Timeline 2008 July-September
Return to home
2008 Jul 1, An
Alabama jury found Glaxo and Novartis guilty of drug-price fraud and
ordered them to pay $114 million.
(WSJ, 7/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 1, Nicholas T. Sheley
(28) was arrested in Granite City, Ill., following a manhunt that
extended into Missouri. The ex-convict was suspected in eight recent
grisly slayings. He was suspected of killing, among others, a
93-year-old man, a toddler and a couple whose blood-soaked dogs were
found roaming a motel parking lot.
(AP, 7/2/08)(SFC, 7/11/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 1, Starbucks, the
Seattle-based coffee retailer, said it would close another 500 stores
in America and reduce its work force by about 7%. The closure of 100
stores had been announced earlier this year. 70% of the stores to close
were opened after 2005.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.74)
2008 Jul 1, In California the
11-day old Basin Complex Fire in the Los Padres National Forest
threatened the Esalen Institute in Big Sur.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, Robert E. Boni
(b.1928), writer and former chief executive of Armco (1985-1989), died.
In 1993 a partnership between Armco and Kawasaki led to the formation
of AK Steel Holding Corp.
(WSJ, 7/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 1, Clay Felker (b.1925),
founder of the New York magazine (1968) and New West magazine (1976),
died in his New York home. From 1994 he taught at UC Berkeley for over
a decade.
(SFC, 7/2/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 1, In Afghanistan 4
police officers died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb as they
went to reinforce a checkpost that had come under attack in southern
Uruzgan province. The US-led force said it helped Afghan security
forces kill "several" insurgents in the province and a young girl was
also killed in the fighting. Five Taliban militants died in a clash in
southern Zabul province. Another rebel was killed in southwestern
Nimroz province. Official figures showed June was the deadliest month
for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the Taliban
and the second in a row in which casualties exceeded those in Iraq.
(AFP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, The African Union,
meeting in Egypt, announced that it was extending the mandate of its
force in Somalia for another six months but urged the UN to take over
the peacekeeping mission. The African leaders also called for dialogue
between Zimbabwe's political foes and a national unity government
following President Robert Mugabe's widely discredited reelection.
(AFP, 7/1/08)(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, Josef Branis (66)
fatally shot four relatives in two houses in the Vienna suburb of
Strasshof after being evicted from his sister's Vienna apartment. He
was arrested in August after being on the run for weeks.
(AP, 1/27/09)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25495397/)
2008 Jul 1, In China a man armed
with a knife stormed a police station in Shanghai, stabbing officers
inside and killing 6 officers. On September 1 Yang Jia (28) was
sentenced to death for the knife attack. In northwest China 18 miners
were killed in a mine-shaft collapse at the state-owned Huisen
Liangshuijing Coal Mine in Shaanxi province. Yang Jia was executed on
Nov 26.
(AP, 7/1/08)(AP, 7/2/08)(AP, 9/1/08)(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Jul 1, Gao Wenyuan, the
regional Grassland Work Office's director, told Xinhua News that
Inner Mongolia in north China is mobilizing 33,000 people, including
1,100 technical staff, to wipeout a plague of locusts in the past two
weeks.
(http://english.gov.cn/2008-07/01/content_1032452.htm)
2008 Jul 1, France took over the
rotating presidency of the European Union with high-level meetings and
a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, French officials said
the asbestos-contaminated aircraft carrier Clemenceau, which was towed
half-way across the globe in a failed bid to have it dismantled, will
be broken up by Able UK in Britain. The ship was decommissioned in 1997.
(AFP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, Munich-based Giesecke
& Devrient, caved in to pressure from the German government to stop
supplying Zimbabwe with special blank paper money. Zimbabwe required
new notes every few weeks as the inflation rate pushed well over one
million percent.
(WSJ, 7/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 1, Iranian state radio
said that at least 25 people were killed and 16 injured in a bus
accident near Tehran.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Iraq militants
killed seven people in a series of attacks in Iraq's eastern Diyala
province, and a local official said government crackdowns against Sunni
extremists elsewhere in the country were driving them back to the area.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy to Iraq, said it was unlikely that the
country would be able to hold provincial elections by the beginning of
October as planned because lawmakers had failed to approve a new
election law.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, Israel closed its
cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip after accusing Palestinian
militants of firing a rocket at southern Israel in violation of a shaky
truce. The Israeli military said its radar detected a rocket launched
from Gaza the previous evening that struck near the communal farm of
Mefalsim.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Kingston, Jamaica,
39 young American missionaries, from the Georgia-based Adventures in
Missions, were robbed by two gunmen who broke into a Salvation Army
school for the blind where they were volunteering.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Muslim majority
Indian-held Kashmir authorities reversed a controversial plan to
transfer land to a Hindu shrine as Muslim and Hindu protesters held
massive rallies across the region assailing the state government for
its handling of the politically sensitive issue.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, Malaysian opposition
leader Anwar Ibrahim vowed to seize power from a "corrupt" government
at a rally of some 15,000 supporters as he fights back against new
sodomy accusations.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Mexico videos
showing Leon police practicing torture techniques on a fellow officer
and dragging another through vomit at the instruction of a US adviser
created an uproar, which has struggled to eliminate torture in law
enforcement.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Mongolia thousands
of people staged a violent protest in the capital as they voiced
outrage over what they claimed were rigged elections, forcing police to
fire gunshots.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Myanmar a ferry
named "Myo Pa Pa Tun" sank in the Yway river in the cyclone-battered
Irrawaddy delta, killing 38 people. 44 others were rescued.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 1, A smoking ban went
into effect in cafes, restaurants and bars across the Netherlands, as
the country joins a growing list of European countries to tighten rules
on tobacco use in public places. Smoking marijuana in the Netherlands'
infamous "coffee shops" is still permitted under the new law, as long
the drug is not mixed with tobacco.
(AFP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, The Nigerian Senate
passed a resolution barring the anti-graft agency EFCC and other
security agents from arresting witnesses who appear before parliament.
The lawmakers passed the resolution following the arrests of an
Austrian contractor and two former ministers on the floor of the Senate
shortly after testifying before a parliamentary hearing on the aviation
sector.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, Pakistani forces
destroyed a major militant compound in the Khyber tribal region. The
site served as key headquarters for the banned Lashkar-e-Islam.
(SFC, 7/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 1, Panama's Supreme Court
overturned a presidential pardon of four Cuban emigres accused of
plotting to kill Fidel Castro, including former CIA operative Luis
Posada Carriles. The court ruled that 180 pardons granted in 2004 by
outgoing President Mireya Moscoso, including those the four Cubans,
were unconstitutional.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, Officials said Maoist
rebels in the southern Philippines killed two soldiers in a public
market and torched a cellular phone tower as the latest flare-up in the
40-year-old insurgency showed no sign of abating.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Sri Lanka fighting
erupted in the Vavuniya and Welioya regions bordering the rebels' de
facto state in the north. The fighting in Vavuniya killed 16 rebels and
one soldier, while in the nearby Welioya region, 11 rebels and one
soldier died.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, Thailand’s deputy
prime minister said the Thai government has suspended its decision to
support Cambodia's bid to have an 11th century temple near the Thai
border declared a world landmark. In 1962, the International Court of
Justice awarded the Preah Vihear temple and the land it occupies to
Cambodia.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 2, The US lifted a
moratorium on applications to build solar power plants on public lands
in 6 Western states.
(WSJ, 7/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 2, In Vermont the body of
a missing girl (12), whose uncle (Michael Jacques) allegedly planned to
force her into a sex ring the day she disappeared, was found in
Randolph, not far from his house.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In California Hans
Florine (44) and Yuji Hirayama (39) broke a World Record for the
fastest climb up the Nose of El Capitan (2:43:33) in Yosemite National
Park. On Oct 12 they broke the record again with a time of 2:37:5.
(SFC, 7/3/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 2, In central Afghanistan
a roadside blast killed five Afghan soldiers in Logar province. Gunfire
brought down a US UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in the same province, but
no US personnel were hurt. In the northwest Afghan and international
troops killed 25 Taliban after militants ambushed an Afghan patrol in
Muqur district.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 2, President Alexander
Lukashenko said he acceded to Western and opposition demands for
greater democracy ahead of elections.
(WSJ, 7/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 2, The British government
said police have arrested more than 500 suspects in a crackdown on
human trafficking in the sex trade. Police made 528 arrests in the
operation, codenamed Pentameter 2, after raiding 822 premises, of which
157 were massage parlors and 582 houses and flats. The operation began
in October and involved 55 police forces.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, Colombian spies
tricked leftist rebels into handing over presidential candidate Ingrid
Betancourt (kidnapped in 2002), three US military contractors (captured
in 2003), and 10 other hostages in a helicopter rescue so successful
that not a single shot was fired. In 2009 Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes
and Marc Gonsalves authored "Out of Captivity," a memoir of their 5
½ year captivity by Colombia's leftist rebels.
(AP, 7/2/08)(AP, 2/26/09)
2008 Jul 2, Deutsche Bank acquired
the Dutch corporate banking arm of ABN AMRO from Fortis, a Benelux
bank, for $1.1 billion in cash.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.83)
2008 Jul 2, In India an estimated
four million truckers went on strike to press for uniform diesel prices
and to protest against an increase in taxes.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, Iraqi security forces
arrested two locally prominent supporters of radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr as part of their crackdown against Shiite militias in
the southern city of Amarah. Police said Abdul-Jabar Wahid Humaidi,
head of the provincial council in Maysan, where Amarah is the capital,
and Fadhil Niama, head of the council's security committee, were
suspected of supporting Shiite militias. A string of mortar shells hit
the residential area of al-Amil in western Baghdad, killing one
civilian and wounding eight others. In eastern Diyala province,
US-allied Sunnis killed two al-Qaida terrorists south of Baqouba.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Israel Hussam
Dwayat (30), a Palestinian man from Arab east Jerusalem plowed, an
enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a
busy street, killing at least 3 people and wounding at least 45 before
he was shot dead by security officers. Palestinian witnesses said an
angry crowd in the Gaza Strip has stormed a border crossing with Egypt
throwing rocks at Egyptian troops.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi pledged to end the garbage crisis in Naples and the
surrounding area by the end of July.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, Japan and Middle
Eastern leaders agreed on a project to bring thousands of badly needed
jobs to the West Bank, voicing hope it would lay the groundwork for a
Palestinian state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Kashmir the Indian
army said 11 Muslim rebels and an Indian soldier have been killed in
two days of fierce fighting in a district bordering the Pakistani part
of the disputed state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, Stanley Ho, casino
entrepreneur in Macao, agreed to sell a 25% stake from some $500
million in his SJM Holdings, which owned 19 or Macao’s 29 casinos.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.75)
2008 Jul 2, In Mexico 4
decapitated bodies were found on a street in Culiacan, blocks away from
their severed heads. Four gunmen were killed hours later, after opening
fire on federal police patrolling Culiacan, a center for the powerful
Sinaloa drug cartel. Under attack, police shot back at the home where
the gunmen were holed up, killing the four assailants and capturing two
others.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 2, The Moroccan news
agency said 35 alleged recruiters for Al-Qaeda operations in Algeria
and Iraq were arrested by police in Morocco, where they were also
accused of planning attacks. The suspects allegedly belong to a
Salafist group, Salafiya Jihadiya.
(AFP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 2, The Nigerian
government charged two former aviation ministers with misusing a
$165-million fund set up to improve air safety after three airplane
accidents.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In South Korea tens of
thousands of auto workers went on strike to oppose the government's
lifting of a ban on US beef imports.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Sri Lanka a series
of battles between government forces and Tamil Tiger fighters on the
front lines of the civil war killed 26 rebels. The fighting took place
throughout the day, killing two rebels in the Vavuniya area, 12 in
Mannar and 12 in Welioya. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan disputed
those figures, saying three of his fighters and 11 soldiers were killed
in the fighting.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 2, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai rejected an African Union decision to keep
South Africa's president alone in charge of efforts to resolve
Zimbabwe's political crisis. The European Commission insisted that
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be named at the
head of any new government. South African President Thabo Mbeki
rejected the EU position.
(AP, 7/2/08)(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 3, Phillip Bennett, the
former chief executive of Refco, was sentenced to 16 years in prison
for fleecing investors of more than $2.4 billion in a fraud that
destroyed the world's largest independent commodities broker.
(Reuters, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, Larry Harmon (83)
wasn't the original Bozo the Clown, but he was the real one. Harmon,
who portrayed the wing-haired clown for more than half a century, died
of congestive heart failure.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 3, US employers cut
payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job
losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate
held steady at 5.5 percent.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, Vodafone Group PLC
said it planned to acquire a 70% stake in Ghana Telecom Co. for $900
million.
(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.B6)
2008 Jul 3, In Afghanistan gunmen
lobbed a grenade and sprayed a police checkpoint with gunfire in the
southern Kandahar province, killing eight officers. A roadside blast
next to a police vehicle in central Ghazni province killed two officers
and wounded five others. In eastern Paktika province, Afghan and
foreign troops killed seven suspected militants during a clash near the
Pakistan border. Afghan security forces seized 1.4 tons of opium in
western Afghanistan near the border with Iran.
(AP, 7/4/08)(AFP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 3, Top Bolivian and US
officials sought to heal their nations' strained relations in their
first meeting since a raucous protest outside the American embassy sent
the US ambassador back to Washington for security consultations.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, Former Congolese rebel
leader Jean-Pierre Bemba arrived in the Netherlands to face war crimes
charges before the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, The Cypriot parliament
approved the European Union treaty, making Cyprus the 20th EU member to
ratify the document aimed at streamlining decision-making in the bloc.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 3, In El Salvador a bus
carrying members of an evangelical church was swept off a bridge in San
Salvador. 29 bodies were recovered the next day.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 3, Lydia Lassen-Berge
(69), a former prostitute dubbed the "Black Widow" by the German press,
was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of four wealthy but
frail elderly male companions. Siegmund Schlufter (53), her accomplice,
was sentenced to 12 years in jail for carrying out the killings.
(AFP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, In Indonesia a police
source said that a group of 10 suspected Muslim militants detained in
raids on Sumatra island by Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit was plotting
to attack Western targets. The raids followed the capture of a
suspected militant after a tip-off by authorities in Singapore.
(Reuters, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, It was reported that
Italian authorities have started fingerprinting tens of thousands of
Gypsies living in nomad camps across the country, brushing aside
accusations of racism by human rights advocates and international
organizations. The Interior Ministry said prints will only be taken
from people who do not have a valid Italian or EU document.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, In the southern
Philippines suspected communist guerrillas launched a series of
attacks, lobbing a grenade that killed three people and raiding a
police station and a gold mining company.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, In southeastern
Slovenia two canoes were crushed running over a dam. The next day
divers pulled seven bodies out of the Sava River and fought strong
currents to search for five other people still missing.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 3, South Korea's
president called for an end to a long-running dispute over American
beef imports, saying it was time for the nation to concentrate instead
on overcoming its economic difficulties.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, In Sri Lanka a wave of
battles in Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya killed 32 rebels and two
soldiers.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 3, A group of around 200
Zimbabweans gathered outside the US embassy in Harare, pleading for
political asylum and food after being displaced in recent election
violence.
(AFP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 4, In California 27 major
fires were considered active. These included the Basin Complex Fire in
Los Padres National Forest where over 68,700 acres were scorched and
the Indians Fire in Monterey County with 81,300 acres consumed.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 4, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, early morning gunfire killed 2 men and 2 women on the city’s
north side.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 4, Jesse Helms (b.1921),
former 5-term US Senator from North Carolina, died in Raleigh, NC.
Helms had switched to the Republican Party in 1970 and was elected to
the Senate in 1972, the first Republican from North Carolina in the
20th century. The conservative senator earned the title “Senator No” as
a leading crusader against communism, liberalism, tax increases,
abortion, homosexuality, affirmative action and court-ordered busing to
desegregate schools.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 4, Evelyn Keyes (b.1916),
American film star, died in Montecito, Ca. Her 3 former husbands
included director John Huston, director Charles Vidor and jazz musician
Artie Shaw. Her nearly 50 films included a role as the younger sister
of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” (1939). Her memoir “Scarlett
O’Hara’s Younger Sister” was published in 1977.
(SFC, 7/12/08, p.B5)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.W8)
2008 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen assassinated parliament member and former military
commander Habibullah Jan. In Helmand province a roadside bomb militants
were planting detonated prematurely, killing 10 Taliban. 22 civilians
were killed in air strikes in the Waygal district, including a woman
and a child. A spokesman for the US-led coalition said the airstrikes
in Nuristan province hit militants who earlier attacked a US military
base with mortars. Several militants were killed during an operation in
Ghazni province. More than 20 militants were killed and wounded during
a battle with NATO-backed Afghan forces in Kunar province.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Austria 9 people,
including a prominent executive who fled to France in an attempt to
elude justice, were convicted of criminal charges in a major Austrian
bank fraud case linked to the 2005 collapse of New York-based
commodities brokerage Refco Inc. Vienna Federal Court Judge Claudia
Bandion-Ortner found the defendants responsible for euro1.4 billion
(US$1.9 billion) in losses at BAWAG, Austria's No. 4 bank.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Belarus about 50
people were wounded by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts
into a crowd at an open-air concert in Minsk attended by long-time
ruler President Alexander Lukashenko.
(Reuters, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, China and Taiwan
launched regular direct flights for the first time in nearly six
decades, ushering in what Beijing called a "new start" in their tense
and testy relations.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Colombia's military
found more than a ton of explosives in a house in a rural area outside
the capital.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 4, Ecuador's
constitutional assembly pardoned hundreds of jailed convicts, low-level
drug couriers known as "mules." An estimated 1,200 prisoners may be
eligible for pardon.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 4, India's coalition
government underwent a major shake-up with the dominant Congress party
pushing on with a controversial nuclear deal with the US and ditching
left-wing allies. In eastern India at least six people were killed and
20 injured in a stampede at a popular Hindu religious festival in
Orissa state’s Puri district. Truck drivers called off their strike
after the government agreed to roll back rising road tolls.
(AFP, 7/4/08)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 4, State television said
Iran delivered its response to an international offer of incentives for
it to suspend uranium enrichment, a central part of its nuclear
program. It did not say what the response was.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Basra, Iraq, gunmen
on a motorcycle assassinated Sheik Salim al-Dirraji, an official of
Iraq's biggest Shiite party.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, Japan announced it
will provide $50 million in new emergency food aid to help developing
countries cope with the impact of soaring food prices.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Fierce fighting raged
in India's portion of Kashmir, killing five army soldiers and a
suspected Muslim rebel near the de facto border with Pakistan.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In New Zealand morning
rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most cities as truckers snarled
highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to protest higher road
taxes.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Nigeria hundreds of
soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers in Liberia, went on the rampage
in southwestern Akure in protest against the military authorities'
refusal to pay their allowance. On April 27, 2009, a Nigerian
court-martial sentenced 27 former UN peacekeepers to life in prison
after they were convicted of mutiny following their protests. On Aug 29
the army commuted the life sentences to 7 years.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 4/28/09)(AFP, 8/29/09)
2008 Jul 4, North Korea said it
will not take further steps to dismantle its nuclear program until the
US and its other negotiating partners award fuel oil and political
benefits promised under an aid-for-disarmament deal.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded on a busy street in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a
4-year old girl and wounding 11 other people.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Poland rejected a US
offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing a "missile shield"
on Polish soil but PM Donald Tusk said Poland remains open for further
talks with Washington.
(Reuters, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Sri Lanka soldiers
took control of Michael Base in the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu
district after three days of fighting. Other battles in Vavuniya killed
18 rebels and wounded three soldiers. Fighting in Mannar, Jaffna and
Welioya left 15 rebels dead and one soldier wounded.
(AP, 7/4/08)(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, Robert Mugabe ruled
out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe's
political crisis unless they acknowledge his victory in the one-man
presidential election. Botswana's government urged its neighbors not to
recognize Mugabe's re-election as it reiterated calls for Zimbabwe to
be suspended from a regional bloc.
(AFP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 5, Kent Couch (48), a gas
station owner, flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons
more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert, landing in a field in
Idaho. He used his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth.
(AP, 7/6/08)(www.couchballoons.com/)
2008 Jul 5, In Afghanistan a clash
killed seven Taliban and two police in Helmand province. Five other
officers were wounded during the fight in Nawa district. A Canadian
military medic was killed when an explosive device detonated in the
Panjwayi District.
(AP, 7/6/08)(Reuters, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 5, Argentina's lower
house of Congress approved a package of grain-export taxes that have
sparked nationwide farm protests and food shortages.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, A small boat packed
with at least 148 illegal immigrants from Africa landed on a beach in
the Canary Islands.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern China an
apparent blast at a coal mine killed 21 workers at the Wujiu coal mine
outside Datong city in Shanxi province. In central China a four-story
building under construction in a suburb of Wuhan city collapsed and
killed eight people.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, Dagestan's Interior
Ministry says three policemen were wounded when a bomb went off near
their vehicle in the town of Khasavyurt.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern India
flooding, house collapses and lightning strikes from heavy rains killed
at least 14 people, raising the reported death toll in the annual
monsoon season to 79.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Ingushetia a police
officer was killed and another was injured when their armored vehicle
came under grenade fire.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, An Iranian government
spokesman says the country's nuclear program remains unchanged,
indicating that Tehran has no plans to stop enriching uranium.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, The last major remnant
of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated
natural uranium, reached a Canadian port to complete a secret US
operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship
voyage crossing two oceans. In Iraq one American soldier died of a
non-combat cause.
(AP, 7/6/08)(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern Japan more
than 1,000 people marched to protest an upcoming summit of the G8
industrialized countries. Police arrested four protesters after a brief
scuffle.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Kashmir thousands
of protesters clashed with police in Srinagar over allegations that
government forces set fire to Jenab Sahib, a local Muslim shrine.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, Macedonia’s leading
party said PM Nikola Gruevski has agreed to form a coalition government
with the main ethnic Albanian party to aim at getting its NATO and EU
bids back on track.
(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, Nigerian officials
said radioactive materials in abandoned mining fields in central
Nigeria's Plateau state pose a serious health hazard to two million
people. Police said Nigeria has deployed troops in the remote
southeastern state of Ebonyi after 14 people were killed and scores of
buildings destroyed in clashes between rival groups feuding over land.
(AP, 7/5/08)(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, Pakistan's Foreign
Ministry insisted that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a day
after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the army
under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology to North
Korea in 2000. A government official said Pakistani security forces
have eased an operation against insurgents in a tribal region near the
border with Afghanistan as local elders try to negotiate peace with a
militant leader.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, South Korean police
said about 50,000 people protested in Seoul against a US beef import
deal and the policies of the new president, whose government has faced
weeks of street rallies.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Sri Lanka clashes
were reported in several villages in Vavuniya district where 12 rebels
were killed. 3 rebels were killed in Mannar and 4 rebels and a soldier
were killed in Welioya.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, In southern Thailand
suspected insurgents shot up a bustling cafe, killing three customers
and injuring four others.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern Yemen an
explosion at the main post office building of Saada killed at least
five people.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Afghanistan the
chief government official in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar
province said villagers reported that as many as 27 people walking in a
group toward a wedding were killed in a bombing. Up to 10 others were
wounded. The US-led coalition said an airstrike killed or wounded 20
militants in Nangarhar. An official investigation later found that the
US-led air strikes struck a wedding and killed 47 Afghan civilians.
(AP, 7/6/08)(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Iraq a car bomb in
northern Baghdad killed six people and injured 14 others, including
three policemen. Ali Abdul Ridha al-Badri, the head of an awakening
council in Iskandariyah, and was killed by a bomb attached to his car
after meeting with US forces. A roadside bomb in Diyala province killed
a high-ranking member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan along with 7
others. 2 civilians were killed in Baquba when police clashed with
members of the Awakening Councils.
(AP, 7/6/08)(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 6, Israel re-opened its
border crossings with the Gaza Strip after closing them because of
Palestinian rocket fire.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 6, In northern Mexico a
plane carrying a load of auto parts crashed s it was trying to land,
killing the pilot and severely injuring the co-pilot.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 6, Myanmar's state-run
newspaper said the overwhelming election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's
party in 1990 has been nullified by the approval of a military-backed
constitution and her National League for Democracy party should prepare
for a new vote in 2010.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Pakistan a
two-story apartment building collapsed in the port city of Karachi,
killing eight people, including a toddler. A suicide attacker detonated
explosives near a police station in Islamabad, killing at least 15
people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Somalia gunmen
opened fire on people leaving a mosque in Mogadishu, killing one of the
country’s senior UN officials.
(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 6, South Korea said it
was implementing a multi-stage contingency plan aimed at reducing
energy consumption before the skyrocketing oil prices push Asia's
fourth-largest economy into a full-fledged crisis.
(Reuters, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 6, Sri Lankan fighter
jets bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel position in their northern stronghold.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 6, The United Arab
Emirates canceled all its Iraqi debt and moved to restore a full
diplomatic mission in Baghdad by naming a new ambassador.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, Tropical storm Bertha
strengthened to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Bruce Conner (b.1933),
SF-based artist, died. His collages and prints looked back to classics
of surrealism. His work was later said to look like a bridge between
the Beat generation and postmodernism.
(http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006353.html)(SFC, 7/8/08,
p.B5)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.E3)
2008 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a car
bomb detonated by a suicide bomber ripped through the front wall of the
Indian Embassy in central Kabul, killing 41 people in the deadliest
attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 7/7/08)(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Austria’s ruling
coalition crumbled and new elections were expected as early as
September. The left-right alliance broke up after 18 months in office.
(WSJ, 7/8/08, p.A12)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.63)
2008 Jul 7, In central Bangladesh
2 passenger buses collided head-on, killing at least 20 people and
wounding dozens more.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, The Church of
England's ruling body voted its support for women to become bishops
without giving traditionalist supporters of male-only priesthood the
concessions they had sought.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In China Diana O'Brien
(22), a Canadian model, was found murdered in her Shanghai apartment.
On Jul 11 police arrested Chen Jun (18), who confessed to killing the
woman during a robbery.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Colombia a
rose-laden US cargo plane headed for Miami crashed before dawn near
Bogota, killing a father and son in their home on the ground. It was
the second time in six weeks that a Boeing 747 flown by Ypsilanti,
Michigan-based Kalitta Air has crashed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Congo (DRC)
unidentified gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to the World Wildlife
Fund in Virunga national Park, killing two people and wounding three
others.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 7, Police in East Timor's
capital fired tear gas to disperse students protesting a plan by
lawmakers to buy themselves new cars with state funds.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Egypt smugglers
killed a police officer during a shootout on the border with Israel.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, A court in Equatorial
Guinea convicted former British officer Simon Mann on of being the key
player in a failed 2004 coup plot in this Central African nation and
sentenced him to 34 years and four months in prison.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, European Union nations
gave their backing to a French-drafted pact calling for tightening
immigration and asylum rules across the 27-nation bloc.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Germany war crimes
suspect Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UN employee wanted for his
alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was arrested in Frankfurt.
(AFP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Germany’s Fresenius SE
said it has agreed to buy US generic drug maker APP Pharmaceuticals for
$3.7 billion in cash in a deal that will give the health care company
more opportunities in the North American market for drugs administered
intravenously.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, PM al-Maliki said Iraq
has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the US
rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the presence
of US forces. A roadside bomb near a dress shop in Baqouba killed a
woman and injured 14 others.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli troops in
jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down a
girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a
Hamas-affiliated charity. Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at
a border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Israel's military said it had
begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the government
struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five living prisoners
and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Italy transport
workers went on strike, forcing the cancellation of thousands of bus,
tram and subway lines and snarling traffic across the country.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Japan G8 leaders
raised the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick
progress is made to end a political crisis after a violent election
that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule. The G8 met with
seven African leaders at its annual summit. African leaders urged the
Group of Eight nations to tackle spiking oil and food prices. Japan
included 5 “outreach” countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South
Africa) for brief discussions with the G8.
(Reuters, 7/7/08)(AFP, 7/7/08)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.33)
2008 Jul 7, In Indian Kashmir
Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief minister said he was stepping down
following protests over the government’s handling of the transfer of
government land to the Shiri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running the
revered Hindu shrine.
(WSJ, 7/8/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 7, Mexican police found
six charred bodies on a Tijuana street following a bloody weekend that
left 14 people dead.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Pakistan a total of
seven small blasts left 43 people wounded in the commercial capital of
Karachi.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Serbia's parliament
approved a new government that includes a pro-Western group and the
political party of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, The South African
Reserve Bank said 5 million coins featuring a smiling Nelson Mandela
will go into circulation on July 18, the former president's 90th
birthday.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Sudan's parliament
approved a new electoral law, a crucial step towards scheduled national
elections and a democratic transition laid out in peace arrangements
after a 21-year civil war.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, A UNESCO official said
that an 11th century temple that sits on Cambodia's disputed border
zone with Thailand has been designated as a world heritage site.
Hindu-themed Preah Vihear reflects the beliefs of the kings who ruled
what was then the Angkorean empire.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A report from a US
Senate Homeland Security investigations subcommittee said sellers of
medical supplies collected as much as $93 million in fraudulent
Medicare claims based on prescriptions from doctors who were actually
dead.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 8, Boeing announced a
deal with SkyHook Int’l., a private Canadian firm, to develop a heavy
lift rotorcraft capable of carrying 4o tons.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.76)
2008 Jul 8, In California the
Butte Lightning Complex Fire destroyed 41 homes overnight in and around
Paradise. The next day 10,000 people were evacuated from the area.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 8, T. Boone Pickens,
energy baron, announced his “Pickens Plan” for installing wind turbines
in parts of four Texas Panhandle counties. The plans were scrapped in
2009 due to lack of transmission lines.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2008 Jul 8, John Templeton
(b.1912), legendary mutual fund manager, died in Nassau. His Templeton
Growth Fund in 1954 was among the first to invest in companies outside
the US. In 1972 he started the Templeton Prize, which made its first
award to Mother Teresa in 1973.
(WSJ, 7/9/08, p.C17)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.95)
2008 Jul 8, Abkhazia's leader
Sergei Bagapsh rejected a US proposal to deploy an international police
force there.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded four others.
a provincial police chief said five insurgents and two policemen died
during a clash in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Brazilian police
arrested a former Sao Paulo mayor and two prominent financiers in a
case that grew out of an influence-peddling scandal involving senior
government officials.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, A Chinese court jailed
Xiong Zhengliang, a former anti-graft prosecutor for life, for
torturing a suspect to death. His superior was sentenced to seven years
in prison for trying to cover up the case. Liang Jiping, a deputy
director of the county's electricity bureau, was detained in May 2007
on suspicion of taking bribes. Liang died on June 1, 2007, after being
held in custody for nearly five days and in three separate places.
(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Chinese police killed
five Muslims who were planning a "holy war" in the latest alleged
terror threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The five were shot dead
when police raided their hide-out in Urumqi.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, The United States and
the Czech Republic signed a treaty in Prague allowing Washington to
build part of a missile defense shield in the central European state
despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia.
(Reuters, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Ecuador's government
seized 3 television stations and 195 businesses, owned by the Isaias
family, to collect debts stemming from the 1998 failure of Filanbanco,
owned by Roberto and William Isaias. The economy minister resigned just
hours before the takeover.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
2008 Jul 8, The EU formally
invited Slovakia to join the euro zone on Jan. 1, 2009.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Industrial
conglomerate Siemens AG said it will cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2 percent of
its global work force, to streamline operations and slice nearly $2
billion in costs in the face of a slowing economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A German cargo ship
held captive for 41 days off the coast of Somalia was released and all
aboard were safe and unharmed. A Somali official said the pirates
received a ransom of $750,000. The Lehmann Timber was one of two ships
hijacked on May 30 off the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Tillman Thomas, former
political detainee, returned his party to power in Grenada after 13
years in opposition. The apparent win by the National Democratic
Congress was a stunning setback for PM Keith Mitchell's conservative
New National Party, which was seeking an unprecedented 4th consecutive
term in legislative elections.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh's communist allies withdrew their support for his four-year-old
coalition government to protest the government's plan to push forward
with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States. The
government had gained new support from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and
submitted a draft request to the IAEA for a required safeguards accord
on July 9.
(AP, 7/8/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.50)
2008 Jul 8, At Developing Eight
summit of Islamic nations, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of
Indonesia and Malaysia called for boosting world food production and
finding a permanent solution to skyrocketing oil prices, saying the
twin problems have become "grave threats" to the world economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Iraq's national
security adviser said his country will not accept any security deal
with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the
withdrawal of US-led forces.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Israeli military
said Gaza militants fired a mortar shell into Israel in another
violation of a shaky truce.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders
endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8
also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean
officials after a violent election last month that extended President
Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Amos Kimunya, Kenya’s
finance minister, was forced to resign following the sale of the Grand
Regency Hotel to Libyans, without taking bids and advertising the sale.
The hotel had been confiscated from Kamlesh Paul Pattni, a businessman
alleged to have paid hundreds of millions to individuals close to
former Pres. Daniel arap Moi, for the export of gold and diamonds that
did not exist.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican government
said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to
its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, State-media said
Myanmar's military regime has approved visas for more than 1,500
international aid workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, with half
of them involved in relief operations in storm-hit regions.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan
unknown assailants fired on a vehicle carrying tribal police forces,
killing four and wounding seven.
(AP, 7/808)
2008 Jul 8, In Russia’s Caucasus
region the Interior Ministry of Kabardino-Balkaria province said
unidentified gunmen had riddled the police car with bullets in the
village of Baksan. 3 police officers were killed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A human rights group
said domestic workers in Saudi Arabia often suffer abuse that in some
cases amounts to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings for
spurious allegations of theft or witchcraft.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Sudan about two
hundred gunmen on horseback and in SUVs ambushed peacekeepers from a
joint UN-African Union force in the Darfur region. Five Rwandan
soldiers and two police officers, one from Ghana and the other from
Uganda, were killed in fierce gunbattles that lasted more than two
hours.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Sudan's army spokesman
claimed Ethiopian forces had attacked a police base 17 kilometers (11
miles) inside Sudanese territory, killing 19 people, including one
police officer. Ethiopia denied the accusations.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey
Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing
expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 9, A grand jury in
Anchorage indicted Sen. John Cowdery, an Alaska legislator, on bribery
and conspiracy counts in a federal investigation of corruption that
already has led to convictions against three former state lawmakers.
Federal prosecutors allege that Cowdery conspired with executives of
oil field services company VECO Corp. to bribe another unnamed state
senator for votes to support oil and gas legislation.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 9, The California state
Board of Education voted to make algebra mandatory in the eighth grade
beginning in 2011, in order to bring the state into compliance with the
federal No Child Left Behind program.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 9, Michigan Gov. Jennifer
Granholm signed legislation approving a compact by 8 states surrounding
the Great Lakes. Michigan was last of the 8 states to approve the
agreement, which outlaws diversions of Great lakes water from natural
drainage basins with rare exceptions.
(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 9, In western
Pennsylvania the bodies of 22-year-old Ashley Guarino, her 2-year-old
daughter Dreux and 11-month-old son Orlando Jr. were found by
relatives. Orlando Maurice Guarino (38) was arrested the next day and
charged with the murders of his wife and children.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 9, It was announced that
the Abu Dhabi Investment Council had purchased a 90% stake in NYC’s
Chrysler Building for $800 million.
(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.C3)
2008 Jul 9, US electronic games
publisher Activision under Bobby Kotick closed its merger with the
gaming arm of Vivendi, a French media conglomerate, in a deal valued at
$18.8 billion.
(Econ, 8/15/09,
p.60)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard)
2008 Jul 9, In northwestern
Afghanistan a group of villagers used a machine gun, sticks and stones
to kill two Taliban militants and chase 10 others away. NATO-led forces
in central Logar province killed a Taliban militant involved with
suicide bombing networks. 9 British soldiers were injured in Helmand
province when an Apache helicopter opened fire after mistaking them for
the enemy.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 9, China convicted and
then executed two ethnic Uighur men and imprisoned another 15 for
alleged terrorist links in the western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 9, German investigators
carried out raids on 600 homes in Austria, Switzerland and Germany
seeking chemicals used to produce an illicit date-rape drug.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Grenada Tillman
Thomas, former political detainee, was sworn in as the new prime
minister.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, Iran test-fired nine
long- and medium-range missiles during war games that officials said
aimed to show the country can retaliate against any US and Israeli
attack.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 8 civilians in an attack on a military convoy in Mosul. A
bomb in Fallujah killed four police officers and one civilian. A bomb
killed a US soldier in Samarra. In total bombs and bullets killed 20
Iraqis.
(AP, 7/9/08)(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 9, In Ingushetia police
said three officers have been killed and four kidnapped in separate
attacks.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, An Israel-Hamas truce
has boiled down to a simple trade-off: For a day of calm, Israel adds
five truckloads of cows and 200 tons of cement to the barest basics it
ships to Gaza, but rocket fire from the territory reseals the border
for a day.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Italy police in
Naples arrested 44 suspected mobsters in a crackdown on drug
trafficking. The latest raids led to the confiscation of apartments,
cars, motorcycles, farmland and companies worth nearly $480 million.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Japan G8 leaders
reiterated their commitment for doubling aid to Africa by 2010 and
instituted new accountability procedures to ensure that wealthy
countries fulfill their promises of aid there. They also agreed to
combat global warming but developing nations declined o endorse
emissions targets.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A7)(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 9, In northern Lebanon
heavy fighting erupted between government supporters and Hezbollah's
allies, killing at least 4 people and shattering a truce that lasted
just two weeks.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, Tribal elders and
Pakistani authorities struck a deal aimed at bringing peace to a
militant-infested northwest region where a paramilitary offensive has
tried to flush out insurgents. Police captured Rafiuddin, an aide to
top commander Baitullah Mehsud, along with four associates they
traveled in a vehicle through the town of Hangu in the South Waziristan
region.
(AP, 7/9/08)(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Peru tens of
thousands of union workers took to the streets across the country to
protest rising food and fuel prices they blame on the free market
policies of President Alan Garcia.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 9, A Spanish patrol boat
rescued 33 people and recovered one body from the boat off the coast of
southern Almeria province. 15 African migrants, most of them small
children, died of hunger, thirst or exposure as they drifted across the
Mediterranean on the small, overcrowded boat.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Istanbul, Turkey,
men armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post
outside the US consulate, sparking a gunbattle that left 3 attackers
and 3 officers dead.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 10, Pres. Bush signed a
bill that overhauls government eavesdropping and grants immunity
to telecommunications companies that help the US spy on Americans in
suspected terrorism cases.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 10, The American Medical
Association issued a formal apology for more than a century of
discriminatory policies that excluded blacks from participating in a
group long considered the voice of US doctors.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Rocky Aoki (69),
founder of the Benihana steakhouse chain, died in New York from
complications of cancer. Aoki was also a wrestler and avid balloonist.
(SFC, 7/12/08,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroaki_Aoki)
2008 Jul 10, Officials said a
decade-long drought in Australia's most important crop-growing region
is worsening and there is little hope for relief from either saving
rains or a new government conservation plan.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Britons voted in a
by-election triggered when David Davis, a top opposition MP, quit in
protest at government plans to increase the period police can hold
terror suspects before charging them.
(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Salman Rushdie's
novel "Midnight's Children" was named as the greatest Booker Prize
winner ever, scooping a special "best of the best" award for the second
time.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In China migrant
workers began a 3-day riot in Kanmen town in coastal Zhejiang province.
Three hundred military police arrived on July 13 and 30 migrant workers
have been detained. A Hong Kong-based rights group said the unrest was
centered around a migrant worker who was beaten by a security guard
while trying to get a temporary residence permit.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 10, The European
Parliament called the fingerprinting of Gypsies in Italy a clear act of
racial discrimination and urged the authorities to stop it.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, European Union
lawmakers called for tougher EU sanctions against Zimbabwe, including
putting businessmen who finance Pres. Mugabe's regime on a visa ban
list.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In France four people
were found shot dead near the southwestern city of Toulouse. A fifth
victim died later in hospital.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 10, Indonesia executed
Ahmad Suradji (57), a man convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a
series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Indonesia Asnawi
Sandri, a 38-year-old father of two, died in the hospital, days after
he came down with symptoms of bird flu. This raised the unofficial toll
in the world's hardest hit nation to 111 in three years.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 10, Iran test-fired more
long-range missiles overnight in a second round of exercises meant to
show that the country can defend itself against any attack by the US or
Israel.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Iraq's Oil Ministry
said that it is close to signing contracts to build two new oil
refineries in southern Iraq. Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan became
the first Turkish leader to visit Iraq in nearly 20 years.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Israeli troops shot
and killed a teenage Palestinian militant along the country's border
with Gaza. Soldiers thought he was armed but, after inspecting the
body, found that he was not. In the fourth day of operations in the
city of Nablus, Israel closed a clinic and TV station, and raided a
mosque.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In northern Mexico, 6
bullet-ridden bodies were found inside the auto body shop in Culiacan,
the capital of Sinaloa state, and three more bodies were found on the
street just outside the business. A police investigator was found shot
to death in his truck near Culiacan's police headquarters.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Nigeria's main
militant group said it would resume attacks in the country's oil-rich
river delta region because of Britain's recent pledge to back the
government in the conflict there. UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari
resigned as chairman of a planned peace summit for the oil-rich Niger
Delta following opposition from regional leaders.
