Timeline 2007 July-September
Return to home
2007 Jul 1,
Former Gov. Mitt Romney’s compulsory health plan for Massachusetts went
into force.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.30)
2007 Jul 1, Russian President
Vladimir Putin arrived in Kennebunkport, Maine, for an overnight visit
at the Bush family estate and talks with President Bush.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, In California the
price for milk, set by the state Dept. of Food and Agriculture, rose to
$1.98 per gallon, up from $1.06 a year ago.
(SFC, 6/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 1, In NYC a ban on
restaurant cooking with trans fats went into effect.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 1, Virginia became home
of the $3,000 traffic ticket. In an effort to raise money for road
projects, the state started to hit residents who commit serious traffic
offenses with huge civil penalties. Beginning today Virginia added new
civil charges to traffic fines. They range from $750 to $3,000 and will
be added to existing fines and court costs.
(USAT, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, In northeastern Utah a
wildfire burned 46 square miles and killed 3 people working in a
hayfield.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 1, In Oregon the bodies
of David Cheryl Gibbs of the SF Bay Area and priest David Schwartz of
Garden Grove, Ca., last seen on June 8, were found in the wreckage of
their car 60 miles west of Portland. A motorist reported the accident
to 911 on June 8, but emergency crews failed to find the wreck.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 1, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a convoy of British
forces in Gereshk district. One NATO soldier was killed and several
soldiers and civilians wounded in the attack. A suicide car bomber
killed one Afghan soldier and wounded eight others in the central
province of Wardak.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, Argentina’s official
government news agency said President Nestor Kirchner has tapped his
wife to take his place as the ruling coalition candidate in October
presidential elections.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, Australian media
reported that PM John Howard is secretly planning to begin withdrawing
Australian troops from Iraq by February 2008. Howard denied the report,
saying the idea was "absurd."
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, Miroslav Lajcak,
Slovak diplomat, took over as the EU's High Representative in Bosnia
replacing Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.60)
2007 Jul 1, British police
arrested two people, a 26-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, on a
major highway in Cheshire, northern England, in a joint swoop by
officers from London and Birmingham, Scotland Yard said in London in
relation to the attack in Glasgow and 2 car bombs in London. A fifth
suspect was arrested in Liverpool. 2 more arrests in the failed car
bombings brought the total to 7.
(AP, 7/1/07)(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, England slammed the
door on smoking in bars, workplaces and public buildings in what
campaigners hail as the biggest boost to public health since the
creation of the National Health Service in 1948.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, A 3-day African Union
summit focused on forging a closer federation among the 53 member
states began in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, A suicide bomber
detonated an explosives-packed truck at a checkpoint at the entrance of
the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, killing five policemen. In
eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near policemen, killing two.
Gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a minibus carrying Shiite day
laborers in the mixed district of Saydiyah, killing one passenger and
wounding four. The bullet-riddled body of a senior police commander was
discovered in Basra. Col. Nasser Hamoud, who was in charge of the
city's prisons, had been kidnapped along with three of his guards the
day before. Five US service members were killed in fighting, including
two soldiers who died in attacks in Baghdad and two soldiers and a
Marine who died in fighting in western Anbar province.
(AP, 7/1/07)(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, Israel transferred
millions of dollars worth of tax funds to the new Palestinian
government, allowing it to pay its workers in full for the first time
in a year, while skipping the ones who work for the Islamic Hamas in
Gaza.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, Kenya police said 12
suspected criminals and members of a murderous sect were killed over
the last 24 hours, as a fierce crackdown on surging crime intensified.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Namibia a seal hunt
started with a planned run of five months saying it wants to save its
fishing industry. The start followed a government announcement that it
would allow the killing of 6,000 adult males and 80,000 pups, up by
20,000 in 2006.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Peru a passenger
bus crashed into an oncoming truck killing 24 people.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 1, Portugal took over the
rotating EU presidency.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.14)
2007 Jul 1, The state-run Sunday
Mail said a senator from Zimbabwe's ruling party and 20 business people
have been arrested for flouting a government-imposed ceiling on basic
commodity prices.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 2, US President George W.
Bush commuted a 30 month jail term imposed on a former top White House
aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby for lying to federal investigators, sparking
outrage from opposition Democrats.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Russia’s Pres. Putin,
while visiting Pres. Bush in Maine, proposed an alternative missile
shield system to be jointly developed by the NATO-Russia Council.
(SFC, 7/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 2, Arizona Gov. Janet
Napolitano signed a bill imposing stiff penalties on employers who hire
illegal immigrants.
(Econ, 7/7/07,
p.35)(www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0702sanctions02-ON.html)
2007 Jul 2, Michael Woodbury (31),
released May 4 from the Maine State Prison after serving five years for
robbery and theft, killed three men during a botched robbery in Conway,
NH. In August he pleaded guilty and was given a mandatory sentence of
life in prison without parole.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Jul 2, Beverly Sills (b.
1929), American opera star, died in Manhattan.
(SFC, 7/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 2, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb destroyed a police vehicle on patrol,
killing all 7 policemen on board. A doctor at Kandahar's main hospital
said NATO forces killed one man and wounded 3. Taliban militants
ambushed a police patrol in the Mizan district, killing one policeman.
A 30-minute gun battle ensued, leaving 3 suspected Taliban dead.
(AP, 7/2/07)(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Police in Australia
arrested a 27-year-old Indian doctor over the foiled terror attacks in
London and Glasgow, and were interviewing a second doctor in the case.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Australia's second
largest retailer Coles said it had agreed to a 22 billion dollar (18.7
billion US) buyout offer from conglomerate Wesfarmers, the largest
corporate deal in Australian history.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Researchers said the
first test-tube baby created from an egg matured in the laboratory and
then frozen has been born in Canada, in a breakthrough offering hope to
women with cancer and others unsuited to normal IVF treatment.
(Reuters, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Brahim Deby (27), the
son of Chad's president, was found dead with a head wound in the
basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb. Authorities
treated the case as a murder investigation.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Thomas Mooney (45), a
senior American diplomat who disappeared four days ago with his car,
was found dead on Cyprus in a rural area outside the capital.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, The European high
speed train operators Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, SNCB, NS Hispeed, ÖBB,
SBB and Eurostar UK and the high speed subsidiaries Thalys, Lyria and
Alleo today announced the actual formation of Railteam. Its aim is to
offer travelers seamless high-speed train travel across international
borders in Western Europe.
(www.railteam.eu/en/press-corner.php)
2007 Jul 2, Egyptian security
sources said Sherif al-Filali, an Egyptian engineer who was convicted
in 2002 of spying for Israel, has died in jail of a possible heart
attack while serving a 15-year sentence.
(Reuters, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Count Gottfried von
Bismarck (44), whose life of privileged excess as a descendant of
Germany's "Iron Chancellor" was clouded by two deaths at his decadent
parties, was found dead at his $10 million apartment in London's
Chelsea district.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 2, In Ghana African Union
leaders gathered behind closed doors for a debate on how to beef up its
continental system of government with Libya's Moamer Kadhafi leading a
push to create a confederation of states.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, In Ghana 2 British
girls were stopped with 300,000 pounds (443,000 euros, 610,000 dollars)
worth of cocaine during a joint Ghanaian-British narcotics operation.
They were found guilty on November 21 and were released on July 17,
2008.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 2, About 1,500 residents
of a remote Guatemalan village rioted over the purported kidnappings of
two children, burning down a police station and holding their mayor and
another man hostage.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated an English-language satellite
television channel to counter what he claims is the West's influence in
covering news.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, A US military
Kiowa attack helicopter was shot down by insurgents south of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Nigerian university
lecturers called off a more than three-month strike to press for
improved working conditions.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's attempt to remove Pakistan's chief justice received a
setback when a Supreme Court judge rejected government evidence and
ordered a sweep of courts and judges' homes for spying devices.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, The UN and other
agencies offered aid and helicopters to Pakistan after floods unleashed
by a cyclone and days of torrential rain devastated 1.5 million people
leaving over 600 people dead.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Hamas arrested the
spokesman of a shadowy group holding British reporter Alan Johnston, a
move that could give it a bargaining chip to secure the Briton's
release.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Somali gunmen shot
dead a senior government official in Mogadishu. A teenager died when
munitions left behind by African Union peacekeepers exploded.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, A South Korean court
sentenced tycoon Kim Seung Youn to 18 months in prison over a beating
attack earlier this year against bar workers involved in a scuffle with
his son. The sentence was shelved on Sep 11, due his deteriorating
health.
(AP, 7/2/07)(SFC, 9/12/07, p.C5)
2007 Jul 2, In Yemen a suicide
bomber plowed his car into people visiting a temple linked to the
ancient Queen of Sheba, killing seven Spaniards and two Yemenis. A
wounded Spanish woman died July 14. The suicide bomber was later
identified as Abdu Mohammed Saad Ahmed (21), a Yemeni citizen.
(AP, 7/3/07)(AP, 7/15/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon reissued a report on the Western Sahara that eliminated
controversial recommendations on the future of the disputed region.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 3, President Bush refused
to rule out an eventual pardon for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after
already commuting his prison sentence in the CIA leak case.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2007 Jul 3, A Los Angeles jury
awarded $6.2 million to firefighter Brenda Lee, who said she was
harassed by colleagues because she is black and a lesbian. The
harassment she said included someone mixing urine with her mouthwash.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 3, Hilton Hotels Corp.
said it has agreed to be acquired by the Blackstone Group LP for $18.5
billion in cash. The deal was valued at $26 billion including debt.
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.C1)
2007 Jul 3, Boots Randolph (80),
tenor sax player, died in Nashville, Tenn. His 1963 hit “Yakety Sax,
written with guitarist James Rich,” became the theme song for
television’s “The Benny Hill Show.”
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 3, Afghan and NATO forces
clashed with Taliban militants in the southern Zhari district of
Kandahar overnight, leaving 33 suspected insurgents dead. US-led
coalition troops killed a suspected militant and detained two others
during an operation in eastern Afghanistan. Yousuf Ibrahim (35),
from Saudi Arabia, was detained after a brief scuffle with police in
Kabul. He had spent the last 8 years in Afghanistan, fighting alongside
the Taliban.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, British police focused
on at least four physicians with roots outside Britain, including a
doctor seized at an Australian airport with a one-way ticket, in the
investigation into failed car bombings in Glasgow and London.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, The US-made film
"Nanking," documenting eyewitness accounts of atrocities committed by
Japanese troops in China during World War Two, opened in Beijing.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, China issued
guidelines restricting organ transplants for foreigners, giving
priority to Chinese patients in the government's latest effort to
regulate procedures that have been criticized as profit-driven and
unethical. Officials said that Chinese inspectors have found excessive
amounts of additives and preservatives in dozens of children's snacks
and seized hundreds of bottles of fake human blood protein from
hospitals.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, In Germany striking
train drivers brought parts of the rail network to a standstill,
backing their demands for a large pay increase with a walkout that
affected tens of thousands of commuters.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, In Ghana African
leaders vowed to speed up the economic and political integration of
their continent to pursue the goal of a United States of Africa, but
they also agreed to study more closely how to achieve it.
(Reuters, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 3, Indonesia barred Eni
Faleomavaega, the Democrat congressman for American Samoa, from
visiting Papua, but has denied the move is to cover up alleged human
rights abuses in the remote region. Faleomavaega has been a critic of
Jakarta's policies in Papua.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Iran's leading
reformist daily newspaper was ordered closed, less than two months
after it was allowed to resume publishing.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, PM Nouri al-Maliki's
Cabinet approved a draft oil law. In Baghdad, an Iraqi army lieutenant
colonel and an Interior Ministry intelligence officer were killed in
separate drive-by shootings. A car bomb hit the convoy of an Iraqi
police colonel in Kirkuk, killing two passers-by and wounding 17. Oras
Mohammed Abdul-Aziz was executed by hanging for his role in the August,
2003, blast that killed Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim
and 84 other people.
(AP, 7/3/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 3, A human rights group
said Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq routinely torture
detainees with methods including electric shock and hold them in
overcrowded facilities without formal charges or access to legal aid.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Fumio Kyuma, Japan's
defense minister, resigned under an avalanche of criticism for
suggesting that the United States was justified in dropping atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the attacks saved Japan from a
Soviet invasion.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Pakistani security
forces clashed with militants outside the radical Lal Masjid mosque in
Islamabad, where students have carried out a string of kidnappings of
police officers and alleged prostitutes, killing at least 9 people.
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 3, South Korea enacted
legislation to remove bureaucratic barriers in the security industry
and help brokers, banks and insurers to consolidate. To date no foreign
had listed on the Seoul stock exchange.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.78)
2007 Jul 3, Spanish PM Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero promised that every child born in Spain would
receive a baby bonus of €2,500, according to national press reports.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.59)(http://piurl.com/5i)
2007 Jul 3, The Alinghi team from
Switzerland successfully defended sailing's coveted America's Cup,
beating Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2007 Jul 3, Venezuela’s energy
minister said in newly published comments that Venezuela has agreed to
sell gasoline to Iran.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, President Hugo Chavez
said his government will nationalize Venezuela's privately owned
hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce health care costs.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 4, In NYC Joey Chestnut
emerged as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time
winner Takeru Kobayashi in a record-setting yet repulsive triumph.
Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In SF some 300
skateboarders rolled down the Embarcadero in a 3-mile, police-escorted
rally promoted by Emerica, an Orange County shoe and skateboard apparel
company.
(SFC, 7/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 4, In California the Zaca
wildfire began in Santa Barbara County. By the end of the month it had
consumed 32,000 acres and was 70% contained.
(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 4, In Bridgeport, Conn.,
a mother and 3 children drowned after their van rolled into a park pond.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 4, Johnny Frigo (90),
jazz violinist and bassist, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 4, Bill Pinkney (81), the
last survivor of the original members of the musical group The
Drifters, died.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a NATO vehicle, killing six Canadian
soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, On the historic
occasion of their first summit, the EU and Brazil decided to establish
a comprehensive strategic partnership, based on their close historical,
cultural and economic ties. Brazil and EU leaders met in Lisbon,
Portugal.
(www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN/Noticias_Documentos/20070704BRSUM.htm)(Econ,
7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 4, In Chile Osvaldo Romo
(70), a security agent who became a symbol of torture and repression
under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's former military dictatorship, died in
prison.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In northeast China a
blast ripped through a karaoke parlor and bath house, killing 25 people
and injuring 33 others. It was later reported that a coal mine owner,
who ran the karaoke parlor, stored more than a ton of explosives in the
basement.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Human Rights Watch
accused the Ethiopian army of burning homes and displacing thousands of
civilians in a crackdown on rebels in the volatile east.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Ghana a drive
towards forging a United States of Africa ran out of steam as leaders
filed away from a summit without agreeing on a timeline for creating a
new government for the continent.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In India 13 passengers
aboard the Karnataka Express from Bangalore to Delhi were found
unconscious in their compartment. They had eaten cookies laced with
sedatives offered by thieves and lost all their possessions.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.G2)
2007 Jul 4, Khaled Abdul-Fattah
Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani (aka Abu Shahid), believed to be the most
senior Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq network, was captured in Mosul.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 4, The foreign ministers
of Israel and Morocco held their first publicly disclosed talks in
years, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart of the
discussion.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Mexico heavy rains
triggered the landslide on a remote winding road near the town of
Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla. As many as 60 passengers were
thought to be buried in a bus on the rural road. 32 bodies were
recovered.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mexico’s financial
website Sentido Comun reported that telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu
(67) has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person
on the planet.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mozambique's President
Armando Guebuza sought to expand trade ties with Tanzania to boost
development in the two impoverished African nations.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern Nigeria
armed men kidnapped five foreigners, the same day the country's most
prominent militant group announced it would end a truce with the
government.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Pakistan Maulana
Abdul Aziz, one of the leaders of the radical-held Red Mosque, was
arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's
burqa and high heels. He said that the nearly 1,000 followers
still inside should flee or surrender. At least 16 people, including
eight militants, have been killed and scores injured in the standoff.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 4, Palestinian gunmen
released Alan Johnston, a British journalist, who had been kidnapped
March 12.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, A top Panamanian
prosecutor said tests show at least 94 people have died from taking
medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and that
293 more deaths are under investigation. Total deaths reached 116 from
contaminated medications.
(AP, 7/4/07)(AP, 5/10/08)
2007 Jul 4, Russia’s parliament
authorized an exemption to Gazprom and OAO Transneft from limits on
wielding arms. They would now be able to employ their own armed
operatives.
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 4, Taiwan's vice
president kicked off a Latin American tour in the Dominican Republic,
an ally rapidly increasing its economic and political ties with the
island's diplomatic rival, China.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, UN food agencies
called for global backing for a "Green Revolution" in Africa to help
the continent build stable agricultural systems and rescue tens of
millions of people from poverty.
(Reuters, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 5, In a setback to
President Bush's war strategy, GOP stalwart Sen. Pete Domenici said he
wanted to see an end to combat operations and US troops heading home
from Iraq by spring 2008.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2007 Jul 5, Captain America was
laid to rest in the latest issue of Marvel Comics' "Fallen Son." He
landed on newsstands in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor,
delivering a punch to Hitler on the cover of his first issue.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 5, It was reported that
SF faced a $4.9 billion unfunded liability for health care for retiring
city workers. Other local governments and school districts in
California also faced unfunded costs.
(SFC, 7/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 5, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Terrance Hough (35), an off-duty fireman angered by a noisy Fourth of
July party, shot and killed 3 people.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 5, Kerwin Mathews 81,
film star, died in SF. His 32 films included “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad”
(1958) and “The 3 Worlds of Gulliver” (1960).
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.B6)
2007 Jul 5, Kingsley Wightman
(91), longtime math and astronomy teacher at Chabot Space & Science
Center in Oakland, Ca., died (www.chabotspace.org).
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.C4)
2007 Jul 5, A suicide bomber in
southern Afghanistan blew himself up at a checkpoint, killing 10 police
and wounding 11. A roadside bomb and clashes in the east left 3 NATO
soldiers dead. In Uruzgan province 33 Taliban fighters were killed.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AFP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Ali Asgar Lobi, a
former Bangladeshi MP who dodged more than 2.4 million dollars in
unpaid tax, was sentenced to eight years in jail.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, A Belgian court
sentenced Bernard Ntuyahaga (55), a former Rwandan army major, to 20
years in prison on for the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an
undetermined number of Rwandan civilians at the start of the 1994
genocide.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, British media reported
that a Scottish house had been used as a makeshift bomb factory to
carry out the terror attacks in London and Scotland. Three
"cyber-jihadis" who used the Internet to urge Muslims to wage holy war
on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and 10 years in
the first case of its kind in Britain. Morocco-born Younis Tsouli (23),
an al-Qaida-inspired computer expert who dubbed himself "the jihadist
James Bond," was sentenced to 10 years in prison for running a network
of extremist Web sites. Accomplices Tariq al-Daour and Waseem Mughal
also got prison terms.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AFP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.29)
2007 Jul 5, Two thieves showed up
at a London jeweler in a flashy car and made off with an even flashier
haul, stealing about $20 million worth of diamonds and gems.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 5, The Bank of England
raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75
percent, the fifth increase this year, in an attempt to curb inflation.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, George Melly, English
jazzman and writer, died in London of lung cancer.
(Econ, 7/14/07,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly)
2007 Jul 5, China's Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi visited Indonesia and said their countries should
cooperate to defend the interests of developing nations as they work to
enhance bilateral ties.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Over a million people
marched in Bogota, Colombia, to protest kidnappings and the recent
killing of abducted politicians.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 5, France’s Agriculture
Ministry said 3 swans found dead in a pond in eastern France have
tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Regine Crespin (80),
the French opera great who took her personal magnetism and soprano
voice to the world's leading stages, died.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Shares of top
real-estate firm DLF, which raised 2.24 billion dollars in India's
biggest ever public share offering, leapt 36% on their first day of
trade before retreating.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Human Rights Watch
released a report saying Indonesian security forces have killed and
beat unarmed civilians, and on two occasions raped women during recent
operations against separatists in Papua province. The 96-page report
detailed 8 alleged killings by police and military officers in the
province's central highlands since 2005 and several vicious beatings.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, In northern Iran Jafar
Kiani, a man convicted of adultery, was stoned to death in Aghchekand,
the first time in years that the country has confirmed such an
execution.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 5, In southern Baghdad 18
people died after a car bomb blew up outside a photo shop where a
wedding party waited as newlyweds had their pictures taken. Security
forces found 24 bodies around Baghdad. US forces killed one militant
and wounded 6 others in Sadr City. A bomb in Baghdad killed 2 US
soldiers. 2 US Marines were killed in western Anbar province and a US
soldier died in Baghdad.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Israeli troops crossed
into the Gaza Strip and engaged Hamas militants in a fierce gunbattle
that drew in Israeli aircraft, tanks and bulldozers. 11 militants were
killed. A cameraman for Hamas TV, who lay wounded on the ground, came
under more fire during a clash with Israeli troops. The shooting was
captured on film and broadcast on al-Jazeera satellite television. Imad
Ghanem had to have both legs amputated as a result of his injuries.
Israel repatriated 4 Jordanian infiltrators who were serving life
sentences in Israeli prisons for killing Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Japanese police
arrested an American sailor on suspicion of attempted murder after two
women were stabbed near a naval base south of Tokyo. In 2008 a Japanese
court found sailor Joshua David Williams (20) guilty of stabbing the
two Japanese women sentenced him to eight years in prison.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 6/19/08)
2007 Jul 5, Mine workers across
Mexico waged a 24-hour strike, hoping to achieve better safety
standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Mexico a small
cargo jet failed to take off in Culiacan and barreled onto an adjacent
highway, killing at least 9 people, including two soldiers assigned to
the Mexican president's security detail.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Nigeria kidnappers
snatched the 3-year-old daughter of a British worker as she was being
taken to school.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Peruvian public school
teachers walked off the job to protest an education reform proposal
that would require them to pass periodic competency exams. Education
Minister Jose Antonio Chang called the effort a failure, saying only
15% of Peru's approximately 350,000 teachers failed to show up for work
in the country.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In the southern
Philippines 9 inmates fled jail after attacking guards. Pursuing police
officers fatally shot three of the escaped convicts and recaptured four
others. Two other inmates from the jail in southern Cagayan de Oro city
remained at large.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, Larisa Arap, a member
of a Russian opposition group, was hospitalized in a psychiatric
facility for criticizing a clinic's use of violence against mentally
ill patients.
(Reuters, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 5, Thailand's military
junta unveiled a new outline constitution with controversial proposals
that could limit the role of any future elected prime minister.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 6, In Las Vegas Steven
Zegrean (51) opened fire on gamblers at the New York-New York casino
and wounded 4 people before he was tackled by off-duty military
reservists. On Oct 19, 2009, Zegrean was sentenced to 26-90 years in
prison.
(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A5)(SFC, 10/20/09, p.A5)
2007 Jul 6, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
(b.1939), author of steamy genre novels, died in Princeton, Minn. She
was widely credited with having founded the historical romance in its
modern carnal incarnation. “The Flame and the Flower” (1972) was the
1st of her 13 novels.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 6, Lois Wyse (80),
advertising whiz, died in Manhattan. Her 65 books included “Funny, You
Don’t Look Like a Grandmother” (1989).
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.C4)
2007 Jul 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops, using artillery and airstrikes, killed 33 Taliban
fighters after the insurgents attacked a police checkpoint in southern
Uruzgan province. Officials said fighting in three separate regions of
Afghanistan left more than 100 militants dead. About 60 militants died
in a battle in Kunar province, but reports of civilian deaths were not
confirmed. The next day a Kunar provincial deputy police chief said
that 25 civilians and 20 militants were killed in clashes over three
days.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Australia kicked off a
round-the-world series of Live Earth music concerts designed to
highlight climate change with a traditional Aboriginal welcome
ceremony. Former US vice-president Al Gore appeared on video screens to
launch the worldwide initiative.
(AFP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, Austrian authorities
arrested Michael Berger (35), an investment banker wanted by the FBI,
who fled after being convicted of securities fraud in NYC more than
five years ago.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 6, Canada named a former
government security adviser to head the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
the first time a civilian has held the post.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Chile's securities
regulator fined Sebastian Pinera, a leading right-wing politician and
former presidential candidate, for insider trading of LAN Airlines SA
stock.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, A former department
head at China's drug regulation agency was sentenced to death on
bribery charges. Cao Wenzhuang was given a two-year reprieve because he
provided evidence that helped with the investigation of other cases.
Chinese cat lovers mobilized online to save a truck load of cats from
the cooking pot. A standoff continued for hours while cat lovers spread
word of the incident online, eventually raising $1,320 in donations to
buy the whole load of some 800 cats.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 6, EU officials said they
have asked Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to join patrols of Europe's
border control agency in a bid to stop massive clandestine immigration.
(AFP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, In France some 50
masked attackers smashed cars and clashed with police in northeast
Paris. Three officers were injured.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, India’s Health
Ministry released a report saying the number of Indians infected with
HIV is between 2-3 million, half of what experts had previously
estimated, and about 0.3% of the 1.1 billion population.
(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 6, A suicide bomber
detonated a booby trapped car at a funeral in the Shiite Kurdish
village of Zargoush, in the Sadiya region of Diyala province, killing
22 people. Four soldiers were killed in two roadside bomb attacks on
their patrols, both in the capital. A suicide car bomber struck the
Kurdish village of Ahmad Maref killing 26 people. A US soldier and an
Iraqi interpreter were killed when an explosively formed penetrator
exploded near their patrol in southeastern Baghdad. A US soldier died
of non battle-related cause and his death was under investigation.
(AP, 7/7/07)(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A7)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 6, Israeli forces pulled
out of the Gaza Strip. Their military incursion left 11 Palestinian
militants dead and pushed Gaza's rival factions together in urging
their people to fight back.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, In rural southern
Nepal 9 children and two adults died when a tractor pulling a trailer
carrying guests in a wedding procession skidded off a road and into a
canal.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, The head of a radical
mosque besieged by government forces in the heart of Pakistan's capital
rejected calls for an unconditional surrender, saying he and his
die-hard followers were ready for martyrdom.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, A Peruvian consumer
protection agency closed a popular restaurant and imposed a stiff fine
for repeatedly turning away dark-skinned people. The upscale suburb of
Miraflores complied with the agency's request to close Cafe del Mar for
60 days. The restaurant also was fined $76,000 for its "discriminatory"
entrance policy.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Russian lawmakers
passed a bill that cracks down on dissent and expands police
surveillance authority ahead of 2008 elections.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 6, In Somalia 5 children
who stopped to play with a land mine on the way to prayers died when
one of them threw the device against a wall, causing a blast that sent
their bodies flying through the air.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, In Sri Lanka soldiers
intercepted a group of Tamil Tigers, killing 15, as they fled the
jungle area of Thoppigala in the eastern district of Batticaloa. 4
people were killed elsewhere in the embattled island.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Turkey's foreign
minister said his government and military have agreed on plans for a
possible cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, The 24-hour Live Earth
music marathon reached the Western Hemisphere with rappers, rockers and
country stars taking the stage at Live Earth concerts to fight climate
change.
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/7/08)
2007 Jul 7, A Big Mac in the US
cost an average $3.41. At current exchange rates the cheapest Big Mac
was in China at $1.45, and the most expensive in New Zealand at $5.89.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.74)
2007 Jul 7, Wildfires in
California consumed 17,000 acres in Inyo National Forest and 7,500
acres in Los Padres National Forest. An 8,000-acre wildfire
forced hundreds of people in the town of Winnemucca to leave their
homes, one of more than a dozen blazes that charred a combined 55
square miles in northern Nevada. In Utah a 160,000-acre wildfire forced
evacuations at Cove Fort and the Blundell Geothermal Power Plant.
Wildfires also burned in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Washington
states.
(AP, 7/8/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 7, In Oregon Kent Couch
(47) in his lawn chair with some snacks and a parachute rose to the sky
under 105 large helium balloons. Nearly 9 hours later the gas station
owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union, 193 miles from
home. In September he had gotten off the ground for six hours.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll picked
the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru’s
Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and
Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders of the world.
The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss
adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Barton Shackelford,
former president of PG&E (1979-1985), died in Kentfield, Ca.
(SFC, 7/16/07, p.C6)
2007 Jul 7, In Kandahar province
Taliban fighters ambushed police traveling in between Ghorak and
Mawiwand, sparking a six-hour battle. About 20 Taliban fighters were
wounded in the engagement, and several police were missing. Taliban
fighters beheaded two civilians they accused of being spies for the
government or NATO. A roadside blast struck a NATO convoy in southern
Afghanistan and wounded four alliance soldiers.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 7, A court in Algeria's
Kabylie region sentenced Said Sahnoun, a correspondent for newspapers
in sub-Saharan Africa, to 10 years in prison for spying for Israel.
(Reuters, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Algeria's state oil
and gas company and KBR Inc., a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary,
signed a $2.88 billion deal for a liquefied natural gas plant.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown pledged 14 million pounds in extra aid for parts of northern
England hit by floods which killed at least four people.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Jack Odell (b.1920),
British creator of the Matchbox miniature toys (1953), died. The toys
were made by Lesney Products, founded by Leslie and Rodney Smith in
1947. The company went public in 1960 and bankrupt in 1982, when it was
sold to Hong Kong’s Universal International Ltd. In 1997 Mattel
acquired Matchbox.
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 7, German scientists said
a genetically engineered herpes virus, designed to kill cancer cells
but leave normal tissue unharmed, has shown early promise in clinical
tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Authorities said
floods in eastern India have left nearly a million people stranded from
torrential monsoon rains.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Iraq a bombing in
Armili, a farming town of 26,000, mostly Shiites from Iraq's ethnic
Turkoman minority, killed over 130 people. Another car bomb attack
against a military checkpoint in Baghdad killed at least 3 people and
wounded 10. British troops came under heavy attack by militants in
Basra, killing one soldier and wounding 3. An American soldier was
killed in combat in Salahuddin province.
(AFP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir protesters clashed with police in Srinagar a day after a
teenager was killed when police fired on a crowd protesting alleged
human rights abuses.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indonesia a
speeding bus carrying a group of junior high school students and their
teachers plunged into a 30-foot ravine on the main island of Java,
killing 14 people. Poisonous fumes from the Indonesia’s Salak volcano
killed six teenagers who were camping on the mountain.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Nepal's king
celebrated his 60th birthday with a lavish ceremony at his palace that
set off protests in the streets of Katmandu.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, President Pervez
Musharraf told Islamist militants barricaded in a mosque to surrender
or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and children inside
the besieged compound in the Pakistani capital.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
removed restrictions on celebrating the old form of the Latin Mass in a
concession to traditional Catholics, but he stressed that he was in no
way rolling back the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Zimbabwe's government
announced a new law making it an offense to defy steep price cuts
ordered in an effort to control runaway inflation and a growing
economic crisis.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Gov.
Ed Rendell ordered a range of government services shutdown after last
minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. The shutdown
took about 24,000 workers off the job. A budget deal was hammered out
the following night.
(AP, 7/9/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, SF Bay Area police and
FBI completed Operation Strikeout, a 3-day prostitution sweep that
netted over 140 pimps, prostitutes and their customers. This included
50 prostitutes and 7 alleged johns arrested in SF.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D3)
2007 Jul 8, Boeing unveiled its
first fully assembled 787 Dreamliner in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 8, In Oakland, Ca., Odell
Roberson Jr., a transient drug addict, was found shot and killed.
Police later determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle
linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf
Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly ordering
the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, Roger Federer won his
fifth straight Wimbledon tennis championship, beating Rafael Nadal 7-6
(7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, China’s state media
said nearly 2,000 officials in central China's Hunan province have been
caught breaking China's strict one-child policy. State media also said
floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 26
people and left 17 missing in southwest Sichuan province in the last
week.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, France’s President
Nicolas Sarkozy said he will not offer mass pardons to prisoners on
Bastille Day, keeping up his law-and-order reputation and breaking with
tradition.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In India at least four
people drowned or were electrocuted over the weekend in the
northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, bringing India's overall
monsoon death toll to 177.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Chandra Shekhar
(b.1927), former Indian prime minister (1990), died from a
blood-related illness. He served briefly during a period of political
turmoil.
(AFP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Iran’s state TV said 4
fuel-smuggling trucks crashed into each other and caught fire in
southeastern Iran, killing 13 people.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi,
who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said in an audiotape that
his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle
against Shiite-dominated Iran. He threatened to wage war against Iran
unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months. A suicide
truck bomber killed 23 new Iraqi army recruits when he rammed into
their vehicle south of Baghdad. A flurry of bombings in Baghdad killed
26 people. American special operations forces in a raid captured 12
militants in Baghdad who had broken away from the Mahdi Army, and had
carried out attacks on US and Iraqi troops.
(AP, 7/8/07)(Reuters, 7/8/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, The Israeli Cabinet
approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in the government's
latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant group.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Valdis Zatlers, a
trauma surgeon with no prior political experience and widely publicized
tax problems, was sworn in as Latvia's third president since the Baltic
state gained independence in 1991.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Libya invited
international tenders for exploration of its onshore and offshore gas
fields covering an area almost the size of Scotland.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Two gunmen attacked a
German couple photographing wildlife in Namibia, killing Johannes
Fellinger (56), in front of his wife and taking her on a high-speed
chase.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria a
British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her parents,
who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Pakistan's army tried
to blast through the wall of a besieged radical Islamic seminary to
help free hostages held by a cleric and his militant supporters,
leaving one commando dead.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In the Philippines 2
small planes collided in the air and crashed in a rice field north of
Manila, killing two Indian citizens and a Filipino flight instructor.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Russia’s top security
agency said it has declassified documents on millions of victims of
Soviet-era repression (1920-1950), allowing relatives to request
information about those who were executed or died of disease and
starvation in prison.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Spain's largest
fighting bulls lived up to their fearsome reputation, goring two and
crushing at least seven people as thousands of daredevils sprinted down
narrow streets Sunday in Pamplona's annual running of the bulls.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Zimbabwe’s official
media said police have arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown
on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices
by 50%.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, President Bush
directed former aides to defy congressional subpoenas, claiming
executive privilege in resisting Congress' investigation into the
firings of US attorneys.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2007 Jul 9, Alaska’s former state
Rep. Tom Anderson was convicted of taking thousands of dollars from a
corrections company consultant in exchange for his help in the
Legislature.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, US Sen. David Vitter,
R-La., acknowledged that he was on the list of phone records just
released by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the alleged “D.C. Madam.”
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 9, The NAACP meeting in
Detroit held a public burial for the N-word (nigger) racial slur. In
1944 the NAACP held a symbolic funeral in Detroit for Jim Crow.
(SFC, 7/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 9, Northwest
Biotherapeutics, a US-based biotech company, said it had won approval
for commercial use of the world's first vaccine against brain cancer in
Switzerland.
(AFP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Researchers said a
pill developed by Pfizer to help people stop-smoking appears to also
help curb heavy drinking by targeting a pleasure center in the brain.
The drug called varenicline, began selling in the US last August under
the brand name Chantix.
(SFC, 7/10/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 9, Novartis said the
first skin patch to treat the dementia that can plague Alzheimer's
patients has gained federal approval. The drug in the patch, called
Exelon or rivastigmine, is the same as that now available in capsule
form but provides a regular and continuous dose throughout the day.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Charles Lane (b.1905),
film actor, died in Santa Monica. He appeared in well over 250 roles on
film and TV. His final screen appearance was in the 1995 TV movie “The
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.”
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 9, Afghan troops and the
US-led coalition conducting a nighttime raid killed a Taliban leader
but also two children caught in the crossfire. An exchange of small
arms fire at an army base in Herat killed four Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Reuters, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, A London jury
convicted four Muslim militants of plotting to bomb London's public
transport system.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2007 Jul 9, Buenos Aires
experienced its first major snowfall since June, 1918.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 9, Canada announced plans
to increase its Arctic military presence in an effort to assert
sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, a potentially oil-rich region
the United States claims is international territory.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, The UN-backed Okapi
radio station said that Floribert Chui Bin Kositi, a former Congolese
rebel leader, was beaten to death in Congo’s restive eastern Kivu
region. He held a senior position in a state-run body monitoring food
imports and recently ordered a large consignment of rice to be
destroyed on the grounds that it was unfit for human consumption.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, The EU's top justice
official said EU citizens will be protected by the US Privacy Act under
an anti-terror deal with Washington on the sharing of trans-Atlantic
air passenger data.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, In India’s Chattisgarh
state an hours-long battle between police and Maoist rebels armed with
machine guns and mortars ended with the deaths of 25 rebels and 24
police. The Maoist insurgency is now spread across 13 of India's 28
states and the rebels are believed to have 10,000-15,000 fighters in an
increasingly well-armed force.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Indonesia
prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against former dictator Suharto
(1921-2008), toppled in 1998, seeking $1.54 billion in damages and
funds allegedly stolen from the state during his 32 years in power. He
allegedly forced state banks and others to contribute millions to the
Supersemar Foundation, much of which was siphoned off to companies run
by members of his family and cronies.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.48)
2007 Jul 9, Attacks in Baghdad
killed 13 people as prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on
Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of
violence that claimed more than 220 lives. A roadside bomb exploded
near an Iraqi military bus north of Baghdad, killing 9 Iraqi soldiers
and injuring 21. British warplanes struck the southern town of al-Majar
al-Kabir near the Iranian border, killing three militants suspected of
smuggling weapons into Iraq.
(AP, 7/9/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, An appeals court freed
Moldova's former defense minister, overturning his conviction for
abusing his position in the 1997 sale of 21 fighter planes to the
United States.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Nigeria gunmen
attacked two southern oil installations, kidnapping two senior Nigerian
employees of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and two foreigners.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Pakistan’s President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave clerics more time to persuade defiant
militants to lay down their arms and surrender a mosque they have
defended against thousands of government troops.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Poland’s PM Jaroslaw
Kaczynski fired his deputy, Andrzej Lepper, over corruption
allegations, throwing the future of Poland's conservative governing
coalition into doubt and raising the possibility of early elections.
Kaczynski also fired Sports Minister Tomasz Lipiec, of his own Law and
Justice party.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Zimbabwe police said
more than 1,300 shop owners and business managers have been arrested as
part of a crackdown on firms accused of flouting government-imposed
price controls. Thousands of students were evicted from Zimbabwe's main
university campus after they protested at the weekend against a
decision to deny them food for not paying their fees.
(AFP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, US President George
W. Bush nominated Army Gen. William Ward, the highest ranking black in
the US military, to lead the new Africa Command and coordinate military
operations on the continent.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, Richard Carmona,
ex-Surgeon General (2002-2006), told US Congress that he was kept in an
ideological straightjacket on issues such as stem cells and birth
control.
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, Delaware Gov. Ruth
Ann Minner signed a law abolishing the state’s 2-year state of
limitations on personal injury lawsuits for victims of child sex abuse.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 10, A judge in Los
Angeles sentenced pizza deliveryman Chester Turner to death for
murdering 10 women and a fetus during the 1980s and '90s.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2007 Jul 10, In Baseball’s
All-Star game the American League beat the National League 5-4 at
AT&T Park in SF.
(www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,2028,00.html)
2007 Jul 10, It was reported that
more than 500 Tennessee streams are polluted with E. coli bacteria,
according to information from the Tennessee Department of Environment
and Conservation.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, In Florida a small
plane trying to make an emergency landing crashed into a suburban
Orlando neighborhood, killing both people aboard and starting two house
fires that seriously burned two adults and a 10-year-old boy.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Doug Marlette (57),
Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and writer, died in a car accident
near Holly Springs, Mississippi.
