Portal:Current events

Disasters

• A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all eleven onboard. (BBC) (Fox News)

• Japan Airlines to relist shares

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: According to Syrian state media, 26 people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus. The Syrian opposition blames the Syrian government for orchestrating the attack, and alleges that they have leaked information from security forces that Aleppo is next. (Al Arabiya) (CNN)
• Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia that carried out deadly attacks on U.S. troops agrees to lay down its arms and join the political process in Iraq. (ABC News)
• Eight people are killed and 10 wounded in Kano, in the latest in a series of attacks on church in northern Nigeria. (VOA) (CNN)

Law and crime

• The Ramnit worm steals more than 45000 Facebook logins and passwords. (Vancouver Sun) (Euronews Youtube) (CNet)

Politics

• A Tibetan protester sets himself on fire in Sichuan, China. (BBC)
• The Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller announces that the country is to become a republic, with plans to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and the Jamaican monarchy in general. (The Guardian)
• Peter MacKay, Canadian Minister of Defence. marries Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an Iranian former beauty queen, in a private ceremony in Mexico. (CBC)

Sports

• Sweden beats Russia 1-0 in overtime for the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships gold. (USA Today) (ESPN)

• 31 die in Mexico jail violence
• Indiana Democrats block session to halt labor bill
• New York firebomb suspect arraigned

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • 552 political detainees are released by the government. (Reuters)
  • A senior official from the Defence Ministry defects while in Cairo. (Al Bawaba)
  • Qatar's prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani says the Arab League monitors have made "mistakes" in Syria. (CNN)
• Nigeria:
  • Bombs explode in two northern Nigerian cities. (VOA)
  • Gunmen attack a church in Gombe in northeastern Nigeria killing at least six people. (BBC)
• Iraqi insurgency: A series of explosions occur in mainly Shia Muslim neighbourhoods of Baghdad and in the city of Nasiriyah, with at least 73 killed and 149 wounded. (Al Jazeera)
• Kidnapped Australian man Warren Rodwell states that his Filipino captors have asked $2 million in ransom. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• The Pakistan Taliban claims to have killed 15 security force members it kidnapped last month. (AP)

Disasters

• At least 25 people die with dozens missing as a result of a landslide at a gold mining site in the Philippines Compostela Valley Province. (CNN) (AP via MSNBC)
• At least six firefighters die fighting wildfires in southern Chile with two badly burnt and one missing. (AP via Washington Post)

International relations

• An alleged North Korean spy is indicted in South Korea. (Yonhap)
• William Hague, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commences a two day tour of Myanmar. (BBC) (Xinhua)

Law and crime

• The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is charged with taking bribes in a property scandal. (BBC) (Reuters)

Politics

• The President of the United States Barack Obama announces a new defense strategy, cutting spending dramatically. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Portia Simpson Miller is sworn in for the second time as the Prime Minister of Jamaica. (AP via Google News)

• Mitt Romney wins Iowa Caucus by eight votes over surging Rick Santorum

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Two bombs explode in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri with the Boko Haram movement believed to be responsible. (Reuters)

Disasters

• Storms kill seven, with local states of emergency declared in Southeast Region, Brazil. (New Straits Times) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (Monsters and Critics) (Xinhua via People's Daily) (Daily Star)
• At least 16 people die after a bus runs off a bridge in China's Guizhou province. (AP via IBN Live)

International relations

• The China Air Transport Association advises that Chinese airlines will not pay the carbon costs under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. (Climate Spectator) (New York Times) (Reuters) (Bloomberg.com) (ABC Online)

Law and crime

• The military-backed civilian government of Burma (Myanmar) marks the anniversary of the country's independence by commuting prison sentences and releasing more than thirty prisoners. (CNN)
• Gary Dobson and David Norris are jailed for life for the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence. Dobson is given a minimum of 15 years and two months, and Norris 14 years and three months. (BBC)
• Mexican drug cartel kingpin Benjamín Arellano Félix pleads guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money in the United States. (Washington Post)

Politics and elections

• The President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner temporarily hands over power to her Vice-President Amado Boudou ahead of surgery for thyroid cancer. (CNN)
• Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012:
  • Republican primary candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney wins the 2012 Iowa Caucus, with candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum behind by eight votes; Congressman Ron Paul had a strong showing in third place. (CBS News)
  • After her poor showing during the Iowa caucus, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann ends her campaign. (MSNBC)
• Former Prime Minister of Greece George Papandreou announces that he will resign as head of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. (Reuters)

