Current Events for the Week of 17 May 2010
Current Events for Monday, 17 May 2010
- Turkey reports Iran has agreed to nuclear fuel swap deal brokered with Brazil, signing under-way
- “Rogue” Thai Red Shirt military advisor General Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known as Seh Daeng, dies in hospital from head wounds suffered late last week
- Thai government rejects calls for U.N.-sponsored talks
- Euro (€) continues slide against other world currencies as markets continue to fret over Greek economic woes
- India successfully tests nuclear-capable medium-range ballistic missile
- Indian Maoists kill six Chhattisgarh villagers
- Renowned American scholar Noam Chomsky refused entry into West Bank by Israeli border police
- Separatist Yemeni militants kidnap three Chinese oil workers
- U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with International Space Station (ISS) in likely final trip
- World Health Organization (WHO): no clear answer on link between cancer, mobile phone use
- Yemeni al-Qa`ida branch threatens attacks on U.S. interests if anything happens to American-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
- United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agrees to attend July conference in Kabul
- New ash cloud distrupts hundreds of northern European flights
- Iraqi al-Qa`ida network replaces “leadership positions”
- The Espicopal Diocese of Los Angeles consecrates openly gay female bishop
- Two North Korean military naval vessels cross western sea border with South, shots fired
- BP marks first success in containing oil spill, may be able to stop flow permanently in one week
- Key member of Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s political party, Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, missing and feared dead
- Cathay Pacific airliner from Hong Kong given military jet escort to Vancouver, Canada after “bomb hoax”
- Sudanese army offensive kills 108 Darfur rebels
- Pakistani authorities arrest two in-connection with Times Square bomb plot
- Pakistani security forces: suspected militants kidnap sixty in northwestern Pakistan
- Google admits street cars collected personal information from unsecured wireless networks
- Russian Federation to offer tax breaks, special investment regime for North Caucasus region
- Iraqi election recount ends, no fraud found, former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s political party declared plurality winner
- U.N. seeks torture probes in Jordan, Syria, Yemen
- Russian Federation announces arms sales deal with Syria
- Israeli riot police, ultra-Orthodox Jews clash, angered by operation to relocate ancient Ashkelon graves
- Islamist rebels mortar bomb Somali parliament’s first session this year
- The Maldives offer to take two detainees from U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base
Current Events for Tuesday, 18 May 2010
- Ireland, United Kingdom (U.K.) set new flying zone to deal with ash disruption
- U.S. Senate primary battles focus on U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln (D., AL), Arlen Specter (D., PA)
- Suicide attacker kills at least seventeen in Kabul, Afghanistan
- North Korean parliament calls incredibly rare second session, big news expected
- The New York Times: front-running candidate for U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by retiring U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd (D., CT), Richard Blumenthal, never served in the military in Vietnam despite claims he did
- Thai Red Shirts agree to talks brokered by lawmakers, tense standoff causes falter
- Eurozone ministers meet to iron-out details of massive bailout package
- Harvard School of Public Health study: childhood exposure to pesticides known as organophosphates could lead to higher risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- U.S. Senate moves to end debate on financial regulation bill, vote could be as early as the end of the week
- Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rules in Graham v. Florida life imprisonment without the chance of parole for juveniles amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, violative of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- Four killed, many evacuated as major flooding hits central Europe
- British Finance Minister George Osborne: coalition government to announce $8.75 billion in spending cuts this year
- Local Pamir Airways plane with forty-three on-board crashes into Hindu Kush, all believed dead
- International sources claims U.N. Secretary-General Ban has chosen Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres for U.N. climate chief post
- European Central Bank (ECB): Greece has received first piece of bailout, some 14.5 billion euro (€)
- British forensic anthropologists recreate face from knight’s skeleton found at Stirling Castle
- Saudi Arabian security forces free two German girls kidnapped by Yemeni militants last year, fate of other hostages unknown
- U.S. President Barack Obama (D.) to set-up commission for the investigation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
- U.S. President Obama signs into law the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act
- Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva to ratify same-sex marriage bill
- Japanese space agency postpones launch of Venus probe due to bad weather
- British Royal Navy warship on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) anti-piracy mission in Gulf of Oman fires on two suspected Somali pirate vessels
- Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to name new prime minister to quell recent political infighting
- Maoist rebels detonate landmine under crowded bus in Chhattisgarh state, at least twenty killed
- General Motors (GM) sees return to profit in first quarter of 2010
Current Events for Wednesday, 19 May 2010
- Thai Red Shirt leaders surrender to government soldiers, five killed in clashes, Bangkok curfew to be imposed
- More than 200 Pakistani Taliban fighters attack security post in Orakzai, killing twenty-eight militants and two soldiers
- Afghan Taliban launch brazen suicide attack on Bagram Air Base, wound five U.S. soldiers
- Mexican President Calderón in U.S. for economic, immigration, narcotics talks with U.S. President Obama
- U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expands fishing ban as oil spreads in Gulf of Mexico
- U.N. Security Council (UNSECO) reviewing draft resolution of harsher Iranian economic sanctions
- Faisal Shahzad denied bail in first court appearance
- U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (D., PA) loses primary race to U.S. Representative Joseph “Joe” Sestak (D., PA)
- Toyota: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigating boxes sent to Toyota facilities
- U.S. Representative Mark Souder (R., IN) admits extramarital affair, resigns
- Housing starts improved to eighteen month high, permits hit six-month low
- Mothers of three U.S. hikers held as spies by Iran granted visas to visit children
- Archaeologists discover 2,700-year-old tomb in Mexican pyramid
- Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football, FIFA) to ban penalty kick “feints” ahead of World Cup
- U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to unveil new restrictions on trading to protect market from massive drops
- Bolivian President Evo Morales urges Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI to abolish celibacy rule for priesthood
- Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) study: Amercian wealth-gap has grown four-fold over the last twenty-three years
- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez urges British Prime Minister David Cameron to hold new talks over Falkland Islands
- Microsoft to refresh Hotmail service to better compete with Google, Yahoo
Current Events for Thursday, 20 May 2010
- Eurogroup President, Luxembourgian Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker: markets acting “irrationally” over eurozone debt problems, no immediate action needing to fix sliding euro (€)
- Greece bracing for twenty-four-hour strike called by trade unions
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “If the euro fails, Europe fails.”
