Portal:Current events/2012 July 7

• The Lebanese army in Wadi Khaled is placed on alert after rockets from Syria kill two people in its territory. (Now Lebanon) (Lebanese News Agency)

• Jaime García Márquez tells his students that his brother Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian writer and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature, suffers from dementia that has ended his writing career. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• The 2012 World Karl Popper Debate Championships are held in León, Mexico from 2 to 6 July. The results, announced on the WKPDC official website on 7 July, declare Pakistan the winner of the championship and Zainab Hameed best speaker and debater.

• More than 140 people are killed after torrential rains leading to heavy floods sweep through parts of the south Russian Krasnodar region. (BBC)
• A bus crash in northeastern Ukraine kills at least 14 Russian pilgrims. (BBC)
• Up to 13 million in West Africa are at risk in a food crisis caused by a prolonged drought. (The Journal)
• The UK's Environment Agency issues a severe flood warning for part of south-west England following torrential rain. (BBC)

• The United States declares Afghanistan one of its major non-NATO allies, a designation that permits it to buy advanced U.S. weaponry. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The New York Times)
• Cuban leader Raúl Castro makes his first visit to Beijing since succeeding Fidel Castro in 2008; trade deals are signed between China and Cuba. (Al Jazeera)

• Nagpuri Album "Bubblegum Guiya" was released.

• A 22-year-old woman is arrested in east London in connection with an ongoing counter-terrorism operation. (BBC)
• More than twenty student leaders are arrested across Burma. (BBC)
• The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office re-categorizes Natalie Wood's 1981 drowning as "undetermined" on her death certificate, replacing the previous finding of an "accident". (CBS)
• Princess Sara bint Talal bin Abdulaziz, daughter of Prince Talal, claims political asylum in the UK over fears for her safety in Saudi Arabia.(The Telegraph)
• Hong Kong police seize 649 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of US$98 million, in an anti-drug operation that began in April. (CNN)

• The lower house of parliament in Russia gives initial backing to a bill forcing internationally-funded non-governmental organisations to carry a "foreign agent" tag. (Al Jazeera)
• Voters in Libya go to the polls for a General National Congress election with those elected responsible for appointing a Prime Minister, cabinet and establishing a new constitution. (Reuters)
• Voters in East Timor go to the polls for a parliamentary election. (ABC News)
• American politician Barney Frank marries his long-time partner James Ready, becoming the first member of the United States House of Representatives to enter into a same-sex marriage. (Reuters via MSNBC)

• 2012 Wimbledon Championships in England:
  • Serena Williams of the United States beats Agnieszka Radwańska of Poland in the final of the Women's Singles. (BBC)
  • Britain's Jonathan Marray and Denmark's Frederik Nielsen win Wimbledon's men's doubles final by three sets to two. Marray becomes the first Briton to win such a match since 1936. (BBC)