Portal:Current events/2011 February 23

• 2011 Libyan civil war
  • Italy's foreign minister says as many as 1,000 people have been killed in Libya during the unrest. (Reuters)
  • Anti-government protestors and defectors take control of more cities. (Al Jazeera)
  • The African Union condemns the "excessive use of force" against protesters. (African Press Agency) (AFP via Google News)
  • Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba's Minister of Foreign Affairs, accuses the US media of inciting violence. (AP via MSNBC)
  • More than 5,700 people have fled Libya for Tunisia in the past couple of days. (Al Jazeera)
  • Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the former Libyan Minister for Justice, claims that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi personally authorised the Lockerbie bombing. (AP via Washington Post)
  • Nations including the United Kingdom, the United States of America, France, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Italy and Greece evacuate their citizens from Libya. (Sky News)
• 2011 Yemeni protests:
  • Eight members of the ruling General People's Congress party resign after the deaths of protestors. (RFI)

• A missing Enid Blyton manuscript is found in an archive of her work. (The Guardian)

• Samsung releases, in South Korea, a camera that can post photos and videos directly to Facebook and YouTube. (Yonhap)
• Australian businessman Lachlan Murdoch is appointed as acting CEO of Network Ten following the sacking of Grant Blackley. (NineMSN)
• Oil prices reach a two-year high due to uncertainty in the Middle East most notably in Libya. (AP via News Limited)
• Japan logs its first trade deficit in almost two years due to high commodity prices and weak demand for its exports. (Brisbane Times)
• Stock markets in the United States and Europe fall due to uncertainty in the Middle East and rising oil prices. (Bloomberg)

• 2011 Canterbury earthquake:
  • 300 persons are estimated to be still missing in Christchurch, New Zealand, following yesterday's earthquake with the official death toll reaching 75. (NZ Herald) (Courier Mail)
  • The earthquake shakes off 30 million tonnes of ice loose from the Tasman Glacier in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. (NZ Herald)
  • Rescue crews pull out of central Christchurch due to fears that one of the tallest buildings, the Grand Chancellor Hotel, will collapse. (ABC News Australia)
  • The Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key declares a national emergency. (SBS)
  • New Zealand police introduce a curfew in central Christchurch as six people are arrested for looting. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Snow and heavy winds affecting areas around Constanţa, Romania, are predicted to continue until late Friday evening. (EnglishHotNews)

• President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino says the country has not resolved a row with Taiwan over deportations. (AFP via Google News)
• Senegal severs diplomatic relations with Iran, accusing it of supplying weapons to anti-government rebels that killed Senegalese soldiers. (Reuters) (China Radio International)
• The People's Republic of China refuses to let the United Nations Security Council publish a report on North Korea's efforts to avoid sanctions on its nuclear program. (AFP via Google News)

• Four men from Xinjiang in western China are to be executed following convictions for terrorism in the region last year. (BBC) (The Times of India)
• Thai police seize six tiger cubs at the house of a suspected weapons dealer. (Straits Times)
• Three people are arrested in the United Kingdom in connection with an alleged attempt to blackmail Coleen Rooney, the wife of Manchester United F.C. star Wayne Rooney. (BBC via SBS)
• Colin Hatch, a convicted child murderer, is murdered in jail while serving his sentence; a 35-year-old male prisoner has been arrested on suspicion of murder. (Sky News)

• Online calls for "Jasmine Revolution" and protest continue in China, as several people are detained. (The New York Times) (The Times of India)
• Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah announces a series of benefits for citizens as he returns to the country. (Al Jazeera) (IOL)
• German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has his doctorate revoked by the University of Bayreuth for submitting a thesis riddled with plagiarisms. (Guardian)