Portal:Current events/2013 July 24

Current events of July 24, 2013 (2013-07-24) (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Mexican Drug War:
  • Clashes between the Knights Templar Cartel and the Mexican federal police leave 22 dead in the state of Michoacán. According to government press reports, two of the dead were law enforcement officials, while the rest were cartel gunmen. (BBC)
• A bomb explodes at a police station in the Egyptian city of Mansoura, the capital of the Dakahlia Governorate, killing at least one person and injuring 17. (Reuters via Hindustan Times)
• Four people are killed and at least 40 wounded in a bomb and gun attack on an Inter-Services Intelligence compound in Sukkur, Pakistan. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Wells Fargo of the United States becomes the world's largest bank by market capitalisation, replacing the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China amid an economic slowdown in China. (AFP via France 24)

Disasters and accidents

• An Australia-bound boat carrying Iranian asylum seekers sinks off the coast of Indonesia, leaving at least three people dead, 157 rescued and an uncertain number missing. (The Australian) (BBC)
• A high-speed train carrying 225 passengers derails near Santiago de Compostela, Spain, leaving 80 dead and over 140 injured. It is Spain's deadliest rail incident since the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and the country's worst accidental train disaster since the Torre del Bierzo rail disaster in 1944. (Bloomberg) (El Mundo) (Reuters) (BBC)

Law and crime

• A British judge rules that Shrien Dewani will be extradited to South Africa to stand trial for the 2010 murder of Anni Dewani. (Sky News)
• At least three prisoners die in a prison riot in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (BBC)

International relations

• Despite earlier reports to the contrary, fugitive NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden remains stranded at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia. (CNN)

Science

• Scientists warn that a massive release of methane from melting Arctic ice could cause significant global disruption, potentially costing the world economy an extra US$ 60 trillion (to US$400 trillion from the effects of global warming and climate change). The full impact of climate change in the Arctic, including for example, ocean acidification and altered ocean and atmospheric circulation, will be much greater per the studie's cost estimate for methane release alone.(Nature)(The Independent)(New Scientist)