Portal:Current events/2012 June 22

Current events of June 22, 2012 (2012-06-22) (Friday)

Armed conflict and attacks Syrian uprising (2011-present): The Syrian military shoots down a Turkish F-4 Phantom fighter jet after it had entered Syrian airpsace over the Mediterranean Sea. (BBC) Twenty-six people believed to belong to the pro-government armed group Shabiha are killed in northern Aleppo Governorate. (Al Jazeera) Saudi Arabia announces it plans to pay salaries of the Free Syria Army, in an attempt to encourage more defections from Assad's forces. (The Guardian) NATO-backed Afghan security forces end a 12-hour siege carried out by Taliban insurgents on the Spozhmai Hotel outside Kabul, killing all five insurgents. (BBC) Anti-austerity protests spread through the Sudanese city of Khartoum, with security forces breaking them up. (Al Jazeera) At least 14 people are killed and 106 others wounded in two successive bombings at a popular market on the northern outskirts of Baghdad. (Reuters) Arts and culture Carol Ann Duffy, Jeanette Winterson, Simon Armitage, Melvin Burgess and the creator of Coronation Street are among signatories calling for the destruction of books to stop in Manchester. (The Guardian) Thousands of students in rebel Islamist-controlled northern Mali leave schools after the imposition of Sharia law. (IRIN) Torrential rain causes chaos at the Isle of Wight musical festival. (The Guardian) Business and economics The Philippines lends the International Monetary Fund $1 billion. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) Wells Fargo plans to move jobs to India and the Philippines. (Reuters) International relations WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange gives an interview on Australian radio as his attempt to gain political asylum in Ecuador continues. (The Guardian) South China Sea dispute: China criticizes Vietnam for passing a law that claims sovereignty of the Spratly Islands. (The Sydney Morning Herald) China asks the Philippines to refrain from "influencing public opinion" in their dispute over the Scarborough Shoal. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) Law and crime Ugandan ethics minister Simon Lokodo signs a government statement saying that it does not discriminate against homosexuals and that they are free to meet. (IOL) Khilal Mamedov, a prominent Azeri human rights activist and journalist, is arrested on suspicion of drug possession, a move a fellow rights watchdog says is politically motivated. (MSNBC) Jerry Sandusky, former American football coach at Pennsylvania State University, is convicted on 45 charges of child sex abuse. He is on suicide watch. (AP via Atlanta Journal-Constitution) (MSNBC) Politics and elections Protests over pay by police officers in Bolivia spread; a police building is ransacked while president Evo Morales offers concessions. (BBC) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (France 24) Teachers in Swaziland go on an open-ended strike in a dispute over pay. (IOL) The Senate votes to impeach the President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo with former Vice President Federico Franco sworn in as the new president. (BBC) (AP via Yahoo News) Egyptian presidential election: Thousands of Egyptians crowd Cairo's Tahrir Square ahead of the announcement of the results of the presidential election. (Al Jazeera) Possibly unreliable reports claim that Ahmed Shafiq will be named the president of Egypt on June 24. (AhramOnline) (CNN) The ruling Pakistan People's Party nominates Raja Pervez Ashraf to replace Yousuf Raza Gilani after a judge orders the arrest of its first choice candidate Makhdoom Shahabuddin for alleged illegal importation of drugs. (BBC) Daphne Leef and several other Israeli activists tried to restart the housing protests by re-erecting a tent encampment in the Rothschild Boulevard in Tel-Aviv. The municipality had not given a permit and as a result Leef, along with eleven other activists, were arrested when they resisted the 20 policemen and municipal inspectors who arrived to dismantle the tents. The protesters' tents were confiscated by the police forces as well.(Jerusalem Post)(Ynet) Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness will shake hands with Elizabeth II at a historic first meeting between a British Monarch and member of Sinn Féin during the Queen's forthcoming trip to Northern Ireland. (BBC) Sports UEFA Euro 2012: Germany defeat Greece 4–2 in their quarter-final meeting, with goals from Philipp Lahm, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose and Marco Reus sending the Greeks to a Euro exit at the PGE Arena in Gdańsk. (TSN) Milan Baroš announces his retirement from international football after the Czech Republic's exit to Portugal at the quarter-final stage yesterday; Baroš was top scorer at the 2004 tournament. (BBC) Technology Software developer Tim Bray proposes a new HTTP status code inspired by Fahrenheit 451, the 1953 dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury. (The Guardian)