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Grand Kartal Hotel in 2007 A fire at a ski resort hotel (pictured) in Kartalkaya, Turkey, leaves at least 79 people dead and 51 others injured. A series of attacks by the National Liberation Army in the Catatumbo region of Colombia leaves more than a hundred people dead. A ceasefire agreement suspends the Israel–Hamas war, involving the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Two Supreme Court judges are assassinated in a shooting at the Supreme Court of Iran in Tehran. Ongoing: Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: Russell Marshall Didier Guillaume Denis Law Hans Dobida Linda Nolan Tommy Brown Nominate an article view — page history — related changes — edit

Suggestions

Template:TOCpastweek

August 19

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• South Africa deploys its army to deal with public sector workers striking in a bid to earn an increased wage; police shoot rubber bullets and water cannon into crowds outside a hospital in Soweto. At least five people have been killed so far during the strikes. (BBC) (The Citizen) (iAfrica) (Mail & Guardian) (Times Live) (Reuters Africa)
• Human rights groups express dismay at Kenya for the secret sending to Uganda of four suspects after the 2010 FIFA World Cup attacks in Kampala. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents are also said to have engaged in illegal interrogation of three of them. (BBC) (News24) (The Star)
• Seven people are killed and fourteen injured in a bomb attack in China's Xinjiang province. Although the region has recently been embroiled in violence including Muslim separatists and majority Han Chinese, the attack is being investigated as a criminal case. (AP) (Al Jazeera)
• The last United States brigade combat team leaves Iraq: there are still 56,000 members of the United States armed forces in the country. (CNN)

• Winston Churchill's butterfly house is rebuilt. (The Independent)
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's house Undershaw, in which he wrote numerous Sherlock Holmes stories, is slated to be converted into apartments. (Los Angeles Times)
• The Scots Makar (national poet) Edwin Morgan, a leading twentieth century poet, dies. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via Google News)
• Female train carriages are launched in Jakarta as part of a crackdown on public sexual harassment. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
• The Oxford Dictionary of English adds new words and phrases to the language including vuvuzela, carbon capture and storage, toxic debt and quantitative easing. (ABC News Online)
• Two groups in Israel begin pro-Zionist courses in editing Misplaced Pages. (The Guardian)
• Sail Amsterdam begins in Amsterdam with the Sail-In Parade.

• Foxconn states its intention to hire more workers following a rash of suicides among its workforce. (BBC)
• An American egg company recalls 380 million products as outbreaks of salmonella poisoning spread across the United States. (BBC)
• BP is accused by Transocean of trying to keep secret data required to investigate the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (BBC) (AFP via France24)

• The United Nations estimates that four million people have become homeless as a result of the 2010 Pakistan floods; Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, speaking in New York, states that the floods are a "slow-motion tsunami" as he calls for more funds to assist those affected. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Forty people are injured after a bull leaps into a crowd in Tafalla, Spain; the bull is killed. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Aljazeera) (The Independent)
• Two passenger train carriages are swept into a river by floods in Sichuan, China. (Xinhua) (BBC) (Reuters)

• The United Nations issues a report stating that Israel restricts with live ammunition access to land used for farming and fishing by Palestinians, causing a loss of livelihood for tens of thousands of Palestinians. (BBC) (United Nations Report)
• France's government begins to deport thousands of Romani people, who are mainly from Romania and Bulgaria; Romania fears this will lead to xenophobic tensions. (BBC) (TIME) (CNN) (Xinhua)
• North Korea confirms the seizure of a South Korean fishing boat two weeks ago, with four South Korean and three Chinese sailors on board. (Yonhap) (AFP) (Korea Times)
• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev begins a state visit in Armenia by meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and paying tribute to the victims of the Armenian genocide at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial. Russian military presence in the South Caucasian republic is to be extended until 2044.(Reuters)(Aysor)

• Four Israel Defense Forces naval commandos are arrested by Israeli Military Police for suspected theft of laptops and cell phones from activists during May's Gaza flotilla raid. (Haaretz)
• Former chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces Sarath Fonseka admits he expects to be jailed after being charged with corruption and believes the verdict has been decided in advance; Fonseka has been elected to the Sri Lankan parliament since the charges were pressed. (BBC)
• Mexico City legalises the fining of shops which give away free plastic bags in an environmental initiative. (BBC)
• A record fine of almost three million is upheld by the Superior Labor Court of Brazil (Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, TST). (BBC) (The New Zealand Herald) (People's Daily)
• Approximately 1,000 prisoners are released in Bangladesh as the country tries to reduce overcrowding in its prisons. (BBC)
• A court in Perth, Australia, rules that a female Muslim woman must fully remove her niqāb while giving evidence. (BBC)
• Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Victorian Police raid premises across Victoria in relation to alleged financing of a terrorist organisation believed to be the Kurdish Workers Party. One of the premises raided was of the Kurdish Association of Victoria; the AFP also raids properties in Sydney and Perth. (ABC Online) (Herald Sun)

• Brazil hosts its first presidential debate online, ahead of elections in October. (BBC)
• The Burmese authorities announce thirteen new campaigning rules for the general election in November. (Al Jazeera) (Sify)

• The Fields Medal is awarded to Elon Lindenstrauss, Ngô Bảo Châu, Stanislav Smirnov and Cédric Villani at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad, India. (Science Now)

• Former Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser is criticised for controversial remarks during which she called for the boycott of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. (BBC News)
• A U.S. federal grand jury in Washington indicts former Major League Baseball superstar pitcher Roger Clemens on charges of making false statements to Congress about his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. (The New York Times) (USA Today)

ITN candidates for August 19

August 18

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• The corpse of mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the Mexican town of Santiago, Nuevo León, is found handcuffed and blindfolded after his abduction on Sunday night. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (Los Angeles Times) (AP via Miamai Herald) (Reuters)
• 18 countries, including the United States, deploy naval troops in joint exercises which they say are an attempt to defend the Panama Canal against terrorism. (UPI) (Dominican Today) (MercoPress) (United States Department of Defense)
• Julian Assange of Wikileaks says the United States has approached the website to try to negotiate the release of a further 15,000 Afghanistan war documents which the military desires to keep secret; the United States denies this. (Aljazeera)
• The United States ends combat operations in Iraq as its last combat brigade departs for Kuwait. (Al Jazeera) (MSNBC)
• 3 Indian peacekeepers serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are killed by rebels in an apparent ambush. (BBC) (Hindustan Times)
• The United States deploys troops along its border with Mexico by the order of President Barack Obama. (BBC)

• The American Ballet Theatre is given permission by its country's President, Barack Obama, to perform in Cuba; it would be the first time in 50 years. American tourists are still banned by their government from travelling to Cuba. (BBC) (AFP via France24)
• Soul singer Erykah Badu is fined and punished by the city of Dallas, Texas, United States, after being convicted of disorderly conduct for removing her clothes and re-enacting a controversial scene from the country's history while filming a music video. (BBC) (China Daily) (Sky News) (TIME)

• Rupert Murdoch provides $1 million to the U.S. Republican Party ahead of an important election in November, more than doubling the party's funds with one of the largest handouts by a media organisation; critics declare Fox News is not impartial. (BBC) (Channel 4) (The Irish Times)
• More than 1 million state workers in South Africa go on strike to demand an increase in pay. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera) (Times Live)
• Iceland lowers its interest rate to 7%. (BBC)
• Foxconn holds employee rallies in a bid to stem the recent huge increase in suicides by its employees. (BBC) (iAfrica) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
• United States car maker General Motors files for an Initial Public Offering. (The New York Times)
• Japanese carmaker Mazda recalls 215,000 vehicles in the United States and 11,000 vehicles in China due to power steering flaws. (CBS Marketwatch)

• 2010 Pakistan floods:
  • Saudi Arabia overtakes the United States as the main donor to the stricken country. (The Guardian)
  • The United Nations says that flood relief aid to Pakistan is "arriving too slowly". (Aljazeera) (The New York Times)
  • The European Union pledges an additional $39 million and the Islamic Development Bank pledges $11.2 million. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
• Scientists dispute the claim by the United States that all the oil has gone from the Gulf of Mexico. (The Guardian)
• A North Korean fighter plane crashes in China near the border, killing the pilot and possibly a second pilot bailing out. Pictures posted by local residents show a Soviet plane design which were used in the Korean War. It is suggested to have been a defection attempt. (BBC) (Yonhap)
• At least 67 people are missing in new landslides in Yunnan, southwest China, with at least two deaths confirmed. (China Daily) (Reuters) (BBC), (AP via Google News)
• A school building collapses due to heavy rain in the village of Sumgarh in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing at least 17 schoolchildren. (Times of India) (AP via Google News)
• Scientists blame a peculiar double earthquake for the deadly tsunami responsible for the deaths of 192 people in the South Pacific last September, and described as "unlike anything seismologists have seen before". (BBC)
• A bus plunges into a 100 metre ravine in the Philippines Benguet province resulting in 39 deaths. (CNN)
• 3 people are killed and 3 others are missing after a South Korean fishing boat sinks 400 miles from Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. (CNN)

• Moroccan activists blockading a Spanish enclave in protest at alleged abuses by border police agree to suspend the action during Ramadan. (Aljazeera)
• Mauritania extradites a man to Mali convicted for kidnapping three Spanish aid workers believed to be held by the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. (Reuters) (Voice of America)
• Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan agree to step up the fight against terrorism and narcotics in a summit in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. (The Hindu)
• The United States offers its support for a proposed international commission intent on examining alleged war crimes by the military junta of Burma. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)

• A court in Israel court jails a man who broke into the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and asked for asylum; his lawyer says the man was once an Israeli informer whose life is now under threat. (BBC) (News24) (Citizen.co.za)
• A court in Colombia declares as unconstitutional a controversial deal allowing the United States to freely use its military bases and says it will have to be redrafted; other Latin American countries have expressed concern that the United States is exerting excessive influence on the region. (BBC) (The Age) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• A Peruvian court revokes the parole of Lori Berenson, a United States citizen convicted in the 1990s of collaborating with the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. (The New York Times) (BBC) (AP via The Age)
• Venezuela's government begins a trial ban of the publication of "violent, bloody or grotesque" photographs in newspapers, as a result of controversy over pictures of bloodied corpses riddled with bullets appear on the front page of newspapers. (BBC)
• Nathan Mutei, a Kenyan man, is jailed for 17 years in Tanzania after being convicted of attempting to sell an albino man; the prized albino is escorted back to Kenya under armed guard. (BBC)
• The Philippines is shocked by mobile phone footage apparently demonstrating police torture of a naked man charged with theft; many suspensions occur. (BBC)
• Jeremy Ractliffe resigns from the board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund after revealing he kept diamonds given to him by Naomi Campbell. (BBC)

