March 13, 2013 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2013 Srinagar attack:
- Taliban insurgency:
- A suicide bomber kills 10 spectators, including the district police chief, during a local gaming event in Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan. (Reuters)
- Syrian civil war:
- Ahmad Shihadeh, a member of the European Union's delegation in Syria, is killed in a rocket attack in a Damascus suburb. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Kurdish–Turkish conflict:
- Kurdish rebels release eight Turkish citizens that had been held captive for two years. (Voice of America)
- Nigerian Sharia conflict:
- Men on motorbikes storm a primary school in Nigeria and open fire wounding four teachers. (GlobalPost)
Arts and culture
- French sociologist of science and anthropologist Bruno Latour wins the 2013 Holberg Prize. (Le Monde) (Aftenposten) (Holbergprisen)
Business and economy
- The European Parliament rejects a European Union budget for the first time in its history. (Financial Times)
Disasters and accidents
- A twin-engine Embraer 821 plane crashes in the Brazilian state of Pará, killing all nine passengers and the pilot. (SAPA via News24)
International relations
- North Korea confirms that it has shredded the 60-year-old Korean Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War, and warns that the next step will be an act of "merciless" military retaliation. (AFP via News24)
Law and crime
- A shooting spree leaves four dead and two wounded in the villages of Mohawk and Herkimer in Herkimer County, New York. Police storm the gan abandoned bar in Herkimer where the gunman, Kurt R. Myers, 64, had holed himself up. After the gunman shot at officers and killed Ape, an FBI dog, police shot and killed him. (AP via ABC News) (WKTV) (Observer-Dispatch) (Syracuse.com) (USA Today) (MSN News)
- Seven men are executed for theft in Saudi Arabia after their appeals for clemency are denied. (BBC) (CNN)
- Hundreds of heavily armed Australian police raid motorcycle gangs in Sydney and its suburbs and seize explosives, guns, drugs and cash and arrest high-ranking members. (AFP via News24)
Politics and elections
- Adam Giles is elected as the new leader of the Country Liberal Party in Australia's Northern Territory replacing Terry Mills as Chief Minister. He will be the first indigenous head of government in Australian history. (Northern Territory News) (ABC News Australia)
- After her Siumut party wins the parliamentary election, Aleqa Hammond is set to become first female Prime Minister of Greenland. (AP via CBC) (AAP via The Australian)
Religion
- Papal conclave, 2013:
- Black smoke rises from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, signalling that Roman Catholic Cardinals had not elected a new pope in the morning session of the second day of voting at their conclave. (BBC) (AP via Boston.com)
- White smoke rises from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the evening indicating that a new pope has been chosen. (The Guardian) (The New York Times) (NCR)
- Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina is elected as the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis. He is the first pope of the Catholic Church from Latin America and the first Jesuit pope. (BBC) (Reuters) (CTV News)
Science and technology
- The European Southern Observatory's ALMA telescope begins service in Chile's Atacama Desert. (The Telegraph) (Taipei Times)
- The 2013 Intel Science Talent Search concludes with a Colorado high school senior winning the top prize for her work on algae biofuels. (NBC News)
Sport
- Germany's Bayern Munich and Spain's Málaga reach 2012–13 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals defeating Arsenal and Porto on aggregate respectively. (BBC) (UEFA)