Portal:Current events/2010 August 18

August 18, 2010 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

The corpse of mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the Mexican town of Santiago, Nuevo León, is found handcuffed and blindfolded after his abduction on Sunday night. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (Los Angeles Times) (AP via Miamai Herald)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Reuters)
18 countries, including the United States, deploy naval troops in joint exercises which they say are an attempt to defend the Panama Canal against terrorism. (UPI) (Dominican Today) (MercoPress) (United States Department of Defense)
Julian Assange of Wikileaks says the United States has approached the website to try to negotiate the release of a further 15,000 Afghanistan war documents which the military desires to keep secret; the United States denies this. (Aljazeera)
The United States ends combat operations in Iraq as its last combat brigade departs for Kuwait. (Al Jazeera) (MSNBC)
3 Indian peacekeepers serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are killed by rebels in an apparent ambush. (BBC) (Hindustan Times)
The United States deploys troops along its border with Mexico by the order of President Barack Obama. (BBC)

Arts and culture

The American Ballet Theatre is given permission by its country's President, Barack Obama, to perform in Cuba; it would be the first time in 50 years. American tourists are still banned by their government from travelling to Cuba. (BBC) (AFP via France24)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
Soul singer Erykah Badu is fined and punished by the city of Dallas, Texas, United States, after being convicted of disorderly conduct for removing her clothes and re-enacting a controversial scene from the country's history while filming a music video. (BBC) (China Daily) (Sky News) (TIME)

Business and economics

Rupert Murdoch provides $1 million to the U.S. Republican Party ahead of an important election in November, more than doubling the party's funds with one of the largest handouts by a media organisation; critics declare Fox News is not impartial. (BBC) (Channel 4) (The Irish Times)
More than 1 million state workers in South Africa go on strike to demand an increase in pay. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera) (Times Live)
Iceland lowers its interest rate to 7%. (BBC)
Foxconn holds employee rallies in a bid to stem the recent huge increase in suicides by its employees. (BBC) (iAfrica) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
United States car maker General Motors files for an Initial Public Offering. (The New York Times)
Japanese carmaker Mazda recalls 215,000 vehicles in the United States and 11,000 vehicles in China due to power steering flaws. (CBS Marketwatch)

Disasters

2010 Pakistan floods:
- Saudi Arabia overtakes the United States as the main donor to the stricken country. (The Guardian)
- The United Nations says that flood relief aid to Pakistan is "arriving too slowly". (Aljazeera) (The New York Times)
- The European Union pledges an additional $39 million and the Islamic Development Bank pledges $11.2 million. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Scientists dispute the claim by the United States that all the oil has gone from the Gulf of Mexico. (The Guardian)
A North Korean fighter plane crashes in China near the border, killing the pilot and possibly a second pilot bailing out. Pictures posted by local residents show a Soviet plane design which were used in the Korean War. It is suggested to have been a defection attempt. (BBC) (Yonhap)
At least 67 people are missing in new landslides in Yunnan, southwest China, with at least two deaths confirmed. (China Daily) (Reuters) (BBC), (AP via Google News)
A school building collapses due to heavy rain in the village of Sumgarh in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing at least 17 schoolchildren. (Times of India) (AP via Google News)
Scientists blame a peculiar double earthquake for the deadly tsunami responsible for the deaths of 192 people in the South Pacific last September, and described as "unlike anything seismologists have seen before". (BBC)
A bus plunges into a 100 metre ravine in the Philippines Benguet province resulting in 39 deaths. (CNN)
3 people are killed and 3 others are missing after a South Korean fishing boat sinks 400 miles from Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. (CNN)

International relations

Moroccan activists blockading a Spanish enclave in protest at alleged abuses by border police agree to suspend the action during Ramadan. (Aljazeera)
Mauritania extradites a man to Mali convicted for kidnapping three Spanish aid workers believed to be held by the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. (Reuters) (Voice of America)
Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan agree to step up the fight against terrorism and narcotics in a summit in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. (The Hindu)
The United States offers its support for a proposed international commission intent on examining alleged war crimes by the military junta of Burma. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)^{[permanent dead link‍]}

Law and crime

A court in Israel court jails a man who broke into the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and asked for asylum; his lawyer says the man was once an Israeli informer whose life is now under threat. (BBC) (News24) (Citizen.co.za)
A court in Colombia declares as unconstitutional a controversial deal allowing the United States to freely use its military bases and says it will have to be redrafted; other Latin American countries have expressed concern that the United States is exerting excessive influence on the region. (BBC) (The Age) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
A Peruvian court revokes the parole of Lori Berenson, a United States citizen convicted in the 1990s of collaborating with the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. (The New York Times) (BBC) (AP via The Age)
Venezuela's government begins a trial ban of the publication of "violent, bloody or grotesque" photographs in newspapers, as a result of controversy over pictures of bloodied corpses riddled with bullets appear on the front page of newspapers. (BBC)
Nathan Mutei, a Kenyan man, is jailed for 17 years in Tanzania after being convicted of attempting to sell an albino man; the prized albino is escorted back to Kenya under armed guard. (BBC)
The Philippines is shocked by mobile phone footage apparently demonstrating police torture of a naked man charged with theft; many suspensions occur. (BBC)
Jeremy Ractliffe resigns from the board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund after revealing he kept diamonds given to him by Naomi Campbell. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Two Israeli groups launch a course in "Zionist editing" of the online encyclopedia project Wikipedia. (The Guardian)
Candidates commence daily broadcasts in Brazil ahead of general and presidential elections on 3 October. (BBC)
David Paterson, Governor of the U.S. state of New York, is to discuss relocating the controversial Park51 Islamic community centre and mosque near World Trade Center site in New York City. (Al Arabiya) (New York Post) (The Guardian)
Elections in Haiti:
- Haiti's final decision on its presidential election candidates is delayed until Friday due to eligibility issues; it had initially been expected yesterday. (BBC) (News24) (Aljazeera)
- Potential candidate Wyclef Jean goes into hiding after receiving mysterious death threats from an anonymous source. (The Guardian) (Sky News)