• Two Israeli groups launch a course in "Zionist editing" of the online encyclopedia project Misplaced Pages. (The Guardian)
• Candidates commence daily broadcasts in Brazil ahead of general and presidential elections on 3 October. (BBC)
• David Paterson, Governor of the U.S. state of New York, is to discuss relocating the controversial Park51 Islamic community centre and mosque near World Trade Center site in New York City. (Al Arabiya) (New York Post) (The Guardian)
• Elections in Haiti:
  • Haiti's final decision on its presidential election candidates is delayed until Friday due to eligibility issues; it had initially been expected yesterday. (BBC) (News24) (Aljazeera)
  • Potential candidate Wyclef Jean goes into hiding after receiving mysterious death threats from an anonymous source. (The Guardian) (Sky News)

ITN candidates for August 18

U.S. Combat troops leave Iraq two weeks early

Per live reports just now on MSNBC. No article online yet as the story is breaking literally just now. Seems the troops were removed early as a security precaution. Stand by for updates. Jusdafax 22:49, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

• Update 1 - I actually, just 30 minutes ago, watched MSNBC show the last troops leaving. I have no doubt a WP:RS will be reporting on line any second, if it has not happened already. The article should be Post-invasion Iraq, 2003–present and I have already updated the lede there. Some additional material in the body of the article will be helpful. Jusdafax 01:55, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Strong Support Basically the end of the war. Doc Quintana (talk) 01:42, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment. We need an update on a WP article somewhere. Currently top story on BBC News. Physchim62 (talk) 01:48, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Tentative support, but wait a bit first. Difficult to get firm facts until the news outlets wake up tomorrow morning, and we need to know for sure that the all combat troops have gone before posting. Iraq War has an update, but needs more references. There's also a Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq article, but that seems to be out of date. Modest Genius 01:50, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, is the story that they've withdrawn, that it was earlier than expected, or both? Also, is this just American troops or is it a coalition thing? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 01:55, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

The U.S. troops are the only major foreign force left in Iraq. But it seems strange to talk of a "withdrawal" when 50,000 U.S. military personnel will remain until the end of 2011... Physchim62 (talk) 01:57, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

It is both, but with the accent on that they have withdrawn. I'll come up with a proposed blurb in the next 60 minutes as I monitor television and online sources. As for a mention of a "coalition" I have seen none mentioned, I believe this is U.S. tropps only. Psych, the story we are being told, is that the remaining U.S. troops are for training and advisory purposes. Jusdafax 02:00, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Someone at the BBC has woken up, but they're now saying 'the Pentagon has not confirmed that the move marks an early end to combat operations' and 'Some of the brigade remained behind to complete logistical and administrative tasks but would leave the country by air later in the day' . Plus 50,000 seems like an awful lot of 'advisers' to leave behind. But I still think that once all the 'combat' troops are out it's a significant step, and probably the closest to a definitive end we're ever going to get. Modest Genius 02:00, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Strong Support this is on CNN now. came her to nominate.--Wikireader41 (talk) 02:08, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Okay the, it appears this is official and getting some support. How about a blurb and an update? Preferably before I fall asleep on my keyboard. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 02:32, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

• Update 2: I have added a new section to the article: 'Final departure of U.S. combat troops', with the salient facts to date. No doubt it can, and will be added to. Blurb upcoming, don't nod off just yet... Jusdafax 02:46, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

• 'Oppose. from the announcement a few weeks ago, the 'withdrawal' was reducing troop numbers from 70,000 to 50,000. That's not a significant event. And the idea that in the last few years the troops have been on 'combat duties' any differently than the ones remaining, is pretty misleading. They've been bunkered in bases hoping not to get attacked. Still, no doubt this will sail thru anyway. Gobama. MickMacNee (talk) 02:52, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

U.N. warns more Pakistan relief badly needed

While the main story link will be to 2010 Pakistan floods, this story is continuing to unfold in press headlines around the world. A U.N. official says that, amazingly, "The Indus River is at 40 times its normal volume." The blurb, however would not be on the floods themselves but the U.N.'s urgent warnings regarding the huge human disaster in progress, with millions in need of help and so far, not getting it. Respectfully, I challenge potential opposers to produce a a more newsworthy story than this one for today. Jusdafax 20:42, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

No opinion on the nomination, but what would the blurb be if it were to go up? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 20:59, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. Maybe it's time to just shut ITN down. Interest in it seems to have completely died, most if not all new nominations are hopeless stubs, or systematically biased, or have a hundred other flaws. Obvious candidates do not happen frequently enough, and with decent enough updates, to justify this huge section. And no matter what anyone does, this idea that the section is not simply a news ticker just will not die it seems. Just shut it down, implement a horizontally scrolling bar along the top of the Main Page for ongoing news, and think of something better to do with the rest of the space. Like giving proper recognition to DYK contributors. It's beyond belief that this is what? the fourth time this item is about to be bumped. It's a flood. A big flood, but just a flood. There isn't even a basic nomination here showing that the article has actually been updated. Has it? Who knows. Who cares. ITN was supposedly created for publicising 9/11 articles. Can you imagine if that ever happened again, how many times those items would get bumped for being an ongoing event? Jesus. Enough already. Let's tear this useless section down. MickMacNee (talk) 21:24, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment - I strongly disagree with your thoughts and must also suggest your tone is hardly conducive to collaborative editing on this project. The challenge before us is to improve this remarkable resource and draw more contributors. Suggestions we throw in the towel are unconstructive here. And I did in fact check the article, and was quite impressed by the work done there, complete with a country-by-country table noting dontations to date. Jusdafax 21:42, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose its already been posted. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 21:27, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

• The United Nations urges potential donors to speed the pace of relief efforts for millions of victims of the ongoing 2010 Pakistan floods. (2x edit conflict) Jusdafax 21:31, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Still not expressing an opinion, but an update would need prose, not just pretty tables and the blurb would need to be in the present tense. As it is, apart from being in the past tense, it sounds a bit like an appeal for donations. We'd need something alog the lines of "The UN announces it needs more money". HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 21:57, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Tense corrected, which was easy. I also updated the article's lede. I daresay more could be updated in the body of the article. Jusdafax 22:20, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Ah, now I've clicked through instead of over-depending on popups, I see the article is tagged with a rather unsightly {{copyedit}} tag. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 22:38, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose - not a major new development in a story we've already posted more than once. Humanitarian disaster requires aid?!? Who'd have thought it. Modest Genius 21:55, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment. After the 2010 Gansu mudslide, the total death toll from the 2010 China floods exceeded that of the Pakistan floods, and the 305 million affected in China was a far cry from Pakistan's 20 million. An important update for the Gansu disaster was needed on August 15 for the National Day of Mourning declared in the country, but that still was not posted. This story has already been bumped more than once, although it will likely continue for a few more months. ~AH1 23:58, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Strong Oppose this is old news. most of the people affected were starving anyway floods or no floods. Also this crisis is likely to continue for months if not years. can't keep on putting it on ITN every few days.--Wikireader41 (talk) 00:51, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Fields Medal

• The fields medals will be announced today —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.242.180.168 (talk)

By "today", the IP means 19 August. This item will probably get renominated when the section for that day is ready in 2.5 hours. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 21:24, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Note this is a WP:ITNR event, so if when a Fields medal is awarded (they don't have to give one out) it should be posted once the relevant article is updated. Let's hope we have decent articles for the laureates/topics... Edit: looks like they've never failed to award one, so I guess it's going to happen. Modest Genius 21:59, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Strong support. Announcement is due 13:00 IST (07:30 UTC), we should add the winners immediately. Something like "At the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad, X, Y, and Z are awarded the Fields Medal." Ngô should be a safe bet for one of the medals. —bender235 (talk) 00:11, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

We add it if/when the article has been updated, but after that happens (barring an influx of opposers), it will go up as soon as possible (ie as soon as an admin is around). HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:24, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

In 2006, two of the four winners didn't even have articles at the time they won. Hopefully, we'll do better this time around, but we do have to at least wait long enough that some updated content exists. Dragons flight (talk) 00:29, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't think we need to say where it was announced, and would be better off with something like

• In mathematics, X, Y and Z are awarded the Fields Medal for contributions to some field of mathematics

and basing the final clause on the official citation (like we do with Nobel prizes). Modest Genius 01:37, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Unlike Nobel prizes, Fields Medals don't generally have a unified theme. Rather each of the two to four winners may be cited for entirely different accomplishments. Dragons flight (talk) 02:13, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Well we'll need to see what they are, but if possible we could include each of them. Length and the existence/state of the articles in question could be an issue though. Modest Genius 02:19, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Rod Blagojevich verdict

• Jury has reached a verdict on the Rod Blagojevich corruption charges, finding him guilty on one charge and acquitting him on 23 due to an hung jury after 14 days of jury deliberations. --TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 05:02, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
  • See the New York Times1, New York Times2, CNN.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 05:05, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

    For the record, a hung jury is a kind of mistrial. This is not the same as an "acquittal", which requires a finding of not guilty. Dragons flight (talk) 20:05, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose If posting Kagan was controversial, this would be courageous. It barely has national - let alone international - implications. I'd only support to get that stunning hair on the main page.--Mkativerata (talk) 05:09, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

oppose per global notability. btw- its not even nominated in the box above(Lihaas (talk) 06:01, 18 August 2010 (UTC));

I assume you mean the current events template. It's listed under August 17 there, since that's when the verdict was read. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 06:57, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose only convicted on a relatively minor charge. If he's convicted of conspiring to sell Obama's old Senate seat, then we'll talk. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 06:56, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose Illinois has a long history of political corruption. this really is business as usual in springfield. Yawn. WSJ--Wikireader41 (talk) 07:53, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. domestic US news. MickMacNee (talk) 13:39, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

I might have supported but the overwhelming opposition, particularly from editors better-informed on the matter than I am, convinces me otherwise. Per DC, though, I could support a conviction for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:40, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose on technical grounds, as we already ran the story of him being impeached (is that the correct term?), and as there is likely to be a retrial on the more "juicy" allegations. I would certainly reconsider a nomination for a conviction on trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, but let's see what comes of it. Physchim62 (talk) 23:51, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose It is just, not so important. Diego Grez 02:48, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

August 17

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• At least one person is killed and 20 are injured in two separate explosions in Pyatigorsk and North Ossetia in Russia's North Caucasus. (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (Voice of Russia)
• The United States confirms the existence of videotapes - found under a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) desk - of the alleged 2002 interrogation of a suspect the country had detained at a secret prison. (BBC) (The Washington Times)
• Hezbollah states it has passed on evidence said to implicate Israel in the 2005 assassination of then Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri. (BBC)
• A Ugandan lawmaker accuses the army of committing atrocities against civilians in the Karamoja region as part of a disarmament exercise. (BBC) (Daily Monitor) (Reuters)
• Iraq
  • At least 61 people are killed and over one hundred are injured in a suicide bombing at an Iraqi Army recruiting centre in Baghdad, Iraq. (France 24) (Voice of America) (AP via New York Times)
  • At least 8 people are killed and 44 are wounded after a bomb attached to a fuel truck explodes in a Shiite section of Baghdad. (AP cia Central Florida News)
• A Palestinian man from Ramallah threatens to blow up the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel if not offered asylum, but is shot by security staff. (Haaretz) (The Jerusalem Post) (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Xinhua)

• Archaeologists in Afghanistan discover the remains of a Buddhist site south of the capital Kabul. (Reuters Africa)
• Fiji officially designates the word "Fijian" as the term for the nationality of all the people of the islands including Indo-Fijians. The word was previously used only for indigenous inhabitants. (People's Daily) (Fijivillage)

• An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F4 aircraft crashes in the southern province of Bushehr; both pilots survive. (AFP via Google News) (Press TV)
• Tornado has swept threw south western part of Lithuania, near city of Rusnė (Delfi).
• A train derails in Sudbury, Suffolk, UK after hitting a sewage truck on a level crossing, injuring 18 people. Main article: 2010 Sudbury train accident.

