Portal:Current events/2011 September 16

Current events of September 16, 2011 (2011-09-16) (Friday)

Armed conflict and attacks

• Authorities in South Korea arrest a North Korean citizen for an alleged assassination attempt against a defector and activist Park Sang-hak. (Yonhap)

Disasters

• Hurricane Maria is predicted to reach Newfoundland off the coast of Canada. (National Hurricane Centre)
• Areas in Delhi, India, are flooded following heavy rain with record rainfall recorded at Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday. (IBN Live)
• The Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani cancels a visit to the United States to address the United Nations General Assembly as a result of the current floods. (Reuters)
• Four trapped miners are confirmed dead in the Gleision Colliery disaster in South Wales.

International relations

• Kosovo Serbs block off two border crossings with Serbia as the Kosovo government seeks to take them over. (AFP via Google)
• The Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Libya for a meeting with the National Transitional Council. (Euronews)

Law and crime

• Security camera pictures are released of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, for the first time since the attacks. (MSNBC)
• The Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China has arrested more than 2000 people in a crackdown on gang-related crime. (AP via Washington Post)
• UBS trader Kweku Adoboli is charged with fraud and false accounting. (BBC)

Politics

• The Health Services Union disaffiliates from the Australian Labor Party in the states of New South Wales, and Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory following the commencement of a New South Wales Police Force investigation into alleged "inappropriate practices" by current and former union officials including Craig Thomson, a member of the Australian House of Representatives. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Sinn Fein's officer board gives its approval to put forward Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as a candidate for the 2011 Irish presidential election. (BBC)

Science

• Scientists at NASA announce the discovery of a planet orbiting two suns. Named Kepler-16b, it is the first such planet to be identified. (BBC)