October 26, 2012 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Latest round of sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims kill at least 64 people in western Burma; 3,200 Rohingya have been displaced. (CNN) (Al-Arabiya)
- Syrian civil war:
- Fighting in Syria continues as the ceasefire agreement mediated by U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to occur during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha begins. (Christian Science Monitor)
- A car bomb explodes in the capital Damascus, killing an unknown number of people and injuring many. (Reuters)
- A suicide bombing at a mosque in Maymana, Afghanistan, kills at least 41 people and wounds up to 50 others. (BBC)
Arts and culture
- Writer Javier Marías rejects the Spanish government's National Novel Prize, awarded for his novel Los enamoramientos, saying "All my life I have managed to avoid state institutions, regardless of which party was in government, and I have turned down all income from the public purse. I don't want to be seen as an author who is favoured by any particular government." (The Guardian)
Law and crime
- China blocks the website of the New York Times and searches on social media after it published an investigation into the finances of Premier Wen Jiabao. (Al Jazeera)(New York Times)
- Russian leftist protest leader Sergei Udaltsov is charged with plotting "mass disorder" and could face a 10 year prison sentence if convicted. (RIA Novosti)
- Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is sentenced to four years imprisonment for fiscal fraud. (AGI)[permanent dead link]
Politics and elections
- Chinese politician Bo Xilai is stripped of his membership of the National People's Congress. (Hindustan Times)