Portal:Current events/2011 May 31

Current events of May 31, 2011 (2011-05-31) (Tuesday)

Armed conflict and attacks

• War in Afghanistan:
  • Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, reacts to the deaths of 9 civilians in a NATO air strike by telling the organisation that attacks on insurgents in Afghan homes is "not allowed". (Reuters)
  • Two Afghan police officers are injured as their car hits a roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan. (CNN)
• 2011 Xilinhot incident:
  • Dozens of people are arrested in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, as ethnic protests spread. (CNN) (Arirang News)
  • The Chinese foreign ministry claims foreigners are responsible for the unrest. (BBC)
  • Chinese state media say the government should meet the "reasonable" demands of ethnic Mongols. (Straits Times)
• Arab Spring:
  • Yemeni uprising:
    • A truce between the Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposing tribal groups breaks down increasing the chance of a civil war. (Reuters)
    • More than 50 people are killed and hundreds of others are injured by the latest regime forces attacks on civilians in Ta'izz. (BBC) (CNN)
    • Italy temporarily closes its embassy and withdraws its staff, citing threats against Western embassies in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Libyan civil war:
    • Talks between South African President Jacob Zuma and Muammar Gaddafi end without immediate results, as more than 100 Libyan soldiers, including 5 generals, 2 colonels, and 1 major defect from Gaddafi's forces. (BBC) (The Jerusalem Post)
    • NATO launches fresh air strikes hours after the talks conclude.(CNN)
  • Syrian uprising:
    • Residents of the town of Homs fight back against government troops with rifles and Rocket-propelled grenades for the first time, in a clash that kills at least four civilians. (The Jerusalem Post)
    • Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issues an amnesty for all "political crimes" amid continuing protests. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Spanish protests:
  • Tens of thousands of "los indignados", young and old, continue to camp against cuts in city center squares as Greeks gather and Parisians protest in solidarity with their Spanish counterparts. (Reuters via Montreal Gazette)
• The Pakistan Air Force kills seventeen militants in a bombing raid on the upper Orakzai Agency. (Dawn)
• British officials confirm the government is working on cyber weapons, the first time it has been officially acknowledged that such a programme exists. (The Guardian)
• Families of the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests say the government is considering compensation for the first time. (Straits Times)
• Riot police in Cameroon arrest and disperse hundreds of farmers protesting in the capital Yaounde over poor road conditions and low state support for agriculture. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• The titles and release dates of the two films based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit are announced. (BBC)

Business and economy

• Japan's unemployment rate rises to 4.7% and average wages drop for the second consecutive month. CNN)
• The government of Botswana rejects demands of striking unions, as a pro-longed strike in the country continues. (International Business Times)
• Australia suspends exports of live cattle to 11 Indonesian abattoirs following exposure of abuses on ABC Television's Four Corners. (ABC News)
• Moody's Investor Services announces that Japan's local and foreign currency bond ratings under review because of the impact of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (MarketWatch)
• Sony advises that it plans to restore the PlayStation Network by the weekend in all markets except Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. (Tech World)
• Apple Inc announces plans to introduce a digital locker music service called iCloud with negotiations well advanced with major label record companies for rights. (Wall Street Journal)

Disasters

• 27 people are killed after their bus plunged into a gorge in Assam, eastern India. (Kuwait News Agency) (AFP via Google News)
• Seventy-five additional bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of an Air France plane that crashed off the coast of Brazil two years ago, killing all 228 people aboard, bringing the total recovered so far to 127. (CNN)
• New Zealand government experts predict that there is an almost one in four chance of another powerful earthquake in the Canterbury Region in the next 12 months. (SBS News)
• In Germany fourteen people have been reported dead from hemolytic-uremic syndrome outbreak as of 30 May, with another 329 confirmed and up to 1,200 suspected cases.(ABC)
• The centenary of the launch of the RMS Titanic is celebrated. (BBC)
• Curt Zimbelman, the mayor of the US town of Minot, North Dakota orders the mandatory evacuation of streets near the flooding Souris River. (Minot Daily News)
• The names of 123 victims of the tornado that hit the US city of Joplin, Missouri are released. (KCTV)
• At least 20 people die after a bus plunges off a cliff in the Peruvian Andes. (AFP via News Limited)

