Portal:Current events/2010 August 30

August 30, 2010 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, are shot dead in a shooting outside Kiryat Arba, when a gunman opens fire on their car. Hamas claims responsibility for the murder. (Haaretz)
A gunman opens fire in Devínska Nová Ves, a borough of the Slovak capital Bratislava, killing 8 people and injuring 14 others. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (The Guardian) (AP via The Hindu) (Xinhua) (Aljazeera)
Marco Antonio Leal García, the Mayor of Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, in northeastern Mexico, is shot dead while operating his car; his 4-year-old daughter is wounded. (BBC)
The presidential palace in Somalia is shelled. (Aljazeera)
6 civilians are killed and 19 others are injured in a shelling incident in Mogadishu. (The Guardian)
4 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda are killed during a mortar strike in Mogadishu, Somalia. (BBC) (AFP via France24)
4 people are killed and 3 others are injured due to a rocket launcher explosion in Pursat Province, northwestern Cambodia. (Xinhua)
Two Russian pilots are abducted in Sudan's western Darfur region. (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
Gunmen kidnap a politician in southern Nigeria, days after a supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan was also kidnapped. (News24) (Xinhua)

Arts and culture

Disasters

2010 Pakistan floods
- The historic city of Thatta is preserved by troops and volunteers fighting severe floodwaters in Pakistan; it had been thought of as being at great risk. (AP via Google News) (The Independent) (Daily Times)
- More than 175,000 people flee, as the city virtually empties. (Aljazeera)
Chile mining accident
- The 33 miners involved in the accident make telephone contact with their families for the first time in 3 weeks. (BBC)
- Rescuers are to begin drilling to rescue the trapped miners. (Santiago Times)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Al Jazeera)
2010 Atlantic hurricane season
- Category 4 Hurricane Earl takes aim at the northern Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico with winds of up to 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) prompting hurricane warnings. (msnbc.com) (CNN) (BBC)
- Tropical Storm Fiona forms in the central Atlantic Ocean with the potential to become the fourth hurricane of the season. (Huffington Post)
Indonesia's Mount Sinabung continues to erupt with 21,000 people now evacuated from nearby areas of north Sumatra and two people dead. (AP via Fox News) (CNN)
9 people die and 480 are rescued following a fire at a retirement home in the Tver region of Russia. (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
It is announced that a preserved corpse belonging to William Holland, an American mountaineer lost in the Canadian Rockies in 1989, has been located in Jasper National Park. (BBC) (AP via Google News)
42 killed, 11 injured in bus crash 55 miles south of Quito, Ecuador.(CNN)

International relations

Ovadia Yosef, a senior rabbi from Shas, a party within Israel's coalition government, calls for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "vanish from our world". The United States condemns the remarks as "deeply offensive". (BBC) (Haaretz) (The Times of India)
The United States begins patrolling with troops its border with Mexico. (BBC)
United States Vice President Joe Biden pays a surprise visit to Iraq. (Aljazeera) (Aswat al-Iraq)
China and North Korea acknowledge the leader of North Korea Kim Jong Il visited China recently where he met with the President of China Hu Jintao. (UK Press Association via Google News) (Xinhua) (The Chosun Ilbo) (Daily Times)
The President of the United States Barack Obama freezes the assets of three North Korean organisations and one individual in response to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. North Korea has denied it is responsible. (The Guardian) (Xinhua) (Aljazeera)

Law and crime

More than 100 Russian far-right skinheads attack a music festival in central Russia, injuring at least 10 people and leaving one 14-year-old girl dead. (BBC) (RIA Novosti)
3,200 police officers have been fired so far this year by Mexico's federal police force due to extracurricular activities. (BBC) (AP via France24) (Aljazeera)
The Indian government decides not to ban the controversial BlackBerry devices for at least two months after the North American manufacturer allows "lawful access" to encrypted data it had been feared would be a security threat. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Indonesian detainees continue to riot at the Northern Immigration Detention Facility. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
South African rugby union player Bees Roux of the Bulls is charged with murdering a police officer in Pretoria. (AP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Mexico captures alleged Mexican-American drug trafficker Edgar Valdez Villarreal in the state of Morelos near Mexico City. (ABC News Online)

Politics and elections

Italian health minister Ferruccio Fazio apologises while visiting a woman subjected to violent confrontation between two doctors as her baby was on the verge of being born at a hospital in Messina, Sicily. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (AP via CBC News) (The Washington Post)
Talks begin between the government and workers striking for better conditions in South Africa in the third week of a conflict which has seen troops deployed. (BBC) (TIMES Live) (Reuters)

Science

The InterAcademy Panel on International Issues issues a report finding that The IPCC assessment process has been successful overall but making seven formal recommendations for improving the IPCC's assessment process, and that "“Straying into advocacy can only hurt I.P.C.C.’s credibility.” (Aljazeera) (The Irish Times) (The New York Times) (The New Zealand Herald)InterAcademy Council news release 30.August.2010

Sport

The International Cricket Council states that Pakistan's tour of England is to continue despite yesterday's spot-fixing allegations exposed by a British newspaper. (BBC Sport) (AFP via France24)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (The Guardian) (Aljazeera)