(AP, 7/10/08)(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, North Korea returned
to international talks on its nuclear activities after a nine-month
break, in what host China hailed as a potential turning point in the
disarmament process.
(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Pakistan six
mortar rounds appeared to have targeted a military post in Angore Adda
in South Waziristan, seriously wounding six Pakistani troops, lightly
wounding two other troops and also injuring two civilians in a nearby
market.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 10, A Palestinian health
official said a tunnel used to smuggle goods across the Gaza-Egypt
border has collapsed, killing two Palestinians.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, The Interfax news
agency, citing a source in Russia's secret services, reported that the
head of the embassy's trade and investment section, Christopher Bowers,
was believed to be a senior British intelligence officer.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 10, Somali insurgents
killed at least two people in an overnight attack on an army base 15
miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the government headquarters in
Baidoa.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Turkey authorities
detained four suspects in connection with the July 9 attack on the US
consulate in Istanbul which left 3 policemen and 3 assailants dead.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Uzbekistan a fire
at a Soviet-era military base spread to an ammunition depot, igniting a
series of powerful explosions that killed three people and injured 21
others.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, US banking regulators
seized IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena-based mortgage lender, after
withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the second-largest banking
failure in US history. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said that their
finances were sufficiently sound to withstand the housing crisis as
government officials scrambled to restore confidence in the country's
two largest mortgage finance companies.
(Reuters, 7/12/08)(SFC, 7/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 11, Gregg Bergersen (51),
a former US Defense Department analyst, was sentenced in Virginia to 57
months in prison for passing classified information about Taiwan to a
Chinese government agent.
(Reuters, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 11, Apple introduced its
next generation iPhone in 22 countries. Unprecedented demand caused
initial service problems.
(SFC, 7/12/08, p.C1)
2008 Jul 11, Oil prices touched
$147 a barrel before beginning a decline.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.70)
2008 Jul 11, Dr. Michael DeBakey
(b.1908), the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon, died. He pioneered
such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of
devices to help heart patients. He was among the first to link lung
cancer to smoking in a medical journal article in 1939.
(AP, 7/12/08)(SSFC, 7/13/08, p.B6)
2008 Jul 11, In San Francisco
Armando Estrada (30) of Rodeo, Ca., was shot and killed at 20th and
Mission streets. In 2009 Jonathan Cruz-Ramirez and Guillermo Herrera,
alleged members of the MS-13 street gang, were charged with the murder.
(SFC, 10/23/09,
p.A12)(www.sfgov.org/site/police_index.asp?id=91505)
2008 Jul 11, In Australia the
official program for the Catholic church's World Youth Day began, but
was partly overshadowed by the launch of an investigation into sexual
abuse allegations against a disgraced priest. Thousands of pilgrims
converged on Sydney as it braced for the weekend arrival of Pope
Benedict.
(AFP, 7/11/08)(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to support East Timor during talks
in Dili with Timorese leaders including President Jose Ramos-Horta.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, In Cambodia Khim Sam
Bo (47), a journalist working for a pro-opposition newspaper, was
killed along with his son (19) in a drive-by shooting in Phnom Phen. A
gunman on a motorcycle shot five times at the victims as they were
leaving a sports stadium on a motorcycle.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 11, Officials said the
bodies of four Africans have been found in a small boat packed with
migrants trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands. It was the third such
tragedy in a week.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 11, President Raul Castro
warned Cubans to prepare for a "realistic" brand of communism that is
economically viable and does away with excessive state subsidies
designed to promote equality on the island.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, The Czech Republic’s
Industry and Trade Ministry announced that Russia has reduced its oil
shipments to the country without providing an explanation. The cutback
was announced three days after the nation signed a military agreement
with Washington that the Kremlin strongly opposes. Russia later said
the supplies dropped because 2 Russian firms had decided to refine more
crude at home.
(AP, 7/11/08)(WSJ, 7/15/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 11, Ethiopia's Ogadeni
rebels accused the regime in Addis Ababa of deliberately blocking
international aid to their war-wracked and drought-stricken region.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, In Iraq the US
military detained nine people suspected of involvement in the al-Qaida
in Iraq group in raids in Baghdad and the cities of Beiji and Mosul.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, Israeli police
revealed stinging new allegations against PM Ehud Olmert, accusing him
of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars by deceiving multiple sources
into paying for the same trips abroad. Israeli troops killed a
Palestinian gunman who opened fire in the early morning on an Israeli
civilian driving in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/11/08)(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 11, International donors
pledged more than half of the euro1.5 billion ($2.36 billion) in aid
requested by Kosovo to build up its infrastructure and democratic
institutions.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, Lebanon's PM Fuad
Saniora announced a new national unity Cabinet in which Hezbollah and
its allies have veto power over government decisions.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, A fishing boat,
carrying eight Taiwanese, one Chinese and six crew members from
Madagascar, sank after reporting engine problems.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 11, In the Netherlands
health authorities announced a Dutch woman, infected during a holiday
to Uganda by the contagious Marburg virus, had died overnight. The
Marburg virus is similar to Ebola and causes heavy bleeding. About 100
people who may have had contact with the woman were under surveillance.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, A senior military
official said the Nigerian navy has arrested 15 Filipinos after
intercepting a vessel carrying a significant quantity of stolen crude
oil off the coast of the Niger Delta. Gunboats intercepted the MV Lina
Panama in the waters off Brass, home to a major oil export terminal in
the southern state of Bayelsa. One security source said the vessel was
thought to be carrying tens of thousands of tons of stolen oil.
(Reuters, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 11, A North Korean
soldier fatally shot a South Korean woman tourist (53) at a mountain
resort in the communist North, prompting the South to suspend the
high-profile tour program. Park Wang-ja had strayed a half-mile
into a fenced off military area and was shot twice from behind.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, In Serbia a bus
carrying Polish tourists overturned north of Belgrade, killing six
people and injuring nearly 40.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, Somali troops shot
and killed 7 civilians in southern Mogadishu after accusing them of
being part of an Islamic insurgency.
(SFC, 7/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 11, In southern Sri Lanka
suspected rebel gunmen ambushed a crowded passenger bus as it traveled
down a small rural road. The attack killed a boy and three women and
wounded 25 others. Clashes broke out in the Mannar, Vavuniya and
Welioya regions surrounding the rebel stronghold killed 17 rebels.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 11, Thai prosecutors
filed new corruption charges against ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra for
alleged abuse of authority to benefit his family business.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, A Turkish news agency
reported that army troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the southeast
and that 10 of the rebels were killed.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, The UN commemorated
World Population Day.
(www.unfpa.org/wpd/)
2008 Jul 11, Venezuela's Hugo
Chavez and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe mended relations after months of
sniping that threatened trade and unleashed a diplomatic crisis.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 11, Zimbabwe’s opposition
Movement for Democratic Change said a total of 113 MDC supporters have
now been killed in politically-related violence. Zimbabwe's ruling
party and opposition held a second day of talks in South Africa. A UN
Security Council bid to pass sanctions against Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe
was vetoed by Russia and China.
(AP, 7/11/08)(AFP, 7/11/08)(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, Les Crane, pioneer
talk radio and TV host, died in Marin, California. In 1964 he hosted
the “The Les Crane Show,” a late night TV talk show on ABC that ran for
4 months.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B5)
2008 Jul 12, Bobby Murcer (62),
former Yankee baseball player and broadcaster, died from a malignant
brain tumor in Oklahoma City. The only person to play with Mantle and
Mattingly, the popular Murcer hit .277 with 252 home runs and 1,043
RBIs in 17 seasons with the Yankees, San Francisco and the Chicago
Cubs. He made the All-Star team in both leagues and won a Gold Glove.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, Tony Snow (53), a
conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with
reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as President
Bush's press secretary, died of colon cancer.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants executed two women just outside Ghazni
city after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a US base. A
soldier serving with ISAF died of wounds caused by an explosion in
northern Afghanistan. NATO troops killed Bismullah Akhund, an insurgent
leader in Helmand's Naw Zad district.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 12, NATO said a recent
border clash that wounded several Pakistani and Afghan security
personnel was sparked by insurgents in Afghanistan who fired at targets
in both countries, apparently to stoke cross-border tensions.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, The Arab League said
it will hold crisis talks on Sudan after reports the International
Criminal Court may seek Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir's arrest,
amid fears for peace efforts in Darfur. It would mark the first-ever
bid by the ICC, based in The Hague, to charge a sitting head of state.
The African Union said that plans by the ICC could jeopardize peace
efforts in Darfur.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, Ethiopia said it has
arrested eight "Eritrean-trained" rebels suspected of carrying out
bombings that rocked the capital Addis Ababa and killed eight people
earlier this year.
(Reuters, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, kicking off
a round of diplomacy with Middle East leaders ahead of an
EU-Mediterranean summit. Sarkozy said that Syria and Lebanon will open
embassies in each other's countries for the first time. Syria's leader
cautioned there was still work to be done before that could happen.
(AP, 7/12/08)(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Jakarta,
Indonesia, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged cooperation on biofuels during talks
in a bid to take advantage of surging oil prices.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In western Nepal
about 500 riot policemen took senior officers hostage in a revolt over
ill treatment and poor food. They released their captives and
surrendered after a two-day standoff.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Nigeria a truck
drivers strike to protest soaring fuel prices entered its 2nd day. At
least 17 people died at a prayer meeting in rural Nigeria after
apparently breathing noxious fumes from their power generator while
asleep. Their bodies were discovered on July 15.
(AFP, 7/12/08)(Reuters, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 12, North Korea agreed to
completely disable its main nuclear facilities by the end of October
and to allow thorough site inspections to verify that all necessary
steps had been taken as the latest round of six-nation disarmament
talks concluded in Beijing.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In northwestern
Pakistan at least 13 paramilitary forces and three militants were
killed in an ambush and shootout when militants attacked a Frontier
Constabulary convoy in the Zargari area of Hangu district. Provincial
police in Hangu arrested half a dozen Taliban including Rafiuddin, a
lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud. The militants in response captured
29-49 hostages.
(AP, 7/13/08)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 12, In Sri Lanka 18
rebels and a soldier were killed in Mannar district; 7 rebels and a
soldier were killed in Vavuniya and six guerrillas died in Welioya.
Each side often exaggerates the casualties and damage inflicted on its
enemy while underreporting its own losses.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, Pope Benedict XVI
left Rome on a flight to Australia for a 10-day pilgrimage. The Pope
said he will use his visit to Australia to apologize for sexual abuse
by priests and to examine how the Church can "prevent, heal and
reconcile".
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, President Hugo Chavez
said that he is expanding his Venezuela's Petrocaribe oil-supply pact
to include Guatemala.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, Thousands of
Venezuelans protested in the capital demanding that the Supreme Court
overturn a "blacklist" blocking key opponents of President Hugo Chavez
from running in upcoming elections.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 13, The US Securities and
Exchange Commission said it would immediately conduct investigations
aimed at preventing the intentional spreading of false information
intended to manipulate securities prices. the Federal Reserve and the
Treasury Department announced steps to brace slumping mortgage giants
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
(Reuters, 7/14/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 13, Terry Childs (43), a
San Francisco computer engineer, was arrested on felony charges for
allegedly plotting to hijack the city’s computer system. Childs, who
continue to draw his $127,735 annual salary, refused to provide
passwords to the network system and was held in lieu of a $5 million
bail. Mayor Newsom met with Childs on July 21, who provided system
code. Cisco engineers had the system back under control by July 22. On
April 27, 2010, Childs was convicted of felony computer tampering. On
April 27, 2010, a Superior Court jury concluded that his crime cost the
city over $200,000, making him eligible for a maximum state sentence of
5 years.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.B1)(SFC, 7/23/08, p.B1)(SFC,
4/28/10, p.C1)
2008 Jul 13, Belgian-based brewer
InBev announced it will buy Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion.
(http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/703682.html)
2008 Jul 13, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a
police patrol killing 24 people in Uruzgan province. A two-day battle
sparked by an insurgent attack killed at least 40 militants in Helmand
province. A NATO soldier died in a roadside blast in Helmand province.
In Kunar province, fighting erupted when militants attacked a NATO
security force outpost. In eastern Logar province gunmen kidnapped
parliament member Abdul Wali and his driver. Well-armed militants got
inside a remote military outpost in the village of Wanat in the
mountainous northeastern province of Kunar. 9 American soldiers were
killed in the deadliest assault on US forces in Afghanistan in three
years. In 2010 the US Army reversed a decision to punish three officers
for command failures that led to the deadly firefight.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)(AP, 6/23/10)
2008 Jul 13, Algeria’s government
newspaper El Moudjhaid said a consortium of British-based oil services
company Petrofac and Indonesian engineering company IKPT provisionally
won a contract to build an LNG plant in western Mediterranean port of
Arzew.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 13, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Sydney, after a stop in Darwin, for one of the largest
Christian gatherings on Earth, starting a visit set to be marked by his
apology for sexual abuse by priests in Australia.
(AFP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 13, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy urged the disparate and conflicted countries around the
Mediterranean Sea to make peace as European rivals did in the 20th
century as he launched an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean. 43
nations, including Israel and Arab states, pledged to work for a Middle
East free of weapons of mass destruction at the close of a summit to
launch an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean aimed at securing
peace across the restive region.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 13, Iranian state TV said
the country is exploring a newly discovered oil field believed to
contain more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Iraq gunmen
attacked a soccer game near Duluiya killing a police officer and a
Sunni Muslim allied with the US against al-Qaida. A roadside bomb in
Fallujah killed 4 police officers. A bomb hit a truck near Baquba. The
driver and his assistant died of their wounds at a nearby hospital.
Some 70 women graduated in the first Daughters of Iraq, a group of
female security volunteers.
(SFC, 7/14/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 13, Thousands of Japanese
rallied against the permanent basing of the nuclear-powered USS George
Washington aircraft carrier near Tokyo, saying a recent onboard fire
made it unsafe.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Indian Kashmir 10
people were hurt when police had to fire shots in the air and use tear
gas to disperse a crowd that was attacking pro-India politicians.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on four cars on a busy street in Guamuchil, killing eight
people. Among the victims were a girl (11), two 17-year-old boys and
two women aged 18 and 19. On July 16 Mexico's government offered a
reward of nearly US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of
the gunmen.
(AP, 7/14/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Poland Bronislaw
Geremek (76), former foreign minister (1997-2000), died in a car
accident near Lubien. He was an icon in the struggle against communist
rule and a founding member of the Solidarity trade union.
(AFP, 7/13/08)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.98)
2008 Jul 13, In Sierra Leone a
passenger plane loaded with 1,540 pounds of cocaine was found abandoned
at the main airport.
(SFC, 7/14/08, p.A11)
2008 Jul 13, A World Food Program
contractor was gunned down in Somalia, the 5th agency worker to be
killed this year.
(SFC, 7/16/08,
p.A15)(www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-15-somalia_N.htm)
2008 Jul 13, In Sudan thousands of
protesters chanting "Down, Down USA!" rallied in Khartoum after reports
that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may seek the arrest of
Sudan's president for alleged war crimes. A stampede among crowds of
people attending a military graduation ceremony killed 17 people at the
al-Merriekh Stadium in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum. The dead
were mostly women and children with 3 dozen others injured.
(Reuters, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Pres. Bush lifted the
presidential moratorium on offshore drilling, however Congress has
renewed its ban on drilling every year since 1981 and top Democrats
said it will do so again this year.
(SFC, 7/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 14, David Remnick, editor
of The New Yorker magazine, defended the newest satirical cover of the
magazine by cartoonist Barry Blitt, which depicted Sen. Barack Obama in
Muslim garb and his wife as an Afro-sporting gun packer.
(SFC, 7/15/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 14, Thousands of Univ. of
California workers faced suspension and other disciplinary action for
walking off their jobs despite a judge’s ruling barring them from doing
so. The employees had been without a contract since January.
(SFC, 7/15/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 14, In Pennsylvania Luis
Ramirez (25), an illegal Mexican migrant worker, died in Shenandoah
after being beaten by white youths. Four young men were charged and
found responsible for the fight, but most of the federal charges
against them were dropped. Local police were later accused of tampering
with evidence and witnesses or lying to the FBI.
(AP, 12/16/09)(www.maldef.org/luis_ramirez_petition/)
2008 Jul 14, In eastern
Afghanistan seven insurgents were killed in fighting in Wanat, Nuristan
province, where 9 US soldiers were killed a day earlier. An "Arab
terrorist" was captured during the operation.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 14, Britain vowed to
increase pressure on Zimbabwe's leaders by pushing for tougher EU
sanctions and hunting down their assets around the world, after failing
to secure bolstered UN action.
(AF, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Three British Muslim
men pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions, part of a plan
prosecutors say would have involved smuggling liquid bombs onto
airliners with the intention of blowing them up mid-flight.
(Reuters, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, At Britain’s
Farnborough International Airshow Etihad Airways, the national carrier
of the United Arab Emirates, said it had agreed to buy 45 Boeing
passenger jets worth 9.4 billion dollars (5.9 billion euros).
(AFP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, A Chinese migrant
worker at the Shuangqiao Garden Plaza in Wenshan county killed one
person and stabbed nine others after discovering his savings of 2,600
yuan ($380) had been swapped for counterfeit notes while he visited a
prostitute.
(Reuters, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 14, An explosion at a
mine in northern Hebei province killed 34 miners and a rescue worker.
In November, 2009, officials at the mine were charge with moving dead
bodies, destroying evidence and paying journalists 2.6 million yuan
($380,000) not to report the explosion. In 2010 a journalist was
sentenced to 16 years in prison for taking bribes to help cover up the
disaster, which took place just 3 weeks before the Beijing Olympics.
(www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/world/asia/01mine.html?_r=1)(AP, 1/6/10)
2008 Jul 14, Greek police said 9
British women faced prostitution charges after being arrested at the
weekend for taking part in an oral sex competition in the Greek holiday
island of Zakynthos. Six British and six Greek men, including two bar
owners, were also charged in the incident, which took place at Laganas
beach.
(Reuters, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Police in the
Adriatic city of Pescara arrested Otttaviano Del Turco, the governor of
Italy's Abruzzo region, in a health care corruption investigation.
Prosecutors said at least 35 people are being investigated.
(AP, 7/14/08)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 14, Malaysian police
locked down Parliament with roadblocks and massive security to prevent
opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters from attending a key
debate.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Mexico commander
Gerardo Valdes, the head of kidnapping and organized crime
investigations in the border state of Coahuila, was seized by at least
six men when he was driving in Saltillo. An unidentified man called
police and said that Valdes had been grabbed by the Juarez Cartel.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Peru a new law
went into effect allowing couples who agree upon alimony, child custody
and division of assets to seek divorce from a qualified notary or
municipality.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 14, Russia agreed to
write off $242 million in Tajikistan debt and take control of the Okno
mountaintop station, operational since 2004. It was designed to track
satellites and even fragments of space debris.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 14, South Korea said it
will recall its ambassador from Japan over a rekindled debate about
disputed islands between the countries, as the new Seoul government
seeks to lift its sagging popularity at home with an appeal to
nationalism.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Spain's biggest bank,
Santander, said it had reached agreement to buy British lender Alliance
and Leicester in an all-share deal worth 1.26 billion pounds (1.57
billion euros) as it continues its push into the British market.
(AFP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Spanish construction
giant Martinsa-Fadesa announced in a filing with Spanish stock market
regulators that it is seeking protection from creditors.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 14, The prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court filed genocide charges against Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of masterminding attempts to
wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and
deportation. The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the
world's first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges
against a sitting head of state.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Turkey prosecutors
indicted 86 secular Turks, including high-ranking ex-military
officials, on terrorism charges for their alleged involvement in plots
to topple the Islamic-rooted government. They were suspected of being
part of Ergenekon, an ultra-nationalist gang bent on overthrowing the
AKP government.
(AP, 7/14/08)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.34)
2008 Jul 14, In Vietnam Dayana
Mendoza, Miss Venezuela, was crowned Miss Universe 2008 in a contest
marked by the spectacle of Miss USA falling down during the evening
gown competition for the second year in a row.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 15, US Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress the fragile economy is facing
"numerous difficulties" including persistent strains in financial
markets, rising joblessness and housing problems — despite the Fed's
aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, The SEC said it would
immediately move to curb improper short selling in Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac as well as those of 17 financial firms. The move would be
effective July 21 and expire after 30 days. The SEC also planned to
consider extending the requirements to all stocks traded in the US.
(WSJ, 7/16/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 15, Mei Ling Chen (46) of
Taiwan was arrested in Sunnyvale, Ca., after customs inspectors at SF
Int’l. Airport found $380,000 in counterfeit $100 bills in a package of
dried seafood.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.B11)
2008 Jul 15, Robin Long (25), a US
Army deserter who had fled to Canada in 2005, was deported from British
Columbia back to the US.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 15, General Motors Corp.
said it will lay off salaried workers, cut truck production, suspend
its dividend and borrow $2 billion to $3 billion to weather a severe
downturn in the US market.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Volkswagen announced
that it would build a $1 billion car plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., and
expected to open it as soon as 2011.
(WSJ, 7/30/08,
p.C10)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFdSOp19gU)
2008 Jul 15, It was reported that
Hawaii’s Oahu island planned to export some 100,000 tons of trash a
year to the mainland. At current rates its 200-acre municipal landfill
would reach capacity in 15 years. Expanded recycling and a new boiler
were also in the works.
(WSJ, 7/15/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 15, In California 2
vehicles collided on a bridge and fell into the Delta-Mendota Canal
near Westley. 6 farm workers and a septic truck driver died.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.B3)(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
2008 Jul 15, Gee Gee Engesser
(b.19126), animal trainer and “Blond Bombshell” of the circus, died in
Florida.
(WSJ, 8/23/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 15, In southwestern
Afghanistan air strikes against extremist rebels killed 4 women and 5
children as well as several insurgents. NATO pulled soldiers out of the
outpost in Wanat village in northeastern Kunar province, which
militants had breached killing 9 US soldiers.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, Tens of thousands of
Argentine farmers and government supporters staged dueling protests
ahead of a Senate vote on a package of grain-export taxes that
generated months of bitter farm strikes.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Australia the
world's biggest Christian festival opened with a spectacular
harbor-side mass for up to 150,000 pilgrims taking part in World Youth
Day celebrations in Sydney headed by Pope Benedict XVI.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Belgium PM Yves
Leterme offered King Albert the resignation of his government after he
acknowledged he would not make a deadline for a constitutional reform
deal despite months of talks. He offered to resign after realizing it
would be impossible to resolve deep divisions over increased autonomy
for French- and Dutch-speaking Belgians.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Tropical Storm Bertha
headed back out over open ocean and away from the US mainland after it
battered Bermuda, knocking out electricity to thousands on the Atlantic
tourist island. Bertha entered its 13th day becoming the longest-lived
July tropical storm in history.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, China voiced concern
over an International Criminal Court prosecutor's decision to seek an
arrest warrant for Sudan's president on charges of genocide in the
African country's war-torn Darfur region.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Croatia adopted a law
that allows Sunday shopping only over the summer and Christmas
holidays. It goes into effect January 1. The law also allows stores in
gas, bus and train stations to open on Sundays year-round, along with
those in hospitals. Bakeries, newsstands and flower shops are also
exempt from the ban.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, The EU agreed to an
emergency aid package for its fishing industry to cope with fuel prices.
(WSJ, 7/17/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 15, In eastern India at
least 20 members of a wedding party were killed when the jeep carrying
them plunged into a roadside canal outside Patna, the capital of Bihar
state.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Indonesia's president
acknowledged that his country carried out gross human rights abuses
during East Timor's 1999 break for independence, but stopped short of
offering a full apology and said no one would be prosecuted.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of army recruits at the Saad
military camp in Baqouba, where devastating attacks persist despite
security improvements elsewhere. At least 28 people died. In western
Mosul, a bomb near an Iraqi police station killed four Iraqi civilians.
Half an hour later, one Iraqi police officer and seven civilians died
in a suicide car bombing in the east of the city. Three other bombs in
Mosul wounded 15 people. The US military said it had captured the
Iranian-trained leader of an explosives cell in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Israel's Cabinet
overwhelmingly approved an emotionally charged deal to trade a Lebanese
militant convicted of killing three people for two Israeli soldiers
captured by Hezbollah guerrillas and believed to be dead. Israeli
troops arrested three Hamas council members in a dawn raid on the West
Bank city of Nablus. Witnesses and residents said a total of 12 Hamas
members were arrested.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Italy a judge in
Venice indicted Saber Fadhil Hussein for plotting a terrorist attack on
US bases in Iraq using ultra-light aircraft.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 15, Fishermen across
Japan went on a massive one-day strike to protest skyrocketing fuel
prices, the latest blow to the country's foundering fishing industry.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Malaysian police
issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in
connection with a sodomy accusation by a male former aide.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In South Korea Won
Jeong-hwa (34) was arrested and later confessed that she was a spy
trained and commissioned by North Korea's intelligence agency. On Oct
15 she was sentenced to five years in prison for spying.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, A plan for a
referendum on self-determination in Spain's northern Basque Country
became law in the region, setting the stage for a confrontation with
the government in Madrid which has termed the poll illegal.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Sri Lanka fighting
reportedly killed a total of 51 rebels and a soldier.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Switzerland
Hannibal Kadhafi (32), the son of Libya’s leader, was arrested along
with his wife Aline at a luxury hotel in Geneva after the servants, a
Moroccan and a Tunisian, alleged they had been abused by the couple.
The 2-day detention led to reprisals by Libya. Days after Hannibal
Kadhafi’s arrest, Swiss businessmen Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani were
detained in Libya on alleged visa violations. The servants later
dropped their legal complaints after receiving some compensation. In
November, 2009, Goeldi and Hamdani were handed over to the Swiss
embassy in Tripoli. Libya then announced that they would go on trial on
accusations of tax evasion and violating residency laws.
(AP, 9/2/08)(AP, 11/9/09)(AP, 11/12/09)
2008 Jul 15, Taiwan indicted 5
former ministers, who had served under former Pres. Chen Shui-bian, on
corruption charges relating to misuse of special expense accounts.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A15)
2008 Jul 15, Turkey’s military
said aircraft and artillery units had shelled rebel positions in Sirnak
province, killing 22 rebels.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 16, The United States
signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with
countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade,
Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern
Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia,
South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and Framework
Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which includes
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, The US Postal Service
released a series of stamps honoring black cinema.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.E3)
2008 Jul 16, California state
educators said 24% of the state’s high school students had dropped out
of school during the 2006-2007 school year.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 16, Jo Stafford (b.1917),
pop star singer during the 1940s and 1950s, died in Los Angeles. Her
songs included “You Belong To Me,” a big hit in 1952.
(SFC, 7/19/08, p.B5)
2008 Jul 16, The governor of
Kandahar said eight militants were killed during an operation in the
southern province's Khakrez district in the past two days. A regional
Taliban commander, Mullah Mahmoud, who controlled about 250 fighters,
was among those killed. Several militants were killed in the Nahr Surkh
district of Helmand. Coalition and Afghan security forces uncovered and
destroyed a large weapons cache in northern Jawzjan province.
(AP, 7/16/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, Thousands of British
local government employees began a two-day strike over pay. Unions
expected more than half a million workers in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland to join the walkout that began after midnight.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Anglican bishops from
around the world gathered in Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference,
with the 10-yearly meeting set to be dominated by deep splits over the
roles of women and homosexuals.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Cambodia assembled
its troops near the Thai border in the second day of alleged incursions
by Thai soldiers amid tensions over disputed border land near a
historic temple.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, The government of
China’s Gansu province told the Ministry of Health about an unusual
surge of kidney stones among infants who had all drunk the same brand
of milk.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.57)
2008 Jul 16, In Egypt a truck
ploughed into traffic at a closed level crossing, pushing a bus, truck
and several cars into the path of a passenger train. Four people died
from their injuries overnight bringing the total number of dead to 41.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, In France the first
stone was laid at the Louvre's new Arts of Islam gallery, the first
major modern architectural addition to the museum since its famed glass
pyramid was built in the 1980s.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, In eastern India at
least 20 special commando police officers were killed when their
vehicle struck a land mine planted by communist rebels in Orissa state.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, Coalition forces
handed the Iraqi government control of a province south of Baghdad,
reflecting security improvements across the country. US and Polish
forces operated in the mostly Shiite province of Qadisiyah, the tenth
of 18 provinces to revert to Iraqi authority. A car bomb killed at
least 7 children and 11 other people in the northern city of Tal Afar.
90 people also were injured in the blast at a popular outdoor market. A
car bomb killed two civilians in Mosul.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Hezbollah handed over
two black coffins with the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and Israel
freed 5 Lebanese militants, including Samir Kantar, who killed a
4-year-old girl and her father in 1979.
(AP, 7/16/08)(WSJ, 7/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 16, An Italian
parliamentary panel gave initial approval to a plan to fingerprint
everyone in the country, a move that could defuse criticism over a
mandatory program to fingerprint Gypsies.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Malaysian police
arrested opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on suspicion that he sodomized
a male aide, pre-empting his voluntary appearance at the police
headquarters to answer the allegation. He was interrogated for more
than eight hours and made to sleep on a "cold cement" floor in a
holding cell before being released the next day.
(AP, 7/16/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, Mexico's navy seized
a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast and
arrested its four-man crew.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, In Nigeria about 30
armed men in speedboats attacked a navy vessel that was guarding key
oil facilities in southern Rivers state. Three militants, a naval
serviceman and a civilian were killed. MEND said it was not involved.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, In southwestern
Pakistan a roadside bomb wounded seven security personnel and two
passers-by. In the northwest a military operation began to expel
insurgents from Zargari. 10 militants were killed and five troops
wounded.
(AP, 7/16/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 16, The Philippine
government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front reached a deal to create
an ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims.
(WSJ, 7/17/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 16, Gold production was
severely disrupted in parts of South Africa as thousands of mineworkers
downed tools to protest rising living costs.
(AFP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, In South Korea former
Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee saw the suspension of his prison sentence
in a tax-evasion conviction, a move that confirmed South Koreans' view
that tycoons are immune from jail.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, In Spain King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia kicked off an interfaith conference in Madrid,
an effort to bring Muslims, Christians and Jews closer together amid a
world that often puts the three faiths at odds.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Sri Lankan soldiers
captured a key naval base used by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the
northern part of the country. Fighting in the north killed 24 rebels
and 3 soldiers.
(AP, 7/16/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, In Sudan a
peacekeeper with the United Nations-African Union was shot and killed
in Darfur. The peacekeeper, believed to be a Nigerian company
commander, died while on patrol near a peacekeeping camp.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Turkey’s military
said 11 Kurdish rebels were killed in an ongoing operation in Hakkari
province, near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Zimbabwe’s central
bank's governor said the annual rate of inflation, already the highest
in the world, has hit a new record level of 2.2 million percent.
(AFP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 17, Kay Ryan (b.1945) of
Fairfax, Ca., was named the 16th poet laureate of the US. She was
selected by James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, The US Treasury moved
to freeze assets of four Algerians it said were leaders of an al
Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for deadly bombings in Algeria last
month.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, The US government
lifted a salmonella warning on tomatoes, but still warned caution on
fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, It was reported that
the US debt amounted to $455,000 per household.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 17, Andy Stern, head of
the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), led a global day of
action targeting KKR-owned sites in 25 countries, calling for an end to
favorable tax treatment of private equity.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.70)
2008 Jul 17, California became the
first US state to approve green building standards.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 17, In western
Afghanistan US Special Forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes
during a raid on a militant cell, killing 15 insurgents while freeing
15 hostages in Herat province. Taliban militants attacked a convoy
carrying supplies for NATO forces in Zabul. A following gunbattle
killed an Afghan security worker and wounded five.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was
arrested by Afghan police, who found recipes for explosives and
descriptions of New York landmarks in her handbag. [see Aug 5]
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A5)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Jul 17, Algeria and Germany
wound up two days of talks in Algiers with a call for more economic
cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Algeria a truck
and a bus collided on one of the main highways in the Relizane region
killing 7 people with 28 seriously injured.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Argentina's Senate
narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package, a government-backed
proposal that has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food
shortages.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Sidney, Australia,
Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stinging attack on pop culture,
consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic
pilgrims gathered for World Youth Day.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Belgium's King Albert
II refused to accept the resignation of the prime minister and his
government, calling on key officials to redouble efforts to resolve an
longtime disagreement over more self-rule for the country's Dutch and
French speakers.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, A new company of
Chinese engineers deployed to Sudan's war-torn western region of
Darfur, boosting the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to 8,000.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Wikimania 2008 opened
in to Alexandria, Egypt, for a 3-day tradecraft meeting. The gathering
of online encyclopedia creators drew some 650 Wikipedians from 45
countries.
(WSJ, 8/8/08,
p.W1)(http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
2008 Jul 17, In Amman, Jordan, a
gunman shot and wounded six people near a Roman amphitheater. He shot
himself in the head as he was chased by police, and was in critical
condition. A police official identified the assailant as Thaer
al-Weheidi (19), a resident of Baqaa camp, the largest of 11
Palestinian refugee settlements in Jordan. Al-Weheidi died on July 22.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 17, Kuwait's official
news agency says the tiny Gulf country has named an ambassador to Iraq
for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Macedonia's main
opposition party walked out of parliament after its deputy leader was
arrested and charged in a corruption probe.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Six prominent members
of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC met this day with Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega according to Nicaragua’s La Prensa newspaper.
The members of the guerrilla organization arrived in Nicaragua in a
Cessna airplane from Venezuela. Both Ortega and Venezuela denied the
newspaper report.
(http://colombiareports.com/2008/07/23/ortega-met-with-farc-delegation-says-la-prensa/)
2008 Jul 17, Nigerian villagers
blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the Nigerian
subsidiary of Italian group Eni, cutting production.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Violent protests
erupted at Pakistan's main stock market as growing economic and
political uncertainty pushed Pakistani shares to a new 18-month low.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, A survey team member
said a Russian government audit has revealed that up to 50,000 pieces
are missing from the country’s museums, everything from
Pre-Revolutionary medals and weapons to precious works of art.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Sri Lankan air force
jets bombed a group of ethnic Tamil rebels. Troops attacked rebel
bunkers along the front lines in the Vavuniya area, killing 10 Tamil
Tiger fighters. Fighting in the area also killed four soldiers, while a
fifth soldier was missing in action. Fighting in Welioya killed nine
rebels and one soldier, while another rebel was killed in Jaffna.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An official of the
Swiss bank UBS announced that it was halting its offshore banking
services for US citizens after it came under scathing criticism for
facilitating massive tax evasion.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An organization
claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim
insurgency announced it will end all violence in the region as of July
14. Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro said
the organization that made the announcement represented 11 different
underground groups operating in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Venezuela's ruling
party pledged to seek to reform the nation's constitution to let
President Hugo Chavez seek indefinite re-election.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, The Batman sequel
"The Dark Knight" opened and set a single-day box office record by
taking in $66.4 million.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 18, Nebraska’s new
safe-haven law went into effect allowing parents to abandon unwanted
children, under age 19, at state-licensed hospitals with no questions
asked. The law was later amended after parents and guardians, some from
out of state, dropped off children as old as 17.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A4)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 18, New Hampshire decided
to accept an offer from Venezuela of free heating oil for the state’s
poor.
(WSJ, 7/19/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 18, In Houston, Texas,
one of the nation's largest mobile cranes collapsed at LyondellBasell
refinery, killing four workers. An additional 7 workers were injured
when the crane collapsed during routine maintenance at the chemical
plant.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast the Nava district of Helmand province. Three guards were
killed and four wounded. 2 French aid workers were taken from their
guest house in the early hours in the central province of Day Kundi,
one of the poorest areas of Afghanistan. On August 2 Action Against
Hunger said the aid workers had been released.
(AP, 7/18/08)(AFP, 8/2/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Algeria the
government of Mali and ethnic Tuareg rebels reached a truce agreement
in dangerous northern Mali. One faction of the Tuareg group refused to
sign the deal, saying it did not do enough to help the Tuaregs.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 18, Argentina’s President
Cristina Fernandez canceled a widely protested farm export tax hike
following months of protest and a stunning rejection by the Senate. She
issued a resolution reducing the export taxes to their previous level.
(AP, 7/18/08)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.43)
2008 Jul 18, In Australia Pope
Benedict XVI warned Christian leaders that the push to unite Christian
churches was at a "critical juncture" and called on people of all
religions to join together against violence.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, A border clash
triggered by a smuggling attempt left two Bangladeshi troops dead and
one Indian soldier seriously wounded.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Brazil police said
at least eight alleged drug traffickers were killed during a raid in a
Rio de Janeiro shantytown.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, A report of the
European Union Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) was leaked to the media.
According the report, which was sent to Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister
Plugchieva two weeks ago, businessman Lyudmil Stoykov, who sponsored
the president's election campaign, and his associate Mario Nikolov, who
is a sponsor of Parvanov's Bulgarian Socialist Party, were involved in
large-scale abuses of EU funds.
(http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6452879.html)
2008 Jul 18, Cuba’s Communist
officials decreed that private farmers and cooperatives can use up to
100 acres (40 hectares) of idle government land, as President Raul
Castro works to revive the floundering agricultural sector.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Iraq two suspected
insurgents, linked to the June 26 suicide attack, were captured in a
near Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080801/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)
2008 Jul 18, Israel’s Shin Bet
security service said investigators had arrested six men in June and
July suspected of trying to set up an al-Qaida-linked terror network,
including one who wanted to shoot down President Bush's helicopter.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, Suspected Muslim
rebels threw a grenade at a crowded bus terminal in the Indian portion
of Kashmir, wounding 35 people, including seven children.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 18, Mexico's president
replaced a 1791 time capsule discovered atop Mexico City's cathedral
with a new one containing messages from golf star Lorena Ochoa,
novelist Carlos Fuentes and a boy genius.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 18, In northwestern
Pakistan, at least 10 Taliban died in fierce fighting between two rival
militant groups. The Taliban threatened to begin executing hostages
captured on July 12 unless the government releases their comrades.
(AP, 7/19/08)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 18, Senegal’s President
Abdoulaye Wade said Sudan President Omar al-Beshir has agreed to
restore relations with Chad, more than two months after Khartoum
severed ties accusing Ndjamena of backing Darfur rebels.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Singapore Peter
Lloyd (41), a TV reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC), was charged with trafficking about one gram of methamphetamine
to a Singaporean for 100 Singapore dollars (73.5 US) at a hotel early
this month.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Spain, a spokesman
said police in the southern city of Seville have been left red-faced
after more than 100 kilos of drugs were stolen from police headquarters
and replaced with talcum powder.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Spain a
Saudi-organized conference of the world's great religions called for an
international agreement to combat terrorism, "a universal phenomenon
that requires unified international efforts."
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, South Africa’s Pres.
Thabo Mbeki announced plans to work with the UN and African Union as he
attempts to mediate a settlement in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 18, Sri Lankan warplanes
carried out air raids over the rebel-controlled northern region of
Mullaittivu, targeting a Tiger logistics base. The military said
fighting in the northern Vavuniya district left nine rebels killed. 7
insurgents were killed along the Welioya front, while 3 more were
killed in Jaffna. Angry protesters halted trains and clashed with
policemen in Colombo as authorities began demolishing their homes,
saying they were unauthorized constructions that encroached on
government lands.
(AFP, 7/18/08)(AP, 7/18/08)(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 18, Tropical Storm
Kalmaegi wreaked havoc across Taiwan, leaving at least 19 people dead
and seven missing.
(AFP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 18, Thailand sent more
military reinforcements to a disputed part of the Cambodian border,
after the tense four-day standoff nearly erupted into gunfire during
the night.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Tunisia 2
officials and three others were convicted of plotting terror attacks
and to overthrow the government.
(WSJ, 7/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 18, In southeastern
Turkey 10 members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were
killed in clashes with Turkish military forces.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, Democratic
presidential contender Barack Obama started a campaign-season tour of
combat zones and foreign capitals, visiting with US forces in Kuwait
and then Afghanistan — the scene of a war he says deserves more
attention and more troops. Afghan troops clashed with Taliban
insurgents in Zabul province attacking a supply convoy for NATO troops,
killing nine militants. Roadside bombs in Kandahar province killed a
NATO soldier in a separate convoy and four policemen. In Helmand
province militants attacked a police checkpoint and in the ensuing
gunfight three Taliban fighters were killed. NATO forces accidentally
killed at least four civilians in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 7/19/08)(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, The Arab League
criticized the International Criminal Court's prosecutor for seeking
the arrest of Sudan's president on genocide charges, saying diplomacy
should be given a priority to solve the conflict in Darfur.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Sidney, Australia,
Pope Benedict apologized directly for the first time for sexual abuse
of minors by Catholic clergy, but victims groups said they wanted
action and not words.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, Brazilian actress and
comedian Dercy Goncalves (101), known for her vulgar wit and scandalous
behavior, died in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Bogota the
presidents of Brazil and Colombia vowed to boost trade and investment
between their nations ahead of crucial world trade talks next week.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, Czech police said a
21-year-old British man, wanted for child sex and pornography offences
in Britain, has been detained in a Prague suburb where he had been in
hiding for two years.
