Timeline 2016 (C) July - September
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2016 Jul 1, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed six bills related to gun control.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 1, In New Jersey Local 54 of the Unite-Here union walked off the job at the Carl Icahn-owned Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic city.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 1, A US federal judge blocked a Mississippi law on religious objections to same-sex marriage moments before it was set to take effect.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 1, In Tennessee 4 young children were fatally stabbed in Memphis and their mother, Shanynthia Gardner (29), was taken into custody.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A6)(SSFC, 7/3/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 1, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents attacked local police check points in Kandahar province late today, killing 5 policemen. 4 insurgents were killed in the battle, which took place in Maiwand district.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, Austria's highest court ordered a rerun of the country's presidential election, giving a right-wing euroskeptic candidate a second chance at the office after his narrow loss last month.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In southwest Bangladesh a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the latest attack blamed on radical Islamists.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Bangladesh Islamist militants stormed a busy restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic area late today, ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before they began killing foreigners. 20 hostages were killed, including at least 9 Italians and 7 Japanese inside the restaurant, before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff. Two policemen and 6 gunmen were killed during the police operation. One militant was captured. Bangladesh police shot dead the pizza chef of the restaurant, mistakenly thinking he was one of the militants. On August 4 British national Hasnat Karim and Univ. of Toronto student Tahmid Hasib Khan were arrested in Dhaka on allegations of involvement in the attack. On Jan 13 police detained Jahangir Alam, one of the men behind the attack. About 50 suspected militants were killed in shootouts following the attack, including Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, said to be the main planner.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)(Reuters, 7/3/16)(Reuters, 7/5/16)(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A3)(Reuters, 1/14/17)
2016 Jul 1, Canadian media reported that Canada will deploy 1,000 soldiers in Latvia to one of four battalions NATO is assembling in Eastern Europe in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the 88-million-strong Communist Party to embrace its Marxist roots as he delivered an emphatic call for ideological discipline and a vigorous defense of party rule on the party's 95th anniversary.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, China's securities regulator said it would ban initial public offerings (IPOs) by companies which have violated environmental protection rules over the previous 36 months.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In southwest China 10 people were killed in a mudslide and 12 others remained buried under debris in a mountainous region of Guizhou province.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern China an overnight sleeper bus fell off an expressway into a ditch after a tire burst, killing 26 people at the Baodi section on the Tianjin-Jixian expressway.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, The European Union extended its economic sanctions on Russia until the end of January next year in a widely expected decision after EU leaders called for more progress in bringing peace to eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Paris banned old, exhaust-belching cars from its streets in a war on air pollution that environmentalists hope will also drive dirty vehicles from the centers of other European cities. Any car registered before Jan. 1, 1997, will be barred from the city's streets from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Yves Bonnefoy (b.1923), France's most famous contemporary poet, died. The celebrated translator of Shakespeare had poems translated into 30 languages.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, A new report from Guam's public auditor said the island received more than $550 million from the federal government in fiscal year 2015.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 1, Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the southern Chinese city's streets for an annual pro-democracy protest march, as tensions persisted over the high-profile case of a bookseller secretly detained in the mainland.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern India torrential rains triggered heavy floods and landslides that poured down hills in Uttarakhand state, killing at least 18 people and destroying dozens of homes. At least 25 people were missing in seven villages in Pithoragarh.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Indonesia major palm oil producers and traders, including Wilmar and Cargill ditched a "no deforestation" private agreement, saying the government's recent efforts to strengthen its certification standards were sufficient.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Iran tens of thousands of people marched in Tehran as part of the al-Quds day rallies held each year on the last Friday of Ramadan. Some protesters trampled the Israeli flag and also chanted "down with the USA." Similar rallies took place across the country.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, A leading Italian newspaper reported that former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs, "The Last Conversations," that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions. It is due to be published on Sept. 9.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern Kenya suspected al-Shabab gunmen killed at least 6 people when they shot at two buses traveling in Mandera County.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Amnesty International published "horrifying" accounts by migrants of exploitation and sexual abuse in Libya, including Christians who were abducted by Islamic State group militants and forced into sexual slavery.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Myanmar security forces in Hpakant, Kachin state, were unable to control attackers armed with sticks, knives and other weapons as they burned down a mosque. The mosque's leaders had reportedly failed to meet a June 30 deadline set by local authorities to tear down the structure to make way for construction of a bridge.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, It was reported that Namibia has told two North Korean companies that their services are no longer needed in the southern Africa country while UN sanctions against Pyongyang remain in place over its nuclear and missile tests.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Nigeria kidnappers seized Alfred Nelson-Williams, Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner, as he was on his way to Kaduna from Abuja. They demanded a $40 million ransom in the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century. The diplomat was freed on July 5 but it was not clear whether or not a ransom was paid.
(AFP, 7/2/16)(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A2)(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 1, Palestinian Sarah Tarayreh (27) was killed when she pulled out a knife and threatened an officer at a checkpoint near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron. A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a family traveling in a car in the West Bank, killing an Israeli man and wounding his wife and two teenage children.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Romania organized crime prosecutors said they have found more than 2.3 tons of cocaine stashed away in banana crates on ships with a street value of 625 million euros ($694 million). A Bucharest court ruled that the Moroccan suspected leader of the smuggling ring, as well as four Lithuanians and a Colombian, be arrested for 30 days.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova was cleared by track and field's world governing body to compete as a neutral athlete in the European championships and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The 800-meter runner had provided evidence to the World Anti-Doping Agency of widespread cheating in Russia that led the IAAF to bar the country's track and field athletes from international competition, including the Rio Games.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Russia an Il-76 plane with a crew of 10 disappeared while on a mission to fight forest fires in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. Wreckage of the plane was found on July 3 along with 8 bodies.
(AP, 7/1/16)(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Saudi Arabia eighteen pilgrims were injured in a stampede near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as Muslims gathered in large numbers to mark the Night of Destiny, one of the high points of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, Serbian police, in a bid to reduce the number of illegal weapons, offered an amnesty over surrendering or registering illegal weapons until November.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, A Syrian warplane crashed northeast of Damascus and its pilot was captured by Jaish al-Islam rebels in Jeiroud.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, Taiwan's military mistakenly fired a supersonic anti-ship missile that hit a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing one and injuring three people.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Military-ruled Thailand said it will buy three submarines worth around $1 billion from China a move that signals warming ties with the regional superpower as relations with the United States cool.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, A Turkish official said Mehmet Sirin Kaya, a mastermind of the February 17 suicide attack against military personnel in Ankara, has been killed in counter-terrorism operations in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, in southern Yemen US Central Command (CENTCOM) killed 2 al-Qaida operatives in an air strike.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 2, The Washington Wizards agreed to pay Ian Mahinmi $64 million over four years, according to a person familiar with the deal.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Florida 5 people were killed and 25 injured when a bus carrying farmworkers collided with a tractor-trailer on US 98 in the state’s Panhandle.
(SSFC, 7/3/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 2, Elie Wiesel (87), holocaust survivor, author of 57 books and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1986), died at his home in NYC.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.78)
2016 Jul 2, Michael Cimino (77), director of the Oscar-winning Vietnam War film "The Deer Hunter" (1978), died at his home in Beverly Hills. His films included "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" (1974), “Heaven’s Gate" (1980), "Year of the Dragon" (1985), "The Sicilian" (1987), "Desperate Hours" (1990) and "The Sunchaser" (1996).
(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 2, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada called for an end to foreign forces' "occupation" of Afghanistan as a preliminary step to a settlement based on Islamic law that he said would bring unity to a country riven by decades of war.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Afghanistan at least 2 civilians were killed after a suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted a local tribal elder in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province. In southern Kandahar province unknown gunmen shot and killed 7 civilians.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, Australia held general elections. PM Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal Party-led coalition needed 76 of 150 seats to form a government. On July 10 Turnbull finally claimed victory for his conservative coalition. The incumbent Liberal/National coalition secured 76 seats in the 150-seat lower House of Representatives.
(AP, 7/2/16)(AP, 7/10/16)(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 2, An estimated 40,000 people marched through London, waving European flags and chanting "We love you EU" to voice their opposition to Britain's stunning vote to quit the bloc.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In northern China a coal mine flooded and trapped 12 miners.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Finland eight Cuban volleyball players were arrested following allegations that a woman was raped at a hotel where the team was staying in Tampere, 170 km (105 miles) north of Helsinki. Two were later released. On June 30, 2017, a Finnish court of appeal cut the prison sentences of five Cuban volleyball players jailed for aggravated rape in the southwestern city of Turku.
(AP, 8/29/16)(AFP, 9/20/16)(AFP, 6/30/17)
2016 Jul 2, Michel Rocard (b.1930), former French prime minister (1988-1991) under François Mitterrand, died in Paris. He created the Revenu minimum d'insertion (RMI), a social minimum welfare program for indigents, and achieved the Matignon Accords regarding the status of New Caledonia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Rocard)
2016 Jul 2, Israeli troops locked down the occupied West Bank's most populous city Hebron and surrounding villages after two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks nearby.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, The Israeli military struck a series of militant sites in Gaza early today in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Italy US Staff Sgt. Halex Hale (24) was last seen at a friend's cookout in Sacile, near Aviano Air Base north of Venice. His body, clad in a swimsuit, was found on July 12 in a river in Sacile.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 2, In northern Serbia 5 people were killed and another 22 were wounded when a man entered a cafe in the village of Zitiste and opened fire with an assault rifle. Z.S. killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an assault rifle he illegally owned.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Syria government airstrikes killed 43 people in a rebel-held area where militants had captured and killed a government fighter pilot. 7 medical personnel were among those killed in the town of Jeiroud (Jayrud).
(AP, 7/2/16)(AFP, 7/2/16)(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 2, Syria's al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front abducted Mohammad al Ghabi, the commander of the Western-backed Jaish al-Tahrir brigade, and a number of his aides in a house raid in Kfr Nubl in Idlib province. Jaish al Tahrir has about 4,000 well trained fighters.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 2, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Syrians could eventually be granted Turkish citizenship "if they want it", in remarks which were met with anger from opposition politicians and social media users.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 3, Noel Neill (b.1920), film and TV actress who played Lois Lane in the “Superman" movie serials and on TV, died at her home in Tucson.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.D6)
2016 Jul 3, In Louisiana a drunken driver, Tracy Govan (44), sideswiped a police car at a traffic stop on I-55 in Sterlington killing Officer David Elahi and injuring two others.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 3, Chinese authorities said three days of heavy rain in southern China have left 50 people dead and another 12 missing and destroyed thousands of homes, as areas along the Yangtze River braced for more floods. The death toll soon rose to 128 with damages to more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion).
(AP, 7/3/16)(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 3, In China protest against an incinerator in Lubu town, Guangdong province, turned violent and police were injured as people attempted to break into government offices.
(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In Germany tens of thousands took part the the annual gay pride parade in Cologne.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 3, An Indian official said at least 40 people were feared dead following a weekend downpour that triggered flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand state.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In Iraq at least 115 people were killed in a suicide blast in the Karada district of Baghdad. Another 5 people were killed in a Shiite neighborhood east of Baghdad. The death toll from the truck bombing in the Karada district continued to rise to at least 186 as more human remains were recovered. The Health Ministry put the toll at 292.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/7/16)(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 3, The Israeli army attacked two Syrian military targets on the Golan Heights after stray Syrian fire damaged the security fence along the demarcation line.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 3, Israeli firms announced that a consortium led by US firm Noble Energy has approved a $265-million project to sink a new well in the Tamar natural gas field off Israel.
(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In Libya a car bomb exploded overnight in one of the busiest districts of Benghazi, killing at least 2 police officers and wounding seven other people.
(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, A court in the Maldives barred a group of journalists from working for their newly formed media organization for two years, threatening its closure in a move they criticized as an assault on media freedom in the archipelago nation. The journalists had launched Mihaaru news two months ago after the country's oldest and most reputed news organization, Haveeru Media Group, was shut down as a result of court arbitration of an ownership dispute.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 3, Myanmar's bitterly-divided Rakhine State saw mass protests as thousands of Buddhists, including monks, demonstrated in a show of opposition to a government edict referring to Muslim communities in the restive province.
(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In northern Pakistan heavy monsoon rains overnight triggered flash floods that killed at least 30 people in the Chitral district.
(AP, 7/3/16)(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 3, Philippine police seized about 180 kg (400 pounds) of high-grade methamphetamine worth 900 million pesos ($19.2 million).
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 3, Turkey delivered humanitarian aid and other non-military products to Gaza. The Panama-flagged Lady Leyla landed in the Israeli port of Ashdod with 11,000 tons of supplies, including food packages of flour, rice, and sugar, as well as 10,000 toys.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, US intelligence group SITE said a regional branch of al Qaeda has urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In San Jose, Ca., police fatally shot Anthony Nunez on his front porch. In 2019 a federal jury awarded his family $2.65 million in damages and determined that the two officers who killed him violated his civil rights. Nunez had been depressed and tried to shoot himself the day he died.
(SSFC, 7/7/19, p.C1)
2016 Jul 4, San Diego police found the body of a homeless man. A day earlier another body of a homeless man was found burned under a highway. Police soon released grainy images of a suspect taken from a convenience store camera. Over the next two days two more homeless men were attacked in the city. On July 7 police arrested Anthony Alexander Padgett (36) in connection with the murder and attempted murder of the sleeping men, some of whom were set on fire. A third victim died on July 10. Padgett was released on July 11 due to lack of evidence.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.A6)(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A6)(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A4)(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A12)
2016 Jul 4, In NYC Joey Chestnut downed a record 70 hot dogs to regain the Mustard Yellow Int’l. Belt at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 4, Twitter suspended the account of Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has carried out a series of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria in the last few months which pushed the country's crude production to 30-year lows.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Albania's main opposition Democratic Party made a criminal complaint against PM Edi Rama, accusing him of illegally funneling $80,000 to US President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 in return for a photograph of the two men together.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage (52) stepped down as leader of the UK Independence Party as the shockwaves from Britain's decision to quit the EU continued to reverberate.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, London Stock Exchange Group shareholders voted overwhelmingly for a merger with Deusche Boerse, operator of the Frankfurt exchange, despite concerns it could be scuppered by Britain's EU exit.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In China Ling Jihua, former top presidential aide and consummate Chinese political insider, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abusing his power in a downfall set off by an alleged cover-up of his son's death in a speeding Ferrari.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, The European Commission ordered seven Spanish football clubs including Barcelona and Real Madrid to give back to the government a total of around 70 million euros ($78 million). The commission said state funding gave them an unfair advantage over other clubs, and breached EU rules.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Billionaire French industrialist Serge Dassault (91), of aviation and software giant Dassault Group, went on trial for allegedly stashing millions of euros in tax havens.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Fiji a New Zealand couple found a cloth bundle containing a severed head while strolling along a popular beach. Similar tied bundles had washed ashore in late June at Natadola Beach contained two pairs of feet. Police believed the victims in the unsolved murder case were Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing from their farm on the main island of Viti Levu last month.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami (b.1940) died in Paris. He was later buried in a private ceremony in northern Tehran. He wrote and directed dozens of films including "Taste of Cherry" (1997), which won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Kiarostami)
2016 Jul 4, Iraq executed 5 convicted terrorists in Baghdad. A string of bombings in Baghdad killed 16 people.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 4, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu started his four-nation tour of Africa with a visit to Uganda.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, An official said Israel has approved hundreds of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, in a move likely to further raise tensions following a series of Palestinian attacks.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Israel forces demolished the West Bank homes of two assailants’ families who killed an Israeli citizen last December. Four Palestinian youths were wounded in clashes with troops demolishing the homes.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, Italian police arrested 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and an Italian who they said belonged to an organization that had smuggled thousands of migrants into Europe from Africa.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Japan fourteen inmates in an immigration detention center launched a hunger strike over what they call "inhumane conditions" including poor medical care, drawing fresh attention to the country's detention system.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 4, Hundreds of Kenyans including human rights activists, lawyers and taxi operators peacefully protested against what they said are pervasive killings linked to police, as a court ordered three police officers be held for two weeks on charges they murdered three men.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Mexico 11 tourists were killed in a bus crash south of Tulum, Quintana Roo state.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, Nigeria’s central bank dismissed the management of Skye Bank, the country’s eighth biggest lender by assets, amid concerns that it had failed to keep thick enough buffers of capital to absorb losses on bad debts..
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.57)
2016 Jul 4, In Nigeria suspected militants blew up a pipeline in the southern Batan and Makarava areas of Delta State. Militants from the Niger Delta Avengers said in a short statement on their website that they carried out the attacks.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Saudi Arabia a suicide bomber carried out an attack near the US Consulate in the city of Jiddah (Jeddah). The attacker died and two security men were lightly wounded. A suicide bombing in Medina killed 4 people. Another suicide bombing took place near a Shiite mosque in Qatif. Body parts of three people were found.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13,000 civilians have fled the Islamic State bastion of Manbij since the launch of a US-backed offensive there.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Turkey charged thirteen suspects, including three foreign nationals, in connection with the June 28 suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, In southern Yemen US Central Command (CENTCOM) killed 2 al-Qaida operatives in a drone strike in Shabwa province.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, In Zimbabwe a protest by taxi drivers against a police crackdown turned violent when residents joined in and hurled rocks at police, who fired teargas to disperse the rioters. Drivers accused police of seeking to raise money for their operations by imposing hefty fines on their vehicles.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 5, US FBI Director James Comey said the agency would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of an unsecured home server to handle classified emails as secretary of state.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 5, NASA celebrated a key triumph as its $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Jupiter on a mission to probe the origin of the solar system.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, A federal judge ruled that Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 5, In Louisiana about 200 protestors took to the streets of Baton Rouge after Louisiana police Officer Blane Salamoni shot and killed Alton Sterling (37), a black man, outside of a Baton Rouge convenience store. In 2017 the Dept. of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions said it will not file charges in the case. Toxicology results later showed that Sterling had a number of drugs in his system at the time of confrontation. In March, 2018, the state's attorney general ruled out criminal charges against the two white officers involved in the case. Officer Salamoni was fired on March 30, 2018.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/17, p.A4)(SFC, 3/28/18, p.A6)(SFC, 3/31/18, p.A6)
2016 Jul 5, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and its other partners said they will spend $36.8 billion to develop more oil in Kazakhstan in a venture called Tengizchevroil.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, The Bank of England relaxed commercial banks' capital requirements to boost lending to businesses and households, and warned that financial stability risks "have begun to crystallise" after Brexit.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Police in the Central African Republic said clashes between rival rebel factions have left at least 10 dead and 25 injured in Bambari.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, In northeastern Congo DRC suspected rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, hacked to death at least 9 people in a village near Oicha.
(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, France's government forced approval of a contested labor bill in the lower house of Parliament without a vote — for a second time — because of resistance from the left and right.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Dozens of French farmers protested against the presence of bears in the Pyrenees mountains, after a flock of 125 sheep took fright and fell to their death in a ravine over the weekend. brown bears were reintroduced to the area 20 years ago after disappearing in the early 1990s.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, An Indonesian suicide bomber believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State militant group attacked a police station in the city of Solo, killing himself and wounding a police officer.
(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard killed two Kurdish insurgents who have been on the run since last week. They were part of a larger group, 11 of whom were killed in clashes with Iranian forces last week in Iran's western Kurdistan province.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 5, Iraq said government forces have now seized all villages in the Haj Ali area and reached the eastern bank of the Tigris, around 60 km (40 miles) south of Mosul.
(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on counter-terrorism, energy and agriculture, amid tight security on the second leg of his Africa tour.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, In Italy Amedeo Mancin, described as a local soccer club hooligan, beat Emmanuel Chidi Namdi of Nigeria in the north-central town of Fermo when he tried to defend his wife after Mancin insulted her with a racial slur and started to drag her. Namdi was bludgeoned, fell into a coma and died the next day.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 5, Japan and the US announced that they will reduce the number of civilians working on American military bases who receive immunity from Japanese prosecution.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte named five active and retired police generals as protectors of drug syndicates, and sacked those still in service.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Spanish police arrested 11 people and searched 20 town halls across the country in the latest corruption and fraud investigation. The raids were part of a parallel probe into the alleged practice by Convergence — one of the region's ruling parties — of charging businesses a commission in exchange for awarding public works projects.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that seventeen people including 11 Russians have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, bringing to 30 the total number charged in connection with the suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 6, Pres. Barack Obama, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained precarious, said he will keep US troop levels there at 8,400 through the end of his administration rather than reducing them to 5,500 by year's end as previously planned.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, The United States sanctioned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the first time, citing "notorious abuses of human rights".
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Minnesota police Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Philando Castile (32), a black man, at a traffic stop in St. Paul. Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, soon died in a hospital. Protesters gathered peacefully at the scene of the incident and at the state governor's residence, chanting anti-police slogans and demanding action from the governor. On June 16, 2017, Yanez was acquitted of 2nd degree murder charges. In November the St. Anthony City Council voted to pay $775,000 to Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, and her daughter. Reynolds was in the car and streamed the shooting’s aftermath live on Facebook.
(CSM, 7/7/16)(SFC, 5/31/17, p.A6)(SSFC, 6/18/17, p.A8)(SFC, 11/30/17, p.A6)
2016 Jul 6, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said over 500,000 hover boards are being recalled following dozens of reports of fires and spewing smoke from battery packs.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 6, Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed sexual harassment charges against Roger Ailes (76), the founder and head of Fox News.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 6, The African Union said it plans to pull its soldiers out of Somalia where they are fighting jihadists by December 2020.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Brazil Several thousand people demonstrated in Rio de Janeiro, calling for a "boycott" of the Olympic Games less than a month ahead of an event plagued by a financial crisis and crime. Most of the protesters were teachers who have been on strike for three months demanding payment of back wages.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Former British PM Tony Blair voiced "sorrow, regret and apology" after Sir John Chilcot’s 2.6m-word damning report on the Iraq war, but said he did not mislead parliament and did not regret toppling Saddam Hussein.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 6, EU lawmakers endorsed plans for a new border and coast guard agency to helps manage thousands of people trying to reach Europe for sanctuary or jobs.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 6, In France Karim Mohammed-Aggad, the brother of one of the Islamist attackers who killed 130 people in Paris, was sentenced to nine years' jail for traveling to Syria to train as a militant fighter.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Georgia and the United States signed a security deal in Tbilisi designed to shore up the former Soviet republic's defenses against Russia as it waits to join NATO.
(AFP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Greece most workers on the the Athens public transport system walked off the job in a 24-hour strike to protest privatizations that are part of the country's international bailout conditions.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Iran "armed bandits" killed four border guards in an ambush near the Pakistani border. Several of the gunmen were reported killed or wounded.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Israel relaunched the bidding process to build 42 new homes in the in Kiryat Arba settlement in the occupied West Bank where a Palestinian stabbed to death a 13-year-old Israeli last week.
(AFP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Italian police arrested 11 people accused of crimes linked to public events, including last year's Milan Expo, and channeling money they collected to the Sicilian mafia.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Japan’s Nintendo video-gaming firm released Pokemon Go, an app for smart phones, in American, Australia and New Zealand. The Pokemon franchise began as a video game in 1996.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.54)
2016 Jul 6, Kenyan motorcycle taxi drivers burned a police post as thousands demonstrated across the country against extra-judicial killings linked to police that rights activists said is pervasive.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 6, In Libya a car bomb killed 11 soldiers in Benghazi as they held evening prayers on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Philippine troops fought about 200 Abu Sayyaf gunmen for five hours In Basilan province. Clashes resumed the next day.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Romania's Constitutional Court ruled that mayors who are handed suspended prison sentences for corruption must resign.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In South Africa Oscar Pistorius (29), a world-famous disabled Olympian, was sentenced to six years in prison for the 2013 murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Spain a Barcelona court sentenced soccer star Lionel Messi and his father to 21 months in prison for tax fraud, with both sentences likely to be suspended.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, The Free Syrian Army rebel alliance said it would respect a 3-day Eid holiday ceasefire, but only if government forces also abided by it, accusing the government of having already violated the truce.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Turkey 2 Syrians accidentally blew themselves up while handling explosives in a house in the southern border town of Reyhanli.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Ukraine several thousand trade union activists marched through the streets of Kiev to the country's parliament to protest an upcoming hike in utility prices.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Yemeni troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition recaptured an army headquarters adjoining Aden airport from suspected jihadists after a suicide bomber killed 10 soldiers.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, The Vatican said Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Brazilian Bishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto of Paraiba who was accused of turning a blind eye to suspected pedophile priests in his diocese.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Zimbabwe riot police patrolled through the capital Harare as a call for a national strike against President Robert Mugabe's economic policies closed businesses and crippled the public transport system. The protest was led by Evan Mawarire, whose hashtag #ThisFlag has caught the nation’s imagination. Zimbabweans stayed at home and foreign banks and most businesses in the capital shut down operations in one of the biggest protests against high unemployment, corruption, and acute cash shortage.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(Reuters, 7/6/16)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.35)
2016 Jul 7, The US government gave tentative approval for scheduled commercial airline service to Havana from 10 American cities, advancing President Barack Obama's effort to normalize relations with Cuba.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The United States said it was returning about $1.5 million to Taiwan that came from the sale of US properties the government alleges were bought with the proceeds of bribes paid to the family of former Taiwan President Chen Shui-Bian.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The US State Department said the US will provide nearly $23 million in additional humanitarian aid to help people affected by the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, A US government regulator said Elizabeth Holmes, the head of blood-testing startup Theranos, would be barred from owning or running a laboratory for two years. In June Walgreens ended its three-year partnership with Theranos following news of flaws in the company’s blood testing.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.55)
2016 Jul 7, Maryland prosecutors dropped a misconduct charge in the bench trial of Lt. Brian Rice in the case of Freddie Gray, who died on April 19, 2015, from injuries suffered while shackled in a Baltimore police van. Rice still faced other charges.
(SFC, 7/8/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 7, In Dallas, Texas, Micah Johnson (25), a US Army reservist who served in Afghanistan, gunned down 5 officers before being killed in a standoff with police. Seven more officers were wounded in the attack that ended when police used a robot bomb to kill Johnson, who told them he wanted to kill white officers. Police took three people into custody.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 7, Australia's greyhound industry was reeling after New South Wales, the country's most populous, state banned the sport following a string of scandals including "live baiting" and the slaughter of tens of thousands of dogs.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Bangladesh militants attacked police guarding the country's biggest festival marking the end of Ramadan, killing 3 people and wounding 14 in Kishoreganj town, days after Islamic State claimed a major attack in the capital. Two attackers were reported killed and three arrested.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Brazilian police seized documents and questioned suspects to investigate Panama's FPB Bank in connection to a sweeping graft probe of political corruption at state-run companies.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Britain jailed four former Barclays bankers for manipulating the key inter-bank Libor interest rate, with the highest sentence being 6.5 years.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Five men were crushed to death when a concrete wall collapsed at a metal recycling site in Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, A British court awarded a £53 million (62 million euro, $69 million) divorce settlement to Christina Estrada (54), a former model, who had demanded £196 million from Sheikh Walid Juffali (61), her Saudi billionaire husband, including £1 million a year just for clothes.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 7, Cambodia dismissed accusations by anti-corruption pressure group Global Witness that PM Hun Sen and his family have amassed $200 million in business interests including some with links to land grabs and environmental destruction.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.31)
2016 Jul 7, Cambodia said tourists showing cleavage or wearing skimpy clothes will be banned from the famed Angkor temple complex, after a slew of photos emerged of scantily-clad visitors at the sacred site.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, France-based Danone, the world’s largest yogurt maker, agreed to buy WhiteWave Foods, a natural-food group, for $12.5 billion.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.53)
2016 Jul 7, The German parliament passed a landmark "no means no" rape law, broadening the definition of sex crimes and making it easier to deport migrants and refugees who commit them.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Iraq a triple suicide attack late today near a Shi'ite mausoleum north of Baghdad killed 37 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Niger Delta Avengers attacked more oil infrastructure in southern Nigeria, ignoring a call for unity from Pres. Muhammadu Buhari.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Philippine troops, backed by rocket-firing helicopters and artillery fire, killed up to 9 Abu Sayyaf extremists in fighting after the new military chief warned of a "shock and awe" offensive to wipe out the militant group known for its brutality.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Philippines ordered the suspension of operations at two nickel ore mines for environmental violations and halted the issuance of exploration permits as a nationwide crackdown led by a new mining minister begins.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Poland's parliament rushed through legislation governing the Constitutional Tribunal, an attempt to address international concerns about the rule of law a day before Pres. Obama and other Western leaders arrive in Warsaw for a NATO summit.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a package of controversial anti-terror amendments dubbed "Big Brother" measures by critics that may cost internet companies billions.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Russian officials said at least 7 militants and one law enforcement officer have been killed in clashes in Dagestan in the North Caucasus region.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In South Korea Shin Young-ja, the daughter of the founder of the Lotte Group conglomerate, was arrested on charges including breach of trust and embezzlement.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In South Sudan 5 government soldiers were killed in a shootout late today between opposing army factions in the capital. The UN mission reported an attack on a senior official in the Tomping area of Juba.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Syrian army advanced within firing range of the rebels' sole supply route to Aleppo in heavy fighting despite its announcement of a ceasefire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Saudi-backed rebel group Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) said four of its fighters were killed trying to stop the army from cutting the Castello Road, the only route into rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Taiwan an explosion hit a commuter train in Taipei injuring at least 24 people.
(SFC, 7/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 7, A Vatican court declared it had no jurisdiction to prosecute two journalists for having published confidential information. A Vatican monsignor and an Italian communications expert were convicted for having conspired to pass documents to the journalists.
(SFC, 7/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 8, US President Barack Obama expressed concern about the state of democracy in Poland, publicly rebuking a right-wing government that has paralyzed the constitutional court and taken steps to control state run media. Obama shared his worries with Polish President Andrzej Duda in a one-on-one meeting before the opening of a NATO summit in Warsaw.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Ten US states sued the federal government over rules requiring public schools to alow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms conforming to their gender identity.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 8, Thousands of protesters marched in US cities late today, one day after a black extremist shot dead five cops who were protecting a peaceful march against police brutality in Dallas, Texas.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Grace Packer (14), the adopted daughter of Sara Packer, was raped and smothered to death in a “rape-murder fantasy" shared by the mother and her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan. The couple dismembered the body in October and it was found by two hunters in Luzerne County on Oct 31. On Jan 6 Sullivan began confessing to the murder.
(SFC, 1/9/17, p.A12)
2016 Jul 8, Austrian President Heinz Fischer ended his term, temporarily leaving official duties in the hands of the country's three parliamentary presidents pending a rerun of elections to succeed him.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Bangladeshi teenager Zakir Hossain Shawon (18), who police say was a suspect in last week's deadly attack on a Dhaka café, died in custody. His family insisted he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, PM David Cameron announced that Britain is lifting a ban on women serving in frontline combat roles in the army.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, President Raul Castro told Cubans to brace for tough times because the Communist-run country must cut spending and energy supply as it deals with a cash crunch and reduced oil imports from ally Venezuela.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, El Salvador authorities said they have arrested five police officers and five civilians for alleged ties to a death squad that killed as many as 40 gang members in the eastern part of the country. According to prosecutors, a group of businesspeople, whose identities were not released, had brought together national police in some towns to offer them money in exchange for killing gang members.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi took his Africa tour to South Africa, seeking to boost trade between two countries.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian security services Jammu and Kashmir state shot dead Burhan Wani (22), a militant known for his calls to arms on social media and leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, one of a number of groups fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Indonesia a military helicopter crashed into a house in a village near the city of Yogyakarta, killing 3 of the six people aboard.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi fired Baghdad's security chief following a recent series of attacks.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Mongolia's parliament appointed Jargaltulga Erdenebayar (42), a former finance minister, as the new prime minister amid near-flat growth and spiraling debt.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Leaders of the NATO military alliance met in Warsaw and began a landmark summit that will order ambitious actions against a daunting array of dangers to the security of their nations and citizenry, including a rearmed and increasingly unfriendly Russia to Europe's east and violent Islamic extremism to the south. Finland and Sweden joined NATO leaders at the top table for the first time as Russia's military build-up pushed the two countries closer to the western military alliance.
(AP, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least 9 people and injured around 12 others in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, Borno state, during early morning prayers.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Nigerian militants said they have blown up a crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pakistan national hero Abdul Sattar Edhi (92), the founder of the country's largest welfare organisation, died in Karachi.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, South Korea and the United States said they would deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter a threat from North Korea, drawing a sharp and swift protest from neighboring China.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In South Sudan at least 115 soldiers from rival factions were killed in gunbattles in the capital Juba as gunfire erupted near the state house where President Salva Kiir and vice president Riek Machar, former rivals, were meeting for talks.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Spain six foreigners, including three Americans, were among seven people gored in a hair-raising second running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In northwestern Syria airstrikes on a village killed 23 people and wounded dozens in Darkoush, Idlib province, despite a declared 3-day truce. Syrian rebels fired a rocket barrage on residential areas in the government side of Aleppo, killing 44 according to state media.
(AP, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Syria militants shot down a military helicopter near Palmyra, killing 2 Russian pilots on board.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 8, Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights. The storm caused at least 3 deaths and more than 300 injuries.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, Tanzania's High Court raising the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 and ruled that two sections of the 1971 Marriage Act, that allow girls to marry at 15 with parental consent and 14 with the permission of a court, are unconstitutional.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, Thousands of people rallied in cities across the US to protest killings by police officers.
(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A4)
2016 July 9, In Missouri an off-duty police officer shot and killed Tyler Gebhard (20), who had broken into his home after throwing a 50-pound planter box through a window. The officer and Gebhard had argued online over the Black Lives Matter movement.
(SFC, 2/17/17, p.A5)
2016 Jul 9, Sydney H. Schanberg (82), a former correspondent for The New York Times, died in Poughkeepsie, NY. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the genocide in Cambodia in 1975. The film "The Killing Fields" (1984) was inspired by the story of the survival of his assistant.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, In Afghanistan Taliban commander Omar Mansoor, aka Umar Naray, was killed in an airstrike in Nangarhar province. He was responsible for the 2014 on a Pakistani school that left more than 130 children dead.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 9, Thousands of Bosnians raised their hands in prayer as a truck bearing 127 coffins passed through the capital on its way to Srebrenica, where the newly identified victims of Europe's worst massacre since World War II will be buried July 11 on the 21th anniversary of the crime.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, British lawyers signed a letter saying: Our legal opinion is that the June 23 referendum is advisory." The letter was signed by 1054 prominent lawyers.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 9, In China the remains of super typhoon Nepartak made landfall in eastern Fujian province, bringing high winds and heavy rain, and forcing the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In India’s Jammu and Kashmir state at least 9 protesters died as crowds angered by the killing of a separatist militant clashed with armed police, torching buildings and blocking streets. Over 20,000 people had gathered for the funeral of Burhan Wani, killed a day earlier.
(AP, 7/9/16)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.33)
2016 Jul 9, Gunmen kidnapped three Indonesian members of a tugboat crew off Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah. Four other crew members were left behind by the kidnappers who came in a speedboat.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, Iraqi government forces recaptured an air base in Qayara from the Islamic State group, a victory hailed by the prime minister as a key step ahead of the long-awaited operation to push the militants from the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In central Mali unidentified gunmen killed 2 soldiers in the Koro region near the border with Burkina Faso.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, In Mexico a series of attacks by gunmen in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas state, killed 15 people over the last 24 hours.
(SSFC, 7/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 9, NATO allies agreed to help fund Afghan security forces to the tune of around $1 billion annually over the next three years, despite public fatigue in Western countries about their involvement in the long-running conflict.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, The Pacific island of Nauru held elections, with international observers invited to monitor the polls for the first time in more than a decade after criticism over human rights in the world's smallest republic. 67 candidates vied for support from just under 8,000 registered voters for the 19 seats in parliament.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, North Korea fired a ballistic missile from a submarine but according to South Korea it appeared to have failed soon after launch.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In Spain a man from Valencia died after being gored in a late-night bull run near the southern town of Alicante. Two men were gored and 12 others injured in the more popular morning bull-run race in Pamplona.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, Syria's military said it would extend its own cease-fire for three days, even as pro-government forces advanced against rebels in the north. Syrian regime forces repelled a fierce assault by opposition fighters seeking to reopen their only supply route into Aleppo city, killing at least 29 rebels.
(AP, 7/9/16)(AFP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost and then opened fire on the facility, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens in the town of Cevizlik.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, Barack Obama met Spain's King Felipe in Madrid, during a symbolic but abbreviated first presidential trip to Spain in the wake of America's latest spasm of violence.
(AFP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Seth Rich (b.1989), an American employee for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), died after he was fatally shot in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Police suspected he may have been killed in an attempted robbery.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Seth_Rich)
2016 Jul 10, In southern California the driver of an SUV struck and killed 3 women (16-20) and then fled the scene in Santa Ana.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 10, In Chicago weekend violence left 43 people shot, 4 of them fatally, bringing the year’s homicide number to at least 344.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 10, In northwestern Nevada 2 federal firefighters were killed when their vehicle crashed while returning from a patrol for lightning-sparked wildfires.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 10, In Cambodia Kem Ley (45), a well-known critic of the government, was shot dead in what police said was a personal dispute over money. He was killed at a gas station in Phnom Penh. His attacker, identified as Oeut Ang, was soon arrested. Ang’s wife later said her husband was too poor to have loaned any money. Opposition parties suggested a political conspiracy behind the killing.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 10, Following a two-day meeting in Shanghai trade ministers from the G20 nations called on their governments to roll back anti-trade measures that have become more pervasive than any time since 2009.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Chinese officials in Fujian province said at least 2 people were dead and 17 others missing after Typhoon Nepartak battered the coast with heavy rain and strong winds that toppled homes and triggered landslides. On July 18 news media reported that the government has fired three officials in Fujian province after tropical storm Nepartak killed 83 people and left 19 others missing.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Germany more than 120 police officers were injured and 86 demonstrators were detained during leftist riots overnight in Berlin. Activists had called for the demonstration to protest against police operations at buildings taken over the squatters in the eastern part of the city last month.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Iranian news reported that unknown gunmen in western Iran killed two people and injured a lawmaker and a local governor after opening fire on their car.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Israel the finds from some three-decades of excavation unearthing a Philistine cemetery went on display at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem. Their presence between 1200 and around 600 BC is evident on a thin coastal strip running from present-day Gaza to Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Israel's government approved nearly $13 million in financing for the West Bank settlements of Kiryat Arba and within Hebron.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 10, Japan's ruling coalition was a clear winner in parliamentary elections, paving the way for PM Shinzo Abe to push ahead with his economic revival policies. PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party won 56 of 121 upper house seats up for grabs. Coalition parnter Komeito won 14 seats.
(AP, 7/10/16)(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 10, The death toll in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state rose to 20 as clashes between Indian troops and protesters killed 4 protesters and a police officer, despite a curfew imposed in the to suppress anti-India anger following the killing of a popular rebel commander.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, The Islamic Jihad militant group said one of its tunnels in Gaza has collapsed, killing a militant who was inside.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Portugal beat France 1-0 in extra time in Paris to win the European Championship for its first major soccer trophy.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 10, The residence of South Sudan's vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar was attacked by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir. Kenya Airways said it was suspending flights to Juba due to uncertain security.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Spain bullfighter Victor Barrio (29) was fatally gored at the Teruel bullring, the first professional matador to be killed in the ring since3 1985.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Tanzania visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi and President John Pombe Magufuli signed five agreements, including one to provide credit $92 million to improve water accessibility on the island of Zanzibar.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, A Thai journalist was detained by police in Ratchaburi province while reporting on the New Democracy Movement, a group opposed to the military government. Three activists of the group were also detained. Taweesak Kerdpoka was the first journalist to be arrested under a new law that makes it illegal to criticize the planned August 7 referendum on a new draft constitution.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Turkey two Kurdish militant bomb attacks ripped through a military outpost and an army vehicle, killing 5 members of the armed forces in Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, US Defense Secretary Ash Carte announced that The United States is stepping up its military campaign against Islamic State (IS) by sending hundreds more troops to assist Iraqi forces in an expected push on Mosul, the militants' largest stronghold, later this year.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, The US Department of Defense announced the transfer of Yemeni national Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi and Tajik national Muhammadi Davlatov to Serbia, leaving 76 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, In Michigan jail inmate Larry Darnell Gordon (44) wrested a gun from an officer killing 2 bailiffs and injuring two others before he was fatally shot by other officers.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 11, It was announced that Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta have sold their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to a group led by WME-IMG, an American talent agency for $4 billion and retained a minority interest. The Fertittas had purchased the UFC for $2 million in 2001. The Abu Dhabi government continued to own 10%.
(http://tinyurl.com/jv6sasd)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.51)
2016 Jul 11, British Home Secretary Theresa May (b.1956) became the country's leader-in-waiting after her sole remaining rival unexpectedly withdrew. PM David Cameron welcomed the development and said he would offer his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II on July 13.
(AP, 7/11/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.18)
2016 Jul 11, British veteran Labour MP Angela Eagle announced a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.46)
2016 Jul 11, Indian authorities struggled to contain street protests by Kashmiris defying patrols and a stringent curfew after at least 25 people died in clashes that followed the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Indian PM Narendra Modi Monday held talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi and agreed to further expand investment ties between the two countries and diversify trade.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Iran detained Robin Shahini of San Diego who travelled there to see his mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He received an 18-year prison sentence for "collaboration with a hostile government". On Feb 15, 2017, Shahini began a hunger strike to contest his incarceration. After two weeks he was released on bail.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2016 Jul 11, Israel's parliament adopted a law seen as targeting left-wing groups critical of the government by forcing NGOs that receive most of their funding from foreign states to declare it.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 11, Nigeria said gunmen believed to be nomadic Fulani herdsmen have killed scores of villagers in Benue State in a long-running conflict over grazing rights. Nigeria's Channels television put the number of dead at 81 in the past two weeks after attacks on farming villages in the Logo and Ukum areas of the state.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, North Korea said it has told the United States it will sever the only channel of communication between them, at the United Nations in New York, after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11,The Philippine military said government troops have killed 40 Abu Sayyaf extremists and wounded 25 others in two battlefronts in the first major counterterrorism offensive in the south under the new president.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, In Portugal 3 people died in an accident involving a Hercules C130 military cargo plane at the Montijo military airport.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Puerto Rico authorities said they have seized $2.7 million worth of cocaine off the territory's north coast. They also arrested two people and were looking for one fugitive.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Romania's President Klaus Iohannis signed into law legislation obliging supermarkets to sell at least 51% locally-produced meat, fruit, eggs and vegetables.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, South African police said twin brothers Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie (23), arrested on terrorism charges over the weekend, were plotting to blow up the US embassy in Pretoria and Jewish institutions, and planned to join the Islamic State.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, South Africa's telecoms regulator ordered the public broadcaster to reverse its May 26 decision to stop airing footage of violent protests, a policy which critics said amounted to censorship.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, South Sudan's as President Salva Kiir ordered a ceasefire after a new day of heavy fighting in the capital Juba that sent thousands of people fleeing and threatened a return to civil war. Five foreigners were raped and their local colleague murdered at the Terrain Hotel in Juba as Pres. Kiir's troops won a three-day battle over opposition forces loyal to ex-Vice President Riek Machar. Lt. Col. Luka Akechak, the unit commander at the hotel, later became one of more than a dozen South Sudanese soldiers standing trial in a military court. Akechak was found dead in October 2017 following medical treatment in Juba.
(AFP, 7/11/16)(Reuters, 10/20/17)
2016 Jul 11, In Syria rebels launched an attack against government positions in Aleppo in response to an offensive that cut a road leading into the opposition-held sector of the city. State television said 8 people had been killed and that the bombardments had brought down buildings.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Taiwan's major state-run banks froze withdrawals from nearly 1,000 ATMs following the theft of more than T$80 million ($2.5 million) from dozens of First Bank's ATMs supplied by Germany's Wincor Nixdorf. On July 17 police said three out of 16 foreign suspects have been arrested, one from Latvia and two from rom. Police said the remaining 13 suspects, including two from Russia, have left Taiwan.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai journalist Taweesak Kerdpoka and four activists were charged under a draconian law banning criticism of the junta's new constitution which will be voted on in a referendum next month.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai country singer and political activist Thanat Thanawatcharanon, known by his stage name Tom Dundee, was sentenced by a military court to more than three years in jail for insulting the monarchy, adding to a 7½-year sentence a criminal court imposed on him earlier for the same offense.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his plan to give Syrian refugees Turkish citizenship in comments published today, arguing the country has ample space after a backlash against the suggestion.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Human Rights Watch said Turkey's government is blocking access to independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians in southeast Turkey, where security forces are fighting Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said that Citibank NA, planned to shut his government's foreign currency accounts within a month, denouncing the move by one of its main foreign financial intermediaries as part of a "blockade."
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Human Rights Watch urged an end to "forced anal examinations" with a report documenting them in eight countries, mostly in Africa, saying the practice is based on flawed ideas about supposedly proving homosexual conduct. The report drew on interviews with 32 men and transgender women subjected to the exams in eight countries that ban same-sex conduct: Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Zambia.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Australia Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov (65) launched his 184-foot-tall balloon in western Australia state in an effort to complete a 21,000-mile solo flight around the world in less than 13 days to beat a 2002 record set by Steve Fossett.
(SFC, 7/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 12, Austria's government moved to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born to prevent it becoming a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, and the country's Interior Minister said he wanted to tear it down.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, The Cameroon-based NGO Support Service for Local Development Initiatives (SAILD) warned that a rise in Chinese companies operating in Cameroon’s timber sector, combined with weak law enforcement, have fueled a surge in illegal logging that is fast depleting the nation's forests.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, A Chinese civilian aircraft successfully carried out calibration tests on two new airports in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, An Egyptian court sentenced six policemen to up to seven years in prison over the death of detainee Talaat Shabeeb last November in Luxor. Seven policemen were acquitted. The court also ordered the Interior Ministry to pay 1.5 million Egyptian pounds ($170,000) to the man's family.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, The EU launched a controversial deal with the United States aimed at curbing government spying on the personal internet infomation of European citizens.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, India's PM Narendra Modi called an emergency meeting over escalating anti-India protests in Kashmir, where at least 29 people have died in clashes and hospitals are struggling with hundreds of injured.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Iraq a suicide car bomb ripped through an outdoor vegetable and fruit market in al-Rashidiya, a Shiite-dominated northeastern district of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office revised up GDP growth in 2015 from 7.8% to 26.3%.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.42)
2016 Jul 12, In Italy at least 27 people were killed in a head-on collision between two passenger trains in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
(AFP, 7/12/16)(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 12, Malawi began a massive project to move 500 elephants, by truck and crane, to a sanctuary for the threatened species.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Mali at least 3 people were killed and 32 left wounded after a protest in Gao turned violent.
(SFC, 7/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 12, A Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) rescue ship recovered the bodies of four migrants and rescued around 400 survivors from an overcrowded wooden boat in the Mediterranean between Italy and Libya.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Myanmar the Sangha Council, a state institution that oversees Buddhist monastic discipline, declared that it did not recognize Ma Ba Tha, an influential Buddhist nationalist group, as a member of the country's Buddhist order.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 12, An international tribunal at The Hague rejected China's extensive claims in the South China Sea in a landmark ruling that also found the country had aggravated the regional dispute and violated the Philippines' maritime rights by building up artificial islands that destroyed coral reefs and by disrupting fishing and oil exploration. China immediately rejected it.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, "Move on Pakistan", a largely-unknown political party founded in 2013, placed posters overnight begging the country’s powerful army chief to launch a coup.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Spanish police said they have arrested 11 people, mostly Russians and Ukrainians, in an operation targeting foreign organized crime gangs involved in money laundering. Those arrested allegedly ran a network of companies through which they channeled money from Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands to buy real estate in Spain.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, The head of Syria's main opposition coalition said hundreds of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas of Aleppo risk starvation, accusing Damascus of trying to besiege the city into submission.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Taiwan said it does not accept an int’l. tribunal's ruling on the South China Sea, saying the decision on Itu Aba, Taipei's sole holding in the disputed Spratly Islands, had "seriously impaired" its territorial rights.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.32)
2016 Jul 12, The UN launched a global appeal for $952 million to fund Sudan's humanitarian needs, most of it to help people affected by the deadly conflict in Darfur.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Zimbabwean Baptist minister Evan Mawarire, a leader of the biggest protests against Pres. Robert Mugabe in a decade, was charged with inciting public violence. In a video recorded before his arrest he urged supporters to go ahead with demonstrations.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 13, A US Judge in Mississippi sentenced Genoveva Farfan (44) of Los Angeles to eight years in prison for her role in a cybersecurity scheme after a Mississippi woman reported she’d been scammed. Farfan was among 20 people indicted in a probe involving losses of $6.5 million.
(SFC, 7/14/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 13, In the SF Bay Area Antioch resident Adan Katami (38) was shot to death in Hayward. Deputies soon arrested the gunman and his suspected getaway driver. Authorities later said Tikisha Upshaw (37) of San Leandro had orchestrated the killing with Berkeley resident Wessley Brown (38), who hired Johnny /Wright Jr. (46) and Chariot Burks (25) of Memphis to carry out the shooting. Katami and Upshaw had been business associates in the illegal pot trade.
(SFC, 12/29/16, p.D4)
2016 Jul 13, Outgoing British PM David Cameron urged his successor Theresa May to keep Britain close to the European Union, even as she embarks on the monumental task of ending four decades of membership.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, New British PM Theresa May chose former London mayor Boris Johnson, known for his gaffes and buffoonery, as foreign minister.
(AFP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Burundi Hafsa Mossi, a former minister in President Pierre Nkurunziza's government, was "shot by criminals" in Bujumbura. She was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Canadian priest Amer Saka (51), a clergyman of the Baghdad-based Chaldean Catholic Church, was arrested in Canada for stealing more than half a million dollars (US$400,000) intended for the resettlement of Syrian refugees, and then gambling it away.
(AFP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 13, China warned other countries against threatening its security in the South China Sea after an international tribunal handed the Philippines a victory by saying Beijing had no legal basis for its expansive claims there.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Two Chinese civilian aircraft landed at two new airports on reefs controlled by China in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The aircraft then returned to the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. China also said it had completed four lighthouses on disputed reefs and was launching a fifth.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 13, The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Cairo for its penultimate stop as the solar-powered plane nears the end of its marathon tour around the world.
(AFP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, El Salvador’s Supreme Court overturned a 1993 amnesty law that had protected military, paramilitary and guerrilla fighters from facing justice for abuses during the country’s 12-year civil war.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 13, The French weekly Canard Enchaine reported that Pres. Francois Hollande's hair is kept perfectly groomed at a cost of of 9,895 euros ($10,900) a month. Canard Enchaine also reported that in addition to his salary, the hairdresser was entitled to a "housing allowance" and other "family benefits".
(AFP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Greek authorities recovered 4 bodies and rescued six people after a boat full of migrants overturned off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Iraq three bombings in Baghdad killed at least 12 people, including a suicide bombing in a mainly Shiite neighborhood that had been attacked the day before.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Officers with Israel's paramilitary border police were confiscating an arms-manufacturing machine when a car accelerated toward them. Security forces fired toward the car, killing Anwar al-Salaymeh (22). Another Palestinian was taken to hospital, and a third Palestinian was detained for questioning.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Italy convicted Cosa Nostra "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano (b.1933), who reputedly led the Mafia's powerful Corleone clan, died in Milan. He was captured in 2006 in Sicily following decades of hiding in the countryside.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_Provenzano)(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Malaysia's central bank cut interest rates for the first time in seven years to bolster a slowing economy amid fears of greater volatility in global growth.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In the Maldives senior diplomat Mohamed Asim became foreign minister after his predecessor resigned last week to protest the resumption of the death penalty.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Nepal's former Maoist rebels joined forces with the largest opposition party to lodge a motion of no-confidence in PM K.P. Oli, but the impoverished Himalayan country's increasingly isolated leader vowed to fight on.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Human Rights Watch said foreigners employed as maids in Oman can face physicdal and verbal abuse while entrapped in conditions that near slavery. Its report alleged that the United Arab Emirates acts as a gateway for maids trafficked into the sultanate.
(SFC, 7/14/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 13, In Pakistan Hafiz Saeed (66), a founding member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, accused the US of giving India free reign to crush anti-Indiaian protests in Kashmir. The US has put a $10 million bounty on Saeed.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 13, In central Romania anti-mafia police broke up a human trafficking gang which forced dozens of kidnapped victims including children into beggary and slavery, rescuing five people in the town of Berevoesti. 38 members of an extended Roma family in the village of Gamacesti were formally detained.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Spain an American was gored and five other runners were injured in the next-to-last running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Zimbabwe's state prosecutor charged pastor Evan Mawarire with attempting to overthrow the state via his Internet video campaign that inspired rare protests this month against President Robert Mugabe.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 14, US officials said that a good Samaritan has rescued four migrants but that 13 Cubans, one Colombian and one Dominican are still missing. They were aboard a boat traveling from the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten to the US Virgin Islands.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 14, The former head of Afghanistan's main intelligence agency released documents which he said showed that Pakistani intelligence services helped leaders of the Taliban and the feared Haqqani network in 2014 and 2015.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 14, Amnesty International said authorities in Cameroon have arbitrarily arrested more than 1,000 people as part of their fight against Islamist militant group Boko Haram and dozens have died of disease or been tortured to death.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In France a truck attack in Nice left at least 84 people dead including ten children. The attacker drove a heavy truck at high speed into dense crowds as a fireworks display to mark France's Bastille Day national holiday came to an end. The attacker was soon identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel (31), a Tunisian living in the city. Five suspects were soon arrested for alleged roles in helping Bouhlel.
(AP, 7/15/16)(Reuters, 7/15/16)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A2)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.40)
2016 Jul 14, Hong Kong’s government ruled that candidates for territory legislature elections in September must sign a declaration acknowledging that Hong Kong is an “Inalienable part" of China.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.35)
2016 Jul 14, In Kenya a suspected recruiter for the Somali militant group al Shabaab shot dead at least 4 policemen at the Kapenguria police station where he was being held after he snatched a weapon from a guard.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In Kuwait a decree issued by Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled Al-Sabah set the minimum wage for domestic workers at 60 dinars ($200) a month and also granted domestic staff a raft of other rights. The decree also requires employers to pay overtime for any extra hours worked.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, A Dutch court sentenced a Turkish-born man (44) to 30 days imprisonment for calling the country's king a "murderer, rapist and thief," in a rare use of a law against insulting the monarch. He has spent two weeks in pretrial detention and will not have to serve any prison time.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In the Netherlands Mark Langedijk (41), a long-term alcoholic, chose to end his life by lethal injection saying he could no longer go on.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Jul 14, Philippine soldiers killed 11 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters on Mindanao island. A 15 year-old girl was caught in crossfire and killed.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, Qatar Airways announced an agreement to purchase a 49-percent stake in Italy's second largest carrier, Meridiana.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, Russia said it has has conducted more than 50 air strikes since July 12 against Islamic State (IS) jihadists near the Syrian city of Palmyra. Six Tupolev bombers flew out of an airbase in Russia today and conducted strikes east of Palmyra, near the cities of Arak and Sukhna, as well as in the Homs region.
(AFP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In Slovenia a small US-registered plane crashed in the west of the country, killing all 4 people on board.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In Syria Islamic State fighters brought down a government jet near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. A series of airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo city killed at least 12 people. An international aid convoy reached the besieged town of al-Waer in the central Homs province, bringing aid to 75,000 people.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, Vietnam protested China’s recent activities in the disputed Sotuh China Sea.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, The US released once top secret pages from a 2003 congressional report into the 9/11 attacks that questioned whether Saudis, who were in contact with hijackers, knew what they were planning.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 15, The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Herbalife has agreed to a $200 million settlement for consumer relief along with requirements to restructure it business practices.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul 15, The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that US officials have wrongly allowed the Navy to use sonar at levels that could harm whales and other marine animals.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.C1)
2016 Jul 15, San Diego police arrested Jon David Guerrero (39) following an attack on a homeless man. Police believed Guerrero was responsible for the five attacks since July 3 that killed three homeless men.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A13)
2016 Jul 15, Florida murder suspect Dayonte Resiles (21) disappeared after bolting from a courtroom in Broward County. On July 17 officials said he received help from his girlfriend and three others as part of a plot that had been planned during jailhouse calls and visits. Two more accomplices were soon arrested. Resiles was arrested on July 20 in West Palm Beach.
(AP, 7/17/16)(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 15, GOP front runner Donald Trump named Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 15, Albania's ruling Socialists said they will accept any changes the opposition Democratic Party make to a judicial reform package, provided they are amenable to the European Union and the United States.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Brazil said it has deported the Franco-Algerian nuclear physicist Adlene Hicheur after rejecting a request for an extension to his work visa. He was convicted in 2012 for his involvement in a French terror plot. Local press reports said Hicheur had been deported to France.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 15, British PM Theresa May visited Scotland and met with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh seeking to dampen speculation about another Scottish vote for independence, while insisting she is willing to listen to proposals about Scotland's future relationship with the European Union.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Britain listed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), aka Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), as a terrorist organization. This pleased China, which had demanded Western support for its fight against a group it says seeks to split off its western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 15, State media said China aims to launch a series of offshore nuclear power platforms to promote development in the South China Sea, days after an international court ruled Beijing had no historic claims to most of the waters.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Chinese prosecutors said a human rights lawyer and three activists have been indicted on subversion charges.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, In eastern China 8 people in Longkou city, Shandong province, were killed when the construction elevator they were in plummeted from an apartment building.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 15, Egypt launched a program of having Muslim clerics read a standardized government-written sermon at Friday prayers, a move by the state to tighten control over religious discourse.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, The Supreme Court in Guinea-Bissau upheld the nomination of PM Baciro Dja, bolstering President Jose Mario Vaz in a power struggle with rival and former PM Carlos Correia.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 15, Thousands of Iraqis defied warnings from authorities and rallied in the heart of Baghdad, renewing pressure on the government to carry out reforms targeting corruption and sectarianism.
(AFP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Rescuers saved 366 migrants from rickety boats trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy but at least 20 people were reported to have drowned. The survivors were mainly from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 15, Japanese messaging app Line rocketed in its Tokyo trading debut after an eye-popping jump in NY a day earlier, as investors cheered the year's biggest technology share sale.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, In Kashmir widespread anti-India protests and clashes erupted in dozens of places, even as authorities prevented tens of thousands of people from offering prayers in big mosques with a lockdown in place for a seventh straight day.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, North Korea presented to media a man it alleges is a South Korean spy who tried to enter the North to kidnap children. Detainee Ko Hyon Chol (53) said he apologized for a crime he called "unforgivable." He was arrested May 27 on an island in the Amnok River which runs along the border between North Korea and China.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Pakistani fashion model and social media star Qandeel Baloch, real name Fauzia Azeem, was strangled by her brother Waseem in what appeared to be an honor killing in Multan, Punjab province. Her social media photos had challenged social norms. Waseem was arrested on July 17 and confessed to killing his sister. In 2019 Waseem was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)(AP, 7/17/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.32)(SFC, 9/28/19, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, South Koreans protesting against a plan to deploy a US missile defense system in their district blocked a minibus carrying PM Hwang Kyo-ahn for several hours. A day earlier the government announced that the southeastern county of Seongju had been chosen as the site for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery aimed at countering what it sees as the threat from North Korea's missile and nuclear program.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Turkey foiled a coup attempt by a faction of the army against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule. 161 people, not including the putschists, were reported killed in the coup attempt, with 2,839 soldiers detained on suspicion of involvement. More than 230 people were killed among them 145 civilians who had taken to the streets to confront the rebellious soldiers.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 15, In Turkey Gen. Zekai Aksakalli ordered Sgt. Omer Halisdemir to kill Brigadier General Semih Terzi, one of the suspected coup ringleaders. By shooting Terzi dead outside special forces headquarters in Ankara, Halisdemir broke the putschists' chain of command although he was subsequently killed by the plotters.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2016 Jul 15, The UN said at least 300 people were killed and 42,000 fled their homes this month during the July 8-11 intense gun battles in Juba, South Sudan. The dead included two Chinese peacekeepers.
(AFP, 7/15/16)(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Zimbabwe delayed paying its soldiers for a second successive month, underlining the worsening economic crisis that has triggered recent protests.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Arkansas Bonnie Brown (b.1938), one of the three siblings that formed the Browns singing group, died in Little Rock. Their songs included “I Take the Chance" (1957) and “The Three Bells" (1959).
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A16)
2016 Jul 16, Nate Thurmond (74), Basketball Hall of Famer, died in San Francisco. The 6-foot-11 Mr. Thurmond played 11 of his 14 seasons with the SF Warriors.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 16, In NYC Andrew Esquivel (21), an MIT student working as a summer intern, was killed early today after off-duty police officer Nicholas Batka (28) hit four pedestrians while driving intoxicated in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.C2)
2016 Jul 16, In Texas an inmate killed corrections officer Mari Johnson (55) near the kitchen of the Robertson Unit in Abilene.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A10)
2016 Jul 16, In Afghanistan Zarah, a pregnant girl (14) from central Ghor province, died in a Kabul hospital after being tortured and burned by her in-laws.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Bangladesh police in Dhaka arrested three people and another a day later, including a university professor, for failing to register information about tenants renting property who attacked a cafe in the city on July 1, killing 20 people.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Egypt a group of Muslims attacked and torched houses of Christians in the village of Abu-Yacoub, also in Minya, following a rumor that a Christian intended to turn a kindergarten into a church. Security forces arrested at least 14 people.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 16, Israel arrested engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, and indicted in a civilian court on August 90. He was the second humanitarian worker charged by Israel in the past week for aiding Hamas.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Jul 16, South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope showed off its phenomenal power, revealing 1,300 galaxies in a tiny corner of the universe where only 70 were known before.
(AFP, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Syria air raids on rebel-held districts of Aleppo killed at least 25 civilians including children. Government troops regained control of Kinsabba in Latakia province.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish authorities imposed a security lockdown at the Incirlik air base in the southern province of Adana. Many international flights to Turkey were cancelled despite efforts by the Ankara authorities to get life back to normal following an abortive coup attempt. NTV reported that Turkish authorities have arrested 10 members of the Council of State, the country's top administrative court, and were searching for 140 members of the court of cassation in a probe related to the failed overnight coup. NTV also reported that authorities have removed 2,745 judges from duty.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish military helicopter landed in Greece carrying eight officers seeking asylum after a coup bid. Greece arrested all eight men.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, Yemen's government resumed talks in Kuwait with Shiite Houthi rebels despite its earlier threats to boycott the process.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, US Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a series of agreements between the US and Australia to create an "unprecedented" international research database of cancer patients as he kicked off a three-day visit in Melbourne.
(AFP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, The US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group resumed air strikes from a Turkish air base that were suspended after a failed military coup d'etat.
(AFP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Florida David Owens (29) entered the Parrish Medical Center and fatally shot patient Cynthia Zingsheim (88) and employee Carrie Rouzer (36) in an apparent random shooting. Owens was tackled by security guards as he left.
(SFC, 7/18/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 17, In Louisiana ex-US Marine and Iraq war veteran Gavin Long (29) shot and killed Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, Montrell Jackson (32) and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola. Three other officers were wounded and Long was killed in a gunfight. Long had searched online for the officers involved in the July 5 shooting that killed Alton Sterling.
(AFP, 7/18/16)(SFC, 7/1/17, p.A6)
2016 Jul 17, In Wisconsin a domestic violence suspect opened fire on a Milwaukee police officer who was sitting in his squad car early today, seriously wounding him before fleeing and apparently killing himself shortly afterward. The suspect, a 20-year-old man from the suburb of West Allis, had two felonies on his arrest record.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents attacked security outposts on the Sangin district center, Helmand province, but faced fierce resistance from Afghan forces and were pushed back as US warplanes conducted at least two air strikes over the next 48 hours. Dozens of militants were reported killed in the fighting.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 17, The African Union opened a summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali. The renewed fighting in South Sudan dominated discussions.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Armenia 31 armed supporters of a jailed opposition leader attacked a police station in Yerevan, killing one officer, wounding three and taking several others hostage. They demanded the release of Jirair Sefilian, who was arrested last month. The opposition group repeated its call for the government to resign.
(AP, 7/17/16)(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 17, A court in Bahrain ordered al-Wefaq, the country's main Shiite opposition group, to be dissolved deepening a crackdown on dissent.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Cameroon said 11 hostages were freed following 16 months of captivity, after having been abducted by a militia group from the Central African Republic. Two hostages died while in captivity.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Egypt a Muslim mob attacked the families of two Coptic priests with knives and batons in the village of Tahna al-Gabal late today. Family member Fam Khalaf (27) was killed and the father of one of the priests was wounded.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, Police in India said at least 19 people died and six others were blinded after drinking toxic bootleg liquor. Another 50 people fell ill after consuming the home-brewed liquor on July 15 and were being treated in hospitals in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Authorities in India's portion of Kashmir shut down printing presses and temporarily banned newspapers from publishing in a sweeping information blackout after days of anti-India protests left dozens of people dead in the volatile region. A strict curfew continued for the ninth straight day.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Israeli police arrested a Palestinian man (20) carrying pipe bombs and knives in his bag at a light railway station in Jerusalem during the morning rush hour.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three injured after a grenade one of the troops was holding exploded in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Libya 3 French special forces soldiers were killed. Officials in Libya later said the Islamist militia shot down a helicopter near Benghazi. The deaths provided the first confirmation that France has troops in the country where the Islamic State group has several bases.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 17, Malaysia Airlines struck a deal to settle damages claims for most victims of its MH17 flight that was shot down over eastern Ukraine two years ago.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Morocco asked the African Union (AU) to readmit it to an organisation it left in 1984, as it steps up efforts to win support from member states for a plan offering conditional autonomy to the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, In South Africa philanthropist Bill Gates delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture ahead of Mandela Day and said that his foundation will invest another $5 billion in Africa over the next five years.
(SFC, 7/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 17, South Korean authorities arrested senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joo for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars following shady stock transaction deals with a leading online game maker.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, Pro-Syrian government forces reached the only main road into the rebel-held part of Aleppo, further tightening their control around opposition areas of the main northern city.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, The Turkish government accelerated its crackdown on alleged plotters of the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the justice minister saying that 6,000 people had been detained in the investigation, including three of the country's top generals and hundreds of soldiers.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Caravans of Venezuelan families drove for hours on bandit-plagued highways to a checkpoint on the Colombian border where they'll be able to cross and hunt for food and medicine that are in short supply at home. This was the second weekend in a row that the socialist government has opened the long-closed border connecting Venezuela to Colombia.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Dozens of Vietnamese who gathered for an anti-China protest in central Hanoi were taken away by authorities as they tried to rally support for an international tribunal's ruling rejecting Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 18, The US Republican National Convention opened in Cleveland. Melania Trump delivered a heartfelt defense of her husband and his bid to be the next president of the United States before thousands of rapt convention delegates. But unmistakable similarities in remarks about her guiding values and a speech given by Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic convention soon came to light.
(AP, 7/18/16)(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice was acquitted of manslaughter and two other charges in the April 2015 death of black detainee Freddie Gray, dealing prosecutors another setback in their efforts to secure a conviction in the highly charged case.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Florida police in North Miami shot and wounded Charles Kinsey (47), a black therapist, even as he had his hands in the air after trying to help an autistic patient (27) in the middle of a street.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 18, Billy Name, born in 1940 as William Linich Jr., died in upstate New York. He had met Andy Warhol in 1959 and became his lover, muse and court photographer.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.C4)
2016 Jul 18, An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket blasted off from Florida to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, then turned around and landed itself back at the launch site.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, NASA officials said Taiwan is building a $47 million lunar lander as part of the first ever moon-mining project. Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) will build the lander. The NASA project Resource Prospector and aims to be the first mining expedition on another world.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban began attacking the Qalay-i-Zal district in Kunduz province. A day later they had not yet been completely pushed back.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Armenian authorities called on gunmen holed up in a police station in the Yerevan to lay down their arms and release four people they were holding hostage.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Azerbaijan the ANS TV station was ordered to provisionally stop broadcasting for a month because authorities said its reporting ran counter to "a strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey." On July 29 the Court of Appeals in Baku ordered the local private television station to close because of its coverage of the attempted coup in Turkey.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced three militia members to death for carrying out killings and other serious crimes during the country's independence war against Pakistan 35 years ago. Five other defendants were sentenced to life in prison. Only two of the defendants were in the docks. The others were tried in absentia.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, British lawmakers voted to replace the country’s four aging nuclear-armed submarines with new vessels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 18, It was announced that ARM Holdings, a British Cambridge-based tech company, would be sold to Japan’s SoftBank for £24 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.44)
2016 Jul 18, An independent Canadian investigator said Russia operated a state-dictated doping system during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other events, in a report likely to lead to demands for Russia to be completely banned from the Rio Games.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, China’s Southern Weekly newspaper reported that a total of 313 HIV-positive people have been contacted by callers claiming to be government officials offering financial allowances in exchange for their banking information. The bank details were used to steal money from their accounts, while those who identified the offer as attempted fraud were threatened with the online publication of their details.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, The EU announced a further 500 million euros ($553 million) for farmers to help reverse the plunge in prices shaking a dairy industry hit by overproduction and a Russian embargo.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Germany a 17-year-old Afghan refugee wielding an axe and a knife went on a rampage on a train running between Treuchtlingen and Wuerzburg in Bavaria, seriously injuring four members of a tourist family from Hong Kong. When he began to attack officers with an axe, Riaz A. was shot dead by police. The Islamic State group soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 7/19/16)(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, India's top environmental court ordered authorities to remove all diesel vehicles at least 10 years old off the capital city's streets in a bid to help clean New Delhi's polluted air.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Police in eastern India said at least 8 paramilitary soldiers were killed in an attack by Maoist rebels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 18, Indonesia began re-vaccinating nearly 200 children who received fake versions of imported inoculations from a drug-counterfeiting ring broken up last month after operating for more than a decade.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militant, Abu Wardah Santoso, was one of two militants killed in a shootout in the jungles of Sulawesi island. The other was an extremist known as Mochtar.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Clashes erupted in the West Bank as Israel's military demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of involvement in a February attack outside Jerusalem's Old City that killed a policewoman.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, A Palestinian stabbed two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank before being shot. The soldiers were lightly wounded.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In northern Italy a court in Ivrea convicted former Olivetti executive Carlo De Benedetti and 12 others of manslaughter and other offenses over workers' deaths or illnesses blamed on asbestos exposure. The industrialist received a 5-year-2-month prison term. He will not be jailed while his appeals are heard.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Kazakhstan 3 police officers and one civilian were killed in armed attacks on a police station and a security building in Almaty. Police said they have disarmed and arrested two attackers.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In South Africa more than 18,000 scientists, campaigners and donors opened a major AIDS conference in Durban, issuing stark warnings that recent gains in the fight against the disease were under threat.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 21 civilians were killed in US coalition raids, 15 of them in a northern district of Manbij and another six in Al-Tukhar.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Turkey launched fresh raids and sacked almost 9,000 officials in a relentless crackdown against suspects behind an attempted coup that left over 300 people dead, as Western allies warned against reinstating the death penalty. Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said a total of 232 individuals were killed during the failed coup attempt. He put the total numbers of detentions since July 15 at 7,543, including 6,030 military.
(AFP, 7/18/16)(TIME, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Turkey an unknown assailant shot deputy mayor Cemil Candas of Istanbul's Sisli district in the head and he was in a critical condition.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Yemen 2 suicide bombers tried to ram vehicles laden with explosives through two military checkpoints near the government-held port city of Mukalla, killing at least 10 people.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 19, The US government announced a settlement with the Navajo Nation that will clear the way for cleanup work to continue at abandoned uranium mines in the four corners area.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 19, Writer-director Garry Marshall (81) died in southern California. His work included the TV hits “Happy Days" and “Laverne & Shirley" and the films “Pretty Woman" (1990) and “Runaway Bride" (1999).
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A9)
2016 Jul 19, In Kansas City, Kansas, police Capt. Robert Melton was shot and killed while searching for a suspect in a drive-by shooting. The alleged shooter was soon caught.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 19, In Michigan a judge dismissed all charges against Davontae Sanford (23) of Detroit, who had been locked up for eight years for a murder conviction for four 2007 slayings that were eventually linked to a professional hit man.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 19, In Afghanistan the Taliban launched multiple attacks including on a strategic tunnel in the Hindu Kush mountains that links the capital, Kabul, with the country's north and south.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, A British court ordered disgraced Russian athlete Liliya Shobukhova (38) to repay organisers of the London Marathon almost £400,000 (476,000 euros, $527,000).
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Chinese state newspapers began criticizing scattered protests against KFC restaurants and other US targets in an apparent attempt to head off large-scale street demonstrations sparked by an international tribunal's ruling that denied Beijing's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Authorities in southern France detained a man who stabbed a woman and her three daughters at an Alps resort, apparently upset at what they were wearing.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, India's top court ordered Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, to express regret or face defamation charges for blaming the country's top Hindu nationalist organization for the 1948 assassination of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, In India a police officer was killed during clashes in Una, 340 km (210 miles) from Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, where tannery workers were attacked by self-styled hardline Hindu cow protectors.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Authorities lifted a three-day publication ban in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, but newspapers delayed print runs due to uncertainties about the media restrictions.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Iraqi Cabinet announced a two-day mandatory official holiday for all government workers as temperatures soared above 123 degrees Fahrenheit.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 19, In Libya a French warplane bombed positions of Islamic militias outside the eastern city of Benghazi, killing at least 16 fighters and destroying the militias' weapons. The bombing came in retaliation for the July 17 killing of members of the French special forces by the militias.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 19, In central Mali an attack on an army base killed at least 17 soldiers and wounded more than 30 in the city of Nampala.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 19, Morocco's Interior Ministry arrested 52 people suspected of being part of a cell linked to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 19, The IMF slashed its growth forecast for the Nigerian economy this year, saying a combination of plunging oil revenues and weakened investor confidence will push it into recession.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into its eastern sea in an apparent protest of South Korea's decision to allow the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system in the country.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Philippine Supreme Court dismissed a plunder case against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ordered her freed immediately after nearly five years of hospital detention. The case involved the alleged misuse of 366 million pesos ($7.8 million) from the state lottery agency, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Romania's PM Dacian Ciolos launched a national anti-corruption strategy in a bid to crack down on widespread corruption that plagues every walk of life.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Russian intelligence agency FSB said it is conducting a probe of several top-ranking crime investigators on suspicion of collusion with criminal gangs.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Clown Dimitri (80), a beloved Swiss clown and mime, died in Borgnone. He had studied under Marcel Marceau and spread smiles from Broadway to Congo with a traditional style that shunned modern, high-tech theatrics.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, In Syria children were among at least 56 civilians killed in strikes by a US-led coalition near a village held by the Islamic State group. The civilians had apparently been mistaken for jihadists and were bombed while fleeing fighting in Al-Tukhar, Aleppo province. 12 civilians were reported killed in strikes on the rebel-held town of Atareb.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, In Taiwan a tour bus carrying 24 visitors from China burst into flames on a highway near Taipei, killing all 26 people on board. On July 29 investigators said the driver, identified only by his surname Su, was drunk when the accident happened.
(AP, 7/19/16)(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Tanzanian government admitted that it has banned imports and sales of sexual lubricants in its latest move targeting the gay community. It estimated that 23 percent of men who have sex with men in Tanzania are living with HIV/AIDS.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey’s education ministry said 15,200 state education employees have been suspended after last week's attempted coup. Turkey's High Education Board ordered the resignation of 1,577 deans at all universities.
(AFP, 7/19/16)(Reuters, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey's central bank cut a key interest rate for the fifth month in a row, days after an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan triggered concerns over the country's economic outlook.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, WikiLeaks released nearly 300,000 emails from Turkey’s AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6 this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward "in response to the government's post-coup purges". In response Turkey blocked access to the WikiLeaks website.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Ukraine said 7 government troops were killed in the past 24 hours during fighting with pro-Russian separatists, making July the deadliest month for the Ukrainian military in nearly a year after a sharp increase in violence.