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.B5)(AP, 7/10/08)
2007 Jul 10, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber targeted a NATO patrol in a marketplace in Dihrawud,
Uruzgan province, killing at least 17 people, including 13
schoolchildren. 8 Dutch troops were wounded.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva said that Brazil will budget about $540 million over
eight years to complete its nuclear program, including uranium
enrichment and possibly building a nuclear-powered submarine.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, The Bank of Canada
raised its key interest rate, by one-quarter point to 4.50%, for the
first time in over a year and kept the door open to further hikes,
saying inflation has been persistently higher than it expected.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Activists said that a
recent UN report showing Canadians use more marijuana than people in
any other industrialized country is more evidence that the drug should
be legalized. The 2007 World Drug Report found that 16.8% of Canadians
between 15 and 64 used marijuana, at least once in the past year.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, China executed Zheng
Xiaoyu (63), former head (1997-2006) of its State Food and Drug
Administration (SFDA), for approving untested medicine in exchange for
cash. Zheng was convicted of taking cash and gifts worth $832,000 when
he was in charge of the state administration.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, Cyprus and Malta
received approval from EU finance ministers to join the euro.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.57)
2007 Jul 10, EU finance ministers
agreed to have Dominique Strauss-Kahn at top man at the IMF to replace
Rodrigo de Rato, who will resign in October.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.12)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19691259/)
2007 Jul 10, The bulk log carrier
Hai Tong No. 7 went down, 375 miles northwest of Guam, where it ran
into Typhoon Man-yi. 9 of 22 crew members were dead or missing. The
ship, owned by Fuzhou Haijing Shipping, was en route from Papua New
Guinea to China.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 10, Railroad Development
Corp., a Pittsburgh-based railroad company under Henry Posner III,
planned to shut down Guatemala's only train service after years of
fighting thieves, squatters and government-backed lawsuits. Posner
expected to take his case to int’l. arbitration under CAFTA with a
demand for $65 million in lost revenues and investments.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/23/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 10, Extremists unleashed
a barrage of more than a dozen mortars or rockets into the Green Zone,
killing at least three people, including an American, and wounding 18
in an area once considered the safest in the Iraqi capital. Gunmen in
Baghdad kidnapped a senior security official, Abdul Razzaq Aseel
al-Assal, the director of the joint security committee in the city of
Mosul. Hannelore Krause (61), a German woman who was kidnapped in Iraq,
was released after 155 days in captivity, but her son was still held
hostage. Sunni extremists attacked Sherween village northwest of
Baghdad. A US and Iraqi army force moved into Sherween village and
drove out the insurgents in a battle that left at least 19 extremists
dead.
(AP, 7/10/07)(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, The Gaddafi
Foundation charity said it has reached an accord with the families of
HIV-infected Libyan children that ends the crisis of the Bulgarian
nurses sentenced to death for infecting them.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Mexico's government
called a series of gas pipeline explosions a threat to the nation's
democratic institutions and vowed to step up security after a guerrilla
group claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, Nigerian troops
foiled an attempt by militants to kidnap workers at a Korean firm in
southern Rivers state, killing one insurgent and injuring several
others. Police said several people were injured and many houses and
vehicles were destroyed in two days of fighting between two rival cult
gangs in southern Ogoniland.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Pakistani troops
flushed out holdouts entrenched inside a women's religious school,
taking control of the sprawling Red Mosque room by room in fighting
that left about 50 militants and eight soldiers dead. Abdul Rashid
Ghazi, the chief cleric of the Red Mosque and brother of Abdul Aziz,
was killed as Pakistani troops flushed out entrenched militants. Umme
Hassan, the wife of Aziz and head of a seminary for female jihadists,
escaped.
(AP, 7/10/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 10, Some 50 Philippine
marines were heading back to camp when they were attacked by about 300
suspected Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in Tipo Tipo town on southern Basilan
island. Troops recovered the bodies of 14 marines, some of them
beheaded.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, Russian newspapers
reported that thieves had stolen a collection of rare paintings worth
millions of dollars from retired judge Kamo Manukyan. They were stored
unguarded in his empty apartment. The 13 paintings stolen included
works by Frenchman Georges-Pierre Seurat, the founder of
neo-impressionism, Russian seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky, and
Russian expressionist Alexej Jawlenski.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Sudan’s head of the
civil defense authority said flash floods across central and eastern
Sudan have killed 20 people and destroyed 15,000 houses, and predicted
worse weather conditions to come.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Pope Benedict XVI has
reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church,
approving a document that says Orthodox churches were defective and
that other Christian denominations were not true churches.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Zimbabwe police said
hundreds more business executives and store managers have been arrested
as part of a crackdown on violations of a government-ordered price
freeze.
(AFP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 11, Lady Bird Johnson
(b.1912), widow of former US Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969), died
in Austin, Texas.
(SFC, 7/12/07, p.A2)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.85)
2007 Jul 11, In San Francisco
Joseph Konopka, a neighborhood activist, died at his home on Ashbury
St. in the midst of erotic asphyxiation. Terry Frazier was soon
arrested and charged with murder, robbery and burglary. In 2010 Frazier
pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.C2)
2007 Jul 11, In Algeria a suicide
bomber blew up a refrigerated truck loaded with explosives at a
military encampment outside Algiers, killing 10 soldiers and wounding
35.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Manol Velev, a
Bulgarian businessman, was shot and left in a coma. Velev was married
to Bulgaria’s sports minister and had paid for the 2006 re-election
campaign of Pres. Georgi Parvanov. Velev was released from the hospital
on December 6, 2007 and faced extensive rehabilitation.
(http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2007-12-06&article=9058)(Econ,
8/11/07, p.42)
2007 Jul 11, In Canada "Honest Ed"
Mirvish (92), a colorful Toronto character who restored theaters,
produced musicals, and ran a brash and cavernous discount store, died.
(Reuters, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, China's food and drug
agency announced stricter rules for approving new drugs. The government
also ordered small, loosely regulated food producers to clean up their
act.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Nick Young, British
editor of the newsletter China Development Brief, said officials had
ordered the shut down of the newsletter for violating a 1983 law on
gathering statistics. Young had founded the publication in 1995.
(SFC, 7/12/07, p.A11)
2007 Jul 11, Three firefighters
died while battling a blaze in a forest on the Greek island of Crete.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 11, A passenger ship
carrying 70 people disappeared off eastern Indonesia after reporting
engine failure in stormy seas. The bodies of two children were found
drifting in nearby waters along with several survivors.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Jordan's military
court convicted and sentenced two militants to prison with hard labor
for plotting to attack Americans living in the kingdom.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Kurdish leaders spoke
out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts to pass
one of the political benchmarks sought by the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Libya's Supreme Court
upheld the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian
doctor convicted of infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS
virus. But the verdict may not be the final word in the case.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In western Mexico
Honda, Hershey's and other multinational companies temporarily shut
down their factories after rebels attacked a key natural gas pipeline.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 11, Nigeria's
anti-corruption agency arrested two former governors who had refused to
present themselves for questioning.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 11, Pakistani commandos
cleared the warren-like Red Mosque complex of all its die-hard
defenders, following an assault that ended a bloody eight-day siege and
left more than 80 dead, including a pro-Taliban cleric.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Hamas boycotted the
opening of the Palestinian parliament's new term, effectively allowing
President Mahmoud Abbas to keep his moderate emergency Cabinet in power.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Rwanda’s state-run
radio said the Senate has approved the abolition of the death penalty,
a key step demanded by the international community to transfer genocide
suspects to Rwandan courts.
(AFP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Serbia rejected a new
US-backed UN draft resolution on Kosovo, saying it would only lead to
the province's independence.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In southern Thailand
suspected separatists over the last 24 hours shot dead 4 people
including a government official, as the Thai premier began a two-day
visit to the region.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Turkey's ambassador
to Washington said that US weapons have been turning up in the hands of
Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, A Bush administration
assessment said Iraq had achieved only limited military and political
progress toward a democratic society; Iraqi leaders responded by
insisting they were making progress.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2007 Jul 12, Defying a White House
veto threat, the US House of Representatives approved legislation to
bring combat troops out of Iraq by April 1, 2008.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, A US government
report was released saying undercover investigators, working for a fake
firm, had obtained a license to buy enough radioactive material to
build a "dirty bomb," amid little scrutiny from federal regulators.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In New Jersey former
Newark Mayor Sharpe James (71) was indicted on corruption charges.
James stepped down as mayor in 2006 to serve as a state senator.
Prosecutors alleged that James arranged the sale of 9 city-owned
properties at a discounted rate to former girlfriend Tamika Riley from
2001 to 2005. Riley quickly sold the properties at a profit without
required rehabilitation work. On April 16, 2008, James and his
ex-mistress were convicted of corruption charges.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A5)(WSJ, 4/10/08, p.A2)(SFC,
4/17/08, p.A4)
2007 Jul 12, The city of Oakland,
Ca., sued garbage hauler Waste Management in an attempt to force the
company to pick up trash during its 11-day lockout of truck drivers.
Isaac Haqq, founder and principal of Oakland’s University Preparatory
Charter Academy (2001), resigned amidst a cheating scandal. Several
Uprep teachers blamed him for a culture of cheating and intimidation.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B9)(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, In Oakland, Ca.,
Michael John Wills, a sous chef, was shot and killed. Police later
determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle linked to Your
Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf Bey IV
(23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly ordering the
killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, Robert Quill (52) of
Florida filed a federal lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Rev. Francis
G. DeLuca, who worked for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware,
for 35 years. The suit alleged that church officials knew DeLuca was
abusing boys as early as 1958.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 12, Philip Lum Jr.,
former mayor of Colma, Ca., was sentenced to 18 months in federal
prison for failing to report numerous free airline tickets from the
Lucky Chances Casino in 1999 and 2000.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B6)
2007 Jul 12, A coalition of US and
Canadian cities along the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River, including
Toronto and Chicago, vowed to cut water consumption 15% by 2015.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Jim Mitchell,
co-founder of the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theater in SF, died of an
apparent heart attack in Sonoma County, Ca. He and his brother Artie
had opened the adult theater in 1969 and went on to pioneer
pornographic films. In 1991 Jim shot Artie to death in Corte Madera and
served just under 3 years at San Quentin Prison for voluntary
manslaughter.
(SFC, 7/14/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 12, Arthur J. Kobacker
(83), discount shoe store entrepreneur, died at his home in Florida. He
set up his first dozen self-service shoe stores in 1960 starting with
one in Pittsburgh. “I’ve run into customers who say they have 200 pairs
of shoes in their closet because of us.”
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 12, Anglo-Australian
miner Rio Tinto launched a 38.1-billion-dollar offer for Canada's
Alcan, trumping US rival Alcoa in a mammoth bid to create the world's
largest aluminium company.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with suspected
Taliban militants, killing 11 rebels in Uruzgan province. A roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol vehicle left 6 officers dead in Khost
province. In an overnight operation in the Girishk district of Helmand
province, the Afghan army and air strikes by multinational forces
killed 20 rebels. A British soldier was killed and two others were
wounded during an operation in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Burkina Faso and
Taiwan renewed a commitment to boost their diplomatic ties during a
visit to the west African nation by Taiwan's Foreign Minister James
Huang.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, China’s state media
said nearly a half-million people fled a flood zone surrounding the
swollen Huai River, while high waters in the south unleashed a plague
of an estimated 2 billion field mice that were ravaging crops.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, French legislators
approved a measure championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy that would
encourage people to work beyond the 35-hour workweek by cutting taxes
on overtime pay.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, France told Serbia
its EU bid depends on letting Kosovo break away.
(WSJ, 1/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, In Athens, Greece, a
suburban passenger train collided with a freight train, injuring at
least 53 people.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, An influential and
conservative Islamic theological school in India said marriages of
Muslim couples using Internet Web cameras were acceptable and legal.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Iranian artillery
shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages as Iranian troops clashed with Kurdish
guerrillas making an incursion across the border.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, US troops raided a
Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad in a hunt for militiamen linked to Iran,
sparking exchanges of fire and a mortar attack. 9 insurgents and two
civilians were killed. Iraqi police said 19 people were killed, and
residents said some of the casualties were caused by US helicopter
fire. Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed
Chmagh were killed in Baghdad in an area where US forces were battling
militants. In southern Iraq, clashes erupted between Shiite militants
and the Iraqi army, killing a soldier and a civilian in the city of
Diwaniyah. Aircraft struck a group of militants planting a roadside
bomb before dawn, killing five of the militants. A suicide bomber
detonated an explosives belt near a wedding party in Tal Afar. 5 people
were killed and 5 wounded. Robbers overnight stole about $680,000 from
a bank in central Baghdad. The theft at the private Dar al-Salam bank
was discovered by the bank manager when it opened in the morning, and
suspicions fell on overnight guards. A detainee died from injuries
after apparently being assaulted by other inmates at a US detention
facility in Baghdad. On June 7, 2010, the US military said it is
holding Army Specialist Bradley Manning of the 2nd Brigade 10th
Mountain Division in pretrial confinement in Kuwait and that he is
suspected of releasing classified information. A video released in
April, 2010, showed US Army helicopters killing two journalists in the
July 12, 2007, shooting.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AP, 7/13/07)(AP, 4/6/10)
2007 Jul 12, Israeli forces moved
into the Gaza Strip in a hunt for weapons and wanted militants,
sparking a fierce battle with Hamas militants that killed one Israeli
soldier.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, The Lebanese army
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery fire, but the
military denied reports that the action was part of a final assault on
the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded inside.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, News reports said
Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon has dispatched a new 5,000- strong elite
military unit to guard strategic sites, including oil refineries and
dams in the wake of recent guerrilla attacks on pipelines operated by
Pemex.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 12, Authorities announced
a major crackdown on organized crime in Amsterdam's Red Light District,
for the first time bringing national police investigators and tax
authorities to bear on what had long been seen as a local problem.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Nigeria the
3-year-old son of town chief Eze Francis Amadi was grabbed by gunmen
who smashed a window of his father's SUV in the fourth child kidnapping
in the oil-rich south in less than two months. The boy was returned the
next day.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, Tens of thousands of
Protestant hard-liners marched without trouble through Northern
Ireland's streets in an annual event that once ignited conflict with
Catholics, but passed peacefully this year, thanks to a succeeding
peace process. An estimated 75,000 Orangemen accompanied by
fife-and-drum units popularly known as "kick the pope" bands paraded
through Belfast and 17 other cities and towns.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber blew himself up, killing three people and wounding three more in
Miranshah. A bomb killed 5 people, including 3 police, and wounded
several others outside a religious centre in the Himalayan tourist town
of Mingora. Islamist protests broke out in several parts of Pakistan
following the army raid on the pro-Taliban Red mosque.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, A Philippine ferry
sank southeast of Manila. At least 129 people survived the sinking of
the MV Blue Water Princess. 15 bodies were recovered and divers said
they found many more.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Somalia insurgents
fired more than two dozen mortar shells at government targets in
Mogadishu overnight, including the president's home, in an apparent
attempt to disrupt this weekend's reconciliation talks. At least 3 men
were killed.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, South Africa banned
the import of poultry products from Germany after an outbreak of the
potentially fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Spain charging
bulls gored 7 people and seriously injured several others as this
year's San Fermin festival in Pamplona served up its longest and most
dangerous run yet.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Spanish Civil Guards
heightened a battle over a $500 million treasure of gold and silver
coins from a shipwreck when they seized the Ocean Alert, a vessel
belonging to a Tampa, Fla.,-based company. The ship was released a week
later.
(AP, 7/12/07)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.51)
2007 Jul 12, Sudan’s Interior
Ministry said flash floods across central and eastern Sudan have killed
30 people and destroyed 25,000 houses.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In the Swiss Alps 6
soldiers on an alpine training exercise were killed when an avalanche
sent them plummeting thousands of feet into a valley.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In southern Thailand
suspected rebels killed five people.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, A US jury in Chicago
found Conrad Black guilty of criminal fraud and obstruction of justice.
Black and the others had been accused by US prosecutors of pilfering
$60 million in payments that should have benefited Hollinger
International, once the world's third-largest English language
newspaper chain, and its shareholders. Black was sentenced to a 6
1/2-year sentence and began serving it at a federal prison in Florida.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)(AP, 7/13/08)
2007 Jul 13, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban militants,
leaving 10 suspected militants dead.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, A court in Brazil
issued an arrest warrant for self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris
Berezovsky on charges of money-laundering, but he denied any
involvement. The case dates back to 2004, when MSI spent millions of
dollars acquiring new players, which raised the interest of Sao Paulo
state prosecutors. They wanted to know more about the investment group,
its Iranian-born president, Kia Joorabchian, and the origin of the
money he and his unidentified partners injected into the club.
Brazilian prosecutors said they have also issued an arrest warrant for
Joorabchian, a British citizen.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, began hosting the Pan American Games. An estimated 5,500
athletes from 42 countries participated in 38 sports. The games ended
July 29.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Pan_American_Games)
2007 Jul 13, China’s General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said
on its Web site that frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods Inc., the
world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with
salmonella. AQSIQ said other imports barred included frozen chicken
feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. tainted with residue of an
anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat
Solutions Corp. containing a leanness-enhancing feed additive.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 13, French legislators
approved a measure lowering the cap on tax burdens to 50% of income,
despite resistance from leftists and even within the ruling
conservative coalition.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, A French gendarme
shot a superior officer dead in a Paris suburb before killing his own
twin children and finally turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, The International
Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has agreed to answer lingering questions
about its nuclear experiments and will let UN inspectors return to a
plutonium-producing reactor it is building.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In northern Iran at
least 18 people were killed and 24 others injured in a road accident
when a truck slammed into a bus full passengers.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, US forces battled
Iraqi police and gunmen, killing six policemen, after an American raid
captured an Iraqi police lieutenant accused of leading a cell of Shiite
militiamen. 7 gunmen also died in the fight. A volley of at least four
mortars were fired from the city's dangerous southern districts at the
Green Zone. The mortars hit near the home of a senior Iraqi military
official, killing two Iraqi soldiers. Khalid W. Hassan (23), an Iraqi
journalist for The New York Times, was shot to death on his way to
work. A US soldier was killed by small arms fire near Rusdi Mulla.
(AP, 7/13/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 13, A powerful typhoon
pounded Japan's southern Okinawa island chain, cutting power to tens of
thousands of households and grounding flights with winds up to 100 mph.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In north Lebanon
Islamic militants fired back volleys of rockets at the Lebanese army as
troops pounded the remaining suspected hideouts of the Fatah Islam
fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Roman Robles-Cota
(32), a police chief in the northern Mexican town of Sonoyta pleaded
guilty to charges that he bribed a US Border Patrol agent in 2005 in an
effort to help a smuggling operation.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, The main US
development fund signed a $506.9 million aid agreement with Mozambique
to promote economic growth and reduce poverty.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In Nepal landslides
in two mountainous districts killed at least 26 people and injured 17
more.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In Pakistan Muslim
protesters burnt effigies of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and
American icon "Uncle Sam" in mass rallies against this week's deadly
Red Mosque army raid.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Some 4,000
Palestinians remained stuck on the Egyptian side of the border with
trouble finding food and shelter, shortages they blamed on local
authorities who are indifferent to their plight.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, The Great Canary
Telescope, one of the most powerful in the world, began spying on the
universe, using its 34-foot wide mirror to search for planets similar
to our own from a mountaintop on one of Spain's Canary Islands. The
Canary Island observatory said institutes in Mexico and the US
collaborated in the project, involving more than 1,000 people in nearly
100 companies.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 13, Andrew Natsios, the
US envoy to Sudan, accused the country's government of resuming bombing
civilian positions in its troubled Darfur region, and warned of a
"disturbing" trend of Arab groups resettling in the area.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, UN officials said
they are investigating allegations that Indian peacekeepers in Congo
traded food and even military intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels in
return for gold.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Authorities in
Zimbabwe announced the arrest of hundreds more retailers and executives
as part of an ongoing price crackdown as it emerged the head of the
central bank had warned against the blitz.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 14, The Los Angeles
archdiocese agreed to a landmark $660 million clergy abuse settlement.
Over 500 claimants will get an average payout in excess of $1.3 million.
(AP, 7/15/07)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 14, In Algeria about 50
members of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb attacked
two police stations in Yaourene village in Tizi Ouzou province, about
100 km (60 miles) east of Algiers. The Algerian army halted the attack
and killed 4 in the northeastern Kabylie region.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 14, In London an Indian
doctor arrested the same day his brother allegedly drove a Jeep
Cherokee loaded with gas bombs into Glasgow's main airport was charged
with a terrorism offense. A distant cousin in Australia was also
charged in the failed attacks in London and Glasgow.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Egyptian police said
authorities have arrested 35 men suspected of membership in an
al-Qaida- inspired group that planned to carry out attacks in Egypt.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, In southern France
Pascal Payet (43), who was serving a 30-year sentence for a holdup on
an armored truck that left a guard dead, escaped by helicopter from the
Grasse prison. Payet had escaped from the Luynes prison in October
2001. In 2003, he helped organize the helicopter escape of three fellow
inmates from the same prison. In September Payet was arrested along
with 2 accomplices in Mataro, Spain.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Jul 14, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in
the country when American troops leave "any time they want," though he
acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training. A car bomb
in Baghdad leveled a two-story apartment building, and a suicide bomber
plowed his explosives-packed vehicle into a line of cars at a gas
station. The two attacks killed at least eight people. A group of 24
Iranians escaped from detention in an Iraqi police station in the
southern town of Badra. Four were quickly recaptured, but the remainder
may have fled across the nearby border.
(AP, 7/14/07)(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 14, Lebanon's political
factions including the pro-Syrian opposition Hezbollah began two days
of talks in France to try to ease the deadlock paralyzing the nation.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, UN inspectors arrived
in North Korea to monitor the communist country's long-anticipated
promise to scale back its nuclear weapons program. North Korea said it
had shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, hours after a ship
cruised into port loaded with oil promised in return for the country's
pledge to disarm.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/14/08)
2007 Jul 14, Islamic militants
launched a deadly suicide attack, detonated a roadside bomb and fired
rockets as thousands of Pakistani troops deployed to the northwestern
frontier to thwart the launch of a holy war. A suicide bomber struck in
North Waziristan, his explosives-laden vehicle killing at least 26
soldiers and wounding 29 others in a military convoy.
(AP, 7/14/07)(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 14, Palestinian PM Salam
Fayyad resigned as head of an emergency government and was immediately
appointed to lead an interim Cabinet.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Russia suspended its
participation in a key European arms control treaty that governs
deployment of troops on the continent. Under the moratorium, Russia
will halt inspections and verifications of its military sites by NATO
countries and will no longer limit the number of its conventional
weapons. The treaty, between Russian and NATO members, was signed in
1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the breakup of the
Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow withdraw troops from
the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia. Russia has ratified
the amended version, but the United States and other NATO members have
refused to do so until Russia completely withdraws.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Sri Lankan troops
used war planes and long-range weapons to attack suspected Tamil Tiger
positions as fresh fighting broke out. The clash with Tamil Tiger
rebels killed at least 10 Sri Lankan soldiers and left 34 wounded.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Sudan arrested 14
alleged plotters including retired army officers. The next day the
interior ministry accused an opposition leader of heading a plot to
overthrow the regime by creating armed chaos that would lead to
international intervention.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 14, A miner (29) died in
western Uganda from the deadly Marburg virus, first discovered in 1967.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 14, Alexandre Robert
(15), a French-Swiss youth, was raped by 3 UAR nationals in Dubai. The
case went to court in November. On Dec 12 a panel of judges sentenced
two Emirati men to 15 years in prison each in connection with a
kidnapping and sexual attack on the French-Swiss boy.
(Reuters, 11/7/07)(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Jul 15, The Los Angeles Times
reported that about 45 percent of all foreign militants targeting US
troops and Iraqi security forces were from Saudi Arabia, 15 percent
from Syria and Lebanon, and 10 percent from North Africa.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, In SF 2 coyotes, a
male and female, were shot and killed in Golden Gate Park following
recent attacks on leashed dogs.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D1)
2007 Jul 15, In Cheyenne, Wyoming,
Robin Munis was shot in the head just after midnight Saturday as she
sang with the classic rock and country group Ty and the Twisters.
Police searched for David Munis (36), a National Guardsman with sniper
training who they suspect shot his wife. Police located David Munis’
pickup truck the next in rural Albany County. As they closed in on the
suspect and called for him to surrender, Munis shot himself in the
chest. He was flown to Laramie, Wyoming, where he was pronounced dead
on July 18th.
(AP, 7/15/07)(http://tinyurl.com/6669k3)
2007 Jul 15, A roadside bomb
killed six Afghans working for a Western security company in the east
of the country.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Antun Gudelj (59), a
Croatian man charged with killing three police officials in the early
days of the 1991 Serb-Croat war, was extradited from Australia to
Croatia to face a new trial after an earlier pardon.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Botswana's President
Festus Mogae (67) announced that he is to stand down next year after a
decade at the helm of the diamond-rich southern African nation.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Britain released
without charge 2 suspects in the failed car bomb attacks in London and
Glasgow last month.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, JCDecaux launched a
bike rental system in Paris.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.76)
2007 Jul 15, A minister said
India's southern coastal Kerala state was reeling from an outbreak of
mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral fever infections that have claimed 193
lives. Chikungunya, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, was
first detected in 1955 in Africa and last year caused the deaths of
some 200 people on the French Indian ocean island of Reunion. Federal
health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told parliament last year that some
1.1 million Indians were infected with Chikungunya.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, A car bomb packed
with explosives detonated in a central Baghdad square, killing 10
people and wounding 25. At least 18 other people were killed including
7 border guards in the northern Kani Khal area and 8 in shootings in
the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and several areas south of
Baghdad. 22 bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in various
locations of Baghdad, apparently the latest victims of sectarian
violence.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Mahmoud Darwish, the
world's most recognized Palestinian poet, delivered a stinging tirade
against Palestinian infighting in his first public appearance in
decades in the Israeli city of Haifa.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Typhoon Man-yi, one
of the most powerful storms to hit Japan in decades, headed away from
Tokyo after leaving four people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, A Libyan foundation
confirmed that families of Libyan children infected with AIDS have
accepted compensation topping 460 million dollars, which could lead to
a death sentence on six foreign medics being lifted.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants holed up in
a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon fired more rockets that
landed in farm fields outside the camp as the army bombarded suspected
hideouts inside the besieged settlement. Politicians from Lebanon's
divided factions held a second day of talks in France to try to ease 8
months of deadlock.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, North Korea confirmed
it has shut its nuclear reactor that provides the secretive state with
material to make weapons-grade plutonium.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants in
northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government. Suicide
attacks and a roadside bomb together killed 44 people and wounded more
than 100.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Marina Pisareva (47),
the deputy head of a small Russian division of German media company
Bertelsmann AG, was found dead at her summer house near Moscow,
possibly stabbed with her own dagger.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Spanish officials
said police investigating a child pornography ring have arrested 66
people and seized computer hard drives containing 48 million
photographs and video images. The nationwide sweep came after a
10-month investigation.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, UN and African Union
representatives gathered in Tripoli to evaluate Darfur.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, Pres. Bush said he
would call Israel, the Palestinians and others in the region to a peace
conference and urged Arabs to send Cabinet-level officials to a Fall
meeting to be led by Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.A7)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 17, The US freed 16
Saudis from Guantanamo and flew them home, where they were taken into
custody for investigation of possible links to terrorism.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, A man carrying a gun
and declaring "I am the emperor" was shot and killed by security
outside the offices of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 16, Dikembe Mutombo (41),
NBA basketball star, said he wants to score for his native Democratic
Republic of Congo by financing a new hospital and training young hoops
players. Mutombo invested $15 million (11 million euros) in the
construction of the hospital, more than half the total cost.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corp. reached a tentative agreement to buy Dow Jones & Co.,
publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 16, IHOP Corp. announced
that it had sealed a deal to buy Applebee’s for about $2.1 billion.
This would make IHOP the nation’s largest sit-down restaurant chain
with 3,250 locations and sales of nearly $7 billion.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 16, An Amtrak train hit a
car at a Florida crossing killing 4 occupants.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, Mark Sneed (50),
president of Phillips Foods, died of a heart attack at his home in
Riva, Md. He drove the company’s expansion to Asian suppliers for crab.
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 16, Afghanistan's
government fired Abdul Sattar Murad, the governor of Kapisa province,
days after he said Afghans are distancing themselves from Pres. Hamid
Karzai and that a "vacuum of authority" is allowing the Taliban,
al-Qaida and other groups to gain power. In southern Kandahar province
suspected Taliban militants ambushed two police officers riding a bike
in Zhari district, killing both.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 16, Argentina’s President
Nestor Kirchner's economy minister resigned after a prosecutor ordered
her to testify about $64,000 in cash that was found in a bag in her
office bathroom. Kirchner accepted Felisa Miceli's resignation and
appointed economist and Industry Secretary Gustavo Peirano as her
replacement.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Bangladesh police
arrested former PM Sheikh Hasina on extortion charges, and she was
ordered jailed pending trial.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Britain ordered the
expulsion of four Russian diplomats because of Moscow's refusal to
extradite the lead suspect in the fatal poisoning of a former KGB
officer in London.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 16, The High Court in
London upheld a ban on a teenager from wearing a so-called "purity
ring" at school to signal her refusal of sex before marriage.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, The Canadian
government agreed to disburse C$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion) in aid over
20 years to Quebec's 15,000 Cree to improve health, security and other
services for the native Indians.
(Reuters, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Orascom Construction
Industries S.A.E. of Cairo said it is investing $115 million to acquire
a 50% stake in a North Korean cement plant.
(WSJ, 1/16/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 16, In Ethiopia a court
sentenced 35 opposition politicians and activists to life in prison and
denied them the right to vote or run for public office for inciting
violence in an attempt to overthrow the government. They had protested
the alleged rigging of ’05 elections. Those facing life imprisonment
include the leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, Hailu
Shawel; Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa; former
Harvard scholar Mesfin Woldemariam; and former UN special envoy and
former Norfolk (Va.) State University professor, Yacob Hailemariam.
(AP, 7/16/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, A group representing
thousands of children of Holocaust survivors filed a class-action
lawsuit against the German government, demanding that Germany pay for
their psychiatric care.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Haitian radio
reported that US Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Guy
Philippe (39), a former rebel leader and presidential candidate with
alleged ties to drug traffickers.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Reliance
Communications, India's second largest telecom company, said it paid
300 million dollars to buy US-based telecom firm Yipes Holdings to
expand data services.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, A court in Iran
sentenced Adnan Hassanpour (27), a journalist for the closed
Kurdish-Persian weekly, to death on charges of endangering national
security and propaganda against the state. Abdolvahed “Hiva” Botimar
(29) was also sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in Marivan.
(http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15054)
2007 Jul 16, In Iraq twin suicide
car bombings exploded within 20 minutes of each other in Kirkuk,
killing at least 85 people and wounding around 150 in attacks targeting
a Kurdish political office and ripping through the Haseer outdoor
market. A string of attacks in Baghdad killed at least 14 people. An
American soldier died from wounds received the day before by a bombing
in Ninevah province. American soldiers killed about a dozen insurgents
during a three-hour gunfight in Fadhil. A US Marine died in a
non-combat related incident in Anbar province.
(AP, 7/16/07)(AP, 7/17/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, A 6.8 earthquake
struck northwestern Japan, destroying hundreds of homes, buckling
seaside bridges and causing a fire at one of the world's most powerful
nuclear power plants. 11 people were killed and hundreds were injured.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant suffered a slew of problems,
including spilled waste drums, leaked radioactive water, fires and
burst pipes.
(AFP, 7/16/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)(Econ, 7/21/07,
p.41)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 16, In northern Lebanon
fierce fighting erupted at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp as army
troops pounded the remaining hideouts of al-Qaida-inspired militants
holed up inside with artillery and tank fire. 4 soldiers were killed in
fighting. Troops captured two militants while pursuing the fighters in
the camp's old neighborhoods.
(AP, 7/16/07)(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 16, Health officials in
Malawi prepared to launch a massive HIV testing program to identify
tens of thousands of people unknowingly infected with the virus.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Mexico police
fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from reaching
the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in the worst
outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since November.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Pakistan held crisis
talks with tribal elders to save a peace deal with pro-Taliban
militants, amid fears of fresh violence after 3 weekend suicide attacks
left more than 70 dead.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Scotland’s University
of Edinburgh confirmed that it had withdrawn an honorary doctorate
awarded to Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in 1984, because of
concern over his human rights record.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Public schools
reopened in South Africa after seven weeks following a month-long
strike by teachers and winter holidays.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Venezuela RCTV
resumed broadcasting on cable and satellite TV channels. The station
had been pushed off public access on May 28.
(Econ, 7/21/07,
p.38)(www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22903)
2007 Jul 16, Zimbabwean Roman
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube was named in an adultery case. State
radio reported that a woman, identified as Rosemary Sibanda, "admitted
the affair" to the state broadcasting company. The radio report said
the woman's husband, Onesimus Sibanda, was demanding $160,000 in
damages.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 17, The US offered
additional food aid to Zimbabwe to ease its famine but criticized what
it said were reckless actions by Pres. Robert Mugabe to try to deal
with the problem.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Jim Nicholson,
Secretary of the US Veteran’s Administration abruptly resigned in the
wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in the Iraq
war.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The Dow Jones
industrial average crossed 14,000 for the first time before ending the
day at 13,918.22.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The California State
Water Resources Control board passed a 70-year mercury cleanup plan for
the SF Bay.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 17, In Virginia Michael
Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was indicted by a federal
grand jury along with 3 others on charges related to competitive dog
fighting. In Dec. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his
role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit
bulls.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A6)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Jul 17, Whole Foods launched
an internal investigation after it became public that CEO John Mackey
had for many years posted critical comments online against Wild Oats
prior to a planned acquisition of the firm this year.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.62)
2007 Jul 17, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
a TAM airlines Airbus-320 slammed into a gas station and a TAM building
and burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked
runway at Congonhas airport. All 187 people aboard were killed along
with 12 on the ground.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, A British court
sentenced Yassin Nassari (27), a British-born Syrian cleric, to
3½ years in prison for bringing missile plans into Britain in
2006. He had led a branch of the Islamic Society at the Univ. of
Westminster. Nassari served just over seven months of his sentence.
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.61)(www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/28/terror.release)
2007 Jul 17, Cambodia's government
issued a directive preventing Christians from promoting their religion
in public places, or using money or other means to persuade people to
convert.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A foreman from a kiln
in north China where workers were beaten and forced to work 18-hour
days was sentenced to life in jail and another man was sentenced to
death for the beating death of a laborer. A total of 29 people were
convicted in seven different courts in Shanxi for their roles in the
slavery scandal.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, An international
think-tank said China's smog-choked cities and contaminated waterways
are leaving many people sick and unable to work, in turn fomenting
unrest and threatening the country's economic growth.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, It was reported that
the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP estimated that the
cereal deficit for East Timor this year and next will reach 86,364
tons. With commercial imports anticipated at 71,000 tons, the shortfall
needs to be filled through food assistance.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Lawmakers loyal to
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they are ending a nearly five-week
boycott of parliament sessions after officials accepted their demands
for rebuilding a Shiite shrine damaged by bombings. In eastern Baghdad
a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army patrol in
Zayouna, a mostly Shiite area, killing 10 people including six
civilians. The bodies of two security guards were found in the western
Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, two days after they were kidnapped
from the office of a cell phone company where they worked. 29 members
of a Shiite tribe were massacred overnight in Diyala province when
dozens of suspected Sunni gunmen raided their village near Muqdadiyah.
The dead included four women. 3 American soldiers were killed in
separate bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 17, In Lebanon militants
continued to resist the army's advance. Security officials said Army
troops are making "significant" gains in their long-running battle
against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded inside a Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 60 militants and more than
20 civilians have been killed in fighting since May 20.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Libya's foreign
minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children
with HIV have been commuted to life in prison. The ruling came after
the families of the children each received $1 million and agreed to
drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Najib Razak,
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said Malaysia is an Islamic state and
not a secular one, while carefully assuring members of minority faiths
that their rights will be protected. More than 60% of Malaysia's 27
million people are Muslim Malays and Islam is the official religion
under the country's constitution. But while the constitution defines
the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also guarantees freedom of
religion.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil giant
Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a key oil
supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's Ogoniland
region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has affected the
company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six villages whose
residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A suicide bomber
killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North
Waziristan region on the Afghan border, hours after pro-Taliban
militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. An apparent
suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 16 people and injured 44 at a rally
where the former chief justice was scheduled to speak.
(SFC, 7/18/07, p.A13)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 17, Russia vowed a
"targeted and appropriate" response to Britain's expulsion of four
diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the radiation
poisoning death of a former KGB officer.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Syria’s Pres. Bashar
Assad was sworn in for a 2nd, seven-year term in office.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern Thailand
twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other people, as
the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In western Ukraine a
train carrying yellow phosphorus derailed, releasing a cloud of toxic
gas into the air over 14 villages. 20 people were hospitalized and
hundreds evacuated.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 18, US President George
W. Bush ordered the creation of a "working group" of top aides to
review the safety of imports from China and all around the world.
Michael Leavitt, Health and Human Services Secretary, was selected to
chair the panel.
(AP, 7/18/07)(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 18, A massive geyser of
steam and debris erupted through a midtown Manhattan street near Grand
Central Terminal as an 83-year-old steam pipe ruptured. One woman,
identified as Lois Baumerich (57) of Hawthorne, N.J., died from cardiac
arrest.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, NYC and New Jersey
claimed $170.2 million in anti-terrorism funds, LA and Long Beach, Ca.,
claimed $72.6 million, DC claimed $61.7 million, Chicago got $47.3
million, the SF Bay Area got $34.1 million and Houston got $25 million.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 18, Jerry Hadley
(b.1952), opera tenor, died in Poughkeepsie, NY. He had been in the
hospital since July 10, when he was admitted after shooting himself
with an air rifle.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 18, Sekou Sundiata
(b.1948), black poet and activist born as Robert Franklin Feaster, died
of heart failure in Westchester, NY.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 18, Suspected Taliban
militants ambushed a convoy of Afghan police officers driving through
Zabul province, killing six. Suicide bombers in Khost killed three
police officers. Militants fatally shot two police officers in southern
Kandahar province, where four suspected Taliban were killed in a clash
with NATO and Afghan forces. In Paktia province, an attack on a road
construction crew left one person from the Philippines dead and three
guards wounded. Taliban fighters also ambushed police in Logar
province, killing six of the officers. Armed men kidnapped two Germans
and two Afghans working on a dam project in central Afghanistan. One of
the Germans, Ruediger Diedrich, was found shot dead three days later;
the others were later released.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/18/08)
2007 Jul 18, Bosnia's war crimes
court acquitted Momcilo Mandic, the most senior ethnic Serb official
indicted by Bosnian authorities, of all charges related to crimes
during the 1992-95 war.
(Reuters, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, In London 3 Muslim
men were jailed for 6 years for their role in a heated protest outside
the Danish embassy in 2006, following the publication of cartoons in a
Danish newspaper making fun of the Prophet and of Muslims generally. A
4th man was sentenced to 4 years.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.55)
2007 Jul 18, Eritrean state media
said Sudanese army commanders and former rebel leaders from the east of
the country have signed a military deal in Asmara, bolstering a peace
agreement signed last year. Bringing an end to 10 years of sporadic
fighting, a peace deal was signed last year with the Sudanese
government, which is to allocate the Eastern groups a total of 600
million dollars over five years for development.
(AFP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, Guatemalan police
rescued a two-month-old boy who had been stolen from his home and
arrested four people who were allegedly preparing the baby for illegal
adoption.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, In India at least 26
people were killed and 15 others injured when a seven-story building
collapsed in Mumbai.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, An armed group killed
11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard in clashes in the
country's lawless southeast. A report said the Guards clashed with drug
traffickers in a mountainous area near Iran's borders with Pakistan and
Afghanistan and killed four of them.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 18, The Iraqi government
said Turkish artillery and warplanes bombarded areas of northern Iraq
and called on Turkey to stop military operations and resolve the
conflict diplomatically. A series of roadside bombs exploded in
separate areas of east Baghdad, killing 11 people and wounding more
than a dozen. US troops killed three al-Qaida suspects as they tried to
slip out of Baqouba. 4 US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were
killed in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, Two boats carrying
would-be migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe sank between
Italy and Libya, leaving five people dead, including a child. Eleven
others were missing and presumed dead. An Italian Navy ship pulled 22
survivors from the water.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, A top Nigerian lawyer
accused former president Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption and asked the
anti-graft commission (EFCC) to investigate his financial activities
while in office. A Nigerian oil official said the economy has lost more
than one billion dollars a month and hundreds of thousands of barrels
of crude a day since 2006 due to unrest in the Niger Delta. In northern
Nigeria a radical Sunni Islamic preacher was shot dead near a mosque.
