December 16, 2014 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in North-West Pakistan
- 2014 Peshawar school attack
- Taliban gunmen storm one of the military-run Army Public Schools in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 141, including 132 children and nine employees, with most of five hundred students evacuated. (Reuters)(BBC)(The New York Times)
- The shooting ends with all six gunmen dead. (International Business Times)
- 2014 Peshawar school attack
- Syrian Civil War
- Around one hundred Syrian soldiers and eighty Islamist fighters die in a two-day battle for Wadi Deif, with the Islamic Front capturing over 120 government soldiers. (Reuters)
- Terrorism in Yemen
- A pair of car bombs kill 20 children and 11 Houthi militants in Radaa, central Yemen. (CNN)
- Gaza–Israel conflict
Business and economy
- 2014 Russian financial crisis
- The Bank of Russia announces an increase of its key interest rate, the Russian weekly repo rate, from 10.5 to 17 percent as an emergency move to halt the collapse of the ruble's value and, thereby, stabilize the Russian economy. (Channel News Asia)
- Despite rate hike, the ruble falls to 65 ₽ per US dollar and 80 ₽ per Euro. (Reuters)
- Sony Music Entertainment gives Chinese online company Tencent rights to distribute its music catalogue. (Reuters)
- The price of Brent Crude oil drops to $55–60 per barrel for the first time since 2009. (Reuters)
- The court jury finds Apple Inc. in a nine-year lawsuit not guilty of violating antitrust laws and deleting music content for security reasons. (Ars Technica)(BusinessWeek)(NY Daily News)
- American Apparel fires its founder Dov Charney as its Chief Executive Officer after months of suspension. (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- A tunnel collapse traps twelve Vietnamese workers, including one woman, at a construction site of a hydropower plant located in the Central Highlands. (Thanh Nien)
Law and crime
- 2014 Sydney hostage crisis
- The hostage situation ends with gunman Man Haron Monis and two hostages dead and four others injured. (CNN) (ABC Australia)
- Israel Police arrest ten members of Lehava, a right-wing organisation that opposes integration of Arabs and Jews, for last month's arson on an Arab–Jewish school. (Times of Israel)
- India declares a ban on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after an engineer was detained for campaigning on behalf of the group on Twitter. Officials worry that such ban will endanger thirty-nine men, believed to be held hostage by the group. (Reuters)
- Montgomery County, Pennsylvania shootings
- The Montgomery County District Attorney reports that Bradley Stone, suspected in the killing of his ex-wife and five of her family members Monday, has been found dead in the woods near his home in Pennsburg, Pa.. (NBC), (Venturebeat)
- Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Scotland with the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 coming into effect. (BBC News)
- Judge Arthur J. Schwab of the US District Court of Pennsylvania declares President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration unconstitutional. (Reuters)
Science and technology
- For the first time, NASA emailed hardware, a wrench, to the International Space Station that was fabricated on the ISS's Zero Gravity 3D printer. (3dPrint.com) (Medium.com)