Portal:Current events/2010 June 1
June 1, 2010 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- At least 5 people are killed in an attack on the Lahore hospital in Pakistan where many of the injured in Friday's attack on members of the Ahmadis sect, as well as one of the captured militants, are undergoing treatment. (Geotv) (The Hindu) (USA Today) (CNN)
- Al-Qaeda's top leader in Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden's third in command, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, is reported killed. (The Australian) (CNN)
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- The Israeli Defense Forces kill two Palestinians terrorists in Gaza who were attempting to cross the border fence, after an exchange of gunfire. Israel closes four settlements, Route 323 and schools as a result of the incident. (The Jerusalem Post)
- The Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli soldiers have engaged and killed what they describe as three "terrorists" who had fired Kassam Rockets into Israeli lands. No injuries were reported from the rocket attacks.(The Jerusalem Post)
- The head of Gaza emergency services confirms that these three Palestinian bodies were retrieved and brought to a morgue in Gaza City. (Aljazeera)
Arts and culture
- The Nanjing Metro opens its Line 2, extending its route length from 22km to 85km, and the number of stations from 16 to 57. (Railway Gazette)
- Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore and his wife Tipper announce their separation. (USA Today)
Disasters and accidents
- Poland publishes the transcript of flight data recorders from the fatal 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash which killed 96 officials and intellectuals on 10 April. (BBC) (China Daily) (Aljazeera)
- Tropical Storm Agatha
- 132 people are killed across Central America in the aftermath of the first named storm of the 2010 Pacific hurricane season. (Reuters) (USA Today)
- Torrential rains open a large sinkhole which swallows an intersection and part of a city block in Guatemala City. (BBC)
- America's Obama administration warns that BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could continue until August. (The Australian)
International relations
- The Iranian ambassador in Baghdad says the recent release of two Iranians from Iraqi custody is not an indication of any impeding deal to free three Americans held in Tehran on spying charges since their capture in July 2009 while hiking in northern Iraq's mountainous Kurdish region. (USA Today)
- The United States insists any Afghan peace deal must ensure women's rights as Afghanistan prepares to open a peace conference aimed at persuading Taliban leaders to put down their weapons. (USA Today)
- Aftermath of the Gaza flotilla raid
- Survivors of the Israeli assault on the Gaza-bound international aid flotilla return to Greece and Turkey, providing the first eyewitness accounts of the attack. (The Guardian) (BBC)
- Israel announces it has imprisoned an official figure of 487 of the people it captured in its commando raid on the Gaza-bound international aid flotilla, while 48 others will be officially expelled after being brought into Israel by Israeli authorities yesterday. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (AFP)
- Israel's ambassador to Denmark, Arthur Avnon, announces that the Israeli military had received rumours of a report which asserted a link between the flotilla and Al-Qaida. (FOX News) (News24)
- Hundreds of Israelis gather outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv in protest against Turkey's involvement in the Gaza flotilla. (Ynetnews)
- Turks protest for a second day, marching in front of Istanbul's Israeli consulate, and several are arrested in Ankara after encountering police in front of the Israeli Embassy there. (ABC News)
- Coalition parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly clash over the Israeli commando attack on the aid convoy. (The Belfast Telegraph)
- Reports are released regarding the nationalities of those captured after the flotilla raid. (Asia One News) (The Age)
- Reports are also released expressing concern for captured international journalists, including those from Aljazeera and Astro Awani, while media organisations are asked to act for the release of all journalists in Israeli custody and to request their freedom to practice their profession without pressure and harassment. (ArabNews) (NDTV)
- Egypt announces that it will temporarily open its border with Gaza for aid. (AP via Fox News)
- Turkey calls for sanctions against Israel. The United States, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, acts to mitigate the language of the Security Council's draft statement which condemned Israel's action "in the strongest terms", opting instead for one that requests an "impartial" investigation of the deaths and condemns the "acts" that led to it. (The Times)
- Twenty Israeli trucks deliver cargo from the captured ships to the Gaza Strip via Kerem Shalom crossing. (YnetNews) (YouTube)
Law and crime
- Judith Osburn, a Binghamton attorney, discussed same-sex marriage in New York and its complexity. (The Ithaca Journal)
- Lee Murray, the mastermind of the Securitas depot robbery in Kent, England, is jailed for 10 years in Morocco BBC
- The trial of London-based multi-national oil trading firm Trafigura for illegally exporting hazardous waste to Ivory Coast in 2006 begins in Amsterdam. (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Three judges are shot dead at a court in Hunan, China; the gunman later kills himself. (China Daily) (BBC)
- Three Namibian women sue the state after they are sterilised without their informed consent after being diagnosed as HIV positive. (BBC) (UPI)
Politics and elections
- Five opposition candidates, including Burundi's ex-rebel leader Agathon Rwasa, withdraw from forthcoming presidential polls. (BBC)
- Another UK minister, the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, who was appointed after the resignation of fellow Liberal Democrat David Laws, is embroiled in the ongoing expenses scandal after admitting to having avoided paying capital gains tax when he sold his taxpayer-funded second home at a profit. (The Australian)
Science and technology
- Flying in an orbit 100 kilometers above the moon, the CE-2 is tasked to collect data for a soft-landing designed for its successor, the Chang'e-3. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), said at the Global Lunar Conference held in Beijing. (Global Times)
- As climate talks get under way in Bonn, Thomas Hale and Scott Moore call for a radical new approach to cutting emissions that sidesteps intergovernmental deadlock and unites eager players, from Wal-Mart to city halls. (China Dialogue)