Portal:Current events/2011 May 7
< Portal:Current events
May 7, 2011 (Saturday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- 2011 Syrian uprising
- Sources claim that the Syrian Army storms into the city of Baniyas attacking Sunni districts that have opposed President Bashar al-Assad during the 2011 Syrian protests. (Reuters via Alertnet), (Al Jazeera)
- 2011 Libyan civil war
- The Libyan Armed Forces bomb large fuel storage tanks in the town of Misrata, destroying the tanks and causing a large fire. (Reuters)
- Sectarian violence in northern Nigeria kills at least 16 people. (Reuters)
- Gunmen attack the compound of the Governor of Afghanistan's Kandahar Province and other facilities in the city of Kandahar with two dead and 29 injured. (AP via Washington Post), (AFP via France 24)
- Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb denies responsibility for a bomb attack on a Marrakesh cafe that killed 16 people on April 28. (Reuters)
- The United States releases videos of Osama bin Laden captured in last Sunday's raid. (MSNBC)
- At least five people are killed and 54 injured in sectarian clashes in the Imbaba area of Cairo. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- The government of Tunisia declares an overnight curfew in the capital Tunis following three days of unrest. (France 24)
Business and economy
- Sony states that it will delay the restart of its PlayStation Network following the PlayStation Network outage, and that it has managed to remove user data that had been posted online by a third party. (Reuters via HuffingtonPost)
Disasters
- A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Xian MA60 passenger plane with 25 passengers crashes into the sea near the Indonesian province of West Papua with no survivors. (AP via Yahoo News) (BBC) (AFP viaCalgary Herald)
- Spring 2011 Mississippi River Floods
- The Spring 2011 Mississippi River Floods continue, with thousands of homes now ordered evacuated. (Voice of America)
- The 1927 Mississippi flooding record expected to be broken. (Slate)
- The floods have disrupted major food and energy distribution in affected states. (Bloomberg).
- The wreckage of a plane that crashed in Bolivia on Thursday has been found with four United Nations staff and two pilots dead. (United Nations)
International relations
- China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan conduct an anti-terror drill in the restive Xinjiang region of western China. (AFP via Google News) (Xinhua)
- Three Russian human rights activists monitoring trials of opposition activists in Belarus are expelled. (RIA Novosti)
- The Yomiuri reports that Japan and the United States have given up on plans to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Okinawa by 2014. (Reuters via MSNBC)
Politics and elections
- Voters in Singapore go to the polls for a general election.
- The ruling People's Action Party retains control of government, winning 81 of 87 seats. (Straits Times) (Al Jazeera), (The Hindu)
- Singapore Cabinet members George Yeo and Lim Hwee Hua lose their seats, making them the highest ranking ministers to be unseated in a general election since 1963. (Channel NewsAsia)
- The Scottish National Party urges British Prime Minister David Cameron to amend the Scotland Bill to give the Scottish Parliament greater legislative powers. (BBC)
- Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott resigns after a collapse of his party's support at the Scottish Parliament election. (BBC)
- British Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable launches a fierce attack on the tactics of his party's Conservative coalition partners as "ruthless, calculating and very tribal" for the way they conducted themselves in the Alternative Vote referendum. (BBC)
- Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg describes the result of the referendum as a "bitter blow". (BBC)
- Counting for the Northern Ireland Assembly election finally ends with the DUP and Sinn Féin winning the most seats, 38 and 29 respectively. (BBC)
- The Welsh Labour Party says it expects to be in government by the end of next week, and may govern alone after winning 30 of the 60 Welsh Assembly seats in Thursday's election. (BBC)
- Voters in Ecuador go to the polls for the Ecuadorian constitutional referendum with the government declaring victory based on exit polls. (AP via Connecticut Post)
Sport
- Golf champion Seve Ballesteros dies after surgery to remove a brain tumour in Spain. (AFP via Sport 24), (Sky News)
- Jockey John R. Velazquez wins the 2011 Kentucky Derby riding Animal Kingdom. (Courier-Journal)
- American baseball pitcher Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers throws a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays. (Detroit Free Press)