Portal:Current events/2010 August 6

August 6, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

NATO admits it killed "between four and a dozen or more civilians" in Nangarhar Province as a result of air strikes on August 5. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The New York Times)
Germany offers compensation of €3,800 to each family of 91 of the 142 people it killed and 11 it injured in an air strike near Kunduz, an incident which provoked outrage and led to political and military resignations. The Bundeswehr does not admit guilt and families say they may sue. (BBC) (Der Spiegel)
Pakistan's Major-General Tariq Khan urges NATO to do more to control the border with Afghanistan, amid increasing UK and U.S. pressure for Pakistan to deal with it. (BBC)
Israeli authorities shut down all crossings into Gaza for the day. (Bernama)
An international aid ship, the Saint Mariam, bearing only female passengers from all backgrounds, including singer May Hariri and several Americans, is to leave Tripoli bound for Gaza after overcoming an Israeli diplomatic mission designed to prevent it from setting sail. (The Guardian)
The United Arab Emirates says the incident in which the Japanese tanker, the MV M. Star, was damaged in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman last week involved an explosives-laden dinghy. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Emirates News Agency) (AFP)
An explosion at Zamboanga International Airport in the southern Philippines kills two people and injures 24. (BBC) (Philippine Inquirer)
French police dismantle Romani camps in Saint-Étienne by order of the president. (BBC) (Expatica France) (The Irish Times)

Arts and culture

Reykjavík's mayor, Jón Gnarr of the Best Party, dresses in drag for the opening of the city's gay pride festival. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
Chinese culture minister Cai Wu expresses dismay at the quality of cultural productions in his country. (China Daily) (France24) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters)

Business and economy

Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Russia, bans export of flour and wheat from August 15 to December 31 due to the worst drought in Russian history. (Reuters)
A 22-year-old Chinese woman falls from a building, becoming the thirteenth Foxconn employee to die in a spate of deaths at the company. (BBC)
The Tata Group establishes a five-man panel in the search for Ratan Naval Tata's successor as its head of business. (BBC) (NDTV) (The Asian Age)
Mark Hurd resigns as chief executive officer of computer company Hewlett-Packard following investigation of a sexual harassment claim. (AP via ABC America) (BBC)

Disasters

At least 12 million people are now affected by the worst floods in the history of Pakistan with 1,600 people being killed and 650,000 homes being destroyed. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Sky News) (The Irish Times)
Flash floods in the Ladakh region of India's Jammu and Kashmir state kill at least 113 people and leave lots of others missing. (Aljazeera) (The Times of India)
Rescue efforts continue to save 34 people trapped in a mine after a rock collapse near Copiapó. (BBC) (Reuters via Mineweb) (Mining Weekly)
China suspends traffic on the Yalu River and evacuates more than 40,000 people from Dandong over fears of flooding amid unprecedented levels of rainfall. (BBC) (BusinessWeek)
Smoke from Russian wildfires covers famous landmarks and delays more than 140 flights at Moscow airports while official figures indicate that 14,340 people died in Moscow during July 2010; 4,824 more than the same month last year. (Sky News) (Bloomberg) (The Guardian)
Mount Karangetang, a volcano on the Indonesian island of Siau, erupts. (AP via Seattle PI)

International relations

Hiroshima marks the 65th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack; United States representatives attend in an official capacity for the first time. (BBC) (The Age) (The New Zealand Herald) (China Post)
Venezuela's Hugo Chávez promises that his foreign minister will attend the inauguration of Juan Manuel Santos as Colombian president, two weeks after direct relations between the two countries were broken off, thanks to mediation efforts by President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (BBC)
South Africa recalls its ambassador to Rwanda. (BBC) (iAfrica) (Reuters Africa) (The Mercury)
It is impossible that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi could have pretended to have terminal prostate cancer, according to an oncologist who examined him. (BBC)
Britain's High Commission in Colombo lifts travel advice restrictions on Sri Lanka for the first time in approximately 30 years. (BBC) (Daily Mail)
Asif Ali Zardari and David Cameron meeting:
- After meeting Pakistani President Zardari at Chequers UK Prime Minister Cameron speaks of an "unbreakable" friendship between Britain and Pakistan in his attempts to recover from remarks he made about Pakistan's alleged promotion of terrorism. (BBC)
- Zardari reiterates his desire to combat terrorism and says he has secured a deal with Britain to lobby the European Union for funds for a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild Pakistan and Afghanistan. (The Guardian) (BBC)

Law and crime

Saudi Arabia BlackBerry ban:
- Saudi Arabia's ban of online functions on BlackBerry mobile phones is implemented. (BBC)
- BlackBerry devices can be used again now across the country following a four-hour outage earlier today. (BBC)
Thousands of people attend the public flagellation of 5 people in Aceh amid requests that the practice be banned. (BBC)
A 25-year-old Bosnian immigrant is arraigned in a Brooklyn United States District Court for involvement in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up New York City's subway system. (CNN)
Jeremy Ractliffe, former head of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, admits he kept possible blood diamonds to protect the reputations of Mandela, Naomi Campbell and the fund but that he gave them to South African police and is willing to testify at Charles Taylor's trial. (The Guardian)
At least 14 people are killed during a prison riot in Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. (BBC)
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death in Iran, speaks out, saying Iran is "desperately trying to distract attention and confuse the media so that they can kill me in secret". (The Guardian)
Police near Colombo arrest a suspected fraudster for whom they had previously appealed to Interpol; it is unknown if he denies the charges brought against him. (BBC)
A woman is arrested following the discovery of baby corpses stored inside four suitcases in her attic in Nij Beets, Friesland. (BBC) (news.com.au) (Reuters) (Sky News)
The Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger files a motion calling for same-sex marriages to resume in the U.S. state immediately. (AFP via The Age)

Politics

The Pentagon makes a demand to Wikileaks that it remove its collection of classified military documents from the internet. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Reuters)
Brazil's four main presidential election candidates participate in their first televised debate. (BBC)
Musician Wyclef Jean files his papers in his bid to become President of Haiti. (BBC)
Pál Schmitt takes office as President of Hungary, succeeding outgoing president László Sólyom. (Politics.hu)
Bronisław Komorowski is officially sworn in as President of Poland, following the death of President Lech Kaczyński in a plane crash in April. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Nepalese politicians unsuccessfully attempt to elect a new prime minister for the fourth time; they will try again on 18 August. (BBC)
Swaziland's justice minister and senator Ndumiso Mamba resigns from both positions over allegations of an affair with a wife of King Mswati III; the wife has denied the allegations. (BBC) (Times LIVE) (IOL) (The Guardian)

Science

According to scientists, one million little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) have contracted white nose syndrome (WNS) and died in North America. (BBC)
U.S. scientists plan to rotate the Confederate submarine, the H. L. Hunley, buried in the outer harbour of Charleston, South Carolina so that they can examine it more closely. (AP via Google News)
American scientists announce an ice sheet has broken from Greenland's Petermann Glacier. (BBC) (The Guardian)

Sport

Usain Bolt is professionally defeated for only the second time in the 100 metres by Tyson Gay in Stockholm. (BBC Sport) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Independent)