Portal:Current events/2010 September 28

Current events of September 28, 2010 (2010-09-28) (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

• A recent drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed Sheikh Mohammad Fateh al Masri, one of al Qaeda's top commanders. (CNN)
• Three al-Quds Brigades militants are killed by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli army claims they were preparing to fire into Israel. (Ynetnews)
• A U.S. service member is in custody in connection with the shooting deaths of two other service members and the injury of a third in Iraq. They were assigned to 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia. (CNN)

Business and Economy

• The business-software giant Oracle files a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco alleging that Micron Technology, a manufacturer of memory chips, colluded with other manufacturers to fix prices. (Reuters)

Disasters

• A 4.5 earthquake shakes offshore of Oléron, France, with no reported casualties. (Le Télégramme) (Sud Ouest)
• 300 homes are buried by a landslide in Santa María Tlahuitoltepec in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca which is feared to have killed hundreds while they slept. The landslide was caused by Tropical Storm Matthew. (BBC), (ABC Online)

International relations

• The Israeli Navy intercepts the the ship Irene carrying Israeli and Jewish activists bringing foreign aid to the Gaza Strip. (Jerusalem Post) (BBC) (Haaretz.com)

Law and crime

• A Sikh man is given a life sentence in Vienna, Austria, for murdering Rama Nand, a leader of the Dera Sach Khand sect in 2009; five other Indian-born defendants are given sentences of various lengths. (Times of India)
• Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, the founder of one of the first Farsi-language blogs, is sentenced to 19 years imprisonment in an Iranian court for "anti-state activity". (AP) (BBC)
• The Eiffel Tower and the surrounding Champ de Mars park are evacuated due to a bomb threat but nothing is found. (ABC Online)
• A gunman opens fire with an AK47 in the library at the campus of the University of Texas in Austin, United States, before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life. No other injuries are reported. (The Austin American Statesman)
• Hisham Talaat Moustafa, an Egyptian millionaire who had been sentenced to death in 2009 for inciting the murder of pop star Suzanne Tamim, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in a retrial. (AP)
• The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit permanently lifts an injunction thereby allowing the United States Government to fund embryonic stem cell research. (CNN)
• Four people are killed, including a toddler, and one seriously injured in a shooting spree in the Mattapan neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts. (Xinhua), (CNN)

Politics and elections

• 43rd Australian Parliament:
  • The 43rd Parliament of Australia meets at Parliament House, Canberra, for the first time since the recent election. (ABC Australia)
  • Harry Jenkins of the Australian Labor Party is reelected unopposed as Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. (ABC News Online)
• The Workers' Party of Korea conference begins in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Time) (BBC)
• The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev fires the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov with first Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin appointed as acting Mayor. (Reuters via Straits Times) (RIA Novosti) (DW) (Xinhua) (Daily Mail) (RT) (Euronews)
• Ed Miliband, the new leader of the UK's Labour Party, makes his first major speech at the party's Annual Conference in Manchester telling delegates that his "new generation" will return the party to power. (BBC)
• Iceland's parliament, the Althing, refers charges of misconduct in office related to the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis against former Prime Minister of Iceland Geir Haarde to the Landsdómur, a special court for such cases. (AP via Yahoo! News)

Sport

• The Cincinatti Reds win the National League Central in Major League Baseball. (AP via Houston Chronicle)