Portal:Current events/2012 August 22

Current events of August 22, 2012 (2012-08-22) (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war:
  • A Chinese state news commentary on recent U.S. "red line" remarks states that, once again, Western powers are digging deep for excuses to intervene militarily in another conflict-torn Middle East country. It sharply denounces the U.S.' "calculus". (Xinhua)
  • Syrian forces shell two separate districts in the capital Damascus; rebels say at least 47 people are killed. Frequent fighting is reported in Aleppo and other parts of the country. The United Nations estimate that 18,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (Reuters)
• At least 48 people are killed during clashes over grazing rights for cattle between the Pokomo and Orma tribes in Kenya. (Deutsche Welle)

Arts and culture

• Nina Bawden, the writer of seminal work Carrie's War and shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010, dies at her London home. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph)
• The BBC turns down "flat" a proposal to erect a statue of George Orwell, who "would be perceived as too left-wing a figure for the BBC to honour." (The Guardian) (BBC)

Disasters

• A plane carrying 11 tourists crashes in the Maasai Mara game reserve in southwestern Kenya, killing at least four people and injuring up to three others. (BBC)
• A state of emergency is declared in California over wildfires threatening hundreds of buildings. (Reuters)
• Hurricane Isaac causes so much disruption that hearings at Guantánamo Bay are cancelled again. (Huffington Post)

Health

• Tony Nicklinson, a 58-year-old British man with locked-in syndrome who lost his fight for doctors to legally end his life, dies after refusing food at his home in Melksham, Wiltshire. (BBC)
• Research finds that elderly men pass on more genetic mutations to their children if they become fathers. (Los Angeles Times)
• Penn State's ex-president Graham Spanier rejects the report by former FBI head Louis Freeh accusing the university of a cover-up, saying he never heard even a hint of child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky, despite indications of "horseplay". (Reuters)

International relations

• Russia becomes the 156th member of the World Trade Organization. Vanuatu becomes the 157th member. (Bloomberg)

Sport

• Former Irish footballer Kevin Sheedy is diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 52. (Irish Independent) (RTE)

Technology

• It becomes known that a freight train derailment that occurred yesterday near Baltimore caused serious communications disruptions due to damage to fiber optic cables. A pretrial hearing for 5 men imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay who are charged in the September 11 attacks had to be delayed because of the disruption. (Huffington Post)