Portal:Current events/October 2016

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Civil War
- Houthi forces launch rockets that hit and reportedly destroy HSV-2 Swift, a military vessel belonging to the United Arab Emirates Navy, off the coast of Yemen, near the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha. (Reuters), (Press TV)
Syrian civil war
- Russian and Syrian government attacks on rebel-held east Aleppo kill two people and injure 13 others. The Syrian American Medical Society reports the city's main trauma hospital closes. (Reuters), (BBC)
War in Somalia
- A car bomb at a Mogadishu restaurant near the Jilaow detention center kills four people and injures another five. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack. (CNN), (Reuters)
- A Somalian regional government demands an explanation from the United States after an airstrike kills 22 civilians and other soldiers instead of the targeted Al-Shabaab militants in Galmudug. (BBC)

Business and economy

Volkswagen emissions scandal
- Volkswagen agrees to pay its U.S. dealers up to US$1.2 billion to compensate them for their losses resulting from the company's emissions cheating scandal. (The Los Angeles Times)

Disasters and accidents

Mexico's Volcán de Colima erupts forcing the evacuation of two nearby villages. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)

Politics and elections

The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Pedro Sánchez, resigns. (BBC)
The Obama administration through the United States Department of Commerce transfers oversight of the technical management of the Internet by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to an international consortium of stakeholders. (Reuters)

Sport

Dublin defeats Mayo in the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, retaining the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time since 1977. (Sky), (BBC)
2016 AFL Grand Final
- In Australian Rules football, the Western Bulldogs defeat the Sydney Swans to win their first premiership since 1954. (ABC Australia)

October 2, 2016 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- An ISIL sniper in Sirte, Libya, shoots dead Dutch photographer and war correspondent Jeroen Oerlemans. (The Independent)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Matthew, at Category 4 strength with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), temporarily stalls as it heads towards Jamaica and Haiti. Weather forecasters expect tropical storm conditions today with landfall tomorrow. Further, they expect rainfall of 20 inches, with up to 40 inches in some parts of southern Haiti. (BBC), (NBC News), (The National Hurricane Center)
- Weather forecasters issue hurricane warnings for eastern Cuba, from Las Tunas to Guantánamo provinces. (The Los Angeles Times), (The National Hurricane Center)
2016 Ethiopian protests
- Police allegedly attack Oromo protestors at a religious festival in Bishoftu, Ethiopia causing a stampede which kills dozens of people. (BBC)
A Ravn Alaska Cessna 208B crashes near Togiak, Alaska killing three people. (The Alaska Dispatch News)

International relations

Aftermath of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016
- Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announces March 2017 as the deadline for triggering Article 50 and says that her government will introduce a "Great Repeal Bill" that will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 once the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. (BBC)

Law and crime

Authorities arrest a Japanese man for killing as many as 48 elderly patients at the Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama. (The Independent)

Politics and elections

Hungarian migrant quota referendum, 2016
- Voters in Hungary go to the polls for a referendum on whether to accept mandatory European Union quotas on relocating migrants. While an overwhelming majority of voters reject the EU's migrant quotas, turnout was too low to make the poll valid. (BBC), (Reuters)
Brazil municipal elections, 2016
- Brazilian voters cast ballots in the nationwide election of mayors and city councils in 5,568 municipalities. Pollsters predict that the Workers' Party will fair poorly. This is the country's first election since the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff. (Reuters), (Bloomberg)
Colombian peace agreement referendum, 2016
- Referendum voters in Colombia narrowly fail to ratify a peace deal between the Government of Colombia and FARC. (Reuters), (Deutsche Welle), (BBC)
Marino Riccardi and Fabio Berardi take office as the Captains Regent of San Marino. (San Marino RTV)

Sports

2016 Ryder Cup
- In golf, the United States wins the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008. (The New York Post)
2016 NRL Grand Final
- In Australian rugby league, the Cronulla Sharks defeat the Melbourne Storm 14–12 to win their first premiership after 50 years in the competition. (ABC News Australia)
Major League Baseball
- Vin Scully, broadcaster for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers since 1950, calls his final game. (Major League Baseball)
- The Atlanta Braves play their final game at Turner Field. They now move to the new SunTrust Park for the 2017 season. (AP via ESPN)

October 3, 2016 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The Taliban launches an offensive entering the city of Kunduz which they briefly captured last year. (Nine Entertainment Company Now)
- A bomb kills one person and leaves two injured in Kabul. (Sputniknews)
Syrian civil war
- A suspected female suicide bomber kills at least 20 people at a Kurdish wedding in the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah. (Reuters)
- A United States Air Force drone strike kills a senior leader in the Syrian militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Egyptian-born Abu al-Faraj al-Masri, in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib Governorate. (BBC)

Business and economy

Bass Pro Shops acquires Cabela's for $5.5 billion, combining two retailers for outdoor enthusiasts. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Chaba, now a super typhoon with winds of 145 knots (165 mph), heads for Japan's southern islands with storm warnings of torrential rain followed by mudslides and flooding. (AAP via SBS), (Weather.com)
A stone quarry collapses in Hubei province, China, leaving five people missing. (Sputniknews)
2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Heavy rains from Hurricane Matthew's outer bands drench Haiti and Jamaica, killing a Haitian fisherman. The Category 4 storm, with 140 mph ((220 km/h) maximum sustained winds), is heading towards western Haiti, eastern Cuba, and the southeastern and central Bahamas. (CBS News), (The National Hurricane Center)
European migrant crisis
- The Italian coast guard rescues more than 5,600 migrants, in one of the biggest operations in a single day. (BBC)

Health

Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for experiments with yeast which exposed a key mechanism called autophagy in the body's defenses where cells degrade and recycle their components. (Reuters), (AP)

International relations

Syrian civil war, Russia–United States relations
- The Obama administration through the U.S. State Department announces the suspension of bilateral talks with Russia about the cessation of hostilities in Syria, as Russia and the Syrian government continue to pursue a military course despite the ceasefire accord. (CNN), (UPI)
Russia and weapons of mass destruction
- Russian President Vladimir Putin suspends the 2000 treaty with the United States on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium (Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement) (Russian). (Reuters)

Law and crime

The U.S. Supreme Court declines to rehear President Barack Obama's 2014 plan (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) to spare from deportation millions of immigrants in the country illegally, a case in which the justices split 4–4 in June. The justices' June 23 decision (United States v. Texas) is final. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Colombian peace agreement referendum, 2016
- FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño (Timoleón) says his troops will honor its commitments to the Colombian government, including the permanent cease-fire, despite voters rejection of the peace accord in Sunday's referendum. President Juan Manuel Santos calls the country's political parties to an emergency meeting. (AP) (The Washington Post via The Chicago Tribune)

October 4, 2016 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sectarianism in Pakistan
- An apparent sectarian attack by two motorcyclists who open fire on a bus traveling to Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan, kills four women from Pakistan's Shia Hazara and injures two other people. (The Daily Mail), (Dawn), (Firstpost)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- A security operation by the Somali Army in Lower Shabelle region kills 14 al-Shabaab fighters. (World Bulletin)

Business and economy

Following the June 23 Brexit vote, the exchange rate for the British pound reaches a 31-year low against the United States dollar. (BBC)
Poland's Development Ministry cancels the April 2015 tender contract for the purchase of 50 Caracal helicopters from Airbus Helicopters, worth US$ 3.5 billion. (Deutsche Welle), (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Weather forecasters track Hurricane Matthew as it makes landfall in Haiti and issue hurricane warnings for Cuba and the Bahamas. (The National Hurricane Center)
- A bridge in Haiti connecting Port-au-Prince with southern Haiti collapses. The storm has killed at least nine people in the Caribbean. (CNN), (AP via WTVD)
- Hurricane Matthew makes landfall near the eastern tip of Cuba. (The National Hurricane Center)
- Governors in four American states, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, issue states of emergency orders with Matthew expected to reach Florida on October 7. (CNN)
  - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley urges 1.1 million coastal residents to evacuate before Matthew hits this weekend. (UPI)
European migrant crisis
- Authorities find at least 28 migrants dead off the coast of Libya in a day of frantic rescues. (AFP via France 24)
A series of explosions in an apartment building in Harbin, China, kills at least three people and injures dozens more. (UPI)

