Portal:Current events/2014 February 13

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • Afghanistan releases 65 prisoners from the Parwan Detention Facility despite concerns by the United States that the men were responsible for attacks on NATO and Afghan forces. (BBC News)
• At least eight police officers are killed in a suicide bomb attack in Karachi. (BBC News)
• South China Sea dispute:
  • The United States says that it is ready to defend its allies in case of an armed conflict. (Voice of America)

• Typhoon Haiyan victims are visited by former footballer David Beckham who seeks to raise awareness about their plight. (Fox Sports)
• Archaeologists unearth a painted, human-shaped sarcophagus that is 3,600 years old -- with a mummy still inside in Luxor, Egypt. (CNN)

• Comcast is set to acquire Time Warner Cable in a US$44 billion buyout. (The New York Times)
• A Reuters poll of economic forecasters finds that they are more worried about deflation across the Eurozone than is the ECB. (Reuters)
• Facebook users in the United States are now allowed to customize their gender. (The Washington Post)

• Thousands of homes in England remain without power following Wednesday's storms as the UK's Met Office forecasts fresh heavy rain and high winds for Friday. (BBC News)
• Mount Kelud erupts prompting the evacuation of 200,000 people on the Indonesian island of Java. (AAP via SBS)

• Egypt–Russia relations:
  • During a two-day visit by an Egyptian delegation in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow and Cairo have agreed to speed up work on drafting agreements on military-technological cooperation. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu added that this could include joint military exercises and training of Egyptian officers in Russian military academies. (Al-Ahram) (The Hindu)
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin says he supports Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's bid for the upcoming presidential election in Egypt. (The Telegraph)
• President Barack Obama is set on visiting Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines after previously cancelling his trip in 2013. (Reuters)

• The UK Government says that packages sent to several army careers offices had "potentially viable devices bearing hallmarks of Northern Ireland related terrorism". (BBC News)
• Belgian lawmakers vote to extend euthanasia to people aged under 18. (AP via NDTV)

• Lawmakers riot in the lower house of India's parliament in protest of a plan creating the state of Telangana. (BBC News)
• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrests opposition activists in reaction to an "attempted coup" against his government. (Reuters)
• Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta holds an emergency meeting after Democratic leader Matteo Renzi called for him to resign. (The Guardian)
• A Virginia judge rules the state's prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional. (USA Today)

• The remains of an infant boy from the Clovis culture is determined to be Native American. (NPR)