Portal:Current events/2011 April 25

April 25, 2011 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Guantanamo Files: (The Guardian) (WikiLeaks) (Al Jazeera)
- WikiLeaks releases classified cables detailing the interrogations carried out by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, as well as the imprisonment in the camp of Afghans and Pakistanis, children, elderly and mentally ill, before later being released without charge. (The Guardian) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- The cables show the United States relied on the internationally widely available Casio F91W digital watch as "the sign of al-Qaida" and as "evidence" to imprison its captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (The Guardian)
- Staff at Guantánamo Bay were instructed that any Muslim traveling to Afghanistan after 11 September 2001 was likely to have gone there "to support Osama bin Laden through direct hostilities against the US forces", with any other reasons being dismissed as "total fabrications", making it difficult for the interrogated to plead their innocence. (The Guardian)
- Details of U.S. collaboration with at least 10 foreign intelligence agencies emerge, with Chinese, Tunisian, Moroccan, Russian, Saudi, Tajik, Jordanian, Algerian, Yemeni and Kuwaiti delegations assisting the U.S. with interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and China and Russia vowing to prosecute and punish any repatriated Uighurs or Uzbeks. (The Guardian)
- A British resident, an organiser of hunger strikes imprisoned for nine years without trial and whose release has been repeatedly requested by William Hague, remains locked up in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (The Guardian)
- Details of how an al-Qaeda-linked militant duped Canadian intelligence agents also emerge. (The Globe and Mail)
- It is disclosed that an Al Jazeera journalist imprisoned by the United States at Guantánamo for six years was interrogated about the news network. He claims to have been beaten and sexually assaulted. (The Guardian)
- The controversial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of anti-extremist author Abdul Badr Mannan emerges. (The Guardian)
- It emerges that the U.S. government released dozens of Guantánamo inmates it regarded as "high risk" and that one of the rebels it is backing in the ongoing 2011 Libyan Civil War fought for the Taliban against the Soviet Union and served as Osama bin Laden's driver in Sudan. (The Straits Times)
- The U.S. government "strongly condemns" international media outlets, specifically The New York Times, for publishing the files it had wanted to keep secret. (The Jerusalem Post)
Arab Spring
- 2011 Libyan Civil War:
  - NATO jets fly over Tripoli on their mission to destroy Muammar Gaddafi's forces as loud explosions knock 3 television stations (Libyan Television, Jamahiriya TV and Shababiya) off-the-air. (BBC)
  - At least 45 people are wounded, with others missing, following a strike by warplanes on Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli compound as NATO conducted the raid. (Press TV) (Reuters)
  - Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov calls for an immediate ceasefire. (Press TV)
- 2011 Syrian protests:
  - An operation by security and military forces takes place in the city of Daraa. (BBC) (CNN)
  - Protestors claim that at least 25 people have been killed in the Daraa crackdown with the Jordanian border closed. (USA Today)
Violence in Nigeria:
- A Nigerian human rights group says 500 people were killed in violence in the north of the country following the presidential election. (NgEX)
- Three bombs explode in the northeastern city of Maiduguri killing three people, in an attack blamed on the Islamist sect Boko Haram. (BBC)
Cambodian and Thai troops exchange fire for a fourth consecutive day. (Al Jazeera)
Iran claims that a second cyberattack (Stuxnet previously) has been attempted via Stars, a computer worm. (UPI) (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

Poly Styrene, founding Punk vocalist, dies in England of breast cancer at age 53. (New York Times)
Australia and New Zealand mark Anzac Day. Events occur in Afghanistan, France, Turkey and Vietnam, while Julia Gillard heads to South Korea. (BBC)
The death occurs of Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas, one of Latin America's greatest modern writers. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via Google News) (Fox News)

Business and economy

Disneyland Paris closes its Thunder Mountain ride after a piece of scenery falls on one of the carriages. (Reuters)
Nintendo's annual profits slump. (BBC)

Disasters

At least 17 people are killed and at least 24 others are injured as a four-storey building goes up in flames in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing. (BBC) (Xinhua)
A human cannonball performer is killed in public in Kent, England, UK. (BBC)
The Governor of Arkansas Mike Beebe declares a state of emergency following heavy storms including tornadoes hit the US state of Arkansas with at least two people dead and 100,000 without power. (Arkansas Online), (Reuters)
The Governor of Kentucky Steve Beshear declares a state of emergency due to rising flood waters from the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Law and crime

A Kazakh UNESCO official attempts to hijack a plane and divert it to Tripoli, Libya. (RIA Novosti)
A court in Bangladesh clears Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus of misappropriating Norwegian aid money at a micro-finance bank he founded. (The Times of India)
King & Spalding, a prominent Atlanta-based law firm, withdraws from litigation on behalf of the Defense of Marriage Act, and partner Paul Clement resigns in protest. (Reuters)
Nearly 500 prisoners, many of them Afghan-based Islamic militants, escape from Kandahar's Sarposa prison. (The Globe and Mail) (AP via Yahoo! News)
The United Nations publishes the full Reprt of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability In Sri Lanka which finds "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicate that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. (UN News Centre) (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Australian)

Politics and elections

About 700 anti-nuclear activists hold a die-in on the border of France and Germany to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and after the Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan. (The Telegraph)
Haiti's election results are delayed "out of concern for transparency". (BBC)

Technology

Nintendo announces its intention to launch the Wii 2 in a bid to increase its profits as sales of the Wii decline. (BBC) (Reuters via IOL)