Portal:Current events/2012 May 15

• Syrian uprising: At least 20 civilians are killed in the Syrian province of Idlib after security forces open fire on a funeral procession. (BBC)
• At least 44 people are killed amid a Yemeni government offensive to retake Zinjibar and Jaar from Islamist militants. Among the casualties are three soldiers and at least 11 civilians. (Trust.org via AP)
• A targeted bombing in the Colombian capital Bogota injures former Interior Minister Fernando Londoño, and kills his driver and a police officer. (Trust.org via AP)

• Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, one of the leading authors of the Latin American literary boom, dies in Mexico aged 83. (BBC)

• The combined economy of the 17 eurozone nations narrowly avoids a recession, largely due to relatively high economic growth in Germany. However, overall growth in the eurozone was zero in the first quarter of 2012. (The Daily Telegraph)
• A customer of American multinational retail corporation Wal-Mart is bitten by a rattlesnake on the premises of the Clarkston, Washington store. (BBC)

• A man sets himself on fire outside the Oslo courthouse where mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for the 2011 Norway attacks. (The Guardian)
• Indian child actress Taruni Sachdev and her mother are revealed to be among the dead in yesterday's plane crash in northern Nepal, which killed 15 people. (BBC)

• Thousands of Palestinians demonstrate on the 64th anniversary of their Nakba ("Catastrophe"), in remembrance of their exodus from the former Mandate of Palestine after Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. Demonstrators and Israeli policemen are lightly injured in several clashes. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel)
• A free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia takes effect. (BBC)

• Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and her husband Charlie Brooks are charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the alleged destruction of evidence associated with the News International phone hacking scandal. (The Daily Telegraph) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• Majid Jamali Fashi, convicted of killing Iranian quantum field theorist and elementary-particle physicist Masoud Alimohammadi, is executed. (BBC) (Press TV)
• A mother kills her four children and then herself in Port St. John, Florida. (CNN)

• François Hollande is sworn in as the 24th President of France. Hollande appoints Jean-Marc Ayrault as his Prime Minister. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Crisis-wracked Greece is forced to hold new general elections, after efforts by major political parties to form a coalition government end in failure. (The Guardian)

• The United States announces a national plan to develop an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease by 2025. (BBC)
• American scientists develop a device which uses genetically-engineered viruses to generate electricity. The invention could allow the development of ubiquitous piezoelectric micro-generators which gather energy from everyday vibrations such as closing doors. (BBC)

• Botswana's senior football players end a training strike, despite not having received their bonus entitlements from this year's Africa Cup of Nations. (BBC)
• Manchester City apologises to Manchester United following Carlos Tevez's open-top bus display of a placard with the words "RIP Fergie" on it. (The Guardian)