Timeline 2007 July-September
Return to home
2007 Jul 1,
Former Gov. Mitt Romney’s compulsory health plan for Massachusetts
went into force.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.30)
2007 Jul 1, Russian President
Vladimir Putin arrived in Kennebunkport, Maine, for an overnight
visit at the Bush family estate and talks with President Bush.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, In California the
price for milk, set by the state Dept. of Food and Agriculture, rose
to $1.98 per gallon, up from $1.06 a year ago.
(SFC, 6/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 1, In NYC a ban on
restaurant cooking with trans fats went into effect.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 1, Virginia became
home of the $3,000 traffic ticket. In an effort to raise money for
road projects, the state started to hit residents who commit serious
traffic offenses with huge civil penalties. Beginning today Virginia
added new civil charges to traffic fines. They range from $750 to
$3,000 and will be added to existing fines and court costs.
(USAT, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, In northeastern
Utah a wildfire burned 46 square miles and killed 3 people working
in a hayfield.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 1, In Oregon the
bodies of David Cheryl Gibbs of the SF Bay Area and priest David
Schwartz of Garden Grove, Ca., last seen on June 8, were found in
the wreckage of their car 60 miles west of Portland. A motorist
reported the accident to 911 on June 8, but emergency crews failed
to find the wreck.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 1, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a convoy of British
forces in Gereshk district. One NATO soldier was killed and several
soldiers and civilians wounded in the attack. A suicide car bomber
killed one Afghan soldier and wounded eight others in the central
province of Wardak.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, Argentina’s
official government news agency said President Nestor Kirchner has
tapped his wife to take his place as the ruling coalition candidate
in October presidential elections.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, Australian media
reported that PM John Howard is secretly planning to begin
withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by February 2008. Howard
denied the report, saying the idea was "absurd."
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, Miroslav Lajcak,
Slovak diplomat, took over as the EU's High Representative in Bosnia
replacing Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.60)
2007 Jul 1, British police
arrested two people, a 26-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, on a
major highway in Cheshire, northern England, in a joint swoop by
officers from London and Birmingham, Scotland Yard said in London in
relation to the attack in Glasgow and 2 car bombs in London. A fifth
suspect was arrested in Liverpool. 2 more arrests in the failed car
bombings brought the total to 7.
(AP, 7/1/07)(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, England slammed the
door on smoking in bars, workplaces and public buildings in what
campaigners hail as the biggest boost to public health since the
creation of the National Health Service in 1948.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, A 3-day African
Union summit focused on forging a closer federation among the 53
member states began in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, A suicide bomber
detonated an explosives-packed truck at a checkpoint at the entrance
of the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, killing five policemen. In
eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near policemen, killing
two. Gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a minibus carrying Shiite
day laborers in the mixed district of Saydiyah, killing one
passenger and wounding four. The bullet-riddled body of a senior
police commander was discovered in Basra. Col. Nasser Hamoud, who
was in charge of the city's prisons, had been kidnapped along with
three of his guards the day before. Five US service members were
killed in fighting, including two soldiers who died in attacks in
Baghdad and two soldiers and a Marine who died in fighting in
western Anbar province.
(AP, 7/1/07)(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, Israel transferred
millions of dollars worth of tax funds to the new Palestinian
government, allowing it to pay its workers in full for the first
time in a year, while skipping the ones who work for the Islamic
Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, Kenya police said
12 suspected criminals and members of a murderous sect were killed
over the last 24 hours, as a fierce crackdown on surging crime
intensified.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Namibia a seal
hunt started with a planned run of five months saying it wants to
save its fishing industry. The start followed a government
announcement that it would allow the killing of 6,000 adult males
and 80,000 pups, up by 20,000 in 2006.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Peru a passenger
bus crashed into an oncoming truck killing 24 people.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 1, Portugal took over
the rotating EU presidency.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.14)
2007 Jul 1, The state-run
Sunday Mail said a senator from Zimbabwe's ruling party and 20
business people have been arrested for flouting a government-imposed
ceiling on basic commodity prices.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 2, US President George
W. Bush commuted a 30 month jail term imposed on a former top White
House aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby for lying to federal investigators,
sparking outrage from opposition Democrats.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Russia’s Pres.
Putin, while visiting Pres. Bush in Maine, proposed an alternative
missile shield system to be jointly developed by the NATO-Russia
Council.
(SFC, 7/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 2, Arizona Gov. Janet
Napolitano signed a bill imposing stiff penalties on employers who
hire illegal immigrants.
(Econ, 7/7/07,
p.35)(www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0702sanctions02-ON.html)
2007 Jul 2, Michael Woodbury
(31), released May 4 from the Maine State Prison after serving five
years for robbery and theft, killed three men during a botched
robbery in Conway, NH. In August he pleaded guilty and was given a
mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Jul 2, Beverly Sills (b.
1929), American opera star, died in Manhattan.
(SFC, 7/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 2, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb destroyed a police vehicle on patrol,
killing all 7 policemen on board. A doctor at Kandahar's main
hospital said NATO forces killed one man and wounded 3. Taliban
militants ambushed a police patrol in the Mizan district, killing
one policeman. A 30-minute gun battle ensued, leaving 3 suspected
Taliban dead.
(AP, 7/2/07)(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Police in Australia
arrested a 27-year-old Indian doctor over the foiled terror attacks
in London and Glasgow, and were interviewing a second doctor in the
case.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Australia's second
largest retailer Coles said it had agreed to a 22 billion dollar
(18.7 billion US) buyout offer from conglomerate Wesfarmers, the
largest corporate deal in Australian history.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Researchers said
the first test-tube baby created from an egg matured in the
laboratory and then frozen has been born in Canada, in a
breakthrough offering hope to women with cancer and others unsuited
to normal IVF treatment.
(Reuters, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Brahim Deby (27),
the son of Chad's president, was found dead with a head wound in the
basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb. Authorities
treated the case as a murder investigation.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Thomas Mooney (45),
a senior American diplomat who disappeared four days ago with his
car, was found dead on Cyprus in a rural area outside the capital.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, The European high
speed train operators Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, SNCB, NS Hispeed,
ÖBB, SBB and Eurostar UK and the high speed subsidiaries
Thalys, Lyria and Alleo today announced the actual formation of
Railteam. Its aim is to offer travelers seamless high-speed train
travel across international borders in Western Europe.
(www.railteam.eu/en/press-corner.php)
2007 Jul 2, Egyptian security
sources said Sherif al-Filali, an Egyptian engineer who was
convicted in 2002 of spying for Israel, has died in jail of a
possible heart attack while serving a 15-year sentence.
(Reuters, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Count Gottfried von
Bismarck (44), whose life of privileged excess as a descendant of
Germany's "Iron Chancellor" was clouded by two deaths at his
decadent parties, was found dead at his $10 million apartment in
London's Chelsea district.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 2, In Ghana African
Union leaders gathered behind closed doors for a debate on how to
beef up its continental system of government with Libya's Moamer
Kadhafi leading a push to create a confederation of states.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, In Ghana 2 British
girls were stopped with 300,000 pounds (443,000 euros, 610,000
dollars) worth of cocaine during a joint Ghanaian-British narcotics
operation. They were found guilty on November 21 and were released
on July 17, 2008.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 2, About 1,500
residents of a remote Guatemalan village rioted over the purported
kidnappings of two children, burning down a police station and
holding their mayor and another man hostage.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated an English-language satellite
television channel to counter what he claims is the West's influence
in covering news.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, A US military
Kiowa attack helicopter was shot down by insurgents south of
Baghdad.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Nigerian university
lecturers called off a more than three-month strike to press for
improved working conditions.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf's attempt to remove Pakistan's chief justice
received a setback when a Supreme Court judge rejected government
evidence and ordered a sweep of courts and judges' homes for spying
devices.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, The UN and other
agencies offered aid and helicopters to Pakistan after floods
unleashed by a cyclone and days of torrential rain devastated 1.5
million people leaving over 600 people dead.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Hamas arrested the
spokesman of a shadowy group holding British reporter Alan Johnston,
a move that could give it a bargaining chip to secure the Briton's
release.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Somali gunmen shot
dead a senior government official in Mogadishu. A teenager died when
munitions left behind by African Union peacekeepers exploded.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, A South Korean
court sentenced tycoon Kim Seung Youn to 18 months in prison over a
beating attack earlier this year against bar workers involved in a
scuffle with his son. The sentence was shelved on Sep 11, due his
deteriorating health.
(AP, 7/2/07)(SFC, 9/12/07, p.C5)
2007 Jul 2, In Yemen a suicide
bomber plowed his car into people visiting a temple linked to the
ancient Queen of Sheba, killing seven Spaniards and two Yemenis. A
wounded Spanish woman died July 14. The suicide bomber was later
identified as Abdu Mohammed Saad Ahmed (21), a Yemeni citizen.
(AP, 7/3/07)(AP, 7/15/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reissued a report on the Western
Sahara that eliminated controversial recommendations on the future
of the disputed region.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 3, President Bush
refused to rule out an eventual pardon for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
after already commuting his prison sentence in the CIA leak case.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2007 Jul 3, A Los Angeles jury
awarded $6.2 million to firefighter Brenda Lee, who said she was
harassed by colleagues because she is black and a lesbian. The
harassment she said included someone mixing urine with her
mouthwash.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 3, Hilton Hotels Corp.
said it has agreed to be acquired by the Blackstone Group LP for
$18.5 billion in cash. The deal was valued at $26 billion including
debt.
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.C1)
2007 Jul 3, Boots Randolph
(80), tenor sax player, died in Nashville, Tenn. His 1963 hit
“Yakety Sax, written with guitarist James Rich,” became the theme
song for television’s “The Benny Hill Show.”
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 3, Afghan and NATO
forces clashed with Taliban militants in the southern Zhari district
of Kandahar overnight, leaving 33 suspected insurgents dead. US-led
coalition troops killed a suspected militant and detained two others
during an operation in eastern Afghanistan. Yousuf Ibrahim
(35), from Saudi Arabia, was detained after a brief scuffle with
police in Kabul. He had spent the last 8 years in Afghanistan,
fighting alongside the Taliban.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, British police
focused on at least four physicians with roots outside Britain,
including a doctor seized at an Australian airport with a one-way
ticket, in the investigation into failed car bombings in Glasgow and
London.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, The US-made film
"Nanking," documenting eyewitness accounts of atrocities committed
by Japanese troops in China during World War Two, opened in Beijing.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, China issued
guidelines restricting organ transplants for foreigners, giving
priority to Chinese patients in the government's latest effort to
regulate procedures that have been criticized as profit-driven and
unethical. Officials said that Chinese inspectors have found
excessive amounts of additives and preservatives in dozens of
children's snacks and seized hundreds of bottles of fake human blood
protein from hospitals.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, In Germany striking
train drivers brought parts of the rail network to a standstill,
backing their demands for a large pay increase with a walkout that
affected tens of thousands of commuters.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, In Ghana African
leaders vowed to speed up the economic and political integration of
their continent to pursue the goal of a United States of Africa, but
they also agreed to study more closely how to achieve it.
(Reuters, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 3, Indonesia barred
Eni Faleomavaega, the Democrat congressman for American Samoa, from
visiting Papua, but has denied the move is to cover up alleged human
rights abuses in the remote region. Faleomavaega has been a critic
of Jakarta's policies in Papua.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Iran's leading
reformist daily newspaper was ordered closed, less than two months
after it was allowed to resume publishing.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, PM Nouri
al-Maliki's Cabinet approved a draft oil law. In Baghdad, an Iraqi
army lieutenant colonel and an Interior Ministry intelligence
officer were killed in separate drive-by shootings. A car bomb hit
the convoy of an Iraqi police colonel in Kirkuk, killing two
passers-by and wounding 17. Oras Mohammed Abdul-Aziz was executed by
hanging for his role in the August, 2003, blast that killed Shiite
leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and 84 other people.
(AP, 7/3/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 3, A human rights
group said Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq routinely
torture detainees with methods including electric shock and hold
them in overcrowded facilities without formal charges or access to
legal aid.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Fumio Kyuma,
Japan's defense minister, resigned under an avalanche of criticism
for suggesting that the United States was justified in dropping
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the attacks saved
Japan from a Soviet invasion.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Pakistani security
forces clashed with militants outside the radical Lal Masjid mosque
in Islamabad, where students have carried out a string of
kidnappings of police officers and alleged prostitutes, killing at
least 9 people.
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 3, South Korea enacted
legislation to remove bureaucratic barriers in the security industry
and help brokers, banks and insurers to consolidate. To date no
foreign had listed on the Seoul stock exchange.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.78)
2007 Jul 3, Spanish PM Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promised that every child born in Spain
would receive a baby bonus of €2,500, according to national press
reports.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.59)(http://piurl.com/5i)
2007 Jul 3, The Alinghi team
from Switzerland successfully defended sailing's coveted America's
Cup, beating Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2007 Jul 3, Venezuela’s energy
minister said in newly published comments that Venezuela has agreed
to sell gasoline to Iran.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, President Hugo
Chavez said his government will nationalize Venezuela's privately
owned hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce health care
costs.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 4, In NYC Joey
Chestnut emerged as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking
off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a record-setting yet
repulsive triumph. Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In SF some 300
skateboarders rolled down the Embarcadero in a 3-mile,
police-escorted rally promoted by Emerica, an Orange County shoe and
skateboard apparel company.
(SFC, 7/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 4, In California the
Zaca wildfire began in Santa Barbara County. By the end of the month
it had consumed 32,000 acres and was 70% contained.
(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 4, In Bridgeport,
Conn., a mother and 3 children drowned after their van rolled into a
park pond.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 4, Johnny Frigo (90),
jazz violinist and bassist, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 4, Bill Pinkney (81),
the last survivor of the original members of the musical group The
Drifters, died.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a NATO vehicle, killing six Canadian
soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, On the historic
occasion of their first summit, the EU and Brazil decided to
establish a comprehensive strategic partnership, based on their
close historical, cultural and economic ties. Brazil and EU leaders
met in Lisbon, Portugal.
(www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN/Noticias_Documentos/20070704BRSUM.htm)(Econ,
7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 4, In Chile Osvaldo
Romo (70), a security agent who became a symbol of torture and
repression under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's former military
dictatorship, died in prison.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In northeast China
a blast ripped through a karaoke parlor and bath house, killing 25
people and injuring 33 others. It was later reported that a coal
mine owner, who ran the karaoke parlor, stored more than a ton of
explosives in the basement.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Human Rights Watch
accused the Ethiopian army of burning homes and displacing thousands
of civilians in a crackdown on rebels in the volatile east.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Ghana a drive
towards forging a United States of Africa ran out of steam as
leaders filed away from a summit without agreeing on a timeline for
creating a new government for the continent.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In India 13
passengers aboard the Karnataka Express from Bangalore to Delhi were
found unconscious in their compartment. They had eaten cookies laced
with sedatives offered by thieves and lost all their possessions.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.G2)
2007 Jul 4, Khaled Abdul-Fattah
Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani (aka Abu Shahid), believed to be the
most senior Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq network, was captured in
Mosul.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 4, The foreign
ministers of Israel and Morocco held their first publicly disclosed
talks in years, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart
of the discussion.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Mexico heavy
rains triggered the landslide on a remote winding road near the town
of Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla. As many as 60 passengers
were thought to be buried in a bus on the rural road. 32 bodies were
recovered.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mexico’s financial
website Sentido Comun reported that telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu
(67) has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest
person on the planet.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mozambique's
President Armando Guebuza sought to expand trade ties with Tanzania
to boost development in the two impoverished African nations.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern Nigeria
armed men kidnapped five foreigners, the same day the country's most
prominent militant group announced it would end a truce with the
government.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Pakistan Maulana
Abdul Aziz, one of the leaders of the radical-held Red Mosque, was
arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's
burqa and high heels. He said that the nearly 1,000 followers
still inside should flee or surrender. At least 16 people, including
eight militants, have been killed and scores injured in the
standoff.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 4, Palestinian gunmen
released Alan Johnston, a British journalist, who had been kidnapped
March 12.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, A top Panamanian
prosecutor said tests show at least 94 people have died from taking
medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and
that 293 more deaths are under investigation. Total deaths reached
116 from contaminated medications.
(AP, 7/4/07)(AP, 5/10/08)
2007 Jul 4, Russia’s parliament
authorized an exemption to Gazprom and OAO Transneft from limits on
wielding arms. They would now be able to employ their own armed
operatives.
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 4, Taiwan's vice
president kicked off a Latin American tour in the Dominican
Republic, an ally rapidly increasing its economic and political ties
with the island's diplomatic rival, China.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, UN food agencies
called for global backing for a "Green Revolution" in Africa to help
the continent build stable agricultural systems and rescue tens of
millions of people from poverty.
(Reuters, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 5, In a setback to
President Bush's war strategy, GOP stalwart Sen. Pete Domenici said
he wanted to see an end to combat operations and US troops heading
home from Iraq by spring 2008.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2007 Jul 5, Captain America was
laid to rest in the latest issue of Marvel Comics' "Fallen Son." He
landed on newsstands in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor,
delivering a punch to Hitler on the cover of his first issue.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 5, It was reported
that SF faced a $4.9 billion unfunded liability for health care for
retiring city workers. Other local governments and school districts
in California also faced unfunded costs.
(SFC, 7/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 5, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Terrance Hough (35), an off-duty fireman angered by a noisy Fourth
of July party, shot and killed 3 people.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 5, Kerwin Mathews 81,
film star, died in SF. His 32 films included “The 7th Voyage of
Sinbad” (1958) and “The 3 Worlds of Gulliver” (1960).
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.B6)
2007 Jul 5, Kingsley Wightman
(91), longtime math and astronomy teacher at Chabot Space &
Science Center in Oakland, Ca., died (www.chabotspace.org).
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.C4)
2007 Jul 5, A suicide bomber in
southern Afghanistan blew himself up at a checkpoint, killing 10
police and wounding 11. A roadside bomb and clashes in the east left
3 NATO soldiers dead. In Uruzgan province 33 Taliban fighters were
killed.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AFP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Ali Asgar Lobi, a
former Bangladeshi MP who dodged more than 2.4 million dollars in
unpaid tax, was sentenced to eight years in jail.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, A Belgian court
sentenced Bernard Ntuyahaga (55), a former Rwandan army major, to 20
years in prison on for the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an
undetermined number of Rwandan civilians at the start of the 1994
genocide.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, British media
reported that a Scottish house had been used as a makeshift bomb
factory to carry out the terror attacks in London and Scotland.
Three "cyber-jihadis" who used the Internet to urge Muslims to wage
holy war on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and
10 years in the first case of its kind in Britain. Morocco-born
Younis Tsouli (23), an al-Qaida-inspired computer expert who dubbed
himself "the jihadist James Bond," was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for running a network of extremist Web sites. Accomplices
Tariq al-Daour and Waseem Mughal also got prison terms.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AFP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.29)
2007 Jul 5, Two thieves showed
up at a London jeweler in a flashy car and made off with an even
flashier haul, stealing about $20 million worth of diamonds and
gems.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 5, The Bank of England
raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to
5.75 percent, the fifth increase this year, in an attempt to curb
inflation.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, George Melly,
English jazzman and writer, died in London of lung cancer.
(Econ, 7/14/07,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly)
2007 Jul 5, China's Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi visited Indonesia and said their countries
should cooperate to defend the interests of developing nations as
they work to enhance bilateral ties.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Over a million
people marched in Bogota, Colombia, to protest kidnappings and the
recent killing of abducted politicians.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 5, France’s
Agriculture Ministry said 3 swans found dead in a pond in eastern
France have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Regine Crespin
(80), the French opera great who took her personal magnetism and
soprano voice to the world's leading stages, died.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Shares of top
real-estate firm DLF, which raised 2.24 billion dollars in India's
biggest ever public share offering, leapt 36% on their first day of
trade before retreating.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Human Rights Watch
released a report saying Indonesian security forces have killed and
beat unarmed civilians, and on two occasions raped women during
recent operations against separatists in Papua province. The 96-page
report detailed 8 alleged killings by police and military officers
in the province's central highlands since 2005 and several vicious
beatings.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, In northern Iran
Jafar Kiani, a man convicted of adultery, was stoned to death in
Aghchekand, the first time in years that the country has confirmed
such an execution.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 5, In southern Baghdad
18 people died after a car bomb blew up outside a photo shop where a
wedding party waited as newlyweds had their pictures taken. Security
forces found 24 bodies around Baghdad. US forces killed one militant
and wounded 6 others in Sadr City. A bomb in Baghdad killed 2 US
soldiers. 2 US Marines were killed in western Anbar province and a
US soldier died in Baghdad.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Israeli troops
crossed into the Gaza Strip and engaged Hamas militants in a fierce
gunbattle that drew in Israeli aircraft, tanks and bulldozers. 11
militants were killed. A cameraman for Hamas TV, who lay wounded on
the ground, came under more fire during a clash with Israeli troops.
The shooting was captured on film and broadcast on al-Jazeera
satellite television. Imad Ghanem had to have both legs amputated as
a result of his injuries. Israel repatriated 4 Jordanian
infiltrators who were serving life sentences in Israeli prisons for
killing Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Japanese police
arrested an American sailor on suspicion of attempted murder after
two women were stabbed near a naval base south of Tokyo. In 2008 a
Japanese court found sailor Joshua David Williams (20) guilty of
stabbing the two Japanese women sentenced him to eight years in
prison.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 6/19/08)
2007 Jul 5, Mine workers across
Mexico waged a 24-hour strike, hoping to achieve better safety
standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Mexico a small
cargo jet failed to take off in Culiacan and barreled onto an
adjacent highway, killing at least 9 people, including two soldiers
assigned to the Mexican president's security detail.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Nigeria
kidnappers snatched the 3-year-old daughter of a British worker as
she was being taken to school.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Peruvian public
school teachers walked off the job to protest an education reform
proposal that would require them to pass periodic competency exams.
Education Minister Jose Antonio Chang called the effort a failure,
saying only 15% of Peru's approximately 350,000 teachers failed to
show up for work in the country.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In the southern
Philippines 9 inmates fled jail after attacking guards. Pursuing
police officers fatally shot three of the escaped convicts and
recaptured four others. Two other inmates from the jail in southern
Cagayan de Oro city remained at large.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, Larisa Arap, a
member of a Russian opposition group, was hospitalized in a
psychiatric facility for criticizing a clinic's use of violence
against mentally ill patients.
(Reuters, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 5, Thailand's military
junta unveiled a new outline constitution with controversial
proposals that could limit the role of any future elected prime
minister.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 6, In Las Vegas Steven
Zegrean (51) opened fire on gamblers at the New York-New York casino
and wounded 4 people before he was tackled by off-duty military
reservists. On Oct 19, 2009, Zegrean was sentenced to 26-90 years in
prison.
(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A5)(SFC, 10/20/09, p.A5)
2007 Jul 6, Kathleen E.
Woodiwiss (b.1939), author of steamy genre novels, died in
Princeton, Minn. She was widely credited with having founded the
historical romance in its modern carnal incarnation. “The Flame and
the Flower” (1972) was the 1st of her 13 novels.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 6, Lois Wyse (80),
advertising whiz, died in Manhattan. Her 65 books included “Funny,
You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother” (1989).
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.C4)
2007 Jul 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops, using artillery and airstrikes, killed 33 Taliban
fighters after the insurgents attacked a police checkpoint in
southern Uruzgan province. Officials said fighting in three separate
regions of Afghanistan left more than 100 militants dead. About 60
militants died in a battle in Kunar province, but reports of
civilian deaths were not confirmed. The next day a Kunar provincial
deputy police chief said that 25 civilians and 20 militants were
killed in clashes over three days.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Australia kicked
off a round-the-world series of Live Earth music concerts designed
to highlight climate change with a traditional Aboriginal welcome
ceremony. Former US vice-president Al Gore appeared on video screens
to launch the worldwide initiative.
(AFP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, Austrian
authorities arrested Michael Berger (35), an investment banker
wanted by the FBI, who fled after being convicted of securities
fraud in NYC more than five years ago.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 6, Canada named a
former government security adviser to head the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, the first time a civilian has held the post.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Chile's securities
regulator fined Sebastian Pinera, a leading right-wing politician
and former presidential candidate, for insider trading of LAN
Airlines SA stock.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, A former department
head at China's drug regulation agency was sentenced to death on
bribery charges. Cao Wenzhuang was given a two-year reprieve because
he provided evidence that helped with the investigation of other
cases. Chinese cat lovers mobilized online to save a truck load of
cats from the cooking pot. A standoff continued for hours while cat
lovers spread word of the incident online, eventually raising $1,320
in donations to buy the whole load of some 800 cats.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 6, EU officials said
they have asked Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to join patrols of
Europe's border control agency in a bid to stop massive clandestine
immigration.
(AFP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, In France some 50
masked attackers smashed cars and clashed with police in northeast
Paris. Three officers were injured.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, India’s Health
Ministry released a report saying the number of Indians infected
with HIV is between 2-3 million, half of what experts had previously
estimated, and about 0.3% of the 1.1 billion population.
(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 6, A suicide bomber
detonated a booby trapped car at a funeral in the Shiite Kurdish
village of Zargoush, in the Sadiya region of Diyala province,
killing 22 people. Four soldiers were killed in two roadside bomb
attacks on their patrols, both in the capital. A suicide car bomber
struck the Kurdish village of Ahmad Maref killing 26 people. A US
soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when an explosively
formed penetrator exploded near their patrol in southeastern
Baghdad. A US soldier died of non battle-related cause and his death
was under investigation.
(AP, 7/7/07)(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A7)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 6, Israeli forces
pulled out of the Gaza Strip. Their military incursion left 11
Palestinian militants dead and pushed Gaza's rival factions together
in urging their people to fight back.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, In rural southern
Nepal 9 children and two adults died when a tractor pulling a
trailer carrying guests in a wedding procession skidded off a road
and into a canal.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, The head of a
radical mosque besieged by government forces in the heart of
Pakistan's capital rejected calls for an unconditional surrender,
saying he and his die-hard followers were ready for martyrdom.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, A Peruvian consumer
protection agency closed a popular restaurant and imposed a stiff
fine for repeatedly turning away dark-skinned people. The upscale
suburb of Miraflores complied with the agency's request to close
Cafe del Mar for 60 days. The restaurant also was fined $76,000 for
its "discriminatory" entrance policy.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Russian lawmakers
passed a bill that cracks down on dissent and expands police
surveillance authority ahead of 2008 elections.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 6, In Somalia 5
children who stopped to play with a land mine on the way to prayers
died when one of them threw the device against a wall, causing a
blast that sent their bodies flying through the air.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, In Sri Lanka
soldiers intercepted a group of Tamil Tigers, killing 15, as they
fled the jungle area of Thoppigala in the eastern district of
Batticaloa. 4 people were killed elsewhere in the embattled island.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Turkey's foreign
minister said his government and military have agreed on plans for a
possible cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, The 24-hour Live
Earth music marathon reached the Western Hemisphere with rappers,
rockers and country stars taking the stage at Live Earth concerts to
fight climate change.
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/7/08)
2007 Jul 7, A Big Mac in the US
cost an average $3.41. At current exchange rates the cheapest Big
Mac was in China at $1.45, and the most expensive in New Zealand at
$5.89.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.74)
2007 Jul 7, Wildfires in
California consumed 17,000 acres in Inyo National Forest and 7,500
acres in Los Padres National Forest. An 8,000-acre wildfire
forced hundreds of people in the town of Winnemucca to leave their
homes, one of more than a dozen blazes that charred a combined 55
square miles in northern Nevada. In Utah a 160,000-acre wildfire
forced evacuations at Cove Fort and the Blundell Geothermal Power
Plant. Wildfires also burned in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and
Washington states.
(AP, 7/8/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 7, In Oregon Kent
Couch (47) in his lawn chair with some snacks and a parachute rose
to the sky under 105 large helium balloons. Nearly 9 hours later the
gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union,
193 miles from home. In September he had gotten off the ground for
six hours.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll
picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal,
Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ
Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders
of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in
1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Barton Shackelford,
former president of PG&E (1979-1985), died in Kentfield, Ca.
(SFC, 7/16/07, p.C6)
2007 Jul 7, In Kandahar
province Taliban fighters ambushed police traveling in between
Ghorak and Mawiwand, sparking a six-hour battle. About 20 Taliban
fighters were wounded in the engagement, and several police were
missing. Taliban fighters beheaded two civilians they accused of
being spies for the government or NATO. A roadside blast struck a
NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan and wounded four alliance
soldiers.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 7, A court in
Algeria's Kabylie region sentenced Said Sahnoun, a correspondent for
newspapers in sub-Saharan Africa, to 10 years in prison for spying
for Israel.
(Reuters, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Algeria's state oil
and gas company and KBR Inc., a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary,
signed a $2.88 billion deal for a liquefied natural gas plant.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown pledged 14 million pounds in extra aid for parts of northern
England hit by floods which killed at least four people.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Jack Odell
(b.1920), British creator of the Matchbox miniature toys (1953),
died. The toys were made by Lesney Products, founded by Leslie and
Rodney Smith in 1947. The company went public in 1960 and bankrupt
in 1982, when it was sold to Hong Kong’s Universal International
Ltd. In 1997 Mattel acquired Matchbox.
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 7, German scientists
said a genetically engineered herpes virus, designed to kill cancer
cells but leave normal tissue unharmed, has shown early promise in
clinical tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Authorities said
floods in eastern India have left nearly a million people stranded
from torrential monsoon rains.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Iraq a bombing
in Armili, a farming town of 26,000, mostly Shiites from Iraq's
ethnic Turkoman minority, killed over 130 people. Another car bomb
attack against a military checkpoint in Baghdad killed at least 3
people and wounded 10. British troops came under heavy attack by
militants in Basra, killing one soldier and wounding 3. An American
soldier was killed in combat in Salahuddin province.
(AFP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir protesters clashed with police in Srinagar
a day after a teenager was killed when police fired on a crowd
protesting alleged human rights abuses.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indonesia a
speeding bus carrying a group of junior high school students and
their teachers plunged into a 30-foot ravine on the main island of
Java, killing 14 people. Poisonous fumes from the Indonesia’s Salak
volcano killed six teenagers who were camping on the mountain.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Nepal's king
celebrated his 60th birthday with a lavish ceremony at his palace
that set off protests in the streets of Katmandu.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, President Pervez
Musharraf told Islamist militants barricaded in a mosque to
surrender or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and
children inside the besieged compound in the Pakistani capital.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
removed restrictions on celebrating the old form of the Latin Mass
in a concession to traditional Catholics, but he stressed that he
was in no way rolling back the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Zimbabwe's
government announced a new law making it an offense to defy steep
price cuts ordered in an effort to control runaway inflation and a
growing economic crisis.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania
Gov. Ed Rendell ordered a range of government services shutdown
after last minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate.
The shutdown took about 24,000 workers off the job. A budget deal
was hammered out the following night.
(AP, 7/9/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, SF Bay Area police
and FBI completed Operation Strikeout, a 3-day prostitution sweep
that netted over 140 pimps, prostitutes and their customers. This
included 50 prostitutes and 7 alleged johns arrested in SF.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D3)
2007 Jul 8, Boeing unveiled its
first fully assembled 787 Dreamliner in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 8, In Oakland, Ca.,
Odell Roberson Jr., a transient drug addict, was found shot and
killed. Police later determined that his killer used an AK-47
assault rifle linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an
indictment accused Yusuf Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of
murder for allegedly ordering the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, Roger Federer won
his fifth straight Wimbledon tennis championship, beating Rafael
Nadal 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, China’s state media
said nearly 2,000 officials in central China's Hunan province have
been caught breaking China's strict one-child policy. State media
also said floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed
at least 26 people and left 17 missing in southwest Sichuan province
in the last week.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, France’s President
Nicolas Sarkozy said he will not offer mass pardons to prisoners on
Bastille Day, keeping up his law-and-order reputation and breaking
with tradition.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In India at least
four people drowned or were electrocuted over the weekend in the
northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, bringing India's overall
monsoon death toll to 177.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Chandra Shekhar
(b.1927), former Indian prime minister (1990), died from a
blood-related illness. He served briefly during a period of
political turmoil.
(AFP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Iran’s state TV
said 4 fuel-smuggling trucks crashed into each other and caught fire
in southeastern Iran, killing 13 people.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Abu Omar
al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said in an
audiotape that his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years
to wage a battle against Shiite-dominated Iran. He threatened to
wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq
within two months. A suicide truck bomber killed 23 new Iraqi army
recruits when he rammed into their vehicle south of Baghdad. A
flurry of bombings in Baghdad killed 26 people. American special
operations forces in a raid captured 12 militants in Baghdad who had
broken away from the Mahdi Army, and had carried out attacks on US
and Iraqi troops.
(AP, 7/8/07)(Reuters, 7/8/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, The Israeli Cabinet
approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in the
government's latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant
group.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Valdis Zatlers, a
trauma surgeon with no prior political experience and widely
publicized tax problems, was sworn in as Latvia's third president
since the Baltic state gained independence in 1991.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Libya invited
international tenders for exploration of its onshore and offshore
gas fields covering an area almost the size of Scotland.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Two gunmen attacked
a German couple photographing wildlife in Namibia, killing Johannes
Fellinger (56), in front of his wife and taking her on a high-speed
chase.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria
a British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her
parents, who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito
bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Pakistan's army
tried to blast through the wall of a besieged radical Islamic
seminary to help free hostages held by a cleric and his militant
supporters, leaving one commando dead.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In the Philippines
2 small planes collided in the air and crashed in a rice field north
of Manila, killing two Indian citizens and a Filipino flight
instructor.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Russia’s top
security agency said it has declassified documents on millions of
victims of Soviet-era repression (1920-1950), allowing relatives to
request information about those who were executed or died of disease
and starvation in prison.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Spain's largest
fighting bulls lived up to their fearsome reputation, goring two and
crushing at least seven people as thousands of daredevils sprinted
down narrow streets Sunday in Pamplona's annual running of the
bulls.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Zimbabwe’s official
media said police have arrested 16 more business leaders in a
crackdown on those suspected of violating the government's order to
slash prices by 50%.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, President Bush
directed former aides to defy congressional subpoenas, claiming
executive privilege in resisting Congress' investigation into the
firings of US attorneys.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2007 Jul 9, Alaska’s former
state Rep. Tom Anderson was convicted of taking thousands of dollars
from a corrections company consultant in exchange for his help in
the Legislature.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, US Sen. David
Vitter, R-La., acknowledged that he was on the list of phone records
just released by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the alleged “D.C. Madam.”
