Portal:Current events/2014 December 17

December 17, 2014 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- 2014 Peshawar school attack
  - Pakistan lifts the moratorium on the death penalty for terror-related cases following the Taliban's assault on a school in Peshawar on Tuesday that killed 141, including 132 children. (The Guardian)
Sony Pictures Entertainment hack
- Sony cancels the New York City sneak preview of the upcoming 2014 film The Interview, originally scheduled for December 18, due to threatening messages by hackers. (USA Today)
- Sony cancels the release of The Interview, originally scheduled for Christmas 2014. (CNN)

Business and economy

Spanish energy company Repsol acquires Canadian energy producer Talisman Energy for $13 billion including debt. (Reuters)

International relations

The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them 55 years ago. An American embassy will open in Havana and talks to lift the embargo will begin. (The Daily Beast)
The European Union removes Hamas from its list of terrorist organizations. (Reuters)

Law and crime

The Chinese Communist Party, through the Supreme People's Procuratorate, indicts former Nanjing mayor Ji Jianye on bribery and corruption. (AP via Denver Post)
The U.S. attorney's office indicts Gregory Conigliaro and Barry Cadden, co-founders of the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., along with 12 former employees, on federal racketeering for a fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people in seven states in the fall of 2012. (AP)

Politics and elections

Sport

FIFA's independent ethics investigator Michael J. Garcia resigns from that position in protest over the organization's handling of his compiled report on corruption allegations in connection with the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. (BBC)