Portal:Current events/2010 August 16

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Current events of August 16, 2010 (2010-08-16) (Monday)

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Armed conflicts and incidents

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)
Tens of thousands of Republic of Korea Armed Forces and United States armed forces ignore warnings from North Korea, instead starting a new round of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian drills in South Korea. (AP via Google News) (Aljazeera)
Israel is held responsible in court for the death of a female Palestinian child who was shot through her head in 2007. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
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)
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)
1 of the Sri Lankan Tamil migrants who took part in the three-month voyage to Canada, which ended last week, has died. (BBC)
American Senator Bob Menendez publicly pressurises whistleblowers into last year's humanitarian release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi to speak out. (BBC)
American Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opposes a plan that would see a mosque built in New York City; his President, Barack Obama, holds a different view. (BBC)
At least 2 people are injured after a grenade explosion outside a Televisa television station in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
Mayor of the Mexican town of Santiago, Edelmiro Cavazos, is abducted. (BBC) (China Daily)
War in Afghanistan (2001–present):
- 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)

Arts, culture and entertainment

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)

Disasters

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. (BBC)

International relations

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 sieze 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)

Law and crime

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)

Politics and elections

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)

Science

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)

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