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 9, The NAACP meeting
in Detroit held a public burial for the N-word (nigger) racial slur.
In 1944 the NAACP held a symbolic funeral in Detroit for Jim Crow.
(SFC, 7/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 9, Northwest
Biotherapeutics, a US-based biotech company, said it had won
approval for commercial use of the world's first vaccine against
brain cancer in Switzerland.
(AFP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Researchers said a
pill developed by Pfizer to help people stop-smoking appears to also
help curb heavy drinking by targeting a pleasure center in the
brain. The drug called varenicline, began selling in the US last
August under the brand name Chantix.
(SFC, 7/10/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 9, Novartis said the
first skin patch to treat the dementia that can plague Alzheimer's
patients has gained federal approval. The drug in the patch, called
Exelon or rivastigmine, is the same as that now available in capsule
form but provides a regular and continuous dose throughout the day.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Charles Lane
(b.1905), film actor, died in Santa Monica. He appeared in well over
250 roles on film and TV. His final screen appearance was in the
1995 TV movie “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.”
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 9, Afghan troops and
the US-led coalition conducting a nighttime raid killed a Taliban
leader but also two children caught in the crossfire. An exchange of
small arms fire at an army base in Herat killed four Afghan
soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Reuters, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, A London jury
convicted four Muslim militants of plotting to bomb London's public
transport system.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2007 Jul 9, Buenos Aires
experienced its first major snowfall since June, 1918.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 9, Canada announced
plans to increase its Arctic military presence in an effort to
assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, a potentially
oil-rich region the United States claims is international territory.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, The UN-backed Okapi
radio station said that Floribert Chui Bin Kositi, a former
Congolese rebel leader, was beaten to death in Congo’s restive
eastern Kivu region. He held a senior position in a state-run body
monitoring food imports and recently ordered a large consignment of
rice to be destroyed on the grounds that it was unfit for human
consumption.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, The EU's top
justice official said EU citizens will be protected by the US
Privacy Act under an anti-terror deal with Washington on the sharing
of trans-Atlantic air passenger data.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, In India’s
Chattisgarh state an hours-long battle between police and Maoist
rebels armed with machine guns and mortars ended with the deaths of
25 rebels and 24 police. The Maoist insurgency is now spread across
13 of India's 28 states and the rebels are believed to have
10,000-15,000 fighters in an increasingly well-armed force.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Indonesia
prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against former dictator Suharto
(1921-2008), toppled in 1998, seeking $1.54 billion in damages and
funds allegedly stolen from the state during his 32 years in power.
He allegedly forced state banks and others to contribute millions to
the Supersemar Foundation, much of which was siphoned off to
companies run by members of his family and cronies.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.48)
2007 Jul 9, Attacks in Baghdad
killed 13 people as prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on
Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend
of violence that claimed more than 220 lives. A roadside bomb
exploded near an Iraqi military bus north of Baghdad, killing 9
Iraqi soldiers and injuring 21. British warplanes struck the
southern town of al-Majar al-Kabir near the Iranian border, killing
three militants suspected of smuggling weapons into Iraq.
(AP, 7/9/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 9, An appeals court
freed Moldova's former defense minister, overturning his conviction
for abusing his position in the 1997 sale of 21 fighter planes to
the United States.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Nigeria gunmen
attacked two southern oil installations, kidnapping two senior
Nigerian employees of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and two foreigners.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Pakistan’s
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave clerics more time to persuade
defiant militants to lay down their arms and surrender a mosque they
have defended against thousands of government troops.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Poland’s PM
Jaroslaw Kaczynski fired his deputy, Andrzej Lepper, over corruption
allegations, throwing the future of Poland's conservative governing
coalition into doubt and raising the possibility of early elections.
Kaczynski also fired Sports Minister Tomasz Lipiec, of his own Law
and Justice party.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Zimbabwe police
said more than 1,300 shop owners and business managers have been
arrested as part of a crackdown on firms accused of flouting
government-imposed price controls. Thousands of students were
evicted from Zimbabwe's main university campus after they protested
at the weekend against a decision to deny them food for not paying
their fees.
(AFP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, US President
George W. Bush nominated Army Gen. William Ward, the highest ranking
black in the US military, to lead the new Africa Command and
coordinate military operations on the continent.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, Richard Carmona,
ex-Surgeon General (2002-2006), told US Congress that he was kept in
an ideological straightjacket on issues such as stem cells and birth
control.
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, Delaware Gov. Ruth
Ann Minner signed a law abolishing the state’s 2-year state of
limitations on personal injury lawsuits for victims of child sex
abuse.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 10, A judge in Los
Angeles sentenced pizza deliveryman Chester Turner to death for
murdering 10 women and a fetus during the 1980s and '90s.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2007 Jul 10, In Baseball’s
All-Star game the American League beat the National League 5-4
at AT&T Park in SF.
(www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,2028,00.html)
2007 Jul 10, It was reported
that more than 500 Tennessee streams are polluted with E. coli
bacteria, according to information from the Tennessee Department of
Environment and Conservation.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, In Florida a small
plane trying to make an emergency landing crashed into a suburban
Orlando neighborhood, killing both people aboard and starting two
house fires that seriously burned two adults and a 10-year-old boy.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Doug Marlette
(57), Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and writer, died in a car
accident near Holly Springs, Mississippi.
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.B5)(AP, 7/10/08)
2007 Jul 10, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber targeted a NATO patrol in a marketplace in Dihrawud,
Uruzgan province, killing at least 17 people, including 13
schoolchildren. 8 Dutch troops were wounded.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva said that Brazil will budget about $540 million
over eight years to complete its nuclear program, including uranium
enrichment and possibly building a nuclear-powered submarine.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, The Bank of Canada
raised its key interest rate, by one-quarter point to 4.50%, for the
first time in over a year and kept the door open to further hikes,
saying inflation has been persistently higher than it expected.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Activists said
that a recent UN report showing Canadians use more marijuana than
people in any other industrialized country is more evidence that the
drug should be legalized. The 2007 World Drug Report found that
16.8% of Canadians between 15 and 64 used marijuana, at least once
in the past year.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, China executed
Zheng Xiaoyu (63), former head (1997-2006) of its State Food
and Drug Administration (SFDA), for approving untested medicine in
exchange for cash. Zheng was convicted of taking cash and gifts
worth $832,000 when he was in charge of the state administration.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, Cyprus and Malta
received approval from EU finance ministers to join the euro.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.57)
2007 Jul 10, EU finance
ministers agreed to have Dominique Strauss-Kahn at top man at the
IMF to replace Rodrigo de Rato, who will resign in October.
(Econ, 7/14/07,
p.12)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19691259/)
2007 Jul 10, The bulk log
carrier Hai Tong No. 7 went down, 375 miles northwest of Guam, where
it ran into Typhoon Man-yi. 9 of 22 crew members were dead or
missing. The ship, owned by Fuzhou Haijing Shipping, was en route
from Papua New Guinea to China.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 10, Railroad
Development Corp., a Pittsburgh-based railroad company under Henry
Posner III, planned to shut down Guatemala's only train service
after years of fighting thieves, squatters and government-backed
lawsuits. Posner expected to take his case to int’l. arbitration
under CAFTA with a demand for $65 million in lost revenues and
investments.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/23/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 10, Extremists
unleashed a barrage of more than a dozen mortars or rockets into the
Green Zone, killing at least three people, including an American,
and wounding 18 in an area once considered the safest in the Iraqi
capital. Gunmen in Baghdad kidnapped a senior security official,
Abdul Razzaq Aseel al-Assal, the director of the joint security
committee in the city of Mosul. Hannelore Krause (61), a German
woman who was kidnapped in Iraq, was released after 155 days in
captivity, but her son was still held hostage. Sunni extremists
attacked Sherween village northwest of Baghdad. A US and Iraqi army
force moved into Sherween village and drove out the insurgents in a
battle that left at least 19 extremists dead.
(AP, 7/10/07)(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, The Gaddafi
Foundation charity said it has reached an accord with the families
of HIV-infected Libyan children that ends the crisis of the
Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for infecting them.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Mexico's
government called a series of gas pipeline explosions a threat to
the nation's democratic institutions and vowed to step up security
after a guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, Nigerian
troops foiled an attempt by militants to kidnap workers at a Korean
firm in southern Rivers state, killing one insurgent and injuring
several others. Police said several people were injured and many
houses and vehicles were destroyed in two days of fighting between
two rival cult gangs in southern Ogoniland.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Pakistani troops
flushed out holdouts entrenched inside a women's religious school,
taking control of the sprawling Red Mosque room by room in fighting
that left about 50 militants and eight soldiers dead. Abdul Rashid
Ghazi, the chief cleric of the Red Mosque and brother of Abdul Aziz,
was killed as Pakistani troops flushed out entrenched militants.
Umme Hassan, the wife of Aziz and head of a seminary for female
jihadists, escaped.
(AP, 7/10/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 10, Some 50 Philippine
marines were heading back to camp when they were attacked by about
300 suspected Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in Tipo Tipo town on southern
Basilan island. Troops recovered the bodies of 14 marines, some of
them beheaded.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 10, Russian newspapers
reported that thieves had stolen a collection of rare paintings
worth millions of dollars from retired judge Kamo Manukyan. They
were stored unguarded in his empty apartment. The 13 paintings
stolen included works by Frenchman Georges-Pierre Seurat, the
founder of neo-impressionism, Russian seascape painter Ivan
Aivazovsky, and Russian expressionist Alexej Jawlenski.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Sudan’s head of
the civil defense authority said flash floods across central and
eastern Sudan have killed 20 people and destroyed 15,000 houses, and
predicted worse weather conditions to come.
(Reuters, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Pope Benedict XVI
has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church,
approving a document that says Orthodox churches were defective and
that other Christian denominations were not true churches.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 10, Zimbabwe police
said hundreds more business executives and store managers have been
arrested as part of a crackdown on violations of a
government-ordered price freeze.
(AFP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 11, Lady Bird Johnson
(b.1912), widow of former US Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969),
died in Austin, Texas.
(SFC, 7/12/07, p.A2)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.85)
2007 Jul 11, In San Francisco
Joseph Konopka, a neighborhood activist, died at his home on Ashbury
St. in the midst of erotic asphyxiation. Terry Frazier was soon
arrested and charged with murder, robbery and burglary. In 2010
Frazier pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.C2)
2007 Jul 11, In Algeria a
suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck loaded with explosives
at a military encampment outside Algiers, killing 10 soldiers and
wounding 35.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Manol Velev, a
Bulgarian businessman, was shot and left in a coma. Velev was
married to Bulgaria’s sports minister and had paid for the 2006
re-election campaign of Pres. Georgi Parvanov. Velev was released
from the hospital on December 6, 2007 and faced extensive
rehabilitation.
(http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2007-12-06&article=9058)(Econ,
8/11/07, p.42)
2007 Jul 11, In Canada "Honest
Ed" Mirvish (92), a colorful Toronto character who restored
theaters, produced musicals, and ran a brash and cavernous discount
store, died.
(Reuters, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, China's food and
drug agency announced stricter rules for approving new drugs. The
government also ordered small, loosely regulated food producers to
clean up their act.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Nick Young,
British editor of the newsletter China Development Brief, said
officials had ordered the shut down of the newsletter for violating
a 1983 law on gathering statistics. Young had founded the
publication in 1995.
(SFC, 7/12/07, p.A11)
2007 Jul 11, Three firefighters
died while battling a blaze in a forest on the Greek island of
Crete.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 11, A passenger ship
carrying 70 people disappeared off eastern Indonesia after reporting
engine failure in stormy seas. The bodies of two children were found
drifting in nearby waters along with several survivors.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Jordan's military
court convicted and sentenced two militants to prison with hard
labor for plotting to attack Americans living in the kingdom.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Kurdish leaders
spoke out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts
to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Libya's Supreme
Court upheld the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting more than 400 children
with the AIDS virus. But the verdict may not be the final word in
the case.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In western Mexico
Honda, Hershey's and other multinational companies temporarily shut
down their factories after rebels attacked a key natural gas
pipeline.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 11, Nigeria's
anti-corruption agency arrested two former governors who had refused
to present themselves for questioning.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 11, Pakistani
commandos cleared the warren-like Red Mosque complex of all its
die-hard defenders, following an assault that ended a bloody
eight-day siege and left more than 80 dead, including a pro-Taliban
cleric.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Hamas boycotted
the opening of the Palestinian parliament's new term, effectively
allowing President Mahmoud Abbas to keep his moderate emergency
Cabinet in power.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Rwanda’s state-run
radio said the Senate has approved the abolition of the death
penalty, a key step demanded by the international community to
transfer genocide suspects to Rwandan courts.
(AFP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Serbia rejected a
new US-backed UN draft resolution on Kosovo, saying it would only
lead to the province's independence.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In southern
Thailand suspected separatists over the last 24 hours shot dead 4
people including a government official, as the Thai premier began a
two-day visit to the region.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Turkey's
ambassador to Washington said that US weapons have been turning up
in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, A Bush
administration assessment said Iraq had achieved only limited
military and political progress toward a democratic society; Iraqi
leaders responded by insisting they were making progress.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2007 Jul 12, Defying a White
House veto threat, the US House of Representatives approved
legislation to bring combat troops out of Iraq by April 1, 2008.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, A US government
report was released saying undercover investigators, working for a
fake firm, had obtained a license to buy enough radioactive material
to build a "dirty bomb," amid little scrutiny from federal
regulators.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In New Jersey
former Newark Mayor Sharpe James (71) was indicted on corruption
charges. James stepped down as mayor in 2006 to serve as a state
senator. Prosecutors alleged that James arranged the sale of 9
city-owned properties at a discounted rate to former girlfriend
Tamika Riley from 2001 to 2005. Riley quickly sold the properties at
a profit without required rehabilitation work. On April 16, 2008,
James and his ex-mistress were convicted of corruption charges.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A5)(WSJ, 4/10/08, p.A2)(SFC,
4/17/08, p.A4)
2007 Jul 12, The city of
Oakland, Ca., sued garbage hauler Waste Management in an attempt to
force the company to pick up trash during its 11-day lockout of
truck drivers. Isaac Haqq, founder and principal of Oakland’s
University Preparatory Charter Academy (2001), resigned amidst a
cheating scandal. Several Uprep teachers blamed him for a culture of
cheating and intimidation.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B9)(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, In Oakland, Ca.,
Michael John Wills, a sous chef, was shot and killed. Police later
determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle linked to
Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf
Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly
ordering the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, Robert Quill (52)
of Florida filed a federal lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Rev.
Francis G. DeLuca, who worked for the Catholic Diocese of
Wilmington, Delaware, for 35 years. The suit alleged that church
officials knew DeLuca was abusing boys as early as 1958.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 12, Arthur J. Kobacker
(83), discount shoe store entrepreneur, died at his home in Florida.
He set up his first dozen self-service shoe stores in 1960 starting
with one in Pittsburgh. “I’ve run into customers who say they have
200 pairs of shoes in their closet because of us.”
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 12, Philip Lum Jr.,
former mayor of Colma, Ca., was sentenced to 18 months in federal
prison for failing to report numerous free airline tickets from the
Lucky Chances Casino in 1999 and 2000.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B6)
2007 Jul 12, A coalition of US
and Canadian cities along the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River,
including Toronto and Chicago, vowed to cut water consumption 15% by
2015.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Jim Mitchell,
co-founder of the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theater in SF, died of
an apparent heart attack in Sonoma County, Ca. He and his brother
Artie had opened the adult theater in 1969 and went on to pioneer
pornographic films. In 1991 Jim shot Artie to death in Corte Madera
and served just under 3 years at San Quentin Prison for voluntary
manslaughter.
(SFC, 7/14/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 12, HM Capital
Partners LLC, a leading, Dallas-based private equity firm, and Booth
Creek Management Corporation sold Swift & Company to Brazil’s
JBS Friboi S.A., the largest beef processor in South America and one
of the largest worldwide beef exporters. Swift was the 3rd largest
processor of beef and pork in America and the biggest processor of
beef in Australia.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBS_USA)
2007 Jul 12, Anglo-Australian
miner Rio Tinto launched a 38.1-billion-dollar offer for Canada's
Alcan, trumping US rival Alcoa in a mammoth bid to create the
world's largest aluminium company.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with
suspected Taliban militants, killing 11 rebels in Uruzgan province.
A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol vehicle left 6 officers
dead in Khost province. In an overnight operation in the Girishk
district of Helmand province, the Afghan army and air strikes by
multinational forces killed 20 rebels. A British soldier was killed
and two others were wounded during an operation in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Burkina Faso and
Taiwan renewed a commitment to boost their diplomatic ties during a
visit to the west African nation by Taiwan's Foreign Minister James
Huang.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, China’s state
media said nearly a half-million people fled a flood zone
surrounding the swollen Huai River, while high waters in the south
unleashed a plague of an estimated 2 billion field mice that were
ravaging crops.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, French legislators
approved a measure championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy that
would encourage people to work beyond the 35-hour workweek by
cutting taxes on overtime pay.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, France told Serbia
its EU bid depends on letting Kosovo break away.
(WSJ, 1/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, In Athens, Greece,
a suburban passenger train collided with a freight train, injuring
at least 53 people.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, An influential and
conservative Islamic theological school in India said marriages of
Muslim couples using Internet Web cameras were acceptable and legal.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Iranian artillery
shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages as Iranian troops clashed with
Kurdish guerrillas making an incursion across the border.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, US troops raided a
Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad in a hunt for militiamen linked to
Iran, sparking exchanges of fire and a mortar attack. 9 insurgents
and two civilians were killed. Iraqi police said 19 people were
killed, and residents said some of the casualties were caused by US
helicopter fire. Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his
assistant Saeed Chmagh were killed in Baghdad in an area where US
forces were battling militants. In southern Iraq, clashes erupted
between Shiite militants and the Iraqi army, killing a soldier and a
civilian in the city of Diwaniyah. Aircraft struck a group of
militants planting a roadside bomb before dawn, killing five of the
militants. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt near a
wedding party in Tal Afar. 5 people were killed and 5 wounded.
Robbers overnight stole about $680,000 from a bank in central
Baghdad. The theft at the private Dar al-Salam bank was discovered
by the bank manager when it opened in the morning, and suspicions
fell on overnight guards. A detainee died from injuries after
apparently being assaulted by other inmates at a US detention
facility in Baghdad. On June 7, 2010, the US military said it is
holding Army Specialist Bradley Manning of the 2nd Brigade 10th
Mountain Division in pretrial confinement in Kuwait and that he is
suspected of releasing classified information. A video released in
April, 2010, showed US Army helicopters killing two journalists in
the July 12, 2007, shooting.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AP, 7/13/07)(AP, 4/6/10)
2007 Jul 12, Israeli forces
moved into the Gaza Strip in a hunt for weapons and wanted
militants, sparking a fierce battle with Hamas militants that killed
one Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, The Lebanese army
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery fire, but the
military denied reports that the action was part of a final assault
on the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded inside.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, News reports said
Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon has dispatched a new 5,000- strong
elite military unit to guard strategic sites, including oil
refineries and dams in the wake of recent guerrilla attacks on
pipelines operated by Pemex.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 12, Authorities
announced a major crackdown on organized crime in Amsterdam's Red
Light District, for the first time bringing national police
investigators and tax authorities to bear on what had long been seen
as a local problem.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Nigeria the
3-year-old son of town chief Eze Francis Amadi was grabbed by gunmen
who smashed a window of his father's SUV in the fourth child
kidnapping in the oil-rich south in less than two months. The boy
was returned the next day.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, Tens of thousands
of Protestant hard-liners marched without trouble through Northern
Ireland's streets in an annual event that once ignited conflict with
Catholics, but passed peacefully this year, thanks to a succeeding
peace process. An estimated 75,000 Orangemen accompanied by
fife-and-drum units popularly known as "kick the pope" bands paraded
through Belfast and 17 other cities and towns.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Pakistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up, killing three people and wounding
three more in Miranshah. A bomb killed 5 people, including 3 police,
and wounded several others outside a religious centre in the
Himalayan tourist town of Mingora. Islamist protests broke out in
several parts of Pakistan following the army raid on the pro-Taliban
Red mosque.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, A Philippine ferry
sank southeast of Manila. At least 129 people survived the sinking
of the MV Blue Water Princess. 15 bodies were recovered and divers
said they found many more.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Somalia
insurgents fired more than two dozen mortar shells at government
targets in Mogadishu overnight, including the president's home, in
an apparent attempt to disrupt this weekend's reconciliation talks.
At least 3 men were killed.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, South Africa
banned the import of poultry products from Germany after an outbreak
of the potentially fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Spain charging
bulls gored 7 people and seriously injured several others as this
year's San Fermin festival in Pamplona served up its longest and
most dangerous run yet.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Spanish Civil
Guards heightened a battle over a $500 million treasure of gold and
silver coins from a shipwreck when they seized the Ocean Alert, a
vessel belonging to a Tampa, Fla.,-based company. The ship was
released a week later.
(AP, 7/12/07)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.51)
2007 Jul 12, Sudan’s Interior
Ministry said flash floods across central and eastern Sudan have
killed 30 people and destroyed 25,000 houses.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In the Swiss Alps
6 soldiers on an alpine training exercise were killed when an
avalanche sent them plummeting thousands of feet into a valley.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In southern
Thailand suspected rebels killed five people.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, A US jury in
Chicago found Conrad Black guilty of criminal fraud and obstruction
of justice. Black and the others had been accused by US prosecutors
of pilfering $60 million in payments that should have benefited
Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest English
language newspaper chain, and its shareholders. Black was sentenced
to a 6 1/2-year sentence and began serving it at a federal prison in
Florida.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)(AP, 7/13/08)
2007 Jul 13, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban
militants, leaving 10 suspected militants dead.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, A court in Brazil
issued an arrest warrant for self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris
Berezovsky on charges of money-laundering, but he denied any
involvement. The case dates back to 2004, when MSI spent millions of
dollars acquiring new players, which raised the interest of Sao
Paulo state prosecutors. They wanted to know more about the
investment group, its Iranian-born president, Kia Joorabchian, and
the origin of the money he and his unidentified partners injected
into the club. Brazilian prosecutors said they have also issued an
arrest warrant for Joorabchian, a British citizen.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, began hosting the Pan American Games. An estimated 5,500
athletes from 42 countries participated in 38 sports. The games
ended July 29.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Pan_American_Games)
2007 Jul 13, China’s General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
said on its Web site that frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods
Inc., the world's largest meat processor, were found to be
contaminated with salmonella. AQSIQ said other imports barred
included frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. tainted with
residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from
Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. containing a leanness-enhancing feed
additive.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 13, French legislators
approved a measure lowering the cap on tax burdens to 50% of income,
despite resistance from leftists and even within the ruling
conservative coalition.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, A French gendarme
shot a superior officer dead in a Paris suburb before killing his
own twin children and finally turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, The International
Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has agreed to answer lingering
questions about its nuclear experiments and will let UN inspectors
return to a plutonium-producing reactor it is building.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In northern Iran
at least 18 people were killed and 24 others injured in a road
accident when a truck slammed into a bus full passengers.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, US forces battled
Iraqi police and gunmen, killing six policemen, after an American
raid captured an Iraqi police lieutenant accused of leading a cell
of Shiite militiamen. 7 gunmen also died in the fight. A volley of
at least four mortars were fired from the city's dangerous southern
districts at the Green Zone. The mortars hit near the home of a
senior Iraqi military official, killing two Iraqi soldiers. Khalid
W. Hassan (23), an Iraqi journalist for The New York Times, was shot
to death on his way to work. A US soldier was killed by small arms
fire near Rusdi Mulla.
(AP, 7/13/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 13, A powerful typhoon
pounded Japan's southern Okinawa island chain, cutting power to tens
of thousands of households and grounding flights with winds up to
100 mph.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In north Lebanon
Islamic militants fired back volleys of rockets at the Lebanese army
as troops pounded the remaining suspected hideouts of the Fatah
Islam fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Roman Robles-Cota
(32), a police chief in the northern Mexican town of Sonoyta pleaded
guilty to charges that he bribed a US Border Patrol agent in 2005 in
an effort to help a smuggling operation.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, The main US
development fund signed a $506.9 million aid agreement with
Mozambique to promote economic growth and reduce poverty.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In Nepal
landslides in two mountainous districts killed at least 26 people
and injured 17 more.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In Pakistan Muslim
protesters burnt effigies of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf
and American icon "Uncle Sam" in mass rallies against this week's
deadly Red Mosque army raid.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Some 4,000
Palestinians remained stuck on the Egyptian side of the border with
trouble finding food and shelter, shortages they blamed on local
authorities who are indifferent to their plight.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, The Great Canary
Telescope, one of the most powerful in the world, began spying on
the universe, using its 34-foot wide mirror to search for planets
similar to our own from a mountaintop on one of Spain's Canary
Islands. The Canary Island observatory said institutes in Mexico and
the US collaborated in the project, involving more than 1,000 people
in nearly 100 companies.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 13, Andrew Natsios,
the US envoy to Sudan, accused the country's government of resuming
bombing civilian positions in its troubled Darfur region, and warned
of a "disturbing" trend of Arab groups resettling in the area.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, UN officials said
they are investigating allegations that Indian peacekeepers in Congo
traded food and even military intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels
in return for gold.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Authorities in
Zimbabwe announced the arrest of hundreds more retailers and
executives as part of an ongoing price crackdown as it emerged the
head of the central bank had warned against the blitz.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 14, The Los Angeles
archdiocese agreed to a landmark $660 million clergy abuse
settlement. Over 500 claimants will get an average payout in excess
of $1.3 million.
(AP, 7/15/07)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 14, In Algeria about
50 members of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb
attacked two police stations in Yaourene village in Tizi Ouzou
province, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Algiers. The Algerian army
halted the attack and killed 4 in the northeastern Kabylie region.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 14, In London an
Indian doctor arrested the same day his brother allegedly drove a
Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas bombs into Glasgow's main airport was
charged with a terrorism offense. A distant cousin in Australia was
also charged in the failed attacks in London and Glasgow.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Egyptian police
said authorities have arrested 35 men suspected of membership in an
al-Qaida- inspired group that planned to carry out attacks in Egypt.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, In southern France
Pascal Payet (43), who was serving a 30-year sentence for a holdup
on an armored truck that left a guard dead, escaped by helicopter
from the Grasse prison. Payet had escaped from the Luynes prison in
October 2001. In 2003, he helped organize the helicopter escape of
three fellow inmates from the same prison. In September Payet was
arrested along with 2 accomplices in Mataro, Spain.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Jul 14, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security
in the country when American troops leave "any time they want,"
though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training.
A car bomb in Baghdad leveled a two-story apartment building, and a
suicide bomber plowed his explosives-packed vehicle into a line of
cars at a gas station. The two attacks killed at least eight people.
A group of 24 Iranians escaped from detention in an Iraqi police
station in the southern town of Badra. Four were quickly recaptured,
but the remainder may have fled across the nearby border.
(AP, 7/14/07)(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 14, Lebanon's
political factions including the pro-Syrian opposition Hezbollah
began two days of talks in France to try to ease the deadlock
paralyzing the nation.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, UN inspectors
arrived in North Korea to monitor the communist country's
long-anticipated promise to scale back its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea said it had shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon,
hours after a ship cruised into port loaded with oil promised in
return for the country's pledge to disarm.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/14/08)
2007 Jul 14, Islamic militants
launched a deadly suicide attack, detonated a roadside bomb and
fired rockets as thousands of Pakistani troops deployed to the
northwestern frontier to thwart the launch of a holy war. A suicide
bomber struck in North Waziristan, his explosives-laden vehicle
killing at least 26 soldiers and wounding 29 others in a military
convoy.
(AP, 7/14/07)(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 14, Palestinian PM
Salam Fayyad resigned as head of an emergency government and was
immediately appointed to lead an interim Cabinet.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Russia suspended
its participation in a key European arms control treaty that governs
deployment of troops on the continent. Under the moratorium, Russia
will halt inspections and verifications of its military sites by
NATO countries and will no longer limit the number of its
conventional weapons. The treaty, between Russian and NATO members,
was signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the
breakup of the Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow
withdraw troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and
Georgia. Russia has ratified the amended version, but the United
States and other NATO members have refused to do so until Russia
completely withdraws.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Sri Lankan troops
used war planes and long-range weapons to attack suspected Tamil
Tiger positions as fresh fighting broke out. The clash with Tamil
Tiger rebels killed at least 10 Sri Lankan soldiers and left 34
wounded.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 14, Sudan arrested 14
alleged plotters including retired army officers. The next day the
interior ministry accused an opposition leader of heading a plot to
overthrow the regime by creating armed chaos that would lead to
international intervention.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 14, A miner (29) died
in western Uganda from the deadly Marburg virus, first discovered in
1967.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 14, Alexandre Robert
(15), a French-Swiss youth, was raped by 3 UAR nationals in Dubai.
The case went to court in November. On Dec 12 a panel of judges
sentenced two Emirati men to 15 years in prison each in connection
with a kidnapping and sexual attack on the French-Swiss boy.
(Reuters, 11/7/07)(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Jul 15, The Los Angeles
Times reported that about 45 percent of all foreign militants
targeting US troops and Iraqi security forces were from Saudi
Arabia, 15 percent from Syria and Lebanon, and 10 percent from North
Africa.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, In SF 2 coyotes, a
male and female, were shot and killed in Golden Gate Park following
recent attacks on leashed dogs.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D1)
2007 Jul 15, In Cheyenne,
Wyoming, Robin Munis was shot in the head just after midnight
Saturday as she sang with the classic rock and country group Ty and
the Twisters. Police searched for David Munis (36), a National
Guardsman with sniper training who they suspect shot his wife.
Police located David Munis’ pickup truck the next in rural Albany
County. As they closed in on the suspect and called for him to
surrender, Munis shot himself in the chest. He was flown to Laramie,
Wyoming, where he was pronounced dead on July 18th.
(AP, 7/15/07)(http://tinyurl.com/6669k3)
2007 Jul 15, A roadside bomb
killed six Afghans working for a Western security company in the
east of the country.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Antun Gudelj (59),
a Croatian man charged with killing three police officials in the
early days of the 1991 Serb-Croat war, was extradited from Australia
to Croatia to face a new trial after an earlier pardon.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Botswana's
President Festus Mogae (67) announced that he is to stand down next
year after a decade at the helm of the diamond-rich southern African
nation.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Britain released
without charge 2 suspects in the failed car bomb attacks in London
and Glasgow last month.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, JCDecaux launched
a bike rental system in Paris.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.76)
2007 Jul 15, A minister said
India's southern coastal Kerala state was reeling from an outbreak
of mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral fever infections that have
claimed 193 lives. Chikungunya, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti
mosquito, was first detected in 1955 in Africa and last year caused
the deaths of some 200 people on the French Indian ocean island of
Reunion. Federal health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told parliament
last year that some 1.1 million Indians were infected with
Chikungunya.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, A car bomb packed
with explosives detonated in a central Baghdad square, killing 10
people and wounding 25. At least 18 other people were killed
including 7 border guards in the northern Kani Khal area and 8 in
shootings in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and several
areas south of Baghdad. 22 bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped
in various locations of Baghdad, apparently the latest victims of
sectarian violence.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Mahmoud Darwish,
the world's most recognized Palestinian poet, delivered a stinging
tirade against Palestinian infighting in his first public appearance
in decades in the Israeli city of Haifa.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Typhoon Man-yi,
one of the most powerful storms to hit Japan in decades, headed away
from Tokyo after leaving four people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, A Libyan
foundation confirmed that families of Libyan children infected with
AIDS have accepted compensation topping 460 million dollars, which
could lead to a death sentence on six foreign medics being lifted.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants holed up
in a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon fired more rockets
that landed in farm fields outside the camp as the army bombarded
suspected hideouts inside the besieged settlement. Politicians from
Lebanon's divided factions held a second day of talks in France to
try to ease 8 months of deadlock.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, North Korea
confirmed it has shut its nuclear reactor that provides the
secretive state with material to make weapons-grade plutonium.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants in
northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government.
Suicide attacks and a roadside bomb together killed 44 people and
wounded more than 100.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Marina Pisareva
(47), the deputy head of a small Russian division of German media
company Bertelsmann AG, was found dead at her summer house near
Moscow, possibly stabbed with her own dagger.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Spanish officials
said police investigating a child pornography ring have arrested 66
people and seized computer hard drives containing 48 million
photographs and video images. The nationwide sweep came after a
10-month investigation.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, UN and African
Union representatives gathered in Tripoli to evaluate Darfur.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, Pres. Bush said he
would call Israel, the Palestinians and others in the region to a
peace conference and urged Arabs to send Cabinet-level officials to
a Fall meeting to be led by Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.A7)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 17, The US freed 16
Saudis from Guantanamo and flew them home, where they were taken
into custody for investigation of possible links to terrorism.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, A man carrying a
gun and declaring "I am the emperor" was shot and killed by security
outside the offices of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 16, Dikembe Mutombo
(41), NBA basketball star, said he wants to score for his native
Democratic Republic of Congo by financing a new hospital and
training young hoops players. Mutombo invested $15 million (11
million euros) in the construction of the hospital, more than half
the total cost.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Rupert Murdoch’s
News Corp. reached a tentative agreement to buy Dow Jones & Co.,
publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 16, IHOP Corp.
announced that it had sealed a deal to buy Applebee’s for about $2.1
billion. This would make IHOP the nation’s largest sit-down
restaurant chain with 3,250 locations and sales of nearly $7
billion.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 16, An Amtrak train
hit a car at a Florida crossing killing 4 occupants.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, Mark Sneed (50),
president of Phillips Foods, died of a heart attack at his home in
Riva, Md. He drove the company’s expansion to Asian suppliers for
crab.
