February 15, 2013 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian civil war:
- After intense fighting 40,000 people become displaced in the city of Shadadah, Hasakah, adding to the 3 million people already internally displaced in Syria. (Al Jazeera)
Disasters and accidents
- Chelyabinsk meteor: A meteor breaks up in the vicinity of the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. More than 1,200 people are injured, two of them seriously, from the shattering of windows caused by the shockwaves and the debris. (BBC) (Reuters) (RT)
- The number of fatalities from Thursday's avalanche in the Scottish Highlands rises to three following the death of a man being treated in hospital. (BBC)
International relations
- 2013 North Korean nuclear test:
- In reaction to North Korea's latest nuclear test the European Union will tighten sanctions against the country in the form of blocking the trade of gold and diamonds, as well as cracking down on financial ties between them. (NDTV)
- North Korea tells China that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks. (Reuters)
Health and environment
- The British catering firm Compass Group and hotel chain Whitbread both identify horse meat in products sold as beef. (BBC)
Law and crime
- The social networking giant Facebook announces that it was the target of sophisticated hackers, who through a then-unknown bug from Oracle's Java on an infected website, managed to infiltrate employees' laptops, and then the internal networks. There was no user data collected, but certain code and corporate e-mails could have been exfiltrated. (NBC News)
- Securities regulators file a lawsuit against traders in options on the stock of H.J. Heinz, alleging they had inside information of the planned acquisition of that company before the announcement thereof by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- Westminster's Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority launches an investigation into expenses claims submitted by MP Nadine Dorries. (BBC)
- Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is charged with misusing campaign funds while in office. (USA Today) (Chicago Tribune)
Science and technology
- Near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 with an estimated diameter of about 50 meters (160 ft) comes within 17,200 miles (27,700 km) from the Earth's surface. This distance is a record close approach for a known object of such size. (JPL/NASA) (Huffington Post)