Portal:Current events/2012 November 1

November 1, 2012 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war
- Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers in attacks on military checkpoints near the town of Saraqeb in northern Idlib province, hours after a wave of bombings hit Damascus and its outskirts, according to a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights; five rebels also died in gun battles following the attacks. (National Post) (The Jerusalem Post)

Business and economy

Internet analytics company ComScore says Google's Gmail has edged out Microsoft's Hotmail as the world's top e-mail service. (CNET)

Disasters and accidents

Hurricane Sandy:
- The death toll in the U.S. attributed to Hurricane Sandy rises to at least 90, nearly half in New York City, as millions of people in the Northeastern United States continue to deal with power outages, gasoline shortages and sparse public transportation. (Wall Street Journal) (ABC News) (US News)
- Damage from the storm is estimated to reach US $50 billion, according to economists, but the impact on the broader U.S. economy is said to be minor. (AFP)
A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh killing 22 people and injuring 111. (BBC) (NBC News)
Yellow fever kills 32 people and sickens at least 50 more in the Darfur region of Sudan. (All Africa)^{[permanent dead link]} (AFP)

International relations

Law and crime

Parents kill their 15-year-old daughter in an “honour killing” by pouring acid on her after seeing her talking to a young man, in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. (BBC) (The Express Tribune)
Nine female political prisoners, including Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, begin a hunger strike to protest their conditions in Tehran's Evin prison. (RFERL)
Charges of perjury and child endangerment, among others, are filed against former Penn State President Graham Spanier and two other administrators in connection with the Penn State scandal involving imprisoned former football coach Jerry Sandusky; new charges also are filed against Athletic Director Tim Curley and retired Vice President Gary Schultz, who are already under arrest on perjury and failure to report child abuse charges. (Fox Sports)
A prison officer is killed in an ambush by dissident Irish republicans as he drives to work along Northern Ireland's M1 motorway. The officer, who worked at the province's Maghaberry Prison, is the first member of the Northern Ireland Prison Service to be killed in such an attack in 20 years. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Science and technology

Astronomers detect what appears to be light from the first stars in the universe based on data from high-energy radiation, indicating that stars were present at least as early as 500 million years after the “big bang”. (National Geographic) (Science News)