Barack Obama named Time Person of the Year for 2012 "We've gone through a very difficult time," he said. The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this president we elected is imperfect, and yet, despite all that, this is who we want to be. "In 2012, he found and forged a new majority, turned weakness into opportunity and sought, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union," said Time, which had named Mr Obama person of the year back in 2008, when he won his historic presidential election to become the first African American US president. The 2012 runner-up was Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban for campaigning for the right to female education. Others on the shortlist included Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Egypt's post-revolutionary President Mohamed Morsi, and atomic physicist Fabiola Gianotti. Last year, Time honoured "The Protester," citing dissent across the Middle East that spread to Europe and the United States, saying the demonstrations reshaped global politics. Person of the year, called "man of the year" until 1999, acknowledges what the magazine considers to be the world's biggest newsmaker. The accolade was first granted in 1927 in a slow news week, and to make up for the fact that the magazine had failed to put Charles Lindbergh on its cover when he completed the first transatlantic flight. Previous double winners were Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Richard Nixon and George W Bush.