Syrian jets bombard rebel positions inDamascus as a country-wideInternet and phone blackout enters a third day.Government officials announce the road to the airport in the capital has been secured, though rebels insist clashes are ongoing.(Reuters)
At least 8 people are killed and 36 injured when a passengerbus overturns on the highway between the cities ofSucre andPotosí in southernBolivia.(RIA Novosti)
Israel Keyes, a 34-year-old man suspected of killingSamantha Koenig and possibly as many as 7 others throughout the U.S., apparently kills himself while in custody.(AP/CBS News)
Spanishracing driverMaria de Villota is released from hospital following her latest operation at the end of November. She has had further surgery to rebuild her face after she lost an eye in a high-speed crash.(Autosport.com)
A mortar attack destroys a school in the small city of Bteeha, on the road toHoms north of the capital. According to the state news agencySANA at least 29 are killed, while activists report 9 deaths.(New York Times)
The cargo ship Volgo Balt 199 sinks in theBlack Sea nearIstanbul with aUkrainian andRussian crew of 12. Four crew members are rescued and one is found dead, while the rest are missing. Two rescuers are killed and two others left missing after their boat hit rocks during the search operations.(Reuters)[permanent dead link]
American businessmanJohn McAfee is arrested inGuatemala following an alleged illegal entry after leavingBelize where he is wanted for questioning over the death of fellow American Gregory Faull.(Reuters)
At least 5 people are shot dead on the third day of clashes betweenAlawites andSunnis inTripoli,Lebanon. The casualty toll of the three days is at least 10 killed and 73 injured.(Reuters)
TheUnited States Supreme Court grants review ofCalifornia's ban on same-sex marriage (Proposition 8, which has been challenged), and also agrees to finally determine the constitutionality of the federalDOMA law, which theObama administration has said it will not continue defending. This is the Court's most significant foray into the issue yet, though an overruling of the DOMA act would only mean thefederal government would have to recognize such marriages in areas where they are already legal.(NBC News)
Irish state broadcasterRTÉ is to provide staff training on what subjects are appropriate for discussion on social media sites such asTwitter following several controversies involving tweets from its employees.(Evening Herald)
The promoters ofFormula Two decide not to run theseries in 2013 after completing just four years of their five-year contract with theFIA.(ESPN)(Motorsport)
Bosses atAustralian radio station2Day FM suspend all advertising until Monday after several major advertisers withdrew their business in the wake of the death ofJacintha Saldanha.(BBC)
Violent clashes occur inBangladesh as protesters stage a nationwide blockade of roads to press for an independent body to oversee thenext general election. At least two people were killed and about 100 injured after police firerubber bullets andtear gas.(Reuters)(BBC)
Rebel forces seize parts of the Sheikh Suleiman army base nearAleppo after weeks of heavy fighting. Ground clashes continue in the suburbs ofDamascus as the government carries out further air raids against opposition forces.(Al Jazeera)
Unknown gunmen assassinate Nadia Sediqqi, head of the women's affairs department inLaghman Province,Afghanistan. She was shot as she was getting into her rickshaw on her way to work in the provincial capitalMehtar Lam, according to a provincial government spokesperson.(NBC News)
Michigan's state government passesright to work legislation, making Michigan the 24th state and the most highly unionized state in the US to have such laws. Thousands of union employees protest outside theMichigan State Capitol inLansing.(CNN)
The Finucane family renew their call for a public inquiry and describe the report as a "sham" and a "whitewash", "a report into which we have had no input." Finucane's wife says, "The British government has engineered a suppression of the truth behind the murder of my husband."(The Guardian)(Irish Independent)
Speaking in theHouse of Commons, UK prime ministerDavid Cameron says he is "deeply sorry" over British involvement in Finucane's murder but opposes a public inquiry into the killing.(Irish Independent)
Ecuador's National Court of Justice issues an international arrest warrant for formerPresidentJamil Mahuad on embezzlement charges and orders that all of his assets in Ecuador be seized.(AAP via News Limited)
Russia's DeputyForeign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirms his country is working on mobilization plans to evacuate its citizens fromSyria. In the statement, theForeign Ministry acknowledges for the first time that therebels might win as theSyrian government is losing control of more and more territory.(Reuters)
At least 16 people are killed and 25 others injured after a car bomb strikes the city ofQatana, 25 km southwest of the capitalDamascus. The attack follows a similar blast in front of theInterior Ministry building a day earlier that killed at least five.(Reuters)
A worker at the chief clerk's office (making reference to a will) at theHugo Black U.S. Federal Courthouse inBirmingham,Alabama shoots himself in the head.(CNN)
TheBritish government pays £2.23 million to the family of Sami al-Saadi, who with his wife and young children, was abducted with the help ofMI-6, forced onto a plane and secretly flown toTripoli, where he was tortured for years by the security police of the former dictatorMuammar Gaddafi.(The Guardian)(Al Jazeera)
