Portal:Current events/2010 July 30

Armed conflict and attacks

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • A Taliban spokesman warns Afghans listed in the Afghan War Diary published on Wikileaks that "we know how to punish them". (The Telegraph)
  • A United States Army private is transferred from Kuwait to a US Marines brig in Quantico, Virginia. (Fox News)
  • At least 63 members of the US military have died in the War in Afghanistan during July 2010 making it the deadliest month for US forces in the history of the war. (The Guardian)
  • Two United States embassy vehicles are set alight in Kabul following a collision between a US vehicle and a civilian vehicle. (AFP via Google News)
• The Israeli Air Force launches several air strikes on the Gaza Strip following a BM-21 Grad missile strike by the Aza Din al-Kassem Gazan militant group on the Israeli town of Ashkelon. A Hamas rocket maker is killed and 13 other people are injured. (Jerusalem Post), (Al Jazeera)

Arts, culture and entertainment

• Thousands of children in Gaza appear to have broken their own world record for the number of kites flown at the same time, the UN says. (BBC)
• Sports presenter Clare Balding makes an official complaint to the UK's Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over an article mocking her sexuality in The Sunday Times. (BBC)

Disasters

• Flooding caused by monsoonal rain causes hundreds of deaths in northwestern Pakistan. (Al-Jazeera)
• At least 25 people have died as a result of forest fires in eastern Russia with thousands of Russians being evacuated in the hottest summer since records began. (Reuters via ABC Online)
• A wildfire forces the evacuation of thousands of homes in Palmdale California, United States. (AP via Google News)

Law and crime

• Multiple law-enforcement agencies seize a hoard of cannabis thought to be worth up to US$1.7 billion in the Sierra Nevada in southern California, United States. (BBC)
• Former Prime Minister of Fiji Mahendra Chaudry appears in a Suva court to face charges of tax evasion and money laundering. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is cleared of claims that he assaulted a masseuse in Portland, Oregon in 2006. (Associated Press)
• Two Armenian men sue Turkey, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and Ziraat Bankası bank in the United States district court in California for damages allegedly caused by the Armenian genocide in 1915. (Reuters via Yahoo News)

Politics and elections

• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi King Abdullah, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani visit Lebanon amid reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will indict members of Hezbollah (Iloubnan) (UN News Centre) (AFP)
• Vanuatu marks thirty years of independence. (Radio Australia)
• Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers block highways, attack factories and loot shops in Dhaka after rejecting a minimum wage increase offered by the Government of Bangladesh. (AFP via Google News)
• A split develops in Italy's governing People of Freedom Party after a dispute between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Gianfranco Fini, President of the Chamber of Deputies. (Telegraph and agencies via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Cabinet formation in the Netherlands: The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democratic Appeal inform informateur Ruud Lubbers of a possible new right-wing coalition cabinet between the two parties to form a minority government but with support of the Party for Freedom (PVV). (NOS)

Science

• A Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute study suggests that the Nili Fossae area on the surface of Mars could be a good spot to search for evidence of past life on Mars. (MSNBC)