Portal:Current events/2010 November 28

• United States diplomatic cables leak and attack on WikiLeaks:
  • The WikiLeaks website is attacked by a computer-hacking operation and undergoes "a mass distributed denial of service attack" as it prepares to release more secret U.S. documents. Julian Assange says U.S. authorities are afraid of being held accountable for their actions. (BBC)
  • The United States Department of State says the planned release of a new batch of classified documents would place its military operations at risk, and warns of possible legal action if they were found to have been provided in violation of U.S. law. (CNN) (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
  • Wikileaks releases 250,000 messages sent by U.S. embassies, including messages discussing corruption, criticisms of the UK, Guantánamo Bay prison camp, a Chinese cyber attack, the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi, and a possible unified Korea. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian) (Reuters) (The New Zealand Herald) (Sky News)
  • The White House issues a statement of condemnation "in the strongest terms [of] the unauthorised disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information". (BBC)
• Korean peninsula:
  • The United States Navy and South Korean Navy hold exercises in the waters west of the Korean Peninsula despite warnings from North Korea. (Bloomberg via Houston Chronicle) (Reuters)
  • Artillery fire is heard on Yeonpyeong Island after residents are ordered to take shelter. (AP)
  • China calls for emergency “six-party talks” on resolving the crisis. (Reuters) (CNN)
  • North Korea deploys surface-to-air missiles near its disputed border in the Yellow Sea. (Arirang) (Press TV) (The New York Times)
• Israeli soldiers shoot and wound four Palestinians who were digging for gravel in northern Gaza Strip. (Xinhua)

• Leslie Nielsen, famed for his roles in Airplane! and The Naked Gun series, dies at the age of 84 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (AP via Fox News)

• Central China's Hunan Province begins building the country's third National Supercomputing Center (NSCC), where the world's fastest supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A, will be installed. (Xinhua)(Sina)
• Irish financial crisis:
  • European Union finance ministers meet to work out the details for rescuing the Irish economy, and to outline an agreement for a fund to rescue other economically troubled euro-zone nations. (CNN Money) (The New York Times) (AP via Google News) (Bloomberg)
  • The EU approves an €85 billion rescue deal for Ireland, which includes €10 billion for bank recapitalisation, €25 billion for banking contingencies and €50 billion for financing the budget. (RTÉ) (BBC)

• Fire damages Turkey's historic Haydarpaşa Terminal in Istanbul. (Today's Zaman) (euronews)
• At least 8 people are killed when a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane bound for Khartoum, Sudan, crashes minutes after take off in a residential area of Karachi, Pakistan. (Tribune) (Reuters) (The Star)
• Parts of the UK experience their coldest temperatures on record for November overnight. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Sky News) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Ireland experiences heavy snow which causes disruptions to its transport system and its finance minister. (RTÉ) (The Wall Street Journal)

• Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni becomes the first foreign leader to visit the Somali capital Mogadishu in 20 years. (AFP) (Daily Nation)
• Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is to boycott an African Union-European Union meeting in the Libyan capital Tripoli to "avoid embarrassment to Libya". (AFP)

• More than 2,000 Brazilian police and military personnel enter the Alemão slum of Rio de Janeiro in search of drug traffickers, in efforts to boost security well ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games. (Voice of America) (The New York Times)(CNN)

• Haitian general election, 2010:
  • Voters in Haiti go to the polls for a general election, amid confusion and disorganization resulting from the cholera epidemic and the aftermath of the January earthquake (AP via Google News) (Reuters) (Voice of America)
  • 12 of the 18 candidates call for the election to be cancelled, alleging widespread voter fraud. (AP via Yahoo! News)
• Voters in the Ivory Coast go to the polls for the second round of the Ivorian presidential election with violent clashes having occurred between rival supporters. (BBC)
• Voters in Egypt go to the polls for parliamentary elections amid reports of the detention of hundreds of opposition supporters, scattered violence, vote buying and the ejection of independent monitors as the government cracks down on the opposition; 21 people are wounded in skirmishes connected with the poll. (Bloomberg) (AP) (Tehran Times) (People)
• Voters in Moldova go to the polls for parliamentary elections. (ITAR TASS)
• Voters in Catalonia, Spain, go to the polls for parliamentary elections. (Euro News)
• Voters in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, go to the polls for the gubernatorial election with anti-US base governor Hirokazu Nakaima reelected. (Japan Times), (BBC)