Portal:Current events/2011 June 8
June 8, 2011 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Libyan Civil War:
- NATO aircraft conduct a bombing attack on Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli. (AFP via News Limited)
- NATO Ministers hold meetings on the Libyan campaign. (Sky News)
- South Korea's Yonhap News agency reports that North Korea has test-fired a KN-06 missile. (Yonhap)
- Syrian residents from the town of Jisr al-Shugur flee from a threatened reprisal from the government of President Bashar al-Assad. (ABC News)
- The Chinese Navy announces that it is building its first aircraft carrier in the city of Dalian to be launched later in 2011. (BBC)
- The New York Times reports that the United States is intensifying a covert war in Yemen as instability worsens. (New York Times)
Arts and culture
- Serbian-American author Téa Obreht becomes the youngest author to win the Orange Prize for Fiction for her debut novel The Tiger's Wife. (The Telegraph)
Disasters
- The rate of increase in cases of the 2011 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak that started in Germany appears to be slowing down. (Euronews)
- Hurricane Adrian becomes the first hurricane of the 2011 Pacific hurricane season. (National Hurricane Center)
- Residents in the US towns of Eagar and Springerville, Arizona are ordered to fully evacuate ahead of the Wallow Fire. (Arizona Republic)
- 260 miles (420 km) of the Missouri River are closed to boaters as residents of the US states of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri continue to prepare for heavy flooding, with rain in Montana making the situation worse. (Reuters)
- Floods in the People's Republic of China kill 52 people with 32 people missing with more heavy rain expected. (Xinhua)
International relations
- Australia announces a ban of live cattle exports to Indonesia of up to six months following recent reports of cruel treatment in Indonesian abattoirs. (The Australian)
- The United Kingdom and France prepare a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the 2011 Syrian uprising. (BBC)
- In New York, representatives of Morocco and Western Sahara conclude UN-backed talks on resolving the conflict between the two countries without reaching an agreement that was satisfactory to both parties. (Scoop)
Politics
- Indian social activist Anna Hazare begins a second hunger strike against corruption. (Al Jazeera)
- The British government has indicated it is rethinking its controversial proposal to offer 50% sentence cuts to criminals in England and Wales who enter early guilty pleas. (BBC)
Science
- Major websites, such as Google, Facebook, and others, participate in World IPv6 Day. (World IPv6 Day), (PC World)
- The Russian Federal Space Agency successfully launches a Soyuz TMA-02M carrying a Russian, American and Japanese astronaut towards the International Space Station. (Channel 6 News)