Portal:Current events/2010 February 2
February 2, 2010 (Tuesday)
- Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of espionage, while the latter detains one Russian and expels four others. (BBC) (RIA Novosti) (Kyiv Post)
- A hearing whether to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is held in the United States allowing the possibility of openly gay people to become active-duty members of the United States armed forces. (BBC)
- The World Food Programme announces the number of hungry people in Sudan has quadrupled since August 2009 to 4.3 million. (AFP) (Emirates News Agency) (Taiwan News)
- China says that relations will be undermined if U.S. President Barack Obama meets the Dalai Lama. (BBC) (China Daily) (CBC)
- Continental Airlines and five men go on trial for their alleged role in the crash of Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde flight, that killed 113 people in 2000. (Reuters)
- The Lancet medical journal issues a full retraction of a paper that caused a 12-year international controversy over alleged links between the MMR vaccine and autism. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Finance Minister of Germany Wolfgang Schaeuble says that the German government will buy stolen information on Swiss bank accounts, offered in a CD that contained 1,500 names in exchange for 2.5 million euros, to pursue tax evasion. (Bloomberg)
- Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards are announced. Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the way with nine nominations each, and are both among ten nominees for Best Picture, the first time more than five films have been up for consideration since 1943. (CNN)
- Paul Volcker testifies before the Banking Committee of the United States Senate about the so-called "Volcker rule," an administration proposal to separate banks from hedge funds and have them close down their risk-taking prop desks. (L.A. Times)