Health

The journal JAMA Neurology publishes findings from the Medical Research Council of a simple urine test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (known as the human variant of mad cow disease), which is caused by deposits of prions. The current testing protocol is to obtain a sample of cerebrospinal fluid or brain tissue, or wait for a post-mortem after death. (BBC), (UPI)
Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson warns that one of its Wi-Fi enabled insulin pumps for diabetics (OneTouch Ping pump) is at risk of being hacked, causing an overdose. (BBC)

International relations

Philippines–United States relations
- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte tells U.S. President Barack Obama to "go to hell" after the United States refuses to sell some weapons to his country, while also acknowledging the cooperation of Russia and China. (Reuters)

Law and crime

2016 Turkish purges
- Turkish authorities suspend nearly 12,800 police officers from duty over their suspected links with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. (Reuters)
- Turkish security forces raid the headquarters of IMC TV in Istanbul, cutting its transmissions while it was live on air, for allegedly broadcasting "terror propaganda". (Gulf News)
German prosecutors drop a case against comedian Jan Böhmermann, who had been indicted for a satirical poem about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (BBC)
The scandal over improper practices of unauthorized accounts at Wells Fargo extends to thousands of small-business owners. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, and the Governor of Indiana Mike Pence hold the first and only vice-presidential debate of the 2016 presidential election at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. (RTE)
Diane James resigns as the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party after just 18 days in charge. (Sky News)
Colombian peace process, Referendum
- Colombian government and FARC representatives meet in Havana, and President Juan Manuel Santos will meet with presidential predecessors Álvaro Uribe, the accord opposition leader, and Andrés Pastrana Arango, to continue negotiations to end the 52-year war that has killed around a quarter of a million people. (Reuters), (Deutsche Welle)
Manx general election, 2016
- The House of Keys elects Howard Quayle Chief Minister of the Isle of Man with a majority of 21 votes (Manx Radio)
Curaçao general election, 2016
- The government of Curaçao Prime Minister Ben Whiteman resigns ahead of the Curaçao general election on October 5. (The Curaçao Chronicle)

Science and technology

British scientists, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and John M. Kosterlitz, are awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter". (BBC), (Nobel prize)

Sports

In an appeals review, the International Tennis Federation states that tennis players will not be able to plead ignorance if they test positive for banned substances. The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduces Maria Sharapova's two-year ban to 15 months. She tested positive for meldonium. (BBC)

October 5, 2016 (Wednesday)

Business and economy

Mexican tequila producer Jose Cuervo will delay its IPO until after the U.S. presidential election due to concern over potential market volatility. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Chaba heads for western Japan with the islands of Shikoku and Kyushu experiencing heavy rainfall. (AAP via SBS)
- Chaba leaves at least four people dead, and three others missing in South Korea. (The Korea Times)
An Israeli Air Force F-16 crashes while attempting to land at Ramon Airbase in southern Israel, killing the pilot. A navigator who was also in the aircraft successfully ejects and escapes the incident unharmed. (Haaretz)
2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Matthew kills at least 26 people on the island of Hispaniola; 22 in Haiti and four more in the Dominican Republic. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicts the storm, currently a Category 3 with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h), will strengthen as it moves across the Bahamas tonight and tomorrow, and be near the east coast of Florida by tomorrow evening. (Reuters), (The National Hurricane Center), (The National Hurricane Center), (Reuters)
- Haiti's electoral council postpones the country's presidential election scheduled for October 9. (The Miami Herald)

International relations

United Nations Secretary-General selection, 2016
- The United Nations Security Council affirms the first step in the election of Portuguese António Guterres as the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. If ratified by the General Assembly, he will take office on January 1, 2017. (CNN)
Paris climate change agreement
- The Paris Agreement on climate change which governs greenhouse gas emissions will take effect in November. (Reuters)
Russia and weapons of mass destruction, Russia–United States relations
- Russian President Vladimir Putin suspends the 2013 nuclear agreement with the United States concerning uranium research. (Reuters)
Syrian peace process
- France seeks United States and Russian support for a Security Council resolution to impose a new truce that will allow aid into Aleppo, which has experienced two weeks of heavy Syrian and Russian bombing of rebel-held areas. (Reuters)

Law and crime

2016 Turkish purges
- Turkish authorities detain 55 military and intelligence agency personnel over suspected links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen. (Reuters)
The United States Department of Justice charges a top secret security clearance National Security Agency contractor, Harold Thomas Martin III, with theft of government property and unauthorised removal of "highly classified" materials. (BBC)
Police in the western Indian city of Thane arrest more than 750 people suspected of defrauding U.S. citizens from a fake call center. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Curaçao general election, 2016
- Voters in Curaçao go to the polls to elect the 21 members of the Estates of Curaçao. The election had been delayed from September 30 due to Hurricane Matthew. (The Curaçao Chronicle)

Science and technology

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Scotsman Sir Fraser Stoddart, and Dutchman Ben Feringa win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their research into nanotechnology. (BBC)
Aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin tests its New Shepard reusable launch system in Van Horn, Texas. (BBC)

October 6, 2016 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- An al-Shabaab attack on a village near the Kenyan town of Mandera results in six deaths. (Reuters), (Capital FM Kenya)
A bombing in rebel controlled Atme, Idlib Governorate, near the Syria–Turkey border, kills at least 29 people, mostly rebel fighters, and injures dozens more. ISIL claims responsibility. (BBC), (Scroll.in)
A motorcycle bomb in the Yenibosna neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, injures 10 civilians. (Reuters)
Unknown assailants attack a refugee camp near the village of Tassalit, in Niger's Tahoua Region, killing at least 22 soldiers. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Matthew moves towards the United States with hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated from the states of Florida and South Carolina. (USA Today)
- Matthew gains strength and again becomes a Category 4 storm with 140 mph (220 km/h) maximum sustained winds. (AP via Philly.com), (The National Hurricane Center)
- The death toll is at least 140 people with 136 in Haiti. (Reuters)
- President Barack Obama declares a state of emergency for Florida, freeing up federal money and personnel to protect lives and property. (The Miami Herald)
- The eye of the hurricane moves over the western end of Grand Bahama, the northernmost island in The Bahama Archipelago. (The National Hurricane Center)

Law and crime

Pakistan's government removes a loophole allowing those behind so-called honor killings to go free with the new legislation instead requiring a mandatory life sentence. (BBC)

Politics and elections

An altercation with a fellow UKIP MEP inside the European Parliament leaves UK Independence Party, Member of the European Parliament, and current UKIP party leadership favorite Steven Woolfe hospitalized. (The Daily Telegraph)

October 7, 2016 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in Balochistan
- Two bombs explode on a train near the town of Machh, Pakistan, killing at least six people with nineteen more injured. (AP via The New York Times)

Business and economy

The pound sterling sustains a flash crash, dropping from an exchange rate of $1.23 per pound to $1.13 in a few minutes of trading today, then gaining much of it back. Observers blame this development on algorithmic trading. (MIT Technology Review)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Matthew hits the southeastern United States as the death toll in Haiti rises to at least 877. (Reuters), (Sky News), (AP), (ITV)
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- Authorities confirm that a wing part found in Mauritius in May is part of the aircraft from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. (AP via The Miami Herald)

