February 5, 2013 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Senkaku Islands dispute:
- Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera states that the country has lodged a protest with China after a People's Liberation Army Navy frigate directed weapon-targeting radar at a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer near the disputed Senkaku Islands. (BBC)
Business and economy
- Dell announces it will go private after a $24 billion leveraged buyout deal with a consortium led by founder Michael Dell. (The New York Times) (Reuters)
- Standard & Poor's says it expects a lawsuit by the US government over its assessment of mortgage bonds prior to the subprime mortgage crisis. (BBC)
- IBM issues a $1 billion two year corporate bond deal at a negative spread to Libor (the London Interbank Offered Rate). (Reuters)
International relations
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travels to Egypt. It is the first time since 1979 revolution that an Iranian head of state visits that country. (The Guardian)
- A North Korean propaganda film, which featured New York in flames, is taken down by Activision due to the video using footage from Modern Warfare 3. (BBC)
Law and crime
- Riots take place in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, ahead of the verdict of a trial in the International Crimes Tribunal against Abdul Quader Molla, the assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party dating from the 1971 Bangladeshi War of Independence. He is given a life sentence. (AFP via Dawn.com) (AFP via The Express Tribune)
- A report into Ireland's Magdalene asylums finds "significant" state collusion in the admission of thousands of "fallen women" into the institutions where they were abused and worked for nothing in conditions of slavery before they were shut down less than two decades ago. (The Irish Times) (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
- The trial of five men accused in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case begins today, while President of India Pranab Mukherjee approves the death penalty for rapists. (The Times of India)
- Three people are shot to death in a house near Forestville, Sonoma County, California, United States. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Four people are dead in a possible murder-suicide in Johns Creek, Georgia, United States. (CBS News)
Politics and elections
- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff launches a new national economy politics based on rising the price of local oil over the reduction of light consumption prices. (Reuters via R7 News)
- The United Kingdom's House of Commons votes overwhelmingly in favour of government legislation to introduce same-sex marriages. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian)
- The University of Düsseldorf strips German Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan of a doctorate and degree following allegations of plagiarism. (BBC)
Science and technology
- Curtis Cooper, a mathematician and computer science professor at the University of Central Missouri, discovers the largest known prime number, a Mersenne prime with over 17.4 million digits. (New Scientist) (GIMPS)
Sport
- The Australian Football League announces an Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation into whether players from the Essendon Football Club were given performance enhancing drugs. (Courier-Mail)