• The Chilean military removes 1,000 protesters who had occupied government buildings, museums and a hotel on Easter Island. (Radio New Zealand International)
• 3 more Cuban dissidents released on humanitarian grounds arrive with their families in Madrid, Spain. (BBC)
• Romania expresses dismay at Russia after it arrests and expels one of its diplomats; it is now to do the same in return. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• Lebanon grants Palestinian refugees the right to work legally. (BBC) (Arab News)
• A U.S. report claims that the Chinese military has been secretly expanding; the U.S. asks for dialogue with China to avert a "miscalculated" response. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Two kidnapped Jordanian peacekeepers from the joint African Union - United Nations force in Darfur, Sudan, are released. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Xinhua)

• Police in Tanzania arrest a Kenyan national who was attempting to sell an albino man. (BBC) (The Citizen) (AllAfrica.com)
• Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of California, due to resume on Wednesday, is blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals until it is decided whether a ban is constitutional. (San Francisco Chronicle) (BBC)
• A federal jury convicts former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich on one count of lying to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. The jury is deadlocked on the other 23 charges. (Chicago Tribune), (Chicago Tribune)

• Protesters in Potosí and the Bolivian government resolve a three-week disagreement. (BBC)
• Former Israeli soldier Eden Aberjil is criticized for her Facebook images of herself smiling with blindfolded and bound Palestinian prisoners. (BBC)

• The French Football Federation bans Nicolas Anelka for 18 France games, Patrice Evra for 5, Franck Ribéry for 3, and Jérémy Toulalan for 1, while Éric Abidal escapes punishment, for their roles as the key players behind the 2010 FIFA World Cup player strike. (BBC Sport)(The Guardian)
• Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya is charged in relation to allegations of match-fixing. (BBC Sport)
• Chess champion Bobby Fischer is, as a result of a DNA test, deemed not to have fathered a 9-year-old girl in the Philippines. (BBC News)

ITN candidates for August 17

French national football team

• The French Football Federation bans four national team players for a total of 27 games, for their roles in the 2010 World Cup player strike.

• Article is updated. Sanctions resulting from an sporting scandal that gripped france and was covered extensively around the world.BBCGuardian MickMacNee (talk) 23:01, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Support seems interesting - assuming the article is good enough. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 23:02, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to see evidence this has hit America, but a support anyway. Different, certainly.  f o x  23:13, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose The impact is misleading because Nicolas Anelka has borne just about all of the "team" ban himself. Doesn't have international impact.--Mkativerata (talk) 23:19, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't have international impact? You mean, a national football team losing four players (just before the Qualifying for the European Championships gets underway next month) isn't international?  f o x  23:38, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

• There seems to be something resembling a consensus emerging here. I've yet to check the article, but does anyone have any suggestions for an improved blurb, particularly to alleviate Mkativerata's point. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 23:45, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
  • The French Football Federation suspends Nicolas Anelka for 18 games with the national team, and three other players for for shorter periods, because of their roles in the 2010 World Cup player strike. Physchim62 (talk) 23:55, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
    • Works for me, more or less. Having checked the article, it seems adequately updated and the timer is ticking away towards turning red. Thus, posting. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:06, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Just a note. The update at Nicolas Anelka is not up to standard yet, so please don't bold it without checking first. I would have been neutral on this one, but HJ makes the point that we're in a short news season so I'll go for weak support. Physchim62 (talk) 00:45, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

• Oppose I usually hate ex post facto opposes, but for this one I can't help it. I don't really see the significance of this one at all... really one athlete got a substantial suspension. Happens all the time, for all kinds of reasons. Not to mention the update is a single sentence; sorry, but this never should have been posted. Courcelles 01:03, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

  Feel free to give any remotely similar example, I know of none at all. The item pretty obviosuly wasn't just about some player getting suspended, just like the endless bumping of the horizon oil spill wasn't just about whatever bit of news had occured at the time. It is the conclusion of the whole saga, which has been a huge deal in France and World Football. MickMacNee (talk) 02:48, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

On the update, I disagree with you. It's fairly clearly been updated as the event has progressed, so the strike and its repercussions are well covered in the article. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 01:33, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

• • removed due to lack of consensus. Second I also oppose. This has less impact that Abramovich or some other tycoon pumping in 500million and then the coach/board go crazy and buy a pile of leading players, or the reverse when a team goes broke. Anelka already retired anyway, and this kind of politics is common in common in developing countries's sports systems, eg South America, or in cricket, in Pakistan or India were the whole cricket board gets turfed out in a opaque boardroom coup with some help from underworld figures threatening officials or getting cabinet politicians to arrest them for corruption. Even in the England cricket team in 2008 there was a power struggle between the captain/coach resulting in both being sacked/forced to resign, and in football-type sports where all the players have to operate quickly in a synchronised way, it's the coach that makes the success/failure, much more than the players in such sports as baseball, cricket, or relay races. YellowMonkey (new photo poll) 01:26, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
    • 'Asian cricket is corrupt' so that means unprecedented events in international football are unimportant. Good luck with refereeing that trade off next time, this bizarre logic could be applied to any nomination about any subject. It's nonsense. MickMacNee (talk) 02:48, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose, one federation making a foolish example of one player for the most part, not that significant. Grandmasterka 01:30, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose as minor sporting news, of interest only to those who follow the sport. HJ, just because the timer is ticking doesn't mean we should post something which has no consensus. Better to go a while without an update than to keep adding and shortly removing items. Modest Genius 01:41, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

That's a few billion people tbf, and in international football, let alone French politics, this was not minor news at all. That's way more interested people than the population of the United States, so maybe Mwalcoff will be along to give his support now. MickMacNee (talk) 02:48, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Death of Francesco Cossiga

- Former President and Prime-minister of Italy dies at age 82. Notable enough? - Eugen Simion 14 (talk) 15:37, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Possibly, but the article is in need of quite a bit of work- it's quite skimpy on the details of his career and it will need information on his death. I would be surprised if the article could be brought up to scratch quickly enough, but it's happened before. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 15:45, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose I see this just got posted without consensus. This guy was only briefly PM of Italy and later served in the fairly powerless position of President. He's now died of old age and the death hasn't impacted anything. To add to that, the article is substandard, not even discussing his tenure as PM.--Mkativerata (talk) 04:22, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose per Mkativerata. I don't want to discourage article development, but I'm not convinced of the ITN-level significance if the article turned into a GA overnight. Courcelles 07:11, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Weak support, however the article is almost entirely unreferenced so it's rather moot. He may well have been a boring and non-confrontational president, and only a caretaker PM, but he was still head of state of a G8 country. Modest Genius 22:14, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Baghdad bombing

Apparently there was one this morning (though there is no online source yet as BBC World is on breaking news) that killed over 41 recruits to the Army. (probably the number will go up) and over 100 wounded.(Lihaas (talk) 06:39, 17 August 2010 (UTC));

Support - As soon as an article goes up, of course. Jusdafax 06:44, 17 August 2010 (UTC) Update: per New York Times, thanks Arsonal, will add to your article now. Jusdafax 07:59, 17 August 2010 (UTC) Update 2: Added some more, I see Lihaas did the startup work on the article, thanks. Jusdafax 08:43, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Support. Article is at August 2010 Baghdad bombing. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 07:51, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Support significant attack--Wikireader41 (talk) 12:02, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Article is in reasonable shape, though, to be picky, it's an orphan. I also moved it to 17 August 2010 Baghdad bombing since it's not the first attack in Baghdad in August and is unlikely to be the last. I'll wait for some more comments, but if the consensus that's emerging holds, I'll post it soon. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 12:11, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. In the afternoon coverage of this, the war correspondent was relaying how it was not so long ago that they didn't even bother reporting bombings if the death toll was not over 50, so I'm struggling to see how/why this death toll is ITN worthy now. While they are apparently becoming less frequent, I think we are still in the period where a mass bombing in Iraq is really not ITN material. MickMacNee (talk) 13:05, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. Definitely not enough victims to make the ITN quota. They should try to be more efficient. Crnorizec (talk) 14:05, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. Notability does not exist. - Eugen Simion 14 (talk) 14:15, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Says the person who thinks an explosion at some hospital is notable. I've no opinion on this as an ITN item, but it's probably notable enough for an article. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 15:18, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - Death toll now at 60 with 125 others wounded. This is undoubtedly deserving of going on the front page. Truthsort (talk) 15:13, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

support since death count is quite high. below 20-25 would deserve an oppose but 60 is pretty high. -- Ashish-g55 15:20, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

We appear to be reaching consensus to move forward. The article is adequate, for a brand new article. Suggested blurb below. Jusdafax 16:47, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

• A Baghdad bombing of potential Iraqi army recruits kills at least 50, wounds 125.

