Portal:Current events/2016 October 4

• 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)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • A security operation by the Somali Army in Lower Shabelle region kills 14 al-Shabaab fighters. (World Bulletin)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 2016 United States presidential election
  • 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)

• 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)

• 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)