usani was the ACN candidate.


2012 Cross River State gubernatorial election, Electoral system
The Governor of Cross River State is elected using the plurality voting system.


2012 Cross River State gubernatorial election, Primary election, PDP primary
The PDP primary election was held on January 23, 2012. Liyel Imoke emerged PDP flag bearer after polling 737 votes and defeating his closest rival, former Nigerian Ambassador to Mali and former PDP state chairman, Soni Abang who scored 3. He picked Efiok Cobham as his running mate.


2012 Cross River State gubernatorial election, Primary election, ACN primary
The ACN primary election was held in February 6, 2012. Usani Uguru Usani emerged the party's flag bearer after defeating his closest rival, Mike Ogar.


2012 CrossFit Games
The 2012 CrossFit Games were the sixth edition of the CrossFit Games, held on July 11–15, 2012, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, with some events taking place at Camp Pendleton. The men's competition was won by Rich Froning Jr., the women's by Annie Thorisdottir, and the Affiliate Cup by Hacks Pack UTE. Both Froning and Thorisdottir were repeat champions from the previous year.


2012 CrossFit Games
The number of participants increased to 69,000 for this year's Open. In this season, the special invites to previous champions were removed and they all had to qualify through the Regionals. At the Games, 15 events took place over four days, the most yet for a Games.


2012 CrossFit Games, Qualification
in this season, 69,000 athletes registered to compete in the Open. The Open took place over five weeks (reduced from six in 2011) from February 22 to March 25, 2012, during which a workout was release every week for the athletes to perform, and athletes can then submit their results for each of the 5 workouts before the deadline every week. Cash prizes started to be offered to participants selected for the Spirit of the Open award, as well as individual winners in the Open from this year onward.


2012 CrossFit Games, Qualification
From the Open, 60 men, 60 women and 30 teams of each region with the best results proceeded to compete in 17 Regionals that took place from April 27 to May 27. Previous champions also had to compete in the Regionals, but extra qualification places were provided for regions where the champions competed. Athletes competed in 6 events in the Regionals – after five events, the field was cut to 18 in each Regional.


2012 CrossFit Games, Qualification
Both the Open and Regionals used a point system different from the Games: points were awarded according to the position (1 point for first place, etc. ), those with the lowest total points would qualify for the next stage. 91 athletes, 46 men and 45 women, went on to compete in the Games.


2012 CrossFit Games, Individuals
The first three event were held at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, which were unexpected additions, taking place as they did two days before athletes had expected the Games to start. A rest day was introduced after the events at Camp Pendleton before competition resumed at the Home Depot Center in Carson.


2012 CrossFit Games, Individuals
The scoring system was the same as for 2011, with all events scoring 100 points for the winner apart a few events: the Broad Jump, Ball Toss, and Sprint events were scored 50 points. The number of athletes was cut to 36 after the Clean Ladder event, 24 after the Chipper, 18 after the Double-banger, 15 after Elizabeth, 12 after Isabel.


2012 CrossFit Games, Team events
The scoring system for the team events was the same as for 2011, where the Friday and Saturday events were regarded as qualifiers, and the scores were wiped clean for the final events on Sunday. Six teams competed in the same final events ("The Girls") as 2011, with the winners crowned the team champions. Unlike previous Games, all six members are required to compete in every events.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Athletes including Ben Smith waiting to start the ocean swim


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Ruth Anderson-Horrell (l) and Christy Phillips Adkins (r) sprint to the finish line of the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games event  2.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Daniel Tyminski stops to catch his breath after crossing the finish line of event 2.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Matt Chan stops to catch his breath after crossing the finish line of event 2.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Aja Barto celebrates as he crosses the finish line event 2.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Matthew Lefave flips over an obstacle course bar during event 3.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Jasmine Dever hurdles over a set of wooden logs during event 3.


2012 CrossFit Games, Day 1 pictures
Kristan Clever smiles after a 2nd-place finish of the women's obstacle course final elimination heat.


2012 Croydon North by-election
The Croydon North by-election was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Croydon North in the London Borough of Croydon. The by-election was caused by the death of its Member of Parliament Malcolm Wicks. It took place on Thursday, 29 November, the same day as by-elections in Middlesbrough and Rotherham. The by-election was won by Steve Reed of the Labour Party.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Boundaries
The constituency covers the north west of the London Borough of Croydon and includes Thornton Heath, Norbury, Selhurst and parts of South and Upper Norwood. It is made up of eight electoral wards from the borough:


2012 Croydon North by-election, Boundaries
Croydon's three constituencies are contiguous with the boundaries of the London Borough of Croydon. Croydon North borders the seats of Carshalton and Wallington, Mitcham and Morden, Streatham, Dulwich and West Norwood, Lewisham West and Penge, Beckenham, Croydon Central, and Croydon South.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
Croydon Borough Council released the statement of persons nominated on 14 November. This confirmed 12 candidates will contest the election. The electorate is said to be around 104,000


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
On 3 November 2012, former children's book publisher and current Leader of London Borough of Lambeth Council, Councillor Steve Reed was chosen to be the Labour candidate after a closely fought battle with London Assembly member Val Shawcross.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
Charity worker and social entrepreneur Andrew Stranack, who has cerebral palsy, is the Conservative party candidate.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
On 17 October 2012, IT professional and former London Borough of Islington Councillor Marisha Ray was selected as the prospective Liberal Democrats candidate.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
On 25 October, the Green Party chose local campaigner Shasha Khan, dubbed by local reporters as 'Croydon's Green Knight'


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
Winston McKenzie, a perennial election candidate who was the UKIP candidate in Tottenham, an independent candidate at the 2003 Brent East by-election, Veritas Party nominee at Croydon North in 2005 and independent candidate for London Mayor has been chosen as the prospective candidate for the UK Independence Party.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
On 29 October, the Chair of the London Race and Criminal Justice Consortium and a former Senior Policy Advisor to the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Lee Jasper, was selected as the candidate for the Respect Party.


