July 13, 2012 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Delta Air Lines flight 126 en route to Madrid turns around and lands back at JFK following a security problem with some cut wires being discovered in the plane's bathroom. (NBC)
- Bedouin men kidnap two tourists from the United States and their guide in Egypt's Sinai region and demand the release of a jailed tribesman for their return. (CBS)
- Cambodian troops aim machine gun fire at a Thai passenger jet, saying they believed it to be a spy plane, but do not hit the plane. (RNW)
- Nigerian Sharia conflict:
- A suicide bomber kills 5 at a mosque in Maiduguri, Nigeria. (Reuters)
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
- A female Afghan politician, Hanifa Safi, dies in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan. (BBC)
Arts and culture
- Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, is announced as the winner of the 2012 PEN/Pinter Prize. (BBC)
- Jennifer Lopez reveals she is leaving the hit American talent show American Idol. (Billboard)
- Academy Award winning producer Richard D. Zanuck dies in Los Angeles of a heart attack. (Variety)
Business and economy
- Moody's Investor Services downgrades Italy's government rating from A3 to Baa2. (Dow Jones via The Australian)
- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is set to release documents outlining what it knew about the Libor scandal and what action it took. (The Washington Post)
- The economic growth rate for the People's Republic of China falls to 7.6 per cent, its lowest level in three years. (Bloomberg via Sydney Morning Herald) (Xinhua)
- The Federal Aviation Administration fines Boeing $13.5 million for failing to provide fuel tank flammability instructions by designated deadline. (Komo News)
Disasters
- Between 19 and 30 people are killed after a train crashes into a truck carrying farm labourers near the South African town of Malelane. (AFP via Google News) (BBC)
- Three Americans die in a Mystere-Falcon 20 after it crashes on the runway at Le Castellet Airport, between Toulon and Marseille. (CNN)
- More than 1,000 counties in the United States are declared natural disaster areas after a drought spreads throughout the country. (CNN)
- Parts of Wales are hit by flash floods following torrential rain. (BBC)
- 52 people are injured following a collision between a car and a coach on the A11 in the English county of Suffolk. (BBC)
International relations
- Canada announces it will establish an embassy in Myanmar after the country's widespread democratic reform, says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. (CBC)
- Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is appointed United Nations special envoy for education. (The Guardian) (The Independent)
Law and crime
- Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing is arrested on suspicion of involvement in the death of his wife, Eva Rausing. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for war crimes against Sylvestre Mudacumura, the commander of the Congolese rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. (France 24)
- A federal judge in Alabama sentences Ulugbek Kodirov, an Uzbek national, to 15 years in prison for plotting to kill Barack Obama. (ABC)(Fox News)
Politics and elections
- Mexico's presidential runner-up and PRD candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, files a lawsuit against Enrique Peña Nieto for alleged vote-buyings, biased media coverage, and manipulated opinion polls in the recent Mexican elections. (The Guardian)
Sport
- A convention of Scottish football clubs vote to demote the financially stricken Rangers into the Third Division. (BBC)
- John Terry is found not guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. (The Guardian)