Portal:Current events/2012 December 11

December 11, 2012 (Tuesday)

Armed conflict and attacks

Syrian civil war:
- At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria. (AAP) (Reuters) (BBC)
- Barack Obama, the President of the United States, recognises Syria's rebel opposition as the "legitimate representatives" of the Syrian people. (BBC)
War on Terror:
- A Yemeni Army offensive against al-Qaeda is reported as killing at least 24 people including 17 soldiers. (News Limited)
2012 Egyptian protests:
- Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, calls for talks on national unity as thousands of rival protesters are on the streets of Cairo and the International Monetary Fund delays a loan. (ABC Australia/Reuters)
Belfast City Hall flag protests:
- Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt calls for an end to street protests over Belfast City Council's decision to restrict the flying of the union flag after loyalists threw a petrol bomb into a police vehicle in which a female officer was sitting at the time. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Russian soprano opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya, wife of Mstislav Rostropovich, dies in Moscow at the age of 86. (The Guardian) (RIA Novosti) (RT)
Indian sitar virtuoso and classical composer Ravi Shankar dies in the U.S. city of San Diego at the age of 92. (BBC)
Schools in the United States plan to drop literature classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye from their curriculum; children there will instead learn from "informational texts" such as Recommended Levels of Insulation by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Invasive Plant Inventory by California's Invasive Plant Council in order to be better prepared for workplace reading material. (The Telegraph)
The UK government sets out proposals to legalise gay marriages in England and Wales. The Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned from conducting wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples, but other religious organisations will be allowed to conduct gay weddings if they wish. (BBC)

Business and economy

British-based bank HSBC will pay U.S. authorities $1.9 billion in a settlement over money laundering for drug cartels and countries under sanctions, the largest ever such penalty. (BBC) (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

Australia's 2Day FM says it will donate advertising profits to a fund for the family of King Edward VII's Hospital nurse Jacintha Saldanha. (BBC)
Jack McCullough receives a life sentence for the murder of Maria Ridulph in 1957, more than 55 years ago. (The New York Times)
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturns an Illinois law banning the carrying of concealed weapons. (Chicago Sun-Times)
A gunman opens fire in the Clackamas Town Center mall in the U.S. state of Oregon. Three people, including the suspected shooter, are killed and another is injured. (CNN)
McKeeva Bush, the Premier of the Cayman Islands, is arrested for fraud and importation of explosives as part of a corruption investigation. (BBC)
The European Parliament adopts a uniform patent system for members of the European Union. (New York Times)

Politics and elections

The Prime Minister of Mali Cheick Modibo Diarra resigns himself and his government on television after his arrest hours earlier by leaders of the recent Malian coup d'état. (AFP via The Telegraph) (BBC) (Reuters)
Michigan's state government passes right to work legislation, making Michigan the 24th state and the most highly unionized state in the US to have such laws. Thousands of union employees protest outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. (CNN)
Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, undergoes cancer surgery in Cuba. (AP via Time)

Science and technology

The $3 million special Fundamental Physics Prize is awarded to Stephen Hawking, a British theoretical physicist. Seven scientists who led the Large Hadron Collider and discovered Higgs-like particle share another $3 million special prize which was founded by a Russian physicist and internet entrepreneur Yuri Milner. (The Guardian) (Fundamental Physics Prize)

Sport