February 18, 2013 (Monday)
Arts and culture
- Artist Ruth Stage, who uses the ancient egg tempera painting technique, wins the 2013 Lynn Painter-Stainers art prize for her work The Isabella Plantation. (BBC)
- English singer-songwriter Kevin Ayers dies at the age of 68. (The Guardian)
Disasters and accidents
- A fishing vessel capsizes off of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada, leaving 5 fishermen missing in the frigid waters. (The Chronicle Herald)[permanent dead link]
- At least 15 people are killed in Indonesia after flooding and multiple landslides ravage the North Sulawesi province. (AP via USA Today) (BBC)
Health and environment
- Food giant Nestlé removes its beef pasta meals from supermarkets in France, Spain, and Italy, after tests confirmed that the product contained horse meat. (BBC)
Law and crime
- 2013 Belgium diamond heist: Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium. (BBC) (AP via Google) (The Guardian)
- The perpetrator and his girlfriend's father are dead in a murder-suicide near Fairdealing, Missouri, United States, and two others are injured. (AP via STL Today)
Politics and elections
- Voters in Armenia go to the polls for a presidential election with incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan expected to win. Independent observers including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have expressed concern about the conduct of the elections. (BBC)
- President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez returns home after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba. (The New York Times)
- Prime Minister of Tunisia Hamadi Jebali announces that plans for a new government of technocrats has failed. (AAP via SBS News)
Sport
- In cycling, Team Katusha is granted a World Tour licence by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last week upheld the Russian team's appeal against the UCI's original decision to deny it a ProTeam licence. (Cycling Weekly) (Velonation) (RCUK)