Why "at least 50"? The article says 60 (the same number I just saw on the news) and it's sourced, so, aside from the usual uncertainty about casualty figures associated with this kind of thing, is there much reason to doubt that? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 21:40, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - Clearly notable, need to make sure the same amount of deaths is mentioned in the blurb as in the article though. BritishWatcher (talk) 21:59, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

The LA Times is reporting 51, and I see other numbers floating around, so like BW I want to get it right. My thing is to err on the side of caution and move the figure up (poor souls) as it gets clearer. I'd work further but have to be afk a couple hours. Will be back to help finish up (as needed, or if needed) soon. Thanks all! Jusdafax 22:21, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Support, I'd consider bombings with 40+ deaths worthy of mention, since smaller ones are so common, but attacks of this scale are still fairly unusual. BTW, I think the reason the LA Times is reporting a lower toll is because it hasn't been updated since 1:11 this morning, probably Pacific time. C628 (talk) 23:28, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Posted -- tariqabjotu 00:15, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

August 16

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• watch

• The Philippine security forces announce they will extend the controversial counter-insurgency tactic Oplan Bantay Laya up until December 31, 2010. The political party Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemned the extension. (The Philippine Daily Inquirer) (The Philippine Star) (GMA News)
• 3 more people are killed during protests in Kashmir. (BBC)
• At least 2 people are injured after a grenade explosion outside a Televisa television station in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
• The mayor of the Mexican town of Santiago, Nuevo León, Edelmiro Cavazos, is abducted. (BBC) (China Daily)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai gives private security firms operating in that country four months to disband. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald) (Aljazeera)
  • General Stanley A. McChrystal, recently sacked from his post in Afghanistan by the United States for speaking to Rolling Stone, is given a lecturing post at a major university in the United States. (BBC) (The New York Times)
  • A United States air strike kills an al-Qaeda leader who was thought to have been planning suicide bombings. (Reuters)
  • The United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the July 2011 timetable to start withdrawing United States armed forces from Afghanistan is set in stone. (Voice of America)

• Nadja Benaissa, a HIV-positive former singer in the German girl band No Angels, goes on trial for allegedly not advising sexual partners of her condition. (CNN) (Aljazeera) (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Independent) (AFP via Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• U.S. actor Michael Douglas begins chemotherapy after doctors discover a tumor in his throat. (MTV)

• Politicians and intellectuals including Étienne Balibar, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Eva Joly appeal to Nicolas Sarkozy that France repay €17 billion it took from Haiti in 1825 after the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804); they say the money is "morally, economically, and legally unassailable" in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (France24) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Guardian)
• AIRES Flight 8250 crashes upon landing on San Andrés Island, Colombia; one death is reported. (Aljazeera) (BBC News) (CNN)
• 2010 Pakistan floods:
  • The devastating floods continue as a concern of the United Nations, with officials citing a lack of aid funding for six million people in urgent need of clean water. (New York Times)
  • The United Nations states there is high risk for as many as 3.5 million children who may be struck down by diseases in the water. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
• Russia is battered by a severe storm following its recent heatwave, its hottest summer in recorded history. (BBC)
• An explosion at a maternity hospital in Romania's capital Bucharest, kills at least 4 babies, while 2 pregnant women and 8 newborn infants sustain burns and other injuries in serious condition. (Reuters) (Press Association via Irish Independent) (Voice of Russia) (Sky News) (CNN)
• As many as 40 people are killed due to a fiery collision between a lorry load of sugar and a police checkpoint in Nigeria. (BBC) (IOL) (News24)

• Tens of thousands of Republic of Korea Armed Forces and United States armed forces ignore warnings from North Korea, and start a new round of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian drills in South Korea. (AP via Google News) (Aljazeera)
• Easter Island
  • Community leaders in Easter Island threaten to secede from Chile, prompting the resignation of Governor Pedro Edmunds Paoa. (RNZI) (The Guardian)
  • Pro-independence activists reportedly seize control of government buildings, a museum and a hotel located on land claimed by ethnic Polynesians. (Times Herald-Record)
  • 45 Chilean special forces have been sent to Easter Island to monitor events. (RNZI)
• Senior Romanian diplomat Gabriel Grecu is arrested in Russia, accused of spying and given 48 hours to leave the country. (BBC) (IOL) (Xinhua)
• Gabon signs agreements with several Asian companies designed to make it rely less on its oil. (BBC) (Financial Times) (Reuters Africa)

• 2010 Thai political protests:
  • Protest leaders plead innocence in court, denying charges of terrorism in Bangkok. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Thailand lifts its state of emergency in 3 provinces but retains it in 7 others, including Bangkok. (Reuters) (The Irish Times) (ABC News)
• American Lori Berenson, convicted of collaborating with a left-wing group in Peru, apologises after her release from a 20-year prison sentence; she denies any form of violence or murder. (Peruvian Times) (BBC) (Democracy Now) (Japan Today) (MercoPress)
• Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation upholds a Mexico City law allowing gay adoption. (AP via New York Times)
• Israeli courts deem that its government was "responsible" for the death of a female Palestinian child, who was hit by a rubber bullet in 2007. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

• Malta buries former president Guido de Marco in a state funeral. (The Times) (The Malta Independent)
• Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to give the £4.6 million advance and all royalties from his forthcoming memoirs, A Journey, to a sports centre for badly injured soldiers; pacifists and the families of soldiers killed under his leadership call it "blood money". (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian)
• Talks on forming a coalition government are suspended in Iraq. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (France24) (Mail & Guardian)
• A book written by Chinese dissident Yu Jie critical of Premier Wen Jiabao goes on sale in Hong Kong, with threats of imprisonment from the mainland. (Radio Television Hong Kong) (Sify India) (BBC)
• Iran nuclear program
  • Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, says that Iran will build a third uranium enrichment plant next year. (Jerusalem Post)
  • The President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signs a new law binding the Government of Iran to pursue a target of refining uranium to 20 percent. (AFP via Google News)

• Australia's (and the Southern Hemisphere's) first total artificial heart transplant occurs at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia. (AAP via Herald-Sun) (Radio New Zealand) (International Business Times)
• A new species of Titi monkey, the Caquetá Titi, is discovered in the Colombian department of Caquetá. (USA Today)
• Scientists at the University of Toronto claim that mountain climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine could not have reached the top of Mount Everest in 1924 as they were caught in a perfect storm. (Daily Telegraph)

ITN candidates for August 16

Bucharest hospital explosion

An explosion at a maternity hospital in Romania's capital has killed three babies, while two pregnant women and eight newborn infants sustained burns and other injuries. YahooNews Reuters - Eugen Simion 14 (talk) 20:12, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Well, that's a shame, but I doubt the article will last long and I strongly oppose posting it on ITN. This is nowhere near our significance requirement. Modest Genius 20:26, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Sad, but no lasting significance. Eugen Simion 14, please stop creating more work for other editors with your single-sentence sub stubs that are almost invariably deleted via PROD or AfD. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 21:24, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Death toll 4 - (Press Association via Irish Independent) (Voice of Russia) (Sky News) (CNN) - Eugen Simion 14 (talk) 06:22, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. Coverage in news sources does not indicate lasting significance. The sources themselves are quite "stubby" without any chance of more detailed coverage. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 07:47, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Eugen Simion 14, you might consider contributing to Wikinews if these kind of articles are your thing. They would be more appropriate over there. --Monotonehell 12:54, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

• I have nominated the article for deletion. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 15:15, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

AIRES Flight 8250

- 1 killed, 114 injured in Colombia, after a Boeing crash in San Andreas. - Eugen Simion 14 (talk) 13:21, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

dont think enough happened here to be on ITN. I'm not even sure it deserves its own article right now. -- Ashish-g55 13:42, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose fortunately only one fatality. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 16:26, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose despite the dramatic photo of the jet in 3 pieces... am also glad to see one one fatality. Amazing though. Jusdafax 18:32, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support do people have to die for this to become a news? The fact that the previous members have also emphasized is that it is "fortunate", "dramatic", and "amazing". Good enough for me, to make a GOOD NEWS. Crnorizec (talk) 22:24, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

conditional support per plane crashes on ITN. the fiselage split apart on crash.

Is there a precedence/rule for this. What is the criteria? Simply editor voting or ITN-rules, if not we need the latter to set some rules down.(Lihaas (talk) 22:28, 16 August 2010 (UTC));

Support per all of the above (I find the two opposes ironic as they are both followed by what I see as valid reasons to support). 119 injured (according to the article)? A developed article? A governor calling it a "miracle"? Several nationalities from at least three continents on board, hence international appeal, not very local, etc. Crnorizec has a good point. Must all ITNs be horrific? And where did such an idea come from? Low death tolls and a high amount of injuries have been posted before, e.g. this (2 bombings, 2 deaths - both deaths in 1 bombing - mainly about a large number of injuries). --candle•wicke 00:08, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

well my oppose was when the article was 2 lines long. It has been expanded quite a bit since. But even then i dont know if posting plane crashes with 1 fatality is a good idea. More people die in regular car accidents. And i dont mean to be cruel but the 1 fatality was due to heart attack and not injuries. The injuries were not all necessarily severe either. I mean ya its a plane crash but there has been quite a few in past year. So i am still opposed to this. -- Ashish-g55 01:06, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

And, in my point of view, posting this after not posting the Otter crash last week is laughable. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 01:43, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Well the events are not really comparable. One was the crash of a privately operated light aircraft whilst the other was the crash and hull loss of a narrow-bodied commercial aeroplane. Also, in that case the emphasis was placed on who had been killed and not the crash itself. That being said, there have been 148 previous hull loss accidents with the 737 and with only one death I fail to see how this is main page worthy. For me, a low number or no fatalities needs notability elsewhere (e.g. British Airways Flight 38 as first hull loss for 777 or US Airways Flight 1549 as successful water landing) and in this instance I can't see any. I mean planes get hit by lightning all the time... --Daviessimo (talk) 06:56, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

In my view the 'China becomes number two economy' is a much bigger global story than the plane crash. Put up both if that's consensus but to exclude China and put up plane crash isn't right. Jusdafax 02:19, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

BTW, how did the US Airways Flight 1549 make the news, with no casualties? Check the archive here Crnorizec (talk) 14:06, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Daviessimo just said above that it was because of a successful water landing which is rare. And all the passengers survived from what was surely going to be a major accident. That is definitely news worthy. Also it was first time that happened in recent history. I dont think it would be as big a deal if it happened again. -- Ashish-g55 14:16, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

China becomes world's 2nd largest economy

• China's Gross Domestic Product overtakes Japan's making it officially the world's second largest economy. (Bloomberg)

Support: Obviously !. Yug (talk) 10:29, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