Environment

• Armed commandos will be ordered to protect endangered tigers in India's Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks. (BBC), (Straits Times), (SMH)

• Suspect arrested in Los Angeles arson rampage case

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Aftermath of 2011 Libyan civil war: elements of former anti-Gaddafi forces from Tripoli and Misrata clash in the center of Tripoli, with five people reportedly killed. (The Huffington Post)
• War in Afghanistan:
  • A suicide bomber kills four civilians and a police officer in the Afghan city of Kandahar. (AP via USA Today')
  • At least twelve people are killed in three bombing attacks in southern Afghanistan. (BBC)

Business and economy

• Unemployment in Spain reaches a record high. (The Guardian)
• Germany's unemployment rate reportedly reaches its lowest level since 1991. (BBC)

Disasters

• The Met Office issues a storm warning for the entire United Kingdom, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland reportedly the worst-affected areas. Two people are later reported killed in separate weather-related incidents. (Belfast Telegraph) (BBC)

International relations

• Negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian Authority meet in the Jordanian capital, Amman, for the first time in 16 months. (Jerusalem Post)
• Iran:

• The value of the Iranian rial hits a record low,‎ following the announcement by the United States of further economic sanctions against Iran. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• Iran warns the United States not to send any more aircraft carriers into the Persian Gulf. (Reuters)

• South Korea lifts a temporary ban that it placed on travel to North Korea after the death of Kim Jong-Il. (Yonhap)

Law and crime

• After 18 years of investigations and inquests, Gary Dobson and David Norris are convicted of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in the London suburb of Eltham on 22 April 1993. Dobson and Norris are later sentenced to 15 years and 14 years' imprisonment, respectively. (BBC) (The Independent)
• An Ecuadorean appeals court upholds an $18 billion judgement against the US oil company Chevron Corporation. (Reuter via Yahoo! News)

Politics and elections

• Voters in the U.S. state of Iowa go to the polls for electoral caucuses, with Mitt Romney defeating Rick Santorum by 8 votes in the Republican Party contest, and Ron Paul following in third place. (BBC) (Los Angeles Times) (Wall Street Journal)
• Voters in Egypt go to the polls for the third round of voting for the lower house of the national parliament. (Reuters via The Irish Times)
• Libya appoints Yousef al-Manqoush as the new head of its armed forces. (Reuters)

• Wikinews holds Reform Party USA presidential candidates forum
• Two Syrian journalists killed around New Year's Day

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising: The Arab League calls for a ceasefire in Syria, saying that tanks and heavy weaponry have been withdrawn from Syrian cities, but warning that snipers remain a threat. (Al Jazeera)
• Up to 50,000 people flee their homes in a border area of South Sudan amid ethnic violence. (Reuters)
• 2011–2012 Yemeni uprising: Yemeni army defectors accuse outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of seeking to sabotage a power-transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council. (Shanghai Daily) (Detroit Free Press)
• The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram issues a warning to Christians in northern Nigeria to leave the region within three days. (CNN)
• Hundreds of Muslim villagers clash with riot police in the Ningxia region of China after a mosque is demolished by local authorities. (BBC) (Pakistan Today)

Disasters

• Firefighters in Chile battle three large wildfires, which have reportedly killed at least one person. (CTV)

International relations

• India lodges a high-level protest with the government of China over the treatment of an Indian diplomat in a courtroom. (BBC) (Times of India)
• The President of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, states that he is open to negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program, but calls on the North to avoid "provocations". (AP via Newsday)
• Iran:
  • Iran states that it has successfully test-fired two long-range missiles, a Qader and a Noor, during military exercises in the Persian Gulf. (Reuters via Yahoo News) (Reuters) (WSJ) (Ynet) (BBC)
  • Iranian news agencies report that the country has produced its first nuclear fuel rod. (Bloomberg)
  • Iranian officials report that the country will not shut down the Strait of Hormuz, as was previously threatened. (CNN)
• The President of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, states that Tunisia is prepared to extradite former Prime Minister of Libya Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi to Tripoli to face charges of abuse of office, if the Libyan government can guarantee a fair trial. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Mount Rainier National Park in the U.S. state of Washington is closed as police conduct a manhunt for a man who shot dead a park ranger on New Year's Day; the gunman, Benjamin Barnes, is eventually found dead. (CBS News) (CBS News Video) (BBC)
• ExxonMobil wins US$908 million from an arbitration panel of the International Chamber of Commerce for the nationalization of its Venezuelan oil project in 2007. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Thousands of opposition supporters in Hungary protest over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's alleged attempts to undermine democracy in the country. (New York Times)
• The military government of Fiji announces that it is to lift martial law and other emergency regulations. (AFP via Google) (Fiji Times)
• President of China Hu Jintao warns of attempts to "westernise" the country by "hostile powers". (IOL)

