Timeline 2007 October-December
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2007 Oct 1, The DJIA rose 191.92 to a record 14,087.55, surpassing a mid-July closing record of 14,000.41. Nasdaq rose 39.49 to 2,740.
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.C1)(AP, 10/1/08)
2007 Oct 1, The Shakespeare Theater Company opened the new Sidney Harman Hall, a 775-seat theater in downtown Washington, DC.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
2007 Oct 1, The US military launched a new "Most Wanted" campaign offering rewards of up to $200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders. Three men driving trucks to supply foreign soldiers in the central province of Wardak were kidnapped.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Teradata Corporation, a hardware and software vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications, was spun off from NCR Corp. As of 2010 the former division of NCR is the largest company in Dayton, Ohio, with headquarters in Miamisburg, Ohio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teradata)
2007 Oct 1, Al Oerter (b.1936), 4-time Olympic gold medal winner in the discus throw, died in Fort Myers, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Oerter)
2007 Oct 1, The African Union began probing an unprecedented attack on one of its bases in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur that left 10 peacekeepers dead and 40 missing, vowing to punish those responsible.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The Bosnian Serb parliament approved Igor Radojcic, the government's candidate, as interim president following the death of President Milan Jelic.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Britain’s Racial and Religious Hatred Act came into force. This made it a crime for anyone to use threatening words or behavior with the intention of stirring up religious hatred. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was created to succeed the Commission for Racial Equality.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.67)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.61)(www.out-law.com/page-8512)
2007 Oct 1, The London Stock Exchange completed its purchase of Borsa Italiana, cementing its position as Europe's biggest equity market.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The British Broadcasting Corp. said it bought a 75-percent stake in the Lonely Planet travel guides.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, A Canadian judge acquitted three doctors, a New Jersey company and a former Red Cross official of criminal charges in a tainted-blood scandal that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV or hepatitis and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Ecuador’s Pres. Rafael Correa announced a plan to wipe out the party system and tighten government control of the economy after appearing to win a free hand to overhaul the constitution.
(WSJ, 10/2/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 1, Nokia Corp. said it is buying US navigation-software maker Navteq Corp. for around $8.1 billion as the world's largest mobile phone maker continues to expand services and content.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives just outside the gates of Mosul University, killing an agriculture professor. An umbrella group for al-Qaida in Iraq confirmed the death of Abu Osama al-Tunisi, a senior Tunisian leader linked to the kidnapping and killings of US soldiers last year. He was killed in a US airstrike south of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Japan began a 1-year process of privatizing its postal system, recognized as the world’s largest bank with over $2 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.82)
2007 Oct 1, In Lebanon Nasser Ismail, a suspected senior commander of the Fatah Islam militant group, was captured by Palestinian refugees and turned over to the Lebanese military after he spent weeks in hiding.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Myanmar's junta leader stalled a UN envoy for yet another day, delaying his chance to present international demands for an end to the crackdown on the largest protests in two decades. A Norway-based dissident news organization, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said pro-democracy activists estimate 138 people were killed in the recent protests. Shari Villarosa, the top US diplomat in Myanmar, said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Yangon and every single one was empty. She put the number of arrested demonstrators, monks and civilians, in the thousands.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, A burqa-clad woman blew herself up and killed at least 16 people at a crowded police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan. It was believed to be the first time a female suicide bomber has struck inside the country. Pakistan's top court ordered three officials suspended over a crackdown that wounded dozens of journalists and lawyers during protests against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners kissed the ground at this West Bank checkpoint after Israel released them in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants in Gaza in a gunbattle.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, President Vladimir Putin said he would lead the dominant party's ticket in December parliamentary elections and suggested he could become prime minister, the strongest sign yet that he will try to keep power after he leaves office.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Fighting broke out between Somaliland and Puntland in the disputed Sool region and at least 10 people were killed in a battle for control of Las Anod.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.56)
2007 Oct 1, Sudan's Pres. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, during talks with members of a visiting group of elder statesmen, promised to pay $300 million in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge. This was made public 2 days later by former US President Jimmy Carter, one of the visiting elders.
(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 1, Swiss banking giant UBS warned that the crisis in the US housing market had cost it around 4.0 billion Swiss francs, as it announced a major management shakeup and plans to cut 1,500 jobs.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Syria began requiring visas for Iraqis entering the country, hoping to stem the flow of refugees fleeing violence in their homeland.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Zimbabwe's central bank chief warned of "dangers" in a bill approved by legislators which says that locals must own a majority of foreign-run firms.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, A draft report by the Government Accountability Office said Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period on business- and first-class airline tickets, in some cases simply because they felt entitled to the perk.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, Blackwater chairman Erik Prince, testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, vigorously rejected charges that guards from his private security firm acted recklessly while protecting State Department personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2007 Oct 2, A federal jury in New York ordered the owners of the New York Knicks to pay $11.6 million to former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders, concluding she'd been sexually harassed and fired out of spite.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2007 Oct 2, Nasdaq agreed to acquire the Boston stock Exchange for about $61 million.
(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.C3)
2007 Oct 2, In Colorado 5 workers trapped at least 1,500 feet underground survived an initial chemical fire at a hydroelectric plant near Georgetown, but died before emergency workers could rescue them.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, The new $800 million MGM Grand Casino opened in downtown Detroit. Across the street the old MGM Grand, which had opened in 1999, closed on Sep 30.
(WSJ, 9/26/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 2, George Grizzard (79), Tony Award-winning actor, died in New York.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2007 Oct 2, James Michaels (86), innovative editor of Forbes magazine (1961-1999), died.
(www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/business/04michaels.html)(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A17)
2007 Oct 2, In Afghan a mother and her two children boarded a police bus in Kabul only seconds before a suicide bomber detonated his payload inside, an attack that killed 13 police and civilians. Taliban militants killed two policemen and destroyed a remote government office in central Afghanistan, as five Dutch troops were wounded in a clash in the country's south.
(AP, 10/2/07)(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, Australia’s Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said that over the past two years the intake of Africans has been cut from 70% of the total of 13,000 refugees to just 30%.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Magda Pniewska (26), a Polish woman, was shot in the head and died after being caught in the cross-fire between two gunmen in a residential street in London. On April 22, 2008, Armel Gnango (17) was convicted of murder for being involved in the gunfight.
(AFP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2007 Oct 2, Canada’s Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government plans to criminalize identity theft to give police the ability to stop such activity before any fraud has actually been carried out.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, China’s Pres. Hu Jintao kicked off the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai as 7,500 athletes from over 165 countries entered the stadium before a crowd of 80,000.
(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.B3A)
2007 Oct 2, Colombia's navy seized 2 tons of cocaine, most destined for the United States, in small packages labeled with the British flag from a truck on the country's Caribbean coast.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 2, The United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc of PM al-Maliki, demanded that the US military abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force. Britain's PM Brown arrived in Iraq to meet troops and lawmakers and announced plans to withdraw more than 1,000 troops from Iraq by year's end, and Iraq said it will take over security from British forces in the southern Basra province within two months. 11 people were killed, including two women, a child and four police officers, in five separate attacks, including a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint near Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/2/07)(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 2, Israel completed the release of 86 Palestinian prisoners and soldiers briefly opened fire as family members rushed toward the prisoners at the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip. 2 people were wounded. A blast in Gaza killed four people, including three Fatah activists and a bystander. Hamas accused Fatah of having tried to attack the security compound, saying explosives in the car apparently blew up prematurely.
(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A12)(AP, 10/3/07)(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 2, Myanmar's reclusive junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, finally granted an audience to a UN envoy hoping to broker an end to Myanmar's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il showed scant enthusiasm for the visiting South Korean president, while orchestrated crowds of thousands cheered the start of the second summit between the divided Koreas since World War II.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Pakistan agreed to grant ex-premier Benazir Bhutto an amnesty on corruption charges. Opposition legislators resigned to undercut President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid, but the Pakistani leader pushed ahead with plans for an expected victory, naming Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, a former spymaster, to head the military in his place.
(AP, 10/2/07)(AFP, 10/2/07)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.48)
2007 Oct 2, A group of elder statesmen, including former President Carter and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, began a tour of Darfur to promote a political solution to the region's conflict.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Thailand's coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin was officially named a deputy prime minister, but he denied that his appointment to the cabinet was an attempt to cling to power.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Shop owners said Zimbabwe's supermarkets have run out of bread after bakers were forced to suspend their operations due to a critical shortage of wheat.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 3, President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, vetoed a bipartisan bill to reauthorize and dramatically expand SCHIP, a children's health insurance begun in 1997.
(AP, 10/3/07)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
2007 Oct 3, US federal authorities said they had rounded up more than 1,300 illegal immigrants in Southern California during the past two weeks in the largest sweep of its kind.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Tony Ryan (b.1936), Irish-born aviation entrepreneur and co-founder of Ryanair (1985), died.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair)
2007 Oct 3, Afghan troops backed by NATO-led forces clashed with suspected Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving 20 militants dead.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, Four former officials of Albania's state-controlled oil company, Albpetrol, were arrested on suspicion of theft and abuse of office.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, PM John Howard said Australia will not take any more refugees from Africa until at least the middle of next year. He said Australia's 13,000-a-year refugee intake was being "rebalanced" from Africa to the Middle East and Asia where the need was more acute.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Li Heping, an outspoken Chinese lawyer, said he was abducted and beaten for hours on Sep 29, and accused of causing unrest by representing clients with complaints of official corruption and police abuse. Li said he wasn't sure if he would be able to continue working. He returned to his office the day after the attack and found his lawyer's license was missing. A portable hard drive and his computer memory had been wiped clean.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Police in East Timor arrested Vicente "Railos" da Conciecao, the suspected head of a hit squad. He was linked with Rogerio Lobato, a former interior minister convicted of giving weapons to civilians during a wave of violence last year.
(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Ethiopia overnight at the start of a tour of African countries that will also take in South Africa and Liberia.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, In India at least 13 elderly women traveling to a Hindu festival were trampled to death and 42 others were injured in a northern railway station when two trains arrived on adjacent platforms in Mughalsarai.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, Nearly two dozen previously unknown Iraqi insurgent groups announced a new coalition to fight foreign occupation but it also set conditions for talks with the US in a statement on a Web site affiliated with the country's deposed Baath party. The 22 groups said their leader is Izzat al-Douri, the highest ranking member of Saddam Hussein's former ruling party. The Polish ambassador to Iraq was slightly wounded and two civilians, including a bodyguard, were killed in a roadside bomb attack in downtown Baghdad. About 900 Polish troops are stationed training Iraqi personnel and 21 have died during the conflict. The US military said it had discovered a list of some 500 al Qaeda militants recruited to fight in Iraq from a range of European, Middle East and north African countries. The WHO said the toll of people in Iraq infected with cholera has risen to 3,315.
(AP, 10/3/07)(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Soldiers said they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city and the top US diplomat in the country said military police had pulled people out of their homes during the night. The European Union agreed in principle to punish the junta with sanctions.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, A Dutch court rejected a prosecution appeal against the release of Philippine communist leader Jose Maria Sison, accused of being involved in murders in the Philippines.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Local media said police in southwest Nigeria have arrested five politicians for allegedly raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The suspects, all members of the west African giant's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), were arrested for the offence in Ilesha. An opposition Action Congress (AC) spokesman said the rape victim was among eight supporters of the party who were abducted two weeks ago in the town. At least 38 people were killed and 48 reported missing after two ferries collided on a river in northern Nigeria's Kebbi State.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 3, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria banned a play written by a civil rights activist which satirizes the implementation of Sharia law in 12 mainly Muslim states. The upper Sharia court in the Tudun Wada neighborhood of the northern city of Kaduna issued the order restraining Shehu Sani from selling or circulating his play, "Phantom Crescent."
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 3, The six nations involved in disarmament talks said North Korea agreed to provide a complete list of its nuclear programs and disable its facilities at its main reactor complex by Dec. 31, 2007. However, North Korea has since said it would move to restore its nuclear reactor, saying the United States had failed to follow through with promised incentives.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AP, 10/3/08)
2007 Oct 3, In Russia workers rebuilding a 19th century Moscow house dug up the remains of nearly three dozen people. An estimated 34 people were found. Some of the remains, which were found under a basement of a house on the estate, had gunshot wounds to the skull and appeared to date back to the 1930s. Sergei Buluchevsky, a government investigator, later said preliminary forensic findings indicated the remains were at least a century old and that there were no signs of violent death.
(AP, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 3, Russian and US space chiefs signed agreements in Moscow to cooperate on unmanned missions that would search for potential water deposits beneath the surface of the moon and Mars.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, A pressurized air pipe snapped at the mine near Johannesburg and tumbled down a shaft, causing extensive damage to an elevator and stranding 3,200 miners more than a mile underground. More than 2,000 trapped gold miners were rescued in a dramatic all-night operation, and efforts gathered speed to bring hundreds more to the surface. By the next night all the miners had emerged safely.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, President Viktor Yushchenko ordered Ukraine's feuding parties to strike a deal on a post-election government, a move likely to aggravate a political deadlock that has stalled economic reforms. With more than 99% of the vote counted, Regions Party had 34.3% and its Communist Party ally 5.4. The Tymoshenko bloc had polled 30.8 and Our Ukraine 14.2%.
(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, The UN General Assembly's ministerial meeting that saw an international outcry over military repression in Myanmar, new killings in Darfur and Iran's nuclear program, closed in NYC with a call for global action on climate change, poverty and terrorism.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, President Hugo Chavez accused the US of trying to spur a military rebellion, saying the CIA is behind the distribution of leaflets inside army barracks calling for his ouster.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Disaster officials began evacuating 400,000 people as a typhoon approached Vietnam's central coast, packing winds up to 83 mph. Typhoon Lekima slammed into Vietnam's central coast, killing two people, destroying hundreds of houses and unleashing floods in one of the country's poorest regions.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Teachers at state schools across inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe began an indefinite strike to press for better salaries.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 4, US marshals posing as supporters arrested convicted tax-evaders Ed and Elaine Brown at their rural, fortress-like home in New Hampshire. They had engaged in a 9-month standoff with authorities. They were convicted in January of scheming to avoid federal income taxes by hiding $1.9 million of income between 1996 and 2003 and were sentenced in April. In 2010 Brown (67) was sentenced 37 years in prison.
(AP, 10/5/07)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)
2007 Oct 4, The recording industry won a major fight in its effort to stop illegal music downloading with a US jury decision to impose $222,000 damages against a Minnesota woman who used a Web service to share music.
(Reuters, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig defiantly vowed to serve out his term in office despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2007 Oct 4, Former city maintenance worker John Ashley shot five people in a law office in Alexandria, La., killing two of them; Ashley was shot and killed by police following a standoff.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2007 Oct 4, In Philadelphia Mustafa Ali (36), a convicted bank robber, shot and killed two armored car guards servicing an ATM outside a bank. Several schools were locked down amid a massive manhunt for the gunman, who was arrested the next day.
(AP, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 4, Microsoft outlined its vision, dubbed HealthVault, in which a person can view, from one place, their complete health records.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.74)(http://tinyurl.com/2fop6p)
2007 Oct 4, A British soldier was killed in an explosion about 19 miles west of Kandahar city. 82 British personnel, including 57 soldiers, have been killed in Afghanistan since operations began there in November 2001.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, The Australian government approved plans for a controversial multi-billion-dollar pulp mill in Tasmania despite objections it could ruin one of the country's most pristine environments.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper vowed to crack down on illegal drugs, saying the Conservative government would propose mandatory prison time for serious drug offenses.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Health Canada said that it has stopped the sale of Novartis Pharmaceuticals anti-inflammatory drug Prexige and will cancel its market authorization due to the risk for serious liver-related effects including hepatitis.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Canada became the first country to notify the World Trade Organization that it has agreed to allow a Canadian company to make generic medicines for export to Rwanda.
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 4, In Chile the widow and five children of Gen. Augusto Pinochet were among 23 people indicted on charges of corruption related to the dictator's US bank accounts.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, In Congo a cargo plane crashed in a residential neighborhood near the main airport in Kinshasa, plowing into homes and killing at least 52 people. The next day Congolese President Joseph Kabila sacked Transport Minister Remy Henri Kuseyo Gatanga.
(AP, 10/4/07)(Reuters, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Egypt sent a high-level protest to dozens of European nations expressing "astonishment and regret" at their refusal to endorse Cairo's call for a Middle East nuclear free zone at a conference last month. At last month's IAEA session, 25 of the 27 EU nations abstained as did other countries hoping to join the union. In all, 47 nations abstained. Israeli objections forced a vote in which 53 countries, Muslim states and their supporters from the developing world, backed the proposal.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 4, Ethiopia pledged 5,000 troops to a future UN-African Union peacekeeping mission for Darfur.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, In northeast France dozens of hooded youths attacked two police vehicles with metal bars, set fire to more than a dozen parked cars and torched a community center in Saint-Dizier.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Siemens, one of the world’s biggest electrical engineering firms, accepted a $285 million fine imposed by a court in Munich for bribery by its communications division. CEO Peter Loscher announced a re-organization that included reducing its 9 divisions to three and downsizing the 11-man executive board. The ruling named officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia as recipients of 77 bribes totaling some $17.5 million.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.70)(WSJ, 11/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 4, The Wai Wai, an indigenous group in Guyana, backed by government decree and a US-based conservation organization, said it has banned miners and loggers from its section of the Amazon jungle and pledged to pursue an economic strategy based on ecotourism, research and traditional crafts.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Iranian state television reported that Iran and Syria have signed an agreement for Tehran to export a billion dollars worth of gas every year to its chief regional ally.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, President Jalal Talabani said Iraq has ordered light military equipment from China worth $100 million because the United States is unable to meet Baghdad's requirements. A government minister said the official Iraqi investigation into the Blackwater shooting last month recommended that the security guards face trial in Iraqi courts and that the company compensate the victims. Abbas Hassan Hamza, the mayor of the religiously mixed town of Iskandariyah, was killed along with four of his guards in a roadside bomb attack. Hamza belonged to Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party. In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near people on line at a gas station, killing four civilians and wounding eight others. 3 civilians were shot by American troops near a checkpoint in Abu Lukah set up by Iraqis who have joined forces against extremists. A US soldier was killed by small-arms fire during operations in a southern section of Baghdad.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, It was reported that in Kuwait the nomadic Bedouin, Arabic for "without," numbered about 100,000 people and have been refused what they feel is their birthright: citizenship.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Dutch authorities said their customs officers had found 100 dead beetles stuffed with cocaine whilst examining a parcel from Peru.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Officials said the Nigerian central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate MPR from eight to nine percent because of rising inflation.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pledged to seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean War's 1953 cease-fire and expand projects to reduce tension across the world's last Cold War frontier.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Militants holding some 230 Pakistani troops killed three of the captive soldiers before dawn in apparent retaliation for army raids on guerrilla hide-outs near the Afghan border.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo called for increased trade with India at the start of a three-day visit.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, The government of Somalia announced a crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 4, The head of South Africa's main union body stood down from his office pending the outcome of an investigation into the disappearance of a large cash donation.
(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Spanish police arrested almost the entire leadership of Batasuna as the banned party held a meeting in the Basque town of Segura. The operation confirmed the hard line against ETA by the Socialist government of PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero since the armed group officially ended a 15-month-old ceasefire in June.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Prominent world figures led by former President Carter and Desmond Tutu of South Africa said they were shocked by the suffering in Darfur and criticized Sudan's government in exceptionally harsh terms.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, A union official said Zimbabwean teachers have called off a strike for better wages after reaching a deal with the government.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 5, It was reported that approval ratings for Pres. George Bush had dropped to 31%. Approval for Congress’s performance fell to 22%. Bush defended his administration's methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects, saying they were successful and lawful.
(WSJ, 10/5/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/5/08)
2007 Oct 5, The US EPA approved methyl iodide as a new agricultural pesticide to replace methyl bromide, despite protests from over 50 scientists, who noted that it was a known carcinogen and neurotoxin.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 5, Marion Jones (31), three-time Olympic gold medalist, pleaded guilty in White Plains, NY, to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs, and announced her retirement. Jones said she took steroids from September 2000 to July 2001 and said she was told by her then-coach Trevor Graham that she was taking flaxseed oil when it was actually "the clear." Jones also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud scheme.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Topps Meat Co. of Newark, NJ, founded in 1940, said a massive meat recall has forced it out of business. Government scientists have yet to determine the source of the E. coli contamination that appears to have sickened 32 people who ate its hamburgers.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Afghan and US-led coalition troops clashed with insurgents during a raid in eastern Afghanistan, and civilians as well as militants were killed. In the country's volatile south, a suicide bomber approaching NATO and Afghan forces blew himself up prematurely in Helmand province's Sangin district, killing two children.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Chinese medical officials agreed not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families. The agreement was reached at a meeting of the World Medical Association in Copenhagen.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that gays may add their partners to health insurance plans.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 5, Europe's .eu Internet domain registrar EURid said the Internet address www.sex.asia is likely to be the domain name most in demand next week when dot Asia Web sites are launched.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Finland’s justice ministry said PM Matti Vanhanen is suing his ex-girlfriend for revealing details of their relationship in a tell-all book published earlier this year.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Walter Kempowski (b.1929), German writer, died. His work included “Echo Soundings," ten volumes of eyewitness accounts of the second world war.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Kempowski)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.86)
2007 Oct 5, Nearly 300 participants started twisting and turning a small multicolored cube on the first day of the Rubik's Cube World Championships in Budapest, the birthplace of the cult puzzle.
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 5, US forces backed by attack aircraft killed at least 25 Shiite militia fighters north of Baghdad in an operation targeting a cell accused of smuggling weapons from Iran. An Iraqi army official claimed civilians, including seven children, were among those killed in the raid. A Shiite militia leader accused of forcibly removing Sunnis from their homes north of Baghdad was captured in a raid. 3 Americans were killed in roadside bombings in Baghdad and near Beiji to the north.
(AP, 10/5/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Japan put its first satellite into orbit around the moon, placing the country a step ahead of China and India in an increasingly heated space race in Asia.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Record floods, that have wreaked havoc across Africa, killed at least 20,000 wildebeests making their way to Kenya during their annual “great migration." The animals, also known as gnus, were swept away by a river that broke its banks in southern Kenya's Maasai Mara park. Kenya Wildlife Service on Oct 13 said floods that have wreaked havoc across Africa killed 5,000 wildebeests, and not tens of thousands, blaming tourists for exaggerating the toll.
(AFP, 10/11/07)(AFP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 5, In Myanmar acting Ambassador Shari Villarosa met with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint in the remote jungle capital of Naypitaw (Naypyidaw). During her visit, she was expected to repeat the US view that the regime must meet with democratic opposition groups and "stop the iron crackdown" on peaceful demonstrators. The US said it would propose a UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Myanmar if the government there does not "respond constructively" to international concern about repression of pro-democracy protests.
(AP, 10/5/07)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.27)
2007 Oct 5, Nepal's ruling parties reluctantly agreed to Maoist demands to postpone upcoming elections, ending one political crisis in the Himalayan nation but still leaving the two sides deadlocked over other issues. 3 communist rebels shot and killed Birendra Shah a crusading journalist. The group's leadership later said they did not order the slaying and that the three men who took part have been kicked out of the Maoist political party.
(AP, 10/5/07)(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, On the eve of Pakistan's presidential vote the highest court ruled that no election winner can be declared until it decides whether Pres. Gen. Musharraf is an eligible candidate. Musharraf pushed toward an alliance with a former premier signing an amnesty clearing her of corruption charges. Pres. Musharraf issued a National Reconciliation Ordnance (NRO) as part of a political deal to allow former PM Benazir Bhutto to return from years of exile to Pakistan. By 2009 over 8,000 government officials were reported to have benefited from the decree. The amnesty lapsed on Nov 28, 2009, by order of the Supreme Court. On Jan 19, 2010, the Supreme Court released a 287-page judgement explaining why it had ruled the NRO unconstitutional.
(AP, 10/5/07)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A3)(Econ, 11/27/09, p.29)(Econ, 1/23/10, p.40)
2007 Oct 5, Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, Saudi Arabia's king, announced an overhaul of the country's judicial system, fulfilling a pledge he made several months ago to reform the current heavily-criticized administration.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7029308.stm)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 5, Insurgents in Somalia killed at least 5 people in a grenade attack at the main market in Mogadishu.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 5, South African prosecutors said they had obtained an arrest warrant for national police chief and Interpol president Jackie Selebi, as one of his friends appeared in court on murder charges.
(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 6, US Representative Jo Ann Davis (57), Virginia’s first Republican woman elected to Congress, died of breast cancer.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 6, Sofiane el-Fassila (b.1975), an alleged mastermind (alias Hareg Zoheir, Zobeir Harkat) of several recent suicide bombing attacks in Algeria, was shot dead with 2 suspected accomplices in the town of Boghni. He was the deputy chief of al Qaeda's North Africa wing and believed to be the group's operational leader. Security officials said 8 soldiers and four Islamic extremists have been killed in the last few days in eastern Algeria.
(AFP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071011/world.htm#8)
2007 Oct 6, International military planes called in by Afghan security forces killed 16 rebels, apparently all foreigners, suspected of preparing an attack in the country's east. The dead were said to be from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Chechnya. Two officers were killed and two others were wounded when a bomb exploded under their car in Yaqoubi district in Khost province. A Taliban ambush in Nuristan province left two other officers dead. Four militants were also killed in the clash, which occurred in the remote Kamdesh district. 2 Afghan civilians were killed in Kunar province after speeding toward a checkpoint without stopping. In Paktika province, a "suspicious" man was shot and killed after being asked to halt. A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport, killing a US soldier and four Afghans. In the south, in Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan security company guarding a road construction project, killing five of the security guards. In Helmand province's Gereshk district, a roadside bomb explosion killed a policeman.
(AP, 10/6/07)(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, The Stirling Prize, Britain's most prestigious architecture prize, was awarded to Germany's Museum of Modern Literature. The classically influenced building designed by David Chipperfield Architects, opened last year in Marbach, southwest Germany.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, In London the New Economics Foundation think-tank said the world moved today into "ecological overdraft," the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the red. If everyone in the world had the same consumption rates as in the US it would take 5.3 planet earths to support them, NEF said, noting that the figure was 3.1 for France and Britain, 3.0 for Spain, 2.5 for Germany and 2.4 for Japan.
(Reuters, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 6, Jason Lewis (40), a British adventurer, completed a 13-year trip around the world powered by only his arms and legs. Lewis had begun the journey in 1994 with Steve Smith. The 2 men split after pedaling to Hawaii from San Francisco. In 2005 Smith authored “Pedaling to Hawaii: A Human Powered Adventure Across the Western Hemisphere."
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A24)
2007 Oct 6, In eastern Cuba a bus collided with a train, killing at least 28 people and injuring another 73.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, Gambia arrested 2 senior Amnesty International officials on suspicion of spying. Tania Bernath, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa and an advocacy officer Ameen Ayobele, were arrested in the eastern town of Basse after they visited an opposition politician who has been held in detention for more than a year. Yaya Dath, a journalist with the country's privately-owned daily Foroyaa, who was traveling with the London-based Bernath, a British-American national and Ayobele, a Nigerian, was also arrested. All 3 were released on bail on Oct 8.
(AFP, 10/8/07)(AFP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 6, Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and chief rival, Abdelaziz Hakim, reached a truce to end bloodshed between their loyalists. The decapitated bodies of two members of an awakening council in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, were found. Both were Sunnis. In Baghdad a US soldier was killed and three others were wounded by a roadside bombing while they were taking part in a raid against suspected insurgents in the capital.
(AP, 10/6/07)(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A20)
2007 Oct 6, In western Kenya Stanley Livindo, a ruling party candidate for parliament, was arrested after his bodyguards allegedly shot and killed a supporter of Kenya's largest opposition party and injured two others. The shootings came as tens of thousands of people rallied in the capital to kick off the presidential campaign of Raila Odinga, who has mounted a serious challenge to President Mwai Kibaki in December general elections.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, Myanmar's junta tried to cool growing UN pressure over its deadly crackdown on peaceful protests, offering talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and relaxing its blockage of the Internet. A day of global protests against Myanmar's junta began in cities across Asia, after the military regime admitted detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks when troops turned their guns on pro-democracy demonstrators last week.
(AFP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 6, Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf swept the presidential election, according to unofficial results, but the Supreme Court could still disqualify the military leader in the vote boycotted by nearly all of Pakistan's opposition. Opposition parties resigned from the parliaments and members of Miss Bhutto’s party abstained from the vote.
(AP, 10/6/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.17)
2007 Oct 6, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will be appointed head of the country's foreign intelligence service.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 6, A Saudi newspaper said the Saudi Arabian government will temporarily release 55 prisoners recently transferred from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and will give each of them about $2,600 to celebrate the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, A UN inspection team found the Darfur town of Haskanita, under the control of Sudanese troops, burned down. The destruction of the town was in apparent retaliation for the Sep 29 rebel attack on an African Union peacekeeping base in which 10 AU troops were killed. 7,000 residents were forced to flee the area.
(Reuters, 10/7/07)(WSJ, 10/8/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 6, Typhoon Krosa lashed Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rains, cutting power to nearly half a million homes and disrupting air and sea traffic. Krosa killed five people in Taiwan as it knocked out power to 2 million homes and drenched the island.
(AP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, In Vietnam floods and landslides followed Typhoon Lekima and killed at least 86 people with many missing and some villages cut off and inundated by water.
(Reuters, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 7, Chad Schieber (35), a Michigan police officer, died and dozens of others needed medical care while running the Chicago Marathon as record heat and smothering humidity forced race organizers to shut down the course midway through the event. Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second; an additional 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/7/08)
2007 Oct 7, In Crandon, Wisconsin, Tyler Peterson (20), an off-duty sheriff's deputy, killed six young people and critically wounded another, before he was shot to death, during a homecoming weekend gathering. Relatives of the victims said the rampage may have been fueled by a romantic dispute.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, A Cessna 208 Grand Caravan crashed in the Cascade Mountains after it left Star, Idaho, near Boise, en route to Shelton, Wash., northwest of Olympia. 9 skydivers and the pilot were killed. Searchers found the wreckage the next day.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 7, Douglas Yearley (b.1936), former CEO of Phelps Dodge Corp. (1989-2000), died.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A7)(http://tinyurl.com/3ctzg3)
2007 Oct 7, In eastern Afghanistan 16 militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes. Afghanistan executed 15 inmates by gunfire at its main prison outside Kabul, carrying out the death penalty for the first time in more than three years.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Tropical storm Krosa drenched China's southeast coast after killing five people on Taiwan and prompting the mainland to evacuate more than 1 million people.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov abolished the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and its presidency and proclaimed an Emirate in the Caucasus, an al-Qaida-linked insurgency, declaring himself its Emir.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasus_Emirate)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.42)
2007 Oct 7, Costa Ricans appeared to narrowly vote in favor of joining the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US, and President Oscar Arias declared victory for the pact.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Thousands of angry demonstrators destroyed the regional headquarters of Egypt's ruling party in El Arish, demanding government protection from lawlessness after a downtown shootout between Bedouin tribesmen and local residents.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Paris, France, intruders, apparently drunk, broke into the Orsay Museum through a back door and punched a hole in "Le Pont d'Argenteuil," a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia's former defense minister, retracted allegations that the president of this former Soviet republic was involved in a murder plot and other corruption. Okruashvili's lawyer, Eka Beselia, said the statements "were made under duress."
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Thousands of people marched through Hong Kong's streets to demand the right to pick their city's leader and legislature and hoisted yellow umbrellas to form the year 2012, their target year for full democracy.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Budapest, Hungary, Yu Nakajima of Japan (16) took the top prize at the Rubik's Cube World Championships, solving the cube 5 times in an average of 12.46 seconds.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Baghdad bombings killed at least nine Iraqis in three separate attacks, including one near Iran's embassy.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Myanmar's military leaders stepped up pressure on monks who spearheaded pro-democracy rallies, saying that weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries and threatening to punish all violators of the law.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In northwest Pakistan 2 suspected al-Qaida fighters and a dozen villagers were among about 80 people killed in fierce fighting between soldiers and militants. The early morning operation was launched in retaliation for overnight attacks by extremists on two military convoys in the region that left two soldiers dead and another 30 wounded.
(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Rami Khader Ayyad (32), a prominent Palestinian Christian activist, was found dead on a Gaza City street, sending a shudder of fear through a tiny Christian community feeling increasingly insecure since the Islamic Hamas seized control last summer. He bore a visible gunshot wound to the head and was also stabbed numerous times. Ayyad had been missing since the previous afternoon.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Qatar's Diar real estate investment company announced it has agreed to buy phase two of the Grosvenor Waterside residential development in the upmarket London district of Chelsea.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Serbian police detained 56 neo-Nazis who defied a ban and demonstrated to demand the contested province of Kosovo remain part of the Serbia.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Sri Lanka's navy sank a ship carrying arms and war equipment for separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, killing at least 12 people on board. Meanwhile, eight rebels and a government soldier were reported killed in other recent clashes.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a clash in the country's southeast, and troops responded by shelling an area near Iraq to try to stop the rebels from escaping across the border.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 8, Two American scientists and a Briton won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes. Mario R. Capecchi (70) of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies (82) a native of Britain now at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Sir Martin J. Evans (66) of Cardiff University in Wales shared the prize.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Michael Devlin was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping one of two boys he'd held captive in his suburban St. Louis apartment. Devlin later pleaded guilty to dozens of other counts, resulting in a total of 74 life sentences.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, Thad Starr of Pleasant Hill, Oregon, won the 34th annual pumpkin competition in Half Moon Bay with his 1,524 pound squash. The world record was set this year by Joe Jutras of Rhode Island with a 1,689-pound squash.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 8, Vonage Holdings Corp. settled a patent suit filed by Sprint Nextel Corp. for $80 million.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.D3)
2007 Oct 8, Racing great John Henry, the thoroughbred who'd earned more than $6.5 million before retiring as a gelding, was euthanized at the Kentucky Horse Park at age 32.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, Australia suffered its first combat fatality in the war on terror when a soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, PM Gordon Brown said that Britain will cut its troop levels in Iraq to 2,500 in early 2008, trimming the force by nearly half. Britain ended up postponing the withdrawal amid a spike in militia violence.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, British postal workers started a second 48-hour strike as a dispute over pay and restructuring remained unresolved.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, In Colombia a plane carrying 15 soldiers and three civilians disappeared. The wreckage was spotted Oct 11 high in the Andes and the armed forces chief said there was no chance of survivors.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 8, In Guatemala City the security guard and secretary of Otto Perez, the leading presidential candidate, were shot and killed. Perez blamed organized crime.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 8, The UN's highest court in the Hague granted Honduras sovereignty over four Caribbean islands in its decades-old dispute with Nicaragua, and carved up rich fishing grounds and offshore exploration concessions for oil and gas. Nicaragua filed the case in 1999, saying international law gave it the right to "explore and exploit" natural resources, including possible oil reserves and fish stocks within a zone 200 miles from its coast. Honduras claimed that a ruling by the Spanish king in 1906 set a boundary projecting eastward along the 15th parallel from the mouth of the Coco River.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, One of the rarest gems in the world, a flawless blue diamond, sold for US$7.98 million (3.91 million pounds) at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, making it the most expensive gemstone in the world, per carat, sold at auction.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Iran reopened five border crossing points with Kurdish-run northern Iraq, closed last month by Tehran to protest the US detention of an Iranian official. An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a "dictator" and scuffling with hardline students at Tehran University.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Satoshi Nakamura (23), a Japanese tourist, was abducted in a restive region of southeast Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam. Nakamura was released on July 14. A bandit called Esmail Shahbakhsh, blamed for the kidnapping, had reportedly demanded the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura.
(AFP, 6/15/08)
2007 Oct 8, An Iraqi report called for the US government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. Iraqi authorities want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month. Former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten and three other guards were later accused in the deaths of 14 Iraqis killed in the traffic circle. On April 8, 2014, a new indictment was obtained against Slatten weeks after a judge had dismissed all charges because of statute of limitation concerns.
(AP, 10/9/07)(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A10)
2007 Oct 8, Police in Mexico City arrested Jose Luis Calva, an aspiring horror novelist, after discovering his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box. Police had come to Calva's apartment to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk and single mother.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 8, A consortium of Belgian, Scotch and Spanish banks announced that shareholders of ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank, had accepted a $101 billion offer in the world’s biggest banking transaction ever.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.17)
2007 Oct 8, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf installed a loyalist and former spymaster as deputy army chief, handpicking his successor as leader of the military in a key step to restoring civilian rule. One of three helicopters escorting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf crashed in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, killing four passengers and injuring five.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Dheere ordered Somalia's Elman Human Rights, an independent rights group, to close its offices. The group was accused of spreading "exaggerated and false information" about the country's fragile government.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Oct 8, Sudan said it will host hundreds of Palestinian refugees who have been stranded in terrible conditions on Iraq's border with Syria and Jordan.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Sudanese government troops and allied militia attacked a town belonging to the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal. The assault killed at least 45 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies littered the streets amid burned out buildings. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said five SLA soldiers were killed and eight injured. A key Darfur rebel leader accused the Sudanese army of burning Haskanita in the troubled region, killing up to 100 people in retaliation for an attack on African Union troops.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, The US Supreme Court rejected without comment an appeal from Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Texas Ronald Taylor (47), who spent a dozen years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, was freed based on DNA evidence. He became the third inmate to be released because of problems with the Houston Police Department's crime lab.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, A Maui judge said he would not allow the Hawaii Superferry to sail between Honolulu and Kahului while the state studies the environmental impact of interisland service.
(SFC, 10/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 9, American Electric Power (AEP) of Columbus, Ohio, accused of spreading smog and acid rain across a dozen states, agreed to pay at least $4.6 billion to cut chemical emissions in what the government called the nation's largest environmental settlement.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Two European scientists won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for a discovery that lets computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks. France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg independently described giant magnetoresistance in 1988, then saw the electronics industry apply it in disks with incredible amounts of storage.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Brewers SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing said they have agreed to combine their US operations to create a business that will have annual sales of $6.6 billion and be the second-biggest market player behind Anheuser-Busch.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Carol Bruce (b.1919), singer, Broadway star, and film and TV actress, died in Woodland Hills, Calif.
(AP, 10/9/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Bruce)
2007 Oct 9, Afghan authorities shut down two private security companies and said more than 10 others, some suspected of murder and robbery, would soon be closed. In Kabul 82 illegal weapons had been found during the two raids at the Afghan-run security companies Watan and Caps.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Argentina former police chaplain Christian von Wernich was found guilty of being a "co-participant" with police in seven homicides, 31 torture cases and 42 kidnappings, ending a trial that has focused attention on the church during the 1976-83 military rule.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, Australia's third richest man, cardboard box billionaire Richard Pratt, apologized for forming a price-fixing cartel with his main rival Amcor.
(AFP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Britain’s Labor Party announce a decision to raise capital gains taxes to a flat 18% from an effective 10% on most business assets as of April 2008.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/37mapa)
2007 Oct 9, In Canada the Conservatives swept to an easy victory in Newfoundland and Labrador, with voters giving a thumbs up to the province-first policies of populist Premier Danny Williams.
(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, The Ethiopian parliament reelected President Girma Wolde-Giorgis for a new six-year-term to his largely ceremonial post.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Iceland Yoko Ono urged the world to give peace a chance as she unveiled a monument in memory of her husband, former Beatle John Lennon (d.1980). Ono lit up the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy island near the capital's harbor on what would have been Lennon's 67th birthday.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Two suicide car bombers targeted a local police chief and a prominent Sunni sheik working with US forces against al-Qaida in Iraq in Beiji, killing at least 19 people. Three car bombs in Baghdad killed 15 people, including eight who died in an attack near the Shiite Khulani mosque. Drive-by shooters killed the deputy police chief in Mosul. A roadside bomb ripped through and outdoor market near a bus station in Jisr Diyala on Baghdad's southeastern outskirts, killing two civilians and wounding 10 others. The bullet-riddled bodies of three men in their 30s also were found on a highway in Hillah, apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads largely run by Shiite militias. At least 42 people were killed or found dead across Iraq. Foreign security guards killed two Armenian Christian women when they opened fire on a car in the center of Baghdad. Iraqi authorities blamed the deaths on guards working for Unity Resources Group, a security company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates. The US military said nine insurgents were killed and 21 suspects detained during operations Oct 8-9 near Baghdad, Mosul, Beiji and Samarra.
(AP, 10/9/07)(AFP, 10/9/07)(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, Japan's Cabinet approved plans to extend economic sanctions against North Korea, despite the communist state's agreement to disable its main nuclear complex by year's end.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Airstrikes hit a village bazaar in North Waziristan tribal region, killing more than 50 militants and civilians and wounding scores more. Pakistan’s army said fierce fighting between Islamic militants and security forces near the Afghan border has killed as many as 250 people over four days.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Puerto Rico animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them to their deaths from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter. In 2008 a Puerto Rican judge found a contractor and two of his workers not guilty of animal cruelty due to lack of evidence. International anger led more than 50,000 people worldwide to sign a petition threatening to boycott travel to the Caribbean island. Tourism officials estimated Puerto Rico lost more than $15 million as a result.
(AP, 10/13/07)(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 9/16/10)
2007 Oct 9, Alexander Pichushkin (33), a Russian man accused of murdering 49 people, asked a Moscow court to add another eleven victims to his tally, and told a jury when he first strangled a man it was like falling in love for the first time. He has been branded the 'chessboard murderer' by Russian newspapers because he hoped to put a coin on every square of a 64-place chessboard for each murder.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Sierra Leone a UN-backed court sentenced Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, two former leaders of a pro-government militia, to six and eight years in prison for brutalities committed during Sierra Leone's civil war (1991-2002).
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, The impoverished Nama tribe won back diamond-rich land confiscated by a government mining company more than 80 years ago, ending South Africa's longest running court case. The Nama had lodged their claim to the coastal plain in 1997.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, A car bomb exploded in the northern city of Bilbao in Spain's Basque Country, badly burning a man who worked as a bodyguard for a local politician.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there after several deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, The US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 to label as genocide the deaths of Armenians a century ago at the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Bush administration planned to pressure Democratic leaders not to schedule a vote, though it is expected to pass.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, California Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a law termination investment by the state’s pension funds in companies doing business with Iran. He also signed a bill that will give California motorists fines of up to $100 next year if they are caught smoking in cars with minors, making their state the third to protect children in vehicles from secondhand smoke.
(AP, 10/11/07)(Econ, 10/20/07, p.42)
2007 Oct 10, Robert Levy (64), mayor of Atlantic City, NJ, resigned. He had gone missing for 2 weeks after being accused of lying about his military record.
(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 10, Boeing Co. said its new 787 Dreamliner faces a delay of at least 6 months. Executives said the first plane would be delivered in late Nov. or Dec., 2008, rather than May.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 10, Thousands of Chrysler LLC autoworkers walked off the job after the automaker and the United Auto Workers union failed to reach a tentative contract agreement before a union-imposed deadline. Hours later negotiators reached a tentative agreement.
(AP, 10/10/07)(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 10, In Cleveland, Ohio, Asa H. Coon (14), armed with two revolvers, opened fire at the SuccessTech Academy alternative school, wounding two students and two teachers before fatally shooting himself. He had a history of mental problems and was known for cursing at teachers and bickering with students. Coon, who was white, stood out in the predominantly black school for dressing in a Goth style, wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar and chains.
(AP, 10/11/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 10, James Robbins (1942), former CEO of Cox Communications (1995-2005), died of cancer.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A7)
2007 Oct 10, Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry for studies of chemical reactions on solid surfaces, which are key to understanding questions like how pollution eats away at the ozone layer.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Rudolf Blechschmidt, a German engineer, and four Afghans taken hostage on July 18 were freed in exchange for six Taliban fighters. Wardak province district chief Mohammad Nahim later changed his statement saying five imprisoned criminals had been freed. NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed overnight with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving eight suspected militants dead and three detained.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, The African Union imposed sanctions on leaders of the rebellious Comoro island of Anjouan in a bid to coerce them into holding fresh elections.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Austrian authorities arrested a Turkish-born man (76) suspected of fatally shooting a younger Turkish associate (58) and slicing off the victim's penis in what investigators called an "honor killing."
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ministers from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal to build an oil pipeline linking the Black and Baltic seas.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 10, Brazil's Supreme Court denied a Lebanese request to extradite a fugitive banker accused of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and wanted for questioning in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Rana Koleilat was given eight days to leave the country once her passport is returned. She was jailed on fraud charges in Lebanon in 2004, but fled the country. She was arrested in Sao Paulo on March 12, 2006.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 10, In Brazil a truck coming down a hill plowed into rescue workers and gawkers at the site of an earlier collision, a double accident that killed least 28 people and injured 90.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ontario's Liberal Party won a second term heading Canada's most populous province.
(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Some 30 Tibetan exiles protesting Chinese religious policies stormed the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, with several breaching the front gate and chaining themselves to the flag pole inside.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, In Colombia police clashed with hundreds of protesters who blocked roads and burned trucks in demonstrations called by unions, farmers and indigenous groups who accuse the government of ties to right-wing militias.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi bystander and wounding three others. In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber slammed his minibus into blast walls at the offices of a key Kurdish political party, killing a party official and a guard, and wounding five other guards. A parked car bomb exploded near a market in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian, and wounding another policeman and three civilians. Two Americans soldiers killed in a mortar attack at Camp Victory and 35 other people were wounded.
(AP, 10/9/07)(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 10, Police in Japan arrested Kazunari Saito (33), who ran an Internet suicide site, for allegedly killing a woman who paid him to do so. He allegedly gave Sayaka Nishizawa (21) sleeping pills and suffocated her in April. Nishizawa had contacted the suspect through an Internet suicide site he hosted and paid him $1,700.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Myanmar exile group, made up of former political prisoners, said authorities had recently informed the family of Win Shwe (42), that he had died during interrogation in the central Myanmar region of Sagaing. He and five colleagues were arrested on Sept. 26. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said that at least seven people have been arrested in the past two days in Yangon, including Hla Myo Naung (39), a leader of the '88 Generation Students.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Nigerian electoral court annulled the election of Ibrahim Idris, the governor of the central Kogi State, following a complaint by his opponent, Abubakar Audu, that he had been unfairly excluded from the April vote.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Police in the eastern Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny pushed their way into a convent and evicted about 65 rebellious ex-nuns, arresting the mother superior and a monk who had occupied the complex with them illegally for two years. The women had taken over the building in a rebellion against the Vatican, which had ordered the replacement of their mother superior, Jadwiga Ligocka.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A spokeswoman for Other Russia said Russian electoral officials have barred the vocal opposition alliance from participating in December parliamentary elections. Election commission chief Vladimir Churov said Other Russia was barred because it was not registered as a political party.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Russian rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch pad, carrying 3 astronauts to the international space station. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur, left Earth alongside Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. Shukor was selected from among 11,000 Malaysian candidates to fly aboard the ISS in a deal his government arranged with Russia as part of a $1 billion purchase of Russian fighter jets. Whitson will be the first woman to command the outpost.
(Reuters, 9/20/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 10, The criminal court in Rwanda’s southern Rusizi district handed down a life sentence to Emmanuel Bagambiki, now living in Belgium, who was governor of Cyangugu during the 1994 genocide. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had acquitted him on war crimes and genocide charges in February 2004, confirming the ruling on appeal in February 2006.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Two suspects were remanded in custody by a South African court in connection with the murders of ten women whose bodies were found dumped in sugarcane fields.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Taiwan held a National Day military parade for the first time since it halted such displays of war-fighting prowess in 1991 to ease tensions with rival China.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, It was reported that Turkey had begun shelling suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq. The government appeared unlikely to move toward sending ground troops until next week.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Zimbabwe said it will import 30,000 tons of wheat from its neighbors in a bid to ease widespread bread shortages of bread. The human rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) said Zimbabwean security forces routinely torture and sexually abuse women opposed to President Robert Mugabe's government.
(AFP, 10/10/07)(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 11, The Bush administration reported that the federal budget deficit had fallen to $162.8 billion in the just-completed budget year, the lowest amount of red ink in five years.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2007 Oct 11, The environmental group U.S. PIRG reported that over half of all industrial and municipal facilities across the US dumped more sewage and other pollutants in the nation’s waterways than allowed under the 1972 Clean Water Act.
(SFC, 10/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 11, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a US consumer rights group, said more than half the lipsticks it had tested were found to contain lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others.
(Reuters, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Cold medicines for babies and toddlers were pulled off shelves amid concerns about unintentional overdoses.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2007 Oct 11, Sri Chinmoy (b.1931), Indian-born spiritual leader, died in Jamaica, Queens, NYC. He had emigrated to NYC in 1964.
(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.B6)
2007 Oct 11, Doris Lessing, British author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic "The Golden Notebook," won the Nobel Prize for literature. She was praised by the judges for her "skepticism, fire and visionary power."
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Werner von Trapp (91), a member of the Austrian family made famous by the musical "The Sound of Music," died in Waitsfield, Vt.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2007 Oct 11, The Canadian dollar hit a three-decade high versus the US dollar as the greenback remained under broad selling pressure due to expectations of more Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
(Reuters, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in eastern Congo called for a cease-fire as the army said the death toll from five days of clashes had risen to 122.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, In India 2 worshippers were killed and nearly a dozen injured in a bomb attack near a revered Islamic shrine in the northern state of Rajasthan. A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims fell into a river in a remote part of northern India, killing at least 41 people.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Clashes between suspected al-Qaida gunmen and police at checkpoints near Baqouba killed at least one officer and wounded two others. East of Baqouba, suspected al-Qaida gunmen took control overnight of 5 Sunni villages, killing 6 people. Gunmen killed 5 Iraqi civilians and wounded four in a morning attack on a minibus making its way from Khalis to Kirkuk. An ophthalmologist, the son of the local head of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, was shot to death in Mosul. Six main Iraqi insurgent groups announced the formation of a "political council" aimed at "liberating" Iraq from US occupation in a video on Al-Jazeera television. A US ground and air assault targeting al-Qaida in Iraq northwest of Baghdad killed 15 civilians, six women and nine children, as well as 19 suspected insurgents.
(AP, 10/11/07)(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 11, A World Health Organization official said 69 children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following vaccination against the disease. Peter Eriki indicated that around 10 percent of the Nigerian population has dodged the vaccination campaign. The new outbreak was caused by the mutation of a vaccine's virus.
(AFP, 10/12/07)(AP, 8/14/09)
2007 Oct 11, A suicide bomber in Somalia drove a pickup filled with explosives into an army base killing himself and 2 other people.
(WSJ, 10/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 11, South Africa's central bank chief Tito Mboweni announced the key lending rate is to increase by half a percentage point to 10.5% to ward off a threat of higher inflation.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Southern Sudan's former rebels suspended participation in the central government, accusing it of failing to abide by a peace deal in a dispute that threatens a rare success in the troubled nation.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Turkey swiftly condemned a US House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, and newspapers blasted the measure on their front pages. Turkey also recalled its ambassador to Washington and warned of serious repercussions if Congress labels the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as genocide.
(AP, 10/11/07)(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 11, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to South Koreans' "inherent moral sensibility" to reject embryonic stem cell research and human cloning after the country decided to let embryonic stem cell research resume.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Eleven of Zimbabwe's last remaining white farmers lost a bid to stay on their farms while appealing the orders and are to be tried for defying government eviction notices.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, Former Vice President Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for spreading awareness of man-made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.
(AP, 10/12/07)(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 12, The US FDA approved Isentress, a new drug by Merck to fight AIDS. Raltegravir, its generic name, represented a new class of AIDS drugs known as integrase inhibitors.
(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 12, Two men were sentenced to prison in the first successful criminal prosecution under the CAN-SPAM Act. James R. Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California, were convicted in June of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and obscenity. Last week, the judge in the case sentenced Schaffer to 63 months and Kilbride to 72 months in federal prison.
(www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1000096UTGDC)
2007 Oct 12, In Norristown, Pa., Michele Cossey (46), the mother of a 14-year-old who authorities say had a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices in his bedroom for a possible school attack, was charged with buying her son 3 weapons. Authorities said the teenager felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, A consortium headed by Richard Branson and his Virgin Group Ltd. submitted a proposal to Northern Rock PLC for an equity swap that would see the struggling mortgage lender rebranded as Virgin Money.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In southern California 28 commercial vehicles and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash in the southbound truck tunnel of Interstate 5 that killed three people and injured at least 10.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Algeria a police officer was assassinated in one of two attacks in the northern Tizi Ouzou region. At about the same time, five soldiers were injured when Islamists fired at a military checkpoint near the neighbouring town of Boghni.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 12, State media said Chinese authorities plan to move some 4 million more rural residents from behind the Three Gorges Dam in recognition of environmental and economic problems spawned by the giant project.
(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Costa Rica heavy rains caused a landslide that killed 10 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, Half of Germany's commuter and regional trains were brought to a standstill by a train drivers' pay strike that caused chaos in many major cities.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Haiti a rain-swollen river flooded a town killing at least 20 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, The government of India, under pressure from opposition, indicated that that they wold rather shelve a nuclear energy deal with the US rather than risk a general election.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 12, A parked car bomb went off near a police patrol in a central Baghdad shopping district, killing four people, including two policemen, as Iraq's Sunnis began marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In northern Iraq, a bomb planted among toys in a cart left near a children's playground in the religiously mixed city of Tuz Khormato, killing 2 children and wounding 17 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(Reuters, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 12, Myanmar PM Gen. Soe Win (59), reviled for his role in a bloody attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers in 2003, died after a long illness. Myanmar's military junta rejected a UN statement calling for negotiations with the opposition, insisting that it would follow its own plan to bring democracy to the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, The Netherlands said it will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, Pakistan’s Supreme Court refused to suspend a corruption amnesty for former PM Benazir Bhutto but injected uncertainty into Pakistan's turbulent politics by saying the law was reversible.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In central South Africa the Oerlikon GDF-005, a German-made computer-controlled anti-aircraft gun, went haywire during a training exercise killing 9 South African soldiers and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)
2007 Oct 12, The Zimbabwean government authorized new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The government allowed bakers to increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200 percent, as shortages persisted across the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after meeting with human-rights activists in Moscow, told reporters the Russian government under Vladimir Putin had amassed so much central authority that the power-grab could undermine its commitment to democracy.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2007 Oct 13, In San Leandro, Ca., Greg Ballard Jr. (17), was shot to death on the 9200 block of Sunnyside Street in East Oakland. Authorities identified suspect Dwayne Stancill (19), a gang member and son of a police detective, with the help of his picture on the gang’s MySpace page. In 2010 Stancill was convicted of 2nd degree murder.
(SFC, 10/25/07, p.B3)(SFC, 2/11/10, p.C2)
2007 Oct 13, A suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated his explosives in a crowded marketplace near Afghan police, killing nine people and injuring at least 29.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, Some 130 Muslim scholars from most of the world’s Islamic nations issued an inter-religious initiative calling for a strategic dialogue with Christian leaders.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.65)
2007 Oct 13, In Algeria 4 armed Islamists were killed by security forces near the town of Thenia, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Algiers.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern Bangladesh 5 rear carriages of an overcrowded express train jumped their tracks, killing at least five passengers and injuring more than 100 others.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, Belgian Countess Andree De Jongh (90), who set up an escape route that helped hundreds of British airmen flee the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II, died. De Jongh, a female nurse in a men's world of war resistance, helped found the Comet Line escape route while still in 1940. By the time she was arrested in 1943, she had already brought 118 people, including 80 downed pilots to safety.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, State media said China plans to carve a huge national park out of its vast northwest Xinjiang region that would eclipse Yellowstone National Park in size.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, In Colombia a landslide triggered by local residents digging for rumored deposits of gold in an abandoned mine near Suarez killed at least 21 people and injured another 26.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, Bob Denard (78), a French former mercenary who staged coups and led uprisings across Africa and the Middle East, died in Paris.
(AFP, 10/14/07)(Econ, 10/20/07, p.119)
2007 Oct 13, In Honduras 3 children and a woman were killed when their boat capsized, raising to 21 the death toll from days of torrential rains that have driven thousands from their homes across Central America.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, The police commander in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk escaped an assassination attempt, although the roadside bomb targeting his convoy killed one of his guards and wounded three others, along with one bystander. Police fatally shot a suicide bomber but his explosives-laden fuel tanker blew up near Samarra's police headquarters, killing 18 and wounding 27 others. Two Catholic priests were kidnapped on their way home from a funeral Mosul. The priests were released the next day.
(AP, 10/13/07)(AP, 10/14/07)(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 13, Amnesty International said 4 prominent political activists were arrested in Myanmar as the ruling junta kept up its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, Dutch police arrested 11 Greenpeace activists who boarded a cargo ship to stop it unloading newsprint paper they suspected was made from ancient trees felled in Canadian forests.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern Thailand 6 European tourists and their two Thai guides died when a flash flood engulfed a cave they were exploring.
(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, At least 15 people were killed in a natural gas blast that partly destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.
(AFP, 10/13/07)(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened an intense round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2007 Oct 14, In California Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning toys that contain toxic plastic softeners, i.e. phthalates, becoming the first state in the US to do so.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 14, In southern Afghanistan a mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, In Canada Robert Dziekanski (b.1967) died after being tasered five times by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at Vancouver International Airport hours after he had arrived from Poland as a new immigrant. In 2010 the RCMP apologized as part of an out-of-court settlement with the mother of Dziekanski.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dzieka%C5%84ski_Taser_incident)(AP, 4/2/10)
2007 Oct 14, In Egypt at least six people drowned and 15 others were reported missing after the gangplank on their Nile ferry collapsed.
(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, In a northern Indian an explosion ripped through a crowded cinema, killing at least five people in the industrial city of Ludhiana. The area around the Shingar Cinema has a large Muslim population. At least 12 Hindu devotees were trampled to death on a narrow path crowded by thousands heading to a temple in western India. Another eight people were injured.
(Reuters, 10/14/07)(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, A parked car bomb struck worshippers heading to a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people with 18 injured as Iraqis celebrated the end of Ramadan. An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted their patrol in Khan Bani Saad, just northeast of Baghdad. Near the southern town of Hilla, a police officer was fatally shot by gunmen from a speeding car. Salih Saif Aldin (32), an Iraqi journalist who was shot while on assignment for The Washington Post in Baghdad. A US soldier died from a roadside bomb during combat operations in southern Baghdad.
(AP, 10/14/07)(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A14)
2007 Oct 14, In Italy projections showed Rome's mayor overwhelmingly winning a nationwide primary to become the leader of a new center-left party and the probable candidate for premier against conservative billionaire Silvio Berlusconi in the next general election.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Myanmar's ruling junta restored Internet access but kept foreign news sites blocked, partially easing its crackdown as a UN envoy headed to Asia to convey the world's demands for democratic reforms in the country.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja in the first state visit by an Indian premier to the oil-rich west African state in 45 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, Serb and Kosovo Albanian officials agreed on a new round of talks later this month to try to break a deadlock over the future of the breakaway Serb province.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Former rebels from south Sudan delivered a letter to Khartoum detailing their demands for resolving a crisis sparked by the southerners' pullout from the unity government.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Togolese voted in legislative elections that no opposition members boycotted for the first time in nearly a decade, a hopeful sign for democracy in this West African nation that has been ruled by one family for 40 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, Opiyo Makasi, reported to be an operations and logistics commander of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, gave himself up along with his wife and they were transferred to Kinshasa, DRC. On Oct 25 Congolese authorities handed him to the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC), which should prepare his eventual return to Uganda.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 15, It was reported that 3 of America's biggest banks are banding together to set up an $80 billion fund to breathe life back into the commercial paper market. The Treasury Dept. was urging banks to set up a “Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit" to buy assets. On Dec 21 the 3 largest US banks gave up on the fund.
(www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/video/embed.asp?id=725)(WSJ, 12/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 15, Americans Leonid Hurwicz (d.2008 at 90), Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson won the Nobel economics prize for developing a theory that helps explain how sellers and buyers can maximize their gains from a transaction.
(AP, 10/15/07)(SFC, 6/26/08, p.B5)
2007 Oct 15, News Corporation’s Fox Business Network launched a new cable channel that will focus on financial markets and global economy news.
(www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec07/fox_10-15.html)
2007 Oct 15, In San Diego, Ca., local and federal agents seized over 5,000 trained birds in the largest cockfighting bust in US history.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.D12)
2007 Oct 15, In North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley asked residents to stop washing cars and watering lawns as the Southeast US experienced a severe drought.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 15, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling became the first baby boomer to make an early filing for Social Security benefits. Kathleen Casey became the first official US baby boomer following her January 1, 1946, birth just after midnight.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 15, Internet addresses began in 11 languages that do not use the Roman alphabet.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 15, Medtronic Inc. said it is stopping distribution of wires that connect some of its defibrillators to patients' hearts after learning they may have contributed to five deaths.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Ernest Withers (b.1922), African American freelance photographer, died. In 2012 the FBI admitted that had served as an informant, revealing a 14-year history between the noted civil rights photographer and the agency.
(SFC, 7/5/12, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Withers)
2007 Oct 15, Brazil’s President Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva arrived in the Congolese capital Brazzaville for a one-day visit, the first by a Brazilian leader to the African country.
(AFP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, In China 2,217 delegates listened as party leader Hu Jintao pledged to make communist rule more inclusive and better spread the fruits of China's economic boom. Hu said economic growth must remain the party’s main task.
(AP, 10/15/07)(WSJ, 10/16/07, p.A1)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.42)
2007 Oct 15, An army minibus slammed into a water tanker truck in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing 13 soldiers and the civilian driver.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, The EU granted final approval to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which removes many restrictions on television product placement. Member states will have 2 years to adopt the new rules.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.81)(http://tinyurl.com/3con6l)
2007 Oct 15, European Union foreign ministers gave their final approval to deploy a 3,000-strong EU peacekeeping force for one year to help refugees and displaced people living along Darfur's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Airbus finally delivered its first A380 superjumbo jet. Singapore Airlines took delivery of the double-decker jet, the world's largest passenger plane, almost two years late.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, In Germany Pres. Putin held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a German-Russian political conference called the Petersburg Dialogue.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Gunmen launched simultaneous mortar and machinegun attacks on two mainly Polish military bases in Diwaniyah, after Shi'ite militants vowed to step up pressure on Polish soldiers to force them out. US helicopters fired back during clashes that killed five Iraqi civilians, including two children, and wounded 17. Iraqi journalist Dhi Abdul-Razak al-Dibo (32), a freelance reporter, was killed while driving his BMW with his guards near Kirkuk.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Montenegro signed a stabilization and association agreement with the EU, normally a step towards membership.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.72)
2007 Oct 15, Moroccan leaders, after nearly a month of tough negotiations, formed a new government that includes seven women but no one from the Islamic party that placed second in September's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, Russia’s Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said that major food producers and retailers had agreed to fix their prices at the current level following talks with the government. The prices for basic foods will be fixed until January 31, 2008, a period which covers parliamentary elections.
(www.prime-tass.com/news/show.asp?topicid=54&id=428507)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.63)
2007 Oct 15, Fresh fighting in northern Somalia left several combatants dead in an escalating boundary dispute between the breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, In northern Sri Lanka a fierce battle broke out between government troops and Tamil rebels, leaving 30 guerrillas dead. 4 prominent activists resigned from a government advisory panel on human rights, saying that officials were more interested in fighting separatist rebels than protecting human rights.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, Representatives of seven Darfur rebel groups met in south Sudan to try to reach a common negotiating position ahead of peace talks with the government.
(Reuters, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, The Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN observer mission in Georgia, expressing "serious concern" at violence that has escalated tensions between Georgia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for a year, noting significant improvements in security in recent months but saying the situation remains fragile.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16, President Bush and the Dalai Lama met with a ceremony planned for tomorrow to award the spiritual leader the Congressional Gold Medal. China warned that the events are bad for US-Chinese ties.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In California a blinding sandstorm north of Los Angeles caused a pileup of some 15 vehicles leaving at least 2 people dead and 16 injured.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.B4)
2007 Oct 16, The Oakland, Ca., the City Council adopted an ordnance banning smoking in ATM lines, parks, bus stops and municipal golf courses.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 16, Oil prices reached another record high closing at 87.61 per barrel in the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 16, A Taliban ambush on a police patrol in southern Afghanistan left one officer dead and four others wounded.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 16, Barbara West Dainton (96), believed to be one of the last two survivors from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died in Camborne, England.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2007 Oct 16, British actress Deborah Kerr (b.1921) died. She shared one of cinema's most famous kisses with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity" (1953). Her many films included “The King and I" with Yul Brynner.
(AP, 10/18/07)(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
2007 Oct 16, Burundi's last active rebel group said it will shun a weekend meeting to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track as the South African mediator was biased.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Chad's government declared a state of emergency along its eastern border with Sudan's Darfur and in its remote desert north to tackle a fresh flare-up of ethnic violence that killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, A boat from Guatemala with over 20 migrants capsized. Mexican authorities by the end of the week recovered the bodies of 15 migrants. The vessel was believed to be carrying more than 20 people. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 16, A study in Hong Kong reportedly found that Lupeol, a compound in fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries, appears to be effective in killing and curbing the spread of cancer cells in the head and neck.
(Reuters, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, India and Nigeria reaffirmed their stance in favor of UN Security Council reform and signed up to a slew of cooperation agreements on day two of a state visit to Nigeria by Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, India's PM Manmohan Singh raised fresh doubts about a landmark nuclear energy accord with the US, telling President Bush that his government is having "certain difficulties" finalizing the deal, which has faced mounting domestic opposition.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Iran Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart and implicitly warned the US not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations should not pursue oil pipeline projects that are not backed by regional powers.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding 25.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Anne Enright, Irish author, won the Man Booker prize for her novel “The Gathering."
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 16, Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it had canceled a multimillion dollar grant to protest the military-ruled nation's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Libya, a former pariah state condemned by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism, won a seat on the UN Security Council without opposition from the Bush administration.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Myanmar relatives said 5 pro-democracy activists had been sentenced to long jail terms.
(WSJ, 10/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 16, A revolt at a Russian prison for minors, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains, swelled into a mass uprising that left two people dead and buildings gutted before guards and riot police restored order.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Sudan 2 truck drivers working for the UN's World Food Program were killed in an ambush near the South Darfur town of Ed Daien. A 3rd was killed on Oct 12.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, President Bush attended a ceremony in which the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian honor. China lodged an official protest over the honoring of the Dalai Lama in Washington, while bluntly rejecting US President George W. Bush's advice on how to handle the Tibet issue.
(AFP, 10/16/07)(WSJ, 10/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 17, The US Supreme Court stopped the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmet (36). Legal experts said the move signals a nationwide halt to lethal injections until the court decides in 2008 whether the procedure violates constitutional standards.
(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A15)
2007 Oct 17, Teresa Brewer (b.1931), singer, died at her home in New Rochelle, NY. She had a big hit with “Music, Music, Music" in 1950.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
2007 Oct 17, Joey Bishop (b.1918), comedian and the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra’s legendary Rat Pack, died. In 2002 Michael Seth Starr authored the biography “Mouse in the Rat Pack: The Joey Bishop Story."
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)(AP, 10/17/08)
2007 Oct 17, Taliban used heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to ambush a US-led coalition patrol in southern Afghanistan that wounded nine troops. In the east, a roadside bomb on a police vehicle close to the border with Pakistan killed an officer and wounded three others in Khost province.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Australia a group of children playing in a suburban Sidney park opened a suitcase they found floating in a pond and discovered the body of a youngster inside.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Hundreds of police agents swooped in on drug gangs in two Rio de Janeiro shantytowns, setting off gunbattles that killed 12 people, including an officer and a boy (4).
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Cambodia Alexander Trofimov (41), the Russian chairman of Koh Puos Investment Group Ltd., was charged with debauchery, a Cambodian legal offense covering sexual abuse of children. He was detained in the southern resort town of Sihanoukville and accused of raping at least six girls. In September last year, the Cambodian government gave Trofimov's company permission to develop an island near Sihanoukville into a tourist resort.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Costa Rica and agreement was reached by which the US government and environmental groups will trim $26 million off Costa Rica's debt rolls in exchange for the country spending the same amount on tropical forest conservation.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama pledged to hold elections in early 2009 as Pacific countries welcomed the move and vowed to continue pressing for progress at a regional summit.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A Greek-flagged cargo ship carrying coal sank in the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki after colliding with Panama-flagged Dubai Guardian. The captain of the Diamond 1 was killed.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Indonesia's Papua region rival tribes armed with bows and arrows clashed close to a US-owned gold mine, killing eight people.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Iran hanged eight men and one woman on murder charges in the notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 17, A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing at least seven officers in a Shiite area south of Baghdad. A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck struck a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces in Diyala province. The attack in a mountainous area near the Iranian border killed 2 Kurdish soldiers and wounding more than 10 others. A bomb exploded near a residential building in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, killing two civilians and wounding two others. US troops captured 15 suspected militants in operations targeted al-Qaida in Tikrit, Ramadi, Baqouba and Mosul. Those captured were accused of helping smuggle foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq, including five with alleged connections to Syrian-based extremists.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Israeli troops killed a Hamas gunman in a battle in southern Gaza.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A man opened fire in a courtroom in northern Italy, seriously wounding his estranged wife and killing her brother before being shot to death by police.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Investigators began raids on Japanese companies accused of corruption in projects to remove chemical weapons abandoned in China during World War II. The allegations involve the illegal diversion of some of the $199 million the government has disbursed since 2004 to help dispose of 400,000 chemical weapons that retreating Japanese troops left in northeast China at war's end. China has said poisons have leaked from the weapons and killed about 2,000 people since 1945.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 17, Myanmar's military junta acknowledged that it detained nearly 3,000 people during a crackdown on recent pro-democracy protests, with hundreds still remaining in custody.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A clash between Hamas security forces and members of a large Gaza clan affiliated with the rival Fatah party left four people dead.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Interfax reported that Russia has charged a lieutenant colonel in the security service and 8 others for the Oct 7, 2006, slaying of anti-Kremlin journalist Ann Politkovskaya.
(WSJ, 10/18/07, p.A1)(Reuters, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Irdris Osman, the head of UN food agency operations in the violence-wracked Somali capital, was taken away by 50 to 60 heavily armed government security officers who had stormed the UN compound in Mogadishu. Osman was freed on Oct 23. Overnight, at least 8 civilians and one policeman died during a battle between Islamic insurgents and policemen.
(AP, 10/17/07)(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 17, In South Africa the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the developing world.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Sudan's former southern rebels said they would rejoin the national government to work through a stalemate on implementing a 2005 peace deal which ended Africa's longest civil war.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on a visit to Turkey, said that Damascus would back a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to crack down "against terrorist activities" there.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Turkey’s Parliament gave the government a one-year window in which to launch cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebels who've been conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 17, Pope Benedict XVI named 23 new cardinals, tapping two Americans, the patriarch of Baghdad, and archbishops from five continents to join the elite ranks of the "princes" of the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18, US lawmakers offered apologies to Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, who was deported in 2002 by US counterterrorism officials to Syria, where he says he was imprisoned and tortured.
(Reuters, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Rene Medina (62) of Atherton, owner of the Lucky Chances Casino in Colma, Ca., pleaded guilty to evading $591,000 in income taxes. In 2008 he was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for evading $973,000 in income taxes.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.D2)(SFC, 10/31/08, p.B3)
2007 Oct 18, William Crowe (82), ex-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, died at Bethesda naval Hospital. In 1994 Pres. Clinton appointed him as ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he served for 3 years.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.B10)
2007 Oct 18, The head of the British Broadcasting Corp. announced budget cuts that will lead to a net loss of 1,800 jobs.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, London's Science Museum canceled talk by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Former Congolese warlord Germain Katanga, suspected of war crimes committed in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003, began his transfer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Strikers defying Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy's push to reform France crippled the country's public transport system, forcing commuters to drive, pedal or walk to work, or stay home. Some workers vowed to continue the walkout, France’s biggest strike in 12 years. Sarkozy's office said Pres. Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, are divorcing after nearly 11 years of marriage by mutual consent.
(AP, 10/18/07)(WSJ, 10/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 18, India and Pakistan pledged to maintain a ceasefire after resuming talks as part of their slow-moving peace process but reported no specific progress on issues under discussion.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, In eastern Indonesia a crowded passenger boat capsized, killing at least 15 people, with several others possibly missing.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Sunni and Shiite leaders in southwestern Baghdad signed an agreement intended to halt sectarian violence on the condition that security forces limit their raids and offensive operations. Thousands of Kurds and supporters took to the streets in northern Iraq to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to authorize the government to send troops across the border to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey. Gunmen in Baghdad killed Ahmed al-Mashhadani, an adviser to the leader of the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, Adnan al-Dulaimi.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A15)(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 18, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert flew to Moscow in a surprise visit to discuss Iran's nuclear program with President Vladimir Putin, who just returned from talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran. Olmert pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to support new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities and urged Russia not to sell arms to Iran or Syria.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Teenage pop star Belinda (18), who starred in the Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls 2," won the video of the year award at the MTV Video Music Awards Latin America in Mexico City. The native of Madrid, Spain, who grew up in Mexico, also won best solo artist.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 18, Benazir Bhutto made a dramatic return to Pakistan, ending eight years of exile to reclaim a share of power with the country's US-backed military leader. More than 150,000 jubilant supporters gathered in Karachi to greet her amid massive security. A suicide attack killed up to 136 people. Bhutto said there were two attackers in the deadly bombing, and that her security guards found a third man armed with a pistol and another with a suicide vest. Ahead of her arrival, she said, she was warned suicide squads were dispatched to kill her. In February, 2008, Bhutto’s book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West," was published. In it she alleged that Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in the October 17 bombing in Karachi. Akhtar was released from custody in December, 2010, after authorities found no grounds for charges.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/19/07)(SFC, 1/10/11, p.A2)
2007 Oct 18, Palestinian surveyors fanned out across Gaza and the West Bank, counting homes and people in the first census in a decade, a rare joint endeavor of bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, South African reggae star Lucky Dube (43) was shot in an apparent carjacking attempt in Johannesburg's southern Rosettenville suburb. He died as he tried to drive away and crashed into a car and a tree. On Oct 21 police arrested five men in the killing. His albums included “Rastas never Die" (1984) and “Slave" (1987). In 2009 three men were sentenced to life in prison for the botched carjacking and murder.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/21/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.102)(AP, 4/2/09)
2007 Oct 18, Crisis talks between Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and southern leader Salva Kiir ended without agreement on getting his former rebels to rejoin the unity government they quit a week ago.
(AFP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced more than 1,200 job losses in the US after its third quarter results weakened on sharper competition from generic drugs.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, The UN said action would be taken against the interpreter responsible for an erroneous report that Syria has a nuclear facility and expressed regret at the incident.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 19, Pres. Bush imposed new financial sanctions against Myanmar, freezing YS assets of 11 additional members of the military government.
(SFC, 10/20/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 19, A team of students from Germany's Technische Universitat Darmstadt won a weeklong competition on the Washington DC National Mall for the best, most efficient, and well-designed and -engineered solar home.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, A battle in southern Afghanistan between US-led coalition forces and Taliban militants left more than a dozen of the insurgents dead.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, Armed with clubs and waving provincial flags, thousands of residents of Bolivia's wealthiest province seized control of Santa Cruz’s Viru Viru airport from troops sent in by President Evo Morales. The previous day Morales had ordered 220 troops to take control of the airport after workers threatened to block flights that did not pay landing fees to local officials rather than the national airport authority. Television footage showed a Venezuelan air force plane and uniformed personnel at the site.
(AP, 10/19/07)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.32)
2007 Oct 19, A twin-engine plane crashed into the ninth floor of a suburban Vancouver apartment building, killing the pilot and injuring at least two people in the building. Six people were found dead in what police described as a graphic murder scene in an apartment building in a Vancouver suburb. Police later said the killings, which took place on the 15th floor of a suburban Vancouver apartment building, were related to gang activity. They said that two of the dead were murdered because they chanced upon the crime scene.
(AP, 10/20/07)(Reuters, 10/20/07)(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 19, European Union leaders in Portugal endorsed a reform treaty to replace their failed European constitution and give the 27-nation union a more influential say in world affairs. The new Treaty of Lisbon created 2 new posts, a European foreign minister in all but name and a new standing president of the European Council.
(AP, 10/19/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.64)
2007 Oct 19, Train service started back up throughout much of France but many commuters in Paris biked, roller-bladed and even used children's scooters as city transit workers kept up a second day of strikes against proposed economic reforms.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, French media reported that Celine Lesage was arrested after her partner discovered the corpses of 6 infants in plastic garbage bags in the basement of their apartment building in Valognes.
(AP, 3/15/10)(www.crimemagazine.com/07/murderousmothers,0919-7.htm)
2007 Oct 19, India and Pakistan reviewed their efforts to cut the risk of accidents involving nuclear weapons and discussed arms and security issues.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, Lt. Col. William H. Steele (52), a former US commander at the jail that held Saddam Hussein, was acquitted of aiding the enemy by loaning an unmonitored cell phone to an inmate, but a military judge in Iraq convicted him of unauthorized possession of thousands of pages of classified documents and two other charges for which he received two years imprisonment after pleading for leniency.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, In eastern Diwaniyah, U.S.-led ground forces backed by two Polish helicopters came under fire from machine guns and an anti-tank grenade launcher. No coalition casualties were reported, but two militants were killed. A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus full of Shiite civilians, killing at least three people and wounding nine as they went to visit relatives south of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, A parliamentarian said that 61 of 120 Israeli lawmakers have signed a petition against any attempt by PM Ehud Olmert to transfer parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, In Indian Kashmir Rawathpora village residents claimed that Indian soldiers detained teacher Abdul Rashid Mir (26) outside a school, then tortured and fatally shot him while he was in custody. The Indian army said Mir was accidentally shot after he got into a squabble with an army patrol team. Violence quickly erupted.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, In the Philippines a powerful explosion ripped through three floors of a shopping mall in the heart of Manila's financial district, killing 11 people, injuring scores and sending police and troops on the highest state of alert. Police later said a gas leak was the likely cause.
(AP, 10/19/07)(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 19, Christopher Paul Neil (32), a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing boys, was arrested in rural Thailand and charged after a 3-year international manhunt that relied on digitally unscrambled photos and tips from the public. Neil later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years and three months in jail; he faces other charges involving the victim's younger brother.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/19/08)
2007 Oct 20, With water supplies rapidly shrinking during a drought of historic proportions, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency for the northern third of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare it a major disaster area. The 38,000-acre Lake Lanier reservoir, which supplies more than 3 million residents with water, was down to 3 months from depletion.
(AP, 10/20/07)(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 20, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (36), the son of Punjabi immigrants, won an election in Louisiana to become the United States' first Indian-American state governor. Jindal, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, also became the youngest governor in the US. He became the first nonwhite to hold the job since Reconstruction.
(AFP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Oct 20, In Berkeley, Ca., the new, 4-story, $46.4 million C.V. Starr East Asian Library was unveiled.
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 20, In Ohio Daniel Petric (16) shot his parents, killing his mother and wounding his father, after they took away the Halo 3 video game from him. In 2009 a judge ruled Petric guilty of murder.
(AP, 1/13/09)(http://pysih.com/2007/10/21/daniel-petric/)
2007 Oct 20, Max McGee (75), former Green Bay Packers receiver, died in Deephaven, Minn.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Oct 20, Peg Bracken (89), author of the "I Hate to Cook Book," died in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Oct 20, In eastern Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants fought fierce battles with US forces, killing 20 insurgents and one civilian.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 20, Burundi's last active rebel group was urged to implement a 2006 ceasefire as it boycotted a meeting aimed to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In China 13 foreign and domestic companies launched the Chinese Federation for Corporate Social Responsibility in Shanghai.
(Econ, 1/19/08, SR p.21)(www.chinacsr.com/2006/10/20/799-cfcsr-established-in-beijing/)
2007 Oct 20, France handed Algeria details of where its forces laid some 3 million landmines on the country's eastern and western borders from 1956-1959.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus full of Shiite civilians, killing at least 3 people and wounding nine as they went to visit relatives south of Baghdad. US-led forces raided houses in search of Shiite extremists elsewhere in the volatile area. The US military said US forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tons of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind.
(AP, 10/20/07)(Reuters, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Indian Kashmir thousands of angry Rawathpora villagers torched government vehicles in street battles that injured 30 police one day after army soldiers allegedly shot dead a schoolteacher.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, The foreign ministers of France, Italy and Spain met with Lebanon's feuding political leaders in a bid to break a long-running deadlock that is preventing the election of a president.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Northern Ireland Paul Quinn (21), a truck driver from south Armagh, was brutally beaten to death. Assailants used iron bars and baseball bats studded with nails. His death was said to be related to smuggling diesel fuel. Relatives said he was murdered for defying an IRA order to leave after quarrels in his village of Cullyhanna.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.67)(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A22)
2007 Oct 20, In Kazakhstan the opposition staged a demonstration in Almaty against rising prices as people hoarded food supplies and emptied shops.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.52)
2007 Oct 20, Malawi's second opposition party suspended its national convention after 26 supporters died in a road accident on the way to the conference. The supporters of the Alliance for Democracy, or AFORD, died the previous night when the truck they were traveling in overturned in the central mountainous district of Dedza.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, Myanmar announced that it was lifting a curfew and ending a ban on assembly imposed after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the latest sign that the government believes it has extinguished the largest demonstrations in decades.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, A bomb ripped through a bus parked at a terminal in southwestern Pakistan, killing seven people and wounding six others.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Gaza City Hamas police and a clan allied with the rival Fatah movement traded fire killing a young man and a boy on the 4th day of heavy internal fighting.
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 20, In Moscow a group of teens killed Sergei Nikolayev (46), a professional chess player from Yakutia. The group attacked more than 10 people over several months late this year. In 2008 a Moscow court convicted 12 teenage boys and a man of committing the series of vicious ethnic attacks, which were videotaped, set to heavy music and widely disseminated on Web sites.
(http://english.pravda.ru/russia/history/23-09-2008/106430-skinheads-0)(AP, 9/23/08)
2007 Oct 21, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech the United States and other nations would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2007 Oct 21, The Boston Red Sox won the American League championship in Game 7 of their series with the Cleveland Indians, 11-2.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2007 Oct 21, Paul Byrd, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, acknowledged that he had used human growth hormone from August 2002 to January 2005 due to a pituitary gland issue. An investigation was pending as Major League Baseball and the Indians said they had not been aware of Byrd’s use of the muscle building substance.
(SFC, 10/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 21, More than a half-dozen wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds spread across Southern California, killing one person near San Diego and destroying several homes and a church in celebrity-laden Malibu. The Buckweed fire started rampaging across 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita area, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. An unidentified youngster, believed to be a preteen, later admitted to playing with matches and starting the fire.
(AP, 10/21/07)(Reuters, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 21, Ronald Brooks Kitaj, Ohio-born artist, died in Los Angeles. He had spent much of his career working in London. His work included “Desk Murder," a 14-year effort.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.102)(http://tinyurl.com/2myah5)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.81)
2007 Oct 21, Australia's opposition Labor Party chief Kevin Rudd beat PM Howard in an election debate marred by controversy when a national television network's coverage was deliberately cut. Rudd had once worked as a business consultant in China and spoke fluent Mandarin.
(AFP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.52)
2007 Oct 21, In Brazil activists trying to invade a 304-acre biotech seed farm, owned by the Swiss firm Syngenta AG, clashed with guards and at least two people were shot dead.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 21, In Brazil a girl (15) was arrested on accusations of breaking and entering a house and jailed with male inmates in Abaetetuba, Para state. She was locked up for weeks with 21 men who she said would only let her eat in return for sex. By her account, officials did nothing, until the story erupted in the national media and outraged Brazilians demanded her transfer.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Oct 21, Thousands of British Muslims gathered for a charity peace concert dubbed "Muslim Live 8" to raise money for victims of Sudan's long-running Darfur conflict.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Chinese President Hu Jintao engineered the retirement of a powerful Communist Party rival in a move that enhanced his political standing yet may have opened up a divisive battle to succeed him. A fire at a shoe factory in southeastern China killed 37 people and injured at least 20. The factory in Fujian province was operating without a license and the owners were arrested.
(AP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/22/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 21, Cubans opened an election cycle that will lead to a decision next year on whether ailing leader Fidel Castro will remain atop the communist-run island's supreme governing body.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said they killed 140 government soldiers in a weekend assault targeting a visiting senior official, a statement Ethiopia immediately denounced as false.
(Reuters, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital after the attack by a gang of Rhesus macaques, but succumbed to head injuries sustained in his fall.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, The US military said its forces killed an estimated 49 militants during a dawn raid to capture an Iranian-linked militia chief in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave. Iraqi police and hospital officials reported only 15 deaths including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said all the dead were civilians.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kyrgyzstan held a national referendum on changing the constitution to elect the Parliament by party list. On Oct 23 the main trans-Atlantic security and rights group and the US Embassy said the referendum on constitutional change was marred by numerous violations.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 21, Shell officials said gunmen in speedboats attacked an offshore oil field in the volatile Niger Delta, kidnapping three foreign workers and four Nigerians.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, A pro-business opposition party that wants to bring Poland's troops home from Iraq was headed to an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections, exit polls showed, setting it up to oust the prime minister's staunchly pro-U.S. government. The opposition Civic Platform party ousted PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government in the parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/21/08)
2007 Oct 21, A technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft on a wild ride home, forcing Malaysia's first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts to endure eight times the force of gravity before their capsule landed safely.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Lojze Peterle, a conservative former prime minister, won the most votes in Slovenia's tight presidential elections, but fell far short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Springboks, the South African rugby team, beat England (15-6) in the Rugby World Cup Final at the Stade France in Paris.
(AFP, 10/23/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.57)
2007 Oct 21, Sudanese government officials said around 50 people have been killed in three days of tribal clashes in the central region of Kordofan.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, A Swiss nationalist party rode an anti-immigrant wave to the best showing of any party in parliamentary elections since 1919, while the Greens made gains by appealing to environmental concerns. The Swiss People's Party (SVP), led by justice minister Christoph Blocher, won 62 seats and received 29% of the vote, after a bitter campaign blaming foreigners for much of the country's crime.
(AP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.62)
2007 Oct 21, Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich (86), a Jewish religious philosopher, died at his home in Basel, Switz. He had escaped the Nazis and became a European bridge-builder between Christians and Jews.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 21, In Syria a high-level North Korean official held talks with PM Naji Otari on ways to improve cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, A Hong Kong newspaper reported that police in the capital of Tibet clashed for four days with Buddhist monks trying to celebrate the awarding of a congressional honor for the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers with 8 missing. The rebels said they are holding them hostage. Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq.
(AP, 10/21/07)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 22, Pres. Bush asked Congress for $196.4 billion for the Iraq war. This included $500 million to help Mexico fight drug traffickers as Mexico and the US announced plans for a $1.4 billion aid package to fight drug trafficking and other organized crime south of the border.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A7)(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 22, The US announced the Merida Initiative. It was signed into law on June 30, 2008. It is a security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training, equipment and intelligence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)
2007 Oct 22, The United States handed over 30 military helicopters to key ally Pakistan to help fight extremism and provide humanitarian relief in the region.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, A US Navy sailor allegedly shot and killed two female sailors in the barracks of an American military base in Bahrain.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, A federal judge in Dallas declared a mistrial for former leaders of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity accused of funding terrorism.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2007 Oct 22, Bear Stearns, one of America’s top investment banks, announced a strategic alliance with Citic Securities, China’s largest listed brokerage firm.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.84)
2007 Oct 22, Microsoft Corp. dropped a nearly decade-long legal battle with European regulators, agreeing to key parts of an antitrust ruling that has already led to hundreds of millions in fines.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Two new studies said the world's oceans may be losing their ability to soak up extra carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, with the risk that this will help stoke global warming.
(AFP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, NATO and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a battle against insurgents that left 20 suspected militants but also several civilians dead in Wardak province.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 22, President Hu Jintao emerged politically stronger after the Communist Party handed him a second five-year term, allowing him a freer hand to manage tensions over a rising wealth gap and boost spending on long-neglected social services.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, The United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) said some 8,000 Congolese refugees have fled to neighboring Uganda following clashes between Congo's army and dissident general Laurent Nkunda.
(Reuters, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga became only the second war crimes suspect to appear before the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
(AFP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding two dozen. Iraqi Kurdish rebels said they were ready to lay down their arms if Turkey stopped targeting the rebels and abandoned plans for an incursion into Iraq, according to a rebel website. Osama bin Laden called for Iraqi insurgents to unite and avoid divisive "extremism," speaking in an audiotape and apparently intended to win over Sunnis opposed to al-Qaida's branch in Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/07)(AFP, 10/22/07)(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, About 1,000 Palestinian prisoners rioted at an Israeli desert prison, attacking guards, torching the tents where they are housed and leaving 30 people injured.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, About 40 tons of oil spilled from a land pipeline carrying crude from the port of Ashkelon in southern Israel to refineries in the northern city of Haifa.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 22, An Italian lobby group for small businesses said revenue from organized crime amounts to an estimated $127 billion annually, making it the largest segment of the economy.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a decree dissolving parliament, a day after voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum on constitutional changes that his critics called a power grab.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Morocco's King Mohammed XVI and signed a string of deals aimed at fostering closer cooperation between the two countries and economic development projects.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Mozambique's former President Joaquim Chissano, who brought peace and democracy to his country, won the first Mo Ibrahim Prize for achievement in African leadership.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, In Poland election results showed pro-business Civic Platform, led by Donald Tusk, beating PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski's nationalist conservatives by nearly 10 percentage points, enough to allow them to form a coalition government with an allied party. The incoming government promised to negotiate a tougher deal with the US when it comes to hosting a missile defense base. Civic Platform won 209 seats in the 460-member lower house.
(AP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.59)
2007 Oct 22, Romania's President Traian Basescu apologized for the deportation of thousands of Gypsies to Nazi death camps during World War II, the first time a government official has done so publicly.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 22, A group of Tamil Tiger fighters, backed by the rebel group's tiny air force, carried out a surprise pre-dawn attack on a Sri Lankan air force base, setting off a huge battle that killed five airmen and 20 guerrillas. 24 of 27 aircraft were destroyed or damaged.
(AP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.54)
2007 Oct 23, Thousands more residents were ordered to evacuate their homes, bringing the number of people chased away by the wind-whipped flames that have engulfed Southern California to at least 300,000. At least 700 homes were already destroyed. President Bush declared a federal emergency for seven counties.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/23/08)
2007 Oct 23, The US space shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Canaveral with a 7-person crew for a 14-day mission to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.A9)
2007 Oct 23, In Afghanistan a child and 5 militants were killed in Zabul province after militants fired on coalition soldiers from a tent.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 23, Fernando de la Rua, Argentina’s former president (1999-2001), was charged with manslaughter in connection with bloody street riots in 2001.
(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, It was reported that police patrolling the red-light district of the Belgian capital have been ordered to stop visiting brothels and drinking in bars when on duty.
(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, In London a Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction. A nearly complete, 10th-century Kufic Quran, thought to be from North Africa or the near East, sold $1,870,000.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 23, The Canadian dollar roared to a 33-year high against the US dollar after domestic retail sales data for August beat expectations.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, French lawmakers adopted a hotly contested bill that would institute language exams and potential DNA testing for prospective immigrants, making it more difficult for families to join loved ones in France.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, A US helicopter opened fire on a group of men as they were planting roadside bombs in a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad, then chased them into a nearby house, killing 11 Iraqis, including at least six civilians. Iraq pledged to rein in Kurdish rebels who are launching attacks on Turkey from mountain hideouts near the border after Ankara threatened to send forces into Iraqi territory to confront the guerrillas.
(AP, 10/23/07)(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Israel killed a top Gaza militant with a missile strike on his car prompting threats of more rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. A Palestinian prisoner who was wounded in rioting at an Israeli desert prison died, prompting Palestinian threats of revenge and accusations that the man was abused by Israeli authorities.
(AP, 10/23/07)(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, Police broke up an Italian-Canadian mafia clan that ran drug trafficking and money laundering operations, arresting 12 people and seizing millions of dollars in assets. The clan was led from Canada by Nick and Vito Rizzuto, a father and son, who were jailed for previous crimes respectively in 2006 and 2005.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Lim Goh Tong (b.1918), Chinese businessman, died in Kuala Lumpur. The casino king of Malaysia had made a fortune in gambling casinos and a cruise fleet. His family fortune was estimated at $4.2 billion.
(AP, 10/23/07)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 23, At least 21 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex said the workers who died included four Pemex employees, seven employees of the subcontractor company that operated the rig, at least one rescue boat crew member, and six others who worked for other companies. On Dec 16 Pemex announced that the well was finally capped. Roughly 420 barrels of oil per day had spilled from the damaged platform since the accident.
(AP, 10/25/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Oct 23, A bomb courier accidentally blew up a taxi in Russia's Dagestan region, killing herself and wounding eight other people.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, First lady Laura Bush helped launch a screening facility in Saudi Arabia as part of a U.S.-Saudi initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in the kingdom where doctors struggle to break long-held taboos about the disease.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Mohammed Atif Siddique (21), a British-born Muslim student, described at his trial as a "wannabe suicide bomber," was jailed in Scotland for 8 years after being convicted of promoting Islamist extremism on the Internet. On Feb 9, 2010, his conviction was overturned after a court in Scotland ruled that the trial judge did not properly instruct the jury.
(AFP, 10/23/07)(AP, 2/9/10)
2007 Oct 23, A new Bin Laden tape called for foreign forces to be driven from Darfur. The Justice and Equality Movement, one of the leading Darfur rebel groups, attacked the Defra oil field in Sudan’s Kordofan region and abducted 2 foreign workers. A rebel chief gave a one-week ultimatum for foreign oil companies to cease operating in the zone.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.A3)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 23, Turkey's foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, In Uzbekistan Karim Bozorboyev, leader of the Esguliq rights group in the central city of Syrdarya, was arrested and charged with fraud. Bozorboyev joined the group in 2004, after he left Fidokorlar, a government-affiliated political party, saying he was disgusted by the amount of corruption among Uzbek officials.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 23, In Venezuela thousands of university students scuffled with police and government supporters during a protest against constitutional reforms that would let President Hugo Chavez run for re-election indefinitely.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 24, Pres. Bush denounced Castro’s regime and called on the Cuban people to shed his rule.
(WSJ, 10/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, US federal and local law enforcement officials, targeting a violent Mexican heroin drug ring, raided numerous locations in Oakland and northern California arresting 30 people and confiscating drugs, guns and cash.
(SFC, 10/25/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 24, Fires in southern California expanded destruction to 1,500 homes and charred over 500,000 acres. Over half a million residents were forced to flee the area, the largest evacuation in state history.
(WSJ, 10/25/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, Bank of America, the nation's second-largest bank, said that it is cutting 3,000 positions in its investment banking unit, a day after cross-town rival Wachovia Corp. starting eliminating several hundred positions for the same reasons.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 24, Merril Lynch reported its first quarterly loss in six years due to writedowns of $8.4 billion related to mortgage loans in structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.79)
2007 Oct 24, Microsoft secured a deal to buy 1.6% of Facebook, a social networking site, for $240 million.
(SFC, 10/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, Afghan officials said five militants were killed in two clashes with Afghan troops in the southern provinces of Zabul and Helmand. US-led coalition and Afghan attack on a gathering of another group of Taliban militants in the Daychopan district of Zabul province killed 10 insurgents. A suicide car bomb went off near the convoy of cars carrying Arsallah Jamal, the provincial governor of Khost, wounding two of his bodyguards and two civilians.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 24, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said all conditions on its $38.1 billion takeover of Alcan Inc had been satisfied and most shareholders had accepted its offer.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Beijing Costa Rican president Oscar Arias signed several accords with his Chinese counterpart, months after the Central American nation established diplomatic relations with the Asian giant.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, China launched its first lunar probe, Chang’e 1, an initial step in an ambitious 10-year plan to send a rover to the moon and return it to Earth.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.52)
2007 Oct 24, France's government agreed to reward drivers of cars that use little gasoline, drastically slow road construction and renovate all the country's public buildings to slash energy consumption.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, A French defense ministry official said France will for the first time send dozens of military trainers to the volatile south of Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Al-Sadr renewed his appeal to his followers to uphold the six-month cease-fire announced in August and threatened to expel those who do not. Nearly simultaneous bombs struck commuters in a predominantly Shiite area on the southeastern edge of Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding about two dozen.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 24, Officials said Israeli military experts have formulated a plan to gradually cut off power to the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire from the Palestinian area.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, In southern Kyrgyzstan Alisher Saipov (26), a prominent independent ethnic-Uzbek journalist, was shot to death. He had close ties to the opposition to the authoritarian regime in neighboring Uzbekistan.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 6/19/10, p.28)
2007 Oct 24, A day of global protests against Myanmar's junta began in Bangkok as democracy leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi marked a cumulative 12 years in detention.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Nigeria's top corruption investigator said that up to six former governors will be charged by the end of the year, a sign the country's new leadership is making good on pledges to stamp out graft in one of the world's most corrupt nations.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Pakistan a senior official said the senior detective leading the investigation into the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto has withdrawn from the case after the opposition leader accused him of involvement in the torture of her husband in 1999. Pakistan's army said that new troops have been deployed to Swat, a mountain valley popular with tourists until violence flared there this summer, to quell Maulana Fazlullah, who has called for Taliban-style rule and holy war against Pakistani authorities.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 24, Alexander Pichushkin (33), a Russian former grocery clerk, was found guilty of murdering 48 people in Moscow. On Oct 29 he was sentenced to life in a hard labor colony.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Somalia a roadside bomb killed five civilians and wounded 16 when it exploded near a minibus full of passengers in the war-ravaged Mogadishu.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq, as Turkey's military stepped up its anti-rebel operations.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Spanish police broke up an Islamic cell suspected of using the Internet to recruit fighters for the Iraq insurgency, arresting six people in raids near the northern city of Burgos.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Zimbabwe's central bank chief pledged that empty shop shelves would soon be replenished as he denounced the "anarchy" inspired by the government's order for retailers to slash their prices in half.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25, President Bush visited Southern California, telling residents weary from five days of wildfires: "We're not going to forget you in Washington, D.C."
(AP, 10/25/08)
2007 Oct 25, The Bush administration announced sweeping new sanctions against Iran, the harshest since the takeover of the US Embassy in 1979, charging anew that Tehran supports terrorism in the Middle East, exports missiles and is engaging in a nuclear build up.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, The US government issued a flurry of product-safety recalls affecting hundreds of thousands of Chinese-made children's toys and jewelry amid fresh concerns about lead paint.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, Insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded in Kunar province. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta was serving as a rifle team leader with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment when an insurgent ambush split his squad into two groups in the Korengal Valley. Giunta exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a fellow soldier back to cover and engaged the enemy again when he saw two insurgents carrying away a wounded soldier, Sgt. Joshua C. Brennan (22) of McFarland, Wis. Giunta killed one insurgent and wounded the other before tending to Brennan, who died the next day. In 2010 Giunta became the 8th US service member to receive the Medal of Honor during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The seven previous medals were awarded posthumously.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 9/11/10)
2007 Oct 25, An Airbus 380, the world's largest jetliner, made aviation history, completing its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney with 455 passengers, some of them ensconced in luxury suites and double beds.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, The Canadian dollar shot to a 33-year high against a broadly weaker US dollar, as oil and gold prices firmed, giving the commodities-based currency a boost.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, In Chad 9 French citizens were arrested after a group tried to fly 103 African children to France, saying it wanted to save them from the crisis in neighboring Darfur. On Oct 29 six French nationals were charged with kidnapping and a judge in the eastern city of Abeche also agreed to allow prosecution charges of complicity against three French journalists.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 25, The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China announced that it was buying 20% of Standard Bank in South Africa for $5.6 billion.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.80)
2007 Oct 25, Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo set new conditions for disarming, stalling the surrender of hundreds of fighters who have begun massing near a designated UN camp.
(Reuters, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Amnesty International said human rights violations in the Russian region of Ingushetia have increased with a surge in abductions and beatings.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Ahmed al-Janabi (45), a Sunni schoolteacher, was seized from his car in Baghdad, then shot to death by suspected Shiite militia fighters.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Irish PM Bertie Ahern gave himself a hefty pay increase, putting his salary higher than both President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Suu Kyi, detained since May 2003, met with a newly appointed Myanmar government official as part of a UN-brokered attempt to nudge her and the military junta toward reconciliation. At least 70 people detained by the military government following protests in Myanmar, including 50 members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, were released.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, Niger's Tuareg-led rebels allegedly killed at least 12 soldiers and destroyed two army vehicles in the desert north of the central African country, but the military denied this.
(Reuters, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 25, In southwest Nigeria 17 people were killed when a passenger bus collided with an oncoming truck on a road.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide car bomber hit a truck carrying Frontier Constabulary paramilitary troops through a crowded area of Mingora, killing 19 soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 35 people.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, In the Philippines Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pardoned Joseph Estrada (70), the ousted former president and action hero. He was convicted last month on graft charges and given a life sentence. He had been under house arrest since 2001.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, In northern Syria authorities hanged five men for murders they committed during attempted robberies.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, A senior security official said Yemen has set free Jamal al-Badawi, one of the al-Qaida masterminds of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors. Al-Badawi was granted his freedom after turning himself in 15 days ago and pledging loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe launched an intelligence academy named after him, saying it would produce officers able to counter growing threats from Western powers.
(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A federal jury in Kansas City, Mo., decided that Lisa Montgomery, convicted of killing expectant mother Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting the baby from her womb, should receive the death penalty.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2007 Oct 26, Georgia's Supreme Court ordered the release of a young man who has been imprisoned for more than two years for having consensual oral sex with another teenager. The court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilson's 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, Thousands of southern Californians returned to their neighborhoods as wildfires charred some 800 square miles. At least 7 people had died in the fires including 4 in a migrant camp. 7 other deaths were reported from various causes following evacuation.
(SFC, 10/27/07, p.A6)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 26, Astronauts added the 24-foot long, Italian-built Harmony compartment to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 26, Friedman Paul Erhardt (63), television's "Chef Tell," died in Upper Black Eddy, Pa.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2007 Oct 26, Arthur Kornberg (b.1918), genetics pioneer and Nobel Prize winner (1959), died at Stanford Hospital in California. His books included “For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist."
(SFC, 10/27/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 26, In Afghanistan an airstrike on a group of Taliban fighters left 18 militants dead in the mountainous area of Daychopan district, in Zabul province.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, Shares in Bovespa, the stock exchange of Sao Paulo, Brazil, began trading. The IPO opened at $12.77 and closed at $17.77.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.88)(http://tinyurl.com/34oyeb)
2007 Oct 26, A British soldier was convicted at a court martial of his part in a plot to smuggle guns out of Iraq and sell them to colleagues at his unit's base in Germany. Lance Corporal Anthony Creswick was involved in selling illegal pistols bought on the black market in Basra.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A Chilean appeals court dropped corruption charges against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet's widow and four of his children, who had been accused of misuse of state funds related to multimillion-dollar overseas bank accounts.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, China announced a multibillion-dollar plan to clean up severely polluted Lake Tai, where an algae bloom forced the suspension of water supplies to millions of people this summer. The $14.5 billion plan to clean up the lake, in a densely populated area northwest of Shanghai, should take five years.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 26, In Congo heavy rains swelled into a torrent of water that swamped Kinshasa, killing 30 people in less than 24 hours.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 26, The head of the Cuban national ballet implored American artists, writers and intellectuals to denounce Washington's 45-year-old embargo against the communist-run island, saying that cultural exchanges between both countries should not be considered crimes.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A high-level Iraqi delegation held talks with Turkish officials to try to defuse tensions over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Turkish helicopters and fighter jets pounded Kurdish rebel positions as diplomatic efforts began in Ankara.
(AP, 10/26/07)(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A suicide bomber blew himself up near the headquarters of a nationalistic Sunni insurgent group that has turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, killing a woman on her way to the market and wounding four other people. A bomb exploded near a village south of Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, killing a farmer and wounding two others. A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the Daghara area, about 12 miles north of the mainly Shiite city of Diwaniyah, killing two officers and wounding three others. A battle between al Qaeda in Iraq and a major Sunni Arab insurgent group killed at least 16 militants near the ancient city of Samarra.
(AP, 10/26/07) (Reuters, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 26, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began talks in Jerusalem as part of efforts to work out a joint statement ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, An official said Japan hopes to thwart potential terrorists from entering the country by fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16 or over on entry starting next month.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, The Mozambican government set itself a new five-year target to remove all the landmines that still litter the country, 15 years after its long-running civil war.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In Myanmar one-time drug warlord Khun Sa (b.1933), variously described as among the world's most wanted men and as a great Shan liberation fighter, died.
(AP, 10/30/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.106)
2007 Oct 26, In south Nigeria armed militants attacked an offshore oil platform operated by Italy's ENI and seized seven foreign workers and one Nigerian. The 6 foreign workers were released on Oct 30.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 26, In northwestern Pakistan paramilitary troops battled supporters of radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, killing at least one in a fierce fight with heavy weapons. Militants seized and beheaded 7 civilians and 6 security officers after government troops launched an assault on the radical cleric's hideout. The clashes at the hideout of Fazlullah in the village of Imamdheri also left three rebels and two civilians dead.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AFP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, The Bush administration and NY state cut a deal to create a new generation of super-secure driver’s licenses, which would also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 27, In San Francisco thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown, chanting and carrying signs that read: "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs."