(Reuters, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 20, The US government moved to seize more than $1 billion in assets purchased with money that it believes was stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund overseen by PM Najib Razak. US investigators alleged that more than $3.5 billion had been misappropriated from 1MDB and that hundreds of millions had been paid to PM Najib Razak.
(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A2)(Econ, 11/19/16, p.33)
2016 Jul 20, US Rep. Mark Takai (49) of Hawaii died in Honolulu of pancreatic cancer.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.D5)
2016 Jul 20, A Michigan TV station reported that the US Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency will fine Enbridge Inc $62 million for a 2010 oil spill that released crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed legislation banning the use of bullhooks to train elephants, making her state the first to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/hrewt2q)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 20, A Texas voter identification law, considered the strictest in the nation, was struck down in a federal appeals court that ruled it discriminated against minorities and the poor. The court ruled it must be changed before the November elections.
(CSM, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 20, Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel more than 700 flights because of a faulty router that brought its systems down for 12 hours. Some 2,300 flights were cancelled over the next 24 hours.
(http://tinyurl.com/gmta4ek)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.46)
2016 Jul 20, SpaceX delivered more than 2 tons of supplies to the International Space Station including a space station docking port needed for future rocket ships.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Paleontologists reported the naming of Murusraptor barrosaensis, a new species of megaraptorid dinosaur discovered in 2001 in Argentina’s northwestern Patagonia. It was found in tock dating back 80 million years.
(http://tinyurl.com/gr2lg8p)
2016 Jul 20, In Bangladesh a senior officer with the police-led Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which is involved in counter-terrorism, said a list of 260 young men missing for over a year has been compiled from reports from families and intelligence tip-offs.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, A British nuclear submarine collided with an unspecified merchant vessel off the coast of Gibraltar, forcing it to dock in the disputed territory.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 20, Monitoring groups Resolve and Invisible Children said kidnappings in Central Africa by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) hit a six-year high in the first half of 2016 just as Uganda threatened to roll back its involvement in an operation to hunt down the rebels. Their report said the LRA has abducted 498 civilians between January and June of this year.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In China 5 people died when a seaplane they were traveling in crashed into a bridge in Shanghai on its maiden flight to Zhoushan, an island in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, A Czech court sentenced US citizen Kevin Dahlgren to life in prison for stabbing to death a family of four of his relatives whom he had been visiting in 2013.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Czech police said an international law enforcement team has broken up a gang that allegedly produced amphetamines to distribute on the black market in Sweden. Police said seven suspected members of the group have been arrested in a joint operation by Czech, Swedish and Hungarian forces.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, The French government forced a divisive labor bill through Parliament without a vote for third and final time.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In India protesters from the low-caste Dalit community blocked roads and attacked government buses in PM Narendra Modi's home state in a third day of demonstrations over the flogging of four men accused of skinning a cow. Opposition lawmakers disrupted parliament to protest against the floggings in Gujarat and demanded that PM Modi apologize to the victims.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Police in northern India said that they have arrested two men for raping a young woman for the second time in three years. The woman told police that she was gang-raped again on July 13 because she was unwilling to withdraw the case.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir removed dozens of black and Pakistani flags hoisted by residents observing a "black day" to protest the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Iraqis endured the hottest day so far this year, with temperatures soaring up to 51 degrees Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) in Baghdad and as much as 53 degrees Celsius (127 Fahrenheit) in the southern part of the country.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Israel's parliament passed a charged bill that would allow the assembly to oust a sitting lawmaker deemed to be inciting against the state.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Israel said that it and the Republic of Guinea renewed diplomatic ties after 49 years.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, The Italian coast guard coordinated five separate rescue operations that saved 567 migrants. The bodies of 21 women and one man were found in a pool of fuel at the bottom of one smuggler’s boat.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 20, In Pakistan Samia Shahid (28), a dual British-Pakistani citizen, was murdered during a visit to her family in their village in Punjab province. Her husband later branded her death an "honor killing" and called for the UK and Pakistani governments to ensure his wife received justice. A forensic examination later concluded that Samia Shahid, 28, of Bradford was killed by asphyxiation.
(AFP, 7/29/16)(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Jul 20, Romania's Constitutional Court ruled that a request from an anti-gay group to change the constitution to state that marriage is a union between a man and a woman is constitutional. Any change would need to be approved by two-thirds of lawmakers.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Saudi Arabia's top clerics renewed a religious edict that warns against playing Pokemon — this time as the wildly popular mobile phone application "Pokemon Go". First issued in 2001 when the game was played with cards, the decree says Pokemon violates Islamic prohibitions against gambling uses devious Masonic-like symbols and promotes "forbidden images."
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Syrian rebel group Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement, which has received US military backing, said it is investigating the beheading of a young child in Aleppo after video footage circulated showing the boy being killed by a man activists identified as a member of the group.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Five Taiwanese fishing boats set sail for Itu Aba, Taiwan's sole holding in the South China Sea, in protest against a court ruling that deems it a rock rather than an island, limiting its rights to surrounding resource-rich waters.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Turkey’s government declared a state of emergency for at least three months. State-run Anadolu news agency said the country's defense ministry has sacked at least 262 military court judges and prosecutors. An investigation was launched on all military judges and prosecutors as authorities continued with a crackdown on people suspected of backing a failed military coup, which the government has blamed on a US-based cleric.
(AP, 7/20/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 20, Turkish broadcaster NTV said Turkey’s military has carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Ukrainska Pravda journalist Pavel Sheremet (44) died in an explosion in Kiev as he got into his car to drive to work to anchor a talk show on a local radio station. The Belarusian-born Sheremet irked officials in Belarus and Russia before he moved to Ukraine, where he said there were fewer hurdles to independent reporting.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In southern Yemen a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint in Aden, killing 4 soldiers and wounding six.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Zambian police arrested 28 opposition supporters on suspicion of rioting and making petrol bombs. The UPND said in a statement they were only empty bottles.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In Zimbabwe tens of thousands gathered to show their support for 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe in the capital, Harare. The massive turnout was organized by Mugabe's ruling party, ZANU-PF, in response to recent anti-government demonstrations and a nationwide strike protesting a rapidly declining economy.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Cleveland, Ohio, Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination. He electrified the National Convention by delivering the speech of his life, promising to restore security, clamp down on immigration and put America first.
(AFP, 7/22/16)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 21, In the SF Bay Area Noah Winchester (31), a former black Peninsula police officer, was arrested and charged with 22 felony offenses related to the assault of five females since 2013.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul 21, In the SF Bay Area a suspicious four-alarm fire destroyed the Millbrae Community Center.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul 21, The National Basketball Association (NBA) decided not to host the 2017 All Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., because of a state law regarding gendered bathroom use that many consider discriminatory. A new location for the games was not yet announced.
(CSM, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Afghanistan Kunduz lawmaker Abdullah Qarluq said the Taliban has taken complete control of Qalay-i-Zal and also 98 percent of Dasht-i-Archi. Afghan security forces' deaths were put at 11 for both army and local police.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Bangladesh court handed a seven-year jail term to the son of main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in a case of money laundering, scrapping an acquittal by a lower court. Tarique Rahman (51) was also fined 200 million taka ($2.5 million).
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Canada a heavy oil and diluent leaked from Husky's Saskatchewan Gathering System pipeline, flowing into the North Saskatchewan River, which supplies drinking water to several communities in the western province.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Greek court sentenced eight Turkish military officers, who fled last week's failed coup, to suspended two-month prison terms. The officers have requested asylum and will remain in police custody until their cases on that issue are heard in August.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Hong Kong convicted three student leaders of leading or encouraging the massive pro-democracy street protests that unsettled the southern Chinese city on September 26, 2014.
(AP, 7/21/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.34)
2016 Jul 21, Iran's official IRNA news agency said authorities have arrested 40 suspects linked to the discovery of an underground tunnel in the country's far east, near the Pakistani border. The subterranean tunnel was discovered two nights ago and was reportedly meant for carrying out attacks and militant activities.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Kuwait recorded a temperature of 129F degrees. If verified it would be the Earth's hottest temperature on record outside of Death Valley, California, and the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Eastern Hemisphere.
(http://tinyurl.com/zq4t5bm)
2016 Jul 21, In Libya 14 unidentified bodies were found and brought to the Benghazi Medical Center by members of the Red Crescent. The bodies bore shots to the head indicated they were executed.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, Former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo was released from detention following nearly five years in a military hospital after the Supreme Court dismissed corruption charges.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Qatar said it would give $30 million to help pay the salaries of thousands of Gaza Strip public sector workers left without a full wage package since 2013.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, Russia lost its appeal against the Olympic ban on its track and field athletes, a decision which could add pressure on the IOC to exclude the country entirely from next month's games in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Human Rights Watch said members of Rwanda's security forces are arresting beggars, street children, sex workers and other "undesirables" who are arbitrarily detained in centers described as harsh and inhuman.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, The Swiss-based UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the earth is on track for its hottest year on record and warming at a faster rate than expected.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Syria government air strikes and shelling killed at least 43 civilians, including 11 children in several rebel-held areas.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Nearly 40 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime fighters were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel under a government position in Aleppo city.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, The head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition called for a suspension of the US-led air campaign against Islamic State in Syria while reports of dozens of civilian deaths from air strikes around the northern city of Manbij are investigated.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Turkey said it will follow France's example in suspending temporarily the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration of a state of emergency.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Zimbabwean war veterans turned on their long-time ally President Robert Mugabe, describing him as a dictator in a jolting rebuke underlining political maneuvering over his succession and mounting anger over economic woes.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In southern California a fast-moving wildfire broke out and soon forced hundreds of people to flee from their homes in the drought-parched foothills northwest of Los Angeles. By July 24 it had blackened some 20,000 acres and threatened homes and commercial structures.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 22, A Florida judge said that bitcoin is not real money. The ruling meant that no specific license is needed to buy and sell the crypto-currency.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Jul 22, American Atheists Inc. and two Kansas City members filed suit against Kansas City, Mo., over the city’s planned use of $65,000 in tourism tax dollars to aid an upcoming Baptist convention.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 22, In northern Indiana 14 dogs were found dead after air conditioning failed in a truck they were housed in for a dog show.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 22, WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 emails from a 17-month span that appeared to have been obtained by someone who hacked into the accounts of seven top Democratic Party officials.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 22, In Afghanistan a suicide bombing on a peaceful protest in Kabul killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 200. The attack was the deadliest to hit Kabul in 15 years of civil war. The Hazaras were marching for a major regional power line to be routed through their home province.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 22, The Afghan military launched a major offensive in Nangarhar province hours after a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed at least 80 people.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 22, President Francois Hollande said France will supply weapons to Iraq to support its fight against the Islamic State group, but ruled out any troop deployment in the country.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, IMF chief Christine Lagarde was ordered to stand trial in France over a massive state payout to a colourful tycoon when she was French economy minister.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In Germany teenager David Ali Sonboly (18) went on a shooting spree at a shopping center in Munich. He shot dead 9 people in a gun rampage before turning the gun on himself. Police later said he was "obsessed" with mass killers like Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik and had no links to the Islamic State group. Police later said he had been preparing for the shooting for a year.
(AFP, 7/23/16)(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 22, The Indian air force lost contact with a transport plane carrying 29 people to islands in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Two more people died in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as anti-India protests and clashes with government forces persisted despite a strict curfew in place for a 14th straight day.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In Kenya a court in Mombasa convicted Feisal Mohamed Ali of possessing ivory. He had been accused of leading an ivory smuggling ring. Ali was arrested in Tanzania in December 2014 over illegal elephant tusks weighing more than 2 tons.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Libyan forces said they had edged further into the center of Sirte as they sought to recapture the city from Islamic State, following heavy fighting until late the previous evening that left dozens dead.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, A Dutch court convicted four men in absentia for travelling to Syria to join extremists, including the Islamic State group, and sentenced them to six years in prison. All four suspects were believed to be in Syria, where some 260 Dutch citizens have gone to fight in recent years.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif pledged an "era of development" in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir after his party won 31 of 41 seats in the local legislative assembly. Sharif urged a crowd of supporters in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir, not to forget the sacrifices of people living in the Indian-controlled side.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, It was reported that days of heavy snowfall in Peru have killed some 50,000 alpacas. Sheep were also reported dying in large numbers in the high Andean plateaus.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 22, Poland's parliament eased some restrictions on the constitutional court in a move the government said addressed concerns that the ruling party had undermined the rule of law but the opposition said the changes did not go far enough.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Romania's Court of Appeal has upheld prison sentences for eight people for money laundering and embezzlement worth 83.5 million euros ($92 million). Sorin Ovidiu Vantu was sentenced to six years and two months in prison. Trade union leader Liviu Luca was sentenced to six years in prison for misusing the funds of Petromservice, a petroleum-facility maintenance company. The court also confirmed sentences for six other former company employees to prison terms.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In Serbia hundreds of migrants from the Middle East and Asia marched through Belgrade on their way to Hungary and announced a hunger strike to underline their demand for passage to western Europe.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Singapore banned the distribution and possession of Al Fatihin, a newspaper linked to the Islamic State militant group, after government officials repeatedly warned against terror threats.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, South Korea's central bank said North Korea's economy shrank 1.1 percent last year, in its first contraction in five years.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In northern Syria sporadic clashes between Islamic Sate militants and US-backed fighters erupted in the IS-held town of Manbij after the extremists ignored a 48-hour offer from the day before to leave the besieged town without a fight.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, The UN World Tourism Organization signed an agreement with Turkey to help the country boost its ailing tourism sector, which has suffered due to a string of bombings and a failed coup.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Afghanistan a suicide attack on peaceful protesters in Kabul killed 81 people. The protesters were mainly Hazaras. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.31)
2016 Jul 23, A drug bust in Chile resulted in the haul of cocaine worth more than €11 million ($12 million) that was bound for Spain. Three suspected traffickers were arrested, two of whom are confirmed Spanish nationals.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 23, In China Siberian tigers at the Badaling wildlife World in Beijing mauled a woman to death and wounded another when they stepped out of their carin an enclosure.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 23, In El Salvador four inmates at a prison were murdered amid a fight between inmates, members of the Barrio 18 gang, at a facility in the city of Quezaltepeque.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, El Salvador's president says he has begun talks with political parties on a new "national reconciliation" law. Earlier this month, the country's Supreme Court overturned an amnesty law enacted in 1993 covering crimes committed during the country's 1980-1992 civil war.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Madagascar a house fire broke out during a party. 38 people including 16 children were killed as the blaze ripped through a thatched roof.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 23, In southern Mexico a mayor, a town councilman, two other town employees and a local resident were shot to death in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas state. Prosecutors said a crowd of about 35 people demanded to speak with Mayor Domingo Lopez Gonzalez about funding for public works when shots rang out, killing him and the other four.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey pushed on with a sweeping crackdown against suspected plotters of its failed coup. Using new emergency powers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet decreed that police could now hold suspects for one month without charge, and announced it would shut down over 1,000 private schools it deems subversive.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey said it has detained Hails Hanci a senior aide to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for the coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hanci was described as a "right-hand man" of Gulen and responsible for transferring funds to him. Gulen has denied being behind the failed coup.
(AFP, 7/23/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Turkey Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a gay Syrian refugee, went missing. His body was found mutilated and beheaded two days later in central Istanbul.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Jul 24, Democratic national leader Debbie Wasserman, D.-Fla., announced that she will step down at the end of the convention week following leaked internal party e-mails.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 24, In East Oakland, Ca., Alberto Juarez (40) was shot and killed and three others were wounded at a block party on the 9200 block of Holly St. In 2018 Honario Hernandez Meza (29) of Woodland, Ca., was sentenced to 16 years in prison following a plea agreement.
(SFC, 8/9/18, p.D1)
2016 Jul 24, Chris Froome (31) became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France three times.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbh6jnm)
2016 Jul 24, British border agents moved in to help French officials deal with gigantic backups for travelers trying to cross the English Channel into France. The delays come at the start of the British holiday season when tens of thousands of vacationers head to continental Europe.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Cambodia tens of thousands joined the funeral procession of Kem Ley, a prominent government critic, whose July 10 murder in broad daylight has raised suspicions of a hit job in country with a long history of political violence.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In China G20 finance officials promised to protect the world economy from the shockwaves of Britain's EU referendum and to boost sluggish growth. G20 envoys also rejected trade protectionism, an issue that has risen in prominence as US Republication presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred unease with talk about restricting access to American markets.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, China's Ministry of Commerce said that it has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel imports from Japan, South Korea and the European Union. Imports of grain-oriented electrical steel, used in the manufacture of large generators and electricity transformers, will be charged duties ranging from 37.3 percent to 46.3 percent. The duties will continue to be levied for five years. The ministry said an investigation has found that underpriced steel was hurting Chinese industry.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In China the Beijing municipal branch of the national Cyberspace Administration ordered some of China‘s biggest internet companies to stop publishing independent reports on politically sensitive topics.
(Econ, 7/30/16, p.34)
2016 Jul 24, Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Germany Mohammed Daleel, a Syrian asylum seeker (27), wounded 15 people, four of them seriously, near a cafe in Ansbach when he set off a bomb in his rucksack, killing himself. He had reportedly made a video pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group. A Syrian asylum-seeker (21) killed a woman and injured two people with a machete in the city of Reutlingen.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, In India an Israeli tourist (25) was raped after she accepted a car ride while traveling in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Police soon arrested two of six men and a search was on for the other four.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, Iran destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers as part of a widespread crackdown against the illegal devices that authorities say are morally damaging. General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of Iran's Basij militia, warned of the impact that satellite television was having in the conservative country. 70% of Iranians violate the 1994 law and own satellite dishes which can gather television programming worldwide.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(https://tinyurl.com/ybttvudh)
2016 Jul 24, In Iraq a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 15 people in a Shiite area of northern Baghdad. The bombing struck near a checkpoint in the Kadhimiyah area, home to a major Shiite shrine, also wounded at least 29 people.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, Nepal's PM Khadga Prasad Oli resigned shortly before he was to face a confidence vote in parliament that he expected to lose, further aggravating political instability in the Himalayan country.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24 It was reported that Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte has ordered all agencies directly under his watch to open their records to the public as part of his promise to crack down on corruption and promote transparency in government. Legislation was still needed to ensure other branches of government will do the same.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Switzerland the International Olympic Committee held showdown talks on whether to ban Russia from the Rio Games over state-run doping. The IOC said it was up to each international sports federation to decide if Russians could take part in Rio.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Syria rockets rained down on several Old Damascus neighborhoods killing at least 8 people and wounding 20 others. Government air raids struck five medical clinics in Aleppo province.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 24, In northern Thailand about 100 macaques tore up voter lists publicly posted ahead of the August 7 referendum on a proposed constitution.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, Ukraine said six government soldiers were killed in the east by rebel separatists over the last 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 24, Zimbabwe war veterans decried Mugabe's "dictatorial tendencies" and vowed to withdraw their support if he seeks re-election in 2018.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Philadelphia, Penn., the Democratic National Convention got off to a rocky start Monday, with a major internal row over leaked emails playing havoc with nominee Hillary Clinton's bid to present a united front against Donald Trump.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, The FBI said it is investigating how thousands of Democratic National Committee emails were hacked, a breach that Hillary Clinton's campaign maintains was committed by Russia to benefit Donald Trump. It was later reported that two teams of Russian hackers were at work. One nick-named Fancy Bear was thought to be linked to military intelligence. The other, code-named Fancy Bear, was believed to be linked to another part of the Russian security aparatus.
(AP, 7/25/16)(Econ, 9/24/16, p.29)
2016 Jul 25, In Florida 2 youths were killed early today and as many as 16 other people injured in a shooting outside a nightclub in Fort Myers as parents were picking up their children from a "teen night" event.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, The United States announced $127 million in aid for southern African countries where the worst drought in decades is affecting millions of people, stunting children and tempting some farmers to eat their grains instead of saving them as seed for the next crop.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Verizon and Yahoo announced a $4.83 billion deal to buy Yahoo’s core Internet business. This did not include the firms properties in Asia or its portfolio of patents.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.D1)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.49)
2016 Jul 25, Ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a watered-down rebuke against China for territorially expanding in the South China Sea. This amounted to less than a slap on the wrist, and exposed the deep divisions in a regional body that prides itself on unity.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Austrian police said that an international operation has smashed an alleged people-smuggling ring suspected of illegally bringing more than 1,000 people from Hungary into western Europe over the past year.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Azerbaijan's highest court approved an initiative by President Ilham Aliyev to extend the head of state's term of office to seven years from five, a step his critics see as illegal and undemocratic.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, British prosecutors unveiled the extra charges against Stephen Port (41), who already faced murder charges in connection with the discovery of four bodies near Port's home in Barking, east London, between June 2014 and September 2015. They accused Port of nonlethal attacks on eight other men involving six criminal counts of poisoning, seven of rape and four of sexual assault.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Canada the provincial government of British Columbia declared that foreign buyes must pay a new 15% tax on any residential purchase. The move was counter to the Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protetions Agreement whi htook force in October 2014.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.60)
2016 Jul 25, In Canada Abdirahman Abdi (37), a mentally ill man, died after being hospitalized in critical condition following his arrest. Witnesses told local media he was beaten by Ottawa police officers who responded to calls of a disturbance.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 25, A Chinese military court sentenced Guo Boxiong (74), a former top general, to life in prison for taking bribes.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 25, Colombia’s Health Ministry said the number of cases of the virus have been falling steadily to as few as 600 per week compared to more than 10 times that amount at the outbreak's peak in February.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Congo Republic opposition leader Paulin Makaya was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in protests against a referendum proposing a third term for President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Greek authorities declared a state of emergency on the Aegean island of Chios, which has been engulfed by a wildfire raging out of control.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Guyana's government said it will create a special unit to crack down on corruption cases linked to the previous administration.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Indonesia organizers of a recent poll on rape said more than 90 percent of cases go unreported, highlighting the country's "deafening silence" around sexual violence as victims fear being blamed.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Iraq a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 12 people at a crowded checkpoint north of Baghdad. In Baghdad, separate bomb explosions rocked three commercial areas, killing 9 people and wounding 26.
(AFP, 7/25/16)(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Officials and rights groups said Israeli authorities have advanced plans for 770 new settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem, drawing condemnation from Palestinian leaders and the United Nations.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Mauritania only a handfull of Arab officials gathered in a tent in Nouakchott, in the most poorly attended Arab League summit in years, a sign of the region's disarray.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, New Zealand PM John Key announced a plan to completely rid his country of rats and some other nuisance animals, including possums and sloats, by 2050.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 25, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral cease-fire with communist guerrillas effective immediately and asked the rebels to do the same to end decades of deadly fighting and foster the resumption of peace talks as part of his first state of the nation address before Congress.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Five Saudi border guards were killed in clashes in Najran with armed groups seeking to enter from Yemen.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 25, In Serbia about 150 migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, started a hunger strike in a field on the border with Hungary to demand passage to the European Union.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Spanish health officials said a woman has given birth to a baby boy with microcephaly associated with the Zika virus, the first detected case in the country.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Syria's regime intensified air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo province as a UN envoy prepared to meet US and Russian officials to try to revive peace talks.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Hundreds of Tunisian demonstrated in the capital to protest against a bill being discussed in parliament to grant amnesty to people accused of corruption.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 25, Turkish Airlines said it has terminated the contracts of 211 employees, joining a government purge of people suspected of links to a US-based cleric. Turkey also ordered the detention of 42 journalists, drawing fire from the European Union.
(AP, 7/25/16)(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Ukrainian nationalists blocked a religious procession from entering Kiev, calling the marchers "agents of Moscow" and pelting the believers who were carrying Orthodox icons and crosses with eggs. The nationalists claimed that the procession is a ruse to sow discord in Ukraine. Police the next day barred the procession from entering Kiev, after finding ammunition planted along the planned route.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 25, Military sources in Yemen said at least 80 pro-government and rebel troops have been killed in fighting since last week in the northwest near the border with Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 26, Hillary Clinton made history by becoming the first woman nominee of a major-party for president of the United States.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 26, In California the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County, which ignited on July 22 in Garrapata State Park, grew to almost 20,000 acres and was only 10% contained. By July 31 it swelled to 40,000 acres and was 18% contained.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.D1)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.C2)
2016 Jul 26, Sandy Pearlman, producer and lyricist for Blue Öyster Cult, died in Novato, Ca. He produced and co-produced albums for the band from 1972-1988. In 1975 he and Murray Krugman produced one of the earliest albums considered to be punk rock: “The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!"
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.D4)
2016 Jul 26, In Pennsylvania Humberto Martinez (32), a man with a lengthy criminal history, died following a scuffle with police officers. A year later his family sued Pittsburg and its police department for wrongful death.
(SFC, 7/27/17, p.D2)
2016 Jul 26, LeEco, a Chinese technology company, agreed to buy US televisioon maker Vizio for at least $2 billion.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.C1)
2016 Jul 26, In Abu Dhabi Solar Impulse 2 made history as the first airplane to circle the globe powered only by the sun, opening up new possibilities for the future of renewable energy.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Afghanistan a US drone strike in southern Nangarhar province killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, top Islamic State group leader. Khan had previously been a Tehrik-e Taliban commander, but last year pledged loyalty to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Jul 26, Australia’s PM Malcolm Turnbull said that he would launch a Royal Commission after graphic footage emerged of teens being tear-gassed and stripped naked at a youth detention center in the Northern Territory.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Bangladesh police raided a den of suspected Islamic militants in Dhaka, killing 9 men and seizing explosives, revolvers and black flags.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Egypt film director Mohammed Khan (b.1942) died. His realism shed light on the country's urban landscape since the 1980s. His 2013 film “Factory Girl" addressed Egypt's rigid class society.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In France two attackers took hostages inside a church during morning Mass in the small Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, killing Father Jacques Hamel, (85) by slitting his throat before being shot and killed by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. The attackers were soon identified as Adel Kermiche (19) and Abdel Malik Petitjean (19).
(AP, 7/26/16)(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 26, Germany signed an agreement to lend 50 million euros ($55 million) to Albania to help it build a power line with neighboring Macedonia.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Germany a patient shot a doctor in a university clinic in Berlin before killing himself. Police said there were "no signs at all" of a link with Islamist militancy.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In northeast India local authorities in Assam state said more than 1.2 million people have been hit by floods which have submerged hundreds of villages, inundated large swathes of farmland and damaged roads, bridges and telecommunications services. At least 7 people were reported killed.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Iran's government said it would cap salaries for public officials as it seeks to dampen a scandal over exorbitant pay that has threatened to derail President Hassan Rouhani's re-election hopes. The payslips of executives at several public companies were leaked in May, showing that many earned over 100 times more than the average worker.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Iraq the Babil Provincial Council approved a decision allowing authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 26, Israeli authorities destroyed 11 Palestinian homes in an area on the outskirts of Jerusalem divided from the city by Israel's separation wall. Authorities alleged the owners did not have building permits.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Israel police said said that 56 suspected members of the "La Familia" group of Beitar Jerusalem fans were arrested in an overnight raid. Stun grenades, firecrackers and other banned pyrotechnics were confiscated. An undercover agent who had infiltrated the group over the past six months led to the breakthrough.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Japan Satoshi Uematsu (26) went on a stabbing rampage near Tokyo at the Yamayuri-en facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, killing 19 people. Months earlier he had given a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death. This was Japan's deadliest mass killing in decades. In 2020 a court sentenced Uematsu to hang for the killings.
(AP, 7/26/16)(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2016 Jul 26, Malawi police arrested Eric Aniva who said he was hired by families to have sex with more than 100 young women, including children, in what was described as ritual cleansing. Aniva told media he was HIV-positive.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Mali jihadist leader Mahmoud Barry, aka known as Cheikh Yahya, was arrested near the Wagadou forest. His group was one of two that claimed responsibility for the July 19 attack on an army base that killed at least 17 soldiers.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Morocco a girl was visiting the Zoological Garden of Rabat with her family, admiring three elephants when one picked up a stone, then tossed it more than 10 meters (yards) over a huge ditch and a wooden barrier toward the visitors. The girl was struck in the head and died hours later.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Pakistan unidentified gunmen killed two army soldiers in a hit and run attack in the southern port city of Karachi.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Paraguayan authorities got a surprise when they raided the jail cell of Jarvis Chimenes Pavao, a Brazilian drug lord's jail cell, and found a three-room luxury suite complete with library, kitchen, conference room and plasma TV. Pavao had allegedly planned to use the plastic explosives to blow a hole in the prison walls and escape.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Somalia at least 13 people were killed in twin bombings near UN and African Union buildings adjoining Mogadishu's airport. The jihadist Shabaab group claimed the bombings as a suicide attack.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir installed Taban Deng Gai as the new first vice president to replace opposition leader Riek Machar, who fled into hiding this month amid clashes with government forces. Loyalists to Machar alleged a conspiracy to remove him.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Syrian government forces called on opposition fighters in Aleppo to drop their weapons and surrender to authorities as they captured new ground on the northwestern edge of the city, tightening the siege on rebel-held parts of the metropolis where some 300,000 people live.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Turkey detained prominent journalists and two top generals serving abroad in a widening of the relentless legal crackdown after the July 15 coup that has caused growing alarm in the West.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving Kurdish militants in the Kurdish southeast region.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, The Vatican and the Bank of Italy signed a key cooperation agreement aimed at regularizing their relations and ending years of Italian mistrust over Holy See finances.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Philadelphia President Barack Obama implored Americans to help Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump, warning the 2016 race was not just about politics, but the nature of US democracy.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 27, Donald Trump said "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 (Hillary Clinton) emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press." A day later he retracted the statement saying he was being sarcastic.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 27, Jack Davis (b.1924), Mad magazine illustrator and movie poster artist, died in St. Simons Island, Ga.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.D3)
2016 Jul 27, In Saipan community members and an environmental group sued the US Navy over a plan to turn the islands of Pagan and Tinian in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands into live-fire testing sites.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 27, Maryland prosecutors dropped all remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers who were still awaiting trial in the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray. Three other officers were already acquittted. A mistrial was declared for a 4th officer when a jury deadlocked.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 27, A US federal judge ordered John Hinckley (61), who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, to be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live full-time with his mother.
(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In China a court in Shenzhen sentenced four people, including Hong Kong magazine publisher Wang Jianmin and editor Guo Zhongxiao, to prison on charges of running an illegal business after they reportedly sent copies of their sensitive political magazines to mainland China.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 27, The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Earth bid a final farewell to robot lab Philae, severing communications after a year-long silence from the pioneering probe hurtling through space on a comet.
(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, The European Commission gave Poland three months to boost the powers of its Constitutional Tribunal, stepping up pressure on Warsaw's eurosceptic government to respect the EU's democratic standards.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, India signed a contract to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Iraq militants unleashed a series of attacks in and around Baghdad, killing at least 18 people.
(AP, 7/27/16)(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, Israeli forces fired anti-tank missiles at a house in the West Bank after a shootout overnight, killing a Hamas member accused of the July 1 deadly attack on Miki Mark (48), a father of ten.
(AFP, 7/27/16)(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, A Kuwaiti court sentenced Shiite lawmaker Abdulhameed Dashti, a strong supporter of Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to 14 years and six months in absentia for remarks deemed highly offensive to fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Dashti has been living overseas for the past four months.
(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Mexico’s Interior Secretary said the government will comply with a judge’s order to release drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (86) to serve out the last nine of of his 40-year sentence at home.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, A Nepalese home ministry official said flash floods and landslides swept through villages, killing at least 58 people over two days.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Pope Francis landed in Poland at the start of 5-day visit to join young Catholics for World Youth Day.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Romania’s National Council for Attesting Titles, Diplomas and University Certificates voted 37-10 to strip former PM Victor Ponta of his doctorate after a council upheld a verdict that he plagiarized his thesis.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Spain pro-independence parties governing Catalonia approved a resolution in the regional parliament to press ahead with secession. Spain’s caretaker government said it will take legal action the parliament of Catalonia.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, Spanish police arrested two Moroccan brothers in the northern city of Girona and charged them with helping to fund Islamic State's operations in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Syria a large truck bomb blast claimed by Islamic State targeted Kurdish security forces and killed at least 48 people and wounded scores more in the northeastern city of Qamishli. Government air strikes and artillery fire killed at least 16 civilians on in rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east of Aleppo city.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Thai police captured a Japanese lawyer who altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago. Yasuo Tsubaki (62) was sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 27, Turkish authorities issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives or senior journalists at the Zaman newspaper, which was associated with the US-based Muslim cleric who the government says is behind Turkey's failed July 15 coup.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Ukraine thousands of Russian Orthodox Christian pilgrims reached the center of Kiev and finished their procession to the city's most revered monastery after their march was disrupted a day earlier.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Venezuela a union leader said some 50 animals have starved to death in the last six months at the Caricuao zoo in Caracas, due to chronic food shortages that have plagued the crisis-stricken South American nation.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Thousands of Zimbabweans rallied in support of President Robert Mugabe, days after war veterans called the 92-year-old a corrupt dictator, highlighting maneuvering over the ZANU-PF leader's succession and anger over growing hardships.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Zimbabwe police arrested Douglas Mahiya, a senior official from the country’s war veterans' association, after it accused President Robert Mugabe of "dictatorial" behaviour in a shock rupture with the 92-year-old leader. The association's secretary-general, Victor Matemadanda, was also taken from his rural home in Gokwe, after being summoned for police questioning.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, At the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Pa., Hillary Clinton became the first woman to accept a major party’s nomination for president.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 28, In southern California a Marine Corps fighter jet crashed during a training mission in the vicinity of Twentynine Palms. Maj. Richard Norton (36) was killed.
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A6)(SSFC, 7/31/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 28, In southern California two police officers were shot, one fatally, after a late night stop turned into a gunfight in San Diego. Jesse Gomez (52) was soon arrested for the murder of officer Jonathan DeGuzman (43).
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A6)(SSFC, 7/31/16, p.A10)
2016 Jul 28, Washington DC prosecutors said they will not retry Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadoran immigrant charged in the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy, due to unforeseen recent developments.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 28, Chicago police fatally shot and killed Paul O’Neal (18), a suspected car thief. On August 5 a video was released showing officers firing into a stolen vehicle, then handcuffing the blood-covered suspect following a foot chase.
(SFC, 8/6/16, p.A5)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A10)
2016 Jul 28, In Ohio a girl fatally shot her father in the head as he slept to stop him from abusing her family in Warren.
(SFC, 8/6/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 28, Dakota Lions Sight & Health, a South Dakota-based eye and tissue bank, said it isn't responsible for injuries caused by infected corneas that were shipped to the Palestinian territories.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Texas a Fort Worth police officer shot and paralyzed David Collie (33), a black man, as he walked away from the officer. A police dash cam video showed the encounter with Collie posing no immediate threat. Collie was charged with aggravated assault but a grand jury declined to indict him.
(http://tinyurl.com/gusy73z)(SFC, 12/29/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 28, Australian officials confirmed that data recovered from a home flight simulator owned by Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the captain of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, showed that someone had used the device to plot a course to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Cambodia's Phnom Penh Municipal Court fined self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy for defaming Heng Samrin, a former president (1979-1992) and a senior member of the country's ruling party, adding to legal woes hurting his party's ability to operate.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, An Egyptian court convicted Hesham Genena, the country's former top anti-corruption official, of "spreading false news," sentencing him to a year in prison and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,250) which, if paid along with an additional 10,000 pounds, will allow him to avoid incarceration.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, French President Francois Hollande confirmed that a National Guard would be formed from existing reserve forces to better protect citizens facing terror attacks.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, In India a shopkeeper of the Brahmin caste axed to death a couple from the lower Dalit caste for not promptly paying a meager debt of 15 rupees (22 cents) for groceries in Mainpuri town, Uttar Pradesh state. The couple left behind five children.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, India's upper house of parliament passed a bill late that would give state governments more than 60 billion rupees ($895 million) a year to conserve and protect forests and wildlife. Analysts and activists said the bill ignores the importance of indigenous people in conserving land and tramples on their rights.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Kenya four schools were set on fire. Over the last three months 117 schools have been partially burnt by arsonists. The government said the burning schools are retribution from a "cartel" formerly linked to the country's exam-setting body, which used to profit handsomely from selling papers and answers.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, Libya's UN-brokered presidency council announced the reopening of the country's vital oil terminals after 18 months of closure despite threats by a rival military commander that his forces could target tankers entering Libya's territorial waters.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, Nepalese authorities said flash floods and landslides have killed at least 68 people in the past three days with another 15 missing.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Nigeria Boko Haram ambushed a humanitarian convoy in Borno state. Three civilians including a UNICEF employee and contractor for the International Organization for Migration were wounded, along with two of the soldiers escorting the humanitarian workers. The UN in response suspended its missions outside Maiduguri, where it says a half million people are starving. A day later UNICEF said it was returning to full operations in the area.
(AP, 7/29/16)(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Oman the Azamn (al-Zaman) newspaper editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Maamari and his deputy Yousef al-Haj were jailed two days after the paper published an article accusing public officials of corruption and interfering in judicial decisions.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Jul 28, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to withdraw a ceasefire order he gave three days ago after suspected communist rebels killed a government militiaman and wounded four others in an attack a day earlier.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Portuguese police seized about 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of Moroccan hashish from a boat and arrested a Spaniard (46) during a night-time operation on the country's southern coast.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Portuguese public health workers began a 48-hour strike to pressure the government into extending a new 35-hour week to more staff.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the governor of the Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, a month after he was jailed on a charge of accepting a bribe.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev accepted the resignation of Andrei Belyaninov, the head of the customs agency, several days after investigators searched his home and founds hundreds of thousand dollars stashed in shoe boxes.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Syrian pro-government forces tightened their grip around Aleppo, and the governor of the area said they would open corridors for civilians to escape the besieged, rebel-held districts of the city. Militants retook the northern village of al-Bouweir from the Syrian Democratic Forces and killed 24 civilians there.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Syria at least 28 people, including seven children, died in air strikes on the village of al Ghandour in the countryside north of Manbij city. The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants conducted air strikes in the area in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, In northern Ukraine three people died, including a NATO representative, in an explosion while a missile was being unloaded from a vehicle at a military installation.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said some 23 million farmers in drought-hit Southern Africa need urgent help to prepare for the next planting season with only a few weeks left before it begins. It said Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have reported more than 640,000 drought-related livestock deaths. Farmers and cattle herders in 10 countries have requested assistance: Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 29, The United States military said it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman. The US Army said it would hand back 15 square miles to the Japanese government.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.20)
2016 Jul 29, In northern California a medical transport plane enroute to Oakland, Ca., crashed in Humboldt County killing all 4 people onboard.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.C2)
2016 Jul 29, In Michigan six current or former state employees were charged with misconduct and other crimes in the Flint water crisis, bringing to nine the number of public officials facing prosecution in the case.
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 29, Agriculture officials said genetically modified wheat not approved for sale or commercial production in the United States has been found growing in a field in Washington state, posing a possible risk to trade with countries concerned about engineered food.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, It was reported that a new study of male honeybees shows that the insecticides thiamethoxam and clothianidin, both from the neonicotinoid family of insecticides can significantly reduce the drones’ ability to reproduce.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 29, In Afghanistan Taliban militants attacked a series of police checkpoints as part of a larger assault in the Kanashin district. Control of the Kanashin district, which borders Pakistan and major poppy-producing districts, put the "Taliban in control of 60 percent of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Angola the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) said that 9 Angolan soldiers had been killed in the region.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 29, Chinese regulatory authorities conditionally approved Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s giant takeover of SABMiller, clearing one of the last major hurdles for the $103 billion deal to go ahead. AB InBev has agreed to a series of concessions to win the authorities' green lights, including selling SABMiller's 49 percent stake in Snow Breweries, China's biggest beermaker.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, The European Union said that it had set definitive anti-dumping duties on certain Chinese steel bars at rates higher than initially proposed, following a 2015 investigation prompted by complaints from European steelmaking association Eurofer. The announcement drew an immediate response from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which said the EU "unfairly" set new tariffs based on higher profit margin targets for European producers.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Air France cancelled 10 percent of its long-distance flights, during a period of high traffic due to summer vacations, because of a strike by cabin crew.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, German automaker Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand said it will build a new manufacturing plant in Hungary by the end of the decade, investing 1 billion euros ($1.11 billion) and creating 2,500 new jobs.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Guyana's finance minister said the country will bar graduates of its public university from traveling outside the country until they settle their student debt, in a bid to collect on some $25 million in defaulted loans.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Indian police in Bihar state arrested Hindu nationalist leader Dayashankar Singh on charges alleging he insulted a senior female politician by describing her as "worse than a prostitute." Singh was expelled last week from PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party for making the remark against Mayawati, a leader representing millions of lower-caste Dalits.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, India’s government said persistent heavy rains have caused widespread disruption in major cities and severe floods in the rugged northeast have killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In India a portion of a 13-story building under construction in the western city of Pune collapsed, killing at least 8 workers.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In northern India a woman and her 14-year-old daughter were gang-raped off a busy highway near the town of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh state, after their car was stopped by a gang of men. 15 suspects were soon detained.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Indian-controlled Kashmir authorities re-imposed a curfew to prevent a protest march to the main mosque in Srinagar, but fresh street demonstrations and clashes still occurred at more than two dozen places amid outrage over the killing of a top rebel leader earlier this month.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Indonesia executed four people convicted of drug crimes despite international protests and said it would decide later when as many as 10 others who got an unexpected reprieve are put to death.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Ireland three former senior bankers were sent to prison for their roles in concealing the loss of billions in deposits at the defunct Anglo Irish Bank, the biggest accounting fraud in Irish corporate history.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Nicaragua's top electoral authority decimated the country's political opposition by unseating practically all of its remaining lawmakers in congress as President Daniel Ortega prepares to seek a third term.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Niger said it has extended a state of emergency in the southeastern region of Diffa for three months after a series of attacks by Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Nigeria’s army said its troops backed by a regional force have recaptured the northeastern town of Damasak where Boko Haram killed more than 200 and abducted hundreds of children two years ago. The Chad-based MNJTF comprises troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Pakistan Kosar and Gulzar Bibi, aged 22 and 28, were shot dead by their brother Nasir Hussain (35) as they prepared to marry men they had chosen themselves in Punjab province. Hussain fled the scene.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gave communist guerrillas an ultimatum to declare their readiness to match his truce declaration following a rebel attack that killed a government militiaman.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Scottish police said 77 people have been charged following a six-week operation against online child abuse. Police found more than 30 million pictures of young people being abused during the operation.
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 29, In Senegal the Extraordinary African Chambers ordered Chad's ex-dictator Hissene Habre to pay more than 4,700 victims at least $17,000 each for abuses suffered during his time in power. The tribunal has already frozen some of Habre's assets. The defense has 15 days to appeal the reparation award.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, South Korean prosecutors indicted fellow senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joon for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars from shady stock transaction deals with an online game maker.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Aid agencies urged Syria's regime to end the siege of rebel-held east Aleppo as residents cowered indoors afraid to use what some described as "death corridors" to flee the city.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said authorities have detained more than 18,000 people following the July 15-16 failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Turkey 8 government soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants at a checkpoint in the southeastern Hakkari province. A subsequent operation against the Kurdish rebels left eight Kurds dead.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, The UN Security Council agreed to send a contingent of 228 United Nations police to Burundi to control the continuing violence and to protect human rights in the East African nation.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Vietnam screens displaying flight information at two major airports were hacked to contain distorted information about the South China Sea and insult Vietnam and the Philippines.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Connecticut nine members of a Puerto Rican military unit that served in several wars were honored with Congressional Gold Medals. The segregated military unit, known as the Borinqueneers, fought in World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Maryland heavy rains caused waist-deep flooding in Ellicott City, a suburb of Baltimore, damaging homes and businesses and pushing cars through the streets and leaving 2 people dead. 6 inches of rain fell in Ellicott City within two to three hours.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 30, In New Jersey Franklin Osgood (61), a former police officer in Providence, R.I., shot and killed himself following a highway chase with state authorities. His wife, Mary Jo Osgood, was found dead in the vehicle’s trunk.
(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 30, In central Texas 16 people were killed when a hot air balloon crashed in a fiery blaze on a rural field outside the town of Lockhart, one of the deadliest such accidents in history.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Washington state 3 people were killed and another injured at a suburban Seattle home when a gunman attacked a gathering of young adults from Kamiak High school. A suspect (19) was soon arrested.
(SSFC, 7/31/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 30, In Angola clashes with the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) broke out near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the next two days 2 rebels and 17 Angolan soldiers were killed in two incidents in the oil-producing province of Cabinda.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Armenia one of the gunmen locked in a protracted siege with police in Yerevan shot an officer dead, hours after authorities issued an ultimatum to resolve the hostage drama.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Belgium charged Nourredine H., with planning to commit murder in a terrorist attack and released his brother, Hamza H., after a series of house searches the previous evening.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Burundi more than 1,000 people participated in a government-backed demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest France's proposal passed by UN Security Council to deploy UN police to the country.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Doctors in Honduras said six women have delivered babies with the birth defect microcephaly in just three days, raising fresh concerns about the spread of the Zika virus. Honduras has detected 27,869 cases of Zika this year.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, India's army said that two rebels and two soldiers were killed in an overnight gunbattle close to the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, as a curfew continued to be enforced in parts of Indian-held Kashmir.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Indian authorities tried to rescue thousands of people stranded in flooded villages after a week of heavy rain killed at least 52 people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes in the states of Assam in the remote northeast and Bihar in the east.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In India 32 people were killed by lightning in the eastern state of Odisha.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Mexico the Guerrero state public safety agency said 7 members of a family, including two minors, were shot dead in the municipality of Tepecoacuilco de Trujano. Michoacan state prosecutors' office said 9 burned bodies were found inside an SUV in the municipality of Cuitzeo in an area with pipelines run by state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Pakistan arrested at least 12 staff of its national carrier following the discovery of 6 kg (13.23 lb) of heroin in the toilet of an aircraft bound for Dubai.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 30, In southern Pakistan a roadside bomb has exploded near a vehicle carrying paramilitary rangers, killing a security official and wounding three officers and five civilians. A spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In northwest Pakistan flash floods triggered by monsoon rains swept away a bus carrying a wedding party, killing people 27 people in the Landi Kotal tribal region.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 30, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called off a weeklong cease-fire after communist guerrillas killed a government militiaman and failed to declare their own truce by a Saturday deadline he had imposed.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Russia's intelligence service said that the computer networks of 20 organizations, including state agencies and defense companies, have been infected with spyware in what it described as a targeted and coordinated attack. The agency did not say who it suspected of being behind the attacks.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a conciliatory tone on a visit to Slovenia, shaking hands and honoring dead soldiers as he tested Western resolve in maintaining crippling sanctions against the Kremlin for its role in Ukraine.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Scotland around 3,000 people rallied in Glasgow demanding a second referendum on Scottish independence in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Spanish police said they have arrested three members of a criminal group engaged in human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of foreign transsexuals and transvestites.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Sweden some 45 thousand people, including the prime minister, participated in Stockholm's annual gay pride parade, walking along streets sprinkled with balloons and rainbow flags.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Syria dozens of civilians left the besieged and battered opposition-held east of Aleppo city through a "humanitarian corridor" to the government-held west. Russia's defence ministry announced that four additional "humanitarian corridors" will be opened from Aleppo, adding that 169 civilians have been able to get out so far.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, A senior Turkish official said the country’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) intercepted encrypted messages sent by followers of US-based Fethullah Gulen well before the July 15 coup attempt, giving Ankara names of tens of thousands within the preacher's network.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Turkey 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed in Hakkari province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Yemen's government delegation quit talks in Kuwait with Shiite Houthi rebels, having agreed to resume them earlier this month.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Yemen warplanes of a Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi fighters seeking to infiltrate Saudi Arabia, killing tens of Houthi militiamen. 7 Saudi troops and dozens of Houthi fighters were killed in the heavy fighting.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In western Nebraska 5 people died in a fiery car crash the forced the closure of I-80 for several hours.
(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 31, In Austin, Texas, Teqnika Moultrie (30) was killed and three other women were rushed to a local hospital with gunshot wounds. The shooter was still at large. A second, separate shooting incident in the area took place just minutes later. On August 3 Endicott McCray (24) was arrested outside Atlanta and charged with the murder of Moultrie. Police said McCray had been trying to settle a score with his brother-in-law.
(AFP, 7/31/16)(SFC, 8/5/16, p.D7)
2016 Jul 31, An Afghan official said Taliban attacks on the Kanashin district of Helmand province have killed at least 24 police officers over the past two days. In northern Jawzjan province, an official described "tough fighting" after hundreds of insurgent fighters attacked the Qush Tepa district with 4 Afghan security forces personnel killed.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Armenia two more gunmen barricaded inside a police compound in Armenia's capital surrendered and one more was shot and wounded by security forces who are trying to end the two-week standoff. Twenty remaining gunmen also surrendered after security forces used armored vehicles to enter the compound.
(AP, 7/31/16)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 31, Bangladesh disaster management officials in Dhaka said lightning has killed 15 people over the the past two days.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, British PM Theresa May set out a drive to tackle modern slavery, pledging more funding and a new cross-government taskforce to help stamp out what she called a "barbaric evil". She made the pledge as a review into the 2015 Modern Slavery Act.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In the Dominican Republic a storm knocked down power lines near the town of Nagua and started a fire that killed 6 passengers on a bus.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 31, In Germany thousands of demonstrators from the Turkish community turned out in Cologne to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin. Germany is home to around 3 million people of Turkish origin. A regional court ruled, however, that no messages from speakers elsewhere, such as politicians in Turkey, could be shown on a video screen at the rally.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 31, In India at least 9 people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed in heavy rains in a Mumbai suburb.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, India's foreign minister said the government is providing food aid to thousands of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who are not able to buy food after losing their jobs in the kingdom.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Iraq's Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said that Islamic State group leaders and their families have sold their belongings and fled Mosul as Iraqi forces close in on the northern city.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In northern Iraq militants attacked a gas facility and oil field in Dibbis killing 5 people. 3 attackers were killed but firefighters were still trying to extinguish a fire.
(AP, 7/31/16)(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Israel's cabinet approved legislation aimed at loosening the grip of the country's three largest banks on the credit supply market, despite opposition by the IMF and a risk that the reform could flood the economy with excess credit.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Japan veteran politician Yuriko Koike (64), fluent in English and Arabic, was elected as Tokyo's first woman governor.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In western Libya the mayor of Sabratha said more than 120 bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe have washed up around his town this month.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Palestinian Rami Awartani (31), armed with a knife, charged at Israeli soldiers on the outskirts of of Nablus in the occupied West Bank and was shot dead.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Poland Pope Francis encouraged hundreds of thousands of young people at the end of World Youth Day to "believe in a new humanity" that is stronger than evil and refuses to see borders as barriers.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Somalia 6 people were killed in a gun and car-bomb assault on a police building in the center of Mogadishu. 7 assailants were also left dead.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In southern Syria a government airstrike on a hospital in opposition-controlled Jasem put the facility out of service. It was targeted in one of several airstrikes to hit the town in Deraa province. 6 people were reported killed in the strikes.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, The Islamic State called on its group members to carry out jihad in Russia in a nine-minute YouTube video.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree that introduced sweeping changes to the military. The government also dismissed 1,389 military personnel, including a top aide to Erdogan, for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Gulen.
(AFP, 7/31/16)(Reuters, 8/1/16)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 31, In Turkey 4 government soldiers were killed in two separate clashes with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31 , Yemen's internationally-recognized government agreed to extend peace talks with Shiite rebels for another week, reversing an earlier decision to quit the negotiations hosted by Kuwait.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul, Joohoon Lee, a US federal Homeland Security agent in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to soliciting and receiving bribes of about $13,000 along with other gifts in return for making “the immigration issue go away" in the 2012 case of a Korean businessman accused of sex trafficking. In December it was reported that a review by the New York Times showed that over the last ten years almost 200 employees of Homeland Security had taken nearly $15 million in bribes while being paid to protect the nation’s borders.
(SFC, 12/29/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul, In San Francisco the new 409-unit, 32-story Solaire apartment tower opened at 299 Fremont St.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A14)
2016 Jul, Iowa settled lawsuits relating to incidents that occurred between 2013 and 2015 in which white police officers roughed up three black residents in Waterloo.
(SFC, 8/12/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul, Britain convicted radical cleric Anjem Choudary of inviting others to support the Islamic State. He faced up to a decade behind bars.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.47)
2016 Jul, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (15), who was allergic to sesame seeds, collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice after eating a baguette from the British sandwich chain Pret A Manger.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2016 Jul, Du Daozheng (93), publisher of the Chinese liberal Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine, said the government has suspended the 25-year-old journal. It had specialized in historical critique and was taken over by hardliners. Its feisty staff resigned.
(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A4)(Econ, 10/29/16, p.37)
2016 Jul, Egypt’s government carried some 7 million employees. By comparison Britain with 80% of Egypt’s population had under 500,000 employees.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.40)
2016 Jul, French telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel opened a coding school in Fremont, Ca., with free tuition and free housing. It was named 42 USA, an offshoot of a similar school in Paris that opened three years ago.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul, Germany’s BMW, Israeli supplier Mobileye and US-based Intel said they were joining forces to build a self-driving car.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.63)
2016 Jul, In Kenya one hundred kilos of cocaine, said to be worth around $6 million, were seized from a shipping container owned by sugar trader Jack Marrian in the port of Mombasa. Marrian's colleague Roy Mwanthi was also charged. On March 14, 2019, Kenya’s High Court acquitted the British aristocrat. The case against Mwanthi was also dropped.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2016 Jul, Moody’s downgraded Mozambique saying it was very near to defaulting on its government bonds.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.38)
2016 Jul, In Pakistan leading MQM politician Waseem Akhtar was arrested for numerous crimes including instigating riots in 2007. In August the city council of Karachi elected him mayor.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.27)
2016 Jul, Russian police in Samara detained American pastor Jim Mulcahy (72), claiming he was planning to perform a same-sex marriage. Hours later, the American pastor was fined $30 and ordered to leave Russia within five days.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul, In Spain Alejandro Cao de Benos opened the Pyongyang Café in Tarragona, a small bar founded to support Kim Jong-Un's strongman rule.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Jul, In Tonga Patricia Linne Kearney was found beaten to death. Her husband US citizen Dean Jay Fletcher, accused of the murder, escaped from jail and made his way to American Samoa where he was arrested and sent to Honolulu.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Jul, Turkey closed 131 media outlets late this month linked to the Gulen community (cemaat).
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 1, The US launched multiple air strikes against Islamic State militants in Libya.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A3)
2016 Aug 1, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee signed a $9.6 billion city budget for fiscal 2016-2017.
(http://tinyurl.com/zuds34j)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.C1)
2016 Aug 1, It was reported that the 58-story, $350 million Millenium Tower at 301 Mission St. in San Francisco, completed in 2008, has sunk 16 inches and tilted two inches to the northwest. Owners alleged that the massive hole dug next door for the Transbay Transit Center was to blame.
(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A1)
2016 Aug 1, A new law came into effect for freshmen students at the Univ. of Minnesota requiring them to be given training on campus sexual assaults within the first ten days of the school year.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.30)
2016 Aug 1, In Afghanistan a group of militants, including a suicide truck bomber, targeted a Kabul guesthouse for foreign contractors early today, killing one policeman and wounding four.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Bangladesh more than 100,000 students linked their hands to form human chains to protest two attacks last month by suspected Islamist militants.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, British drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline announced that it will form a joint venture with Google's parent company Alphabet to research and develop so-called bioelectronic medicines.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, China released Wang Yu, a prominent human rights lawyer arrested in July 2015, on bail amid protests outside a northern city court, where supporters of other jailed lawyers and activists condemned the secrecy surrounding the government's yearlong campaign against legal activism. Her release coincided with videos of an alleged confession by Wang posted on the websites of two Hong Kong media outlets in which she renounced her legal work.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Uber Technology Ltd. and its main Chinese competitor said they are combining their ride-hailing operations in China, ending a costly battle to attract riders. Didi Chuxing said it would acquire Uber China and operate it as a separate brand. Uber in exchange will receive a 17.7% percent stake in Didi.
(AP, 8/1/16)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.49)
2016 Aug 1, In Greece a large blaze in its third day threatened the small seaside town of Limni. A hotel was destroyed, along with a holiday home, a restaurant, and a couple of outhouses on the island of Evia.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, India's government said it plans to evacuate thousands of Indian workers who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia and cannot afford to pay for a flight home. The workers were mostly employed by Saudi construction companies and were laid off amid a slowdown in the industry caused by low global oil prices.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, An Indian bank issued the first ever offshore rupee-denominated bond in London, a landmark celebrated by officials keen to highlight Britain's international business prowess despite Brexit.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In India man walked into the house of a girl (17) in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu state, set himself on fire and hugged her, all the while saying that he would not let her live for spurning him. He had stalked her for over a year and she had said no repeatedly. The girl died three days later.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 1, Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged citizens to take part in the country's new tax amnesty and pledged his government will "go all out" to keep the law behind it from potentially getting blocked in court.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, A Malaysian security law that gives embattled pm Najib Razak sweeping emergency powers came into force, with Amnesty International warning the National Security Council Act could be used to trample on human rights.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Nigeria 5 Islamists were killed as troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicenter of the seven-year insurgency.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 1, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday his government would pursue peace talks with communist guerrillas despite an initial setback when he withdrew a ceasefire order after the rebels killed a militiaman in an attack.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Saudi Arabia four family members were reported killed by a cross-border missile from Yemen that struck their home in the southern region of Jizan.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In northern Syria a Russian transport helicopter was shot down in opposition rebel territory. All five crew and officers onboard were killed.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Taiwan's Pres. Tsai Ing-wen apologized on behalf of the government to the island's aboriginal peoples for 400 years of conquest and colonization, saying the facing of difficult historical facts was necessary for society to move forward.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Turkish special forces captured overnight eleven rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during the failed July 15 coup.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Venezuelan electoral authorities certified that opponents of President Nicolas Maduro had gathered enough signatures to permit them to conduct a second petition drive aimed at removing the socialist leader from office.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, President Barack Obama and Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong held a formal meeting in the Oval Office with US-Asia relations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal involving both Singapore and the United States on the agenda.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In central California a chartered bus hit a pole of an overhead sign on Highway 99, splitting the coach partway down the middle. Four people were killed. In 2017 driver Mario David Vasquez (58) was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
(SFC, 8/3/16, p.D2)(SFC, 8/2/17, p.A10)
2016 Aug 2, In southern California Egypt-born chemist Ahmed Zewail (70), a science adviser to President Obama, died. He won the 1999 Nobel Prize for his work on the study of chemical reactions over immensely short time scales. On August 7 Zewail was given a state funeral with military honors in Cairo.
(AP, 8/3/16)(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 2, Delaware's Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional, finding it in violation of the Sixth Amendment role of the jury.
(CSM, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, David Huddleston (b.1930), American character actor, died in New Mexico of advanced heart and kidney disease. His films included included “Blazing Saddles" (1974) and “The Big Lebowski" (1998). His stage work include playing Benjamin Franklin in the Broadway production “1776" (1977).
(SFC, 8/6/16, p.C3)
2016 Aug 2, In NYC Karina Vetrano (30) was strangled to death while jogging. Her body was found five hours later in a marshy park in her Queens neighborhood. Officials hoped to use familial DNA to find her killer. On Feb 4, 2017, Chanel Lewis (20) was taken into custody after DNA evidence linked him to the murder. Lewis' trial on Nov. 20, 2018, ended in a hung jury. On April 1, 2019, Lewis was convicted of murder and sexual abuse.
(http://tinyurl.com/jogkppa)(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A11)(SSFC, 2/5/17, p.A4)(SFC, 11/22/18, p.A8)(SFC, 4/3/19, p.A7)
2016 Aug 2, A new report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the 2015 State of the Climate, showed record heat absorption by the oceans and the lowest groundwater storage levels globally.
(SFC, 8/3/16, p.A7)
2016 Aug 2, Australia's central bank dropped interest rates to a new record low of 1.5% after a recent run of soft inflation readings.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Brazil's federal police said they had arrested two people and raided properties over alleged corruption at building firm Queiroz Galvao, widening a sweeping investigation (Operation Carwash) focused on state-run oil company Petrobras.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In Brazil Olympics chief Thomas Bach called for a complete overhaul of the anti-doping system after revelations of state-backed cheating by Russia rocked preparations for the Rio Games.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, A British court ruled that the state-funded health service (NHS) is responsible for paying for an HIV-prevention drug that has been called a "game changer" in the fight against AIDS. The health service said it would appeal.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Burundi said it would refuse to allow United Nations police onto its territory to monitor the security and human rights situation after the UN Security Council voted to send 228 officers.
(Reuters, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, China's Supreme Court said people caught illegally fishing in Chinese waters could be jailed for up to a year, issuing a judicial interpretation defining those waters as including China's exclusive economic zones.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, China sentenced prominent activist Zhai Yanmin (55) to three years in jail with a four year reprieve for subverting the state, in a case linked to a crackdown on human rights lawyers.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, The German state of Bavaria said it would sue Volkswagen for damages caused by its emissions-test cheating scandal, the first regional government in VW's home country to take legal action against the carmaker.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, German authorities arrested a Tunisian man (36) suspected of killing two other Tunisian nationals whose remains were found in a Leipzig lake.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, Indian officials said the death toll in flooding from heavy monsoon rains has climbed to 96, with about a million people taking shelter in government-run relief camps. A century-old bridge over the Savitri River between Mumbai and Goa collapsed killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/2/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.75)
2016 Aug 2, Iran hanged 20 "terrorist" Sunni prisoners, in one of the Islamic republic's biggest mass executions in recent years. A statement detailed 24 armed attacks between 2009 and 2011, including bombings and robberies, allegedly committed by the Kurdish militants.
(AFP, 8/4/16)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Aug 2, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi imposed a travel ban on several parliamentary officials accused of corruption, but parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi rejected the order saying this could only be ordered by the judiciary and calling for everyone to respect both it and the constitution.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Israeli lawmakers approved jailing children as young as 12 convicted of "terrorist offences" in the wake of repeated attacks by young Palestinians.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, Italian financial police arrested the former CEO of Veneto Banca and seized millions in cash, shares and property as part of a wide-ranging investigation.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Japan's Cabinet approved a fresh economic stimulus package worth more than 28 trillion yen ($275 billion), PM Shinzo Abe's latest effort to get the stalling recovery back on track.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Forces loyal to Libya's unity government said they were advancing inside the jihadist stronghold of Sirte, following the first US air strikes on Islamic State group positions in the city.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Mexico’s Michoacan state Gov. Silvano Aureoles said a mayor and four local police officers have been arrested in connection with the murder of 10 people who were killed and burned over the weekend. The motive appeared to be related to a rivalry over street-level drug sales.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, The New Zealand government agreed to pay more than half a million dollars to David Bain (44), who spent 12 years in jail after he was convicted in 1995 of killing five members of his own family in 1994, but was later found not guilty at a retrial.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court ordered Australia to present a resettlement plan for nearly 900 asylum seekers held in what it says is an illegal detention center on Manus island. Detainees feared the move will further delay their release.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In Russia the Yamal regional governor's office said a child has died of anthrax in Siberia in the first fatal outbreak of the bacterial disease reported in Russia in 75 years. More than 2,300 reindeer have also died in the outbreak in the region.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, South Korea fined Volkswagen 17.8 billion won ($16 million) and suspended sales of 80 VW models, alleging the German carmaker fabricated documents on emissions or noise level tests.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir fired five ministers, in a move that removed figures known for close ties to ex-rebel leader Riek Machar. A presidential decree showed that cabinet posts including the interior and petroleum portfolios in the oil-rich state had been filled with allies of the new vice president, Taban Deng Gai.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter was shot down hours earlier. Russia launched heavy air strikes overnight on the outskirts of divided Aleppo city, slowing a "last-chance" assault by rebels seeking to break a government siege.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said the country’s intelligence apparatus will be restructured following a failed military coup last month because it was under the control of the US-based cleric blamed for staging the putsch.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In Ukraine Nadiya Savchenko, the servicewoman-turned-lawmaker who spent two years in a Russian jail, announced a new hunger strike to speed up the release of other Ukrainian prisoners-of-war, accusing Pres. Poroshenko of ignoring their plight.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, UN agencies said tens of thousands of people have fled a fresh outbreak of violence in South Sudan, reporting mass killings, looting and forced recruitment of child soldiers. At least 9 people were reported killed over the weekend in the latest clashes on a road in Central Equatoria state, the region that includes the capital Juba.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Pope Francis appointed a commission to study the issue of female Church deacons in a move seen as a potential first step towards women entering the Catholic clergy.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named Gen. Nestor Reverol as interior minister. A day earlier US prosecutors announced the indictment of Nestor Reverol, who once led Venezuela's anti-drug agency and National Guard, on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Obama administration cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, almost all of whom were serving time for nonviolent crimes.
(SFC, 8/4/16, p.A5)
2016 Aug 3, The United States and Japan called for the urgent talks after North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that for the first time landed in Japanese-controlled waters.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Pentagon said it will not pay Pakistan $300 million in military reimbursements because it was taking adequate action against the Haqqani network.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, In New Jersey the 26-year-old Trump Taj Majal in Atlantic City said it will close after Labor Day eliminating some 3,000 jobs. Current owner Carl Icahn said he could no longer support the casino which was losing millions each month.
(SFC, 8/4/16, p.A5)
2016 Aug 3, Armenia's top investigative body said that 23 people are now in custody on suspicion of organizing riots in Yerevan, during a two-week armed standoff.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, In London Zakaria Bulhan (19), a Norwegian man of Somali origin, stabbed and killed retired US teacher Darlene Horton (64). He stabbed five others before he was immobilized and arrested by police. Bulhan was suspected to have mental health issues. On Feb 6, 2016, Bulhan pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and guilty to five counts of wounding. On Feb 7, 2016, he was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at a mental hospital.
(AFP, 8/4/16)(AFP, 8/6/16)(AP, 2/6/17)(AP, 2/7/17)
2016 Aug 3, China's state media reported that the Jade Rabbit lunar rover, which won a large following on social media, has been retired after a record 31 months of collecting data from the moon's surface. China’s rover arrived on the moon on Dec. 14, 2013, aboard the Chang'e 3 lunar lander and was designed to operate for just three months.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, China hosted a meeting with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The four countries agreed to set up an anti-terrorism alliance, as China seeks to boost coordination with neighbors to tackle what it says is a growing domestic militant threat.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, Germany-based Volkswagen said it will roll out particulate filters in its petrol engined cars between 2017 and 2022, a step which reduces the pollution from particulate matter by up to 90 percent.
(Reuters, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The digital bitcoin currency plunged after Hong Kong-based Bitfinex said it had been hacked. 119,756 Bitcoins, valued at $72 million, were reported stolen.
(SFC, 8/4/16, p.C3)
2016 Aug 3, In Indian-controlled Kashmir tens of thousands of people rallied to protest the overnight killings of two civilians by government forces amid a nearly monthlong security lockdown.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Iran state IRNA news agency reported that Hassan Abbasi, the head of the Center for Doctrinal Strategic Studies, a think-tank, has been arrested on charges of "spreading lies" and "creating an atmosphere of skepticism about the armed forces."
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Libyan pro-government forces battled to seize more territory from Islamic State group jihadists in their stronghold Sirte but progress was hindered by mines and snipers.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Nepal's parliament elected Maoist party leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal to lead a coalition government as the country's new prime minister, a move that will likely mean the continuation of political instability in the Himalayan nation.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Nigeria said it has resumed the payment of allowances to former Niger delta rebels under an amnesty scheme, after low global crude prices plunged the oil-rich country into a financial crisis.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Islamic State group's newspaper identified a new leader of the group's West Africa Province, popularly known as Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists, who promises not to attack mosques or markets used by Muslims. The Arabic-language newspaper al-Nabaa identified Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new "Wali," a title previously used to describe long-time leader Abubakar Shekau.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, A Norwegian court sentenced two men to prison for affiliation with the Islamic State group in Syria. Hasan Ahmed was sentenced to six years and Adam Idrisovich Magomadov to 7½.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Philippine police commandos clashed with the armed bodyguards of Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. in the central town of Albuera. 6 guards were killed. Espinosa, linked to illegal drugs, surrendered to national police a day earlier.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, In Russia Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, the only opposition mayor of a major Russian city, was found guilty of soliciting bribes and sentenced to 12½ years in a high-security prison. Urlashov pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that he had been framed by his political rivals.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, South Africans voted in municipal elections described as the most closely contested for the African National Congress since it took power in the first all-race elections in 1994. More than 12 people have been killed ahead of the vote. After three days the ANC led with the most votes overall and said it would still try to form coalitions to govern the municipalities where it lost its majority. Herman Mashaba (57) was elected mayor of Johannesburg.
(AP, 8/3/16)(Reuters, 8/6/16)(Econ, 9/24/16, p.47)
2016 Aug 3, Researchers led by Evangelos Eleftheriou at IBM’s research lab in Zurich announced that they had built a working, artificial version of a neuron.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.64)
2016 Aug 3, Syrian regime forces bolstered by Russian air strikes recaptured territory overnight in the battleground city of Aleppo, rolling back the short-lived gains of a rebel offensive.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi named local affairs minister Youssef Chahed (40) as prime minister-designate tasked with forming a unity cabinet to tackle major economic and security challenges.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Turkish police raided the offices of the national science research council, as authorities widen an investigation into followers of the US-based cleric accused of masterminding last month's coup attempt.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, A Ukrainian nationalist website published an email archive with copies of IDs and personal data of Ukrainian and international journalists.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, In the United Arab Emirates a Boeing crash landed in Dubai. All 300 passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the plane, though one firefighter was killed on the ground as the plane erupted in flames.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, A UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria said the Islamic State group is still committing genocide and other crimes against the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Zimbabwe police fired tear gas and water cannons to break up anti-government protests in the capital, Harare, as frustrations grew over a rapidly deteriorating economy.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 4, In San Francisco a federal court sentenced Raymond “Shrimp Boy" Chow (56) to life in prison for racketeering and murder following an 8-week trial.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A1)
2016 Aug 4, In California Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva was arrested on charges that he supplied alcohol to underage counselors at acity run youth camp and surreptitiously recorded a group of young people playing strip poker in Silva’s bedroom in 2015. Silva denied the charges.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.D1)
2016 Aug 4, New York federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment charging 46 defendants of crimes ranging from extortion to illegal gambling throughout the East Coast.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Aug 4, A Pakistani helicopter crash-landed in Afghanistan in Taliban-held territory in Logar province and all passengers and crew were missing and feared captured by insurgents. The Afghan Taliban released all five Pakistanis and one Russian crew member on August 13.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)(Reuters, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 4, In Argentina pot banging protests took place across the country as higher energy bills landed in consumer post boxes.
(Econ, 8/13/16, p.23)
2016 Aug 4, Hurricane Earl, packing 130 km (80 mile) per hour winds and heavy rain, made landfall in Central America near Belize City, where officials warned of likely flooding and damage to homes. Earl was soon downgraded to a tropical storm.
(AFP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Britain's central bank moved to stem the economic fallout from the vote to leave the European union, approving its first interest rate cut since the global financial crisis as part of a broader stimulus package. The Bank of England cut its key rate to 0.25 percent from a previous record low of 0.5 percent.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, China sentenced Zhou Shifeng, a prominent civil rights lawyer, to seven years in prison on charges of subversion.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 4, The European Union extended its civilian mission in Libya by a year and allocated a $18.92 million budget for the task.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A German federal court said a person with a genetic abnormality who identifies as neither woman nor man can't be entered in Germany's birth register under an alternative label such as "inter" or "diverse." The plaintiff planned to go to Germany's highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Israel's internal security agency said Mohammed el-Halabi, a senior employee of the international aid group World Vision in the Gaza Strip, siphoned off millions of dollars of the charity's funds and transferred them to the Islamic militant group Hamas, assisting it in building tunnels and purchasing arms. El-Halabi was arrested in June as he was crossing from Israel into Gaza.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Italy's anti-corruption authority (ANAC) confirmed that it is investigating Rome's public rubbish management agency as concerns grew that waste problems plaguing the capital could turn critical.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Aid agencies said they have delivered a month's worth of food and supplies this week to more than 75,000 Syrians stuck on Jordan's sealed border, using cranes to lift bags from the Jordanian side over an earthen barrier along the frontier.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Kenyan police charged a British national with trafficking nearly 100 kg (220 pounds) of cocaine that was impounded last week at the country's main seaport. Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian denied the charge in court. A Kenyan, Roy Francis Mwanthi, was charged separately with trafficking the cocaine. It was not clear what happened to a third suspect, also Kenyan.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A court in Kazakhstan ordered the release on parole of opposition activist Vladimir Kozlov, after spending nearly five years in jail accused of participating in a failed attempt to overthrow the government.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Kosovo's government ratified a border demarcation agreement with neighboring Montenegro, despite disapproval from the opposition. The government sent the deal to the Parliament, which was expected to concur.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Montenegro's police arrested Vlado Zmajevic (47) suspected of killing at least six ethnic Albanians, including two women, in a Kosovo village in 1999.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A Pakistani helicopter crash-landed in Afghanistan in Taliban-held territory in Logar province and all passengers and crew were missing and feared captured by insurgents. The Afghan Taliban released all five Pakistanis and one Russian crew member on August 13.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)(Reuters, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 4, In the Philippines top broadcaster, ABS-CBN, reported that 603 people had been killed since Duterte's May election, with 211 murdered by unidentified gunmen.
(AFP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance led in three major cities as votes were counted in local elections, threatening to deal the biggest electoral blow to the African National Congress since the end of apartheid two decades ago.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Tajikistan said it has meted out jail terms to 170 people convicted of complicity in an armed attempt by a deputy defence minister to topple President Imomali Rakhmon last September.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A court in Turkey issued a formal warrant for the arrest of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 coup that left more than 270 people dead.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Uganda's Police raided a night club late today where a Gay Pride event was underway and arrested at least 15 people, accusing them of staging an illegal gathering and promoting homosexuality.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 4, The UN refugee agency said it has received reports that the Islamic State group may have captured up to 3,000 Iraqis who were fleeing violence and that 12 of them may have been killed.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Massachusetts Walter DaSilva of Danbury was arrested in Bridgeport for questioning in connection with the July 3 killing of his daughter (19) outside her home in New Bedford. DaSilva was convicted in 2002 for attempting to murder the teen's mother in Weston.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Angola fresh fighting broke out with rebels in the country's oil-producing Cabinda enclave. Over the next 24 hours the death toll rose to nearly 40 since a flare-up in the conflict began early this month.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 5, Australia said it was suspending funding for relief group World Vision's operations in the Palestinian Territories after allegations its Gaza representative funneled millions of dollars to the Islamist militant group Hamas.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Brazilian police arrested Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada (22) for allegedly sexually assaulting two female cleaners on August 3 in Rio’s Olympic Village.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Rio de Janeiro hosted a glittering Olympics opening ceremony party, hoping to draw a line under a turbulent seven-year build-up dogged by recession, drugs scandals, crime and infrastructure stumbles. Security was tight after protests by thousands of Brazilians angry at political upheaval, corruption and the cost of the Games.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, British activists linked to the US-based group Black Lives Matter blocked a road leading to London's Heathrow Airport and held protests in other British cities. Officers arrested 10 people.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Cambodian customs seized more than 600 kg of illegal ivory in a container packed with corn that had languished unclaimed at a port for two years after being shipped from Africa.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Denmark's armed forces said Danish F-16 aircraft have for the first time dropped bombs in Syria's Raqqa province. Defense Command Denmark said the raid was conducted in the past week.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Egypt's former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, once one of the country's top religious authorities, survived an assassination attempt. Gomaa is an adherent of a mystical school of Islam known as Sufism and an outspoken critic of Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Hong Kong over 2,000 people gathered in support of candidates disqualified by the electoral commission.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.32)
2016 Aug 5, In northeastern India 5-6 gunmen opened fire on a busy market in Balajan, Assam state, killing 12 people and wounding several others. Authorities blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). One of the gunmen was killed.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Indonesian police arrested six suspected militants who they believed to be linked to the Islamic State group and plotting a rocket attack on Singapore. The six arrested were suspected of having links to Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with Islamic State in Syria.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a curfew to most of the disputed Himalayan region in an attempt to prevent an anti-India protest march to a prominent shrine. Clashes erupted with 2 men killed and at least 100 civilians injured.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Iraq officers and local officials said the Islamic State group has killed several residents attempting to flee Hawijah, as Iraqi forces prepared for an operation against the jihadist-held area.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi sold the AC Milan soccer club to a Chinese consortium, after 31 years in charge. The deal valued Milan at 740 million euros ($820 million) and required the investors, led by businessman Yonghong Li, to spend 350 million euros ($372 million) over three years on improvements. The buying consortium struggled to put all the financing in place for its purchase.
