May 12, 2015 (Tuesday)
Arts and culture
- Christianity in the United States falls to its lowest percentage levels while irreligion rises. (Pew Research)
Business and economy
- The Philippines establishes regulations for transportation network companies, such as Uber, making it the first country to do so. (Wired)
- Verizon Communications Inc. announces that it will buy AOL Inc. for US$4.4 billion. (Fox Business)
- Bus drivers in the Indian city of Delhi call off a strike to protest the murder of a driver after the state government invokes the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). (NDTV)
Disasters and accidents
- An explosion on a train in the Indian city of Kolkata results in at least 17 people being injured. (Hindustan Times)
- Typhoon Noul arrives at the southern Japanese islands at Amami Oshima before moving through Kyushu and then Honshu. (AP)
- May 2015 Nepal earthquake
- A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes the town of Namche Bazaar, Nepal, near the Tibetan border and the base camp for Mount Everest. (MSN) (BBC) (ABC News Australia) (Reuters via Daily Mail)
- The reported death toll from this earthquake is at least 66 people, including 17 in neighboring India and one in Tibet. Many more have been injured. (NBC News) (Reuters)
- A United States Marine Corps Bell UH-1Y Venom helicopter on a relief mission goes missing over Bhimeshwar (formerly Charikot), Nepal, with eight people on board. (The Guardian) (NBC News)
- 2015 Philadelphia train derailment
- An Amtrak train derails in the Port Richmond neighborhood of the American city of Philadelphia causing cars to roll over. At least 5 people have been killed, 50 people are injured in the derailment. (USA Today) (HuffPost) (CNN)
International relations
- United States Secretary of State John Kerry will meet President of Russia Vladimir Putin during his first visit to Russia since the Ukraine crisis began. (BBC)
- Democrats in the United States Senate block passage of a fast-track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership sought by President Barack Obama. (The Hill)
Law and crime
- Bangladeshi secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das is cut to pieces by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet. He is the third secular blogger to be killed in Bangladesh this year. (BBC)
- Shooting of Tony Robinson
- Officer Matt Kenny of the Madison Police Department will not face charges in relation to the shooting of Tony Robinson in March 2015 in the American city of Madison, Wisconsin. (CNN)
Science
- Russia delays the return of three astronauts from the International Space Station due to a recent failure of a supply mission. (ABC News)