The island nation of Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Wednesday. The quake destroyed the capital city of Port-au-Prince, where more than 2 million people live. Additionally, the city was hit with more than 30 aftershocks, leveling buildings and destroying communications networks. The International Red Cross reported that upwards of 100,000 people were dead and up to three million people were affected by the quake. The World Bank pledged $100 million in emergency funding for the restoration process.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu issued a letter of apology for the treatment of a Turkish envoy, ending a row between the two nations. The hostilities began when the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol to express anger at a fictional television series that portrayed Israeli soldiers killing children. During the meeting, the Ayalon ensured that Celikkol was seated in a lower chair and refused to extend him various diplomatic courtesies, intentionally humiliating the ambassador.
Google has stated that it is considering ending its operations in China following what it calls a “sophisticated and targeted” cyber attack originating inside the country. It said that the personal e-mail accounts of various Chinese human rights activists were targeted primarily, but also that dozens of US, China, and Europe-based Gmail accounts belonging to advocates of human rights in China were accessed. Google launched a Chinese version of its popular search engine in 2006, after agreeing to censorship rules enforced by the Chinese government.