Portal:Current events/2015 August 11

Current events of August 11, 2015 (2015-08-11) (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Boko Haram insurgency
  • A bomb attack consistent with Boko Haram kills 50 people in Nigeria's Borno State. (BBC)
• In Puyallup, Washington, a gunman on a mass shooting spree shot and killed a man, then fired at homes and people before driving a stolen SUV through the garage door, crashing into several cars and shooting at police until stopped when his SUV was rammed by a police car. (KIRO)

Business and economy

• Japan's Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Satsumasendai in Kagoshima Prefecture on Kyushu restarts reactor no. 1. This is the first of 50-plus shut-down nuclear reactors to go back online since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The problems discovered in the reactor model after the disaster have not been fixed. (UPI) (CNN)
• The People's Bank of China devalues the Chinese yuan by two percent in an attempt to boost its economy, a move which could spark a currency war. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• Debris from a Buk surface-to-air missile is found at an unspecified location in eastern Ukraine. According to the Dutch Safety Board and the Dutch prosecutor overseeing the criminal investigation, it may have come from a Buk (possibly of Russian origin) fired by rebel fighters, accidentally or purposefully, in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The investigation remains classified. (AFP, via MSN)
• A heatwave in Egypt has killed at least 42 people. (AP)
• Flooding in Argentina kills at least three people and 11,000 are made homeless. (AFP via ABC News)

International relations

• In talks held regarding the course of the Syrian Civil War, Russia and Saudi Arabia fail to reach agreement over cooperation in the fight against ISIL, with the Saudi representative refusing any common struggle with Assad's regime. (The News Hub)
• Georgia accuses Russia of cutting off its citizens from their farmland by installing border signposts demarcating the breakaway South Ossetia region, calling on Moscow to refrain from "escalation". (The Daily Star)

Politics and elections

• The Parliament of Iraq approves a package of measures proposed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to tackle corruption and to abolish senior posts. (Radio Free Europe)