Portal:Current events/2012 September 17

September 17, 2012 (2012-09-17) (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War: Human rights investigators from the United Nations expand a secret list of people in Syria suspected of committing war crimes. Diplomat Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro urges the U.N. Security Council to bring the situation to the International Criminal Court. (Reuters)
• 2012 diplomatic missions attacks fallout:
  • The United States ambassador to the United Nations says there was no plot in the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi. (AP via Newsday)
  • A thousand Afghans hold a violent protest in Kabul about the short film Innocence of Muslims. (BBC)
  • Protesters in Indonesia clash violently with police protecting the US embassy in Jakarta. (AP via Mainichi Shimbun)

Arts and culture

• Ugandan police release theatre producer David Cecil on bail after charging him in connection with the staging of The River and the Mountain, a play which references homosexuality. His court date is 18 October, with a two year jail sentence possible. (The Guardian)
• Writer Sir Salman Rushdie expresses doubt that his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses would be published today because of a climate of "fear and nervousness". (BBC) (The Guardian)

Business and economy

• Hundreds of protesters take to the streets of Manhattan's financial district on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. (Los Angeles Times) (The Irish Times) (The Guardian) (Huffington Post)
• Rip Curl, the last major Australian surf wear producer with its "own" capital, considers an offer for sale to private buyers. (Wall Street Journal)
• Senkaku Islands dispute:
  • Japanese electronics company Panasonic suspends operations at its three factories in the People's Republic of China until Tuesday as a result of the Senkaku Islands dispute. (CNN)
  • Chinese state media warned that violent protests "cannot be tolerated", while the city of Xian imposes a ban on "illegal" protests. (Bloomberg via The Japan Times) (AP via Mainichi Shimbun)
  • China dispatches 1000 fishing boats to the Senkaku Islands to counter Japan's nationalization of the islands. Six Chinese surveillance ships may join them. (Kyodo News via Mainichi Shimbun)
• The United States and the People's Republic of China exchange WTO trade complaints: the US complaining of China's support for automotive exports, and China complaining of new U.S. duties on several of their products. (Reuters) (Los Angeles Times)
• ArcelorMittal announces the likely loss of two thousand cold process jobs in Liège, Belgium, after the failure of talks with unions. Unions say the steel maker wants to force an agreement before even starting talks. Wallonia wants to see the long-term plan. (Le Vif) (Reuters)

Disasters

• Typhoon Sanba makes landfall in South Korea near the port of Yeosu causing the cancellation of flights and other transport services; one person is reported dead. (Sky News Australia) (Yonhap)
• At least 13 people, including ten Indians, are killed in a bus accident in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. (IBN)

International relations

• Swedish forensic scientists find no conclusive evidence of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's DNA in a torn condom submitted by one of his alleged rape victims. The condom had been a key piece of evidence in Sweden's case against Assange. (RT) (IANS via Deccan Herald)
• United States and Japanese government officials agree to put a second missile defence system in Japan. (AP via Google News)
• Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi begins a 17-day tour of the United States in a bid to help ease economic sanctions on Myanmar. (AP)

Law and crime

• French police announce that they are exploring the possibility that Sylvain Mollier, and not the al-Hilli family, may have been the intended target in the Annecy murders. (The Telegraph)
• PC Simon Harwood, cleared over the death of Ian Tomlinson during the 2009 G-20 summit protests in London, is dismissed from the Metropolitan Police after a hearing finds him guilty of gross misconduct. (BBC)
• The Louisiana State University (LSU) main campus at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is evacuated after a bomb threat. It is not clear at this time whether it is related to the two previous similar incidents the previous Friday at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in Austin, Texas, and North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, North Dakota. (NBC News)
• Justice Antonin Scalia charges that Judge Richard Posner's characterization of the guns rights decision, DC v. Heller, is "bluntly, a lie." (Reuters TV)
• Lawyers for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge begin civil proceedings in a French court to halt further publication of topless images of the duchess. Buckingham Palace confirms that a criminal complaint is to be made, for breach of privacy. (BBC)

Media and people

• Michael O'Kane, editor of the Irish Daily Star, is suspended following his decision to publish topless photographs of Kate Middleton as attempts to shut down the newspaper continue. (RTÉ News) (The Irish Times)

Politics and elections

• Ireland's justice minister Alan Shatter is involved in an eviction row with a tenant of one of his Florida properties, part of his vast U.S. property portfolio. (Irish Independent)
• Protests continue at a Chinese co-owned copper mine in the Sagaing Region of Burma over alleged land grabbing and environmental concerns. (Myanmar Times)
• The UK Government announces a shake-up of secondary education qualifications, which will see GCSEs in core subjects in England replaced by a qualification called the English Baccalaureate. (BBC)

Science

• A three-man crew lands safely after four months in the International Space Station. (Fox News)

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