(AFP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Germany more than
1.5 million revelers danced through the streets of Dortmund at the
annual Love Parade techno music festival.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Geneva a decision
to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks fizzled, with
Iran stonewalling Washington and 5 other world powers on their call to
freeze uranium enrichment.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, Iraq's largest Sunni
Arab political bloc ended a nearly yearlong boycott of the Shiite-led
government in another step toward healing the sectarian rifts that once
brought almost daily bloodshed. In Baghdad British PM Gordon Brown said
plans are being made to scale back troops, but refused to consider an
"artificial timetable" for withdrawing Britain's remaining 4,000
soldiers.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Kashmir at least
10 Indian soldiers were killed and 14 others injured when their bus was
hit by an improvised explosive device in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AFP, 7/19/08)(SSFC, 7/20/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 19, In Lebanon the Jund
al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida,
clashed with members of the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement. Two
other Palestinian militants were killed in the clash.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, While visiting Buenos
Aires Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said his country is ready to
conduct talks with the US about hosting elements of a missile defense
system.
(UPI, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Nepal lawmakers
failed to elect the country's first president and end weeks of
political deadlock. No candidate won the 298 votes necessary. A bus
veered off a mountain road and plunged into a river in central Nepal
killing 14 passengers and leaving many missing.
(AFP, 7/19/08)(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Pakistan
paramilitary forces stumbled on 2 training camps near Dera Bugti in
Baluchistan province. 6 troops and an unknown number of ethnic Baluch
insurgents died in fighting that began when militants fired on
patrolling security forces.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 19, Mullah Rahim, the
most senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan's Helmand province, gave
himself up to Pakistani officials.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Sri Lanka soldiers
killed 11 rebels in Vavuniya while five rebels died in the nearby
Mannar district. A soldier was killed by a sniper's bullet in Mannar.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to
Afghanistan in talks with its Western-backed leader and vowed to pursue
the war on terror "with vigor" if he is elected. 9 policemen were
killed in international military air strikes called in when police and
troops clashed after mistaking each other for Taliban. International
soldiers had moved into a district in Farah province without informing
police, who thought they were militants. 3 children were killed in the
southern province of Helmand when a bomb blew up a minivan. One NATO
soldier was killed in Khost province. A precision missile strike by
British aircraft killed Abdul Rasaq, a Taliban leader who led fighters
in the Musa Qala area of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/20/08)(AFP, 7/20/08)(SFC, 7/21/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 20, In Australia Pope
Benedict XVI said a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the
world and he challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of
their time to create a new age of hope for humankind.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, In central Bolivia a
Venezuelan military helicopter often used to transport Bolivian
President Evo Morales crashed. Four Venezuelan military personnel and a
Bolivian officer were reported killed.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 20, Beijing started its
most drastic pollution-control plan, restricting car use and limiting
factory emissions in a last-minute push to clear smog-choked skies for
the August Olympics.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, Well over a million
Colombians, clad in white and shouting "No more kidnapping," marked
their independence day with marches and concerts demanding freedom for
hostages still held by leftist rebels.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, In northern India a
packed bus collided with a truck in Uttar Pradesh state, killing at
least 17 people and wounding 35 others.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, Activists said Iran
has sentenced eight women and one man convicted of adultery to death by
stoning. The nine, who are between 27 and 50 years old, were convicted
of adultery in separate cases in different Iranian cities.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Iraq a new airport
opened in Najaf in what the prime minister said was a key step in the
reconstruction of a country devastated by war. The government said an
oil refinery in Iraq's western desert has resumed production. American
soldiers killed two armed relatives of a provincial governor during a
raid in Salahuddin province against al-Qaida in Iraq. 2 private
security contractors were killed in a car bombing in Mosul. 8 Iraqis
were injured in the blast.
(AP, 7/20/08)(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Israel British PM
Gordon Brown, on his first official visit as prime minister, said that
economic development was key to bringing peace to the Middle East.
Brown demanded that Israel cease settlement construction and promised
more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, Barack Obama made a
brief stop in Kuwait, a key US ally. The delegation met with the emir,
Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and other senior officials.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Lebanon Shehadeh
Jawhar, military commander of the Jund al-Sham group, died from wounds
in the previous day’s clash with members of the mainstream Palestinian
Fatah movement.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, Morocco's police
seized more than 10 tons of drugs during raids in the north of the
country and along its coasts.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Pakistan five
militants died in a failed assault on the Tora Warai military fort near
Hangu. The army said security forces had killed 15 militants and
detained 60 others, in the first major action against insurgents under
Pakistan's new government.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, In northern Spain 4
bombs exploded at popular seaside resorts in Cantabria, after warning
calls from the Basque separatist group ETA. No casualties were reported.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, Sri Lankan government
forces captured a Tamil Tiger rebel base in the north after a 48-hour
battle that left at least 15 rebels dead. Air force jets destroyed six
rebel boats.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, A state newspaper
reported that Zimbabwe will transfer ownership of all foreign-owned
firms that support Western sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's
government to locals and investors from "friendly" countries.
(Reuters, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 21, The US FDA issued an
advisory for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeno peppers after
it found a jalapeno grown in Mexico in a Texas border town warehouse
that tested positive with the same strain of salmonella that was
earlier associated with tomatoes.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 21, The war crimes trial
of Salim Hamdan, bin Laden’s driver, began at Guantanamo. The judge
barred evidence obtained in Afghanistan, citing coercive conditions.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 21, Brocade
Communications said it will pay nearly $3 billion for Foundry Networks,
founded in 1996. Both Silicon Valley firms companies competed with
Cisco Systems.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.B8)
2008 Jul 21, A US B-52 bomber that
was due to fly in a Liberation Day parade in the US territory of Guam
crashed into the Pacific Ocean soon after take-off. All of the bomber's
six-man crew were killed.
(AFP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 21, Sid Craig (b.1932),
co-founder of the Jenny Craig chain of diet centers (1983), died. Craig
founded Jenny Craig, named after his wife, in Australia and expanded to
the US in 1985. The company went public in 1992. In 2006 Nestle SA
bought the operation.
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 21, In Sidney Pope
Benedict XVI met privately with Australians who were sexually abused as
children by priests, ending a pilgrimage to the country with a gesture
of contrition and concern over a scandal that has rocked the Roman
Catholic church.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Eric Dowling
(b.1915), former English POW, died. He was nicknamed "Digger" for
helping excavate tunnels used in the breakout from a World War II
German prison camp that became known as the "Great Escape." Dowling
played a key role in planning the march 24, 1944, escape by 76
prisoners from Stalag Luft III prison near Sagan in eastern Germany —
now Zagan, Poland.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Jul 21, Talks between
Cambodia and Thailand to resolve a military stand-off on their joint
border ended without a solution.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, In Chechnya the
bullet-riddled bodies of three officers, who had been guarding an
Interior Ministry trailer, were found on a collective farm. The
assailants made off with the officers' guns.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, China and Russia
signed an agreement that demarcated their 2,700 mile border ending a
long running border dispute.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 21, In China 2 people
were killed in explosions aboard two public buses in Kunming city,
Yunnan province. On Dec 24 Li Yan reportedly confessed to his role in
the bombings as he lay on his death bed after trying to plant another
bomb. 20 miners escaped or were rescued from a flooded coal mine in
southern China but six have died and 30 remain trapped.
(AFP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/22/08)(SFC, 12/29/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 21, Egyptian police
arrested 39 members of the country's largest opposition group, the
banned Muslim Brotherhood during a raid on a camp north of Cairo. The
men, aged 18 to 35, said they were only on vacation. Egyptian
authorities shut down the Cairo office of an Iranian TV network, as the
two nations spar over "Assassination of a Pharaoh," a film that
justifies the killing of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by
Islamic militants.
(AP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 21, President Nicolas
Sarkozy's risky bid to rewrite France's political rules with sweeping
constitutional changes worked, but just barely, with both houses of
parliament meeting in special session to pass the measures by a single
vote. The reform gives parliament greater power but also adds a new
privileges to France's already strong presidency, notably allowing the
chief of state to address together the two houses of congress. However,
it limits the president to two five-year terms.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Rakhat Aliyev, the
ex-son-in-law of Kazakhstan Pres. Nazarbayev, accused the president of
diverting billions in state assets and other corruption.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 21, An aid agency said
Kenyan armed forces are preventing aid workers from helping homeless,
hungry families caught between a brutal militia and an army crackdown.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, A UN-led report said
Myanmar needs at least $1 billion over the next three years to put the
survivors of Cyclone Nargis back on their feet, in the first
comprehensive assessment of damage caused by the disaster that killed
more than 84,000 people.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Lawmakers in Nepal
voted in the Himalayan nation's first post-royal president, but their
rejection of a candidate backed by the Maoists was likely to lead to
more political deadlock. Ram Baran Yadav, who was supported by the
centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 out of 590 votes cast in
Nepal's constitutional assembly.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, A Pakistani court
barred the disgraced architect of Pakistan's atomic weapons program
from speaking about nuclear proliferation, less than three weeks after
he implicated the army in the sharing of nuclear technology with North
Korea. Intelligence officials in Quetta said at least 30 insurgents,
including three rebel commanders, had been killed. Suspected Islamic
militants shot dead a pro-government tribal chief and wounded three
other people in an attack on the outskirts of Khar near Pakistan's
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/08)(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Pakistan’s Geo TV
broadcasted a recent interview with Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, a senior
al-Qaida leader. He urged Pakistanis to help Afghans fight US-led
coalition forces and condemned President Pervez Musharraf for arresting
Arab and Afghan fighters and handing them over to Washington.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 21, Radovan Karadzic
(63), the wartime leader of Bosnian Serbs, was arrested in a Belgrade
suburb. A judge ordered his transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal in
The Hague.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 21, In Sri Lanka 44
rebels and two government soldiers were killed in fighting.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 21, The African Union
urged the UN Security Council to put on hold the International Criminal
Court's move to indict Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over
war crimes in Darfur.
(Reuters, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Roche offered 43.7 billion dollars to acquire the remaining
shares in US subsidiary Genentech, the bio-tech pioneer underpinning
its dominance of the cancer treatment market.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Vietnam raised its
fuel prices by 31%.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A13)
2008 Jul 21, In Zimbabwe mediator
South African Pres. Thabo Mbeki oversaw a ceremony in Harare at which
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed an
agreement for negotiations to bring the country out of political chaos
in their first meeting in a decade.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 22, North Carolina-based
Wachovia Corp., the 4th largest US bank, lost $8.86 billion in the 2nd
quarter, and said it was slashing its dividend and cutting 6,350 jobs
after losses tied to mortgages soared.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, California reported
63,061 foreclosures during the 2nd 3 months of this year.
(SFC, 7/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 22, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed SB685 giving state pet owners the right to set up
a legally enforceable trust to care for their animals. The bill was
sponsored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo).
(SFC, 7/26/08, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/5uppps)
2008 Jul 22, Dolly was upgraded to
hurricane status as it headed toward the US-Mexican border.
(WSJ, 7/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 22, Estelle Getty
(b.1923), the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls,"
died. The diminutive stage and TV actress had spent 40 years struggling
for success before landing the role of a lifetime in 1985.
(AP, 7/22/08)(SFC, 7/23/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 22, US-led coalition and
Afghan troops for a 2nd day clashed with and called in airstrikes on
Taliban militants in western Afghanistan, killing and wounding more
than 25 insurgents. In Kabul a suicide bomber on foot detonated himself
next to the walls of the city's historic Babur Gardens, a popular
public park, wounding three civilians. In central Wardak province,
US-led coalition forces killed "several militants" while hunting for a
Taliban leader said to have been behind an attack that killed three
American troops and their interpreter last month. Militants attacked a
British patrol in Kajaki district of Helmand province. The soldier was
initially wounded and later died. A civilian vehicle struck a mine in
Khost province, killing four people and wounding three. The dead
included a 2-year-old and a woman. In southern Helmand province, Afghan
troops killed five insurgents in a clash. A policeman and two Afghan
soldiers were wounded in the encounter. Gunmen killed the spokesman for
the governor of Paktika province, Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, and wounded
his wife, his brother and his mother.
(AP, 7/22/08)(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 22, Cambodia asked the UN
Security Council and its Southeast Asian neighbors to intervene in
resolving a military standoff over disputed border territory around an
ancient temple, stepping up its rhetoric against Thailand.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Sheik Hassan Dahir
Aweys took over the Islamist opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation
of Somalia (ARS), which operates in exile in Eritrea.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 22, India’s BJP
opposition was defeated in a confidence vote and charged the ruling
Congress Party-led coalition of offering bribes in exchange for
abstentions in the vote.
(WSJ, 7/23/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 22, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks aimed at
strengthening economic ties between the two countries.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, In Mexico a measure
took effect eliminating jail times for illegal immigrants caught in
Mexico.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Nepal's Maoists said
they would not form the Himalayan nation's first post-royal government
after the defeat of their candidate for president, setting off a new
political crisis.
(AFP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Palestinian rammed a
construction truck into three cars and a bus near the Jerusalem hotel
where Barack Obama is supposed to stay, injuring four people before an
Israeli civilian shot and killed the attacker.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Spanish police
dismantled the most active cell of the armed Basque separatist group
ETA with the detention of nine suspected members of the group. Among
those captured was Arkaitz Goikoetxea, the leader of the "Vizcaya" cell
which Spanish authorities suspect was behind most of the attacks
carried out by ETA since it called off a ceasefire in June 2007.
(AFP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, The Tamil Tiger
rebels announced they would observe a unilateral 10-day cease-fire as a
goodwill gesture during a regional summit to be held later this month.
An airstrike deep inside the rebels' de facto state killed 22 members
of the Black Tigers, the group's suicide force.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 23, Bill Gates, former
boss of Microsoft, joined Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of NYC, in
announcing a combined $500 million package to stamp out smoking.
(www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-23-smoking_N.htm)
2008 Jul 23, It was reported that
Napa Valley’s Chateau Montelena, winner of a 1976 wine tasting event in
France, was being purchased by Cos d’Estournel of Bordeaux, France.
(SFC, 7/23/08, p.C1)
2008 Jul 23, In Louisiana an oil
tanker and an oil barge collided near New Orleans creating a 12-mile
oil slick and closing almost 100 miles of the Mississippi River. Over
400,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the river.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A3)(SFC, 7/25/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 23, Google unveiled a new
service dubbed “Knol,” an Internet encyclopedia, in which contributing
authors would share in ad revenue.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.C4)
2008 Jul 23, Two environmental
groups estimated that cement kilns in the US annually released mercury
compounds totaling some 23,000 pounds. Two of the worst emitters were
located in northern California in Cupertino and Davenport.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 23, In Afghanistan
militants killed a district police chief in the eastern Nangarhar
province after striking his convoy with a roadside bomb. Police clashed
with Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province, killing three militants.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, The African Union
said it was incapable of stabilizing the situation in Somalia and urged
the UN take over peacekeeping operations in the lawless Horn of Africa
country.
(Reuters, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, Australia announced
an extra $29 million in aid for survivors of Myanmar's May cyclone, but
pressed its recalcitrant military junta to democratize quickly and
respect human rights.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, The European
Commission froze almost euro500 million ($800 million) in aid to
Bulgaria, citing corruption, organized crime, severe spending
irregularities and alleged vote-buying in a country that only joined
the EU last year.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, In Democratic
Republic of Congo at least 45 people were killed and another 100 were
missing after a boat sank on a remote stretch of the Ubangi river.
(Reuters, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, France passed a new
law to let companies negotiate longer working hours with union
representatives, all but squelching the 35-hour week.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.61)
2008 Jul 23, Iraq's Kurdish
government has denounced a draft law paving the way for US-backed
provincial elections and urged the presidential council to reject it.
The 18-year-old son of the chief editor of a US-sponsored newspaper was
shot to death as an American patrol passed nearby in the northern city
of Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/23/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, US Presidential
hopeful Barack Obama donned a Jewish skullcap at Israel's Holocaust
memorial and vowed to preserve America's close ties with Israel in a
dramatic visit to the Holy Land in which he also promised the
Palestinians to push vigorously to win them a state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, Hurricane Dolly
toppled trees and sent billboards flying in the Mexican city of
Matamoros, and authorities south of the US border warned of possible
flooding. Dolly also hit south Texas, but by evening it had weakened to
a tropical storm.
(AP, 7/24/08)(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 23, Opposition lawmakers
walked out of a Mongolian parliamentary session before they were to be
sworn in, saying they refused to participate because last month's
election was fraudulent.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, Nigeria's main
militant group threatened to destroy the nation's major oil pipelines
within 30 days to counter allegations it had struck a $12 million deal
with the government to protect them.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, An international
rights group pressed Pakistan's new government to quickly investigate
the disappearance of hundreds of people allegedly rounded up by
security agencies as part of the anti-terror campaign.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, In Sri Lanka
government forces killed 25 rebels in battles in the Vavuniya, Mannar,
Jaffna and Welioya regions along the front lines.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 23, In Sudan government
planes bombed Karbala, a Darfur village, while Pres. Bashir was
addressing cheering crowds in the nearby city of el-Fasher. according
to a rebel faction 3 people were killed and 8 injured.
(Reuters, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, Turkish warplanes
bombed 13 Kurdish rebel targets in the Zab region of northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 23, Venezuela signed over
three more oil fields to a joint venture with Belarus, with Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez declaring that the two nations were strongly
united in their resistance to "US imperialism" and Washington's
"lackeys."
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, The US confirmed that
it planned to shift 230 million dollars in aid to Pakistan from
counter-terrorism programs to upgrading the country's F-16 fighter jets.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo sued banking giant UBS for fraud, accusing the
company of marketing tens of billions of dollars of auction-rate
securities as safe even when they knew the investments were in trouble.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, The US CDC reported
that at least 1,013 people had died between 2005 and 2007 a street
version of the painkiller fentanyl. Many deaths were likely unreported.
(WSJ, 7/25/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 24, NASA released
findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way
to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora borealis, to burst in
spectacular shapes and colors, and dance across the sky.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ford Motor Co. posted
the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $8.67 billion in
the second quarter.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, It was reported that
the sabal palm, the Florida’s state tree, was under attack by a
microscopic killer and had scientists stumped.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked an Afghan military convoy in Zabul
province and 35 militants were killed after the army called for
assistance from the US-led coalition. A British army dog handler was
fatally shot by insurgents.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, Hundreds of Anglican
bishops from around the world were among 1,500 people who marched
through central London calling for urgent action to tackle global
poverty.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Max Mosley (68),
motor racing chief and son of Britain's 1930s Fascist leader Oswald
Mosley, won 60,000 pounds ($119,100) in damages at London's High Court
from the News of the World newspaper for breaching his privacy by
reporting details of a German-themed sex session with five prostitutes.
(Reuters, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ten insurgents and
two Cameroonian soldiers were killed in a rebel attack in the oil-rich
Bakassi peninsula. The rebels, who call themselves the Niger Delta
Defense and Security Council, oppose Cameroon's ownership of the West
African peninsula, which is also claimed by Nigeria.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Ecuador a special
assembly approved a new 444-article draft constitution granting its
leftist president broad powers, including the ability to dissolve
Congress and set monetary policy, and freeing him to run for office
through 2017.
(AP, 7/25/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.40)
2008 Jul 24, French PM Francois
Fillon said a 15% cut in military manpower and base closings will save
billions of dollars. The military ranks will be cut by 54,000.
(SFC, 7/25/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 24, French giant
automaker Renault said it will cut about 5,000 jobs in Europe among
measures to reduce costs by 10 percent as it prepares for a sharp and
possibly rocky downturn.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Germany US
presidential candidate Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as climate and
energy issues at Germany's chancellery. Obama stood before an enormous
crowd in Berlin and summoned Europeans and Americans to work together
to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it."
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In northern Baghdad
gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on two different awakening council
checkpoints in the Azamiyah neighborhood killing three of its guards
and leaving another wounded. A female suicide bomber blew herself up
near US-allied Sunni Arab fighters walking in a crowded area of
Baqouba, killing at least eight of the guards and wounding 24 other
people.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Iraq was told it's
not welcome to the Beijing Olympics because of a political feud in
Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that
arrived to a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony four years ago.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, An Israeli official
said a key committee has approved construction of the first new Jewish
settlement in the West Bank in a decade. The news infuriated
Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace efforts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Indian Kashmir a
suspected Islamic militant threw a hand grenade at a group of migrant
laborers, killing a woman and her four children in one of two attacks
that claimed a total of nine lives.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Libya said it will
halt fuel supplies to key oil client Switzerland in the latest reprisal
for last week's brief detention in Geneva of a son of Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Mexico state
prison chief Salvador Barreno was shot and killed as he drove in Ciudad
Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. His bodyguard was also killed. 3
other men died in a separate shooting minutes later.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Nigeria a petrol
tanker burst into flames main in the main city of Lagos, killing at
least 12 people and leaving several others with severe burns. 5 eastern
European oil workers were abducted from a Swedish boat in the Niger
delta. The 5 Russian oil workers were released on July 26.
(AFP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 24, In southern Norway a
group of men armed with bats and iron bars attacked a center for
political asylum-seekers, leaving more than 20 people injured.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In the southern
Philippines a homemade bomb ripped through a commuter bus, wounding 27
people. In North Cotabato province communist rebels attacked a banana
farm associated with Dole Foods Co. and a land mine hit a security
vehicle rushing to intervene, killing one and wounding three others.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Singapore North
Korea's reclusive communist regime, long seen as a nuclear threat to
the region, signed a nonaggression pact with Southeast Asia, in a
largely symbolic move. The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) with
the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into force
in 1976, requires signatories to renounce the use or threat of force
and calls for the peaceful settlement of conflicts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In South Africa talks
began in earnest on resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis after
President Robert Mugabe gave his senior lieutenants the final go-ahead
to negotiate power-sharing with the opposition.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Sri Lankan forces
battled rebel gunmen deep inside the nation's northern jungles, killing
25 guerrilla fighters and seizing new territory. Battles in other parts
of the war zone killed 13 rebels and three soldiers.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Suriname a boy
(12) stabbed and killed a 9-year-old girl in front of her classmates
and teacher at a rural elementary school.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, President George W.
Bush signed an order expanding US sanctions against the "illegitimate"
Zimbabwe government of President Robert Mugabe.
(Reuters, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, US regulators took
over two banks and sold them to Mutual of Omaha Bank, the sixth and
seventh bank failures this year as financial institutions struggle with
a housing bust and credit crunch. The Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency said it closed First National Bank of Nevada and First
Heritage Bank NA of California.
(Reuters, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, US Federal regulators
formally approved the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and rival
XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the nation's only two satellite radio
operators. The companies first applied for permission to combine in
March 2007.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning trans fat in restaurants and food
facilities, making California the first state to do so. The law takes
effect in two stages: Jan 1, 2010 and Jan 1, 2011.
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/27/08, p.C1)
2008 Jul 25, Texas nurse Chere Lyn
Tomayko, wanted by the FBI for international parental kidnapping, was
awarded refugee status in Costa Rica and cannot be extradited to the
US. In December 1996, a US judge gave joint custody of a daughter,
Alexandria Camille Cyprian, to Tomayko and her ex-boyfriend Robert
Cyprian, with the condition that Alexandria live in Tarrant County,
Texas. Tomayko said she moved to Costa Rica because she had been
physically abused by Cyprian.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, Harriet Burns
(b.1928), the 1st woman hired to work as a designer for Walt Disney
Imagineering (1955), died in Los Angeles.
(SFC, 7/31/08, p.B5)
2008 Jul 25, Harvey Houtkin
(b.1948), self-proclaimed father of day trading, died in San Diego. He
had opened All-Tech Direct Inc. in Suffern, NY, in 1988 and traded on
the Small Order Execution System. He was suspended from trading in 2001.
(WSJ, 8/2/08,
p.A7)(www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080801-9999-1n1sharp.html)
2008 Jul 25, Randy Pausch (47), a
Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist, died at his home in
Virginia. His "last lecture" in September 2007, about facing terminal
cancer, has become an Internet sensation and a best-selling book.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, In southern
Afghanistan a Danish soldier died in a roadside bomb attack. The death
brings the number of Danish troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to
15. 3 Taliban militants died in a fight with police in the Gereshk
district of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Goiania, Brazil,
Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho Santos stabbed to death and dismembered Cara
Marie Burke (17), a British citizen, while high on crack cocaine. In
2009 Santos was sentenced to 19 years for the killing and two more for
hiding the body.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2008 Jul 25, British PM Gordon
Brown suffered another serious blow to his leadership after Scottish
nationalists won a longtime Labour seat in Glasgow.
(AFP, 7/25/08)(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 25, In Colombia police
arrested Sen. Carlos Garcia, the head of one of Colombia's main
governing parties, for alleged ties with far-right paramilitaries.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, Estonia urged the EU
to take stronger action against Somali pirates attacking cargo ships
bound for Europe, after an Estonian sailor was held hostage for 41 days.
(AFP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, The EU and South
Africa began their first-ever summit in the French city of Bordeaux.
Brussels solidly backed Pretoria's mediating role in Zimbabwe as the
only way of ending ruinous political chaos.
(AFP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, US presidential
hopeful Barack Obama met with Pres. Sarkozy during a short stop in
Paris.
(SFC, 7/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 25, German semi-conductor
group Infineon posted a sharp quarterly loss and announced the loss of
3,000 jobs.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, India's
high-technology capital Bangalore was rocked by 8 bomb blasts. One
woman was killed and over 150 wounded.
(AFP, 7/25/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.44)(WSJ, 11/28/08,
p.A6)
2008 Jul 25, A bomb exploded
outside a Gaza City cafe and another went off outside the home of a
Hamas lawmaker. One person was killed. A mysterious beachside blast
killed 3 Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl. 2 more Hamas activists
died the next day.
(AP, 7/25/08)(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Lebanon clashes
between Sunni Muslim gunmen and the Alawite broke out at dawn when a
hand grenade was thrown toward a Sunni area. Fighting left one person
dead.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, Energy companies in
the three Baltic states and Poland agreed to set up a joint venture to
develop a nuclear power plant in Lithuania.
(Reuters 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Nigeria two oil
workers, one Nigerian and one Filipino, were kidnapped in the Niger
delta.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, In northwestern
Pakistan militants blew up a girls school and 10 shops in 2 separate
areas of the Swat valley. There were no casualties.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, A bomb exploded
outside a Gaza City cafe and another went off outside the home of a
Hamas lawmaker. One person was killed. A mysterious beachside blast
killed 3 Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl. 2 more Hamas activists
died the next day.
(AP, 7/25/08)(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, Sheik Hassan Dahir
Aweys, Somalia's new hard-line opposition leader, promised to pacify
his shattered country through Islamic law, warning UN peacekeepers they
will face attack if they deploy and support the government.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, Ahmedou Ould
Abdallah, the UN special envoy for Somalia, sounded the alarm about
rampant illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste off the coast of
the lawless nation.
(AFP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Sri Lanka heavy
fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels
along the front lines of their civil war killed 62 rebels and eight
soldiers.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 25, Sudan threatened to
expel peacekeepers from Darfur if President Omar al-Beshir is indicted
for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
(AFP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, In eastern Yemen a
suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle into the Interior Ministry's
headquarters, killing a policeman and injuring eight others.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, A UN official said as
much as 25 percent of cyclone relief aid in Myanmar is being lost
because of the military government's foreign exchange system.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 26, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led soldiers killed four civilians after opening fire
on a car that did not stop at a checkpoint.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, US presidential
hopeful Barack Obama met PM Gordon Brown in London, focusing on key
foreign policy issues facing both countries, particularly Afghanistan
and Iraq. Obama also met with Tory leader David Cameron and Middle East
envoy Tony Blair.
(AFP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, Brazil's Embraer
(EMBR3.SA), the world's third-biggest commercial jet maker, said it
would invest 148 million euros in two new plants in Portugal -- its
first industrial units in Europe that will make wings and tailpieces
for exports.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In southern Haiti at
least 29 people were killed when a large truck carrying people and
merchandise collided with three pickups east of Cavailon.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 26, In western India at
least 51 people were killed and 161 wounded when 19 bombs went off in
several crowded neighborhoods of Ahmadabad, Gujarat state.
(AP, 7/26/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.44)
2008 Jul 26, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said that Iran now has 6,000 centrifuges, a significant
increase in the number of uranium-enriching machines in its nuclear
program.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Lebanon three more
people were killed in the second day of sectarian clashes between
Sunnis and Alawites in northern Lebanon, bringing the total to 9 with
42 wounded.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Nigeria
unidentified men in a speed boat seized eight foreign oil workers at
gunpoint in the Niger delta. They were released later in the day.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Pakistan 3
soldiers and at least 12 suspected insurgents were killed in fighting
after the militants ambushed a convoy in the Dera Bugti district of
Baluchistan province.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 26, Hamas security
arrested dozens of supporters of the rival Fatah group, hurled grenades
at the home of a Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza
following the previous day’s beachside blast that killed five Hamas
members and a 6-year-old girl. Masked Hamas gunmen nabbed Sawah Abu
Saif (42), a Palestinian cameraman for German TV, from his Gaza home,
during a mass weekend roundup of alleged activists of the rival Fatah
movement. He was tortured and released on July 31.
(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 26, South Korea’s
government said days of torrential rains have led to the deaths of
seven people and left six others missing.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Spain Maria
Remedios Garcia Albert (57) was arrested in San Lorenzo de el Escorial
on suspicion of belonging to Colombia's FARC rebel group.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 26, In northern Sri Lanka
12 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed by security forces in fresh clashes
in the Wanni region.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 26, Sudan’s army attacked
a rebel police post in North Darfur, killing four troops, before
conducting search operations in nearby villages according the Sudan
Liberation Movement (SLM). Sudan's army initially denied the report. On
July 29 Khartoum said rebels of Minni Arcua Minnawi's Sudan Liberation
Movement (SLM) attacked a convoy on that road and the police responded,
killing four of them and injuring two.
(Reuters, 7/27/08)(Reuters, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Knoxville,
Tennessee, Jim D. Adkisson (58) entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian
Universalist Church during a children's performance and killed 2
people. In 2009 Adkisson pleaded guilty to killing 2 people and
wounding 6 others because he hated the church’s liberal politics.
(AP, 7/28/08)(SFC, 7/28/08, p.A2)(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A7)
2008 Jul 27, In Afghanistan some
50 to 70 insurgents were killed when helicopter gunships and ground
fighting repulsed an attack by about 100 rebels in the Spera district
of Khost province near the Pakistan border. 2 Policemen were killed in
the attack. Elsewhere in Khost province, a suicide bomber blew himself
up inside a tent of security guards, killing one of them and injuring
six more. NATO troops killed two children in southern Afghanistan by
opening fire on a car that they feared was about to attack their convoy.
(AFP, 7/27/08)(WSJ, 7/28/08, p.A10)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Antigua newlyweds
Benjamin and Catherine Mullany, both 31, were attacked inside their
cottage at the Cocos Hotel resort in the island's southwest. Both were
shot in the head. Catherine was killed. A comatose Benjamin was flown
back to Britain where he was pronounced dead on August 3. On August 18
a 20-year old man and 17-year-old male were taken to a magistrate court
in St. John's and were charged with murder, robbery and receiving
stolen goods.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Jul 27, Cambodian PM Hun
Sen's party claimed it won a sweeping victory in polls overshadowed by
a military standoff with Thailand. Tens of thousands of opposition
supporters were excluded from the electoral register.
(AFP, 7/27/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.45)
2008 Jul 27, In Egypt Youssef
Chahine (1926), filmmaker, died in Cairo. His 28 films included “The
Blazing Sun” (1954) with Omar Sharif. His 1994 film “The Emigrant,”
about the Old Testament figure of Joseph, was denounced by militant
Islamists and banned.
(SFC, 7/29/08, p.B5)
2008 Jul 27, Iran hanged 29 people
at dawn after they had been convicted of murder, drug trafficking and
other crimes.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Iraq gunmen hiding
in reeds in Madain, a Sunni town south of Baghdad, killed seven Shiite
pilgrims as they were marching to a shrine in the capital for a major
holiday.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, Israeli troops killed
a Hamas militant in the West Bank town of Hebron. Troops exchanged
gunfire with the man (25) for 12 hours before bulldozing the structure.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, Mexico City residents
voted against the president's proposal to give private companies a
bigger role in the country's state-run oil industry in a nonbinding
referendum.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 27, Ram Baran Yadav,
Nepal's first president, appealed for rival parties in the
newly-republican nation to form a consensus government and end weeks of
political deadlock, in his maiden address to the people.
(AFP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, Spain's National
Court jailed seven people on charges of belonging to a militant cell of
the Basque separatist group ETA.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Sri Lanka at least
16 different battles broke out in the Welioya and Vavuniya regions,
some of them sparked by government attacks on the rebels' bunker lines.
The rebels also carried out at least five roadside bombings against
troops. The violence killed 18 rebels and four soldiers.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Istanbul, Turkey,
bomb blasts killed 17 people in a crowded square in the residential
neighborhood of Gungoren. 5 of the dead were children. Turkish
warplanes bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets on Mount Qandil in northern
Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, Floods in western
Ukraine killed 22 people, including 4 children, and 5 in neighboring
Romania after 5 days of nonstop rain. A senior government official
described them as the worst in a century. Heavy rain in the
southwestern Carpathian Mountains caused the Prut and Dniestr rivers to
overflow. The flooding affected more than 40,000 houses and led to the
evacuation of some 20,000 people.
(Reuters, 7/27/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, Pres. Bush met with
Pakistan’s new PM Yousaf Raza Gilani at the White House and they agreed
to battle terrorists in Pakistan.
(SFC, 7/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 28, A senior Bush
administration official said the budget deficit for this year will set
a record in dollar terms, approaching $490 billion.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, Sir Richard Branson
and Burt Rutan unveiled their White Knight Two, the mothership of
SpaceShip Two, at the Mohave Air & Space Port in California.
Spaceship Two, the passenger rocket, was being built for Branson’s
Virgin Galactic, which hoped to soon carry passengers into space.
(SFC, 7/29/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 28, The propeller-driven
"Zephyr" aircraft, owned by QinetiQ Group PLC, began a flight over the
Arizona desert and continued for an unofficial record of 83 hours and
37 minutes, more than doubling the official world record set by
Northrop Grumman's "Global Hawk" in 2001. The 66 pound- (30 kilogram-)
plane was launched by hand and flown by autopilot and via satellite.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Jul 28, Police in Alabama
arrested Anthony Hopkins (37), a part-time evangelist, after finding a
body in his home freezer. Police believed it was the body of his wife,
Arletha Hopkins, who had not been heard of for 3 years.
(www.wsbtv.com/news/17043437/detail.html)
2008 Jul 28, US-led coalition
troops killed several militants during a raid in central Afghanistan,
while a suspected bomb maker and his family died in an accidental blast
in Kunar province.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 28, Hernan Arbizu, former
JPMorgan Chase & Co private banking executive, was arrested in
Argentina following an indictment on charges of embezzling about $5.4
million. He fled to Argentina before being fired in June.
(Reuters, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 28, Tarek bin Laden
signed a deal with Djibouti to build Noor City, the first of a hundred
“Cities of Light” that the Saudi Binladen Group planned around the
world. Plans called for the city to have 2.5 million people by 2025 and
4.5 million for its Yemeni twin.
(Econ, 8/2/08,
p.50)(www.railpage.com.au/f-p1093077.htm)
2008 Jul 28, In England hijackers
made off with boxes of blank British passports worth a fortune on the
black market in a raid on a delivery van in the Manchester suburb of
Oldham. British policed later said the passports were "very secure" as
they contained a micro-chip which had not been activated.
(AFP, 7/29/08)(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 28, Antoine Wendo Kolosoy
(aka Papa Wendo, b.1925), Congolese riverboat mechanic, boxer and rumba
singer, died at age 82. He cut his first records in 1947 for Olympia, a
Belgian label.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.84)
2008 Jul 28, Lebanese singer
Suzanne Tamim (30) was found stabbed and her throat slashed in Dubai.
On August 8 Egypt banned news coverage of the brutal slaying following
media reports in other papers that said a wealthy Egyptian businessman
ordered 3 men to carry out the killing. On Sep 2 Hisham Talaat
Moustafa, an Egyptian lawmaker and business tycoon, was arrested in the
death Tamim. He was accused of paying a former police officer $2
million to kill her. On May 21, 2009, Moustafa was sentenced to death
for ordering Tamim’s death. Former officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary, was also
convicted and sentenced to death.
(AP,
8/13/08)(www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=21342)(AP, 9/2/08)(AP,
5/21/09)
2008 Jul 28, Pierre Beres
(b.1913), king of the French booksellers, died.
(SFC, 8/4/08, p.B3)
2008 Jul 28, In Iraq 3 female
suicide bombers blew their explosive vests in the middle of pilgrims in
Baghdad, moments after a roadside bomb attack, killing at least 32
people and wounding 102. In Kirkuk 25 people were killed and 185
wounded when a blast tore through a crowd of Kurds protesting a draft
provincial elections law. A roadside bomb attack killed four civilians
near Balad Ruz.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, In central Japan 4
people died after being swept away in torrential rains that caused
floods and mudslides and prompted an evacuation order for 50,000 people.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, In Nepal protesters
blocked traffic and held demonstrations to protest the decision by
Paramananda Jha, the newly elected vice president, to take his oath of
office in Hindi,which is not recognized as an official language.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, Militants in
Nigeria's Niger Delta said they had blown up two major oil pipelines
belonging to Royal Dutch Shell, forcing the firm to halt some
production and helping push world oil prices higher.
(Reuters, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, A suspected US
missile strike on a Pakistani madrassa killed six people, including
foreigners. Pakistani security officials said Al-Qaeda chemical weapons
expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar (54) was believed to have been killed
in the US missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal district. The
Egyptian, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a
five-million-US-dollar bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist
training camps in Afghanistan. In Kohat a bomb rigged to a bicycle
killed a teenage boy and wounded 12 policemen. Pakistani Taliban
militants shot dead three intelligence officials near Mingora, the main
town in Swat. The Taliban later confirmed that al-Masri had been killed
along with 3 other commanders.
(Reuters, 7/28/08)(AFP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/28/08)(AFP,
7/29/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Jul 28, In the Philippines a
packed commuter bus strayed into an oncoming lane and crashed head-on
into another bus on a highway south of Manila, killing at least 11
people and injuring 29 others.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 28, Navanethem Pillay, a
judge from South Africa, was confirmed as the new UN chief of human
rights.
(SFC, 7/29/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 29, Pres. Bush signed a
bill freezing the assets of political and military leaders in Myanmar
and banning the importation of rubies and jade from Myanmar to the US.
The legislation also gave incentives to Chevron to divest its natural
gas program there. The US Treasury announced financial sanctions on 10
companies suspected of being owned by Myanmar’s government.
(SFC, 7/30/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 29, The US Senate’s
Foreign Relations Committee voted to triple America’s non-military
assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.39)
2008 Jul 29, Alaska Senator Ted
Stevens (84), the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, was
indicted for making false statements concerning gifts he received from
an oil-services firm.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Maryland police
raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo shooting to death
the couple's two dogs and seizing an unopened package containing 32
pounds of marijuana. The couple appeared to be innocent victims of a
scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by
having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Jul 29, New York’s Gov. David
Paterson delivered a special address on the state’s deteriorating
fiscal condition. His new budget placed the state’s deficit at $6.4
billion.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.36)
2008 Jul 29, The SF Board of
Directors voted 8-3 to ban the sale of tobacco products at most
pharmacies in the city.
(SFC, 7/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 29, Department store
chain Mervyns LLC filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest in a
series of merchants stumbling in the harsh retail environment and
another blow to the nation’s struggling malls. In August Mervyn’s sued
its former private equity owners saying they stripped the department
store chain of its valuable real estate and then nearly doubled its
rent effectively pushing the California-based company into bankruptcy.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25918757/)(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 29, Starbucks said it
will close more than two-thirds of its 84 stores in Australia by the
end of the week under a cost-cutting plan that will put almost 700
people out of work.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Luther Davis
(b.1916), Tony-winning playwright and screenwriter, died in the Bronx.
His plays included “Kismet” (1954). In 1978 he turned Kismet into a new
show titled “Timbuktu!”
