Portal:Current events/2010 August 31

Armed conflicts and attacks

• A roadside bomb and mortar attack in the Somali capital Mogadishu kill at least 14 people and injure several others. (Al Jazeera)
• 8 people are killed in a petrol bomb attack at a bar in Cancún, Mexico. (BBC) (APA)
• 4 Israelis are shot to death in an attack in the West Bank next to Kiryat Arba. (Ynetnews) (BBC)
• A roadside bomb kills 4 United States troops in eastern Afghanistan. (AP via MSNBC)
• An explosion occurs outside the head office of a government-run television station in Bangkok, Thailand. (Bangkok Post) (Xinhua)
• 3 Russian aircrew kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region are released. (Reuters) (RIA Novosti)
• The Sudan People's Liberation Army pledges to demobilise all of its child soldiers by the end of the year. (BBC)

Business and economics

• Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's largest computer maker based in the U.S. state of California, pays US$55 million amid allegations it defrauded the United States government. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (AFP via France24), (BBC)

Disasters

• Floodwaters continue to wreak havoc in Pakistan, affecting areas near Larkana. (DAWN)
• Four people die following a Cessna Citation crash on Misima Island in Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay Province. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald) (ABC Online)
• Hurricane Earl moves away from the Leeward Islands towards the east coast of the United States with a hurricane watch issued for most of the North Carolina coast. (Reuters) (MSNBC)

International relations

• The Russian embassy in the Belarussian capital Minsk is attacked with firebombs; Russia says the incident is "outrageous". (RIA Novosti) (Times of India) (Reuters)
• Iran's foreign ministry criticises state media for branding French first lady Carla Bruni as a "prostitute" over her support for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery. (ABC News) (IOL) (AP)
• Following an Israeli-course on editing Wikipedia to further a national agenda, a Palestinian group initiates a plan to establish its view on the encyclopaedia.[1][2]

Law and crime

• The Danish-based Kurdish TV station Roj TV faces terror charges for supporting PKK. (Denmark.DK)
• Mexican authorities arrest top drug trafficker Edgar Valdez Villarreal. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• A Chinese court accepts its first case relating to a man claiming job discrimination on the grounds he had HIV. (BBC) (China Daily) (AFP)
• Russian police detain more than 150 people including prominent opponents of Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin such as former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, following protests in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in support of freedom of assembly. (Irish Times) (Al Jazeera) (The Moscow Times)

Politics

• President of the United States Barack Obama delivers a televised Oval Office address to the United States commemorating the end of United States armed forces being directly involved in fighting in Iraq. (New York Times)
• The South African government improves a pay offer to more than a million striking public sector workers in an attempt to end the two-week-long strike. (AllAfrica.com) (BBC) (CNN)
• US Senator Lisa Murkowski concedes defeat in the Alaskan Republican primary election to challenger to Joe Miller.

(MSNBC)

• As part of a lengthy interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Fidel Castro admits responsibility for the persecution of homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959.(BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)

Science

• Fossils of Balaur genus dinosaur are unearthed in Romania. (BBC)