Science

• The Russian Federal Space Agency expects that parts of its failed Fobos-Grunt Mars probe will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere during the next week. (The Telegraph)

Armed conflict and attacks

• 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  • The Arab Inter-parliamentary Union, an advisory body to the Arab League, calls for the removal of its monitors in Syria, saying that they are inadvertently helping the government cover up ongoing violence. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
  • Syrian opposition groups say that over 5,800 people were killed in violence in 2011. (CNN)
• At least two people are killed in attacks on bars in northern Kenya near the border with Somalia, with Islamist al-Shabaab militants possibly responsible. (Reuters)
• Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan declares a state of emergency in parts of the country hit by violence by Islamist militant group Boko Haram. (Al Jazeera)
• South Sudan is to send more troops and police to Pibor, the scene of ethnic violence. (BBC)
• 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising: A funeral of a Bahraini youth killed yesterday in a protest turns into another protest with police forced to use tear gas. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• Queen Elizabeth II appoints former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and British painter David Hockney to the Order of Merit. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Business and economy

• Rio Tinto Alcan locks out hundreds of workers from a smelter in the Canadian town of Alma, Quebec. (CBC)

Disasters

• A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes south of Japan; no damage is caused. (Wall Street Journal) (Reuters) (Newsday)
• A boat capsizes near Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast with at least seven people dead. (Reuters)

International relations

• The Iranian Navy test-fires a surface-to-air missile. (MSNBC)
• Pakistan and India give each other a list of their nuclear sites. (CNN)

Politics

• A joint New Year editorial by North Korean media calls for "human shields" to protect new Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. (The Telegraph)
• Nigeria announces an end to its fuel subsidy scheme leading the Nigeria Labour Congress to call for strikes and street protests. (Reuters)
• Egypt's military rulers bring forward elections for the Shura Council, the upper house of the Parliament to expedite progress in developing a new constitution. (AFP via France 24)

Science

• The second of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory spacecraft is in orbit around the moon. (AP)

Sport

• In football, the Swaziland national football team withdraws from the qualifying rounds of the Africa Cup of Nations due to financial constraints. (Reuters)
• In motor sports, Argentine motorcycle rider Jorge Andrés Boero dies in the first leg of the Dakar Rally in Argentina. (AP via Fox Sports)

• Nationalised bank Northern Rock sold to Virgin Money
• UK's Commission on Assisted Dying to recommend law change
• On the campaign trail, December 2011

• 2011 East Africa drought
• 2011 Southern US drought
• 2011 Tuvalu drought

Economic

• Global financial crisis
  • European sovereign debt crisis
  • Greek economic crisis
• Smartphone patent wars

Medical

• HIV/AIDS in Africa
• 2011 United States listeriosis outbreak

Political

• Protests of Wukan — anti-corruption
• Occupy movement
• 2011 United States public employee protests
• 2011 Chilean protests
• Anti-austerity protests
  • Greek protests
  • 2011 Spanish protests
  • Israeli social protests
• Arab Spring
  • Post-Tunisian revolution
  • Post-Egyptian revolution
  • Post-Libyan civil war
  • Syrian uprising - ongoing
  • Moroccan protests - reforms
  • Yemeni uprising - transition
  • Bahraini uprising - repressed
  • Jordanian protests
• News International phone hacking scandal

Scientific

• Expedition 30

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January

• 6: Bob Holness
• 6: Bob Weston
• 4: Eve Arnold
• 4: Harry Fowler
• 2: Gordon Hirabayashi
• 1: Gary Ablett
• 1: Bob Anderson
• 1: Kiro Gligorov
• 1: Ed Jenkins

December

• 31: Jerzy Kluger
• 30: Kim Geun-tae
• 30: Ronald Searle
• 29: Leopold Hawelka
• 27: Helen Frankenthaler
• 26: Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.
• 25: Moses Pitakaka
• 24: Johannes Heesters
• 23: Khalil Ibrahim
• 18: Václav Havel
• 18: Ronald Wolfe
• 17: Kim Jong-il

