Portal:Current events/2012 September 12
September 12, 2012 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian civil war
- Rebels kill 18 soldiers in Idlib Governorate in a car bomb and ground attack on a military installation. (AFP via Google News)
- Russia's foreign minister Lavrov expresses regret that the West accepts terrorist acts in Syria according to its political considerations. (SANA)
- War in Afghanistan
- President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan calls for a re-think of the War on Terror. (The Australian)
- A suicide bombing at a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu where newly elected president Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was holding a news conference kills at least four people. (BBC) (Reuters)
Arts and culture
- The first panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, the "Lamb of God", are secretly moved from Saint Bavo Cathedral to the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts for a five-year restoration. It is probably the most frequently stolen artwork in history. One panel has been missing since 1934. (Het Nieuwsblad)
Business and economy
- The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe rules that Germany's participation in the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is, conditionally, within the German Constitution's limits, allowing President Gauck to approve the Bundestag's previous agreement with the mechanism. (BBC)
- Teachers in Chicago continue their strike until a new labour agreement is met. (New York Times)
- The miners' strike movement in South Africa extends to Anglo Platinum in Rustenburg. At least 45 people have died in the ongoing Lonmin Marikana miners' strike. (Al Jazeera)
- BAE and EADS are having merger talks. (Forbes)
- Space Spiral At Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, U.S. Was demolished at 7:31 AM
Disasters
International relations
- In his yearly State of the Union speech at the European Parliament, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso appeals for more European integration and a supervision mechanism for the 6,000 banks in Europe. (The New York Times)
- 2012 diplomatic missions attacks
- U.S. president Barack Obama strongly condemns the "outrageous attack" that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other U.S. citizens in Benghazi, Libya, saying that the United States rejects denigration of religious beliefs but also rejects the "senseless violence that killed the US diplomat". (CNN) (Boston.com)
- Libyan president Mohamed Magariaf condemns the "cowardice," apologizes to the U.S. and vows to bring the perpetrators to justice, while the United States sends 50 FAST marines to Libya. (Los Angeles Times)
- U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney says President Obama's first reaction to Tuesday's attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions was to "sympathize" with the assailants; Obama's campaign team expresses "shock" that Romney would choose such a tragic event to launch a political attack. (Business Insider)
- Sam Bacile, supposed writer and director of the privately produced film that motivated the attacks, has gone into hiding, while a second person, apparently separately, claims production of the artefact. (Wall Street Journal) (AP via Google News)
- Afghanistan blocks access to YouTube until the video is taken down. (Reuters)
- Syrian rebels express outrage that the privately produced video belittling the prophet Muhammad is generating more anger among Arabs than the rising death toll within Syria. (Los Angeles Times)
- Senkaku Islands dispute:
- The Japanese Foreign Minister Kōichirō Gemba says Japan will "not reconsider" the ownership issue. (Mainichi Shimbun)[permanent dead link] (Daily Yomiuri)
- Luo Zhaohui, the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asian department, vowed China would "never accept Japan's illegal occupation or so-called 'actual control'" of the islands. (Chicago Tribune)
Law and crime
- Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina arrest 25 people on suspicion of multiple murders, drug-trafficking and robbery in the biggest crackdown on organised crime since the Bosnian War. (IOL)
- A Cambodian journalist is found murdered in the boot of his car, after reporting on illegal logging. (Bangkok Post)
- Aseem Trivedi is granted bail and freed on 13 September 2012. (Times of India)
- Previously unseen files relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster are released to the public. They show police failings, and attempts to shift the blame for the tragedy onto football fans. British Prime Minister David Cameron says he is "profoundly sorry" for what happened. (The Guardian) (BBC)
Politics and elections
- Dutch general election of 2012, voters in the Netherlands elect new representation in the House of Representatives. The final prognosis shows 41 (+10) seats for incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and 40 seats (+10) for PvdA, Diederik Samsom's Labour Party, out of a total 150 seats. Four other parties get between 12 and 15 seats: SP 15 (0), PVV 13 (-11), CDA 13 (-8), and D66 12 (+2) The remainder, 16 seats, are divided among five more parties. The final televised debate is cancelled. (The Washington Post) (NOS) (ANP via Google)
Science and technology
- Apple Inc unveils iPhone 5 and iOS 6. (Wall Street Journal)
- A new species of guenon monkey discovered in 2007 is now identified in Opala, DR Congo. Local inhabitants call it "lesula". The first specimen resembled the owl-faced monkey, but of unseen colour. More specimen have been located in a 6,500 square mile area. The species' genetic and anatomical distinctiveness (identification) has been determined in a study made the following three years. Its scientific name is Cercopithecus lomamiensis. The publication already recommends it to the Red List of endangered species and proposes conservation measures for its Lomami and central Congo Basin habitat. (BBC) (Eurekalert) (PLoS ONE)