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 16, Afghanistan's
government fired Abdul Sattar Murad, the governor of Kapisa
province, days after he said Afghans are distancing themselves from
Pres. Hamid Karzai and that a "vacuum of authority" is allowing the
Taliban, al-Qaida and other groups to gain power. In southern
Kandahar province suspected Taliban militants ambushed two police
officers riding a bike in Zhari district, killing both.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 16, Argentina’s
President Nestor Kirchner's economy minister resigned after a
prosecutor ordered her to testify about $64,000 in cash that was
found in a bag in her office bathroom. Kirchner accepted Felisa
Miceli's resignation and appointed economist and Industry Secretary
Gustavo Peirano as her replacement.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Bangladesh police
arrested former PM Sheikh Hasina on extortion charges, and she was
ordered jailed pending trial.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Britain ordered
the expulsion of four Russian diplomats because of Moscow's refusal
to extradite the lead suspect in the fatal poisoning of a former KGB
officer in London.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 16, The High Court in
London upheld a ban on a teenager from wearing a so-called "purity
ring" at school to signal her refusal of sex before marriage.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, The Canadian
government agreed to disburse C$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion) in aid
over 20 years to Quebec's 15,000 Cree to improve health, security
and other services for the native Indians.
(Reuters, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Orascom
Construction Industries S.A.E. of Cairo said it is investing $115
million to acquire a 50% stake in a North Korean cement plant.
(WSJ, 1/16/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 16, In Ethiopia a
court sentenced 35 opposition politicians and activists to life in
prison and denied them the right to vote or run for public office
for inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow the government.
They had protested the alleged rigging of ’05 elections. Those
facing life imprisonment include the leader of the Coalition for
Unity and Democracy, Hailu Shawel; Berhanu Nega, who was elected
mayor of Addis Ababa; former Harvard scholar Mesfin Woldemariam; and
former UN special envoy and former Norfolk (Va.) State University
professor, Yacob Hailemariam.
(AP, 7/16/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, A group
representing thousands of children of Holocaust survivors filed a
class-action lawsuit against the German government, demanding that
Germany pay for their psychiatric care.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Haitian radio
reported that US Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Guy
Philippe (39), a former rebel leader and presidential candidate with
alleged ties to drug traffickers.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Reliance
Communications, India's second largest telecom company, said it paid
300 million dollars to buy US-based telecom firm Yipes Holdings to
expand data services.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, A court in Iran
sentenced Adnan Hassanpour (27), a journalist for the closed
Kurdish-Persian weekly, to death on charges of endangering national
security and propaganda against the state. Abdolvahed “Hiva” Botimar
(29) was also sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in
Marivan.
(http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15054)
2007 Jul 16, In Iraq twin
suicide car bombings exploded within 20 minutes of each other in
Kirkuk, killing at least 85 people and wounding around 150 in
attacks targeting a Kurdish political office and ripping through the
Haseer outdoor market. A string of attacks in Baghdad killed at
least 14 people. An American soldier died from wounds received the
day before by a bombing in Ninevah province. American soldiers
killed about a dozen insurgents during a three-hour gunfight in
Fadhil. A US Marine died in a non-combat related incident in Anbar
province.
(AP, 7/16/07)(AP, 7/17/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, A 6.8 earthquake
struck northwestern Japan, destroying hundreds of homes, buckling
seaside bridges and causing a fire at one of the world's most
powerful nuclear power plants. 11 people were killed and hundreds
were injured. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant suffered a
slew of problems, including spilled waste drums, leaked radioactive
water, fires and burst pipes.
(AFP, 7/16/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)(Econ, 7/21/07,
p.41)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 16, In northern
Lebanon fierce fighting erupted at a besieged Palestinian refugee
camp as army troops pounded the remaining hideouts of
al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up inside with artillery and tank
fire. 4 soldiers were killed in fighting. Troops captured two
militants while pursuing the fighters in the camp's old
neighborhoods.
(AP, 7/16/07)(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 16, Health officials
in Malawi prepared to launch a massive HIV testing program to
identify tens of thousands of people unknowingly infected with the
virus.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Mexico police
fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from
reaching the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in
the worst outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since
November.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Pakistan held
crisis talks with tribal elders to save a peace deal with
pro-Taliban militants, amid fears of fresh violence after 3 weekend
suicide attacks left more than 70 dead.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Scotland’s
University of Edinburgh confirmed that it had withdrawn an honorary
doctorate awarded to Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in 1984,
because of concern over his human rights record.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Public schools
reopened in South Africa after seven weeks following a month-long
strike by teachers and winter holidays.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Venezuela RCTV
resumed broadcasting on cable and satellite TV channels. The station
had been pushed off public access on May 28.
(Econ, 7/21/07,
p.38)(www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22903)
2007 Jul 16, Zimbabwean Roman
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube was named in an adultery case. State
radio reported that a woman, identified as Rosemary Sibanda,
"admitted the affair" to the state broadcasting company. The radio
report said the woman's husband, Onesimus Sibanda, was demanding
$160,000 in damages.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 17, The US offered
additional food aid to Zimbabwe to ease its famine but criticized
what it said were reckless actions by Pres. Robert Mugabe to try to
deal with the problem.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Jim Nicholson,
Secretary of the US Veteran’s Administration abruptly resigned in
the wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in
the Iraq war.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The Dow Jones
industrial average crossed 14,000 for the first time before ending
the day at 13,918.22.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The California
State Water Resources Control board passed a 70-year mercury cleanup
plan for the SF Bay.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 17, In Virginia
Michael Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was indicted by a
federal grand jury along with 3 others on charges related to
competitive dog fighting. In Dec. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in
prison for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved
gambling and killing pit bulls.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A6)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Jul 17, Whole Foods
launched an internal investigation after it became public that CEO
John Mackey had for many years posted critical comments online
against Wild Oats prior to a planned acquisition of the firm this
year.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.62)
2007 Jul 17, In Sao Paulo,
Brazil, a TAM airlines Airbus-320 slammed into a gas station and a
TAM building and burst into flames after trying to land on a short,
rain-slicked runway at Congonhas airport. All 187 people aboard were
killed along with 12 on the ground.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, A British court
sentenced Yassin Nassari (27), a British-born Syrian cleric, to
3½ years in prison for bringing missile plans into Britain in
2006. He had led a branch of the Islamic Society at the Univ. of
Westminster. Nassari served just over seven months of his sentence.
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.61)(www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/28/terror.release)
2007 Jul 17, Cambodia's
government issued a directive preventing Christians from promoting
their religion in public places, or using money or other means to
persuade people to convert.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A foreman from a
kiln in north China where workers were beaten and forced to work
18-hour days was sentenced to life in jail and another man was
sentenced to death for the beating death of a laborer. A total of 29
people were convicted in seven different courts in Shanxi for their
roles in the slavery scandal.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, An international
think-tank said China's smog-choked cities and contaminated
waterways are leaving many people sick and unable to work, in turn
fomenting unrest and threatening the country's economic growth.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, It was reported
that the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP estimated
that the cereal deficit for East Timor this year and next will reach
86,364 tons. With commercial imports anticipated at 71,000 tons, the
shortfall needs to be filled through food assistance.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Lawmakers loyal to
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they are ending a nearly
five-week boycott of parliament sessions after officials accepted
their demands for rebuilding a Shiite shrine damaged by bombings. In
eastern Baghdad a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi
army patrol in Zayouna, a mostly Shiite area, killing 10 people
including six civilians. The bodies of two security guards were
found in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, two days after
they were kidnapped from the office of a cell phone company where
they worked. 29 members of a Shiite tribe were massacred overnight
in Diyala province when dozens of suspected Sunni gunmen raided
their village near Muqdadiyah. The dead included four women. 3
American soldiers were killed in separate bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 17, In Lebanon
militants continued to resist the army's advance. Security officials
said Army troops are making "significant" gains in their
long-running battle against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded
inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 60
militants and more than 20 civilians have been killed in fighting
since May 20.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Libya's foreign
minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children
with HIV have been commuted to life in prison. The ruling came after
the families of the children each received $1 million and agreed to
drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Najib Razak,
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said Malaysia is an Islamic state
and not a secular one, while carefully assuring members of minority
faiths that their rights will be protected. More than 60% of
Malaysia's 27 million people are Muslim Malays and Islam is the
official religion under the country's constitution. But while the
constitution defines the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also
guarantees freedom of religion.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil
giant Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a
key oil supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's
Ogoniland region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has
affected the company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six
villages whose residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A suicide bomber
killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North
Waziristan region on the Afghan border, hours after pro-Taliban
militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. An apparent
suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 16 people and injured 44 at a
rally where the former chief justice was scheduled to speak.
(SFC, 7/18/07, p.A13)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 17, Russia vowed a
"targeted and appropriate" response to Britain's expulsion of four
diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the
radiation poisoning death of a former KGB officer.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Syria’s Pres.
Bashar Assad was sworn in for a 2nd, seven-year term in office.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern
Thailand twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other
people, as the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the
region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In western Ukraine
a train carrying yellow phosphorus derailed, releasing a cloud of
toxic gas into the air over 14 villages. 20 people were hospitalized
and hundreds evacuated.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 18, US President
George W. Bush ordered the creation of a "working group" of top
aides to review the safety of imports from China and all around the
world. Michael Leavitt, Health and Human Services Secretary, was
selected to chair the panel.
(AP, 7/18/07)(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 18, A massive geyser
of steam and debris erupted through a midtown Manhattan street near
Grand Central Terminal as an 83-year-old steam pipe ruptured. One
woman, identified as Lois Baumerich (57) of Hawthorne, N.J., died
from cardiac arrest.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, NYC and New Jersey
claimed $170.2 million in anti-terrorism funds, LA and Long Beach,
Ca., claimed $72.6 million, DC claimed $61.7 million, Chicago got
$47.3 million, the SF Bay Area got $34.1 million and Houston got $25
million.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 18, Jerry Hadley
(b.1952), opera tenor, died in Poughkeepsie, NY. He had been in the
hospital since July 10, when he was admitted after shooting himself
with an air rifle.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A2)
2007 Jul 18, Sekou Sundiata
(b.1948), black poet and activist born as Robert Franklin Feaster,
died of heart failure in Westchester, NY.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 18, Suspected Taliban
militants ambushed a convoy of Afghan police officers driving
through Zabul province, killing six. Suicide bombers in Khost killed
three police officers. Militants fatally shot two police officers in
southern Kandahar province, where four suspected Taliban were killed
in a clash with NATO and Afghan forces. In Paktia province, an
attack on a road construction crew left one person from the
Philippines dead and three guards wounded. Taliban fighters also
ambushed police in Logar province, killing six of the officers.
Armed men kidnapped two Germans and two Afghans working on a dam
project in central Afghanistan. One of the Germans, Ruediger
Diedrich, was found shot dead three days later; the others were
later released.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/18/08)
2007 Jul 18, Bosnia's war
crimes court acquitted Momcilo Mandic, the most senior ethnic Serb
official indicted by Bosnian authorities, of all charges related to
crimes during the 1992-95 war.
(Reuters, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, In London 3 Muslim
men were jailed for 6 years for their role in a heated protest
outside the Danish embassy in 2006, following the publication of
cartoons in a Danish newspaper making fun of the Prophet and of
Muslims generally. A 4th man was sentenced to 4 years.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.55)
2007 Jul 18, Eritrean state
media said Sudanese army commanders and former rebel leaders from
the east of the country have signed a military deal in Asmara,
bolstering a peace agreement signed last year. Bringing an end to 10
years of sporadic fighting, a peace deal was signed last year with
the Sudanese government, which is to allocate the Eastern groups a
total of 600 million dollars over five years for development.
(AFP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, Guatemalan police
rescued a two-month-old boy who had been stolen from his home and
arrested four people who were allegedly preparing the baby for
illegal adoption.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, In India at least
26 people were killed and 15 others injured when a seven-story
building collapsed in Mumbai.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, An armed group
killed 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard in clashes in
the country's lawless southeast. A report said the Guards clashed
with drug traffickers in a mountainous area near Iran's borders with
Pakistan and Afghanistan and killed four of them.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 18, The Iraqi
government said Turkish artillery and warplanes bombarded areas of
northern Iraq and called on Turkey to stop military operations and
resolve the conflict diplomatically. A series of roadside bombs
exploded in separate areas of east Baghdad, killing 11 people and
wounding more than a dozen. US troops killed three al-Qaida suspects
as they tried to slip out of Baqouba. 4 US soldiers and their Iraqi
interpreter were killed in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, Two boats carrying
would-be migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe sank between
Italy and Libya, leaving five people dead, including a child. Eleven
others were missing and presumed dead. An Italian Navy ship pulled
22 survivors from the water.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, A top Nigerian
lawyer accused former president Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption and
asked the anti-graft commission (EFCC) to investigate his financial
activities while in office. A Nigerian oil official said the economy
has lost more than one billion dollars a month and hundreds of
thousands of barrels of crude a day since 2006 due to unrest in the
Niger Delta. In northern Nigeria a radical Sunni Islamic preacher
was shot dead near a mosque. Sunni Muslims in Sokoto said they
suspected members of the rival Shiite community.
(AFP, 7/18/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, Suspected
militants attacked security forces in northwest Pakistan, killing 16
soldiers and wounding up to 21 others in two separate strikes
against military convoys.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, An explosion tore
through a crowd of mourners at a cemetery in southern Russia,
wounding at least 10 people, including four police officers. The
funeral was for an ethnic Russian woman who had been fatally shot
along with her two grown children July 16 in Ingushetia.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, South Korea's
nuclear envoy said North Korea followed up the shutdown of its sole
operating reactor with a pledge to disclose all its nuclear weapons
programs and disable them by the end of the year.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, Telecoms giant
Ericsson said it had won a 2.0-billion-dollar order from India's
Bharti Airtel to expand its network into rural areas, the largest
order ever received by the Swedish company.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 18, Thailand’s
Computer Crime Act, intended to prevent cybercrimes, came into
force. Most prosecutions that followed under the act were for online
content that supposedly endangered national security.
(Econ, 2/5/11,
p.54)(www.prachatai.com/english/node/117)
2007 Jul 18, A Ukraine bus
taking vacationers to the Black Sea overturned when its brakes
failed, killing six people and injuring 46.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, A federal judge
dismissed a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame,
who was demanding money from Bush administration officials she
blamed for leaking her agency identity.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2007 Jul 19, The prices of lead
and tin hit historic peaks in London, supported by tight global
supplies and fierce demand for both base metals.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Taliban gunmen
abducted 23 members of a South Korean church group in southern
Afghanistan. The next day a purported spokesman for the Islamic
militia said it will question them about their activities in
Afghanistan before deciding their fate. Two hostages were fatally
shot; the rest were later freed. In northern Afghanistan a suicide
bomber blew himself up outside a police station, killing one
civilian and wounding 25 other people. In Helmand's Marja district,
Taliban militants ambushed police, leaving six officers dead and two
others wounded. 2 separate bombings in southern Afghanistan left
five civilians dead, while a Taliban ambush killed six police
officers. A car bomb targeting a US-led coalition convoy in Helmand
province's Sangin district killed two civilians and wounded two
coalition troops. A mine exploded under a civilian car in Kandahar
province's Zhari district, killing three civilians.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/19/08)
2007 Jul 19, The
Armenian-controlled breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh held a
presidential election amid a rumbling dispute with Azerbaijan over
the mountainous enclave's unrecognized independence.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Up to 50 migrants
were missing in rough seas south of the Canary Islands after their
boat capsized.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, In southern
Hungary a tourist bus collided with a truck. The truck driver and
six bus passengers were killed, and 16 others were injured.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Lawmakers voted in
an election widely expected to give India its first female
president. Pratibha Patil (72), governor of the northwestern state
of Rajasthan, was said to have been selected for her unswerving
devotion to Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, and Gandhi's
powerful family, which has historically controlled the party.
Pratibha Patil was elected as the country's first female president
in a vote seen as a victory for the hundreds of millions of Indian
women who contend with widespread discrimination. An Indian
anti-terror court sentenced three more men to death for their
involvement in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai in 1993 which
killed 257 people.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 19, Sunni lawmakers
ended their five-week boycott of parliament, raising hopes the
factious assembly can make progress on benchmark legislation
demanded by Washington. The bodies of two men with bullets in their
heads were found dumped near a Sunni mosque in Baghdad. A Kurdish
political party member was ambushed and killed in eastern Mosul.
Gunmen firing from a speeding car killed a bodyguard of a Sunni
parliament member in Mosul. Assailants blew up two bridges in
Haditha overnight. The US said two American soldiers have been
charged with killing an Iraqi on June 23 near Kirkuk. Insurgents
killed three British troops and two American soldiers in separate
attacks in southern and central Iraq.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, In Pakistan 30
elders from several tribal regions in the northwest traveled to
North Waziristan in the latest government-backed effort to persuade
militants to reverse their decision to end a peace deal. 3 suicide
bombings killed at least 51 people. A suicide bomber hit a convoy of
Chinese workers passing though the main bazaar in Hub, killing 29
Pakistani bystanders and police, and prompting Musharraf to call for
national unity against extremists. A suicide attacker detonated a
bomb at a mosque in an army cantonment in the northwestern town of
Kohat, killing at least 15 people. A suicide car bomber detonated
his explosives when guards prevented him from entering the parade
ground of a police academy in another northwestern town, Hangu. Six
bystanders and one policeman died.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, About 2,000 people
protested at the border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip,
demanding the crossing be opened to allow thousands of Palestinians
trapped in Egypt to return.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Peru's public
school teachers ended a 15-day strike against a new law requiring
them to take competency tests after government officials agreed to
talks on their demand for better training.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, Rev. Giancarlo
Bossi (57), an Italian priest held hostage for over a month in the
southern Philippines, was released.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 19, Russia announced
the tit-for-tat expulsion of four British diplomats, a visa ban on
British officials and the suspension of bilateral counter-terrorism
cooperation amid a mounting diplomatic row. US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice called on Russia to honor Britain's request to
extradite the chief suspect over the murder of former agent
Alexander Litvinenko.
(AFP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, A 30-minute
gunbattle rocked Mogadishu in the hours before a long-awaited Somali
peace conference was set to begin. At least two people were killed.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Sudan’s head of
civil defense said more than 50 people have been killed and 20
injured in the worst floods in living memory which have partially or
completely destroyed 18,000 homes.
(Reuters, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, A UN-backed court
sentenced three former rebel leaders to prison, the first
punishments handed down by the war crimes tribunal since it was set
up five years ago after Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict ended.
Alex Tamba Brima (35) and Santigie Borbor Kanu (42) were each given
50-year jail terms, while Brima Bazzy Kamara (39) received 45 years.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, President Bush
signed an executive order prohibiting cruel and inhuman treatment,
including humiliation or denigration of religious beliefs, in the
detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2007 Jul 20, Kevin Andre Smoot
(43), a former executive of Eagle Global Logistics’ freight
forwarding station in Houston, a company that shipped military cargo
to Iraq, pleaded guilty to lying about a fraud scheme that bilked
the government out of more than a million dollars. Smoot admitted
that he lied to federal investigators who questioned him about a
scheme to inflate invoices by adding a "war risk surcharge" of 50
cents for each kilogram of freight transported to Baghdad.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, Purdue Pharma
L.P., the maker of OxyContin, and 3 of its executives were ordered
to pay a $634.5 million fine for misleading the public about the
painkiller's risk of addiction.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, A 4.2 earthquake
jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake, breaking glass and
rattling nerves, although there were no immediate reports of
injuries.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, In Ohio an
ambulance heading to a hospital was broadsided by a car in Crane
Township and 5 people were killed including 3 EMT technicians and 2
patients.
(SFC, 7/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 20, Tammy Faye Messner
(b.1942) died in Missouri. As Tammy Faye Bakker she had helped her
husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire that
collapsed in disgrace. She divorced her husband of 30 years, with
whom she had two children, in 1992 while he was in prison for
defrauding millions from followers of their PTL ("Praise the Lord"
or "People that Love") television ministries. In 1993 she married
Roe Messner, a former PTL contractor and chief builder of Heritage
USA, a PTL theme park in South Carolina. In 1996 Messner was
sentenced to 27 months in prison for federal bankruptcy fraud.
(AP, 7/22/07)(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.B7)
2007 Jul 20, Pete Wilson
(b.1945), TV anchor for KGO-TV in SF, died one day after a heart
attack suffered during hip replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 20, Angola, Namibia
and South Africa launched a joint commission designed to lay the
groundwork for a sustainable and environmental approach of their
shared fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.
(AFP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, An election
committee said Bako Saakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's former security
chief, won the presidency of the Armenian-controlled breakaway
region with 85% of the vote.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Hundreds of
thousands of people packed the streets of La Paz to protest efforts
to relocate Bolivia's capital in one of the largest demonstrations
in the history of the Andean country. La Paz backers said switching
the capital from Bolivia's largest city, with a metropolitan
population of 1.7 million, to Sucre, population 250,000, would be
expensive and divisive.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Sen. Antonio
Carlos Peixoto de Magalhaes (79), one of Brazil's most influential
politicians, died. He had held on to power as the country came under
a military dictatorship and returned to democracy.
(AP, 7/21/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.D6)
2007 Jul 20, China said it had
shut down several firms at the heart of food and drug safety scares,
including a chemical plant implicated in the deaths of 94 people in
Panama. China also said that it "strongly opposed" decisions by the
United States to initiate anti-dumping and countervailing duty
investigations on imports of some woven sacks and steel pipes from
China. Total deaths in Panama reached 116 from contaminated
medications.
(AP, 7/20/07)(Reuters, 7/20/07)(AP, 5/10/08)
2007 Jul 20, In southern China
a mentally ill man wielding a wrench wounded 18 children and a
teacher in a kindergarten before fleeing on a motorcycle. Police
nabbed the attacker at his home and sent him to hospital because he
had stabbed himself in the stomach.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, A magnitude-6.1
quake hit far western Xinjiang's mountainous Tekes county. Chinese
authorities relocated 8,250 people after the earthquake damaged and
destroyed thousands of mud brick houses.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 20, Aid officials said
clashes between rival militia groups in eastern Congo have killed
nine fighters and reduced dozens of houses to smoldering ruins. The
fighting erupted a week ago in Minembwe, about 120 miles southwest
of the eastern lakeside city of Uvira.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Ecuador's Pres.
Rafael Correa overturned a ban on the sale of shark fins, which are
popular in Asia, but stipulated they can only be sold if the sharks
are caught by fishermen accidentally.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Ethiopia pardoned
and freed 38 opposition politicians and activists following
international condemnation of their imprisonment and days after US
lawmakers took steps to criticize the country's human rights record.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, A heat wave
sweeping central and southeastern Europe killed at least 13 people
this week, with soaring temperatures sparking forest fires, damaging
crops and prompting calls to ban horse-drawn tourist carriages.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Two suspects in
the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a priest and a prefect, were arrested in
France on a warrant from an international court investigating the
massacres. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Roman Catholic priest in
Normandy, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former prefect, were jailed
before possible extradition to Tanzania where the UN International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is based.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, In Iraq 4 people
were killed and three wounded when clashes broke out in the Shiite
village of Ajemi near Khalis. A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier
in Diyala province. Iraqi troops detained 46 suspected militants and
killed five others in a new operation in eastern Diyala. A US
airstrike killed six militants in Husseiniyah, according to US
military, disputing claims by Iraqi officials and relatives of the
victims that 18 civilians died in the attack.
(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 20, Israel released
more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, aiming to bolster embattled
President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic
militants of Hamas.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, The UN said that
it had confined a group of peacekeepers to their base in Ivory Coast
after receiving allegations of widespread sexual abuse, the latest
in a string of accusations of sexual violations by UN forces around
the world.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Suspected Islamic
rebels attacked Hindu pilgrims with hand grenades for the second
time in a week in India's portion of Kashmir, wounding 11 people.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, Lebanon’s army
used loudspeakers to urge Islamic extremists inside a Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon to surrender, as sporadic fighting
continued.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Officials said
Liberia's former House speaker and an ex-military commander have
been charged with treason for their involvement in an alleged coup
plot.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Nigeria filed a
new lawsuit against US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claiming some 6.5
billion dollars in damages for deaths allegedly stemming from drug
trials. In Sokoto, Nigeria's main Islamic city, mobs burned down
houses in Shiite neighborhoods in apparent reprisal for the murder
this week of a radical Sunni Muslim cleric. In northern Nigeria at
least one person died and about 100 were detained in a series of
dawn raids following sectarian clashes sparked by the killing of a
popular Sunni cleric In southern Nigeria Gunmen killed a Lebanese
businessman in his home. Later in the day attackers tried to ambush
a truck carrying several foreign workers in what appeared to be a
kidnapping attempt.
(AFP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, ruling
that his suspension by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was illegal.
Clashes broke out between Pakistani troops and militants in North
Waziristan after a suicide car bomber hit a security checkpoint,
killing four people. In northwestern Pakistan lightning and heavy
rain caused landslides that destroyed homes in two villages, killing
more than 70 people.
(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 20, The WTO said
Rwanda plans to import a generic HIV/AIDS medicine made in Canada,
making it the first country to test a World Trade Organization
waiver on drug patents.
(Reuters, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Rade Terzic,
Serbia's former state prosecutor, was arrested on suspicion he
belonged to a criminal gang linked to former President Slobodan
Milosevic.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, On the Caribbean
island of St. Maarten Georgia state athletes Randy Newton and Bryan
Kilgore were killed. Michael Registe was later accused of the
murders and faced extradition.
(SSFC, 7/19/09, p.A6)
2007 Jul 20, President Thabo
Mbeki hailed the launch of a rolling news network in South Africa as
an opportunity to break free of Western news agendas and give a more
rounded picture of the continent.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 21, Doctors removed
five small growths from President Bush's colon after he temporarily
transferred the powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney
under the rarely invoked 25th Amendment.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, The protracted
suspense finally lifted for Harry Potter fans who flooded bookshops
worldwide to grab the series finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows," and find out whether author J.K. Rowling slays or spares
the boy wizard.
(AFP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, A purported
Taliban spokesman said the militia killed two German hostages
because Germany didn't announce a troop withdrawal. The Afghan
government, however, said one of the Germans died of a heart attack
and that the second was still alive. Ruediger Diedrich, one of two
Germans kidnapped in southern Afghanistan on July 18, was found
dead. Germany has 3,000 soldiers in NATO's International Security
Assistance Force.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, Security sources
said a week-long offensive by Algerian special forces in a
mountainous area east of Algiers has killed between eight and 11
Islamist militants.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Helicopters
rescued dozens of people following heavy rains and floods in England
that also forced more than 2,000 motorists, homeowners and train
passengers to spend the night in shelters.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jean Berchmans
Ndayshimiye, the military leader of Burundi's last rebel group
(FNL), escaped back to the bush, sparking fears of renewed civil
conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Developers of the
Burj Dubai, a 1,680-foot skyscraper still under construction in
oil-rich Dubai, claimed that it has become the world's tallest
building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101 which has dominated the
global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, A bomb left on a
minibus also exploded shortly after noon in the predominantly Shiite
area of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five Iraqis
and wounding 11. A mortar attack also struck the eastern outskirts
of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four. A top aide to
Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was stabbed
to death in the city of Najaf. American and Iraqi forces continued
operations to clear Sunni extremists from Baqouba. Americans said
earlier this week that they have killed at least 67 al-Qaida
operatives in Baqouba, arrested 253, seized 63 weapons caches and
have destroyed 151 roadside bombs since last month. A roadside bomb
killed a US soldier.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 21, Italian police
arrested three Moroccans, an imam and two of his aids, they accuse
of being part of a militant cell that allegedly used a mosque in a
central Italian city as a terror training camp.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, In southern
Nigeria armed men seized the son (30) of a local chief near Port
Harcourt.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Attackers dressed
in dark clothes and wielding metal pipes raided a camp of
environmental protesters near Angarsk, Siberia, leaving one dead and
several injured. Over 20 demonstrators had been camped out by a
reservoir, about 2,600 miles east of Moscow, to protest nuclear
waste processing at the state-owned Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical
Plant.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jesus de Polanco
(77), chairman of Spain's main media group Prisa and one of the
country's richest men, died in Madrid.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Sudanese President
Omar al-Bashir, implicated by many in the international community in
Darfur's genocide, visited the troubled region for the first time in
the four-year conflict there.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, In northern Syria
2 buses collided head-on, killing 20 people and wounding 50.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Former US
president Bill Clinton said his foundation had secured a deal for
Zambia to access cheap HIV/AIDS drugs.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Zimbabwe’s
official Herald newspaper said the government had revived the
Zimbabwe State Trading Corporation (ZSTC) to work alongside the
state Zimbabwe Development Corporation (ZDC) "as vehicles for
acquiring companies that it might want to take over for engaging in
economic sabotage."
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 22, Cinematographer
Laszlo Kovacs died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 74.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2007 Jul 22, Afghan villagers
found the body of a German aid worker kidnapped in southern
Afghanistan, while a delegation of South Korean officials arrived
hours before a purported evening deadline set for 23 Korean
hostages. A large group of Taliban had attacked a convoy in Helmand
province, and the resulting battle in the Sangin district left more
than 30 militants dead and many wounded. In Zabul province Afghan
police forces reported killing 14 "enemies" during a 12-hour battle,
including a Taliban commander identified as Mohammad Hassan.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, Parliamentary and
municipal elections were held across Cameroon, with longtime
President Paul Biya's ruling party widely expected to dominate as it
has for decades.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, China’s state
media said record rainfall this week triggered floods, landslides
and mud flows had killed 152 people and forced the evacuation of
hundreds of thousands.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Egyptian police
shot and killed a Sudanese woman (28) and seriously wounded four
others on the Sinai Peninsula as they tried to sneak into Israel.
They were among 27 Darfur refugees caught by border guards in the
desert after paying 700 dollars (500 euros) to a Bedouin smuggler.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 22, A bus carrying
Polish pilgrims from a holy site in the French Alps plunged off a
steep mountain road, crashed into a river bed and burst into flames,
killing 26 people.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Indian police
killed Shiv Kumar (Dadua), one of the country's most notorious
bandits. He had ruled the ravines and forests of central India
through a mixture of fear and love for three decades, with many
hailing him as a modern-day Robin Hood.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Army Maj. Gen.
Benjamin Mixon, the commander of US forces in northern Iraq, said he
has proposed reducing his troop levels and shifting next year to
missions focused less on direct combat. A senior officer working
with the Interior Ministry was shot to death as he was driving his
car in northeastern Baghdad. An Iraqi interpreter working for
Americans in Kut, was killed by gunmen. A suicide bomber attacked a
checkpoint in a village north of Baghdad killing at least 3 people.
A bomb on a motorcycle in central Baghdad killed 2 people and
wounded 15. US troops in eastern Iraq detained two suspected weapons
smugglers who may be linked to Iran's elite Quds force. In Iraq a
roadside bomb killed another US soldier.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A16)
2007 Jul 22, Israeli troops
operating in the northern Gaza Strip shot and killed two Hamas
gunmen. An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in the
northern Gaza Strip after they fired rockets at a nearby Israeli
town.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, In northern
Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed in sporadic fighting with
al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian
refugee camp.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, Niger's PM Seyni
Oumarou and military chiefs met neighboring Algeria's President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika to discuss cross-border cooperation against
Tuareg-led rebels in Niger's desert north.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Islamic militants
detonated bombs close to military convoys and attacked government
positions in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region, sparking
gunfights that left 19 insurgents dead. A 45-member delegation of
tribal elders was in North Waziristan on a government-backed mission
to try to salvage the peace accord.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, The death toll
from Romania's heat wave rose to 15 after 6 more people died as
temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 22, Turks voted for a
new Parliament in a contest viewed as pivotal in determining the
balance between Islam and secularism in this nation of more than 70
million. The Islamic-rooted ruling party won parliamentary elections
by a wide margin. The Justice and Development (AK) party won 47% of
the vote. AK secured 341 of 550 seats in the parliament. Deniz
Baykal’s pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 21%.
Sebahat Tuncel (32) walked out of jail after she was elected to
parliament along with 18 fellow members of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party.
(AP, 7/23/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.51)(Econ, 8/4/07,
p.45)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.60)
2007 Jul 23, In the first
political debate of its kind, all eight Democratic Party contenders,
appearing on CNN, fielded questions submitted by the public on the
Internet video-sharing site YouTube.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 23, US congressional
investigators said the Agriculture Department has sent $1.1 billion
in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year
period.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, The US FDA said
people should immediately throw away more than 90 different
products, from chili sauce to corned beef hash to dog food, produced
at a Castleberry plant in Augusta, Ga., linked to a botulism
outbreak.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Jennifer
Hawke-Petit and her two daughters were killed during a violent home
invasion in Cheshire, Conn. Dr. William Petit, was badly beaten but
escaped. His wife and one daughter were sexually assaulted. The
girls, aged 11 and 17, were tied to their beds, doused in gasoline,
and left to die in a fire. Steven Hayes (44) and Joshua
Komisarjevsky (27), on parole at the time for other burglaries, were
accused of their murder. Prosecutors later said they will seek the
death penalty. On Nov 8, 2010, Hayes was sentenced to death.