Sunni Muslims in Sokoto said they suspected members of the rival Shiite
community.
(AFP, 7/18/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, Suspected militants
attacked security forces in northwest Pakistan, killing 16 soldiers and
wounding up to 21 others in two separate strikes against military
convoys.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, An explosion tore
through a crowd of mourners at a cemetery in southern Russia, wounding
at least 10 people, including four police officers. The funeral was for
an ethnic Russian woman who had been fatally shot along with her two
grown children July 16 in Ingushetia.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, South Korea's nuclear
envoy said North Korea followed up the shutdown of its sole operating
reactor with a pledge to disclose all its nuclear weapons programs and
disable them by the end of the year.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, Telecoms giant
Ericsson said it had won a 2.0-billion-dollar order from India's Bharti
Airtel to expand its network into rural areas, the largest order ever
received by the Swedish company.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, A Ukraine bus taking
vacationers to the Black Sea overturned when its brakes failed, killing
six people and injuring 46.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, A federal judge
dismissed a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame, who
was demanding money from Bush administration officials she blamed for
leaking her agency identity.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2007 Jul 19, The prices of lead
and tin hit historic peaks in London, supported by tight global
supplies and fierce demand for both base metals.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Taliban gunmen
abducted 23 members of a South Korean church group in southern
Afghanistan. The next day a purported spokesman for the Islamic militia
said it will question them about their activities in Afghanistan before
deciding their fate. Two hostages were fatally shot; the rest were
later freed. In northern Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up
outside a police station, killing one civilian and wounding 25 other
people. In Helmand's Marja district, Taliban militants ambushed police,
leaving six officers dead and two others wounded. 2 separate bombings
in southern Afghanistan left five civilians dead, while a Taliban
ambush killed six police officers. A car bomb targeting a US-led
coalition convoy in Helmand province's Sangin district killed two
civilians and wounded two coalition troops. A mine exploded under a
civilian car in Kandahar province's Zhari district, killing three
civilians.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/19/08)
2007 Jul 19, The
Armenian-controlled breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh held a
presidential election amid a rumbling dispute with Azerbaijan over the
mountainous enclave's unrecognized independence.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Up to 50 migrants
were missing in rough seas south of the Canary Islands after their boat
capsized.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, In southern Hungary a
tourist bus collided with a truck. The truck driver and six bus
passengers were killed, and 16 others were injured.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Lawmakers voted in an
election widely expected to give India its first female president.
Pratibha Patil (72), governor of the northwestern state of Rajasthan,
was said to have been selected for her unswerving devotion to Sonia
Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, and Gandhi's powerful family,
which has historically controlled the party. Pratibha Patil was elected
as the country's first female president in a vote seen as a victory for
the hundreds of millions of Indian women who contend with widespread
discrimination. An Indian anti-terror court sentenced three more men to
death for their involvement in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai in
1993 which killed 257 people.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 19, Sunni lawmakers ended
their five-week boycott of parliament, raising hopes the factious
assembly can make progress on benchmark legislation demanded by
Washington. The bodies of two men with bullets in their heads were
found dumped near a Sunni mosque in Baghdad. A Kurdish political party
member was ambushed and killed in eastern Mosul. Gunmen firing from a
speeding car killed a bodyguard of a Sunni parliament member in Mosul.
Assailants blew up two bridges in Haditha overnight. The US said two
American soldiers have been charged with killing an Iraqi on June 23
near Kirkuk. Insurgents killed three British troops and two American
soldiers in separate attacks in southern and central Iraq.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, In Pakistan 30 elders
from several tribal regions in the northwest traveled to North
Waziristan in the latest government-backed effort to persuade militants
to reverse their decision to end a peace deal. 3 suicide bombings
killed at least 51 people. A suicide bomber hit a convoy of Chinese
workers passing though the main bazaar in Hub, killing 29 Pakistani
bystanders and police, and prompting Musharraf to call for national
unity against extremists. A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a
mosque in an army cantonment in the northwestern town of Kohat, killing
at least 15 people. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives when
guards prevented him from entering the parade ground of a police
academy in another northwestern town, Hangu. Six bystanders and one
policeman died.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, About 2,000 people
protested at the border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip,
demanding the crossing be opened to allow thousands of Palestinians
trapped in Egypt to return.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Peru's public school
teachers ended a 15-day strike against a new law requiring them to take
competency tests after government officials agreed to talks on their
demand for better training.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, Rev. Giancarlo Bossi
(57), an Italian priest held hostage for over a month in the southern
Philippines, was released.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, Russia announced the
tit-for-tat expulsion of four British diplomats, a visa ban on British
officials and the suspension of bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation
amid a mounting diplomatic row. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
called on Russia to honor Britain's request to extradite the chief
suspect over the murder of former agent Alexander Litvinenko.
(AFP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, A 30-minute gunbattle
rocked Mogadishu in the hours before a long-awaited Somali peace
conference was set to begin. At least two people were killed.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Sudan’s head of civil
defense said more than 50 people have been killed and 20 injured in the
worst floods in living memory which have partially or completely
destroyed 18,000 homes.
(Reuters, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, A UN-backed court
sentenced three former rebel leaders to prison, the first punishments
handed down by the war crimes tribunal since it was set up five years
ago after Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict ended. Alex Tamba Brima
(35) and Santigie Borbor Kanu (42) were each given 50-year jail terms,
while Brima Bazzy Kamara (39) received 45 years.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, President Bush signed
an executive order prohibiting cruel and inhuman treatment, including
humiliation or denigration of religious beliefs, in the detention and
interrogation of terrorism suspects.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2007 Jul 20, Kevin Andre Smoot
(43), a former executive of Eagle Global Logistics’ freight forwarding
station in Houston, a company that shipped military cargo to Iraq,
pleaded guilty to lying about a fraud scheme that bilked the government
out of more than a million dollars. Smoot admitted that he lied to
federal investigators who questioned him about a scheme to inflate
invoices by adding a "war risk surcharge" of 50 cents for each kilogram
of freight transported to Baghdad.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, Purdue Pharma L.P.,
the maker of OxyContin, and 3 of its executives were ordered to pay a
$634.5 million fine for misleading the public about the painkiller's
risk of addiction.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, A 4.2 earthquake
jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake, breaking glass and
rattling nerves, although there were no immediate reports of injuries.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, In Ohio an ambulance
heading to a hospital was broadsided by a car in Crane Township and 5
people were killed including 3 EMT technicians and 2 patients.
(SFC, 7/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 20, Tammy Faye Messner
(b.1942) died in Missouri. As Tammy Faye Bakker she had helped her
husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire that
collapsed in disgrace. She divorced her husband of 30 years, with whom
she had two children, in 1992 while he was in prison for defrauding
millions from followers of their PTL ("Praise the Lord" or "People that
Love") television ministries. In 1993 she married Roe Messner, a former
PTL contractor and chief builder of Heritage USA, a PTL theme park in
South Carolina. In 1996 Messner was sentenced to 27 months in prison
for federal bankruptcy fraud.
(AP, 7/22/07)(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.B7)
2007 Jul 20, Pete Wilson (b.1945),
TV anchor for KGO-TV in SF, died one day after a heart attack suffered
during hip replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 20, Angola, Namibia and
South Africa launched a joint commission designed to lay the groundwork
for a sustainable and environmental approach of their shared fishing
grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.
(AFP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, An election committee
said Bako Saakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's former security chief, won the
presidency of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region with 85% of the
vote.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Hundreds of thousands
of people packed the streets of La Paz to protest efforts to relocate
Bolivia's capital in one of the largest demonstrations in the history
of the Andean country. La Paz backers said switching the capital from
Bolivia's largest city, with a metropolitan population of 1.7 million,
to Sucre, population 250,000, would be expensive and divisive.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Sen. Antonio Carlos
Peixoto de Magalhaes (79), one of Brazil's most influential
politicians, died. He had held on to power as the country came under a
military dictatorship and returned to democracy.
(AP, 7/21/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.D6)
2007 Jul 20, China said it had
shut down several firms at the heart of food and drug safety scares,
including a chemical plant implicated in the deaths of 94 people in
Panama. China also said that it "strongly opposed" decisions by the
United States to initiate anti-dumping and countervailing duty
investigations on imports of some woven sacks and steel pipes from
China. Total deaths in Panama reached 116 from contaminated medications.
(AP, 7/20/07)(Reuters, 7/20/07)(AP, 5/10/08)
2007 Jul 20, In southern China a
mentally ill man wielding a wrench wounded 18 children and a teacher in
a kindergarten before fleeing on a motorcycle. Police nabbed the
attacker at his home and sent him to hospital because he had stabbed
himself in the stomach.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, A magnitude-6.1 quake
hit far western Xinjiang's mountainous Tekes county. Chinese
authorities relocated 8,250 people after the earthquake damaged and
destroyed thousands of mud brick houses.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 20, Aid officials said
clashes between rival militia groups in eastern Congo have killed nine
fighters and reduced dozens of houses to smoldering ruins. The fighting
erupted a week ago in Minembwe, about 120 miles southwest of the
eastern lakeside city of Uvira.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Ecuador's Pres.
Rafael Correa overturned a ban on the sale of shark fins, which are
popular in Asia, but stipulated they can only be sold if the sharks are
caught by fishermen accidentally.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Ethiopia pardoned and
freed 38 opposition politicians and activists following international
condemnation of their imprisonment and days after US lawmakers took
steps to criticize the country's human rights record.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, A heat wave sweeping
central and southeastern Europe killed at least 13 people this week,
with soaring temperatures sparking forest fires, damaging crops and
prompting calls to ban horse-drawn tourist carriages.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Two suspects in the
1994 Rwandan genocide, a priest and a prefect, were arrested in France
on a warrant from an international court investigating the massacres.
Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Roman Catholic priest in Normandy, and Laurent
Bucyibaruta, a former prefect, were jailed before possible extradition
to Tanzania where the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is
based.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, In Iraq 4 people were
killed and three wounded when clashes broke out in the Shiite village
of Ajemi near Khalis. A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Diyala
province. Iraqi troops detained 46 suspected militants and killed five
others in a new operation in eastern Diyala. A US airstrike killed six
militants in Husseiniyah, according to US military, disputing claims by
Iraqi officials and relatives of the victims that 18 civilians died in
the attack.
(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 20, Israel released more
than 250 Palestinian prisoners, aiming to bolster embattled President
Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic militants of Hamas.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, The UN said that it
had confined a group of peacekeepers to their base in Ivory Coast after
receiving allegations of widespread sexual abuse, the latest in a
string of accusations of sexual violations by UN forces around the
world.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Suspected Islamic
rebels attacked Hindu pilgrims with hand grenades for the second time
in a week in India's portion of Kashmir, wounding 11 people.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, Lebanon’s army used
loudspeakers to urge Islamic extremists inside a Palestinian refugee
camp in northern Lebanon to surrender, as sporadic fighting continued.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Officials said
Liberia's former House speaker and an ex-military commander have been
charged with treason for their involvement in an alleged coup plot.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Nigeria filed a new
lawsuit against US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claiming some 6.5
billion dollars in damages for deaths allegedly stemming from drug
trials. In Sokoto, Nigeria's main Islamic city, mobs burned down houses
in Shiite neighborhoods in apparent reprisal for the murder this week
of a radical Sunni Muslim cleric. In northern Nigeria at least one
person died and about 100 were detained in a series of dawn raids
following sectarian clashes sparked by the killing of a popular Sunni
cleric In southern Nigeria Gunmen killed a Lebanese businessman in his
home. Later in the day attackers tried to ambush a truck carrying
several foreign workers in what appeared to be a kidnapping attempt.
(AFP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, ruling that
his suspension by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was illegal. Clashes
broke out between Pakistani troops and militants in North Waziristan
after a suicide car bomber hit a security checkpoint, killing four
people. In northwestern Pakistan lightning and heavy rain caused
landslides that destroyed homes in two villages, killing more than 70
people.
(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, The WTO said Rwanda
plans to import a generic HIV/AIDS medicine made in Canada, making it
the first country to test a World Trade Organization waiver on drug
patents.
(Reuters, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Rade Terzic, Serbia's
former state prosecutor, was arrested on suspicion he belonged to a
criminal gang linked to former President Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, On the Caribbean
island of St. Maarten Georgia state athletes Randy Newton and Bryan
Kilgore were killed. Michael Registe was later accused of the murders
and faced extradition.
(SSFC, 7/19/09, p.A6)
2007 Jul 20, President Thabo Mbeki
hailed the launch of a rolling news network in South Africa as an
opportunity to break free of Western news agendas and give a more
rounded picture of the continent.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 21, Doctors removed five
small growths from President Bush's colon after he temporarily
transferred the powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney
under the rarely invoked 25th Amendment.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, The protracted
suspense finally lifted for Harry Potter fans who flooded bookshops
worldwide to grab the series finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows," and find out whether author J.K. Rowling slays or spares the
boy wizard.
(AFP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, A purported Taliban
spokesman said the militia killed two German hostages because Germany
didn't announce a troop withdrawal. The Afghan government, however,
said one of the Germans died of a heart attack and that the second was
still alive. Ruediger Diedrich, one of two Germans kidnapped in
southern Afghanistan on July 18, was found dead. Germany has 3,000
soldiers in NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, Security sources said
a week-long offensive by Algerian special forces in a mountainous area
east of Algiers has killed between eight and 11 Islamist militants.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Helicopters rescued
dozens of people following heavy rains and floods in England that also
forced more than 2,000 motorists, homeowners and train passengers to
spend the night in shelters.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jean Berchmans
Ndayshimiye, the military leader of Burundi's last rebel group (FNL),
escaped back to the bush, sparking fears of renewed civil conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Developers of the
Burj Dubai, a 1,680-foot skyscraper still under construction in
oil-rich Dubai, claimed that it has become the world's tallest
building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101 which has dominated the global
skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, A bomb left on a
minibus also exploded shortly after noon in the predominantly Shiite
area of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five Iraqis and
wounding 11. A mortar attack also struck the eastern outskirts of
Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four. A top aide to Iraq's
Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was stabbed to death
in the city of Najaf. American and Iraqi forces continued operations to
clear Sunni extremists from Baqouba. Americans said earlier this week
that they have killed at least 67 al-Qaida operatives in Baqouba,
arrested 253, seized 63 weapons caches and have destroyed 151 roadside
bombs since last month. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 21, Italian police
arrested three Moroccans, an imam and two of his aids, they accuse of
being part of a militant cell that allegedly used a mosque in a central
Italian city as a terror training camp.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, In southern Nigeria
armed men seized the son (30) of a local chief near Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Attackers dressed in
dark clothes and wielding metal pipes raided a camp of environmental
protesters near Angarsk, Siberia, leaving one dead and several injured.
Over 20 demonstrators had been camped out by a reservoir, about 2,600
miles east of Moscow, to protest nuclear waste processing at the
state-owned Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jesus de Polanco
(77), chairman of Spain's main media group Prisa and one of the
country's richest men, died in Madrid.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Sudanese President
Omar al-Bashir, implicated by many in the international community in
Darfur's genocide, visited the troubled region for the first time in
the four-year conflict there.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, In northern Syria 2
buses collided head-on, killing 20 people and wounding 50.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Former US president
Bill Clinton said his foundation had secured a deal for Zambia to
access cheap HIV/AIDS drugs.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Zimbabwe’s official
Herald newspaper said the government had revived the Zimbabwe State
Trading Corporation (ZSTC) to work alongside the state Zimbabwe
Development Corporation (ZDC) "as vehicles for acquiring companies that
it might want to take over for engaging in economic sabotage."
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 22, Cinematographer
Laszlo Kovacs died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 74.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2007 Jul 22, Afghan villagers
found the body of a German aid worker kidnapped in southern
Afghanistan, while a delegation of South Korean officials arrived hours
before a purported evening deadline set for 23 Korean hostages. A large
group of Taliban had attacked a convoy in Helmand province, and the
resulting battle in the Sangin district left more than 30 militants
dead and many wounded. In Zabul province Afghan police forces reported
killing 14 "enemies" during a 12-hour battle, including a Taliban
commander identified as Mohammad Hassan.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, Parliamentary and
municipal elections were held across Cameroon, with longtime President
Paul Biya's ruling party widely expected to dominate as it has for
decades.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, China’s state media
said record rainfall this week triggered floods, landslides and mud
flows had killed 152 people and forced the evacuation of hundreds of
thousands.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Egyptian police shot
and killed a Sudanese woman (28) and seriously wounded four others on
the Sinai Peninsula as they tried to sneak into Israel. They were among
27 Darfur refugees caught by border guards in the desert after paying
700 dollars (500 euros) to a Bedouin smuggler.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 22, A bus carrying Polish
pilgrims from a holy site in the French Alps plunged off a steep
mountain road, crashed into a river bed and burst into flames, killing
26 people.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Indian police killed
Shiv Kumar (Dadua), one of the country's most notorious bandits. He had
ruled the ravines and forests of central India through a mixture of
fear and love for three decades, with many hailing him as a modern-day
Robin Hood.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Army Maj. Gen.
Benjamin Mixon, the commander of US forces in northern Iraq, said he
has proposed reducing his troop levels and shifting next year to
missions focused less on direct combat. A senior officer working with
the Interior Ministry was shot to death as he was driving his car in
northeastern Baghdad. An Iraqi interpreter working for Americans in
Kut, was killed by gunmen. A suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint in a
village north of Baghdad killing at least 3 people. A bomb on a
motorcycle in central Baghdad killed 2 people and wounded 15. US troops
in eastern Iraq detained two suspected weapons smugglers who may be
linked to Iran's elite Quds force. In Iraq a roadside bomb killed
another US soldier.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A16)
2007 Jul 22, Israeli troops
operating in the northern Gaza Strip shot and killed two Hamas gunmen.
An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in the northern
Gaza Strip after they fired rockets at a nearby Israeli town.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, In northern Lebanon 3
Lebanese soldiers were killed in sporadic fighting with
al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee
camp.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, Niger's PM Seyni
Oumarou and military chiefs met neighboring Algeria's President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika to discuss cross-border cooperation against
Tuareg-led rebels in Niger's desert north.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Islamic militants
detonated bombs close to military convoys and attacked government
positions in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region, sparking
gunfights that left 19 insurgents dead. A 45-member delegation of
tribal elders was in North Waziristan on a government-backed mission to
try to salvage the peace accord.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, The death toll from
Romania's heat wave rose to 15 after 6 more people died as temperatures
hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Turks voted for a new
Parliament in a contest viewed as pivotal in determining the balance
between Islam and secularism in this nation of more than 70 million.
The Islamic-rooted ruling party won parliamentary elections by a wide
margin. The Justice and Development (AK) party won 47% of the vote. AK
secured 341 of 550 seats in the parliament. Deniz Baykal’s
pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 21%. Sebahat Tuncel
(32) walked out of jail after she was elected to parliament along with
18 fellow members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party.
(AP, 7/23/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.51)(Econ, 8/4/07,
p.45)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.60)
2007 Jul 23, In the first
political debate of its kind, all eight Democratic Party contenders,
appearing on CNN, fielded questions submitted by the public on the
Internet video-sharing site YouTube.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 23, US congressional
investigators said the Agriculture Department has sent $1.1 billion in
farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year period.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, The US FDA said
people should immediately throw away more than 90 different products,
from chili sauce to corned beef hash to dog food, produced at a
Castleberry plant in Augusta, Ga., linked to a botulism outbreak.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, A woman and her two
daughters were killed during a violent home invasion in Cheshire, Conn.
Dr. William Petit, was badly beaten but escaped. Steven Hayes (44) and
Joshua Komisarjevsky (27), on parole at the time for other burglaries,
were accused of their murder. Prosecutors later said they will seek the
death penalty.
(AP,
7/23/08)(www.nbc30.com/news/14405181/detail.html)
2007 Jul 23, Zhenli Ye Gon was
arrested in a Maryland restaurant, four months after police discovered
$207 million at his Mexico City mansion in what US officials have
called the world's biggest seizure of drug cash. Mexican officials had
60 days to file their legal arguments for Ye Gon's extradition. Ye Gon
has claimed that $150 million of the money belonged to Mexico's ruling
party, and that he was forced to store it for party officials in his
mansion under threat of death during the 2006 presidential race. Ye Gon
later told US prosecutors he had sold tons of a chemical used to make
methamphetamine on the black market.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 10/23/09)
2007 Jul 23, Genial comic Drew
Carey was tapped to replace legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime game
show "The Price is Right."
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 23, In northern
California a helicopter crashed while delivering water to firefighters
in the Klamath National Forest, killing the pilot. More than 1,100 fire
crews were battling a cluster of about 30 lightning-sparked fires
covering 14 square miles near the Oregon state line. The fires started
July 10 and had threatened up to 550 homes near the town of Happy Camp.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, A wildfire in
southern Idaho had covered more than 880 square miles, growing by about
200 square miles in just 24 hours during the weekend. Fire officials
said it threatened tracking and radar facilities at Mountain Home Air
Force bombing and firing range, which is used by pilots training for
duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Firefighters in central Utah faced a
threat of strong wind gusts as they battled a huge wildfire, where
several small communities were evacuated.
(AP, 7/23/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 23, John Gilman (65),
developer of FieldTurf, an artificial grass that replaced AstroTurf,
died at his home in Montreal. The FieldTurf technology was based on
patents filed by golfer Freddie Haas Jr.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 23, Mohammad Zahir Shah
(b.1914), the last king of Afghanistan (1933-1973), died. In 2002 he
had returned from 3 decades of exile to bless his country's fragile
course toward democracy. In southern Afghanistan troops killed at least
75 militants in three separate battles, while the Taliban extended the
deadline for the lives of 23 South Korean hostages until the evening of
July 24. Norway said one if its soldiers was killed in Logar province,
and NATO said a soldier was killed in the south. A roadside blast
killed 4 US soldiers in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.88)
2007 Jul 23, It was reported that
Rio police had killed 449 people since January, many in clashes with
drug traffickers, while more than 60 police officers lost their lives.
(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 23, Former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, in his new capacity as a Mideast envoy, opened his
mission to help Palestinians build solid foundations for their future
state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 23, Foreign Minister
Peter MacKay said Canada will give the new Palestinian government C$8
million ($7.6 million) in direct aid and more could follow now that
Hamas is no longer in the government.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Fidel Castro
suggested that a two-time Cuban Olympic boxing champion and his
teammate had defected, blaming their disappearance at the Pan American
Games in Brazil on American money.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, The European Union
took the first step towards sending forces to Chad and the Central
African Republican to help the United Nations protect refugees trapped
in the violent region bordering Darfur.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, A Greek firefighting
plane crashed, killing one of its two-member crew while trying to stop
a forest fire reaching homes on the island of Evia.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Indian officials said
dozens of plastic bags stuffed with body parts believed to be from
aborted female fetuses or newborn girls killed because their families
wanted boys have been found in an abandoned well in eastern India.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Officials said flash
floods and landslides in central Indonesia have inundated villages,
destroyed bridges and roads, and sent thousands fleeing their homes
with over 80 people killed.
(AFP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 23, Three parked cars
exploded within 30 minutes in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad,
killing at least 12 people. Another car packed with explosives blew up
on the main road about 200 yards from an entry point to the
US-controlled Green Zone, killing at least 4 Iraqis. Also in Baghdad a
bomb exploded on a minibus near a busy commercial area, killing one
person and wounding nine others. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army
patrol near the Iranian border, killing five troops. Also near the
Iranian border, gunmen ambushed a convoy of trucks loaded with goods
being sent from major wholesale markets in Baghdad to Khanaqin, 90
miles northeast of Baghdad. Five people were killed and three others
kidnapped. In western Anbar province at least two policemen were killed
and 10 wounded when a woman hiding an explosives belt under her Islamic
gown blew herself up as she was about to be searched at a checkpoint on
the western outskirts of Ramadi. At least 59 people were killed or
found dead nationwide.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, Israeli police said 9
Israelis suspected of trafficking in organs and humans have been
arrested and remain in custody. The case was opened when an Israeli
woman filed a police complaint charging that she was not paid after her
kidney was removed in Ukraine.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Nigerian police said
at least 10 people were killed over the weekend and dozens sustained
burns in the southern Delta state after adulterated kerosene they were
using in their stoves exploded. In southwest Nigeria at least six
people were killed and several trapped when a three-storey building
under construction collapsed.
(AFP, 7/23/07)(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, In North Waziristan,
Pakistan, 2 security posts came under rocket attack and an army convoy
was attacked. At least 20 militants and two soldiers were killed in
fighting.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, Abel Mutsakani, the
editor of an independent Zimbabwean news service based in South Africa,
was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 23, Spain arrested
Roberto Florez Garcia in Tenerife, the Canary Islands, for selling the
identity of Spanish spies and other information about the intelligence
agency from 2001 until he left the service in 2004. Police accused him
of being a double agent for Russia.
(AP, 7/24/07)(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 23, An attempt to break
an aviation speed record went horribly wrong when a small
"experimental" plane crashed through an apartment building in the Swiss
city of Basel, killing the pilot and injuring at least three other
people.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, The United Nations
rejected Taiwan's application to become a member of the world body,
citing UN adherence to the "one China" policy and its recognition of
the Chinese government in Beijing.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, President Bush,
speaking at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, sought to
justify the Iraq war by citing intelligence reports he said showed a
link between al-Qaida's operation in Iraq and the terror group that
attacked the United States on Sept. 11.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, The US minimum wage
rose 70 cents to $5.85 an hour, the first increase in a decade.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, A grand jury in New
Orleans refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou, who was accused of murdering
four seriously ill hospital patients with drug injections during the
desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, Prosecutor’s in
California’s Contra Costa County announced charges against 34 students
of graduates of Pleasant Hill community college for changes to
transcript grades in exchange for cash.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 24, Florida began
distributing playing cards to prison inmates with pictures and
information regarding unsolved murder and missing person cases.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 24, Westinghouse Electric
Co., majority-owned by Toshiba Corp., signed a multi-billion-dollar
contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in China.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 24, Intel Corp. said it
has fabricated the first modulator made from silicon that can encode
data onto a beam of light at a rate of 40 billion bits per second
(gigabits). Such speeds represented a rate 40 times faster than most
corporate data networks.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.B4)
2007 Jul 24, Albert Ellis
(b.1913), influential founded of a school of psychotherapy, died in
NYC. In 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, which
stressed self-control.
(WSJ, 1/25/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36) died
in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene therapy
treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the rheumatoid
arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an infection of
Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 24, Riley Ann Sawyers (2)
died after being whipped with belts and flung across a room like a rag
doll. On October 29 her body, dubbed Baby Grace, was found inside a
plastic box in Galveston Bay. In 2009 a jury convicted Riley's mother,
Kimberly Dawn Trenor (20), of capital murder. The conviction brought an
automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. Her husband, Royce
Clyde Zeigler II (25), was convicted of capital murder on Nov 6, 2009,
and was also expected to receive a life sentence.
(AP, 2/3/09)(SFC, 11/7/09,
p.A4)(http://baby.grace.50megs.com/)
2007 Jul 24, Bamir Topi (50), a
biologist, was sworn in as Albania's president, promising to help the
poor Balkan country to become a member of NATO and the European Union.
Topi was elected to a five-year term by parliament on July 20 after
some opposition lawmakers ended their coalition's boycott and supported
his appointment.
(AP, 7/25/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 24, Former Bangladesh PM
Sheikh Hasina was charged with extortion for allegedly demanding
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company seeking to build a
power station.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Five Bulgarian nurses
and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to life in prison in Libya for
allegedly infecting children with HIV, came home to Bulgaria and were
greeted with tears and hugs, and a presidential pardon that allowed
them to walk free after 8 1/2 years behind bars. French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said Qatar mediated the release and hinted the Gulf
country may have had a broader role in resolving the crisis.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Cameroon President
Paul Biya's governing party won a crushing victory in weekend polls as
the opposition cried foul, saying the west African nation had not
staged fair elections in years.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, In Canada a pipeline
in a Vancouver suburb was ruptured, sending a geyser of oil shooting 12
meters (40 feet) into the air, coating neighborhood streets and
spilling crude into an ocean inlet.
(Reuters, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Chinese officials
said the FBI and Chinese police have busted two software piracy gangs
and seized programs worth an estimated $500 million in a joint campaign
that began in 2005.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Heavy rain and
extreme temperatures continued to batter Europe, with Britain caught in
its worst floods in living memory while the Balkans sizzled in
heatwaves that killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, The US and Iranian
ambassadors to Iraq also began talks in Baghdad in a bid to find ways
to use their influence to bring stability to Iraq. A suicide bomber
struck a busy commercial center in the Shiite city of Hillah, killing
at least 24 people and wounding dozens as the streets were packed with
shoppers and commuters.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of funds belonging to the government
of the economic capital Lagos seized three years ago by his
predecessor. Suspected ransom-seekers kidnapped the mother of the
speaker of the state house of assembly in neighboring Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 24, Abdullah Mehsud, a
former Guantanamo Bay inmate who led pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan
after his release, died when he blew himself up with a grenade to avoid
arrest. He was released in March 2004 and quickly took up arms again,
leading militants in South Waziristan. The beheaded bodies of two
soldiers abducted the previous night were found in the Bajur tribal
area.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Mohammed Radad (20),
was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen, when students aligned with the rival
groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in Nablus. Radad
died from his wounds on July 27.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 24, Human Rights Watch
said Rwandan police have killed at least 20 detainees in custody since
November.
(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Barcelona, Spain,
faced Day Two of a major power outage.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 25, A US presidential
commission urged broad changes to veterans' care that would boost
benefits for family members helping the wounded, establish an
easy-to-use Web site for medical records and overhaul the way
disability pay was awarded.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2007 Jul 25, In the US over a
dozen Muslims, including at least one Pakistani and several US citizens
of Pakistani origin, were sentenced to imprisonment for their
association with Lashkar-e-Taiba and for conspiracy to wage war against
India.
(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A6)
2007 Jul 25, In Stockton, Ca.,
police arrested 51 alleged gang members and seized $400,000 worth of
drugs following a 6-month investigation. Members and affiliates of the
Norteno and south side Stockton gangs were arrested with state and
federal warrants.
(SFC, 7/27/07, p.B12)
2007 Jul 25, In SF faulty PG&E
breakers caused a power outage that knocked out a number of Web sites.
(SFC, 7/26/07, p.C1)
2007 Jul 25, In northern
California the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservation Plan was
unveiled. It called for spending $350 million over the next 30 years to
preserve 30,000 acres of open space around Mt. Diablo. It also listed
some 12,000 acres for new development.
(SFC, 7/26/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 25, In Alaska a
sightseeing plane crashed leaving a pilot and 2 couples from a visiting
cruise ship dead.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 25, Afghan authorities
found the bullet-riddled body Bae Hyung-kyu (42) in Qarabagh district
of Ghazni province, where 23 South Koreans were abducted July 19. Bae,
a deputy pastor and a founder of Saemmul Presbyterian Church, was
killed on his birthday. Militants said the hostage was sick and
couldn't walk, and therefore was shot. 22 South Koreans were still
believed held but were not suffering health problems. A German
journalist and two Afghans colleagues apparently kidnapped by Taliban
militants in eastern Afghanistan were freed.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, Miguel Angel
Moratinos, Spain’s Foreign Minister arrived in Algeria on a visit aimed
at strengthening cooperation in energy and sorting out a row with
Madrid's top gas supplier.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Tony Blair held talks
on with the crown prince of Bahrain on his first regional tour as an
international envoy for Middle East peace.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, British Defense
Secretary Des Browne announced that Britain has agreed to let the US
use a Royal Air Force base as part of its planned missile defense
system. The British government said it will build two new aircraft
carriers costing 3.9 billion pounds in a project which will support
10,000 British jobs over the next ten years.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, China said it will
step up inspections on the use of antibiotics in fish farms, including
chemicals that can cause cancer, after contaminants caused trading
partners to block its seafood exports.
(Reuters, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Human Rights Watch
said the escalating use of land mines by Colombian rebels is killing
and mutilating hundreds annually, making this nation the world leader
in mine victims.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Ethiopian authorities
ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to pull out of the
volatile Ogaden region within 7 days for allegedly interfering in
political issues. Five opposition members imprisoned since 2005 pleaded
guilty to attempting to overthrow Ethiopia's government, but asked the
judge for a pardon.
(AFP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy headed for talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, a
day after the release of six foreign medics, in a signal of normalized
ties between Europe and Tripoli. France and Libya signed a memorandum
of understanding to build a Libyan nuclear reactor for water
desalination and clinched a raft of other deals.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AFP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, India inaugurated
Pratibha Patil (72) as its 1st female president. She promised to fight
for the rights of women and an end to the widespread practice of
aborting female fetuses. In northeastern India 2 domesticated elephants
went on a rampage through several villages, killing eight people and
wounding five before being shot dead by police.
(AFP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, Iranian authorities
announced new arrests in the cases of two Iranian-Americans held on
charges of conspiring against the government, saying that an
unspecified number of Iranians had been detained.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Iraq's largest Sunni
Arab bloc said it has suspended its membership in PM Nouri al-Maliki's
coalition government, dealing a new setback to the Shiite leader's
efforts to achieve national reconciliation. The Iraqi Accordance Front,
which has six Cabinet members as well as 44 of parliament's 275 seats,
said it was giving al-Maliki a week to meet their demands or it would
quit his 14-month-old Cabinet altogether. 2 suicide bombings killed at
least 50 cheering, dancing, flag-waving Iraqis celebrating the national
soccer team's semifinal victory in the Asian Cup tournament. A roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol on the road between Hillah and
Diwaniyah, killed 5 Iraqi officers and wounding 2 as they were on their
way home from an operation with US forces. A joint US-Iraqi force
backed with helicopter gunships clashed with suspected Shiite
militiamen when they raided several homes in eastern Baghdad. Six
people were killed and 10 wounded. A senior police officer in Karbala
escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb targeted his
five-car convoy while he was on his way to work, but 3 of his guards
were killed.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, The foreign ministers
of Egypt and Jordan began a historic visit to Israel to formally
present an Arab peace plan, saying they were extending "a hand of
peace" on behalf of the region.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Lebanese army troops
unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells at Islamic militants in
a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, The Nigerian
government filed suit against three leading tobacco companies, seeking
more than 40 billion dollars (29 billion euros) in damages for the cost
of treating smoking-related diseases.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Jul 25, A South Korean aid
group said some 430 North Koreans have died of hunger in a northern
region in the past month because of chronic food shortages.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected militants fired four rockets into Bannu, killing 10
people as they slammed into houses and a mosque.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Sudanese papers
reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two tribes
when Aballa men fell on a band of Torjum, killing nine.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 25, The UN governor in
Kosovo called on major powers to set a clear roadmap to the final
status of Serbia's breakaway province, whose independence bid is
blocked by Russia. Serbia warned the US and the EU not to recognize
Kosovo's independence without UN consent, saying that would prompt an
immediate response from Serbian authorities and could destabilize the
region.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Vietnam’s lawmakers
overwhelmingly re-elected PM Nguyen Tan Dung, in hopes that strong
growth and economic reforms would continue under his leadership.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, State television
reported that Zimbabwe is to import 200,000 tons of the staple maize
from Tanzania to avert widespread food shortages following a poor
harvest. An international rights group said Zimbabwe's government
routinely arrests and tortures women's rights activists as part of a
crackdown on protests against President Mugabe and his policies.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, The US Senate passed,
85-8, a measure intensifying national anti-terror efforts.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2007 Jul 26, A federal judge in
Boston ordered the government to pay a record nearly $102 million for
the FBI's role in the 1968 wrongful murder convictions of four men.
Judge Nancy Gertner powerfully condemned misconduct that she said ran
"all the way up to the FBI director."
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700282.html)
2007 Jul 26, The DJIA suffered one
of its worst losses of the year, closing down 311.50 to 13,473.57.
(SFC, 7/27/07, p.D1)(AP, 7/26/08)
2007 Jul 26, Oakland, Ca., Mayor
Ron Dellums brokered negotiations between the locked-out Teamsters’
Union and Waste Management following 25 days of accumulated trash.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 26, There was an
explosion at a remote test facility in the Mojave Desert belonging to
Scaled Composites LLC during testing of a new space tourism vehicle. 2
people died at the scene and one later died at a hospital after surgery.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and Afghan troops fought two
separate battles with militants, killing more than 60 suspected Taliban
insurgents. A British soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Bhutan's prime
minister and six members of his Cabinet resigned to pave the way for
the 1st parliamentary elections in the Buddhist kingdom and its
transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 25, Brazil's Pres. Lula
da Silva fired Defense Minister Waldir Pires in response to a fatal
jetliner crash that turned months of anger over breakdowns in the
military-run national air system into a full-blown political crisis.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, In London, England,
Bachan Athwal (70), a British grandmother, faced life imprisonment
after being convicted of the "honor killing" of her son's wife who she
murdered after luring her to India. Her son (43) was also found guilty
of murder. The two killed Sikh Heathrow Airport worker Surjit Kaur
Athwal (27), who disappeared in December 1998 after she decided to walk
out of her arranged marriage.
(Reuters, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A London court
sentenced five students to jail for collecting information on
bomb-making and terrorism.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Canada nixed a
decade-old policy that required prospective Sikh immigrants to change
their last names to avoid confusion with other Sikhs.
(Reuters, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, China’s state media
said flooding in the far west has killed 32 people over the last 10
days, while a central city of 9 million was on high alert as the mighty
Yangtze River approached dangerous heights. Runoff from a lead-zinc
mine polluted the Zijiang river in Hunan province, cutting off supplies
to the riverside city of Lengshuijiang and residents downstream.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 26, East Timor's
President Jose Ramos-Horta asked visiting Australian PM John Howard to
keep Australian peacekeepers in the young nation until the end of 2008.
(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, The European Court of
Human Rights ordered the Russian government to pay damages of $196,000
to the family members of 11 Chechen civilians killed by Russian
soldiers in 2000, when security forces rampaged through Novye Aldi,
setting fire to houses and killing at least 50 civilians.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, Juan Cruz Maiza, the
alleged head of ETA’s logistics, was arrested in France along with two
helpers.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.44)
2007 Jul 26, Germany's Identity
Foundation said leading Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen
(73) will be awarded the Meister Eckhart prize for his work on human
development theory.
(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Indonesia a dozen
Christian men were convicted and sentenced to up to 14 years in jail
for beating to death and beheading two Muslims to avenge the government
executions of three Christians last year.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A parked car bomb
exploded near a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad,
killing 28 people and wounding 74. In northern Iraq a suicide bomber
blew himself up at the gate of a police station, killing 7 people and
wounding 13 in Mosul. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in
Diyala province; 3 more were killed in fighting in Anbar province.
(AP, 7/26/07)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A1)(AP, 7/27/07)(AP,
7/30/07)
2007 Jul 26, An Israeli airstrike
targeting a car south of Gaza City killed 3 Islamic Jihad militants.
Israeli forces also killed a Hamas militant during a military operation
in the southern Gaza Strip. In the West Bank Israeli troops struck and
seriously injured a Palestinian who tried to stab a soldier. The man's
family said he later died of his wounds.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Jordan pleaded for
international help to deal with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who
have fled here to avoid the violence at home, saying they cost the
kingdom $1 billion a year in basic services.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A court in Nigeria
sentenced Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelso state governor, to
two years in jail on charges of corruption and money laundering and
ordered him to forfeit millions in property and cash. Vice Admiral
Ganiyu Adekeye, the new head of the navy, told a parliamentary
commission about the suspected illegal bunkering on ships under naval
guard and how the ex-officers allegedly dipped into the lucrative trade.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 26, North Korea walked
out of military talks with South Korea, ending 3 days of high-level
negotiations with no agreement amid a lingering dispute over their
shared sea border.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Pakistan said it
successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of delivering nuclear
warheads deep into India.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Somalia 2 separate
explosions killed at least five civilians in Mogadishu, where the
government is struggling to contain a lethal insurgency.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, In northern Syria an
explosion at an ordnance depot that was blamed on summer heat killed at
least 15 soldiers and wounded 50 others.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Turkish police
arrested Maksym Yastremskiy (24), a Ukrainian data-theft suspect. The
US Secret Service had been investigating him since 2004. Losses to US
individuals from identity theft thieves, online and offline, totaled
$49 billion in 2006.
(WSJ, 8/10/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 26, UN arms experts
reported that Eritrea has secretly supplied "huge quantities of arms"
to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al-Qaida in violation
of an international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African
peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A bull named Shambo
was taken away from a Hindu monastery at Skanda Vale, Wales, ending a
long and public battle between Hindus who revere bulls and authorities
who said he must be killed because he had tested positive for
tuberculosis.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 26, Zimbabwe state media
reported that nearly 5,000 store owners, managers and business
executives have been arrested since the government began its campaign
to slash prices last month.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, The United States and
India said they have worked out differences blocking the sharing of
civilian nuclear fuel and technology, hailing a "historic milestone"
accord that would reverse three decades of American anti-proliferation
policy.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Joe Nacchio, the
former Qwest Communications chief who was forced to resign during a
multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, was sentenced to six years in
prison for illegally selling $52 million in stock while not telling
investors that his telecommunications company faced serious financial
risks. On March 17, 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
overturned his conviction on the basis of defense expert witness
testimony that was improperly excluded, and ordered a new trial before
a different trial judge.
(AP,
7/27/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio)
2007 Jul 27, California’s top
court ruled that police can no longer seize vehicles of suspects in
drug or prostitution arrests.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 27, SF Mayor Newsom
signed a $6.06 billion spending package, the largest budget in SF
history.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 27, The DJIA ended down
over 500 points in its worst week in 5 years.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.C1)
2007 Jul 27, In Phoenix, Arizona,
2 news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided
and crashed to the ground, killing all four people on board.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 27, Afghan and NATO
troops over the last 24 hours clashed with Taliban insurgents and
called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and
dozens of civilians. The third British soldier to die in three days in
southern Afghanistan was killed in a rocket attack.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 27, Mohamed Haneef (27),
an Indian doctor, was freed from custody after Australia's chief
prosecutor said that a charge linking him to failed terrorist bombings
in Britain was a mistake.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, In China 2 men were
sentenced to death for masterminding a plan to steal oil from an
underwater pipeline, a botched plot that caused an estimated $53
million in damages.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 27, French judges filed
preliminary charges against former PM Dominique de Villepin for his
suspected role in a smear campaign that targeted Nicolas Sarkozy before
he became president.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, A fierce gunbattle
broke out after a joint US-Iraqi force arrested a rogue Shiite militia
leader in the holy city of Karbala, some 50 miles south of Baghdad,
leading to an airstrike and the deaths of some 17 militants. A truck
bomb in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Karrada killed at least 105
people and injured 193.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AP, 7/28/07)(SFC, 9/20/07, p.A17)
2007 Jul 27, The Israeli army
suspended an officer and five soldiers involved in wounding a
Palestinian man July 26 in the southern West Bank and put all of their
unit's operational duties on hold.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Pakistan’s Pres.
Musharraf held secret talks in Abu Dhabi with former PM Benazir Bhutto.
In Islamabad hundreds of students clashed with security forces and a
nearby bombing killed 13 people during the reopening of the Red Mosque
for the first time since a bloody army raid to oust Islamic militants
from the complex. In Quetta gunmen opened fire on the vehicle of Raziq
Bugti, the official spokesman for a provincial government in Pakistan
on the border with Afghanistan, killing him.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AP, 7/28/07)(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 27, Victor Frunza (72), a
Romanian anti-communist dissident and writer, died in Denmark of a
heart attack. He was forced to leave Romania in 1980 after writing a
letter critical of the communist regime led by dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu. While in Romania, Frunza secretly wrote a history of
communism in the country that was published in Denmark in 1984. He also
wrote essays championing human rights and published a political
magazine.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 27, Russia said it
planned to send a small submarine to the ocean floor under the North
Pole to stake a claim to the region.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 27, Sudan said it would
appeal a US ruling ordering it to pay $7.9 million in compensation to
the families of the 17 sailors killed in the October 2000 bombing of
the USS Cole in Yemen. The bombing was carried out by two Yemeni
militants with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network who had trained in
Sudan. US federal Judge Robert Doumar ruled in mid-March that Sudan
should be held accountable for the attack, and on July 25 ruled that it
must pay compensation to the families.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Zimbabwe's former
finance minister Chris Kuruneri was acquitted by the high court for
allegedly smuggling money abroad to build a house in South Africa.
(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, In California garbage
workers in Alameda County approved a new contract with Waste Management
ending a bitter 26-day lockout.
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 28, It was reported that
over 4,000 Hazaras, a Shia Muslim ethnic minority concentrated in
Afghanistan’s central highlands, had been displaced from Behsood
district, Wardak province, over the last 2 months by bands of Kuchi
nomads. Some 200 ethnic Pushtun and Sunni Muslim nomads, together with
their families and livestock, emptied about 65 Hazara villages and left
about a dozen people dead.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 28-2007 Jul 29, Nearly
12,000 people were displaced and one person died in western Ethiopia in
flash floods over the weekend.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 28, In southern India
police shot dead at least eight protestors after a political
demonstration turned violent. Police opened fire after hundreds of
protestors burned furniture in a government office in a small town in
Andhra Pradesh state, where communist parties campaigned for
distribution of government land to the rural and urban poor.
(Reuters, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, A parked car bomb
exploded in a busy shopping street in predominantly Shiite eastern
Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding 10. US troops
captured 16 suspected insurgents during raids targeting al-Qaida in
Iraq in raids in the northern cities of Samarra and Tarmiyah.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, The Liberian
government said it had lifted a six-year moratorium on the diamond
trade, put in place after former President Charles Taylor was accused
of using "blood diamonds" to fuel civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, Libya said the Czech
Republic, Qatar and Bulgaria contributed to an international fund to
support hundreds of children who contracted HIV at a Libyan hospital in
the 1990s. Libya also denounced a decision by Bulgaria's president to
pardon six medics from life jail terms in an AIDS case as a "betrayal"
and an "illegal procedure."
(Reuters, 7/28/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, Palestinian officials
said Israel has agreed to allow at least 627 Palestinians who have been
stranded in Egypt for weeks to pass into the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, Serbian police
arrested Nikola Radosavljevic (38), a man suspected of killing 9 people
and injuring another two in a shooting spree hours earlier in an
eastern Serbian village.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, In Zimbabwe Arthur
Mutambara, leader of the breakaway faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), said on that the country could not wait for
outsiders to liberate them from on-going political and economic
problems.
(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 29, Cal Ripken Jr. and
Tony Gwynn took their place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, Scientists said they
have identified two genes that may raise the risk of multiple
sclerosis, lending insight into the causes of the debilitating disease.
(Reuters, 7/29/07)(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 29, Some 12,000 of 17,000
registered runners completed the 30th annual SF marathon.
(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 29, Tom Snyder (71), TV
host, died in SF after a struggle with leukemia. His smoke-filled
interviews were a staple of late night television and an inspiration
for Dan Aykroyd on "Saturday Night Live." Snyder hosted The Tomorrow
Show from 1973-1982.
(AP, 7/30/07)(SFC, 7/31/07, p.E2)
2007 Jul 29, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown traveled to the United States, saying he planned to use the
official visit to strengthen what Britain already considers its "most
important bilateral relationship."
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, Dilip Ganguly
(b.1949), journalist, died in Calcutta. His 21-year career at The
Associated Press saw him report from Baghdad during the Gulf War, on
the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and on stories across South Asia.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, Whang Joung-il (52),
a senior South Korean diplomat in Beijing, died hours after becoming
ill after eating a tuna sandwich. His death left the envoy's family and
his government asking China for an explanation.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 29, Alberto Contador of
Spain won the doping-scarred Tour de France.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, French actor Michel
Serrault died in Honfleur, France, at age 79.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, Iraqi authorities
announced a ban on vehicles and celebratory gunfire around Baghdad in
an effort to prevent a repeat of violence that killed dozens
celebrating Iraq's progress to the finals of Asia's top soccer
tournament. Iraq celebrated their underdog national soccer team as it
won the prestigious Asian Cup against Saudi Arabia. At least 5 people
were killed and nearly 30 wounded by gunfire after the game. Gunmen
opened fire on shoppers in a Shiite Turkomen village southwest of the
oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing 7 people and wounding six. A bomb
struck a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing one passenger and wounding
four others. A policeman was shot to death on his way to work southeast
of Baghdad. Bombings, shootings and mortar attacks striking other
targets killed at least 58 people nationwide.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Japan exit polls
showed that PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party suffered humiliating losses in
parliamentary elections after a string of political scandals, but Abe
said he did not plan to resign. Official election results showed the
LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito, with a total of
103 seats, a 30-seat loss that left it far short of the 122 needed to
control the house. The main opposition Democratic Party grabbed 112
seats, up from 81. For the 1st time in its history the LDP was no
longer the biggest party in the upper house.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.35)
2007 Jul 29, France's visiting
foreign minister succeeded in bringing together rival Lebanese factions
who have had no contact for months but said he had not reached a
breakthrough to ease the country's political crisis.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Pakistan some 70
pro-Taliban militants occupied the shrine of renowned Pashtun freedom
fighter Sahib Turangzai and its accompanying mosque in the town of
Lakarai in Mohmand tribal region.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 29, A 43-year-old Russian
cargo plane crashed minutes after taking off from a Moscow airport,
killing all seven crew on board.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Somalia gun
battles and grenade attacks killed two soldiers and two civilians in
Mogadishu, where the government is struggling to contain a violent
insurgency.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 30, US President George
W. Bush and Britain’s PM Gordon Brown held talks. Brown hoped to secure
support for a Darfur peace deal and movement on stalled world trade
talks. Bush and PM Brown, meeting at Camp David, forged a unified stand
on Iraq.
(AP, 7/30/07)(AP, 7/30/08)
2007 Jul 30, Jinzhou Chang (24), a
Contra Costa college student, was shot and killed in El Cerrito, Ca.,
while helping his immigrant father make repairs at an apartment
complex. Three 17-year-old boys were soon arrested and faced robbery
and murder charges.
(SFC, 8/9/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 30, Bill Walsh (b.1931),
former head coach of the SF 49ers football team, died at his Woodside
home following a long battle with leukemia.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, A 2nd South Korean
hostage was slain by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2007 Jul 30, Bangladesh's High
Court suspended former PM Sheikh Hasina's extortion trial and ordered
her released on bail.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, A raging forest fire
has destroyed thousands of acres of woodland on Spain's Gran Canaria
island and forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, China tightened
credit in a new effort to cool its sizzling economy, ordering banks to
shrink the pool of money for lending by increasing their reserves for a
sixth time this year.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, China’s state media
said floods, landslides and mud flows triggered by torrential rains
have killed 652 people in China so far this year, with more heavy rains
in the forecast.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, A UN investigator
said extreme sexual violence against women is pervasive in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and local authorities do little to
stop it or prosecute those responsible.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Egyptian police
clashed with Bedouins protesting a government order to demolish their
houses along the Palestinian Gaza Strip's border, leaving dozens
injured. Egyptian media have reported a government plan to force the
Bedouins from a 500-foot-wide band of land along the border to prevent
traffickers from digging tunnels used to smuggle weapons and people
into Gaza.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, The European
Commission said it was seeking a court injunction against Polish plans
to build a key continental highway to prevent permanent damage to the
Rospuda Valley, a "unique environmental site."
(AFP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, It was reported that
India’s Maharashtra state government has banned domesticated elephants
from Mumbai, India's largest city, saying that forcing the animals to
walk the city's chaotic, crowded and polluted streets was an act of
cruelty. The ban took effect last week.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, UN inspectors visited
a nuclear reactor being built in central Iran, a facility that has been
off-limits since April. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman criticized a
US plan to sell state-of-the-art weapons to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Ayatollah Ali
Meshkini (85), a founding member of Iran's Islamic regime and leader of
an important government assembly, died.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, A minibus exploded in
a Baghdad market, killing at least six people. Relief agencies said
about 8 million Iraqis, nearly a third of the population, need
immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by
the Iraq war. A US Marine was killed in combat operations in Anbar
province.
(AP, 7/30/07)(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, An Israeli
parliamentary committee voted unanimously to revoke the privileges of
disgraced former president Moshe Katsav, who signed a plea bargain in
June admitting he sexually harassed several female employees. An
Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Palestinian militants,
wounding two members of Islamic Jihad and the Gaza commander of the Al
Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Michelangelo
Antonioni (b.1912), film director, died (94). He was one of Italy's
most influential post-war film directors whose portrayals of modern
angst and alienation won him a cult following. His films included the
Oscar-nominated "Blowup," "Zabriskie Point" and the internationally
acclaimed "L'Avventura" (The Adventure).
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe
rejected calls for his resignation, saying the country couldn't afford
the resulting "power vacuum."
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In northern Lebanon
the army unleashed tank and artillery fire on the remaining hideouts of
al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, The Mexican Miners
and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMRM) struck Grupo Mexico to demand wage
increases and improved safety conditions. Striking workers occupied the
Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora and continued into
2010.
(Econ, 4/24/10,
p.59)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1819816120100218)
2007 Jul 30, The body of Luis
Lazaro Lara Morejon, a Cuban-American who was under investigation in a
migrant smuggling case, was found riddled with bullets along a road
outside Cancun, Mexico.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, In Pakistan 3
paramilitary soldiers and four civilians died in militant attacks in
the North Waziristan tribal region.
(Reuters, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In the Philippines
southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed to set up a regional human
rights commission, overcoming fierce resistance from military-ruled
Myanmar. Myanmar agreed not to veto discussion over the human rights
commission at a November summit.
(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.36)
2007 Jul 30, Patriarch Teoctist
(b.1915), head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, died in Bucharest, He
made history when he invited the late John Paul II to his Orthodox
country in 1999 but was criticized for being too close to former
Communists.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In Somalia insurgents
attacked government buildings in Mogadishu, starting a gunbattle with
troops that killed at least 4 people, including a four-year-old child.
In the central town of Belet Weyne, two children and their father were
killed when Ethiopian troops fired artillery shells into a residential
area after a land mine exploded near their convoy. A land mine exploded
near a bus in southern Mogadishu, killing 5 on board and wounding 3
others.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Jul 30, Officials said at
least 19 people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed by a
series of forest fires which have swept through parts of northeastern
South Africa.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Ingmar Bergman
(b.1918), Swedish film and stage director, died. The iconoclastic
filmmaker was widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern
cinema. His 1987 autobiography was titled "The Magic Lantern."
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 31, A US government
watchdog group called for the removal of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens from his
Senate committees, less than 24 hours after the FBI and IRS raided the
senator’s Alaska home in connection with a public corruption probe
centered in the state.
(www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/ethics_flaps_could_stir_compet.html)
2007 Jul 31, The Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress, issued
a report saying it could not account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles and
pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, or about half
the weapons earmarked for soldiers and police.
(Reuters, 8/6/07)
2007 Jul 31, The US Army censured
retired three-star Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger for a "perfect storm of
mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after the 2004
friendly-fire death in Afghanistan of Army Ranger Pat Tillman.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2007 Jul 31, In California Michael
Schneider (44), a Hillsborough real estate broker, pleaded no contest
in Santa Clara County to 173 felony counts related to bilking investors
out of more than $43 million. He faced as much as 169 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 31, In northern
California the governing board of Oakland’s troubled Univ. Preparatory
Charter Academy closed the school leaving over 400 students in the
lurch.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, Johnson & Johnson
said it would reduce its global work force by up to 4 percent, or up to
4,820 jobs, to cut costs due to slumping sales of heart stents and its
No. 2 drug, plus looming patent expirations.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp. was expected to reach a definitive agreement to buy Dow Jones
& Co. Inc., capping his three-month pursuit of the publisher of the
Wall Street Journal, as the Bancroft gave approval for Murdoch's
$60-per-share bid.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A new study reported
that drinking wine or beer every day increases the risk of bowel
cancer. The British Daily Telegraph reported 35,000 people are
diagnosed each year with bowel cancer and that it kills 16,100 a
year.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Norman Cohn (92),
English historian, died. He studied the links between apocalyptic
Medieval sects and 20th century totalitarianism and genocide. His 1957
book: "Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and
Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages" drew parallels between
millenarian movements in the Middle Ages and the rise of 20th-century
totalitarianism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Jul 31, In central
Afghanistan police discovered the body of a second South Korean
hostage, and the Taliban threatened to kill more captives if their
demands were not met by a new deadline. A suicide car bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of US troops on the outskirts of Kabul,
leaving up to 7 civilians and three soldiers wounded.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, ASEAN Plus Three
foreign ministers gathered in Manila on the eve of high-level security
talks. ARF, which includes the United States, European Union, India,
Pakistan, North and South Korea and other countries, and will also hold
talks here on Aug 1-2.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, The British army
marked a milestone of peacemaking as it formally ended its 38-year
mission to bolster security in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Cambodia Kang Kek
Ieu (alias Duch), a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, was charged with
crimes against humanity and detained by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal
in the first legal action taken by the court against regime leaders.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Canada John
Felderhof, the lone remaining key figure in the multibillion-dollar
Bre-X gold fraud, was found not guilty. It took almost seven years to
reach the not guilty verdict in the trial of the only person to be
prosecuted in the massive Bre-X gold fraud, leading Canadians to ask
once again if the country isn't too soft on corporate crime.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, China’s state media
reported another 27 deaths from flooding and landslides in different
parts of the country.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Egypt US Sec. of
State Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a joint show of
diplomatic force during two days of meetings with Arab allies, part of
an 11th-hour effort to rally diplomatic and practical help for the
US-backed Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The tour opened talks on a
proposed US arms package for Arab states worth more than $20 billion.
US officials extended a 10-year pledge to continue $1.3 billion in
annual aid to Egypt’s military. Military aid to Israel was raised to $3
billion. Weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and 5 smaller monarchies was
said to be $20 billion. Total US military aid to the region over the
next decade amounted to $63 billion.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.39)
2007 Jul 31, An Indian anti-terror
court sentenced Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt to six years in jail
for illegal weapons possession in connection with serial bombings in
Mumbai in 1993. Dutt was freed on bail after 22 days in jail.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.38)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Iraq al-Maliki's
government faced a threat by the main Sunni bloc in parliament to
withdraw its Cabinet members if he doesn't meet a series of demands. At
least 11 people were killed or found dead nationwide, including three
Iraqi police in a drive-by shooting and one soldier in a roadside
bombing. A teacher also was shot to death while driving to work in a
mainly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. An explosively-formed penetrator,
or EFP, detonated near a US soldiers' patrol during combat operations,
killing 3 with 6 wounded. Another US soldier was killed by small arms
fire in a separate incident. Two US soldiers were killed in a mortar or
rocket attack.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, Pro-government and
independent candidates swept local elections in Jordan, including the
first-ever vote for city mayors. The Islamist main opposition group
withdrew from Jordan's first mayoral elections and accused the
government of fraud.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the bodies
of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents with
Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in Guerrero state,
where they were gathering intelligence on drug traffickers. The agents
had taken part in a raid that discovered $205 million in cash in a
Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mozambique 5
soldiers were killed when an army truck carrying munitions that were
about to be destroyed exploded near the country's main airport.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Nigeria Peter
Ogwuma, a staff (member) of Elf Petroleum, was abducted as he was about
to leave the church for home.
(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northwestern
Pakistan government troops backed by helicopter gunships repelled an
attack on a military checkpoint near Miran Shah, killing 18 Islamic
militants. A local lawmaker said the 18 people killed were tribesmen
and not militants.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A15)(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northern Sri Lanka
hundreds of ethnic Sinhalese civilians fled three villages, claiming
the government had failed to protect them from attacks by Tamil Tiger
rebels.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A senior Sudanese
official said floods and heavy rains have caused 23,000 mudbrick homes
to collapse and killed at least 62 people across Sudan this month. In
southern Darfur Mahria Arab tribesmen attacked Terjem Arabs killing
over 60 Terjem. Conflict between Arab tribes was on the increase and
included clashes between the Habanniya and Salamat tribes.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A16)
2007 Jul 31, The UN Security
Council approved a 26,000 strong peacekeeping force for Darfur, to try
to end 4 years of fighting that has killed over 200,000.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced yet another higher denomination banknote as it grappled
with runaway inflation which is rendering lower-value banknotes
useless. The new 200,000-Zimbabwe dollar bearer check is worth 800 US
dollars at the official rate and one US dollar at the parallel market
rate.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul, Filming started on the
first international movie ever to be shot in Botswana, “The No. 1
Ladies' Detective Agency,” a movie based on Alexander McCall Smith's
hit book series of the same name.
(CSM, 8/1/07)
2007 Jul, US Teamster Pres. James
Hoffa sent a letter to Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad demanding the release
of Mansour Ossanlou, a Bus Transport Workers Union leader, and
condemned the Iranian government’s flagrant disdain for freedom of
association and expression.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.E3)
2007 Jul, Warren Winiarski sold
his Stag’s Leap winery in Napa County to Italian winemaker Piero
Antinori and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates of Washington state for $185
million.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.F6)
2007 Jul, In Indonesia the
Constitutional Court again struck out clauses in the criminal code that
made it a crime to insult senior figures.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.64)
2007 Jul, Authorities in
Kazakhstan slapped a $609 million fine on a Chevron-led consortium
developing the Tengiz oil field. The Kazakh ecological ministry cited
environmental breaches stemming from the stockpiling of sulfur between
2003 and 2006. The consortium stripped sulfur from Tengiz oil, which is
laced with hydrogen sulfide gas, and stored it as pellets in massive
facilities, for later use in fertilizer.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.A9)
2007 Jul, In Beirut, Lebanon,
construction firms broke ground in the Dahiya district, a Shiite
enclave razed by bombs during last year’s war with Israel. Hezbollah
organized the project by collection war-compensation checks from
volunteering residents.
(WSJ, 9/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul, Tanger Med, a new
seaport on northern Morocco, opened its frist docks. Over the next 8
years it was expected to become the largest container port in the
Mediterranean.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.78)
2007 Jul, The Sanaag region of
Somaliland, a former sultanate, declared independence and renamed
itself Makhir with Badhan as its capital.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.56)
2007 Jul, Sri Lanka’s army
declared that it had cleared the eastern part of the country from
rebels for the first time in 14 years.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.44)
2007 Aug 1, A major bridge on
I-35W over the Mississippi River collapsed in Minneapolis, Minn., at
rush hour. Initial reports said at least 5 people were killed. The
bridge dated to 1967. On Aug 9 Navy divers recovered two more bodies,
including one identified as a former missionary who had been reported
missing. Divers recovered an 8th victim on Aug 10 and a 9th on Aug 12.
Two more victims were found on Aug 16. A 12th victim was found Aug 19.
The 13th and last victim was found Aug 20. In 2008 Gov. Tim Pawlenty
signed a $38 million package to compensate victims of the collapse. In
2010 URS Corp., which had a contract to evaluate the bridge’s
structural integrity, reached $5 million settlement with Minnesota. In
August URS later agreed to pay over $52 million to settle claims by
victims.
(AP, 8/2/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A5)(AP, 8/10/07)(SFC,
8/11/07, p.A5)(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.A1)(SFC, 8/20/07,
p.A3)(AP, 8/21/07)(WSJ, 5/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)(SFC, 8/24/10,
p.D1)
2007 Aug 1, SF police and homeless
outreach workers rousted people sleeping in Golden Gate Park and other
parks and encampments.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 1, Tommy Maken (74),
Irish-American folk musician who performed for years with the Clancy
Brothers, died in Dover, NH.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 1, The bodies of 4 Afghan
judges, kidnapped 11 days ago, were found in Ghazni province, the same
province where 21 South Korean hostages were held. Afghanistan dropped
leaflets in the area to warn of military action.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 1, The ASEAN summit got
underway in Manila. Diplomats held dozens of meetings in the Philippine
capital, using the annual gathering of nearly 30 nations to confer on
everything from the North Korean crisis to the conflict in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, The South Australian
Supreme Court ordered its own state government to pay Bruce Trevorrow
$448,000 for damages caused when he was taken from his parents without
their knowledge 50 years ago.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Bangladesh officials
said monsoon floods had misplaced or marooned 5 million people and left
40 dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 1, A financial watchdog
said British Airways has been fined a record 121.5 million pounds (180
million euros, $246 million) after admitting collusion with Virgin
Atlantic over fuel surcharges on tickets. British Airways and Korean
Air (for collusion with Lufthansa) agreed to pay $300 million each in
fines and plead guilty to federal charges that they colluded with other
airlines to set ticket prices.
(AFP, 8/1/07)(SFC, 8/2/07, p.C2)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.48)
2007 Aug 1, In China 69 men
trapped in a flooded Chinese coal mine for more than three days were
pulled out alive, ending a terrifying ordeal in which they survived on
milk and pumped-in oxygen.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, A passenger train
derailed in central Congo and eight cars tumbled off the tracks,
killing about 100 people and trapping some passengers in the wreckage.
People in the southeastern town of Moba attacked the UN office after a
local radio station aired false rumors that the United Nations was to
resettle Congolese ethnic Tutsis in the region. 4 UN military observers
were wounded and 21 staff were evacuated.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 1, Denmark, France and
Indonesia offered to contribute to a joint UN-African Union mission for
Darfur, a 26,000-strong force expected to be made up mostly of
peacekeepers from Africa with backup from Asian troops. Sudan accepted
a UN resolution approving a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force
in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, A French court ruled
that indictments for Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and another man, Laurent
Bucyibaruta, violated the presumption of innocence. Rwanda had sought
the extradition of the 2 men for their roles in the country's 1994
genocide.
(Reuters, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Guatemala's Congress
voted to create a commission of foreign experts to investigate
organized crime and police corruption.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, An overcrowded boat
evacuating people from a flooded village capsized in a rain-swollen
river in northern India, killing at least 28 people. Dozens of people
were killed across South Asia as surging flood waters caused by heavy
monsoon rains forced millions from their homes.
(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, Iran publicly hanged
seven men in the second round of collective executions in 10 days. The
Web site of the state's broadcasting company said they were hanged on
charges of rape, kidnapping and robbery in Mashad. Iran arrested more
than 200 music fans at an underground rock concert that one official
called a "satanic" gathering and authorities accused the youths of
breaking Islamic law.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 1, Iraq's largest Sunni
Arab political bloc announced its withdrawal from the government,
undermining efforts to seek reconciliation among the country's rival
factions. Two bombing attacks in Baghdad killed at least 67 people. In
one attack, 50 people were killed and 60 wounded when a suicide
attacker exploded a fuel truck near a gas station in western Baghdad.
Another 17 died in a separate car bomb attack in central Baghdad. A
parked car bomb killed 3 people and wounded 5 in southern Baghdad in a
mostly Christian area. Altogether at least 142 Iraqis were killed or
found dead, including 70 who died in three separate bombings in
Baghdad. One US soldiers was killed by a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Norihiko Akagi,
Japan's scandal-embroiled agriculture minister, stepped down, taking
responsibility for a shattering election defeat for the ruling party.
Akagi had been hit by an embarrassing accounting scandal, which was
widely viewed as a major reason behind the ruling election loss.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, Two Lebanese soldiers
were killed in heavy fighting with al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up
in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Russian explorers
readied for a historic descent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean under
the North Pole as part of an expedition to claim the area for Russia.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, Russia's
state-controlled gas monopoly said that it will reduce natural gas
supplies to Belarus by 45 percent as of Aug 3 after Minsk failed to pay
in full for previous gas shipments.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, It was reported that
more than 100 Serbian Gypsies have crossed the border illegally into
neighboring Romania in recent days and filed applications for asylum
claiming they were subject to abuse and attacks in Serbia.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, South Korea’s
Agriculture Ministry halted quarantine inspections of American beef
shipments after finding a banned vertebral column in a recent shipment.
Without such inspections, the beef cannot be brought to market.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Rebels captured the
town of Adila, where Sudanese troops were stationed to protect the only
railway linking Darfur to the capital of Khartoum. Some 100 (Sudanese)
soldiers or janjaweed were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 1, In southern Thailand a
rebel ambush and bombs left 11 people dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 1, An opposition-aligned
television channel (RCTV), already booted from the airwaves, faced a
deadline to agree to carry speeches by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
or be yanked from the cable lineup.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 2, Charles Simic (b.1938)
of Concord, NH, a Yugoslav-born immigrant, was named to become the new
US poet laureate, replacing Donald Hall beginning Sep 29.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.E20)
2007 Aug 2, A Marine Corps squad
leader was convicted at Camp Pendleton, Calif., of murdering an Iraqi
man during a frustrated search for an insurgent. Sgt. Lawrence G.
Hutchins III was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2007 Aug 2, US federal agents
arrested dozens of doctors accused of obtaining medical licenses
through fraud or bribery, carrying out sweeping raids across Puerto
Rico. The FDA accused 88 doctors of falsified credentials.
(AP, 8/2/07)(WSJ, 8/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, A US appeals court
ruled that Katrina victims cannot collect for damage from levee
breaches.
(WSJ, 8/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, FBI agents arrested
Rahmat Abdhir (43), aka Sean Kasem and Sean Kalimin, in San Jose, Ca.,
for providing material support to his brother, Zulkifli Abdhir (41), a
US-trained engineer and terror suspect in the Philippines.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 2, Scientists warned that
bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogen-like compound in plastic, is probably
causing an array of serious reproductive disorders in people.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, In Washington state a
helicopter with four people aboard crashed and burst into flames on the
east slopes of the Cascade Range, starting a wildfire. By the next day
it spread through dry timber to cover 300 to 400 acres.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Oakland, Ca.,
Chauncey Bailey (57), editor of the Oakland Post and former reporter
for the Oakland Tribune, was shot and killed on his way to work by a
masked gunman. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf Bey IV (23), the
leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, of murder for allegedly telling two
of his followers to kill Bailey. In 2009 Devaughndre Broussard (21)
pleaded guilty to 2 counts of voluntary manslaughter as part of a deal
to secure testimony against Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Mackey, another
bakery figure.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/09,
p.B1)
2007 Aug 2, Armen Baliantz
(b.1921), SF restaurateur born in China to Armenian parents, died. Her
Bali’s Restaurant at Pacific and Battery, had closed in Feb, 1985.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, In southern
Afghanistan US-led airstrikes in Helmand province killed at least 3
senior Taliban figures, including commander Mullah Rahim.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, In Brazil a strike by
subway workers disrupted the commute of millions of people in Sao
Paulo, causing huge traffic jams and long lines at bus stops.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, Bulgaria said it had
decided to write off Libya's communist-era debt as a contribution to an
international fund for the victims of an AIDS epidemic blamed by
Tripoli on six Bulgarian medics.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Canada dismissed
Russia's claim to a large chunk of the resource-rich Arctic, saying the
tactic was more suited to the 15th century than the real world.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, China’s state media
reported that courts in northern China have sentenced 31 people,
including a police officer, to prison terms of up to five years
stemming from the use of slave labor in brick kilns. In east China a
rising wave in the Qiantang River, known for its strong tides, engulfed
33 swimmers and visitors walking along a levee. At least eight were
killed.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, Beijing and Washington
agreed to cooperate more closely on product and food safety as the US
recalled almost 1 million toys due to lead concerns. Mattel apologized
to customers as it recalled nearly a million Chinese-made toys from its
Fisher-Price division that were found to have excessive amounts of lead.
(AP, 8/3/07)(SFC, 8/3/07, p.D1)(AP, 8/2/08)
2007 Aug 2, Officials said days of
heavy monsoon rains have devastated large swaths of northern India and
Bangladesh, killing at least 164 people, stranding millions and washing
away vital crops.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Much of Baghdad was
without running water and had been for at least 24 hours. A suicide car
bomber slammed into an Iraqi police station northeast of Baghdad,
killing at least 13 people. Fadhil al-Akil (35), an aide to Iraq's top
cleric, was killed in the Shiite city of Najaf. A mortar and
rocket-propelled grenade landed on homes in Khan Bani Saad, a mixed
town northeast of Baghdad, killing four civilians, two of them
children. The US military said American and Iraqi troops had killed
seven suspects and captured 22 others in two days of raids across Iraq.
A total of 58 people were killed or found dead across the country. US
troops killed Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, the al-Qaida in
Iraq mastermind of the bombing that destroyed the golden dome of a
famed sacred Shiite shrine last year. 3 US soldiers were killed in a
single roadside bombing on Baghdad's east side. The blast wounded 11
other US troops. Another soldier was killed and three wounded in combat
in western Baghdad. A US Marine was killed during combat in Iraq's
western Anbar province.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/3/07)(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 2, Lebanon's most senior
Shiite Muslim cleric issued a religious edict banning honor killings,
calling the custom of murdering a female relative for sexual misconduct
"a repulsive act." More fierce fighting erupted as troops pounded the
remaining Fatah Islam hideouts in the camp with artillery and tank
fire. Two more Lebanese soldiers were killed in heavy fighting with the
al-Qaida-inspired militants.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, A Libyan official said
that Moammar Gadhafi's long-isolated country has signed contracts worth
$405 million with French companies for missiles and communications
equipment.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, An Islamic militant
and a policeman died when officers foiled a suicide bombing at a
Pakistani police school in Sargodha.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, In the Netherlands
Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of consumer goods and food products,
announced that it would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, 11 percent of its
total workforce, over the next four years.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Two deep-diving
Russian mini-submarines descended more than 2 1/2 miles under North
Pole ice to stake a flag on the ocean floor, part of a quest to bolster
Russian claims to much of the Arctic's oil-and-mineral wealth.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, An unmanned Russian
cargo ship carrying over 2.5 tons of supplies, equipment and gifts
blasted off for the international space station.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, A 6.4-magnitude quake
struck on the southern tip of Sakhalin island, just north of Japan. At
least 2 people were killed and some 2,000 in Nevelsk moved to tent
camps after the powerful earthquake left apartment buildings in ruins.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, Kafeel Ahmed (27), the
suspect who was critically burned in a botched car bomb attempt at
Glasgow Airport, died after 5 weeks in hospital from burns to 90% of
his body.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Sierra Leone 2
former members of a pro-government militia were convicted of war
crimes, the second round of rulings by a UN-backed court attempting to
punish those most responsible for brutalities committed during Sierra
Leone's decade-long civil war. A boat traveling from Freetown to the
northern town of Kassiri capsized in the mouth of the Little Scarcies
River. At least 10 people were killed and 45 others left missing.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/3/07)(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Somalia mortars
slammed into homes in Mogadishu after fighting between insurgents and
Ethiopian troops, killing 8 people, including a mother and her two
daughters.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Thailand a lawyer
said the wife of Thailand's deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra will
seek 1.4 billion dollars in compensation from military-backed
authorities that have frozen her assets.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Yemen security
forces fired tear gas and water cannons at former soldiers protesting
in Aden demanding to be allowed back in the military. One person was
reported killed. The protesters were largely members of the army of
south Yemen who were ousted after being defeated by northern forces.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Alaska Mindy
Schloss (52), a nurse practitioner, was last seen alive in Anchorage.
Her body was found on Sep 13 near Wasilla. In 2010 Joshua Alan Wade
(29) acknowledged that he had shot and killed Schloss, who lived next
door to him.
(SFC, 2/17/10,
p.A6)(www.amw.com/missing_persons/recovered.cfm?id=47985)
2007 Aug 3, A jury at Camp
Pendleton, Calif., sentenced Marine Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III to 15
years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a fruitless
search for an insurgent.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2007 Aug 3, In Kentucky a judge
ruled that 3 attorneys, accused of bilking their clients in a $200
million fen-phen settlement, must repay at least $62.1 million in
settlement funds and interest.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, Oakland police
arrested 7 people, including Yusuf Bey IV, in a predawn raid on Your
Black Muslim Bakery and 3 homes in connection with 3 homicides
including the Aug 2 murder of Oakland Post journalist Chauncey Bailey.
The Post had been investigating the organization’s finances. Alameda
County health inspectors shut down the bakery after finding health-code
violations. A judge converted the bakery’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case
to Chapter 7 liquidation setting Aug 9 as its last day of business.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A1,6)(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A11)
2007 Aug 3, American Home Mortgage
released all but 750 of its 7,000 employees as it ran out of money, the
latest victim of the subprime mortgage implosion.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.C2)
2007 Aug 3, Two dogs belonging to
actor Ving Rhames mauled Jacob Adams (40), a caretaker for the actor's
dogs, to death at the star's Brentwood, Ca., home.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 3, It was reported that
Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca is being strangled by city-fed pollution that
is driving away local people who draw sustenance from its mythical
waters.
(AFP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, Four people were
killed after a helicopter flying from northern England to southern
Scotland crashed in northwest England. The wreckage was found the next
day.
(AFP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, China asserted the
sole right to recognize living Buddhas, reincarnations of famous lamas
that form the backbone of the religion's clergy. All future
incarnations of living Buddhas related to Tibetan Buddhism must get
government approval.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, China banned
Indonesian seafood after checks turned up dangerous contamination.
Indonesian authorities called the move an apparent reaction to an
Indonesian ban on some tainted Chinese products. The Chinese
administration said Indonesian products have been found to contain
mercury and cadmium, metals that can accumulate in water and soil from
burning garbage, mining or other industrial processes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, Lenovo Group Ltd. said
it will sell a basic personal computer aimed at China's vast but poor
rural market and priced as low as $199.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, About 50 women
occupied a central square in Makhachkala, Dagestan, declaring a hunger
strike and vowing not to leave until authorities tell them what
happened to their missing children. The president of Dagestan, Mukhu
Aliev, admitted last month that 76 people have been kidnapped so far
this year in Dagestan. In six of those cases, the abductors wore
camouflage uniforms similar to those worn by law enforcement officers.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, The death toll in
south Asia rose to at least 186 people killed. 19 million have been
driven from their homes as heavy monsoon rains triggered floods,
destroyed crops and submerged roads across a wide swath of northern
India and Bangladesh. The UN child welfare agency said that in India
alone, the number of dead from the monsoons topped 1,100.
(AP, 8/3/07)(AFP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Tanzania Darfur's
fractious rebel groups gathered for talks aimed at hammering out a
united front, following UN approval of a beefed up peacekeeping mission
in the Sudanese region.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Uganda gunmen on
Lake Albert attacked a boat operated by Canada's Heritage Oil Corp.,
killing a British contractor. 3 armed patrol boats from Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), on the other side of the lake, had opened fire
on Heritage's boat.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Venezuela US actor
Sean Penn accompanied Pres. Chavez on a visit to western Venezuela.
"I'm also here as a journalist and so I owe it to that medium to wait
until I've digested, fact-checked and finished my journey here" before
saying more, Penn said. He thanked Chavez for the visit.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, Virgin Islands’
authorities arrested Kamal Thomas and charged him with first-degree
murder and assault, as well as using a dangerous weapon while
committing a crime. James Cockayne (21) of new Hope, Pa., was killed on
June 19 near a shopping center.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Zimbabwe the
Interception of Communication Act was published in the government
gazette. The bill, signed by President Robert Mugabe, allows the state
to eavesdrop on private phone conversations and monitor faxes and
emails.
(AFP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 4, President Bush toured
the site of a collapsed highway bridge in Minneapolis, pledging to cut
red tape that could delay rebuilding.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, Barry Bonds of the SF
Giants hit his 755th home run tying a 1976 record set by Hank Aaron.