2012 Croydon North by-election, Result
On 17 October, The National Front confirmed their prospective candidate to be the former British National Party Deputy Chairman and engineer Richard Edmonds.


2012 Cruzeiro Esporte Clube season
The 2012 season was Cruzeiro's 42nd consecutive season in the top flight of Brazilian football, playing in every edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro's first division. The team finished in 9th the league, reached the Round of 16 of the Copa do Brasil and the semifinals of the Campeonato Mineiro.


2012 Cruzeiro Esporte Clube season, Team kits
The team kits for the 2012 season are produced by Olympikus and sponsored by Banco BMG and Guaramix.


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad
The 2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 45th edition of the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad, and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 Series of the 2012 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Roy Emerson Arena in Gstaad, Switzerland, from 16 July through 22 July 2012.


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad, Singles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad, Singles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following players received entry as a special exempt into the singles main draw:


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad, Doubles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following pairs received wildcards into the doubles main draw:


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad – Doubles
František Čermák and Filip Polášek were the defending champions but decided not to participate. Marcel Granollers and Marc López won the title by beating Robert Farah and Santiago Giraldo 6–4, 7–6 in the final.


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad – Singles
Marcel Granollers was the defending champion, but lost to Łukasz Kubot in the second round. Thomaz Bellucci won the tournament by defeating Janko Tipsarević 6–7(6–8), 6–4, 6–2 in the final.


2012 Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad – Singles, Seeds
The top four seeds receive a bye into the second round.


2012 Cultural Olympiad
The 2012 Cultural Olympiad was a programme of cultural events across the United Kingdom that accompanied the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics.


2012 Cultural Olympiad
The Olympic Charter, the set of rules and guidelines for the organization of the Olympic Games and for governing the Olympic Movement states that


2012 Cultural Olympiad
"The LOCOG shall organise a programme of cultural events which must cover at least the entire period during which the Olympic Village is open."


2012 Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival
The London Olympic Games' Cultural Olympiad included 500 events nationwide throughout the UK, spread over four years and culminating in the London 2012 Festival. The cost of the events was over £97 million with funding provided by Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival
Those involved in the festival, which ran from 21 June to 9 September 2012, included Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, director Mike Leigh, musician Damon Albarn, artists David Hockney, Lucian Freud, Rachel Whiteread, and writer Toni Morrison.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival
Twelve British artists were commissioned to design posters for the games: Martin Creed, Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Bob and Roberta Smith, Anthea Hamilton, Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris and Howard Hodgkin.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival
The Cultural Olympiad comprised a number of programs including: Artists Taking the Lead, Discovering Places, Film Nation: Shorts, New Music 20x12, Stories of the World, World Shakespeare Festival. Many of these involved public participation, for example Discovering Places encouraged people to explore their local environment and identify 2012 species, Film Nation was aimed at young people making short films, and Stories of the World involved young people working with 50 museums across the UK.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival
The Bandstand Marathon on 9 September 2012 was the closing event of the London 2012 Festival, and saw live music events take place at over 200 locations across the U.K. Participating bands were invited by Coldplay to perform their 2008 single "Viva La Vida" simultaneously at 2.00pm to celebrate the end of the games.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Artists taking the lead
Artists taking the lead consisted of twelve major Arts Council funded public art projects one for each of 12 UK regions. Each project received £500,000 funding.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Paralympic Cultural Festival – Unlimited
Alongside the 2012 Summer Paralympics, the Paralympic Cultural Festival (or Unlimited Festival) brought hundreds of deaf and disabled artists together, and Unlimited featured 29 new commissions, including artist Sue Austin's film documenting her performances in a self-propelled underwater wheelchair, and Paul Cummins' 'English Flower Garden'. Ticketed events were held at the Southbank Centre, as part of the London 2012 Festival, featuring the debut performance from the Paraorchestra.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Paralympic Cultural Festival – Unlimited
The place widely regarded as an inspiration for the modern Olympic games, Much Wenlock, also featured with a May Day event called M21: From the Medieval to the 21st Century in collaboration with DASH (Disability Arts in Shropshire); artists included Simon McKeown.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Paralympic Cultural Festival – Unlimited
The Unlimited commissions drew much mass-media and popular attention, as did the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony called Enlightenment, featuring Stephen Hawking.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, New Music 20x12
New musical works commissioned from 20 composers performed around the UK and at the Southbank Centre, London. Artists included Howard Skempton, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Irene Taylor, Luke Carver Goss, Joe Cutler, Graham Fitkin, Mark Prescott, David Bruce, Aidan O'Rourke, Emily Howard, Conor Mitchell, Sheema Mukherjee, Michael Wolters; Oliver Searle, Aaron Cassidy, EXAUDI and Richard Causton.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, World Shakespeare Festival
Most of the programming was part of a strand titled the World Shakespeare Festival, which included translations, adaptations, and re-workings of Shakespeare's plays. Programming themed around the plays of William Shakespeare was a major part of the London 2012 Festival. It was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and sponsored by the Arts Council, BP and Lottery with about 60 participating organisations including the BBC, British Museum, National Theatre, the Barbican Centre, the Almeida Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe. This festival began on 23 April 2012 and finished in November 2012.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, World Shakespeare Festival
It included approximately 70 productions related to Shakespeare's plays, over half of which were performed in a language other than English (particularly those which formed part of the Globe to Globe Festival at Shakespeare's Globe). Shakespeare also featured in the BBC's 'Shakespeare Unlocked' 2012 season (particularly The Hollow Crown and in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. The World Shakespeare Festival also included the Worlds Together Conference, an international interdisciplinary conference exploring the role of Shakespeare and arts learning in young people's lives.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, World Shakespeare Festival
At the grass roots and with the support of the performers' union, Equity, many events occurred around the country, not least the première of a new play entitled Shakespeare's Queen Elizabeth the Second, which was also performed in Stratford-upon-Avon and open air celebration of Shakespeare in, literally, John O'Groats and many locations south. Equity-backed events also occurred in London, for young people and school children, every two months from 2010–2012.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Poetry Parnassus
Poetry Parnassus was a week-long series of events at the Southbank Centre at the end of June, featuring poets from around the world in what has been described as "the biggest gathering of poets in world history", with one poet representing each of the 204 competing Olympic nations. Led by artist-in-residence Simon Armitage, it was a festival of readings, performance, and debate that attracted an audience of more than 13,000 people. The opening ceremony for the event included a Rain of Poems where 100,000 English translations of the 204 poets' poems were dropped from a helicopter.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Tales from the Bridge
Tales from the Bridge was a vast poetry soundscape (among the largest ever created) commissioned by the Mayor of London for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The project was "installed for eight weeks along the entire length of the Millennium Bridge and experienced by an estimated four million people". Collaborators for the project included Martyn Ware (The Human League) and Eric Whitacre, whose composition prefaces the piece.


