Portal:Current events/2012 July 15

• Syrian uprising (2011-present):
  • The Red Cross (ICRC) says the conflict is now in effect a civil war, meaning combatants will now be officially subject to the Geneva Conventions. (BBC)
  • Opposition fighters battle Syrian government forces in poor districts of Damascus. (Reuters)
• The President of Libya's Olympic committee, Ahmed Nabil al Taher al Alam, is abducted in Tripoli. (BBC)

• Organisers pull the plug on a duet between Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney at Hyde Park, London, after it breached its legal curfew. (Philadelphia Daily News) (Irish Independent) (Scottish Daily Record) (The Daily Telegraph)

• Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates open new pipelines bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane that Iran has repeatedly threatened to close. (The Financial Times)

• A bus crash kills at least 39 pilgrims in the southern Nepali town of Parasi. (BBC)
• Hand, foot and mouth disease kills 149 people in Hunan, China. (Bangkok Post)
• One person is killed and ten are injured by a tornado in north west Poland (BBC)

• Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo agree an international border force to patrol their mutual border. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabia decides to donate $100 million to the Palestinian Authority. (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabia criticises comments by Russia about the human rights situation in the country, calling them "hostile". (Al Jazeera)
• The African Union choose Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa as its leader, making her the first woman to occupy the post, in a hard fought battle with incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon. (BBC)
• Egyptian protesters throw tomatoes and shoes at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade during her first visit to the country since the election of President Mohamed Morsi. (Reuters)

• Jason Kidd is arrested by Southampton Town police for alleged drunken driving. (USA Today)

• Hundreds of Israeli protesters gather in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba to show their solidarity with the man who self immolated on 14 July 2012. (The Jerusalem Post)

• A Russian Soyuz rocket begins its mission to the International Space Station with three international crew members. (AP via The Washington Post)