Komisarjevsky was convicted of murder in 2011 and was sentenced to
death.
(AP, 7/23/08)(AP, 10/5/10)(SFC, 11/27/10,
p.A5)(SFC, 10/14/11, p.A6)(SFC, 12/10/11, p.A6)
2007 Jul 23, Zhenli Ye Gon was
arrested in a Maryland restaurant, four months after police
discovered $207 million at his Mexico City mansion in what US
officials have called the world's biggest seizure of drug cash.
Mexican officials had 60 days to file their legal arguments for Ye
Gon's extradition. Ye Gon has claimed that $150 million of the money
belonged to Mexico's ruling party, and that he was forced to store
it for party officials in his mansion under threat of death during
the 2006 presidential race. Ye Gon later told US prosecutors he had
sold tons of a chemical used to make methamphetamine on the black
market.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 10/23/09)
2007 Jul 23, Genial comic Drew
Carey was tapped to replace legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime
game show "The Price is Right."
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 23, In San Francisco
Seu Kuka (28) was gunned down in the Sunnydale Housing projects of
Visitacion Valley. In 2010 Jamal Trulove was convicted of 1st degree
murder and sentenced 50 years to live in prison. Trulove had
appeared on a VH1 reality show, “I Love New York 2,” just 3 months
after the slaying.
(SSFC, 10/17/10, p.C2)
2007 Jul 23, In northern
California a helicopter crashed while delivering water to
firefighters in the Klamath National Forest, killing the pilot. More
than 1,100 fire crews were battling a cluster of about 30
lightning-sparked fires covering 14 square miles near the Oregon
state line. The fires started July 10 and had threatened up to 550
homes near the town of Happy Camp.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, A wildfire in
southern Idaho had covered more than 880 square miles, growing by
about 200 square miles in just 24 hours during the weekend. Fire
officials said it threatened tracking and radar facilities at
Mountain Home Air Force bombing and firing range, which is used by
pilots training for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Firefighters in
central Utah faced a threat of strong wind gusts as they battled a
huge wildfire, where several small communities were evacuated.
(AP, 7/23/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 23, John Gilman (65),
developer of FieldTurf, an artificial grass that replaced AstroTurf,
died at his home in Montreal. The FieldTurf technology was based on
patents filed by golfer Freddie Haas Jr.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 23, Mohammad Zahir
Shah (b.1914), the last king of Afghanistan (1933-1973), died. In
2002 he had returned from 3 decades of exile to bless his country's
fragile course toward democracy. In southern Afghanistan troops
killed at least 75 militants in three separate battles, while the
Taliban extended the deadline for the lives of 23 South Korean
hostages until the evening of July 24. Norway said one if its
soldiers was killed in Logar province, and NATO said a soldier was
killed in the south. A roadside blast killed 4 US soldiers in
eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.88)
2007 Jul 23, It was reported
that Rio police had killed 449 people since January, many in clashes
with drug traffickers, while more than 60 police officers lost their
lives.
(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 23, Former British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his new capacity as a Mideast envoy,
opened his mission to help Palestinians build solid foundations for
their future state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 23, Foreign Minister
Peter MacKay said Canada will give the new Palestinian government
C$8 million ($7.6 million) in direct aid and more could follow now
that Hamas is no longer in the government.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Fidel Castro
suggested that a two-time Cuban Olympic boxing champion and his
teammate had defected, blaming their disappearance at the Pan
American Games in Brazil on American money.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, The European Union
took the first step towards sending forces to Chad and the Central
African Republican to help the United Nations protect refugees
trapped in the violent region bordering Darfur.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, A Greek
firefighting plane crashed, killing one of its two-member crew while
trying to stop a forest fire reaching homes on the island of Evia.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Indian officials
said dozens of plastic bags stuffed with body parts believed to be
from aborted female fetuses or newborn girls killed because their
families wanted boys have been found in an abandoned well in eastern
India.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Officials said
flash floods and landslides in central Indonesia have inundated
villages, destroyed bridges and roads, and sent thousands fleeing
their homes with over 80 people killed.
(AFP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 23, Three parked cars
exploded within 30 minutes in a predominantly Shiite area in
Baghdad, killing at least 12 people. Another car packed with
explosives blew up on the main road about 200 yards from an entry
point to the US-controlled Green Zone, killing at least 4 Iraqis.
Also in Baghdad a bomb exploded on a minibus near a busy commercial
area, killing one person and wounding nine others. A roadside bomb
struck an Iraqi army patrol near the Iranian border, killing five
troops. Also near the Iranian border, gunmen ambushed a convoy of
trucks loaded with goods being sent from major wholesale markets in
Baghdad to Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad. Five people were
killed and three others kidnapped. In western Anbar province at
least two policemen were killed and 10 wounded when a woman hiding
an explosives belt under her Islamic gown blew herself up as she was
about to be searched at a checkpoint on the western outskirts of
Ramadi. At least 59 people were killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, Israeli police
said 9 Israelis suspected of trafficking in organs and humans have
been arrested and remain in custody. The case was opened when an
Israeli woman filed a police complaint charging that she was not
paid after her kidney was removed in Ukraine.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Nigerian police
said at least 10 people were killed over the weekend and dozens
sustained burns in the southern Delta state after adulterated
kerosene they were using in their stoves exploded. In southwest
Nigeria at least six people were killed and several trapped when a
three-storey building under construction collapsed.
(AFP, 7/23/07)(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, In North
Waziristan, Pakistan, 2 security posts came under rocket attack and
an army convoy was attacked. At least 20 militants and two soldiers
were killed in fighting.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 23, Abel Mutsakani,
the editor of an independent Zimbabwean news service based in South
Africa, was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 23, Spain arrested
Roberto Florez Garcia in Tenerife, the Canary Islands, for selling
the identity of Spanish spies and other information about the
intelligence agency from 2001 until he left the service in 2004.
Police accused him of being a double agent for Russia.
(AP, 7/24/07)(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 23, An attempt to
break an aviation speed record went horribly wrong when a small
"experimental" plane crashed through an apartment building in the
Swiss city of Basel, killing the pilot and injuring at least three
other people.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, The United Nations
rejected Taiwan's application to become a member of the world body,
citing UN adherence to the "one China" policy and its recognition of
the Chinese government in Beijing.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, President Bush,
speaking at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, sought to
justify the Iraq war by citing intelligence reports he said showed a
link between al-Qaida's operation in Iraq and the terror group that
attacked the United States on Sept. 11.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, The US minimum
wage rose 70 cents to $5.85 an hour, the first increase in a decade.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, A grand jury in
New Orleans refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou, who was accused of
murdering four seriously ill hospital patients with drug injections
during the desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, Prosecutor’s in
California’s Contra Costa County announced charges against 34
students of graduates of Pleasant Hill community college for changes
to transcript grades in exchange for cash.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 24, Florida began
distributing playing cards to prison inmates with pictures and
information regarding unsolved murder and missing person cases.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 24, Westinghouse
Electric Co., majority-owned by Toshiba Corp., signed a
multi-billion-dollar contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in China.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 24, Intel Corp. said
it has fabricated the first modulator made from silicon that can
encode data onto a beam of light at a rate of 40 billion bits per
second (gigabits). Such speeds represented a rate 40 times faster
than most corporate data networks.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.B4)
2007 Jul 24, Albert Ellis
(b.1913), influential founded of a school of psychotherapy, died in
NYC. In 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, which
stressed self-control.
(WSJ, 1/25/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36)
died in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene
therapy treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the
rheumatoid arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an
infection of Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 24, Riley Ann Sawyers
(2) died after being whipped with belts and flung across a room like
a rag doll. On October 29 her body, dubbed Baby Grace, was found
inside a plastic box in Galveston Bay. In 2009 a jury convicted
Riley's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor (20), of capital murder. The
conviction brought an automatic sentence of life in prison without
parole. Her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II (25), was convicted of
capital murder on Nov 6, 2009, and was also expected to receive a
life sentence.
(AP, 2/3/09)(SFC, 11/7/09,
p.A4)(http://baby.grace.50megs.com/)
2007 Jul 24, Bamir Topi (50), a
biologist, was sworn in as Albania's president, promising to help
the poor Balkan country to become a member of NATO and the European
Union. Topi was elected to a five-year term by parliament on July 20
after some opposition lawmakers ended their coalition's boycott and
supported his appointment.
(AP, 7/25/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 24, Former Bangladesh
PM Sheikh Hasina was charged with extortion for allegedly demanding
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company seeking to build a
power station.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Five Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to life in prison in
Libya for allegedly infecting children with HIV, came home to
Bulgaria and were greeted with tears and hugs, and a presidential
pardon that allowed them to walk free after 8 1/2 years behind bars.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Qatar mediated the release and
hinted the Gulf country may have had a broader role in resolving the
crisis.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Cameroon President
Paul Biya's governing party won a crushing victory in weekend polls
as the opposition cried foul, saying the west African nation had not
staged fair elections in years.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, In Canada a
pipeline in a Vancouver suburb was ruptured, sending a geyser of oil
shooting 12 meters (40 feet) into the air, coating neighborhood
streets and spilling crude into an ocean inlet.
(Reuters, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Chinese officials
said the FBI and Chinese police have busted two software piracy
gangs and seized programs worth an estimated $500 million in a joint
campaign that began in 2005.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Heavy rain and
extreme temperatures continued to batter Europe, with Britain caught
in its worst floods in living memory while the Balkans sizzled in
heatwaves that killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, The US and Iranian
ambassadors to Iraq also began talks in Baghdad in a bid to find
ways to use their influence to bring stability to Iraq. A suicide
bomber struck a busy commercial center in the Shiite city of Hillah,
killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens as the streets were
packed with shoppers and commuters.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of funds belonging to the
government of the economic capital Lagos seized three years ago by
his predecessor. Suspected ransom-seekers kidnapped the mother of
the speaker of the state house of assembly in neighboring Bayelsa
state.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 24, Abdullah Mehsud, a
former Guantanamo Bay inmate who led pro-Taliban militants in
Pakistan after his release, died when he blew himself up with a
grenade to avoid arrest. He was released in March 2004 and quickly
took up arms again, leading militants in South Waziristan. The
beheaded bodies of two soldiers abducted the previous night were
found in the Bajur tribal area.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Mohammed Radad
(20), was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen, when students aligned with
the rival groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in
Nablus. Radad died from his wounds on July 27.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 24, Human Rights Watch
said Rwandan police have killed at least 20 detainees in custody
since November.
(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Barcelona, Spain,
faced Day Two of a major power outage.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 25, A US presidential
commission urged broad changes to veterans' care that would boost
benefits for family members helping the wounded, establish an
easy-to-use Web site for medical records and overhaul the way
disability pay was awarded.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2007 Jul 25, In the US over a
dozen Muslims, including at least one Pakistani and several US
citizens of Pakistani origin, were sentenced to imprisonment for
their association with Lashkar-e-Taiba and for conspiracy to wage
war against India.
(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A6)
2007 Jul 25, In Stockton, Ca.,
police arrested 51 alleged gang members and seized $400,000 worth of
drugs following a 6-month investigation. Members and affiliates of
the Norteno and south side Stockton gangs were arrested with state
and federal warrants.
(SFC, 7/27/07, p.B12)
2007 Jul 25, In SF faulty
PG&E breakers caused a power outage that knocked out a number of
Web sites.
(SFC, 7/26/07, p.C1)
2007 Jul 25, In northern
California the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservation Plan
was unveiled. It called for spending $350 million over the next 30
years to preserve 30,000 acres of open space around Mt. Diablo. It
also listed some 12,000 acres for new development.
(SFC, 7/26/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 25, IBM Corp.
announced the creation of the Global Citizen's Portfolio, a suite of
investments and programs to help IBM employees enhance their skills
and expertise, in order to become global leaders, professionals and
citizens. The program included the Corporate Service Corps, a
corporate version of the Peace Corps.
(http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21937.wss)(Econ,
10/30/10, p.73)
2007 Jul 25, In Alaska a
sightseeing plane crashed leaving a pilot and 2 couples from a
visiting cruise ship dead.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 25, Afghan authorities
found the bullet-riddled body Bae Hyung-kyu (42) in Qarabagh
district of Ghazni province, where 23 South Koreans were abducted
July 19. Bae, a deputy pastor and a founder of Saemmul Presbyterian
Church, was killed on his birthday. Militants said the hostage was
sick and couldn't walk, and therefore was shot. 22 South Koreans
were still believed held but were not suffering health problems. A
German journalist and two Afghans colleagues apparently kidnapped by
Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan were freed.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, Miguel Angel
Moratinos, Spain’s Foreign Minister arrived in Algeria on a visit
aimed at strengthening cooperation in energy and sorting out a row
with Madrid's top gas supplier.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Tony Blair held
talks on with the crown prince of Bahrain on his first regional tour
as an international envoy for Middle East peace.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, British Defense
Secretary Des Browne announced that Britain has agreed to let the US
use a Royal Air Force base as part of its planned missile defense
system. The British government said it will build two new aircraft
carriers costing 3.9 billion pounds in a project which will support
10,000 British jobs over the next ten years.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, China said it will
step up inspections on the use of antibiotics in fish farms,
including chemicals that can cause cancer, after contaminants caused
trading partners to block its seafood exports.
(Reuters, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Human Rights Watch
said the escalating use of land mines by Colombian rebels is killing
and mutilating hundreds annually, making this nation the world
leader in mine victims.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Ethiopian
authorities ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to
pull out of the volatile Ogaden region within 7 days for allegedly
interfering in political issues. Five opposition members imprisoned
since 2005 pleaded guilty to attempting to overthrow Ethiopia's
government, but asked the judge for a pardon.
(AFP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy headed for talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi,
a day after the release of six foreign medics, in a signal of
normalized ties between Europe and Tripoli. France and Libya signed
a memorandum of understanding to build a Libyan nuclear reactor for
water desalination and clinched a raft of other deals.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AFP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, India inaugurated
Pratibha Patil (72) as its 1st female president. She promised to
fight for the rights of women and an end to the widespread practice
of aborting female fetuses. In northeastern India 2 domesticated
elephants went on a rampage through several villages, killing eight
people and wounding five before being shot dead by police.
(AFP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, Iranian
authorities announced new arrests in the cases of two
Iranian-Americans held on charges of conspiring against the
government, saying that an unspecified number of Iranians had been
detained.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Iraq's largest
Sunni Arab bloc said it has suspended its membership in PM Nouri
al-Maliki's coalition government, dealing a new setback to the
Shiite leader's efforts to achieve national reconciliation. The
Iraqi Accordance Front, which has six Cabinet members as well as 44
of parliament's 275 seats, said it was giving al-Maliki a week to
meet their demands or it would quit his 14-month-old Cabinet
altogether. 2 suicide bombings killed at least 50 cheering, dancing,
flag-waving Iraqis celebrating the national soccer team's semifinal
victory in the Asian Cup tournament. A roadside bomb targeting a
police patrol on the road between Hillah and Diwaniyah, killed 5
Iraqi officers and wounding 2 as they were on their way home from an
operation with US forces. A joint US-Iraqi force backed with
helicopter gunships clashed with suspected Shiite militiamen when
they raided several homes in eastern Baghdad. Six people were killed
and 10 wounded. A senior police officer in Karbala escaped an
assassination attempt when a roadside bomb targeted his five-car
convoy while he was on his way to work, but 3 of his guards were
killed.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, The foreign
ministers of Egypt and Jordan began a historic visit to Israel to
formally present an Arab peace plan, saying they were extending "a
hand of peace" on behalf of the region.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Lebanese army
troops unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells at Islamic
militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, The Nigerian
government filed suit against three leading tobacco companies,
seeking more than 40 billion dollars (29 billion euros) in damages
for the cost of treating smoking-related diseases.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Jul 25, A South Korean aid
group said some 430 North Koreans have died of hunger in a northern
region in the past month because of chronic food shortages.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected militants fired four rockets into Bannu, killing
10 people as they slammed into houses and a mosque.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Sudanese papers
reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two
tribes when Aballa men fell on a band of Torjum, killing nine.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 25, The UN governor in
Kosovo called on major powers to set a clear roadmap to the final
status of Serbia's breakaway province, whose independence bid is
blocked by Russia. Serbia warned the US and the EU not to recognize
Kosovo's independence without UN consent, saying that would prompt
an immediate response from Serbian authorities and could destabilize
the region.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, Vietnam’s
lawmakers overwhelmingly re-elected PM Nguyen Tan Dung, in hopes
that strong growth and economic reforms would continue under his
leadership.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, State television
reported that Zimbabwe is to import 200,000 tons of the staple maize
from Tanzania to avert widespread food shortages following a poor
harvest. An international rights group said Zimbabwe's government
routinely arrests and tortures women's rights activists as part of a
crackdown on protests against President Mugabe and his policies.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, The US Senate
passed, 85-8, a measure intensifying national anti-terror efforts.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2007 Jul 26, A federal judge in
Boston ordered the government to pay a record nearly $102 million
for the FBI's role in the 1968 wrongful murder convictions of four
men. Judge Nancy Gertner powerfully condemned misconduct that she
said ran "all the way up to the FBI director."
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700282.html)
2007 Jul 26, The DJIA suffered
one of its worst losses of the year, closing down 311.50 to
13,473.57.
(SFC, 7/27/07, p.D1)(AP, 7/26/08)
2007 Jul 26, Oakland, Ca.,
Mayor Ron Dellums brokered negotiations between the locked-out
Teamsters’ Union and Waste Management following 25 days of
accumulated trash.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 26, There was an
explosion at a remote test facility in the Mojave Desert belonging
to Scaled Composites LLC during testing of a new space tourism
vehicle. 2 people died at the scene and one later died at a hospital
after surgery.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and Afghan troops fought two
separate battles with militants, killing more than 60 suspected
Taliban insurgents. A British soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Bhutan's prime
minister and six members of his Cabinet resigned to pave the way for
the 1st parliamentary elections in the Buddhist kingdom and its
transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 25, Brazil's Pres.
Lula da Silva fired Defense Minister Waldir Pires in response to a
fatal jetliner crash that turned months of anger over breakdowns in
the military-run national air system into a full-blown political
crisis.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, In London,
England, Bachan Athwal (70), a British grandmother, faced life
imprisonment after being convicted of the "honor killing" of her
son's wife who she murdered after luring her to India. Her son (43)
was also found guilty of murder. The two killed Sikh Heathrow
Airport worker Surjit Kaur Athwal (27), who disappeared in December
1998 after she decided to walk out of her arranged marriage.
(Reuters, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A London court
sentenced five students to jail for collecting information on
bomb-making and terrorism.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Canada nixed a
decade-old policy that required prospective Sikh immigrants to
change their last names to avoid confusion with other Sikhs.
(Reuters, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, China’s state
media said flooding in the far west has killed 32 people over the
last 10 days, while a central city of 9 million was on high alert as
the mighty Yangtze River approached dangerous heights. Runoff from a
lead-zinc mine polluted the Zijiang river in Hunan province, cutting
off supplies to the riverside city of Lengshuijiang and residents
downstream.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 26, East Timor's
President Jose Ramos-Horta asked visiting Australian PM John Howard
to keep Australian peacekeepers in the young nation until the end of
2008.
(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, The European Court
of Human Rights ordered the Russian government to pay damages of
$196,000 to the family members of 11 Chechen civilians killed by
Russian soldiers in 2000, when security forces rampaged through
Novye Aldi, setting fire to houses and killing at least 50
civilians.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, Juan Cruz Maiza,
the alleged head of ETA’s logistics, was arrested in France along
with two helpers.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.44)
2007 Jul 26, Germany's Identity
Foundation said leading Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya
Sen (73) will be awarded the Meister Eckhart prize for his work on
human development theory.
(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Indonesia a
dozen Christian men were convicted and sentenced to up to 14 years
in jail for beating to death and beheading two Muslims to avenge the
government executions of three Christians last year.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A parked car bomb
exploded near a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad,
killing 28 people and wounding 74. In northern Iraq a suicide bomber
blew himself up at the gate of a police station, killing 7 people
and wounding 13 in Mosul. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb
in Diyala province; 3 more were killed in fighting in Anbar
province.
(AP, 7/26/07)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A1)(AP,
7/27/07)(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 26, An Israeli
airstrike targeting a car south of Gaza City killed 3 Islamic Jihad
militants. Israeli forces also killed a Hamas militant during a
military operation in the southern Gaza Strip. In the West Bank
Israeli troops struck and seriously injured a Palestinian who tried
to stab a soldier. The man's family said he later died of his
wounds.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Jordan pleaded for
international help to deal with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who
have fled here to avoid the violence at home, saying they cost the
kingdom $1 billion a year in basic services.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A court in Nigeria
sentenced Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelso state governor,
to two years in jail on charges of corruption and money laundering
and ordered him to forfeit millions in property and cash. Vice
Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, the new head of the navy, told a
parliamentary commission about the suspected illegal bunkering on
ships under naval guard and how the ex-officers allegedly dipped
into the lucrative trade.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 26, North Korea walked
out of military talks with South Korea, ending 3 days of high-level
negotiations with no agreement amid a lingering dispute over their
shared sea border.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Pakistan said it
successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of delivering
nuclear warheads deep into India.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Somalia 2
separate explosions killed at least five civilians in Mogadishu,
where the government is struggling to contain a lethal insurgency.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, In northern Syria
an explosion at an ordnance depot that was blamed on summer heat
killed at least 15 soldiers and wounded 50 others.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Turkish police
arrested Maksym Yastremskiy (24), a Ukrainian data-theft suspect.
The US Secret Service had been investigating him since 2004. Losses
to US individuals from identity theft thieves, online and offline,
totaled $49 billion in 2006.
(WSJ, 8/10/07, p.A6)
2007 Jul 26, UN arms experts
reported that Eritrea has secretly supplied "huge quantities of
arms" to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al-Qaida in
violation of an international arms embargo and despite the
deployment of African peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A bull named
Shambo was taken away from a Hindu monastery at Skanda Vale, Wales,
ending a long and public battle between Hindus who revere bulls and
authorities who said he must be killed because he had tested
positive for tuberculosis.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 26, Zimbabwe state
media reported that nearly 5,000 store owners, managers and business
executives have been arrested since the government began its
campaign to slash prices last month.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, The United States
and India said they have worked out differences blocking the sharing
of civilian nuclear fuel and technology, hailing a "historic
milestone" accord that would reverse three decades of American
anti-proliferation policy.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Joe Nacchio, the
former Qwest Communications chief who was forced to resign during a
multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, was sentenced to six years
in prison for illegally selling $52 million in stock while not
telling investors that his telecommunications company faced serious
financial risks. On March 17, 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the
Tenth Circuit overturned his conviction on the basis of defense
expert witness testimony that was improperly excluded, and ordered a
new trial before a different trial judge.
(AP,
7/27/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio)
2007 Jul 27, California’s top
court ruled that police can no longer seize vehicles of suspects in
drug or prostitution arrests.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 27, SF Mayor Newsom
signed a $6.06 billion spending package, the largest budget in SF
history.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 27, The DJIA ended
down over 500 points in its worst week in 5 years.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.C1)
2007 Jul 27, In Phoenix,
Arizona, 2 news helicopters covering a police chase on live
television collided and crashed to the ground, killing all four
people on board.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 27, Afghan and NATO
troops over the last 24 hours clashed with Taliban insurgents and
called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and
dozens of civilians. The third British soldier to die in three days
in southern Afghanistan was killed in a rocket attack.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 27, Mohamed Haneef
(27), an Indian doctor, was freed from custody after Australia's
chief prosecutor said that a charge linking him to failed terrorist
bombings in Britain was a mistake. In 2010 Haneef accepted what his
lawyer described as a "substantial" but confidential settlement for
his ordeal in which authorities incorrectly linked him to failed car
bombings at airports in London and Glasgow.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AFP, 12/21/10)
2007 Jul 27, In China 2 men
were sentenced to death for masterminding a plan to steal oil from
an underwater pipeline, a botched plot that caused an estimated $53
million in damages.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 27, French judges
filed preliminary charges against former PM Dominique de Villepin
for his suspected role in a smear campaign that targeted Nicolas
Sarkozy before he became president.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, A fierce gunbattle
broke out after a joint US-Iraqi force arrested a rogue Shiite
militia leader in the holy city of Karbala, some 50 miles south of
Baghdad, leading to an airstrike and the deaths of some 17
militants. A truck bomb in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Karrada
killed at least 105 people and injured 193.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AP, 7/28/07)(SFC, 9/20/07, p.A17)
2007 Jul 27, The Israeli army
suspended an officer and five soldiers involved in wounding a
Palestinian man July 26 in the southern West Bank and put all of
their unit's operational duties on hold.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Pakistan’s Pres.
Musharraf held secret talks in Abu Dhabi with former PM Benazir
Bhutto. In Islamabad hundreds of students clashed with security
forces and a nearby bombing killed 13 people during the reopening of
the Red Mosque for the first time since a bloody army raid to oust
Islamic militants from the complex. In Quetta gunmen opened fire on
the vehicle of Raziq Bugti, the official spokesman for a provincial
government in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, killing him.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AP, 7/28/07)(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 27, Victor Frunza
(72), a Romanian anti-communist dissident and writer, died in
Denmark of a heart attack. He was forced to leave Romania in 1980
after writing a letter critical of the communist regime led by
dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. While in Romania, Frunza secretly wrote
a history of communism in the country that was published in Denmark
in 1984. He also wrote essays championing human rights and published
a political magazine.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 27, Russia said it
planned to send a small submarine to the ocean floor under the North
Pole to stake a claim to the region.
(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 27, Sudan said it
would appeal a US ruling ordering it to pay $7.9 million in
compensation to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the October
2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The bombing was carried out
by two Yemeni militants with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network who
had trained in Sudan. US federal Judge Robert Doumar ruled in
mid-March that Sudan should be held accountable for the attack, and
on July 25 ruled that it must pay compensation to the families.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Zimbabwe's former
finance minister Chris Kuruneri was acquitted by the high court for
allegedly smuggling money abroad to build a house in South Africa.
(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, In California
garbage workers in Alameda County approved a new contract with Waste
Management ending a bitter 26-day lockout.
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 28, It was reported
that over 4,000 Hazaras, a Shia Muslim ethnic minority concentrated
in Afghanistan’s central highlands, had been displaced from Behsood
district, Wardak province, over the last 2 months by bands of Kuchi
nomads. Some 200 ethnic Pushtun and Sunni Muslim nomads, together
with their families and livestock, emptied about 65 Hazara villages
and left about a dozen people dead.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 28-2007 Jul 29, Nearly
12,000 people were displaced and one person died in western Ethiopia
in flash floods over the weekend.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 28, In southern India
police shot dead at least eight protestors after a political
demonstration turned violent. Police opened fire after hundreds of
protestors burned furniture in a government office in a small town
in Andhra Pradesh state, where communist parties campaigned for
distribution of government land to the rural and urban poor.
(Reuters, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, A parked car bomb
exploded in a busy shopping street in predominantly Shiite eastern
Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding 10. US troops
captured 16 suspected insurgents during raids targeting al-Qaida in
Iraq in raids in the northern cities of Samarra and Tarmiyah.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, The Liberian
government said it had lifted a six-year moratorium on the diamond
trade, put in place after former President Charles Taylor was
accused of using "blood diamonds" to fuel civil war in neighboring
Sierra Leone.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, Libya said the
Czech Republic, Qatar and Bulgaria contributed to an international
fund to support hundreds of children who contracted HIV at a Libyan
hospital in the 1990s. Libya also denounced a decision by Bulgaria's
president to pardon six medics from life jail terms in an AIDS case
as a "betrayal" and an "illegal procedure."
(Reuters, 7/28/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, Palestinian
officials said Israel has agreed to allow at least 627 Palestinians
who have been stranded in Egypt for weeks to pass into the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, Serbian police
arrested Nikola Radosavljevic (38), a man suspected of killing 9
people and injuring another two in a shooting spree hours earlier in
an eastern Serbian village.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, In Zimbabwe Arthur
Mutambara, leader of the breakaway faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), said on that the country could not wait for
outsiders to liberate them from on-going political and economic
problems.
(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 29, Cal Ripken Jr. and
Tony Gwynn took their place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, Scientists said
they have identified two genes that may raise the risk of multiple
sclerosis, lending insight into the causes of the debilitating
disease.
(Reuters, 7/29/07)(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 29, Some 12,000 of
17,000 registered runners completed the 30th annual SF marathon.
(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 29, Tom Snyder (71),
TV host, died in SF after a struggle with leukemia. His smoke-filled
interviews were a staple of late night television and an inspiration
for Dan Aykroyd on "Saturday Night Live." Snyder hosted The Tomorrow
Show from 1973-1982.
(AP, 7/30/07)(SFC, 7/31/07, p.E2)
2007 Jul 29, Britain’s PM
Gordon Brown traveled to the United States, saying he planned to use
the official visit to strengthen what Britain already considers its
"most important bilateral relationship."
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, Dilip Ganguly
(b.1949), journalist, died in Calcutta. His 21-year career at The
Associated Press saw him report from Baghdad during the Gulf War, on
the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and on stories across South
Asia.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, Whang Joung-il
(52), a senior South Korean diplomat in Beijing, died hours after
becoming ill after eating a tuna sandwich. His death left the
envoy's family and his government asking China for an explanation.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 29, Alberto Contador
of Spain won the doping-scarred Tour de France.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, French actor
Michel Serrault died in Honfleur, France, at age 79.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, Iraqi authorities
announced a ban on vehicles and celebratory gunfire around Baghdad
in an effort to prevent a repeat of violence that killed dozens
celebrating Iraq's progress to the finals of Asia's top soccer
tournament. Iraq celebrated their underdog national soccer team as
it won the prestigious Asian Cup against Saudi Arabia. At least 5
people were killed and nearly 30 wounded by gunfire after the game.
Gunmen opened fire on shoppers in a Shiite Turkomen village
southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing 7 people and
wounding six. A bomb struck a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing
one passenger and wounding four others. A policeman was shot to
death on his way to work southeast of Baghdad. Bombings, shootings
and mortar attacks striking other targets killed at least 58 people
nationwide.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Japan exit
polls showed that PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party suffered humiliating
losses in parliamentary elections after a string of political
scandals, but Abe said he did not plan to resign. Official election
results showed the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New
Komeito, with a total of 103 seats, a 30-seat loss that left it far
short of the 122 needed to control the house. The main opposition
Democratic Party grabbed 112 seats, up from 81. For the 1st time in
its history the LDP was no longer the biggest party in the upper
house.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.35)
2007 Jul 29, France's visiting
foreign minister succeeded in bringing together rival Lebanese
factions who have had no contact for months but said he had not
reached a breakthrough to ease the country's political crisis.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Pakistan some
70 pro-Taliban militants occupied the shrine of renowned Pashtun
freedom fighter Sahib Turangzai and its accompanying mosque in the
town of Lakarai in Mohmand tribal region.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 29, A 43-year-old
Russian cargo plane crashed minutes after taking off from a Moscow
airport, killing all seven crew on board.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Somalia gun
battles and grenade attacks killed two soldiers and two civilians in
Mogadishu, where the government is struggling to contain a violent
insurgency.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 30, US President
George W. Bush and Britain’s PM Gordon Brown held talks. Brown hoped
to secure support for a Darfur peace deal and movement on stalled
world trade talks. Bush and PM Brown, meeting at Camp David, forged
a unified stand on Iraq.
(AP, 7/30/07)(AP, 7/30/08)
2007 Jul 30, Jinzhou Chang
(24), a Contra Costa college student, was shot and killed in El
Cerrito, Ca., while helping his immigrant father make repairs at an
apartment complex. Three 17-year-old boys were soon arrested and
faced robbery and murder charges.
(SFC, 8/9/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 30, Bill Walsh
(b.1931), former head coach of the SF 49ers football team, died at
his Woodside home following a long battle with leukemia.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, A 2nd South Korean
hostage was slain by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2007 Jul 30, Bangladesh's High
Court suspended former PM Sheikh Hasina's extortion trial and
ordered her released on bail.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, A raging forest
fire has destroyed thousands of acres of woodland on Spain's Gran
Canaria island and forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, China tightened
credit in a new effort to cool its sizzling economy, ordering banks
to shrink the pool of money for lending by increasing their reserves
for a sixth time this year.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, China’s state
media said floods, landslides and mud flows triggered by torrential
rains have killed 652 people in China so far this year, with more
heavy rains in the forecast.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, A UN investigator
said extreme sexual violence against women is pervasive in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and local authorities do little
to stop it or prosecute those responsible.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Egyptian police
clashed with Bedouins protesting a government order to demolish
their houses along the Palestinian Gaza Strip's border, leaving
dozens injured. Egyptian media have reported a government plan to
force the Bedouins from a 500-foot-wide band of land along the
border to prevent traffickers from digging tunnels used to smuggle
weapons and people into Gaza.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, The European
Commission said it was seeking a court injunction against Polish
plans to build a key continental highway to prevent permanent damage
to the Rospuda Valley, a "unique environmental site."
(AFP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, It was reported
that India’s Maharashtra state government has banned domesticated
elephants from Mumbai, India's largest city, saying that forcing the
animals to walk the city's chaotic, crowded and polluted streets was
an act of cruelty. The ban took effect last week.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, UN inspectors
visited a nuclear reactor being built in central Iran, a facility
that has been off-limits since April. Iran's foreign ministry
spokesman criticized a US plan to sell state-of-the-art weapons to
Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Ayatollah Ali
Meshkini (85), a founding member of Iran's Islamic regime and leader
of an important government assembly, died.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, A minibus exploded
in a Baghdad market, killing at least six people. Relief agencies
said about 8 million Iraqis, nearly a third of the population, need
immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by
the Iraq war. A US Marine was killed in combat operations in Anbar
province.
