Portal:Current events/2010 November 26

Current events of November 26, 2010 (2010-11-26) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks Three armed men are killed in a shootout in the Russian republic. (rferl) A suicide bomb explodes at a rebel Houthi procession in northern Yemen, killing several people. (BBC) (The Hindu) Arts and culture United States country music singer Willie Nelson is charged with marijuana possession. (AP via MSN) Business and Economics Irish financial crisis. Widespread speculation that senior bondholders of Irish banks will have to take a "haircut" -- i.e. share in the costs of an EU bailout -- leads to downgrades in the credit worthiness of the institutions that hads the most at stake in the ballooning property values of recent years. (CNBC) Disasters A third explosion within a week occurs at the Pike River Mine on the South Island of New Zealand, where 29 men are presumed dead. (ABC Australia) International relations Korean peninsula: North Korea issues warnings about a planned exercise by South Korea and the United States this weekend. (Jerusalem Post) North Korea holds an artillery drill near Yeonpyeong Island, which it shelled earlier this week. (Times of India) (Jerusalem Post) China warns the U.S. against performing any military acts within their exclusive economic zone, ahead of joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises aimed at threatening North Korea. (Reuters) Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri visits Iran, seeking help to prevent violence if a U.N.-backed tribunal indicts Hezbollah members for killing former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, and 21 others in a car bombing (Reuters Africa) Law and crime A Rwandan court reschedules the trial date of the United Democratic Forces opposition party leader, Victoire Ingabire, for another 30 days for prosecutors to complete building their case against her. (Bloomberg) Pakistani police arrest two Islamist militants planning a suicide bombing attack against a mosque and a government building in Islamabad. (UK Press Asscociation) (VOA) Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrest 149 people with links to al-Qaeda suspected of planning attacks on government officials and journalists. (Al-Jazeera) Authorities find the largest cache of homemade explosives ever discovered in the United States, in two houses near Escondido, California. (CNN) (Los Angeles Times) Human Rights Watch criticizes the punishment of Israeli soldiers who forced a Palestinian child to open bags thought to be booby-trapped as inadequate and a sign that the "Israeli military justice system will not seriously sanction soldiers convicted for offenses that are war crimes". (Human Rights Watch) (Press TV) Politics A gunman opens fire at a Kuomintang political rally in Taiwan; prominent member Sean Lien is shot in the face. (Focus Taiwan News Channel) (The Independent) Kim Kwan-jin becomes the new Minister for Defense in South Korea, replacing Kim Tae-Young who resigned following the shelling of Yeonpyeong. (Yonhap) Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin wins a by-election for the Donegal South–West constituency in the Irish parliament reducing the majority of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to two. (BBC) Police in the UK are seeking the power to take down websites they deem "criminal", with critics worried over the lack of judicial oversight. (BBC)