Portal:Current events/2011 June 3
June 3, 2011 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Yemeni uprising:
- A rocket attack on the presidential palace in Sana'a during the Battle of Sana'a leaves president Ali Abdullah Saleh lightly injured and seven other top government officials wounded, including Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Mujawar. Four presidential guards and Sheikh Ali Mohsen al-Matari, an imam at the mosque, were killed. (CNN) (Deseret News)
- Syrian uprising:
- At least 34 more protesters are killed by Syrian security forces in protest marches dedicated to children who have died during the demonstrations. (The Telegraph) (The New York Times)
- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that more than 1,000 people have now died in Syria since the conflict began. (CNN)
- Libyan Civil War:
- Sudanese government troops and Sudan Liberation Army rebels clash in the western Darfur region; two SLA rebels are reported killed. (Reuters)
- More than 200 Afghan militants cross over into Pakistan and attack a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, sparking a clash in which 28 Pakistani security forces and six civilians die, along with 45 Afghans. (CNN)
- Somali government forces and African Union troops expel al Qaeda-linked militants from their last outpost in the western part of Mogadishu, opening up a main road in the city. (CNN)
- In two bombing attacks in Iraq, 17 people are killed and 50 others wounded in a blast outside of the Presidential Palaces Mosque in central Tikrit, Iraq; and later by a suicide bomber in a Tikrit hospital treating the wounded from the first attack, killing six people and injuring ten at the hospital. (CNN)
- 2011 Egyptian revolution: A female journalist is attacked in Cairo's Tahrir Square while covering a demonstration demanding an immediate trial for former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak. (RIA Novosti)
Arts and culture
- American actor James Arness, best known for playing Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, dies in Brentwood, California, aged 88. (Los Angeles Times)
Business and economy
- Greek prime minister George Papandreou presents a plan for further austerity-measure privatizations in return for more international aid to avoid defaulting on its debt following a 110 billion Euro bailout last year that has so far failed to resolve the Greek economic crisis; Greece's main labor unions have called for a general strike on June 15. (CNN)
- Barack Obama, the President of the United States, announces the sale of the US government's stake in Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat at a visit to a plant at Toledo, Ohio. (Detroit Free Press)
- Australian airline Qantas announces plans to offer 350 flight attendants voluntary redundancies. (AAP via Courier-Mail)
- Workers for Canada Post start a mail strike. (CBC)
Disasters
- 57 people are injured, and 28,000 people have been forced to evacuate, following an explosion at an army munitions depot in Russia's western Ural Mountains region. (CNN)
- Four people are killed and one seriously injured in an explosion at a Chevron Corporation storage tank at a refinery in western Wales; it is not immediately clear what caused the explosion. (CNN)
- 2011 Missouri River floods
- Residents in North Dakota and South Dakota evacuate due to flooding of the Missouri River. (Reuters)
- Flooding disables the Monroe Pumping Station in Omaha, Nebraska, resulting in raw sewage being discharged into the river. (WOWT)
- The United States Coast Guard closes 734 miles of the river to recreational boating from St. Louis, Missouri, to Sioux City, Iowa. (KDSK)
International relations
- A South Korean report claims that South Korea and the United States sprayed Agent Orange on the Demilitarized Zone in 1968–1969 in order to prevent infiltrations from North Korea. (Yonhap News)
- The United Nations Security Council expresses "grave concern about the ongoing violence and rapidly deteriorating situation in Abyei in southern Sudan. (US UN Delegation)
Law and crime
- Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladić makes his first appearance at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, and dismisses charges against him as "obnoxious." (CNN)
Politics and elections
- John Edwards, former United States presidential candidate and Senator representing North Carolina, is indicted on charges of conspiracy and violating campaign finance laws in connection to his affair with Rielle Hunter; Edwards denies he broke any laws. (CNN) (USA Today) (Los Angeles Times)
- The United States House of Representatives votes in favour of a non-binding resolution asking the Obama administration to seek Congressional authorization for the intervention in Libya. (ABC News), (AP via MSNBC)
- American right-to-die activist Jack Kevorkian dies in Royal Oak, Michigan, of pneumonia and kidney problems. (Toronto Star)
Science
- Copenhagen Suborbitals fire the world's largest privately-built rocket, HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe into the Baltic Sea, 30 km east of Nexø.