Portal:Current events/2016 November 4

Current events of November 4, 2016 (2016-11-04) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Kurdish–Turkish conflict
  • A car bomb kills at least eight people and injures up to 100 in Diyarbakır, Turkey. (NPR) (USA Today)
• Three U.S. service members are killed in an exchange of gunfire with Jordanian military guards outside the King Faisal Air Base near Al-Jafr, Jordan. A Jordanian officer is also injured in the incident. (The Guardian)

Arts and culture

• Singer Michael Bublé's son is diagnosed with cancer. (BBC)

Business and economy

• A U.S. district court judge grants class certification to plaintiffs in a lawsuit against banks that helped underwrite securities from NovaStar, once a high-flying subprime lender, now defunct. (Reuters)
• Fox News apologizes to Hillary Clinton for reporting falsly of 'likely' Clinton indictment. (USA Today )

Disasters and accidents

• The death toll from a boat accident near Singapore reaches 54. The victims are mostly Indonesian migrant workers. (Straits Times)
• At least 15 people are killed in an outbreak of heavy smog in the Pakistani province of Punjab. (Geo News)

Health

• Tobacco smoke
  • A research team at Los Alamos National Laboratory quantifies the molecular damage inflicted on DNA and discloses that every 50 cigarettes smoked generates genetic damage because every DNA mutation holds potential to activate cells to become cancerous. (New Scientist) (Los Angeles Times)

Law and crime

• Fort Lee lane closure scandal
  • Two former associates of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and ex-Port Authority executive Bill Baroni, are found guilty on all seven counts by a federal jury from their roles in the so-called Bridgegate scandal that created crippling traffic near the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. (The New York Times) (Bloomberg) (New York Daily News)

Politics and elections

• Palauan presidential election, 2016
  • Incumbent President of Palau Tommy Remengesau narrowly leads his brother-in-law, Surangel Whipps Jr., by 78 votes. Final results are expected to be announced later in November. (Radio New Zealand International)
• 2016 South Korean political scandal
  • The President of South Korea Park Geun-hye accepts full blame for the scandal over the influence of religious figure Choi Soon-sil in Park's administration and vows to accept the results of an independent investigation into her actions. (AP)
• 2016 Turkish purges
  • Turkish security forces begin mass arrests of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MPs, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. Internet access is reportedly blocked across southeastern Turkey. (The Guardian) (BBC)
• The Editors Guild of India protests the Indian Government's order to shut down Hindi news channel NDTV India for 24 hours alleging the channel's coverage of January’s deadly attack on Pathankot air base revealed sensitive military secrets. NDTV denies the charges, and says it will challenge this unprecedented order. (The New York Times) (The Times of India)
• A study of former fashion model and current wife of presidential candidate Donald Trump Melania Trump's work history shows that she was an illegal worker in the United States before she received legal authorization. (CNBC)
• The National Enquirer reportedly paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal US$150,000 for a story about an alleged affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006. The tabloid however suppressed the story. (Fox News)