Portal:Current events/2012 October 22

Current events of October 22, 2012 (2012-10-22) (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks The Israeli air force strikes a rocket launching squad in the northern Gaza Strip, reportedly killing three, following rocket fire on southern Israel from Gaza and a mortar attack on an IDF patrol near the border. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel) Riot police in Kuwait attack demonstrators with teargas, stun grenades and batons. (Al Jazeera) Syrian civil war: A Jordanian soldier dies during a gunfight between Jordanian troops and Islamic militants attempting to cross the border into Syria. (CTV News) 2011–2012 conflict in Lebanon: The Lebanese Army launches an operation to quell the sectarian violence in Beirut triggered by the assassination of Wissam al-Hassan. (Voice of America) Police authorities in South Africa admit the shooting of 34 miners by police "may have been disproportionate" to the danger faced by those in charge. (Al Jazeera) Arts and culture A Kindle user from Norway has her account wiped and all her paid-for books deleted by the American multinational electronic commerce company Amazon.com. (The Guardian) Business and economics A former Goldman Sachs employee blows the whistle on the investment bank having routinely taken advantage of charities and pension funds to increase its profits. (The Guardian) The chairman of the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, likely will not stand for re-election to that post. Ben Bernanke has reportedly told friends he will leave when his term ends in January 2014 regardless of who wins the Presidential election campaign. (New York Times) International relations The UK doubles its number of RAF armed "drones" operating in Afghanistan and, in a new development, drones are to be controlled from terminals and screens on British soil. (The Guardian) France plans to use drones in Mali. (The Guardian) Law and crime Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official are convicted of multiple manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake after prosecutors accuse them of being "falsely reassuring" before the event. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera) Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are exiled to remote prison camps located in Perm and Mordovia, home to parts of the Soviet-era gulag system. Their exact locations are unknown, even to their lawyers and family members. They had petitioned to be held in Moscow which would have allowed them to watch their young children grow. (The Guardian) Peter Rippon, the BBC Newsnight editor responsible for dropping an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile, steps aside from his role with immediate effect. (The Independent) (BBC) The body of a female found late Monday in a recycling container in Clayton, New Jersey is preliminarily determined to be that of missing 12-year-old girl Autumn Pasquale according to police (NBC) Politics and elections Okinawa's legislative assembly passes a resolution expressing "overwhelming indignation" at the alleged rape of a Japanese woman by two U.S. soldiers, the latest of 5,747 crimes on record allegedly involving U.S. personnel over the past 40 years, and condemns the worsening criminal activity of foreign troops on the island. (Al Jazeera) Sport U.S. former professional road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong is stripped by the International Cycling Union of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from participating in UCI-sanctioned events. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) A football fan is jailed after an attack on former England international goalkeeper Chris Kirkland during a match last week. Twenty-one-year-old Aaron Cawley was filmed on live television jumping from the stand and striking Kirkland with both arms on the head following a goal during the league match at Hillsborough. Kirkland, who described the assault as like being "hit by a ton of bricks", was thrown off balance, crashed to the ground against his goal area and required treatment for his injuries. (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph)