June 13, 2012 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
- An airstrike kills nine al Qaida fighters in southern Yemen as the Yemeni military maintain pressure on the group a day after government troops backed by armed tribesmen recaptured two militant strongholds. (AP via ABC News)
Arts and culture
- Jon McGregor wins the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest literary prize. (The Guardian) (CBC News)
- Thomas Pynchon permits his entire backlist to be published in digital format. (The Guardian)
Business and economics
- Bankrupt car maker Saab is sold to a Chinese-Swedish investment group, aiming at transforming the company into a maker of electric vehicles. (BBC)
- Greeks withdraw their cash from banks and stock up on non-perishable food ahead of Sunday's election. (Al Jazeera)
- Syrian uprising: The Syrian government begins printing money for the first time in a sign that the Syrian economy is on the verge of total collapse. (The Atlantic Wire)
International relations
- Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is embroiled in controversy after sending a text to his finance minister in which he claimed "Spain is not Uganda." (BBC)
- Israel announces that the first planeload of illegal South Sudanese migrants will be deported on Sunday. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel)
- The UN Conference on Sustainable Development begins in Rio de Janeiro, launching a new round of debate on the future habitability of Earth, its resources and people, 20 years after the first Earth Summit. (AFP via Google News)
Law and crime
- A schoolteacher in Montreal is suspended after showing pupils a video said to depict a murder. (BBC)
- Former President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in absentia by a Tunisian military court for inciting murder and violence during the revolution that ousted him from power in January 2011. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- U.S. federal prosecutors drop corruption charges against former Senator John Edwards following a mistrial. (Washington Post)
- Leveson Inquiry
- At the Leveson Inquiry into media standards Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond claims that The Observer accessed his bank account records in the run up to the 1999 Scottish Parliament election. (The Independent)
- Lib Dem MPs abstain in a House of Commons vote calling for an investigation into the ministerial conduct of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt over his handling of the BSkyB takeover bid. The motion is rejected by 290 votes to 252, but Conservative Party MPs are angered by the lack of support from their coalition partners. (The Independent)
- Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News International, appears at Westminster Magistrates Court on phone hacking charges alongside her husband and four other News International employees. (The Independent)
Politics and elections
- Hundreds of people sign a letter written by Manal al Sharif to Saudi King Abdullah urging him to allow women to get behind the wheel on the first anniversary of the Women2Drive campaign, launched in June 2011. (The Australian Eye) (BBC)
- Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi returns to Europe after more than two decades for a European tour, including Norway, Switzerland, France, Ireland and Britain. (Washington Post)
- Israel's State Comptroller criticises prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision-making during the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Times of Israel)
Science and health
- Japanese stem cell scientist Dr. Shinya Yamanaka is awarded the Millennium Technology Prize for discovering how to reprogram human cells to mimic embryonic stem cells, which can become any cell in the body. (BBC)
- Scientists decode the bonobo genome, making it last great ape to have its DNA sequence laid bare, following the chimpanzee, orang-utan and gorilla. (BBC)
Sport
- UEFA Euro 2012:
- Germany striker Mario Gómez tears a lacklustre Netherlands team apart at the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Substitute Silvestre Varela's late strike gives Portugal's victory over Denmark at the Arena Lviv in Lviv. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- UEFA slaps Russia with a suspended six-point deduction due to the behaviour of their fans during their victory over the Czech Republic; Russian president Vladimir Putin blames Poland for the trouble. (BBC)
- Two ex-heads of China's football league, Nan Yong and his predecessor Xie Yalong, are both accused of accepting bribes and are jailed for 10-and-a-half years each for corruption, making them the most senior football officials sentenced in the country. (BBC)
- The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brings drugs charges against seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. (BBC)
- In baseball, pitcher Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants throws the first perfect game in the club's history. (San Jose Mercury News)