Portal:Current events/2010 October 22
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October 22, 2010 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and incidents
- Wikileaks releases Iraq War Logs, secret American military records which reveal new information, including that U.S. commanders allowed torture and execution to occur without investigation and that hundreds of civilians have been killed at U.S. military checkpoints during the War on Iraq. Hillary Clinton and other U.S. officials condemn the disclosures. (BBC), (New York Times)
- Three bombs explode in front of government offices in Kirovohrad, Ukraine, ahead of a visit by President Viktor Yanukovych. (Kyiv Post) (People's Daily)
- Indonesia admits that the men seen torturing Papuan villagers in a video were soldiers of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- A bomb attack killed six Pakistani soldiers in the Orakzai tribal region. (dawn)
- At least two people are killed following a blast near a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan. (AAJ)
- Fighting between pro-government forces and Islamist insurgents in Beled-Hawa district of Somalia near the Kenyan border has killed 12 people. (Associated Press)
Art and culture
- 2 Iranian films, ‘Michael’ and ‘When the Light Shines’, win top prizes at Italy's “13th International Religions Today Film Festival” at its closing ceremony. (IRNA)[permanent dead link]
- Fifty-seventh National Film Awards given away by President Pratibha Patel in New Delhi. (Hindu)
- Chilean writer and social critic Pablo Huneeus registers the copyright in "Estamos bien en el refugio los 33" on behalf of the man who wrote it. (BBC)
Business and economy
- 2010 strikes in France:
- French riot police take over the Grandpuits Total S.A. oil refinery which had been blockaded by strikers for more than ten days. (BBC)
- The Senate of France passes the contentious pension reform bills. (BBC)
- French trade unions plan two further days of protest on October 28 and November 6. (Reuters)
- The Premier of Saskatchewan Brad Wall calls on the Government of Canada to reject a $28.6 billion takeover bid by BHP Billiton for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. (The Star)
- China’s urban unemployment rate fell to 4.1% at September. (Business China)
- Unemployment fell in 23 states and Washington, D.C., rose in 11 states.(Washington Times)
Disasters and accidents
- The Haitian Health Ministry informs the World Health Organisation of a cholera outbreak north of Port-au-Prince; at least 150 people have been killed. (CNN) (BBC)
- An outbreak of jiggers, a rotting disease, kills 20 people in Uganda and sickens a further 20,000. (CBC) (Straits Times)
- Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon warns that North Korea is headed for a "chronic" food crisis with droughts and floods in various parts of the country. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Typhoon Megi kills 7 people and leaves 23 missing after triggering landslides in Taiwan. (Focus Taiwan) (AFP via Google News)
- Cyclone Giri, which rapidly intensified with winds of 144mph, makes landfall in western Burma. (CNN) (The Irrawaddy)
- Forest fires in Sumatra, Indonesia, cause a thick haze to drift over Singapore. (BBC) (Straits Times)
- A cargo ship collides with a small ferryboat at Nieuwer ter Aa, Utrecht, capsizing the ferryboat. (BBC)
- HMS Astute runs aground off the Isle of Skye. (BBC)
- A car crash in Austria leads to the death of Christian Kandlbauer, thought to be the first man to drive using a mind-controlled robotic arm. (BBC) (Ap via The Guardian) (USA Today)
International relations
- 3 South Koreans are investigated for allegedly attempting to defect to North Korea. (The Telegraph) (Press TV)
Law and crime
- Several people are attacked in Uganda after a newspaper publishes the names and addresses of homosexuals. (BBC)
- Files on the death of British biological weapons inspector David Kelly, which had previously been kept secret by the British government for 7 years, are released, stating that his wounds were typical of "self-inflicted injury". (The Telegraph) (RTÉ)
- Judges in the trial of Dutch MP Geert Wilders are ordered to step down by an independent appeals panel, with the legal process now having to begin again. (BBC) (The Guardian) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)
- An ex-convict kills 3 people and injures 6 others at a school near the city of Zamboanga in the Philippines. (AFP via Google News) (ABS-CBN News)
Politics
- Protests by Tibetan students against a new language policy making Chinese the official teaching language spread in China, with a demonstration taking place at the Minzu University of China in Beijing. (Los Angeles Times) (BBC) (Global Times)
Science