Portal:Current events/2015 November 23

November 23, 2015 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Maguindanao massacre
- Human rights activists and families of the victims decry the lack of justice six years after the murder of around 58 people, including journalists and politicians, in Maguindanao, Mindanao. They criticize the regime of Philippines President Benigno Aquino III for the lack of convictions in the trial. (ABC News) (Voice of America) (Fox News)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2015)
- A Palestinian kills a 20 year-old Israeli and wounds two women in a stabbing attack at a gas station near the town of Modi’in; the Palestinian assailant is shot and killed by an officer at the scene. (Ynet News) (Times of Israel)
- Two Palestinian teenage girls, ages 14 and 16, use scissors to stab a 70-year-old Palestinian man whom they misidentified as an Israeli, and other Israeli civilians, near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market; one of the attackers is killed and the other wounded while being subdued, and an Israeli civilian is wounded by police gunfire. (Times of Israel)

Business and economy

American pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Allergan, Plc announce plans to merge to form the world's largest drug company. The merger is subject to approval from regulators in the U.S., European Union and elsewhere as well as approval by shareholders of both companies. If approved, the deal will reduce tax revenue paid to the U.S. by approximately $930 million. (Reuters via The Washington Post) (AP via Denver Post)
- A Washington University in St. Louis (U.S.) international tax law expert says this deal is the biggest merger involving tax inversion, i.e., relocation of a corporation's legal domicile to a lower-tax nation, usually while retaining operations in its higher-tax country. "None of the special anti-inversion laws and regulations issued by the federal government will apply to Pfizer post-merger," Professor Adam Rosenzweig, JD, said. Rosenzweig believes this deal will encourage more U.S. companies to follow Pfizer's approach in future mergers. (Washington University)

Disasters and accidents

An explosion at Japan's controversial Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead in Tokyo damages the ceiling and a wall of a public bathroom near the shrine’s southern entrance. No one was injured. (Japan Times) (AP via ABC News)
Seven people are feared dead after a helicopter crashes in the Indian town of Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, near the Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi. (NDTV)
A U.S. Apache helicopter crashes in South Korea's Gangwon Province, killing the pilot and one crew member. (Reuters)
A highway traffic accident in the Mexican state of Puebla kills 20 people and injures at least 15 others. (Reuters)
All four crew members aboard a United States military helicopter (UH-60) are killed when their chopper crashes at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. (NBC News)

International relations

The United States issues a worldwide travel alert due to heightened activity by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (aka Da’esh/ISIS), Boko Haram, al-Qa’ida and other terrorist groups through February 24, 2016. (US State Department)

Politics and elections

Hong Kong local elections, 2015
- Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement gets a boost with Umbrella Soldiers winning at least four seats in Sunday's election although the distribution of political power over the district council seats remains broadly the same vis-a-vis the Hong Kong local elections, 2011. (Reuters) (AFP via Yahoo)

Science and technology

A new United Nations report finds 90 percent of the thousands of disasters over the last two decades are weather-related. The majority have been caused by floods, storms, heatwaves and droughts. Researchers with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) suggest the cost has been between $250 and $350 billion per year, i.e., total of $5 trillion/$7 trillion. The report concurs with findings of previous studies that weather disasters are on the rise compared to previous decades. Flooding, in particular, is becoming more frequent and more devastating as sea levels continue to rise. (UPI)
Blue Origin launches the unmanned rocket New Shephard to the edge of space (100.5 km) and lands safely upright on its original launch pad in Texas, becoming the first organization to do so. (press release) (WSJ)