Friday 13 May 2011

Holidays:

• Saint Maria Dominica Mazzarello (died 1881)
• Saint John the Silent
• Saint Gerald of Villamagna
• Saint Robert Bellarmine
• Saint Servatus

• Our Lady of Fatima
• Rotuma Day in Fiji.
• World Fair Trade Day (2006).
• Abbotsbury Garland Day, Dorset, England.
• Commemoration of Julian of Norwich (Anglican).
• Saint Rolanda

Famous Birthdays:

Famous Deaths:

• Derek Boogaard: Canadian ice hockey player (Born 1982).

Facts:

• In India, The Communist Party of India (Marxist) lost Assembly elections in West Bengal to Trinamool Congress, ending world's longest democratically elected Communist government's 34 year rule in the State.[1]
• 2011 Bahraini uprising:
• The Bahraini government tortures doctors into confessions of ampquottrying to overthrow the monarchyampquot by aiding wounded civilians who protested during the uprising. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Yemeni uprising:
• 3 people are killed and 18 others are wounded as troops shoot at medics, witnesses and people protesting against the Saleh regime in Ibb, Ta'izz and Sana'a, though Saleh remains defiant. Qatar withdraws from mediation efforts, saying Saleh has been full of ampquotindecision and delaysampquot. (BBC)

• 2011 Syrian uprising:
• Soldiers are reportedly ordered not to fire on protesters. (''Buenos Aires Herald'')
• Authorities close off entire areas in cities across Syria, setting up roadblocks and checkpoints in an attempt to prevent protests after Friday prayers. (AP via Google News)
• At least 3 people are killed in the centre of the city of Homs, with one being seen to be shot in the head after forces loyal to the regime fire into crowds of people. Gunfire erupts in the city of Daraa. (BBC)
• 2011 Libyan civil war:
• A video shows 11 dead imams and 45 wounded Muslim holy men, 5 of whom are in a coma, alleged to have been caused by a NATO airstrike. Those attacked were said to have been at rest and sleeping while participating in a long peace march Muslims and Christians unite in condemnation of the attack. (''The Guardian'')
• Upon speculation that Gaddafi was injured in a NATO air-strike, Libyan State TV released an audio tape of what it claims to be Gaddafi giving a message saying that he was not hurt and is alive. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Egyptian revolution:
• Authorities extend for 15 more days the detention of Hosni Mubarak, whose regime was overthrown by a recent popular revolution. (BBC)
• Suzanne Mubarak, the wife, is detained for 15 days on allegations of corruption and has a heart attack. (BBC)
• Tens of thousands of people gather in Tahrir Square to display unity against sectarian tension and solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian people and the other popular uprisings against regimes in the region. Cheers erupt as Suzanne Mubarak is incarcerated. (''The Guardian'')
• Dozens of people are injured in a petrol bomb attack on a bank in Gansu, northwest China. (''Times of India'')
• Catholic priest Father Mussie Zerai alleges that as many as 400 people, mainly Eritreans, are being held for ransom by human traffickers in the Sinai Desert, and that at least one has been killed after experiencing electric shock torture. (UPI)
• 2011 Charsadda bombing. 80 people were killed when two suicide bombs exploded in the Frontier Constabulary training center in Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
• Japan's government approves a compensation plan to assist with the tens of billions of dollars for those affected by the malfunctions of the country's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant, fearing that Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) could go bankrupt without the money. (BBC)