Portal:Current events/2010 November 12

November 12, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

A convoy carrying Chinese mine workers is attacked in Cabinda Province, Angola, killing two soldiers. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Major Italian cultural attractions are closed as the government plans to cut its culture budget as part of austerity measures. (BBC)
Dublin Zoo upsets some people with red hair by offering free entry to young redheads in honour of Orangutan Awareness Week. (The Irish Times) (BBC) (Irish Independent)
The 23rd consecutive season of American cartoon The Simpsons is announced. (BBC) (Reuters via ABC News Australia)

Business and economy

G20 summit
- Leaders from Germany, France and the United Kingdom hold an emergency meeting at the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit after panic selling of Irish debt spreads to Spain and Portugal. (Reuters)
- The leaders agree to avoid "competitive devaluation" and to develop "indicative guidelines" to tackle trade imbalances. (BBC)
Brazil begins auctioning parts of the Amazon Rainforest to private companies for logging. (CNN)
Eurozone economic growth slows in third quarter. (Hurriyet Daily)
United Kingdom holiday company Pontin's goes into administration. (Financial Times)
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration announces plans to nominate Joseph Smith to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Smith has been the banks commissioner in North Carolina since 2002. (Reuters)
Bing Search for Android now available in market. (Mobileburn)

Disasters

2010 Haiti cholera outbreak:
- The United Nations appeals for nearly $164 million to fund the battle against Haiti's outbreak of cholera as hospitals overflow and space and time run out. (BBC)
- Haitians demonstrate, saying their government, the United Nations and aid workers have all failed to protect them. (Al Jazeera)
Ten elderly people die and seventeen are injured following a fire in a nursing home in Pohang, South Korea. (AFP via The Ottawa Citizen) (Yonhap)
Mount Bulusan, a volcano in the Philippines, erupts again. (The Inquirer)
An intense European windstorm in the British Isles kills an elderly woman and brings gusts exceeding 160 km/h. (BBC) (UPI.com)

International relations

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has arrived in Sofia for talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov. (ITAR) (Novinite)
Nigeria is to question an Iranian citizen over a shipment of arms seized in Lagos, warning that it could report Iran to the United Nations Security Council if sanctions had been breached. (BBC) (IBTimes Hong Kong)
The leaders of Russia and Japan are to meet to discuss the disputed Kuril Islands. (Al Jazeera)
The European Union agrees to meet with Iran to discuss its nuclear program. (BBC)

Law and crime

The Supreme Court of the United States refuses to rescind the country's ban on openly gay soldiers. (Al Jazeera)
The trial of eight police officers charged with the murder of human rights activist Floribert Chebeya begins in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC) (AllAfrica.com)
Hassan Bamoum is arrested in Yemen prompting thousands of people to march through cities in the south. (Al Jazeera)
Omar Bakri Muhammad is sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court in Lebanon. (BBC)
Transparency International names Poddala Jayantha, Sergei Magnitsky and Gregory Ngbwa Minsta as joint winners of a global award for integrity. (BBC)
A student who guessed the answers to former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin's security questions in 2008 is convicted of hacking and sentenced to one year in state custody. (BBC)
One day after the failure of his appeal, Twitterers combine to support Paul Chambers, a Briton convicted and fined for a threatening Twitter message. (BBC)
The corpse of missing 10-year-old Australian girl Zahra Baker is found in Caldwell County in the U.S. state of North Carolina; her father and stepmother, Adam and Elisa Baker, are the main suspects in her disappearance and homicide. (Fox News)

Politics and elections

Burma
- Two ethnic Karen rebel armies in eastern Burma join forces in advance of a possible crackdown by the military government. (Al Jazeera)
- Crowds gather at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon, Burma, in anticipation of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. (The Irrawaddy) (BBC)
José Alencar, Vice-President and current Acting President of Brazil in the absence of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is taken to the Sirio Libanes hospital in São Paulo following a heart attack. (BBC)
Former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon is taken home from hospital still in a comatose state. (Reuters Alertnet) (Al Jazeera)
Irish Health Minister Mary Harney is targeted with eggs and cheese by protestors shouting "Bloody Mary" in response to her healthcare funding cuts. It follows a similar incident involving red paint last week. (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (Irish Examiner)
The Prime Minister of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed names a new Cabinet with doubts that the parliament will approve his choices. (Reuters Alertnet)

Sport