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 27, Despite significant dissent among some of its workers, United Auto Workers members narrowly passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2007 Oct 27, A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan security uniform detonated his explosives at the entrance to a combined US-Afghan base, killing four Afghan soldiers and a civilian. In Helmand province Taliban militants killed three Afghan police who had been trying to prevent them from carrying out a kidnapping. The militants successfully kidnapped an Afghan man during the gunbattle. US-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town near Musa Qala in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.A16)
2007 Oct 27, Algerian security sources said the army killed 17 Islamist rebels during security operations in the east of the country over three days this week.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, Mai Mai militia leader and army deserter Kibamba Kasereka said he had surrendered to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive Nord-Kivu province, agreeing to calls to disarm his forces.
(AFP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, Queues of frustrated, angry passengers built up at main French airports as Air France cancelled scores of flights on the third day of a strike by cabin staff.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, In eastern India Naxalite rebels opened fire on a crowd of revelers at a festival, killing a politician's son and 17 other people in Jharkhand state.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, Iraqi troops found 17 decomposed bodies of unidentified men near the restive city of Baquba in a grim reminder of sustained sectarian bloodletting, as 12 other people were killed in the country. Gunmen wearing military uniforms abducted the police chief of the town of Muqdadiyah in Diyala and his seven bodyguards. In Basra a local elections official was gunned down in front of his house. US forces seized a Shiite fighter and shot dead two others, accusing them of ignoring cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's order to freeze militia's activities.
(AFP, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 27, In Somalia insurgents and government-allied forces battled with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in the heaviest fighting to hit Mogadishu for months, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens others wounded.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, An official of the Vietnamese embassy to South Africa was shot and seriously injured in a robbery at his Pretoria residence.
(AFP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 27, Sudan's government and some rebel groups began talks in Libya to end 4-1/2 years of conflict in Darfur. Sudan's government committed to a cease-fire in Darfur, but mediators and journalists outnumbered the few rebels who did not boycott the UN-sponsored negotiations, reducing hopes for an end to the fighting. According to 2 rebel factions Sudan’s government attacked the Jabel Moun area along the Chad-Sudan border.
(Reuters, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Denver the Boston Red Sox swept to their second World Series title in four years with a 4-3 win over the Colorado Rockies in Game 4.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, Iowa Democrats voted to move their leadoff precinct caucuses to Jan 3. Republicans had picked the same date earlier this month.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 28, In Joliet, Illinois, Stacy Peterson (23), the current wife of police officer Drew Peterson, was last seen. On Nov 10 state police said Peterson is no longer a person of interest in the disappearance but a suspect. A coroner's jury ruled the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife, an accident. On Nov 17 former NYC chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden analyzed Kathleen Savio's remains and concluded she died after a struggle. In 2008 Dr. Larry W. Blum said in an autopsy report that Kathleen Savio died by drowning and her death was ruled a homicide. In 2009 Peterson (55) was arrested during a traffic stop and faced murder charges.
(AP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 2/22/08)(AP, 5/8/09)
2007 Oct 28, A beach house erupted into a storm of fire and smoke in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. Six of the seven students killed attended the University of South Carolina.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In NYC orthodontist Daniel Malakov was shot and killed when he too his daughter for an arranged meeting with his former wife, Mazoltuv Borukhova. Police soon charged Borukhova with hiring a cousin by marriage to kill Malakov. In 2011 Janet Malcolm authored “Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.G4)(www.fathersandfamilies.org/?tag=daniel-malakov)
2007 Oct 28, Porter Wagoner (80), country singer, died. He was known for a string of country hits in the '60s, perennial appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in his trademark rhinestone suits, and for launching the career of Dolly Parton. The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957. His syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," ran for 21 years, beginning in 1960.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, A six-hour battle in southern Afghanistan left over 50 Taliban fighters killed or wounded in Uruzgan province. In the east, coalition forces raided a compound suspected of housing al-Qaida facilitators, killing several militants in Kunar province.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the other half of the power couple credited with the country’s rebound from an economic collapse, overshadowed 13 rivals as voting opened in Argentina's presidential elections. Cristina Fernandez, claimed victory in the country's presidential election; she became the first woman elected to the post.
(AP, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/28/08)
2007 Oct 28, Nordin Benallal, a Belgian inmate, made a dramatic escape from jail for the fourth time after his armed accomplices landed in the prison grounds in a hijacked helicopter. On landing, the helicopter was crowded by other prisoners, making takeoff impossible and causing it to crash. Benallal and his cohorts then briefly seized two prison warders as hostages and fled in a car parked nearby.
(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In London a media report said US financial services group GMAC will lead a rescue bid for stricken bank Northern Rock.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, Bulgarians voted in municipal elections that attracted a record number of candidates given the scheduled influx of millions of euros in EU funding over the next few years. The vote will prove a mid-term test for the ruling centre-left coalition government of PM Sergey Stanishev.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Dubai thousands of South Asian construction workers went on strike over harsh working conditions in the latest threat to a spectacular building boom already endangered by a falling currency and labor shortage.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, Tens of thousands of impoverished Indians arrived in New Delhi ending a monthlong march to draw attention to the plight of those dispossessed of their land by recent economic development.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Baghdad 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who joined forces against al-Qaida were abducted. One sheik was soon found shot to death. Shehab Mohammad al-Hiti (27), editor for the fledgling weekly Baghdad al-Youm, was killed in Baghdad. A car bomb ripped through a Kirkuk bus terminal that serves travelers to Iraq's Kurdish region, killing eight people and wounding 26. Gunmen sprayed a car carrying five bodyguards of the head of local Sunni Endowments department in the turbulent city of Basra, killing one of them and injuring the rest.
(AP, 10/28/07)(SFC, 10/29/07, p.A9)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, Israel began cutting vital fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip, following through on a promise to step up pressure on the area's Hamas rulers in response to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, At least 15 migrants drowned in the waters off the Italian coast in two separate incidents, including the disintegration of a boat that spilled more than 100 passengers into rough seas.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In northwestern Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter gunships militant hideouts in the mountains of the district. Over 60 militants died in the fierce fighting.
(AP, 10/29/07)(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 28, Puerto Rican and US archaeologists said they have found the best-preserved pre-Columbian site in the Caribbean, which could shed light on virtually every aspect of Indian life in the region. Artifacts of Taino or pre-Taino people dated from 600 A.D. to 1500 A.D.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, The USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer, fired on and destroyed two pirate boats tied to the Golden Nori, a hijacked Japanese-flagged chemical tanker. The ship was carrying a load of benzene off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 28, UN-brokered peace talks ground to a halt, with officials saying there could be no key steps until the fighters decided how to negotiate with the Sudanese government.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, Turkish troops killed some 20 Kurdish guerrillas in fighting in eastern Tunceli province. Turkey's PM Erdogan called for unity between Turks and Kurds against the rebels.
(Reuters, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/29/07)(WSJ, 10/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 28, The Vatican staged its largest mass beatification ceremony ever, putting 498 victims (1934-1937) of religious persecution before and during Spain's civil war on the path to possible sainthood.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 29, Police in riot gear cleared several large crowds gathered around Fenway Park in the early morning after the Red Sox won their second World Series title in four years.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Oil prices closed at a record $93.53 per barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.C2)
2007 Oct 29, David Tallichet (b.1922), pioneer of theme restaurants and collector of war planes, died. He had opened his first South Seas-inspired venue on the edge of the harbor in Long Beach, Ca. Specialty Restaurants went public in 1968. He took it private again in 1980. The company declared bankruptcy in 1993 and then emerged as a leaner operation. In 2007 the company operated 25 restaurants in 9 states.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.A7)
2007 Oct 29, In a special Internet announcement in Arabic, picked up DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, Osama bin Laden’s followers announced the launching of Electronic Jihad. On Sunday, Nov. 11, al Qaeda’s electronic experts will start attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites.
(http://debka.com/)
2007 Oct 29, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol ended in the deaths of three civilians and an officer in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Argentina partial results indicated voters had elected a female president for the first time and launched their country's most powerful political dynasty since Juan and Evita Peron. President Kirchner and first lady Cristina Fernandez were poised to switch jobs in December.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Azerbaijan the US and British embassies suspended operations in Baku, where the government said it thwarted a radical Islamic group's plot to conduct a "large-scale horrifying terror attack" against diplomatic missions and government buildings. One suspect was killed and several others were detained in a weekend sweep in village outside the capital.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Canada’s PM Harper received Tibet's exiled spiritual leader in his office in Parliament. He presented the 1989 Nobel laureate with a maple-leaf scarf. The next day China condemned Harper for "disgusting conduct" for playing host to the Dalai Lama.
(Reuters, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 28, Authorities in Chad charged six French charity workers with kidnapping after they tried to put 103 children on a plane to France, claiming they were orphans from Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region. The charity workers were later convicted, jailed for several months, then pardoned.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Oct 29, China’s Xinhua news agency said more than 6,000 people will be forced from their homes on the southern island of Hainan to make way for the country's newest space launch centre. China said that it had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods, part of ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country's products. State media said coal mining regions of northern China are reporting soaring levels of defects in newborns, an apparent result of heavy pollution.
(AP, 10/29/07)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Tropical Storm Noel caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people in the Dominican Republic and left another 20 missing.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 29, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced plans to build several nuclear power plants, joining several Arab countries in the Middle East that recently have broadcast their own atomic energy ambitions.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In India 14 children working in a textiles factory were rescued after media reports said an Indian clothing supplier to US retailer Gap was employing underage workers.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 29, A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 29 people, most of them struck by iron balls packed with the explosives. A group of Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders, meanwhile, were rescued, one day after they were kidnapped in the capital after meeting with the government to discuss how to coordinate efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq. The US military discovered a weapons cache in Turki village near Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. The stash included 20 rocket-propelled grenades, ten mortar rounds and three hand grenades. US Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko was wounded in a roadside bombing in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 10/29/07)(AP, 10/30/07)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 29, Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert announced that he has prostate cancer and would soon have surgery, but said the disease is not life-threatening and he would continue to perform his duties.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Japanese megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said that its losses on US subprime loans soared by as much as six-fold over two months to $263 million.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Pro-Taliban militants and security forces reached a cease-fire in a troubled district of northwest Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Portugal senior officials from the EU, three US states (California, New York, New Jersey), Canada, Norway and New Zealand launched the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), an international effort to fight climate change by building a global carbon trading market.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 28, A Moscow court sentenced Alexander Pichushkin, convicted of 48 murders, to life imprisonment, ending one of Russia's worst serial killer cases.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Oct 29, African leaders and technology experts met in Rwanda to discuss plans to boost the continent's development by securing universal Internet access by 2012.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, A long-brewing power struggle between the Somali PM Ali Mohamed Gedi and Pres. Abdullahi Yusuf ended with the premier's resignation, throwing the government of the war-battered Horn of Africa nation into disarray. In Mogadishu, hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets in a second day of protests against the presence of the Ethiopian troops in the country.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run news said soldiers battled separatist Kurdish rebels across southeast Turkey, trapping about 100 in caves near the Iraqi border after blocking escape routes across the frontier. Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey and the government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades and flypasts in major cities.
(AP, 10/29/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Patrick Duddy, the new US ambassador to Venezuela met with President Hugo Chavez, calling it a positive start toward improving tense relations.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Mike McConnell, US Director of National Intelligence, said the government spent $43.5 billion on intelligence this year.
(SFC, 10/31/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 30, The US Supreme Court halted a Mississippi execution, their 3rd reprieve since agreeing to rule on Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure.
(WSJ, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, It was reported that John Murtha, US Democratic Congressman from Johnstown, Pa., and chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, had steered at least $600 million in earmarks to his district over the past 4 years. Since 1992 he has sent some $2 billion to his home district.
(WSJ, 10/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 29, Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards sharply challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's candor, consistency and judgment in a televised debate in Philadelphia.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2007 Oct 30, Stan O’Neal, CEO of Merril Lynch, left the company with $161.5 million in stock, options and retirement benefits, following the recent investment bank’s largest ever quarterly loss.
(SFC, 10/31/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 30, In Sunnyvale, Ca., Todd David Burpee kidnapped and raped a 17-year-old girl. He was arrested 2 days later. In 2009 Burpee (22) was convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault and was sentenced 43 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/30/09, p.B2)(SFC, 9/12/09, p.C3)
2007 Oct 30, The San Francisco Bay area's largest earthquake in nearly two decades rattled homes and nerves. The magnitude-5.6 temblor on the Calaveras Fault caused no serious damage or injuries.
(AP, 10/31/07)(SFC, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, NASA said US astronomers have discovered the biggest black hole orbiting a star 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia, with a record-setting mass of 24 to 33 times that of our Sun.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, It was reported that a floating mass of trash some 1,000 miles west of SF and 1,000 miles north of Hawaii covered an area about the size of Texas with an estimated mass of 3 million tons, mostly made up of plastic chips.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, Robert Goulet (73), whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, died in Los Angeles. Goulet also performed in movies ranging from the animated "Gay Purr-ee" (1962) to "Underground" (1970) to "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" (1991). He played a lounge singer in Louis Malle's acclaimed 1980 film "Atlantic City."
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, American journalist Harry W. Morgan (73), founder of the World Press Institute (1961), died in Romania. Morgan had moved to Romania in 1994, when the government invited him to help develop journalism schools at the universities of Bucharest, Sibiu and Timisoara.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Linda Stein (62), a pioneer in the punk music scene and later known as a real estate “broker to the stars," was found murdered in her Manhattan apartment. On Nov 9 police arrested Natavia Lowery (26), Stein’s personal assistant, who bludgeoned her boss to death because Stein “just kept yelling at her."
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.E2)(SFC, 11/10/07, p.E2)
2007 Oct 30, Washoe the chimp (42), who had learned American sign Language, died at Central Washington Univ. in Ellensburg, Wa. Cognitive researchers had adopted the 10-month-old chimp from military researchers in 1966.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 30, An Azerbaijani newspaper editor was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison over an article alleging that the former Soviet republic could support a US attack on neighboring Iran. The Court for Grave Crimes convicted Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder and editor of two independent newspapers that stopped publication this spring amid government pressure, on charges of making a terrorist threat and inciting interethnic conflict.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Nordin Benallal (27), a Belgian gangster dubbed "The Eel" for his skill at slipping away from Belgian prison authorities, was caught in the Netherlands two days after his latest jailbreak.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, In London Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah received a lavish welcome from Queen Elizabeth II as he started a state visit amid angry protests and headlines after accusing Britain of anti-terrorism failures. The Policy Exchange, an independent think tank, said Agencies linked to the Saudi government have distributed extremist literature to mosques and Islamic centers in Britain.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Canada's Conservative government vowed to slash corporate and personal taxes and still pay down C$10 billion in debt this year.
(Reuters, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met India's leadership at the start of a state visit aimed at boosting trade and security links.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, An Indonesian court dismissed a legal challenge to the death penalty brought by lawyers for members of an Australian drugs gang on death row for heroin smuggling.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car tossed a hand grenade into a crowd of shoppers in eastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five. At least four mortar rounds slammed into a village near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing a woman and wounding five other civilians. Three US soldiers were killed after their patrol was struck by an explosive and small arms fire in Salman Pak.
(AP, 10/30/07)(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Oct 30, Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas-run police station in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing at least four people.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Italy Giovanna Reggiani (47) was brutally attacked as she returned home in northern Rome. She died 2 days later. Nicolae Mailat, a Romanian Gypsy, admitted to snatching her bag but denied her murder. Her attack triggered a public outcry.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.63)
2007 Oct 30, Myanmar's military government freed seven members of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, who had been held for more than a month. Human Rights Watch charged that Myanmar’s military government is recruiting children as young as 10 into its armed forces.
(AP, 10/30/07)(WSJ, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, Patricia Etteh, the speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, resigned, just hours after saying she would step aside temporarily to enable lawmakers to debate a report indicting her over a contract scam. A panel's report found Etteh did not follow due process before awarding contracts worth several million dollars to equip and renovate her official residence and that of her deputy.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Pakistan a suicide attacker set off a bomb at a checkpoint a quarter-mile from the military headquarters in Rawalpindi where President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was staying, killing 3 officers and 4 civilians.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Paraguay's Supreme Court annulled the mutiny conviction of former army Gen. Lino Cesar Oviedo, clearing the way for him to compete in April's presidential election.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Puerto Rico federal authorities arrested more than two dozen people in a crackdown on fraudulent medical licenses on the island.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Somalia's president named Salim Aliyow Ibrow, a former deputy prime minister, as a caretaker prime minister, a day after the outgoing premier lost a power struggle in the government and resigned.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, The US Navy boarded a North Korean flagged ship at its invitation with a small team of medics, security personnel and an interpreter. The 22-person North Korean crew already had regained control of the ship and detained all the Somali pirates.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 30, Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, reported its first quarterly loss in five years after its third quarter results were hit in the financial crisis caused by the ailing US home loans market.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Thailand's military-installed government lifted martial law in more than half of the 400 districts where it remained after being imposed during a coup last year.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Turkish Cobra attack helicopters blasted suspected Kurdish rebel targets near the southeastern border with Iraq in a second day of fighting in the area. PM Erdogan said an escalation of military action was unavoidable.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, The UN General Assembly voted for the 16th straight year to urge the United States to end its trade embargo against Cuba, whose foreign minister accused the US of stepping up its "brutal economic war" to new heights.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, Pres. Bush signed into law a measure barring states from levying taxes on Internet access through 2014.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C2)
2007 Oct 31, The US acknowledged that it had undertaken military moves against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, including spy planes and providing Turkey with more intelligence.
(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 31, The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point to 4.5%. The DJIA rose 137.54 to 13,930.01. Nasdaq rose 42.41 to 2,859. Oil futures rose to a new record high closing at $94.53 per barrel on the NY mercantile Exchange. Gold traded above $800 an ounce for the first time since 1980.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.C1)(AP, 10/31/08)
2007 Oct 30, In California Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona was indicted on seven counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering, according to a sweeping indictment unsealed a day earlier. Carona and others allegedly accepted $350,000 in gifts and cash in exchange for political favors in a scheme that began as early as 1998, the year he was first elected. On Jan 16, 2009, a jury convicted Carona on one count of witness-tampering and acquitted him of bribery charges.
(AP, 10/31/07)(SFC, 10/31/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/17/09, p.A3)
2007 Oct 31, In Alameda, Ca., Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan (15) was shot in the back and killed in a robbery attempt by a group of teenage boys. She had been out with some 10 friends on Halloween when they were accosted at Washington Park. Quochuy Tran (16), the suspected shooter, was arrested Nov 7 and 5 others were picked up the next day. 3 boys arrested earlier in the week were released. On Dec 14 three teenage boys were convicted in juvenile court of first degree murder. Charges were still pending against 3 others. On Jan 25 Tran was sentenced to 7 years. His younger brother (15) and another boy (13) were sentenced to a wilderness camp for 2 years. In 2010 Quochuy Tran was tried as an adult and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for first degree murder.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/14/07, p.B5)(SFC, 12/15/07, p.B1)(SFC, 1/26/08, p.B3)(SFC, 8/21/10, p.C2)
2007 Oct 31, San Francisco energy officials approved a new $230 million power plant near Potrero Hill, which would let it close an older, dirtier plant nearby.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 31, Physicists at UC Berkeley said they had produced the world’s smallest radio out of a single carbon nanotube, 10,000 times thinner than human hair. They had it play “Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and said it could also function as a transmitter.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 31, In Hawaii state lawmakers voted to allow the new inter-island ferry to resume service. The Superferry law overrode court decisions requiring an environmental study.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A4)
2007 Oct 31, Officials said Afghan, US and Canadian troops have surrounded a pocket of some 250 Taliban fighters who have commandeered people's homes in villages just outside Kandahar. In western Farah province six police officers were killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing after clashes with Taliban militants. A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by Afghan troops with US support sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Oct 31, In London King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met PM Gordon Brown to discuss Middle East issues and counter-terrorism, amid a swirl of protests.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, China's worst fuel crisis in two years spread to the capital and other inland areas, and one man was killed in a brawl at a petrol station queue, upping pressure on the government to intervene.
(Reuters, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In Dubai more than 4,000 south Asian workers who had been jailed since a weekend labor strike were released, in an incident that has highlighted labor tensions in this booming city.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Authorities said French police had arrested 20 suspects as part of a Europe-wide crackdown on child pornography over the Internet.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Alcatel-Lucent, the struggling French-US telecommunications equipment maker, announced it would cut an additional 4,000 jobs by 2009 as it unveiled a sharp third quarter net loss.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Iraqi government rejected the findings of a US oversight panel that a dam near the northern city of Mosul is on the verge of a collapse that could cause flooding along the Tigris River "all the way to Baghdad." US helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came under attack southeast of Baghdad, and Iraqi police said three officers were killed and one wounded in the strike. Two American soldiers were killed by an explosion near their vehicle in Iraq's northern Ninevah province.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 31, More than 100 Buddhist monks marched in northern Myanmar for nearly an hour, the first public demonstration since the government's deadly crackdown last month on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In southern Nigeria one navy officer was killed and four other naval personnel injured in an overnight attack on a vessel protecting a Shell oilfield.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Pakistan military helicopter gunships strafed Islamic militant positions in the northwestern Swat Valley as a shaky truce collapsed.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, A bomb ripped through a passenger bus in the central Russian city of Togliatti, killing eight people and injuring 48. Togliatti is a city on the Volga River known as the headquarters of Russia's largest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, which returned to state control in 2005. The city has a reputation for gang violence as varying groups have competed for control over the lucrative factory.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Spanish lawmakers passed historic legislation condemning Gen. Francisco Franco's coup and nearly 40-year fascist dictatorship, brushing aside complaints from the conservative opposition that the bill would reopen old divides. 3 lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid terror bombings that killed 191 people were convicted of murder by the Spanish court. Four other top suspects were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges. In all 21 of the 28 defendants were convicted.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Turkish army said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq's autonomous Kurdish government.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct, Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir likened tourists to "worms, snakes, maggots" and called for signs to be placed in Muslim areas warning them to dress modestly in a speech to an Islamic youth organization in east Java.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2007 Oct, In Japan a woman (19) in Hiroshima was allegedly raped by 4 US Marines. In 2008 Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean (20) was sentenced to two years in prison for "wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts" but cleared of rape. 3 other Marines still faced court-martial.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2007 Oct, Mexican officials seized 23.5 tons of cocaine this month, the largest seizure ever reported in Mexico. A US report, commissioned by Sen. Lugar, later estimated that 530-710 tons of cocaine crossed annually into the US.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.45)
2007 Oct, The first commercial wave farm was set up off the coast of Portugal. The system was created at Pelamis Wave Power, a firm based in Scotland.
(Econ, 5/31/08, TQ p.22)
2007 Oct, Russian oil production peaked at 9.9 million barrels a day. The state creamed off as much as 92% of profits hindering incentives for production and development.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.71)
2007 Oct, Fighting broke out between Somaliland and Puntland in the disputed Sool region.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.56)
2007 Oct-2008 Nov, In Senegal lead poisoning killed 18 children in Thiaroye Sur Mer. For years, the town's blacksmiths had extracted lead from car batteries and remolded it into weights for fishing nets. The work left the dirt of Thiaroye dense with small lead particles. As the price of lead climbed local people had begun to sift the dirt to extract the lead.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2007 Nov 1, A defiant Democratic-controlled Congress voted to provide health insurance to an additional 4 million lower-income children; President Bush vowed swiftly to cast his second straight veto on the issue.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2007 Nov 1, A federal jury convicted Vic Kohring, a former Alaska lawmaker, of corruption charges involving tax protections sought by oil companies as part of plans for a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Florida’s high court ruled that the state’s lethal injection procedures aren’t cruel and unusual, which could clear the way for an execution.
(WSJ, 11/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 1, Chrysler LLC said it plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, or up to 15 percent of its workforce, as part of an effort to slash costs and match slowing demand for some vehicles.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, General Mills recalled about 5 million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totino's and Jeno's labels because of possible E. coli contamination.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, An alliance including Google announced a plan to make social networks as open as Netscape’s browser made the web.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.78)
2007 Nov 1, A project called “The Deep Carbon Observatory," a multidisciplinary, international initiative dedicated to achieving a transformational understanding of Earth's deep carbon cycle, received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.86)(https://dco.gl.ciw.edu/about/history)
2007 Nov 1, Retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Paul Tibbets (92), who'd piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died in Columbus, Ohio.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2007 Nov 1, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others. In Kandahar province hundreds of Taliban militants fled from Arghandab district following three days of fighting which left more than 50 militants dead and hundreds displaced.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Bosnian PM Nikola Spiric resigned in protest at an international envoy's decision to impose EU-backed reforms, deepening the country's worst post-war political crisis.
(AFP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, London's Metropolitan Police force was convicted of breaching health and safety laws in the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian, who officers mistook for a suicide bomber on July 22, 2005.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, China’s government for the first time in 17 months allowed an increase of about 10% in the retail prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene. The government also said more than 700 toy factories in southern China have been banned from exporting what they produce as part of a crackdown on shoddy products.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.46)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Floodwaters and mudslides spawned by Tropical Storm Noel killed at least 143 people including 84 in the Dominican Republic and 57 in Haiti. By this evening Noel was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane and rains continued to pound the area.
(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) went into effect across 30 countries in Europe. Approved in 2004 it drops traditional rules that required banks and brokers to use national exchanges for reporting and trading equities, opening Europe's exchanges to the threat of new competition.
(www.efinancialnews.com/homepage/specialfeatures/2449084355)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.83)(Econ, 4/26/14, p.67)
2007 Nov 1, A top UN official said South American traffickers are moving billions of dollars worth of cocaine through Guinea-Bissau, amid growing demand in Europe, an amount so large it dwarfs all other economic sectors combined and could destabilize the coup-prone country.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 1, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former French finance minister, took over as head of the IMF. By convention the IMF chief is European.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.88)
2007 Nov 1, The Indian government proposed to recruit retired soldiers to patrol tiger sanctuaries in the hopes of saving the last of the cats after an official report confirmed a drastic drop in wild tiger numbers.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, Bombs and shootings killed at least 21 people in attacks across Baghdad and its northern suburbs. US and Iraqi troops arrested 85 suspected insurgents in operations around the country. Two US airmen and an Air Force civilian were killed by an explosive near Balad Air Base.
(AP, 11/1/07)(WSJ, 11/2/07, p.A1)(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Israel’ military announced that its forces operating in the Gaza Strip this week had uncovered and destroyed seven tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle arms and people.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, Italy's president signed a decree allowing the expulsion of EU citizens "for reasons of public safety" to fight "episodes of heavy violence and ferocious crime." This followed the Oct 30 attack on a 47-year-old woman as she walked along a road after dark toward barracks where she lived. She was beaten, dragged through mud and left half naked in a ditch. The woman died 2 days later. Police arrested Nicolae Mailat a Romanian in his 20s, who lives in a shack in one of several sprawling settlements on the outskirts of Rome.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, In Italy Meredith Kercher (21), a British university student, was killed [see Nov 2].
(AP, 12/5/09)
2007 Nov 1, Japan's defense minister ordered ships supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan to return home after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of the mission, saying it violated the country's pacifist constitution.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Pakistani security forces in the Swat region killed at least 60 militant supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric, hours after a suicide attack on a Pakistan Air Force bus killed eight and wounded 40. Militants said they had captured 44 members of the Frontier Corps and were holding them hostage.
(AP, 11/1/07)(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A21)
2007 Nov 1, The UN said nearly 90,000 people have fled Mogadishu in recent days following the heaviest fighting to shake the war-battered city in months. About 40 people, mostly Somalis, drowned while crossing the Gulf of Aden on their way to Yemen in a desperate attempt to escape gunbattles back home. About 90 others survived and managed to reach the Yemeni southern shores of Shokara after their rickety vessels capsized.
(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 1, State media reported that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed a law giving him more power to choose his successor. The new law also provides for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary polls next year.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, The UN General Assembly's disarmament committee approved a resolution calling for all nuclear weapons to be taken off high alert, despite objections from the United States, Britain and France.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Soldiers used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter tens of thousands who massed to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Speaking at a graduation ceremony at Fort Jackson, S.C., President Bush said US military deaths had fallen to their lowest levels in 19 months and the Iraqi people were slowly "taking back their country" in the wake of the American troop buildup there.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2007 Nov 2, Michael Mukasey drew closer to becoming attorney general after two key Senate Democrats, Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, said they would vote for him despite his refusal to say whether waterboarding was torture.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2007 Nov 2, Gold futures at the NY Mercantile Exchange set a contract high of $805.70, its highest level since the $873 contract high reached in January 1980.
(WSJ, 11/3/07, p.B3)
2007 Nov 2, A new study, issued by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, said drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV have merged into a double-barreled epidemic that is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa and threatening global efforts to eradicate both diseases.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, In southern Afghanistan a US-led coalition soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed in clashes with insurgents.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, In England a massive fire at a vegetable packing warehouse in Atherstone On Stour, near Stratford-upon-Avon, left one fire fighter dead and 3 missing.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Iraqi police found only six bodies dumped in three Iraqi cities, and no reports of shootings or bombings. The prime minister of Iraq's northern Kurdish region condemned attacks by Kurdish rebel fighters inside Turkey and said he hopes a weekend summit in Istanbul will reduce the threat of Turkish military strikes inside Iraq.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Italy began deporting Romanians with criminal records in response to a streak of violent crime blamed on immigrants. In Rome up to 10 people wearing motorcycle helmets attacked a group of Romanians with knives, metal bars and sticks in the parking lot of a supermarket. Three Romanians were injured. As part of the crackdown, bulldozers in Rome for a second day knocked down shantytowns where thousands of foreigners lived without permits.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, In Italy Meredith Kercher (21), a British university student, was found dead with her throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the central city of Perugia. A week later 3 suspects in the murder were remanded in custody by an Italian investigating magistrate. On Nov 19 police in Perugia identified a 4th suspect as Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native. Guede was arrested in Germany the next day and DNA evidence confirmed that he had sex with Kercher the night she was stabbed. In 2009 roommate Amanda Knox, of Seattle, Wa., was convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison. The court also convicted Knox's co-defendant and former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, and gave him a 25-year jail term for the murder. Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen, had already been convicted in the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 11/22/07)(AP, 12/5/09)
2007 Nov 2, A UN helicopter crashed on a routine flight in northern Liberia, killing two crew members and leaving a third missing.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Rescuers in boats and helicopters worked to evacuate people stranded by a flood the president called "one of the worst natural disasters" to hit Mexico. A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, leaving 70 percent of the Gulf state of Tabasco underwater. Gov. Andres Granier estimated the damage at $5 billion. The death toll reached to about 25.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.45)
2007 Nov 2, A Nigerian court sentenced Omoniyi Sanlola (25), a university student, to 34 years in jail for forging US Postal Service money orders. The judge handed him one-year terms for each count, to run concurrently.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Pakistan International Airlines had to cancel 40 percent of its international and domestic flights after aircraft engineers went on mass sick leave in a protest over pay. A missile strike on a pro-Taliban militant camp in Pakistan's tribal belt killed 10 people, as rebels in another area paraded 48 men said to be troops captured during fierce clashes.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Igor Moiseyev (101), called the king of folk dance, died in Moscow. In 1937 he founded the Moiseyev Dance Company which went on to inspire folk dance companies in many other countries.
(SFC, 11/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Nov 2, A Sri Lankan airstrike pounded a meeting of top rebel leaders, killing S.P. Thamilselvan, the head of the Tamil Tigers' political wing and five others in an attack seen as a major victory for the government in its long fight with the guerrillas.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.49)
2007 Nov 2, Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir reached agreement with southern leader Salva Kiir, who is also first vice president, that all provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement would now be implemented by the end of the year.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Venezuela's pro-government National Assembly overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms that would greatly expand the power of President Hugo Chavez and permit him to run for re-election indefinitely.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 3, Agricultural giant Cargill Inc. said it is recalling over 1 million pounds of ground beef distributed in the United States because of possible E. Coli contamination.
(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Spacewalker Scott Parazynski fixed a ripped solar energy panel on the international space station in a difficult and dangerous emergency procedure that allowed the crew to extend the wing to its full length.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Boss, a robotic Chevrolet Tahoe from Carnegie Mellon Univ., won the annual DARPA sponsored race in San Bernadino County, Ca. 6 of 11 starting vehicles finished the 10-mile race, designed to simulate a town. No car finished the first race in 2004.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.100)
2007 Nov 3, United Auto Workers agreed to a tentative contract with Ford Motor Co.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2007 Nov 3, Eighteen big rigs were involved in the massive pileup on Highway 99 just south of Fresno, Ca., as patches of dense fog obscured visibility on the heavily traveled roadway. More than 100 cars and trucks crashed, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 3, Abu Dhabi began work on building the world's first Ferrari theme park, another step in the Gulf emirate's ambition to become a global centre for leisure, sport and culture.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 3, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made her first visit to Afghanistan and said Berlin would increase efforts to strengthen the Afghan police.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Egypt's ruling party appointed President Hosni Mubarak's son to an important new committee in a move seen as further paving the way for the younger Mubarak to succeed his father.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, In Indonesia continuous tremors beneath the Mount Kelud volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, became so strong that they could no longer be read on seismological instruments, leading scientists to evacuate their posts and warn that an eruption appeared to have occurred. It was a false alarm but next day the volcano spewed ash.
(AP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 3, Two Iraqi officers were killed and one was wounded in three separate attacks south of Baghdad. The Basra police chief escaped an apparent assassination attempt. Iraqi troops discovered 22 bodies in a mass grave in the Lake Tharthar area northwest of Baghdad during a joint operation with US troops. It was the second mass grave found in the area in less than a month. The US military said that a female soldier was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, at least the 90th woman service member to die since the start of the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/3/07)(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 3, Al-Qaida's No. 2 figure harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a new audio tape, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the US.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Je Yell Kim, a Canadian Christian aid worker who provided dental care for North Koreans in the northeast part of the country, was taken into custody by authorities on charges of violating national security. Kim was released in late Jan 2008.
(Reuters, 1/28/08)
2007 Nov 3, Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf launched his 2nd coup and declared a state of emergency ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win and amid rising Islamic militant violence. Eight Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution.
(AP, 11/3/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.31)
2007 Nov 3, In Russia some 1,500 people, half of them pensioners, marched through St. Petersburg chanting anti-Kremlin slogans and banging saucepans in protest against rising food prices.
(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Some 5,000 Turkish Kurds protested against a military incursion into Iraq, saying such a move would enflame ethnic tensions in the region and plunge the local economy into ruin. Iraq said it was ready to hunt down and arrest Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey in an effort to avert a major incursion by the Turkish military.
(AFP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Citigroup Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince, beset by the company's billions of dollars in losses from investing in bad debt, resigned. Citigroup in this quarter took subprime-related write-downs of $18.1 billion.
(AP, 11/4/08)(Econ 5/6/17, SR p.5)
2007 Nov 4, Paula Radcliffe outlasted Gete Wami to win her second New York City Marathon in 2:23:09. Martin Lel of Kenya won his second men's title, in 2:09:04.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2007 Nov 4, Taliban insurgents seized Khak-e Sefid without a fight, its third district in western Farah province. A Farah provincial police chief said: "There are many Iranians and Pakistanis fighting among the Afghan Taliban." Local residents have complained that NATO-led troops, under Italian command in western Afghanistan, have not helped Afghan forces to retake the districts.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Argentina a fire apparently set as part of an escape attempt swept through a prison cellblock and killed at least 29 inmates in the central province of Santiago del Estero.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 4, Welshman Joe Calzaghe confirmed his status as boxing's best super-middleweight by unanimously outpointing Denmark's Mikkel Kessler in a triple world title fight at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
(AFP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Chad 3 French journalists and 4 Spanish flight attendants, among 17 detained for over a week in an alleged attempt to kidnap 103 African children, were released. French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Chad on a visit to discuss the fate of Europeans facing charges for trying to fly 103 African children to Europe.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, Cairo, ranked one of the most polluted cities in the world, was reported to be once again under the shadow of a highly toxic black cloud which settles above the huge city every autumn. Exhaust fumes belched by millions of cars mixed with the hypertoxic emissions of the annual burning of rice stubble in rural areas of the Nile Delta are a prime cause, along with the city's ever-expanding population.
(AFP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Egypt the face of King Tut was unshrouded in public for the first time, 85 years after the 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh's golden enshrined tomb and mummy were discovered in Luxor's famed Valley of the Kings in 1922.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said they had killed another 270 government troops in heightened fighting in the eastern region of the country.
(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Guatemala Alvaro Colom, a businessman promising to end Guatemala's desperate poverty, won the country's presidential election. Otto Perez Molina (56), a former general vowing a crackdown on rampant crime, had held a slim edge in polls over Alvaro Colom. Only 48% of registered voters went to the polls. Colom’s National Union of Hope will control only 52 of 158 seats in Congress.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.47)
2007 Nov 4, Two carloads of gunman ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry in Baghdad, killing him and his driver. The two were among 15 people killed or found dead in Iraq. Kurdish rebels released eight Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq two weeks after they were captured in a deadly ambush that intensified pressure on the Turkish government to attack the guerrillas in Iraq.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, Israeli aircraft fired at a rocket-launching site in the northern Gaza Strip, killing three civilians sleeping in a nearby storage container.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Mexico a landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called a "mini-tsunami" that wiped San Juan Grijalva, in Chiapas near the Tabasco border, off the map. 15 bodies were later recovered with 9 left missing. The floods killed at least 8 others in Tabasco and elsewhere in Chiapas.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/13/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 4, Pakistani police wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights activists after Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution, ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism. Pro-Taliban militants set free 211 Pakistani troops they have held captive since late August in a tribal region near the Afghan border. In exchange Pakistan released 25 Taliban including Sohail Zeb (22), who was sentenced to 24 years in jail a month earlier after being arrested with 2 suicide belts.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.34)
2007 Nov 4, Some 5,000 nationalists turned out for the Russian March, held for the third year on National Unity Day, a holiday the Kremlin created in 2005 to replace the traditional Nov. 7 celebration of the 1917 Bolshevik rise to power. Preston Wiginton (43), a white supremacist from Texas, addressed thousands of Russian nationalists at the rally. A fire tore through a nursing home in Russia, killing at least 31 people, the latest in a series of deadly blazes that have underscored negligence and other problems plaguing state-run institutions.
(AP, 11/4/07)(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 4, Somali pirates left the Tanzanian-flagged boats Mavuno 1 and 2, which they had hijacked in the waters off Somalia on May 15. The newly liberated vessels, and their crew of 24, were under US Navy escort. Among the crew on the South Korean-owned vessels were four South Koreans, 10 Chinese, three Vietnamese, three Indians and four Indonesians.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 5, Brent Wilkes (53), a former defense contractor, was convicted by a San Diego court of bribing former congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham with 700,000 dollars in cash, gifts and prostitutes. Cunningham was sentenced to eight years and four months in March last year after pleading guilty to accepting kickbacks.
(AFP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Jurors at Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that food giants Dole and the Dow Chemical Co were jointly liable for the physical damage suffered by workers who harvested bananas in Nicaragua during the 1970s and 1980s. Six workers left infertile after exposure to a pesticide were awarded more than three million dollars.
(AFP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Talk show host Oprah Winfrey promised to ''clean house'' after a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at Winfrey's school for disadvantaged South African girls.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2007 Nov 5, The first walkout by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with noisy pickets outside the "Today" show, a strike that threatens to disrupt everything from late-night talk shows to soap operas.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, NYC Mayor Bloomberg announced a new report card for the city’s schools. He said high grade schools will get a budget increase and schools that fail will not be tolerated. Bloomberg and school chancellor Joel Klein announced a plan to in effect charterize the entire school system.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.16,35)
2007 Nov 5, Citigroup named Sir Win Bischoff (66), a London banker, as interim chief executive following the departure of Charles Prince, ousted the previous day due to loan losses on mortgage related securities. The company had over 300,000 employees in 100 countries.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.89)
2007 Nov 5, Conde Nast said it would cease publication of House & Garden magazine with the December issue and close down the magazine web site.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 5, Google introduced Android, a new operating system for cell phones. It was expected to appear in phones in the second half of 2008.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 5, Ten Islamic fundamentalists convicted of a terrorist attack were sentenced to death in their absence by an Algerian court. The group was behind a bomb attack on a police patrol in June 2003 in which nine officers were killed.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 5, Authorities said police from across Europe have arrested 92 suspects linked to an alleged network that produced and sold child abuse videos to 2,500 customers around the world. The 15-month investigation was triggered by an Australian police discovery in July 2006 of a video depicting a Belgian father raping his daughters, aged 9 and 11.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In China construction began on what was expected to be the world's tallest Ferris wheel. The $99 million Beijing Great Wheel will soar 680 feet over Beijing when it is complete.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Ao Man-long, a former transportation and public works secretary, went on trial charged with taking $100 million in kickbacks in Macao, the freewheeling Chinese gambling resort that has attracted some of Las Vegas' top casino operators.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, PetroChina made its debut on the Shanghai stock exchange. It sold 2.2% of its share capital to domestic investors in an IPO that rose from 16.90 yuan to 43.96 yuan ($5.90). For a short time it was the most valuable company in the world, but by December share value had dropped by a third.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.C3)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.85)
2007 Nov 5, In eastern Congo 27 UN peacekeepers from India were injured when attacked by a mob of hungry civilians who claimed not to have received any food aid.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.54)
2007 Nov 5, An Egyptian court convicted two police officers and sentenced them to three years in prison for torturing a bus driver, in a case that came to light after a video of the abuse was posted on the Internet.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, The Delhi State Consumer Commission ordered ICICI Bank to pay $137,500 in penalty after its loan collectors beat a man with iron rods and dragged him from a car before seizing the vehicle.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Iraq 6 US soldiers were killed in 3 separate attacks, including 5 from 2 roadside bombs near Kirkuk. The 6th died in combat operations in Anbar province.
(AP, 11/6/07)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Nov 5, Jordan's military court convicted Muammar Ahmed Yousef al-Jaghbeer, an al-Qaida militant of involvement in the deadly suicide car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Iraq in 2003 and sentenced him to death.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In North Korea a team of experts led by the US started work to disable 3 nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.55)
2007 Nov 5, Pakistani police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500 people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a stranglehold on independent media. The government said it would hold a national election by mid-January.
(AP, 11/5/07)(Reuters, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Palestinian police attacked militants in the Balata refugee camp, home to 22,000 people, one of 19 in the West Bank.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.A17)
2007 Nov 5, Poland's prime minister-designate Donald Tusk said in a published interview that the new government plans to end the country's role in the US-led coalition in Iraq in its "current form" next year. Poland's conservative PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski handed in his resignation to his twin, President Lech Kaczynski.
(AP, 11/5/07)(AFP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, A bus collided with a car on a highway in central Portugal and rolled down a slope, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Sicily Salvatore Lo Piccolo (65), who magistrates believe is the Sicilian Mafia's new "boss of bosses," was arrested after nearly a quarter of a century on the run. He was arrested with his son, Sandro (32), and two other Mafia bosses.
(Reuters, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Somali pirates released a Taiwanese fishing vessel 5 1/2 months after seizing it. The US Navy helped free the fifth ship in a week hijacked by Somalia pirates, attempting to bring security to crucial shipping routes between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The Navy was in contact with two remaining ships held by pirates in Somali waters.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, South Korea’s Home Affairs Ministry announced a campaign to promote bicycle use as a way to cope with traffic, pollution and soaring oil prices.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In central Vietnam residents braced for a tropical storm expected to make landfall later this week after floods triggered by heavy rains killed at least 24 people. People in seven coastal areas fell victim to the latest floods, which began Nov 2. The floods were the third to hit the region in three weeks.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Yemen unidentified saboteurs bombed an oil pipeline in Marib province. The attack halted the flow of oil and added to concerns in the world oil markets about adequate supplies for heating fuel.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 5, Zimbabwe's supreme court ruled the government can seize equipment belonging to white farmers whose properties were expropriated under controversial land reforms.
(AFP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom declared victory. The vote tally was expected to take as long as 2 weeks due to a state-mandated hand count.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 6, In Vallejo, Ca., mayoral candidates Osby Davis (62) and Gary Cloutier (45) finished in a dead heat. Cloutier was later sworn in as mayor after elections officials said he won by 4 votes. On Dec 11 Osby was sworn in as mayor following a recount that put him on top by 2 votes.
(SFC, 12/12/07, p.B3)
2007 Nov 6, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, dogged by a hiring scandal, lost badly to Democratic challenger Steve Beshear.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Nov 6, Central bankers past and present warned of more credit pain to come as Germany's Commerzbank and a big American lender became the latest to reveal losses from US subprime mortgage lending.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Crude oil prices hit a record highs at $97.10 and closed at a record $96.70 per barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.C2)
2007 Nov 6, Astronomers said a new planet has been discovered orbiting a sun-like star 41 light years away in the galaxy called 55 Cancri, making it the first known planetary quintet outside our solar system.
(AP, 11/7/07)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Nov 6, George Osmond (90), father of Donny and Marie Osmond and patriarch to the family's singing group The Osmond Brothers, died in Provo, Utah.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2007 Nov 6, Hank Thompson (82), country singer, died in Texas of lung cancer. Between 1948 and 1975 he had 29 songs in the top ten including “A Six Pack to Go" and “The Wild Side of Life" (1952). Kitty Wells (b.1919) sang her 1952 Honky Tonk Angels song, which was written by J.D. Miller in response to Thompson’s Wild Side of Life.
(SFC, 11/9/07, p.B7)
2007 Nov 6, In Afghanistan a bomb targeted a group of lawmakers in the northern province of Baghlan, killing at least 75 people, including 6 lawmakers. 61 schoolchildren were among the dead and 96 other students were wounded. A UN report later said up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and 100 wounded were hit by bullets from visiting lawmakers' panicked bodyguards.
(Reuters, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/9/07)(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/6/08)
2007 Nov 6, Chinese e-commerce portal Alibaba.com soared in its debut on the Hong Kong stock market. It opened at $3.86 and closed at $5.09.
(AP, 11/6/07)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.C1)
2007 Nov 6, In Bangalore, India, doctors began operating on Lakshmi, a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body. Surgeons completed the surgery the next day and said will it give the girl a chance at a normal life.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 6, 2007 became the deadliest year for US troops in Iraq, with at least 853 military deaths.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2007 Nov 6, In Kashmir a 4-day gunbattle began that left five Islamic militants and four Indian soldiers killed.
(AFP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 6, Kurdish rebels released another Iranian soldier captured two months ago in northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Italian police said a Europe-wide sweep disrupted an Islamic cell that was recruiting potential suicide bombers for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. They announced the arrests of 20 terror suspects, mostly Tunisians. Authorities in Britain, France and Portugal confirmed arrests.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, A Mauritanian patrol boat found a drifting boat from Senegal with some 100 people aboard as well as 2 dead bodies. The migrants had spent nearly 3 weeks at sea and thrown 43 dead bodies overboard.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 6, A US diplomat said the disablement of North Korea's nuclear weapons-making facilities has started smoothly and the communist nation should be able to complete the process by the end of the year.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, while the government debated whether to delay parliamentary elections by as much as three months.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Singapore presented its case regarding sovereignty of three disputed islands in the Pacific Ocean at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, a claim disputed by Malaysia.
(AFP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, In northern South Africa a blaze swept through a nursing home, killing 12 people and injuring five.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 6, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Cape Town for talks on the situation in war-torn Darfur and political upheaval in Khartoum.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, In the Vatican Benedict XVI raised concerns about restrictions on Christian worship in Saudi Arabia in the first meeting ever between a pope and a reigning Saudi king.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Zimbabwe’s Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele was briefly detained over allegations he promised to help a fugitive banker who had fled the southern African nation avoid arrest. Police said he faces corruption charges.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, Kenny Chesney won as entertainer of the year and Carrie Underwood won as best female vocalist at the annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A2)
2007 Nov 7, Pres. Bush met with France’s Pres. Sarkozy, who addressed the US Congress and backed Bush’s strategy to confront Iran.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 7, Prosecutors said 2 mid-level DC government employees used phony paperwork to collect more than $16 million from illegal tax refunds, avoiding detection for at least three years while issuing more than 40 checks cashed by friends and family members in on the scam. The total stolen was later raised to some $30 million. Harriet Walters, the alleged ringleader of the scam, authorized checks to such fake companies as Bilkemor LLC.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.36)(http://tinyurl.com/2o7sj5)
2007 Nov 7, The US dollar fell sharply after a Chinese parliamentarian called for his country to diversify its reserves out of weak currencies. The Canadian dollar hitched a ride on surging commodities prices to rise against a beleaguered US dollar, passing US$1.10.
(Reuters, 11/7/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.93)
2007 Nov 7, General Motors posted a record loss of $39 billion, which included a $38.6 billion noncash charge related to accumulated deferred tax credits.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.C3)
2007 Nov 7, Morgan Stanley said it has suffered a $3.7 billion loss stemming from its US subprime mortgage exposure, which it expects will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by about $2.5 billion.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, The Cosco Busan, a 65,131 ton Greek-owned container ship leased by Hanjin Shipping of South Korea, hit a protective shield at the base of a tower of the Bay Bridge. The Bridge was not damaged, but the ship suffered a gash and spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the SF Bay. By the end of the month estimated bird deaths due to the oil topped 20,000. The cleanup cost was later estimated at some $61 million. A year later federal authorities still held 6 Chinese crew members for their testimony. In July, 2009, Cosco Busan Capt. John Cota (61) was sentenced to 10 months in prison, becoming the first ship’s pilot in US history to be sent to prison for an accident. On August 13, 2009, Fleet Management Ltd. of Hong Kong pleaded guilty to charges of water pollution and falsifying documents and agreed to pay $10 million in fines. On Dec 4, 2011, a settlement was reached to pay 120 SF Bay Area commercial fishermen $3.6 million.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/19/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/08, p.A2)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.C1)(SFC, 8/14/09, p.D1)(SFC, 1/5/11, p.C3)
2007 Nov 7, The space shuttle Discovery returned to Kennedy Space Center after a 15-day mission building and repairing the international space station.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Nov 7, Argentina's Pres. Nestor Kirchner unveiled a memorial in Buenos Aires to victims of the so-called Dirty War that claimed some 13,000 lives during the country's military dictatorship, using the occasion to urge judges to speed human rights trials.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, Australia's central bank raised interest rates 0.25 points to an 11-year high of 6.75 percent in a move expected to hurt PM John Howard's re-election hopes.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Belgium politicians of the Flemish majority, 60% of the population, made a bid to abolish the bilingual rights of 150,000 French speakers living in suburbs near Brussels. This broke the decades-old “Belgian Pact" under which the 2 language groups avoided holding a straight sectarian vote.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.65)
2007 Nov 7, A novel by a former radio broadcaster in Canada's north won the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's most lucrative and prestigious prize for fiction. Elizabeth Hay's "Late Nights on Air" details the loves and rivalries of a cast of eccentric characters at a small radio station in Yellowknife, near Canada's Arctic.
(Reuters, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, A Chinese government publication reported that industrial discharge and household wastewater have polluted the northern Futuo River so badly that the water is dark red in some sections and has caused chronic illnesses among villagers.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, In southern Finland 8 people were killed and 11 wounded after Pekka-Eric Auvinen (18) opened fire at Jokela High School in Tuusula. He then shot himself in the head and died hours later in a hospital.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Georgia police forced dozens of opposition supporters from a site in Tbilisi, where five days of protests had drawn thousands, but demonstrators later returned and renewed their calls for the president's resignation. A Georgian television station, regarded by the government as an opposition mouthpiece, went off the air after riot police entered its headquarters. The government declared a 15-day state of emergency.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AP, 11/8/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.66)
2007 Nov 7, Interpol put Ali Fallahian, Iran’s former intelligence chief, Mohsen Rezai, a former leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, a Revolutionary Guards general, and 2 other Iranians and Imad Mugniyah, a Lebanese militant on its most-wanted list for a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people at a Jewish center in Argentina.
(AP, 11/8/07)(WSJ, 1/15/08, p.A6)
2007 Nov 7, The Iraqi Army said 17 bodies were discovered in a mass grave in an area of brush near a school in Hashimiyat, west of Baqouba. In Baghdad a Shiite math teacher was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Sunni-dominated Mansour area. Southeast of Baghdad, two children aged 4 and 8 were killed when a mortar struck their house. In Kut gunmen broke into the home of an Iraqi soldier and shot him to death. A suicide truck bomb exploded at the office of a Kurdish political party in Kirkuk and about 13 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Kenya’s official human rights commission reported that state security agents had killed 454 people since the summer in and around Nairobi. They were said to be members of the Mungiki sect, a Kikuyu gang that has terrorized central Kenya for years.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.58)(http://allafrica.com/stories/200711080157.html)
2007 Nov 7, The watchdog group Peace Now said Israel is enlarging 88 of its 122 West Bank settlements despite an agreement to halt the spread of Jewish communities in Palestinian territory.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 7, Latvia's PM Aigars Kalvitis said that he would step down on Dec. 5 and that the four-party ruling coalition would immediately begin searching for a new head of government.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Moroccan PM Abbas El Fassi condemned Spain's "occupation" of two disputed enclaves, in the wake of a visit by Spain's King Juan Carlos which prompted Rabat to recall its ambassador to Madrid.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, The country's top prosecutor said Nigeria will drop criminal charges against an American peace worker, her Nigerian associate and two German film makers who had been accused of endangering national security.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Former premier Benazir Bhutto urged Pakistanis to hold mass protests against a state of emergency declared by President Pervez Musharraf. Police swung batons and fired tear gas at supporters of former PM Bhutto demonstrating near Pakistan's parliament. The Bush administration warned Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that US patience is not "never-ending," and that it expects him to return "soon" to the path of democracy.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Somalia Doctors Without Borders said the fighting had grown so bad in Mogadishu that civilians who were shot or hit by shrapnel during the night frequently bled to death because the violence cut them off from the hospitals.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 7, The president of Sri Lanka said there would be peace on the troubled island only after more fighting to crush separatist rebels as he unveiled the nation's biggest-ever war budget.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, The UN said the governor of South Darfur ordered the UN humanitarian director to leave the state, which has been the scene of recent fighting. South Darfur's Governor Ali Mahmood Mohammed said in a letter that Wael Al-Haj Ibrahim, a Canadian, "was not complying with the Humanitarian Act," but he didn't elaborate.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Masked gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march in which tens of thousands of Venezuelans denounced President Hugo Chavez's attempts to expand his power through constitutional changes. At least eight people were injured.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, A Yemeni court convicted 32 al-Qaida suspects of planning attacks on oil and gas installations in the country, sentencing them to prison terms of up to 15 years. Four others were acquitted.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 8, Pres. Bush suffered his first veto override as the Senate voted 79-14 to enact a $23 billion water resources bill already passed by the House. The US Senate confirmed President Bush's nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the new attorney general, 53-40.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A1)(AP, 11/8/08)
2007 Nov 8, John Walters, the White House drug czar, said American-backed counter-narcotic programs in Colombia and Mexico are disrupting the flow of cocaine into the United States, driving up prices 44 percent on US streets this year.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by 14 other states, sued the Bush administration over its refusal to let them enforce bigger auto emissions cuts than those required by the federal government.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A6)
2007 Nov 8, Brazil’s Petrobras reported the discovery of a large oil reserve with as much as 8 billion barrels of crude in a field called Tupi. This represented about 3 months worth of current world supply, with estimated use at 86 million barrels a day. The oil was sitting between 5.3 and 7km below sea level.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A12)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.36)
2007 Nov 8, Samina Malik (23), who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" and penned poems with titles including "How To Behead," became the first woman to be convicted under Britain’s terrorism legislation. In December she was given a suspended 9-month prison sentence and community service.
(AFP, 11/8/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.67)
2007 Nov 8, Britain’s Privy Council ruled that Prince Jefri Bolkiah (53) of Brunei must transfer ownership of 2 US hotels and 3 residences in Los Angeles, London and Paris along with a trust fund to the Brunei Investment Agency. Jefri had failed to return assets in a 2000 agreement to settle accusations of embezzlement.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A31)(http://tinyurl.com/39fvcf)
2007 Nov 8, In southwest China a gas leak at the Qulin mine in Anyone county in Guizhou province killed 35 coal miners.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 8, Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra swept the Latin Grammy Awards, taking home five musical honors including album of the year, record of the year and song of the year.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2007 Nov 8, A bridge under construction in a new development in Dubai collapsed, killing seven workers and injuring 15.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 8, German authorities said bank manager in Tuebingen gave loans to a woman for sex and then embezzled thousands of euros to buy the silence of her relatives. In total the man diverted some 520,000 euros (362,033 pounds) from clients' accounts, of which he gave about 70,000 euros to the woman, and kept 40,000 euros for himself.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Georgia's pro-Western Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili said that the country would hold early presidential elections in January to defuse a crisis fueled by protests against him. Troops armed with hard rubber clubs patrolled the center of Tbilisi to enforce a state of emergency imposed after a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Iraqi and US authorities freed 500 prisoners from a detention system strained to the limit by thousands of new suspects taken in campaigns to secure Baghdad and surrounding areas. Abu Abdullah, also known as Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai, was killed north of Baghdad. He was later described as described as an experienced bomb maker and former associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. US Army Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley of Candler, N.C., charged with premeditated murder in three deaths, was acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges. The 3 deaths occurred April 14, April 27 and May 11 during operations south of Baghdad.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Nov 8, A US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed in northern Italy, killing at least four people on board and injuring six. Two more soon died in a hospital.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 8, Nordic countries again dominated the World Economic Forum's ranking of gender-equal countries. New Zealand squeezed into the top five and the US fell to 31st place. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland retained the top four spots in the 2007 Gender Gap Index released by the Swiss-based think tank.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Pres. Musharaff said Pakistan's parliamentary elections will he held by mid-February, a month later than planned, a day after Pres. Bush urged him to hold the vote on time. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto denounced the pledge as insufficient and said Musharaff should step down as army chief within a week.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, In Yemen tribesmen attacked an oil installation and then clashed with government troops, leaving 12 people dead. It was the second attack on the country's oil industry this week.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Washington, DC, Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge, was sworn in as the 81st US Attorney General.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 9, Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik (52) surrendered to face federal corruption charges, in what could prove to be an ongoing embarrassment for presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. The indictment alleges Kerik made false statements to the White House and other federal officials during his failed bid to head the Homeland Security department. The investigation of Kerik arose from allegations that, while a city official, he accepted $165,000 in renovations to his Bronx apartment, paid for by a mob-connected construction company that sought his help in winning city contracts.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, Merck & Co. said it will pay $4.85 billion to end thousands of state and federal lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx in one of the largest drug settlements ever.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Newton County, Missouri, David Spears (24) and another, unnamed, 24-year-old man, were arrested in the death of Rowan Ford. Rowan had been missing since Nov 3. Her body was found on private land about 10 miles south of the girl's hometown of Stella.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, A British soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed after the vehicle he was traveling in came off a road and rolled over a bridge. 6 US and 2 Afghan troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Nuristan province. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, put US troop deaths to at least 101 this year making 2007 the deadliest for US troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. In 2014 platoon radio operator Kyle J. White was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the ambush in Nuristan.
(AP, 11/9/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(SFC, 4/16/14, p.A6)
2007 Nov 9, A Belgian pilot and three Spanish flight crew were set free by authorities in Chad who had accused them of complicity in a plot to kidnap 103 children and take them to France for adoption.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Kumba, Cameroon, one person died and five were injured after security forces fired on a crowd protesting after a two-week-long power cut. Locals had taken to the streets to protest the arrest of four high school students following an earlier demonstration.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, China froze exports of the "Aqua Dots" bead toy, following recalls of the potentially toxic toy in the United States and Australia.
(Reuters, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, China Merchant Bank, the country’s 6th largest bank, became the 3rd Chinese bank to win permission to open a branch in NYC.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.90)
2007 Nov 9, Egyptian border guards opened fire on Hana Mohamed (24) of Eritrea after she failed to heed their warnings to stop south of the Rafah border crossing. The young woman bled to death after being shot in the legs.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, Finland said it will raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18 in the wake of the Nov 7 rampage by a teenage student.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 9, Georgian opposition leaders said they would end streets protests against President Mikhail Saakashvili after he called for an early presidential election for January.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Ingushetia a special operation to capture alleged terrorists left a child dead after soldiers fired on a family of five.
(Econ, 11/29/08, SR p.16)
2007 Nov 9, Former insurgents, who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, launched an attack against the terror group near Samarra and killed 18 of its members, asking the US military to stay away while the battle raged. The US military released nine Iranians from custody in Iraq, including two accused of being members of an elite force suspected of arming Shiite extremists. It said they were no longer considered security risks.
(AP, 11/9/07)(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest, uncoiling barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounding up thousands of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency rule. A suicide bombing at a government minister's home in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed four people.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, Saudi authorities beheaded Saudi citizen Khalaf al-Anzi in Riyadh for kidnapping and raping a teenager.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Somalia witnesses and doctors said heavy fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's shaky government has killed 50 people and wounded 100 others in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, Turkey's parliament approved a bill allowing for the construction of nuclear power plants in the country, despite opposition from environmental groups.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 10, Miami ended its 70-year stay at the famed Orange Bowl with the biggest shutout loss in the stadium's history, a 48-0 rout to Virginia.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 10, A stagehands strike shut down most Broadway shows, with curtains rising again 19 days later.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 10, In Vallejo, Ca., the last LCS (Landing Craft Support), which served in 1944 the invasion of Okinawa, went on display. LCS 102 was one of 130 identical gunboats that served in the Pacific. The Royal Thai Navy retired the ship in May.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 10, Laraine Day (b.1920), film actress, died. She was best remembered as Nurse Mary Lamont in the Dr. Kildare film series from 1938-1941.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
2007 Nov 10, Norman Mailer (84), writer, died. The macho prince of American letters reigned for decades as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as "The Naked and the Dead" (1948) and "The Executioner's Song" (1979). In 2013 J. Michael Lennon authored “Norman Mailer: A Double Life."
(AP, 11/10/07)(SSFC, 11/11/07, p.A7)(SSFC, 12/29/13, p.F5)
2007 Nov 10, In Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost, police patrolling on foot were hit by a land-mine blast that killed one officer and wounded two civilians. Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint near Qalat city in Zabul province. The ensuing gun battle left two policemen dead and one wounded. Another policeman was missing. Six US troops died in an insurgent ambush, making 2007 the deadliest year for American forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 10, In Algeria 3 people were wounded when a booby trapped car exploded near a police residence in the northern town of Mahatmas.
(AFP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 10, Some 20,000 demonstrators marched to Argentina's river border with Uruguay to protest the impending startup of a paper pulp plant they fear will pollute the environment. The cellulose mill in Fray Bentos was built by Metsa-Botnia, a Finnish company, at a cost of $1.2 billion. Construction was completed in October and Uruguay’s Pres. Vazquez ordered it opened in November despite protests from Argentina.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.44)
2007 Nov 10, In the Czech Rep. neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague clashed with groups trying to stop them, and at least 80 people were arrested in outbreaks of violence around the capital.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, A top police officer said the Champs Elysees, held up by France as the most beautiful avenue in the world, has become blighted by prostitution, racketeering and violence.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, German train drivers ended the country's longest freight train strike, but the labor dispute is set to continue next week.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, Iranian state television reported that Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to transport natural gas between the two countries.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 10, Malaysian police unleashed tear gas and water cannons on protesters as tens of thousands, wearing canary-yellow shirts, defied a government ban and rallied in Kuala Lumpur to call for clean and fair elections in the biggest anti-government street protests in nearly a decade. Some 245 people were detained.
(AP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.53)
2007 Nov 10, Pakistan announced plans to lift its state of emergency within one month and allowed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to leave her villa following a day under house arrest. Police blocked opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from visiting Pakistan's deposed chief justice. Militants abducted 8, who were stopped at a makeshift roadblock and overpowered.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Reuters, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, Saudi authorities received a group of 14 Saudis Saturday from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani for drug trafficking. This execution brought to 131 the number of people beheaded in the kingdom this year. Saudi Arabia beheaded 38 people last year and 83 people in 2005.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 11, Marking his fifth Veterans Day since the invasion of Iraq, President Bush honored US troops past and present at a tearful ceremony in Texas.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2007 Nov 11, The new War Memorial Community Center at 6655 Mission St. in Daly City, Ca., held its grand opening. The structure included the new John Daly Library.
(www.ci.daly-city.ca.us/city_news/fogcutter/fall_2007.htm)
2007 Nov 11, Delbert Mann, television and film director, died in Los Angeles. His films included “Marty" (1955) and “That Touch of Mink" (1962).
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
2007 Nov 11, Animal rights activists attacked as inhumane an Australian state government's plans to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the environment.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, In western Afghanistan unknown gunmen on motorbikes shot dead six pro-government tribal elders as they headed to a prayer service. In southern Afghanistan a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a NATO convoy in Helmand province, seriously wounding 3 civilians, while two separate attacks left 3 policeman dead elsewhere in the country. US-led coalition troops battling suspected militants in the Garmser district of Helmand lobbed a grenade that destroyed a house and killed 15 militants as well as a woman and two children. A service member with the US-led coalition died of wounds suffered during a gun battle a day earlier near the Tagab Valley of Kapisa province.
(AFP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 11, In France Jessica Davies (28), the niece of multi-millionaire junior defense minister Quentin Davies, plunged a knife into Olivier Mugnier (24), a young Frenchman she picked up in an Irish bar. Mugnier died in her Paris suburb flat, an hour after police arrived. He had been stabbed twice in the upper chest. Her trial opened on Dec 11, 2010.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2007 Nov 11, Israeli police raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices, searching for evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, In Italy a police officer accidentally shot and killed a soccer fan while trying to break up a fight by a Tuscan highway between supporters of rival teams. Enraged by the killing, hundreds of fans rioted in Rome, attacking a police station.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 11, Libya began enforcing new regulations demanding an Arabic translation of passports for visitors. A Libyan aviation official said the measures were in response to a decision to prevent Libyans with visas for the EU's Schengen border-free zone from entering certain European countries, notably France and Britain.
(AFP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 11, Proton, Malaysia’s national car maker, said it planned to team up with companies in Iran and Turkey to produce "Islamic cars" for the global market.
(http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/12/news/international/bc.mi.malaysia.islamicc.ap/)
2007 Nov 11, The major Northern Ireland Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defense Association, announced it was formally renouncing violence, but a commander said the group would not surrender its weapons to international disarmament officials.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, Pakistan's military ruler said elections would be held by January but set no time limit on emergency rule that has suspended citizens' rights, claiming it was essential for fighting terrorism and ensuring a free and fair vote.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, A severe storm broke the Volganeft-139, a small Russian oil tanker, in two in the Strait of Kerch, spilling at least 560,000 gallons of fuel into the strait between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. A Russian official said it was an "environmental disaster." 8 seamen were left missing. Two freighters nearby also sank under 18-foot waves in storm. As many as 10 ships sank or ran aground in the area.
(AP, 11/11/07)(Reuters, 11/12/07)(SFC, 11/12/07, p.A15)
2007 Nov 11, Tens of thousands of South Korean farmers and workers clashed with riot police at a massive rally against a free trade agreement with the United States.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 12, The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 13,000 for first time since August 2007.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 12, Ryan Braun won the NL Rookie of the Year award in one of the closest votes, while Dustin Pedroia ran away with the AL honor.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 12, It was reported that a donor had given a staggering $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation in Pennsylvania, and all of the charities would receive a share.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, Constellation Brands said it will pay $885 million for the US wine business of Fortune Brands, which includes the Geyser Peak, Wild Horse, Buena Vista Carneros and Gary Farrell labels. The deal also included 1,500 acres of vineyards in Sonoma and Napa counties.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 12, IBM said it would buy Canada's Cognos Inc for $5 billion, snapping up the last of the major makers of business intelligence software.
(Reuters, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, Nymex Holdings Inc., the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, said it will buy a 15.1 percent stake in the Norwegian financial derivatives exchange Imarex ASA for about $52 million.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, A new study said US researchers have developed a method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material, potentially providing an abundant source of this clean-burning fuel. The method used by engineers at Pennsylvania State University combines electron-generating bacteria and a small electrical charge in a microbial fuel cell to produce hydrogen gas.
(AFP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 12, Ira Levin (78), author, died in Manhattan. His work included the best-selling horror and suspense novels "Rosemary's Baby" (1967), "The Stepford Wives" (1972), and "The Boys from Brazil" (1976), all later made into popular films. Levin also wrote for the stage, including "No Time for Sergeants," starring a young Andy Griffith, and the long-running "Deathtrap." Both were later adapted to the screen.
(Reuters, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 12, Lester Ziffren, former news reporter and screenwriter, died in Manhattan. In 1936 Ziffren was the first to report the start of the Spanish Civil War.
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 12, Voters cast the first ballots in Australia's elections as a new opinion poll showed conservative PM John Howard heading for a landslide defeat.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, In Cambodia Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, the ex-foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge regime and his wife, were arrested on charges of crimes against humanity. Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in absentia in August 1979, eight months after a Vietnam-led resistance movement overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime. In 1996 the king rewarded Ieng Sary with an amnesty for breaking away from his comrades-in-arms.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, An unknown armed group killed 19 Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi, a border region handed back to Cameroon by Nigeria last year.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 12, China released data that said its trade surplus had jumped to a new all-time monthly high in October, despite government pledges to restrain export growth and adding to pressure for action on trade barriers and currency.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and New York’s Human Rights Watch released a report saying the Egyptian government refuses to recognize minority religions and Christian converts in official state records.
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A25)(www.eipr.org/en/)
2007 Nov 12, IUCN, a Geneva-based conservation group, said the world's smallest bear species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in its Southeast Asian home. The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, In Baghdad an Iraqi taxi driver was shot dead by a private security guard protecting a convoy driving through the city. Tal Afar Mayor Gen. Najim Abdullah said Iraqi soldiers killed four men in clashes that lasted throughout the night after a tribal chieftain was killed in front of his village's mosque. The US military said Rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have decreased to their lowest levels in more than 21 months.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, A Nigerian official said security agents have arrested several men who allegedly had materials for making explosives. Evidence has linked them to the al-Qaida terror network.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, Hamas security forces opened fire at a rally by the rival Fatah movement commemorating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. 7 people were killed and 85 wounded in the bloodiest day of intra-Palestinian fighting since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
(AP, 11/12/07)(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 12, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest for the second time in four days ahead of a planned march to protest emergency rule.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 12, Alexander Tkachyov, governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said more than 30,000 birds and countless fish have been killed in an "ecological catastrophe" wrought by thousands of tons of oil from a tanker that broke apart in a heavy storm near the Black Sea. 3 bodies washed ashore and 20 sailors remained missing after the sinking of at least 11 ships.
(AP, 11/12/07)(SFC, 11/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Nov 12, Airbus said it was building a custom, 380 VIP double-decker jet for Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal with a price tag of over $320 million.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, In South Korea the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) disclosed the names of 3 former and incumbent prosecutors, who have received money regularly from Samsung Group. CPAJ urged the prosecution to investigate the conglomerate's alleged bribery, slush fund creation, and other irregularities.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 12, A Darfur rebel group freed five workers, including two foreigners, taken hostage in a rare attack on a Sudanese oil installation almost three weeks ago.
(AFP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said deploying a UN peacekeeping operation to Somalia is not realistic or viable given the war-wracked African country’s security situation, the intensifying insurgency and the lack of progress towards any political reconciliation.
(www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24625&Cr=somalia&Cr1)
2007 Nov 13, CC Sabathia won the AL Cy Young Award to become the first Cleveland pitcher in 35 years to earn the honor.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 Nov 13, Officials said New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to abandon a plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, The SF Board of Supervisors voted to issue municipal identification cards to city residents, regardless of their legal status. They also voted to double the amount of money available to candidates running for supervisor.
(SFC, 11/14/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 13, In Las Vegas the New Frontier casino, opened in 1942, was imploded to make way for a $5 billion megaresort. It earned historical notations by becoming the Strip's first theme casino and hosting Elvis Presley's debut in the city. Phil Ruffin sold the 34.5-acre site to Elad, owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, for $1.24 billion in May. Ruffin had bought the Frontier in 1997 for $165 million and quickly settled a nearly 6 1/2-year strike by 550 hotel workers, one of the longest job actions in US history.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Afghan and US-led coalition forces clashed with militants in southern Afghanistan and called in airstrikes that killed dozens of insurgents.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 13, Britain’s government said an outbreak of bird flu in eastern England is the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. A two-mile protection zone and a six-mile surveillance zone were created around the infected farm in Suffolk.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.67)
2007 Nov 13, The British Virgin Islands told the US there is overwhelming evidence that Leonid Reiman, Russia’s Telecommunications Minister owns much of Russia’s telecom industry through an offshore fund.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 13, Thousands of refugees fled camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's violent North Kivu province after the army said Tutsi-dominated insurgents attacked its positions nearby.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Voting began in Denmark's national election, with polls showing that the center-right government needs a new ally to stay in power despite a strong economy and low unemployment. Danes re-elected the governing coalition to a third term, endorsing its economic and tough immigration policies. Fogh Rasmussen’s blue block won 90 seats, just enough for a majority. The New Alliance Party of Naser Khader won just 5 seats. Pia Kjaersgaard’s far-right Danish People’s party won 25 seats.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.59)
2007 Nov 13, French rail workers went on a nine-day strike over President Nicolas Sarkozy's bid to strip away labor protections.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 Nov 13, Diplomats said Iran has met a key demand of the UN nuclear agency, handing over long-sought blueprints showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 13, In Iraq at least 9 Iraqis were killed, including a policeman and his 13-year-old son in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Shimon Peres became the 1st Israeli president to address the parliament of a Muslim government when he spoke to Turkish deputies.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 13, Researchers in Kenya unveiled a 10-million-year-old jaw bone they believe belonged to a new species of great ape that could be the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. A Kenyan and Japanese team found the fragment, dating back to between 9.8 and 9.88 million years, in 2005 along with 11 teeth. The fossils were unearthed in volcanic mud flow deposits in the northern Nakali region of Kenya.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called on Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days. Bhutto’s plan for a “long march" from Lahore to Islamabad was foiled by her house arrest.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.50)
2007 Nov 13, A bomb exploded at an entrance of the Philippine House of Representatives, killing Rep. Wahab Akbar, his driver and a staff person.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Journalists said the Somali government has shut down three independent radio stations in two days, as troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers continued to battle Islamic insurgents in the shrapnel-strewn streets of the capital.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Two cartoonists who depicted Spain's crown prince having sex with his wife were convicted of insulting the heir to the throne and were fined $4,370 each.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Six breakaway factions from one of Darfur's biggest rebel groups and two other insurgent forces said they had united under one banner, in a rare but tentative show of unity in the troubled region.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months. Kurdish guerrillas killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash in southeastern Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, In a letter to the UN Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nominated Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to lead the UN investigation into the 2005 killing of former Lebanese PM Rafik al-Hariri.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, In Uzbekistan the body of Fitrat Salakhiddinov (40), a prisoner convicted of Islamic extremism, was delivered to his family with signs of torture.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 14, Michael Mukasey took a ceremonial oath as the new US Attorney General.
(AP, 11/14/08)
(AP, 11/14/08)
2007 Nov 14, A US congressional advisory panel said that Chinese espionage posed "the single greatest risk" to US technology, and called for efforts to protect industrial secrets and computer networks.
(Reuters, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, A justice of the peace ordered O.J. Simpson to stand trial on kidnapping and armed robbery charges stemming from a confrontation with memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room. Simpson and a co-defendant were convicted in October, 2008.
2007 Nov 14, A sculpture by Jeff Koons of a stainless steel heart hanging from a golden bow sold for $23.6 million, becoming the most expensive piece by a living artist ever auctioned.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, Merril Lynch picked John Thain, boss of NYSE Euronext, to replace Sam O’Neal, who walked out following enormous writedowns on mortgage-linked holdings.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.90)
2007 Nov 14, Chevron agreed to pay $30 million to settle charges that it made illegal kickbacks to Iraq for oil purchased in 2001 and 2002 under the UN oil-for-food program.
(SFC, 11/15/07, p.C1)
2007 Nov 14, A US-led team from Oregon said they had created the world's first cloned embryo from a monkey, in work that could spur cloning of human cells for use in medical research.
(AFP, 11/14/07)(WSJ, 11/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 14, In Texas Joe Horn (62) shot and killed two suspected burglars, with bags in hand, crawling out of windows from his neighbor's home in the Houston suburb of Pasadena. In 2008 a jury acquitted Horn of murder.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2007 Nov 14, In Afghanistan’s Helmand province coalition forces killed several militants with gunfire and airstrikes. Five rebel fighters were killed in a clash in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, AGRA, a foundation set up in 2006 by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to aid African farmers, named agricultural expert Amos Namanga Ngongi from Cameroon as its first president.
(AFP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, Abdelhamid Sadaoui, also known as Abou El Haythem, was killed and another Islamist wounded during clashes with the Algerian army in the restive northeastern Kabylia region. Sadaoui was believed to be the treasurer of Al-Qaeda's North African branch.
(AFP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, Labor party leader Kevin Rudd, the man tipped to become Australia's next prime minister, officially launched his pitch for office with pledges to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and usher in an "education revolution."
(AFP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The final stage of the cross-Channel high-speed rail service opened for business from the newly rebuilt St. Pancras station in London.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.E2)(www.raileurope.com)
2007 Nov 14, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a new unity cabinet drawing members from two leading opposition groups in a bid to end months of political deadlock in the troubled African nation.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, In Chile a 7.7 magnitude quake, centered near the desert village of Quillagua in the foothills of the Andes, killed at least 2 people.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, Guo Feixiong, a Chinese dissident lawyer, was sentenced to five years in prison after publishing a book about a political scandal and helping villagers lead a campaign to unseat local officials accused of corruption. Feixiong (also known as Yang Maodong), convicted of alleged illegal business activity, was also fined US$5,300 in a district court in Guangzhou.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, China’s state media said the amount of sewage dumped into the Yangtze River rose 3 percent last year to a record level. An early morning blaze at a foot massage parlor killed at least 11 people in northern China.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The EU reached an accord with the East African Community (EAC) states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. They will enjoy duty free, quota free access to the EU for all products, except sugar and rice, from January 1. Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a decade later amid diverging economic philosophies. It was resurrected in 2000 as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to create an EU-style common market for their 90 million citizens. Rwanda and Burundi became members in July this year.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 14, In France striking transportation workers cut train service and forced Parisians to walk, bike or skate to work in a pivotal standoff with President Nicolas Sarkozy over his bid to pare down labor protections.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, A French court approved the handover to a UN court of Dominique Ntawukuriryayo (65), a Rwandan 1994 genocide suspect accused of coordinating the massacre of up to 25,000 people in one incident.
(Reuters, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, German train drivers began a new 62-hour strike on freight services that industry and the government fear could have a dramatic impact on Europe's biggest economy.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The official IRNA news agency reported that Hossein Mousavian, Iran's former senior nuclear negotiator, has been charged with passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, Iraqi troops seized the west Baghdad headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a powerful Sunni Muslim group. Two bombs exploded on opposite sides of Baghdad, killing at least three civilians. Clashes were under way in two villages, one Shiite and one mixed, east of Baqouba. Five people were killed, two civilians and three al-Qaida members, and six others injured in the fighting. A leader of a Sunni group formed to resist al-Qaida in Iraq claimed that US troops mistakenly killed dozens of his fighters during a 12-hour battle north of Baghdad. He said he tried repeatedly to call the Americans and tell them they were fighting "their friends." US military officials said American troops killed 24 fighters and captured 16 in a battle in the same area. Penetrators were used in an attack against a US Stryker vehicle near an entrance to the Green Zone, killing an American soldier and wounding five others. 2 Iraqi civilians also were killed. A US soldier was killed in an explosion in Diyala province that wounded four other soldiers.
(AP, 11/14/07)(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, A broad electoral reform that infuriated Mexico's broadcast industry by barring political parties from buying radio and television advertisements took effect.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 14, Myanmar's military junta arrested three more activists, surging ahead with a crackdown even as it hosted a UN human rights investigator and insisted that all arrests had stopped.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, NATO defense chiefs chose Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola as head of the alliance's military committee.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The prime ministers of North and South Korea met for the first time in 15 years, hoping to extend the detente fostered by the second-ever summit of their leaders last month with new South Korean investment in the impoverished North.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he expects to step down as army chief by the end of November and begin a new presidential term as a civilian, warning that Pakistan risked chaos if he gave into opposition demands to resign. In the northwest 33 insurgents were reported killed when the military pounded their positions with helicopter gunships and artillery.
(AP, 11/14/07)(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, In Poland members of the 460-member lower house, or Sejm, agreed to make April 13 an annual "Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Katyn Crime," for more than 14,000 Polish officers who were captured at the start of World War II and killed by Soviet secret police in the Katyn forest.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, A Saudi court sentenced a woman (19) who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes, more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative. The court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the woman. Their new sentences range from two to nine years. The court also banned the lawyer from defending her, confiscated his license to practice law and summoned him to a disciplinary hearing later this month.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, An explosion at the Tajik presidential palace killed a guard in what officials called a terror attack.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 15, During a feisty Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her closest rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, of slinging mud "right out of the Republican playbook" and sharply criticized their records.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Berkeley poet Robert Haas won the National Book Award for his recent collection “Time and Materials."
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Nov 15, Barry Bonds, former SF Giant, was indicted on 4 counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice related to a December, 2003, grand jury investigation on the BALCO steroid ring. A revamped indictment was unsealed last May.
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A1)(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Actress Lindsay Lohan completed her jail sentence for drunken driving in a swift 84 minutes.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Taliban insurgents in Paktia province killed an Afghan man teaching English courses, sparking a clash that left two suspected militants and two policemen dead. The bodies of 20 Taliban were found on the battlefield following a clash in the south-central province of Uruzgan. Two policemen were killed in the three hours of fighting there, which also involved international troops.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 15, Greenpeace protesters stormed an Australian power plant after a US report condemned Australian electricity plants as some of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. 15 protesters were arrested after they chained themselves to conveyor belts at the Munmorah power plant on the central coast of New South Wales state.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Ten of thousands of coastal villagers took shelter inland as a cyclone rapidly approached Bangladesh's southwestern shores, spawning cold drizzles, strong winds and high waves. Tropical Cyclone Sidr killed at least 3,200 people and left millions homeless.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Two Americans who deserted the US Army to protest against the war in Iraq lost their bid for refugee status in Canada, and the Canadian government made it clear they were no longer welcome.
(Reuters, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Congo and the London Club of private creditors reached a deal to cancel 80% of the central African country's estimated 2.5-billion-dollar debt.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Gen. Sergio del Valle Jimenez, a doctor in Fidel Castro's rebel army in the late 1950s and army chief of staff during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, died.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 15, Transport workers shut down most rail traffic in France for a 2nd day, frustrating passengers forced to postpone trips and Parisians who had to walk, bike or skate to work.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Georgia’s parliament lifted the country’s state of emergency imposed last week by Pres. Saakashvili.
(WSJ, 11/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 15, A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police patrol in Kirkuk, killing six people and wounding more than 20.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Royal Dutch Shell said a major pipeline feeding one of its two main oil export terminals in southern Nigeria was attacked and ruptured by unknown assailants.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Officials said Pakistani troops have launched a counter-offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the northwest, pushing them back into forests and mountains.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the overthrow of Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. Hundreds of Palestinian business people and professionals, led by an influential billionaire, launched a new political movement, reflecting growing disillusionment with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, The Philippine government reached an agreement with the country's main Islamic separatist group on carving out boundaries for a Muslim homeland in the conflict-ridden south. In Manila 3 suspects were killed and three arrested as police raided an Islamic militant hideout near the Philippines legislature.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Sergei Storchak, one of Russia’s top authorities on international financial relations, was detained. Investigators on Nov 19 revealed details in the arrest of the deputy finance minister who allegedly tried to embezzle $43 million in budget funds.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 15, A top Russian general said that Russia has completed its withdrawal of troops that had been based in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. He said peacekeepers remained in Abkhazia along with forces in South Ossetia with the participation of Georgia.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 15, A Tunisian court convicted a former prisoner at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terror charges. Abdullah Bin Omar, a Tunisian citizen who spent five years at the detention facility in Cuba, was released in June.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 15, In Uzbekistan the body of Takhir Nurmukhammedov (42) was delivered to his family and it was clear he had been brutally tortured. Nurmukhammedov was arrested in April 2002 and convicted of membership in Hizb-ut Tahrir, a banned Islamic sect, and of plotting to overthrow the government. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 15, President Robert Mugabe commissioned the first biodiesel production plant in oil-starved Zimbabwe, vowing that the country would "never collapse."
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 16, US President George W. Bush and Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda met for talks aimed at bridging rifts on North Korea and Tokyo's military role in the "war on terror."
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, US Senate Republicans blocked a $50 billion bill by Democrats that would have paid for several months of combat but also would have ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2007 Nov 16, Marchers surrounded the Justice Department headquarters to demand federal intervention in the Jena Six case in Louisiana and stepped-up enforcement of hate crimes.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2007 Nov 16, US federal biologists signed off on a plan to reduce the flow of water from Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s main water source, as the southeast contends with a historic drought.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 16, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis, the Regional Auto Theft Task Force (RATT), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced an undercover operation resulting in the break up of an extensive and highly organized auto theft ring in the South Bay. The auto theft ring bust is the largest in San Diego County and possibly in the state of California.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xwk6s)
2007 Nov 16, In Oakland, Ca., Francis William Reimers (62), formerly from Danville, Ca., was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for mail fraud and money laundering. Reimers had attempted suicide in Dec, 2005, following allegations that he swindled million from former friends.
(SFC, 11/17/07, p.B3)
2007 Nov 16, The first summit of women leaders opened in NYC. The two-day "International Women Leaders Global Security Summit," opened under the co-chairmanship of former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell. At the close over 70 women leaders issued a call for action on global warming, terrorism, poverty and women's security. The women leadership initiative was launched in October 2006.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 16, Mubadala Development, an investment arm of Abu Dhabi, announced that it would pay $622 million for 8.1% of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.70)
2007 Nov 16, In western Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up a car bomb near an Italian military convoy killing only himself. 4 police officers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a remotely detonated bomb as they traveled to work in the southern province of Kandahar. The UN said profits from opium fuel the Taliban insurgency, in a new call on NATO to tackle Afghanistan's burgeoning drugs trade. In the western province of Ghor, between 4 and 9 police were killed after militants attacked them during a police operation in Shahark district.
(AP, 11/16/07)(Reuters, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, A coroner urged the Australian government to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Belgium researchers studying the collective behavior of insects said tiny robots programmed to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society. Cockroaches tend to self-organize into leaderless groups, seeming to reach consensus on where to rest together.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Ethiopian officers claimed their forces had killed some 100 rebels in the Ogaden region over the past month where its forces are cracking down on insurgents.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, French transport workers voted to keep a national strike going through the weekend over President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to strip away generous pension benefits.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili dismissed the prime minister and nominated an influential banker for the post in an apparent attempt to win votes ahead of a hastily called presidential election.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Guyana rushed troops and police to its western border a day after Venezuelan soldiers allegedly blew up two Guyanese gold-mining dredges on a river near the frontier.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, The communist parties that support India's ruling coalition backed off their strong opposition to a landmark nuclear deal with the US, clearing the way for the pact to go forward after months of high-stakes political gamesmanship.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Iraqi police said 8 al-Qaida fighters were killed in a Shiite village near Muqdadiyah. One civilian killed by a roadside bomb outside a motorcycle shop in central Baghdad. Police found the bodies of two men, both with bullet wounds to the head, dumped in a barren area near Sadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The two were identified as brothers who had disappeared the previous evening in the same town. Muntadhar al-Zaidi (28), a reporter for the Iraqi satellite channel al-Baghdadiyah, disappeared. US helicopters dropped 600 troops into two villages south of Baghdad before sunrise, launching an assault on militants believed to be involved in the May kidnapping of three American soldiers.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, North and South Korea agreed to launch rail service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than half a century, a move symbolizing the growing reconciliation between the two sides.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said its election observers would be unable to monitor next month's Russian parliamentary balloting because Moscow had refused to issue them visas. All 56 OSCE member countries, including Russia, agreed in 1990 to invite international observers to monitor their elections.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Between 35 and 40 rebels were killed as Pakistani gunship helicopters launched fresh attacks on pro-Taliban bunkers in the troubled northwest. The clashes left nearly 100 militants dead as they entered a 4th day.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Thousands of Hamas loyalists protested outside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Gaza City home, warning that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to Israel in a US-sponsored peace conference.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Poland's new PM Donald Tusk formally took office along with a team of former anti-communist dissidents.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2007 Nov 16, Rwandan investigators probing alleged French involvement in the country's 1994 genocide handed their report to President Paul Kagame, but officials refused to divulge details.
(Reuters, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, In Spain negotiators concluded a policy guide for governments on global warming that declares climate change is here and is getting worse.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Turkish authorities took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament on charges of separatism.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 17, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte delivered a blunt message to Pakistan's military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, telling him emergency rule had to be lifted and his opponents freed ahead of elections.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2007 Nov 17, A Nobel-winning UN scientific panel said in a landmark report that the Earth was hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2007 Nov 17, A suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a NATO convoy in Nangarhar province's Chaparhar district, killing an Afghan civilian and wounding another NATO soldier. In Kandahar province Canadian and Afghan troops battled militants and called in airstrikes in Zhari district, leaving an Afghan soldier and at least 20 suspected militants dead. In Helmand province 23 Taliban militants were killed during a US-led coalition operation aimed at disrupting a weapons transfer. Also in the south 2 Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed when a bomb struck their armored vehicle. In Zabul province the Taliban ambushed and clashed with an Afghan army patrol, leaving 11 suspected insurgents dead and four soldiers wounded. Taliban militants tortured five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and then hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to Gazak villagers against working with the government.
(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 17, In eastern Algeria a gas explosion in an old house killed six people and injured another eight.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, The official death toll from a savage cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh reached 1,723, the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, State media reported that China has called on Myanmar to speed up democratic reforms, an unusual move for Beijing, which has traditionally refrained from criticizing the military regime.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, The UN children's agency said aid groups in Congo have secured the release of 232 child soldiers from militia fighters who forcibly recruited them in the east of the country. The 232 children, whose average age is 14, were separated this month in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu from three different factions of the Mai Mai.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, France's biggest rail union said a new offer of talks from employers did not go far enough, as the country headed towards a fifth day of crippling transport strikes.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, In Iran officials at Niloofar Publications, which published the first edition of a novel by Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, known in the West as "Memories of My Melancholy Whores," confirmed they have been forbidden to put out a second edition. The Persian translation was titled "Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts."
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, A mass grave filled with at least 33 badly decomposed bodies was unearthed in southern Baghdad. It was the third mass grave found in Iraq this month. The US military said its troops killed seven suspects and detained 10 in raids across central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Front-runner and former rebel and Hashim Thaci pledged independence for Kosovo as the breakaway province voted for a new parliament in an election shunned by Serbs bitterly opposed to its secession. With most votes counted, opposition leader Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo led with 35 percent. Kosovo’s Serbs were told to boycott the election. Only 40-45% of Kosovar Albanians turned up to vote.
(Reuters, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/18/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 17, Mauritanian President Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi met Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi at the start of visit to Tripoli aimed at boosting relations after years of tension.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Pakistan’s army said some 15,000 troops have massed for a major assault on Islamic militants in a scenic northern valley, whose fall has raised concern about Pakistan's ability to withstand rising extremism.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, It was reported that generic Viagra, made in India, was a popular item in Gaza, selling for 75 cents a tablet.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.56)
2007 Nov 17, The new Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said Poland will end next year its mission in Iraq, where it currently deploys 900 soldiers.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Slovenian trade unions, students and pensioners staged the largest rally in the country since independence in 1991, blocking traffic in the centre of Ljubljana for several hours.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Somali rebels launched an overnight attack on a camp of Ugandan troops in Mogadishu, triggering fighting that left at least one insurgent dead.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, In South Africa finance ministers from the world's largest 20 economies began talks focusing on reforming the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir ordered the reopening of auxiliary training camps to prepare for war and refused to accept certain countries from sending peacekeepers to Darfur. Beshir said the "boots of those who attacked the prophet Mohammed would never trample on Sudanese land". He was referring to Swedes and Norwegians who want to participate in a UN-African Union hybrid force set to deploy to Darfur. Beshir also said Sudan would not allow Nepal or Thailand to send troops to Darfur, although he agreed with the UN for engineering troops to arrive from China and Pakistan.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested two US citizens of Vietnamese descent, two Vietnam citizens, one French citizen of Vietnamese descent and one Thai citizen after "they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change." Several were jailed in one-day trials for up to 8 years on charges of defaming the Communist Party and "spreading propaganda against the state."
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Chris Daughtry's band won favorite pop-rock album for "Daughtry," as well as breakthrough artist and adult contemporary artist at the American Music Awards.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 18, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis of annual FBI crime statistics. Flint, Mich., ranked 3rd and Oakland, Ca., ranked 4th.
(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 18, The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Eskimos to settle claims of sexual abuse in Alaska.
(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)(Reuters, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, Greenpeace said an international commission designed to protect bluefin tuna stocks has effectively increased the fishing quota for 2008 from what was already an "unsustainable" level. Greenpeace said the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), held in Turkey had approved a nearly 1,000-ton increase in the 2008 catch.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A new Afghanistan Human Development Report said Afghanistan is fifth last on a global index of human development, despite billions of dollars in aid and help since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Police shot and killed two suspected Taliban militants as they approached a police checkpoint on a motorbike. In southern Helmand province, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint, killing two officers and wounding four others.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, The death toll from a cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, as rescuers struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields. The head of the country's Red Crescent Society said up to 5,000 to 10,000 people are believed to have died in the cyclone.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, British ambassador Andrew Anderson said Algeria has formally demanded the extradition from Britain of former Algerian bank chief Rafik Khalifa, sentenced to life over a massive embezzlement scandal.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, MTV Arabia, an Arab version of the pop-culture channel, began broadcasting from Dubai.
(AP, 11/18/08)(www.freemuse.org/sw29678.asp)
2007 Nov 18, Separatist rebels said Ethiopia's air force has been "carpet-bombing" villages and nomadic settlements in its oil- and gas-rich Ogaden region, leaving a trail of casualties.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, German prosecutors filed terrorism charges against a Moroccan man, identified as Abdelali M. (25), was accused of helping recruit foreign fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq. He was arrested in Sweden in March and handed over to Germany in May.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Three members of Iraq's Olympic soccer team and their assistant coach left the team during a trip to Australia and are seeking asylum in the country.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, Bombs planted along Iraq's roads and in a parked car killed at least four people in separate attacks. In Baghdad a car bomb targeting an undersecretary finance minister, killed 10 bystanders. 4 homicide victims were found in Baghdad. Two Iraqis were killed and four wounded in an incident involving a US military convoy in southern Muthanna province. Local officials said the soldiers had opened fire randomly and destroyed a truckload of sheep. In Baquba 3 US soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing that also left 3 children dead and 7 wounded.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A13)
2007 Nov 18, In Italy former Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced the creation of a new political party, saying the time felt right because his supporters had gathered so many signatures calling for the ouster of Premier Romano Prodi.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, A defiant Japan embarked on its largest whaling expedition in decades, targeting protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s despite international opposition. 4 ships headed for the waters off Antarctica, resuming a hunt that was cut short by a deadly fire last February that crippled the fleet's mother ship. An anti-whaling protest boat awaited the fleet offshore.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Kuwait a US soldier was killed and another was seriously injured in a road accident.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Nigeria’s northern Kano state supporters of rival political parties clashed over the results of local government elections, leaving six people dead and dozens behind bars.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government dismissed a last-ditch US call to end emergency rule, a day after a visit by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Security officials and state media reported that fighting between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the northwestern tribal belt has claimed at least 90 lives.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 18, In eastern Saudi Arabia an explosion and fire on a gas pipeline killed 40 workers. The cause of the fire was an accident during maintenance work and Aramco said it did not expect a disruption in gas supplies.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Two Sudanese journalists from the independent Al-Sudani newspaper were jailed after refusing to pay a fine for an article about the arrest of other journalists.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 workers. In 2008 the head of an investigative commission said negligence by coal mine managers eager to ratchet up output led to a methane blast in Ukraine's deadliest mining disaster since the Soviet breakup.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 1/25/08)
2007 Nov 19, President Bush announced that Fran Townsend, the leading White House-based terrorism adviser, was stepping down.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, The US and Russia announced an agreement on how to safely dispose 34 metric tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 19, Researchers said the number of Americans in prison has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society. This was part of a report produced by the JFA Institute, a Washington criminal-justice research group, calling for a major justice-system overhaul.
(Reuters, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, California Sec. of State Debra Bowen sued Election Systems and Software, a Nebraska voting machine company, for allegedly selling nearly 1,000 uncertified machines to San Francisco and 4 other counties. Bowen sought reimbursements of nearly $15 million.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 19, Amazon.com began selling its Kindle electronic book reader, the size of a paperback, for $399. It was able to hold 200 volumes.
(WSJ, 11/20/07, p.B1)(Econ, 10/25/08, SR p.11)
2007 Nov 19, The FBI reported hate crime incidents rose nearly 8 percent in 2006.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, Milo Radulovich (81), the Air Force Reserve lieutenant championed by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow when the military threatened to decommission him during the anti-communist crackdown of the 1950s, died in Vallejo, Calif.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, Actor Dick Wilson (91), who played the fussy, mustachioed grocer who told customers, "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin," died in Woodland Hills, Calif.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck outside a governor's residence, killing six policemen and wounding 14 people in southwestern Nimroz province. Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said his son was among those killed.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, The death toll from the Nov 15 cyclone in Bangladesh passed 3,100, and officials said that number could reach 10,000 once rescuers get to outlying islands.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, In Cambodia a UN-backed tribunal arrested Khieu Samphan (76), the former Khmer Rouge head of state. He was the fifth senior official of the brutal regime to be rounded up ahead of a long-delayed genocide trial. In his book "Reflection on Cambodian History Up to the Era of Democratic Kampuchea," which was released last week, Khieu Samphan says the Khmer Rouge only wanted what was best for Cambodia.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, It was reported that Chinese regulators in recent weeks have ordered commercial banks to freeze lending through the end of the year. PM Wen Jiabao acknowledged that vast amounts of currency were flowing out of China through illegal channels. This followed the recent arrest of To Ling (43), a Hong Kong resident, whose black market foreign exchange business handled transactions worth more than $1 million a day.
(WSJ, 11/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.78)
2007 Nov 19, In France a "large majority" of rail workers voted to keep up the train strike.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, In Iraq 3 officers were killed in an ambush on their checkpoint northeast of Baghdad. Ten people, most of them women and children, were wounded when a car bomb exploded in front of a police officer's house farther north in Albu-Jawari village, on the northern outskirts of Beiji. Muntadhar al-Zaidi (28), an Iraqi television reporter who was kidnapped in Baghdad last week, was freed. In Baghdad a convoy belonging to Almco, a US-contracted Dubai firm, was involved in a shooting that left a woman wounded. Iraqi troops detained 43 contract workers.
(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/20/07, p.A15)
2007 Nov 19, The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but stopped short of US demands to halt West Bank settlement construction before a crucial Mideast conference.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, International Mideast envoy Tony Blair announced four economic projects designed to create thousands of jobs for Palestinians and bolster peace efforts with Israel.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 19, Pakistan’s Supreme Court, hand-picked by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, swiftly dismissed legal challenges to his continued rule, opening the way for him to serve another five-year term, this time solely as a civilian president.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, Uzbekistan's electoral commission said Pres. Karimov (69) has registered as a candidate in next month's election, even though the constitution bars him from seeking a third consecutive term.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his fourth trip to Iran in two years, as the two countries sought to strengthen ties while their leaders exhort the international community to resist US policies.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, President Robert Mugabe's government published a draft bill forcing mining firms to transfer majority shareholdings to local owners, including giving the Zimbabwe government a free 25 percent stake.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 20, Freddie Mac, the larger US buyer and guarantor of home loans, reported a $2 billion loss for the 3rd quarter and warned that it may need to raise fresh capital. Fannie Mae, another US mortgage guarantor, had already posted a $1.4 billion loss earlier in the month.
(SFC, 11/21/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.76)
2007 Nov 20, In Utah polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of a breakaway Mormon sect, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her first cousin. In 2010 the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions of Jeffs and ordered a new trial saying a jury received incorrect instructions. On April 7, 2011, a federal judge handed control of a $114 million communal land trust back to the leaders of Jeff’s polygamous church. Courts had seized control of the trust in 2005.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(SFC, 7/28/10, p.A4)(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A5)
2007 Nov 20, Crude-oil futures surged to a record high settling at $98.03 a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.C8)
2007 Nov 20, Researchers said they have decoded the gene map of a strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and that their work has identified mutations that may help develop better treatments.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In SF large grocery stores stopped using plastic bags as a new city ordnance banning the bags took effect.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 20, British Treasury chief Alistair Darling revealed a lapse at Britain's tax and customs service regarding missing computer disks with details of 25 million British individuals and 7.25 million families claiming child benefit. There were gasps from lawmakers when Darling described the scale of the loss.
(AP, 11/21/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.24)
2007 Nov 20, In Cambodia Kaing Guek Eav (66), also known as Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's largest and most notorious torture center appeared in court in the first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan nomad to eight years in prison for seeking Tibetan independence after he urged a crowd to proclaim loyalty to the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In China Huang Qingnan (34), a workers’ rights advocate in Shenzhen, was severely beaten and stabbed by thugs believed to have been hired by Chinese companies opposed to labor activism.
(SFC, 1/7/08, p.A18)
2007 Nov 20, The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers said imprisoned Chinese journalist Li Changqing has been awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, its annual press freedom prize.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A landslide in central China buried a bus. Workers clearing rocks from the landslide discovered the bus underneath rubble three days later and recovered 29 bodies, that included 28 inside the bus. The landslide raised concern that the massive reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam, 120 miles away, was wreaking ecological havoc in the region. The death toll later increased to 34.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/24/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Nov 20, It was reported that Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central African country.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Travel woes piled up in France with air traffic delays adding to a week of rail strikes as many of the nation's 5 million civil servants held a day-long walkout in the biggest test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's appetite for reform.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A British Puma helicopter crashed southeast of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and seriously injuring two others. A sophisticated roadside bomb killed a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded three other soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation, seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Jordan held elections. Supporters of King Abdullah II, a close US ally, handily defeated the country's Islamist opposition in parliamentary elections, dropping their number of parliament seats by nearly two-thirds.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, The British government announced that the legal age of sexual consent in Northern Ireland will be lowered to 16 in line with the rest of the United Kingdom.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said more than 3,000 people jailed under emergency rule have been released, the latest sign that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was rolling back some of the harsher measures taken against his opponents. Over 2,000 remained jailed. The government said the army had killed 15 militants in Shangla as Pres. Musharraf left for a visit to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in a key arms control treaty was a necessary response to NATO "muscle-flexing" near its frontiers. The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which originally set limits on weapons of NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, was revised in 1999. Russia ratified the updated treaty in 2004, but the US and other NATO members have refused to follow suit, saying Moscow first must fulfill obligations to withdraw forces from Georgia and from Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Singapore Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) adopted a landmark charter but their vision to create an EU-style bloc faced hurdles because of concerns over Myanmar, whose military rulers have defied international calls to restore democracy.
(AP, 11/20/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.43)
2007 Nov 20, Ian Smith (88), Rhodesia's last white prime minister, died in South Africa . His attempts to resist black rule dragged the country, later renamed as Zimbabwe, into isolation and civil war.
(AP, 11/20/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.92)
2007 Nov 21, Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued an order that bars discrimination against state workers based on their "gender identity or expression," which protects the rights of those who behave, dress or identify as members of the opposite sex.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, New Hampshire set its presidential primary to Jan 8, claiming its traditional spot as the nation’s first primary.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 21, Officials in the US announced the recall of more than a half-million pieces of Chinese-made children's jewelry contaminated with lead.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2007 Nov 21, Herbert Saffir (b.1917), an engineer who created the five-category system used to describe hurricane strength, died. Saffir began working on an intensity scale in 1969 as part of a United Nations project. Saffir's scale was expanded by former National Hurricane Center director Robert H. Simpson and became known as the Saffir-Simpson scale in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 21, Aruba authorities announced they had re-arrested Dutch student Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the 2005 death of Natalee Holloway.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey launched the construction of a railroad that will link ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia with Europe, bypassing Russia.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, PM Gordon Brown tried to reassure Britons their personal details were safe after the one of the biggest security breaches in the country's history left millions of people exposed to identity theft and bank fraud.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, Canada’s government set aside 25 million acres of wilderness in the Northwest Territories for conservation.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 21, Chile’s Supreme Court threw out embezzlement indictments against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet's widow and four of his children, who had been accused of misuse of state funds related to multimillion-dollar overseas bank accounts.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 21, Colombia's government said it was canceling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's mediation role with leftist rebels in a possible hostage swap, dealing a blow to efforts to free three kidnapped US contractors and a former presidential candidate.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Costa Rica's president signed into law a free trade agreement (CAFTA) with its Central American neighbors, the United States and the Dominican Republic. Costa Ricans voted for the trade deal in a national referendum, moving it forward. But then it became stalled again as congress squabbled over the enabling legislation dealing with 13 different aspects of the deal. In late 2008 lawmakers overcame the final intellectual-property hurdle by allowing schools and universities to copy some materials and by reducing prison time for those guilty of selling pirated goods.
(AP, 11/22/07)(AP, 11/11/08)
2007 Nov 21, A French judge filed preliminary charges against former President Jacques Chirac in a probe of suspicions that people were given fake jobs while he was mayor of Paris (1977-1995). Some 10,000 people, mainly tobacco sellers, marched through Paris to protest a smoking ban in cafes as of Jan 1. Coordinated acts of sabotage struck France's high-speed trains, causing further delays to services already widely disrupted by strikes, just as talks were opening to coax unions into ending their walkout.