(www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/theater/02davis.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)
2008 Jul 29, US Army scientist
Bruce E. Ivins died at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. Federal
prosecutors investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to
indict and seek the death penalty against Ivins in connection with
anthrax mailings that killed five people. Ivins, who was developing a
vaccine against the deadly toxin, committed suicide. On Feb 19, 2010,
the FBI formally closed his case concluding that Ivins acted alone in
the 2001 anthrax mailings.
(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 2/20/10)
2008 Jul 29, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast that apparently targeted an Afghan senator mediating a
land dispute in eastern Paktia province killed 3 policemen and wounded
3 others. In Logar province militants attacked a police van, killing
two officers, then taking the vehicle. A British soldier was killed in
Helmand.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, The Bosnian war
crimes court convicted seven Bosnian Serbs of genocide in the 1995
massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica and handed down prison
sentences ranging from 38 to 42 years. Four others were acquitted.
Milenko Trifunovic, Brano Dzinic and Aleksandar Radovanovic received
the 42-year sentences, while Milos Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljevic and
Branislav Medan each got 40 years and Petar Mitrovic received 38 years.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In central Brazil the
torso of Cara Marie Burke, 17, from London, was found in a suitcase in
Goiania. She had been stabbed to death by Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho dos
Santos (20) over the weekend in his apartment. Santos was arrested on
July 31 and confessed. Reports said he was a cocaine user.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Britain a Sikh
teenager won a High Court discrimination case against a school which
banned her from classes after she refused to remove a religious bangle.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Ecuador’s Foreign
Ministry said the US military must stop using its only outpost in South
America for anti-drug flights when Washington's 10-year lease on the
base in Ecuador expires in 2009.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Hundreds of armed
former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army stormed an old barracks and
civilian prison to demand the force be reinstated.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, India’s central
Reserve Bank raised its key lending rate an unexpected half per cent to
9%, a 7-year high.
(WSJ, 7/30/08, p.C2)
2008 Jul 29, Indian and Pakistani
soldiers traded fire across the heavily armed Kashmir frontier for more
than 12 hours overnight and into the day in what the Indian army called
the worst violation of a 2003 cease-fire agreement between the
nuclear-armed neighbors.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, US and Iraqi forces
launched a new operation aimed at clearing al-Qaida in Iraq from the
volatile Diyala province, considered the last major insurgent safe
haven near the capital.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, The International
Olympic Committee agreed to allow Iraq to participate in the Beijing
games, reversing itself after Baghdad pledged to ensure the
independence of its national Olympics.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Israeli gunfire
killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy during a confrontation between
troops and stone-throwers in a West Bank village.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Mexico a family of
six was found dead in their home in western Jalisco state, allegedly
targeted by kidnappers aided by corrupt cops. Four victims, including
two children, were shot in the head. A teenage boy's throat was
slashed. His mother was asphyxiated with a plastic bag.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Jul 29, Pakistani Taliban
militants killed 3 soldiers, including an army captain, and kidnapped
30 security forces from a police station in the northwestern Swat
Valley.
(AFP, 7/29/08)(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 29, A huge blast rocked a
training base run by the Islamic militant Hamas in southern Gaza,
injuring at least five members of the group.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Russian news said 2
small, manned submarines reached the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world's
deepest freshwater lake. The "Mir-1" and "Mir-2" submersibles descended
1.05 miles (1,680 meters) to the bottom of the vast Siberian lake.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Russian proxies in
South Ossetia started shelling pro-Georgian villages there.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.78)
2008 Jul 29, A UN court trying the
masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide said that its mandate had been
extended by a year until 2009.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Talks in South Africa
on Zimbabwe's political crisis broke up with no power-sharing deal
between President Robert Mugabe and his bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai
in sight.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Sri Lanka 21 Tamil
Tigers and 4 soldiers were slain in clashes in the northern Wanni
region.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, killing a group of guerrillas
gathered at a mountain cave.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, WTO Director-General
announced on that the latest negotiations for a much-delayed trade
liberalization deal under the so-called Doha Round had broken down
after nine days due to unresolved differences. The deadlock centered on
a row between the US and India over special tariff measures to protect
poor farmers from surging imports or price falls.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, President Bush signed
a massive housing bill intended to provide mortgage relief for 400,000
struggling homeowners and stabilize financial markets. Bush also signed
an executive order updating the authority of the national intelligence
director.
(AP, 7/30/08)(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 30, President George W.
Bush signed legislation repealing a rule that prevented HIV-infected
immigrants, students and tourists from receiving US visas without
special waivers. Bush also signed an act reauthorizing PEPFAR, the
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It will provide $39 billion
to be spent on AIDS over the next 5 years, up from $15 billion for the
past 5 years.
(AP,
8/5/08)(www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/hivaids/)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.75)
2008 Jul 30, The NY Times reported
that a top Central Intelligence Agency official has traveled to
Islamabad and confronted senior officials with evidence of ties between
Pakistan's spy agency and militants operating in that country's tribal
areas.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, US federal health
officials said the salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak
has been found in irrigation water and in a sample from a batch of
serrano peppers at a Mexican farm in Nuevo Leon. Mexico's Agriculture
Department rejected the FDA's conclusion saying "The farm unit in
question ended its harvest more than a month ago, so the sample they
say they have lacks scientific validity" because the sample "was taken
recently from a tank holding rain water that was not used in
production."
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 30, In SF Mayor Gavin
Newsom signed into law a $6.5 billion city budget.
(SFC, 7/31/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 30, Nicholas Corozzo
(68), New York City mob captain, pleaded guilty to racketeering and 2
murders in 1996. In 2009 he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/cz7tj8)(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A10)
2008 Jul 30, In Afghanistan
Insurgents and a roadside blast killed five Afghan policemen.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Aborigines won
traditional ownership rights over a large stretch of coastline in
northern Australia, in a landmark ruling lawyers said could set a
precedent in other parts of the country.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Former Bosnian Serb
leader Radovan Karadzic sat in a UN jail cell after being flown to the
Netherlands in the dead of night to face charges of genocide against
Muslims and Croats during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Media watchdog Ofcom
fined the BBC 400,000 pounds, the largest financial penalty it has ever
issued against the public broadcaster, for misleading the public
through fake quizzes and competitions.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, In Canada Tim McLean
(22), sleeping on a Greyhound bus was killed and decapitated by his
seatmate, Vince Weiguang Li (40), as the bus rolled across the Canadian
Prairies in Manitoba. On march 5, 2009, a judge ruled that Li would not
be judged criminally responsible due to mental illness.
(Reuters, 7/31/08)(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 3/5/09)
2008 Jul 30, A human rights group
said Chinese authorities have sent Liu Shaokun to a labor camp for a
year. He had posted pictures of collapsed schools on the Internet and
was detained last June for allegedly “seriously disturbing social
order.” And disrupting post-quake reconstruction efforts.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 30, The UN Security
Council voted to end an 8-year-long peacekeeping mission between
Eritrea and Ethiopia despite continuing tensions, a move that the
United Nations' chief has warned could lead to a new war.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Germany's highest
court partially overturned bans on smoking in bars, ruling that states
must either ban smoking in all restaurants and pubs or offer exceptions
for single-room establishments.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, In the troubled
Russian republic of Ingushetia a car bomb exploded outside the regional
police headquarters morning, killing at least two police.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Nearly 50,000 Iraqi
police and soldiers were involved in a US-backed operation against
al-Qaida in Iraq in one of its last major strongholds near the capital.
A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in eastern Baghdad,
killing at least one Iraqi soldier and wounding seven other people.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert announced he would step down after his Kadima Party's leadership
race in September, called because of a series of corruption allegations
against him.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 30, In Lebanon gunmen
attacked a Lebanese military post in the country's east, killing one
soldier and wounding another.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Mexican police
captured Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian cartel operative who
represented Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel in dealings with
Mexico's Beltran Leyva gang. He had escaped from a Colombian prison in
2001 and was wanted on drug charges in the US.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 30, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI condemned Algeria's continuing closure of their common
border, despite repeated calls by Rabat for it to be reopened. Algiers
has set a global settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara as a
precondition for reopening the border, which it closed in 1994 after
Morocco claimed Algerian secret service agents were behind an Islamist
extremist attack in Marrakesh.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, Nigerian security
officials said rival militant factions in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger
Delta have clashed in an apparent turf war, killing at least four
people.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, The UN said hunger in
North Korea is at its worst since the 1990s, prompting the resumption
of emergency UN food shipments after a two-year hiatus.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, In Pakistan fierce
fighting erupted in the restive Swat valley, killing 25 militants and
four soldiers and undermining the government's strategy of offering
peace deals to pro-Taliban insurgents. Sher Ali, an insurgent commander
known as Mullah Toor, was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/30/08)(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 30, The papal nuncio said
Paraguay's president-elect Fernando Lugo (57) has received
unprecedented permission from the pope to resign as bishop, ending a
dispute over his priestly status.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 30, Alexander Tsygankov,
a Russian oil executive detained in Libya since last November, was
freed, hours before Russian PM Vladimir Putin was due to host the
country's prime minister.
(Reuters, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 30, Saudi Arabia's
Islamic religious police banned the sale dogs and cats as pets, as well
as walking them in public due to “the rising of phenomenon of men using
cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families" as well as
"violating proper behavior in public squares and malls."
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 30, Sri Lankan war planes
bombed a suspected Tiger base in the north. The army launched a wave of
attacks against Tamil Tiger separatists in the north, sparking battles
that killed 24 rebels and one soldier.
(AFP, 7/30/08)(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 30, Turkey’s high court
narrowly voted against disbanding the ruling Justice and Development
Party, but cut off millions of dollars in state aid to the
Islamic-oriented party.
(SFC, 7/31/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 30, Zimbabwe’s reserve
bank said it will drop 10 zeros from its hyper-inflated currency —
turning 10 billion dollars into one. President Robert Mugabe threatened
a state of emergency if businesses profiteer from the country's
economic and political unraveling.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 31, The US Congress
approved legislation that will allow the State Department to settle all
remaining lawsuits against Libya by US terrorism victims.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger ordered the layoffs of thousands of state workers along
with steep pay cuts for most other state employees to ease the state’s
budget gap of $17.2 billion.
(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 31, A US Virgin Islands
hospital fired four board members after a US government audit found
alleged financial mismanagement and the use of taxpayer money to fund
lucrative pay packages for top administrators.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Exxon Mobil Corp.
reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion, the biggest
quarterly profit ever by any US corporation, but the results were well
short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Scientists reported
that Phoenix spacecraft robot has confirmed the presence of frozen
water lurking below the Martian permafrost.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Ivan Miranda (14) was
killed in the SF Excelsior district in a gang motivated attack. Rony
Aguilera (17), an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was charged in the
sword attack. Aguilera had veen arrested in 2007 in an assault case,
but was not referred to federal authorities under a recently discarded
city sanctuary ordnance. In 2009 Walter Chinchilla-Linar (23) and Cesar
Alvarado (19), alleged members of MS-13 street gang, were charged with
the stabbing death of Miranda.
(SFC, 11/14/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/23/09, p.A12)
2008 Jul 31, In Wisconsin a gunman
opened fire on a group of young adults from Michigan killing 3, aged
17-19, along the Menominee riverbank in the town of Niagara. The next
day police arrested Scott J. Johnson (38). He had a raped a woman near
the same site the evening before the murders. In 2009 Johnson was
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 8/2/08)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A6)
2008 Jul 31, A small jet crashed
while preparing to land at Degner Regional Airport in Minnesota killing
8 people including several casino and construction executives.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 31, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched the Amazon Fund to provide grants to
projects intended to stop the Amazon rainforest from shrinking.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.37)
2008 Jul 31, Haitian lawmakers
ratified Michele Pierre-Louis to be the country's prime minister,
ending more than three months of political bickering and deadlock in
Parliament.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, At least 36 Hindu
pilgrims from Nepal were killed when their bus plunged into a river in
the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Iraq a
suicide car bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of
a police station near the northern city of Mosul, killing three
policemen and wounding four. A judge died of wounds suffered in an
attack the day before in Mosul. Insurgents clashed with US-allied Sunni
Arab fighters and killed one of them near the village of al-Waib, south
of Baqouba.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, A mortar shell hit a
house in the Swat valley where Pakistani security forces are battling
Islamic militants, killing a family of seven. Another 10 civilians died
in fighting in the region. Militants torched a nearby girls school.
(AP, 7/31/08)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 31, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas ordered the release of all Hamas activists detained in
recent days by his security forces.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Russia’s Pres.
Medvedev said that he had signed an anticorruption plan and that he was
serious about clamping down on graft.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 31, South Korea's
Constitutional Court overturned a ban on doctors telling parents the
gender of unborn babies, saying the country has grown out of a
preference for sons and that the restriction violates parents' right to
know.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Sri Lanka’s army
troops crossed into Kilinochchi district, where the rebels' de facto
capital is located, in fighting for the first time in 11 years.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Jul 31, Sudanese courts
sentenced another 22 alleged Darfur rebels to death over an
unprecedented attack on the capital last May in which more than 222
people were killed.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Thailand the wife
of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was found guilty of evading millions of
dollars in taxes and sentenced to three years in prison, dealing a
staggering blow to a man who was once one of the richest and most
powerful in Thailand.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Turkey’s Deputy PM
Cemil Cicek signaled the government would not push for a fresh round of
legislation to lift the head scarf ban.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Fourteen of the UN
security council's 15 members voted in favor of Resolution 1828 to
extends the mandate of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in
Darfur (UNAMID) for one year from this day, when it had been set to
expire. The United States abstained in the vote because language added
to the resolution noting concern that any indictment of Beshir might
jeopardize the Darfur peace process.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, Venezuela’s Pres.
Chavez said his government will nationalize Banco de Venezuela, the
local unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul, In Alaska Gov. Palin’s
chief of staff told Walter Monegan, the state public safety
commissioner, that he was being fired because the governor wanted “to
go in a different direction.” Monegan, hired by Palin shortly after she
took office in 2006, said his firing was connected to his failure to
remove Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law, from the state
police force.
(SFC, 9/1/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul, Mubadala Development, an
investment arm of Abu Dhabi, announced that it intended to became a
major shareholder in GE.
(Econ, 9/20/08, SR p.24)
2008 Jul, Fifty-five thousand jobs
were lost in Canada this month, the biggest number since February 1991,
principally the result of a struggling private sector in the country's
central provinces.
(Reuters, 8/8/08)
2008 Jul, In China the founder of
a company involved in commodities futures trading allegedly fled to the
US with millions of dollars of customers’ money.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.40)
2008 Jul, Kadisiya became the 10th
of 18 Iraqi provinces to come under Iraqi command.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.48)
2008 Jul, Japan for the first time
exported more to China this month than to America. Japan’s public
sector debt stood at 170% of GDP, the highest among the big rich
economies.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.87)
2008 Jul, Religious leaders
meeting in Norway unveiled a plan for a code of conduct for holy sites
on which all governments could agree.
(Econ, 8/30/08,
p.60)(www.arcworld.org/news.asp?pageID=254)
2008 Jul, In the Ukraine a
16th-century Caravaggio painting, "The Taking of Christ, or the Kiss of
Judas," was stolen from the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in
Odessa. It was valued at several million euros. In 2010 Berlin
recovered the painting and arrested four members of an international
gang of art thieves as they tried to sell it to an interested buyer.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2008 Jul, In Venezuela inflation
was running at 32%.
(Econ, 7/19/08, p.47)
2008 Aug 1, US Federal and state
regulators closed First Priority Bank of Bradenton, Florida, the 8th US
bank to fail this year. It would be acquired by SunTrustBanks Inc.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A3)(www.fpbank.com/)
2008 Aug 1, In eastern Afghanistan
4 NATO soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Kunar province. Another
soldier was killed in a separate explosion in Khost province. More than
a dozen" rebels were killed in ground fighting and air strikes after
attacking an Afghan and US-led coalition patrol in the southern
province of Uruzgan. Several more were killed in the southwestern
province of Farah after their hideout was discovered. Three other
militants linked to Taliban, one of them a doctor, were killed when a
bomb they were planting exploded in eastern Khost province. Islamic
rebels captured six policemen following a brief firefight in Khost
province.
(AFP, 8/1/08)(AFP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 1, Anglo-Australian
mining giant Rio Tinto said it received correspondence from Guinea
President Lansana Conte "purporting to rescind the Simandou Mining
Concession."
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 1, China’s broad
anti-monopoly law, promulgated in August, 2007, went into effect. It
became informally referred to as its economic consitution.
(www.iflr.com/Article/2017768/Anti-Monopoly-Law.html)(Econ, 3/21/09,
p.68)
2008 Aug 1, In southern Egypt 12
people were killed and 16 others wounded when two speeding passenger
buses rammed into a truck.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, A German farmer who
lost both his arms in an accident was successfully fitted with two new
limbs in what is believed to be the first complete double arm
transplant.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, In southern India at
least 32 people have died after several coaches of the Gautami Express
train caught fire.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, In Iraq a roadside
bomb attack has killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded two others in
northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, The body of Fernando
Marti, the 14-year-old son of a prominent businessman, was found in the
trunk of a car in Mexico City. He had been kidnapped in June. The
kidnap and murder prompted a wave of anti-crime protests across the
nation. In September police detained five suspects including Sergio
Ortiz, a former agent of a now-disbanded city detective force, who led
the "Flower Gang" responsible for kidnapping Marti in June. In July,
2009, Jose Montiel (34) and Noe Robles (31) were arrested for the
kidnapping. They were believed to be members of a Mexico City gang
responsible for at least 23 abductions.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 7/18/09)
2008 Aug 1, In northwestern
Pakistan about 35 militants kidnapped 2 policemen on the outskirts of
Khar.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, Hamas forces seized
about 15 leaders of Fatah in Gaza, upping the stakes in a week of
tit-for-tat arrests between the bitter Palestinian rivals. Fatah said
more than 200 of its men have been seized over the past week. Five
Palestinians died and 18 were wounded in a smuggling tunnel under the
Gaza-Egypt border after Egyptian troops blew up the entrance.
(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 1, Leonid Nevzlin, a top
manager of the now defunct YUKOS business empire, was sentenced by a
Russian court to life in prison for ordering a series of high profile
murders, a verdict he dismissed as the result of a show trial organized
by the Kremlin.
(Reuters, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, In Sri Lanka new
fighting between government forces and the rebels across the country's
embattled northern region killed 38 rebels and 14 soldiers.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 1, A sniper assassinated
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Suleiman, a senior Syrian general close to
President Bashar Assad, at a beach resort in the northern port city of
Tartous.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 1, An African Union (AU)
peacekeeper from Uganda was killed when a roadside bomb struck his
convoy in the capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, King George Tupou V
was crowned King of Tonga.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.42)
2008 Aug 1, In central Turkey a
three-story girls dormitory collapsed, killing at least 18 students and
setting off a search for a half dozen people believed to be under the
rubble in Balcilar. A gas leak from kitchen pipes caused the powerful
explosion, leaving another 27 people injured. 3 dormitory
administrators were charged on August 3 with "causing death through
negligence."
(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 1, The UN atomic
watchdog's board of governors unanimously approved an inspections
agreement with India that is key to finalizing a US-India nuclear deal.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 2, The US Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) said that due to new tracking methods 40% more
people are infected by the HIV virus than was previosly believed.
(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 2, In Santa Cruz, Ca., 2
firebombs exploded outside the homes of 2 UC Santa Cruz biologists.
They were similar to some used in the past by animal rights activists.
(SFC, 8/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 2, Peter W. Rodman
(b.1943), lawyer, government official and foreign policy expert, died.
His book “Presidential Command: Power, Leadership, and the Making of
Foreign Policy from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush” was published in
2009.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rodman)(WSJ,
1/12/09, p.A11)
2008 Aug 2, In Afghanistan a
suspected rebel bomb struck a minibus carrying a newly married couple,
killing the bride and groom and 11 wedding guests.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, Perez Celis (b.1939),
a prestigious Argentine muralist, painter and sculptor, died in Buenos
Aires.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 2, Geoff Ballard
(b.1932), founder of Ballard Power and advocate for fuel cells, died in
Vancouver, Canada. In 1999 he had started General Hydrogen to explore
ways to manufacture and market hydrogen as a fuel. Plug Power bought
General Hydrogen in 2007 for $10 million.
(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B5)
2008 Aug 2, In China Zhang Jinfu
(43), a farmer, killed six and injured one in a stabbing spree in the
Hubei province village of Xuyang.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 2, China’s Sanlu Group, a
dairy product producer, told Fronterra, a New Zealand company that owns
43% of Sanlu, that there was problem with milk powder.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.57)
2008 Aug 2, Saad Eddin Ibrahim
(69), an exiled Egyptian human rights activist who also holds US
nationality, was sentenced in abstentia to two years in prison for
defaming Egypt. He was accused him of defaming the country after a
series of articles and speeches on citizenship and democracy in which
he criticized the Egyptian regime. Ibrahim, who founded the Ibn
Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies, was sentenced in 2001 to seven
years for "tarnishing Egypt's reputation," before being freed on appeal
after spending 10 months behind bars.
(AFP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, Overnight fighting
that included sniper and mortar fire between Georgian forces and
separatists in the breakaway South Ossetia region left six people dead
and 13 wounded.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, In northern India 40
farm laborers died after a truck carrying them home from the fields
plunged into a river near Ghoomsa in Bihar state.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 2, More than 1,000 Sunni
Arabs and Turkomen staged a demonstration to protest calls by Kurds to
annex the oil-rich city of Kirkuk to their autonomous region as Iraqi
officials met in Baghdad to defuse tension over the disputed city. The
U.S. military said it has released more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq
so far this year, more than in all of 2007, as it continues to try
phase out its running of Iraqi prisons. A roadside bomb in Baghdad
killed one member of the US-allied Sunni fighters and wounded two
others. An American soldier died and another was injured in a vehicle
accident southwest of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Nigeria gunmen
seized 2 French oil workers from a bar in Onne near the oil hub of Port
Harcourt. The 2 were released on Sep 5.
(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded at a bridge, killing at least nine security forces in the Swat
valley, where Pakistani troops are battling Islamic militants.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Pakistan 22
climbers, mostly foreigners, reached the summit of K-2, the world's
second-highest mountain, but an ice avalanche struck them during their
descent. At least 11 of the mountaineers were killed.
(AP, 8/3/08)(AFP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 2, Hamas security forces
battled fighters in a tribal stronghold where they say suspects in a
deadly bombing last week were hiding. Three Hamas men were killed,
along with six Fatah supporters, and nearly 90 were wounded. Some 180
Fatah supporters fled into Israel from a deadly Hamas crackdown.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a two-day
summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security. Leaders of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops captured
rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel stronghold in
the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger
separatists killed 14 rebels and two soldiers across the embattled
northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, Some 19,000 runners
participated in the 31st annual SF Marathon. Chad Worthen (34) of
Sacramento won with a time of 2:31:52. Lauren Gustafson of Millbrae won
among the women with a time of 2:52:33.
(SFC, 8/4/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 3, In Gearhart, Oregon, a
small plane crashed into a seaside house killing 2 people aboard and 2
children in the vacation home.
(SFC, 8/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 3, Lou Teicher (b.1924),
pianist, died in North Carolina. He was half of the popular piano duo
Ferrante & Teicher whose movie themes and love songs earned them
wide popularity in the 1960s. Together they recorded some 150 albums.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.B5)
2008 Aug 3, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb struck a US-led coalition vehicle, killing one service
member and wounding another on the outskirts of Kabul. Afghan and NATO
troops targeted a group of Taliban fighters in Helmand province,
killing 17 militants and wounding six others. Four police were killed
separately in a militant ambush in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 8/3/08)(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Algeria 21 people,
six of them policemen, were injured in a suicide car bomb attack in the
town of Tizi Ouzou in Algeria's Kabylie region.
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, Cambodia said that
Thai soldiers are occupying a second temple site on their border in an
escalation of an ongoing armed standoff that nearly led to clashes
between the neighbors last month.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Canada a small
plane crashed on Vancouver Island. Two survivors were pulled from the
wreckage but five other people on the aircraft died.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Greece Athanassios
Arvanitis (31) beheaded his girlfriend and her dog on the island of
Santorini and then escaped in a patrol car. Police shot him 5 times as
he ran over 2 women on a motorcycle before being caught.
(SFC, 8/4/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 3, Hundreds of Honduran
squatters angry over a land dispute attacked the home of Henry Sorto, a
local police official. Five employees and six of Osorto's family
members were burned, shot and hacked to death with machetes.
(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 3, In northern India 145
people, including many women and children, were killed when pilgrims
stampeded at a Hindu temple. The devotees were attending a 9-day
religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of
the Himachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Indonesia a top
health official said a factory worker had died of bird flu west of
Jakarta, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus
to 112.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Iraq a truck bomb
exploded during rush hour on a busy street in northern Baghdad, killing
at least 12 people and wounding about two dozen. A roadside bomb killed
six people, including three Iraqi soldiers, and wounded 13 others south
of Baghdad. In Tarmiyah a clash between US-allied fighters and
civilians killed one civilian and wounded 10 others.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, Israeli and
Palestinian officials said most of the 180 Fatah supporters, who had
fled into Israel, would be sent back into the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, The breakaway republic
of South Ossetia began sending hundreds of children across the border
to its Russian ally amid increasing violence between the republic and
Georgian government forces.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(b.1918), Russian Nobel literature laureate (1970), died of heart
failure in his Moscow home. His books, which included “One Day in the
Life of Ivan Denisovich” (1962) and "Gulag Archipelago" (1973),
chronicled the horrors of dictator Josef Stalin's slave labor camps. In
1974, he was stripped of his citizenship and put on a plane to West
Germany for refusing to keep silent about his country's past.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)(WSJ, 8/9/08, p.W12)
2008 Aug 3, In Scotland the Int’l.
Primatological Society Congress opened a 6-day conference. On August 5
scientists released a report saying the nearly half of the world’s 634
types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct due to human
activity.
(SFC, 8/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 3, In Senegal former US
president Bill Clinton wound up a four-nation Africa tour aimed at
combating HIV/AIDS in Dakar, praising France for its financial support
through the agency Unitaid.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Somalia a bomb
hidden under a pile of garbage killed at least 20 people, half of them
women who were sweeping the street in Mogadishu.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Sri Lanka the South
Asian summit ended. Tensions between India and Pakistan overshadowed
the summit, but the two nuclear-armed rivals vowed to work together and
save a tenuous peace process. A draft summit declaration called for
collective action to combat "all forms of terrorist violence" that was
threatening their "peace, stability and security." The leaders also
agreed to implement a regional trade pact, signed in 1995 but never
fully implemented. Troops repulsed an attempt by Tamil rebels to retake
a recently captured guerrilla stronghold in heavy fighting that killed
21 rebels and three soldiers. Thirteen rebels and three soldiers were
killed in other clashes in the Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya regions.
(AFP, 8/3/08)(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 3, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez says 24 Sukhoi fighter jets have been delivered to
Venezuela, and are ready to defend his country from "imperialist"
aggressions.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 3, Zimbabwe's rival
parties resumed power-sharing talks, a day ahead of the expiry of a
deadline to conclude discussions to end a ruinous political crisis.
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, President George W.
Bush signed into law legislation paving the way for Libya to pay
hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate US victims of bombing
attacks that Washington blames on Tripoli.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, Alaska sued the US
government saying its listing of polar bears as a threatened species
will hurt oil exploration and tourism.
(WSJ, 8/6/08,
p.A1)(www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49694/story.htm)
2008 Aug 4, In SF Mayor Newsom
signed into law stringent green building codes for new construction and
renovations of existing structures in the city.
(SFC, 8/5/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 4, In Afghanistan a pair
of Taliban fighters died when a mine they were planting exploded
prematurely in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. Police
killed five Taliban fighters after the militants ambushed a police
patrol in Kandahar’s Panjwayi district.
(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, Bangladesh held local
elections that observers hailed as a success. A fire swept through a
five-story building in a crowded section of the capital, Dhaka, killing
at least 10 people and injuring five others.
(AFP, 8/5/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.42)
2008 Aug 4, In Chile Alberto
Achacaz Walakial, one of the last surviving members of the nomadic
Kaweskar tribe, died of blood poisoning. Government documents listed
Achacaz's age at 79, but some believe he was close to 90. The tribe
once plied the waters off Chile's Patagonian coast. Experts estimate
that only about a dozen full-blooded Kaweskars, or Alacalufes, survive
and the group appears destined to disappear in the near future as there
are no women of fertile age left. Since the arrival of the first
Europeans, Chile has lost five of its original 14 indigenous tribes to
disease, displacement or the overuse of their natural resources.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, In western China 2
Uighur men rammed a truck into a clutch of jogging policemen and tossed
explosives, killing 17 officers, in an attack in Kashgar, Xinjiang
province, just days before the Beijing Olympics. The 2 men were
sentenced to death on Dec 17.
(AP, 8/4/08)(SFC, 8/5/08, p.A11)(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Aug 4, Ecuador's government
said it would seize a family business group's stock shares in 58
companies to help recover debts generated by the collapse of the
family's former bank. The action came a little less than a month after
authorities seized 200 businesses linked to the family of William and
Roberto Isaias, who fled to the US in 2000 shortly after their bank
collapsed.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, India announced an
additional $450 million in aid for development projects in Afghanistan.
PM Singh met with Afghan Pres. Karzai in New Delhi and both countries
pledged to fight terrorism.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 4, Indian officials
pledged to stop Hindus from imposing an economic blockade on the mainly
Muslim Kashmir valley as tensions heightened with the deaths of
protesters. Police opened fire at hundreds of stone-throwing Hindu
protesters angry over a government decision to not transfer land to a
Hindu shrine, killing two people. A Muslim protester was also killed by
a tear gas shell.
(AFP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 4, In Iran journalist
Yaghoob Mirnehad was executed in the city of Zahedan after being
sentenced to death earlier this year. Iran accused Mirnehad of being
involved in the armed Jundallah group, which operates along the
Iranian-Pakistani border. The Jundallah group, or God's Brigade, has
launched attacks against Iranian soldiers and police in the area near
Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is a key crossing point for narcotics.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, Iraqi officials
reported that at least nine Iraqis died in a separate series of
bombings. 2 American soldiers were killed and one was wounded by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad that also killed 2 Iraqis.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, Israel's defense
minister said a group of around 150 Fatah fighters who fled to Israel
from the Gaza Strip will be allowed to relocate to the West Bank
because they face "immediate danger" from Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, Italy’s Defense
Ministry deployed some 3,000 soldiers in cities across the country as
part of government measures to fight street crime.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, A Jordanian military
court sentenced 12 men to up to five years in jail for planning to join
Iraq's insurgency and carry out attacks against US and Iraqi forces.
The five men who received the longest jail terms were at large and
tried in absentia.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, A shootout between
Mexican police and smugglers driving a truck carrying illegal
immigrants left 2 people dead near Agua Dulce.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, A Nigerian
presidential panel on oil and gas sector reform recommended that the
state oil company be transformed into an "independent limited liability
company."
(AFP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, In Pakistan a
remote-controlled bomb explosion struck a military convoy and wounded
eight soldiers in South Waziristan. Militants torched four girls'
schools, a health office and a forestry office. A senior officer said
that over the past week 94 Islamist militants were killed and 14
soldiers lost in fighting in the northwestern Swat valley. At least 25
civilians and eight policemen were also killed in the fighting.
Brigadier Zia Bodla said the army planned a major operation against the
insurgents.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, The Philippine Supreme
Court, acting on a petition by Christian politicians, blocked the
signing of a key accord granting an expanded southern homeland to
minority Muslims as part of a deal to end decades of bloody Islamic
rebellion.
(AP, 8/4/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.41)
2008 Aug 4, In Venezuela changes
in areas from the military to small business loans were pushed through
by the president in 26 laws released in the official gazette. Chavez
approved them on the final day of an 18-month period during which
lawmakers had granted him special legislative powers.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 5, President Bush got a
mixed reception in South Korea at the start of his three-nation Asian
trip. About 30,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall for an
afternoon Christian prayer service supporting Bush's trip. As evening
approached police fired water cannons at an estimated 20,000 anti-Bush
protesters gathered nearby.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US Energy
Department said that even if no new reactors are built, getting rid of
the country's nuclear waste will cost $96.2 billion and require a major
expansion of the planned Nevada waste dump beyond limits imposed by
Congress.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US government
charged 11 people with stealing tens of millions of credit and debit
card numbers from major retailers including TJX Cos Inc, in one of the
largest reported identity-theft incidents on record.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US General
Accounting Office predicted Iraq could finish the year with as much as
a $79 billion cumulative budget surplus due to the influx of oil
revenues. The GAO estimated that Iraqi oil revenues from 2005 through
the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 5, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was
extradited from Afghanistan and arraigned in New York on charges that
she tried to kill US agents and military officers. Siddiqui was
educated at Brandeis and MIT and fled to Pakistan after 9/11 because of
anti-Muslim sentiment. She and her children dropped out of sight in
March 2003, after 9/11 mastermind Khalid sheikh Mohammed mentioned her
name during an interrogation. She was arrested by Afghan police on July
17, who found recipes for explosives and descriptions of New York
landmarks in her handbag. Siddiqui is the wife of Ammar al-Baluchi, a
nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was believed to be the chief
planner of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks.
(SFC, 8/6/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A7)(SSFC,
8/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 5, Texas executed Jose
Medellin (33) for the 1993 rape and killing of two teenage girls in
Houston. Mexico protested the execution, which took place despite a
world court ruling for a new hearing, and expressed concern for the
rights of other Mexicans detained in the US. On Jan 19, 2009, the
International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the US defied
its order when authorities in Texas last year executed a Mexican
convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 8/6/08)(AP, 1/19/09)
2008 Aug 5, John A. "Junior" Gotti
(44) was arrested at his Long Island home on charges linking him to
three New York murders. In 1999 Junior Gotti pleaded guilty to
racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud.
He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The Chinese Embassy in
Washington revoked the visa of Joey Cheek, 2006 Olympic gold medalist,
effectively barring the speedskating champion from the 2008 Olympics.
Cheek had co-founded Team Darfur, an organization of athletes
attempting to draw attention to human rights violations in Darfur.
(SFC, 8/6/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 5, In California 9
firefighters were killed and 4 injured when their helicopter crashed
after battling a blaze in Trinity County.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 5, A magnitude 6.0
earthquake rocked the western Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Gansu,
killing one person and injuring 23 near the site of May's devastating
quake that killed at least 70,000 people.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Wildlife researchers
said they have discovered some 125,000 western lowland gorillas deep in
the forests of the Republic of Congo.
(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 5, The EU said it will
give Haiti $4.6 million to help pay for food in the world's poorest
country.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Iran Ali Kordan was
narrowly approved as the new interior minister. An honorary Oxford
degree that he cited was soon disclosed as a fake.
(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 5, It was reported that
Muqtada al-Sadr planned to reorganize his Mahdi Army militia into a
social services organization. Gunmen killed Sheik Ibrahim al-Karbouli,
a senior leader of a US-allied Sunni group, and six of his guards in an
ambush in Youssifiyah. Police also discovered the bodies of three
awakening council members who were abducted several days ago. Roadside
bombings also killed another person and wounded a dozen, in a second
consecutive day of bombings in the capital.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Japan 4 people were
missing after being washed away by a surge of sewage water while
working in a manhole in downtown Tokyo.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Montenegro 4
Michigan residents were among 12 ethnic Albanians convicted of plotting
a rebellion to carve out a homeland within the tiny Balkan republic.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Officials in Pakistan
said floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have destroyed thousands
of homes and caused at least 27 deaths in the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Rwanda formally
accused senior French officials of involvement in its 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Serbia's war
crimes prosecutor's office indicted Branko Grujic and Branko Popovic in
the 1992 killing of about 700 Muslims in eastern Bosnia. The killings
took place near the town of Zvornik on the border with Bosnia.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Turkey an oil
pipeline that has allowed the West to tap the rich fields of
Azerbaijan, bypassing Iran and Russia, was set on fire. A Kurdish rebel
organization later admitted sabotaging the pipeline.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 5, The UN said heavy
rains and storms have led to some of the worst floods in 40 years in
parts of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania since July 22, causing great
damage to homes, infrastructure and farmland. In Ukraine, 34 people
have been killed in the west of the country along the Dnestr and Prut
rivers; in Moldova, three people are reported to have drowned in the
capital Chisinau; in Romania five people have been killed.
(AFP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Venezuela's Supreme
Court ruled that a list barring hundreds of candidates suspected of
corruption from running in elections is constitutional, despite
complaints that it singles out opponents of President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 6, President George W.
Bush flew into Bangkok on the latest leg of a pre-Olympics Asian tour,
although his focus in Thailand is mainly on the "outpost of tyranny"
junta in neighboring Myanmar.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, The US said it will
protest to China over its decision to revoke the visa of Olympic gold
medalist Joey Cheek, an activist on the African region of Darfur where
China is accused of failing to help end the crisis. Speedskater Cheek
is co-founder of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes
campaigning to draw world attention to the humanitarian crisis there.
(Reuters, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, A jury of six military
officers at Guantanamo Bay reached a split verdict in the war crimes
trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden,
clearing him of some charges but convicting him of others that could
send him to prison for life. Hamdan was convicted of supporting
terrorism but acquitted of conspiracy to commit attacks. The next day
the US military jury sentenced Hamdan to 5 1/2 years in prison,
including five years and a month already served at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 8/6/08)(WSJ, 8/7/08, p.A1)(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 6, A Bulgarian court
declared the Kremikovtzi steel plant to be insolvent. Ukrainian
billionaire Kostyantin Zhevago and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA
competed to take over the plant operations following the insolvency
proceedings.
(WSJ, 8/7/08, p.B2)
2008 Aug 6, Officials said
Cambodia's genocide tribunal has been hit by new corruption
allegations, compelling foreign donors to withhold more than $300,000
from the proceedings pending a review of the claims.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, China announced
changes to its foreign exchange rules to address surging growth in its
hard currency reserves.
(WSJ, 8/7/08, p.C12)
2008 Aug 6, France accused Rwanda
of making "unacceptable accusations" by alleging Paris played an active
role in the 1994 genocide, but said it was still determined to mend
damaged ties with Kigali.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, In Indian Kashmir a
Hindu protester was shot dead in army firing as Premier Manmohan Singh
was due to hold talks with political parties in a bid to defuse
tensions in the region.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, Israel released five
Palestinian teenagers from jail as part of a prisoner exchange
agreement made with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia last month.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, Army officers in
Mauritania, upset with government overtures toward Islamic hard-liners,
staged a coup overthrowing the first government to be freely elected in
more than 20 years. President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was held at
his palace in Nouakchott by presidential guard soldiers, led by Mohamed
Ould Abdelaziz. Arab-dominated Mauritania, with a population of 3.4
million, has been wracked by more than 10 coups or attempted coups
since independence from France in 1960.
(AP, 8/6/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 6, In Nepal a contest to
choose the next "Miss Nepal," slated August 7, was cancelled after
Maoist female lawmakers denounced the beauty pageant.
(AFP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, Pakistani Pres. Pervez
Musharraf abruptly canceled then reinstated his trip to the Olympic
Games as local media reported that the ruling coalition had agreed on
steps to remove him. 9 militants including Ali Bakht, a top-ranking
militant, were killed and many injured during a search and cordon
operation conducted by security forces in the Kabal district of the
Swat valley. Two insurgents died when the explosive device they were
planting in a female educational institution exploded prematurely in
Kabal sub-district. 3 civilians died in the various parts of the Swat
district when stray mortar rounds hit their houses. An attack on a
Pakistani military checkpost by some 200 pro-Taliban militants
triggered intense fighting that killed 25 insurgents and two
paramilitary soldiers near the Afghan border.
(AFP, 8/6/08)(http://tinyurl.com/6bwtwo)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 6, Thousands protested in
South Africa as workers disrupted gold mining and other major
industries in a national strike over price hikes rattling the
continent's economic powerhouse.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, Taiwan's President Ma
Ying-jeou declassified documents allegedly implicating his predecessor
Chen Shui-bian in a high-profile embezzlement case.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 6, Riot police used tear
gas as they blocked hundreds of Venezuelans protesting what they call
new moves by President Hugo Chavez to concentrate his power.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 6, Zimbabwe's ruling
ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC called on their supporters to end
political violence in the country. A newspaper reported that President
Robert Mugabe would have amnesty from prosecution and a ceremonial role
in government under a draft settlement to resolve the country's crisis.