2012 Cultural Olympiad, Tales from the Bridge
The flowing narrative of the main section drew on "the fascinating history of the Thames and the people, stories, life and times on both banks of the river", providing "a contemplative auditory platform that links the City of London in the north with the Southbank and vice versa". Composed as a complex overlapping hybrid prose poem, and performed using subtle sonic textures and multiple interleaving voices, the text was conceived, written and vocally choreographed by Mario Petrucci. The project was shortlisted for the 2012 Ted Hughes Award.


2012 Cup of China
The 2012 Cup of China was the third event of six in the 2012–13 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on November 2–4. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Skaters earned points toward qualifying for the 2012–13 Grand Prix Final.


2012 Cup of China, Eligibility
Skaters who reached the age of 14 by July 1, 2012 were eligible to compete on the senior Grand Prix circuit.


2012 Cup of China, Eligibility
Prior to competing in a Grand Prix event, skaters were required to have earned the following scores (3/5 of the top scores at the 2012 World Championships):


2012 Cup of China, Overview
Carolina Kostner withdrew from the ladies' event due to insufficient fitness. Due to the 2012 China anti-Japanese demonstrations, the Japan Skating Federation said it would withdraw its competitors if the organizers did not provide security guarantees. Japan's pair Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran withdrew in order to undergo surgery. Satisfied with the security situation, the other Japanese skaters traveled to the event.


2012 Cup of China, Overview
Although eight spots were available in the pairs event, only six teams competed due to withdrawals before the start of the competition. China's home team of Pang Qing / Tong Jian won the short program, followed by Russia's Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov and Canada's Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch. In the free skate, Pang / Tong maintained their lead to win gold while Kavaguti / Smirnov took the silver and fellow Russian pair Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov rose from fifth to win the bronze, their first senior Grand Prix medal.


2012 Cup of China, Overview
In the ice dancing event, World bronze medalists Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat of France won the short dance ahead of Canada's Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje and Russia's Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev. Pechalat / Bourzat maintained their lead in the free dance and took their third GP gold by over ten points over Bobrova / Soloviev, with Weaver / Poje 0.49 points behind in third.


2012 Cup of China, Overview
In the ladies' event, World Junior champion Yulia Lipnitskaya of Russia won the short program ahead of two-time World Champion Mao Asada of Japan. Asada won the title after placing first in the free skate ahead of Lipnitskaia, whose silver was her first senior Grand Prix medal, while Finland's Kiira Korpi won the bronze. China's Geng Bingwa withdrew after the short program due to a sprained ankle.


2012 Cup of China, Overview
In the men's event, Japan's Daisuke Takahashi won the short program over countryman Tatsuki Machida, with Russia's Sergei Voronov in third. Machida upset former World champion Takahashi to win his first senior Grand Prix title. Takahashi settled for silver, with Russia's Sergei Voronov winning the bronze, his first Grand Prix medal since 2010. Although ten spots were available in the men's event, the field was reduced to nine before the start of the competition and finished with seven due to withdrawals after the short program.


2012 Cup of China, Overview
China's Song Nan withdrew after sustaining a concussion in a collision with American Adam Rippon a minute into the final warm up before the free skate. Rippon said, "I kind of turned around to go into a jump and I think when Nan Song and I saw each other we both tried to avoid each other, but we went in the same way and we went head first into each other." Song was kept in the hospital overnight for observation. France's Brian Joubert withdrew due to abdominal pain and fever – his coach said he had passed out three times on the flight to China.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union)
The 2012 Emirates Cup of Nations is the second Cup of Nations tournament to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates and will be again held at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai. This tournament acts as a year ending tournament for tier 3 teams from different continents and provides greater preparation for teams to play in their regional competitions.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union)
The tournament is a joint initiative of the UAE Rugby Federation and the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union)
The four competing teams are hosts UAE, 2012 Asian Five Nations runners up Hong Kong, 2012 Africa Cup champions Zimbabwe and 2010-2012 European Nations Cup Division 1B champions Belgium.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union)
Zimbabwe will send a weakened squad to the tournament, due to the clash with the 2012 South Africa Sevens, for which Zimbabwe has qualified.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union)
An earlier draw for the event  had six teams playing, with Papua New Guinea and Mexico playing alongside the four competing nations. However, both teams withdrew due to financial problems.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union)
Belgium won the tournament, defeating defending champions Hong Kong on the third and final match day, 24-12. Hong Kong were runners up, with Zimbabwe taking third place, defeating United Arab Emirates.


