Portal:Current events/2011 November 12
November 12, 2011 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian uprising:
- The Arab League votes to suspend Syria over its violent suppression of the Syrian uprising, pledging new sanctions and urging member states to withdraw ambassadors from Damascus. (AP via NDTV) (The Washington Post) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Reuters reports that crowds have attacked the Saudi Arabian embassy in Damascus and the French and Turkish consulates in Latakia. (Reuters)
- Nine civilians are killed by a bomb explosion on a bus in Laghman province in eastern Afghanistan in a suspected Taliban attack. (CNN)
- Two massive explosions occur at a Revolutionary Guard ammunition depot western of the Iranian capital, Tehran; at least 17 people, including a senior commander, are killed according to Iranian state media. Mossad assumed responsible. (Haaretz)(CNN) (PressTV) (The Washington Post)
- A suspected Islamist attacker kills seven people in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz before blowing himself up. (AFP) (Fox News) (The New York Times)
International relations
- APEC United States 2011: The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit gets underway in the US city of Honolulu. (Wall Street Journal)
- The Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa sign an accord to develop a mega-hydroelectric plant on the Congo River to address their nations' growing energy needs. (AFP)
- Response to IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program:
- United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demands that Iran respond soon to the "serious concerns" raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iran appeared to be working on nuclear bomb technology. (The Jerusalem Post)
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticizes Russia and China's opposition to further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program following an International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iran had worked on an atomic weapon design. (The Jerusalem Post)
Law and crime
- Prosecutors at the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon set up to prosecute the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri ask judges to defer a decision to hold a trial in absentia for four Hezbollah members indicted in Hariri's assassination. (The Daily Star) (The Washington Post)
Politics
- Silvio Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy to make way for an emergency government to address the country's economic crisis; thousands of Italians celebrate his departure in street demonstrations. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Independent)
- At a Republican party presidential primary debate, US Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich say they would go to war to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. (CBS News)
Sport
- In athletics, the International Association of Athletics Federations names Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Sally Pearson of Australia as its World Athletes of the Year. (IAAF)