(Reuters, 8/6/08)(AFP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 7, A US federal judge
ruled that American Indian plaintiffs were entitled to $455 million, a
fraction of the $47 billion they sought in a year trial for alleged
losses on royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 7, A federal judge
ordered Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail for violating the
terms of his bond in his perjury case, a decision the judge said he
would have made for any "John Six-Pack" defendant before him.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Arizona an SUV
packed with suspected illegal immigrants flipped over southeast of
Phoenix killing at least 9 people. There were 19 people in the vehicle.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 7, In northern California
the Muir Heritage Land Trust said it will pay $1.8 million for 423
acres in Franklin Canyon, ending a long-standing land fight.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 7, Afghan and coalition
forces killed at least four militants in Nahr Surkh district of Helmand
province. In central Afghanistan US-led coalition forces
"inadvertently" killed four women and a child during a clash that
killed several militants.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Algeria 18 people
were reported dead from a crash between a van and a bus near the city
of Mascara, and 25 were reported injured. Three men who were in
critical condition subsequently died.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that
two subsidiaries of government-owned Dubai World have acquired a 20%
stake in Canada’s circus operator Cirque du Soleil. In May the circus
had agreed to perform on Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island, for 15 years
starting in 2011.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C2)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that
the Dubai-based Al Yousuf Group has invested $10 million in Zap, a
Santa Rosa, Ca., firm that makes electric cars.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C1)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady
Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by
Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the
US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, The US Olympic team
chose Lopez Lomong, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan, to carry the flag
at the Olympic opening ceremony, throwing the spotlight on China's
much-criticized policy on Darfur.
(AFP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, A new US Embassy
report released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the USS Houston
submarine was already leaking during nine earlier port calls in Japan
and the amount of radiation leaked was larger than initially reported.
It "has been steadily leaking a small amount" of radiation from June
2006 to July 2008 when it entered a drydock in Hawaii.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Critics of China's
human rights record made sure they were not forgotten, a day before the
grand opening of the Beijing Olympics, with protest actions the world
over and in China itself. Thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated in
Nepal and India.
(AFP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Heavy shelling
overnight in the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia wounded
at least 21 people. Cyber attacks from Russia began to target Georgian
government Web sites. An organization known as the Russian Business
Network was the leading suspect in the attacks. Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili ordered the shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of South
Ossetia.
(AP, 8/7/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A9)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 7, Sheik Salah al-Obeidi
said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his fighters to
maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may lift the order if
a planned Iraq-US security agreement lacks a timetable for the
withdrawal of American forces. A roadside bomb killed eight Bedouins,
including three women and two children, on a remote desert highway west
of Nasiriyah frequently used by US and Iraqi troops. Gunmen killed a
senior member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, Mahmoud Younis Fathi,
and a colleague as they were driving to work in the northern city of
Mosul. Elsewhere in Mosul, three Iraqi policemen were killed when a
booby-trapped wooden cart exploded after they arrived to collect a body
that had been left on the street beside it.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over
200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo
struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility
rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Maldives President
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signed and adopted a new constitution that allows
multiparty elections and other democratic reforms after decades of
authoritarian rule.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Pakistan's ruling
coalition announced plans to seek the impeachment of Pres. Pervez
Musharraf, alleging the US-backed former general had "eroded the trust
of the nation" during his eight years in power. Musharraf cancelled his
trip to the Olympics in Beijing.
(AP, 8/7/08)(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 7, A device exploded on a
beach in Sochi, a Black Sea Russian resort that will host the 2014
Winter Olympics, killing two people and wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka army
troops attacked and captured a rebel bunker in Welioya, where separate
clashes killed 15 rebels and four soldiers. In nearby Vavuniya
district, fighting killed two rebels and wounded two soldiers.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Turkey a series of
explosions at a municipal government building in Istanbul slightly
injured three people. Shells from a mortar-like mechanism were fired
from a cemetery near a municipal government building.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 8, John Edwards, former
North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate, admitted
that he had an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter, a film producer,
in 2006 but denied fathering a daughter with her.
(AP, 8/9/08)(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.34)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rielle_Hunter)
2008 Aug 8, Struggling home
finance giant Fannie Mae reported a massive second quarter loss of 2.3
billion dollars, more than three times analysts' estimates.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, UBS AG agreed to buy
back $19 billion in auction rate securities improperly sold as
higher-rate equivalents for super-safe money market funds.
(WSJ, 8/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 8, Joseph Bennett (43) of
Canada tried to drive an 58 bags contained 275,000 Ecstasy pills,
estimated at $6.5 million in street value, into Port Huron, Michigan.
In 2009 a federal judge in Detroit sentenced him to 7½ years in
prison.
(SFC, 6/25/09, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/koa934)
2008 Aug 8, Nebraska Beef, an
Omaha meat packer, recalled 1.2 million pounds of beef after products
were linked to illnesses in 12 states. In July the company had recalled
over 5 million pounds of beef due to an outbreak of E. coli in 7 states.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 8, In Texas a charter bus
carrying Vietnamese worshippers on a pilgrimage ran off a highway
overpass north of Dallas and plunged onto a roadway below. 15 people
were killed and 40 injured.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, In western Afghanistan
a coalition service member died in a roadside blast. About 20 Taliban
fighters were killed in a battle with Afghan and US-led forces near a
key military supply route in the western Bala Buluk district. An Afghan
child was killed and two injured by militants who attacked alliance
troops in northeastern Kunar province.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Algeria 12 armed
Islamists, including a number of individuals considered among the
leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, were killed overnight by the army
in an ambush near Beni Douala, near Tizi Ouzou.
(AFP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 8, Australian Customs and
police said they had seized 4.4 tons of ecstasy tablets worth nearly
400 million dollars, describing it as the biggest haul of the illicit
drug anywhere in the world. Police said the seizure of the drugs, which
were concealed in tins of tomato shipped to Australia from Italy, had
resulted in the arrests of 21 people across the country beginning in
pre-dawn raids.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, Bolivia said it has
reached an agreement in principle to purchase the local operations of
energy company Royal Dutch Shell PLC as part of President Evo Morales'
nationalization push.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, President Bush blended
carefully calibrated political messages for China and Russia with
enthusiasm for his nation's athletes as he became the first US
president to attend an Olympics abroad.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Beijing, China, the
29th Olympic Games, costing an estimated 40 billion dollars and
shrouded by political controversies, burst into life with a spectacular
opening ceremony at the “bird’s nest” stadium designed by Ai Weiwei.
The official slogan for the games this year was “One world, one dream.”
Actress activist Mia Farrow began Web-casting her own "Darfur Olympics"
from a refugee camp on the barren Sudan-Chad border, aiming to shame
China into using its influence with Khartoum to end the Darfur conflict.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 8/7/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.28)(Econ,
8/2/08, p.85)
2008 Aug 8, In the Czech Republic
an international express train crashed into a collapsed bridge, killing
at least six people and injuring dozens.
(Reuters, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, The EU tightened trade
sanctions against Iran to punish Tehran for not committing to a
long-standing demand of the international community that it freeze its
nuclear enrichment program.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, Georgian troops
launched a major military offensive to regain control of South Ossetia,
prompting a furious response from Russia, which sent tanks into the
region. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital by
evening. Georgia said it shot down two Russian combat planes.
Separatist officials in South Ossetia said 15 civilians had been killed
in fighting overnight. Georgia later acknowledged that it used M85
cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with
Russia, while Russia denied use of cluster bombs.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 8, Guinea Bissau's army
announced it had arrested rear admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchute, the
head of the navy, over an attempted coup.
(AFP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 8, Anti-US cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr ordered most of his followers to disarm but said he will
maintain an elite fighting unit to resist the Americans in Iraq. Ashraf
al-Yas (19) talked his way through a police checkpoint, drove his
vehicle into a crowded farmers market and detonated his explosives. He
killed 28 people and injured 72 in Tal Afar. A roadside bombing in
Baghdad killed an American soldier and wounded 2 others.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 8/9/08)(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A19)(AP,
8/30/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Nigeria police
arrested the head of a federal agency charged with developing Nigeria's
impoverished southern oil region after allegations the man spent
millions of dollars on a witch doctor in hopes vanquishing a rival.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Pakistan at least
seven Pakistani troops and 30 militants were reported killed in two
days of clashes at Loisam and its surrounding areas in the Bajaur
tribal district. Insurgents stormed a police post in Buner and killed 8
police officers.
(AFP, 8/8/08)(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 8, In Sri Lanka artillery
shells fired by the army hit a hospital overnight killing an
18-month-old baby and wounding 16 people. Infantry clashes in the north
killed 31 rebels and four soldiers.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 8, The Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) near Geneva, began initial tests.
(Econ, 8/2/08,
p.78)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider)
2008 Aug 8, In Turkey Mehmet
Dursun Uygurturkoglu (35) doused himself with gasoline and set himself
alight during a protest by ethnic Uighurs outside the Chinese Embassy.
Other demonstrators jumped on the man and quickly extinguished the
flames with a blanket.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, Researchers said at
least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela since
June 2007. Medical experts suspected an outbreak of rabies spread by
bites from vampire bats.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 9, In SF the 10th annual
Gumball 3000 Rally, an 8-day, 3,000 mile trip across the West Coast,
North Korea and China, began with a parade that included some 100
participants who had apparently paid the $120,000 entrance fee.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.B3)
2008 Aug 9, Bernie Mac (50), the
actor and comedian, died in Chicago. He had teamed up in the casino
heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody Award for
his sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Mahmoud Darwish (67),
a Palestinian poet, died, died in Houston. His poetry eloquently told
of his people's experiences of exile, occupation and infighting.
(AP, 8/10/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.75)
2008 Aug 9, In Afghanistan
airstrikes and clashes north of Kabul killed 11 people, some of whom
were believed to be civilians.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Algeria a suicide
car bomb attack on security forces killed at least eight people and
injured 19 others in the coastal town of Zemmouri el Bahri, east of
Algiers, the second such blast this month.
(AFP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, AU spokesman
El-Ghassim Wane said the African Union has frozen Mauritania's
membership in the wake of a coup in the country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In northeast England
Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found murdered with serious
head injuries in Newcastle.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Burkina Faso heavy
rains caused a mudslide at an illegal gold mine that killed at least 31
people.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 9, Tang Yongming (47), a
knife-wielding Chinese man, attacked two relatives of a coach for the
US Olympic men's volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing, killing
Todd Bachman (62) and injuring his wife on the first day of the
Olympics. Yongming then committed suicide by throwing himself from the
second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just five miles
from the main Olympics site.
(AP, 8/9/08)(SFC, 8/11/08, p.A12)
2008 Aug 9, Georgia, the third
largest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, said it's
pulling out its 2,000-strong contingent from Iraq to join the fighting
in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Separatist forces in
Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia launched air and artillery
strikes to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead in the region.
The Abkhazian move was prompted by Georgia's military action to regain
control over another breakaway province, South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In northeastern
Guatemala robbers armed with machetes hacked a US tourist to death and
seriously wounded his wife in an attack aboard the couple's sailboat on
Lake Izabal.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, In India an official
said monsoon rains had crumpled homes and triggered flash floods in
southern India, killing 18 people. Floods, mudslides, house collapses
and lightning strikes have killed at least 184 people across the
country so far this year.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Iraq a bodyguard
who works for Youth and Sports minister Jassim Mohammed Ja'afar was
gunned down outside his home near the city of Kirkuk. Unidentified
gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old woman outside her home in the al-Maamoun
district in Mosul.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Russia sent hundreds
of tanks and troops into the separatist province of South Ossetia and
bombed Georgian towns in a major escalation of the conflict that has
left scores of civilians dead and wounded. Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that some 1,500 people have been
killed, with the death toll rising. Russian military aircraft bombed
the Georgian town of Gori. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili
proposed a cease-fire. As part of his proposal, Georgian troops were
pulled out of Tskhinvali and had been ordered to stop responding to
Russian shelling.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Sri Lanka air force
fighter jets pounded a Tamil Tiger supply base and an intelligence
operation center deep in rebel-held Mullaitivu district. Separately,
helicopter gunships overnight hit a radio center operated by the Sea
Tigers. Scattered battles in Vavuniya killed 16 rebels and one soldier
while three rebels died in Mullaitivu. Separate clashes killed five
insurgents in Welioya and Jaffna.
(AP, 8/9/08)(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, Syria said it would
bar UN nuclear investigators from revisiting a site bombed by Israeli
jets on suspicion it was a secretly built atomic reactor.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Disaster officials
said landslides and floods killed at least 101 people in northern
Vietnam, covering the homes of some victims as they slept in their beds.
(AP, 8/10/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 10, Shelley Malil (43),
comic film and TV actor, stabbed his girlfriend more than 20 times in
San Diego County. On Aug 13 he was charged with attempted murder.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 10, Isaac Hayes (b.1942),
singer, died in Memphis. The baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner
laid the groundwork for disco. His 1971 "Theme From Shaft" won both
Academy and Grammy awards.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 10, In Afghanistan five
civilians died when their vehicle struck a freshly planted mine close
to an Afghan military base in Zhari district in southern Kandahar
province. Australia's Defense Department said that its troops had
captured Mullah Bari Ghul, the Taliban's senior leader in the central
province of Uruzgan during a targeted operation last week. 8 civilians
held hostage by Taliban militants were killed in an air strike by
US-led troops during a battle that also left 25 rebel fighters dead in
southern Uruzgan province.
(AP, 8/10/08)(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 10, In southern Australia
some 5,000 people rallied to protest the dwindling water levels of the
Murray River, claiming the loss was causing an environmental disaster.
(AFP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, Voters in Bolivia
vigorously endorsed President Evo Morales in a recall referendum he
devised to try to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist
crusade, partial unofficial results showed. More than 62 percent of
voters ratified the mandate.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, In Canada explosions
at a propane facility in Toronto forced thousands to evacuate. One
firefighter died at the scene. A riot broke out and an officer was shot
in the leg in a north Montreal neighborhood where a Honduran teenager
(18) was shot and killed by police a day earlier.
(SFC, 8/11/08, p.A3)(AP, 8/11/08)(SFC, 8/12/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 10, In northwest China
bombings and fierce clashes took place between police and attackers,
the second outbreak of deadly violence there in under a week. Two women
were among a squad of assailants accused of killing 12 people when they
hurled homemade bombs at government buildings and police.
(AFP, 8/10/08)(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 10, Welshwoman Nicole
Cooke handed Britain their first gold of the Beijing Olympic Games when
she won the women's cycling road race.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, Japan's Masato
Uchishiba has won his second straight Olympic gold medal, pinning
France's Benjamin Darbelet just seconds into their final match in the
men's 66-kilogram division and bringing Japan its first judo gold of
the Beijing Games.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, Georgian troops
retreated from the breakaway province of South Ossetia and their
government pressed for a truce, overwhelmed by Russian firepower as the
conflict threatened to set off a wider war. Georgia said it has shot
down 10 Russian planes, including four brought down Aug 9. It also
claimed to have captured two Russian pilots, who were shown on Georgian
television. Ukraine warned Russia it could bar Russian navy ships from
returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to
Georgia's coast.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, In southern India 40
villagers riding on a truck were swept away by a flooded river and
feared dead. Monsoon rains have claimed at least 59 lives in the past
three days.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the US must provide a "very clear
timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement
allowing them to stay beyond this year. A series of bombs struck Iraqi
security forces and commuters in the Baghdad area, killing at least
seven people and wounding 25 others. A female suicide bomber killed a
US soldier and at least four Iraqis in a complex attack in Tarmiyah. An
Iraqi police official said 17 Iraqis were killed in the Tarmiyah
attack, including 3 members of the Awakening Council.
(Reuters, 8/10/08)(AP, 8/10/08)(AP, 8/11/08)(SFC,
8/11/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 10, Pakistani forces
bombed dozens of houses in Bajur, a tribal region near the Afghan
border, amid reports that days of clashes have killed at least 100
insurgents and nine paramilitary troops. Pakistani forces pulled out of
Bajur after 3 days of fighting. A Taliban spokesman said as many as 100
Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed. Officials acknowledged that
55 were missing.
(AP, 8/10/08)(SSFC, 8/11/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 10, In the Philippines
nearly 3,000 troops and police launched an attack after guerrillas
defied an ultimatum to withdraw from five towns in North Cotabato
province.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 10, South African
President Thabo Mbeki spent more than eight hours in talks with
Zimbabwe's president and opposition leaders to try to resolve a deadly
political dispute.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, Sri Lankan soldiers
launched a pre-dawn attack on Tamil separatists in the embattled north,
killing 15 rebels, while other battles in the region left 24 rebels and
one soldier dead, said the military.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 11, President George W.
Bush said he used talks with China's leaders during the Beijing
Olympics to press them to use their influence with Sudan to help end
the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
(Reuters, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger sued state Controller John Chiang for refusing to follow
the governors order to slash pay for thousands of state workers during
the budget impasse.
(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 11, Federal prosecutors
in NYC charged Joseph Shereshevsky and Steven Byers, partners in
Chicago-based WexTrust Capital, with raising over $250 million through
a Ponzi scheme, mainly from Orthodox Jews.
(WSJ, 8/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 11, Jurors in Stockton,
Ca., convicted William Choyce (54) for the murders of 3 prostitutes. He
was serving time in state prison for rape when DNA evidence linked him
to the murders dating back to 1988.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.B12)
2008 Aug 11, George Furth
(b.1932), writer and actor, died in Santa Monica. He wrote the book for
“Company,” a 1971 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim. As an actor he appeared in over 85 films and TV show episodes.
(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B5)
2008 Aug 11, Don Helms (81), steel
guitarist, died in Nashville. Helms had played on over 100 Hank
Williams songs.
(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.B4)
2008 Aug 11, An Afghan police
officer was killed and two others were injured in a roadside bomb
explosion on the southeastern outskirts of Kabul. 3 civilians were
killed and 15 people were wounded, including three NATO troops, when a
suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a NATO military convoy in
Kabul. In the northern province of Maimana meanwhile a Latvian ISAF
soldier was killed and three others wounded when their vehicle hit a
roadside bomb.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, Fred Sinowatz (b.
1929) former Chancellor of Austria (1983 to 1986), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Sinowatz)
2008 Aug 11, In Belarus Emmanuel
Zeltser, an American lawyer, was sentenced to 3 years in prison after
being convicted at a closed trial for commercial espionage and using
false documents. He is an expert on organized crime and money
laundering. The US raised protests over his detention and concerns
about his health in custody. Zeltser (55) was released on June 30,
2009, following a presidential pardon.
(AP, 8/12/08)(AP, 7/1/09)
2008 Aug 11, Brazil's environment
minister said he granted a license for the Santo Antonio hydroelectric
dam but attached stringent conditions to protect Amazon Indian
reservations and nature preserves. The dam is expected to cost 9.5
billion reals (US$5.9 billion) and go online in 2012. The dam is one of
two planned for the Madeira river in the Amazon state of Rondonia.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, In China the US
remained third in the medals table at the end of the third day of
Olympic competition with three gold medals behind hosts China with nine
after the completion of 34 events, and South Korea with four. Abhinav
Bindra became the first Indian to ever win a solo gold medal at the
Olympic Games after winning the men's 10m air rifle title.
(AP,
8/11/08)(www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/14/olympicgames.shooting)
2008 Aug 11, Swarms of Russian
jets launched new raids on Georgian territory and Georgia faced the
threat of a second front of fighting as Russia demanded that Georgia
disarm troops near the breakaway province of Abkhazia.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, Indian troops shot
dead Sheikh Abdul Aziz (52), a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader,
and three other protesters. The shooting came as Indian security forces
tried to prevent about 100,000 Muslims from marching towards the de
facto border with Pakistan.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, The Iraqi government
said it has halted military operations in Diyala province for a week to
give insurgents time to surrender. A female suicide bomber (15) struck
a market checkpoint in the provincial capital of Baqouba, killing at
least one policeman and wounding 14 other people. Another bomb exploded
in the Wijaihiyah area, about 12 miles east of Baqouba, killing 5 Iraqi
women. A bomb stuck under a car exploded in eastern Baghdad, killing
the driver and wounding two other people.
(AP, 8/11/08)(SFC, 8/12/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 11, Mauritania's ousted
PM Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef defiantly refused to recognize the African
country's ruling military junta, after he was freed from house arrest
under international pressure.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 11, In Acapulco, Mexico,
gunmen traveling in a sport utility vehicle fired at a hardware store
killing a girl (14) and a man (35).
(AP,
8/12/08)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402108,00.html)
2008 Aug 11, Pakistani forces
trained gunfire and dropped bombs on Islamic militants in and around
the main town of a tribal region next to the Afghan border, forcing
thousands of residents to flee. The bodies of two men beheaded by
militants were found about 12 miles north of Khar along with a note
accusing them of spying for US and Pakistani authorities. In Peshawar
an explosion killed one man and wounded another apparently as they were
planting a bomb near a private clinic.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, Philippine attack
aircraft and artillery bombed Muslim rebel positions for a second day,
raising fears of a humanitarian disaster in North Cotabato province
with nearly 130,000 refugees forced to flee. Members of the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked a town on the island of
Basilan, around 200 km (125 miles) southwest of where the main fighting
was taking place, and disrupted voting in local elections there.
(Reuters, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, Thailand's Supreme
Court issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his
wife after they failed to appear at a hearing on corruption charges and
fled to London, saying they could not get justice in their homeland.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, A roadside bomb
exploded in eastern Turkey, killing nine soldiers who were on their way
back from an operation against Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, Two Yemeni security
officers and five suspected al-Qaida militants died in a gunbattle in
Tarim, a southern Yemeni town.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 12, Two-thirds of US
corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005,
according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, The US Navy agreed to
restrict loud sonar blasts from anti-submarine vessels in large areas
of the world’s oceans to protect whales and other vulnerable creatures.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.B4)
2008 Aug 12, In California state
and federal officials celebrated the official transfer of 3,300 acres
from the US Army to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, which will oversee
the redevelopment of the 28,000-acre base on Monterey Bay.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Chicago’s archdiocese
agreed to pay over $12.6 million to settle suits by 16 people who
accused priests of sex abuse. This brought the total thus far $65
million for some 250 claims over the last 30 years.
(WSJ, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, It was reported that
Akron inventor Charlie Grispin, chief technical officer of PolyFlow
Corp., had developed a new process to recycle plastic and that a
demonstration plant in Akron showed how the process broke all manner of
plastics into their base chemicals.
(http://tinyurl.com/6xfw5s)(www.polyflowcorp.com/)
2008 Aug 12, Michael Baxandall
(74), Wales-born renowned UC Berkeley art historian, died. His books
included “Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy” (1972).
(SFC, 9/11/08,
p.B5)(www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/13716/mcms.html)
2008 Aug 12, Donald Erb (b.1927),
avant garde composer, died in Ohio. His work included “Reconnaissance,”
one of the first chamber works for live synthesizer and acoustic
instruments. It premiered in 1967 with synthesizer pioneer Robert
Moog on the synthesizer.
(SFC, 8/19/08, p.B5)
2008 Aug 12, Dorothy Wiltse
Collins (b.1923), star pitcher in women’s professional baseball in the
1940s, died in Fort Wayne, Indiana from a stroke. Pitching for six
seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created
in 1943 to provide home front entertainment while many major leaguers
were off to war, Collins dazzled opposing batters. The All-American
league went out of business after the 1954 season.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dottie_Wiltse_Collins)
2008 Aug 12, Tesco, the biggest
British retailer, announced plans to open wholesale grocery stores in
India that will supply goods to hypermarkets owned by Indian
conglomerate Tata Group.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Cambodia's genocide
tribunal formally indicted Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch), a former prison
chief of the country's notorious Khmer Rouge, paving the way for a
historic trial.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Knife-wielding
assailants attacked a road checkpoint in China's troubled far west,
killing three guards and raising the death toll to 31 from a surge in
violence coinciding with the Beijing Olympics. A bus accident in
western China killed 24 students and parents.
(AP, 8/12/08)(WSJ, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, In the Dominican
Republic former Pan American Games wrestling medalist Wilson Santiago
Rojas (31) was shot to death when he tried to prevent his cousin from
being robbed inside a Santo Domingo electronics store.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 12, Security forces in
Gambia arrested Rear Adm. Bubo Na Tchuto, the suspected leader of an
alleged plot to topple the government in nearby Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Georgia's Pres.
Mikhail Saakashvili said his government will declare that its breakaway
regions are occupied territories and will designate Russian
peacekeepers as occupying forces. Russia ordered a halt to military
action in Georgia, after five days of air and land attacks sent
Georgia's army into headlong retreat and left towns and military bases
destroyed. More than 2,000 people were reported killed. A Dutch
television journalist was killed overnight when Russian warplanes
bombed the central Georgian city of Gori. Russia later counted 133
civilian deaths in South Ossetia. Rights activists later said fewer
than 100 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.43)(WSJ, 9/12/08,
p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Indian security
forces shot dead 15 Muslim demonstrators in Kashmir amid a wave of
anger against New Delhi's control over the disputed region.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.33)
2008 Aug 12, A male suicide
bomber, dressed as a woman, struck an Iraqi army convoy carrying senior
officials in Baqouba, killing at least two people. US soldiers over the
last 24 hours captured nine suspected militants linked to what the
military called an Iranian-backed group known as the Hezbollah Brigades
in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/12/08)(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 12, The Lebanese
parliament overwhelmingly approved the country's national unity Cabinet
after a five-day debate on a controversial policy that upholds
Hezbollah's right to keep its weapons.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Nigerian militants
claimed they had destroyed a pipeline supplying gas to a key oil
refinery in southern Rivers state.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, A roadside bomb
destroyed an air force truck on a bridge in Pakistan's volatile
northwest and killed up to 14 people. The Taliban claimed
responsibility for the attack, calling it "an open war" and retaliation
for recent military operations in the region. A suspected American
missile strike targeting an alleged militant gathering point killed at
least nine people, including foreigners near Angore Adda in the South
Waziristan. Two intelligence officials said between 22 and 25 people
died, including Arabs, Turkmen and Pakistani militants.
(AP, 8/12/08)(AP, 8/13/08)(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 12, Muslim guerrillas
began withdrawing from several occupied southern Philippine villages
following fierce fighting with government troops that has displaced
nearly 160,000 civilians during harvest time.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Somali pirates
hijacked the Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with 28 crew members onboard.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 12, South Korea announced
sweeping pardons for some of the country’s most powerful businessmen,
including Lee Myung-bak, the head of leading carmaker Hyundai Motor,
saying they were needed to help revive a troubled economy. 341,863
others were also pardoned as South Korea celebrated liberation from
Japanese colonialism.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.46)(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/08/12/business/fi-skpardons12)
2008 Aug 12, Spanish officials
said local police acting on a tip-off from US authorities have seized
1.4 tons of cocaine and arrested eight South American suspects, 6 from
Colombia and 2 from Venezuela.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Sudan's army began a
massive operation to wipe out rebel bases in Darfur's far north. The
army attacked with more than 200 vehicles in Wadi Atron, near the
Sudanese-Libyan border and took control of areas which had for years
been under the control of rebels who want more autonomy for the region.
North Darfur is part of Sudan's oil Block 12A operated by a consortium
led by the Saudi Arabian company al-Qahtani. Chinese companies dominate
Sudan's budding oil sector which produces more than 500,000 barrels per
day of crude.
(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 12, Venezuela raised the
regulated prices of foods ranging from bread to beef by up to 50
percent and removed price controls from other goods in a bid to ease
sporadic shortages in supermarkets.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 13, In California prison
receiver Clark Kelso asked a federal judge to seize $8 billion from the
state’s treasury over the next 5 years to build 7 medical facilities
for inmates throughout the state.
(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 13, In Little Rock, Ark.,
Timothy Dale Johnson (50), described as a loner, drove more than 30
miles to Arkansas' Democratic Party headquarters and fatally shot its
chairman, Bill Gwatney, hours after losing his job. Johnson was later
shot dead by officers.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, Michael Phelps swam
into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and
11th career gold medals, and 5 world records in 5 events at the Beijing
Games.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, It was reported that
at least 150 fuel tanks, managed by the US Federal Emergency management
Agency (FEMA), needed inspection for leaks. It was estimated that some
500,000 fuel storage tanks, both private and publicly owned, were
leaking.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 13, Jack Weil (107),
patriarch of western clothing, died. He created the western style shirt
which sold after 1946 through his Denver-based company Rockmount Ranch
Wear.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.82)
2008 Aug 13, It was reported that
the red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans,
was rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean. The maroon-striped marauder
with venomous spikes was swallowing native species, stinging divers and
generally wreaking havoc on the ecologically delicate region.
(SFC, 8/14/08,
p.A6)(www.sanluisobispo.com/health/story/438289.html)
2008 Aug 13, In Afghanistan
militants brandishing assault rifles ambushed a US relief
organization's vehicle, killing three aid workers and their Afghan
driver and leaving their white SUV riddled with hundreds of bullets.
The three women killed in Logar province worked for the New York-based
International Rescue Committee (IRC). In southern Afghanistan militants
began launching attacks on a coalition patrol. Over 3 dozen militants
were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/13/08)(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 13, Argentine senators
approved a bill declaring obesity and other eating disorders diseases
covered by the nation's public and private health care programs.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Bolivia and Libya
agreed to establish diplomatic relations and join efforts to develop
the nations' energy resources.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Scientists from
Britain’s University of Reading unveiled Gordon, a neuron-powered
machine, whose grey matter was stitched together from cultured rat
neurons.
(AFP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, A Chinese team beat
the United States and clinched China's first women's team Olympic gold
in gymnastics, amid allegations that at least one member, He Kexin, of
the Chinese team was under age.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, Henri Cartan
(b.1904), French mathematician, died in Paris. In 1956 he and Samuel
Eilenberg wrote a fundamental textbook on homological algebra.
(SFC, 8/25/08, p.B3)
2008 Aug 13, Russian tanks rolled
into the crossroads city of Gori then thrust deep into Georgian
territory, violating the truce designed to end the six-day war. Georgia
said that 175 Georgians had died in five days of air and ground attacks
that left homes in smoldering ruins. EU foreign ministers agreed in
principle to send monitors to supervise a French-brokered ceasefire
between Russia and Georgia in the breakaway Georgian region of South
Ossetia. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Russia will spend at least
$400 million in 2008 on restoring South Ossetia's battered capital
Tskhinvali.
(AP, 8/13/08)(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, The Indian army said
that it was investigating UN allegations its troops had engaged in
sexual abuse while on peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. A five-story building in a crowded residential neighborhood of
Mumbai, India's main financial city, collapsed after monsoon rains,
killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northwest Iran
three Kurdish separatists and one Iranian soldier were killed in a
shootout.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, A suicide truck
bomber targeted the mayor of a town near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk,
while another car bomb struck civilians elsewhere in northern Iraq. A
bomb in a parked car struck a local market in the Qayara area south of
the northern city of Mosul, killing at least two people and wounding
five.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Riots erupted across
Indian-controlled Kashmir as Muslims mourned 15 people killed in a day
of bloody violence, as the protests spread to other parts of India.
Indian police say they have issued orders to shoot protesters defying a
curfew in the town of Kishtwar in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northern Lebanese
city a bomb ripped through a bus during morning rush hour in Tripoli,
killing 18 soldiers and civilians, raising fears that an
al-Qaida-inspired militant group is stepping up revenge attacks against
the military.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Mexico a spokesman
for the Attorney General's Office said 6 federal agents have been
arrested on suspicion of passing information to a group of powerful
drug lords.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, Nigerian officials
said flocks of quelea birds have invaded farmlands in northern Borno
state, destroying crops that were due for harvest in two months' time.
(AFP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Lahore, Pakistan,
a bomber struck outside a mosque just before midnight as Pakistanis
poured into the streets to celebrate the nation's 61st anniversary of
its independence from Britain. 8 people were killed and 18 wounded.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, South African
President Thabo Mbeki left Zimbabwe after failing to secure a
power-sharing deal between its main rivals during marathon talks,
adding to doubts over chances of an agreement.
(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Sri Lanka a wave
of battles across the front lines in the 25-year-old civil war killed
14 ethnic Tamil rebels and two government soldiers.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, The US and Poland
struck a deal to install a missile defense facility in the ex-communist
state.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, In the Virgin Islands
2 former government officials faced prison after being found guilty of
running a million-dollar bribery and kickback scheme. Dean Plaskett,
former commissioner of the islands' planning and natural resources
department, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Marc Biggs, former
commissioner of the property and procurement office, will serve seven
years.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, The US Mint planned
to issue the Jackson dollar coin, the 7th of its presidential dollar
series.
(www.wsmv.com/money/17190311/detail.html?rss=nash&psp=news#-)
2008 Aug 14, American Airlines,
British Airways and Iberia of Spain said they had signed an agreement
to cooperate over flights between North America and Europe to help them
overcome soaring fuel costs.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Scientists reported
that the number of oxygen-starved "dead zones" in coastal waters around
the world has roughly doubled every decade since the 1960s, killing
fish, crabs and massive amounts of marine life at the base of the food
chain.
(SFC, 8/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 14, Afghan police pulled
back from posts in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province after two
weeks of clashes with militants. The Taliban claimed to have taken over
that district. An explosion targeting a foot patrol in southern
Afghanistan killed 3 members of the US-led coalition. Afghan and
foreign troops clashed with insurgents in the Shwak district of eastern
Paktika province.
(AP, 8/15/08)(SFC, 8/15/08, p.A11)(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 14, A colonel in the
Algerian army and another soldier were killed in a bomb attack in the
Jijel region.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 14, Australian police
arrested a Catholic priest (65) and charged him with 30 counts of
sexual assault related to abuse allegations dating back three decades.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Chile’s central bank
said it is boosting its lending rate to 7.75%, warning that additional
adjustments will likely be necessary to ensure inflation meets its 3
percent target in the next two years. Annual inflation reached 9.5% in
July, Chile's highest rate since 1994.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, A bomb exploded
during a crowded street fair in northwestern Colombia, killing seven
people and wounding 17.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Georgian and Russian
troops faced off at a checkpoint outside the key city of Gori, calling
an already shaky cease-fire into question. An American official said
Russia appears to be sabotaging airfields and other military
infrastructure as its forces pull back. The Russian General
Prosecutor's office said it has formally opened a genocide probe into
Georgian treatment of South Ossetians. For its part, Georgia this week
filed a suit against Russia in the International Court of Justice,
alleging murder, rape and mass expulsions in both
provinces.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, India’s cabinet
approved a 21% average wage increase for federal-government employees
to be backdated to January 2006. In southern India at least nine
schoolchildren and two adults were killed after a speeding school bus
plunged into a river outside Mangalore.
(WSJ, 8/14/08, p.A8)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, In Iraq 2 roadside
bombs went off in separate Baghdad locations, killing one policeman and
wounding 17 people, including 14 Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to the
holy city of Karbala for a major religious festival. Gunmen shot dead
an off-duty policeman and army soldier in separate incidents in the
northern city of Mosul. A female suicide bomber blew herself up in
Iskandariyah. The US military said 18 people were killed in the attack,
but Iraqi police in the area gave a higher death toll of 26. An
American Marine was killed during a small-arms fire attack west of
Baghdad.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, A senior US military
intelligence officer said Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being
trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran's elite Quds force
and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next
few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as US and Iraqi
troops.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Thousands of Muslims
poured into the streets of Kashmir, demanding independence from India
hours after archival Pakistan called on the United Nations to stop what
it characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided
Himalayan region. Police shot dead another protester, bringing the
death toll from days of rioting to 22 as security was boosted on the
eve of India's Independence Day celebrations.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AFP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Libya and the United
States settled all outstanding lawsuits by American victims of
terrorism, clearing the way for the full restoration of diplomatic
relations.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Military leaders in
Mauritania named former EU ambassador Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf as
prime minister.
(WSJ, 8/15/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 14, Nigeria relinquished
control of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon despite fears the
handover will provoke attacks from local armed groups who oppose it.
(Reuters, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Pakistan's PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani said in an Independence Day speech that the country must
defeat extremism to survive. Officials said some 135,000 residents have
fled a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan to escape clashes
between troops and Taliban militants that have left scores dead.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AFP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, In Sri Lanka
government jets hit a series of Tamil Tiger targets in the Mullaittivu
region in support of troops fighting on the ground. Fighting between
the two sides killed 27 rebels and two government soldiers.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Syria agreed to a
longtime Lebanese demand to negotiate the demarcation of their border a
day after the countries said they would establish full diplomatic
relations for the first time.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Taiwan's former
president Chen Shui-bian's admitted that he broke the law by not
truthfully declaring campaign donations he received, and said that his
wife sent an unspecified amount of money abroad.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 15, Cookie retailer Mrs.
Fields Famous Brands LLC said it plans to file for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection to help restructure its business.
(Reuters, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, In Texas store clerk
Mindy Daffern (46) was abducted in the north Texas town of Scotland.
Wallace Bowman Jr. (30) was identified by a security camera and led
investigators to her body the next day.
(SFC, 8/18/08,
p.A3)(www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=8854535)
2008 Aug 15, Leroy Sievers
(b.1955), broadcast journalist, died of cancer. He was a former
executive producer of ABC’s “Nightline” and commented on his disease on
National Public Radio (NPR).
(SFC, 8/19/08, p.B5)
2008 Aug 15, Jerry Wexler
(b.1917), record producer, died. From 1953-1975 he worked for NYC-based
Atlantic Records and helped build the firm into a rhythm and blues
powerhouse. As a reported for Billboard magazine he coined the term
“rhythm and blues.”
(WSJ, 8/16/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 15, Afghan security
forces withdrew from Nawa district in eastern Ghazni province after
days of fighting with Taliban, allowing the rebels to move in and
capture the area. In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb and small arms
fire killed 2 soldiers serving under the separate NATO-led force.
Taliban insurgents attacked police checkpoints in Nad Ali district of
southern Helmand province, sparking clashes that killed 23 militants.
(AFP, 8/15/08)(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A6)(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 15, In Canada employees
at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlet won an arbitrator-imposed contract,
becoming the giant retailer's only location in North America with a
collective agreement in place.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 15, In Chad a court
sentenced former President Hissene Habre and 11 rebels to death. Habre
was awaiting trial in Senegal for torture and murder.
(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 15, In Beijing 2 positive
dope tests by Asian athletes overshadowed Singapore's first medal in 48
years and a podium for Malaysia with a North Korean shooter and a
Vietnamese gymnast exposed as cheats.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Xinhua News said a
bus veered off the road and plunged into a ravine in central China,
killing 15 people.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, About 20 people,
including Italian tourists, were killed when two buses collided head-on
in the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Iraqi security forces
began taking over checkpoints near the Iranian border previously manned
by Georgian troops before they redeployed home following recent
fighting with Russia. A roadside bomb struck a minibus beginning the
trip in eastern Baghdad morning, killing at least one passenger and
wounding 10 others. A passenger van packed with explosives blew up at a
bus station in Balad, north of Baghdad. 9 people were killed and 40
wounded.
(AP, 8/15/08)(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 15, Russian troops
allowed some humanitarian supplies into Georgia’s city of Gori but kept
up their blockade of the strategically located city, raising doubts
about Russia's intentions. Relief planes swooped into Tbilisi with tons
of supplies for the estimated 100,000 people uprooted by the fighting.
An international rights group said it has evidence that Russian
warplanes dropped cluster bombs in civilian areas in Georgia.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, In India's part of
Kashmir tens of thousands of Muslims took to the streets again,
ignoring a plea by the country's prime minister for an end to weeks of
violence that has left 34 people dead.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Officials said
Nepal's lawmakers have voted in Prachanda, the leader of the former
Maoist rebels, as the Himalayan country's new prime minister.
(AFP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Twelve Nigerian
militants and a naval officer were killed in a gunbattle near a Royal
Dutch Shell natural gas plant in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 15, Coalition government
officials said Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is ready to resign
rather than face impeachment, but is seeking immunity from prosecution
and agreement on a safe place to live. President Pervez Musharraf's
spokesman rejected reports that the embattled Pakistani leader was set
to resign. Pakistan's interior ministry chief said that over 460
Islamic militants and 22 soldiers have been killed in more than a week
of fighting in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 8/15/08)(AFP, 8/15/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Leftist ex-bishop
Fernando Lugo was inaugurated as Paraguay's president, ending six
decades of one-party rule in a key step in the poor South American
nation's democratic transformation.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Peruvians flooded the
streets to protest the slow pace of reconstruction a year after a
magnitude-8.0 earthquake left tens of thousands homeless.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 15, In the Philippines at
least 15 hitchhikers were killed and 14 others injured when the truck
they were riding in plunged into a ravine outside Monkayo township in
the southern gold mining area on Diwalawal mountain.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, South African
authorities closed camps that have housed thousands of foreigners
displaced by xenophobic violence, in a move that has drawn concern they
could face more attacks when they return home.
(AFP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, International aid
groups said tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes in
northern Sri Lanka in recent weeks as the military ramped up its
offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels' heartland.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, Afghan and foreign
troops clashed with militants in a mountainous area of Zabul province,
killing 7 militants. In Kandahar province a roadside blast killed 10
police officers on patrol. In eastern Paktika province police clashed
with militants in the Shwak district, killing 4 insurgents. In Helmand
province British troops accidentally killed 4 civilians during an
operation against Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 8/17/08)(WSJ, 8/18/08, p.A9)(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, Jailed Belarusian
opposition leader Alexander Kozulin, considered in the West to be the
ex-Soviet state's most prominent political prisoner, was released.