(AP, 4/13/17)(http://tinyurl.com/ycokx8n8)
2016 Aug 5, Moldova's Foreign Ministry and its Defense Ministry criticized recent Russian military exercises (July 27-August 3) held in the Trans-Dniester separatist region, saying they undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Morocco a four-storey building in the Sbata district of Casablanca collapsed this evening. It had a cafe on the ground floor that had been teeming with customers and a doctor's clinic which was also full. At least 2 people were killed and one remained missing.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 5, Myanmar health officials confirmed that a measles outbreak is behind the deaths of more than 30 people, mostly children, in the northern Sagaing region.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, The Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement that 80 prisoners stopped eating today, joining 325 who have been fasting for the past two days at various prisons in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Russia petition calling on Pres. Putinto sack PM Dmitry Medvedev, whose comments about teachers' pay sparked outrage earlier this week, attracted more than 160,000 signatures. Medvedev was asked by a teacher from the Dagestan region why teachers are paid half as much as police officers. He said that teaching is not a job for those seeking to make a fortune and that teachers could always do odd jobs to supplement their income.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels announced that the coalition has committed eight "unintended bombings" and blamed UN agencies for not coordinating with the coalition, causing civilian casualties.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In South Africa with more than 95 percent of votes counted in municipal elections, the ruling party ANC appeared to be headed for its biggest electoral blow since it won power at the end of apartheid 22 years ago. The party so far has received 54 percent of votes across the country, its lowest percentage ever, with the Democratic Alliance getting 26 percent. The opposition DA won the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay municipality with 47 percent of the vote compared with 41 percent for the ANC.
(AP, 8/5/16)(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Police in Spain arrested five alleged members of the Pink Panther gang of jewel thieves as they tried to flee following a robbery in Barcelona. According to Interpol the gang has stolen $370 million in jewels in 380 armed robberies between 1999 and 2015.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Aug 5, In Syria at least 10 people, including seven children, were killed in air strikes on the rebel-held Marjeh district east of Aleppo.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Turkey's ruling AK Party ordered a internal purge of members with links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric whom the government holds responsible for last month's failed coup. Industry Minister Faruk Ozlu said 167 staff from the Scientific and Technological Industry Minister have been dismissed.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Uruguay defense minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro (74), one of the founders of the Tupamaro rebels, died.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 6, In San Francisco Calvin Riley (20), a graduate of Serra High in San Mateo, was shot in the chest and soon died while playing Pokemon Go at Aquatic Park. In 2017 a reward of $110,000 was offered for information leading to the killer’s capture.
(SFC, 7/11/17, p.C4)
2016 Aug 6, A federal judge in Miami denied bail to Philip Esformes (47), a businessman accused of orchestrating a $1 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme while running assisted living centers in southern Florida.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A8)
2016 Aug 6, Dixieland jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain (86) died in New Orleans.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.C3)
2016 Aug 6, In Belgium a machete-wielding man left two female police officers seriously injured in Charleroi. The assailant was shot by a third officer and soon died of his wounds. Belgian prosecutors identified the assailant as a 33-year-old Algerian, K.B., who had lived in Belgium since 2012. The Islamic State soon claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A7)
2016 Aug 6, Ivo Pitanguy (90), a plastic surgeon whose skill drew celebrities to his operating table from around the world and made him a cultural icon in beauty-obsessed Brazil, died one day after passing the Olympic torch for the Rio Games.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 6, In northern France a fire sparked by birthday cake candles tore through the Au Cuba Libre bar in Rouen, killing at least 13 people.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Japan issued a new protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In Macedonia at least 21 people died in flash floods and violent winds in Skopje during a freak evening storm.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 6, In Malaysia Ahmad Syukri Yusuf (22), charged last year with raping a 14-year-old girl, faced a retrial after he avoided prison in July by marrying her. The case has sparked anger from rights groups and calls for a ban on child marriage and justice for victims of sexual violence.
(AP, 8/3/16)(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In Mexico 6 people died in landslides in the eastern state of Veracruz as what had been Tropical Storm Earl dumped heavy rains on the region. The death toll from Earl soon rose to 40.
(AP, 8/6/16)(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 6, Nigeria said 11 troops have been killed in clashes with gunrunners and bandits in the violence-wracked north central region. Soldiers and airmen, came under attack from gunmen during operations to confiscate illegal weapons from the villages of Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw in Niger State.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett, an American citizen, from an Islamabad guest house. Barrett was deported and blacklisted in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation.
(AP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, More than 300 Palestinian prisoners halted a hunger strike after Israel prison authorities agreed to end "humiliating" body searches and return recently transferred prisoners.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, The Philippines said it would within days send government missions to Saudi Arabia to help thousands of jobless Filipinos left stranded across the kingdom after the plunge in oil prices.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Somali Islamist group al Shabaab shelled residential areas in the town of Baidoa, west of the capital Mogadishu, hitting a hospital.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In northern Syria the former Al-Nusra Front, renamed the Fateh al-Sham Front after breaking from Al-Qaeda, announced that rebels have broken a devastating government siege of Aleppo after a week of fierce fighting. Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Arab and Kurd fighters, took control of Manbij from IS militants.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In eastern Ukraine Igor Plotnitsky, separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, was wounded in a car bombing.
(AP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Yemen's two dominant political movements announced a 10-member governing council, pushing ahead with plans to run the country as UN-sponsored talks to end a 16-month-old war drew to a close without a deal.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Kansas Caleb Schwab (10), the son of state Rep. Scott Schwab, was decapitated as he rode a 168-foot-tall water slide at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City. In 2018 the water park co-owner Jeff Henry was arrested. The slide's designer, John Schooley was also arrested.
(SFC, 8/11/16, p.A6)(SFC, 4/5/18, p.A5)
2016 Aug 7, The body of Vanessa Marcotte (27) of NYC was found in some woods in Princeton, Mass. She had been out for a run while visiting her mother. In 2017 DNA evidence from her hands identified Angelo Colon-Ortiz (31) of nearby Worcester as the suspect in her murder.
(SFC, 4/16/17, p.A7)
2016 Aug 7, Gen. Abdul Raziq, a senior Afghan police official regarded as one of the country's most powerful men, said he has banned the use of the Pakistani currency in the key southern province of Kandahar. Raziq said the currency ban is in retaliation against Pakistan's protection of the Taliban.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Afghanistan five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms abducted an American and an Australian in Kabul.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Ethiopia about 50 people were killed in clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators as protests swept the vast Oromia region and Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Iran said it has executed Shahram Amiri (39), a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "confidential and vital" information to the United States. Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States. He returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In central Mali fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region and continued into the next day. Five soldiers were missing after the clashes with militants, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Pakistan a suicide bomber carried out the attack at the government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 53 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs, ordering them to surrender for investigation.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Voters in the tiny west African archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls to elect a new president, but only one candidate stood in a runoff the incumbent boycotted as fraudulent. Some 111,000 voters had originally been due to choose between Evaristo Carvalho, who won 49.8 percent in the first round, and President Manuel Pinto da Costa, who took 24.83 percent.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Syria rebels breached the government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, marking a major military breakthrough that prompted an intense airstrike campaign.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Thai voters overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed, rather than elected, officials.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Turkey hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Ukraine’s military said 3 soldiers have been killed and four others injured over the last 24 hours in fresh clashes between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the war-scarred east.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Yemen a Saudi-led coalition air strike killed 9 civilians outside Sanaa this evening, as forces loyal to the exiled government stepped up an offensive in the area.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Delta canceled more than 700 flights and had 2,600 others delayed, some for hours, after a power outage at its Atlanta headquarters caused many computer systems to crash. The company later blamed a malfunctioning power-control system at its data center.
(AP, 8/9/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.46)
2016 Aug 8, Walmart announced that it would acquire Jet.com, a shopping website, for $3.3 billion.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet.com)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.47)
2016 Aug 8, In London and southern England rail staff began a five-day strike in a safety row over who opens and closes the doors impacting hundreds of thousands of train commuters.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In eastern China residents of in Lianyungang protested for a third day against possible plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing center, as police banned public gatherings in hopes of preventing more demonstrations.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Congo DRC armed groups killed 14 people in a string of overnight attacks in the strife-torn North Kivu province, an area long shaken by ethnic violence.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Amnesty Int’l. said Ethiopian security forces shot dead at least 67 people in the Oromia region over the weekend. An opposition politician said more than 70 people were killed across Oromia with hundreds detained during protests.
(SFC, 8/9/16, p.A3)
2016 Aug 8, In Indian-controlled Kashmir police said government forces have arrested more than a thousand protesters over the past two weeks in an attempt to stem deadly anti-India demonstrations in the Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Iran detained Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-American history researcher. In 2017 he sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of "infiltrating" and sending confidential material abroad.
(AP, 7/17/17)(AP, 8/8/19)
2016 Aug 8, Japan's emperor expressed concern about fulfilling his duties as he ages, in a public address that was remarkable for its rarity and its suggestion that he would like to abdicate.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Nepal a helicopter crashed in a mountainous region, killing all seven people on board.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Nigeria gunmen dressed as priests killed three soldiers in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Pakistan a suicide bombing that targeted lawyers killed at least 74 people in the city of Quetta.
(AP, 8/9/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 8, Portugal’s National Civil Protection Authority said that 3,000 firefighters, 1,060 vehicles and 16 water-dumping aircraft are deployed at 515 wildfires, some of which have been burning for days.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Taiwan lodged a complaint with Kenya over the deportation of five of its nationals to China after a court acquitted them of charges of running illegal telecoms operations. A Kenyan magistrate's court acquitted the five Taiwanese nationals and 35 Chinese citizens on Aug 5 after the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Uganda's government said it "will continue to suppress" the public activities of homosexuals and that a rehabilitation program had been developed to allow them to "lead normal lives again."
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 9, The United States said it delivered $50 million worth of military assistance to Lebanon's army to help it battle against Muslim extremists near the border with Syria.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Ernst Neizvestny (91), Russian-American sculptor, artist, philosopher and defier of the Soviet regime, died in New York.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.78)
2016 Aug 9, In northern Afghanistan a bomb in a crowded in the main market of Mazar-i-Sharif killed at least two people and wounded 15.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Britain defended its decision to review a planned $24 billion nuclear power project at Hinkley Point after criticism from China which planned to help fund the deal.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.9)
2016 Aug 9, A British man who killed a fellow Muslim because he felt he had disrespected Islam has been sentenced to at least 27 years in prison. Tanveer Ahmed admitted to stabbing and beating shopkeeper Asad Shah to death at his Glasgow convenience store in March.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, France said it has agreed to sell 30 Caracal military helicopters to Kuwait as part of the countries' strategic partnership. The deal was said to be worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Iran said it would auction off property owned by billionaire Babak Zanjani (41), who was sentenced to death for corruption earlier this year. He was accused of fraudulently pocketing $2.8 billion.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Israel demolished five homes in the occupied West Bank, leaving 27 Palestinians homeless, more than half of them children. The structures had been built with EU aid after houses in the village, on the southern tip of the West Bank, were demolished at least eight times.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, In Kosovo an opposition lawmaker used tear gas to disrupt the work of a parliamentary commission on a border demarcation agreement with neighboring Montenegro. The protest was seen on live television.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, The Maldives' parliament passed a law that criminalizes defamation and allows for jail terms and steep fines for journalists, despite local and international concern that it will be a setback for freedom of speech in the country.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, A Philippine historical commission, former human rights victims and left-wing groups opposed President Rodrigo Duterte's approval of a plan to bury late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes' cemetery, reigniting a politically divisive and emotional debate.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Polish media reported that authorities have arrested an 80-year-old woman, identified only as Janina M., who allegedly drugged and then robbed a string of senior citizen suitors she met through newspaper lonely hearts adverts.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, South Sudan said it requested $1.9 billion from the Chinese government to develop oil fields and infrastructure projects.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held their first meeting since the two leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, The United Nations warned that up to two million people in Syria's Aleppo have gone without running water for the past four days.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, In Yemen Saudi-led coalition warplanes resumed air strikes on the capital for the first time in more than three months, shutting down the Sanaa airport. A Saudi-led airstrike killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in Sanaa.
(AFP, 8/9/16)(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 10, Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top US commander for the fight against IS, said military campaigns in Iraq and Syria have taken 45,000 enemy combatants off the battlefield and reduced the total number of Islamic State fighters to as few as 15,000.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, General John Nicholson, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan said Afghan forces, backed by the United States, have killed an estimated 300 Islamic State fighters in an operation in Nangarhar province mounted two weeks ago.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Addressing supporters in Fort Lauderdale Republican candidate Donald Trump roiled the US presidential campaign once again, with the jaw-dropping assertion that Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama "founded" the IS group.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, The US Dept. of Justice found that Baltimore’s police department had engaged in unconstitutional practices, including disproportionate rates of stops, frisks and arrest of black citizens, and use excessive force against minors and the mentally ill.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 10, Delta fliers faced delays, cancellations and more headaches as the Atlanta-based airline struggled with its computer systems for the third straight day.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Belize’s chief justice ruled that Section 53 of the criminal code, which threatened people who engage in “carnal intercourse against the order of nature," is unconstitutional.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 10, Brazil's Senate voted to put suspended President Dilma Rousseff on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in managing the federal budget.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Canadian police shot dead an alleged Islamic State sympathizer armed with an explosive device. Canadian broadcaster CBC soon identified him as Aaron Driver, saying he was shot dead during a police raid in Strathroy, southern Ontario.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, German police raided the homes and workplaces of three people suspected of trying to recruit supporters for Islamic State. No arrests were made.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Former Guatemalan soldier Santos Lopez Alonzo (64) arrived in Guatemala City after he was deported from the United States. He maintained his innocence in the face of accusations that he helped massacre more than 200 people in the small village of Las Dos Erres in 1982 during his country's grueling civil war.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, In India a stream of cars, motorcycles and pedestrians passed by an injured man struck by a delivery truck on a New Delhi street, leaving him to die.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Iraq a fire ripped through a maternity ward at a Baghdad hospital overnight, killing 12 newborn babies. The deadly blaze was likely caused by faulty electrical wiring.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Nigeria a previously unknown group called Delta Greenland Justice Mandate said it had attacked a crude pipeline belonging to state oil firm NNPC and local firm Shoreline Natural Resources in Urhobo in Delta state.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Portugal a wildfire swept overnight into Funchal, the capital of the Madeira Islands, killing three elderly people and injuring hundreds as it burned homes and forced people to flee in panic.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Russia's Federal Security Service said it had thwarted two armed Ukrainian attempts over the weekend to get saboteurs into Crimea and dismantled a Ukrainian spy network inside the annexed peninsula. Ukraine denied the action.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked soldiers near the border with Iraq, killing four of them in Sirnak province. Evening bomb blasts in two cities in the southeast killed 9 civilians and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/10/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, It was reported that Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Yemen Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched fresh air strikes on Shiite rebels across the country after the alliance said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles fired at southern Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Berkeley, Ca., John Fox (66), the owner of bankrupt premium wine store Premier Cru, pleaded guilty to defrauding customers out of at least $45 million in what the judge described as a “wine Ponzi scheme." On Dec 14 Fox was sentenced to 6½ years in prison.
(SFC, 8/12/16, p.D1)(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A10)
2016 Aug 11, In Afghanistan fighting raged in Helmand after the government rushed military reinforcements to beat back Taliban insurgents advancing on Lashkar Gah, the besieged capital of the southern poppy-growing province. Officials downplayed fears \the city could fall.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Australia announced that it plans to block Chinese bidders from leasing a major Sydney electricity grid on national security grounds.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Bangladesh police arrested five members of a domestic Islamist militant group planning suicide attacks in the capital, Dhaka, as authorities hunted for the mastermind of a deadly assault last month.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, Reverend Roly Bain (62), Britain’s only full-time clown-priest, died.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.78)
2016 Aug 11, In China an explosion at a power plant killed at least 21 people and injured five in Dangyang city, Hubei province.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Chinese fishing boat sank after colliding with the Greek-flagged ship off the Japan-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims. Japanese coast guard ships rescued six crew members and searched for another eight missing.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, The International Monetary Fund said that it had reached an initial agreement to lend $12 billion to Egypt to bolster an economy battered by years of unrest.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In France forest fires raged through parts of the Mediterranean coast, with the worst in almost two decades burning around Marseille, injuring seven people and forcing authorities to evacuate thousands from their homes.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, An Indian government panel cleared commercial use for indigenously developed GM mustard seeds in what would be the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop. Politicians still needed to give final approvals amid wide-spread public opposition.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Indonesia a court ruling found plantation company Sampoerna Agro negligent in relation to fires on 3,000 hectares of its concessions in Riau in 2014, and handed down fines totaling 1.07 trillion rupiah ($81.62 million), the country's largest ever fine for forest fires.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 11, The top diplomats from Japan and the Philippines called on China to avoid intimidating actions and follow the rule of law in disputed waters where Beijing has defied an arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive territorial claims.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Libyan official said US-backed forces have liberated "70 percent" of the city of Sirte, the Islamic State group's last bastion there, after seizing several strategic locations over the past 24 hours under the cover of US airstrikes.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In the Maldives a law that criminalizes defamation and allows for jail terms and steep fines for journalists took effect.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Nigeria protesters continued to block the entrance to a Chevron oil depot in the restive southern region for a third day. A youth and protest leader said militants blew up another crude pipeline in the Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Pakistan a roadside bomb hit a security vehicle and wounded 13 people in the southwestern city of Quetta, days after a suicide bombing at a hospital killed at least 74 people.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Philippine officials said the government has suspended operations at two more mines due to environmental violations in an ongoing audit of the country's mining sector. The move raised the number of suspended mines to 10 since a review was launched on July 8.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In the Philippines a blast from a suspected grenade and gunshots rocked the Paranaque City jail in metropolitan Manila, leaving 10 inmates dead, including two alleged Chinese drug criminals.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that parts of a new law governing its own operation are unconstitutional.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Sri Lanka's Parliament unanimously approved a bill to set up an office to help account for thousands of people reported missing during the country's armed uprisings and clarify the circumstances under which they disappeared.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Syria doctors in Aleppo made a heart-wrenching plea for the US to help civilians hit by fresh fighting despite a promised Russian aid window. Russian air strikes on the IS bastion of Raqa killed at least 30 people, including 24 civilians.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkey's foreign minister said two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish jets raided suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, following a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Ukraine's president ordered the army to be on combat alert on the country's de-facto border with Crimea and on the front line in eastern Ukraine following Moscow's accusations that Ukraine sent in "saboteurs" to carry out attacks in Crimea.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Zambia held presidential elections following a campaign marred by "unprecedented" violence that threatened the country's relative stability and raised fears of further clashes. Early results showed opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema ahead of his rival President Edgar Lungu.
(AFP, 8/11/16)(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Democratic White House candidate Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax return and criticized her Republican rival Donald Trump for bucking a long-standing tradition by failing to do the same.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, In San Francisco Emma Zhou was paralyzed from the waist down after limb fell from a 50-foot Canary Island pine tree in Washington Square Park. In 2018 The SF Board of Supervisors approved a $14.5 million settlement for Zhou.
(SFC, 10/3/18, p.C5)
2016 Aug 12, Torrential downpours in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi caused flooding that killed at least two men, left two people injured and forced residents to evacuate homes throughout the region.
(Reuters, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Lebron James signed a contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers giving the NBA superstar $31 million next season.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Oklahoma Stanley Vernon Majors (61) gunned down his Lebanese neighbor Khalid Jabara (37) outside his Tulsa home after bombarding him with racial insults in a feud that had lasted several years. On Feb. 20, 2018, Majors was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7hmneoc)(SFC, 2/21/18, p.A6)
2016 Aug 12, In Virginia Lisa Borinstein (52) of Indiana, two of her four children and a foreign exchange student were among six people killed in a small plane crash.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Staff on the Eurostar rail service between Britain and mainland Europe started four days of strike action although the company insisted there would be minimal disruption to services.
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, The Chinese Swimming Association said Chen Xinyi tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide after she finished fourth in the women's 100-meter butterfly in the Rio Olympics on August 7, missing a bronze medal by nine-hundredths of a second.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Congo DRC security forces in Kasai Central province killed a tribal chief and militia leader nicknamed Kamwina Nsapu (Kamuina Nsapu), meaning Black Ant.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamwina_Nsapu_rebellion)(Econ 6/3/17, p.37)
2016 Aug 12, Fiji's men's sevens rugby team won the country’s first ever Olympic medal with a 43-7 victory over Great Britain.
(AP, 8/12/16)(http://tinyurl.com/j2mcajn)
2016 Aug 12, India's Supreme Court handed a reprieve to the auto industry, ruling that new diesel vehicles can be allowed on the streets of the national capital as long as a 1 percent "green" tax is paid.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, The UN's envoy to Libya told a newspaper that support for the UN-backed unity government is "crumbling" amid increased power outages and a weakening currency that is hitting crucial imports.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Mexican federal police said they have arrested Luis Reyes Enriquez in a raid in the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia. Enriquez was arrested in 2007, and spent almost eight years in custody until a judge absolved him of organized crime and drug charges in April 2015. Prosecutors appealed that ruling, and a superior court re-instated his conviction and a sentence of 47 ½ years in prison.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Mexico a three-day conference called "ExpoWeed" opened in Mexico City, promoting home-growing of marijuana. The practice was still not legal in the country. Activists said the "grow" movement is an antidote to antidote to Mexico's drug violence.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Mozambique 6 civilians burned to death in an attack by Renamo rebels, the latest in a string of violent skirmishes between opposition fighters and government forces.
(AFP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Nigeria military helicopters rushed polio vaccines to dangerous parts of the northeast, where Boko Haram operates and two paralyzed toddlers were recently discovered.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly dismissed his close ally and powerful chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, in the highest-level change inside the Kremlin in several years. Ivanov was replaced by his deputy Anton Vaino (44).
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Lawmakers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines passed a bill allowing defamation on the internet to be punished by prison sentences of up to two years.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In northern Syria Islamic State fighters seized around 2,000 civilians to use as "human shields" as they fled their stronghold of Manbij.
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Scotland two Turkish sailors were jailed for a total of 42 years after their attempt to smuggle a huge haul of cocaine into Europe was thwarted in April 2015, partly due to some swift international co-operation between Britain and Tanzania.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Syria a series of airstrikes in opposition areas in northern Aleppo province killed at least 18 people, including children and two hospital staffers, when the missiles hit an open market in Urem al-Kubra, a women and children's hospital in Kafr Hamra and the village of Hayan.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Thailand attackers using firebombs and homemade explosives struck a series of popular resort cities and beach towns across the country over the last 24 hours. At least 4 people were killed and dozens wounded, including 11 foreigners.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck about 460 km (290 miles) southwest of the South Pacific island nation of Tonga.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Turkey said thirty-two of 208 diplomats recalled by the government after a failed coup last month are still at large and Ankara has received information that they have fled to various countries.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck about 535 km (330 miles) southeast of the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 13, In northern California the Clayton wildfire broke out in Lake County.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 13, Torrential downpours in parts of Louisiana left at least 3 people dead.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In NYC Imam Maulama Akonjee (55) and friend Thara Uddin (64) were shot and killed as they left afternoon prayers at the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Queens. Police the next day released a sketch of the suspect: a dark-haired, bearded man wearing glasses and soon arrested Oscar Morel (35), a Brooklyn man, following a hit and run near the crie scene. On August 15 Morel was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
(AP, 8/14/16)(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 13, Milwaukee police shot and killed Sylville Smith (23) after he failed to drop a gun. An angry crowd of at least 200 people took to the streets, torching at least six businesses, including a gas station and auto parts store. Looting continued into the next night as police in riot gear moved in on the Sherman Park neighborhood. On Dec 15 police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who is also black, was charged with murder.
(AFP, 8/15/16)(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A10)
2016 Aug 13, In Afghanistan at least 9 policemen were killed late today in Taliban attacks on checkpoints in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, while another two were killed in the east. 5 insurgents were killed and three wounded in the ensuing gun battles.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 13, In eastern Congo DRC at least 36 people were killed late today in a massacre by suspected rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), near Beni, North Kivu province, an area that has been shaken by violence since 2014.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 13, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a strict curfew to most parts of the restive region as separatist leaders called for weekend protests against Indian rule.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, Mothers in east Mexico searching for missing loved ones said they have found a total of 28 clandestine gravesites since August 1 with remains of some 40 bodies in the gang-ravaged state of Veracruz.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In Peru more than 50,000 people marched in Lima and eight other cities to protest violence against woman and what they say is the indifference of the judicial system.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 13, The Philippines restarted peace talks with the country's largest Muslim rebel group, the first under President Rodrigo Duterte aimed at ending decades of violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, Singapore exploded in celebration after homegrown swimming hero Joseph Schooling beat US legend Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly in Rio to win the tiny republic's first ever Olympic gold.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In South Korea prosecutors indicted the former chief executive of the South Korean unit of Swss-based Novartis and five other former and current managers over allegations they illegally paid doctors 2.6 billion won ($2.3 million) in return for prescribing the company's drugs.
2016 Aug 13, Fighting flared in South Sudan late today southwest of the capital between forces loyal to the president and those backing the opposition, after clashes last month raised fears of a slide back into civil war.
(Reuters, 8/14/16) (AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In Switzerland a Swiss national man carried out a stabbing and arson attack on a Swiss train, injuring six others. The attacker and one of the victims soon died of their injuries.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In northern Syria US-backed forces seized full control of Manbij near the Turkish border after the last remaining Islamic State fighters, who had been using civilians as human shields, left. Clashes and airstrikes continued across Aleppo province, resulting in at least 49 civilian deaths. Within ten days of the liberation of Manbij booby traps and mines planted by retreating jihadists killed 29 people.
(Reuters, 8/13/16)(AP, 8/14/16)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.41)
2016 Aug 13, Thousands of Venezuelans were welcomed to Colombia by a military band early today as the two countries' borders were officially reopened after being closed by Venezuela a year ago.
(Reuters, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 13, In Yemen 10 children were killed in coalition air raids on a school in Haydan, a town in rebel-held Saada province. The coalition said the next day it had bombed a camp at which Iran-backed rebels train underage soldiers.
(AFP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, In the SF Bay Area Craig Fletcher-Cooks (20) and Terence McCrary Jr. (22) were shot and killed during a block party in Oakland in the 300 block of 15th Street. Four assailants fled the scene.
(SFC, 3/24/17, p.D6)
2016 Aug 14, Lousiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said as many as 10,000 people were living in shelters. A weekend of torrential rains left 5 people dead and prompted the federal government to declare a disaster.
(AFP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, In Brazil American swimmer Ryan Lochte said he, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and James Feigen were held at gunpoint and robbed several hours after the last Olympic swimming races ended. That claim started unraveling when police said that investigators could not find evidence to substantiate it. Police later said the men, while intoxicated, vandalized a gas station bathroom and were questioned by armed guards before they paid for the damage and left.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 14, In Honduras killers wielding assault rifles shot 8 men to death on the outskirts of the capital before dawn. Authorities blamed a territorial dispute between rival street gangs.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Iraqi Kurdish forces retook five villages east of Islamic State-held Mosul in an operation launched early today.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Nigerian militant group Boko Haram published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago, and saying some of them have been killed in air strikes.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 14, In Peru a shallow, magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook the southern picturesque Colca Valley, killing at least 4 people.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 14, In the Philippines some 1500 Filipinos rallied in stormy weather against President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to allow dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in a heroes' cemetery, but Duterte remained firm in his stance despite growing opposition.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Syria's rebel-held, northwestern Idlib province came under heavy bombardment, activists reported, as rebels and pro-government forces battled for control of the nearby city of Aleppo. Russian air strikes around Deir Ezzor killed a large number of militants while destroying two command posts, six arms caches, two tanks, four armored infantry vehicles and seven all-terrain vehicles with heavy machine guns.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Thai police over the weekend found and defused five explosive devices that had failed to detonate when an as yet unidentified group carried out a series of deadly bomb attacks on popular tourist spots late last week.
(Reuters, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Yemeni pro-government troops, backed by forces from a Saudi-led military coalition, seized the small town of Al-Kawd as they advanced in their offensive to retake territory held by Islamic State and al-Qaida forces east of the port city of Aden.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 15, The Pentagon announced that fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration. They included 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans. 61 detainees remained at Guantanamo.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In northern California Damin Anthony Pashilk (40) was arrested and charged with arson for starting the massive Clayton wildfire that has destroyed 175 buildings and forced thousands to flee to safety. Pashilk was suspected of setting "numerous fires" in Lake County over the past year.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Lousiana the death toll from flooding climbed to 7 with as many as 30,000 people rescued following unprecedented floods in the state.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, Pennsylvania’s Attorney Gen’l. Kathleen Kane was convicted on nine charges including perjury and conspiracy for illegally leaking documents from a grand jury proceeding. She resigned the next day.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 15, In Afghanistan Mullah Emdadullah Mansoor, a nephew of Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, was named leader of the Taliban faction known as Mahaaz-e-Dadullah at a gathering in southern Zabul province. Dadullah was killed in Khak-e-Afghan district of Zabul last year, fighting with rival Taliban.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, Brazil’s Thiago Braz won an unexpected gold medal and set an Olympic record in pole vaulting.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 15, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least one paramilitary soldier and four suspected rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles despite a security lockdown in the disputed region, as India celebrated the anniversary of its independence from British rule. Ten government troops were also wounded.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Indonesian authorities seized 657 critically endangered pangolins, known as "scaly anteaters," found hidden in freezers and arrested a man (55) for allegedly breaking wildlife protection laws.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Iran a senior member of Islamic State was killed this evening in an operation in Kermanshah province, a largely Sunni Kurdish area, during which other supporters of the group were arrested.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Mexico eight armed men abducted "six or seven" suspected members of the Sinaloa drug cartel from a restaurant in the heart of the Pacific tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta early today.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, Syrian government forces repelled a renewed rebel assault southwest of the city of Aleppo, forcing opposition forces spearheaded by Fath al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, to retreat from positions they seized a daily earlier.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Turkish police raided offices at three Istanbul courthouses after detention warrants were issued for 173 judicial personnel as part of an investigation into last month's failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Turkey's top opposition daily Cumhuriyet, announced he was stepping down, saying he no longer had faith in the judiciary after the failed coup. Dundar was believed to be in Germany. An Istanbul court had in May sentenced Can Dundar to five years and 10 months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets in a story that infuriated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Yemen the General People's Congress (GPC) party, headed by ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, declared itself the "highest authority in the state (which) exercises all the powers vested in the president." The ruling council was set up this month by the Houthis and their allies to run the parts of the country they control.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In northwestern Yemen a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit the Abs hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres killing 19 people and wounding 24. Shortly after the deadly raid, MSF suspended operations in several facilities in the country's north.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)(Reuters, 8/19/16)(AFP, 6/11/18)
2016 Aug 15, Zambia's President Edgar Lungu won 50.35 percent of the vote against 47.63 for Hichilema in the August 11 election. The vote-counting process took days and prompted opposition allegations of irregularities. Police arrested 133 people protesting against the re-election of Lungu after his main opponent Hakainde Hichilema said the vote was rigged.
(AP, 8/15/16)(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Authorities in southern California ordered the evacuation of 82,000 people, after a wildfire broke out in Cajon Pass to rapidly engulf 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) of terrain. The so-called Bluecut Fire erupted in heavy brush just west of Interstate 15, the main freeway between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, forcing the closure of one stretch of the highway. In nothern California the Clayton Fire was 35 percent contained.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, In Lousiana ExxonMobil Corp shut a crude distillation unit at its 502,500 barrel per day (bpd) Baton Rouge refinery as flooding disrupted operations at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China's Cabinet announced that preparations to connect the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges are "basically completed." Charles Li, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the city's stock market operator said the link would likely launched by Christmas.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 16, Iranian security forces killed 3 Sunni militants linked to Islamic State in Kermanshah city close to the Iraqi border, confiscating a weapons cache and belts armed with explosives.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Iran said that it arrested a British-Iranian last week on suspicion of links to the UK intelligence service.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir shot and killed four civilians and injured at least 15 others as clashes intensified with anti-India protesters in the troubled region.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Peru's supreme court overturned an embezzlement sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori, although the decision will not alter the 25-year prison term he is serving for crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, Russian warplanes took off from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, In South Korea an accidental explosion at a naval base left 3 soldiers dead and another injured in the southeastern port town of Jinhae.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Turkish police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into last month's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 17, Haitian electoral authorities released details of a $55 million budget to organize a redo of an annulled presidential election that will not be underwritten by the US or monitored by EU observers.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 17, Militants ambushed an Indian military convoy in Kashmir, killing three personnel, in an escalation of violence that officials have blamed on separatist protests that have tied down security forces for more than a month. Army soldiers and counterinsurgency police officers raided Khrew village late today and took Shabir Ahmed and around 30 other people into custody. The body of Ahmed, a young college teacher, was returned to his family early the next day.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, Two Indonesians escaped together on Jolo Island, an Abu Sayyaf jungle stronghold, but fled in separate direction as their captors chased them. They were among seven tugboat crewmen who were abducted near Philippine waters in June.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, In Nicaragua a fire began when one of four huge fuel tanks exploded at the Puma Energy plant in the port of Puerto Sandino, some 70 km (40 miles) northwest of Managua. A second tank ignited he next day. The oil spilled contaminated sensitive nearby coastal habitat.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 17, The cruise ship Caribbean Fantasy caught fire forcing the evacuation of more than 500 passengers and crew. As of August 19 the ferry continued to burn off Puerto Rico's north coast.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 17, In Rwandan Channy Mbonigaba, described as a "terror suspect," was shot dead in Kigali late today after a three-hour shootout with police.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, South Korea said Thae Yong Ho, North Korea's deputy ambassador in London, has defected with his family to South Korea, making him the highest-ranking Pyongyang diplomat ever to flee the isolated regime for the democratic South.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 17, Turkey said it will release some 38,000 prisoners under a penal reform as the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected of links to last month's attempted coup burden overstretched jails. A car bomb killed 2 police officers and a civilian in Van province.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, Venezuelan police crushed and chopped up nearly 2,000 shotguns and pistols in a Caracas city square, as the new interior minister relaunched a long-stalled gun control campaign in one of the world's most crime-ridden countries.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, The US State Department said it released $400 million in cash to Iran under a tribunal settlement only once it was assured that American prisoners had been freed and had boarded a plane. It was the first time the administration has said publicly that it used the payment as leverage to ensure the prisoners were released by Iran.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 18, The US Justice Department filed a brief in a Georgia lawsuit that said holding a defendant in jail simply because they can’t afford a fixed bail amount is unconstitutional.
(CSM, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 18, Uber said it is acquiring Otto, a startup for self-driving trucks co-founded by Anthony Levandowski, a former Google employee. The acquisition cost $680 million.
(https://newsroom.uber.com/rethinking-transportation/)(Econ 5/6/17, p.58)
2016 Aug 18, In southern California weary firefighters battled a raging inferno that was threatening the homes of more than 82,000 people and sent flaming "firenadoes" tearing across the brush. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County, just 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles, where the so-called Bluecut Fire was quickly growing.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Afghanistan a mortar attack killed two people and wounded more than 50 in the eastern province of Kunar. The shells struck a market where crowds had gathered to celebrate independence day.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Brazilian cyclist Kleber Ramos and Chinese swimmer Chen Xinyi were disqualified from the Olympic Games for having failed doping tests. Ramos tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO Cera while Chen took the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Kimia Alizadeh won the first ever Olympic medal by an Iranian woman after claiming taekwondo bronze in Rio.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Prominent Crimean Tatar activist Ilmi Umerov (59) was incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital in Simferopol to undergo forced sanity testing. He was charged with calling for extremism in the Russian-annexed peninsula. Earlier this month he was forcibly moved from an ordinary hospital where he was receiving treatment for a suspected heart attack.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 18, Ernst Nolte (93), German historian, died in Berlin. He had set off a dispute among his peers by arguing three decades ago that Nazism was a reaction to an "existential threat" to Germany from the Russian revolution.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Mauritania thirteen anti-slavery activists, arrested beween June 30 and July 9 for "rebellion and use of violence," were sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison, despite criticism of the case against them by international rights groups. On August 15 they told a court they had been tortured while in custody.
(AFP, 8/15/16)(AFP, 8/19/16)
24,
2016 Aug 18, The New Zealand government launched an inquiry into the contamination of a regional water supply that has left thousands of people sick with vomiting and diarrhoea. The outbreak of campylobacter bacteria, a form of gastroenteritis, has affected around 3,000 people on North Island.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Two Palestinian police officers were slain by criminals the West Bank, who were killed the next day in a shootout in Nablus.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 18, Aides said South Sudan's former rebel leader and ex-vice president Riek Machar has left the country following violent clashes last month and is now in a "safe" country in the region.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Turkey ordered the seizure of the assets of 187 businessmen suspected of links to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding last month's attempted coup. Police detained 10 senior figures of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left militant group that has in the past targeted Turkish and US interests.
(AFP, 8/18/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Turkey 3 police officers were killed and 170 people wounded by a car bomb at a police station in the eastern city of Elazig.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, The United Nations said for the first time that it was involved in the introduction of cholera to Haiti and needs to do "much more" to end the suffering of those affected, estimated at more than 800,000 people.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 18, In northern Vietnam Pham Duy Cuong, head of the Communist Party organization in Yen Bai province and Ngo Ngoc Tuan, chief of the provincial legislature, were shot in their offices by fellow officials Do Cuong Minh, who then shot himself dead.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a health facility operated by the group killing 19 people.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, US Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte apologized for his behavior surrounding an incident at a Rio de Janeiro gas station, saying he should have been more "careful and candid" about how he described what happened after a night of partying with his teammates.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, Donald Ainslee Henderson (b.1928), American epidemiologist, died in Maryland. He directed a 10-year international effort (1967–77) that eradicated smallpox throughout the world and launched international childhood vaccination programs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Henderson)(Econ, 8/27/16, p.70)
2016 Aug 19, Rev. T. Frank Kennedy (67), the former director of the Boston College Jesuit Institute, died of pancreatic cancer. His research helped to revive the Jesuit religious order's musical tradition. He edited, produced and professionally recorded four baroque operas associated with the early Jesuits.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, Montana wildlife officials closed a lengthy stretch of the Yellowstone River to all recreational activities at the height of the summer tourist season following the deaths of thousands of fish this week from a rare but virulent microbial parasite.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, The US Geological Survey said a 7.4-magnitude quake shook the southern Atlantic Ocean early today, with an epicenter 195 miles (316 km) from islands hosting a British Antarctic research station.
(AFP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Brazil Cheick Sallah Cisse was the toast of the Ivory Coast as he won their first ever Olympic gold medal with a killer kick in the last second of the men's under-80kg taekwondo final.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Brazil Usain Bolt of Jamaica won his 9th gold medal in the 4x100 relay. Three Olympics, three races at each, three gold medals every time.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, Danish lawmakers decided to send a container vessel, a support ship and 200 staff members to an international operation to rid lawless Libya of its chemical weapons arsenal and ship them out of the country.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Indonesia's disaster agency urged prompt action against slash-and-burn plantation fires as the annual smoke "haze" begins to drift across the Malacca Strait to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, A Kurdish official said Syrian Kurdish militia have seized several positions from government forces in the divided city of Hasaka (Hassakeh). At least 13 people, including children and women, were reported killed as a result of shelling by the army on Kurdish-controlled areas of Hasaka.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Mexican security forces pursued several vehicles in the city of Alto Lucero. Eight bodies were "abandoned" along with 12 vehicles and the scene was placed under military guard.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Mexico Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar (29), the son of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was reportedly was freed late today along with five other men with whom he was kidnapped from a bar in Puerto Vallarta on August 15.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 19, Mexican writer Ignacio Padilla (47), a leading member of the so-called "crack movement," died in a car accident in Queretaro state. The 1996 “crack manifesto" sought to help the country's authors find a voice beyond magical realism.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Nepal about a thousand members of sexual minorities and their supporters paraded in Kathmandu to demand equality and implementation of their rights under the country's new constitution.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, A Pakistani court banned construction of the country's first rapid mass transit system, Chinese-funded metro project, within 200 feet (61 meters) of historic buildings in the city of Lahore, in a victory for heritage campaigners.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Spain's conservative Popular Party signed a deal with the business-friendly Ciudadanos party that could pave the way for the formation of a new government and avert a possible third round of elections.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Turkey detained dozens of academics suspected of backing Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of last month's failed coup, while pressing ahead with raids on businesses linked to the US-based Muslim preacher.
(AFP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, The Turkish parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup. Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, The US Navy said the American military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition's air war in Yemen, following concerns over civilian casualties.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, In Afghanistan the Taliban seized a district in the northeastern Kunduz province, where the insurgents briefly overran the provincial capital last year before being driven out by a counteroffensive. In Kabul a soldier was killed by a sticky bomb placed on his vehicle.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Brazil claimed its first Olympic gold in soccer with a win over Germany.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, In Canada Tragically Hip, a group known as Canada's Band, held its final performance in Kingston. Lead singer and songwriter Gord Downie, dubbed Canada's unofficial poet laureate and diagnosed with glioblastoma, was in fine form as he and his bandmates played an epic 30-song set, punctuated by three encores.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, Georgia’s State Security Service detained five people who were planning to bomb a section of an oil pipeline carrying Russian gas to Armenia. A sixth person was detained for failure to report the crime.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 20, India’s PM Narendra Modi appointed Urjit Patel as head of the Reserve Bank of India.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.54)
2016 Aug 20, Japan was hit by a strong earthquake (6.0) off the northern coast one day after a magnitude 5.3 hit off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Nigeria’s Niger Delta Avengers' (NDA) said on its website late today that it would "observe a cessation of hostilities," although not without conditions.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, North Korean state media accused diplomat Thae Yong Ho, who defected from Britain to South Korea, of fleeing to escape punishment for a variety of crimes, including child rape. KCNA news said “the fugitive was ordered in June to be summoned for embezzling a lot of state funds, selling state secrets and committing child rape."
(Reuters, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Pakistan army said its jets and ground forces destroyed six militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region, killing 9 "terrorists" near the Afghan border.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Philippine forces killed 3 suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State group (Ansar Al Khilafah Philippines), but failed to capture leader Mohammad Jaafar Sabiwang in a clash near Maasim town in Sarangani province.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in the northeast for a second day, even after the US-led coalition scrambled jets to protect its military advisers working on the ground.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines.
(Reuters, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, In southeastern Turkey an apparent suicide bombing at an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep killed killed 51 people, including 22 children. Turkey blamed the Islamic State. Bu August 22 death toll rose to 54 and officials said a child was used as the suicide bomber.
(AP, 8/21/16)(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 20, Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, in support of Shiite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Brazil the curtain descended on two weeks of high drama at the Rio Games as Tokyo took up the baton and promised to go one better in 2020.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, The Rio police force executed search warrants to seize passports and evidence from Ireland team leader Kevin Kilty, chief executive Stephen Martin and secretary general Dermot Henihan, who are accused of illegally selling Olympic tickets.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, British police arrested Laurence former priest Soper (72) for sex crimes he is accused of committing from 1972 to 1986. He was arrested at Luton Airport after he was deported from Kosovo.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Chile tens of thousands protested against the country’s privatized pension system.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.24)
2016 Aug 21, In Egypt gunmen killed an informer and a soldier and injured five other people, including two civilians, in an attack at a police checkpoint in the province of Menoufia north of Cairo.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, Indian army soldiers have killed 3 suspected rebels near the heavily militarized line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Indonesia a small wooden tourist boat capsized in rough seas off Bintan island, south of Singapore. Only two of 17 people survived.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, Iraq hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 "Speicher" massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Libya fighters of the unity government, backed by US air strikes, recaptured more ground from jihadists holed up in the center of Sirte. 12 fighters were killed and 85 wounded in the clashes.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Madagascar the bodies of the two French citizens, a man and a woman aged in their 20s, were found on a beach of Sainte Marie with head injuries. Police soon arrested five suspects.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 21, One of Mexico's leading investigative journalists published a report saying President Enrique Pena Nieto plagiarized nearly a third of his 1991 undergraduate law thesis.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, Pakistani security forces reported 6 “terrorists" killed in the remote Khyber region in a new offensive against Islamist militants in the area.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, In central Somalia at least 17 people were killed and more than 30 others wounded in two explosions in the town of Galkayo. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gates of a local government headquarters while another bomber targeted a nearby marketplace. The Shabaab militant group claimed responsibilty for the blasts.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, Ukraine said Russian activist Roman Roslovtsev, better known for his walks across Red Square in a President Vladimir Putin mask, has requested political asylum in their country.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Texas a woman was killed after a truck carrying airbag parts made by Japan's troubled Takata exploded in a massive fireball on a highway in Maverick County. The woman was in a house 30 feet (9m) away from the explosion. It appeared that the supply truck was in a road accident that caused a fire and then the deadly explosion.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 22, Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans (b.1922) died. His illustrious career included playing with jazz greats like Miles Davis and whose solos have figured on numerous film scores.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Britain announced plans to house imprisoned Islamist extremists in separate units from other inmates, after a review found that some charismatic convicts were radicalizing the wider Muslim population in prisons.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, A Canadian conservation officer said that authorities have killed nine bears in three days in Revelstoke, British Columbia. He warned that the death toll will rise if unsecured trash continues to draw the animals into residential areas. 23 bears were killed there in 1995, but in recent years the average annual number had been fewer than seven.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 22, Indian officials said at least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India in recent days.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, The Kurdish YPG militia launched a major assault to seize the last government-controlled parts of the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka after calling on pro-government militias to surrender.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Japan Typhoon Mindulle struck near Tokyo, the first in 11 years to come ashore in the densely populated region, temporarily shutting down a major city airport and grounding more than 500 flights nationwide.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Jordan signed grant agreements for the school program with Britain, the US, Norway and Switzerland. Donor countries pledged close to $100 million to help Jordan enroll all Syrian refugee children in the kingdom in schools next month.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Libya's parliament passed a 'no confidence' vote in UN-backed government in blow to efforts to unite country.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Lithuania signed a deal for German-made armoured vehicles intended to boost its defence capabilities, as it seeks to allay concerns of a military resurgence of Russia on its doorstep.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, A Myanmar court indicted Hla Phone (38) for insulting the military chief and former president on social media, under a controversial telecommunications law that activists have urged the new government to repeal.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, At The Hague Islamic extremist Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty to orchestrating the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu. Al Mahdi advised Muslims around the world not to commit similar acts.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In northern Nigeria a Muslim mob killed 8 people after torching the house of a man who tried to save a Christian student accused of blasphemy. A mob of Muslim students in the town of Talata Mafara were enraged over alleged derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed by their Christian schoolmate, who they attacked.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 22, Officials said the Chaman border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan remains closed for the fourth consecutive day after Afghan protesters burned a Pakistani flag.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Peru’s interior ministry said a so-called "death squad" established within the Peruvian National Police has executed at least 20 criminals extrajudicially, amid a growing wave of insecurity in the South American country. The government identified nine officers, including a general, who purportedly masterminded the disappearance of at least 20 civilians since 2012.
(AFP, 8/23/16)(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 22, Philippine government and Maoist-led guerrillas opened peace talks in Oslo, seeking to end nearly five decades of conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. Both sides announced ceasefires at the weekend to buoy the talks.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Singapore former Pres. Sellapan Ramanathan (1999 to 2011), widely known as S.R. Nathan, died at age 92.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Turkish officials said 2 security force members and 5 PKK militants were killed in clashes and attacks in three eastern areas over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Ukraine said it has launched a criminal investigation of 20 senior Russian officials, alleging their involvement in crimes against Ukraine's national security.
(CSM, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 23, President Barack Obama visited Louisiana to assess flood damage there, days after he was criticized for not cutting short his vacation on Martha's Vineyard to view the devastation in the Gulf Coast state.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The NYC Empire State Realty Trust Inc., which manages the 102-story, 1,454-foot (443-meter) -tall building, announced that the Qatar Investment Authority has purchased a 9.9-percent stake in the company for $622 million.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, In Australia visiting Frenchman Smail Ayad (29) shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as he stabbed a British woman to death and wounded two people at a backpackers' hotel in in Home Hill, Queensland state. The dead woman was identified as Mia Ayliffe-Chung (21) from the English county of Derbyshire. On September 30 British backpacker Thomas Jackson (30) died of his wounds.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)(AFP, 8/25/16)(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 23, Bangladeshi police arrested Moinul Islam Shamim, suspected of killing publisher Arefin Deepan on Oct. 31 in his office in Dhaka, as part of a crackdown on radicals blamed for violent attacks on foreigners, liberals and minorities. Shamim is a key organizer of the banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, The European Commission reimposed anti-dumping duties on three Chinese exporters of solar modules and cells citing breaches to terms of an agreement they had reached with Brussels not to sell below a minimum price.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In France a Sudanese migrant was killed overnight and another injured in clashes with Afghan migrants outside the port of Calais.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired bullets and shotgun pellets to break up protests demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed region, injuring at least 14 people.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Iraqi special forces led an operation aimed at retaking the jihadist-held town of Qayyarah, a key staging base for operations to attack Mosul. Islamic State militants abandoned Qayyarah after setting fire to many of the region's oil wells.
(AFP, 8/23/16)(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 23, Israel uncovered an illegal Palestinian weapons manufacturing network in the West Bank overnight in one of its largest raids during a months-long crackdown on illicit arms.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Israeli security forces rushed to the West Bank city of Nablus to rescue 60 ultra-Orthodox Hassids stoned by Palestinians as they visited Joseph's Tomb in a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the city. Palestinians believe an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yussef Dweikat, was buried there two centuries ago.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In Myanmar a statement by the office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said an agreement will be signed between her office and the Kofi Annan Foundation to set up a nine-member advisory commission to resolve protracted issues in the conflict in Rakhine state.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, New Zealand police said former pharmaceutical executive William Yan (47), who Chinese authorities accuse of embezzling money and fleeing to New Zealand, has settled his case for $31 million in a deal that represents an unusual level of cooperation between the two countries. Police said the money would be split between the New Zealand and Chinese governments, with the amount each would get still to be determined.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Pakistan's paramilitary Rangers shuttered the offices of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the port city of Karachi, Hyderabad and elsewhere in the country after overnight clashes in Karachi left one person dead and eight wounded.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Palestinian Ahmed Halawa, the alleged leader of the August 18 attack on security police, was arrested by police overnight and taken to the city's Jneid prison. Once there, he was severely beaten by security personnel, lost conciousness and died.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The Philippines' national police chief said about 300 of his officers were suspected to be involved in the drugs trade, warning these personnel will be removed and charged in court if found guilty.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The police chief of the Philippines told a Senate hearing that China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were major sources of illegal drugs, and Chinese triads were involved in trafficking.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has laid landmines in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, after the start of annual US-South Korean military exercises.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Swiss prosecutors said they've charged three people accused of illegally obtaining data on at least 133,600 credit cards with computer fraud following their extradition from Thailand.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military tribunal indicted eight people with sedition for running a Facebook page that mocked the kingdom's junta chief, making them the latest victims of the regime's crackdown on dissent.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military court rejected allegations by two Uighur defendants that they were tortured in custody to confess to bombing a popular Hindu shrine in Bangkok last year that left 20 people dead. The court then postponed the rest of the hearing to next month because no Uighur-language translator was available.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In southern Thailand two bombs exploded near a hotel in Pattani, killing one employee and wounding 29 people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that a military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Sirnak province, killing two soldiers.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkey's artillery shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for a second consecutive day. Two mortar shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Karkamis. Three rocket shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Kilis.
(AP, 8/23/16)(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 24, Pres. Obama designated Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, an 87,500-acre parcel of mountains, rivers, and forests abutting the eastern edge of Baxter State Park. The land was donated by Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby, who has advocated for years to establish the site as a national park. His executive action, allowed under the 1906 Antiquities Act, added the unit to the National Park Service as a national monument, bypassing the need for Congress to authorize a new national park.
(http://downeast.com/new-maine-national-monument/)
2016 Aug 24, Several tornadoes plowed through central Indiana, demolishing numerous homes and a Starbucks cafe in the town of Kokomo and cutting off power to thousands of Indianapolis-area residents. No serious injuries were reported.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Afghanistan 12 people, including 7 students and a professor, were killed in an attack on the American University in Kabul. A car bomb followed by gunfire, as suspected militants battled into the complex where foreign staff and pupils were working. By the next morning Afghan forces killed at least 2 attackers.
(AP, 8/25/16)(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 24, Australia’s New South Wales parliament in Sydney banned greyhound racing in an overnight session effective from July 1, 2017.
(AFP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Bolivia at least one person was killed and dozens injured after miners and riot police exchanged sticks of dynamite and tear gas during a protest to demand better work conditions.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Britain 5 men drowned off Camber Sands beach in southern England. The beach, known for rip-tides, had no lifeguard.
(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, Colombia's government and Marxist FARC rebels reached a final peace deal in Havana to end a five-decade war which once took the resource-rich country to the brink of collapse. It will now go to a plebiscite vote on October 2.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Egypt a knife-wielding attacker was shot and killed after he stabbed a guard at the Coptic Virgin Mary church in Cairo's eastern suburb of Nozha.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, India said it is investigating the extent to which secrets about French Scorpene submarines being built in the country have been compromised, after a leak of documents relating to its combat capabilities. The leak contains more than 22,000 pages outlining the secret capabilities of six submarines that French builder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, An Indian official said heavy monsoon rains have ended two successive drought years with the Ganges River and its tributaries rising above the danger level, triggering evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from flooded homes in the north and east. Drowning, electrocution or injuries from collapsed houses have killed at least 175 people this season.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Indian government forces fired shotguns and tear gas in India's portion of Kashmir to break up new protests demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed region, killing a young man and wounding dozens of other people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, An Israeli soldier shot dead a Palestinian motorist who had stabbed him and threw rocks from his car at a military vehicle in the occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, A magnitude 6-6.2 earthquake struck central Italy. 17 deaths were confirmed in Amatrice alone. The preliminary death toll was 38. The death toll soon climbed to 290. A Polish geologist said it was caused by the slow but constant under-surface movement of the African Plate toward Europe.
(AP, 8/24/16)(AFP, 8/25/16)(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Myanmar a powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 shook the center of the country, knocking glasses off tables and sending people running out of buildings in Yangon. At least 4 people were killed.
(AP, 8/24/16)(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In New Zealand Czech tourist Pavlina Pizova was rescued from a park warden's hut on the snowed-in Routeburn Track near Queenstown. Her partner had died almost a month earlier after he slipped down an icy bank and became wedged between rocks and branches.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 24, A Pakistani lawyer said imprisoned politician Waseem Akhtar, who is almost certain to be the next mayor of Karachi, will run the teeming metropolis via "video link" from his prison cell. Akhtar, a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was arrested last month on suspicion of aiding alleged militants.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he's willing to allow a resumption of online gambling in the Southeast Asian nation if correct taxes are paid and gaming parlor are far from schools and churches.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, In the Philippines Abu Sayyaf militants killed Patrick James Aldovar (18) near southern Sulu province's Indanan town then later abandoned his head in a neighborhood. Aldovar, seized by the militants on July 16 in Jolo town, was decapitated after his family failed to pay ransom. After hearing of the beheading President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops to destroy the militants.
(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, South Korea said a ballistic missile fired from a North Korean submarine flew about 500 km (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. The missile flew at a high trajectory and has a range of more than 1,000 km (620 miles) at a normal angle.
(AP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish counter-terror police launched dawn raids targeting Islamic State members across Istanbul.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarablus with air cover from the US-led coalition in “Operation Euphrates Shield." The Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned the incursion.
(AFP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, In Argentina more than 20,000 residents of Rosario, population 1.3 million, marched through the streets demanding action on the city’s rise in murders, nearly triple the national average.
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.35)
2016 Aug 25, In Bolivia Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes (56) was killed on after being taken hostage by workers who had blocked a major highway in Panduro, around 160 km (100 miles) from capital city La Paz. Miners lifted the roadblock the next day.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 25, The Three Seas Initiative met for their first summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Also known as the Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea (BABS) Initiative, it is a forum of 12 European Union countries in Eastern and Central Europe that aims to create a north-south dialogue on a variety of questions affecting the member states. Members included Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Seas_Initiative)
2016 Aug 25, In Egypt Khaled Hanafi, the country’s supply minister. He had overseen Egypt’s food subsidy program.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.43)
2016 Aug 25, Sonia Rykiel (86), the French fashion designer known as the Queen of Knitwear, died in Paris after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, Authorities in eastern India struggled to evacuate more than 100,000 people stranded in villages after floods intensified, killing more than 300 and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, In northern Mexico 4 suspected gunmen were dead and seven police officers and two soldiers injured following a running gun battle near the US border.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 25, Russia launched large-scale snap military drills, putting its troops on full combat readiness in districts bordering Ukraine and the Baltic states.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, In Singapore the world's first self-driving taxis, operated by autonomous vehicle software startup nuTonomy, began picking up passengers. Six modified Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics, carried a driver in front who is prepared to take back the wheel and a researcher in back who watches the car's computers.
(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, Thailand's military government suspended Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the country's most senior elected official, on allegations of corruption and misuse of city funds. The order to suspend Sukhumbhand came hours after he left Bangkok for South Korea's capital, where he was due to take part in celebrations cementing the friendship between the two cities.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, The UN called for the creation of an independent international body to investigate an array of serious violations in war-torn Yemen.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, Minnesota's Gov. Mark Dayton ordered the broadest restrictions yet in a US state on the use of agricultural pesticides that have been blamed for hurting bees, fueling concerns that farmers there will not be able to protect crops from insects.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, Belgium-based AB Inbev said it expects to cut about 3 percent of its total workforce — equivalent to thousands of jobs — once it completes its huge takeover of its closest rival, SABMiller.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, China’s corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, charged Wang Baoan, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (2015-2016), with a variety of sins including moral decay and superstitious activities.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.61)
2016 Aug 26, In Colombia a judge ordered the arrest of the top ELN leaders for crimes that include their role in the destruction of oil pipelines. ELN rebels have yet to meet the government's precondition for peace talks of releasing all of their hostages and stop all kidnapping.
(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that Wang Jianping (62), deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, has been taken into custody in Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province for violating party discipline. Wang's wife and secretary were also detained.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, A top French court suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuits that has angered Muslims, feminists and civil liberties campaigners.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, PM Viktor Orban said Hungary will build a new, "more massive" fence on its southern borders to defend against a possible surge in the number of migrants.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Police in India's portion of Kashmir arrested Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of the key separatist leaders spearheading protests against Indian rule. Farooq, already under house arrest, was locked up in a government facility in Srinagar. A young man was killed and dozens of civilians were wounded when Indian government forces fired bullets and shotguns to quell unrest in over a dozen places including Srinagar.
(AP, 8/27/16)(SFC, 8/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 26, Israeli soldiers shot and killed an apparently unarmed Palestinian who ran toward their position in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. The incident was under review.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Kenya to launch the Tokyo Int’l. Summit on African Development which 35 heads of state are expected to attend.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Kenya Francis Paul, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), was arrested as investigators probed allegations of mismanagement and corruption at the Rio Games. His deputy James Chicha and Stephen Ara Sou, who headed the Kenyan delegation to Rio, were both arrested at Nairobi airport on their return from the Brazil Games.
(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Mexico Edgar Juvanny Parra Zambada (42), the nephew of Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was shot dead alongside another victim in the streets of Culiacan, Sinaloa state.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, Nicaraguan officials said the first baby with the birth defect of microcephaly has been born to a mother infected with the Zika virus.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Nepal at least 20 people were killed and another 17 hurt when bus drove off a highway and plunged into the Trishuli river near Chandibhanjyang.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In central Norway 323 wild reindeer werre killed by lighting on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 26, Philippine Maoist rebels announced an indefinite cease-fire in peace talks in a joint statement with government officials at the end of weeklong talks in Norway. Government troops killed at least 11 Abu Sayyaf militants, including an influential commander, in an assault on the extremists following their beheading of a captive whose family was too poor to pay ransom.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Singapore's air quality deteriorated to unhealthy levels as winds blew smoke from fires on Sumatra, where millions of people are already affected by haze, across the city-state and into southern Malaysia. Six Indonesian provinces have declared states of emergency.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Somalia's security forces ended an overnight siege of the Benadir Beach restaurant in Mogadishu by al-Shabab gunmen. The dead included six civilians, two members of the security forces and two of the attackers.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In South Korea Lotte Group's vice chairman Lee In-won (69) was found dead as authorities widened a probe into corruption at the country’s fifth-largest business group.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Syria besieged residents and rebels began leaving the Damascus suburb of Daraya, beginning an an evacuation to end one of the longest stand-offs in the five-year war.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Tunisia's Parliament approved Youssef Chahed (41) as prime minister along with a new government focused on boosting the economy and fighting terrorism.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Turkey 11 police officers were killed and 78 people injured in a suicide truck bombing in Cizre. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Turkish counterterrorism police conducted simultaneous operations at 20 locations early today, detaining 17 suspected IS members. Police "liberated" over two dozen students in one of their schools.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Istanbul inaugurated the $3 billion Selim Bridge, named after the 16th-century Ottoman sultan. The third bridge spanning the Bosphorus Strait was touted as the world's widest suspension bridge, featuring 10 lanes including two rail lines and spanning over 1,400 meters.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Yemen’s rebel news media said overnight airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition in the northern city of Saada killed 11 civilians, including women and children.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Zimbabwe police battled anti-government protesters in Harare with batons, tear gas and water cannons, despite a court order that police should not to interfere with the demonstration.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 27, The global fertility rate has crashed from 5.1 babies per woman in 1964 to 2.5 today.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.10)
2016 Aug 27, Afghan security forces withdrew from the Janikhail district headquarters of Paktia province to prevent civilian casualties. At least 5 police officers were killed and five others were wounded in heavy fighting.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Police in Bangladesh killed 3 suspected militants, including Tamim Chowdhury, the alleged mastermind of a major attack on a cafe last July 1 that left 20 people dead. The militants belonged to the banned group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB).
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, An Egyptian court ordered the release of rights lawyer Malek Adly. He had been held without charge in solitary confinement for over 100 days after defying President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Voting started in Gabon, where Pres. Ali Bongo Ondimba was trying to overcome a coalition of high-profile opponents to win re-election and maintain a family dynasty that stretches back to the 1960s. Gabon does not have a runoff system, meaning he does not have to win more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round to win.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Errol Austin, a captain in an Amerindian village in western Guyana, said land certificates given to them last year by ex-President Donald Ramotar's administration, haven't been recognized by the South American nation's mines and lands commissions.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Iran Brig. Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, head of an Iranian military unit in charge of combatting cybersabotage, acknowledged Iran's petrochemical industry had been the target of cyberattacks. He put the blame on imported and installed components at the facilities.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Kenya Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told African leaders that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development, education and healthcare expansion in the continent.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Malaysia nearly a thousand protesters marched in the heart of the Kuala Lumpur calling for the arrest of an unnamed high-ranking government official who US investigators say received $700 million skimmed from the sovereign state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The unnamed official is PM Najib Razak, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Moldovan police fired tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters during a parade to mark the former Soviet republic's independence day. Figures published this week found that more than a quarter of Moldova's citizens have emigrated for work, and more than half of them work in Russia.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Pakistan a shootout erupted late today on the edge of Lahore when gunmen tried to break the militants out of police custody. 4 Islamic extremists, allegedly involved in a 2009 attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, were killed in the shootout with police.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In northern Paraguay suspected members of the little-known Paraguayan People's Army killed 8 soldiers in an attack in Arroyito. The group was blamed last year in the killing of a German couple.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In the Philippines about 20 heavily-armed fighters of the Maute militant group stormed the Lanao del Sur provincial jail in Marawi city before nightfall, disarmed the guards and rescued eight comrades, including three women. The attack also allowed 15 other inmates to escape from the provincial jail.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Russia a fire in a Moscow printing plant killed 17 people. A representative of the Kyrgyz diaspora in Russia said all the dead were members of its community. Some 500,000 Kyrgyz citizens worked in Russia.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Saudi Arabia a rocket fired from Yemen killed a three-year-old boy in Najran.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 27, South Africa's wealthy Gupta family, with influential ties to Pres. Jacob Zuma, said they plan to sell all their business interests in the country by the end of the year.
(AFP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, Spanish police said they have arrested 57 people and dismantled an illegal immigration ring giving Chinese citizens Spanish residency permits through fake job contracts as domestic staff.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Turkish authorities arrested three former top diplomats over the failed July 15 coup, including a senior official who brokered a meeting between the then premier and the US-based preacher blamed for the plot.
(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Turkey sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against jihadists and Kurdish fighters. One Turkish soldier was killed and three more wounded in a rocket attack by Kurdish militia on two tanks taking part in the offensive.
(AP, 8/27/16)(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Uzbekistan's authoritarian Pres. Islam Karimov (78) suffered a brain hemorrhage and was in stable condition in intensive care.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 27, Venezuela sent opposition leader Daniel Ceballos, who was under house arrest, back to jail and expelled a delegation of Ecuadoran lawmakers, amid rising political tension over a campaign to recall leftist President Nicolas Maduro.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Yemen warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition struck a rebel convoy near a taxi stand outside Taez late today, killing 7 civilians and 9 insurgents.
(AFP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 28, In northwestern Indiana Justin L. Babbs (20), Richard Thomas (23) and Kimberly Spears (39) were killed in Sumava Resorts, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Gary. In 2018 Derrick Cardosi was convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison. His co-defendant, Sebastian Wedding, pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/y34kjyhp)(AP, 8/8/19)
2016 Aug 28, In Hawaii six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation, where they lived in a dome on a Mauna Loa mountain. NASA funded the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Louisiana a Honduran man who had entered the US illegally drove a bus that hit a fire truck on an elevated highway near New Orleans killing two people.
(SFC, 8/29/16, p.A10)
2016 Aug 28, In NYC Beyonce dominated the MTV Video Music Awards as she won eight awards and awed the audience with a fiery dance medley with an unstated political message.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, The Afghan Taliban appointed Mullah Ibrahim Sadar, once a close ally of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar, as its new military chief. His appointment heralded a commitment to confrontation at a time when multiple governments are trying to coax the Taliban to the negotiating table.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 28, In central Afghanistan 2 women and a man were killed while eight others were wounded, mostly women and children, when a rodside bomb went off near Ferozkoh, the provincial capital of Ghor province.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Australia Sydney police allegedly found 95 kg (209 pounds) of cocaine in the cabin luggage of Andre Tamine (63), Isabelle Lagace (28) and Melina Roberce (22), all Canadian passengers on the MS Sea Princess cruise ship. The haul was valued at 31 million Australian dollars ($23 million).
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In southern China 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a bus overturned on a highway in Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 28, Egypt’s government reimposed it zero tolerance on wheat with ergot, a common fungus. Most countries allowed grain with up to .05% ergot.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.43)
2016 Aug 28, Gabon's main opposition candidate Jean Ping claimed victory in weekend presidential polls, but incumbent Ali Bongo's camp said the call was "dangerous and illegal" before official results.
(AFP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Iraq five attackers and a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and injured 16 at a wedding party in the oasis town of Ain al-Tamer 50 km from Karbala late today. The IS claimed responsiility. All the attackers were killed by security forces.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Libya forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government pushed into the last areas of Sirte held by the IS group in what was the jihadists' coastal stronghold. At least 34 Libyan fighters were killed and more than 180 wounded as they closed in on the militant holdouts.
(AFP, 8/28/16)(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, Juan Gabriel (66), Mexico’s greatest modern pop singer, died. He was born as Alberto Aguilera Valadez and had his first hit in 1971 with “No tengo dinero" (I have no money).
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.78)
2016 Aug 28, In Saudi Arabia cross-border shelling from Yemen killed 3 children and wounded nine other people.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, Singapore officials said at least 41 people have been infected locally by the Zika virus, most of them foreign workers at a construction site.
(AFP, 8/28/16)(SFC, 8/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 28, Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
(Reuters, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 29, The United States and India signed an agreement governing the use of each other's land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defense ties as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that bans the use of bullhooks and other devices to control elephants, the latest victory for animal rights activists who condemn the practice.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, Australian officials said aid worker Kerry Jane Wilson, kidnapped in Afghanistan in April, has been freed by Afghan forces after four months in captivity. Wilson was kidnapped on April 28 in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, In Belgium several attackers rammed a car through the gates of the national crime laboratory in Brussels and then started a fire in what prosecutors said may have been an attempt to destroy evidence. Five people were arrested.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff told senators in emotional testimony at her trial that voting for her impeachment would amount to a "coup d'etat."
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Zhang Chunxian, China’s Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, was moved to a new, yet undisclosed job. He was succeeded by Chen Quanguo.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 29, In Colombia a ceasefire between the FARC and the government went into effect, ending 52 years of warfare.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Egypt's parliament agreed to establish a value-added tax of 13 percent, in a move authorities hope will generate much-needed state revenue and advance a reform program supported by loans from the International Monetary Fund.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, The Italian coastguard rescued some 6,500 migrants off the coast of Libya in one of its busiest days of life-saving in recent years.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, In western Japan a shooting at a small construction company in Wakayama killed one employee and left three others injured. On August 31 suspect Yasuhide Mizobata ended an 18-hour standoff with police by shooting himself in the stomach, and was taken to a hospital where he reportedly died.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 29, Kashmir authorities lifted a curfew imposed in most parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir as part of a 52-day security lockdown, but reimposed it later in the day in most of Srinagar, the region's main city, after anti-India protests and clashes erupted in several neighborhoods.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto fired federal police chief Enrique Galindo over allegations police summarily executed at least 22 suspected members of a drugs cartel and killed eight others during a protest.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, In Somalia al Shabaab fighters attacked military bases housing government and African Union troops south west of Mogadishu late today. One soldier and 2 al Shabaab fighters were killed in the attack in K-50 and Muri in the Lower Shabelle region.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, Colin Waters, secretary of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), addressed the Int’l. Geological Congress in Cape Town and said there was good reason to ringing down the curtain on the Holocene, the present 12,000-year old geological epoch, and recognizing that Earth has entered a new one, the Anthropocene. Most AWG members put the turning point at 1964, the high-point of nuclear weapons testing.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.69)
2016 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its armed forces carried out 57 artillery strikes on 16 militant targets in northern Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, In Yemen a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group in the southern city of Aden killed at least 54 pro-government recruits who had been preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen's north.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 30, Cambodian police arrested 64 people from mainland China and Taiwan, accusing them of taking part in an internet scam. They were accused of defrauding victims in China using phone calls made over the internet.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, The EU ordered Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, saying deals allowing the US tech giant to pay almost no tax were illegal. Apple derided the ruling. Ireland’s tax collection agency, the Revenue Commissioners, insisted that Apple hasn’t dodged a penny of lawfully calculated tax in Ireland.
(AfP, 8/30/16)(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Vera Caslavska (74), a seven-time Olympic gymnastics gold medalist who stood up against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, died in Prague.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 30, Greece's left-wing government launched an auction for four private national television licenses, reducing the number from seven after a heated public debate on corruption in the financially troubled country.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, More than 460 migrants and refugees arrived on Greek islands from Turkey, the highest in several weeks, despite a European Union deal with Ankara agreed in March to close off that route.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Iran’s state media reported that authorities have released Omid Kokabee, a man jailed while home from his graduate studies in Texas. He was arrested in February 2011 and convicted of having "relations with a hostile country" and receiving "illegitimate funds." The judiciary will allow Kokabee to enjoy "conditional freedom" for the rest of his 10-year sentence.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Israel's military overnight destroyed the home in Dura of Mohammed Abed Almajid Mohammed El-Amaira (38), a Palestinian accused of involvement in the July 1 shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that led to the death of a rabbi.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In northeastern Japan Typhoon Lionrock made landfall near the city of Ofunato, dumping heavy rain and generating high waves that caused flooding along the Pacific coast.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Kenyan scientist Andrew Mude (39) won the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application for developing livestock insurance, using state-of-the-art technologies, for herders in East Africa's drylands.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Kyrgyzstan a van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Bishkek, injuring three people. Only the suicide bomber died.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Montenegrin police used pepper spray to stop laid-off employees of an aluminum smelter from storming the parliament building.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Somalia a car bomb claimed by al Shabaab Islamist militants killed 5 soldiers outside the president's palace in Mogadishu and badly damaged two nearby hotels.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, A South African school was ordered to suspend allegedly racist hairstyle regulations after black pupils said they had been called monkeys by teachers for wearing banned 'afros'.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Syria top Islamic State group strategist and spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was killed. US coalition forces had targeted Adnani, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, in an air strike in Aleppo province.
(AFP, 8/31/16)(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Syria retired Iranian general Ahmad Gholami, died while fighting in Aleppo. He had served as a senior Revolutionary Guards commander in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 30, Venezuela set to expel a crew of Al Jazeera journalists who were intending to cover an opposition march against President Nicolas Maduro.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 31, President Barack Obama opened a two-day environmental tour aimed at showcasing conservation efforts before traveling to Asia. Obama visited Lake Tahoe to speak at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake's preservation. He then headed to Honolulu, for a speech to a gathering of leaders of island nations in the Pacific Ocean.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Australia's PM Malcolm Turnbull urged his political opponents to allow Australians to endorse gay marriage through a popular vote instead of insisting that the divisive issue be put into lawmakers' hands.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 to impeach Dilma Rousseff, the country’s first female president, making her join the ranks of nearly 12 million unemployed in Latin America's biggest country. The Senate also voted against banning her from politics for eight years, which had been widely considered automatic with an impeachment conviction.
(AFP, 9/1/16)(Econ, 9/3/16, p.29)
2016 Aug 31, The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was founded in London. It planned to build up a bank of candidate vaccines for as many as possible of the viral diseases that lurk on the edges of human society. Founders included the Wellcome, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economics Forum and the government of Norway.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.67)
2016 Aug 31, Cyprus and Egypt signed an agreement that paves the way for the upply of gas to the Arab nation via an undersea pipeline that officials hope will create a regional energy hub. The first gas through the new pipeline was expected to reach Egypt sometime between 2020 and 2022.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, In France the Marseille prosecutor's office said it has opened an investigation into trafficking and importing illegal drugs after workers at a Coca-Cola factory in Signes opened a shipment of orange juice but instead found 370 kg of cocaine.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Gabon security forces killed two people and wounded 19 late today at the headquarters of President Ali Bongo, as violence erupted after Bongo was declared the winner of the August 27 disputed polls. Officials results said Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes against 48.23 percent for Jean Ping,
(AFP, 9/1/16)(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Aug 31, Israeli authorities shut down the Palestinian Al-Sanabel radio station in the occupied West Bank in an overnight operation in Dura over "incitement" to violence. Five people, including the station director, were arrested.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Japan 9 people were killed when floods inundated an old people's home in the town of Iwaizumi, taking the death toll from Typhoon Lionock battering northern parts of the country to at least 11. As of Sep 2 the death toll reached 14.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Kashmir protests against Indian rule erupted at many places after authorities lifted a curfew throughout the disputed region for the first time in 54 days. A young man was killed and several others were injured in clashes between rock-throwing protesters and government forces.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Kazakhstan said it had arrested 21 members of radical groups plotting terror attacks in public places.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Lebanon a bomb blast on a road in the Bekaa Valley near Zahle killed at least one person and wounded four other people.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, The South Korean shipping giant Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protection and stopped accepting new cargo. With its assets being frozen, ships from China to Canada found themselves refused permission to offload or take aboard containers because there were no guarantees that tugboat pilots or stevedores would be paid. 66 ships were left stranded carrying goods worth $14.5 billion.
