Portal:Current events/2011 January 17

Current events of January 17, 2011 (2011-01-17) (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• An explosion destroys a bus in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, killing 18. (The Guardian)

Business and economy

• Farmers in Argentina halt sales of wheat, corn and soy in a strike over export curbs. (Al Jazeera)
• Walmart's bid for South African retail store Massmart is approved by shareholders, with organized labour groups such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions theatening boycotts against the store.(Reuters)
• GlaxoSmithKline pays out $3.4 billion last quarter in legal settlings over their drug Avandia. (Reuters) (AP via Google)

Disasters and accidents

• 39 people are killed in South Africa and thousands of homes are destroyed in Mozambique following widespread flooding. (Reuters)
• Hundreds of people are hospitalised after an extreme cold spell in northern Vietnam that has also killed thousands of cows and buffaloes. (Straits Times)

Law and crime

• Two judges are fired and a court official suspended in China over a life sentence imposed on a man who evaded motorway toll fees. The ruling is also overturned. (BBC) (NDTV) (Global Times)
• A woman is sentenced to six months imprisonment in Mauritania for keeping two children in slave-like conditions. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Nearly 1,400 members of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam gathers to vote for new leaders. (AFP) (Saigon Daily)
• A man sets himself on fire outside the parliament building in Cairo, Egypt. Copycat burnings also take place in Algeria and Mauritania. (Reuters) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• The leader of the Israeli Labor Party Ehud Barak and four other Labor Party MKs announce their resignation from the party and the formation of a new "centrist Zionist and democratic" faction called "Independence". (Jerusalem Post)
• 2010-2011 Tunisian Protests: Anti-government demonstrations continue to take place as a new cabinet is named. (BBC) (Sky News)

Transport

• A computer glitch temporarily halts all bullet trains in northern and central Japan, affecting thousands of passengers. (Philippine Inquirer) (Japan Times)