Portal:Current events/2010 August 16

August 16, 2010 (Monday)

The Philippine security forces announce they will extend the controversial counter-insurgency tactic Oplan Bantay Laya up until December 31, 2010. The political party Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemned the extension. (The Philippine Daily Inquirer) (The Philippine Star) (GMA News)
3 more people are killed during protests in Kashmir. (BBC)
At least 2 people are injured after a grenade explosion outside a Televisa television station in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
The mayor of the Mexican town of Santiago, Nuevo León, Edelmiro Cavazos, is abducted. (BBC) (China Daily)
War in Afghanistan (2001–present):
- The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai gives private security firms operating in that country four months to disband. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald) (Aljazeera)
- General Stanley A. McChrystal, recently sacked from his post in Afghanistan by the United States for speaking to Rolling Stone, is given a lecturing post at a major university in the United States. (BBC) (The New York Times)
- A United States air strike kills an al-Qaeda leader who was thought to have been planning suicide bombings. (Reuters)
- The United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the July 2011 timetable to start withdrawing United States armed forces from Afghanistan is set in stone. (Voice of America)

Politicians and intellectuals including Étienne Balibar, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Eva Joly appeal to Nicolas Sarkozy that France repay €17 billion it took from Haiti in 1825 after the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804); they say the money is "morally, economically, and legally unassailable" in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (France24) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Guardian)
AIRES Flight 8250 crashes upon landing on San Andrés Island, Colombia; one death is reported. (Aljazeera) (BBC News) (CNN)
2010 Pakistan floods:
- The devastating floods continue as a concern of the United Nations, with officials citing a lack of aid funding for six million people in urgent need of clean water. (New York Times)
- The United Nations states there is high risk for as many as 3.5 million children who may be struck down by diseases in the water. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Russia is battered by a severe storm following its recent heatwave, its hottest summer in recorded history. (BBC)
An explosion at a maternity hospital in Romania's capital Bucharest, kills at least 4 babies, while 2 pregnant women and 8 newborn infants sustain burns and other injuries in serious condition. (Reuters) (Press Association via Irish Independent) (Voice of Russia) (Sky News) (CNN)
As many as 40 people are killed due to a fiery collision between a lorry load of sugar and a police checkpoint in Nigeria. (BBC) (IOL) (News24)

Tens of thousands of Republic of Korea Armed Forces and United States armed forces ignore warnings from North Korea, and start a new round of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian drills in South Korea. (AP via Google News) (Aljazeera)
Easter Island
- Community leaders in Easter Island threaten to secede from Chile, prompting the resignation of Governor Pedro Edmunds Paoa. (RNZI) (The Guardian)
- Pro-independence activists reportedly seize control of government buildings, a museum and a hotel located on land claimed by ethnic Polynesians. (Times Herald-Record)
- 45 Chilean special forces have been sent to Easter Island to monitor events. (RNZI)
Senior Romanian diplomat Gabriel Grecu is arrested in Russia, accused of spying and given 48 hours to leave the country. (BBC) (IOL) (Xinhua)
Gabon signs agreements with several Asian companies designed to make it rely less on its oil. (BBC) (Financial Times) (Reuters Africa)

2010 Thai political protests:
- Protest leaders plead innocence in court, denying charges of terrorism in Bangkok. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Thailand lifts its state of emergency in 3 provinces but retains it in 7 others, including Bangkok. (Reuters) (The Irish Times) (ABC News)
American Lori Berenson, convicted of collaborating with a left-wing group in Peru, apologises after her release from a 20-year prison sentence; she denies any form of violence or murder. (Peruvian Times) (BBC) (Democracy Now) (Japan Today) (MercoPress)
Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation upholds a Mexico City law allowing gay adoption. (AP via New York Times)
Israeli courts deem that its government was "responsible" for the death of a female Palestinian child, who was hit by a rubber bullet in 2007. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

Malta buries former president Guido de Marco in a state funeral. (The Times) (The Malta Independent)
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to give the £4.6 million advance and all royalties from his forthcoming memoirs, A Journey, to a sports centre for badly injured soldiers; pacifists and the families of soldiers killed under his leadership call it "blood money". (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian)
Talks on forming a coalition government are suspended in Iraq. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (France24) (Mail & Guardian)
A book written by Chinese dissident Yu Jie critical of Premier Wen Jiabao goes on sale in Hong Kong, with threats of imprisonment from the mainland. (Radio Television Hong Kong) (Sify India) (BBC)
Iran nuclear program
- Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, says that Iran will build a third uranium enrichment plant next year. (Jerusalem Post)
- The President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signs a new law binding the Government of Iran to pursue a target of refining uranium to 20 percent. (AFP via Google News)

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