Portal:Current events/2010 September 26

Current events of September 26, 2010 (2010-09-26) (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 6 civilians are wounded in an explosion apparently targeting the Shiite politician Mowaffak al-Rubaie near a fuel station in Sa'doun Street, Baghdad. (Xinhua)
• Intelligence services report 7 as the death toll resulting from 2 U.S. drone aircraft missile strikes in North Waziristan. (BBC)
• The Stuxnet computer worm fails to harm the operating system of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Bushehr after infecting the personal computers of staff. (BBC) (AFP via France24)
• The Spanish government is reported to have rejected an ETA statement calling for a permanent ceasefire between the two sides. (BBC) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald) (Al Jazeera)
• 2 NATO service members are killed in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan. (AP)

Arts and culture

• America's Department of Defense (The Pentagon) admits purchasing nearly 10,000 copies of a memoir by a U.S. Army Reserve officer, destroying all of them in an effort to suppress secret information and ordering heavy redactions of the book's second printing. (The Daily Telegraph) (Toronto Sun) (CNN)
• Georgia replaces the Russian language with the English language as its second language. (Al Jazeera)
• The Peter Mullan film Neds wins two major honours at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. (BBC)

Business and economy

• Australian climate change activists close down the world's largest coal port in Newcastle, New South Wales. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

Disasters and accidents

• Brandenburg bus crash:
  • A tourist bus from Poland hits a bridge pillar on a highway at Schoenefelder Kreuz in Brandenburg, killing at least 12 people and injuring 40. (The Daily Telegraph) (Xinhua)
  • Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk visits the crash site and meets survivors. (Deutsche Welle)
• A specially built cage is delivered to the scene of the 2010 Copiapó mining accident. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (AP via The Guardian)

Health

• The People's Republic of China reports an outbreak of the plague in Tibet, with five people infected and one fatality. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)

International relations

• Irene:
  • The boat Irene, carrying a group of Jewish activists from Germany, Israel, the U.S. and UK, sets sail from northern Cyprus aiming to breach Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. (Al-Bawaba) (BBC) (CNN) (euronews)
  • Israel calls the ship a "provocation". (Deutsche Welle)
• UNHRC report into the Gaza flotilla raid:
  • The 57-member United Nations Human Rights Council is to investigate the facts found by a report into the Gaza flotilla raid carried out by Israel earlier this year. (The Jordan Times)
  • Israeli officials and groups such as the American Jewish Committee "slam" the United Nations Human Rights Council report. (JTA)
• Philip Alston, the international law scholar who recently stepped down as the United Nations's senior official on extrajudicial killings, calls for the UN to investigate war crimes in Afghanistan and to convict those responsible. (The Observer)
• The Israeli settlement freeze is due to end at 22.00 (GMT), should Israel construct buildings on the West Bank the peace talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are expected to end.(CNN)

Politics and elections

• Video footage emerges casting doubt on the integrity of the recent Afghan parliamentary election and showing fake votes being filled in as fraud police watch on. (Al Jazeera)
• Voters in Venezuela go to the polls for a parliamentary election. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)

Sport

• 2010 Commonwealth Games:
  • Thousands of slum dwellers are handed eviction notices in the Indian capital Delhi, a week before the 2010 Commonwealth Games is due to open. (TV New Zealand)
  • Akhil Kumar escapes injury after his bed collapses beneath him. (The Indian Express) (The Deccan Chronicle)