[WikiEN-l] current events in Wikipedia

[Shriram Getc]

In order to obtain current events from the Wikipedia in wiki markup, an application generally needs to take the following steps:
 1. Construct the current date string in the form of "YYYY_MO_DA", e.g., "2009_April_1"
 2. Perform GET by the URL for the given date string for viewing the page source, e.g,
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Current_events/2009_April_1&action=edit
 3. Pick the content of the HTML <textarea> element.

Since not documented, i'm wondering whether the above is the expected way of accessing the current events in Wikipedia? Or is there a more elegant solution for the same task?

TIA,
Shriram