(AP, 9/2/16)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.53)
2016 Aug 31, In Yemen air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a house in northern Sanaa killing at least 16 civilians.
(SFC, 9/1/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 31, In Zimbabwe riot police patrolled Harare and other cities after authorities vowed to prevent further protests against President Robert Mugabe's government.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug, America’s National Security Agency (NSA) saw its own hacking tools leaked all over the internet by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.69)
2016 Aug, In Oregon Abby Beckley had 14 tiny worms removed from her left eye. She was diagnosed Thelazia gulosa, a type of worm seen in the northern US and southern Canada, but never before in humans.
(SFC, 2/14/18, p.A4)
2016 Aug, Kernel was launched by American entrepreneur Bryan Johnson with the intent of building devices for the treatment of neurological conditions and cognition enhancing brain implants.
(http://bryanjohnson.co/kernel-an-hi-company/)
2016 Aug, Steve Wynn opened his $4.2 billion Wynn Palace in Las Vegas.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.57)
2016 Aug, Intel paid more than $400 million for Nervana, a three-year-old start-up that was developing specialized artificial systems ranging from software to chips.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.54)
2016 Aug, A Botswana based team led the Great Elephant Census funded by Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft. The survey suggested that about 350,000 African savannah elephants remained alive, down 140,000 from 2007.
(Econ 6/17/17, p.72)
2016 Aug, The Brazilian government announced that it would suspend plans for the $9 billion Sao Luiz de Tapajos hydroelectric dam in the Amazon, citing likely impacts on indigenous people and the environment. Munduruku chief, Arnaldo Kaba Munduruku, made a five day journey from the Tapajos basin of northern Para State to London to win backing to fight on until the lands around the dam site are legally recognized as belonging to his people.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.29)
2016 Aug, In France Zhang Chaolin (49) was on his way with a friend to a restaurant in the suburb of Aubervilliers when three teens attacked them on the street. The father of two fell and hit his head on a wall, after being kicked in the chest, and died five days later. In 2018 Two suspects, who were 17 and 19 at the time of the assault, appeared in a juvenile court charged with violent robbery causing death and injury of a racist nature. A third, who was 15 at the time, was handed a two-year sentence at a separate trial.
(AFP, 6/15/18)
2016 Aug, Israel’s agriculture minister said that local cannabis growers will soon be allowed to export medical marijuana.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.42)
2016 Aug, In northeastern Nigeria an estimated that 240,000 children in Borno state were suffering from severe acute malnutrition according to UN estimates.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.41)
2016 Aug, A Russian court sentenced Alexander Belov, a leader of the banned Movement Against Illegal Immigrants (DPNI) to seven and a half years in jail.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.53)
2016 Sep 1, President Barack Obama visited Midway Atoll, the remote coral reef that serves as a reminder of both modern global climate challenges and the dominance the United States has held in the Pacific since its World War Two victory there.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Florida authorities said tests have found the Zika virus in mosquitoes from Miami, the first detected on continental US, confirming local transmission of the disease.
(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying the Israeli-built and -owned Amos 6 satellite that Facebook planned to use to beam high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said his company has put aside "several billion dollars" to pay tax liabilities in the United States as it repatriates some of its huge overseas earnings. Apple held nearly $215 billion in cash and securities outside the US, much of that generated by its Irish subsidiaries.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, In Afghanistan 2 people were killed in a bomb attack in front of the district governor's office in Logar province. The bomber was on foot and wearing police uniform. A firefight then broke out and 6 militants were killed and eight wounded. 2 policemen were wounded.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Australian scientists unveiled fossils dating back 3.7 billion years. Tiny structures called stromatolites were found in ancient rock along the edge of Greenland's ice cap. The earliest evidence of life on Earth ahead of the Greenland discovery came from near-3.5 million-year-old stromatolites found in western Australia in 2006.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, In Brazil Michel Temer (75) was sworn in as presient to replace Dilma Rousseff following a bitter impeachment fight.
(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, The European Union said that the official announcement of election results in Gabon had plunged the African country into a "deep crisis" and said that verification of each polling station result was required. Clashes across Libreville led to at least 3 deaths and up to 1,100 arrests.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, German officials said archaeologists in Berlin have unearthed a large number of human bones from a site close to where Nazi scientists carried out research on body parts of death camp victims sent to them by sadistic SS doctor Josef Mengele.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Iran said operations to build two new nuclear power plants in Bushehr with assistance from Russia will start on 10 September and it will take 10 years for the power plants to be completed.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Malaysia reported its first suspected case of Zika, a 58-year-old woman believed to have contracted it in neighbouring Singapore where more than 100 cases have been confirmed.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, In central Mongolia the body of British tourist Steve Nash (53) was found in Arkhangai province. He had been stabbed in the chest and died of blood loss. On Sep 14 police announced the arrest of a suspect in the killing.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 1, Pakistan's military said the Chaman border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan has reopened nearly two weeks after it was closed in response to Afghan protesters burning the Pakistani flag at a border rally.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, The Pakistani army announced that it had arrested 309 alleged IS operatives and sympathizers.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.34)
2016 Sep 1, In Syria opposition fighters seized several areas in a rapid advance against government forces in central Hama province, prompting a wave of regime air strikes. At least 25 civilians, including children, were killed in the strikes early today as fighting raged in parts of Hama.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, A coalition of NGOs led by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said evidence is growing that Russia is behind a significant increase in the use of cluster bombs in Syria. More than 400 people were reported killed or maimed by the banned munitions in the world last year.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Malaysia reported its first suspected case of Zika, a 58-year-old woman believed to have contracted it in neighbouring Singapore where more than 100 cases have been confirmed.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Russia’s new data-localization law went into effect. It requires that personal information from Russian citizens is kept in databases located in Russia.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.16)
2016 Sep 1, In western Slovenia a small plane crashed in rainy weather, killing 3 people on board.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, Turkey's NTV television reported that the country’s top judicial board has dismissed 543 more judges and prosecutors, the latest purge of officials suspected of sympathizing with those behind a July 15 failed coup. The government's Official Gazette announced that nearly 43,000 people have been expelled from their jobs in public institutions for alleged ties to terror organizations endangering national security since the failed coup.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, At the Vatican Pope Francis proposed that caring for the environment be added to the traditional seven works of mercy that Christians are called to perform, taking his green agenda to a new level by supplementing Jesus' Gospel call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Venezuelan opposition supporters descended on Caracas to press for a recall referendum this year against unpopular Socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 2, Hurricane Hermine made landfall early today near St. Marks, Florida, 20 miles south of Tallahassee, dumping heavy rains and packing winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) and leaving tens of thousands of households without power. It soon weakened to a tropical storm over land and plowed toward the Atlantic Coast.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Denmark residents of Copenhagen's semi-autonomous Christiania neighborhood tore down the area's hashish market after an alleged drug dealer shot two police officers and a bystander. The 25-year-old gunman escaped after the attack but was arrested after a shoot-out with police.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Gabon soldiers were deployed in Libreville as residents ventured back onto the streets, buying provisions and surveying damage after two days of riots sparked by a disputed presidential election. 2 people died after overnight post-election violence.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, The Greek government said only two of the country's seven private TV stations survived a landmark license auction that raised 246 million euros ($275 million) for the cash strapped left-wing government. The new licenses will take effect in 90 days, but the government faced multiple legal challenges.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Indian PM Narendra Modi and visiting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi agreed to boost cooperation in security and anti-terror efforts calling terrorism one of the gravest threats their countries face.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In India millions of public sector workers across the country went on strike to protest economic reforms, saying the government's plan for raising the country's minimum wage for unskilled workers did not go far enough.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Iraq a blast caused by a fire at a weapons storage depot in eastern Baghdad set off rockets that hit neighboring districts, killing at least 4 residents and injuring 14 others.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In northwest Pakistan two bombs killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens outside a court complex in the city of Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, hours after militants killed 2 people in a Christian neighborhood in the same region. Both attacks were claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a breakaway Pakistani Taliban faction.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In the Philippines a bombing at a Davao street market killed 15 people. Abu Sayyaf soon claimed responsibility for the attack but although police said they were still trying to authenticate the claim. On Oct 7 Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said troops have captured three suspects in the bombing. They were members of Maute, a small and relatively new Muslim militant group based in southern Lanao del Sur province that has wanted to align itself with the Islamic State movement.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Sep 2, A Philippines foreign ministry official said Southeast Asian countries and China will establish hotlines and adopt communications protocols to avoid potential naval clashes in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin had a rare meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Vladivastok but there was no breakthrough in a territorial dispute that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their WWII conflict.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched a major new survey on independence, saying the Brexit vote had changed the conditions that existed when Scotland voted against secession in 2014.
(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it is halting sales of its Galaxy Note 7 following battery explosions.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Turkey's Anadolu state-run news agency said one Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants. 20 Kurdish fighters were also reported killed during the clashes in Hakkari province that included Turkish airstrikes.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Uzbek President Islam Karimov (78) died after suffering a stroke, leaving no obvious successor to take over the Central Asian nation of 32 million people.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Venezuela scores of people banged pots and pans and jeered Pres. Nicolas Maduro during a visit to inspect state housing projects. Authorities briefly rounded up more than 30 people on Margarita island for heckling Maduro. Some 500 thousand to one million protesters gathered in Caracas calling for a recall referendum on Pres. Maduro.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 3, In Oklahoma a 5.6 earthquake, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the state, rattled the area northwest of Pawnee, fueling growing concern about seismic activity linked to energy production.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)(SSFC, 9/4/16, p.A8)
2016 Sep 3, Argentina's richest man according to Forbes, energy mogul Carlos Bulgheroni (71), died in the United States, where he was hospitalized following a surgical procedure in June. Bulgheroni, along with his brother Alejandro, owned Pan American Energy, Argentina's second-biggest oil company, behind state-run YPF.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)
2016 Sep 3, In Ethiopia as many as 23 people died in a fire at the Kilinto prison on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbgnw44)(SFC, 9/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 3, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from ultra-Orthodox partners, ordered routine railway repairs scheduled today, the Jewish Sabbath, to be halted.
(AP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 3, Myanmar’s government ended four days of peace talks with 17 insurgent groups. Days before the peace talks began Myanmar’s army had attacked Kachin Independence Army (KIA) positions.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.32)
2016 Sep 3, Singapore confirmed 26 more cases of locally-transmitted Zika infections bringing the tally to 215.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)
2016 Sep 3, Venezuela named publicly 18 military commanders to oversee the production and distribution of food and basic goods in an effort to alleviate severe shortages affecting the country.
(AFP, 9/3/16)
2016 Sep 4, President Barack Obama met with Myanmar leader Suu Kyi at the White House to discuss rolling back more of the sanctions that were applied when the nation was under military rule. Obama said the US will "soon" lift restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta.
(AP, 9/14/16)(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 4, In southern Afghanistan at least 38 people were killed when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in Zabul province.
(Reuters, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged G20 world leaders to avoid "empty talk" and confront sluggish economic growth and rising protectionism as their summit opened Sunday in the scenic city of Hangzhou.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Voters turned out in force for Hong Kong's most crucial election since the handover from Britain in 1997. Pro-democracy candidates won 30 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council, gaining a foothold in the southern Chinese city's legislature and setting the stage for a new round of political confrontations with Beijing. Six of the winning Legco candidates wanted Hong Kong to be more independent from China. Pro-democracy and environmentalist candidate Eddie Chu won more votes than any other candidate. Chu soon faced death threats stemming from his campaign promises.
(AP, 9/4/16)(AP, 9/5/16)(SFC, 9/21/16, p.A5)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.35)
2016 Sep 4, In the Indian portion of Kashmir around 100 people were injured as Indian government forces fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to quell thousands of protesters who pelted rocks and burned a government office.
(AP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Iranian state TV reported that the Islamic Republic has appointed its envoy to London for the first time since 2011.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 4, Israel’s transport minister, Yisrael Katz, canceled key train routes because of the delayed repairs. The government dispatched extra buses for some 90,000 affected commuters.
(AP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Israeli tank fire targeted a Hamas post on the Gaza Strip border overnight after gunfire at Israeli forces in the area, with no injuries reported.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Saudi Arabia said cross-border shelling from Yemen has killed a Saudi woman and wounded two other citizens in the southern Jazan region.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Thai police seized 3,155 kg (6,940 pounds) of marijuana from a warehouse in Chonburi. Police arrested two men from Thailand and Taiwan suspected of smuggling the marijuana from Laos for shipment to Australia.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Phyllis Schlafly (92), critic of American feminism, died. Her first book “A Choice Not an Echo", a 121-page self-published polemic, sold 3m copies and helped populist Barry Goldwater win the 1964 Republican nomination.
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.86)
2016 Sep 5, In Afghanistan twin bombings near the Defense Ministry in central Kabul killed at least 35 people, including two security force generals, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
(AP, 9/5/16)(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 5, Brazil's federal police launched an operation to investigate fraud at pension funds of major state-run companies, carrying out seven arrest warrants, over a hundred search warrants and freezing assets worth 8 billion reais ($2.46 billion).
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Britain appointed its envoy to Iran for the first time since 2011.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, China's government said it opposed efforts by certain candidates and organizations in Hong Kong elections to promote independence.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, China agreed to cooperate more closely with its trading partners on its politically volatile steel exports as G20 leaders ended a summit with a forceful endorsement of free trade and a crowded agenda that included the Koreas, Syria and refugees.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, At the G20 meeting in China Russia and Saudi Arabia announced that they would start working together to stabilize the market, including limiting output.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Indonesian police said they had broken up an online male prostitution ring and identified 148 young men and boys, at least one as young as 13, offering sexual services.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Iranian state media reported that police had closed more than 800 clothes shops to stop them selling "unconventional" women's coats. The coats in question tended to have nonsensical phrases such as "Keep Calm I'm the Queen" written on them, but they also had short arms and no buttons in the front.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Israeli police opened fire during an alleged car-ramming attack targeting officers in the Shuafat refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem killing passenger Mustafa Nimr (27). Israel's Channel 10 television later broadcast video of the incident that appeared to show shots being fired after the car was stopped, with Mustafa Nimr already on the ground either wounded or dead.
(AFP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 5, In Israel a floor collapsed during the construction of a four-storey underground parking structure in Tel Aviv. At least 4 people were killed and three remained missing.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 5, The Italian navy rescued nearly 500 boat migrants off the coast of Libya and recovered the bodies of six people who fell out of a leaking rubber vessel.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 6, The US Coast Guard said a south Louisiana pipeline has been secured after some 5,300 gallons of crude oil leaked near Bay Long. The pipeline had been struck by a dredge doing excavation.
(SFC, 9/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 6, In Afghanistan militants stormed a building housing an international aid organization in Kabul, provoking an overnight firefight with security forces in which three gunmen were killed and six civilians were wounded.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, President Barack Obama, in the first visit to Laos by a sitting US president, said the US has a "moral obligation" to help Laos heal and vowed to reinvigorate relations with a country with rising strategic importance to the US. Obama announced he would double spending for unexploded ordnance, committing $90 million over the three years.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, A German court dismissed appeals by 84 Russian athletes seeking to compete at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. Another 10 Russians had a similar application rejected a day earlier as punishment for state-backed doping in the country.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, In Iraq an overnight car bombing, claimed by the Islamic State group, struck a bustling commercial area of central Baghdad, killing at least 12 civilians.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit to the Netherlands, said the Dutch government will assist Israel in improving water and gas supplies to energy-strapped Gaza.
(Reuters, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, Italian police said they had broken up a criminal network that smuggled mostly Syrian refugees across the Balkans to Western Europe.
(Reuters, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 7, A US federal judge ordered wildlife managers to enlarge habitat protections in Idaho, Montana and Colorado for the Canada lynx, a rare wild cat that roams the Rockies and mountain forests of several other states.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, The city of Oakland, Ca., fired four police officers and suspended seven others in connection with a scandal involving a sex worker (19) from Richmond who calls herself Celeste Guap. The teenager has said she had sex with 29 law enforcement officers in the Bay Area in the past two years. On Sept. 29 Guap, aka Jasmine, filed claims seeking tens of millions of dollars in compensation from Richmond, San Francisco, Livermore and Alameda County.
(SFC, 9/8/16, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 7, An Egyptian court ordered the conditional release of four members of the satirical street performance group “Street Children," whose selfie-style video clips mocked President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, In Egypt a train went off the tracks south Cairo killing five people.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, Hong Kong politician Ken Chow of the pro-business Liberal Party said he was pressured to bow out of a city election to clear the field for a candidate favored by the Chinese government, which, if confirmed, could offer rare evidence of interference by Beijing in city politics.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, Iran state media reported that 8 members of the rebel Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) have been killed in overnight clashes with security forces along the Iraqi border in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, Italian rescuers brought more than 350 migrants to shore in Sicily, along with the bodies of five women and two men who had died on the perilous journey.
(Reuters, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, In Laos the ASEAN summit issued a mild rebuke of China over its expansionist activities in the disputed South China Sea, and indirectly urged it to show restraint and not raise tensions.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, Police in the Maldives raided the office of one of the country's leading news websites shortly after the broadcast of a television documentary that accused the country's president of corruption, money laundering and misrule.
(AP, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, Mexico Pres. Enrique Nieto Pena accepted the resignation of finance minister Luis Videgaray Caso (b.1968). The minister had suggested Donald Trump’s visit to Mexico. On Jan 4, 2017, Videgaray was brought back as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.27)(Econ, 1/14/17, p.29)
2016 Sep 8, President Barack Obama put the long-simmering dispute in the South China Sea front and center on the agenda at the regional ASEAN summit, as it became clear that most of the other leaders gathered in the Laotian capital were going to let China off with a mild rebuke over its territorial expansion in the resource-rich waters. Obama pledged more money to Laos to remove unexploded American bombs.
(AP, 9/8/16)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.69)
2016 Sep 8, US Banking firm Wells Fargo was fined $185 million for issuing credit cards without a customer’s consent, creating fake email acounts to sign up customers, and charging late on accounts that customers never knew they had.
(SFC, 9/9/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 8, In Afghanistan the Taliban pushed into Tirin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province, triggering fierce clashes and sending all government officials fleeing from the city.
(AP, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 8, In Brazil the 2016 Paralympic Games opened in Rio de Janeiro. The theme of the opening was: “The heart knows no limits; everybody has a heart."
(CSM, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 8, China's Ministry of Finance punished at least five car makers, accusing them of cheating its program to subsidize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, receiving roughly 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in illegal subsidies. By the next day it was reported that more than 20 additional car makers, including Nissan and Hyundai, were listed for breaking rules on green car subsidies, widening a scandal over a $4.5 billion annual payout program.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 8, An Indian court sentenced a man to death for killing his neighbor by throwing sulfuric acid at her for refusing to marry him three years ago. A Mumbai court sentenced Ankur Panwar after finding him guilty of killing Preeti Rathi (23). She died of serious burn injuries 30 days after the attack.
(AP, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 8, Israeli defense officials said that the government has begun work on a $530 million underground barrier along the border with Gaza meant to block Hamas militants from tunneling into Israel.
(SFC, 9/9/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 8, In Malaysia former prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (91) became the founding chairman of the new “Bersatu" (United) political party. Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin, a former UMNO deputy prime minister, founded Bersatu.
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.39)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.31)
2016 Sep 8, In Syria unidentified aircraft hit the Army of Conquest meeting late today, killing Fateh al-Sham Front rebel commander Abu Omar Saraqeb (Saraqib) and another rebel commander named as Abu Muslim al-Shami. Last July the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front was renamed Fateh al-Sham Front. The group numbered some 7,000 fighters, mostly from Syria.
(AFP, 9/9/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.56)
2016 Sep 8, In Yemen at least nine civilians, including four children, were killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on a residential building north of Sanaa.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 9, The US Congress sent Pres. Obama a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The White House has signaled that Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for it to undermine relations with the critical US ally.
(SFC, 9/10/16, p.A7)
2016 Sep 9, In Manhattan a father-son team of informants testified that they repeatedly lied to US investigators in order to secretly traffic drugs, even while they were working on a narcotics probe of two nephews of Venezuela's first lady. The Mexican-born 34-year-old son, referred to only as CS-2, said he has earned $400,000 as an informant. The 55-year-old father, called CS-1, said he has earned about $1 million since 2003. The nephews of Venezuela's first lady were arrested in November 2015 and were fighting US charges that they worked with others to try to send 800 kg of cocaine from Venezuela to Honduras for importation into the United States.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, In Argentina former intelligence agent Francisco Gomez was sentenced to 12 years in prison for crimes against humanity. In 1978 Gomez kidnapped newborn Guillermo Perez and raised him as his own while the boy’s parents languished in jail. Former Air Force chief Omar Graffigna and ex-Buenos Aires province intelligence chief Louis Tomas Trillo were sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 1978 abduction and forced disappearance of the parents.
(SSFC, 9/11/16, p.A7)
2016 Sep 9, Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha was sentenced to five months in jail in the latest faceoff between the government and opposition as political tensions over challenges to PM Hun Sen's longstanding autocratic rule show no signs of easing.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, The UN said its peacekeeping force in Congo has evacuated some 300 supporters of South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar, many of whom were wounded, acutely malnourished or in life-threatening condition.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, The head of Iran's Hajj Organization accused Saudi Arabia of deliberately barring Iranians from the pilgrimage and refusing to discuss security measures despite last year's deadly stampede. Thousands protested in Tehran for being barred from the annual hajj pilgrimage.
(AFP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, In Iraq a camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group was officially closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania. The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq had been based in Iraq since the 1980s, when they received arms and support from Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
(AP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 9, In Iraq two bomb blasts, claimed by the Islamic State group, hit just before midnight outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad killing at least 13 people.
(AFP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 9, The Dutch government says it is extending its involvement in a military training mission in Iraq until the end of 2017.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, North Korea conducted its 5th nuclear test with an explosive yield roughly twice the previous one. North Korea said it conducted a "higher level" nuclear test explosion that will allow it to finally build an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons. It was the North's fifth atomic test and the second in eight months.
(AP, 9/9/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.38)
2016 Sep 9, Palestinian Abdel-Rahman Al-Dabbagh (18) was killed during a rock-throwing protest near the Gaza-Israel border A Palestinian health official said Israeli soldiers shot him, but the Israeli army said troops were not responsible.
(Reuters, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 9, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte gave Indonesian forces the right to pursue pirates into Philippine waters saying: “blow them up."
(SFC, 9/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 10, Democrat Hillary Clinton partially apologized for saying a day earlier that "half" of Republican Donald Trump's supporters are "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic" people who belong in a "basket of deplorables".
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 10, The US and Russia agreed to a cease-fire in Syria. The 10-day cease-fire was not slated to begin until the evening of Sept. 12.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 10, In Hawaii the International Union for Conservation of Nature voted to call on every country to shut down domestic ivory markets that threaten elephants. The group has 1,300 members from more than 160 countries, but no enforcement power.
(AP, 9/11/16)
2016 Sep 10, Scientists in Argentina uncovered a meteorite they called Gancedo in "Campo del Cielo" (Field of Heaven) on the border between Chaco and Santiago del Estero. It was thought to have hit the region about 4,500 years ago.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gancedo_(meteorite))(Reuters, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 10, In China a new scholarship program, founded in 2013 by Wall Street tycoon Stephen Schwarzman and intended to rival the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships and build understanding between China and the world, opened its doors at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University.
(AP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Finland Jesse Torniainen (26), a neo-Nazi activist, kicked Jimi Joonas Karttunen (28) in the chest during a demonstration in Helsinki. Karttunen died of his injuries six days later. On Dec 30 Torniainen was sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting Karttunen.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Sep 10, Iran began building a second nuclear plant with Russian help, in a $10 billion project which follows Tehran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers last year.
(Reuters, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Mexico tens of thousands of people across the country marched to protest against gay marriage, challenging President Enrique Pena Nieto's proposal to recognize same-sex marriage throughout the traditionally conservative country.
(Reuters, 9/11/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Pakistan gunmen killed Dr. Zaka Ullah. He was instrumental in an anti-polio drive in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 10, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics urged customers to stop using Galaxy Note 7 smartphones immediately and exchange them as soon as possible. The company said it had confirmed 35 cases of the phone catching fire as of Sep 1.
(SSFC, 9/11/16, p.A3)
2016 Sep 10, The Hanjin container ship Greece, that was stranded off the California coast for more than a week, began unloading after a judge protected the global shipping giant from having its assets seized in the US as it struggles to avoid bankruptcy. The ship was one of four vessels that were blocked from entering or leaving the port after Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 31 in South Korea and the US on Sept. 2.
(AP, 9/11/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Saudi Arabia nearly 1.5 million Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites.
(AFP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 10, In northern Yemen Saudi-led airstrikes on a water well reportedly killed 30 people and wounded 17. The casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 11, Miss America 2017 was crowned in Atlantic City, New Jersey, this evening in a live televised event on ABC. Savvy Shields, currently Miss Arkansas, won the event.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, Voters in Croatia went to the polls for a parliamentary election.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, Iran's former prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, Saeed Mortazavi apologized for his role in 2009 accidents at Kahrizak detention center which resulted in the deaths of three political prisoners including Mohsen Rouholamini.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, Forces loyal to Libyan general and former US citizen Khalifa Haftar, commander of the elected Council of Deputies military, seized control of the ports of Sidra, Ra's Lanuf, Brega and Zuwetina.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, The North Korean government called American threats of additional sanctions in response to its nuclear ambitions "laughable" and "meaningless".
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 11, In Syria about 100 people, including at least 28 children, were killed since the United States and Russia announced a truce agreement a day earlier.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 11, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their allies attacked a Saudi post in the border region of Jizan with artillery, rockets and light arms before taking it over. Jizan is one of several southern Saudi regions that some Yemenis claim were illegally annexed by Saudi Arabia in the last century.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 12, The five-star Trump Int’l. Hotel opened in Washington, DC, in the Old Post Office building.
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.77)
2016 Sep 12, Former California Assemblyman Thomas Calderon was sentenced to one year in prison for helping his brother, state senator Ron Calderon, hide bribes from an undercover FBI agent to support tax credits for the film industry.
(SFC, 9/13/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 12, In the SF Bay Area police officer Sgt. Doug Ulrich fired four shots at Eugene Craig (86) during a welfare check at the man's home in Saratoga. Craig had a gun in hand and refused to drop it. In 2018 the Santa Clara district attorney's office found the shooting justified.
(SFC, 3/7/18, p.D4)
2016 Sep 12, US-based Hewlett-Packard said it is buying Samsung Electronics Co.'s printer business in a transaction worth $1.05 billion. HP Inc. said that it is the largest print acquisition in the company's history and will help it go from traditional copiers to multifunction printers.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, In southern Afghanistan two militants stormed into a hospital in the city of Kandahar, killing at least one civilian before security forces killed the assailants.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, Austria delayed a re-run of a presidential election as faulty glue on postal ballots scuppered its second attempt to organize a ballot that could give the European Union its first far-right head of state.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, In Brazil the Chamber of Deputies stripped the congressional seat from Eduardo Cunha in a 450-10 vote. He had been accused of numerous corruption allegations and obstructing justice. Cunha was in his fourth term and just months ago was considered one of the most powerful men in Brazil.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 12, A gay Chinese student activist lodged a suit against the Ministry of Education over school textbooks describing homosexuality as a mental disorder, the latest step by China's small but growing gay rights movement.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, China's main border post with reclusive North Korea was packed with trucks carrying everything from bricks to exhaust pipes, as it re-opened for business for the first time since Pyongyang angered the world with its fifth nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, The Chinese and Russian navies launched eight days of war games in the South China Sea, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, India's technology hub of Bengaluru deployed riot police and banned public gatherings to rein in protests as a water dispute turned violent. The violence erupted after India's Supreme Court ordered Karnataka state, where Bengaluru is based, to release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second every day from the Cauvery river to neighboring Tamil Nadu until Sept. 20. Police gunfire killed one protester and injured another after rampaging mobs set fire to dozens of buses, trucks and cars and attacked shops and businesses in Bangalore and other parts of the state. Police arrested nearly 400 people for looting and vandalism after the curfew was imposed to quell violence.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)(AP, 9/13/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.40)
2016 Sep 12, A government source said Italy will set up a military hospital and deploy 300 doctors, nurses and soldiers in Libya at the request of the United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, About 10,000 Taiwan tourism operators and workers marched to a square in front of the presidential hall to demand that the government take steps to help their businesses, hard hit by worsening ties with mainland China.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, A Vietnamese court approved a Malaysian request for the extradition of eight Indonesians suspected of hijacking a Malaysian oil tanker more than a year ago, and rejected a similar request from Indonesia. The eight were arrested in June last year when they arrived on Tho Chu island off Vietnam's southern coast and admitted that they had hijacked the oil tanker MT Orkim Harmony.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 13, The United States sent two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers streaking over ally South Korea in a show of force meant to cow North Korea after its recent nuclear test, and also to settle rattled nerves in the South.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, Wells Fargo said it will eliminate all product sales goals following revelations that some 5,300 branch employees were fired for openign accounts with customer’s knowledge.
(SFC, 9/14/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 13, In Brazil a fire began at the Estrada de Alpina slum in Sao Paulo and quickly took hundreds of homes in its path. The favela is thought to contain about 500 homes.
(Reuters, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 13, Cambodia released more than 200 nearly extinct royal turtles in muddy waters at a new breeding and conservation center that was built in hopes of keeping the national reptile from disappearing.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, China's national legislature expelled 45 deputies representing the northeastern province of Liaoning over allegations of electoral fraud.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2013 Sep 13, Chinese police fired rubber bullets at villagers in Wukan, Guangdong province, and arrested about 70 people in an overnight crackdown to suppress demonstrations in the fishing village that became internationally known five years ago for protesting land seizures.
(AP, 9/13/16)(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 13, Indian and foreign technology companies including global outsourcing firm Accenture closed offices and told staff to stay home in the technology hub of Bengaluru after riots over the diversion of water from a river.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir two anti-India protesters were killed and scores were injured in clashes with security forces.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, The Israeli military struck artillery positions in Syria after a projectile from that country's civil war hit the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights, but denied a Syrian claim that Syrian forces shot down two Israeli aircraft.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, Israel’s former Pres. Shimon Peres (93) suffered a major stroke and was hospitalized in Tel Aviv.
(SFC, 9/14/16, p.A3)
2016 Sep 13, In Italy Tiziana Cantone (31) committed suicide after failing in a long legal battle to get a pornographic video removed from the internet. On Sep 16 Italian prosecutors in Naples said they have opened an investigation into possible charges of instigation to suicide.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 13, In Macao Sheldon Adelson (83) opened his Parisian Macao, a 3,000-room resort on the Cotai Strip.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.58)
2016 Sep 13, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed 2 police officers in Quetta. Another three were wounded as they foiled a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Shikarpur.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, The Philippines moved to shore up relations with the United States with guarantees that a treaty between them would be honored and security ties were "rock solid", despite President Rodrigo Duterte's railings against Washington. President Rodrigo Duterte said he won't allow government forces to conduct joint patrols of disputed waters near the South China Sea with foreign powers, apparently scrapping a deal his predecessor reached with the US military earlier this year. Duterte told his defense secretary to buy weapons from Russia and China rather than America.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)(AP, 9/13/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 13, Somalia hosted regional African heads of state for a summit that was the first of its kind since the nation plunged into conflict in 1991. The one-day meeting in Mogadishu of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) included Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, In Spain a small group of local people and anti-bullfighting activists scuffled and exchanged insults at a centuries-old Spanish festival in the town of Tordesillas, where for the first time in its history the gory killing of a bull was banned and the beast was unharmed.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, The World Health Organization said yellow fever outbreaks in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are "under control" after a massive vaccination campaign involving millions.
(AFP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 14, Human and civil rights organizations launched a public campaign to persuade Pres. Obama to pardon Edward Snowden for revealing the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs.
(SFC, 9/15/16, p.A6)
2016 Sep 14, The United States signed an unprecedented security agreement with Israel that will give the Israeli military $38 billion over 10 years.
(SFC, 9/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 14, A US report released today said that widespread corruption in Afghanistan has undermined efforts to rebuild the country and urged the US mission to make anticorruption efforts a top priority.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, US Interior Sec. Sally Jewell gave final approval for a renewable energy development plan within nearly 11 million acres of public land in California’s Mojave Desert.
(SFC, 9/15/16, p.D1)
2016 Sep 14, In Afghanistan insurgents killed five people, including a former warlord, in the northern Baghlan province. The ambush targeted Samar, who served as a mujahedeen commander during the 1980s struggle against the Soviet Union.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2013 Sep 14, In China reporters from two Hong Kong newspapers, the South China Morning Post and the Chinese-language Ming Pao, were assaulted while conducting interviews with Wukan villagers and later detained for several hours. Wukan remained under siege two days after police arrested 13 protesters on allegations that they incited violence and arrest.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 14, In India PM Narendra Modi and Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghanicalled for an end to all sponsorship, support and sanctuaries to militants, including those who have committed violence in the two countries. India offered a fresh $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan for building capacity in education, health, agriculture, energy and infrastructure. They also signed an extradition treaty.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, Indonesian police captured Muhammad Basri, a senior figure from the East Indonesia Mujahideen militant group, and killed one of the group's members in a joint operation with the military.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, Indonesia said the country’s highest Islamic council has issued a fatwa on burning land and forests in an effort to halt the toxic smog that blankets the region each year.
(Reuters, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, In Iran a gas leak and fire at the Mobin Petrochemical Factory that services the South Pars gas field injured four workers.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 14, South Africa said rangers in Kruger National Par are killing about 350 hippos and buffalos in an attempt to relieve the impact of the region's most severe drought in more than three decades.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, Parts of Taiwan came to a standstill as super typhoon Meranti brought the strongest winds in 21 years. China issued a red alert for waves as the storm bore down on the mainland.
(AFP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 15, Brazil's federal police said they were conducting search and seizure warrants as part of an investigation into fraudulent public contracts that includes loans from the country's massive state development bank BNDES.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, The British government approved the construction of the country's first new nuclear power plant in more than two decades. The French and Chinese-backed Hinkley Point plant had prompted high-level fears about national security.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, China launched the Tiangong 2, its second space station, atop a Long March 7 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
(SFC, 9/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 15, In northern China 4 people, including two children, died in a plane crash during an air show in Hebei province.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, In China Typhoon Meranti swept into Fujian province after hitting Taiwan, leaving a total of two dead and dozens injured. Meranti killed at least 28 people in China, one in Taiwan and cut power to more than a million homes.
(AP, 9/15/16)(AP, 9/17/16)(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 15, Congo DRC Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said the Democratic Republic of Congo will form an interim government that includes opposition members, as part of a deal to set up new elections and break a political impasse.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, The European Union said it has admitted Indonesia to a special licensing system it hopes will prevent the illegally felled tropical timber that makes up a substantial part of the country's wood production from being shipped to the 28-nation bloc.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, The European Union's border agency Frontex said some 23,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy in August, most crossing the Mediterranean from Libya on what has become the main immigration route into Europe.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, Deutsche Bank confirmed that America’s Dept. of Justice had asked for $14 billion to settle possible claims connected with the underwriting and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBSS) between 2005 and 2007.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.71)
2016 Sep 15, In India thousands of indigenous people rallied in the eastern state of Jharkhand, protesting against the government's proposal to amend decades-old land laws, saying it would deprive them of their rights.
(Reuters, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, India detained Khurram Parvez (39), a leading Kashmiri human rights activist, a day after it stopped him from boarding a flight to attend a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. Parvez has spoken out against the use of force in an ongoing security crackdown.
(Reuters, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, In India Tariq Hameed Karra, a founding member of the People's Democratic Party, resigned from India's Parliament and from his regional party to protest a government crackdown in Kashmir that prevented people from offering Eid prayers for the first time in the troubled region.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, In Indonesia 2 foreign tourists were killed and about 20 other people were injured in an explosion on a speedboat that was ferrying them from the tourist island of Bali to neighboring Lombok.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, A local Japanese official said that hundreds of horseshoe crabs -- known as "living fossils" because they are among the Earth's oldest creatures -- have been found dead near Kitakyushu city where they lay their eggs.
(AFP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, In Mexico thousands of protesters marched through Mexico City to demand the resignation of Pres. Enrique Nieto Pena over a sluggish economy and a renewed rise in violent crime. Pena’s approval rating had dropped to 23%.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.36)
2016 Sep 15, Pakistani police arrested the father, husband and brother of a woman who was tortured and hanged alongside her alleged boyfriend in a family courtyard in eastern Punjab province. Khalida Bibi, a married mother-of-three, and her alleged boyfriend, Mohammad Mukhtar (21), were murdered in a so-called honor killing in the village of Mian Channu.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, A Pakistani express train crashed into a freight train killing at least four people and injuring 93.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, It was reported that private banks in Singapore are sharing with local police the names of clients embracing an Indonesian tax amnesty. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) confirmed in a statement that it has advised local banks to encourage their clients to use tax amnesty programs to regularize their tax affairs.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, Ocean Tankers, the Singapore-based owner of the two 74,000 ton ships, the Chao Hu and the Hong Ze Hu, confirmed that the vessels were being denied permission to leave the Red Sea port of Hodeida, Yemen's second-biggest port, which is controlled by the Houthi movement that also holds the capital Sanaa.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, In Uganda two activists of the self-styled Jobless Brotherhood released ten piglets outside parliament to protest a decision by MPs to award themselves $59,000 each on fancy new cars.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.47)
2016 Sep 16, Oklahoma police Officer Betty Shelby shot a black man who ignored repeated requests to put up his hands before reaching into an SUV that was stalled in the middle of a street in Tulsa. Terence Crutcher (40) died at a hospital following the shooting. Police dash cam video showed Crutcher with his hands up and no weapon was found at the scene.
(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.A11)(SFC, 919/16, p.A5)(SFC, 9/20/16, p.A10)
2016 Sep 16, A British judge ruled that Lauri Love (31), man accused of hacking into US government computer systems and stealing confidential information, should be extradited to the United States to face trial. Love was arrested in 2013 on suspicion of computer crimes but has not been charged in Britain.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, Canadian novelist W.P. Kinsella (81), author of “Field of Dreams" (1982), died in Hope, British Columbia. The book became the blueprint for the 1989 Oscar-nominated film of the same name.
(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.C2)
2016 Sep 16, In Central African Republic by militia fighters killed 6 people and wounded several more in attacks in the central Kaga Bandoro region, the fiefdom of the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), an ex-Seleka splinter group, led by Noureddine Adam.
(AFP, 9/18/16)(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 16, In northwestern China the government of Gansu province said that three officials face possible dismissal and three others have been reprimanded over the case of Yang Gailan, a villager (28) who axed her four young children to death and killed herself because she couldn't feed them. Yang's husband killed himself a week later.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 16, In southern Iran a soldier killed himself after shooting to death three of his comrades.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Israel three alleged assailants were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis, shattering weeks of relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (b.1920), former PM (1993-1994) and President (1999-2006), died. He was a highly respected economist who helped usher in the euro as treasury minister.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Kenya angry protesters marched in Nairobi against plans to build an elevated railway line over the country's oldest national park, saying the project will threaten wildlife that includes lions, leopards and giraffes.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Myanmar seven soldiers were jailed for killing villagers in Shan State, a rare punishment for abuses by the army.
(AFP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 16, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a Sunni mosque in Ambar, killing at least 36 worshippers and wounding 28 others.
(AP, 9/16/16)(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, China’s government raised their alert to "orange" for Typhoon Malakas, just as southeastern provinces continue to clean up after an earlier, stronger storm.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels said they will continue their fight for social justice under a peace deal with the government at the opening of the group's final congress as an armed group.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, An Egyptian court upheld a decision to freeze the assets of several prominent human rights campaigners. The five activists named in the court ruling include Gamal Eid and Bahey eldin Hassan, who head two well-known human rights organizations, as well as investigative reporter Hossam Bahgat, also the founder of a rights group.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system destroyed two rockets fired from Syria at the Israeli-held zone of the Golan Heights in an apparent rise in tension between the uneasy neighbors.
(AFP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron before being shot dead, the army said, in the fourth such attack in under 24 hours. Forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death.
(AFP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, In Saudi Arabia unknown gunmen killed two security officers late today in the eastern city of Dammam, an area heavily populated by Shiites.
(AP, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 17, Venezuela took over the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement as only 12 heads of state arrived for the two days of meetings on the Caribbean island of Margarita. Venezuela did not respond to a request for a list of attendees for the 17th meeting of the group.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Afghanistan a US airstrike killed a policeman at a checkpoint outside the Uruzgan provincial capital of Tirin Kot. A 2nd US airstrike struck the same area and killed 7 others in what was apparently a friendly-fire incident.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 18, Czech police detained Oleg Vorotnikov (38), a founding member of the Russian underground art collective Voina, wanted in Russia over a series of high-profile stunts that authorities branded insulting and violent. Vorotnikov was released on Sep 21 and allowed to stay in the Czech Republic during extradition proceedings. Prague had not yet received an official extradition request, which must be filed within 40 days.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 18, A Palestinian attacker stabbed an Israeli army officer in the chest near a West Bank settlement and moderately wounded him, before Israeli soldiers shot the attacker and apprehended him.
(AP, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Kashmir a separatist attack on an army base in Uri near the disputed frontier killed 18 soldiers. 4 rebels were killed as the soldiers returned fire. India accused Pakistan of being behind the attack.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)(SFC, 919/16, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Pakistan two gunmen on a motorcycle killed 3 soldiers near the northwestern city of Peshawar. Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 18, Russia held elections for a new national parliament. Vladimir Putin won even greater supremacy over Russia's political system after the ruling United Russia party took three quarters of the seats in parliament, paving the way for him to run for a fourth term as president. The official turnout was 48%.
(AP, 9/18/16)(AP, 9/19/16)(Econ, 9/24/16, p.50)
2016 Sep 18, Moscow said air strikes by a US-led coalition on the Syrian army threatened the implementation of a US-Russian ceasefire plan for Syria and bordered on connivance with Islamic State.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 18, The Syrian military said one of its war planes had been downed in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor during an operation against Islamic state, where the militant group has been under intense air strikes in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 19, Ahmad Khan Rahami (Rahimi), an Afghan-born American suspect (28) wanted in connection with Sept. 17 bombings in New York and New Jersey, was taken into custody after being wounded in a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey.
(AFP, 9/19/16)(SFC, 10/14/16, p.A6)(SFC, 10/17/17, p.A7)
2016 Sep 19, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law what he called the nation’s strictest plan to cut emissions of methane, black carbon and other short-lived pollutants.
(SFC, 9/20/16, p.A1)
2016 Sep 19, In the SF Bay Area Otillo Martinez (b.1998) was shot about 50 times at close range while walking home from work in south Richmond. In 2017 police Richmond police arrested seven members of the “Team Swerve" gang linked to three homicides in Richmond, including that of Martinez.
(http://tinyurl.com/yapr7kmx)(SFC, 8/31/17, p.D6)
2016 Sep 19, The Australian government said it has reached a 39.3 million Australian dollar ($29.6 million) settlement with the owners of Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng1 to pay for environmental damage to the Great Barrier Reef caused when the ship went off course in April 2010 and grounded on Douglas Shoal.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China plans to provide an additional $100 million in assistance to help deal with the global refugee and migrant crisis and is also considering setting aside a $1 billion fund for the purpose.
(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, In Congo DRC clashes took place ahead of a huge opposition rally in Kinshasa demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down. Anti-government protesters burned the body of a police officer in the Limete suburb of Kinshasa. By the end of the day at least 50 people were killed. The government put the death toll at 32.
(AFP, 9/19/16)(Reuters, 9/19/16)(AP, 9/20/16)(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 19, In northeastern India 2 people were killed and several others were injured as police tried to stop protests against the demolition of homes on the periphery of Kaziranga National Park, a rhino sanctuary.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Myanmar rebels and border forces said at least eight people have been killed and thousands displaced by recent clashes in the southeast.
(AFP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Two Palestinians were killed as they tried to stab Israeli police in the West Bank city of Hebron. A third Palestinian was shot and wounded after stabbing and wounding two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, In Russia Yevgeny Zhilin (40), a prominent Ukrainian separatist figure, was fatally shot in the Gorki-2 neighborhood west of Moscow. Zhilin has been on Ukraine's wanted list since 2015.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 19, Saudi Arabia said it has arrested 17 suspected Islamic State sympathizers accused of plotting attacks on religious officials, security forces, civilian districts and economic and military targets.
(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Sudan said an outbreak of water-borne disease has killed at least 19 people and sickened scores more in the rain-ravaged states of Blue Nile and Kasala.
(AFP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Syria's armed forces announced an end to the week-long ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia, blaming rebel groups for its failure. Two 20-truck aid convoys destined for eastern Aleppo with enough supplies to feed 185,000 people for a month are still stuck in Turkey hours after a ceasefire in Syria expired.
(AFP, 9/19/16)(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, In Syria a raid on an aid convoy destroyed at least 18 of 31 vehicles, as well as a Red Crescent warehouse in Orum al-Kubra in Aleppo province. 20 civilians were reported killed in the attack.
(AFP, 9/20/16)(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Curtis Hanson (71), screen writer and film director, died at his Hollywood Hills home. His films included “The River Wild" (1994), “L.A. Confidential" (1997), “Wonder Boys" (2000) and “8 Mile" (2002).
(SFC, 9/22/16, p.D6)
2016 Sep 20, In North Carolina Keith Scott (43), a black man, was shot and killed by Charlotte police Officer Brentley Vinson. Scott’s death touched off civil unrest. Evidence later showed that Scott was armed with a handgun. On Nov 30 a prosecutor cleared Vinson of any charges.
(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A10)
2016 Sep 20, A Cambodian court sentenced two Chinese citizens to life in prison after finding them guilty of producing and trafficking heroin and methamphetamine in one of the country's biggest drug cases. Deng Yuan Ping (53) and Ly Yong (42) were found guilty of smuggling 55 kg (120 pounds) of the illicit drugs worth an estimated $3 million from Laos in June last year. Two Cambodian men involved in the case also received life sentences, one in absentia.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, China reported that state-run Baosteel and Wuhan Iron and Steel are to be joined. Wuhan was reported to be in financial distress.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.64)
2016 Sep 20, In Congo DRC several people died in a second day of violence with three opposition HQ buildings torched in fresh clashes between police and opponents of President Joseph Kabila. Government soldiers in Kinshasa burned the offices of the opposition FONUS party.
(AFP, 9/20/16)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.49)
2016 Sep 20, Air France canceled its morning flight to Kinshasa amid an escalation of street violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital over opposition claims the president wants to extend his mandate.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Indian soldiers battled two groups of suspected militants along the highly militarized de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, leaving one soldier dead. Indian soldiers killed 8 people trying to cross the disputed border.
(AP, 9/20/16)(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, In Indonesia torrential rains triggered floods and landslides on the island of Java, killing at least 19 villagers.
(AP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 20, Iran sentenced Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident detained for a year over spying allegations, to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine. The Lebanese citizen has advocated for internet freedom his whose nonprofit group did work for the US government.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Iraqi forces launched an operation to retake the northern town of Shirqat from Islamic State, a stepping stone in their campaign to recapture the jihadists' stronghold of Mosul before the end of the year.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Jordanians voted for a new parliament under revised rules that officials say are meant to strengthen political parties. The opposition Muslim Brotherhood won 15 of 130 seats. Turnout slumped to 37%.
(AP, 9/20/16)(SFC, 9/23/16, p.A2)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.40)
2016 Sep 20, A Palestinian (16) who tried to stab an Israeli soldier was shot dead. An Israeli aircraft intercepted a drone launched by Hamas.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, The United Nations suspended all aid shipments into Syria after what it said was a deadly attack on an aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 21, Pres. Obama met with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu in New York and expressed concern about continued settlement construction in the West Bank.
(http://tinyurl.com/jhhq4j5)(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Sep 21, Two US supersonic bombers flew over South Korea, with one of them landing at an air base 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, the second such flight since North Korea's Sept. 9 nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, A boat carrying around 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast. 160 people survived. Over the next two days 148 bodies were recovered. The boat was carrying Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants. The toll rose to 178 after the boat was raised on September 27.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)(Reuters, 9/22/16)(AP, 9/23/16)(AP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 21, Aviation sources said the United States has started issuing license unblocking the sale of Western passenger jets to Iran.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Iraq's parliament sacked Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari over corruption allegations, a move that risks further destabilizing the major OPEC producer's fragile economy as it struggles with a massive budget deficit.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Israeli guards shot and wounded an unarmed 13-year-old Palestinian girl after she did not stop at a checkpoint. The Israeli defence ministry said the girl was not carrying a weapon but told officers afterwards that she had wanted to die.
(AFP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Italian prosecutors said they have dropped a money laundering case against the son of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The allegation that Bilal Erodogan, 35, was involved in money laundering while studying in Italy last year was first made by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled member of one of Turkey's richest families and an opponent of the president.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Sudan said it is hosting about 400,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled a brutal civil war that erupted after it broke away in 2011.
(AFP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Syria’s President Bashar Assad rejected US accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo or that his troops were preventing food from entering the city's rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, blaming the US for the collapse of a cease-fire many had hoped would bring relief to the war-ravaged country.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 21, A Syrian warplane crashed north of Damascus, but it was unclear if it had been shot down or came down because of a technical fault. Islamic State militants said in an online statement that the plane had been shot down.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, In Syria dozens of air strikes battered Aleppo and its outskirts overnight. An airstrike killed 5 medics responding to an earlier bombing raid on the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, a day after an airstrike on a humanitarian convoy prompted the UN to suspend desperately needed aid deliveries.
(AFP, 9/21/16)(AP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, In Turkey Osman Nuri Caliskan (41), reportedly mentally disturbed and wielding a knife, tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Ankara but was shot before reaching the building.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Representatives of Ukraine and separatist rebels agreed to pull back troops and weapons from several areas in eastern Ukraine. The agreement signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, applies to three specific areas and will be monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
(AP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Venezuela’s election board gave a timetable for a potential plebiscite to happen in early 2017, meaning that should Maduro lose, the vice-president would take over under constitutional rules on succession.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 21, A court in Vietnam sentenced to death, a notorious drugs kingpin and eight associates, delivering the maximum punishment in a single verdict over the trafficking of more than half a ton of heroin. Trang A Tang (33) led a network that trafficked drugs from the infamous Golden Triangle area of northwestern Laos, northeastern Myanmar and northern Thailand, and distributed them in Vietnam.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 22, North Carolina officials declared a state of emergency less than two days after police fatally shot Keith Scott, a black man, in Charlotte. Governor Pat McCrory deployed the National Guard and State Highway Patrol officers to the city.
(CSM, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Oklahoma Tulsa prosecutors charged police Officer Betty Shelby with first-degree manslaughter in the Sep 16 shooting of Terence Crutcher. On May 17, 2017, a jury acquitted Shelby of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 9/23/16, p.A8)(SFC, 5/19/17, p.A7)
2016 Sep 22, Yahoo announced that at least 500 million customer accounts have been stolen by what it believed to be a “state sponsored actor." The information was taken in late 2014.
(SFC, 9/23/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 22, Afghanistan's government signed a draft peace deal with warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a designated "global terrorist," after lengthy negotiations that could pave the way for a similar accord with the Taliban, who have been waging war on Kabul for 15 years.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In China Xia Lin, a lawyer who defended activists and others involved in politically sensitive cases, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on fraud charges, in what is believed to be the harshest penalty handed down in years against those few willing to take on the ruling Communist Party.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, Indonesian authorities detained a ship carrying an unregistered cargo of nearly 30 tons of fertilizer that may have been intended for use in making illegal fishing bombs.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, Iraqi forces backed by air strikes from the US-led coalition gained complete control of the northern district of Shirqat, bringing the military a step closer to a main push on Mosul later this year.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Russia 8 firefighters were killed as they battled a blaze at a warehouse in eastern Moscow.
(AFP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Syria warplanes mounted the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo overnight, as Russia and the Syrian government spurned a US plea to halt flights, burying any hope for the revival of a doomed ceasefire.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Syria Yaacoub al-Ammar, a "minister" in the opposition government, was among at least 12 people killed in a car bomb attack in Daraa province.
(AFP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Turkey six people were wounded when a rocket fired from an area of Syria under the control of Islamic State hit the border town of Kilis.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 23, President Barack Obama vetoed a bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for the kingdom's alleged backing of the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people. Obama warned of a host of unintended and severe consequences if it were enacted. Democrats and Republicans quickly vowed to decisively override the veto.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 23, A senior Royal Air Force officer said British Tornado and Typhoon aircraft stationed at a U.K. air base in Cyprus are pounding Islamic State targets ahead of a major offensive by Iraqi security forces next month to recapture the key northern city of Mosul from IS militants.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 23, Six Chinese agencies announced a coordinated effort to tackle internet and telecoms fraud, the government's latest bid to get to grips with an explosion of such crimes it says have led to huge financial losses.
(Reuters, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Congo DRC 3 more people succumbed to their wounds after an attack by rebels in the northeast raising the death toll to at least 10. A dozen homes and two military camps were burned near Beni.
(SFC, 9/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 23, German security officials say a cyberattack believed to be directed by Russia targeted journalists and lawmakers in a sophisticated email phishing attempt between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, India signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France for around $8.7 billion, the country's first major acquisition of combat planes in two decades and a boost for PM Narendra Modi's plan to rebuild an ageing fleet.
(Reuters, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In western India an angry mob attacked Sangita Ranawasia, a low-caste pregnant woman, and her family for refusing to clear away a cow carcass because of a weeks-long strike against such work in Gujarat state. Six persons of the upper-caste Darbar community were soon arrested for assault.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Kashmir one person was killed and dozens of others wounded when Indian government forces fired live ammunition and shotgun pellets to stop protests against Indian rule in the disputed region.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, Iraq and the UN signed an agreement aimed at helping the Baghdad government tackle sexual violence in conflict, an issue that made headlines following the capture and rape of Yazidi women by Islamic State extremists in 2014.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, Conservation groups said Laos has promised to phase out farms that breed endangered tigers for their body parts, a positive step from a country believed to be a major hub of wildlife trafficking in Asia. Wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC said that endangered species such as pangolins and helmeted hornbills were being openly sold in Laos and that law enforcement against the illegal trade remained threadbare.
(AP, 9/23/16)(AFP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Pakistan’s part of Kashmir a speeding bus plunged into a fast-flowing river killing at least 24 passengers.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin reshuffled his inner-circle again by giving the parliament speaker's job to Vyacheslav Volodin, his chief domestic strategist and the man who oversaw a vote that further strengthened the dominance of the main Kremlin party.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Syria missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Aleppo causing widespread destruction, as the army prepared a ground offensive to retake the city. At least 27 civilians including several children were reported killed and dozens wounded in the raids by Russian warplanes and regime aircraft.
(AFP, 9/23/16)(SFC, 9/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 24, Pres. Barack Obama opened National Museum of African-American History & Culture in Washington, DC. It had been approved by Pres. George W. Bush in 2003.
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.77)
2016 Sep 24, In southern California 3 adults were found dead in Fullerton after a child called police to report that her parents had died. Two children were found unharmed.
(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.A11)
2016 Sep 24, Louisiana accordionist Stanley Dural Jr. (b.1947), head of the Buckwheat Zydeco band, died in Lafayette of lung cancer.
(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.A15)
2016 Sep 24, The African Union, European Union, UN and the 57 International Organization of La Francophonie made a joint appeal to the government and opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo to exercise restraint amid violent political unrest.
(AFP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, India's PM Narendra Modi said he'll work to isolate Pakistan internationally, accusing India's archrival of trying to destabilize Asia by exporting terrorism.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, Iran's state TV said the country has started its first web-based national general census.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, In Iraq 12 people were killed when militants attacked a police checkpoint north of Tikrit and then detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the city. One militant was killed at the checkpoint after shooting dead four police officers in the attack.
(Reuters, 9/24/16)
2006 Sep 24, In Mexico thousands marched in Mexico City against same-sex marriage, which President Enrique Pena Nieto supports, while hundreds of gay rights supporters rallied nearby.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 24, In South Africa thousands of conservationists and top government officials went into talks in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg, for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to thrash out international trade regulations on elephant ivory, rhino horn and hundreds of endangered wild animals and plants.
(AFP, 9/24/16)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.48)
2016 Sep 24, In Spain Asian cinema dominated awards at the San Sebastian film festival, with veteran Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's "I am not Madame Bovary" taking the top Golden Shell prize while Fan Bingbing won the best actress gong for her role in the same film.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 24, It was reported that war crimes investigators collecting evidence of the Islamic State group's elaborate operation to kidnap thousands of women as sex slaves say they have a case to try IS leaders with crimes against humanity but cannot get US or global backing to bring current detainees before an international tribunal.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, Syrian government forces captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo. A monitoring group said 49 people were killed. The UN said nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are without running water following an escalation in fighting over the past few days.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 25, It was reported that the skies across North America have become increasingly quieter over recent decades as the bird populations plummeted by 1.5 billion. Domestic cats, farming and logging were all cited as contributing factors.
(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.C14)
2016 Sep 25, In Atlanta, Georgia, Diane McIver (63) was shot and killed by her husband as they rode home in a car driven by a friend. Mr. McIver later said his gun went off accidentally as he awoke in a traffic jamb. Mr. McIver later faced murder charges following counts of interfering with witnesses.
(Econ 7/8/17, p.27)
2016 Sep 25, American golfer Arnold Palmer (87) died in Pittsburgh. Palmer first played the British Open in 1960, finishing runner-up in an appearance that invigorated a tournament which Americans had been ignoring for years. Palmer won the British Open, golf's oldest major, in 1961 and 1962.
(AP, 9/26/16)(Econ, 10/8/16, p.82)
2016 Sep 25, In Brazil gunmen killed Ricardo Guimaraes, a retired police captain running for a post on the city council of Itaborai, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
(SFC, 9/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 25, In China the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest radio telescope, began working in the mountainous region of Guizhou.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Iraq a suicide bomber blew himself up in a commercial street of Baghdad, killing 7 and wounding 28.
(Reuters, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Italy protesters took to small boats in Venice this evening to demonstrate against huge cruise ships being allowed to pass through the Italian city's canals.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Jordan prominent writer Nahed Hattar was gunned down shortly before arriving for a court hearing for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam. The killer was immediately arrested. On Dec 20 a military judge sentenced to death a former mosque prayer leader who killed Hattar.
(AP, 9/25/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Sep 25, Residents of Spain's Basque and Galicia regions voted in regional parliamentary elections, but with few hopes of ending the country's 9-month political stalemate and avoiding a third round of national elections in one year.
(AP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, Swiss voters granted new powers to the country's intelligence services, allowing them to track internet activity, snoop on email and tap phones to better fight spies, criminal hackers and violent extremists.
(AP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, Syrian and Russian warplanes bombed a strategic camp on the northern edge of Aleppo as government and rebel forces battled for control of the high ground in a Russian-backed offensive that has left Washington's Syria policy in tatters.
(Reuters, 9/25/16)(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 26, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that requires all people, including law enforcement, who leave guns in unattended vehicles to lock them in a trunk or container that’s not left in plain sight.
(SFC, 9/27/16, p.A10)
2016 Sep 26, In California the Loma Fire started in the Santa Cruz Mountains and quickly charred some 1,000 acres. Evacuations were ordered and by nightfall it was only 5% contained. By Sept. 29 the fire was 34% contained with as many as 4,147 acres were charred. The 4,474-acre fire was declared over on October 12.
(SFC, 9/27/16, p.A1)(SFC, 9/28/16, p.A1)(SFC, 9/30/16, p.D2)(SFC, 10/14/16, p.D3)
2016 Sep 26, It was announced that Kansas-based BATS Global Markets, an operator of four stock exchanges, will be sold to the CBOE options exchange for $3.2 billion.
(http://tinyurl.com/hp8ff6l)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.70)
2016 Sep 26, Brazilian authorities said they have arrested Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister who was part of the government of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe involving state oil giant Petrobras.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko signed an agreement ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and made their nation a byword for violence.
(Reuters, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Egypt arrested three journalists who were conducting street interviews in Cairo about Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s request for small donations of spare change to fund development programs. A fourth journalist was arrested a day later as she interviewed Egyptians with postgraduate degrees protesting for jobs.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 26, Italian officials warned that Switzerland could face consequences after voters in the border canton of Ticino approved a referendum calling on authorities to grant preference to Swiss workers over foreigners in employment.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, In Jordan protesters called for the government to resign over its failure to prevent the murder of Christian writer Nahed Hattar outside an Amman court.
(AFP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Morocco adopted Amazigh spoken by its Berber community as an official language alongside Arabic, rounding off a reform program launched by King Mohammed VI in 2011.
(AFP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 26, Human Rights Watch said that Pakistan's corrupt and ill-equipped police system encouraged serious rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, torture and "encounter killings," in which police stage shootouts to kill individuals in custody.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, In Spain crowds jeered at former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato when he arrived at a Madrid court to face trial for his alleged misuse of company credit cards on extravagant personal expenses. Rato and 64 other executives and former board members from lender Bankia and its founding savings bank Caja Madrid were accused of illegally spending 12 million euros ($13.48 million) for personal use on so-called "black cards" between 2003 and 2012.
(Reuters, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen traveled to a small provincial court to sue one of the country's biggest investors for compensation over an accident last April at its $10.6-billion steel plant. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics, has promised $500 million in compensation and admitted its steel plant caused massive fish deaths along a 200-km (120-mile) stretch of coastline.
(Reuters, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 27, In southern California police in El Cajon shot and killed Alfred Olango (38), a refugee from Uganda, after he drew an object from his pocket that turned out to be an electronic cigarette device. Olango was reportedly distraught over the recent death of his best friend.
(SFC, 9/29/16, p.A7)
2016 Sep 27, In Afghanistan at least 13 army soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on their checkpoint in Kunduz province. Two of the fifteen soldiers at the checkpoint had links to the insurgents and facilitated the attack.
(SFC, 9/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 27, China’s state media said members of what the government calls a cult for causing deaths, organizing the group and illegally collecting money, have been jailed, part of a crackdown on what Beijing views as dangerous religious movements. Yao Xiangzhi, a member of Mentuhui, or "Disciples Sect" in the central province of Hubei, caused the death of another cult member by denying him freedom, food and drink for a week while people prayed for his recovery from schizophrenia.
(Reuters, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 27, In Iraq two suicide bombings in Baghdad killed at least 17 civilians. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 9/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 27, Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld the death penalty against Imdad Ali, a mentally ill man convicted of murder in 2001, overturning a previous appeal and a court decision staying his execution.
(AP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 27, In Saudi Arabia activists said thousands of Saudis have signed a petition urging an end to the guardianship system that gives men control over the study, marriage and travel of female relatives.
(AFP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 27, Syrian government forces captured a central rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were killed in airstrikes on eastern Aleppo, and that insurgents shelled the nearby government-held villages of Nubal and Zahraa, killing a baby girl.
(AP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 28, The US House and Senate voted decisively to override Pres. Obama’s veto and allow families of the Sept. 11, 2001, victims to sue Saudi Arabia in US courts for its alleged backing of the attackers. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) weakened the long-standing principle of sovereign immunity. Within a month opponents mounted an expensive political campaign, including paying American military veterans to visit Capitol Hill and warn lawmakers about what they said could be unintended consequences. Saudi Arabia's government largely payed for the effort.
(SFC, 9/29/16, p.A4)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.28)(AP, 5/11/17)
2016 Sep 28, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that eliminates the 10-year state of limitations on rape.
(SFC, 9/29/16, p.A1)
2016 Sep 28, In South Carolina a teenager killed his father, Jeffrey Osborne, at home and then went to a nearby elementary school where he opened fire wounding two students and a teacher in Townville. On October 1 a coroner reported that Jacob Hill (6) had died of his wounds. In 2019 Osborne was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6uz8b6c)(SFC, 12/13/18, p.A6)(NY Times, 11/15/19)
2016 Sep 28, Officials said Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India have expressed their "inability" to attend the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) scheduled for November in Islamabad.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, In eastern Afghanistan a US unmanned aircraft strike hit a residential building early today, killing at least 15 civilians and wounding thirteen in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.
(AP, 9/28/16)(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, OPEC members met informally in Algiers and agreed to cut oil output for the first time since 2008.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.68)
2016 Sep 28, BlackBerry, the Canadian firm that helped pioneer the smartphone market, said it will stop making handsets, outsourcing production to an Indonesian partner.
(AFP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, In China Yang Qingpei argued with his parents over money and killed them. Fearing he would be identified as the killer, he then murdered 17 neighbors in the village of Yema. He was arrested the next day in the provincial capital of Kunming, about 200 km (120 miles) away, a few hours after the bodies from different households were discovered.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, Typhoon Megi made landfall in China’s southern province of Fujian with winds of close to 120 km per hour (75 mph). A landslide following heavy typhoon rains slammed into a village in Zhejiang province, swallowing up dozens of houses in the villages of Sucun and Baofeng in Suichang county. At least eight people died and around 19 were still missing.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)(AFP, 10/1/16)
2016 Sep 28, An Egyptian court sentenced 40 people to life in prison over alleged ties to the Islamic State group and for helping recruit youth to join the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, German carmaker Volkswagen said it has stopped buying mica from some suppliers in India, following a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation that found child workers were dying in illegal, unregulated mines. At least seven children were killed since June mining for mica in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The mineral puts a sparkle in makeup and car paint.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, Shimon Peres (b.1923), Israeli former president and prime minister, died two weeks after suffering a massive stroke. The Nobel Prize-winning visionary pushed his country toward peace during a remarkable seven-decade career.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, Jordan's King Abdullah swore in a new government headed by Hani Mulki as prime minister for a second term, with a little-changed cabinet and a mandate to accelerate economic reforms.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, A Dutch-led inquiry into the July 2014 downing of Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine said the Boeing 777 was shot down by a BUK missile system from an area in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists, and that the system was brought in from Russia and then taken back there. Russian missile-maker Almaz-Antey said the BUK missile was fired from territory held by the Ukrainian army and the prosecutors' findings were not supported by technical evidence.
(AFP, 9/28/16)(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, In South Africa the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Johannesburg voted overwhelmingly to ban trade in the endangered pangolin, the world's most heavily trafficked mammal.
(AFP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, South African rangers shot and killed three suspected poachers in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, Syrian government shelling and airstrikes in eastern rebel-held Aleppo landed near a bread distribution center and two hospitals, killing 7 people and putting at least one of the medical facilities completely out of service.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, Thailand’s coup leader and prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised to turn Thailand into a developed country by 2036.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 29, In NYC a thief swiped an 86-pound bucket of gold flakes, valued at $1.6 million, off an armored truck in Manhattan. Police later said the suspect is Julio Nivelo (53) a career thief from New Jersey who has been arrested and deported to his native Ecuador several times.
(SFC, 12/22/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 29, IBM announced the purchase of Promontory, a 600-strong consultancy in financial services founded in 2001 by Eugene Ludwig.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.64)
2016 Sep 29, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a peace treaty with a notorious warlord, pledging to lobby the US and the United Nations to remove him and his party from terrorist blacklists. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar signed the agreement via a video link into Kabul's presidential palace.
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor, Vocational and Training said in a statement that the minimum wage for clothing and footwear workers would be raised by 9.2 percent to $153 a month, effective at the beginning of next year. The increase falls short of the $171 a month wage proposed by unions.
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, In China Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde opened what he calls the world's largest air purifier in Beijing, beginning the first leg of a China tour to raise awareness of environmental problems. The seven-meter-high (7.66-yard-high) Smog Free Tower, part of the Smog Free Project started by the artist, creates a bubble of clean air enabling citizens to experience clean air for free.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, In Hong Kong Cheng Yu-tung (91), the billionaire founder of property group New World Development Co Ltd, died late today. Cheng had amassed a fortune of over $16 billion building an empire that spans jewelry, real estate, hotels, infrastructure and telecommunications.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 29, Indian commandos carried out a series of lightning strikes along the de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir, provoking furious charges of "naked aggression" from its nuclear-armed neighbor. Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed and nine more wounded in what it described as small arms fire. Pakistan said eight Indian soldiers died and that one was captured.
(AFP, 9/29/16)(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 29, In Indonesia thousands of union members protested in Jakarta demanding an end to a campaign that granted tax amnesty saying it rewards the tax-evading rich.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 29, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi asked Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani not to exploit the war on Islamic State to expand the Kurds' territory.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, In Mexico Paolo Buenrostro, a transgender sex worker, was murdered as she got into a client's car. Kenya Cuevas grabbed the man and held him until police arrived, at which point she began recording on her cell phone. The man was released from custody days later. Cuevas soon quit sex work and founded Casa de Munecas (house of dolls) to campaign for the protection of transgender women. From 2013-2016 some 261 transgender women were slain in Mexico.
(SFC, 9/11/19, p.A3)
2016 Sep 29, Norway's Rafto Prize for human rights was awarded to Yanar Mohammed of Iraq for her efforts to help minorities and women subjected to sexual abuse in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, The Saudi Okaz newspaper reported that the country’s top religious authority has urged citizens to support government austerity measures, saying recent decrees were temporary moves necessitated by public interest.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, Thailand’s government said it has decided to suspend seahorse trade because of concern about threats to its wild population. The decision was announced at a meeting in South Africa of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, The United Nations described a desperate situation in Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo, warning "hundreds" needed medical evacuation and that there was only enough food aid left for a quarter of the city's population.
(AFP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 30, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that redefined rape to include unlawful penetration by any object.
(SFC, 10/1/16, p.A1)
2016 Sep 30, Police in southern California released two videos showing an officer fatally shooting Alfred Olango, an unarmed black man in a San Diego suburb on Sept. 27, and said they hoped showing the footage would ease escalating tensions.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, In New York Yuan Xiaopeng, a Syracuse University student from China, was found shot to death at an apartment complex in suburban DeWitt. Cameron Isaac (23) and Ninimbe Mitchell (20) were later charged with murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the shooting and drug deal robbery.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Sep 30, Five Afghan soldiers and a police officer were killed in an air strike carried out by an Afghan military helicopter in Farah province. Inaccurate information from ground forces was blamed.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 30, Authorities in Colombia said a nationwide police raid has nabbed 238 suspected narcotics dealers and hitmen and dismantled 15 criminal gangs suspected of enlisting minors and homeless people to sell illegal drugs.
(AFP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, It was reported that slum dwellers in Indonesia have launched a landmark legal case to challenge a decades-old law which has been used to forcibly remove thousands of families, amid a wave of evictions in the country's capital. A 1960 law prohibits the use of land without permission from the rightful owner, but land rights advocates argue it has long been invoked in favor of the authorities.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Investigators said Italian police have found two Van Gogh paintings that were stolen from an Amsterdam museum in 2002 hidden in a farmhouse near an organized crime syndicate's Naples-area stronghold. Investigators seized some 20 million euros ($22 million) worth of assets, including farmland, villas and apartments, which they say are linked to two Camorra drug kingpins, Mario Cerrone and Raffaele Imperiale.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, In Jordan thousands of protesters staged a protest in Ammanto to demonstrate against a $10 billion gas deal between Jordan and Israel.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Pakistan said the summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders set for Islamabad in November has been postponed indefinitely, amid rising tension between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Pakistani authorities said unknown gunmen killed six people from the same family in southwestern Baluchistan province while attackers killed a police officer in the southern city of Karachi in order to free two alleged killers he was escorting.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Russian firefighters battled to extinguish wildfires that have engulfed forests in eastern Siberia and forced schools to close in its Irkutsk region. Some two million hectares had been on fire and large amounts of carbon disgorged by the fires represented an environmental threat and a danger to local communities.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, The Syrian Civil Defense group and a Syrian monitoring group reported that airstrikes on rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo have killed at least 12 people. The World Health Organization said fighting in Syria's besieged eastern Aleppo has killed 338 people since Sept. 23, including 106 children, and that 846 have been wounded, including 261 children.
(AP, 9/30/16)(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, The UN warned that around 100,000 people were trapped in the South Sudanese town of Yei, where they were facing serious shortages of food and medicine.
(AFP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Trinh Thi Ngo (b.1931), aka “Hanoi Hannah," broadcaster for the Voice of Vietnam, died in Ho Chi Minh City.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi_Hannah)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.90)
2016 Sep, US-based Canadian writer Gavin McInnes (b.1970) founded the far-right Proud Boys organization. The group admits only men as members and promotes political violence. In 2018 the group and McGinnis were banned from Facebook and Instagram.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys)(SFC, 11/1/18, p.A7)
2016 Sep, It was reported that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome afflicts over one million people in America and 250,000 in Britain.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.68)
2016 Sep, In Florida authorities in St Petersburg released about 150m gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into Tampa Bay after flooding from Hurricane Hermine overwhelmed the city’s ageing wastewater system.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.26)
2016 Sep, In NYC Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger started Lemonade, an insurer for home owners and renters. 2,000 policies were sold in its first 100 days.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.68)
2016 Sep, In Utah a new Salt Lake City atheist group, the Sunday Assembly, began offering non-believers a church-like service that offers music, readings and community for those who don't belong to the state's dominant religion, Mormonism, or other faith groups. There's now more than 70 Sunday Assemblies in the US and around the world.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Sep, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark agreed to create the “Cascadia Innovation corridor."
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.32)
2016 Sep, De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, marked the opening of its Gahcho Kue mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.50)
2016 Sep, Wang Jianlin, a property developer and China’s richest man, called soaring property prices in many big Chinese cities: “the biggest bubble in history."
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.13)
2016 Sep, Czech national Zdenek Makar (31) died after a fight in London involving four Britons. One of them, 29-year-old Raymond Sculley, was acquitted by a jury in April 2017 of charges of murder and manslaughter.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2016 Sep, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, launched Jio, a mobile telecoms network. Over the next six months it won 100 million customers.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.66)
2016 Sep, In Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi convened four days of peace talks late this month in Naypyidaw with representatives of 17 of the country’s 20 insurgent ethnic groups. The talks achieved nothing but vague promises.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.49)
2016 Sep, In Russia prison staff reportedly beat and kicked Ildar Dadin (34) and put his head down a toilet bowl while he was in an isolation cell. Dadin came to prominence when he was handed a two-and-a-half year sentence under a controversial law that punishes repeated participation in unsanctioned rallies, after he demonstrated against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
(AFP, 11/3/16)
2016 Sep, Saudi Arabia slashed salaries and benefits for public-sector employees, a sector that made up two-thirds of Saudi workers.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.40)
2016 Sep, South Africa became one of the first African states to adopt a “test and treat" protocol whereby anyone infected with the HIV virus can get drugs immediately, instead of waiting for the symptoms of full-blown aids to appear.
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.39)
2016 Sep, South Korea first discovered a hacking attack of its military computer network by North Korea. In 2017 it was revealed that a vast cache of stolen data included classified wartime contingency plans jointly drawn by Washington and Seoul.
(SFC, 10/11/17, p.A2)
2016 Sep, Turkmenistan opened a new falcon-shaped airport in Ashgabat.
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.36)
2016 Sep, Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand was appointed as the first UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. A year later he informed the council president about his resignation effective Oct. 31, citing illness in his household.