(AP, 7/30/07)(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, An Israeli
parliamentary committee voted unanimously to revoke the privileges
of disgraced former president Moshe Katsav, who signed a plea
bargain in June admitting he sexually harassed several female
employees. An Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Palestinian
militants, wounding two members of Islamic Jihad and the Gaza
commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Michelangelo
Antonioni (b.1912), film director, died (94). He was one of Italy's
most influential post-war film directors whose portrayals of modern
angst and alienation won him a cult following. His films included
the Oscar-nominated "Blowup," "Zabriskie Point" and the
internationally acclaimed "L'Avventura" (The Adventure).
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, Japan’s PM Shinzo
Abe rejected calls for his resignation, saying the country couldn't
afford the resulting "power vacuum."
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In northern
Lebanon the army unleashed tank and artillery fire on the remaining
hideouts of al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up in a Palestinian
refugee camp.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, The Mexican Miners
and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMRM) struck Grupo Mexico to demand wage
increases and improved safety conditions. Striking workers occupied
the Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora and
continued into 2010.
(Econ, 4/24/10,
p.59)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1819816120100218)
2007 Jul 30, The body of Luis
Lazaro Lara Morejon, a Cuban-American who was under investigation in
a migrant smuggling case, was found riddled with bullets along a
road outside Cancun, Mexico.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, In Pakistan 3
paramilitary soldiers and four civilians died in militant attacks in
the North Waziristan tribal region.
(Reuters, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In the Philippines
southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed to set up a regional human
rights commission, overcoming fierce resistance from military-ruled
Myanmar. Myanmar agreed not to veto discussion over the human rights
commission at a November summit.
(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.36)
2007 Jul 30, Patriarch Teoctist
(b.1915), head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, died in Bucharest,
He made history when he invited the late John Paul II to his
Orthodox country in 1999 but was criticized for being too close to
former Communists.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In Somalia
insurgents attacked government buildings in Mogadishu, starting a
gunbattle with troops that killed at least 4 people, including a
four-year-old child. In the central town of Belet Weyne, two
children and their father were killed when Ethiopian troops fired
artillery shells into a residential area after a land mine exploded
near their convoy. A land mine exploded near a bus in southern
Mogadishu, killing 5 on board and wounding 3 others.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Jul 30, Officials said at
least 19 people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed by
a series of forest fires which have swept through parts of
northeastern South Africa.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Ingmar Bergman
(b.1918), Swedish film and stage director, died. The iconoclastic
filmmaker was widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern
cinema. His 1987 autobiography was titled "The Magic Lantern."
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 31, A US government
watchdog group called for the removal of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens from
his Senate committees, less than 24 hours after the FBI and IRS
raided the senator’s Alaska home in connection with a public
corruption probe centered in the state.
(www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/ethics_flaps_could_stir_compet.html)
2007 Jul 31, The Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress,
issued a report saying it could not account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles
and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, or
about half the weapons earmarked for soldiers and police.
(Reuters, 8/6/07)
2007 Jul 31, The US Army
censured retired three-star Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger for a "perfect
storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after
the 2004 friendly-fire death in Afghanistan of Army Ranger Pat
Tillman.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2007 Jul 31, In California
Michael Schneider (44), a Hillsborough real estate broker, pleaded
no contest in Santa Clara County to 173 felony counts related to
bilking investors out of more than $43 million. He faced as much as
169 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 31, In northern
California the governing board of Oakland’s troubled Univ.
Preparatory Charter Academy closed the school leaving over 400
students in the lurch.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, Johnson &
Johnson said it would reduce its global work force by up to 4
percent, or up to 4,820 jobs, to cut costs due to slumping sales of
heart stents and its No. 2 drug, plus looming patent expirations.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp. was expected to reach a definitive agreement to buy Dow
Jones & Co. Inc., capping his three-month pursuit of the
publisher of the Wall Street Journal, as the Bancroft gave approval
for Murdoch's $60-per-share bid.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A new study
reported that drinking wine or beer every day increases the risk of
bowel cancer. The British Daily Telegraph reported 35,000 people are
diagnosed each year with bowel cancer and that it kills 16,100
a year.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Norman Cohn (92),
English historian, died. He studied the links between apocalyptic
Medieval sects and 20th century totalitarianism and genocide. His
1957 book: "Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians
and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages" drew parallels between
millenarian movements in the Middle Ages and the rise of
20th-century totalitarianism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Jul 31, In central
Afghanistan police discovered the body of a second South Korean
hostage, and the Taliban threatened to kill more captives if their
demands were not met by a new deadline. A suicide car bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of US troops on the outskirts of Kabul,
leaving up to 7 civilians and three soldiers wounded.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, ASEAN Plus Three
foreign ministers gathered in Manila on the eve of high-level
security talks. ARF, which includes the United States, European
Union, India, Pakistan, North and South Korea and other countries,
and will also hold talks here on Aug 1-2.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, The British army
marked a milestone of peacemaking as it formally ended its 38-year
mission to bolster security in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Cambodia Kang
Kek Ieu (alias Duch), a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, was charged
with crimes against humanity and detained by Cambodia's UN-backed
tribunal in the first legal action taken by the court against regime
leaders.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Canada John
Felderhof, the lone remaining key figure in the multibillion-dollar
Bre-X gold fraud, was found not guilty. It took almost seven years
to reach the not guilty verdict in the trial of the only person to
be prosecuted in the massive Bre-X gold fraud, leading Canadians to
ask once again if the country isn't too soft on corporate crime.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, China’s state
media reported another 27 deaths from flooding and landslides in
different parts of the country.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Egypt US Sec.
of State Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a joint show
of diplomatic force during two days of meetings with Arab allies,
part of an 11th-hour effort to rally diplomatic and practical help
for the US-backed Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The tour opened
talks on a proposed US arms package for Arab states worth more than
$20 billion. US officials extended a 10-year pledge to continue $1.3
billion in annual aid to Egypt’s military. Military aid to Israel
was raised to $3 billion. Weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and 5
smaller monarchies was said to be $20 billion. Total US military aid
to the region over the next decade amounted to $63 billion.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.39)
2007 Jul 31, An Indian
anti-terror court sentenced Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt to six
years in jail for illegal weapons possession in connection with
serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993. Dutt was freed on bail after 22
days in jail.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.38)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Iraq
al-Maliki's government faced a threat by the main Sunni bloc in
parliament to withdraw its Cabinet members if he doesn't meet a
series of demands. At least 11 people were killed or found dead
nationwide, including three Iraqi police in a drive-by shooting and
one soldier in a roadside bombing. A teacher also was shot to death
while driving to work in a mainly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. An
explosively-formed penetrator, or EFP, detonated near a US soldiers'
patrol during combat operations, killing 3 with 6 wounded. Another
US soldier was killed by small arms fire in a separate incident. Two
US soldiers were killed in a mortar or rocket attack.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, Pro-government and
independent candidates swept local elections in Jordan, including
the first-ever vote for city mayors. The Islamist main opposition
group withdrew from Jordan's first mayoral elections and accused the
government of fraud.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the
bodies of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents
with Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in
Guerrero state, where they were gathering intelligence on drug
traffickers. The agents had taken part in a raid that discovered
$205 million in cash in a Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mozambique 5
soldiers were killed when an army truck carrying munitions that were
about to be destroyed exploded near the country's main airport.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Nigeria Peter
Ogwuma, a staff (member) of Elf Petroleum, was abducted as he was
about to leave the church for home.
(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northwestern
Pakistan government troops backed by helicopter gunships repelled an
attack on a military checkpoint near Miran Shah, killing 18 Islamic
militants. A local lawmaker said the 18 people killed were tribesmen
and not militants.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A15)(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northern Sri
Lanka hundreds of ethnic Sinhalese civilians fled three villages,
claiming the government had failed to protect them from attacks by
Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A senior Sudanese
official said floods and heavy rains have caused 23,000 mudbrick
homes to collapse and killed at least 62 people across Sudan this
month. In southern Darfur Mahria Arab tribesmen attacked Terjem
Arabs killing over 60 Terjem. Conflict between Arab tribes was on
the increase and included clashes between the Habanniya and Salamat
tribes.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A16)
2007 Jul 31, The UN Security
Council approved a 26,000 strong peacekeeping force for Darfur, to
try to end 4 years of fighting that has killed over 200,000.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced yet another higher denomination banknote as it
grappled with runaway inflation which is rendering lower-value
banknotes useless. The new 200,000-Zimbabwe dollar bearer check is
worth 800 US dollars at the official rate and one US dollar at the
parallel market rate.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul, Filming started on
the first international movie ever to be shot in Botswana, “The No.
1 Ladies' Detective Agency,” a movie based on Alexander McCall
Smith's hit book series of the same name.
(CSM, 8/1/07)
2007 Jul, US Teamster Pres.
James Hoffa sent a letter to Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad demanding the
release of Mansour Ossanlou, a Bus Transport Workers Union leader,
and condemned the Iranian government’s flagrant disdain for freedom
of association and expression.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.E3)
2007 Jul, Warren Winiarski sold
his Stag’s Leap winery in Napa County to Italian winemaker Piero
Antinori and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates of Washington state for $185
million.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.F6)
2007 Jul, Andy Coulson, former
editor at News of the World, became the communications head for
David Cameron, leader of the Britain’s opposition Conservative
Party.
(Econ, 7/16/11,
p.26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Coulson)
2007 Jul, In Indonesia the
Constitutional Court again struck out clauses in the criminal code
that made it a crime to insult senior figures.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.64)
2007 Jul, Authorities in
Kazakhstan slapped a $609 million fine on a Chevron-led consortium
developing the Tengiz oil field. The Kazakh ecological ministry
cited environmental breaches stemming from the stockpiling of sulfur
between 2003 and 2006. The consortium stripped sulfur from Tengiz
oil, which is laced with hydrogen sulfide gas, and stored it as
pellets in massive facilities, for later use in fertilizer.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.A9)
2007 Jul, In Beirut, Lebanon,
construction firms broke ground in the Dahiya district, a Shiite
enclave razed by bombs during last year’s war with Israel. Hezbollah
organized the project by collection war-compensation checks from
volunteering residents.
(WSJ, 9/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul, Tanger Med, a new
seaport on northern Morocco, opened its frist docks. Over the next 8
years it was expected to become the largest container port in the
Mediterranean.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.78)
2007 Jul, The Sanaag region of
Somaliland, a former sultanate, declared independence and renamed
itself Makhir with Badhan as its capital.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.56)
2007 Jul, Sri Lanka’s army
declared that it had cleared the eastern part of the country from
rebels for the first time in 14 years.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.44)
2007 Aug 1, A major bridge on
I-35W over the Mississippi River collapsed in Minneapolis, Minn., at
rush hour. Initial reports said at least 5 people were killed. The
bridge dated to 1967. On Aug 9 Navy divers recovered two more
bodies, including one identified as a former missionary who had been
reported missing. Divers recovered an 8th victim on Aug 10 and a 9th
on Aug 12. Two more victims were found on Aug 16. A 12th victim was
found Aug 19. The 13th and last victim was found Aug 20. In 2008
Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a $38 million package to compensate victims
of the collapse. In 2010 URS Corp., which had a contract to evaluate
the bridge’s structural integrity, reached $5 million settlement
with Minnesota. In August URS later agreed to pay over $52 million
to settle claims by victims.
(AP, 8/2/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A5)(AP, 8/10/07)(SFC,
8/11/07, p.A5)(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.A1)(SFC, 8/20/07,
p.A3)(AP, 8/21/07)(WSJ, 5/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)(SFC,
8/24/10, p.D1)
2007 Aug 1, SF police and
homeless outreach workers rousted people sleeping in Golden Gate
Park and other parks and encampments.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 1, Tommy Maken (74),
Irish-American folk musician who performed for years with the Clancy
Brothers, died in Dover, NH.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 1, The bodies of 4
Afghan judges, kidnapped 11 days ago, were found in Ghazni province,
the same province where 21 South Korean hostages were held.
Afghanistan dropped leaflets in the area to warn of military action.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 1, The ASEAN summit
got underway in Manila. Diplomats held dozens of meetings in the
Philippine capital, using the annual gathering of nearly 30 nations
to confer on everything from the North Korean crisis to the conflict
in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, The South
Australian Supreme Court ordered its own state government to pay
Bruce Trevorrow $448,000 for damages caused when he was taken from
his parents without their knowledge 50 years ago.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Bangladesh
officials said monsoon floods had misplaced or marooned 5 million
people and left 40 dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 1, A financial
watchdog said British Airways has been fined a record 121.5 million
pounds (180 million euros, $246 million) after admitting collusion
with Virgin Atlantic over fuel surcharges on tickets. British
Airways and Korean Air (for collusion with Lufthansa) agreed to pay
$300 million each in fines and plead guilty to federal charges that
they colluded with other airlines to set ticket prices.
(AFP, 8/1/07)(SFC, 8/2/07, p.C2)(Econ, 8/4/07,
p.48)
2007 Aug 1, In China 69 men
trapped in a flooded Chinese coal mine for more than three days were
pulled out alive, ending a terrifying ordeal in which they survived
on milk and pumped-in oxygen.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, A passenger train
derailed in central Congo and eight cars tumbled off the tracks,
killing about 100 people and trapping some passengers in the
wreckage. People in the southeastern town of Moba attacked the UN
office after a local radio station aired false rumors that the
United Nations was to resettle Congolese ethnic Tutsis in the
region. 4 UN military observers were wounded and 21 staff were
evacuated.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 1, Denmark, France and
Indonesia offered to contribute to a joint UN-African Union mission
for Darfur, a 26,000-strong force expected to be made up mostly of
peacekeepers from Africa with backup from Asian troops. Sudan
accepted a UN resolution approving a joint African Union-UN
peacekeeping force in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, A French court
ruled that indictments for Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and another man,
Laurent Bucyibaruta, violated the presumption of innocence. Rwanda
had sought the extradition of the 2 men for their roles in the
country's 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Guatemala's
Congress voted to create a commission of foreign experts to
investigate organized crime and police corruption.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, An overcrowded boat
evacuating people from a flooded village capsized in a rain-swollen
river in northern India, killing at least 28 people. Dozens of
people were killed across South Asia as surging flood waters caused
by heavy monsoon rains forced millions from their homes.
(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, Iran publicly
hanged seven men in the second round of collective executions in 10
days. The Web site of the state's broadcasting company said they
were hanged on charges of rape, kidnapping and robbery in Mashad.
Iran arrested more than 200 music fans at an underground rock
concert that one official called a "satanic" gathering and
authorities accused the youths of breaking Islamic law.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 1, Iraq's largest
Sunni Arab political bloc announced its withdrawal from the
government, undermining efforts to seek reconciliation among the
country's rival factions. Two bombing attacks in Baghdad killed at
least 67 people. In one attack, 50 people were killed and 60 wounded
when a suicide attacker exploded a fuel truck near a gas station in
western Baghdad. Another 17 died in a separate car bomb attack in
central Baghdad. A parked car bomb killed 3 people and wounded 5 in
southern Baghdad in a mostly Christian area. Altogether at least 142
Iraqis were killed or found dead, including 70 who died in three
separate bombings in Baghdad. One US soldiers was killed by a
roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Norihiko Akagi,
Japan's scandal-embroiled agriculture minister, stepped down, taking
responsibility for a shattering election defeat for the ruling
party. Akagi had been hit by an embarrassing accounting scandal,
which was widely viewed as a major reason behind the ruling election
loss.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, Two Lebanese
soldiers were killed in heavy fighting with al-Qaida-inspired
militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern
Lebanon.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Russian explorers
readied for a historic descent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean
under the North Pole as part of an expedition to claim the area for
Russia.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, Russia's
state-controlled gas monopoly said that it will reduce natural gas
supplies to Belarus by 45 percent as of Aug 3 after Minsk failed to
pay in full for previous gas shipments.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, It was reported
that more than 100 Serbian Gypsies have crossed the border illegally
into neighboring Romania in recent days and filed applications for
asylum claiming they were subject to abuse and attacks in Serbia.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 1, South Korea’s
Agriculture Ministry halted quarantine inspections of American beef
shipments after finding a banned vertebral column in a recent
shipment. Without such inspections, the beef cannot be brought to
market.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, Rebels captured the
town of Adila, where Sudanese troops were stationed to protect the
only railway linking Darfur to the capital of Khartoum. Some 100
(Sudanese) soldiers or janjaweed were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 1, In southern
Thailand a rebel ambush and bombs left 11 people dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 1, An
opposition-aligned television channel (RCTV), already booted from
the airwaves, faced a deadline to agree to carry speeches by
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or be yanked from the cable lineup.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 2, Charles Simic
(b.1938) of Concord, NH, a Yugoslav-born immigrant, was named to
become the new US poet laureate, replacing Donald Hall beginning Sep
29.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.E20)
2007 Aug 2, A Marine Corps
squad leader was convicted at Camp Pendleton, Calif., of murdering
an Iraqi man during a frustrated search for an insurgent. Sgt.
Lawrence G. Hutchins III was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2007 Aug 2, US federal agents
arrested dozens of doctors accused of obtaining medical licenses
through fraud or bribery, carrying out sweeping raids across Puerto
Rico. The FDA accused 88 doctors of falsified credentials.
(AP, 8/2/07)(WSJ, 8/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, A US appeals court
ruled that Katrina victims cannot collect for damage from levee
breaches.
(WSJ, 8/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, FBI agents arrested
Rahmat Abdhir (43), aka Sean Kasem and Sean Kalimin, in San Jose,
Ca., for providing material support to his brother, Zulkifli Abdhir
(41), a US-trained engineer and terror suspect in the Philippines.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 2, Scientists warned
that bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogen-like compound in plastic, is
probably causing an array of serious reproductive disorders in
people.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, In Washington state
a helicopter with four people aboard crashed and burst into flames
on the east slopes of the Cascade Range, starting a wildfire. By the
next day it spread through dry timber to cover 300 to 400 acres.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Oakland, Ca.,
Chauncey Bailey (57), editor of the Oakland Post and former reporter
for the Oakland Tribune, was shot and killed on his way to work by a
masked gunman. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf Bey IV (23), the
leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, of murder for allegedly telling
two of his followers to kill Bailey. In 2009 Devaughndre Broussard
(21) pleaded guilty to 2 counts of voluntary manslaughter as part of
a deal to secure testimony against Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Mackey,
another bakery figure.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)(SFC,
5/8/09, p.B1)
2007 Aug 2, Armen Baliantz
(b.1921), SF restaurateur born in China to Armenian parents, died.
Her Bali’s Restaurant at Pacific and Battery, had closed in Feb,
1985.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, In southern
Afghanistan US-led airstrikes in Helmand province killed at least 3
senior Taliban figures, including commander Mullah Rahim.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, In Brazil a strike
by subway workers disrupted the commute of millions of people in Sao
Paulo, causing huge traffic jams and long lines at bus stops.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, Bulgaria said it
had decided to write off Libya's communist-era debt as a
contribution to an international fund for the victims of an AIDS
epidemic blamed by Tripoli on six Bulgarian medics.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Canada dismissed
Russia's claim to a large chunk of the resource-rich Arctic, saying
the tactic was more suited to the 15th century than the real world.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, China’s state media
reported that courts in northern China have sentenced 31 people,
including a police officer, to prison terms of up to five years
stemming from the use of slave labor in brick kilns. In east China a
rising wave in the Qiantang River, known for its strong tides,
engulfed 33 swimmers and visitors walking along a levee. At least
eight were killed.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, Beijing and
Washington agreed to cooperate more closely on product and food
safety as the US recalled almost 1 million toys due to lead
concerns. Mattel apologized to customers as it recalled nearly a
million Chinese-made toys from its Fisher-Price division that were
found to have excessive amounts of lead.
(AP, 8/3/07)(SFC, 8/3/07, p.D1)(AP, 8/2/08)
2007 Aug 2, Officials said days
of heavy monsoon rains have devastated large swaths of northern
India and Bangladesh, killing at least 164 people, stranding
millions and washing away vital crops.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Much of Baghdad was
without running water and had been for at least 24 hours. A suicide
car bomber slammed into an Iraqi police station northeast of
Baghdad, killing at least 13 people. Fadhil al-Akil (35), an aide to
Iraq's top cleric, was killed in the Shiite city of Najaf. A mortar
and rocket-propelled grenade landed on homes in Khan Bani Saad, a
mixed town northeast of Baghdad, killing four civilians, two of them
children. The US military said American and Iraqi troops had killed
seven suspects and captured 22 others in two days of raids across
Iraq. A total of 58 people were killed or found dead across the
country. US troops killed Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri,
the al-Qaida in Iraq mastermind of the bombing that destroyed the
golden dome of a famed sacred Shiite shrine last year. 3 US soldiers
were killed in a single roadside bombing on Baghdad's east side. The
blast wounded 11 other US troops. Another soldier was killed and
three wounded in combat in western Baghdad. A US Marine was killed
during combat in Iraq's western Anbar province.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/3/07)(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 2, Lebanon's most
senior Shiite Muslim cleric issued a religious edict banning honor
killings, calling the custom of murdering a female relative for
sexual misconduct "a repulsive act." More fierce fighting erupted as
troops pounded the remaining Fatah Islam hideouts in the camp with
artillery and tank fire. Two more Lebanese soldiers were killed in
heavy fighting with the al-Qaida-inspired militants.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, A Libyan official
said that Moammar Gadhafi's long-isolated country has signed
contracts worth $405 million with French companies for missiles and
communications equipment.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, An Islamic militant
and a policeman died when officers foiled a suicide bombing at a
Pakistani police school in Sargodha.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, In the Netherlands
Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of consumer goods and food products,
announced that it would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, 11 percent of its
total workforce, over the next four years.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Two deep-diving
Russian mini-submarines descended more than 2 1/2 miles under North
Pole ice to stake a flag on the ocean floor, part of a quest to
bolster Russian claims to much of the Arctic's oil-and-mineral
wealth.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, An unmanned Russian
cargo ship carrying over 2.5 tons of supplies, equipment and gifts
blasted off for the international space station.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, A 6.4-magnitude
quake struck on the southern tip of Sakhalin island, just north of
Japan. At least 2 people were killed and some 2,000 in Nevelsk moved
to tent camps after the powerful earthquake left apartment buildings
in ruins.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, Kafeel Ahmed (27),
the suspect who was critically burned in a botched car bomb attempt
at Glasgow Airport, died after 5 weeks in hospital from burns to 90%
of his body.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Sierra Leone 2
former members of a pro-government militia were convicted of war
crimes, the second round of rulings by a UN-backed court attempting
to punish those most responsible for brutalities committed during
Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war. A boat traveling from Freetown
to the northern town of Kassiri capsized in the mouth of the Little
Scarcies River. At least 10 people were killed and 45 others left
missing.
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/3/07)(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Somalia mortars
slammed into homes in Mogadishu after fighting between insurgents
and Ethiopian troops, killing 8 people, including a mother and her
two daughters.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Thailand a
lawyer said the wife of Thailand's deposed premier Thaksin
Shinawatra will seek 1.4 billion dollars in compensation from
military-backed authorities that have frozen her assets.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Yemen security
forces fired tear gas and water cannons at former soldiers
protesting in Aden demanding to be allowed back in the military. One
person was reported killed. The protesters were largely members of
the army of south Yemen who were ousted after being defeated by
northern forces.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Alaska Mindy
Schloss (52), a nurse practitioner, was last seen alive in
Anchorage. Her body was found on Sep 13 near Wasilla. In 2010 Joshua
Alan Wade (29) acknowledged that he had shot and killed Schloss, who
lived next door to him.
(SFC, 2/17/10,
p.A6)(www.amw.com/missing_persons/recovered.cfm?id=47985)
2007 Aug 3, A jury at Camp
Pendleton, Calif., sentenced Marine Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III to
15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a
fruitless search for an insurgent.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2007 Aug 3, In Kentucky a judge
ruled that 3 attorneys, accused of bilking their clients in a $200
million fen-phen settlement, must repay at least $62.1 million in
settlement funds and interest.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, Oakland police
arrested 7 people, including Yusuf Bey IV, in a predawn raid on Your
Black Muslim Bakery and 3 homes in connection with 3 homicides
including the Aug 2 murder of Oakland Post journalist Chauncey
Bailey. The Post had been investigating the organization’s finances.
Alameda County health inspectors shut down the bakery after finding
health-code violations. A judge converted the bakery’s Chapter 11
bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 liquidation setting Aug 9 as its last
day of business.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A1,6)(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A11)
2007 Aug 3, American Home
Mortgage released all but 750 of its 7,000 employees as it ran out
of money, the latest victim of the subprime mortgage implosion.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.C2)
2007 Aug 3, Two dogs belonging
to actor Ving Rhames mauled Jacob Adams (40), a caretaker for the
actor's dogs, to death at the star's Brentwood, Ca., home.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 3, It was reported
that Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca is being strangled by city-fed
pollution that is driving away local people who draw sustenance from
its mythical waters.
(AFP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, Four people were
killed after a helicopter flying from northern England to southern
Scotland crashed in northwest England. The wreckage was found the
next day.
(AFP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, China asserted the
sole right to recognize living Buddhas, reincarnations of famous
lamas that form the backbone of the religion's clergy. All future
incarnations of living Buddhas related to Tibetan Buddhism must get
government approval.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, China banned
Indonesian seafood after checks turned up dangerous contamination.
Indonesian authorities called the move an apparent reaction to an
Indonesian ban on some tainted Chinese products. The Chinese
administration said Indonesian products have been found to contain
mercury and cadmium, metals that can accumulate in water and soil
from burning garbage, mining or other industrial processes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, Lenovo Group Ltd.
said it will sell a basic personal computer aimed at China's vast
but poor rural market and priced as low as $199.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, About 50 women
occupied a central square in Makhachkala, Dagestan, declaring a
hunger strike and vowing not to leave until authorities tell them
what happened to their missing children. The president of Dagestan,
Mukhu Aliev, admitted last month that 76 people have been kidnapped
so far this year in Dagestan. In six of those cases, the abductors
wore camouflage uniforms similar to those worn by law enforcement
officers.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, The death toll in
south Asia rose to at least 186 people killed. 19 million have been
driven from their homes as heavy monsoon rains triggered floods,
destroyed crops and submerged roads across a wide swath of northern
India and Bangladesh. The UN child welfare agency said that in India
alone, the number of dead from the monsoons topped 1,100.
(AP, 8/3/07)(AFP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Tanzania
Darfur's fractious rebel groups gathered for talks aimed at
hammering out a united front, following UN approval of a beefed up
peacekeeping mission in the Sudanese region.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Uganda gunmen on
Lake Albert attacked a boat operated by Canada's Heritage Oil Corp.,
killing a British contractor. 3 armed patrol boats from Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), on the other side of the lake, had opened
fire on Heritage's boat.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Venezuela US
actor Sean Penn accompanied Pres. Chavez on a visit to western
Venezuela. "I'm also here as a journalist and so I owe it to that
medium to wait until I've digested, fact-checked and finished my
journey here" before saying more, Penn said. He thanked Chavez for
the visit.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, Virgin Islands’
authorities arrested Kamal Thomas and charged him with first-degree
murder and assault, as well as using a dangerous weapon while
committing a crime. James Cockayne (21) of new Hope, Pa., was killed
on June 19 near a shopping center.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Zimbabwe the
Interception of Communication Act was published in the government
gazette. The bill, signed by President Robert Mugabe, allows the
state to eavesdrop on private phone conversations and monitor faxes
and emails.
(AFP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 4, President Bush
toured the site of a collapsed highway bridge in Minneapolis,
pledging to cut red tape that could delay rebuilding.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, Barry Bonds of the
SF Giants hit his 755th home run tying a 1976 record set by Hank
Aaron. The Giants lost to the San Diego Padres 3-2 in 12 innings.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron)(SSFC,
8/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 4, Alex Rodriguez
became at age 32 the youngest player in major league history to hit
500 home runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 NY Yankee victory
over Kansas City.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, In Newark, New
Jersey, 3 friends were forced to kneel against a wall behind an
elementary school and were shot to death at close range, and a
fourth was found about 30 feet away with gunshot and knife wounds to
her head. Natasha Aerial (19) was listed in fair condition at
Newark's University Hospital. Police identified her companions as
her brother, Terrance Aerial (18), Ofemi Hightower (20), and Deshawn
Harvey (20). On Aug 7 a 15-year-old boy was arrested in the case. On
Aug 8 Jose Carranza (28), an illegal immigrant from Peru, was also
arrested as a suspect. Two more suspects were arrested in suburban
DC on Aug 18.
(AP,
8/6/07)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292911,00.html)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 4, Oakland, Ca.,
police said they have identified Devaughndre Broussard (19), a
handyman at Your Black Muslim Bakery, as the person responsible for
the Aug 2, murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. He was one of 7 men
arrested a day earlier. It was later learned that Broussard falsely
confessed to the killing at the urging of Yusuf Bey IV, head of the
bakery. In 2011 Broussard (23) was sentenced to 25 years behind
bars.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B1)(SFC,
8/13/11, p.C2)
2007 Aug 4, Yousef Megahed (21)
of Egypt and Ahmed Mohamed (24) of Kuwait, students from the Univ.
of South Florida, were arrested following a speeding stop in the
vicinity of the Naval Weapons Station, located in Goose Creek, South
Carolina. Pipe bombs were found in their vehicle. They were later
indicted for carrying explosives across state lines. In 2008 Ahmed
Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed pleaded guilty in a Tampa court to making
a video demonstrating how to build a remote bomb detonator to help
terrorists.
(www.charleston.net/news/2007/aug/17/fbi_backs_off_arrests13265/)(WSJ,
9/1/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/19/08, p.A2)
2007 Aug 4, NASA launched its
Phoenix Mars Lander, a robotic dirt and ice digger, scheduled to
land on Mars on May 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 4, Lee Hazlewood
(b.1929), songwriter, died in Henderson, Nev. His songs included
“These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” sung by Nancy Sinatra in 1966.
(SFC, 8/7/07,
p.D9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hazlewood)
2007 Aug 4, A suicide car
bomber blew himself up next to a convoy of foreign troops just west
of Kandahar city, killing two civilians who were nearby. Four
civilians were killed in a roadside blast in Zhari district of
Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Algerian newspapers
reported that the army, stepping up a counter-offensive after
attacks by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, has killed around 16 of the
group's fighters in the past three days.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Bangladesh
deaths from monsoon rains topped 200, with at least 16 more
fatalities reported overnight. 7.5 million people have been either
marooned or displaced from their homes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Thousands of
Brazilians marched in Sao Paulo to denounce President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva's government as corrupt and indifferent.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, British PM Gordon
Brown said that authorities were doing "everything in our power" to
track the source of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and wipe out
the animal illness before it wreaked economic devastation.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, A Hong Kong
newspaper reported that China is cracking down on cable television
operators who offer unauthorized foreign satellite broadcasts, the
communist government's latest bid to maintain its monopoly on
information.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, A roadside bomb
targeting an Iraqi Army convoy killed one civilian and wounded five
others at a busy intersection in central Baghdad. In western Baghdad
a mortar round landed on a house in Ghazaliyah, killing another
civilian. In northern Iraq Salim Khudaeir, a police lieutenant
colonel, was gunned down on his way to work. US forces killed four
suspects in a raid targeting an insurgent group believed to be
coordinating logistical support from Iran for Shiite militias in
Iraq. The killings took place in the town of Qasirin in Diyala
province. West of Tarmiyah US troops captured 20 suspects accused of
having ties to a high-ranking al-Qaida in Iraq figure. Two more
suspects were also arrested for alleged ties to another leader from
the same group. Four more suspects were detained for alleged
involvement in a sniper cell that employed 35 gunmen. In Kirkuk five
people were captured, three accused of association with an al-Qaida
media cell, and two for involvement in car bomb attacks. 3 US
soldiers died Saturday south of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Nepal the toll
from monsoon-triggered flooding and landslides stood at 91, with
most of the deaths in the Terai plains region on Nepal's southern
border with India.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Javed Hashmi, one
of Pakistan's top opposition leaders, was released to the raucous
cheers of supporters after four years in prison and immediately
vowed to resume his campaign against President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. He left prison a day after the Supreme Court granted him
bail in his 23-year sentence on charges of treason and inciting an
army mutiny against Musharraf. A suicide attacker detonated a car
bomb at a busy bus station in Parachinar, North West Frontier
Province, killing at least nine people and wounding 35 others. 4
soldiers and 10 militants were killed in a checkpoint shootout.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Two Palestinians
were killed and six wounded in an Israeli air strike on two vehicles
near the southern Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Zbigniew Krakowski
(56), a Polish sea captain in charge of the 2,000-ton Jork, crashed
his ship into an unmanned gas platform in the North Sea while drunk.
The platform, owned by US firm ConocoPhillips, went out of action
with losses at 615,000 pounds a month in revenue. In November
Krakowski was jailed for 12 months.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Aug 4, Serbian police
exchanged fire with uniformed gunmen in an ethnic Albanian area of
southern Serbia bordering the breakaway Kosovo province. One person
was killed.
(Reuters, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Unemployment in
Sierra Leone, with a population of some 6 million, stood at close to
80% with poverty and corruption widespread and endemic. The
country’s Anti-Corruption Commission was now a lame duck as its $2
million annual funding was suspended by exasperated British donors.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 5, President Bush and
Afghan President Hamid Karzai began meeting at Camp David to discuss
security issues in Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2007 Aug 5, Scientists reported
that the skin condition called rosacea is caused by an abundance of
abnormal cathelicidin skin proteins.
(SFC, 8/6/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 5, Comedian Stanley
Myron Handelman (b.1929) died in Panorama City, Calif.