Kozulin was one of two opposition candidates to run against Lukashenko
in a 2006 election and was jailed for 5 1/2 years for helping stage
mass protests against the official result declaring the president the
winner by a landslide.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dorival Caymmi
(b.1914), Brazilian composer, died. He had composed over 100 songs and
catapulted to fame when Carmen Miranda performed one of his songs in
1938.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff
between Thailand and Cambodia appeared to be ending as both sides
pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near
their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Carol Huynh, whose
parents fled communist Vietnam in the 1970s, won Canada's first gold of
the Olympics in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling. Usain Bolt of
Jamaica was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in
the Olympic men's 100 meters final in a world record time of 9.69 sec.
(AP, 8/16/08)(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Authorities in the
Central African Republic gave the green light for a leading rebel group
headed by a former defense minister to form a political party. Both the
rebel group and the new NAP party are headed by former defense minister
Jean-Jacques Demafouth, currently in exile in France.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez promised to boost agricultural production
and warned of dire economic times as he was sworn in for a third term.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tropical Storm Fay
lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains and
floods that killed at least 18 people including at least 14 people in
Haiti, feared to have died aboard a bus that tried to cross a flooded
river.
(AP, 8/17/08)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In India police
arrested the alleged leader of the July Ahmadabad bombings. Mufti Abu
Bashir was arrested in the northern Indian city of Lucknow.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tens of thousands of
Muslims marched in India's portion of Kashmir in honor of a prominent
separatist leader killed in a recent wave of violence that has rocked
the volatile Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, On Indonesia's
Sumatra island at least nine people have died and dozens were injured
when a slow-moving passenger train hit a parked freight locomotive.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Russian forces pulled
back from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after
Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal. Russia’s Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov later suggested there would be no immediate broader
withdrawal. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that
Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over
13 villages in Georgia and a power plant. Russian troops blew up a key
railroad bridge linking the Caucasus to the Black Sea coast.
(AP, 8/16/08)(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded as Shiite pilgrims were boarding minibuses in Baghdad, killing
at least 3 people, in a third straight day of attacks on travelers
heading to a religious ceremony in Karbala. Iraqi police and hospital
employees said six people were killed and 11 injured. The US military
put the toll at three dead and eight injured.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen
killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A man used Semtex in
a rocket-propelled grenade attack against Northern Ireland police
officers, the first attack using the deadly explosive since
paramilitary groups agreed to hand in their weapons.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 16, A top ruling party
official gave Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a two-day deadline
to quit or face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Rwanda Jozefina
Zaninka (75), a woman who lost nearly all her family in the 1994
genocide, was murdered, in the latest of several killings of survivors
of the slaughter. Some 167 survivors of the genocide have been murdered
between 1995 and mid-May 2008.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In South Africa a
regional summit of southern African leaders opened with Zimbabwe's
crisis high on the agenda, and with the country's main political rivals
in attendance.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka a series
of raging battles across the northern war zone killed 27 Tamil Tiger
fighters and seven government troops. Soldiers took control of a rebel
training base in Andankulam in the Welioya region after Tamil Tiger
fighters fled the area.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In San Mateo, Ca.,
the final race was held at Bay Meadows after nearly 74 years of horse
racing.
(SFC, 8/18/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 17, Dave Freeman (47),
co-author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die" (1999), a travel guide
and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died
after hitting his head in a fall at his home in Venice, Ca.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Afghanistan 32
Taliban fighters died during a four-hour battle in Zabul province. 9
private security guards also died in the attack on a NATO convoy. About
7,000 police launched a massive security operation in Kabul as the
country prepared to celebrate independence day.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In eastern Algeria
rebels linked to al Qaeda had killed eight policemen, three soldiers
and a civilian in successive ambushes. 4 Islamist militants were killed
in the attack.
(AFP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 17, Two small planes
collided in midair and crashed near Coventry in central England,
killing five people.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Beijing Michael
Phelps won his 8th gold medal as team mate Jason Lezak brought it home
for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Iraq Farooq
al-Obeidi, deputy head of a group of US-allied Sunni fighters, was
killed by a suicide bomber, dressed in a woman’s robe, along with at
least 9 other people in the Azamiyah neighborhood of northern Baghdad.
(SFC, 8/18/08, p.A6)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 17, Israel's Cabinet
approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill
gesture to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In the southern
Philippines Muslim guerrillas killed four soldiers and four militiamen
in an ambush of a military convoy.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, The Kremlin promised
to start withdrawing combat troops from Georgia on August 18, as
Western pressure mounted on Russia to quit the ex-Soviet republic.
(AFP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, Southern African
countries launched a regional trade zone at a Johannesburg summit that
aims to eliminate import tariffs, with plans for a common currency by
2018. Eleven of the 14 countries that are part of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) will participate in the free trade area,
including Zimbabwe. Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi
planned to join at a later date due to weak economies.
(AFP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, A Sudanese court
sentenced to death a top Darfur rebel and seven others, bringing to 38
the number condemned to hang over an unprecedented attack on Khartoum
that killed more than 222 people.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 18, US and Liberian
officials said US Peace Corps volunteers will return to Liberia for the
first time since civil war broke out in this West African nation nearly
two decades ago.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, California’s supreme
court barred doctors from denying medical care to gays and lesbians
based on religious beliefs.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 18, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb blew up outside Camp Salerno, a US
military base in Khost, killing 12 civilian laborers, as the country
marked Independence Day. A mine blew up a police vehicle in the
province of Nangarhar and killed two policemen. About 100 insurgents
ambushed a group of French paratroopers, killing 10 soldiers in an area
outside the capital known as a militant stronghold. An Afghan official
said insurgents kidnapped four of the soldiers and later killed them.
13 militants were reported killed [see Oct 15, 2009].
(AFP, 8/18/08)(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/34/08, p.34)
2008 Aug 18, Argentina announced
its first nationwide gay-rights measure: granting same-sex couples the
right to claim their deceased partners' pensions.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, In southeastern
Bangladesh chunks of earth loosened by heavy rains buried several
hillside thatched huts, killing five people and injuring seven.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In Britain Philip
Thompson (27), a pedophile who acted as a "librarian" for a global
Internet child abuse ring, was jailed after one of the biggest
undercover police investigations into online abuse.
(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, State media reported
that Chinese authorities have not approved any of the 77 applications
they received from people who wanted to hold protests during the
Beijing Olympics.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In northeast China a
gas explosion tore through a coal mine, leaving 24 workers trapped.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Equatorial Guinea's
exiled opposition leader Severo Moto was released from a Spanish jail
four months after he was detained for allegedly trying to send weapons
to the oil-rich African nation.
(AFP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In southern Iraq
masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying electoral officials south of
Basra, killing two and seriously wounding a third. A suicide bombing
killed 7 policemen in Ramadi.
(AP, 8/18/08)(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 18, Tens of thousands of
Muslims waving green and black protest flags gathered in Indian
Kashmir's main city for a march to UN offices demanding freedom from
India and intervention by the world body.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, The river Kosi, a
tributary to the Ganges, burst an embankment on the Nepali side of the
border with India and flowed into a channel it had abandoned a century
earlier. Water flooded into Bihar state and displaced over 3 million
people.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.51)
2008 Aug 18, Mexican soldiers
rescued 25 Central Americans kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz. One man was arrested in the raid in Tierra Blanca.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexico’s Cemex SAB
rejected Venezuela’s $500 bid for the companies assets in Venezuela. At
midnight oil workers and Venezuelan soldiers occupied Cemex facilities
around the country.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 18, The leader of Nepal's
Maoists, Prachanda, was sworn in as prime minister, finalizing his
transformation from warlord to the country's most powerful politician.
(AFP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Niger's Tuareg rebel
leader Aghaly ag Alambo said his fighters would lay down their guns
and, together with neighboring Mali's Tuareg rebellion, submit to
mediation by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf announced that he will resign, just days ahead of
impeachment in parliament over attempts by the US-backed leader to
impose authoritarian rule on his turbulent nation.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Peru's government
declared a state of emergency in remote jungle regions where Indian
groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to protest a
law that makes it easier to sell their lands.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, In the southern
Philippines separatists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
attacked several towns and villages on Mindanao and killed 38 people.
(SFC, 8/19/08, p.A9)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 18, Heads of state and
other dignitaries from African countries and Turkey started an economic
cooperation summit in Istanbul.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Russia said its
military began to withdraw from the conflict zone in Georgia, but left
unclear exactly where troops and tanks will operate under the
cease-fire that ended days of fighting in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 19, A US federal grand
jury handed down a new indictment against Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal
Acevedo Vila, charging him with four counts of wire fraud and one count
of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with alleged
campaign finance violations.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, US scientists said
they have devised a way to grow large quantities of blood in the
laboratory using human embryonic stem cells.
(SFC, 8/20/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 19, LeRoi Moore (46),
versatile saxophonist, died of complications from injuries he suffered
in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His signature staccato fused jazz
and funk overtones onto the eclectic sound of the Dave Matthews Band.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, In Afghanistan a team
of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a US base near the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border. NATO said 3 suicide bombers detonated
their vests and 3 more were shot dead and that 7 attackers in total
were killed.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, A suicide car bomb
attack east of Algiers killed 43 people and wounded 45. The attack
targeted a paramilitary gendarmerie training school at Issers. Most of
the dead were young men aged between 18 and 20.
(Reuters, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, Aabid Khan (23), a
Briton who recruited Islamist extremists online to stage holy war
worldwide, including Britain's youngest terrorism convict, was jailed
for 12 years. Sultan Muhammad (23), one of his accomplices, received a
10-year term.
(Reuters, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, In Bolivia leaders in
5 opposition controlled states proclaimed a general strike. They sought
greater autonomy and a larger share of royalties from local oil and gas.
(SFC, 8/20/08, p.A14)
2008 Aug 19, Iraqi troops raided
local government offices in the volatile Diyala province, arresting two
people, including a university president. They then advanced to the
provincial governor's office where exchanged fire with the government
forces, prompting a gunfight that killed the governor's secretary,
Abbas al-Tamimi, and injured four guards. Iraqi troops detained the son
of a prominent Sunni leader during a raid in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, The Dutch Navy and a
squad of US Coast Guard raiders seized 4.6 tons (4,200 kilograms) of
cocaine from a Panamanian-flagged freighter that had set sail from
Venezuela. The freighter was boarded on Aug 17 and it took 36 hours of
searching to find the drugs.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 19, The 39th annual
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) opened in Niue. Members at the 2-day forum
agreed to threaten Fiji with suspension unless elections are held as
scheduled by March 2009.
(Econ, 8/23/08,
p.34)(www.forumsec.org/event.cfm?cmd=list&sd=200808)
2008 Aug 19, Pakistan's ruling
coalition met to discuss a replacement for President Pervez Musharraf.
A suicide bomber killed 23 people at a hospital in a northwestern town
in the first attack since Musharraf stepped down. 5 soldiers and 13
Taliban militants died in clashes in a tribal area bordering
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, A Palestinian rocket
attack on southern Israel violated a truce and led Israel to close its
cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, Russian soldiers took
20 Georgian troops prisoner at a key port in western Georgia and
commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United
States after taking part in earlier US-Georgian military exercises.
Georgia and Russia exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, Armed pirates seized
the MT Bunga Melati Dua, a Malaysian palm oil tanker with 39 crew, off
the coast of Somalia, the fourth hijacking in a month.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, Turkey's President
Abdullah Gul urged Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, during talks at a
summit of African leaders, to act responsibly and to end the suffering
in the devastated Darfur region. A suicide bombing wounded 13 policemen
outside the southern city of Mersin.
(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, Vietnamese
authorities freed British glam rocker Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter,
after nearly three years in prison on child molestation charges, then
moved immediately to deport him.
(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/36/08, p.36)
2008 Aug 19, Zambia's President
Levy Mwanawasa (b.1948) died in France. He had been hospitalized at a
French military hospital since suffering a stroke in June.
(AP, 8/19/08)(SFC, 8/20/08, p.B4)
2008 Aug 20, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal to build a US
missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an
infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former
Soviet satellite. The deal included an American Patriot anti-aircraft
and anti-missile battery in Poland.
(AP, 8/20/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 20, In Alabama five men
were found killed, execution style in Shelby County. The killings were
soon identified as a retaliation hit over drug money with ties to
Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2008 Aug 20, Stephanie Tubbs Jones
(b.1949), Ohio’s first black congresswoman, died in Cleveland following
a brain hemorrhage. She was first elected in 1998.
(SFC, 8/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 20, Gene Upshaw (b.1945),
former NFL Hall of Famer and union leader, died near lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 8/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 20, In eastern
Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed more than 30 insurgents in a
battle whose fighters were said to be responsible for an attack that
killed 10 French troops earlier this week. 3 Polish soldiers were
killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the central province of Ghazni.
3 Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/21/08)(Reuters, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 20, In eastern Algeria 2
car bomb attacks killed at least 11 people in Bouira with at least 31
people wounded. This followed a suicide bomber who killed 43 people a
day earlier.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Bangladesh
prosecutors formally lodged new charges against ex-premier Sheikh
Hasina Wajed over her alleged role in a 130-million-dollar defense deal
with Russia.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, In Beijing Rohullah
Nikpai of Afghanistan won a bronze medal in taekwondo. This was
Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal ever.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/news/story?id=3544339)
2008 Aug 20, Hua Guofeng (b.1921),
who succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China's ruling Communist Party
and briefly ruled the country (1976), died in Beijing.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, The Red Cross revised
its emergency appeal for Ethiopia to five million euros (7.9 million
dollars) as the situation in the drought-hit south of the country got
worse.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, International and
domestic flights were disrupted across India as thousands of airport
employees went on strike to protest plans to privatize airports.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Nigerian President
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua named new military chiefs dropping nearly all
appointees he inherited from his predecessor. MEND, the most prominent
armed group in Nigeria's volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, accused the
military of carrying out extra-judicial executions of 22 captured
insurgents in the region. The insurgents had been captured the previous
day.
(AFP, 8/21/08)(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Pakistan’s security
officials said missiles fired from Afghanistan hit a militant hideout
in Pakistan's tribal belt, killing at least eight people including some
foreign extremists.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Panama’s President
Martin Torrijos signed an executive order creating a new intelligence
agency and a border police force to combat growing drug crimes. This
prompted concerns of a return to its militarized past.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 20, Abdurahman
Macapaar (aka Commander Bravo) of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), the Muslim rebel commander behind deadly raids in the
southern Philippines, declared an "all-out war" against the government,
saying his fighters were willing to die in battle.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Five people were
killed as Typhoon Nuri slammed into the northern Philippines,
triggering heavy rain and warnings of possible storm surges.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, A top Russian general
said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323 wounded in this
month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed Norway that it plans to
suspend all military ties with NATO, a day after the military alliance
urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia. Georgia later
reported that 170 of its soldiers were killed in the war.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 20, Serbian publisher
BeoBook said it has withdrawn a controversial book by American writer
Sherry Jones because of protests from the local Islamic community. The
book "Jewel of Medina" is about Aisha, one of the Prophet Muhammad's
wives.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, A Spanair MD-82 bound
for the Canary Islands caught fire while trying to make an emergency
landing just after departing from Madrid airport leaving 153 people
dead. This was the nation's worst air disaster in nearly 25 years. The
toll rose to 154 on Aug 23.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)(Reuters, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 20, Swedish wireless
equipment maker LM Ericsson AB and Swiss chip-maker STMicroelectronics
NV unveiled plans to create a 50-50 joint venture that will make a key
component known as chipsets for mobile phones.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, In Turkey Sudan's
indicted president denied that his regime is orchestrating genocide in
the troubled western region of Darfur, and offered hope for an end to
the violence and the dawn of reconciliation by promising free and fair
elections next year.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 21, David Walker,
recently with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), was the
subject of the film documentary I.O.U.S.A. The film focused on
America’s financial condition and that it is a lot worse than
advertised, as the US debt rose to $9.5 trillion. It was produced by
Sarah Gibson, Christine O'Malley; directed by Patrick Creadon; written
by Patrick Creadon, Christine O'Malley; music by Peter Golub;
distributed by Roadside Attractions.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.68)(http://tinyurl.com/4t3r2g)
2008 Aug 21, The US government
said it will allow producers of fresh iceberg lettuce and spinach to
use irradiation to control food-borne pathogens and extend shelf life.
(SFC, 8/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 21, Forbes magazine
reported that Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (80) is the world's
richest royal sovereign with a fortune estimated at 35 billion dollars,
and oil-rich Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (60) of Abu Dhabi is
far back at No. 2 with 23 billion.
(AFP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 21, Intel showed off a
wireless electric power system at the California firm's annual
developers forum in San Francisco. Analysts said it could revolutionize
modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.
(AFP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, In the US Virgin
Islands a judge imposed a life sentence on Daniel Castillo, convicted
of strangling Laquina Hennis, a 12-year-old girl, last year.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, Tropical Storm Fay
forced the evacuation of more Florida residents as it made landfall for
a 3rd time this week.
(WSJ, 8/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 21, British PM Gordon
Brown visited Kabul after meeting with British troops in Helmand
province. Brown pledged more support for Afghanistan including 120
million dollars towards a development fund that would include paying
teachers' salaries and 17 million dollars for a radio station in
Helmand. 11 militants reportedly died in a clash in the south. Afghan
and international troops clashed with militants in Khas in Uruzgan
province, killing 11 militants.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, Britain's government
confirmed that a contractor lost a memory device containing information
on every prison inmate in England and Wales.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, Greek police
announced the arrest of Vassilis Paleokostas, the country's most wanted
man, while tracking down the alleged kidnappers of industrialist
Giorgos Mylonas, who was freed in June after his family paid a ransom.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 21, Monsoon rains
pummeled northern India, bringing dozens of buildings crashing down and
killing 74 people. The deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh state,
bringing this monsoon season's death toll to more than 300 people
across India.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 21, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said they
agree that timetables should be set for the withdrawal of US troops. A
key part of the US-Iraqi draft agreement envisions the withdrawal of
American forces from Iraq's cities by next June 30. The US military
released an Iraqi television cameraman for the Reuters news agency and
other news organizations without charges after 26 days in detention.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, Seif al-Islam
Gadhafi, the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, said he will no
longer be involved in politics, defying in a surprise announcement
long-held expectations he was preparing to succeed his father.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, In Mexico Pres.
Calderon, congressional leaders, all state governors and a bevy of
others signed a “National Agreement for Security.”
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 21, A Montenegrin court
ordered three US citizens and seven other ethnic Albanians back to
prison after convicting them of plotting a rebellion to establish an
Albanian autonomous region within the Adriatic country.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, In Pakistan 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up outside the country’s main defense industry
complex in Wah, killing at least 67 people with 102 wounded.
(Reuters, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, Russian forces
blocked the only land entrance to Georgia's main port city, a day
before Russia promised to complete a troop pullout from its ex-Soviet
neighbor.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 21, Armed pirates
hijacked a Japanese chemical tanker with 19 crew, an Iranian bulk
carrier with 29 crew, and a German cargo ship with a crew of 9 off
Somalia's coast.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, In Sri Lanka
helicopter gunships attacked a rebel fortification in the northern
district of Vavuniya. 21 rebels and two soldiers died in fighting.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, The Outside Lands
rock festival opened in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to a capacity
crowd of some 60,000. Altogether some 150,000 attended the 3-day event.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A1)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.E1)
2008 Aug 22, Florida state
officials said 7 people have been killed over the five days that
Tropical Storm Fay has been pounding the state with torrential rain and
powerful winds.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 22, In North Las Vegas,
Nevada, an experimental aircraft crashed into a house killing the pilot
of the Velocity 173 RG and 2 people in the home.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 22, US-led troops
attacked a compound where Taliban leaders were meeting in western
Afghanistan, and reportedly killed 30 militants. An Afghan human rights
group said that at least 78 people were killed, including women and
children, in the joint Afghan-US coalition military operation in
western Herat province. In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a
US coalition service member. An investigation later found that more
than 90 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the
coalition air strikes in Herat. Officials later said the US-led attack
was based on misleading information by a rival tribesman named Nader
Tawakil. On Sep 2 the US-led coalition said that its investigation into
the controversial missile strike, thought to have killed 90 civilians,
had found that only seven non-combatants died. After video images
showing at least 10 dead children and up to 40 other dead villagers
surfaced, the US said it would send a one-star general to investigate
the strike.
(AP, 8/22/08)(AFP, 8/24/08)(WSJ, 8/29/08, p.A1)(AFP,
9/2/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Aug 22, Brazil extradited
Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia to the United States to
face racketeering charges.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Aon Corp., the
world's biggest insurance broker, said it has agreed to buy Britain's
Benfield Group Ltd. for almost $1.6 billion in cash.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Canadian health
officials said 3 people in Ontario have died in a food poisoning
outbreak that may be linked to listeria bacteria in sandwich meat from
one of the country's largest meat processors.
(Reuters, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Two Beijing
grandmothers remained defiant and in good spirits despite being
sentenced to one year of reeducation through labor for applying to
protest during the Olympics.
(AFP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Hong Kong issued its
highest storm warning in five years as Typhoon Nuri brought
hurricane-force winds and heavy rain, halting trade on financial
markets and shutting down most of the city.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Supporters of Shiite
leader Muqtada al-Sadr said Iraqi troops have raided an al-Sadr
stronghold, killing one of his guards and arresting another.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Japanese scientists
said they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way
to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using
embryos.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, In Indian Kashmir
hundreds of thousands of Muslims marched in Srinagar in the largest
protest against Indian rule in over a decade. Police estimated the
crowd at 275,000.
(AP, 8/22/08)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 22, Mexican police
captured a man believed to be Ruben Rios Estrada, a key gunman for the
Arellano-Felix cocaine cartel, at the Caliente racetrack casino in
Tijuana after a chase through the city streets. Another suspected gang
member also was arrested. The bullet-riddled body of Jesus Blanco Cano
(40) was found at a ranch near Villa Ahumada in Chihuahua state. He had
just been on the job for one day as police chief of Villa Ahumada.
(AP, 8/23/08)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 22, Peru’s congress voted
to repeal two laws facilitating the sale of Indian lands that had
generated protests by dozens of tribes in the Amazon rain forest. The
laws had been passed by presidential decree in May to promote private
investment.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A3)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.37)
2008 Aug 22, A Russian armored
column moved away from a base in western Georgia and Russian forces
also were leaving the key central city of Gori, the day that Russia's
president had said a pullback would be complete.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, In Somalia fighting
between the Islamic militia and a clan militia killed 10 people in the
southern port of Kismayo. Witnesses said a radical Islamic militia
controlled most of Somalia's third-largest city after three days of
fighting in which some 70 people died.
(AP, 8/22/08)(WSJ, 8/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 22, Sri Lankan troops
captured two strategic towns from Tamil Tigers as they closed in on the
rebels' political capital. With the fall of Thunukkai and Uyilankulam,
the military was just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) south of Kilinochchi.
(AFP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 23, Democrats coalesced
around Barack Obama's selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden (b.1942)
as his running mate while Republicans quickly seized on the Delaware
senator's past criticism of the presidential candidate's inexperience.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Utah a small plane
crashed and burned shortly after takeoff from Canyonlands Field
airport. All 10 aboard, including 9 employees of a Cedar City
dermatology company, who traveled to remote areas to provide medical
treatments.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 23, Dr. Thomas Weller
(b.1915) co-winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine, died in
Massachusetts. He shared the Nobel Prize with 2 co-workers for their
discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures
of various types of tissue.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1954/)(LSA,
Spring, 2009, p.56)
2008 Aug 23, Azizabad villagers
threw stones at Afghan soldiers who tried to give them food and
clothes. The soldiers fired into the crowd and wounded eight people,
including one child critically wounded. This was the village in Herat
province where the day before a US-Afghan operation took place leaving
many civilians dead.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Public health
officials in Canada said they have linked a deadly bacterial outbreak
to recalled meat products from Maple Leaf Foods. At least 12 people
died out of 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Beijing Angel
Matos, a Cuban taekwondo athlete, and his coach Leudis Gonzalez were
banned for life after Matos kicked the referee in the face following
his bronze-medal match disqualification.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The US military
released Ahmed Nouri Raziak (38), a cameraman for Associated Press
Television News, without charges after detaining him for nearly three
months. Gunmen in Basra killed Haider al-Saymari (38), a Shiite cleric
and outspoken critic of sectarian militias, in an ambush on a car that
also carried his wife, mother and sister, who were not harmed.
(AP, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Italy a gang of
men badly beat a Dutch couple and raped the woman while they camped in
an isolated field outside Rome during a cycling tour of Europe. The
attackers also stole some US$2,200. Two Romanian men were soon arrested.
(AP, 8/23/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 23, Environmental experts
said Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of greenhouse gases
in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the emissions in the
continent.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pakistani troops
pounded Islamic militants in the volatile northwest, killing 37 in
retaliation for suicide attacks that have put pressure on the new
government to counter a growing extremist threat. 2 soldiers were
killed. A civilian and her four children were killed when security
forces fired a mortar that accidentally hit a home in Khar, near the
Afghan border. A car packed with explosives rammed into a police
station in Swat, a former tourist destination, killing six officers and
injuring several others. A roadside bomb in the nearby village of Bari
Kot killed one civilian and injured four.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Two boats carrying
dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in
defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from
thousands of Palestinians. Israel said it would permit the boats to
dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security
threat. The group delivered a symbolic shipment of hearing aids and
balloons.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The Philippine
government said at least 48 soldiers and civilians and scores of Muslim
rebels have been killed in the southern Philippines in a week of
fighting triggered by the collapse of a peace deal. Muslim rebels urged
the Philippine government to halt a military offensive they say
threatens a years-long peace process and escalates violence in the
archipelago's troubled south.
(Reuters, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, A top Russian general
said his country's forces will keep patrolling the key Georgian Black
Sea port of Poti even though it lies outside the areas where Russia
claims it has the right to station soldiers in Georgia.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pirates fired on a
Japanese-operated cargo ship off Somalia and attempted to board the
vessel but failed to seize it.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Somalia 2 Western
reporters were kidnapped near Mogadishu. The next day the National
Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) named them as Amanda Lindhout, a
Canadian reporter based in Baghdad but freelancing for French
television and Canada's Global National News, and Nigel Brennan, a
freelance Australian photojournalist. Both were released after 15
months and arrived in Kenya on Nov 25, 2009.
(Reuters, 8/24/08)(AP, 11/26/09)
2008 Aug 23, Sri Lanka staged
local elections under tight security as troops pushed deeper into Tamil
Tiger territory, closing in on the rebel capital in the war-ravaged
north. The defense ministry said a total of 28 rebels and two soldiers
were killed in clashes over the last 24 hours across the island's north.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, left Paris on a flight bound for New Delhi
after concluding a 12-day visit that fuelled tensions between Paris and
Beijing.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, A Tunisian court
convicted 13 Islamic militants on charges linked to plots to carry out
attacks in the north African country. 6 more were convicted on Aug 26
for establishing a military camp in Tunisia's northeastern Kef region
designed to train fighters to be sent to Iraq.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 24, The US Democratic
national convention’s credentials committee ruled to give full voting
rights to delegates from Michigan and Florida, despite their defying
party rules and holding their primaries early.
(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 24, In New Mexico 8
inmates escaped from a county jail in Clovis. 3 were captured the next
day and 5 remained at large.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 24, Taliban militants
attacked a patrol of US-led coalition troops in northern Afghanistan,
while insurgents came under fire by NATO aircraft after attacking an
Afghan army outpost in the south. At least 10 militants were killed in
the fighting. In eastern Kunar province, a civilian Mi-8 supply
helicopter contracted by NATO-led troops crashed shortly after takeoff,
killing one person on board and wounding three others.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, Algerian security
forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in a security operation southwest of
the capital.
(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Bolivia a truck
plunged off a cliff high in the Andes killing 21 people with 53 left
injured.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 24, In London some 40,000
people, including record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps, gathered to
celebrate 2012 host London taking over from Beijing as the Olympic city.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, The Beijing Olympics,
played out against a background of political intrigue and featuring 16
days of compelling and controversial action, drew to a spectacular
close. China's haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet
Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. The US won 36 gold medals and Russia
came in 3rd with 23. Jamaica ended up with 11 medals including 6 gold.
Cuba took home 24 medals, but only 2 gold.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.38)
2008 Aug 24, Kenya took home 14
medals from the Beijing Olympics, 5 of them gold.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.55)
2008 Aug 24, A wall of snow in the
Mont Blanc range of the French Alps buried 3 Swiss and 5 Austrian
climbers.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Guatemala a Cessna
Caravan carrying humanitarian workers crashed about 60 miles east of
Guatemala City killing 10 people, including five Americans. At least 2
people survived. The plane was headed to a village in the area of El
Estor to build homes for CHOICE Humanitarian, a group based in West
Jordan, Utah.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 24, The USS McFaul, a US
Navy warship carrying humanitarian aid, anchored at the Georgian port
of Batumi, sending a strong signal of support to an embattled ally as
Russian forces built up around two separatist regions. In central
Georgia, an oil train exploded and caught fire, sending plumes of black
smoke into the air. A Georgian official said the train hit a land mine
and blamed the explosion on departing Russian forces.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In India about 40,000
protesters surrounded the Tata Motors factory slated to produce the
Nano, the world's cheapest car, alleging land for the site was forcibly
taken from local farmers. A day earlier Ratan Tata, whose Tata Motors
is India's top vehicle-maker, warned he would move the plant out of the
state if the demonstrations kept up, although his company has already
invested 350 million dollars in the project.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In India Swami
Laxmanananda Saraswati, a hard-line Hindu leader, was killed in the
eastern state of Orissa. His death triggered violence between Hindus
and Christians that left dozens dead. Right-wing Hindu groups blamed
Christians for killing, but a month later Maoist rebels say they had
murdered the Hindu leader.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Aug 24, Iran's official news
agency said the country has begun designing its second light-water
nuclear power plant, a 360-megawatt facility in the southwest.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Baghdad,
back-to-back roadside bombs targeting a police patrol killed three
Iraqi civilians and wounded 20, including six police officers. A bomb
in a pile of hay killed 3 farmers southeast of Baghdad. Three separate
attacks in Diyala province killed 9 people. A suicide bomber struck
west of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people. Raina, a teenage Iraqi
girl (b.1993) wearing a vest packed with explosives, was captured on
video as she turned herself in rather than go through with a suicide
bombing in Baquba. The US military announced the arrest of Salim
Abdallah Ashur Shujayri (aka Abu Uthman), a Baghdad leader of al-Qaida
in Iraq believed to have planned the 2006 abduction of US journalist
Jill Carroll.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/25/08,
p.A8)(SFC, 8/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 24, In Kashmir soldiers
and police fired at Muslim protesters demanding an end to Indian rule
killing one person, as authorities arrested top separatist leaders in a
bid to quash unrest that has left at least 37 people dead since June.
(AP, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 24, In Kyrgyzstan a
Boeing 737 passenger jet carrying 90 people to Iran crashed near
Bishkek’s Manas Int’l. Airport. At least 65 people were killed.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Niger dozens of
land mines accidentally exploded during a ceremony in which a group of
former rebels were handing over arms, killing one person and wounding
about 40 including the regional governor.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, The "Benue", a
Nigerian ship with eight crew members, was hijacked. It was owned by
service and repair firm West African Offshore Ltd (WAO).
(AFP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 24, Pakistan rejected a
ceasefire offered by Taliban militants in the tribal belt near the
Afghan border as troops in the last 24 hours killed seven rebel
fighters. Officials said that Taliban militants in the area had slit
the throat of a 35-year-old man after accusing him of spying for US
troops across the border in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Somalia the
Shabab, the former military wing of the Islamic courts, and local clan
factions took control of the southern port of Kismayo. Muktar Robow, a
Shabab commander, wanted to merge with al-Qaeda.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.56)
2008 Aug 24, In Sri Lanka soldiers
reportedly killed 12 Tamil separatists in fighting along the front
lines dividing government territory from the rebels de facto state.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, The US Democratic
Convention opened in the Pepsi Center of Denver, Colorado, where Sen.
Edward Kennedy passed the party’s crown to Barack Obama.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 25, US immigration agents
uncovered some 350 suspected undocumented workers in a raid on the
Howard Industries electrical equipment plant in Laurel, Mississippi.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 25, The Afghan cabinet
demanded the renegotiation of agreements regulating the presence of the
international community in Afghanistan after more than 90 civilians
were killed in US-led air strikes.
(AFP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, The Danish central
bank said it has taken over Roskilde Bank, the nation's 10th largest
bank. The 124-year-old institution had been struggling amid global
financial turmoil and mounting losses on mortgage loans as housing
prices fell in Denmark.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, Honduran Pres. Manuel
Zelaya signed adherence to the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas
(ALBA), a trade alliance created in 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba as a
regional alternative to trade agreements with the US.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A9)
2008 Aug 25, In India authorities
struggled to get aid to more than 1 million people stranded by floods
in northern Bihar state. A Bihar official described the situation as a
catastrophe. Bunty (whose real name was Om Prakash), the notorious gang
leader who terrorized New Delhi from astride a motorcycle, died in a
pre-dawn shootout with police. A Roman Catholic nun was raped by a
Hindu mob in Orissa state. On Oct 24 she said that she will not
cooperate with local police, alleging that they stood by idly during
the attack. In Jan, 2009, police charged 10 men with gang raping the
Catholic nun.
(AP, 8/25/08)(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 10/24/08)(AP, 1/29/09)
2008 Aug 25, Iranian state TV said
the country has launched production of a domestically built submarine
capable of firing missiles and torpedoes. Two other submarines, which
began production in 2005, have been delivered to Iran's navy.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, Israel freed nearly
200 jailed Palestinians, including a militant mastermind from the
1970s, in a goodwill gesture just hours before US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice was to begin her latest peace mission to the region.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, Former PM Nawaz
Sharif said he is withdrawing his party from Pakistan's ruling
coalition because it has failed to restore judges ousted by
ex-President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan banned the Taliban, toughening
its stance after the Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for
deadly suicide bombings against one of its most sensitive military
installations. 8 people were killed in a pre-dawn rocket-and-bomb
strike on the home of provincial lawmaker Waqar Ahmed Khan in Swat. A
Geneva prosecutor dropped money laundering charges against Asif Ali
Zardari, head of the Pakistan People’s Party.
(AP, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/26/08, p.A15)
2008 Aug 25, A 41-year-old
Lockheed Martin C-130 military cargo plane crashed in the waters off
the southern Philippines. Two Philippine Air Force pilots and 7 crewmen
were feared dead.
(AFP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 25, In Puerto Rico US
federal agents arrested 59 alleged members of a drug trafficking ring
in coordinated raids in a number of small towns, where some housing
projects were under siege by gangsters. Home to nearly 4 million
people, Puerto Rico’s homicide rate was more than three times the US
national average. Authorities said drug trafficking was behind the
majority of the killings.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, Russia's parliament
voted unanimously to urge the president to recognize the independence
of Georgia's two breakaway regions, a move likely to stoke further
tensions between Moscow and the small Caucasus nation's Western allies.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned ex-Soviet Moldova against
repeating Georgia's mistake of trying to use force to seize back
control of Transdniestria, a pro-Moscow breakaway region.
(AP, 8/25/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, In northern Sri Lanka
a series of gunbattles between government forces and the Tamil Tigers
killed 15 rebels and seven soldiers.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 25, Deadly clashes broke
out when Sudanese security forces thrust into Kalma, one of the largest
camps for displaced people in South Darfur, leaving at least 33 and as
many as 70 people dead.
(AFP, 8/25/08)(AP, 8/26/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A9)
2008 Aug 25, Zimbabwe's opposition
won the vote for speaker of the first parliament since disputed
elections in March, claiming votes even from the ruling party of
autocratic President Robert Mugabe amid stalled talks over sharing
power.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, The Pentagon said two
men were cleared for release to Algeria from Guantanamo, Cuba, where
about 260 detainees remained.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In the 2nd day of the
Democratic Convention in Denver Sen. Hillary Clinton endorsed Sen.
Barack Obama for the US presidential nomination.
(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a measure for a statewide bullet train system to
be placed on the November ballot.
(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, California Attorney
General Jerry Brown said he expected raids on medical pot clubs that
sell for big profits in the Bay Area. He had recently issued guidelines
on sales of medical marijuana and state officials over the weekend
raided a club in Los Angeles County.
(SFC, 8/27/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 26, An Ohio jury
convicted Andrew Siemaszko, a former nuclear plant engineer, of hiding
information in 2001 about reactor corrosion at the Davis-Besse plant
along Lake Erie. Siemaszko’s attorney’s said the plant’s owner set him
up as a scapegoat because he spoke out about safety concerns.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, A UN team in Herat,
Afghanistan, said it found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians,
including 60 children, were killed in US-led air strikes last week.
Aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some 78 houses having been
totally destroyed and serious damage to many others. Kazuya Ito (31), a
Japanese aid worker, was kidnapped at gunpoint with his driver near
Jalalabad. Ito was found killed the next day. A group of Taliban
fighters attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district of Helmand
province, sparking a clash that killed 18 militants. An air strike
killed 30 Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan close to the border with
Pakistan.
(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 8/27/08)(Reuters, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Brazil asked the WTO
for the right to impose $4 billion in annual sanctions against US goods
and services to penalize the US for handing out illegal cotton
subsidies.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A9)
2008 Aug 26, In Brazil Olavo
Egydio Setubal (b.1923), industrialist and former mayor of Sao Paulo,
died. His industrial and financial empire, which grew up from a metal
shop, included Banco Itau Holding Financiera SA, Brazil’s 2nd largest
bank.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=29439734)(WSJ,
8/30/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 26, In southwest China
explosions ripped through a chemical plant, killing at least 11 people,
injuring dozens and forcing the evacuation of thousands of nearby
residents.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Dubai a fire
in a building packed with foreign laborers killed 11 people. 10 of the
victims were Indian.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Hurricane Gustav hit
Haiti and triggered flooding and landslides that killed 15 people
before weakening to a tropical storm.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 26, In India Christians
clashed with Hindu mobs who attacked churches, and eight people died in
the violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, a region known for
deadly religious fighting.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Andhra Chiranjeevi
(53), Indian film star, launched his People’s Rule Party (Prajarajyam)
in southern Andhra Pradesh state.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.43)
2008 Aug 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber attacked police recruits in Jalula in Diyala province killing 28
people and wounding 25. A bomb planted in a parked car killed 5 people
and wounded 8, including three policemen, in the city of Tikrit.
(AP, 8/26/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 26, Israel ordered the
Gaza Strip's border crossings closed after militants violated a
cease-fire by launching two rockets the previous evening, bringing to
46 the number of rockets launched by militants since the truce began.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, Malaysia's opposition
leader Anwar Ibrahim won a "landslide" victory in a by-election to
return him to parliament, and said he was on track to oust a weakened
government. The Malays National Organization (UMNO) and its allies had
ruled since independence in 1957.
(AFP, 8/26/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.39)
2008 Aug 26, A Maltese fishing
trawler rescued the migrants. Authorities said the survivors first told
the fishermen that 10 people were missing, but later said as many as 70
people from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan made the sea voyage with them.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Mexico 3
decapitated bodies were found in an empty lot on the eastern outskirts
of Tijuana. The bodies had messages written on their backs in permanent
marker saying they worked for "the weakened 'engineer,'" a nickname for
Francisco Sanchez Arellano, a top lieutenant in Tijuana's powerful
Arellano Felix drug cartel. A day earlier 2 bodies were found in
Tijuana, one with the head placed on the upper back.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 26, North Korea said it
has suspended work on disabling its nuclear facilities as of August 14
and is considering restoration of the Yongbyon reactor that can make
material for atomic bombs, accusing the US of violating a disarmament
deal by failing to delist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Pakistan an
explosion on the outskirts of Islamabad killed at least seven people
and wounded 20. Around midnight 75-100 militants attacked the Tiarza
Fort in South Waziristan. The attack was repulsed with 11 militants
killed.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 26, Russia formally
recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian
territories at the heart of its war with Georgia, heightening tensions
with the West as the US dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a
port city still patrolled by Russian troops. In a direct challenge to
Russia, the US announced it intends to deliver humanitarian aid to the
beleaguered Georgian port city of Poti, which Russian troops still
control through checkpoints on the city's outskirts.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Sri Lanka ground
battles in the northern regions of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu,
Kilinochchi and Welioya killed 27 rebels and two soldiers.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Sudanese hijackers
commandeered the Boeing 737 jetliner, which was carrying 95 passengers
and crew, soon after it took off from the southern Darfur town of
Nyala, not far from a refugee camp that the Sudanese military attacked
a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Thailand thousands
of anti-government demonstrators pushed into the Thai prime minister's
office compound and rallied outside several ministries. A violent
masked mob from the same protest group forced a state-run TV station
off the air.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, Zimbabwe's opposition
heckled Robert Mugabe in an unprecedented show of defiance when the
president opened parliament with traditional pomp and his familiar
denunciations of the West.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Colorado Democrats
officially made Barack Obama their presidential nominee and Sen. Joe
Biden, D-Del., their vice presidential nominee, following speeches by
former Pres. Bill Clinton and Sen John Kerry, the Democrat’s 2004
presidential candidate. Obama made a surprise late visit to the
convention, following Biden’s acceptance speech, to praise his wife,
his former rival, and former President Bill Clinton for going to bat
for him.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Honolulu Marcus
Eriksen and fellow eco-mariner Joel Paschal celebrated the end of their
2,600-mile voyage on what they call the JUNK raft. They had spent three
months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise
awareness of ocean debris. Research suggested that every square
kilometer of the ocean has an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic
floating in it. The floating portion was thought to make up only 15% of
marine litter.
