Portal:Current events/2011 February 1

February 1, 2011 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2011 Egyptian protests
- Protesters plan a "million-man march" on President Hosni Mubarak's presidential palace in Cairo starting at Tahrir Square. (Voice of America) (Al Jazeera)
- At least two million people gather in Tahrir Square in the biggest demonstration since the popular revolution against the Mubarak regime began. (The Hindu) (Al Jazeera) (The New York Times) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
- The government closes down Egyptian National Railways as well as Internet and mobile phone services. (CNN)
- Mubarak addresses the nation to tell the people of his refusal to leave Egypt, though promises to resign at the end of his term. He tells the people of Egypt that he is "proud of his achievements over the years in serving Egypt and its people". (Reuters) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald) (Al Jazeera) (ABC News)
- Protesters vow to stay in Tahrir Square until Mubarak goes. (Jerusalem Post)
- International response to the 2011 Egyptian protests:
  - President of the United States Barack Obama urges Hosni Mubarak not to run for the presidency again, though stops short of telling him to resign immediately. He also called for the transition to democracy "to begin now". (BBC) (The New York Times) (The Guardian), (Washington Post)
  - Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan completely backs the people of Egypt in their battle against the Mubarak regime. Newspapers had previously criticised him for his lack of a response to the revolution there. (Al Jazeera)
  - Google and Twitter team up to build a voice-to-tweet system to allow Egyptians to tweet despite the closure of Internet and mobile phone systems. (Fortune)
  - Al Jazeera reports that its signal is being jammed in parts of the Middle East, days after Egypt shut the news network's operations there. (Reuters)
Abdullah of Jordan sacks the Jordanian government amid protests over prices in the country. (Al Jazeera) (Xinhua) (M&C)
A Buddhist family of four is shot killed by suspected Muslim separatists seeking autonomy from predominantly Buddhist Thailand in the latest attack in an escalation of violence in the southern Thailand. (Reuters)

Business and economy

The owner of China's fourth-most visited website, Sohu.com Inc, posted a better-than-estimated 41 percent gain in profit after the company raised prices and boosted services such as video sharing. (China Daily)
A court in London bars the oil company BP from entering into a planned joint venture and share swap with Rosneft, a state-controlled Russian company. (Reuters)

Disasters

Cyclone Yasi
- The Australian state of Queensland evacuates off-shore islands and low-lying parts of North Queensland ahead of Cyclone Yasi which is expected to hit the state as a Category 4 tropical cyclone late on Wednesday or early Thursday. (Courier Mail) (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- Cyclone Yasi is upgraded to Category 5 and is predicted to be the worst storm to hit Australia in generations. (Sydney Morning Herald)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
US blizzard
- The United States National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning for nine states in the Midwestern United States with a storm affecting a total of 30 states from Texas to Maine. (Chicago Tribune), (Bloomberg), (AP), (Washington Post), (AFP via Adelaide Now)
- The storm is expected to affect as much as a third of the U.S. population, and has already created dangerous travel conditions and forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and the closure of major interstate highways.(Reuters)(VOA)
- Chicago's Midway International Airport closes due to the snow with 1,300 flights cancelled at O'Hare Airport. (Chicago Sun Times)
- The Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker declares a state of emergency in southern Wisconsin as a result of the blizzard. (Channel 3000)
The Shinmoedake volcano on the Japanese island of Kyūshū erupts again with its biggest explosion since becoming active again. (AP via Google News)
Indonesian police arrest three people in connection with a fire on a ferry last week that killed 27 people. (AP via Minneapolis Star Tribune)

International relations

Shanghai Cooperation Organization to mark 10th anniversary in Astana, Kazakhstan. (Rian)
The United States urges Iran to halt executions after the hanging of a Dutch-Iranian woman, Zahra Bahrami, accused of being drug smuggler; the U.S. State Department expresses concern that Iran "continues to deny its citizens their human rights" and that cases, trials, and sentences continue to proceed "without transparency and the due process rights enshrined in Iran's own constitution." (CNN)
North and South Korea agree to hold working-level military talks on 8 February, their first since the attack on Yeonpyeong Island in November last year. (Yonhap)
Palestine is recognised within its 1967 borders by Suriname.(Maan News)(Jerusalem Post)

Law and crime

U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, the alleged whistleblower who is thought to have revealed secret U.S. government documents to the international public, is reported to be held in solitary confinement awaiting trial by the United States for seven months now, treatment which the United Nations deems a form of torture when used for such prolonged periods. (Al Jazeera)
The Karmapa Lama, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Tibetan Buddhism's third-highest lama, is questioned by police after large amounts of foreign money are found at his monastery in Dharamsala, northern India. Some Indian media allege he is acting as a spy for China. (Asia Times Online)

Politics and elections

Irish general election, 2011:
- Brian Cowen resigns by requesting the dissolution of the 30th Dáil, allowing a general election to take place, the first such election of the eurozone debt crisis. (Reuters) (BBC) (RTÉ) (CNN) (The Guardian)
- 25 February is later announced as the date of the election. (RTÉ)
In the wake of several recent deadly plane crashes in Iran, the Parliament of Iran passes a vote of no confidence in the country's Minister of Roads and Transportation Hamid Behbahani and impeaches him. (Press TV)(The Washington Post)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak cancel the appointment of Yoav Galant to the post of Israel Defense Forces chief. The announcement came after months of scandal surrounding his appointment due to allegations that he had illegally seized public lands near his home in Moshav Amikam, and after the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss stated that Galant lied to in a sworn affidavit about exceeding his building rights.[1] [2]

Science

Russia starts a search for a missing military satellite launched into the wrong orbit. (Antara)