(AP,
8/5/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Myron_Handelman)
2007 Aug 5, In Afghanistan 3
policemen were killed when a remotely detonated mine tore through
their vehicle in the eastern province of Kunar. A gunfight, which
began the previous evening, left two policemen dead and two others
wounded. At least four militants were killed. A roadside bomb
typical of those deployed by the Taliban killed two Afghan civilians
in the southern province of Kandahar. A policeman was killed in an
overnight attack on his post by several Taliban rebels. Four police
officers were killed in the southern province of Logar just south of
the capital Kabul when they were ambushed on patrol overnight.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, Colombia's navy
seized a 65-foot submarine that likely was used to haul tons of
cocaine on part of its journey to the United States. The
blue-colored, diesel-powered vessel had sophisticated communications
systems and was capable of carrying up to 11 tons of cocaine.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 5, Two boxers
(Guillermo Rigondeaux (25), Cuba's top boxer and a two-time Olympic
bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara (24), an amateur
welterweight world champion) deported by Brazil were back in Cuba
after they disappeared during the Pan American Games last month and
were arrested at a resort where officials said they partied and ran
up an exorbitant bill.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, The last men of a
Danish battalion of 450 ground troops left Iraq.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 5, A group of armed,
masked men burst into a museum in the southern French city of Nice
and made off with a painting by French master Claude Monet and two
others by Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel. The paintings were
recovered on June 4, 2008, in a sting operation that captured 3 men
near Marseilles.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 6/5/08)(WSJ, 8/22/08, p.W1)
2007 Aug 5, French Cardinal
Jean-Marie Lustiger (80) died. He was a Jew who converted to
Catholicism and rose through church hierarchy to become one of the
most influential Roman Catholic figures in France.
(AP, 8/5/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.76)
2007 Aug 5, Iran showed off for
the first time a new fighter jet said to be modeled on the American
F-5 but built using domestic technology. The "Azarakhsh" (Lightning)
jet, one of the first to be home-produced by Iran, made a successful
flight in the central city of Isfahan.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, The US military
said 80 suspected insurgents were detained in US and Iraqi raids in
the Samarra area over the past week. 13 people were killed and 14
wounded by mortar shells in southeast Baghdad. 6 gunmen were killed
and ten others arrested during clashes with Iraqi soldiers in Mosul.
Fierce fighting was reported in northwest Baghdad around midday
between Iraqi soldiers and members of the Mahdi Army. 60 bodies were
found in a mainly Sunni area that had been under the control of
al-Qaida in Iraq west of Baqouba. At least 29 people were killed or
found dead in other parts of Iraq. The US military said its troops
killed 4 suspects and detained 7 others in operations across the
country targeting al-Qaida in Iraq. A US soldier was killed and two
were wounded during fighting in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Army and police
patrols stood guard as thousands of Lebanese went to polling
stations to vote in a key election to replace two assassinated
lawmakers. A little-known opposition candidate defeated a former
president in a tense parliament by-election that showed the
divisions among Lebanon's once-dominant Christians. Pro-Syrian
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has said he would not recognize the
results of the two by-elections because they were called by what he
and the rest of the opposition consider an illegitimate government.
The by-elections were held despite the refusal of the president,
Lahoud, to approve them, as required.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Jose Guadalupe
Osuna (51) of Mexico’s National Action Party won the elections for
governor in Baha California. He defeated PRI candidate Jorge Hank, a
former mayor of Tijuana and self-proclaimed billionaire with links
to organized crime.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Aug 5, Mozambique state
radio said authorities had seized thousands of boxes of counterfeit
toothpaste that they fear may contain a potentially deadly chemical.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, In Nigeria 18 men
were arrested in remote northern Bauchi state, where they were found
with women's apparel as they prepared for a gay wedding. They faced
charges of sodomy in a Nigerian Islamic court. They were accused of
lesser crimes in court but angry crowds reacted violently. Three
weeks later they were rearrested and charged with more severe crimes
including indecent acts and faced 10 years in jail if found guilty.
(AP, 8/10/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.49)
2007 Aug 5, A junior partner in
Poland's ruling coalition said it was pulling out of the partnership
and withdrawing its two ministers from government in a move that
could set the scene for early legislative elections.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, Florian Pittis
(63), Romanian actor and folk musician, died of cancer. He helped
popularize Western rock bands in communist Romania.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Darfur's fractious
rebel groups held a third day of reconciliation talks in Tanzania in
a bid to present a united front at future peace talks with Khartoum.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, An official said
Turkey's secular military expelled 10 officers for being
"reactionary," a euphemism for Islamist activities, along with 13
others accused of lack of discipline.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 6, President Bush
wrapped up two days of talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at
Camp David. Bush and Karzai ruled out making any concessions to the
Taliban militants during their 2-day meeting at Camp David.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/6/08)
2007 Aug 6, A US federal judge
in LA barred the Navy from using underwater sonar blasts for
anti-submarine tests off California’s Channel Islands, due to
potential harm to 30 species of marine mammals including 5 species
of endangered whales.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.D2)
2007 Aug 6, In Utah 6 coal
miners were trapped by a cave-in more than 1,500 feet below the
surface at the Crandall Canyon Mine.
(AP, 8/7/07)(SFC, 8/18/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 6, American Home
Mortgage Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest casualty
of a mortgage industry that has plunged into distress.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Cerberus Capital
Management LP named Robert Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot, to
lead its newly acquired Chrysler unit.
(WSJ, 8/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 6, Wal-Mart signed an
agreement to start wholesale operations in India in equal
partnership with Bharti Enterprises, an Indian conglomerate.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 6, Montana was under a
state of emergency as firefighters battled several huge blazes.
Residents near a state park on Michigan's Upper Peninsula were
ordered to evacuate as another wildfire spread there.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Militants attacked
police at a checkpoint in Zabul province, and the ensuing clash left
five suspected militants dead. Militants attacked a police vehicle
just outside Kandahar city, killing two officers and wounding eight
others. Dutch soldiers fatally shot a motorcyclist who approached
their convoy and failed to heed warning signals and shots.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, The European
Commission announced a formal EU-wide import ban on meat and
livestock from the British mainland following the outbreak there of
foot and mouth disease. The outbreak halted British animal movement
and the export ban was estimated to be costing the British meat
industry some £10 million a week.
(AP, 8/6/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.45)
2007 Aug 6, Independence hero
Xanana Gusmao was named East Timor's new prime minister, triggering
fresh violence in the capital.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Baron Elie Robert
de Rothschild (90), who helped France's renowned Rothschild
winemaking and banking dynasty recover from the ravages of World War
II, died while vacationing at his Austrian hunting lodge.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Iran's leading
reformist newspaper was shut down for the second time in a year
after publishing an interview with a poet who called for greater
gender equality.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Iranian and US
diplomats held "frank and serious" expert-level talks in Baghdad on
security issues in Iraq.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Iraq's political
crisis worsened as five ministers loyal to former Iraqi leader Ayad
Allawi announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings. A suicide bomber
slammed his truck into a densely populated residential area in the
northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, killing at least 28 people,
including 19 children. 4 US soldiers were killed in a blast that
also wounded 11 in Diyala province. One US soldier was killed and
another wounded when their vehicle was targeted by an armor-piercing
explosively formed penetrator in a western section of Baghdad. A
British soldier died from injuries sustained in a gunbattle in
Basra.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, Ehud Olmert became
the first Israeli PM to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak
of fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the creation of a
Palestinian state.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Lebanon’s
government said that police have killed Abu Hureira, the deputy
commander of al-Qaida inspired militants. He was killed a few days
ago by police in the northern port city of Tripoli, near the Nahr
el-Bared refugee camp where Fatah Islam militants have been fighting
Lebanese soldiers for more than two months.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Nigerian police
said that they have arrested 17 people over the past two months on
suspicion of carrying out kidnappings in the oil-rich south of the
country. At least 17 people were killed in flooding in central
Nigeria's Plateau state while more than 200 houses were washed away.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, A Moscow court
convicted Alexei Pichugin, former top security officer with the
dismantled Yukos oil company in the deaths of 3 people, sentencing
him to life in prison in a retrial. Russia deployed new air defense
systems capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, and the air
force chief said the weapon could be used to protect 2014 Winter
Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, South Africa stated
its readiness to assist Guinea Bissau in tackling drug trafficking
as the tiny west African nation has been used as a transit hub for
European-bound cocaine.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, In Tanzania
Darfur's rebel groups concluded four days of talks by agreeing on a
common platform to soon enter final peace negotiations with the
Sudanese government.
(AFP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, PM Surayud
Chulanont said Thailand will return some 8,000 ethnic Hmong refugees
to Laos despite their claims that they face persecution in their
homeland.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Vietnam’s disaster
officials said the worst tropical storm to hit the country so far
this year has killed nine people, while 14 others remain missing.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Zimbabwe police
said at least 7,600 shop managers and business executives have been
arrested in a crackdown on businesses accused of profiteering, as
President Robert Mugabe vowed to continue the blitz.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 7, In SF Barry Bonds
his record breaking 756th homerun. He had just tied Hank Aaron’s
record on August 4. The Giants lost to the Washington Nationals 8-6.
The ball was later auctioned to fashion designer Marc Ecko for a
record $752,467, which included a 20% buyer’s premium.
(AP, 8/8/07)(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.B1)(SFC, 9/18/07,
p.A1)
2007 Aug 7, A US jury convicted
Gregory Reyes (44), the former chief executive of Brocade
Communications Systems Inc., on all counts in the government's first
criminal trial of options backdating.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, The US FDA approved
a new drug to help patients with AIDS. Pfizer’s Selzentry is the
first anti-AIDS drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor, often used by
the HIV virus to enter white blood cells.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, Scientists reported
that a widespread die-off of frogs, toads and salamanders is
primarily due to the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
Global climate change was believed to encourage the spread of the
fungus.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, A group of 75
Taliban militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in
southern Afghanistan, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20
militants dead. Taliban militants clashed with police in the same
district where 23 South Koreans were abducted by Afghan insurgents.
Four militants were killed and six wounded.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest in a
regasification plant for liquid natural gas for Argentina, which is
weathering an energy crisis. Chavez was in Argentina as part of a
regional tour.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Administers in
Vienna said that the mid-Pacific nation of Palau has ratified the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 139 the number of
countries that have fully endorsed the pact. The treaty, which bans
all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been
ratified by 44 states listed in an annex that participated in a 1996
disarmament conference and have nuclear power or research reactors.
Only 34 of the 44 countries have both signed and ratified the pact.
The holdouts are China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Israel, Pakistan, North Korea and the United States.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from
severe floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although
water levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede,
millions of people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced
hunger. About 40% of Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 7, Britain called for
the Bush administration to release five British residents held at
Guantanamo Bay, a policy reversal that suggests new PM Gordon Brown
is pursuing a tougher line with the US than his predecessor.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain’s
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said tests had confirmed a second
foot-and-mouth outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial
report into biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being
at the center of the cases.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain's GW
Pharmaceuticals Plc said that Health Canada had approved its
cannabis-based medicine Sativex for treatment of cancer patients.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7,
Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia (44), an alleged Colombian drug kingpin
wanted by the United States, was arrested in a luxury condominium on
the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had extensive plastic surgery
but was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using
advanced voice recognition technology.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 7, China Daily
reported that foreign exchange and public security authorities had
closed down the operations of an illegal bank based in Shenzhen,
across the border from Hong Kong. It did business in every province
of the country and in the year and half to May had done some $544
million in unspecified transactions.
(www.chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?ID=9654)
2007 Aug 7, State media said
Chinese city traffic police have an average life expectancy of just
43 years because of the dire working conditions and pollution.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Mobs torched
government buildings and foreign aid offices, as street violence
triggered by the appointment of East Timor's new PM spread to
Baucau, the 2nd-largest city. The former ruling Fretilin party won
21 seats in the 65-member Parliament, well short of a majority, but
insisted it had the right to form the next government. Gusmao's
party won 18, but formed a coalition that now comprises 37 seats.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, A European diplomat
said that Russian officials told the Iranians about two weeks ago
that Russian fuel roads to the Bushehr reactor would be held back as
long as unresolved questions about Tehran's past nuclear activities
remained.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Georgia accused
Russia of "undisguised aggression," saying two Russian fighter jets
intruded on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a
house. Russia denied the allegation.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Indian communist
parties, which shore up the government, rejected a landmark nuclear
pact between New Delhi and Washington saying it compromised India's
sovereignty and imposed US influence. In northeastern Assam state,
gunmen killed 4 traders in the village of Harinagar after they
refused to pay about $1,200 each. Police blamed the militant group
Dima Halam Daogah, which demands an autonomous state for people of
the Dimasa tribe.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas
killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime
minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root
out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime
minister said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to
halt the guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's
semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law,
paving the way for foreign investment in their northern oil and gas
fields even as similar US-backed legislation for the entire country
remained stalled. Two US Marines died west of Baghdad, one in
fighting and the other in a non-combat incident that was under
investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police,
using sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a
building in the biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of
Jewish settlers who had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Ahmed Benchemsi,
the publisher of two Moroccan weeklies charged with showing
disrespect to the monarchy, defended himself, reserving the right to
criticize his country's political system. A day earlier magistrates
in Casablanca charged Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and
TelQuel weeklies, and ordered him to stand trial.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the
last refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been
allowed to settle and they will have access to work, education and
health on the same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6
Russian hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil
producing Niger Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the
world's largest aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the
Nigerian company Alscon in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Pakistan
government forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter
gunships and artillery in some of the army's toughest action in the
lawless Afghan border region since militant attacks began surging
last month. Low-level al-Qaida members, including Arabs and
Chechens, were among 12 militant fighters killed. 2 gunmen on a
motorcycle opened fire on paramilitary forces in a town in North
West Frontier Province, killing one.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion
in northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister
and injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children
stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing
with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of
whom died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Darfur rebel
commanders shot down a government MiG 29 plane they say was bombing
civilian villages in their areas in Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A judge in Trinidad
ordered three men extradited to the US to face charges in an alleged
plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and
a confidential US document said they planned to seek help from Iran.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 8, The US space
shuttle Endeavour and a crew of 7 took off from Cape Canaveral, Fl.,
on a special mission. Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan was part of
the crew.
(SFC, 8/9/07, p.A7)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from
the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported that coral
coverage in the Indo-Pacific, an area stretching from Indonesia's
Sumatra island to French Polynesia, had dropped 20 percent in the
past two decades. They said the decline was driven by climate
change, disease and coastal development.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In SF Donald Fisher
(78) and his wife Doris, founders of Gap (a chain of clothing
stores), announced plans to build the Contemporary Art Museum of the
Presidio.
(SFC, 8/8/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 8, Virgin America,
part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, made its inaugural flight
from JFK to San Francisco. For the first nine months of 2008 Virgin
announced a $174.5 million loss on $259 million in revenue.
(SFC, 1/3/11, p.D2)
2007 Aug 8, A tornado struck
Brooklyn, NY. This was the first ever tornado in recorded history to
touch down in Brooklyn. It was the first tornado to hit New York
City since 2003, when a weak tornado touched down in Staten Island,
and only the sixth tornado recorded in the city since 1950.
(http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/37273/)(http://tinyurl.com/3a2npv)
2007 Aug 8, Melville Shavelson
(90), comedy writer, producer and director, died in Studio City, Ca.
His films included “Cast a Giant Shadow” (1966). His books included
“How to Make a Jewish Movie.”
(SFC, 8/10/07, p.B9)
2007 Aug 8, Argentine
authorities said they were investigating why Venezuelan businessman
Antonini Wilson was carrying $800,000 in undeclared cash aboard an
executive jet charted by Argentina's state energy company. In
December US prosecutors said that the suitcase full of Venezuelan
cash was intended to finance the presidential campaign of Cristina
Kirchner.
(AP, 8/8/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Aug 8, Australia's central
bank hiked interest rates 0.25 points to a decade-high 6.5 percent
in an unprecedented pre-election move that the government admitted
creates a political headache.
(AFP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, An Austrian federal
court rejected Kazakhstan's request to have its ex-ambassador to
Austria, a former son-in-law of the Central Asian nation's
autocratic president, extradited to face kidnapping charges in his
homeland.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from
Belgium and China said a simple blood test can detect early stage
liver cancer and more accurately diagnose the disease that is a
major killer in Asia and Africa.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, A British air force
helicopter crashed near an army base in northern England, killing
two military personnel and injuring 10.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, Beijing began the
one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympics. Jacques Rogge, president of
the International Olympic Committee, acknowledged that Beijing's air
pollution could force the postponement of outdoor events during next
year's Olympics.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, An international
team of researchers said the long-threatened Yangtze River dolphin
in China is probably extinct. They also said this would mark the
first whale or dolphin to be wiped out due to human activity.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In southwest
Colombia families confirmed that two military officers kidnapped
four months ago by leftist rebels have died in captivity. Army Sgts.
Alexander Cardona and Jesus Sol were taken hostage by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), while on patrol near
their homes.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, A report by the
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights detailed 567 cases of police
torture in the last 14 years, of which 167 led to the victim’s
death.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.38)(www.eohr.org/)
2007 Aug 8, Ethiopia said it
had killed more than 500 rebels and captured 170 in the past two
months during an offensive in the volatile but energy-rich Ogaden
region bordering Somalia.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Ma Lik (55), the
leader of Hong Kong's leading pro-Beijing political party, DAB, died
of complications from colon cancer.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In northeastern
India's Assam state suspected separatist rebels fatally shot 12
people in two separate attacks. Police suspect the attack was
carried out jointly by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
and another local insurgent group, the Karbi Longri National
Liberation Front, which is fighting for autonomy for people of the
Karbi tribe.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, Millions of people
in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, voted for governor for the first
time, the latest in a wave of local elections hailed as key to
strengthening democracy in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki arrived in Iran for talks expected to focus on bilateral
relations and overcoming "terrorism challenges." Iraqis told they
will not get automatic asylum in Britain despite braving death
threats to work alongside British troops will now have their cases
reviewed. US-led forces swooped into the Shiite militia stronghold
of Sadr City, killing 32 suspected militants and detaining 12 others
in fighting and an airstrike targeting alleged smuggling networks
from Iran. Police and witnesses said 9 civilians were killed in the
attack.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed three Palestinian militants near Israel's border
with the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Mauritania passed a
law promising prison time for people who keep slaves, a monumental
step in the northwest African nation's push to eliminate the
long-standing practice. The government officially abolished slavery
in 1981, but no one has ever been prosecuted for it and no law
created a punishment.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Nigeria
kidnappers released a British and a Bulgarian hostage in the
southern oil region, while the young son of a local legislator was
seized in a separate incident and gunbattles raged for a third day.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Pakistani security
forces killed three separatist militants after they were fired on
while surveying a flood-hit area in southwestern Baluchistan
province.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In South Africa
Pres. Mbeki dismissed deputy health minister Nozizwe
Madlala-Routledge following reports that she had gone to Spain to
attend an AIDS conference without his permission. AIDS activists
have been highly critical of her boss, Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang, who promoted garlic and lemons as a remedy for
AIDS and mistrusted antiretroviral medicines.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 8, Venezuela's
socialist President Hugo Chavez took a campaign of petrodollar
diplomacy to Uruguay, seeking stronger political ties while offering
energy aid from one of the world's largest oil producers.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Vietnam
officials said at least 34 people have died and 17 more were missing
and feared dead after Tropical Storm Pabuk lashed the country.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Bush held
a news conference in which he publicly prodded Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf, his embattled war-on-terror partner, to hold free
presidential elections, share intelligence and take "swift action"
against terrorist leaders in his country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, David Beckham made
his long-awaited Major League Soccer debut, entering in the 72nd
minute of the Los Angeles Galaxy's 1-0 loss to D.C. United.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, The US Federal
Reserve injected $24 billion to the banking system in the wake of a
credit squeeze due to failing subprime mortgages and another $38
billion the next day. The European Central Bank (ECB) offered
unlimited loans at 4% to stem the credit squeeze as it extended to
Europe.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.64)(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 9, WuXi PharmaTech, a
Chinese pharmaceutical research firm, began trading on the NYSE at
$14 per share. By Sep 22 its shares had doubled in value.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 9, President Hamid
Karzai said extremism that plagues Afghanistan has crept across the
border into Pakistan, at the opening of a 4-day meeting between more
than 600 Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, China banned
exports by two toy manufacturers whose products were subject to
major recalls in the United States.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, A government news
agency reported that 2 former bank employees were sentenced to death
for stealing $6.7 million from their branch's vault in northern
China. Most of the money was spent on lottery tickets.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The death toll from
the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000
even as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of
farmland and rains shifted west.
(AFP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, Newly declassified
documents said Canadian intelligence officials suspected that Maher
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen detained by the US in 2002 as a
terror suspect and deported, had been sent to a third country for
torture as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. Arar
was detained in September 2002 by US authorities during a flight
stopover in New York while returning home to Canada from a vacation
in Tunisia.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Canada 2 people
were killed and six people wounded in an early-morning shooting in a
Vancouver restaurant.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Ecuador
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to help Ecuador build a $5
billion oil refinery, as the socialist leader pledged to spread his
government's oil wealth to another South American ally.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Iranian officials
told Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki that they were doing everything they
could to help stabilize his nation, but only a US pullout would
bring true peace.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Iraq tens of
thousands of Shiite pilgrims converged on a golden-domed shrine in
northern Baghdad. 7 pilgrims were killed and four wounded when
gunmen in a speeding car opened fire and threw hand grenades at them
as they were en route to Baghdad from the Dabouniyah area. Gunmen
fired on Iraqi soldiers guarding pilgrims in the predominantly Sunni
neighborhood of Yarmouk in western Baghdad, prompting a battle and
panic that left one attacker dead and one soldier and three pilgrims
wounded. A bomb exploded near the house of a Shiite family, killing
a man and his wife, and wounding three, including a 5-year-old
child, in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Baiyaa in western
Baghdad. 2 British soldiers were killed and two others were
seriously wounded when a roadside bomb hit their convoy north of the
Rumaylah oil fields west of Basra.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, Lithuanian military
leaders welcomed home its small contingent of combat troops from
Iraq. The 50 troops were withdrawn last week from the southern Iraqi
city of Basra, where they had been serving under Danish command.
Lithuania also has 137 soldiers and officers deployed in
Afghanistan. In June lawmakers approved plans to send 420 troops to
the Middle East, the Balkans, the trans-Caucasus republics and other
locations.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, A disaster
management agency said more than 520,000 people need urgent food aid
in Mozambique while 600,000 face famine between now and April next
year.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf decided against declaring a state of emergency in
Pakistan and will press ahead with plans to hold free and fair
elections.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In the Philippines
Abu Sayyaf extremists ambushed a truckload of troops going to
market, then fought a gunbattle with soldiers in pursuit. The death
toll included 25 soldiers and 27 militants on the volatile southern
island of Jolo.
(AP, 8/9/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, A small airplane
plunged into the sea moments after taking off from the French
Polynesian resort island of Moorea, apparently killing all 20 people
aboard in the territory's worst-ever plane crash.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Officials said a
total of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a
series of forest fires which swept through parts of South Africa and
Swaziland since the end of last month.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies more than doubled
its Sudan floods appeal to almost 5.5 million Swiss francs (4.6
million dollars, 3.3 million euros) after flood waters rose above
levels set in 1988.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 10, The United States
launched an expedition toward the Arctic to map the sea floor off
Alaska.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Federal regulators
said that they are pulling $200 million in funding from the Martin
Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital a troubled hospital that serves one
of LA’s poorest neighborhoods, forcing it to all but shut down. The
hospital was built after the 1965 Watts riots to bring health care
to poor, minority communities in south Los Angeles.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, In southern
Indiana 3 men were killed in a coal mine when a nylon sling used to
transport supplies up and down a shaft got caught, causing the
bucket the men were riding in to tip and send them plummeting more
than 500 feet to their deaths.
(WSJ, 8/11/07, p.A1)(AP, 8/10/08)
2007 Aug 10, PM Gordon Brown
said that foot-and-mouth disease had been contained within a small
area of England, despite tests for a suspected new outbreak in a
herd several miles from the initial cluster of cases.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Canada's prime
minister announced plans for an army training center and a deepwater
port on the third day of an Arctic trip meant to assert sovereignty
over a region.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Congo's ruling
coalition in Brazzaville was declared the winner of legislative
elections, despite opposition charges of electoral fraud.
(AFP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Denmark was
reported to be planning a monthlong expedition, to begin Aug 12, to
seek evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater
mountain range, is attached to the Danish territory of Greenland,
making it a geological extension of the Arctic island.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, In East Timor
dozens of attackers raided the Salesian Don Bosco convent and raped
several female students, including one around 8 years old.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, The European
Central Bank injected another $83.8 billion into the banking system
amid signs that bad US mortgages were digging deeper into the world
economy. Europe's main stock markets slumped further, with London
and Paris shedding more than 3.0 percent, amid turmoil ignited by
concerns about a weak US housing sector.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, In India a
government report said 77% of Indians, about 836 million people,
live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest
economies. Suspected separatist rebels gunned down a group of
migrant workers as they slept and bombed two markets in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing the total number of people
killed in a week of violence to 23. Police have blamed the violence
on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom and the Karbi Longri
National Liberation Front.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, A car bomb struck
a market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing
at least eight people and wounding dozens. Scattered violence struck
Iraqis nationwide, with at least 15 people killed or found dead.
South of Baghdad, the US military said a helicopter was forced down,
leaving two soldiers injured.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Japan and the US
signed an agreement aimed at protecting classified military
information to be shared by the two countries promoting closer
defense cooperation.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, Malawi said it
will deploy 800 troops to Darfur in Sudan to serve in the future
United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force.
(AFP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, A Dutch cruise
ship rescued 14 African migrants after their boat capsized in rough
Mediterranean waters as they tried to reach Europe, while
authorities searched for 11 other passengers who were feared
drowned.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 10, In Nigeria gunmen
kidnapped an American manager from oil services firm Hydrodive as he
traveled to work in Port Harcourt, where gunfire rang out across the
region’s main city for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, In Puerto Rico a
police officer shot and killed Miguel Caceres Cruz during a struggle
at a traffic jam. Javier Pagan Cruz, the officer who fired the
shots, was convicted of murder and a weapons charge and sentenced to
109 years in prison. Prosecutors later said two associate police
could have prevented the slaying. In 2011 a jury acquitted the two
police officers of being accessories to murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_Police_Department)(AP,
3/26/11)
2007 Aug 10, The Sudanese Media
Centre said security forces have handed 33 suspects accused of
trying to overthrow the government to the justice ministry for
investigation.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 10, A Security Council
resolution authorized the UN, at the request of the Iraqi
government, to promote political talks among Iraqis and a regional
dialogue on issues including border security, energy and refugees as
well as help tackling the country's worsening humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, President George
W. Bush welcomed France's Pres. Sarkozy to the Bush family's
oceanfront home in Maine for a private meeting, boat ride and picnic
fare.
(www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/11/bush-sarkozy.html)
2007 Aug 11, Republican Mitt
Romney (b.1947) won the first test of the 2008 White House race,
using a big wallet and broad organization to muscle aside a field of
rivals in a low-turnout Iowa straw poll. Mike Huckabee (b.1955),
former governor of Arkansas, came in second.
(Reuters, 8/11/07)(WSJ, 8/13/07, p.A5)
2007 Aug 11, Zhang Shuhong, who
co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co. Ltd., killed himself at a warehouse,
days after China announced it had temporarily banned exports by the
company.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 11, It was reported
that citizen’s in 5 of Egypt’s 26 governorates have been suffering a
dire shortage of drinking water.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 11, In Guatemala 46
children believed abducted or coerced from their parents were
rescued from Casa Quivira, an adoption home catering to foreigners
run by Clifford Phillips of Deland, Fla., and his Guatemalan wife
and attorney, Sandra Gonzalez.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, The int’l. medical
charity Doctors Without Borders said it has been stopped from
working in a Maoist-hit area of India, after being accused of
treating banned rebels.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, Iran’s state-run
news network said Iran and Iraq have signed an agreement to build
pipelines for the transfer of Iraqi crude oil and oil products.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, A powerful
roadside bomb killed Khalil Jalil Hamza, the governor of Qadisiyah
province and the police chief. The southern province has seen fierce
internal fighting between Shiite factions. Militants bombed the
house of a prominent anti-al-Qaida Sunni cleric, seriously wounding
him and killing three of his relatives in what appeared to be an
increased campaign against Sunnis who have turned against the terror
network. The bodies of four men abducted a week ago were found
chopped into pieces in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad. A roadside
bomb killed one civilian and wounded another while they were driving
on the highway south of Baghdad. A local tribal leader in Albu
Khalifa, a village west of Baghdad, was gunned down by militants who
broke into his home. Gunmen ambushed a police patrol southwest of
the northern city of Kirkuk, killing three officers and wounding
another. The US military reported the death of a Task Force
Lightning soldier in a non-combat incident. 5 American soldiers were
killed in southeastern Baghdad, including four in an ambush bombing
after a sniper felled a soldier.
(AP, 8/11/07)(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, Hamas militiamen
detained 32 Fatah supporters across Gaza, half of them after
breaking up a bachelor's party and beating guests with clubs and
chairs.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, Sierra Leone held
its first elections since UN peacekeepers left nearly two years ago,
a vote that will test whether the diamond-rich West African country
can transfer power peacefully after years of conflict. The
opposition won a parliamentary majority, but the presidential race
faced a runoff in September.
(AP, 8/11/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 11, In Somalia 2
prominent radio journalists were assassinated in Mogadishu within
hours of each other, one just outside his office and the other as he
returned from his colleague's burial.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, In northeast Sri
Lanka security forces shot dead five suspected LTTE cadres as they
tried to lay landmines. Two gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead a
Muslim man in the eastern district of Ampara.
(AFP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, A security
official said disarmament has finally started in south Sudan's state
of Eastern Equatoria under a 2005 peace deal now it has been made
possible by the departure of Ugandan rebels.
(Reuters, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 11, Togo national
television said 3 new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu
have been detected in poultry on farms in Sigbehoue, 45 kilometers
east of the capital.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 12, Tiger Woods
captured the PGA Championship to win at least one major for the
third straight season and run his career total to 13.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2007 Aug 12, Tommy Thompson,
former governor of Wisconsin, said he was dropping out of the
Republican presidential campaign following his 6th place finish in
Iowa’s straw poll.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A2)
2007 Aug 12, Ronald Bracewell
(86), retired Stanford professor, died. He co-wrote the first text
on radio astronomy and helped develop magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) technology. The Australian-born engineer also led the 1961
construction of the 32-dish radio telescope at Stanford and authored
a book on 350 species of trees on the Stanford campus.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B11)
2007 Aug 12, A Canadian woman
(35) gave birth to rare identical quadruplets. Karen Jepp of
Calgary, Alberta, delivered Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia by
Caesarian section at Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls, Montana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southwest
Missouri a gunman opened fire at the First Congregational Church
killing three people and wounded five. The local Micronesian
congregation rented the church for its services and the gunman, also
Micronesian, deliberately targeted elders of the congregation.
Suspect Eiken Elam Saimon was charged with murder. On March 20,
2009, Saimon (54) pleaded guilty to 3 counts of murder.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/12/08)(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2007 Aug 12, Merv Griffin (82),
television talk show host and entrepreneur, died. He created the TV
game show “Jeopardy” in 1964 and sold the rights for the show to
Coca-Cola for $250 million in 1986.
(AP, 8/13/07)(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 12, Afghanistan and
Pakistan pledged to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in their
respective tribal regions and fight the opium trade financing
Islamic militants. Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told
more than 600 Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders that the two
countries have been mired in the rise of militancy, extremism and
radicalism while the rest of the world races forward with economic
development. He spoke at the closing session of a four-day US-backed
cross-border jirga, or tribal council, aimed at finding ways to stem
Afghanistan's rising bloodshed. In southern Afghanistan police and
army soldiers battled militants in Kandahar province's Shohrawak
district. The joint Afghan forces thwarted a planned militant ambush
at the district chief's compound, and the ensuing clash left nine
militants dead. During a cleanup operation after the battle, a
roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the same district, killing
five officers and wounding two others.
(AFP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In England Gerry
Tobin was shot in the back of the head as he rode home from an
annual biker event, the Bulldog Bash, in Warwickshire. Police later
arrested 3 men in connection with the shooting death of the Canadian
Hells Angel biker on the M40 motorway.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Mansoura,
Egypt, Mohamed Mamdouh Abdel-Aziz (12) died days after he was
arrested and allegedly tortured by police after he was detained on
suspicion of having stolen four packs of tea.
(http://tinyurl.com/2mo43a)
2007 Aug 12, A Hong Kong-based
human rights group said a chemical plant leaked arsenic into a river
in southern China that supplies water to at least 20,000 people.
High levels of arsenic and other chemicals already have killed at
least 10,000 fish in the Chongan, a 43-mile river in Guizhou
province.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In India suspected
rebels killed four Hindi-speaking migrant workers before dawn and 3
more bodies were found from an earlier killing in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing the death toll from a week of
violence to 30.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Indonesia
nearly 90,000 followers of Hizbut Tahrir, a hard-line Sunni
organization with an estimated million members, packed a stadium in
Jakarta, calling for the creation of an Islamic state.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A woman (29) in
Bali died from infection with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(www.news-medical.net/?id=28736)
2007 Aug 12, Up to five
militants were killed and 13 others detained during a raid on
Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City. The US military claimed those
they rounded up in that raid were linked to Tehran’s elite Quds
Force.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southern
Nigeria a foreigner taken hostage amid increased lawlessness died of
an illness while being taken to a hospital.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A video was posted
on Russian ultranationalist sites of the Internet showing the brutal
execution of two men from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The man who
posted the video turned himself on Aug 14 in Maikop, capital of the
southern Russian republic of Adygei.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Somalia 2
suspects were arrested in the deaths of two prominent Somali
journalists who were killed within hours of each other.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Sri Lanka
suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a powerful land mine against a
military patrol in the Jaffna peninsula, killing a soldier and
wounding at least 16 others. Another civilian was killed and four
others were injured when the LTTE fired mortars at a northeastern
village in Weli Oya.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southeast
Turkey 12 were injured, three of them seriously, when Kurdish
guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In north-eastern
Zimbabwe at least 9 people were killed and around 50 injured when a
bus collided with a car.
