Portal:Current events/2012 December 19

December 19, 2012 (Wednesday)

Armed conflict and attacks

2012 terrorist attacks in Kenya:
- Two people are injured in two blasts outside al-Amin mosque in the Somali-dominated Eastleigh district of Nairobi during the evening rush hour. (Al Jazeera)
2012 Central African Republic rebellion:
- Chad sends troops to the Central African Republic to help defend the town of Bria from the Seleka rebel coalition. (BBC)
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
- British Prime Minister David Cameron tells the House of Commons that 3,800 British troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2013. The figure represents half the current British deployment in that country. (BBC)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Israel presses on with the construction of thousands of new homes in West Bank and East Jerusalem, despite worldwide criticism and suggestions that officials in Palestine may go to the International Criminal Court. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

Banking giant UBS is fined $1.5 billion for attempting to manipulate the Libor interbank lending rate, becoming the second international bank, after Barclays, to be fined over the Libor scandal. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

International relations

Following the Magnitsky bill, the U.S. sanctions designed to punish Russia for its rights record, Russia is to ban Americans from adopting their children. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

The gang rape of a woman on a bus in India leads to nationwide outrage; three of the four accused confess in court. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
Robert Bork, a former federal judge and conservative legal theorist, best known for his losing nomination battle for the Supreme Court of the United States, dies at 85 in Arlington, Virginia. (The New York Times)
The High Court of England and Wales quashes the original inquest verdicts returned on 96 Liverpool football fans who died as a result of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. (The Independent)

Media

U.S. news magazine Time selects U.S. President Barack Obama as its 2012 Person of the Year, following on from his 2008 award, and those of his predecessors George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1998, George H. W. Bush in 1990, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1983, Jimmy Carter in 1976, Richard Nixon in 1971 and 1972 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and 1967. (Time) (The Daily Telegraph)
Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal:
- The Pollard report into practices at the BBC is published, and finds there was a “complete inability” to deal with the Jimmy Savile crisis. (The Independent)
- Despite being criticised, the BBC Director of News Helen Boaden will return to her post in the wake of the report's publication, but her Deputy, Stephen Mitchell resigns. Peter Rippon is moved aside from his Newsnight post, with the programme having a new senior editorial team. Controller of BBC Radio Five Live Adrian Van Klaveren also resigns. (The Independent) (Radio Today)

Politics and elections

South Korean presidential election, 2012:
- Voters in South Korea go to the polls with exit polls showing a very close race expected between Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the left-of-centre Democratic United Party. (Reuters via the Malaysian Insider) (BBC)
- The South Korean electoral commission declares Park Geun-hye the winner of the presidential election with 84% of the votes counted and will become South Korea's first female president. Moon Jae-in has conceded. (Yonhap) (BBC)

Science and technology

Sport

FC Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova will have surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy over the next six weeks, after the relapse of a cancer in the salivary gland. Assistant manager Jordi Roura will lead FC Barcelona in the head manager’s stead. (UEFA) (FC Barcelona)