Portal:Current events/2013 April 12

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • Thirteen soldiers of the Afghan National Army are killed and one is injured in an ambush in the eastern Kunar Province. (CNN) (AP via ABC News)
• Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal):
  • At least 11 people are killed and more than 30 are wounded in bomb attacks at Sunni mosques in Baghdad and in the province of Diyala. (BBC)
• Northern Mali conflict (2012–present):
  • 2013 Kidal suicide attack: Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali. (AP via Montreal Gazette)

• The BBC confirms that it will not be playing "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" in full when it counts down the UK pop chart on Sunday, saying it finds "distasteful" the timing of the song's rise up the charts in the wake of Margaret Thatcher's death. (The Irish Times) (Time)
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is released in Japan as fans of Haruki Murakami queue at midnight outside Tokyo bookshops. (The Guardian)
• Veteran Bollywood actor Pran is announced as the winner of the 2012 Dadasaheb Phalke Award. (The Hindu) (The Indian Express) (The Times of India)

• European Union finance ministers and central bank governors begin a two-day meeting at Dublin Castle to talk about austerity, the collapse of the Cypriot economy and the creation of a federal bank. (RTÉ News) (Reuters)
• Australian company Woodside Petroleum shelves its controversial $45 billion Browse LNG project planned for James Price Point on Western Australia's Dampier Peninsula. (ABC News Australia)
• Macy's loses a bid to stop JC Penney from selling unbranded housewares designed by Martha Stewart. (The New York Times)

• Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency searches for an asylum-seeking boat carrying more than seventy people, which is feared to have sunk in the Sunda Strait. (AAP via The Australian)
• A powerful storm system hits Midwestern and Southern United States spawning a dozen tornadoes and killing 3 people. (AP via Fox News)

• 2013 Korean crisis:
  • South Korea's defense ministry says it doubts North Korea has the ability to launch a nuclear-armed ballistic missile as claimed in a report by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia)
  • United States Secretary of State John Kerry lands in Seoul, South Korea, as he embarks on three-day trip through South Korea, Japan, and China to send a "tough" message to North Korea. (Al Jazeera)
  • North Korea declares that Japan will face annihilation if it threatens to wage war. Japan declares that the Patriot missiles deployed in Okinawa Island will be permanent. (The Japan Daily Press) (AFP via The Economic Times)
• British Prime Minister David Cameron travels to Berlin to discuss his demands for sweeping reform of the European Union with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (BBC)
• Israel reopens a trade route in the Gaza Strip after closing it for several days earlier in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave. (The Daily Star)
• Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir visits South Sudan for the first time since the country won its independence in 2011 to meet with President Salva Kiir. (AFP via Capital FM Kenya)
• The United States imposes sanctions on 18 "Magnitsky list" Russians accused of human rights violations. Russia threatens to retaliate. (The New York Times)
• A representative from the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s National Boundary Commission hands over a diplomatic note to a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to protest China's recent plan to bring tourists to the disputed Paracel archipelago. (TalkVietnam)

• India's Supreme Court clears the way for the execution of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a Sikh militant, rejecting his appeal for his sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia)
• The French Senate approves same-sex marriage in France putting the bill on track to become law by summer. (AP via ABC News)
• In Taiwan, 600 people are evacuated from a high-speed train en route to Zuoying from Taipei after timed explosives are found in a restroom. (CNN)
• North Carolina A&T State University, a college in Greensboro, North Carolina, is put into lockdown in response to reports of a gunman on campus. No gunman is found in the resulting search. (Reuters) (AP via CBS News)
• Police are tipped off when a posting on 4chan reveals plans to commit a mass shooting at New River Community College in Christiansburg, Virginia, United States. Two women are injured and a suspect is apprehended. (CNN) (AP via ABC News) (Gawker)

• Iran's former nuclear negotiator Hassan Rouhani enters the race to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accusing the incumbent of needlessly incurring crippling economic sanctions. (Al Jazeera)

• Russian President Vladimir Putin unveils a new $50 billion drive for the country to preserve its status as a top space power, including the construction of the new Vostochny Cosmodrome to fly humans to space by the end of the decade. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia) (Wired UK)
• A 32-foot tall, 60,000 ton stone monument found in the Sea of Galilee in 2003 is determined to be man-made, dating to approximately 2000 B.C. (Los Angeles Times)

• The draw for the semi-finals of the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League is held in Nyon, Switzerland. Bayern Munich will play Barcelona while Borussia Dortmund will face Real Madrid. (UEFA)
• The draw for the semi-finals of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League is held in Nyon, Switzerland. Basel will play Chelsea while Fenerbahçe will face Benfica. (UEFA)
• Kobe hits two free throws after tearing his achilles, leading the team to a 118-116 victory over the Golden State Warriors.