Portal:Current events/2012 September 18

September 18, 2012 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Hezb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction, claims to be responsible for a suicide bomber who strikes near Kabul Airport in Afghanistan killing twelve people. (Reuters)
Mexican Drug War: 132 inmates escape from a prison in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, directly across the U.S-Mexico border with Eagle Pass, Texas, by digging a tunnel underground. The authorities have yet to determine which drug gang was responsible for the jailbreak. (Los Angeles Times) (AP via Fox News)
At least ten soldiers are killed and more than 70 are injured in a rocket attack by Kurdish militants in Bingol, Turkey. (The Wall Street Journal)

Disasters

A fire at a gas facility in Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, claims 26 lives in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. (AFP)

International relations

U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney claims Palestinians are committed to the destruction of Israel. (BBC)
Senkaku Islands dispute
- People in over 180 cities of China attend protests sparked by Japan's nationalization of the Senkaku Islands and the 81st anniversary of the Mukden Incident. (Kyodo News via The Japan Times) (Global Times)
- Japanese companies shut down or scale back production in China for the duration of the protests. (Los Angeles Times) (The Japan Times) (AFP via The Australian)
- Japanese Coast Guard ships await the arrival of 1000 Chinese fishing boats dispatched by China to the waters around the Senkaku Islands in order to assert its claim on the territory. (The Japan Times)
- Japan's former ambassador to China, Yuji Miyamato, has emerged as the leading candidate to replace the late Shinichi Nishimiya, who died last Sunday. (Kyodo News via The Japan Times)
- China says it reserves the right to further action against Japan over the Senkaku Islands, but adds that it hopes for a "peaceful and negotiated solution" to the issue. (Kyodo News via Mainichi Shimbun)
- Ten Chinese surveillance ships sailed into the contiguous zone off the Senkaku Islands, following a similar incursion by a fishery monitoring ship earlier in the day. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

Law and crime

Bahrain's public prosecution charges seven police officers with torturing Shia medics to obtain confessions during the ongoing Bahraini uprising. (Al Jazeera)
Two mass graves are discovered in the Tana Delta region of Kenya. (BBC)
Two police officers are killed in Greater Manchester. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

Burma releases 500 prisoners, including at least 58 political prisoners and foreigners, in an amnesty. (BBC)
The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools reach a deal that would end an 8-day strike. (CNN)

Science

Following the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants at the University of Gothenburg two women may now be able to give birth using the wombs in which they were carried. (BBC)