The Giants lost to the San Diego Padres 3-2 in 12 innings.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron)(SSFC,
8/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 4, Alex Rodriguez became
at age 32 the youngest player in major league history to hit 500 home
runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 NY Yankee victory over Kansas
City.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, In Newark, New Jersey,
3 friends were forced to kneel against a wall behind an elementary
school and were shot to death at close range, and a fourth was found
about 30 feet away with gunshot and knife wounds to her head. Natasha
Aerial (19) was listed in fair condition at Newark's University
Hospital. Police identified her companions as her brother, Terrance
Aerial (18), Ofemi Hightower (20), and Deshawn Harvey (20). On Aug 7 a
15-year-old boy was arrested in the case. On Aug 8 Jose Carranza (28),
an illegal immigrant from Peru, was also arrested as a suspect. Two
more suspects were arrested in suburban DC on Aug 18.
(AP,
8/6/07)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292911,00.html)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 4, Oakland, Ca., police
said they have identified Devaughndre Broussard (19), a handyman at
Your Black Muslim Bakery, as the person responsible for the Aug 2,
murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. He was one of 7 men arrested a
day earlier. It was later learned that Broussard falsely confessed to
the killing at the urging of Yusuf Bey IV, head of the bakery.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B1)
2007 Aug 4, Yousef Megahed (21) of
Egypt and Ahmed Mohamed (24) of Kuwait, students from the Univ. of
South Florida, were arrested following a speeding stop in the vicinity
of the Naval Weapons Station, located in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
Pipe bombs were found in their vehicle. They were later indicted for
carrying explosives across state lines. In 2008 Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif
Mohamed pleaded guilty in a Tampa court to making a video demonstrating
how to build a remote bomb detonator to help terrorists.
(www.charleston.net/news/2007/aug/17/fbi_backs_off_arrests13265/)(WSJ,
9/1/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/19/08, p.A2)
2007 Aug 4, NASA launched its
Phoenix Mars Lander, a robotic dirt and ice digger, scheduled to land
on Mars on May 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 4, Lee Hazlewood
(b.1929), songwriter, died in Henderson, Nev. His songs included “These
Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” sung by Nancy Sinatra in 1966.
(SFC, 8/7/07,
p.D9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hazlewood)
2007 Aug 4, A suicide car bomber
blew himself up next to a convoy of foreign troops just west of
Kandahar city, killing two civilians who were nearby. Four civilians
were killed in a roadside blast in Zhari district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Algerian newspapers
reported that the army, stepping up a counter-offensive after attacks
by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, has killed around 16 of the group's
fighters in the past three days.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Bangladesh deaths
from monsoon rains topped 200, with at least 16 more fatalities
reported overnight. 7.5 million people have been either marooned or
displaced from their homes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Thousands of
Brazilians marched in Sao Paulo to denounce President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva's government as corrupt and indifferent.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, British PM Gordon
Brown said that authorities were doing "everything in our power" to
track the source of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and wipe out the
animal illness before it wreaked economic devastation.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, A Hong Kong newspaper
reported that China is cracking down on cable television operators who
offer unauthorized foreign satellite broadcasts, the communist
government's latest bid to maintain its monopoly on information.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, A roadside bomb
targeting an Iraqi Army convoy killed one civilian and wounded five
others at a busy intersection in central Baghdad. In western Baghdad a
mortar round landed on a house in Ghazaliyah, killing another civilian.
In northern Iraq Salim Khudaeir, a police lieutenant colonel, was
gunned down on his way to work. US forces killed four suspects in a
raid targeting an insurgent group believed to be coordinating
logistical support from Iran for Shiite militias in Iraq. The killings
took place in the town of Qasirin in Diyala province. West of Tarmiyah
US troops captured 20 suspects accused of having ties to a high-ranking
al-Qaida in Iraq figure. Two more suspects were also arrested for
alleged ties to another leader from the same group. Four more suspects
were detained for alleged involvement in a sniper cell that employed 35
gunmen. In Kirkuk five people were captured, three accused of
association with an al-Qaida media cell, and two for involvement in car
bomb attacks. 3 US soldiers died Saturday south of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Nepal the toll from
monsoon-triggered flooding and landslides stood at 91, with most of the
deaths in the Terai plains region on Nepal's southern border with India.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Javed Hashmi, one of
Pakistan's top opposition leaders, was released to the raucous cheers
of supporters after four years in prison and immediately vowed to
resume his campaign against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He left
prison a day after the Supreme Court granted him bail in his 23-year
sentence on charges of treason and inciting an army mutiny against
Musharraf. A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at a busy bus
station in Parachinar, North West Frontier Province, killing at least
nine people and wounding 35 others. 4 soldiers and 10 militants were
killed in a checkpoint shootout.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Two Palestinians were
killed and six wounded in an Israeli air strike on two vehicles near
the southern Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Zbigniew Krakowski
(56), a Polish sea captain in charge of the 2,000-ton Jork, crashed his
ship into an unmanned gas platform in the North Sea while drunk. The
platform, owned by US firm ConocoPhillips, went out of action with
losses at 615,000 pounds a month in revenue. In November Krakowski was
jailed for 12 months.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Aug 4, Serbian police
exchanged fire with uniformed gunmen in an ethnic Albanian area of
southern Serbia bordering the breakaway Kosovo province. One person was
killed.
(Reuters, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Unemployment in Sierra
Leone, with a population of some 6 million, stood at close to 80% with
poverty and corruption widespread and endemic. The country’s
Anti-Corruption Commission was now a lame duck as its $2 million annual
funding was suspended by exasperated British donors.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 5, President Bush and
Afghan President Hamid Karzai began meeting at Camp David to discuss
security issues in Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2007 Aug 5, Scientists reported
that the skin condition called rosacea is caused by an abundance of
abnormal cathelicidin skin proteins.
(SFC, 8/6/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 5, Comedian Stanley Myron
Handelman (b.1929) died in Panorama City, Calif.
(AP,
8/5/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Myron_Handelman)
2007 Aug 5, In Afghanistan 3
policemen were killed when a remotely detonated mine tore through their
vehicle in the eastern province of Kunar. A gunfight, which began the
previous evening, left two policemen dead and two others wounded. At
least four militants were killed. A roadside bomb typical of those
deployed by the Taliban killed two Afghan civilians in the southern
province of Kandahar. A policeman was killed in an overnight attack on
his post by several Taliban rebels. Four police officers were killed in
the southern province of Logar just south of the capital Kabul when
they were ambushed on patrol overnight.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, Colombia's navy seized
a 65-foot submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine on
part of its journey to the United States. The blue-colored,
diesel-powered vessel had sophisticated communications systems and was
capable of carrying up to 11 tons of cocaine.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 5, Two boxers (Guillermo
Rigondeaux (25), Cuba's top boxer and a two-time Olympic bantamweight
champion, and Erislandy Lara (24), an amateur welterweight world
champion) deported by Brazil were back in Cuba after they disappeared
during the Pan American Games last month and were arrested at a resort
where officials said they partied and ran up an exorbitant bill.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, The last men of a
Danish battalion of 450 ground troops left Iraq.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 5, A group of armed,
masked men burst into a museum in the southern French city of Nice and
made off with a painting by French master Claude Monet and two others
by Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel. The paintings were recovered on June
4, 2008, in a sting operation that captured 3 men near Marseilles.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 6/5/08)(WSJ, 8/22/08, p.W1)
2007 Aug 5, French Cardinal
Jean-Marie Lustiger (80) died. He was a Jew who converted to
Catholicism and rose through church hierarchy to become one of the most
influential Roman Catholic figures in France.
(AP, 8/5/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.76)
2007 Aug 5, Iran showed off for
the first time a new fighter jet said to be modeled on the American F-5
but built using domestic technology. The "Azarakhsh" (Lightning) jet,
one of the first to be home-produced by Iran, made a successful flight
in the central city of Isfahan.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, The US military said
80 suspected insurgents were detained in US and Iraqi raids in the
Samarra area over the past week. 13 people were killed and 14 wounded
by mortar shells in southeast Baghdad. 6 gunmen were killed and ten
others arrested during clashes with Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. Fierce
fighting was reported in northwest Baghdad around midday between Iraqi
soldiers and members of the Mahdi Army. 60 bodies were found in a
mainly Sunni area that had been under the control of al-Qaida in Iraq
west of Baqouba. At least 29 people were killed or found dead in other
parts of Iraq. The US military said its troops killed 4 suspects and
detained 7 others in operations across the country targeting al-Qaida
in Iraq. A US soldier was killed and two were wounded during fighting
in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Army and police
patrols stood guard as thousands of Lebanese went to polling stations
to vote in a key election to replace two assassinated lawmakers. A
little-known opposition candidate defeated a former president in a
tense parliament by-election that showed the divisions among Lebanon's
once-dominant Christians. Pro-Syrian Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has
said he would not recognize the results of the two by-elections because
they were called by what he and the rest of the opposition consider an
illegitimate government. The by-elections were held despite the refusal
of the president, Lahoud, to approve them, as required.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Jose Guadalupe Osuna
(51) of Mexico’s National Action Party won the elections for governor
in Baha California. He defeated PRI candidate Jorge Hank, a former
mayor of Tijuana and self-proclaimed billionaire with links to
organized crime.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Aug 5, Mozambique state radio
said authorities had seized thousands of boxes of counterfeit
toothpaste that they fear may contain a potentially deadly chemical.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, In Nigeria 18 men were
arrested in remote northern Bauchi state, where they were found with
women's apparel as they prepared for a gay wedding. They faced charges
of sodomy in a Nigerian Islamic court. They were accused of lesser
crimes in court but angry crowds reacted violently. Three weeks later
they were rearrested and charged with more severe crimes including
indecent acts and faced 10 years in jail if found guilty.
(AP, 8/10/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.49)
2007 Aug 5, A junior partner in
Poland's ruling coalition said it was pulling out of the partnership
and withdrawing its two ministers from government in a move that could
set the scene for early legislative elections.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, Florian Pittis (63),
Romanian actor and folk musician, died of cancer. He helped popularize
Western rock bands in communist Romania.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Darfur's fractious
rebel groups held a third day of reconciliation talks in Tanzania in a
bid to present a united front at future peace talks with Khartoum.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, An official said
Turkey's secular military expelled 10 officers for being "reactionary,"
a euphemism for Islamist activities, along with 13 others accused of
lack of discipline.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 6, President Bush wrapped
up two days of talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at Camp David.
Bush and Karzai ruled out making any concessions to the Taliban
militants during their 2-day meeting at Camp David.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/6/08)
2007 Aug 6, A US federal judge in
LA barred the Navy from using underwater sonar blasts for
anti-submarine tests off California’s Channel Islands, due to potential
harm to 30 species of marine mammals including 5 species of endangered
whales.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.D2)
2007 Aug 6, In Utah 6 coal miners
were trapped by a cave-in more than 1,500 feet below the surface at the
Crandall Canyon Mine.
(AP, 8/7/07)(SFC, 8/18/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 6, American Home Mortgage
Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest casualty of a
mortgage industry that has plunged into distress.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Cerberus Capital
Management LP named Robert Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot, to lead
its newly acquired Chrysler unit.
(WSJ, 8/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 6, Wal-Mart signed an
agreement to start wholesale operations in India in equal partnership
with Bharti Enterprises, an Indian conglomerate.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 6, Montana was under a
state of emergency as firefighters battled several huge blazes.
Residents near a state park on Michigan's Upper Peninsula were ordered
to evacuate as another wildfire spread there.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Militants attacked
police at a checkpoint in Zabul province, and the ensuing clash left
five suspected militants dead. Militants attacked a police vehicle just
outside Kandahar city, killing two officers and wounding eight others.
Dutch soldiers fatally shot a motorcyclist who approached their convoy
and failed to heed warning signals and shots.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, The European
Commission announced a formal EU-wide import ban on meat and livestock
from the British mainland following the outbreak there of foot and
mouth disease. The outbreak halted British animal movement and the
export ban was estimated to be costing the British meat industry some
£10 million a week.
(AP, 8/6/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.45)
2007 Aug 6, Independence hero
Xanana Gusmao was named East Timor's new prime minister, triggering
fresh violence in the capital.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Baron Elie Robert de
Rothschild (90), who helped France's renowned Rothschild winemaking and
banking dynasty recover from the ravages of World War II, died while
vacationing at his Austrian hunting lodge.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Iran's leading
reformist newspaper was shut down for the second time in a year after
publishing an interview with a poet who called for greater gender
equality.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Iranian and US
diplomats held "frank and serious" expert-level talks in Baghdad on
security issues in Iraq.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Iraq's political
crisis worsened as five ministers loyal to former Iraqi leader Ayad
Allawi announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings. A suicide bomber
slammed his truck into a densely populated residential area in the
northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, killing at least 28 people, including
19 children. 4 US soldiers were killed in a blast that also wounded 11
in Diyala province. One US soldier was killed and another wounded when
their vehicle was targeted by an armor-piercing explosively formed
penetrator in a western section of Baghdad. A British soldier died from
injuries sustained in a gunbattle in Basra.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, Ehud Olmert became the
first Israeli PM to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak of
fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the creation of a Palestinian
state.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Lebanon’s government
said that police have killed Abu Hureira, the deputy commander of
al-Qaida inspired militants. He was killed a few days ago by police in
the northern port city of Tripoli, near the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp
where Fatah Islam militants have been fighting Lebanese soldiers for
more than two months.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Nigerian police said
that they have arrested 17 people over the past two months on suspicion
of carrying out kidnappings in the oil-rich south of the country. At
least 17 people were killed in flooding in central Nigeria's Plateau
state while more than 200 houses were washed away.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, A Moscow court
convicted Alexei Pichugin, former top security officer with the
dismantled Yukos oil company in the deaths of 3 people, sentencing him
to life in prison in a retrial. Russia deployed new air defense systems
capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, and the air force chief
said the weapon could be used to protect 2014 Winter Olympics in the
Black Sea resort of Sochi.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, South Africa stated
its readiness to assist Guinea Bissau in tackling drug trafficking as
the tiny west African nation has been used as a transit hub for
European-bound cocaine.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, In Tanzania Darfur's
rebel groups concluded four days of talks by agreeing on a common
platform to soon enter final peace negotiations with the Sudanese
government.
(AFP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, PM Surayud Chulanont
said Thailand will return some 8,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to Laos
despite their claims that they face persecution in their homeland.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Vietnam’s disaster
officials said the worst tropical storm to hit the country so far this
year has killed nine people, while 14 others remain missing.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Zimbabwe police said
at least 7,600 shop managers and business executives have been arrested
in a crackdown on businesses accused of profiteering, as President
Robert Mugabe vowed to continue the blitz.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 7, In SF Barry Bonds his
record breaking 756th homerun. He had just tied Hank Aaron’s record on
August 4. The Giants lost to the Washington Nationals 8-6. The ball was
later auctioned to fashion designer Marc Ecko for a record $752,467,
which included a 20% buyer’s premium.
(AP, 8/8/07)(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.B1)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 7, A US jury convicted
Gregory Reyes (44), the former chief executive of Brocade
Communications Systems Inc., on all counts in the government's first
criminal trial of options backdating.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, The US FDA approved a
new drug to help patients with AIDS. Pfizer’s Selzentry is the first
anti-AIDS drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor, often used by the HIV
virus to enter white blood cells.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, Scientists reported
that a widespread die-off of frogs, toads and salamanders is primarily
due to the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Global
climate change was believed to encourage the spread of the fungus.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, A group of 75 Taliban
militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in southern
Afghanistan, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants
dead. Taliban militants clashed with police in the same district where
23 South Koreans were abducted by Afghan insurgents. Four militants
were killed and six wounded.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest in a regasification plant for
liquid natural gas for Argentina, which is weathering an energy crisis.
Chavez was in Argentina as part of a regional tour.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Administers in Vienna
said that the mid-Pacific nation of Palau has ratified the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 139 the number of
countries that have fully endorsed the pact. The treaty, which bans all
nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been
ratified by 44 states listed in an annex that participated in a 1996
disarmament conference and have nuclear power or research reactors.
Only 34 of the 44 countries have both signed and ratified the pact. The
holdouts are China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel,
Pakistan, North Korea and the United States.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from severe
floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although water
levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede, millions of
people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced hunger. About 40% of
Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 7, Britain called for the
Bush administration to release five British residents held at
Guantanamo Bay, a policy reversal that suggests new PM Gordon Brown is
pursuing a tougher line with the US than his predecessor.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain’s Environment
Secretary Hilary Benn said tests had confirmed a second foot-and-mouth
outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial report into
biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being at the center of
the cases.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain's GW
Pharmaceuticals Plc said that Health Canada had approved its
cannabis-based medicine Sativex for treatment of cancer patients.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7,
Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia (44), an alleged Colombian drug kingpin
wanted by the United States, was arrested in a luxury condominium on
the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had extensive plastic surgery
but was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using
advanced voice recognition technology.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 7, China Daily reported
that foreign exchange and public security authorities had closed down
the operations of an illegal bank based in Shenzhen, across the border
from Hong Kong. It did business in every province of the country and in
the year and half to May had done some $544 million in unspecified
transactions.
(www.chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?ID=9654)
2007 Aug 7, State media said
Chinese city traffic police have an average life expectancy of just 43
years because of the dire working conditions and pollution.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Mobs torched
government buildings and foreign aid offices, as street violence
triggered by the appointment of East Timor's new PM spread to Baucau,
the 2nd-largest city. The former ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in
the 65-member Parliament, well short of a majority, but insisted it had
the right to form the next government. Gusmao's party won 18, but
formed a coalition that now comprises 37 seats.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, A European diplomat
said that Russian officials told the Iranians about two weeks ago that
Russian fuel roads to the Bushehr reactor would be held back as long as
unresolved questions about Tehran's past nuclear activities remained.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Georgia accused Russia
of "undisguised aggression," saying two Russian fighter jets intruded
on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia
denied the allegation.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Indian communist
parties, which shore up the government, rejected a landmark nuclear
pact between New Delhi and Washington saying it compromised India's
sovereignty and imposed US influence. In northeastern Assam state,
gunmen killed 4 traders in the village of Harinagar after they refused
to pay about $1,200 each. Police blamed the militant group Dima Halam
Daogah, which demands an autonomous state for people of the Dimasa
tribe.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas
killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime
minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out
a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister
said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the
guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's semi-autonomous
Kurdish government approved a regional oil law, paving the way for
foreign investment in their northern oil and gas fields even as similar
US-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled. Two US
Marines died west of Baghdad, one in fighting and the other in a
non-combat incident that was under investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police, using
sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the
biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of Jewish settlers who
had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Ahmed Benchemsi, the
publisher of two Moroccan weeklies charged with showing disrespect to
the monarchy, defended himself, reserving the right to criticize his
country's political system. A day earlier magistrates in Casablanca
charged Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and TelQuel weeklies,
and ordered him to stand trial.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the last
refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been allowed to
settle and they will have access to work, education and health on the
same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6 Russian
hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil producing Niger
Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the world's largest
aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the Nigerian company Alscon
in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Pakistan government
forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter gunships and
artillery in some of the army's toughest action in the lawless Afghan
border region since militant attacks began surging last month.
Low-level al-Qaida members, including Arabs and Chechens, were among 12
militant fighters killed. 2 gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on
paramilitary forces in a town in North West Frontier Province, killing
one.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion in
northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and
injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children
stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing
with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom
died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Darfur rebel
commanders shot down a government MiG 29 plane they say was bombing
civilian villages in their areas in Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A judge in Trinidad
ordered three men extradited to the US to face charges in an alleged
plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a
confidential US document said they planned to seek help from Iran.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 8, The US space shuttle
Endeavour and a crew of 7 took off from Cape Canaveral, Fl., on a
special mission. Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan was part of the crew.
(SFC, 8/9/07, p.A7)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from the
University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported that coral
coverage in the Indo-Pacific, an area stretching from Indonesia's
Sumatra island to French Polynesia, had dropped 20 percent in the past
two decades. They said the decline was driven by climate change,
disease and coastal development.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In SF Donald Fisher
(78) and his wife Doris, founders of Gap (a chain of clothing stores),
announced plans to build the Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio.
(SFC, 8/8/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 8, A tornado struck
Brooklyn, NY. This was the first ever tornado in recorded history to
touch down in Brooklyn. It was the first tornado to hit New York City
since 2003, when a weak tornado touched down in Staten Island, and only
the sixth tornado recorded in the city since 1950.
(http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/37273/)(http://tinyurl.com/3a2npv)
2007 Aug 8, Melville Shavelson
(90), comedy writer, producer and director, died in Studio City, Ca.
His films included “Cast a Giant Shadow” (1966). His books included
“How to Make a Jewish Movie.”
(SFC, 8/10/07, p.B9)
2007 Aug 8, Argentine authorities
said they were investigating why Venezuelan businessman Antonini Wilson
was carrying $800,000 in undeclared cash aboard an executive jet
charted by Argentina's state energy company. In December US prosecutors
said that the suitcase full of Venezuelan cash was intended to finance
the presidential campaign of Cristina Kirchner.
(AP, 8/8/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Aug 8, Australia's central
bank hiked interest rates 0.25 points to a decade-high 6.5 percent in
an unprecedented pre-election move that the government admitted creates
a political headache.
(AFP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, An Austrian federal
court rejected Kazakhstan's request to have its ex-ambassador to
Austria, a former son-in-law of the Central Asian nation's autocratic
president, extradited to face kidnapping charges in his homeland.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from
Belgium and China said a simple blood test can detect early stage liver
cancer and more accurately diagnose the disease that is a major killer
in Asia and Africa.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, A British air force
helicopter crashed near an army base in northern England, killing two
military personnel and injuring 10.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, Beijing began the
one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympics. Jacques Rogge, president of
the International Olympic Committee, acknowledged that Beijing's air
pollution could force the postponement of outdoor events during next
year's Olympics.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, An international team
of researchers said the long-threatened Yangtze River dolphin in China
is probably extinct. They also said this would mark the first whale or
dolphin to be wiped out due to human activity.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In southwest Colombia
families confirmed that two military officers kidnapped four months ago
by leftist rebels have died in captivity. Army Sgts. Alexander Cardona
and Jesus Sol were taken hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), while on patrol near their homes.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, A report by the
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights detailed 567 cases of police
torture in the last 14 years, of which 167 led to the victim’s death.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.38)(www.eohr.org/)
2007 Aug 8, Ethiopia said it had
killed more than 500 rebels and captured 170 in the past two months
during an offensive in the volatile but energy-rich Ogaden region
bordering Somalia.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Ma Lik (55), the
leader of Hong Kong's leading pro-Beijing political party, DAB, died of
complications from colon cancer.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In northeastern
India's Assam state suspected separatist rebels fatally shot 12 people
in two separate attacks. Police suspect the attack was carried out
jointly by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and another local
insurgent group, the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front, which is
fighting for autonomy for people of the Karbi tribe.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, Millions of people in
Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, voted for governor for the first time,
the latest in a wave of local elections hailed as key to strengthening
democracy in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki arrived in Iran for talks expected to focus on bilateral
relations and overcoming "terrorism challenges." Iraqis told they will
not get automatic asylum in Britain despite braving death threats to
work alongside British troops will now have their cases reviewed.
US-led forces swooped into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City,
killing 32 suspected militants and detaining 12 others in fighting and
an airstrike targeting alleged smuggling networks from Iran. Police and
witnesses said 9 civilians were killed in the attack.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed three Palestinian militants near Israel's border with the
Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Mauritania passed a
law promising prison time for people who keep slaves, a monumental step
in the northwest African nation's push to eliminate the long-standing
practice. The government officially abolished slavery in 1981, but no
one has ever been prosecuted for it and no law created a punishment.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Nigeria kidnappers
released a British and a Bulgarian hostage in the southern oil region,
while the young son of a local legislator was seized in a separate
incident and gunbattles raged for a third day.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Pakistani security
forces killed three separatist militants after they were fired on while
surveying a flood-hit area in southwestern Baluchistan province.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In South Africa Pres.
Mbeki dismissed deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge
following reports that she had gone to Spain to attend an AIDS
conference without his permission. AIDS activists have been highly
critical of her boss, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who
promoted garlic and lemons as a remedy for AIDS and mistrusted
antiretroviral medicines.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 8, Venezuela's socialist
President Hugo Chavez took a campaign of petrodollar diplomacy to
Uruguay, seeking stronger political ties while offering energy aid from
one of the world's largest oil producers.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Vietnam officials
said at least 34 people have died and 17 more were missing and feared
dead after Tropical Storm Pabuk lashed the country.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Bush held a
news conference in which he publicly prodded Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf, his embattled war-on-terror partner, to hold free
presidential elections, share intelligence and take "swift action"
against terrorist leaders in his country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, David Beckham made his
long-awaited Major League Soccer debut, entering in the 72nd minute of
the Los Angeles Galaxy's 1-0 loss to D.C. United.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, The US Federal Reserve
injected $24 billion to the banking system in the wake of a credit
squeeze due to failing subprime mortgages and another $38 billion the
next day. The European Central Bank (ECB) offered unlimited loans at 4%
to stem the credit squeeze as it extended to Europe.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.64)(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 9, WuXi PharmaTech, a
Chinese pharmaceutical research firm, began trading on the NYSE at $14
per share. By Sep 22 its shares had doubled in value.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 9, President Hamid Karzai
said extremism that plagues Afghanistan has crept across the border
into Pakistan, at the opening of a 4-day meeting between more than 600
Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, China banned exports
by two toy manufacturers whose products were subject to major recalls
in the United States.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, A government news
agency reported that 2 former bank employees were sentenced to death
for stealing $6.7 million from their branch's vault in northern China.
Most of the money was spent on lottery tickets.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The death toll from
the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000 even
as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of farmland
and rains shifted west.
(AFP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, Newly declassified
documents said Canadian intelligence officials suspected that Maher
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen detained by the US in 2002 as a
terror suspect and deported, had been sent to a third country for
torture as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. Arar
was detained in September 2002 by US authorities during a flight
stopover in New York while returning home to Canada from a vacation in
Tunisia.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Canada 2 people
were killed and six people wounded in an early-morning shooting in a
Vancouver restaurant.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Ecuador Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez offered to help Ecuador build a $5 billion oil
refinery, as the socialist leader pledged to spread his government's
oil wealth to another South American ally.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Iranian officials told
Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki that they were doing everything they could to
help stabilize his nation, but only a US pullout would bring true peace.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Iraq tens of
thousands of Shiite pilgrims converged on a golden-domed shrine in
northern Baghdad. 7 pilgrims were killed and four wounded when gunmen
in a speeding car opened fire and threw hand grenades at them as they
were en route to Baghdad from the Dabouniyah area. Gunmen fired on
Iraqi soldiers guarding pilgrims in the predominantly Sunni
neighborhood of Yarmouk in western Baghdad, prompting a battle and
panic that left one attacker dead and one soldier and three pilgrims
wounded. A bomb exploded near the house of a Shiite family, killing a
man and his wife, and wounding three, including a 5-year-old child, in
the religiously mixed neighborhood of Baiyaa in western Baghdad. 2
British soldiers were killed and two others were seriously wounded when
a roadside bomb hit their convoy north of the Rumaylah oil fields west
of Basra.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, Lithuanian military
leaders welcomed home its small contingent of combat troops from Iraq.
The 50 troops were withdrawn last week from the southern Iraqi city of
Basra, where they had been serving under Danish command. Lithuania also
has 137 soldiers and officers deployed in Afghanistan. In June
lawmakers approved plans to send 420 troops to the Middle East, the
Balkans, the trans-Caucasus republics and other locations.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, A disaster management
agency said more than 520,000 people need urgent food aid in Mozambique
while 600,000 face famine between now and April next year.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf decided against declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan
and will press ahead with plans to hold free and fair elections.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In the Philippines Abu
Sayyaf extremists ambushed a truckload of troops going to market, then
fought a gunbattle with soldiers in pursuit. The death toll included 25
soldiers and 27 militants on the volatile southern island of Jolo.
(AP, 8/9/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, A small airplane
plunged into the sea moments after taking off from the French
Polynesian resort island of Moorea, apparently killing all 20 people
aboard in the territory's worst-ever plane crash.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Officials said a total
of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a series of
forest fires which swept through parts of South Africa and Swaziland
since the end of last month.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies more than doubled
its Sudan floods appeal to almost 5.5 million Swiss francs (4.6 million
dollars, 3.3 million euros) after flood waters rose above levels set in
1988.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 10, The United States
launched an expedition toward the Arctic to map the sea floor off
Alaska.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Federal regulators
said that they are pulling $200 million in funding from the Martin
Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital a troubled hospital that serves one of
LA’s poorest neighborhoods, forcing it to all but shut down. The
hospital was built after the 1965 Watts riots to bring health care to
poor, minority communities in south Los Angeles.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, In southern Indiana 3
men were killed in a coal mine when a nylon sling used to transport
supplies up and down a shaft got caught, causing the bucket the men
were riding in to tip and send them plummeting more than 500 feet to
their deaths.
(WSJ, 8/11/07, p.A1)(AP, 8/10/08)
2007 Aug 10, PM Gordon Brown said
that foot-and-mouth disease had been contained within a small area of
England, despite tests for a suspected new outbreak in a herd several
miles from the initial cluster of cases.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Canada's prime
minister announced plans for an army training center and a deepwater
port on the third day of an Arctic trip meant to assert sovereignty
over a region.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Congo's ruling
coalition in Brazzaville was declared the winner of legislative
elections, despite opposition charges of electoral fraud.
(AFP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Denmark was reported
to be planning a monthlong expedition, to begin Aug 12, to seek
evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain
range, is attached to the Danish territory of Greenland, making it a
geological extension of the Arctic island.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, In East Timor dozens
of attackers raided the Salesian Don Bosco convent and raped several
female students, including one around 8 years old.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, The European Central
Bank injected another $83.8 billion into the banking system amid signs
that bad US mortgages were digging deeper into the world economy.
Europe's main stock markets slumped further, with London and Paris
shedding more than 3.0 percent, amid turmoil ignited by concerns about
a weak US housing sector.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, In India a government
report said 77% of Indians, about 836 million people, live on less than
half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies. Suspected
separatist rebels gunned down a group of migrant workers as they slept
and bombed two markets in the insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing
the total number of people killed in a week of violence to 23. Police
have blamed the violence on the outlawed United Liberation Front of
Asom and the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, A car bomb struck a
market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at
least eight people and wounding dozens. Scattered violence struck
Iraqis nationwide, with at least 15 people killed or found dead. South
of Baghdad, the US military said a helicopter was forced down, leaving
two soldiers injured.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Japan and the US
signed an agreement aimed at protecting classified military information
to be shared by the two countries promoting closer defense cooperation.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Malawi said it will
deploy 800 troops to Darfur in Sudan to serve in the future United
Nations-African Union peacekeeping force.
(AFP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, A Dutch cruise ship
rescued 14 African migrants after their boat capsized in rough
Mediterranean waters as they tried to reach Europe, while authorities
searched for 11 other passengers who were feared drowned.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, In Nigeria gunmen
kidnapped an American manager from oil services firm Hydrodive as he
traveled to work in Port Harcourt, where gunfire rang out across the
region’s main city for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, The Sudanese Media
Centre said security forces have handed 33 suspects accused of trying
to overthrow the government to the justice ministry for investigation.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, A Security Council
resolution authorized the UN, at the request of the Iraqi government,
to promote political talks among Iraqis and a regional dialogue on
issues including border security, energy and refugees as well as help
tackling the country's worsening humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, President George W.
Bush welcomed France's Pres. Sarkozy to the Bush family's oceanfront
home in Maine for a private meeting, boat ride and picnic fare.
(www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/11/bush-sarkozy.html)
2007 Aug 11, Republican Mitt
Romney (b.1947) won the first test of the 2008 White House race, using
a big wallet and broad organization to muscle aside a field of rivals
in a low-turnout Iowa straw poll. Mike Huckabee (b.1955), former
governor of Arkansas, came in second.
(Reuters, 8/11/07)(WSJ, 8/13/07, p.A5)
2007 Aug 11, Zhang Shuhong, who
co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co. Ltd., killed himself at a warehouse,
days after China announced it had temporarily banned exports by the
company.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 11, It was reported that
citizen’s in 5 of Egypt’s 26 governorates have been suffering a dire
shortage of drinking water.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 11, In Guatemala 46
children believed abducted or coerced from their parents were rescued
from Casa Quivira, an adoption home catering to foreigners run by
Clifford Phillips of Deland, Fla., and his Guatemalan wife and
attorney, Sandra Gonzalez.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, The int’l. medical
charity Doctors Without Borders said it has been stopped from working
in a Maoist-hit area of India, after being accused of treating banned
rebels.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, Iran’s state-run news
network said Iran and Iraq have signed an agreement to build pipelines
for the transfer of Iraqi crude oil and oil products.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, A powerful roadside
bomb killed Khalil Jalil Hamza, the governor of Qadisiyah province and
the police chief. The southern province has seen fierce internal
fighting between Shiite factions. Militants bombed the house of a
prominent anti-al-Qaida Sunni cleric, seriously wounding him and
killing three of his relatives in what appeared to be an increased
campaign against Sunnis who have turned against the terror network. The
bodies of four men abducted a week ago were found chopped into pieces
in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed one
civilian and wounded another while they were driving on the highway
south of Baghdad. A local tribal leader in Albu Khalifa, a village west
of Baghdad, was gunned down by militants who broke into his home.
Gunmen ambushed a police patrol southwest of the northern city of
Kirkuk, killing three officers and wounding another. The US military
reported the death of a Task Force Lightning soldier in a non-combat
incident. 5 American soldiers were killed in southeastern Baghdad,
including four in an ambush bombing after a sniper felled a soldier.
(AP, 8/11/07)(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, Hamas militiamen
detained 32 Fatah supporters across Gaza, half of them after breaking
up a bachelor's party and beating guests with clubs and chairs.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, Sierra Leone held its
first elections since UN peacekeepers left nearly two years ago, a vote
that will test whether the diamond-rich West African country can
transfer power peacefully after years of conflict. The opposition won a
parliamentary majority, but the presidential race faced a runoff in
September.
(AP, 8/11/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 11, In Somalia 2
prominent radio journalists were assassinated in Mogadishu within hours
of each other, one just outside his office and the other as he returned
from his colleague's burial.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, In northeast Sri
Lanka security forces shot dead five suspected LTTE cadres as they
tried to lay landmines. Two gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead a
Muslim man in the eastern district of Ampara.
(AFP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, A security official
said disarmament has finally started in south Sudan's state of Eastern
Equatoria under a 2005 peace deal now it has been made possible by the
departure of Ugandan rebels.
(Reuters, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, Togo national
television said 3 new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu have
been detected in poultry on farms in Sigbehoue, 45 kilometers east of
the capital.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 12, Tiger Woods captured
the PGA Championship to win at least one major for the third straight
season and run his career total to 13.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2007 Aug 12, Tommy Thompson,
former governor of Wisconsin, said he was dropping out of the
Republican presidential campaign following his 6th place finish in
Iowa’s straw poll.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A2)
2007 Aug 12, Ronald Bracewell
(86), retired Stanford professor, died. He co-wrote the first text on
radio astronomy and helped develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
technology. The Australian-born engineer also led the 1961 construction
of the 32-dish radio telescope at Stanford and authored a book on 350
species of trees on the Stanford campus.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B11)
2007 Aug 12, A Canadian woman (35)
gave birth to rare identical quadruplets. Karen Jepp of Calgary,
Alberta, delivered Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia by Caesarian
section at Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls, Montana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southwest Missouri
a gunman opened fire at the First Congregational Church killing three
people and wounded five. The local Micronesian congregation rented the
church for its services and the gunman, also Micronesian, deliberately
targeted elders of the congregation. Suspect Eiken Elam Saimon was
charged with murder. On March 20, 2009, Saimon (54) pleaded guilty to 3
counts of murder.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/12/08)(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2007 Aug 12, Merv Griffin (82),
television talk show host and entrepreneur, died. He created the TV
game show “Jeopardy” in 1964 and sold the rights for the show to
Coca-Cola for $250 million in 1986.
(AP, 8/13/07)(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 12, Afghanistan and
Pakistan pledged to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in their respective
tribal regions and fight the opium trade financing Islamic militants.
Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told more than 600 Afghan
and Pakistani tribal leaders that the two countries have been mired in
the rise of militancy, extremism and radicalism while the rest of the
world races forward with economic development. He spoke at the closing
session of a four-day US-backed cross-border jirga, or tribal council,
aimed at finding ways to stem Afghanistan's rising bloodshed. In
southern Afghanistan police and army soldiers battled militants in
Kandahar province's Shohrawak district. The joint Afghan forces
thwarted a planned militant ambush at the district chief's compound,
and the ensuing clash left nine militants dead. During a cleanup
operation after the battle, a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the
same district, killing five officers and wounding two others.
(AFP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In England Gerry
Tobin was shot in the back of the head as he rode home from an annual
biker event, the Bulldog Bash, in Warwickshire. Police later arrested 3
men in connection with the shooting death of the Canadian Hells Angel
biker on the M40 motorway.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Mansoura, Egypt,
Mohamed Mamdouh Abdel-Aziz (12) died days after he was arrested and
allegedly tortured by police after he was detained on suspicion of
having stolen four packs of tea.
(http://tinyurl.com/2mo43a)
2007 Aug 12, A Hong Kong-based
human rights group said a chemical plant leaked arsenic into a river in
southern China that supplies water to at least 20,000 people. High
levels of arsenic and other chemicals already have killed at least
10,000 fish in the Chongan, a 43-mile river in Guizhou province.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In India suspected
rebels killed four Hindi-speaking migrant workers before dawn and 3
more bodies were found from an earlier killing in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing the death toll from a week of
violence to 30.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Indonesia nearly
90,000 followers of Hizbut Tahrir, a hard-line Sunni organization with
an estimated million members, packed a stadium in Jakarta, calling for
the creation of an Islamic state.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A woman (29) in Bali
died from infection with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(www.news-medical.net/?id=28736)
2007 Aug 12, Up to five militants
were killed and 13 others detained during a raid on Baghdad's Shiite
slum of Sadr City. The US military claimed those they rounded up in
that raid were linked to Tehran’s elite Quds Force.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southern Nigeria a
foreigner taken hostage amid increased lawlessness died of an illness
while being taken to a hospital.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A video was posted on
Russian ultranationalist sites of the Internet showing the brutal
execution of two men from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The man who
posted the video turned himself on Aug 14 in Maikop, capital of the
southern Russian republic of Adygei.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Somalia 2 suspects
were arrested in the deaths of two prominent Somali journalists who
were killed within hours of each other.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Sri Lanka
suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a powerful land mine against a
military patrol in the Jaffna peninsula, killing a soldier and wounding
at least 16 others. Another civilian was killed and four others were
injured when the LTTE fired mortars at a northeastern village in Weli
Oya.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southeast Turkey
12 were injured, three of them seriously, when Kurdish guerrillas
detonated a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In north-eastern
Zimbabwe at least 9 people were killed and around 50 injured when a bus
collided with a car.
(AFP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Karl Rove, the White
House deputy chief of staff, announced his retirement effective at the
end of the month.
(WSJ, 8/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 13, Brooke Astor
(b.1902), philanthropist, died at her Holy Hill estate in NY.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.B5)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 13, Phil Rizzuto (89),
Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop and broadcaster died in West Orange, N.J.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2007 Aug 13, In Afghanistan 2
women among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in mid-July
were freed on a rural roadside and then driven to a US base. A German
held hostage said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his
captors that he was in ill health and the Taliban had threatened him
with death. In southern Afghanistan 6 civilians were killed when a
rocket-propelled grenade blew up their vehicle when Taliban militia
attacked a military convoy. A separate clash between troops and
insurgents in Ghazni province, further north, left four Taliban dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, According to new data
China's inflation rate accelerated to the highest monthly rate in a
decade, driven by a 15.4% surge in food prices over the year-earlier
period. Officials said China is still freeing people, including
children, forced to work as slaves in illegal brick factories, two
months after the scandal involving the brick yards was exposed. A
bridge under construction in the central Hunan city of Fenghuang
collapsed as workers removed scaffolding from its facade, killing 64
people.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/13/08)
2007 Aug 13, A boat carrying
illegal immigrants capsized off France's Indian Ocean island of
Mayotte, killing at least 17 people, eight of them children. The boat
carrying 38 people was en route from the Comoros Islands about 125
miles to the northwest when it overturned while trying to evade the
French coast guard.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, US troops in Iraq
launched a major assault against Al-Qaeda-linked militants and alleged
Iranian-aided extremist groups as a Sunni leader accused Iran of
plotting genocide against his people. The US military also said it had
arrested a top "financier" of Iraqi extremist groups believed to be
supported by Tehran’s Quds Force in a Baghdad raid. 3 US soldiers were
killed in an explosion near their vehicle in northwestern Ninevah
province. Another died of wounds sustained during combat operations in
western Baghdad.
