Portal:Current events/2010 July 29

Current events of July 29, 2010 (2010-07-29) (Thursday)

Armed conflict and attacks The SITE Institute, a terrorist-monitoring organisation, states that the al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic State of Iraq has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the offices of Al-Arabiya Television in Baghdad that killed four people and injured at least 10. (AFP via Google News) (Middle East News) An investigation is launched into the unexplained damage suffered by the Japanese oil tanker M/V M. STAR in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman. (BBC) (Aljazeera) Arts and culture U.S. talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres announces that she is leaving the American Idol television show after one year as a judge. (People) Business and economics The Reserve Bank of New Zealand lifts interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to three per cent. (Wall Street Journal) Metro Bank opens its first branch, in Holborn, London, the first wholly new high street bank in the United Kingdom for more than a century. (BBC) Disasters Heavy monsoon rains delay the salvage of the wreckage of Airblue Flight 202 near Islamabad, Pakistan. (Reuters) (Daily Times of Pakistan) International relations The Arab League endorses direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel providing certain conditions are met. (Jerusalem Post) North Korean foreign minister Pak Ui-chun arrives in Burma in the first visit since the two countries restored ties in 2007, amid worries over nuclear cooperation. (AFP) (BBC) Law and crime The Mexican Army kills Sinaloa Cartel drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal in Zapopan, Jalisco, during a raid. (CNN), (AFP via Google News) Politics and elections Malawi adopts a new national flag, replacing the previous flag originally adopted in 1964. (The Nation) Greek police fire tear gas at demonstrating lorry drivers who were on strike in protest against new license charges. (BBC) (The Guardian) People in the U.S. state of Arizona protest the introduction of state immigration laws with demonstrators being arrested outside the office of Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio. (CNN) The United States House of Representatives Ethics Committee begins a public hearing into New York Democratic Congressman Charles B. Rangel. (CBS) Musician Wyclef Jean announces that he has taken formal steps towards running for President of Haiti in the 2010 general election but has not yet decided on a candidacy. (Reuters) Science UNESCO's World Heritage Committee removes Ecuador's Galápagos Islands from its list of endangered World Heritage Sites. (New Zealand Herald) Google claims that its Chinese Internet search and mobile search is blocked. (Reuters) Moscow records its hottest temperature in recorded history with a heat wave expected to result in its hottest month on record. (CNN)