In principle, support. However, I think we've had this announcement three times already in the last couple of months. --Tone 11:47, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support: I think this time its for real ;-)(NYT)--Wikireader41 (talk) 12:26, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment there isn't much of a prose update (unless I missed it while skimming the article) and I doubt much can be updated. So I'm not sure it's suitable to post because of that. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 16:34, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. 2nd is not notable. MickMacNee (talk) 16:43, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support. An obvious item. I'm not sure what Tone is alluding to though, so I might reconsider based on an understanding of that. __meco (talk) 16:48, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support per Past Discussion. IIRC, when this item was first tentatively put forth through the Chinese media, the "general" consensus was to wait for posting until the claim was independently verified by the international press. It appears that now the story has been validated... Thoughts? Cwill151 (talk) 16:58, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - Major news as a milestone. China continues to make strides as a world power, and this shows that. Number two economy behind the USA is notable. Good ITN item, in my view. DC's point should be dealt with, however. Jusdafax 18:29, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - as previously nominator for this story. While in general being #2 isn't notable, being #2 global economy is a pretty big deal. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 19:10, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Do we have any kind of an update? I suppose the PRC article would be the logical choice. If there is something, I'm willing to post this based on the consensus above. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:22, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - once we have decent prose in the Economy of the People's Republic of China article. A rare milestone like this is an easy support even if it comes as no surprise. Nirvana888 (talk) 19:30, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support in principle but there are some problems with the articles.Economy of the People's Republic of China is rightly tagged as being too big (at 161kb), while Economic history of the People's Republic of China is unsourced tracts of OR.--Mkativerata (talk) 19:35, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Bloody hell, that article's massive. I'd have concerns with putting that on the MP since it could take bloody ages to load for those on slow connections. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:40, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Post now? article has been updated —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.65.21.27 (talk) 21:03, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

It's only two sentences. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 21:10, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

oppose granted we now have confirmation, still dont think its that notable just because econ. data keeps coming and going (4 times a year for this) and it can fluctuate.(Lihaas (talk) 22:29, 16 August 2010 (UTC));

Support Japan's economy has been stunted for 20 years and China is at 11% pa, so even if they have a slowdown they still won't get overtaken. These aren't a group of similar economies growing at 1-3% that can overtake each other back and forth YellowMonkey (new photo poll) 01:13, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Please post now. Economy of the People's Republic of China has been updated sufficiently. There's not much to write on this story anyway. __meco (talk) 06:35, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Agree, please post. Jusdafax 06:40, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment: I don't mean to sound like a Wiki-lawyer, but in posting this, we should keep in line with WP:NC-TW, and use "People's Republic of China" instead of just "China". Night w (talk) 06:47, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment - I've had a read over some of the news articles and unless I'm being blind I can't see where China's data is coming from. Is it the same data they released a couple of weeks back, because if so surely we should be waiting until the IMF or World Bank verify what is being said --Daviessimo (talk) 07:02, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

It was on the BBC News channel last night. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 07:13, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I oppose because the data only relates to one quarter. For the second quarter of 2010, China surpassed Japan by nominal GDP, but for the first six months as a whole (i.e. first and second quarters combined) Japan is still ahead of China (as stated in the bllomberg article). Now, as List of countries by GDP (nominal) uses data amassed over four quarters and this information is verified by the IMF etc I think it is presumptuous to start saying China has overtaken Japan as the second biggest economy when it has only surpasses it for one quarter --Daviessimo (talk) 07:31, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

It appears that the ITN from 2009 also used World Bank data (see current references 32 and 33 in Economy of the People's Republic of China). —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 07:44, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

It's not the least bit presumptuous. As YellowMonkey points out, japan's economy has been stagnant for 20 years whereas China has a 10% increase per year. __meco (talk) 08:08, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Well it is, because you are essentially predicting the future based on past trends and it is not our place to do that. It is highly likely (in fact probably a certainty) that China will surpass Japan over four quarters of 2010, but if it is good enough for the IMF or World Bank to wait, then why not us. At the end of the day, the data for 2010 shows that even though China surpassed Japan in the second quarter of the year, over the first two quarters of 2010, Japan still had a higher GDP. Thus for us to say China is bigger because "Japan's economy is stagnant/China is growing rapidly" completely defeats the purpose of accurate statistical evaluation --Daviessimo (talk) 08:26, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

I believe we have a rough consensus to post this. Any suggestions for the blurb? (actually, I'd like to know which articles exactly to feature) --Tone 08:23, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

If you are going to post this I would make sure it is clear that China has only surpassed Japan for the second quarter of 2010 and not 2010 as a whole and avoid stating categorically that China has become the second biggest economy without independent verification --Daviessimo (talk) 08:28, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

• China's Economy surged in the second quarter of 2010 to, for the first yearly quarter ever, become second only to that of the United States. Jusdafax 09:00, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

• How about: China's Economy surged past the economy of Japan in the second quarter of 2010 to, for the first yearly quarter ever, become second only to that of the United States. __meco (talk) 09:04, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm fine with either; was worried about length so I left Japan out, but would be happy with yours if it is not considered too long. Jusdafax 09:16, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Posted This item poses a myriad of problems. For example, the headline should, ideally, be in present tense. -- tariqabjotu 09:22, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

August 15

• edit
• history
• watch

• Inspections of Israel's nuclear programme are urged by some concerned countries in a letter sent to Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. (Aljazeera)
• iCasualties.org estimates that International Security Assistance Force casualties in the War in Afghanistan have now exceeded 2,000. (Al Jazeera)
• A teenager is shot dead and another is wounded by a further shot during a gay pride parade attended by around 70,000 people in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil. (AP via MSNBC)
• Jamaican authorities impose a new curfew on Kingston. (Aljazeera)
• A policeman hurls a shoe towards the Chief Minister for Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, during the Indian Independence Day function in Srinagar amid protests against Indian rule; 15 policemen are later suspended. (Indian Express) (AFP) (Xinhua) (Aljazeera)
• A United States missile attack on a militant compound in the village of Essori near Miranshah in the North Waziristan area of Pakistan kills 13 people. (AFP via Google News)
• Ayman al-Zawahiri, speaking via an audio message, criticises the Turkish government for what he says is co-operation with Israel, as well as "killing Muslims in Afghanistan". (Aljazeera)
• No people are killed in two blasts targeting Televisa in Monterrey and Matamoros. (BBC)
• Thousands are evacuated from the French pilgrimage site of Lourdes due to a bomb threat; it later reopens. (France 24) (BBC)
• General David Petraeus expresses doubt during an interview on American television that the United States will be able to definitely begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2011. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
• In Baghdad, Iraq multiple suicide bombings go off during mid-day rush hour, killing 4 and injuring about 16, another strike at 7:15am hits a mini-bus heading from Sadr City into downtown Baghdad, killing 3 including a police officer, and 9 others are wounded. Also, three other bombs go off simultaneously in a business district killing 1 and injuring 7. (AFP via Google News)

• Children's TV presenter Holly Walsh breaks bones and dislocates a shoulder whilst leaping from a pier during a festival in Worthing, West Sussex, England, UK; the festival is briefly halted. (BBC) (Press Association via Google News) (Daily Mail)
• Hungarian American actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is reported to be in an "extremely serious condition" after further surgery yesterday and has requested the Last Rites. (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters) (AFP via news.com.au) (CNN)

• Lebanon opens a bank account to help fund the country's army after the United States suspended the country's assistance due to the 2010 Israel–Lebanon border clash. (Aljazeera)

• China has a day of mourning to commemorate the victims of last weekend's Zhouqu landslide. (Reuters) (China Daily) (Aljazeera)
• The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon visits Pakistan to inspect the relief effort for the 2010 Pakistan floods. (CNN) (BBC) (Aljazeera)
• 2010 Russian wildfires:
  • Smog from the 2010 Russian wildfires returns to Moscow. (RIA Novosti) (AFP via Google News)
  • A ban on grain exports begins in an effort to reduce increases in the price of bread. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

• Romani evictions and deportations from illegal campsites by French authorities:
  • A major road bridge is barricaded near Bordeaux during a holiday weekend by Romani objecting to forced evictions by French authorities. (BBC)
  • Politicians, some from within President Nicolas Sarkozy's own party, object to the treatment of the Romani as "reminiscent of roundups during the war". (Deutsche Welle)
• Australia and Malaysia remember the 1945 Sandakan Death Marches on their 65th anniversary. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Sri Lanka unveils a new seaport in southern Hambantota which received a large amount of financial assistance from China. (BBC) (Reuters India)

• Charges against 5 men from Iraq, who had been accused of murdering 6 British police officers in 2003, are dropped. (BBC)
• 4 Shia Muslim activists are arrested in Bahrain. (BBC)
• Accused Craiglist killer Philip Markoff is found dead in prison in the U.S. state of Massachusetts after apparently committing suicide. (BBC)
• Daniel Skahan, a 29-year-old from Ottawa, is charged 5,000 $ for mischief and possession of incendiary materials, for his role in setting a fire just outside of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's home. (The Star)

• The Independent Democrats and Democratic Alliance opposition parties in South Africa agree to merge against the ruling African National Congress. (Times Live South Africa) (BBC) (Bloomberg)
• Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard defends her controversial plan to establish a citizens assembly of 150 randomly-selected Australians who would consider climate change. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• The entire cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan avoids visiting Yasukuni Shrine on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. (AP via Google News) (BBC)

• The 2010 Women's Baseball World Cup is moved after Hong Kong player Cheuk Woon Yee was shot through her lower left calf during the game against the Netherlands. (BBC News)
• Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh sets up a ministerial committee as he intervenes to rescue the 2010 Commonwealth Games due to be held in Delhi in October. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Golfer Martin Kaymer of Germany wins the United States PGA Championship at the Whistling Straits course in Wisconsin beating US golfer Bubba Watson in a three hole playoff. (AAP via the Melbourne Age)
• Yuka Sato of Japan wins the first gold medal of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games in the girls' triathlon event. (USA Today via Associated Press)
• 7-time world champion Valentino Rossi confirms he is to depart the Fiat Yamaha team for the Ducati team for 2 years from 2011. (BBC Sport)

ITN candidates for August 15

2010 Gansu mudslide, again

• Given it's way overdue for an update, I was thinking of bumping the mudslide one up, noting the day of mourning held today. Sort of a band-aid rather than an actual fix, but better than nothing, I suppose. Suggested blurb: "A day of mourning is held for the victims of the 2010 Gansu mudslide." C628 (talk) 23:54, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Support merging this information into the existing blurb. ~AH1 01:59, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. There should be no bumping at ITN period. The list of things people think are significant enough to qualify for a bump is seemingly never ending. MickMacNee (talk) 16:45, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

*Shrug* I just proposed this because the golf thing was going nowhere at the time, it was something like 30+ hours without an update, and this was the best I could think of. Doesn't really matter anymore. C628 (talk) 17:12, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

2010 PGA Championship

• Golf's last major of the year ends later today. Basic blurb is "Golfer X wins the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits" ~DC _{Let's Vent} 06:19, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Opppose - many sports starting/finishing their seasons are not added. BritishWatcher (talk) 15:48, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

If you took two seconds to look at the article, you'd realize how factually off your statement is. ~DC _{Let's Vent} 16:44, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Support per WP:ITNR#Golf. However, the article will need a prose update. At the moment it's a list of participants and tables of results, with only the first day mentioned in any text. Modest Genius 16:27, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Support if WP:ITNT#Golf says it's the way to go, let's do it. Jusdafax 18:59, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Support with prose update. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 20:28, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

support when sports tournaments are dont the winner is customarily announced on ITN.(Lihaas (talk) 20:53, 15 August 2010 (UTC));

Comment: the timer's red, so sooner or later someone's going to start hassling mop people. This has support, so I'm inclined to promote it. Are there any issues with having two sports-related ITNs next to each other? TFOWR 21:04, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't think the article is postable in its current state: it has almost no prose whatsoever. So my support is in principle only. Normally I would do the work myself rather than sit in my armchair but I need to go to work. --Mkativerata (talk) 21:06, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough, and we edit conflicted as I was about to ask for a blurb (which is conspicuously missing, and makes life very difficult for the lazy admin. I can hang about and whine until someone sorts the article out - or we get support for something else (not sure what, though). TFOWR 21:10, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Blurb is at the top, just fill in Golfer X. The article hasn't been updated yet, but then again the tournament is still ongoing, with the title still up for grabs. So we need to a) wait for the tournament to finish b) get a results table and a prose update and c) fill in the name of Golfer X. Modest Genius 21:30, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Does anyone know when it's scheduled to end? C628 (talk) 23:38, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Too late for me - I'm logging off in a few minutes. Blurb at top noted, TFOWR's spectacles cleaned and polished. Prose update still needed... TFOWR 00:08, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Martin Kaymer won this one. (The New York Times) (MSNBC)—Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 00:57, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Update seems sufficient, who wants to post? ~DC _{Let's Vent} 07:18, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm not so sure. The playoff prose is a massive unsourced tract of text, whereas the prose for some of the full rounds of the tournament is barely a sentence long.--Mkativerata (talk) 07:25, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I've just gone on a slightly pointy tagging frenzy - hopefully that'll encourage some improvements. If I get time I'll try and educate myself about this mysterious sport and fill in the gaps, but ideally someone(s) with clue would fill in the gaps. TFOWR 08:33, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Note to admins: An alternative method of posting the story is bolding the winning golfer's name rather than the tournament itself. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 09:57, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I'd actually prefer that: Martin Kaymer looks to be in quite good shape. OK, so the revised blurb would be:

Martin Kaymer wins the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

If there's consensus for that, I'll post it within a couple of hours (allowing time for you all to tell me what I'm doing wrong ;-) TFOWR 10:17, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I think the format I've seen previously is: In golf, Martin Kaymer of Germany wins the 2010 PGA Championship. We usually include the sport for people who are unfamiliar with tournament names. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 10:25, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I knew that, honest! ;-) That looks good. I may append "...at Whistling Straits" depending on balancing needs, but I don't think the course is as important as the sport. TFOWR 10:29, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Posting. --Tone 11:48, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Toy Story 3

The Independent on Sunday - "set to become the first animation to take $1bn at box offices globally after becoming the highest grossing animation ever". --candle•wicke 01:09, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - Good international story, the worldwide box office is astonishing, timely, will look great on the main page with a photo. The article is in reasonably good shape as well. Jusdafax 01:32, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Calm down - Highest-grossing animation movie is not really that notable, considering that inflation is not taken into account. And it is now at $920mil, and since it made 30 mil overseas and 3 mil in US last week, it means that probably at least another week or two will pass before getting close to the round mark. Nergaal (talk) 04:18, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose Crossing the billion dollar mark does not mean as much as it did when Return of the King did it. Toy Story will be the seventh movie to gross that much and that does not make it very notable, even if it is an animated film. It won't even be the first film of this year to gross over a billion dollars worldwide. --PlasmaTwa2 05:50, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose per Plasma2. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 08:33, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose unless and until it becomes the highest-earning film ever. We can't go dividing things up into genres, or we'd be forever posting stories about the highest earning horror/documentary/blacksploitation/pornographic/musical/whatever and getting into problems of defining which category things fell into. Modest Genius 14:14, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

realistically speaking no animation movie is going to ever be the highest grossing film ever. A billion in itself is just a number. I will support when Toy Story passes Return of the king and sits at #3 since thats the prime realistic spot for any movie. Catching 2 above is just ridiculous -- Ashish-g55 15:26, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose - not notable enough. BritishWatcher (talk) 15:49, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose - Mainly due to the fact that it appears factually wrong. The highest grossing film of all time is Avatar, which is animated. Unless there's some loophole where it doesn't count... --Smashville 19:47, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Avatar is live action with significant computer animation. Toy Story 3 is entirely computer animated. Technicality? Maybe, but I doubt Avatar would have been considered for Best Animated Film. :P --Golbez (talk) 19:54, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

IMO Avatar was the other way around - animated with significant live action. But that's exactly the problem with having per-genre records. Modest Genius 21:32, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

oppose no record breaking, we cant added caveats to everything. no big deal either, and certainly no wide press (int'l or even american wide outside the entertainment media)(Lihaas (talk) 20:54, 15 August 2010 (UTC));

August 14

• edit
• history
• watch

• 6 Eritrean migrants attempting to enter Israel are shot dead by smugglers and Egyptian border guards, while several others are injured. (BBC) (Reuters Africa) (Al-Masry Al-Youm)
• 2 more people are killed during protests in Kashmir. (Press TV)
• 16 people are killed by gunmen in the Balochistan province of Pakistan in the towns of Aab-e-Ghum and Quetta. (BBC) (Voice of America)
• 9 people are killed during clashes in Puntland. (Press TV)
• Lebanon fatally shoots and kills Abd-al-Rahman Awad, the suspected leader of Fatah al-Islam. (BBC) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
• 6 policemen are killed during 2 attacks in Baghdad, with 2 of the corpses burning in public. (Aljazeera) (AFP via Google News)
• 4 people are fatally shot outside a Buffalo restaurant in the U.S. state of New York, with 3 others sustaining injuries. (AP via Google News) (Press TV)
• 3 children are wounded after a wheelie bin explodes in Lurgan, County Armagh. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Guardian)
• Two UNAMID peacekeepers are abducted by armed men in Nyala in the Darfur region of Sudan. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

• Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is rehospitalised for an operation days after her release. (BBC)

• A rally takes place outside Google's offices in the U.S. state of California against a proposal to change online data treatment. (BBC)
• Gabon signs over US$4 billion of contracts with Indian and Singaporean companies for infrastructure projects, on the eve of the country's 50th anniversary since independence. (AFP) (Xinhua) (Press TV)

• The United Nations states Niger faces its worst hunger crisis in history, worse than 2005 when thousands of people were left to starve to death. (BBC) (AP via San Jose Mercury News)
• China announces a national day of mourning for the victims of mudslides in the northwest of the country, as the death toll rises to 1,239 people. (China Daily) (BBC) (Aljazeera)
• 2010 Pakistan floods
  • Robert Zoellick, the President of the World Bank estimates that the 2010 Pakistan floods have caused $1 billion in damages to crops. (Los Angeles Times)
  • The Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani estimates that 20 million people have been affected by the floods. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
  • The United Nations estimates that the relief efforts are yet to reach six million people. (Reuters)
  • The UN confirms the first case of cholera in Mingora in the Swat District with many more cases suspected. (Voice of America)
• Russia announces that it is slowly bringing the 2010 Russian wildfires under control. (RIA Novosti)
• 9 people are wounded after a bridge collapses from the Gungahlin Drive Extension onto the Barton Highway in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Eight people are killed and 12 injured as a vehicle runs into a crowd during the California 200 Off-road racing event near Lucerne Valley, California. (AP via Seattle PI)

• Release of Uri Brodsky:
  • Officials in the United Arab Emirates express concern after Germany releases suspected Israeli spy Uri Brodsky, who has been linked with the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. (Aljazeera)
  • Brodsky is reported to have arrived back in Israel. (Haaretz)
• A United Nations delegation arrives in Gaza for three days of following up the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. (Xinhua) (AFP via Google News)
• Fiji announces that it seeks observer status in ASEAN after its suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum was extended. Timor-Leste seeks to become a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. (Solomon Star)
• European politicians, including Jean-Marie Le Pen and Adam Walker, visit Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo; visits to this shrine have traditionally been a sensitive point in international politics between Japan, Korea, and China. (BBC) (The Independent)
• Spain extradites Rifat Hadziahmetovic, an alleged member of the Pink Panthers, to Japan in relation to a 2007 jewel robbery in Tokyo. (BBC)
• United States prosecutors are investigating whether the Louis Berger Group overcharged the U.S. Agency for International Development for foreign aid projects. (AP via New Orleans)

• A court in Somalia imprisons for six years and fines $500 radio journalist Abdifatah Jama Mire for the broadcast of an interview with a militia leader in Puntland. (RTÉ) (Aljazeera)
• A court in Venice frees Nizamettin Toğuç, a senior member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) wanted by Turkey. (Press TV)
• Several political parties in Azerbaijan release a statement criticising the ruling of Baku Yasamal Court against 15 Shia Muslims, arrested in February while practising their religion in Baku. (Press TV)

• The Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement warns that the independence referendum in Southern Sudan could be delayed unless the country's electoral commission resolves an internal dispute. (Aljazeera)
• Guido de Marco, former President of Malta, lies in state after his death on Thursday. A state funeral is to be held on Monday. (The Times of Malta)
• President of the United States Barack Obama:
  • President of the United States Barack Obama states that America's "commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable" as he declares his support for plans to build a mosque in New York City. (BBC)
  • Obama goes for a swim while holidaying at Panama City in the U.S. state of Florida, allegedly to show that the Gulf of Mexico is safe for swimming following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (CNN)
• A Sri Lankan government commission set up to look into the last years of the Sri Lankan Civil War holds a meeting in Vavuniya on the north of the island. (BBC)

• Data from a study at Purdue University suggest that the 2010 Haiti earthquake was caused by a previously unknown fault line, as opposed to the Enriquillo Fault Line as was initially presumed. (AP)

