Portal:Current events/2010 July 21

July 21, 2010 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict:
- Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Murat Karayilan says the group would disarm under the supervision of the United Nations in return for an end to attacks on Kurdish civilians and arrests of Kurdish politicians in eastern Turkey, as well as additional linguistic and cultural rights. (BBC)
- Suspected PKK militants blow up an oil pipeline carrying oil from Iran. (Hurriyet) (UPI) (Times of India)
Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles fatally shoot Indian civil rights campaigner and environmentalist Amit Jethwa in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. (BBC)
At least 30 people are killed and 46 others are wounded, including women and children, as a car bomb explodes near a Shia mosque in Abu Sayeeda, Baqubah, Diyala in Iraq. (Aljazeera)
At least 34 people are killed in clashes in northern Yemen between Houthi rebels and pro-government tribes. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
The United States threatens to impose new sanctions on North Korea as part of its attempt to halt perceived nuclear weapons ambitions; North Korea describes United States military exercises in the Sea of Japan as "very dangerous sabre-rattling". (Aljazeera)
Assailants launch an attack on a hydroelectric plant in Kabardino-Balkaria in southern Russia killing two guards and letting off bombs. (Canadian Press via Google News) (Al Jazeera) (RIA Novosti)
Four people are killed and many more are injured by police fire in Assam in India during a protest by thousands against government registration. (BBC)
Three plainclothes Chinese police officers beat up, bruise and concuss a provincial official's wife by accident; the police are punished, while the woman is hospitalised. (BBC) (China Daily) (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters) (News24)
Three policemen are killed by suspected left-wing extremists in Pabna, Bangladesh. (BBC)
Two Palestinian militants of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine are killed and another six wounded by Israeli shelling as they approached the Gaza Strip-Israel border near Beit Hanoun. A ten-year-old girl is also wounded. (Haaretz) (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Arts and culture

A Stonewall study indicates that young people rarely see positive portrayals of lesbian and gay people on television, usually depicted as "promiscuous, predatory, or figures of fun", particularly on BBC One. (BBC)
The London Review of Books issues a public apology after more than 70 leading British writers, academics and arts figures accuse it of publishing a racist blogpost comparing African migrants to baboons and black shopkeepers to rottweilers. (The Guardian)
The Margaret Hewson Prize for new writing talent, judged by Beryl Bainbridge 10 days before her recent hospitalisation and eventual death, is awarded to Laura McClelland. (The Guardian)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron gifts President of the United States Barack Obama a painting, Twenty First Century City, by graffiti artist Ben Eine, while Obama gifts Cameron a signed lithograph, Column with Speed Lines, by Edward Ruscha. (BBC)
Austria's Leopold Museum agrees to pay $19 million to the estate of Jewish art dealer Egon Schiele's for Portrait of Wally, stolen from her by Nazism in World War II. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Washington Post)
Cécile Aubry, French film star, writer and ex-wife of Moroccan prince Si Brahim El Glaoui, dies. (BBC)
Google Images receives one billion page views per day and receives a revamp. (BBC)
Actor George Clooney is to receive an award for humanitarian work. (BBC) (News24) (Los Angeles Times) (The Washington Post)

Business and economics

A Burger King advertising campaign is outlawed in the United Kingdom after complaints. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Newspaper publisher Conrad Black is released from prison but restricted to the continental United States; he is to appear in a Chicago court on 23 July. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Indian banks turn away Muslims in record numbers. (BBC)
Energy company BP announces it is to sell billions worth of assets in Canada, Egypt, Pakistan, United States and Vietnam to part-fund the clean-up cost of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (BBC)
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán says his government would only talk about their 2011 budget with the European Union, not the International Monetary Fund. (Reuters)
The European Commission orders the closure of loss-making coal mines across the European Union over the next four years. (BBC) (CNBC)^{[permanent dead link]}
Air traffic controllers in France go on strike in protest at a plan to unify European airspace. (France 24) (euronews) (Reuters India)

Disasters

The United Nations requests more aid to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the Sahel. (Al Jazeera)
The death toll from floods in China, the worst in a decade, rises to 700. (Xinhua) (Sify)

International relations

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrives in Chad, a member of the International Criminal Court, despite an arrest warrant. (Al Jazeera) (AP) (Reuters)
Despite pressure from Australia and New Zealand, a gathering of about 5 Pacific Island leaders is held in Fiji. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State, announces that the United States will impose further sanctions against North Korea as a result of the sinking of the South Korean warship ROKS Cheonan. (Bloomberg)

Law and crime

Mexico states that it has the support of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, the Federated States of Micronesia, Panama, Senegal, Turkey, and Uruguay in pursuing its case against Arizona's immigration law. (CNN)
An Arab residing in Israel is convicted of "rape by deception" and jailed for 18 months for having consensual sexual intercourse in 2008 with an Israeli woman alleged to believe he was Jewish. (Aljazeera) (The Guardian)
San bushmen in Botswana lose a court case in which they requested the re-opening of their traditional Kalahari waterhole from which the government forced them out when diamonds were discovered there in the 1980s. (BBC)
Four men go on trial in Nukuʻalofa charged with a mother's manslaughter in the MV Princess Ashika ferry disaster. (BBC)
Kenya awards compensation in a landmark ruling to civilians tortured by police during Daniel arap Moi's time in power in the 1980s. (BBC)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague orders the retrial of former Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj after stating his first trial was marred by witness intimidation. (Deutsche Welle) (Aljazeera) (The New York Times) (BBC)
Human Rights Watch calls for an independent investigation in Rwanda into the death of Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, who was killed weeks before a presidential election. (CNN) (AFP)
Italian police announce 67 arrests, €250 million worth of property seizures and the "wipe out" of a local clan. (WAtoday)
Israel tells the United Nations it will limit the use of fatal burning weapon white phosphorus in future conflicts after using it on civilians during its War on Gaza. (BBC) (France24)^{[permanent dead link]}

Politics

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron offends his own war veterans by erroneously suggesting in a Sky News interview that his country fought as the "junior partner" alongside the United States in "...the 1940 war against Germany." (BBC)
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Michael Somare threatens the life of an opposition member after a vote of no confidence is thwarted. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The White House holds an official review after an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture was forced to resign regarding controversy about a video that surfaced on the Internet. (CNN) (The Guardian) (BBC News) (The New York Times)
President of the United States Barack Obama signs finance reforms into law, overhauling the country's Wall Street Financial District. (Aljazeera)
Nepal's lawmakers fail to elect a new Prime Minister as no candidate manages to secure the required number of votes . (Samaylive)

Science

Scientists investigate the deaths of approximately 500 penguins whose corpses washed up on Brazilian beaches. (BBC)
Scientists announce the discovery of R136a1, the most massive star ever found. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

Sport

Hockey India investigates after M. K. Kaushik, 1980 Olympic gold medalist and coach of the women's team, allegedly sexually harasses a squad member; he denies the allegation but temporarily resigns pending the outcome of the investigation. (BBC News) (The Hindu) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (NDTV)