(AP, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/22/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.56)
2007 Nov 21, Two British teenagers (16) faced up to three years in jail after a Ghanaian court found them guilty of smuggling 6 kg (13 lbs) of cocaine. The teenagers, who pleaded not guilty, had told British TV they were tricked into carrying the bags by male acquaintances in Ghana and Britain and did not know their content. In 2008 the 2 girls were sentenced to one year in jail to include time already served. They were released on July 17, 2008.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(AP, 1/23/08)(AFP, 7/17/08)
2007 Nov 21, In Hungary several trade unions and civic groups held a series of strikes and protests against the Socialist-led government's plans to privatize health insurance and close some railway lines.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, India and the International Atomic Energy Agency agreed to start negotiations on putting Indian reactors under IAEA safeguards, clearing a key hurdle to closing a US-Indian nuclear supply pact. Dozens of soldiers marched through Calcutta and police imposed a curfew to try to quell riots that erupted after protesters alleged government brutality.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint guarding a courthouse in Ramadi, killing at least six people in the largest attack on Anbar province's capital in months. Iraqi security forces found 40 decomposed bodies, including women and children, north of Ramadi near Lake Tharthar in an area controlled until recently by al-Qaida in Iraq. A police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in central Kut. The US military said six suspected militants were killed and 10 captured in two days of raids across central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Owners of the only salmon farm in Northern Ireland said they have lost their entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth some $2 million, to a jellyfish attack. Pelagia nocticula, popularly known as the mauve stinger, is noted for its purplish night-time glow and its propensity for terrorizing bathers in the warmer Mediterranean Sea. Until the past decade, the mauve stinger has rarely been spotted so far north in British or Irish waters, and scientists cite this as evidence of global warming.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Pakistan asked a key international forum comprising Britain and its former colonies to delay a decision on whether to suspend it from the Commonwealth. Law Minister Afzal Hayder said the government had freed 5,634 political activists and anti-government lawyers, including cricketer Imran Kahn. 623 people remained in government custody. The army said security forces attacked mountaintop positions of pro-Taliban militants in the Swat region of northwestern Pakistan, leaving 40 fighters dead.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In Senegal street vendors protesting an attempt to clear them from the center of Dakar clashed with police, throwing rocks at officers who fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Last week, Senegal's security forces began clearing the capital's intersections of hawkers and beggars under a presidential decree aimed at bringing some order to Dakar's clogged streets.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Ishmael Beah (27), a former child soldier and survivor of Sierra Leone's civil war, was appointed UNICEF's first Advocate for Children Affected by War.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, A South African police officer died when a helicopter carrying 14 police officers and five air force officials crashed near the border with Lesotho.
(AFP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In northern Sri Lanka soldiers killed nine Tamil Tiger rebels in several clashes.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In southern Thailand unidentified gunmen killed four local government employees in the same district where a prominent political party leader was campaigning.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security Council extended the EU's peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year, citing the Balkan nation's "very limited progress" towards EU membership and its failure to implement key reforms.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security Council welcomed a deal signed by Congo and Rwanda to forcibly disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo in an effort to reduce tensions between the central African neighbors.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In Venezuela tens of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's supporters filled the streets to back his proposed constitutional changes, while anti-government student leaders announced a bold plan to march on the presidential palace.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, More than 60 migrants drowned when their boat capsized off Yemen during an attempt to flee their war torn homeland of Somalia.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, On Thanksgiving day in Unity, Md., David Peter Brockdorff (40), shot and killed his ex-wife, their 3 children (6-12) and then himself as the woman prepared to hand over the children for a visit.
(SFC, 11/24/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 22, The World Health Organization said nearly 400 people, mostly children, have fallen ill in Angola in what medical investigators suspect is an outbreak of bromide poisoning.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 22, The Explorer, a Canadian cruise ship, struck ice late at night off Antarctica and began taking on water. All 154 passengers and crew took to lifeboats and were rescued safely the following morning by the Nordnorge, a passing Norwegian liner.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 22, China’s state media reported that five Hollywood studios have sued a Chinese online service and internet cafe they accuse of offering pirated downloads of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and other hit films.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A nine-day transport strike that has crippled the French rail network appeared to be drawing to a close as many local union committees voted to suspend their stoppage and give negotiations a chance.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, Some 70 suspected al-Qaida fighters killed two Iraqi soldiers, then used their Humvees to kill at least 18 rival Sunnis, members of the Awakening Council, south of Baghdad. Armed civilians killed 15-20 of the insurgents in fighting that left 3 Iraqi soldiers and 5 civilians dead as well as 4 of the armed civilians. Iraqi security forces killed 19 al-Qaida fighters in Baqouba. Two civilians died and two others were wounded in the crossfire. A mortar attack struck the base in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi and wounding two. A parked car bomb in Mosul killed 2 civilians. US military officials reported that about 60 percent of the foreign militants fighting in Iraq have come from US allies Saudi Arabia and Libya.
(AP, 11/22/07)(Reuters, 11/22/07)(AP, 11/23/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A14)
2007 Nov 22, Pakistan’s Supreme Court, stacked with judges loyal to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, cleared the way for him to rule as a civilian president, throwing out a final challenge to last month's election.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A passenger bus caught fire and exploded in southern Russia, killing at least five people and wounding 12. Investigators in North Ossetia said terrorism was the likely cause.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 22, In South Africa De Beers announced that it was selling the Cullinan diamond mine, which it has owned since 1930, to a consortium led by Petra Diamonds.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.82)
2007 Nov 22, The World Health Organization said an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Sudan has killed 164 people.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A committee of the 53-nation Commonwealth, meeting in Uganda, suspended Pakistan from the organization for failing to end emergency rule.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, The UN resumed the repatriation of 12,000 Congolese refugees from Zambia which was suspended three months ago due to insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Katanga province.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 23, Emily Sander (18), a Kansas college student and Internet porn star, was last seen leaving a bar in El Dorado, about 30 miles from Wichita, with a man identified as Israel Mireles (24). Her body was found Nov 29 about 50 miles east of El Dorado. Mireles was arrested in Mexico on Dec 19 and extradited to the US on June 25, 2009.
(AP, 11/29/07)(AP, 11/30/07)(SFC, 12/20/07, p.A4)(SFC, 6/27/09, p.A4)
2007 Nov 23, In Afghanistan Taliban militants beheaded 7 police officers after overrunning their checkpoints. An Australian commando (26) and 3 civilians were killed in a clash with Taliban militia in Uruzgan province. In 2008 the Australian military cleared its soldiers over the deaths of two women and a baby during this battle but said all civilian casualties were "highly regrettable."
(Reuters, 11/23/07)(SFC, 11/24/07, p.A3)(AFP, 5/12/08)
2007 Nov 23, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said police have arrested nine people and broke a huge counterfeiting ring that churned out foreign passports and other documents and distributed them across Europe.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, Explosions and machine-gun fire echoed through the hills of east Congo, where government troops battled rebels for a third day amid a deepening humanitarian crisis the UN says has displaced nearly 200,000 people in the past few months.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, In Cuba Robert Vesco (b.1935), a fugitive financier, died of lung cancer. He had been wanted in the US for crimes ranging from securities fraud and drug trafficking to political bribery. News of this death was not publicly reported for another 5 months.
(SFC, 5/3/08, p.A6)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.91)
2007 Nov 23, A series of near-simultaneous explosions ripped through courthouse complexes in three north Indian cities, killing at least 13 lawyers and injuring dozens of other people. Federal authorities blamed militants trying to spark unrest between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority for the blasts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, Two bombs exploded hours apart in a central Baghdad pet market and a police checkpoint in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing 26 people and wounding dozens. A parked car bomb targeted a police patrol in Shurqat, 155 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing one officer and wounding 15 others, along with one civilian.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud just hours before he was set to leave office after it was unable to convene due to an opposition boycott. Emile Lahoud left office without a successor after announcing he was handing over security powers to the army.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/23/08)
2007 Nov 23, Vladimir Kryuchkov (83), the Soviet Union's former KGB chief and one of Russia's most influential hardline spy masters, died. Kryuchkov's biggest failure was the defection to Britain in 1985 of Oleg Gordievsky, the highest ranking KGB defector in its history.
(Reuters, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 23, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed to attend an upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2007 Nov 23, Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Beshir said he would not accept non-African troops in a combined United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, apart from Chinese and Pakistani technical units already committed.
(Reuters, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, A study commissioned by the state's emergency response council said nearly a third of Swaziland's children are considered orphaned and vulnerable as AIDS takes its toll on the country. Close to 40 percent of Swaziland adults are living with HIV and AIDS, the highest infection rate anywhere in the world.
(AFP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, In Uganda presidents and prime ministers from Britain and its former colonies discussed democracy, human rights and the rule of law at the start of a Commonwealth summit. They were presented with the new report: “Civil Paths to Peace: Report of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding," while police and anti-government protesters clashed nearby.
(AP, 11/23/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.74)
2007 Nov 23, Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovych submitted his resignation as a new parliament was sworn in and rival parties jostled to form a government after September elections.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 24, In southern California a fast-moving wildfire destroyed more than a dozen homes and spread through the canyons and hills above Malibu, forcing dozens of residents to flee ahead of the flames. 53 homes were destroyed with 7 square miles scorched. On Dec 13 authorities arrested five men on allegations they caused the fire which caused over $100 million in losses in Malibu.
(AP, 11/24/07)(SSFC, 11/25/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/26/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Nov 24, Beginning today and continuing for less than a week, bad guys loaded up more than 40,000 Web pages with malicious software and thousands of common search terms. The culprits' use of botnets to push a dark form of SEO (search-engine optimization), called a "Google bomb," to boost their sites' Google rankings.
(www.pcworld.com/article/id,141796/article.html)(PCWorld, 1/28/08)
2007 Nov 24, A Taliban suicide bomber killed eight people, including three children and an Italian military engineer, when he blew himself up in a scenic town near Kabul. Insurgents attacked police in the Pathan district and were targeted by airstrikes from NATO or coalition helicopters. The bodies of 69 dead militants were said to be left in the area. Among those killed were four Taliban who were traveling with two cars full of explosives and ammunition.
(AFP, 11/24/07)(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 24, In Australia conservative PM John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the left-leaning opposition. Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, in southwestern Bangladesh a section of a bridge collapsed under the weight of thousands of hungry cyclone victims rushing toward a relief center. At least 3 people died and dozens were injured.
(Reuters, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In Bolivia soldiers clashed with students protesting a constitutional assembly in a second day of unrest against the pending legal overhaul. 2 people died in the violence.
(AP, 11/25/07)(WSJ, 11/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 24, Robert Knipstrom (36) of British Columbia man died four days after police used a Taser stun-gun on him because he reportedly was acting erratically in a store. He was the third person to die in recent weeks in Canada after being shocked by the hand-held weapon.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 24, Full service was restored on the Paris Metro and most French trains were running after transport workers ended a crippling strike so that talks on pension reform could run their course.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In India protesting tea plantation workers in the remote northeast clashed with area residents, in violence that left six people dead and 60 others injured. A group of nearly 10,000 workers from tea plantations all over the state of Assam, led by the All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, had been marching in the state capital of Gauhati to demand that the government recognize them as a separate tribal group.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In central Indonesia a fire on a crowded passenger bus killed 12 people, including three children.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In Iraq a US operation near Samarra killed 10 suspected Sunni militants. In the same area 2 men who were confronted in a vehicle detonated a suicide vest leaving both dead.
(SFC, 11/26/07, p.A18)
2007 Nov 24, Lebanon awoke a republic without a president amid mounting worries over a power vacuum that has intensified the nation's yearlong political turmoil.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, Militants struck at the heart of Pakistan's security establishment, killing up to 35 people in suicide attacks on a checkpoint outside army headquarters and a bus carrying intelligence agency employees. The attacks in Rawalpindi coincided with the announcement that Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister overthrown in 1999 by the country's current military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf, would return from exile the next day.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, Russian police in Moscow detained opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and several other anti-Kremlin protesters when thousands of people marched against President Vladimir Putin.
(Reuters, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, South Korea's first bird flu outbreak in eight months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country's south. The government said the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, More than 100 Chinese engineers arrived in Sudan's war-torn Darfur as part of the vanguard for a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission to be in place next year. Rebels demanded Beijing pull its peacekeepers out of Darfur, just hours after a unit of Chinese army engineers arrived.
(AFP, 11/24/07)(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 24, Pope Benedict XVI elevated 23 churchmen from around the world to the top ranks of the Catholic Church hierarchy, telling them they must be willing to shed their blood to spread the Christian faith.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 25, Kevin Dubrow (52), lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot, died in Las Vegas from an accidental cocaine overdose.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Nov 25, NATO's ISAF confirmed that airstrikes targeted and killed 3 Taliban militants who were planting mines in nearby Gardez.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, Newly elected leader Kevin Rudd moved quickly to bring Australia into international talks on fighting global warming, and to head off potentially thorny relations with the United States and key Asian neighbors.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, More than 50 people were missing after a boat, possibly being ferried by human traffickers, sank off a southern Bangladesh island bordering Myanmar waters.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, In northeastern Brazil a section of stands at a soccer stadium gave way as fans cheered at the end of a game, killing eight people.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, Actor Neil Hope, who starred as Derek "Wheels" Wheeler on the popular 1980s TV series "Degrassi Junior High," died. He had little contact with relatives and friends in his final years and died alone in an Ontario rooming house. His death was not made public until 2012.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2007 Nov 25, In China 6 people were confirmed dead and 7 others were reported missing after an iron tailing dam collapsed early this morning in northeast Liaoning Province.
(Reuters, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, Croatia held parliamentary elections. Exit polls and preliminary results showed that the ruling conservatives and opposition center-left Social Democrats were virtually tied.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, In France youths assaulted a police station, torched cars and vandalized stores in a rampage that injured 21 police officers in Villiers-le-Bel, a rundown Paris suburb. The violence was prompted when two teens were killed in a motorbike crash with a police patrol car.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, Two strong earthquakes struck Indonesia’s eastern island of Sumbawa and killed at least three people, including a child, and injured 45 others.
(AP, 11/26/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 25, In Iraq a parked car bomb exploded in a crowded area near a medical complex in Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30. A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol at an intersection in a northeastern Baghdad neighborhood, killing one civilian and wounding eight others. Masked gunmen killed 11 relatives of a journalist critical of the Iraqi government, according to colleagues and the media advocacy group Reporters Without Border.
(AP, 11/25/07)(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Malaysia some 10-20 thousand ethnic Indians clashed with police at a rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur to demand economic equality.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Nov 25, An army spokesman and Palestinian medics said Israeli troops killed two armed Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight.
(AFP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, Pakistan’s exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif returned home to a hero's welcome and called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule before elections, a fresh challenge to the US-backed leader. The army said that 30 pro-Taliban fighters and one Pakistani soldier died in an operation to capture militant positions in the Swat valley.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, In the Philippines Typhoon Mitag hit Isabela province after killing 8 people in other parts of the country. A week earlier Typhoon Hagibis left 13 people before heading toward Vietnam. It then reversed direction and headed back toward the Philippines.
(SFC, 11/26/07, p.A10)
2007 Nov 25, Dozens of members of a Russian opposition party and other activists were detained by police as they tried to gather for a protest rally in central St. Petersburg.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Sudan Gillian Gibbons (54), a British teacher, was put under detention for allegedly insulting Islam's prophet by allowing children to call a teddy bear Mohammed. She was arrested because of a complaint under Article 125 of the penal code, which provides punishment for publicly insulting or degrading any religion, its rites, beliefs and sacred items or humiliating its believers. On Nov 28 Sudan charged Gibbons with inciting religious hatred.
(AFP, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Uganda Commonwealth leaders called on Pakistan to remain engaged with the group as they wrapped up a summit here that saw the suspension of President Pervez Musharraf's country.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 26, President Bush signed a deal setting the foundation for a potential long-term US troop presence in Iraq, with details to be negotiated over matters that have defined the war debate at home. Bush also met with the leaders of Israel and Palestine ahead of the Middle East peace talks at Annapolis.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A15)
2007 Nov 26, Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced his retirement after a 35-year career in Congress.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 26, Citigroup announced that the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government will take a 4.9% stake and provide a $7.5 billion capital infusion.
(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 26, Amsterdam based Royal Philips Electronics announced the purchase of Genlyte Group, based in Louisville, Kentucky, for $2.7 billion. The deal made Philips the biggest lighting firm in the American market.
(www.newscenter.philips.com/about/news/press/20071126.page)
2007 Nov 26, Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $200 million donation for the global campaign to wipe out polio.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, A new report said the US District of Columbia has the highest rate of AIDS of any city in the country. An estimated one in 20 residents had HIV and one in 50 had AIDS.
(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 26, A new study by the University of Michigan bolstered claims that Native Americans are descended from one migrant group that crossed a lost land link from modern Siberia to Alaska. The study examined genes of indigenous people from North to South America and from two Siberian groups.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, In Michigan a find of dioxin at the bottom of the Saginaw River could be the highest level of such contamination ever discovered in the nation's rivers and lakes, according to a federal scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from a Dow Chemical Co. plant.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Roger Lee Dillon (22), his girlfriend, Nicole N. Boyd (24), and Dillon’s mother, Sharon Lee Gregory (48), stole $7.4 million in cash and checks from an Ohio armored car company. They were arrested Dec 1 in West Virginia.
(AP, 12/1/07)(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 26, Washington Redskins star safety Sean Taylor was mortally wounded when he was shot during a botched armed robbery at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. Taylor died the next day.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 26, Bill Hartack (74), Hall of Fame jockey, died in Freer, Texas.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 26, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck an Afghan army vehicle, killing 4 soldiers and wounding two others in eastern Paktia province. 4 civilians were killed by a roadside blast in the Musayi district of Kabul province. In eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition troops killed 14 road construction workers in airstrikes after receiving faulty intelligence.
(AP, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 26, The Bahamas ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 141 the number of nations that have done so. The treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by all 44 states listed in an annex, that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and had nuclear power or research reactors at the time. 34 of those countries have ratified the pact. The holdouts include the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, Peter Watt, the general secretary of Britain’s Labor Party, resigned after admitting that he knew of an arrangement in which David Abrahams, a north-east property developer, had donated money to the party through intermediaries since 2003. PM Brown claimed not to have known of the arrangement and promised to return the money.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.69)
2007 Nov 26, In eastern Chad rebels and government soldiers fought gunbattles near the border with Sudan's Darfur region after two rebel groups ended a month-long ceasefire. A rebel group, Union of Forces for Development and Democracy, claimed to have killed over 200 government soldiers with 20 of its fighters lost.
(Reuters, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A17)
2007 Nov 26, Croatia's ruling conservative HDZ party looked on course to win another four years in power and take the nation into the EU after a close-fought parliamentary election. The ruling conservatives and center-left opposition sought allies after the vote left no clear winner.
(AP, 11/26/07)(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 26, In Ecuador about 60 miners were trapped after the blast in the village of Ponce Enriquez, 230 miles southwest of Quito.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, France netted deals in China for nuclear reactors and passenger jets worth a combined $29.62 billion on the second day of a state visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, In France youths rioted for a 2nd night in Paris' suburbs, leaving 82 officers injured.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 26, In Indonesia the capital of Jakarta was partially flooded, forcing thousands of people to flee homes and cutting off a highway to the international airport.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, An Iranian air force F-4 Phantom jet crashed into the Oman Sea off the southeastern coast of Iran, killing both pilots.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, An Israeli aircraft pounded a squad of militants and Israeli border guards shot two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, High school students clashed with riot police in Amsterdam and demonstrated in cities across the Netherlands to protest a national increase in classroom hours.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Former Pakistani prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif signed up to run in a January election while a spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said he would be sworn in as a civilian on Nov 29.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Philip Alston, a New York University law professor charged by the UN Human Rights Council with investigating extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, reported that the military was in a state of denial about its role in the deaths of about 800 opposition activists over the past six years.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, In the Philippines the death toll from Typhoon Mitag rose to 17, as search operations began for a missing air force jet and a fishing vessel with 27 people aboard.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, A South Korean aid group said North Korea has resumed frequent public executions, among them a factory chief accused of making international phone calls who was shot in a stadium before 150,000 spectators.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, In Sri Lanka rebels said 11 schoolchildren and two others were killed when Sri Lanka's military activated a roadside bomb near a car traveling near Kilinochchi.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Pres. Bush declared that the time is right to relaunch Mideast peace talks to create a Palestinian state because "a battle is under way for the future" of the troubled region, in remarks prepared for the start of the US-arranged Annapolis Mideast peace conference. Delegations from 46 countries and int’l. organizations attended the conference. Israeli PM Olmert and Palestine’s Pres. Abbas agreed to launch formal talks on Dec 12 and committed to negotiating a peace treaty by the end of 2008.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A15)(WSJ, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 27, A Somali immigrant, Nuradin Abdi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up an Ohio shopping mall.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2007 Nov 27, The US Red Cross fired chief executive Mark Everson (53) citing his personal relationship with a subordinate employee. Everson was in office for only 6 months.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Nov 27, Cessna said it will turn over complete production of its new Cessna 162 SkyCatcher to a Chinese partner. The base price of the plane will be $109,500.
(WSJ, 11/28/07, p.A14)
2007 Nov 27, Google said it will spend millions of dollars to develop renewable energy as part of a plan to clean the environment and reduce the company’s own power bill.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 27, Wells Fargo & Co. said it will take a $1.4 billion pretax charge tied to increased losses on home equity loans.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.C3)
2007 Nov 27, In Florida Pro Bowl safety Sean Taylor died after he was shot in his home by an apparent intruder, leaving the Washington Redskins in mourning for a teammate who seemed to have reordered his life since becoming a father. By the end of the week 4 men were charged with unpremeditated murder, armed burglary and home invasion with a firearm or another deadly weapon.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Nov 27, Dr. J. Robert Cade (80), inventor of Gatorade, died.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2007 Nov 27, Jane Rule, American-born Canadian writer, died at her home on Galiano Island in British Columbia. Her 1964 novel, “Desert of the Heart," is considered a landmark work of lesbian fiction.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.C5)
2007 Nov 27, Bill Willis (86), a Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns and Ohio State's first black football All-American, died in Columbus, Ohio.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2007 Nov 27, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber triggered a huge blast near two armored vehicles used by US-led coalition troops in Kabul, killing at least two civilians and destroying the wall of a nearby house.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Algeria officials said floods caused by days of torrential rain have killed 11 people, injured several others and have cut off many roads in northern Algeria.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Brussels Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania, was declared “European of the Year" at the annual EV50 gala awards ceremony hosted by European Voice. President Adamkus was nominated as one of 50 “Europeans of the Year." The 2007 winners of the EV50 awards were chosen by European Voice readers from among 50 nominees, selected by a distinguished panel of leading opinion-formers.
(http://tinyurl.com/2phf99)
2007 Nov 27, In Brazil a Catholic bishop began his second hunger strike in two years to protest a government project to divert river water to irrigate parts of the country's arid northeast.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, International experts convened in Burkina Faso for a three day session to discuss the prospects for biofuel production in Africa. The conference was organized by the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering and CIRAD, the French agricultural research centre international development. Co-organizers included the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the government of Burkina Faso.
(AFP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, In central China an explosion ripped through a house where villagers in Hunan province were illegally making fireworks, killing 13 people.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, PM Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia will sustain its crackdown on separatist rebels in the restive Ogaden region, adding that scores of insurgents had been killed. John Holmes, UN undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs, arrived in the Ogaden region.
(AP, 11/27/07)(Reuters, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, In France youths rioted for a 3rd night in Paris' suburbs, firing at officers and ramming burning cars into buildings. In Toulouse a library went up in flames.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 27, French police detained a 68-year-old retired "drag queen" performer on suspicion of murdering 18 mainly gay men between 1980 and 2000.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, according to an annual UN table that again puts AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.
(Reuters, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, The Mezzanine, a Panamanian freighter, hit rough seas off Taiwan's north coast and 26 Indonesian sailors were feared dead.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, The news agency IRNA reported that Iran has manufactured a new missile with a range of 1,200 miles capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the Mideast. A judiciary spokesman said an Iranian court has acquitted Hossein Mousavian, a former nuclear negotiator of spying charges, but convicted him of acting against the Islamic government.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, More Iraqi refugees, heartened by reports of the lull in violence in Baghdad, were beginning to return. A woman wearing an explosives belt blew herself up near an American patrol near Baqouba wounding 7 US troops and 5 Iraqis. East of the city, mortar rounds apparently targeting a local radio station instead landed near homes in the vicinity, killing two people, while a roadside bombing killed one civilian. US troops fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least five people, including a child, in two separate shootings.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, Lebanon's top Shiite cleric declared that a Muslim woman is allowed to fight back in self-defense if she is hit by her husband, in a ruling rare for the region's male-dominated Islamic society.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Mozambique formally took over from Portugal the control of Cahora Bassa hydroelectric dam, Africa's second most important after that of Aswan in Egypt.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, The defense chiefs of North and South Korea began a rare meeting to discuss easing tension across their disputed sea border on a harmonious note, pledging to end the peninsula's division.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Officials said Pakistani government troops have retaken a strategic peak from pro-Taliban rebels in the northwest Swat valley and shut down their radio station. Major General Waheed Arshad said 45 militants had been killed in the past two days of clashes.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Tens of thousands of people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip rallied against the Mideast peace conference under way in the US, while the group's top leader in Gaza insisted the summit is "doomed to failure."
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, PM Donald Tusk announced that Poland will drop its opposition to Moscow's bid to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a drive to improve ties with Russia.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Russia’s Gazprom made clear its interest in buying a half share of TNK-BP and any large UK power company that may come up for sale, while repeating its warning that wholesale gas prices could rise sharply in Europe next year.
(www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/nov/28/bp.oil)
2007 Nov 27, Sri Lanka’s air force bombed the Tiger’s radio station killing 9 civilian staff.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.48)
2007 Nov 28, A day after an international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., President Bush told the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories he was personally committed to their mission of peace.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, Republican presidential rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney clashed over immigration in a provocative, no-holds-barred CNN/YouTube debate.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery stemming from a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers. Simpson and a co-defendant were convicted in October, 2008.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, Broadway stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative agreement on ending a crippling 19-day-old strike.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, In Minnesota a fire at a pipeline from Canada that feeds oil to the US killed 2 people. The pipeline that leaked and four others were shut down, though it wasn't clear for how long, sending oil prices up the next day.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, An Oakland, Ca., city auditor’s report said employees were allowed to cash out unused vacation time and received millions of dollars in perks, much of it not subject to scrutiny.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 28, Joseph Hokai Tang (28), musician and violin dealer, was arrested for fraud following a performance in Eugene, Oregon. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to 10 fraud counts and admitted to bilking at least 120 people out of $400,000 worth of instruments. In 2008 he was sentenced in SF District Court to 37 months in prison.
(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.B1)
2007 Nov 28, Afghan and foreign troops battled Taliban fighters and called in airstrikes in southern Afghanistan, leaving 30 militants dead. Four other militants were killed in a separate clash in the east. In eastern Khost province gunmen on motorbikes shot to death a school principal. In Ghazni province Taliban insurgents ambushed police in Khogyani district, and the ensuing clash killed one policeman and four suspected militants. Militants in Paktia province attacked trucks carrying supplies for foreign troops, killing one driver. In Paktika province a roadside bomb hit Afghan troops, leaving one soldier dead and three wounded.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, Across Bolivia banks, shops, schools and public transportation were shuttered in cities, as demonstrators protested a new law tapping regional budgets for a fund for the elderly.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, Brazil and China said they will give Africa free satellite imaging of its landmass to help the continent respond to threats like deforestation, desertification and drought.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo in the communist nation's first military visit to Japan since World War II, symbolizing improving ties.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to punish rioters who shot at police but sought to ease tensions with an independent probe into the deaths of two youths that triggered the unrest.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Nazi documents stored in a vast warehouse in Germany were unsealed, opening a rich resource for Holocaust historians and for survivors to delve into their own tormented past. Inquiries were handled by the archive's 400 staff members in the German spa town of Bad Arolsen.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Indonesia, which is losing its forests at a faster rate than any other country, launched a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of a critical climate change conference on the resort island of Bali.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Iran claimed to have built a small submarine equipped with sonar-evading technology, saying the craft had been launched in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Nearly 6,000 Sunnis joined a security pact with American forces in a bid to close escape routes for extremists. About 20 buses carrying hundreds of Iraqi refugees rolled into a Baghdad depot, the first from the Iraqi-funded effort to speed the return of families. An American soldier was killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad.
(AP, 11/29/07)(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 28, In Japan former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya (63) and his wife were arrested on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies, including one linked to General Electric, in exchange for contracts.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Kosovo stood firm in its demand for independence after 3 days of talks, pushing the issue to the UN Security Council.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 28, Kyrgyzstan's president signed an order relieving PM Almazbek Atambayev of duty, nine months after he was appointed in a move to appease opposition groups.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A lawmaker said the largest bloc in Lebanon's deadlocked parliament has dropped its opposition to the army chief becoming president, bringing Gen. Michel Suleiman a step closer to being the new head of state and ending a yearlong political crisis.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, North and South Korea struggled to resolve differences over creating a joint fishing zone around their disputed sea border at a second day of rare defense talks in Pyongyang.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Pervez Musharraf stepped down as Pakistan's military commander, fulfilling a key opposition demand a day before he was to be sworn in as civilian president. Musharraf handed over his ceremonial baton to his successor, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani (b.1952), who is widely expected to maintain the army's pro-Western policies. A shell aimed at Islamic militants in northern Pakistan killed 11 civilians, while a roadside bomb killed five soldiers in another troubled region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 11/28/07)(AP, 11/29/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashfaq_Parvez_Kayani)
2007 Nov 28, Palestinian police loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas fired shots in the air and beat protesters with sticks during the funeral of a man killed during a protest against this week's US-hosted Mideast peace summit. At least 26 people were wounded, one critically.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Authorities in Saudi Arabia announced the arrest of 208 suspected terrorists in six cells and thwarted several planned attacks in the kingdom's largest terror sweep to date. They included 8 al-Qaida linked men allegedly planning to attack oil installations.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said he will propose the creation of a committee of African heads of state to mend broken relations between Zimbabwe and former colonial power Britain.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian were arrested in eastern Slovakia and Hungary in an attempted sale of a kilo (2.2 lbs) of uranium, material believed to be from the former Soviet Union. Police said it was enriched enough to be used in a radiological "dirty bomb."
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, In Sri Lanka a bomb exploded near the entrance to a popular department store in a busy Colombo suburb, killing 20 people and wounding 43. Earlier in the day, a female suicide bomber sent by the rebels killed one person and wounded two others in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate a government minister in his office in Colombo.
(AFP, 11/29/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.48)
2007 Nov 28, In southern Thailand a Muslim military informant was shot and crucified, while two Buddhist men were beheaded by suspected Islamic separatists.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 29, The Bush administration announced that China has agreed to eliminate improper trade subsidies it was using to the detriment of US and other foreign companies.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Florida state officials froze withdrawals from the state’s Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) as panicky investors pulled out nearly half of the fund’s assets in the wake of the US mortgage mess. School and municipal officials found themselves short of money to pay bills. Other states faced similar problems due to purchases of high yield debt known as structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.87)
2007 Nov 29, The jazz club Yoshi’s in San Francisco held its grand opening at 1330 Fillmore.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.E1)
2007 Nov 29, Cancer researchers reported a link between night-shift work and a higher incidence of cancer.
(WSJ, 11/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 29, In Richmond County, Georgia, Jeanette Michelle Hawes (22) fatally stabbed her two young children in a Food Mart convenience store bathroom.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Henry Hyde (b.1924), former Illinois Republican Representative (1975-2007), died. In 1976 he attached an amendment to a spending bill barring the use of federal funds for abortions. In 1998 he led House efforts to impeach Pres. Clinton for allegedly lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.A6)(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H001022)
2007 Nov 29, Roger B. Smith (82), former chairman and CEO of General Motors, died in Detroit. He was the target of Michael Moore’s 1989 film “Roger & Me." During his term GM’s market share dropped from 45% to 36%. It currently stood at 24%.
(SFC, 12/1/07, p.B5)
2007 Nov 29, In Afghanistan 2 Danish soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with the Taliban. They were part of a Danish reconnaissance unit that came under fire in Gereshk Valley in Helmand Province. Denmark has some 600 troops in Helmand province that are part of NATO's 40,000-member force in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden released a new tape calling on Europeans to stop helping the US in the war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won local elections on a turnout of 43 percent.
(AFP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Armenia approved a plan to shut down its lone nuclear power plant, following years of pressure from foreign nations concerned about its Soviet-era design and safety.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Australia’s PM-elect Kevin Rudd named his Cabinet, choosing a woman as deputy leader for the first time, a former rock singer as environment minister and a lawyer from the Outback as foreign minister.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, In eastern Chad new fighting erupted near the border with Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region between the army and a leading rebel group.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, The European Parliament voted to allow Britain and Ireland to keep some of their old imperial measurements so pubs can still serve pints and road signs can show miles instead of kilometers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, According to a new report released by the UN and the Chinese government the number of people estimated to be living with HIV in China has risen to 700,000, with increases among intravenous drug users and sex workers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, It was reported locals in eastern Ethiopia have accused soldiers fighting an insurgency of burning villages to the ground, committing gang rape and killing people "like goats." A September report by a UN fact-finding mission said villagers had been told not to speak to outsiders.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel surrendered to demands by the Social Democrats, a junior partner in the grand coalition, for a minimum wage for postal workers.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 29, Iraqi police pulled six bodies from the Tigris River about 25 miles south of Baghdad. The bodies were handcuffed and had signs of torture and five, including a young child, had been beheaded. In Baghdad, a bomb on a minibus killed one person.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, A wildcat protest by cab drivers caused gridlock in downtown Rome, leaving Italians and tourists alike stranded at airports and train stations across the capital. Unions had been negotiating with Mayor Walter Veltroni over planned fare increases, but they walked away from the talks and called the sudden protest after authorities said they wanted to issue 500 new taxi licenses.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, ZMP of Japan began selling a two-legged walking robot that runs on Microsoft's new robotics software, a product the companies said will make it easier to transfer technology from one robot to another.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, The top defense officials from North and South Korea agreed on security arrangements for the first-ever regular train service across their heavily fortified border.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf embarked on a new five-year term as a civilian president, promising to lift a state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore the constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic opponents and foreign backers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Philippines’ President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo quickly quashed the latest threat to her rule, dispatching troops and SWAT teams when dissident military officers commandeered a five-star hotel after walking out of their coup trial.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, In Russia tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky was convicted in absentia of embezzling millions of dollars from the national airline, Aeroflot, and reportedly sentenced to six years in prison.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher arrested in Sudan on Nov 25 for insulting Islam by allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad," was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes. Gibbons was pardoned after spending more than a week in custody; she then left the country.
(AP, 11/30/07)(AP, 11/29/08)
2007 Nov 29, In Uganda a senior Ministry of Health official said an Ebola outbreak has killed at least 16 people out of 51 confirmed cases. The first case was reported Nov. 10 in Bundibugyo district, 210 miles west of the capital, Kampala. Uganda last had an outbreak of Ebola in October 2000, when 173 people died. A new form of the Ebola virus was detected in the outbreak. The death toll soon climbed to 21, including 8 doctors and health workers.
(AP, 11/29/07)(AP, 11/30/07)(Reuters, 12/1/07)(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B6)
2007 Nov 29, Ukraine's two pro-Western parties forged a majority coalition in parliament, paving the way for forming a government.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, in Venezuela more than 100,000 people flooded the streets to protest constitutional changes that would boost President Hugo Chavez's power. Students again showed they are a key force behind the re-energized opposition.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Leeland Eisenberg (46) of Somersworth, NH, carrying what appeared to be a bomb, took hostages at a Clinton campaign office in Rochester, NH, before surrendering after a 6-hour standoff. Eisenberg, one of over 500 recipients of payments in a 2003 settlement over clergy sexual abuse, said he wanted help getting psychiatric care.
(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.A1)(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A21)
2007 Nov 30, Scientists at Duke Univ. reported the creation of the first map of genes that are inherited as “silenced genes." The Duke map verified 40 and identified another 156. Humans were first shown to have silenced genes in 1991. They help explain why some people get sick and others do not.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.A7)
2007 Nov 30, An Amtrak train and a freight train collided on a track on the South Side of Chicago, injuring dozens of people.
{Train Crash, Chicago, USA}
(AP, 11/30/08)
2007 Nov 30, Evel Knievel (b.1938), the hard-living US motorcycle daredevil, died in Florida. His rocket-powered jumps and stunts made him an international icon in the 1970s.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Aruba a judge ordered the release of two brothers suspected in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, ruling that the evidence wasn't strong enough to continue holding them.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, Australian PM-elect Kevin Rudd said he would pull the country's 550 combat troops out of Iraq by the middle of next year.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited a teeming hillside shantytown to launch a multimillion-dollar program to build an outdoor elevator, sewage systems, improve roads and upgrade housing for slum residents.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Chad anti-government rebels declared a "state of war" against French and foreign military forces in an apparent warning to an EU peacekeeping force that plans to deploy soon in eastern Chad.
(Reuters, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, The $1.2 million film “Lost in Beijing" directed by Li Yu was released in China and made over $1.8 million before it was censored for sexually explicit scenes in uncut, pirated copies. Li Yu was banned from producing films for 2 years.
(SFC, 1/5/08, p.E4)
2007 Nov 30, Colombian officials released newly obtained videos of rebel-held hostages, among them three US defense contractors and a former presidential candidate, the first images in years providing evidence the captives may be alive.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OECD) awarded its rotating chairmanship in 2010 to Kazakhstan.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.50)
2007 Nov 30, India's Tata Steel signed a joint venture with Australia's Riversdale Mining to develop a hard coking and thermal coal project in Mozambique.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, An 18-month attempt to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment collapsed after a senior EU envoy failed to dent Iran's resolve to expand the technology, despite the threat of new UN sanctions.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Iraqi police captured a suspect believed responsible for supplying and coordinating roadside bomb attacks against American and Iraqi troops. Gunmen abducted Raid al-Saaiy, the dean of a technical institute in Amarah, a Shiite militia stronghold about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, leaving behind his car and driver. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of Iraq’s largest Sunni political block (the Iraqi Accordance Front), was placed under house arrest after an employee was found with keys to a car rigged with explosives. Over 40 of his employees were detained including 2 accused of killing a member of a neighborhood watch group.
(AP, 12/1/07)(SFC, 12/1/07, p.A6)
2007 Nov 30, In Italy a general transport strike by workers demanding more investment in the sector forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and idled trains, ships and buses across the country.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Italian oil firm Eni and oil and gas exploration firm Burren Energy said they had agreed the terms of a takeover offer from Eni worth 1.74 billion pounds. Burren is an independent group quoted on the London stock exchange that runs oil and gas fields in Turkmenistan, Congo, Egypt and Yemen.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, New Zealand officials said police have questioned the suspected teenage kingpin of an international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts. Earlier this month, Ryan Goldstein, 21, of Ambler, Pa., was indicted in the case. Authorities allege that the New Zealand suspect and Goldstein were involved in crashing a University of Pennsylvania engineering school server Feb. 23, 2006. On Feb 29 Owen Thor Walker (18) was charged with two counts of accessing a computer for dishonest purpose, damaging or interfering with a computer system and possessing software for committing crime, and two counts of accessing a computer system without authorization. In 2008 Walker pleaded guilty to 6 charges of computer hacking.
(AP, 11/30/07)(AP, 2/29/08)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.C2)
2007 Nov 30, Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto published her manifesto for a January election, promising jobs for the poor if victorious but keeping open the option of boycotting the vote.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In the Philippines 50 military officers and their supporters, including a former vice president, were under arrest and others were being sought following a failed attempt to trigger a "people power" revolt against the president.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Poland's new PM Donald Tusk paid a low-key visit to Lithuania on his first foreign trip. Lithuania and Poland were locked in a dispute about their relative share of the future output of a nuclear power plant that the two countries, plus Latvia and Estonia, planned to build in Lithuania by 2015.
(www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1196435824.82)
2007 Nov 30, President Vladimir Putin signed a law suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Russia fund manager Oleg Shvartsman said in an interview in Kommersant, a mainstream business newspaper, that his $3.2 billion fund was closely connected to the Kremlin’s administration and security services. Shvartsman said he reported indirectly to Igor Sechin, chair of the Rosneft oil company.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 30, Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Geneva the International Red Cross said 7 countries including the US and Britain have joined in a new move to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones. France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Denmark also committed themselves to accept a new nonbinding accord on protecting correspondents in line with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, Turkey’s government authorized the military to launch a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq at any time.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, In southwest Turkey an Atlasjet plane crashed on a rocky mountain shortly before it was due to land, killing all 57 people on board.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Venezuela some 200,000 gathered in Caracas as President Hugo Chavez urged supporters to approve constitutional changes that he said could keep him in power for life and threatened to cut off oil exports to the US if it tries to meddle in the Dec 2 vote.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, Thousands of Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare to lead a "million-man march" in support of President Robert Mugabe's bid to extend his rule despite a severe economic crisis blamed on his government. Thousands of ZANU-PF supporters were ferried into the capital by bus and train.
(Reuters, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov, Bayer AG removed the drug Trasylol at the request of the FDA after an observational study linked the medicine to kidney failure requiring dialysis and increased death of those patients. Dr. Dennis Mangano, the study's researcher, later said that 22,000 lives could have been saved if Trasylol had been taken off the market when he first published his study in January 2006.
(Reuters, 2/14/08)
2007 Nov, a new light rail system began operating in Charlotte, North Carolina.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.35)
2007 Nov, Xue Feng, a Chinese-born American geologist, was detained in China on charges of procuring state secrets. Xue was sentenced in 2010 on charges of illegally gathering information on China's oil industry. He was released in 2015.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2007 Nov, In Egypt the film "Heya Fawda" (Arabic for "It's Chaos") opened. It is a rare, frank look at police torture, corruption and political oppression that rights groups say is widespread in Egypt. It has been pulling in viewers and spurring criticism since opening.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2007 Nov, In Haiti 108 Sri Lankan soldiers were recalled after investigators found they had paid for sex with Haitians, some of whom were underage.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Nov, Iraqi civilian deaths due to the war numbered about 560 this month.
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.29)(www.icasualties.org)
2007 Nov, Geert Wilders, Dutch member of Parliament, revealed plans to air on television an expose of the wickedness of the Koran.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.57)
2007 Nov, Pakistan police and intelligence agents snatched Mazhar ul Haq from his home on the outskirts of Islamabad. In May, 2010, a court ordered him and 10 others released, but intelligence agents spirited him away. He remained in custody in 2013 without trial or conviction of any crime.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.43)
2007 Nov, In Poland the Gdansk Shipyard, in order to avoid bankruptcy, was sold Ukrainian firm Donbass for $400 million. The transaction, notified to the OCCP in October 2007, consisted in ISD Polska, a company belonging to the Donbass Group, taking control over the shipyard.
(Econ, 5/30/09, p.52)(www.uokik.gov.pl/en/press_office/press_releases/art98.html)
2007 Nov, Tunisia blocked access to popular video-sharing sites YouTube and DailyMotion, which both carried material about Tunisian political prisoners. Tunisian activists and allies responded by linking videos about civil liberties to the image of Tunisia’s presidential palace in Google Earth.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.67)
2007 Dec 1, Pres. Bush sent a letter, his first, to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il urging him to fully disclose his nuclear programs by the end of the year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Dec 1, Roger Lee Dillon (22) and his girlfriend, Nicole N. Boyd (24), were arrested in West Virginia for the disappearance of $7 million in cash and checks from an Ohio armored car company. The disappearance of the money was discovered Nov 26.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Police in Wichita, Kan., identified a body found days earlier as that of Emily Sander, a missing college student whose disappearance drew nationwide attention after the discovery she was also an Internet pornography model named Zoey Zane. As of 2008 suspect Israel Mireles, was fighting extradition from Mexico.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 1, Four suspects were charged in Miami in the shooting death of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor. One ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder; a fifth suspect was also charged.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 1, Cheryl Dunlap, a nurse from Crawfordsville, Florida, went missing. On Dec 16 her decapitated body was found in the Apalachicola National Forest. In 2011 a jury recommended the death penalty for Michael Hilton (64), who was already serving life in prison for the 2008 slaying of Meredith Emerson of Athens, Georgia.
(SFC, 2/22/11, p.A4)(www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/12542231.html)
2007 Dec 1, Danny Newman (b.1919), press agent, died at his home in Chicago. He boosted theater success for the Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning in 1954 with the use of subscriptions. His 1978 book “Subscribe Now" became a fund-raising classic.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A8)
2007 Dec 1, Afghan and NATO-led troops battled with Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in a series of clashes in the country's south that left 40 insurgents dead.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, Officials said a week of heavy rains in northern Algeria caused the death of 15 people, while three more people are missing feared dead.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The head of Belgium's Flemish Christian Democrats abandoned efforts to form a coalition government, after more than five months of fruitless talks, plunging the country further into crisis.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Times reported that Jonathan Evans, the head of Britain's domestic security service, has warned business leaders that China has been carrying out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of the economy.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Zhang Zilin (23), Miss China, won the Miss World 2007 title in her own country in front of an estimated two billion viewers around the globe.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, China and Japan began talks on trade and economic issues that are intended to bolster the recent warming of their long-uneasy relations.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Dubai police conducted a series of simultaneous raids on suspected brothels, landing 247 suspects in jail in the emirate's biggest anti-prostitution sweep to date. Human was trafficking rampant in this wealthy Gulf city.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 1, A deadline for Ethiopia and Eritrea to agree on the physical demarcation of their border expired amid escalating tension between the two nations, leaving the frontier only delineated on maps.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, At the 20th annual European Film Awards in Berlin Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" won the best film prize.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Dozens of militants stormed Dwelah, a Shiite village north of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and torching homes. The villagers fought back killing three gunmen. Elsewhere in the same region, Iraqi and US troops freed four villages from al-Qaida control.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, An Israeli airstrike killed five Hamas members, prompting threats by Gaza militants to fire longer-range rockets at Israeli border towns.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, In northwestern Pakistan former PM Benazir Bhutto launched her election campaign, a day after unveiling her party's platform despite calls from other opposition groups to boycott the Jan. 8 vote.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, US coffee giant Starbucks announced plans to build a regional support centre in Rwanda for farmers in east Africa, where the industry has faced difficulty despite recent price spikes.
(AFP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, In South Africa Nelson Mandela drew a crowd of about 15,000 to his fifth international awareness concert, held this year to coincide with World AIDS Day.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, ETA gunmen shot and killed a Spanish policeman and seriously injured another in France, the first killing by the Basque separatist group in almost a year.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, In Sri Lanka at least 11 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and 49 injured in heavy clashes across northern defense lines in Mannar. Elsewhere, 13 rebels were killed overnight in separate fighting near the guerrillas' stronghold in the north of the island.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Turkish military said it fired on 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses." Turkish troops killed four Kurdish rebels in fighting near its border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/1/07)(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Singer and song writer Brian Wilson, filmmaker Martin Scorsese, actor Steve Martin, singer Diana Ross and pianist Leon Fleisher were honored at the White House for their contributions to American culture. The five were named in September as members of the 30th class of Kennedy Center honorees.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, A snow storm headed to the US Northeast after plastering a wide area of the Midwest the day before, disrupting airport and highway traffic. At least 10 people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents.
(AP, 12/2/07)(SFC, 12/3/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 2, Robert O. Anderson (b.1917), oil man and creator of the Atlantic Richfield Co. (1966), died in Roswell, NM.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 2, In southern Afghanistan coalition forces killed five suspected Taliban militants in an operation targeting a commander believed to be involved in the kidnapping of an Italian journalist earlier this year.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Australia night time thieves stole 17.6 tons of ham and bacon from a warehouse in suburban Sidney and left behind a message saying “Thanks" and “Merry Christmas." The stolen meat was worth up to $88,000.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, China and Japan amicably wrapped up their first high-level trade and economic talks on Sunday by pledging greater overall cooperation, but left the touchy issue of gas exploration in the East China Sea unresolved.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Police in northern Greece seized hundreds of ancient coins, some dating back 2,300 years, allegedly stashed away by a 70-year-old barber.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, Two outspoken political veterans faced off in one of Hong Kong's most keenly watched legislative elections. Pro-democracy candidate Anson Chan, a hugely popular former government official, won a seat in Hong Kong's legislature, a win she hailed as a victory for democracy in the southern Chinese territory. Her closest opponent, former security chief Regina Ip, who had the backing of Beijing-allied parties, received 137,550, or 42.7% of votes.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, The number of Iraqis killed last month fell to 718. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in a Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Baghdad killed two officers. A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol near Samarra killed three soldiers and injured four. Gunmen in two cars fired on a Sunni Interior Ministry aide, Maj. Gen. Fauzi Hussein Muhammed, as he returned home, killing him and wounding his driver. A mass grave with the remains of 12 people, including a paramedic who disappeared more than a year ago, was unearthed near Lake Tharthar, an area long controlled by al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Mexico Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, was abducted, tortured and strangled to death. His body was found the next day. A day earlier Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones was killed execution-style at the hospital where she was recovering from neck surgery for a shooting on Nov 30, in which 2 other people were killed. Fears rose that singers, whether they have any links to drug cartels or not, get routinely "adopted" by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.
(AP, 12/5/07)(SFC, 12/5/07, p.E3)
2007 Dec 2, Hamas officials shut down the Gaza census office, saying the surveyors had violated an agreement to share their data with Hamas as it is collected.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, About two dozen protesters angry over a rape case involving a Marine stormed the American Embassy. The protesters demanded the transfer to a Philippine jail of Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, who was convicted a year ago of raping a Filipino woman but has remained under U.S. government custody.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Russians voted in a parliamentary election. Putin's United Russia party swept 70 percent of seats in parliament.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, A Somali human rights group said violence in Mogadishu has killed 5,960 civilians this year.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Defense lawyers said Sudan has authorized the release of Mubarak al-Fadil, a high-profile opposition leader detained for more than four months. Fadil is the leader of the opposition Umma Party for Renewal and Reform and the cousin of former PM Sadig al-Mahdi.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Ukraine 5 workers looking for the bodies of miners killed in the country’s worst mine explosion since the Soviet collapse were killed in a new explosion. A day earlier 44 people were injured in an explosion in the same section of the mine.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, Venezuelans voted in a referendum on granting President Hugo Chavez expanded powers and ending term limits under sweeping constitutional changes. Voters narrowly rejected changes to 69 of 350 articles in the 1999 constitution by 51% to 49%.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.30)
2007 Dec 3, A consensus judgement of the US intelligence community was released saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and though it continues an enriched uranium program, it apparently has not resumed moving toward a nuclear capability. On Dec 11 the national Council for Resistance in Iran said Iran’s weaponization program was relocated and restarted in 2004.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.A14)(WSJ, 12/11/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 3, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a freeze on interest rates on loans made to millions of risky borrowers. Resistance by the mortgage industry was expected. Paulson said he is confident there will soon be an agreement to help thousands of homeowners avoid mortgage defaults by temporarily freezing their interest rates.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.C1)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, The US national debt was reported to be expanding by about $1.4 billion a day, or nearly $1 million a minute.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Former commissioner Bowie Kuhn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth and ex-Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss also were elected.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2007 Dec 3, In NYC Don Imus returned to the airwaves eight months after he was fired for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, and introduced a new cast that included two black comedians on WABC-AM.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, AT&T said that it planned to leave the rapidly shrinking pay-phone business.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.C1)
2007 Dec 3, In Afghanistan’s southwestern Nimroz province a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol, killing four other people, including two policemen.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Ten people believed to be Algerian asylum seekers drowned while a Dutch ship tried to rescue them in stormy Mediterranean waters. Two men survived the ordeal.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 3, Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th prime minister and immediately began dismantling the former government's policies by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Artist Mark Wallinger won Britain's prestigious Turner Prize for a fiercely anti-war exhibit based on a lone protester's six-year vigil outside British parliament.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, The Bank of England under governor Mervyn King brought down its base interest rate by a quarter point to 5.5%.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.65)
2007 Dec 3, In Congo (DRC) some 25,000 government forces army attacked a stronghold of renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, a day after his men seized a strategic town from the government and forced out thousands of civilians. The troops were routed by some 4,000 insurgents.
(Reuters, 12/3/07)(www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/msg25522.html)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.63)
2007 Dec 3, In Cuba a human rights leader said that police have detained 29 anti-government activists in less than two weeks and seven remain jailed, including a man who called for the communist-run island to tolerate independent universities.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Hundreds of civil servants protested in front of Egypt's Cabinet, demanding wage increases to cope with rising prices and inflation.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Egypt opened its border crossing with Gaza to let in Palestinian religious pilgrims headed for Saudi Arabia, the first time Palestinians have been allowed to enter Egyptian territory since Hamas militants seized Gaza in June.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Jakarta, Indonesia, 6 Islamic militants were sentenced to up to 19 years in prison for terrorist acts in eastern Indonesia that include beheading three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 and shooting to death Rev. Irianto Kongkoli in 2006.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Bali, Indonesia, climate experts at a massive UN conference urged quick action toward a new international pact to stem global warming. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) hoped for an agreement to mitigate climate change after the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.73)
2007 Dec 3, Iran ordered Canada's ambassador to leave the country after Canada rejected candidates Tehran had proposed to represent the Islamic Republic in Ottawa.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Lawmakers from Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc ended their boycott of parliament over the "house arrest" of their leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, who also attended the session. In Baghdad an Interior Ministry aide was gunned down in his car. The mutilated bodies of four guards at an oil facility who were kidnapped at a checkpoint on their way back from vacation were found north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Daniele Emmanuello (43), the Mafia godfather of Gela, Sicily, was killed while trying to escape police. He was considered one of Italy's 30 most dangerous Mafia fugitives.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.62)
2007 Dec 3, In Qatar Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reached out to Gulf Arab states, proposing security and economic pacts free of "foreign influence" in the first appearance by an Iranian leader before a summit of a key group of Persian Gulf nations. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed shortly after the outbreak of the 1980 Iran-Iraq war, partly to counter the spread of Iran's Islamic revolution.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif risks disqualification from Pakistan's crucial parliamentary elections after an official rejected his nomination papers. Sharif was said to be ineligible because of a conviction on charges related to the 1999 coup, in which Musharraf ousted his government. A bomb exploded inside an Islamic school in southwestern Pakistan, killing six students and wounding four others.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas closed 92 charities linked to Hamas, as part of a West Bank crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 12/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 3, Foreign observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary election victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the results as a validation of his leadership. With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Putin's United Russia party was leading with 64.1 percent of the vote. Europe joined the US in demanding Russia investigate alleged abuses in the election, and Germany denounced the poll as undemocratic.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Reuters, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, A Moscow court convicted Igor Reshetin, the head of the company TsNIIMASH-Export, a rocket and space technology company, on charges of leaking sensitive technology to China. This was the latest case involving a Russian scientist who was prosecuted despite claims the sensitive materials were in the public domain. Reshetin was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison after prosecutors said the information Reshetin had handed over to the Chinese could be used for building missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels battled each other with rifles, mortars and artillery across northern Sri Lanka, leaving 42 rebels and six soldiers dead.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Sudan's president pardoned Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed for insulting Islam after allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gibbons arrived back in England the next day.
(AP, 12/3/07)(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, A colleague said Karim Bozorboyev, a prominent Uzbek human rights activist, has been sentenced to six years and three months in jail as part of a crackdown on dissidents and government critics.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, said he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, Defending his credibility, President George W. Bush said Iran was dangerous and needed to be squeezed by international pressure despite a blockbuster intelligence finding that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons program four years earlier. The intelligence report on Iran figured in a Democratic debate on National Public Radio as rivals assailed front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for voting in favor of a Senate resolution designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2007 Dec 4, The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency after a severe storm smacked the region with hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain. At least four people were killed by the storm.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Pimp C (33), born as Chad Butler, was found dead in an upscale hotel in Los Angeles. He had spun searing tales of Texas street life into a key role in the rise of Southern hip-hop.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Kabul US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was pushing the world's countries for more commitment to Afghanistan's fight against growing extremist violence. A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul, wounding 22 civilians passing nearby. An explosion struck a patrol of NATO-led troops, leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, Sen. Renan Calheiros, president of Brazil's Senate, resigned while fighting allegations of corruption. Calheiros, a key ally of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, retained his position as a senator. A legislative commission voted 17-3 last week to recommend his expulsion after finding evidence that he used third parties to illegally acquire two radio stations and a newspaper.
(AP, 12/4/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.43)
2007 Dec 4, New census data said one in five people in Canada last year was born in another country, the highest proportion since the 1930s. The Bank of Canada cut its key overnight interest rate by one-quarter point to 4.25 percent, saying it expects US subprime mortgage woes and financial market fallout to last longer than anticipated.
(Reuters, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, The Chadian army fought heavy battles against rebel forces in the east of the country near the border with Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, France and Algeria agreed to cooperate on civilian nuclear technologies. French oil group Total said it had signed a deal to invest about 1.5 billion dollars in a new 3.0-billion-dollar (2.0 billion euros) petrochemical plant in Algeria.
(AFP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Greece and Turkey agreed to joint military measures aimed at easing tensions and improving ties.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 4, Police in northern India broke up a major tiger poaching ring, arresting an alleged kingpin and 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 4, Iran's foreign minister welcomed the US decision to "correct" its claim that Tehran has an active nuclear weapons program, while Israel's defense minister said Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to develop an atomic weapon.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Iran Makwan Moloudzadeh, a man convicted of raping three boys when he was 13 years old, was hanged despite a chief justice's order that the case be reviewed.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Iraq Sunni Arab lawmakers ended a yearlong boycott of politics in Kirkuk, after the Kurdish majority agreed to allot one-third of government jobs to Arabs and appoint an Arab as deputy governor. A suicide bomber blew himself up near a police station in Jalula, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 30. Kidnappers of five Britons, seized on May 29, demanded that Britain pull all its forces from Iraq, according to a new video broadcast made on Nov 18. The US military said 40 senior al Qaeda in Iraq members were either captured or killed in November, including a senior adviser to the Sunni Islamist group's leader. Three US soldiers were killed in a "complex attack" involving a roadside bomb and small arms fire north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, Israel said it is seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move is undermining the newly revived peace talks.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Italy Vincenzo Santapaola, a suspected Mafia boss, and scores of alleged mobsters were arrested during raids in Catania, Sicily. Police also seized weapons and drugs, and found a book that listed extortion fees and salaries of the people working for the family.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Mexico gunmen shot and killed a deputy police chief inside his house in the border city of Tecate.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, State media said Myanmar's military junta has completed the release of 8,585 prisoners, but it was unclear if any of those released were among those detained during the crackdown.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Nigeria pirates attacked a vessel operated by oil major ExxonMobil in the Niger Delta, killing a crew member and injuring another.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Former PM Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan's major opposition parties will demand the end of emergency rule and the release of former Supreme Court judges as a condition for their participation in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Tens of thousands of mineworkers downed tools in South Africa in a one-day strike over safety standards, accusing their bosses of putting lives at risk for the sake of profits.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, UN human rights experts said Sudanese forces and allied militia have killed several hundred civilians in ground attacks and aerial bombardments on villages in Darfur in the past six months.
(Reuters, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Thailand a bomb killed six people and injured 20 in one of the deadliest attacks in recent months.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, American officials confirmed that Vietnam is holding four US citizens, hours after gaining their first consular access to two of the detainees, both Vietnamese-born pro-democracy activists.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, President George W. Bush, trying to keep pressure on Iran, called on Tehran to "come clean" about the scope of its nuclear activities or else face diplomatic isolation.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2007 Dec 5, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted the 2007 California Hall of Fame inductees: Ansel Adams, Milton Berle, Steve Jobs, Willie Mays, Robert Mondavi, Rita Moreno, Jackie Robinson, Jonas Salk, M.D., John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor, Earl Warren, John Wayne, and Tiger Woods.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Hall_of_Fame)
2007 Dec 5, In Omaha, Nebraska, Robert A. Hawkins (19) sprayed the third floor of the Von Maur department store in Westroads Mall with gunfire. When the shooting was over, Hawkins killed himself. His victims included six store employees and two customers. An autopsy report later indicated that only some Valium in his system.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec 5, It was reported that the world’s largest helium reserve near Amarillo, Texas, was expected to run out by 2015. The Bush Dome, begun as a reserve by the government in 1925, supplied 35% of the world’s current usage.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 5, Andrew Imbrie (b.1921), composer and teacher, died in Berkeley, Ca. His work included the opera “Angle of Repose", which was commissioned and premiered (1976) by the SF Opera.
(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B3)
2007 Dec 5, Afghan forces clashed with Taliban who had blocked a main highway in the south, killing 10 militants. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, An international aid organization said Angolan soldiers routinely and repeatedly rape Congolese women who have crossed the border illegally in search of work in the diamond fields.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Australia’s PM Kevin Rudd spoke at the state funeral for Bernie Banton (61), who died from an asbestos-related disease he contracted while working for building products company James Hardie. Banton's dogged campaign ultimately led to the establishment of a 4 billion dollar (3.5 billion US) compensation fund for victims of Hardie's asbestos products.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced he would ask for a referendum on whether he should remain president, and challenged opposition governors to do the same.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Bosnia 4 men wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed Sarajevo international airport's cargo zone and stole $1.9 million.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, British police arrested John Darwin (57) on fraud charges, five years after he vanished in an apparent canoeing accident in the North Sea, only to reappear last weekend, claiming he had amnesia.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Congo's army said it retook a strategic town on from rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda in the violence-torn eastern province of North Kivu.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, French police arrested two armed people in connection with a weekend shooting that left two Spanish officers dead in what authorities described as the first Basque-related killings in France in more than three decades.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Germany 3 men were convicted of aiding the al-Qaida in Germany, including one who prosecutors say was part of the terrorist network's command structure and had contact with top leaders.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Darry, Germany, the bodies of 5 young boys, ages 3 to 9, were found in their home after their 31-year-old mother told a doctor where they were. Authorities in eastern Germany announced they had found the bodies of three infant girls and had taken their mother into custody on manslaughter charges.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928), German avant-garde composer, died. His innovative electronic works made him one of the most important composers of the postwar era. His work included “Kontakte" (1959-60) and “Stimmung" (1968), a sextet for unaccompanied voices on a 6-note chord of B-flat.
(AP, 12/8/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.95)
2007 Dec 5, A survey said Indian business confidence has slumped to a five-year low on the back of flagging exports, aggressive monetary tightening and a rising rupee that has slowed the economy.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, A blast hit the northern city of Mosul. Police said explosives hidden in a parked car killed a civilian and wounded seven others. A car bomb exploded in a largely Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and killed at least 14 people. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to the capital that security and stability were within reach, although more work is needed. In Baqouba a suicide car bomber targeted a bus station and killed five civilians with at least 20 others wounded. In Kirkuk a parked car bomb killed three Kurdish soldiers in a convoy guarding a police chief.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Latvia's center-right government resigned after coming under intense criticism for firing a popular anti-corruption investigator and failing to restrain inflation.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Liberia cleared its debt arrears with the World Bank, paving the way for new development lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African country rebuild after years of civil war.
(Reuters, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 5, Six judges on Nicaragua's Supreme Court threw out a law meant to block neighborhood councils that will report directly to President Daniel Ortega. But other judges call the ruling itself illegal.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Sri Lanka’s defense ministry said at least 36 people including 7 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in the embattled north. A land mine explosion blamed on Tamil separatists tore through a passenger bus crowded with civilians in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 16 people and wounding 22 others.
(AFP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 6, It was reported that the Bush administration has developed a voluntary plan to freeze interest rates for five years for thousands of strapped homeowners whose mortgages were scheduled to rise in the coming months. The plan called for a 5-year freeze for mortgages made from Jan 2005 to July 30, 2007.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 12/6/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 6, CIA Director Michael Hayden revealed the agency had videotaped its interrogations of two terror suspects in 2002 and destroyed the tapes three years later out of fear they would leak to the public and compromise the identities of US questioners.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2007 Dec 6, Republican Mitt Romney said his Mormon faith should neither help nor hinder his quest for the White House and vowed to serve the interests of the nation, not the church, if elected president.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2007 Dec 6, Former CEO William McGuire of UnitedHealth Group Inc agreed to forfeit more than $400 million in stock options and other compensation and pay a $7 million fine to settle an investigation into the health insurer's options practices.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, IBM reported that it has made a breakthrough in converting electrical signals into light pulses that brings closer the day when supercomputing, which now requires huge machines, will be done on a single chip.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, A gas blast at mine in northern China killed at least 105 people.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, A French anti-terrorist judge filed preliminary charges against Guillaume Dasquie, an investigative journalist and author, accused of publishing defense secrets.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, A parcel bomb exploded at a lawyer's office in central Paris, killing a secretary and seriously injuring an attorney, but a motive was not immediately clear.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, India overturned a 1914 law that banned women from tending bar in New Delhi. A ruling in New Delhi in January said women could do bar work in hotels and restaurants, ended a 92-year-old law barring their employment. In August the Delhi government sought a ban on such jobs for women. Each of India’s 29 states has its own laws governing the sale of alcohol, and many restrict women working behind the bar.
(SFC, 12/22/07, p.A15)(http://in.news.yahoo.com/071206/211/6o422.html)
2007 Dec 6, In Indonesia American climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, even as a US Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, Iraq suspended parliamentary sessions for the year. Drive-by shootings killed at least two people in separate attacks in Baghdad and Muqdadiyah. In Muqdadiyah suspects gunned down a US-backed security volunteer. Clashes broke out between Kurdish peshmerga soldiers and alleged al-Qaida gunmen who attacked a Kurdish checkpoint near Khanaqin, close to the Iranian border. A peshmerga spokesman said 8 Kurdish troops were killed and 5 wounded. 3 militants also died. The US military said its troops killed three suspected insurgents and captured 19 in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq along the Tigris River valley. US forces raided a house in the al-Hayy area south of Kut, killing two suspects and wounding two others. Two men were killed in Mosul, one who, wielding a knife, lunged at American soldiers as they entered a building, and another who was wrapped in blanket with wires protruding from it.
(AP, 12/6/07)(WSJ, 12/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 6, In southern Mexico Jose Luis Aquino (33), a trumpet player, was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head, in what authorities said was apparently the country's third murder of a musician in less than a week.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, A New Zealand judge sentenced two Chinese students to 18 1/2 years in prison for the ransom kidnapping and slaying of a fellow student, saying the two fell into "cyber sloth" and greed during their studies abroad.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, Thousands of lawyers boycotted courts across Pakistan while police blocked former PM Nawaz Sharif and his supporters from marching to the heavily guarded home of the deposed Supreme Court chief justice.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, In the Philippines 14 Muslim Abu Sayyaf were sentenced to life in prison for the 2001 kidnapping of a US missionary couple and 18 others in a yearlong jungle ordeal that prompted US-backed offensives against the guerrillas.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 6, The 24th Southeast Asian Games officially opened in Korat, Thailand.
(AFP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived in Lisbon for an EU-Africa summit, which British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is boycotting because he would not "sit down at the same table" as him.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 7, US Congressional Democrats demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA had obstructed justice by destroying videotapes documenting the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Howard Krongard, the US State Department's embattled inspector general, announced his resignation. He was accused of impeding a Justice Department investigation of Blackwater Worldwide.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, US federal officials outlined a new plan on how to allocate water to California, Arizona and Nevada from the Colorado River in case of shortages.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 7, Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison for accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services company.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty in San Francisco to charges he'd lied to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, In NYC 2 window washers fell 47 stories from a Manhattan skyscraper when their scaffolding failed; Edgar Moreno was killed, but his brother, Alcides, miraculously survived.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Afghan and NATO troops surrounded the town of Musa Qala and launched air strikes to dislodge Taliban rebels who had been in control for 10 months.
(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Aruba prosecutors' office said a judge has ordered the release of a Dutch suspect who was re-arrested last month in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Australian police said they had smashed an international cocaine smuggling ring spanning three continents and operating out of the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada. Of the total 40 people arrested, 14 Canadian and Australian nationals of Chinese and Vietnamese descent were picked up in Sydney and Melbourne over the past six months. Australian conman Peter Foster, once linked to the "Cheriegate" scandal involving the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, was jailed for money laundering. Foster, who pleaded guilty to a charge related to fraudulently obtaining 234,000 US dollars from the Bank of the Federated States of Micronesia, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.
(AFP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 7, Canada's TV watchdog blessed the launch of Vanessa, a national pay TV porn channel.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in Guyana, agreed to open up its markets to certain European goods, on the condition that entertainment workers from the region are allowed free access to Europe.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Six French nationals detained in Chad on suspicion of trying to illegally fly 103 children to Europe started a hunger strike, complaining their case was being neglected.
(Reuters, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, China said it will not consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States and other industrialized countries should take the lead in fighting climate change by embracing a less-extravagant lifestyle.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The World Health Organization confirmed that the father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has been infected with the virus that causes the disease, saying it could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human infection.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Zagazig, Egypt, 3 students were killed and dozens injured when a fire broke inside an Al-Azhar university campus building in the Nile Delta.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Germany's top security officials said they consider the goals of the US-based Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and will seek to ban the group.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Iraq’s Diyala province a female suicide bomber attacked the offices of an anti-al-Qaida group that has joined forces with the US, killing 16 people. The bomber was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party whose two sons joined al-Qaida and were killed by Iraqi security forces. A second attack at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and another of the US-backed groups killed 10 people.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Officials said swarms of desert locusts have invaded Kenya's arid northeast for the first time since 1962.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, NATO ministers pledged to keep their KFOR peace force in Kosovo at current strength as the Serbian province heads towards independence and to make more troops available as necessary to deal with any violence.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Gyude Bryant, a former president of Liberia (2003-2005), was arrested for violating the conditions of his bail while on trial on charges of embezzling $1.3 million in government funds.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Two gunmen barged into a central Philippine town hall and killed the vice mayor, a human rights advocate who had condemned a series of killings of left-wing activists.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, A crane-carrying vessel collided with the Hebei Spirit, an oil tanker off of South Korea's west coast, spilling nearly 80,000 barrels of crude oil in what was believed to be South Korea's largest offshore oil leak. On Jan 21, 2008, courts indicted Samsung Heavy Industries and the owner of the tanker on charges relating to the spill.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/20/07)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2007 Dec 7, A UN court in Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide sentenced Francois Karera, a former provincial governor, to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, including helping soldiers kill refugees in a church.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 8, The US Justice Department and CIA announced a joint inquiry into the spy agency's destruction of videotapes of interrogations of two suspected terrorists.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 8, The chief US negotiator at the climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, said the US will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008 and won’t commit to mandatory caps.
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.A17)
2007 Dec 8, Talk show host Oprah Winfrey publicly endorsed Barack Obama for president during appearances in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 8, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 8, Ann Lisa Nguyen (35), a program manager in San Jose, Ca., went missing. Her body was found Dec 19 at the Newby Island Landfill in Milpitas. Anthony Dale Evans (45), a convicted felon who worked at the same gym that Nguyen frequented, was later arrested on suspicion of murder.
(SFC, 12/20/07, p.B2)
2007 Dec 8, Worldwide demonstrations began to draw attention to climate change and push their governments to take stronger action to fight global warming.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, A NATO and Afghan operation to retake Musa Qala, a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan, left at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children dead. A Nato soldier killed in a mine explosion during the operation, which began Dec 7. Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns ambushed a district chief's vehicle in western Farah province, killing him, his son, nephew and three bodyguards.
(AP, 12/8/07)(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, A suicide truck bomber attacked a police station in Beiji, one of Iraq's major oil hubs, killing at least seven people and injuring 13 in a neighborhood home to many refinery workers and engineers. In southeastern Kut a rocket landed on the home of a senior member of the local Sadrist bloc of Shiite politicians, killing him, his wife and their two children. Ten suspected militants were killed in a gunfight and airstrike outside Youssifiyah. In a raid outside Jalula US forces moving against a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member killed one suspect and discovered an ammunition cache. Two other raids in Mosul and Samarra left one suspected militant dead and 11 detained.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8-2007 Dec 11, US soldiers carrying out operations in volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad found graves containing 26 bodies next to what they called a torture center where chains were attached to blood-spattered walls and a metal bed frame was still connected to an electrical shock system. Soldiers found a total of nine caches containing a surface-to-air missile launcher, sniper rifles, 130 pounds of homemade explosives and numerous mortar tubes and rounds, among other weapons.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 8, In Naseerabad, Pakistan, gunmen killed three people in an attack on a party office of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the first reported deaths apparently linked to the current election campaign. Pakistan's army claimed it has cleared almost all militants from embattled northwestern Swat valley after killing 290 rebels and arresting another 143 in recent weeks.
(AP, 12/8/07)(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, South Korea's worst-ever oil spill reached the country's southwest coastline, polluting beaches with pungent sludge and threatening valuable sea farms.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, In Spain 53 African and 27 European countries began a summit to bury old colonial relationships in favor of something more modern. German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged European and African leaders to confront human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, putting the country's president Robert Mugabe in the spotlight at an EU-Africa summit.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.54)(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, Soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged mortar and gunfire in northern Sri Lanka, leaving 16 rebels dead.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 8, Taiwanese director Ang Lee's erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" swept the top honors at the Golden Horse Film Awards, seen as the Chinese-language "Oscars."
(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, An overcrowded boat carrying at least some 85 illegal migrants sank off Turkey's Aegean coast and at least 43 died. The migrants were mostly Palestinians, Somalis and Iraqis.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come and dismissed Western accusations that Pres. Alexander Lukashenko is a dictator. Chavez presented Lukashenko with a medal, and they signed an agreement pledging military cooperation.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Arvada, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, a gunman walked into a training center dormitory for young Christian missionaries and opened fire, killing two of the center's staff members and wounding two others. 2 more people, including the gunman, were killed at the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs. Matthew Murray, killed himself.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/9/08)
2007 Dec 9, In southern Afghanistan Afghan, British and US troops closed in on Musa Qala, a Taliban-held town. A second NATO soldier was killed in the operation. This was the first mission in which British forces have participated with the Afghan army as the main fighting force. Afghan and NATO forces killed 30 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Bolivia’s constitutional assembly approved a new charter that would empower Pres. Evo Morales to run for re-election indefinitely. The new constitution required approval by Bolivians in a national referendum expected in 2008.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A16)
2007 Dec 9, Voters in Bosnia's Serb entity went to polls to choose a new president, as the country was taking initial steps towards European integration.
(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Anne Darwin, whose husband is accused of faking his own death in an insurance scam, was arrested upon her return to Britain from Panama on suspicion of fraud. Police said Darwin masterminded an elaborate fraud to pay off family debts.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, A Canadian jury in British Columbia convicted Robert 'Willie' Pickton (58), a pig farmer, of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life sentence but finding that the killings were not planned. Pickton still faced 20 more murder charges for the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. On Dec 11 Pickton was sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole for 25 years. Canadian authorities spent more than C$100 million ($98 million) to catch and convict Pickton.
(AP, 12/9/07)(Reuters, 12/12/07)(Reuters, 11/17/10)
2007 Dec 9, Beijing's foreign exchange regulator said the ceiling on foreign investment in Chinese securities will be raised to $30 billion from $10 billion.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Iran signed a contract with China's Sinopec for the development of Iran's huge Yadavaran oil field, the kind of energy deal the United States has been trying to prevent. Hundreds of Iranian students angry over a crackdown on activists protested at Tehran University, the second such demonstration in less than a week.
(Reuters, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf, the police chief of Basra, said religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year there because of how they dressed. A roadside bomb struck a convoy carrying Brig. Gen. Qais al-Maamouri, the police chief of Babil, the provincial capital of Hillah, a predominantly Shiite province south of Baghdad, killing him and two of his bodyguards. British PM Gordon Brown flew into southern Iraq to rally troops and confirm that Iraqi forces will take command of the last region under British control in mid-December.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Pakistan former PM Nawaz Sharif's opposition party decided to run in next month's parliamentary elections, a move could clear the way for other members of Pakistan's largest opposition coalition to participate. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost near Imam Dheri, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, killing 8 people. The military there has been battling Islamic militants loyal to the fugitive cleric.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, A blast on a bus in Russia’s Stavropol region killed two people. An exploding gas canister was suspected.
(Reuters, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Lisbon, Spain, Senegal's Pres. Abdoulaye Wade said most African leaders have rejected EU proposals for a free-trade deal that would replace colonial-era trading systems at a summit marred by disputes over Zimbabwe and Darfur. Africa and Europe's first summit in seven years ended without agreement on the key issue of trade.
(AP, 12/9/07)(Reuters, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, A charter aircraft flying from the Czech Republic crashed near Kiev airport in Ukraine killing at least 5 people.
(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 10, A US judge sentenced former media mogul Conrad Black (63) to 6-1/2 years in prison for obstructing justice and defrauding shareholders in one-time newspaper publishing empire Hollinger International Inc., and ordered him to report to prison in 12 weeks. The Canadian-born member of Britain's House of Lords was found guilty in July of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of fraud. Co-defendants Jack Boultbee (64), former Hollinger chief financial officer, got 27 months and former vice president and general counsel Peter Atkinson (60) got 2 years for fraud.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Suspended NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced by a federal judge in Richmond, Va., to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2007 Dec 10, Madison Square Garden and New York Knicks coach Isaiah Thomas reached an $11.5 million settlement of a sexual harassment case brought by former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2007 Dec 10, Former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2007 Dec 10, US commuters contended with treacherous roads from the southern Plains to the Northeast as a storm spread a coating of ice and freezing rain. The storm eventually was linked to 38 deaths including 21 in Oklahoma, 4 in Kansas and 3 each in Missouri and Michigan and one in Nebraska.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(SFC, 12/12/07, p.A3)(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 10, Seattle-based Washington Mutual said it will lay off over 3,000 workers and close 190 offices in response to loan losses in the mortgage market.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 10, Afghan and international forces retook the southern town of Musa Qala, held by Taliban militants since February. A Taliban spokesman said the militants fled to avoid civilian and Taliban casualties. In Sangin district Afghan police clashed with a group of Taliban militants, leaving 15 militants dead and 11 others wounded. An Afghan army helicopter crashed in central Afghanistan because of bad weather, killing four people. British PM Gordon Brown stopped in at Camp Bastion, the main British camp in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AFP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Cristina Kirchner was sworn in as president of Argentina. Hector Febres (66), accused of kidnapping and torturing dissidents during Argentina's past military dictatorship, was found dead in his cell at a navy brig four days before an expected verdict in his high-profile case. On Dec 14 police detained the wife and two grown children of the former coast guard officer hours after an autopsy found cyanide in his blood.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 10, Australia accepted seven asylum seekers from Myanmar as refugees as the country's new Labor government began unwinding tough immigration laws which force boatpeople into detention on Pacific island nations.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, In London Led Zeppelin performed their first full concert in nearly three decades. Three surviving members, singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, were joined by the late John Bonham's son Jason on drums.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Petro-Canada, Canada's third largest oil and gas company, signed a $7 billion deal with Libya's state-run National Oil Corp. to invest in exploration in the North African nation.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, In Mississauga, Canada, Aqsa Parvez (16), who was said to have clashed with her father about whether she should wear a traditional Muslim head scarf, died of injuries, and her father told police he had killed her.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, American blues guitarist "Philadelphia" Jerry Ricks (67), who mastered the sound of the 1930s' Delta Blues, died in a clinic in Croatia.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Cuba said it would sign an international agreement on civil and political rights while a few blocks away government supporters shoved and shouted down activists calling for improved human rights on the communist-run island.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a 10-year program has begun to save endangered orangutans from extinction by protecting tropical jungle habitat from logging, mining and palm oil plantations. As many as 50,000 orangutans have been lost over the past 35 years due to shrinking habitat. As of January 2004, about 6,650 Sumatran orangutans and 55,000 Borneo orangutans remained in the wild.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, In Baghdad mortar shells slammed into an Interior Ministry prison, killing at least seven inmates and wounding 23. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in eastern Baghdad killed one policeman and injured five other people. Gunmen on motorcycles fatally shot Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Ajil, the head of Iraq's largest psychiatric hospital, as he was returning home from work. Iraqi security forces rounded up several Shiite militia fighters in raids targeting suspects in the assassination of a US-backed provincial police chief south of Baghdad. A fire broke out at one of Iraq's main oil refineries, but the US military said it was due to an industrial accident, not an attack. It was reported that some 1,217 people in Iraq’s northern Sulaymaniya province have been infected with cholera since late August.
(AP, 12/10/07)(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A13)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co. said it will buy US biopharmaceutical company MGI Pharma Inc. for $3.9 billion in cash in a move aimed at boosting its cancer drug business and sustain sales growth.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Kosovo Albanian leaders said they will start immediate talks with Western backers towards an independence declaration as the EU came closer to unity in support of the province's drive to secede from Serbia. Thousands of wildly cheering pro-independence demonstrators marched through Pristina, as a sense of euphoria swept the breakaway province preparing to gain statehood early next year.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi arrived on his first visit to France in 34 years, sparking protests from rights groups and criticism from the government's own human rights minister. Gadhafi got straight to business, cutting $14.7 billion in deals for arms and nuclear reactors on his first official visit to the West since renouncing terrorism and atomic weapons.
(AFP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, A suicide car bomber struck near a bus carrying children of Pakistani air force employees to school at a northern army base. At least five children were wounded.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori faced trial on charges of using a death squad to kill leftist guerrillas and collaborators, a case stirring mixed emotions in a country where many admire him for defeating a bloody insurgency.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, President Vladimir Putin threw his support behind first Deputy PM Dmitry Medvedev (b.1965) as his successor, saying that electing him president would keep Russia on the same course of the past eight years. Medvedev also served as chairman of AOA Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant.
(AP, 12/10/07)(WSJ, 12/11/07, p.A22)
2007 Dec 10, Swiss banking giant UBS AG said it will write off a further $10 billion on losses in the US subprime lending market and will raise capital by selling substantial stakes to Singapore and an unnamed investor in the Middle East.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 11, Pres. Bush granted pardons to 29 people.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 11, The US Senate Intelligence Committee took closed-door testimony from CIA Director Michael Hayden on how videotapes of terror suspect interrogations were made, then destroyed.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2007 Dec 11, The United States and China signed two deals to safeguard the quality of food and drugs ranging from pet food to certain types of antibiotics imported into the US from China.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, US officials in Florida arrested 4 people, 3 from Venezuelan and one from Uruguay, and accused them of being agents of the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors later said the 4 were seeking to silence Guido Alehandro Antonini Wilson, a citizen of both the USA and Venezuela. In August Wilson was detained in Argentina for carrying $800,000 in a suitcase, which prosecutors said was intended to aid the campaign of Cristina Kirchner. Franklin Duran, multimillionaire owner of Industrias Venoco CA, was one of the arrested Venezuelans. In 2008 a federal jury convicted Duran on charges that he was a foreign agent involved in a conspiracy.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/10/08, p.A5)(SFC, 11/4/08, p.A4)
2007 Dec 11, In eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition and Afghan forces killed Mullah Sangeen, a senior militant commander responsible for roadside bombings and other attacks. Sangeen was second-in-command to Siraj Haqqani, a militant leader in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 11, In Algeria car bombs exploded minutes apart in central Algiers, heavily damaging UN buildings and ripping the facade off the wing of a government office. 37 people were killed, including 17 UN employees. Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at UN and government buildings. The interior ministry later said the blasts were the work of the El Farouk Brigade, which was responsible for a number of other attacks in the last two years. Al-Qaida's self-styled North African branch claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(AFP, 2/6/08)(AP, 12/11/08)
2007 Dec 11, Australia's Deputy PM Julia Gillard (46) took charge of government in the absence of the prime minister, becoming the first woman to run the country in its 106 years as an independent nation. Gillard will lead the government for just 60 hours while PM Kevin Rudd is in Bali for the United Nations climate conference.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Australian officials conceded that the welfare system failed a girl who was removed from a remote Aboriginal community after being sexually abused at age 7, then gang raped in 2006 at age 10 when she was returned to live in the town.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 11, Guatemalan legislators approved a new law that tightens adoptions, while allowing pending cases, mostly involving US couples, to go through without meeting stricter requirements.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, It was reported that policewomen in Iraq have been told to hand in their guns. Female recruits had dropped to zero since Iraqi authorities took over police recruitment and training in 2006. The US had begun training women in 2004 and graduated 1000 from the police academy. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint protecting the compounds of Iraq's former prime minister and a Sunni lawmaker, killing two guards in a neighborhood bordering the fortified Green Zone.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.B12)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Israeli tanks and bulldozers backed by attack aircraft moved into the southern Gaza Strip, killing four militants in the widest operation in the territory since Islamic Hamas forces wrested control in June.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Trucking unions cut short a meeting with the Italian transport ministry, ending hope that the chaos-causing strike disrupting traffic and petrol deliveries would end soon.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, In southeast Nigeria 20 people were killed and several injured when the driver of a truck lost control and rammed into a crowd by the roadside in Awka, Anambra state.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 11, North and South Korea began regular freight train service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than a half century, in another symbolic step in their reconciliation.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Pakistan's military vowed a strong response to any international attempt to seize its atomic arsenal as the army successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, In Peru former President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of abuse of authority and sentenced to six years in prison at the end of the first in a series of trials on charges that include murder, kidnapping and corruption.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 11, A judge from the top court in southern Russia's violence-plagued Dagestan region was fatally shot by an unidentified attacker. Dagestan Supreme Court Justice Kurban Pashayev was shot more than 10 times with a pistol in the entranceway of his apartment building in the provincial capital, Makhachkala. In Ingushetia an 18-year-old rookie in an elite police unit was fatally shot by attackers who fired at him at close range from a passing car as he was walking home after work.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Environmentalists warned that a scenic coastal region could take years to recover from South Korea's worst oil spill, as over 19,000 people worked to contain or clean up the slick.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Darfur rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it had attacked and taken over a Chinese-run oilfield in central Sudan.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Ukraine's parliament narrowly rejected the candidacy of Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko for prime minister, but was expected to hold a further vote.
(AFP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, President George W. Bush vetoed a second bill that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2007 Dec 12, Republican presidential rivals gathered in Johnston, Iowa, called for deep cuts in federal spending in a debate remarkably free of acrimony.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2007 Dec 12, The US announced that it has sent 15 prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay prison back to their home nations.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Three British oil executives pleaded guilty in a Houston court to price-fixing. They were accused of conspiring from 1999-2007 to fix the prices of millions of dollars worth of marine hoses used to transfer oil between tankers and storage facilities. They were permitted to return to Britain and to plead guilty to charges there.
(www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=130424&d=415&h=417&f=416)
2007 Dec 12, Igor Olenicoff (65), California billionaire real estate developer, pleaded guilty to lying on his tax returns and paid $52 million in back taxes, one of the largest individual tax cases in Southern California history.
(www.ocregister.com/money/olenicoff-tax-million-1940962-company-agreement)
2007 Dec 12, Police in northern California arrested Art Cheney, a winery tour guide dubbed “The Highway 101 Bandit," following his robbery of a bank in Fairfield. He had robbed at least 17 banks, including at least 8 in the Bay Area, most of which were on the Highway 101 corridor. In 2008 Cheney (65) was sentenced to 90 months in prison and ordered to pay back the $50,760 that he stole.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A1)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.B3)
2007 Dec 12, Ike Turner (b.1931), R&B pioneer and former husband of Tina Turner, died due to a cocaine overdose at his home outside San Diego. He presided over the 1951 recording of “Rocket 88," frequently cited as the first rock ’n’ roll record. In 1966 Phil Spector produced “River Deep – Mountain High" with Ike and Tina. The pair split in 1976. In 1989 Ike went to prison on drug charges and was still there when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
(SFC, 12/13/07, p.B5)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.142)(SFC, 1/17/08, p.A7)
2007 Dec 12, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said Afghan soldiers backed by NATO air power killed more than 50 Taliban fighters during a two-day battle with militants who tried to attack Sangin near Musa Qala, where they were routed from this week. A suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan army convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing one person.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, A new report said the trafficking of Bulgarian women as sex slaves brings in about 1.8 billion euros ($2.6 billion) a year for the gangs behind it, making it the country's most profitable criminal activity.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, China launched a nationwide recall system that shifts responsibility to companies to recall harmful drugs. In eastern China a fire tore through an apartment building, killing at least 21 people and injuring two others.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, In Colombia 3 young highway bandits set fire to a bus during a botched robbery near Bogota, burning to death 10 people including 2 assailants and the bus driver. The 3rd assailant (23) was arrested.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Tropical Storm Olga soaked portions of the Caribbean, triggering floods and landslides that killed at least 38 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 12, The European Central Bank said it would take joint action with the US Federal Reserve and other institutions to offer short-term funding to the money markets to help ease a global credit squeeze. The ECB said it would provide as much as $20 billion to European banks, in part to fill their demand for dwindling dollars.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Ashraf Juma Hajuj, the Palestinian-born doctor held with five Bulgarian nurses in a Libyan prison for over eight years, filed suit in Paris against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for torture. The six medics, who always maintained their innocence, said they were subjected to torture, including beatings, electric shocks, food and sleep deprivation, and even sexual abuse, in order to confess to their alleged crime.
(AFP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed central Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki as a general strike to protest government plans to reform the country's debt-ridden pension system brought Greece to a standstill.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, India announced major plans to increase its nuclear capabilities, saying it was close to testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting targets up to 6,000 kilometers (3,800 miles) away.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, In Indonesia new Australian PM Kevin Rudd completed ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as he pressed for all nations, rich and poor, to commit to fighting global warming.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the market district of Amarah, a southern Iraqi city, killing at least 25 people with 150 wounded. The city is the provincial capital of Maysan province, which borders Iran. In eastern Baghdad a parked car bomb apparently targeting a passing police patrol killed five civilians. 13 people were wounded in the late afternoon explosion in Ghadeer. In the Kurdish dominated town of Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed four civilians and wounded 12. A mass grave holding 16 bodies, all but four of them decapitated, was found in a palm grove in a former al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold outside Muqdadiyah. US soldiers killed two suspected insurgents and destroyed a weapons cache in the village of Bawi, on the outskirts of Salman Pak.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(AP, 12/12/08)
2007 Dec 12, The renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians got off to a rocky start, with the Palestinians criticizing Israel for a construction project planned in disputed east Jerusalem, and Israel complaining about continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, It was reported that Italy's government has decided to appoint a special commissioner to try to curb price rises after inflation hit a three-and-a-half year peak in November, but economists see the move as little more than a publicity stunt. Italy's truck drivers agreed to call off a protest that has blocked highways and borders for three days, causing shortages of gasoline, medicine and perishable foods across Italy.
(Reuters, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, A car bomb attack killed one of Lebanon's top generals and at least two other people. Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj (55), a top Maronite Catholic in the command, was considered a leading candidate to succeed the head of the military, Gen. Michel Suleiman, if Suleiman is elected president.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, It was reported that William Kamkwamba (20) of Masitala, Malawi, had built 3 windmills using blue-gum trees and bicycle parts after seeing a picture in an old text book.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 12, The former governor of Nigeria's oil rich Delta state, James Ibori, was arrested on corruption and money-laundering charges. His state salary was less than $25,000 per year. In August a court in London ordered a freeze on $35 million of his worldwide assets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)
2007 Dec 12, Pakistani troops killed 20 militants in an ongoing offensive against supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric in the restive northwestern valley of Swat. Residents said troops shot dead one person and wounded two others for violating curfew restrictions in the town of Fizaghat.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Palestinian pedestrians gawked at the unusual sight of female police officers directing traffic in Ramallah, the first batch of women to venture into a job traditionally reserved for men in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, US federal agents and local police launched raids in several Puerto Rican cities with arrest warrants for 121 drug suspects.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Russia ordered a British cultural organization to suspend all of its operations outside Moscow at the beginning of 2008, the latest move in a long-running dispute. Russian officials accused the British Council, a non-governmental organization that acts as the cultural department of the British Embassy, of operating illegally in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Veteran diplomat Yuli Vorontsov (78), who served the Soviet Union and Russia as ambassador to Afghanistan (1988-99) and the United States (1994-2000) in a career spanning the Cold War and the Gulf War, died in Moscow.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 12, Pirates freed a Japanese chemical tanker loaded with highly explosive benzene off the coast of Somalia, six weeks after seizing the vessel and its crew.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12-2007 Dec 14, In South Africa 49 patients, all with multidrug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) TB, escaped through holes they had cut through the perimeter fences of Jose Pearson Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317354,00.html)
2007 Dec 12, Officials said South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, North and south Sudanese leaders said they had resolved almost all their differences and that the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement would soon rejoin the unity cabinet.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Thailand smashed through the 100-gold barrier at the SEA Games as they continued their relentless pursuit of top spot on the medals table.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, The UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal at The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Serb general Dragomir Milosevic (b.1942) to 33 years imprisonment for the shelling of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, one of the court's toughest sentences. In 2009 UN judges trimmed the sentence from 33 to 29 years but upheld his convictions for leading troops who terrorized Sarajevo with a deadly rain of shells and sniper bullets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 11/12/09)
2007 Dec 13, Nobel laureate Al Gore accused the United States of blocking progress at the UN climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott US-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, US Sen. George Mitchell presented his report on steroid use among professional baseball players. The 409-page report identified 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs and recommended tough new measures for testing and investigations.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/13/08)
2007 Dec 13, Democratic presidential hopefuls meeting in Johnston, Iowa, called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations in an unusually cordial debate.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2007 Dec 13, New Jersey lawmakers approved a measure to abolish the death penalty. Gov. Jon Corzine said he would sign it within a week.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 13, Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2007 Dec 13, In SF Dr. David Kessler, onetime commissioner of the FDA, was fired as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine by Chancellor Michael Bishop. Kessler said he had been labeled as a “whistle blower" after he attempted to uncover financial irregularities that predated his 2003 appointment.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 13, In Louisiana 2 graduate students from India were found tied up and shot in the head on the edge of Louisiana State Univ.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 13, In southern Afghanistan a civilian car hit a freshly planted land mine, killing six people and wounding six others. Taliban militants beheaded a woman they accused of spying and her grandson.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Argentina's new president reacted furiously to accusations by US prosecutors that an intercepted suitcase full of cash from Venezuela was meant to finance her election campaign, calling the charge "garbage in international politics."
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 13, Brazil's Senate refused to renew a financial transaction tax that fills the government's coffers, handing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a political defeat that could threaten his social programs for the poor.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney apologized publicly for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a German arms dealer, but he bluntly rejected suggestions he had taken kickbacks.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, EU leaders signed the Treaty of Lisbon to reform the bloc's institutions and give it stronger leadership, marking the end of a difficult process that has lasted nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, In northeast India a bomb tore through a moving train, killing five passengers and wounding four others in Assam state. The Adivasi National Liberation Army, a little-known militant group, said it was responsible for the attack. In southern India two men attacked a self-proclaimed holy man (80) and chopped off his right leg, apparently believing it had magical powers.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/13/india.randeepramesh)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 13, In Mosul gunmen stormed a house and killed the woman who owns it, apparently because she had turned a room in the home into a beauty salon. A car bomb went off about 100 yards away from the Italian Embassy in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Waziriyah. 3 policemen and 4 civilians were wounded. An American soldier was shot to death in an attack in southern Baghdad and another was shot and killed in northern Ninevah province.
(AP, 12/13/07)(AP, 12/14/07)(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 13, Ireland's government announced it will organize new nonreligious primary schools in the capital, a move that reflects growing immigration and declining church power in this traditionally Roman Catholic nation.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Israeli high school teachers ended a two-month strike after receiving a pay raise and government promises to redress some of the problems in the Israeli school system, including class size.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Japan said that Russia seized four Japanese fishing boats in disputed waters between the two countries, calling the detention unacceptable and demanding an explanation from Moscow.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Malaysia said it has arrested five leaders of ethnic Indian rights group Hindraf under controversial security laws that allow for detention without trial.
(AFP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, In south-west Nigeria at least 17 people burned to death when four vehicles burst into flames in a crash.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 13, North Korea verbally responded through a diplomatic channel to a letter Bush sent to Kim earlier this month. A senior US official with knowledge of the contents said it was delivered through a diplomatic channel in New York and contained what appeared to be a pledge from Pyongyang to follow through on its denuclearization deal as long as the United States held to its end of the bargain.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 13, In southwest Pakistan twin suicide bombers blew themselves up close to a military checkpoint in Quetta, killing five soldiers and wounding 22 people.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, In the Philippines leaders of 2 separatist groups met with Seif al-Islam Khadafy, son of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, and said they should be able to resolve differences that dated back to 1976 when the Moro Islamic Liberation Front broke from the Moro National Liberation Front.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 13, Opposition leader Garry Kasparov said the Kremlin has stopped him from running for president by preventing his supporters from meeting to nominate him.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Russia and Iran reached agreement on a schedule for finishing construction of a nuclear power plant that plays a central role in the international tensions over Iran's atomic program, Russian news agencies reported.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Marie-Therese Kampire, who taught politics at Rwanda's National University, was found guilty by a traditional "gacaca" court. The former university teacher was given a 19-year prison sentence for her role in the murder of a colleague's wife during the Rwanda genocide.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 13, In Somalia mortar rounds slammed into the biggest market in Mogadishu and gunbattles erupted across the city, killing 17 people hours after a government official said radical Muslims had regrouped and were poised to launch a massive attack.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, An official said Thai tax authorities have seized assets worth about $34.2 million from family members of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, New Jersey became the first US state to require flu shots for preschoolers.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 14, Maria Borrega, a former ticket agent for the Contra Costa County public transit system was extradited from Florida to California and charged with embezzling at least $184,000 from 2002 until her retirement in 2005.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B2)
2007 Dec 14, A man accused of being the Phoenix Baseline Killer was sentenced to 438 years in prison for the sexual assaults of two sisters. As of 2008 Mark Goudeau still faced trial for the slayings of eight women and a man in 2005-2006; he has pleaded not guilty.
(AP, 12/14/08)
2007 Dec 14, Frank Morgan (73), jazz alto saxophonist, died at his home in Minneapolis. In the 1960s he played in the storied “warden’s band" at San Quentin State Prison with other prominent musician-inmates that included Art Pepper and Dupree Bolton. In 1991 he won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Alto Saxophonist.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B5)
2007 Dec 14, Australian PM Kevin Rudd and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon jetted into East Timor to lend support to the nation's efforts to stabilize and rebuild after violence last year. Rudd pledged to support the nation's ongoing security needs during the five-hour stop.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, The leaders Belarus and Russia pledged closer cooperation on military, economic and foreign policy but gave no indication that the ex-Soviet neighbors were moving closer to a long-discussed full merger.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) confirmed a new case of the livestock disease bluetongue in a cow imported from Germany, two months after an earlier outbreak was said to have been contained.
(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Canada's national police force, criticized for excessive use of Tasers, said that, from now on, officers would only fire the electric stun guns at suspects who are combative or resisting arrest.
(Reuters, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda met in Kampala to discuss border tensions that have triggered deadly clashes on one of Africa's hottest frontiers in the search for oil. The UN said rival factions in Congo are forcibly recruiting hundreds of children and sending them to fight on the front lines of an escalating conflict in the east of the country.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Local newspapers reported that nearly 2,000 Egyptian civil servants have ended a sit-in outside government headquarters in Cairo after winning a battle to change their status and increase their salaries.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, EU leaders held a formal meeting in Brussels, where they agreed in principle to send 1,800 policemen, judges and officials to Kosovo. They also agreed to set up a reflection group to think about challenges facing the EU between 2020 and 2030.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.87)
2007 Dec 14, It was reported that German AIDS researchers have discovered a protein common in semen that boosts the infectious potential of HIV 100,000-fold.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 14, In northern India a bus collided with a train, killing at least 16 people, including nine children on their way to school.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, announced its 93rd death due to the H5N1 virus. In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death. The WHO confirmed Myanmar's first human case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and open handling of the infection. State media reported a girl (7) was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, In northern and central Iraq US forces targeting al-Qaida in Iraq detained 18 suspects and killed four.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 14, Ayo Fayose of southwestern Ekiti state gave, a Nigerian former state governor, turned himself in to police after more than a year on the run, vowing to defend himself in court against allegations of corruption. High Chief Ekpemupolo, an influential rebel commander in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, ordered the suspension of peace talks with the government because of military incursions and the arrest of another commander.
(Reuters, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, North and South Korea ended three days of talks without an agreement on creating a shared fishing zone to defuse tensions along their disputed sea border.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Hamas gunmen burst into the home of Omar Al-Ghoul, a top Fatah official in Gaza, and arrested him. He was the most senior Fatah politician to be detained since Hamas forces overtook the territory in June. In the West Bank, Abbas' security forces arrested 26 Hamas supporters. 3 people were killed in a mysterious explosion at a Fatah-organized funeral in Gaza City.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Mortar shells rained down on Mogadishu for a second day, killing at least five people. The African Union's new representative for Somalia said he expected more peacekeepers to arrive starting this month.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, South Korea brought home 195 army medics and engineers from Afghanistan, ending its five-year deployment to help rebuild the war-ravaged country at Washington's request.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Clashes between Sri Lankan soldiers and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's embattled north left 31 guerrillas and one soldier dead.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Asus Technology of Taiwan unveiled a $299 version of Eee PC, a 2-pound laptop for kids that stores data on flash memory.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.D1)
2007 Dec 14, The UN refugee agency said more than 200 migrants are feared to have drowned at sea in separate incidents off Yemen, Turkey and the Canary Islands so far this month.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, The World Bank convinced 45 countries to give over $25 billion to the world’s poorest state over the next 3 years.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.100)
2007 Dec 14, Zimbabwe reserve bank governor Gideon Gono on said President Robert Mugabe's cronies were fuelling the country's runaway inflation through illicit dealings. Amnesty International said Zimbabwean police are still beating and torturing human rights activists and opponents of the government despite mediation efforts launched by fellow African nations.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 15, It was reported that Google is testing a new service called Knol, that enlists selected users to write about the breadth of human knowledge in competition with Wikipedia.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.C1)
2007 Dec 15, A winter storm dropped snow from the Plains to the Midwest with as much as a foot of snow in Kansas. Forecasts called for as much as 15 inches for sections of southern Michigan.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 15, A rocket landed in a crowd of civilians near Kabul's police headquarters, and a truck full of rockets smuggled into the city under a pile of hay exploded nearby moments later. At least five people were killed.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Some 20,000 Belgians demonstrated in Brussels against the erosion of their spending power as the country's months-old political crisis begins to hit people's pockets.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Jean Oviedo (37), a US woman, was shot and killed as she vacationed with her Colombian husband in Bucaramanga, Colombia, in a robbery that netted $200 and a laptop computer.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, In Indonesia 2 weeks of international climate talks marked by bitter disagreements and angry accusations culminated in a last-minute US compromise and an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming by 2009.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Bomb blasts, ambushes and gunfights left 11 people dead across Iraq, including 4 members of US-backed security patrols.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Dec 15, Italian authorities said they have captured, Edoardo Contini (52), a fugitive Naples crime boss who built one of the most dangerous cartels.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, In Kashmir one person was killed when police fired on hundreds of students calling for a college to be set up in their town. The protest in Magam township, 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Srinagar, came a day after the Kashmir government said it would set up 18 new colleges across the insurgency-racked state. Magam was not included.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency and said in a nationally televised address that he imposed it as a last resort to save Pakistan from destruction from an unspecified conspiracy. In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed at least 2 soldiers and 3 civilians at a checkpoint near the gate of an army school.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Rashid Rauf, a British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners, escaped after appearing before a judge at a court in Islamabad. Rauf, who is of Pakistani origin, was arrested in August 2006 on a tip from British investigators.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Pakistan's Health Ministry issuing a statement saying six people had initially tested positive for the virus last month, while the WHO said eight had been reported. International health experts were dispatched to Pakistan to help investigate the cause of South Asia's first outbreak of bird flu in people and determine if the virus could have been transmitted through human contact.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Hamas marked the 20th anniversary of its founding with a huge rally in Gaza City. Hamas was founded in Gaza after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Filipino soldiers killed Abdulmibin Sakandal, a suspected Abu Sayyaf militant wanted by Philippine and US authorities for alleged involvement in the 2000 kidnappings of 21 people, including Western tourists.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly said Belarus will pay nearly 20 percent more for Russian gas beginning next year.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, President Robert Mugabe suspended Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, Zimbabwe's attorney general, and appointed a three-member tribunal to investigate allegations that the state's highest law officer abused his powers.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 16, Morgan Stanley senior executive Stephen Roach said the US is heading for a recession and the rest of the world would be "dead wrong" to think this will not impact on growing Asian economies.
(AFP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Street and highway crews were at work trying to clear roads across the Great Lakes states into New England as a storm blamed for three deaths spread a hazardous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. The storm was blamed for at least 10 deaths including 4 in Indiana, 2 in Michigan and Wisconsin, one in Pennsylvania and one in Nova Scotia.
(AP, 12/16/07)(SFC, 12/18/07, p.A19)
2007 Dec 16, Dan Fogelberg (56), the singer and songwriter, died at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. His hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 16, In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed two Afghan civilians and wounded five others, while a clash in the south left four Taliban dead. Harald Kleber (42) a German national locally known by his Muslim name, Abdul Rahman, was kidnapped in heart province. The next day German authorities said Kleber was wanted in Germany for fraud.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AFP, 12/17/07)(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 16, Argentina and Brazil successfully launched a rocket into space in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 16, Australian police said they had broken up an alleged nationwide child porn ring with the arrest of six men overnight, including a former policeman, a trainee teacher and a swimming instructor.