International relations

2016 Nobel Peace Prize
- The Nobel Prize committee awards Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 thousand Colombians and displaced close to six million people. (Nobel Prize), (The Guardian)
Philippines–United States relations
- The Philippines Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana suspends participation in any joint patrols with the United States in the disputed South China Sea. Lorenzana will ask a detachment of 107 U.S. troops providing counterterrorism assistance on the southern island of Mindanao to leave as President Rodrigo Duterte requested. (The Philippine Star)
Myanmar–United States relations
- The Obama administration lifts U.S. sanctions on Myanmar by terminating an emergency order that deemed the policies of the former military government a threat to U.S. national security. (Reuters)
Russia-United States relations, Democratic National Committee cyber attacks
- The Obama administration formally accuses the Russian government of cyber attacks against the U.S. Democratic Party in influencing presidential election. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Mylan pays US$465 million to settle its underpayment to U.S. government healthcare programs by misclassifying its epinephrine autoinjector emergency allergy treatment. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Moroccan general election, 2016
- Voters in Morocco go to the polls for a general election with the ruling Justice and Development Party winning the most seats. (AP), (Deutsche Welle)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Donald Trump Access Hollywood controversy
  - A video shows U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump having a lewd conversation about women in 2005. (The Washington Post)
  - Donald Trump issues a statement calling the conversation "locker room banter" and writes, "I apologize if anyone was offended." (The Business Insider)
- WikiLeaks releases over 2000 emails from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman and former Counselor to the President John Podesta. (Fox News)

October 8, 2016 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Saudi-led coalition jets launch airstrikes on civilians at the funeral of the father of the Houthi government's Interior Minister in Sana'a, killing at least 140 people, and injuring over 500 more. One of the dead is the mayor of Sana'a, Abdul-Qader Hilal. (The Independent), (BBC), (Reuters)
Terrorism in Bangladesh
- Raids by security forces on Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh in Gazipur leave 11 militants dead. (The Hindustan Times), (Reuters), (The Voice of America News)

Business and economy

The Hungarian newspaper Népszabadság shuts down after 60 years amid significant financial losses. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Matthew, responsible for killing 13 people and knocking out power to 2.2 million households and businesses in the Southeastern United States, is now a Category 1 hurricane (75 mph;120 km/h winds) approaching the North Carolina coast. (Reuters), (The National Hurricane Center), (ABC News)

International relations

Russian President Vladimir Putin deploys the nuclear-capable Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system to the Russian Kaliningrad exclave between Poland and Lithuania. (BBC)
Syrian civil war, Syrian peace process
- Russia vetoes a French-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that calls for a ceasefire in Aleppo. China, which had backed Russia's four previous Syria-related vetoes, abstains. (NBC News/Reuters)

Law and crime

2016 Chemnitz terrorism plot
- After authorities in Chemnitz, Germany, uncover a suspected terrorist bombing plot, police seek the suspect. (BBC)
A gunman shoots three police officers in Palm Springs, California, leaving two dead and one injured. (The Los Angeles Times)

Politics and elections

Georgian parliamentary election, 2016
- Voters in Georgia go to the polls for a legislative election. (Reuters)

October 9, 2016 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- A suspected PKK car bomb kills at least 17 people, and injures 27 others in Turkey's southeast Hakkâri Province. (The Independent)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
- A Palestinian gunman opens fire from a vehicle on people waiting at a train station and then the nearby police headquarters in Jerusalem, killing at least two people, including a police officer, and injuring six others. Israeli police kill the gunman. (BBC)
Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- The United States Navy's destroyer USS Mason comes under missile attack in the Red Sea, off the coast of Yemen. The two missiles, fired from Yemeni territory controlled by Iranian-backed Houthis, impacted the water well before reaching the ship, according to Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis announces the upcoming creation of 17 new Cardinals; 13 of them will be under the age of 80 and thus able to vote in a future papal conclave to select the new Pope. (The Vatican Information Service)

Disasters and accidents

An Afghan Armed Forces Mi-17 helicopter crashes in northern Afghanistan with all seven people onboard, four crewmen and three passengers, dying. (AFP via The Bangkok Post)
A man driving the wrong way on Interstate 89 in Williston, Vermont, kills five people, all local high school juniors. (The Burlington Free Press), (AP via Fox News)

Law and crime

2016 Ethiopian protests
- Ethiopia's government declares a six-month state of emergency amid continuing protests, especially in the restive Oromia Region. (BBC)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election debates, 2016
- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hold the second presidential debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential election at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in a "town meeting" format. (CBS News)
Lithuanian parliamentary election, 2016
- Voters in Lithuania vote to elect representatives for the 141-seat parliament. (Bloomberg via The Chicago Tribune)
A court sentences former Communist Party Secretary of Yunnan province, Bai Enpei, to death for corruption and amassing wealth of unclear origin. (The South China Morning Post)
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, the world's longest reigning monarch, is in unstable condition after a hemodialysis treatment. (Reuters), (Al Jazeera)

October 10, 2016 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A suicide bombing kills at least 14 people, mostly police officers, in Lashkargah, Helmand Province, as Taliban insurgents advance upon the Afghan city. (The Voice of America)
- A gunman kills 14 people at a Shi'ite shrine in Kabul on a holy day. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
- A series of attacks in Rakhine State kill nine police officers and eight militants. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

Polish film director and recipient of an Academy Honorary Award Andrzej Wajda dies at the age of 90. (BBC)

Business and economy

British-born American Oliver Hart and Finnish Bengt Holmström win the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on the science of contracts. (BBC)
Samsung recalls and suspends production of its reformulated-version of Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to the same persistent problem with battery fires and explosions. (The Japan Times)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Matthew
- The death toll in the United States from Hurricane Matthew rises to 27 with at least five people still missing in North Carolina. Governor Pat McCrory warns that the state's swollen rivers are still rising with flooding continuing to pose threats to life and property this week. The storm, downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone yesterday, moves away from the U.S. coastline on an east-northeast track. (The Washington Post), (The National Hurricane Center), (GPS locator)
- Matthew's death toll in Haiti rises to at least one thousand, with victims being buried in mass graves. An unknown number of people remain missing and authorities report that cholera is spreading in the hardest hit-areas in the country's southwest. (AP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)

October 11, 2016 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan, Violence against Shia Muslims
- A gunman, reportedly wearing an Afghan police uniform, kills at least 14 people and wounds dozens more in the Shiite Karte Sakhi shrine in Kabul on the beginning of Ashura. Police kill the attacker. (UPI), (Reuters)
Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
- In a third day of fighting, an attack in Rakhine State kills four Myanmar soldiers. (BBC)
Yemeni Crisis
- The Obama administration through the U.S. Defense Department says it will take appropriate action against those responsible for October 9 unsuccessful cruise missile attack, apparently fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, upon the USS Mason. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel official report that Russian jets have resumed heavy bombing, and, in total, have now killed at least 50 civilians in villages surrounding rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Reuters), (Sky News United Kingdom)

Business and economy

Samsung announces an end of production of the Galaxy Note 7 after continued problems with its battery. (The Verge)
Following the Brexit vote and the subsequent drop in the exchange rate of the British pound to U.S. dollar, the FTSE 100 Index reaches an all-time intra-day high of 7,129. (Sky News United Kingdom)
Computer security firm Symantec warns a second hacking group, going by the name Odinaff, is trying to rob banks using fraudulent SWIFT messages, the same approach that yielded U.S.$81 million in February's attack on Bangladesh's central bank. So far, the group has infected 10 to 20 organizations with this malware. (Reuters), (Investopedia)

