August 12, 2009 (Wednesday)
- At a meeting in Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sign agreements expanding trade between their two countries. (MercoPress)
- It is discovered that the Killer Whale creates and visits 'social clubs'. (BBC)
- Yemeni troops, backed by tanks and fighter aircraft, launch a major offensive on the stronghold of Shia fighters in northern Yemen. (Al Jazeera)
- Thirty people are killed in Warrap state in southern Sudan, in a resurgence of the nomadic conflicts. (IOL)
- Russia's navy is deployed to find the MV Arctic Sea, a missing ship reportedly hijacked three weeks ago in the Baltic Sea. (BBC News)
- About 700 people missing in southern Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot are located alive. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Indonesian police say DNA tests show that a militant killed in a weekend raid was not Noordin Mohammed Top, one of the region's most wanted men. (BBC)
- The wreckage of an Airlines PNG De Havilland Twin Otter 300 plane carrying 11 passengers and 2 crew is found near Isurava, Papua New Guinea; there are no signs of survivors. (Al Jazeera) (RNZI)
- Gunmen shoot dead five Pakistani Muslim preachers outside a mosque in Galkayo, Somalia. (IOL) (BBC)
- Gregoire Ndahimana, a Rwandan fugitive accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, is arrested by a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation. (IOL) (BBC)
- An estimated 20,000 people march through Noumea, New Caledonia, to denounce violent clashes by USTKE trade unionists against police. (RNZI)
- MV Princess Ashika
- New Zealand Navy divers believe they have located the sunken MV Princess Ashika a week after the accident. (RNZI)
- Tonga's Transportation Minister Paul Karalus resigns after the sinking of the MV Princess Ashika, which killed an estimated 93 people. (New Zealand Herald)
- German CDU politician Vera Lengsfeld attracts controversy for displaying a photo of Angela Merkel in a revealing gown without the authorisation of the Chancellor. (BBC)
- Lubna al-Hussein, the Sudanese woman facing forty lashes for wearing trousers in public, is prevented from leaving the country for a trip to Lebanon, where she was to take part in a televised talk-show about women's issues. (IOL) (BBC)
- Diego León Montoya Sánchez, Norte Valle Cartel leader, pleads guilty to drug, murder and racketeering charges. (www.BackgroundNow.com)
- The Roman Catholic Church is expresses "unease" and "mortification" over revelations surrounding the private life of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. (BBC)
- Astronomers discover WASP-17b, the first planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star. (BBC)