(AFP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, In Grozny, Chechnya, a police officer and 4 militants were killed in a gunbattle.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 16, China announced holiday changes to ease overcrowding on trains, flights and other transport systems. The changes will bring back three traditional one-day holidays and let workers take paid vacations at times other than officially-set breaks.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 16, The EU signed a new trade agreement with the 15-member Caribbean Forum.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.74)
2007 Dec 16, In eastern India 299 communist prisoners overpowered guards and escaped from a prison.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, British forces formally handed over responsibility for Basra, the last region in Iraq under their control, marking the start of what Britain hopes will be a transition to a mission aimed at aiding the economy and providing jobs in an oil-rich region beset by militia infighting. A total of 174 British personnel have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. The venture cost Britain some $10 billion.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.94)(AP, 12/16/08)
2007 Dec 16, In the Indian portion of Kashmir hundreds of people clashed with police, hours after burying a 20-year-old man killed by police a day earlier. At least 35 people were injured.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary elections. Critics have said election code changes, introduced in October, were designed to evict all opposition politicians from the legislature. The Central Election Commission said Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's Ak Jol party won 71 out of 90 parliament seats in the parliamentary election. The top opposition party failed to win parliament seats and the party accused the government of rigging the vote and said it would appeal the results in court.
(AP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 16, Malaysia’s Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi intervened to head off rising anger among the Southeast Asian country's ethnic Indian population after a rare public rally on Nov 25 led to violent clashes with police.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Russian authorities expelled a Moldovan journalist critical of the Kremlin in a move condemned by media watchdogs.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Millions of Muslims from around the world gathered in Mecca for the start of the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage, as the Saudi Interior Ministry announced tough security precautions.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Spanish police said they had arrested 63 people across the country in five investigations into child pornography being posted, viewed and paid for on the Internet.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Spanish construction group BTP Sacyr Vallehermoso said it had created a joint company with the Libyan government to bid for infrastructure contracts there.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Darfur rebels said they had inflicted a crushing defeat on Sudan's army in West Darfur in an overnight battle during which they captured 29 soldiers, 32 vehicles and heavy weaponry.
(Reuters, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets, marking an escalation of force against the outlawed separatist group. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. Turkey’s military later said up to 175 rebels were killed on this day. A Kurdish leader said the figure was exaggerated.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 17, President George W. Bush, addressing a Rotary Club meeting, tried to reassure an edgy public that the economy is "pretty good" despite the mix of a failing housing market, a national credit crunch and surging energy costs.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2007 Dec 17, A US judge ruled that the White House visitor logs are public, a blow to Pres. Bush, who didn’t want to disclose visits by religious conservatives.
(WSJ, 12/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 17, In Washington, DC, a military judge said the US must hold court hearings to determine whether suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay are prisoners of war or unlawful enemy combatants in a ruling that could delay war crimes trials.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 17, US trade officials said the US has reached a deal with the EU, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law a measure that abolished the death penalty, making New Jersey the first US state in over decades reject capital punishment.
(SFC, 12/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 17, It was reported that the US was investigation allegations that Public Warehousing Co. owned by Kuwait’s Sultan Al-Essa family, had solicited as much as $80 million in kickbacks under cover as discounts from US suppliers.
(WSJ, 12/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 17, The World Trade Organization (WTO) launched an investigation into Washington's multi-billion-dollar farm subsidies that Brazil and Canada say break international trading rules.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, The Int’l. Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank, unveiled a $1 billion health-care strategy for Africa.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.121)
2007 Dec 17, In southern Afghanistan several militants were killed in airstrikes and a subsequent operation by US-led coalition troops.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, Much of eastern and central Canada was digging out after a massive storm dumped up to 50 cm (20 inches) of snow in places, shocking Canadians who had become accustomed to milder winters.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Grozny, Chechnya, a roadside bomb killed a prison guard and wounded four other people as they drove in a van transporting suspected criminals.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, Dubai ruling Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pardoned 377 inmates of Dubai prisons this week on the eve of Eid al-Adha, an important Islamic holiday. The pardon included Bert Tatham, a Canadian UN official who advised the Afghan government on eradicating opium poppy crops. Tatham (35) was granted amnesty, six months after being sentenced to four years in prison on a drug smuggling conviction. Tatham was arrested April 23 during a one-hour stopover at the Dubai International Airport, after being caught with a half a gram of hashish, and two poppy bulbs.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Nine Egyptians were killed and seven injured when a car crashed into a group of people celebrating a religious festival on Egypt's Red Sea coast.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said the first nuclear fuel shipment for the Bushehr atomic power plant has arrived in Iran from Russia. Aghazadeh said the Bushehr plant was 95 percent complete and would begin operations next year.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned of "traitors" among insurgents in Iraq and called on Iraqi Sunni Arab tribes to purge those who help the Americans in a new videotape posted on the Web.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Defense officials said Israel will allow the Palestinians to set up a new cell phone network, part of warming relations between the sides. The world rallied to the support of the embattled Palestinian government, and the co-chairman of a donors' conference said he was confident they could meet a $5.6 billion target in aid.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan and the United Arab Emirates signed an accord to strengthen economic ties, including a deal for Japanese banks to extend a multibillion-dollar loan to a state-owned Abu Dhabi oil firm.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan began sending warnings to an estimated 8.5 million people that their pension data may have gone missing, as the government seeks to clean up a scandal that has damaged its credibility.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, A Nicaraguan appeals court overturned the conviction of Eric Volz, a US man sentenced to 30 years in prison in the killing of his Nicaraguan girlfriend. Volz (28) was freed on Dec 21 and quickly left Nicaragua.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 17, Nigeria's main militant group urged all armed factions in the restive southern oil heartland to join together and cripple Africa's biggest petroleum industry.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Pakistan the Election Commission rejected former PM Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against the rejection of his nomination for next month's parliamentary elections. Police used batons and fired tear gas in a clash with protesters who hurled rocks and bricks at them in Islamabad. A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Pakistani army recruits returning from a soccer game in northwestern Pakistan, killing nine of them. The attacker struck near an army communications center in Kohat, about 30 miles from the city of Peshawar.
(AFP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to become prime minister if his close ally Dmitry Medvedev succeeds him, giving Putin a way to keep a grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Saudi Arabia a gang-rape victim who was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her was pardoned by the Saudi king after the case sparked rare criticism from the United States, the kingdom's top ally.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Somalia mortar shells slammed into Mogadishu, killing at least 12 people, including a mother and her three children, and wounding dozens in an increasingly ferocious Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In northern Sri Lanka renewed violence between Tamil rebels and government forces left at least 33 people dead.
(AFP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Uruguay's last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, was charged with the forced disappearance of political prisoners, cheering human rights activists who have long campaigned for his prosecution.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, The US Federal Reserve endorsed new rules that would give people taking out home mortgages new protections against shady lending practices.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In New Jersey authorities broke up a major organized crime ring that took in $2.2 billion in gambling bets over the last 15 months and supplied drugs and cell phones to gang members in a New Jersey state prison. 2 ruling members of New York’s Lucchese crime family and 30 others were arrested.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 18, The city council of Half Moon Bay, Ca., voted to hire a team of appellate lawyers to fight a federal court decision that ordered the city to pay a developer $36.8 million in a property dispute. The city’s annual budget was $10 million. On April 1, 2008 the City Council approved a settlement under which it would pay $18 million only if it was unable to get special legislation passed to allow Charles Keenan to build 129 lots on property in question and an adjoining parcel, bypassing wetlands protection laws.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B1)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B1)
2007 Dec 18, PG&E reported plans to support the first commercial wave power plant off California’s Humboldt County coast. 8 power generating buoys, to be built by Canada’s Finavera Co., was expected to begin operations in 2012.
(SFC, 12/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 18, John Morgridge, the retired chairman of Cisco Systems, and his wife Tashia, both graduates from the Univ. of Wisconsin, announced that they are donating $175 million to help low-income Wisconsin students attend any of the state’s public colleges and universities. Morgridge’s fortune was estimated at $2.1 billion.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.C2)
2007 Dec 18, An Italian team published the first full genetic sequence of a grape variety, pinot noir, in the Public Library of Science.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.137)
2007 Dec 18, In western Afghanistan Taliban fighters killed 15 Afghan guards working for a private security company who were guarding a convoy of fuel tankers. 6 Taliban were killed in the ensuing fight. Elsewhere in Farah fighting between police and militants left 2 militants dead.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In Argentina 7 former army officers and an ex-police official were convicted and sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for human rights abuses during Argentina's bloody dictatorship.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The leaders of Argentina and Venezuela closed ranks against the United States, rejecting US court charges in a campaign cash scandal as one more example of Americans treating their nations like subservient colonies.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, Prosecutors in Aruba dismissed the case against the three main suspects in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, saying they still believe they were involved in her death but can't prove it after 932 days of searching failed to turn up a body.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, An official said Australian copper thieves have turned tomb raiders, pilfering plaques and vases from cemeteries to sell the metal for scrap.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Bermuda's ruling party won a third term in general elections shadowed by racial resentment and allegations of corruption. Premier Ewart Brown's Progressive Labor Party won 22 seats compared with 14 seats for the United Bermuda Party.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, Canada confirmed a new case of mad cow disease, the 11th since 2003, and said the animal in question was a 13-year-old beef cow from Alberta.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, A boatload of 59 exhausted African men arrived in the Canary Islands, the latest wave in a constant flood of desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, EU regulators said Mastercard must drop fees it charges for cross-border transactions or face daily fines of 3.5 percent of daily global turnover.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, About 250 Iraqi police raided three villages near Hawija, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk, in an operation against suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. Police detained 12 al-Qaida in Iraq suspects as well as another eight people, and seized a large weapons cache that included 2,500 mortar rounds, 350 Katyusha rockets, about 150 improvised bombs and about 500 mines. A car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in central Baghdad killing two policeman and two civilians. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe near Baquba, killing 13 people and wounding 24.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Israeli aircraft launched an assault on the radical Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza, killing the group's overall commander and nine other militants in three fiery strikes. A fourth attack on a security post in southern Gaza killed two Hamas militants.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Japan said it had shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of joint efforts with the United States to erect a shield against a possible North Korean attack.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In South Africa delegates of the governing African National Congress cast their votes for party leader. Zuma defeated President Thabo Mbeki by 2,329 votes to 1,505 at the party convention and moved into position to become president in 2009.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, In northern Sri Lanka fighting killed 13 rebels and two soldiers. The Tigers said they killed five soldiers.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, A human rights group said that Syrian authorities have arrested two activists, raising to at least seven the number detained following a recent meeting of opposition groups in Damascus. The two had attended the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change, a Dec. 1 gathering of numerous opposition groups and activists calling for democratic reforms in Syria.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed four people before beheading one victim, days before the country's first election since last year's coup.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation. A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels were still in Iraq by midmorning.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Ukraine's pro-Western coalition appointed Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko prime minister and named a government that favors the ex-Soviet republic winning NATO and EU membership.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the US-led multinational force in Iraq for one year, a move that Iraq's prime minister said would be his nation's "final request" for help.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The UN passed a resolution backed by 104 states calling for the 1st time for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.46)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10678.doc.htm)
2007 Dec 18, The Zimbabwe government introduced amendments to tough security and media laws, which critics said were used by President Robert Mugabe to stifle opposition to his 27-year rule.
(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 19, Pres. Bush signed a bill calling for an increase in auto-fuel efficiency, the first in 32 years.
(WSJ, 12/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 19, The United States government rejected a request by California for it to be allowed to introduce tough new vehicle emissions standards, dealing a blow to the state's hopes of slashing greenhouse gas levels over the next decade.
(AFP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 19, Time magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin its 2007 "Person of the Year."
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, US researchers said a highly sensitive microchip may help doctors detect rare traces of cancer circulating in the bloodstream, offering a way to better manage treatment.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach (20) disappeared, just days after meeting with military prosecutors to talk about her allegation that Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean (21) raped her. Her cell phone was found Dec. 20 near the main gate at Camp Lejeune, NC. On Jan 11 her burned remains were found in the backyard of Laurean’s home as a nationwide search for Laurean continued. In 2010 a jury found Laurean guilty of first degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 1/12/08)(SFC, 1/12/08, p.A4)(SFC, 8/24/10, p.A4)
2007 Dec 19, Leaders of Belgium's feuding Dutch- and French-speaking parties agreed to form an interim government to run the country in the short term, while a more permanent solution to the political crisis is sought.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In Chile a retired general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing a leftist couple shortly after Chile's 1973 military coup. The Santiago Court of Appeals said in a communique that Gen. Fernando Polanco and Sgts. Luis Fernandez and Hector Vallejos, all retired, were ordered to pay $600,000 to the son of the slain couple, Ernesto Lejderman.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In Tianjin, China, Li Baojin was convicted of taking bribes worth $760,000 from 7 businesses between 1996 and 2006. Li was also convicted of misappropriating $1.9 million from the Tianjin prosecutor's office. Li's sentence was suspended for two years. That means his death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment if he shows good behavior for the next two years.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 19, Donors pledged millions of dollars at a conference in Spain to help Guinea Bissau, which a top UN official called "under siege" by drug cartels who might even sway the country's future polls.
(AFP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In southern Pakistan an express train crowded with holiday travelers derailed, killing 40 people and leaving hundreds of terrified survivors to claw their way out of the wreckage in total darkness. A trailer truck hit a rickshaw crowded with children going to school in eastern Pakistan, leaving 14 people dead.
(AP, 12/19/07)(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 19, A Hamas official confirmed that Gaza's embattled Hamas leaders are seeking a cease-fire after months of Israeli attacks and sanctions, going so far as to make an unprecedented appeal through the Israeli media.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In South Korea former Hyundai CEO Lee Myung-bak (66) claimed victory in presidential election as voters overlooked fraud allegations to give him a landslide win on hopes he will revive the economy. This was also Myung-bak’s birthday and 37th wedding anniversary.
(AP, 12/19/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.49)
2007 Dec 19, The Sri Lanka military said soldiers killed four separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in two separate clashes.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, Uganda's military said it had shot dead two Congolese soldiers on the volatile border between the two countries, after they tried to resist being arrested on suspicion of raping two teenage girls.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 20, US regulators cleared a plan by Google to acquire online advertising giant DoubleClick, which had sparked concerns about privacy risks and still faces a challenge in the European Union.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Bear Stearns reported the first quarterly loss in its 84-year history as it wrote down $1.9 billion in mortgage assets.
(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, NetSuite Inc., a software maker majority-owned by Larry Ellison, rose 37% in its first day of trading after raising $161.2 million in an IPO a day earlier at $26 per share.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.D1)
2007 Dec 20, The New Orleans City Council voted to demolish 4,500 public housing units as police used chemical spray and stun guns to on dozens of protesters who tried to force themselves into the council chamber.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A6)
2007 Dec 20, MBIA Inc, the world's largest bond insurer, said it had guaranteed $8.1 billion of the riskiest mortgage securities, imperiling its entire net worth and sending its shares plunging 26 percent.
(Reuters, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Jeanne Carmen (b.1930), the "little country girl" who became a 1950s pinup and actress and hobnobbed with Frank Sinatra and other stars, died at her home in Orange County, Ca.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 20, Lydia Mendoza (91), a pioneer of Mexican American music, died in San Antonio, Texas.
(SFC, 12/31/07, p.B7)
2007 Dec 20, In Sao Paulo, Brazil, thieves homed in on two paintings, the Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" by Pablo Picasso and “O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari (1903-1962), in the first successful heist in the 60-year history of Brazil's premier modern art museum. In Jan, 2007, police recovered the paintings and had 2 suspects under arrest.
(AP, 12/21/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A2)(AP, 1/9/08)
2007 Dec 20, In China a female tiger was found with its head, legs and skin missing at the Three Gorges Forest Wild Animal World in Yichang city in Hubei province. The WWF conservation group lists the Siberian tiger as "critically endangered" and says there are only about 530 of the animals alive in the wild.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 20, Conservationists said illegal trappers on Cyprus killed more than half a million protected birds this fall for sale at local restaurants.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic halted land and sea border controls at midnight in a wave of new members of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone. They all joined the EU on May 1, 2004.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, Iran’s state television reported that security forces killed four leaders of a Sunni Muslim rebel group that Tehran has previously linked to al-Qaeda and blamed for several attacks in the Islamic state.
(Reuters, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a city council meeting in Kanaan northeast of Baghdad, killing 6 people, including a US soldier, during a 4-day Islamic holiday. In Baghdad a car bomb exploded outside a liquor store, killing 4 civilians and wounding 36. At least 17 suspected al-Qaeda gunmen were killed in clashes overnight with Iraqi and US troops west of Baquba. An Iraqi soldier was killed in a road bomb attack in Baquba. One al-Qaeda militant was killed by security forces in the town of Abbarah, north of Baquba.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A19)
2007 Dec 20, Israeli troops killed at least 6 Gaza militants, a day after rejecting an unofficial truce offer from the besieged Hamas rulers of the coastal territory.
(AP, 12/20/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, Latvian lawmakers approved a new center-right government that will face an uphill battle to restore popular trust and prevent the country's red-hot economy from abruptly reversing course. Ivars Godmanis (56) became prime minister. He led a four-party coalition which is facing a sharply slowing economy and record high inflation.
(AP, 12/20/07)(Reuters, 6/18/08)
2007 Dec 20, Hundreds of workers marched on Macau’s government in a rare protest demanding full democracy in this booming Chinese casino enclave.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Radio Rwanda reported that the Belgian government has this month given Rwanda 39.5 million euros (56.6 million dollars), mainly to help its small former colony with power supplies, health and education.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, South Africa's top prosecutor said he had enough evidence to bring corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the man standing in line to be the country's next president.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Spain banned parents from using corporal punishment on children.
(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, Thailand's military-installed parliament approved a controversial internal security law. Critics warned it will allow the military to maintain a grip on power even after this weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, The US Federal Reserve, working to combat the effects of a severe credit crunch, announced it had auctioned another $20 billion in funds to commercial banks at an interest rate of 4.67%. It pledged to continue with the auctions "for as long as necessary."
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Ken Hendricks (b.1941), creator of ABC Supply (1982), one of the largest US roofing supply companies (1982), died. He used his wealth in part to rebuild his home town of Beloit, Wisconsin.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 21, Two Afghans were killed in Kandahar province when a bomb exploded that was planted in a decapitated Afghan.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 21, Bahraini security forces stormed the houses of the country's most outspoken Shiite opposition group at dawn, arresting at least seven of its members. Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain's 450,000 citizens, but the ruling family is Sunni.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Belgian police arrested 14 Muslim extremists suspected of planning the jailbreak of an al-Qaida prisoner convicted of plotting a terrorist attack on US air base personnel. They were released the next day after a court decided there was insufficient evidence to hold them for more than 24 hours.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, Brazil announced it will create a landholder registry and send 700 more federal police to the Amazon River basin in a new effort to monitor and prevent deforestation in the environmentally sensitive region.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Former British PM Tony Blair left the Church of England and converted to Catholicism, the faith of his wife and children.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, The British pound hit an historic low against the euro owing to heightened expectations of cuts to British interest rates in 2008.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Ian Thow, a former mutual fund salesman in British Columbia, was fined C$6 million ($6.1 million) and banned from working in the West Coast province's capital markets for life. In October a commission panel found that Thow defrauded hundreds of clients between January 2003 and May 2005, convincing some to sell their mutual funds and mortgage their homes to raise money to invest in non-existing construction loans and Jamaican bank.
(Reuters, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Caribbean leaders gathered in Cuba for a regional oil summit. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presided at a regional petroleum summit, pressing his efforts to counter US influence in Latin America and the Caribbean by suggesting more of his neighbors could pay for cheap oil with goods or services in lieu of cash.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, A Chinese radio station reported that about 1,000 riot police fired tear gas at protesters in southern China who were blocking an electricity pylon near a power station in Dongzhou village they felt was built on unfairly seized land.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, China's first fully homegrown commercial aircraft, the 70-seat ARJ21, rolled off the production line, marking a potential milestone for the country's aviation program. Its first test flight was set for 2008.
(AP, 12/21/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACAC_ARJ21)
2007 Dec 21, Chinese archeologists raised a merchant ship loaded with porcelain and other rare antiques to the surface in a specially built basket. The 100-foot Nanhai No. 1, discovered in 1987, sank off the south China coast some 800 years ago during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Costa Rican agents made the largest marijuana bust in the Central American nation's history, seizing 4.85 tons of the drug found in an abandoned boat.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, At least eight Egyptians were killed and 24 others injured when a bus collided head-on with another vehicle on an intercity road south of Cairo.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Guatemala congressman-elect Marco Antonio Xicay (42) of the conservative Patriotic Party was shot to death by unidentified attackers outside the popular Fuentes Georginas resort.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, India announced a final successful test of the surface-to-air Akash missile before starting mass production under a plan to build a national missile defense shield.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, New Australian PM Kevin Rudd met with al-Maliki during a surprise visit to Baghdad. Rudd said that after the troops withdraw in June, Australia will continue to help train the Iraqi police force and army. A gunmen attacked a family in Diyala province near Balad Ruz, killing two men and kidnapping a third. Just east of Baqouba, the capital of Diyala, two men standing in front of their house were killed by unknown armed men. A double roadside bomb attack killed one US soldier and wounded 11 in northern Kirkuk province.
(AP, 12/21/07)(Reuters, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that PM Ehud Olmert may consider talks with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire. A Hamas militant was killed in a clash with Israeli troops near the Israel-Gaza border.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Japan's regulators announced the country's biggest financial market reforms in a decade amid hot competition in Asia to be the region's financial hub. Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica. The fleet will, however, kill some 935 minke whales, a smaller, more plentiful species, and 50 fin whales.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)(AFP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Pakistan a suicide attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid hundreds of worshippers at the residential compound of a former top security official for President Pervez Musharraf, killing 56 people in Sherpao, a village 25 miles northeast of the city of Peshawar.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AFP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Saudi Arabia the annual 5-day hajj come to a close as some 3 million pilgrims participated.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Freetown, Sierra Leone, a two-story building of apartments and shops caught fire and exploded, killing 14 people and injuring 40.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Tajikistan a late night avalanche of snow hit a section of one of the main roads, killing 3 people. Earlier reports had put the toll at 15.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 21, The Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo for a year and demanded that all militias and armed groups in the volatile east lay down their weapons and start disarming.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 22, In SF Leonard Milo Hoskins (49), a computer software developer, was last seen alive in the city’s Mission Terrace neighborhood. His body was found Feb 1 in a van owned by housemates Richard Carelli (38) and Michelle Pinkerton (38), who left town after their van was towed from the area during a police investigation. Murder warrants were later issued for the couple. On April 7 Carelli and Pinkerton were arrested in El Rosario on the Baha peninsula after they were tracked down by James Spring (39) of San Diego. In 2011 Carelli pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was expected to serve 6 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.A1)(SFC, 2/15/08, p.B6)(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.C5)
2007 Dec 22, Making the first-ever trip to Afghanistan by a French president, Nicolas Sarkozy met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the political and military situation in the war-torn country.
2007 Dec 22, In Bahrain Security forces conducted sweeps through Shiite villages, arresting several protesters involved in a week of demonstrations against the Sunni-led government.
(AP, 12/23/07)
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, In Egypt a policeman was killed overnight in a shootout with Bedouin tribesmen smuggling African immigrants into Israel. A minibus fell off a ferry and sank in the Nile River in southern Egypt, killing 16 people including six children.
(AFP, 12/22/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Ethiopia claimed it was receiving an influx of around 600 Eritreans fleeing political oppression in their country every month.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, French author Julien Gracq (97), one of the last links with the pre-World War II Surrealist movement, died.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 22, Ghana's Pres. John Kufuor said that offshore oil reserves discovered in the West African country's waters total 3 billion barrels.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Police in India arrested two men near Lucknow suspected of being Islamic militants involved in a series of explosions that ripped through courthouse complexes in three north Indian cities last month, killing at least 16 lawyers.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi, who is himself a Sunni, said Sunni militias, known as Awakening Councils, will not be allowed to become a separate military force. A suicide car bomb exploded at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi army and police in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, killing 4 people and wounding another six. On the southern outskirts of the capital, a roadside bomb wounded five bystanders near a hospital in the town of Madin. In Mosul a roadside bomb targeting a passing police patrol killed one policeman and wounded two others.
(AP, 12/22/07)(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 22, Hundreds of government soldiers withdrew from a vast buffer zone dividing Ivory Coast, the first stage of a long-delayed nationwide disarmament program.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 22, In northwestern Pakistan clashes started, four days after the Shiite Turi and Sunnite Mengal tribes signed a ceasefire agreement following weeks of fighting which left more than 100 people dead. The rival tribes were using heavy weapons and by Dec 30 the death toll had reached 63.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 22, Spain's "El Gordo," the world's biggest lottery, gave out 2.2 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in Christmas prizes.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, In northern Sri Lanka government forces captured a key defense line of Tamil Tiger guerrillas in fighting that killed six rebels and one soldier.
(AFP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, High wind and ice coated power lines blacked out tens of thousands of people in the Midwest. The storm was blamed for at least 22 deaths. At least 8 people in Minnesota, 5 in Wisconsin, 3 each in Indiana and Wyoming and one each in Michigan, Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents.
(AP, 12/23/07)(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/25/07, p.A11)
2007 Dec 23, In Afghanistan echoing pledges by the leaders of France and Australia, Italian PM Romano Prodi emphasized his county's long-term commitment in a meeting with President Hamid Karzai. Afghan intelligence agents detained a 50-year-old foreign woman carrying a suicide vest in eastern Afghanistan. A roadside explosion killed one policeman and wounded three others in Kunar province. Police clashed with Taliban militants in the Gelan district of central Ghazni province, killing a local insurgent leader and two of his bodyguards. Another booby-trapped body was discovered in Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 23, Aloisio Lorscheider (b.1924), one of Latin America's most influential cardinals, died in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after a lengthy hospitalization.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Oscar Peterson (b.1925), jazz pianist, died at his home in Mississauga, Canada. His flying fingers, hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations made him one of the world's most famous and influential jazz pianists in a career that spanned seven decades.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 23, India's main Hindu nationalist party swept to an impressive election victory in the western state of Gujarat after a bitter campaign fought in the shadow of deadly 2002 anti-Muslim riots that still scar the state. Chief minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to carry 117 of 182 seats. Modi represented the most anti-Muslim wing of the BJP.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.36)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.44)
2007 Dec 23, A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, as attacks claimed the lives of at least five people.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, A Cabinet minister said Israel has plans to build an additional 740 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2008, enraging Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace talks.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Media reported that Malawi has asked Libya to close its mission in Lilongwe. The Mutharika administration had suspicions that Libya funds Muluzi's United Democratic Front, which is seeking to unseat Mutharika in elections in 2009.
(AFP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Nepal's major political parties agreed to abolish the world's last Hindu monarchy as part of a deal to bring former communist rebels back into the government.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 23, A suicide bomber killed four Pakistani soldiers and five civilians in an attack on a military convoy in the northwest Swat Valley.
(Reuters, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said police have arrested 28 men for allegedly planning to attack holy sites around Mecca and Medina during the recently finished Muslim hajj.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Somalia a first contingent of 100 Burundian peacekeepers deployed in the capital, joining 1,800 Ugandan troops in an African Union force, AMISOM, that is still well short of the personnel strength needed to help restore order. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked an Ethiopian army base in northern Mogadishu, triggering a deadly nighttime clash that sent stray mortar rounds crashing into homes. At least five Somalis were killed and eight wounded in the crossfire.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AFP, 10/22/11)
2007 Dec 23, In Thailand allies of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra appeared to emerge as victors in the post-coup election but failed to secure an absolute majority in parliament. Thaksinites won 233 seats, 8 short of a majority in the 480-seat lower house.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.33)
2007 Dec 23, Turkish fighter jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Uzbeks cast ballots in a tightly controlled presidential vote. Authoritarian President Islam Karimov won a new term in office with 88.1 percent of the votes in an election dismissed by critics as a sham.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, The New York Times reported that more than five billion dollars in US aid to Pakistan has often never reached the military units it was intended for to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was instead diverted to other programs.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell $5 billion of new stock to Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign investment company and a smaller stake to a domestic firm. Merrill said it will write down an additional $8 billion of mortgage investments in the 4th quarter.
(SFC, 12/25/07, p.E1)
2007 Dec 24, George Warrington (b.1952), former head of New Jersey Transit (2002-2007) and former president of Amtrak, died.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 24, In Montreal, Canada, Gurpeet Gaur (29) the wife of Harinder Singh Cheema, was beaten and strangled to death. On July 2, 2015, Cheema was arrested in Fremont, Ca., following a fingerprint match on a US immigration application.
(SFC, 7/10/15, p.D3)
2007 Dec 24, The international charity Save the Children said boys and girls are being recruited in record numbers to act as soldiers, spies and sex slaves in Congo and children have been spotted marching in formation in the war-wracked east of the country over the past week.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, A 12-story building collapsed in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least 35 people. Shoddy materials, illegal construction and a culture of corruption were blamed for the deaths.
(AFP, 12/25/07)(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 24, The head of a special unit said on German radio prosecutors are investigating 12,000 suspects in a child pornography network, the largest ever found in Germany.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, A bomb hidden inside a minivan exploded near the Baghdad governor's office, killing two people and wounding six others. A train struck a minivan at an intersection near the town of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing a couple and 11 children. 13 Shiite civilians were abducted north of Baqouba.
(AP, 12/24/07)(SFC, 12/25/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 24, In Indian Kashmir 5 worshippers were being held hostage inside a mosque for a second day by Muslim rebels as security forces sought to end siege peacefully. Indian forces killed three suspected Islamic militants ending the two-day hostage standoff and sparking angry protests that injured dozens of people.
(AFP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 24, In Kyrgyzstan Igor Chudinov, a former energy and industry minister was, named prime minister.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Malaysia's government unveiled a major initiative to protect Hindu temples, hoping to pacify ethnic Indians who complain that hundreds of their places of worship have been demolished in this Muslim-majority country.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Gunmen shot dead four French tourists in Mauritania in West Africa. Sidi Ould Sidna, was charged with planning and executing the killings of the French tourists. He was extradited by Guinea-Bissau in January but later escaped from authorities. 2 other suspected terrorists were arrested on April 30. In May, 2010, a court sentenced 3 young men to death for the murder of the French tourists. The men pleaded not guilty and said their confessions were extracted under torture.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A2)
2007 Dec 24, A Nigerian court ordered the arrests of three of the defendants in a trial over a drug test conducted by Pfizer in 1996 which Nigerian authorities say killed 11 children and left others disabled.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, In southwestern Somalia gunmen threw grenades at the home of the regional police chief, killing two of his grandchildren and a bodyguard but not their target. Burundi deployed a 2nd contingent of 92 peacekeepers to Mogadishu, to bolster an African Union force.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 24, Southern army officials said militias supported by Khartoum's army have attacked southern Sudanese soldiers near the north-south border killing dozens of people.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Authorities closed the mausoleum of Taiwan's late dictator Chiang Kai-shek as part of the ruling party's vigorous campaign to diminish the legacy of the late leader.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, The Thai political party allied with deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said that it has recruited enough other parties to form a coalition government following its win in the country's first election since a 2006 coup.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 25, In southern California a pack of pit bulls surrounded Kelly Caldwell (45) and mauled her to death. Barstow police shot and killed 2 of the dogs.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 25, A Siberian tiger named Tatiana (4) escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, killing Carlos Sousa (17) of San Jose and mauling two others. The same animal had chewed a keeper’s arm during an attack last December. Police later reported that one of the three victims of the tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A1)(AP, 1/18/08)
2007 Dec 25, In King County, Washington, six people, 3 generations of one family, were killed. Carnation police the next day arrested Michele Kristen Anderson (29) and Joseph McEnroe (29), the property owners' daughter and her boyfriend.
(AP, 12/27/07)(SFC, 12/28/07, p.A5)
2007 Dec 25, Afghan officials said 2 European diplomats who went to one of Afghanistan's most volatile regions have been asked to leave Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Actress Pat Kirkwood (b.1921), once a star of British musical theater, died.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/29/07, p.B5)
2007 Dec 25, Some 600 protesters marched in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh to call for speedier trials for the former leaders of Khmer Rouge regime.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Colombia an elite anti-kidnapping force in Neiva rescued a 9-year old boy, who was snatched seven months ago by leftist rebels. Captors had demanded a $50,000 ransom for his safe return, an amount his family was unable to pay.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Egypt dozens of Palestinian security men affiliated to Fatah staged a mass break-out from the camp where they have been held in Rafah. Egyptian police were able to recapture 40 of them, transferring them to police stations in the coastal town of Arish.
(Reuters, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, In eastern India Hindu extremists attacked Christians celebrating Christmas, ransacking and burning at least six village churches. One person was killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Iraq a suicide truck bomb exploded outside a residential complex belonging to a state-run oil company in Beiji, home to Iraq's largest refinery, killing 25 people and wounding 80. In Baqouba 10 people were killed and five people were wounded in a suicide bombing targeting a funeral procession for two members of an Awakening Council group.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Mobs in Kenya's opposition heartland beat up and killed at least 3 policemen accused of taking part in a plan to rig Dec 26 elections in favor of President Mwai Kibaki.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 25, In western Nepal a steel footbridge collapsed when its suspension cables snapped, sending scores of people into the river below. At least 15 people were confirmed dead and over 50 were missing and dozens injured.
(AP, 12/25/07)(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Panama the bodies of Michael Klein (37), a California hedge fund manager, his daughter Talia Klein (13) and pilot Edwin Lasso (23) were found in an uninhabited region known as Las Ovejas on the slope of the Baru volcano. Francesca Lewis (12) survived the Dec 23 crash, but cold, wet weather prevented authorities from evacuating her immediately.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 25, Russia's military successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, said more than 600,000 chickens on the Gulyai-Borisovskaya farm in the Rostov-on-Don region have been destroyed to prevent the virus from spreading.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, A South Korean ship carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid sank on its way to Taiwan and 14 sailors were feared drowned. One sailor was rescued.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said he was planning to return home from exile and might advise the victorious party in last weekend's elections, sparking fears of another year of intense political conflict in Thailand.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pres. Bush signed a $555 billion domestic spending bill and took a swipe at Congress for including pet projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 26, The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that employers could reduce of eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 26, It was reported that Warren Buffet had agreed to pay $4.5 billion to buy a majority of Marmon Holdings, an industrial conglomerate, from the Chicago’s Pritzker family. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway planned to buy the rest of the company by 2014.
(WSJ, 12/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 26, Online auction giant eBay said it has launched a microlending website, www.microplace.com, that lets people invest in entrepreneurs in poor communities around the world and get a return on their money.
(AFP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded east of Algeria's capital, killing two officers and injuring two others. The attack came as authorities rounded up 11 suspected members of two suspected support networks for armed Islamic militant groups in recent days.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that British intelligence agents held secret talks with Taliban leaders on several occasions this year. Earlier this month, British PM Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks with Taliban insurgents, telling the House of Commons: "I make it clear that we will not enter into any negotiations with these people."
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A Chadian court convicted six French aid workers of trying to kidnap 103 African children and sentenced them to eight years of forced labor. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said it would ask Chadian authorities to transfer the six convicted to France. The countries have a bilateral judicial agreement that could allow for such a transfer.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Georgia's top television station suspended its broadcasts, saying it was protesting the pressure authorities have exerted because of the station's links to a billionaire presidential contender challenging the government.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In western Indonesia rescuers dug for survivors after landslides and floods triggered by days of torrential rain killed over 87 people.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran's defense minister said that Iran had agreed to buy an S-300 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran and Malaysia signed a $16 billion agreement to develop two Iranian gas fields, in a deal described as the largest energy contract in Iran.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In Iraq a bomb explosion in the northern province of Ninevah killed three children and wounded another two. An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot dead two American troops while they were patrolling together north of the capital. Three other US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were wounded in the attack. An initial investigation indicated that the Iraqi soldier was linked to local militant groups.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 1/5/08)
2007 Dec 26, Joe Dolan (68), one of Ireland's first pop music stars, died from a brain hemorrhage. He had entertained audiences for decades with Vegas-style showmanship. His last Irish No. 1 came in 1997, when he re-recorded "Good-Looking Woman" with a popular fictional TV comedian, a puppet named Dustin the Turkey.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt to discuss Israeli allegations that Egypt was doing too little to prevent arms smuggling to the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egypt rejected Israeli complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded in flames, killing at least 34 people near Nigeria's main city of Lagos as they tried to scoop fuel from the gushing leak.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pakistan's Pres. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai vowed to boost intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was destroying both countries.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2 tons of supplies including holiday gifts, docked at the international space station.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Serbia's parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that threatens to halt the country's integration into the European Union and cut off diplomatic ties with Western countries if they recognize Kosovo's independence.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, South Korea's cabinet approved a bill setting up a fraud inquiry into president-elect Lee Myung-Bak, one week after the conservative opposition candidate won a landslide election victory.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In northern Sri Lanka a wave of infantry attacks killed at least 66 rebels and 14 government troops.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Bayron Jimenez Castaneda (44), suspected Colombian cocaine trafficker, was arrested in Orlando, Florida, for the kidnapping of an undercover US agent. Three other suspects in the kidnapping of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Dec. 14, 2005 remain at large. Traffickers initially demanded a $2 million ransom, but released him after half a day when they realized he was a US government agent.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Richmond, Ca., 2 gunmen shot and killed Ravinder (30) and Paramjit (42) Kalsi as they closed their restaurant. In 2009 police named Rajesh Kumar of Fiji, as a suspect in the case. Kumar was wanted for allegedly defrauding a woman connected to the restaurant.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.B2)
2007 Dec 27, Steven Florio (b.1949), former CEO of Conde Nast, died in NYC.
(SFC, 12/29/07, p.B5)
2007 Dec 27, The Afghan government expelled UN advisor Mervyn Patterson and EU official Michael Semple, on accusations they held unauthorized meetings with Taliban militants. A spokesman for the UN mission said the diplomats had traveled to Musa Qala, a former Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province on Dec 24, where they met with local leaders.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Bahrain more than a dozen people detained during recent Shiite protests were charged with attempted murder, illegal assembly and rioting.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Chechnya unidentified gunmen shot and killed a police officer in Grozny.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, Shawn Wang, the chief financial officer of leading Chinese search engine Baidu.com, died in an accident while on holiday.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 27, In eastern India Hindu extremists burned down the house of a prominent Christian politician, as violence by gangs from both sides continued despite a curfew imposed after two days of attacks against Christians by Hindu hard-liners. In Orissa state at least three people were killed when they opened fire on a group of hard-line Hindus who set fire to a police station during ongoing clashes between Hindus and Christians.
(AP, 12/27/07)(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Ingushetia several militants ambushed a border guards' vehicle, killing two officers and wounding two other servicemen.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Iraq a bomb left inside a bus in eastern Baghdad exploded and killed two passengers and wounded 12 others. US troops allegedly killed 11 members of a Mahdi Army splinter group in Kut. A local official said 4 people were killed and that they were innocent. Kut police said 6 suspected militiamen were killed. The military announced that it had detained two more suspects in the capture of 3 US soldiers on May 12. The US military said in a statement that troops killed 12 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists and detained 37 others during a Dec 22-25 operation near Muqdadiyah.
(AP, 12/27/07)(AP, 12/28/07)(SFC, 12/28/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 27, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first summit since they agreed last month to renew peace talks, seeking to resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, Kenya held elections. President Mwai Kibaki tried to fend off fiery opposition leader Raila Odinga. In Nairobi monitors from the EU saw tens of thousands of votes pinched for Kibaki. In 2009 Philip Alston, a UN investigator, published a report documenting around 500 death-squad executions in the months leading up the elections.
(AP, 12/27/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.37)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.49)
2007 Dec 27, Nigeria reported that Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was being forced to resign in order to attend a one year course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies at Jos.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)
2007 Dec 27, Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally. Doctors reported that Bhutto died from a bullet wound. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif announced his party was boycotting next month's elections following the assassination. He demanded that President Pervez Musharraf resign immediately. Within hours Sindhis began to rampage. After the 1st frenzy over 50 people were killed and damages were later estimated at $200 million. In February, 2008, her book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West," was published. In it she alleged that Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in an October bombing in Karachi that killed some 150 people.
(AP, 12/27/07)(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.22)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.93)(AP, 8/6/08)
2007 Dec 27, In northern Sri Lanka Air force jets destroyed a Tamil naval base.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, South Sudanese former rebels rejoined the national government, two months after walking out because of disputes over the implementation of a peace deal that ended two decades of war.
(AFP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Thailand officials said deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra would be arrested if he returns home from a self-imposed exile as planned, even if his victorious allies form a government following last weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In southern Zimbabwe floodwaters swept a truck down a raging river, killing 7 people. Their deaths bring the number of drownings in Zimbabwe to 21 in the past month.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Azerbaijan's president issued a decree granting amnesty to 119 prison inmates, including several journalists whose convictions drew protests from international rights groups.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Chad 6 French aid workers sentenced to eight years' forced labor for trying to kidnap 103 children left for France, boarding a plane in handcuffs as security officers looked on.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, China and Japan made no major breakthroughs in resolving a row over natural resources in the East China Sea, but a visit by Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda signaled a new warmth in bilateral relations.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Sun Daolin (b.1921), Chinese actor and director, died in Shanghai. He appeared in over 100 movies and plays during a career that was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, when he was sent to work in the countryside for 6 years.
(SFC, 1/5/08, p.B3)
2007 Dec 28, Iran received the second shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia for a power plant being constructed in the southern Iranian town of Bushehr.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, A car bomb detonated in a busy Baghdad market killing at least 14 people and ending what had been a relatively quiet holiday period in the Iraqi capital. The US military said it had killed four gunmen tied to al-Qaida in Iraq in an operation near Muqdadiyah in Diyala. Another was killed in a predominantly Sunni area south of Baghdad. 2 senior insurgents linked to al-Qaida were arrested. Ahmed Turky Abbas, the "defense minister" of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, was arrested in a village near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. In Latifiyah the Iraqi army arrested Hussein Ali Turky, considered a local religious leader for al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 12/28/07)(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Unknown assailants fatally shot two Israeli settlers hiking in the West Bank. The attack followed an Israeli operation overnight in which troops killed a bodyguard for the Palestinians' chief negotiator.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Nepal's parliament voted in favor of abolishing the centuries-old monarchy and turning this Himalayan nation into a republic.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Pakistan hundreds of thousands of mourners, weeping and chanting for justice, thronged the mausoleum of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty in a raw outpouring of grief for Benazir Bhutto. The government blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for the assassination of the opposition leader, who was buried alongside her father. Furious supporters rampaged through several cities in violence that left at least 23 dead. The government said that Benazir Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed but by a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack. A transcript released by the Pakistani government of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib, or Mr. Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 12/28/07)(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Serigne Saliou Mbacke (92), Senegal's spiritual leader, died. Mbacke was the leader of the Mourides, the most powerful Muslim brotherhood in Senegal, and his image was ever-present in the homes of his millions of followers.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Jacob Zuma (65), the newly elected leader of South Africa's ruling party, was ordered to stand trial on corruption and other charges next year, raising doubts about whether the party would back his candidacy for the 2009 presidential election.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Tanzania's ambassador to South Africa and his wife were attacked by armed robbers at a farewell dinner hosted for them in the capital Pretoria.
(AFP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, South Korea's parliament voted to extend the country's troop deployment in Iraq for another year, amid protests by activists opposed to the decision. South Korea has 650 troops in Iraq.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Taiwan's High Court cleared opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of graft charges, securing a place for the former Taipei mayor in the March presidential race.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Zimbabwe junior doctors and nurses at major state hospitals went on strike to press for higher pay and improved working conditions.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Nonja (55), a Sumatran orangutan, was found dead at the Miami Metro Zoo. She had lived in Miami since 1983 and was believed to be the world’s oldest orangutan.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Oakland, Ca., carjackers stole a state-issued Dodge Charger from state Senate pres. Don Perata. Jared Adams (25) and his girlfriend, Maeve Clifford, were arrested on Jan 10 in another stolen vehicle. Their prints were found on Perata’s car, which had been found abandoned in Richmond. Ryan McGough (28), a 3rd suspect in the carjacking, was arrested in May, 2008. In addition to the carjacking Adams was later charged with a shooting, 12 days after the carjacking, that left Christopher Rodrizuez (10) paralyzed. In 2011 Adams was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B3)(SFC, 8/13/08, p.B4)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.C4)
2007 Dec 29, Taliban militants in Wardak province fired rocket-propelled grenades from their vehicles at a convoy of private security guards on Afghanistan's main highway, killing six guards and two police officers. Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in the south and killed 16 officers.
(AP, 12/30/07)(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Australia David Hicks, the only person convicted of terrorism charges at a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, walked free and said he did not want to do "anything that might result in my return" to the prison in Cuba.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, China said Hong Kong will be allowed to directly elect its leader in 2017 and all of its lawmakers by 2020 at the earliest, an announcement that sparked protests by pro-democracy activists who sought an earlier date.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, In northeast China 19 miners died in a coal mine blast at the Shunfa Coal Mine in Heilongjiang province, the latest casualties in the world's most dangerous mines.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 29, A series of explosions ripped through an army base in the Colombian city of Medellin, killing at least two people and forcing nearby residents to flee. The first of at least six large blasts was apparently triggered by a grenade that detonated inside a weapons arsenal.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, Iraq's interior ministry spokesman said that 75% of al-Qaida in Iraq's terrorist network had been destroyed this year. Muqtada al-Sadr called for reconciliation between his followers and Iraqi security forces in Karbala. Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."
(AP, 12/29/07)(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Shu Uemura (79), Japanese makeup artist, died. He had won acclaim in Hollywood and built an international cosmetics brand under his name.
(AP, 1/8/08)(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.A10)
2007 Dec 29, Kenya's presidential rivals were neck-and-neck with nearly 90 percent of official results counted as accusations of rigging ignited ethnic violence across the east African nation.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Pakistan an Islamic militant group said it had no link to Benazir Bhutto's killing and the opposition leader's aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The government said mass rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said his security forces had arrested a number of suspects in the killings of two off-duty Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and had given Israeli authorities weapons taken from the dead men by their attackers.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, The Scottish government said a new case of bluetongue has been detected for the first time in Scotland.
(AFP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, Sudan accused Chadian aircraft of bombing its western Darfur region in what it called "repeated aggressions" by its western neighbor. a Sudanese foreign ministry statement said 3 Chadian war planes bombed two areas in West Darfur on December 28.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Zimbabweans formed queues at banks to beat a December 31 deadline to hand in a currency series phased out by the central bank.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Uruzgan province four Afghan soldiers were killed in a mine explosion. One soldier was killed in Paktia province in another blast.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, Belgian officials said traditional New Year's Eve fireworks in central Brussels have been canceled due to a continuing terror threat in the capital.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, President Nicolas Sarkozy said France will have no more contact with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon end its current crisis and appoint a new president.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Ivory Coast's New Forces rebel group, now part of the unity government, accused Ibrahim Coulibaly, one of its former leaders, of trying to stage a coup.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the closest presidential election in Kenya's history, a contest marked by allegations of rigging and two days of deadly violence. Kibaki beat Raila Odinga by 231,728 votes. Kivuitu, the electoral commission chairman, acknowledged problems, including a constituency where voter turnout added up to 115 percent and another where a candidate ran away with ballot papers.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Former communist rebels rejoined Nepal's government, ending a political crisis that began when the ex-guerrillas walked out of a ruling coalition three months ago.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Bilawal Zardari (19), Benazir Bhutto's son, was chosen to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party, while her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, will serve as co-chairman, extending Pakistan's most famous political dynasty to another generation. Zardari, who became investment minister in Bhutto's second government, was nicknamed "Mr. 10 Percent" for allegedly skimming off commissions on government contracts. 3 days of unrest left more than 40 dead and tens of millions of dollars in damage. In eastern Pakistan 2 suspected suicide bombers died when they prematurely detonated their bomb near the residence of a senior leader of the ruling party.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Somalia a mother and her five children were killed by a mortar round fired during fighting in Mogadishu between insurgents and Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, Spain’s Catholic bishops called some 150,000 people onto the streets of Madrid for a rally dubbed “Christian Family Day," in opposition to Socialist PM Zapatero.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.46)
2007 Dec 30, Local media reported dozens of people have been killed in fighting between Arab tribesmen and ex-rebel south Sudanese forces along the line separating north and south Sudan.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Bert Bolin (82), a Swedish climate scientist and co-founder of the Nobel Peace-winning UN panel on climate change, died in Stockholm. His last book, "A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" was published in November 2007.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2007 Dec 30, Turkmenistan turned off gas supplies to Iran, citing technical problems, after Iran balked at a price increase to $140 per thousand cubic meters, almost double the contracted rate. The move had a domino effect causing Iran to halt gas shipments to Turkey, which in turn cut off gas to Greece.
(WSJ, 2/4/08, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/3xmzam)
2007 Dec 30, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed off on Ukraine's 2008 budget, which he hailed as proof that the country's razor-tight parliamentary majority was functioning effectively.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 31, President George W. Bush signed into a law a measure aimed at allowing states, local governments, mutual funds and pension funds to divest from Sudan businesses, particularly its oil sectors.
(Reuters, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Ohio a drunken driver went about four miles down a highway in the wrong direction before his pickup truck slammed into a minivan, killing a woman and four children and injuring three others. All 8 had been visiting family in Michigan and were returning to Maryland.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In San Francisco Albert Collins (30) shielded his daughter (9) from gunfire in the Sunnydale public housing project and was killed becoming the city’s 98th homicide victim.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.B1)
2007 Dec 31, Oakland, Ca., police officers shot and killed Andrew Moppin-Buckskin (20) at 47th and Int’l. Blvd. after he ran from his car following a traffic stop. In 2010 a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit filed by the family of Moppin-Buckskin.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.C2)
2007 Dec 31, The International Federation of Journalists said at least 134 media workers were killed on assignment this year, most of them in Iraq, which has become the most dangerous place for journalists since the start of the US-led war there.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In California murders for 2007 in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of Los Angeles held at 19 as of Dec 24. Murders there had dropped from 43 in 2005 to 19 in 2006. In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of Florencia 13, or F13, one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a NATO soldier and wounded four others. In Helmand province, a roadside bomb exploded against a police vehicle driving through Musa Qala, killing two officers. Taliban militants killed more than 925 Afghan police this year, and large swaths of the country remained outside government control. More than 6,500 people, mostly militants, died in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials. Also in 2007, 110 US soldiers were killed in the country, the highest American toll since the 2001 invasion. US military deaths, suicide bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper said a one percentage-point cut to the country's consumption tax will be effective January 1, 2008.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, A Venezuelan-led mission to rescue three hostages, including a 3-year old boy, from leftist rebels in Colombia's jungles fell apart as the guerrillas accused Colombia's military of sabotaging the promised handoff.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Dec 31, In southern Egypt a bus plunged into a canal alongside the Nile River, killing 17 passengers and the driver.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, A suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with explosives into a checkpoint manned by members of a US-backed security volunteer group in a town north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people. Another three people were missing following the explosion in the town of Mishada, 20 miles north of the capital. A female suicide bomber detonated herself near a police patrol, wounding five policemen and four civilians in the town of Baqouba. In the town of Khalis gunmen traded fire with police and Awakening Council members, leaving one council member and one policeman dead. A roadside bomb targeting a patrol near the Iranian border killed two Iraqi soldiers and injured another four. According to Iraqi health, defense and interior ministries, 16,232 civilians, 432 soldiers and about 1,300 policeman died this year compared to 12,371 civilians, 603 soldiers and 1,224 policeman killed in 2006. 2007 was the deadliest year for the US military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.
(AP, 12/31/07)(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Dec 31, The number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence dropped dramatically this year. A report from an Israeli human rights group said Israeli forces killed 373 Palestinians during 2007, a 45 percent drop from the previous year. Palestinians killed 13 Israelis in the same period.
(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 31, Kenyan police battled thousands of opposition supporters enraged over President Mwai Kibaki's allegedly fraudulent re-election, firing tear gas and live ammunition as the death toll from the violence rose to 103.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Nepal 4 former communist rebels were sworn in as Cabinet ministers, ending a political crisis that began when the ex-guerrillas walked out of a coalition government three-months ago.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, North Korea failed to meet a year-end deadline to declare all its nuclear programs under an aid-for-disarmament deal, prompting disappointed reactions from South Korea, the United States and Japan.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, A newly released video of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and an inconclusive medical report raised new doubts about the official explanation of her death and were likely to intensify calls for an independent, international investigation.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, Palestinian pilgrims broke windows and burned mattresses and blankets in temporary camps to protest Egypt's refusal to let them return to Gaza through a crossing controlled by Hamas. A Palestinian woman (67) died of a heart attack when she was caught amid scuffles. The standoff over the pilgrims began Dec 29, when some 3,060 Palestinians returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia arrived by ferry at the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba in southern Sinai, heading back to Gaza.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Sudan the African Union transferred authority to a new joint peacekeeping force with the UN in Darfur. An AU official said Ethiopia and Egypt will each send 850 troops early in the new year to serve with a joint UN-AU force in the Darfur region.
(AP, 12/31/07)(Reuters, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, Syria’s state-run media called on the US to begin a direct dialogue, a day after an influential US senator said Washington could "bridge the gap" between Israel and Syria.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Thailand a bomb attack wounded 27 people in Sungai Kolok, a tourist town where people had gathered to celebrate the New Year.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, President Hugo Chavez granted amnesty to many opponents accused of supporting a failed 2002 coup that briefly drove him from power. Chavez said he signed an amnesty decree that would also pardon others accused of attempting to overthrow his government in recent years.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Dec, The NBER, a private, nonprofit research organization, said on Dec 1, 2008, that its group of academic economists, who determine business cycles, had met and decided that the US recession began in December 2007.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2007 Dec, The US Army’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point made public documents containing individual records of 606 foreign fighters who entered Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007. The documents were discovered in the Fall of 2007 in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. They indicated that 90% of the fighters were foreigners and had entered Iraq via Syria. 19% of the fighters were from Libya and 40% were North African.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A14)
2007 Dec, The European Council adopted a set of Council Conclusions on flexicurity, by which the common principles of Danish flexicurity will guide EU member states when implementing reforms in order to meet the aims of the Lisbon Strategy of Growth and Jobs.
(http://denmark.dk/en/society/welfare/flexicurity/)
2007 Dec, The 1,588-foot-tall Int’l. Commerce Center, the tallest in Hong Kong and the 3rd tallest in the world, opened for business on the Kowloon side of the city.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec, Blackwater Worldwide Pres. Gary Jackson authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials. They were intended to silence criticism following the September 16 episode in which Blackwater guards shot 17 Iraqi civilians. This was acknowledged by former company officials November in 2009.
(SFC, 11/11/09, p.A3)
2007 Dec, Abu Obaidah al-Masri, al-Qaida’s chief operational planner, was reported in 2008 to have died of hepatitis at about this time in Pakistan’s tribal area.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec, In Uganda Andrew Mwenda launched The Independent magazine and focused on uncovering official corruption. By early 2009 he and his staff had been arrested or detained over a dozen times and was forced to print at a secret location.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, Par. p.10)
2007 Rawi Abdelai authored “Capital Rules: The Construction of Foreign Finance."
(WSJ, 2/14/07, p.D12)
2007 Bruce D. Abramson authored “The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold," a discussion of the American patent system.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.M3)
2007 Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman authored “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder."
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.M3)
2007 Antoine van Agtmael authored “The Emerging Markets Century." He is credited with coining the term emerging markets.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.66)
2007 Robin Aitken authored “Can We Trust the BBC."
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.P10)
2007 Chris Alden authored “China in Africa: Partner, Competitor of Hegemon."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.89)
2007 Ayaan Hirsi Ali (b.1969), Somalia born writer and resident at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, authored her autobiography “Infidel." In the Netherlands it was published under the title “My Freedom."
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.P12)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.87)
2007 Ali A. Allawi, a US and British-educated engineer and financier, authored "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace." He concluded that the corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order."
(AP, 4/8/07)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.93)
2007 Arthur Allen authored “Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver."
(WSJ, 2/1/07, p.D6)
2007 Stephen Alter authored “Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Inside the World of Indian Moviemaking."
(SSFC, 8/12/07, p.M3)
2007 Karen Armstrong authored “The Bible: A Biography."
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.92)
2007 Paddy Ashdown, the EU's High Representative in Bosnia (2002-2006), authored “Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.94)
2007 Katherine Ashenburg authored “The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History."
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.M3)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.99)
2007 Ian Ayres authored “Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart," a look at how computers have enabled automatic processes to surpass human experts in numerous fields.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.103)
2007 Kathleen M. Barry authored “Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants."
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.105)
2007 William J, Baumol, Robert E. Litan and Carl J. Schramm authored “Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity," in which they identified 4 main models of capitalism around the world: entrepreneurial, big-firm, oligarchic and state-led.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.80)(Econ, 9/20/08, SR p.6)
2007 Ishmael Beah (26), former child soldier in Sierra Leone, authored “A Long Way Gone."
(WSJ, 2/10/07, p.P8)
2007 Sharon Begley authored “Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Power to Transform Ourselves."
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Michael Belfiore authored “Rocketeers," a survey of the entrepreneurs bent on conquering space.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.P11)
2007 Michael Billington authored “British Theater since 1945."
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.100)
2007 Bob Blumenthal authored “Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America’s Music."
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.W10)
2007 John Bolton, former US representative to the UN (2005-2006), authored his memoir “Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad."
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.D5)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.91)
2007 Timothy Brook authored “Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World."
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.E3)
2007 Ethan Brown authored “Snitch: Informers, Cooperators & the Corruption of Justice."
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
2007 Mick Brown authored “Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector. Spector was arrested in 2003 for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
(SFC, 6/27/07, p.E1)
2007 Todd G. Bucholz authored “New Ideas From Dead CEOs: Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office."
(WSJ, 6/27/07, p.D10)
2007 Fred Buller authored “The Doomsday Book of Giant Salmon: A Record of the Largest Atlantic Salmon Ever Caught."
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.139)
2007 Nayan Chanda authored “Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization."
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.84)
2007 Ha-Joon Chang (b.1963) authored “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism."
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.74)
2007 Eric Clark authored “The Real Toy Story: Inside the Ruthless Battle for America’s Youngest Consumers."
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.105)
2007 Gregory Clark authored “A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World."
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.74)
2007 Former president Bill Clinton authored “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World."
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.84)
2007 Francis Collins authored “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief." He conceived of God as being of the non-interfering sort.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.91)
2007 William D. Cohan authored “The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co. – A Tale of Unrestrained Ambition, Billion-Dollar Fortunes, Byzantine Power Struggles and Hidden Scandal." The company, founded in 1848, was private until 2005.
(WSJ, 4/11/07, p.D8)(Econ, 4/14/07, p.93)
2007 Paul Collier authored “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It." The Oxford economics professor argued that aid, on its own, was unable to make a difference to the world’s poor.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.71)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.86)
2007 Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz authored "The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World’s Most Dangerous Secrets… and How We Could Have Stopped Him," in which they covered Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (b.1935), founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M4)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.79)
2007 Kate Colquhoun authored “Taste: The Story of Britain through its Food."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.89)
2007 Scott Cooper and Peter Gloor authored “Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing." In a similar vein Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman authored “Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace."
(WSJ, 5/9/07, p.D9)
2007 Heather Cooper and Nigel Henbest authored “The History of Astronomy."
(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.W11)
2007 Matthew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg authored “Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced."
(AH, 6/07, p.44)
2007 M.W. Daly authored “Darfur’s Sorrow: A History of Destruction and Genocide.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.75)
2007 Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris authored “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning."
(WSJ, 4/18/07, p.D12)
2007 Mike Davis authored “Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb."
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.86)
2007 Dr. Aubrey de Grey with Michael Ray authored “Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime."
(WSJ, 9/8/07, p.P8)
2007 Rene Denfeld authored “All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent world of Street Families."
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.M1)
2007 John Derbyshire authored “Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra.
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.90)
2007 Philip Dine authored “State of the Unions."
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.66)
2007 Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro authored “The Three Tensions" in which they covered management’s dilemmas regarding profit and growth, short vs. long term results, and the success of individual units vs. the whole company.
(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.D8)
2007 Eric Jay Dolin authored “Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America."
(WSJ, 6/20/07, p.D7)
2007 Pamela Druckerman, former WSJ reporter, authored “Lust in Translation: The Rules of Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.92)
2007 William Duggan authored “Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement," in which he advocates watching for opportunities ahead of setting goals.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.D16)
2007 Khamboly Dy authored "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," the first history book written by a Cambodian about the Khmer Rouge.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Barbara Ehrenreich authored “Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy." In it she covered the evolution of philanthropy in America.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.M1)(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.D7)
2007 Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal authored “Lords of the Land: The War for Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories 1967-2007."
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.97)
2007 Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick authored “The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Performance."
(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.D9)
2007 Reese Erlich authored “The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis."
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.M3)
2007 Silvia Evangelisti authored “Nuns: A History of Convent Life."
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.85)
2007 Curtis M. Faith authored “Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders."
(WSJ, 5/16/07, p.D9)
2007 Nicholas Fern, British journalist, authored “The Latest Answers To the Oldest Questions."
(WSJ, 2/23/07, p.W4)
2007 Joshua Ferris (b.1974) authored his novel “Then We Came to the End," a satire of office life in an advertising firm.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.91)
2007 Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke authored “Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium."
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.140)
2007 Joel L. Fleishman authored “The Foundation: A Great American Secret – How Private Wealth is Changing the World," a critique of philanthropic practice and an agenda for reform.
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.D6)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.86)
2007 James R. Flynn (b.1934) authored “What Is Intelligence." He discovered that IQ scores increased from one generation to the next for all of the countries for which data existed. This came to be called the Flynn effect.
(http://moreintelligentlife.com/node/654)(Econ, 7/3/10, p.76)
2007 Former Mexican Pres. Fox authored his ghost-written memoir “Revolution of Hope." It was published in English prior to a Spanish version.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.42)
2007 Robert Frank authored “Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich," a look at the differences between the new generation of super wealthy and the merely rich.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.97)
2007 Robert Friedel authored “Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium," a survey of the entire past millennium of technological advancement.
(WSJ, 6/7/07, p.D7)
2007 John Ghazvinian authored “Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Bob Gifford authored “China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power."
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.80)
2007 Michael Gates Gill authored “How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else."
(WSJ, 9/19/07, p.D10)
2007 Mark Gevisser, a South African journalist, authored a biography of South Africa’s Pres. Thabo Mbeki “Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred."
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.97)
2007 Zarah Ghahramani (b.1981) with Robert Hillman authored “My Life as a Traitor," an account of her arrest and 30-day imprisonment in Iraq following a protest over the firing of a beloved teacher. Ghahramani managed to escape Iran after her arrest and settled in Australia.
(SFC, 1/3/08, p.E1)
2007 Paul Gillin authored “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media."
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.D10)
2007 Anastasia Goodstein authored “Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online."
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A8)
2007 Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman, authored “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," in which he criticized congressional Republicans and Pres. Bush fro abandoning fiscal responsibility. Greenspan caused a stir by alleging in his new memoir that "the Iraq war is largely about oil."
(WSJ, 9/15/07, p.A1)(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Ramachandra Guha authored “India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
2007 Ted Gup authored “Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life."
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.D7)
2007 Sanjay Gupta, MD, chief medical correspondent for CNN, authored “Chasing Life: New Discoveries in the Search for Immortality to Help You Age Less Today."
(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/chasing.life/)
2007 Jake Halpern authored “Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction." The book was about “basking in reflected glory" for which Halpern coined the term “birging."
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.W5)
2007 Derek Hayes authored his “Historical Atlas of California."
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.M1)
2007 Stephen F. Hayes authored “Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice-President."
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W3)
2007 Chris Hedges authored “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America."
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.E6)
2007 Judith Herrin authored “Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire."
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.97)
2007 Christopher Hitchens, US-based British writer, authored “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
(WSJ, 4/1207, p.A11)(www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0446579807)
2007 Calvin L. Hodock authored “Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things."
(WSJ, 2/6/08, p.D8)
2007 Douglas Hofstadter authored “I Am A Strange Loop," an examination of consciousness.
(WSJ, 3/23/07, p.W6)
2007 Robert D. Hormats authored “The Price of Liberty: Paying For America’s Wars."
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.D5)
2007 Lynn Hunt authored “Inventing Human Rights: A History," a study in social psychology.
(WSJ, 3/6/07, p.D6)(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
2007 Zahid Hussain authored "Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle With Militant Islam."
(AP, 1/24/11)
2007 Lee Iacocca, former head of Chrysler (1979-1992) with Catherine Whitney authored “Where Have All the Leaders Gone."
(WSJ, 4/25/07, p.D9)
2007 Walter Isaacson authored “Einstein: His Life and Universe."
(WSJ, 4/6/07, p.B3)
2007 Sasha Issenberg authored “The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy."
(WSJ, 5/23/07, p.D10)
2007 Chalmers Johnson authored “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic."
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.M1)
2007 Denis Johnson (1949-2017), American fiction writer, poet and playwright, authored the Vietnam War novel “Tree of Smoke" (2007). It won the National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
(SFC, 5/27/17, p.C3)
2007 Rebiya Kadeer, prominent Uighur exile, authored her memoir “Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China." The original German publication was made available in English in 2009.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.77)
2007 Benjamin J. Kaplan authored “Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe."
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.92)
2007 David A. Kaplan authored “Mine’s Bigger: Tom Perkins and the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built."
(SFCM, 7/22/07, p.17)
2007 Robert D. Kaplan authored Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground," the product of 2 years work in the company of assorted, world-wide groups of the American military.
(WSJ, 9/20/07, p.D6)
2007 Garry Kasparov, world chess champion (1985-2000) and current candidate for the presidency of Russia, authored “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves from the Board to the Boardroom."
(WSJ, 10/25/07, p.D8)
2007 Christine Kenneally authored “The First Word: The Search for the Origin of Language."
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.M3)
2007 Barbara J. King authored “Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion."
(SFC, 2/9/07, p.E8)
2007 Kenneth F. Kiple authored “A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization."
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.82)
2007 Ian Klaus authored “Elvis Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq," an account of his time as a teacher in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Klaus, a former boyfriend of Chelsea Clinton, taught there in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.P9)
2007 Naomi Klein authored “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."
(SSFC, 9/23/07, p.M1)
2007 Charles Koch, chief executive of Koch Industries, authored “The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company," in which he delineates his philosophy of Market Based Management.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Success)
2007 Janos Kornai (b.1928), Hungarian economist, authored “By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey."
(WSJ, 1/30/07, p.B15)
2007 Michael Krasny, SF talk radio host, authored “Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life."
(SSFC, 11/4/07, p.M1)
2007 Jeffrey J. Kripal authored “Esalen: American and the Religion of No Religion."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Anthony T. Kronman, a professor at Yale, authored “Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life." The book is his impassioned defense of the study of the humanities.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.D7)
2007 Milan Kundera (b.1929), Czechoslovakia born writer, authored “The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts," an extended essay on the art of the novel.
(WSJ, 2/10/07, p.P8)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.83)
2007 Joshua Kurlantzick authored “Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World."
(WSJ, 6/28/07, p.D7)
2007 Murat Kurnaz (24), a German-born Turkish man who was held for years at Guantanamo, authored a memoir about his time at the US prison. His 256-page book was titled "Five Years of My Life: A Report from Guantanamo." Kurnaz worked with a writer, Helmut Kuhn, on the memoir.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Hannah Landecker authored “Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies," in which she charted 60 years of tissue-culture science.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.93)
2007 David Landes authored “Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor."
(Econ., 4/18/15, SR p.4)
2007 William Langewiesche authored “The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor."
(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.D7)
2007 Walter Laqueur authored “The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent."
(WSJ, 5/31/07, p.D7)
2007 Michael A. Ledeen authored “The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction," a forceful argument for regime change in Iran.
(WSJ, 9/7/07, p.W5)
2007 Melvyn P. Leffler authored “For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union and the Cold War.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.101)
2007 Philippe Legrain authored “Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them," a defense of open borders. In 2003 Legrain had authored “Open World: The Truth About Globalisation."
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.74)
2007 Brinjar Lia authored “Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al Qaida Strategist Abu Mus’ab al-Suri." Abu Musab al-Suri, a Syrian-born militant, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2005.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.98)
2007 Mark Lilla authored “The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West," a look at the intellectual origins of current opinions.
(WSJ, 9/15/07, p.W10)
2007 Bjorn Lomborg of Denmark authored “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming."
(WSJ, 9/13/07, p.D7)
2007 Edward Luce authored “In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India."
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.M3)
2007 Kyle MacDonald authored “One Red Paperclip," an account of how he used the Internet to barter up from a single red paperclip to a house.
(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.D10)
2007 David Magee authored “How Toyota Became #1."
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.D9)
2007 John Major, former British prime minister, authored “More Than a Game: The Story of Cricket’s Early Years."
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.97)
2007 Jason Makansi authored “Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You."
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P8)
2007 David Mamet authored “Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business."
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.P8)
2007 James Mann, American journalist, authored “The China Fantasy: Why Capitalism Will Not Bring Democracy to China."
(Econ, 6/25/11, SR p.5)
2007 Aliza Marcus authored “Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
2007 Daniel McGinn authored “House Lust: America’s Obsession With Our Homes."
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.M1)
2007 Angus McLaren authored “Impotence: A Cultural History."
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.96)
2007 Edward McPherson authored “The Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge."
(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.P8)
2007 John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt authored “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.87)
2007 Robyn Meredith authored “The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us."
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.M1)
2007 Stephen Mihm authored “A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States."
(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W8)
2007 Ethan Mordden authored “All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Dr. Robert D. Morris, a Seattle epidemiologist, authored “The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster and the Water We Drink."
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.M3)
2007 John Newhouse authored “Boeing Versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business."
(WSJ, 1/24/07, p.D11)
2007 Robert D. Novak authored his autobiography “"The Prince of Darkness."
(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.W5)
2007 Martha C. Nussbaum authored “The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
2007 Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds Univ. in Jerusalem, authored “Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life."
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M1)
2007 Padraig O’Malley authored “Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Michael Oren authored “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present."
(WSJ, 1/12/07, p.W6)
2007 Nicholas Ostler authored “Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin."
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W12)
2007 Johan Van Overtveldt authored “The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.95)
2007 Adam Pellegrino posted his book “Thermal Oblivion" online. The physics book challenges notions and precepts of institutionally backed and taught beliefs in mathematics, quantum physics, and theology.
(www.thermaloblivion.com/_mgxroot/page_10768.html)
2007 John Pepper, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, authored “What Really Matters."
(WSJ, 6/13/07, p.D7)
2007 Linda Perlstein authored “Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade." It was based on her experience at a low-income elementary school in Annapolis, Md., while looking at the impacts of the federal No Child Left Behind program and the Maryland School Assessment on children’s lives.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.M3)
2007 Steven Pinker authored “The Stuff of Thought: Languages as a Window into Human Nature."
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.102)
2007 Joseph Dominick Pistone (b.1939), alias Donnie Brasco, authored “Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business." Pistone, a former FBI agent, worked undercover for six years (1976-1981) infiltrating the Bonanno family and to a lesser extent the Colombo Family, branches of the Mafia in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Brasco)
2007 Norman Podhoretz authored “World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism."
(WSJ, 9/11/07, p.D6)
2007 Lucien X. Polastron authored “Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.98)
2007 Stephen Prothero authored “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t."
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M1)
2007 Kenneth B. Pyle authored “Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.94)
2007 Sam Quinines authored “Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration."
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.M1)
2007 Robert Reich, former US labor secretary, authored “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life," in which he denounces corporate social responsibility as a dangerous diversion that is undermining democracy.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.65)
2007 Darius Rejali authored “Torture and Democracy," a genealogy of modern torture.
(SSFC, 1/27/08, p.M1)
2007 Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria authored “The Key System: San Francisco and the Eastshore Empire."
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
2007 Richard Rhodes authored “Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race."
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.M1)
2007 Tracy Rihill, British classics lecturer, authored “The Catapult: A History."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.92)
2007 Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella authored “La Casta" (The Caste), a dissection of the way tax revenue is frittered away by Italy’s political class. "The Caste: How Italian politicians have become untouchable," written by journalists from the leading daily Corriere della Sera, became best-seller soon after its publication.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.48)(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Elizabeth Roberts authored “Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro."
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.85)
2007 Gregory Rodriguez authored “Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America."
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.102)
2007 Jeffrey Rosen authored “The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America.
(AH, 4/07, p.69)
2007 Alex Ross authored “The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century," a history of music in the 20th century.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.97)
2007 Bernard Rougier’s “Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon" was published in English. The French version (Le Jihad au quotidien) was initially published in 2004.
(WSJ, 6/26/07, p.D5)
2007 Graham Russell and Gao Hodges authored “Taxi! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver."
(WSJ, 4/6/07, p.W6)
2007 Prof. Larry Sabato of the Univ. of Virginia authored: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country."
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.F1)
2007 A.K. Sandoval-Strausz authored “Hotel: An American History."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.90)
2007 The English translation of presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy’s “Testimony: France in the Twenty-First Century," became available. It had been published in France in 2006 as Temoignange."
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.86)
2007 Jon Savage authored “Teenage: The Prehistory of Youth Culture: 1875-1945." In 2014 it was turned into a documentary film.
(SFC, 4/25/14, p.E5)
2007 Mark Schapiro authored “The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power."
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.66)
2007 Barrymore Lawrence Scherer authored “A History of American Classical Music."
(WSJ, 12/4/07, p.D8)
2007 Phillip F. Schewe authored “Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World."
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P8)
2007 Amity Schlaes, US economic historian, authored “The Forgotten Men: A New History of the Great Depression."
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.76)
2007 Robert Service, Oxford professor of Russian history, authored “Comrades! A History of World Communism."
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.88)
2007 Wilfrid Sheed authored “The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty," a look back at the top tunesmiths of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood.
(WSJ, 6/30/07, p.P6)
2007 Raja Shehadeh authored “Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape," which told of 6 walks taken between 1978 and 2006. It was first published in Britain and in 2008 came out in the US.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.101)
2007 Susan L. Shirk authored “China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise."
(WSJ, 5/17/07, p.D7)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.80)
2007 Ayesha Siddiqa authored “Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.94)
2007 Julia Flynn Siler authored “The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty."
(WSJ, 6/15/07, p.W1)
2007 James Smith, an English professor at Boston College, authored "Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and the Nation's Culture of Containment." The so-called Magdalene Laundries, a network of 10 workhouses, operated in independent Ireland from the 1920s to the mid-1990s. The Irish Human Rights Commission later said that Ireland's civil authorities for decades dumped women, often teenagers being punished for petty crimes or becoming pregnant out of wedlock, into the so-called Magdalene Laundries.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2007 Virginia Smith “Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity."
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.139)
2007 Paul Starr authored “Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism." He emphasized “that the founders of liberalism aimed not just to control state power but to create it too."
(WSJ, 4/1207, p.D7)
2007 Shelby Steele authored “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win."
(WSJ, 12/11/07, p.B18)
2007 Amy Stewart authored “Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers."
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.106)
2007 Ian Stewart authored “Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry."
(SFC, 5/22/07, p.E2)
2007 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b.1960), Lebanese writer, authored “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable." Here he wrote “Don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut – and don’t ask an academic if what he does is relevant." A review by the Sunday Times called it one of the twelve most influential books since World War II.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb)(Econ, 5/16/15, p.55)
2007 Gary Taubes authored “Good Calories, Bad Calories," in which he says that obesity is related to the quality of consumed calories, where bad ones come from refined carbohydrates found in starchy food and sweets.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.W8)
2007 Charles Taylor, Canadian philosopher, authored “A Secular Age," a discussion of the weakening of religion’s power in Western history.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.84)
2007 George Tenet, former CIA director, with Bill Harlow authored “At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA."
(WSJ, 5/4/07, p.W4)
2007 Clarence Thomas, US Supreme Court justice, authored his memoir “My Grandfather’s Son." The book stops at the point when he joined the Supreme Court in 1991.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.38)
2007 Colin Thubron, travel writer, authored “Shadow of the Silk Road," the story of his 8-month trip in 2003 along the silk route from China to Central Asia.
(WSJ, 8/18/07, p.P9)
2007 Jeffrey Toobin authored “The Nine," in which he argued that from 1992 to 2005 the cautious instincts of swing justices such as Lewis Powell and Sandra Day O’Connor produced rulings that reflected public opinion.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.34)
2007 James B. Twitchell authored “Shopping for God: How Christianity Went From In Your Heart To In Your Face."
(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.D8)
2007 Jeff Warren authored “The Dead Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness."
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M1)
2007 Tim Weiner authored “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA."
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.P8)
2007 Claire Wilcox edited “The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1945-1957."
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.W10)
2007 Alec Wilkinson authored “The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino." Neutrino, born as David Pearlman in 1993, became veteran of the Beat era and is the founder of the Flying Neutrinos and the Floating Neutrinos."
(SSFC, 3/18/07, p.M2)(www.floatingneutrinos.com/)
2007 Valerie Wilson (aka Valerie Plame), former CIA agent, authored “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." Her cover was revealed in 2003.
(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A7)
2007 Adam Wishart, British director and writer, authored “One in Three: A Son’s Journey Into the History and Science of Cancer."
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.M4)
2007 Tony Wood authored “Chechnya: The Case for Independence."
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.95)
2007 SF Bay Area filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori produced “Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm." It was inspired by the 1999 book “The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction" by Rachel Maimes.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.F1)
2007 Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012), outspoken conservative writer and activist founded the online-based Breitbart News.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitbart_News)(AP, 3/1/12)
2007 The US FBI launched its computerized System to Assess Risk (STAR) to find terrorist suspects. It stemmed from a data processing program developed by Frank Asher following the 9/11 attacks. Asher’s program had screened 450 million people and produced a list of 1,200 suspicious individuals including 5 of the 9/11 terrorist hijackers.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.63)(http://tinyurl.com/3a5rh3)
2007 The US Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORSO) opened at Kirtland air Force Base in New Mexico, following a congressional order for the Dept. of Defense to establish a body for to lead a shift to quick-build, quick-launch replacements of spy satellites.
(Econ, 12/11/10, TQ p.23)
2007 US federal officials alleged that $84 million held in Swiss bank accounts stem from bribes paid by US companies to Kazakhstan’s president and other top officials for access to energy reserves. The money was frozen as an investigation continued.
(WSJ, 5/12/08, p.A6)
2007 In Arkansas six nuns were excommunicated after refusing to give up membership in the Army of Mary. In 1971 Marie Paule Giguere (b.1921), a Catholic nun in Quebec, founded the Army of Mary as a prayer group, saying she was receiving visions from God. In 2007 the Vatican declared her teachings were heretical.
(SFC, 9/27/07, p.A20)(www.religioustolerance.org/army_mary.htm)
2007 Rhode Island lawmakers ended a 51-year prohibition on Sunday auto sales.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A14)
2007 Charleston, South Carolina, opened a slavery museum.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.34)
2007 California passed legislation requiring traceable micro-stamping in all new semiautomatic handgun models effective as of May 2013.
(SFC, 1/27/14, p.A1)
2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with the idea to rent out two air beds in their San Francisco apartment because of a conference that left the local hotels full-to-overflowing. Thus Airbed & Breakfast (Airbnb) was born.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.59)
2007 Tom Costello and his wife Anna Patterson of Menlo Park, Ca., founded Cuil, an Internet search engine. By mid 2008 they claimed to have an index of 120 billion Web pages. They launched www.cuil.com on July 28, 2008.
(SFC, 7/28/08, p.D1)(WSJ, 7/28/08, p.B5)
2007 Multiverse Network created MMO (massively multiplayer online) client and server software based on open standards to allow users to build their own virtual worlds.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.14)
2007 Metaweb Technologies created Freebase, a web site that sits atop a collection of data allowing users to contribute, correct and recombine data.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.15)
2007 InPhase Technologies, a spin-out from Bell Labs, planned to launch the first holographic disc-drive this summer. The system would read write at a rate of 160 megabits per second.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.29)
2007 Mona Lori Frisbie started OutOfPocket.com as a crowd-sourcing tool for patients. Visitor posted prices are supplemented with Medicare data.
(SFC, 5/21/12, p.D4)
2007 In Arizona ImaRX began a trial using microbubbles containing a clot-buster. New technology allowed bubbles to reach intended targets where they were forced to burst using ultrasound. Companies such as Nanotrope and Targeson worked to develop customized bubbles.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.8)
2007 Texas voters approved a bond measure for the creation of the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, p.A16)
2007 Washington state, in an effort to make the labor market fairer, banned firms from checking the credit scores of job applicants.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.55)
2007 A topless advocacy group was founded by a spiritual leader named Rael after a topless advocate in New York was arrested and held in jail for 9 days before winning a lawsuit against the city. An annual topless day began to be held on the Sunday closest to Women’s Equality Day. In 1971 a joint resolution of Congress designated August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Equality_Day)(SFC, 8/26/13, p.C3)
2007 Paul McCulley, a senior executive at asset manager PIMCO, coined the term “shadow banking" to describe legal structures used by big Western banks before the financial crisis to keep opaque and complicated securitized loans off their balance sheets.
(Econ, 5/10/14, p.5)
2007 Brian Robertson, a software engineer, invented the idea of “holacracy" to describe a management system based on overlapping, self-organizing teams. He was inspired by the term “holarchy" used by Arthur Koestler in the book “the Ghost in the Machine" (1967).
(Econ, 7/5/14, p.56)
2007 23andMe, based in Mountain View, Ca., began offering customers aspects of their genome from spit samples analyzed by the company. Their personal genome test kit was named Invention of the Year by Time magazine in 2008.
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe)
2007 Change.org, an online petitions site, was launched.
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.62)
2007 Dell Computer created IdeaStorm, “a way of building an online community that brings all of us closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share ideas and collaborate with one another."
(www.dellideastorm.com/about)
2007 Lumos Labs launched Lumosity, a website of online games designed to improve users’ cognitive performance.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.56)
2007 Mark Pincus founded Zynga Game Network. The company had a smash hit with the social online game FarmVille in 2009. By the end of 2010 the San Francisco-based company was valued at $5.4 billion.
(SFC, 11/19/10, p.D8)
2007 Planar Energy of Orlando, Florida, was spun off from America’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The company went on to develop a process for printing lithium-ion batteries onto sheets of metal or plastic. A pilot production facility opened in 2011.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.77)
2007 Gabor Forgacs co-founded Organovo, a US company dedicated to building human tissues. In 2014 the company delivered samples for testing of its first product, slivers of human liver tissue.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.18)
2007 A small unmanned submarine, developed and operated by Rutgers Univ., traveled from New jersey to Halifax, Nova Scotia, collecting scientific data under sponsorship by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2008 the sub, dubbed Scarlet Knight, embarked on a journey from New Jersey to Spain.
(SSFC, 7/13/08, p.A15)
2007 The US Dept. of Education noted that the average annual cost of a standard 4-year course at an American university has tripled since the 1985-1986 school year.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.44)
2007 The US with a population of 301,139,947 counted 1,498,157 soldiers on active duty (~4.9%); China with a population of 1,321,851,888 counted 2,105,000 soldiers on active duty (~.159%). Russia with a population of 141,377,752 counted 1,027,000 soldiers on active duty (~7.2%); These numbers excluded paramilitary troops in China and Russia.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.W5)
2007 Google garnered 56% of the US Internet search market. Yahoo’s share sank to 20% and Microsoft’s grew to 14%.
(SFC, 2/2/08, p.C1)
2007 The US CDC said 7% of Americans, or about 21 million people, have diabetes. In global terms some 246 million people were affected.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.37)
2007 Recycling in America reached 32% of its municipal rubbish as compared to 9.6& in 1980.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.22)
2007 Fine quality emeralds sold in the US for about $4,500 a carat.
(WSJ, 2/7/07, p.A12)
2007 In SF the number of homicides for the year totaled 98, with 24 of them in the Bayview neighborhood.
(SFC, 1/15/08, p.B1)
2007 Global wind power amounted to about 1,200 megawatts with Denmark accounting for about a third and Britain in 2nd place with 400 megawatts.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.B2)
2007 Carbon dioxide output jumped 3% this year putting the world on track for a worst-case global warming scenario.
(WSJ, 9/26/08, p.A1)
2007 Roshan, a cell-phone network in Afghanistan, was the country’s largest taxpayer and investor. The Aga Khan Development Network owned 51%.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.66)
2007 Afghanistan produced 92% of the world’s opium-related drugs.
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.33)
2007 Some 8,000 Afghan’s were killed this year. UN estimates said over 1,500 of those killed were civilians.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.37)
2007 Juan Gelman (b.1930), Argentine poet, won the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for Spanish-language literature.
(AP, 8/28/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gelman)
2007 Julian Assange, a former Australian hacker, founded Wikileaks, an international publishing service for whistle-blowers.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.67)
2007 The wine boom in Australia went bust forcing many farmers to walk away from grapes and land they could not sell. Falling grape prices due to over production and cuts to irrigation water due to drought created a double whammy.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.84)
2007 In Austria Andreas K. from Wiener Neustadt stumbled onto buried treasure while turning dirt in his back yard. In 2011 Austria's department in charge of national antiquities said the trove, dating back some 650 years, consists of more than 200 rings, brooches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver plates and other pieces or fragments, many encrusted with pearls, fossilized coral and other ornaments.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2007 Foreign nationals made up nearly 10% of Austria’s population.
(Econ, 11/24/07, SR p.8)
2007 The parliament of Bahrain passed a non-binding motion banning the use of its territory for any attack on Iran. Bahrain hosted the US 5th fleet.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.78)
2007 The population of Bangladesh was about 150 million. The Ahmedija minority numbered about 100,000.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.41)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Blacks comprised about 60% of Bermuda's 62,000 people.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Eike Batista, Brazilian businessman, founded OGX, an oil and gas firm. Its IPO in 2008 raised $4.3 billion, a record for Brazil. By 2012 he was Brazil’s richest man and ranked 7th richest in the world.
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.63)
2007 The population of Brunei this year was about 374,000. Malays comprised 67% and Chinese 15%. Muslims comprised 67% and Buddhists 13%.
(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.A6)
2007 Georgi Parvanov, president of Bulgaria, was named as a collaborator with communist secret services. He said he was approached to edit a book and did not realize he was dealing with spooks.
(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.13)
2007 In Bulgaria Delyan Peevski was fired as a deputy minister of emergency situations in a corruption scandal. He was eventually cleared after an investigation established no wrongdoing, however, and was reinstated in the post. Peevski and his mother, Irena Krasteva, control a network of national newspapers and television channels.
(AP, 6/14/13)
2007 In Canada the towers of the Toronto Dominion Center incorporated hydrothermal cooling using cold water from Lake Ontario.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.4)
2007 In Canada Bombardier Recreational Products developed the Can-Am Spyder Roadster. The 3-wheeled vehicle was planned to sell for $15,000.
(Econ, 3/10/07, TQ p.12)
2007 In Canada the $8.4 billion hydroelectric project on Labrador’s Churchill River was expected to begin power production.
(WSJ, 3/10/98, p.A19)
2007 Chile’s salmon farming industry produced $2.2 billion in export revenues this year.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.45)
2007 China established a sovereign wealth fund backed by around $1.2 trillion in foreign currency reserves. China moved rapidly ahead with plans to create a State Investment Corporation (SIC) that would more aggressively invest approximately USD 200bn of the country’s USD 1.3tr of existing foreign exchange reserves to boost long term returns.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.75)(http://tinyurl.com/3c6lo4)
2007 In China Zhang Hai, former president and chief executive of the sports drink maker Jianlibao Group, was found guilty of misappropriating 206 million yuan ($33.82 million). He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzling millions of dollars in public funds. Through bribery and the fabrication of documents to prove his good behavior, Zhang was released in 2011 and promptly went overseas with his girlfriend, Huang Lu. In 2014 24 others were being or have been investigated in connection with Zhang's release, including 11 in the judiciary and prison service, a court official and two lawyers. Authorities sought his extradition.
(Reuters, 2/24/14)
2007 China said it would offer African countries $20 billion in new financing. No terms or time period were announced.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.59)
2007 China surpassed the US this year for the first time in its contribution to global GDP growth.
(Econ, 10/20/07, SR p.34)
2007 China Minsheng Bank bought a 10% stake in UCBH Holdings, a San Francisco based bank that served Chinese Americans. UCBH failed in 2009 and Minsheng wrote off its investment.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.18)
2007 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) spent $5.5 billion to acquire a 20% stake in South Africa-based Standard Bank. This was China’s largest corporate foreign investment to date.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.18)
2007 A rail line from China’s Qinghai province to Lhasa, Tibet, was expected to be completed. The world’s highest railroad required pressurized rail cars.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2007 In China the Great Wall Motor company in Hebei province produced 108,000 vehicles this year. The company had ambitious plans for growth. It already built cars with a licensee in Iran and in 2006 had opened a factory in the Ukraine.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.74)
2007 Chinese made cars were expected to hit the US auto market.
(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.A2)
2007 China signed a deal to invest some $3.5 billion in the Aynak copper mine in Logar province, Afghanistan. It was said to be the 2nd largest source of untapped copper in the world.
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.44)
2007 Accidents in China's coal mines killed 3,786 people this year.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2007 Congo’s operating budget for this year was $2.4 billion. Its population stood at about 60 million.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.46)
2007 Transparency Int’l. ranked Congo 168th out of 179 countries for freedom from corruption.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.13)
2007 The population of Congo-Brazzaville stood at about 4 million.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.38)
2007 The population in the Czech Rep. stood at about 10.2 million.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A19)
2007 The Dominican Rep. government began denying citizenship to people whose parents were illegal immigrants. The policy was incorporated into an amended constitution in 2010.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.24)
2007 Egypt’s population stood at about 75 million.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.40)
2007 James and Maureen Tusty produced “The Singing Revolution," a film that covered the Estonian people’s move to re-establish independence. The film begins with independence in 1918 and then moves to Soviet and German occupation during WWII. The spirit of the nation is then captured with a focus on how the singing nation moved re-establish itself in its non-violent “singing revolution" (1987-1991).
(www.singingrevolution.com/cgi-local/content.cgi)
2007 In Ethiopia the northern Tigrayans, who made up most of the ruling elite, comprised only about 7% of the population. The Oromos, mainly in the center and south, comprised 40% of the population and provided most of the country’s food. The Amharas comprised about 22% of the populations and have traditionally been the educated ruling class. Muslim Somalis occupied the south-east Ogaden region.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.33)
2007 Yasmina Reza authored “L’Aube le soir ou la nui" (Dawn evening or night), an account of her year shadowing Nicolas Sarkozy.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.73)
2007 Olivier Roy, a French scholar, authored “Secularism Confronts Islam."
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.75)
2007 Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods maker LVMH, and Colony Capital, an American private equity firm, jointly bought a 9.8% stake in France’s Carrefour, the world’s 2nd largest retailer.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.74)
2007 Kakha Bendukidze, Georgian industrialist, founded the Free University of Tbilisi to teach law, business and languages. Each graduate was expected to finance a new student.
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.41)
2007 In Germany Eberhart Zrenner led a project to implant chips into the eyes of people who have lost sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, using a chip developed by Retina Implant.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.6)
2007 Dan Hough authored “The Left Party in Contemporary German Politics."
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.57)
2007 Researchers from Karlsruhe's Natural History Museum found a 3-millimetre-long (0.118 inch) ant in the Amazon rainforest and dated its origin back to about 120Mil BC, making it the oldest still inhabiting the earth.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
2007 Ghana issued its debut bond this year, just a year after most of its debts were cancelled.
(Econ, 4/2/15, p.72)
2007 In Guatemala 56 politicians or party activists were killed during the presidential campaign.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.40)
2007 Guyana’s Pres. Bharrat Jagdeo said that under the right circumstances he would cede his country’s entire forest to stewardship by outsiders.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.80)
2007 Anthony Hedley of the Univ. of Hong Kong calculated that bad air in Hong Kong causes 1,600 deaths a year.
(Econ, 6/30/07, SR p.11)
2007 MTV India, launched in 1996, came to America.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_India)
2007 India planned to complete a 1,800 mile fence along the Pakistan border and a 2,500-mile fence along the Bangladesh border were scheduled to be completed at a cost of $3 billion.
(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A1)
2007 India’s Bihar state, one of its poorest and least developed, began a bike giveaway program for females. Their literacy rate of 53 percent was more than 20 points below that of males. The results from Bihar were so encouraging that the program was soon adopted by the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. By 2012 the Indian government hoped to expand the program across the country to help improve female literacy.
(AP, 5/21/12)
2007 In India brothers Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal founded Aspiring Minds, an assessment technology pioneer, in order to provide a full spectrum of assessments including Language, Aptitude, Skill and Personality assessment.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)(www.aspiringminds.in/)
2007 India scrapped 129 ships at its ship recycling yard in Alang, down form a high of 428 in 2001. Business was lost to less regulated recycling yards in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
(SSFC, 7/6/08, p.A2)
2007 In India Sachin Bansai and Binny Bansal setup shop in a flat in Bangalore and began an e-commerce business that delivered books to people’s homes. By 2011 their firm, Flipcart, was one of India hottest Internet businesses.
(Econ, 10/22/11, SR p.18)
2007 Road accidents in India averaged nearly 100,000 per year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2007 Masoud Dehnamaki, a former Iranian militia leader, directed his first feature film. The irreverent comedy, “Ekhrajiha" (The Outcasts), portrayed a gang of Tehran thieves and junkies as war heroes. His previous work included documentaries about prostitution and football violence.
(Econ, 4/21/07, p.54)
2007 Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad closed down the country’s Management and Planning Organization, the country’s closest thing to an independent budget auditor. In 2013 Pres. Hassan Rohani re-opened the office.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.52)
2007 In western Iran Kurdish Law student Habibollah Latifi was arrested accused of carrying activities on behalf of "anti- revolutionary" groups, Human Rights Watch said in a statement. He was sentenced to death in 2008.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2007 The Sons of Iraq, an overwhelmingly Sunni militia, was formed as a paramilitary and neighborhood watch force. The US paid each member $300 per month to man checkpoints throughout Iraq. In 2008 there were some 103,000 members including about 18,000 Shiites.
(SFC, 6/2/08, p.A8)
2007 In Iraq Qasim al-Araji was detained by US forces for smuggling arms used against US troops. He was held for 23 months before being released on insufficient evidence. In 2017 he was appointed as the country’s Interior Minister.
(SFC, 5/9/17, p.A4)
2007 Israel built some 2,600 new housing units this year, most of them inside its security fence on Palestinian land.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.58)
2007 In Italy Khalid Khamlich, an Islamic extremist, was convicted of terror ties. He was alleged to be part of a cell that planned attacks on the Milan subway and a cathedral. In 2010 he was expelled to his native Morocco.
(AP, 11/26/10)
2007 In Italy Oscar Farinetti set up the first Eataly food market in Turin. In 2013 his 21st store opened in Chicago.
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.62)
2007 Italian Oil company ENI SpA bought Burren Energy PLC, a small independent company that operates an oil field in Turkmenistan. ENI from that point on was denied entry visas by Turkmenistan, which was annoyed at not being consulted in the deal.
(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.B8)
2007 Japan’s government debt this year stood at around 180% of GDP, the highest for any developed economy.
(Econ, 12/1/07, SR p.3)
2007 In Japan the Nippon Kaigi lobby group persuaded the government to make April 29 a national holiday in honor of Hirohito (1901-1989), the WWII Emperor of Japan.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.33)
2007 Over Some 33,000 people took their lives in Japan this year, topping 30,000 for the tenth consecutive year despite a government campaign to reduce what is one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2007 Corruption ratings for this year by Transparency International placed Kazakhstan at 150th out of 180 countries.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.49)
2007 In Kenya Pastor Jacob Momposhi Samperu founded the Hope for the Maasai Girls center to rescue girls from circumcision.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2007 In Kenya police death squads killed some 500 people this year.
(Econ, 7/31/10, p.34)
2007 In 2011 prosecutors at the world war crimes court said Kenya's Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta organized deadly attacks on the opposition after disputed 2007 polls to keep the ruling party's power by "any means necessary." Some 1,300 lives were lost in the politically stoked fighting following the flawed elections.
(AFP, 9/22/11)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.40)
2007 Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile phone operator, launched M-PESA, a mobile-money scheme. It allowed people to pay bills and even save money, though without interest.
(Econ, 9/26/09, SR p.17)
2007 Kenya’s population climbed to 38 million people, half under age 20, and projections suggested it would reach 57 million by 2025. The official minimum wage stood at about $700 per year, with GDP per head at about $1,500. An MP’s salary was about $60,000, which doubled with allowances. The Kikuyu tribe comprised about 22% of Kenya’s population.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.50)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.39)
2007 The population of Lesotho stood at about 1.8 million and almost one of 4 adults had HIV/AIDS. Lesotho’s textile industry, the only industry to speak of, employed some 45,000.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.56)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.61)
2007 Libya’s Col Gadhafi established the Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund with $50 billion slotted for investment.
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A14)
2007 The population of Lichtenstein numbered 35,000.
(SSFC, 9/2/07, p.D3)
2007 Transparency Int’l. ranked Laos, population around 6 million, as one of the most corrupt countries in the world ranking it 168 out of 179 surveyed nations, with No. 1 being the least corrupt.
(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A15)
2007 Macedonia renamed Skopje airport for Alexander the Great.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.55)
2007 The population of Madagascar was about 18.6 million, with an average income of $290 per year.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.42)
2007 Malawi deported Michael Sata, the head of the Zambian opposition, after he flew there on personal business and to meet former Malawi president Bakili Muluzi.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2007 Malaysia’s Prince Naquiyuddin Jaafar founded the EntoGenex biotech company. It took a pre-existing protein called the Trypsin Modulating Oostatic Factor (TMOF) and by 2012 developed it into what he called a fatal "diet pill" for mosquitoes. The firm combined the TMOF with bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) bacteria, which eats holes in the guts of larvae but is non-toxic to people. He hoped it could potentially become a weapon in the even larger fight against malaria, which kills an estimated 650,000 people per year.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2007 The population of Malaysia numbered about 27 million people.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.42)
2007 Maltese company Nude Estates bought the Ausra shopping center in Utena, Lithuania. In 2017 it was revealed that U2 frontman Bono had used Nude Estates to buy a share in the shopping mall. U2 was heavily criticized in 2006 for moving its corporate base from Ireland to the Netherlands, where royalties on music incur virtually no tax.
(AP, 11/6/17)
2007 Alberto Nava, a California cave diver, and two Mexican dive budies discovered a human skeleton in a deep underwater cave in Mexico’s Yucatan jungle. In 2014 scientists said the skeleton was that of a young girl who probably fell into the cave over 12,000 years ago. DNA evidence linked her to modern native Americans.
(SFC, 5/16/14, p.D8)
2007 Myanmar slashed real estate taxes to 15% from 50%. Drug traffickers seized the opportunity to convert their cash to real estate.
(SSFC, 6/7/15, p.A17)
2007 Myanmar’s population was around 53 million. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, but 90 percent of its people lived on less than $1 a day. 30% lived below the poverty line.
(AP, 9/29/07)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.29)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.12)
2007 The Netherlands launched its €2.3 billion “Room for the River" project in an effort to make the country more resilient to flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.62)
2007 New Zealand had a bumper year in wine, which overtook wool exports in value for the first time becoming the country’s 12th most valuable export.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.85)
2007 In Pakistan Taliban militants overran the country’s biggest ski resort at Malam Jaba in the Swat Valley and smashed the “heathen" lifts.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.41)
2007 The Beck's petrel was photographed by an Israeli ornithologist in the Bismarck Archipelago, a group of islands northeast of Papua New Guinea. The pale-bellied bird species was last seen in 1929 and long thought to be extinct.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2007 In Paraguay former Pres. Gonzalez Macchi (1999-2003) was acquitted of illegally transferring $16 million from Paraguay's Central Bank to a US account.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2007 A Philippine antiterror law said law-enforcemenmt officials could be fined 500,000 pesos for each day they wrongfully detain a terror suspect.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A4)
2007 Andrzej Wajda (81), Poland’s leading film maker, completed “Katyn," based on the letters and diaries of victims murdered by Soviet secret police in 1943.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.81)
2007 In Romania agriculture ministers Decebal Traian Remes resigned his Cabinet post after prosecutors accused him of taking a bribe of $21,000 (euro15,800) and the promise of homemade sausages and plum brandy from Ioan Muresan, a former agriculture minister who allegedly was acting on behalf of businessman Gheorghe Ciorba.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2007 New amendments to Romania’s penal code prescribed jail sentences of up to 7 years for journalists who publish material showing officials involved in bribe-taking. The code also raised the financial threshold for corruption charges.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.64)
2007 The population of Romania numbered about 22 million people and counted 4.5 million farms and smallholdings. This represented almost a third of all the farm holdings in the EU.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.63)
2007 Arkady Babchenko, Russian soldier, authored “A Soldier’s War in Chechnya," an account of his service in Chechnya. In 2008 it was translated to English by Nick Allen and published as “One Soldier’s War."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)(WSJ, 1/22/08, p.D8)
2007 Yegor Gaidar (1956-2009), former Russian finance minister and prime minister, authored “Collapse of an Empire."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yegor_Gaidar)
2007 Pres. Putin promoted a new Russian history manual for teachers entitled “A Modern History of Russia: 1945-2006." Professor Oksana Gaman-Golutvina said the material published in the book did not correspond to what she wrote and said: "I really do not want my name to be associated with this disgrace."
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.67)(http://tinyurl.com/355n8p)
2007 Four Russian defense officials were sentenced this year to up to 11 years in jail for selling missile delivery technologies to Beijing for $2 million.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2007 In northern Saudi Arabia two men beheaded intelligence service Colonel Nasser al-Othman at his farm near the city of Buraidah because they viewed him as an apostate. In 2016 a Saudi court sentenced the two men it said were al Qaeda followers to death.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2007 The population of Saudi Arabia passed 24 million. The country imported $6 billion in food this year.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/26/08, p.A12)
2007 Scotland gained control over its railways.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.55)
2007 Singapore proposed a co-operative green-city venture with China. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City opened in 2011.
(Econ, 4/19/14, SR p.12)
2007 US military advisors began secretly operating in Somalia. This was only made public in 2014 as Washington planned to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats by al Shabaab.
(Reuters, 7/2/14)
2007 South Africa's Parliament passed the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act, which declares the Northern Cape an "astronomy advantage area", giving the Minister of Science and Technology powers to protect the area from future radio interference.
(http://www.southafrica.info/about/science/ska.htm)
2007 Spain’s Santander Bank acquired ABN’s Brazilian unit.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.15)
2007 Inflation in Sri Lanka reached an annual rate of 21.6%.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)
2007 Sweden eliminated its wealth tax.
(Econ, 10/13/12, SR p.20)
2007 Sweden removed its 1970 ban on professional boxing.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.58)
2007 Bradley Birkenfeld, an American employed by Swiss-based UBS, approached officials in Washington to reveal the bank’s surreptitious servicing of thousands of rich, tax-dodging Americans.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.58)
2007 Syria’s oil exports were expected to almost cease by this time.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.A18)
2007 Syria’s population numbered about 19 million.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.55)
2007 In Thailand 751 people died in prison or under police custody this year.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.55)
2007 Graham Fuller authored “The New Turkish Republic: Turkey As a Pivotal State in the Muslim World."
(Econ, 10/23/10, SR p.6)
2007 Uganda began construction of the $860 million Bujagali Dam for hydroelectric power from Lake Victoria water. About 55% of lower water levels on Lake Victoria were attributed dams built by the Ugandan government. This severely impacted farmers and fishermen in adjoining Kenya and Tanzania as well as Uganda.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.A14)
2007 Ukraine’s population numbered about 48 million. This included some 8 million ethnic Russians.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.51)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.16)
2007 UN-AIDS said 2.7 million people were infected with AIDS this year, bringing the estimated global total to 33 million.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.81)
2007 Pope Benedict XVI wrote an open letter to Chinese Catholics emphasizing that the church had no political ambitions.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.36)
2007 Inflation in Venezuela rose 22.5% for the year. Some 13,000 people were murdered this year producing a murder rate of 48 per 100,000, the 2nd highest in the world after El Salvador. In Caracas there were 2,710 murders, or 130 per 100,000 citizens.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.32)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.47)(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.A16)
2007 The World Bank launched its Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to help developing nations recover assets stolen by corrupt leaders and invest the returned funds in development programs.
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2007 Peter Godwin authored “When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa," a description of the collapse of Zimbabwe after 2000. This was his 2nd book in a trilogy that began with “Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa." The 3rd volume was “The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe" (2010).
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.101)
2007 Zimbabwe and Namibia entered into an agreement under which Namibia gave Zimbabwe a 40-million-dollar loan for repairs to its thermal power stations while Zimbabwe would pay back by exporting electricity to Namibia.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2007 Zimbabwe Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, a loyalist to President Robert Mugabe, was excommunicated by the main Anglican Province of Central Africa and the worldwide head of the church for inciting violence in sermons supporting Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2007 The population of Zimbabwe was about 13 million. 3 million were thought to have left, mostly to South Africa, due to the economic crises.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.37)
2007-2008 Georgia issued bonds to fund a plan by Gov. Sonny Perdue for a $19 million project to make the state the most popular fishing destination in the country.
(WSJ, 1/5/09, p.A1)
2007-2008 Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., sponsored $14.7 million in defense earmarks for Kuchera Defense Systems, a campaign donor. The Pentagon went along with it, despite the fact that two convicted drug dealers had been deeply involved with the company.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2007-2008 South Africa’s MTN mobile phone company invested over $1.5 billion in Iran to provide coverage for over 40% of Iranians.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.49)
2007-2009 In Nigeria more than 17,000 people died in about 31,000 road accidents across Nigeria between this period.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2007-2016 Ecuadorean officials received about 33.5 million in bribes during this period from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm according to the US Dept. of Justice.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.29)
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2007 Oct 1, The DJIA rose 191.92 to a record 14,087.55, surpassing a mid-July closing record of 14,000.41. Nasdaq rose 39.49 to 2,740.
