Portal:Current events/2012 May 12

Current events of May 12, 2012 (2012-05-12) (Saturday)

Armed conflict and attacks

• The United States conducts two drone strikes in southeastern Yemen, killing 11 suspected Al-Qaeda militants. (Washington Post) (Huffington Post)
• Nigerian police claim to have captured a senior commander of the radical Islamist militant group Boko Haram. (BBC)
• Four NATO soldiers die in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan – two in a gun attack by insurgents, one in a roadside bombing, and one of non-combat injuries. (CNN)

Business and economy

• Eurozone debt crisis:
  • The European Commission states that the combined eurozone economy is likely to contract by 0.3% in 2012, as an ongoing debt crisis and high unemployment continue to wrack the 17 euro-using nations. (Sky News Australia)
  • The Spanish "Indignants" protest movement celebrates its first anniversary, with thousands of people gathering in Spanish cities to protest against the politicians and bankers widely blamed for the country's economic downturn. Similar protests take place in other cities, including London, Lisbon, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv, as part of a global day of action. (BBC) (Reuters via Yahoo News)
  • Leading European Central Bank policymakers state that crisis-hit Greece may be able to abandon the euro without compromising the wider eurozone. (Reuters)

Disasters

• Three Boston University students are killed and another five are injured in a minivan crash during a trip to New Zealand. (Boston Herald)

International relations

• China denies that its military has been placed on a war footing amid an ongoing dispute with the Phillipines over territorial claims in the South China Sea. (BBC)(Wall Street Journal)
• Two Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are reportedly close to death, having refused to eat for 74 days. A further 1,600 prisoners have been on hunger strike since 17 April. (Daily Telegraph)

Politics and elections

• President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez returns home after successfully completing of a course of radiotherapy for cancer in Cuba. (BBC)
• The President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, begins efforts at forming a coalition government, after three failed attempts by major political parties to reach a coalition agreement. (BBC)
• In the United States, prospective Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney condemns same-sex marriage as illegitimate. At a Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia, he describes marriage as exclusively "a relationship between one man and one woman." (BBC)

Science

• The discovery of a missing piece of the Mayan calendar appears to render the 2012 phenomenon obsolete, by proving that the Maya did not believe 2012 to be the end of the world. (WBRC)

Sport

• Fans clash in Istanbul, Turkey, as Galatasaray draw with Fenerbahçe S.K. to secure their 18th Turkish soccer title. (AFP via Google)