February 16, 2012 (Thursday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- A United States drone attack kills five militants in the Pakistani town of Spalga in north Waziristan. (Dawn)
- The Syrian Army attacks the Free Syrian Army positions in the town of Deraa. (Reuters via Alertnet)
- The Nigerian insurgent group Boko Haram attacks a prison in Kogi State freeing 119 inmates. (BBC)
Arts and culture
- Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Shadid dies suddenly at age 43 of an acute asthma attack. (Christian Science Monitor)
Business and economy
- The Australian airline Qantas announces plans to cut 500 jobs. (AAP via The Australian)
- Budget airline Air Australia is placed in administration leaving passengers stranded. (News Limited)
Disasters and accidents
- Senior prison officials are suspended and an investigation is opened into the cause of a deadly prison fire in Comayagua, Honduras, in which over 350 inmates died. (Al Jazeera)
- Thirty-two people die after a head on collision between two buses in Nigeria's Bauchi State. (AP via CBS)
- Four World Trade Center's construction crane snaps while lifting a steel. (Washington Post)
International relations
- 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly votes in favour of an Arab sponsored resolution condemning human rights violations by the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad. (United Nations) (Voice of America)
Law and crime
- Former President of Olympus Corporation Tsuyoshi Kikukawa is arrested in relation to the Olympus scandal along with two other former senior executives. (BBC) (CNN)
- The highest court in Ecuador upholds a criminal libel verdict favoring the President Rafael Correa including prison sentences for three executives and a columnist for the opposition newspaper El Universo. (AP via ABC News America)
- South Korean silicon chip maker Hynix Semiconductor claims that a US court has rejected an antitrust claim against it by Rambus Inc. (Reuters via The Guardian)
- Chris Huhne, former UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, appears in court to face charges of perverting the course of justice together with his ex-wife, regarding a traffic violation. (BBC)
- German prosecutors ask the Bundestag to lift the immunity from prosecution of President Christian Wulff over corruption claims. (Seattle Times)
- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called "underwear bomber", is sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to detonate a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in the US city of Detroit, Michigan. (BBC)
Sports
- Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member Gary Carter dies at age 57 after a long battle with brain cancer. (Newsday)