Portal:Current events/2011 February 4

February 4, 2011 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2011 Egyptian protests:
- Anti-government protesters demonstrate against the Mubarak regime for an eleventh day - the "Day of Departure". (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera)
- Organisers of the 2011 Egyptian protests call on supporters to fill every square in Cairo after two days of clashes between supporters and opponents of President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak. (Washington Post)
- Protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square chant "Leave! Leave! Leave!", "Allahu akbar!" and "Today is the last day". (The Guardian)
- Al Jazeera investigates the hacking of its news website, allegedly carried out "apparently by opponents of the pro-democracy movement in Egypt". (The Guardian)
- Nederlandse Omroep Stichting cameraman Eric Feijten is arrested again after being released from his previous arrest. (The Guardian)
- Al Jazeera's Cairo office is stormed by "gangs of thugs" who ransack it and set it on fire as attacks on foreign journalists continue. (The Guardian)
- Reporter Bert Sundström of Swedish public broadcaster SVT, reported missing yesterday, is hospitalised and undergoing surgery for serious "knife injuries" in Cairo after being kidnapped and stabbed. (AFP via The Swedish Wire)
- Mohammed al-Beltagi, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, tells Al Jazeera that the movement has no ambitions to run for the Egyptian presidency. (Al Jazeera)
- Fighting shifts from Tahrir Square to Cairo's side streets. (CNN)
- Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud of Al-Ta'awun becomes the first journalist to die covering the protests as attacks on journalists continue. (Committee to Protect Journalists)
- Al-Arabiya TV reports that former interior minister Habib Ibrahim El Adly and other former ministers are under house arrest pending an official probe. (MSNBC)
- Fox News reports that a recent assassination attempt on Vice-President of Egypt Omar Suleiman left two bodyguards dead. (Fox News)
- International response to the 2011 Egyptian protests:
  - Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon calls for the "violence and intimidation" to "stop", saying that events have taken "a deeply troubling turn" and branding restrictions on the media as "utterly unacceptable". (The Guardian)
  - The chiefs of the European Union condemn the violence and a statement is jointly issued by Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. (AFP via The Australian)
Police beat with batons and shoot tear gas at student protesters in the Sudanese state of Sennar in demonstrations inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
2011 Syrian protests:
- Syrian protestors call for "a day of anger" against the Syrian government. (France 24)
- Plainclothes Syrian security agents are deployed outside Parliament in Damascus ahead of the anti-government demonstrations there. (CP via Google News)
Cambodian–Thai border stand-off: The Thai Army and the Cambodian Armed Forces clash on the border near the Preah Vihear Temple. (Bangkok Post)
- Several artillery rounds land on the Thai side of the border, killing one civilian. (Bangkok Post)
Islamic militants kill two Thai security guards in the south of the country. (Straits Times)
A new centre to help rape victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo opens in the eastern city of Bukavu. (BBC)
At least ten people are killed and several others injured in separate incidents of violence across Afghanistan. (PressTv)

Business and economy

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, jointly propose a new set of policies for the euro zone defined to defend the euro as a currency, such as higher retirement ages and the abolition of inflation-indexed wages. (Reuters)
The court-appointed trustee for creditors of Bernie Madoff claims that the owners of the New York Mets owes $300 million. (NBC New Tork)
Target Corp. has agreed to pay $22.5 million in settlement with the Government of California and local governments in settlement over alleged illegal hazardous waste dumping. (Los Angeles Times)
A court in Canada strikes down the government's decision to allow Globalive to operate a wireless telecomm network in that country, given the extent of foreign holdings. (Reuters)

Disasters

Five people lose their lives in flash floods that swamp parts of Iran's Southeastern province of Kerman in the towns of Sirjan, Roudbar and Kahnouj. (Fars News)
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake strikes the India-Burma border region. (Straits Times)
A man from Bamboroo, Queensland becomes the first casualty of Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi in Australia. (AAP via Brisbane Times)
The death toll from the January 31–February 2, 2011 North American winter storm is at least a dozen. (AP via Los Angeles Times)
A small plane crashes in Sulaimaniya in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region killing all seven people on board. (Reuters via ABC News)
Flooding in Victoria is worsened by the remnants of Cyclone Yasi and Anthony, causing major street flooding in Melbourne. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Bayside Leader) (Taipei Times)

International relations

The BBC apologises for remarks about Mexicans made on its Top Gear television programme but defends the original remarks as well. (Reuters via The Irish Times) (BBC) (Sky News) (TIME)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, says that the 2011 Egyptian protests and Tunisian uprising are a result of "Islamic awareness". (AP via Yahoo News)

Politics and elections

Thousands of people attend the funeral of Hmong General Vang Pao in Fresno, California. (Los Angeles Times)
Nepalese Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal begins forming a new national government. (One India) (RFI)
Cuba is to free two more dissidents, according to the Catholic Church on the island. (BBC)
The Parliament of Myanmar elects Thein Sein as President, succeeding Than Shwe who was in power since 1992. He is the first civilian president in half a century. (Al Jazeera) (AP via Yahoo! News)
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev calls an early election for April 3, rejecting a plan for a referendum intended to allow him to rule for another decade. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi ignores his recent sex scandals to claim to the media at a summit in Brussels that he is the most popular national leader in the European Union. (Times LIVE)

Science

NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Rep Gabby Giffords shot last month, announces that he will resume training to command the Space Shuttle Endeavour's final mission STS-134 in April. (Politico)
Researchers report that fishing rates in the Arctic are 75 times higher than those reported by the U.N., suggesting future increased exploitation is less possible than previously thought. (Reuters)

Sport

American football
- Falling ice injures seven people at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, due to host Super Bowl XLV on Sunday. (Dallas News)
- Albert Haynesworth of the Washington Redskins is charged with assault in Reston, Virginia, following an alleged road rage incident. (Washington Post)
The Cleveland Cavaliers match the United States National Basketball Association record for a single-season losing streak by losing their 23rd straight match to the Memphis Grizzlies. (ESPN)