Portal:Current events/2012 November 2
November 2, 2012 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Dozens of young men are shot dead by the military in Maiduguri, Nigeria, according to residents of the city. (BBC)
Arts and culture
- The film Facing Mirrors hits cinemas in Tehran. Though transsexualism has been legal in Iran since a fatwā was issued in 1987 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Iran permits more sex-change operations than any country except Thailand, this is the first time the subject has been treated on the big screen. (The Guardian)
- Sir Nicholas Hytner, Sir Nicholas Serota, Julian Lloyd Webber, Richard Rogers, Sir David Hare and Grayson Perry are among the cultural figures to criticise the "incredibly shortsighted" policy of excluding creative subjects from the core qualification at 16. (The Guardian)
- Canada and Australia launch women's literary prizes. (The Guardian)
- The estate of William Faulkner sues over the use of the writer's quote "we must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it" in an advertisement by American global aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman Corporation. (The Guardian)
Business and economy
- The United States Department of Labor says hiring picked up in October, with 171,000 jobs being added, though the unemployment rate rose 0.1% higher to 7.9%. (CNN)
Disasters and accidents
- Lirak Bejko, the Albanian former political prisoner who set himself on fire in protest at delays in government compensation for communist-era dissidents, is dead. (BBC)
- The New York City Marathon is canceled due to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy. (RTE)
Politics
- Former British Labour Party minister Denis MacShane resigns his House of Commons seat after he wrongfully claimed at least £7,500 in expenses. (BBC)