(AFP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Karl Rove, the
White House deputy chief of staff, announced his retirement
effective at the end of the month.
(WSJ, 8/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 13, Brooke Astor
(b.1902), philanthropist, died at her Holy Hill estate in NY.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.B5)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 13, Phil Rizzuto (89),
Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop and broadcaster died in West Orange,
N.J.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2007 Aug 13, In Afghanistan 2
women among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in
mid-July were freed on a rural roadside and then driven to a US
base. A German held hostage said in a telephone conversation
orchestrated by his captors that he was in ill health and the
Taliban had threatened him with death. In southern Afghanistan 6
civilians were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade blew up their
vehicle when Taliban militia attacked a military convoy. A separate
clash between troops and insurgents in Ghazni province, further
north, left four Taliban dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, According to new
data China's inflation rate accelerated to the highest monthly rate
in a decade, driven by a 15.4% surge in food prices over the
year-earlier period. Officials said China is still freeing people,
including children, forced to work as slaves in illegal brick
factories, two months after the scandal involving the brick yards
was exposed. A bridge under construction in the central Hunan city
of Fenghuang collapsed as workers removed scaffolding from its
facade, killing 64 people.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/13/08)
2007 Aug 13, A boat carrying
illegal immigrants capsized off France's Indian Ocean island of
Mayotte, killing at least 17 people, eight of them children. The
boat carrying 38 people was en route from the Comoros Islands about
125 miles to the northwest when it overturned while trying to evade
the French coast guard.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, US troops in Iraq
launched a major assault against Al-Qaeda-linked militants and
alleged Iranian-aided extremist groups as a Sunni leader accused
Iran of plotting genocide against his people. The US military also
said it had arrested a top "financier" of Iraqi extremist groups
believed to be supported by Tehran’s Quds Force in a Baghdad raid. 3
US soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in
northwestern Ninevah province. Another died of wounds sustained
during combat operations in western Baghdad.
(AFP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, In Malaysia 20
people died after an express bus overturned on the main highway,
tearing off the vehicle's roof and flinging seats into the air in
what officials said was the country's worst traffic disaster. The
toll rose to 22 after 2 injured people died later.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 13, Armed pirates
attacked a Malaysian barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped 2
Indonesian crew, in the first high sea abduction in the busy
waterway in more than 2 years.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, AkzoNobel, a Dutch
chemicals group under Hans Wijers, made a cash offer for the British
firm ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) under John McAdam for $16
billion. The deal turned Akzo into the world’s biggest maker of
paints.
(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.72)(www.ici.com/main/cms/cmRender.asp?i=2162)
2007 Aug 13, A monsoon storm
unleashed landslides and collapsed houses in a village in Pakistan's
mountainous northwest, killing 22 people.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Hamas militiamen
beat protesters with clubs and rifle butts to try to stop a
demonstration by political opponents in the Gaza Strip, but hundreds
chanting "We want freedom" defied the ban.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Poland's fractious
governing coalition came to an end when the country's president
dismissed four Cabinet ministers from two junior partners, clearing
the way for an early election expected this fall.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, A bomb explosion
threw the Neva Express train, which was en route from Moscow to St.
Petersburg, off the tracks and injuring 60 people. Suspicion fell on
representatives of extremist nationalist organizations.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 13, In South Korea a
family of five fell to their deaths from a Ferris wheel after two
cars collided at an amusement park in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, In central Vietnam
the death toll from a tropical storm that caused widespread flooding
hit 70 after five more bodies were recovered, while six people were
still missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 14, Teacher-astronaut
Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle Endeavour and space
station into a classroom for her first educational session from
orbit, fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe, who died in the
1986 Challenger disaster.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2007 Aug 14, In New Jersey the
Newark Community Foundation, launched last month, said it will help
pay for Community Eye, a surveillance system tailored towards gun
crime.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.27)
2007 Aug 14, Toy-making giant
Mattel Inc. issued recalls for some 18 million Chinese-made toys
that contained magnets which children could swallow. Mattel also
recalled 436,000 toy cars daubed with lead-based paint.
(AP, 8/14/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.58)
2007 Aug 14, It was reported
that Pulickel Ajayan and colleagues at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute had developed a flexible battery using carbon nanotubes
and cellulose.
(www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-08-14-2925644111_x.htm)
2007 Aug 14, Phil Rizzuto (89),
the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees' dynasty years and
beloved by a generation of fans for exclaiming "Holy cow!" as a
broadcaster, died.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A NATO soldier was
killed when a joint ISAF-NATO patrol was ambushed by Taliban
insurgents in eastern Paktia province.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A new study said
nearly every Australian city will have to find new water supplies
over the next decade as climate change and population growth stretch
the nation's already limited water resources.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, In Brazil police
arrested Oscar Maroni Jr., for racketeering and trafficking in
women. Maroni, known as the Larry Flynt of Brazil, was also under
pressure to stop construction of his 11-story Oscar’s Hotel at the
edge of the Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, which was cited for
impacting air safety.
(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 14, In Iraq four
suicide truck bombers struck nearly simultaneously in Qahataniya
killing at least 400 victims. Estimates soon rose to over 500 and
later to 796. The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect, the
Yazidis, who have been the target of Muslim extremists who consider
them infidels. The US military blamed al-Qaida. A suicide truck
bomber struck the Thiraa Dijla bridge in Taji, sending cars plunging
into the river and killing at least 10 people in the 2nd attack on
the span in 3 months. Local officials said four civilians, including
a 3-year-old girl, were killed and five wounded during a raid by
joint US-Iraqi forces in Sadr City. The US military said 4 gunmen
were killed and 8 detained after a fierce gunfight, but it had no
reports of civilian deaths. Extremists abducted five officials from
an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen
dressed as security officers. Nine US soldiers were reported killed,
including five in a helicopter crash.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)(AP,
8/16/07)(http://tinyurl.com/8abt4y5)
2007 Aug 14, Benjamin Netanyahu
won elections as leader of Israel's hardline Likud Party. Israeli
troops and aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza
Strip. Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26
people were wounded. Separately, two security officers for Gaza's
Hamas rulers were reported killed in fierce fighting with the
powerful Palestinian Doghmush clan.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 14, Gunmen in southern
Nigeria abducted the mother of a state lawmaker, the latest in a
spate of kidnappings targeting the children and elderly parents of
local politicians.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, North Korean
officials said that 200 people were dead or missing across the
country due to floods caused by days of heavy rains. On Aug 17 an
international aid group said over 300 were dead or missing from the
floods. The toll was later raised to 600.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 14, Tikhon Khrennikov
(94), Stalin’s music master, died. His 1939 opera “Into the Storm,”
based on a novel by Nikolai Virta, was the first in which Lenin
appeared as a character on the stage.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.77)
2007 Aug 14, In Somalia a local
human rights group said fighting in Mogadishu has killed 31
civilians and wounded 60 in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Taiwanese court
acquitted opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of
corruption charges, giving a big boost to the campaign of a
politician who backs better relations with rival China.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Thailand judge
issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife
for failing to appear at their trial on corruption-related charges.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, filed his candidacy for
president, risking a fresh government showdown with army-backed
secularist forces.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 15, Ex-NBA referee Tim
Donaghy pleaded guilty to felony charges in an NBA betting scheme.
He faced up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. A federal
judge later sentenced Donaghy to 15 months behind bars.
(WSJ, 8/16/07, p.A1)(AP, 8/15/08)
2007 Aug 15, Pennsylvania
Superior Court Judge Michael Thomas Joyce, an appeals court judge,
was indicted on charges of scamming $440,000 from insurers by
claiming he suffered debilitating injuries in a car crash, even
while he golfed, skated and went scuba diving.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 15, Max Roach
(b.1924), jazz drummer, died in Manhattan.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B11)
2007 Aug 15, In Afghanistan US
led ground troops and airstrikes targeted "hundreds of foreign
fighters" dug into positions in the Tora Bora region of eastern
Nangarhar province. 2 German police officers and a German foreign
ministry employee were killed in Kabul, in a bomb attack claimed by
the Taliban.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Germany 6
Italian men were fatally shot in the head in the western city of
Duisburg, an execution-style killing that Italy's interior minister
said appeared to be a feud between two Italian organized crime
clans. On March 12, 2009, Dutch police arrested Giovanni Strangio
(30), an Italian man wanted for the killings in Duisburg.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 3/13/09)
2007 Aug 15, State radio
reported that Iran has detained two Chinese nationals on charges of
spying on its military and nuclear facilities. A drug crackdown was
launched throughout Iran and police seized more than 54 kilos (118
pounds) of heroin and crack from the gang in airports in Tehran and
several other cities. In the operation 90 members of a drug network,
including 85 Africans from Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana as well as
two Pakistanis, were arrested.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AFP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Mosul a bomb in
a parked car killed a civilian and wounded ten others. 5 people were
killed in an ambush on a minibus carrying civilians near Khalis.
South of Baghdad a suicide car bomber killed two people and wounded
seven. US troops killed 11 suspected terrorists and detained four
others in operations against al-Qaida in central and northern Iraq.
Two US soldiers were killed and six wounded in fighting north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 15, Japan's foreign
minister launched plans for a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial
park in the West Bank that he said would promote peace in the region
through prosperity.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Kenya hundreds
of journalists wearing black gags marched silently through Nairobi
to protest a proposed law that would allow courts to compel
reporters to reveal their sources.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, Maputo's interior
ministry said South Africa has intensified the repatriation of
Mozambican illegal immigrants, going from 400 to a weekly average of
more than 600.
(AFP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, A magnitude-8.0
trembler rocked Peru's coast, toppling buildings leaving some 610
people dead and 36,000 homes damaged. State doctors called off a
national strike to handle the emergency. Two prisons collapsed and
600 prisoners escaped. About a third gave themselves up over the
next week. Tremors destroyed 80% of Pisco, where 148 people died
when the city cathedral collapsed.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.35)(SSFC, 4/6/08,
p.A14)(Econ, 8/16/08, p.37)
2007 Aug 15, Sergei Sinkonen
and another conscript came upon the officers celebrating a wedding
not far from their unit at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in
northwestern Russia. The officers thought the conscripts had fled
and beat them with army belts, and put Sinkonen in a kennel with
guard dogs, where he was found the next morning in serious
condition. Sinkonen died Aug 27.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 15, Official media
said severe floods have destroyed more than a tenth of North Korea's
farmland at the height of the growing season.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, Hordes of shoppers
desperate to buy sugar amid severe shortages stampeded at a shopping
complex in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, killing a
15-year-old boy and a security guard.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The US offered
Israel an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Jose Padilla, a US
citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted of
helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks. Padilla,
once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive
"dirty bomb," was later sentenced to 17 years and four months in
prison on the unrelated terror support charges.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 16, US authorities
indicted Igor Klopow (24), a Russian national, for his role in an ID
theft gang that targeted wealthy individuals. Klopow was lured to
the US and arrested under the Brooklyn Bridge.
(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.B2)
2007 Aug 16, A new Jefferson
one dollar coin went into circulation nationwide. It followed the
Washington coin, which was introduced in February, and the John
Adams coin, introduced in May. The coin honoring James Madison was
scheduled to go into circulation in November.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, US officials said
C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina, collected about
$20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent
shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers
to a Texas base. The firm was run by sisters Charlene Corley and
Darlene Wooten (d.2006). The owners had exploited a flaw in an
automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping
to combat areas or US bases that were labeled “priority” were
usually paid automatically.
(www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=ardg6DwCCMFI&refer=home)(Reuters,
8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 16, Kathleen Culhane
(40), former private investigator in California, was sentenced
to 5 years in state prison for forging documents to save the
lives of Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 16, CARE spokeswoman
Alina Labrada said the donation of wheat and other crops does not
help in regions where people consistently go hungry because local
farming has been weakened by international competition. The
Atlanta-based group turned down $46 million worth of US food aid,
arguing that the way the American government distributes its help
hurts poor farmers.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Utah the search
for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a
second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six
others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. The
search for six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon Mine was later
abandoned.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/16/08)
2007 Aug 16, In Afghanistan 6
civilians, including 3 children, were killed by the mortar and
machine-gun attack on the village of Nangarkhel, Paktika province.
Two other civilians died of their wounds in a hospital. 7 Polish
soldiers were later charged with war crimes. On Jun 1, 2011, a
military court in Poland acquitted the soldiers saying there was not
enough evidence to support war crime charges.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nangar_Khel_incident)(AP, 6/1/11)
2007 Aug 16, Australia’s PM
John Howard said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India,
subject to strict conditions.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 16, It was reported
that a highly infectious swine virus, blue pork disease, had spread
to 25 of China’s 33 provinces, prompting pork shortages and an 85%
increase in pork prices over the last year.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 16, In Greece a huge
forest fire burned two dozen homes, animals and cars in the northern
outskirts of Athens before firefighters extinguished most of it.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, A conservation
group said mercury used by gold miners has seeped into rivers and
streams and sickened scores of Indian villagers in rural Guyana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The Iraqi prime
minister and president announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites
and Kurds in a push to save the crumbing government, saying a key
Sunni bloc refused to join but the door remained open to them. In
Baghdad, a car bomb struck a parking garage in a central commercial
district during the morning rush hour, killing at least nine people
and wounding 17. US troops clashed with suspected Sunni insurgents
holed up in a mosque north of Baghdad and launched an air-to-ground
Hellfire missile into the structure. One American soldier was killed
in the fighting.
(AP, 8/16/07)(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled
through its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least
nine lives and threatened power supplies strained by a recent
earthquake. The mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of
Tajimi in the afternoon, breaking a previous national record of
105.4 degrees set in 1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Uganda announced
plans to send 250 extra soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in
Mogadishu, but Somalia's government warned they were not enough and
urged other African nations to commit troops.
(Reuters, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Opponents of
President Hugo Chavez vowed to block his plans to radically overhaul
the constitution, warning the changes would give him unlimited power
and cripple democracy in Venezuela.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The 14-member
Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia
for its 27th summit. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the
people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform
at the summit of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease
the country's political and economic crisis.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.43)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2007 Aug 17, The US Federal
Reserve cut the primary discount rate, a dramatic move aimed at
easing worries about tightening credit and calming global financial
markets.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, New Mexico’s Gov.
Bill Richardson ordered the state Health Department to resume
planning of a medical marijuana program despite the agency's worries
about possible federal prosecution.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed a district chief and 3 of his
children. 5 civilians were reported killed in fighting between NATO
soldiers and Taliban in the east. Insurgents holed up in buildings
and trenches attacked Afghan police and coalition forces near Fire
Base Robinson. Nearly a dozen suspected militants were killed in the
ensuing battle.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, Bill Deedes
(b.1913), British journalist and politician, died in Kent, England.
He is the only person in Britain to have been both a member of the
British cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper.
(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Deedes)
2007 Aug 17, The Criminal
Intelligence Service Canada annual report estimated that there are
950 organized crime groups operating in the country.
(Reuters, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Hurricane Dean
tore through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and
Martinique, ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking
out power. 100 mph winds ruined the entire banana harvest on St.
Lucia and Martinique and battered the banana industry in Dominica.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, In eastern China a
dike on the Wen river in Shandong province broke, sending water
gushing into 2 mines run by the Huayuan Mining Co. in the city of
Xintai. 181 miners were killed. In 2008 two managers were sentenced
to 7 years in prison for their roles in the accident.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.58)(AP, 4/17/08)(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 17, Borse Dubai made a
$3.95 billion takeover bid for OMX AB, challenging US-based Nasdaq
Stock Market Inc. for ownership of the Stockholm-based Nordic stock
exchange operator.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, PM Nouri al-Maliki
told Sunni tribal chieftains in Tikrit that all Iraqis must join to
crush al-Qaida in Iraq and extremist Shiite militias "to save our
coming generations." The Ansar al-Sunna group posted a video showing
the execution of Alaa Abboud Fartous Diab, a Defense Ministry
official accused of working with US forces.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, Nigerian
authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Port Harcourt after
security forces and gang members clashed in battles that left dozens
dead.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, In Peru six strong
aftershocks struck as the death toll from the Aug 15 8.0
earthquake passed 500.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Romania and the US
started military training exercises to test installations that will
become the first US facilities in the former Soviet bloc, a plan
opposed by Russia.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 17, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin said that he had ordered the military to resume
regular long-range flights of strategic bombers.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, The six members of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held their first joint
maneuvers on Russian land in a demonstration of their growing
military ties and a shared desire to counter US global clout. The
presidents of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan attended the unprecedented joint military exercises in
Chelyabinsk near the Kazakh border.
(AFP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Serbia said it was
time to return its security forces to Kosovo, a move that could
derail last-ditch talks on the fate of the Albanian-majority
territory before they begin.
(Reuters, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Saudi King
Abdullah ordered two aid packages worth 20 million dollars each be
dispatched to Sudan and Mauritania to help the impoverished African
countries hit by severe floods.
(AFP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, In the first trial
of a minister from South Africa’s white racist government, former
law and order Minister Adriaan Vlok and his police chief Johannes
Van der Merwe were both sentenced to 10 years. However, they will
not have to spend any time in prison if they commit no crimes for
five years. Three other former top security officials were given
five-year suspended sentences for their role in the 1989 plot to
assassinate Frank Chikane.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, The UN announced
that the Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will
prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik
Hariri.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa officially launched a peacekeeping brigade as part of
a planned SADC standby force to be deployed on peace missions and to
tackle disarmament and humanitarian crises on the continent.
(Reuters,
8/17/07)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2007 Aug 18, A seven-alarm fire
ripped through the former Deutsche Bank next to ground zero in Lower
Manhattan, killing two firefighters who were responding to the
blaze.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 18, Michael K. Deaver
(69), adviser to President Reagan, died in Bethesda, Md.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean
barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola,
Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it
could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean
claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican
Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber detonated near a convoy of private
security forces, killing four Afghan guards and 11 civilians,
including 3 women and 2 children. Armed assailants abducted a German
woman from a restaurant in Kabul.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, It was reported
that Albanian migrants sent home almost $1 billion a year to support
jobless family members and to build homes. New business was said to
be discouraged by blackmail and intimidation from existing firms
with licenses going to political cronies in the face of a corrupt
judiciary.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.46)
2007 Aug 18, In Britain a man
died and six other people were missing after a fire gutted a hotel
in the popular seaside resort of Newquay.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Chile’s national
poverty line was reported to be $90 per month. The richest tenth of
the population garnered 38.6% of the national income.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.23)
2007 Aug 18, It was reported
that China faced a major shortage of skilled talent including
doctors with only 4,000 general practitioners. Lawyers numbered
about 122,000. An average of 2,200 new pilots per year will be
needed to keep up with the growth in air travel. Accountants,
technicians and good managers were also reported to be in short
supply.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 18, UNESCO said a
joint mission of several UN agencies is conducting an emergency
investigation into the shooting of endangered mountain gorillas in a
Democratic Republic of Congo national park. In the last two months,
seven of the primates have been killed in separate incidents in the
Virunga park.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 18, Two men hijacked a
Turkish passenger plane from Cyprus bound for Istanbul, holding
several people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Ethiopia freed 32
opposition members who had been detained for post-election violence
in 2005.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Germany 2
Africans were attacked by right-wing extremists in Mainz, the same
night as a brutal mob assault on eight Indians in the country's
former communist east.
(AFP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 18, About 16 mortar
shells rained on houses in the Sharqiya residential area in Khalis,
a Shiite enclave north of Baghdad, killing at least 7 people.
Overnight a series of bombs struck commercial areas in Kirkuk,
killing at least four people and wounding 38.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Kazakhs headed to
the polls in parliamentary elections seen as a key test of
authoritarian Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's pledge to boost democracy
in this oil-rich nation. Nur Otan, the party of President Nursultan
Nazarbayev, won all 98 available seats in the lower parliament. The
tally was quickly condemned by the opposition.
(AFP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 18, In northern
Lebanon gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee
camp left one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Peru President
Alan Garcia called for the orderly distribution of emergency
supplies as desperate victims of a magnitude-8 earthquake on the
southern coast looted markets and blocked arriving aid trucks. The
death toll climbed to 540.
(AP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 18, In the Philippines
16 troops and dozens of Muslim extremists were killed in clashes
between government forces and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels on the southern
island of Basilan.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Rival clan
militias fought over scarce pasture land and wells in central
Somalia, leaving 18 people dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, A powerful typhoon
slammed into Taiwan, killing at least one person, forcing thousands
to evacuate and disrupting power supplies across the
already-saturated landscape.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, US Customs seized
a submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of cocaine off the Guatemalan coast.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano
(32), an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a
year to avoid being separated from her American-born son, was
deported from the US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her
campaign to change US immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 19, The US space
shuttle Endeavour departed hastily from the International Space
Station, ending a construction mission a day early in order to land
before Hurricane Dean threatens its Houston control center.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Fierce storms from
the upper Mississippi to Texas since last week left 22 people dead.
Six people died in floodwaters across Oklahoma after heavy rains
from the remains of Tropical Storm Erin drenched the state. As much
as 9 inches of rain fell across a wide swath of Oklahoma, leaving
roadways under 5 feet of water. 8 people were reported dead in Texas
and 6 dead in Minnesota.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.A6)(AP,
8/22/07)
2007 Aug 19, In southern
Afghanistan, dozens of Taliban insurgents attacked an Afghan army
compound, and the ensuing gunbattle left 10 suspected militants dead
and 4 others wounded. A Canadian soldier was killed when his vehicle
struck a roadside bomb near Kandahar.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, Simultaneous
grenade attacks were launched on the homes of five Burundian
politicians who recently criticized the president, injuring three
but failing to harm the targets.
(AFP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, In China at least
36 people were killed as Typhoon Sepat hit the mainland after more
1.3 million people were evacuated as a precaution. In eastern China
At least 14 people died and 59 were injured when a container spilled
molten aluminum with a temperature of 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit at a
factory.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 19, In east Baghdad a
mortar barrage slammed into a mainly Shiite neighborhood, killing 12
including women and children and wounding 31. French foreign
minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on a groundbreaking
visit after years of icy relations with the US over Iraq. In central
Baghdad gunmen driving several cars waylaid a minibus headed for
Sadr City, the capital's Shiite enclave, and abducted 15 passengers,
A top US general said American forces are tracking about 50 members
of an elite Iranian force who have crossed the border into southern
Iraq to train Shiite militia fighters.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel said it
would expel refugees from Sudan's war torn Darfur region, touching
off hot debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi
genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel opened a
crossing with the Gaza Strip to let in fuel shipments, but tens of
thousands of homes remained without electricity because fuel for a
major Gaza power company hadn't arrived. The EU cut off vital
funding to a Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down the last of
its generators and darken tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki said the EU ceased
payment "because Hamas took over the electric company and started
collecting the revenues and taking them to its pocket."
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, The Israeli
government and Holocaust survivors struck a deal on a special
allowance for Israelis who lived through the Nazi genocide. It
guaranteed Israelis who survived the Nazi ghettos and concentration
camps a monthly stipend of $284.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Jamaicans headed
inland and tourists fled the country as Hurricane Dean headed for a
direct hit on the island. Dean hit Jamaica as a Category 4 storm.
(AP, 8/19/07)(WSJ, 8/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 19, President Maumoon
Abdul Gayoom won an overwhelming victory in a referendum on the
Maldives' future form of government, a poll seen as an informal vote
of confidence in his three-decade rule of the tiny Indian Ocean
nation.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Pakistan army
helicopter gunships killed at least 15 al-Qaeda militants, mostly
Uzbeks, in a pre-dawn raid near the Afghan border. Intelligence
officials in Mir Ali said two women and two children also died in
the strike.
(Reuters, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, In Sudan armed
raiders killed a policeman and wounded four others in an attack on a
refugee camp in Darfur.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, A new constitution
for Thailand, that is to usher in December general elections and end
military rule, was approved by millions of voters in the country’s
first ever nationwide referendum. This was the 18th constitution
since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.38)
2007 Aug 20, The lawyer for
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick said Vick will plead guilty
to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. Vick could spend the next
few American football seasons behind bars.
(AFP, 8/20/07)(WSJ, 8/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 20, In Minnesota
divers discovered the body of Gregory Jolstad, a 45-year-old
construction worker who was part of the crew resurfacing the
Interstate 35W bridge when it fell Aug. 1 during the evening rush
hour. The discovery brought the official death toll to 13. Gov. Tim
Pawlenty said the emergency response costs alone would be more than
$8 million.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, The Nasdaq Stock
Market, facing a challenge to its bid for a Nordic exchange,
abandoned hopes to acquire the London Stock Exchange and said it
will offload its 31% stake in the exchange.
(AP, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.C3)
2007 Aug 20, Leona Helmsley
(87), the NYC hotelier who went to prison as a tax cheat and was
reviled as the "queen of mean," died at her home in Greenwich, Conn.
(AP, 8/20/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 20, In Kabul 4
suspected kidnappers were captured as Afghan police freed Christina
Meier, a German aid worker who had been snatched from a restaurant
while she ate with her husband.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, Britain eased
restrictions on the movement of cattle and sheep to following the
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southern England.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Canada Mexican
President Felipe Calderon, Canadian PM Stephen Harper and President
Bush worked to craft a plan to secure their borders in the event of
a terrorist strike or other emergency without creating traffic
tie-ups that slowed commerce at crossings after the Sept. 11
attacks. Protesters and riot police clashed outside the posh
Canadian resort where the leaders were meeting.
(AP, 8/20/07)(Reuters, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, In China Jia
Youling, chief veterinary officer, said that the Porcine
Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), aka as blue-ear pig
disease, head been brought under control. He said 257,000 pigs in 26
provinces had been infected. 68,000 had died from the disease and
175,000 were destroyed.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.41)
2007 Aug 20, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Kinshasa for a working visit aimed
at boosting relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
(AFP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Egypt 4 terror
suspects were convicted by a security court and sentenced to life in
prison for their involvement in 3 attacks that killed two French
tourists and an American in April, 2005. Five other suspects,
including two women, received jail sentences that ranged from one to
10 years in prison.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, Iraq's embattled
PM Nouri al-Maliki came to Syria on his first visit here as prime
minister amid efforts to garner neighbors' support for curbing
violence at home. Syria said Iraq should set a timetable for the
withdrawal of foreign troops. A roadside bomb killed Mohammed Ali
al-Hassani (52), the governor of the predominantly Shiite Muthanna
province, along with his driver and guard. Two bombings struck the
Shiite district of Sadr City and a busy market district elsewhere in
Baghdad, killing at least 7 people and wounding more than 20.
Thousands rallied against the US in Sadr City, waving Iraqi flags
and shouting "No, no to America."
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Okinawa, Japan,
passengers used emergency slides to evacuate a China Airlines Boeing
737-800 just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball on the
tarmac. All 165 people aboard escaped unhurt, including the pilot,
who jumped from the cockpit at the last second.
(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 20, A report showed
tiny fish farms have helped 1,200 poor families hit by AIDS in
Malawi to raise their incomes and improve their diets in a scheme
being expanded to other African nations.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, Tens of thousands
of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean
roared toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 20, A crowded bus
veered off a mountainous road in western Nepal, killing at least 19
people.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car at a
roadside security post, killing at least three troops and wounding
at least eight others. A passenger bus plunged off a mountain road
into a river bank in northern Pakistan, killing 25 people and
injuring eight.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Turkey Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul won most votes in the first round of a
presidential election, but did not secure the two-thirds majority
needed in parliament for an outright win.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Turkey Festus
Okey (21), a Nigerian immigrant, was shot and killed while in police
custody.
(AP, 12/13/11)(http://www.hyd.org.tr/?pid=515)
2007 Aug 20, The UN Security
Council authorized an African Union force in chaotic Somalia for
another six months and asked the secretary-general to develop plans
for a possible UN troop replacement.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 21, A research firm
said US foreclosure filings rose 9 percent from June to July and
surged 93 percent over the same period last year, with Nevada,
Georgia and Michigan accounting for the highest foreclosure rates
nationwide.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The US shuttle
Endeavour landed in Florida following a 13-day assembly mission on
the international space station.
(SFC, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 21, California state
senators ended a 52-day budget impasse and agreed on a $145 million
spending plan for 2007-2008.
(SFC, 8/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 21, The board of MGM
Mirage approved a deal with Dubai World in which the holding company
for the Persian Gulf state will eventually acquire a 9.5%
stake and 50% ownership in the Las Vegas CityCenter project.
(WSJ, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 21, An Australian
court ruled that the country's immigration minister wrongly revoked
a work visa for an Indian doctor who was briefly accused of links
with a failed British car bomb plot in June.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Students in
emergency-ruled Bangladesh clashed with police for a second day
demanding that the army withdraw from Dhaka university campus.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, China’s government
announced that mainland citizens would be allowed to invest in Hong
Kong. State media reported that a test run of traffic controls to
clear Beijing's smoggy skies for next year's Olympic Games
successfully improved air quality. Media also reported that China
will execute people who sabotage the electricity supply, reversing
recent steps to rein in widespread use of the death penalty.
(Econ, 10/6/07,
p.86)(http://tinyurl.com/2ugksh)(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The European
Central Bank provided more cash for banks that have been clamoring
for money, injecting $370.6 billion in its normal weekly
refinancing.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The EU said it
will resume vital fuel aid to the Gaza Strip's electric company,
money the bloc suspended because of suspicions that Gaza's Hamas
rulers were diverting revenues.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Haleh Esfandiari,
a detained Iranian-American academic accused of conspiring against
the government, was freed on bail from the Tehran prison where she
had been jailed since early May. Esfandiari, director of the Middle
East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, was freed on $333,000 bail.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, In Iraq French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called on Europe to play a bigger
role in Iraq because "the Americans will not be able to get this
country out of difficulty alone." The postwar Iraqi tribunal trying
former Saddam Hussein aides opened its third proceeding, putting
former Defense Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical
Ali," and 14 other men on trial.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/21/08)
2007 Aug 21, The Israeli army
said ground forces fired at gunmen who approached the Israel-Gaza
border fence. The Islamic Jihad group said three militants on a
mission against Israel were killed. Palestinians fired three rockets
into Israel including one that hit an empty kindergarten in the town
of Sderot near Gaza. Israeli troops targeted two figures spotted
near a rocket launcher in an area of northern Gaza where a rocket
had been fired into Israel earlier. The fire killed a 10-year-old
and a 12-year-old who were members of the same extended family. The
army said Palestinian rocket teams have been known to send young
children to retrieve rocket launchers after firing.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe arrived in New Delhi to firm up billions of dollars of
investment projects, expand trade ties and discuss India's
controversial nuclear cooperation deal.
(AFP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hurricane Dean
slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico as a roaring Category 5
hurricane, the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two
decades. Dean made landfall after killing 13 people in the
Caribbean.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 21, In Northern
Ireland animal rights officials seized more than a dozen dogs bred
for combat in the latest crackdown on illegal dogfighting.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 21, Russian news
agencies reported that authorities have detained a high-level
narcotics officer they say was behind large-scale drug sales over
the Internet.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hana Ponicka (85),
a Slovak writer and former anti-communist dissident, died.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 21, The leader of
India's ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, arrived in South Africa for a
three-day visit in a bid to strengthen ties between the two nations.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Sudanese forces
surrounded and attacked Darfur's most volatile camp to flush out
rebels they say are behind recent attacks on police.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hundreds of people
held an anti-gay protest in Uganda's capital, denouncing what they
called an "immoral" lifestyle and demanding the deportation of an
American journalist writing about gay rights in the deeply
conservative country.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Venezuela's
National Assembly, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez,
gave unanimous initial approval to constitutional reforms that would
allow him to run for re-election and possibly govern for decades to
come.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Western US states
and Canadian provinces agreed to cut greenhouse emissions 15% by
2020 in the latest regional pact to regulate the gases, an approach
opposed by US President George W. Bush.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, US Army Major John
Cockerham, his wife and sister were indicted in a suspected scheme
to accept millions of dollars in bribes for Defense Department
contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, The Texas Rangers
became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game,
setting an American League record in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore
Orioles in the first game of a doubleheader.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2007 Aug 22, It was reported
that some US lawyers in NYC had crossed the $1,000 per hour billing
mark.
(WSJ, 8/22/07, p.B1)
2007 Aug 22, The US FDA
approved expanded use of J&J’s antipsychotic Risperdal in
adolescents.
(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 22, The death toll
across the Upper Midwest and from the remnants of Tropical Storm
Erin that swept Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past week rose
to at least 26. Three people were electrocuted by lightning at a bus
stop in Madison, Wis.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 22, Grace Paley (84),
poet and short story writer, died in Thetford Hill, Vt.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2007 Aug 22, Taliban militants
wearing Afghan army uniforms attacked a remote NATO base in eastern
Afghanistan, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding 11 alliance
soldiers. In southern Afghanistan 2 Canadian soldiers and an
interpreter were killed and two journalists injured during an
attack.
(AP, 8/22/07)(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Bangladesh
clashes between police and students demanding an end to emergency
rule spilled into the streets of the capital, prompting the
government to impose an indefinite curfew in six cities.
(AP, 8/22/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 22, Rhys Jones (11)
was killed as he was kicking a ball around with friends outside a
pub in Liverpool, north-west England. Police soon arrested five
young people, including two girls, in relation to his murder. On Dec
16, 2008, Sean Mercer (18) was found guilty of murdering Jones and
was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison.