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.C1)(AP, 10/1/08)
2007 Oct 1, The Shakespeare Theater Company opened the new Sidney Harman Hall, a 775-seat theater in downtown Washington, DC.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
2007 Oct 1, The US military launched a new "Most Wanted" campaign offering rewards of up to $200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders. Three men driving trucks to supply foreign soldiers in the central province of Wardak were kidnapped.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Teradata Corporation, a hardware and software vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications, was spun off from NCR Corp. As of 2010 the former division of NCR is the largest company in Dayton, Ohio, with headquarters in Miamisburg, Ohio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teradata)
2007 Oct 1, Al Oerter (b.1936), 4-time Olympic gold medal winner in the discus throw, died in Fort Myers, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Oerter)
2007 Oct 1, The African Union began probing an unprecedented attack on one of its bases in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur that left 10 peacekeepers dead and 40 missing, vowing to punish those responsible.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The Bosnian Serb parliament approved Igor Radojcic, the government's candidate, as interim president following the death of President Milan Jelic.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Britain’s Racial and Religious Hatred Act came into force. This made it a crime for anyone to use threatening words or behavior with the intention of stirring up religious hatred. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was created to succeed the Commission for Racial Equality.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.67)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.61)(www.out-law.com/page-8512)
2007 Oct 1, The London Stock Exchange completed its purchase of Borsa Italiana, cementing its position as Europe's biggest equity market.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The British Broadcasting Corp. said it bought a 75-percent stake in the Lonely Planet travel guides.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, A Canadian judge acquitted three doctors, a New Jersey company and a former Red Cross official of criminal charges in a tainted-blood scandal that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV or hepatitis and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Ecuador’s Pres. Rafael Correa announced a plan to wipe out the party system and tighten government control of the economy after appearing to win a free hand to overhaul the constitution.
(WSJ, 10/2/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 1, Nokia Corp. said it is buying US navigation-software maker Navteq Corp. for around $8.1 billion as the world's largest mobile phone maker continues to expand services and content.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives just outside the gates of Mosul University, killing an agriculture professor. An umbrella group for al-Qaida in Iraq confirmed the death of Abu Osama al-Tunisi, a senior Tunisian leader linked to the kidnapping and killings of US soldiers last year. He was killed in a US airstrike south of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Japan began a 1-year process of privatizing its postal system, recognized as the world’s largest bank with over $2 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.82)
2007 Oct 1, In Lebanon Nasser Ismail, a suspected senior commander of the Fatah Islam militant group, was captured by Palestinian refugees and turned over to the Lebanese military after he spent weeks in hiding.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Myanmar's junta leader stalled a UN envoy for yet another day, delaying his chance to present international demands for an end to the crackdown on the largest protests in two decades. A Norway-based dissident news organization, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said pro-democracy activists estimate 138 people were killed in the recent protests. Shari Villarosa, the top US diplomat in Myanmar, said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Yangon and every single one was empty. She put the number of arrested demonstrators, monks and civilians, in the thousands.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, A burqa-clad woman blew herself up and killed at least 16 people at a crowded police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan. It was believed to be the first time a female suicide bomber has struck inside the country. Pakistan's top court ordered three officials suspended over a crackdown that wounded dozens of journalists and lawyers during protests against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners kissed the ground at this West Bank checkpoint after Israel released them in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants in Gaza in a gunbattle.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, President Vladimir Putin said he would lead the dominant party's ticket in December parliamentary elections and suggested he could become prime minister, the strongest sign yet that he will try to keep power after he leaves office.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Fighting broke out between Somaliland and Puntland in the disputed Sool region and at least 10 people were killed in a battle for control of Las Anod.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.56)
2007 Oct 1, Sudan's Pres. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, during talks with members of a visiting group of elder statesmen, promised to pay $300 million in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge. This was made public 2 days later by former US President Jimmy Carter, one of the visiting elders.
(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 1, Swiss banking giant UBS warned that the crisis in the US housing market had cost it around 4.0 billion Swiss francs, as it announced a major management shakeup and plans to cut 1,500 jobs.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Syria began requiring visas for Iraqis entering the country, hoping to stem the flow of refugees fleeing violence in their homeland.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Zimbabwe's central bank chief warned of "dangers" in a bill approved by legislators which says that locals must own a majority of foreign-run firms.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, A draft report by the Government Accountability Office said Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period on business- and first-class airline tickets, in some cases simply because they felt entitled to the perk.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, Blackwater chairman Erik Prince, testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, vigorously rejected charges that guards from his private security firm acted recklessly while protecting State Department personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2007 Oct 2, A federal jury in New York ordered the owners of the New York Knicks to pay $11.6 million to former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders, concluding she'd been sexually harassed and fired out of spite.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2007 Oct 2, Nasdaq agreed to acquire the Boston stock Exchange for about $61 million.
(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.C3)
2007 Oct 2, In Colorado 5 workers trapped at least 1,500 feet underground survived an initial chemical fire at a hydroelectric plant near Georgetown, but died before emergency workers could rescue them.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, The new $800 million MGM Grand Casino opened in downtown Detroit. Across the street the old MGM Grand, which had opened in 1999, closed on Sep 30.
(WSJ, 9/26/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 2, George Grizzard (79), Tony Award-winning actor, died in New York.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2007 Oct 2, James Michaels (86), innovative editor of Forbes magazine (1961-1999), died.
(www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/business/04michaels.html)(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A17)
2007 Oct 2, In Afghan a mother and her two children boarded a police bus in Kabul only seconds before a suicide bomber detonated his payload inside, an attack that killed 13 police and civilians. Taliban militants killed two policemen and destroyed a remote government office in central Afghanistan, as five Dutch troops were wounded in a clash in the country's south.
(AP, 10/2/07)(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, Australia’s Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said that over the past two years the intake of Africans has been cut from 70% of the total of 13,000 refugees to just 30%.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Magda Pniewska (26), a Polish woman, was shot in the head and died after being caught in the cross-fire between two gunmen in a residential street in London. On April 22, 2008, Armel Gnango (17) was convicted of murder for being involved in the gunfight.
(AFP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2007 Oct 2, Canada’s Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government plans to criminalize identity theft to give police the ability to stop such activity before any fraud has actually been carried out.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 2, China’s Pres. Hu Jintao kicked off the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai as 7,500 athletes from over 165 countries entered the stadium before a crowd of 80,000.
(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.B3A)
2007 Oct 2, Colombia's navy seized 2 tons of cocaine, most destined for the United States, in small packages labeled with the British flag from a truck on the country's Caribbean coast.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 2, The United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc of PM al-Maliki, demanded that the US military abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force. Britain's PM Brown arrived in Iraq to meet troops and lawmakers and announced plans to withdraw more than 1,000 troops from Iraq by year's end, and Iraq said it will take over security from British forces in the southern Basra province within two months. 11 people were killed, including two women, a child and four police officers, in five separate attacks, including a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint near Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/2/07)(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 2, Israel completed the release of 86 Palestinian prisoners and soldiers briefly opened fire as family members rushed toward the prisoners at the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip. 2 people were wounded. A blast in Gaza killed four people, including three Fatah activists and a bystander. Hamas accused Fatah of having tried to attack the security compound, saying explosives in the car apparently blew up prematurely.
(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A12)(AP, 10/3/07)(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 2, Myanmar's reclusive junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, finally granted an audience to a UN envoy hoping to broker an end to Myanmar's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il showed scant enthusiasm for the visiting South Korean president, while orchestrated crowds of thousands cheered the start of the second summit between the divided Koreas since World War II.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Pakistan agreed to grant ex-premier Benazir Bhutto an amnesty on corruption charges. Opposition legislators resigned to undercut President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid, but the Pakistani leader pushed ahead with plans for an expected victory, naming Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, a former spymaster, to head the military in his place.
(AP, 10/2/07)(AFP, 10/2/07)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.48)
2007 Oct 2, A group of elder statesmen, including former President Carter and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, began a tour of Darfur to promote a political solution to the region's conflict.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Thailand's coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin was officially named a deputy prime minister, but he denied that his appointment to the cabinet was an attempt to cling to power.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Shop owners said Zimbabwe's supermarkets have run out of bread after bakers were forced to suspend their operations due to a critical shortage of wheat.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 3, President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, vetoed a bipartisan bill to reauthorize and dramatically expand SCHIP, a children's health insurance begun in 1997.
(AP, 10/3/07)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
2007 Oct 3, US federal authorities said they had rounded up more than 1,300 illegal immigrants in Southern California during the past two weeks in the largest sweep of its kind.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Tony Ryan (b.1936), Irish-born aviation entrepreneur and co-founder of Ryanair (1985), died.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair)
2007 Oct 3, Afghan troops backed by NATO-led forces clashed with suspected Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving 20 militants dead.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, Four former officials of Albania's state-controlled oil company, Albpetrol, were arrested on suspicion of theft and abuse of office.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, PM John Howard said Australia will not take any more refugees from Africa until at least the middle of next year. He said Australia's 13,000-a-year refugee intake was being "rebalanced" from Africa to the Middle East and Asia where the need was more acute.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Li Heping, an outspoken Chinese lawyer, said he was abducted and beaten for hours on Sep 29, and accused of causing unrest by representing clients with complaints of official corruption and police abuse. Li said he wasn't sure if he would be able to continue working. He returned to his office the day after the attack and found his lawyer's license was missing. A portable hard drive and his computer memory had been wiped clean.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Police in East Timor arrested Vicente "Railos" da Conciecao, the suspected head of a hit squad. He was linked with Rogerio Lobato, a former interior minister convicted of giving weapons to civilians during a wave of violence last year.
(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Ethiopia overnight at the start of a tour of African countries that will also take in South Africa and Liberia.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, In India at least 13 elderly women traveling to a Hindu festival were trampled to death and 42 others were injured in a northern railway station when two trains arrived on adjacent platforms in Mughalsarai.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, Nearly two dozen previously unknown Iraqi insurgent groups announced a new coalition to fight foreign occupation but it also set conditions for talks with the US in a statement on a Web site affiliated with the country's deposed Baath party. The 22 groups said their leader is Izzat al-Douri, the highest ranking member of Saddam Hussein's former ruling party. The Polish ambassador to Iraq was slightly wounded and two civilians, including a bodyguard, were killed in a roadside bomb attack in downtown Baghdad. About 900 Polish troops are stationed training Iraqi personnel and 21 have died during the conflict. The US military said it had discovered a list of some 500 al Qaeda militants recruited to fight in Iraq from a range of European, Middle East and north African countries. The WHO said the toll of people in Iraq infected with cholera has risen to 3,315.
(AP, 10/3/07)(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Soldiers said they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city and the top US diplomat in the country said military police had pulled people out of their homes during the night. The European Union agreed in principle to punish the junta with sanctions.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, A Dutch court rejected a prosecution appeal against the release of Philippine communist leader Jose Maria Sison, accused of being involved in murders in the Philippines.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Local media said police in southwest Nigeria have arrested five politicians for allegedly raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The suspects, all members of the west African giant's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), were arrested for the offence in Ilesha. An opposition Action Congress (AC) spokesman said the rape victim was among eight supporters of the party who were abducted two weeks ago in the town. At least 38 people were killed and 48 reported missing after two ferries collided on a river in northern Nigeria's Kebbi State.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 3, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria banned a play written by a civil rights activist which satirizes the implementation of Sharia law in 12 mainly Muslim states. The upper Sharia court in the Tudun Wada neighborhood of the northern city of Kaduna issued the order restraining Shehu Sani from selling or circulating his play, "Phantom Crescent."
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 3, The six nations involved in disarmament talks said North Korea agreed to provide a complete list of its nuclear programs and disable its facilities at its main reactor complex by Dec. 31, 2007. However, North Korea has since said it would move to restore its nuclear reactor, saying the United States had failed to follow through with promised incentives.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AP, 10/3/08)
2007 Oct 3, In Russia workers rebuilding a 19th century Moscow house dug up the remains of nearly three dozen people. An estimated 34 people were found. Some of the remains, which were found under a basement of a house on the estate, had gunshot wounds to the skull and appeared to date back to the 1930s. Sergei Buluchevsky, a government investigator, later said preliminary forensic findings indicated the remains were at least a century old and that there were no signs of violent death.
(AP, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 3, Russian and US space chiefs signed agreements in Moscow to cooperate on unmanned missions that would search for potential water deposits beneath the surface of the moon and Mars.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, A pressurized air pipe snapped at the mine near Johannesburg and tumbled down a shaft, causing extensive damage to an elevator and stranding 3,200 miners more than a mile underground. More than 2,000 trapped gold miners were rescued in a dramatic all-night operation, and efforts gathered speed to bring hundreds more to the surface. By the next night all the miners had emerged safely.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, President Viktor Yushchenko ordered Ukraine's feuding parties to strike a deal on a post-election government, a move likely to aggravate a political deadlock that has stalled economic reforms. With more than 99% of the vote counted, Regions Party had 34.3% and its Communist Party ally 5.4. The Tymoshenko bloc had polled 30.8 and Our Ukraine 14.2%.
(Reuters, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, The UN General Assembly's ministerial meeting that saw an international outcry over military repression in Myanmar, new killings in Darfur and Iran's nuclear program, closed in NYC with a call for global action on climate change, poverty and terrorism.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 3, President Hugo Chavez accused the US of trying to spur a military rebellion, saying the CIA is behind the distribution of leaflets inside army barracks calling for his ouster.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Disaster officials began evacuating 400,000 people as a typhoon approached Vietnam's central coast, packing winds up to 83 mph. Typhoon Lekima slammed into Vietnam's central coast, killing two people, destroying hundreds of houses and unleashing floods in one of the country's poorest regions.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Teachers at state schools across inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe began an indefinite strike to press for better salaries.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 4, US marshals posing as supporters arrested convicted tax-evaders Ed and Elaine Brown at their rural, fortress-like home in New Hampshire. They had engaged in a 9-month standoff with authorities. They were convicted in January of scheming to avoid federal income taxes by hiding $1.9 million of income between 1996 and 2003 and were sentenced in April. In 2010 Brown (67) was sentenced 37 years in prison.
(AP, 10/5/07)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)
2007 Oct 4, The recording industry won a major fight in its effort to stop illegal music downloading with a US jury decision to impose $222,000 damages against a Minnesota woman who used a Web service to share music.
(Reuters, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig defiantly vowed to serve out his term in office despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2007 Oct 4, Former city maintenance worker John Ashley shot five people in a law office in Alexandria, La., killing two of them; Ashley was shot and killed by police following a standoff.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2007 Oct 4, In Philadelphia Mustafa Ali (36), a convicted bank robber, shot and killed two armored car guards servicing an ATM outside a bank. Several schools were locked down amid a massive manhunt for the gunman, who was arrested the next day.
(AP, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 4, Microsoft outlined its vision, dubbed HealthVault, in which a person can view, from one place, their complete health records.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.74)(http://tinyurl.com/2fop6p)
2007 Oct 4, A British soldier was killed in an explosion about 19 miles west of Kandahar city. 82 British personnel, including 57 soldiers, have been killed in Afghanistan since operations began there in November 2001.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, The Australian government approved plans for a controversial multi-billion-dollar pulp mill in Tasmania despite objections it could ruin one of the country's most pristine environments.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper vowed to crack down on illegal drugs, saying the Conservative government would propose mandatory prison time for serious drug offenses.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Health Canada said that it has stopped the sale of Novartis Pharmaceuticals anti-inflammatory drug Prexige and will cancel its market authorization due to the risk for serious liver-related effects including hepatitis.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Canada became the first country to notify the World Trade Organization that it has agreed to allow a Canadian company to make generic medicines for export to Rwanda.
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 4, In Chile the widow and five children of Gen. Augusto Pinochet were among 23 people indicted on charges of corruption related to the dictator's US bank accounts.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, In Congo a cargo plane crashed in a residential neighborhood near the main airport in Kinshasa, plowing into homes and killing at least 52 people. The next day Congolese President Joseph Kabila sacked Transport Minister Remy Henri Kuseyo Gatanga.
(AP, 10/4/07)(Reuters, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Egypt sent a high-level protest to dozens of European nations expressing "astonishment and regret" at their refusal to endorse Cairo's call for a Middle East nuclear free zone at a conference last month. At last month's IAEA session, 25 of the 27 EU nations abstained as did other countries hoping to join the union. In all, 47 nations abstained. Israeli objections forced a vote in which 53 countries, Muslim states and their supporters from the developing world, backed the proposal.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 4, Ethiopia pledged 5,000 troops to a future UN-African Union peacekeeping mission for Darfur.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, In northeast France dozens of hooded youths attacked two police vehicles with metal bars, set fire to more than a dozen parked cars and torched a community center in Saint-Dizier.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Siemens, one of the world’s biggest electrical engineering firms, accepted a $285 million fine imposed by a court in Munich for bribery by its communications division. CEO Peter Loscher announced a re-organization that included reducing its 9 divisions to three and downsizing the 11-man executive board. The ruling named officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia as recipients of 77 bribes totaling some $17.5 million.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.70)(WSJ, 11/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 4, The Wai Wai, an indigenous group in Guyana, backed by government decree and a US-based conservation organization, said it has banned miners and loggers from its section of the Amazon jungle and pledged to pursue an economic strategy based on ecotourism, research and traditional crafts.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Iranian state television reported that Iran and Syria have signed an agreement for Tehran to export a billion dollars worth of gas every year to its chief regional ally.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, President Jalal Talabani said Iraq has ordered light military equipment from China worth $100 million because the United States is unable to meet Baghdad's requirements. A government minister said the official Iraqi investigation into the Blackwater shooting last month recommended that the security guards face trial in Iraqi courts and that the company compensate the victims. Abbas Hassan Hamza, the mayor of the religiously mixed town of Iskandariyah, was killed along with four of his guards in a roadside bomb attack. Hamza belonged to Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party. In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near people on line at a gas station, killing four civilians and wounding eight others. 3 civilians were shot by American troops near a checkpoint in Abu Lukah set up by Iraqis who have joined forces against extremists. A US soldier was killed by small-arms fire during operations in a southern section of Baghdad.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/4/07)(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, It was reported that in Kuwait the nomadic Bedouin, Arabic for "without," numbered about 100,000 people and have been refused what they feel is their birthright: citizenship.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Dutch authorities said their customs officers had found 100 dead beetles stuffed with cocaine whilst examining a parcel from Peru.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Officials said the Nigerian central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate MPR from eight to nine percent because of rising inflation.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pledged to seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean War's 1953 cease-fire and expand projects to reduce tension across the world's last Cold War frontier.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Militants holding some 230 Pakistani troops killed three of the captive soldiers before dawn in apparent retaliation for army raids on guerrilla hide-outs near the Afghan border.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo called for increased trade with India at the start of a three-day visit.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, The government of Somalia announced a crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 4, The head of South Africa's main union body stood down from his office pending the outcome of an investigation into the disappearance of a large cash donation.
(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Spanish police arrested almost the entire leadership of Batasuna as the banned party held a meeting in the Basque town of Segura. The operation confirmed the hard line against ETA by the Socialist government of PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero since the armed group officially ended a 15-month-old ceasefire in June.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Prominent world figures led by former President Carter and Desmond Tutu of South Africa said they were shocked by the suffering in Darfur and criticized Sudan's government in exceptionally harsh terms.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, A union official said Zimbabwean teachers have called off a strike for better wages after reaching a deal with the government.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 5, It was reported that approval ratings for Pres. George Bush had dropped to 31%. Approval for Congress’s performance fell to 22%. Bush defended his administration's methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects, saying they were successful and lawful.
(WSJ, 10/5/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/5/08)
2007 Oct 5, The US EPA approved methyl iodide as a new agricultural pesticide to replace methyl bromide, despite protests from over 50 scientists, who noted that it was a known carcinogen and neurotoxin.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 5, Marion Jones (31), three-time Olympic gold medalist, pleaded guilty in White Plains, NY, to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs, and announced her retirement. Jones said she took steroids from September 2000 to July 2001 and said she was told by her then-coach Trevor Graham that she was taking flaxseed oil when it was actually "the clear." Jones also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud scheme.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Topps Meat Co. of Newark, NJ, founded in 1940, said a massive meat recall has forced it out of business. Government scientists have yet to determine the source of the E. coli contamination that appears to have sickened 32 people who ate its hamburgers.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Afghan and US-led coalition troops clashed with insurgents during a raid in eastern Afghanistan, and civilians as well as militants were killed. In the country's volatile south, a suicide bomber approaching NATO and Afghan forces blew himself up prematurely in Helmand province's Sangin district, killing two children.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Chinese medical officials agreed not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families. The agreement was reached at a meeting of the World Medical Association in Copenhagen.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that gays may add their partners to health insurance plans.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 5, Europe's .eu Internet domain registrar EURid said the Internet address www.sex.asia is likely to be the domain name most in demand next week when dot Asia Web sites are launched.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Finland’s justice ministry said PM Matti Vanhanen is suing his ex-girlfriend for revealing details of their relationship in a tell-all book published earlier this year.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Walter Kempowski (b.1929), German writer, died. His work included “Echo Soundings," ten volumes of eyewitness accounts of the second world war.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Kempowski)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.86)
2007 Oct 5, Nearly 300 participants started twisting and turning a small multicolored cube on the first day of the Rubik's Cube World Championships in Budapest, the birthplace of the cult puzzle.
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 5, US forces backed by attack aircraft killed at least 25 Shiite militia fighters north of Baghdad in an operation targeting a cell accused of smuggling weapons from Iran. An Iraqi army official claimed civilians, including seven children, were among those killed in the raid. A Shiite militia leader accused of forcibly removing Sunnis from their homes north of Baghdad was captured in a raid. 3 Americans were killed in roadside bombings in Baghdad and near Beiji to the north.
(AP, 10/5/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, Japan put its first satellite into orbit around the moon, placing the country a step ahead of China and India in an increasingly heated space race in Asia.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Record floods, that have wreaked havoc across Africa, killed at least 20,000 wildebeests making their way to Kenya during their annual “great migration." The animals, also known as gnus, were swept away by a river that broke its banks in southern Kenya's Maasai Mara park. Kenya Wildlife Service on Oct 13 said floods that have wreaked havoc across Africa killed 5,000 wildebeests, and not tens of thousands, blaming tourists for exaggerating the toll.
(AFP, 10/11/07)(AFP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 5, In Myanmar acting Ambassador Shari Villarosa met with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint in the remote jungle capital of Naypitaw (Naypyidaw). During her visit, she was expected to repeat the US view that the regime must meet with democratic opposition groups and "stop the iron crackdown" on peaceful demonstrators. The US said it would propose a UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Myanmar if the government there does not "respond constructively" to international concern about repression of pro-democracy protests.
(AP, 10/5/07)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.27)
2007 Oct 5, Nepal's ruling parties reluctantly agreed to Maoist demands to postpone upcoming elections, ending one political crisis in the Himalayan nation but still leaving the two sides deadlocked over other issues. 3 communist rebels shot and killed Birendra Shah a crusading journalist. The group's leadership later said they did not order the slaying and that the three men who took part have been kicked out of the Maoist political party.
(AP, 10/5/07)(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Oct 5, On the eve of Pakistan's presidential vote the highest court ruled that no election winner can be declared until it decides whether Pres. Gen. Musharraf is an eligible candidate. Musharraf pushed toward an alliance with a former premier signing an amnesty clearing her of corruption charges. Pres. Musharraf issued a National Reconciliation Ordnance (NRO) as part of a political deal to allow former PM Benazir Bhutto to return from years of exile to Pakistan. By 2009 over 8,000 government officials were reported to have benefited from the decree. The amnesty lapsed on Nov 28, 2009, by order of the Supreme Court. On Jan 19, 2010, the Supreme Court released a 287-page judgement explaining why it had ruled the NRO unconstitutional.
(AP, 10/5/07)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A3)(Econ, 11/27/09, p.29)(Econ, 1/23/10, p.40)
2007 Oct 5, Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, Saudi Arabia's king, announced an overhaul of the country's judicial system, fulfilling a pledge he made several months ago to reform the current heavily-criticized administration.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7029308.stm)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 5, Insurgents in Somalia killed at least 5 people in a grenade attack at the main market in Mogadishu.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 5, South African prosecutors said they had obtained an arrest warrant for national police chief and Interpol president Jackie Selebi, as one of his friends appeared in court on murder charges.
(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 6, US Representative Jo Ann Davis (57), Virginia’s first Republican woman elected to Congress, died of breast cancer.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 6, Sofiane el-Fassila (b.1975), an alleged mastermind (alias Hareg Zoheir, Zobeir Harkat) of several recent suicide bombing attacks in Algeria, was shot dead with 2 suspected accomplices in the town of Boghni. He was the deputy chief of al Qaeda's North Africa wing and believed to be the group's operational leader. Security officials said 8 soldiers and four Islamic extremists have been killed in the last few days in eastern Algeria.
(AFP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071011/world.htm#8)
2007 Oct 6, International military planes called in by Afghan security forces killed 16 rebels, apparently all foreigners, suspected of preparing an attack in the country's east. The dead were said to be from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Chechnya. Two officers were killed and two others were wounded when a bomb exploded under their car in Yaqoubi district in Khost province. A Taliban ambush in Nuristan province left two other officers dead. Four militants were also killed in the clash, which occurred in the remote Kamdesh district. 2 Afghan civilians were killed in Kunar province after speeding toward a checkpoint without stopping. In Paktika province, a "suspicious" man was shot and killed after being asked to halt. A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport, killing a US soldier and four Afghans. In the south, in Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan security company guarding a road construction project, killing five of the security guards. In Helmand province's Gereshk district, a roadside bomb explosion killed a policeman.
(AP, 10/6/07)(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, The Stirling Prize, Britain's most prestigious architecture prize, was awarded to Germany's Museum of Modern Literature. The classically influenced building designed by David Chipperfield Architects, opened last year in Marbach, southwest Germany.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, In London the New Economics Foundation think-tank said the world moved today into "ecological overdraft," the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the red. If everyone in the world had the same consumption rates as in the US it would take 5.3 planet earths to support them, NEF said, noting that the figure was 3.1 for France and Britain, 3.0 for Spain, 2.5 for Germany and 2.4 for Japan.
(Reuters, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 6, Jason Lewis (40), a British adventurer, completed a 13-year trip around the world powered by only his arms and legs. Lewis had begun the journey in 1994 with Steve Smith. The 2 men split after pedaling to Hawaii from San Francisco. In 2005 Smith authored “Pedaling to Hawaii: A Human Powered Adventure Across the Western Hemisphere."
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A24)
2007 Oct 6, In eastern Cuba a bus collided with a train, killing at least 28 people and injuring another 73.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, Gambia arrested 2 senior Amnesty International officials on suspicion of spying. Tania Bernath, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa and an advocacy officer Ameen Ayobele, were arrested in the eastern town of Basse after they visited an opposition politician who has been held in detention for more than a year. Yaya Dath, a journalist with the country's privately-owned daily Foroyaa, who was traveling with the London-based Bernath, a British-American national and Ayobele, a Nigerian, was also arrested. All 3 were released on bail on Oct 8.
(AFP, 10/8/07)(AFP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 6, Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and chief rival, Abdelaziz Hakim, reached a truce to end bloodshed between their loyalists. The decapitated bodies of two members of an awakening council in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, were found. Both were Sunnis. In Baghdad a US soldier was killed and three others were wounded by a roadside bombing while they were taking part in a raid against suspected insurgents in the capital.
(AP, 10/6/07)(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.A20)
2007 Oct 6, In western Kenya Stanley Livindo, a ruling party candidate for parliament, was arrested after his bodyguards allegedly shot and killed a supporter of Kenya's largest opposition party and injured two others. The shootings came as tens of thousands of people rallied in the capital to kick off the presidential campaign of Raila Odinga, who has mounted a serious challenge to President Mwai Kibaki in December general elections.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, Myanmar's junta tried to cool growing UN pressure over its deadly crackdown on peaceful protests, offering talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and relaxing its blockage of the Internet. A day of global protests against Myanmar's junta began in cities across Asia, after the military regime admitted detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks when troops turned their guns on pro-democracy demonstrators last week.
(AFP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 6, Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf swept the presidential election, according to unofficial results, but the Supreme Court could still disqualify the military leader in the vote boycotted by nearly all of Pakistan's opposition. Opposition parties resigned from the parliaments and members of Miss Bhutto’s party abstained from the vote.
(AP, 10/6/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.17)
2007 Oct 6, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will be appointed head of the country's foreign intelligence service.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 6, A Saudi newspaper said the Saudi Arabian government will temporarily release 55 prisoners recently transferred from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and will give each of them about $2,600 to celebrate the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, A UN inspection team found the Darfur town of Haskanita, under the control of Sudanese troops, burned down. The destruction of the town was in apparent retaliation for the Sep 29 rebel attack on an African Union peacekeeping base in which 10 AU troops were killed. 7,000 residents were forced to flee the area.
(Reuters, 10/7/07)(WSJ, 10/8/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 6, Typhoon Krosa lashed Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rains, cutting power to nearly half a million homes and disrupting air and sea traffic. Krosa killed five people in Taiwan as it knocked out power to 2 million homes and drenched the island.
(AP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, In Vietnam floods and landslides followed Typhoon Lekima and killed at least 86 people with many missing and some villages cut off and inundated by water.
(Reuters, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 7, Chad Schieber (35), a Michigan police officer, died and dozens of others needed medical care while running the Chicago Marathon as record heat and smothering humidity forced race organizers to shut down the course midway through the event. Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second; an additional 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/7/08)
2007 Oct 7, In Crandon, Wisconsin, Tyler Peterson (20), an off-duty sheriff's deputy, killed six young people and critically wounded another, before he was shot to death, during a homecoming weekend gathering. Relatives of the victims said the rampage may have been fueled by a romantic dispute.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, A Cessna 208 Grand Caravan crashed in the Cascade Mountains after it left Star, Idaho, near Boise, en route to Shelton, Wash., northwest of Olympia. 9 skydivers and the pilot were killed. Searchers found the wreckage the next day.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 7, Douglas Yearley (b.1936), former CEO of Phelps Dodge Corp. (1989-2000), died.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A7)(http://tinyurl.com/3ctzg3)
2007 Oct 7, In eastern Afghanistan 16 militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes. Afghanistan executed 15 inmates by gunfire at its main prison outside Kabul, carrying out the death penalty for the first time in more than three years.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Tropical storm Krosa drenched China's southeast coast after killing five people on Taiwan and prompting the mainland to evacuate more than 1 million people.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov abolished the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and its presidency and proclaimed an Emirate in the Caucasus, an al-Qaida-linked insurgency, declaring himself its Emir.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasus_Emirate)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.42)
2007 Oct 7, Costa Ricans appeared to narrowly vote in favor of joining the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US, and President Oscar Arias declared victory for the pact.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Thousands of angry demonstrators destroyed the regional headquarters of Egypt's ruling party in El Arish, demanding government protection from lawlessness after a downtown shootout between Bedouin tribesmen and local residents.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Paris, France, intruders, apparently drunk, broke into the Orsay Museum through a back door and punched a hole in "Le Pont d'Argenteuil," a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia's former defense minister, retracted allegations that the president of this former Soviet republic was involved in a murder plot and other corruption. Okruashvili's lawyer, Eka Beselia, said the statements "were made under duress."
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Thousands of people marched through Hong Kong's streets to demand the right to pick their city's leader and legislature and hoisted yellow umbrellas to form the year 2012, their target year for full democracy.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Budapest, Hungary, Yu Nakajima of Japan (16) took the top prize at the Rubik's Cube World Championships, solving the cube 5 times in an average of 12.46 seconds.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Baghdad bombings killed at least nine Iraqis in three separate attacks, including one near Iran's embassy.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Myanmar's military leaders stepped up pressure on monks who spearheaded pro-democracy rallies, saying that weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries and threatening to punish all violators of the law.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In northwest Pakistan 2 suspected al-Qaida fighters and a dozen villagers were among about 80 people killed in fierce fighting between soldiers and militants. The early morning operation was launched in retaliation for overnight attacks by extremists on two military convoys in the region that left two soldiers dead and another 30 wounded.
(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Rami Khader Ayyad (32), a prominent Palestinian Christian activist, was found dead on a Gaza City street, sending a shudder of fear through a tiny Christian community feeling increasingly insecure since the Islamic Hamas seized control last summer. He bore a visible gunshot wound to the head and was also stabbed numerous times. Ayyad had been missing since the previous afternoon.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Qatar's Diar real estate investment company announced it has agreed to buy phase two of the Grosvenor Waterside residential development in the upmarket London district of Chelsea.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Serbian police detained 56 neo-Nazis who defied a ban and demonstrated to demand the contested province of Kosovo remain part of the Serbia.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 7, Sri Lanka's navy sank a ship carrying arms and war equipment for separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, killing at least 12 people on board. Meanwhile, eight rebels and a government soldier were reported killed in other recent clashes.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a clash in the country's southeast, and troops responded by shelling an area near Iraq to try to stop the rebels from escaping across the border.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 8, Two American scientists and a Briton won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes. Mario R. Capecchi (70) of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies (82) a native of Britain now at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Sir Martin J. Evans (66) of Cardiff University in Wales shared the prize.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Michael Devlin was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping one of two boys he'd held captive in his suburban St. Louis apartment. Devlin later pleaded guilty to dozens of other counts, resulting in a total of 74 life sentences.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, Thad Starr of Pleasant Hill, Oregon, won the 34th annual pumpkin competition in Half Moon Bay with his 1,524 pound squash. The world record was set this year by Joe Jutras of Rhode Island with a 1,689-pound squash.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 8, Vonage Holdings Corp. settled a patent suit filed by Sprint Nextel Corp. for $80 million.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.D3)
2007 Oct 8, Racing great John Henry, the thoroughbred who'd earned more than $6.5 million before retiring as a gelding, was euthanized at the Kentucky Horse Park at age 32.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, Australia suffered its first combat fatality in the war on terror when a soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, PM Gordon Brown said that Britain will cut its troop levels in Iraq to 2,500 in early 2008, trimming the force by nearly half. Britain ended up postponing the withdrawal amid a spike in militia violence.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, British postal workers started a second 48-hour strike as a dispute over pay and restructuring remained unresolved.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, In Colombia a plane carrying 15 soldiers and three civilians disappeared. The wreckage was spotted Oct 11 high in the Andes and the armed forces chief said there was no chance of survivors.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 8, In Guatemala City the security guard and secretary of Otto Perez, the leading presidential candidate, were shot and killed. Perez blamed organized crime.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 8, The UN's highest court in the Hague granted Honduras sovereignty over four Caribbean islands in its decades-old dispute with Nicaragua, and carved up rich fishing grounds and offshore exploration concessions for oil and gas. Nicaragua filed the case in 1999, saying international law gave it the right to "explore and exploit" natural resources, including possible oil reserves and fish stocks within a zone 200 miles from its coast. Honduras claimed that a ruling by the Spanish king in 1906 set a boundary projecting eastward along the 15th parallel from the mouth of the Coco River.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, One of the rarest gems in the world, a flawless blue diamond, sold for US$7.98 million (3.91 million pounds) at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, making it the most expensive gemstone in the world, per carat, sold at auction.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Iran reopened five border crossing points with Kurdish-run northern Iraq, closed last month by Tehran to protest the US detention of an Iranian official. An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a "dictator" and scuffling with hardline students at Tehran University.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Satoshi Nakamura (23), a Japanese tourist, was abducted in a restive region of southeast Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam. Nakamura was released on July 14. A bandit called Esmail Shahbakhsh, blamed for the kidnapping, had reportedly demanded the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura.
(AFP, 6/15/08)
2007 Oct 8, An Iraqi report called for the US government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. Iraqi authorities want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month. Former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten and three other guards were later accused in the deaths of 14 Iraqis killed in the traffic circle. On April 8, 2014, a new indictment was obtained against Slatten weeks after a judge had dismissed all charges because of statute of limitation concerns.
(AP, 10/9/07)(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A10)
2007 Oct 8, Police in Mexico City arrested Jose Luis Calva, an aspiring horror novelist, after discovering his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box. Police had come to Calva's apartment to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk and single mother.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 8, A consortium of Belgian, Scotch and Spanish banks announced that shareholders of ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank, had accepted a $101 billion offer in the world’s biggest banking transaction ever.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.17)
2007 Oct 8, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf installed a loyalist and former spymaster as deputy army chief, handpicking his successor as leader of the military in a key step to restoring civilian rule. One of three helicopters escorting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf crashed in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, killing four passengers and injuring five.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Dheere ordered Somalia's Elman Human Rights, an independent rights group, to close its offices. The group was accused of spreading "exaggerated and false information" about the country's fragile government.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Oct 8, Sudan said it will host hundreds of Palestinian refugees who have been stranded in terrible conditions on Iraq's border with Syria and Jordan.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Sudanese government troops and allied militia attacked a town belonging to the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal. The assault killed at least 45 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies littered the streets amid burned out buildings. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said five SLA soldiers were killed and eight injured. A key Darfur rebel leader accused the Sudanese army of burning Haskanita in the troubled region, killing up to 100 people in retaliation for an attack on African Union troops.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, The US Supreme Court rejected without comment an appeal from Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Texas Ronald Taylor (47), who spent a dozen years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, was freed based on DNA evidence. He became the third inmate to be released because of problems with the Houston Police Department's crime lab.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, A Maui judge said he would not allow the Hawaii Superferry to sail between Honolulu and Kahului while the state studies the environmental impact of interisland service.
(SFC, 10/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 9, American Electric Power (AEP) of Columbus, Ohio, accused of spreading smog and acid rain across a dozen states, agreed to pay at least $4.6 billion to cut chemical emissions in what the government called the nation's largest environmental settlement.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Two European scientists won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for a discovery that lets computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks. France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg independently described giant magnetoresistance in 1988, then saw the electronics industry apply it in disks with incredible amounts of storage.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Brewers SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing said they have agreed to combine their US operations to create a business that will have annual sales of $6.6 billion and be the second-biggest market player behind Anheuser-Busch.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Carol Bruce (b.1919), singer, Broadway star, and film and TV actress, died in Woodland Hills, Calif.
(AP, 10/9/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Bruce)
2007 Oct 9, Afghan authorities shut down two private security companies and said more than 10 others, some suspected of murder and robbery, would soon be closed. In Kabul 82 illegal weapons had been found during the two raids at the Afghan-run security companies Watan and Caps.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Argentina former police chaplain Christian von Wernich was found guilty of being a "co-participant" with police in seven homicides, 31 torture cases and 42 kidnappings, ending a trial that has focused attention on the church during the 1976-83 military rule.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, Australia's third richest man, cardboard box billionaire Richard Pratt, apologized for forming a price-fixing cartel with his main rival Amcor.
(AFP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Britain’s Labor Party announce a decision to raise capital gains taxes to a flat 18% from an effective 10% on most business assets as of April 2008.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/37mapa)
2007 Oct 9, In Canada the Conservatives swept to an easy victory in Newfoundland and Labrador, with voters giving a thumbs up to the province-first policies of populist Premier Danny Williams.
(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, The Ethiopian parliament reelected President Girma Wolde-Giorgis for a new six-year-term to his largely ceremonial post.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Iceland Yoko Ono urged the world to give peace a chance as she unveiled a monument in memory of her husband, former Beatle John Lennon (d.1980). Ono lit up the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy island near the capital's harbor on what would have been Lennon's 67th birthday.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Two suicide car bombers targeted a local police chief and a prominent Sunni sheik working with US forces against al-Qaida in Iraq in Beiji, killing at least 19 people. Three car bombs in Baghdad killed 15 people, including eight who died in an attack near the Shiite Khulani mosque. Drive-by shooters killed the deputy police chief in Mosul. A roadside bomb ripped through and outdoor market near a bus station in Jisr Diyala on Baghdad's southeastern outskirts, killing two civilians and wounding 10 others. The bullet-riddled bodies of three men in their 30s also were found on a highway in Hillah, apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads largely run by Shiite militias. At least 42 people were killed or found dead across Iraq. Foreign security guards killed two Armenian Christian women when they opened fire on a car in the center of Baghdad. Iraqi authorities blamed the deaths on guards working for Unity Resources Group, a security company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates. The US military said nine insurgents were killed and 21 suspects detained during operations Oct 8-9 near Baghdad, Mosul, Beiji and Samarra.
(AP, 10/9/07)(AFP, 10/9/07)(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, Japan's Cabinet approved plans to extend economic sanctions against North Korea, despite the communist state's agreement to disable its main nuclear complex by year's end.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Airstrikes hit a village bazaar in North Waziristan tribal region, killing more than 50 militants and civilians and wounding scores more. Pakistan’s army said fierce fighting between Islamic militants and security forces near the Afghan border has killed as many as 250 people over four days.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Puerto Rico animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them to their deaths from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter. In 2008 a Puerto Rican judge found a contractor and two of his workers not guilty of animal cruelty due to lack of evidence. International anger led more than 50,000 people worldwide to sign a petition threatening to boycott travel to the Caribbean island. Tourism officials estimated Puerto Rico lost more than $15 million as a result.
(AP, 10/13/07)(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 9/16/10)
2007 Oct 9, Alexander Pichushkin (33), a Russian man accused of murdering 49 people, asked a Moscow court to add another eleven victims to his tally, and told a jury when he first strangled a man it was like falling in love for the first time. He has been branded the 'chessboard murderer' by Russian newspapers because he hoped to put a coin on every square of a 64-place chessboard for each murder.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Sierra Leone a UN-backed court sentenced Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, two former leaders of a pro-government militia, to six and eight years in prison for brutalities committed during Sierra Leone's civil war (1991-2002).
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, The impoverished Nama tribe won back diamond-rich land confiscated by a government mining company more than 80 years ago, ending South Africa's longest running court case. The Nama had lodged their claim to the coastal plain in 1997.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, A car bomb exploded in the northern city of Bilbao in Spain's Basque Country, badly burning a man who worked as a bodyguard for a local politician.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 9, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there after several deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, The US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 to label as genocide the deaths of Armenians a century ago at the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Bush administration planned to pressure Democratic leaders not to schedule a vote, though it is expected to pass.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, California Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a law termination investment by the state’s pension funds in companies doing business with Iran. He also signed a bill that will give California motorists fines of up to $100 next year if they are caught smoking in cars with minors, making their state the third to protect children in vehicles from secondhand smoke.
(AP, 10/11/07)(Econ, 10/20/07, p.42)
2007 Oct 10, Robert Levy (64), mayor of Atlantic City, NJ, resigned. He had gone missing for 2 weeks after being accused of lying about his military record.
(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 10, Boeing Co. said its new 787 Dreamliner faces a delay of at least 6 months. Executives said the first plane would be delivered in late Nov. or Dec., 2008, rather than May.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 10, Thousands of Chrysler LLC autoworkers walked off the job after the automaker and the United Auto Workers union failed to reach a tentative contract agreement before a union-imposed deadline. Hours later negotiators reached a tentative agreement.
(AP, 10/10/07)(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 10, In Cleveland, Ohio, Asa H. Coon (14), armed with two revolvers, opened fire at the SuccessTech Academy alternative school, wounding two students and two teachers before fatally shooting himself. He had a history of mental problems and was known for cursing at teachers and bickering with students. Coon, who was white, stood out in the predominantly black school for dressing in a Goth style, wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar and chains.
(AP, 10/11/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 10, James Robbins (1942), former CEO of Cox Communications (1995-2005), died of cancer.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A7)
2007 Oct 10, Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry for studies of chemical reactions on solid surfaces, which are key to understanding questions like how pollution eats away at the ozone layer.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Rudolf Blechschmidt, a German engineer, and four Afghans taken hostage on July 18 were freed in exchange for six Taliban fighters. Wardak province district chief Mohammad Nahim later changed his statement saying five imprisoned criminals had been freed. NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed overnight with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving eight suspected militants dead and three detained.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, The African Union imposed sanctions on leaders of the rebellious Comoro island of Anjouan in a bid to coerce them into holding fresh elections.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Austrian authorities arrested a Turkish-born man (76) suspected of fatally shooting a younger Turkish associate (58) and slicing off the victim's penis in what investigators called an "honor killing."
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ministers from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal to build an oil pipeline linking the Black and Baltic seas.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 10, Brazil's Supreme Court denied a Lebanese request to extradite a fugitive banker accused of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and wanted for questioning in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Rana Koleilat was given eight days to leave the country once her passport is returned. She was jailed on fraud charges in Lebanon in 2004, but fled the country. She was arrested in Sao Paulo on March 12, 2006.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 10, In Brazil a truck coming down a hill plowed into rescue workers and gawkers at the site of an earlier collision, a double accident that killed least 28 people and injured 90.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ontario's Liberal Party won a second term heading Canada's most populous province.
(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Some 30 Tibetan exiles protesting Chinese religious policies stormed the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, with several breaching the front gate and chaining themselves to the flag pole inside.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, In Colombia police clashed with hundreds of protesters who blocked roads and burned trucks in demonstrations called by unions, farmers and indigenous groups who accuse the government of ties to right-wing militias.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi bystander and wounding three others. In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber slammed his minibus into blast walls at the offices of a key Kurdish political party, killing a party official and a guard, and wounding five other guards. A parked car bomb exploded near a market in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian, and wounding another policeman and three civilians. Two Americans soldiers killed in a mortar attack at Camp Victory and 35 other people were wounded.
(AP, 10/9/07)(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 10, Police in Japan arrested Kazunari Saito (33), who ran an Internet suicide site, for allegedly killing a woman who paid him to do so. He allegedly gave Sayaka Nishizawa (21) sleeping pills and suffocated her in April. Nishizawa had contacted the suspect through an Internet suicide site he hosted and paid him $1,700.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Myanmar exile group, made up of former political prisoners, said authorities had recently informed the family of Win Shwe (42), that he had died during interrogation in the central Myanmar region of Sagaing. He and five colleagues were arrested on Sept. 26. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said that at least seven people have been arrested in the past two days in Yangon, including Hla Myo Naung (39), a leader of the '88 Generation Students.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Nigerian electoral court annulled the election of Ibrahim Idris, the governor of the central Kogi State, following a complaint by his opponent, Abubakar Audu, that he had been unfairly excluded from the April vote.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Police in the eastern Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny pushed their way into a convent and evicted about 65 rebellious ex-nuns, arresting the mother superior and a monk who had occupied the complex with them illegally for two years. The women had taken over the building in a rebellion against the Vatican, which had ordered the replacement of their mother superior, Jadwiga Ligocka.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A spokeswoman for Other Russia said Russian electoral officials have barred the vocal opposition alliance from participating in December parliamentary elections. Election commission chief Vladimir Churov said Other Russia was barred because it was not registered as a political party.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Russian rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch pad, carrying 3 astronauts to the international space station. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur, left Earth alongside Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. Shukor was selected from among 11,000 Malaysian candidates to fly aboard the ISS in a deal his government arranged with Russia as part of a $1 billion purchase of Russian fighter jets. Whitson will be the first woman to command the outpost.
(Reuters, 9/20/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 10, The criminal court in Rwanda’s southern Rusizi district handed down a life sentence to Emmanuel Bagambiki, now living in Belgium, who was governor of Cyangugu during the 1994 genocide. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had acquitted him on war crimes and genocide charges in February 2004, confirming the ruling on appeal in February 2006.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 10, Two suspects were remanded in custody by a South African court in connection with the murders of ten women whose bodies were found dumped in sugarcane fields.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Taiwan held a National Day military parade for the first time since it halted such displays of war-fighting prowess in 1991 to ease tensions with rival China.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, It was reported that Turkey had begun shelling suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq. The government appeared unlikely to move toward sending ground troops until next week.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Zimbabwe said it will import 30,000 tons of wheat from its neighbors in a bid to ease widespread bread shortages of bread. The human rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) said Zimbabwean security forces routinely torture and sexually abuse women opposed to President Robert Mugabe's government.
(AFP, 10/10/07)(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 11, The Bush administration reported that the federal budget deficit had fallen to $162.8 billion in the just-completed budget year, the lowest amount of red ink in five years.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2007 Oct 11, The environmental group U.S. PIRG reported that over half of all industrial and municipal facilities across the US dumped more sewage and other pollutants in the nation’s waterways than allowed under the 1972 Clean Water Act.
(SFC, 10/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 11, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a US consumer rights group, said more than half the lipsticks it had tested were found to contain lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others.
(Reuters, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Cold medicines for babies and toddlers were pulled off shelves amid concerns about unintentional overdoses.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2007 Oct 11, Sri Chinmoy (b.1931), Indian-born spiritual leader, died in Jamaica, Queens, NYC. He had emigrated to NYC in 1964.
(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.B6)
2007 Oct 11, Doris Lessing, British author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic "The Golden Notebook," won the Nobel Prize for literature. She was praised by the judges for her "skepticism, fire and visionary power."
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Werner von Trapp (91), a member of the Austrian family made famous by the musical "The Sound of Music," died in Waitsfield, Vt.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2007 Oct 11, The Canadian dollar hit a three-decade high versus the US dollar as the greenback remained under broad selling pressure due to expectations of more Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
(Reuters, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in eastern Congo called for a cease-fire as the army said the death toll from five days of clashes had risen to 122.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, In India 2 worshippers were killed and nearly a dozen injured in a bomb attack near a revered Islamic shrine in the northern state of Rajasthan. A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims fell into a river in a remote part of northern India, killing at least 41 people.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Clashes between suspected al-Qaida gunmen and police at checkpoints near Baqouba killed at least one officer and wounded two others. East of Baqouba, suspected al-Qaida gunmen took control overnight of 5 Sunni villages, killing 6 people. Gunmen killed 5 Iraqi civilians and wounded four in a morning attack on a minibus making its way from Khalis to Kirkuk. An ophthalmologist, the son of the local head of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, was shot to death in Mosul. Six main Iraqi insurgent groups announced the formation of a "political council" aimed at "liberating" Iraq from US occupation in a video on Al-Jazeera television. A US ground and air assault targeting al-Qaida in Iraq northwest of Baghdad killed 15 civilians, six women and nine children, as well as 19 suspected insurgents.
(AP, 10/11/07)(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 11, A World Health Organization official said 69 children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following vaccination against the disease. Peter Eriki indicated that around 10 percent of the Nigerian population has dodged the vaccination campaign. The new outbreak was caused by the mutation of a vaccine's virus.
(AFP, 10/12/07)(AP, 8/14/09)
2007 Oct 11, A suicide bomber in Somalia drove a pickup filled with explosives into an army base killing himself and 2 other people.
(WSJ, 10/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 11, South Africa's central bank chief Tito Mboweni announced the key lending rate is to increase by half a percentage point to 10.5% to ward off a threat of higher inflation.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Southern Sudan's former rebels suspended participation in the central government, accusing it of failing to abide by a peace deal in a dispute that threatens a rare success in the troubled nation.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Turkey swiftly condemned a US House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, and newspapers blasted the measure on their front pages. Turkey also recalled its ambassador to Washington and warned of serious repercussions if Congress labels the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as genocide.
(AP, 10/11/07)(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 11, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to South Koreans' "inherent moral sensibility" to reject embryonic stem cell research and human cloning after the country decided to let embryonic stem cell research resume.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Eleven of Zimbabwe's last remaining white farmers lost a bid to stay on their farms while appealing the orders and are to be tried for defying government eviction notices.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, Former Vice President Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for spreading awareness of man-made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.
(AP, 10/12/07)(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 12, The US FDA approved Isentress, a new drug by Merck to fight AIDS. Raltegravir, its generic name, represented a new class of AIDS drugs known as integrase inhibitors.
(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 12, Two men were sentenced to prison in the first successful criminal prosecution under the CAN-SPAM Act. James R. Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California, were convicted in June of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and obscenity. Last week, the judge in the case sentenced Schaffer to 63 months and Kilbride to 72 months in federal prison.
(www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1000096UTGDC)
2007 Oct 12, In Norristown, Pa., Michele Cossey (46), the mother of a 14-year-old who authorities say had a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices in his bedroom for a possible school attack, was charged with buying her son 3 weapons. Authorities said the teenager felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, A consortium headed by Richard Branson and his Virgin Group Ltd. submitted a proposal to Northern Rock PLC for an equity swap that would see the struggling mortgage lender rebranded as Virgin Money.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In southern California 28 commercial vehicles and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash in the southbound truck tunnel of Interstate 5 that killed three people and injured at least 10.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Algeria a police officer was assassinated in one of two attacks in the northern Tizi Ouzou region. At about the same time, five soldiers were injured when Islamists fired at a military checkpoint near the neighbouring town of Boghni.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 12, State media said Chinese authorities plan to move some 4 million more rural residents from behind the Three Gorges Dam in recognition of environmental and economic problems spawned by the giant project.
(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Costa Rica heavy rains caused a landslide that killed 10 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, Half of Germany's commuter and regional trains were brought to a standstill by a train drivers' pay strike that caused chaos in many major cities.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Haiti a rain-swollen river flooded a town killing at least 20 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, The government of India, under pressure from opposition, indicated that that they wold rather shelve a nuclear energy deal with the US rather than risk a general election.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 12, A parked car bomb went off near a police patrol in a central Baghdad shopping district, killing four people, including two policemen, as Iraq's Sunnis began marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In northern Iraq, a bomb planted among toys in a cart left near a children's playground in the religiously mixed city of Tuz Khormato, killing 2 children and wounding 17 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(Reuters, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 12, Myanmar PM Gen. Soe Win (59), reviled for his role in a bloody attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers in 2003, died after a long illness. Myanmar's military junta rejected a UN statement calling for negotiations with the opposition, insisting that it would follow its own plan to bring democracy to the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, The Netherlands said it will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, Pakistan’s Supreme Court refused to suspend a corruption amnesty for former PM Benazir Bhutto but injected uncertainty into Pakistan's turbulent politics by saying the law was reversible.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In central South Africa the Oerlikon GDF-005, a German-made computer-controlled anti-aircraft gun, went haywire during a training exercise killing 9 South African soldiers and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)
2007 Oct 12, The Zimbabwean government authorized new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The government allowed bakers to increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200 percent, as shortages persisted across the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after meeting with human-rights activists in Moscow, told reporters the Russian government under Vladimir Putin had amassed so much central authority that the power-grab could undermine its commitment to democracy.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2007 Oct 13, In San Leandro, Ca., Greg Ballard Jr. (17), was shot to death on the 9200 block of Sunnyside Street in East Oakland. Authorities identified suspect Dwayne Stancill (19), a gang member and son of a police detective, with the help of his picture on the gang’s MySpace page. In 2010 Stancill was convicted of 2nd degree murder.
(SFC, 10/25/07, p.B3)(SFC, 2/11/10, p.C2)
2007 Oct 13, A suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated his explosives in a crowded marketplace near Afghan police, killing nine people and injuring at least 29.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, Some 130 Muslim scholars from most of the world’s Islamic nations issued an inter-religious initiative calling for a strategic dialogue with Christian leaders.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.65)
2007 Oct 13, In Algeria 4 armed Islamists were killed by security forces near the town of Thenia, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Algiers.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern Bangladesh 5 rear carriages of an overcrowded express train jumped their tracks, killing at least five passengers and injuring more than 100 others.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, Belgian Countess Andree De Jongh (90), who set up an escape route that helped hundreds of British airmen flee the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II, died. De Jongh, a female nurse in a men's world of war resistance, helped found the Comet Line escape route while still in 1940. By the time she was arrested in 1943, she had already brought 118 people, including 80 downed pilots to safety.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, State media said China plans to carve a huge national park out of its vast northwest Xinjiang region that would eclipse Yellowstone National Park in size.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, In Colombia a landslide triggered by local residents digging for rumored deposits of gold in an abandoned mine near Suarez killed at least 21 people and injured another 26.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, Bob Denard (78), a French former mercenary who staged coups and led uprisings across Africa and the Middle East, died in Paris.
(AFP, 10/14/07)(Econ, 10/20/07, p.119)
2007 Oct 13, In Honduras 3 children and a woman were killed when their boat capsized, raising to 21 the death toll from days of torrential rains that have driven thousands from their homes across Central America.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, The police commander in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk escaped an assassination attempt, although the roadside bomb targeting his convoy killed one of his guards and wounded three others, along with one bystander. Police fatally shot a suicide bomber but his explosives-laden fuel tanker blew up near Samarra's police headquarters, killing 18 and wounding 27 others. Two Catholic priests were kidnapped on their way home from a funeral Mosul. The priests were released the next day.
(AP, 10/13/07)(AP, 10/14/07)(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 13, Amnesty International said 4 prominent political activists were arrested in Myanmar as the ruling junta kept up its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, Dutch police arrested 11 Greenpeace activists who boarded a cargo ship to stop it unloading newsprint paper they suspected was made from ancient trees felled in Canadian forests.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern Thailand 6 European tourists and their two Thai guides died when a flash flood engulfed a cave they were exploring.
(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 13, At least 15 people were killed in a natural gas blast that partly destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.
(AFP, 10/13/07)(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened an intense round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2007 Oct 14, In California Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning toys that contain toxic plastic softeners, i.e. phthalates, becoming the first state in the US to do so.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 14, In southern Afghanistan a mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, In Canada Robert Dziekanski (b.1967) died after being tasered five times by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at Vancouver International Airport hours after he had arrived from Poland as a new immigrant. In 2010 the RCMP apologized as part of an out-of-court settlement with the mother of Dziekanski.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dzieka%C5%84ski_Taser_incident)(AP, 4/2/10)
2007 Oct 14, In Egypt at least six people drowned and 15 others were reported missing after the gangplank on their Nile ferry collapsed.
(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, In a northern Indian an explosion ripped through a crowded cinema, killing at least five people in the industrial city of Ludhiana. The area around the Shingar Cinema has a large Muslim population. At least 12 Hindu devotees were trampled to death on a narrow path crowded by thousands heading to a temple in western India. Another eight people were injured.
(Reuters, 10/14/07)(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, A parked car bomb struck worshippers heading to a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people with 18 injured as Iraqis celebrated the end of Ramadan. An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted their patrol in Khan Bani Saad, just northeast of Baghdad. Near the southern town of Hilla, a police officer was fatally shot by gunmen from a speeding car. Salih Saif Aldin (32), an Iraqi journalist who was shot while on assignment for The Washington Post in Baghdad. A US soldier died from a roadside bomb during combat operations in southern Baghdad.
(AP, 10/14/07)(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A14)
2007 Oct 14, In Italy projections showed Rome's mayor overwhelmingly winning a nationwide primary to become the leader of a new center-left party and the probable candidate for premier against conservative billionaire Silvio Berlusconi in the next general election.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Myanmar's ruling junta restored Internet access but kept foreign news sites blocked, partially easing its crackdown as a UN envoy headed to Asia to convey the world's demands for democratic reforms in the country.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja in the first state visit by an Indian premier to the oil-rich west African state in 45 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, Serb and Kosovo Albanian officials agreed on a new round of talks later this month to try to break a deadlock over the future of the breakaway Serb province.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Former rebels from south Sudan delivered a letter to Khartoum detailing their demands for resolving a crisis sparked by the southerners' pullout from the unity government.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Togolese voted in legislative elections that no opposition members boycotted for the first time in nearly a decade, a hopeful sign for democracy in this West African nation that has been ruled by one family for 40 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 14, Opiyo Makasi, reported to be an operations and logistics commander of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, gave himself up along with his wife and they were transferred to Kinshasa, DRC. On Oct 25 Congolese authorities handed him to the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC), which should prepare his eventual return to Uganda.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 15, It was reported that 3 of America's biggest banks are banding together to set up an $80 billion fund to breathe life back into the commercial paper market. The Treasury Dept. was urging banks to set up a “Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit" to buy assets. On Dec 21 the 3 largest US banks gave up on the fund.
(www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/video/embed.asp?id=725)(WSJ, 12/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 15, Americans Leonid Hurwicz (d.2008 at 90), Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson won the Nobel economics prize for developing a theory that helps explain how sellers and buyers can maximize their gains from a transaction.
(AP, 10/15/07)(SFC, 6/26/08, p.B5)
2007 Oct 15, News Corporation’s Fox Business Network launched a new cable channel that will focus on financial markets and global economy news.
(www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec07/fox_10-15.html)
2007 Oct 15, In San Diego, Ca., local and federal agents seized over 5,000 trained birds in the largest cockfighting bust in US history.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.D12)
2007 Oct 15, In North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley asked residents to stop washing cars and watering lawns as the Southeast US experienced a severe drought.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 15, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling became the first baby boomer to make an early filing for Social Security benefits. Kathleen Casey became the first official US baby boomer following her January 1, 1946, birth just after midnight.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 15, Internet addresses began in 11 languages that do not use the Roman alphabet.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 15, Medtronic Inc. said it is stopping distribution of wires that connect some of its defibrillators to patients' hearts after learning they may have contributed to five deaths.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Ernest Withers (b.1922), African American freelance photographer, died. In 2012 the FBI admitted that had served as an informant, revealing a 14-year history between the noted civil rights photographer and the agency.
(SFC, 7/5/12, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Withers)
2007 Oct 15, Brazil’s President Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva arrived in the Congolese capital Brazzaville for a one-day visit, the first by a Brazilian leader to the African country.
(AFP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, In China 2,217 delegates listened as party leader Hu Jintao pledged to make communist rule more inclusive and better spread the fruits of China's economic boom. Hu said economic growth must remain the party’s main task.
(AP, 10/15/07)(WSJ, 10/16/07, p.A1)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.42)
2007 Oct 15, An army minibus slammed into a water tanker truck in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing 13 soldiers and the civilian driver.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, The EU granted final approval to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which removes many restrictions on television product placement. Member states will have 2 years to adopt the new rules.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.81)(http://tinyurl.com/3con6l)
2007 Oct 15, European Union foreign ministers gave their final approval to deploy a 3,000-strong EU peacekeeping force for one year to help refugees and displaced people living along Darfur's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Airbus finally delivered its first A380 superjumbo jet. Singapore Airlines took delivery of the double-decker jet, the world's largest passenger plane, almost two years late.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, In Germany Pres. Putin held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a German-Russian political conference called the Petersburg Dialogue.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Gunmen launched simultaneous mortar and machinegun attacks on two mainly Polish military bases in Diwaniyah, after Shi'ite militants vowed to step up pressure on Polish soldiers to force them out. US helicopters fired back during clashes that killed five Iraqi civilians, including two children, and wounded 17. Iraqi journalist Dhi Abdul-Razak al-Dibo (32), a freelance reporter, was killed while driving his BMW with his guards near Kirkuk.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Montenegro signed a stabilization and association agreement with the EU, normally a step towards membership.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.72)
2007 Oct 15, Moroccan leaders, after nearly a month of tough negotiations, formed a new government that includes seven women but no one from the Islamic party that placed second in September's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, Russia’s Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said that major food producers and retailers had agreed to fix their prices at the current level following talks with the government. The prices for basic foods will be fixed until January 31, 2008, a period which covers parliamentary elections.
(www.prime-tass.com/news/show.asp?topicid=54&id=428507)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.63)
2007 Oct 15, Fresh fighting in northern Somalia left several combatants dead in an escalating boundary dispute between the breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, In northern Sri Lanka a fierce battle broke out between government troops and Tamil rebels, leaving 30 guerrillas dead. 4 prominent activists resigned from a government advisory panel on human rights, saying that officials were more interested in fighting separatist rebels than protecting human rights.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, Representatives of seven Darfur rebel groups met in south Sudan to try to reach a common negotiating position ahead of peace talks with the government.
(Reuters, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, The Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN observer mission in Georgia, expressing "serious concern" at violence that has escalated tensions between Georgia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for a year, noting significant improvements in security in recent months but saying the situation remains fragile.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16, President Bush and the Dalai Lama met with a ceremony planned for tomorrow to award the spiritual leader the Congressional Gold Medal. China warned that the events are bad for US-Chinese ties.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In California a blinding sandstorm north of Los Angeles caused a pileup of some 15 vehicles leaving at least 2 people dead and 16 injured.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.B4)
2007 Oct 16, The Oakland, Ca., the City Council adopted an ordnance banning smoking in ATM lines, parks, bus stops and municipal golf courses.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 16, Oil prices reached another record high closing at 87.61 per barrel in the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 16, A Taliban ambush on a police patrol in southern Afghanistan left one officer dead and four others wounded.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 16, Barbara West Dainton (96), believed to be one of the last two survivors from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died in Camborne, England.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2007 Oct 16, British actress Deborah Kerr (b.1921) died. She shared one of cinema's most famous kisses with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity" (1953). Her many films included “The King and I" with Yul Brynner.
(AP, 10/18/07)(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
2007 Oct 16, Burundi's last active rebel group said it will shun a weekend meeting to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track as the South African mediator was biased.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Chad's government declared a state of emergency along its eastern border with Sudan's Darfur and in its remote desert north to tackle a fresh flare-up of ethnic violence that killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, A boat from Guatemala with over 20 migrants capsized. Mexican authorities by the end of the week recovered the bodies of 15 migrants. The vessel was believed to be carrying more than 20 people. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 16, A study in Hong Kong reportedly found that Lupeol, a compound in fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries, appears to be effective in killing and curbing the spread of cancer cells in the head and neck.
(Reuters, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, India and Nigeria reaffirmed their stance in favor of UN Security Council reform and signed up to a slew of cooperation agreements on day two of a state visit to Nigeria by Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, India's PM Manmohan Singh raised fresh doubts about a landmark nuclear energy accord with the US, telling President Bush that his government is having "certain difficulties" finalizing the deal, which has faced mounting domestic opposition.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Iran Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart and implicitly warned the US not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations should not pursue oil pipeline projects that are not backed by regional powers.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding 25.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Anne Enright, Irish author, won the Man Booker prize for her novel “The Gathering."
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 16, Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it had canceled a multimillion dollar grant to protest the military-ruled nation's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Libya, a former pariah state condemned by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism, won a seat on the UN Security Council without opposition from the Bush administration.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Myanmar relatives said 5 pro-democracy activists had been sentenced to long jail terms.
(WSJ, 10/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 16, A revolt at a Russian prison for minors, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains, swelled into a mass uprising that left two people dead and buildings gutted before guards and riot police restored order.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Sudan 2 truck drivers working for the UN's World Food Program were killed in an ambush near the South Darfur town of Ed Daien. A 3rd was killed on Oct 12.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, President Bush attended a ceremony in which the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian honor. China lodged an official protest over the honoring of the Dalai Lama in Washington, while bluntly rejecting US President George W. Bush's advice on how to handle the Tibet issue.
(AFP, 10/16/07)(WSJ, 10/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 17, The US Supreme Court stopped the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmet (36). Legal experts said the move signals a nationwide halt to lethal injections until the court decides in 2008 whether the procedure violates constitutional standards.
(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A15)
2007 Oct 17, Teresa Brewer (b.1931), singer, died at her home in New Rochelle, NY. She had a big hit with “Music, Music, Music" in 1950.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
2007 Oct 17, Joey Bishop (b.1918), comedian and the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra’s legendary Rat Pack, died. In 2002 Michael Seth Starr authored the biography “Mouse in the Rat Pack: The Joey Bishop Story."
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)(AP, 10/17/08)
2007 Oct 17, Taliban used heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to ambush a US-led coalition patrol in southern Afghanistan that wounded nine troops. In the east, a roadside bomb on a police vehicle close to the border with Pakistan killed an officer and wounded three others in Khost province.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Australia a group of children playing in a suburban Sidney park opened a suitcase they found floating in a pond and discovered the body of a youngster inside.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Hundreds of police agents swooped in on drug gangs in two Rio de Janeiro shantytowns, setting off gunbattles that killed 12 people, including an officer and a boy (4).
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Cambodia Alexander Trofimov (41), the Russian chairman of Koh Puos Investment Group Ltd., was charged with debauchery, a Cambodian legal offense covering sexual abuse of children. He was detained in the southern resort town of Sihanoukville and accused of raping at least six girls. In September last year, the Cambodian government gave Trofimov's company permission to develop an island near Sihanoukville into a tourist resort.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Costa Rica and agreement was reached by which the US government and environmental groups will trim $26 million off Costa Rica's debt rolls in exchange for the country spending the same amount on tropical forest conservation.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama pledged to hold elections in early 2009 as Pacific countries welcomed the move and vowed to continue pressing for progress at a regional summit.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A Greek-flagged cargo ship carrying coal sank in the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki after colliding with Panama-flagged Dubai Guardian. The captain of the Diamond 1 was killed.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Indonesia's Papua region rival tribes armed with bows and arrows clashed close to a US-owned gold mine, killing eight people.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Iran hanged eight men and one woman on murder charges in the notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 17, A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing at least seven officers in a Shiite area south of Baghdad. A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck struck a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces in Diyala province. The attack in a mountainous area near the Iranian border killed 2 Kurdish soldiers and wounding more than 10 others. A bomb exploded near a residential building in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, killing two civilians and wounding two others. US troops captured 15 suspected militants in operations targeted al-Qaida in Tikrit, Ramadi, Baqouba and Mosul. Those captured were accused of helping smuggle foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq, including five with alleged connections to Syrian-based extremists.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Israeli troops killed a Hamas gunman in a battle in southern Gaza.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A man opened fire in a courtroom in northern Italy, seriously wounding his estranged wife and killing her brother before being shot to death by police.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Investigators began raids on Japanese companies accused of corruption in projects to remove chemical weapons abandoned in China during World War II. The allegations involve the illegal diversion of some of the $199 million the government has disbursed since 2004 to help dispose of 400,000 chemical weapons that retreating Japanese troops left in northeast China at war's end. China has said poisons have leaked from the weapons and killed about 2,000 people since 1945.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 17, Myanmar's military junta acknowledged that it detained nearly 3,000 people during a crackdown on recent pro-democracy protests, with hundreds still remaining in custody.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A clash between Hamas security forces and members of a large Gaza clan affiliated with the rival Fatah party left four people dead.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Interfax reported that Russia has charged a lieutenant colonel in the security service and 8 others for the Oct 7, 2006, slaying of anti-Kremlin journalist Ann Politkovskaya.
(WSJ, 10/18/07, p.A1)(Reuters, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Irdris Osman, the head of UN food agency operations in the violence-wracked Somali capital, was taken away by 50 to 60 heavily armed government security officers who had stormed the UN compound in Mogadishu. Osman was freed on Oct 23. Overnight, at least 8 civilians and one policeman died during a battle between Islamic insurgents and policemen.
(AP, 10/17/07)(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 17, In South Africa the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the developing world.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Sudan's former southern rebels said they would rejoin the national government to work through a stalemate on implementing a 2005 peace deal which ended Africa's longest civil war.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on a visit to Turkey, said that Damascus would back a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to crack down "against terrorist activities" there.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Turkey’s Parliament gave the government a one-year window in which to launch cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebels who've been conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 17, Pope Benedict XVI named 23 new cardinals, tapping two Americans, the patriarch of Baghdad, and archbishops from five continents to join the elite ranks of the "princes" of the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18, US lawmakers offered apologies to Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, who was deported in 2002 by US counterterrorism officials to Syria, where he says he was imprisoned and tortured.
(Reuters, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Rene Medina (62) of Atherton, owner of the Lucky Chances Casino in Colma, Ca., pleaded guilty to evading $591,000 in income taxes. In 2008 he was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for evading $973,000 in income taxes.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.D2)(SFC, 10/31/08, p.B3)
2007 Oct 18, William Crowe (82), ex-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, died at Bethesda naval Hospital. In 1994 Pres. Clinton appointed him as ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he served for 3 years.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.B10)
2007 Oct 18, The head of the British Broadcasting Corp. announced budget cuts that will lead to a net loss of 1,800 jobs.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, London's Science Museum canceled talk by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Former Congolese warlord Germain Katanga, suspected of war crimes committed in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003, began his transfer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Strikers defying Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy's push to reform France crippled the country's public transport system, forcing commuters to drive, pedal or walk to work, or stay home. Some workers vowed to continue the walkout, France’s biggest strike in 12 years. Sarkozy's office said Pres. Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, are divorcing after nearly 11 years of marriage by mutual consent.
(AP, 10/18/07)(WSJ, 10/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 18, India and Pakistan pledged to maintain a ceasefire after resuming talks as part of their slow-moving peace process but reported no specific progress on issues under discussion.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, In eastern Indonesia a crowded passenger boat capsized, killing at least 15 people, with several others possibly missing.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Sunni and Shiite leaders in southwestern Baghdad signed an agreement intended to halt sectarian violence on the condition that security forces limit their raids and offensive operations. Thousands of Kurds and supporters took to the streets in northern Iraq to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to authorize the government to send troops across the border to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey. Gunmen in Baghdad killed Ahmed al-Mashhadani, an adviser to the leader of the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, Adnan al-Dulaimi.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A15)(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 18, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert flew to Moscow in a surprise visit to discuss Iran's nuclear program with President Vladimir Putin, who just returned from talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran. Olmert pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to support new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities and urged Russia not to sell arms to Iran or Syria.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Teenage pop star Belinda (18), who starred in the Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls 2," won the video of the year award at the MTV Video Music Awards Latin America in Mexico City. The native of Madrid, Spain, who grew up in Mexico, also won best solo artist.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 18, Benazir Bhutto made a dramatic return to Pakistan, ending eight years of exile to reclaim a share of power with the country's US-backed military leader. More than 150,000 jubilant supporters gathered in Karachi to greet her amid massive security. A suicide attack killed up to 136 people. Bhutto said there were two attackers in the deadly bombing, and that her security guards found a third man armed with a pistol and another with a suicide vest. Ahead of her arrival, she said, she was warned suicide squads were dispatched to kill her. In February, 2008, Bhutto’s book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West," was published. In it she alleged that Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in the October 17 bombing in Karachi. Akhtar was released from custody in December, 2010, after authorities found no grounds for charges.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/19/07)(SFC, 1/10/11, p.A2)
2007 Oct 18, Palestinian surveyors fanned out across Gaza and the West Bank, counting homes and people in the first census in a decade, a rare joint endeavor of bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, South African reggae star Lucky Dube (43) was shot in an apparent carjacking attempt in Johannesburg's southern Rosettenville suburb. He died as he tried to drive away and crashed into a car and a tree. On Oct 21 police arrested five men in the killing. His albums included “Rastas never Die" (1984) and “Slave" (1987). In 2009 three men were sentenced to life in prison for the botched carjacking and murder.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/21/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.102)(AP, 4/2/09)
2007 Oct 18, Crisis talks between Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and southern leader Salva Kiir ended without agreement on getting his former rebels to rejoin the unity government they quit a week ago.
(AFP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced more than 1,200 job losses in the US after its third quarter results weakened on sharper competition from generic drugs.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18, The UN said action would be taken against the interpreter responsible for an erroneous report that Syria has a nuclear facility and expressed regret at the incident.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 19, Pres. Bush imposed new financial sanctions against Myanmar, freezing YS assets of 11 additional members of the military government.
(SFC, 10/20/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 19, A team of students from Germany's Technische Universitat Darmstadt won a weeklong competition on the Washington DC National Mall for the best, most efficient, and well-designed and -engineered solar home.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, A battle in southern Afghanistan between US-led coalition forces and Taliban militants left more than a dozen of the insurgents dead.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, Armed with clubs and waving provincial flags, thousands of residents of Bolivia's wealthiest province seized control of Santa Cruz’s Viru Viru airport from troops sent in by President Evo Morales. The previous day Morales had ordered 220 troops to take control of the airport after workers threatened to block flights that did not pay landing fees to local officials rather than the national airport authority. Television footage showed a Venezuelan air force plane and uniformed personnel at the site.
(AP, 10/19/07)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.32)
2007 Oct 19, A twin-engine plane crashed into the ninth floor of a suburban Vancouver apartment building, killing the pilot and injuring at least two people in the building. Six people were found dead in what police described as a graphic murder scene in an apartment building in a Vancouver suburb. Police later said the killings, which took place on the 15th floor of a suburban Vancouver apartment building, were related to gang activity. They said that two of the dead were murdered because they chanced upon the crime scene.
(AP, 10/20/07)(Reuters, 10/20/07)(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 19, European Union leaders in Portugal endorsed a reform treaty to replace their failed European constitution and give the 27-nation union a more influential say in world affairs. The new Treaty of Lisbon created 2 new posts, a European foreign minister in all but name and a new standing president of the European Council.
(AP, 10/19/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.64)
2007 Oct 19, Train service started back up throughout much of France but many commuters in Paris biked, roller-bladed and even used children's scooters as city transit workers kept up a second day of strikes against proposed economic reforms.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, French media reported that Celine Lesage was arrested after her partner discovered the corpses of 6 infants in plastic garbage bags in the basement of their apartment building in Valognes.
(AP, 3/15/10)(www.crimemagazine.com/07/murderousmothers,0919-7.htm)
2007 Oct 19, India and Pakistan reviewed their efforts to cut the risk of accidents involving nuclear weapons and discussed arms and security issues.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, Lt. Col. William H. Steele (52), a former US commander at the jail that held Saddam Hussein, was acquitted of aiding the enemy by loaning an unmonitored cell phone to an inmate, but a military judge in Iraq convicted him of unauthorized possession of thousands of pages of classified documents and two other charges for which he received two years imprisonment after pleading for leniency.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19, In eastern Diwaniyah, U.S.-led ground forces backed by two Polish helicopters came under fire from machine guns and an anti-tank grenade launcher. No coalition casualties were reported, but two militants were killed. A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus full of Shiite civilians, killing at least three people and wounding nine as they went to visit relatives south of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, A parliamentarian said that 61 of 120 Israeli lawmakers have signed a petition against any attempt by PM Ehud Olmert to transfer parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, In Indian Kashmir Rawathpora village residents claimed that Indian soldiers detained teacher Abdul Rashid Mir (26) outside a school, then tortured and fatally shot him while he was in custody. The Indian army said Mir was accidentally shot after he got into a squabble with an army patrol team. Violence quickly erupted.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 19, In the Philippines a powerful explosion ripped through three floors of a shopping mall in the heart of Manila's financial district, killing 11 people, injuring scores and sending police and troops on the highest state of alert. Police later said a gas leak was the likely cause.
(AP, 10/19/07)(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 19, Christopher Paul Neil (32), a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing boys, was arrested in rural Thailand and charged after a 3-year international manhunt that relied on digitally unscrambled photos and tips from the public. Neil later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years and three months in jail; he faces other charges involving the victim's younger brother.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/19/08)
2007 Oct 20, With water supplies rapidly shrinking during a drought of historic proportions, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency for the northern third of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare it a major disaster area. The 38,000-acre Lake Lanier reservoir, which supplies more than 3 million residents with water, was down to 3 months from depletion.
(AP, 10/20/07)(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 20, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (36), the son of Punjabi immigrants, won an election in Louisiana to become the United States' first Indian-American state governor. Jindal, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, also became the youngest governor in the US. He became the first nonwhite to hold the job since Reconstruction.
(AFP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Oct 20, In Berkeley, Ca., the new, 4-story, $46.4 million C.V. Starr East Asian Library was unveiled.
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 20, In Ohio Daniel Petric (16) shot his parents, killing his mother and wounding his father, after they took away the Halo 3 video game from him. In 2009 a judge ruled Petric guilty of murder.
(AP, 1/13/09)(http://pysih.com/2007/10/21/daniel-petric/)
2007 Oct 20, Max McGee (75), former Green Bay Packers receiver, died in Deephaven, Minn.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Oct 20, Peg Bracken (89), author of the "I Hate to Cook Book," died in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Oct 20, In eastern Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants fought fierce battles with US forces, killing 20 insurgents and one civilian.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 20, Burundi's last active rebel group was urged to implement a 2006 ceasefire as it boycotted a meeting aimed to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In China 13 foreign and domestic companies launched the Chinese Federation for Corporate Social Responsibility in Shanghai.
(Econ, 1/19/08, SR p.21)(www.chinacsr.com/2006/10/20/799-cfcsr-established-in-beijing/)
2007 Oct 20, France handed Algeria details of where its forces laid some 3 million landmines on the country's eastern and western borders from 1956-1959.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus full of Shiite civilians, killing at least 3 people and wounding nine as they went to visit relatives south of Baghdad. US-led forces raided houses in search of Shiite extremists elsewhere in the volatile area. The US military said US forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tons of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind.
(AP, 10/20/07)(Reuters, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Indian Kashmir thousands of angry Rawathpora villagers torched government vehicles in street battles that injured 30 police one day after army soldiers allegedly shot dead a schoolteacher.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, The foreign ministers of France, Italy and Spain met with Lebanon's feuding political leaders in a bid to break a long-running deadlock that is preventing the election of a president.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Northern Ireland Paul Quinn (21), a truck driver from south Armagh, was brutally beaten to death. Assailants used iron bars and baseball bats studded with nails. His death was said to be related to smuggling diesel fuel. Relatives said he was murdered for defying an IRA order to leave after quarrels in his village of Cullyhanna.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.67)(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A22)
2007 Oct 20, In Kazakhstan the opposition staged a demonstration in Almaty against rising prices as people hoarded food supplies and emptied shops.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.52)
2007 Oct 20, Malawi's second opposition party suspended its national convention after 26 supporters died in a road accident on the way to the conference. The supporters of the Alliance for Democracy, or AFORD, died the previous night when the truck they were traveling in overturned in the central mountainous district of Dedza.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, Myanmar announced that it was lifting a curfew and ending a ban on assembly imposed after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the latest sign that the government believes it has extinguished the largest demonstrations in decades.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, A bomb ripped through a bus parked at a terminal in southwestern Pakistan, killing seven people and wounding six others.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Gaza City Hamas police and a clan allied with the rival Fatah movement traded fire killing a young man and a boy on the 4th day of heavy internal fighting.
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 20, In Moscow a group of teens killed Sergei Nikolayev (46), a professional chess player from Yakutia. The group attacked more than 10 people over several months late this year. In 2008 a Moscow court convicted 12 teenage boys and a man of committing the series of vicious ethnic attacks, which were videotaped, set to heavy music and widely disseminated on Web sites.
(http://english.pravda.ru/russia/history/23-09-2008/106430-skinheads-0)(AP, 9/23/08)
2007 Oct 21, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech the United States and other nations would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2007 Oct 21, The Boston Red Sox won the American League championship in Game 7 of their series with the Cleveland Indians, 11-2.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2007 Oct 21, Paul Byrd, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, acknowledged that he had used human growth hormone from August 2002 to January 2005 due to a pituitary gland issue. An investigation was pending as Major League Baseball and the Indians said they had not been aware of Byrd’s use of the muscle building substance.
(SFC, 10/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 21, More than a half-dozen wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds spread across Southern California, killing one person near San Diego and destroying several homes and a church in celebrity-laden Malibu. The Buckweed fire started rampaging across 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita area, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. An unidentified youngster, believed to be a preteen, later admitted to playing with matches and starting the fire.
(AP, 10/21/07)(Reuters, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 21, Ronald Brooks Kitaj, Ohio-born artist, died in Los Angeles. He had spent much of his career working in London. His work included “Desk Murder," a 14-year effort.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.102)(http://tinyurl.com/2myah5)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.81)
2007 Oct 21, Australia's opposition Labor Party chief Kevin Rudd beat PM Howard in an election debate marred by controversy when a national television network's coverage was deliberately cut. Rudd had once worked as a business consultant in China and spoke fluent Mandarin.
(AFP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.52)
2007 Oct 21, In Brazil activists trying to invade a 304-acre biotech seed farm, owned by the Swiss firm Syngenta AG, clashed with guards and at least two people were shot dead.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 21, In Brazil a girl (15) was arrested on accusations of breaking and entering a house and jailed with male inmates in Abaetetuba, Para state. She was locked up for weeks with 21 men who she said would only let her eat in return for sex. By her account, officials did nothing, until the story erupted in the national media and outraged Brazilians demanded her transfer.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Oct 21, Thousands of British Muslims gathered for a charity peace concert dubbed "Muslim Live 8" to raise money for victims of Sudan's long-running Darfur conflict.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Chinese President Hu Jintao engineered the retirement of a powerful Communist Party rival in a move that enhanced his political standing yet may have opened up a divisive battle to succeed him. A fire at a shoe factory in southeastern China killed 37 people and injured at least 20. The factory in Fujian province was operating without a license and the owners were arrested.
(AP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/22/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 21, Cubans opened an election cycle that will lead to a decision next year on whether ailing leader Fidel Castro will remain atop the communist-run island's supreme governing body.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said they killed 140 government soldiers in a weekend assault targeting a visiting senior official, a statement Ethiopia immediately denounced as false.
(Reuters, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital after the attack by a gang of Rhesus macaques, but succumbed to head injuries sustained in his fall.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, The US military said its forces killed an estimated 49 militants during a dawn raid to capture an Iranian-linked militia chief in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave. Iraqi police and hospital officials reported only 15 deaths including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said all the dead were civilians.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kyrgyzstan held a national referendum on changing the constitution to elect the Parliament by party list. On Oct 23 the main trans-Atlantic security and rights group and the US Embassy said the referendum on constitutional change was marred by numerous violations.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 21, Shell officials said gunmen in speedboats attacked an offshore oil field in the volatile Niger Delta, kidnapping three foreign workers and four Nigerians.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, A pro-business opposition party that wants to bring Poland's troops home from Iraq was headed to an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections, exit polls showed, setting it up to oust the prime minister's staunchly pro-U.S. government. The opposition Civic Platform party ousted PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government in the parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/21/08)
2007 Oct 21, A technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft on a wild ride home, forcing Malaysia's first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts to endure eight times the force of gravity before their capsule landed safely.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Lojze Peterle, a conservative former prime minister, won the most votes in Slovenia's tight presidential elections, but fell far short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Springboks, the South African rugby team, beat England (15-6) in the Rugby World Cup Final at the Stade France in Paris.
(AFP, 10/23/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.57)
2007 Oct 21, Sudanese government officials said around 50 people have been killed in three days of tribal clashes in the central region of Kordofan.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, A Swiss nationalist party rode an anti-immigrant wave to the best showing of any party in parliamentary elections since 1919, while the Greens made gains by appealing to environmental concerns. The Swiss People's Party (SVP), led by justice minister Christoph Blocher, won 62 seats and received 29% of the vote, after a bitter campaign blaming foreigners for much of the country's crime.
(AP, 10/21/07)(AP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.62)
2007 Oct 21, Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich (86), a Jewish religious philosopher, died at his home in Basel, Switz. He had escaped the Nazis and became a European bridge-builder between Christians and Jews.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 21, In Syria a high-level North Korean official held talks with PM Naji Otari on ways to improve cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, A Hong Kong newspaper reported that police in the capital of Tibet clashed for four days with Buddhist monks trying to celebrate the awarding of a congressional honor for the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers with 8 missing. The rebels said they are holding them hostage. Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq.
(AP, 10/21/07)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 22, Pres. Bush asked Congress for $196.4 billion for the Iraq war. This included $500 million to help Mexico fight drug traffickers as Mexico and the US announced plans for a $1.4 billion aid package to fight drug trafficking and other organized crime south of the border.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A7)(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 22, The US announced the Merida Initiative. It was signed into law on June 30, 2008. It is a security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training, equipment and intelligence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)
2007 Oct 22, The United States handed over 30 military helicopters to key ally Pakistan to help fight extremism and provide humanitarian relief in the region.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, A US Navy sailor allegedly shot and killed two female sailors in the barracks of an American military base in Bahrain.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, A federal judge in Dallas declared a mistrial for former leaders of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity accused of funding terrorism.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2007 Oct 22, Bear Stearns, one of America’s top investment banks, announced a strategic alliance with Citic Securities, China’s largest listed brokerage firm.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.84)
2007 Oct 22, Microsoft Corp. dropped a nearly decade-long legal battle with European regulators, agreeing to key parts of an antitrust ruling that has already led to hundreds of millions in fines.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Two new studies said the world's oceans may be losing their ability to soak up extra carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, with the risk that this will help stoke global warming.
(AFP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, NATO and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a battle against insurgents that left 20 suspected militants but also several civilians dead in Wardak province.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 22, President Hu Jintao emerged politically stronger after the Communist Party handed him a second five-year term, allowing him a freer hand to manage tensions over a rising wealth gap and boost spending on long-neglected social services.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, The United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) said some 8,000 Congolese refugees have fled to neighboring Uganda following clashes between Congo's army and dissident general Laurent Nkunda.
(Reuters, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga became only the second war crimes suspect to appear before the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
(AFP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding two dozen. Iraqi Kurdish rebels said they were ready to lay down their arms if Turkey stopped targeting the rebels and abandoned plans for an incursion into Iraq, according to a rebel website. Osama bin Laden called for Iraqi insurgents to unite and avoid divisive "extremism," speaking in an audiotape and apparently intended to win over Sunnis opposed to al-Qaida's branch in Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/07)(AFP, 10/22/07)(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, About 1,000 Palestinian prisoners rioted at an Israeli desert prison, attacking guards, torching the tents where they are housed and leaving 30 people injured.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, About 40 tons of oil spilled from a land pipeline carrying crude from the port of Ashkelon in southern Israel to refineries in the northern city of Haifa.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 22, An Italian lobby group for small businesses said revenue from organized crime amounts to an estimated $127 billion annually, making it the largest segment of the economy.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a decree dissolving parliament, a day after voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum on constitutional changes that his critics called a power grab.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Morocco's King Mohammed XVI and signed a string of deals aimed at fostering closer cooperation between the two countries and economic development projects.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, Mozambique's former President Joaquim Chissano, who brought peace and democracy to his country, won the first Mo Ibrahim Prize for achievement in African leadership.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22, In Poland election results showed pro-business Civic Platform, led by Donald Tusk, beating PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski's nationalist conservatives by nearly 10 percentage points, enough to allow them to form a coalition government with an allied party. The incoming government promised to negotiate a tougher deal with the US when it comes to hosting a missile defense base. Civic Platform won 209 seats in the 460-member lower house.
(AP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.59)
2007 Oct 22, Romania's President Traian Basescu apologized for the deportation of thousands of Gypsies to Nazi death camps during World War II, the first time a government official has done so publicly.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 22, A group of Tamil Tiger fighters, backed by the rebel group's tiny air force, carried out a surprise pre-dawn attack on a Sri Lankan air force base, setting off a huge battle that killed five airmen and 20 guerrillas. 24 of 27 aircraft were destroyed or damaged.
(AP, 10/22/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.54)
2007 Oct 23, Thousands more residents were ordered to evacuate their homes, bringing the number of people chased away by the wind-whipped flames that have engulfed Southern California to at least 300,000. At least 700 homes were already destroyed. President Bush declared a federal emergency for seven counties.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/23/08)
2007 Oct 23, The US space shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Canaveral with a 7-person crew for a 14-day mission to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.A9)
2007 Oct 23, In Afghanistan a child and 5 militants were killed in Zabul province after militants fired on coalition soldiers from a tent.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 23, Fernando de la Rua, Argentina’s former president (1999-2001), was charged with manslaughter in connection with bloody street riots in 2001.
(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, It was reported that police patrolling the red-light district of the Belgian capital have been ordered to stop visiting brothels and drinking in bars when on duty.
(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, In London a Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction. A nearly complete, 10th-century Kufic Quran, thought to be from North Africa or the near East, sold $1,870,000.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 23, The Canadian dollar roared to a 33-year high against the US dollar after domestic retail sales data for August beat expectations.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, French lawmakers adopted a hotly contested bill that would institute language exams and potential DNA testing for prospective immigrants, making it more difficult for families to join loved ones in France.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, A US helicopter opened fire on a group of men as they were planting roadside bombs in a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad, then chased them into a nearby house, killing 11 Iraqis, including at least six civilians. Iraq pledged to rein in Kurdish rebels who are launching attacks on Turkey from mountain hideouts near the border after Ankara threatened to send forces into Iraqi territory to confront the guerrillas.
(AP, 10/23/07)(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Israel killed a top Gaza militant with a missile strike on his car prompting threats of more rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. A Palestinian prisoner who was wounded in rioting at an Israeli desert prison died, prompting Palestinian threats of revenge and accusations that the man was abused by Israeli authorities.
(AP, 10/23/07)(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, Police broke up an Italian-Canadian mafia clan that ran drug trafficking and money laundering operations, arresting 12 people and seizing millions of dollars in assets. The clan was led from Canada by Nick and Vito Rizzuto, a father and son, who were jailed for previous crimes respectively in 2006 and 2005.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Lim Goh Tong (b.1918), Chinese businessman, died in Kuala Lumpur. The casino king of Malaysia had made a fortune in gambling casinos and a cruise fleet. His family fortune was estimated at $4.2 billion.
(AP, 10/23/07)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 23, At least 21 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex said the workers who died included four Pemex employees, seven employees of the subcontractor company that operated the rig, at least one rescue boat crew member, and six others who worked for other companies. On Dec 16 Pemex announced that the well was finally capped. Roughly 420 barrels of oil per day had spilled from the damaged platform since the accident.
(AP, 10/25/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Oct 23, A bomb courier accidentally blew up a taxi in Russia's Dagestan region, killing herself and wounding eight other people.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, First lady Laura Bush helped launch a screening facility in Saudi Arabia as part of a U.S.-Saudi initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in the kingdom where doctors struggle to break long-held taboos about the disease.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Mohammed Atif Siddique (21), a British-born Muslim student, described at his trial as a "wannabe suicide bomber," was jailed in Scotland for 8 years after being convicted of promoting Islamist extremism on the Internet. On Feb 9, 2010, his conviction was overturned after a court in Scotland ruled that the trial judge did not properly instruct the jury.
(AFP, 10/23/07)(AP, 2/9/10)
2007 Oct 23, A new Bin Laden tape called for foreign forces to be driven from Darfur. The Justice and Equality Movement, one of the leading Darfur rebel groups, attacked the Defra oil field in Sudan’s Kordofan region and abducted 2 foreign workers. A rebel chief gave a one-week ultimatum for foreign oil companies to cease operating in the zone.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.A3)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 23, Turkey's foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, In Uzbekistan Karim Bozorboyev, leader of the Esguliq rights group in the central city of Syrdarya, was arrested and charged with fraud. Bozorboyev joined the group in 2004, after he left Fidokorlar, a government-affiliated political party, saying he was disgusted by the amount of corruption among Uzbek officials.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 23, In Venezuela thousands of university students scuffled with police and government supporters during a protest against constitutional reforms that would let President Hugo Chavez run for re-election indefinitely.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 24, Pres. Bush denounced Castro’s regime and called on the Cuban people to shed his rule.
(WSJ, 10/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, US federal and local law enforcement officials, targeting a violent Mexican heroin drug ring, raided numerous locations in Oakland and northern California arresting 30 people and confiscating drugs, guns and cash.
(SFC, 10/25/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 24, Fires in southern California expanded destruction to 1,500 homes and charred over 500,000 acres. Over half a million residents were forced to flee the area, the largest evacuation in state history.
(WSJ, 10/25/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, Bank of America, the nation's second-largest bank, said that it is cutting 3,000 positions in its investment banking unit, a day after cross-town rival Wachovia Corp. starting eliminating several hundred positions for the same reasons.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 24, Merril Lynch reported its first quarterly loss in six years due to writedowns of $8.4 billion related to mortgage loans in structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.79)
2007 Oct 24, Microsoft secured a deal to buy 1.6% of Facebook, a social networking site, for $240 million.
(SFC, 10/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, Afghan officials said five militants were killed in two clashes with Afghan troops in the southern provinces of Zabul and Helmand. US-led coalition and Afghan attack on a gathering of another group of Taliban militants in the Daychopan district of Zabul province killed 10 insurgents. A suicide car bomb went off near the convoy of cars carrying Arsallah Jamal, the provincial governor of Khost, wounding two of his bodyguards and two civilians.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 24, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said all conditions on its $38.1 billion takeover of Alcan Inc had been satisfied and most shareholders had accepted its offer.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Beijing Costa Rican president Oscar Arias signed several accords with his Chinese counterpart, months after the Central American nation established diplomatic relations with the Asian giant.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, China launched its first lunar probe, Chang’e 1, an initial step in an ambitious 10-year plan to send a rover to the moon and return it to Earth.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.52)
2007 Oct 24, France's government agreed to reward drivers of cars that use little gasoline, drastically slow road construction and renovate all the country's public buildings to slash energy consumption.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, A French defense ministry official said France will for the first time send dozens of military trainers to the volatile south of Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Al-Sadr renewed his appeal to his followers to uphold the six-month cease-fire announced in August and threatened to expel those who do not. Nearly simultaneous bombs struck commuters in a predominantly Shiite area on the southeastern edge of Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding about two dozen.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 24, Officials said Israeli military experts have formulated a plan to gradually cut off power to the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire from the Palestinian area.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, In southern Kyrgyzstan Alisher Saipov (26), a prominent independent ethnic-Uzbek journalist, was shot to death. He had close ties to the opposition to the authoritarian regime in neighboring Uzbekistan.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 6/19/10, p.28)
2007 Oct 24, A day of global protests against Myanmar's junta began in Bangkok as democracy leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi marked a cumulative 12 years in detention.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Nigeria's top corruption investigator said that up to six former governors will be charged by the end of the year, a sign the country's new leadership is making good on pledges to stamp out graft in one of the world's most corrupt nations.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Pakistan a senior official said the senior detective leading the investigation into the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto has withdrawn from the case after the opposition leader accused him of involvement in the torture of her husband in 1999. Pakistan's army said that new troops have been deployed to Swat, a mountain valley popular with tourists until violence flared there this summer, to quell Maulana Fazlullah, who has called for Taliban-style rule and holy war against Pakistani authorities.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 24, Alexander Pichushkin (33), a Russian former grocery clerk, was found guilty of murdering 48 people in Moscow. On Oct 29 he was sentenced to life in a hard labor colony.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Somalia a roadside bomb killed five civilians and wounded 16 when it exploded near a minibus full of passengers in the war-ravaged Mogadishu.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq, as Turkey's military stepped up its anti-rebel operations.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Spanish police broke up an Islamic cell suspected of using the Internet to recruit fighters for the Iraq insurgency, arresting six people in raids near the northern city of Burgos.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Zimbabwe's central bank chief pledged that empty shop shelves would soon be replenished as he denounced the "anarchy" inspired by the government's order for retailers to slash their prices in half.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25, President Bush visited Southern California, telling residents weary from five days of wildfires: "We're not going to forget you in Washington, D.C."
(AP, 10/25/08)
2007 Oct 25, The Bush administration announced sweeping new sanctions against Iran, the harshest since the takeover of the US Embassy in 1979, charging anew that Tehran supports terrorism in the Middle East, exports missiles and is engaging in a nuclear build up.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, The US government issued a flurry of product-safety recalls affecting hundreds of thousands of Chinese-made children's toys and jewelry amid fresh concerns about lead paint.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, Insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded in Kunar province. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta was serving as a rifle team leader with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment when an insurgent ambush split his squad into two groups in the Korengal Valley. Giunta exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a fellow soldier back to cover and engaged the enemy again when he saw two insurgents carrying away a wounded soldier, Sgt. Joshua C. Brennan (22) of McFarland, Wis. Giunta killed one insurgent and wounded the other before tending to Brennan, who died the next day. In 2010 Giunta became the 8th US service member to receive the Medal of Honor during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The seven previous medals were awarded posthumously.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 9/11/10)
2007 Oct 25, An Airbus 380, the world's largest jetliner, made aviation history, completing its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney with 455 passengers, some of them ensconced in luxury suites and double beds.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, The Canadian dollar shot to a 33-year high against a broadly weaker US dollar, as oil and gold prices firmed, giving the commodities-based currency a boost.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, In Chad 9 French citizens were arrested after a group tried to fly 103 African children to France, saying it wanted to save them from the crisis in neighboring Darfur. On Oct 29 six French nationals were charged with kidnapping and a judge in the eastern city of Abeche also agreed to allow prosecution charges of complicity against three French journalists.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 25, The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China announced that it was buying 20% of Standard Bank in South Africa for $5.6 billion.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.80)
2007 Oct 25, Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo set new conditions for disarming, stalling the surrender of hundreds of fighters who have begun massing near a designated UN camp.
(Reuters, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Amnesty International said human rights violations in the Russian region of Ingushetia have increased with a surge in abductions and beatings.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Ahmed al-Janabi (45), a Sunni schoolteacher, was seized from his car in Baghdad, then shot to death by suspected Shiite militia fighters.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Irish PM Bertie Ahern gave himself a hefty pay increase, putting his salary higher than both President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Suu Kyi, detained since May 2003, met with a newly appointed Myanmar government official as part of a UN-brokered attempt to nudge her and the military junta toward reconciliation. At least 70 people detained by the military government following protests in Myanmar, including 50 members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, were released.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, Niger's Tuareg-led rebels allegedly killed at least 12 soldiers and destroyed two army vehicles in the desert north of the central African country, but the military denied this.
(Reuters, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 25, In southwest Nigeria 17 people were killed when a passenger bus collided with an oncoming truck on a road.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide car bomber hit a truck carrying Frontier Constabulary paramilitary troops through a crowded area of Mingora, killing 19 soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 35 people.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, In the Philippines Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pardoned Joseph Estrada (70), the ousted former president and action hero. He was convicted last month on graft charges and given a life sentence. He had been under house arrest since 2001.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 25, In northern Syria authorities hanged five men for murders they committed during attempted robberies.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, A senior security official said Yemen has set free Jamal al-Badawi, one of the al-Qaida masterminds of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors. Al-Badawi was granted his freedom after turning himself in 15 days ago and pledging loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe launched an intelligence academy named after him, saying it would produce officers able to counter growing threats from Western powers.
(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A federal jury in Kansas City, Mo., decided that Lisa Montgomery, convicted of killing expectant mother Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting the baby from her womb, should receive the death penalty.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2007 Oct 26, Georgia's Supreme Court ordered the release of a young man who has been imprisoned for more than two years for having consensual oral sex with another teenager. The court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilson's 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, Thousands of southern Californians returned to their neighborhoods as wildfires charred some 800 square miles. At least 7 people had died in the fires including 4 in a migrant camp. 7 other deaths were reported from various causes following evacuation.
(SFC, 10/27/07, p.A6)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 26, Astronauts added the 24-foot long, Italian-built Harmony compartment to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 26, Friedman Paul Erhardt (63), television's "Chef Tell," died in Upper Black Eddy, Pa.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2007 Oct 26, Arthur Kornberg (b.1918), genetics pioneer and Nobel Prize winner (1959), died at Stanford Hospital in California. His books included “For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist."
(SFC, 10/27/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 26, In Afghanistan an airstrike on a group of Taliban fighters left 18 militants dead in the mountainous area of Daychopan district, in Zabul province.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, Shares in Bovespa, the stock exchange of Sao Paulo, Brazil, began trading. The IPO opened at $12.77 and closed at $17.77.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.88)(http://tinyurl.com/34oyeb)
2007 Oct 26, A British soldier was convicted at a court martial of his part in a plot to smuggle guns out of Iraq and sell them to colleagues at his unit's base in Germany. Lance Corporal Anthony Creswick was involved in selling illegal pistols bought on the black market in Basra.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A Chilean appeals court dropped corruption charges against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet's widow and four of his children, who had been accused of misuse of state funds related to multimillion-dollar overseas bank accounts.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, China announced a multibillion-dollar plan to clean up severely polluted Lake Tai, where an algae bloom forced the suspension of water supplies to millions of people this summer. The $14.5 billion plan to clean up the lake, in a densely populated area northwest of Shanghai, should take five years.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 26, In Congo heavy rains swelled into a torrent of water that swamped Kinshasa, killing 30 people in less than 24 hours.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 26, The head of the Cuban national ballet implored American artists, writers and intellectuals to denounce Washington's 45-year-old embargo against the communist-run island, saying that cultural exchanges between both countries should not be considered crimes.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A high-level Iraqi delegation held talks with Turkish officials to try to defuse tensions over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Turkish helicopters and fighter jets pounded Kurdish rebel positions as diplomatic efforts began in Ankara.
(AP, 10/26/07)(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, A suicide bomber blew himself up near the headquarters of a nationalistic Sunni insurgent group that has turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, killing a woman on her way to the market and wounding four other people. A bomb exploded near a village south of Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, killing a farmer and wounding two others. A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the Daghara area, about 12 miles north of the mainly Shiite city of Diwaniyah, killing two officers and wounding three others. A battle between al Qaeda in Iraq and a major Sunni Arab insurgent group killed at least 16 militants near the ancient city of Samarra.
(AP, 10/26/07) (Reuters, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 26, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began talks in Jerusalem as part of efforts to work out a joint statement ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, An official said Japan hopes to thwart potential terrorists from entering the country by fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16 or over on entry starting next month.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, The Mozambican government set itself a new five-year target to remove all the landmines that still litter the country, 15 years after its long-running civil war.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In Myanmar one-time drug warlord Khun Sa (b.1933), variously described as among the world's most wanted men and as a great Shan liberation fighter, died.
(AP, 10/30/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.106)
2007 Oct 26, In south Nigeria armed militants attacked an offshore oil platform operated by Italy's ENI and seized seven foreign workers and one Nigerian. The 6 foreign workers were released on Oct 30.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 26, In northwestern Pakistan paramilitary troops battled supporters of radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, killing at least one in a fierce fight with heavy weapons. Militants seized and beheaded 7 civilians and 6 security officers after government troops launched an assault on the radical cleric's hideout. The clashes at the hideout of Fazlullah in the village of Imamdheri also left three rebels and two civilians dead.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AFP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, The Bush administration and NY state cut a deal to create a new generation of super-secure driver’s licenses, which would also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 27, In San Francisco thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown, chanting and carrying signs that read: "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs."
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 27, Despite significant dissent among some of its workers, United Auto Workers members narrowly passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2007 Oct 27, A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan security uniform detonated his explosives at the entrance to a combined US-Afghan base, killing four Afghan soldiers and a civilian. In Helmand province Taliban militants killed three Afghan police who had been trying to prevent them from carrying out a kidnapping. The militants successfully kidnapped an Afghan man during the gunbattle. US-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town near Musa Qala in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.A16)
2007 Oct 27, Algerian security sources said the army killed 17 Islamist rebels during security operations in the east of the country over three days this week.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, Mai Mai militia leader and army deserter Kibamba Kasereka said he had surrendered to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive Nord-Kivu province, agreeing to calls to disarm his forces.