- Louisiana shores see first heavy oil, oil approaches current which could carry it to southern Florida
- International investigation finds North Korean-made torpedo caused South Korean naval vessel to sink, North Korea now denies
- Thai Red Shirts flee camp, head to nearby temple
- Thai government extends curfew indefinitely
- U.S. Senate Democrats fail to gather enough votes to end debate on financial reform bill
- Iran dismisses newly proposed economic sanctions as illegitimate
- Mexican President Calderón criticizes Arizona immigration law as “discriminatory”
- Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce threatens Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to turn-off electricity if he feels so strongly about the Arizona immigration law
- Mothers of three detained Americans arrive in Iran
- Pakistan blocks YouTube, a day after blocking Facebook access in row over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
- French police arrest four men believed to be Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom, ETA) rebels, one may be current military leader of that group Mikel Kabikoitz Karrera Sarobe
- Cyclone Laila heading towards the coastal areas of southern India
- British troops in Helmand Province, Afghanistan to come-under U.S. military control in major NATO realignment of command structure of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
- Texas Board of Education proposes changes to state-wide social studies curriculum, causing tempers to flare
- Interim Kyrgyz government declares state of emergency in Jalalabad after ethnic clashes kill two
- Lhasa residents must now register to be permitted to make photocopies, many observers believe this is aimed at Tibetan separatists writing in Tibetan
- U.S. consumer prices take surprise dip
- Four paramilitary Indian soldiers killed in suspected landmine attack by Maoist separatists
- Argentine President Fernandez de Kirchner criticizes U.K. for unwillingness to discuss Falkland Islands sovereignty
- U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to begin hearings on SCOTUS nominee U.S. Solicitor-General Elena Kagan on 28 June
Current Events for Friday, 21 May 2010
- CNN: former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to return to Pakistan, rejoin politics
- U.S. officials: Pakistani Taliban “blows-up” two suspected American spies in northwest Pakistan
- U.N.: Egypt, U.S. working on Middle East nuclear ban treaty
- Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejejjiva claims Bangkok is “back to normalcy,” no mention of fresh elections
- Google takes huge risk, announces plan for GoogleTV
- Tensions rise on Korean Peninsula, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Japan for talks, U.S. issues warning to North Korea
- U.S. Senate ends debate on financial regulation bill, passes it 59-39; four Republicans voted for approval (Susan Collins - ME, Olympia Snowe - ME, Charles Grassley - IO, Scott Brown - MA), two Democrats voted against the bill (Maria Cantwell - WA, Russ Feingold - WI), two Democrats abstained (Arlen Specter - PA, Robert Byrd - WV)
- U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report: U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) methods of detection failed to identify at least sixteen suspected terrorists at U.S. airports
- U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announces he is stepping-down
- Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell Center, surrounding streets evacuated for hours Thursday after discovery of balloon containing unknown white powder
- Iran may cancel nuclear swap deal if new sanctions pass
- Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky, Rand Paul, makes comments which cast doubt on his support of civil rights
- Disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis admits to blood doping, accuses Lance Armstrong of same
- Facebook may be bowing to users’ pressures, possible simplifications to privacy policy coming
- Cyclone Laila makes land-fall in southern India, twenty-three killed in flooding
- Spain approves $19 billion austerity plan
- Cuban President Raoul Castro holds rare meeting with Cuban Roman Catholic leadership
- Adobe unveils Flash for mobiles, escalating so-called Flash War
- J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) scientists construct bacterium “genetic software,” transplante it into host cell
- Supermodel Naomi Campbell may be subpoenaed over “blood diamond” she received from former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor
- Turkish jets bomb Kurdish targets in northern Iraq
- Five masterpieces stolen from Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): 5.9-magnitude earthquake hits-off coast of Costa Rica, no immediate reports of damage
- Malagasy soldiers, police clash with dissisdent police in Antananarivo
- Mexican President Calderón urges U.S. Congress in address to renew assault weapons ban