(AP, 8/28/08)(Econ, 2/28/09, SR p.9)
2008 Aug 27, US scientists said
they have transformed ordinary pancreas cells in living mice into a
rarer type of cell that churns out insulin opening possibilities for
future treatment of disease.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D3)
2008 Aug 27, In Afghanistan a
German soldier was killed and another three injured in a roadside bomb
attack in Kunduz province. Germany counted some 3,300 soldiers as part
of the international force in Afghanistan. US-led coalition troops
clashed and called in airstrikes against militants in Kunduz province,
killing more than a dozen insurgents. In southern Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed a US coalition soldier on a patrol. In the Nad Ali
area of Helmand province, a fight between police and militants killed
14 insurgents. More than a dozen militants were killed after they
attacked a coalition base in Shaheed Hasas district of the southern
Uruzgan province. Two Afghan guards also died during the attack. About
a dozen militants were killed during a raid by coalition troops in
eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 27, The first outbreak of
violence in China's western region of Xinjiang since a pair of
high-profile attacks during the Olympics left 2 Chinese policemen dead
and 7 more wounded. In north China 9 miners in Hebei province became
trapped underground after the illegal mine they worked in collapsed.
Police were only informed 2 days later. All 9 were feared dead.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 27, China and Iraq signed
a $3 billion deal revising a prewar agreement for China's biggest oil
company to help develop the Ahdab oil field. On Sep 2 Iraq’s Cabinet
approved the deal with China National Petroleum Corp.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 27, The Group of Seven
(G7) industrialized democracies condemned Russia for its actions in
Georgia, underlining the country's growing estrangement from the West.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, A US military ship
docked at the southern Georgian port of Batumi. Meanwhile, Russia's
missile cruiser, the Aurora, and two missile boats, anchored at the
port of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. The moves by both sides
underscored an escalating standoff between Moscow and the West over
this small Caucasus nation devastated by war with Russia.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Indian police were
ordered to shoot on sight to end Hindu-Christian clashes. Parts of
eastern Orissa state have been rocked by Hindu-Christian clashes since
Aug 23, when a hardline Hindu holy leader and four other people were
shot dead by unknown assailants.
(AFP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, American forces
arrested Ali al-Lami, a top Iraqi Shiite government official, as he
stepped off a plane at Baghdad's airport. The US said the man arrested
was a leader of Iranian-backed militias and was behind a bombing that
killed 10 people on June 24, including four Americans. An American
soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bombing a day earlier in
northeast Baghdad.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, In
Indian-administered Kashmir police traded fire with militants allegedly
holding 8 people hostage, including 6 children, in a building in Jammu.
3 soldiers and 3 civilians died in the violence. The militants had
illegally crossed into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, Abie Nathan (81), the
peace activist who made a dramatic solo flight to Egypt in a rattletrap
single-engine plane (1966) and later founded the groundbreaking "Voice
of Peace" radio station, died in Tel Aviv.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to keep a peacekeeping force in Lebanon for
another year, calling for stepped-up efforts to achieve a permanent
cease-fire and long-term resolution of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Mexico a
38-year-old man from Oregon was arrested in San Jose del Cabo following
a fight at an apartment complex. He died in jail hours later. On Aug 31
six Mexican officers placed under house arrest on suspicion of
homicide.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Pakistan security
forces clashed with militants across the wild tribal belt, trading fire
with insurgents in a health center and repelling a major assault on an
outpost in a region known as an al-Qaida safe haven. Officials claimed
as many as 49 insurgents died as the fighting spread to South
Waziristan.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 27, In Spain tens of
thousands of people from around the world hurled tons of ripe tomatoes
at each other in the annual food fight in the eastern Spanish town of
Bunol.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Two hijackers, who
commandeered a jetliner from Sudan's Darfur region and diverted it to a
remote desert airstrip in southern Libya, surrendered after a 22-hour
standoff.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Thailand issued
arrest warrants for protest leaders besieging the main government
complex, as authorities scrambled to find a peaceful end to the
administration's most serious challenge yet.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Zimbabwe's opposition
said it will not join any new government with President Robert Mugabe
until power-sharing talks are concluded, after the 84-year-old declared
he would name his own cabinet.
(AFP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 28, In Denver Sen. Barack
Obama addressed the Democratic National Convention and accepted the
nomination for president of the US.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, The US-backed
coalition said a four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint
US-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100
militants. A dozen militants were killed in a gunbattle with coalition
forces in Paktika province.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, An Argentine court
convicted two former generals for the murder of a senator during the
country's seven-year military dictatorship and sentenced them to life
in prison. Retired Gens. Antonio Bussi and Luciano Menendez were found
guilty of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Sen. Guillermo Vargas
Aignasse, who disappeared March 24, 1976, the day of a military coup.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, Brazilian authorities
said more than 200 oil-slicked penguins had washed up dead over the
last 4 days on the beaches of Florianopolis, a popular Brazilian island
resort, and that they are searching for a cause.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Grant Wilkinson (34)
was jailed for life for running Britain’s biggest-ever gun factory
which converted dozens of replica submachine guns into deadly weapons
used in nine gangland murders. He legally bought 90 replica Mac-10s in
2004, saying they were for use on the set of the James Bond film
"Casino Royale" and paying 55,000 pounds in cash.
(AFP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, State media reported
that Chinese government auditors have uncovered the misuse of millions
of dollars in disaster assistance as part of an embezzlement probe
spanning 10 central government departments.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Government forces
fought Tutsi rebels in the fiercest clashes for months in eastern
Congo, threatening a struggling peace process.
(Reuters, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, It was reported that
Cuba had notified at least 2 foreign governments that it could not meet
debt payments.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 28, In Greenland local
police said dozens of massacred narwhals, an Arctic whale with a single
long tusk, have been discovered on the east coast in what could be a
case of poaching. A scientific expedition from New Zealand discovered
the carcasses as they sailed along the coastline about two weeks ago.
(AFP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, In India Hindu mobs
ransacked a church and clashed with Christian villagers in eastern
Orissa state. Hindu mobs had already destroyed over a dozen churches
following the murder of a Hindu leader in Kahdhamal.
(WSJ, 8/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 28, Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr released a statement saying his largely disbanded Mahdi Army
militia would extend its cease-fire "until further notice." An American
soldier died of wounds he received after coming under fire while
patrolling northern Baghdad a day earlier.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, In Indian Kashmir
Government forces ended a hostage crisis in the mainly Hindu city of
Jammu when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have seized
eight people. 2 hostages died in the gunbattle.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Iran’s Junior trade
minister Mohammadali Zeyghami said Iran is ready to share its nuclear
technology with Nigeria to help the energy-starved west African
powerhouse boost electricity generation.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, Tropical Storm Gustav
bore down on Jamaica after leaving 67 people dead on Hispaniola,
including 59 in Haiti and 8 in the Dominican Republic.
(SFC, 8/29/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 28, In Lebanon attackers
opened fire on a military helicopter, killing a Lebanese army officer
and forcing the craft to make an emergency landing. The next day
Hezbollah handed over a man suspected of firing on the helicopter.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, Libya announced an
amnesty for more than 3,000 prisoners, including Europeans and
Africans, to mark the 39th anniversary of Moamer Kadhafi's rule.
(AFP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Mexico's Supreme
Court upheld the capital's abortion law, setting a precedent for the
rest of the country that could inspire other Latin American cities.
Twelve decapitated bodies bearing signs of torture were found in
eastern Mexico and authorities were still looking for the heads. 11 of
the bodies were found in a suburb of Merida, a 12th in Buctzotz, 70 km
to the northeast.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, In Nigeria Rashid
Ladoja, ex-governor of Oyo state (2000-2007), was arrested for
embezzling some 16 million dollars (11 million euros).
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, A bomb near the city
of Bannu blew a bus carrying Pakistani police and government workers
off a high bridge, killing at least 11, as fighting between security
forces and extremists flared across the country's northwest.
(AP, 8/28/08)(WSJ, 8/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 28, A Russian military
spokesman said Russia successfully tested a long-range Topol missile,
designed to avoid detection by anti-missile defense systems, from its
Plesetsk launch site. The RS-12M Topol, called the SS-25 Sickle by
NATO, has a maximum range of 10,000 km (6,125 miles) and can carry one
550-kiloton warhead.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Russian forces turned
over 12 Georgian soldiers on the border of Abkhazia. Georgia's foreign
minister said ethnic Georgians were being cleared from their homes in
South Ossetia. A joint declaration from the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization denounced the use of force and called for respect for
every country's territorial integrity. Mikhail Mindzayev, the interior
minister of South Ossetia, said an unmanned Georgian spy plane was shot
down over South Ossetia by local forces.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Russia’s PM Vladimir
Putin said 19 US poultry producers will be barred from exporting their
products to Russia. He said the unnamed American producers had ignored
warnings from Russian inspectors who examined poultry companies last
year and that another 29 producers would receive warnings.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 29, John McCain, on his
72nd birthday, tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (44) to be
his vice presidential running mate.
(AP, 8/29/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 29, US banking regulators
shut down Integrity Bancshares Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., and sold all
deposits to Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala. This marked the
10th US bank to fail this year.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.B3)
2008 Aug 29, In SF the 4-day Slow
Food Nation opened at the Civic Center Plaza and continued at Fort
Mason, where tickets to the Taste Pavilion sold for $65. The Slow Food
movement had begun in Italy in 1986.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.38)
2008 Aug 29, In Oklahoma a train
slammed into a propane tanker truck triggering an explosion that killed
2 people.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 29, Tropical Storm Gustav
drenched Jamaica, killing at least 4 people, and rolled over the Cayman
Islands with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines, setting
off alarm from Cuba to New Orleans, and at gas pumps across the US.
(AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 29, A Georgian Foreign
Ministry official says Georgia is to recall all diplomatic staff from
its embassy in Moscow because of the Russian military presence in
Georgia.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 29, Chinese police
investigating a spate of attacks this month in western Xinjiang
province shot dead six suspects and arrested three others near Kashgar.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 29, French neurosurgeons
said they had successfully treated brain tumors through ultra-keyhole
surgery, using a tiny fiber-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 29, In India Tata Motors
suspended work on its new plant in Mumbai, West Bengal, due to ongoing
demonstrations in support of local farmers who say they were forced off
their land to make way for the plant.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 29, A gunmen killed a
member of a local US-allied Sunni group and his family in the village
of Withah, Diyala province. His father, mother and an infant were also
killed in the attack, which was in coordination with an assault on a
nearby Iraqi army checkpoint that wounded one Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 29, Central Japan was hit
by heavy rains and flooding forcing the evacuation of over a million
people.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 29, Fighter jets bombed
Taliban hide-outs in Pakistan's Swat Valley while troops pushed into
militant territory on the ground, killing at least 40 insurgents in a
24-hour siege.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 29, The San Juan Star,
Puerto Rico's Pulitzer Prize-winning English-language newspaper,
closed. The owner blamed the union for not agreeing to benefit cuts and
layoffs to offset declining revenue.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 29, Pirates, believed to
be Somali, hijacked the Malaysian MT Bunga Melati 5 tanker and its 41
crew members off Yemen's coast in the Gulf of Aden. It was the second
tanker owned by MISC Berhard to be hijacked in the gulf in the last 10
days.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 29, In Sri Lanka
renewed fighting in the embattled north killed 18 rebels and 5 soldiers.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 29, In Zimbabwe
power-sharing talks over a unity government resumed as Mugabe's
government made good on a promise to allow aid agencies to resume
operations. Mugabe announced cash awards for Zimbabwe’s Olympic
winners. He called Kirsty Coventry, who won three silvers and a gold at
the Beijing games, Zimbabwe's "golden girl" and gave her $100,000.
(AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, In Black Rock City,
Nevada, the 40-foot Burning Man was set aflame. This year’s festival,
themed the American Dream, was marked by a 10-story steel frame tower
built by union workers of recycled materials. The annual guidebook
reached 77 pages.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.B2)
2008 Aug 30, Raymond L. Danner,
American restaurateur, died at his home in Nashville, Tenn. In 1959 he
had acquired his first Shoney’s franchise from founder Alex
Schoenbaum. By his retirement in 1987 he had built Shoney’s Inc. into
1,600 restaurant outlet.
(WSJ, 9/13/08, p.A9)
2008 Aug 30, Brazilian officials
said Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months, the
first such increase in three years, as rising demand for soy and cattle
pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 30, Gustav swelled to a
fearsome Category 3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph (195 kph) as it
shrieked toward the heartland of Cuba's cigar industry on a track to
hit the US Gulf Coast, three years after Hurricane Katrina. 78 people
were already left dead in the Caribbean.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, China’s tallest
building, the 101-story, 1,614-foot Shanghai World Financial Center,
opened 14 years after Minoru Mori, its Japanese developer, began the
$1.13 billion project. The family owned Mori Building Co. owned 70% of
the project.
(SFC, 8/29/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.B2)
2008 Aug 30, A 6.1 earthquake hit
southwest China's Sichuan province, killing least 36 people and turning
tens of thousands of homes into rubble and cracked reservoirs.
(Reuters, 8/30/08)(AP, 8/31/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 30, Egypt opened its
Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing more than 2,500
people to leave the Hamas-controlled territory and about 1,000 to enter
in a goodwill gesture before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan begins.
(AP, 8/30/08)(Reuters, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 30, The UN says Russian
soldiers are telling thousands of refugees in Georgia who want to
return to their homes that their security can't be guaranteed. All
hoped to return to villages that are in the "security zones" that
Russia has claimed for itself. Russian PM Vladimir Putin urged the EU
to ignore calls to punish Moscow over the Georgia conflict as Tbilisi
appealed for targeted punishment of the Russian leadership.
(AP, 8/30/08)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, In India, officials
said more than 300,000 people, trapped in India's worst floods in 50
years, have been rescued but that nearly double that number remained
stranded without food or water. In eastern India 12 policemen were
killed in a landmine blast triggered by suspected Maoist rebels.
(AP, 8/30/08)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, The US military said
more than 11,000 Iraqis have been released from American detention
centers this year, leaving some 19,700 still in custody.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi met in Libya to sign a
"friendship pact." Italy agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as
compensation for its 30-year occupation of the country, which ended in
1943.
(Reuters, 8/30/08)(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 30, Hundreds of thousands
of frustrated Mexicans, many carrying pictures of kidnapped loved ones,
marched across the country to demand government action against a
relentless tide of killings, abductions and shootouts. Hours before the
protests, the severed heads of two women were found near the attorney
general's offices in the city of Durango.
(AP, 8/31/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 30, Gilberto Rincon
Gallardo (69), a former socialist presidential candidate who gained
respect in Mexico for defending the rights of the disabled, gays and
other marginalized groups, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 30, Nigeria's main
militant group claimed that it killed at least 29 military personnel in
three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region. The
group reported that six of its own fighters were also killed in the
clashes.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, In Pakistan a blast
ripped through a home in Wana, a main town in the South Waziristan
tribal region, killing at least five militants.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, A bomb blast blamed
on separatist Tamil Tigers wounded 45 people in Colombo. A clash killed
three soldiers and a rebel in Anuradhapura district. Rebels said that a
shell fired by government forces hit a shelter for civilians displaced
by fighting in Kilinochchi, killing five people and wounding three
others.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, Thai PM Samak
Sundaravej vowed not to quit in the face of intensifying protests aimed
at toppling his seven-month-old government.
(Reuters, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 31, John McCain, GOP
presidential nominee, directed party officials to drastically scale
back plans for their convention, set to begin Sep 1 in St. Paul, Minn.,
and refocus efforts on helping potential victims of Hurricane Gustav.
(SFC, 9/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 31, Estimates from
distributor Warner Brothers said "The Dark Knight" had become the
second movie in Hollywood history to top $500 million at the domestic
box office, raising its total to $502.4 million. "Titanic," the biggest
modern blockbuster, remained No. 1 on the domestic charts with $600.8
million.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, SF closed vehicle
traffic to 4.5 miles of its waterfront streets for the city’s first
Sunday Streets day encouraging thousands to come out for the 9 a.m. to
1 p.m. event.
(SFC, 9/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 31, Cubans returned from
shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads, but no deaths were
reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island
and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Allianz, a
Germany-based insurer, sold Dresdner, a German bank, to Commerzbank for
$14.2 billion.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.88)
2008 Aug 31, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon promised to adopt several proposals from civic groups
who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily kidnappings
and killings.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, Pakistan said it will
suspend its military operations against insurgents in a tribal region
along the Afghan border in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Pakistani Taliban said they will continue attacks during Ramadan. A
missile fired from an unmanned aircraft hit a house in the North
Waziristan tribal area, killing six people including a woman and a
young girl.
(AP, 8/31/08)(Reuters, 8/31/08)(AFP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace agreement at a
summit, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled
out an accord by a January target date.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Paraguay’s Pres.
Fernando Lugo said Paraguay will reverse its historic support for
Taiwan (since 1957) at the upcoming UN General Assembly, and also is
reconsidering its relations with communist regimes. In return for
Paraguay's 51 years of support, Taiwan has sent millions of dollars to
the impoverished country for low-income housing, agricultural
development and scholarships.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, President Dmitry
Medvedev says Russia will follow the recognition of Georgia's breakaway
provinces with agreements on economic and military aid.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Police arrested
Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetiya.ru web site, taking him
off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetia province. Police whisked
Yevloyev away in a car and later dumped him on the road with a gunshot
wound in the head. Yevloyev died in a hospital shortly afterward.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, In South Africa
strong winds fanned runaway fires across the country killing at least
16 people, including two children.
(AFP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, Sri Lanka’s defense
ministry said troops killed 12 rebels in the north, while three
soldiers also died in combat.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Thailand's Parliament
convened an emergency session at the request of the country's prime
minister, who acknowledged that his administration cannot control
spiraling anti-government protests.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Venezuela rejected US
requests to resume cooperation in the war on drugs, saying it has made
progress despite an alleged fourfold-gain in the amount of Colombian
cocaine now passing through its territory.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Zimbabwe's rival
parties returned home from talks in South Africa with no sign of a
power-sharing deal to resolve the country's bitter political crisis.
(AFP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug, The population of North
Carolina stood at nearly 9 million people, up from 8 million in 2000.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.31)
2008 Aug, Utah began a trial 4-day
work week for about 17,000 of the state's 24,000 executive-branch
employees. Closing state offices on Fridays was supposed to cut energy
costs and reduce carbon emissions. The program led to an increase in
volunteer activities.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2008 Aug, Samantha Orobator (20),
a British citizen, was arrested in Laos and charged with trying to
smuggle 1.5 pounds (680 grams) of heroin in her luggage. In 2009 a
government spokesman said she will not face the death penalty because
the law bans executing expectant convicts.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2008 Aug, Cambodia leased
agricultural land to Kuwaiti investors following mutual prime
ministerial visits.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.62)
2008 Aug, Inflation in Latvia
stood at 17%.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.53)
2008 Aug, Inflation in Pakistan
was running at an annual rate of 25%.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.46)
2008 Aug, In Puerto Rico FBI
agents and police officers launched the late-night raid in the city of
Carolina to free a Dominican man. Police say kidnappers were holding
him in the trunk of a car and demanding $650,000 in ransom. A Puerto
Rican policeman was killed by “friendly fire” during the gunbattle with
kidnappers. In 2009 authorities charged FBI agent Jared Hewitt with
negligent homicide for shooting 12-year police veteran Orlando Gonzalez
Ortiz.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2008 Aug, In South Africa Sydney
Maree (52), former US track star, was convicted and sentenced earlier
this month in Pretoria to 10 years, five of them suspended, for
stealing about 1 million rand from a government agency he headed in
2003.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug, Inflation in Sri Lanka
reached an annual rate close to 30%. The 25-year average annual
inflation rate was 12%.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.44)
2008 Aug, St. Vincent and Iran
established ties after PM Gonsalves visited Iran for a summit of the
Nonaligned Movement, an organization of 120 developing nations. St.
Vincent later announced that it would receive US$7 million in aid from
Iran. A portion of that will go toward construction of a US$200 million
international airport.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Aug, The Baganda people of
Uganda numbered about 5 million of the country’s 31 million people.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.57)
2008 Aug, In Vietnam several
people were arrested after they knocked down a section of the wall
surrounding a parcel of land once owned by Thai Ha Church and set up an
altar and a statue of the Virgin Mary. 7 of the defendants received
suspended sentences ranging from 12 to 15 months, and another received
a warning. They all got two years of probation.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2008 Sep 1, The GOP convention
opened at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in an abbreviated
session due to Hurricane Gustav. Alaska’s Gov. Palin, GOP candidate for
the vice-presidency, disclosed that her daughter, Bristol (17), is 5
months pregnant. Over 250 demonstrators were arrested as splinter
groups smashed department store and police car windows. On March 11,
2009, Levi Johnson (19) announced he and Bristol Palin had decided to
end their relationship.
(SFC, 9/2/08, p.A1,5)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.A4)(SFC,
3/12/09, p.A6)
2008 Sep 1, Hurricane Gustav
smashed into the Gulf coast as a Category 2 storm with 110-mph winds
just southwest of New Orleans, where levees held as waves splashed
over. Some 750,000 people were left without power in Louisiana. It was
later estimated that the storm caused at least $372 in damage to
crops.
(SFC, 9/2/08, p.A1)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.36)(Econ,
10/4/08, p.34)
2008 Sep 1, Roz Savage arrived in
Waikiki, Ha., after rowing 99 days from SF, Ca. The English-born woman
hoped to become the first woman to row alone across the Pacific Ocean
with the goal of raising awareness of the amount of plastic pollution
in the ocean.
(SFC, 9/2/08, p.B2)
2008 Sep 1, In Fairfield, Ca.,
councilman Matt Garcia (21) was critically wounded outside a friend’s
house. He was declared brain dead the next day. There were no suspects
and police had no idea why he was shot. Garcia was taken off life
support on Sep 5. On Sep 13 police announced the arrest of 2 suspects.
On Sep 16 murder charges were filed against Henry Don Williams (32),
who remained at large. On Sep 18 murder charges were filed against Gene
Allen Combs (45). Police released Nicole Stewart (33), who was pregnant
by Williams and remained a witness. Garcia appeared to be the innocent
victim of an attempt to collect drug debts. On may 28, 2010, Williams
was convicted of first degree murder.
(SFC, 9/3/08, p.A1)(SFC, 9/6/08, p.B3)(SSFC,
9/14/08, p.B1)(SFC, 9/19/08, p.B6)(SFC, 5/29/10, p.C2)
2008 Sep 1, In Nevada an air
tanker being used to drop retardant on a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada
crashed after taking off for its last flight of the day, killing all
three crew members.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 1, Jerry Reed (71), US
singer and actor, died of complications from emphysema. He became a
good ol' boy actor in car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit."
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 1, Foreign and Afghan
forces killed five children in two separate incidents, further
inflaming tensions over the killings of civilians by troops from the US
and other countries. The US military said US-led coalition and Afghan
troops killed more than 220 suspected Taliban militants in strikes in
southern Afghanistan last week.
(AP, 9/1/08)(Reuters, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Australian actor
Michael Pate (b.1920) died of respiratory failure. He had appeared in
more than 50 films and was a regular guest star on American TV shows in
the 1950s and 60s.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Brazil's Pres. Lula da
Silva suspended the entire leadership of Abin, the nation’s
intelligence agency, after it was accused of tapping the phones of the
Supreme Court chief and members of Congress.
(AP, 9/2/08)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.A14)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.45)
2008 Sep 1, Thomas Bata (93), the
Czech-born industrialist who headed the global shoe empire bearing his
family's name from the 1940s to the 1980s, died in Toronto. The
company's headquarters were moved to Toronto under Bata's leadership
when the family's Czech factories were nationalized by the communists.
The company returned to the Czech Republic in 1989 after the end of
communist rule.
(Reuters, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 1, In China a new tax on
gas guzzling cars took effect in an effort to reduce fuel consumption
and fight pollution. In June the tax on fuel was increased by almost
20%.
(Econ, 8/23/08, p.54)
2008 Sep 1, In Colombia a car bomb
has exploded in front of the palace of justice in Cali, killing at
least four people and injuring 20 others.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, In east Democratic
Republic of Congo a humanitarian plane carrying 17 passengers and crew
crashed into a mountain with no sign of survivors.
(Reuters, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 1, The top UN aid
official John Holmes called for greater international efforts to help
millions of Ethiopians suffering from a severe drought.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Hundreds of thousands
of Georgians joined together in anti-Russian protests.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.32)
2008 Sep 1, The US military handed
over control of once brutally violent Anbar province to Iraqi forces,
marking a major milestone in America's plan to eventually send its
troops home.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Most of the Muslim
Mideast began the first day of Ramadan, but Iraqi Shiites, some
Lebanese Shiites and Iran will start observing the holy month of
fasting on Sep 2.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Japan's chronically
unpopular PM Yasuo Fukuda (72), suddenly announced his resignation
after less than a year in office, throwing the world's second-largest
economy into political confusion.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, In Myanmar Saw Myint
Than, a magazine journalist, was arrested on a charge of violating the
Electronics Law, which regulates all forms of electronic communication
and carries a maximum five-year prison term. He was freed on Oct 20
after police determined he had not provided information to The
Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based Web site run by Myanmar exiles.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Sep 1, North Korea began
reassembling its Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic
bombs in violation of US conditions for improved diplomatic relations.
Japan's Kyodo news agency reported the restart on Sep 3 citing sources
in Beijing close to six-party nuclear talks on North Korean.
(Reuters, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 1, Pakistani officials
said that their forces had killed some 560 Pakistani and foreign
fighters and thwarted a push to make Bajur into a militant fortress.
Pakistan’s government opened an investigation into the killings of five
women who tried to choose their own husbands, after a provincial
lawmaker defended their deaths as a "centuries-old tradition."
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, In the southern
Philippines a homemade bomb exploded at a bus terminal, killing four
people and injuring more than a dozen in Digos city in Davao del Sur
province.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, A Spanish judge began
gathering information about people who disappeared during Spain's civil
war and subsequent dictatorship, seeking to produce a reliable list of
victims slain away from the battlefield during the vicious fight
between left and right.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 1, Sri Lanka’s defense
ministry said 33 rebels and four of its own troops were killed in
fighting across the north of the island. It said 49 guerrillas and 11
soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. Government troops marched
into Mallavi, a key LTTE bastion.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 1, A US-Vietnam adoption
agreement expired with the two sides unable to resolve disagreements
over fraud and corruption, disappointing hundreds of prospective
parents who will have to seek children elsewhere.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Zimbabwe's main
opposition called on regional powers to pressure President Robert
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party to be more flexible in power-sharing
talks.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 2, Pres. Bush delivered a
6-minute televised speech to GOP delegates in St. Paul, Minn., as the
convention returned to its pre-hurricane schedule.
(WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A5)
2008 Sep 2, Google’s new Web
browser, named Chrome, became available for download.
(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 2, New Orleans residents
were blocked from returning home due to damage from Hurricane Gustav,
but Mayor Nagin said they would be allowed back on Sep 4.
(WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 2, In Oakland, Ca.,
police arrested 3 men involved in a spate of takeover robberies at East
Bay restaurants and small businesses.
(SFC, 9/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 2, In SF, Ca., Mark
Guardado (45), president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells
Angels Motorcycle Club, was shot and killed during a fight in the
Mission District. Christopher Ablett (37) of Modesto, a member of the
Mongols Motorcycle Club, was later identified as a suspect in the
killing.
(SFC, 9/4/08, p.B1)(SFC, 9/12/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 2, In Washington state a
shooting rampage in Skagit County left 6 people dead. The suspect,
Isaac Zamora (28), was described as a person with a mental illness. He
turned himself in at the sheriff’s office in Mount Vernon. Mental
health experts later found Zamora to be incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 9/3/08, p.A4)(SFC, 9/4/08, p.A7)(WSJ,
11/28/08, p.A10)
2008 Sep 2, In Afghanistan 22
Taliban were killed in a clash in Zabul province's Naw Bahar district.
7 Arab fighters were among the dead. Another 10 militants died in
clashes with Afghan and foreign troops in Nad Ali district of Helmand
province. NATO troops in Operation Oqab Tsuka (Eagle’s summit)
delivered a Chinese-built turbine for the power station at Kajaki.
Taliban insurgents opened fire on a patrol of Australian, US and Afghan
troops, as it returned to base. More than a dozen coalition troops were
wounded; none died. In 2009 Australian trooper Mark Donaldson was
awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British
Commonwealth, for his efforts to protect the wounded during the attack.
(AP, 9/3/08)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.64)(AP, 1/16/09)
2008 Sep 2, Argentina’s Pres.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner promised to repay $6.7 billion that
Argentina owed to the Paris Club of 19 foreign governments following
its 2001 default, It will use part of its $47 billion in foreign
currency reserves to pay the debts. The government still refused to
negotiate with private holders of $20 billion of its bonds, who held
out against the 2005 debt restructuring.
(WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A12)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.45)
2008 Sep 2, Australia's central
bank cut interest rates for the first time in over six-and-a-half
years, pushing them down 25 basis points to 7% amid signs of cooling
economic growth.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 2, In Australia Brian
Spillane, a 65-year-old ex-priest, was arrested and charged in Sydney
with 60 counts relating to alleged sexual assaults against eight
people. Spillane was originally charged in May with 33 child sex
offenses against five people as a result of a police investigation into
allegations of abuse in the 1980s at St. Stanislaus in the city of
Bathurst.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 2, Bolivia and Iran
pledged cooperation and signed energy pacts, rebuffing US concerns over
improved ties.
(WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 2, The British government
slashed stamp duty, meaning homes worth up to 175,000 pounds would be
exempt from the land sales tax for the next year in a move aimed at
reenergizing the housing market.
(AFP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 2, The Third High Level
Forum on Aid Effectiveness ppened in Accra, Ghana, for a 3-day meeting.
It aimed to record how much progress had been maderelative to the Paris
2005 declaration for making aid work better and targets set for 2010.
(Econ, 9/6/08,
p.69)(www.climate-l.org/2008/09/third-high-leve.html)
2008 Sep 2, Iran sentenced four
female activists to six months in prison for writings demanding
equality for women. Sweden had awarded a human rights prize to Parvin
Ardalan, one of the activists, earlier this year.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 2, Iraq’s Cabinet
approved an oil deal, signed August 27, with China National Petroleum
Corp. An American soldier died of non-combat related causes in Baghdad.
Ibrahim Jassam, an Iraqi freelance photographer working for Reuters,
was detained during a raid on his home in the town of Mahmoudiya. A US
military spokesman said Jassam was detained because he was "assessed to
be a threat" to Iraq and coalition forces. Jassam was released after 17
months in detention.
(AP, 9/2/08)(AP, 9/3/08)(AP, 2/10/10)
2008 Sep 2, In Mozambique 2 days
of fires killed at least 32 people and injured hundreds more in blazes
which devoured large swathes of arable land. The fires also displaced
thousands and ravaged around 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) in the
three central provinces of Manica, Sofala and Zambezia.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 2, Pakistani Taliban
militants said they had kidnapped two Chinese telecoms engineers and
their entourage and would soon issue a list of demands. The engineers
went missing along with their local driver and a security guard four
days ago near the Afghan border where they had been checking an
installation.
(AFP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 2, Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin said that Russia will respond calmly to an increase in
NATO ships in the Black Sea in the aftermath of the short war with
Georgia, but promised that "there will be an answer."
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 2, In Russia's troubled
North Caucasus journalist Telman Alishaev was shot in Dagestan. Islamic
TV reporter Telman Alishaev died at a hospital in Makhachkala the next
day. Journalist Miloslav Bitokov was left with a fractured skull after
a beating in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkariya. Police and co-workers said
the two men were likely targeted for their work.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 2, Sierra Leone's
President Ernest Koroma signed-off on legislation to fight corruption,
then fulfilled his obligations by handing over a declaration of his
assets. Abdul Tejan-Cole, head of the country’s Anti-Corruption
Commission, had introduced a system whereby every public official must
declare his or her assets.
(AFP, 9/2/08)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.51)
2008 Sep 2, South Africa signed an
energy agreement with oil-rich Venezuela as President Hugo Chavez
arrived on his first state visit. Political, trade and economic
relations were on the agenda with President Thabo Mbeki.
(AFP, 9/2/08)(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 2, Sri Lanka's government
said it had dealt a major blow to Tamil rebels by capturing the key
northern town and guerrilla bastion of Mallavi after heavy fighting
that left dozens dead. Government forces pounded rebel defenses with
airstrikes, helicopter attacks and ground assaults as heavy fighting
across northern Sri Lanka killed 47 Tamil Tiger fighters and left 13
soldiers dead or missing. A rebel affiliated Web site claimed the Tamil
Tigers had killed as many as 75 government soldiers in the recent
fighting.
(AP, 9/2/08)(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 2, Thailand's prime
minister declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok after a
week of political tension exploded into violent street clashes between
supporters and opponents of the government that left one person dead.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 2, Ukraine lawmakers
loyal to PM Yulia Tymoshenko sided with opposition parties to pass a
law weakening presidential powers and boosting those of the prime
minister.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, In St. Paul, Minn.,
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little
as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise
on her credentials. Palin seduced many on television who had spent days
doubting her VP candidacy.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 3, Albert J. Stanley
(65), former Halliburton executive, pleaded guilty in Houston to
orchestrating over $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian government
officials from 1995-2004 for the construction of liquefied natural gas
facilities. The bribes began when Stanley worked for M.W. Kellogg, a
unit of Dresser Industries that was acquired by Halliburton in 1998,
when Dick Cheney served as CEO. Stanley also pleaded guilty to taking
$10.8 million in kickbacks from a consortium of construction firms
involved in the LNG contracts between 1992-2003. Stanley was sentenced
to 7 years in prison and ordered to repay Halliburton $10.8 million.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/5/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 3, Coca-Cola Co.
announced a bid to acquire China Huiyuan Juice Group in a $2.4 billion.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 3, In Pasadena, Texas, a
suburb of Houston, Dannette Gillespie (38) orchestrated her daughter
(15) and Vanessa Anne Ocampo (19) in the robbery and killing of Eugene
Palma (75), which netted them $15. On Sep 7 all three were charged with
murder.
(www.truecrimereport.com/2008/09/mother_of_the_year_dannette_gi.php)
2008 Sep 3, US Vice President Dick
Cheney assured Azerbaijan of America's "abiding interest" in the
region's stability. It was the first stop on a tour of three ex-Soviet
republics that are wary of Russia's intentions after its war with
Georgia last month.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 3, A US Navy ship loaded
with humanitarian aid steamed through the Dardanelles on its way to
Georgia, as the Bush administration prepared to roll out a $1 billion
economic aid package for the ex-Soviet republic.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, In Australia police
arrested a 66-year-old Catholic brother in connection with their probe
into St. Stanislaus and a 63-year-old former teacher of another
religious school in Bathurst that is also under investigation.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3-2008 Sep 4, In China’s
Hunan province, thousands of people demonstrated and clashed with
police in Jishou about a property company they said cheated them of
their money. News of the protests did not become public until after the
Olympics.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.52)
2008 Sep 3, Cyprus' rival Greek
and Turkish leaders, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, started
new peace talks and said they hoped for a deal soon aimed at reuniting
an island divided by war 34 years ago.
(AP, 9/3/08)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.68)
2008 Sep 3, In Dagestan journalist
Abdullah Alishayev died one day after he was attacked by armed gunmen.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/03/russia.journalist/index.html)
2008 Sep 3, A helicopter carrying
foreign contractors crashed into an oil platform off the coast of
Dubai, killing all seven people on board and halting production in one
of the emirate's four offshore oil fields.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 3, An Egyptian cargo ship
with 25 crew was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia,
making it the 10th vessel to be hijacked in the area since July 20.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 3, In Ethiopia an
explosion rocked a bar in Addis Ababa, killing 4 people. 2 more died
the next day.
(AFP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 3, Tropical Storm Hanna
drenched flood-plagued Haiti, adding to the miseries of a country that
has lost more than 100 lives to mudslides and flooding since mid-August.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, A friendly fire
shootout between Iraqi security forces and American soldiers killed six
Iraqis in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, Pakistan's government
says a cross-border raid involving US-led or NATO forces killed several
civilians. Women and children were among at least 20 people reportedly
killed in the attack in Musa Nika village in South Waziristan near the
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/3/08)(SFC, 9/4/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 3, In Somalia mortar
shells slammed into Mogadishu as insurgents vowed to intensify attacks
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 4 people were killed.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, Spanish authorities
found 13 bodies and 46 survivors on a packed migrant boat near one of
Spain's Canary Islands.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, In Sri Lanka fighter
jets bombed two rebel boats off the northeast coast in the rebel
stronghold of Mullaitivu, destroying one and causing heavy damage to
the other.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy encouraged Syria to pursue face-to-face peace talks
with Israel during his first trip to the Arab nation, a visit also
aimed at undercutting Iranian influence in Damascus.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 3, Swiss prosecutors said
police have broken up an Internet child pornography ring operating in
at least four European countries where men exchanged details about
their contacts with young girls. In all investigators said they had
identified 600 people in Germany, 40 in Austria, 13 in Switzerland and
four in Liechtenstein using the forum.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, Ukraine's Pres.
Yushchenko ordered the creation of a new governing coalition and
threatened fresh elections, accusing his rival prime minister and
opposition parties of attempting a "constitutional coup."
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 4, In St. Paul, Minn.,
John McCain claimed the GOP presidential nomination portraying himself
as a maverick warrior and agent of change.
(AP, 9/5/08)(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 4, Jack Abramoff (49),
once powerful DC lobbyist, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his
part in a political corruption scandal. He had already spent 2 years in
prison for a fraudulent casino boat deal in Florida. On Sep 10 a
federal judge shaved 2 years from his Florida sentence guaranteeing the
Abramoff will serve no more that 4 additional years. Abramoff was
released from jail in June 2010.
(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A4)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.A7)(SFC,
6/23/10, p.A6)
2008 Sep 4, Detroit Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick (38) pleaded guilty to a pair of felony obstruction charges
in a sex-and-misconduct scandal and will step down after months of
defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation's 11th-largest city.
Kilpatrick’s sentence included 4 months behind bars, a $1 million fine
and forfeiture of his license to practice law.
(AP, 9/4/08)(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A4)
2008 Sep 4, A US coast Guard
helicopter went down off Oahu, Ha., killing 4 crew members.
(SFC, 9/6/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 4, Albanian artist Saimir
Strati in Tirana glued 229,764 corks of various shapes and colors over
a plastic banner measuring 12.94 meters by 7.1 meters to make the art
piece "Romeo with a crown of grapes playing the guitar while dancing
with the sea and the sun". He worked 14 hours a day for 28 days to
complete his project.
(Reuters, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Ethiopia unveiled its
famed Axum Obelisk after more than three years of work to re-erect the
150-ton stela plundered by fascist Italy 70 years ago and returned only
in 2005.
(AFP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Tropical Storm Hanna
roared along the edge of the Bahamas ahead of a possible hurricane hit
on the Carolinas, leaving behind at least 137 dead in Haiti.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, In northeast China 24
people were killed and six injured in a coal mine gas explosion, that
left 3 miners trapped.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, In Georgia US Vice
President Dick Cheney condemned Russia for what he called an
"illegitimate, unilateral attempt" to redraw this US ally's borders by
force.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, German ministers
agreed to update data protection laws for the digital age in the wake
of scandals showing how easily personal details can be bought on the
Internet.
(AFP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Some 20 Greek
anarchists stormed a supermarket in Thesaaloniki and handed out food
for free in the latest of a wave of raids provoked by soaring consumer
prices.
(Reuters, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, The US military
arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members during a
raid on their home in Baghdad. Omar Husham (28) was arrested in the
predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Pakistan’s Parliament
passed resolutions condemning an American-led attack in Pakistani
territory after the government summoned the US ambassador to protest
the unusually bold raid that officials say killed at least 15 people.
Four Islamist militants were killed and five wounded in a missile
attack by a suspected US drone in the village of Char Khel in North
Waziristan near Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/4/08)(Reuters, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Middle East envoy Tony
Blair toured a Palestinian aluminum factory in Beit Iba and was told it
runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import restrictions. He
promised he'll take it up with Israeli authorities.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 4, In Moscow officials
said BP PLC and its billionaire Russian partners in the joint venture
TNK-BP have agreed on a deal that forces out its embattled CEO and
signals an end to a bitter struggle for control of the Russian-British
company.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Russian troops killed
5 suspected Muslim rebels in Dagestan.