Disasters and accidents

A residential building collapses in the eastern China city of Wenzhou, leaving at least 22 people dead. (CNN)
Hurricane Matthew
- The United Nations launches an emergency appeal for almost U.S.$120 million in life-saving help for 750,000 survivors in Haiti at risk of starvation and/or cholera. (NBC News)
Jordanian student pilot Feras Freitekh kills himself and attempts to kill his flight instructor, when their small Piper PA-34 Seneca airplane crashes in East Hartford Connecticut. Investigators conclude the crash was an intentional act motivated by suicide based on the surviving instructor who said there was an argument and struggle for control. The FBI investigates. Reuters

Health

2015–16 Zika virus epidemic
- The World Health Organization warns that the Zika virus will continue to spread across Asia with cases already reported in Singapore and Thailand. (BBC)

Law and crime

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in a patent dispute between Apple Inc. and Samsung concerning both company's smart phone designs (Samsung Electronics v. Apple (15-777)). (Reuters)
The Obama administration through the U.S. Department of Justice announces that they will file criminal contempt of court charges against Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for violating a judge's order to stop immigration patrols that led to a court finding of racial profiling. The charges carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail. (NPR), (Arizona Central)
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma City reports that an unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher, shot dead on September 16, by a white police officer, Betty Jo Shelby, had acute PCP intoxication. Authorities charged her with first-degree manslaughter. (AP via Fox News)

Science and technology

Astronomers announce that 2014 UZ224 is the third most distant Solar System object known from our Sun, currently over 90 times the Earth's distance from the Sun (90.8 AU or 8.44 billion miles), after Eris (96.2 AU) and V774104 (~103 AU). (The International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center)

October 12, 2016 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War
- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi rejects Turkey's claim that Turkish forces must be included in an operation to retake the militant-held city of Mosul. (The Military Times)
War in Afghanistan, Violence against Shia Muslims
- A bomb explosion among crowds of Shiite Muslims gathered to mark Ashura, one of their holiest commemorations, kills at least 12 people and wounds 28 others. Also, authorities revise the death toll to 17 from yesterday's attack on a Kabul Shiite shrine. (The Washington Post)
Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
- The four-day death toll from fighting in Rakhine State stands at 39, including 13 army and police personnel. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

American popstar Janet Jackson announces that she is pregnant with her first child at the age of 50. (CNN)

Business and economy

John Stumpf resigns as CEO and chairman of Wells Fargo amid a scandal over its sales practices. (BBC)
The U.S. firm Concentrix, which is used by the British government to cut tax credit payments, suffers a data protection breach where some claimants have had their personal information such as bank statements, self assessment details, and National Insurance numbers sent to other claimants. (BBC)

International relations

Foreign relations of Burundi
- The Parliament of Burundi votes overwhelmingly to withdraw Burundi from the Dutch-based International Criminal Court. (Reuters)

October 13, 2016 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- The U.S. military launches Tomahawk cruise missiles from the USS Nitze against Houthi-controlled radar sites in Yemen following two incidents in which, according to U.S. military, missiles were fired on United States Navy vessels in the Red Sea. (Reuters), (NBC News)
Boko Haram
- Negotiations between the Nigerian president's administration and Islamist militants free 21 of the 270 schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria (leaving 218 victims still unaccounted for). (BBC)

Arts and culture

American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. (NPR)
UNESCO declares the Western Wall an "Islamic site" and refrains from mentioning its connection to Jewish culture. Over half the voting countries chose to abstain. (The International Business Times)

Business and economics

The Obama administration's Treasury Department, in a move against corporate tax inversions, enacts regulations to combat a key tax-reduction technique known as earnings stripping. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Nicole impacts Bermuda at Category 3 strength, making it the strongest hurricane to effect the British Overseas Territory since Hurricane Fabian in 2003. (The Weather Channel), (The Alabama Media Group)
Hurricane Matthew
- The death toll in North Carolina rises to 22 as flood waters continue to rise. Governor Pat McCrory says places that had a foot of water in the morning, were under 12 feet of water. (Reuters)
A plane crash near Kelowna, BC, kills Canadian politician and former Premier of Alberta Jim Prentice along with three others. (CBC)

International relations

The Maldives leaves the Commonwealth of Nations after 34 years, claiming that it has been "unfairly and unjustly" treated by the intergovernmental organization. (The Telegraph)
The United Nations General Assembly officially appoints former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres its next Secretary-General. (BBC), (The Wall Street Journal)
Proposed second Scottish independence referendum, Brexit
- Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon will introduce a bill launching a new referendum to determine the final status of the country. (BBC)

Law and crime

Cyberthieves inject 5,925 online web retailers with website software malicious code that is stealing the credit card details of customers. (BBC)

Politics and elections

The King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej dies at the age of 88. He was the world's longest currently serving monarch. (The Canberra Times)
Colombian peace process
- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos extends his ceasefire with the FARC rebels through the end of the year. (Reuters)

October 14, 2016 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sinai insurgency
- A suspected ISIL attack on a security checkpoint in North Sinai Governorate, Egypt, leaves at least 12 Egyptian military personnel and 15 terrorists dead. (Reuters), (CNN)
Yemeni Civil War
- An explosion that targeted a funeral in Ma'rib for a top Yemeni army commander, kills five people, including the deceased's brother, and injures 15 more. (AP via Fox News), (The Indian Express)

Disasters and accidents

A bus crashes and catches fire carrying tourists returning from a China tour on the Gyeongbu Expressway near Ulsan, South Korea, leaving ten people killed and nine injured. (AP)

Health

Surgeons separate craniopagus conjoined twin boys in New York City. (BBC)

Law and crime

A London-based trader who traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Navinder Singh Sarao, accused of contributing to the 2010 Wall Street "flash crash" by placing bogus orders to spoof the market, fails in his legal bid to stop extradition and will now be sent to the United States to face trial where he is wanted by U.S. authorities on 22 criminal counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, and market manipulation. A judge initially approved his extradition in March, and today his bid to launch an appeal against that decision was rejected, ending his 18-month legal fight. He will now be extradited within 28 days. (Reuters)
A retrial court finds Welsh footballer Ched Evans not guilty. He had previously been sentenced to five years imprisonment for rape in 2012. (BBC)
Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal
- Volkswagen agrees to pay $175 million to United States lawyers suing the German automaker on behalf of the owners of 475,000 polluting vehicles. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej
- Thailand declares today a government holiday for mourning King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death. (Reuters)
- Per Section 24 of the Constitution, Thailand formally confirms as the Regent pro tempore Prem Tinsulanonda, the President of the Privy Council and the former confidant of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. (The Bangkok Post), (The Irrawaddy)
Cuba–United States relations
- President Barack Obama issues an executive order on Cuba lifting monetary limits on the amount of Cuban products, including cigars and rum, which Americans can bring back for personal use, allowing Cubans and Americans to engage in joint medical research, and allowing Cubans to buy certain U.S. consumer goods online. (The New York Times), (The Miami Herald), (The Havana Times)

October 15, 2016 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present), 2016 October Baghdad attacks
- Attacks targeting a Shi'ite Muslim gathering, a police check-point, and the family of an anti-Islamic State Sunni paramilitary leader, kill at least 55 people in Iraq. (Reuters)
- ISIL claims responsibility as a response to take back launching of its stronghold Mosul by the Iraqi forces. (TeleSUR)
Russian border patrol officers open fire on a North Korean fishing vessel, leaving one fisherman dead, and eight others injured. (RT)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Saudi Arabia accepts the finding of the Joint Incidents Assessment Team, a setup of coalition states to investigate complaints against coalitions conduct in Decisive Storm, that the October 8 coalition’s bombardment at a funeral ceremony in Sana'a, in which over 140 people were killed and more than 600 injured, was based on wrong information. (Arab News), (Samaa TV)
Syrian Civil War
- Turkish-backed rebels advance on the symbolic ISIL-controlled town of Dabiq, in northern Syria. ISIL believes Dabiq is the location where an apocalyptic battle will take place shortly before the end of the world. (BBC)
Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- For a third time in a week, Houthi forces in Yemen unsuccessfully fire upon the United States Navy's USS Mason while the ship is in international waters of the Red Sea. (NBC News)
Sinai insurgency
- Egyptian government airstrikes on jihadist targets in North Sinai Governorate, leave at least 100 terrorists killed and 40 others wounded. (Xinhua Net)

