Portal:Current events/2012 September 22

Current events of September 22, 2012 (2012-09-22) (Saturday)

Armed attacks

• 2012 diplomatic missions attacks:
  • Demanding the disbandment of armed groups, hundreds of demonstrators attack Ansar al-Sharia and Islamist militia compounds in Benghazi, Libya. Eleven people die in the clashes. Libyan authorities re-take control of deserted strongholds. (AP via ABC News) (AFP via Libération) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • The Libyan government asks the population to discriminate among "legitimate and non-legitimate" militias; Raf Allah al-Sahati, Feb. 17 and Libya Shield are supposedly "legitimate" militias. (AP via ABC News)
• Syrian civil war:
  • An online video appears to claim that the Free Syrian Army moved its headquarters from Turkey to "liberated areas" inside Syria; Reuters says in Idlib or Aleppo. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • The National Coordination Body, an internal civilian opposition umbrella group in Syria, is to hold a conference in Damascus on Sunday. According to Xinhua, the 28-party conference is cancelled due to internal divisions. (Reuters) (Xinhua)
  • The Lebanese Armed Forces say the Free Syrian Army attacked a Lebanese army border post on Friday. (Daily Star)
  • Activists say dozens of civilians are killed throughout Syria by the Syrian government's artillery shelling of cities. (Bloomberg via Businessweek)
• Eight people die in clashes between Zaydi rebels and Salafis. The Zaidis oppose the nomination by Al-Islah of new provincial leaders in northern Yemen. (Belga via HLN) (Middle East Online)

Arts and culture

• The Musée du Louvre in Paris opens a new wing dedicated to Islamic art. It holds 3,000 artifacts from the seventh to the 19th century. An Egyptian Mamluk portal, disassembled in France since 1889, is shown for the first time. (AFP via France 24)

Disasters and accidents

• The drunken driver of a car, speeding at nearly 200 kilometre (124 miles) per hour, hits a bus stop on Minskaya Street in Moscow. Seven pedestrians who were waiting for the bus were killed. (Ria Novosti) (Xinhua)

Law and crime

• The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne confirms the sexual abuse of more than 600 children by its priests since the 1930s. Bishop Denis Hart deplores the "figures" as "horrific and shameful". Activists say the true number, in Victoria alone, is closer to 10,000. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Belgian MEP and former PM Guy Verhofstadt warns that the Flemish N-VA party and the far right are "the same". N-VA dismisses the criticism as "gratuitous". (VRT) (Le Soir) (Belga via RTL)
• The minister of railways in Pakistan, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, offers a bounty of USD 100,000 to the person who kills the maker of Innocence of Muslims. (Al Jazeera)