2012 Cup of Nations (rugby union), Format
The tournament is being played as a single round-robin, with the winner being the leading team after the third round of fixtures. The points for the tournament were awarded for:Win =  4 pointsDraw = 2 pointsLoss = 1 pointScoring 4 or more tries in one game = 1 bonus pointLosing by 7 or less points = 1 bonus point


2012 Cupa României Final
The Cupa României Final was the final match of the 2011–12 Cupa României, played between Rapid București and Dinamo București. The match was played on 23 May 2012 at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. Dinamo won the match 1–0, triumphing for the 13th time in this competition while Rapid lost its 6th final.


2012 Cupa României Final
It was the first final played on the new Arena Națională and the first in Bucharest since 2006. Adrian Scarlatache scored the only goal of the match in the 58th minute while Djakaridja Koné was named Man of the Match. Winners Dinamo faced Romanian Champions CFR Cluj, on the same stadium on 17 July in the Romanian Supercup.


2012 Curaçao general election
General elections were held in Curaçao on 19 October 2012. Early elections for the Curaçao island council were necessary as the Cabinet-Schotte lost its majority in the Estates of Curaçao. The elections were the first of the Curaçao after obtaining the status of country (Dutch: land) within the Kingdom of the Netherlands upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010. The election saw six parties obtain one or more of the 21 seats, with Sovereign People and  Movement for the Future of Curaçao both winning five.


2012 Curaçao general election, Background
The Schotte-cabinet relied on a majority of 11 out of 21 seats in the Estates (the parties Movementu Futuro Korsou (MFK), Pueblo Soberano (PS) and Movishon Antia Nobo (MAN)). When Eugene Cleopa (MAN) and MFK parliamentary leader Dean Rozier decided to leave their fraction, and to stay in the Estates as an individual party, the Cabinet lost its majority. The move of Cleopa and Rozier was a result of problematic relationship with the Netherlands and charges of corruption and nepotism of the Scholte government.


2012 Curaçao general election, Primary elections
All prospective parties that had no seats in the Estates prior to the election, needed in order to qualify for participation in the elections to obtain 743 support votes: 1% of the number of valid votes during the 2010 elections. The vote took place on 8 and 9 September 2012 amongst the parties.


2012 Curaçao general election, Primary elections
Eight parties qualified to participated in the elections: Pueblo Soberano (PS), Partido Democraat (DP), Partido Alternativa Real (PAR), Partido MAN, Partido Nashonal di Pueblo (PNP), Frente Obrero Liberashon 30 di mei (FOL), Movementu Futuro Kòrsou (MFK) and Partido pa Adelanto i Inovashon Soshal (PAIS). The lists of these parties were approved by the Hoofdkiesraad. (English: main election council)


2012 Curaçao general election, Opinion polls
In August and September 2012, opinion polls were conducted among the potential voters indicating they would vote and who already had decided what to vote.


2012 Curaçao general election, Results
116,857 people were eligible to vote by satisfying 3 main criteria residents of Curaçao of at least 18 years of age with Dutch citizenship. The elections were supervised by observers from Aruba, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic. The final result is:


2012 Curaçao general election, Aftermath
Based on these results, PS, MFK and MAN (the 2010 coalition parties) had a majority in the estates, and decided to form a government. The parties signed a declaration to that effect (termed the Zeelandia declaration), while acting governor Adele van der Pluijm-Vrede appointed Glenn Camelia as "informateur" to advise her on a suitable majority government. MFK pulled out of negotiations on 28 October, stating unfavorable comments of PS-leader Wiels on radio as the cause. A majority was formed based on PS, PAIS, PNP and Glenn Sulvaran (who had left PAR to become an independent member of parliament), which formed an interim cabinet led by Daniel Hodge.


2012 Curaçao general election, Aftermath
The interim cabinet was succeeded by the cabinet-Asjes on 7 June 2013.


2012 Curl Atlantic Championship
The 2012 Curl Atlantic Championship was held from September 14 to 17 at the Tantramar Civic Centre in Sackville, New Brunswick. This was the second time the event was held, and is designed to give top Atlantic curling teams the opportunity to play on arena ice. The winning teams of Eddie MacKenzie and Stacie Devereaux each took home CAD$3,000.


2012 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic
The 2012 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic was held from October 5 to 8 at the Calgary Curling Club in Calgary, Alberta as part of the 2012–13 World Curling Tour. It was the first women's Grand Slam event of the 2012–13 curling season, and this edition marked the twenty-seventh time the tournament has been held. The event was held in a 32-team triple-knockout event, and the purse for the event was CAD$54,000. In the final, Sherry Middaugh defeated Rachel Homan with a score of 8–4.


2012 Curling Masters Champéry
The 2012 Curling Masters Champéry were held from October 26 to 28 at the Palladium de Champéry in Champéry, Switzerland as part of the 2012–13 World Curling Tour. The event was held in a round robin format, and the purse for the event was 40,000 CHF. Marcus Hasselborg defeated Peter de Cruz in the final with a score of 5–4.


