Russia The Russian Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Roman Romanenko, Chris Hadfield and Thomas Marshburn for the ISS Expedition 34 and 35 crews.
Presidential election The South Korean electoral commission declares Park Geun-hye the winner of the presidential election with 84% of the votes counted and will become South Korea's first female president. Moon Jae-in has conceded.
Voters in South Korea go to the polls with exit polls showing a very close race expected between Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the left-of-centre Democratic United Party.
Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal Despite being criticised, the BBC Director of News Helen Boaden will return to her post in the wake of the report's publication, but her Deputy, Stephen Mitchell resigns. Peter Rippon is moved aside from his "Newsnight" post, with the programme having a new senior editorial team. Controller of BBC Radio Five Live Adrian Van Klaveren also resigns.
The Pollard report into practices at the BBC is published, and finds there was a “complete inability” to deal with the Jimmy Savile crisis.
American U.S. news magazine "Time" selects U.S. President Barack Obama as its 2012 Person of the Year, following on from his 2008 award, and those of his predecessors George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1998, George H. W. Bush in 1990, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1983, Jimmy Carter in 1976, Richard Nixon in 1971 and 1972 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and 1967.
High Court of England and Wales The High Court of England and Wales quashes the original inquest verdicts returned on 96 Liverpool football fans who died as a result of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
Robert Bork Robert Bork, a former federal judge and conservative legal theorist, best known for his losing nomination battle for the Supreme Court of the United States, dies at 85 in Arlington, Virginia.
2012 Delhi gang rape case The gang rape of a woman on a bus in India leads to nationwide outrage; three of the four accused confess in court.
Magnitsky bill Following the Magnitsky bill, the U.S. sanctions designed to punish Russia for its rights record, Russia is to ban Americans from adopting their children.
Multiple-vehicle collision A multiple-vehicle collision on the Long Island Expressway in Shirley, Suffolk County, New York, United States leaves one person dead and at least 32 injured.
Australian A 35-year-old Australian man tries to headbutt a pilot over the Atlantic Ocean, causing the diversion of a British Airways transatlantic flight from New York's JFK airport to London City Airport.
UBS Banking giant UBS is fined $1.5 billion for attempting to manipulate the Libor interbank lending rate, becoming the second international bank, after Barclays, to be fined over the Libor scandal.
Israel Israel presses on with the construction of thousands of new homes in West Bank and East Jerusalem, despite worldwide criticism and suggestions that officials in Palestine may go to the International Criminal Court.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom British Prime Minister David Cameron tells the House of Commons that 3,800 British troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2013. The figure represents half the current British deployment in that country.
Chad Chad sends troops to the Central African Republic to help defend the town of Bria from the Seleka rebel coalition.
Somali Two people are injured in two blasts outside al-Amin mosque in the Somali-dominated Eastleigh district of Nairobi during the evening rush hour.