February 3, 2011 (Thursday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- 2011 Egyptian protests:
- Anti-government protestors continue to protest against the Mubarak regime for a tenth day. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
- Protesters detain 120 people with IDs linking them to the police or ruling party; most were attacking protesters at the time. (The Guardian) (Ynetnews)
- A tense standoff between supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak continues in Cairo, with at least three people killed and 1,500 injured in fighting on Wednesday. (CNN) (AP via PhilStar)[permanent dead link] (Sky News)
- At least three people are killed as a result of gunfire in Cairo's Tahrir Square. (AFP via Brisbane Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Egyptian prime minister Ahmad Shafiq says "sorry" for all the violence that has occurred in Tahrir Square and promises there will be no more. (Al Jazeera)
- Journalists from Al Jazeera and the BBC are among those targeted in fresh attacks from Mubarak regime "thugs". The UK's Channel 4 News reports that Mubarak's "secret police" are threatening journalists to keep off the streets of Cairo. (The Guardian)
- Prominent Egyptian blogger and anti-Mubarak activist sandmonkey is arrested and his blog is taken offline by authorities in Egypt. (The Guardian) (Hot Air)
- Egyptian state television forments the unrest by reporting that "Israeli spies" have infiltrated Cairo, leading to an increase in antisemitic sentiment among the pro-Mubarak forces attacking people and journalists on the streets. (Al Jazeera) (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) (Channel 4 News)
- Two Al Jazeera journalists are attacked on their way from the airport to central Cairo. (The Guardian)
- Nile TV (state television) journalist Shahira Amin, deputy head of the station, resigns after being threatened and intimidated; she tells Al Jazeera "I can't be part of the propaganda machine and I refuse to be a hypocrite", adding that she feels "liberated". (iloubnan) (Gulf News)
- Journalists from Al Jazeera and The Washington Post are arrested by Egyptian authorities; Swedish television loses contact with correspondent Bert Sundström. (M&C) (The Guardian) (The Washington Post)
- Representatives of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are arrested. (Amnesty International) (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Mobile phone firm Vodafone says the Egyptian authorities have hijacked its network to send unattributed text messages supporting the government. (BBC)
- Egypt's attorney-general bans several former ministers and Ahmed Ezz, a prominent member of the ruling party who resigned last week, from travelling abroad; their bank accounts are also frozen. (Al Jazeera)
- Video footage emerges on YouTube of a police van being driven at high speed into peacefully marching anti-regime protesters. (The Guardian) (Direct link)
- Four members of the April 6 Youth Movement, an opposition group known for organising events on Facebook, are arrested by Egyptian authorities. (The Guardian) (Wired)
- Hosni Mubarak breaks his silence to grant an interview to Christiane Amanpour of America's ABC News inside his palace. (The Guardian) (Reuters) (BBC)
- An ABC News crew are carjacked and threatened with decapitations by pro-Mubarak supporters. (The Guardian) (The Hollywood Reporter) (The Huffington Post)
- The United States Senate passes a motion supporting democracy in Egypt and calling on President Hosni Mubarak to begin transferring power. (Washington Post)
- 2011 Yemeni protests: Thousands of pro- and anti-government supporters demonstrate in Yemen over the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a planned "day of rage". (Al Jazeera)
- 2010–2011 Algerian protests: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vows to lift the country's state of emergency, in force since 1992, in the "very near future". (BBC)
- 2011 Syrian protests: Social media mobilises the people of Syria for rallies demanding freedom, human rights and the end to emergency law, scheduled for Friday and Saturday in front of the parliament in Damascus and at Syrian embassies internationally. (Al Jazeera)
- Gunmen open fire in Thailand's majority Muslim Pattani Province killing five people and injuring three people. (AFP via ABC News) (Thai News Agency)
- Awal Gul, an Afghan accused of being a Taliban base commander, who has been imprisoned without charge since 2002, dies while exercising at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. (Miami Herald) (BBC)
Business and economy
- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation announces that world food prices have risen to a record high. (FAO) (Reuters) (BBC)
- The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil rises to $103 following violent clashes in Egypt. (Reuters)
Disasters
- Cyclone Yasi
- Cyclone Yasi hits North Queensland in Australia with the worst affected towns including Mission Beach, Tully, Cardwell and Innisfail. (Melbourne Age), (Herald Sun), (ABC News Australia)
- So far, there have been no reports of deaths or serious injury caused by the cyclone. (Sydney Morning Herald)[permanent dead link] (Al Jazeera)
- The cyclone is downgraded from a Category 4 severe tropical cyclone to a category 1 tropical cyclone. (News Limited) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Death toll of second blast reaches 18 in Ankara, Turkey. (TRT) (Anadolu Agency) (CNTV)
- Two people are killed and 223 injured in Beijing as a result of fireworks set off on the first day of the Chinese New Year. (Xinhua)
Law and crime
- Italy's parliament rejects a search request by prosecutors investigating Silvio Berlusconi for having sexual intercourse with an under-age prostitute. (BBC)
- A former policeman questions the suicide verdict recorded in the 1979 death of French cabinet minister Robert Boulin, claiming he could not have drowned. His family believe he was murdered. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- Lawmakers in Nepal vote to elect a new Prime Minister. (BBC) (Review Nepal)
- Lawmakers in Burma elect two out of three Vice Presidents, one of whom will become the President. (BBC) (One India)
- Haiti's presidential run-off candidates are named. They are former First Lady Mirlande Manigat and popular singer Michel Martelly. (BBC) (Reuters)
Science and technology
- The world runs out of Internet Protocol Version 4 addresses. (Reuters)
- Protein folding is advanced by the announcement of a discovery of a key mechanism in the relationship of protein folding to surrounding water by Olivier Collet at Nancy University (Nancy-Université). (Technology Review)[permanent dead link]