Portal:Current events/2010 October 24

October 24, 2010 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Six killed in shooting rampage inside militia outpost in Palid, Ipil town, in the Zamboanga Sibugay province of the South Philippines. (Xinhua via PLA)
South Korea and the United States cancel a joint naval drill against North Korea in the Yellow Sea, citing its previous anti-submarine training -- held from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 -- and a desire "not to irritate neighboring countries" ahead of the upcoming 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. (Xinhua)
Despite the law enforcement agencies being on alert in Karachi city of Pakistan, four more people are killed in the Agra Taj Colony, Kausar Niazi Colony. (dawn)^{[permanent dead link]}
Somali pirates attack and seize two ships in the Indian Ocean. (AFP via Google News)
Bang-Bang Club photographer Joao Silva is injured when treading on a mine while working near Arghandab, Afghanistan. (The Observer)
The dismembered corpse of an abducted 9-year-old albino boy is found in a river on the Burundi-Tanzania border and buried. (BBC)
Fifteen Latin American parliaments pass simultaneous resolutions demanding that the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held incommunicado for over four years by Hamas, be released. (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
"Israeli commandos fired 308 live bullets at the MV Mavi Marmara to repel passengers who attacked them with lethal weapons",says Israel's top general as he testifies before a state-appointed inquest into May's Gaza flotilla raid. (The Irish Times)

Business and economics

The number of visitors to the Shanghai World Expo 2010 topped 70 million. (Xinhua)
Nobel-winning economist Christopher Pissarides states that Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne is exaggerating the possibility of a crisis and unnecessarily risking the country's economic recovery with his deep spending cuts. (Reuters via Arab News)
Britain's privacy watchdog is to investigate Google once again, charging it with gathering personal information from private wi-fi networks. Google admits collecting details such as passwords and e-mails. (BBC)
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan welcomes U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to the port of Qingdao as the United States objects to what it labels the "artificial" value of China's own currency, the yuan. (BBC)
2010 strikes in France: Further, larger strikes are planned against government attempts to increase the age of retirement for the country's workers. (The Observer)
Mayors from near Naples reject a government proposal to indefinitely freeze the opening of a new regional waste dump, requesting that the plan be permanently abandoned. People peacefully demonstrate against the plan in Terzigno. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Reuters via Arab News)
President of Ecuador Rafael Correa rejects leniency towards police officers who protested against being stripped of their bonuses, stating on radio that "this will tear us apart as a society". (Al Jazeera)
China and Bangladesh want green technology free of cost. Hasan Mahmud held a meeting with global warming negotiators in the UNFCCC climate talks and chairman of National Development and Reform Commission of China Xie Zhenhua. (bss)

Disasters and accidents

At least 21 people died and a dozen more seriously injured in a bus accident in Nwoya district, northwestern Uganda. (People)
2010 Haitian cholera outbreak:
- Cholera is detected in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for the first time since the post-earthquake outbreak began. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- The death toll passes 250. (The Wall Street Journal)
Leading Nepalese Sherpa Chhewang Nima, known for climbing Mount Everest 19 times, disappears during an avalanche. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Tropical Storm Richard lashes Honduras's Caribbean Coast with heavy rain before becoming a hurricane and making landfall in Belize. (AP) (CNN), (Reuters), (AP via Yahoo)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees starts an emergency airlift to Benin which is suffering its worst flooding in decade. (BBC)
Scientists studying the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster's impact find substantial amounts of oil on the seafloor, contradicting statements by US government officials that the oil has largely disappeared (USA Today)
Charles, Prince of Wales's friend was among those killed in yesterday's helicopter crash. The family express their shock. (BBC)

International relations

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qi-shan has held talks with US Treasury, Secretary Timothy Geithner at Qingdao Airport, east China's Shandong province. They exchanged views on Sino-US economic relations, and preparations for the upcoming G20 Summit. (cntv)
Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement says it is ready to start discussions with international mediators in Qatar, but was not yet prepared to re-join full peace negotiations, saying Sudan's government had broken a ceasefire (Reuters Africa)
The Pope calls for an end to conflict in the Middle East, and for Islamic countries in the Middle East to guarantee freedom of worship to non-Muslims. (Reuters) (Sify) (BBC)
Angola begins deporting Congolese citizens from the north of the country. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Four people are arrested over a bus bombing in Matalam, the Philippines, that killed 10 people on Saturday. (Philippine Inquirer) (Al Jazeera)
A campaign led by Peter Tatchell is to legally challenge Britain's ban on same-sex marriage and heterosexual civil partnerships; eight couples are to file applications for the illegal ceremonies. (The Observer)
Three U.S. citizens are to stand trial on charges of spying in Iran after illegally entering the country. (Tehran Times)
Swedish police say they do not have a suspect for the serial shooting of 15 immigrants in Malmö. (CNN)
Four employees of Chinese dairy giant Mengniu are arrested in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia for allegedly hiring a public relations firm to spread false rumours online about products of industry rival Yili Group. (Global Times)
Israel's military police investigates an air raid that killed at least 21 members of a single family and injured 19 others during the 2008-2009 Gaza War. (Haaretz) (AFP via Google)
Actor Randy Quaid and his wife seek asylum in Canada to avoid prosecution in the United States, claiming they are being "persecuted". (BBC)
Mexican gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation centre in eastern Tijuana, killing thirteen people. (Sign On San Diego)

Politics and elections

David Cameron bans Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi, Britain's first female Muslim cabinet minister, from attending Global Peace and Unity, Europe's largest multicultural gathering. Nick Clegg takes the side of Baroness Warsi. (The Observer)
Ghana-born doctor Peter Bossman becomes Mayor of Piran (Slovenia), the first black mayor of a town in the so-called former Eastern Bloc of Europe. (BBC) (The Guardian)
The Supreme Court of Iraq orders the country's parliament back to work, ruling that the self-declared absence of politicians is unconstitutional. (BBC) (Xinhua)
Bahrain's elections officials say voter turnout was 67 per cent in the parliamentary election. The main Shia opposition group, Al Wefaq, kept its 18 seats in the 40-member legislature. (AP) (Tehran Times)
Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is reported to be a "lot brighter" following her hospitalisation with the influenza that disrupted her 85th birthday reception. (Press Association)
Cellou Dalein Diallo and Alpha Condé, the two candidates in the second round of the Guinean presidential election, call for calm after the election is delayed. (BBC)

Sports

The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2010 National League Championship Series, advancing to the 2010 World Series. (Reuters)
The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka announces that Commonwealth gold medal winning boxer Manju Wanniarachchi has failed a drugs test taken during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. (BBC)