Portal:Current events/2012 December 21 - Wikipedia
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Armed conflicts and attacks
2012 Egyptian protests
:
Clashes break out in
Alexandria
,
Egypt
, on the evening of the second leg of voting in the
constitutional referendum
.
(BBC)
2012 terrorist attacks in Kenya
:
At least 39 people are killed in clashes between rival communities in
Kenya
.
(BBC)
(Al Jazeera)
United Nations Flight 544 shootdown
:
A
Russian
Mi-8
helicopter
working for the
United Nations Mission in South Sudan
(UNMISS) is shot down and crashes near Likuangole in the
South Sudanese
state of
Jonglei
.
(BBC)
(Al Jazeera)
(RT)
Arts and culture
The
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
reaches the date 13.0.0.0.0, associated with
various doomsday myths
.
(
The Guardian
)
(Al Jazeera)
"
Gangnam Style
" by
South Korean
singer
PSY
becomes the first video to reach
one billion
views on
YouTube
.
(BBC)
(
USA Today
)
(
The Washington Post
)
Disasters and accidents
A severe
cold spell
kills at least 83 people in
Ukraine
. Across
Russia
, the deep freeze killed at least 45 people over the last week.
(BBC)
(NBC News)
Five people are killed and one injured in
Zeebrugge
,
Belgium
, when a bus rolled off into the water.
(Deredactie.be)
International relations
A British court rejects an attempt by the son of a man killed in
U.S.
drone strike in
Pakistan
to force the
UK government
to reveal if it provided intelligence to assist US action.
(BBC)
The
UK Ministry of Defence
confirms it has spent $22.7 million settling claims from 205
Iraqis
alleging abuse by
British troops
following the
2003 invasion of Iraq
.
(Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
A shooting at a highway in
Blair County
,
Pennsylvania
kills three people and wounds three others. The gunman was killed in a
shootout
with
police
, and among the casualties were
state troopers
.
(Yahoo! News)
Steve Jobs
' £85m
high-tech
yacht
Venus
is impounded at the
Port of Amsterdam
after designer
Philippe Starck
claims he is still owed money.
(BBC)
Politics and elections
U.S. President
Barack Obama
nominates
John Kerry
to succeed
Hillary Clinton
as
Secretary of State
.
(CNN)
(BBC)
Former
British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
undergoes
surgery
for a growth in her
bladder
.
(BBC)
After seven months in office and a decisive victory in the elections,
Romanian
Prime Minister
Victor Ponta
and his cabinet receive the
vote of confidence
from
Parliament
with 402 votes in favor and 120 against.
(Fox News)
Technocrat
Mario Monti
resigns as
Prime Minister of Italy
after the parliamentary passing of
Italy
's latest
austerity
budget
.
(BBC)
(Al Jazeera)
Ireland
's
Fine Gael
food and farming minister
Shane McEntee
kills himself 2 days after his 56th birthday, triggering a
by-election
in
Meath East
.
(RTÉ News)
In the
Netherlands
, former
Deputy Prime Minister
Els Borst
and former
Vice President of the Council of State
Herman Tjeenk Willink
are granted the rare honorary title of
Minister of State
.
(Rijksoverheid)
Science and technology
After detailed study of the
Sutter's Mill meteorite
found in
California
on 22 April 2012, scientists report it contains some of the oldest material in the
Solar System
.
(Science News)
(Nature)
(Business Insider)
Expedition 34
Flight Engineers
Tom Marshburn
,
Roman Romanenko
and
Chris Hadfield
dock their
Soyuz TMA-07M
spacecraft
to the
International Space Station
’s
Rassvet module
.
(NASA)
MIT
researchers discover that
Herbertsmithite
exhibits a
quantum spin liquid
behavior, a new kind of
magnetism
.
(Extreme Tech)
(Red Orbit)
(The Register)
Sport
The
NHL
announces the cancellation of the
2012–13 regular-season
schedule through 14 January due to the
2012 NHL lockout
bringing the total to 625 games, more than 50 percent of the entire schedule.
(
USA Today
)
(ESPN)
(NHL)
Ice hockey
player
Anže Kopitar
and
judoka
Urška Žolnir
are named as 2012
Slovenian Sportsperson of the Year
.
(NBC Sports)
(RTV Slovenija)
Raul Rusescu
is named as 2012
Romanian Footballer of the Year
while
Mircea Lucescu
becomes the 2012
Romania Coach of the Year
.
(Reuters)
(
Gazeta Sporturilor
)
Professional
shooter
Sergei Martynov
and
tennis
star
Victoria Azarenka
are named the 2012
Belarus
Sportpersons of the Year.
(Sport Panorama)
(Grodno News)
UEFA
announces that
Málaga
,
Hajduk Split
,
Osijek
,
Rapid București
,
Dinamo București
and
Partizan
are banned from competing in the next
UEFA Champions League
or
UEFA Europa League
competition they qualify for after failing to meet financial obligations.
(UEFA)
The
Italian Olympic Committee
requests a four-year
doping
ban for former
race walk
Olympic champion
Alex Schwazer
. He was excluded from the
2012 London Olympics
after testing positive for
EPO
before the games.
(ESPN)
Michael Phelps
and
Gabrielle Douglas
are named as 2012
Associated Press
Athletes of the Year
.
(
Los Angeles Times
)
(BoxScore)