Portal:Current events/2010 November 19

November 19, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Eleven people are killed in clashes between the rival al-Shabaab and Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a groups in central Somalia. (Press TV)
A police officer dies in hospital after a suspected militant attack in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. (RIA Novosti)
A US drone attack kills at least three suspected militants and destroys their vehicle in the North Waziristan district of Pakistan. (AFP via Google) (Sify)
Responding to Palestinians firing phosphorus shells and mortars into Israel, the Israel Air Force bombs at least two targets in the Gaza Strip and will file a complaint with the UN. The Salah al-Din Brigades claim responsibility, saying the rockets were responding to the killing of two members of the al-Qaida affiliated Army of Islam in Gaza. (The Jerusalem Post) (Reuters) (JTA) (Ynet)
The U.S. military is sending M1 Abrams tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war in Afghanistan. (The Washington Post) (AFP via Google)
Germany says the laptop bag containing an explosive simulation training device found at Namibia's main airport during loading of a flight to Munich was part of a security test, a day after German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière issued a warning of possible terror attacks next week. (Reuters) (MSNBC)

Arts and culture

United States federal judge William Terrell Hodges orders actor Wesley Snipes to surrender to authorities so that he can start a three year sentence for tax-related crimes. (AP via Huffington Post)

Disasters

Twenty-nine coal miners and officials are feared trapped following an explosion at the Pike River Coal Processing Plant at Atarau in the Grey District of the South Island of New Zealand. (Stuff.co.nz) (Sydney Morning Herald) (The Australian) (AFP via Yahoo! News) (BBC)
The cholera epidemic which has killed more than 1,100 people in Haiti spreads to the largest prison in the country. (CNN) (BBC)
Residents of Los Angeles come under attack from rabid bats carrying a deadly disease. (BBC)

International relations

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin takes part in a limited attendance meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council. (premier.gov.ru)
France rejects a demand by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to leave Afghanistan in return for the freeing of French and African hostages kidnapped in Niger. (Al Jazeera)
India summons the Iranian chargé d'affaires to protest against remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regarding Kashmir. It also abstains on a vote on Iranian human rights for the first time. (Times of India)
NATO summit
- NATO members meet in Lisbon, Portugal, to discuss progress in the War in Afghanistan and relations with Russia. (BBC)
- NATO agrees to extend its Europe-based missile defence system. (Al-Jazeera)
The UN General Assembly's human rights committee criticizes Iran for human rights abuses; Iranian diplomat Mohammad-Javad Larijani calls the UN censure a "politicization” of human rights. (Sify) (CNN) (UK Press Association)
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says that cultural genocide is taking place in Tibet, particularly in light of the Chinese authority’s requirement of Mandarin as the language of instruction in schools in Tibet. (Hindustan Times)
Demonstrators outside the Saudi embassy in Jakarta demand justice for migrant workers after a Saudi Arabian employer kills an Indonesian maid and another maid was severely beaten by her Saudi employer; the Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa summons the Saudi Arabian ambassador to protest. (The Jakarta Post) (CNN)
Panama grants asylum to María del Pilar Hurtado, the former head of Colombia's Administrative Department of Security wanted for allegedly illegal wiretapping. (BBC)
Major fishing nations meet in Paris to discuss quota limits for fishing of the critically endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna; many nations are urging that lower fishing rates are needed.(Reuters)

Politics

The Cook Islands Party wins a majority of seats in the Cook Islands general election, defeating the incumbent Democratic Party. Henry Puna will become the next Prime Minister. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Hundreds of people demonstrate in Malawi against a pension bill that would raise the retirement age of women to 55, and 60 for men. (BBC) (African Press Agency)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
Anti-government red shirt protesters return to the streets in Thailand. (Reuters) (Thai News Agency)
Mahinda Rajapakse is sworn in for a second term as President of Sri Lanka in Colombo. (AFP via Google News)
British Conservative Party politician Lord Young resigns as the coalition government's enterprise adviser after claiming that most Britons "have never had it so good" in spite of the recession. (BBC)