Arts and culture

A wildlife sanctuary for rescued elephants opens in Brazil. (BBC)

Business and economy

Google introduces a so-called "fact checking" feature on its news aggregate service to combat alleged political bias. (The Los Angeles Times)
The U.S. Transportation Department's emergency order banning Samsung Galaxy Note 7 from aircraft in the United States goes into effect. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

A stampede among Hindu pilgrims headed to Varanasi, India, kills at least 24 people and injures at least 20. (Reuters), (AP via The New York Times)
2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Sarika (Karen) arrives at Luzon, Philippines, with the storm's future direction predicted to be toward Vietnam. (The Independent)
A pickup truck hurls off San Diego, California's Coronado Bridge, plummets some 60 feet, and crashes onto a park where hundreds of people had gathered for a motorcycle rally, killing four people in a vendor's booth and injuring eight others. (Reuters)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Syrian child refugees previously settled in the Calais jungle legally immigrate into England. (The Guardian)
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- The United States Defense Department reports its Strategic Command systems detected a failed North Korean ballistic missile launch near the city of Kusong in North Pyongan Province. (CNN)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin sign several agreements including a $12.9 billion defense and energy deal. Russian state oil major Rosneft pays for a controlling stake in both India's Essar Oil and port facilities that it already owns. (Reuters)

Law and crime

A gun battle that started when three armed men returned to a restaurant in Los Angeles, leaves 3 people dead and 12 others wounded. Police set up a dragnet for the suspects. (The Los Angeles Times)
Police in China detain 75 people in connection with a service that determined the female gender of unborn babies for the purpose of abortion. Authorities say that at least 300 people were involved in the illegal service in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Expectant parents wanting male children smuggled fetal blood samples to Hong Kong for gender testing. China ended its one-child policy last year. (BBC)
Judge Vivien Rose of London's High Court, finds in favor of Goldman Sachs, that the bank is not liable for the failure of highly speculative trades made by the sovereign wealth fund of Libya. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Montreal Protocol
- The Obama administration agrees to an international limit on the use of hydrofluorocarbon gases in refrigeration and air conditioning. (BBC)

October 16, 2016 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Turkey–ISIL conflict
- A suicide bomber kills three police officers and wounds at least nine people in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep during a police raid on a suspected ISIL safehouse. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels seize control of the symbolic town of Dabiq, Aleppo Governorate, following clashes with ISIL militants. (NBC News)
War in Donbass
- A bomb placed in an elevator shaft kills Pro-Russian, high-ranking officer of the Donetsk People's Republic's special forces, Arseny Pavlov, also known as "Motorola", in Donetsk. (TASS), (The Kyiv Post)

Arts and culture

The Simpsons, the longest-running American, prime time, scripted television series, airs its 600th episode. (CNN)
Pope Francis declares seven new saints. {Vatican Radio)

Disasters and accidents

The collapse of a footbridge connecting the islands of Lembongan and Ceningan, near Bali, Indonesia, leaves 9 dead and 30 injured. (The New York Times)

International relations

Yemeni Crisis
- The United States and the United Kingdom call for, "within hours," an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Yemen to end the violence following last week's Saudi airstrikes, based on bad information, that killed around 140 people. (Reuters), (The Guardian)

Law and crime

An arsonist firebombs a Republican Party office in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and leaves a graffiti message reading, "Nazi Republicans get out of town or else." (CNN)

Politics and elections

Montenegrin parliamentary election, 2016
- With over 95 percent of votes counted, Prime Minister Milo Đukanović's Democratic Party of Socialists receives the most votes in this quadrennial election, but, by five seats, fails to gain an absolute majority. Djukanovic says he will seek a coalition with parties of national minorities. (Reuters)

Science and technology

ExoMars project
- The European Space Agency-Roscosmos operated Schiaparelli EDM lander successfully separates from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, beginning a three-day descent to the surface of Mars. (Reuters)

Sports

Anthony Foley, coach of Irish rugby union team Munster, dies suddenly at the age of 42 in a hotel near Paris. Officials postpone Munster's European Rugby Champions Cup match against Racing 92. (BBC)

October 17, 2016 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War
- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announces the start of the Battle of Mosul, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, to retake ISIL-held Mosul, the self-declared caliphate's capital in Iraq. (Reuters), (Reuters²)
War in Afghanistan
- The Vice President of Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, survives yet another assassination attempt. (Reuters)
Clashes between rival gangs in at least two prisons in Brazil, leave at least 18 people killed. (Reuters)
South Sudanese Civil War
- Clashes between government troops and rebels in South Sudan, leave at least 56 people killed. (The Chicago Tribune), (The Wire)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Floods in Central Vietnam, triggered by Typhoon Sarika's heavy rains, kill at least 24 people with 4 others missing. Sarika has killed at least two people and displaced more than 150,000 in the Philippines. (AP)
Two buses collide near the city of Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, killing at least 30 people and injuring 69 others. (ITV News)
An explosion and fire in Ludwigshafen, at the largest production site of BASF in Germany, kills at least two people and injures six more with two people still missing. BASF is the world's biggest chemical producer. (Reuters)
A fire breaks out at a hospital in the East Indian city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, killing at least 20 people. (BBC)

International relations

Yemeni Civil War
- The United Nations announces that the warring parties in Yemen have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting October 19 at 23:59 AST (4:59 EDT). (AP), (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- The European Union condemns Russia's air campaign in Syria, saying it may be guilty of war crimes, and it vowed to impose more sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government. The bloc's 28 foreign ministers sought to show their anger at the Russian-backed campaign, which has killed several hundred people including dozens of children since the collapse of a truce brokered by Russia and the United States. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson in Seminole County, Florida, sentences Matthew Apperson, convicted by a jury last month of second-degree attempted murder, to 20 years in prison for shooting at George Zimmerman, who had shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

American conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe releases a series of videos allegedly showing conversations with, among others, Scott Foval, the former national field director of Americans United for Change, speaking about his hiring of people to sabotage rallies for Donald Trump by staging fights in them in a process Foval called "bird dogging". (Salon)

Science and technology

Shenzhou program
- China launches Shenzhou 11, the country's sixth manned spaceflight mission and the first one to the Tiangong-2 space laboratory, with two taikonauts on a 30-day mission. (Reuters), (AP)
NASA's Commercial Resupply Services
- Orbital ATK Antares 230 rocket launches carrying an unmanned resupply spacecraft, the Cygnus CRS OA-5 cargo ship, to the International Space Station from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The mission returns the Antares rocket to flight after an anomaly on October 28, 2014, caused an Antares-series rocket to explode seconds after liftoff. (Space.com), (NASA via You Tube)

October 18, 2016 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia
- Somali police say at least seven are dead after clashes as Somali and African Union troops pushed back al-Shabab extremists from Afgooye, a town near Mogadishu. (AP)
Clashes between Pygmy and Bantu tribes in Tanganyika region of Democratic Republic of Congo leave 20 people dead. (Africa News)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- The death toll in Vietnam, from Typhoon Sarika, rises to at least 31 people. (Fox News)

