Wombat Attack

Yesterday’s News You Should Know: Wednesday 9/26/2012

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war: Twin explosions near the headquarters of the Syrian Armed Forces in central Damascus kill at least four military guards. (al-Jazeera)

Syrian civil war: Press TV correspondent Maya Nasser is killed by sniper fire while reporting from the scene of twin bomb blasts in Damascus. (The Guardian)

Syrian civil war: Qatar calls for Arab intervention in Syria. (al-Jazeera)

Syrian civil war: Local activists report a massacre of over 40 civilians by the Syrian army in the Damascus suburb of Thiabieh. (TIME Magazine)

Business and economy

Trade unions in Greece call a general strike in protest against continuing austerity measures. (BBC)

International relations

Russia and Japan schedule a sub-cabinet level meeting for October in Tokyo to discuss the Kuril Islands dispute. (Jiji Press)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Japan PM Yoshihiko Noda addresses the UNGA by stating that Japan is committed to a “peaceful solution” to its territorial disputes, but that it intends to “fulfill its responsibility” to protecting its sovereignty. (Yomiuri Shimbun)(NHK World)(AP)

Senkaku Islands dispute: China responds to Noda’s speech by calling it “self-deceiving” and as a “challenge” to the post-war international order. (Xinhua)

Senkaku Islands dispute: ANA and JAL report that over 52,000 seats for flights between China and Japan have been canceled. (Kyodo News)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Japanese businesses are asked to withdraw their exhibits from the forthcoming Western China International Fair in Chengdu. (Kyodo News)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Japanese automakers suspend operations in China until after National Day; announce plans to cut output in the country. (Kyodo News)

Law and crime

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev is charged with hooliganism and battery over a televised punch-up, with a possible five-year jail sentence in what he says is revenge for criticising President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)

Expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is charged with money laundering at a court in South Africa. (IOL)

A court ruling allows Turkey to ban access to the film Innocence of Muslims. (Hurriyet Daily News)

Politics and elections

Ireland’s Minister of State for Primary Care Róisín Shortall resigns due to a dispute with Minister for Health James Reilly. She also resigns from the Labour Party. (RTE) (The Irish Times)

Yesterday’s News You Should Know: Tuesday 9/25/2012

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war: A Save the Children report details the plight of children in Syria. (CBS)

An academic report from the U.S. finds that American drone attacks “terrorize” the civilian population of northern Pakistan, further stating that the benefits of drone attacks for the U.S. are “ambiguous at best”. (BBC)

A bombing in the eastern Turkish city of Tunceli kills at least seven people. (BBC)

The People’s Republic of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, commences service. (BBC)

Disasters

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hits near the Baja California peninsula with no immediate reports of injuries or damage. (CNN)

International relations

Senkaku Islands dispute: Over 50 Taiwanese ships clash with ships from the Japan Coast Guard in waters off the Senkaku Islands. (The Japan Times)(Kyodo News via Mainichi Shimbun)(Yomiuri Shimbun)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Chinese and Japanese diplomats meet in Beijing to lay out their respective countries’ positions on the Senkaku Islands dispute. (Kyodo News)

Senkaku Islands dispute: South Korea expresses concern over China’s plan to monitor the disputed Socotra Rock area with unmanned drones. (Yonhap)

Politics and elections

Activists from the Enough Project reveal through The Guardian newspaper that Omar al-Bashir’s Sudan and Joseph Kabila’s DR Congo together received 2.4 million pound sterling (around USD 4 million) in British military aid, in the last five years alone. (The Guardian)

Protestors and police clash in Madrid over Spanish anti-austerity measures. (BBC)

Yesterday’s News You Should Know: Monday 9/24/2012

Jewish Democrats ask Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to stop bringing “daylight” into Israel–United States relations. (JTA)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war: At least 24 people are killed in violence across Syria. (DPA)

Kenyan AMISOM troops, advancing towards the al-Shabaab stronghold of Kismayo, “deliberately” shoot dead seven Somali civilians, according to a Somali Army spokesman. The Hizbul Islam faction announces that it leaves the al-Shabaab. (BBC)

Business and economy

Multiple reports suggest that North Korea is to introduce reforms allowing farmers to keep more of their produce, rather than handing it to the state. (BBC)

International relations

Senkaku Islands dispute: Dozens of Taiwanese fishing boats set sail for the disputed Senkaku Islands which are also claimed by China and Japan. (Kyodo News)(The Bangkok Post)

Senkaku Islands dispute: An estimated 1,000 people protest in Taipei over Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands. (Kyodo News)

Senkaku Islands dispute: China cancels events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations with Japan. (Mainichi Shimbun) (Jiji Press)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Three Chinese surveillance ships enter Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Bookstores in China suspend sales of books by Japanese authors or about Japan. (Jiji Press)

Senkaku Islands dispute: Japan sends its vice foreign minister, Chikao Kawai, to China in order to improve the status of relations between the two countries. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

Law and crime

Wang Lijun, the former police chief and vice-mayor of Chongqing, China, is sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption-related charges and defection. (The Global Times)(AP)

Manufacturer Foxconn closes a factory in Taiyuan in China’s Shanxi province after a fight breaks out between thousands of workers. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Three bloggers in Vietnam are sentenced to four, ten and twelve years’ imprisonment for “anti-state propaganda”. (al-Jazeera)

Former Israeli minister of industry, trade and labor Ehud Olmert, who is also a former prime minister, is given a fine and a suspended 1-year jail sentence for cronyism while in office. A bribery case related to a housing project in Jerusalem is still being investigated. (Reuters)

The U.S. military announces that two U.S. Marines are charged with urinating on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan and failing to stop other misconduct by subordinates. (BBC)

Politics and elections

South Korean presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, daughter of former president Park Chung-hee, apologises for abuses committed under her father’s regime. (al-Jazeera)

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe says recent parliamentary elections in Belarus were neither free nor fair. VRT calls them “a farce”. (Reuters)(VRT)