Portal:Current events/2010 July 19

July 19, 2010 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Greek investigative journalist, blogger and broadcaster Sokratis Giolias is killed after being shot more than 15 times outside his home in Ilioupoli, Athens ahead of the publication of his report into corruption. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
Amnesty International releases its "Agents of Fear" report, accusing Khartoum's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) of torturing and abusing political dissidents, including journalists, human rights activists and students, in an attempt to silence them. (Aljazeera)
Several people are killed in a clash between Somali fighters and government forces in the capital Mogadishu. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (Press TV) (AP)

Arts, culture and entertainment

75-year-old author Alan Shadrake is arrested in Singapore while promoting his book about the use of the death penalty. He is charged with criminal defamation and faces two years imprisonment. (BBC) (The Independent)
A Tel Aviv judge orders the opening of safe deposit boxes believed to contain manuscripts and drawings by Bohemian writer Franz Kafka at a bank in Zürich. (BBC)
A collection of posters is released to mark the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. (BBC)
An undiscovered painting by Caravaggio is discovered in Rome, according to l'Osservatore Romano. (BBC) (Christian Science Monitor)
Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev appears in court in Thailand, accused of the rape of a 14-year-old male, though he denies this. (BBC)
The Fromelles Military Cemetery is opened in Fromelles in northern France containing the graves of 250 Australian and British soldiers who died in the Battle of Fromelles in World War I and had previously been buried in a mass grave. (BBC)
The United Kingdom's oldest person, a Gateshead great-great grandmother, dies at the age of 111. She would have been 112 next month. (BBC)

Business and economics

China surpasses the United States to become world's biggest energy consumer, consuming about 4% more than the U.S. (Washington Post)

Disasters

Two trains collide in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India with at least 50 people feared dead. (Times of India) (AFP) (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Chinese authorities launch a clean-up operation to tackle a 50 sq km slick following an explosion of two crude oil pipelines in Dalian. (BBC) (Xinhua) (AFP)
Retired United States Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the person in charge of cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico states that the cap is leaking but it is not a major concern so far. (AP via Google News)

International Relations

President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asks that the United States stop using what he describes as "cowboy logic" if it wants to engage in dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, adding that he would support negotiations. (BBC)
Scores of checkpoints appear overnight as 70 countries prepare to attend a conference in Kabul on the future of Afghanistan. (BBC)
The United States issues a warning to US citizens visiting or living in Uganda about the risk of terrorism as an African Union summit on maternal and child health summit starts. (CNN)

Law and crime

A two-year "Top Secret America" investigation by The Washington Post concludes that United States intelligence gathering has grown so much since the September 11 attacks that neither its true cost, size nor effectiveness in keeping the country safe is actually known. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
A former British Army commanding officer is accused of lying to a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian in his soldiers' custody. (BBC)
Kenyan pastor John Kamau Mbugua pleads not guilty to two charges over an alleged plot to bomb a campaign rally for next month's constitutional referendum. (BBC)
Taysir Hayb, the Israeli soldier who shot and killed British volunteer Tom Hurndall, is to be released next month after an Army committee headed by Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit decides to shorten his sentence. (Haaretz)
196 people are indicted in Istanbul for plotting to overthrow the government. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Guardian) (The News international) (People's Daily) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Hundreds of Italians commemorate anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino in Palermo, 18 years after he was killed by a car bomb. (BBC)
Syria bans the full face veil from being worn in its universities. (BBC) (Oneindia)
Authorities at Mexico City International Airport arrest a man who had flown from Lima and was attempting to smuggle 18 little monkeys into the country inside items of clothing. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics

A report states that U.S. and European intelligence agencies believe Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is dying of stomach and pancreatic cancer, and has one year left to live. The report states that Mubarak will likely die before the country's next presidential election. (Haaretz)
Dési Bouterse is elected President of Suriname by parliament. (BBC)
The United Nations Economic and Social Council grants the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission consultative status after a vote of 23 for, 13 against, 13 abstentions, and 5 absent. (San Diego Gay & Lesbian News) (The New York Times)
Prime Minister David Cameron launches his "Big Society" scheme. (BBC) (Channel 4)
David Cameron opts not to meet four United States senators to discuss allegations BP lobbied for the release of the terminally ill Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, though they may meet the ambassador instead. (BBC)
Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister Puka Temu joins with opposition MPs in an attempt to bring down the government of Prime Minister Michael Somare. (ABC News)

Science and weather

Queensland fossil hunters discover a cave of 15-million-year-old prehistoric marsupials. (BBC)
Farnborough Airshow, Hampshire, England:
- An anti-aircraft laser is unveiled, a first for naval warfare. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- A supersonic Bloodhound model is unveiled. (BBC)