Portal:Current events/2011 February 26

February 26, 2011 (2011-02-26) (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2011 Libyan civil war
  • Internal and international pressure continues on leader Muammar Gaddafi to stand down from power. (Al Jazeera)
  • Saif al-Islam Gaddafi tells Al-Arabiya television that the unrest in Libya opens up all options including civil war. (The Guardian)
  • Reuters reports that Libyan Interim Government led by the former justice minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil has been formed in Benghazi. (Al Jazeera)
• An oil refinery in Baiji, Iraq, is bombed, resulting in its closure. (Reuters)
• 2011 Croatian protests:
  • Tens of thousands of protesters meet in the Croatian capital Zagreb's Ban Jelačić Square to express their support for indicted Croatian War of Independence veterans and ask Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's government to resign. (Jutarnji list)
  • Several dozen of people are injured and arrested as anti-government protests degenerated into clashes with police. (Jutarnji list) (France24)

Disasters

• 2011 Canterbury earthquake
  • The death toll from the earthquake in New Zealand rises to 144 and there is great concern about 200 more people missing. (Reuters) (TV New Zealand)
  • The Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key calls for two minutes of silence on Tuesday March 1 at 12:51 pm, exactly one week after the earthquake. (TV New Zealand)
  • Aftershocks force the evacuation of residents in Mount Pleasant, an outer suburb of Christchurch. (TV New Zealand)

International relations

• The United Nations Security Council, after the defected Libyan Ambassador to the UN Abdel Rahman Mohamed Shalgam's appeal to act against Muammar Gaddafi's regime escalating violence, being used to crackdown the 2011 Libyan civil war, and following propositions by France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States, adopts resolution 1970, (UN press release on UNSC resolution 1970) (BBC) (BBC) (UN Multimedia). "All necessary means" enforcement of said resolution, and imposition of a "No-fly zone" over Libya are rejected. These measures will be however included on UNSC resolution 1973 of 17 March 2011.

Law and crime

• 2011 Iraqi protests
  • Hundreds of Iraqi journalists, artists, and intellectuals are arrested the day following the country's "Day of Rage" protest, which resulted in at least twenty-nine deaths throughout the country.(Washington Post)
• A South Korean man dies after explosives he bought to tie to his body detonated. (Straits Times)
• A Brazilian judge blocks construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon Basin after it fails to meet environmental requirements. (The Guardian)
• A Mexican judge authorises 40 days of detention for an alleged member of the Zetas drug cartel suspected in the killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. (AP via Washington Post)

Politics and elections

• Irish general election, 2011:
  • The votes are counted, with exit polls predicting Fine Gael and the Labour Party to do well while the ruling Fianna Fáil is expected to do poorly. (AFP via Yahoo! News) (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
  • Paul Gogarty of the Green Party is the first to concede defeat via Twitter. (Business & Leadership) (The Irish Times)
  • The first seat of the general election goes to Labour Party finance spokeswoman Joan Burton, who tops the poll in the Dublin West constituency. Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party take the second and third seats respectively in this four-seat constituency. (Press Association via Google News) (The Irish Times) (Irish Examiner)
  • As the ruling Fianna Fáil party faces national wipeout, outgoing Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, Jnr is saved by his own personality. He takes the final seat in the Dublin West constituency, the only Fianna Fáil candidate elected from 47 seats across the capital, with his brother Conor Lenihan and aunt Mary O'Rourke losing out in their bids for re-election elsewhere. (Reuters) (The Irish Times)
  • Outgoing Tánaiste Mary Coughlan becomes the biggest loser of the Fianna Fáil meltdown, as her seat in the Donegal South–West constituency goes to Independent Thomas Pringle. (Irish Examiner)
  • John Gormley, leader of the ruling coalition's Green Party and former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, is eliminated in the Dublin South–East constituency. (The Irish Times)
  • Independent long-serving outgoing Senator Shane Ross tops the poll in the Dublin South constituency. (The Irish Times)
  • Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny tops the poll in the Mayo constituency and claims that the results are a "massive endorsement" of his party. (RTÉ) (BBC)
• The King of Bahrain Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa reshuffles his Cabinet in response the 2011 Bahraini protests. (CNN)
• Nearly 70,000 people attend a rally in the U.S. city of Madison, Wisconsin over plans by the Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker to remove collective bargaining rights from most state employees. (Wisconsin State Journal)
• Christy Clark becomes the second woman to be Premier of British Columbia after winning a Liberal Party of British Columbia ballot. (The Globe and Mail)
• Iran takes two opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi and their wives into protection supposedly for their own protection. (CNN)

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February 2011

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