Portal:Current events/2011 February 6
< Portal:Current events
February 6, 2011 (Sunday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2011 Egyptian protests:
- People demonstrate against the Mubarak regime for the thirteenth consecutive day, dubbed the "Day of Martyrs" in memory of those killed. (Press TV) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
- Graphic rooftop footage emerges of a protester being gunned down in Alexandria. (The Guardian)
- Protestors express anger at the governments of France, Israel and the United States due to their support of the thirty-year Mubarak dictatorship. (Press TV)
- Human Rights Watch expresses increased concerns at the continuing targeting by the Egyptian authorities of journalists, human rights defenders, and youth activists, while another Al Jazeera reporter is arrested. (The Guardian) (The Guardian)
- An Israeli man is released from custody. (Press TV)
- Traffic to Al Jazeera's English-language website, which features a live stream of events, increases by 2,500 per cent during the past week of its coverage of the events in Egypt, with as much as 60 per cent of this coming from the United States. (Los Angeles Times)
- Two people are married in Tahrir Square. (The Guardian)
- Images emerge on YouTube of a man being shot at close range, possibly by police, in Cairo / Alexandria; his condition is unknown. (Al Jazeera)
- Egyptian banks reopen for the first time in a week. (Reuters) (BBC) (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera)
- 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising
- Police in Tunisia kill at least two people during a protest in the northwestern town of El Kef demanding the resignation of a police chief - crowds retaliate by burning the police station. (BBC), (Houston Chronicle) (Al Jazeera)
- Tunisia's interior minister suspends activities of the former ruling party Constitutional Democratic Rally. (Reuters) (BBC)
- Cambodian–Thai border stand-off
- Cambodia says a disputed 11th Century temple has been damaged on the third day of cross border clashes with Thailand. (BBC)
- U.S.-led forces kill four civilians, including a woman, in northern Afghanistan. (Press TV)
- Israeli soldiers have shot three Palestinians, two while they collected gravel from destroyed homes in Gaza, and another while he worked in the northern Gaza Strip. (People's Daily)(The Palestine Telegraph)
- The Indian Army insists it is to inquire "on its own" the death of a man in Kashmir, allegedly killed in an army ambush. His family says he was snatched from his home before being shot. (Sify) (Kashmir Observer)
- At least 50 people have died in a mutiny of the Sudan People's Armed Forces in southern Sudan. (Reuters) (BBC)
- The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai says that a transfer of security authority from international to Afghan forces will begin on March 21. (CNN)
- The Indian Navy captures 28 suspected Somali pirates on a Thai fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean. (AP via the Washington Post)
Arts and culture
- A United Nations World Heritage Site is damaged and collapses due to a dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Police on Easter Island evict indigenous protesters battling for ancestral lands and a larger share of tourist revenues from the grounds of a luxury hotel. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)
Disasters
- Severe flood kills 13 in Sri Lanka. (Xinhua)
- Australia:
- Thousands of people in the Australian state of Victoria are forced to evacuate due to flooding. (News Limited)
- Sydney experiences record weather conditions, hottest night on record. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- More than 100 people flee their homes from bushfire in Perth's east. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Bushfires threaten the suburbs of Brigadoon, Baskerville, Willendon, Red Hill and Herne Hill in Perth, Western Australia. (Sky News)
- Widespread blackout in eight Brazilian states. (MercoPress) (The Wall Street Journal)
International relations
- Palestinian leaders express disappointment at the refusal of the Middle East Quartet — United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia — to hear their call for unilateral statehood and failure to take a strong stance on Israel's settlement construction at its February 5 meeting in Munich. (RIA Novosti)
- The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expresses what she believes is the even more crucial need for progress in peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians due to events in Egypt and other countries. (Sunday Independent)
- Spanish police remove more than 100 rowdy Belgian students from an aeroplane. (BBC)
Law and crime
- 24-year-old Anat Kamm, a former soldier of Israel, signs a plea bargain to plead guilty in Tel Aviv District Court to a lesser charge of leaking more than 2,000 secret military documents to the Haaretz newspaper; she may be jailed for 15 years. Haaretz reported a possibly-illegal Israeli assassination operation against Palestinians in the West Bank; her lawyer says she "believed she stumbled onto evidence of war crimes". (CP via Google News) (BBC) (Reuters) (The Guardian)
- The trial of three American hikers Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal on espionage charges begin today in Iran. (Al-Arabiya) (Al Jazeera)
- One student is killed and 11 injured following shootings at a party in Youngstown, Ohio. Two men are later arrested in connection with the incident. (AP via Lexington Herald-Leader), (CNN)
- Reputed Mexican drug cartel leader Sandra Ávila Beltrán is sentenced to a year in jail for weapons possession charges. (AP via El Paso Times)
- Russian billionaire Ashot Egiazaryan, facing charges of financial crimes, flees to the United States claiming persecution. (AP via Yahoo! News)
Politics and elections
- Nepal's prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal takes his oath of office. (Al Jazeera)
- Embattled Kevin Foley resigns as deputy premier and treasurer of South Australia but insists on maintaining his defense portfolio. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Sports
- The Japan Sumo Association cancels the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in light of a match fixing scandal, the first time the event has been canceled since 1946. (Daily Yomiuri Online) (BBC)
- "Marathon Man" Stefaan Engels sets a new world record by completing 365 marathon races in a year. (BBC News)
- Dane Thomas Bjørn birdies three of his last four holes to achieve a four-shot victory of the Qatar Masters at the Doha Golf Club. (Al Jazeera)
- Formula 1 racer Robert Kubica crashes at a rally in Italy, fracturing his right arm, leg and hand. He undergoes surgery as a result. (BBC Sport)
- National Football League
- In American football, the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV by a score of 31-25. (USA Today), (Fox Sports) Aaron Rodgers, the Packers' quarterback, is named as the Most Valuable Player. (USA Today)