(AP, 9/22/17)
Go to October 2016
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Return to home
2016 Jul 1, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed six bills related to gun control.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 1, In New Jersey Local 54 of the Unite-Here union walked off the job at the Carl Icahn-owned Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic city.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 1, A US federal judge blocked a Mississippi law on religious objections to same-sex marriage moments before it was set to take effect.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 1, In Tennessee 4 young children were fatally stabbed in Memphis and their mother, Shanynthia Gardner (29), was taken into custody.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A6)(SSFC, 7/3/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 1, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents attacked local police check points in Kandahar province late today, killing 5 policemen. 4 insurgents were killed in the battle, which took place in Maiwand district.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, Austria's highest court ordered a rerun of the country's presidential election, giving a right-wing euroskeptic candidate a second chance at the office after his narrow loss last month.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In southwest Bangladesh a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the latest attack blamed on radical Islamists.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Bangladesh Islamist militants stormed a busy restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic area late today, ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before they began killing foreigners. 20 hostages were killed, including at least 9 Italians and 7 Japanese inside the restaurant, before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff. Two policemen and 6 gunmen were killed during the police operation. One militant was captured. Bangladesh police shot dead the pizza chef of the restaurant, mistakenly thinking he was one of the militants. On August 4 British national Hasnat Karim and Univ. of Toronto student Tahmid Hasib Khan were arrested in Dhaka on allegations of involvement in the attack. On Jan 13 police detained Jahangir Alam, one of the men behind the attack. About 50 suspected militants were killed in shootouts following the attack, including Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, said to be the main planner.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)(Reuters, 7/3/16)(Reuters, 7/5/16)(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A3)(Reuters, 1/14/17)
2016 Jul 1, Canadian media reported that Canada will deploy 1,000 soldiers in Latvia to one of four battalions NATO is assembling in Eastern Europe in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the 88-million-strong Communist Party to embrace its Marxist roots as he delivered an emphatic call for ideological discipline and a vigorous defense of party rule on the party's 95th anniversary.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, China's securities regulator said it would ban initial public offerings (IPOs) by companies which have violated environmental protection rules over the previous 36 months.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In southwest China 10 people were killed in a mudslide and 12 others remained buried under debris in a mountainous region of Guizhou province.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern China an overnight sleeper bus fell off an expressway into a ditch after a tire burst, killing 26 people at the Baodi section on the Tianjin-Jixian expressway.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, The European Union extended its economic sanctions on Russia until the end of January next year in a widely expected decision after EU leaders called for more progress in bringing peace to eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Paris banned old, exhaust-belching cars from its streets in a war on air pollution that environmentalists hope will also drive dirty vehicles from the centers of other European cities. Any car registered before Jan. 1, 1997, will be barred from the city's streets from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Yves Bonnefoy (b.1923), France's most famous contemporary poet, died. The celebrated translator of Shakespeare had poems translated into 30 languages.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, A new report from Guam's public auditor said the island received more than $550 million from the federal government in fiscal year 2015.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 1, Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the southern Chinese city's streets for an annual pro-democracy protest march, as tensions persisted over the high-profile case of a bookseller secretly detained in the mainland.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern India torrential rains triggered heavy floods and landslides that poured down hills in Uttarakhand state, killing at least 18 people and destroying dozens of homes. At least 25 people were missing in seven villages in Pithoragarh.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Indonesia major palm oil producers and traders, including Wilmar and Cargill ditched a "no deforestation" private agreement, saying the government's recent efforts to strengthen its certification standards were sufficient.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Iran tens of thousands of people marched in Tehran as part of the al-Quds day rallies held each year on the last Friday of Ramadan. Some protesters trampled the Israeli flag and also chanted "down with the USA." Similar rallies took place across the country.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, A leading Italian newspaper reported that former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs, "The Last Conversations," that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions. It is due to be published on Sept. 9.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern Kenya suspected al-Shabab gunmen killed at least 6 people when they shot at two buses traveling in Mandera County.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Amnesty International published "horrifying" accounts by migrants of exploitation and sexual abuse in Libya, including Christians who were abducted by Islamic State group militants and forced into sexual slavery.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Myanmar security forces in Hpakant, Kachin state, were unable to control attackers armed with sticks, knives and other weapons as they burned down a mosque. The mosque's leaders had reportedly failed to meet a June 30 deadline set by local authorities to tear down the structure to make way for construction of a bridge.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, It was reported that Namibia has told two North Korean companies that their services are no longer needed in the southern Africa country while UN sanctions against Pyongyang remain in place over its nuclear and missile tests.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Nigeria kidnappers seized Alfred Nelson-Williams, Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner, as he was on his way to Kaduna from Abuja. They demanded a $40 million ransom in the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century. The diplomat was freed on July 5 but it was not clear whether or not a ransom was paid.
(AFP, 7/2/16)(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A2)(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 1, Palestinian Sarah Tarayreh (27) was killed when she pulled out a knife and threatened an officer at a checkpoint near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron. A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a family traveling in a car in the West Bank, killing an Israeli man and wounding his wife and two teenage children.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Romania organized crime prosecutors said they have found more than 2.3 tons of cocaine stashed away in banana crates on ships with a street value of 625 million euros ($694 million). A Bucharest court ruled that the Moroccan suspected leader of the smuggling ring, as well as four Lithuanians and a Colombian, be arrested for 30 days.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova was cleared by track and field's world governing body to compete as a neutral athlete in the European championships and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The 800-meter runner had provided evidence to the World Anti-Doping Agency of widespread cheating in Russia that led the IAAF to bar the country's track and field athletes from international competition, including the Rio Games.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Russia an Il-76 plane with a crew of 10 disappeared while on a mission to fight forest fires in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. Wreckage of the plane was found on July 3 along with 8 bodies.
(AP, 7/1/16)(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Saudi Arabia eighteen pilgrims were injured in a stampede near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as Muslims gathered in large numbers to mark the Night of Destiny, one of the high points of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, Serbian police, in a bid to reduce the number of illegal weapons, offered an amnesty over surrendering or registering illegal weapons until November.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, A Syrian warplane crashed northeast of Damascus and its pilot was captured by Jaish al-Islam rebels in Jeiroud.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 1, Taiwan's military mistakenly fired a supersonic anti-ship missile that hit a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing one and injuring three people.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Military-ruled Thailand said it will buy three submarines worth around $1 billion from China a move that signals warming ties with the regional superpower as relations with the United States cool.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, A Turkish official said Mehmet Sirin Kaya, a mastermind of the February 17 suicide attack against military personnel in Ankara, has been killed in counter-terrorism operations in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, in southern Yemen US Central Command (CENTCOM) killed 2 al-Qaida operatives in an air strike.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 2, The Washington Wizards agreed to pay Ian Mahinmi $64 million over four years, according to a person familiar with the deal.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Florida 5 people were killed and 25 injured when a bus carrying farmworkers collided with a tractor-trailer on US 98 in the state’s Panhandle.
(SSFC, 7/3/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 2, Elie Wiesel (87), holocaust survivor, author of 57 books and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1986), died at his home in NYC.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.78)
2016 Jul 2, Michael Cimino (77), director of the Oscar-winning Vietnam War film "The Deer Hunter" (1978), died at his home in Beverly Hills. His films included "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" (1974), “Heaven’s Gate" (1980), "Year of the Dragon" (1985), "The Sicilian" (1987), "Desperate Hours" (1990) and "The Sunchaser" (1996).
(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 2, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada called for an end to foreign forces' "occupation" of Afghanistan as a preliminary step to a settlement based on Islamic law that he said would bring unity to a country riven by decades of war.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Afghanistan at least 2 civilians were killed after a suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted a local tribal elder in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province. In southern Kandahar province unknown gunmen shot and killed 7 civilians.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, Australia held general elections. PM Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal Party-led coalition needed 76 of 150 seats to form a government. On July 10 Turnbull finally claimed victory for his conservative coalition. The incumbent Liberal/National coalition secured 76 seats in the 150-seat lower House of Representatives.
(AP, 7/2/16)(AP, 7/10/16)(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 2, An estimated 40,000 people marched through London, waving European flags and chanting "We love you EU" to voice their opposition to Britain's stunning vote to quit the bloc.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In northern China a coal mine flooded and trapped 12 miners.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Finland eight Cuban volleyball players were arrested following allegations that a woman was raped at a hotel where the team was staying in Tampere, 170 km (105 miles) north of Helsinki. Two were later released. On June 30, 2017, a Finnish court of appeal cut the prison sentences of five Cuban volleyball players jailed for aggravated rape in the southwestern city of Turku.
(AP, 8/29/16)(AFP, 9/20/16)(AFP, 6/30/17)
2016 Jul 2, Michel Rocard (b.1930), former French prime minister (1988-1991) under François Mitterrand, died in Paris. He created the Revenu minimum d'insertion (RMI), a social minimum welfare program for indigents, and achieved the Matignon Accords regarding the status of New Caledonia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Rocard)
2016 Jul 2, Israeli troops locked down the occupied West Bank's most populous city Hebron and surrounding villages after two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks nearby.
(AFP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, The Israeli military struck a series of militant sites in Gaza early today in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Italy US Staff Sgt. Halex Hale (24) was last seen at a friend's cookout in Sacile, near Aviano Air Base north of Venice. His body, clad in a swimsuit, was found on July 12 in a river in Sacile.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 2, In northern Serbia 5 people were killed and another 22 were wounded when a man entered a cafe in the village of Zitiste and opened fire with an assault rifle. Z.S. killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an assault rifle he illegally owned.
(Reuters, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Syria government airstrikes killed 43 people in a rebel-held area where militants had captured and killed a government fighter pilot. 7 medical personnel were among those killed in the town of Jeiroud (Jayrud).
(AP, 7/2/16)(AFP, 7/2/16)(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 2, Syria's al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front abducted Mohammad al Ghabi, the commander of the Western-backed Jaish al-Tahrir brigade, and a number of his aides in a house raid in Kfr Nubl in Idlib province. Jaish al Tahrir has about 4,000 well trained fighters.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 2, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Syrians could eventually be granted Turkish citizenship "if they want it", in remarks which were met with anger from opposition politicians and social media users.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 3, Noel Neill (b.1920), film and TV actress who played Lois Lane in the “Superman" movie serials and on TV, died at her home in Tucson.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.D6)
2016 Jul 3, In Louisiana a drunken driver, Tracy Govan (44), sideswiped a police car at a traffic stop on I-55 in Sterlington killing Officer David Elahi and injuring two others.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 3, Chinese authorities said three days of heavy rain in southern China have left 50 people dead and another 12 missing and destroyed thousands of homes, as areas along the Yangtze River braced for more floods. The death toll soon rose to 128 with damages to more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion).
(AP, 7/3/16)(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 3, In China protest against an incinerator in Lubu town, Guangdong province, turned violent and police were injured as people attempted to break into government offices.
(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In Germany tens of thousands took part the the annual gay pride parade in Cologne.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 3, An Indian official said at least 40 people were feared dead following a weekend downpour that triggered flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand state.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In Iraq at least 115 people were killed in a suicide blast in the Karada district of Baghdad. Another 5 people were killed in a Shiite neighborhood east of Baghdad. The death toll from the truck bombing in the Karada district continued to rise to at least 186 as more human remains were recovered. The Health Ministry put the toll at 292.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/7/16)(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 3, The Israeli army attacked two Syrian military targets on the Golan Heights after stray Syrian fire damaged the security fence along the demarcation line.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 3, Israeli firms announced that a consortium led by US firm Noble Energy has approved a $265-million project to sink a new well in the Tamar natural gas field off Israel.
(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In Libya a car bomb exploded overnight in one of the busiest districts of Benghazi, killing at least 2 police officers and wounding seven other people.
(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, A court in the Maldives barred a group of journalists from working for their newly formed media organization for two years, threatening its closure in a move they criticized as an assault on media freedom in the archipelago nation. The journalists had launched Mihaaru news two months ago after the country's oldest and most reputed news organization, Haveeru Media Group, was shut down as a result of court arbitration of an ownership dispute.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 3, Myanmar's bitterly-divided Rakhine State saw mass protests as thousands of Buddhists, including monks, demonstrated in a show of opposition to a government edict referring to Muslim communities in the restive province.
(AFP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, In northern Pakistan heavy monsoon rains overnight triggered flash floods that killed at least 30 people in the Chitral district.
(AP, 7/3/16)(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 3, Philippine police seized about 180 kg (400 pounds) of high-grade methamphetamine worth 900 million pesos ($19.2 million).
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 3, Turkey delivered humanitarian aid and other non-military products to Gaza. The Panama-flagged Lady Leyla landed in the Israeli port of Ashdod with 11,000 tons of supplies, including food packages of flour, rice, and sugar, as well as 10,000 toys.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, US intelligence group SITE said a regional branch of al Qaeda has urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In San Jose, Ca., police fatally shot Anthony Nunez on his front porch. In 2019 a federal jury awarded his family $2.65 million in damages and determined that the two officers who killed him violated his civil rights. Nunez had been depressed and tried to shoot himself the day he died.
(SSFC, 7/7/19, p.C1)
2016 Jul 4, San Diego police found the body of a homeless man. A day earlier another body of a homeless man was found burned under a highway. Police soon released grainy images of a suspect taken from a convenience store camera. Over the next two days two more homeless men were attacked in the city. On July 7 police arrested Anthony Alexander Padgett (36) in connection with the murder and attempted murder of the sleeping men, some of whom were set on fire. A third victim died on July 10. Padgett was released on July 11 due to lack of evidence.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.A6)(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A6)(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A4)(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A12)
2016 Jul 4, In NYC Joey Chestnut downed a record 70 hot dogs to regain the Mustard Yellow Int’l. Belt at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 4, Twitter suspended the account of Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has carried out a series of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria in the last few months which pushed the country's crude production to 30-year lows.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Albania's main opposition Democratic Party made a criminal complaint against PM Edi Rama, accusing him of illegally funneling $80,000 to US President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 in return for a photograph of the two men together.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage (52) stepped down as leader of the UK Independence Party as the shockwaves from Britain's decision to quit the EU continued to reverberate.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, London Stock Exchange Group shareholders voted overwhelmingly for a merger with Deusche Boerse, operator of the Frankfurt exchange, despite concerns it could be scuppered by Britain's EU exit.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In China Ling Jihua, former top presidential aide and consummate Chinese political insider, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abusing his power in a downfall set off by an alleged cover-up of his son's death in a speeding Ferrari.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, The European Commission ordered seven Spanish football clubs including Barcelona and Real Madrid to give back to the government a total of around 70 million euros ($78 million). The commission said state funding gave them an unfair advantage over other clubs, and breached EU rules.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Billionaire French industrialist Serge Dassault (91), of aviation and software giant Dassault Group, went on trial for allegedly stashing millions of euros in tax havens.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Fiji a New Zealand couple found a cloth bundle containing a severed head while strolling along a popular beach. Similar tied bundles had washed ashore in late June at Natadola Beach contained two pairs of feet. Police believed the victims in the unsolved murder case were Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing from their farm on the main island of Viti Levu last month.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami (b.1940) died in Paris. He was later buried in a private ceremony in northern Tehran. He wrote and directed dozens of films including "Taste of Cherry" (1997), which won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Kiarostami)
2016 Jul 4, Iraq executed 5 convicted terrorists in Baghdad. A string of bombings in Baghdad killed 16 people.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 4, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu started his four-nation tour of Africa with a visit to Uganda.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, An official said Israel has approved hundreds of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, in a move likely to further raise tensions following a series of Palestinian attacks.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Israel forces demolished the West Bank homes of two assailants’ families who killed an Israeli citizen last December. Four Palestinian youths were wounded in clashes with troops demolishing the homes.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, Italian police arrested 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and an Italian who they said belonged to an organization that had smuggled thousands of migrants into Europe from Africa.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Japan fourteen inmates in an immigration detention center launched a hunger strike over what they call "inhumane conditions" including poor medical care, drawing fresh attention to the country's detention system.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 4, Hundreds of Kenyans including human rights activists, lawyers and taxi operators peacefully protested against what they said are pervasive killings linked to police, as a court ordered three police officers be held for two weeks on charges they murdered three men.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Mexico 11 tourists were killed in a bus crash south of Tulum, Quintana Roo state.
(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, Nigeria’s central bank dismissed the management of Skye Bank, the country’s eighth biggest lender by assets, amid concerns that it had failed to keep thick enough buffers of capital to absorb losses on bad debts..
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.57)
2016 Jul 4, In Nigeria suspected militants blew up a pipeline in the southern Batan and Makarava areas of Delta State. Militants from the Niger Delta Avengers said in a short statement on their website that they carried out the attacks.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Saudi Arabia a suicide bomber carried out an attack near the US Consulate in the city of Jiddah (Jeddah). The attacker died and two security men were lightly wounded. A suicide bombing in Medina killed 4 people. Another suicide bombing took place near a Shiite mosque in Qatif. Body parts of three people were found.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13,000 civilians have fled the Islamic State bastion of Manbij since the launch of a US-backed offensive there.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, Turkey charged thirteen suspects, including three foreign nationals, in connection with the June 28 suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, In southern Yemen US Central Command (CENTCOM) killed 2 al-Qaida operatives in a drone strike in Shabwa province.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, In Zimbabwe a protest by taxi drivers against a police crackdown turned violent when residents joined in and hurled rocks at police, who fired teargas to disperse the rioters. Drivers accused police of seeking to raise money for their operations by imposing hefty fines on their vehicles.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 5, US FBI Director James Comey said the agency would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of an unsecured home server to handle classified emails as secretary of state.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 5, NASA celebrated a key triumph as its $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Jupiter on a mission to probe the origin of the solar system.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, A federal judge ruled that Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates.
(SFC, 7/6/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 5, In Louisiana about 200 protestors took to the streets of Baton Rouge after Louisiana police Officer Blane Salamoni shot and killed Alton Sterling (37), a black man, outside of a Baton Rouge convenience store. In 2017 the Dept. of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions said it will not file charges in the case. Toxicology results later showed that Sterling had a number of drugs in his system at the time of confrontation. In March, 2018, the state's attorney general ruled out criminal charges against the two white officers involved in the case. Officer Salamoni was fired on March 30, 2018.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/17, p.A4)(SFC, 3/28/18, p.A6)(SFC, 3/31/18, p.A6)
2016 Jul 5, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and its other partners said they will spend $36.8 billion to develop more oil in Kazakhstan in a venture called Tengizchevroil.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, The Bank of England relaxed commercial banks' capital requirements to boost lending to businesses and households, and warned that financial stability risks "have begun to crystallise" after Brexit.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Police in the Central African Republic said clashes between rival rebel factions have left at least 10 dead and 25 injured in Bambari.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, In northeastern Congo DRC suspected rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, hacked to death at least 9 people in a village near Oicha.
(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, France's government forced approval of a contested labor bill in the lower house of Parliament without a vote — for a second time — because of resistance from the left and right.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Dozens of French farmers protested against the presence of bears in the Pyrenees mountains, after a flock of 125 sheep took fright and fell to their death in a ravine over the weekend. brown bears were reintroduced to the area 20 years ago after disappearing in the early 1990s.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, An Indonesian suicide bomber believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State militant group attacked a police station in the city of Solo, killing himself and wounding a police officer.
(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard killed two Kurdish insurgents who have been on the run since last week. They were part of a larger group, 11 of whom were killed in clashes with Iranian forces last week in Iran's western Kurdistan province.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 5, Iraq said government forces have now seized all villages in the Haj Ali area and reached the eastern bank of the Tigris, around 60 km (40 miles) south of Mosul.
(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on counter-terrorism, energy and agriculture, amid tight security on the second leg of his Africa tour.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, In Italy Amedeo Mancin, described as a local soccer club hooligan, beat Emmanuel Chidi Namdi of Nigeria in the north-central town of Fermo when he tried to defend his wife after Mancin insulted her with a racial slur and started to drag her. Namdi was bludgeoned, fell into a coma and died the next day.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 5, Japan and the US announced that they will reduce the number of civilians working on American military bases who receive immunity from Japanese prosecution.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte named five active and retired police generals as protectors of drug syndicates, and sacked those still in service.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Spanish police arrested 11 people and searched 20 town halls across the country in the latest corruption and fraud investigation. The raids were part of a parallel probe into the alleged practice by Convergence — one of the region's ruling parties — of charging businesses a commission in exchange for awarding public works projects.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that seventeen people including 11 Russians have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, bringing to 30 the total number charged in connection with the suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 6, Pres. Barack Obama, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained precarious, said he will keep US troop levels there at 8,400 through the end of his administration rather than reducing them to 5,500 by year's end as previously planned.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, The United States sanctioned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the first time, citing "notorious abuses of human rights".
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Minnesota police Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Philando Castile (32), a black man, at a traffic stop in St. Paul. Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, soon died in a hospital. Protesters gathered peacefully at the scene of the incident and at the state governor's residence, chanting anti-police slogans and demanding action from the governor. On June 16, 2017, Yanez was acquitted of 2nd degree murder charges. In November the St. Anthony City Council voted to pay $775,000 to Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, and her daughter. Reynolds was in the car and streamed the shooting’s aftermath live on Facebook.
(CSM, 7/7/16)(SFC, 5/31/17, p.A6)(SSFC, 6/18/17, p.A8)(SFC, 11/30/17, p.A6)
2016 Jul 6, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said over 500,000 hover boards are being recalled following dozens of reports of fires and spewing smoke from battery packs.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 6, Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed sexual harassment charges against Roger Ailes (76), the founder and head of Fox News.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 6, The African Union said it plans to pull its soldiers out of Somalia where they are fighting jihadists by December 2020.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Brazil Several thousand people demonstrated in Rio de Janeiro, calling for a "boycott" of the Olympic Games less than a month ahead of an event plagued by a financial crisis and crime. Most of the protesters were teachers who have been on strike for three months demanding payment of back wages.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Former British PM Tony Blair voiced "sorrow, regret and apology" after Sir John Chilcot’s 2.6m-word damning report on the Iraq war, but said he did not mislead parliament and did not regret toppling Saddam Hussein.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 6, EU lawmakers endorsed plans for a new border and coast guard agency to helps manage thousands of people trying to reach Europe for sanctuary or jobs.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 6, In France Karim Mohammed-Aggad, the brother of one of the Islamist attackers who killed 130 people in Paris, was sentenced to nine years' jail for traveling to Syria to train as a militant fighter.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Georgia and the United States signed a security deal in Tbilisi designed to shore up the former Soviet republic's defenses against Russia as it waits to join NATO.
(AFP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Greece most workers on the the Athens public transport system walked off the job in a 24-hour strike to protest privatizations that are part of the country's international bailout conditions.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Iran "armed bandits" killed four border guards in an ambush near the Pakistani border. Several of the gunmen were reported killed or wounded.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Israel relaunched the bidding process to build 42 new homes in the in Kiryat Arba settlement in the occupied West Bank where a Palestinian stabbed to death a 13-year-old Israeli last week.
(AFP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Italian police arrested 11 people accused of crimes linked to public events, including last year's Milan Expo, and channeling money they collected to the Sicilian mafia.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Japan’s Nintendo video-gaming firm released Pokemon Go, an app for smart phones, in American, Australia and New Zealand. The Pokemon franchise began as a video game in 1996.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.54)
2016 Jul 6, Kenyan motorcycle taxi drivers burned a police post as thousands demonstrated across the country against extra-judicial killings linked to police that rights activists said is pervasive.
(SFC, 7/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 6, In Libya a car bomb killed 11 soldiers in Benghazi as they held evening prayers on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Philippine troops fought about 200 Abu Sayyaf gunmen for five hours In Basilan province. Clashes resumed the next day.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Romania's Constitutional Court ruled that mayors who are handed suspended prison sentences for corruption must resign.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In South Africa Oscar Pistorius (29), a world-famous disabled Olympian, was sentenced to six years in prison for the 2013 murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Spain a Barcelona court sentenced soccer star Lionel Messi and his father to 21 months in prison for tax fraud, with both sentences likely to be suspended.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, The Free Syrian Army rebel alliance said it would respect a 3-day Eid holiday ceasefire, but only if government forces also abided by it, accusing the government of having already violated the truce.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Turkey 2 Syrians accidentally blew themselves up while handling explosives in a house in the southern border town of Reyhanli.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Ukraine several thousand trade union activists marched through the streets of Kiev to the country's parliament to protest an upcoming hike in utility prices.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, Yemeni troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition recaptured an army headquarters adjoining Aden airport from suspected jihadists after a suicide bomber killed 10 soldiers.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, The Vatican said Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Brazilian Bishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto of Paraiba who was accused of turning a blind eye to suspected pedophile priests in his diocese.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Zimbabwe riot police patrolled through the capital Harare as a call for a national strike against President Robert Mugabe's economic policies closed businesses and crippled the public transport system. The protest was led by Evan Mawarire, whose hashtag #ThisFlag has caught the nation’s imagination. Zimbabweans stayed at home and foreign banks and most businesses in the capital shut down operations in one of the biggest protests against high unemployment, corruption, and acute cash shortage.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(Reuters, 7/6/16)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.35)
2016 Jul 7, The US government gave tentative approval for scheduled commercial airline service to Havana from 10 American cities, advancing President Barack Obama's effort to normalize relations with Cuba.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The United States said it was returning about $1.5 million to Taiwan that came from the sale of US properties the government alleges were bought with the proceeds of bribes paid to the family of former Taiwan President Chen Shui-Bian.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The US State Department said the US will provide nearly $23 million in additional humanitarian aid to help people affected by the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, A US government regulator said Elizabeth Holmes, the head of blood-testing startup Theranos, would be barred from owning or running a laboratory for two years. In June Walgreens ended its three-year partnership with Theranos following news of flaws in the company’s blood testing.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.55)
2016 Jul 7, Maryland prosecutors dropped a misconduct charge in the bench trial of Lt. Brian Rice in the case of Freddie Gray, who died on April 19, 2015, from injuries suffered while shackled in a Baltimore police van. Rice still faced other charges.
(SFC, 7/8/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 7, In Dallas, Texas, Micah Johnson (25), a US Army reservist who served in Afghanistan, gunned down 5 officers before being killed in a standoff with police. Seven more officers were wounded in the attack that ended when police used a robot bomb to kill Johnson, who told them he wanted to kill white officers. Police took three people into custody.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 7, Australia's greyhound industry was reeling after New South Wales, the country's most populous, state banned the sport following a string of scandals including "live baiting" and the slaughter of tens of thousands of dogs.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Bangladesh militants attacked police guarding the country's biggest festival marking the end of Ramadan, killing 3 people and wounding 14 in Kishoreganj town, days after Islamic State claimed a major attack in the capital. Two attackers were reported killed and three arrested.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Brazilian police seized documents and questioned suspects to investigate Panama's FPB Bank in connection to a sweeping graft probe of political corruption at state-run companies.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Britain jailed four former Barclays bankers for manipulating the key inter-bank Libor interest rate, with the highest sentence being 6.5 years.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Five men were crushed to death when a concrete wall collapsed at a metal recycling site in Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, A British court awarded a £53 million (62 million euro, $69 million) divorce settlement to Christina Estrada (54), a former model, who had demanded £196 million from Sheikh Walid Juffali (61), her Saudi billionaire husband, including £1 million a year just for clothes.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 7, Cambodia dismissed accusations by anti-corruption pressure group Global Witness that PM Hun Sen and his family have amassed $200 million in business interests including some with links to land grabs and environmental destruction.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.31)
2016 Jul 7, Cambodia said tourists showing cleavage or wearing skimpy clothes will be banned from the famed Angkor temple complex, after a slew of photos emerged of scantily-clad visitors at the sacred site.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, France-based Danone, the world’s largest yogurt maker, agreed to buy WhiteWave Foods, a natural-food group, for $12.5 billion.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.53)
2016 Jul 7, The German parliament passed a landmark "no means no" rape law, broadening the definition of sex crimes and making it easier to deport migrants and refugees who commit them.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Iraq a triple suicide attack late today near a Shi'ite mausoleum north of Baghdad killed 37 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Niger Delta Avengers attacked more oil infrastructure in southern Nigeria, ignoring a call for unity from Pres. Muhammadu Buhari.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Philippine troops, backed by rocket-firing helicopters and artillery fire, killed up to 9 Abu Sayyaf extremists in fighting after the new military chief warned of a "shock and awe" offensive to wipe out the militant group known for its brutality.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Philippines ordered the suspension of operations at two nickel ore mines for environmental violations and halted the issuance of exploration permits as a nationwide crackdown led by a new mining minister begins.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Poland's parliament rushed through legislation governing the Constitutional Tribunal, an attempt to address international concerns about the rule of law a day before Pres. Obama and other Western leaders arrive in Warsaw for a NATO summit.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a package of controversial anti-terror amendments dubbed "Big Brother" measures by critics that may cost internet companies billions.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Russian officials said at least 7 militants and one law enforcement officer have been killed in clashes in Dagestan in the North Caucasus region.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In South Korea Shin Young-ja, the daughter of the founder of the Lotte Group conglomerate, was arrested on charges including breach of trust and embezzlement.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In South Sudan 5 government soldiers were killed in a shootout late today between opposing army factions in the capital. The UN mission reported an attack on a senior official in the Tomping area of Juba.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Syrian army advanced within firing range of the rebels' sole supply route to Aleppo in heavy fighting despite its announcement of a ceasefire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Saudi-backed rebel group Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) said four of its fighters were killed trying to stop the army from cutting the Castello Road, the only route into rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Taiwan an explosion hit a commuter train in Taipei injuring at least 24 people.
(SFC, 7/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 7, A Vatican court declared it had no jurisdiction to prosecute two journalists for having published confidential information. A Vatican monsignor and an Italian communications expert were convicted for having conspired to pass documents to the journalists.
(SFC, 7/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 8, US President Barack Obama expressed concern about the state of democracy in Poland, publicly rebuking a right-wing government that has paralyzed the constitutional court and taken steps to control state run media. Obama shared his worries with Polish President Andrzej Duda in a one-on-one meeting before the opening of a NATO summit in Warsaw.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Ten US states sued the federal government over rules requiring public schools to alow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms conforming to their gender identity.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 8, Thousands of protesters marched in US cities late today, one day after a black extremist shot dead five cops who were protecting a peaceful march against police brutality in Dallas, Texas.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Grace Packer (14), the adopted daughter of Sara Packer, was raped and smothered to death in a “rape-murder fantasy" shared by the mother and her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan. The couple dismembered the body in October and it was found by two hunters in Luzerne County on Oct 31. On Jan 6 Sullivan began confessing to the murder.
(SFC, 1/9/17, p.A12)
2016 Jul 8, Austrian President Heinz Fischer ended his term, temporarily leaving official duties in the hands of the country's three parliamentary presidents pending a rerun of elections to succeed him.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Bangladeshi teenager Zakir Hossain Shawon (18), who police say was a suspect in last week's deadly attack on a Dhaka café, died in custody. His family insisted he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, PM David Cameron announced that Britain is lifting a ban on women serving in frontline combat roles in the army.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, President Raul Castro told Cubans to brace for tough times because the Communist-run country must cut spending and energy supply as it deals with a cash crunch and reduced oil imports from ally Venezuela.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, El Salvador authorities said they have arrested five police officers and five civilians for alleged ties to a death squad that killed as many as 40 gang members in the eastern part of the country. According to prosecutors, a group of businesspeople, whose identities were not released, had brought together national police in some towns to offer them money in exchange for killing gang members.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi took his Africa tour to South Africa, seeking to boost trade between two countries.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian security services Jammu and Kashmir state shot dead Burhan Wani (22), a militant known for his calls to arms on social media and leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, one of a number of groups fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Indonesia a military helicopter crashed into a house in a village near the city of Yogyakarta, killing 3 of the six people aboard.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi fired Baghdad's security chief following a recent series of attacks.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Mongolia's parliament appointed Jargaltulga Erdenebayar (42), a former finance minister, as the new prime minister amid near-flat growth and spiraling debt.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Leaders of the NATO military alliance met in Warsaw and began a landmark summit that will order ambitious actions against a daunting array of dangers to the security of their nations and citizenry, including a rearmed and increasingly unfriendly Russia to Europe's east and violent Islamic extremism to the south. Finland and Sweden joined NATO leaders at the top table for the first time as Russia's military build-up pushed the two countries closer to the western military alliance.
(AP, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least 9 people and injured around 12 others in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, Borno state, during early morning prayers.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Nigerian militants said they have blown up a crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pakistan national hero Abdul Sattar Edhi (92), the founder of the country's largest welfare organisation, died in Karachi.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, South Korea and the United States said they would deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter a threat from North Korea, drawing a sharp and swift protest from neighboring China.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In South Sudan at least 115 soldiers from rival factions were killed in gunbattles in the capital Juba as gunfire erupted near the state house where President Salva Kiir and vice president Riek Machar, former rivals, were meeting for talks.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Spain six foreigners, including three Americans, were among seven people gored in a hair-raising second running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In northwestern Syria airstrikes on a village killed 23 people and wounded dozens in Darkoush, Idlib province, despite a declared 3-day truce. Syrian rebels fired a rocket barrage on residential areas in the government side of Aleppo, killing 44 according to state media.
(AP, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Syria militants shot down a military helicopter near Palmyra, killing 2 Russian pilots on board.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 8, Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights. The storm caused at least 3 deaths and more than 300 injuries.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, Tanzania's High Court raising the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 and ruled that two sections of the 1971 Marriage Act, that allow girls to marry at 15 with parental consent and 14 with the permission of a court, are unconstitutional.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, Thousands of people rallied in cities across the US to protest killings by police officers.
(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A4)
2016 July 9, In Missouri an off-duty police officer shot and killed Tyler Gebhard (20), who had broken into his home after throwing a 50-pound planter box through a window. The officer and Gebhard had argued online over the Black Lives Matter movement.
(SFC, 2/17/17, p.A5)
2016 Jul 9, Sydney H. Schanberg (82), a former correspondent for The New York Times, died in Poughkeepsie, NY. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the genocide in Cambodia in 1975. The film "The Killing Fields" (1984) was inspired by the story of the survival of his assistant.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, In Afghanistan Taliban commander Omar Mansoor, aka Umar Naray, was killed in an airstrike in Nangarhar province. He was responsible for the 2014 on a Pakistani school that left more than 130 children dead.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 9, Thousands of Bosnians raised their hands in prayer as a truck bearing 127 coffins passed through the capital on its way to Srebrenica, where the newly identified victims of Europe's worst massacre since World War II will be buried July 11 on the 21th anniversary of the crime.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, British lawyers signed a letter saying: Our legal opinion is that the June 23 referendum is advisory." The letter was signed by 1054 prominent lawyers.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 9, In China the remains of super typhoon Nepartak made landfall in eastern Fujian province, bringing high winds and heavy rain, and forcing the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In India’s Jammu and Kashmir state at least 9 protesters died as crowds angered by the killing of a separatist militant clashed with armed police, torching buildings and blocking streets. Over 20,000 people had gathered for the funeral of Burhan Wani, killed a day earlier.
(AP, 7/9/16)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.33)
2016 Jul 9, Gunmen kidnapped three Indonesian members of a tugboat crew off Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah. Four other crew members were left behind by the kidnappers who came in a speedboat.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, Iraqi government forces recaptured an air base in Qayara from the Islamic State group, a victory hailed by the prime minister as a key step ahead of the long-awaited operation to push the militants from the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In central Mali unidentified gunmen killed 2 soldiers in the Koro region near the border with Burkina Faso.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, In Mexico a series of attacks by gunmen in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas state, killed 15 people over the last 24 hours.
(SSFC, 7/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 9, NATO allies agreed to help fund Afghan security forces to the tune of around $1 billion annually over the next three years, despite public fatigue in Western countries about their involvement in the long-running conflict.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, The Pacific island of Nauru held elections, with international observers invited to monitor the polls for the first time in more than a decade after criticism over human rights in the world's smallest republic. 67 candidates vied for support from just under 8,000 registered voters for the 19 seats in parliament.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, North Korea fired a ballistic missile from a submarine but according to South Korea it appeared to have failed soon after launch.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In Spain a man from Valencia died after being gored in a late-night bull run near the southern town of Alicante. Two men were gored and 12 others injured in the more popular morning bull-run race in Pamplona.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, Syria's military said it would extend its own cease-fire for three days, even as pro-government forces advanced against rebels in the north. Syrian regime forces repelled a fierce assault by opposition fighters seeking to reopen their only supply route into Aleppo city, killing at least 29 rebels.
(AP, 7/9/16)(AFP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost and then opened fire on the facility, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens in the town of Cevizlik.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, Barack Obama met Spain's King Felipe in Madrid, during a symbolic but abbreviated first presidential trip to Spain in the wake of America's latest spasm of violence.
(AFP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Seth Rich (b.1989), an American employee for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), died after he was fatally shot in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Police suspected he may have been killed in an attempted robbery.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Seth_Rich)
2016 Jul 10, In southern California the driver of an SUV struck and killed 3 women (16-20) and then fled the scene in Santa Ana.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 10, In Chicago weekend violence left 43 people shot, 4 of them fatally, bringing the year’s homicide number to at least 344.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 10, In northwestern Nevada 2 federal firefighters were killed when their vehicle crashed while returning from a patrol for lightning-sparked wildfires.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 10, In Cambodia Kem Ley (45), a well-known critic of the government, was shot dead in what police said was a personal dispute over money. He was killed at a gas station in Phnom Penh. His attacker, identified as Oeut Ang, was soon arrested. Ang’s wife later said her husband was too poor to have loaned any money. Opposition parties suggested a political conspiracy behind the killing.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 10, Following a two-day meeting in Shanghai trade ministers from the G20 nations called on their governments to roll back anti-trade measures that have become more pervasive than any time since 2009.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Chinese officials in Fujian province said at least 2 people were dead and 17 others missing after Typhoon Nepartak battered the coast with heavy rain and strong winds that toppled homes and triggered landslides. On July 18 news media reported that the government has fired three officials in Fujian province after tropical storm Nepartak killed 83 people and left 19 others missing.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Germany more than 120 police officers were injured and 86 demonstrators were detained during leftist riots overnight in Berlin. Activists had called for the demonstration to protest against police operations at buildings taken over the squatters in the eastern part of the city last month.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Iranian news reported that unknown gunmen in western Iran killed two people and injured a lawmaker and a local governor after opening fire on their car.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Israel the finds from some three-decades of excavation unearthing a Philistine cemetery went on display at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem. Their presence between 1200 and around 600 BC is evident on a thin coastal strip running from present-day Gaza to Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Israel's government approved nearly $13 million in financing for the West Bank settlements of Kiryat Arba and within Hebron.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 10, Japan's ruling coalition was a clear winner in parliamentary elections, paving the way for PM Shinzo Abe to push ahead with his economic revival policies. PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party won 56 of 121 upper house seats up for grabs. Coalition parnter Komeito won 14 seats.
(AP, 7/10/16)(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 10, The death toll in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state rose to 20 as clashes between Indian troops and protesters killed 4 protesters and a police officer, despite a curfew imposed in the to suppress anti-India anger following the killing of a popular rebel commander.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, The Islamic Jihad militant group said one of its tunnels in Gaza has collapsed, killing a militant who was inside.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Portugal beat France 1-0 in extra time in Paris to win the European Championship for its first major soccer trophy.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 10, The residence of South Sudan's vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar was attacked by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir. Kenya Airways said it was suspending flights to Juba due to uncertain security.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Spain bullfighter Victor Barrio (29) was fatally gored at the Teruel bullring, the first professional matador to be killed in the ring since3 1985.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Tanzania visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi and President John Pombe Magufuli signed five agreements, including one to provide credit $92 million to improve water accessibility on the island of Zanzibar.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, A Thai journalist was detained by police in Ratchaburi province while reporting on the New Democracy Movement, a group opposed to the military government. Three activists of the group were also detained. Taweesak Kerdpoka was the first journalist to be arrested under a new law that makes it illegal to criticize the planned August 7 referendum on a new draft constitution.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Turkey two Kurdish militant bomb attacks ripped through a military outpost and an army vehicle, killing 5 members of the armed forces in Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, US Defense Secretary Ash Carte announced that The United States is stepping up its military campaign against Islamic State (IS) by sending hundreds more troops to assist Iraqi forces in an expected push on Mosul, the militants' largest stronghold, later this year.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, The US Department of Defense announced the transfer of Yemeni national Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi and Tajik national Muhammadi Davlatov to Serbia, leaving 76 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, In Michigan jail inmate Larry Darnell Gordon (44) wrested a gun from an officer killing 2 bailiffs and injuring two others before he was fatally shot by other officers.
(SFC, 7/12/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 11, It was announced that Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta have sold their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to a group led by WME-IMG, an American talent agency for $4 billion and retained a minority interest. The Fertittas had purchased the UFC for $2 million in 2001. The Abu Dhabi government continued to own 10%.
(http://tinyurl.com/jv6sasd)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.51)
2016 Jul 11, British Home Secretary Theresa May (b.1956) became the country's leader-in-waiting after her sole remaining rival unexpectedly withdrew. PM David Cameron welcomed the development and said he would offer his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II on July 13.
(AP, 7/11/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.18)
2016 Jul 11, British veteran Labour MP Angela Eagle announced a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.46)
2016 Jul 11, Indian authorities struggled to contain street protests by Kashmiris defying patrols and a stringent curfew after at least 25 people died in clashes that followed the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Indian PM Narendra Modi Monday held talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi and agreed to further expand investment ties between the two countries and diversify trade.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Iran detained Robin Shahini of San Diego who travelled there to see his mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He received an 18-year prison sentence for "collaboration with a hostile government". On Feb 15, 2017, Shahini began a hunger strike to contest his incarceration. After two weeks he was released on bail.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2016 Jul 11, Israel's parliament adopted a law seen as targeting left-wing groups critical of the government by forcing NGOs that receive most of their funding from foreign states to declare it.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 11, Nigeria said gunmen believed to be nomadic Fulani herdsmen have killed scores of villagers in Benue State in a long-running conflict over grazing rights. Nigeria's Channels television put the number of dead at 81 in the past two weeks after attacks on farming villages in the Logo and Ukum areas of the state.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, North Korea said it has told the United States it will sever the only channel of communication between them, at the United Nations in New York, after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11,The Philippine military said government troops have killed 40 Abu Sayyaf extremists and wounded 25 others in two battlefronts in the first major counterterrorism offensive in the south under the new president.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, In Portugal 3 people died in an accident involving a Hercules C130 military cargo plane at the Montijo military airport.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Puerto Rico authorities said they have seized $2.7 million worth of cocaine off the territory's north coast. They also arrested two people and were looking for one fugitive.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Romania's President Klaus Iohannis signed into law legislation obliging supermarkets to sell at least 51% locally-produced meat, fruit, eggs and vegetables.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, South African police said twin brothers Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie (23), arrested on terrorism charges over the weekend, were plotting to blow up the US embassy in Pretoria and Jewish institutions, and planned to join the Islamic State.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, South Africa's telecoms regulator ordered the public broadcaster to reverse its May 26 decision to stop airing footage of violent protests, a policy which critics said amounted to censorship.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, South Sudan's as President Salva Kiir ordered a ceasefire after a new day of heavy fighting in the capital Juba that sent thousands of people fleeing and threatened a return to civil war. Five foreigners were raped and their local colleague murdered at the Terrain Hotel in Juba as Pres. Kiir's troops won a three-day battle over opposition forces loyal to ex-Vice President Riek Machar. Lt. Col. Luka Akechak, the unit commander at the hotel, later became one of more than a dozen South Sudanese soldiers standing trial in a military court. Akechak was found dead in October 2017 following medical treatment in Juba.
(AFP, 7/11/16)(Reuters, 10/20/17)
2016 Jul 11, In Syria rebels launched an attack against government positions in Aleppo in response to an offensive that cut a road leading into the opposition-held sector of the city. State television said 8 people had been killed and that the bombardments had brought down buildings.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Taiwan's major state-run banks froze withdrawals from nearly 1,000 ATMs following the theft of more than T$80 million ($2.5 million) from dozens of First Bank's ATMs supplied by Germany's Wincor Nixdorf. On July 17 police said three out of 16 foreign suspects have been arrested, one from Latvia and two from rom. Police said the remaining 13 suspects, including two from Russia, have left Taiwan.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai journalist Taweesak Kerdpoka and four activists were charged under a draconian law banning criticism of the junta's new constitution which will be voted on in a referendum next month.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai country singer and political activist Thanat Thanawatcharanon, known by his stage name Tom Dundee, was sentenced by a military court to more than three years in jail for insulting the monarchy, adding to a 7½-year sentence a criminal court imposed on him earlier for the same offense.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his plan to give Syrian refugees Turkish citizenship in comments published today, arguing the country has ample space after a backlash against the suggestion.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Human Rights Watch said Turkey's government is blocking access to independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians in southeast Turkey, where security forces are fighting Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said that Citibank NA, planned to shut his government's foreign currency accounts within a month, denouncing the move by one of its main foreign financial intermediaries as part of a "blockade."
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Human Rights Watch urged an end to "forced anal examinations" with a report documenting them in eight countries, mostly in Africa, saying the practice is based on flawed ideas about supposedly proving homosexual conduct. The report drew on interviews with 32 men and transgender women subjected to the exams in eight countries that ban same-sex conduct: Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Zambia.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Australia Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov (65) launched his 184-foot-tall balloon in western Australia state in an effort to complete a 21,000-mile solo flight around the world in less than 13 days to beat a 2002 record set by Steve Fossett.
(SFC, 7/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 12, Austria's government moved to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born to prevent it becoming a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, and the country's Interior Minister said he wanted to tear it down.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, The Cameroon-based NGO Support Service for Local Development Initiatives (SAILD) warned that a rise in Chinese companies operating in Cameroon’s timber sector, combined with weak law enforcement, have fueled a surge in illegal logging that is fast depleting the nation's forests.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, A Chinese civilian aircraft successfully carried out calibration tests on two new airports in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, An Egyptian court sentenced six policemen to up to seven years in prison over the death of detainee Talaat Shabeeb last November in Luxor. Seven policemen were acquitted. The court also ordered the Interior Ministry to pay 1.5 million Egyptian pounds ($170,000) to the man's family.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, The EU launched a controversial deal with the United States aimed at curbing government spying on the personal internet infomation of European citizens.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, India's PM Narendra Modi called an emergency meeting over escalating anti-India protests in Kashmir, where at least 29 people have died in clashes and hospitals are struggling with hundreds of injured.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Iraq a suicide car bomb ripped through an outdoor vegetable and fruit market in al-Rashidiya, a Shiite-dominated northeastern district of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office revised up GDP growth in 2015 from 7.8% to 26.3%.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.42)
2016 Jul 12, In Italy at least 27 people were killed in a head-on collision between two passenger trains in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
(AFP, 7/12/16)(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 12, Malawi began a massive project to move 500 elephants, by truck and crane, to a sanctuary for the threatened species.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Mali at least 3 people were killed and 32 left wounded after a protest in Gao turned violent.
(SFC, 7/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 12, A Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) rescue ship recovered the bodies of four migrants and rescued around 400 survivors from an overcrowded wooden boat in the Mediterranean between Italy and Libya.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Myanmar the Sangha Council, a state institution that oversees Buddhist monastic discipline, declared that it did not recognize Ma Ba Tha, an influential Buddhist nationalist group, as a member of the country's Buddhist order.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 12, An international tribunal at The Hague rejected China's extensive claims in the South China Sea in a landmark ruling that also found the country had aggravated the regional dispute and violated the Philippines' maritime rights by building up artificial islands that destroyed coral reefs and by disrupting fishing and oil exploration. China immediately rejected it.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, "Move on Pakistan", a largely-unknown political party founded in 2013, placed posters overnight begging the country’s powerful army chief to launch a coup.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Spanish police said they have arrested 11 people, mostly Russians and Ukrainians, in an operation targeting foreign organized crime gangs involved in money laundering. Those arrested allegedly ran a network of companies through which they channeled money from Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands to buy real estate in Spain.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, The head of Syria's main opposition coalition said hundreds of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas of Aleppo risk starvation, accusing Damascus of trying to besiege the city into submission.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Taiwan said it does not accept an int’l. tribunal's ruling on the South China Sea, saying the decision on Itu Aba, Taipei's sole holding in the disputed Spratly Islands, had "seriously impaired" its territorial rights.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.32)
2016 Jul 12, The UN launched a global appeal for $952 million to fund Sudan's humanitarian needs, most of it to help people affected by the deadly conflict in Darfur.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, Zimbabwean Baptist minister Evan Mawarire, a leader of the biggest protests against Pres. Robert Mugabe in a decade, was charged with inciting public violence. In a video recorded before his arrest he urged supporters to go ahead with demonstrations.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 13, A US Judge in Mississippi sentenced Genoveva Farfan (44) of Los Angeles to eight years in prison for her role in a cybersecurity scheme after a Mississippi woman reported she’d been scammed. Farfan was among 20 people indicted in a probe involving losses of $6.5 million.
(SFC, 7/14/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 13, In the SF Bay Area Antioch resident Adan Katami (38) was shot to death in Hayward. Deputies soon arrested the gunman and his suspected getaway driver. Authorities later said Tikisha Upshaw (37) of San Leandro had orchestrated the killing with Berkeley resident Wessley Brown (38), who hired Johnny /Wright Jr. (46) and Chariot Burks (25) of Memphis to carry out the shooting. Katami and Upshaw had been business associates in the illegal pot trade.
(SFC, 12/29/16, p.D4)
2016 Jul 13, Outgoing British PM David Cameron urged his successor Theresa May to keep Britain close to the European Union, even as she embarks on the monumental task of ending four decades of membership.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, New British PM Theresa May chose former London mayor Boris Johnson, known for his gaffes and buffoonery, as foreign minister.
(AFP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Burundi Hafsa Mossi, a former minister in President Pierre Nkurunziza's government, was "shot by criminals" in Bujumbura. She was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Canadian priest Amer Saka (51), a clergyman of the Baghdad-based Chaldean Catholic Church, was arrested in Canada for stealing more than half a million dollars (US$400,000) intended for the resettlement of Syrian refugees, and then gambling it away.
(AFP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 13, China warned other countries against threatening its security in the South China Sea after an international tribunal handed the Philippines a victory by saying Beijing had no legal basis for its expansive claims there.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Two Chinese civilian aircraft landed at two new airports on reefs controlled by China in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The aircraft then returned to the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. China also said it had completed four lighthouses on disputed reefs and was launching a fifth.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 13, The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Cairo for its penultimate stop as the solar-powered plane nears the end of its marathon tour around the world.
(AFP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, El Salvador’s Supreme Court overturned a 1993 amnesty law that had protected military, paramilitary and guerrilla fighters from facing justice for abuses during the country’s 12-year civil war.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 13, The French weekly Canard Enchaine reported that Pres. Francois Hollande's hair is kept perfectly groomed at a cost of of 9,895 euros ($10,900) a month. Canard Enchaine also reported that in addition to his salary, the hairdresser was entitled to a "housing allowance" and other "family benefits".
(AFP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Greek authorities recovered 4 bodies and rescued six people after a boat full of migrants overturned off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Iraq three bombings in Baghdad killed at least 12 people, including a suicide bombing in a mainly Shiite neighborhood that had been attacked the day before.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Officers with Israel's paramilitary border police were confiscating an arms-manufacturing machine when a car accelerated toward them. Security forces fired toward the car, killing Anwar al-Salaymeh (22). Another Palestinian was taken to hospital, and a third Palestinian was detained for questioning.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Italy convicted Cosa Nostra "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano (b.1933), who reputedly led the Mafia's powerful Corleone clan, died in Milan. He was captured in 2006 in Sicily following decades of hiding in the countryside.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_Provenzano)(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Malaysia's central bank cut interest rates for the first time in seven years to bolster a slowing economy amid fears of greater volatility in global growth.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In the Maldives senior diplomat Mohamed Asim became foreign minister after his predecessor resigned last week to protest the resumption of the death penalty.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Nepal's former Maoist rebels joined forces with the largest opposition party to lodge a motion of no-confidence in PM K.P. Oli, but the impoverished Himalayan country's increasingly isolated leader vowed to fight on.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Human Rights Watch said foreigners employed as maids in Oman can face physicdal and verbal abuse while entrapped in conditions that near slavery. Its report alleged that the United Arab Emirates acts as a gateway for maids trafficked into the sultanate.
(SFC, 7/14/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 13, In Pakistan Hafiz Saeed (66), a founding member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, accused the US of giving India free reign to crush anti-Indiaian protests in Kashmir. The US has put a $10 million bounty on Saeed.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 13, In central Romania anti-mafia police broke up a human trafficking gang which forced dozens of kidnapped victims including children into beggary and slavery, rescuing five people in the town of Berevoesti. 38 members of an extended Roma family in the village of Gamacesti were formally detained.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Spain an American was gored and five other runners were injured in the next-to-last running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Zimbabwe's state prosecutor charged pastor Evan Mawarire with attempting to overthrow the state via his Internet video campaign that inspired rare protests this month against President Robert Mugabe.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 14, US officials said that a good Samaritan has rescued four migrants but that 13 Cubans, one Colombian and one Dominican are still missing. They were aboard a boat traveling from the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten to the US Virgin Islands.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 14, The former head of Afghanistan's main intelligence agency released documents which he said showed that Pakistani intelligence services helped leaders of the Taliban and the feared Haqqani network in 2014 and 2015.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 14, Amnesty International said authorities in Cameroon have arbitrarily arrested more than 1,000 people as part of their fight against Islamist militant group Boko Haram and dozens have died of disease or been tortured to death.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In France a truck attack in Nice left at least 84 people dead including ten children. The attacker drove a heavy truck at high speed into dense crowds as a fireworks display to mark France's Bastille Day national holiday came to an end. The attacker was soon identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel (31), a Tunisian living in the city. Five suspects were soon arrested for alleged roles in helping Bouhlel.
(AP, 7/15/16)(Reuters, 7/15/16)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A2)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.40)
2016 Jul 14, Hong Kong’s government ruled that candidates for territory legislature elections in September must sign a declaration acknowledging that Hong Kong is an “Inalienable part" of China.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.35)
2016 Jul 14, In Kenya a suspected recruiter for the Somali militant group al Shabaab shot dead at least 4 policemen at the Kapenguria police station where he was being held after he snatched a weapon from a guard.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In Kuwait a decree issued by Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled Al-Sabah set the minimum wage for domestic workers at 60 dinars ($200) a month and also granted domestic staff a raft of other rights. The decree also requires employers to pay overtime for any extra hours worked.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, A Dutch court sentenced a Turkish-born man (44) to 30 days imprisonment for calling the country's king a "murderer, rapist and thief," in a rare use of a law against insulting the monarch. He has spent two weeks in pretrial detention and will not have to serve any prison time.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In the Netherlands Mark Langedijk (41), a long-term alcoholic, chose to end his life by lethal injection saying he could no longer go on.
(AP, 12/1/16)
2016 Jul 14, Philippine soldiers killed 11 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters on Mindanao island. A 15 year-old girl was caught in crossfire and killed.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, Qatar Airways announced an agreement to purchase a 49-percent stake in Italy's second largest carrier, Meridiana.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, Russia said it has has conducted more than 50 air strikes since July 12 against Islamic State (IS) jihadists near the Syrian city of Palmyra. Six Tupolev bombers flew out of an airbase in Russia today and conducted strikes east of Palmyra, near the cities of Arak and Sukhna, as well as in the Homs region.
(AFP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In Slovenia a small US-registered plane crashed in the west of the country, killing all 4 people on board.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, In Syria Islamic State fighters brought down a government jet near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. A series of airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo city killed at least 12 people. An international aid convoy reached the besieged town of al-Waer in the central Homs province, bringing aid to 75,000 people.
(Reuters, 7/14/16)(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 14, Vietnam protested China’s recent activities in the disputed Sotuh China Sea.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, The US released once top secret pages from a 2003 congressional report into the 9/11 attacks that questioned whether Saudis, who were in contact with hijackers, knew what they were planning.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 15, The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Herbalife has agreed to a $200 million settlement for consumer relief along with requirements to restructure it business practices.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul 15, The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that US officials have wrongly allowed the Navy to use sonar at levels that could harm whales and other marine animals.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.C1)
2016 Jul 15, San Diego police arrested Jon David Guerrero (39) following an attack on a homeless man. Police believed Guerrero was responsible for the five attacks since July 3 that killed three homeless men.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A13)
2016 Jul 15, Florida murder suspect Dayonte Resiles (21) disappeared after bolting from a courtroom in Broward County. On July 17 officials said he received help from his girlfriend and three others as part of a plot that had been planned during jailhouse calls and visits. Two more accomplices were soon arrested. Resiles was arrested on July 20 in West Palm Beach.
(AP, 7/17/16)(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 15, GOP front runner Donald Trump named Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.
(SFC, 7/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 15, Albania's ruling Socialists said they will accept any changes the opposition Democratic Party make to a judicial reform package, provided they are amenable to the European Union and the United States.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Brazil said it has deported the Franco-Algerian nuclear physicist Adlene Hicheur after rejecting a request for an extension to his work visa. He was convicted in 2012 for his involvement in a French terror plot. Local press reports said Hicheur had been deported to France.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 15, British PM Theresa May visited Scotland and met with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh seeking to dampen speculation about another Scottish vote for independence, while insisting she is willing to listen to proposals about Scotland's future relationship with the European Union.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Britain listed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), aka Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), as a terrorist organization. This pleased China, which had demanded Western support for its fight against a group it says seeks to split off its western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 15, State media said China aims to launch a series of offshore nuclear power platforms to promote development in the South China Sea, days after an international court ruled Beijing had no historic claims to most of the waters.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Chinese prosecutors said a human rights lawyer and three activists have been indicted on subversion charges.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, In eastern China 8 people in Longkou city, Shandong province, were killed when the construction elevator they were in plummeted from an apartment building.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 15, Egypt launched a program of having Muslim clerics read a standardized government-written sermon at Friday prayers, a move by the state to tighten control over religious discourse.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, The Supreme Court in Guinea-Bissau upheld the nomination of PM Baciro Dja, bolstering President Jose Mario Vaz in a power struggle with rival and former PM Carlos Correia.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 15, Thousands of Iraqis defied warnings from authorities and rallied in the heart of Baghdad, renewing pressure on the government to carry out reforms targeting corruption and sectarianism.
(AFP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Rescuers saved 366 migrants from rickety boats trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy but at least 20 people were reported to have drowned. The survivors were mainly from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 15, Japanese messaging app Line rocketed in its Tokyo trading debut after an eye-popping jump in NY a day earlier, as investors cheered the year's biggest technology share sale.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, In Kashmir widespread anti-India protests and clashes erupted in dozens of places, even as authorities prevented tens of thousands of people from offering prayers in big mosques with a lockdown in place for a seventh straight day.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, North Korea presented to media a man it alleges is a South Korean spy who tried to enter the North to kidnap children. Detainee Ko Hyon Chol (53) said he apologized for a crime he called "unforgivable." He was arrested May 27 on an island in the Amnok River which runs along the border between North Korea and China.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Pakistani fashion model and social media star Qandeel Baloch, real name Fauzia Azeem, was strangled by her brother Waseem in what appeared to be an honor killing in Multan, Punjab province. Her social media photos had challenged social norms. Waseem was arrested on July 17 and confessed to killing his sister. In 2019 Waseem was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)(AP, 7/17/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.32)(SFC, 9/28/19, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, South Koreans protesting against a plan to deploy a US missile defense system in their district blocked a minibus carrying PM Hwang Kyo-ahn for several hours. A day earlier the government announced that the southeastern county of Seongju had been chosen as the site for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery aimed at countering what it sees as the threat from North Korea's missile and nuclear program.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Turkey foiled a coup attempt by a faction of the army against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule. 161 people, not including the putschists, were reported killed in the coup attempt, with 2,839 soldiers detained on suspicion of involvement. More than 230 people were killed among them 145 civilians who had taken to the streets to confront the rebellious soldiers.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 15, In Turkey Gen. Zekai Aksakalli ordered Sgt. Omer Halisdemir to kill Brigadier General Semih Terzi, one of the suspected coup ringleaders. By shooting Terzi dead outside special forces headquarters in Ankara, Halisdemir broke the putschists' chain of command although he was subsequently killed by the plotters.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2016 Jul 15, The UN said at least 300 people were killed and 42,000 fled their homes this month during the July 8-11 intense gun battles in Juba, South Sudan. The dead included two Chinese peacekeepers.
(AFP, 7/15/16)(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Zimbabwe delayed paying its soldiers for a second successive month, underlining the worsening economic crisis that has triggered recent protests.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Arkansas Bonnie Brown (b.1938), one of the three siblings that formed the Browns singing group, died in Little Rock. Their songs included “I Take the Chance" (1957) and “The Three Bells" (1959).
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A16)
2016 Jul 16, Nate Thurmond (74), Basketball Hall of Famer, died in San Francisco. The 6-foot-11 Mr. Thurmond played 11 of his 14 seasons with the SF Warriors.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 16, In NYC Andrew Esquivel (21), an MIT student working as a summer intern, was killed early today after off-duty police officer Nicholas Batka (28) hit four pedestrians while driving intoxicated in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.C2)
2016 Jul 16, In Texas an inmate killed corrections officer Mari Johnson (55) near the kitchen of the Robertson Unit in Abilene.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A10)
2016 Jul 16, In Afghanistan Zarah, a pregnant girl (14) from central Ghor province, died in a Kabul hospital after being tortured and burned by her in-laws.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Bangladesh police in Dhaka arrested three people and another a day later, including a university professor, for failing to register information about tenants renting property who attacked a cafe in the city on July 1, killing 20 people.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Egypt a group of Muslims attacked and torched houses of Christians in the village of Abu-Yacoub, also in Minya, following a rumor that a Christian intended to turn a kindergarten into a church. Security forces arrested at least 14 people.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 16, Israel arrested engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, and indicted in a civilian court on August 90. He was the second humanitarian worker charged by Israel in the past week for aiding Hamas.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Jul 16, South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope showed off its phenomenal power, revealing 1,300 galaxies in a tiny corner of the universe where only 70 were known before.
(AFP, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, In Syria air raids on rebel-held districts of Aleppo killed at least 25 civilians including children. Government troops regained control of Kinsabba in Latakia province.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish authorities imposed a security lockdown at the Incirlik air base in the southern province of Adana. Many international flights to Turkey were cancelled despite efforts by the Ankara authorities to get life back to normal following an abortive coup attempt. NTV reported that Turkish authorities have arrested 10 members of the Council of State, the country's top administrative court, and were searching for 140 members of the court of cassation in a probe related to the failed overnight coup. NTV also reported that authorities have removed 2,745 judges from duty.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish military helicopter landed in Greece carrying eight officers seeking asylum after a coup bid. Greece arrested all eight men.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, Yemen's government resumed talks in Kuwait with Shiite Houthi rebels despite its earlier threats to boycott the process.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, US Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a series of agreements between the US and Australia to create an "unprecedented" international research database of cancer patients as he kicked off a three-day visit in Melbourne.
(AFP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, The US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group resumed air strikes from a Turkish air base that were suspended after a failed military coup d'etat.
(AFP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Florida David Owens (29) entered the Parrish Medical Center and fatally shot patient Cynthia Zingsheim (88) and employee Carrie Rouzer (36) in an apparent random shooting. Owens was tackled by security guards as he left.
(SFC, 7/18/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 17, In Louisiana ex-US Marine and Iraq war veteran Gavin Long (29) shot and killed Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, Montrell Jackson (32) and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola. Three other officers were wounded and Long was killed in a gunfight. Long had searched online for the officers involved in the July 5 shooting that killed Alton Sterling.
(AFP, 7/18/16)(SFC, 7/1/17, p.A6)
2016 Jul 17, In Wisconsin a domestic violence suspect opened fire on a Milwaukee police officer who was sitting in his squad car early today, seriously wounding him before fleeing and apparently killing himself shortly afterward. The suspect, a 20-year-old man from the suburb of West Allis, had two felonies on his arrest record.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents attacked security outposts on the Sangin district center, Helmand province, but faced fierce resistance from Afghan forces and were pushed back as US warplanes conducted at least two air strikes over the next 48 hours. Dozens of militants were reported killed in the fighting.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 17, The African Union opened a summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali. The renewed fighting in South Sudan dominated discussions.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Armenia 31 armed supporters of a jailed opposition leader attacked a police station in Yerevan, killing one officer, wounding three and taking several others hostage. They demanded the release of Jirair Sefilian, who was arrested last month. The opposition group repeated its call for the government to resign.
(AP, 7/17/16)(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 17, A court in Bahrain ordered al-Wefaq, the country's main Shiite opposition group, to be dissolved deepening a crackdown on dissent.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Cameroon said 11 hostages were freed following 16 months of captivity, after having been abducted by a militia group from the Central African Republic. Two hostages died while in captivity.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Egypt a Muslim mob attacked the families of two Coptic priests with knives and batons in the village of Tahna al-Gabal late today. Family member Fam Khalaf (27) was killed and the father of one of the priests was wounded.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, Police in India said at least 19 people died and six others were blinded after drinking toxic bootleg liquor. Another 50 people fell ill after consuming the home-brewed liquor on July 15 and were being treated in hospitals in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Authorities in India's portion of Kashmir shut down printing presses and temporarily banned newspapers from publishing in a sweeping information blackout after days of anti-India protests left dozens of people dead in the volatile region. A strict curfew continued for the ninth straight day.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Israeli police arrested a Palestinian man (20) carrying pipe bombs and knives in his bag at a light railway station in Jerusalem during the morning rush hour.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three injured after a grenade one of the troops was holding exploded in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, In Libya 3 French special forces soldiers were killed. Officials in Libya later said the Islamist militia shot down a helicopter near Benghazi. The deaths provided the first confirmation that France has troops in the country where the Islamic State group has several bases.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 17, Malaysia Airlines struck a deal to settle damages claims for most victims of its MH17 flight that was shot down over eastern Ukraine two years ago.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Morocco asked the African Union (AU) to readmit it to an organisation it left in 1984, as it steps up efforts to win support from member states for a plan offering conditional autonomy to the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, In South Africa philanthropist Bill Gates delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture ahead of Mandela Day and said that his foundation will invest another $5 billion in Africa over the next five years.
(SFC, 7/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 17, South Korean authorities arrested senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joo for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars following shady stock transaction deals with a leading online game maker.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 17, Pro-Syrian government forces reached the only main road into the rebel-held part of Aleppo, further tightening their control around opposition areas of the main northern city.
(Reuters, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, The Turkish government accelerated its crackdown on alleged plotters of the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the justice minister saying that 6,000 people had been detained in the investigation, including three of the country's top generals and hundreds of soldiers.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Caravans of Venezuelan families drove for hours on bandit-plagued highways to a checkpoint on the Colombian border where they'll be able to cross and hunt for food and medicine that are in short supply at home. This was the second weekend in a row that the socialist government has opened the long-closed border connecting Venezuela to Colombia.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, Dozens of Vietnamese who gathered for an anti-China protest in central Hanoi were taken away by authorities as they tried to rally support for an international tribunal's ruling rejecting Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 18, The US Republican National Convention opened in Cleveland. Melania Trump delivered a heartfelt defense of her husband and his bid to be the next president of the United States before thousands of rapt convention delegates. But unmistakable similarities in remarks about her guiding values and a speech given by Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic convention soon came to light.
(AP, 7/18/16)(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice was acquitted of manslaughter and two other charges in the April 2015 death of black detainee Freddie Gray, dealing prosecutors another setback in their efforts to secure a conviction in the highly charged case.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Florida police in North Miami shot and wounded Charles Kinsey (47), a black therapist, even as he had his hands in the air after trying to help an autistic patient (27) in the middle of a street.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul 18, Billy Name, born in 1940 as William Linich Jr., died in upstate New York. He had met Andy Warhol in 1959 and became his lover, muse and court photographer.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.C4)
2016 Jul 18, An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket blasted off from Florida to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, then turned around and landed itself back at the launch site.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, NASA officials said Taiwan is building a $47 million lunar lander as part of the first ever moon-mining project. Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) will build the lander. The NASA project Resource Prospector and aims to be the first mining expedition on another world.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban began attacking the Qalay-i-Zal district in Kunduz province. A day later they had not yet been completely pushed back.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Armenian authorities called on gunmen holed up in a police station in the Yerevan to lay down their arms and release four people they were holding hostage.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Azerbaijan the ANS TV station was ordered to provisionally stop broadcasting for a month because authorities said its reporting ran counter to "a strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey." On July 29 the Court of Appeals in Baku ordered the local private television station to close because of its coverage of the attempted coup in Turkey.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced three militia members to death for carrying out killings and other serious crimes during the country's independence war against Pakistan 35 years ago. Five other defendants were sentenced to life in prison. Only two of the defendants were in the docks. The others were tried in absentia.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, British lawmakers voted to replace the country’s four aging nuclear-armed submarines with new vessels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 18, It was announced that ARM Holdings, a British Cambridge-based tech company, would be sold to Japan’s SoftBank for £24 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.44)
2016 Jul 18, An independent Canadian investigator said Russia operated a state-dictated doping system during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other events, in a report likely to lead to demands for Russia to be completely banned from the Rio Games.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, China’s Southern Weekly newspaper reported that a total of 313 HIV-positive people have been contacted by callers claiming to be government officials offering financial allowances in exchange for their banking information. The bank details were used to steal money from their accounts, while those who identified the offer as attempted fraud were threatened with the online publication of their details.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, The EU announced a further 500 million euros ($553 million) for farmers to help reverse the plunge in prices shaking a dairy industry hit by overproduction and a Russian embargo.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Germany a 17-year-old Afghan refugee wielding an axe and a knife went on a rampage on a train running between Treuchtlingen and Wuerzburg in Bavaria, seriously injuring four members of a tourist family from Hong Kong. When he began to attack officers with an axe, Riaz A. was shot dead by police. The Islamic State group soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 7/19/16)(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, India's top environmental court ordered authorities to remove all diesel vehicles at least 10 years old off the capital city's streets in a bid to help clean New Delhi's polluted air.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Police in eastern India said at least 8 paramilitary soldiers were killed in an attack by Maoist rebels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 18, Indonesia began re-vaccinating nearly 200 children who received fake versions of imported inoculations from a drug-counterfeiting ring broken up last month after operating for more than a decade.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militant, Abu Wardah Santoso, was one of two militants killed in a shootout in the jungles of Sulawesi island. The other was an extremist known as Mochtar.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Clashes erupted in the West Bank as Israel's military demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of involvement in a February attack outside Jerusalem's Old City that killed a policewoman.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, A Palestinian stabbed two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank before being shot. The soldiers were lightly wounded.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In northern Italy a court in Ivrea convicted former Olivetti executive Carlo De Benedetti and 12 others of manslaughter and other offenses over workers' deaths or illnesses blamed on asbestos exposure. The industrialist received a 5-year-2-month prison term. He will not be jailed while his appeals are heard.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Kazakhstan 3 police officers and one civilian were killed in armed attacks on a police station and a security building in Almaty. Police said they have disarmed and arrested two attackers.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In South Africa more than 18,000 scientists, campaigners and donors opened a major AIDS conference in Durban, issuing stark warnings that recent gains in the fight against the disease were under threat.
(AFP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 21 civilians were killed in US coalition raids, 15 of them in a northern district of Manbij and another six in Al-Tukhar.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 18, Turkey launched fresh raids and sacked almost 9,000 officials in a relentless crackdown against suspects behind an attempted coup that left over 300 people dead, as Western allies warned against reinstating the death penalty. Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said a total of 232 individuals were killed during the failed coup attempt. He put the total numbers of detentions since July 15 at 7,543, including 6,030 military.
(AFP, 7/18/16)(TIME, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Turkey an unknown assailant shot deputy mayor Cemil Candas of Istanbul's Sisli district in the head and he was in a critical condition.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Yemen 2 suicide bombers tried to ram vehicles laden with explosives through two military checkpoints near the government-held port city of Mukalla, killing at least 10 people.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 19, The US government announced a settlement with the Navajo Nation that will clear the way for cleanup work to continue at abandoned uranium mines in the four corners area.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 19, Writer-director Garry Marshall (81) died in southern California. His work included the TV hits “Happy Days" and “Laverne & Shirley" and the films “Pretty Woman" (1990) and “Runaway Bride" (1999).
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A9)
2016 Jul 19, In Kansas City, Kansas, police Capt. Robert Melton was shot and killed while searching for a suspect in a drive-by shooting. The alleged shooter was soon caught.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 19, In Michigan a judge dismissed all charges against Davontae Sanford (23) of Detroit, who had been locked up for eight years for a murder conviction for four 2007 slayings that were eventually linked to a professional hit man.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 19, In Afghanistan the Taliban launched multiple attacks including on a strategic tunnel in the Hindu Kush mountains that links the capital, Kabul, with the country's north and south.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, A British court ordered disgraced Russian athlete Liliya Shobukhova (38) to repay organisers of the London Marathon almost £400,000 (476,000 euros, $527,000).
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Chinese state newspapers began criticizing scattered protests against KFC restaurants and other US targets in an apparent attempt to head off large-scale street demonstrations sparked by an international tribunal's ruling that denied Beijing's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Authorities in southern France detained a man who stabbed a woman and her three daughters at an Alps resort, apparently upset at what they were wearing.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, India's top court ordered Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, to express regret or face defamation charges for blaming the country's top Hindu nationalist organization for the 1948 assassination of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, In India a police officer was killed during clashes in Una, 340 km (210 miles) from Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, where tannery workers were attacked by self-styled hardline Hindu cow protectors.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Authorities lifted a three-day publication ban in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, but newspapers delayed print runs due to uncertainties about the media restrictions.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Iraqi Cabinet announced a two-day mandatory official holiday for all government workers as temperatures soared above 123 degrees Fahrenheit.
(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 19, In Libya a French warplane bombed positions of Islamic militias outside the eastern city of Benghazi, killing at least 16 fighters and destroying the militias' weapons. The bombing came in retaliation for the July 17 killing of members of the French special forces by the militias.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 19, In central Mali an attack on an army base killed at least 17 soldiers and wounded more than 30 in the city of Nampala.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 19, Morocco's Interior Ministry arrested 52 people suspected of being part of a cell linked to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 19, The IMF slashed its growth forecast for the Nigerian economy this year, saying a combination of plunging oil revenues and weakened investor confidence will push it into recession.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into its eastern sea in an apparent protest of South Korea's decision to allow the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system in the country.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Philippine Supreme Court dismissed a plunder case against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ordered her freed immediately after nearly five years of hospital detention. The case involved the alleged misuse of 366 million pesos ($7.8 million) from the state lottery agency, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Romania's PM Dacian Ciolos launched a national anti-corruption strategy in a bid to crack down on widespread corruption that plagues every walk of life.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Russian intelligence agency FSB said it is conducting a probe of several top-ranking crime investigators on suspicion of collusion with criminal gangs.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Clown Dimitri (80), a beloved Swiss clown and mime, died in Borgnone. He had studied under Marcel Marceau and spread smiles from Broadway to Congo with a traditional style that shunned modern, high-tech theatrics.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, In Syria children were among at least 56 civilians killed in strikes by a US-led coalition near a village held by the Islamic State group. The civilians had apparently been mistaken for jihadists and were bombed while fleeing fighting in Al-Tukhar, Aleppo province. 12 civilians were reported killed in strikes on the rebel-held town of Atareb.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, In Taiwan a tour bus carrying 24 visitors from China burst into flames on a highway near Taipei, killing all 26 people on board. On July 29 investigators said the driver, identified only by his surname Su, was drunk when the accident happened.
(AP, 7/19/16)(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 19, The Tanzanian government admitted that it has banned imports and sales of sexual lubricants in its latest move targeting the gay community. It estimated that 23 percent of men who have sex with men in Tanzania are living with HIV/AIDS.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey’s education ministry said 15,200 state education employees have been suspended after last week's attempted coup. Turkey's High Education Board ordered the resignation of 1,577 deans at all universities.
(AFP, 7/19/16)(Reuters, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey's central bank cut a key interest rate for the fifth month in a row, days after an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan triggered concerns over the country's economic outlook.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, WikiLeaks released nearly 300,000 emails from Turkey’s AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6 this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward "in response to the government's post-coup purges". In response Turkey blocked access to the WikiLeaks website.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Ukraine said 7 government troops were killed in the past 24 hours during fighting with pro-Russian separatists, making July the deadliest month for the Ukrainian military in nearly a year after a sharp increase in violence.
(Reuters, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 20, The US government moved to seize more than $1 billion in assets purchased with money that it believes was stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund overseen by PM Najib Razak. US investigators alleged that more than $3.5 billion had been misappropriated from 1MDB and that hundreds of millions had been paid to PM Najib Razak.
(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A2)(Econ, 11/19/16, p.33)
2016 Jul 20, US Rep. Mark Takai (49) of Hawaii died in Honolulu of pancreatic cancer.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.D5)
2016 Jul 20, A Michigan TV station reported that the US Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency will fine Enbridge Inc $62 million for a 2010 oil spill that released crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed legislation banning the use of bullhooks to train elephants, making her state the first to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/hrewt2q)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 20, A Texas voter identification law, considered the strictest in the nation, was struck down in a federal appeals court that ruled it discriminated against minorities and the poor. The court ruled it must be changed before the November elections.