2012 Currie Cup First Division
The 2012 Currie Cup First Division was contested from 30 June to 13 October 2012. The tournament (also known as the Absa Currie Cup First Division for sponsorship reasons) is the second tier of South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces.


2012 Currie Cup First Division, Competition, Regular season and title play offs
There were 8 participating teams in the 2012 Currie Cup First Division. These teams played each other twice over the course of the season, once at home and once away.


2012 Currie Cup First Division, Competition, Regular season and title play offs
Teams received four points for a win and two points for a draw. Bonus points were awarded to teams that scored 4 or more tries in a game, as well as to teams losing a match by 7 points or less. Teams were ranked by points, then points difference (points scored less points conceded).


2012 Currie Cup First Division, Competition, Regular season and title play offs
The top 4 teams qualified for the title play-offs. In the semi-finals, the team that finished first had home advantage against the team that finished fourth, while the team that finished second had home advantage against the team that finished third. The winners of these semi-finals played each other in the final, at the home venue of the higher-placed team.


2012 Currie Cup First Division, Competition, Promotion play offs
The top team on the log will also qualify for the promotion/relegation play-offs. That team will play off against the team placed sixth in the 2012 Currie Cup Premier Division over two legs. The winner over these two ties (determined via team tables, with all Currie Cup ranking regulations in effect) will qualify for the 2013 Currie Cup Premier Division, while the losing team will qualify for the 2013 Currie Cup First Division.


2012 Currie Cup First Division, Players, Squad Lists
The following players took part in the 2012 Currie Cup First Division.


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division
The 2012 Currie Cup Premier Division was the 74th season in the competition since it started in 1889 and was contested from 11 August to 27 October 2012. The tournament (known as the Absa Currie Cup Premier Division for sponsorship reasons) is the top tier of South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition.


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division, Competition, Regular season and title play offs
There were 6 participating teams in the 2012 Currie Cup Premier Division. These teams played each other twice over the course of the season, once at home and once away.


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division, Competition, Regular season and title play offs
Teams received four points for a win and two points for a draw. Bonus points were awarded to teams that scored 4 or more tries in a game, as well as to teams losing a match by 7 points or less. Teams were to be ranked by points, then points difference (points scored less points conceded).


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division, Competition, Regular season and title play offs
The top 4 teams qualified for the title play-offs. In the semi-finals, the team that finish first will have home advantage against the team that finished fourth, while the team that finished second will have home advantage against the team that finished third. The winners of these semi-finals will play each other in the final, at the home venue of the higher-placed team.


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division, Competition, Relegation play offs
The bottom team on the log will also qualify for the promotion/relegation play-offs. That team will play off against the team placed first in the 2012 Currie Cup First Division over two legs. The winner over these two ties (determined via team tables, with all Currie Cup ranking regulations in effect) will qualify for the 2013 Currie Cup Premier Division, while the losing team will qualify for the 2013 Currie Cup First Division.


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division, Players, Squad Lists
The following players took part in the 2012 Currie Cup Premier Division.


2012 Currie Cup Premier Division, Players, Player Statistics, Leading point scorers
Source: South African Rugby Union Correct as at 6 October 2012


2012 Curtis Cup
The 37th Curtis Cup Match was played from 8 to 10 June 2012 at Nairn Golf Club in Nairn, Scotland. Great Britain and Ireland won 101⁄2 to 91⁄2.


2012 Curtis Cup, Format
The contest was a three-day competition, with three foursomes and three fourball matches on each of the first two days, and eight singles matches on the final day, a total of 20 points.


2012 Curtis Cup, Format
Each of the 20 matches is worth one point in the larger team competition. If a match is all square after the 18th hole extra holes are not played. Rather, each side earns 1⁄2 a point toward their team total. The team that accumulates at least 101⁄2 points wins the competition. In the event of a tie, the current holder retains the Cup.


2012 Curtis Cup, Teams
Eight players for the Great Britain & Ireland and USA participated in the event plus one non-playing captain for each team.


2012 Curtis Cup, Teams
The Great Britain & Ireland team was selected by the Selection Panel of the LGU in March 2012.


2012 Curtis Cup, Teams
Five of the American team were selected in December 2011 (Anderson, Duncan, Ernst, Lua and Pancake). The remaining three members of the team (McCloskey, Popson and Tubert) were announced in January 2012.


2012 Cyprus Women's Cup
The 2012 Cyprus Women's Cup was the fifth edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place between 28 February – 6 March 2012.


2012 Cyprus Women's Cup, Format
The twelve invited teams were split into three groups that played a round-robin tournament.


2012 Cyprus Women's Cup, Format
Groups A and B, containing the strongest ranked teams, were the only ones in contention to win the title. The group winners from A and B contested the final, with the runners-up playing for third place. The Group C winner faced the better 3rd place team from Groups A and B for 5th, with the Group C runner-up facing the other third place team for 7th. Group C's third place team faced the better fourth place team of Groups A and B, while the other two 4th place teams play in the 11th place match.


2012 Cyprus Women's Cup, Format
Points awarded in the group stage followed the standard formula of three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss. In the case of two teams being tied on the same number of points in a group, their head-to-head result determined the higher place.


2012 Cyprus Women's Cup, Venues
Games were played in five host stadiums in four cities.


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot
On July 7, 2012, local authorities arrested Lebanese-born Swedish citizen Hossam Yaakoub in Limassol, Cyprus. Yaakoub admitted to being a member of the Shi'a Islamic militant group Hezbollah, who had been tasked with surveilling the activities of Israeli tourists on the island. Israel condemned the incident as an attempted terrorist attack.


