Portal:Current events/2010 July 18

Current events of July 18, 2010 (2010-07-18) (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks War in Afghanistan (2001–present): 14 inmates are freed from a jail in Farah after a successful prison break led by the Taliban. (Aljazeera) NATO forces claim to have foiled a plot to attack an international donor conference in Kabul due to feature leaders from more than 60 nations. (Aljazeera) At least three people are killed by a suicide bomber on a bicycle in Kabul. (BBC) A suicide bomber kills 43 people in Adhamiya in Iraq, many of whom were members of the Iraqi Army or a government-supported, Sunni, anti-al-Qaeda group called Sa hwa or Sons of Iraq. (Sky News Australia) (Aljazeera) (The Guardian) At least 17 people are killed and at least 10 others are wounded during a pre-dawn gun attack on a birthday party in Torreón, Coahuila state in Mexico, across the border from Texas. (BBC) (Aljazeera) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for a full investigation into allegations that recent killings of opposition figures in Rwanda were politically motivated ahead of the country's election next month. (The Observer) Ugandan police arrest 20 people, including several Pakistanis, for their alleged role in the recent bombings in Kampala. (AFP via Google) Arts, culture and entertainment Zsa Zsa Gabor is hospitalised in serious condition after falling out of bed and breaking her hip and several other bones. (BBC), (Daily Mail), (KTLA) North Rhine-Westphalians party on the autobahn between Duisburg and Dortmund. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Star) (Sky News) The first Nelson Mandela International Day is held on Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday. (Aljazeera) Disasters At least 14 people are killed and at least 12 others sustain wounds after a bus plummets off a cliff in Pukë, Albania; a national day of mourning is declared. (BBC) A bus falls off a cliff in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China resulting in the death of 23 people. (AP via Google News) United Nations figures indicate around 225 families remain homeless in Gaza since Israel's three-week military offensive was launched in December 2008. (Taiwan News) A series of two earthquakes, the second quake measuring magnitude 7.3, hit New Britain in Papua New Guinea. A tsunami warning is issued but later retracted. (ABC) International relations Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who says he was abducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, says the United States wanted him to confess to being a spy as part of a plan to force the release of three Americans spies caught by Iran. (Aljazeera) The Arab League, speaking in Cairo, states written guarantees are required if Palestine is to enter into direct negotiations with Israel as Egyptian, Israeli, Palestinian and American representatives meet to talk. (Aljazeera) Colombia takes Venezuela to the Organisation of American States over claims that the latter tolerates training camps for left-wing guerrillas, particularly FARC and ELN within its borders. (BBC) EU commissioner Chris Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, speaking during his first visit to Gaza since 2002, calls the Israeli blockade of Gaza an "immoral failure", expresses shock at the "huge new settlements" in the West Bank, and states the United States dominance of the Quartet on the Middle East - US, EU, UN and Russia - is wrong. (The Guardian) A 2001 film, depicting Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu discussing methods of undermining the Oslo Accords and saying the United States is "easy" to manipulate, is aired on Israel's Channel 10. (Aljazeera) The United Kingdom plans to reduce or eliminate international aid to countries such as the "powerhouses" of Russia and China, as well as South American and eastern European countries. The government plans aid increases to some poorer nations including a 40% increase to Afghanistan. (The Observer) European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says that Israel must go beyond easing its blockade of Gaza and throw open its long-closed border. (BBC) (Xinhua) An Israeli religious group plans to build flats in Ajami, Jaffa. (The Observer) Law and crime Omar Deghayes, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee and one of six suing the British government, says notes taken during his interrogation by British security service officers have been censored to hide the fact that he was tortured by agents and to avoid potentially embarrassing questions. (The Guardian) Saddam Hussein's former foreign minister Tariq Aziz and other senior members are summoned and appear in an Iraqi court charged with "squandering the public wealth". (Aljazeera) President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, speaking in Marange, says he will ignore anyone who desires mention of LGBT rights in a draft of the next constitution of Zimbabwe. (AFP via Google) (RTÉ) A decade-long manhunt orchestrated by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation ends with the capture of José Figueroa Agosto in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) Women rights groups in Pakistan say the life of a woman convicted of adultery is now in grave danger; she faces death by stoning as her man has abandoned her to the courts. (The Guardian) Health experts condemn tobacco companies for openly flouting European Union laws against advertising by using glitzy sales teams and techniques to promote cigarette brands at young people on Facebook and at music festivals. (The Observer) Customs officers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport discover 400 rare tortoises, more than 40 rare tomato frogs and an unidentified number of chameleons bound with masking tape and stuffed into socks allegedly smuggled from Madagascar in the luggage of two women. (BBC) (ABC News) Police in Grenoble, France arrest four people for attempted murder whom they claim protested the fatal shooting of a man by police. (BBC) Politics and elections Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that he will oppose a conversion bill that would give the Chief Rabbinate of Israel the legal power to decide whether any conversion is legitimate and could cause immigrants who converted to Judaism abroad to be denied Israeli citizenship. (AP) Science and weather Rhinoceros experts worry after the last female in the Krugersdorp game reserve near Johannesburg is attacked by helicopter, shot with tranquiliser guns, and has her horn hacked off by poachers, slowly bleeding to death. (The Observer) Sports Golfer Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa wins the 139th Open Championship, played at the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. (The Guardian) (BBC Sport)