(CSM, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 20, Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel more than 700 flights because of a faulty router that brought its systems down for 12 hours. Some 2,300 flights were cancelled over the next 24 hours.
(http://tinyurl.com/gmta4ek)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.46)
2016 Jul 20, SpaceX delivered more than 2 tons of supplies to the International Space Station including a space station docking port needed for future rocket ships.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Paleontologists reported the naming of Murusraptor barrosaensis, a new species of megaraptorid dinosaur discovered in 2001 in Argentina’s northwestern Patagonia. It was found in tock dating back 80 million years.
(http://tinyurl.com/gr2lg8p)
2016 Jul 20, In Bangladesh a senior officer with the police-led Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which is involved in counter-terrorism, said a list of 260 young men missing for over a year has been compiled from reports from families and intelligence tip-offs.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, A British nuclear submarine collided with an unspecified merchant vessel off the coast of Gibraltar, forcing it to dock in the disputed territory.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 20, Monitoring groups Resolve and Invisible Children said kidnappings in Central Africa by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) hit a six-year high in the first half of 2016 just as Uganda threatened to roll back its involvement in an operation to hunt down the rebels. Their report said the LRA has abducted 498 civilians between January and June of this year.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In China 5 people died when a seaplane they were traveling in crashed into a bridge in Shanghai on its maiden flight to Zhoushan, an island in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, A Czech court sentenced US citizen Kevin Dahlgren to life in prison for stabbing to death a family of four of his relatives whom he had been visiting in 2013.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Czech police said an international law enforcement team has broken up a gang that allegedly produced amphetamines to distribute on the black market in Sweden. Police said seven suspected members of the group have been arrested in a joint operation by Czech, Swedish and Hungarian forces.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, The French government forced a divisive labor bill through Parliament without a vote for third and final time.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In India protesters from the low-caste Dalit community blocked roads and attacked government buses in PM Narendra Modi's home state in a third day of demonstrations over the flogging of four men accused of skinning a cow. Opposition lawmakers disrupted parliament to protest against the floggings in Gujarat and demanded that PM Modi apologize to the victims.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Police in northern India said that they have arrested two men for raping a young woman for the second time in three years. The woman told police that she was gang-raped again on July 13 because she was unwilling to withdraw the case.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir removed dozens of black and Pakistani flags hoisted by residents observing a "black day" to protest the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Iraqis endured the hottest day so far this year, with temperatures soaring up to 51 degrees Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) in Baghdad and as much as 53 degrees Celsius (127 Fahrenheit) in the southern part of the country.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Israel's parliament passed a charged bill that would allow the assembly to oust a sitting lawmaker deemed to be inciting against the state.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Israel said that it and the Republic of Guinea renewed diplomatic ties after 49 years.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, The Italian coast guard coordinated five separate rescue operations that saved 567 migrants. The bodies of 21 women and one man were found in a pool of fuel at the bottom of one smuggler’s boat.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 20, In Pakistan Samia Shahid (28), a dual British-Pakistani citizen, was murdered during a visit to her family in their village in Punjab province. Her husband later branded her death an "honor killing" and called for the UK and Pakistani governments to ensure his wife received justice. A forensic examination later concluded that Samia Shahid, 28, of Bradford was killed by asphyxiation.
(AFP, 7/29/16)(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Jul 20, Romania's Constitutional Court ruled that a request from an anti-gay group to change the constitution to state that marriage is a union between a man and a woman is constitutional. Any change would need to be approved by two-thirds of lawmakers.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Saudi Arabia's top clerics renewed a religious edict that warns against playing Pokemon — this time as the wildly popular mobile phone application "Pokemon Go". First issued in 2001 when the game was played with cards, the decree says Pokemon violates Islamic prohibitions against gambling uses devious Masonic-like symbols and promotes "forbidden images."
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Syrian rebel group Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement, which has received US military backing, said it is investigating the beheading of a young child in Aleppo after video footage circulated showing the boy being killed by a man activists identified as a member of the group.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Five Taiwanese fishing boats set sail for Itu Aba, Taiwan's sole holding in the South China Sea, in protest against a court ruling that deems it a rock rather than an island, limiting its rights to surrounding resource-rich waters.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Turkey’s government declared a state of emergency for at least three months. State-run Anadolu news agency said the country's defense ministry has sacked at least 262 military court judges and prosecutors. An investigation was launched on all military judges and prosecutors as authorities continued with a crackdown on people suspected of backing a failed military coup, which the government has blamed on a US-based cleric.
(AP, 7/20/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 20, Turkish broadcaster NTV said Turkey’s military has carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Ukrainska Pravda journalist Pavel Sheremet (44) died in an explosion in Kiev as he got into his car to drive to work to anchor a talk show on a local radio station. The Belarusian-born Sheremet irked officials in Belarus and Russia before he moved to Ukraine, where he said there were fewer hurdles to independent reporting.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In southern Yemen a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint in Aden, killing 4 soldiers and wounding six.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Zambian police arrested 28 opposition supporters on suspicion of rioting and making petrol bombs. The UPND said in a statement they were only empty bottles.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, In Zimbabwe tens of thousands gathered to show their support for 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe in the capital, Harare. The massive turnout was organized by Mugabe's ruling party, ZANU-PF, in response to recent anti-government demonstrations and a nationwide strike protesting a rapidly declining economy.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Cleveland, Ohio, Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination. He electrified the National Convention by delivering the speech of his life, promising to restore security, clamp down on immigration and put America first.
(AFP, 7/22/16)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 21, In the SF Bay Area Noah Winchester (31), a former black Peninsula police officer, was arrested and charged with 22 felony offenses related to the assault of five females since 2013.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul 21, In the SF Bay Area a suspicious four-alarm fire destroyed the Millbrae Community Center.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul 21, The National Basketball Association (NBA) decided not to host the 2017 All Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., because of a state law regarding gendered bathroom use that many consider discriminatory. A new location for the games was not yet announced.
(CSM, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Afghanistan Kunduz lawmaker Abdullah Qarluq said the Taliban has taken complete control of Qalay-i-Zal and also 98 percent of Dasht-i-Archi. Afghan security forces' deaths were put at 11 for both army and local police.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Bangladesh court handed a seven-year jail term to the son of main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in a case of money laundering, scrapping an acquittal by a lower court. Tarique Rahman (51) was also fined 200 million taka ($2.5 million).
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Canada a heavy oil and diluent leaked from Husky's Saskatchewan Gathering System pipeline, flowing into the North Saskatchewan River, which supplies drinking water to several communities in the western province.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Greek court sentenced eight Turkish military officers, who fled last week's failed coup, to suspended two-month prison terms. The officers have requested asylum and will remain in police custody until their cases on that issue are heard in August.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Hong Kong convicted three student leaders of leading or encouraging the massive pro-democracy street protests that unsettled the southern Chinese city on September 26, 2014.
(AP, 7/21/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.34)
2016 Jul 21, Iran's official IRNA news agency said authorities have arrested 40 suspects linked to the discovery of an underground tunnel in the country's far east, near the Pakistani border. The subterranean tunnel was discovered two nights ago and was reportedly meant for carrying out attacks and militant activities.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Kuwait recorded a temperature of 129F degrees. If verified it would be the Earth's hottest temperature on record outside of Death Valley, California, and the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Eastern Hemisphere.
(http://tinyurl.com/zq4t5bm)
2016 Jul 21, In Libya 14 unidentified bodies were found and brought to the Benghazi Medical Center by members of the Red Crescent. The bodies bore shots to the head indicated they were executed.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, Former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo was released from detention following nearly five years in a military hospital after the Supreme Court dismissed corruption charges.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Qatar said it would give $30 million to help pay the salaries of thousands of Gaza Strip public sector workers left without a full wage package since 2013.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, Russia lost its appeal against the Olympic ban on its track and field athletes, a decision which could add pressure on the IOC to exclude the country entirely from next month's games in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Human Rights Watch said members of Rwanda's security forces are arresting beggars, street children, sex workers and other "undesirables" who are arbitrarily detained in centers described as harsh and inhuman.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, The Swiss-based UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the earth is on track for its hottest year on record and warming at a faster rate than expected.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, In Syria government air strikes and shelling killed at least 43 civilians, including 11 children in several rebel-held areas.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Nearly 40 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime fighters were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel under a government position in Aleppo city.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 21, The head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition called for a suspension of the US-led air campaign against Islamic State in Syria while reports of dozens of civilian deaths from air strikes around the northern city of Manbij are investigated.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Turkey said it will follow France's example in suspending temporarily the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration of a state of emergency.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, Zimbabwean war veterans turned on their long-time ally President Robert Mugabe, describing him as a dictator in a jolting rebuke underlining political maneuvering over his succession and mounting anger over economic woes.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In southern California a fast-moving wildfire broke out and soon forced hundreds of people to flee from their homes in the drought-parched foothills northwest of Los Angeles. By July 24 it had blackened some 20,000 acres and threatened homes and commercial structures.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 22, A Florida judge said that bitcoin is not real money. The ruling meant that no specific license is needed to buy and sell the crypto-currency.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Jul 22, American Atheists Inc. and two Kansas City members filed suit against Kansas City, Mo., over the city’s planned use of $65,000 in tourism tax dollars to aid an upcoming Baptist convention.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 22, In northern Indiana 14 dogs were found dead after air conditioning failed in a truck they were housed in for a dog show.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 22, WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 emails from a 17-month span that appeared to have been obtained by someone who hacked into the accounts of seven top Democratic Party officials.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 22, In Afghanistan a suicide bombing on a peaceful protest in Kabul killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 200. The attack was the deadliest to hit Kabul in 15 years of civil war. The Hazaras were marching for a major regional power line to be routed through their home province.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 22, The Afghan military launched a major offensive in Nangarhar province hours after a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed at least 80 people.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 22, President Francois Hollande said France will supply weapons to Iraq to support its fight against the Islamic State group, but ruled out any troop deployment in the country.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, IMF chief Christine Lagarde was ordered to stand trial in France over a massive state payout to a colourful tycoon when she was French economy minister.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In Germany teenager David Ali Sonboly (18) went on a shooting spree at a shopping center in Munich. He shot dead 9 people in a gun rampage before turning the gun on himself. Police later said he was "obsessed" with mass killers like Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik and had no links to the Islamic State group. Police later said he had been preparing for the shooting for a year.
(AFP, 7/23/16)(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 22, The Indian air force lost contact with a transport plane carrying 29 people to islands in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Two more people died in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as anti-India protests and clashes with government forces persisted despite a strict curfew in place for a 14th straight day.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In Kenya a court in Mombasa convicted Feisal Mohamed Ali of possessing ivory. He had been accused of leading an ivory smuggling ring. Ali was arrested in Tanzania in December 2014 over illegal elephant tusks weighing more than 2 tons.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Libyan forces said they had edged further into the center of Sirte as they sought to recapture the city from Islamic State, following heavy fighting until late the previous evening that left dozens dead.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, A Dutch court convicted four men in absentia for travelling to Syria to join extremists, including the Islamic State group, and sentenced them to six years in prison. All four suspects were believed to be in Syria, where some 260 Dutch citizens have gone to fight in recent years.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif pledged an "era of development" in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir after his party won 31 of 41 seats in the local legislative assembly. Sharif urged a crowd of supporters in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir, not to forget the sacrifices of people living in the Indian-controlled side.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, It was reported that days of heavy snowfall in Peru have killed some 50,000 alpacas. Sheep were also reported dying in large numbers in the high Andean plateaus.
(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 22, Poland's parliament eased some restrictions on the constitutional court in a move the government said addressed concerns that the ruling party had undermined the rule of law but the opposition said the changes did not go far enough.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Romania's Court of Appeal has upheld prison sentences for eight people for money laundering and embezzlement worth 83.5 million euros ($92 million). Sorin Ovidiu Vantu was sentenced to six years and two months in prison. Trade union leader Liviu Luca was sentenced to six years in prison for misusing the funds of Petromservice, a petroleum-facility maintenance company. The court also confirmed sentences for six other former company employees to prison terms.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In Serbia hundreds of migrants from the Middle East and Asia marched through Belgrade on their way to Hungary and announced a hunger strike to underline their demand for passage to western Europe.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Singapore banned the distribution and possession of Al Fatihin, a newspaper linked to the Islamic State militant group, after government officials repeatedly warned against terror threats.
(Reuters, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, South Korea's central bank said North Korea's economy shrank 1.1 percent last year, in its first contraction in five years.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, In northern Syria sporadic clashes between Islamic Sate militants and US-backed fighters erupted in the IS-held town of Manbij after the extremists ignored a 48-hour offer from the day before to leave the besieged town without a fight.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, The UN World Tourism Organization signed an agreement with Turkey to help the country boost its ailing tourism sector, which has suffered due to a string of bombings and a failed coup.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Afghanistan a suicide attack on peaceful protesters in Kabul killed 81 people. The protesters were mainly Hazaras. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.31)
2016 Jul 23, A drug bust in Chile resulted in the haul of cocaine worth more than €11 million ($12 million) that was bound for Spain. Three suspected traffickers were arrested, two of whom are confirmed Spanish nationals.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 23, In China Siberian tigers at the Badaling wildlife World in Beijing mauled a woman to death and wounded another when they stepped out of their carin an enclosure.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 23, In El Salvador four inmates at a prison were murdered amid a fight between inmates, members of the Barrio 18 gang, at a facility in the city of Quezaltepeque.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, El Salvador's president says he has begun talks with political parties on a new "national reconciliation" law. Earlier this month, the country's Supreme Court overturned an amnesty law enacted in 1993 covering crimes committed during the country's 1980-1992 civil war.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Madagascar a house fire broke out during a party. 38 people including 16 children were killed as the blaze ripped through a thatched roof.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 23, In southern Mexico a mayor, a town councilman, two other town employees and a local resident were shot to death in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas state. Prosecutors said a crowd of about 35 people demanded to speak with Mayor Domingo Lopez Gonzalez about funding for public works when shots rang out, killing him and the other four.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey pushed on with a sweeping crackdown against suspected plotters of its failed coup. Using new emergency powers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet decreed that police could now hold suspects for one month without charge, and announced it would shut down over 1,000 private schools it deems subversive.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey said it has detained Hails Hanci a senior aide to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for the coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hanci was described as a "right-hand man" of Gulen and responsible for transferring funds to him. Gulen has denied being behind the failed coup.
(AFP, 7/23/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Turkey Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a gay Syrian refugee, went missing. His body was found mutilated and beheaded two days later in central Istanbul.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Jul 24, Democratic national leader Debbie Wasserman, D.-Fla., announced that she will step down at the end of the convention week following leaked internal party e-mails.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 24, In East Oakland, Ca., Alberto Juarez (40) was shot and killed and three others were wounded at a block party on the 9200 block of Holly St. In 2018 Honario Hernandez Meza (29) of Woodland, Ca., was sentenced to 16 years in prison following a plea agreement.
(SFC, 8/9/18, p.D1)
2016 Jul 24, Chris Froome (31) became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France three times.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbh6jnm)
2016 Jul 24, British border agents moved in to help French officials deal with gigantic backups for travelers trying to cross the English Channel into France. The delays come at the start of the British holiday season when tens of thousands of vacationers head to continental Europe.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Cambodia tens of thousands joined the funeral procession of Kem Ley, a prominent government critic, whose July 10 murder in broad daylight has raised suspicions of a hit job in country with a long history of political violence.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In China G20 finance officials promised to protect the world economy from the shockwaves of Britain's EU referendum and to boost sluggish growth. G20 envoys also rejected trade protectionism, an issue that has risen in prominence as US Republication presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred unease with talk about restricting access to American markets.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, China's Ministry of Commerce said that it has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel imports from Japan, South Korea and the European Union. Imports of grain-oriented electrical steel, used in the manufacture of large generators and electricity transformers, will be charged duties ranging from 37.3 percent to 46.3 percent. The duties will continue to be levied for five years. The ministry said an investigation has found that underpriced steel was hurting Chinese industry.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In China the Beijing municipal branch of the national Cyberspace Administration ordered some of China‘s biggest internet companies to stop publishing independent reports on politically sensitive topics.
(Econ, 7/30/16, p.34)
2016 Jul 24, Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Germany Mohammed Daleel, a Syrian asylum seeker (27), wounded 15 people, four of them seriously, near a cafe in Ansbach when he set off a bomb in his rucksack, killing himself. He had reportedly made a video pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group. A Syrian asylum-seeker (21) killed a woman and injured two people with a machete in the city of Reutlingen.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, In India an Israeli tourist (25) was raped after she accepted a car ride while traveling in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Police soon arrested two of six men and a search was on for the other four.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, Iran destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers as part of a widespread crackdown against the illegal devices that authorities say are morally damaging. General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of Iran's Basij militia, warned of the impact that satellite television was having in the conservative country. 70% of Iranians violate the 1994 law and own satellite dishes which can gather television programming worldwide.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(https://tinyurl.com/ybttvudh)
2016 Jul 24, In Iraq a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 15 people in a Shiite area of northern Baghdad. The bombing struck near a checkpoint in the Kadhimiyah area, home to a major Shiite shrine, also wounded at least 29 people.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, Nepal's PM Khadga Prasad Oli resigned shortly before he was to face a confidence vote in parliament that he expected to lose, further aggravating political instability in the Himalayan country.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24 It was reported that Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte has ordered all agencies directly under his watch to open their records to the public as part of his promise to crack down on corruption and promote transparency in government. Legislation was still needed to ensure other branches of government will do the same.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Switzerland the International Olympic Committee held showdown talks on whether to ban Russia from the Rio Games over state-run doping. The IOC said it was up to each international sports federation to decide if Russians could take part in Rio.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, In Syria rockets rained down on several Old Damascus neighborhoods killing at least 8 people and wounding 20 others. Government air raids struck five medical clinics in Aleppo province.
(AFP, 7/24/16)(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 24, In northern Thailand about 100 macaques tore up voter lists publicly posted ahead of the August 7 referendum on a proposed constitution.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 24, Ukraine said six government soldiers were killed in the east by rebel separatists over the last 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 24, Zimbabwe war veterans decried Mugabe's "dictatorial tendencies" and vowed to withdraw their support if he seeks re-election in 2018.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Philadelphia, Penn., the Democratic National Convention got off to a rocky start Monday, with a major internal row over leaked emails playing havoc with nominee Hillary Clinton's bid to present a united front against Donald Trump.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, The FBI said it is investigating how thousands of Democratic National Committee emails were hacked, a breach that Hillary Clinton's campaign maintains was committed by Russia to benefit Donald Trump. It was later reported that two teams of Russian hackers were at work. One nick-named Fancy Bear was thought to be linked to military intelligence. The other, code-named Fancy Bear, was believed to be linked to another part of the Russian security aparatus.
(AP, 7/25/16)(Econ, 9/24/16, p.29)
2016 Jul 25, In Florida 2 youths were killed early today and as many as 16 other people injured in a shooting outside a nightclub in Fort Myers as parents were picking up their children from a "teen night" event.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, The United States announced $127 million in aid for southern African countries where the worst drought in decades is affecting millions of people, stunting children and tempting some farmers to eat their grains instead of saving them as seed for the next crop.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Verizon and Yahoo announced a $4.83 billion deal to buy Yahoo’s core Internet business. This did not include the firms properties in Asia or its portfolio of patents.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.D1)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.49)
2016 Jul 25, Ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a watered-down rebuke against China for territorially expanding in the South China Sea. This amounted to less than a slap on the wrist, and exposed the deep divisions in a regional body that prides itself on unity.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Austrian police said that an international operation has smashed an alleged people-smuggling ring suspected of illegally bringing more than 1,000 people from Hungary into western Europe over the past year.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Azerbaijan's highest court approved an initiative by President Ilham Aliyev to extend the head of state's term of office to seven years from five, a step his critics see as illegal and undemocratic.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, British prosecutors unveiled the extra charges against Stephen Port (41), who already faced murder charges in connection with the discovery of four bodies near Port's home in Barking, east London, between June 2014 and September 2015. They accused Port of nonlethal attacks on eight other men involving six criminal counts of poisoning, seven of rape and four of sexual assault.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Canada the provincial government of British Columbia declared that foreign buyes must pay a new 15% tax on any residential purchase. The move was counter to the Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protetions Agreement whi htook force in October 2014.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.60)
2016 Jul 25, In Canada Abdirahman Abdi (37), a mentally ill man, died after being hospitalized in critical condition following his arrest. Witnesses told local media he was beaten by Ottawa police officers who responded to calls of a disturbance.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 25, A Chinese military court sentenced Guo Boxiong (74), a former top general, to life in prison for taking bribes.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 25, Colombia’s Health Ministry said the number of cases of the virus have been falling steadily to as few as 600 per week compared to more than 10 times that amount at the outbreak's peak in February.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Congo Republic opposition leader Paulin Makaya was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in protests against a referendum proposing a third term for President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Greek authorities declared a state of emergency on the Aegean island of Chios, which has been engulfed by a wildfire raging out of control.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Guyana's government said it will create a special unit to crack down on corruption cases linked to the previous administration.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Indonesia organizers of a recent poll on rape said more than 90 percent of cases go unreported, highlighting the country's "deafening silence" around sexual violence as victims fear being blamed.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Iraq a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 12 people at a crowded checkpoint north of Baghdad. In Baghdad, separate bomb explosions rocked three commercial areas, killing 9 people and wounding 26.
(AFP, 7/25/16)(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Officials and rights groups said Israeli authorities have advanced plans for 770 new settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem, drawing condemnation from Palestinian leaders and the United Nations.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, In Mauritania only a handfull of Arab officials gathered in a tent in Nouakchott, in the most poorly attended Arab League summit in years, a sign of the region's disarray.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, New Zealand PM John Key announced a plan to completely rid his country of rats and some other nuisance animals, including possums and sloats, by 2050.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 25, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral cease-fire with communist guerrillas effective immediately and asked the rebels to do the same to end decades of deadly fighting and foster the resumption of peace talks as part of his first state of the nation address before Congress.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Five Saudi border guards were killed in clashes in Najran with armed groups seeking to enter from Yemen.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 25, In Serbia about 150 migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, started a hunger strike in a field on the border with Hungary to demand passage to the European Union.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Spanish health officials said a woman has given birth to a baby boy with microcephaly associated with the Zika virus, the first detected case in the country.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Syria's regime intensified air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo province as a UN envoy prepared to meet US and Russian officials to try to revive peace talks.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Hundreds of Tunisian demonstrated in the capital to protest against a bill being discussed in parliament to grant amnesty to people accused of corruption.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 25, Turkish Airlines said it has terminated the contracts of 211 employees, joining a government purge of people suspected of links to a US-based cleric. Turkey also ordered the detention of 42 journalists, drawing fire from the European Union.
(AP, 7/25/16)(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, Ukrainian nationalists blocked a religious procession from entering Kiev, calling the marchers "agents of Moscow" and pelting the believers who were carrying Orthodox icons and crosses with eggs. The nationalists claimed that the procession is a ruse to sow discord in Ukraine. Police the next day barred the procession from entering Kiev, after finding ammunition planted along the planned route.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 25, Military sources in Yemen said at least 80 pro-government and rebel troops have been killed in fighting since last week in the northwest near the border with Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 26, Hillary Clinton made history by becoming the first woman nominee of a major-party for president of the United States.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 26, In California the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County, which ignited on July 22 in Garrapata State Park, grew to almost 20,000 acres and was only 10% contained. By July 31 it swelled to 40,000 acres and was 18% contained.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.D1)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.C2)
2016 Jul 26, Sandy Pearlman, producer and lyricist for Blue Öyster Cult, died in Novato, Ca. He produced and co-produced albums for the band from 1972-1988. In 1975 he and Murray Krugman produced one of the earliest albums considered to be punk rock: “The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!"
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.D4)
2016 Jul 26, In Pennsylvania Humberto Martinez (32), a man with a lengthy criminal history, died following a scuffle with police officers. A year later his family sued Pittsburg and its police department for wrongful death.
(SFC, 7/27/17, p.D2)
2016 Jul 26, LeEco, a Chinese technology company, agreed to buy US televisioon maker Vizio for at least $2 billion.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.C1)
2016 Jul 26, In Abu Dhabi Solar Impulse 2 made history as the first airplane to circle the globe powered only by the sun, opening up new possibilities for the future of renewable energy.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Afghanistan a US drone strike in southern Nangarhar province killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, top Islamic State group leader. Khan had previously been a Tehrik-e Taliban commander, but last year pledged loyalty to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Jul 26, Australia’s PM Malcolm Turnbull said that he would launch a Royal Commission after graphic footage emerged of teens being tear-gassed and stripped naked at a youth detention center in the Northern Territory.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Bangladesh police raided a den of suspected Islamic militants in Dhaka, killing 9 men and seizing explosives, revolvers and black flags.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Egypt film director Mohammed Khan (b.1942) died. His realism shed light on the country's urban landscape since the 1980s. His 2013 film “Factory Girl" addressed Egypt's rigid class society.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In France two attackers took hostages inside a church during morning Mass in the small Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, killing Father Jacques Hamel, (85) by slitting his throat before being shot and killed by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. The attackers were soon identified as Adel Kermiche (19) and Abdel Malik Petitjean (19).
(AP, 7/26/16)(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 26, Germany signed an agreement to lend 50 million euros ($55 million) to Albania to help it build a power line with neighboring Macedonia.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Germany a patient shot a doctor in a university clinic in Berlin before killing himself. Police said there were "no signs at all" of a link with Islamist militancy.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In northeast India local authorities in Assam state said more than 1.2 million people have been hit by floods which have submerged hundreds of villages, inundated large swathes of farmland and damaged roads, bridges and telecommunications services. At least 7 people were reported killed.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Iran's government said it would cap salaries for public officials as it seeks to dampen a scandal over exorbitant pay that has threatened to derail President Hassan Rouhani's re-election hopes. The payslips of executives at several public companies were leaked in May, showing that many earned over 100 times more than the average worker.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Iraq the Babil Provincial Council approved a decision allowing authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 26, Israeli authorities destroyed 11 Palestinian homes in an area on the outskirts of Jerusalem divided from the city by Israel's separation wall. Authorities alleged the owners did not have building permits.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Israel police said said that 56 suspected members of the "La Familia" group of Beitar Jerusalem fans were arrested in an overnight raid. Stun grenades, firecrackers and other banned pyrotechnics were confiscated. An undercover agent who had infiltrated the group over the past six months led to the breakthrough.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Japan Satoshi Uematsu (26) went on a stabbing rampage near Tokyo at the Yamayuri-en facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, killing 19 people. Months earlier he had given a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death. This was Japan's deadliest mass killing in decades. In 2020 a court sentenced Uematsu to hang for the killings.
(AP, 7/26/16)(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2016 Jul 26, Malawi police arrested Eric Aniva who said he was hired by families to have sex with more than 100 young women, including children, in what was described as ritual cleansing. Aniva told media he was HIV-positive.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Mali jihadist leader Mahmoud Barry, aka known as Cheikh Yahya, was arrested near the Wagadou forest. His group was one of two that claimed responsibility for the July 19 attack on an army base that killed at least 17 soldiers.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Morocco a girl was visiting the Zoological Garden of Rabat with her family, admiring three elephants when one picked up a stone, then tossed it more than 10 meters (yards) over a huge ditch and a wooden barrier toward the visitors. The girl was struck in the head and died hours later.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Pakistan unidentified gunmen killed two army soldiers in a hit and run attack in the southern port city of Karachi.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Paraguayan authorities got a surprise when they raided the jail cell of Jarvis Chimenes Pavao, a Brazilian drug lord's jail cell, and found a three-room luxury suite complete with library, kitchen, conference room and plasma TV. Pavao had allegedly planned to use the plastic explosives to blow a hole in the prison walls and escape.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 26, In Somalia at least 13 people were killed in twin bombings near UN and African Union buildings adjoining Mogadishu's airport. The jihadist Shabaab group claimed the bombings as a suicide attack.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir installed Taban Deng Gai as the new first vice president to replace opposition leader Riek Machar, who fled into hiding this month amid clashes with government forces. Loyalists to Machar alleged a conspiracy to remove him.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Syrian government forces called on opposition fighters in Aleppo to drop their weapons and surrender to authorities as they captured new ground on the northwestern edge of the city, tightening the siege on rebel-held parts of the metropolis where some 300,000 people live.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Turkey detained prominent journalists and two top generals serving abroad in a widening of the relentless legal crackdown after the July 15 coup that has caused growing alarm in the West.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving Kurdish militants in the Kurdish southeast region.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, The Vatican and the Bank of Italy signed a key cooperation agreement aimed at regularizing their relations and ending years of Italian mistrust over Holy See finances.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Philadelphia President Barack Obama implored Americans to help Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump, warning the 2016 race was not just about politics, but the nature of US democracy.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 27, Donald Trump said "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 (Hillary Clinton) emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press." A day later he retracted the statement saying he was being sarcastic.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 27, Jack Davis (b.1924), Mad magazine illustrator and movie poster artist, died in St. Simons Island, Ga.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.D3)
2016 Jul 27, In Saipan community members and an environmental group sued the US Navy over a plan to turn the islands of Pagan and Tinian in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands into live-fire testing sites.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 27, Maryland prosecutors dropped all remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers who were still awaiting trial in the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray. Three other officers were already acquittted. A mistrial was declared for a 4th officer when a jury deadlocked.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 27, A US federal judge ordered John Hinckley (61), who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, to be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live full-time with his mother.
(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In China a court in Shenzhen sentenced four people, including Hong Kong magazine publisher Wang Jianmin and editor Guo Zhongxiao, to prison on charges of running an illegal business after they reportedly sent copies of their sensitive political magazines to mainland China.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 27, The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Earth bid a final farewell to robot lab Philae, severing communications after a year-long silence from the pioneering probe hurtling through space on a comet.
(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, The European Commission gave Poland three months to boost the powers of its Constitutional Tribunal, stepping up pressure on Warsaw's eurosceptic government to respect the EU's democratic standards.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, India signed a contract to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Iraq militants unleashed a series of attacks in and around Baghdad, killing at least 18 people.
(AP, 7/27/16)(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, Israeli forces fired anti-tank missiles at a house in the West Bank after a shootout overnight, killing a Hamas member accused of the July 1 deadly attack on Miki Mark (48), a father of ten.
(AFP, 7/27/16)(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, A Kuwaiti court sentenced Shiite lawmaker Abdulhameed Dashti, a strong supporter of Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to 14 years and six months in absentia for remarks deemed highly offensive to fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Dashti has been living overseas for the past four months.
(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Mexico’s Interior Secretary said the government will comply with a judge’s order to release drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (86) to serve out the last nine of of his 40-year sentence at home.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, A Nepalese home ministry official said flash floods and landslides swept through villages, killing at least 58 people over two days.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Pope Francis landed in Poland at the start of 5-day visit to join young Catholics for World Youth Day.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Romania’s National Council for Attesting Titles, Diplomas and University Certificates voted 37-10 to strip former PM Victor Ponta of his doctorate after a council upheld a verdict that he plagiarized his thesis.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Spain pro-independence parties governing Catalonia approved a resolution in the regional parliament to press ahead with secession. Spain’s caretaker government said it will take legal action the parliament of Catalonia.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, Spanish police arrested two Moroccan brothers in the northern city of Girona and charged them with helping to fund Islamic State's operations in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Syria a large truck bomb blast claimed by Islamic State targeted Kurdish security forces and killed at least 48 people and wounded scores more in the northeastern city of Qamishli. Government air strikes and artillery fire killed at least 16 civilians on in rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east of Aleppo city.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Thai police captured a Japanese lawyer who altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago. Yasuo Tsubaki (62) was sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 27, Turkish authorities issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives or senior journalists at the Zaman newspaper, which was associated with the US-based Muslim cleric who the government says is behind Turkey's failed July 15 coup.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Ukraine thousands of Russian Orthodox Christian pilgrims reached the center of Kiev and finished their procession to the city's most revered monastery after their march was disrupted a day earlier.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Venezuela a union leader said some 50 animals have starved to death in the last six months at the Caricuao zoo in Caracas, due to chronic food shortages that have plagued the crisis-stricken South American nation.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Thousands of Zimbabweans rallied in support of President Robert Mugabe, days after war veterans called the 92-year-old a corrupt dictator, highlighting maneuvering over the ZANU-PF leader's succession and anger over growing hardships.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 27, Zimbabwe police arrested Douglas Mahiya, a senior official from the country’s war veterans' association, after it accused President Robert Mugabe of "dictatorial" behaviour in a shock rupture with the 92-year-old leader. The association's secretary-general, Victor Matemadanda, was also taken from his rural home in Gokwe, after being summoned for police questioning.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, At the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Pa., Hillary Clinton became the first woman to accept a major party’s nomination for president.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.A1)
2016 Jul 28, In southern California a Marine Corps fighter jet crashed during a training mission in the vicinity of Twentynine Palms. Maj. Richard Norton (36) was killed.
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A6)(SSFC, 7/31/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 28, In southern California two police officers were shot, one fatally, after a late night stop turned into a gunfight in San Diego. Jesse Gomez (52) was soon arrested for the murder of officer Jonathan DeGuzman (43).
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A6)(SSFC, 7/31/16, p.A10)
2016 Jul 28, Washington DC prosecutors said they will not retry Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadoran immigrant charged in the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy, due to unforeseen recent developments.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 28, Chicago police fatally shot and killed Paul O’Neal (18), a suspected car thief. On August 5 a video was released showing officers firing into a stolen vehicle, then handcuffing the blood-covered suspect following a foot chase.
(SFC, 8/6/16, p.A5)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A10)
2016 Jul 28, In Ohio a girl fatally shot her father in the head as he slept to stop him from abusing her family in Warren.
(SFC, 8/6/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 28, Dakota Lions Sight & Health, a South Dakota-based eye and tissue bank, said it isn't responsible for injuries caused by infected corneas that were shipped to the Palestinian territories.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Texas a Fort Worth police officer shot and paralyzed David Collie (33), a black man, as he walked away from the officer. A police dash cam video showed the encounter with Collie posing no immediate threat. Collie was charged with aggravated assault but a grand jury declined to indict him.
(http://tinyurl.com/gusy73z)(SFC, 12/29/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 28, Australian officials confirmed that data recovered from a home flight simulator owned by Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the captain of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, showed that someone had used the device to plot a course to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Cambodia's Phnom Penh Municipal Court fined self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy for defaming Heng Samrin, a former president (1979-1992) and a senior member of the country's ruling party, adding to legal woes hurting his party's ability to operate.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, An Egyptian court convicted Hesham Genena, the country's former top anti-corruption official, of "spreading false news," sentencing him to a year in prison and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,250) which, if paid along with an additional 10,000 pounds, will allow him to avoid incarceration.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, French President Francois Hollande confirmed that a National Guard would be formed from existing reserve forces to better protect citizens facing terror attacks.
(AFP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, In India a shopkeeper of the Brahmin caste axed to death a couple from the lower Dalit caste for not promptly paying a meager debt of 15 rupees (22 cents) for groceries in Mainpuri town, Uttar Pradesh state. The couple left behind five children.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, India's upper house of parliament passed a bill late that would give state governments more than 60 billion rupees ($895 million) a year to conserve and protect forests and wildlife. Analysts and activists said the bill ignores the importance of indigenous people in conserving land and tramples on their rights.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Kenya four schools were set on fire. Over the last three months 117 schools have been partially burnt by arsonists. The government said the burning schools are retribution from a "cartel" formerly linked to the country's exam-setting body, which used to profit handsomely from selling papers and answers.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, Libya's UN-brokered presidency council announced the reopening of the country's vital oil terminals after 18 months of closure despite threats by a rival military commander that his forces could target tankers entering Libya's territorial waters.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, Nepalese authorities said flash floods and landslides have killed at least 68 people in the past three days with another 15 missing.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Nigeria Boko Haram ambushed a humanitarian convoy in Borno state. Three civilians including a UNICEF employee and contractor for the International Organization for Migration were wounded, along with two of the soldiers escorting the humanitarian workers. The UN in response suspended its missions outside Maiduguri, where it says a half million people are starving. A day later UNICEF said it was returning to full operations in the area.
(AP, 7/29/16)(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Oman the Azamn (al-Zaman) newspaper editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Maamari and his deputy Yousef al-Haj were jailed two days after the paper published an article accusing public officials of corruption and interfering in judicial decisions.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Jul 28, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to withdraw a ceasefire order he gave three days ago after suspected communist rebels killed a government militiaman and wounded four others in an attack a day earlier.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Portuguese police seized about 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of Moroccan hashish from a boat and arrested a Spaniard (46) during a night-time operation on the country's southern coast.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Portuguese public health workers began a 48-hour strike to pressure the government into extending a new 35-hour week to more staff.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the governor of the Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, a month after he was jailed on a charge of accepting a bribe.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev accepted the resignation of Andrei Belyaninov, the head of the customs agency, several days after investigators searched his home and founds hundreds of thousand dollars stashed in shoe boxes.
(AP, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 28, Syrian pro-government forces tightened their grip around Aleppo, and the governor of the area said they would open corridors for civilians to escape the besieged, rebel-held districts of the city. Militants retook the northern village of al-Bouweir from the Syrian Democratic Forces and killed 24 civilians there.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Syria at least 28 people, including seven children, died in air strikes on the village of al Ghandour in the countryside north of Manbij city. The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants conducted air strikes in the area in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, In northern Ukraine three people died, including a NATO representative, in an explosion while a missile was being unloaded from a vehicle at a military installation.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said some 23 million farmers in drought-hit Southern Africa need urgent help to prepare for the next planting season with only a few weeks left before it begins. It said Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have reported more than 640,000 drought-related livestock deaths. Farmers and cattle herders in 10 countries have requested assistance: Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
(Reuters, 7/28/16)
2016 Jul 29, The United States military said it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman. The US Army said it would hand back 15 square miles to the Japanese government.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.20)
2016 Jul 29, In northern California a medical transport plane enroute to Oakland, Ca., crashed in Humboldt County killing all 4 people onboard.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.C2)
2016 Jul 29, In Michigan six current or former state employees were charged with misconduct and other crimes in the Flint water crisis, bringing to nine the number of public officials facing prosecution in the case.
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A6)
2016 Jul 29, Agriculture officials said genetically modified wheat not approved for sale or commercial production in the United States has been found growing in a field in Washington state, posing a possible risk to trade with countries concerned about engineered food.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, It was reported that a new study of male honeybees shows that the insecticides thiamethoxam and clothianidin, both from the neonicotinoid family of insecticides can significantly reduce the drones’ ability to reproduce.
(SFC, 7/29/16, p.A7)
2016 Jul 29, In Afghanistan Taliban militants attacked a series of police checkpoints as part of a larger assault in the Kanashin district. Control of the Kanashin district, which borders Pakistan and major poppy-producing districts, put the "Taliban in control of 60 percent of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Angola the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) said that 9 Angolan soldiers had been killed in the region.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 29, Chinese regulatory authorities conditionally approved Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s giant takeover of SABMiller, clearing one of the last major hurdles for the $103 billion deal to go ahead. AB InBev has agreed to a series of concessions to win the authorities' green lights, including selling SABMiller's 49 percent stake in Snow Breweries, China's biggest beermaker.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, The European Union said that it had set definitive anti-dumping duties on certain Chinese steel bars at rates higher than initially proposed, following a 2015 investigation prompted by complaints from European steelmaking association Eurofer. The announcement drew an immediate response from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which said the EU "unfairly" set new tariffs based on higher profit margin targets for European producers.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Air France cancelled 10 percent of its long-distance flights, during a period of high traffic due to summer vacations, because of a strike by cabin crew.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, German automaker Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand said it will build a new manufacturing plant in Hungary by the end of the decade, investing 1 billion euros ($1.11 billion) and creating 2,500 new jobs.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Guyana's finance minister said the country will bar graduates of its public university from traveling outside the country until they settle their student debt, in a bid to collect on some $25 million in defaulted loans.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Indian police in Bihar state arrested Hindu nationalist leader Dayashankar Singh on charges alleging he insulted a senior female politician by describing her as "worse than a prostitute." Singh was expelled last week from PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party for making the remark against Mayawati, a leader representing millions of lower-caste Dalits.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, India’s government said persistent heavy rains have caused widespread disruption in major cities and severe floods in the rugged northeast have killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In India a portion of a 13-story building under construction in the western city of Pune collapsed, killing at least 8 workers.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In northern India a woman and her 14-year-old daughter were gang-raped off a busy highway near the town of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh state, after their car was stopped by a gang of men. 15 suspects were soon detained.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Indian-controlled Kashmir authorities re-imposed a curfew to prevent a protest march to the main mosque in Srinagar, but fresh street demonstrations and clashes still occurred at more than two dozen places amid outrage over the killing of a top rebel leader earlier this month.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Indonesia executed four people convicted of drug crimes despite international protests and said it would decide later when as many as 10 others who got an unexpected reprieve are put to death.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Ireland three former senior bankers were sent to prison for their roles in concealing the loss of billions in deposits at the defunct Anglo Irish Bank, the biggest accounting fraud in Irish corporate history.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Nicaragua's top electoral authority decimated the country's political opposition by unseating practically all of its remaining lawmakers in congress as President Daniel Ortega prepares to seek a third term.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Niger said it has extended a state of emergency in the southeastern region of Diffa for three months after a series of attacks by Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Nigeria’s army said its troops backed by a regional force have recaptured the northeastern town of Damasak where Boko Haram killed more than 200 and abducted hundreds of children two years ago. The Chad-based MNJTF comprises troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Pakistan Kosar and Gulzar Bibi, aged 22 and 28, were shot dead by their brother Nasir Hussain (35) as they prepared to marry men they had chosen themselves in Punjab province. Hussain fled the scene.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gave communist guerrillas an ultimatum to declare their readiness to match his truce declaration following a rebel attack that killed a government militiaman.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Scottish police said 77 people have been charged following a six-week operation against online child abuse. Police found more than 30 million pictures of young people being abused during the operation.
(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 29, In Senegal the Extraordinary African Chambers ordered Chad's ex-dictator Hissene Habre to pay more than 4,700 victims at least $17,000 each for abuses suffered during his time in power. The tribunal has already frozen some of Habre's assets. The defense has 15 days to appeal the reparation award.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, South Korean prosecutors indicted fellow senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joon for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars from shady stock transaction deals with an online game maker.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Aid agencies urged Syria's regime to end the siege of rebel-held east Aleppo as residents cowered indoors afraid to use what some described as "death corridors" to flee the city.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said authorities have detained more than 18,000 people following the July 15-16 failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Turkey 8 government soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants at a checkpoint in the southeastern Hakkari province. A subsequent operation against the Kurdish rebels left eight Kurds dead.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, The UN Security Council agreed to send a contingent of 228 United Nations police to Burundi to control the continuing violence and to protect human rights in the East African nation.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Vietnam screens displaying flight information at two major airports were hacked to contain distorted information about the South China Sea and insult Vietnam and the Philippines.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Connecticut nine members of a Puerto Rican military unit that served in several wars were honored with Congressional Gold Medals. The segregated military unit, known as the Borinqueneers, fought in World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Maryland heavy rains caused waist-deep flooding in Ellicott City, a suburb of Baltimore, damaging homes and businesses and pushing cars through the streets and leaving 2 people dead. 6 inches of rain fell in Ellicott City within two to three hours.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 30, In New Jersey Franklin Osgood (61), a former police officer in Providence, R.I., shot and killed himself following a highway chase with state authorities. His wife, Mary Jo Osgood, was found dead in the vehicle’s trunk.
(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 30, In central Texas 16 people were killed when a hot air balloon crashed in a fiery blaze on a rural field outside the town of Lockhart, one of the deadliest such accidents in history.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Washington state 3 people were killed and another injured at a suburban Seattle home when a gunman attacked a gathering of young adults from Kamiak High school. A suspect (19) was soon arrested.
(SSFC, 7/31/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 30, In Angola clashes with the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) broke out near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the next two days 2 rebels and 17 Angolan soldiers were killed in two incidents in the oil-producing province of Cabinda.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Armenia one of the gunmen locked in a protracted siege with police in Yerevan shot an officer dead, hours after authorities issued an ultimatum to resolve the hostage drama.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Belgium charged Nourredine H., with planning to commit murder in a terrorist attack and released his brother, Hamza H., after a series of house searches the previous evening.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Burundi more than 1,000 people participated in a government-backed demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest France's proposal passed by UN Security Council to deploy UN police to the country.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Doctors in Honduras said six women have delivered babies with the birth defect microcephaly in just three days, raising fresh concerns about the spread of the Zika virus. Honduras has detected 27,869 cases of Zika this year.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, India's army said that two rebels and two soldiers were killed in an overnight gunbattle close to the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, as a curfew continued to be enforced in parts of Indian-held Kashmir.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Indian authorities tried to rescue thousands of people stranded in flooded villages after a week of heavy rain killed at least 52 people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes in the states of Assam in the remote northeast and Bihar in the east.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In India 32 people were killed by lightning in the eastern state of Odisha.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Mexico the Guerrero state public safety agency said 7 members of a family, including two minors, were shot dead in the municipality of Tepecoacuilco de Trujano. Michoacan state prosecutors' office said 9 burned bodies were found inside an SUV in the municipality of Cuitzeo in an area with pipelines run by state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Pakistan arrested at least 12 staff of its national carrier following the discovery of 6 kg (13.23 lb) of heroin in the toilet of an aircraft bound for Dubai.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 30, In southern Pakistan a roadside bomb has exploded near a vehicle carrying paramilitary rangers, killing a security official and wounding three officers and five civilians. A spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In northwest Pakistan flash floods triggered by monsoon rains swept away a bus carrying a wedding party, killing people 27 people in the Landi Kotal tribal region.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 30, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called off a weeklong cease-fire after communist guerrillas killed a government militiaman and failed to declare their own truce by a Saturday deadline he had imposed.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Russia's intelligence service said that the computer networks of 20 organizations, including state agencies and defense companies, have been infected with spyware in what it described as a targeted and coordinated attack. The agency did not say who it suspected of being behind the attacks.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a conciliatory tone on a visit to Slovenia, shaking hands and honoring dead soldiers as he tested Western resolve in maintaining crippling sanctions against the Kremlin for its role in Ukraine.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Scotland around 3,000 people rallied in Glasgow demanding a second referendum on Scottish independence in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Spanish police said they have arrested three members of a criminal group engaged in human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of foreign transsexuals and transvestites.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Sweden some 45 thousand people, including the prime minister, participated in Stockholm's annual gay pride parade, walking along streets sprinkled with balloons and rainbow flags.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Syria dozens of civilians left the besieged and battered opposition-held east of Aleppo city through a "humanitarian corridor" to the government-held west. Russia's defence ministry announced that four additional "humanitarian corridors" will be opened from Aleppo, adding that 169 civilians have been able to get out so far.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, A senior Turkish official said the country’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) intercepted encrypted messages sent by followers of US-based Fethullah Gulen well before the July 15 coup attempt, giving Ankara names of tens of thousands within the preacher's network.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Turkey 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed in Hakkari province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Yemen's government delegation quit talks in Kuwait with Shiite Houthi rebels, having agreed to resume them earlier this month.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Yemen warplanes of a Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi fighters seeking to infiltrate Saudi Arabia, killing tens of Houthi militiamen. 7 Saudi troops and dozens of Houthi fighters were killed in the heavy fighting.
(Reuters, 7/30/16)(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In western Nebraska 5 people died in a fiery car crash the forced the closure of I-80 for several hours.
(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul 31, In Austin, Texas, Teqnika Moultrie (30) was killed and three other women were rushed to a local hospital with gunshot wounds. The shooter was still at large. A second, separate shooting incident in the area took place just minutes later. On August 3 Endicott McCray (24) was arrested outside Atlanta and charged with the murder of Moultrie. Police said McCray had been trying to settle a score with his brother-in-law.
(AFP, 7/31/16)(SFC, 8/5/16, p.D7)
2016 Jul 31, An Afghan official said Taliban attacks on the Kanashin district of Helmand province have killed at least 24 police officers over the past two days. In northern Jawzjan province, an official described "tough fighting" after hundreds of insurgent fighters attacked the Qush Tepa district with 4 Afghan security forces personnel killed.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Armenia two more gunmen barricaded inside a police compound in Armenia's capital surrendered and one more was shot and wounded by security forces who are trying to end the two-week standoff. Twenty remaining gunmen also surrendered after security forces used armored vehicles to enter the compound.
(AP, 7/31/16)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 31, Bangladesh disaster management officials in Dhaka said lightning has killed 15 people over the the past two days.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, British PM Theresa May set out a drive to tackle modern slavery, pledging more funding and a new cross-government taskforce to help stamp out what she called a "barbaric evil". She made the pledge as a review into the 2015 Modern Slavery Act.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In the Dominican Republic a storm knocked down power lines near the town of Nagua and started a fire that killed 6 passengers on a bus.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 31, In Germany thousands of demonstrators from the Turkish community turned out in Cologne to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin. Germany is home to around 3 million people of Turkish origin. A regional court ruled, however, that no messages from speakers elsewhere, such as politicians in Turkey, could be shown on a video screen at the rally.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 31, In India at least 9 people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed in heavy rains in a Mumbai suburb.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, India's foreign minister said the government is providing food aid to thousands of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who are not able to buy food after losing their jobs in the kingdom.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Iraq's Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said that Islamic State group leaders and their families have sold their belongings and fled Mosul as Iraqi forces close in on the northern city.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In northern Iraq militants attacked a gas facility and oil field in Dibbis killing 5 people. 3 attackers were killed but firefighters were still trying to extinguish a fire.
(AP, 7/31/16)(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Israel's cabinet approved legislation aimed at loosening the grip of the country's three largest banks on the credit supply market, despite opposition by the IMF and a risk that the reform could flood the economy with excess credit.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Japan veteran politician Yuriko Koike (64), fluent in English and Arabic, was elected as Tokyo's first woman governor.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In western Libya the mayor of Sabratha said more than 120 bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe have washed up around his town this month.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Palestinian Rami Awartani (31), armed with a knife, charged at Israeli soldiers on the outskirts of of Nablus in the occupied West Bank and was shot dead.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Poland Pope Francis encouraged hundreds of thousands of young people at the end of World Youth Day to "believe in a new humanity" that is stronger than evil and refuses to see borders as barriers.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Somalia 6 people were killed in a gun and car-bomb assault on a police building in the center of Mogadishu. 7 assailants were also left dead.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In southern Syria a government airstrike on a hospital in opposition-controlled Jasem put the facility out of service. It was targeted in one of several airstrikes to hit the town in Deraa province. 6 people were reported killed in the strikes.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, The Islamic State called on its group members to carry out jihad in Russia in a nine-minute YouTube video.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree that introduced sweeping changes to the military. The government also dismissed 1,389 military personnel, including a top aide to Erdogan, for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Gulen.
(AFP, 7/31/16)(Reuters, 8/1/16)(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 31, In Turkey 4 government soldiers were killed in two separate clashes with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31 , Yemen's internationally-recognized government agreed to extend peace talks with Shiite rebels for another week, reversing an earlier decision to quit the negotiations hosted by Kuwait.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul, Joohoon Lee, a US federal Homeland Security agent in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to soliciting and receiving bribes of about $13,000 along with other gifts in return for making “the immigration issue go away" in the 2012 case of a Korean businessman accused of sex trafficking. In December it was reported that a review by the New York Times showed that over the last ten years almost 200 employees of Homeland Security had taken nearly $15 million in bribes while being paid to protect the nation’s borders.
(SFC, 12/29/16, p.A5)
2016 Jul, In San Francisco the new 409-unit, 32-story Solaire apartment tower opened at 299 Fremont St.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A14)
2016 Jul, Iowa settled lawsuits relating to incidents that occurred between 2013 and 2015 in which white police officers roughed up three black residents in Waterloo.
(SFC, 8/12/16, p.A8)
2016 Jul, Britain convicted radical cleric Anjem Choudary of inviting others to support the Islamic State. He faced up to a decade behind bars.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.47)
2016 Jul, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (15), who was allergic to sesame seeds, collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice after eating a baguette from the British sandwich chain Pret A Manger.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2016 Jul, Du Daozheng (93), publisher of the Chinese liberal Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine, said the government has suspended the 25-year-old journal. It had specialized in historical critique and was taken over by hardliners. Its feisty staff resigned.
(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A4)(Econ, 10/29/16, p.37)
2016 Jul, Egypt’s government carried some 7 million employees. By comparison Britain with 80% of Egypt’s population had under 500,000 employees.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.40)
2016 Jul, French telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel opened a coding school in Fremont, Ca., with free tuition and free housing. It was named 42 USA, an offshoot of a similar school in Paris that opened three years ago.
(SSFC, 7/17/16, p.D1)
2016 Jul, Germany’s BMW, Israeli supplier Mobileye and US-based Intel said they were joining forces to build a self-driving car.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.63)
2016 Jul, In Kenya one hundred kilos of cocaine, said to be worth around $6 million, were seized from a shipping container owned by sugar trader Jack Marrian in the port of Mombasa. Marrian's colleague Roy Mwanthi was also charged. On March 14, 2019, Kenya’s High Court acquitted the British aristocrat. The case against Mwanthi was also dropped.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2016 Jul, Moody’s downgraded Mozambique saying it was very near to defaulting on its government bonds.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.38)
2016 Jul, In Pakistan leading MQM politician Waseem Akhtar was arrested for numerous crimes including instigating riots in 2007. In August the city council of Karachi elected him mayor.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.27)
2016 Jul, Russian police in Samara detained American pastor Jim Mulcahy (72), claiming he was planning to perform a same-sex marriage. Hours later, the American pastor was fined $30 and ordered to leave Russia within five days.
(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul, In Spain Alejandro Cao de Benos opened the Pyongyang Café in Tarragona, a small bar founded to support Kim Jong-Un's strongman rule.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Jul, In Tonga Patricia Linne Kearney was found beaten to death. Her husband US citizen Dean Jay Fletcher, accused of the murder, escaped from jail and made his way to American Samoa where he was arrested and sent to Honolulu.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Jul, Turkey closed 131 media outlets late this month linked to the Gulen community (cemaat).
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 1, The US launched multiple air strikes against Islamic State militants in Libya.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A3)
2016 Aug 1, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee signed a $9.6 billion city budget for fiscal 2016-2017.
(http://tinyurl.com/zuds34j)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.C1)
2016 Aug 1, It was reported that the 58-story, $350 million Millenium Tower at 301 Mission St. in San Francisco, completed in 2008, has sunk 16 inches and tilted two inches to the northwest. Owners alleged that the massive hole dug next door for the Transbay Transit Center was to blame.
(SFC, 8/1/16, p.A1)
2016 Aug 1, A new law came into effect for freshmen students at the Univ. of Minnesota requiring them to be given training on campus sexual assaults within the first ten days of the school year.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.30)
2016 Aug 1, In Afghanistan a group of militants, including a suicide truck bomber, targeted a Kabul guesthouse for foreign contractors early today, killing one policeman and wounding four.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Bangladesh more than 100,000 students linked their hands to form human chains to protest two attacks last month by suspected Islamist militants.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, British drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline announced that it will form a joint venture with Google's parent company Alphabet to research and develop so-called bioelectronic medicines.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, China released Wang Yu, a prominent human rights lawyer arrested in July 2015, on bail amid protests outside a northern city court, where supporters of other jailed lawyers and activists condemned the secrecy surrounding the government's yearlong campaign against legal activism. Her release coincided with videos of an alleged confession by Wang posted on the websites of two Hong Kong media outlets in which she renounced her legal work.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Uber Technology Ltd. and its main Chinese competitor said they are combining their ride-hailing operations in China, ending a costly battle to attract riders. Didi Chuxing said it would acquire Uber China and operate it as a separate brand. Uber in exchange will receive a 17.7% percent stake in Didi.
(AP, 8/1/16)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.49)
2016 Aug 1, In Greece a large blaze in its third day threatened the small seaside town of Limni. A hotel was destroyed, along with a holiday home, a restaurant, and a couple of outhouses on the island of Evia.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, India's government said it plans to evacuate thousands of Indian workers who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia and cannot afford to pay for a flight home. The workers were mostly employed by Saudi construction companies and were laid off amid a slowdown in the industry caused by low global oil prices.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, An Indian bank issued the first ever offshore rupee-denominated bond in London, a landmark celebrated by officials keen to highlight Britain's international business prowess despite Brexit.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In India man walked into the house of a girl (17) in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu state, set himself on fire and hugged her, all the while saying that he would not let her live for spurning him. He had stalked her for over a year and she had said no repeatedly. The girl died three days later.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 1, Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged citizens to take part in the country's new tax amnesty and pledged his government will "go all out" to keep the law behind it from potentially getting blocked in court.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, A Malaysian security law that gives embattled pm Najib Razak sweeping emergency powers came into force, with Amnesty International warning the National Security Council Act could be used to trample on human rights.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Nigeria 5 Islamists were killed as troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicenter of the seven-year insurgency.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 1, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday his government would pursue peace talks with communist guerrillas despite an initial setback when he withdrew a ceasefire order after the rebels killed a militiaman in an attack.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Saudi Arabia four family members were reported killed by a cross-border missile from Yemen that struck their home in the southern region of Jizan.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In northern Syria a Russian transport helicopter was shot down in opposition rebel territory. All five crew and officers onboard were killed.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Taiwan's Pres. Tsai Ing-wen apologized on behalf of the government to the island's aboriginal peoples for 400 years of conquest and colonization, saying the facing of difficult historical facts was necessary for society to move forward.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Turkish special forces captured overnight eleven rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during the failed July 15 coup.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Venezuelan electoral authorities certified that opponents of President Nicolas Maduro had gathered enough signatures to permit them to conduct a second petition drive aimed at removing the socialist leader from office.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, President Barack Obama and Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong held a formal meeting in the Oval Office with US-Asia relations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal involving both Singapore and the United States on the agenda.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In central California a chartered bus hit a pole of an overhead sign on Highway 99, splitting the coach partway down the middle. Four people were killed. In 2017 driver Mario David Vasquez (58) was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
(SFC, 8/3/16, p.D2)(SFC, 8/2/17, p.A10)
2016 Aug 2, In southern California Egypt-born chemist Ahmed Zewail (70), a science adviser to President Obama, died. He won the 1999 Nobel Prize for his work on the study of chemical reactions over immensely short time scales. On August 7 Zewail was given a state funeral with military honors in Cairo.
(AP, 8/3/16)(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 2, Delaware's Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional, finding it in violation of the Sixth Amendment role of the jury.
(CSM, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, David Huddleston (b.1930), American character actor, died in New Mexico of advanced heart and kidney disease. His films included included “Blazing Saddles" (1974) and “The Big Lebowski" (1998). His stage work include playing Benjamin Franklin in the Broadway production “1776" (1977).
(SFC, 8/6/16, p.C3)
2016 Aug 2, In NYC Karina Vetrano (30) was strangled to death while jogging. Her body was found five hours later in a marshy park in her Queens neighborhood. Officials hoped to use familial DNA to find her killer. On Feb 4, 2017, Chanel Lewis (20) was taken into custody after DNA evidence linked him to the murder. Lewis' trial on Nov. 20, 2018, ended in a hung jury. On April 1, 2019, Lewis was convicted of murder and sexual abuse.
(http://tinyurl.com/jogkppa)(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A11)(SSFC, 2/5/17, p.A4)(SFC, 11/22/18, p.A8)(SFC, 4/3/19, p.A7)
2016 Aug 2, A new report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the 2015 State of the Climate, showed record heat absorption by the oceans and the lowest groundwater storage levels globally.
(SFC, 8/3/16, p.A7)
2016 Aug 2, Australia's central bank dropped interest rates to a new record low of 1.5% after a recent run of soft inflation readings.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Brazil's federal police said they had arrested two people and raided properties over alleged corruption at building firm Queiroz Galvao, widening a sweeping investigation (Operation Carwash) focused on state-run oil company Petrobras.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In Brazil Olympics chief Thomas Bach called for a complete overhaul of the anti-doping system after revelations of state-backed cheating by Russia rocked preparations for the Rio Games.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, A British court ruled that the state-funded health service (NHS) is responsible for paying for an HIV-prevention drug that has been called a "game changer" in the fight against AIDS. The health service said it would appeal.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Burundi said it would refuse to allow United Nations police onto its territory to monitor the security and human rights situation after the UN Security Council voted to send 228 officers.
(Reuters, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, China's Supreme Court said people caught illegally fishing in Chinese waters could be jailed for up to a year, issuing a judicial interpretation defining those waters as including China's exclusive economic zones.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, China sentenced prominent activist Zhai Yanmin (55) to three years in jail with a four year reprieve for subverting the state, in a case linked to a crackdown on human rights lawyers.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, The German state of Bavaria said it would sue Volkswagen for damages caused by its emissions-test cheating scandal, the first regional government in VW's home country to take legal action against the carmaker.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, German authorities arrested a Tunisian man (36) suspected of killing two other Tunisian nationals whose remains were found in a Leipzig lake.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, Indian officials said the death toll in flooding from heavy monsoon rains has climbed to 96, with about a million people taking shelter in government-run relief camps. A century-old bridge over the Savitri River between Mumbai and Goa collapsed killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/2/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.75)
2016 Aug 2, Iran hanged 20 "terrorist" Sunni prisoners, in one of the Islamic republic's biggest mass executions in recent years. A statement detailed 24 armed attacks between 2009 and 2011, including bombings and robberies, allegedly committed by the Kurdish militants.
(AFP, 8/4/16)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Aug 2, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi imposed a travel ban on several parliamentary officials accused of corruption, but parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi rejected the order saying this could only be ordered by the judiciary and calling for everyone to respect both it and the constitution.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Israeli lawmakers approved jailing children as young as 12 convicted of "terrorist offences" in the wake of repeated attacks by young Palestinians.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, Italian financial police arrested the former CEO of Veneto Banca and seized millions in cash, shares and property as part of a wide-ranging investigation.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Japan's Cabinet approved a fresh economic stimulus package worth more than 28 trillion yen ($275 billion), PM Shinzo Abe's latest effort to get the stalling recovery back on track.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Forces loyal to Libya's unity government said they were advancing inside the jihadist stronghold of Sirte, following the first US air strikes on Islamic State group positions in the city.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Mexico’s Michoacan state Gov. Silvano Aureoles said a mayor and four local police officers have been arrested in connection with the murder of 10 people who were killed and burned over the weekend. The motive appeared to be related to a rivalry over street-level drug sales.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, The New Zealand government agreed to pay more than half a million dollars to David Bain (44), who spent 12 years in jail after he was convicted in 1995 of killing five members of his own family in 1994, but was later found not guilty at a retrial.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court ordered Australia to present a resettlement plan for nearly 900 asylum seekers held in what it says is an illegal detention center on Manus island. Detainees feared the move will further delay their release.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In Russia the Yamal regional governor's office said a child has died of anthrax in Siberia in the first fatal outbreak of the bacterial disease reported in Russia in 75 years. More than 2,300 reindeer have also died in the outbreak in the region.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, South Korea fined Volkswagen 17.8 billion won ($16 million) and suspended sales of 80 VW models, alleging the German carmaker fabricated documents on emissions or noise level tests.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir fired five ministers, in a move that removed figures known for close ties to ex-rebel leader Riek Machar. A presidential decree showed that cabinet posts including the interior and petroleum portfolios in the oil-rich state had been filled with allies of the new vice president, Taban Deng Gai.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 2, A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter was shot down hours earlier. Russia launched heavy air strikes overnight on the outskirts of divided Aleppo city, slowing a "last-chance" assault by rebels seeking to break a government siege.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said the country’s intelligence apparatus will be restructured following a failed military coup last month because it was under the control of the US-based cleric blamed for staging the putsch.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, In Ukraine Nadiya Savchenko, the servicewoman-turned-lawmaker who spent two years in a Russian jail, announced a new hunger strike to speed up the release of other Ukrainian prisoners-of-war, accusing Pres. Poroshenko of ignoring their plight.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, UN agencies said tens of thousands of people have fled a fresh outbreak of violence in South Sudan, reporting mass killings, looting and forced recruitment of child soldiers. At least 9 people were reported killed over the weekend in the latest clashes on a road in Central Equatoria state, the region that includes the capital Juba.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Pope Francis appointed a commission to study the issue of female Church deacons in a move seen as a potential first step towards women entering the Catholic clergy.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named Gen. Nestor Reverol as interior minister. A day earlier US prosecutors announced the indictment of Nestor Reverol, who once led Venezuela's anti-drug agency and National Guard, on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Obama administration cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, almost all of whom were serving time for nonviolent crimes.
(SFC, 8/4/16, p.A5)
2016 Aug 3, The United States and Japan called for the urgent talks after North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that for the first time landed in Japanese-controlled waters.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Pentagon said it will not pay Pakistan $300 million in military reimbursements because it was taking adequate action against the Haqqani network.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, In New Jersey the 26-year-old Trump Taj Majal in Atlantic City said it will close after Labor Day eliminating some 3,000 jobs. Current owner Carl Icahn said he could no longer support the casino which was losing millions each month.
(SFC, 8/4/16, p.A5)
2016 Aug 3, Armenia's top investigative body said that 23 people are now in custody on suspicion of organizing riots in Yerevan, during a two-week armed standoff.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, In London Zakaria Bulhan (19), a Norwegian man of Somali origin, stabbed and killed retired US teacher Darlene Horton (64). He stabbed five others before he was immobilized and arrested by police. Bulhan was suspected to have mental health issues. On Feb 6, 2016, Bulhan pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and guilty to five counts of wounding. On Feb 7, 2016, he was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at a mental hospital.
(AFP, 8/4/16)(AFP, 8/6/16)(AP, 2/6/17)(AP, 2/7/17)
2016 Aug 3, China's state media reported that the Jade Rabbit lunar rover, which won a large following on social media, has been retired after a record 31 months of collecting data from the moon's surface. China’s rover arrived on the moon on Dec. 14, 2013, aboard the Chang'e 3 lunar lander and was designed to operate for just three months.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, China hosted a meeting with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The four countries agreed to set up an anti-terrorism alliance, as China seeks to boost coordination with neighbors to tackle what it says is a growing domestic militant threat.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, Germany-based Volkswagen said it will roll out particulate filters in its petrol engined cars between 2017 and 2022, a step which reduces the pollution from particulate matter by up to 90 percent.
(Reuters, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The digital bitcoin currency plunged after Hong Kong-based Bitfinex said it had been hacked. 119,756 Bitcoins, valued at $72 million, were reported stolen.
(SFC, 8/4/16, p.C3)
2016 Aug 3, In Indian-controlled Kashmir tens of thousands of people rallied to protest the overnight killings of two civilians by government forces amid a nearly monthlong security lockdown.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Iran state IRNA news agency reported that Hassan Abbasi, the head of the Center for Doctrinal Strategic Studies, a think-tank, has been arrested on charges of "spreading lies" and "creating an atmosphere of skepticism about the armed forces."
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Libyan pro-government forces battled to seize more territory from Islamic State group jihadists in their stronghold Sirte but progress was hindered by mines and snipers.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Nepal's parliament elected Maoist party leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal to lead a coalition government as the country's new prime minister, a move that will likely mean the continuation of political instability in the Himalayan nation.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Nigeria said it has resumed the payment of allowances to former Niger delta rebels under an amnesty scheme, after low global crude prices plunged the oil-rich country into a financial crisis.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Islamic State group's newspaper identified a new leader of the group's West Africa Province, popularly known as Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists, who promises not to attack mosques or markets used by Muslims. The Arabic-language newspaper al-Nabaa identified Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new "Wali," a title previously used to describe long-time leader Abubakar Shekau.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, A Norwegian court sentenced two men to prison for affiliation with the Islamic State group in Syria. Hasan Ahmed was sentenced to six years and Adam Idrisovich Magomadov to 7½.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Philippine police commandos clashed with the armed bodyguards of Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. in the central town of Albuera. 6 guards were killed. Espinosa, linked to illegal drugs, surrendered to national police a day earlier.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, In Russia Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, the only opposition mayor of a major Russian city, was found guilty of soliciting bribes and sentenced to 12½ years in a high-security prison. Urlashov pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that he had been framed by his political rivals.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, South Africans voted in municipal elections described as the most closely contested for the African National Congress since it took power in the first all-race elections in 1994. More than 12 people have been killed ahead of the vote. After three days the ANC led with the most votes overall and said it would still try to form coalitions to govern the municipalities where it lost its majority. Herman Mashaba (57) was elected mayor of Johannesburg.
(AP, 8/3/16)(Reuters, 8/6/16)(Econ, 9/24/16, p.47)
2016 Aug 3, Researchers led by Evangelos Eleftheriou at IBM’s research lab in Zurich announced that they had built a working, artificial version of a neuron.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.64)
2016 Aug 3, Syrian regime forces bolstered by Russian air strikes recaptured territory overnight in the battleground city of Aleppo, rolling back the short-lived gains of a rebel offensive.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi named local affairs minister Youssef Chahed (40) as prime minister-designate tasked with forming a unity cabinet to tackle major economic and security challenges.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Turkish police raided the offices of the national science research council, as authorities widen an investigation into followers of the US-based cleric accused of masterminding last month's coup attempt.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, A Ukrainian nationalist website published an email archive with copies of IDs and personal data of Ukrainian and international journalists.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, In the United Arab Emirates a Boeing crash landed in Dubai. All 300 passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the plane, though one firefighter was killed on the ground as the plane erupted in flames.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 3, A UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria said the Islamic State group is still committing genocide and other crimes against the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, Zimbabwe police fired tear gas and water cannons to break up anti-government protests in the capital, Harare, as frustrations grew over a rapidly deteriorating economy.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 4, In San Francisco a federal court sentenced Raymond “Shrimp Boy" Chow (56) to life in prison for racketeering and murder following an 8-week trial.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A1)
2016 Aug 4, In California Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva was arrested on charges that he supplied alcohol to underage counselors at acity run youth camp and surreptitiously recorded a group of young people playing strip poker in Silva’s bedroom in 2015. Silva denied the charges.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.D1)
2016 Aug 4, New York federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment charging 46 defendants of crimes ranging from extortion to illegal gambling throughout the East Coast.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A5)
2016 Aug 4, A Pakistani helicopter crash-landed in Afghanistan in Taliban-held territory in Logar province and all passengers and crew were missing and feared captured by insurgents. The Afghan Taliban released all five Pakistanis and one Russian crew member on August 13.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)(Reuters, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 4, In Argentina pot banging protests took place across the country as higher energy bills landed in consumer post boxes.
(Econ, 8/13/16, p.23)
2016 Aug 4, Hurricane Earl, packing 130 km (80 mile) per hour winds and heavy rain, made landfall in Central America near Belize City, where officials warned of likely flooding and damage to homes. Earl was soon downgraded to a tropical storm.
(AFP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Britain's central bank moved to stem the economic fallout from the vote to leave the European union, approving its first interest rate cut since the global financial crisis as part of a broader stimulus package. The Bank of England cut its key rate to 0.25 percent from a previous record low of 0.5 percent.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, China sentenced Zhou Shifeng, a prominent civil rights lawyer, to seven years in prison on charges of subversion.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 4, The European Union extended its civilian mission in Libya by a year and allocated a $18.92 million budget for the task.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A German federal court said a person with a genetic abnormality who identifies as neither woman nor man can't be entered in Germany's birth register under an alternative label such as "inter" or "diverse." The plaintiff planned to go to Germany's highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Israel's internal security agency said Mohammed el-Halabi, a senior employee of the international aid group World Vision in the Gaza Strip, siphoned off millions of dollars of the charity's funds and transferred them to the Islamic militant group Hamas, assisting it in building tunnels and purchasing arms. El-Halabi was arrested in June as he was crossing from Israel into Gaza.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Italy's anti-corruption authority (ANAC) confirmed that it is investigating Rome's public rubbish management agency as concerns grew that waste problems plaguing the capital could turn critical.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Aid agencies said they have delivered a month's worth of food and supplies this week to more than 75,000 Syrians stuck on Jordan's sealed border, using cranes to lift bags from the Jordanian side over an earthen barrier along the frontier.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Kenyan police charged a British national with trafficking nearly 100 kg (220 pounds) of cocaine that was impounded last week at the country's main seaport. Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian denied the charge in court. A Kenyan, Roy Francis Mwanthi, was charged separately with trafficking the cocaine. It was not clear what happened to a third suspect, also Kenyan.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A court in Kazakhstan ordered the release on parole of opposition activist Vladimir Kozlov, after spending nearly five years in jail accused of participating in a failed attempt to overthrow the government.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Kosovo's government ratified a border demarcation agreement with neighboring Montenegro, despite disapproval from the opposition. The government sent the deal to the Parliament, which was expected to concur.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Montenegro's police arrested Vlado Zmajevic (47) suspected of killing at least six ethnic Albanians, including two women, in a Kosovo village in 1999.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A Pakistani helicopter crash-landed in Afghanistan in Taliban-held territory in Logar province and all passengers and crew were missing and feared captured by insurgents. The Afghan Taliban released all five Pakistanis and one Russian crew member on August 13.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)(Reuters, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 4, In the Philippines top broadcaster, ABS-CBN, reported that 603 people had been killed since Duterte's May election, with 211 murdered by unidentified gunmen.
(AFP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance led in three major cities as votes were counted in local elections, threatening to deal the biggest electoral blow to the African National Congress since the end of apartheid two decades ago.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Tajikistan said it has meted out jail terms to 170 people convicted of complicity in an armed attempt by a deputy defence minister to topple President Imomali Rakhmon last September.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, A court in Turkey issued a formal warrant for the arrest of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 coup that left more than 270 people dead.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, Uganda's Police raided a night club late today where a Gay Pride event was underway and arrested at least 15 people, accusing them of staging an illegal gathering and promoting homosexuality.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 4, The UN refugee agency said it has received reports that the Islamic State group may have captured up to 3,000 Iraqis who were fleeing violence and that 12 of them may have been killed.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Massachusetts Walter DaSilva of Danbury was arrested in Bridgeport for questioning in connection with the July 3 killing of his daughter (19) outside her home in New Bedford. DaSilva was convicted in 2002 for attempting to murder the teen's mother in Weston.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Angola fresh fighting broke out with rebels in the country's oil-producing Cabinda enclave. Over the next 24 hours the death toll rose to nearly 40 since a flare-up in the conflict began early this month.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 5, Australia said it was suspending funding for relief group World Vision's operations in the Palestinian Territories after allegations its Gaza representative funneled millions of dollars to the Islamist militant group Hamas.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Brazilian police arrested Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada (22) for allegedly sexually assaulting two female cleaners on August 3 in Rio’s Olympic Village.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Rio de Janeiro hosted a glittering Olympics opening ceremony party, hoping to draw a line under a turbulent seven-year build-up dogged by recession, drugs scandals, crime and infrastructure stumbles. Security was tight after protests by thousands of Brazilians angry at political upheaval, corruption and the cost of the Games.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, British activists linked to the US-based group Black Lives Matter blocked a road leading to London's Heathrow Airport and held protests in other British cities. Officers arrested 10 people.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Cambodian customs seized more than 600 kg of illegal ivory in a container packed with corn that had languished unclaimed at a port for two years after being shipped from Africa.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Denmark's armed forces said Danish F-16 aircraft have for the first time dropped bombs in Syria's Raqqa province. Defense Command Denmark said the raid was conducted in the past week.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Egypt's former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, once one of the country's top religious authorities, survived an assassination attempt. Gomaa is an adherent of a mystical school of Islam known as Sufism and an outspoken critic of Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Hong Kong over 2,000 people gathered in support of candidates disqualified by the electoral commission.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.32)
2016 Aug 5, In northeastern India 5-6 gunmen opened fire on a busy market in Balajan, Assam state, killing 12 people and wounding several others. Authorities blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). One of the gunmen was killed.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Indonesian police arrested six suspected militants who they believed to be linked to the Islamic State group and plotting a rocket attack on Singapore. The six arrested were suspected of having links to Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with Islamic State in Syria.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a curfew to most of the disputed Himalayan region in an attempt to prevent an anti-India protest march to a prominent shrine. Clashes erupted with 2 men killed and at least 100 civilians injured.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Iraq officers and local officials said the Islamic State group has killed several residents attempting to flee Hawijah, as Iraqi forces prepared for an operation against the jihadist-held area.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi sold the AC Milan soccer club to a Chinese consortium, after 31 years in charge. The deal valued Milan at 740 million euros ($820 million) and required the investors, led by businessman Yonghong Li, to spend 350 million euros ($372 million) over three years on improvements. The buying consortium struggled to put all the financing in place for its purchase.