• The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, the first of the Youth Olympic Games, begins in Singapore with 3,531 participating athletes aged 14–18 from 204 National Olympic Committees. (BBC News) (The Straits Times)
• The 2010 Women's Baseball World Cup is suspended after Hong Kong player Cheuk Woon Yee is shot through her lower left calf during the game against the Netherlands; Hong Kong are forced to withdraw from the competition. (BBC News) (CBC Sports) (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Tennis player Andy Roddick has mononucleosis. (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
• The 2010 World Blind Football Championship begins in Hereford, United Kingdom with ten teams competing for the title. (BBC News)

ITN candidates for August 14

2010 Women's Baseball World Cup suspended after player shot

A player for Hong Kong was shot during a game, the event is suspended, Hong Kong team withdrawing. BBC News CBC Sports Reuters The Sydney Morning Herald --candle•wicke 01:03, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Support if they decide to completely suspend the event. Something like this is notable enough for ITN. --PlasmaTwa2 05:52, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. Hmm, a stray bullet of unknown source, while the tournament is being played on a military base. Sorry, but 'Venezuelan armed forces are incompetent' is not an ITN worthy event, it's a given. Much like all the 'USA learns new skills' nominations. MickMacNee (talk) 15:33, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose, given that it seems to be continuing, albeit in a different location. Sucks for the person who got shot, but since there's no lasting impact on the event, I don't see the importance. C628 (talk) 15:41, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose- for reasons above. BritishWatcher (talk) 15:50, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Firstly, isnt it softball? as in the olympics. support if the event is called off because that is not usual. Munich 72, Atlanta 96, etc, etc were not called off.(Lihaas (talk) 20:57, 15 August 2010 (UTC));

It's baseball as the name says. 2010 World Cup of Softball was another event. By the way, softball and baseball have been removed from the Olympics. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:34, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Support brawls etc are not notable, but knife and gun attacks certainly are, eg Seles being stabbed...as for the event not being cancelled neither was Munich nor the tennis tournament YellowMonkey (new photo poll) 02:25, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. It's being described as a stray bullet and not an attack. At the moment it sounds like an accident which hit a single low notability person (Cheuk Woon Yee is currently red) who is reported to not be seriously injured. The tournament itself is not particularly high profile in the world of sports and it goes on. Monica Seles was the world no 1 in the probably highest profile women's sport when she was deliberately attacked. This baseball incident is not like that. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:34, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough but why do you assume something is of low notability because of a red link? Everything starts somewhere and everything here was once a red link. --candle•wicke 23:40, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I also Googled her and the result seemed modest for an athlete at a World Cup. I just did a new search and got more hits due to the shooting. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:34, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

2010 Summer Youth Olympics

The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, the first of the Youth Olympic Games, begins in Singapore with 3,531 participating athletes aged 14–18 from 205 National Olympic Committees. (BBC News) (The Straits Times) —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 02:45, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support seems like a pretty big deal - especially as its the first. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 09:19, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Weak oppose. On the one hand it's the first incarnation of something which might possibly become a major international event. On the other hand it's getting virtually no press attention (at least in the UK: hidden well down the BBC sport page and not mentioned at all on the Guardian version), and it's just a youth version of a notable competition. We don't post the youth versions of any other major tournaments such as the FIFA U-20 World Cup or the IRB Junior World Championship. Modest Genius 12:27, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support As an inaugural event, this deserves to be mentioned. The possible future of the event is far from now, and we should not comment about it. Votes slanted on the fact that it has not received enough attention since, are not criterion that should be roughly respected here. Also, it is silly to compare such event with junior events in single sports.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 13:22, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - a fine upbeat story with international appeal. As consensus appears to have formed, suggest we move forward. Jusdafax 14:11, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Note This piece of news was also discussed at the Future events section of In the News. See here. Shall we continue the discussion here instead of there? ANGCHENRUI ♨ 14:37, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Here is a proposed alternative:

The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, begins in Singapore with the opening ceremony held at The Float@Marina Bay.

The original statement included participant no. and info, which are not really primary to what we intend to report. You may also wish to refer to past news statements on multi-sports events for a better idea; i.e. archives. Regards, ANGCHENRUI ♨ 14:45, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose the mention of The Float@Marina Bay. It does not add much, and the weird style of the name makes the whole thing a lot less understandable. Possibly write The Float at Marina Bay per Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (trademarks) (Follow standard English text formatting and capitalization rules, even if the trademark owner considers nonstandard formatting "official": e.g. avoid: REALTOR®) /Coffeeshivers (talk) 08:54, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

It is done. Third time I've done this now (second was just now) so a spot of sanity checking wouldn't go amiss. Also, someone doling out the ITN award would be appreciated. I'm going for a nice cup of tea and a lie down: me head hurts after all that fun. TFOWR 16:16, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

 Done the awards as best I can. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 16:38, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

There are now a number of free images available of the opening ceremony. I would recommend this one if an admin wants to use it, but feel free to use any other ones that have been uploaded. The cauldron images don't look too great at the moment. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 08:31, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Done. --BorgQueen (talk) 16:00, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Cordoba House aka 'Ground Zero mosque' supported by President Barack Obama

Support for the construction of Cordoba House, a mosque and Islamic community center near the site of the September 11 attacks, was voiced by United States President Barak Obama. New York Times Story has strong international appeal. Jusdafax 05:44, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. Many politicians and others have already voiced an opinion. As president, Obama will get more attention than most, but I don't think raises his (largely predictable) opinion on the matter rises to the level of being ITN worthy. I would also note that Cordoba House hasn't been updated at all to reflect this info (though presumably that could be corrected). Dragons flight (talk) 08:37, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose per Dragons flight. Additionally, the story is still premature and does not have a conclusive result. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 08:52, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose, Obama has stated that the sky is blue. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 09:21, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support. Actually, I think this could be an angle which made it possible to post the Ground Zero mosque controversy on ITN. It is an extremely divisive issue in New York City and elsewhere in the United States, and, even though that is fringe, with the contentions about Obama's own heritage, and the less contentious fact that he is the supreme leader of the country weighing in on the issue, combine to elevate this conflict beyond a local politicized quibble to a battle for the heart and soul of that nation. __meco (talk) 09:41, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose If Obama had opposed the construction that might have been worthy of inclusion (owing to the subtext "President considers all Moslems guilty by association in the 11 September attacks, and so seeks to prohibit their right to buy and use property in the vicinity") but he didn't. Despite the misleading headline in the cited NYT article, nothing is quoted to say that he thinks it is positively a good thing that the centre be built: he simply asserts equality of rights of people of all religions and distinguishes between the attitudes and aims of Al-Qaida and mainstream Moslem opinion: it would hav been genuinely extraordinary for him to have said the opposite. "Queen joins BNP" would be ITNworthy: "Queen does not join BNP" is not. Kevin McE (talk) 11:21, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

You seem to miss the perspective that the only neutral thing would be for him to keep quiet on this issue. __meco (talk) 11:34, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Strong oppose - this whole story is just a load of local-interest cruft. Obama's opinion certainly doesn't cut it. Nor will the judgement, nor the commencement of construction, nor the opening. Modest Genius 12:20, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose - unless I'm missing something, building a mosque in the United States is like building a factory, a chemist, a garage, whatever in the United States. Islam isn't banned in NYC so I don't get why this is such a huge deal. I imagine there were Moslems among the victims that day, too. (Basically, this story wouldn't exist if they were planning on putting a church there.)  f o x  18:45, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose for now at least. A president simply offering support for something that currently does not exist and which may never exist? Perhaps if it is built... --candle•wicke 23:38, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose. A pile on, just to make it more obvious that this sort of US domestic news tedium is not ITN worthy. And since when was the US President not supposed to stick up for what the constitution actualy says? MickMacNee (talk) 15:37, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

August 13

• edit
• history
• watch

• Police shoot dead at least four civilians, including two teenagers, demonstrating against the government in Indian-administered Kashmir; protesters say they were unarmed. (BBC) (IOL)
• An Australian Special Air Service Regiment soldier Jason Brown, is killed in fighting the Taliban in northern Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)

• The eurozone economy grows by 1% in the second quarter of 2010, with the German economy growing by 2.2%, its fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (MarketWatch) (AP)
• TAM Airlines of Brazil and LAN Airlines of Chile announce plans for a merger that would make the biggest carrier in the region. (BBC)
• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announces it is to tighten some rules on mortgage lending, signalling that it is concerned about the dangers of a real estate bubble in Hong Kong. (Market Watch)

• Mosta - Malta Fireworks Factory (13t'Awissu) explodes leaving one man dead.
• President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari officially cancels Independence Day as a direct consequence of the ongoing floods that have devastated the country. (BBC)(Associated Press of Pakistan) (Aljazeera)
• Fresh landslides and heavy rain in northwestern China leave at least 29 people dead and a further 10,500 trapped. (Reuters) (China Daily) (BBC)
• A forest fire grows in size near Russia's main nuclear research centre in Sarov. (China Radio International) (Times Live South Africa) (AFP)
• 2 firefighters are killed fighting wildfires in Fornelos de Montes, Pontevedra, in Galicia, Spain. (BBC)
• A building collapse in Abuja, Nigeria sees further rescue efforts; at least 14 people are known to have died. (BBC)
• A strong earthquake strikes near Guam. (BBC)

• Germany allows suspected Israeli spy Uri Brodsky, connected of the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, to go free after his recent extradition from Poland. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Haaretz)
• France condemns the actions of a senior soldier after a YouTube video of him threatening a Togolese journalist in Lomé is released. (BBC) (France 24)
• MV Sun Sea, a cargo ship carrying around 490 Tamil migrants, refugees and suspected human smugglers and Tamil Tigers as well as reports of tuberculosis outbreaks is scheduled to arrive in Esquimalt, British Columbia. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Navy are escorting and boarding the ship, and the ship's captain is suspected by the Sri Lankan Government of being a gun runner. (Aljazeera) (CTV) (Toronto Star), (CBC)
• President of the United States Barack Obama signs a bill increasing security along his country's border with Mexico. (BBC) (Reuters India) (The Asian Age)
• Sierra Leone's human rights commission asks South Africa to return "blood diamonds" allegedly given to Naomi Campbell. (Montreal Gazette) (BBC)
• Lebanon cancels an Iranian made television series about Jesus after complaints from Christian leaders and the public. (Ya Libnan) (AFP)
• Rosatom, Russia's nuclear energy corporation announces that it will start loading fuel for the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant Iran's first nuclear power plant from August 21. (The Hindu) (Aljazeera)