International relations

UNESCO's executive board approves the "Occupied Palestine" resolution which reaffirms the cultural heritage of Palestine, especially East Jerusalem, and criticizes certain Israeli actions regarding the Palestinian territories. For the land in Jerusalem where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, the board uses only Islamic naming terms without also mentioning Jewish or Christian historical references. (AP), (BBC), (Haaretz)
War in Donbass
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel invites the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, and France to meet tomorrow in Berlin to discuss peace efforts in eastern Ukraine. (AP), (Reuters)

Science and technology

Applications of nanotechnology
- While attempting to create a nanotechnology-based, catalyst-mediated series of chemical reactions to turn carbon dioxide (CO
  2) (a greenhouse gas) into a usable fuel, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory instead discover a single-step process using the surface area of tiny spikes of copper and carbon as a catalyst to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol (CH
  3CH
  2OH). The reaction may serve as a method to alleviate possible climate change by both decreasing CO
  2 in the atmosphere and by using the ethanol as an additive to fuels to increase efficiency and thereby decrease consumption. (Popular Mechanics), (The Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

October 19, 2016 (Wednesday)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- The Philippine government places more than two dozen provinces on alert before Typhoon Haima makes landfall over Luzon. Haima, downgraded by the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System to a Category 4 storm, landfalls Cagayan province in the island's northeast. Weather forecasters expect the storm to impact up to 2.7 million people before veering northwest toward the Chinese coast on October 21. (Media Corp Press Today Online), (CNN via KCCI), (The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System)
A natural gas explosion damages several buildings and injures eight people in downtown Portland, Oregon. (The Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The European Space Agency fails to contact its Schiaparelli lander during its descent through the atmosphere of the planet Mars. (The Guardian)
NASA's Juno probe, in orbit around Jupiter, enters safe mode. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

The Attorney General of Mexico issues an arrest warrant for the former Governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, for suspected involvement in organized crime and money laundering. (Reuters)
A police dispersal occurs between combined minority groups and anti-U.S. activists and the Philippine National Police in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Police arrest 30 protesters with 60 people injured, several rammed by a police van driven during the dispersal. (Rappler), (The Manila Bulletin), (Al Jazeera)
Czech police announce the arrest of a man at a Prague hotel two weeks ago who they claim is a Russian hacker suspected of targeting the U.S. (CBS News)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump meet for the third presidential debate of the 2016 U.S. election at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. (The Telegraph)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reshuffles his cabinet, replacing culture, education, and sports ministers. The new ministers still need the parliament's approval. (Mehr), (The Tehran Times)
Croatian parliamentary election, 2016
- Croatian lawmakers approve conservative Croatian Democratic Union party leader Andrej Plenković's new coalition government 91–45. (AP), (Reuters)

Sports

Major League Baseball
- The Cleveland Indians defeat the Toronto Blue Jays and win the American League Championship Series 4–1, advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1997. Major League Baseball names Cleveland reliever Andrew Miller the series Most Valuable Player. (AP via ESPN)

October 20, 2016 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Turkish military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Turkish jets hit Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia with 26 airstrikes in three recently-captured-from-ISIL villages west of al-Bab and northeast of Aleppo. The Turkish General Staff says between 160 and 200 have been killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports 11 dead and dozens of people wounded. (Reuters), (USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Haima, the second tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in less than a week, kills at least seven people and causes flooding, landslides, and power outages before heading out to sea. (AP via The New York Times), (The Epoch Times), (BBC)

International relations

Philippines–United States relations
- Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte says he plans to cut ties with his country's former colonial ruler, the United States, while strengthening ties with China. (The Guardian)
Canada–European Union relations
- The European Union calls an emergency two-day meeting about the planned EU-Canada free trade agreement, approved by all 28 EU member governments but held up by the "non" vote in Walloonia, one of Belgium's five sub-federal administrations. (NASDAQ), (Reuters), (The New York Times)
South Africa will notify the United Nations that the country is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC). This separation would take effect one year from when notice is formally received by the U.N. Secretary-General. Last week, Burundi's parliament voted to leave the ICC, but the required paperwork has not yet reached the U.N. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Brazilian prosecutors file homicide charges against 21 people employed by the companies Samarco, Vale, and BHP Billiton for the November 2015 iron ore mine dam burst in the state of Minas Gerais that killed 19 people and polluted waterways. (BBC)
Following his October 5 arrest, U.S. federal prosecutors in Baltimore charge Harold T. Martin III, a former National Security Agency contractor, for violating the Espionage Act, specifically, with felony theft of government property. Prosecutors state that, over a 20-year time period, Martin stole at least 50 terabytes of data and "six full bankers boxes" of classified and other documents. The prosecutors state that Martin had an “arsenal” of weapons in his home. (The Washington Post)

Science and technology

The journal Scientific Reports publishes research from a team, led by Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum's Stephen Poropat, reporting the discovery of a new Australian dinosaur species, Savannasaurus elliottorum, using fossils first found in 2005 at Winton, Queensland, Australia. (The Verge)

October 21, 2016 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- ISIL militants launch attacks on government buildings, police stations, and a power station in the city of Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurdistan, killing dozens of people. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Per Wästberg, a member of the Swedish Academy, says that songwriter and artist Bob Dylan has not yet indicated whether he intends to accept the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. (BBC), (The Guardian)

Business and economy

British American Tobacco offers to buy out U.S. cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc in a $47 billion takeover that would create the world's biggest listed tobacco company. (Reuters)
AT&T reportedly agrees in principle to buy Time Warner for about $85 billion. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Tottori Prefecture in western Japan. Local media report that there are 14 injuries in Kurayoshi. Tottori is Japan's least populous prefecture. (Bloomberg), (BNO News)
A chemical spill at the MGP Ingredients plant in Atchison, Kansas, United States, injures 26 people and leads to evacuations. The spill of sodium hypochlorite and sulfuric acid produces a toxic fog. (The Kansas City Star)
Authorities evacuate London City Airport after a chemical incident, but, after some remediation, police later declare the airport safe. (CNN)
2016 Eséka train derailment
- A passenger train derails in central Cameroon, killing at least 53 people and injuring 575 others. (Africa News), (Reuters)
A Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes and leaves at least 19 dead and three others injured on the Yamal Peninsula in Russia's Extreme North. (Radio Free Europe)

International relations

South Africa formally begins the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court amid a dispute over the country's refusal to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir at last year's African Union summit in Johannesburg. (BBC)

Law and crime

The pursuit of a car jacking suspect in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, leaves four police officers injured and hospitalized. (The Albuquerque Journal)
October 2016 Dyn cyberattack
- A series of cyberattacks utilizing distributed denial-of-service attacks, targeting networks operated by DNS provider Dyn, makes major Internet platforms and services unavailable to large swaths of users in Europe and North America. Affected companies include Amazon, Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, PayPal, Netflix, and Airbnb. (The Wall Street Journal)
2014 Iguala mass kidnapping
- After two years on the run, Mexican officials arrest the former police chief of a Mexican city, Felipe Flores, capturing him in Iguala in the southern state of Guerrero. The city is where 43 students disappeared in September 2014. The police arrested the students and then handed them over to a drug cartel who killed them and incinerated their bodies. (BBC)

Science and technology

The Tennessee Valley Authority completes the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, the first U.S. nuclear reactor to enter commercial operation in 20 years. (CNN)

October 22, 2016 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present), Battle of Mosul (2016)
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executes at least 284 people in Mosul. (CNN), (RT)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Eséka train derailment
- The death toll from the October 21 crash of a Camrail train rises to at least 73 people with another 600 wounded. (AP via Fox News), (NPR)

International relations

Philippines–United States relations
- Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay states that the United States remains our "closest friend," but that the Philippines wants to break away and forge closer ties with other nations. (Reuters)