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Global

• War on Terror
  • Terrorist incidents
  • Operation Active Endeavour
  • Operation Enduring Freedom
• War on Drugs

Africa

• Maghreb insurgency
• OEF - Trans Sahara
• Casamance conflict
• Niger Delta conflict
• Nigerian Sharia conflict
• South Kordofan conflict
• Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
• Somalia:
  • Civil war
  • War 2009-
  • Piracy
• OEF - Horn of Africa

Europe

• Real IRA
• North Caucasus insurgency
• Ingushetia civil war

Middle East

• Iraqi insurgency
• Iran-Jundallah conflict
• Arab–Israeli conflict
  • Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israeli–Lebanese conflict
  • Palestinian political violence and rocket attacks
• Yemen:
  • Terrorism
  • al-Qaeda crackdown
  • South Yemen insurgency
  • Shia insurgency
• Kurdistan:
  • Turkey–PKK conflict

Asia

• Afghanistan War
  • Military operations
  • Taliban insurgency
• Pakistan:
  • Terrorism
  • North-West War
  • Balochistan conflict
  • Drone attacks
  • Sectarian violence
• India:
  • Terrorism
  • Jammu and Kashmir insurgency
  • Naxalite-Maoist insurgency
  • Northeast India insurgency
  • Nagaland ethnic conflict
  • Kashmir conflict
    • Siachen conflict
• Korean maritime border incidents
• Southeast Asia:
  • Laos insurgency
  • Burma internal conflict
  • Burma border clashes
  • South Thailand insurgency
  • Cambodian–Thai border dispute
• Islamic insurgency in the Philippines
  • Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines
• Papua conflict

Americas

• Colombian armed conflict (1964–present)
• Mexican Drug War

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Recent: December

• 4: Croatia, Parliament
• 4: Slovenia, Parliament
• 4: Russia, Parliament
• 8: Gibraltar, Parliament
• 11: Côte d'Ivoire, Parliament
• 11: Transnistria, President (1st round)
• 14: Switzerland, Federal Council (indirect)
• 14–15/21–22: Egypt, Parliament (2nd round)
• 17: Gabon, Parliament
• 25: Transnistria, President (2nd round)
• 29: Jamaica, General

Upcoming: January

• 3–4/|10–11: Egypt, Parliament (3rd phase)
• 13: Kiribati, President
• 14: Republic of China (Taiwan), President and Legislative Yuan (Parliament)
• 15: Kazakhstan, Parliament
• 15: Moldova, President (indirect, 2nd round)
• 22: Finland, President (1st round)
• 22: Croatia, Referendum
• 29–30 January/5–6 February: Egypt, Shura Council (1st phase)

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Recently concluded

• Cambodia: Kang Kek Iew
• France: Jacques Chirac, John Galliano
• Germany: John Demjanjuk
• Italy: Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito
• Indonesia: Abu Bakar Bashir
• Netherlands: Geert Wilders
• Russia: Bhagavad Gita As It Is
• Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko
• United Kingdom: Levi Bellfield, Robert Black, Vincent Tabak
• United States: Faisal Shahzad, Noshir Gowadia, Buju Banton, Barry Bonds, Raj Rajaratnam, Rod Blagojevich, Casey Anthony, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Conrad Murray

Ongoing

• Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Tribunal
• Canada: Russell Williams
• China: Organized crime in Chongqing
• France: Church of Scientology, Carlos the Jackal
• Germany: Heinrich Boere
• Iraq: Supreme Criminal Tribunal
• Iran: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani
• Malaysia: Anwar Ibrahim
• Netherlands: Thomas Lubanga (ICC), Radovan Karadžić (ICTY)
• Palau: Tommy Remengesau
• Peru: Joran van der Sloot
• Philippines: Andal Ampatuan, Jr.
• Russia: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev
• Sierra Leone: Charles Taylor (SCFSL)
• Singapore: Tak Boleh Tahan
• South Africa: Chris Mahlangu
• Thailand: Thaksin Shinawatra
• Turkey: Ergenekon network
• United States: Roger Clemens, Ahmed Ghailani, David Headley, Jared Lee Loughner, Charles P. White, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Viktor Bout

Upcoming

• Egypt: Hosni Mubarak, Alaa Mubarak, Gamal Mubarak
• Norway: Anders Behring Breivik
• Sudan: Lubna al-Hussein
• Tunisia: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
• United States: Allen Stanford, Nidal Malik Hasan, John Edwards, Javaris Crittenton

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Recent

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