Every day, news articles appear that mention new, unfamiliar, but (now) important people, places, things, and concepts. Wikipedia can and should become a resource for background information on the topics behind these current events. For more information on contributing to this page, see current events article development. For information on contributing to the Current events section on the main page, see current events on Main Page.
Ongoing events and developing stories
- Nobel prize awards
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict - War on Terrorism - U.S. plan to invade Iraq - terrorist incidents
- stock market downturn of 2002 - Corporate accounting scandals - South American economic crisis of 2002 - debate over US steel tariffs
- Beltway sniper - Bali car bombing - more . . .
These are entries which cover current events, that is, events that are ongoing and may have historical significance. These entries should be edited with an eye to historicity, while including timely information in a way not possible with paper encyclopedias.
Current events
- A three day general strike begins in Nepal. According to Outlook India, "the capital Kathmandu virtually came to a standstill... Maoists have called the strike to oppose the King's appointment of Lokendra Bahadur Chand... as prime minister after dismissing the government of Sher Bahadur Deuba." [1] Also, 30 Maoist guerrillas were killed in a renewed assault on the revolutionary forces the country's government is currently fighting against. See also politics of Nepal.
- The Burrell scandal takes a turn for the worse as increasingly more scandalous rumours circulate about the British royal family and their servants.
- According to the Guardian newspaper, Gauthier Hulot of the Paris Geophysical Institute has discovered evidence of a reduction of the Earth's magnetic field over the last two hundred years. It is possible that this may be a prelude to a reversal of polarity of the Earth's magenetic field over the next few hundred years.
- A team of Italian researchers has produced an analysis of their experimental results that may be indirect evidence of the existence of gravitational waves. Their paper, entitled "Study of the coincidences between the gravitational wave detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS in 2001" is based on a statistical analysis of the results from their detectors.
- Chinese President Jiang Zemin announced several key policies at 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. Although Marxism-Leninism would remain the official ideology of China, entrepreneurs and people in unconventional occupations, who are building "socialism with Chinese characteristics", would have a voice in establishing Communist Party ideology. Mr. Jiang is preparing to yield the position of General Secretary of the Party to Hu Jintao, but will maintain the presidency.
- Former President of France Valery Giscard d'Estaing, head of the Convention on the Future of Europe, told the newspaper Le Monde that Turkey should not become a member of the European Union, even though Turkey is a very important country with a true elite. He particularly mentioned that the capital and 95% of the population were not located on the European continent. He also mentioned that one cannot discuss, as we do it, the national legislation of the Union, on very important points of everyday european issues and pretend that some discussions could be extended to countries which, for perfectly estimable reasons, have another culture, another approach, another way of life.
- An unofficial referendum in Gibraltar showed that 99% of those who voted wanted to retain the colony's governmental status quo and rejected a United Kingdom proposal to grant Spain a share of sovereignty over the colony. The turnout for the referendum was 88%.
- Colombian drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, one of the leaders of the Cali drug cartel, was released from prison (for "good behavior") after serving less than half of his sentence, despite objections from the governments of Colombia and the United States.
- The United States of America has added its signature to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
- Anti-Semitism: With approval of official state censors, Egyptian television broadcast the first episode of a miniseries, Horseman Without a Horse, based upon the debunked Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It airs at the hour that Egyptian families gather together to break their fast during the fasting month of Ramadan.
- Federal Reserve: The US Federal Reserve lowered its overnight bank-lending rate to 1.25 percent, and this bigger-than-expected rate cut signals there may be more weakness in the economy than the market expected. The Fed indicated in its statments accompanying the rate cut that concern about a war with Iraq and the thread of terrorism may be slowing consumer and business spending.
- Embattled Securities and Exchange Commissioner Harvey Pitt tenders his resignation.
- In mid-term elections in the United States, Republicans retake control of the closely divided Senate and maintain control of the House. Democrats make some gains in the governor's races.
- Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister dissolved parliament and called for elections early next year. [2], [3]
- British Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith made what was widely considered to be a disastrous speech where he demanded that his party "unite or die". Many observers believe that this marks the start of a new leadership struggle for the Conservative Party.
- Yemen: A AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched by an American drone airplane destroyed a car carrying what the United States claims were six members of al-Qaeda, including the mastermind of the USS Cole attack, Qaed_Salim_Sinan_al-Harethi.
- Turkey: The Islamist Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won the Turkish general election. The AKP campaigned on economic and social issues, and downplayed its Islamist origins. The AKP's chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan is banned from holding political office, so someone else will become Turkish prime minister. Opponents of the AKP have expressed concerns that the AKP's victory may threaten the secular nature of the Turkish state.
- Human rights: Amnesty International has released a 74-page report accusing the Israel Defence Force of war crimes and human rights violations.
- Internet: Country code top-level ___domain administrators have started to talk about taking back control of their parts of the ___domain name system that has been controlled by ICANN since the death of Jon Postel. They have complained that ICANN is unaccountable, dictatorial and unresponsive to users' needs.
- Recent celebrity deaths: Lonnie Donegan, musician known as the "King of Skiffle" dies at 71.
- Recent celebrity deaths: Charles Sheffield, science fiction author and physicist, dies of brain cancer at age 67
- An earthquake has killed 29 in the town of San Giuliano di Puglia, in Campobasso, Molise, Italy. Most victims (26) are children, they were in a school of which the roof collapsed. Est. 5,500 homeless.
- Antitrust: Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly announced her findings in the Microsoft antitrust case after the close of the financial markets.
Past events:
News pages
External links to news pages that can be used to gather new topics for the above list:
- News Search Engines: http://www.HavenWorks.com/news/search
- Google News
- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ts/
- http://news.bbc.co.uk - Coverage split in to science/health etc... for UK and international news
- http://www.cnn.com.
- News Sources
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
- The Globe and Mail