Top news: President Obama has confirmed that Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed along with three members of his staff in an attack by an armed mob on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday. According to the New York Times, the incident marks the first death of an American envoy overseas in more than two decades.
The attack in Benghazi coincided with an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in which Egyptian protesters scaled the compound's walls and burned an American flag. According to the Wall Street Journal, the demonstrators were responding to a film by an Israeli-American real-estate developer named Sam Bacile that condemned Islam and insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who incited deadly riots in the Muslim world in 2010 by threatening to burn a Koran (he later did), had promoted Bacile's movie.
"While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants," Obama said in a statement, adding that Stevens had "supported Libya's transition to democracy." The Obama administration has yet to release further details about how Stevens died and who the other victims were.
Pakistan: Fires at factories in the eastern city of Lahore and the southern city of Karachi on Tuesday evening have killed nearly 300 people.
Europe
- Germany's Federal Constitutional Court approved the country's contribution to the European Stability Mechanism, with certain conditions.
- The Netherlands is holding parliamentary elections.
- Roughly 1.5 million Catalans participated in a pro-independence rally in Barcelona.
Middle East
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the Obama administration for not setting "red lines" for Iran's nuclear program.
- In response to protests, the Palestinian Authority announced that it will abandon planned tax increases and trim government salaries.
- A car bomb in the Yemeni capital killed 12 people but did not harm Yemen's defense minister, the apparent target.
Asia
- The Indian cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was released from prison on bail.
- China accused Japan of stealing disputed islands in the East China Sea.
- The Taliban attacked a NATO helicopter at Bagram Air Base, killing three Afghans.
Americas
- The U.S. military identified the detainee who died at the Guantanamo Bay prison as a Yemeni man named Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif.
- Mexico extradited Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, an alleged founder of the Zetas drug cartel, to the United States.
- A Chilean court confirmed that former President Salvador Allende committed suicide in 1973.
Africa
- Around 1,000 strikers in South Africa blocked access to Anglo American Platinum, the world's largest platinum mine.
- Human Rights Watch reported that M23 rebels in eastern Congo have committed war crimes that include summary executions and rape.
- South African military bases are on high alert ahead of a speech to soldiers by politician Julius Malema.
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