Portal:Current events/2012 December 12

December 12, 2012 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war:
- A car bomb and two other explosions go off outside the Interior Ministry and Palace of Justice in Damascus. (Al Jazeera)
- Government forces reportedly fire Scud-type missiles at rebels in the north of the country. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Musicians and entertainers including the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen perform a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (AP)
Pope Benedict XVI sends his first Twitter message with an assist using his personal account (Pope Benedict XVI on Twitter). (BBC) (The Guardian) (The New York Times) (The Australian)
Music project spearheaded by Joe Hawley, Miracle Musical, releases its first album "Hawaii Part II" including 11 songs

Business and economy

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve announces explicit ties between Fed policy on interest rates and economic goals, especially unemployment. (Reuters)

International relations

North Korea successfully launches a long-range Unha rocket to put its first satellite into space, the aim of what critics say is a disguised ballistic missile test. The United Nations condemns the action. (Reuters) (BBC)

Law and crime

Murder of Pat Finucane:
- Sir Desmond de Silva's report into the 1989 murder of Northern Ireland solicitor Pat Finucane is published, detailing "shocking state collusion" but, it says, absence of an "overarching conspiracy". (BBC) (RTÉ)
- The Finucane family renew their call for a public inquiry and describe the report as a "sham" and a "whitewash", "a report into which we have had no input." Finucane's wife says, "The British government has engineered a suppression of the truth behind the murder of my husband." (The Guardian) (Irish Independent)
- Speaking in the House of Commons, UK prime minister David Cameron says he is "deeply sorry" over British involvement in Finucane's murder but opposes a public inquiry into the killing. (Irish Independent)
American businessman John McAfee is deported from Guatemala to the United States despite being wanted for questioning in Belize. (The Telegraph)
Ecuador's National Court of Justice issues an international arrest warrant for former President Jamil Mahuad on embezzlement charges and orders that all of his assets in Ecuador be seized. (AAP via News Limited)

Politics and elections

Irish politician Joan Collins names crime journalist Paul Williams and sports star Ronan O'Gara under Dáil privilege as being among those to benefit from having their penalty points for traffic offences cancelled by the Garda Síochána. Justice Minister Alan Shatter calls Collins's action a "total disgrace" and she is reported to a Leinster House watchdog called the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges. (Irish Independent) (Irish Independent)
Malian interim President Dioncounda Traoré appoints Django Sissoko to be a new Acting Prime Minister, after his predecessor Cheick Modibo Diarra was forced to resign by leaders of the 2012 coup d'état. (BBC)
A sexual harassment case against former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Peter Slipper is dismissed. (Courier-Mail)
10 Downing Street denies that British Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman Craig Oliver warned The Daily Telegraph against running a critical story on MPs expenses claimed by Culture Secretary Maria Miller because of her role in enacting proposals in the Leveson report. (BBC)
Nicolás Maduro, the Vice President of Venezuela, warns that President Hugo Chávez faces a "difficult" recovery from cancer surgery in Cuba. (Reuters)
Michael Palmer resigns as the Speaker of the House in the Parliament of Singapore due to an extra-marital affair. (AAP via News Limited)

Science and technology

4179 Toutatis, an asteroid about 3 miles wide, passes within 4.3 million miles or 18 lunar distances of the Earth. (Fox News)
A British research team launches a long-awaited project to hunt for life in Lake Ellsworth hidden beneath the ice-sheet in Antarctica. (BBC)

Sport

In swimming, the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships in a short course (25m) pool begins today in Turkey's Istanbul, 2012 European Capital of Sport. (Swimming World)
Former Brazil manager Dunga is named as new coach of Internacional, returning to the club where he began and ended his career. (ESPN) (Goal.com)