Portal:Current events/2010 August 12

August 12, 2010 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan:
- The International Assistance Mission says it now believes that the Taliban was responsible for the 2010 Badakhshan massacre of its medical team in Afghanistan. (AP via Google News)
- NATO forces kill three civilians in a raid on a house in Wardak Province, prompting hundreds of angry people to block a main road to express their frustration with the United States. (Aljazeera)
- NATO says that it is investigating whether its troops killed or wounded up to seven Afghans in operations in southern Helmand Province. (Voice of America)
- Julian Assange, the director of Wikileaks, says that Wikileaks is planning to release the rest of Afghan War Diary, documents on the War in Afghanistan. (AP via Google News)
Human Rights Watch accuses the northern Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army of abducting and forcing the recruitment of at least 697 people during the last year and a half across central Africa. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
At least 50 people are injured in Dhaka as police use batons and tear gas to beat back civilians protesting against frequent power outage. (Aljazeera)
The United Nations condemns France's crackdown on 40 gypsy camps. (BBC)
At least two people are killed, including one case of self-immolation from a balcony, while more than 80 sustain wounds after troops interrupt a protest against poor conditions with batons and flashbangs at a prison in Astana, Kazakhstan. (BBC)
A car bomb explodes in the Colombian capital Bogotá outside Caracol Radio, one of the main radio networks in the country, injuring several people. (Colombia Reports) (Aljazeera) (AP) (The Guardian)
Three people are arrested following a grenade attack in the Rwandan capital Kigali which injured several people. (BBC)
Russia marks with ceremonies the 10th anniversary of the K-141 Kursk explosion in the Barents Sea. (BBC)

Arts, culture and entertainment

A national search uncovers 200 missing Japanese centenarians so far. (BBC) (AFP via France24)^{[permanent dead link]} (IOL) (Japan Today)
Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is discharged from a United States hospital after spending four weeks there. (BBC)
Aljazeera, Canal 13, Channel 4, Globo, Radio-Canada, RT, Sky News and TVB are among the global broadcasters nominated for this year's International Emmy Awards. (CBC News)
Singer George Michael is charged with possessing cannabis and being unfit for driving. (BBC)
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's alleged attacker denies in court assaulting him with a broken bottle in 2005 in the United States. (BBC)

Business and economy

Edward Whitacre, Jr. announces that he will resign as chief executive officer of General Motors effective from September and that he will be replaced by Daniel Akerson. (The Australian)
Greece's economy shrinks further. (BBC)

Disasters

2010 Pakistan floods:
- The United Nations launches a major appeal for assistance dealing with the ongoing floods that have devastated Pakistan. (BBC)
- President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari makes his first visit to the affected areas. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (The Guardian) (AFP via France24)^{[permanent dead link]} (Channel 4) (AP via Google News)
Portuguese firefighters battle dozens of forest fires, with 2 dead so far. (BBC)
Doctors in Moscow are encouraged to use "less frightening" causes of death as the mortality rate from heatstroke soars with fires burning across Russia. (BBC)
Rescue efforts are disrupted by severe rain after last week's deadly landslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu. (BBC) (AFP via France24) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
A power crisis in Bangladesh prompts the government to order the partial shut-down of natural gas stations in and near Dhaka. (BBC)
Fires destroy homes, amid ongoing drought in Central Brazil in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park. (Latin American Herald Tribune) (The Weather Network)
At least 58 people are killed after a lorry plunges into South Kivu's Lake Tanganyika. (Daily Times) (AFP via Google News) (BBC) (Press TV) (Reuters)

International relations

Turkey sets up a commission of Turkish officials and bureaucrats to investigate May's Gaza flotilla raid. (AFP via Google News)
Poland extradites Israeli citizen and suspected spy Uri Brodsky to Germany to face charges of being involved in the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. (BBC) (Daily Express)
A ship carrying Tamil asylum seekers who are travelling from Sri Lanka nears Canada. (Aljazeera)
Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, the Vice-President of Iran describes inhabitants of the United Kingdom as "not human" and "a bunch of idiots run by a mafia". He also describes Australians as "a bunch of cattlemen" and says that Koreans "need to be slapped". (UK Press Association via Google News)

Law and crime

Four British police officers are charged with beating, dragging, punching, stamping and mocking "terror suspect" Babar Ahmad after arresting him in Tooting, South London in 2003; the suspect, a 36-year-old IT worker, was later deemed innocent. (BBC) (Wandsworth Guardian) (The Independent) (The Guardian) (ABC News) (CNN)
China announces an investigation into a brand of powdered milk that caused infant girls to grow breasts. (BBC) (Sify)
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death in Iran, "confesses" to adultery and murder in a televised broadcast. (The Guardian) (Reuters Africa)
Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker, after deciding for the plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, mandates that same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of California should resume on August 18. (The New York Times) (BBC) (The Guardian)
Iran commutes several death sentences from stoning to hanging. (The Guardian)
Australia convicts a man it accuses of the 2001 smuggling more than 500 asylum seekers aboard a boat from Indonesia. (BBC)
Charles Taylor's defence lawyer Courtenay Griffiths is told not to speak, on a temporary basis, at Taylor's trial due to loss of temper; Griffiths apologises and is permitted to continue. (BBC)
India issues the producer of the controversial BlackBerry devices a 31 August deadline to give the Indian government access to its services or be shut down over concerns the devices could be used to commit a repeat of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Israeli citizen Elias Abuelazam, a suspected serial killer from Flint, Michigan, is arrested while attempting to leave the United States. (Haaretz) (BBC) (Japan Today)

Politics and elections

Former President of the United Nations General Assembly and President of Malta Guido de Marco, who led his country into the European Union, dies suddenly after having apparently recovered from surgery, shocking the nation of Malta. (Malta Today) (TVNZ) (AP via Google News) (The Voice of Russia) (The Times of Malta)
Burma begins preparations for its controversial general elections to be held sometime later this year, by designating electoral constituencies. (Radio Television Hong Kong) (Bangkok Post)^{[permanent dead link]}
Anti-government protests in Potosí, Bolivia enter their third week, affecting mining production, blocking road and air transport, stranding tourists and reducing food supplies. (BBC)
President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan is permitted by the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to run in the forthcoming election; his candidacy would have breached informal election rules. (Aljazeera)
President of Mexico Felipe Calderón conducts public anti-crime conferences. (Aljazeera)

Science

The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak with a display of up to 80 meteors an hour. (BBC)
Scientists announce the discovery of a chemical compound which destroys the reproduction capabilities of bacteria that are antibiotic-resistant. (FierceBiotech)
Three participants in the Einstein@Home program from the United States and Germany help to discover pulsar PSR J2007+2722. (BBC)