(AFP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, In Malaysia 20 people
died after an express bus overturned on the main highway, tearing off
the vehicle's roof and flinging seats into the air in what officials
said was the country's worst traffic disaster. The toll rose to 22
after 2 injured people died later.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 13, Armed pirates
attacked a Malaysian barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped 2
Indonesian crew, in the first high sea abduction in the busy waterway
in more than 2 years.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, AkzoNobel, a Dutch
chemicals group under Hans Wijers, made a cash offer for the British
firm ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) under John McAdam for $16
billion. The deal turned Akzo into the world’s biggest maker of paints.
(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.72)(www.ici.com/main/cms/cmRender.asp?i=2162)
2007 Aug 13, A monsoon storm
unleashed landslides and collapsed houses in a village in Pakistan's
mountainous northwest, killing 22 people.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Hamas militiamen beat
protesters with clubs and rifle butts to try to stop a demonstration by
political opponents in the Gaza Strip, but hundreds chanting "We want
freedom" defied the ban.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Poland's fractious
governing coalition came to an end when the country's president
dismissed four Cabinet ministers from two junior partners, clearing the
way for an early election expected this fall.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, A bomb explosion
threw the Neva Express train, which was en route from Moscow to St.
Petersburg, off the tracks and injuring 60 people. Suspicion fell on
representatives of extremist nationalist organizations.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 13, In South Korea a
family of five fell to their deaths from a Ferris wheel after two cars
collided at an amusement park in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, In central Vietnam
the death toll from a tropical storm that caused widespread flooding
hit 70 after five more bodies were recovered, while six people were
still missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 14, Teacher-astronaut
Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle Endeavour and space
station into a classroom for her first educational session from orbit,
fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986
Challenger disaster.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2007 Aug 14, In New Jersey the
Newark Community Foundation, launched last month, said it will help pay
for Community Eye, a surveillance system tailored towards gun crime.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.27)
2007 Aug 14, Toy-making giant
Mattel Inc. issued recalls for some 18 million Chinese-made toys that
contained magnets which children could swallow. Mattel also recalled
436,000 toy cars daubed with lead-based paint.
(AP, 8/14/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.58)
2007 Aug 14, It was reported that
Pulickel Ajayan and colleagues at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had
developed a flexible battery using carbon nanotubes and cellulose.
(www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-08-14-2925644111_x.htm)
2007 Aug 14, Phil Rizzuto (89),
the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees' dynasty years and
beloved by a generation of fans for exclaiming "Holy cow!" as a
broadcaster, died.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A NATO soldier was
killed when a joint ISAF-NATO patrol was ambushed by Taliban insurgents
in eastern Paktia province.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A new study said
nearly every Australian city will have to find new water supplies over
the next decade as climate change and population growth stretch the
nation's already limited water resources.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, In Brazil police
arrested Oscar Maroni Jr., for racketeering and trafficking in women.
Maroni, known as the Larry Flynt of Brazil, was also under pressure to
stop construction of his 11-story Oscar’s Hotel at the edge of the
Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, which was cited for impacting air
safety.
(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 14, Four suicide truck
bombers struck nearly simultaneously in Qahataniya killing at least 400
victims. The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect, the Yazidis,
who have been the target of Muslim extremists who consider them
infidels. The US military blamed al-Qaida. A suicide truck bomber
struck the Thiraa Dijla bridge in Taji, sending cars plunging into the
river and killing at least 10 people in the 2nd attack on the span in 3
months. Local officials said four civilians, including a 3-year-old
girl, were killed and five wounded during a raid by joint US-Iraqi
forces in Sadr City. The US military said 4 gunmen were killed and 8
detained after a fierce gunfight, but it had no reports of civilian
deaths. Extremists abducted five officials from an Oil Ministry
compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security
officers. Nine US soldiers were reported killed, including five in a
helicopter crash.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 14, Benjamin Netanyahu
won elections as leader of Israel's hardline Likud Party. Israeli
troops and aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza
Strip. Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26
people were wounded. Separately, two security officers for Gaza's Hamas
rulers were reported killed in fierce fighting with the powerful
Palestinian Doghmush clan.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 14, Gunmen in southern
Nigeria abducted the mother of a state lawmaker, the latest in a spate
of kidnappings targeting the children and elderly parents of local
politicians.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, North Korean
officials said that 200 people were dead or missing across the country
due to floods caused by days of heavy rains. On Aug 17 an international
aid group said over 300 were dead or missing from the floods. The toll
was later raised to 600.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 14, Tikhon Khrennikov
(94), Stalin’s music master, died. His 1939 opera “Into the Storm,”
based on a novel by Nikolai Virta, was the first in which Lenin
appeared as a character on the stage.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.77)
2007 Aug 14, In Somalia a local
human rights group said fighting in Mogadishu has killed 31 civilians
and wounded 60 in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Taiwanese court
acquitted opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of corruption
charges, giving a big boost to the campaign of a politician who backs
better relations with rival China.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Thailand judge
issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife
for failing to appear at their trial on corruption-related charges.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, filed his candidacy for
president, risking a fresh government showdown with army-backed
secularist forces.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 15, Ex-NBA referee Tim
Donaghy pleaded guilty to felony charges in an NBA betting scheme. He
faced up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. A federal judge
later sentenced Donaghy to 15 months behind bars.
(WSJ, 8/16/07, p.A1)(AP, 8/15/08)
2007 Aug 15, Pennsylvania Superior
Court Judge Michael Thomas Joyce, an appeals court judge, was indicted
on charges of scamming $440,000 from insurers by claiming he suffered
debilitating injuries in a car crash, even while he golfed, skated and
went scuba diving.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 15, Max Roach (b.1924),
jazz drummer, died in Manhattan.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B11)
2007 Aug 15, In Afghanistan US led
ground troops and airstrikes targeted "hundreds of foreign fighters"
dug into positions in the Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar
province. 2 German police officers and a German foreign ministry
employee were killed in Kabul, in a bomb attack claimed by the Taliban.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Germany 6 Italian
men were fatally shot in the head in the western city of Duisburg, an
execution-style killing that Italy's interior minister said appeared to
be a feud between two Italian organized crime clans. On March 12, 2009,
Dutch police arrested Giovanni Strangio (30), an Italian man wanted for
the killings in Duisburg.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 3/13/09)
2007 Aug 15, State radio reported
that Iran has detained two Chinese nationals on charges of spying on
its military and nuclear facilities. A drug crackdown was launched
throughout Iran and police seized more than 54 kilos (118 pounds) of
heroin and crack from the gang in airports in Tehran and several other
cities. In the operation 90 members of a drug network, including 85
Africans from Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana as well as two Pakistanis,
were arrested.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AFP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Mosul a bomb in a
parked car killed a civilian and wounded ten others. 5 people were
killed in an ambush on a minibus carrying civilians near Khalis. South
of Baghdad a suicide car bomber killed two people and wounded seven. US
troops killed 11 suspected terrorists and detained four others in
operations against al-Qaida in central and northern Iraq. Two US
soldiers were killed and six wounded in fighting north of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 15, Japan's foreign
minister launched plans for a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial park
in the West Bank that he said would promote peace in the region through
prosperity.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Kenya hundreds of
journalists wearing black gags marched silently through Nairobi to
protest a proposed law that would allow courts to compel reporters to
reveal their sources.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, Maputo's interior
ministry said South Africa has intensified the repatriation of
Mozambican illegal immigrants, going from 400 to a weekly average of
more than 600.
(AFP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, A magnitude-8.0
trembler rocked Peru's coast, toppling buildings leaving some 610
people dead and 36,000 homes damaged. State doctors called off a
national strike to handle the emergency. Two prisons collapsed and 600
prisoners escaped. About a third gave themselves up over the next week.
Tremors destroyed 80% of Pisco, where 148 people died when the city
cathedral collapsed.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.35)(SSFC, 4/6/08,
p.A14)(Econ, 8/16/08, p.37)
2007 Aug 15, Sergei Sinkonen and
another conscript came upon the officers celebrating a wedding not far
from their unit at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwestern
Russia. The officers thought the conscripts had fled and beat them with
army belts, and put Sinkonen in a kennel with guard dogs, where he was
found the next morning in serious condition. Sinkonen died Aug 27.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 15, Official media said
severe floods have destroyed more than a tenth of North Korea's
farmland at the height of the growing season.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, Hordes of shoppers
desperate to buy sugar amid severe shortages stampeded at a shopping
complex in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, killing a
15-year-old boy and a security guard.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The US offered Israel
an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Jose Padilla, a US
citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted of
helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks. Padilla, once
accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty
bomb," was later sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison on the
unrelated terror support charges.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 16, US authorities
indicted Igor Klopow (24), a Russian national, for his role in an ID
theft gang that targeted wealthy individuals. Klopow was lured to the
US and arrested under the Brooklyn Bridge.
(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.B2)
2007 Aug 16, A new Jefferson one
dollar coin went into circulation nationwide. It followed the
Washington coin, which was introduced in February, and the John Adams
coin, introduced in May. The coin honoring James Madison was scheduled
to go into circulation in November.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, US officials said
C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina, collected about
$20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping
costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas
base. The firm was run by sisters Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten
(d.2006). The owners had exploited a flaw in an automated Defense
Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or US
bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically.
(www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=ardg6DwCCMFI&refer=home)(Reuters,
8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 16, Kathleen Culhane
(40), former private investigator in California, was sentenced
to 5 years in state prison for forging documents to save the
lives of Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 16, CARE spokeswoman
Alina Labrada said the donation of wheat and other crops does not help
in regions where people consistently go hungry because local farming
has been weakened by international competition. The Atlanta-based group
turned down $46 million worth of US food aid, arguing that the way the
American government distributes its help hurts poor farmers.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Utah the search
for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a
second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six
others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. The
search for six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon Mine was later
abandoned.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/16/08)
2007 Aug 16, Australia’s PM John
Howard said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India, subject to
strict conditions.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 16, It was reported that
a highly infectious swine virus, blue pork disease, had spread to 25 of
China’s 33 provinces, prompting pork shortages and an 85% increase in
pork prices over the last year.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 16, In Greece a huge
forest fire burned two dozen homes, animals and cars in the northern
outskirts of Athens before firefighters extinguished most of it.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, A conservation group
said mercury used by gold miners has seeped into rivers and streams and
sickened scores of Indian villagers in rural Guyana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The Iraqi prime
minister and president announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and
Kurds in a push to save the crumbing government, saying a key Sunni
bloc refused to join but the door remained open to them. In Baghdad, a
car bomb struck a parking garage in a central commercial district
during the morning rush hour, killing at least nine people and wounding
17. US troops clashed with suspected Sunni insurgents holed up in a
mosque north of Baghdad and launched an air-to-ground Hellfire missile
into the structure. One American soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/16/07)(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled through
its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least nine lives
and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake. The
mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of Tajimi in the
afternoon, breaking a previous national record of 105.4 degrees set in
1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Uganda announced
plans to send 250 extra soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in
Mogadishu, but Somalia's government warned they were not enough and
urged other African nations to commit troops.
(Reuters, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Opponents of
President Hugo Chavez vowed to block his plans to radically overhaul
the constitution, warning the changes would give him unlimited power
and cripple democracy in Venezuela.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The 14-member
Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia for
its 27th summit. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the people of
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform at the summit
of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country's
political and economic crisis.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.43)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2007 Aug 17, The US Federal
Reserve cut the primary discount rate, a dramatic move aimed at easing
worries about tightening credit and calming global financial markets.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, New Mexico’s Gov.
Bill Richardson ordered the state Health Department to resume planning
of a medical marijuana program despite the agency's worries about
possible federal prosecution.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed a district chief and 3 of his
children. 5 civilians were killed in fighting between NATO soldiers and
Taliban in the east. Insurgents holed up in buildings and trenches
attacked Afghan police and coalition forces near Fire Base Robinson.
Nearly a dozen suspected militants were killed in the ensuing battle.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, Bill Deedes (b.1913),
British journalist and politician, died in Kent, England. He is the
only person in Britain to have been both a member of the British
cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper.
(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Deedes)
2007 Aug 17, The Criminal
Intelligence Service Canada annual report estimated that there are 950
organized crime groups operating in the country.
(Reuters, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Hurricane Dean tore
through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique,
ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power. 100
mph winds ruined the entire banana harvest on St. Lucia and Martinique
and battered the banana industry in Dominica.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, In eastern China a
dike on the Wen river in Shandong province broke, sending water gushing
into 2 mines run by the Huayuan Mining Co. in the city of Xintai. 181
miners were killed. In 2008 two managers were sentenced to 7 years in
prison for their roles in the accident.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.58)(AP, 4/17/08)(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 17, Borse Dubai made a
$3.95 billion takeover bid for OMX AB, challenging US-based Nasdaq
Stock Market Inc. for ownership of the Stockholm-based Nordic stock
exchange operator.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, PM Nouri al-Maliki
told Sunni tribal chieftains in Tikrit that all Iraqis must join to
crush al-Qaida in Iraq and extremist Shiite militias "to save our
coming generations." The Ansar al-Sunna group posted a video showing
the execution of Alaa Abboud Fartous Diab, a Defense Ministry official
accused of working with US forces.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, Nigerian authorities
imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Port Harcourt after security forces
and gang members clashed in battles that left dozens dead.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, In Peru six strong
aftershocks struck as the death toll from the Aug 15 8.0
earthquake passed 500.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Romania and the US
started military training exercises to test installations that will
become the first US facilities in the former Soviet bloc, a plan
opposed by Russia.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 17, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin said that he had ordered the military to resume regular
long-range flights of strategic bombers.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, The six members of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held their first joint
maneuvers on Russian land in a demonstration of their growing military
ties and a shared desire to counter US global clout. The presidents of
Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
attended the unprecedented joint military exercises in Chelyabinsk near
the Kazakh border.
(AFP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Serbia said it was
time to return its security forces to Kosovo, a move that could derail
last-ditch talks on the fate of the Albanian-majority territory before
they begin.
(Reuters, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Saudi King Abdullah
ordered two aid packages worth 20 million dollars each be dispatched to
Sudan and Mauritania to help the impoverished African countries hit by
severe floods.
(AFP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, In the first trial of
a minister from South Africa’s white racist government, former law and
order Minister Adriaan Vlok and his police chief Johannes Van der Merwe
were both sentenced to 10 years. However, they will not have to spend
any time in prison if they commit no crimes for five years. Three other
former top security officials were given five-year suspended sentences
for their role in the 1989 plot to assassinate Frank Chikane.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, The UN announced that
the Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute
suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa officially launched a peacekeeping brigade as part of a
planned SADC standby force to be deployed on peace missions and to
tackle disarmament and humanitarian crises on the continent.
(Reuters,
8/17/07)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2007 Aug 18, A seven-alarm fire
ripped through the former Deutsche Bank next to ground zero in Lower
Manhattan, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 18, Michael K. Deaver
(69), adviser to President Reagan, died in Bethesda, Md.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean
barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola,
Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it
could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean
claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican
Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber detonated near a convoy of private
security forces, killing four Afghan guards and 11 civilians, including
3 women and 2 children. Armed assailants abducted a German woman from a
restaurant in Kabul.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, It was reported that
Albanian migrants sent home almost $1 billion a year to support jobless
family members and to build homes. New business was said to be
discouraged by blackmail and intimidation from existing firms with
licenses going to political cronies in the face of a corrupt judiciary.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.46)
2007 Aug 18, In Britain a man died
and six other people were missing after a fire gutted a hotel in the
popular seaside resort of Newquay.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Chile’s national
poverty line was reported to be $90 per month. The richest tenth of the
population garnered 38.6% of the national income.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.23)
2007 Aug 18, It was reported that
China faced a major shortage of skilled talent including doctors with
only 4,000 general practitioners. Lawyers numbered about 122,000. An
average of 2,200 new pilots per year will be needed to keep up with the
growth in air travel. Accountants, technicians and good managers were
also reported to be in short supply.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 18, UNESCO said a joint
mission of several UN agencies is conducting an emergency investigation
into the shooting of endangered mountain gorillas in a Democratic
Republic of Congo national park. In the last two months, seven of the
primates have been killed in separate incidents in the Virunga park.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 18, Two men hijacked a
Turkish passenger plane from Cyprus bound for Istanbul, holding several
people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Ethiopia freed 32
opposition members who had been detained for post-election violence in
2005.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Germany 2 Africans
were attacked by right-wing extremists in Mainz, the same night as a
brutal mob assault on eight Indians in the country's former communist
east.
(AFP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 18, About 16 mortar
shells rained on houses in the Sharqiya residential area in Khalis, a
Shiite enclave north of Baghdad, killing at least 7 people. Overnight a
series of bombs struck commercial areas in Kirkuk, killing at least
four people and wounding 38.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Kazakhs headed to the
polls in parliamentary elections seen as a key test of authoritarian
Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's pledge to boost democracy in this oil-rich
nation. Nur Otan, the party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, won all
98 available seats in the lower parliament. The tally was quickly
condemned by the opposition.
(AFP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 18, In northern Lebanon
gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp left
one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Peru President
Alan Garcia called for the orderly distribution of emergency supplies
as desperate victims of a magnitude-8 earthquake on the southern coast
looted markets and blocked arriving aid trucks. The death toll climbed
to 540.
(AP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 18, In the Philippines 16
troops and dozens of Muslim extremists were killed in clashes between
government forces and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels on the southern island of
Basilan.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Rival clan militias
fought over scarce pasture land and wells in central Somalia, leaving
18 people dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, A powerful typhoon
slammed into Taiwan, killing at least one person, forcing thousands to
evacuate and disrupting power supplies across the already-saturated
landscape.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, US Customs seized a
submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth
of cocaine off the Guatemalan coast.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano (32),
an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to
avoid being separated from her American-born son, was deported from the
US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her campaign to change US
immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 19, The US space shuttle
Endeavour departed hastily from the International Space Station, ending
a construction mission a day early in order to land before Hurricane
Dean threatens its Houston control center.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Fierce storms from
the upper Mississippi to Texas since last week left 22 people dead. Six
people died in floodwaters across Oklahoma after heavy rains from the
remains of Tropical Storm Erin drenched the state. As much as 9 inches
of rain fell across a wide swath of Oklahoma, leaving roadways under 5
feet of water. 8 people were reported dead in Texas and 6 dead in
Minnesota.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.A6)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 19, In southern
Afghanistan, dozens of Taliban insurgents attacked an Afghan army
compound, and the ensuing gunbattle left 10 suspected militants dead
and 4 others wounded. A Canadian soldier was killed when his vehicle
struck a roadside bomb near Kandahar.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, Simultaneous grenade
attacks were launched on the homes of five Burundian politicians who
recently criticized the president, injuring three but failing to harm
the targets.
(AFP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, In China at least 36
people were killed as Typhoon Sepat hit the mainland after more 1.3
million people were evacuated as a precaution. In eastern China At
least 14 people died and 59 were injured when a container spilled
molten aluminum with a temperature of 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit at a
factory.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 19, In east Baghdad a
mortar barrage slammed into a mainly Shiite neighborhood, killing 12
including women and children and wounding 31. French foreign minister
Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on a groundbreaking visit after
years of icy relations with the US over Iraq. In central Baghdad gunmen
driving several cars waylaid a minibus headed for Sadr City, the
capital's Shiite enclave, and abducted 15 passengers, A top US general
said American forces are tracking about 50 members of an elite Iranian
force who have crossed the border into southern Iraq to train Shiite
militia fighters.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel said it would
expel refugees from Sudan's war torn Darfur region, touching off hot
debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide,
has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel opened a
crossing with the Gaza Strip to let in fuel shipments, but tens of
thousands of homes remained without electricity because fuel for a
major Gaza power company hadn't arrived. The EU cut off vital funding
to a Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down the last of its
generators and darken tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki said the EU ceased payment
"because Hamas took over the electric company and started collecting
the revenues and taking them to its pocket."
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, The Israeli
government and Holocaust survivors struck a deal on a special allowance
for Israelis who lived through the Nazi genocide. It guaranteed
Israelis who survived the Nazi ghettos and concentration camps a
monthly stipend of $284.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Jamaicans headed
inland and tourists fled the country as Hurricane Dean headed for a
direct hit on the island. Dean hit Jamaica as a Category 4 storm.
(AP, 8/19/07)(WSJ, 8/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 19, President Maumoon
Abdul Gayoom won an overwhelming victory in a referendum on the
Maldives' future form of government, a poll seen as an informal vote of
confidence in his three-decade rule of the tiny Indian Ocean nation.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Pakistan army
helicopter gunships killed at least 15 al-Qaeda militants, mostly
Uzbeks, in a pre-dawn raid near the Afghan border. Intelligence
officials in Mir Ali said two women and two children also died in the
strike.
(Reuters, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, In Sudan armed
raiders killed a policeman and wounded four others in an attack on a
refugee camp in Darfur.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, A new constitution
for Thailand, that is to usher in December general elections and end
military rule, was approved by millions of voters in the country’s
first ever nationwide referendum. This was the 18th constitution since
the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.38)
2007 Aug 20, The lawyer for
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick said Vick will plead guilty to
federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. Vick could spend the next few
American football seasons behind bars.
(AFP, 8/20/07)(WSJ, 8/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 20, In Minnesota divers
discovered the body of Gregory Jolstad, a 45-year-old construction
worker who was part of the crew resurfacing the Interstate 35W bridge
when it fell Aug. 1 during the evening rush hour. The discovery brought
the official death toll to 13. Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the emergency
response costs alone would be more than $8 million.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, The Nasdaq Stock
Market, facing a challenge to its bid for a Nordic exchange, abandoned
hopes to acquire the London Stock Exchange and said it will offload its
31% stake in the exchange.
(AP, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.C3)
2007 Aug 20, Leona Helmsley (87),
the NYC hotelier who went to prison as a tax cheat and was reviled as
the "queen of mean," died at her home in Greenwich, Conn.
(AP, 8/20/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 20, In Kabul 4 suspected
kidnappers were captured as Afghan police freed Christina Meier, a
German aid worker who had been snatched from a restaurant while she ate
with her husband.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, Britain eased
restrictions on the movement of cattle and sheep to following the
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southern England.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Canada Mexican
President Felipe Calderon, Canadian PM Stephen Harper and President
Bush worked to craft a plan to secure their borders in the event of a
terrorist strike or other emergency without creating traffic tie-ups
that slowed commerce at crossings after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Protesters and riot police clashed outside the posh Canadian resort
where the leaders were meeting.
(AP, 8/20/07)(Reuters, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, In China Jia Youling,
chief veterinary officer, said that the Porcine Reproductive and
Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), aka as blue-ear pig disease, head been
brought under control. He said 257,000 pigs in 26 provinces had been
infected. 68,000 had died from the disease and 175,000 were destroyed.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.41)
2007 Aug 20, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Kinshasa for a working visit aimed at
boosting relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
(AFP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Egypt 4 terror
suspects were convicted by a security court and sentenced to life in
prison for their involvement in 3 attacks that killed two French
tourists and an American in April, 2005. Five other suspects, including
two women, received jail sentences that ranged from one to 10 years in
prison.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, Iraq's embattled PM
Nouri al-Maliki came to Syria on his first visit here as prime minister
amid efforts to garner neighbors' support for curbing violence at home.
Syria said Iraq should set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign
troops. A roadside bomb killed Mohammed Ali al-Hassani (52), the
governor of the predominantly Shiite Muthanna province, along with his
driver and guard. Two bombings struck the Shiite district of Sadr City
and a busy market district elsewhere in Baghdad, killing at least 7
people and wounding more than 20. Thousands rallied against the US in
Sadr City, waving Iraqi flags and shouting "No, no to America."
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Okinawa, Japan,
passengers used emergency slides to evacuate a China Airlines Boeing
737-800 just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball on the
tarmac. All 165 people aboard escaped unhurt, including the pilot, who
jumped from the cockpit at the last second.
(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 20, A report showed tiny
fish farms have helped 1,200 poor families hit by AIDS in Malawi to
raise their incomes and improve their diets in a scheme being expanded
to other African nations.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, Tens of thousands of
tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean roared
toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 20, A crowded bus veered
off a mountainous road in western Nepal, killing at least 19 people.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car at a
roadside security post, killing at least three troops and wounding at
least eight others. A passenger bus plunged off a mountain road into a
river bank in northern Pakistan, killing 25 people and injuring eight.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Turkey Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul won most votes in the first round of a
presidential election, but did not secure the two-thirds majority
needed in parliament for an outright win.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, The UN Security
Council authorized an African Union force in chaotic Somalia for
another six months and asked the secretary-general to develop plans for
a possible UN troop replacement.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 21, A research firm said
US foreclosure filings rose 9 percent from June to July and surged 93
percent over the same period last year, with Nevada, Georgia and
Michigan accounting for the highest foreclosure rates nationwide.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The US shuttle
Endeavour landed in Florida following a 13-day assembly mission on the
international space station.
(SFC, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 21, California state
senators ended a 52-day budget impasse and agreed on a $145 million
spending plan for 2007-2008.
(SFC, 8/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 21, The board of MGM
Mirage approved a deal with Dubai World in which the holding company
for the Persian Gulf state will eventually acquire a 9.5% stake
and 50% ownership in the Las Vegas CityCenter project.
(WSJ, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 21, An Australian court
ruled that the country's immigration minister wrongly revoked a work
visa for an Indian doctor who was briefly accused of links with a
failed British car bomb plot in June.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Students in
emergency-ruled Bangladesh clashed with police for a second day
demanding that the army withdraw from Dhaka university campus.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, China’s government
announced that mainland citizens would be allowed to invest in Hong
Kong. State media reported that a test run of traffic controls to clear
Beijing's smoggy skies for next year's Olympic Games successfully
improved air quality. Media also reported that China will execute
people who sabotage the electricity supply, reversing recent steps to
rein in widespread use of the death penalty.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.86)(http://tinyurl.com/2ugksh)(AP,
8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The European Central
Bank provided more cash for banks that have been clamoring for money,
injecting $370.6 billion in its normal weekly refinancing.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The EU said it will
resume vital fuel aid to the Gaza Strip's electric company, money the
bloc suspended because of suspicions that Gaza's Hamas rulers were
diverting revenues.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Haleh Esfandiari, a
detained Iranian-American academic accused of conspiring against the
government, was freed on bail from the Tehran prison where she had been
jailed since early May. Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program
at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was freed on
$333,000 bail.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, In Iraq French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called on Europe to play a bigger
role in Iraq because "the Americans will not be able to get this
country out of difficulty alone." The postwar Iraqi tribunal trying
former Saddam Hussein aides opened its third proceeding, putting former
Defense Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and 14
other men on trial.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/21/08)
2007 Aug 21, The Israeli army said
ground forces fired at gunmen who approached the Israel-Gaza border
fence. The Islamic Jihad group said three militants on a mission
against Israel were killed. Palestinians fired three rockets into
Israel including one that hit an empty kindergarten in the town of
Sderot near Gaza. Israeli troops targeted two figures spotted near a
rocket launcher in an area of northern Gaza where a rocket had been
fired into Israel earlier. The fire killed a 10-year-old and a
12-year-old who were members of the same extended family. The army said
Palestinian rocket teams have been known to send young children to
retrieve rocket launchers after firing.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe arrived in New Delhi to firm up billions of dollars of investment
projects, expand trade ties and discuss India's controversial nuclear
cooperation deal.
(AFP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hurricane Dean
slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico as a roaring Category 5
hurricane, the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two
decades. Dean made landfall after killing 13 people in the Caribbean.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 21, In Northern Ireland
animal rights officials seized more than a dozen dogs bred for combat
in the latest crackdown on illegal dogfighting.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 21, Russian news agencies
reported that authorities have detained a high-level narcotics officer
they say was behind large-scale drug sales over the Internet.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hana Ponicka (85), a
Slovak writer and former anti-communist dissident, died.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 21, The leader of India's
ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, arrived in South Africa for a three-day
visit in a bid to strengthen ties between the two nations.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Sudanese forces
surrounded and attacked Darfur's most volatile camp to flush out rebels
they say are behind recent attacks on police.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hundreds of people
held an anti-gay protest in Uganda's capital, denouncing what they
called an "immoral" lifestyle and demanding the deportation of an
American journalist writing about gay rights in the deeply conservative
country.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Venezuela's National
Assembly, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez, gave unanimous
initial approval to constitutional reforms that would allow him to run
for re-election and possibly govern for decades to come.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Western US states and
Canadian provinces agreed to cut greenhouse emissions 15% by 2020 in
the latest regional pact to regulate the gases, an approach opposed by
US President George W. Bush.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, US Army Major John
Cockerham, his wife and sister were indicted in a suspected scheme to
accept millions of dollars in bribes for Defense Department contracts
in Iraq and Kuwait.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, The Texas Rangers
became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting
an American League record in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles in
the first game of a doubleheader.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2007 Aug 22, It was reported that
some US lawyers in NYC had crossed the $1,000 per hour billing mark.
(WSJ, 8/22/07, p.B1)
2007 Aug 22, The US FDA approved
expanded use of J&J’s antipsychotic Risperdal in adolescents.
(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 22, The death toll across
the Upper Midwest and from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin that
swept Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past week rose to at least
26. Three people were electrocuted by lightning at a bus stop in
Madison, Wis.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 22, Grace Paley (84),
poet and short story writer, died in Thetford Hill, Vt.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2007 Aug 22, Taliban militants
wearing Afghan army uniforms attacked a remote NATO base in eastern
Afghanistan, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding 11 alliance
soldiers. In southern Afghanistan 2 Canadian soldiers and an
interpreter were killed and two journalists injured during an attack.
(AP, 8/22/07)(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Bangladesh clashes
between police and students demanding an end to emergency rule spilled
into the streets of the capital, prompting the government to impose an
indefinite curfew in six cities.
(AP, 8/22/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 22, Rhys Jones (11) was
killed as he was kicking a ball around with friends outside a pub in
Liverpool, north-west England. Police soon arrested five young people,
including two girls, in relation to his murder. On Dec 16, 2008, Sean
Mercer (18) was found guilty of murdering Jones and was sentenced to a
minimum of 22 years in prison.
(AFP, 8/25/07)(AFP, 4/16/08)(AP, 12/16/08)
2007 Aug 22, A distributor said
Chinese-made blankets containing high levels of formaldehyde have been
recalled across Australia and New Zealand, amid rising global concern
over the safety of products from China.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Denmark's government
said Somali pirates released the crew of a hijacked Danish cargo ship
after receiving a ransom payment.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Estonia
prosecutors said Arnold Meri (88), cousin of Estonia's late president
Lennart Meri, committed genocide by helping deport his countrymen to
Siberia in 1949.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 22, State media reported
that a volcanic eruption in northeastern Ethiopia killed five people
and displaced more than 2,000 others. The volcano in the Afar region
started spewing lava on August 12 and the eruption lasted for three
days.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Ingushetia,
Russia, one serviceman was killed and five were wounded when gunmen
attacked their armored personnel carrier with grenades and automatic
weapons fire.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 22, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said: “No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq
government.” In northern Iraq a blast at a police station in Beiji
killed 25 policemen and 20 civilians. 57 civilians and 23 officers were
wounded. A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in the center of
Tikrit, killing one officer and wounding another, along with two
civilians. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle set off a blast near four
police vehicles parked near grocery stores in Muqdadiyah, killing six
people and wounding 35 others. A twin vehicle bombing at a joint
US-Iraqi outpost in north Baghdad killed four Iraqi soldiers and
wounded 11 Americans. A Black Hawk helicopter went down in northern
Iraq, killing all 14 US soldiers aboard. A US soldier was killed and
four were wounded in combat operations west of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/22/07)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 22, Israeli aircraft
killed one Hamas militant and wounded three others in an airstrike in
Gaza City.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Hurricane Dean closed
in on the Mexican mainland, battering oil platforms on the Bay of
Campeche. Dean was downgraded to a tropical storm as it drenched
central Mexico.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 22, In Myanmar hundreds
of pro-democracy activists marched to protest the government's fuel
price hikes. The military junta arrested 13 top dissidents and deployed
gangs of spade-wielding supporters on the streets of Yangon.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Suspected militants
attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan before dawn,
triggering a shootout that left three soldiers dead.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Russia nominated
Josef Tosovsky, a former Czech prime minister and head of that
country's central bank, to head the International Monetary Fund, a move
that put the Kremlin and the European Union at odds. The Czech Republic
repudiated the move and endorsed the EU’s choice.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 22, Wind-whipped fires
that have been ravaging parts of Sicily consumed a hotel near the port
city of Messina, killing at least two people.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party denounced a two-month voter registration program as a
sham, saying its aim was to boost President Robert Mugabe's chances of
victory in next year's elections. State media reported that Zimbabwe's
government has authorized retailers to raise the prices of basic goods
in order to ease widespread shortages which followed the imposition of
price cuts.
(AFP, 8/22/07)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 23, Ohio’s Gov. Ted
Strickland said more than 1,000 people were flooded out of their homes
after heavy rain that swamped communities across the Midwest sent
Ohio's rivers spilling over their banks.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, University of
Minnesota astronomers announced that they have stumbled upon a
tremendous hole in the universe. The cosmic blank spot has no stray
stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark
matter. The 1 billion light years across of nothing represented an
expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet was believed to have
killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. Two other soldiers were
injured.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Bangladesh's
army-backed interim government briefly relaxed a curfew, allowing
residents of the capital the chance to stock up on essentials and those
stranded at airports and elsewhere to return home.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Ponte Nova,
Brazil, at least 25 prisoners died after inmates broke out of a
cellblock and set a fire in an apparent attempt to settle scores with a
rival gang.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Montreal World
Film Festival, which endured a near-death experience two years ago when
key government subsidies were suspended, kicked off its 31st edition
with a new lease on life.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, The government of
Chad said it will adhere to a program designed to put pressure on
countries to be open about revenues from exports of oil, natural gas
and minerals.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Bank of China
revealed that it held a $9.6 billion exposure to securities backed by
American subprime mortgages.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.67)
2007 Aug 23, More than 800
Colombian refugees crossed over the border to Ecuador from the
violence-ravaged department of Narino. The UN estimated that about 3
million Colombians have been driven from their homes by violence
without leaving the country, making it the largest internal refugee
population in the world after Sudan.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 23, A shootout in
Chechnya's capital left two policemen and a rebel dead. A group of
about 30 camouflage-clad gunmen set on fire the houses of two police
officers and the local administration building in the Chechen village
of Yandi.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Dagestan, Russia,
gunmen ambushed security forces, killing three people and wounding 17.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Hundreds of rampaging
youths torched dozens of houses and clashed across East Timor, leaving
at least two people dead, in violence sparked by the appointment of
independence hero Xanana Gusmao as prime minister.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The EU relaxed a ban
on exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products that was
imposed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southeastern
England earlier this month.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, State-run TV reported
that Iran has developed a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb, the latest in a
recent series of announcements heralding new weapons systems.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Suspected al-Qaida
fighters attacked the Sunni Ibrahim al-Yahya village east of Baqouba
and killed a leader who had led the community in an uprising against
the terrorist organization. A nearby Shiite village came under attack,
again by suspected al-Qaida fighters, and a total of 17 people,
including seven women, were killed. 7 people were kidnapped. Two of the
abducted men were later found shot in the head on a road leading out of
town. The rest of the captives were women, and their fate was unknown.
10 attackers were killed as villagers fought back. A police vehicle
rushing to the attack scene crashed and 2 policemen were killed. 60
suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a
coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw
three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured.
(AP, 8/23/07)(Reuters, 8/23/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, A cluster bomb left
over from last year's Hezbollah-Israel war exploded in southern
Lebanon, killing a Lebanese mine-clearing expert and wounding three
others who were trying to dismantle it.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of
Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching
mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming
into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of Mayan
Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan
peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and
broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with
fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be
harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, In Myanmar defiant
pro-democracy activists took to the streets for the third time this
week, forming a human chain to try to prevent officers from dragging
them into waiting trucks and buses.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Pakistan a Supreme
Court ruling said former PM Nawaz Sharif, a key rival to President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, can return to Pakistan from exile.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, A Russian scientist
said that fresh test results back his country's legal bid to take
control of the Arctic. Russian geologists have previously estimated the
Arctic seabed has at least 9 to 10 billion tons of fuel equivalent,
about the same as Russia's total oil reserves.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Rwanda's exiled
opposition groups dismissed as insulting the appointment of General
Kerenzi Karake, a Rwandan general, as deputy chief of a planned peace
force for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
(AFP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Sudan summoned the
envoy of the European Commission and the Canadian charge d'affaires and
informed them they were considered persona non grata because they
interfered in Sudanese affairs. The UN chief called on the Sudanese
military to remove troops remaining in southern Sudan, expressing
disappointment that a July 9 deadline was not met as called for in a
2005 peace deal.
(AFP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, A US federal appeals
court revived California’s request for at least $1 billion in refunds
for electricity customers due to overcharges during the Enron debacle.
(SFC, 8/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed the overdue state budget after cutting $703
million in exchange for the support of Senate Republicans. Line-item
cuts included $527 million in health and human services, $70 million in
raises to state workers and $39 million in prison funding.
(SFC, 8/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, A judge in Inverness,
Fla., sentenced John Evander Couey to death for kidnapping 9-year-old
Jessica Lunsford in 2005, raping her and burying her alive.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2007 Aug 24, Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick admitted he participated in an illegal
dogfighting operation and was suspended indefinitely by the National
Football League.
(Reuters, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Mississippi
Klansman James Ford Seale (71) was sentenced to 3 life terms in prison
for his role in the 1964 deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee.
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, In Afghanistan
insurgents attacked a police patrol in eastern Paktika province,
sparking a gunbattle that killed six militants and one officer.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Canada 11 people
were hurt and two killed after a hot air balloon caught fire as it left
for a sunset flight in British Columbia. A pickup truck driven by an
elderly man struck a pre-wedding party near Vancouver, killing six
people and injuring 17.
(Reuters, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 24, In China Meng
Xianchen and Meng Xianyou surfaced after more than 130 hours trapped in
an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan district.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 24, Georgia said it fired
on a Russian plane flying over its territory. The Tbilisi City Court,
behind closed doors, convicted 13 people from minor opposition parties
for plotting a violent overthrow of the government. Maia Topuria, the
lead defendant and head of the pro-Moscow Justice party, was sentenced
to 8 ½ years in prison.
(WSJ, 8/25/07,
p.A1)(www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=6353)
2007 Aug 24, Major wildfires broke
out in Greece, burning half a million acres and claiming 65 lives in 11
days.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2007 Aug 24, A car bomb exploded
in northern Baghdad, killing seven passers-by and wounding dozens of
others in an apparent sectarian attack near the capital's most
important Shiite shrine. US and Iraqi forces killed two insurgents and
arrested seven others during raids on two villages along the road
linking Baghdad with the northern oil city of Kirkuk. Iraqi security
forces killed a man suspected of links to the Islamic State of Iraq, an
al-Qaida front group. Ten other al-Qaida suspects were arrested in the
raid northeast of Baghdad. US helicopters blasted rooftops in a Shiite
neighborhood of north Baghdad in a gunfight that left 8 Shiite gunmen
dead. Iraqi police and hospital officials said the dead included a
woman and a young boy. Sixteen other people were wounded, including
four women and three boys in their early teens who had been sleeping on
the roofs to escape the summer heat. One US soldier was killed in an
explosion in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Jordan former
Iraqi President Abdel-Rahman Aref (91), overthrown more than 35 years
ago in a coup that brought Saddam Hussein's Baath party to power, died
in Amman.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, A deal was reached
with Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in
northern Lebanon to allow their families to leave the besieged area.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep peacekeepers in
Lebanon for another 12 months.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, Mozambique’s health
minister said large amounts of drugs, which have been imported into
Mozambique with the aid of the international community, end up being
sold on the black market at home and abroad.
