Portal:Current events/2010 August 3

August 3, 2010 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Adaisseh incident
- Three Lebanese soldiers, one Israeli soldier, and a journalist are killed, and others are wounded, in clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (The Guardian) (AFP via Google News)
- The United Nations Security Council goes into closed-door consultations. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu claims that IDF soldiers did not cross the border. (The Jerusalem Post)
- UNIFIL confirms that the IDF did not cross the border. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Lebanese officials maintain it was the fault of Israel and expresses dissatisfaction at Israel's "aggression" against their country. (Gulf Daily News)
Assassination of Raza Haider
- Around 46 people are killed and more than 100 others are wounded in Karachi during violent scenes that follow the assassination. (Aljazeera) (Daily Mail) (AP via The Guardian)
- Police fill the streets of Karachi and Hyderabad is also deserted. (Reuters)
Twin explosions kill at least 3 people and injure at least 50 others in a crowded shopping area in Kut, Wasit; women and children are seen bleeding in the streets. (BBC)
Authorities shoot dead at least 2 people for protesting on a highway near Srinagar in Kashmir. (Aljazeera)
Hundreds of people supporting Lech Kaczyński are sprayed with lachrymator by police outside Warsaw's Presidential Palace. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
Jordan says it has evidence that a fatal Grad-type rocket strike on Aqaba originated in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
At least 5 police officers are shot dead at a checkpoint in Baghdad, Iraq. (Aljazeera)
A battle erupts as the Taliban attacks the Kandahar Air Field, the main NATO base in southern Afghanistan. The battle lasts an hour, after which the Taliban flee. (Aljazeera)
A worker kills 9 people, including himself, in a workplace incident at Hartford Distributors Inc in Connecticut, United States. (France24) (Xinhua) (BBC)
A car bomb explodes in Derry, Northern Ireland, injuring no one. (The Guardian) (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)

Arts, culture and society

The daughter of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston once again call off their engagement after it's revealed that Johnston fathered a child with another woman. (ABC)
A letter is unveiled demonstrating how Robert Burns was "reduced and shattered" in his final days; it will soon be exhibited in Edinburgh, Scotland. (BBC)
Tokyo's "oldest woman" cannot be located, casting doubts upon her claim to the title. (BBC) (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

2010 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa floods
- More than three million people are dislocated and 1,500 are now dead as Pakistan's worst floods flow to the south. (Aljazeera)
- Rescue attempts are underway. (BBC)
- The Warsak Dam near Peshawar, Pakistan's third-largest dam, is threatened by rising water levels. (The Guardian)
- The United States Army sends four CH-47 Chinook helicopters and two UH-60 Blackhawks helicopters to help with the relief effort. (AFP via Google)
Russian wildfires worsen. (BBC) (IOL)
The family of Terry Jupp claim that the Ministry of Defence did not use "stringent procedures" during the secretive explosive experiment on an island in the Thames Estuary that led to his death. (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (BBC) (The Washington Post)

Business and economy

Nearly £2 billion of savings are revealed to have been removed from the UK's nationalised Northern Rock bank. (The Guardian)
Ecuador says it will not drill for oil in the Yasuni National Park for at least a decade after being provided with $3.6 billion (£2.26 billion) - half the money it would receive from selling the oil - in a deal signed with the United Nations. (BBC)
Mexicana de Aviación, Mexico's biggest airline, files for bankruptcy. (BBC) (Los Angeles Times)

International relations

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah suggests Israel carried out the 2005 assassination of ex-Lebanese PM Rafic Hariri, and promises he will show proof at a press conference next week. (BBC)
Turkey's Foreign Ministry summons Israel's ambassador after the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak accuses the new head of Turkish intelligence of being a "friend of Iran". (Reuters)
The 41st annual Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit opens in Port Vila, Vanuatu. (Radio New Zealand International)
President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari arrives in the United Kingdom upon a five-day visit as the two countries disagree over David Cameron's remarks on "the export of terror". (Aljazeera)
Zimbabwe requests apologies from American, German and European Union envoys who walked out of the burial ceremony for President Robert Mugabe's sister; they refuse to apologise. (IOL) (BBC) (News24)
Iran rejects Brazil's offer to grant political asylum to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death in Iran for adultery. (AP via The Guardian)

Law and crime

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) both sue the United States (US) after it bans lawyers from a case taken by the father of Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which has labelled him a "specially designated global terrorist". (BBC) (Reuters)
Seven people go on trial in Kuwait accused of spying for Iran against Kuwait and the United States; they deny all charges and say they were tortured into confessing. (BBC)
Canada's Transportation Minister John Baird orders an inquiry after a video surfaces showing two figures boarding a flight without showing their faces. (BBC) (Canada.com) (Daily Star) (Ottawa Citizen) (South China Morning Post)
Jackie Selebi, former chief of Interpol and South Africa's top police officer, is sentenced to 15 years in prison on corruption charges. (AP via GaeaTimes) (Aljazeera) (The Guardian) (France24) (Reuters India)
Former Rwandan administrator Dominique Ntawukulilyayo is given a 25-year sentence of imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after being convicted of the transportation of soldiers during the Rwandan Genocide. (BBC)
The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) posts a letter to the offices of online encyclopedia project Wikipedia, threatening fines and imprisonments over what it claims is the "particularly problematic" use of the agency's seal. (BBC) (CNN) (Vanity Fair) (Wikipedia entry)
Saudi Arabia announces it is to commence a ban on the "messenger function" on BlackBerry handsets from Friday due to security concerns over the Research In Motion (RIM) technological device. (BBC) (Arab News) (Reuters)

Politics and elections

A prostitute informs Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi's corruption inquiry that she received presents after he shared a bed with her and two others. (The Guardian)
Kenya deploys an additional 18,000 police officers as the country heads to the polls to decide the fate of a potential new constitution. (Aljazeera)
A top civil service union in Sri Lanka condemns the tying to a tree of an official by a government minister in Colombo, a disagreement related to dengue fever. (BBC) (People's Daily)
The Elders criticise the Sri Lankan government. (BBC)
Denmark has a political taxes scandal involving a "big and sloppy error" by Social Democrats leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt. (BBC)
Irish senator Ivor Callely is suspended from Fianna Fáil over new expense allegations. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Irish Independent) (Irish Examiner)

Science and technology

The first major Earth-directed solar eruption in a decade will generate aurorae visible in non-polar areas from early August 4th to August 5th. (Foxnews.com) (CNN)

Sports

Angola jails 4 human rights activists - a university professor, priest, lawyer and former police officer - for alleged links to the perpetrators of the Togo national football team attack; Amnesty International and other organisations describe it as a crackdown on criticism. (BBC News) (Aljazeera)
Spain and the Netherlands are both fined by FIFA for their antics during the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final. (BBC Sport) (Sky Sports) (The Monitor - Uganda)
Paraguayan footballer Salvador Cabañas, shot by a gun in the head, says his memories are vague. (BBC News) (Times LIVE)
Alberto Contador joins Team Saxo Bank, managed by Bjarne Riis. (BBC Sport)
Steward Derek Warwick gives Michael Schumacher, who performed a dangerous maneuver against a fellow driver, a 10-place penalty in a future Grand Prix race. (Press Association via The Guardian)