Portal:Current events/2010 August 21

August 21, 2010 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev writes a letter to Ban Ki-moon stating that Israel would use force against a Bolivian-flagged all-female aid ship intending to land near Gaza. (The Age)
An injunction prevents public sector workers from continuing their national strike for better pay in South Africa; the army had previously been deployed and the country's health minister accused strikers of murder. (BBC)
Russian Federal Security Service assassinate Magomedali Vagabov, a top militant suspected to be responsible for the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings in Dagestan. (Sky News)
At least 10 anti-government protesters are killed by early morning bombs in Mogadishu; the dead include people from Afghanistan, Algeria, India and Pakistan. (BBC)
About 35 people are taken hostage by drug dealers at a tourist hotel in São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro; 1 woman, involved with them, is killed. (BBC)

Arts and culture

A Vincent van Gogh painting - known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase with Flowers - is stolen from the Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil art museum in Cairo, but is later said to have been recovered at Cairo Airport. (Aljazeera) (BBC)

Disasters

More than 50,000 people are evacuated after the Yalu River floods in China; flooding is also reported in North Korea with the city of Sinuiju particularly affected. (BBC) (AFP) (Xinhua)
The charity Save the Children says the food crisis in Niger is being made worse by hoarders selling grain at higher prices than most people can afford. (BBC) (RTHK)
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomes more than $200 million in funds pledged towards the humanitarian effort following the 2010 Pakistan floods. (Aljazeera)
Relatives accuse authorities of not doing enough to save 33 miners who have spent the past 15 days trapped in a collapsed mine near Copiapó in the Atacama Desert. (BBC)
11 beached pilot whales are refloated using a crane and body sling on New Zealand's Karikari Peninsula. (The Independent) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The United States is hit by a salmonella scare, with hundreds of people now thought to be ill across the country due to bad eggs; poisoning is expected to increase in the coming weeks. (The Age)

International relations

Italy backs France's crackdown and expulsion of Romani from the country. (Aljazeera) (AP)
Palestinians warn that building on occupied land by Israel would threaten negotiations. (Aljazeera)
Russian engineers start loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. (Reuters)

Law

Amnesty International urges Saudi Arabia not to sever the spine of a man as punishment; the man has been convicted of paralysing another man. (BBC) (The Age)
Swedish prosecutors issue and then revoke an arrest warrant against Wikileaks spokesperson Julian Assange. Assange calls the incident "deeply disturbing" as Wikileaks prepares to release 15,000 documents which the U.S. military would like to keep secret. (Aljazeera) (AP via The Independent) (Channel 4) (CNN)

Politics and elections

Sport

Dutch sailor Laura Dekker starts her bid to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo in Portimão, Portugal. (AP via KGW)