Portal:Current events/2012 November 29

November 29, 2012 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war:
- Syrian opposition fighters battle the Syrian Army outside Damascus, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the suspension of some flights. (Reuters)
- The internet and phone networks in Syria are cut off, in an unprecedented move. (Bangkok Post)^{[permanent dead link]} (Al Arabiya)
Iraqi insurgency (post U.S. withdrawal):
- Bombs in two majority Shia Muslim cities in southern Iraq, Hillah and Karbala, kill at least 30 people and wound more than 100. (The Guardian) (AP via USA Today)
Police in Burma break up a three-month-long protest against the expansion of a copper mine run by the military and a Chinese company. (Al Jazeera)
A roadside bomb explodes under a passenger van in Deh Rahwod District of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, killing 10 people, and wounding at least eight. (Reuters) (AFP via Google)

Disasters and accidents

Train services in the Channel Tunnel are suspended after a freight train fire on the French side. Everybody on the train is safely evacuated, traffic is resumed two hours after. (BBC)

International relations

Law and crime

A UN war crimes tribunal acquits former Kosovan Prime Minister and former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes, prompting Serbia to denounce the court. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Guardian)
The Arts and Letters Building at Florida Atlantic University's campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and the nearby Boca Raton campus of Palm Beach State College, are given the all-clear and are back to normal after police locked them both down for three hours searching for a gunman believed to have robbed a student at gunpoint, no injuries. (NBC News)

Politics and elections

Leveson report:
- Lord Leveson announces the findings of the Leveson Inquiry into the British media. (CNN)
- British Prime Minister David Cameron says he backs the principles of the report's recommendations, but has "serious concerns and misgivings" about introducing any new legislation to underpin a regulatory body to oversee the media. (BBC)
U.S. President Barack Obama spent more than an hour with Mitt Romney at the White House, as the one-time rivals shared lunch and discussed their ideas for the first time since the 2012 election. (Reuters)
A committee charged with developing a new Egyptian constitution releases a final draft as protests against sweeping new powers granted to President Mohamed Morsi continue. (CNN)
Michigan State Senator Rick Jones of the Republican Party proposes dissolving the city of Detroit due to financial problems. (CBS Detroit)
Three by-elections are held in the United Kingdom, in Croydon North, Middlesbrough and Rotherham. (BBC)
George H. W. Bush is admitted in stable condition to The Methodist Hospital of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. The 88-year-old served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 till 1993 and was hospitalized due to a severe cough and bronchitis but is expected to be discharged within 72 hours. (NBC News) (CBS News) (Fox News) (CNN)

Science and technology

New data from the NASA space probe MESSENGER indicate that Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, almost surely has water ice buried beneath the surface at its north pole. (NASA) (Forbes) (AP)
The new species of darter fish are classified and named as Etheostoma obama after U.S. President Barack Obama. (The Guardian)

Sport