Portal:Current events/2012 October 23

October 23, 2012 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

At least one person is killed and two others are wounded in an Israeli artillery attack in the northern Gaza Strip. (Al Jazeera)
Iraqi insurgency: At least eight people are killed in car bombings and mortar attacks across various districts in Baghdad, Iraq. (BBC)
A young Pakistani man, whose father was killed by drones alongside 40 others in March 2011, seeks to block the sharing of British intelligence with the CIA. This represents the first serious legal challenge in the English courts to Britain's involvement in the drones campaign. (The Guardian)

Arts and culture

Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, receives its Royal premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall. (BBC)
The prominent Bengali poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay dies from a heart attack in the West Bengal capital Kolkata. (BBC)
Authorities in Mumbai investigate the sudden death last weekend of the renowned Bollywood film-maker Yash Chopra, who was earlier thought to have died from dengue fever. (BBC)

Business and economics

European Commissioners debate a proposal to the European Parliament to accept a 40 per cent quota for women on corporate boards. (BBC)

Disasters

A fire at a hospital in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan kills at least 12 people and injures up to 60 others. (BBC)
A "very loud explosion" and a "huge fire" at a military factory in Khartoum are being treated as suspicious. (BBC)
Following yesterday's conviction of scientists for their failure to predict the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, Luciano Maiani—head of Italy's disaster body—resigns in protest at the harsh treatment of his colleagues. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
A surfer is killed in southern California following an attack by a great white shark. (BBC) (CNN)

Innovation and technology

The analogue TV signal in Northern Ireland is turned off permanently at 23:30 BST, completing the final stage of the UK digital switchover. Ceefax, the world's first teletext information service, is also brought to an end after 38 years. (BBC)

International relations

Law and crime

BBC Director-General George Entwistle appears before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee to answer questions about the Corporation's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile. (The Independent)
Four civil cases are filed against Trinity Mirror, publishers of the UK newspaper the Daily Mirror, over allegations of phone hacking. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Four third-party U.S. presidential election candidates—representing the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Justice parties, who were excluded from the high-profile televised encounters between Mitt Romney or Barack Obama—attend their own presidential debate hosted in Chicago by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, which hopes for a more transparent and open electoral system. Romney (with the Republican Party) and Obama (with the Democratic Party) refuse invitations to attend the debate, televised on international news channels but on no major U.S. network. (Al Jazeera) (VOR) (The Washington Post) (Press TV) (The Sacramento Bee)
Japanese Justice Minister Keishu Tanaka, who took office on October 1, resigns amid a scandal over alleged ties to an organized crime syndicate. (BBC)
Two MSPs – John Finnie and Jean Urquhart – resign from the Scottish National Party over its stance on NATO, effectively reducing the party's absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament to two. (The Guardian)