Portal:Current events/2011 July 20
July 20, 2011 (Wednesday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- 2011 Syrian uprising: Troops surround the Harasta suburb of the capital Damascus. (Al Jazeera)
- Riots erupt in Malawi in protest against the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika. (BBC)
- Iranian Ali Aghazadeh Dafsari claims that Revolutionary Guard forces shot down a U.S. spy drone over the Fordo located uranium enrichment facility. (AP via Google)
- Up to 80 people, including soldiers, are arrested in Guinea after a failed assassination attempt on President Alpha Condé on 19 July. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
- British artist Lucian Freud dies at his home in London following a brief illness. (New York Times)
Disasters
- 2011 Horn of Africa famine: The United Nations declares a famine in southern Somalia. (Al Jazeera)
- Typhoon Ma-on hits Japan, landing in Tokushima Prefecture; at least 47 people are injured and 1 person is left missing before the typhoon is downgraded to a tropical storm. (Kyodo) (PhilStar)[permanent dead link] (US NO)
- Hurricane Dora strengthens to a Category 4 hurricane as it travels towards Mexico. (NHC)
- A 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurs near the Uzbekistan city of Fergana killing 13 people in Uzbekistan and one person in Tajikistan. (AP via The New York Times)
International relations
- A South Korean official accuses North Korea of breaking international sanctions by importing luxury goods for senior officials. (Yonhap)
- Malaysia bans the import of horses from Australia following an outbreak of Hendra virus. (AAP via The West Australian)
Law and crime
- Australian Federal Police officers fire tear gas to subdue a riot by asylum seekers at the Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. (Herald-Sun)
- Serbia arrests Goran Hadžić, a Croatian Serb wartime leader, indicted for alleged crimes against humanity during the Croatian War of Independence. (Reuters via ABC Online)
- The Supreme Court of the US state of Georgia has agreed to the execution of Cobb County killer Andrew Grant DeYoung to be videotaped. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)[permanent dead link]
Politics
- News International phone hacking scandal:
- The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron faces questions in parliament over his decision to hire Andy Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World at the time of the phone hacking affair. (Reuters)
- A report by the Home Affairs Select Committee of the United Kingdom House of Commons accuses the Metropolitan Police of a "catalogue of errors" in relation to the affair. (BBC)
- In Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says that News Limited – the Australian arm of News Corporation – will face "hard questions" in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. (BBC)
Sport
- Chinese basketball player Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets National Basketball Association team announces his retirement in Shanghai. (AP via USA Today)
- In golf, the LPGA announces that the Evian Masters, a tournament held in France that is a major championship on the Ladies European Tour, will become the LPGA's fifth major in 2013. (AP via ESPN)
- Japanese baseball player Hideki Matsui of the Oakland Athletics hits his 500th career home run in his professional career playing in both North America's Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball in his homeland. (Kyodo News)
Science
- The 2011 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Paris, France announces that Samantha Burnham and others at the Australian national science agency, CSIRO, working with several universities, have produced what may one day become a routine, valid blood test for nine hormones and proteins that, when too high, can serve as predictors of the presence of the hallmark beta amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's disease.