December 30, 2010 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Côte d'Ivoire's ambassador to the United Nations, Youssoufou Bamba, says the country is on the "brink of genocide". (Reuters)
- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says the government will withdraw from peace talks with rebels from Darfur unless a deal is reached this week. (Al Jazeera)
- 2 people are killed and 18 others are wounded during bomb attacks on minority Christian homes in various parts of Baghdad. (Al Jazeera)
- An early morning bomb explodes before two courthouses in Athens; there are no injuries. (Der Spiegel) (Xinhua) (France24) (The New York Times via Indian Express)
- A bomb explodes at the Greek Embassy in Buenos Aires; there are no injuries. Some windows are broken. (CNN)
Arts and culture
- North Korea's state-run television broadcasts its first Western film, Bend It Like Beckham. (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Newly released papers show Gwynfor Evans, former Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen, said he would fast to death if the British government did not provide a Welsh language television service. S4C resulted. (BBC)
- Buckingham Palace announces the birth of Queen Elizabeth II's first great-grandchild, born to Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn. (BBC)
International relations
- A diplomatic cable newly released from the British National Archives, dated 1980, claims that Israel would be "ready to use their atomic weapon" in any further war against its adversaries.(AFP via Google News) (Ynetnews) (Morning Star)(ABC News)(The Jerusalem Post)
- An international aid convoy from Asia enters Gaza, though Iranian and Jordanian members of the flotilla are denied entry and generators donated by Iran are banned too. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Israeli forces arrest Hamas MP Khalil Ar-Rabai after surrounding his home in the early morning in the southern West Bank town of Yatta. The destruction of family property is also reported. (Ma'an) (AFP via Google News) (Press TV)
- The Yemeni government releases at least 428 Houthi northern rebels as part of a ceasefire mediated by Qatar in return for 10 military vehicles. (Al Jazeera)
- Thailand urges Cambodia to release seven of its citizens–including an MP–arrested after crossing their mutual border. (The Straits Times)
Law and crime
- A 19-year-old Uyghur woman, Pezilet Ekber, is sentenced to death following a secret trial, the second Uyghur woman to receive the death penalty on charges of participating in ethnic riots last year. (RFA)
- Former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has his prison sentence extended to a total of 14 years after a second conviction. (Al Jazeera)
- Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav is convicted of two counts of rape and other sexual offences by a court in Tel Aviv. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
- A major Indian separatist leader, Arabinda Rajkhowa of the United Liberation Front of Asom, is released on bail. (The Straits Times) (NDTV)
- A court in Thailand jails 79 pro-government "yellow shirt" protesters for storming a state television station two years ago. (Bangkok Post) (CTV) (Reuters)
- Four opposition figures in Belarus are charged with organising riots after demonstrations against the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko. (BBC)
- Anders Hogstrom, a Swedish man, is sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment after being convicted of orchestrating the theft of Arbeit macht frei from the Auschwitz entry gate last December. (Al Jazeera)
- Minnesota sues 3M claiming they pumped PFCs, a very toxic chemical according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, into local waterways.(Reuters)
- Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour frees two sisters 16 years into double life terms received for armed robbery of two men for $11, citing one of the sister's "medical condition creates a substantial cost to the state of Mississippi." (Reuters)
Politics
- Bertie Ahern, the former taoiseach who led the stricken Fianna Fáil political party from 1994 until 2008, announces he is to resign from Dáil Éireann at the forthcoming general election. (The Guardian) (Irish Examiner) (Reuters Africa)
- Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets with opposition leaders who broke away from the National League for Democracy party. (ABC News)
- Newly released papers show more than €130,000 of public money was used to wine and dine visiting dignitaries to Ireland while then Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey warned on television that the country was "living away beyond our means". (Irish Independent)