Portal:Current events/2011 May 4

May 4, 2011 (2011-05-04) (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2011 Syrian uprising
  • Syrian security forces arrest two people outside of the University of Damascus as student demonstrators rally for the release of political detainees and army convoys and tanks rolled into the capital city, setting up what eyewitnesses described as a base in the central square. (CNN) (Sky News)
  • More than 1,000 people are arrested in Syria amid ongoing protests (UPI)
  • Eye-witness reports say dozens are killed in clashes as thousands of people across Syria rallied to show support for residents of the southern border city of Daraa who have been living under siege since government forces attacked earlier this week. (CNN)
  • UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and urges him to immediately end the violent crackdown against anti-government protesters in Syria, as Syrian tanks and armored vehicles deployed around the town of Rastan, witnesses said, raising fears of another deadly attack on protesters challenging Assad's rule. (The Jerusalem Post) (Channel 6 News)
  • Syrian officials confirm the detention of an Al Jazeera reporter, Dorothy Parvaz, who has been missing since Friday. (CNN)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  • The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, reports that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed and continue being committed in Libya, and says he will soon request arrest warrants against three individuals who are "most responsible for the crimes committed." (CNN) (The Telegraph)
  • An aid ship is forced to cut short its mission to evacuate civilians from Libya after Muammar Gaddafi's forces shell the port of Misrata shortly after it docked; at least four people, including a woman and two children, were killed in the shelling. (The Telegraph)
• Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden:
  • Barack Obama decides not to release photos of Osama bin Laden following his death but Reuters releases photos taken at the Abbotabad compound. (CBS News), (The Guardian) (CNN)
  • An official of the radical Palestinian Islamist party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, calls Osama bin Laden a "lion" and denounces President Barack Obama as a "dog who deserves to be hanged”. (The Telegraph)
  • Newspapers and television in Uzbekistan have still not reported the death of Osama bin Laden three days after it occurred. (The Telegraph)
• Russian security forces kill Doger Sevdet, an al-Qaeda emissary who fought alongside Chechen insurgents, in the northern Caucasus region of Russia. (CNN)
• One policeman is killed and another injured when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's convoy is attacked after a campaign rally in northern Turkey; Erdoğan was not in the convoy at the time of the attack. (CNN) (The Telegraph)

Arts and culture

• Art exhibit of Chinese dissident, Ai Weiwei, jailed by the Chinese government last month for unspecified "economic crimes," opens in New York City. (CNN)
• Bollywood actor, Shiney Ahuja, is released on bail in Mumbai a week after being jailed for allegedly raping his maid. (BBC)
• Daniel Barenboim, a conductor and pianist and "supporter of Palestinian rights", holds a "Peace Concert" in the Gaza Strip. (The Jerusalem Post), (Deutsche Welle)

Business and economy

• Richard Branson announces that the operations of airlines Virgin Blue, V Australia and Pacific Blue will be merged to form Virgin Australia. (WA Today)
• Intel announces it will begin shipping the new Ivy Bridge chips, using three-dimensional design to conserve battery power, later this year. (Reuters)

Disasters

• At least 16 people are feared dead and 21 injured following a bus crash in Nepal. (Nepal Mountain News)
• The wreckage of a crashed helicopter containing Dorjee Khandu, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is found with three bodies nearby. (BBC), (Indian Express)
• 2011 Midwest floods:
  • Despite the breach of a levee on the Mississippi River to ease flood pressure in southern Illinois, massive flooding continues from Minnesota to Louisiana and hundreds of square miles of mostly farmland in Missouri are under water. (CNN)
  • The government of the US state of Arkansas decides to close Interstate 40 between Little Rock and Memphis due to floodwaters. (Arkansas Highways)
• Two trains collide near US Highway 30 near the US city of Portland, Oregon, causing a fire and necessitating the evacuation of nearby residents. (KGW)
• A building explosion occurs in the US city of Warren, Michigan. (WXYZ News)
• Experts from Chile who helped rescue 33 miners trapped for more than three months in a mine last October go to assist rescue efforts in northern Mexico, where nine workers remained trapped in a mine after an explosion. (CNN)

International Relations

• Public executions, death by starvation and torture are common in North Korean political prisoner camps, according to testimony given to human rights group Amnesty International, which they say could contain as many as 200,000 prisoners. (CNN) (The New York Times) (AFP)
• Sarah Shourd, an American hiker released last year from an Iranian prison on $500,000 bail because of a medical condition said she will not return to Tehran to face espionage charges in a court hearing scheduled for next week; her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and their friend, Josh Fattal, are still being held in Evin Prison in Iran. (CNN)

Law and crime

• The trial of two Rwandan rebel leaders charged in connection with their part in crimes against humanity and war crimes carried out by their militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008 and 2009, begins in the Stuttgart high court, Germany. (CNN)
• China announces the creation of a State Internet Information Office to 'direct, coordinate, and supervise' online content management, prompting fears that online censorship will grow even more stringent. (RFA)

Politics

• The United States House of Representatives passes the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" banning the direct Federal funding of abortions. (CBS News)

Sport

• The United States Department of Justice considers launching an antitrust action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over the bowl system. (CNN)
• Manchester United F.C. beat FC Schalke 04 4-1 to progress to the final (their third final in 5 years) of the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League against Barcelona at Wembley Stadium on May 28. (CNN)

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