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Background
In the months preceding the disruption of the terrorist plot in Cyprus, Hezbollah and Iran were implicated in terrorist attacks and plots against Israeli targets in Thailand, India, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kenya. On July 18, eleven days after Yaakoub was arrested, five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian citizen were killed in a suicide bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. The Bulgarian government implicated Hezbollah in the attack.


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Arrest
On July 7, 2012, Cypriot authorities arrested Hossam Yaakoub, a Lebanese-born Swedish citizen, in the port city of Limassol. After intensive questioning, Yaakoub admitted that he was a member of Hezbollah.


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Arrest
Yaakoub had arrived in Cyrpus as a tourist on July 5. Prior to his arrest, he was tracking the movement of Israeli tourists on the island. On July 6, he surveilled the arrival of Israeli tourists on an Arkia Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Larnaca International Airport. Hezbollah had tasked Yaakoub with monitoring charter flights from Israel to Cyprus since late 2011. He recorded flight information and wrote down the registration numbers of shuttle buses the passengers boarded. In between flights, he carried out surveillance of the resort hotels that Israelis frequented.


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Arrest
His surveillance data noted the security presence at the hotels and their proximity to local emergency services. He also photographed hotel entrances and parking lots. In a sworn deposition, Yaakoub told police, "I was just collecting information about the Jews. This is what my organization is doing, everywhere in the world."


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Arrest
Information provided by Israeli intelligence to Cyprus that Yaakoub intended to carry out attacks led to his arrest. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident as an "attempted terrorist attack by Hezbollah against an Israeli target... conducted under Iran's auspices."


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Trial
On March 21, 2013, a three-judge panel in Cyprus convicted Yaakoub on five of eight charges, "including participation in a criminal organization, planning to commit a crime and money laundering." On March 28, the court sentenced Yaakoub to four years in prison. During the sentencing, the judges stated, "There is no doubt these are serious crimes which could have potentially endangered Israeli citizens and targets in the republic."


2012 Cyprus terrorist plot, Trial
The conviction of Yaakoub, in tandem with the Bulgarian government's declaration that Hezbollah was behind the July 2012 Burgas bus bombing, has increased the pressure on the European Union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the conviction of the Hezbollah operative in Cyprus "underscores the need for our European allies — and other governments around the world — to crack down on this deadly group."


2012 Czech Lion Awards
2012 Czech Lion Awards ceremony was held on 3 February 2013.


2012 Czech Pirate Party leadership election
The Czech Pirate Party leadership election of 2012 was held on 25 August 2012. Ivan Bartoš was reelected when he defeated Petr Bajgar. Bajgar was nominated by South Moravian Piraret.


2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings
The 2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings occurred in September 2012 in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. In the course of several days, 38 people in the Czech Republic and 4 people in Poland died as a result of methanol poisoning and many others were taken to hospital. The poisonings continued for several years after the main wave. As of April 2014, there were 51 dead and many others suffered permanent health damage.


2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings
The Czech government established a central emergency response council and banned the sale of liquors with more than 30% alcohol by volume at food stands on 12 September. On 14 September, the ban was extended to any sale of all alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content above 20% vol. On 20 September, export of such products was banned as well. The restrictions on liquor sales were lifted on 27 September 2012.


2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings
The police systematically checked shops where liquors were on sale. Led by police vice president Václav Kučera, a special police team called Metyl coordinated the investigations. On 24 September, the police announced that the source of the methanol-contaminated alcohol had been identified. Two main suspects were arrested: Rudolf Fian, a businessman from Karviná of Slovak nationality, and Tomáš Křepela, a Czech company owner from Řitka. On 21 May, 2014, the two were sentenced to life imprisonment; eight others to imprisonment for 8 to 21 years.


2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings
As of May 2018, methanol was banned in the EU for use in windscreen washing or defrosting due to its risk of human consumption


2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings, Similar incidents in the past
A similar incident, the Pärnu methanol poisoning incident, occurred in Pärnu county, Estonia, in September 2001, when 68 people died and 43 were left disabled after contents of stolen methanol canisters were used in production of bootleg liquor.


2012 Czech Republic methanol poisonings, Film
Česká televize produced 2018 film Metanol. The film focuses on the distributors of the toxic alcohol and aftermath of the poisonings. The second part focuses on investigation and eventual trial of perpetrators.


2012 Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix
The 2012 Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 24–26 August 2012 at the Masaryk Circuit located in Brno.


2012 Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix, Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)
Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round twelve has concluded.


2012 Czech Senate election
Senate elections for a third of the Senate were held in the Czech Republic on 12 and 13 October 2012, with a second round of voting on 19 and 20 October.


2012 Czech Social Democratic Party presidential primaries
Presidential primaries to select the Czech Social Democratic Party candidate for the 2013 presidential elections were held in May 2012. The primaries were indirect, with only members of the party's Central Executive Committee able to vote. Jiří Dienstbier Jr. became the party's candidate after receiving 107 votes to the 35 against. Dienstbier's only rival was Jan Švejnar, who withdrew prior to voting taking place.


2012 Czech regional elections
Elections to regional councils in the Czech Republic were held in 13 regions (excluding Prague) on 12–13 October 2012. The Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) won in nine regions, though with a considerable loss of vote share. The Communist Party won in two regions and increased its vote share, finishing second overall. The election results were widely seen as a defeat for the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which finished third overall and won only in the Plzeň Region. The regional grouping Mayors for Liberec Region won unexpectedly in Liberec Region.


2012 Czech regional elections, Background
ČSSD won the previous elections in 2008 in all regions. Although it lost support in the months before the election, the party was still leading in the polls, and the parties involved in the right-wing government were highly unpopular. The country had seen a long-term loss of confidence in the old, established parties, with voters turning to non-parliamentary parties. Support appeared to be growing for the Communist Party, which had been isolated in Czech politics since the Velvet Revolution.


