Portal:Current events/2010 September 17

September 17, 2010 (Friday)

A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in South Afghanistan. (Xinhua)
Security is increased in Manokwari, West Papua, after protests against the killing of two people by Indonesian police. (BBC) (Jakarta Globe)
Israeli troops kill Hamas militant Iyad Abu Shilbaya in an arrest raid in the West Bank. (AP via Google News)
An Iraqi Army soldier is killed and eleven people are wounded following two bombs going off in Baghdad. (Xinhua)
Gunmen kidnapped nine police officers investigating a death in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, and the bodies of two of the lawmen were found later. (AP via npr) (Sina)

India's ban on a Satyajit Ray documentary is lifted. (BBC)
Hanif Kureishi is awarded the PEN/Pinter prize. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Producers on the South African version of the Big Brother TV series evict a male housemate who punched a female housemate, bowing to pressure from women's rights activists after initially accepting the physical confrontation. (BBC)
American soap opera As the World Turns airs its final episode on CBS after a 54-year run on television. (AP via MSNBC)
US entertainer Paris Hilton agrees to a plea bargain with prosecutors in Las Vegas, Nevada, to avoid a jail sentence. (AP via ABC News America)

United Airlines shareholders meeting in Elk Grove, Illinois in Cook County, approve a deal to merge with Continental Airlines to create the world's biggest airline. (UPI)

The United Nations launches an appeal for more than $2 billion in the wake of the 2010 Pakistan floods: this represents the organisation's biggest response to a natural disaster. (BBC)
At least 27 people are killed in an accidental explosion in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka. (BBC) (Times of India) (AFP via Google News)(Xinhua)
The death toll from a tourist bus accident in Altay, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has risen to 11. (Global Times)
A drill reaches 33 Chilean miners trapped underground in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident since 5 August; their rescue is still expected to take several weeks. (BBC)
A large storm hits New Zealand with severe weather warnings in place for both the North and South Island for several days. (MSN NZ) (AAP via Bigpond News)
2010 Atlantic hurricane season:
- Hurricane Karl reaches Category 3 strength prior to making landfall in Mexico just north of Veracruz. Two people are killed in a mudslide. (Reuters), (AFP via Google News), (Reuters)
- Bermuda prepares for a potential impact from Hurricane Igor. (AFP via Google News)
BP starts pumping cement into the Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico at the culmination of cleanup efforts for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (AFP via Yahoo News)

Japan says China has shipped drilling equipment to a disputed gas field amid a diplomatic row over the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat captain near the disputed Senkaku Islands. (AFP) (BBC)
The United States charges 2 married former nuclear contractors with trying to give away the country's nuclear secrets to Venezuela. (BBC)
Poland arrests exiled Chechen rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev. (euronews) (CNN)
The Indonesian Air Force announces plans to buy six more Sukhoi fighter aircraft. (RIA Novosti)

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell decides not to halt the execution of female murderer Teresa Lewis, who will be executed on September 23,2010.(WHSV)
The Metropolitan Police arrest 6 people in London in connection to an alleged potential threat to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Guardian)
The Somali Police Force raid an address in Mogadishu and confiscate weapons. (CNN)
A former scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and his wife are indicted on charges of trying to provide information about the United States nuclear program to Venezuela. (CNN)

Iranian security forces reportedly surround Mir-Hossein Mousavi's office in Tehran. (BBC)
Opposition parties in Russia announce plans to field a joint candidate ahead of presidential elections in 2012. (The Independent) (MSN India) (Financial Times)
Afghan police set up extra security checkpoints across Afghanistan to prepare for Taliban attacks on voting in the parliamentary election on Saturday. (AP via Google News)
The Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan announces a Ministerial reshuffle with Seiji Maehara announced as the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. (BBC) (Japan Today)
Thailand's red shirt movement holds rallies in the lead up to the fourth anniversary of the removal of former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra on Sunday. (Al Jazeera)