Portal:Current events/2011 September 20

September 20, 2011 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2011 Yemeni uprising: Rockets hit a protest camp in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, killing at least two people. (Reuters)
Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former President of Afghanistan, is killed in a suicide bombing at his home in Kabul while meeting with a Taliban delegation to discuss a possible peace deal. (Al-Jazeera), (AFP via The Australian)
Gunmen in the Pakistan province of Baluchistan open fire on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims to Iran, killing at least 25 people. (New York Times)
A bombing attack in the centre of the Turkish capital Ankara kills at least 3 people and injures 34. (New York Times)

Arts and culture

Gears of War 3, the final game in the acclaimed Gears of War video game franchise, goes on sale, with 20,000 game stores around the world opening at midnight for its release. (The Guardian)

Business

Qantas flights throughout Australia are disrupted by a four-hour strike by airport ground staff and baggage handlers. (Sydney Morning Herald)
The International Monetary Fund warns of a possible global double-dip recession in the coming years. (Sky News)
The world's 8th-largest search engine, Yandex, expands into Turkey, marking its first venture outside the Commonwealth of Independent States. (Total Telecom)
Wadah Khanfar steps down as the head of the Al Jazeera news network, and is replaced by Sheikh Ahmad bin Jassim bin Mohammad Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family. (Financial Times) (Irish Times) (Al Jazeera)

Disasters

Floods and landslides caused by a week of heavy rain in the People's Republic of China have killed at least 57 people and made as many as a million people homeless. (BBC)
An investigation by Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee into the fatal crash of RusAir Flight 9605 in June 2011 finds that the disaster, which killed 47 people, was caused by a combination of pilot error, an inadequate weather forecast and inadequate ground equipment. It is furthermore reported that the aircraft's navigator was intoxicated at the time of the crash.(Wall Street Journal)
The road to the Indian town of Mangan reopens after the 2011 Sikkim earthquake, with the death toll expected to rise as rescuers reach the worst affected areas. (Times of India)
The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia did not abuse legal processes to destroy Yukos, once its largest oil company. (The Scotsman)
2011 Atlantic hurricane season: Tropical Storm Ophelia forms in the central Atlantic Ocean, with no storm warnings currently in place. (National Hurricane Centre via NOLA.com)

International relations

Law and crime

A Norwegian judge orders Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, to be kept in solitary confinement for four more weeks. (CNN)
The United States military officially ends its policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" and allows homosexual personnel to publicly declare their sexual orientation without being dismissed. (New York Times)
A group of Italian scientists go on trial for allegedly downplaying the risk of a major earthquake before the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, which killed 308 people. (The Independent)
Mexican gunmen dump 35 bodies in the city of Boca del Rio, with at least some of the victims having links to organised crime. (AP via Bakersfield Now)

Politics and elections

Voters in Zambia go to the polls for a general election, with a close presidential race expected between incumbent Rupiah Banda and opposition leader Michael Sata. (Voice of America)