(AP, 4/13/17)(http://tinyurl.com/ycokx8n8)
2016 Aug 5, Moldova's Foreign Ministry and its Defense Ministry criticized recent Russian military exercises (July 27-August 3) held in the Trans-Dniester separatist region, saying they undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Morocco a four-storey building in the Sbata district of Casablanca collapsed this evening. It had a cafe on the ground floor that had been teeming with customers and a doctor's clinic which was also full. At least 2 people were killed and one remained missing.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 5, Myanmar health officials confirmed that a measles outbreak is behind the deaths of more than 30 people, mostly children, in the northern Sagaing region.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, The Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement that 80 prisoners stopped eating today, joining 325 who have been fasting for the past two days at various prisons in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Russia petition calling on Pres. Putinto sack PM Dmitry Medvedev, whose comments about teachers' pay sparked outrage earlier this week, attracted more than 160,000 signatures. Medvedev was asked by a teacher from the Dagestan region why teachers are paid half as much as police officers. He said that teaching is not a job for those seeking to make a fortune and that teachers could always do odd jobs to supplement their income.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels announced that the coalition has committed eight "unintended bombings" and blamed UN agencies for not coordinating with the coalition, causing civilian casualties.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In South Africa with more than 95 percent of votes counted in municipal elections, the ruling party ANC appeared to be headed for its biggest electoral blow since it won power at the end of apartheid 22 years ago. The party so far has received 54 percent of votes across the country, its lowest percentage ever, with the Democratic Alliance getting 26 percent. The opposition DA won the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay municipality with 47 percent of the vote compared with 41 percent for the ANC.
(AP, 8/5/16)(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Police in Spain arrested five alleged members of the Pink Panther gang of jewel thieves as they tried to flee following a robbery in Barcelona. According to Interpol the gang has stolen $370 million in jewels in 380 armed robberies between 1999 and 2015.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Aug 5, In Syria at least 10 people, including seven children, were killed in air strikes on the rebel-held Marjeh district east of Aleppo.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, Turkey's ruling AK Party ordered a internal purge of members with links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric whom the government holds responsible for last month's failed coup. Industry Minister Faruk Ozlu said 167 staff from the Scientific and Technological Industry Minister have been dismissed.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, In Uruguay defense minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro (74), one of the founders of the Tupamaro rebels, died.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 6, In San Francisco Calvin Riley (20), a graduate of Serra High in San Mateo, was shot in the chest and soon died while playing Pokemon Go at Aquatic Park. In 2017 a reward of $110,000 was offered for information leading to the killer’s capture.
(SFC, 7/11/17, p.C4)
2016 Aug 6, A federal judge in Miami denied bail to Philip Esformes (47), a businessman accused of orchestrating a $1 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme while running assisted living centers in southern Florida.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A8)
2016 Aug 6, Dixieland jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain (86) died in New Orleans.
(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.C3)
2016 Aug 6, In Belgium a machete-wielding man left two female police officers seriously injured in Charleroi. The assailant was shot by a third officer and soon died of his wounds. Belgian prosecutors identified the assailant as a 33-year-old Algerian, K.B., who had lived in Belgium since 2012. The Islamic State soon claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A7)
2016 Aug 6, Ivo Pitanguy (90), a plastic surgeon whose skill drew celebrities to his operating table from around the world and made him a cultural icon in beauty-obsessed Brazil, died one day after passing the Olympic torch for the Rio Games.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 6, In northern France a fire sparked by birthday cake candles tore through the Au Cuba Libre bar in Rouen, killing at least 13 people.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Japan issued a new protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In Macedonia at least 21 people died in flash floods and violent winds in Skopje during a freak evening storm.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 6, In Malaysia Ahmad Syukri Yusuf (22), charged last year with raping a 14-year-old girl, faced a retrial after he avoided prison in July by marrying her. The case has sparked anger from rights groups and calls for a ban on child marriage and justice for victims of sexual violence.
(AP, 8/3/16)(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In Mexico 6 people died in landslides in the eastern state of Veracruz as what had been Tropical Storm Earl dumped heavy rains on the region. The death toll from Earl soon rose to 40.
(AP, 8/6/16)(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 6, Nigeria said 11 troops have been killed in clashes with gunrunners and bandits in the violence-wracked north central region. Soldiers and airmen, came under attack from gunmen during operations to confiscate illegal weapons from the villages of Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw in Niger State.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett, an American citizen, from an Islamabad guest house. Barrett was deported and blacklisted in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation.
(AP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, More than 300 Palestinian prisoners halted a hunger strike after Israel prison authorities agreed to end "humiliating" body searches and return recently transferred prisoners.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, The Philippines said it would within days send government missions to Saudi Arabia to help thousands of jobless Filipinos left stranded across the kingdom after the plunge in oil prices.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Somali Islamist group al Shabaab shelled residential areas in the town of Baidoa, west of the capital Mogadishu, hitting a hospital.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In northern Syria the former Al-Nusra Front, renamed the Fateh al-Sham Front after breaking from Al-Qaeda, announced that rebels have broken a devastating government siege of Aleppo after a week of fierce fighting. Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Arab and Kurd fighters, took control of Manbij from IS militants.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, In eastern Ukraine Igor Plotnitsky, separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, was wounded in a car bombing.
(AP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 6, Yemen's two dominant political movements announced a 10-member governing council, pushing ahead with plans to run the country as UN-sponsored talks to end a 16-month-old war drew to a close without a deal.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Kansas Caleb Schwab (10), the son of state Rep. Scott Schwab, was decapitated as he rode a 168-foot-tall water slide at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City. In 2018 the water park co-owner Jeff Henry was arrested. The slide's designer, John Schooley was also arrested.
(SFC, 8/11/16, p.A6)(SFC, 4/5/18, p.A5)
2016 Aug 7, The body of Vanessa Marcotte (27) of NYC was found in some woods in Princeton, Mass. She had been out for a run while visiting her mother. In 2017 DNA evidence from her hands identified Angelo Colon-Ortiz (31) of nearby Worcester as the suspect in her murder.
(SFC, 4/16/17, p.A7)
2016 Aug 7, Gen. Abdul Raziq, a senior Afghan police official regarded as one of the country's most powerful men, said he has banned the use of the Pakistani currency in the key southern province of Kandahar. Raziq said the currency ban is in retaliation against Pakistan's protection of the Taliban.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Afghanistan five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms abducted an American and an Australian in Kabul.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Ethiopia about 50 people were killed in clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators as protests swept the vast Oromia region and Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Iran said it has executed Shahram Amiri (39), a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "confidential and vital" information to the United States. Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States. He returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In central Mali fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region and continued into the next day. Five soldiers were missing after the clashes with militants, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Pakistan a suicide bomber carried out the attack at the government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 53 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs, ordering them to surrender for investigation.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Voters in the tiny west African archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls to elect a new president, but only one candidate stood in a runoff the incumbent boycotted as fraudulent. Some 111,000 voters had originally been due to choose between Evaristo Carvalho, who won 49.8 percent in the first round, and President Manuel Pinto da Costa, who took 24.83 percent.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Syria rebels breached the government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, marking a major military breakthrough that prompted an intense airstrike campaign.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Thai voters overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed, rather than elected, officials.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Turkey hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Ukraine’s military said 3 soldiers have been killed and four others injured over the last 24 hours in fresh clashes between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the war-scarred east.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Yemen a Saudi-led coalition air strike killed 9 civilians outside Sanaa this evening, as forces loyal to the exiled government stepped up an offensive in the area.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Delta canceled more than 700 flights and had 2,600 others delayed, some for hours, after a power outage at its Atlanta headquarters caused many computer systems to crash. The company later blamed a malfunctioning power-control system at its data center.
(AP, 8/9/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.46)
2016 Aug 8, Walmart announced that it would acquire Jet.com, a shopping website, for $3.3 billion.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet.com)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.47)
2016 Aug 8, In London and southern England rail staff began a five-day strike in a safety row over who opens and closes the doors impacting hundreds of thousands of train commuters.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In eastern China residents of in Lianyungang protested for a third day against possible plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing center, as police banned public gatherings in hopes of preventing more demonstrations.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Congo DRC armed groups killed 14 people in a string of overnight attacks in the strife-torn North Kivu province, an area long shaken by ethnic violence.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Amnesty Int’l. said Ethiopian security forces shot dead at least 67 people in the Oromia region over the weekend. An opposition politician said more than 70 people were killed across Oromia with hundreds detained during protests.
(SFC, 8/9/16, p.A3)
2016 Aug 8, In Indian-controlled Kashmir police said government forces have arrested more than a thousand protesters over the past two weeks in an attempt to stem deadly anti-India demonstrations in the Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Iran detained Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-American history researcher. In 2017 he sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of "infiltrating" and sending confidential material abroad.
(AP, 7/17/17)(AP, 8/8/19)
2016 Aug 8, Japan's emperor expressed concern about fulfilling his duties as he ages, in a public address that was remarkable for its rarity and its suggestion that he would like to abdicate.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Nepal a helicopter crashed in a mountainous region, killing all seven people on board.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Nigeria gunmen dressed as priests killed three soldiers in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, In Pakistan a suicide bombing that targeted lawyers killed at least 74 people in the city of Quetta.
(AP, 8/9/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 8, Portugal’s National Civil Protection Authority said that 3,000 firefighters, 1,060 vehicles and 16 water-dumping aircraft are deployed at 515 wildfires, some of which have been burning for days.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Taiwan lodged a complaint with Kenya over the deportation of five of its nationals to China after a court acquitted them of charges of running illegal telecoms operations. A Kenyan magistrate's court acquitted the five Taiwanese nationals and 35 Chinese citizens on Aug 5 after the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Uganda's government said it "will continue to suppress" the public activities of homosexuals and that a rehabilitation program had been developed to allow them to "lead normal lives again."
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 9, The United States said it delivered $50 million worth of military assistance to Lebanon's army to help it battle against Muslim extremists near the border with Syria.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Ernst Neizvestny (91), Russian-American sculptor, artist, philosopher and defier of the Soviet regime, died in New York.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.78)
2016 Aug 9, In northern Afghanistan a bomb in a crowded in the main market of Mazar-i-Sharif killed at least two people and wounded 15.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Britain defended its decision to review a planned $24 billion nuclear power project at Hinkley Point after criticism from China which planned to help fund the deal.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.9)
2016 Aug 9, A British man who killed a fellow Muslim because he felt he had disrespected Islam has been sentenced to at least 27 years in prison. Tanveer Ahmed admitted to stabbing and beating shopkeeper Asad Shah to death at his Glasgow convenience store in March.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, France said it has agreed to sell 30 Caracal military helicopters to Kuwait as part of the countries' strategic partnership. The deal was said to be worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Iran said it would auction off property owned by billionaire Babak Zanjani (41), who was sentenced to death for corruption earlier this year. He was accused of fraudulently pocketing $2.8 billion.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Israel demolished five homes in the occupied West Bank, leaving 27 Palestinians homeless, more than half of them children. The structures had been built with EU aid after houses in the village, on the southern tip of the West Bank, were demolished at least eight times.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, In Kosovo an opposition lawmaker used tear gas to disrupt the work of a parliamentary commission on a border demarcation agreement with neighboring Montenegro. The protest was seen on live television.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, The Maldives' parliament passed a law that criminalizes defamation and allows for jail terms and steep fines for journalists, despite local and international concern that it will be a setback for freedom of speech in the country.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, A Philippine historical commission, former human rights victims and left-wing groups opposed President Rodrigo Duterte's approval of a plan to bury late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes' cemetery, reigniting a politically divisive and emotional debate.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Polish media reported that authorities have arrested an 80-year-old woman, identified only as Janina M., who allegedly drugged and then robbed a string of senior citizen suitors she met through newspaper lonely hearts adverts.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, South Sudan said it requested $1.9 billion from the Chinese government to develop oil fields and infrastructure projects.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held their first meeting since the two leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, The United Nations warned that up to two million people in Syria's Aleppo have gone without running water for the past four days.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 9, In Yemen Saudi-led coalition warplanes resumed air strikes on the capital for the first time in more than three months, shutting down the Sanaa airport. A Saudi-led airstrike killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in Sanaa.
(AFP, 8/9/16)(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 10, Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top US commander for the fight against IS, said military campaigns in Iraq and Syria have taken 45,000 enemy combatants off the battlefield and reduced the total number of Islamic State fighters to as few as 15,000.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, General John Nicholson, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan said Afghan forces, backed by the United States, have killed an estimated 300 Islamic State fighters in an operation in Nangarhar province mounted two weeks ago.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Addressing supporters in Fort Lauderdale Republican candidate Donald Trump roiled the US presidential campaign once again, with the jaw-dropping assertion that Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama "founded" the IS group.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, The US Dept. of Justice found that Baltimore’s police department had engaged in unconstitutional practices, including disproportionate rates of stops, frisks and arrest of black citizens, and use excessive force against minors and the mentally ill.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 10, Delta fliers faced delays, cancellations and more headaches as the Atlanta-based airline struggled with its computer systems for the third straight day.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Belize’s chief justice ruled that Section 53 of the criminal code, which threatened people who engage in “carnal intercourse against the order of nature," is unconstitutional.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 10, Brazil's Senate voted to put suspended President Dilma Rousseff on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in managing the federal budget.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Canadian police shot dead an alleged Islamic State sympathizer armed with an explosive device. Canadian broadcaster CBC soon identified him as Aaron Driver, saying he was shot dead during a police raid in Strathroy, southern Ontario.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, German police raided the homes and workplaces of three people suspected of trying to recruit supporters for Islamic State. No arrests were made.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Former Guatemalan soldier Santos Lopez Alonzo (64) arrived in Guatemala City after he was deported from the United States. He maintained his innocence in the face of accusations that he helped massacre more than 200 people in the small village of Las Dos Erres in 1982 during his country's grueling civil war.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, In India a stream of cars, motorcycles and pedestrians passed by an injured man struck by a delivery truck on a New Delhi street, leaving him to die.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Iraq a fire ripped through a maternity ward at a Baghdad hospital overnight, killing 12 newborn babies. The deadly blaze was likely caused by faulty electrical wiring.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Nigeria a previously unknown group called Delta Greenland Justice Mandate said it had attacked a crude pipeline belonging to state oil firm NNPC and local firm Shoreline Natural Resources in Urhobo in Delta state.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Portugal a wildfire swept overnight into Funchal, the capital of the Madeira Islands, killing three elderly people and injuring hundreds as it burned homes and forced people to flee in panic.
(AP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, Russia's Federal Security Service said it had thwarted two armed Ukrainian attempts over the weekend to get saboteurs into Crimea and dismantled a Ukrainian spy network inside the annexed peninsula. Ukraine denied the action.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked soldiers near the border with Iraq, killing four of them in Sirnak province. Evening bomb blasts in two cities in the southeast killed 9 civilians and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/10/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 10, It was reported that Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route.
(Reuters, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Yemen Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched fresh air strikes on Shiite rebels across the country after the alliance said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles fired at southern Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 8/10/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Berkeley, Ca., John Fox (66), the owner of bankrupt premium wine store Premier Cru, pleaded guilty to defrauding customers out of at least $45 million in what the judge described as a “wine Ponzi scheme." On Dec 14 Fox was sentenced to 6½ years in prison.
(SFC, 8/12/16, p.D1)(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A10)
2016 Aug 11, In Afghanistan fighting raged in Helmand after the government rushed military reinforcements to beat back Taliban insurgents advancing on Lashkar Gah, the besieged capital of the southern poppy-growing province. Officials downplayed fears \the city could fall.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Australia announced that it plans to block Chinese bidders from leasing a major Sydney electricity grid on national security grounds.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Bangladesh police arrested five members of a domestic Islamist militant group planning suicide attacks in the capital, Dhaka, as authorities hunted for the mastermind of a deadly assault last month.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, Reverend Roly Bain (62), Britain’s only full-time clown-priest, died.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.78)
2016 Aug 11, In China an explosion at a power plant killed at least 21 people and injured five in Dangyang city, Hubei province.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Chinese fishing boat sank after colliding with the Greek-flagged ship off the Japan-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims. Japanese coast guard ships rescued six crew members and searched for another eight missing.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, The International Monetary Fund said that it had reached an initial agreement to lend $12 billion to Egypt to bolster an economy battered by years of unrest.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In France forest fires raged through parts of the Mediterranean coast, with the worst in almost two decades burning around Marseille, injuring seven people and forcing authorities to evacuate thousands from their homes.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, An Indian government panel cleared commercial use for indigenously developed GM mustard seeds in what would be the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop. Politicians still needed to give final approvals amid wide-spread public opposition.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Indonesia a court ruling found plantation company Sampoerna Agro negligent in relation to fires on 3,000 hectares of its concessions in Riau in 2014, and handed down fines totaling 1.07 trillion rupiah ($81.62 million), the country's largest ever fine for forest fires.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 11, The top diplomats from Japan and the Philippines called on China to avoid intimidating actions and follow the rule of law in disputed waters where Beijing has defied an arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive territorial claims.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Libyan official said US-backed forces have liberated "70 percent" of the city of Sirte, the Islamic State group's last bastion there, after seizing several strategic locations over the past 24 hours under the cover of US airstrikes.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In the Maldives a law that criminalizes defamation and allows for jail terms and steep fines for journalists took effect.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Nigeria protesters continued to block the entrance to a Chevron oil depot in the restive southern region for a third day. A youth and protest leader said militants blew up another crude pipeline in the Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Pakistan a roadside bomb hit a security vehicle and wounded 13 people in the southwestern city of Quetta, days after a suicide bombing at a hospital killed at least 74 people.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Philippine officials said the government has suspended operations at two more mines due to environmental violations in an ongoing audit of the country's mining sector. The move raised the number of suspended mines to 10 since a review was launched on July 8.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In the Philippines a blast from a suspected grenade and gunshots rocked the Paranaque City jail in metropolitan Manila, leaving 10 inmates dead, including two alleged Chinese drug criminals.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that parts of a new law governing its own operation are unconstitutional.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Sri Lanka's Parliament unanimously approved a bill to set up an office to help account for thousands of people reported missing during the country's armed uprisings and clarify the circumstances under which they disappeared.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Syria doctors in Aleppo made a heart-wrenching plea for the US to help civilians hit by fresh fighting despite a promised Russian aid window. Russian air strikes on the IS bastion of Raqa killed at least 30 people, including 24 civilians.
(AFP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkey's foreign minister said two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish jets raided suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, following a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Ukraine's president ordered the army to be on combat alert on the country's de-facto border with Crimea and on the front line in eastern Ukraine following Moscow's accusations that Ukraine sent in "saboteurs" to carry out attacks in Crimea.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Zambia held presidential elections following a campaign marred by "unprecedented" violence that threatened the country's relative stability and raised fears of further clashes. Early results showed opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema ahead of his rival President Edgar Lungu.
(AFP, 8/11/16)(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Democratic White House candidate Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax return and criticized her Republican rival Donald Trump for bucking a long-standing tradition by failing to do the same.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, In San Francisco Emma Zhou was paralyzed from the waist down after limb fell from a 50-foot Canary Island pine tree in Washington Square Park. In 2018 The SF Board of Supervisors approved a $14.5 million settlement for Zhou.
(SFC, 10/3/18, p.C5)
2016 Aug 12, Torrential downpours in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi caused flooding that killed at least two men, left two people injured and forced residents to evacuate homes throughout the region.
(Reuters, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Lebron James signed a contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers giving the NBA superstar $31 million next season.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Oklahoma Stanley Vernon Majors (61) gunned down his Lebanese neighbor Khalid Jabara (37) outside his Tulsa home after bombarding him with racial insults in a feud that had lasted several years. On Feb. 20, 2018, Majors was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7hmneoc)(SFC, 2/21/18, p.A6)
2016 Aug 12, In Virginia Lisa Borinstein (52) of Indiana, two of her four children and a foreign exchange student were among six people killed in a small plane crash.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Staff on the Eurostar rail service between Britain and mainland Europe started four days of strike action although the company insisted there would be minimal disruption to services.
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, The Chinese Swimming Association said Chen Xinyi tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide after she finished fourth in the women's 100-meter butterfly in the Rio Olympics on August 7, missing a bronze medal by nine-hundredths of a second.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Congo DRC security forces in Kasai Central province killed a tribal chief and militia leader nicknamed Kamwina Nsapu (Kamuina Nsapu), meaning Black Ant.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamwina_Nsapu_rebellion)(Econ 6/3/17, p.37)
2016 Aug 12, Fiji's men's sevens rugby team won the country’s first ever Olympic medal with a 43-7 victory over Great Britain.
(AP, 8/12/16)(http://tinyurl.com/j2mcajn)
2016 Aug 12, India's Supreme Court handed a reprieve to the auto industry, ruling that new diesel vehicles can be allowed on the streets of the national capital as long as a 1 percent "green" tax is paid.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, The UN's envoy to Libya told a newspaper that support for the UN-backed unity government is "crumbling" amid increased power outages and a weakening currency that is hitting crucial imports.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Mexican federal police said they have arrested Luis Reyes Enriquez in a raid in the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia. Enriquez was arrested in 2007, and spent almost eight years in custody until a judge absolved him of organized crime and drug charges in April 2015. Prosecutors appealed that ruling, and a superior court re-instated his conviction and a sentence of 47 ½ years in prison.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Mexico a three-day conference called "ExpoWeed" opened in Mexico City, promoting home-growing of marijuana. The practice was still not legal in the country. Activists said the "grow" movement is an antidote to antidote to Mexico's drug violence.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Mozambique 6 civilians burned to death in an attack by Renamo rebels, the latest in a string of violent skirmishes between opposition fighters and government forces.
(AFP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Nigeria military helicopters rushed polio vaccines to dangerous parts of the northeast, where Boko Haram operates and two paralyzed toddlers were recently discovered.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly dismissed his close ally and powerful chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, in the highest-level change inside the Kremlin in several years. Ivanov was replaced by his deputy Anton Vaino (44).
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Lawmakers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines passed a bill allowing defamation on the internet to be punished by prison sentences of up to two years.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In northern Syria Islamic State fighters seized around 2,000 civilians to use as "human shields" as they fled their stronghold of Manbij.
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Scotland two Turkish sailors were jailed for a total of 42 years after their attempt to smuggle a huge haul of cocaine into Europe was thwarted in April 2015, partly due to some swift international co-operation between Britain and Tanzania.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Syria a series of airstrikes in opposition areas in northern Aleppo province killed at least 18 people, including children and two hospital staffers, when the missiles hit an open market in Urem al-Kubra, a women and children's hospital in Kafr Hamra and the village of Hayan.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Thailand attackers using firebombs and homemade explosives struck a series of popular resort cities and beach towns across the country over the last 24 hours. At least 4 people were killed and dozens wounded, including 11 foreigners.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck about 460 km (290 miles) southwest of the South Pacific island nation of Tonga.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Turkey said thirty-two of 208 diplomats recalled by the government after a failed coup last month are still at large and Ankara has received information that they have fled to various countries.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck about 535 km (330 miles) southeast of the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 13, In northern California the Clayton wildfire broke out in Lake County.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 13, Torrential downpours in parts of Louisiana left at least 3 people dead.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In NYC Imam Maulama Akonjee (55) and friend Thara Uddin (64) were shot and killed as they left afternoon prayers at the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Queens. Police the next day released a sketch of the suspect: a dark-haired, bearded man wearing glasses and soon arrested Oscar Morel (35), a Brooklyn man, following a hit and run near the crie scene. On August 15 Morel was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
(AP, 8/14/16)(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 13, Milwaukee police shot and killed Sylville Smith (23) after he failed to drop a gun. An angry crowd of at least 200 people took to the streets, torching at least six businesses, including a gas station and auto parts store. Looting continued into the next night as police in riot gear moved in on the Sherman Park neighborhood. On Dec 15 police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who is also black, was charged with murder.
(AFP, 8/15/16)(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A10)
2016 Aug 13, In Afghanistan at least 9 policemen were killed late today in Taliban attacks on checkpoints in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, while another two were killed in the east. 5 insurgents were killed and three wounded in the ensuing gun battles.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 13, In eastern Congo DRC at least 36 people were killed late today in a massacre by suspected rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), near Beni, North Kivu province, an area that has been shaken by violence since 2014.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 13, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a strict curfew to most parts of the restive region as separatist leaders called for weekend protests against Indian rule.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, Mothers in east Mexico searching for missing loved ones said they have found a total of 28 clandestine gravesites since August 1 with remains of some 40 bodies in the gang-ravaged state of Veracruz.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In Peru more than 50,000 people marched in Lima and eight other cities to protest violence against woman and what they say is the indifference of the judicial system.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 13, The Philippines restarted peace talks with the country's largest Muslim rebel group, the first under President Rodrigo Duterte aimed at ending decades of violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, Singapore exploded in celebration after homegrown swimming hero Joseph Schooling beat US legend Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly in Rio to win the tiny republic's first ever Olympic gold.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In South Korea prosecutors indicted the former chief executive of the South Korean unit of Swss-based Novartis and five other former and current managers over allegations they illegally paid doctors 2.6 billion won ($2.3 million) in return for prescribing the company's drugs.
2016 Aug 13, Fighting flared in South Sudan late today southwest of the capital between forces loyal to the president and those backing the opposition, after clashes last month raised fears of a slide back into civil war.
(Reuters, 8/14/16) (AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In Switzerland a Swiss national man carried out a stabbing and arson attack on a Swiss train, injuring six others. The attacker and one of the victims soon died of their injuries.
(AFP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 13, In northern Syria US-backed forces seized full control of Manbij near the Turkish border after the last remaining Islamic State fighters, who had been using civilians as human shields, left. Clashes and airstrikes continued across Aleppo province, resulting in at least 49 civilian deaths. Within ten days of the liberation of Manbij booby traps and mines planted by retreating jihadists killed 29 people.
(Reuters, 8/13/16)(AP, 8/14/16)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.41)
2016 Aug 13, Thousands of Venezuelans were welcomed to Colombia by a military band early today as the two countries' borders were officially reopened after being closed by Venezuela a year ago.
(Reuters, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 13, In Yemen 10 children were killed in coalition air raids on a school in Haydan, a town in rebel-held Saada province. The coalition said the next day it had bombed a camp at which Iran-backed rebels train underage soldiers.
(AFP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, In the SF Bay Area Craig Fletcher-Cooks (20) and Terence McCrary Jr. (22) were shot and killed during a block party in Oakland in the 300 block of 15th Street. Four assailants fled the scene.
(SFC, 3/24/17, p.D6)
2016 Aug 14, Lousiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said as many as 10,000 people were living in shelters. A weekend of torrential rains left 5 people dead and prompted the federal government to declare a disaster.
(AFP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, In Brazil American swimmer Ryan Lochte said he, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and James Feigen were held at gunpoint and robbed several hours after the last Olympic swimming races ended. That claim started unraveling when police said that investigators could not find evidence to substantiate it. Police later said the men, while intoxicated, vandalized a gas station bathroom and were questioned by armed guards before they paid for the damage and left.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 14, In Honduras killers wielding assault rifles shot 8 men to death on the outskirts of the capital before dawn. Authorities blamed a territorial dispute between rival street gangs.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Iraqi Kurdish forces retook five villages east of Islamic State-held Mosul in an operation launched early today.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Nigerian militant group Boko Haram published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago, and saying some of them have been killed in air strikes.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 14, In Peru a shallow, magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook the southern picturesque Colca Valley, killing at least 4 people.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 14, In the Philippines some 1500 Filipinos rallied in stormy weather against President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to allow dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in a heroes' cemetery, but Duterte remained firm in his stance despite growing opposition.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Syria's rebel-held, northwestern Idlib province came under heavy bombardment, activists reported, as rebels and pro-government forces battled for control of the nearby city of Aleppo. Russian air strikes around Deir Ezzor killed a large number of militants while destroying two command posts, six arms caches, two tanks, four armored infantry vehicles and seven all-terrain vehicles with heavy machine guns.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Thai police over the weekend found and defused five explosive devices that had failed to detonate when an as yet unidentified group carried out a series of deadly bomb attacks on popular tourist spots late last week.
(Reuters, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 14, Yemeni pro-government troops, backed by forces from a Saudi-led military coalition, seized the small town of Al-Kawd as they advanced in their offensive to retake territory held by Islamic State and al-Qaida forces east of the port city of Aden.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 15, The Pentagon announced that fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration. They included 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans. 61 detainees remained at Guantanamo.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In northern California Damin Anthony Pashilk (40) was arrested and charged with arson for starting the massive Clayton wildfire that has destroyed 175 buildings and forced thousands to flee to safety. Pashilk was suspected of setting "numerous fires" in Lake County over the past year.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Lousiana the death toll from flooding climbed to 7 with as many as 30,000 people rescued following unprecedented floods in the state.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, Pennsylvania’s Attorney Gen’l. Kathleen Kane was convicted on nine charges including perjury and conspiracy for illegally leaking documents from a grand jury proceeding. She resigned the next day.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 15, In Afghanistan Mullah Emdadullah Mansoor, a nephew of Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, was named leader of the Taliban faction known as Mahaaz-e-Dadullah at a gathering in southern Zabul province. Dadullah was killed in Khak-e-Afghan district of Zabul last year, fighting with rival Taliban.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, Brazil’s Thiago Braz won an unexpected gold medal and set an Olympic record in pole vaulting.
(Econ, 8/20/16, p.25)
2016 Aug 15, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least one paramilitary soldier and four suspected rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles despite a security lockdown in the disputed region, as India celebrated the anniversary of its independence from British rule. Ten government troops were also wounded.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Indonesian authorities seized 657 critically endangered pangolins, known as "scaly anteaters," found hidden in freezers and arrested a man (55) for allegedly breaking wildlife protection laws.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Iran a senior member of Islamic State was killed this evening in an operation in Kermanshah province, a largely Sunni Kurdish area, during which other supporters of the group were arrested.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Mexico eight armed men abducted "six or seven" suspected members of the Sinaloa drug cartel from a restaurant in the heart of the Pacific tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta early today.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, Syrian government forces repelled a renewed rebel assault southwest of the city of Aleppo, forcing opposition forces spearheaded by Fath al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, to retreat from positions they seized a daily earlier.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Turkish police raided offices at three Istanbul courthouses after detention warrants were issued for 173 judicial personnel as part of an investigation into last month's failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Turkey's top opposition daily Cumhuriyet, announced he was stepping down, saying he no longer had faith in the judiciary after the failed coup. Dundar was believed to be in Germany. An Istanbul court had in May sentenced Can Dundar to five years and 10 months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets in a story that infuriated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Yemen the General People's Congress (GPC) party, headed by ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, declared itself the "highest authority in the state (which) exercises all the powers vested in the president." The ruling council was set up this month by the Houthis and their allies to run the parts of the country they control.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 15, In northwestern Yemen a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit the Abs hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres killing 19 people and wounding 24. Shortly after the deadly raid, MSF suspended operations in several facilities in the country's north.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)(Reuters, 8/19/16)(AFP, 6/11/18)
2016 Aug 15, Zambia's President Edgar Lungu won 50.35 percent of the vote against 47.63 for Hichilema in the August 11 election. The vote-counting process took days and prompted opposition allegations of irregularities. Police arrested 133 people protesting against the re-election of Lungu after his main opponent Hakainde Hichilema said the vote was rigged.
(AP, 8/15/16)(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Authorities in southern California ordered the evacuation of 82,000 people, after a wildfire broke out in Cajon Pass to rapidly engulf 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) of terrain. The so-called Bluecut Fire erupted in heavy brush just west of Interstate 15, the main freeway between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, forcing the closure of one stretch of the highway. In nothern California the Clayton Fire was 35 percent contained.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, In Lousiana ExxonMobil Corp shut a crude distillation unit at its 502,500 barrel per day (bpd) Baton Rouge refinery as flooding disrupted operations at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China's Cabinet announced that preparations to connect the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges are "basically completed." Charles Li, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the city's stock market operator said the link would likely launched by Christmas.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 16, Iranian security forces killed 3 Sunni militants linked to Islamic State in Kermanshah city close to the Iraqi border, confiscating a weapons cache and belts armed with explosives.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Iran said that it arrested a British-Iranian last week on suspicion of links to the UK intelligence service.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir shot and killed four civilians and injured at least 15 others as clashes intensified with anti-India protesters in the troubled region.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Peru's supreme court overturned an embezzlement sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori, although the decision will not alter the 25-year prison term he is serving for crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, Russian warplanes took off from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, In South Korea an accidental explosion at a naval base left 3 soldiers dead and another injured in the southeastern port town of Jinhae.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Turkish police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into last month's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 17, Haitian electoral authorities released details of a $55 million budget to organize a redo of an annulled presidential election that will not be underwritten by the US or monitored by EU observers.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 17, Militants ambushed an Indian military convoy in Kashmir, killing three personnel, in an escalation of violence that officials have blamed on separatist protests that have tied down security forces for more than a month. Army soldiers and counterinsurgency police officers raided Khrew village late today and took Shabir Ahmed and around 30 other people into custody. The body of Ahmed, a young college teacher, was returned to his family early the next day.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, Two Indonesians escaped together on Jolo Island, an Abu Sayyaf jungle stronghold, but fled in separate direction as their captors chased them. They were among seven tugboat crewmen who were abducted near Philippine waters in June.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, In Nicaragua a fire began when one of four huge fuel tanks exploded at the Puma Energy plant in the port of Puerto Sandino, some 70 km (40 miles) northwest of Managua. A second tank ignited he next day. The oil spilled contaminated sensitive nearby coastal habitat.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 17, The cruise ship Caribbean Fantasy caught fire forcing the evacuation of more than 500 passengers and crew. As of August 19 the ferry continued to burn off Puerto Rico's north coast.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 17, In Rwandan Channy Mbonigaba, described as a "terror suspect," was shot dead in Kigali late today after a three-hour shootout with police.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, South Korea said Thae Yong Ho, North Korea's deputy ambassador in London, has defected with his family to South Korea, making him the highest-ranking Pyongyang diplomat ever to flee the isolated regime for the democratic South.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 17, Turkey said it will release some 38,000 prisoners under a penal reform as the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected of links to last month's attempted coup burden overstretched jails. A car bomb killed 2 police officers and a civilian in Van province.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 17, Venezuelan police crushed and chopped up nearly 2,000 shotguns and pistols in a Caracas city square, as the new interior minister relaunched a long-stalled gun control campaign in one of the world's most crime-ridden countries.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, The US State Department said it released $400 million in cash to Iran under a tribunal settlement only once it was assured that American prisoners had been freed and had boarded a plane. It was the first time the administration has said publicly that it used the payment as leverage to ensure the prisoners were released by Iran.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 18, The US Justice Department filed a brief in a Georgia lawsuit that said holding a defendant in jail simply because they can’t afford a fixed bail amount is unconstitutional.
(CSM, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 18, Uber said it is acquiring Otto, a startup for self-driving trucks co-founded by Anthony Levandowski, a former Google employee. The acquisition cost $680 million.
(https://newsroom.uber.com/rethinking-transportation/)(Econ 5/6/17, p.58)
2016 Aug 18, In southern California weary firefighters battled a raging inferno that was threatening the homes of more than 82,000 people and sent flaming "firenadoes" tearing across the brush. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County, just 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles, where the so-called Bluecut Fire was quickly growing.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Afghanistan a mortar attack killed two people and wounded more than 50 in the eastern province of Kunar. The shells struck a market where crowds had gathered to celebrate independence day.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Brazilian cyclist Kleber Ramos and Chinese swimmer Chen Xinyi were disqualified from the Olympic Games for having failed doping tests. Ramos tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO Cera while Chen took the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Kimia Alizadeh won the first ever Olympic medal by an Iranian woman after claiming taekwondo bronze in Rio.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Prominent Crimean Tatar activist Ilmi Umerov (59) was incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital in Simferopol to undergo forced sanity testing. He was charged with calling for extremism in the Russian-annexed peninsula. Earlier this month he was forcibly moved from an ordinary hospital where he was receiving treatment for a suspected heart attack.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 18, Ernst Nolte (93), German historian, died in Berlin. He had set off a dispute among his peers by arguing three decades ago that Nazism was a reaction to an "existential threat" to Germany from the Russian revolution.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Mauritania thirteen anti-slavery activists, arrested beween June 30 and July 9 for "rebellion and use of violence," were sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison, despite criticism of the case against them by international rights groups. On August 15 they told a court they had been tortured while in custody.
(AFP, 8/15/16)(AFP, 8/19/16)
24,
2016 Aug 18, The New Zealand government launched an inquiry into the contamination of a regional water supply that has left thousands of people sick with vomiting and diarrhoea. The outbreak of campylobacter bacteria, a form of gastroenteritis, has affected around 3,000 people on North Island.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Two Palestinian police officers were slain by criminals the West Bank, who were killed the next day in a shootout in Nablus.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 18, Aides said South Sudan's former rebel leader and ex-vice president Riek Machar has left the country following violent clashes last month and is now in a "safe" country in the region.
(AFP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Turkey ordered the seizure of the assets of 187 businessmen suspected of links to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding last month's attempted coup. Police detained 10 senior figures of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left militant group that has in the past targeted Turkish and US interests.
(AFP, 8/18/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Turkey 3 police officers were killed and 170 people wounded by a car bomb at a police station in the eastern city of Elazig.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, The United Nations said for the first time that it was involved in the introduction of cholera to Haiti and needs to do "much more" to end the suffering of those affected, estimated at more than 800,000 people.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 18, In northern Vietnam Pham Duy Cuong, head of the Communist Party organization in Yen Bai province and Ngo Ngoc Tuan, chief of the provincial legislature, were shot in their offices by fellow officials Do Cuong Minh, who then shot himself dead.
(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a health facility operated by the group killing 19 people.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, US Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte apologized for his behavior surrounding an incident at a Rio de Janeiro gas station, saying he should have been more "careful and candid" about how he described what happened after a night of partying with his teammates.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, Donald Ainslee Henderson (b.1928), American epidemiologist, died in Maryland. He directed a 10-year international effort (1967–77) that eradicated smallpox throughout the world and launched international childhood vaccination programs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Henderson)(Econ, 8/27/16, p.70)
2016 Aug 19, Rev. T. Frank Kennedy (67), the former director of the Boston College Jesuit Institute, died of pancreatic cancer. His research helped to revive the Jesuit religious order's musical tradition. He edited, produced and professionally recorded four baroque operas associated with the early Jesuits.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, Montana wildlife officials closed a lengthy stretch of the Yellowstone River to all recreational activities at the height of the summer tourist season following the deaths of thousands of fish this week from a rare but virulent microbial parasite.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, The US Geological Survey said a 7.4-magnitude quake shook the southern Atlantic Ocean early today, with an epicenter 195 miles (316 km) from islands hosting a British Antarctic research station.
(AFP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Brazil Cheick Sallah Cisse was the toast of the Ivory Coast as he won their first ever Olympic gold medal with a killer kick in the last second of the men's under-80kg taekwondo final.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Brazil Usain Bolt of Jamaica won his 9th gold medal in the 4x100 relay. Three Olympics, three races at each, three gold medals every time.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, Danish lawmakers decided to send a container vessel, a support ship and 200 staff members to an international operation to rid lawless Libya of its chemical weapons arsenal and ship them out of the country.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Indonesia's disaster agency urged prompt action against slash-and-burn plantation fires as the annual smoke "haze" begins to drift across the Malacca Strait to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, A Kurdish official said Syrian Kurdish militia have seized several positions from government forces in the divided city of Hasaka (Hassakeh). At least 13 people, including children and women, were reported killed as a result of shelling by the army on Kurdish-controlled areas of Hasaka.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Mexican security forces pursued several vehicles in the city of Alto Lucero. Eight bodies were "abandoned" along with 12 vehicles and the scene was placed under military guard.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Mexico Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar (29), the son of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was reportedly was freed late today along with five other men with whom he was kidnapped from a bar in Puerto Vallarta on August 15.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 19, Mexican writer Ignacio Padilla (47), a leading member of the so-called "crack movement," died in a car accident in Queretaro state. The 1996 “crack manifesto" sought to help the country's authors find a voice beyond magical realism.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 19, In Nepal about a thousand members of sexual minorities and their supporters paraded in Kathmandu to demand equality and implementation of their rights under the country's new constitution.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, A Pakistani court banned construction of the country's first rapid mass transit system, Chinese-funded metro project, within 200 feet (61 meters) of historic buildings in the city of Lahore, in a victory for heritage campaigners.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Spain's conservative Popular Party signed a deal with the business-friendly Ciudadanos party that could pave the way for the formation of a new government and avert a possible third round of elections.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, Turkey detained dozens of academics suspected of backing Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of last month's failed coup, while pressing ahead with raids on businesses linked to the US-based Muslim preacher.
(AFP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, The Turkish parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup. Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, The US Navy said the American military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition's air war in Yemen, following concerns over civilian casualties.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, In Afghanistan the Taliban seized a district in the northeastern Kunduz province, where the insurgents briefly overran the provincial capital last year before being driven out by a counteroffensive. In Kabul a soldier was killed by a sticky bomb placed on his vehicle.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Brazil claimed its first Olympic gold in soccer with a win over Germany.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, In Canada Tragically Hip, a group known as Canada's Band, held its final performance in Kingston. Lead singer and songwriter Gord Downie, dubbed Canada's unofficial poet laureate and diagnosed with glioblastoma, was in fine form as he and his bandmates played an epic 30-song set, punctuated by three encores.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, Georgia’s State Security Service detained five people who were planning to bomb a section of an oil pipeline carrying Russian gas to Armenia. A sixth person was detained for failure to report the crime.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 20, India’s PM Narendra Modi appointed Urjit Patel as head of the Reserve Bank of India.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.54)
2016 Aug 20, Japan was hit by a strong earthquake (6.0) off the northern coast one day after a magnitude 5.3 hit off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Nigeria’s Niger Delta Avengers' (NDA) said on its website late today that it would "observe a cessation of hostilities," although not without conditions.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, North Korean state media accused diplomat Thae Yong Ho, who defected from Britain to South Korea, of fleeing to escape punishment for a variety of crimes, including child rape. KCNA news said “the fugitive was ordered in June to be summoned for embezzling a lot of state funds, selling state secrets and committing child rape."
(Reuters, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Pakistan army said its jets and ground forces destroyed six militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region, killing 9 "terrorists" near the Afghan border.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Philippine forces killed 3 suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State group (Ansar Al Khilafah Philippines), but failed to capture leader Mohammad Jaafar Sabiwang in a clash near Maasim town in Sarangani province.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 20, Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in the northeast for a second day, even after the US-led coalition scrambled jets to protect its military advisers working on the ground.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines.
(Reuters, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, In southeastern Turkey an apparent suicide bombing at an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep killed killed 51 people, including 22 children. Turkey blamed the Islamic State. Bu August 22 death toll rose to 54 and officials said a child was used as the suicide bomber.
(AP, 8/21/16)(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 20, Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, in support of Shiite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(AP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Brazil the curtain descended on two weeks of high drama at the Rio Games as Tokyo took up the baton and promised to go one better in 2020.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, The Rio police force executed search warrants to seize passports and evidence from Ireland team leader Kevin Kilty, chief executive Stephen Martin and secretary general Dermot Henihan, who are accused of illegally selling Olympic tickets.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, British police arrested Laurence former priest Soper (72) for sex crimes he is accused of committing from 1972 to 1986. He was arrested at Luton Airport after he was deported from Kosovo.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Chile tens of thousands protested against the country’s privatized pension system.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.24)
2016 Aug 21, In Egypt gunmen killed an informer and a soldier and injured five other people, including two civilians, in an attack at a police checkpoint in the province of Menoufia north of Cairo.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, Indian army soldiers have killed 3 suspected rebels near the heavily militarized line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Indonesia a small wooden tourist boat capsized in rough seas off Bintan island, south of Singapore. Only two of 17 people survived.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, Iraq hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 "Speicher" massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Libya fighters of the unity government, backed by US air strikes, recaptured more ground from jihadists holed up in the center of Sirte. 12 fighters were killed and 85 wounded in the clashes.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Madagascar the bodies of the two French citizens, a man and a woman aged in their 20s, were found on a beach of Sainte Marie with head injuries. Police soon arrested five suspects.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 21, One of Mexico's leading investigative journalists published a report saying President Enrique Pena Nieto plagiarized nearly a third of his 1991 undergraduate law thesis.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, Pakistani security forces reported 6 “terrorists" killed in the remote Khyber region in a new offensive against Islamist militants in the area.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 21, In central Somalia at least 17 people were killed and more than 30 others wounded in two explosions in the town of Galkayo. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gates of a local government headquarters while another bomber targeted a nearby marketplace. The Shabaab militant group claimed responsibilty for the blasts.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 21, Ukraine said Russian activist Roman Roslovtsev, better known for his walks across Red Square in a President Vladimir Putin mask, has requested political asylum in their country.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Texas a woman was killed after a truck carrying airbag parts made by Japan's troubled Takata exploded in a massive fireball on a highway in Maverick County. The woman was in a house 30 feet (9m) away from the explosion. It appeared that the supply truck was in a road accident that caused a fire and then the deadly explosion.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 22, Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans (b.1922) died. His illustrious career included playing with jazz greats like Miles Davis and whose solos have figured on numerous film scores.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Britain announced plans to house imprisoned Islamist extremists in separate units from other inmates, after a review found that some charismatic convicts were radicalizing the wider Muslim population in prisons.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, A Canadian conservation officer said that authorities have killed nine bears in three days in Revelstoke, British Columbia. He warned that the death toll will rise if unsecured trash continues to draw the animals into residential areas. 23 bears were killed there in 1995, but in recent years the average annual number had been fewer than seven.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 22, Indian officials said at least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India in recent days.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, The Kurdish YPG militia launched a major assault to seize the last government-controlled parts of the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka after calling on pro-government militias to surrender.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Japan Typhoon Mindulle struck near Tokyo, the first in 11 years to come ashore in the densely populated region, temporarily shutting down a major city airport and grounding more than 500 flights nationwide.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Jordan signed grant agreements for the school program with Britain, the US, Norway and Switzerland. Donor countries pledged close to $100 million to help Jordan enroll all Syrian refugee children in the kingdom in schools next month.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Libya's parliament passed a 'no confidence' vote in UN-backed government in blow to efforts to unite country.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Lithuania signed a deal for German-made armoured vehicles intended to boost its defence capabilities, as it seeks to allay concerns of a military resurgence of Russia on its doorstep.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, A Myanmar court indicted Hla Phone (38) for insulting the military chief and former president on social media, under a controversial telecommunications law that activists have urged the new government to repeal.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, At The Hague Islamic extremist Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty to orchestrating the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu. Al Mahdi advised Muslims around the world not to commit similar acts.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In northern Nigeria a Muslim mob killed 8 people after torching the house of a man who tried to save a Christian student accused of blasphemy. A mob of Muslim students in the town of Talata Mafara were enraged over alleged derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed by their Christian schoolmate, who they attacked.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 22, Officials said the Chaman border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan remains closed for the fourth consecutive day after Afghan protesters burned a Pakistani flag.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Peru’s interior ministry said a so-called "death squad" established within the Peruvian National Police has executed at least 20 criminals extrajudicially, amid a growing wave of insecurity in the South American country. The government identified nine officers, including a general, who purportedly masterminded the disappearance of at least 20 civilians since 2012.
(AFP, 8/23/16)(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 22, Philippine government and Maoist-led guerrillas opened peace talks in Oslo, seeking to end nearly five decades of conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. Both sides announced ceasefires at the weekend to buoy the talks.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Singapore former Pres. Sellapan Ramanathan (1999 to 2011), widely known as S.R. Nathan, died at age 92.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Turkish officials said 2 security force members and 5 PKK militants were killed in clashes and attacks in three eastern areas over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Ukraine said it has launched a criminal investigation of 20 senior Russian officials, alleging their involvement in crimes against Ukraine's national security.
(CSM, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 23, President Barack Obama visited Louisiana to assess flood damage there, days after he was criticized for not cutting short his vacation on Martha's Vineyard to view the devastation in the Gulf Coast state.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The NYC Empire State Realty Trust Inc., which manages the 102-story, 1,454-foot (443-meter) -tall building, announced that the Qatar Investment Authority has purchased a 9.9-percent stake in the company for $622 million.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, In Australia visiting Frenchman Smail Ayad (29) shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as he stabbed a British woman to death and wounded two people at a backpackers' hotel in in Home Hill, Queensland state. The dead woman was identified as Mia Ayliffe-Chung (21) from the English county of Derbyshire. On September 30 British backpacker Thomas Jackson (30) died of his wounds.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)(AFP, 8/25/16)(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 23, Bangladeshi police arrested Moinul Islam Shamim, suspected of killing publisher Arefin Deepan on Oct. 31 in his office in Dhaka, as part of a crackdown on radicals blamed for violent attacks on foreigners, liberals and minorities. Shamim is a key organizer of the banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, The European Commission reimposed anti-dumping duties on three Chinese exporters of solar modules and cells citing breaches to terms of an agreement they had reached with Brussels not to sell below a minimum price.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In France a Sudanese migrant was killed overnight and another injured in clashes with Afghan migrants outside the port of Calais.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired bullets and shotgun pellets to break up protests demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed region, injuring at least 14 people.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Iraqi special forces led an operation aimed at retaking the jihadist-held town of Qayyarah, a key staging base for operations to attack Mosul. Islamic State militants abandoned Qayyarah after setting fire to many of the region's oil wells.
(AFP, 8/23/16)(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 23, Israel uncovered an illegal Palestinian weapons manufacturing network in the West Bank overnight in one of its largest raids during a months-long crackdown on illicit arms.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Israeli security forces rushed to the West Bank city of Nablus to rescue 60 ultra-Orthodox Hassids stoned by Palestinians as they visited Joseph's Tomb in a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the city. Palestinians believe an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yussef Dweikat, was buried there two centuries ago.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In Myanmar a statement by the office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said an agreement will be signed between her office and the Kofi Annan Foundation to set up a nine-member advisory commission to resolve protracted issues in the conflict in Rakhine state.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, New Zealand police said former pharmaceutical executive William Yan (47), who Chinese authorities accuse of embezzling money and fleeing to New Zealand, has settled his case for $31 million in a deal that represents an unusual level of cooperation between the two countries. Police said the money would be split between the New Zealand and Chinese governments, with the amount each would get still to be determined.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Pakistan's paramilitary Rangers shuttered the offices of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the port city of Karachi, Hyderabad and elsewhere in the country after overnight clashes in Karachi left one person dead and eight wounded.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Palestinian Ahmed Halawa, the alleged leader of the August 18 attack on security police, was arrested by police overnight and taken to the city's Jneid prison. Once there, he was severely beaten by security personnel, lost conciousness and died.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The Philippines' national police chief said about 300 of his officers were suspected to be involved in the drugs trade, warning these personnel will be removed and charged in court if found guilty.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The police chief of the Philippines told a Senate hearing that China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were major sources of illegal drugs, and Chinese triads were involved in trafficking.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has laid landmines in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, after the start of annual US-South Korean military exercises.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Swiss prosecutors said they've charged three people accused of illegally obtaining data on at least 133,600 credit cards with computer fraud following their extradition from Thailand.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military tribunal indicted eight people with sedition for running a Facebook page that mocked the kingdom's junta chief, making them the latest victims of the regime's crackdown on dissent.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military court rejected allegations by two Uighur defendants that they were tortured in custody to confess to bombing a popular Hindu shrine in Bangkok last year that left 20 people dead. The court then postponed the rest of the hearing to next month because no Uighur-language translator was available.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In southern Thailand two bombs exploded near a hotel in Pattani, killing one employee and wounding 29 people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that a military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Sirnak province, killing two soldiers.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkey's artillery shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for a second consecutive day. Two mortar shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Karkamis. Three rocket shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Kilis.
(AP, 8/23/16)(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 24, Pres. Obama designated Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, an 87,500-acre parcel of mountains, rivers, and forests abutting the eastern edge of Baxter State Park. The land was donated by Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby, who has advocated for years to establish the site as a national park. His executive action, allowed under the 1906 Antiquities Act, added the unit to the National Park Service as a national monument, bypassing the need for Congress to authorize a new national park.
(http://downeast.com/new-maine-national-monument/)
2016 Aug 24, Several tornadoes plowed through central Indiana, demolishing numerous homes and a Starbucks cafe in the town of Kokomo and cutting off power to thousands of Indianapolis-area residents. No serious injuries were reported.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Afghanistan 12 people, including 7 students and a professor, were killed in an attack on the American University in Kabul. A car bomb followed by gunfire, as suspected militants battled into the complex where foreign staff and pupils were working. By the next morning Afghan forces killed at least 2 attackers.
(AP, 8/25/16)(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 24, Australia’s New South Wales parliament in Sydney banned greyhound racing in an overnight session effective from July 1, 2017.
(AFP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Bolivia at least one person was killed and dozens injured after miners and riot police exchanged sticks of dynamite and tear gas during a protest to demand better work conditions.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Britain 5 men drowned off Camber Sands beach in southern England. The beach, known for rip-tides, had no lifeguard.
(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, Colombia's government and Marxist FARC rebels reached a final peace deal in Havana to end a five-decade war which once took the resource-rich country to the brink of collapse. It will now go to a plebiscite vote on October 2.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Egypt a knife-wielding attacker was shot and killed after he stabbed a guard at the Coptic Virgin Mary church in Cairo's eastern suburb of Nozha.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, India said it is investigating the extent to which secrets about French Scorpene submarines being built in the country have been compromised, after a leak of documents relating to its combat capabilities. The leak contains more than 22,000 pages outlining the secret capabilities of six submarines that French builder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, An Indian official said heavy monsoon rains have ended two successive drought years with the Ganges River and its tributaries rising above the danger level, triggering evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from flooded homes in the north and east. Drowning, electrocution or injuries from collapsed houses have killed at least 175 people this season.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Indian government forces fired shotguns and tear gas in India's portion of Kashmir to break up new protests demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed region, killing a young man and wounding dozens of other people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, An Israeli soldier shot dead a Palestinian motorist who had stabbed him and threw rocks from his car at a military vehicle in the occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, A magnitude 6-6.2 earthquake struck central Italy. 17 deaths were confirmed in Amatrice alone. The preliminary death toll was 38. The death toll soon climbed to 290. A Polish geologist said it was caused by the slow but constant under-surface movement of the African Plate toward Europe.
(AP, 8/24/16)(AFP, 8/25/16)(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 24, In Myanmar a powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 shook the center of the country, knocking glasses off tables and sending people running out of buildings in Yangon. At least 4 people were killed.
(AP, 8/24/16)(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, In New Zealand Czech tourist Pavlina Pizova was rescued from a park warden's hut on the snowed-in Routeburn Track near Queenstown. Her partner had died almost a month earlier after he slipped down an icy bank and became wedged between rocks and branches.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 24, A Pakistani lawyer said imprisoned politician Waseem Akhtar, who is almost certain to be the next mayor of Karachi, will run the teeming metropolis via "video link" from his prison cell. Akhtar, a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was arrested last month on suspicion of aiding alleged militants.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he's willing to allow a resumption of online gambling in the Southeast Asian nation if correct taxes are paid and gaming parlor are far from schools and churches.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, In the Philippines Abu Sayyaf militants killed Patrick James Aldovar (18) near southern Sulu province's Indanan town then later abandoned his head in a neighborhood. Aldovar, seized by the militants on July 16 in Jolo town, was decapitated after his family failed to pay ransom. After hearing of the beheading President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops to destroy the militants.
(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 24, South Korea said a ballistic missile fired from a North Korean submarine flew about 500 km (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. The missile flew at a high trajectory and has a range of more than 1,000 km (620 miles) at a normal angle.
(AP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish counter-terror police launched dawn raids targeting Islamic State members across Istanbul.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarablus with air cover from the US-led coalition in “Operation Euphrates Shield." The Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned the incursion.
(AFP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, In Argentina more than 20,000 residents of Rosario, population 1.3 million, marched through the streets demanding action on the city’s rise in murders, nearly triple the national average.
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.35)
2016 Aug 25, In Bolivia Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes (56) was killed on after being taken hostage by workers who had blocked a major highway in Panduro, around 160 km (100 miles) from capital city La Paz. Miners lifted the roadblock the next day.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 25, The Three Seas Initiative met for their first summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Also known as the Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea (BABS) Initiative, it is a forum of 12 European Union countries in Eastern and Central Europe that aims to create a north-south dialogue on a variety of questions affecting the member states. Members included Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Seas_Initiative)
2016 Aug 25, In Egypt Khaled Hanafi, the country’s supply minister. He had overseen Egypt’s food subsidy program.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.43)
2016 Aug 25, Sonia Rykiel (86), the French fashion designer known as the Queen of Knitwear, died in Paris after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, Authorities in eastern India struggled to evacuate more than 100,000 people stranded in villages after floods intensified, killing more than 300 and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, In northern Mexico 4 suspected gunmen were dead and seven police officers and two soldiers injured following a running gun battle near the US border.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 25, Russia launched large-scale snap military drills, putting its troops on full combat readiness in districts bordering Ukraine and the Baltic states.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, In Singapore the world's first self-driving taxis, operated by autonomous vehicle software startup nuTonomy, began picking up passengers. Six modified Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics, carried a driver in front who is prepared to take back the wheel and a researcher in back who watches the car's computers.
(AP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, Thailand's military government suspended Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the country's most senior elected official, on allegations of corruption and misuse of city funds. The order to suspend Sukhumbhand came hours after he left Bangkok for South Korea's capital, where he was due to take part in celebrations cementing the friendship between the two cities.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, The UN called for the creation of an independent international body to investigate an array of serious violations in war-torn Yemen.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, Minnesota's Gov. Mark Dayton ordered the broadest restrictions yet in a US state on the use of agricultural pesticides that have been blamed for hurting bees, fueling concerns that farmers there will not be able to protect crops from insects.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, Belgium-based AB Inbev said it expects to cut about 3 percent of its total workforce — equivalent to thousands of jobs — once it completes its huge takeover of its closest rival, SABMiller.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, China’s corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, charged Wang Baoan, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (2015-2016), with a variety of sins including moral decay and superstitious activities.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.61)
2016 Aug 26, In Colombia a judge ordered the arrest of the top ELN leaders for crimes that include their role in the destruction of oil pipelines. ELN rebels have yet to meet the government's precondition for peace talks of releasing all of their hostages and stop all kidnapping.
(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that Wang Jianping (62), deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, has been taken into custody in Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province for violating party discipline. Wang's wife and secretary were also detained.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, A top French court suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuits that has angered Muslims, feminists and civil liberties campaigners.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, PM Viktor Orban said Hungary will build a new, "more massive" fence on its southern borders to defend against a possible surge in the number of migrants.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Police in India's portion of Kashmir arrested Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of the key separatist leaders spearheading protests against Indian rule. Farooq, already under house arrest, was locked up in a government facility in Srinagar. A young man was killed and dozens of civilians were wounded when Indian government forces fired bullets and shotguns to quell unrest in over a dozen places including Srinagar.
(AP, 8/27/16)(SFC, 8/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 26, Israeli soldiers shot and killed an apparently unarmed Palestinian who ran toward their position in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. The incident was under review.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Kenya to launch the Tokyo Int’l. Summit on African Development which 35 heads of state are expected to attend.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Kenya Francis Paul, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), was arrested as investigators probed allegations of mismanagement and corruption at the Rio Games. His deputy James Chicha and Stephen Ara Sou, who headed the Kenyan delegation to Rio, were both arrested at Nairobi airport on their return from the Brazil Games.
(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Mexico Edgar Juvanny Parra Zambada (42), the nephew of Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was shot dead alongside another victim in the streets of Culiacan, Sinaloa state.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, Nicaraguan officials said the first baby with the birth defect of microcephaly has been born to a mother infected with the Zika virus.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Nepal at least 20 people were killed and another 17 hurt when bus drove off a highway and plunged into the Trishuli river near Chandibhanjyang.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In central Norway 323 wild reindeer werre killed by lighting on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 26, Philippine Maoist rebels announced an indefinite cease-fire in peace talks in a joint statement with government officials at the end of weeklong talks in Norway. Government troops killed at least 11 Abu Sayyaf militants, including an influential commander, in an assault on the extremists following their beheading of a captive whose family was too poor to pay ransom.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Singapore's air quality deteriorated to unhealthy levels as winds blew smoke from fires on Sumatra, where millions of people are already affected by haze, across the city-state and into southern Malaysia. Six Indonesian provinces have declared states of emergency.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Somalia's security forces ended an overnight siege of the Benadir Beach restaurant in Mogadishu by al-Shabab gunmen. The dead included six civilians, two members of the security forces and two of the attackers.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In South Korea Lotte Group's vice chairman Lee In-won (69) was found dead as authorities widened a probe into corruption at the country’s fifth-largest business group.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Syria besieged residents and rebels began leaving the Damascus suburb of Daraya, beginning an an evacuation to end one of the longest stand-offs in the five-year war.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Tunisia's Parliament approved Youssef Chahed (41) as prime minister along with a new government focused on boosting the economy and fighting terrorism.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Turkey 11 police officers were killed and 78 people injured in a suicide truck bombing in Cizre. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Turkish counterterrorism police conducted simultaneous operations at 20 locations early today, detaining 17 suspected IS members. Police "liberated" over two dozen students in one of their schools.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Istanbul inaugurated the $3 billion Selim Bridge, named after the 16th-century Ottoman sultan. The third bridge spanning the Bosphorus Strait was touted as the world's widest suspension bridge, featuring 10 lanes including two rail lines and spanning over 1,400 meters.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Yemen’s rebel news media said overnight airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition in the northern city of Saada killed 11 civilians, including women and children.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Zimbabwe police battled anti-government protesters in Harare with batons, tear gas and water cannons, despite a court order that police should not to interfere with the demonstration.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 27, The global fertility rate has crashed from 5.1 babies per woman in 1964 to 2.5 today.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.10)
2016 Aug 27, Afghan security forces withdrew from the Janikhail district headquarters of Paktia province to prevent civilian casualties. At least 5 police officers were killed and five others were wounded in heavy fighting.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Police in Bangladesh killed 3 suspected militants, including Tamim Chowdhury, the alleged mastermind of a major attack on a cafe last July 1 that left 20 people dead. The militants belonged to the banned group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB).
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, An Egyptian court ordered the release of rights lawyer Malek Adly. He had been held without charge in solitary confinement for over 100 days after defying President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Voting started in Gabon, where Pres. Ali Bongo Ondimba was trying to overcome a coalition of high-profile opponents to win re-election and maintain a family dynasty that stretches back to the 1960s. Gabon does not have a runoff system, meaning he does not have to win more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round to win.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Errol Austin, a captain in an Amerindian village in western Guyana, said land certificates given to them last year by ex-President Donald Ramotar's administration, haven't been recognized by the South American nation's mines and lands commissions.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Iran Brig. Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, head of an Iranian military unit in charge of combatting cybersabotage, acknowledged Iran's petrochemical industry had been the target of cyberattacks. He put the blame on imported and installed components at the facilities.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Kenya Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told African leaders that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development, education and healthcare expansion in the continent.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Malaysia nearly a thousand protesters marched in the heart of the Kuala Lumpur calling for the arrest of an unnamed high-ranking government official who US investigators say received $700 million skimmed from the sovereign state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The unnamed official is PM Najib Razak, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Moldovan police fired tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters during a parade to mark the former Soviet republic's independence day. Figures published this week found that more than a quarter of Moldova's citizens have emigrated for work, and more than half of them work in Russia.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Pakistan a shootout erupted late today on the edge of Lahore when gunmen tried to break the militants out of police custody. 4 Islamic extremists, allegedly involved in a 2009 attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, were killed in the shootout with police.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In northern Paraguay suspected members of the little-known Paraguayan People's Army killed 8 soldiers in an attack in Arroyito. The group was blamed last year in the killing of a German couple.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In the Philippines about 20 heavily-armed fighters of the Maute militant group stormed the Lanao del Sur provincial jail in Marawi city before nightfall, disarmed the guards and rescued eight comrades, including three women. The attack also allowed 15 other inmates to escape from the provincial jail.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Russia a fire in a Moscow printing plant killed 17 people. A representative of the Kyrgyz diaspora in Russia said all the dead were members of its community. Some 500,000 Kyrgyz citizens worked in Russia.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Saudi Arabia a rocket fired from Yemen killed a three-year-old boy in Najran.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 27, South Africa's wealthy Gupta family, with influential ties to Pres. Jacob Zuma, said they plan to sell all their business interests in the country by the end of the year.
(AFP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, Spanish police said they have arrested 57 people and dismantled an illegal immigration ring giving Chinese citizens Spanish residency permits through fake job contracts as domestic staff.
(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Turkish authorities arrested three former top diplomats over the failed July 15 coup, including a senior official who brokered a meeting between the then premier and the US-based preacher blamed for the plot.
(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Turkey sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against jihadists and Kurdish fighters. One Turkish soldier was killed and three more wounded in a rocket attack by Kurdish militia on two tanks taking part in the offensive.
(AP, 8/27/16)(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 27, Uzbekistan's authoritarian Pres. Islam Karimov (78) suffered a brain hemorrhage and was in stable condition in intensive care.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 27, Venezuela sent opposition leader Daniel Ceballos, who was under house arrest, back to jail and expelled a delegation of Ecuadoran lawmakers, amid rising political tension over a campaign to recall leftist President Nicolas Maduro.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Yemen warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition struck a rebel convoy near a taxi stand outside Taez late today, killing 7 civilians and 9 insurgents.
(AFP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 28, In northwestern Indiana Justin L. Babbs (20), Richard Thomas (23) and Kimberly Spears (39) were killed in Sumava Resorts, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Gary. In 2018 Derrick Cardosi was convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison. His co-defendant, Sebastian Wedding, pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/y34kjyhp)(AP, 8/8/19)
2016 Aug 28, In Hawaii six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation, where they lived in a dome on a Mauna Loa mountain. NASA funded the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Louisiana a Honduran man who had entered the US illegally drove a bus that hit a fire truck on an elevated highway near New Orleans killing two people.
(SFC, 8/29/16, p.A10)
2016 Aug 28, In NYC Beyonce dominated the MTV Video Music Awards as she won eight awards and awed the audience with a fiery dance medley with an unstated political message.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, The Afghan Taliban appointed Mullah Ibrahim Sadar, once a close ally of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar, as its new military chief. His appointment heralded a commitment to confrontation at a time when multiple governments are trying to coax the Taliban to the negotiating table.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 28, In central Afghanistan 2 women and a man were killed while eight others were wounded, mostly women and children, when a rodside bomb went off near Ferozkoh, the provincial capital of Ghor province.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Australia Sydney police allegedly found 95 kg (209 pounds) of cocaine in the cabin luggage of Andre Tamine (63), Isabelle Lagace (28) and Melina Roberce (22), all Canadian passengers on the MS Sea Princess cruise ship. The haul was valued at 31 million Australian dollars ($23 million).
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In southern China 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a bus overturned on a highway in Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 28, Egypt’s government reimposed it zero tolerance on wheat with ergot, a common fungus. Most countries allowed grain with up to .05% ergot.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.43)
2016 Aug 28, Gabon's main opposition candidate Jean Ping claimed victory in weekend presidential polls, but incumbent Ali Bongo's camp said the call was "dangerous and illegal" before official results.
(AFP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Iraq five attackers and a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and injured 16 at a wedding party in the oasis town of Ain al-Tamer 50 km from Karbala late today. The IS claimed responsiility. All the attackers were killed by security forces.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, In Libya forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government pushed into the last areas of Sirte held by the IS group in what was the jihadists' coastal stronghold. At least 34 Libyan fighters were killed and more than 180 wounded as they closed in on the militant holdouts.
(AFP, 8/28/16)(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, Juan Gabriel (66), Mexico’s greatest modern pop singer, died. He was born as Alberto Aguilera Valadez and had his first hit in 1971 with “No tengo dinero" (I have no money).
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.78)
2016 Aug 28, In Saudi Arabia cross-border shelling from Yemen killed 3 children and wounded nine other people.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 28, Singapore officials said at least 41 people have been infected locally by the Zika virus, most of them foreign workers at a construction site.
(AFP, 8/28/16)(SFC, 8/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 28, Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
(Reuters, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 29, The United States and India signed an agreement governing the use of each other's land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defense ties as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that bans the use of bullhooks and other devices to control elephants, the latest victory for animal rights activists who condemn the practice.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, Australian officials said aid worker Kerry Jane Wilson, kidnapped in Afghanistan in April, has been freed by Afghan forces after four months in captivity. Wilson was kidnapped on April 28 in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, In Belgium several attackers rammed a car through the gates of the national crime laboratory in Brussels and then started a fire in what prosecutors said may have been an attempt to destroy evidence. Five people were arrested.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff told senators in emotional testimony at her trial that voting for her impeachment would amount to a "coup d'etat."
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Zhang Chunxian, China’s Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, was moved to a new, yet undisclosed job. He was succeeded by Chen Quanguo.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 29, In Colombia a ceasefire between the FARC and the government went into effect, ending 52 years of warfare.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Egypt's parliament agreed to establish a value-added tax of 13 percent, in a move authorities hope will generate much-needed state revenue and advance a reform program supported by loans from the International Monetary Fund.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, The Italian coastguard rescued some 6,500 migrants off the coast of Libya in one of its busiest days of life-saving in recent years.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, In western Japan a shooting at a small construction company in Wakayama killed one employee and left three others injured. On August 31 suspect Yasuhide Mizobata ended an 18-hour standoff with police by shooting himself in the stomach, and was taken to a hospital where he reportedly died.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 29, Kashmir authorities lifted a curfew imposed in most parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir as part of a 52-day security lockdown, but reimposed it later in the day in most of Srinagar, the region's main city, after anti-India protests and clashes erupted in several neighborhoods.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto fired federal police chief Enrique Galindo over allegations police summarily executed at least 22 suspected members of a drugs cartel and killed eight others during a protest.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, In Somalia al Shabaab fighters attacked military bases housing government and African Union troops south west of Mogadishu late today. One soldier and 2 al Shabaab fighters were killed in the attack in K-50 and Muri in the Lower Shabelle region.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 29, Colin Waters, secretary of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), addressed the Int’l. Geological Congress in Cape Town and said there was good reason to ringing down the curtain on the Holocene, the present 12,000-year old geological epoch, and recognizing that Earth has entered a new one, the Anthropocene. Most AWG members put the turning point at 1964, the high-point of nuclear weapons testing.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.69)
2016 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its armed forces carried out 57 artillery strikes on 16 militant targets in northern Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 29, In Yemen a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group in the southern city of Aden killed at least 54 pro-government recruits who had been preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen's north.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Aug 30, Cambodian police arrested 64 people from mainland China and Taiwan, accusing them of taking part in an internet scam. They were accused of defrauding victims in China using phone calls made over the internet.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, The EU ordered Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, saying deals allowing the US tech giant to pay almost no tax were illegal. Apple derided the ruling. Ireland’s tax collection agency, the Revenue Commissioners, insisted that Apple hasn’t dodged a penny of lawfully calculated tax in Ireland.
(AfP, 8/30/16)(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Vera Caslavska (74), a seven-time Olympic gymnastics gold medalist who stood up against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, died in Prague.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 30, Greece's left-wing government launched an auction for four private national television licenses, reducing the number from seven after a heated public debate on corruption in the financially troubled country.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, More than 460 migrants and refugees arrived on Greek islands from Turkey, the highest in several weeks, despite a European Union deal with Ankara agreed in March to close off that route.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Iran’s state media reported that authorities have released Omid Kokabee, a man jailed while home from his graduate studies in Texas. He was arrested in February 2011 and convicted of having "relations with a hostile country" and receiving "illegitimate funds." The judiciary will allow Kokabee to enjoy "conditional freedom" for the rest of his 10-year sentence.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Israel's military overnight destroyed the home in Dura of Mohammed Abed Almajid Mohammed El-Amaira (38), a Palestinian accused of involvement in the July 1 shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that led to the death of a rabbi.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In northeastern Japan Typhoon Lionrock made landfall near the city of Ofunato, dumping heavy rain and generating high waves that caused flooding along the Pacific coast.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Kenyan scientist Andrew Mude (39) won the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application for developing livestock insurance, using state-of-the-art technologies, for herders in East Africa's drylands.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Kyrgyzstan a van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Bishkek, injuring three people. Only the suicide bomber died.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, Montenegrin police used pepper spray to stop laid-off employees of an aluminum smelter from storming the parliament building.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Somalia a car bomb claimed by al Shabaab Islamist militants killed 5 soldiers outside the president's palace in Mogadishu and badly damaged two nearby hotels.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, A South African school was ordered to suspend allegedly racist hairstyle regulations after black pupils said they had been called monkeys by teachers for wearing banned 'afros'.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Syria top Islamic State group strategist and spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was killed. US coalition forces had targeted Adnani, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, in an air strike in Aleppo province.
(AFP, 8/31/16)(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Syria retired Iranian general Ahmad Gholami, died while fighting in Aleppo. He had served as a senior Revolutionary Guards commander in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 30, Venezuela set to expel a crew of Al Jazeera journalists who were intending to cover an opposition march against President Nicolas Maduro.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 31, President Barack Obama opened a two-day environmental tour aimed at showcasing conservation efforts before traveling to Asia. Obama visited Lake Tahoe to speak at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake's preservation. He then headed to Honolulu, for a speech to a gathering of leaders of island nations in the Pacific Ocean.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Australia's PM Malcolm Turnbull urged his political opponents to allow Australians to endorse gay marriage through a popular vote instead of insisting that the divisive issue be put into lawmakers' hands.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 to impeach Dilma Rousseff, the country’s first female president, making her join the ranks of nearly 12 million unemployed in Latin America's biggest country. The Senate also voted against banning her from politics for eight years, which had been widely considered automatic with an impeachment conviction.
(AFP, 9/1/16)(Econ, 9/3/16, p.29)
2016 Aug 31, The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was founded in London. It planned to build up a bank of candidate vaccines for as many as possible of the viral diseases that lurk on the edges of human society. Founders included the Wellcome, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economics Forum and the government of Norway.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.67)
2016 Aug 31, Cyprus and Egypt signed an agreement that paves the way for the upply of gas to the Arab nation via an undersea pipeline that officials hope will create a regional energy hub. The first gas through the new pipeline was expected to reach Egypt sometime between 2020 and 2022.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, In France the Marseille prosecutor's office said it has opened an investigation into trafficking and importing illegal drugs after workers at a Coca-Cola factory in Signes opened a shipment of orange juice but instead found 370 kg of cocaine.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Gabon security forces killed two people and wounded 19 late today at the headquarters of President Ali Bongo, as violence erupted after Bongo was declared the winner of the August 27 disputed polls. Officials results said Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes against 48.23 percent for Jean Ping,
(AFP, 9/1/16)(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Aug 31, Israeli authorities shut down the Palestinian Al-Sanabel radio station in the occupied West Bank in an overnight operation in Dura over "incitement" to violence. Five people, including the station director, were arrested.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Japan 9 people were killed when floods inundated an old people's home in the town of Iwaizumi, taking the death toll from Typhoon Lionock battering northern parts of the country to at least 11. As of Sep 2 the death toll reached 14.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Kashmir protests against Indian rule erupted at many places after authorities lifted a curfew throughout the disputed region for the first time in 54 days. A young man was killed and several others were injured in clashes between rock-throwing protesters and government forces.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, Kazakhstan said it had arrested 21 members of radical groups plotting terror attacks in public places.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Lebanon a bomb blast on a road in the Bekaa Valley near Zahle killed at least one person and wounded four other people.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 31, The South Korean shipping giant Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protection and stopped accepting new cargo. With its assets being frozen, ships from China to Canada found themselves refused permission to offload or take aboard containers because there were no guarantees that tugboat pilots or stevedores would be paid. 66 ships were left stranded carrying goods worth $14.5 billion.
