Portal:Current events/2011 July 15

July 15, 2011 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Indian troops report three deaths in Maidanpora, Kupwara, Kashmir. (BBC)
International campaigners against the drone attacks, carried out by the United States in Pakistan, launch their attempt to have former CIA legal chief John A. Rizzo arrested and charged with the murders of hundreds of people after his admission in Newsweek that he approved attacks each month since 2004. (The Guardian)
Soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships begin a major offensive in south-eastern Turkey as the country's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vows to seek vengeance on Kurdish rebels. (BBC)
2011 Syrian uprising: At least 14 people are killed in the latests attacks by regime forces on demonstrations in cities nationwide. More than 10,000 people are held in prisons by the regime. The demonstrations are reported to be among the largest yet in the ongoing effort to topple the government. (BBC)
13 July 2011 Mumbai bombings: Indian investigators check CCTV footage in their search for clues into Wednesday's triple bombing in Mumbai. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Europe's biggest lottery jackpot, £161 million (US$260 million), is scooped by a couple from Largs, Ayrshire, in Scotland. (BBC)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is released in theaters as the final installment of the famous Harry Potter franchise.

Business and economy

8 European banks fail stress tests that could leave them open to another financial crisis, while another 16 are in a "danger zone". (BBC) (RTÉ)
BBC journalists strike against layoffs being forced on them by the corporation. (BBC)
Royal Dutch Shell reveals plans to construct a 600,000-tonne floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform, a world's first for off the coast of Australia. (BBC)
BHP Billiton buys U.S. based petroleum company Petrohawk for $12 billion. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
News International phone hacking scandal:
- Rebekah Brooks resigns as chief executive of News International as a result of the News International phone hacking scandal. (The Washington Post) (AFP via France24) (The New York Times) (The Guardian)
- The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, killed by police bullets in London in 2005, write a letter to prime minister David Cameron calling for police actions surrounding his death to be investigated in the wake of the News Corp phone hacking scandal that has so far claimed the News of the World. (BBC)
- UK prime minister David Cameron paid for his "friend", the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, to stay with him at his country residence of Chequers, two months after Coulson resigned as Cameron's media chief. Coulson has since been arrested for his part in the phone hacking scandal. (The Guardian)
- Rupert Murdoch meets the family of Milly Dowler and gives them what their solicitor calls a full and sincere apology. (BBC) (BBC)
- Rupert Murdoch attacks former UK prime minister Gordon Brown in The Wall Street Journal in his first interview on the scandal and accuses British MPs of telling lies. (The Guardian)
- There are concerns over a donation believed to be at least £100,000 given by James Murdoch towards Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom last year; Murdoch was then introduced to Benedict. (The Guardian)
- The Guardian reveals the advertisement Rupert Murdoch intends to run in British newspapers at the weekend apologising for "serious wrongdoing". (The Guardian)
- Les Hinton, who ran News International from 1997 to 2005 during which the hacking took place, resigns as CEO of News Corp's Dow Jones entity. (The New York Times) (AP via ABC News) (BBC)
- The actor Jude Law has filed a lawsuit against The Sun over allegations of phone hacking. (The Independent)

Disasters

2011 Horn of Africa drought:
- Drought fleers located at camps in Mogadishu are struck down by days of killer rain. (BBC)
- The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 5 million people are at risk of developing cholera in Ethiopia, with the breakout of acute watery diarrhea. (Reuters)
- The Kenyan government announces the opening of a fourth refugee camp at Dadaab in the North Eastern Province. (The Guardian)
Landslides in two remote Nepalese villages kill six people and injure another ten. (AP via The Guardian)
Mount Lokon on Indonesia's Sulawesi island erupts prompting thousands of people to flee. (AFP via ABC News Online) (CNN)
Four pilgrims die when a boulder falls on them at a voodoo festival in Saut d'Eau, Haiti. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
A magnitude 6 earthquake occurs off the coast of Chile near Valparaíso. (CNN)
A portion of the Zendstation Smilde in Hoogersmilde, Netherlands collapses in a fire. (CNN)

International relations

Ireland's Taoiseach Enda Kenny attacks the Vatican's approach to the child abuse scandals in the country as "absolutely disgraceful", while the Socialist Party's Joe Higgins tells Dáil Éireann that people were "throwing their hands in the air" after the report into the sexual abuse scandal in Cloyne diocese was published this week. (The Guardian)
2011 Libyan civil war:
- The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with NATO leaders to try to find a solution to the Libya crisis. (BBC)
- The United States recognizes the Libyan National Transitional Council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya. (The New York Times)

Intragalactic relations

U.S. president Barack Obama makes a phone call to the International Space Station (ISS) and jokes with astronauts about pizza. (BBC)

Law and crime

Charlie Gilmour, the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, is jailed for 16 months for violent disorder during the student protests against tuition fees in London late last year. (BBC) (Daily Telegraph)

Politics and elections

Italian MPs in the lower house approve tough budget cuts with 314 votes in favour and 280 against. (BBC)