Portal:Current events/2011 January 17

January 17, 2011 (Monday)

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

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)

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)

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)
A former Swiss banker of Julius Baer passes files detailing tax evasion attempts by hundreds of politicians, celebrities and business leaders to Wikileaks.(Al Jazeera)

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)

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