Portal:Current events/2010 July 5

Current Events

• Australia celebrates indigenous culture with NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'.(ABC)(NAIDOC)

• Imam Ahmad Afzali leaves the United States for Saudi Arabia, under plea deal in the case involving Najibullah Zazi's alleged plan to bomb the New York City Subway. (CNN)
• Somalia:
  • Anti-government demonstrators, including women dressed in full hijabs brandishing AK-47 automatic rifles, march in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, protesting killings by the African Union Mission in Somalia. (CNN)
  • Somali pirates hijack a Marshall Islands-flagged ship with 18 Filipino sailors on board in the southern Red Sea. (Daily Nation Kenya) (AP) (BBC News)
• The European Union withdraws a trade concessions deal with Sri Lanka after the former accused the latter of not improving its human rights record. (BBC News) (Hindustan Times)
• Iran accuses Germany, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom of refusing to provide fuel to its passenger planes. (BBC News) (Swissinfo) (The National UAE)
• Afghan Police and international forces kill 64 people in a three-day drug bust operation in Helmand province, Afghanistan, and destroy 16,641 kilograms (36,687 pounds) of narcotics. (CNN)
• A nationwide strike takes place in India in protest at a recent rise in fuel prices. (Times of India) (CNN) (New York Times)
• Foreign relations of Israel:
  • Israel drops all restrictions on the free flow of consumer goods into the Gaza Strip, while still restricting a blacklist of weapons, construction materials and dual-use items. These materials will be allowed into the territory with the coordination of international agencies. (AP) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
  • International Middle East Envoy Tony Blair and UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry praise Israel's easing of the Gaza blockade and its adoption of a "blacklist" system of restrictions. (AP) (Aljazeera) (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Turkey threatens to break diplomatic ties with Israel over the Gaza flotilla raid. (Ynet) (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Israeli diplomats call off a strike to accommodate Benjamin Netanyahu's visit with US President Barack Obama. (The Independent)
• Fate of Gilad Shalit
  • A concert was held in the town of Sderot in support of captured Shalit. (BBC News)
  • 15,000 marchers arrive at Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, to rally for the release of Shalit. (Ynet)
  • Former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yisrael Meir Lau, says he is “willing to trade places” with Shalit. (Ynet)

• At least 11 people died after a plane crash in Tuzla, Romania. (Mediafax)
• Deepwater Horizon oil spill:
  • Tar balls from the Gulf oil disaster reach Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain and the shores of Texas near Galveston, on day 77 of the disaster. (The Australian) (CNN) (The Houston Chronicle)
  • BP's costs for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill reach $3.12 billion, for cleanup, containment, relief well drilling and damage claims. (USA Today)
  • Initial test results from A Whale, an oil tanker retrofitted to skim oil from the sea, were inconclusive, due to rough seas. An additional test of the vessel has been ordered. (BBC News)
  • A 2007 memo is released showing that two U.S. Federal agencies, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Minerals Management Service, underestimated the possibility of a large-scale oil spill from drilling in the Gulf and its effects on Gulf Coast wildlife. (The New York Times)
• Security is boosted in Xinjiang in western China on the anniversary of the July 2009 Ürümqi riots. (The Guardian) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Human rights groups say at least 52 prisoners have disappeared from Saidnaya Military Prison in Syria, following disturbances in 2008 that led to the deaths of 22 people. (Al Jazeera) (Khaleeej Times)
• Toyota begins recalling 91,903 Japanese vehicles due to an engine defect in its luxury Lexus range and Toyota Crown luxury sedans. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Authorities in China sentence Chinese-American geologist Xue Feng to 8 years in prison for "selling state secrets"; the U.S. expresses "dismay" at the sentence. (BBC News) (CNN)
• The website of pop star Justin Bieber is targeted by a prank aimed at sending him to tour North Korea. (BBC) (The Independent)
• The body of late chess legend Bobby Fischer has been exhumed in Iceland, in an effort to settle paternity questions. (CNN)

Science

• Japanese scientists believe the SELENE probe has spotted rocks that originated deep within the Moon on its surface. (BBC News)

Politics and Elections

• Polish presidential election, 2010
  • Bronisław Komorowski has won the election having received 53.01% of the vote. Opponent Jarosław Kaczyński has 46.99% of the vote. (BBC News)
• Local government elections in Mexico
  • The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) did not achieve as big a win as exit polls indicated, with the National Action Party (PAN) running ahead in three states that are currently controlled by PRI. (BBC News)
• A local politician and provincial Bayan Muna party leader in Aklan, Fernando Baldomero, is shot dead bringing the total number of political and human rights activists killed in the Philippines since the return of democracy in 1986 to over 1,200. (New York Times) (CNN)
• Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga condemns the nation's lawmakers for voting themselves a huge pay increase, which makes them the best paid lawmakers in the world. (BBC News)
• United Kingdom - Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announces that a referendum on introducing the alternative vote system for national elections will be held on 5 May 2011. (BBC)