(AFP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, Myanmar's military
junta moved swiftly to crush the latest in a series of protests against
fuel price hikes, arresting more than 10 activists in front of Yangon
City Hall before they could launch any action.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Pakistan six
soldiers were killed in a suicide attack and roadside bombing near
Miran Shah. Hours later the army said a month of fierce fighting near
the Afghan border has killed about 250 militants and 60 Pakistani
troops. Pro-Taliban militants kidnapped an army officer, two guards and
a government official near an army base. A Pakistani army helicopter
had fired on a vehicle near Miran Shah, the main town in the North
Waziristan tribal region, killing three suspected militants. A villager
said the slain men were not militants.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, Hamas security agents
clashed with supporters of the rival Fatah movement, firing into the
air and beating journalists covering a demonstration against the
Islamic militant group's rule in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, Russia issued an
international warrant for the arrest of Mikhail Gutseriyev, two days
after the death in Moscow of his 21-year-old son. Chingiskhan
Gutseriyev died in his sleep after a minor car accident, raising
suspicions that he was killed to send a message to his father. On Sep 5
a court upheld a warrant for his arrest and refused to lift a freeze on
the shares of his company, Russneft. The freeze has blocked a sale that
would have handed him an estimated $3 billion.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Somalia gunmen
shot and killed Abdulkadir Moallim Kaskey, a Somali radio journalist,
in southwestern Gedo province.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Spain a van loaded
with explosives blew up outside a police station in the Basque city of
Durango, slightly injuring two officers in what appeared to be the
first major attack by the separatist group ETA since it called off a
cease-fire in June.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul failed to win enough votes in the second round of
a presidential election, but is expected to clinch the post next week.
A clash between troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeast
border with Iraq left 10 rebels and two soldiers dead.
(Reuters, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Wyoming Republicans
decided to hold their delegate selection process on Jan 5, 2008, before
both Iowa and New Hampshire.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.A8)
2007 Aug 25, SF held its 2nd
annual Jug Band Festival at the Golden Gate Park band shell. The annual
Renaissance Fair also took place in GG park for a 4th year.
(eyewitness)(www.sffaire.com/)
2007 Aug 25, A suicide car bomber
attacked a convoy carrying foreigners near the Afghan capital Kabul.
Two foreigners and four Afghans were wounded. A roadside bomb killed
two Afghans guarding a convoy carrying supplies for NATO-led forces in
Kandahar province, while eight suspected insurgents and a police
officer died in fighting elsewhere in the country. Afghan soldiers in
neighboring Helmand province shot and killed two suspected Taliban
fighters as they attempted to plant a roadside bomb. In southern
Afghanistan clashes between coalition troops and Taliban fighters left
at least 18 civilians dead according to witnesses. NATO officials said
no noncombatants were killed. 12 Taliban fighters were killed by
artillery fire along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after insurgents
attacked a military post with rockets and mortars. US-led and Afghan
troops struck Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes with
the extremist Islamic militia that left at least 19 rebels dead. A
Pakistani military spokesman denied any permission was given. Afghan
troops clashed with rebel fighters in southern Zabul province and
killed nine of them. 3 suspected militants, one of them a foreign
national, were arrested in Paktia province, dressed in all-covering
burqas worn by most Afghan women. Dozens of Taliban guerrillas attacked
police in the eastern province of Nangarhar, injuring a district chief
and one of his guards before they were repelled.
(AP, 8/25/07)(AP, 8/26/07)(AFP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Buenos Aires an
Argentine couple captured the stage category at the World Tango
Championships, followed by Chilean and Japanese pairs.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 25, Australia's
multi-billion dollar racing industry was plunged into turmoil on after
an outbreak of equine influenza triggered a national lockdown.
(Reuters, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Raymond Barre
(b.1924), a tough-speaking former French prime minister (1976-1981) and
economist, died.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, A senior official of
the separatist region said a plane of uncertain origin went down over
Abkhazia, a day after Georgia reported that its forces fired on a plane
believed to be Russian that had violated the country's airspace.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, A German federal lab
confirmed that tests have found that birds at a poultry farm in
southern Germany died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and some 160,000
birds were being slaughtered as a precaution.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Germany more than
1 million revelers, many scantily dressed, danced their way through the
streets of Essen to sound of whistles blowing and techno music for the
Love Parade's debut in its new home, western Germany's industrial Ruhr
region.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Massive forest fires
swept uncontrolled across Greece for a second day and killed at least
41 people in the south of the country, including several children.
(Reuters, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Hungary some 56
Magyar Garda members, wearing black uniforms and black caps, were sworn
in during the ceremony at Buda Castle. Lajos Fur, former defense
minister, inaugurated the neo-fascist, self-styled civil defense group
organized by the far right Jobik party.
(www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,502184,00.html)
2007 Aug 25, In Hyderabad, India,
where Hindu-Muslim animosity runs deep, a pair of almost simultaneous
bombings blamed on Islamic extremists tore through a popular family
restaurant and an outdoor arena, killing 43 people. Another 19 bombs
were discovered and made safe in the area. In Hyderabad, Muslims make
up 40 percent of the population of 7 million. Officials blamed foreign
militants.
(AP, 8/26/07)(WSJ, 8/27/07, p.A1)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 25, Iraqi and US soldiers
arrested 54 suspected al-Qaida members in a joint operation on the
outskirts of Baqouba.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.A13)
2007 Aug 25, Two Palestinian
militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, attacking an Israeli
military position before soldiers tracked them down and killed them.
Militants detonated a bomb near the border fence in southern Gaza,
lightly wounding four soldiers. Militants also fired several mortars
into southern Israel, causing no injuries.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, It was reported that
Liberia had some 2,511 ships registered under its flag, the world’s 2nd
largest fleet after Panama, which had 7,357. The population was
reported to be 3.3 million, with two-thirds of the people living on
less than a dollar a day. Since 2000 the Liberian International Ship
and Corporate Registry, a Virginia-based company, managed the registry.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.44)
2007 Aug 25, Myanmar's state media
reported that military junta has detained at least 63 activists who
protested massive fuel-price hikes over the last week, as the
government pursued its clampdown on the increasingly daring
demonstrations.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Pakistan successfully
test-fired a new air-launched cruise missile capable of carrying a
nuclear warhead.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Sudan said it will
allow an EU envoy it ordered out of the country to remain until his
tenure expires next month, following an EU apology.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 26, In northern
California the 17th annual Cotati Accordion Festival ended with some
5,000 people and 30 bands attending the 2-day event. Day tickets rose
to $17.50.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.D2)
2007 Aug 26, The $95 million
Hawaii Superferry made its maiden run from Honolulu to Maui as
environmentalists protested. The 349-foot giant catamaran, named
Alakai, carried over 500 passengers and 150 cars for the 3-hour trip.
The special one-way $5 fares will soon rise to over $240 for one
passenger and a car.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 26, Afghan police killed
six suspected militants during a one-hour gunbattle in Paktika
province, which borders Pakistan. Unidentified assailants shot and
killed a soldier from the 37-nation strong security assistance force
during a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan. A Dutch soldier was killed
by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. In southern Zabul province,
Afghan and coalition troops clashed with insurgents in Daychopan
district, killing four suspected Taliban and wounding four others.
Afghan troops destroyed a heroin laboratory in Helmand province after
battling Taliban fighters guarding the facility.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, A road bridge linking
Tajikistan and Afghanistan paid for by the US was officially opened at
a ceremony attended by the presidents of the two Central Asian
countries.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Australia released a
new draft citizenship test. The 40-page document outlining citizenship
application procedures said migrants who want to become Australian
citizens will have to be able to correctly identify the country's prime
minister and national flower.
(AFP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Massive fires
consuming large areas of southern Greece for a third day raced toward
the site of the ancient Olympics, engulfing villages and forests as the
flames reached one of the most revered sites of antiquity.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Iran vowed to use a
new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb against its enemies and unveiled mass
production of the new weapon.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki lashed out at American critics, saying Sen. Hillary Clinton
and other Democrats who had called for his ouster should "come to their
senses." A US helicopter attacked two Kurdish police outposts, killing
four policemen and wounding eight. A spokesman for the Kurdish
Peshmerga militia believed the attack was mistaken friendly fire. Waves
of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala for the Shabaniyah festival
marking the birth of the 9th century Hidden Imam. A woman making the
50-mile trek from Baghdad was shot to death by men in a passing car in
the southwest of the capital.
(AP, 8/26/07)(AP, 8/26/08)
2007 Aug 26, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber in a car killed four policemen and wounded
two in an attack in Swat.
(Reuters, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, The moderate
Palestinian government began implementing the closure of 103
institutions in the West Bank and Gaza in an apparent crackdown against
the Islamic Hamas.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Manila,
Philippines, economic ministers of Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN)
and China agreed to strengthen product standards and safety. The move
follows recalls of several tainted Chinese products from international
markets.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Somalia bombings
and grenade attacks killed two schoolboys and three other people in
Mogadishu.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, In eastern Uganda a
truck carrying soldiers and their families overturned, killing 72
people and injuring 40 others.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Officials announced
that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had resigned, ending a months
long standoff with critics who questioned his honesty and competence at
the helm of the Justice Department. Pres. Bush accepted his resignation
Aug 24. Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general
until a replacement is found.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Sen. Larry Craig,
R-Idaho, said in a statement he was not involved in any inappropriate
conduct when he was arrested at the Minneapolis airport and should have
not pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. The Capitol Hill newspaper
Roll Call reported that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes
officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in an airport restroom.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick apologized for "using bad judgment and making
bad decisions" and vowed to redeem himself after pleading guilty in
Richmond, Va., to a federal dogfighting charge.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, Police arrested Paul
Devoe III (43) in Shirley, NY, following 5 recent murders in Texas and
one in Pennsylvania. On December 19, 2007, the Texas Travis County
District Attorney announced his office's intention to pursue the death
penalty. In 2009 Devoe was sentenced to death for the 2007 slaying of
two Jonestown, Texas, teenage girls.
(SFC, 8/28/07,
p.A6)(www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/us/28texas.html)(SFC, 10/9/09, p.A4)
2007 Aug 27, The US-led coalition
in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants of falsely reporting civilian
casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces. Afghan and
US-led coalition troops killed up to 21 suspected Taliban militants in
3 separate clashes in southern Afghanistan. A roadside blast killed 4
Afghan soldiers in the east. 3 American and 2 Afghan soldiers were
killed in a Taliban ambush in the Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar
province. A NATO trooper died in a nearby area.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AFP,
8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Colombia the
Bogota stock exchange launched the sale of up to 20% of state-owned
Ecopetrol’s shares.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered six
Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa region.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pres. Sarkozy called
for a clear timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq as
he outlined an assertive role for France in other world hotspots.
Sarkozy urged EU nations to accept a greater share of defense spending
to cope with escalating global threats.
(AFP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, The French government
said a tax official cheated the government out of 600,000 euros
($820,000) by creating a phantom identity as a university professor and
claiming a salary for some 15 years.
(Reuters, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Greece the worst
wildfires in living memory have killed 63 people and tore through town
and forest alike. In the last 24 hours, 89 new fires broke out. Arson
is often suspected, mostly to clear land for development.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, A sniper killed a
Shiite pilgrim on a Baghdad bridge while another was killed and six
injured in other attacks as tens of thousands of faithful made their
way to the southern city of Karbala for a major religious
commemoration. At least five people were killed in Karbala as scuffles
broke out between police and pilgrims. North of Baghdad hundreds of US
and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters and jet fighters killed 33 Sunni
insurgents who were holding back the water supply to the Shiite town of
Khalis. In Fallujah a mosque suicide bombing left 11 dead and 10 people
were wounded in an attack that targeted an anti-al-Qaida Sunni sheik
who had just returned from Syria.
(AP, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 27, Israel’s Haaretz
newspaper reported that security officials fear Hamas' exiled
leadership in Syria is working to renew suicide attacks against Israel
in an effort to derail peace efforts by Israel and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli intelligence assessed that Islamic
Hamas militants have smuggled 40 tons of weapons into the Gaza Strip
since the group wrested control of the territory in June.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Morocco's former
interior minister, Driss Basri (69), died in a Paris hospital, to be
mourned in some circles as a loyal servant of the crown and condemned
by others as a ruthless axeman.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, About 50
pro-democracy activists were arrested outside Yangon, as the Myanmar
junta clamped down on dissent following a series of protests last week
against a sharp hike in fuel prices.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, An official said the
Dutch government will spend $38 million over the next four years to
prevent both the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and right-wing
nationalism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Gunmen in southern
Nigeria set free Peter Agwuna, a Nigerian supervisor for the Elf oil
group, who was seized in Port Harcourt about a month ago.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pakistan's PM Aziz
called for reconciliation between the country's main political parties
as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf prepares to seek re-election. But he
said the government had no plans to allow two banned opposition leaders
to become premiers again. In northwest Pakistan militants and soldiers
exchanged fire, killing one militant and injuring three civilians and a
soldier in North Waziristan.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Panama’s cabinet
resigned after a tainted medicine scandal and the government’s failure
to implement construction safety standards.
(WSJ, 8/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 27, Russia announced the
arrest of 10 people in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic
Anna Politkovskaya. Russia's top prosecutor said a Chechen crime boss,
Russian police and security officers were involved in the death of the
journalist Anna Politkovskaya. But he suggested that someone outside
Russia masterminded the killing of the frequent Kremlin critic.
(AP, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, In South Africa
Hewlett-Packard became the first multinational to be exempted from
selling 30 percent of its business in South Africa to black investors.
Under an agreement reached with the government, the company will
instead invest millions of dollars in a new business institute to
provide training for 1,800 students over the next six years.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, A Sudanese criminal
court dismissed the case against nine people on trial in connection
with the beheading of Mohammed Taha, a prominent journalist, and
brought formal charges against 10 other defendants. CARE’s country
director Paul Barker said the Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid
Commission had given him 72 hours to leave the country without giving
reasons for the decision.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Taiwan's leading
computer vendor Acer Inc moved to substantially boost its market share
by acquiring US rival Gateway amid a major consolidation among the
world's top computer companies. Acer said it would pay $710 million for
Gateway.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.60)
2007 Aug 27, The UN opened in
Vienna its latest round of talks on global warming.
(WSJ, 8/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 27, Opera Romana
Pellegrinaggi, a Vatican-backed charter airline service, made its
inaugural flight, aiming to carry pilgrims to such Catholic shrines as
Lourdes, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, The US Census Bureau
released its latest report on income, poverty and health insurance in
the US. It noted a continuing increase in the number and proportion of
Americans who lacked health insurance.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.24)
2007 Aug 28, A day after reports
surfaced of his June arrest at the Minneapolis airport, Sen. Larry
Craig, R-Idaho, told a news conference the only thing he had done wrong
was to plead guilty after a police complaint of lewd conduct in a men's
room; Craig also declared, "I am not gay. I never have been gay."
(AP, 8/28/08)
2007 Aug 28, A military
court at Fort Meade, Md., acquitted Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan of
failing to control US soldiers who abused detainees at Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq, but found him guilty of disobeying an order not to
discuss the investigation. However, that conviction was later thrown
out.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2007 Aug 28, EarthLink, the
Atlanta-based Internet provider, announced that it no longer believed
that providing citywide Wi-Fi for San Francisco was viable for the
company. Chicago abandoned plans for a city-wide Wi-Fi network to
access the Internet as EarthLink underwent restructuring.
(SFC, 8/30/07,
p.A1)(www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/08/30/too-windy-for-wi-fi.aspx)
2007 Aug 28, Burning Man became
Burnt Man four days early, and a San Francisco performance artist was
arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the
counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, In North Carolina
Dwayne Allen Dail (39), a man who remained in prison for 18 years after
being wrongly convicted of a 1987 child rape, was released after new
DNA testing cleared him of the crime. In October of 2007 he received a
pardon from Gov. Mike Easley based on his innocence. Dail also received
some compensation from the state; he was eligible for $20,000 per year
of incarceration.
(AP,
8/28/07)(www.innocenceproject.org/Content/832.php)
2007 Aug 28, The annual Small Arms
Survey said there are nine guns for every 10 people in the United
States, with about 270 million firearms in circulation. Worldwide,
civilians now have access to 650 million small arms, from handguns to
semiautomatic rifles, an arsenal that far outstrips what is held by
police and militaries.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, Arthur Jones (80),
inventor of the Nautilus exercise equipment (1970), died. In 1986 he
agreed to sell the business to Travis Ward of Texas for $23 million.
(SFC, 8/29/07, p.B7)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 28, Paul MacCready
(b.1925), designer of the Gossamer Albatross, died in California. His
bicycle powered plane crossed the English Channel in 1979. He founded
AeroVironment in 1971 to monitor air pollution.
(www.sas.org/maccready.htm)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.88)
2007 Aug 28, Miyoshi Umeki
(b.1929), Japanese-born actress, died in Licking, Mo. She was the first
Asian performer to win an Oscar, which she and Red Buttons received for
their supporting roles in the 1957 film “Sayonara.”
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.A17)
2007 Aug 28, The Taliban agreed to
free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage since July after
the government in Seoul pledged to end all missionary work and keep a
promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.
In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked NATO troops helping
build a bridge, killing three soldiers. Afghan and US-led coalition
forces killed more than 100 suspected Taliban insurgents in southern
Afghanistan. The clash left one Afghan soldier dead.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, In Azerbaijan a
16-story high-rise under construction in Baku collapsed killing at
least 12 people and leaving others trapped in the rubble. The head of
the construction company and another company executive were arrested.
They began construction of the building in 2002 without authorization.
(SFC, 8/29/07, p.A3)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 28, Brazil's Supreme
Court charged one of the president's closest confidants with conspiracy
in a corruption scandal that has toppled much of his inner circle.
Analysts said Jose Dirceu, one of 40 people indicted, would rather
spend years in prison than go down swinging against Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva. This was the first time ever that Brazil’s highest court has
brought criminal charges against politicians.
(AP, 8/28/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.32)
2007 Aug 28, Africa's Great Lakes
nations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda)
vowed to eliminate rebel groups roaming their territory and spurring
insecurity in the continent's most volatile region.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Ethiopia justified
its decision to expel Norwegian diplomats arguing that Oslo was
interfering in its internal affairs and destabilizing the Horn of
Africa.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Foreign firefighters
and aircraft joined in battling wildfires that have destroyed some of
Greece's lushest landscape. The death toll from 5 days of blazes rose
to at least 64.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Police ordered a
curfew in the Shiite city of Karbala and ordered more than one million
pilgrims to leave after two days of violence. A city council member in
Karbala reported 38 dead and 231 injured in fighting when gunmen
believed from the Mahdi Army began firing on security forces and Badr
guards. 2 days of bloody clashes in Karbala claimed at least 52 lives.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the major issues
dividing the two sides at their meeting, final borders, Jerusalem and
Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, In Kenya a crash in
the Kisii area killed 22 people when the bus they were traveling in
rammed a truck head-on.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 28, Las Vegas Sands
opened its $2.4 billion Venetian Macao, the world's largest
casino-resort, as part of Macau's heady transformation from gambling
haven to Asia's top entertainment draw.
(WSJ, 6/13/07, p.B1)(AFP, 8/28/07)(Econ, 9/1/07,
p.62)
2007 Aug 28, Pro-democracy
supporters expanded their protests against Myanmar's military, marching
through the streets of the port town of Sittwe while attempting to
rally in the main city Yangon.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Jose Maria Sison
(68), a Philippine communist leader, accused of commanding a rebel
uprising from exile for more than 20 years was arrested by Dutch police
in Utrecht on suspicion of ordering the murder of two former allies in
his home country. He was accused of ordering the killings in 2003 and
2004 of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, who were gunned down in the
Philippines.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, A Pakistani cabinet
minister and a ruling party MP said they had resigned to protest
President Pervez Musharraf's plan to remain army chief. Pro-Taliban
militants released 19 Pakistani soldiers who were abducted earlier this
month in the rugged tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Journalists and
diplomats said Saudi Arabia has banned the influential Arab newspaper
Al Hayat from distribution in the kingdom, just days after it reported
a Saudi man had served as a key figure for an al-Qaida front group in
Iraq.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Organizers in
Scotland said the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's biggest arts
festival, this year broke its attendance record by selling 1.7 million
tickets.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Turkey’s Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul (56), a devout Muslim with a background in
political Islam, won the presidency, in a major triumph for the
Islamic-rooted government after months of confrontation with the
secular establishment.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, Fellow Republicans
called on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to resign and party leaders pushed him
from senior committee posts as fallout continued over his arrest at a
Minneapolis airport restroom and guilty plea to disorderly conduct.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 29, US service officials
said the Army will examine as many as 18,000 contracts awarded over the
past four years to support US forces in Iraq to determine how many are
tainted by waste, fraud and abuse.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, The US Air Force
accidentally flew a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber from North Dakota to
Louisiana. On October 19 the Air Force said 70 service members would be
punished for widespread disregard of rules.
(SFC, 10/20/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 29, New research said
arsenic in drinking water is a global threat to health, affecting more
than 70 countries and 137 million people. The country worst affected is
Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people are likely to die
from cancers of the lung, bladder and skin caused by arsenic.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 29, Alfred Peet (b.1920),
Dutch-born specialty coffee pioneer, died in Oregon. His first shop
opened in Berkeley, Ca., in 1966. He sold the business in 1979, but
stayed on as a coffee buyer until 1984, when Baldwin and Reynolds,
co-owners of Starbucks, along with other investors bought 4 Bay Area
locations of Peet’s. They later sold the chain to Howard Shultz, who
entered a no-compete agreement with Peet’s in the Bay Area. Peet’s
became a public company in 2001.
(SFC, 9/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Aug 29, Richard Jewell,
the former security guard who was wrongly linked to the 1996 Olympic
bombing, was found dead in his west Georgia home; he was 44.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 29, Taliban militants
released 12 of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a
deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly
six-week hostage crisis. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded
bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and two Afghan
soldiers. A Canadian soldier, based in the Afghan capital Kabul, died
of a gunshot wound after he was found injured in his room.
(AFP, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 29, Britain unveiled a
statue of Nelson Mandela outside the houses of Parliament, honoring the
South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great leaders of
his era.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, China began selling
$79 billion in bonds to finance a state agency that will invest the
country's foreign currency reserves.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, It was reported that
more than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo, including all
those who attended the funerals of two village chiefs, in what health
officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, Pierre Messmer
(b.1916), a member of the French Resistance who was the country's prime
minister from 1972 to 1974, died.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, Hong Kong police
arrested two men accused of trying to smuggle more than 7,000 live pet
turtles to mainland China.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 29, In India the
world-famous Taj Mahal was closed to tourists after officials in the
city of Agra imposed a curfew following rioting that left one person
dead and 50 hurt. Rioters fought pitched battles with police, pelting
them with stones, glass bottles and setting vehicles alight, after a
speeding truck crushed four Muslims to death. Officials in the eastern
state of Orissa said at least 105 people have died of cholera and some
6,000 people are suffering from diseases caused by drinking dirty water.
(AFP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, A group of eight
Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by US forces after
being detained a day earlier because unauthorized weapons were found in
their cars. An aide said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a
six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order
to reorganize the force. Marines from the 5th Regimental Combat Team
killed 12 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters and destroyed two
vehicles in fighting near the Anbar city of Fallujah. 4 al-Qaida
fighters and two Sunni tribesmen opposed to the terror movement were
killed in gunfights in Haqlaniyah. 2 US service members, a Marine and
an Army soldier, were killed in fighting in Anbar province. An American
soldier died from wounds suffered the day before in fighting near the
northern city of Kirkuk. A US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb
attack during combat operations in Iraq's eastern Diyala province.
(AP, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 29, The three cousins,
10-year-old Mahmoud Ghazal, 10-year-old Sara Ghazal and 12-year-old
Yehiya Ghazal, were killed when Israeli troops combating Palestinian
rocket squads spotted figures moving near rocket launchers in northern
Gaza and ordered a strike.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 29, The 11-day Venice
Film Festival opened for its 75th anniversary edition.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.E5)
2007 Aug 29, Lithuania's top
politicians attended an official ceremony in Vilnius to unveil probably
the first monument in the world honoring basketball, which is said to
be the second religion of this Baltic country.
(http://tinyurl.com/2omkbv)
2007 Aug 29, In Myanmar
pro-government gangs on trucks staked out key streets in Yangon as the
country's military rulers sought to crush a rare wave of dissent by
pro-democracy activists protesting fuel price increases.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, A senior official
said Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former rival
Benazir Bhutto have reached an agreement regarding Musharraf's military
role, a key step toward a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, JEM and Sudan
Liberation Movement (SLM) attacked an army base in the Kordofan region
next to Darfur, which they said was the logistical and supply centre
for ongoing attacks in South Darfur. The rebels said 15 soldiers were
killed. The government later reported that 41 people were killed in the
Kordofan region. Officials said floods across Sudan have killed 101
people, spread disease and destroyed livelihoods by wiping out
agricultural crops.
(Reuters, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(Reuters, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 29, Thousands of hardline
supporters of Robert Mugabe marched through Harare, denouncing the
Zimbabwe president's Western critics and endorsing his controversial
program of farm seizures. Zimbabwe's state media called on the
government to sever ties with Australia, accusing PM John Howard's
government of seeking to topple Pres. Mugabe.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 30, In a serious breach
of nuclear security, a US B-52 bomber armed with six nuclear warheads
flew cross-country unnoticed; the Air Force later punished 70 people.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2007 Aug 30, A draft report by US
congressional auditors said that the Iraqi government has failed to
meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by
lawmakers to assess President Bush's Iraq war strategy.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, In Michigan the
Legislature approved moving the state’s presidential nomination to Jan
15, just days after national Democrats vowed to punish states that vote
too early. A suspected serial killer was arrested in the deaths of 5
women over the last month.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.A6,16)
2007 Aug 30, Taliban militants
released the last 7 South Korean hostages. Mullah Brother, a wanted
Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a US-led raid in
the southern province of Helmand.
(AFP, 8/30/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, A major new study
said nearly 10 percent of Australians are living in poverty despite a
booming economy, but its findings were disputed by PM John Howard.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, A speeding train
carrying hundreds of commuters slammed into an empty train near Rio de
Janeiro, killing eight people and injuring more than 80.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, In London a
diamond-encrusted skull by British artist Damien Hirst (41) sold for
100 million dollars (75 million euros), a record price for work sold by
a living artist.
(AFP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Michael Jackson (65),
a leading world beer critic, died in London. He praised the brews of
Belgium and his books "The Great Beers of Belgium" and "World Guide to
Beer" introduced them to many export markets, including the United
States.
(AP, 8/31/07)(www.beerhunter.com/)
2007 Aug 30, Canadian police
arrested Adel Arnaout (37), with three home-made bombs in the trunk of
his car. The arrest was connected to an investigation into letter bombs
delivered recently to three homes in and around Toronto.
(Reuters, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Chilean police
arrested at least 750 people as protesters’ calls for higher wages and
better working conditions led to looting in Santiago.
(WSJ, 8/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 30, China’s government
said it has replaced five Cabinet ministers, including the finance
minister and the head of the secret police, just weeks ahead of a major
Communist Party meeting that will set the country's policies for the
next five years. The official Xinhua News Agency said China removed
four officials accused of corruption from its legislature. State media
said China's top legislature has adopted a measure allowing the
government to seize private homes on state-owned land, as long as
owners are compensated and properly resettled.
(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Hundreds of Colombian
peasants returned home from Ecuador after the government promised to
protect them from leftist rebels trying to sabotage a coca eradication
campaign.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, In Croatia six men
were killed and seven badly injured when they were trapped battling a
fierce forest blaze on Kornat Island. 8 men were soon detained on
suspicion of arson. PM Ivo Sanader promised an investigation saying it
was the biggest tragedy in Croatian firefighting.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Addis Ababa city
officials said Ethiopia will try to remove tens of thousands of beggars
from the streets to create a more "conducive" atmosphere for coming
Millennium celebrations. Still using the Julian calendar, abandoned by
the West in the 16th century, Ethiopia enters its new millennium on
September 12 with a huge concert expected to draw hundreds of thousands
of partygoers and international celebrities.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Pres. Sarkozy became
the first ruling head of state to address the Medef, France’s leading
business organization. He laid out the second stage of his economic
reforms, including a wholesale review of tax and social security
contributions.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 30, Anti-American cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to rescind the order unless the Iraqi
government stops detaining his followers in Karbala and elsewhere
within the next 48 hours. In the southeastern city of Nasiriyah about
20 gunmen attacked a Badr headquarters. The attack caused no injuries,
but the building was partially burned.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, A cargo ship,
anchored about 2 miles from Israel's coast near the port city of Haifa,
when it was hit by the Salamis Glory, a Cypriot passenger ship. 11 crew
escaped from the sinking cargo ship. The first mate and engineer, both
residents of Slovakia, were missing.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Hundreds of police
raided a small town in southern Italy and arrested more than 30
suspected members of organized crime clans believed to be involved in a
feud that killed six Italians in Germany earlier this month.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, The Rome-based Hands
Off Cain, an anti-death penalty group, reported that more people were
put to death in 2006, 5,628, than in either of the previous two years.
China alone accounting for 5,000 executions.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, In Kisii, Kenya, an
oil tanker truck rolled down a hill and smashed into four minibuses,
killing 29 people and injuring more than 30. The death toll was
expected to rise.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Kosovo's PM Agim Ceku
vowed to declare independence unilaterally if internationally brokered
talks do not "open a way for us," staking out a tough position as the
latest round of negotiations began in Vienna.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, A transport vehicle
hit a land mine in tense northern Mali, killing 10 people.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Pakistan’s President
Pervez Musharraf rejected pressure from former premier Benazir Bhutto
to make a snap decision on a power-sharing deal that would see him quit
as army chief. Pro-Taliban fighters, led by Pakistani Taliban commander
Baitullah Mehsud, captured over 200 Pakistani troops in South
Waziristan. On Nov 4 they released 211 troops. Baitullah Mehsud had
this year cobbled together the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which
became known as the Pakistani Taliban.
(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 11/4/07)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.34)
2007 Aug 30, Dozens of Sri Lankan
journalists took to the streets to condemn censorship and support a
columnist who exposed alleged corruption in the purchase of second-hand
supersonic jets.
(AFP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Darfur rebels accused
the Sudanese government of bombing South Darfur, the latest attack in
an aerial campaign that has driven thousands of people from their homes
over the past month.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, The UN nuclear agency
said that Iran was producing less nuclear fuel than expected and
praised Tehran for "a significant step forward" in explaining past
atomic actions that have raised suspicions.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 31, President Bush met
privately at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who conveyed
their concern about a growing strain on troops and their families from
long and repeated combat tours in Iraq. Bush also announced a set of
modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2007 Aug 31, Mike Nifong,
the disgraced former district attorney of Durham County, N.C., was
sentenced to a day in jail after being held in criminal contempt of
court for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three
falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2007 Aug 31, A federal appeals
court allowed the US Navy to resume underwater sonar blasts in
anti-submarine warfare tests off of Southern California, saying
military needs come before whales. A federal judge ruled that giant
pumps in northern California supplying water to southern California
were killing smelt and would have to be shut down for much of the year.
(SFC, 9/1/07, p.B3)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.36)
2007 Aug 31, In Iowa Polk County
Judge Robert Hanson cleared the way gay marriage when he ruled that a
state law allowing marriage only between a man and woman violated the
constitutional rights of due process and equal protection. County
attorney John Sarcone said the county would appeal to the state Supreme
Court, and he immediately sought a stay that would prevent gay couples
from seeking a marriage license until the appeal is resolved.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, The 34th annual
Telluride Film Festival opened in Colorado.
(SFC, 9/3/07, p.E1)
2007 Aug 31, The World Trade
Organization opened a formal investigation into allegations by the US
and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range of
industries.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a barrage of rockets missed a US-led coalition base but hit
houses in the nearby village of Babul, killing 10 civilians and
wounding seven. Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, a suicide car
bomber targeting a patrol of German soldiers killed two Afghan soldiers
and wounded 10 others. A senior Afghan official close to the
negotiations alleged the South Koreans paid a ransom for their released
hostages. In southern Helmand province, a combined police and US-led
coalition patrol came under attack with mortar, rocket-propelled
grenade and small-arms fire. In the fight that ensued, "almost two
dozen" insurgents were killed. More than 20 insurgents were killed and
11 others were detained, while officers also discovered a bomb-making
factory in the remote Pitigal Valley border region. Afghan police
attacked a group of Taliban who were planning to strike security forces
in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six
others.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, Australia and India
agreed to study the possibility of a free trade agreement. Trade
Minister Warren Truss said it was a natural result of New Delhi's
rising economic power.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Vienna, Austria,
negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement, at a UN
conference on climate, on rough targets aimed at getting some of the
world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases
blamed for global warming.
(AP, 8/31/07)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 31, China officially put
in place systems to recall unsafe food and toys, one of its strongest
steps yet to deal with recurring quality problems. At least 12 miners
were missing after an explosion in central China. Authorities continued
their efforts to reach 181 workers trapped in flooded coal shafts for
two weeks.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Colombia's Alvaro
Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed to allow a
representative of Colombia's largest guerrilla group to travel to
Caracas for talks aimed at freeing dozens of rebel-held hostages,
including three U.S. defense contractors.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Finland
representatives of feuding Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq began a
2-day meeting at a seminar behind closed doors to discuss ways of
ending the bloodshed.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Officials in Greece
said all major blazes were under control, and firefighters were working
to extinguish smaller fires in the southern part of the country. The
fires cost the country at least $1.6 billion and left 67 people dead.
The government provided 13,000 euros to those suffering losses.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/8/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.47)
2007 Aug 31, As of today at least
3,737 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the
Iraq war in March 2003. The figure includes seven military civilians.
At least 3,061 died as a result of hostile action. Iraqi health
officials said up to 10 people have died from cholera in northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/1/07)(SFC, 9/1/07, p.A6)
2007 Aug 31, Israeli divers found
the bodies of two sailors missing in the Mediterranean Sea, 12 hours
after their cargo ship sank in a collision with a passenger liner.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Leading Japanese
mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will tie up with broadband
provider ACCA Networks to introduce ultra-fast mobile WiMAX technology.
(AFP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Lebanese army
helicopters stepped up raids on al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants
barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north after
five soldiers were killed over the last 2 days.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In southern Nepal
tainted liquor killed at least 15 people and sickened several others on
the outskirts of Janakpur over the last 2 days.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Gaza a protest of
Hamas rule by Fatah supporters turned violent when Hamas men began
forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating
demonstrators and reporters. Five people were wounded in the clashes,
including two French journalists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, A car bomb exploded
near a police vehicle in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region,
killing four police officers in Nazran, Ingushetia.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia will accept a partition of
Serbia's Kosovo province if that is the solution agreed by Belgrade and
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Both Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians
have said they oppose partition but they have shown no sign of reaching
agreement on the central issue of independence for Kosovo.
(Reuters, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In northwest Sri
Lanka government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery fire,
with each side claiming heavy casualties against the other as well as
among civilians.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, The Thai government
said it has lifted a four-month ban on YouTube after the popular
video-sharing Web site's operator agreed not to allow videos that
violate the country's laws or are deemed offensive to Thai people. 3
people including a state railway worker were shot dead in separate
attacks in the restive Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Turkey's PM Erdogan
laid out a policy vision for the next five years that focuses on
pursuing EU membership and defending the state's secular and democratic
principles.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, State media said
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has banned all pay rises without
authorization and given himself extra powers in a new bid to curb the
world's highest inflation rate.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug, In London, England, Baby
P (Peter Connelly) was 17 months old when he died in a blood-spattered
cot, having spent much of his life being used as "a punchbag." Social
workers, police and health professionals failed to save him despite 60
visits over eight months, during which time he suffered more than 50
horrific injuries. His mother (27) and 2 men were charged with causing
the baby’s death. The trio received minimum prison terms of 5, 12 and 3
years respectively. Sharon Shoesmith was sacked as director of
children's services from Haringey Council in December 2008 after a
damning Ofsted report into her department's role into the death of Baby
P. In 2010 Dr Jerome Ikwueke (63) was found guilty of misconduct after
a series of failings during consultations with the toddler at his north
London surgery.
(AFP, 11/12/08)(AFP, 4/23/10)(AFP, 7/16/10)
2007 Aug, A financial crises that
soon gripped all major economies was later said to have begun about
this time.
(Econ, 4/25/09, p.31)
2007 Aug, China’s President
visited Kazakhstan. Soon after a it was announced that a new oil
pipeline would be built from Kazakhstan to China, and that a new gas
pipeline linking Turkmenistan with China would run through Kazakhstan.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.54)
2007 Aug, Iran and Turkey
concluded a number of energy deals including the establishment of a
joint company to carry Iranian natural gas via Turkey to Europe and the
construction of three thermal power plants by Turkish companies in Iran.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.49)
2007 Aug, In Italy over a hundred
people became ill in Castiglione di Cervia, near Ravenna, with a
disease that was later identified as chikungunya, a tropical disease
spread by the tiger mosquito. This was the first such outbreak in
modern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.A22)
2007 Aug, In Mali Ag Bahanga took
up arms and kidnapped 36 soldiers, in spite of a peace pact signed in
neighboring Algeria in July 2006. The last 22 of those troops were
released on March 8, 2008, following intervention by Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2007 Aug, Dutch schools were
forced to offer afternoon child-care following a government effort to
get house-bound Dutch mothers to work.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.55)
2007 Aug, A census in the
Philippines put the population at almost 89 million.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.62)
2007 Sep 1, The Mountaineers of
Boone, North Carolina, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in college
football history as Appalachian State beat No. 5 Michigan 34-32.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, Clay Buchholz
threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, just hours after
being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz struck out nine, walked
three and hit one batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over
Baltimore.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2007 Sep 1, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig
announced his resignation, saying he would leave office on Sept. 30,
2007, in the wake of fallout over his arrest and guilty plea in a
Minnesota airport gay sex sting. However, Craig later reversed his
decision, saying he would serve out the rest of his term.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2007 Sep 1, It was reported that
it is now more expensive to execute someone in the US that to jail him
for life. In North Carolina each capital case was said to cost some $2
million to legal fees.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.21)
2007 Sep 1, In eastern Tennessee a
small plane carrying 5 Jehovah’s Witness ministers crashed in the
Cherokee National Forest killing all 5 aboard.
(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 1, The industry ministry
of Algiers announced that Algeria is inviting bids to privatize 13
companies in the electronics, iron, and public works sectors.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, Life expectancy in
Andorra was reported to be longer than in any other world country,
while the same in Swaziland was reported to be the shortest.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.14)
2007 Sep 1, Police arrested four
suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA in
south-west France, believed to be linked to the deadly Madrid airport
bomb in December.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, A US Navy hospital
ship Comfort brought state-of-the-art medical care to Haiti during a
regional goodwill mission aimed at countering leftist Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez's influence.
(AP, 9/7/07)(http://tinyurl.com/2squrt)
2007 Sep 1, It was reported that
Mumbai, India, had a population of 14 million, making it the largest
city in south Asia. The UN said it expected Mumbai to reach 25 million
by 2015.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.33)
2007 Sep 1, In Basra gunmen on a
motorcycle assassinated Muslim al-Batat, an aide to the country's top
Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. US National Public Radio
said a draft report from the US embassy in Baghdad says PM Maliki's
government is failing to stop officials from committing fraud and is
undermining its own watchdog agency, preventing it from carrying out
effective investigations. The Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV,
dropped a precision bomb on two suspected insurgents believed to be
preparing to plant roadside bombs. This was the US Army's first-ever
use of a drone aircraft to kill enemy fighters in Iraq.
