Portal:Current events/2012 November 19

Current events of November 19, 2012 (2012-11-19) (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks Operation Pillar of Defense: Israeli air strikes kill at least 20 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip including Islamic Jihad members, while over 130 rockets are fired towards Israel injuring several, amid ceasefire talks in Egypt. (BBC) (The Jerusalem Post) Rockets originating from the Egyptian-administrated Sinai Peninsula strike parts of southern Israel. (Weekly Standard) Syrian civil war: The Syrian opposition makes the Egyptian capital Cairo its headquarters. (Al Jazeera) International charity Save The Children warns that 200,000 Syrian refugee children are at risk as winter sets in the Middle East. (Pan Armenian) The European Union recognizes the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AFP via Google) Rebel forces capture a major government special forces base in Aleppo Province following a two-month siege. (AFP via Al Arabiya) 2012 terrorist attacks in Kenya: Police in Kenya fire tear gas amid clashes between rioters and ethnic Somalis in the capital Nairobi, after a bus bombing yesterday killed nine people. (Times of India) Scores of Kenyan soldiers go on the rampage in the northeastern town of Garissa after three soldiers are shot dead by unknown gunmen. (BBC) (Capital FM Kenya) International relations Barack Obama becomes the first sitting US President to visit Burma, meeting both Burmese President Thein Sein and National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (BBC) Law and crime In the Netherlands a 45-year-old man is arrested following a DNA profiling match in connection with a high-profile rape and murder case of a sixteen-year-old girl on May 1, 1999. (DutchNews) U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain orders the baker's union and Hostess Brands to negotiate through mediation, which was skipped when the company gave its ultimatum to shut down and release its employees and the strike continued. This halts the shutdown process and the moves by other companies to acquire it, for now. (Peoria Journal Star) Indianapolis and Indiana state homeland security and police authorities now say that the $4.4 million explosion in Richmond Hill neighborhood may not be due to gas or a faulty furnace, but may somehow have been an intentional criminal homicide; they are seeking a white van that was seen in that subdivision the day of the blast with a $10,000 reward. (MSN) (The Indianapolis Star) Politics and elections The battle to succeed Nicolas Sarkozy as leader of the centre-right UMP party takes a farcical turn with both François Fillon and rival Jean-François Copé claiming the crown. (The New York Times) Science and technology Astronauts Yuri Malenchenko, Sunita Williams, and Akihiko Hoshide return from ISS to Earth with spacecraft Soyuz TMA-05M marked the end of Expedition 33 and the start of Expedition 34. (Reuters) (AP)