(AP, 9/2/16)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.53)
2016 Aug 31, In Yemen air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a house in northern Sanaa killing at least 16 civilians.
(SFC, 9/1/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 31, In Zimbabwe riot police patrolled Harare and other cities after authorities vowed to prevent further protests against President Robert Mugabe's government.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug, America’s National Security Agency (NSA) saw its own hacking tools leaked all over the internet by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.69)
2016 Aug, In Oregon Abby Beckley had 14 tiny worms removed from her left eye. She was diagnosed Thelazia gulosa, a type of worm seen in the northern US and southern Canada, but never before in humans.
(SFC, 2/14/18, p.A4)
2016 Aug, Kernel was launched by American entrepreneur Bryan Johnson with the intent of building devices for the treatment of neurological conditions and cognition enhancing brain implants.
(http://bryanjohnson.co/kernel-an-hi-company/)
2016 Aug, Steve Wynn opened his $4.2 billion Wynn Palace in Las Vegas.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.57)
2016 Aug, Intel paid more than $400 million for Nervana, a three-year-old start-up that was developing specialized artificial systems ranging from software to chips.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.54)
2016 Aug, A Botswana based team led the Great Elephant Census funded by Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft. The survey suggested that about 350,000 African savannah elephants remained alive, down 140,000 from 2007.
(Econ 6/17/17, p.72)
2016 Aug, The Brazilian government announced that it would suspend plans for the $9 billion Sao Luiz de Tapajos hydroelectric dam in the Amazon, citing likely impacts on indigenous people and the environment. Munduruku chief, Arnaldo Kaba Munduruku, made a five day journey from the Tapajos basin of northern Para State to London to win backing to fight on until the lands around the dam site are legally recognized as belonging to his people.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.29)
2016 Aug, In France Zhang Chaolin (49) was on his way with a friend to a restaurant in the suburb of Aubervilliers when three teens attacked them on the street. The father of two fell and hit his head on a wall, after being kicked in the chest, and died five days later. In 2018 Two suspects, who were 17 and 19 at the time of the assault, appeared in a juvenile court charged with violent robbery causing death and injury of a racist nature. A third, who was 15 at the time, was handed a two-year sentence at a separate trial.
(AFP, 6/15/18)
2016 Aug, Israel’s agriculture minister said that local cannabis growers will soon be allowed to export medical marijuana.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.42)
2016 Aug, In northeastern Nigeria an estimated that 240,000 children in Borno state were suffering from severe acute malnutrition according to UN estimates.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.41)
2016 Aug, A Russian court sentenced Alexander Belov, a leader of the banned Movement Against Illegal Immigrants (DPNI) to seven and a half years in jail.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.53)
2016 Sep 1, President Barack Obama visited Midway Atoll, the remote coral reef that serves as a reminder of both modern global climate challenges and the dominance the United States has held in the Pacific since its World War Two victory there.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Florida authorities said tests have found the Zika virus in mosquitoes from Miami, the first detected on continental US, confirming local transmission of the disease.
(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying the Israeli-built and -owned Amos 6 satellite that Facebook planned to use to beam high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said his company has put aside "several billion dollars" to pay tax liabilities in the United States as it repatriates some of its huge overseas earnings. Apple held nearly $215 billion in cash and securities outside the US, much of that generated by its Irish subsidiaries.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, In Afghanistan 2 people were killed in a bomb attack in front of the district governor's office in Logar province. The bomber was on foot and wearing police uniform. A firefight then broke out and 6 militants were killed and eight wounded. 2 policemen were wounded.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Australian scientists unveiled fossils dating back 3.7 billion years. Tiny structures called stromatolites were found in ancient rock along the edge of Greenland's ice cap. The earliest evidence of life on Earth ahead of the Greenland discovery came from near-3.5 million-year-old stromatolites found in western Australia in 2006.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, In Brazil Michel Temer (75) was sworn in as presient to replace Dilma Rousseff following a bitter impeachment fight.
(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, The European Union said that the official announcement of election results in Gabon had plunged the African country into a "deep crisis" and said that verification of each polling station result was required. Clashes across Libreville led to at least 3 deaths and up to 1,100 arrests.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, German officials said archaeologists in Berlin have unearthed a large number of human bones from a site close to where Nazi scientists carried out research on body parts of death camp victims sent to them by sadistic SS doctor Josef Mengele.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Iran said operations to build two new nuclear power plants in Bushehr with assistance from Russia will start on 10 September and it will take 10 years for the power plants to be completed.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Malaysia reported its first suspected case of Zika, a 58-year-old woman believed to have contracted it in neighbouring Singapore where more than 100 cases have been confirmed.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, In central Mongolia the body of British tourist Steve Nash (53) was found in Arkhangai province. He had been stabbed in the chest and died of blood loss. On Sep 14 police announced the arrest of a suspect in the killing.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 1, Pakistan's military said the Chaman border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan has reopened nearly two weeks after it was closed in response to Afghan protesters burning the Pakistani flag at a border rally.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, The Pakistani army announced that it had arrested 309 alleged IS operatives and sympathizers.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.34)
2016 Sep 1, In Syria opposition fighters seized several areas in a rapid advance against government forces in central Hama province, prompting a wave of regime air strikes. At least 25 civilians, including children, were killed in the strikes early today as fighting raged in parts of Hama.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, A coalition of NGOs led by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said evidence is growing that Russia is behind a significant increase in the use of cluster bombs in Syria. More than 400 people were reported killed or maimed by the banned munitions in the world last year.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Malaysia reported its first suspected case of Zika, a 58-year-old woman believed to have contracted it in neighbouring Singapore where more than 100 cases have been confirmed.
(AFP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Russia’s new data-localization law went into effect. It requires that personal information from Russian citizens is kept in databases located in Russia.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.16)
2016 Sep 1, In western Slovenia a small plane crashed in rainy weather, killing 3 people on board.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, Turkey's NTV television reported that the country’s top judicial board has dismissed 543 more judges and prosecutors, the latest purge of officials suspected of sympathizing with those behind a July 15 failed coup. The government's Official Gazette announced that nearly 43,000 people have been expelled from their jobs in public institutions for alleged ties to terror organizations endangering national security since the failed coup.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 1, At the Vatican Pope Francis proposed that caring for the environment be added to the traditional seven works of mercy that Christians are called to perform, taking his green agenda to a new level by supplementing Jesus' Gospel call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick.
(AP, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 1, Venezuelan opposition supporters descended on Caracas to press for a recall referendum this year against unpopular Socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)
2016 Sep 2, Hurricane Hermine made landfall early today near St. Marks, Florida, 20 miles south of Tallahassee, dumping heavy rains and packing winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) and leaving tens of thousands of households without power. It soon weakened to a tropical storm over land and plowed toward the Atlantic Coast.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Denmark residents of Copenhagen's semi-autonomous Christiania neighborhood tore down the area's hashish market after an alleged drug dealer shot two police officers and a bystander. The 25-year-old gunman escaped after the attack but was arrested after a shoot-out with police.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Gabon soldiers were deployed in Libreville as residents ventured back onto the streets, buying provisions and surveying damage after two days of riots sparked by a disputed presidential election. 2 people died after overnight post-election violence.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, The Greek government said only two of the country's seven private TV stations survived a landmark license auction that raised 246 million euros ($275 million) for the cash strapped left-wing government. The new licenses will take effect in 90 days, but the government faced multiple legal challenges.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Indian PM Narendra Modi and visiting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi agreed to boost cooperation in security and anti-terror efforts calling terrorism one of the gravest threats their countries face.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In India millions of public sector workers across the country went on strike to protest economic reforms, saying the government's plan for raising the country's minimum wage for unskilled workers did not go far enough.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Iraq a blast caused by a fire at a weapons storage depot in eastern Baghdad set off rockets that hit neighboring districts, killing at least 4 residents and injuring 14 others.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In northwest Pakistan two bombs killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens outside a court complex in the city of Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, hours after militants killed 2 people in a Christian neighborhood in the same region. Both attacks were claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a breakaway Pakistani Taliban faction.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In the Philippines a bombing at a Davao street market killed 15 people. Abu Sayyaf soon claimed responsibility for the attack but although police said they were still trying to authenticate the claim. On Oct 7 Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said troops have captured three suspects in the bombing. They were members of Maute, a small and relatively new Muslim militant group based in southern Lanao del Sur province that has wanted to align itself with the Islamic State movement.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Sep 2, A Philippines foreign ministry official said Southeast Asian countries and China will establish hotlines and adopt communications protocols to avoid potential naval clashes in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin had a rare meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Vladivastok but there was no breakthrough in a territorial dispute that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their WWII conflict.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched a major new survey on independence, saying the Brexit vote had changed the conditions that existed when Scotland voted against secession in 2014.
(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it is halting sales of its Galaxy Note 7 following battery explosions.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Turkey's Anadolu state-run news agency said one Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants. 20 Kurdish fighters were also reported killed during the clashes in Hakkari province that included Turkish airstrikes.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Uzbek President Islam Karimov (78) died after suffering a stroke, leaving no obvious successor to take over the Central Asian nation of 32 million people.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In Venezuela scores of people banged pots and pans and jeered Pres. Nicolas Maduro during a visit to inspect state housing projects. Authorities briefly rounded up more than 30 people on Margarita island for heckling Maduro. Some 500 thousand to one million protesters gathered in Caracas calling for a recall referendum on Pres. Maduro.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)(SSFC, 8/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 3, In Oklahoma a 5.6 earthquake, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the state, rattled the area northwest of Pawnee, fueling growing concern about seismic activity linked to energy production.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)(SSFC, 9/4/16, p.A8)
2016 Sep 3, Argentina's richest man according to Forbes, energy mogul Carlos Bulgheroni (71), died in the United States, where he was hospitalized following a surgical procedure in June. Bulgheroni, along with his brother Alejandro, owned Pan American Energy, Argentina's second-biggest oil company, behind state-run YPF.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)
2016 Sep 3, In Ethiopia as many as 23 people died in a fire at the Kilinto prison on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbgnw44)(SFC, 9/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 3, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from ultra-Orthodox partners, ordered routine railway repairs scheduled today, the Jewish Sabbath, to be halted.
(AP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 3, Myanmar’s government ended four days of peace talks with 17 insurgent groups. Days before the peace talks began Myanmar’s army had attacked Kachin Independence Army (KIA) positions.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.32)
2016 Sep 3, Singapore confirmed 26 more cases of locally-transmitted Zika infections bringing the tally to 215.
(Reuters, 9/3/16)
2016 Sep 3, Venezuela named publicly 18 military commanders to oversee the production and distribution of food and basic goods in an effort to alleviate severe shortages affecting the country.
(AFP, 9/3/16)
2016 Sep 4, President Barack Obama met with Myanmar leader Suu Kyi at the White House to discuss rolling back more of the sanctions that were applied when the nation was under military rule. Obama said the US will "soon" lift restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta.
(AP, 9/14/16)(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 4, In southern Afghanistan at least 38 people were killed when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in Zabul province.
(Reuters, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged G20 world leaders to avoid "empty talk" and confront sluggish economic growth and rising protectionism as their summit opened Sunday in the scenic city of Hangzhou.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Voters turned out in force for Hong Kong's most crucial election since the handover from Britain in 1997. Pro-democracy candidates won 30 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council, gaining a foothold in the southern Chinese city's legislature and setting the stage for a new round of political confrontations with Beijing. Six of the winning Legco candidates wanted Hong Kong to be more independent from China. Pro-democracy and environmentalist candidate Eddie Chu won more votes than any other candidate. Chu soon faced death threats stemming from his campaign promises.
(AP, 9/4/16)(AP, 9/5/16)(SFC, 9/21/16, p.A5)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.35)
2016 Sep 4, In the Indian portion of Kashmir around 100 people were injured as Indian government forces fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to quell thousands of protesters who pelted rocks and burned a government office.
(AP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Iranian state TV reported that the Islamic Republic has appointed its envoy to London for the first time since 2011.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 4, Israel’s transport minister, Yisrael Katz, canceled key train routes because of the delayed repairs. The government dispatched extra buses for some 90,000 affected commuters.
(AP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Israeli tank fire targeted a Hamas post on the Gaza Strip border overnight after gunfire at Israeli forces in the area, with no injuries reported.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Saudi Arabia said cross-border shelling from Yemen has killed a Saudi woman and wounded two other citizens in the southern Jazan region.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Thai police seized 3,155 kg (6,940 pounds) of marijuana from a warehouse in Chonburi. Police arrested two men from Thailand and Taiwan suspected of smuggling the marijuana from Laos for shipment to Australia.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Phyllis Schlafly (92), critic of American feminism, died. Her first book “A Choice Not an Echo", a 121-page self-published polemic, sold 3m copies and helped populist Barry Goldwater win the 1964 Republican nomination.
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.86)
2016 Sep 5, In Afghanistan twin bombings near the Defense Ministry in central Kabul killed at least 35 people, including two security force generals, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
(AP, 9/5/16)(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 5, Brazil's federal police launched an operation to investigate fraud at pension funds of major state-run companies, carrying out seven arrest warrants, over a hundred search warrants and freezing assets worth 8 billion reais ($2.46 billion).
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Britain appointed its envoy to Iran for the first time since 2011.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, China's government said it opposed efforts by certain candidates and organizations in Hong Kong elections to promote independence.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, China agreed to cooperate more closely with its trading partners on its politically volatile steel exports as G20 leaders ended a summit with a forceful endorsement of free trade and a crowded agenda that included the Koreas, Syria and refugees.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, At the G20 meeting in China Russia and Saudi Arabia announced that they would start working together to stabilize the market, including limiting output.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Indonesian police said they had broken up an online male prostitution ring and identified 148 young men and boys, at least one as young as 13, offering sexual services.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Iranian state media reported that police had closed more than 800 clothes shops to stop them selling "unconventional" women's coats. The coats in question tended to have nonsensical phrases such as "Keep Calm I'm the Queen" written on them, but they also had short arms and no buttons in the front.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, Israeli police opened fire during an alleged car-ramming attack targeting officers in the Shuafat refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem killing passenger Mustafa Nimr (27). Israel's Channel 10 television later broadcast video of the incident that appeared to show shots being fired after the car was stopped, with Mustafa Nimr already on the ground either wounded or dead.
(AFP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 5, In Israel a floor collapsed during the construction of a four-storey underground parking structure in Tel Aviv. At least 4 people were killed and three remained missing.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 5, The Italian navy rescued nearly 500 boat migrants off the coast of Libya and recovered the bodies of six people who fell out of a leaking rubber vessel.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 6, The US Coast Guard said a south Louisiana pipeline has been secured after some 5,300 gallons of crude oil leaked near Bay Long. The pipeline had been struck by a dredge doing excavation.
(SFC, 9/7/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 6, In Afghanistan militants stormed a building housing an international aid organization in Kabul, provoking an overnight firefight with security forces in which three gunmen were killed and six civilians were wounded.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, President Barack Obama, in the first visit to Laos by a sitting US president, said the US has a "moral obligation" to help Laos heal and vowed to reinvigorate relations with a country with rising strategic importance to the US. Obama announced he would double spending for unexploded ordnance, committing $90 million over the three years.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, A German court dismissed appeals by 84 Russian athletes seeking to compete at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. Another 10 Russians had a similar application rejected a day earlier as punishment for state-backed doping in the country.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, In Iraq an overnight car bombing, claimed by the Islamic State group, struck a bustling commercial area of central Baghdad, killing at least 12 civilians.
(AP, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit to the Netherlands, said the Dutch government will assist Israel in improving water and gas supplies to energy-strapped Gaza.
(Reuters, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 6, Italian police said they had broken up a criminal network that smuggled mostly Syrian refugees across the Balkans to Western Europe.
(Reuters, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 7, A US federal judge ordered wildlife managers to enlarge habitat protections in Idaho, Montana and Colorado for the Canada lynx, a rare wild cat that roams the Rockies and mountain forests of several other states.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, The city of Oakland, Ca., fired four police officers and suspended seven others in connection with a scandal involving a sex worker (19) from Richmond who calls herself Celeste Guap. The teenager has said she had sex with 29 law enforcement officers in the Bay Area in the past two years. On Sept. 29 Guap, aka Jasmine, filed claims seeking tens of millions of dollars in compensation from Richmond, San Francisco, Livermore and Alameda County.
(SFC, 9/8/16, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 7, An Egyptian court ordered the conditional release of four members of the satirical street performance group “Street Children," whose selfie-style video clips mocked President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, In Egypt a train went off the tracks south Cairo killing five people.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, Hong Kong politician Ken Chow of the pro-business Liberal Party said he was pressured to bow out of a city election to clear the field for a candidate favored by the Chinese government, which, if confirmed, could offer rare evidence of interference by Beijing in city politics.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, Iran state media reported that 8 members of the rebel Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) have been killed in overnight clashes with security forces along the Iraqi border in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, Italian rescuers brought more than 350 migrants to shore in Sicily, along with the bodies of five women and two men who had died on the perilous journey.
(Reuters, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, In Laos the ASEAN summit issued a mild rebuke of China over its expansionist activities in the disputed South China Sea, and indirectly urged it to show restraint and not raise tensions.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 7, Police in the Maldives raided the office of one of the country's leading news websites shortly after the broadcast of a television documentary that accused the country's president of corruption, money laundering and misrule.
(AP, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, Mexico Pres. Enrique Nieto Pena accepted the resignation of finance minister Luis Videgaray Caso (b.1968). The minister had suggested Donald Trump’s visit to Mexico. On Jan 4, 2017, Videgaray was brought back as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.27)(Econ, 1/14/17, p.29)
2016 Sep 8, President Barack Obama put the long-simmering dispute in the South China Sea front and center on the agenda at the regional ASEAN summit, as it became clear that most of the other leaders gathered in the Laotian capital were going to let China off with a mild rebuke over its territorial expansion in the resource-rich waters. Obama pledged more money to Laos to remove unexploded American bombs.
(AP, 9/8/16)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.69)
2016 Sep 8, US Banking firm Wells Fargo was fined $185 million for issuing credit cards without a customer’s consent, creating fake email acounts to sign up customers, and charging late on accounts that customers never knew they had.
(SFC, 9/9/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 8, In Afghanistan the Taliban pushed into Tirin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province, triggering fierce clashes and sending all government officials fleeing from the city.
(AP, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 8, In Brazil the 2016 Paralympic Games opened in Rio de Janeiro. The theme of the opening was: “The heart knows no limits; everybody has a heart."
(CSM, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 8, China's Ministry of Finance punished at least five car makers, accusing them of cheating its program to subsidize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, receiving roughly 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in illegal subsidies. By the next day it was reported that more than 20 additional car makers, including Nissan and Hyundai, were listed for breaking rules on green car subsidies, widening a scandal over a $4.5 billion annual payout program.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 8, An Indian court sentenced a man to death for killing his neighbor by throwing sulfuric acid at her for refusing to marry him three years ago. A Mumbai court sentenced Ankur Panwar after finding him guilty of killing Preeti Rathi (23). She died of serious burn injuries 30 days after the attack.
(AP, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 8, Israeli defense officials said that the government has begun work on a $530 million underground barrier along the border with Gaza meant to block Hamas militants from tunneling into Israel.
(SFC, 9/9/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 8, In Malaysia former prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (91) became the founding chairman of the new “Bersatu" (United) political party. Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin, a former UMNO deputy prime minister, founded Bersatu.
(Econ, 9/17/16, p.39)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.31)
2016 Sep 8, In Syria unidentified aircraft hit the Army of Conquest meeting late today, killing Fateh al-Sham Front rebel commander Abu Omar Saraqeb (Saraqib) and another rebel commander named as Abu Muslim al-Shami. Last July the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front was renamed Fateh al-Sham Front. The group numbered some 7,000 fighters, mostly from Syria.
(AFP, 9/9/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.56)
2016 Sep 8, In Yemen at least nine civilians, including four children, were killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on a residential building north of Sanaa.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 9, The US Congress sent Pres. Obama a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The White House has signaled that Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for it to undermine relations with the critical US ally.
(SFC, 9/10/16, p.A7)
2016 Sep 9, In Manhattan a father-son team of informants testified that they repeatedly lied to US investigators in order to secretly traffic drugs, even while they were working on a narcotics probe of two nephews of Venezuela's first lady. The Mexican-born 34-year-old son, referred to only as CS-2, said he has earned $400,000 as an informant. The 55-year-old father, called CS-1, said he has earned about $1 million since 2003. The nephews of Venezuela's first lady were arrested in November 2015 and were fighting US charges that they worked with others to try to send 800 kg of cocaine from Venezuela to Honduras for importation into the United States.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, In Argentina former intelligence agent Francisco Gomez was sentenced to 12 years in prison for crimes against humanity. In 1978 Gomez kidnapped newborn Guillermo Perez and raised him as his own while the boy’s parents languished in jail. Former Air Force chief Omar Graffigna and ex-Buenos Aires province intelligence chief Louis Tomas Trillo were sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 1978 abduction and forced disappearance of the parents.
(SSFC, 9/11/16, p.A7)
2016 Sep 9, Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha was sentenced to five months in jail in the latest faceoff between the government and opposition as political tensions over challenges to PM Hun Sen's longstanding autocratic rule show no signs of easing.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, The UN said its peacekeeping force in Congo has evacuated some 300 supporters of South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar, many of whom were wounded, acutely malnourished or in life-threatening condition.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, The head of Iran's Hajj Organization accused Saudi Arabia of deliberately barring Iranians from the pilgrimage and refusing to discuss security measures despite last year's deadly stampede. Thousands protested in Tehran for being barred from the annual hajj pilgrimage.
(AFP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, In Iraq a camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group was officially closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania. The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq had been based in Iraq since the 1980s, when they received arms and support from Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
(AP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 9, In Iraq two bomb blasts, claimed by the Islamic State group, hit just before midnight outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad killing at least 13 people.
(AFP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 9, The Dutch government says it is extending its involvement in a military training mission in Iraq until the end of 2017.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 9, North Korea conducted its 5th nuclear test with an explosive yield roughly twice the previous one. North Korea said it conducted a "higher level" nuclear test explosion that will allow it to finally build an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons. It was the North's fifth atomic test and the second in eight months.
(AP, 9/9/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.38)
2016 Sep 9, Palestinian Abdel-Rahman Al-Dabbagh (18) was killed during a rock-throwing protest near the Gaza-Israel border A Palestinian health official said Israeli soldiers shot him, but the Israeli army said troops were not responsible.
(Reuters, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 9, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte gave Indonesian forces the right to pursue pirates into Philippine waters saying: “blow them up."
(SFC, 9/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 10, Democrat Hillary Clinton partially apologized for saying a day earlier that "half" of Republican Donald Trump's supporters are "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic" people who belong in a "basket of deplorables".
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 10, The US and Russia agreed to a cease-fire in Syria. The 10-day cease-fire was not slated to begin until the evening of Sept. 12.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 10, In Hawaii the International Union for Conservation of Nature voted to call on every country to shut down domestic ivory markets that threaten elephants. The group has 1,300 members from more than 160 countries, but no enforcement power.
(AP, 9/11/16)
2016 Sep 10, Scientists in Argentina uncovered a meteorite they called Gancedo in "Campo del Cielo" (Field of Heaven) on the border between Chaco and Santiago del Estero. It was thought to have hit the region about 4,500 years ago.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gancedo_(meteorite))(Reuters, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 10, In China a new scholarship program, founded in 2013 by Wall Street tycoon Stephen Schwarzman and intended to rival the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships and build understanding between China and the world, opened its doors at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University.
(AP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Finland Jesse Torniainen (26), a neo-Nazi activist, kicked Jimi Joonas Karttunen (28) in the chest during a demonstration in Helsinki. Karttunen died of his injuries six days later. On Dec 30 Torniainen was sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting Karttunen.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Sep 10, Iran began building a second nuclear plant with Russian help, in a $10 billion project which follows Tehran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers last year.
(Reuters, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Mexico tens of thousands of people across the country marched to protest against gay marriage, challenging President Enrique Pena Nieto's proposal to recognize same-sex marriage throughout the traditionally conservative country.
(Reuters, 9/11/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Pakistan gunmen killed Dr. Zaka Ullah. He was instrumental in an anti-polio drive in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 10, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics urged customers to stop using Galaxy Note 7 smartphones immediately and exchange them as soon as possible. The company said it had confirmed 35 cases of the phone catching fire as of Sep 1.
(SSFC, 9/11/16, p.A3)
2016 Sep 10, The Hanjin container ship Greece, that was stranded off the California coast for more than a week, began unloading after a judge protected the global shipping giant from having its assets seized in the US as it struggles to avoid bankruptcy. The ship was one of four vessels that were blocked from entering or leaving the port after Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 31 in South Korea and the US on Sept. 2.
(AP, 9/11/16)
2016 Sep 10, In Saudi Arabia nearly 1.5 million Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites.
(AFP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 10, In northern Yemen Saudi-led airstrikes on a water well reportedly killed 30 people and wounded 17. The casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 11, Miss America 2017 was crowned in Atlantic City, New Jersey, this evening in a live televised event on ABC. Savvy Shields, currently Miss Arkansas, won the event.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, Voters in Croatia went to the polls for a parliamentary election.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, Iran's former prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, Saeed Mortazavi apologized for his role in 2009 accidents at Kahrizak detention center which resulted in the deaths of three political prisoners including Mohsen Rouholamini.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, Forces loyal to Libyan general and former US citizen Khalifa Haftar, commander of the elected Council of Deputies military, seized control of the ports of Sidra, Ra's Lanuf, Brega and Zuwetina.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6a64ayk)
2016 Sep 11, The North Korean government called American threats of additional sanctions in response to its nuclear ambitions "laughable" and "meaningless".
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 11, In Syria about 100 people, including at least 28 children, were killed since the United States and Russia announced a truce agreement a day earlier.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h563aa)
2016 Sep 11, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their allies attacked a Saudi post in the border region of Jizan with artillery, rockets and light arms before taking it over. Jizan is one of several southern Saudi regions that some Yemenis claim were illegally annexed by Saudi Arabia in the last century.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 12, The five-star Trump Int’l. Hotel opened in Washington, DC, in the Old Post Office building.
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.77)
2016 Sep 12, Former California Assemblyman Thomas Calderon was sentenced to one year in prison for helping his brother, state senator Ron Calderon, hide bribes from an undercover FBI agent to support tax credits for the film industry.
(SFC, 9/13/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 12, In the SF Bay Area police officer Sgt. Doug Ulrich fired four shots at Eugene Craig (86) during a welfare check at the man's home in Saratoga. Craig had a gun in hand and refused to drop it. In 2018 the Santa Clara district attorney's office found the shooting justified.
(SFC, 3/7/18, p.D4)
2016 Sep 12, US-based Hewlett-Packard said it is buying Samsung Electronics Co.'s printer business in a transaction worth $1.05 billion. HP Inc. said that it is the largest print acquisition in the company's history and will help it go from traditional copiers to multifunction printers.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, In southern Afghanistan two militants stormed into a hospital in the city of Kandahar, killing at least one civilian before security forces killed the assailants.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, Austria delayed a re-run of a presidential election as faulty glue on postal ballots scuppered its second attempt to organize a ballot that could give the European Union its first far-right head of state.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, In Brazil the Chamber of Deputies stripped the congressional seat from Eduardo Cunha in a 450-10 vote. He had been accused of numerous corruption allegations and obstructing justice. Cunha was in his fourth term and just months ago was considered one of the most powerful men in Brazil.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 12, A gay Chinese student activist lodged a suit against the Ministry of Education over school textbooks describing homosexuality as a mental disorder, the latest step by China's small but growing gay rights movement.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, China's main border post with reclusive North Korea was packed with trucks carrying everything from bricks to exhaust pipes, as it re-opened for business for the first time since Pyongyang angered the world with its fifth nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, The Chinese and Russian navies launched eight days of war games in the South China Sea, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, India's technology hub of Bengaluru deployed riot police and banned public gatherings to rein in protests as a water dispute turned violent. The violence erupted after India's Supreme Court ordered Karnataka state, where Bengaluru is based, to release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second every day from the Cauvery river to neighboring Tamil Nadu until Sept. 20. Police gunfire killed one protester and injured another after rampaging mobs set fire to dozens of buses, trucks and cars and attacked shops and businesses in Bangalore and other parts of the state. Police arrested nearly 400 people for looting and vandalism after the curfew was imposed to quell violence.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)(AP, 9/13/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.40)
2016 Sep 12, A government source said Italy will set up a military hospital and deploy 300 doctors, nurses and soldiers in Libya at the request of the United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, About 10,000 Taiwan tourism operators and workers marched to a square in front of the presidential hall to demand that the government take steps to help their businesses, hard hit by worsening ties with mainland China.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, A Vietnamese court approved a Malaysian request for the extradition of eight Indonesians suspected of hijacking a Malaysian oil tanker more than a year ago, and rejected a similar request from Indonesia. The eight were arrested in June last year when they arrived on Tho Chu island off Vietnam's southern coast and admitted that they had hijacked the oil tanker MT Orkim Harmony.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 13, The United States sent two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers streaking over ally South Korea in a show of force meant to cow North Korea after its recent nuclear test, and also to settle rattled nerves in the South.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, Wells Fargo said it will eliminate all product sales goals following revelations that some 5,300 branch employees were fired for openign accounts with customer’s knowledge.
(SFC, 9/14/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 13, In Brazil a fire began at the Estrada de Alpina slum in Sao Paulo and quickly took hundreds of homes in its path. The favela is thought to contain about 500 homes.
(Reuters, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 13, Cambodia released more than 200 nearly extinct royal turtles in muddy waters at a new breeding and conservation center that was built in hopes of keeping the national reptile from disappearing.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, China's national legislature expelled 45 deputies representing the northeastern province of Liaoning over allegations of electoral fraud.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2013 Sep 13, Chinese police fired rubber bullets at villagers in Wukan, Guangdong province, and arrested about 70 people in an overnight crackdown to suppress demonstrations in the fishing village that became internationally known five years ago for protesting land seizures.
(AP, 9/13/16)(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 13, Indian and foreign technology companies including global outsourcing firm Accenture closed offices and told staff to stay home in the technology hub of Bengaluru after riots over the diversion of water from a river.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir two anti-India protesters were killed and scores were injured in clashes with security forces.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, The Israeli military struck artillery positions in Syria after a projectile from that country's civil war hit the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights, but denied a Syrian claim that Syrian forces shot down two Israeli aircraft.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, Israel’s former Pres. Shimon Peres (93) suffered a major stroke and was hospitalized in Tel Aviv.
(SFC, 9/14/16, p.A3)
2016 Sep 13, In Italy Tiziana Cantone (31) committed suicide after failing in a long legal battle to get a pornographic video removed from the internet. On Sep 16 Italian prosecutors in Naples said they have opened an investigation into possible charges of instigation to suicide.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 13, In Macao Sheldon Adelson (83) opened his Parisian Macao, a 3,000-room resort on the Cotai Strip.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.58)
2016 Sep 13, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed 2 police officers in Quetta. Another three were wounded as they foiled a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Shikarpur.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, The Philippines moved to shore up relations with the United States with guarantees that a treaty between them would be honored and security ties were "rock solid", despite President Rodrigo Duterte's railings against Washington. President Rodrigo Duterte said he won't allow government forces to conduct joint patrols of disputed waters near the South China Sea with foreign powers, apparently scrapping a deal his predecessor reached with the US military earlier this year. Duterte told his defense secretary to buy weapons from Russia and China rather than America.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)(AP, 9/13/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 13, Somalia hosted regional African heads of state for a summit that was the first of its kind since the nation plunged into conflict in 1991. The one-day meeting in Mogadishu of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) included Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, In Spain a small group of local people and anti-bullfighting activists scuffled and exchanged insults at a centuries-old Spanish festival in the town of Tordesillas, where for the first time in its history the gory killing of a bull was banned and the beast was unharmed.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 13, The World Health Organization said yellow fever outbreaks in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are "under control" after a massive vaccination campaign involving millions.
(AFP, 9/13/16)
2016 Sep 14, Human and civil rights organizations launched a public campaign to persuade Pres. Obama to pardon Edward Snowden for revealing the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs.
(SFC, 9/15/16, p.A6)
2016 Sep 14, The United States signed an unprecedented security agreement with Israel that will give the Israeli military $38 billion over 10 years.
(SFC, 9/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 14, A US report released today said that widespread corruption in Afghanistan has undermined efforts to rebuild the country and urged the US mission to make anticorruption efforts a top priority.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, US Interior Sec. Sally Jewell gave final approval for a renewable energy development plan within nearly 11 million acres of public land in California’s Mojave Desert.
(SFC, 9/15/16, p.D1)
2016 Sep 14, In Afghanistan insurgents killed five people, including a former warlord, in the northern Baghlan province. The ambush targeted Samar, who served as a mujahedeen commander during the 1980s struggle against the Soviet Union.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2013 Sep 14, In China reporters from two Hong Kong newspapers, the South China Morning Post and the Chinese-language Ming Pao, were assaulted while conducting interviews with Wukan villagers and later detained for several hours. Wukan remained under siege two days after police arrested 13 protesters on allegations that they incited violence and arrest.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 14, In India PM Narendra Modi and Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghanicalled for an end to all sponsorship, support and sanctuaries to militants, including those who have committed violence in the two countries. India offered a fresh $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan for building capacity in education, health, agriculture, energy and infrastructure. They also signed an extradition treaty.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, Indonesian police captured Muhammad Basri, a senior figure from the East Indonesia Mujahideen militant group, and killed one of the group's members in a joint operation with the military.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, Indonesia said the country’s highest Islamic council has issued a fatwa on burning land and forests in an effort to halt the toxic smog that blankets the region each year.
(Reuters, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, In Iran a gas leak and fire at the Mobin Petrochemical Factory that services the South Pars gas field injured four workers.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 14, South Africa said rangers in Kruger National Par are killing about 350 hippos and buffalos in an attempt to relieve the impact of the region's most severe drought in more than three decades.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 14, Parts of Taiwan came to a standstill as super typhoon Meranti brought the strongest winds in 21 years. China issued a red alert for waves as the storm bore down on the mainland.
(AFP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 15, Brazil's federal police said they were conducting search and seizure warrants as part of an investigation into fraudulent public contracts that includes loans from the country's massive state development bank BNDES.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, The British government approved the construction of the country's first new nuclear power plant in more than two decades. The French and Chinese-backed Hinkley Point plant had prompted high-level fears about national security.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, China launched the Tiangong 2, its second space station, atop a Long March 7 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
(SFC, 9/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 15, In northern China 4 people, including two children, died in a plane crash during an air show in Hebei province.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, In China Typhoon Meranti swept into Fujian province after hitting Taiwan, leaving a total of two dead and dozens injured. Meranti killed at least 28 people in China, one in Taiwan and cut power to more than a million homes.
(AP, 9/15/16)(AP, 9/17/16)(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 15, Congo DRC Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said the Democratic Republic of Congo will form an interim government that includes opposition members, as part of a deal to set up new elections and break a political impasse.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, The European Union said it has admitted Indonesia to a special licensing system it hopes will prevent the illegally felled tropical timber that makes up a substantial part of the country's wood production from being shipped to the 28-nation bloc.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, The European Union's border agency Frontex said some 23,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy in August, most crossing the Mediterranean from Libya on what has become the main immigration route into Europe.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, Deutsche Bank confirmed that America’s Dept. of Justice had asked for $14 billion to settle possible claims connected with the underwriting and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBSS) between 2005 and 2007.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.71)
2016 Sep 15, In India thousands of indigenous people rallied in the eastern state of Jharkhand, protesting against the government's proposal to amend decades-old land laws, saying it would deprive them of their rights.
(Reuters, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, India detained Khurram Parvez (39), a leading Kashmiri human rights activist, a day after it stopped him from boarding a flight to attend a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. Parvez has spoken out against the use of force in an ongoing security crackdown.
(Reuters, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, In India Tariq Hameed Karra, a founding member of the People's Democratic Party, resigned from India's Parliament and from his regional party to protest a government crackdown in Kashmir that prevented people from offering Eid prayers for the first time in the troubled region.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, In Indonesia 2 foreign tourists were killed and about 20 other people were injured in an explosion on a speedboat that was ferrying them from the tourist island of Bali to neighboring Lombok.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, A local Japanese official said that hundreds of horseshoe crabs -- known as "living fossils" because they are among the Earth's oldest creatures -- have been found dead near Kitakyushu city where they lay their eggs.
(AFP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, In Mexico thousands of protesters marched through Mexico City to demand the resignation of Pres. Enrique Nieto Pena over a sluggish economy and a renewed rise in violent crime. Pena’s approval rating had dropped to 23%.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.36)
2016 Sep 15, Pakistani police arrested the father, husband and brother of a woman who was tortured and hanged alongside her alleged boyfriend in a family courtyard in eastern Punjab province. Khalida Bibi, a married mother-of-three, and her alleged boyfriend, Mohammad Mukhtar (21), were murdered in a so-called honor killing in the village of Mian Channu.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, A Pakistani express train crashed into a freight train killing at least four people and injuring 93.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, It was reported that private banks in Singapore are sharing with local police the names of clients embracing an Indonesian tax amnesty. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) confirmed in a statement that it has advised local banks to encourage their clients to use tax amnesty programs to regularize their tax affairs.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, Ocean Tankers, the Singapore-based owner of the two 74,000 ton ships, the Chao Hu and the Hong Ze Hu, confirmed that the vessels were being denied permission to leave the Red Sea port of Hodeida, Yemen's second-biggest port, which is controlled by the Houthi movement that also holds the capital Sanaa.
(Reuters, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 15, In Uganda two activists of the self-styled Jobless Brotherhood released ten piglets outside parliament to protest a decision by MPs to award themselves $59,000 each on fancy new cars.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.47)
2016 Sep 16, Oklahoma police Officer Betty Shelby shot a black man who ignored repeated requests to put up his hands before reaching into an SUV that was stalled in the middle of a street in Tulsa. Terence Crutcher (40) died at a hospital following the shooting. Police dash cam video showed Crutcher with his hands up and no weapon was found at the scene.
(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.A11)(SFC, 919/16, p.A5)(SFC, 9/20/16, p.A10)
2016 Sep 16, A British judge ruled that Lauri Love (31), man accused of hacking into US government computer systems and stealing confidential information, should be extradited to the United States to face trial. Love was arrested in 2013 on suspicion of computer crimes but has not been charged in Britain.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, Canadian novelist W.P. Kinsella (81), author of “Field of Dreams" (1982), died in Hope, British Columbia. The book became the blueprint for the 1989 Oscar-nominated film of the same name.
(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.C2)
2016 Sep 16, In Central African Republic by militia fighters killed 6 people and wounded several more in attacks in the central Kaga Bandoro region, the fiefdom of the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), an ex-Seleka splinter group, led by Noureddine Adam.
(AFP, 9/18/16)(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 16, In northwestern China the government of Gansu province said that three officials face possible dismissal and three others have been reprimanded over the case of Yang Gailan, a villager (28) who axed her four young children to death and killed herself because she couldn't feed them. Yang's husband killed himself a week later.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 16, In southern Iran a soldier killed himself after shooting to death three of his comrades.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Israel three alleged assailants were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis, shattering weeks of relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (b.1920), former PM (1993-1994) and President (1999-2006), died. He was a highly respected economist who helped usher in the euro as treasury minister.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Kenya angry protesters marched in Nairobi against plans to build an elevated railway line over the country's oldest national park, saying the project will threaten wildlife that includes lions, leopards and giraffes.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Myanmar seven soldiers were jailed for killing villagers in Shan State, a rare punishment for abuses by the army.
(AFP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 16, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a Sunni mosque in Ambar, killing at least 36 worshippers and wounding 28 others.
(AP, 9/16/16)(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, China’s government raised their alert to "orange" for Typhoon Malakas, just as southeastern provinces continue to clean up after an earlier, stronger storm.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels said they will continue their fight for social justice under a peace deal with the government at the opening of the group's final congress as an armed group.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, An Egyptian court upheld a decision to freeze the assets of several prominent human rights campaigners. The five activists named in the court ruling include Gamal Eid and Bahey eldin Hassan, who head two well-known human rights organizations, as well as investigative reporter Hossam Bahgat, also the founder of a rights group.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system destroyed two rockets fired from Syria at the Israeli-held zone of the Golan Heights in an apparent rise in tension between the uneasy neighbors.
(AFP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron before being shot dead, the army said, in the fourth such attack in under 24 hours. Forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death.
(AFP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, In Saudi Arabia unknown gunmen killed two security officers late today in the eastern city of Dammam, an area heavily populated by Shiites.
(AP, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 17, Venezuela took over the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement as only 12 heads of state arrived for the two days of meetings on the Caribbean island of Margarita. Venezuela did not respond to a request for a list of attendees for the 17th meeting of the group.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Afghanistan a US airstrike killed a policeman at a checkpoint outside the Uruzgan provincial capital of Tirin Kot. A 2nd US airstrike struck the same area and killed 7 others in what was apparently a friendly-fire incident.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 18, Czech police detained Oleg Vorotnikov (38), a founding member of the Russian underground art collective Voina, wanted in Russia over a series of high-profile stunts that authorities branded insulting and violent. Vorotnikov was released on Sep 21 and allowed to stay in the Czech Republic during extradition proceedings. Prague had not yet received an official extradition request, which must be filed within 40 days.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 18, A Palestinian attacker stabbed an Israeli army officer in the chest near a West Bank settlement and moderately wounded him, before Israeli soldiers shot the attacker and apprehended him.
(AP, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Kashmir a separatist attack on an army base in Uri near the disputed frontier killed 18 soldiers. 4 rebels were killed as the soldiers returned fire. India accused Pakistan of being behind the attack.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)(SFC, 919/16, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Pakistan two gunmen on a motorcycle killed 3 soldiers near the northwestern city of Peshawar. Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 18, Russia held elections for a new national parliament. Vladimir Putin won even greater supremacy over Russia's political system after the ruling United Russia party took three quarters of the seats in parliament, paving the way for him to run for a fourth term as president. The official turnout was 48%.
(AP, 9/18/16)(AP, 9/19/16)(Econ, 9/24/16, p.50)
2016 Sep 18, Moscow said air strikes by a US-led coalition on the Syrian army threatened the implementation of a US-Russian ceasefire plan for Syria and bordered on connivance with Islamic State.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 18, The Syrian military said one of its war planes had been downed in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor during an operation against Islamic state, where the militant group has been under intense air strikes in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)
2016 Sep 19, Ahmad Khan Rahami (Rahimi), an Afghan-born American suspect (28) wanted in connection with Sept. 17 bombings in New York and New Jersey, was taken into custody after being wounded in a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey.
(AFP, 9/19/16)(SFC, 10/14/16, p.A6)(SFC, 10/17/17, p.A7)
2016 Sep 19, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law what he called the nation’s strictest plan to cut emissions of methane, black carbon and other short-lived pollutants.
(SFC, 9/20/16, p.A1)
2016 Sep 19, In the SF Bay Area Otillo Martinez (b.1998) was shot about 50 times at close range while walking home from work in south Richmond. In 2017 police Richmond police arrested seven members of the “Team Swerve" gang linked to three homicides in Richmond, including that of Martinez.
(http://tinyurl.com/yapr7kmx)(SFC, 8/31/17, p.D6)
2016 Sep 19, The Australian government said it has reached a 39.3 million Australian dollar ($29.6 million) settlement with the owners of Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng1 to pay for environmental damage to the Great Barrier Reef caused when the ship went off course in April 2010 and grounded on Douglas Shoal.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China plans to provide an additional $100 million in assistance to help deal with the global refugee and migrant crisis and is also considering setting aside a $1 billion fund for the purpose.
(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, In Congo DRC clashes took place ahead of a huge opposition rally in Kinshasa demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down. Anti-government protesters burned the body of a police officer in the Limete suburb of Kinshasa. By the end of the day at least 50 people were killed. The government put the death toll at 32.
(AFP, 9/19/16)(Reuters, 9/19/16)(AP, 9/20/16)(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 19, In northeastern India 2 people were killed and several others were injured as police tried to stop protests against the demolition of homes on the periphery of Kaziranga National Park, a rhino sanctuary.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Myanmar rebels and border forces said at least eight people have been killed and thousands displaced by recent clashes in the southeast.
(AFP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Two Palestinians were killed as they tried to stab Israeli police in the West Bank city of Hebron. A third Palestinian was shot and wounded after stabbing and wounding two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, In Russia Yevgeny Zhilin (40), a prominent Ukrainian separatist figure, was fatally shot in the Gorki-2 neighborhood west of Moscow. Zhilin has been on Ukraine's wanted list since 2015.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 19, Saudi Arabia said it has arrested 17 suspected Islamic State sympathizers accused of plotting attacks on religious officials, security forces, civilian districts and economic and military targets.
(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Sudan said an outbreak of water-borne disease has killed at least 19 people and sickened scores more in the rain-ravaged states of Blue Nile and Kasala.
(AFP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Syria's armed forces announced an end to the week-long ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia, blaming rebel groups for its failure. Two 20-truck aid convoys destined for eastern Aleppo with enough supplies to feed 185,000 people for a month are still stuck in Turkey hours after a ceasefire in Syria expired.
(AFP, 9/19/16)(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, In Syria a raid on an aid convoy destroyed at least 18 of 31 vehicles, as well as a Red Crescent warehouse in Orum al-Kubra in Aleppo province. 20 civilians were reported killed in the attack.
(AFP, 9/20/16)(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Curtis Hanson (71), screen writer and film director, died at his Hollywood Hills home. His films included “The River Wild" (1994), “L.A. Confidential" (1997), “Wonder Boys" (2000) and “8 Mile" (2002).
(SFC, 9/22/16, p.D6)
2016 Sep 20, In North Carolina Keith Scott (43), a black man, was shot and killed by Charlotte police Officer Brentley Vinson. Scott’s death touched off civil unrest. Evidence later showed that Scott was armed with a handgun. On Nov 30 a prosecutor cleared Vinson of any charges.
(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A10)
2016 Sep 20, A Cambodian court sentenced two Chinese citizens to life in prison after finding them guilty of producing and trafficking heroin and methamphetamine in one of the country's biggest drug cases. Deng Yuan Ping (53) and Ly Yong (42) were found guilty of smuggling 55 kg (120 pounds) of the illicit drugs worth an estimated $3 million from Laos in June last year. Two Cambodian men involved in the case also received life sentences, one in absentia.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, China reported that state-run Baosteel and Wuhan Iron and Steel are to be joined. Wuhan was reported to be in financial distress.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.64)
2016 Sep 20, In Congo DRC several people died in a second day of violence with three opposition HQ buildings torched in fresh clashes between police and opponents of President Joseph Kabila. Government soldiers in Kinshasa burned the offices of the opposition FONUS party.
(AFP, 9/20/16)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.49)
2016 Sep 20, Air France canceled its morning flight to Kinshasa amid an escalation of street violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital over opposition claims the president wants to extend his mandate.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Indian soldiers battled two groups of suspected militants along the highly militarized de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, leaving one soldier dead. Indian soldiers killed 8 people trying to cross the disputed border.
(AP, 9/20/16)(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, In Indonesia torrential rains triggered floods and landslides on the island of Java, killing at least 19 villagers.
(AP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 20, Iran sentenced Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident detained for a year over spying allegations, to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine. The Lebanese citizen has advocated for internet freedom his whose nonprofit group did work for the US government.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Iraqi forces launched an operation to retake the northern town of Shirqat from Islamic State, a stepping stone in their campaign to recapture the jihadists' stronghold of Mosul before the end of the year.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, Jordanians voted for a new parliament under revised rules that officials say are meant to strengthen political parties. The opposition Muslim Brotherhood won 15 of 130 seats. Turnout slumped to 37%.
(AP, 9/20/16)(SFC, 9/23/16, p.A2)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.40)
2016 Sep 20, A Palestinian (16) who tried to stab an Israeli soldier was shot dead. An Israeli aircraft intercepted a drone launched by Hamas.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 20, The United Nations suspended all aid shipments into Syria after what it said was a deadly attack on an aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 21, Pres. Obama met with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu in New York and expressed concern about continued settlement construction in the West Bank.
(http://tinyurl.com/jhhq4j5)(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Sep 21, Two US supersonic bombers flew over South Korea, with one of them landing at an air base 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, the second such flight since North Korea's Sept. 9 nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, A boat carrying around 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast. 160 people survived. Over the next two days 148 bodies were recovered. The boat was carrying Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants. The toll rose to 178 after the boat was raised on September 27.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)(Reuters, 9/22/16)(AP, 9/23/16)(AP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 21, Aviation sources said the United States has started issuing license unblocking the sale of Western passenger jets to Iran.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Iraq's parliament sacked Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari over corruption allegations, a move that risks further destabilizing the major OPEC producer's fragile economy as it struggles with a massive budget deficit.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Israeli guards shot and wounded an unarmed 13-year-old Palestinian girl after she did not stop at a checkpoint. The Israeli defence ministry said the girl was not carrying a weapon but told officers afterwards that she had wanted to die.
(AFP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Italian prosecutors said they have dropped a money laundering case against the son of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The allegation that Bilal Erodogan, 35, was involved in money laundering while studying in Italy last year was first made by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled member of one of Turkey's richest families and an opponent of the president.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Sudan said it is hosting about 400,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled a brutal civil war that erupted after it broke away in 2011.
(AFP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Syria’s President Bashar Assad rejected US accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo or that his troops were preventing food from entering the city's rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, blaming the US for the collapse of a cease-fire many had hoped would bring relief to the war-ravaged country.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 21, A Syrian warplane crashed north of Damascus, but it was unclear if it had been shot down or came down because of a technical fault. Islamic State militants said in an online statement that the plane had been shot down.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, In Syria dozens of air strikes battered Aleppo and its outskirts overnight. An airstrike killed 5 medics responding to an earlier bombing raid on the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, a day after an airstrike on a humanitarian convoy prompted the UN to suspend desperately needed aid deliveries.
(AFP, 9/21/16)(AP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, In Turkey Osman Nuri Caliskan (41), reportedly mentally disturbed and wielding a knife, tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Ankara but was shot before reaching the building.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Representatives of Ukraine and separatist rebels agreed to pull back troops and weapons from several areas in eastern Ukraine. The agreement signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, applies to three specific areas and will be monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
(AP, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Venezuela’s election board gave a timetable for a potential plebiscite to happen in early 2017, meaning that should Maduro lose, the vice-president would take over under constitutional rules on succession.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 21, A court in Vietnam sentenced to death, a notorious drugs kingpin and eight associates, delivering the maximum punishment in a single verdict over the trafficking of more than half a ton of heroin. Trang A Tang (33) led a network that trafficked drugs from the infamous Golden Triangle area of northwestern Laos, northeastern Myanmar and northern Thailand, and distributed them in Vietnam.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 22, North Carolina officials declared a state of emergency less than two days after police fatally shot Keith Scott, a black man, in Charlotte. Governor Pat McCrory deployed the National Guard and State Highway Patrol officers to the city.
(CSM, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Oklahoma Tulsa prosecutors charged police Officer Betty Shelby with first-degree manslaughter in the Sep 16 shooting of Terence Crutcher. On May 17, 2017, a jury acquitted Shelby of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 9/23/16, p.A8)(SFC, 5/19/17, p.A7)
2016 Sep 22, Yahoo announced that at least 500 million customer accounts have been stolen by what it believed to be a “state sponsored actor." The information was taken in late 2014.
(SFC, 9/23/16, p.C1)
2016 Sep 22, Afghanistan's government signed a draft peace deal with warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a designated "global terrorist," after lengthy negotiations that could pave the way for a similar accord with the Taliban, who have been waging war on Kabul for 15 years.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In China Xia Lin, a lawyer who defended activists and others involved in politically sensitive cases, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on fraud charges, in what is believed to be the harshest penalty handed down in years against those few willing to take on the ruling Communist Party.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, Indonesian authorities detained a ship carrying an unregistered cargo of nearly 30 tons of fertilizer that may have been intended for use in making illegal fishing bombs.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, Iraqi forces backed by air strikes from the US-led coalition gained complete control of the northern district of Shirqat, bringing the military a step closer to a main push on Mosul later this year.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Russia 8 firefighters were killed as they battled a blaze at a warehouse in eastern Moscow.
(AFP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Syria warplanes mounted the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo overnight, as Russia and the Syrian government spurned a US plea to halt flights, burying any hope for the revival of a doomed ceasefire.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Syria Yaacoub al-Ammar, a "minister" in the opposition government, was among at least 12 people killed in a car bomb attack in Daraa province.
(AFP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Turkey six people were wounded when a rocket fired from an area of Syria under the control of Islamic State hit the border town of Kilis.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 23, President Barack Obama vetoed a bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for the kingdom's alleged backing of the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people. Obama warned of a host of unintended and severe consequences if it were enacted. Democrats and Republicans quickly vowed to decisively override the veto.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 23, A senior Royal Air Force officer said British Tornado and Typhoon aircraft stationed at a U.K. air base in Cyprus are pounding Islamic State targets ahead of a major offensive by Iraqi security forces next month to recapture the key northern city of Mosul from IS militants.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 23, Six Chinese agencies announced a coordinated effort to tackle internet and telecoms fraud, the government's latest bid to get to grips with an explosion of such crimes it says have led to huge financial losses.
(Reuters, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Congo DRC 3 more people succumbed to their wounds after an attack by rebels in the northeast raising the death toll to at least 10. A dozen homes and two military camps were burned near Beni.
(SFC, 9/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 23, German security officials say a cyberattack believed to be directed by Russia targeted journalists and lawmakers in a sophisticated email phishing attempt between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, India signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France for around $8.7 billion, the country's first major acquisition of combat planes in two decades and a boost for PM Narendra Modi's plan to rebuild an ageing fleet.
(Reuters, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In western India an angry mob attacked Sangita Ranawasia, a low-caste pregnant woman, and her family for refusing to clear away a cow carcass because of a weeks-long strike against such work in Gujarat state. Six persons of the upper-caste Darbar community were soon arrested for assault.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Kashmir one person was killed and dozens of others wounded when Indian government forces fired live ammunition and shotgun pellets to stop protests against Indian rule in the disputed region.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, Iraq and the UN signed an agreement aimed at helping the Baghdad government tackle sexual violence in conflict, an issue that made headlines following the capture and rape of Yazidi women by Islamic State extremists in 2014.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, Conservation groups said Laos has promised to phase out farms that breed endangered tigers for their body parts, a positive step from a country believed to be a major hub of wildlife trafficking in Asia. Wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC said that endangered species such as pangolins and helmeted hornbills were being openly sold in Laos and that law enforcement against the illegal trade remained threadbare.
(AP, 9/23/16)(AFP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Pakistan’s part of Kashmir a speeding bus plunged into a fast-flowing river killing at least 24 passengers.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin reshuffled his inner-circle again by giving the parliament speaker's job to Vyacheslav Volodin, his chief domestic strategist and the man who oversaw a vote that further strengthened the dominance of the main Kremlin party.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 23, In Syria missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Aleppo causing widespread destruction, as the army prepared a ground offensive to retake the city. At least 27 civilians including several children were reported killed and dozens wounded in the raids by Russian warplanes and regime aircraft.
(AFP, 9/23/16)(SFC, 9/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 24, Pres. Barack Obama opened National Museum of African-American History & Culture in Washington, DC. It had been approved by Pres. George W. Bush in 2003.
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.77)
2016 Sep 24, In southern California 3 adults were found dead in Fullerton after a child called police to report that her parents had died. Two children were found unharmed.
(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.A11)
2016 Sep 24, Louisiana accordionist Stanley Dural Jr. (b.1947), head of the Buckwheat Zydeco band, died in Lafayette of lung cancer.
(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.A15)
2016 Sep 24, The African Union, European Union, UN and the 57 International Organization of La Francophonie made a joint appeal to the government and opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo to exercise restraint amid violent political unrest.
(AFP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, India's PM Narendra Modi said he'll work to isolate Pakistan internationally, accusing India's archrival of trying to destabilize Asia by exporting terrorism.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, Iran's state TV said the country has started its first web-based national general census.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, In Iraq 12 people were killed when militants attacked a police checkpoint north of Tikrit and then detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the city. One militant was killed at the checkpoint after shooting dead four police officers in the attack.
(Reuters, 9/24/16)
2006 Sep 24, In Mexico thousands marched in Mexico City against same-sex marriage, which President Enrique Pena Nieto supports, while hundreds of gay rights supporters rallied nearby.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 24, In South Africa thousands of conservationists and top government officials went into talks in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg, for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to thrash out international trade regulations on elephant ivory, rhino horn and hundreds of endangered wild animals and plants.
(AFP, 9/24/16)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.48)
2016 Sep 24, In Spain Asian cinema dominated awards at the San Sebastian film festival, with veteran Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's "I am not Madame Bovary" taking the top Golden Shell prize while Fan Bingbing won the best actress gong for her role in the same film.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 24, It was reported that war crimes investigators collecting evidence of the Islamic State group's elaborate operation to kidnap thousands of women as sex slaves say they have a case to try IS leaders with crimes against humanity but cannot get US or global backing to bring current detainees before an international tribunal.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 24, Syrian government forces captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo. A monitoring group said 49 people were killed. The UN said nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are without running water following an escalation in fighting over the past few days.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 25, It was reported that the skies across North America have become increasingly quieter over recent decades as the bird populations plummeted by 1.5 billion. Domestic cats, farming and logging were all cited as contributing factors.
(SSFC, 9/25/16, p.C14)
2016 Sep 25, In Atlanta, Georgia, Diane McIver (63) was shot and killed by her husband as they rode home in a car driven by a friend. Mr. McIver later said his gun went off accidentally as he awoke in a traffic jamb. Mr. McIver later faced murder charges following counts of interfering with witnesses.
(Econ 7/8/17, p.27)
2016 Sep 25, American golfer Arnold Palmer (87) died in Pittsburgh. Palmer first played the British Open in 1960, finishing runner-up in an appearance that invigorated a tournament which Americans had been ignoring for years. Palmer won the British Open, golf's oldest major, in 1961 and 1962.
(AP, 9/26/16)(Econ, 10/8/16, p.82)
2016 Sep 25, In Brazil gunmen killed Ricardo Guimaraes, a retired police captain running for a post on the city council of Itaborai, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
(SFC, 9/26/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 25, In China the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest radio telescope, began working in the mountainous region of Guizhou.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Iraq a suicide bomber blew himself up in a commercial street of Baghdad, killing 7 and wounding 28.
(Reuters, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Italy protesters took to small boats in Venice this evening to demonstrate against huge cruise ships being allowed to pass through the Italian city's canals.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Jordan prominent writer Nahed Hattar was gunned down shortly before arriving for a court hearing for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam. The killer was immediately arrested. On Dec 20 a military judge sentenced to death a former mosque prayer leader who killed Hattar.
(AP, 9/25/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Sep 25, Residents of Spain's Basque and Galicia regions voted in regional parliamentary elections, but with few hopes of ending the country's 9-month political stalemate and avoiding a third round of national elections in one year.
(AP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, Swiss voters granted new powers to the country's intelligence services, allowing them to track internet activity, snoop on email and tap phones to better fight spies, criminal hackers and violent extremists.
(AP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, Syrian and Russian warplanes bombed a strategic camp on the northern edge of Aleppo as government and rebel forces battled for control of the high ground in a Russian-backed offensive that has left Washington's Syria policy in tatters.
(Reuters, 9/25/16)(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 26, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that requires all people, including law enforcement, who leave guns in unattended vehicles to lock them in a trunk or container that’s not left in plain sight.
(SFC, 9/27/16, p.A10)
2016 Sep 26, In California the Loma Fire started in the Santa Cruz Mountains and quickly charred some 1,000 acres. Evacuations were ordered and by nightfall it was only 5% contained. By Sept. 29 the fire was 34% contained with as many as 4,147 acres were charred. The 4,474-acre fire was declared over on October 12.
(SFC, 9/27/16, p.A1)(SFC, 9/28/16, p.A1)(SFC, 9/30/16, p.D2)(SFC, 10/14/16, p.D3)
2016 Sep 26, It was announced that Kansas-based BATS Global Markets, an operator of four stock exchanges, will be sold to the CBOE options exchange for $3.2 billion.
(http://tinyurl.com/hp8ff6l)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.70)
2016 Sep 26, Brazilian authorities said they have arrested Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister who was part of the government of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe involving state oil giant Petrobras.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko signed an agreement ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and made their nation a byword for violence.
(Reuters, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Egypt arrested three journalists who were conducting street interviews in Cairo about Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s request for small donations of spare change to fund development programs. A fourth journalist was arrested a day later as she interviewed Egyptians with postgraduate degrees protesting for jobs.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 26, Italian officials warned that Switzerland could face consequences after voters in the border canton of Ticino approved a referendum calling on authorities to grant preference to Swiss workers over foreigners in employment.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, In Jordan protesters called for the government to resign over its failure to prevent the murder of Christian writer Nahed Hattar outside an Amman court.
(AFP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Morocco adopted Amazigh spoken by its Berber community as an official language alongside Arabic, rounding off a reform program launched by King Mohammed VI in 2011.
(AFP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 26, Human Rights Watch said that Pakistan's corrupt and ill-equipped police system encouraged serious rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, torture and "encounter killings," in which police stage shootouts to kill individuals in custody.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, In Spain crowds jeered at former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato when he arrived at a Madrid court to face trial for his alleged misuse of company credit cards on extravagant personal expenses. Rato and 64 other executives and former board members from lender Bankia and its founding savings bank Caja Madrid were accused of illegally spending 12 million euros ($13.48 million) for personal use on so-called "black cards" between 2003 and 2012.
(Reuters, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen traveled to a small provincial court to sue one of the country's biggest investors for compensation over an accident last April at its $10.6-billion steel plant. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics, has promised $500 million in compensation and admitted its steel plant caused massive fish deaths along a 200-km (120-mile) stretch of coastline.
(Reuters, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 27, In southern California police in El Cajon shot and killed Alfred Olango (38), a refugee from Uganda, after he drew an object from his pocket that turned out to be an electronic cigarette device. Olango was reportedly distraught over the recent death of his best friend.
(SFC, 9/29/16, p.A7)
2016 Sep 27, In Afghanistan at least 13 army soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on their checkpoint in Kunduz province. Two of the fifteen soldiers at the checkpoint had links to the insurgents and facilitated the attack.
(SFC, 9/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 27, China’s state media said members of what the government calls a cult for causing deaths, organizing the group and illegally collecting money, have been jailed, part of a crackdown on what Beijing views as dangerous religious movements. Yao Xiangzhi, a member of Mentuhui, or "Disciples Sect" in the central province of Hubei, caused the death of another cult member by denying him freedom, food and drink for a week while people prayed for his recovery from schizophrenia.
(Reuters, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 27, In Iraq two suicide bombings in Baghdad killed at least 17 civilians. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 9/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 27, Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld the death penalty against Imdad Ali, a mentally ill man convicted of murder in 2001, overturning a previous appeal and a court decision staying his execution.
(AP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 27, In Saudi Arabia activists said thousands of Saudis have signed a petition urging an end to the guardianship system that gives men control over the study, marriage and travel of female relatives.
(AFP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 27, Syrian government forces captured a central rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were killed in airstrikes on eastern Aleppo, and that insurgents shelled the nearby government-held villages of Nubal and Zahraa, killing a baby girl.
(AP, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 28, The US House and Senate voted decisively to override Pres. Obama’s veto and allow families of the Sept. 11, 2001, victims to sue Saudi Arabia in US courts for its alleged backing of the attackers. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) weakened the long-standing principle of sovereign immunity. Within a month opponents mounted an expensive political campaign, including paying American military veterans to visit Capitol Hill and warn lawmakers about what they said could be unintended consequences. Saudi Arabia's government largely payed for the effort.
(SFC, 9/29/16, p.A4)(Econ, 10/1/16, p.28)(AP, 5/11/17)
2016 Sep 28, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that eliminates the 10-year state of limitations on rape.
(SFC, 9/29/16, p.A1)
2016 Sep 28, In South Carolina a teenager killed his father, Jeffrey Osborne, at home and then went to a nearby elementary school where he opened fire wounding two students and a teacher in Townville. On October 1 a coroner reported that Jacob Hill (6) had died of his wounds. In 2019 Osborne was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6uz8b6c)(SFC, 12/13/18, p.A6)(NY Times, 11/15/19)
2016 Sep 28, Officials said Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India have expressed their "inability" to attend the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) scheduled for November in Islamabad.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, In eastern Afghanistan a US unmanned aircraft strike hit a residential building early today, killing at least 15 civilians and wounding thirteen in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.
(AP, 9/28/16)(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, OPEC members met informally in Algiers and agreed to cut oil output for the first time since 2008.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.68)
2016 Sep 28, BlackBerry, the Canadian firm that helped pioneer the smartphone market, said it will stop making handsets, outsourcing production to an Indonesian partner.
(AFP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, In China Yang Qingpei argued with his parents over money and killed them. Fearing he would be identified as the killer, he then murdered 17 neighbors in the village of Yema. He was arrested the next day in the provincial capital of Kunming, about 200 km (120 miles) away, a few hours after the bodies from different households were discovered.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, Typhoon Megi made landfall in China’s southern province of Fujian with winds of close to 120 km per hour (75 mph). A landslide following heavy typhoon rains slammed into a village in Zhejiang province, swallowing up dozens of houses in the villages of Sucun and Baofeng in Suichang county. At least eight people died and around 19 were still missing.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)(AFP, 10/1/16)
2016 Sep 28, An Egyptian court sentenced 40 people to life in prison over alleged ties to the Islamic State group and for helping recruit youth to join the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, German carmaker Volkswagen said it has stopped buying mica from some suppliers in India, following a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation that found child workers were dying in illegal, unregulated mines. At least seven children were killed since June mining for mica in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The mineral puts a sparkle in makeup and car paint.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, Shimon Peres (b.1923), Israeli former president and prime minister, died two weeks after suffering a massive stroke. The Nobel Prize-winning visionary pushed his country toward peace during a remarkable seven-decade career.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, Jordan's King Abdullah swore in a new government headed by Hani Mulki as prime minister for a second term, with a little-changed cabinet and a mandate to accelerate economic reforms.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, A Dutch-led inquiry into the July 2014 downing of Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine said the Boeing 777 was shot down by a BUK missile system from an area in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists, and that the system was brought in from Russia and then taken back there. Russian missile-maker Almaz-Antey said the BUK missile was fired from territory held by the Ukrainian army and the prosecutors' findings were not supported by technical evidence.
(AFP, 9/28/16)(Reuters, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, In South Africa the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Johannesburg voted overwhelmingly to ban trade in the endangered pangolin, the world's most heavily trafficked mammal.
(AFP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, South African rangers shot and killed three suspected poachers in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, Syrian government shelling and airstrikes in eastern rebel-held Aleppo landed near a bread distribution center and two hospitals, killing 7 people and putting at least one of the medical facilities completely out of service.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 28, Thailand’s coup leader and prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised to turn Thailand into a developed country by 2036.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 29, In NYC a thief swiped an 86-pound bucket of gold flakes, valued at $1.6 million, off an armored truck in Manhattan. Police later said the suspect is Julio Nivelo (53) a career thief from New Jersey who has been arrested and deported to his native Ecuador several times.
(SFC, 12/22/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 29, IBM announced the purchase of Promontory, a 600-strong consultancy in financial services founded in 2001 by Eugene Ludwig.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.64)
2016 Sep 29, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a peace treaty with a notorious warlord, pledging to lobby the US and the United Nations to remove him and his party from terrorist blacklists. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar signed the agreement via a video link into Kabul's presidential palace.
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor, Vocational and Training said in a statement that the minimum wage for clothing and footwear workers would be raised by 9.2 percent to $153 a month, effective at the beginning of next year. The increase falls short of the $171 a month wage proposed by unions.
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, In China Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde opened what he calls the world's largest air purifier in Beijing, beginning the first leg of a China tour to raise awareness of environmental problems. The seven-meter-high (7.66-yard-high) Smog Free Tower, part of the Smog Free Project started by the artist, creates a bubble of clean air enabling citizens to experience clean air for free.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, In Hong Kong Cheng Yu-tung (91), the billionaire founder of property group New World Development Co Ltd, died late today. Cheng had amassed a fortune of over $16 billion building an empire that spans jewelry, real estate, hotels, infrastructure and telecommunications.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 29, Indian commandos carried out a series of lightning strikes along the de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir, provoking furious charges of "naked aggression" from its nuclear-armed neighbor. Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed and nine more wounded in what it described as small arms fire. Pakistan said eight Indian soldiers died and that one was captured.
(AFP, 9/29/16)(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 29, In Indonesia thousands of union members protested in Jakarta demanding an end to a campaign that granted tax amnesty saying it rewards the tax-evading rich.
(Econ, 10/8/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 29, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi asked Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani not to exploit the war on Islamic State to expand the Kurds' territory.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, In Mexico Paolo Buenrostro, a transgender sex worker, was murdered as she got into a client's car. Kenya Cuevas grabbed the man and held him until police arrived, at which point she began recording on her cell phone. The man was released from custody days later. Cuevas soon quit sex work and founded Casa de Munecas (house of dolls) to campaign for the protection of transgender women. From 2013-2016 some 261 transgender women were slain in Mexico.
(SFC, 9/11/19, p.A3)
2016 Sep 29, Norway's Rafto Prize for human rights was awarded to Yanar Mohammed of Iraq for her efforts to help minorities and women subjected to sexual abuse in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, The Saudi Okaz newspaper reported that the country’s top religious authority has urged citizens to support government austerity measures, saying recent decrees were temporary moves necessitated by public interest.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, Thailand’s government said it has decided to suspend seahorse trade because of concern about threats to its wild population. The decision was announced at a meeting in South Africa of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, The United Nations described a desperate situation in Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo, warning "hundreds" needed medical evacuation and that there was only enough food aid left for a quarter of the city's population.
(AFP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 30, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that redefined rape to include unlawful penetration by any object.
(SFC, 10/1/16, p.A1)
2016 Sep 30, Police in southern California released two videos showing an officer fatally shooting Alfred Olango, an unarmed black man in a San Diego suburb on Sept. 27, and said they hoped showing the footage would ease escalating tensions.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, In New York Yuan Xiaopeng, a Syracuse University student from China, was found shot to death at an apartment complex in suburban DeWitt. Cameron Isaac (23) and Ninimbe Mitchell (20) were later charged with murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the shooting and drug deal robbery.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Sep 30, Five Afghan soldiers and a police officer were killed in an air strike carried out by an Afghan military helicopter in Farah province. Inaccurate information from ground forces was blamed.
(SSFC, 10/2/16, p.A4)
2016 Sep 30, Authorities in Colombia said a nationwide police raid has nabbed 238 suspected narcotics dealers and hitmen and dismantled 15 criminal gangs suspected of enlisting minors and homeless people to sell illegal drugs.
(AFP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, It was reported that slum dwellers in Indonesia have launched a landmark legal case to challenge a decades-old law which has been used to forcibly remove thousands of families, amid a wave of evictions in the country's capital. A 1960 law prohibits the use of land without permission from the rightful owner, but land rights advocates argue it has long been invoked in favor of the authorities.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Investigators said Italian police have found two Van Gogh paintings that were stolen from an Amsterdam museum in 2002 hidden in a farmhouse near an organized crime syndicate's Naples-area stronghold. Investigators seized some 20 million euros ($22 million) worth of assets, including farmland, villas and apartments, which they say are linked to two Camorra drug kingpins, Mario Cerrone and Raffaele Imperiale.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, In Jordan thousands of protesters staged a protest in Ammanto to demonstrate against a $10 billion gas deal between Jordan and Israel.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Pakistan said the summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders set for Islamabad in November has been postponed indefinitely, amid rising tension between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Pakistani authorities said unknown gunmen killed six people from the same family in southwestern Baluchistan province while attackers killed a police officer in the southern city of Karachi in order to free two alleged killers he was escorting.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Russian firefighters battled to extinguish wildfires that have engulfed forests in eastern Siberia and forced schools to close in its Irkutsk region. Some two million hectares had been on fire and large amounts of carbon disgorged by the fires represented an environmental threat and a danger to local communities.
(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, The Syrian Civil Defense group and a Syrian monitoring group reported that airstrikes on rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo have killed at least 12 people. The World Health Organization said fighting in Syria's besieged eastern Aleppo has killed 338 people since Sept. 23, including 106 children, and that 846 have been wounded, including 261 children.
(AP, 9/30/16)(Reuters, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, The UN warned that around 100,000 people were trapped in the South Sudanese town of Yei, where they were facing serious shortages of food and medicine.
(AFP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 30, Trinh Thi Ngo (b.1931), aka “Hanoi Hannah," broadcaster for the Voice of Vietnam, died in Ho Chi Minh City.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi_Hannah)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.90)
2016 Sep, US-based Canadian writer Gavin McInnes (b.1970) founded the far-right Proud Boys organization. The group admits only men as members and promotes political violence. In 2018 the group and McGinnis were banned from Facebook and Instagram.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys)(SFC, 11/1/18, p.A7)
2016 Sep, It was reported that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome afflicts over one million people in America and 250,000 in Britain.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.68)
2016 Sep, In Florida authorities in St Petersburg released about 150m gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into Tampa Bay after flooding from Hurricane Hermine overwhelmed the city’s ageing wastewater system.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.26)
2016 Sep, In NYC Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger started Lemonade, an insurer for home owners and renters. 2,000 policies were sold in its first 100 days.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.68)
2016 Sep, In Utah a new Salt Lake City atheist group, the Sunday Assembly, began offering non-believers a church-like service that offers music, readings and community for those who don't belong to the state's dominant religion, Mormonism, or other faith groups. There's now more than 70 Sunday Assemblies in the US and around the world.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Sep, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark agreed to create the “Cascadia Innovation corridor."
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.32)
2016 Sep, De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, marked the opening of its Gahcho Kue mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.50)
2016 Sep, Wang Jianlin, a property developer and China’s richest man, called soaring property prices in many big Chinese cities: “the biggest bubble in history."
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.13)
2016 Sep, Czech national Zdenek Makar (31) died after a fight in London involving four Britons. One of them, 29-year-old Raymond Sculley, was acquitted by a jury in April 2017 of charges of murder and manslaughter.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2016 Sep, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, launched Jio, a mobile telecoms network. Over the next six months it won 100 million customers.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.66)
2016 Sep, In Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi convened four days of peace talks late this month in Naypyidaw with representatives of 17 of the country’s 20 insurgent ethnic groups. The talks achieved nothing but vague promises.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.49)
2016 Sep, In Russia prison staff reportedly beat and kicked Ildar Dadin (34) and put his head down a toilet bowl while he was in an isolation cell. Dadin came to prominence when he was handed a two-and-a-half year sentence under a controversial law that punishes repeated participation in unsanctioned rallies, after he demonstrated against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
(AFP, 11/3/16)
2016 Sep, Saudi Arabia slashed salaries and benefits for public-sector employees, a sector that made up two-thirds of Saudi workers.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.40)
2016 Sep, South Africa became one of the first African states to adopt a “test and treat" protocol whereby anyone infected with the HIV virus can get drugs immediately, instead of waiting for the symptoms of full-blown aids to appear.
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.39)
2016 Sep, South Korea first discovered a hacking attack of its military computer network by North Korea. In 2017 it was revealed that a vast cache of stolen data included classified wartime contingency plans jointly drawn by Washington and Seoul.
(SFC, 10/11/17, p.A2)
2016 Sep, Turkmenistan opened a new falcon-shaped airport in Ashgabat.
(Econ, 12/17/16, p.36)
2016 Sep, Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand was appointed as the first UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. A year later he informed the council president about his resignation effective Oct. 31, citing illness in his household.
(AP, 9/22/17)
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