Law and crime

At least 174 inmates escape in Arcahaie, Haiti, leaving one guard dead. Authorities seek the fugitives with support from UN peacekeepers. (Reuters)
October 2016 Dyn cyberattack
- Security analysts state that the October 21 denial-of-service attacks on Internet performance management company Dyn was perpetrated using Mirai malware-created botnets that used consumer internet of things (IoT) smart devices, such as digital video recorders, cable set-top boxes, routers, etc. Technology experts warn that the security included with IoT is weak, or sometimes even nonexistent. (USA Today), (UPI)

Sports

2018 FIFA World Cup
- A public poll on the internet in Russia selects the cartoon wolf Zabivaka as the official mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which the country will host in June and July 2018. (Xinhua), (FIFA)
In rugby union, the New Zealand All Blacks win a record 18th consecutive test match, defeating the Australian Wallabies 37–10 at Eden Park, Kingsland, Auckland, New Zealand. (ABC News Australia)
Major League Baseball
- The Chicago Cubs defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers and win the National League Championship Series 4–2, advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1945. (AP via ESPN), (CNN)

October 23, 2016 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- Saudi Arabian-led air raids on the Yemeni capital Sana'a resume after a truce ends. (The Daily Mail)
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
- Indian police kill at least 24 Maoist rebels during a raid in eastern Orissa State. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

A gas explosion in the Russian city of Ryazan kills at least three people and injures 13 others. (RT)
A collision between a tour bus and a tractor-trailer kills at least 13 people, and injures 31 others in Desert Hot Springs, California, United States. (The Los Angeles Times)

Law and crime

Two explosions in a park in the Japanese city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, kill at least one person and injure three others. Local media report that a 72-year-old ex-military officer is responsible for the blasts. A fire the same day destroyed the suspect's house. (The Guardian), (BBC)

Politics and elections

Aftermath of Brexit, UK Independence Party leadership election, November 2016
- Suzanne Evans, former UK Independence Party (UKIP) deputy chairman, and Paul Nuttall, President of the Initiative for Direct Democracy in Europe and Member of the European Parliament, each announce their candidacy for the UKIP leadership position, now held on interim basis by Nigel Farage. Other confirmed candidates are Bill Etheridge, Raheem Kassam, and Peter Whittle. (BBC)
Lithuanian parliamentary election, 2016
- Voters head to the polls in second round elections in constituencies where no candidate won over 50 percent on October 9 with the Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union winning a plurality of seats. (Reuters), (AP)
2015–16 Spanish government formation
- The Socialist Workers' Party, following the party's 139–96 vote approving this action, say they will abstain from voting against acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy when he puts his People's Party coalition government to parliament this week, thereby ending the 10-month deadlock. (The New York Times), (Reuters)

October 24, 2016 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- ISIL recaptures the western Iraqi town of Ar-Rutbah, which it previously withdrew from in May. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

U.S. discount brokerage TD Ameritrade agrees to buy Scottrade for $2.7 billion. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 French Fairchild Metroliner crash
- A twin-prop Fairchild Metroliner Mark III light aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Malta International Airport, killing all five French nationals on board. Malta officials say that the aircraft was part of a French customs surveillance operation tracing routes of illicit trafficking, of humans and drugs on Libyan coasts, and that the flight was heading for the Libyan city of Misrata. (The Independent), (The Guardian)

International relations

France clears the Calais Jungle, relocating six thousand migrants. (AP)

Law and crime

Wendy Demchick-Alloy, a Montgomery County court judge in Norristown, sentences former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane to serve 10 to 23 months in county jail for leaking confidential grand jury information and then lying about it to investigators. Specifically, she was convicted on August 15 on charges of perjury, false swearing, obstruction of justice, official oppression, and conspiracy. (Reuters)

October 25, 2016 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Quetta police training college attack
- Gunmen attack a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of Quetta, leaving at least 59 people dead and 117 others injured. ISIL - Khorasan Province claims responsibility for the attack. (Reuters), (AP via Yahoo!), (Al Jazeera Media Network) (BBC), (Dawn), (CNN)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- A militant from Al-Shabaab shoots dead an intelligence officer in Mogadishu. (Reuters)
A shooting in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, leaves two security officers dead. (Reuters)
Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for an attack on a hotel in Kenya, killing at least 12 people. (BBC), (Reuters)
2016 Uri attack
- Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba claims responsibility for the attack on the Uri military camp in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. (The Times of India)

Arts and culture

Paul Beatty becomes the first American author to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. (ABC)
The Catholic Church announces that cremated remains must be kept in consecrated land, rather than scattered about or kept at home. The Church first permitted cremation in 1963, but still strongly favours burial. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Illegally stored explosives cause an explosion in a house in northwestern China that kills at least 14 people and injures 147 others in the town of Xinmin in Shaanxi province. (Reuters)
A fire breaks out in the ICU ward and Maternity ward of Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor, Malaysia, killing six patients and injured two others. All of the patients killed were dependent on ventilators in the ICU ward. (Mediacorp News Group)
An accident on board the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, leaves four people dead. (News Limited)
Rockfall inside the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel causes an indefinite closure of the tunnel, closing the only road access to and from Whittier, Alaska, and halting freight train service between Whittier and interior Alaska. (KTUU-TV)

Law and crime

Ontario Provincial Police charge a former Canadian nurse, Elizabeth Tracy Mae Wettlaufer, in Woodstock, Ontario, with killing eight elderly patients between August 2007 and August 2014 at two Caressant Care Nursing and Retirement Homes facilities. (CBC)
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco approves German automaker Volkswagen $14.7 billion settlement with federal and California regulators and the owners of the 475,000 polluting diesel vehicles over diesel emissions cheating scandal. Volkswagen still faces billions of dollars more in fines and litigation. (Reuters)

October 26, 2016 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- A militant group affiliated with ISIL seizes the coastal town of Qandala in the autonomous Puntland region. (Reuters)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Ghor Province Governor's spokesman claims ISIL insurgents killed 26-42 civilians in his governed province, Afghanistan. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Suspected Syrian or Russian warplanes conduct airstrikes on a residential area and a school in Haas village in rebel-held Idlib Governorate, killing at least 26 civilians, most of them children. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

A series of earthquakes strikes a region of Central Italy already impacted by a major quake in August. Many buildings are damaged or destroyed across several towns. (CNN)

Health

A research team led by an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona publishes a paper in Nature on the genetic history of HIV proving that Gaëtan Dugas, the Canadian flight attendant who had been identified for years as "Patient Zero" of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., did not spread the virus to the country. The study indicates that HIV first spread to the U.S. from the Caribbean around 1970. (BBC) (The New York Times)

International relations

Gambia says it will join South Africa and Burundi in withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, accusing the court of ignoring "Western war crimes" like the Kunduz hospital airstrike. (BBC)
NATO–Russia relations
- Russia withdraws a request to refuel three of its warships, including the flagship of the Russian Navy, Admiral Kuznetsov, en route to Syria, at the Spanish port of Ceuta following NATO pressure on the Spanish government to not allow the warships to dock. (BBC)
For the first time in 25 years, the United States abstains in a United Nations vote calling for an end to its Cuban economic embargo. (Reuters) (NPR)

Politics and elections

2014–16 Venezuelan protests
- An unknown gunman shoots a Venezuelan police officer dead. Two other officers sustain injuries during protests against the Government of Venezuela. Approximately 120 Opposition supporters also sustain injuries during the protests. (Reuters)

October 27, 2016 (Thursday)

Arts and culture

Japan's Prince Mikasa, the oldest member of the Imperial Family, dies at the age of 100. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

United States Republican Party vice presidential candidate Mike Pence's campaign plane skids off the runway at LaGuardia Airport with no injuries reported. The runway is said to have sustained damage causing the closure of the airport; a planned fundraiser was also canceled. (Reuters)(CNN)(ABC)