(WSJ, 9/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 4, Spanish police
arrested Vallejo-Guarin (47), a suspected Colombian drug trafficker,
listed among the most wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 4, Syrian President
Bashar Assad announced that his country has handed over proposals for
peace with Israel to Turkish mediators and would wait for Israel's
response before holding any face-to-face negotiations.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Teachers in Zimbabwe's
public schools went on strike to press for higher pay, despite a pay
rise for civil servants announced by the government.
(AFP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 5, US bank regulators
shut down Silver State Bank, saying the Nevada bank failed because of
losses on soured loans, mainly in commercial real estate and land
development. It was the 11th failure this year of a federally insured
bank.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 5, In SF Western artist
Thom Ross displayed 100 wooden Indians on horseback on the same stretch
of Ocean Beach that was used in a 1902 photo of Buffalo Bill Cody and
his Wild West Show featuring live Indians on horseback.
(SFC, 9/6/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 5, In Berkeley, Ca.,
arborists began removed trees in preparation for a $124 million UC
athletic training center. 4 protesters continued a 21-month-old protest
in a lone redwood.
(SFC, 9/7/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 5, In Lancaster, Ca., a
road was paved, at the request of Honda’s Santa Monica advertising
agency, with grooves so that passing cars would hear a rendition of
Rossini’s William Tell Overture. On Sep 23, following complaints and
safety concerns the road was repaved.
(WSJ, 10/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 5, Robert Giroux
(b.1914), NYC publisher (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux), died in New
Jersey. He had joined Farrar as editor in chief and was made a full
partner in 1964.
(SFC, 9/6/08, p.A2)
2008 Sep 5, In western Afghanistan
an overnight raid in Farah province killed six militants and two
civilians.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Angolans voted for the
first time in 16 years in a parliamentary election expected to extend
the ruling party's hold of more than three decades in the oil-rich
African nation. A new quota required 30% of the candidates to be women.
(AP, 9/5/08)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.76)
2008 Sep 5, Quentin Bryce was
sworn in as Australia's governor general, the first woman to act as the
British queen's representative Down Under. Morris Iemma (47), the
embattled premier of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales,
was forced to resign after his party withdrew support for him over a
dramatic reshuffle of his cabinet.
(AP, 9/5/08)(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Bolivia protesters
stormed a small airport and blocked major highways across eastern
Bolivia in a standoff over central government reforms designed to
empower the nation’s indigenous majority.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Canada joined the US
and EU in imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe's authoritarian regime headed
by President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 5, EU nations called for
an international probe to find out which country should shoulder
responsibility for starting the conflict between Georgia and Russia.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Rosetta, the European
deep space probe launched in 2004, completed a flyby of the Steins
asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
(SFC, 9/7/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 5, The flagship of the US
Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored outside the key Georgian port of
Poti, bringing in tons of humanitarian aid to a port still partially
occupied by hundreds of Russian troops.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, The Iraqi government
reacted sharply to published allegations that the US spied on Iraq's PM
Maliki, warning that future ties with the United States could be in
jeopardy if the report were true. An explosion in the western Baghdad
neighborhood of Mansour killed six bodyguards of ex-Iraqi deputy prime
minister and former Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi, who escaped the
suicide car bomb attack on his convoy.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 5, An Israeli defense
official said Israel has allowed Palestinian security forces in the
West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles and
tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the moderate
Palestinian government there. The weapons shipment reached the
Palestinians through Jordan about one week ago.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Mila Schoen (b.1916),
an Italian designer of elegant, impeccably tailored clothes, died at
her villa in northern Italy.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Japan right-leaning
former Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced that he will run for ruling
party president in a move that would put him on track to take over as
Japan's next prime minister.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, once reviled as a
"mad dog" by President Reagan, on a historic visit which she said
proved that Washington had no permanent enemies. John Foster Dulles was
the last US Secretary of State to visit Tripoli, in May 1953.
(Reuters, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 5, Malaysia said it is
dispatching three navy vessels to the Gulf of Aden to protect its
merchant ships following a sharp surge in pirate attacks off the coast
of Somalia.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Mexico two 18th
century paintings, "The Adoration of the Three Kings" and "The Birth of
the Virgin," were stolen from the Santa Matilde church in Pachuca, the
capital of central Hidalgo state. In February, 2010, they were found in
an art gallery in Tlaquepaque, a town near the city of Guadalajara,
where they were on sale for $35,000.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2008 Sep 5, The political party of
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged Myanmar's military
government to ensure her well-being as she continued to refuse food
deliveries to protest her detention.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Nigeria said it has
set up a 40-member technical committee on peace talks to end the crisis
in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Pakistan's Supreme
Court reinstated three judges ousted by Pervez Musharraf, cementing
political divisions in the country a day before it elects a new
president. An explosion possibly caused by a missile strike killed five
suspected foreign militants near the Afghan border in North Waziristan.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas pledged to try to reach a final status peace agreement
with Israel by the end of the year, but he admitted the goal, set by US
President George W. Bush, might not be achieved.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Poland police
detained Krzysztof B. (45), in the eastern city of Siedlce, after his
wife and daughter came forward with the allegations that he had
imprisoned and raped his daughter (21) for 6 years fathering 2
children, who were put up for adoption.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Sri Lankan soldiers
captured three Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers and killed 24 guerrillas in
fighting across the island's restive north.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 5, Taiwan newspapers said
authorities in central Taiwan have turned off the red light at the
county's last legal brothel after the death of its pimp aged 87.
Prostitution has been illegal in Taiwan since 1997. Licensing of new
brothels stopped in 1974, but isolated illegal brothels can be found
all over the island. Brothels licensed prior to 1974 were allowed to
keep operating.
(Reuters, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 5, Togo’s PM Komla Mally
unexpectedly resigned after less than a year in office. He had been
accused of lacking initiative and of being ineffective.
(SFC, 9/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 5, In Kiev US Vice
President Dick Cheney pledged US support for Ukraine following last
month's war between neighboring Russia and Georgia.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 6, The $500 million
GeoEye-1, a super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite, was launched into
orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast.
GeoEye Inc. said that in black-and-white mode, the satellite can
distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 16 inches.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 6, Tropical Storm Hanna
blew hard and dumped rain in eastern North Carolina and Virginia, but
caused little damage beyond isolated flooding and power outages as it
quickly headed north toward New England.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Martinez, Ca., Jose
Felix Sandoval, in search of his estranged wife, killed her cousin and
a police sergeant, before he was fatally shot by police officers.
(SFC, 9/7/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 6, The 45 nation Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) overcame fierce obstacles and approved a landmark
US plan to engage in atomic trade with India, a deal that reverses more
than three decades of American policy. The plan still needs backing
from US Congress.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb attack by a fake beggar inside a regional prosecutor's
office and a shoot-out between police and Taliban militants killed 15
people.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, Angolan election
officials extended voting by a day in the capital, but said the
logistical problems that marred the first balloting in 16 years were
confined to Luanda.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, Thousands of Armenians
lined the streets of the Yerevan to protest the first-ever visit by a
Turkish leader and to demand that Turkey acknowledge the World War I
massacres of Armenian civilians as genocide.
(www.interfax.com/3/425662/news.aspx)
2008 Sep 6, Cuba politely declined
a US offer to send a disaster assessment team to the island after
Hurricane Gustav, saying it would rather Washington suspend
restrictions on travel and the sale of food and other materials it
needs to recover.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Egypt massive
boulders fell from the towering Muqattam cliffs onto a shanty town
outside Cairo and buried dozens of homes. The death toll rose on a
daily basis and reached 103 on Sep 19. According to residents, there
could be up to 500 people buried under the hundreds of tons of rock
that fell. In 2010 a court convicted the Cairo deputy governor for the
rock slide that killed 119 people and sentenced him to five years in
prison. The court found Mahmoud Yassin and seven lesser officials
guilty of manslaughter.
(AP, 9/6/08)(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 9/20/08)(AP, 5/26/10)
2008 Sep 6, In Greece the body of
Amphithea Tanida (36) was found wrapped in sheets in a bathroom in her
parents' villa at Amarynthos on Evia. Masami Tanida (77), a retired
Japanese diplomat, and his wife Maria (67) were arrested the next day
and charged with murdering their daughter.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Iraq a suicide car
bomber blasted an outdoor market in northern Tal Afar city, killing six
people and wounding 54. Kurdish security forces raided a house in Irbil
province, killed a suspected member of an al-Qaida front group and
captured a 17-year-old girl wearing an explosives vest.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, Yahoo! Japan announced
support for victimized users whose Yahoo IDs were used illegally. The
company admitted that its online auction site suffered a huge security
breach and agreed to reimburse users who had been charged fees relating
to fraudulent transactions.
(http://blog.trendmicro.com/caution-needed-jp-yahoo-auctions-site-phished/)(Econ,
10/18/08, p.76)
2008 Sep 6, In Indian Kashmir
thousands of angry people took to the streets to denounce the killing
of a protester by government troops, who fired rubber bullets and tear
gas shells at Muslim demonstrators chanting anti-India slogans.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, Asif Ali Zardari, the
widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, became Pakistan's new
president after winning a landslide election victory in separate votes
in the federal and provincial assemblies. Overnight clashes left 24
people killed after residents of a village in the volatile northwest
foiled a militant kidnap attempt, then were attacked. An
explosives-packed pickup truck blew up at a police checkpoint on the
outskirts of Peshawar, killing 37 people.
(AP, 9/6/08)(AP, 9/7/08)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.55)
2008 Sep 6-2008 Sep 7, In the
southern Philippines 6 people were killed after a landslide triggered
by heavy rains buried houses in the village of Masara. Another
landslide the next day killed 5 more people there. At least 16 people
were left missing.
(AFP, 9/6/08)(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Sri Lanka air force
helicopters bombed rebel bunkers in the rebel-held Mullaittivu district
to support advancing ground troops.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, Sudanese forces
launched ground and air attacks on two rebel bases in North Darfur,
killing an unknown number of people.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, Swaziland King Mswati
III celebrated his 40th birthday and the nation’s 40th year of
independence in a lavish extravaganza officially estimated at $2.5
million, but widely believed to have cost 5 times more. Mswati remained
Africa’s last absolute monarch and lived a luxurious lifestyle with his
13 wives. Some 70% of the population of 1 million lived below the
poverty line and nearly 40% of adults were infected with the AIDS virus.
(SFC, 9/7/08, p.A9)
2008 Sep 6, Hurricane Ike barreled
toward the Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category 3 storm, prompting
an exodus of tourists and locals from the normally idyllic Atlantic
island chain.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 7, At the MTV Video Music
Awards on the show's 25th anniversary, the network threw its full
support behind Britney Spears' comeback. Spears won a leading three
awards, including video of the year for "Piece of Me."
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 7, US Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson announced plans to take control of troubled mortgage
finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace the companies’
chief executives. This would effectively wipe out shareholders'
interest in the publicly traded companies. 27% of the nation’s 8,500
banks lost a combined $10-15 billion from holdings in preferred shares
in Fannie and Freddie.
(Reuters, 9/7/08)(WSJ, 9/8/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/23/08,
p.A4)
2008 Sep 7, In Afghanistan 2
suicide attackers detonated bombs inside the police headquarters in
Kandahar city, killing six policemen. In southern Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and seven wounded when their armored
vehicle struck an explosive device while on patrol.
(AP, 9/7/08)(Reuters, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 7, The conservation group
WWF said Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a result of
land clearing in the country's northeast, while millions of birds and
reptiles are also perishing. Queensland state last week revealed that
375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06, a figure WWF said
would have resulted in the deaths of two million mammals.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7, In London an urgent
inquiry was underway after a disc containing the personal details of
5,000 justice staff went missing in yet another embarrassing data loss
blunder. Private contractor EDS told the Prison Service in July that
the hard drive had gone astray. The missing disc was last seen in July
2007.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7, Canada’s PM Stephen
Harper called an election for October 14 in a bid to strengthen his
grip on power after 2-1/2 years in charge of a minority Conservative
Party government.
(Reuters, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7, In China a flood
swamped the mine in Yuzhou city of Henan province trapping 23 people.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7, In Haiti at least 58
people died as Ike's winds and rain swept the impoverished Caribbean
nation. Officials also found three more bodies from a previous storm,
raising Haiti's death toll from four tropical storms in less than a
month to 319. A Dominican man was crushed by a falling tree. Ike
damaged most of the homes on Grand Turk island as it roared onto the
Bahamas and threatened the Florida Keys on its way to Cuba as a
ferocious Category 4 storm.
(AP, 9/7/08)(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 7, Hong Kong's
pro-democracy politicians lost several legislative seats in elections,
but held onto their veto power over major legislation as they push for
greater political freedoms in the Chinese territory. Democratic parties
won 23 of 60 legislative seats in the voting, down from their previous
26.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 7, Italy's foreign
minister, after meeting US Vice President Dick Cheney, said the EU
wants to work closely with the United States in resolving the Georgian
crisis.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7, Pakistan’s reserves in
the 1st week of September fell to $5.5 billion, enough to cover just
two months of imports. Reserves as of last November were about $14
billion.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.48)
2008 Sep 7, South Korean police
arrested four people over the theft of data on 11 million customers of
a local oil refiner in what is being called the country's largest-ever
data leak.
(AFP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7-2008 Sep 8, Spanish
police said immigrants went on a rampage in the southern Spanish town
of Roquetas de Mar overnight, setting fire to homes and cars and
throwing stones at police, after a Senegalese man (28) was stabbed to
death in an apparent dispute over drugs. The Rampage continued for a
2nd night.
(Reuters, 9/7/08)(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 7, A Darfur rebel group
says it has successfully repelled a government assault in North Darfur,
but the Sudanese government denies it carried out any operations in the
area.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 7, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party would rather withdraw from
power-sharing talks than sign an unsatisfactory deal and challenged
President Robert Mugabe to call a new poll.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 8, The US stock of Lehman
Brothers, led by Dick Fuld, began to get pummeled. By Sep 10 shares
were down by almost half their value.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.77)
2008 Sep 8, In Berkeley, Ca.,
university officials cut off the food and water supply to 4 protesters
who continued a 21-month-old protest in a lone redwood.
(SFC, 9/9/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 8, In Oakland, Ca.,
authorities said 3 school district custodians had been arrested for
stealing electronic equipment from the district.
(SFC, 9/9/08, p.B3)
2008 Sep 8, A roadside blast in
southern Afghanistan killed six civilians.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 8, Australian Trade
Minister Simon Crean said Australia will not sell uranium to India
unless it signs a key non-proliferation pact, despite a decision by
nuclear supplier nations to end a ban on trading with New Delhi.
(AFP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 8, In London 3 of 8
British Muslims with ties to Pakistan were found guilty of conspiracy
to murder in a terrorist bombing campaign, but jurors failed to reach a
verdict on whether they plotted to blow up multiple trans-Atlantic
airliners with liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks. Abdullah
Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were convicted of trying to
make a bomb out of hydrogen peroxide, .
(AP, 9/8/08)(SFC, 9/9/08, p.A8)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.63)
2008 Sep 8, In northern China a
landslide triggered by heavy rain killed at least 277 people, with 10
missing and presumed dead in Shanxi province's Xiangfen county. In 2009
a Chinese court jailed 12 officials for the collapse of an illegal
mining dump that triggered the landslide.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 6/28/09)
2008 Sep 8, Deadly Hurricane Ike
roared across Cuba, blowing buildings to rubble and sending waves
surging over homes. Some 900,000 Cubans evacuated from its path, which
forecasters said could take it to Louisiana or Texas later this week.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 8, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy pressed Moscow to honor its pledge to withdraw troops
from Georgia, while Russian soldiers prevented international aid
convoys from visiting Georgian villages in a tense zone around the
breakaway province of South Ossetia. Pres. Medvedev and Sarkozy revised
the EU-brokered deal to end the fighting between Russia and Georgia.
Medvedev said 200 EU monitors would deploy to regions surrounding South
Ossetia and Abkhazia by next month. After that, Russian troops would
pull out of those regions by Oct. 11 to a line that preceded last
month's fighting.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 8, Legal sources said the
Church of Scientology is to be tried for fraud, and seven of its
members for illegally prescribing drugs, in the latest clash between
French officials and the controversial religion.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 8, In Lebanon rival
groups signed an agreement to end sectarian violence that has killed
and wounded scores in the past three months in the northern city of
Tripoli.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 8, Miners in the southern
African kingdom of Lesotho found one of the world's largest diamonds, a
near-flawless white gem weighing nearly 500 carats.
(Reuters, 9/21/08)
2008 Sep 8, Nepal's Maoist-led
government vowed to end slave-like conditions for around 150,000 bonded
laborers in the far west of the country who have been paying off debt
for generations. Nepal officially abolished all forms of slavery in
2001, but the Haliya system, which traps people in a cycle of debt,
lived on in remote areas.
(AFP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 8, In Pakistan missiles
fired from 2 US drone aircraft hit a seminary and houses associated
with a Taliban commander in North Waziristan, killing at least 21
people, including both militants, women and children. Neither
Jalaluddin Haqqani nor his son, Sirajuddin, were present, but four
mid-level Al-Qaeda operatives were among the dead.
(AP, 9/8/08)(SFC, 9/9/08, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/9/08,
p.A16)(AFP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 9, In Berkeley, Ca., the
last 4 protesters in a lone redwood voluntarily climbed down. The
struggle to protect 42 trees from being felled for a sports training
center had begun on December 1, 2006. UC later sought as much as
$10,000 from each of the tree sitters for attorney fees.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A1)(SFC, 9/22/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 9, San Antonio, Texas,
unveiled a deal that will make it the first US city to harvest methane
gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into
clean-burning fuel.
(Reuters, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, O3B Networks Ltd.,
founded by Greg Wyler (38), announced plans to launch as many as 16
satellites that could provide Internet service to Africa, the Middle
East and parts of Latin America by 2010 at a cost of some $650 million.
(WSJ, 9/9/08, p.B1)(www.o3bnetworks.com/)
2008 Sep 9, Angola's former rebel
movement and main opposition party UNITA faced up to a crushing
electoral defeat in a landmark peacetime poll in which it won only
10.4% of the vote. The ruling left-wing MPLA (Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola), which has been in power for over three decades,
had nearly 82 percent of the votes.
(AFP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, The 27-member EU
stopped short of offering Ukraine membership during an EU-Ukraine
summit hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But the two sides
began work on an "association accord," a step that offers closer
political and economic ties and in the past has been designed to
prepare nations for eventual membership.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 9, An Italian study
showed a new way to test for cervical cancer is more accurate than a
pap smear and identified more dangerous lesions.
(Reuters, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, A NATO bomb missed its
target by more than 1 1/2 miles and hit a house, killing two Afghan
civilians and wounding 10 at a time of rising tension between the
Afghan government and international troops over the use of airstrikes.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Hurricane Ike roared
south of Havana, Cuba, after tearing across the island nation, ravaging
homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, The Iraqi oil ministry
said Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to a gas
joint venture with Iraq worth up to four billion dollars, becoming the
first Western oil major to gain access to the violence-wracked
country's vast energy reserves.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Morocco said it would
start vaccinating all livestock after the outbreak of Peste des Petits
Ruminants, a deadly viral disease, ahead of the Eid festival when
millions of animals are sacrificed.
(AFP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Militants in Nigeria's
oil-rich Niger Delta hijacked a vessel with five expatriate and eight
Nigerian oil workers on board. Robin Hughes from St Margaret's Bay,
Kent, was among 27 oil workers kidnapped by militants when their vessel
was hijacked. Hughes (59) was freed on April 19, 2009.
(AFP, 9/10/08)(AFP, 4/20/09)
2008 Sep 9, North Korea held a
military parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country’s
founding, but leader Kim Jong Il (66) was missing. Media later reported
that Kim Jong Il had brain surgery after a stroke last month and could
have partial paralysis on one side.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A3)(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 9, OPEC ministers decided
to scale back production by some 520,000 barrels a day in the face of
falling oil prices and slowing demand. Hours earlier Russia proposed
extensive cooperation with OPEC.
(WSJ, 9/10/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 9, Asif Ali Zardari. the
widower of assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, took
office as the country's new president, facing immediate pressure to
crack down on Islamic militants and address daunting economic problems.
Zardari and Afghan Pres. Karzai hosted a joint news conference and
declared that they stand together against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
(AP, 9/9/08)(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 9, Russia said it will
station 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, announcing an
imposing long-term presence less than a day after agreeing to pull
forces back from areas surrounding the provinces.
(AP, 9/9/08)(WSJ, 9/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 9, Serbian lawmakers
ratified a pre-membership agreement with the EU and an oil and gas deal
with Russia after months of heated debate over the direction of the
country's policies.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, A gunman killed an
outspoken Somali lawmaker in the provincial town of Baidoa, the latest
in a series of attacks in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 9, Thailand's PM Samak
was forced to resign along with his Cabinet after a court ruled that he
had violated the constitution by hosting TV cooking shows while in
office. The Cabinet will remain in a caretaker position until a new
administration is installed.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Tamil Tiger rebels
launched an air and ground assault on a military complex in northern
Sri Lanka. 5 women were among 10 suicide bombers that struck the
Vavuniya military complex, 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Colombo.
At least 15 people were killed in the attack. The UN announced it was
withdrawing its aid workers from Sri Lanka's embattled north ahead of a
major military drive, as Colombo claimed its first downing of a rebel
aircraft.
(AP, 9/9/08)(AFP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 9, Togo’s Health Ministry
said an outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed for the first time
since last year.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 10, An internal
government report said US Interior Department employees in Denver and
Washington, who oversaw oil drilling on federal lands, had sex and used
illegal drugs with workers at energy companies where they were
conducting official business.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 10, The US Pentagon
cancelled the $40 billion competition for new aerial refueling tankers
for the Air Force, delaying the competition to a new administration,
and giving a reprieve to Boeing.
(WSJ, 9/11/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 10, The US Treasury Dept.
accused Iran’s national maritime carrier, the Islamic Republic of Iran
Shipping Lines, of helping the country’s nuclear and missile programs.
The proliferator designation, designed to stop companies from doing
business in the US, further block the carrier’s ability to move money
through US banks.
(WSJ, 9/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 10, A regulatory filing
revealed that Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman, and his family had
purchased a 6.4% stake in the New York Times.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.78)
2008 Sep 10, Hurricane Ike
barreled across the warm, energizing waters of the Gulf of Mexico on
its way toward the Texas coast after crashing through Cuba's tobacco
country and toppling aging Havana buildings. Ike had already killed at
least 80 people in the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Frank Mundus (1925),
the legendary shark fisherman said to have inspired the Captain Quint
character in the movie "Jaws," died in Honolulu.
(AP, 9/15/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.102)
2008 Sep 10, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales said that he is expelling the US ambassador for allegedly
inciting violent opposition protests.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Turkish Cypriot
leader Mehmet Ali Talat said he accepts a reduction of Turkey's
military contingent but that his side will still need security
guarantees from Ankara as part of a deal to unite the divided island.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, A Georgian police
officer was killed by gunfire that came from the direction of a Russian
checkpoint near separatist South Ossetia.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, A strong earthquake
rocked southern Iran sending tremors across the Persian Gulf to the
skyscrapers of Dubai. Iranian state television reported that seven
people were killed and 40 others were injured.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Two bombs exploded an
hour apart in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least two
people and wounding 15 others, including women and children. Health
officials said cholera has killed two people in a province south of
Baghdad, indicating that water quality and sanitation remain poor in a
country that has endured years of war.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Israeli defense
officials say the government has told all businessmen involved in
military sales to Georgia to immediately cease visits to the former
Soviet republic. The officials said the directive was decided upon this
week because Israel is concerned about damage to its relations with
Russia.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, In northern Israel a
military helicopter crashed at sundown and burst into flames killing
two crew members.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, In Lebanon Druse
Sheik Saleh Aridi died in his village of Baissour in the hills east of
Beirut, after a bomb planted under his car was detonated by remote
control as he drove away from his home. The country's first political
assassination in months threatened efforts to reconcile its divided
factions.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 10, Ahmad Ismail, a
member of Malaysia's ruling party, was suspended for three years for
"stoking racial tensions" with incendiary comments about ethnic Chinese
that shook the governing coalition.
(AFP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, A Dutch court
dismissed a bid by Bosnian Muslim survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre to hold the Netherlands liable for its troops' failure to
protect the so-called safe haven.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Pirates hijacked a
South Korean bulk carrier with 22 crew off Somalia's coast but were
thwarted in a separate attempt to seize a Greek ship. The crew and
vessel were released on Oct 16 with no comment on ransom.
(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Sep 10, Officials said at
least 89 people have died in wildfires sweeping through Mozambique,
South Africa and Swaziland.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, An unmanned Russian
cargo ship blasted off successfully carrying supplies, equipment and
gifts for the international space station.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, In Sri Lanka air
force jets attacked a rebel intelligence base in the north, stepping up
a punishing wave of airstrikes a day after Tamil Tiger fighters
launched a surprise attack on a military base. UN chief Ban Ki-moon
expressed international concern for tens of thousands civilians trapped
in Sri Lanka's north as government forces prepared for a major showdown
with Tamil separatists.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, In Geneva the Large
Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle collider, passed its
first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions
around a 17-mile (27-kilometer) underground ring in what scientists
hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the
universe. On Sep 19 it started leaking helium and had to be turned off.
The technical problems delayed for at least two months the quest for
scientists to learn more about the nature of the universe and the
origins of all matter.
(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 9/20/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.96)
2008 Sep 10, Ruedi Rymann (75), a
farmer and cheesemaker and renowned yodeler, died at his home in
Giswil, Switzerland. In 2007 Viewers of a Swiss television series
devoted to popular national music voted Rymann’s “Dr Schacher Seppli”
as the greatest Swiss hit of all.
(SFC, 10/9/08,
p.B8)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmsy6wA-T0o)
2008 Sep 11, Pres. Bush attended
the dedication of a new memorial at the Pentagon in honor of 9/11
attacks in 2001. In NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg led a ceremony attended
by presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.
(SFC, 9/12/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 11, Bert Langerwerf
(b.1944), Dutch born lizard breeder, died. In 1988 he moved to Alabama
and established his Agama International Herpetocultural Institute,
which grew to become the world’s biggest lizard-breeding facility.
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A12)
2008 Sep 11, The US expelled
Bolivia’s ambassador following Bolivia’s expulsion of the American
ambassador for allegedly aiding the opposition. The Peace Corps pulled
all 113 of its volunteers out of Bolivia for alleged security reasons.
(WSJ, 9/12/08, p.A1)(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, Javier Sanchez
Perfino (30) pleaded guilty in San Diego to running a smuggling
organization from 2003 to 2006, which at its peak smuggled 60-80 people
per day and charging $1,500 per person. The operation ran through a
live bombing range in southeastern California.
(SFC, 9/12/08, p.B12)
2008 Sep 11, In Afghanistan 10
militants were killed by US-led coalition troops north of Kabul. 2 US
soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan. An insurgent attack on a
compound in eastern Afghanistan killed a US soldier and another was
killed by an explosive, making 2008 the deadliest for American forces
in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
(AP, 9/11/08)(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 11, In Bolivia’s Pando
state anti-government protesters fought backers of President Evo
Morales in the pro-autonomy east with clubs, machetes and guns, killing
at least eight people and injuring 20. Seven more bodies were recovered
the next day farther from the highway. The bodies of three more
marchers were later discovered, raising the death toll to 18. Lowland
opposition leaders, guarding their region's frontier capitalism and
more Euro-centric heritage, said they lost two of their own in the
pitched battle. Protesters near Yacuiba closed gas valves, resulting in
a gas leak and explosion that interrupted gas exports at a cost of
$8-10 million a day.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/28/08)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.51)
2008 Sep 11, In Brazil Daniel
Dantas, businessman, found $300 million of his money frozen by the
courts under accusations of laundering public money and offering
bribes. His fortune was estimated at over $1 billion. On Dec 2 Dantas
was convicted of trying to bribe police officers. He was fined $5
million and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but appealed the
conviction.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.82)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.51)
2008 Sep 11, James Ashley Nasmyth
(b.1918), English oil journalist, died. In 1979 he launched Argus
Telex, the first daily oil market report.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4827314.ece)(WSJ,
9/27/08, p.A16)
2008 Sep 11, Chile’s Senate
unanimously passed a bill submitted by President Michelle Bachelet that
bans whale hunting off the country’s 3,400 mile (5,500 km) coast.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, In Santiago, Chile.
clashes erupted as protesters erected burning barricades and attacked
police with firearms and rocks on the 35th anniversary of the 1973
bloody military coup.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 11, China’s Sanlu Group
announced a nationwide recall of 700 tons of milk powder.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.58)
2008 Sep 11, Amnesty Int’l.
reported that Egyptian security forces have killed at least 28
immigrants leaving Egypt for Israel, since the first killing in the
summer of 2007.
(SFC, 9/12/08, p.A12)
2008 Sep 11, A Paris court
convicted Didier Bourguet, a former UN employee, for the rape of young
Africans during his postings in Central African Republic and Congo.
Bourguet was sentenced to nine years in prison for having committed
about 20 rapes of teenage girls between 1998 and 2004 during his
postings as a mechanic for the UN.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, Israeli divers found
a red suitcase containing a small skull, bones and clothes, which
police said may belong to Rose Pizem, a 4-year-old French girl missing
since May, whose grandfather is jailed in the slaying.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, Japan said it was
ending an air mission in Iraq, wrapping up a military deployment which
was historic for the pacifist nation but deeply unpopular among the
public.
(AFP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, Nepalese officials
said Tibetan exiles living in Kathmandu illegally are to be deported in
a bid to curb anti-China protests threatening Nepal's ties with its
giant neighbor.
(AFP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, New Zealand cut its
benchmark interest rate half a point to 7.5% in a bid to engineer a
quick recovery from a widely expected recession.
(WSJ, 9/12/08, p.A10)
2008 Sep 11, Pakistan's PM Yousaf
Raza Gilani backed a harsh rebuke of the US by Gen. Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani, the Muslim nation's military chief. This was in response to
news that President Bush during the summer had secretly approved US
military raids inside Pakistan against alleged terrorist targets.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, Sheik Saleh
al-Lihedan (79), Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official, issued a
religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of
satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content. On Sep 14 he
adjusted his comments saying owners who broadcast immoral content
should be brought to trial and sentenced to death if other penalties do
not deter them.
(AP, 9/12/08)(SFC, 9/15/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 11, Sri Lankan troops
killed 37 Tiger rebels during fresh fighting across the island's north.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 11, Venezuela
interrogated military officers named in recordings of an apparent plan
to kill President Hugo Chavez, in what may the firmest evidence in
years of a barracks plot to oust him. Chavez ordered the US ambassador
to leave Venezuela within 72 hours, accusing the diplomat of conspiring
against his government and saying he would also withdraw his own envoy
from Washington immediately.
(AP, 9/12/08)(Reuters, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 11, President Robert
Mugabe and the opposition reached an accord in which they will wield
equal power in a unity government aimed at ending Zimbabwe's protracted
political crisis and economic meltdown. One source said Mugabe will
chair the cabinet, while Morgan Tsvangirai takes charge of a national
security council which consists of 31 cabinet ministers.
(AFP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 11, Zimbabwe's health
minister said a cholera outbreak in a Harare suburb has killed at least
11 people.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 12, The US accused
Rodriguez Chacin and 2 other top aides to Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez of
helping Colombian guerrillas traffic cocaine and procure weapons for
FARC. Chacin had just resigned on Sep 8 from Venezuela’s Interior
Ministry.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Sep 12, The SF Opera said it
had received a commitment from board chairman John A. Gunn (64) and
wife Cynthia Fry Gunn for a gift of $40 million. John Gunn served as
chairman and CEO of Dodge and Cox Investment Managers.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A2)
2008 Sep 12, In southern
California a commuter train smashed head-on into a freight train
killing at least 25 people in the deadliest US passenger train accident
in 15 years. Officials the next day attributed the accident to failure
of the passenger train engineer to stop at a red light. It was later
found that engineer Robert Sanchez, who died in the crash, had sent a
text message 22 seconds before the crash.
(AP, 9/13/08)(Reuters, 9/13/08)(WSJ, 10/2/08, p.A11)
2008 Sep 12, David Foster Wallace
(b.1962), the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was
found dead in his home in Claremont, Ca.
(AP, 9/13/08)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.B7)
2008 Sep 12, Taliban militants
attacked a logistics convoy in western Afghanistan, sparking a clash
that killed 10 insurgents and five Afghan guards. Afghan police said
they had arrested three suspects accused of giving the US military
false information that led to the August 22 bombardment of the village
of Azizabad.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 12, Bolivian President
Evo Morales decreed a state of siege and sent troops to the eastern
province of Pando where at least 16 people were killed in street
battles between pro- and anti-government activists. Another 2 people
were killed at Pando's main airfield as government troops took control,
opening fire to disperse protesters.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 12, British and French
firefighters extinguished a 1,000-degree inferno in the Channel Tunnel
but tens of thousands of travelers faced more delay as they waited for
the undersea link to reopen.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Shops throughout
China pulled a milk powder, suspected sickening babies, from shelves in
the latest safety scandal to rock the country's food industry.
Investigators soon detained 19 people and were questioning 78 to find
out how melamine was added to milk supplied to Sanlu Group Co., China's
biggest milk powder producer. On Sep 15 Zhang Zhenling, vice president
of Sanlu Group, read a letter of apology at a news briefing in
Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, where the corporation is
based. China later reported that more than 6,000 babies had fallen ill
and three died after drinking contaminated milk powder. Consumer
complaints to Sanlu Group regarding its baby milk formula had begun as
early as last December.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/13/08)(AFP, 9/15/08)(AFP,
9/17/08)(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A12)
2008 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
urged France to take Christianity into account despite its secular
tradition, saying on his first visit there as pontiff that church and
state should be open to each other.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Tens of thousands of
Muslims joined pro-independence rallies across Indian-controlled
Kashmir, leading to scattered clashes with police that left at least
two protesters dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Mexican police found
the bodies of 24 men with their hands bound and shot to death
execution-style outside the capital. On Nov 27 prosecutors charged a
municipal police commander and an alleged drug cartel member with
homicide in the September massacre.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Sep 12, In Pakistan a US
Predator drone fired 2 missiles at a home in the village of Tolkhel,
North Waziristan, killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 12, Poland's last
communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, and seven other
Soviet-era officials went on trial over the declaration of martial law
more than a quarter of a century ago. The 1981 decision led to the
deaths of dozens of people and the jailing of hundreds more.
(Reuters, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Russia’s Itar-Tass
news reported that Syria’s Tartous port is being renovated to provide a
permanent facility for the Russian navy.
(SFC, 10/3/08, p.A14)
2008 Sep 12, A South African judge
ruled that prosecutors were wrong to charge ANC President Jacob Zuma
with corruption, effectively clearing way for the 66-year-old former
freedom fighter to become the country's next president.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12,The Sudanese
government army and Janjaweed militias launched new attacks in a
mountainous area of south Darfur according to rebel claims made the
next day. UN boss Ban Ki-moon welcomed the establishment of an Arab
League panel led by Qatar that will work with the African Union and
United Nations to sponsor peace talks in Sudan's Darfur region.
(AFP, 9/12/08)(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 12, Samak Sundaravej
ended his bid to return to power as Thailand's prime minister, after a
revolt within the ruling party torpedoed his re-election in parliament.
(AFP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 13, Hurricane Ike ravaged
the Texas coast with 110 mph winds, flooding thousands of homes and
businesses, shattering windows in Houston's skyscrapers and knocking
out power to millions of people. Ike left at least 37 people dead in
Texas, including 5 on Galveston Island, and 35 more dead across 10
states. Galveston later requested $2.2 billion in disaster relief. This
amounted to about $36,000 per resident. Officials later estimated that
damages from Ike could exceed $50 billion.
(SFC, 9/15/08, p.A6)(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A8)(SFC,
9/23/08, p.A3)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A2)(Econ, 10/4/08, p.34)
2008 Sep 13, In San Francisco Tong
Van Le left his store in Bernal Heights and headed home to Novato where
5 men, who had followed him, shot him dead with a high-powered rifle.
They had allegedly been told to get rid of Tong Le by Larry Blay Jr.
(19), who was in jail on charges of robbing the Nasser Market on
Crescent Ave. Sep 13. With no witness the case against Blay was
dismissed in October. In June, 2009, an indictment accused Blay and 4
of the 5 defendants of murder and conspiracy.
(SFC, 6/17/09, p.B1)(SFC, 7/29/09, p.D3)
2008 Sep 13, The Albert and Mary
Lasker Foundation announced Stanley Falkow (74), Stanford
microbiologist, was the winner of a $300,000 Lasker award for Special
Achievement in medical Science. His work helped to explain how
pathogens cause human diseases.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.B2)
2008 Sep 13, In Afghanistan
Mohammad Jan Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province and a
former cabinet minister, was killed with 3 others in a bomb attack near
Kabul claimed by Taliban rebels and condemned by President Hamid
Karzai. A British soldier was killed in an explosion in Helmand
province. Taliban militants in Ghazni province ambushed and killed 4
police. 3 more were wounded and died the next day.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 9/14/08)(AFP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 13, A fiery bus crash in
China's Sichuan province killed 51 people.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, Hundreds of Russian
forces packed up and withdrew from positions in western Georgia. A
Georgian official said Russia had met a deadline for a partial pullout
a month after the war between the two former Soviet republics. A
Georgian policeman at a post near Abkhazia was killed by gunfire that
came from the direction of a position where Abkhazian and Russian
forces have been based. Some 1,200 Russian servicemen still remained at
19 checkpoints and other positions, 12 outside South Ossetia and seven
outside Abkhazia.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, In India a
coordinated series of bombings struck crowded shopping areas across New
Delhi, killing 21 people with over 100 wounded. 5 bombs exploded and 3
were defused. India blamed a group with ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba. A
Muslim extremist group claimed responsibility for the explosions.
(AFP, 9/14/08)(WSJ, 11/28/08, p.A6)(WSJ, 12/8/08,
p.A6)
2008 Sep 13, Bombs and shootings
killed at least 16 people in Iraq, including four employees of an Iraqi
television station. They were abducted in Mosul while filming a program
about the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. At night in western Baghdad a
bomb exploded in the car of Fuad Ali Hussein, killing him and his
deputy and two bodyguards. Hussein was head of a neighborhood awakening
council.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 13, Nepalese police said
at least six people have been killed in southern Nepal in rampages by
wild elephants in the last two days.
(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, A MEND statement said
the armed forces of Nigeria had begun a full scale aerial and marine
offensive on the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
(MEND) positions and neighboring Ijaw communities in Rivers state.
(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, At least 24 Islamic
militants were killed in fierce fighting with Pakistani government
troops hunting Taliban fighters across Bajaur near the Afghan border.
(AGFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, A Palestinian stabbed
a 9-year-old Israeli boy in a West Bank settlement outpost, setting off
clashes that left injured six Palestinians. Israeli troops fatally shot
Hassan Hmeid (16), a Palestinian teenager during a clash near
Bethlehem. Witnesses said the troops opened fire when a patrol entered
Tekoa and were pelted with a hail of stones thrown by local young
people.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tigers accused the government of planning a genocidal campaign against
Tamils as UN agencies pulled out of rebel-held regions in the island's
north. Violence in the last 24 hours killed eight Tiger rebels and two
troops.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 13, In Sudan an army
spokesman said troops had entered the North Darfur area to arrest armed
bandits.
(Reuters, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 13, Typhoon Sinlaku
lashed Taiwan with powerful winds and heavy rains, disrupting flights
and train services as well as celebrations for a major holiday.
(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 14, The Denver Broncos
won 39-38 following a 2-point conversion after a mistaken call by NFL
referee Ed Hochuli gave them the ball in the last minute of the game.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 14, California
legislators said they had reached a spending compromise, potentially
ending a record-breaking budget impasse.
(SFC, 9/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy carrying
Afghan doctors working for the UN, killing two doctors and their
driver. They were on a mission to monitor efforts to vaccinate children
against polio. 6 children died in central Ghazni after ordnance they
were playing with exploded. An Afghan interpreter working for the US
military was shot dead as he stepped out of his home.
(AFP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 14, In Western
Australia's 4 people died in a helicopter crash in the Bungle Bungle
National Park of the remote Kimberly region.
(AFP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 14, Archaeologist Georgi
Kitov (b.1943), an expert on the treasure-rich Thracian culture of
antiquity, died of a heart attack while excavating a temple in central
Bulgaria.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 14, In eastern Congo a
riot ensued following accusations that a soccer player was using
witchcraft. 13 people were left dead.
(SFC, 9/16/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 14, Roadside bombs killed
five Iraqi policemen and injured eight others north of Baghdad. An
American soldier in Iraq died of causes unrelated to combat.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 14, France's ecology
minister said the government is considering a "picnic tax" on
disposable dishes to encourage people to use reusable plates an