Portal:Current events/2021 October 14

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2021 Beirut clashes
  • Six people are killed and 32 more are injured during a shooting at a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, against the judge investigating the 2020 port explosion. Hezbollah and Amal accused the attackers of being members of the Christian Lebanese Forces. Clashes occurred for hours afterwards between the militias involving snipers, pistols, Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades even after the army was deployed. (BBC News)
• Kongsberg attack
  • The man accused of killing five people and injuring three more yesterday in the streets of Kongsberg, Viken, Norway, using a bow and arrow, is identified as a 37-year-old Norwegian man and convert to Islam with Danish citizenship, who police had been concerned about regarding radicalization. (Reuters)
• Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
  • Four Indian soldiers are killed during a gunfight with rebels in a forest in Mendhar, Jammu and Kashmir. (Greater Kashmir)
• Islamic State–Taliban conflict
  • A Taliban police commander is killed and 11 more people are injured as a bomb targeting the commander's vehicle explode in Shigal District, Afghanistan. (The Defense Post)
• The Nigerian Army confirms that Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of ISWAP, died two months ago. However, the circumstances of al-Barnawi's death are not clear. (BBC News)

Business and economy

• Brazil's Central Bank sells US$1 billion to offset declines in the real, which has fallen ⅓ relative to the dollar in 2021 alone, with another US$1 billion in sales scheduled for later today. (Mercopress)
• LinkedIn announces that it will shut down its social media services in China later this year, citing heavy-handed compliance requirements from the government, and will replace it with a traditional job-listing site. LinkedIn was the only major Western-based social media site to legally operate within the country prior to the announcement. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2021 Kaohsiung tower fire
  • At least 46 people are killed and 79 others are injured in a fire at a 13-storey tower block in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (BBC News)
• Aftermath of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302
  • A former Boeing chief test pilot is indicted by a United States grand jury for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration during the certification process for the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which resulted in two fatal crashes and a subsequent grounding of the aircraft. (AFP via The Australian)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
      • Bali reopens its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from 19 countries that met WHO's criteria as the number of COVID-19 cases declines in Indonesia. (AP)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
      • Singapore reports a record 15 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 207. (The Straits Times)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, COVID-19 vaccination in Vietnam
      • The Vietnamese Ministry of Health approves vaccination against COVID-19 for children between the ages of 12 and 17 years old, with those aged 16 to 17 years old receiving priority before vaccination expands to other age groups. (Vietnam Plus)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia
      • President Egils Levits tests positive for COVID-19 after returning from a trip to Denmark and Sweden despite being fully vaccinated, prompting his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto to self-isolate. (AFP via Barron's)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
      • Russia reports a record for the third consecutive day of 986 deaths from COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 220,315. The country also reports a record 31,299 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 7,892,980. (Interfax)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria
      • Victoria reports a record 2,297 new cases and 11 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the highest daily total of any state of Australia since the beginning of the pandemic. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces that the state will continue to reopen based on vaccination rates. (The Guardian)

International relations

• Chinese Catholic Bishop Stephen Yang Xiangtai, the retired leader of the Handan diocese, died at the age of 99 after a long illness. Bishop Yang was arrested in 1954 and again in 1966, and served more than a decade in labor camps before being released in 1980. He became Bishop of Handan in 1999. (Catholic World News) (Asia News)

Law and crime

• Armenia–Azerbaijan relations
  • Armenia expands its case before the International Court of Justice against Azerbaijan, accusing Azerbaijan of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which both states are signatories, for allegedly promoting ethnic hatred against Armenians. Azerbaijan denies the accusation and accuses Armenia of violating the treaty. (Reuters)
• Murder of Giulio Regeni, Egypt–Italy relations
  • An Italian court in Rome drops charges against four Egyptian police officers for the 2016 murder of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, citing its inability for the four officers to be tried in absentia since their prosecutors failed to inform them of their charges. (AFP via France 24)
• Sri Lanka drops charges against Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, who was accused of being part of a group of 14 navy personnel who kidnapped 11 children and murdered them after attempting to extort money from their families. The actual number of children murdered by the group is suspected to be at least three times higher. The crimes were carried out in 2008 and 2009, amid the chaos of the Sri Lankan Civil War. (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

• 2021 Japanese general election
  • Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolves the lower house of the Japanese Parliament ahead of the election on October 31. (UPI)
• 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election
  • Jonas Gahr Støre takes office as Prime Minister of Norway. (Associated Press)
• Pakistan International Airlines suspends flights to the Afghan capital Kabul, citing "heavy-handed" interference from the Taliban. It was the only foreign carrier operating regular flights out of Kabul. (BBC News)