International relations

Canada–European Union relations, Belgium–Canada relations
- Belgian politicians, including those from the dissident Wallonia region, agree on Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement language that addresses Walloon concerns. This ends the deadlock on CETA, though the revised text must again be approved by the other 27 EU member states. (Reuters)
India-Pakistan relations
- India and Pakistan each expel a diplomat from the other country as tensions grow over Kashmir. (AP via The New York Times) (Reuters via SwissInfo.ch)
Philippines–United States relations
- The San Francisco Police Department halts a training program between itself and the Philippine National Police over allegations of civil rights violations committed under the guise of the Philippine Drug War. (Rappler)

Law and crime

Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
- Seven members of the militia who occupied the wildlife refuge, including the leader Ammon Bundy, was acquitted of all federal charges related to the takeover. (New York Times) (BBC)

Science and technology

NASA announces the return of the final piece of data collected during New Horizons' flyby of Pluto in July 2015. The data, taking about five hours at light speed to travel across 5.5 billion kilometers (3.4 billion miles), arrived at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory on the morning of October 25. (NASA)

October 28, 2016 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Battle of Mosul (2016)
  - The UN reports 232 civilians have been murdered in and near Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (CNN) (NBC News)
Syrian Civil War, Aleppo offensive
- More than 15 civilians are reported killed and another 100 injured as Syria's Army of Conquest and other jihadist rebels launch an offensive to break the government-led siege on eastern Aleppo. (Reuters) (ARA News)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects the Russian military’s request to resume airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, instead letting the humanitarian pause continue. (RT) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

American Airlines Flight 383 (2016)
- An American Airlines Boeing 767 catches fire after an aborted takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Seven passengers and one flight attendant were injured, and taken to area hospitals. (CNN)
A fire destroys the historic Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter, Devon, which is described as the oldest hotel in England. (BBC)

International relations

At an annual meeting of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, Australia, twenty-four countries and the European Union agree to create the world's largest marine park in Antarctica's Ross Sea. The marine park will cover more than 12 percent of the Southern Ocean, and will be protected from commercial fishing for 35 years. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Philippine Drug War
- Datu Saudi-Ampatuan mayor Samsudin Dimaukom, publicly accused by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of involvement in the illegal drug trade, is killed, along with nine others, by Philippine police at a highway checkpoint in what police describe as an anti-drug operation. (The New York Times) (The Philippine Star)
Bernard Madoff
- Irving Picard, a court-appointed trustee liquidating the Madoff asset management firm, says that he has reached a settlement with the family of the late Stanley Chais, in connection with monies that had been funneled from California investors, through Chais, into Madoff's Ponzi scheme. (Reuters)

Politics

Hillary Clinton email controversy
- James Comey informs Congress that "the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation." He says the FBI has not yet assessed the importance or significance of these emails. (CNN)
- Representatives in the Trump and Clinton campaigns call for Comey to reveal more information about this new investigation. (Observer)
- Law enforcement officials say the emails in question were found during the course of an investigation into illicit texts sent to a fifteen year old girl by former Congressman Anthony Weiner, on electronic devices formerly shared by Weiner and his estranged wife, Huma Abedin. (The New York Times)

October 29, 2016 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sectarianism in Pakistan
- Five people are killed and several other civilians injured as armed terrorists, targeting Shia Muslims, open fire on participants of a Majlis at a home in the Nazimabad district of Karachi, Pakistan. (Samaa TV) (The Express Tribune)
Boko Haram insurgency
- Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers kill at least eight people in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri. (AP)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Two prisons in Al Hudaydah, Yemen, are bombed by Saudi Arabian jets, leaving at least 60 dead. (Reuters) (AP via The New York Times) (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Rain and flooding in Egypt kills at least 18 people. (Naharnet)

International relations

Turkey-United States relations
- The U.S. State Department orders family members of employees at the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul to leave as extremist groups threaten to kill or kidnap U.S. citizens and Westerners. (NBC News)

Law and crime

Choi Soon-sil gate
- South Korean prosecutors raid the presidential Blue House in Seoul amid continuing fallout over President Park Geun-hye's influence-peddling scandal involving cult leader Choi Soon-sil. (The Straits Times)
The New York City Metropolitan Opera cancels its Saturday performances as a man, during an afternoon intermission, sprinkled an unidentified powder, suspected to be cremated ashes, into the orchestra pit. One person was exposed and requested medical attention. (Reuters) (CBS News/AP)

Politics and elections

2015–16 Spanish government formation
- The Spanish Parliament votes to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to lead a People's Party minority government after a ten month interregnum. (BBC)
Icelandic parliamentary election, 2016
- With about 25 percent of the votes counted, the Independence Party is receiving about 30 percent of the ballots cast. The Pirate Party, which led in most of this month's polls, is getting about 13 percent. (AP)

Sport

2016 Japan Series
- In baseball, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters defeat the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to win the Japan Series. (Kyodo News), (The Japan Times)

October 30, 2016 (Sunday)

Business and economy

One Belt, One Road
- The Dubai based Abraaj Group agreed to sell its majority shares in K-Electric to China’s state-backed Shanghai Electric Power Company with a transaction of US $ 1.77 billion. (Geo TV) (Dawn News)

Disasters and accidents

October 2016 Central Italy earthquakes
- A 6.6 magnitude earthquake occurs in Central Italy 68 kilometres east southeast of Perugia. Many buildings are reported as having been destroyed. (Reuters via ABC Online), (BBC)
- The 14th century Basilica of St. Benedict in the town of Norcia is destroyed. (The Guardian)

Health

Zika virus outbreak timeline
- Vietnam reports its first microcephaly case likely to be linked to the Zika virus. (ABC Online)

International relations

Canada–European Union relations
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and EU officials sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). (BBC)
Boko Haram insurgency
- The United Nations and Nigeria come to an agreement to release 876 children being held due to suspicions that they are tied to Boko Haram. (Reuters)

Law and crime

The United States orders all civilian staff family members to leave its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, due to increasing threats from terrorist organizations. (CNN)

Politics and elections

2016 Turkish purges
- Turkey dismisses another 10,000 civil servants and closes 15 more media outlets for alleged ties to terrorist organizations and cleric Fethullah Gülen. (Reuters)
Former Agricultural Bank of China chief executive Jiang Chaoliang is appointed Communist Party Secretary of Hubei province, filling the vacancy left by Li Hongzhong. (China Daily)
Moldovan presidential election, 2016
- Voters in Moldova go to the polls for a presidential election. A run off election will be held on November 13 between Igor Dodon and Maia Sandu after no candidate achieved a majority of votes. (AP via Fox News)
Icelandic parliamentary election, 2016
- Iceland’s incumbent, centre-right Independence Party surprised pollsters by winning 29 percent of the vote (21 seats), thereby putting leader Bjarni Benediktsson in position to organize another coalition government. The Progressive Party, the current ruling partner, garnered 11.5% and eight positions, a loss of 11 seats. The new Pirate Party didn't perform as predicted with 14.5% of the ballots, though it did get 10 seats, an increase of seven more positions in the 63-seat parliament (Althing). (NBC News) (Bloomberg) (The Guardian) (Iceland Review)
- Prime Minister Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, leader of the Progressive Party, resigns. (The Independent)
- Icelandic voters elect 30 women to parliament, the most ever for the island nation. Voter turnout was under 80 percent, the lowest ever. (NPR) (New York)

Sport

2016 World Series
- The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians 3 runs to 2 at Illinois' Wrigley Field in Game 5 of the 2016 World Series to avoid elimination and force a Game 6 with the series standing at 3 games to 2 in favor of the Cleveland Indians. It is the Cubs' first-ever win of a World Series game at the stadium since October 1945. (MLB)

October 31, 2016 (Monday)