Two incidents of shootings happened in the U.S. state ofAlabama. A 38-year-old man opens fire at a hospital inBirmingham, wounding a police officer and two employees before he is fatally shot by police. In another unrelated incident, a man suspected of the fatal shooting of three people in a mobile home inCleburne County, is shot to death near Birmingham by police after brandishing anAK-47.(CBC)
A man stood in the parking lot of theFashion Island mall inNewport Beach,California, and fired 50 gunshots in the air, inducing a mass of panic from the shoppers and employees. No one was hit by the bullets, but one person was injured while trying to flee. A 42-year-old man was arrested for the shooting, and additional ammunition was found in his car.(CNN)
Philippine authorities announce the death toll fromTyphoon Bopha has reached 1,020. Another 844 are still missing, most of themfishermen lost on boats out at sea. More than two weeks after the passage of the storm, nearly 27,000 people remain inemergency shelters.(AFP via Yahoo News)
Cyclone Evan hitsFiji with winds as high as 230 km/h, amid reports of flooding and structural damage at resorts and private homes. More than 8,000 people spend the storm in emergency shelters, including many foreign tourists.(Reuters)(AAP via SBS)
At least 18 people drown after an overloaded boat sinks north ofBenin's commercial capitalCotonou.(Reuters)
TheParliament of Libya orders the closure ofLibya's southern borders withChad,Sudan,Algeria andNiger while declaring seven southern regions restricted military areas to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and goods.(BBC)
NBC News Chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel and his production team are freed after 5 days of captivity in northernSyria. They were captured by what Engel claims were members of theshabiha, a plainclothes militia loyal to PresidentBashar al-Assad. Rebel forces at a checkpoint freed the men after a firefight that killed 2 of the captors.(NBC News)
A coalition of rebel groups calledSéléka take over theCentral African Republic mining town ofBria, killing at least 15 government soldiers. The group is spearheaded byUFDR forces and has already taken five towns in its two-week offensive, which it claims is because of a lack of progress after a peace deal ended the2004–2007 Bush War. Following an appeal for help from President]]François Bozizé, the President ofChadIdriss Déby sends 20 vehicles of heavily armed troops to help quell the rebellion.(ABC News)(AFP)(Reuters)
Two people are injured in two blasts outside al-Amin mosque in theSomali-dominatedEastleigh district ofNairobi during the evening rush hour.(Al Jazeera)
Banking giantUBS is fined $1.5 billion for attempting to manipulate theLibor interbank lending rate, becoming the second international bank, afterBarclays, to be fined over theLibor scandal.(Al Jazeera)
ThePollard report into practices at theBBC is published, and finds there was a “complete inability” to deal with the Jimmy Savile crisis.(The Independent)
TheSouth Korean electoral commission declaresPark Geun-hye the winner of the presidential election with 84% of the votes counted and will become South Korea's first female president.Moon Jae-in has conceded.(Yonhap)(BBC)
Julian Assange issues a statement to supporters from a balcony ofLondon'sEcuadorean embassy, in which he refers to theU.S.Pentagon's recent description of the existence ofWikiLeaks as an "ongoing crime" and suggests it is the intention ofWikiLeaks to release a million more documents in 2013.(BBC)
AU.S. soldier who urinated on the corpse of a deadAfghan combatant is sentenced to 30 days in jail after admitting his action at a court martial. Reports suggest he will not be sent to jail because of a plea deal reached with military prosecutors.(BBC)
Laos denies knowledge as to the fate of missing activist Sombath Somphone, who disappeared last week in the capitalVientiane.(AFP via Google News)
A British court rejects an attempt by the son of a man killed inU.S. drone strike inPakistan to force theUK government to reveal if it provided intelligence to assist US action.(BBC)
Further details emerge on the suicide yesterday ofIrish government ministerShane McEntee; he breakfasted with his family, took his dogs for a walk and was later found dead. Friends blame the pressure he was put under by his party to vote in favour of the country's latestausteritybudget.(The Irish Times)(Irish Independent)
ANATO adviser is shot dead by a woman in police uniform inKabul, and at least fiveAfghan policemen are killed by another officer in northernAfghanistan.(BBC)
SixAQAP militants and twoYemeni soldiers are killed after clashes near a damagedoil pipeline inMa'rib Governorate. Separately, gunmen target military officials and the home of the transport minister in the capitalSana'a, killing a brigadier general and injuring four others.(Reuters)
CBB International, a financial analytics concern, releases a survey of executives indicating thatChina'sretail sector is growing, leading a broader upswing in that nation's economy.(Reuters)
Catholic figureheadSeán Brady's intervention inIreland'sabortiondebate draws harsh criticism from legislators and more calls for theChurch to transfer the rest of the compensation it promised for those abused by priests, but has not yet paid.(Irish Independent)
A bus has veers off a mountain road and plunges into a river nearDasarathpur village in westernNepal, killing at least 13 people and leaving 19 others critically injured.(AP via The Washington Post)
TheLCC report that up to 400 people have been killed acrossSyria on Saturday, including about 200 reported executed by theSyrian Army in the Deir Ballba neighborhood ofHoms.(CNN)