Health

• The World Health Organization classifies cell phone radiation as a "carcinogenic hazard" and "possibly carcinogenic to humans." It was classified as such after a team of scientists reviewed peer-review studies on cell phone safety. (CNN)

International relations

• Iran denies a plane carrying the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel access to its airspace for two hours en route to India. (Der Spiegel) (CNN)
• British authorities refuse asylum to 22-year-old Betty Tibikawa, homophobically attacked by three men in Uganda, despite deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's claim that his government would stop its policy of deporting people who are persecuted over their sexual orientation. The British government is currently detaining Ms. Tibikawa at a facility in Bedford. (The Guardian)
• First anniversary of the Gaza flotilla raid:
  • Thousands of people gather in Istanbul's central Taksim Square in memory of 9 activists killed during the Gaza flotilla raid a year ago. (Reuters)
  • A memorial is unveiled at Gaza's harbour, featuring a public park and metal statues shaped as sails. (AP via Forbes)
• Officials from north Sudan and southern Sudan tentatively agree to a demilitarised border following recent tensions over the disputed Abyei border region. (New York Times) [1]

Law and crime

• Rustam Makhmudov, suspected of the 2006 shooting dead of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, is arrested overnight at the home of his parents in Chechnya. (BBC) (Reuters via The Guardian), [(RIA Novosti) (CNN)
• Serbia's war crimes court rejects an appeal from former Bosnian Serb Colonel General Ratko Mladić against a transfer to a United Nations tribunal in The Hague to face genocide charges. (BBC) (AP via The Guardian)
• A Spanish court approves the extradition of former Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann to face murder charges in connection with a 2006 uprising at the Pavon prison in Guatemala where seven inmates were killed. (CNN)
• A Chechen man is sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted of trying to send a letter bomb to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which had published drawings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. (CNN)
• Former British Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick is jailed for 12 months for falsely claiming £11,277 in parliamentary expenses. (BBC) (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

• The Dalai Lama formally relinquishes his political and administrative powers, following the exiled Tibetan parliament's amendment to its charter to relieve him of his political role; the Dalai Lama remains Tibetan Buddhists' spiritual figurehead. (CNN)
• Adil Abdul-Mahdi, First Vice President of Iraq, resigns after Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki fends off critics who say he has not delivered on power-sharing promises . (Arabnews)
• Ireland cables:
  • The Irish Independent and The Belfast Telegraph begin a week-long joint publication of the Ireland Cables, the latest batch of U.S. diplomatic cables, in co-operation with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. The cables, dating back more than 25 years, feature government members, diplomats, alleged terrorists, oil companies and Vatican insiders. (Irish Independent) (The Belfast Telegraph) (Sociable) (Irish Central)
  • Former government minister Mary Hanafin is outed as one of those who briefed American embassy officials on sensitive government information. Hanafin says she was ordered to do so by U.S. Ambassador Dan Rooney. (Irish Independent)
  • Julian Assange gives a series of video interviews to journalists from his base in the English countryside. (Irish Independent)

Science

• Carbon emissions from energy use reached a record level in 2010, up 5% from the previous record in 2008, according to the International Energy Agency, which said it was a "serious setback" to limit global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F), set at the U.N. climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, last year. (CNN)

Sports

• Association football
  • Zhang Jilong becomes Acting President of Asian Football Confederation after Mohammed Bin Hammam is suspended from his sports career by FIFA. (AFC)
  • Lisle Austin, the acting head of CONCACAF, sacks Chuck Blazer as Secretary-General following Blazer making bribery allegations. (AP via NBC Sports)
• The National Hockey League announces the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment, which plans to move the team to Winnipeg. (NHL)