2012 Czech regional elections, Jihočeský kraj (South Bohemian region)
ČSSD won the 2008 election in the region with 33.80% of the vote and formed a coalition with ODS.


2012 Czech regional elections, Jihomoravský kraj (South Moravian region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won the 2008 election in the region with 34.84% of votes and formed a coalition with ODS.


2012 Czech regional elections, Karlovarský kraj (Karlovy Vary region)
ČSSD won the 2008 election in the region with 31.39% of votes and formed a coalition with the Communist Party and Doktoři (za uzdravení společnosti).


2012 Czech regional elections, Královéhradecký kraj (Hradec Králové region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 31.94% of votes and formed coalition with Coalition for Hradec Hrálové region and SNK ED.


2012 Czech regional elections, Liberecký kraj (Liberec region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 26.79% of votes and formed coalition with Mayors and independents for Liberec region and Party for the Open Society.


2012 Czech regional elections, Moravskoslezský kraj (Moravian-Silesian region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 42.63% of votes and formed coalition with Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia.


2012 Czech regional elections, Olomoucký kraj (Olomouc region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won the 2008 election in this region with 39.78% of votes and formed a coalition with Civic Democratic Party and KDU-ČSL.


2012 Czech regional elections, Pardubický kraj (Pardubice region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 35.73% of votes and formed coalition with Coalition for Pardubice region.


2012 Czech regional elections, Plzeňský kraj (Plzeň region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 36.37% of votes and formed coalition with support of communists.


2012 Czech regional elections, Středočeský kraj (Central Bohemian region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 35.16% of votes and formed a government with support of communists.


2012 Czech regional elections, Ústecký kraj (Ústí region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 32.78% of votes and formed coalition with Civic Democratic Party and Mirko Bernas who left Severočeši.cz.


2012 Czech regional elections, kraj Vysočina (Vysočina region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 39.87% of votes and formed coalition with support of communists.


2012 Czech regional elections, Zlínský kraj (Zlín region)
Czech Social Democratic Party won 2008 election in region with 35.40% of votes and formed coalition with Civic Democratic Party and Christian Democrats.


2012 D.C. United Women season
The 2012 D.C. United Women season was the club's second season of existence, and their second in the USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States at the time. United went undefeated in the Atlantic Division of the W-League's Eastern Conference and were division champions.


2012 D.C. United Women season
The regular season was the strongest showing by the squad in their existence, accumulating 11 wins and one draw in their 12-match season. The undefeated record resulted in United having the best regular season record in both the Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division, as well as the second best overall record of the 30 W-League clubs. United finished the season thirteen points clear of the Virginia Beach Piranhas, the Division runners-up.


2012 D.C. United Women season
The team played the W-League Playoffs for the first time ever.


2012 D.C. United Women season
It was the final season with the club using the "D.C. United Women" moniker. In 2013, the club was rebranded as the Washington Spirit for the newly created National Women's Soccer League. The reserve team continued to play in the W-League.


2012 D.C. United season
The 2012 D.C. United season was the club's seventeenth season of existence, and their seventeenth consecutive season of playing in Major League Soccer, the top division of American soccer. The club's season began on March 10, with a 0–1 home defeat against Sporting Kansas City, and culminated on November 18 with a 1–1 draw against Houston Dynamo.


2012 D.C. United season
Under Ben Olsen, his second full season in charge, the club went through a tremendous improvement in form, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2007, and reaching the Eastern Conference championship for the first time since 2006. During the regular season, United amassed 58 points during the season, which tied their record from 1998 for the most points during the regular season, although the 1998 season only had 32 matches instead of 34. Still, the club averaged 1.7 points per match, which is tied for the third best on record.


2012 D.C. United season
United saw success in the conference semifinals of the MLS Cup Playoffs, defeating their I-95 rivals, the New York Red Bulls 2–1 on aggregate, before eventually losing to the defending Eastern Conference postseason champions, Houston Dynamo, 4–2 on aggregate.


2012 D.C. United season
Outside of MLS, United reached the round of 16 of the U.S. Open Cup, where they lost in extra time to the Philadelphia Union.


