December 16, 2010 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- An Israeli Air Force F-16 shoots down a balloon that flew near the Dimona Nuclear Reactor after entering Israeli airspace from Jordan. (Ynetnews) (Arutz Sheva)
- Riots in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. (Al Jazeera)
- Fourteen civilians are killed and four others injured when a minibus struck a roadside bomb while traveling to Herat, Afghanistan. (CNN)
- A U.S. missile strike kills seven militants in the Spin Drand area of Khyber, Pakistan. (Washington Times)
Business and economy
- European Union leaders agree to change the constitution to establish a mechanism to tackle sovereign debt problems. (Reuters)
- The International Monetary Fund approves a 22.5bn euro loan to the Republic of Ireland. (BBC)
- The Canadian government approves the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline project led by Imperial Oil, planning to create the pipeline cutting across the Mackenzie Delta carrying shale gas by 2015. (Reuters) (Vancouver Sun)
- Yahoo! announces plans to axe 600 jobs and phase out services such as Delicious. (AP via Buffalo News)
Disasters
- Six people were killed and a dozen injured when two buses collided in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, China. (Kunming via Xinhua)
- The death toll from the Christmas Island boat wreck rises to 28 as the search for survivors continues. (The Australian)
- Wreckage of a Tara Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter that crashed on Wednesday with twenty people aboard is found in Nepal. (BBC), (CNN)
- Flooding in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Gaspé Peninsula eases, after flooding major cities especially along the Saint John River. (CBC) (Globe and Mail) (Calgary Herald)
- One person is killed by Lake effect snow squalls from Lake Huron on Highway 402 in Southwestern Ontario as the Canadian military rescues people trapped under snowdrifts for over a day. (CTV) (Montreal Gazette)
International relations
- Governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico Bill Richardson arrives in Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials concerning the situation on the Korean Peninsula. (Xinhua)
Law and crime
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears in the British High Court of Justice to successfully apply for bail on sexual assault charges. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Al Jazeera), (The Telegraph)
- Oklahoma becomes the first U.S. state to carry out an execution with pentobarbital, a lethal injection drug used for euthanizing animals. (BBC) (CNN) (Daily Mail)
Politics
- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and three others are suspended from parliament for six months after allegedly suggesting a government unity policy was inspired by an Israeli initiative. (BBC) (Bernama)
- The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says social discontent among the population has increased. (BBC) (China Daily)
- Police in Bangladesh arrest senior opposition leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury on charges of instigating violence and war crimes. (BBC) (BDNews24)
- Opposition protesters in the Ivory Coast attempt to seize the state television station in central Abidjan, which is surrounded by the army. At least fifteen people have died in clashes. (BBC) (Vibe Ghana) (News24), (AP via NJ)
- The European Court of Human Rights rules that Ireland's ban on abortion in life-threatening cases is illegal. (CBC) (CBS)
- The Scottish Government rules out re-introducing tuition fees for Scottish university students, but students from other parts of the United Kingdom attending university in Scotland may face fees of £6,000. (BBC)
- The government of Northern Ireland announces an inquiry into child abuse inside institutions. (The Guardian)
Science