(AP, 9/1/07)(AFP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 1, Takehiko Endo, Japan's
latest agricultural minister, acknowledged that a private farming group
he leads exaggerated weather damage to the 1999 grape harvest in order
to receive government compensation, which amounted to $9,930.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Mexico Tropical
Storm Henriette dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, flooding streets and
prompting officials to close more than 1,000 schools, while Tropical
Storm Felix formed in the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Morocco
Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn signed a deal to build an assembly
plant in Tangiers, with a planned investment of one billion euros (1.36
billion dollars) and final capacity of 400,000 vehicles.
(AFP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, North Korea and the US
began face-to-face talks in Geneva aimed at reaching an agreement on
how to proceed with Pyongyang's denuclearization pledge.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, Former Pakistani PM
Benazir Bhutto said in London that talks on a power sharing deal with
President Pervez Musharraf had stalled but she would return to Pakistan
very soon even without an agreement. A suicide bombing killed four
Pakistani troops near the Afghan border, as tribal elders met with
Islamic militants elsewhere to seek the release of at least 120
Pakistani soldiers. In Karachi a section of a newly constructed highway
bridge came crashing down. At least 6 people were killed and 13 others
injured. Authorities suspended six officials from the state-run
National Highway Authority, which is responsible for supervising
highways in Pakistan, and the National Logistic Cell, a military-run
construction company that built the Karachi bridge.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, Hamas gunmen opened
fire on their own supporters, killing a teenager at a protest on the
Gaza-Egypt border, as tens of thousands of flag-waving Hamas supporters
gathered at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to demand it be
reopened.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Panama Pedro Miguel
Gonzalez Pinzon, a man wanted in the US on charges of involvement in
the killing of an American soldier 15 years ago in Panama, was elected
president of that country's congress.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Poland 2 small
planes collided during an acrobatic display at the Radom Air Show
killing both pilots.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, The population of
Tanzania was about 39 million, with a GDP per head of $860.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.44)
2007 Sep 1, In Venezuela more than
two dozen Colombian prisoners arrested three years ago in an alleged
plot against President Hugo Chavez were freed in a goodwill gesture he
hopes will help facilitate a prisoner exchange in Colombia.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, The World Health
Organization (WHO) confirmed five human bird flu cases in Vietnam, four
of them fatal. The four, including two women, died between June 21 and
August 3 while a fifth person, a 29-year-old man, had recovered.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, Hundreds of riot
police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse thousands of retired
officers and soldiers in southern Yemen who were demanding to be
allowed back into the military. The protesters were largely members of
the army of south Yemen who were ousted after being defeated by
northern forces.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, State media reported
that Zimbabwe's government will allow hotels, restaurants and bars to
raise their rates by up to 50 percent. A woman and a child were killed
in stampedes at an agriculture show in Harare packed with people lured
by scarce snack foods and cheap Chinese toys and exhibitors hoping to
skirt a government price freeze and sell their animals.
(AP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In SF a free concert
in Golden Gate Park celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Summer of
Love featuring dozens of veterans of the era. Boots Hughston bankrolled
the $120,000 budget for the party.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.E1)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A9)
2007 Sep 2, Hurricane Felix
strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 storm as it toppled trees and
flooded homes on a cluster of Dutch islands before churning its way
into the open waters of the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2007 Sep 2, Detained former
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed was charged in a new graft case as
part of the emergency government's corruption crackdown.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In central Chinese 4
boats carrying the toxic chemical methanol caught fire in Wuhan,
causing one boat to sink and prompting fears of drinking water
contamination.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, In western Colombia 10
soldiers were killed in a clash with leftist FARC rebels. Five more
were missing.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, a protest by hundreds of youth activists turned violent, with
protesters setting fire to street barricades and cars and smashing shop
windows. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd. The unrest
started after a demonstration the previous day commemorating the Youth
House, a makeshift cultural center for the city's anarchists and
disaffected youth that was demolished in March.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Ethiopian rebels
declared a ceasefire to allow a UN mission to tour the eastern Ogaden
region and assess alleged rights violations and a worsening
humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Dozens of Muslim
clerics issued an edict against the construction of Indonesia's first
nuclear power plant on seismically charged Java island, saying the
potential dangers far outweighed the benefits.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, Iran's president
claimed that his country is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich
uranium for its controversial nuclear program. Haleh Esfandiari (67),
an Iranian-American academic imprisoned for months and accused of
trying to create a "soft revolution" in Iran was permitted to leave the
country and rejoin her family.
(AP, 9/2/07)(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, It was reported that
at least 1,809 civilians had been killed in August across Iraq,
compared to 1,760 in July. This brought to 27,564 the number of
civilians killed since the Associated Press began collecting data on
April 28, 2005. A US soldier was killed and three others injured when a
roadside bomb blew up next to their patrol outside of Baghdad.
(SSFC, 9/2/07, p.A20)(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, Israeli police
recommended that former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson be indicted
on charges of stealing millions from a union he headed in 2003.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Lebanon the last
militant stronghold of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by more
than 3 months of fighting fell to the army. The army killed 39
militants and captured at least 15 others as they tried to break out of
the Nahr el-Bared camp. 5 soldiers were killed in the 2-day fight,
raising to 158 the number of troops killed in the conflict that began
May 20. The dead also included over 20 civilians and over 60 militants.
Shaker Abbsi, leader of the Fatah al Islam militants, managed to escape.
(AP, 9/2/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A13)(SFC, 9/11/07, p.A4)
2007 Sep 2, In Nepal 3 bombs
exploded almost simultaneously in and around Katmandu, killing at least
two people and injuring 13 in the first attack on Katmandu since a
communist insurgency ended last year.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Following two days of
talks in Geneva, Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator, said
North Korea had agreed to account for and disable its atomic programs
by the end of the year; the head of the North Korean delegation said
his country's willingness to cooperate was clear, but he did not cite
any dates.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2007 Sep 2, Pro-Taliban militants
said they had abducted scores of Pakistani soldiers, demanding the
withdrawal of troops from tribal areas near the Afghan border in
exchange for their release.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Temasek, Singapore’s
state-owned investment company, said it would take a 8.3% stake in
China Eastern Airlines and Singapore Airlines announced a 15.7% stake.
(Econ, 9/29/07,
p.68)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Eastern_Airlines)
2007 Sep 2, Sri Lanka said that
troops captured a Tamil Tiger naval base during a weekend advance into
rebel-held territory that the guerrillas said killed nine civilians.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Yemen riot police
opened fire on a demonstration by retired officers and soldiers,
killing two people and wounding more than 20 on the second day of
protests demanding the right to rejoin the army.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, The Financial Times,
citing unnamed officials, reported that the People's Liberation Army
hacked into a computer system in the office of Defense Secretary Robert
Gates in June. China denied the allegations.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, Jerry Lewis raised
nearly $64 million during his annual Labor Day Telethon.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2007 Sep 3, Steve Fossett
(b.1944), tycoon turned record seeker, disappeared in Nevada after
flying from the Flying M Ranch, owned by billionaire Baron Hilton. In
2002 Fosset became the 1st person to fly around the world in a balloon.
In 2006 Fossett authored his autobiography “Chasing the Wind.” A search
was formally suspended on Oct 2. On Feb 15, 2008, an Illinois court
declared him legally dead. In 2008 wreckage of his plane was found on
Oct 1 in the rugged eastern mountains of California.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A8)(SFC, 9/15/07, p.A1)(SFC,
2/16/08, p.B5)(Econ, 2/23/08, p.106)(Reuters, 10/2/08)
2007 Sep 3, The SF Bay Bridge
reopened 11 hours earlier than scheduled following the replacement of a
section of the upper deck east of Treasure Island.
(SFC, 9/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 3, A fire began east of
Morgan Hill, Ca., that burned 47,760 acres in and around Henry W. Coe
State Park. Margaret Pavese was later charged with a misdemeanor for
accidentally starting the fire when burning trash enar her cabin.
(SFC, 9/27/07, p.B2)
2007 Sep 3, Hurricane Felix,
having passed the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire with
little damage, rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm
and churned toward Central America, where forecasters said it could
arrive as a "potentially catastrophic" storm.
(AP, 9/3/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A17)
2007 Sep 3, In California
temperatures headed back toward triple digits, the seventh day of a
heat wave that has contributed to blackouts leaving thousands without
air conditioning.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Climate change
activists staged a break-in at an Australian power station as a pattern
of guerrilla-style raids emerged ahead of a summit of Asia-Pacific
leaders in Sydney.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Former Bangladesh PM
Khaleda Zia and one of her sons were arrested on charges of corruption
and misuse of power.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, A woman joined the
protectors of the Crown Jewels as one of the famed Beefeaters of the
Tower of London, becoming the first female Yeoman Warder since the
corps of Tower guards was created in 1485.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Bulgaria donated $56.6
million in Soviet-era debt owned by Libya as its contribution to a deal
that led to the release of 6 medics convicted of infecting Libyan
children with HIV.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, In eastern China about
2,000 ex-soldiers took part in riots that began and spread over a
775-mile stretch in the cities of Baotou, Wuhan, and Baoji. Demobilized
soldiers are frequently rewarded for their service with government
jobs, and 6,000 of them were sent to 12 different railway schools in
July for two years of training. However, they were angered by run-down
dormitories, bad but expensive food and a lack of study materials, At
least 20 people were injured and five arrested when riot police moved
in to quell the disturbances.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 3, Congolese officials
reported killing 28 soldiers loyal to Gen. Nkunda, a renegade army
officer, in exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasting
several hours.
(Reuters, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, President Nicolas
Sarkozy said France and Jordan want to work "hand-in-hand" to help
resolve crises in the Middle East, following talks with King Abdullah
II.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, The French government
tied up the long-delayed merger of Suez and state-owned Gaz de France,
giving the country another world energy champion in a sector that Paris
was eager to protect from foreigners.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Iraqi soldiers hoisted
the nation's flag over the Basra palace compound after British troops
withdrew from their last garrison in the city, leaving the country's
second biggest city largely in the hands in the hands of Iranian-backed
Shiite militias. In a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, the
Islamic State of Iraq, made up of 8 insurgent groups, including
al-Qaida in Iraq, said its leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi chose Mohammed
Khalil al-Badria for the education position. The so-called 10-member
"Islamic Cabinet" was set up in April to challenge the Iraqi
government. President Bush made a surprise visit to al-Asad Air Base
west of Baghdad, hoping to bolster his case that the buildup of US
troops is helping stabilizing the country.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Ireland’s government
said almost all the children who could not find elementary school
places in a Dublin suburb this year were black.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Jamaica's main
opposition won a narrow election victory, according to preliminary
results, but Portia Simpson Miller, the country's first female prime
minister, said the race was too close to call and the ruling party
would not concede defeat.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, Takehiko Endo, Japan's
scandal-hit farm minister, resigned dealing a fresh blow to PM Shinzo
Abe just a week after he reshuffled his cabinet in the hope of cleaning
up the government's image.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, In Lebanon troops
exchanged fire with fleeing militants killing 4 and capturing 2.
(SFC, 9/4/07, p.A14)
2007 Sep 3, A Lithuanian research
center launched a Web site that allows the public to access original
KGB documents online. The site kgbdocuments.eu contains working
documents from various KGB departments, as well as descriptive articles
on the activities of Soviet state security agencies in Lithuania from
1940 to 1991.
(www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/18701/)
2007 Sep 3, In southwestern
Nigeria at least 20 people were killed when a bus collided with a fuel
tanker.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, A spokesman for North
Korea's Foreign Ministry said the US has decided to remove North Korea
from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states and lift sanctions against
it.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Panamanian President
Martin Torrijos celebrated the start of construction on two wider sets
of locks being added to both sides of the Panama canal.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sudan in a bid to jumpstart the peace process in
strife-torn Darfur ahead of a massive joint UN-African Union
peacekeeping operation.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, A Thai court issued
arrest warrants for former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife over
their alleged violations of stock-trading laws.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, The Zimbabwean
government completed its takeover of the country's leading cooking oil
manufacturer by acquiring US food giant H.J Heinz's 49% stake for 6.8
million dollars.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 4, US President George W.
Bush arrived in Sydney for a regional summit with the city locked down
in the biggest security operation in Australian history.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Mattel Inc.'s
reputation took another hit after the world's largest toy maker
announced a third major recall of Chinese-made toys in little more than
a month because of excessive amounts of lead paint.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Florida Broward
County Sheriff Ken Jenne resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to
federal tax evasion and mail fraud charges.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 4, New York city’s first
Arab-language school opened.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.36)
2007 Sep 4, 5-nation war games
began in the Bay of Bengal. Indian and US aircraft carriers launched
fighter jets into the air as American submarines cruised below
Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 4, Afghan security forces
in overnight fighting said they have killed Mullah Mateen, a Taliban
commander alleged to be behind the July kidnappings of 23 South Korean
church workers. The Taliban denied the dead man was one of their
militants. Up to 27 other insurgents were also slain. Taliban spokesman
Qari Yousef Ahmadi said 7 insurgents were killed in the clash, all of
them ordinary fighters. He said the Taliban had no commander called
Mullah Mateen, and said he did not know who the government was
referring to. Afghan and coalition soldiers in Shah Wali Kot district,
in southern Kandahar province, came under attack while on patrol. They
fought back before calling in air support and over a dozen insurgents
were killed in the engagement. About 18 miles away, insurgents
sheltering in a traditional low-walled Afghan compound attacked another
joint patrol. Airstrikes later pounded the position, killing six
insurgents.
(AP, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Australia 2
Indonesians were jailed over a people-smuggling operation to bring 83
Sri Lankans into Australia. The two pleaded guilty to smuggling 83 Sri
Lankans into Australian waters in February near Christmas Island in the
Indian Ocean.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, A skirmish near the
disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh killed two Azerbaijani soldiers
and three Armenian troops.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 4, A Eurostar train
shattered the record for the quickest rail journey between Paris and
London, using a new high-speed track that shaved some 30 minutes off
the previous fastest time. The 306 mile (492 kilometer) journey from
the Gare du Nord in Paris to Saint Pancras took just two hours, three
minutes and 39 seconds from station to station.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Most of London's
sprawling transport network shut down after maintenance workers walked
off the job, arousing commuter anger and drawing warnings the strike
will inconvenience millions of Britons. Subway maintenance workers
agreed to cut short the strike.
(AP, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Jane Tomlinson (43),
terminal cancer sufferer, died in London following a 7-year battle
against the disease. Tomlinson had raised thousands of pounds after
being diagnosed with terminal breast cancer by taking on a series of
grueling physical challenges.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Canada’s PM Stephen
Harper suspended Parliament and reconvened a new session on October 16,
setting up a vote of confidence in his minority Conservative government
that could trigger an election.
(Reuters, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 4, An official said
China's environmental watchdog has closed down 400 factories since it
started a national campaign in July to tackle water pollution.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Rangers and 300
villagers abandoned a gorilla reserve in eastern Congo as government
soldiers battled troops loyal to a renegade general in sections of
Virunga park. The UN said ten thousand Congolese refugees have fled to
neighboring Uganda following clashes between the Congolese army and
renegade troops in its eastern provinces.
(Reuters, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/4/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.52)
2007 Sep 4, Denmark's intelligence
service arrested eight Islamic militants linked to leading al-Qaida
figures, and said the suspects were plotting an attack involving
explosives.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, It was reported that
Ethiopian authorities plan to kill tens of thousands of stray dogs in
the capital using strychnine-laced meat, saying they want to eradicate
rabies before next week's celebration of the Coptic millennium.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Germany 3 suspected
Islamic terrorists from an al-Qaida-influenced group nursing "profound
hatred of U.S. citizens" were arrested on suspicious of plotting
imminent, massive bomb attacks on US facilities in Germany. In 2008
Fritz Martin Gelowicz (29), Daniel Martin Schneider (22) and Adem
Yilmaz (29) were charged with membership in a terrorist organization.
(AP, 9/5/07)(SFC, 9/3/08, p.A8)
2007 Sep 4, Former Iranian
President Hashemi Rafsanjani was picked to head a key clerical body
empowered with choosing or dismissing the country's supreme leader,
state media reported, in a vote seen as a setback for hard-liners in
Iran's ruling establishment.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, An Iraqi appeals court
upheld death sentences imposed against "Chemical Ali" al-Majid and two
other Saddam Hussein lieutenants convicted of crimes against humanity
for their roles in a massacre of Kurds. 3 separate attacks in Baghdad
killed four US soldiers and at least 11 civilians.
(AP, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 4, Hurricane Felix roared
ashore as a fearsome Category 5 storm, the first time in recorded
history that two top-scale storms have made landfall in the same
season. The storm hit near the swampy Nicaragua-Honduras border, home
to thousands of stranded Miskito Indians dependent on canoes to make
their way to safety. Some 332 people left dead or missing.
(AP, 9/4/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.45)
2007 Sep 4, Nigeria’s national
news agency said Nigeria will spend 950 million naira (7.3 million
dollars/ 5.3 million euros) to resettle nationals living in the
disputed Bakassi Peninsula ceded to Cameroon last year.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, A senior US diplomat
said North Korea remains on a list of states that sponsor terrorism,
dismissing North Korean claims that Washington decided to remove the
designation.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Pakistan suicide
bombers attacked a bus filled with government workers and a commercial
area near Islamabad, killing at least 25 people and deepening the sense
of crisis in a country beset with political uncertainty and Islamic
militants.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Russia’s Voronezh
region an explosion killed three people at a sugar refinery owned by
Prodimex Group, one of the country's largest producers.
(Reuters, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Alain Robert climbed
to the top of Moscow’s 795-feet-high West Federation Tower, in less
than a half-hour using a ladder.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Fred Thompson
(b.1942), former Tennessee Senator (1994-2002) as well as film and TV
character actor, announced himself as a formal Republican candidate for
the US presidency on the Jay Leno show. Thompson quit the race on Jan
22, 2008.
(SFC, 9/6/07,
p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Thompson)(SFC, 1/23/08, p.A11)
2007 Sep 5, Contest organizers in
Tucson, Az., said Kelly McBee, a 30-year-old mother of three from
northern Wyoming, is the new Mrs. America. McBee won the national crown
in a ceremony at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 5, Coroners in Southern
California said as many as 28 people may have died of heat-related
causes during the last 8-day run of hot weather.
(SFC, 9/6/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 5, In Virginia US Rep.
Paul Gillmor (68), a Republican from Ohio, was found dead in his
apartment in Arlington.
(SFC, 9/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Sep 5, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants in
southern Afghanistan. 13 mine-clearing workers were kidnapped in Paktia
province.
(AP, 9/5/07)(AP, 9/6/07)(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 5, In Australia President
Bush urged Pacific Rim nations to band together on tackling global
warming, saying all major polluters must be part of any solution.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, The Belgian-based
International Polar Foundation unveiled what it claimed to be the
world's first zero-emissions polar science station in Antarctica to
conduct research on climate change.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Chinese authorities
said two late-night radio shows that discussed sex and drugs have been
banned for damaging young people and being "extremely pornographic."
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 5, German officials
announced that three militants from an Islamic group linked to al-Qaida
were planning "imminent" bomb attacks against Americans in Germany when
an elite anti-terrorist unit raided their small-town hideout.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2007 Sep 5, The ship Oceanic II,
dubbed the Scholar Ship, became home to some 200 students from 35
countries and embarked from Piraeus, Greece, as a seaborne university
funded by Royal Caribbean Cruises. A 16-week semester included stops in
Lisbon, Panama City, Auckland, Shanghai and other places for just under
$20,000.
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.61)
2007 Sep 5, In Guatemala 2
candidates from Nobel Laureate and presidential hopeful Rigoberta
Menchu's political party were shot dead amid a wave of campaign-related
violence that has claimed about 50 lives.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, In Karbala US forces
captured an Iraqi believed to be working as the local contact to the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps's elite Quds Force to supply Shiite
militias with Iranian-made weapons.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Interior Minister Meir
Sheetrit said Israel will grant citizenship to some of the estimated
300 refugees from Sudan's violence-ridden Darfur region who have
already arrived.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Japan and North Korea
held talks for the first time in six months in a bid to ease tensions
amid signs of cautious optimism for progress from the arch-foes. The
meeting in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator is part of a working
group set up by six-nation talks designed to stop North Korea's nuclear
weapons programs.
(AFP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Hurricane Henriette
threatened Mexico's mainland after punishing the Los Cabos resorts.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, North Korea said it
had arrested spies working for an unspecified foreign country who were
collecting intelligence on the communist state's military and state
secrets.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Militants freed six
soldiers who were among more than 100 Pakistani troops abducted over
the weekend near the Afghan border.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Rwanda's President
Paul Kagame said that his country was no longer interested in joining
the southern African grouping SADC in order to avoid "overlapping"
roles with other blocs.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Canada’s ambassador to
Zimbabwe said the number of people facing serious food shortages there
is expected to grow to 4.1 million over the first quarter of next year.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, A Pentagon spokesman
said 16 detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
have been transferred to the custody of Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 6, FBI agents arrested 12
people, including 11 public officials, in New Jersey on charges of
taking bribes in exchange for influencing the awarding of public
contracts. Mims Hackett Jr., mayor of Orange, was among those arrested.
(SFC, 9/7/07, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.A2)
2007 Sep 6, Authorities in
Colorado arrested Norman Hsu (56), a fugitive political fundraiser. Hsu
had failed to appear in a Redwood City, Ca., courtroom on Sep 5,
following bail over a 1992 fraud conviction. It was later reported that
Hsu had recently received $40 million from Source Financing Investors
LLC, an investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, one of the creators of
the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and that the money was missing. On Sep 19
the fund filed suit against Hsu.
(SFC, 9/7/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/12/07, p.A1)(SFC,
9/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 6, Martin Villegas,
Mexican boot maker to world leaders, including President Bush and
Vicente Fox, was arrested in Colorado along with two other Mexican
nationals and two US residents following a three-year undercover
operation by US Fish and Wildlife Service agents. The five allegedly
made 25 illegal shipments of banned skins into the US since 2005.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 6, A jury in St.
Francisville, La., acquitted Sal and Mabel Mangano, the owners of a
nursing home where 35 patients died after Hurricane Katrina, of
negligent homicide and cruelty charges.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2007 Sep 6, A cocktail of
artificial colors and the commonly-used preservative sodium benzoate
are linked to hyperactivity in children, according to a ground-breaking
study published by The Lancet.
(AFP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Scientists reported
that the Israeli acute paralysis virus, first identified in the Middle
East in 2004, is associated with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD),
which was wreaking havoc on commercial bees in the US.
(SFC, 9/7/07, p.A8)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.83)
2007 Sep 6, Madeleine L’Engle
(b.1918), author, died in Litchfield, Conn. Her more than 60 books
included “A Wrinkle in Time” (1962), winner of the 1963 Newberry Medal
for best American children’s book.
(SFC, 9/8/07, p.A2)
2007 Sep 6, Alex (31), a gifted
African Grey parrot that could count to six, identify colors and even
express frustration with repetitive scientific trials, died at Brandeis
Univ., Mass., after 30 years of helping researchers better understand
the avian brain.
(AP, 9/12/07)(Econ, 9/22/07, p.103)
2007 Sep 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed "more than 20" insurgents in an eight-hour
battle that saw coalition aircraft bombing and strafing enemy positions
in Kandahar province. Two NATO soldiers were killed in two
separate bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Algeria a bomb
ripped through a crowd waiting for the Algerian president to arrive in
Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 107.
(AFP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 6, Australian PM John
Howard said he would tell Russian President Vladimir Putin that he
would not approve the sale of uranium to Moscow if there was any
possibility it could be resold to Iran or Syria.
(Reuters, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Australia Pacific
Rim nations agreed that climate change was of "vital interest," but
officials squabbled over whether their leaders should include energy
efficiency targets in a statement at their annual summit. China’s
President Hu Jintao, on the defensive over recalls of tainted
toothpaste, pet food and toys, told President Bush that Beijing was
stepping up product safety inspections.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Media reports said
China has created its first agency to combat corruption, a rampant
problem that the country's communist leadership has said is a threat to
their rule. State media also reported that Chinese computer hackers are
infiltrating British government networks, giving them access to secret
information.
(AP, 9/7/07)(AFP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Ayman Ismail Hassan,
one of the key witnesses and co-defendants in the trial of Egyptian
opposition leader Ayman Nour, was found hanged in his prison cell in
Cairo. "I confessed to forgery under pressure from officers from state
security," Hassan told reporters on June 30, 2005, after his lawyer
told the court he had changed his plea to not guilty.
(Reuters, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Fiji's military-led
government imposed a monthlong state of emergency, accusing the prime
minister who was ousted in a coup last year of seeking to "destabilize"
the South Pacific nation.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 6, German police hunted
for about a dozen people suspected of plotting massive bomb attacks
against Americans in a plot whose discovery fanned debate over
increasing official surveillance powers.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Indonesia and Russia
signed a $1 billion defense deal that will allow Indonesia to buy
dozens of helicopters, tanks and submarines, part of visiting Russian
President Vladimir Putin's efforts to boost his country's military
clout in Asia.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, The Iraqi government
announced it was adding millions of dollars to the budget of the
western province of Anbar to help rebuild the region. Gunmen opened
fire on Sunni worshippers in a drive-by shooting following evening
prayers in Kirkuk, killing at least three people and wounding four.
American and Iraqi Special Forces clashed with suspected Shiite
militiamen in western Baghdad before calling in airstrikes. Residents
and police said at least 14 people were killed. A roadside bomb
exploded next to a group of construction workers in the predominantly
Shiite area of Zafaraniyah, killing one and injuring five. Authorities
discovered five bodies, two in Baghdad's southern Dora area and 3 in
the western Amil area, all blindfolded and shot with their hands bound.
In Tikrit a car bomb near a gas station killed two civilians and
wounded 14 others. In several operations targeting al-Qaida in Iraq, US
troops killed six terrorist suspects and detained 25 others. Four US
Marines were killed in fighting in Anbar province, and three soldiers
were killed by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/6/07)(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 6, Legendary Italian
tenor Luciano Pavarotti (71), who brought opera to the masses with his
powerful voice and jovial personality, died of pancreatic cancer in
Modena.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Israeli troops backed
by tanks and bulldozers crossed into southern Gaza to strike at
Palestinian militants and 10 militants were killed. Palestinian
militants said fighters in a pickup truck and jeep crashed through a
fence on the Gaza-Israel border and attacked an Israeli army post. An
Israeli airstrike hit in Syria where it was believed weapons, being
sent from Iran to the militant Islamic group in Lebanon, were stored.
It was later reported that the airstrike was aimed at a partly
constructed nuclear reactor.
(AP, 9/6/07)(AP, 9/12/07)(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.A19)
2007 Sep 6, Jamaica's electoral
office confirmed the Labor Party's victory in a close election, sealing
its return to power after 18 years in opposition. The center right JLP
won 50.1% of the popular vote and 32 of 60 seats in parliament.
(AP, 9/7/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.42)
2007 Sep 6, Japan and North Korea
wrapped up a rare meeting without a breakthrough in an emotional row
over kidnappings, but they pledged to keep talking amid small signs of
hope between the arch-rivals.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Nicaragua the death
toll from Hurricane Felix rose to more than 40 as rescuers searched the
seas and civil defense workers reached isolated communities devastated
by the Category 5 storm. Scores of others remained missing.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Nigeria 5 people,
including two policemen, were shot dead in a failed attempt to rob a
bank in Lagos.
(AFP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Paraguay former
Gen. Lino Cesar Oviedo (67) was released from prison after serving 5
years of a 10-year sentence. He quickly declared his ambition to govern
the country.
(SFC, 9/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 6, An unmanned Russian
rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after
liftoff, sending parts crashing in an uninhabited part of Kazakhstan
and triggering concerns about environmental damage.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, The US and Chinese
presidents set aside their differences on Taiwan and put pressure on
the island to drop plans for a referendum on UN membership.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, Mark Weil (55), an
Uzbek theater director whose productions caused controversy in the
tightly controlled former Soviet republic, was stabbed to death outside
his home in Tashkent. The llkhom Theater of Tashkent, which Weil
founded in 1(SFC, 5/16/08, p.)976, was the first independent theater in
the Soviet Union.
(AP, 9/8/07)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.E10)
2007 Sep 6, Pope Benedict XVI met
with Israeli President Shimon Peres, as the elder statesman and Nobel
Peace Prize laureate continued his visit to Italy amid an international
push for peace in the Middle East.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 7, A US federal judge
said Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 US service
members killed in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut,
in a ruling that left survivors and families shedding tears of joy. A
day later Iran rejected the ruling.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 7, The Roman Catholic
Diocese of San Diego said it has agreed to pay $198.1 million to settle
144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy, the second-largest payment by a
diocese. The agreement caps more than four years of negotiations in
state and federal courts.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, In a new video
released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama
bin Laden made no overt threats but lectured Americans on the Iraq war
and criticized global capitalism, calling its leaders the real
terrorists. He also urged Americans to convert to Islam in order to end
the war in Iraq.
(AP, 9/8/07)(SFC, 9/8/07, p.A6)
2007 Sep 7, Bako Saakian, the
former security chief of Nagorno-Karabakh, was sworn as the new
president of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, In Australia Pacific
Rim negotiators agreed on a joint statement on global warming that
would ask developing nations to commit to energy efficiency targets and
acknowledge that wealthy countries have greater responsibility for the
problem.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Leaders of Australia
and Russia signed a deal to export Australian uranium to fuel Russian
nuclear reactors, but promised it would not be transferred to Iran's
disputed atomic program.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon arrived in Chad for talks with President Idriss Deby Itno
on the Darfur crisis in neighbouring Sudan, and the plight of refugees
who have fled to his country.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, China's securities
regulator said it has approved an application by China Construction
Bank, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, to issue shares in what
could be one of China's biggest initial public offerings. Chinese
stocks broke their winning streak, with the benchmark index falling 2.2
percent after the central bank raised the amount of reserves banks are
required to hold.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Renegade Congolese
General Laurent Nkunda said the Congolese army had attacked his
position, breaking a fragile ceasefire negotiated by United Nations
mediators in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, The government of
Gibraltar called a general election and dissolved the British colony's
parliament. Chief Minister Peter Caruana set the elections for Oct. 11.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Sunni, Shiite,
Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Shinto leaders gathered in
Greenland for a 6-day coastal tour and symposium called "The Arctic:
Mirror of Life," designed to focus global attention on climate change.
(www.enn.com/climate/commentary/22800)(Econ,
9/22/07, p.70)
2007 Sep 7, Guyana officials said
pirate attacks along its rivers and Atlantic coast have prompted the
South American country to set up an emergency radio network for boaters
and place special markings on engines to track stolen equipment.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 7, In northwestern India
a large truck crammed with Hindu pilgrims crashed into a gorge, killing
at least 85 people and injuring 64.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 7, Grand Ayatollah
Mohammad Eshagh al-Fayyadh, one of the top four Shiite clerics in Iraq,
called on Muslims to keep religion out of politics and not use mosques
and religious events for the interest of political groups, sects or
personalities. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol near
Baqouba, killing one soldier and wounding two, while another roadside
bomb killed one civilian and wounded four others southeast of Baghdad.
3 men were killed in an operation targeting a suspected al-Qaida in
Iraq leader north of Baghdad. Gen. David Petraeus, the top US commander
in Iraq, conceded that the buildup of American combat forces has fallen
short of its goal of prompting Iraqi political progress. A US Marine
died in Iraq's Anbar province in a non-combat situation.
(AP, 9/7/07)(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 7, The Kenya Wildlife
Service warned in a report that wild animals are vanishing from Nairobi
National Park, Kenya's oldest game reserve which borders the airport at
Nairobi.
(AFP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Moroccans began voting
in parliamentary elections likely to make the country's leading
political force an Islamist party that has tapped into people's
mounting disillusionment with the parties in power. The main opposition
Islamist party failed to make its hoped-for breakthrough in legislative
elections, marked by an historic low turnout of only 41 percent. Voters
handed power to a secular conservative party that is a member of the
ruling coalition.
(AP, 9/7/07)(AFP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 7, In Nicaragua rescuers
scooped bodies from the open sea as the death toll from Hurricane Felix
neared 100.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, In Pakistan lawyers
said government has reopened corruption cases against former PM Nawaz
Sharif. A court ordered the arrest of his brother in a murder case,
three days before their expected return to Pakistan to challenge its
Pres. Gen. Musharraf. In northwest Pakistan suspected Islamic militants
beheaded two women on the outskirts of Bannu after accusing them of
being prostitutes. In Mingora, a town south of Bannu, a bomb blast
destroyed 48 shops in a downtown market, 33 of them selling music and
movie CDs. Suspected militants shot dead the son and a nephew of a
pro-government tribal elder in Bajur, a tribally governed region
bordering Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Hamas security forces
armed with rifles and clubs beat Fatah supporters trying to hold street
prayers to protest the Islamic group's rule in Gaza. Hamas men also
assaulted at least seven Palestinian journalists and detained five.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Poland's parliament
voted to dissolve itself, forcing an election that the government had
sought to end persistent political turbulence. President Lech Kaczynski
set the vote for Oct. 21, two years ahead of schedule.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Portuguese police
suggested that Kate McCann (39), the mother of a toddler whose
disappearance sparked international headlines, accidentally killed her
daughter Madeleine, who disappeared on May 3.
(AFP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 7, Pope Benedict XVI paid
tribute to Holocaust victims, extending his "sadness, repentance and
friendship" to the Jewish people as he began a 3-day pilgrimage to
Austria.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 8, In SF “The Singularity
Summit: AI and the Future of Humanity” opened at the Palace of Fine
Arts. The singularity term was used to describe the day when machines
become smart enough to reprogram themselves. Peter Thiel, founder of
PayPal, was the principal backer.
(SFC, 9/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Sep 8, In Nevada Darrin Tuck
(26) handed in a videotape to Nevada authorities. The graphic video
depicted a 2003 sexual assault on a 2-year-old girl. Chester Arthur
Stiles was tracked down following a nationwide manhunt. In 2009 Stiles
was sentenced to 21 terms of life in prison.
(SFC, 5/30/09,
p.A4)(www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=49286)
2007 Sep 8, In Odessa, Texas, 2
police officers responding to a domestic disturbance were killed and a
third was critically wounded by a gunman who led authorities on an
hours-long standoff. Gunman Larry White (58) was shot in the abdomen
but was in stable condition.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 8, Deputies in Big Creek,
West Virginia, found Megan Williams (20), who was sexually abused,
beaten and stabbed while held captive for at least a week. She was
repeatedly called a racial slur during the attacks in Big Creek, about
35 miles southwest of Charleston. Six people, all white, including a
mother and son and a mother and daughter, were arrested in connection
with the alleged abduction of the black woman. The suspects pleaded
guilty and were sent to prison. In 2009 Williams, while living in Ohio,
said she had lied about the abuse in 2007 in order to get back at her
boyfriend, who had beaten her.
(AP, 9/11/07)(SFC, 9/11/07, p.A9)(SFC, 10/22/09,
p.A6)
2007 Sep 8, In Washington state 5
members of the Makah tribe killed a California gray whale with harpoons
and a rifle without tribal approval. In October a federal grand jury
charged the 5 Makah men with misdemeanor counts.
(SFC, 9/10/07, p.A4)(SFC, 10/5/07, p.A4)
2007 Sep 8, The Afghan defense
ministry said at least 50 Taliban rebels have been killed in two days
of operations by Afghan and US-led troops across southern Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan 2 British soldiers were killed in a Taliban
attack and a number of other troops were wounded.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, A booby-trapped car
exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials, killing 30
officers in Algeria's second terror attack this week. Al-Qaida in
Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility. The suicide bomber was
reported to be a 15-year-old student.
(AP, 9/8/07)(AP, 9/9/07)(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 8, Asia Pacific leaders
overcame differences on climate change to agree to take action against
greenhouse gases at a key summit protected by the tightest security in
Australian history.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, In Austria Pope
Benedict XVI blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough
children, in a sermon at the 850-year-old pilgrimage site of Mariazell.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, Hundreds of colleges
reopened in Bangladesh, two weeks after the country's military-backed
government shut them down to quell nationwide student unrest.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, It was reported that
China has 126 airports, 57 of which can handle private planes. This was
compared to 500 airports in the US that can handle big commercial
airliners, and some 10,000 that handle smaller planes.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.69)
2007 Sep 8, In Colombia the Red
Cross said it has recovered all 11 bodies presumed to be lawmakers who
were killed in a shootout while held hostage by leftist rebels.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, Congo and Uganda
signed an agreement to immediately move refugee camps 93 miles from
their shared border to improve security.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 8, A small Sunni Arab
bloc ended its parliamentary boycott, returning to the legislature as
it considers key benchmark legislation demanded by Washington amid
increasing pressure to end the political deadlock. A suicide bomber
drove through a checkpoint and blew up his car in Baghdad's Shiite
district of Sadr City, killing at least 15 people in an attack
apparently aimed at a nearby market. A bomb went off midday at a
crowded market in the Shiite city of Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad,
killing four and injuring five. Gunmen in Najaf killed Mohammed
al-Qarawi, director of tribal affairs in anti-American cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's office. A mortar shell hit a house in the predominantly
Shiite neighborhood of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing two people
and wounding three.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, Taiwan-born Ang Lee's
erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" won the Venice Film Festival's top
award, two years after he captured the same prize here with "Brokeback
Mountain."
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 8, A late night riot
broke out in Malaysia’s northeastern state of Terengganu after a group
of opposition parties, including the main Islamist party, held an
illegal rally. Malaysian police fired live rounds to quell the riot
wounding two men.
(Reuters, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 8, The Rev. Ian Paisley
said he is stepping down as leader of the hard-line Protestant church
he founded 56 years ago, a decision his opponents say was inevitable
after he angered many by cooperating with Sinn Fein to form a Northern
Ireland government.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 8, In the Netherlands
Carlos Hartmann (41), of Tecumseh, Mich., killed Thijs Geers (22), a
Dutch student, on a train platform in the southern city of Roosendaal.
Hartmann hoped to punish the Netherlands for its government's support
of the war in Iraq and confessed to axing the student to death after
failing to find a soldier to kill.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 8, Saudi Arabia and an
influential Lebanese politician joined calls by Pakistan for former
prime minister Nawaz Sharif to scrap plans to return to the country
next week.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, Voting began in Sierra
Leone's presidential runoff, a ballot to choose the West African
nation's first new leader since UN peacekeepers withdrew two years ago.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 8, In Sri Lanka military
officials said at least 21 people were killed in fresh violence in the
embattled northern and eastern regions over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 9, In the 2007 MTV Music
Video Awards the winners included: Video of the Year: Rihanna,
"Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z; Male Artist of the Year: Justin
Timberlake; Female Artist of the Year: Fergie. Britney Spears performed
her new single "Gimme More" in a much-criticized comeback attempt at
the event in Las Vegas.
(AP, 9/10/07)(AP, 9/9/08)
2007 Sep 9, Phil Frank (64),
longtime resident of Sausalito, Ca., and creator of the Farley and
Elderberries comic strips, announced his retirement. His Farley strip
had run in the SF Chronicle for decades.
(SSFC, 9/9/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 9, The remains of Sam (7)
and Lindsey (8) Porter were found near the Missouri River in Sugar
Creek, Mo. They had been missing since their disappearance on June 5,
2004. On November 20 their father, Dan Porter (44), already in jail for
their kidnapping, was charged in their shootings.
(SFC, 11/21/07,
p.A4)(www.kmbc.com/news/14090631/detail.html)
2007 Sep 9, In Utah searchers
found the body of Camille Cleverley (22) at the base of a cliff near
Bridal Veil Falls in Provo. The Brigham Young Univ. student had been
missing for over a week.
&n