Portal:Current events/2012 September 14

September 14, 2012 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2012 Anti-Islam film protests:
- Protesters angered by an anti-Islamic film denigrating the Prophet Muhammad attack the German and British embassies in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. In Khartoum, Tunis and Cairo, at least seven people die. An Egyptian fruit seller dies by rubber bullets. (BBC) (BBC) (Egypt Independent)
- Protesters in Tripoli, Lebanon, set fire to a KFC and a Hardee's restaurant, sparking clashes with local security forces. One protester is killed and 25 people wounded, including 18 police officers. (BBC) (AP via The Globe and Mail)
- Fifty U.S. Marines are deployed to the American embassy in Yemen as a "precautionary measure" after clashes in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. (Fox News) (Reuters)
- In the Sinai, an international observer base near El Gorah is shot at. Two observers are injured. (Reuters)
- The bodies of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Officer Sean Smith, and former SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, killed in the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, are returned to the United States, for their eventual funerals, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in a solemn military ceremony attended by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. (CNN)
- At least two American Marines and 16 Taliban fighters are killed in a Taliban attack on Camp Bastion airbase in Afghanistan's Helmand province, says a spokesman at nearby Camp Leatherneck. (The Telegraph) (AP via Boston.com) (BBC)
The campus buildings of the University of Texas at Austin and North Dakota State University are evacuated due to bomb threats. (USA Today)

Arts and culture

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge begin legal action after the magazine Closer published topless pictures of the Duchess taken during a holiday to France last week, and which their spokesman describes as “a grotesque and totally unjustifiable” invasion of privacy. (BBC) (The Telegraph)

Business and economy

S&P Dow Jones Indices announces that UnitedHealth Group will replace Kraft Foods among the stock issuers that constitute the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (CNBC)

Disasters

At least 21 passengers on board an Indonesian ferry that sank last night on the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan are missing and presumed dead. (Jakarta Globe)

International relations

Six Chinese Marine Surveillance ships are reported near the disputed Senkaku Islands by the Japanese Coast Guard. China says "two surveillance ship fleets" are in the waters "around" the islands for "patrols and law enforcement". (AFP via France 24) (Xinhua) (RIA Novosti)
- In response, Japan mobilizes a task force in the government's crisis management office. (Kyodo)
Pope Benedict XVI visits Lebanon. (Fox News)
At the IAEA, the United States accuses Syria that its "own destabilizing actions are no justification for its refusal" regarding Syria's NPT obligations. (Reuters)

Science and technology

HTV-3 detaches from the ISS for a burial in the Pacific Ocean. ATV 3 thrusts the ISS' orbit two kilometers up. TMA-04M will land on 17 September. ATV-003, named Edoardo Amaldi, is planned to disconnect on September 25th and burn up itself and a load of trash in the atmosphere over the same ocean. (RIA Novosti) (RIA) (ESA)