Portal:Current events/2011 September 16

September 16, 2011 (Friday)

Armed conflict and attacks

Authorities in South Korea arrest a North Korean citizen for an alleged assassination attempt against Park Sang-hak, a noted defector and activist. (Yonhap)

Disasters

Hurricane Maria hits the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador as a Category 1 hurricane. (National Hurricane Centre)
Areas in Delhi, India, are flooded by heavy rain, with record rainfall recorded at Indira Gandhi International Airport. (IBN Live)
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gilani, cancels a visit to the United States to address the United Nations General Assembly as a result of the 2011 Sindh floods. (Reuters)
Four trapped coal miners are confirmed dead following a mining accident at the Gleision Colliery in South Wales. (BBC)
2011 Reno Air Races crash: At least 5 people are killed and at least 50 injured when a P-51D Mustang airplane crashes into the crowd at the annual Reno Air Races in Reno, Nevada, in the United States. (MSNBC), (AP via Washington Post) (Reno Gazette-Journal)

International relations

Kosovo Serbs block off two border crossings with Serbia as the Kosovo government seeks to take them over. (AFP via Google)
The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrives in Libya for a meeting with the National Transitional Council. (Euronews)

Law and crime

The first security camera pictures are released of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks. (MSNBC)
The Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China arrests more than 2,000 people in a crackdown on gang-related crime. (AP via Washington Post)
UBS trader Kweku Adoboli is charged with fraud and false accounting. (BBC)

Politics

Ecofin ministers agree on a bill on financial governance in Europe, aiming to prevent future economic crises. (Wall Street Journal)
The Health Services Union disaffiliates from the Australian Labor Party in the states of New South Wales and Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, following the commencement of a New South Wales Police Force investigation into alleged "inappropriate practices" by current and former union officials, including Craig Thomson, a member of the House of Representatives. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Sinn Féin's officer board gives its approval to put forward Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as a candidate for the 2011 Irish presidential election. (BBC)
Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, says he will push for full United Nations membership as a nation state for the Palestinian National Authority at the September 23 UN General Assembly meeting. (CNN)(Bloomberg News via S.F. Chronicle)

Science

Scientists at NASA announce the Kepler mission's discovery of a planet orbiting two suns. This is the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet, i.e., a planet that orbits two stars instead of one. (BBC) (NASA.gov)