Portal:Current events/2010 October 14

Current events of October 14, 2010 (2010-10-14) (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Eight ISAF NATO soldiers are killed in multiple attacks in Afghanistan, including four in roadside bombings. (AP)
• Six people, including an Iraqi Interior Ministry official and four members of a leading political bloc, die in multiple explosions throughout Baghdad apparently targeting members of former prime Minister Ayad Allawi's al-Iraqiya political coalition; four were killed in a roadside bomb and three others were wounded. (CNN)

Art and culture

• The shortlist for the United States National Book Award is announced. (AAP and ABC Australia Online)

Business and economy

• The number of mortgage foreclosures in the United States in September 2010 exceeds 100,000 for the first time. (Reuters)

Disasters

• Floods kill an elderly man in Turkey's Bursa. (Hurriyet)

International relations

• American actor and UN peace messenger, George Clooney, calls for the freezing of assets held by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, as a good way of putting pressure on the Sudanese government (BBC) (The Washington Post)
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Lebanon is becoming a "satellite" of Iran after it hosts a controversial visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who again "predicts" Israel's destruction at a Hezbollah rally in southern Lebanon. (AFP)(Arutz Sheva)
• A new border gate opens on the divided island of Cyprus, providing a seventh crossing point between the Turkish-controlled TRNC and the southern part of the country. (TRT)
• Turkish lawyers file a complaint against Israel over the Gaza flotilla raid in the International Criminal Court. (Ynetnews)
• At least seven Afghan border guards are detained by Iran after crossing their mutual border. (Xinhua) (Fars News Agency)
• The Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan calls on China to release Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. (BBC) (Yemen News Agency) (Japan Today)
• Canada's PM Stephen Harper and Lan Lijun, China's Ambassador to Canada, take part in a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of Sino-Canadian relations. (SINA)

Law and crime

• President of the Islamic Sharia Council in the United Kingdom, Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed, stirs controversy in Britain by claiming that it is impossible for men to rape their wives and that husbands who commit such acts should not be prosecuted.(MSNBC) (The Independent)
• Rights groups in Indonesia welcome the striking down of a Suharto-era law banning books that were deemed to be "offensive" or a "threat to public order". (AP) (Jakarta Post) (BBC)
• Greek riot police clash with protesting workers outside the Acropolis in Athens using tear gas to clear the demonstrators from the entrance. (AP via Atlanta Journal-Constitution) (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is arrested on charges of forming a terrorist organisation. (AFP) (BBC)
• Colonel Abdoulaye Badie, the second in command in Niger's military government, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, is arrested. (AFP) (Bloomberg)
• Somali President Sharif Ahmed appoints Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government. (Al Jazeera)
• 18-year-old Anton Abele becomes Sweden's youngest ever MP; he is a member of the ruling Moderate Party. (The Local)
• Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi announces that she will boycott next month's general election. (BBC via ABC News Australia)
• Don't ask, don't tell
  • The Obama administration asks United States District Court for the Central District of California judge Virginia A. Phillips to stay her ruling in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States of America that the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is unconstitutional while it appeals the decision. (Reuters)
  • President Barack Obama promises that "don't ask, don't tell" will "end on his watch". (KTLA)
• The President of Peru Alan Garcia denies claims that he slapped a man who called him corrupt when he visited a Lima hospital last weekend. (BBC)
• First liberal cabinet in the Netherlands since 1918, led by Mark Rutte, is sworn in in The Hague.

Science

• The World Health Organisation warns about an outbreak of Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Afghanistan. (BBC)
• United Nations scientists claim to have eliminated rinderpest virus making it the second virus to have been wiped out by humans if confirmed. (BBC)
• French-American mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot dies of cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

Sport

• 2010 Commonwealth Games
  • Australia tops the medal tally followed by India and England. (CNN)