(AFP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, Queues of frustrated, angry passengers built up at main French airports as Air France cancelled scores of flights on the third day of a strike by cabin staff.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, In eastern India Naxalite rebels opened fire on a crowd of revelers at a festival, killing a politician's son and 17 other people in Jharkhand state.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, Iraqi troops found 17 decomposed bodies of unidentified men near the restive city of Baquba in a grim reminder of sustained sectarian bloodletting, as 12 other people were killed in the country. Gunmen wearing military uniforms abducted the police chief of the town of Muqdadiyah in Diyala and his seven bodyguards. In Basra a local elections official was gunned down in front of his house. US forces seized a Shiite fighter and shot dead two others, accusing them of ignoring cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's order to freeze militia's activities.
(AFP, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 27, In Somalia insurgents and government-allied forces battled with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in the heaviest fighting to hit Mogadishu for months, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens others wounded.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 27, An official of the Vietnamese embassy to South Africa was shot and seriously injured in a robbery at his Pretoria residence.
(AFP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 27, Sudan's government and some rebel groups began talks in Libya to end 4-1/2 years of conflict in Darfur. Sudan's government committed to a cease-fire in Darfur, but mediators and journalists outnumbered the few rebels who did not boycott the UN-sponsored negotiations, reducing hopes for an end to the fighting. According to 2 rebel factions Sudan’s government attacked the Jabel Moun area along the Chad-Sudan border.
(Reuters, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Denver the Boston Red Sox swept to their second World Series title in four years with a 4-3 win over the Colorado Rockies in Game 4.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, Iowa Democrats voted to move their leadoff precinct caucuses to Jan 3. Republicans had picked the same date earlier this month.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 28, In Joliet, Illinois, Stacy Peterson (23), the current wife of police officer Drew Peterson, was last seen. On Nov 10 state police said Peterson is no longer a person of interest in the disappearance but a suspect. A coroner's jury ruled the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife, an accident. On Nov 17 former NYC chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden analyzed Kathleen Savio's remains and concluded she died after a struggle. In 2008 Dr. Larry W. Blum said in an autopsy report that Kathleen Savio died by drowning and her death was ruled a homicide. In 2009 Peterson (55) was arrested during a traffic stop and faced murder charges.
(AP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 2/22/08)(AP, 5/8/09)
2007 Oct 28, A beach house erupted into a storm of fire and smoke in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. Six of the seven students killed attended the University of South Carolina.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In NYC orthodontist Daniel Malakov was shot and killed when he too his daughter for an arranged meeting with his former wife, Mazoltuv Borukhova. Police soon charged Borukhova with hiring a cousin by marriage to kill Malakov. In 2011 Janet Malcolm authored “Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.G4)(www.fathersandfamilies.org/?tag=daniel-malakov)
2007 Oct 28, Porter Wagoner (80), country singer, died. He was known for a string of country hits in the '60s, perennial appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in his trademark rhinestone suits, and for launching the career of Dolly Parton. The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957. His syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," ran for 21 years, beginning in 1960.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, A six-hour battle in southern Afghanistan left over 50 Taliban fighters killed or wounded in Uruzgan province. In the east, coalition forces raided a compound suspected of housing al-Qaida facilitators, killing several militants in Kunar province.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the other half of the power couple credited with the country’s rebound from an economic collapse, overshadowed 13 rivals as voting opened in Argentina's presidential elections. Cristina Fernandez, claimed victory in the country's presidential election; she became the first woman elected to the post.
(AP, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/28/08)
2007 Oct 28, Nordin Benallal, a Belgian inmate, made a dramatic escape from jail for the fourth time after his armed accomplices landed in the prison grounds in a hijacked helicopter. On landing, the helicopter was crowded by other prisoners, making takeoff impossible and causing it to crash. Benallal and his cohorts then briefly seized two prison warders as hostages and fled in a car parked nearby.
(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In London a media report said US financial services group GMAC will lead a rescue bid for stricken bank Northern Rock.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, Bulgarians voted in municipal elections that attracted a record number of candidates given the scheduled influx of millions of euros in EU funding over the next few years. The vote will prove a mid-term test for the ruling centre-left coalition government of PM Sergey Stanishev.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Dubai thousands of South Asian construction workers went on strike over harsh working conditions in the latest threat to a spectacular building boom already endangered by a falling currency and labor shortage.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, Tens of thousands of impoverished Indians arrived in New Delhi ending a monthlong march to draw attention to the plight of those dispossessed of their land by recent economic development.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In Baghdad 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who joined forces against al-Qaida were abducted. One sheik was soon found shot to death. Shehab Mohammad al-Hiti (27), editor for the fledgling weekly Baghdad al-Youm, was killed in Baghdad. A car bomb ripped through a Kirkuk bus terminal that serves travelers to Iraq's Kurdish region, killing eight people and wounding 26. Gunmen sprayed a car carrying five bodyguards of the head of local Sunni Endowments department in the turbulent city of Basra, killing one of them and injuring the rest.
(AP, 10/28/07)(SFC, 10/29/07, p.A9)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, Israel began cutting vital fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip, following through on a promise to step up pressure on the area's Hamas rulers in response to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, At least 15 migrants drowned in the waters off the Italian coast in two separate incidents, including the disintegration of a boat that spilled more than 100 passengers into rough seas.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28, In northwestern Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter gunships militant hideouts in the mountains of the district. Over 60 militants died in the fierce fighting.
(AP, 10/29/07)(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 28, Puerto Rican and US archaeologists said they have found the best-preserved pre-Columbian site in the Caribbean, which could shed light on virtually every aspect of Indian life in the region. Artifacts of Taino or pre-Taino people dated from 600 A.D. to 1500 A.D.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, The USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer, fired on and destroyed two pirate boats tied to the Golden Nori, a hijacked Japanese-flagged chemical tanker. The ship was carrying a load of benzene off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 28, UN-brokered peace talks ground to a halt, with officials saying there could be no key steps until the fighters decided how to negotiate with the Sudanese government.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 28, Turkish troops killed some 20 Kurdish guerrillas in fighting in eastern Tunceli province. Turkey's PM Erdogan called for unity between Turks and Kurds against the rebels.
(Reuters, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/29/07)(WSJ, 10/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 28, The Vatican staged its largest mass beatification ceremony ever, putting 498 victims (1934-1937) of religious persecution before and during Spain's civil war on the path to possible sainthood.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 29, Police in riot gear cleared several large crowds gathered around Fenway Park in the early morning after the Red Sox won their second World Series title in four years.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Oil prices closed at a record $93.53 per barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.C2)
2007 Oct 29, David Tallichet (b.1922), pioneer of theme restaurants and collector of war planes, died. He had opened his first South Seas-inspired venue on the edge of the harbor in Long Beach, Ca. Specialty Restaurants went public in 1968. He took it private again in 1980. The company declared bankruptcy in 1993 and then emerged as a leaner operation. In 2007 the company operated 25 restaurants in 9 states.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.A7)
2007 Oct 29, In a special Internet announcement in Arabic, picked up DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, Osama bin Laden’s followers announced the launching of Electronic Jihad. On Sunday, Nov. 11, al Qaeda’s electronic experts will start attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites.
(http://debka.com/)
2007 Oct 29, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol ended in the deaths of three civilians and an officer in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Argentina partial results indicated voters had elected a female president for the first time and launched their country's most powerful political dynasty since Juan and Evita Peron. President Kirchner and first lady Cristina Fernandez were poised to switch jobs in December.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Azerbaijan the US and British embassies suspended operations in Baku, where the government said it thwarted a radical Islamic group's plot to conduct a "large-scale horrifying terror attack" against diplomatic missions and government buildings. One suspect was killed and several others were detained in a weekend sweep in village outside the capital.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Canada’s PM Harper received Tibet's exiled spiritual leader in his office in Parliament. He presented the 1989 Nobel laureate with a maple-leaf scarf. The next day China condemned Harper for "disgusting conduct" for playing host to the Dalai Lama.
(Reuters, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 28, Authorities in Chad charged six French charity workers with kidnapping after they tried to put 103 children on a plane to France, claiming they were orphans from Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region. The charity workers were later convicted, jailed for several months, then pardoned.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Oct 29, China’s Xinhua news agency said more than 6,000 people will be forced from their homes on the southern island of Hainan to make way for the country's newest space launch centre. China said that it had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods, part of ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country's products. State media said coal mining regions of northern China are reporting soaring levels of defects in newborns, an apparent result of heavy pollution.
(AP, 10/29/07)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Tropical Storm Noel caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people in the Dominican Republic and left another 20 missing.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 29, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced plans to build several nuclear power plants, joining several Arab countries in the Middle East that recently have broadcast their own atomic energy ambitions.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In India 14 children working in a textiles factory were rescued after media reports said an Indian clothing supplier to US retailer Gap was employing underage workers.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 29, A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 29 people, most of them struck by iron balls packed with the explosives. A group of Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders, meanwhile, were rescued, one day after they were kidnapped in the capital after meeting with the government to discuss how to coordinate efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq. The US military discovered a weapons cache in Turki village near Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. The stash included 20 rocket-propelled grenades, ten mortar rounds and three hand grenades. US Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko was wounded in a roadside bombing in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 10/29/07)(AP, 10/30/07)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 29, Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert announced that he has prostate cancer and would soon have surgery, but said the disease is not life-threatening and he would continue to perform his duties.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Japanese megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said that its losses on US subprime loans soared by as much as six-fold over two months to $263 million.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Pro-Taliban militants and security forces reached a cease-fire in a troubled district of northwest Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Portugal senior officials from the EU, three US states (California, New York, New Jersey), Canada, Norway and New Zealand launched the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), an international effort to fight climate change by building a global carbon trading market.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 28, A Moscow court sentenced Alexander Pichushkin, convicted of 48 murders, to life imprisonment, ending one of Russia's worst serial killer cases.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Oct 29, African leaders and technology experts met in Rwanda to discuss plans to boost the continent's development by securing universal Internet access by 2012.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, A long-brewing power struggle between the Somali PM Ali Mohamed Gedi and Pres. Abdullahi Yusuf ended with the premier's resignation, throwing the government of the war-battered Horn of Africa nation into disarray. In Mogadishu, hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets in a second day of protests against the presence of the Ethiopian troops in the country.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run news said soldiers battled separatist Kurdish rebels across southeast Turkey, trapping about 100 in caves near the Iraqi border after blocking escape routes across the frontier. Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey and the government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades and flypasts in major cities.
(AP, 10/29/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, Patrick Duddy, the new US ambassador to Venezuela met with President Hugo Chavez, calling it a positive start toward improving tense relations.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Mike McConnell, US Director of National Intelligence, said the government spent $43.5 billion on intelligence this year.
(SFC, 10/31/07, p.A6)
2007 Oct 30, The US Supreme Court halted a Mississippi execution, their 3rd reprieve since agreeing to rule on Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure.
(WSJ, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, It was reported that John Murtha, US Democratic Congressman from Johnstown, Pa., and chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, had steered at least $600 million in earmarks to his district over the past 4 years. Since 1992 he has sent some $2 billion to his home district.
(WSJ, 10/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 29, Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards sharply challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's candor, consistency and judgment in a televised debate in Philadelphia.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2007 Oct 30, Stan O’Neal, CEO of Merril Lynch, left the company with $161.5 million in stock, options and retirement benefits, following the recent investment bank’s largest ever quarterly loss.
(SFC, 10/31/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 30, In Sunnyvale, Ca., Todd David Burpee kidnapped and raped a 17-year-old girl. He was arrested 2 days later. In 2009 Burpee (22) was convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault and was sentenced 43 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/30/09, p.B2)(SFC, 9/12/09, p.C3)
2007 Oct 30, The San Francisco Bay area's largest earthquake in nearly two decades rattled homes and nerves. The magnitude-5.6 temblor on the Calaveras Fault caused no serious damage or injuries.
(AP, 10/31/07)(SFC, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, NASA said US astronomers have discovered the biggest black hole orbiting a star 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia, with a record-setting mass of 24 to 33 times that of our Sun.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, It was reported that a floating mass of trash some 1,000 miles west of SF and 1,000 miles north of Hawaii covered an area about the size of Texas with an estimated mass of 3 million tons, mostly made up of plastic chips.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, Robert Goulet (73), whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, died in Los Angeles. Goulet also performed in movies ranging from the animated "Gay Purr-ee" (1962) to "Underground" (1970) to "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" (1991). He played a lounge singer in Louis Malle's acclaimed 1980 film "Atlantic City."
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, American journalist Harry W. Morgan (73), founder of the World Press Institute (1961), died in Romania. Morgan had moved to Romania in 1994, when the government invited him to help develop journalism schools at the universities of Bucharest, Sibiu and Timisoara.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Linda Stein (62), a pioneer in the punk music scene and later known as a real estate “broker to the stars," was found murdered in her Manhattan apartment. On Nov 9 police arrested Natavia Lowery (26), Stein’s personal assistant, who bludgeoned her boss to death because Stein “just kept yelling at her."
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.E2)(SFC, 11/10/07, p.E2)
2007 Oct 30, Washoe the chimp (42), who had learned American sign Language, died at Central Washington Univ. in Ellensburg, Wa. Cognitive researchers had adopted the 10-month-old chimp from military researchers in 1966.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 30, An Azerbaijani newspaper editor was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison over an article alleging that the former Soviet republic could support a US attack on neighboring Iran. The Court for Grave Crimes convicted Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder and editor of two independent newspapers that stopped publication this spring amid government pressure, on charges of making a terrorist threat and inciting interethnic conflict.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Nordin Benallal (27), a Belgian gangster dubbed "The Eel" for his skill at slipping away from Belgian prison authorities, was caught in the Netherlands two days after his latest jailbreak.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, In London Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah received a lavish welcome from Queen Elizabeth II as he started a state visit amid angry protests and headlines after accusing Britain of anti-terrorism failures. The Policy Exchange, an independent think tank, said Agencies linked to the Saudi government have distributed extremist literature to mosques and Islamic centers in Britain.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Canada's Conservative government vowed to slash corporate and personal taxes and still pay down C$10 billion in debt this year.
(Reuters, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met India's leadership at the start of a state visit aimed at boosting trade and security links.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, An Indonesian court dismissed a legal challenge to the death penalty brought by lawyers for members of an Australian drugs gang on death row for heroin smuggling.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car tossed a hand grenade into a crowd of shoppers in eastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five. At least four mortar rounds slammed into a village near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing a woman and wounding five other civilians. Three US soldiers were killed after their patrol was struck by an explosive and small arms fire in Salman Pak.
(AP, 10/30/07)(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Oct 30, Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas-run police station in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing at least four people.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Italy Giovanna Reggiani (47) was brutally attacked as she returned home in northern Rome. She died 2 days later. Nicolae Mailat, a Romanian Gypsy, admitted to snatching her bag but denied her murder. Her attack triggered a public outcry.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.63)
2007 Oct 30, Myanmar's military government freed seven members of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, who had been held for more than a month. Human Rights Watch charged that Myanmar’s military government is recruiting children as young as 10 into its armed forces.
(AP, 10/30/07)(WSJ, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 30, Patricia Etteh, the speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, resigned, just hours after saying she would step aside temporarily to enable lawmakers to debate a report indicting her over a contract scam. A panel's report found Etteh did not follow due process before awarding contracts worth several million dollars to equip and renovate her official residence and that of her deputy.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Pakistan a suicide attacker set off a bomb at a checkpoint a quarter-mile from the military headquarters in Rawalpindi where President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was staying, killing 3 officers and 4 civilians.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Paraguay's Supreme Court annulled the mutiny conviction of former army Gen. Lino Cesar Oviedo, clearing the way for him to compete in April's presidential election.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Puerto Rico federal authorities arrested more than two dozen people in a crackdown on fraudulent medical licenses on the island.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Somalia's president named Salim Aliyow Ibrow, a former deputy prime minister, as a caretaker prime minister, a day after the outgoing premier lost a power struggle in the government and resigned.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, The US Navy boarded a North Korean flagged ship at its invitation with a small team of medics, security personnel and an interpreter. The 22-person North Korean crew already had regained control of the ship and detained all the Somali pirates.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 30, Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, reported its first quarterly loss in five years after its third quarter results were hit in the financial crisis caused by the ailing US home loans market.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Thailand's military-installed government lifted martial law in more than half of the 400 districts where it remained after being imposed during a coup last year.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Turkish Cobra attack helicopters blasted suspected Kurdish rebel targets near the southeastern border with Iraq in a second day of fighting in the area. PM Erdogan said an escalation of military action was unavoidable.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, The UN General Assembly voted for the 16th straight year to urge the United States to end its trade embargo against Cuba, whose foreign minister accused the US of stepping up its "brutal economic war" to new heights.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, Pres. Bush signed into law a measure barring states from levying taxes on Internet access through 2014.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C2)
2007 Oct 31, The US acknowledged that it had undertaken military moves against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, including spy planes and providing Turkey with more intelligence.
(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 31, The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point to 4.5%. The DJIA rose 137.54 to 13,930.01. Nasdaq rose 42.41 to 2,859. Oil futures rose to a new record high closing at $94.53 per barrel on the NY mercantile Exchange. Gold traded above $800 an ounce for the first time since 1980.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.C1)(AP, 10/31/08)
2007 Oct 30, In California Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona was indicted on seven counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering, according to a sweeping indictment unsealed a day earlier. Carona and others allegedly accepted $350,000 in gifts and cash in exchange for political favors in a scheme that began as early as 1998, the year he was first elected. On Jan 16, 2009, a jury convicted Carona on one count of witness-tampering and acquitted him of bribery charges.
(AP, 10/31/07)(SFC, 10/31/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/17/09, p.A3)
2007 Oct 31, In Alameda, Ca., Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan (15) was shot in the back and killed in a robbery attempt by a group of teenage boys. She had been out with some 10 friends on Halloween when they were accosted at Washington Park. Quochuy Tran (16), the suspected shooter, was arrested Nov 7 and 5 others were picked up the next day. 3 boys arrested earlier in the week were released. On Dec 14 three teenage boys were convicted in juvenile court of first degree murder. Charges were still pending against 3 others. On Jan 25 Tran was sentenced to 7 years. His younger brother (15) and another boy (13) were sentenced to a wilderness camp for 2 years. In 2010 Quochuy Tran was tried as an adult and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for first degree murder.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/14/07, p.B5)(SFC, 12/15/07, p.B1)(SFC, 1/26/08, p.B3)(SFC, 8/21/10, p.C2)
2007 Oct 31, San Francisco energy officials approved a new $230 million power plant near Potrero Hill, which would let it close an older, dirtier plant nearby.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 31, Physicists at UC Berkeley said they had produced the world’s smallest radio out of a single carbon nanotube, 10,000 times thinner than human hair. They had it play “Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and said it could also function as a transmitter.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 31, In Hawaii state lawmakers voted to allow the new inter-island ferry to resume service. The Superferry law overrode court decisions requiring an environmental study.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A4)
2007 Oct 31, Officials said Afghan, US and Canadian troops have surrounded a pocket of some 250 Taliban fighters who have commandeered people's homes in villages just outside Kandahar. In western Farah province six police officers were killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing after clashes with Taliban militants. A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by Afghan troops with US support sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Oct 31, In London King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met PM Gordon Brown to discuss Middle East issues and counter-terrorism, amid a swirl of protests.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, China's worst fuel crisis in two years spread to the capital and other inland areas, and one man was killed in a brawl at a petrol station queue, upping pressure on the government to intervene.
(Reuters, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In Dubai more than 4,000 south Asian workers who had been jailed since a weekend labor strike were released, in an incident that has highlighted labor tensions in this booming city.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Authorities said French police had arrested 20 suspects as part of a Europe-wide crackdown on child pornography over the Internet.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Alcatel-Lucent, the struggling French-US telecommunications equipment maker, announced it would cut an additional 4,000 jobs by 2009 as it unveiled a sharp third quarter net loss.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Iraqi government rejected the findings of a US oversight panel that a dam near the northern city of Mosul is on the verge of a collapse that could cause flooding along the Tigris River "all the way to Baghdad." US helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came under attack southeast of Baghdad, and Iraqi police said three officers were killed and one wounded in the strike. Two American soldiers were killed by an explosion near their vehicle in Iraq's northern Ninevah province.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 31, More than 100 Buddhist monks marched in northern Myanmar for nearly an hour, the first public demonstration since the government's deadly crackdown last month on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In southern Nigeria one navy officer was killed and four other naval personnel injured in an overnight attack on a vessel protecting a Shell oilfield.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Pakistan military helicopter gunships strafed Islamic militant positions in the northwestern Swat Valley as a shaky truce collapsed.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, A bomb ripped through a passenger bus in the central Russian city of Togliatti, killing eight people and injuring 48. Togliatti is a city on the Volga River known as the headquarters of Russia's largest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, which returned to state control in 2005. The city has a reputation for gang violence as varying groups have competed for control over the lucrative factory.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Spanish lawmakers passed historic legislation condemning Gen. Francisco Franco's coup and nearly 40-year fascist dictatorship, brushing aside complaints from the conservative opposition that the bill would reopen old divides. 3 lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid terror bombings that killed 191 people were convicted of murder by the Spanish court. Four other top suspects were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges. In all 21 of the 28 defendants were convicted.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Turkish army said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq's autonomous Kurdish government.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct, Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir likened tourists to "worms, snakes, maggots" and called for signs to be placed in Muslim areas warning them to dress modestly in a speech to an Islamic youth organization in east Java.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2007 Oct, In Japan a woman (19) in Hiroshima was allegedly raped by 4 US Marines. In 2008 Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean (20) was sentenced to two years in prison for "wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts" but cleared of rape. 3 other Marines still faced court-martial.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2007 Oct, Mexican officials seized 23.5 tons of cocaine this month, the largest seizure ever reported in Mexico. A US report, commissioned by Sen. Lugar, later estimated that 530-710 tons of cocaine crossed annually into the US.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.45)
2007 Oct, The first commercial wave farm was set up off the coast of Portugal. The system was created at Pelamis Wave Power, a firm based in Scotland.
(Econ, 5/31/08, TQ p.22)
2007 Oct, Russian oil production peaked at 9.9 million barrels a day. The state creamed off as much as 92% of profits hindering incentives for production and development.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.71)
2007 Oct, Fighting broke out between Somaliland and Puntland in the disputed Sool region.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.56)
2007 Oct-2008 Nov, In Senegal lead poisoning killed 18 children in Thiaroye Sur Mer. For years, the town's blacksmiths had extracted lead from car batteries and remolded it into weights for fishing nets. The work left the dirt of Thiaroye dense with small lead particles. As the price of lead climbed local people had begun to sift the dirt to extract the lead.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2007 Nov 1, A defiant Democratic-controlled Congress voted to provide health insurance to an additional 4 million lower-income children; President Bush vowed swiftly to cast his second straight veto on the issue.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2007 Nov 1, A federal jury convicted Vic Kohring, a former Alaska lawmaker, of corruption charges involving tax protections sought by oil companies as part of plans for a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Florida’s high court ruled that the state’s lethal injection procedures aren’t cruel and unusual, which could clear the way for an execution.
(WSJ, 11/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 1, Chrysler LLC said it plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, or up to 15 percent of its workforce, as part of an effort to slash costs and match slowing demand for some vehicles.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, General Mills recalled about 5 million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totino's and Jeno's labels because of possible E. coli contamination.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, An alliance including Google announced a plan to make social networks as open as Netscape’s browser made the web.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.78)
2007 Nov 1, A project called “The Deep Carbon Observatory," a multidisciplinary, international initiative dedicated to achieving a transformational understanding of Earth's deep carbon cycle, received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.86)(https://dco.gl.ciw.edu/about/history)
2007 Nov 1, Retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Paul Tibbets (92), who'd piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died in Columbus, Ohio.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2007 Nov 1, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others. In Kandahar province hundreds of Taliban militants fled from Arghandab district following three days of fighting which left more than 50 militants dead and hundreds displaced.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Bosnian PM Nikola Spiric resigned in protest at an international envoy's decision to impose EU-backed reforms, deepening the country's worst post-war political crisis.
(AFP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, London's Metropolitan Police force was convicted of breaching health and safety laws in the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian, who officers mistook for a suicide bomber on July 22, 2005.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, China’s government for the first time in 17 months allowed an increase of about 10% in the retail prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene. The government also said more than 700 toy factories in southern China have been banned from exporting what they produce as part of a crackdown on shoddy products.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.46)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Floodwaters and mudslides spawned by Tropical Storm Noel killed at least 143 people including 84 in the Dominican Republic and 57 in Haiti. By this evening Noel was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane and rains continued to pound the area.
(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) went into effect across 30 countries in Europe. Approved in 2004 it drops traditional rules that required banks and brokers to use national exchanges for reporting and trading equities, opening Europe's exchanges to the threat of new competition.
(www.efinancialnews.com/homepage/specialfeatures/2449084355)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.83)(Econ, 4/26/14, p.67)
2007 Nov 1, A top UN official said South American traffickers are moving billions of dollars worth of cocaine through Guinea-Bissau, amid growing demand in Europe, an amount so large it dwarfs all other economic sectors combined and could destabilize the coup-prone country.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 1, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former French finance minister, took over as head of the IMF. By convention the IMF chief is European.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.88)
2007 Nov 1, The Indian government proposed to recruit retired soldiers to patrol tiger sanctuaries in the hopes of saving the last of the cats after an official report confirmed a drastic drop in wild tiger numbers.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, Bombs and shootings killed at least 21 people in attacks across Baghdad and its northern suburbs. US and Iraqi troops arrested 85 suspected insurgents in operations around the country. Two US airmen and an Air Force civilian were killed by an explosive near Balad Air Base.
(AP, 11/1/07)(WSJ, 11/2/07, p.A1)(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Israel’ military announced that its forces operating in the Gaza Strip this week had uncovered and destroyed seven tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle arms and people.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, Italy's president signed a decree allowing the expulsion of EU citizens "for reasons of public safety" to fight "episodes of heavy violence and ferocious crime." This followed the Oct 30 attack on a 47-year-old woman as she walked along a road after dark toward barracks where she lived. She was beaten, dragged through mud and left half naked in a ditch. The woman died 2 days later. Police arrested Nicolae Mailat a Romanian in his 20s, who lives in a shack in one of several sprawling settlements on the outskirts of Rome.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 1, In Italy Meredith Kercher (21), a British university student, was killed [see Nov 2].
(AP, 12/5/09)
2007 Nov 1, Japan's defense minister ordered ships supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan to return home after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of the mission, saying it violated the country's pacifist constitution.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Pakistani security forces in the Swat region killed at least 60 militant supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric, hours after a suicide attack on a Pakistan Air Force bus killed eight and wounded 40. Militants said they had captured 44 members of the Frontier Corps and were holding them hostage.
(AP, 11/1/07)(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A21)
2007 Nov 1, The UN said nearly 90,000 people have fled Mogadishu in recent days following the heaviest fighting to shake the war-battered city in months. About 40 people, mostly Somalis, drowned while crossing the Gulf of Aden on their way to Yemen in a desperate attempt to escape gunbattles back home. About 90 others survived and managed to reach the Yemeni southern shores of Shokara after their rickety vessels capsized.
(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 1, State media reported that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed a law giving him more power to choose his successor. The new law also provides for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary polls next year.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, The UN General Assembly's disarmament committee approved a resolution calling for all nuclear weapons to be taken off high alert, despite objections from the United States, Britain and France.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Soldiers used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter tens of thousands who massed to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Speaking at a graduation ceremony at Fort Jackson, S.C., President Bush said US military deaths had fallen to their lowest levels in 19 months and the Iraqi people were slowly "taking back their country" in the wake of the American troop buildup there.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2007 Nov 2, Michael Mukasey drew closer to becoming attorney general after two key Senate Democrats, Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, said they would vote for him despite his refusal to say whether waterboarding was torture.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2007 Nov 2, Gold futures at the NY Mercantile Exchange set a contract high of $805.70, its highest level since the $873 contract high reached in January 1980.
(WSJ, 11/3/07, p.B3)
2007 Nov 2, A new study, issued by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, said drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV have merged into a double-barreled epidemic that is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa and threatening global efforts to eradicate both diseases.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, In southern Afghanistan a US-led coalition soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed in clashes with insurgents.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, In England a massive fire at a vegetable packing warehouse in Atherstone On Stour, near Stratford-upon-Avon, left one fire fighter dead and 3 missing.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Iraqi police found only six bodies dumped in three Iraqi cities, and no reports of shootings or bombings. The prime minister of Iraq's northern Kurdish region condemned attacks by Kurdish rebel fighters inside Turkey and said he hopes a weekend summit in Istanbul will reduce the threat of Turkish military strikes inside Iraq.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Italy began deporting Romanians with criminal records in response to a streak of violent crime blamed on immigrants. In Rome up to 10 people wearing motorcycle helmets attacked a group of Romanians with knives, metal bars and sticks in the parking lot of a supermarket. Three Romanians were injured. As part of the crackdown, bulldozers in Rome for a second day knocked down shantytowns where thousands of foreigners lived without permits.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, In Italy Meredith Kercher (21), a British university student, was found dead with her throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the central city of Perugia. A week later 3 suspects in the murder were remanded in custody by an Italian investigating magistrate. On Nov 19 police in Perugia identified a 4th suspect as Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native. Guede was arrested in Germany the next day and DNA evidence confirmed that he had sex with Kercher the night she was stabbed. In 2009 roommate Amanda Knox, of Seattle, Wa., was convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison. The court also convicted Knox's co-defendant and former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, and gave him a 25-year jail term for the murder. Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen, had already been convicted in the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 11/22/07)(AP, 12/5/09)
2007 Nov 2, A UN helicopter crashed on a routine flight in northern Liberia, killing two crew members and leaving a third missing.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Rescuers in boats and helicopters worked to evacuate people stranded by a flood the president called "one of the worst natural disasters" to hit Mexico. A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, leaving 70 percent of the Gulf state of Tabasco underwater. Gov. Andres Granier estimated the damage at $5 billion. The death toll reached to about 25.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.45)
2007 Nov 2, A Nigerian court sentenced Omoniyi Sanlola (25), a university student, to 34 years in jail for forging US Postal Service money orders. The judge handed him one-year terms for each count, to run concurrently.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Pakistan International Airlines had to cancel 40 percent of its international and domestic flights after aircraft engineers went on mass sick leave in a protest over pay. A missile strike on a pro-Taliban militant camp in Pakistan's tribal belt killed 10 people, as rebels in another area paraded 48 men said to be troops captured during fierce clashes.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Igor Moiseyev (101), called the king of folk dance, died in Moscow. In 1937 he founded the Moiseyev Dance Company which went on to inspire folk dance companies in many other countries.
(SFC, 11/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Nov 2, A Sri Lankan airstrike pounded a meeting of top rebel leaders, killing S.P. Thamilselvan, the head of the Tamil Tigers' political wing and five others in an attack seen as a major victory for the government in its long fight with the guerrillas.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.49)
2007 Nov 2, Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir reached agreement with southern leader Salva Kiir, who is also first vice president, that all provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement would now be implemented by the end of the year.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, Venezuela's pro-government National Assembly overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms that would greatly expand the power of President Hugo Chavez and permit him to run for re-election indefinitely.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 3, Agricultural giant Cargill Inc. said it is recalling over 1 million pounds of ground beef distributed in the United States because of possible E. Coli contamination.
(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Spacewalker Scott Parazynski fixed a ripped solar energy panel on the international space station in a difficult and dangerous emergency procedure that allowed the crew to extend the wing to its full length.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Boss, a robotic Chevrolet Tahoe from Carnegie Mellon Univ., won the annual DARPA sponsored race in San Bernadino County, Ca. 6 of 11 starting vehicles finished the 10-mile race, designed to simulate a town. No car finished the first race in 2004.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.100)
2007 Nov 3, United Auto Workers agreed to a tentative contract with Ford Motor Co.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2007 Nov 3, Eighteen big rigs were involved in the massive pileup on Highway 99 just south of Fresno, Ca., as patches of dense fog obscured visibility on the heavily traveled roadway. More than 100 cars and trucks crashed, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 3, Abu Dhabi began work on building the world's first Ferrari theme park, another step in the Gulf emirate's ambition to become a global centre for leisure, sport and culture.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 3, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made her first visit to Afghanistan and said Berlin would increase efforts to strengthen the Afghan police.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Egypt's ruling party appointed President Hosni Mubarak's son to an important new committee in a move seen as further paving the way for the younger Mubarak to succeed his father.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, In Indonesia continuous tremors beneath the Mount Kelud volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, became so strong that they could no longer be read on seismological instruments, leading scientists to evacuate their posts and warn that an eruption appeared to have occurred. It was a false alarm but next day the volcano spewed ash.
(AP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 3, Two Iraqi officers were killed and one was wounded in three separate attacks south of Baghdad. The Basra police chief escaped an apparent assassination attempt. Iraqi troops discovered 22 bodies in a mass grave in the Lake Tharthar area northwest of Baghdad during a joint operation with US troops. It was the second mass grave found in the area in less than a month. The US military said that a female soldier was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, at least the 90th woman service member to die since the start of the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/3/07)(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 3, Al-Qaida's No. 2 figure harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a new audio tape, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the US.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Je Yell Kim, a Canadian Christian aid worker who provided dental care for North Koreans in the northeast part of the country, was taken into custody by authorities on charges of violating national security. Kim was released in late Jan 2008.
(Reuters, 1/28/08)
2007 Nov 3, Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf launched his 2nd coup and declared a state of emergency ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win and amid rising Islamic militant violence. Eight Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution.
(AP, 11/3/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.31)
2007 Nov 3, In Russia some 1,500 people, half of them pensioners, marched through St. Petersburg chanting anti-Kremlin slogans and banging saucepans in protest against rising food prices.
(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Some 5,000 Turkish Kurds protested against a military incursion into Iraq, saying such a move would enflame ethnic tensions in the region and plunge the local economy into ruin. Iraq said it was ready to hunt down and arrest Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey in an effort to avert a major incursion by the Turkish military.
(AFP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Citigroup Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince, beset by the company's billions of dollars in losses from investing in bad debt, resigned. Citigroup in this quarter took subprime-related write-downs of $18.1 billion.
(AP, 11/4/08)(Econ 5/6/17, SR p.5)
2007 Nov 4, Paula Radcliffe outlasted Gete Wami to win her second New York City Marathon in 2:23:09. Martin Lel of Kenya won his second men's title, in 2:09:04.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2007 Nov 4, Taliban insurgents seized Khak-e Sefid without a fight, its third district in western Farah province. A Farah provincial police chief said: "There are many Iranians and Pakistanis fighting among the Afghan Taliban." Local residents have complained that NATO-led troops, under Italian command in western Afghanistan, have not helped Afghan forces to retake the districts.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Argentina a fire apparently set as part of an escape attempt swept through a prison cellblock and killed at least 29 inmates in the central province of Santiago del Estero.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 4, Welshman Joe Calzaghe confirmed his status as boxing's best super-middleweight by unanimously outpointing Denmark's Mikkel Kessler in a triple world title fight at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
(AFP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Chad 3 French journalists and 4 Spanish flight attendants, among 17 detained for over a week in an alleged attempt to kidnap 103 African children, were released. French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Chad on a visit to discuss the fate of Europeans facing charges for trying to fly 103 African children to Europe.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, Cairo, ranked one of the most polluted cities in the world, was reported to be once again under the shadow of a highly toxic black cloud which settles above the huge city every autumn. Exhaust fumes belched by millions of cars mixed with the hypertoxic emissions of the annual burning of rice stubble in rural areas of the Nile Delta are a prime cause, along with the city's ever-expanding population.
(AFP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Egypt the face of King Tut was unshrouded in public for the first time, 85 years after the 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh's golden enshrined tomb and mummy were discovered in Luxor's famed Valley of the Kings in 1922.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said they had killed another 270 government troops in heightened fighting in the eastern region of the country.
(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Guatemala Alvaro Colom, a businessman promising to end Guatemala's desperate poverty, won the country's presidential election. Otto Perez Molina (56), a former general vowing a crackdown on rampant crime, had held a slim edge in polls over Alvaro Colom. Only 48% of registered voters went to the polls. Colom’s National Union of Hope will control only 52 of 158 seats in Congress.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.47)
2007 Nov 4, Two carloads of gunman ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry in Baghdad, killing him and his driver. The two were among 15 people killed or found dead in Iraq. Kurdish rebels released eight Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq two weeks after they were captured in a deadly ambush that intensified pressure on the Turkish government to attack the guerrillas in Iraq.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, Israeli aircraft fired at a rocket-launching site in the northern Gaza Strip, killing three civilians sleeping in a nearby storage container.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Mexico a landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called a "mini-tsunami" that wiped San Juan Grijalva, in Chiapas near the Tabasco border, off the map. 15 bodies were later recovered with 9 left missing. The floods killed at least 8 others in Tabasco and elsewhere in Chiapas.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/13/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 4, Pakistani police wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights activists after Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution, ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism. Pro-Taliban militants set free 211 Pakistani troops they have held captive since late August in a tribal region near the Afghan border. In exchange Pakistan released 25 Taliban including Sohail Zeb (22), who was sentenced to 24 years in jail a month earlier after being arrested with 2 suicide belts.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.34)
2007 Nov 4, Some 5,000 nationalists turned out for the Russian March, held for the third year on National Unity Day, a holiday the Kremlin created in 2005 to replace the traditional Nov. 7 celebration of the 1917 Bolshevik rise to power. Preston Wiginton (43), a white supremacist from Texas, addressed thousands of Russian nationalists at the rally. A fire tore through a nursing home in Russia, killing at least 31 people, the latest in a series of deadly blazes that have underscored negligence and other problems plaguing state-run institutions.
(AP, 11/4/07)(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 4, Somali pirates left the Tanzanian-flagged boats Mavuno 1 and 2, which they had hijacked in the waters off Somalia on May 15. The newly liberated vessels, and their crew of 24, were under US Navy escort. Among the crew on the South Korean-owned vessels were four South Koreans, 10 Chinese, three Vietnamese, three Indians and four Indonesians.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 5, Brent Wilkes (53), a former defense contractor, was convicted by a San Diego court of bribing former congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham with 700,000 dollars in cash, gifts and prostitutes. Cunningham was sentenced to eight years and four months in March last year after pleading guilty to accepting kickbacks.
(AFP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Jurors at Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that food giants Dole and the Dow Chemical Co were jointly liable for the physical damage suffered by workers who harvested bananas in Nicaragua during the 1970s and 1980s. Six workers left infertile after exposure to a pesticide were awarded more than three million dollars.
(AFP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Talk show host Oprah Winfrey promised to ''clean house'' after a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at Winfrey's school for disadvantaged South African girls.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2007 Nov 5, The first walkout by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with noisy pickets outside the "Today" show, a strike that threatens to disrupt everything from late-night talk shows to soap operas.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, NYC Mayor Bloomberg announced a new report card for the city’s schools. He said high grade schools will get a budget increase and schools that fail will not be tolerated. Bloomberg and school chancellor Joel Klein announced a plan to in effect charterize the entire school system.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.16,35)
2007 Nov 5, Citigroup named Sir Win Bischoff (66), a London banker, as interim chief executive following the departure of Charles Prince, ousted the previous day due to loan losses on mortgage related securities. The company had over 300,000 employees in 100 countries.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.89)
2007 Nov 5, Conde Nast said it would cease publication of House & Garden magazine with the December issue and close down the magazine web site.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 5, Google introduced Android, a new operating system for cell phones. It was expected to appear in phones in the second half of 2008.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 5, Ten Islamic fundamentalists convicted of a terrorist attack were sentenced to death in their absence by an Algerian court. The group was behind a bomb attack on a police patrol in June 2003 in which nine officers were killed.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 5, Authorities said police from across Europe have arrested 92 suspects linked to an alleged network that produced and sold child abuse videos to 2,500 customers around the world. The 15-month investigation was triggered by an Australian police discovery in July 2006 of a video depicting a Belgian father raping his daughters, aged 9 and 11.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In China construction began on what was expected to be the world's tallest Ferris wheel. The $99 million Beijing Great Wheel will soar 680 feet over Beijing when it is complete.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Ao Man-long, a former transportation and public works secretary, went on trial charged with taking $100 million in kickbacks in Macao, the freewheeling Chinese gambling resort that has attracted some of Las Vegas' top casino operators.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, PetroChina made its debut on the Shanghai stock exchange. It sold 2.2% of its share capital to domestic investors in an IPO that rose from 16.90 yuan to 43.96 yuan ($5.90). For a short time it was the most valuable company in the world, but by December share value had dropped by a third.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.C3)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.85)
2007 Nov 5, In eastern Congo 27 UN peacekeepers from India were injured when attacked by a mob of hungry civilians who claimed not to have received any food aid.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.54)
2007 Nov 5, An Egyptian court convicted two police officers and sentenced them to three years in prison for torturing a bus driver, in a case that came to light after a video of the abuse was posted on the Internet.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, The Delhi State Consumer Commission ordered ICICI Bank to pay $137,500 in penalty after its loan collectors beat a man with iron rods and dragged him from a car before seizing the vehicle.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Iraq 6 US soldiers were killed in 3 separate attacks, including 5 from 2 roadside bombs near Kirkuk. The 6th died in combat operations in Anbar province.
(AP, 11/6/07)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Nov 5, Jordan's military court convicted Muammar Ahmed Yousef al-Jaghbeer, an al-Qaida militant of involvement in the deadly suicide car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Iraq in 2003 and sentenced him to death.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In North Korea a team of experts led by the US started work to disable 3 nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.55)
2007 Nov 5, Pakistani police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500 people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a stranglehold on independent media. The government said it would hold a national election by mid-January.
(AP, 11/5/07)(Reuters, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Palestinian police attacked militants in the Balata refugee camp, home to 22,000 people, one of 19 in the West Bank.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.A17)
2007 Nov 5, Poland's prime minister-designate Donald Tusk said in a published interview that the new government plans to end the country's role in the US-led coalition in Iraq in its "current form" next year. Poland's conservative PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski handed in his resignation to his twin, President Lech Kaczynski.
(AP, 11/5/07)(AFP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, A bus collided with a car on a highway in central Portugal and rolled down a slope, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Sicily Salvatore Lo Piccolo (65), who magistrates believe is the Sicilian Mafia's new "boss of bosses," was arrested after nearly a quarter of a century on the run. He was arrested with his son, Sandro (32), and two other Mafia bosses.
(Reuters, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, Somali pirates released a Taiwanese fishing vessel 5 1/2 months after seizing it. The US Navy helped free the fifth ship in a week hijacked by Somalia pirates, attempting to bring security to crucial shipping routes between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The Navy was in contact with two remaining ships held by pirates in Somali waters.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, South Korea’s Home Affairs Ministry announced a campaign to promote bicycle use as a way to cope with traffic, pollution and soaring oil prices.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In central Vietnam residents braced for a tropical storm expected to make landfall later this week after floods triggered by heavy rains killed at least 24 people. People in seven coastal areas fell victim to the latest floods, which began Nov 2. The floods were the third to hit the region in three weeks.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Yemen unidentified saboteurs bombed an oil pipeline in Marib province. The attack halted the flow of oil and added to concerns in the world oil markets about adequate supplies for heating fuel.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 5, Zimbabwe's supreme court ruled the government can seize equipment belonging to white farmers whose properties were expropriated under controversial land reforms.
(AFP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom declared victory. The vote tally was expected to take as long as 2 weeks due to a state-mandated hand count.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 6, In Vallejo, Ca., mayoral candidates Osby Davis (62) and Gary Cloutier (45) finished in a dead heat. Cloutier was later sworn in as mayor after elections officials said he won by 4 votes. On Dec 11 Osby was sworn in as mayor following a recount that put him on top by 2 votes.
(SFC, 12/12/07, p.B3)
2007 Nov 6, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, dogged by a hiring scandal, lost badly to Democratic challenger Steve Beshear.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Nov 6, Central bankers past and present warned of more credit pain to come as Germany's Commerzbank and a big American lender became the latest to reveal losses from US subprime mortgage lending.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Crude oil prices hit a record highs at $97.10 and closed at a record $96.70 per barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.C2)
2007 Nov 6, Astronomers said a new planet has been discovered orbiting a sun-like star 41 light years away in the galaxy called 55 Cancri, making it the first known planetary quintet outside our solar system.
(AP, 11/7/07)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Nov 6, George Osmond (90), father of Donny and Marie Osmond and patriarch to the family's singing group The Osmond Brothers, died in Provo, Utah.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2007 Nov 6, Hank Thompson (82), country singer, died in Texas of lung cancer. Between 1948 and 1975 he had 29 songs in the top ten including “A Six Pack to Go" and “The Wild Side of Life" (1952). Kitty Wells (b.1919) sang her 1952 Honky Tonk Angels song, which was written by J.D. Miller in response to Thompson’s Wild Side of Life.
(SFC, 11/9/07, p.B7)
2007 Nov 6, In Afghanistan a bomb targeted a group of lawmakers in the northern province of Baghlan, killing at least 75 people, including 6 lawmakers. 61 schoolchildren were among the dead and 96 other students were wounded. A UN report later said up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and 100 wounded were hit by bullets from visiting lawmakers' panicked bodyguards.
(Reuters, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/9/07)(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/6/08)
2007 Nov 6, Chinese e-commerce portal Alibaba.com soared in its debut on the Hong Kong stock market. It opened at $3.86 and closed at $5.09.
(AP, 11/6/07)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.C1)
2007 Nov 6, In Bangalore, India, doctors began operating on Lakshmi, a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body. Surgeons completed the surgery the next day and said will it give the girl a chance at a normal life.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 6, 2007 became the deadliest year for US troops in Iraq, with at least 853 military deaths.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2007 Nov 6, In Kashmir a 4-day gunbattle began that left five Islamic militants and four Indian soldiers killed.
(AFP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 6, Kurdish rebels released another Iranian soldier captured two months ago in northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Italian police said a Europe-wide sweep disrupted an Islamic cell that was recruiting potential suicide bombers for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. They announced the arrests of 20 terror suspects, mostly Tunisians. Authorities in Britain, France and Portugal confirmed arrests.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, A Mauritanian patrol boat found a drifting boat from Senegal with some 100 people aboard as well as 2 dead bodies. The migrants had spent nearly 3 weeks at sea and thrown 43 dead bodies overboard.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 6, A US diplomat said the disablement of North Korea's nuclear weapons-making facilities has started smoothly and the communist nation should be able to complete the process by the end of the year.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, while the government debated whether to delay parliamentary elections by as much as three months.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Singapore presented its case regarding sovereignty of three disputed islands in the Pacific Ocean at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, a claim disputed by Malaysia.
(AFP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, In northern South Africa a blaze swept through a nursing home, killing 12 people and injuring five.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 6, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Cape Town for talks on the situation in war-torn Darfur and political upheaval in Khartoum.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, In the Vatican Benedict XVI raised concerns about restrictions on Christian worship in Saudi Arabia in the first meeting ever between a pope and a reigning Saudi king.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Zimbabwe’s Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele was briefly detained over allegations he promised to help a fugitive banker who had fled the southern African nation avoid arrest. Police said he faces corruption charges.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, Kenny Chesney won as entertainer of the year and Carrie Underwood won as best female vocalist at the annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A2)
2007 Nov 7, Pres. Bush met with France’s Pres. Sarkozy, who addressed the US Congress and backed Bush’s strategy to confront Iran.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 7, Prosecutors said 2 mid-level DC government employees used phony paperwork to collect more than $16 million from illegal tax refunds, avoiding detection for at least three years while issuing more than 40 checks cashed by friends and family members in on the scam. The total stolen was later raised to some $30 million. Harriet Walters, the alleged ringleader of the scam, authorized checks to such fake companies as Bilkemor LLC.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.36)(http://tinyurl.com/2o7sj5)
2007 Nov 7, The US dollar fell sharply after a Chinese parliamentarian called for his country to diversify its reserves out of weak currencies. The Canadian dollar hitched a ride on surging commodities prices to rise against a beleaguered US dollar, passing US$1.10.
(Reuters, 11/7/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.93)
2007 Nov 7, General Motors posted a record loss of $39 billion, which included a $38.6 billion noncash charge related to accumulated deferred tax credits.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.C3)
2007 Nov 7, Morgan Stanley said it has suffered a $3.7 billion loss stemming from its US subprime mortgage exposure, which it expects will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by about $2.5 billion.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, The Cosco Busan, a 65,131 ton Greek-owned container ship leased by Hanjin Shipping of South Korea, hit a protective shield at the base of a tower of the Bay Bridge. The Bridge was not damaged, but the ship suffered a gash and spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the SF Bay. By the end of the month estimated bird deaths due to the oil topped 20,000. The cleanup cost was later estimated at some $61 million. A year later federal authorities still held 6 Chinese crew members for their testimony. In July, 2009, Cosco Busan Capt. John Cota (61) was sentenced to 10 months in prison, becoming the first ship’s pilot in US history to be sent to prison for an accident. On August 13, 2009, Fleet Management Ltd. of Hong Kong pleaded guilty to charges of water pollution and falsifying documents and agreed to pay $10 million in fines. On Dec 4, 2011, a settlement was reached to pay 120 SF Bay Area commercial fishermen $3.6 million.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/19/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/08, p.A2)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.C1)(SFC, 8/14/09, p.D1)(SFC, 1/5/11, p.C3)
2007 Nov 7, The space shuttle Discovery returned to Kennedy Space Center after a 15-day mission building and repairing the international space station.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Nov 7, Argentina's Pres. Nestor Kirchner unveiled a memorial in Buenos Aires to victims of the so-called Dirty War that claimed some 13,000 lives during the country's military dictatorship, using the occasion to urge judges to speed human rights trials.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, Australia's central bank raised interest rates 0.25 points to an 11-year high of 6.75 percent in a move expected to hurt PM John Howard's re-election hopes.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Belgium politicians of the Flemish majority, 60% of the population, made a bid to abolish the bilingual rights of 150,000 French speakers living in suburbs near Brussels. This broke the decades-old “Belgian Pact" under which the 2 language groups avoided holding a straight sectarian vote.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.65)
2007 Nov 7, A novel by a former radio broadcaster in Canada's north won the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's most lucrative and prestigious prize for fiction. Elizabeth Hay's "Late Nights on Air" details the loves and rivalries of a cast of eccentric characters at a small radio station in Yellowknife, near Canada's Arctic.
(Reuters, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, A Chinese government publication reported that industrial discharge and household wastewater have polluted the northern Futuo River so badly that the water is dark red in some sections and has caused chronic illnesses among villagers.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, In southern Finland 8 people were killed and 11 wounded after Pekka-Eric Auvinen (18) opened fire at Jokela High School in Tuusula. He then shot himself in the head and died hours later in a hospital.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Georgia police forced dozens of opposition supporters from a site in Tbilisi, where five days of protests had drawn thousands, but demonstrators later returned and renewed their calls for the president's resignation. A Georgian television station, regarded by the government as an opposition mouthpiece, went off the air after riot police entered its headquarters. The government declared a 15-day state of emergency.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AP, 11/8/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.66)
2007 Nov 7, Interpol put Ali Fallahian, Iran’s former intelligence chief, Mohsen Rezai, a former leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, a Revolutionary Guards general, and 2 other Iranians and Imad Mugniyah, a Lebanese militant on its most-wanted list for a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people at a Jewish center in Argentina.
(AP, 11/8/07)(WSJ, 1/15/08, p.A6)
2007 Nov 7, The Iraqi Army said 17 bodies were discovered in a mass grave in an area of brush near a school in Hashimiyat, west of Baqouba. In Baghdad a Shiite math teacher was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Sunni-dominated Mansour area. Southeast of Baghdad, two children aged 4 and 8 were killed when a mortar struck their house. In Kut gunmen broke into the home of an Iraqi soldier and shot him to death. A suicide truck bomb exploded at the office of a Kurdish political party in Kirkuk and about 13 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Kenya’s official human rights commission reported that state security agents had killed 454 people since the summer in and around Nairobi. They were said to be members of the Mungiki sect, a Kikuyu gang that has terrorized central Kenya for years.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.58)(http://allafrica.com/stories/200711080157.html)
2007 Nov 7, The watchdog group Peace Now said Israel is enlarging 88 of its 122 West Bank settlements despite an agreement to halt the spread of Jewish communities in Palestinian territory.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 7, Latvia's PM Aigars Kalvitis said that he would step down on Dec. 5 and that the four-party ruling coalition would immediately begin searching for a new head of government.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Moroccan PM Abbas El Fassi condemned Spain's "occupation" of two disputed enclaves, in the wake of a visit by Spain's King Juan Carlos which prompted Rabat to recall its ambassador to Madrid.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, The country's top prosecutor said Nigeria will drop criminal charges against an American peace worker, her Nigerian associate and two German film makers who had been accused of endangering national security.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Former premier Benazir Bhutto urged Pakistanis to hold mass protests against a state of emergency declared by President Pervez Musharraf. Police swung batons and fired tear gas at supporters of former PM Bhutto demonstrating near Pakistan's parliament. The Bush administration warned Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that US patience is not "never-ending," and that it expects him to return "soon" to the path of democracy.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Somalia Doctors Without Borders said the fighting had grown so bad in Mogadishu that civilians who were shot or hit by shrapnel during the night frequently bled to death because the violence cut them off from the hospitals.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 7, The president of Sri Lanka said there would be peace on the troubled island only after more fighting to crush separatist rebels as he unveiled the nation's biggest-ever war budget.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, The UN said the governor of South Darfur ordered the UN humanitarian director to leave the state, which has been the scene of recent fighting. South Darfur's Governor Ali Mahmood Mohammed said in a letter that Wael Al-Haj Ibrahim, a Canadian, "was not complying with the Humanitarian Act," but he didn't elaborate.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 7, Masked gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march in which tens of thousands of Venezuelans denounced President Hugo Chavez's attempts to expand his power through constitutional changes. At least eight people were injured.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, A Yemeni court convicted 32 al-Qaida suspects of planning attacks on oil and gas installations in the country, sentencing them to prison terms of up to 15 years. Four others were acquitted.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 8, Pres. Bush suffered his first veto override as the Senate voted 79-14 to enact a $23 billion water resources bill already passed by the House. The US Senate confirmed President Bush's nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the new attorney general, 53-40.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A1)(AP, 11/8/08)
2007 Nov 8, John Walters, the White House drug czar, said American-backed counter-narcotic programs in Colombia and Mexico are disrupting the flow of cocaine into the United States, driving up prices 44 percent on US streets this year.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by 14 other states, sued the Bush administration over its refusal to let them enforce bigger auto emissions cuts than those required by the federal government.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A6)
2007 Nov 8, Brazil’s Petrobras reported the discovery of a large oil reserve with as much as 8 billion barrels of crude in a field called Tupi. This represented about 3 months worth of current world supply, with estimated use at 86 million barrels a day. The oil was sitting between 5.3 and 7km below sea level.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A12)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.36)
2007 Nov 8, Samina Malik (23), who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" and penned poems with titles including "How To Behead," became the first woman to be convicted under Britain’s terrorism legislation. In December she was given a suspended 9-month prison sentence and community service.
(AFP, 11/8/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.67)
2007 Nov 8, Britain’s Privy Council ruled that Prince Jefri Bolkiah (53) of Brunei must transfer ownership of 2 US hotels and 3 residences in Los Angeles, London and Paris along with a trust fund to the Brunei Investment Agency. Jefri had failed to return assets in a 2000 agreement to settle accusations of embezzlement.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A31)(http://tinyurl.com/39fvcf)
2007 Nov 8, In southwest China a gas leak at the Qulin mine in Anyone county in Guizhou province killed 35 coal miners.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 8, Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra swept the Latin Grammy Awards, taking home five musical honors including album of the year, record of the year and song of the year.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2007 Nov 8, A bridge under construction in a new development in Dubai collapsed, killing seven workers and injuring 15.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 8, German authorities said bank manager in Tuebingen gave loans to a woman for sex and then embezzled thousands of euros to buy the silence of her relatives. In total the man diverted some 520,000 euros (362,033 pounds) from clients' accounts, of which he gave about 70,000 euros to the woman, and kept 40,000 euros for himself.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Georgia's pro-Western Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili said that the country would hold early presidential elections in January to defuse a crisis fueled by protests against him. Troops armed with hard rubber clubs patrolled the center of Tbilisi to enforce a state of emergency imposed after a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Iraqi and US authorities freed 500 prisoners from a detention system strained to the limit by thousands of new suspects taken in campaigns to secure Baghdad and surrounding areas. Abu Abdullah, also known as Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai, was killed north of Baghdad. He was later described as described as an experienced bomb maker and former associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. US Army Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley of Candler, N.C., charged with premeditated murder in three deaths, was acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges. The 3 deaths occurred April 14, April 27 and May 11 during operations south of Baghdad.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Nov 8, A US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed in northern Italy, killing at least four people on board and injuring six. Two more soon died in a hospital.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 8, Nordic countries again dominated the World Economic Forum's ranking of gender-equal countries. New Zealand squeezed into the top five and the US fell to 31st place. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland retained the top four spots in the 2007 Gender Gap Index released by the Swiss-based think tank.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Pres. Musharaff said Pakistan's parliamentary elections will he held by mid-February, a month later than planned, a day after Pres. Bush urged him to hold the vote on time. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto denounced the pledge as insufficient and said Musharaff should step down as army chief within a week.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, In Yemen tribesmen attacked an oil installation and then clashed with government troops, leaving 12 people dead. It was the second attack on the country's oil industry this week.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Washington, DC, Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge, was sworn in as the 81st US Attorney General.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 9, Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik (52) surrendered to face federal corruption charges, in what could prove to be an ongoing embarrassment for presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. The indictment alleges Kerik made false statements to the White House and other federal officials during his failed bid to head the Homeland Security department. The investigation of Kerik arose from allegations that, while a city official, he accepted $165,000 in renovations to his Bronx apartment, paid for by a mob-connected construction company that sought his help in winning city contracts.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, Merck & Co. said it will pay $4.85 billion to end thousands of state and federal lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx in one of the largest drug settlements ever.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Newton County, Missouri, David Spears (24) and another, unnamed, 24-year-old man, were arrested in the death of Rowan Ford. Rowan had been missing since Nov 3. Her body was found on private land about 10 miles south of the girl's hometown of Stella.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, A British soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed after the vehicle he was traveling in came off a road and rolled over a bridge. 6 US and 2 Afghan troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Nuristan province. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, put US troop deaths to at least 101 this year making 2007 the deadliest for US troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. In 2014 platoon radio operator Kyle J. White was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the ambush in Nuristan.
(AP, 11/9/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(SFC, 4/16/14, p.A6)
2007 Nov 9, A Belgian pilot and three Spanish flight crew were set free by authorities in Chad who had accused them of complicity in a plot to kidnap 103 children and take them to France for adoption.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Kumba, Cameroon, one person died and five were injured after security forces fired on a crowd protesting after a two-week-long power cut. Locals had taken to the streets to protest the arrest of four high school students following an earlier demonstration.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, China froze exports of the "Aqua Dots" bead toy, following recalls of the potentially toxic toy in the United States and Australia.
(Reuters, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, China Merchant Bank, the country’s 6th largest bank, became the 3rd Chinese bank to win permission to open a branch in NYC.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.90)
2007 Nov 9, Egyptian border guards opened fire on Hana Mohamed (24) of Eritrea after she failed to heed their warnings to stop south of the Rafah border crossing. The young woman bled to death after being shot in the legs.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, Finland said it will raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18 in the wake of the Nov 7 rampage by a teenage student.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 9, Georgian opposition leaders said they would end streets protests against President Mikhail Saakashvili after he called for an early presidential election for January.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Ingushetia a special operation to capture alleged terrorists left a child dead after soldiers fired on a family of five.
(Econ, 11/29/08, SR p.16)
2007 Nov 9, Former insurgents, who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, launched an attack against the terror group near Samarra and killed 18 of its members, asking the US military to stay away while the battle raged. The US military released nine Iranians from custody in Iraq, including two accused of being members of an elite force suspected of arming Shiite extremists. It said they were no longer considered security risks.
(AP, 11/9/07)(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest, uncoiling barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounding up thousands of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency rule. A suicide bombing at a government minister's home in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed four people.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, Saudi authorities beheaded Saudi citizen Khalaf al-Anzi in Riyadh for kidnapping and raping a teenager.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Somalia witnesses and doctors said heavy fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's shaky government has killed 50 people and wounded 100 others in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, Turkey's parliament approved a bill allowing for the construction of nuclear power plants in the country, despite opposition from environmental groups.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 10, Miami ended its 70-year stay at the famed Orange Bowl with the biggest shutout loss in the stadium's history, a 48-0 rout to Virginia.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 10, A stagehands strike shut down most Broadway shows, with curtains rising again 19 days later.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 10, In Vallejo, Ca., the last LCS (Landing Craft Support), which served in 1944 the invasion of Okinawa, went on display. LCS 102 was one of 130 identical gunboats that served in the Pacific. The Royal Thai Navy retired the ship in May.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 10, Laraine Day (b.1920), film actress, died. She was best remembered as Nurse Mary Lamont in the Dr. Kildare film series from 1938-1941.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
2007 Nov 10, Norman Mailer (84), writer, died. The macho prince of American letters reigned for decades as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as "The Naked and the Dead" (1948) and "The Executioner's Song" (1979). In 2013 J. Michael Lennon authored “Norman Mailer: A Double Life."
(AP, 11/10/07)(SSFC, 11/11/07, p.A7)(SSFC, 12/29/13, p.F5)
2007 Nov 10, In Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost, police patrolling on foot were hit by a land-mine blast that killed one officer and wounded two civilians. Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint near Qalat city in Zabul province. The ensuing gun battle left two policemen dead and one wounded. Another policeman was missing. Six US troops died in an insurgent ambush, making 2007 the deadliest year for American forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 10, In Algeria 3 people were wounded when a booby trapped car exploded near a police residence in the northern town of Mahatmas.
(AFP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 10, Some 20,000 demonstrators marched to Argentina's river border with Uruguay to protest the impending startup of a paper pulp plant they fear will pollute the environment. The cellulose mill in Fray Bentos was built by Metsa-Botnia, a Finnish company, at a cost of $1.2 billion. Construction was completed in October and Uruguay’s Pres. Vazquez ordered it opened in November despite protests from Argentina.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.44)
2007 Nov 10, In the Czech Rep. neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague clashed with groups trying to stop them, and at least 80 people were arrested in outbreaks of violence around the capital.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, A top police officer said the Champs Elysees, held up by France as the most beautiful avenue in the world, has become blighted by prostitution, racketeering and violence.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, German train drivers ended the country's longest freight train strike, but the labor dispute is set to continue next week.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, Iranian state television reported that Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to transport natural gas between the two countries.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 10, Malaysian police unleashed tear gas and water cannons on protesters as tens of thousands, wearing canary-yellow shirts, defied a government ban and rallied in Kuala Lumpur to call for clean and fair elections in the biggest anti-government street protests in nearly a decade. Some 245 people were detained.
(AP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.53)
2007 Nov 10, Pakistan announced plans to lift its state of emergency within one month and allowed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to leave her villa following a day under house arrest. Police blocked opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from visiting Pakistan's deposed chief justice. Militants abducted 8, who were stopped at a makeshift roadblock and overpowered.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Reuters, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, Saudi authorities received a group of 14 Saudis Saturday from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani for drug trafficking. This execution brought to 131 the number of people beheaded in the kingdom this year. Saudi Arabia beheaded 38 people last year and 83 people in 2005.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 11, Marking his fifth Veterans Day since the invasion of Iraq, President Bush honored US troops past and present at a tearful ceremony in Texas.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2007 Nov 11, The new War Memorial Community Center at 6655 Mission St. in Daly City, Ca., held its grand opening. The structure included the new John Daly Library.
(www.ci.daly-city.ca.us/city_news/fogcutter/fall_2007.htm)
2007 Nov 11, Delbert Mann, television and film director, died in Los Angeles. His films included “Marty" (1955) and “That Touch of Mink" (1962).
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
2007 Nov 11, Animal rights activists attacked as inhumane an Australian state government's plans to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the environment.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, In western Afghanistan unknown gunmen on motorbikes shot dead six pro-government tribal elders as they headed to a prayer service. In southern Afghanistan a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a NATO convoy in Helmand province, seriously wounding 3 civilians, while two separate attacks left 3 policeman dead elsewhere in the country. US-led coalition troops battling suspected militants in the Garmser district of Helmand lobbed a grenade that destroyed a house and killed 15 militants as well as a woman and two children. A service member with the US-led coalition died of wounds suffered during a gun battle a day earlier near the Tagab Valley of Kapisa province.
(AFP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 11, In France Jessica Davies (28), the niece of multi-millionaire junior defense minister Quentin Davies, plunged a knife into Olivier Mugnier (24), a young Frenchman she picked up in an Irish bar. Mugnier died in her Paris suburb flat, an hour after police arrived. He had been stabbed twice in the upper chest. Her trial opened on Dec 11, 2010.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2007 Nov 11, Israeli police raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices, searching for evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, In Italy a police officer accidentally shot and killed a soccer fan while trying to break up a fight by a Tuscan highway between supporters of rival teams. Enraged by the killing, hundreds of fans rioted in Rome, attacking a police station.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 11, Libya began enforcing new regulations demanding an Arabic translation of passports for visitors. A Libyan aviation official said the measures were in response to a decision to prevent Libyans with visas for the EU's Schengen border-free zone from entering certain European countries, notably France and Britain.
(AFP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 11, Proton, Malaysia’s national car maker, said it planned to team up with companies in Iran and Turkey to produce "Islamic cars" for the global market.
(http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/12/news/international/bc.mi.malaysia.islamicc.ap/)
2007 Nov 11, The major Northern Ireland Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defense Association, announced it was formally renouncing violence, but a commander said the group would not surrender its weapons to international disarmament officials.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, Pakistan's military ruler said elections would be held by January but set no time limit on emergency rule that has suspended citizens' rights, claiming it was essential for fighting terrorism and ensuring a free and fair vote.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, A severe storm broke the Volganeft-139, a small Russian oil tanker, in two in the Strait of Kerch, spilling at least 560,000 gallons of fuel into the strait between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. A Russian official said it was an "environmental disaster." 8 seamen were left missing. Two freighters nearby also sank under 18-foot waves in storm. As many as 10 ships sank or ran aground in the area.
(AP, 11/11/07)(Reuters, 11/12/07)(SFC, 11/12/07, p.A15)
2007 Nov 11, Tens of thousands of South Korean farmers and workers clashed with riot police at a massive rally against a free trade agreement with the United States.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 12, The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 13,000 for first time since August 2007.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 12, Ryan Braun won the NL Rookie of the Year award in one of the closest votes, while Dustin Pedroia ran away with the AL honor.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 12, It was reported that a donor had given a staggering $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation in Pennsylvania, and all of the charities would receive a share.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, Constellation Brands said it will pay $885 million for the US wine business of Fortune Brands, which includes the Geyser Peak, Wild Horse, Buena Vista Carneros and Gary Farrell labels. The deal also included 1,500 acres of vineyards in Sonoma and Napa counties.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 12, IBM said it would buy Canada's Cognos Inc for $5 billion, snapping up the last of the major makers of business intelligence software.
(Reuters, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, Nymex Holdings Inc., the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, said it will buy a 15.1 percent stake in the Norwegian financial derivatives exchange Imarex ASA for about $52 million.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, A new study said US researchers have developed a method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material, potentially providing an abundant source of this clean-burning fuel. The method used by engineers at Pennsylvania State University combines electron-generating bacteria and a small electrical charge in a microbial fuel cell to produce hydrogen gas.
(AFP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 12, Ira Levin (78), author, died in Manhattan. His work included the best-selling horror and suspense novels "Rosemary's Baby" (1967), "The Stepford Wives" (1972), and "The Boys from Brazil" (1976), all later made into popular films. Levin also wrote for the stage, including "No Time for Sergeants," starring a young Andy Griffith, and the long-running "Deathtrap." Both were later adapted to the screen.
(Reuters, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 12, Lester Ziffren, former news reporter and screenwriter, died in Manhattan. In 1936 Ziffren was the first to report the start of the Spanish Civil War.
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 12, Voters cast the first ballots in Australia's elections as a new opinion poll showed conservative PM John Howard heading for a landslide defeat.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, In Cambodia Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, the ex-foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge regime and his wife, were arrested on charges of crimes against humanity. Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in absentia in August 1979, eight months after a Vietnam-led resistance movement overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime. In 1996 the king rewarded Ieng Sary with an amnesty for breaking away from his comrades-in-arms.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, An unknown armed group killed 19 Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi, a border region handed back to Cameroon by Nigeria last year.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 12, China released data that said its trade surplus had jumped to a new all-time monthly high in October, despite government pledges to restrain export growth and adding to pressure for action on trade barriers and currency.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and New York’s Human Rights Watch released a report saying the Egyptian government refuses to recognize minority religions and Christian converts in official state records.
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A25)(www.eipr.org/en/)
2007 Nov 12, IUCN, a Geneva-based conservation group, said the world's smallest bear species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in its Southeast Asian home. The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, In Baghdad an Iraqi taxi driver was shot dead by a private security guard protecting a convoy driving through the city. Tal Afar Mayor Gen. Najim Abdullah said Iraqi soldiers killed four men in clashes that lasted throughout the night after a tribal chieftain was killed in front of his village's mosque. The US military said Rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have decreased to their lowest levels in more than 21 months.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, A Nigerian official said security agents have arrested several men who allegedly had materials for making explosives. Evidence has linked them to the al-Qaida terror network.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, Hamas security forces opened fire at a rally by the rival Fatah movement commemorating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. 7 people were killed and 85 wounded in the bloodiest day of intra-Palestinian fighting since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
(AP, 11/12/07)(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 12, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest for the second time in four days ahead of a planned march to protest emergency rule.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 12, Alexander Tkachyov, governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said more than 30,000 birds and countless fish have been killed in an "ecological catastrophe" wrought by thousands of tons of oil from a tanker that broke apart in a heavy storm near the Black Sea. 3 bodies washed ashore and 20 sailors remained missing after the sinking of at least 11 ships.
(AP, 11/12/07)(SFC, 11/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Nov 12, Airbus said it was building a custom, 380 VIP double-decker jet for Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal with a price tag of over $320 million.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, In South Korea the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) disclosed the names of 3 former and incumbent prosecutors, who have received money regularly from Samsung Group. CPAJ urged the prosecution to investigate the conglomerate's alleged bribery, slush fund creation, and other irregularities.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 12, A Darfur rebel group freed five workers, including two foreigners, taken hostage in a rare attack on a Sudanese oil installation almost three weeks ago.
(AFP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said deploying a UN peacekeeping operation to Somalia is not realistic or viable given the war-wracked African country’s security situation, the intensifying insurgency and the lack of progress towards any political reconciliation.
(www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24625&Cr=somalia&Cr1)
2007 Nov 13, CC Sabathia won the AL Cy Young Award to become the first Cleveland pitcher in 35 years to earn the honor.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 Nov 13, Officials said New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to abandon a plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, The SF Board of Supervisors voted to issue municipal identification cards to city residents, regardless of their legal status. They also voted to double the amount of money available to candidates running for supervisor.
(SFC, 11/14/07, p.B1)
2007 Nov 13, In Las Vegas the New Frontier casino, opened in 1942, was imploded to make way for a $5 billion megaresort. It earned historical notations by becoming the Strip's first theme casino and hosting Elvis Presley's debut in the city. Phil Ruffin sold the 34.5-acre site to Elad, owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, for $1.24 billion in May. Ruffin had bought the Frontier in 1997 for $165 million and quickly settled a nearly 6 1/2-year strike by 550 hotel workers, one of the longest job actions in US history.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Afghan and US-led coalition forces clashed with militants in southern Afghanistan and called in airstrikes that killed dozens of insurgents.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 13, Britain’s government said an outbreak of bird flu in eastern England is the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. A two-mile protection zone and a six-mile surveillance zone were created around the infected farm in Suffolk.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.67)
2007 Nov 13, The British Virgin Islands told the US there is overwhelming evidence that Leonid Reiman, Russia’s Telecommunications Minister owns much of Russia’s telecom industry through an offshore fund.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 13, Thousands of refugees fled camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's violent North Kivu province after the army said Tutsi-dominated insurgents attacked its positions nearby.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Voting began in Denmark's national election, with polls showing that the center-right government needs a new ally to stay in power despite a strong economy and low unemployment. Danes re-elected the governing coalition to a third term, endorsing its economic and tough immigration policies. Fogh Rasmussen’s blue block won 90 seats, just enough for a majority. The New Alliance Party of Naser Khader won just 5 seats. Pia Kjaersgaard’s far-right Danish People’s party won 25 seats.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.59)
2007 Nov 13, French rail workers went on a nine-day strike over President Nicolas Sarkozy's bid to strip away labor protections.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 Nov 13, Diplomats said Iran has met a key demand of the UN nuclear agency, handing over long-sought blueprints showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 13, In Iraq at least 9 Iraqis were killed, including a policeman and his 13-year-old son in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Shimon Peres became the 1st Israeli president to address the parliament of a Muslim government when he spoke to Turkish deputies.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 13, Researchers in Kenya unveiled a 10-million-year-old jaw bone they believe belonged to a new species of great ape that could be the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. A Kenyan and Japanese team found the fragment, dating back to between 9.8 and 9.88 million years, in 2005 along with 11 teeth. The fossils were unearthed in volcanic mud flow deposits in the northern Nakali region of Kenya.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called on Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days. Bhutto’s plan for a “long march" from Lahore to Islamabad was foiled by her house arrest.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.50)
2007 Nov 13, A bomb exploded at an entrance of the Philippine House of Representatives, killing Rep. Wahab Akbar, his driver and a staff person.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Journalists said the Somali government has shut down three independent radio stations in two days, as troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers continued to battle Islamic insurgents in the shrapnel-strewn streets of the capital.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Two cartoonists who depicted Spain's crown prince having sex with his wife were convicted of insulting the heir to the throne and were fined $4,370 each.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Six breakaway factions from one of Darfur's biggest rebel groups and two other insurgent forces said they had united under one banner, in a rare but tentative show of unity in the troubled region.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months. Kurdish guerrillas killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash in southeastern Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, In a letter to the UN Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nominated Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to lead the UN investigation into the 2005 killing of former Lebanese PM Rafik al-Hariri.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 13, In Uzbekistan the body of Fitrat Salakhiddinov (40), a prisoner convicted of Islamic extremism, was delivered to his family with signs of torture.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 14, Michael Mukasey took a ceremonial oath as the new US Attorney General.
(AP, 11/14/08)
(AP, 11/14/08)
2007 Nov 14, A US congressional advisory panel said that Chinese espionage posed "the single greatest risk" to US technology, and called for efforts to protect industrial secrets and computer networks.
(Reuters, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, A justice of the peace ordered O.J. Simpson to stand trial on kidnapping and armed robbery charges stemming from a confrontation with memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room. Simpson and a co-defendant were convicted in October, 2008.
2007 Nov 14, A sculpture by Jeff Koons of a stainless steel heart hanging from a golden bow sold for $23.6 million, becoming the most expensive piece by a living artist ever auctioned.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, Merril Lynch picked John Thain, boss of NYSE Euronext, to replace Sam O’Neal, who walked out following enormous writedowns on mortgage-linked holdings.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.90)
2007 Nov 14, Chevron agreed to pay $30 million to settle charges that it made illegal kickbacks to Iraq for oil purchased in 2001 and 2002 under the UN oil-for-food program.
(SFC, 11/15/07, p.C1)
2007 Nov 14, A US-led team from Oregon said they had created the world's first cloned embryo from a monkey, in work that could spur cloning of human cells for use in medical research.
(AFP, 11/14/07)(WSJ, 11/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 14, In Texas Joe Horn (62) shot and killed two suspected burglars, with bags in hand, crawling out of windows from his neighbor's home in the Houston suburb of Pasadena. In 2008 a jury acquitted Horn of murder.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2007 Nov 14, In Afghanistan’s Helmand province coalition forces killed several militants with gunfire and airstrikes. Five rebel fighters were killed in a clash in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, AGRA, a foundation set up in 2006 by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to aid African farmers, named agricultural expert Amos Namanga Ngongi from Cameroon as its first president.
(AFP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, Abdelhamid Sadaoui, also known as Abou El Haythem, was killed and another Islamist wounded during clashes with the Algerian army in the restive northeastern Kabylia region. Sadaoui was believed to be the treasurer of Al-Qaeda's North African branch.
(AFP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, Labor party leader Kevin Rudd, the man tipped to become Australia's next prime minister, officially launched his pitch for office with pledges to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and usher in an "education revolution."
(AFP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The final stage of the cross-Channel high-speed rail service opened for business from the newly rebuilt St. Pancras station in London.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.E2)(www.raileurope.com)
2007 Nov 14, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a new unity cabinet drawing members from two leading opposition groups in a bid to end months of political deadlock in the troubled African nation.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, In Chile a 7.7 magnitude quake, centered near the desert village of Quillagua in the foothills of the Andes, killed at least 2 people.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, Guo Feixiong, a Chinese dissident lawyer, was sentenced to five years in prison after publishing a book about a political scandal and helping villagers lead a campaign to unseat local officials accused of corruption. Feixiong (also known as Yang Maodong), convicted of alleged illegal business activity, was also fined US$5,300 in a district court in Guangzhou.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, China’s state media said the amount of sewage dumped into the Yangtze River rose 3 percent last year to a record level. An early morning blaze at a foot massage parlor killed at least 11 people in northern China.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The EU reached an accord with the East African Community (EAC) states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. They will enjoy duty free, quota free access to the EU for all products, except sugar and rice, from January 1. Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a decade later amid diverging economic philosophies. It was resurrected in 2000 as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to create an EU-style common market for their 90 million citizens. Rwanda and Burundi became members in July this year.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 14, In France striking transportation workers cut train service and forced Parisians to walk, bike or skate to work in a pivotal standoff with President Nicolas Sarkozy over his bid to pare down labor protections.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, A French court approved the handover to a UN court of Dominique Ntawukuriryayo (65), a Rwandan 1994 genocide suspect accused of coordinating the massacre of up to 25,000 people in one incident.
(Reuters, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, German train drivers began a new 62-hour strike on freight services that industry and the government fear could have a dramatic impact on Europe's biggest economy.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The official IRNA news agency reported that Hossein Mousavian, Iran's former senior nuclear negotiator, has been charged with passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, Iraqi troops seized the west Baghdad headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a powerful Sunni Muslim group. Two bombs exploded on opposite sides of Baghdad, killing at least three civilians. Clashes were under way in two villages, one Shiite and one mixed, east of Baqouba. Five people were killed, two civilians and three al-Qaida members, and six others injured in the fighting. A leader of a Sunni group formed to resist al-Qaida in Iraq claimed that US troops mistakenly killed dozens of his fighters during a 12-hour battle north of Baghdad. He said he tried repeatedly to call the Americans and tell them they were fighting "their friends." US military officials said American troops killed 24 fighters and captured 16 in a battle in the same area. Penetrators were used in an attack against a US Stryker vehicle near an entrance to the Green Zone, killing an American soldier and wounding five others. 2 Iraqi civilians also were killed. A US soldier was killed in an explosion in Diyala province that wounded four other soldiers.
(AP, 11/14/07)(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, A broad electoral reform that infuriated Mexico's broadcast industry by barring political parties from buying radio and television advertisements took effect.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 14, Myanmar's military junta arrested three more activists, surging ahead with a crackdown even as it hosted a UN human rights investigator and insisted that all arrests had stopped.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, NATO defense chiefs chose Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola as head of the alliance's military committee.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The prime ministers of North and South Korea met for the first time in 15 years, hoping to extend the detente fostered by the second-ever summit of their leaders last month with new South Korean investment in the impoverished North.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he expects to step down as army chief by the end of November and begin a new presidential term as a civilian, warning that Pakistan risked chaos if he gave into opposition demands to resign. In the northwest 33 insurgents were reported killed when the military pounded their positions with helicopter gunships and artillery.
(AP, 11/14/07)(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, In Poland members of the 460-member lower house, or Sejm, agreed to make April 13 an annual "Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Katyn Crime," for more than 14,000 Polish officers who were captured at the start of World War II and killed by Soviet secret police in the Katyn forest.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, A Saudi court sentenced a woman (19) who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes, more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative. The court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the woman. Their new sentences range from two to nine years. The court also banned the lawyer from defending her, confiscated his license to practice law and summoned him to a disciplinary hearing later this month.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, An explosion at the Tajik presidential palace killed a guard in what officials called a terror attack.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 15, During a feisty Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her closest rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, of slinging mud "right out of the Republican playbook" and sharply criticized their records.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Berkeley poet Robert Haas won the National Book Award for his recent collection “Time and Materials."
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Nov 15, Barry Bonds, former SF Giant, was indicted on 4 counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice related to a December, 2003, grand jury investigation on the BALCO steroid ring. A revamped indictment was unsealed last May.
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A1)(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Actress Lindsay Lohan completed her jail sentence for drunken driving in a swift 84 minutes.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Taliban insurgents in Paktia province killed an Afghan man teaching English courses, sparking a clash that left two suspected militants and two policemen dead. The bodies of 20 Taliban were found on the battlefield following a clash in the south-central province of Uruzgan. Two policemen were killed in the three hours of fighting there, which also involved international troops.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 15, Greenpeace protesters stormed an Australian power plant after a US report condemned Australian electricity plants as some of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. 15 protesters were arrested after they chained themselves to conveyor belts at the Munmorah power plant on the central coast of New South Wales state.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Ten of thousands of coastal villagers took shelter inland as a cyclone rapidly approached Bangladesh's southwestern shores, spawning cold drizzles, strong winds and high waves. Tropical Cyclone Sidr killed at least 3,200 people and left millions homeless.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 15, Two Americans who deserted the US Army to protest against the war in Iraq lost their bid for refugee status in Canada, and the Canadian government made it clear they were no longer welcome.
(Reuters, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Congo and the London Club of private creditors reached a deal to cancel 80% of the central African country's estimated 2.5-billion-dollar debt.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Gen. Sergio del Valle Jimenez, a doctor in Fidel Castro's rebel army in the late 1950s and army chief of staff during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, died.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 15, Transport workers shut down most rail traffic in France for a 2nd day, frustrating passengers forced to postpone trips and Parisians who had to walk, bike or skate to work.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Georgia’s parliament lifted the country’s state of emergency imposed last week by Pres. Saakashvili.
(WSJ, 11/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 15, A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police patrol in Kirkuk, killing six people and wounding more than 20.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Royal Dutch Shell said a major pipeline feeding one of its two main oil export terminals in southern Nigeria was attacked and ruptured by unknown assailants.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Officials said Pakistani troops have launched a counter-offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the northwest, pushing them back into forests and mountains.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the overthrow of Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. Hundreds of Palestinian business people and professionals, led by an influential billionaire, launched a new political movement, reflecting growing disillusionment with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, The Philippine government reached an agreement with the country's main Islamic separatist group on carving out boundaries for a Muslim homeland in the conflict-ridden south. In Manila 3 suspects were killed and three arrested as police raided an Islamic militant hideout near the Philippines legislature.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Sergei Storchak, one of Russia’s top authorities on international financial relations, was detained. Investigators on Nov 19 revealed details in the arrest of the deputy finance minister who allegedly tried to embezzle $43 million in budget funds.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 15, A top Russian general said that Russia has completed its withdrawal of troops that had been based in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. He said peacekeepers remained in Abkhazia along with forces in South Ossetia with the participation of Georgia.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 15, A Tunisian court convicted a former prisoner at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terror charges. Abdullah Bin Omar, a Tunisian citizen who spent five years at the detention facility in Cuba, was released in June.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 15, In Uzbekistan the body of Takhir Nurmukhammedov (42) was delivered to his family and it was clear he had been brutally tortured. Nurmukhammedov was arrested in April 2002 and convicted of membership in Hizb-ut Tahrir, a banned Islamic sect, and of plotting to overthrow the government. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 15, President Robert Mugabe commissioned the first biodiesel production plant in oil-starved Zimbabwe, vowing that the country would "never collapse."
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 16, US President George W. Bush and Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda met for talks aimed at bridging rifts on North Korea and Tokyo's military role in the "war on terror."
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, US Senate Republicans blocked a $50 billion bill by Democrats that would have paid for several months of combat but also would have ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2007 Nov 16, Marchers surrounded the Justice Department headquarters to demand federal intervention in the Jena Six case in Louisiana and stepped-up enforcement of hate crimes.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2007 Nov 16, US federal biologists signed off on a plan to reduce the flow of water from Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s main water source, as the southeast contends with a historic drought.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 16, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis, the Regional Auto Theft Task Force (RATT), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced an undercover operation resulting in the break up of an extensive and highly organized auto theft ring in the South Bay. The auto theft ring bust is the largest in San Diego County and possibly in the state of California.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xwk6s)
2007 Nov 16, In Oakland, Ca., Francis William Reimers (62), formerly from Danville, Ca., was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for mail fraud and money laundering. Reimers had attempted suicide in Dec, 2005, following allegations that he swindled million from former friends.
(SFC, 11/17/07, p.B3)
2007 Nov 16, The first summit of women leaders opened in NYC. The two-day "International Women Leaders Global Security Summit," opened under the co-chairmanship of former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell. At the close over 70 women leaders issued a call for action on global warming, terrorism, poverty and women's security. The women leadership initiative was launched in October 2006.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 16, Mubadala Development, an investment arm of Abu Dhabi, announced that it would pay $622 million for 8.1% of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.70)
2007 Nov 16, In western Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up a car bomb near an Italian military convoy killing only himself. 4 police officers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a remotely detonated bomb as they traveled to work in the southern province of Kandahar. The UN said profits from opium fuel the Taliban insurgency, in a new call on NATO to tackle Afghanistan's burgeoning drugs trade. In the western province of Ghor, between 4 and 9 police were killed after militants attacked them during a police operation in Shahark district.
(AP, 11/16/07)(Reuters, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, A coroner urged the Australian government to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Belgium researchers studying the collective behavior of insects said tiny robots programmed to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society. Cockroaches tend to self-organize into leaderless groups, seeming to reach consensus on where to rest together.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Ethiopian officers claimed their forces had killed some 100 rebels in the Ogaden region over the past month where its forces are cracking down on insurgents.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, French transport workers voted to keep a national strike going through the weekend over President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to strip away generous pension benefits.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili dismissed the prime minister and nominated an influential banker for the post in an apparent attempt to win votes ahead of a hastily called presidential election.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Guyana rushed troops and police to its western border a day after Venezuelan soldiers allegedly blew up two Guyanese gold-mining dredges on a river near the frontier.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, The communist parties that support India's ruling coalition backed off their strong opposition to a landmark nuclear deal with the US, clearing the way for the pact to go forward after months of high-stakes political gamesmanship.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Iraqi police said 8 al-Qaida fighters were killed in a Shiite village near Muqdadiyah. One civilian killed by a roadside bomb outside a motorcycle shop in central Baghdad. Police found the bodies of two men, both with bullet wounds to the head, dumped in a barren area near Sadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The two were identified as brothers who had disappeared the previous evening in the same town. Muntadhar al-Zaidi (28), a reporter for the Iraqi satellite channel al-Baghdadiyah, disappeared. US helicopters dropped 600 troops into two villages south of Baghdad before sunrise, launching an assault on militants believed to be involved in the May kidnapping of three American soldiers.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, North and South Korea agreed to launch rail service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than half a century, a move symbolizing the growing reconciliation between the two sides.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said its election observers would be unable to monitor next month's Russian parliamentary balloting because Moscow had refused to issue them visas. All 56 OSCE member countries, including Russia, agreed in 1990 to invite international observers to monitor their elections.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Between 35 and 40 rebels were killed as Pakistani gunship helicopters launched fresh attacks on pro-Taliban bunkers in the troubled northwest. The clashes left nearly 100 militants dead as they entered a 4th day.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Thousands of Hamas loyalists protested outside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Gaza City home, warning that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to Israel in a US-sponsored peace conference.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 16, Poland's new PM Donald Tusk formally took office along with a team of former anti-communist dissidents.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2007 Nov 16, Rwandan investigators probing alleged French involvement in the country's 1994 genocide handed their report to President Paul Kagame, but officials refused to divulge details.
(Reuters, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, In Spain negotiators concluded a policy guide for governments on global warming that declares climate change is here and is getting worse.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, Turkish authorities took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament on charges of separatism.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 17, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte delivered a blunt message to Pakistan's military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, telling him emergency rule had to be lifted and his opponents freed ahead of elections.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2007 Nov 17, A Nobel-winning UN scientific panel said in a landmark report that the Earth was hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2007 Nov 17, A suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a NATO convoy in Nangarhar province's Chaparhar district, killing an Afghan civilian and wounding another NATO soldier. In Kandahar province Canadian and Afghan troops battled militants and called in airstrikes in Zhari district, leaving an Afghan soldier and at least 20 suspected militants dead. In Helmand province 23 Taliban militants were killed during a US-led coalition operation aimed at disrupting a weapons transfer. Also in the south 2 Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed when a bomb struck their armored vehicle. In Zabul province the Taliban ambushed and clashed with an Afghan army patrol, leaving 11 suspected insurgents dead and four soldiers wounded. Taliban militants tortured five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and then hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to Gazak villagers against working with the government.
(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 17, In eastern Algeria a gas explosion in an old house killed six people and injured another eight.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, The official death toll from a savage cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh reached 1,723, the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, State media reported that China has called on Myanmar to speed up democratic reforms, an unusual move for Beijing, which has traditionally refrained from criticizing the military regime.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, The UN children's agency said aid groups in Congo have secured the release of 232 child soldiers from militia fighters who forcibly recruited them in the east of the country. The 232 children, whose average age is 14, were separated this month in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu from three different factions of the Mai Mai.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, France's biggest rail union said a new offer of talks from employers did not go far enough, as the country headed towards a fifth day of crippling transport strikes.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, In Iran officials at Niloofar Publications, which published the first edition of a novel by Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, known in the West as "Memories of My Melancholy Whores," confirmed they have been forbidden to put out a second edition. The Persian translation was titled "Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts."
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, A mass grave filled with at least 33 badly decomposed bodies was unearthed in southern Baghdad. It was the third mass grave found in Iraq this month. The US military said its troops killed seven suspects and detained 10 in raids across central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Front-runner and former rebel and Hashim Thaci pledged independence for Kosovo as the breakaway province voted for a new parliament in an election shunned by Serbs bitterly opposed to its secession. With most votes counted, opposition leader Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo led with 35 percent. Kosovo’s Serbs were told to boycott the election. Only 40-45% of Kosovar Albanians turned up to vote.
(Reuters, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/18/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 17, Mauritanian President Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi met Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi at the start of visit to Tripoli aimed at boosting relations after years of tension.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Pakistan’s army said some 15,000 troops have massed for a major assault on Islamic militants in a scenic northern valley, whose fall has raised concern about Pakistan's ability to withstand rising extremism.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, It was reported that generic Viagra, made in India, was a popular item in Gaza, selling for 75 cents a tablet.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.56)
2007 Nov 17, The new Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said Poland will end next year its mission in Iraq, where it currently deploys 900 soldiers.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Slovenian trade unions, students and pensioners staged the largest rally in the country since independence in 1991, blocking traffic in the centre of Ljubljana for several hours.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Somali rebels launched an overnight attack on a camp of Ugandan troops in Mogadishu, triggering fighting that left at least one insurgent dead.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, In South Africa finance ministers from the world's largest 20 economies began talks focusing on reforming the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir ordered the reopening of auxiliary training camps to prepare for war and refused to accept certain countries from sending peacekeepers to Darfur. Beshir said the "boots of those who attacked the prophet Mohammed would never trample on Sudanese land". He was referring to Swedes and Norwegians who want to participate in a UN-African Union hybrid force set to deploy to Darfur. Beshir also said Sudan would not allow Nepal or Thailand to send troops to Darfur, although he agreed with the UN for engineering troops to arrive from China and Pakistan.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested two US citizens of Vietnamese descent, two Vietnam citizens, one French citizen of Vietnamese descent and one Thai citizen after "they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change." Several were jailed in one-day trials for up to 8 years on charges of defaming the Communist Party and "spreading propaganda against the state."
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Chris Daughtry's band won favorite pop-rock album for "Daughtry," as well as breakthrough artist and adult contemporary artist at the American Music Awards.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 18, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis of annual FBI crime statistics. Flint, Mich., ranked 3rd and Oakland, Ca., ranked 4th.
(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 18, The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Eskimos to settle claims of sexual abuse in Alaska.
(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)(Reuters, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, Greenpeace said an international commission designed to protect bluefin tuna stocks has effectively increased the fishing quota for 2008 from what was already an "unsustainable" level. Greenpeace said the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), held in Turkey had approved a nearly 1,000-ton increase in the 2008 catch.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A new Afghanistan Human Development Report said Afghanistan is fifth last on a global index of human development, despite billions of dollars in aid and help since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Police shot and killed two suspected Taliban militants as they approached a police checkpoint on a motorbike. In southern Helmand province, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint, killing two officers and wounding four others.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, The death toll from a cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, as rescuers struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields. The head of the country's Red Crescent Society said up to 5,000 to 10,000 people are believed to have died in the cyclone.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, British ambassador Andrew Anderson said Algeria has formally demanded the extradition from Britain of former Algerian bank chief Rafik Khalifa, sentenced to life over a massive embezzlement scandal.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, MTV Arabia, an Arab version of the pop-culture channel, began broadcasting from Dubai.
(AP, 11/18/08)(www.freemuse.org/sw29678.asp)
2007 Nov 18, Separatist rebels said Ethiopia's air force has been "carpet-bombing" villages and nomadic settlements in its oil- and gas-rich Ogaden region, leaving a trail of casualties.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, German prosecutors filed terrorism charges against a Moroccan man, identified as Abdelali M. (25), was accused of helping recruit foreign fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq. He was arrested in Sweden in March and handed over to Germany in May.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Three members of Iraq's Olympic soccer team and their assistant coach left the team during a trip to Australia and are seeking asylum in the country.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, Bombs planted along Iraq's roads and in a parked car killed at least four people in separate attacks. In Baghdad a car bomb targeting an undersecretary finance minister, killed 10 bystanders. 4 homicide victims were found in Baghdad. Two Iraqis were killed and four wounded in an incident involving a US military convoy in southern Muthanna province. Local officials said the soldiers had opened fire randomly and destroyed a truckload of sheep. In Baquba 3 US soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing that also left 3 children dead and 7 wounded.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A13)
2007 Nov 18, In Italy former Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced the creation of a new political party, saying the time felt right because his supporters had gathered so many signatures calling for the ouster of Premier Romano Prodi.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, A defiant Japan embarked on its largest whaling expedition in decades, targeting protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s despite international opposition. 4 ships headed for the waters off Antarctica, resuming a hunt that was cut short by a deadly fire last February that crippled the fleet's mother ship. An anti-whaling protest boat awaited the fleet offshore.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Kuwait a US soldier was killed and another was seriously injured in a road accident.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Nigeria’s northern Kano state supporters of rival political parties clashed over the results of local government elections, leaving six people dead and dozens behind bars.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government dismissed a last-ditch US call to end emergency rule, a day after a visit by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Security officials and state media reported that fighting between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the northwestern tribal belt has claimed at least 90 lives.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 18, In eastern Saudi Arabia an explosion and fire on a gas pipeline killed 40 workers. The cause of the fire was an accident during maintenance work and Aramco said it did not expect a disruption in gas supplies.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Two Sudanese journalists from the independent Al-Sudani newspaper were jailed after refusing to pay a fine for an article about the arrest of other journalists.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 workers. In 2008 the head of an investigative commission said negligence by coal mine managers eager to ratchet up output led to a methane blast in Ukraine's deadliest mining disaster since the Soviet breakup.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 1/25/08)
2007 Nov 19, President Bush announced that Fran Townsend, the leading White House-based terrorism adviser, was stepping down.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, The US and Russia announced an agreement on how to safely dispose 34 metric tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 19, Researchers said the number of Americans in prison has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society. This was part of a report produced by the JFA Institute, a Washington criminal-justice research group, calling for a major justice-system overhaul.
(Reuters, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, California Sec. of State Debra Bowen sued Election Systems and Software, a Nebraska voting machine company, for allegedly selling nearly 1,000 uncertified machines to San Francisco and 4 other counties. Bowen sought reimbursements of nearly $15 million.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 19, Amazon.com began selling its Kindle electronic book reader, the size of a paperback, for $399. It was able to hold 200 volumes.
(WSJ, 11/20/07, p.B1)(Econ, 10/25/08, SR p.11)
2007 Nov 19, The FBI reported hate crime incidents rose nearly 8 percent in 2006.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, Milo Radulovich (81), the Air Force Reserve lieutenant championed by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow when the military threatened to decommission him during the anti-communist crackdown of the 1950s, died in Vallejo, Calif.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, Actor Dick Wilson (91), who played the fussy, mustachioed grocer who told customers, "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin," died in Woodland Hills, Calif.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2007 Nov 19, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck outside a governor's residence, killing six policemen and wounding 14 people in southwestern Nimroz province. Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said his son was among those killed.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, The death toll from the Nov 15 cyclone in Bangladesh passed 3,100, and officials said that number could reach 10,000 once rescuers get to outlying islands.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, In Cambodia a UN-backed tribunal arrested Khieu Samphan (76), the former Khmer Rouge head of state. He was the fifth senior official of the brutal regime to be rounded up ahead of a long-delayed genocide trial. In his book "Reflection on Cambodian History Up to the Era of Democratic Kampuchea," which was released last week, Khieu Samphan says the Khmer Rouge only wanted what was best for Cambodia.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, It was reported that Chinese regulators in recent weeks have ordered commercial banks to freeze lending through the end of the year. PM Wen Jiabao acknowledged that vast amounts of currency were flowing out of China through illegal channels. This followed the recent arrest of To Ling (43), a Hong Kong resident, whose black market foreign exchange business handled transactions worth more than $1 million a day.
(WSJ, 11/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.78)
2007 Nov 19, In France a "large majority" of rail workers voted to keep up the train strike.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, In Iraq 3 officers were killed in an ambush on their checkpoint northeast of Baghdad. Ten people, most of them women and children, were wounded when a car bomb exploded in front of a police officer's house farther north in Albu-Jawari village, on the northern outskirts of Beiji. Muntadhar al-Zaidi (28), an Iraqi television reporter who was kidnapped in Baghdad last week, was freed. In Baghdad a convoy belonging to Almco, a US-contracted Dubai firm, was involved in a shooting that left a woman wounded. Iraqi troops detained 43 contract workers.
(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/20/07, p.A15)
2007 Nov 19, The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but stopped short of US demands to halt West Bank settlement construction before a crucial Mideast conference.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, International Mideast envoy Tony Blair announced four economic projects designed to create thousands of jobs for Palestinians and bolster peace efforts with Israel.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 19, Pakistan’s Supreme Court, hand-picked by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, swiftly dismissed legal challenges to his continued rule, opening the way for him to serve another five-year term, this time solely as a civilian president.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, Uzbekistan's electoral commission said Pres. Karimov (69) has registered as a candidate in next month's election, even though the constitution bars him from seeking a third consecutive term.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his fourth trip to Iran in two years, as the two countries sought to strengthen ties while their leaders exhort the international community to resist US policies.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, President Robert Mugabe's government published a draft bill forcing mining firms to transfer majority shareholdings to local owners, including giving the Zimbabwe government a free 25 percent stake.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 20, Freddie Mac, the larger US buyer and guarantor of home loans, reported a $2 billion loss for the 3rd quarter and warned that it may need to raise fresh capital. Fannie Mae, another US mortgage guarantor, had already posted a $1.4 billion loss earlier in the month.
(SFC, 11/21/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.76)
2007 Nov 20, In Utah polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of a breakaway Mormon sect, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her first cousin. In 2010 the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions of Jeffs and ordered a new trial saying a jury received incorrect instructions. On April 7, 2011, a federal judge handed control of a $114 million communal land trust back to the leaders of Jeff’s polygamous church. Courts had seized control of the trust in 2005.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(SFC, 7/28/10, p.A4)(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A5)
2007 Nov 20, Crude-oil futures surged to a record high settling at $98.03 a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.C8)
2007 Nov 20, Researchers said they have decoded the gene map of a strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and that their work has identified mutations that may help develop better treatments.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In SF large grocery stores stopped using plastic bags as a new city ordnance banning the bags took effect.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 20, British Treasury chief Alistair Darling revealed a lapse at Britain's tax and customs service regarding missing computer disks with details of 25 million British individuals and 7.25 million families claiming child benefit. There were gasps from lawmakers when Darling described the scale of the loss.
(AP, 11/21/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.24)
2007 Nov 20, In Cambodia Kaing Guek Eav (66), also known as Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's largest and most notorious torture center appeared in court in the first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan nomad to eight years in prison for seeking Tibetan independence after he urged a crowd to proclaim loyalty to the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In China Huang Qingnan (34), a workers’ rights advocate in Shenzhen, was severely beaten and stabbed by thugs believed to have been hired by Chinese companies opposed to labor activism.
(SFC, 1/7/08, p.A18)
2007 Nov 20, The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers said imprisoned Chinese journalist Li Changqing has been awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, its annual press freedom prize.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A landslide in central China buried a bus. Workers clearing rocks from the landslide discovered the bus underneath rubble three days later and recovered 29 bodies, that included 28 inside the bus. The landslide raised concern that the massive reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam, 120 miles away, was wreaking ecological havoc in the region. The death toll later increased to 34.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/24/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Nov 20, It was reported that Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central African country.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Travel woes piled up in France with air traffic delays adding to a week of rail strikes as many of the nation's 5 million civil servants held a day-long walkout in the biggest test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's appetite for reform.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A British Puma helicopter crashed southeast of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and seriously injuring two others. A sophisticated roadside bomb killed a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded three other soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation, seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Jordan held elections. Supporters of King Abdullah II, a close US ally, handily defeated the country's Islamist opposition in parliamentary elections, dropping their number of parliament seats by nearly two-thirds.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, The British government announced that the legal age of sexual consent in Northern Ireland will be lowered to 16 in line with the rest of the United Kingdom.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said more than 3,000 people jailed under emergency rule have been released, the latest sign that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was rolling back some of the harsher measures taken against his opponents. Over 2,000 remained jailed. The government said the army had killed 15 militants in Shangla as Pres. Musharraf left for a visit to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in a key arms control treaty was a necessary response to NATO "muscle-flexing" near its frontiers. The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which originally set limits on weapons of NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, was revised in 1999. Russia ratified the updated treaty in 2004, but the US and other NATO members have refused to follow suit, saying Moscow first must fulfill obligations to withdraw forces from Georgia and from Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Singapore Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) adopted a landmark charter but their vision to create an EU-style bloc faced hurdles because of concerns over Myanmar, whose military rulers have defied international calls to restore democracy.
(AP, 11/20/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.43)
2007 Nov 20, Ian Smith (88), Rhodesia's last white prime minister, died in South Africa . His attempts to resist black rule dragged the country, later renamed as Zimbabwe, into isolation and civil war.
(AP, 11/20/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.92)
2007 Nov 21, Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued an order that bars discrimination against state workers based on their "gender identity or expression," which protects the rights of those who behave, dress or identify as members of the opposite sex.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, New Hampshire set its presidential primary to Jan 8, claiming its traditional spot as the nation’s first primary.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 21, Officials in the US announced the recall of more than a half-million pieces of Chinese-made children's jewelry contaminated with lead.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2007 Nov 21, Herbert Saffir (b.1917), an engineer who created the five-category system used to describe hurricane strength, died. Saffir began working on an intensity scale in 1969 as part of a United Nations project. Saffir's scale was expanded by former National Hurricane Center director Robert H. Simpson and became known as the Saffir-Simpson scale in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 21, Aruba authorities announced they had re-arrested Dutch student Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the 2005 death of Natalee Holloway.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey launched the construction of a railroad that will link ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia with Europe, bypassing Russia.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, PM Gordon Brown tried to reassure Britons their personal details were safe after the one of the biggest security breaches in the country's history left millions of people exposed to identity theft and bank fraud.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, Canada’s government set aside 25 million acres of wilderness in the Northwest Territories for conservation.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 21, Chile’s Supreme Court threw out embezzlement indictments against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet's widow and four of his children, who had been accused of misuse of state funds related to multimillion-dollar overseas bank accounts.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 21, Colombia's government said it was canceling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's mediation role with leftist rebels in a possible hostage swap, dealing a blow to efforts to free three kidnapped US contractors and a former presidential candidate.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Costa Rica's president signed into law a free trade agreement (CAFTA) with its Central American neighbors, the United States and the Dominican Republic. Costa Ricans voted for the trade deal in a national referendum, moving it forward. But then it became stalled again as congress squabbled over the enabling legislation dealing with 13 different aspects of the deal. In late 2008 lawmakers overcame the final intellectual-property hurdle by allowing schools and universities to copy some materials and by reducing prison time for those guilty of selling pirated goods.
(AP, 11/22/07)(AP, 11/11/08)
2007 Nov 21, A French judge filed preliminary charges against former President Jacques Chirac in a probe of suspicions that people were given fake jobs while he was mayor of Paris (1977-1995). Some 10,000 people, mainly tobacco sellers, marched through Paris to protest a smoking ban in cafes as of Jan 1. Coordinated acts of sabotage struck France's high-speed trains, causing further delays to services already widely disrupted by strikes, just as talks were opening to coax unions into ending their walkout.
