Portal:Current events/2010 June 16

June 16, 2010 (Wednesday)

The Jamaican Government orders civilians to keep off the streets for two days in several slums in Kingston because authorities are still hunting for Christopher Coke, alleged by the United States to be a drug lord. (AP)
American police in Seattle say they will "review training procedured" following the surfacing of a video which attrated international attention. The video shows a white officer from the Seattle department punching a black teenaged girl in the face when she tried intervene while the officer was confronting another girl about crossing the road at a legally forbidden area. Seattle police deny any wrongdoing. (CNN) (BBC) (IOL)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Sky News)
The United Nations Human Rights Council says Britain is arranging its third enforced removal of Iraqi asylum applicants to Baghdad despite appeals for it to stop amid safety fears for the individuals concerned. (Aljazeera) (The Guardian) (BBC)
Iranian nuclear program sanctions:
- Iran's atomic energy chief says Iran will begin building a new nuclear reactor, and Iran will keep enriching uranium, despite UN nuclear sanctions. (CNN)
- The United States announces new sanctions against Iran’s financial sector, shipping industry and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, aimed at implementing the recent United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 and targeted at the country's nuclear and missile programs. (CNN) (BBC) (Ynet)
Gulf of Mexico oil disaster:
- U.S. President Barack Obama announces that BP will finance a $20 billion fund to compensate people whose livelihoods have been damaged by the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the company's chairman apologized for the worst spill in U.S. history. (USA Today) (The New York Times) (Chicago Tribune)
- BP begins collecting crude oil from a second containment system that the company hopes will help stem the thousands of barrels escaping from their damaged well, an amount that scientists said could be as high as 60,000 barrels a day. (The New York Times)
Middle East:
- Israel adjourns deciding on whether to ease its three year blockade of the Gaza Strip. (Aljazeera) (The Irish Times)
- After a heated debate the Parliament of Lebanon proposes to offer basic rights to hundreds of thousands of refugees it has accepted from Palestine during recent decades. (Aljazeera) (The Daily Star)
- The French broadcasting monitoring agency orders that the official Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV not be broadcast through French-based satellite provider Eutelsat because it has violated a prohibition on incitement to hatred or violence based on race, religion or nationality; Hamas protests the decision. (CNN) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Israel Defense Forces soldiers stop three armed men entering Israel from Egypt, 40 kilometers north of the Israeli city of Eilat. One of them is killed, and the other two flee, leaving behind an explosive device. (The Jerusalem Post)
- An Israeli soldier suspected of killing two women during the Gaza War will face a judicial hearing headed by Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit, and may be prosecuted for manslaughter. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Hundreds of Haredi Jews rioting in Jaffa clash with the Israel Police and Israel Border Police over the alleged desecration of Jewish graves. Five policemen are injured. Ten rioters are injured, and fifteen are arrested. (Haaretz)
- The Turkish organization IHH assembles a new six-ship aid flotilla, set to sail in July. (The Jerusalem Post) (Haaretz) (Ynet)
At least 49 people are killed during landslides in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, with many swept to their deaths as they slept. (Aljazeera)
At least 25 people die during flooding in the Var department of Côte d'Azur, Southern France. (Le Monde) (France24) (BBC) (Sky News) (The Daily Telegraph)
A shootout in the Mexican tourist town of Taxco leaves 15 dead. (CNN)
Two separate blasts in eastern Baghdad kill 1 person and wound another 8. (asharq-e)
4 Russian policemen are killed in the North Caucasus. (Xinhua)
A shallow strong quake with magnitude of 7.1 jolts Papua province in easternmost Indonesia, killing 3 people and causing damage in Serui and Biak, in Yapen district. (Xinhua) (SINA) (ABC) (CNN)
Two Sudanese, Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus, surrender to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to be charged on Thursday with "murder", "intentionally directing attacks against peacekeeping personnel" and "stealing property" in relation to a 2007 attack on African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, which killed 12. (BBC) (IOL) (CNN) (Reuters)
More than £200 million in health funding to the Zambian government is suspended by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, though some aid is given to non-government groups and the fund's director of communications says life-saving treatments remain unaffected. (BBC)
George Osborne scraps Britain's financial regulator and grants new powers to the Bank of England. (Sky News)
The National Army of Colombia says an unknown number of informants who aided the rescue of three police officers and a soldier from FARC on Sunday will receive a $1.2 million reward between them. (BBC)
Shanghai International Film Festival:
- Chinese video-sharing websites, like LeTV Entertainment, Sohu.com, and Voole.com, reveals more film investment in SH.(SIFF)
- 3-D films: China is going to digitize 2,000 cinema screens 2010, double the number of 2009. (SIFF)
- China celebrates Irish Film at Shanghai and Beijing Film Festivals. (Film Ireland)
Two Dutch women appear in a South African court over an alleged "ambush marketing" stunt after more than 30 people were ejected from the Johannesburg stadium on Monday during the match between Denmark and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The annual Dragon Boat Festival starts in Lhasa. (tibet.cn)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
A six-storey statue of Jesus Christ is struck by lightning and razed to the ground in a city in the US state of Ohio. (The Guardian) (The Money Times) (ITN) (TVNZ)
Researchers from four Italian universities identify human remains discovered in a church in Tuscany as "almost certainly" being those of Renaissance artist Caravaggio. (BBC)
NCAA (U.S. college) conference realignment:
- The Pacific-10 Conference, after being turned down by several Texas and Oklahoma schools in its effort to expand to 12 or more members, invites the University of Utah to become its 12th member. (ESPN)