Portal:Current events/2015 October 16

Current events of October 16, 2015 (2015-10-16) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian political violence
  • Palestinian demonstrators set fire to the building containing Joseph's Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus causing heavy damage to the structure before the fire is put out. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the attack. (Times of Israel) (Jerusalem Post)
  • An Israeli soldier is stabbed shortly after the fire by a Palestinian posing as a journalist with a camera and a "PRESS" vest; the attacker is shot dead. (Reuters)
• Battle of Aleppo (2012–present), Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • Syrian Army forces supported by Russian planes attack insurgents south of the city of Aleppo. (Reuters)
• Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
  • Turkey says it has shot down a drone near the Syrian border after it failed to leave Turkish airspace. (Today's Zaman)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) states a U.S. tank damaged property, destroyed potential evidence, and caused stress and fear for the MSF team when it made an unannounced, forced entry into the grounds of MSF's bombed Kunduz hospital. NATO's Resolute Support Mission neither confirms nor denies the report. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• A United States appeals court rules the Google Books Library Project, the scanning of millions of books with snippets searchable online, is legal under copyright law, affirming a 2013 district court decision. (USA Today) (The Register)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • Koppu strengthens to a typhoon ahead of threatening lives and properties in the Philippines island of Luzon over the weekend. (AccuWeather)
• 2015 California drought
  • Many residents of Los Angeles and Kern Counties in southern drought-stricken California are trapped by flash floods after receiving four to six inches of rain in a short period of time. (CNN)
  • Mudslides, with head-high mounds of mud, from yesterday's flash floods cover major highways in the mountains and desert north of Los Angeles. Interstate 5, one of the state's major north-south arteries, is closed. The National Weather Service issues a flash flood watch today. (AP via KPHO TV) (Los Angeles Times)
• Six construction workers, injured when scaffolding at an unfinished building collapsed in Houston, Texas (US), are rushed to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. Firefighters continue to sift through the debris for other potential victims. (Houston Chronicle)

International relations

• European migrant crisis
  • The European Union and Turkey reach an agreement for Turkey to stem the flow of migrants into Europe in return for a £3bn aid package, easier visa conditions and re-energised talks to join the bloc. (ITV)
  • Hungary announces it will close its southern border with Croatia at midnight. (Reuters)
• Russia and other ex-Soviet states meeting in Kazakhstan agree to set up a joint task force to tackle instability on their borders, most notably from Afghanistan. (Reuters)
• President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is in Washington, D.C. and met with President Barack Obama at The White House. (New York Times)
• China hosts the ministers of defense from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the meeting a Chinese defense official suggests joint maritime drills between the host and ASEAN. At the same time, it is widely expected that U.S. Navy vessels may soon sail within 12 nautical miles of islands China is constructing upon reefs and atolls in the South China Sea. (New York Times) (BBC)

Law and crime

• Rafe Esquith, a notable teacher in the Los Angeles, California, public school system files a $1 billion class action lawsuit against the LA Unified School District. Esquith, recently removed from teaching and subsequently fired, alleges on behalf of almost 2,000 individuals, certain age-discrimination tactics by the school system against older teachers. (CNN)
• A U.S. federal judge declines plaintiffs request for an emergency order requiring Texas issue birth certificates to U.S.-born children of immigrant families who entered the country illegally. The judge said Matrícula Consular cards issued by Mexican consulates to their citizens in the U.S. aren’t secure. The U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees the right of citizenship to children born in the United States. (Miami Herald) (Washington Times)