Portal:Current events/2012 September 13

September 13, 2012 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. and Arab League special envoy for the Syrian civil war, arrives in Damascus; fighting goes on in the east of the capital. (Oman Observer)^{[permanent dead link]}

Arts and culture

A 1430's painting in a museum in Rotterdam, "The three Mary's at the tomb", is attributed to Jan van Eyck. (Volkskrant)

Business and economy

The Federal Reserve System starts a new campaign of increasing the money supply, the expected so-called QE3. But it says it buys mortgage-backed securities in an "open-ended" way, essentially "creating" 40 billion US$ each month. The Fed also considers other measures in a bid to stimulate the economy. (New York Times) (San Francisco Chronicle)

Disasters

A freight elevator crashes 100 meters and kills 19 construction workers in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. (Boston.com)
Guatemala's Volcano of Fire (Volcán de Fuego) erupts, leading to the evacuation of more than 33,000 people. (USA Today)

International Relations

2012 diplomatic missions attacks:
- Protestors breach the walls of the U.S. embassy compound in Sana'a, Yemen. Yemeni police fire warning shots in the air and four people are killed. The Egyptian ministry of health says 224 people are injured in demonstrations around the embassy in Cairo. In Kuwait, 500 people gather and chant near the embassy. (BBC) (AFP via Google News)
- The U.S. deploys destroyers and surveillance drones to Libya to hunt for those responsible for the attack in Benghazi. U.S. officials say they are investigating whether the protests over a film privately produced in the US denigrating the prophet Muhammad were used as a cover by the attackers, rather than being spurred by them. The Libyan Deputy Interior minister says there were two parts in the attack - the second attack was on the safe house of which the location was previously leaked. (CNN) (AP via Detroit News)^{[permanent dead link]}
- The US consulate in the suburbs of Berlin, Germany, is briefly evacuated due to suspicions over the contents of an envelope. (Reuters)
- More details emerge about the privately produced anti-Islam film that sparks unrest in the world. Sam Bacile is also the name a Washington-based activist assumed to initiate forwarding the link last week. One reporter points to the suspected real name of "Abano(u)b Basseley". (Wall Street Journal)
- In short, Pastor Terry Jones and Copt Washington-based lawyer Morris Sadek are two of the promoters of the film. (AFP by Google)
- An other person, named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, self-identified manager of the company that allegedly produced the film, is identified by a security official. (Wall Street Journal) AP via (Columbus Dispatch) (AP via Politico) (Youtube)
Newly-appointed Japanese ambassador to China, Shinichi Nishimiya, is found collapsed on a street in Tokyo and hospitalized. (CNN) (Kyodo News)

Law and crime

Mexican Drug War
- Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, the supreme leader of the drug trafficking organization known as the Gulf Cartel and one of the most-wanted drug lords in Mexico, is arrested in the state of Tamaulipas. (The Huffington Post)
Former Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Thirith is unfit to face a genocide trial in Cambodia due to dementia. (AP via Washington Post)
Pakistani factory fires: Pakistan files murder charges, for "utter negligence", against managers and government officials responsible for the safety of the burned Karachi factory. (AFP via Google News)

Politics and elections

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev calls for Russian punk band Pussy Riot to be freed, saying that their further imprisonment is "unproductive". (The Guardian)
In the general election in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy gains 10 seats to win 41 of the 150 in the House of Representatives and Diederik Samsom's Labour Party, gains 8. (The Washington Post) (BBC) (AP)
Dr. Mustafa Abushagur is elected as prime minister of Libya. (Fairport-East Rochester Post)^{[permanent dead link]}

Science

The old 'Earth's highest temp' has been discredited by the WMO. (Weather Underground)