Portal:Current events/2012 July 16

• Mexican Drug War: The Mexican Federal Police arrested one of the three ringleaders responsible for the deadly shootout last month in the Mexico City International Airport's busy food court. An anonymous tip-off led police to his whereabouts. (Global Post)
• Syrian uprising (2011–present):
  • Heavy fighting is reported in the capital Damascus overnight with claims of at least five deaths and dozens of injuries. (Reuters via The Irish Times)
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argues that Western nations are using blackmail to secure a new UN Security Council resolution in order to make the use of force in Syria legitimate. (CBS)
• Pakistani Taliban attack an office of the security force's intelligence agency in Bannu and take several hostages. (USA Today)
• Two American tourists who were kidnapped in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on 13 July 2012 are freed. (CBS)
• Thailand's security forces kill seven alleged drug smugglers from Myanmar in a gunbattle. (AP via Arab News)

• American director William Asher who directed the tv show "Bewitched" dies.
• English composer and pianist Jon Lord dies after suffering a pulmonary embolism. (BBC) (NME)
• American singer Kitty Wells, the "Queen of country music" and the first female singer to have a number one song on the country charts with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", dies of complications of a stroke. (Los Angeles Times)

• The United States Senate accuses the HSBC bank of laundering Mexican drug money. (BBC News)
• The launch of a flagship nuclear power station in Finland is delayed for a third time. (BBC)
• NBCUniversal buys full control of the US news website MSNBC.com and rebrands it as NBCNews.com. (NBC News)
• Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, businessman and motivational speaker dies. (AP via Newsday)

• Japan Self-Defense Forces airlift supplies to thousands of people isolated by flooding in southwest Japan, as the death toll rises to 24. (AAP via SBS News)

• Former National Rugby League player Craig Field is charged with murder following the death of a man allegedly assaulted in the Australian town of Kingscliff, New South Wales. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• A "multiple shooting" incident at Scarborough, a major district in Toronto, Canada, results in at least one death and 19 injured. (National Post)

• North Korea announces that Ri Yong-ho, a senior military figure and a member of the central presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea, is relieved of all duties due to illness. (AP via Yahoo! News)

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves Truvada as the first drug shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection. (CBS News)(USA Today)

• Thousands of athletes and officials start arriving in the United Kingdom for the London Olympics. (BBC)