• Four bodies are discovered in an abandoned South African gold mine owned by relatives of Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma following a shooting. (AFP) (BBC) (IOL)
• Elias Abuelazam, an Arab Israeli arrested in the United States in connection with almost 20 stabbings across three U.S. states, agrees to face charges relating to one of the attacks. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• A Malaysian court sentences two men to five years imprisonment after firebombing a church in a row over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims. (Bernama) (AP) (Kenya Broadcasting Coroporation)
• Sri Lanka convicts ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka on charges of engaging in politics while on active service. (Sunday Leader) (Aljazeera) (AFP)
• Trial of Omar Khadr:
  • The lawyer of Omar Khadr, the former child soldier who is the youngest Guantánamo Bay inmate, faints in court and is rushed to hospital. The trial subsequently gets suspended.(Aljazeera) (BBC) (Aljazeera) (France24)
  • A serving officer in the United States Army is removed from the jury after informing the court of his belief that the American-run prison camps in Guantánamo Bay ought to be shut down. (The Independent)
• Erastus Akingbola, former head of the Intercontinental Bank of Nigeria, is charged with 22 counts of involvement in the bank's near collapse at a court in Lagos; he denies all counts. (BBC)

• Cook Islands Prime Minister Jim Marurai sets the date for the upcoming 2010 general election for November 17th. (RNZI)
• Burma announces plans to hold its first election in 20 years on November 7. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald) (BBC) (Aljazeera)

• Peru's health ministry is deployed into the Amazon to battle the vampire bats blamed for the deaths of four children from rabies. (BBC)
• India's health ministry completely rejects as "unscientific" and a "conspiracy" claims by researchers that medical tourists are spreading a new "superbug" that is alleged to have originated in the country. India states that its hospitals are safe. (Aljazeera)
• Scientists find evidence that 250 rare Caquetá Titi monkeys survive in Colombia. (CBS) (ScienceNews)

ITN candidates for August 13

Death of Guido de Marco

President of Malta who led the country into the European Union in 2004 after submitting its application in 1990 when he was the country's foreign minister. A former president of the United Nations General Assembly. English is one of Malta's official languages. --candle•wicke 01:42, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support. Unexpected death after what what is usually a safe operation (less than 1% of patients die from complications with angioplasty). Notable international relations career as well. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 02:14, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support per Arsonal. Can't wait for the "Malta is small" arguments. --PlasmaTwa2 02:16, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - also per Arsonal. Jusdafax 03:26, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Former President of Malta and President of the United Nations General Assembly Guido de Marco (pictured) dies suddenly at the Mater Dei Hospital, Msida. --candle•wicke 04:47, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Just because the hospital has an article doesn't justify expanding the length of the blurb with a trivial detail, IMO. Courcelles 04:58, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm good with it either way, as long as it goes up quickly. :) Jusdafax 05:49, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose per and the article (which until yesterday was a copyvio) only has two sentences on his Presidency.--Mkativerata (talk) 07:32, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Oppose He was not in office upon his death, he was replaced in 2004. Unless it can be shown that he was remarkable in some other way, I'm not sure that this qualifies as a death for ITN. Can anyone expand on his efforts to put Malta forward for the EU? That might be an angle, but I'm unsure if that would be enough. --Monotonehell 07:36, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment His death meets the second out of the three death criteria. Note that ITN only requires that a person's death meet one of those criteria. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 08:46, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm aware of the criteria and how to apply them. I from the info in his article I couldn't meet point two, but others seem to think so. --Monotonehell 17:33, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support per the death criteria. Took Malta into the EU, notable UN and Commonwealth roles too, seems significant enough for me. Admittedly the article is rather lacking, but it meets the ITN requirements. Modest Genius 12:33, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

support to globalise and give prominence outside the status quo, and per death criteria for ITN.(Lihaas (talk) 15:27, 14 August 2010 (UTC));

It is done. Given my track-record at ITN (non-existent/very poor), can someone sanity check what I've done? Doling out the requisite ITN baubles would be appreciated, too. TFOWR 16:07, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Given I whined about the lack of updates on WP:ANI I believe I have done so. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 16:16, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! Incidentally, I didn't update the picture (never done it before, scared I'd break something, etc etc) but I'd suggest this would be a good candidate item for a picture? I've just added the Singapore Youth Olympics, too, but I don't think there's a suitable picture yet? TFOWR 16:18, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support inclusion of picture. The Colombian Presidential picture is old and tiresome. ~AH1 21:21, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support picture as well (most of the blue and stars could be removed - leaving the red and white of Malta - but maybe not if that offends Americans). --candle•wicke 23:22, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - 1. His knowledge of Maltese criminal law and parliamentary affairs are exceptional, probably best in the Maltese Islands. He was up to his death, a Professor at the University of Malta, lecturing second year students in the Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B) - study unit - Criminal Law, an undergraduate course leading to the postgraduate course of Doctor of Laws (L.L.D).

2.He indirectly propelled Malta to become a Republic during 1974, when Prime Minister Dom Mintoff needed a 2/3 votes in Parliament to amend the constitution. Guido de Marco was instrumental in a pact reached with the Opposition. Not so much is written about his Presidency, is due to the fact that the Maltese Presidency is largely a ceremonial position within the republic. None the less he submitted Malta's application to become a member of the European Communities on 16 July 1990 as Malta's Foreign Minister and later reactivated the frozen application in 1998 following 2 years in Opposition. --Gian (talk) 00:18, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

AgBank has completed the largest ever IPO

Long anticipated and closely watched event in the investor world. Agricultural Bank of China today completing the world's largest initial public offering in history at $22.1 billion . All-or-none (talk) 17:55, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Support if its the worlds largest IPO - the prose looks to have been updated to me. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 09:32, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Suggested blurb: The Agricultural Bank of China completed the world's largest ever IPO at US$22.1 billion.. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 09:37, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

If it is to be included (I have no strong opinion), it raises severe version neutral English issues. The IPO article only describes the US situation (although it does not acknowledge this limitation), and UK banking, or at least its reporting in the non-specialist press, would describe this as a public share issue. Maybe the relevant form of ENGVAR should be that of Hong Kong. Kevin McE (talk) 11:41, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support Obvious feature, a top business and finance headline. __meco (talk) 11:49, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Weak support, seems a significant business story, even if most people will think 'so what?'. We certainly can't use a TLA like 'IPO' in the blurb though, and as Kevin McE points out there are ENGVAR issues to avoid. Modest Genius 12:50, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment In which article and what can be done to fix them? -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 13:09, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

In the blurb. There are issues in IPO, but that's not a problem for ITN since it won't be bolded. Modest Genius 13:35, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - Story has a good international appeal, and as noted per: Meco is a top business/finance story. Jusdafax 14:21, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

weak oppose flop IPO, unlike MakeMyTrip that surged 80% on day 1.Lihaas (talk) 15:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC));

By that logic the most notable IPOs are those in which the vendor massively underestimates the value of the company. Getting the valuation right and actually making money for the company would therefore be a bad thing. Which makes no sense at all. Modest Genius 18:21, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

What is this guy thinking comparing the worst largest IPO at 22 bil with a puny Indian IPO of a few million. Offtopic? The fact that this ipo took place amid some pretty daunting market expectations and raised a record amount says something about its strength and was perhaps unexpected. ..I strongly support the blurb by Eraserhead as there's no question it is notable... Its possible that this record will not be topped for a long time. 76.65.20.89 (talk) 18:54, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

For clarity (as it took ages for me to figure it out) the issue with the blurb is the term "IPO" which is an acronym and not necessarily perfectly clear. Though it does appear (as I show below) to be the term used in "Chinese English" so it shouldn't be a problem. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 19:02, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment: if you can resolve the WP:ENGVAR issues around IPO I'd be up to sticking this up. For what it's worth, I remember learning what "IPO" meant only fairly recently (UK/NZ English speaker). TFOWR 16:20, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

If by these ENGVAR issues you mean the fact that I've called them US$ that's only because without the qualifier they could be Hong Kong dollars given this is a Chinese business related story - and they are worth much less. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 16:39, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Nope, it's the issue Kevin McE and Modest Genius mention, around "IPO". I'd be OK with "initial public offering" - if that's the usual Hong Kong English term. (i.e. it needs to be wikilinked - I can live with numpties like me not knowing the term if it's wikilinked - because I suspect we'll struggle to find a way to say it in neutral English). TFOWR 17:14, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Ah, fair enough. I've done some research and Xinhua, the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong Standard, China Daily and Shanghai Daily all refer to it as an IPO in their English language versions. They are all the newspapers I can find websites for that are mentioned in the Rough Guide to China so it should be a fair sample. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 17:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Just because the English versions of the Chinese press use the acronym 'IPO' doesn't mean we should too. Using undefined TLAs, particularly ones not used in certain parts of the world, is something we should avoid. It's not a complicated issue, just replace 'IPO' by 'initial public offering of shares' and it's fine. It's not as if the blurb has a length issue or anything. Modest Genius 20:42, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough, and I think TFOWR agrees with you. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 20:59, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

I do indeed. I think we'd struggle to find a suitable version neutral phrase, so "IPO" it is, but wikilinked as initial public offering. The whole main page experience terrifies me, so I'm going to hold off for now and promote this in the morning (if someone less easily scared hasn't done it already). I'd suggest using Eraserhead1's blurb, slightly modified: Agricultural Bank of China completed the world's largest ever initial public offering at US$22.1 billion. (I've removed "The" from the start, in addition to expanding "IPO"). TFOWR 21:11, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough, it seems most of the regular admins aren't around this week. Probably another reason why I should go for an RFA :/. Oh and one error with the blurb: 'completed' -> 'completes' for present tense. Modest Genius 21:22, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Posted TFOWR's blurb MG's modification and saying "raising" 22.1 billion. --Mkativerata (talk) 21:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Note: I should say that ideally the article would have more sourced content on the bank's history. But seeing as we put up the death of a country's President with only two sentences on his Presidency, I don't think that can justifiably hold this posting back. The material in the article on the IPO is good enough. --Mkativerata (talk) 21:48, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Discovery of Caquetá Titi

Long speculated but never confirmed to exist, this monkey species is new to science and appears to be critically endangered. Rlendog (talk) 02:13, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - Interesting, and an important commentary on modern human interaction with other species, in my view. Jusdafax 05:48, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support though I don't think the article is good enough. -- Eraserhead1 <talk> 09:52, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support; IIRC, there was a blurb on the discovery of...something...not too long ago. C628 (talk) 11:34, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Support - interesting new species, published in the peer-reviewed literature, receiving interest from the scientific press. The article is OK, certainly better than many of the disaster articles we feature. It could do with a picture though, for which I suggest using under fair use (there are only a handful of pictures of this species in existence, so I don't think it could reasonably be replaced by a 'free' version). Modest Genius 12:38, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Question: Hang on a minute, this has a previous DYK listing from 27 July, how old is the story? Modest Genius 12:41, 14 August 2010 (UTC)