Portal:Current events/2013 June 11

June 11, 2013 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2013 protests in Turkey:
- Turkish police carry off dozens of lawyers, with reports that some have been kicked in the head and subjected to other assaults. (RT) (The Guardian)
- Police move past the barricades in Istanbul's Taksim Square, occupied by protesters. (AP via CBC News)
- Riot police fill Taksim Square with tear gas, while clashes between protesters and police continue into the night. (CNN) (Reuters)
Riot police pursue activists in central London's "Carnival Against Capitalism" organised by the group Stop G8. (Al Jazeera)
Syrian civil war:
- Twin suicide bombings in Marjeh Square in Damascus kill at least 14 people and injure 31. (AFP via NineMSN)^{[permanent dead link]}
- Gunmen killed up to 60 syrian fighters and civilians. Videos posted later show celebrations with the Jihadist black flag.
War in Afghanistan:
- A bomb detonates near the Afghan Supreme Court killing 17 people and wounding dozens. (Reuters)
Former senior Indian cabinet minister Vidya Charan Shukla dies from his injury from a Naxalite raid in the Sukma district in Chhattisgarh state. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

Bills banning homosexual "propaganda" pass through Russia's parliament; gay people are hit with eggs by anti-gay extremists and then dragged off by police near the Duma. (Al Jazeera) (The Independent) (The Guardian) (USA Today)

Business and economics

Greek broadcaster ERT is shut as part of austerity measures. (Euronews) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

A charter bus carrying a group of students from a Louisville, Kentucky high school to Eastern Kentucky University crashes on the return trip to Louisville, injuring 35 people in all. (WDRB)

International relations

U.S. government surveillance programs (including PRISM):
- European Union officials send a letter to U.S. attorney general Eric Holder with seven detailed questions requesting concrete explanations about the country's data snooping programs and how it affects EU citizens ahead of a meeting in Dublin this Friday. (The Guardian) (The Journal)
- The American Civil Liberties Union lays down the first constitutional challenge to the U.S. programs of spying on its own citizens. ACLU accuses the U.S. government of "snatching every American's address book". (The Guardian)
- Expecting to be rendered or otherwise targeted by the CIA or its allies or third parties, Edward Snowden checks out of the Hong Kong hotel in which he based himself after revealing the U.S. spy scandal to the public. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

Due to lack of evidence, a French court drops a case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for allegedly running a prostitution ring. (ITV)
Michael Bloomberg appeals to the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division on the invalidation of a law limiting soft drink sales in New York City. (Reuters)

International relations

A UK government decision to create a controversial marine park in the Indian Ocean gets the go-ahead, though the intentions are questioned by former residents of the Chagos Islands all of whom were expelled by the British between 1965 and 1973 so that an airbase could be built by the United States on Diego Garcia. (The Guardian)
North Korea calls off talks with South Korea, according to officials from the South, amid a disagreement over the pairing of Ryoo Kihl-jae (South) and Kim Yang Gon (North). (AP via The Washington Post)

Politics and elections

Demonstrators rally at the "piggy bank" (local term) against wage hikes for newly elected "MPigs" (local term) in Kenya. (Al Jazeera) (The Washington Post)
2013 Iranian presidential election: Mohammad Reza Aref announces he will drop out of the race endorsing another reformist candidate Hassan Rouhani, to give the reform movement a better chance to win the election. (PressTV) (CBS)

Science and technology

Shenzhou 10, China's fifth manned spaceflight mission and the second and final one to the Tiangong-1 space laboratory, is launched with 3 taikonauts on a 15 day mission. (BBC) (CNN)