Portal:Current events/2013 February 21

February 21, 2013 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war:
- At least 61 people are killed and more than 200 injured following a car bombing near Syria's Baath Party headquarters in Damascus. Three other bombings kill 22 people and injure 50 others in the suburb of Barzeh, most of them government soldiers. These are the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since the outbreak of the civil war. (Reuters) (AP) (BBC) (The Wall Street Journal)
2013 Hyderabad blasts:
- At least 20 people are dead and 54 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad. (BBC) (Sky News Australia)

Arts and culture

Business and economy

PayPal, the online payments business, a division of eBay, launches a European version of the PayPal Here mobile payments system. (Reuters)
A watchdog group releases a report that details write-downs of $19 billion on more than 168,000 properties by five United States banks. Under terms of a federal and state settlement of foreclosure-processing violations reached one year ago in March, Bank of America lost the most and had $13.5 billion in homeowner debts written off. The other banks are Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co, and Ally Financial Inc. (FoxBusiness)^{[permanent dead link‍]}

Disasters and accidents

A major snowstorm occurs in the Midwestern United States leading to two deaths so far. (BBC)

Law and crime

A car crash and shooting occurs at the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. Three people are dead, and six others are wounded. (CNN) (AP)
Three young girls are kidnapped, raped, and killed in the Bhandara district of India. (CNN)
Retired police sergeant Drew Peterson, whose fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007, is sentenced by the US state of Illinois to 38 years incarceration for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. (AP)
Japan executes by hanging three convicted murderers, Kaoru Kobayashi, Masahiro Kanagawa and Keiki Muto. The number of death-row inmates in Japan now stands at 134. (Japan Today)

Politics and elections

An adviser to the President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi claims that parliamentary elections will commence in late April 2013. (CNN)

Science and technology

Sport