Portal:Current events/2012 September 25

• Syrian civil war:
  • A Save the Children report details the plight of children in Syria. (CBS)
• An academic report from the United States finds that American drone attacks "terrorize" the civilian population of northern Pakistan, further stating that the benefits of drone attacks for the U.S. are "ambiguous at best". (BBC)
• A bombing in the eastern Turkish city of Tunceli kills at least seven people. (BBC)
• The People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, commences service. (BBC)

• American singer Andy Williams dies at the age of 84 at his home in Branson, Missouri. (BBC)

• A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hits near the Baja California peninsula with no immediate reports of injuries or damage. (CNN)

• The World Health Organisation announces a global alert and is investigating the case of a novel coronavirus found in a Qatari man returning from Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)

• Senkaku Islands dispute:
  • Over 50 Taiwanese ships clash with ships from the Japan Coast Guard in waters off the Senkaku Islands. (The Japan Times) (Kyodo News via Mainichi Shimbun) (Yomiuri Shimbun)
  • Chinese and Japanese diplomats meet in Beijing to lay out their respective countries' positions on the Senkaku Islands dispute. (Kyodo News via The Japan Times) (Jiji Press via Yomiuri Shimbun)
• South Korea expresses concern over China's plan to monitor the disputed Socotra Rock area with unmanned drones. (Yonhap) (Kyodo News via Mainichi Shimbun)

• Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the former President of Japan's Olympus Corporation, pleads guilty to fraud for his role in the Olympus scandal. (AP via The Wall Street Journal)

• Activists from the Enough Project reveal through The Guardian newspaper that Omar al-Bashir's Sudan and Joseph Kabila's DR Congo together received 2.4 million pound sterling (around USD 4 million) in British military aid, in the last five years alone. (The Guardian)
• Protestors and police clash in Madrid over Spanish anti-austerity measures. (BBC)
• Anouchka van Miltenburg of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is elected as President of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, giving the VVD the Big Three in Dutch politics: Prime Minister, President of the Senate and President of the House of Representatives. (NOS)

• The organizing committee for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, adopts the slogan Hot. Cool. Yours. (Russia Today)