Portal:Current events/2011 May 9

May 9, 2011 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2011 Syrian uprising: Heavy shooting is heard in a western suburb of Damascus as the Syrian Army advances against anti-government protesters. (BBC)
In the wake of the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights states that mass graves containing 68 bodies have been found in the Ivorian city of Abidjan. (CNN), (UPI)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presides over the Victory Day Parade on Moscow's Red Square. (AP) (Wikimedia Photos)
- World War II veterans and the Russian consul general are attacked by members of the Ukrainian ultranationalist party "Svoboda" in Lviv, Ukraine. (RT)
Ali Gomaa, the Islamic Grand Mufti of Egypt, warns of the potential of civil war because of "outlaws who want to defy the authority of the state". (Al Arabiya and AFP)
2011 Libyan civil war: Five explosions rock Tripoli in Libya following the heaviest NATO bombing offensive in a week. (Al Jazeera), (Sky News)

Business and economy

China's yuan reaches a record level against the United States dollar. (Market Watch)
Chubu Electric Power considers a call by the Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan to close down the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant due to its vulnerability to a large earthquake. (Reuters)
Values in the United States housing market decline by 1.1% for March and 3% in the March quarter, the heaviest fall since late 2008, with values falling for 57 months in a row since the United States housing bubble burst in 2007. (Wall Street Journal)
Qantas flights face disruptions as 1600 aircraft maintenance engineers announce plans to go on strike. (Sydney Morning Herald)
The Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, makes its first shipment since January, after the cocoa industry was disrupted by the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis. (AP via Forbes)
Officials in the European Union acknowledge that Greece will need a second bailout program soon, and American ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgrades Greek bonds to junk status. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

At least 36 people are killed after several boats capsize during a storm on Lake Togo in southeastern Togo. (News24) (Reuters)
More than 20 quarry workers are buried by a landslide in Luojiang near the Chinese resort city of Guilin. (AP via Washington Post)
A boat carrying up to 600 people trying to flee from the 2011 Libyan civil war sinks outside the port of Tripoli. (AP via MSNBC)
Floods in Mississippi worsen, with the Army Corps of Engineers saying an area between Simmesport, Louisiana and Baton Rouge may be inundated under 20-30 feet of water. (CBS News)
A province-wide state of emergency is declared for Manitoba in the wake of hundred-year floods on the Assiniboine River and Red River of the North near Brandon. (CTV) (The Canadian Press) (CJOB 68)

International relations

The Mainichi Shimbun reports that Japan and the United States are planning to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Mongolia. (Reuters)
Death of Osama bin Laden
- The Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani warns the United States that it will defend its air space from incursions following the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound and denies collaborating with al-Qaeda. (The Telegraph), (AP via MSNBC)
- Gilani also launches an investigation into how bin Laden was able to live in Abbottabad undetected for so long. (BBC)

Law and crime

Indonesia drops some of the key terrorism charges against radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, meaning that it is unlikely that he will receive the death penalty. (AFP via Channel News Asia)
A Twitter user tries to unmask some celebrities who have obtained super-injunctions to prevent publication of details of their private lives. (BBC) (Twitter)
Accused drug lord Walid Makled Garcia is extradited from Colombia to Venezuela. (CNN)
The Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer asks the United States Supreme Court to overturn a ruling putting parts of its 2010 Immigration Law on hold. (Arizona Republic)
American billionaire Louis Bacon wins a judgement in the United Kingdom against Wikipedia, the Denver Post and WordPress about disclosure of identities of people who published allegedly defamatory comments although the judgement does not apply in the United States. (The Guardian)
Pennsylvania State Senator Bob Mensch is convicted of disorderly conduct after showing a handgun to another motorist on US Interstate 78. (NBC)
52 sled dog corpses have been exhumed as part of an on-going investigation into the killing of 100 healthy dogs by a dog tour company. (The Vancouver Sun)

Politics

British Security Minister Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones resigns from the government "at her own request". She is replaced by Baroness Angela Browning. (BBC)
Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie announces her intention to step down from the role after the Party's poor results at the recent general election. (BBC)
Republican Dean Heller is sworn in as a United States Senator representing Nevada replacing John Ensign who resigned. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The Texas Senate approves legislation containing an amendment allowing university students in the US state of Texas to carry handguns on campus. (Dallas Morning News)

Science

Samoa announces plans to shift west of the international dateline from the east, putting it a day ahead to make trading with Australia and New Zealand easier. (AP via MSNBC)
NASA reschedules the final mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour for Monday. (AP via Houston Chronicle)

Sport