Portal:Current events/2010 October 18

October 18, 2010 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraq War: Amid increasing uncertainty about the timing of the release of the next batch of classified documents by WikiLeaks, the U.S. military assembles a 120-member team to search its database for clues in preparation for the publication event. (The New Zealand Herald) (BBC)
Indonesia investigates following the release of a video purportedly showing Indonesian soldiers torturing indigenous Papuans, in a region where a small group of rebels has waged a war for independence from Indonesia for the last few decades. (BBC) (AFP) (AP)
The death toll from a robbery on jewelry stores in western Baghdad rises to nine, while 12 others are wounded. (People's Daily)
Thousands protest the murder of three civilians after soldiers loot homes in the Congo's South Kivu province. (AP)
The Latvian Defense Ministry said four NATO fighter jets from the Lithuanian Air Force Base near Šiauliai were deployed when two Russian bombers flying in the neutral airspace almost entered Latvian air space. (15 min).

Arts and culture

Miss Vietnam World 2010 nominated for Miss Earth. It will be held from November 4 to December 4 in HCM City, Phan Thiet, Hoi An and Nha Trang. (vietnamnet)

Business and economy

Bank of America resumes foreclosures in 23 states following a temporary halt in foreclosures due to the 2010 Foreclosure crisis
BP is to sell assets worth an estimated $1.8 billion as part of series of sales to help pay for damages caused by the explosion on its Deepwater Horizon rig in April, which killed 11 workers and spilled more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. (AOL News) (BBC) (Bloomberg)
Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton announce that they have scrapped a proposed $120 billion joint venture in the Pilbara region of Western Australia due to regulatory problems. (ABC Australia)
French strikes intensify ahead of Wednesday's Senate vote on pension reform, with a thousand petrol stations running out of fuel, rail strikes intensifying and truck drivers performing go-slows on highways. (Reuters), (CNN)

Disasters

Typhoon Megi:
- One person is missing and thousands of people have fled as Typhoon Megi, the first supertyphoon of the 2010 Pacific typhoon season, makes landfall in the Philippines. (Bloomberg via Business Week), (BBC)
- The People's Republic of China evacuates 140,000 people from Hainan province ahead of an expected arrival on Tuesday. (AP)
Flood waters in Vietnam's Hà Tĩnh Province sweep away a bus with 20 people missing, presumed dead. (Canadian Press via Google News) (Vietnam News)
At least nineteen people die near Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, after a bus collides with a truck. (Reuters via Yahoo!)

International relations

The U.S. government has concluded that Chinese companies are bypassing UN sanctions on Iran and helping Iran to improve its missile technology and develop nuclear weapons, and has asked China to stop such activity. (The Washington Post)
Rwandan opposition parties appeal to the United States and the UN Security Council to intervene on behalf of the opposition FDU party leader, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, arrested last week, and other political prisoners. (AFP) (VOA)
Fears mount that the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, which has ties to the Sudanese government, is poised to destabilize South Sudan as it prepares for a referendum on independence. (VOA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visits Iran, where he is told to "get rid of America". (Telegraph) (CNN)
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a major United Nations gathering, meets in Japan to work out why governments have failed to stop the rapid rate of extinction and loss of habitats by 2010, as they vowed 8 years ago. (BBC) (The Guardian)
The Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan voices concerns about rowdy anti-Japanese protests in China, sparked by a recent territorial dispute. (AFP via Yahoo! News) (Japan Today)

Law and crime

The United Arab Emirates' highest court rules in a domestic violence case that a man can beat his wife and children as long as he leaves no physical marks. (MSNBC) (The National)
Five migrant Filipino workers are arrested in Saudi Arabia for filing a labor complaint against their employer according to a Philippine migrant workers' rights group. (The Philippine Star)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
More than 150 people, including 12 mayors and some politicians, go on trial for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. (Al Jazeera) (Today's Zaman)
Islamist Al-Shabaab rebels in Somalia ban mobile phone money transfers, saying they are "unIslamic". (BBC) (AFP)
Three inmates are killed in a prison riot in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. (Al Jazeera) (IBN Live)
The appeal of Ajmal Kasab against the death sentence imposed by an Indian court for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks begins in Mumbai. (BBC News)
China releases the Tibetan writer, Kalsang Tsultrim, who was arrested in China earlier this year for what China termed a "political error". (MSN)^{[permanent dead link‍]}

Politics

Science and environment

Marine researchers discover a large reef of deep-sea coral in the Mediterranean stretching for several kilometers, 30 to 40 kilometers off the coast of Tel Aviv, in an area once thought to be relatively barren of sea life. (INN)

Sports

American olympic gold medalist LaShawn Merritt is suspended 21 months for doping. (BBC)