February 17, 2011 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2011 Bahraini protests:
- Bahrain police launch an attack on protesters in the Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama, using tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd. (Global voices), (AP via Yahoo!), (CNN), (BBC)
- ABC News correspondent Miguel Marquez is beaten during the crackdown. (ABC News America)
- At least six protesters die during the crackdown with dozens of injuries. (Al Jazeera), (Ottawa Citizen)
- Khalid ibn Ahmad Al Khalifah, the Foreign Minister, defends the crackdown stating that it pulled the country back from the brink of the sectarian abyss. (NPR)
- Clashes continue in the main streets of Manama hours after the crackdown. (Al Jazeera)
- Libyan Civil War:
- 14 anti-government protesters are killed as Libyan protesters seeking to oust president Muammar Gaddafi defied a crackdown and took to the streets in four cities on what they called a "day of rage". (The Jerusalem Post) (CNN), (Al-Jazeera)
- Social networking sites mobilize for protests on a "day of anger" in Libya. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- 2010–2011 Algerian protests:
- Eighty-four-year-old Abdelhamid Mehri, former leader of Algeria's governing party, writes a letter to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika asking that he change his government in response to the unrest across the Arab world. (BBC)
- 2011 Yemeni protests:
- Several people are injured in clashes between pro and anti-government protesters in the Yemeni capital Sana'a. (AFP via Google News)
- Two people are killed and 47 injured in a protest in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya. (CNBC)[permanent dead link]
- Israeli troops kill three Palestinian militants near Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, who were approaching the border. (Al Jazeera) (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
- The Egyptian Army dispatches hundreds of troops to the northern Sinai peninsula to protect a gas pipeline to Israel. (Jerusalem Post)
Arts and culture
- Aretha Franklin announces a return to the stage. (BBC)
- A rare red and white 6ft by 6ft Andy Warhol self-portrait sells for £10.79 million at auction at Christie's in London. (BBC)
Business and economy
- The private equity owners of Australian book sellers Angus & Robertson, the New Zealand news agency chain Whitcoulls and the Australasian franchise of Borders goes into voluntary administration. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Australian)
- Honda recalls nearly 700,000 vehicles in the Fit, Freed, and City model range due to a defective spring. (MSNBC)
Disasters
- At least 12 people die as a tourist boat capsizes in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- At least 32 people are killed in several hours of explosions due to an accident at a munitions dump in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania closing the city's airport, destroying homes, a school and sending debris flying across the city as thousands of people seek shelter in a stadium. The death toll is expected to rise. (BBC) (DAWN) (Al Jazeera) (CNN) (France24)
- The inquiry into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is released finding that the accident was entirely preventable. (Oil Spill Commission)
International relations
- Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that general elections in September would be canceled if Hamas refused to allow voting in the Gaza Strip. (The Jerusalem Post)
- A boat containing 129 Rohingya refugees from Burma is found by Indonesia. (Straits Times)
- Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian United Nations observer, announces that the United Nations Security Council is to vote tomorrow on a resolution critical of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. (DAWN)
- Assessment suggests the possibility that social networks are more informed than U.S. intelligence about protesters in the Middle East. (Al Jazeera)
- Iran requests permission from the Government of Egypt for the Iranian navy to pass through the Suez Canal. (MarketWatch)
- The United States imposes sanctions on Iran's Refah Bank for allegedly facilitating the purchase of weapons by Iran's Defense Ministry. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Law and crime
- The CBC releases information about an alleged attack originating from China against the computer networks of the Finance Department and Treasury Board in Canada, forcing the immediate shutdown of all internet access in both departments. (CBC News)
- English football fan Garry Mann, jailed for his role in a riot during UEFA Euro 2004, is transferred from jail in Portugal in order to serve the remainder of his sentence in his home country. (BBC)
- United States authorities charge more than a hundred doctors, nurses and physical therapists in nine cities with Medicare fraud. (AP via Google)
- Police arrest nine people allegedly involved in a United States-Mexico arms ring, and seize 300 weapons. (Reuters)
- Former Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Ibrahim El Adly is arrested pending investigation of corruption allegations along with former Housing Minister Ahmed Maghrabi, former Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana and a former official from the National Democratic Party. (AP via Houston Chronicle), (CNN)
- Anthony Graves, an American man found innocent of the murders which left him on death row for 18 years, is denied restitution due to a technicality. (My Fox Houston) (Press TV)
Politics and elections
- Wisconsin:
- Schools in the American state of Wisconsin close as teachers attend rallies against proposals to limit collective bargaining for state employees. (Wisconsin State Journal)
- Democratic State Senators leave the capital Madison to avoid participating in the debate. (Wisconsin State Journal)
- Tunisia:
- French media reports that former President of Tunisia Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has been hospitalised in Saudi Arabia with a stroke. (UPI)
- Tunisian authorities rename the central square in Tunis after Mohamed Bouazizi whose suicide sparked the 2010–2011 Tunisian revolution. (Reuters)
- Buckingham Palace confirms that the President of the United States Barack Obama will make a state visit to the United Kingdom in May. (BBC)
- Kosovo marks the third anniversary of its declaration of independence from Serbia. (BBC)
- The Governor of Alaska Sean Parnell says that he will not implement the United States Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act after a Florida judge ruled it was unconstitutional. (Star Tribune)
Sport
- The European General Court rules in favour of Belgian and British broadcasting restrictions requiring football matches at the World Cup and European Championships on to be available on free-to-air TV. (BBC News)