(AP, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/22/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.56)
2007 Nov 21, Two British teenagers (16) faced up to three years in jail after a Ghanaian court found them guilty of smuggling 6 kg (13 lbs) of cocaine. The teenagers, who pleaded not guilty, had told British TV they were tricked into carrying the bags by male acquaintances in Ghana and Britain and did not know their content. In 2008 the 2 girls were sentenced to one year in jail to include time already served. They were released on July 17, 2008.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(AP, 1/23/08)(AFP, 7/17/08)
2007 Nov 21, In Hungary several trade unions and civic groups held a series of strikes and protests against the Socialist-led government's plans to privatize health insurance and close some railway lines.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, India and the International Atomic Energy Agency agreed to start negotiations on putting Indian reactors under IAEA safeguards, clearing a key hurdle to closing a US-Indian nuclear supply pact. Dozens of soldiers marched through Calcutta and police imposed a curfew to try to quell riots that erupted after protesters alleged government brutality.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint guarding a courthouse in Ramadi, killing at least six people in the largest attack on Anbar province's capital in months. Iraqi security forces found 40 decomposed bodies, including women and children, north of Ramadi near Lake Tharthar in an area controlled until recently by al-Qaida in Iraq. A police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in central Kut. The US military said six suspected militants were killed and 10 captured in two days of raids across central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Owners of the only salmon farm in Northern Ireland said they have lost their entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth some $2 million, to a jellyfish attack. Pelagia nocticula, popularly known as the mauve stinger, is noted for its purplish night-time glow and its propensity for terrorizing bathers in the warmer Mediterranean Sea. Until the past decade, the mauve stinger has rarely been spotted so far north in British or Irish waters, and scientists cite this as evidence of global warming.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Pakistan asked a key international forum comprising Britain and its former colonies to delay a decision on whether to suspend it from the Commonwealth. Law Minister Afzal Hayder said the government had freed 5,634 political activists and anti-government lawyers, including cricketer Imran Kahn. 623 people remained in government custody. The army said security forces attacked mountaintop positions of pro-Taliban militants in the Swat region of northwestern Pakistan, leaving 40 fighters dead.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In Senegal street vendors protesting an attempt to clear them from the center of Dakar clashed with police, throwing rocks at officers who fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Last week, Senegal's security forces began clearing the capital's intersections of hawkers and beggars under a presidential decree aimed at bringing some order to Dakar's clogged streets.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, Ishmael Beah (27), a former child soldier and survivor of Sierra Leone's civil war, was appointed UNICEF's first Advocate for Children Affected by War.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, A South African police officer died when a helicopter carrying 14 police officers and five air force officials crashed near the border with Lesotho.
(AFP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In northern Sri Lanka soldiers killed nine Tamil Tiger rebels in several clashes.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In southern Thailand unidentified gunmen killed four local government employees in the same district where a prominent political party leader was campaigning.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security Council extended the EU's peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year, citing the Balkan nation's "very limited progress" towards EU membership and its failure to implement key reforms.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security Council welcomed a deal signed by Congo and Rwanda to forcibly disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo in an effort to reduce tensions between the central African neighbors.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, In Venezuela tens of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's supporters filled the streets to back his proposed constitutional changes, while anti-government student leaders announced a bold plan to march on the presidential palace.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, More than 60 migrants drowned when their boat capsized off Yemen during an attempt to flee their war torn homeland of Somalia.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, On Thanksgiving day in Unity, Md., David Peter Brockdorff (40), shot and killed his ex-wife, their 3 children (6-12) and then himself as the woman prepared to hand over the children for a visit.
(SFC, 11/24/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 22, The World Health Organization said nearly 400 people, mostly children, have fallen ill in Angola in what medical investigators suspect is an outbreak of bromide poisoning.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 22, The Explorer, a Canadian cruise ship, struck ice late at night off Antarctica and began taking on water. All 154 passengers and crew took to lifeboats and were rescued safely the following morning by the Nordnorge, a passing Norwegian liner.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 22, China’s state media reported that five Hollywood studios have sued a Chinese online service and internet cafe they accuse of offering pirated downloads of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and other hit films.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A nine-day transport strike that has crippled the French rail network appeared to be drawing to a close as many local union committees voted to suspend their stoppage and give negotiations a chance.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, Some 70 suspected al-Qaida fighters killed two Iraqi soldiers, then used their Humvees to kill at least 18 rival Sunnis, members of the Awakening Council, south of Baghdad. Armed civilians killed 15-20 of the insurgents in fighting that left 3 Iraqi soldiers and 5 civilians dead as well as 4 of the armed civilians. Iraqi security forces killed 19 al-Qaida fighters in Baqouba. Two civilians died and two others were wounded in the crossfire. A mortar attack struck the base in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi and wounding two. A parked car bomb in Mosul killed 2 civilians. US military officials reported that about 60 percent of the foreign militants fighting in Iraq have come from US allies Saudi Arabia and Libya.
(AP, 11/22/07)(Reuters, 11/22/07)(AP, 11/23/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A14)
2007 Nov 22, Pakistan’s Supreme Court, stacked with judges loyal to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, cleared the way for him to rule as a civilian president, throwing out a final challenge to last month's election.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A passenger bus caught fire and exploded in southern Russia, killing at least five people and wounding 12. Investigators in North Ossetia said terrorism was the likely cause.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 22, In South Africa De Beers announced that it was selling the Cullinan diamond mine, which it has owned since 1930, to a consortium led by Petra Diamonds.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.82)
2007 Nov 22, The World Health Organization said an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Sudan has killed 164 people.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A committee of the 53-nation Commonwealth, meeting in Uganda, suspended Pakistan from the organization for failing to end emergency rule.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, The UN resumed the repatriation of 12,000 Congolese refugees from Zambia which was suspended three months ago due to insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Katanga province.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 23, Emily Sander (18), a Kansas college student and Internet porn star, was last seen leaving a bar in El Dorado, about 30 miles from Wichita, with a man identified as Israel Mireles (24). Her body was found Nov 29 about 50 miles east of El Dorado. Mireles was arrested in Mexico on Dec 19 and extradited to the US on June 25, 2009.
(AP, 11/29/07)(AP, 11/30/07)(SFC, 12/20/07, p.A4)(SFC, 6/27/09, p.A4)
2007 Nov 23, In Afghanistan Taliban militants beheaded 7 police officers after overrunning their checkpoints. An Australian commando (26) and 3 civilians were killed in a clash with Taliban militia in Uruzgan province. In 2008 the Australian military cleared its soldiers over the deaths of two women and a baby during this battle but said all civilian casualties were "highly regrettable."
(Reuters, 11/23/07)(SFC, 11/24/07, p.A3)(AFP, 5/12/08)
2007 Nov 23, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said police have arrested nine people and broke a huge counterfeiting ring that churned out foreign passports and other documents and distributed them across Europe.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, Explosions and machine-gun fire echoed through the hills of east Congo, where government troops battled rebels for a third day amid a deepening humanitarian crisis the UN says has displaced nearly 200,000 people in the past few months.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, In Cuba Robert Vesco (b.1935), a fugitive financier, died of lung cancer. He had been wanted in the US for crimes ranging from securities fraud and drug trafficking to political bribery. News of this death was not publicly reported for another 5 months.
(SFC, 5/3/08, p.A6)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.91)
2007 Nov 23, A series of near-simultaneous explosions ripped through courthouse complexes in three north Indian cities, killing at least 13 lawyers and injuring dozens of other people. Federal authorities blamed militants trying to spark unrest between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority for the blasts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, Two bombs exploded hours apart in a central Baghdad pet market and a police checkpoint in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing 26 people and wounding dozens. A parked car bomb targeted a police patrol in Shurqat, 155 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing one officer and wounding 15 others, along with one civilian.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud just hours before he was set to leave office after it was unable to convene due to an opposition boycott. Emile Lahoud left office without a successor after announcing he was handing over security powers to the army.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/23/08)
2007 Nov 23, Vladimir Kryuchkov (83), the Soviet Union's former KGB chief and one of Russia's most influential hardline spy masters, died. Kryuchkov's biggest failure was the defection to Britain in 1985 of Oleg Gordievsky, the highest ranking KGB defector in its history.
(Reuters, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 23, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed to attend an upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2007 Nov 23, Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Beshir said he would not accept non-African troops in a combined United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, apart from Chinese and Pakistani technical units already committed.
(Reuters, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, A study commissioned by the state's emergency response council said nearly a third of Swaziland's children are considered orphaned and vulnerable as AIDS takes its toll on the country. Close to 40 percent of Swaziland adults are living with HIV and AIDS, the highest infection rate anywhere in the world.
(AFP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 23, In Uganda presidents and prime ministers from Britain and its former colonies discussed democracy, human rights and the rule of law at the start of a Commonwealth summit. They were presented with the new report: “Civil Paths to Peace: Report of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding," while police and anti-government protesters clashed nearby.
(AP, 11/23/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.74)
2007 Nov 23, Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovych submitted his resignation as a new parliament was sworn in and rival parties jostled to form a government after September elections.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 24, In southern California a fast-moving wildfire destroyed more than a dozen homes and spread through the canyons and hills above Malibu, forcing dozens of residents to flee ahead of the flames. 53 homes were destroyed with 7 square miles scorched. On Dec 13 authorities arrested five men on allegations they caused the fire which caused over $100 million in losses in Malibu.
(AP, 11/24/07)(SSFC, 11/25/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/26/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Nov 24, Beginning today and continuing for less than a week, bad guys loaded up more than 40,000 Web pages with malicious software and thousands of common search terms. The culprits' use of botnets to push a dark form of SEO (search-engine optimization), called a "Google bomb," to boost their sites' Google rankings.
(www.pcworld.com/article/id,141796/article.html)(PCWorld, 1/28/08)
2007 Nov 24, A Taliban suicide bomber killed eight people, including three children and an Italian military engineer, when he blew himself up in a scenic town near Kabul. Insurgents attacked police in the Pathan district and were targeted by airstrikes from NATO or coalition helicopters. The bodies of 69 dead militants were said to be left in the area. Among those killed were four Taliban who were traveling with two cars full of explosives and ammunition.
(AFP, 11/24/07)(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 24, In Australia conservative PM John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the left-leaning opposition. Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, in southwestern Bangladesh a section of a bridge collapsed under the weight of thousands of hungry cyclone victims rushing toward a relief center. At least 3 people died and dozens were injured.
(Reuters, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In Bolivia soldiers clashed with students protesting a constitutional assembly in a second day of unrest against the pending legal overhaul. 2 people died in the violence.
(AP, 11/25/07)(WSJ, 11/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 24, Robert Knipstrom (36) of British Columbia man died four days after police used a Taser stun-gun on him because he reportedly was acting erratically in a store. He was the third person to die in recent weeks in Canada after being shocked by the hand-held weapon.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 24, Full service was restored on the Paris Metro and most French trains were running after transport workers ended a crippling strike so that talks on pension reform could run their course.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In India protesting tea plantation workers in the remote northeast clashed with area residents, in violence that left six people dead and 60 others injured. A group of nearly 10,000 workers from tea plantations all over the state of Assam, led by the All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, had been marching in the state capital of Gauhati to demand that the government recognize them as a separate tribal group.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In central Indonesia a fire on a crowded passenger bus killed 12 people, including three children.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, In Iraq a US operation near Samarra killed 10 suspected Sunni militants. In the same area 2 men who were confronted in a vehicle detonated a suicide vest leaving both dead.
(SFC, 11/26/07, p.A18)
2007 Nov 24, Lebanon awoke a republic without a president amid mounting worries over a power vacuum that has intensified the nation's yearlong political turmoil.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, Militants struck at the heart of Pakistan's security establishment, killing up to 35 people in suicide attacks on a checkpoint outside army headquarters and a bus carrying intelligence agency employees. The attacks in Rawalpindi coincided with the announcement that Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister overthrown in 1999 by the country's current military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf, would return from exile the next day.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, Russian police in Moscow detained opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and several other anti-Kremlin protesters when thousands of people marched against President Vladimir Putin.
(Reuters, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, South Korea's first bird flu outbreak in eight months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country's south. The government said the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 24, More than 100 Chinese engineers arrived in Sudan's war-torn Darfur as part of the vanguard for a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission to be in place next year. Rebels demanded Beijing pull its peacekeepers out of Darfur, just hours after a unit of Chinese army engineers arrived.
(AFP, 11/24/07)(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 24, Pope Benedict XVI elevated 23 churchmen from around the world to the top ranks of the Catholic Church hierarchy, telling them they must be willing to shed their blood to spread the Christian faith.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 25, Kevin Dubrow (52), lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot, died in Las Vegas from an accidental cocaine overdose.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Nov 25, NATO's ISAF confirmed that airstrikes targeted and killed 3 Taliban militants who were planting mines in nearby Gardez.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, Newly elected leader Kevin Rudd moved quickly to bring Australia into international talks on fighting global warming, and to head off potentially thorny relations with the United States and key Asian neighbors.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, More than 50 people were missing after a boat, possibly being ferried by human traffickers, sank off a southern Bangladesh island bordering Myanmar waters.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, In northeastern Brazil a section of stands at a soccer stadium gave way as fans cheered at the end of a game, killing eight people.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, Actor Neil Hope, who starred as Derek "Wheels" Wheeler on the popular 1980s TV series "Degrassi Junior High," died. He had little contact with relatives and friends in his final years and died alone in an Ontario rooming house. His death was not made public until 2012.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2007 Nov 25, In China 6 people were confirmed dead and 7 others were reported missing after an iron tailing dam collapsed early this morning in northeast Liaoning Province.
(Reuters, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, Croatia held parliamentary elections. Exit polls and preliminary results showed that the ruling conservatives and opposition center-left Social Democrats were virtually tied.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, In France youths assaulted a police station, torched cars and vandalized stores in a rampage that injured 21 police officers in Villiers-le-Bel, a rundown Paris suburb. The violence was prompted when two teens were killed in a motorbike crash with a police patrol car.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 25, Two strong earthquakes struck Indonesia’s eastern island of Sumbawa and killed at least three people, including a child, and injured 45 others.
(AP, 11/26/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 25, In Iraq a parked car bomb exploded in a crowded area near a medical complex in Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30. A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol at an intersection in a northeastern Baghdad neighborhood, killing one civilian and wounding eight others. Masked gunmen killed 11 relatives of a journalist critical of the Iraqi government, according to colleagues and the media advocacy group Reporters Without Border.
(AP, 11/25/07)(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Malaysia some 10-20 thousand ethnic Indians clashed with police at a rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur to demand economic equality.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Nov 25, An army spokesman and Palestinian medics said Israeli troops killed two armed Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight.
(AFP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, Pakistan’s exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif returned home to a hero's welcome and called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule before elections, a fresh challenge to the US-backed leader. The army said that 30 pro-Taliban fighters and one Pakistani soldier died in an operation to capture militant positions in the Swat valley.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, In the Philippines Typhoon Mitag hit Isabela province after killing 8 people in other parts of the country. A week earlier Typhoon Hagibis left 13 people before heading toward Vietnam. It then reversed direction and headed back toward the Philippines.
(SFC, 11/26/07, p.A10)
2007 Nov 25, Dozens of members of a Russian opposition party and other activists were detained by police as they tried to gather for a protest rally in central St. Petersburg.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Sudan Gillian Gibbons (54), a British teacher, was put under detention for allegedly insulting Islam's prophet by allowing children to call a teddy bear Mohammed. She was arrested because of a complaint under Article 125 of the penal code, which provides punishment for publicly insulting or degrading any religion, its rites, beliefs and sacred items or humiliating its believers. On Nov 28 Sudan charged Gibbons with inciting religious hatred.
(AFP, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Uganda Commonwealth leaders called on Pakistan to remain engaged with the group as they wrapped up a summit here that saw the suspension of President Pervez Musharraf's country.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 26, President Bush signed a deal setting the foundation for a potential long-term US troop presence in Iraq, with details to be negotiated over matters that have defined the war debate at home. Bush also met with the leaders of Israel and Palestine ahead of the Middle East peace talks at Annapolis.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A15)
2007 Nov 26, Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced his retirement after a 35-year career in Congress.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 26, Citigroup announced that the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government will take a 4.9% stake and provide a $7.5 billion capital infusion.
(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 26, Amsterdam based Royal Philips Electronics announced the purchase of Genlyte Group, based in Louisville, Kentucky, for $2.7 billion. The deal made Philips the biggest lighting firm in the American market.
(www.newscenter.philips.com/about/news/press/20071126.page)
2007 Nov 26, Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $200 million donation for the global campaign to wipe out polio.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, A new report said the US District of Columbia has the highest rate of AIDS of any city in the country. An estimated one in 20 residents had HIV and one in 50 had AIDS.
(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 26, A new study by the University of Michigan bolstered claims that Native Americans are descended from one migrant group that crossed a lost land link from modern Siberia to Alaska. The study examined genes of indigenous people from North to South America and from two Siberian groups.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, In Michigan a find of dioxin at the bottom of the Saginaw River could be the highest level of such contamination ever discovered in the nation's rivers and lakes, according to a federal scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from a Dow Chemical Co. plant.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Roger Lee Dillon (22), his girlfriend, Nicole N. Boyd (24), and Dillon’s mother, Sharon Lee Gregory (48), stole $7.4 million in cash and checks from an Ohio armored car company. They were arrested Dec 1 in West Virginia.
(AP, 12/1/07)(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 26, Washington Redskins star safety Sean Taylor was mortally wounded when he was shot during a botched armed robbery at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. Taylor died the next day.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 26, Bill Hartack (74), Hall of Fame jockey, died in Freer, Texas.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 26, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck an Afghan army vehicle, killing 4 soldiers and wounding two others in eastern Paktia province. 4 civilians were killed by a roadside blast in the Musayi district of Kabul province. In eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition troops killed 14 road construction workers in airstrikes after receiving faulty intelligence.
(AP, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 26, The Bahamas ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 141 the number of nations that have done so. The treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by all 44 states listed in an annex, that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and had nuclear power or research reactors at the time. 34 of those countries have ratified the pact. The holdouts include the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, Peter Watt, the general secretary of Britain’s Labor Party, resigned after admitting that he knew of an arrangement in which David Abrahams, a north-east property developer, had donated money to the party through intermediaries since 2003. PM Brown claimed not to have known of the arrangement and promised to return the money.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.69)
2007 Nov 26, In eastern Chad rebels and government soldiers fought gunbattles near the border with Sudan's Darfur region after two rebel groups ended a month-long ceasefire. A rebel group, Union of Forces for Development and Democracy, claimed to have killed over 200 government soldiers with 20 of its fighters lost.
(Reuters, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A17)
2007 Nov 26, Croatia's ruling conservative HDZ party looked on course to win another four years in power and take the nation into the EU after a close-fought parliamentary election. The ruling conservatives and center-left opposition sought allies after the vote left no clear winner.
(AP, 11/26/07)(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 26, In Ecuador about 60 miners were trapped after the blast in the village of Ponce Enriquez, 230 miles southwest of Quito.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, France netted deals in China for nuclear reactors and passenger jets worth a combined $29.62 billion on the second day of a state visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, In France youths rioted for a 2nd night in Paris' suburbs, leaving 82 officers injured.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 26, In Indonesia the capital of Jakarta was partially flooded, forcing thousands of people to flee homes and cutting off a highway to the international airport.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, An Iranian air force F-4 Phantom jet crashed into the Oman Sea off the southeastern coast of Iran, killing both pilots.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, An Israeli aircraft pounded a squad of militants and Israeli border guards shot two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, High school students clashed with riot police in Amsterdam and demonstrated in cities across the Netherlands to protest a national increase in classroom hours.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Former Pakistani prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif signed up to run in a January election while a spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said he would be sworn in as a civilian on Nov 29.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Philip Alston, a New York University law professor charged by the UN Human Rights Council with investigating extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, reported that the military was in a state of denial about its role in the deaths of about 800 opposition activists over the past six years.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, In the Philippines the death toll from Typhoon Mitag rose to 17, as search operations began for a missing air force jet and a fishing vessel with 27 people aboard.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 26, A South Korean aid group said North Korea has resumed frequent public executions, among them a factory chief accused of making international phone calls who was shot in a stadium before 150,000 spectators.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, In Sri Lanka rebels said 11 schoolchildren and two others were killed when Sri Lanka's military activated a roadside bomb near a car traveling near Kilinochchi.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Pres. Bush declared that the time is right to relaunch Mideast peace talks to create a Palestinian state because "a battle is under way for the future" of the troubled region, in remarks prepared for the start of the US-arranged Annapolis Mideast peace conference. Delegations from 46 countries and int’l. organizations attended the conference. Israeli PM Olmert and Palestine’s Pres. Abbas agreed to launch formal talks on Dec 12 and committed to negotiating a peace treaty by the end of 2008.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A15)(WSJ, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 27, A Somali immigrant, Nuradin Abdi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up an Ohio shopping mall.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2007 Nov 27, The US Red Cross fired chief executive Mark Everson (53) citing his personal relationship with a subordinate employee. Everson was in office for only 6 months.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Nov 27, Cessna said it will turn over complete production of its new Cessna 162 SkyCatcher to a Chinese partner. The base price of the plane will be $109,500.
(WSJ, 11/28/07, p.A14)
2007 Nov 27, Google said it will spend millions of dollars to develop renewable energy as part of a plan to clean the environment and reduce the company’s own power bill.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 27, Wells Fargo & Co. said it will take a $1.4 billion pretax charge tied to increased losses on home equity loans.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.C3)
2007 Nov 27, In Florida Pro Bowl safety Sean Taylor died after he was shot in his home by an apparent intruder, leaving the Washington Redskins in mourning for a teammate who seemed to have reordered his life since becoming a father. By the end of the week 4 men were charged with unpremeditated murder, armed burglary and home invasion with a firearm or another deadly weapon.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Nov 27, Dr. J. Robert Cade (80), inventor of Gatorade, died.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2007 Nov 27, Jane Rule, American-born Canadian writer, died at her home on Galiano Island in British Columbia. Her 1964 novel, “Desert of the Heart," is considered a landmark work of lesbian fiction.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.C5)
2007 Nov 27, Bill Willis (86), a Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns and Ohio State's first black football All-American, died in Columbus, Ohio.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2007 Nov 27, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber triggered a huge blast near two armored vehicles used by US-led coalition troops in Kabul, killing at least two civilians and destroying the wall of a nearby house.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Algeria officials said floods caused by days of torrential rain have killed 11 people, injured several others and have cut off many roads in northern Algeria.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Brussels Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania, was declared “European of the Year" at the annual EV50 gala awards ceremony hosted by European Voice. President Adamkus was nominated as one of 50 “Europeans of the Year." The 2007 winners of the EV50 awards were chosen by European Voice readers from among 50 nominees, selected by a distinguished panel of leading opinion-formers.
(http://tinyurl.com/2phf99)
2007 Nov 27, In Brazil a Catholic bishop began his second hunger strike in two years to protest a government project to divert river water to irrigate parts of the country's arid northeast.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, International experts convened in Burkina Faso for a three day session to discuss the prospects for biofuel production in Africa. The conference was organized by the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering and CIRAD, the French agricultural research centre international development. Co-organizers included the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the government of Burkina Faso.
(AFP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, In central China an explosion ripped through a house where villagers in Hunan province were illegally making fireworks, killing 13 people.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, PM Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia will sustain its crackdown on separatist rebels in the restive Ogaden region, adding that scores of insurgents had been killed. John Holmes, UN undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs, arrived in the Ogaden region.
(AP, 11/27/07)(Reuters, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, In France youths rioted for a 3rd night in Paris' suburbs, firing at officers and ramming burning cars into buildings. In Toulouse a library went up in flames.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 27, French police detained a 68-year-old retired "drag queen" performer on suspicion of murdering 18 mainly gay men between 1980 and 2000.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, according to an annual UN table that again puts AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.
(Reuters, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, The Mezzanine, a Panamanian freighter, hit rough seas off Taiwan's north coast and 26 Indonesian sailors were feared dead.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, The news agency IRNA reported that Iran has manufactured a new missile with a range of 1,200 miles capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the Mideast. A judiciary spokesman said an Iranian court has acquitted Hossein Mousavian, a former nuclear negotiator of spying charges, but convicted him of acting against the Islamic government.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, More Iraqi refugees, heartened by reports of the lull in violence in Baghdad, were beginning to return. A woman wearing an explosives belt blew herself up near an American patrol near Baqouba wounding 7 US troops and 5 Iraqis. East of the city, mortar rounds apparently targeting a local radio station instead landed near homes in the vicinity, killing two people, while a roadside bombing killed one civilian. US troops fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least five people, including a child, in two separate shootings.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, Lebanon's top Shiite cleric declared that a Muslim woman is allowed to fight back in self-defense if she is hit by her husband, in a ruling rare for the region's male-dominated Islamic society.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Mozambique formally took over from Portugal the control of Cahora Bassa hydroelectric dam, Africa's second most important after that of Aswan in Egypt.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, The defense chiefs of North and South Korea began a rare meeting to discuss easing tension across their disputed sea border on a harmonious note, pledging to end the peninsula's division.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Officials said Pakistani government troops have retaken a strategic peak from pro-Taliban rebels in the northwest Swat valley and shut down their radio station. Major General Waheed Arshad said 45 militants had been killed in the past two days of clashes.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Tens of thousands of people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip rallied against the Mideast peace conference under way in the US, while the group's top leader in Gaza insisted the summit is "doomed to failure."
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, PM Donald Tusk announced that Poland will drop its opposition to Moscow's bid to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a drive to improve ties with Russia.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Russia’s Gazprom made clear its interest in buying a half share of TNK-BP and any large UK power company that may come up for sale, while repeating its warning that wholesale gas prices could rise sharply in Europe next year.
(www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/nov/28/bp.oil)
2007 Nov 27, Sri Lanka’s air force bombed the Tiger’s radio station killing 9 civilian staff.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.48)
2007 Nov 28, A day after an international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., President Bush told the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories he was personally committed to their mission of peace.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, Republican presidential rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney clashed over immigration in a provocative, no-holds-barred CNN/YouTube debate.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery stemming from a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers. Simpson and a co-defendant were convicted in October, 2008.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, Broadway stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative agreement on ending a crippling 19-day-old strike.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Nov 28, In Minnesota a fire at a pipeline from Canada that feeds oil to the US killed 2 people. The pipeline that leaked and four others were shut down, though it wasn't clear for how long, sending oil prices up the next day.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, An Oakland, Ca., city auditor’s report said employees were allowed to cash out unused vacation time and received millions of dollars in perks, much of it not subject to scrutiny.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 28, Joseph Hokai Tang (28), musician and violin dealer, was arrested for fraud following a performance in Eugene, Oregon. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to 10 fraud counts and admitted to bilking at least 120 people out of $400,000 worth of instruments. In 2008 he was sentenced in SF District Court to 37 months in prison.
(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.B1)
2007 Nov 28, Afghan and foreign troops battled Taliban fighters and called in airstrikes in southern Afghanistan, leaving 30 militants dead. Four other militants were killed in a separate clash in the east. In eastern Khost province gunmen on motorbikes shot to death a school principal. In Ghazni province Taliban insurgents ambushed police in Khogyani district, and the ensuing clash killed one policeman and four suspected militants. Militants in Paktia province attacked trucks carrying supplies for foreign troops, killing one driver. In Paktika province a roadside bomb hit Afghan troops, leaving one soldier dead and three wounded.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, Across Bolivia banks, shops, schools and public transportation were shuttered in cities, as demonstrators protested a new law tapping regional budgets for a fund for the elderly.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, Brazil and China said they will give Africa free satellite imaging of its landmass to help the continent respond to threats like deforestation, desertification and drought.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo in the communist nation's first military visit to Japan since World War II, symbolizing improving ties.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to punish rioters who shot at police but sought to ease tensions with an independent probe into the deaths of two youths that triggered the unrest.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Nazi documents stored in a vast warehouse in Germany were unsealed, opening a rich resource for Holocaust historians and for survivors to delve into their own tormented past. Inquiries were handled by the archive's 400 staff members in the German spa town of Bad Arolsen.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Indonesia, which is losing its forests at a faster rate than any other country, launched a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of a critical climate change conference on the resort island of Bali.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Iran claimed to have built a small submarine equipped with sonar-evading technology, saying the craft had been launched in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Nearly 6,000 Sunnis joined a security pact with American forces in a bid to close escape routes for extremists. About 20 buses carrying hundreds of Iraqi refugees rolled into a Baghdad depot, the first from the Iraqi-funded effort to speed the return of families. An American soldier was killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad.
(AP, 11/29/07)(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 28, In Japan former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya (63) and his wife were arrested on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies, including one linked to General Electric, in exchange for contracts.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Kosovo stood firm in its demand for independence after 3 days of talks, pushing the issue to the UN Security Council.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 28, Kyrgyzstan's president signed an order relieving PM Almazbek Atambayev of duty, nine months after he was appointed in a move to appease opposition groups.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A lawmaker said the largest bloc in Lebanon's deadlocked parliament has dropped its opposition to the army chief becoming president, bringing Gen. Michel Suleiman a step closer to being the new head of state and ending a yearlong political crisis.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, North and South Korea struggled to resolve differences over creating a joint fishing zone around their disputed sea border at a second day of rare defense talks in Pyongyang.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Pervez Musharraf stepped down as Pakistan's military commander, fulfilling a key opposition demand a day before he was to be sworn in as civilian president. Musharraf handed over his ceremonial baton to his successor, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani (b.1952), who is widely expected to maintain the army's pro-Western policies. A shell aimed at Islamic militants in northern Pakistan killed 11 civilians, while a roadside bomb killed five soldiers in another troubled region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 11/28/07)(AP, 11/29/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashfaq_Parvez_Kayani)
2007 Nov 28, Palestinian police loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas fired shots in the air and beat protesters with sticks during the funeral of a man killed during a protest against this week's US-hosted Mideast peace summit. At least 26 people were wounded, one critically.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Authorities in Saudi Arabia announced the arrest of 208 suspected terrorists in six cells and thwarted several planned attacks in the kingdom's largest terror sweep to date. They included 8 al-Qaida linked men allegedly planning to attack oil installations.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said he will propose the creation of a committee of African heads of state to mend broken relations between Zimbabwe and former colonial power Britain.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian were arrested in eastern Slovakia and Hungary in an attempted sale of a kilo (2.2 lbs) of uranium, material believed to be from the former Soviet Union. Police said it was enriched enough to be used in a radiological "dirty bomb."
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 28, In Sri Lanka a bomb exploded near the entrance to a popular department store in a busy Colombo suburb, killing 20 people and wounding 43. Earlier in the day, a female suicide bomber sent by the rebels killed one person and wounded two others in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate a government minister in his office in Colombo.
(AFP, 11/29/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.48)
2007 Nov 28, In southern Thailand a Muslim military informant was shot and crucified, while two Buddhist men were beheaded by suspected Islamic separatists.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 29, The Bush administration announced that China has agreed to eliminate improper trade subsidies it was using to the detriment of US and other foreign companies.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Florida state officials froze withdrawals from the state’s Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) as panicky investors pulled out nearly half of the fund’s assets in the wake of the US mortgage mess. School and municipal officials found themselves short of money to pay bills. Other states faced similar problems due to purchases of high yield debt known as structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.87)
2007 Nov 29, The jazz club Yoshi’s in San Francisco held its grand opening at 1330 Fillmore.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.E1)
2007 Nov 29, Cancer researchers reported a link between night-shift work and a higher incidence of cancer.
(WSJ, 11/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 29, In Richmond County, Georgia, Jeanette Michelle Hawes (22) fatally stabbed her two young children in a Food Mart convenience store bathroom.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Henry Hyde (b.1924), former Illinois Republican Representative (1975-2007), died. In 1976 he attached an amendment to a spending bill barring the use of federal funds for abortions. In 1998 he led House efforts to impeach Pres. Clinton for allegedly lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.A6)(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H001022)
2007 Nov 29, Roger B. Smith (82), former chairman and CEO of General Motors, died in Detroit. He was the target of Michael Moore’s 1989 film “Roger & Me." During his term GM’s market share dropped from 45% to 36%. It currently stood at 24%.
(SFC, 12/1/07, p.B5)
2007 Nov 29, In Afghanistan 2 Danish soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with the Taliban. They were part of a Danish reconnaissance unit that came under fire in Gereshk Valley in Helmand Province. Denmark has some 600 troops in Helmand province that are part of NATO's 40,000-member force in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden released a new tape calling on Europeans to stop helping the US in the war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won local elections on a turnout of 43 percent.
(AFP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Armenia approved a plan to shut down its lone nuclear power plant, following years of pressure from foreign nations concerned about its Soviet-era design and safety.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Australia’s PM-elect Kevin Rudd named his Cabinet, choosing a woman as deputy leader for the first time, a former rock singer as environment minister and a lawyer from the Outback as foreign minister.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, In eastern Chad new fighting erupted near the border with Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region between the army and a leading rebel group.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, The European Parliament voted to allow Britain and Ireland to keep some of their old imperial measurements so pubs can still serve pints and road signs can show miles instead of kilometers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, According to a new report released by the UN and the Chinese government the number of people estimated to be living with HIV in China has risen to 700,000, with increases among intravenous drug users and sex workers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, It was reported locals in eastern Ethiopia have accused soldiers fighting an insurgency of burning villages to the ground, committing gang rape and killing people "like goats." A September report by a UN fact-finding mission said villagers had been told not to speak to outsiders.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel surrendered to demands by the Social Democrats, a junior partner in the grand coalition, for a minimum wage for postal workers.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 29, Iraqi police pulled six bodies from the Tigris River about 25 miles south of Baghdad. The bodies were handcuffed and had signs of torture and five, including a young child, had been beheaded. In Baghdad, a bomb on a minibus killed one person.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, A wildcat protest by cab drivers caused gridlock in downtown Rome, leaving Italians and tourists alike stranded at airports and train stations across the capital. Unions had been negotiating with Mayor Walter Veltroni over planned fare increases, but they walked away from the talks and called the sudden protest after authorities said they wanted to issue 500 new taxi licenses.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, ZMP of Japan began selling a two-legged walking robot that runs on Microsoft's new robotics software, a product the companies said will make it easier to transfer technology from one robot to another.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, The top defense officials from North and South Korea agreed on security arrangements for the first-ever regular train service across their heavily fortified border.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf embarked on a new five-year term as a civilian president, promising to lift a state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore the constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic opponents and foreign backers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Philippines’ President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo quickly quashed the latest threat to her rule, dispatching troops and SWAT teams when dissident military officers commandeered a five-star hotel after walking out of their coup trial.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, In Russia tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky was convicted in absentia of embezzling millions of dollars from the national airline, Aeroflot, and reportedly sentenced to six years in prison.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher arrested in Sudan on Nov 25 for insulting Islam by allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad," was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes. Gibbons was pardoned after spending more than a week in custody; she then left the country.
(AP, 11/30/07)(AP, 11/29/08)
2007 Nov 29, In Uganda a senior Ministry of Health official said an Ebola outbreak has killed at least 16 people out of 51 confirmed cases. The first case was reported Nov. 10 in Bundibugyo district, 210 miles west of the capital, Kampala. Uganda last had an outbreak of Ebola in October 2000, when 173 people died. A new form of the Ebola virus was detected in the outbreak. The death toll soon climbed to 21, including 8 doctors and health workers.
(AP, 11/29/07)(AP, 11/30/07)(Reuters, 12/1/07)(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B6)
2007 Nov 29, Ukraine's two pro-Western parties forged a majority coalition in parliament, paving the way for forming a government.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, in Venezuela more than 100,000 people flooded the streets to protest constitutional changes that would boost President Hugo Chavez's power. Students again showed they are a key force behind the re-energized opposition.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Leeland Eisenberg (46) of Somersworth, NH, carrying what appeared to be a bomb, took hostages at a Clinton campaign office in Rochester, NH, before surrendering after a 6-hour standoff. Eisenberg, one of over 500 recipients of payments in a 2003 settlement over clergy sexual abuse, said he wanted help getting psychiatric care.
(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.A1)(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A21)
2007 Nov 30, Scientists at Duke Univ. reported the creation of the first map of genes that are inherited as “silenced genes." The Duke map verified 40 and identified another 156. Humans were first shown to have silenced genes in 1991. They help explain why some people get sick and others do not.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.A7)
2007 Nov 30, An Amtrak train and a freight train collided on a track on the South Side of Chicago, injuring dozens of people.
{Train Crash, Chicago, USA}
(AP, 11/30/08)
2007 Nov 30, Evel Knievel (b.1938), the hard-living US motorcycle daredevil, died in Florida. His rocket-powered jumps and stunts made him an international icon in the 1970s.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Aruba a judge ordered the release of two brothers suspected in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, ruling that the evidence wasn't strong enough to continue holding them.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, Australian PM-elect Kevin Rudd said he would pull the country's 550 combat troops out of Iraq by the middle of next year.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited a teeming hillside shantytown to launch a multimillion-dollar program to build an outdoor elevator, sewage systems, improve roads and upgrade housing for slum residents.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Chad anti-government rebels declared a "state of war" against French and foreign military forces in an apparent warning to an EU peacekeeping force that plans to deploy soon in eastern Chad.
(Reuters, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, The $1.2 million film “Lost in Beijing" directed by Li Yu was released in China and made over $1.8 million before it was censored for sexually explicit scenes in uncut, pirated copies. Li Yu was banned from producing films for 2 years.
(SFC, 1/5/08, p.E4)
2007 Nov 30, Colombian officials released newly obtained videos of rebel-held hostages, among them three US defense contractors and a former presidential candidate, the first images in years providing evidence the captives may be alive.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OECD) awarded its rotating chairmanship in 2010 to Kazakhstan.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.50)
2007 Nov 30, India's Tata Steel signed a joint venture with Australia's Riversdale Mining to develop a hard coking and thermal coal project in Mozambique.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, An 18-month attempt to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment collapsed after a senior EU envoy failed to dent Iran's resolve to expand the technology, despite the threat of new UN sanctions.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Iraqi police captured a suspect believed responsible for supplying and coordinating roadside bomb attacks against American and Iraqi troops. Gunmen abducted Raid al-Saaiy, the dean of a technical institute in Amarah, a Shiite militia stronghold about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, leaving behind his car and driver. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of Iraq’s largest Sunni political block (the Iraqi Accordance Front), was placed under house arrest after an employee was found with keys to a car rigged with explosives. Over 40 of his employees were detained including 2 accused of killing a member of a neighborhood watch group.
(AP, 12/1/07)(SFC, 12/1/07, p.A6)
2007 Nov 30, In Italy a general transport strike by workers demanding more investment in the sector forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and idled trains, ships and buses across the country.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Italian oil firm Eni and oil and gas exploration firm Burren Energy said they had agreed the terms of a takeover offer from Eni worth 1.74 billion pounds. Burren is an independent group quoted on the London stock exchange that runs oil and gas fields in Turkmenistan, Congo, Egypt and Yemen.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, New Zealand officials said police have questioned the suspected teenage kingpin of an international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts. Earlier this month, Ryan Goldstein, 21, of Ambler, Pa., was indicted in the case. Authorities allege that the New Zealand suspect and Goldstein were involved in crashing a University of Pennsylvania engineering school server Feb. 23, 2006. On Feb 29 Owen Thor Walker (18) was charged with two counts of accessing a computer for dishonest purpose, damaging or interfering with a computer system and possessing software for committing crime, and two counts of accessing a computer system without authorization. In 2008 Walker pleaded guilty to 6 charges of computer hacking.
(AP, 11/30/07)(AP, 2/29/08)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.C2)
2007 Nov 30, Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto published her manifesto for a January election, promising jobs for the poor if victorious but keeping open the option of boycotting the vote.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In the Philippines 50 military officers and their supporters, including a former vice president, were under arrest and others were being sought following a failed attempt to trigger a "people power" revolt against the president.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Poland's new PM Donald Tusk paid a low-key visit to Lithuania on his first foreign trip. Lithuania and Poland were locked in a dispute about their relative share of the future output of a nuclear power plant that the two countries, plus Latvia and Estonia, planned to build in Lithuania by 2015.
(www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1196435824.82)
2007 Nov 30, President Vladimir Putin signed a law suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Russia fund manager Oleg Shvartsman said in an interview in Kommersant, a mainstream business newspaper, that his $3.2 billion fund was closely connected to the Kremlin’s administration and security services. Shvartsman said he reported indirectly to Igor Sechin, chair of the Rosneft oil company.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 30, Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Geneva the International Red Cross said 7 countries including the US and Britain have joined in a new move to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones. France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Denmark also committed themselves to accept a new nonbinding accord on protecting correspondents in line with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, Turkey’s government authorized the military to launch a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq at any time.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, In southwest Turkey an Atlasjet plane crashed on a rocky mountain shortly before it was due to land, killing all 57 people on board.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Venezuela some 200,000 gathered in Caracas as President Hugo Chavez urged supporters to approve constitutional changes that he said could keep him in power for life and threatened to cut off oil exports to the US if it tries to meddle in the Dec 2 vote.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Nov 30, Thousands of Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare to lead a "million-man march" in support of President Robert Mugabe's bid to extend his rule despite a severe economic crisis blamed on his government. Thousands of ZANU-PF supporters were ferried into the capital by bus and train.
(Reuters, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov, Bayer AG removed the drug Trasylol at the request of the FDA after an observational study linked the medicine to kidney failure requiring dialysis and increased death of those patients. Dr. Dennis Mangano, the study's researcher, later said that 22,000 lives could have been saved if Trasylol had been taken off the market when he first published his study in January 2006.
(Reuters, 2/14/08)
2007 Nov, a new light rail system began operating in Charlotte, North Carolina.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.35)
2007 Nov, Xue Feng, a Chinese-born American geologist, was detained in China on charges of procuring state secrets. Xue was sentenced in 2010 on charges of illegally gathering information on China's oil industry. He was released in 2015.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2007 Nov, In Egypt the film "Heya Fawda" (Arabic for "It's Chaos") opened. It is a rare, frank look at police torture, corruption and political oppression that rights groups say is widespread in Egypt. It has been pulling in viewers and spurring criticism since opening.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2007 Nov, In Haiti 108 Sri Lankan soldiers were recalled after investigators found they had paid for sex with Haitians, some of whom were underage.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Nov, Iraqi civilian deaths due to the war numbered about 560 this month.
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.29)(www.icasualties.org)
2007 Nov, Geert Wilders, Dutch member of Parliament, revealed plans to air on television an expose of the wickedness of the Koran.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.57)
2007 Nov, Pakistan police and intelligence agents snatched Mazhar ul Haq from his home on the outskirts of Islamabad. In May, 2010, a court ordered him and 10 others released, but intelligence agents spirited him away. He remained in custody in 2013 without trial or conviction of any crime.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.43)
2007 Nov, In Poland the Gdansk Shipyard, in order to avoid bankruptcy, was sold Ukrainian firm Donbass for $400 million. The transaction, notified to the OCCP in October 2007, consisted in ISD Polska, a company belonging to the Donbass Group, taking control over the shipyard.
(Econ, 5/30/09, p.52)(www.uokik.gov.pl/en/press_office/press_releases/art98.html)
2007 Nov, Tunisia blocked access to popular video-sharing sites YouTube and DailyMotion, which both carried material about Tunisian political prisoners. Tunisian activists and allies responded by linking videos about civil liberties to the image of Tunisia’s presidential palace in Google Earth.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.67)
2007 Dec 1, Pres. Bush sent a letter, his first, to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il urging him to fully disclose his nuclear programs by the end of the year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Dec 1, Roger Lee Dillon (22) and his girlfriend, Nicole N. Boyd (24), were arrested in West Virginia for the disappearance of $7 million in cash and checks from an Ohio armored car company. The disappearance of the money was discovered Nov 26.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Police in Wichita, Kan., identified a body found days earlier as that of Emily Sander, a missing college student whose disappearance drew nationwide attention after the discovery she was also an Internet pornography model named Zoey Zane. As of 2008 suspect Israel Mireles, was fighting extradition from Mexico.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 1, Four suspects were charged in Miami in the shooting death of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor. One ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder; a fifth suspect was also charged.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 1, Cheryl Dunlap, a nurse from Crawfordsville, Florida, went missing. On Dec 16 her decapitated body was found in the Apalachicola National Forest. In 2011 a jury recommended the death penalty for Michael Hilton (64), who was already serving life in prison for the 2008 slaying of Meredith Emerson of Athens, Georgia.
(SFC, 2/22/11, p.A4)(www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/12542231.html)
2007 Dec 1, Danny Newman (b.1919), press agent, died at his home in Chicago. He boosted theater success for the Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning in 1954 with the use of subscriptions. His 1978 book “Subscribe Now" became a fund-raising classic.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A8)
2007 Dec 1, Afghan and NATO-led troops battled with Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in a series of clashes in the country's south that left 40 insurgents dead.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, Officials said a week of heavy rains in northern Algeria caused the death of 15 people, while three more people are missing feared dead.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The head of Belgium's Flemish Christian Democrats abandoned efforts to form a coalition government, after more than five months of fruitless talks, plunging the country further into crisis.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Times reported that Jonathan Evans, the head of Britain's domestic security service, has warned business leaders that China has been carrying out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of the economy.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Zhang Zilin (23), Miss China, won the Miss World 2007 title in her own country in front of an estimated two billion viewers around the globe.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, China and Japan began talks on trade and economic issues that are intended to bolster the recent warming of their long-uneasy relations.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Dubai police conducted a series of simultaneous raids on suspected brothels, landing 247 suspects in jail in the emirate's biggest anti-prostitution sweep to date. Human was trafficking rampant in this wealthy Gulf city.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 1, A deadline for Ethiopia and Eritrea to agree on the physical demarcation of their border expired amid escalating tension between the two nations, leaving the frontier only delineated on maps.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, At the 20th annual European Film Awards in Berlin Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" won the best film prize.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Dozens of militants stormed Dwelah, a Shiite village north of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and torching homes. The villagers fought back killing three gunmen. Elsewhere in the same region, Iraqi and US troops freed four villages from al-Qaida control.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, An Israeli airstrike killed five Hamas members, prompting threats by Gaza militants to fire longer-range rockets at Israeli border towns.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, In northwestern Pakistan former PM Benazir Bhutto launched her election campaign, a day after unveiling her party's platform despite calls from other opposition groups to boycott the Jan. 8 vote.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, US coffee giant Starbucks announced plans to build a regional support centre in Rwanda for farmers in east Africa, where the industry has faced difficulty despite recent price spikes.
(AFP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, In South Africa Nelson Mandela drew a crowd of about 15,000 to his fifth international awareness concert, held this year to coincide with World AIDS Day.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, ETA gunmen shot and killed a Spanish policeman and seriously injured another in France, the first killing by the Basque separatist group in almost a year.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, In Sri Lanka at least 11 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and 49 injured in heavy clashes across northern defense lines in Mannar. Elsewhere, 13 rebels were killed overnight in separate fighting near the guerrillas' stronghold in the north of the island.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Turkish military said it fired on 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses." Turkish troops killed four Kurdish rebels in fighting near its border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/1/07)(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Singer and song writer Brian Wilson, filmmaker Martin Scorsese, actor Steve Martin, singer Diana Ross and pianist Leon Fleisher were honored at the White House for their contributions to American culture. The five were named in September as members of the 30th class of Kennedy Center honorees.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, A snow storm headed to the US Northeast after plastering a wide area of the Midwest the day before, disrupting airport and highway traffic. At least 10 people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents.
(AP, 12/2/07)(SFC, 12/3/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 2, Robert O. Anderson (b.1917), oil man and creator of the Atlantic Richfield Co. (1966), died in Roswell, NM.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 2, In southern Afghanistan coalition forces killed five suspected Taliban militants in an operation targeting a commander believed to be involved in the kidnapping of an Italian journalist earlier this year.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Australia night time thieves stole 17.6 tons of ham and bacon from a warehouse in suburban Sidney and left behind a message saying “Thanks" and “Merry Christmas." The stolen meat was worth up to $88,000.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, China and Japan amicably wrapped up their first high-level trade and economic talks on Sunday by pledging greater overall cooperation, but left the touchy issue of gas exploration in the East China Sea unresolved.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Police in northern Greece seized hundreds of ancient coins, some dating back 2,300 years, allegedly stashed away by a 70-year-old barber.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, Two outspoken political veterans faced off in one of Hong Kong's most keenly watched legislative elections. Pro-democracy candidate Anson Chan, a hugely popular former government official, won a seat in Hong Kong's legislature, a win she hailed as a victory for democracy in the southern Chinese territory. Her closest opponent, former security chief Regina Ip, who had the backing of Beijing-allied parties, received 137,550, or 42.7% of votes.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, The number of Iraqis killed last month fell to 718. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in a Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Baghdad killed two officers. A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol near Samarra killed three soldiers and injured four. Gunmen in two cars fired on a Sunni Interior Ministry aide, Maj. Gen. Fauzi Hussein Muhammed, as he returned home, killing him and wounding his driver. A mass grave with the remains of 12 people, including a paramedic who disappeared more than a year ago, was unearthed near Lake Tharthar, an area long controlled by al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Mexico Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, was abducted, tortured and strangled to death. His body was found the next day. A day earlier Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones was killed execution-style at the hospital where she was recovering from neck surgery for a shooting on Nov 30, in which 2 other people were killed. Fears rose that singers, whether they have any links to drug cartels or not, get routinely "adopted" by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.
(AP, 12/5/07)(SFC, 12/5/07, p.E3)
2007 Dec 2, Hamas officials shut down the Gaza census office, saying the surveyors had violated an agreement to share their data with Hamas as it is collected.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, About two dozen protesters angry over a rape case involving a Marine stormed the American Embassy. The protesters demanded the transfer to a Philippine jail of Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, who was convicted a year ago of raping a Filipino woman but has remained under U.S. government custody.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Russians voted in a parliamentary election. Putin's United Russia party swept 70 percent of seats in parliament.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, A Somali human rights group said violence in Mogadishu has killed 5,960 civilians this year.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, Defense lawyers said Sudan has authorized the release of Mubarak al-Fadil, a high-profile opposition leader detained for more than four months. Fadil is the leader of the opposition Umma Party for Renewal and Reform and the cousin of former PM Sadig al-Mahdi.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Ukraine 5 workers looking for the bodies of miners killed in the country’s worst mine explosion since the Soviet collapse were killed in a new explosion. A day earlier 44 people were injured in an explosion in the same section of the mine.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 2, Venezuelans voted in a referendum on granting President Hugo Chavez expanded powers and ending term limits under sweeping constitutional changes. Voters narrowly rejected changes to 69 of 350 articles in the 1999 constitution by 51% to 49%.
(AP, 12/2/07)(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.30)
2007 Dec 3, A consensus judgement of the US intelligence community was released saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and though it continues an enriched uranium program, it apparently has not resumed moving toward a nuclear capability. On Dec 11 the national Council for Resistance in Iran said Iran’s weaponization program was relocated and restarted in 2004.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.A14)(WSJ, 12/11/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 3, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a freeze on interest rates on loans made to millions of risky borrowers. Resistance by the mortgage industry was expected. Paulson said he is confident there will soon be an agreement to help thousands of homeowners avoid mortgage defaults by temporarily freezing their interest rates.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.C1)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, The US national debt was reported to be expanding by about $1.4 billion a day, or nearly $1 million a minute.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Former commissioner Bowie Kuhn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth and ex-Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss also were elected.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2007 Dec 3, In NYC Don Imus returned to the airwaves eight months after he was fired for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, and introduced a new cast that included two black comedians on WABC-AM.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, AT&T said that it planned to leave the rapidly shrinking pay-phone business.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.C1)
2007 Dec 3, In Afghanistan’s southwestern Nimroz province a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol, killing four other people, including two policemen.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Ten people believed to be Algerian asylum seekers drowned while a Dutch ship tried to rescue them in stormy Mediterranean waters. Two men survived the ordeal.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 3, Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th prime minister and immediately began dismantling the former government's policies by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Artist Mark Wallinger won Britain's prestigious Turner Prize for a fiercely anti-war exhibit based on a lone protester's six-year vigil outside British parliament.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, The Bank of England under governor Mervyn King brought down its base interest rate by a quarter point to 5.5%.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.65)
2007 Dec 3, In Congo (DRC) some 25,000 government forces army attacked a stronghold of renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, a day after his men seized a strategic town from the government and forced out thousands of civilians. The troops were routed by some 4,000 insurgents.
(Reuters, 12/3/07)(www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/msg25522.html)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.63)
2007 Dec 3, In Cuba a human rights leader said that police have detained 29 anti-government activists in less than two weeks and seven remain jailed, including a man who called for the communist-run island to tolerate independent universities.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Hundreds of civil servants protested in front of Egypt's Cabinet, demanding wage increases to cope with rising prices and inflation.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Egypt opened its border crossing with Gaza to let in Palestinian religious pilgrims headed for Saudi Arabia, the first time Palestinians have been allowed to enter Egyptian territory since Hamas militants seized Gaza in June.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Jakarta, Indonesia, 6 Islamic militants were sentenced to up to 19 years in prison for terrorist acts in eastern Indonesia that include beheading three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 and shooting to death Rev. Irianto Kongkoli in 2006.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Bali, Indonesia, climate experts at a massive UN conference urged quick action toward a new international pact to stem global warming. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) hoped for an agreement to mitigate climate change after the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.73)
2007 Dec 3, Iran ordered Canada's ambassador to leave the country after Canada rejected candidates Tehran had proposed to represent the Islamic Republic in Ottawa.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Lawmakers from Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc ended their boycott of parliament over the "house arrest" of their leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, who also attended the session. In Baghdad an Interior Ministry aide was gunned down in his car. The mutilated bodies of four guards at an oil facility who were kidnapped at a checkpoint on their way back from vacation were found north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Daniele Emmanuello (43), the Mafia godfather of Gela, Sicily, was killed while trying to escape police. He was considered one of Italy's 30 most dangerous Mafia fugitives.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.62)
2007 Dec 3, In Qatar Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reached out to Gulf Arab states, proposing security and economic pacts free of "foreign influence" in the first appearance by an Iranian leader before a summit of a key group of Persian Gulf nations. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed shortly after the outbreak of the 1980 Iran-Iraq war, partly to counter the spread of Iran's Islamic revolution.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif risks disqualification from Pakistan's crucial parliamentary elections after an official rejected his nomination papers. Sharif was said to be ineligible because of a conviction on charges related to the 1999 coup, in which Musharraf ousted his government. A bomb exploded inside an Islamic school in southwestern Pakistan, killing six students and wounding four others.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas closed 92 charities linked to Hamas, as part of a West Bank crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 12/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 3, Foreign observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary election victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the results as a validation of his leadership. With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Putin's United Russia party was leading with 64.1 percent of the vote. Europe joined the US in demanding Russia investigate alleged abuses in the election, and Germany denounced the poll as undemocratic.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Reuters, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, A Moscow court convicted Igor Reshetin, the head of the company TsNIIMASH-Export, a rocket and space technology company, on charges of leaking sensitive technology to China. This was the latest case involving a Russian scientist who was prosecuted despite claims the sensitive materials were in the public domain. Reshetin was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison after prosecutors said the information Reshetin had handed over to the Chinese could be used for building missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels battled each other with rifles, mortars and artillery across northern Sri Lanka, leaving 42 rebels and six soldiers dead.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, Sudan's president pardoned Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed for insulting Islam after allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gibbons arrived back in England the next day.
(AP, 12/3/07)(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 3, A colleague said Karim Bozorboyev, a prominent Uzbek human rights activist, has been sentenced to six years and three months in jail as part of a crackdown on dissidents and government critics.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, said he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, Defending his credibility, President George W. Bush said Iran was dangerous and needed to be squeezed by international pressure despite a blockbuster intelligence finding that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons program four years earlier. The intelligence report on Iran figured in a Democratic debate on National Public Radio as rivals assailed front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for voting in favor of a Senate resolution designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2007 Dec 4, The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency after a severe storm smacked the region with hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain. At least four people were killed by the storm.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Pimp C (33), born as Chad Butler, was found dead in an upscale hotel in Los Angeles. He had spun searing tales of Texas street life into a key role in the rise of Southern hip-hop.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Kabul US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was pushing the world's countries for more commitment to Afghanistan's fight against growing extremist violence. A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul, wounding 22 civilians passing nearby. An explosion struck a patrol of NATO-led troops, leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, Sen. Renan Calheiros, president of Brazil's Senate, resigned while fighting allegations of corruption. Calheiros, a key ally of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, retained his position as a senator. A legislative commission voted 17-3 last week to recommend his expulsion after finding evidence that he used third parties to illegally acquire two radio stations and a newspaper.
(AP, 12/4/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.43)
2007 Dec 4, New census data said one in five people in Canada last year was born in another country, the highest proportion since the 1930s. The Bank of Canada cut its key overnight interest rate by one-quarter point to 4.25 percent, saying it expects US subprime mortgage woes and financial market fallout to last longer than anticipated.
(Reuters, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, The Chadian army fought heavy battles against rebel forces in the east of the country near the border with Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, France and Algeria agreed to cooperate on civilian nuclear technologies. French oil group Total said it had signed a deal to invest about 1.5 billion dollars in a new 3.0-billion-dollar (2.0 billion euros) petrochemical plant in Algeria.
(AFP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Greece and Turkey agreed to joint military measures aimed at easing tensions and improving ties.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 4, Police in northern India broke up a major tiger poaching ring, arresting an alleged kingpin and 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 4, Iran's foreign minister welcomed the US decision to "correct" its claim that Tehran has an active nuclear weapons program, while Israel's defense minister said Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to develop an atomic weapon.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Iran Makwan Moloudzadeh, a man convicted of raping three boys when he was 13 years old, was hanged despite a chief justice's order that the case be reviewed.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Iraq Sunni Arab lawmakers ended a yearlong boycott of politics in Kirkuk, after the Kurdish majority agreed to allot one-third of government jobs to Arabs and appoint an Arab as deputy governor. A suicide bomber blew himself up near a police station in Jalula, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 30. Kidnappers of five Britons, seized on May 29, demanded that Britain pull all its forces from Iraq, according to a new video broadcast made on Nov 18. The US military said 40 senior al Qaeda in Iraq members were either captured or killed in November, including a senior adviser to the Sunni Islamist group's leader. Three US soldiers were killed in a "complex attack" involving a roadside bomb and small arms fire north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, Israel said it is seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move is undermining the newly revived peace talks.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Italy Vincenzo Santapaola, a suspected Mafia boss, and scores of alleged mobsters were arrested during raids in Catania, Sicily. Police also seized weapons and drugs, and found a book that listed extortion fees and salaries of the people working for the family.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Mexico gunmen shot and killed a deputy police chief inside his house in the border city of Tecate.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, State media said Myanmar's military junta has completed the release of 8,585 prisoners, but it was unclear if any of those released were among those detained during the crackdown.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Nigeria pirates attacked a vessel operated by oil major ExxonMobil in the Niger Delta, killing a crew member and injuring another.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Former PM Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan's major opposition parties will demand the end of emergency rule and the release of former Supreme Court judges as a condition for their participation in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Tens of thousands of mineworkers downed tools in South Africa in a one-day strike over safety standards, accusing their bosses of putting lives at risk for the sake of profits.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, UN human rights experts said Sudanese forces and allied militia have killed several hundred civilians in ground attacks and aerial bombardments on villages in Darfur in the past six months.
(Reuters, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Thailand a bomb killed six people and injured 20 in one of the deadliest attacks in recent months.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, American officials confirmed that Vietnam is holding four US citizens, hours after gaining their first consular access to two of the detainees, both Vietnamese-born pro-democracy activists.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, President George W. Bush, trying to keep pressure on Iran, called on Tehran to "come clean" about the scope of its nuclear activities or else face diplomatic isolation.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2007 Dec 5, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted the 2007 California Hall of Fame inductees: Ansel Adams, Milton Berle, Steve Jobs, Willie Mays, Robert Mondavi, Rita Moreno, Jackie Robinson, Jonas Salk, M.D., John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor, Earl Warren, John Wayne, and Tiger Woods.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Hall_of_Fame)
2007 Dec 5, In Omaha, Nebraska, Robert A. Hawkins (19) sprayed the third floor of the Von Maur department store in Westroads Mall with gunfire. When the shooting was over, Hawkins killed himself. His victims included six store employees and two customers. An autopsy report later indicated that only some Valium in his system.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec 5, It was reported that the world’s largest helium reserve near Amarillo, Texas, was expected to run out by 2015. The Bush Dome, begun as a reserve by the government in 1925, supplied 35% of the world’s current usage.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 5, Andrew Imbrie (b.1921), composer and teacher, died in Berkeley, Ca. His work included the opera “Angle of Repose", which was commissioned and premiered (1976) by the SF Opera.
(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B3)
2007 Dec 5, Afghan forces clashed with Taliban who had blocked a main highway in the south, killing 10 militants. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, An international aid organization said Angolan soldiers routinely and repeatedly rape Congolese women who have crossed the border illegally in search of work in the diamond fields.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Australia’s PM Kevin Rudd spoke at the state funeral for Bernie Banton (61), who died from an asbestos-related disease he contracted while working for building products company James Hardie. Banton's dogged campaign ultimately led to the establishment of a 4 billion dollar (3.5 billion US) compensation fund for victims of Hardie's asbestos products.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced he would ask for a referendum on whether he should remain president, and challenged opposition governors to do the same.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Bosnia 4 men wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed Sarajevo international airport's cargo zone and stole $1.9 million.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, British police arrested John Darwin (57) on fraud charges, five years after he vanished in an apparent canoeing accident in the North Sea, only to reappear last weekend, claiming he had amnesia.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Congo's army said it retook a strategic town on from rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda in the violence-torn eastern province of North Kivu.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, French police arrested two armed people in connection with a weekend shooting that left two Spanish officers dead in what authorities described as the first Basque-related killings in France in more than three decades.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Germany 3 men were convicted of aiding the al-Qaida in Germany, including one who prosecutors say was part of the terrorist network's command structure and had contact with top leaders.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Darry, Germany, the bodies of 5 young boys, ages 3 to 9, were found in their home after their 31-year-old mother told a doctor where they were. Authorities in eastern Germany announced they had found the bodies of three infant girls and had taken their mother into custody on manslaughter charges.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928), German avant-garde composer, died. His innovative electronic works made him one of the most important composers of the postwar era. His work included “Kontakte" (1959-60) and “Stimmung" (1968), a sextet for unaccompanied voices on a 6-note chord of B-flat.
(AP, 12/8/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.95)
2007 Dec 5, A survey said Indian business confidence has slumped to a five-year low on the back of flagging exports, aggressive monetary tightening and a rising rupee that has slowed the economy.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, A blast hit the northern city of Mosul. Police said explosives hidden in a parked car killed a civilian and wounded seven others. A car bomb exploded in a largely Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and killed at least 14 people. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to the capital that security and stability were within reach, although more work is needed. In Baqouba a suicide car bomber targeted a bus station and killed five civilians with at least 20 others wounded. In Kirkuk a parked car bomb killed three Kurdish soldiers in a convoy guarding a police chief.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Latvia's center-right government resigned after coming under intense criticism for firing a popular anti-corruption investigator and failing to restrain inflation.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Liberia cleared its debt arrears with the World Bank, paving the way for new development lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African country rebuild after years of civil war.
(Reuters, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 5, Six judges on Nicaragua's Supreme Court threw out a law meant to block neighborhood councils that will report directly to President Daniel Ortega. But other judges call the ruling itself illegal.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Sri Lanka’s defense ministry said at least 36 people including 7 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in the embattled north. A land mine explosion blamed on Tamil separatists tore through a passenger bus crowded with civilians in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 16 people and wounding 22 others.
(AFP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 6, It was reported that the Bush administration has developed a voluntary plan to freeze interest rates for five years for thousands of strapped homeowners whose mortgages were scheduled to rise in the coming months. The plan called for a 5-year freeze for mortgages made from Jan 2005 to July 30, 2007.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 12/6/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 6, CIA Director Michael Hayden revealed the agency had videotaped its interrogations of two terror suspects in 2002 and destroyed the tapes three years later out of fear they would leak to the public and compromise the identities of US questioners.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2007 Dec 6, Republican Mitt Romney said his Mormon faith should neither help nor hinder his quest for the White House and vowed to serve the interests of the nation, not the church, if elected president.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2007 Dec 6, Former CEO William McGuire of UnitedHealth Group Inc agreed to forfeit more than $400 million in stock options and other compensation and pay a $7 million fine to settle an investigation into the health insurer's options practices.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, IBM reported that it has made a breakthrough in converting electrical signals into light pulses that brings closer the day when supercomputing, which now requires huge machines, will be done on a single chip.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, A gas blast at mine in northern China killed at least 105 people.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, A French anti-terrorist judge filed preliminary charges against Guillaume Dasquie, an investigative journalist and author, accused of publishing defense secrets.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, A parcel bomb exploded at a lawyer's office in central Paris, killing a secretary and seriously injuring an attorney, but a motive was not immediately clear.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, India overturned a 1914 law that banned women from tending bar in New Delhi. A ruling in New Delhi in January said women could do bar work in hotels and restaurants, ended a 92-year-old law barring their employment. In August the Delhi government sought a ban on such jobs for women. Each of India’s 29 states has its own laws governing the sale of alcohol, and many restrict women working behind the bar.
(SFC, 12/22/07, p.A15)(http://in.news.yahoo.com/071206/211/6o422.html)
2007 Dec 6, In Indonesia American climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, even as a US Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, Iraq suspended parliamentary sessions for the year. Drive-by shootings killed at least two people in separate attacks in Baghdad and Muqdadiyah. In Muqdadiyah suspects gunned down a US-backed security volunteer. Clashes broke out between Kurdish peshmerga soldiers and alleged al-Qaida gunmen who attacked a Kurdish checkpoint near Khanaqin, close to the Iranian border. A peshmerga spokesman said 8 Kurdish troops were killed and 5 wounded. 3 militants also died. The US military said its troops killed three suspected insurgents and captured 19 in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq along the Tigris River valley. US forces raided a house in the al-Hayy area south of Kut, killing two suspects and wounding two others. Two men were killed in Mosul, one who, wielding a knife, lunged at American soldiers as they entered a building, and another who was wrapped in blanket with wires protruding from it.
(AP, 12/6/07)(WSJ, 12/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 6, In southern Mexico Jose Luis Aquino (33), a trumpet player, was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head, in what authorities said was apparently the country's third murder of a musician in less than a week.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, A New Zealand judge sentenced two Chinese students to 18 1/2 years in prison for the ransom kidnapping and slaying of a fellow student, saying the two fell into "cyber sloth" and greed during their studies abroad.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, Thousands of lawyers boycotted courts across Pakistan while police blocked former PM Nawaz Sharif and his supporters from marching to the heavily guarded home of the deposed Supreme Court chief justice.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, In the Philippines 14 Muslim Abu Sayyaf were sentenced to life in prison for the 2001 kidnapping of a US missionary couple and 18 others in a yearlong jungle ordeal that prompted US-backed offensives against the guerrillas.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 6, The 24th Southeast Asian Games officially opened in Korat, Thailand.
(AFP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 6, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived in Lisbon for an EU-Africa summit, which British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is boycotting because he would not "sit down at the same table" as him.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 7, US Congressional Democrats demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA had obstructed justice by destroying videotapes documenting the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Howard Krongard, the US State Department's embattled inspector general, announced his resignation. He was accused of impeding a Justice Department investigation of Blackwater Worldwide.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, US federal officials outlined a new plan on how to allocate water to California, Arizona and Nevada from the Colorado River in case of shortages.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 7, Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison for accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services company.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty in San Francisco to charges he'd lied to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, In NYC 2 window washers fell 47 stories from a Manhattan skyscraper when their scaffolding failed; Edgar Moreno was killed, but his brother, Alcides, miraculously survived.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Afghan and NATO troops surrounded the town of Musa Qala and launched air strikes to dislodge Taliban rebels who had been in control for 10 months.
(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Aruba prosecutors' office said a judge has ordered the release of a Dutch suspect who was re-arrested last month in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Australian police said they had smashed an international cocaine smuggling ring spanning three continents and operating out of the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada. Of the total 40 people arrested, 14 Canadian and Australian nationals of Chinese and Vietnamese descent were picked up in Sydney and Melbourne over the past six months. Australian conman Peter Foster, once linked to the "Cheriegate" scandal involving the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, was jailed for money laundering. Foster, who pleaded guilty to a charge related to fraudulently obtaining 234,000 US dollars from the Bank of the Federated States of Micronesia, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.
(AFP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 7, Canada's TV watchdog blessed the launch of Vanessa, a national pay TV porn channel.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in Guyana, agreed to open up its markets to certain European goods, on the condition that entertainment workers from the region are allowed free access to Europe.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Six French nationals detained in Chad on suspicion of trying to illegally fly 103 children to Europe started a hunger strike, complaining their case was being neglected.
(Reuters, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, China said it will not consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States and other industrialized countries should take the lead in fighting climate change by embracing a less-extravagant lifestyle.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The World Health Organization confirmed that the father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has been infected with the virus that causes the disease, saying it could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human infection.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Zagazig, Egypt, 3 students were killed and dozens injured when a fire broke inside an Al-Azhar university campus building in the Nile Delta.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Germany's top security officials said they consider the goals of the US-based Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and will seek to ban the group.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Iraq’s Diyala province a female suicide bomber attacked the offices of an anti-al-Qaida group that has joined forces with the US, killing 16 people. The bomber was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party whose two sons joined al-Qaida and were killed by Iraqi security forces. A second attack at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and another of the US-backed groups killed 10 people.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Officials said swarms of desert locusts have invaded Kenya's arid northeast for the first time since 1962.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, NATO ministers pledged to keep their KFOR peace force in Kosovo at current strength as the Serbian province heads towards independence and to make more troops available as necessary to deal with any violence.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Gyude Bryant, a former president of Liberia (2003-2005), was arrested for violating the conditions of his bail while on trial on charges of embezzling $1.3 million in government funds.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Two gunmen barged into a central Philippine town hall and killed the vice mayor, a human rights advocate who had condemned a series of killings of left-wing activists.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, A crane-carrying vessel collided with the Hebei Spirit, an oil tanker off of South Korea's west coast, spilling nearly 80,000 barrels of crude oil in what was believed to be South Korea's largest offshore oil leak. On Jan 21, 2008, courts indicted Samsung Heavy Industries and the owner of the tanker on charges relating to the spill.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/20/07)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2007 Dec 7, A UN court in Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide sentenced Francois Karera, a former provincial governor, to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, including helping soldiers kill refugees in a church.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 8, The US Justice Department and CIA announced a joint inquiry into the spy agency's destruction of videotapes of interrogations of two suspected terrorists.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 8, The chief US negotiator at the climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, said the US will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008 and won’t commit to mandatory caps.
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.A17)
2007 Dec 8, Talk show host Oprah Winfrey publicly endorsed Barack Obama for president during appearances in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 8, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 8, Ann Lisa Nguyen (35), a program manager in San Jose, Ca., went missing. Her body was found Dec 19 at the Newby Island Landfill in Milpitas. Anthony Dale Evans (45), a convicted felon who worked at the same gym that Nguyen frequented, was later arrested on suspicion of murder.
(SFC, 12/20/07, p.B2)
2007 Dec 8, Worldwide demonstrations began to draw attention to climate change and push their governments to take stronger action to fight global warming.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, A NATO and Afghan operation to retake Musa Qala, a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan, left at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children dead. A Nato soldier killed in a mine explosion during the operation, which began Dec 7. Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns ambushed a district chief's vehicle in western Farah province, killing him, his son, nephew and three bodyguards.
(AP, 12/8/07)(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, A suicide truck bomber attacked a police station in Beiji, one of Iraq's major oil hubs, killing at least seven people and injuring 13 in a neighborhood home to many refinery workers and engineers. In southeastern Kut a rocket landed on the home of a senior member of the local Sadrist bloc of Shiite politicians, killing him, his wife and their two children. Ten suspected militants were killed in a gunfight and airstrike outside Youssifiyah. In a raid outside Jalula US forces moving against a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member killed one suspect and discovered an ammunition cache. Two other raids in Mosul and Samarra left one suspected militant dead and 11 detained.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8-2007 Dec 11, US soldiers carrying out operations in volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad found graves containing 26 bodies next to what they called a torture center where chains were attached to blood-spattered walls and a metal bed frame was still connected to an electrical shock system. Soldiers found a total of nine caches containing a surface-to-air missile launcher, sniper rifles, 130 pounds of homemade explosives and numerous mortar tubes and rounds, among other weapons.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 8, In Naseerabad, Pakistan, gunmen killed three people in an attack on a party office of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the first reported deaths apparently linked to the current election campaign. Pakistan's army claimed it has cleared almost all militants from embattled northwestern Swat valley after killing 290 rebels and arresting another 143 in recent weeks.
(AP, 12/8/07)(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, South Korea's worst-ever oil spill reached the country's southwest coastline, polluting beaches with pungent sludge and threatening valuable sea farms.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, In Spain 53 African and 27 European countries began a summit to bury old colonial relationships in favor of something more modern. German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged European and African leaders to confront human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, putting the country's president Robert Mugabe in the spotlight at an EU-Africa summit.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.54)(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, Soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged mortar and gunfire in northern Sri Lanka, leaving 16 rebels dead.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 8, Taiwanese director Ang Lee's erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" swept the top honors at the Golden Horse Film Awards, seen as the Chinese-language "Oscars."
(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, An overcrowded boat carrying at least some 85 illegal migrants sank off Turkey's Aegean coast and at least 43 died. The migrants were mostly Palestinians, Somalis and Iraqis.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come and dismissed Western accusations that Pres. Alexander Lukashenko is a dictator. Chavez presented Lukashenko with a medal, and they signed an agreement pledging military cooperation.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Arvada, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, a gunman walked into a training center dormitory for young Christian missionaries and opened fire, killing two of the center's staff members and wounding two others. 2 more people, including the gunman, were killed at the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs. Matthew Murray, killed himself.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/9/08)
2007 Dec 9, In southern Afghanistan Afghan, British and US troops closed in on Musa Qala, a Taliban-held town. A second NATO soldier was killed in the operation. This was the first mission in which British forces have participated with the Afghan army as the main fighting force. Afghan and NATO forces killed 30 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Bolivia’s constitutional assembly approved a new charter that would empower Pres. Evo Morales to run for re-election indefinitely. The new constitution required approval by Bolivians in a national referendum expected in 2008.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A16)
2007 Dec 9, Voters in Bosnia's Serb entity went to polls to choose a new president, as the country was taking initial steps towards European integration.
(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Anne Darwin, whose husband is accused of faking his own death in an insurance scam, was arrested upon her return to Britain from Panama on suspicion of fraud. Police said Darwin masterminded an elaborate fraud to pay off family debts.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, A Canadian jury in British Columbia convicted Robert 'Willie' Pickton (58), a pig farmer, of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life sentence but finding that the killings were not planned. Pickton still faced 20 more murder charges for the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. On Dec 11 Pickton was sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole for 25 years. Canadian authorities spent more than C$100 million ($98 million) to catch and convict Pickton.
(AP, 12/9/07)(Reuters, 12/12/07)(Reuters, 11/17/10)
2007 Dec 9, Beijing's foreign exchange regulator said the ceiling on foreign investment in Chinese securities will be raised to $30 billion from $10 billion.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Iran signed a contract with China's Sinopec for the development of Iran's huge Yadavaran oil field, the kind of energy deal the United States has been trying to prevent. Hundreds of Iranian students angry over a crackdown on activists protested at Tehran University, the second such demonstration in less than a week.
(Reuters, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf, the police chief of Basra, said religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year there because of how they dressed. A roadside bomb struck a convoy carrying Brig. Gen. Qais al-Maamouri, the police chief of Babil, the provincial capital of Hillah, a predominantly Shiite province south of Baghdad, killing him and two of his bodyguards. British PM Gordon Brown flew into southern Iraq to rally troops and confirm that Iraqi forces will take command of the last region under British control in mid-December.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Pakistan former PM Nawaz Sharif's opposition party decided to run in next month's parliamentary elections, a move could clear the way for other members of Pakistan's largest opposition coalition to participate. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost near Imam Dheri, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, killing 8 people. The military there has been battling Islamic militants loyal to the fugitive cleric.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, A blast on a bus in Russia’s Stavropol region killed two people. An exploding gas canister was suspected.
(Reuters, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Lisbon, Spain, Senegal's Pres. Abdoulaye Wade said most African leaders have rejected EU proposals for a free-trade deal that would replace colonial-era trading systems at a summit marred by disputes over Zimbabwe and Darfur. Africa and Europe's first summit in seven years ended without agreement on the key issue of trade.
(AP, 12/9/07)(Reuters, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, A charter aircraft flying from the Czech Republic crashed near Kiev airport in Ukraine killing at least 5 people.
(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 10, A US judge sentenced former media mogul Conrad Black (63) to 6-1/2 years in prison for obstructing justice and defrauding shareholders in one-time newspaper publishing empire Hollinger International Inc., and ordered him to report to prison in 12 weeks. The Canadian-born member of Britain's House of Lords was found guilty in July of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of fraud. Co-defendants Jack Boultbee (64), former Hollinger chief financial officer, got 27 months and former vice president and general counsel Peter Atkinson (60) got 2 years for fraud.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Suspended NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced by a federal judge in Richmond, Va., to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2007 Dec 10, Madison Square Garden and New York Knicks coach Isaiah Thomas reached an $11.5 million settlement of a sexual harassment case brought by former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2007 Dec 10, Former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2007 Dec 10, US commuters contended with treacherous roads from the southern Plains to the Northeast as a storm spread a coating of ice and freezing rain. The storm eventually was linked to 38 deaths including 21 in Oklahoma, 4 in Kansas and 3 each in Missouri and Michigan and one in Nebraska.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(SFC, 12/12/07, p.A3)(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 10, Seattle-based Washington Mutual said it will lay off over 3,000 workers and close 190 offices in response to loan losses in the mortgage market.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 10, Afghan and international forces retook the southern town of Musa Qala, held by Taliban militants since February. A Taliban spokesman said the militants fled to avoid civilian and Taliban casualties. In Sangin district Afghan police clashed with a group of Taliban militants, leaving 15 militants dead and 11 others wounded. An Afghan army helicopter crashed in central Afghanistan because of bad weather, killing four people. British PM Gordon Brown stopped in at Camp Bastion, the main British camp in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AFP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Cristina Kirchner was sworn in as president of Argentina. Hector Febres (66), accused of kidnapping and torturing dissidents during Argentina's past military dictatorship, was found dead in his cell at a navy brig four days before an expected verdict in his high-profile case. On Dec 14 police detained the wife and two grown children of the former coast guard officer hours after an autopsy found cyanide in his blood.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 10, Australia accepted seven asylum seekers from Myanmar as refugees as the country's new Labor government began unwinding tough immigration laws which force boatpeople into detention on Pacific island nations.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, In London Led Zeppelin performed their first full concert in nearly three decades. Three surviving members, singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, were joined by the late John Bonham's son Jason on drums.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Petro-Canada, Canada's third largest oil and gas company, signed a $7 billion deal with Libya's state-run National Oil Corp. to invest in exploration in the North African nation.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, In Mississauga, Canada, Aqsa Parvez (16), who was said to have clashed with her father about whether she should wear a traditional Muslim head scarf, died of injuries, and her father told police he had killed her.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, American blues guitarist "Philadelphia" Jerry Ricks (67), who mastered the sound of the 1930s' Delta Blues, died in a clinic in Croatia.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Cuba said it would sign an international agreement on civil and political rights while a few blocks away government supporters shoved and shouted down activists calling for improved human rights on the communist-run island.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a 10-year program has begun to save endangered orangutans from extinction by protecting tropical jungle habitat from logging, mining and palm oil plantations. As many as 50,000 orangutans have been lost over the past 35 years due to shrinking habitat. As of January 2004, about 6,650 Sumatran orangutans and 55,000 Borneo orangutans remained in the wild.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, In Baghdad mortar shells slammed into an Interior Ministry prison, killing at least seven inmates and wounding 23. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in eastern Baghdad killed one policeman and injured five other people. Gunmen on motorcycles fatally shot Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Ajil, the head of Iraq's largest psychiatric hospital, as he was returning home from work. Iraqi security forces rounded up several Shiite militia fighters in raids targeting suspects in the assassination of a US-backed provincial police chief south of Baghdad. A fire broke out at one of Iraq's main oil refineries, but the US military said it was due to an industrial accident, not an attack. It was reported that some 1,217 people in Iraq’s northern Sulaymaniya province have been infected with cholera since late August.
(AP, 12/10/07)(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A13)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co. said it will buy US biopharmaceutical company MGI Pharma Inc. for $3.9 billion in cash in a move aimed at boosting its cancer drug business and sustain sales growth.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Kosovo Albanian leaders said they will start immediate talks with Western backers towards an independence declaration as the EU came closer to unity in support of the province's drive to secede from Serbia. Thousands of wildly cheering pro-independence demonstrators marched through Pristina, as a sense of euphoria swept the breakaway province preparing to gain statehood early next year.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi arrived on his first visit to France in 34 years, sparking protests from rights groups and criticism from the government's own human rights minister. Gadhafi got straight to business, cutting $14.7 billion in deals for arms and nuclear reactors on his first official visit to the West since renouncing terrorism and atomic weapons.
(AFP, 12/10/07)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, A suicide car bomber struck near a bus carrying children of Pakistani air force employees to school at a northern army base. At least five children were wounded.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori faced trial on charges of using a death squad to kill leftist guerrillas and collaborators, a case stirring mixed emotions in a country where many admire him for defeating a bloody insurgency.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 10, President Vladimir Putin threw his support behind first Deputy PM Dmitry Medvedev (b.1965) as his successor, saying that electing him president would keep Russia on the same course of the past eight years. Medvedev also served as chairman of AOA Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant.
(AP, 12/10/07)(WSJ, 12/11/07, p.A22)
2007 Dec 10, Swiss banking giant UBS AG said it will write off a further $10 billion on losses in the US subprime lending market and will raise capital by selling substantial stakes to Singapore and an unnamed investor in the Middle East.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 11, Pres. Bush granted pardons to 29 people.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 11, The US Senate Intelligence Committee took closed-door testimony from CIA Director Michael Hayden on how videotapes of terror suspect interrogations were made, then destroyed.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2007 Dec 11, The United States and China signed two deals to safeguard the quality of food and drugs ranging from pet food to certain types of antibiotics imported into the US from China.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, US officials in Florida arrested 4 people, 3 from Venezuelan and one from Uruguay, and accused them of being agents of the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors later said the 4 were seeking to silence Guido Alehandro Antonini Wilson, a citizen of both the USA and Venezuela. In August Wilson was detained in Argentina for carrying $800,000 in a suitcase, which prosecutors said was intended to aid the campaign of Cristina Kirchner. Franklin Duran, multimillionaire owner of Industrias Venoco CA, was one of the arrested Venezuelans. In 2008 a federal jury convicted Duran on charges that he was a foreign agent involved in a conspiracy.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/10/08, p.A5)(SFC, 11/4/08, p.A4)
2007 Dec 11, In eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition and Afghan forces killed Mullah Sangeen, a senior militant commander responsible for roadside bombings and other attacks. Sangeen was second-in-command to Siraj Haqqani, a militant leader in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 11, In Algeria car bombs exploded minutes apart in central Algiers, heavily damaging UN buildings and ripping the facade off the wing of a government office. 37 people were killed, including 17 UN employees. Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at UN and government buildings. The interior ministry later said the blasts were the work of the El Farouk Brigade, which was responsible for a number of other attacks in the last two years. Al-Qaida's self-styled North African branch claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(AFP, 2/6/08)(AP, 12/11/08)
2007 Dec 11, Australia's Deputy PM Julia Gillard (46) took charge of government in the absence of the prime minister, becoming the first woman to run the country in its 106 years as an independent nation. Gillard will lead the government for just 60 hours while PM Kevin Rudd is in Bali for the United Nations climate conference.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Australian officials conceded that the welfare system failed a girl who was removed from a remote Aboriginal community after being sexually abused at age 7, then gang raped in 2006 at age 10 when she was returned to live in the town.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 11, Guatemalan legislators approved a new law that tightens adoptions, while allowing pending cases, mostly involving US couples, to go through without meeting stricter requirements.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, It was reported that policewomen in Iraq have been told to hand in their guns. Female recruits had dropped to zero since Iraqi authorities took over police recruitment and training in 2006. The US had begun training women in 2004 and graduated 1000 from the police academy. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint protecting the compounds of Iraq's former prime minister and a Sunni lawmaker, killing two guards in a neighborhood bordering the fortified Green Zone.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.B12)(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Israeli tanks and bulldozers backed by attack aircraft moved into the southern Gaza Strip, killing four militants in the widest operation in the territory since Islamic Hamas forces wrested control in June.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Trucking unions cut short a meeting with the Italian transport ministry, ending hope that the chaos-causing strike disrupting traffic and petrol deliveries would end soon.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, In southeast Nigeria 20 people were killed and several injured when the driver of a truck lost control and rammed into a crowd by the roadside in Awka, Anambra state.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 11, North and South Korea began regular freight train service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than a half century, in another symbolic step in their reconciliation.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Pakistan's military vowed a strong response to any international attempt to seize its atomic arsenal as the army successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, In Peru former President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of abuse of authority and sentenced to six years in prison at the end of the first in a series of trials on charges that include murder, kidnapping and corruption.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 11, A judge from the top court in southern Russia's violence-plagued Dagestan region was fatally shot by an unidentified attacker. Dagestan Supreme Court Justice Kurban Pashayev was shot more than 10 times with a pistol in the entranceway of his apartment building in the provincial capital, Makhachkala. In Ingushetia an 18-year-old rookie in an elite police unit was fatally shot by attackers who fired at him at close range from a passing car as he was walking home after work.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Environmentalists warned that a scenic coastal region could take years to recover from South Korea's worst oil spill, as over 19,000 people worked to contain or clean up the slick.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Darfur rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it had attacked and taken over a Chinese-run oilfield in central Sudan.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, Ukraine's parliament narrowly rejected the candidacy of Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko for prime minister, but was expected to hold a further vote.
(AFP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, President George W. Bush vetoed a second bill that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2007 Dec 12, Republican presidential rivals gathered in Johnston, Iowa, called for deep cuts in federal spending in a debate remarkably free of acrimony.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2007 Dec 12, The US announced that it has sent 15 prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay prison back to their home nations.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Three British oil executives pleaded guilty in a Houston court to price-fixing. They were accused of conspiring from 1999-2007 to fix the prices of millions of dollars worth of marine hoses used to transfer oil between tankers and storage facilities. They were permitted to return to Britain and to plead guilty to charges there.
(www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=130424&d=415&h=417&f=416)
2007 Dec 12, Igor Olenicoff (65), California billionaire real estate developer, pleaded guilty to lying on his tax returns and paid $52 million in back taxes, one of the largest individual tax cases in Southern California history.
(www.ocregister.com/money/olenicoff-tax-million-1940962-company-agreement)
2007 Dec 12, Police in northern California arrested Art Cheney, a winery tour guide dubbed “The Highway 101 Bandit," following his robbery of a bank in Fairfield. He had robbed at least 17 banks, including at least 8 in the Bay Area, most of which were on the Highway 101 corridor. In 2008 Cheney (65) was sentenced to 90 months in prison and ordered to pay back the $50,760 that he stole.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A1)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.B3)
2007 Dec 12, Ike Turner (b.1931), R&B pioneer and former husband of Tina Turner, died due to a cocaine overdose at his home outside San Diego. He presided over the 1951 recording of “Rocket 88," frequently cited as the first rock ’n’ roll record. In 1966 Phil Spector produced “River Deep – Mountain High" with Ike and Tina. The pair split in 1976. In 1989 Ike went to prison on drug charges and was still there when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
(SFC, 12/13/07, p.B5)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.142)(SFC, 1/17/08, p.A7)
2007 Dec 12, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said Afghan soldiers backed by NATO air power killed more than 50 Taliban fighters during a two-day battle with militants who tried to attack Sangin near Musa Qala, where they were routed from this week. A suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan army convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing one person.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, A new report said the trafficking of Bulgarian women as sex slaves brings in about 1.8 billion euros ($2.6 billion) a year for the gangs behind it, making it the country's most profitable criminal activity.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, China launched a nationwide recall system that shifts responsibility to companies to recall harmful drugs. In eastern China a fire tore through an apartment building, killing at least 21 people and injuring two others.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, In Colombia 3 young highway bandits set fire to a bus during a botched robbery near Bogota, burning to death 10 people including 2 assailants and the bus driver. The 3rd assailant (23) was arrested.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Tropical Storm Olga soaked portions of the Caribbean, triggering floods and landslides that killed at least 38 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 12, The European Central Bank said it would take joint action with the US Federal Reserve and other institutions to offer short-term funding to the money markets to help ease a global credit squeeze. The ECB said it would provide as much as $20 billion to European banks, in part to fill their demand for dwindling dollars.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Ashraf Juma Hajuj, the Palestinian-born doctor held with five Bulgarian nurses in a Libyan prison for over eight years, filed suit in Paris against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for torture. The six medics, who always maintained their innocence, said they were subjected to torture, including beatings, electric shocks, food and sleep deprivation, and even sexual abuse, in order to confess to their alleged crime.
(AFP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed central Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki as a general strike to protest government plans to reform the country's debt-ridden pension system brought Greece to a standstill.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, India announced major plans to increase its nuclear capabilities, saying it was close to testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting targets up to 6,000 kilometers (3,800 miles) away.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, In Indonesia new Australian PM Kevin Rudd completed ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as he pressed for all nations, rich and poor, to commit to fighting global warming.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the market district of Amarah, a southern Iraqi city, killing at least 25 people with 150 wounded. The city is the provincial capital of Maysan province, which borders Iran. In eastern Baghdad a parked car bomb apparently targeting a passing police patrol killed five civilians. 13 people were wounded in the late afternoon explosion in Ghadeer. In the Kurdish dominated town of Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed four civilians and wounded 12. A mass grave holding 16 bodies, all but four of them decapitated, was found in a palm grove in a former al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold outside Muqdadiyah. US soldiers killed two suspected insurgents and destroyed a weapons cache in the village of Bawi, on the outskirts of Salman Pak.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(AP, 12/12/08)
2007 Dec 12, The renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians got off to a rocky start, with the Palestinians criticizing Israel for a construction project planned in disputed east Jerusalem, and Israel complaining about continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, It was reported that Italy's government has decided to appoint a special commissioner to try to curb price rises after inflation hit a three-and-a-half year peak in November, but economists see the move as little more than a publicity stunt. Italy's truck drivers agreed to call off a protest that has blocked highways and borders for three days, causing shortages of gasoline, medicine and perishable foods across Italy.
(Reuters, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, A car bomb attack killed one of Lebanon's top generals and at least two other people. Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj (55), a top Maronite Catholic in the command, was considered a leading candidate to succeed the head of the military, Gen. Michel Suleiman, if Suleiman is elected president.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, It was reported that William Kamkwamba (20) of Masitala, Malawi, had built 3 windmills using blue-gum trees and bicycle parts after seeing a picture in an old text book.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 12, The former governor of Nigeria's oil rich Delta state, James Ibori, was arrested on corruption and money-laundering charges. His state salary was less than $25,000 per year. In August a court in London ordered a freeze on $35 million of his worldwide assets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)
2007 Dec 12, Pakistani troops killed 20 militants in an ongoing offensive against supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric in the restive northwestern valley of Swat. Residents said troops shot dead one person and wounded two others for violating curfew restrictions in the town of Fizaghat.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Palestinian pedestrians gawked at the unusual sight of female police officers directing traffic in Ramallah, the first batch of women to venture into a job traditionally reserved for men in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, US federal agents and local police launched raids in several Puerto Rican cities with arrest warrants for 121 drug suspects.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 12, Russia ordered a British cultural organization to suspend all of its operations outside Moscow at the beginning of 2008, the latest move in a long-running dispute. Russian officials accused the British Council, a non-governmental organization that acts as the cultural department of the British Embassy, of operating illegally in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Veteran diplomat Yuli Vorontsov (78), who served the Soviet Union and Russia as ambassador to Afghanistan (1988-99) and the United States (1994-2000) in a career spanning the Cold War and the Gulf War, died in Moscow.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 12, Pirates freed a Japanese chemical tanker loaded with highly explosive benzene off the coast of Somalia, six weeks after seizing the vessel and its crew.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12-2007 Dec 14, In South Africa 49 patients, all with multidrug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) TB, escaped through holes they had cut through the perimeter fences of Jose Pearson Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317354,00.html)
2007 Dec 12, Officials said South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, North and south Sudanese leaders said they had resolved almost all their differences and that the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement would soon rejoin the unity cabinet.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Thailand smashed through the 100-gold barrier at the SEA Games as they continued their relentless pursuit of top spot on the medals table.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, The UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal at The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Serb general Dragomir Milosevic (b.1942) to 33 years imprisonment for the shelling of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, one of the court's toughest sentences. In 2009 UN judges trimmed the sentence from 33 to 29 years but upheld his convictions for leading troops who terrorized Sarajevo with a deadly rain of shells and sniper bullets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 11/12/09)
2007 Dec 13, Nobel laureate Al Gore accused the United States of blocking progress at the UN climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott US-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, US Sen. George Mitchell presented his report on steroid use among professional baseball players. The 409-page report identified 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs and recommended tough new measures for testing and investigations.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/13/08)
2007 Dec 13, Democratic presidential hopefuls meeting in Johnston, Iowa, called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations in an unusually cordial debate.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2007 Dec 13, New Jersey lawmakers approved a measure to abolish the death penalty. Gov. Jon Corzine said he would sign it within a week.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 13, Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2007 Dec 13, In SF Dr. David Kessler, onetime commissioner of the FDA, was fired as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine by Chancellor Michael Bishop. Kessler said he had been labeled as a “whistle blower" after he attempted to uncover financial irregularities that predated his 2003 appointment.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 13, In Louisiana 2 graduate students from India were found tied up and shot in the head on the edge of Louisiana State Univ.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 13, In southern Afghanistan a civilian car hit a freshly planted land mine, killing six people and wounding six others. Taliban militants beheaded a woman they accused of spying and her grandson.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Argentina's new president reacted furiously to accusations by US prosecutors that an intercepted suitcase full of cash from Venezuela was meant to finance her election campaign, calling the charge "garbage in international politics."
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 13, Brazil's Senate refused to renew a financial transaction tax that fills the government's coffers, handing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a political defeat that could threaten his social programs for the poor.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney apologized publicly for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a German arms dealer, but he bluntly rejected suggestions he had taken kickbacks.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, EU leaders signed the Treaty of Lisbon to reform the bloc's institutions and give it stronger leadership, marking the end of a difficult process that has lasted nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, In northeast India a bomb tore through a moving train, killing five passengers and wounding four others in Assam state. The Adivasi National Liberation Army, a little-known militant group, said it was responsible for the attack. In southern India two men attacked a self-proclaimed holy man (80) and chopped off his right leg, apparently believing it had magical powers.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/13/india.randeepramesh)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 13, In Mosul gunmen stormed a house and killed the woman who owns it, apparently because she had turned a room in the home into a beauty salon. A car bomb went off about 100 yards away from the Italian Embassy in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Waziriyah. 3 policemen and 4 civilians were wounded. An American soldier was shot to death in an attack in southern Baghdad and another was shot and killed in northern Ninevah province.
(AP, 12/13/07)(AP, 12/14/07)(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 13, Ireland's government announced it will organize new nonreligious primary schools in the capital, a move that reflects growing immigration and declining church power in this traditionally Roman Catholic nation.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Israeli high school teachers ended a two-month strike after receiving a pay raise and government promises to redress some of the problems in the Israeli school system, including class size.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Japan said that Russia seized four Japanese fishing boats in disputed waters between the two countries, calling the detention unacceptable and demanding an explanation from Moscow.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Malaysia said it has arrested five leaders of ethnic Indian rights group Hindraf under controversial security laws that allow for detention without trial.
(AFP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, In south-west Nigeria at least 17 people burned to death when four vehicles burst into flames in a crash.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 13, North Korea verbally responded through a diplomatic channel to a letter Bush sent to Kim earlier this month. A senior US official with knowledge of the contents said it was delivered through a diplomatic channel in New York and contained what appeared to be a pledge from Pyongyang to follow through on its denuclearization deal as long as the United States held to its end of the bargain.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 13, In southwest Pakistan twin suicide bombers blew themselves up close to a military checkpoint in Quetta, killing five soldiers and wounding 22 people.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, In the Philippines leaders of 2 separatist groups met with Seif al-Islam Khadafy, son of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, and said they should be able to resolve differences that dated back to 1976 when the Moro Islamic Liberation Front broke from the Moro National Liberation Front.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 13, Opposition leader Garry Kasparov said the Kremlin has stopped him from running for president by preventing his supporters from meeting to nominate him.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Russia and Iran reached agreement on a schedule for finishing construction of a nuclear power plant that plays a central role in the international tensions over Iran's atomic program, Russian news agencies reported.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, Marie-Therese Kampire, who taught politics at Rwanda's National University, was found guilty by a traditional "gacaca" court. The former university teacher was given a 19-year prison sentence for her role in the murder of a colleague's wife during the Rwanda genocide.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 13, In Somalia mortar rounds slammed into the biggest market in Mogadishu and gunbattles erupted across the city, killing 17 people hours after a government official said radical Muslims had regrouped and were poised to launch a massive attack.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 13, An official said Thai tax authorities have seized assets worth about $34.2 million from family members of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, New Jersey became the first US state to require flu shots for preschoolers.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 14, Maria Borrega, a former ticket agent for the Contra Costa County public transit system was extradited from Florida to California and charged with embezzling at least $184,000 from 2002 until her retirement in 2005.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B2)
2007 Dec 14, A man accused of being the Phoenix Baseline Killer was sentenced to 438 years in prison for the sexual assaults of two sisters. As of 2008 Mark Goudeau still faced trial for the slayings of eight women and a man in 2005-2006; he has pleaded not guilty.
(AP, 12/14/08)
2007 Dec 14, Frank Morgan (73), jazz alto saxophonist, died at his home in Minneapolis. In the 1960s he played in the storied “warden’s band" at San Quentin State Prison with other prominent musician-inmates that included Art Pepper and Dupree Bolton. In 1991 he won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Alto Saxophonist.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B5)
2007 Dec 14, Australian PM Kevin Rudd and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon jetted into East Timor to lend support to the nation's efforts to stabilize and rebuild after violence last year. Rudd pledged to support the nation's ongoing security needs during the five-hour stop.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, The leaders Belarus and Russia pledged closer cooperation on military, economic and foreign policy but gave no indication that the ex-Soviet neighbors were moving closer to a long-discussed full merger.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) confirmed a new case of the livestock disease bluetongue in a cow imported from Germany, two months after an earlier outbreak was said to have been contained.
(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Canada's national police force, criticized for excessive use of Tasers, said that, from now on, officers would only fire the electric stun guns at suspects who are combative or resisting arrest.
(Reuters, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda met in Kampala to discuss border tensions that have triggered deadly clashes on one of Africa's hottest frontiers in the search for oil. The UN said rival factions in Congo are forcibly recruiting hundreds of children and sending them to fight on the front lines of an escalating conflict in the east of the country.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Local newspapers reported that nearly 2,000 Egyptian civil servants have ended a sit-in outside government headquarters in Cairo after winning a battle to change their status and increase their salaries.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, EU leaders held a formal meeting in Brussels, where they agreed in principle to send 1,800 policemen, judges and officials to Kosovo. They also agreed to set up a reflection group to think about challenges facing the EU between 2020 and 2030.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.87)
2007 Dec 14, It was reported that German AIDS researchers have discovered a protein common in semen that boosts the infectious potential of HIV 100,000-fold.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 14, In northern India a bus collided with a train, killing at least 16 people, including nine children on their way to school.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, announced its 93rd death due to the H5N1 virus. In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death. The WHO confirmed Myanmar's first human case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and open handling of the infection. State media reported a girl (7) was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, In northern and central Iraq US forces targeting al-Qaida in Iraq detained 18 suspects and killed four.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 14, Ayo Fayose of southwestern Ekiti state gave, a Nigerian former state governor, turned himself in to police after more than a year on the run, vowing to defend himself in court against allegations of corruption. High Chief Ekpemupolo, an influential rebel commander in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, ordered the suspension of peace talks with the government because of military incursions and the arrest of another commander.
(Reuters, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, North and South Korea ended three days of talks without an agreement on creating a shared fishing zone to defuse tensions along their disputed sea border.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Hamas gunmen burst into the home of Omar Al-Ghoul, a top Fatah official in Gaza, and arrested him. He was the most senior Fatah politician to be detained since Hamas forces overtook the territory in June. In the West Bank, Abbas' security forces arrested 26 Hamas supporters. 3 people were killed in a mysterious explosion at a Fatah-organized funeral in Gaza City.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Mortar shells rained down on Mogadishu for a second day, killing at least five people. The African Union's new representative for Somalia said he expected more peacekeepers to arrive starting this month.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, South Korea brought home 195 army medics and engineers from Afghanistan, ending its five-year deployment to help rebuild the war-ravaged country at Washington's request.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, Clashes between Sri Lankan soldiers and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's embattled north left 31 guerrillas and one soldier dead.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Asus Technology of Taiwan unveiled a $299 version of Eee PC, a 2-pound laptop for kids that stores data on flash memory.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.D1)
2007 Dec 14, The UN refugee agency said more than 200 migrants are feared to have drowned at sea in separate incidents off Yemen, Turkey and the Canary Islands so far this month.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, The World Bank convinced 45 countries to give over $25 billion to the world’s poorest state over the next 3 years.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.100)
2007 Dec 14, Zimbabwe reserve bank governor Gideon Gono on said President Robert Mugabe's cronies were fuelling the country's runaway inflation through illicit dealings. Amnesty International said Zimbabwean police are still beating and torturing human rights activists and opponents of the government despite mediation efforts launched by fellow African nations.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 15, It was reported that Google is testing a new service called Knol, that enlists selected users to write about the breadth of human knowledge in competition with Wikipedia.
(SFC, 12/15/07, p.C1)
2007 Dec 15, A winter storm dropped snow from the Plains to the Midwest with as much as a foot of snow in Kansas. Forecasts called for as much as 15 inches for sections of southern Michigan.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 15, A rocket landed in a crowd of civilians near Kabul's police headquarters, and a truck full of rockets smuggled into the city under a pile of hay exploded nearby moments later. At least five people were killed.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Some 20,000 Belgians demonstrated in Brussels against the erosion of their spending power as the country's months-old political crisis begins to hit people's pockets.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Jean Oviedo (37), a US woman, was shot and killed as she vacationed with her Colombian husband in Bucaramanga, Colombia, in a robbery that netted $200 and a laptop computer.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, In Indonesia 2 weeks of international climate talks marked by bitter disagreements and angry accusations culminated in a last-minute US compromise and an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming by 2009.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Bomb blasts, ambushes and gunfights left 11 people dead across Iraq, including 4 members of US-backed security patrols.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Dec 15, Italian authorities said they have captured, Edoardo Contini (52), a fugitive Naples crime boss who built one of the most dangerous cartels.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, In Kashmir one person was killed when police fired on hundreds of students calling for a college to be set up in their town. The protest in Magam township, 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Srinagar, came a day after the Kashmir government said it would set up 18 new colleges across the insurgency-racked state. Magam was not included.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency and said in a nationally televised address that he imposed it as a last resort to save Pakistan from destruction from an unspecified conspiracy. In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed at least 2 soldiers and 3 civilians at a checkpoint near the gate of an army school.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Rashid Rauf, a British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners, escaped after appearing before a judge at a court in Islamabad. Rauf, who is of Pakistani origin, was arrested in August 2006 on a tip from British investigators.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Pakistan's Health Ministry issuing a statement saying six people had initially tested positive for the virus last month, while the WHO said eight had been reported. International health experts were dispatched to Pakistan to help investigate the cause of South Asia's first outbreak of bird flu in people and determine if the virus could have been transmitted through human contact.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Hamas marked the 20th anniversary of its founding with a huge rally in Gaza City. Hamas was founded in Gaza after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Filipino soldiers killed Abdulmibin Sakandal, a suspected Abu Sayyaf militant wanted by Philippine and US authorities for alleged involvement in the 2000 kidnappings of 21 people, including Western tourists.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly said Belarus will pay nearly 20 percent more for Russian gas beginning next year.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, President Robert Mugabe suspended Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, Zimbabwe's attorney general, and appointed a three-member tribunal to investigate allegations that the state's highest law officer abused his powers.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 16, Morgan Stanley senior executive Stephen Roach said the US is heading for a recession and the rest of the world would be "dead wrong" to think this will not impact on growing Asian economies.
(AFP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Street and highway crews were at work trying to clear roads across the Great Lakes states into New England as a storm blamed for three deaths spread a hazardous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. The storm was blamed for at least 10 deaths including 4 in Indiana, 2 in Michigan and Wisconsin, one in Pennsylvania and one in Nova Scotia.
(AP, 12/16/07)(SFC, 12/18/07, p.A19)
2007 Dec 16, Dan Fogelberg (56), the singer and songwriter, died at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. His hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 16, In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed two Afghan civilians and wounded five others, while a clash in the south left four Taliban dead. Harald Kleber (42) a German national locally known by his Muslim name, Abdul Rahman, was kidnapped in heart province. The next day German authorities said Kleber was wanted in Germany for fraud.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AFP, 12/17/07)(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 16, Argentina and Brazil successfully launched a rocket into space in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 16, Australian police said they had broken up an alleged nationwide child porn ring with the arrest of six men overnight, including a former policeman, a trainee teacher and a swimming instructor.
