July 2, 2012 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Four foreign aid workers held hostage inside Somalia are rescued by Somali forces after they were kidnapped from a Kenyan refugee camp on June 29. (BBC) (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- Children in Jaʿār, Yemen, accidentally set off a shell, killing one and wounding seven others. (AP)
- Officials in Kenya say that two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards arrested with explosives planned to attack Israeli, American, British and Saudi Arabian targets inside Kenya. (AP via Washington Post) (AP via The Spec)
Business and economics
- Finland says it will block the euro zone's permanent bailout fund (ESM) from buying government bonds in the open market, while The Netherlands also indicates opposition to the bond-buying idea. (Reuters)
- Airbus says it plans to open a $600 million assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, USA. (MSNBC)
- GlaxoSmithKline settles the largest healthcare fraud case in US history for $3 billion dollars. (Reuters)
- Despite early frustration and strife about their IPO, Facebook decides to remain on the Nasdaq. (Wall Street Journal)
- The British government announces a parliamentary investigation into the Barclays Libor scandal, with reports hoped to be filed by the end of the year. (Reuters)
- Some, but not all, of Chicago's taxi drivers go on strike during the morning rush hour to protest a new set of city regulations that took effect. (NBC Chicago)
Disasters
- At least 79 people are killed and 2.2 million rendered homeless as torrential monsoon rains trigger floods in Northeast India. (Sky News)
- A United States C-130 crashes fighting a wildfire near Edgemont, South Dakota, USA. (Reuters)
- At least 2 million throughout the Eastern United States are still without power due to strong storms and a heat wave that killed 19 people. (CNN)
International relations
- Four officials from the International Criminal Court, including Melinda Taylor, are released after they were held in the Libyan city of Zintan for four weeks on suspicion of spying. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- Power broker Ichiro Ozawa announces that he is leaving the ruling Democratic Party of Japan along with 51 other lawmakers with anticipation that they will form a new party. (BBC)
- The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, Heinz Fromm, resigns due to a series of blunders in an investigation about a neo-Nazi cell. (BBC)
- Miguel Ángel Mancera wins the 2012 Mexico City head of state (mayoral) election. (FoxNews Latino)
- Hamas suspends voter registration in the Gaza Strip, stalling Palestinian plans for parliamentary and presidential elections and thwarting moves towards reconciliation with the rival Fatah party. (Reuters) (The New York Times)
Science and technology
- NASA and Lockheed Martin unveil the first space-bound Orion spacecraft in Cape Canaveral. (Florida Today)[permanent dead link]
Television