Portal:Current events/2012 July 8

July 8, 2012 (Sunday)

Armed conflict and attacks

Syrian uprising (2011–present):
- United Nations and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan arrives in the Syrian capital Damascus for talks. (Al Jazeera)
- In an interview for German TV, Syrian President Bashar Assad states that the US is trying to destabilise Syria by providing political protection for "gangs", and that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were arming "terrorists" in Syria. (BBC)
- Kofi Annan says peace proposals have failed as the Syrian army allegedly kills 60 civilians across Syria. (Dawn)
Nigeria violence:
- Gunmen attack Christian villages in northern Nigeria, killing dozens of people. (Daily Times Nigeria)
- Two politicians are killed at a funeral for some of the victims of the violence. (BBC)
Rebels from the March 23 Movement seize three more towns in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (AFP via Google News)
Roadside car bombs kill 14 civilians travelling in two vehicles in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. (AFP via Google News)
A roadside bomb kills six NATO soldiers in eastern Afghanistan. (Reuters)
The Saudi Ministry of Interior reports that a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Sheikh Nimr al Nimr, is arrested in the Qatif region of the Eastern Province after being shot in the leg by police in an exchange of fire. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

American actor Ernest Borgnine, winner of an Academy Award in the film Marty, dies at the age of 95. (CBS News)

Disasters

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin orders an inquiry into flash floods that have claimed at least 150 lives in the Krasnodar region. (BBC) (CNN)

International relations

Anti-China protests take place in Vietnam amid tensions over the disputed Spratly Islands part of the South China Sea dispute. (China Post)

Law and crime

Taliban gunmen shoot a woman accused of adultery to death while men watching the execution cheer, in a village near Kabul, Afghanistan. (CNN)
In two separate incidents in the current U.S. heat wave involving two different vehicles, both in the Greater Indianapolis area, a baby girl dies in Greenfield, Indiana (in the east of the area), and a toddler from Fishers, Indiana (in the northeast of the area) is left in critical condition after being left in overheated vehicles by their parent caretakers (the internal temperature in one was at 124° F (51° C); both have been charged with felony child neglect resulting in death. (MSNBC)

Politics and elections

Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in Mexico City over alleged vote buying in the country's presidential election, which saw Enrique Peña Nieto elected. (The Guardian)

Science and technology

Cambodian health officials identify Enterovirus 71 as a possible cause for an outbreak in which at least 64 children have died. (CNN)

Sport