Portal:Current events/2010 November 1

November 1, 2010 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Two Afghan women charity workers are shot dead. They were travelling between Lashkar Gah and Garmser, a volatile area in the Helmand River valley, when they were attacked. (dawn)
Battle of Mogadishu (2010):
- At least 12 people are killed in fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia, between pro-government forces, African Union troops and the Islamist militant al-Shabaab group. (AFP) (Ennahar)
Photographs, diaries and footage of Gyles Mackrell's rescue of refugees from the Japanese invasion of Burma in World War II are made available. (The Independent)
The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey announces it will extend a truce until elections next year. (AFP)
58 hostage-takers, hostages and police officers are killed and 67 people wounded when Iraqi forces storm a Baghdad church to free dozens of hostages. (Deccan Chronicle)(Times of India) (One India) (DNA) (Khaleej Times)
Four militants, including two from Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), are killed in separate gun battles with security forces in Kupwara and Kulgam districts of Kashmir Valley, India. (PTI) (Xinhua)
A United States drone attack kills six people in northwest Pakistan. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Dawn)
A suicide bomber kills two Pakistani policemen and wounds 10 others as security forces try to stop him from walking into their local headquarters in Swabi, 100 kilometres northwest of Islamabad. (Dawn)

Arts and culture

A Turkish film wins the Best Documentary award at the Thanet International Film Festival in the United Kingdom. (Hurriyet Daily)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
The People's Republic of China begins its first census in ten years. (BBC) (China Daily)

Business and economy

India and China help boost Asian shares outside Japan by 1.7%. (Livemint)
Ambac Financial Group announces that it may have to declare bankruptcy, though it is still in talks with its senior bondholders about a consensual rescheduling of its debts. Before the 2008 financial crisis, Ambac was one of the two dominant bond insurance companies. (Reuters)
An examiner appointed by the Delaware Bankruptcy court says that there is no value left in the estate of defunct bank Washington Mutual for the stockholders to receive anything. (Reuters)

Disasters

At least 50 people drown after a ferry-boat capsizes on the Muri Ganga River in West Bengal, India. (Sydney Morning Herald)
16 people lose their lives in separate incidents due to rainfall in various parts of the district of India in Nakapalli, Elamanchili, Payakaraopeta, Vizag, Rambilli and in other parts of Andhra Pradesh. (PTI) (Deccan Chronicle)
A large crater appears in the early hours in the central German town of Schmalkalden. (Xinhua)

International relations

Disputed islands:
- The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev visits Kunashiri, one of the southern Kuril Islands that are the subject of the Kuril Islands dispute between Russia and Japan. (Reuters) (CNN)
- The Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan describes Medvedev's visit as "deplorable". (CNN)

Law and crime

Three suspected ivory poachers are shot dead by rangers in Kenya in separate incidents. (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) (CNN)
A court in Uganda orders a newspaper to cease publishing the names and photographs of people it says are homosexual, following attacks on homosexuals in the past month. (BBC)
The Government of Canada agrees to accept Canadian Omar Khadr, detained at Guantanamo Bay for the past eight years, after he serves a year of his sentence at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (CNN)

Politics and elections

State media in Burma warn against a boycott of the general election on Sunday, with the government threatening jail time for those encouraging a boycott. (BBC) (UPI)
While attempting to open a mental health care facility in Dublin, Irish Health Minister Mary Harney is pelted with red paint by an opposition politician highlighting the "blood budget" which "will result in the unnecessary and avoidable deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the coming years". Harney is overseeing hospital cuts of €1 billion. (The Straits Times) (ABC News) (RTÉ)