(AFP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, In Grozny, Chechnya, a police officer and 4 militants were killed in a gunbattle.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 16, China announced holiday changes to ease overcrowding on trains, flights and other transport systems. The changes will bring back three traditional one-day holidays and let workers take paid vacations at times other than officially-set breaks.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 16, The EU signed a new trade agreement with the 15-member Caribbean Forum.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.74)
2007 Dec 16, In eastern India 299 communist prisoners overpowered guards and escaped from a prison.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, British forces formally handed over responsibility for Basra, the last region in Iraq under their control, marking the start of what Britain hopes will be a transition to a mission aimed at aiding the economy and providing jobs in an oil-rich region beset by militia infighting. A total of 174 British personnel have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. The venture cost Britain some $10 billion.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.94)(AP, 12/16/08)
2007 Dec 16, In the Indian portion of Kashmir hundreds of people clashed with police, hours after burying a 20-year-old man killed by police a day earlier. At least 35 people were injured.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary elections. Critics have said election code changes, introduced in October, were designed to evict all opposition politicians from the legislature. The Central Election Commission said Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's Ak Jol party won 71 out of 90 parliament seats in the parliamentary election. The top opposition party failed to win parliament seats and the party accused the government of rigging the vote and said it would appeal the results in court.
(AP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 16, Malaysia’s Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi intervened to head off rising anger among the Southeast Asian country's ethnic Indian population after a rare public rally on Nov 25 led to violent clashes with police.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Russian authorities expelled a Moldovan journalist critical of the Kremlin in a move condemned by media watchdogs.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Millions of Muslims from around the world gathered in Mecca for the start of the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage, as the Saudi Interior Ministry announced tough security precautions.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Spanish police said they had arrested 63 people across the country in five investigations into child pornography being posted, viewed and paid for on the Internet.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Spanish construction group BTP Sacyr Vallehermoso said it had created a joint company with the Libyan government to bid for infrastructure contracts there.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Darfur rebels said they had inflicted a crushing defeat on Sudan's army in West Darfur in an overnight battle during which they captured 29 soldiers, 32 vehicles and heavy weaponry.
(Reuters, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 16, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets, marking an escalation of force against the outlawed separatist group. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. Turkey’s military later said up to 175 rebels were killed on this day. A Kurdish leader said the figure was exaggerated.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 17, President George W. Bush, addressing a Rotary Club meeting, tried to reassure an edgy public that the economy is "pretty good" despite the mix of a failing housing market, a national credit crunch and surging energy costs.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2007 Dec 17, A US judge ruled that the White House visitor logs are public, a blow to Pres. Bush, who didn’t want to disclose visits by religious conservatives.
(WSJ, 12/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 17, In Washington, DC, a military judge said the US must hold court hearings to determine whether suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay are prisoners of war or unlawful enemy combatants in a ruling that could delay war crimes trials.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 17, US trade officials said the US has reached a deal with the EU, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law a measure that abolished the death penalty, making New Jersey the first US state in over decades reject capital punishment.
(SFC, 12/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 17, It was reported that the US was investigation allegations that Public Warehousing Co. owned by Kuwait’s Sultan Al-Essa family, had solicited as much as $80 million in kickbacks under cover as discounts from US suppliers.
(WSJ, 12/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 17, The World Trade Organization (WTO) launched an investigation into Washington's multi-billion-dollar farm subsidies that Brazil and Canada say break international trading rules.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, The Int’l. Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank, unveiled a $1 billion health-care strategy for Africa.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.121)
2007 Dec 17, In southern Afghanistan several militants were killed in airstrikes and a subsequent operation by US-led coalition troops.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, Much of eastern and central Canada was digging out after a massive storm dumped up to 50 cm (20 inches) of snow in places, shocking Canadians who had become accustomed to milder winters.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Grozny, Chechnya, a roadside bomb killed a prison guard and wounded four other people as they drove in a van transporting suspected criminals.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, Dubai ruling Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pardoned 377 inmates of Dubai prisons this week on the eve of Eid al-Adha, an important Islamic holiday. The pardon included Bert Tatham, a Canadian UN official who advised the Afghan government on eradicating opium poppy crops. Tatham (35) was granted amnesty, six months after being sentenced to four years in prison on a drug smuggling conviction. Tatham was arrested April 23 during a one-hour stopover at the Dubai International Airport, after being caught with a half a gram of hashish, and two poppy bulbs.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Nine Egyptians were killed and seven injured when a car crashed into a group of people celebrating a religious festival on Egypt's Red Sea coast.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said the first nuclear fuel shipment for the Bushehr atomic power plant has arrived in Iran from Russia. Aghazadeh said the Bushehr plant was 95 percent complete and would begin operations next year.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned of "traitors" among insurgents in Iraq and called on Iraqi Sunni Arab tribes to purge those who help the Americans in a new videotape posted on the Web.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Defense officials said Israel will allow the Palestinians to set up a new cell phone network, part of warming relations between the sides. The world rallied to the support of the embattled Palestinian government, and the co-chairman of a donors' conference said he was confident they could meet a $5.6 billion target in aid.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan and the United Arab Emirates signed an accord to strengthen economic ties, including a deal for Japanese banks to extend a multibillion-dollar loan to a state-owned Abu Dhabi oil firm.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan began sending warnings to an estimated 8.5 million people that their pension data may have gone missing, as the government seeks to clean up a scandal that has damaged its credibility.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, A Nicaraguan appeals court overturned the conviction of Eric Volz, a US man sentenced to 30 years in prison in the killing of his Nicaraguan girlfriend. Volz (28) was freed on Dec 21 and quickly left Nicaragua.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 17, Nigeria's main militant group urged all armed factions in the restive southern oil heartland to join together and cripple Africa's biggest petroleum industry.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Pakistan the Election Commission rejected former PM Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against the rejection of his nomination for next month's parliamentary elections. Police used batons and fired tear gas in a clash with protesters who hurled rocks and bricks at them in Islamabad. A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Pakistani army recruits returning from a soccer game in northwestern Pakistan, killing nine of them. The attacker struck near an army communications center in Kohat, about 30 miles from the city of Peshawar.
(AFP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to become prime minister if his close ally Dmitry Medvedev succeeds him, giving Putin a way to keep a grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Saudi Arabia a gang-rape victim who was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her was pardoned by the Saudi king after the case sparked rare criticism from the United States, the kingdom's top ally.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Somalia mortar shells slammed into Mogadishu, killing at least 12 people, including a mother and her three children, and wounding dozens in an increasingly ferocious Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, In northern Sri Lanka renewed violence between Tamil rebels and government forces left at least 33 people dead.
(AFP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Uruguay's last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, was charged with the forced disappearance of political prisoners, cheering human rights activists who have long campaigned for his prosecution.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, The US Federal Reserve endorsed new rules that would give people taking out home mortgages new protections against shady lending practices.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In New Jersey authorities broke up a major organized crime ring that took in $2.2 billion in gambling bets over the last 15 months and supplied drugs and cell phones to gang members in a New Jersey state prison. 2 ruling members of New York’s Lucchese crime family and 30 others were arrested.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 18, The city council of Half Moon Bay, Ca., voted to hire a team of appellate lawyers to fight a federal court decision that ordered the city to pay a developer $36.8 million in a property dispute. The city’s annual budget was $10 million. On April 1, 2008 the City Council approved a settlement under which it would pay $18 million only if it was unable to get special legislation passed to allow Charles Keenan to build 129 lots on property in question and an adjoining parcel, bypassing wetlands protection laws.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B1)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B1)
2007 Dec 18, PG&E reported plans to support the first commercial wave power plant off California’s Humboldt County coast. 8 power generating buoys, to be built by Canada’s Finavera Co., was expected to begin operations in 2012.
(SFC, 12/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 18, John Morgridge, the retired chairman of Cisco Systems, and his wife Tashia, both graduates from the Univ. of Wisconsin, announced that they are donating $175 million to help low-income Wisconsin students attend any of the state’s public colleges and universities. Morgridge’s fortune was estimated at $2.1 billion.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.C2)
2007 Dec 18, An Italian team published the first full genetic sequence of a grape variety, pinot noir, in the Public Library of Science.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.137)
2007 Dec 18, In western Afghanistan Taliban fighters killed 15 Afghan guards working for a private security company who were guarding a convoy of fuel tankers. 6 Taliban were killed in the ensuing fight. Elsewhere in Farah fighting between police and militants left 2 militants dead.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In Argentina 7 former army officers and an ex-police official were convicted and sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for human rights abuses during Argentina's bloody dictatorship.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The leaders of Argentina and Venezuela closed ranks against the United States, rejecting US court charges in a campaign cash scandal as one more example of Americans treating their nations like subservient colonies.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, Prosecutors in Aruba dismissed the case against the three main suspects in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, saying they still believe they were involved in her death but can't prove it after 932 days of searching failed to turn up a body.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, An official said Australian copper thieves have turned tomb raiders, pilfering plaques and vases from cemeteries to sell the metal for scrap.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Bermuda's ruling party won a third term in general elections shadowed by racial resentment and allegations of corruption. Premier Ewart Brown's Progressive Labor Party won 22 seats compared with 14 seats for the United Bermuda Party.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, Canada confirmed a new case of mad cow disease, the 11th since 2003, and said the animal in question was a 13-year-old beef cow from Alberta.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, A boatload of 59 exhausted African men arrived in the Canary Islands, the latest wave in a constant flood of desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, EU regulators said Mastercard must drop fees it charges for cross-border transactions or face daily fines of 3.5 percent of daily global turnover.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, About 250 Iraqi police raided three villages near Hawija, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk, in an operation against suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. Police detained 12 al-Qaida in Iraq suspects as well as another eight people, and seized a large weapons cache that included 2,500 mortar rounds, 350 Katyusha rockets, about 150 improvised bombs and about 500 mines. A car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in central Baghdad killing two policeman and two civilians. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe near Baquba, killing 13 people and wounding 24.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Israeli aircraft launched an assault on the radical Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza, killing the group's overall commander and nine other militants in three fiery strikes. A fourth attack on a security post in southern Gaza killed two Hamas militants.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Japan said it had shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of joint efforts with the United States to erect a shield against a possible North Korean attack.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In South Africa delegates of the governing African National Congress cast their votes for party leader. Zuma defeated President Thabo Mbeki by 2,329 votes to 1,505 at the party convention and moved into position to become president in 2009.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, In northern Sri Lanka fighting killed 13 rebels and two soldiers. The Tigers said they killed five soldiers.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 18, A human rights group said that Syrian authorities have arrested two activists, raising to at least seven the number detained following a recent meeting of opposition groups in Damascus. The two had attended the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change, a Dec. 1 gathering of numerous opposition groups and activists calling for democratic reforms in Syria.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed four people before beheading one victim, days before the country's first election since last year's coup.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation. A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels were still in Iraq by midmorning.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, Ukraine's pro-Western coalition appointed Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko prime minister and named a government that favors the ex-Soviet republic winning NATO and EU membership.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the US-led multinational force in Iraq for one year, a move that Iraq's prime minister said would be his nation's "final request" for help.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The UN passed a resolution backed by 104 states calling for the 1st time for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.46)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10678.doc.htm)
2007 Dec 18, The Zimbabwe government introduced amendments to tough security and media laws, which critics said were used by President Robert Mugabe to stifle opposition to his 27-year rule.
(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 19, Pres. Bush signed a bill calling for an increase in auto-fuel efficiency, the first in 32 years.
(WSJ, 12/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 19, The United States government rejected a request by California for it to be allowed to introduce tough new vehicle emissions standards, dealing a blow to the state's hopes of slashing greenhouse gas levels over the next decade.
(AFP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 19, Time magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin its 2007 "Person of the Year."
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, US researchers said a highly sensitive microchip may help doctors detect rare traces of cancer circulating in the bloodstream, offering a way to better manage treatment.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach (20) disappeared, just days after meeting with military prosecutors to talk about her allegation that Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean (21) raped her. Her cell phone was found Dec. 20 near the main gate at Camp Lejeune, NC. On Jan 11 her burned remains were found in the backyard of Laurean’s home as a nationwide search for Laurean continued. In 2010 a jury found Laurean guilty of first degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 1/12/08)(SFC, 1/12/08, p.A4)(SFC, 8/24/10, p.A4)
2007 Dec 19, Leaders of Belgium's feuding Dutch- and French-speaking parties agreed to form an interim government to run the country in the short term, while a more permanent solution to the political crisis is sought.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In Chile a retired general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing a leftist couple shortly after Chile's 1973 military coup. The Santiago Court of Appeals said in a communique that Gen. Fernando Polanco and Sgts. Luis Fernandez and Hector Vallejos, all retired, were ordered to pay $600,000 to the son of the slain couple, Ernesto Lejderman.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In Tianjin, China, Li Baojin was convicted of taking bribes worth $760,000 from 7 businesses between 1996 and 2006. Li was also convicted of misappropriating $1.9 million from the Tianjin prosecutor's office. Li's sentence was suspended for two years. That means his death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment if he shows good behavior for the next two years.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 19, Donors pledged millions of dollars at a conference in Spain to help Guinea Bissau, which a top UN official called "under siege" by drug cartels who might even sway the country's future polls.
(AFP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In southern Pakistan an express train crowded with holiday travelers derailed, killing 40 people and leaving hundreds of terrified survivors to claw their way out of the wreckage in total darkness. A trailer truck hit a rickshaw crowded with children going to school in eastern Pakistan, leaving 14 people dead.
(AP, 12/19/07)(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 19, A Hamas official confirmed that Gaza's embattled Hamas leaders are seeking a cease-fire after months of Israeli attacks and sanctions, going so far as to make an unprecedented appeal through the Israeli media.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, In South Korea former Hyundai CEO Lee Myung-bak (66) claimed victory in presidential election as voters overlooked fraud allegations to give him a landslide win on hopes he will revive the economy. This was also Myung-bak’s birthday and 37th wedding anniversary.
(AP, 12/19/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.49)
2007 Dec 19, The Sri Lanka military said soldiers killed four separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in two separate clashes.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 19, Uganda's military said it had shot dead two Congolese soldiers on the volatile border between the two countries, after they tried to resist being arrested on suspicion of raping two teenage girls.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 20, US regulators cleared a plan by Google to acquire online advertising giant DoubleClick, which had sparked concerns about privacy risks and still faces a challenge in the European Union.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Bear Stearns reported the first quarterly loss in its 84-year history as it wrote down $1.9 billion in mortgage assets.
(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, NetSuite Inc., a software maker majority-owned by Larry Ellison, rose 37% in its first day of trading after raising $161.2 million in an IPO a day earlier at $26 per share.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.D1)
2007 Dec 20, The New Orleans City Council voted to demolish 4,500 public housing units as police used chemical spray and stun guns to on dozens of protesters who tried to force themselves into the council chamber.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A6)
2007 Dec 20, MBIA Inc, the world's largest bond insurer, said it had guaranteed $8.1 billion of the riskiest mortgage securities, imperiling its entire net worth and sending its shares plunging 26 percent.
(Reuters, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Jeanne Carmen (b.1930), the "little country girl" who became a 1950s pinup and actress and hobnobbed with Frank Sinatra and other stars, died at her home in Orange County, Ca.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 20, Lydia Mendoza (91), a pioneer of Mexican American music, died in San Antonio, Texas.
(SFC, 12/31/07, p.B7)
2007 Dec 20, In Sao Paulo, Brazil, thieves homed in on two paintings, the Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" by Pablo Picasso and “O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari (1903-1962), in the first successful heist in the 60-year history of Brazil's premier modern art museum. In Jan, 2007, police recovered the paintings and had 2 suspects under arrest.
(AP, 12/21/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A2)(AP, 1/9/08)
2007 Dec 20, In China a female tiger was found with its head, legs and skin missing at the Three Gorges Forest Wild Animal World in Yichang city in Hubei province. The WWF conservation group lists the Siberian tiger as "critically endangered" and says there are only about 530 of the animals alive in the wild.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 20, Conservationists said illegal trappers on Cyprus killed more than half a million protected birds this fall for sale at local restaurants.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic halted land and sea border controls at midnight in a wave of new members of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone. They all joined the EU on May 1, 2004.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, Iran’s state television reported that security forces killed four leaders of a Sunni Muslim rebel group that Tehran has previously linked to al-Qaeda and blamed for several attacks in the Islamic state.
(Reuters, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a city council meeting in Kanaan northeast of Baghdad, killing 6 people, including a US soldier, during a 4-day Islamic holiday. In Baghdad a car bomb exploded outside a liquor store, killing 4 civilians and wounding 36. At least 17 suspected al-Qaeda gunmen were killed in clashes overnight with Iraqi and US troops west of Baquba. An Iraqi soldier was killed in a road bomb attack in Baquba. One al-Qaeda militant was killed by security forces in the town of Abbarah, north of Baquba.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A19)
2007 Dec 20, Israeli troops killed at least 6 Gaza militants, a day after rejecting an unofficial truce offer from the besieged Hamas rulers of the coastal territory.
(AP, 12/20/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, Latvian lawmakers approved a new center-right government that will face an uphill battle to restore popular trust and prevent the country's red-hot economy from abruptly reversing course. Ivars Godmanis (56) became prime minister. He led a four-party coalition which is facing a sharply slowing economy and record high inflation.
(AP, 12/20/07)(Reuters, 6/18/08)
2007 Dec 20, Hundreds of workers marched on Macau’s government in a rare protest demanding full democracy in this booming Chinese casino enclave.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Radio Rwanda reported that the Belgian government has this month given Rwanda 39.5 million euros (56.6 million dollars), mainly to help its small former colony with power supplies, health and education.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, South Africa's top prosecutor said he had enough evidence to bring corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the man standing in line to be the country's next president.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 20, Spain banned parents from using corporal punishment on children.
(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 20, Thailand's military-installed parliament approved a controversial internal security law. Critics warned it will allow the military to maintain a grip on power even after this weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, The US Federal Reserve, working to combat the effects of a severe credit crunch, announced it had auctioned another $20 billion in funds to commercial banks at an interest rate of 4.67%. It pledged to continue with the auctions "for as long as necessary."
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Ken Hendricks (b.1941), creator of ABC Supply (1982), one of the largest US roofing supply companies (1982), died. He used his wealth in part to rebuild his home town of Beloit, Wisconsin.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 21, Two Afghans were killed in Kandahar province when a bomb exploded that was planted in a decapitated Afghan.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 21, Bahraini security forces stormed the houses of the country's most outspoken Shiite opposition group at dawn, arresting at least seven of its members. Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain's 450,000 citizens, but the ruling family is Sunni.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Belgian police arrested 14 Muslim extremists suspected of planning the jailbreak of an al-Qaida prisoner convicted of plotting a terrorist attack on US air base personnel. They were released the next day after a court decided there was insufficient evidence to hold them for more than 24 hours.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, Brazil announced it will create a landholder registry and send 700 more federal police to the Amazon River basin in a new effort to monitor and prevent deforestation in the environmentally sensitive region.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Former British PM Tony Blair left the Church of England and converted to Catholicism, the faith of his wife and children.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, The British pound hit an historic low against the euro owing to heightened expectations of cuts to British interest rates in 2008.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Ian Thow, a former mutual fund salesman in British Columbia, was fined C$6 million ($6.1 million) and banned from working in the West Coast province's capital markets for life. In October a commission panel found that Thow defrauded hundreds of clients between January 2003 and May 2005, convincing some to sell their mutual funds and mortgage their homes to raise money to invest in non-existing construction loans and Jamaican bank.
(Reuters, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Caribbean leaders gathered in Cuba for a regional oil summit. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presided at a regional petroleum summit, pressing his efforts to counter US influence in Latin America and the Caribbean by suggesting more of his neighbors could pay for cheap oil with goods or services in lieu of cash.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, A Chinese radio station reported that about 1,000 riot police fired tear gas at protesters in southern China who were blocking an electricity pylon near a power station in Dongzhou village they felt was built on unfairly seized land.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, China's first fully homegrown commercial aircraft, the 70-seat ARJ21, rolled off the production line, marking a potential milestone for the country's aviation program. Its first test flight was set for 2008.
(AP, 12/21/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACAC_ARJ21)
2007 Dec 21, Chinese archeologists raised a merchant ship loaded with porcelain and other rare antiques to the surface in a specially built basket. The 100-foot Nanhai No. 1, discovered in 1987, sank off the south China coast some 800 years ago during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Costa Rican agents made the largest marijuana bust in the Central American nation's history, seizing 4.85 tons of the drug found in an abandoned boat.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, At least eight Egyptians were killed and 24 others injured when a bus collided head-on with another vehicle on an intercity road south of Cairo.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Guatemala congressman-elect Marco Antonio Xicay (42) of the conservative Patriotic Party was shot to death by unidentified attackers outside the popular Fuentes Georginas resort.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, India announced a final successful test of the surface-to-air Akash missile before starting mass production under a plan to build a national missile defense shield.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, New Australian PM Kevin Rudd met with al-Maliki during a surprise visit to Baghdad. Rudd said that after the troops withdraw in June, Australia will continue to help train the Iraqi police force and army. A gunmen attacked a family in Diyala province near Balad Ruz, killing two men and kidnapping a third. Just east of Baqouba, the capital of Diyala, two men standing in front of their house were killed by unknown armed men. A double roadside bomb attack killed one US soldier and wounded 11 in northern Kirkuk province.
(AP, 12/21/07)(Reuters, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that PM Ehud Olmert may consider talks with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire. A Hamas militant was killed in a clash with Israeli troops near the Israel-Gaza border.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, Japan's regulators announced the country's biggest financial market reforms in a decade amid hot competition in Asia to be the region's financial hub. Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica. The fleet will, however, kill some 935 minke whales, a smaller, more plentiful species, and 50 fin whales.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)(AFP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Pakistan a suicide attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid hundreds of worshippers at the residential compound of a former top security official for President Pervez Musharraf, killing 56 people in Sherpao, a village 25 miles northeast of the city of Peshawar.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AFP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Saudi Arabia the annual 5-day hajj come to a close as some 3 million pilgrims participated.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Freetown, Sierra Leone, a two-story building of apartments and shops caught fire and exploded, killing 14 people and injuring 40.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Tajikistan a late night avalanche of snow hit a section of one of the main roads, killing 3 people. Earlier reports had put the toll at 15.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 21, The Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo for a year and demanded that all militias and armed groups in the volatile east lay down their weapons and start disarming.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 22, In SF Leonard Milo Hoskins (49), a computer software developer, was last seen alive in the city’s Mission Terrace neighborhood. His body was found Feb 1 in a van owned by housemates Richard Carelli (38) and Michelle Pinkerton (38), who left town after their van was towed from the area during a police investigation. Murder warrants were later issued for the couple. On April 7 Carelli and Pinkerton were arrested in El Rosario on the Baha peninsula after they were tracked down by James Spring (39) of San Diego. In 2011 Carelli pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was expected to serve 6 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.A1)(SFC, 2/15/08, p.B6)(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.C5)
2007 Dec 22, Making the first-ever trip to Afghanistan by a French president, Nicolas Sarkozy met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the political and military situation in the war-torn country.
2007 Dec 22, In Bahrain Security forces conducted sweeps through Shiite villages, arresting several protesters involved in a week of demonstrations against the Sunni-led government.
(AP, 12/23/07)
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, In Egypt a policeman was killed overnight in a shootout with Bedouin tribesmen smuggling African immigrants into Israel. A minibus fell off a ferry and sank in the Nile River in southern Egypt, killing 16 people including six children.
(AFP, 12/22/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Ethiopia claimed it was receiving an influx of around 600 Eritreans fleeing political oppression in their country every month.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, French author Julien Gracq (97), one of the last links with the pre-World War II Surrealist movement, died.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 22, Ghana's Pres. John Kufuor said that offshore oil reserves discovered in the West African country's waters total 3 billion barrels.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Police in India arrested two men near Lucknow suspected of being Islamic militants involved in a series of explosions that ripped through courthouse complexes in three north Indian cities last month, killing at least 16 lawyers.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi, who is himself a Sunni, said Sunni militias, known as Awakening Councils, will not be allowed to become a separate military force. A suicide car bomb exploded at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi army and police in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, killing 4 people and wounding another six. On the southern outskirts of the capital, a roadside bomb wounded five bystanders near a hospital in the town of Madin. In Mosul a roadside bomb targeting a passing police patrol killed one policeman and wounded two others.
(AP, 12/22/07)(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 22, Hundreds of government soldiers withdrew from a vast buffer zone dividing Ivory Coast, the first stage of a long-delayed nationwide disarmament program.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 22, In northwestern Pakistan clashes started, four days after the Shiite Turi and Sunnite Mengal tribes signed a ceasefire agreement following weeks of fighting which left more than 100 people dead. The rival tribes were using heavy weapons and by Dec 30 the death toll had reached 63.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 22, Spain's "El Gordo," the world's biggest lottery, gave out 2.2 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in Christmas prizes.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, In northern Sri Lanka government forces captured a key defense line of Tamil Tiger guerrillas in fighting that killed six rebels and one soldier.
(AFP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, High wind and ice coated power lines blacked out tens of thousands of people in the Midwest. The storm was blamed for at least 22 deaths. At least 8 people in Minnesota, 5 in Wisconsin, 3 each in Indiana and Wyoming and one each in Michigan, Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents.
(AP, 12/23/07)(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/25/07, p.A11)
2007 Dec 23, In Afghanistan echoing pledges by the leaders of France and Australia, Italian PM Romano Prodi emphasized his county's long-term commitment in a meeting with President Hamid Karzai. Afghan intelligence agents detained a 50-year-old foreign woman carrying a suicide vest in eastern Afghanistan. A roadside explosion killed one policeman and wounded three others in Kunar province. Police clashed with Taliban militants in the Gelan district of central Ghazni province, killing a local insurgent leader and two of his bodyguards. Another booby-trapped body was discovered in Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 23, Aloisio Lorscheider (b.1924), one of Latin America's most influential cardinals, died in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after a lengthy hospitalization.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Oscar Peterson (b.1925), jazz pianist, died at his home in Mississauga, Canada. His flying fingers, hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations made him one of the world's most famous and influential jazz pianists in a career that spanned seven decades.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 23, India's main Hindu nationalist party swept to an impressive election victory in the western state of Gujarat after a bitter campaign fought in the shadow of deadly 2002 anti-Muslim riots that still scar the state. Chief minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to carry 117 of 182 seats. Modi represented the most anti-Muslim wing of the BJP.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.36)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.44)
2007 Dec 23, A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, as attacks claimed the lives of at least five people.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, A Cabinet minister said Israel has plans to build an additional 740 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2008, enraging Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace talks.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Media reported that Malawi has asked Libya to close its mission in Lilongwe. The Mutharika administration had suspicions that Libya funds Muluzi's United Democratic Front, which is seeking to unseat Mutharika in elections in 2009.
(AFP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Nepal's major political parties agreed to abolish the world's last Hindu monarchy as part of a deal to bring former communist rebels back into the government.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 23, A suicide bomber killed four Pakistani soldiers and five civilians in an attack on a military convoy in the northwest Swat Valley.
(Reuters, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said police have arrested 28 men for allegedly planning to attack holy sites around Mecca and Medina during the recently finished Muslim hajj.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Somalia a first contingent of 100 Burundian peacekeepers deployed in the capital, joining 1,800 Ugandan troops in an African Union force, AMISOM, that is still well short of the personnel strength needed to help restore order. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked an Ethiopian army base in northern Mogadishu, triggering a deadly nighttime clash that sent stray mortar rounds crashing into homes. At least five Somalis were killed and eight wounded in the crossfire.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AFP, 10/22/11)
2007 Dec 23, In Thailand allies of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra appeared to emerge as victors in the post-coup election but failed to secure an absolute majority in parliament. Thaksinites won 233 seats, 8 short of a majority in the 480-seat lower house.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.33)
2007 Dec 23, Turkish fighter jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 23, Uzbeks cast ballots in a tightly controlled presidential vote. Authoritarian President Islam Karimov won a new term in office with 88.1 percent of the votes in an election dismissed by critics as a sham.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, The New York Times reported that more than five billion dollars in US aid to Pakistan has often never reached the military units it was intended for to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was instead diverted to other programs.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell $5 billion of new stock to Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign investment company and a smaller stake to a domestic firm. Merrill said it will write down an additional $8 billion of mortgage investments in the 4th quarter.
(SFC, 12/25/07, p.E1)
2007 Dec 24, George Warrington (b.1952), former head of New Jersey Transit (2002-2007) and former president of Amtrak, died.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 24, In Montreal, Canada, Gurpeet Gaur (29) the wife of Harinder Singh Cheema, was beaten and strangled to death. On July 2, 2015, Cheema was arrested in Fremont, Ca., following a fingerprint match on a US immigration application.
(SFC, 7/10/15, p.D3)
2007 Dec 24, The international charity Save the Children said boys and girls are being recruited in record numbers to act as soldiers, spies and sex slaves in Congo and children have been spotted marching in formation in the war-wracked east of the country over the past week.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, A 12-story building collapsed in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least 35 people. Shoddy materials, illegal construction and a culture of corruption were blamed for the deaths.
(AFP, 12/25/07)(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 24, The head of a special unit said on German radio prosecutors are investigating 12,000 suspects in a child pornography network, the largest ever found in Germany.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, A bomb hidden inside a minivan exploded near the Baghdad governor's office, killing two people and wounding six others. A train struck a minivan at an intersection near the town of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing a couple and 11 children. 13 Shiite civilians were abducted north of Baqouba.
(AP, 12/24/07)(SFC, 12/25/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 24, In Indian Kashmir 5 worshippers were being held hostage inside a mosque for a second day by Muslim rebels as security forces sought to end siege peacefully. Indian forces killed three suspected Islamic militants ending the two-day hostage standoff and sparking angry protests that injured dozens of people.
(AFP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 24, In Kyrgyzstan Igor Chudinov, a former energy and industry minister was, named prime minister.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Malaysia's government unveiled a major initiative to protect Hindu temples, hoping to pacify ethnic Indians who complain that hundreds of their places of worship have been demolished in this Muslim-majority country.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Gunmen shot dead four French tourists in Mauritania in West Africa. Sidi Ould Sidna, was charged with planning and executing the killings of the French tourists. He was extradited by Guinea-Bissau in January but later escaped from authorities. 2 other suspected terrorists were arrested on April 30. In May, 2010, a court sentenced 3 young men to death for the murder of the French tourists. The men pleaded not guilty and said their confessions were extracted under torture.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A2)
2007 Dec 24, A Nigerian court ordered the arrests of three of the defendants in a trial over a drug test conducted by Pfizer in 1996 which Nigerian authorities say killed 11 children and left others disabled.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, In southwestern Somalia gunmen threw grenades at the home of the regional police chief, killing two of his grandchildren and a bodyguard but not their target. Burundi deployed a 2nd contingent of 92 peacekeepers to Mogadishu, to bolster an African Union force.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 24, Southern army officials said militias supported by Khartoum's army have attacked southern Sudanese soldiers near the north-south border killing dozens of people.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, Authorities closed the mausoleum of Taiwan's late dictator Chiang Kai-shek as part of the ruling party's vigorous campaign to diminish the legacy of the late leader.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 24, The Thai political party allied with deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said that it has recruited enough other parties to form a coalition government following its win in the country's first election since a 2006 coup.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 25, In southern California a pack of pit bulls surrounded Kelly Caldwell (45) and mauled her to death. Barstow police shot and killed 2 of the dogs.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 25, A Siberian tiger named Tatiana (4) escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, killing Carlos Sousa (17) of San Jose and mauling two others. The same animal had chewed a keeper’s arm during an attack last December. Police later reported that one of the three victims of the tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A1)(AP, 1/18/08)
2007 Dec 25, In King County, Washington, six people, 3 generations of one family, were killed. Carnation police the next day arrested Michele Kristen Anderson (29) and Joseph McEnroe (29), the property owners' daughter and her boyfriend.
(AP, 12/27/07)(SFC, 12/28/07, p.A5)
2007 Dec 25, Afghan officials said 2 European diplomats who went to one of Afghanistan's most volatile regions have been asked to leave Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Actress Pat Kirkwood (b.1921), once a star of British musical theater, died.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/29/07, p.B5)
2007 Dec 25, Some 600 protesters marched in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh to call for speedier trials for the former leaders of Khmer Rouge regime.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Colombia an elite anti-kidnapping force in Neiva rescued a 9-year old boy, who was snatched seven months ago by leftist rebels. Captors had demanded a $50,000 ransom for his safe return, an amount his family was unable to pay.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Egypt dozens of Palestinian security men affiliated to Fatah staged a mass break-out from the camp where they have been held in Rafah. Egyptian police were able to recapture 40 of them, transferring them to police stations in the coastal town of Arish.
(Reuters, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, In eastern India Hindu extremists attacked Christians celebrating Christmas, ransacking and burning at least six village churches. One person was killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Iraq a suicide truck bomb exploded outside a residential complex belonging to a state-run oil company in Beiji, home to Iraq's largest refinery, killing 25 people and wounding 80. In Baqouba 10 people were killed and five people were wounded in a suicide bombing targeting a funeral procession for two members of an Awakening Council group.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Mobs in Kenya's opposition heartland beat up and killed at least 3 policemen accused of taking part in a plan to rig Dec 26 elections in favor of President Mwai Kibaki.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 25, In western Nepal a steel footbridge collapsed when its suspension cables snapped, sending scores of people into the river below. At least 15 people were confirmed dead and over 50 were missing and dozens injured.
(AP, 12/25/07)(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Panama the bodies of Michael Klein (37), a California hedge fund manager, his daughter Talia Klein (13) and pilot Edwin Lasso (23) were found in an uninhabited region known as Las Ovejas on the slope of the Baru volcano. Francesca Lewis (12) survived the Dec 23 crash, but cold, wet weather prevented authorities from evacuating her immediately.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 25, Russia's military successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, said more than 600,000 chickens on the Gulyai-Borisovskaya farm in the Rostov-on-Don region have been destroyed to prevent the virus from spreading.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, A South Korean ship carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid sank on its way to Taiwan and 14 sailors were feared drowned. One sailor was rescued.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, Deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said he was planning to return home from exile and might advise the victorious party in last weekend's elections, sparking fears of another year of intense political conflict in Thailand.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pres. Bush signed a $555 billion domestic spending bill and took a swipe at Congress for including pet projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 26, The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that employers could reduce of eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 26, It was reported that Warren Buffet had agreed to pay $4.5 billion to buy a majority of Marmon Holdings, an industrial conglomerate, from the Chicago’s Pritzker family. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway planned to buy the rest of the company by 2014.
(WSJ, 12/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 26, Online auction giant eBay said it has launched a microlending website, www.microplace.com, that lets people invest in entrepreneurs in poor communities around the world and get a return on their money.
(AFP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded east of Algeria's capital, killing two officers and injuring two others. The attack came as authorities rounded up 11 suspected members of two suspected support networks for armed Islamic militant groups in recent days.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that British intelligence agents held secret talks with Taliban leaders on several occasions this year. Earlier this month, British PM Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks with Taliban insurgents, telling the House of Commons: "I make it clear that we will not enter into any negotiations with these people."
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A Chadian court convicted six French aid workers of trying to kidnap 103 African children and sentenced them to eight years of forced labor. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said it would ask Chadian authorities to transfer the six convicted to France. The countries have a bilateral judicial agreement that could allow for such a transfer.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Georgia's top television station suspended its broadcasts, saying it was protesting the pressure authorities have exerted because of the station's links to a billionaire presidential contender challenging the government.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In western Indonesia rescuers dug for survivors after landslides and floods triggered by days of torrential rain killed over 87 people.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran's defense minister said that Iran had agreed to buy an S-300 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran and Malaysia signed a $16 billion agreement to develop two Iranian gas fields, in a deal described as the largest energy contract in Iran.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In Iraq a bomb explosion in the northern province of Ninevah killed three children and wounded another two. An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot dead two American troops while they were patrolling together north of the capital. Three other US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were wounded in the attack. An initial investigation indicated that the Iraqi soldier was linked to local militant groups.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 1/5/08)
2007 Dec 26, Joe Dolan (68), one of Ireland's first pop music stars, died from a brain hemorrhage. He had entertained audiences for decades with Vegas-style showmanship. His last Irish No. 1 came in 1997, when he re-recorded "Good-Looking Woman" with a popular fictional TV comedian, a puppet named Dustin the Turkey.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt to discuss Israeli allegations that Egypt was doing too little to prevent arms smuggling to the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egypt rejected Israeli complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded in flames, killing at least 34 people near Nigeria's main city of Lagos as they tried to scoop fuel from the gushing leak.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pakistan's Pres. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai vowed to boost intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was destroying both countries.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2 tons of supplies including holiday gifts, docked at the international space station.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Serbia's parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that threatens to halt the country's integration into the European Union and cut off diplomatic ties with Western countries if they recognize Kosovo's independence.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, South Korea's cabinet approved a bill setting up a fraud inquiry into president-elect Lee Myung-Bak, one week after the conservative opposition candidate won a landslide election victory.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In northern Sri Lanka a wave of infantry attacks killed at least 66 rebels and 14 government troops.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Bayron Jimenez Castaneda (44), suspected Colombian cocaine trafficker, was arrested in Orlando, Florida, for the kidnapping of an undercover US agent. Three other suspects in the kidnapping of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Dec. 14, 2005 remain at large. Traffickers initially demanded a $2 million ransom, but released him after half a day when they realized he was a US government agent.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Richmond, Ca., 2 gunmen shot and killed Ravinder (30) and Paramjit (42) Kalsi as they closed their restaurant. In 2009 police named Rajesh Kumar of Fiji, as a suspect in the case. Kumar was wanted for allegedly defrauding a woman connected to the restaurant.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.B2)
2007 Dec 27, Steven Florio (b.1949), former CEO of Conde Nast, died in NYC.
(SFC, 12/29/07, p.B5)
2007 Dec 27, The Afghan government expelled UN advisor Mervyn Patterson and EU official Michael Semple, on accusations they held unauthorized meetings with Taliban militants. A spokesman for the UN mission said the diplomats had traveled to Musa Qala, a former Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province on Dec 24, where they met with local leaders.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Bahrain more than a dozen people detained during recent Shiite protests were charged with attempted murder, illegal assembly and rioting.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Chechnya unidentified gunmen shot and killed a police officer in Grozny.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, Shawn Wang, the chief financial officer of leading Chinese search engine Baidu.com, died in an accident while on holiday.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 27, In eastern India Hindu extremists burned down the house of a prominent Christian politician, as violence by gangs from both sides continued despite a curfew imposed after two days of attacks against Christians by Hindu hard-liners. In Orissa state at least three people were killed when they opened fire on a group of hard-line Hindus who set fire to a police station during ongoing clashes between Hindus and Christians.
(AP, 12/27/07)(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Ingushetia several militants ambushed a border guards' vehicle, killing two officers and wounding two other servicemen.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Iraq a bomb left inside a bus in eastern Baghdad exploded and killed two passengers and wounded 12 others. US troops allegedly killed 11 members of a Mahdi Army splinter group in Kut. A local official said 4 people were killed and that they were innocent. Kut police said 6 suspected militiamen were killed. The military announced that it had detained two more suspects in the capture of 3 US soldiers on May 12. The US military said in a statement that troops killed 12 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists and detained 37 others during a Dec 22-25 operation near Muqdadiyah.
(AP, 12/27/07)(AP, 12/28/07)(SFC, 12/28/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 27, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first summit since they agreed last month to renew peace talks, seeking to resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, Kenya held elections. President Mwai Kibaki tried to fend off fiery opposition leader Raila Odinga. In Nairobi monitors from the EU saw tens of thousands of votes pinched for Kibaki. In 2009 Philip Alston, a UN investigator, published a report documenting around 500 death-squad executions in the months leading up the elections.
(AP, 12/27/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.37)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.49)
2007 Dec 27, Nigeria reported that Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was being forced to resign in order to attend a one year course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies at Jos.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)
2007 Dec 27, Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally. Doctors reported that Bhutto died from a bullet wound. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif announced his party was boycotting next month's elections following the assassination. He demanded that President Pervez Musharraf resign immediately. Within hours Sindhis began to rampage. After the 1st frenzy over 50 people were killed and damages were later estimated at $200 million. In February, 2008, her book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West," was published. In it she alleged that Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in an October bombing in Karachi that killed some 150 people.
(AP, 12/27/07)(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.22)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.93)(AP, 8/6/08)
2007 Dec 27, In northern Sri Lanka Air force jets destroyed a Tamil naval base.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, South Sudanese former rebels rejoined the national government, two months after walking out because of disputes over the implementation of a peace deal that ended two decades of war.
(AFP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Thailand officials said deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra would be arrested if he returns home from a self-imposed exile as planned, even if his victorious allies form a government following last weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 27, In southern Zimbabwe floodwaters swept a truck down a raging river, killing 7 people. Their deaths bring the number of drownings in Zimbabwe to 21 in the past month.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Azerbaijan's president issued a decree granting amnesty to 119 prison inmates, including several journalists whose convictions drew protests from international rights groups.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Chad 6 French aid workers sentenced to eight years' forced labor for trying to kidnap 103 children left for France, boarding a plane in handcuffs as security officers looked on.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, China and Japan made no major breakthroughs in resolving a row over natural resources in the East China Sea, but a visit by Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda signaled a new warmth in bilateral relations.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Sun Daolin (b.1921), Chinese actor and director, died in Shanghai. He appeared in over 100 movies and plays during a career that was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, when he was sent to work in the countryside for 6 years.
(SFC, 1/5/08, p.B3)
2007 Dec 28, Iran received the second shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia for a power plant being constructed in the southern Iranian town of Bushehr.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, A car bomb detonated in a busy Baghdad market killing at least 14 people and ending what had been a relatively quiet holiday period in the Iraqi capital. The US military said it had killed four gunmen tied to al-Qaida in Iraq in an operation near Muqdadiyah in Diyala. Another was killed in a predominantly Sunni area south of Baghdad. 2 senior insurgents linked to al-Qaida were arrested. Ahmed Turky Abbas, the "defense minister" of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, was arrested in a village near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. In Latifiyah the Iraqi army arrested Hussein Ali Turky, considered a local religious leader for al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 12/28/07)(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Unknown assailants fatally shot two Israeli settlers hiking in the West Bank. The attack followed an Israeli operation overnight in which troops killed a bodyguard for the Palestinians' chief negotiator.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Nepal's parliament voted in favor of abolishing the centuries-old monarchy and turning this Himalayan nation into a republic.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Pakistan hundreds of thousands of mourners, weeping and chanting for justice, thronged the mausoleum of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty in a raw outpouring of grief for Benazir Bhutto. The government blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for the assassination of the opposition leader, who was buried alongside her father. Furious supporters rampaged through several cities in violence that left at least 23 dead. The government said that Benazir Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed but by a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack. A transcript released by the Pakistani government of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib, or Mr. Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 12/28/07)(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Serigne Saliou Mbacke (92), Senegal's spiritual leader, died. Mbacke was the leader of the Mourides, the most powerful Muslim brotherhood in Senegal, and his image was ever-present in the homes of his millions of followers.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Jacob Zuma (65), the newly elected leader of South Africa's ruling party, was ordered to stand trial on corruption and other charges next year, raising doubts about whether the party would back his candidacy for the 2009 presidential election.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Tanzania's ambassador to South Africa and his wife were attacked by armed robbers at a farewell dinner hosted for them in the capital Pretoria.
(AFP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, South Korea's parliament voted to extend the country's troop deployment in Iraq for another year, amid protests by activists opposed to the decision. South Korea has 650 troops in Iraq.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, Taiwan's High Court cleared opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of graft charges, securing a place for the former Taipei mayor in the March presidential race.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Zimbabwe junior doctors and nurses at major state hospitals went on strike to press for higher pay and improved working conditions.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Nonja (55), a Sumatran orangutan, was found dead at the Miami Metro Zoo. She had lived in Miami since 1983 and was believed to be the world’s oldest orangutan.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Oakland, Ca., carjackers stole a state-issued Dodge Charger from state Senate pres. Don Perata. Jared Adams (25) and his girlfriend, Maeve Clifford, were arrested on Jan 10 in another stolen vehicle. Their prints were found on Perata’s car, which had been found abandoned in Richmond. Ryan McGough (28), a 3rd suspect in the carjacking, was arrested in May, 2008. In addition to the carjacking Adams was later charged with a shooting, 12 days after the carjacking, that left Christopher Rodrizuez (10) paralyzed. In 2011 Adams was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B3)(SFC, 8/13/08, p.B4)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.C4)
2007 Dec 29, Taliban militants in Wardak province fired rocket-propelled grenades from their vehicles at a convoy of private security guards on Afghanistan's main highway, killing six guards and two police officers. Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in the south and killed 16 officers.
(AP, 12/30/07)(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Australia David Hicks, the only person convicted of terrorism charges at a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, walked free and said he did not want to do "anything that might result in my return" to the prison in Cuba.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, China said Hong Kong will be allowed to directly elect its leader in 2017 and all of its lawmakers by 2020 at the earliest, an announcement that sparked protests by pro-democracy activists who sought an earlier date.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, In northeast China 19 miners died in a coal mine blast at the Shunfa Coal Mine in Heilongjiang province, the latest casualties in the world's most dangerous mines.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 29, A series of explosions ripped through an army base in the Colombian city of Medellin, killing at least two people and forcing nearby residents to flee. The first of at least six large blasts was apparently triggered by a grenade that detonated inside a weapons arsenal.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, Iraq's interior ministry spokesman said that 75% of al-Qaida in Iraq's terrorist network had been destroyed this year. Muqtada al-Sadr called for reconciliation between his followers and Iraqi security forces in Karbala. Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."
(AP, 12/29/07)(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Shu Uemura (79), Japanese makeup artist, died. He had won acclaim in Hollywood and built an international cosmetics brand under his name.
(AP, 1/8/08)(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.A10)
2007 Dec 29, Kenya's presidential rivals were neck-and-neck with nearly 90 percent of official results counted as accusations of rigging ignited ethnic violence across the east African nation.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Pakistan an Islamic militant group said it had no link to Benazir Bhutto's killing and the opposition leader's aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The government said mass rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said his security forces had arrested a number of suspects in the killings of two off-duty Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and had given Israeli authorities weapons taken from the dead men by their attackers.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, The Scottish government said a new case of bluetongue has been detected for the first time in Scotland.
(AFP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, Sudan accused Chadian aircraft of bombing its western Darfur region in what it called "repeated aggressions" by its western neighbor. a Sudanese foreign ministry statement said 3 Chadian war planes bombed two areas in West Darfur on December 28.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Zimbabweans formed queues at banks to beat a December 31 deadline to hand in a currency series phased out by the central bank.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Uruzgan province four Afghan soldiers were killed in a mine explosion. One soldier was killed in Paktia province in another blast.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, Belgian officials said traditional New Year's Eve fireworks in central Brussels have been canceled due to a continuing terror threat in the capital.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, President Nicolas Sarkozy said France will have no more contact with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon end its current crisis and appoint a new president.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Ivory Coast's New Forces rebel group, now part of the unity government, accused Ibrahim Coulibaly, one of its former leaders, of trying to stage a coup.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the closest presidential election in Kenya's history, a contest marked by allegations of rigging and two days of deadly violence. Kibaki beat Raila Odinga by 231,728 votes. Kivuitu, the electoral commission chairman, acknowledged problems, including a constituency where voter turnout added up to 115 percent and another where a candidate ran away with ballot papers.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Former communist rebels rejoined Nepal's government, ending a political crisis that began when the ex-guerrillas walked out of a ruling coalition three months ago.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Bilawal Zardari (19), Benazir Bhutto's son, was chosen to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party, while her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, will serve as co-chairman, extending Pakistan's most famous political dynasty to another generation. Zardari, who became investment minister in Bhutto's second government, was nicknamed "Mr. 10 Percent" for allegedly skimming off commissions on government contracts. 3 days of unrest left more than 40 dead and tens of millions of dollars in damage. In eastern Pakistan 2 suspected suicide bombers died when they prematurely detonated their bomb near the residence of a senior leader of the ruling party.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Somalia a mother and her five children were killed by a mortar round fired during fighting in Mogadishu between insurgents and Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, Spain’s Catholic bishops called some 150,000 people onto the streets of Madrid for a rally dubbed “Christian Family Day," in opposition to Socialist PM Zapatero.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.46)
2007 Dec 30, Local media reported dozens of people have been killed in fighting between Arab tribesmen and ex-rebel south Sudanese forces along the line separating north and south Sudan.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 30, Bert Bolin (82), a Swedish climate scientist and co-founder of the Nobel Peace-winning UN panel on climate change, died in Stockholm. His last book, "A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" was published in November 2007.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2007 Dec 30, Turkmenistan turned off gas supplies to Iran, citing technical problems, after Iran balked at a price increase to $140 per thousand cubic meters, almost double the contracted rate. The move had a domino effect causing Iran to halt gas shipments to Turkey, which in turn cut off gas to Greece.
(WSJ, 2/4/08, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/3xmzam)
2007 Dec 30, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed off on Ukraine's 2008 budget, which he hailed as proof that the country's razor-tight parliamentary majority was functioning effectively.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 31, President George W. Bush signed into a law a measure aimed at allowing states, local governments, mutual funds and pension funds to divest from Sudan businesses, particularly its oil sectors.
(Reuters, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Ohio a drunken driver went about four miles down a highway in the wrong direction before his pickup truck slammed into a minivan, killing a woman and four children and injuring three others. All 8 had been visiting family in Michigan and were returning to Maryland.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In San Francisco Albert Collins (30) shielded his daughter (9) from gunfire in the Sunnydale public housing project and was killed becoming the city’s 98th homicide victim.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.B1)
2007 Dec 31, Oakland, Ca., police officers shot and killed Andrew Moppin-Buckskin (20) at 47th and Int’l. Blvd. after he ran from his car following a traffic stop. In 2010 a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit filed by the family of Moppin-Buckskin.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.C2)
2007 Dec 31, The International Federation of Journalists said at least 134 media workers were killed on assignment this year, most of them in Iraq, which has become the most dangerous place for journalists since the start of the US-led war there.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In California murders for 2007 in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of Los Angeles held at 19 as of Dec 24. Murders there had dropped from 43 in 2005 to 19 in 2006. In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of Florencia 13, or F13, one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a NATO soldier and wounded four others. In Helmand province, a roadside bomb exploded against a police vehicle driving through Musa Qala, killing two officers. Taliban militants killed more than 925 Afghan police this year, and large swaths of the country remained outside government control. More than 6,500 people, mostly militants, died in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials. Also in 2007, 110 US soldiers were killed in the country, the highest American toll since the 2001 invasion. US military deaths, suicide bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper said a one percentage-point cut to the country's consumption tax will be effective January 1, 2008.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, A Venezuelan-led mission to rescue three hostages, including a 3-year old boy, from leftist rebels in Colombia's jungles fell apart as the guerrillas accused Colombia's military of sabotaging the promised handoff.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Dec 31, In southern Egypt a bus plunged into a canal alongside the Nile River, killing 17 passengers and the driver.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, A suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with explosives into a checkpoint manned by members of a US-backed security volunteer group in a town north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people. Another three people were missing following the explosion in the town of Mishada, 20 miles north of the capital. A female suicide bomber detonated herself near a police patrol, wounding five policemen and four civilians in the town of Baqouba. In the town of Khalis gunmen traded fire with police and Awakening Council members, leaving one council member and one policeman dead. A roadside bomb targeting a patrol near the Iranian border killed two Iraqi soldiers and injured another four. According to Iraqi health, defense and interior ministries, 16,232 civilians, 432 soldiers and about 1,300 policeman died this year compared to 12,371 civilians, 603 soldiers and 1,224 policeman killed in 2006. 2007 was the deadliest year for the US military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.
(AP, 12/31/07)(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Dec 31, The number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence dropped dramatically this year. A report from an Israeli human rights group said Israeli forces killed 373 Palestinians during 2007, a 45 percent drop from the previous year. Palestinians killed 13 Israelis in the same period.
(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 31, Kenyan police battled thousands of opposition supporters enraged over President Mwai Kibaki's allegedly fraudulent re-election, firing tear gas and live ammunition as the death toll from the violence rose to 103.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Nepal 4 former communist rebels were sworn in as Cabinet ministers, ending a political crisis that began when the ex-guerrillas walked out of a coalition government three-months ago.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, North Korea failed to meet a year-end deadline to declare all its nuclear programs under an aid-for-disarmament deal, prompting disappointed reactions from South Korea, the United States and Japan.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, A newly released video of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and an inconclusive medical report raised new doubts about the official explanation of her death and were likely to intensify calls for an independent, international investigation.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, Palestinian pilgrims broke windows and burned mattresses and blankets in temporary camps to protest Egypt's refusal to let them return to Gaza through a crossing controlled by Hamas. A Palestinian woman (67) died of a heart attack when she was caught amid scuffles. The standoff over the pilgrims began Dec 29, when some 3,060 Palestinians returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia arrived by ferry at the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba in southern Sinai, heading back to Gaza.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Sudan the African Union transferred authority to a new joint peacekeeping force with the UN in Darfur. An AU official said Ethiopia and Egypt will each send 850 troops early in the new year to serve with a joint UN-AU force in the Darfur region.
(AP, 12/31/07)(Reuters, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, Syria’s state-run media called on the US to begin a direct dialogue, a day after an influential US senator said Washington could "bridge the gap" between Israel and Syria.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Thailand a bomb attack wounded 27 people in Sungai Kolok, a tourist town where people had gathered to celebrate the New Year.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, President Hugo Chavez granted amnesty to many opponents accused of supporting a failed 2002 coup that briefly drove him from power. Chavez said he signed an amnesty decree that would also pardon others accused of attempting to overthrow his government in recent years.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Dec, The NBER, a private, nonprofit research organization, said on Dec 1, 2008, that its group of academic economists, who determine business cycles, had met and decided that the US recession began in December 2007.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2007 Dec, The US Army’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point made public documents containing individual records of 606 foreign fighters who entered Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007. The documents were discovered in the Fall of 2007 in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. They indicated that 90% of the fighters were foreigners and had entered Iraq via Syria. 19% of the fighters were from Libya and 40% were North African.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A14)
2007 Dec, The European Council adopted a set of Council Conclusions on flexicurity, by which the common principles of Danish flexicurity will guide EU member states when implementing reforms in order to meet the aims of the Lisbon Strategy of Growth and Jobs.
(http://denmark.dk/en/society/welfare/flexicurity/)
2007 Dec, The 1,588-foot-tall Int’l. Commerce Center, the tallest in Hong Kong and the 3rd tallest in the world, opened for business on the Kowloon side of the city.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec, Blackwater Worldwide Pres. Gary Jackson authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials. They were intended to silence criticism following the September 16 episode in which Blackwater guards shot 17 Iraqi civilians. This was acknowledged by former company officials November in 2009.
(SFC, 11/11/09, p.A3)
2007 Dec, Abu Obaidah al-Masri, al-Qaida’s chief operational planner, was reported in 2008 to have died of hepatitis at about this time in Pakistan’s tribal area.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec, In Uganda Andrew Mwenda launched The Independent magazine and focused on uncovering official corruption. By early 2009 he and his staff had been arrested or detained over a dozen times and was forced to print at a secret location.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, Par. p.10)
2007 Rawi Abdelai authored “Capital Rules: The Construction of Foreign Finance."
(WSJ, 2/14/07, p.D12)
2007 Bruce D. Abramson authored “The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold," a discussion of the American patent system.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.M3)
2007 Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman authored “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder."
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.M3)
2007 Antoine van Agtmael authored “The Emerging Markets Century." He is credited with coining the term emerging markets.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.66)
2007 Robin Aitken authored “Can We Trust the BBC."
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.P10)
2007 Chris Alden authored “China in Africa: Partner, Competitor of Hegemon."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.89)
2007 Ayaan Hirsi Ali (b.1969), Somalia born writer and resident at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, authored her autobiography “Infidel." In the Netherlands it was published under the title “My Freedom."
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.P12)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.87)
2007 Ali A. Allawi, a US and British-educated engineer and financier, authored "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace." He concluded that the corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order."
(AP, 4/8/07)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.93)
2007 Arthur Allen authored “Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver."
(WSJ, 2/1/07, p.D6)
2007 Stephen Alter authored “Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Inside the World of Indian Moviemaking."
(SSFC, 8/12/07, p.M3)
2007 Karen Armstrong authored “The Bible: A Biography."
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.92)
2007 Paddy Ashdown, the EU's High Representative in Bosnia (2002-2006), authored “Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.94)
2007 Katherine Ashenburg authored “The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History."
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.M3)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.99)
2007 Ian Ayres authored “Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart," a look at how computers have enabled automatic processes to surpass human experts in numerous fields.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.103)
2007 Kathleen M. Barry authored “Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants."
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.105)
2007 William J, Baumol, Robert E. Litan and Carl J. Schramm authored “Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity," in which they identified 4 main models of capitalism around the world: entrepreneurial, big-firm, oligarchic and state-led.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.80)(Econ, 9/20/08, SR p.6)
2007 Ishmael Beah (26), former child soldier in Sierra Leone, authored “A Long Way Gone."
(WSJ, 2/10/07, p.P8)
2007 Sharon Begley authored “Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Power to Transform Ourselves."
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Michael Belfiore authored “Rocketeers," a survey of the entrepreneurs bent on conquering space.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.P11)
2007 Michael Billington authored “British Theater since 1945."
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.100)
2007 Bob Blumenthal authored “Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America’s Music."
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.W10)
2007 John Bolton, former US representative to the UN (2005-2006), authored his memoir “Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad."
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.D5)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.91)
2007 Timothy Brook authored “Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World."
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.E3)
2007 Ethan Brown authored “Snitch: Informers, Cooperators & the Corruption of Justice."
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
2007 Mick Brown authored “Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector. Spector was arrested in 2003 for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
(SFC, 6/27/07, p.E1)
2007 Todd G. Bucholz authored “New Ideas From Dead CEOs: Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office."
(WSJ, 6/27/07, p.D10)
2007 Fred Buller authored “The Doomsday Book of Giant Salmon: A Record of the Largest Atlantic Salmon Ever Caught."
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.139)
2007 Nayan Chanda authored “Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization."
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.84)
2007 Ha-Joon Chang (b.1963) authored “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism."
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.74)
2007 Eric Clark authored “The Real Toy Story: Inside the Ruthless Battle for America’s Youngest Consumers."
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.105)
2007 Gregory Clark authored “A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World."
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.74)
2007 Former president Bill Clinton authored “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World."
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.84)
2007 Francis Collins authored “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief." He conceived of God as being of the non-interfering sort.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.91)
2007 William D. Cohan authored “The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co. – A Tale of Unrestrained Ambition, Billion-Dollar Fortunes, Byzantine Power Struggles and Hidden Scandal." The company, founded in 1848, was private until 2005.
(WSJ, 4/11/07, p.D8)(Econ, 4/14/07, p.93)
2007 Paul Collier authored “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It." The Oxford economics professor argued that aid, on its own, was unable to make a difference to the world’s poor.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.71)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.86)
2007 Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz authored "The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World’s Most Dangerous Secrets… and How We Could Have Stopped Him," in which they covered Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (b.1935), founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M4)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.79)
2007 Kate Colquhoun authored “Taste: The Story of Britain through its Food."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.89)
2007 Scott Cooper and Peter Gloor authored “Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing." In a similar vein Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman authored “Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace."
(WSJ, 5/9/07, p.D9)
2007 Heather Cooper and Nigel Henbest authored “The History of Astronomy."
(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.W11)
2007 Matthew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg authored “Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced."
(AH, 6/07, p.44)
2007 M.W. Daly authored “Darfur’s Sorrow: A History of Destruction and Genocide.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.75)
2007 Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris authored “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning."
(WSJ, 4/18/07, p.D12)
2007 Mike Davis authored “Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb."
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.86)
2007 Dr. Aubrey de Grey with Michael Ray authored “Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime."
(WSJ, 9/8/07, p.P8)
2007 Rene Denfeld authored “All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent world of Street Families."
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.M1)
2007 John Derbyshire authored “Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra.
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.90)
2007 Philip Dine authored “State of the Unions."
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.66)
2007 Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro authored “The Three Tensions" in which they covered management’s dilemmas regarding profit and growth, short vs. long term results, and the success of individual units vs. the whole company.
(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.D8)
2007 Eric Jay Dolin authored “Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America."
(WSJ, 6/20/07, p.D7)
2007 Pamela Druckerman, former WSJ reporter, authored “Lust in Translation: The Rules of Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.92)
2007 William Duggan authored “Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement," in which he advocates watching for opportunities ahead of setting goals.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.D16)
2007 Khamboly Dy authored "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," the first history book written by a Cambodian about the Khmer Rouge.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Barbara Ehrenreich authored “Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy." In it she covered the evolution of philanthropy in America.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.M1)(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.D7)
2007 Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal authored “Lords of the Land: The War for Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories 1967-2007."
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.97)
2007 Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick authored “The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Performance."
(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.D9)
2007 Reese Erlich authored “The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis."
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.M3)
2007 Silvia Evangelisti authored “Nuns: A History of Convent Life."
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.85)
2007 Curtis M. Faith authored “Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders."
(WSJ, 5/16/07, p.D9)
2007 Nicholas Fern, British journalist, authored “The Latest Answers To the Oldest Questions."
(WSJ, 2/23/07, p.W4)
2007 Joshua Ferris (b.1974) authored his novel “Then We Came to the End," a satire of office life in an advertising firm.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.91)
2007 Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke authored “Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium."
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.140)
2007 Joel L. Fleishman authored “The Foundation: A Great American Secret – How Private Wealth is Changing the World," a critique of philanthropic practice and an agenda for reform.
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.D6)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.86)
2007 James R. Flynn (b.1934) authored “What Is Intelligence." He discovered that IQ scores increased from one generation to the next for all of the countries for which data existed. This came to be called the Flynn effect.
(http://moreintelligentlife.com/node/654)(Econ, 7/3/10, p.76)
2007 Former Mexican Pres. Fox authored his ghost-written memoir “Revolution of Hope." It was published in English prior to a Spanish version.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.42)
2007 Robert Frank authored “Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich," a look at the differences between the new generation of super wealthy and the merely rich.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.97)
2007 Robert Friedel authored “Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium," a survey of the entire past millennium of technological advancement.
(WSJ, 6/7/07, p.D7)
2007 John Ghazvinian authored “Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Bob Gifford authored “China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power."
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.80)
2007 Michael Gates Gill authored “How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else."
(WSJ, 9/19/07, p.D10)
2007 Mark Gevisser, a South African journalist, authored a biography of South Africa’s Pres. Thabo Mbeki “Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred."
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.97)
2007 Zarah Ghahramani (b.1981) with Robert Hillman authored “My Life as a Traitor," an account of her arrest and 30-day imprisonment in Iraq following a protest over the firing of a beloved teacher. Ghahramani managed to escape Iran after her arrest and settled in Australia.
(SFC, 1/3/08, p.E1)
2007 Paul Gillin authored “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media."
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.D10)
2007 Anastasia Goodstein authored “Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online."
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A8)
2007 Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman, authored “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," in which he criticized congressional Republicans and Pres. Bush fro abandoning fiscal responsibility. Greenspan caused a stir by alleging in his new memoir that "the Iraq war is largely about oil."
(WSJ, 9/15/07, p.A1)(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Ramachandra Guha authored “India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
2007 Ted Gup authored “Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life."
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.D7)
2007 Sanjay Gupta, MD, chief medical correspondent for CNN, authored “Chasing Life: New Discoveries in the Search for Immortality to Help You Age Less Today."
(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/chasing.life/)
2007 Jake Halpern authored “Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction." The book was about “basking in reflected glory" for which Halpern coined the term “birging."
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.W5)
2007 Derek Hayes authored his “Historical Atlas of California."
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.M1)
2007 Stephen F. Hayes authored “Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice-President."
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W3)
2007 Chris Hedges authored “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America."
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.E6)
2007 Judith Herrin authored “Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire."
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.97)
2007 Christopher Hitchens, US-based British writer, authored “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
(WSJ, 4/1207, p.A11)(www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0446579807)
2007 Calvin L. Hodock authored “Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things."
(WSJ, 2/6/08, p.D8)
2007 Douglas Hofstadter authored “I Am A Strange Loop," an examination of consciousness.
(WSJ, 3/23/07, p.W6)
2007 Robert D. Hormats authored “The Price of Liberty: Paying For America’s Wars."
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.D5)
2007 Lynn Hunt authored “Inventing Human Rights: A History," a study in social psychology.
(WSJ, 3/6/07, p.D6)(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
2007 Zahid Hussain authored "Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle With Militant Islam."
(AP, 1/24/11)
2007 Lee Iacocca, former head of Chrysler (1979-1992) with Catherine Whitney authored “Where Have All the Leaders Gone."
(WSJ, 4/25/07, p.D9)
2007 Walter Isaacson authored “Einstein: His Life and Universe."
(WSJ, 4/6/07, p.B3)
2007 Sasha Issenberg authored “The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy."
(WSJ, 5/23/07, p.D10)
2007 Chalmers Johnson authored “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic."
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.M1)
2007 Denis Johnson (1949-2017), American fiction writer, poet and playwright, authored the Vietnam War novel “Tree of Smoke" (2007). It won the National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
(SFC, 5/27/17, p.C3)
2007 Rebiya Kadeer, prominent Uighur exile, authored her memoir “Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China." The original German publication was made available in English in 2009.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.77)
2007 Benjamin J. Kaplan authored “Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe."
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.92)
2007 David A. Kaplan authored “Mine’s Bigger: Tom Perkins and the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built."
(SFCM, 7/22/07, p.17)
2007 Robert D. Kaplan authored Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground," the product of 2 years work in the company of assorted, world-wide groups of the American military.
(WSJ, 9/20/07, p.D6)
2007 Garry Kasparov, world chess champion (1985-2000) and current candidate for the presidency of Russia, authored “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves from the Board to the Boardroom."
(WSJ, 10/25/07, p.D8)
2007 Christine Kenneally authored “The First Word: The Search for the Origin of Language."
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.M3)
2007 Barbara J. King authored “Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion."
(SFC, 2/9/07, p.E8)
2007 Kenneth F. Kiple authored “A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization."
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.82)
2007 Ian Klaus authored “Elvis Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq," an account of his time as a teacher in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Klaus, a former boyfriend of Chelsea Clinton, taught there in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.P9)
2007 Naomi Klein authored “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."
(SSFC, 9/23/07, p.M1)
2007 Charles Koch, chief executive of Koch Industries, authored “The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company," in which he delineates his philosophy of Market Based Management.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Success)
2007 Janos Kornai (b.1928), Hungarian economist, authored “By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey."
(WSJ, 1/30/07, p.B15)
2007 Michael Krasny, SF talk radio host, authored “Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life."
(SSFC, 11/4/07, p.M1)
2007 Jeffrey J. Kripal authored “Esalen: American and the Religion of No Religion."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Anthony T. Kronman, a professor at Yale, authored “Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life." The book is his impassioned defense of the study of the humanities.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.D7)
2007 Milan Kundera (b.1929), Czechoslovakia born writer, authored “The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts," an extended essay on the art of the novel.
(WSJ, 2/10/07, p.P8)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.83)
2007 Joshua Kurlantzick authored “Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World."
(WSJ, 6/28/07, p.D7)
2007 Murat Kurnaz (24), a German-born Turkish man who was held for years at Guantanamo, authored a memoir about his time at the US prison. His 256-page book was titled "Five Years of My Life: A Report from Guantanamo." Kurnaz worked with a writer, Helmut Kuhn, on the memoir.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Hannah Landecker authored “Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies," in which she charted 60 years of tissue-culture science.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.93)
2007 David Landes authored “Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor."
(Econ., 4/18/15, SR p.4)
2007 William Langewiesche authored “The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor."
(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.D7)
2007 Walter Laqueur authored “The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent."
(WSJ, 5/31/07, p.D7)
2007 Michael A. Ledeen authored “The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction," a forceful argument for regime change in Iran.
(WSJ, 9/7/07, p.W5)
2007 Melvyn P. Leffler authored “For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union and the Cold War.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.101)
2007 Philippe Legrain authored “Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them," a defense of open borders. In 2003 Legrain had authored “Open World: The Truth About Globalisation."
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.74)
2007 Brinjar Lia authored “Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al Qaida Strategist Abu Mus’ab al-Suri." Abu Musab al-Suri, a Syrian-born militant, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2005.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.98)
2007 Mark Lilla authored “The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West," a look at the intellectual origins of current opinions.
(WSJ, 9/15/07, p.W10)
2007 Bjorn Lomborg of Denmark authored “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming."
(WSJ, 9/13/07, p.D7)
2007 Edward Luce authored “In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India."
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.M3)
2007 Kyle MacDonald authored “One Red Paperclip," an account of how he used the Internet to barter up from a single red paperclip to a house.
(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.D10)
2007 David Magee authored “How Toyota Became #1."
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.D9)
2007 John Major, former British prime minister, authored “More Than a Game: The Story of Cricket’s Early Years."
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.97)
2007 Jason Makansi authored “Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You."
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P8)
2007 David Mamet authored “Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business."
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.P8)
2007 James Mann, American journalist, authored “The China Fantasy: Why Capitalism Will Not Bring Democracy to China."
(Econ, 6/25/11, SR p.5)
2007 Aliza Marcus authored “Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
2007 Daniel McGinn authored “House Lust: America’s Obsession With Our Homes."
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.M1)
2007 Angus McLaren authored “Impotence: A Cultural History."
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.96)
2007 Edward McPherson authored “The Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge."
(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.P8)
2007 John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt authored “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.87)
2007 Robyn Meredith authored “The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us."
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.M1)
2007 Stephen Mihm authored “A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States."
(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W8)
2007 Ethan Mordden authored “All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Dr. Robert D. Morris, a Seattle epidemiologist, authored “The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster and the Water We Drink."
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.M3)
2007 John Newhouse authored “Boeing Versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business."
(WSJ, 1/24/07, p.D11)
2007 Robert D. Novak authored his autobiography “"The Prince of Darkness."
(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.W5)
2007 Martha C. Nussbaum authored “The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
2007 Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds Univ. in Jerusalem, authored “Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life."
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M1)
2007 Padraig O’Malley authored “Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa."
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2007 Michael Oren authored “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present."
(WSJ, 1/12/07, p.W6)
2007 Nicholas Ostler authored “Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin."
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W12)
2007 Johan Van Overtveldt authored “The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.95)
2007 Adam Pellegrino posted his book “Thermal Oblivion" online. The physics book challenges notions and precepts of institutionally backed and taught beliefs in mathematics, quantum physics, and theology.
(www.thermaloblivion.com/_mgxroot/page_10768.html)
2007 John Pepper, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, authored “What Really Matters."
(WSJ, 6/13/07, p.D7)
2007 Linda Perlstein authored “Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade." It was based on her experience at a low-income elementary school in Annapolis, Md., while looking at the impacts of the federal No Child Left Behind program and the Maryland School Assessment on children’s lives.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.M3)
2007 Steven Pinker authored “The Stuff of Thought: Languages as a Window into Human Nature."
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.102)
2007 Joseph Dominick Pistone (b.1939), alias Donnie Brasco, authored “Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business." Pistone, a former FBI agent, worked undercover for six years (1976-1981) infiltrating the Bonanno family and to a lesser extent the Colombo Family, branches of the Mafia in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Brasco)
2007 Norman Podhoretz authored “World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism."
(WSJ, 9/11/07, p.D6)
2007 Lucien X. Polastron authored “Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.98)
2007 Stephen Prothero authored “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t."
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M1)
2007 Kenneth B. Pyle authored “Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.94)
2007 Sam Quinines authored “Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration."
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.M1)
2007 Robert Reich, former US labor secretary, authored “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life," in which he denounces corporate social responsibility as a dangerous diversion that is undermining democracy.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.65)
2007 Darius Rejali authored “Torture and Democracy," a genealogy of modern torture.
(SSFC, 1/27/08, p.M1)
2007 Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria authored “The Key System: San Francisco and the Eastshore Empire."
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
2007 Richard Rhodes authored “Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race."
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.M1)
2007 Tracy Rihill, British classics lecturer, authored “The Catapult: A History."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.92)
2007 Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella authored “La Casta" (The Caste), a dissection of the way tax revenue is frittered away by Italy’s political class. "The Caste: How Italian politicians have become untouchable," written by journalists from the leading daily Corriere della Sera, became best-seller soon after its publication.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.48)(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Elizabeth Roberts authored “Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro."
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.85)
2007 Gregory Rodriguez authored “Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America."
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.102)
2007 Jeffrey Rosen authored “The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America.
(AH, 4/07, p.69)
2007 Alex Ross authored “The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century," a history of music in the 20th century.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.97)
2007 Bernard Rougier’s “Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon" was published in English. The French version (Le Jihad au quotidien) was initially published in 2004.
(WSJ, 6/26/07, p.D5)
2007 Graham Russell and Gao Hodges authored “Taxi! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver."
(WSJ, 4/6/07, p.W6)
2007 Prof. Larry Sabato of the Univ. of Virginia authored: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country."
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.F1)
2007 A.K. Sandoval-Strausz authored “Hotel: An American History."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.90)
2007 The English translation of presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy’s “Testimony: France in the Twenty-First Century," became available. It had been published in France in 2006 as Temoignange."
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.86)
2007 Jon Savage authored “Teenage: The Prehistory of Youth Culture: 1875-1945." In 2014 it was turned into a documentary film.
(SFC, 4/25/14, p.E5)
2007 Mark Schapiro authored “The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power."
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.66)
2007 Barrymore Lawrence Scherer authored “A History of American Classical Music."
(WSJ, 12/4/07, p.D8)
2007 Phillip F. Schewe authored “Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World."
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P8)
2007 Amity Schlaes, US economic historian, authored “The Forgotten Men: A New History of the Great Depression."
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.76)
2007 Robert Service, Oxford professor of Russian history, authored “Comrades! A History of World Communism."
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.88)
2007 Wilfrid Sheed authored “The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty," a look back at the top tunesmiths of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood.
(WSJ, 6/30/07, p.P6)
2007 Raja Shehadeh authored “Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape," which told of 6 walks taken between 1978 and 2006. It was first published in Britain and in 2008 came out in the US.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.101)
2007 Susan L. Shirk authored “China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise."
(WSJ, 5/17/07, p.D7)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.80)
2007 Ayesha Siddiqa authored “Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.94)
2007 Julia Flynn Siler authored “The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty."
(WSJ, 6/15/07, p.W1)
2007 James Smith, an English professor at Boston College, authored "Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and the Nation's Culture of Containment." The so-called Magdalene Laundries, a network of 10 workhouses, operated in independent Ireland from the 1920s to the mid-1990s. The Irish Human Rights Commission later said that Ireland's civil authorities for decades dumped women, often teenagers being punished for petty crimes or becoming pregnant out of wedlock, into the so-called Magdalene Laundries.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2007 Virginia Smith “Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity."
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.139)
2007 Paul Starr authored “Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism." He emphasized “that the founders of liberalism aimed not just to control state power but to create it too."
(WSJ, 4/1207, p.D7)
2007 Shelby Steele authored “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win."
(WSJ, 12/11/07, p.B18)
2007 Amy Stewart authored “Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers."
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.106)
2007 Ian Stewart authored “Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry."
(SFC, 5/22/07, p.E2)
2007 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b.1960), Lebanese writer, authored “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable." Here he wrote “Don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut – and don’t ask an academic if what he does is relevant." A review by the Sunday Times called it one of the twelve most influential books since World War II.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb)(Econ, 5/16/15, p.55)
2007 Gary Taubes authored “Good Calories, Bad Calories," in which he says that obesity is related to the quality of consumed calories, where bad ones come from refined carbohydrates found in starchy food and sweets.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.W8)
2007 Charles Taylor, Canadian philosopher, authored “A Secular Age," a discussion of the weakening of religion’s power in Western history.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.84)
2007 George Tenet, former CIA director, with Bill Harlow authored “At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA."
(WSJ, 5/4/07, p.W4)
2007 Clarence Thomas, US Supreme Court justice, authored his memoir “My Grandfather’s Son." The book stops at the point when he joined the Supreme Court in 1991.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.38)
2007 Colin Thubron, travel writer, authored “Shadow of the Silk Road," the story of his 8-month trip in 2003 along the silk route from China to Central Asia.
(WSJ, 8/18/07, p.P9)
2007 Jeffrey Toobin authored “The Nine," in which he argued that from 1992 to 2005 the cautious instincts of swing justices such as Lewis Powell and Sandra Day O’Connor produced rulings that reflected public opinion.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.34)
2007 James B. Twitchell authored “Shopping for God: How Christianity Went From In Your Heart To In Your Face."
(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.D8)
2007 Jeff Warren authored “The Dead Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness."
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M1)
2007 Tim Weiner authored “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA."
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.P8)
2007 Claire Wilcox edited “The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1945-1957."
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.W10)
2007 Alec Wilkinson authored “The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino." Neutrino, born as David Pearlman in 1993, became veteran of the Beat era and is the founder of the Flying Neutrinos and the Floating Neutrinos."
(SSFC, 3/18/07, p.M2)(www.floatingneutrinos.com/)
2007 Valerie Wilson (aka Valerie Plame), former CIA agent, authored “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." Her cover was revealed in 2003.
(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A7)
2007 Adam Wishart, British director and writer, authored “One in Three: A Son’s Journey Into the History and Science of Cancer."
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.M4)
2007 Tony Wood authored “Chechnya: The Case for Independence."
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.95)
2007 SF Bay Area filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori produced “Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm." It was inspired by the 1999 book “The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction" by Rachel Maimes.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.F1)
2007 Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012), outspoken conservative writer and activist founded the online-based Breitbart News.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitbart_News)(AP, 3/1/12)
2007 The US FBI launched its computerized System to Assess Risk (STAR) to find terrorist suspects. It stemmed from a data processing program developed by Frank Asher following the 9/11 attacks. Asher’s program had screened 450 million people and produced a list of 1,200 suspicious individuals including 5 of the 9/11 terrorist hijackers.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.63)(http://tinyurl.com/3a5rh3)
2007 The US Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORSO) opened at Kirtland air Force Base in New Mexico, following a congressional order for the Dept. of Defense to establish a body for to lead a shift to quick-build, quick-launch replacements of spy satellites.
(Econ, 12/11/10, TQ p.23)
2007 US federal officials alleged that $84 million held in Swiss bank accounts stem from bribes paid by US companies to Kazakhstan’s president and other top officials for access to energy reserves. The money was frozen as an investigation continued.
(WSJ, 5/12/08, p.A6)
2007 In Arkansas six nuns were excommunicated after refusing to give up membership in the Army of Mary. In 1971 Marie Paule Giguere (b.1921), a Catholic nun in Quebec, founded the Army of Mary as a prayer group, saying she was receiving visions from God. In 2007 the Vatican declared her teachings were heretical.
(SFC, 9/27/07, p.A20)(www.religioustolerance.org/army_mary.htm)
2007 Rhode Island lawmakers ended a 51-year prohibition on Sunday auto sales.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A14)
2007 Charleston, South Carolina, opened a slavery museum.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.34)
2007 California passed legislation requiring traceable micro-stamping in all new semiautomatic handgun models effective as of May 2013.
(SFC, 1/27/14, p.A1)
2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with the idea to rent out two air beds in their San Francisco apartment because of a conference that left the local hotels full-to-overflowing. Thus Airbed & Breakfast (Airbnb) was born.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.59)
2007 Tom Costello and his wife Anna Patterson of Menlo Park, Ca., founded Cuil, an Internet search engine. By mid 2008 they claimed to have an index of 120 billion Web pages. They launched www.cuil.com on July 28, 2008.
(SFC, 7/28/08, p.D1)(WSJ, 7/28/08, p.B5)
2007 Multiverse Network created MMO (massively multiplayer online) client and server software based on open standards to allow users to build their own virtual worlds.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.14)
2007 Metaweb Technologies created Freebase, a web site that sits atop a collection of data allowing users to contribute, correct and recombine data.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.15)
2007 InPhase Technologies, a spin-out from Bell Labs, planned to launch the first holographic disc-drive this summer. The system would read write at a rate of 160 megabits per second.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.29)
2007 Mona Lori Frisbie started OutOfPocket.com as a crowd-sourcing tool for patients. Visitor posted prices are supplemented with Medicare data.
(SFC, 5/21/12, p.D4)
2007 In Arizona ImaRX began a trial using microbubbles containing a clot-buster. New technology allowed bubbles to reach intended targets where they were forced to burst using ultrasound. Companies such as Nanotrope and Targeson worked to develop customized bubbles.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.8)
2007 Texas voters approved a bond measure for the creation of the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, p.A16)
2007 Washington state, in an effort to make the labor market fairer, banned firms from checking the credit scores of job applicants.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.55)
2007 A topless advocacy group was founded by a spiritual leader named Rael after a topless advocate in New York was arrested and held in jail for 9 days before winning a lawsuit against the city. An annual topless day began to be held on the Sunday closest to Women’s Equality Day. In 1971 a joint resolution of Congress designated August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Equality_Day)(SFC, 8/26/13, p.C3)
2007 Paul McCulley, a senior executive at asset manager PIMCO, coined the term “shadow banking" to describe legal structures used by big Western banks before the financial crisis to keep opaque and complicated securitized loans off their balance sheets.
(Econ, 5/10/14, p.5)
2007 Brian Robertson, a software engineer, invented the idea of “holacracy" to describe a management system based on overlapping, self-organizing teams. He was inspired by the term “holarchy" used by Arthur Koestler in the book “the Ghost in the Machine" (1967).
(Econ, 7/5/14, p.56)
2007 23andMe, based in Mountain View, Ca., began offering customers aspects of their genome from spit samples analyzed by the company. Their personal genome test kit was named Invention of the Year by Time magazine in 2008.
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe)
2007 Change.org, an online petitions site, was launched.
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.62)
2007 Dell Computer created IdeaStorm, “a way of building an online community that brings all of us closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share ideas and collaborate with one another."
(www.dellideastorm.com/about)
2007 Lumos Labs launched Lumosity, a website of online games designed to improve users’ cognitive performance.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.56)
2007 Mark Pincus founded Zynga Game Network. The company had a smash hit with the social online game FarmVille in 2009. By the end of 2010 the San Francisco-based company was valued at $5.4 billion.
(SFC, 11/19/10, p.D8)
2007 Planar Energy of Orlando, Florida, was spun off from America’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The company went on to develop a process for printing lithium-ion batteries onto sheets of metal or plastic. A pilot production facility opened in 2011.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.77)
2007 Gabor Forgacs co-founded Organovo, a US company dedicated to building human tissues. In 2014 the company delivered samples for testing of its first product, slivers of human liver tissue.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.18)
2007 A small unmanned submarine, developed and operated by Rutgers Univ., traveled from New jersey to Halifax, Nova Scotia, collecting scientific data under sponsorship by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2008 the sub, dubbed Scarlet Knight, embarked on a journey from New Jersey to Spain.
(SSFC, 7/13/08, p.A15)
2007 The US Dept. of Education noted that the average annual cost of a standard 4-year course at an American university has tripled since the 1985-1986 school year.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.44)
2007 The US with a population of 301,139,947 counted 1,498,157 soldiers on active duty (~4.9%); China with a population of 1,321,851,888 counted 2,105,000 soldiers on active duty (~.159%). Russia with a population of 141,377,752 counted 1,027,000 soldiers on active duty (~7.2%); These numbers excluded paramilitary troops in China and Russia.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.W5)
2007 Google garnered 56% of the US Internet search market. Yahoo’s share sank to 20% and Microsoft’s grew to 14%.
(SFC, 2/2/08, p.C1)
2007 The US CDC said 7% of Americans, or about 21 million people, have diabetes. In global terms some 246 million people were affected.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.37)
2007 Recycling in America reached 32% of its municipal rubbish as compared to 9.6& in 1980.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.22)
2007 Fine quality emeralds sold in the US for about $4,500 a carat.
(WSJ, 2/7/07, p.A12)
2007 In SF the number of homicides for the year totaled 98, with 24 of them in the Bayview neighborhood.
(SFC, 1/15/08, p.B1)
2007 Global wind power amounted to about 1,200 megawatts with Denmark accounting for about a third and Britain in 2nd place with 400 megawatts.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.B2)
2007 Carbon dioxide output jumped 3% this year putting the world on track for a worst-case global warming scenario.
(WSJ, 9/26/08, p.A1)
2007 Roshan, a cell-phone network in Afghanistan, was the country’s largest taxpayer and investor. The Aga Khan Development Network owned 51%.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.66)
2007 Afghanistan produced 92% of the world’s opium-related drugs.
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.33)
2007 Some 8,000 Afghan’s were killed this year. UN estimates said over 1,500 of those killed were civilians.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.37)
2007 Juan Gelman (b.1930), Argentine poet, won the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for Spanish-language literature.
(AP, 8/28/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gelman)
2007 Julian Assange, a former Australian hacker, founded Wikileaks, an international publishing service for whistle-blowers.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.67)
2007 The wine boom in Australia went bust forcing many farmers to walk away from grapes and land they could not sell. Falling grape prices due to over production and cuts to irrigation water due to drought created a double whammy.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.84)
2007 In Austria Andreas K. from Wiener Neustadt stumbled onto buried treasure while turning dirt in his back yard. In 2011 Austria's department in charge of national antiquities said the trove, dating back some 650 years, consists of more than 200 rings, brooches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver plates and other pieces or fragments, many encrusted with pearls, fossilized coral and other ornaments.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2007 Foreign nationals made up nearly 10% of Austria’s population.
(Econ, 11/24/07, SR p.8)
2007 The parliament of Bahrain passed a non-binding motion banning the use of its territory for any attack on Iran. Bahrain hosted the US 5th fleet.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.78)
2007 The population of Bangladesh was about 150 million. The Ahmedija minority numbered about 100,000.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.41)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Blacks comprised about 60% of Bermuda's 62,000 people.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Eike Batista, Brazilian businessman, founded OGX, an oil and gas firm. Its IPO in 2008 raised $4.3 billion, a record for Brazil. By 2012 he was Brazil’s richest man and ranked 7th richest in the world.
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.63)
2007 The population of Brunei this year was about 374,000. Malays comprised 67% and Chinese 15%. Muslims comprised 67% and Buddhists 13%.
(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.A6)
2007 Georgi Parvanov, president of Bulgaria, was named as a collaborator with communist secret services. He said he was approached to edit a book and did not realize he was dealing with spooks.
(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.13)
2007 In Bulgaria Delyan Peevski was fired as a deputy minister of emergency situations in a corruption scandal. He was eventually cleared after an investigation established no wrongdoing, however, and was reinstated in the post. Peevski and his mother, Irena Krasteva, control a network of national newspapers and television channels.
(AP, 6/14/13)
2007 In Canada the towers of the Toronto Dominion Center incorporated hydrothermal cooling using cold water from Lake Ontario.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.4)
2007 In Canada Bombardier Recreational Products developed the Can-Am Spyder Roadster. The 3-wheeled vehicle was planned to sell for $15,000.
(Econ, 3/10/07, TQ p.12)
2007 In Canada the $8.4 billion hydroelectric project on Labrador’s Churchill River was expected to begin power production.
(WSJ, 3/10/98, p.A19)
2007 Chile’s salmon farming industry produced $2.2 billion in export revenues this year.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.45)
2007 China established a sovereign wealth fund backed by around $1.2 trillion in foreign currency reserves. China moved rapidly ahead with plans to create a State Investment Corporation (SIC) that would more aggressively invest approximately USD 200bn of the country’s USD 1.3tr of existing foreign exchange reserves to boost long term returns.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.75)(http://tinyurl.com/3c6lo4)
2007 In China Zhang Hai, former president and chief executive of the sports drink maker Jianlibao Group, was found guilty of misappropriating 206 million yuan ($33.82 million). He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzling millions of dollars in public funds. Through bribery and the fabrication of documents to prove his good behavior, Zhang was released in 2011 and promptly went overseas with his girlfriend, Huang Lu. In 2014 24 others were being or have been investigated in connection with Zhang's release, including 11 in the judiciary and prison service, a court official and two lawyers. Authorities sought his extradition.
(Reuters, 2/24/14)
2007 China said it would offer African countries $20 billion in new financing. No terms or time period were announced.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.59)
2007 China surpassed the US this year for the first time in its contribution to global GDP growth.
(Econ, 10/20/07, SR p.34)
2007 China Minsheng Bank bought a 10% stake in UCBH Holdings, a San Francisco based bank that served Chinese Americans. UCBH failed in 2009 and Minsheng wrote off its investment.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.18)
2007 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) spent $5.5 billion to acquire a 20% stake in South Africa-based Standard Bank. This was China’s largest corporate foreign investment to date.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.18)
2007 A rail line from China’s Qinghai province to Lhasa, Tibet, was expected to be completed. The world’s highest railroad required pressurized rail cars.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2007 In China the Great Wall Motor company in Hebei province produced 108,000 vehicles this year. The company had ambitious plans for growth. It already built cars with a licensee in Iran and in 2006 had opened a factory in the Ukraine.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.74)
2007 Chinese made cars were expected to hit the US auto market.
(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.A2)
2007 China signed a deal to invest some $3.5 billion in the Aynak copper mine in Logar province, Afghanistan. It was said to be the 2nd largest source of untapped copper in the world.
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.44)
2007 Accidents in China's coal mines killed 3,786 people this year.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2007 Congo’s operating budget for this year was $2.4 billion. Its population stood at about 60 million.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.46)
2007 Transparency Int’l. ranked Congo 168th out of 179 countries for freedom from corruption.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.13)
2007 The population of Congo-Brazzaville stood at about 4 million.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.38)
2007 The population in the Czech Rep. stood at about 10.2 million.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A19)
2007 The Dominican Rep. government began denying citizenship to people whose parents were illegal immigrants. The policy was incorporated into an amended constitution in 2010.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.24)
2007 Egypt’s population stood at about 75 million.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.40)
2007 James and Maureen Tusty produced “The Singing Revolution," a film that covered the Estonian people’s move to re-establish independence. The film begins with independence in 1918 and then moves to Soviet and German occupation during WWII. The spirit of the nation is then captured with a focus on how the singing nation moved re-establish itself in its non-violent “singing revolution" (1987-1991).
(www.singingrevolution.com/cgi-local/content.cgi)
2007 In Ethiopia the northern Tigrayans, who made up most of the ruling elite, comprised only about 7% of the population. The Oromos, mainly in the center and south, comprised 40% of the population and provided most of the country’s food. The Amharas comprised about 22% of the populations and have traditionally been the educated ruling class. Muslim Somalis occupied the south-east Ogaden region.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.33)
2007 Yasmina Reza authored “L’Aube le soir ou la nui" (Dawn evening or night), an account of her year shadowing Nicolas Sarkozy.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.73)
2007 Olivier Roy, a French scholar, authored “Secularism Confronts Islam."
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.75)
2007 Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods maker LVMH, and Colony Capital, an American private equity firm, jointly bought a 9.8% stake in France’s Carrefour, the world’s 2nd largest retailer.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.74)
2007 Kakha Bendukidze, Georgian industrialist, founded the Free University of Tbilisi to teach law, business and languages. Each graduate was expected to finance a new student.
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.41)
2007 In Germany Eberhart Zrenner led a project to implant chips into the eyes of people who have lost sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, using a chip developed by Retina Implant.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.6)
2007 Dan Hough authored “The Left Party in Contemporary German Politics."
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.57)
2007 Researchers from Karlsruhe's Natural History Museum found a 3-millimetre-long (0.118 inch) ant in the Amazon rainforest and dated its origin back to about 120Mil BC, making it the oldest still inhabiting the earth.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
2007 Ghana issued its debut bond this year, just a year after most of its debts were cancelled.
(Econ, 4/2/15, p.72)
2007 In Guatemala 56 politicians or party activists were killed during the presidential campaign.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.40)
2007 Guyana’s Pres. Bharrat Jagdeo said that under the right circumstances he would cede his country’s entire forest to stewardship by outsiders.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.80)
2007 Anthony Hedley of the Univ. of Hong Kong calculated that bad air in Hong Kong causes 1,600 deaths a year.
(Econ, 6/30/07, SR p.11)
2007 MTV India, launched in 1996, came to America.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_India)
2007 India planned to complete a 1,800 mile fence along the Pakistan border and a 2,500-mile fence along the Bangladesh border were scheduled to be completed at a cost of $3 billion.
(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A1)
2007 India’s Bihar state, one of its poorest and least developed, began a bike giveaway program for females. Their literacy rate of 53 percent was more than 20 points below that of males. The results from Bihar were so encouraging that the program was soon adopted by the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. By 2012 the Indian government hoped to expand the program across the country to help improve female literacy.
(AP, 5/21/12)
2007 In India brothers Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal founded Aspiring Minds, an assessment technology pioneer, in order to provide a full spectrum of assessments including Language, Aptitude, Skill and Personality assessment.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)(www.aspiringminds.in/)
2007 India scrapped 129 ships at its ship recycling yard in Alang, down form a high of 428 in 2001. Business was lost to less regulated recycling yards in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
(SSFC, 7/6/08, p.A2)
2007 In India Sachin Bansai and Binny Bansal setup shop in a flat in Bangalore and began an e-commerce business that delivered books to people’s homes. By 2011 their firm, Flipcart, was one of India hottest Internet businesses.
(Econ, 10/22/11, SR p.18)
2007 Road accidents in India averaged nearly 100,000 per year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2007 Masoud Dehnamaki, a former Iranian militia leader, directed his first feature film. The irreverent comedy, “Ekhrajiha" (The Outcasts), portrayed a gang of Tehran thieves and junkies as war heroes. His previous work included documentaries about prostitution and football violence.
(Econ, 4/21/07, p.54)
2007 Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad closed down the country’s Management and Planning Organization, the country’s closest thing to an independent budget auditor. In 2013 Pres. Hassan Rohani re-opened the office.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.52)
2007 In western Iran Kurdish Law student Habibollah Latifi was arrested accused of carrying activities on behalf of "anti- revolutionary" groups, Human Rights Watch said in a statement. He was sentenced to death in 2008.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2007 The Sons of Iraq, an overwhelmingly Sunni militia, was formed as a paramilitary and neighborhood watch force. The US paid each member $300 per month to man checkpoints throughout Iraq. In 2008 there were some 103,000 members including about 18,000 Shiites.
(SFC, 6/2/08, p.A8)
2007 In Iraq Qasim al-Araji was detained by US forces for smuggling arms used against US troops. He was held for 23 months before being released on insufficient evidence. In 2017 he was appointed as the country’s Interior Minister.
(SFC, 5/9/17, p.A4)
2007 Israel built some 2,600 new housing units this year, most of them inside its security fence on Palestinian land.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.58)
2007 In Italy Khalid Khamlich, an Islamic extremist, was convicted of terror ties. He was alleged to be part of a cell that planned attacks on the Milan subway and a cathedral. In 2010 he was expelled to his native Morocco.
(AP, 11/26/10)
2007 In Italy Oscar Farinetti set up the first Eataly food market in Turin. In 2013 his 21st store opened in Chicago.
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.62)
2007 Italian Oil company ENI SpA bought Burren Energy PLC, a small independent company that operates an oil field in Turkmenistan. ENI from that point on was denied entry visas by Turkmenistan, which was annoyed at not being consulted in the deal.
(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.B8)
2007 Japan’s government debt this year stood at around 180% of GDP, the highest for any developed economy.
(Econ, 12/1/07, SR p.3)
2007 In Japan the Nippon Kaigi lobby group persuaded the government to make April 29 a national holiday in honor of Hirohito (1901-1989), the WWII Emperor of Japan.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.33)
2007 Over Some 33,000 people took their lives in Japan this year, topping 30,000 for the tenth consecutive year despite a government campaign to reduce what is one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2007 Corruption ratings for this year by Transparency International placed Kazakhstan at 150th out of 180 countries.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.49)
2007 In Kenya Pastor Jacob Momposhi Samperu founded the Hope for the Maasai Girls center to rescue girls from circumcision.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2007 In Kenya police death squads killed some 500 people this year.
(Econ, 7/31/10, p.34)
2007 In 2011 prosecutors at the world war crimes court said Kenya's Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta organized deadly attacks on the opposition after disputed 2007 polls to keep the ruling party's power by "any means necessary." Some 1,300 lives were lost in the politically stoked fighting following the flawed elections.
(AFP, 9/22/11)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.40)
2007 Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile phone operator, launched M-PESA, a mobile-money scheme. It allowed people to pay bills and even save money, though without interest.
(Econ, 9/26/09, SR p.17)
2007 Kenya’s population climbed to 38 million people, half under age 20, and projections suggested it would reach 57 million by 2025. The official minimum wage stood at about $700 per year, with GDP per head at about $1,500. An MP’s salary was about $60,000, which doubled with allowances. The Kikuyu tribe comprised about 22% of Kenya’s population.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.50)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.39)
2007 The population of Lesotho stood at about 1.8 million and almost one of 4 adults had HIV/AIDS. Lesotho’s textile industry, the only industry to speak of, employed some 45,000.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.56)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.61)
2007 Libya’s Col Gadhafi established the Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund with $50 billion slotted for investment.
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A14)
2007 The population of Lichtenstein numbered 35,000.
(SSFC, 9/2/07, p.D3)
2007 Transparency Int’l. ranked Laos, population around 6 million, as one of the most corrupt countries in the world ranking it 168 out of 179 surveyed nations, with No. 1 being the least corrupt.
(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A15)
2007 Macedonia renamed Skopje airport for Alexander the Great.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.55)
2007 The population of Madagascar was about 18.6 million, with an average income of $290 per year.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.42)
2007 Malawi deported Michael Sata, the head of the Zambian opposition, after he flew there on personal business and to meet former Malawi president Bakili Muluzi.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2007 Malaysia’s Prince Naquiyuddin Jaafar founded the EntoGenex biotech company. It took a pre-existing protein called the Trypsin Modulating Oostatic Factor (TMOF) and by 2012 developed it into what he called a fatal "diet pill" for mosquitoes. The firm combined the TMOF with bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) bacteria, which eats holes in the guts of larvae but is non-toxic to people. He hoped it could potentially become a weapon in the even larger fight against malaria, which kills an estimated 650,000 people per year.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2007 The population of Malaysia numbered about 27 million people.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.42)
2007 Maltese company Nude Estates bought the Ausra shopping center in Utena, Lithuania. In 2017 it was revealed that U2 frontman Bono had used Nude Estates to buy a share in the shopping mall. U2 was heavily criticized in 2006 for moving its corporate base from Ireland to the Netherlands, where royalties on music incur virtually no tax.
(AP, 11/6/17)
2007 Alberto Nava, a California cave diver, and two Mexican dive budies discovered a human skeleton in a deep underwater cave in Mexico’s Yucatan jungle. In 2014 scientists said the skeleton was that of a young girl who probably fell into the cave over 12,000 years ago. DNA evidence linked her to modern native Americans.
(SFC, 5/16/14, p.D8)
2007 Myanmar slashed real estate taxes to 15% from 50%. Drug traffickers seized the opportunity to convert their cash to real estate.
(SSFC, 6/7/15, p.A17)
2007 Myanmar’s population was around 53 million. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, but 90 percent of its people lived on less than $1 a day. 30% lived below the poverty line.
(AP, 9/29/07)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.29)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.12)
2007 The Netherlands launched its €2.3 billion “Room for the River" project in an effort to make the country more resilient to flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.62)
2007 New Zealand had a bumper year in wine, which overtook wool exports in value for the first time becoming the country’s 12th most valuable export.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.85)
2007 In Pakistan Taliban militants overran the country’s biggest ski resort at Malam Jaba in the Swat Valley and smashed the “heathen" lifts.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.41)
2007 The Beck's petrel was photographed by an Israeli ornithologist in the Bismarck Archipelago, a group of islands northeast of Papua New Guinea. The pale-bellied bird species was last seen in 1929 and long thought to be extinct.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2007 In Paraguay former Pres. Gonzalez Macchi (1999-2003) was acquitted of illegally transferring $16 million from Paraguay's Central Bank to a US account.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2007 A Philippine antiterror law said law-enforcemenmt officials could be fined 500,000 pesos for each day they wrongfully detain a terror suspect.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A4)
2007 Andrzej Wajda (81), Poland’s leading film maker, completed “Katyn," based on the letters and diaries of victims murdered by Soviet secret police in 1943.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.81)
2007 In Romania agriculture ministers Decebal Traian Remes resigned his Cabinet post after prosecutors accused him of taking a bribe of $21,000 (euro15,800) and the promise of homemade sausages and plum brandy from Ioan Muresan, a former agriculture minister who allegedly was acting on behalf of businessman Gheorghe Ciorba.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2007 New amendments to Romania’s penal code prescribed jail sentences of up to 7 years for journalists who publish material showing officials involved in bribe-taking. The code also raised the financial threshold for corruption charges.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.64)
2007 The population of Romania numbered about 22 million people and counted 4.5 million farms and smallholdings. This represented almost a third of all the farm holdings in the EU.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.63)
2007 Arkady Babchenko, Russian soldier, authored “A Soldier’s War in Chechnya," an account of his service in Chechnya. In 2008 it was translated to English by Nick Allen and published as “One Soldier’s War."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)(WSJ, 1/22/08, p.D8)
2007 Yegor Gaidar (1956-2009), former Russian finance minister and prime minister, authored “Collapse of an Empire."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yegor_Gaidar)
2007 Pres. Putin promoted a new Russian history manual for teachers entitled “A Modern History of Russia: 1945-2006." Professor Oksana Gaman-Golutvina said the material published in the book did not correspond to what she wrote and said: "I really do not want my name to be associated with this disgrace."
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.67)(http://tinyurl.com/355n8p)
2007 Four Russian defense officials were sentenced this year to up to 11 years in jail for selling missile delivery technologies to Beijing for $2 million.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2007 In northern Saudi Arabia two men beheaded intelligence service Colonel Nasser al-Othman at his farm near the city of Buraidah because they viewed him as an apostate. In 2016 a Saudi court sentenced the two men it said were al Qaeda followers to death.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2007 The population of Saudi Arabia passed 24 million. The country imported $6 billion in food this year.
(WSJ, 12/12/07, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/26/08, p.A12)
2007 Scotland gained control over its railways.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.55)
2007 Singapore proposed a co-operative green-city venture with China. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City opened in 2011.
(Econ, 4/19/14, SR p.12)
2007 US military advisors began secretly operating in Somalia. This was only made public in 2014 as Washington planned to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats by al Shabaab.
(Reuters, 7/2/14)
2007 South Africa's Parliament passed the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act, which declares the Northern Cape an "astronomy advantage area", giving the Minister of Science and Technology powers to protect the area from future radio interference.
(http://www.southafrica.info/about/science/ska.htm)
2007 Spain’s Santander Bank acquired ABN’s Brazilian unit.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.15)
2007 Inflation in Sri Lanka reached an annual rate of 21.6%.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)
2007 Sweden eliminated its wealth tax.
(Econ, 10/13/12, SR p.20)
2007 Sweden removed its 1970 ban on professional boxing.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.58)
2007 Bradley Birkenfeld, an American employed by Swiss-based UBS, approached officials in Washington to reveal the bank’s surreptitious servicing of thousands of rich, tax-dodging Americans.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.58)
2007 Syria’s oil exports were expected to almost cease by this time.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.A18)
2007 Syria’s population numbered about 19 million.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.55)
2007 In Thailand 751 people died in prison or under police custody this year.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.55)
2007 Graham Fuller authored “The New Turkish Republic: Turkey As a Pivotal State in the Muslim World."
(Econ, 10/23/10, SR p.6)
2007 Uganda began construction of the $860 million Bujagali Dam for hydroelectric power from Lake Victoria water. About 55% of lower water levels on Lake Victoria were attributed dams built by the Ugandan government. This severely impacted farmers and fishermen in adjoining Kenya and Tanzania as well as Uganda.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.A14)
2007 Ukraine’s population numbered about 48 million. This included some 8 million ethnic Russians.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.51)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.16)
2007 UN-AIDS said 2.7 million people were infected with AIDS this year, bringing the estimated global total to 33 million.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.81)
2007 Pope Benedict XVI wrote an open letter to Chinese Catholics emphasizing that the church had no political ambitions.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.36)
2007 Inflation in Venezuela rose 22.5% for the year. Some 13,000 people were murdered this year producing a murder rate of 48 per 100,000, the 2nd highest in the world after El Salvador. In Caracas there were 2,710 murders, or 130 per 100,000 citizens.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.32)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.47)(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.A16)
2007 The World Bank launched its Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to help developing nations recover assets stolen by corrupt leaders and invest the returned funds in development programs.
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2007 Peter Godwin authored “When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa," a description of the collapse of Zimbabwe after 2000. This was his 2nd book in a trilogy that began with “Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa." The 3rd volume was “The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe" (2010).
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.101)
2007 Zimbabwe and Namibia entered into an agreement under which Namibia gave Zimbabwe a 40-million-dollar loan for repairs to its thermal power stations while Zimbabwe would pay back by exporting electricity to Namibia.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2007 Zimbabwe Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, a loyalist to President Robert Mugabe, was excommunicated by the main Anglican Province of Central Africa and the worldwide head of the church for inciting violence in sermons supporting Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2007 The population of Zimbabwe was about 13 million. 3 million were thought to have left, mostly to South Africa, due to the economic crises.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.37)
2007-2008 Georgia issued bonds to fund a plan by Gov. Sonny Perdue for a $19 million project to make the state the most popular fishing destination in the country.
(WSJ, 1/5/09, p.A1)
2007-2008 Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., sponsored $14.7 million in defense earmarks for Kuchera Defense Systems, a campaign donor. The Pentagon went along with it, despite the fact that two convicted drug dealers had been deeply involved with the company.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2007-2008 South Africa’s MTN mobile phone company invested over $1.5 billion in Iran to provide coverage for over 40% of Iranians.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.49)
2007-2009 In Nigeria more than 17,000 people died in about 31,000 road accidents across Nigeria between this period.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2007-2016 Ecuadorean officials received about 33.5 million in bribes during this period from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm according to the US Dept. of Justice.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.29)
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