2012 D.C. United season, Background
Ahead of the 2012 season, it was head coach Ben Olsen's first club campaign as full-time manager. During 2011, United improve from their 6–20–4 record and improved to 9–13–12, but failing to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs for a franchise-record four seasons. United improved their scoring output, scoring 47 goals during the regular season, third in the league, and had the fourth best away record of MLS clubs during 2011.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
On November 3, United's Ethan White and Perry Kitchen were called up to the United States under-23 national team, ahead of November 7 and 15 fixtures in Germany. On November 29, D.C. United signed Robbie Russell from Real Salt Lake in exchange for a third round pick in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
Ahead of the 2011 MLS Re-Entry Draft, Dave Kasper, the club General Manager, released a list of nine players exposed for the Re-Entry Draft. These players' options to have their contracts extended were declined. The Re-Entry Draft resulted in United's Marc Burch and Clyde Simms being transferred to the Seattle Sounders FC and New England Revolution, respectively. On December 1, Charlie Davies' loan from Sochaux expired, with United having the option to purchase his contract from French outfitters. Despite the option, United declined to exercise their option to purchase Davies' contract from Sochaux, resulting in Davies returning to the club. Three days later, long-time United midfielder Santino Quaranta, whose contract was declined by United. During the actual Re-Entry Draft, held on December 5, United made no selections.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
During the 2012 MLS SuperDraft, United made one selection in the draft, selecting Louisville Cardinals men's soccer standout, Nick DeLeon, with the seventh selection overall. DeLeon, a Generation adidas member, was subsequently signed by the club as an off-budget player. Two weeks later, during the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft, United selected Lance Rozeboom from the University of New Mexico; Charles Rodriguez, from University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as well as Matt Kuhn from Drake University. Of the Supplemental selections, only Rozeboom was signed to a contract. The others were released without offers. Rozeboom, unfortunately, suffered a season-ending ACL injury during the Carolina Challenge Cup preseason tournament.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
After what many cited as a quiet offseason for United, the club engaged in more winter trades following the Supplemental Draft. On January 18, United acquired Brazilian Maicon Santos from FC Dallas. Two days later, United traded an undisclosed amount of allocation money to fellow Texan MLS side, Houston Dynamo for midfielder Danny Cruz. After two domestic transfers, United acquired Argentine center-back Emiliano Dudar on a free transfer from Swiss side Young Boys.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
United had their first two preseason scrimmages on January 29 and February 2, playing against fellow-MLS side, Chicago Fire and Swedish Allsvenskan-side, Malmö, respectively. Both matches ended in draws. Subsequently, DC United once again claimed the Carolina Challenge Cup with victories over the Charleston Battery and the Chicago Fire, with the final game against the Columbus Crew canceled because of severe weather.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
On February 2, the club made headlines for the acquiring of Albanian striker Hamdi Salihi as a designated player, from Austrian side Rapid Wien. It was rumored that United outbid several European suitors, including Celtic and Rangers for Salihi. Many have cited the purchase of Salihi as United's largest transfer during the 2011–12 offseason, and a key role needed to fill the void left by Charlie Davies the previous season.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, Preseason
The club filled out the roster signing two preseason trialists from USL teams: goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra and left winger Lewis Neal. The club also loaned out Conor Shanosky to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, March
D.C. United opened the Major League Soccer regular season at home against Sporting Kansas City on March 10. Sporting, the defending Eastern Conference regular season champions, defeated United at RFK Stadium, 1–0 in United's final outing of the 2011 MLS season. That scoreline was repeated in the first match of the 2012 season. In the 93rd minute, a stoppage time corner kick by Sporting's Graham Zusi by Sporting resulted in a heading goal by C. J. Sapong giving Sporting the 1–0 lead and eventual victory over United.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, March
United's offensive struggles continued as they traveled out west to take on the Los Angeles Galaxy, the defending MLS Cup and Supporters' Shield champions, on March 17. The Galaxy emerged with a 3–1 win, with United's lone bright spot being rookie Nick DeLeon's first MLS goal, as the team's first round draft pick scored in the 86th minute. The two-match West Coast swing concluded with a March 24 fixture at Vancouver Whitecaps FC, which ended in a 0–0 draw. United's only scoring chance came on a header by Designated Player Hamdi Salihi, that forced Whitecaps' goalie Joe Cannon into a quick reaction save.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, March
A month that was marked by anemic offensive performances ended with a goal-scoring explosion as United returned home to RFK Stadium to take on FC Dallas, and the emergence of new factor in the attack as Maicon Santos scored twice and added an assist in a 4–1 thrashing of the visitors. Nick DeLeon had his second goal of the campaign and he added an assist on a goal by Danny Cruz.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, April
During April, D.C. United went undefeated in their five league matches, winning thrice and drawing twice. The month opened with a regular season match at home to the Seattle Sounders FC. The fixture against Seattle ended in a scoreless draw, the club's second of the season, with United's Maicon Santos and Dejan Jakovic picking up yellow cards during the match. On April 14, United traveled northbound to take on Eastern Conference rivals, the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, April
After New England's José Moreno Mora opened up the scoresheet in the sixth minute, United equalized from a goal from Santos in the 19th minute. With nine minutes remaining, United's Chris Pontius received a pass from Emiliano Dudar and curled a shot around New England's Matt Reis, giving United a 2–1 lead and subsequent victory. The win marked the club's first victory at New England since August 5, 2007; when United earned a 3–0 victory at New England.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, April
Following their victory at New England, United were in prime position to win consecutive league matches for the first time since June 2009. United, hot off a 2–1 victory at New England hosted struggling conference opponents, Montreal Impact, who were making their debutant season in MLS. In the April 18 affair, the Impact took the lead in the 68th minute off a strike from Bernardo Corradi. Montreal's lead quickly vanished as United's Santos restored parity in the 72nd minute. Santos would subsequently score, but the goal would be called back, giving United a 1–1 draw versus Montreal.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, April
After the disappointing draw with Montreal, United put together the team's most dominant performance in April, with a 4–1 victory over the New York Red Bulls, led by Chris Pontius, who tallied his first career hat-trick with goals in the 8th, 32nd and 69th minutes. In between Nick DeLeon added a goal in the 35th minute. New York's Thierry Henry spoiled the shutout with a late free-kick goal.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, April
United finally won consecutive matches when they closed out the month with a 3–2 home win over the Houston Dynamo. A header by Maicon Santos gave United the early lead in a first half controlled by United. A hamstring injury to Emiliano Dudar just before halftime helped the Dynamo back into the game. Playing a makeshift back line, United surrendered the lead in the 50th minute, thanks to a goal by the previous year's nemesis, Will Bruin.


2012 D.C. United season, Review, April
United regained the lead four minutes later, when Dwayne De Rosario scored his first goal of the season, but gave back the lead when Bruin added another goal in the 59th minute against a back line that clearly missed Dudar. United rebounded with a stunning game-winning header by Santos in the 70th minute.