(AFP, 8/25/07)(AFP, 4/16/08)(AP, 12/16/08)
2007 Aug 22, A distributor said
Chinese-made blankets containing high levels of formaldehyde have
been recalled across Australia and New Zealand, amid rising global
concern over the safety of products from China.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Denmark's
government said Somali pirates released the crew of a hijacked
Danish cargo ship after receiving a ransom payment.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Estonia
prosecutors said Arnold Meri (88), cousin of Estonia's late
president Lennart Meri, committed genocide by helping deport his
countrymen to Siberia in 1949.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 22, State media
reported that a volcanic eruption in northeastern Ethiopia killed
five people and displaced more than 2,000 others. The volcano in the
Afar region started spewing lava on August 12 and the eruption
lasted for three days.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Ingushetia,
Russia, one serviceman was killed and five were wounded when gunmen
attacked their armored personnel carrier with grenades and automatic
weapons fire.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 22, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said: “No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq
government.” In northern Iraq a blast at a police station in Beiji
killed 25 policemen and 20 civilians. 57 civilians and 23 officers
were wounded. A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in the center
of Tikrit, killing one officer and wounding another, along with two
civilians. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle set off a blast near
four police vehicles parked near grocery stores in Muqdadiyah,
killing six people and wounding 35 others. A twin vehicle bombing at
a joint US-Iraqi outpost in north Baghdad killed four Iraqi soldiers
and wounded 11 Americans. A Black Hawk helicopter went down in
northern Iraq, killing all 14 US soldiers aboard. A US soldier was
killed and four were wounded in combat operations west of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/22/07)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 22, Israeli aircraft
killed one Hamas militant and wounded three others in an airstrike
in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Hurricane Dean
closed in on the Mexican mainland, battering oil platforms on the
Bay of Campeche. Dean was downgraded to a tropical storm as it
drenched central Mexico.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 22, In Myanmar
hundreds of pro-democracy activists marched to protest the
government's fuel price hikes. The military junta arrested 13 top
dissidents and deployed gangs of spade-wielding supporters on the
streets of Yangon. The unannounced price hike sparked
anti-government protests that led to the "saffron rebellion,” which
was crushed by the military government leaving at least 15 dead and
thousands arrested.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)(AP, 1/1/12)
2007 Aug 22, Suspected
militants attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan
before dawn, triggering a shootout that left three soldiers dead.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Russia nominated
Josef Tosovsky, a former Czech prime minister and head of that
country's central bank, to head the International Monetary Fund, a
move that put the Kremlin and the European Union at odds. The Czech
Republic repudiated the move and endorsed the EU’s choice.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 22, Wind-whipped fires
that have been ravaging parts of Sicily consumed a hotel near the
port city of Messina, killing at least two people.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party denounced a two-month voter registration program as
a sham, saying its aim was to boost President Robert Mugabe's
chances of victory in next year's elections. State media reported
that Zimbabwe's government has authorized retailers to raise the
prices of basic goods in order to ease widespread shortages which
followed the imposition of price cuts.
(AFP, 8/22/07)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 23, Ohio’s Gov. Ted
Strickland said more than 1,000 people were flooded out of their
homes after heavy rain that swamped communities across the Midwest
sent Ohio's rivers spilling over their banks.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, University of
Minnesota astronomers announced that they have stumbled upon a
tremendous hole in the universe. The cosmic blank spot has no stray
stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark
matter. The 1 billion light years across of nothing represented an
expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet was believed to have
killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. Two other soldiers
were injured.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Bangladesh's
army-backed interim government briefly relaxed a curfew, allowing
residents of the capital the chance to stock up on essentials and
those stranded at airports and elsewhere to return home.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Ponte Nova,
Brazil, at least 25 prisoners died after inmates broke out of a
cellblock and set a fire in an apparent attempt to settle scores
with a rival gang.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Montreal World
Film Festival, which endured a near-death experience two years ago
when key government subsidies were suspended, kicked off its 31st
edition with a new lease on life.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, The government of
Chad said it will adhere to a program designed to put pressure on
countries to be open about revenues from exports of oil, natural gas
and minerals.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Bank of China
revealed that it held a $9.6 billion exposure to securities backed
by American subprime mortgages.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.67)
2007 Aug 23, More than 800
Colombian refugees crossed over the border to Ecuador from the
violence-ravaged department of Narino. The UN estimated that about 3
million Colombians have been driven from their homes by violence
without leaving the country, making it the largest internal refugee
population in the world after Sudan.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 23, A shootout in
Chechnya's capital left two policemen and a rebel dead. A group of
about 30 camouflage-clad gunmen set on fire the houses of two police
officers and the local administration building in the Chechen
village of Yandi.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Dagestan,
Russia, gunmen ambushed security forces, killing three people and
wounding 17.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Hundreds of
rampaging youths torched dozens of houses and clashed across East
Timor, leaving at least two people dead, in violence sparked by the
appointment of independence hero Xanana Gusmao as prime minister.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The EU relaxed a
ban on exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products that
was imposed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in
southeastern England earlier this month.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, State-run TV
reported that Iran has developed a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb, the
latest in a recent series of announcements heralding new weapons
systems.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Suspected al-Qaida
fighters attacked the Sunni Ibrahim al-Yahya village east of Baqouba
and killed a leader who had led the community in an uprising against
the terrorist organization. A nearby Shiite village came under
attack, again by suspected al-Qaida fighters, and a total of 17
people, including seven women, were killed. 7 people were kidnapped.
Two of the abducted men were later found shot in the head on a road
leading out of town. The rest of the captives were women, and their
fate was unknown. 10 attackers were killed as villagers fought back.
A police vehicle rushing to the attack scene crashed and 2 policemen
were killed. 60 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national
police facilities in a coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two
hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen
insurgents captured.
(AP, 8/23/07)(Reuters, 8/23/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, A cluster bomb
left over from last year's Hezbollah-Israel war exploded in southern
Lebanon, killing a Lebanese mine-clearing expert and wounding three
others who were trying to dismantle it.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of
Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching
mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming
into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of
Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan
peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and
broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with
fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be
harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, In Myanmar defiant
pro-democracy activists took to the streets for the third time this
week, forming a human chain to try to prevent officers from dragging
them into waiting trucks and buses.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Pakistan a
Supreme Court ruling said former PM Nawaz Sharif, a key rival to
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can return to Pakistan from exile.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, A Russian
scientist said that fresh test results back his country's legal bid
to take control of the Arctic. Russian geologists have previously
estimated the Arctic seabed has at least 9 to 10 billion tons of
fuel equivalent, about the same as Russia's total oil reserves.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Rwanda's exiled
opposition groups dismissed as insulting the appointment of General
Kerenzi Karake, a Rwandan general, as deputy chief of a planned
peace force for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
(AFP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Sudan summoned the
envoy of the European Commission and the Canadian charge d'affaires
and informed them they were considered persona non grata because
they interfered in Sudanese affairs. The UN chief called on the
Sudanese military to remove troops remaining in southern Sudan,
expressing disappointment that a July 9 deadline was not met as
called for in a 2005 peace deal.
(AFP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, A US federal
appeals court revived California’s request for at least $1 billion
in refunds for electricity customers due to overcharges during the
Enron debacle.
(SFC, 8/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed the overdue state budget after cutting $703
million in exchange for the support of Senate Republicans. Line-item
cuts included $527 million in health and human services, $70 million
in raises to state workers and $39 million in prison funding.
(SFC, 8/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, A judge in
Inverness, Fla., sentenced John Evander Couey to death for
kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005, raping her and
burying her alive.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2007 Aug 24, Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick admitted he participated in an illegal
dogfighting operation and was suspended indefinitely by the National
Football League.
(Reuters, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Mississippi
Klansman James Ford Seale (71) was sentenced to 3 life terms in
prison for his role in the 1964 deaths of Charles Moore and Henry
Hezekiah Dee.
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, In Afghanistan
insurgents attacked a police patrol in eastern Paktika province,
sparking a gunbattle that killed six militants and one officer.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Canada 11
people were hurt and two killed after a hot air balloon caught fire
as it left for a sunset flight in British Columbia. A pickup truck
driven by an elderly man struck a pre-wedding party near Vancouver,
killing six people and injuring 17.
(Reuters, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 24, In China Meng
Xianchen and Meng Xianyou surfaced after more than 130 hours trapped
in an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan district.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 24, Georgia said it
fired on a Russian plane flying over its territory. The Tbilisi City
Court, behind closed doors, convicted 13 people from minor
opposition parties for plotting a violent overthrow of the
government. Maia Topuria, the lead defendant and head of the
pro-Moscow Justice party, was sentenced to 8 ½ years in
prison.
(WSJ, 8/25/07,
p.A1)(www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=6353)
2007 Aug 24, Major wildfires
broke out in Greece, burning half a million acres and claiming 65
lives in 11 days.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2007 Aug 24, A car bomb
exploded in northern Baghdad, killing seven passers-by and wounding
dozens of others in an apparent sectarian attack near the capital's
most important Shiite shrine. US and Iraqi forces killed two
insurgents and arrested seven others during raids on two villages
along the road linking Baghdad with the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
Iraqi security forces killed a man suspected of links to the Islamic
State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group. Ten other al-Qaida suspects
were arrested in the raid northeast of Baghdad. US helicopters
blasted rooftops in a Shiite neighborhood of north Baghdad in a
gunfight that left 8 Shiite gunmen dead. Iraqi police and hospital
officials said the dead included a woman and a young boy. Sixteen
other people were wounded, including four women and three boys in
their early teens who had been sleeping on the roofs to escape the
summer heat. One US soldier was killed in an explosion in Salahuddin
province.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Jordan former
Iraqi President Abdel-Rahman Aref (91), overthrown more than 35
years ago in a coup that brought Saddam Hussein's Baath party to
power, died in Amman.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, A deal was reached
with Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in
northern Lebanon to allow their families to leave the besieged area.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep peacekeepers in
Lebanon for another 12 months.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, Mozambique’s
health minister said large amounts of drugs, which have been
imported into Mozambique with the aid of the international
community, end up being sold on the black market at home and abroad.
(AFP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, Myanmar's military
junta moved swiftly to crush the latest in a series of protests
against fuel price hikes, arresting more than 10 activists in front
of Yangon City Hall before they could launch any action.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Pakistan six
soldiers were killed in a suicide attack and roadside bombing near
Miran Shah. Hours later the army said a month of fierce fighting
near the Afghan border has killed about 250 militants and 60
Pakistani troops. Pro-Taliban militants kidnapped an army officer,
two guards and a government official near an army base. A Pakistani
army helicopter had fired on a vehicle near Miran Shah, the main
town in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing three suspected
militants. A villager said the slain men were not militants.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, Hamas security
agents clashed with supporters of the rival Fatah movement, firing
into the air and beating journalists covering a demonstration
against the Islamic militant group's rule in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, Russia issued an
international warrant for the arrest of Mikhail Gutseriyev, two days
after the death in Moscow of his 21-year-old son. Chingiskhan
Gutseriyev died in his sleep after a minor car accident, raising
suspicions that he was killed to send a message to his father. On
Sep 5 a court upheld a warrant for his arrest and refused to lift a
freeze on the shares of his company, Russneft. The freeze has
blocked a sale that would have handed him an estimated $3 billion.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Somalia gunmen
shot and killed Abdulkadir Moallim Kaskey, a Somali radio
journalist, in southwestern Gedo province.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Spain a van
loaded with explosives blew up outside a police station in the
Basque city of Durango, slightly injuring two officers in what
appeared to be the first major attack by the separatist group ETA
since it called off a cease-fire in June.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul failed to win enough votes in the second round
of a presidential election, but is expected to clinch the post next
week. A clash between troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's
southeast border with Iraq left 10 rebels and two soldiers dead.
(Reuters, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Wyoming
Republicans decided to hold their delegate selection process on Jan
5, 2008, before both Iowa and New Hampshire.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.A8)
2007 Aug 25, SF held its 2nd
annual Jug Band Festival at the Golden Gate Park band shell. The
annual Renaissance Fair also took place in GG park for a 4th year.
(eyewitness)(www.sffaire.com/)
2007 Aug 25, A suicide car
bomber attacked a convoy carrying foreigners near the Afghan capital
Kabul. Two foreigners and four Afghans were wounded. A roadside bomb
killed two Afghans guarding a convoy carrying supplies for NATO-led
forces in Kandahar province, while eight suspected insurgents and a
police officer died in fighting elsewhere in the country. Afghan
soldiers in neighboring Helmand province shot and killed two
suspected Taliban fighters as they attempted to plant a roadside
bomb. In southern Afghanistan clashes between coalition troops and
Taliban fighters left at least 18 civilians dead according to
witnesses. NATO officials said no noncombatants were killed. 12
Taliban fighters were killed by artillery fire along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border after insurgents attacked a military
post with rockets and mortars. US-led and Afghan troops struck
Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes with the
extremist Islamic militia that left at least 19 rebels dead. A
Pakistani military spokesman denied any permission was given. Afghan
troops clashed with rebel fighters in southern Zabul province and
killed nine of them. 3 suspected militants, one of them a foreign
national, were arrested in Paktia province, dressed in all-covering
burqas worn by most Afghan women. Dozens of Taliban guerrillas
attacked police in the eastern province of Nangarhar, injuring a
district chief and one of his guards before they were repelled.
(AP, 8/25/07)(AP, 8/26/07)(AFP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Buenos Aires an
Argentine couple captured the stage category at the World Tango
Championships, followed by Chilean and Japanese pairs.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 25, Australia's
multi-billion dollar racing industry was plunged into turmoil on
after an outbreak of equine influenza triggered a national lockdown.
(Reuters, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Raymond Barre
(b.1924), a tough-speaking former French prime minister (1976-1981)
and economist, died.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, A senior official
of the separatist region said a plane of uncertain origin went down
over Abkhazia, a day after Georgia reported that its forces fired on
a plane believed to be Russian that had violated the country's
airspace.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, A German federal
lab confirmed that tests have found that birds at a poultry farm in
southern Germany died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and some
160,000 birds were being slaughtered as a precaution.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Germany more
than 1 million revelers, many scantily dressed, danced their way
through the streets of Essen to sound of whistles blowing and techno
music for the Love Parade's debut in its new home, western Germany's
industrial Ruhr region.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Massive forest
fires swept uncontrolled across Greece for a second day and killed
at least 41 people in the south of the country, including several
children.
(Reuters, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Hungary some 56
Magyar Garda members, wearing black uniforms and black caps, were
sworn in during the ceremony at Buda Castle. Lajos Fur, former
defense minister, inaugurated the neo-fascist, self-styled civil
defense group organized by the far right Jobik party.
(www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,502184,00.html)
2007 Aug 25, In Hyderabad,
India, where Hindu-Muslim animosity runs deep, a pair of almost
simultaneous bombings blamed on Islamic extremists tore through a
popular family restaurant and an outdoor arena, killing 43 people.
Another 19 bombs were discovered and made safe in the area. In
Hyderabad, Muslims make up 40 percent of the population of 7
million. Officials blamed foreign militants.
(AP, 8/26/07)(WSJ, 8/27/07, p.A1)(Econ, 9/1/07,
p.34)
2007 Aug 25, Iraqi and US
soldiers arrested 54 suspected al-Qaida members in a joint operation
on the outskirts of Baqouba.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.A13)
2007 Aug 25, Two Palestinian
militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, attacking an
Israeli military position before soldiers tracked them down and
killed them. Militants detonated a bomb near the border fence in
southern Gaza, lightly wounding four soldiers. Militants also fired
several mortars into southern Israel, causing no injuries.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, It was reported
that Liberia had some 2,511 ships registered under its flag, the
world’s 2nd largest fleet after Panama, which had 7,357. The
population was reported to be 3.3 million, with two-thirds of the
people living on less than a dollar a day. Since 2000 the Liberian
International Ship and Corporate Registry, a Virginia-based company,
managed the registry.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.44)
2007 Aug 25, Myanmar's state
media reported that military junta has detained at least 63
activists who protested massive fuel-price hikes over the last week,
as the government pursued its clampdown on the increasingly daring
demonstrations.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Pakistan
successfully test-fired a new air-launched cruise missile capable of
carrying a nuclear warhead.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Sudan said it will
allow an EU envoy it ordered out of the country to remain until his
tenure expires next month, following an EU apology.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 26, In northern
California the 17th annual Cotati Accordion Festival ended with some
5,000 people and 30 bands attending the 2-day event. Day tickets
rose to $17.50.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.D2)
2007 Aug 26, The $95 million
Hawaii Superferry made its maiden run from Honolulu to Maui as
environmentalists protested. The 349-foot giant catamaran, named
Alakai, carried over 500 passengers and 150 cars for the 3-hour
trip. The special one-way $5 fares will soon rise to over $240 for
one passenger and a car.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 26, Afghan police
killed six suspected militants during a one-hour gunbattle in
Paktika province, which borders Pakistan. Unidentified assailants
shot and killed a soldier from the 37-nation strong security
assistance force during a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan. A
Dutch soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
In southern Zabul province, Afghan and coalition troops clashed with
insurgents in Daychopan district, killing four suspected Taliban and
wounding four others. Afghan troops destroyed a heroin laboratory in
Helmand province after battling Taliban fighters guarding the
facility.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, A road bridge
linking Tajikistan and Afghanistan paid for by the US was officially
opened at a ceremony attended by the presidents of the two Central
Asian countries.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Australia released
a new draft citizenship test. The 40-page document outlining
citizenship application procedures said migrants who want to become
Australian citizens will have to be able to correctly identify the
country's prime minister and national flower.
(AFP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Massive fires
consuming large areas of southern Greece for a third day raced
toward the site of the ancient Olympics, engulfing villages and
forests as the flames reached one of the most revered sites of
antiquity.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Iran vowed to use
a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb against its enemies and unveiled mass
production of the new weapon.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki lashed out at American critics, saying Sen. Hillary
Clinton and other Democrats who had called for his ouster should
"come to their senses." A US helicopter attacked two Kurdish police
outposts, killing four policemen and wounding eight. A spokesman for
the Kurdish Peshmerga militia believed the attack was mistaken
friendly fire. Waves of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala for the
Shabaniyah festival marking the birth of the 9th century Hidden
Imam. A woman making the 50-mile trek from Baghdad was shot to death
by men in a passing car in the southwest of the capital.
(AP, 8/26/07)(AP, 8/26/08)
2007 Aug 26, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber in a car killed four policemen and wounded
two in an attack in Swat.
(Reuters, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, The moderate
Palestinian government began implementing the closure of 103
institutions in the West Bank and Gaza in an apparent crackdown
against the Islamic Hamas.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Manila,
Philippines, economic ministers of Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN)
and China agreed to strengthen product standards and safety. The
move follows recalls of several tainted Chinese products from
international markets.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Somalia
bombings and grenade attacks killed two schoolboys and three other
people in Mogadishu.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, In eastern Uganda
a truck carrying soldiers and their families overturned, killing 72
people and injuring 40 others.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Officials
announced that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had resigned,
ending a months long standoff with critics who questioned his
honesty and competence at the helm of the Justice Department. Pres.
Bush accepted his resignation Aug 24. Solicitor General Paul Clement
will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Sen. Larry Craig,
R-Idaho, said in a statement he was not involved in any
inappropriate conduct when he was arrested at the Minneapolis
airport and should have not pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that Craig was
arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints
of lewd conduct in an airport restroom.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick apologized for "using bad judgment and
making bad decisions" and vowed to redeem himself after pleading
guilty in Richmond, Va., to a federal dogfighting charge.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, Police arrested
Paul Devoe III (43) in Shirley, NY, following 5 recent murders in
Texas and one in Pennsylvania. On December 19, 2007, the Texas
Travis County District Attorney announced his office's intention to
pursue the death penalty. In 2009 Devoe was sentenced to death for
the 2007 slaying of two Jonestown, Texas, teenage girls.
(SFC, 8/28/07,
p.A6)(www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/us/28texas.html)(SFC, 10/9/09,
p.A4)
2007 Aug 27, The US-led
coalition in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants of falsely
reporting civilian casualties to discredit Afghan and international
forces. Afghan and US-led coalition troops killed up to 21 suspected
Taliban militants in 3 separate clashes in southern Afghanistan. A
roadside blast killed 4 Afghan soldiers in the east. 3 American and
2 Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush in the Ghazi Abad
district of eastern Kunar province. A NATO trooper died in a nearby
area.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AFP,
8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Colombia the
Bogota stock exchange launched the sale of up to 20% of state-owned
Ecopetrol’s shares.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered
six Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa
region.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pres. Sarkozy
called for a clear timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops
from Iraq as he outlined an assertive role for France in other world
hotspots. Sarkozy urged EU nations to accept a greater share of
defense spending to cope with escalating global threats.
(AFP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, The French
government said a tax official cheated the government out of 600,000
euros ($820,000) by creating a phantom identity as a university
professor and claiming a salary for some 15 years.
(Reuters, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Greece the
worst wildfires in living memory have killed 63 people and tore
through town and forest alike. In the last 24 hours, 89 new fires
broke out. Arson is often suspected, mostly to clear land for
development.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, A sniper killed a
Shiite pilgrim on a Baghdad bridge while another was killed and six
injured in other attacks as tens of thousands of faithful made their
way to the southern city of Karbala for a major religious
commemoration. At least five people were killed in Karbala as
scuffles broke out between police and pilgrims. North of Baghdad
hundreds of US and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters and jet
fighters killed 33 Sunni insurgents who were holding back the water
supply to the Shiite town of Khalis. In Fallujah a mosque suicide
bombing left 11 dead and 10 people were wounded in an attack that
targeted an anti-al-Qaida Sunni sheik who had just returned from
Syria.
(AP, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 27, Israel’s Haaretz
newspaper reported that security officials fear Hamas' exiled
leadership in Syria is working to renew suicide attacks against
Israel in an effort to derail peace efforts by Israel and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli intelligence assessed
that Islamic Hamas militants have smuggled 40 tons of weapons into
the Gaza Strip since the group wrested control of the territory in
June.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Morocco's former
interior minister, Driss Basri (69), died in a Paris hospital, to be
mourned in some circles as a loyal servant of the crown and
condemned by others as a ruthless axeman.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, About 50
pro-democracy activists were arrested outside Yangon, as the Myanmar
junta clamped down on dissent following a series of protests last
week against a sharp hike in fuel prices.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, An official said
the Dutch government will spend $38 million over the next four years
to prevent both the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and right-wing
nationalism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Gunmen in southern
Nigeria set free Peter Agwuna, a Nigerian supervisor for the Elf oil
group, who was seized in Port Harcourt about a month ago.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pakistan's PM Aziz
called for reconciliation between the country's main political
parties as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf prepares to seek
re-election. But he said the government had no plans to allow two
banned opposition leaders to become premiers again. In northwest
Pakistan militants and soldiers exchanged fire, killing one militant
and injuring three civilians and a soldier in North Waziristan.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Panama’s cabinet
resigned after a tainted medicine scandal and the government’s
failure to implement construction safety standards.
(WSJ, 8/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 27, Russia announced
the arrest of 10 people in the killing of journalist and Kremlin
critic Anna Politkovskaya. Russia's top prosecutor said a Chechen
crime boss, Russian police and security officers were involved in
the death of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya. But he suggested
that someone outside Russia masterminded the killing of the frequent
Kremlin critic.
(AP, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, In South Africa
Hewlett-Packard became the first multinational to be exempted from
selling 30 percent of its business in South Africa to black
investors. Under an agreement reached with the government, the
company will instead invest millions of dollars in a new business
institute to provide training for 1,800 students over the next six
years.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, A Sudanese
criminal court dismissed the case against nine people on trial in
connection with the beheading of Mohammed Taha, a prominent
journalist, and brought formal charges against 10 other defendants.
CARE’s country director Paul Barker said the Sudanese government's
Humanitarian Aid Commission had given him 72 hours to leave the
country without giving reasons for the decision.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Taiwan's leading
computer vendor Acer Inc moved to substantially boost its market
share by acquiring US rival Gateway amid a major consolidation among
the world's top computer companies. Acer said it would pay $710
million for Gateway.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.60)
2007 Aug 27, The UN opened in
Vienna its latest round of talks on global warming.
(WSJ, 8/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 27, Opera Romana
Pellegrinaggi, a Vatican-backed charter airline service, made its
inaugural flight, aiming to carry pilgrims to such Catholic shrines
as Lourdes, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, The US Census
Bureau released its latest report on income, poverty and health
insurance in the US. It noted a continuing increase in the number
and proportion of Americans who lacked health insurance.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.24)
2007 Aug 28, A day after
reports surfaced of his June arrest at the Minneapolis airport, Sen.
Larry Craig, R-Idaho, told a news conference the only thing he had
done wrong was to plead guilty after a police complaint of lewd
conduct in a men's room; Craig also declared, "I am not gay. I never
have been gay."
(AP, 8/28/08)
2007 Aug 28, A military
court at Fort Meade, Md., acquitted Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan
of failing to control US soldiers who abused detainees at Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq, but found him guilty of disobeying an order not to
discuss the investigation. However, that conviction was later thrown
out.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2007 Aug 28, EarthLink, the
Atlanta-based Internet provider, announced that it no longer
believed that providing citywide Wi-Fi for San Francisco was viable
for the company. Chicago abandoned plans for a city-wide Wi-Fi
network to access the Internet as EarthLink underwent restructuring.
(SFC, 8/30/07,
p.A1)(www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/08/30/too-windy-for-wi-fi.aspx)
2007 Aug 28, Burning Man became
Burnt Man four days early, and a San Francisco performance artist
was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the
counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, In North Carolina
Dwayne Allen Dail (39), a man who remained in prison for 18 years
after being wrongly convicted of a 1987 child rape, was released
after new DNA testing cleared him of the crime. In October of 2007
he received a pardon from Gov. Mike Easley based on his innocence.
Dail also received some compensation from the state; he was eligible
for $20,000 per year of incarceration.
(AP,
8/28/07)(www.innocenceproject.org/Content/832.php)
2007 Aug 28, The annual Small
Arms Survey said there are nine guns for every 10 people in the
United States, with about 270 million firearms in circulation.
Worldwide, civilians now have access to 650 million small arms, from
handguns to semiautomatic rifles, an arsenal that far outstrips what
is held by police and militaries.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, Arthur Jones (80),
inventor of the Nautilus exercise equipment (1970), died. In 1986 he
agreed to sell the business to Travis Ward of Texas for $23 million.
(SFC, 8/29/07, p.B7)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 28, Paul MacCready
(b.1925), designer of the Gossamer Albatross, died in California.
His bicycle powered plane crossed the English Channel in 1979. He
founded AeroVironment in 1971 to monitor air pollution.
(www.sas.org/maccready.htm)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.88)
2007 Aug 28, Miyoshi Umeki
(b.1929), Japanese-born actress, died in Licking, Mo. She was the
first Asian performer to win an Oscar, which she and Red Buttons
received for their supporting roles in the 1957 film “Sayonara.”
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.A17)
2007 Aug 28, The Taliban agreed
to free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage since July
after the government in Seoul pledged to end all missionary work and
keep a promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of
the year. In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked NATO
troops helping build a bridge, killing three soldiers. Afghan and
US-led coalition forces killed more than 100 suspected Taliban
insurgents in southern Afghanistan. The clash left one Afghan
soldier dead.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, In Azerbaijan a
16-story high-rise under construction in Baku collapsed killing at
least 12 people and leaving others trapped in the rubble. The head
of the construction company and another company executive were
arrested. They began construction of the building in 2002 without
authorization.
(SFC, 8/29/07, p.A3)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 28, Brazil's Supreme
Court charged one of the president's closest confidants with
conspiracy in a corruption scandal that has toppled much of his
inner circle. Analysts said Jose Dirceu, one of 40 people indicted,
would rather spend years in prison than go down swinging against
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. This was the first time ever that
Brazil’s highest court has brought criminal charges against
politicians.
(AP, 8/28/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.32)
2007 Aug 28, Africa's Great
Lakes nations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and
Uganda) vowed to eliminate rebel groups roaming their territory and
spurring insecurity in the continent's most volatile region.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Ethiopia justified
its decision to expel Norwegian diplomats arguing that Oslo was
interfering in its internal affairs and destabilizing the Horn of
Africa.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Foreign
firefighters and aircraft joined in battling wildfires that have
destroyed some of Greece's lushest landscape. The death toll from 5
days of blazes rose to at least 64.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Police ordered a
curfew in the Shiite city of Karbala and ordered more than one
million pilgrims to leave after two days of violence. A city council
member in Karbala reported 38 dead and 231 injured in fighting when
gunmen believed from the Mahdi Army began firing on security forces
and Badr guards. 2 days of bloody clashes in Karbala claimed at
least 52 lives.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the major
issues dividing the two sides at their meeting, final borders,
Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, In Kenya a crash
in the Kisii area killed 22 people when the bus they were traveling
in rammed a truck head-on.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 28, Las Vegas Sands
opened its $2.4 billion Venetian Macao, the world's largest
casino-resort, as part of Macau's heady transformation from gambling
haven to Asia's top entertainment draw.
(WSJ, 6/13/07, p.B1)(AFP, 8/28/07)(Econ, 9/1/07,
p.62)
2007 Aug 28, Pro-democracy
supporters expanded their protests against Myanmar's military,
marching through the streets of the port town of Sittwe while
attempting to rally in the main city Yangon.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Jose Maria Sison
(68), a Philippine communist leader, accused of commanding a rebel
uprising from exile for more than 20 years was arrested by Dutch
police in Utrecht on suspicion of ordering the murder of two former
allies in his home country. He was accused of ordering the killings
in 2003 and 2004 of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, who were
gunned down in the Philippines.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 28, A Pakistani
cabinet minister and a ruling party MP said they had resigned to
protest President Pervez Musharraf's plan to remain army chief.
Pro-Taliban militants released 19 Pakistani soldiers who were
abducted earlier this month in the rugged tribal belt bordering
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Journalists and
diplomats said Saudi Arabia has banned the influential Arab
newspaper Al Hayat from distribution in the kingdom, just days after
it reported a Saudi man had served as a key figure for an al-Qaida
front group in Iraq.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Organizers in
Scotland said the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's biggest
arts festival, this year broke its attendance record by selling 1.7
million tickets.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, Turkey’s Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul (56), a devout Muslim with a background in
political Islam, won the presidency, in a major triumph for the
Islamic-rooted government after months of confrontation with the
secular establishment.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, Fellow Republicans
called on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to resign and party leaders pushed
him from senior committee posts as fallout continued over his arrest
at a Minneapolis airport restroom and guilty plea to disorderly
conduct.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 29, US service
officials said the Army will examine as many as 18,000 contracts
awarded over the past four years to support US forces in Iraq to
determine how many are tainted by waste, fraud and abuse.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, The US Air Force
accidentally flew a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber from North Dakota to
Louisiana. On October 19 the Air Force said 70 service members would
be punished for widespread disregard of rules.
(SFC, 10/20/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 29, New research said
arsenic in drinking water is a global threat to health, affecting
more than 70 countries and 137 million people. The country worst
affected is Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people are
likely to die from cancers of the lung, bladder and skin caused by
arsenic.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 29, Alfred Peet
(b.1920), Dutch-born specialty coffee pioneer, died in Oregon. His
first shop opened in Berkeley, Ca., in 1966. He sold the business in
1979, but stayed on as a coffee buyer until 1984, when Baldwin and
Reynolds, co-owners of Starbucks, along with other investors bought
4 Bay Area locations of Peet’s. They later sold the chain to Howard
Shultz, who entered a no-compete agreement with Peet’s in the Bay
Area. Peet’s became a public company in 2001.
(SFC, 9/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Aug 29, Richard
Jewell, the former security guard who was wrongly linked to the 1996
Olympic bombing, was found dead in his west Georgia home; he was 44.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 29, Taliban militants
released 12 of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under
a deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly
six-week hostage crisis. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a
crowded bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and
two Afghan soldiers. A Canadian soldier, based in the Afghan capital
Kabul, died of a gunshot wound after he was found injured in his
room.
(AFP, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 29, Britain unveiled a
statue of Nelson Mandela outside the houses of Parliament, honoring
the South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great
leaders of his era.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, China began
selling $79 billion in bonds to finance a state agency that will
invest the country's foreign currency reserves.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, It was reported
that more than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo,
including all those who attended the funerals of two village chiefs,
in what health officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, Pierre Messmer
(b.1916), a member of the French Resistance who was the country's
prime minister from 1972 to 1974, died.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, Hong Kong police
arrested two men accused of trying to smuggle more than 7,000 live
pet turtles to mainland China.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 29, In India the
world-famous Taj Mahal was closed to tourists after officials in the
city of Agra imposed a curfew following rioting that left one person
dead and 50 hurt. Rioters fought pitched battles with police,
pelting them with stones, glass bottles and setting vehicles alight,
after a speeding truck crushed four Muslims to death. Officials in
the eastern state of Orissa said at least 105 people have died of
cholera and some 6,000 people are suffering from diseases caused by
drinking dirty water.
(AFP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, A group of eight
Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by US forces after
being detained a day earlier because unauthorized weapons were found
in their cars. An aide said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has
ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army
militia in order to reorganize the force. Marines from the 5th
Regimental Combat Team killed 12 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters
and destroyed two vehicles in fighting near the Anbar city of
Fallujah. 4 al-Qaida fighters and two Sunni tribesmen opposed to the
terror movement were killed in gunfights in Haqlaniyah. 2 US service
members, a Marine and an Army soldier, were killed in fighting in
Anbar province. An American soldier died from wounds suffered the
day before in fighting near the northern city of Kirkuk. A US
soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack during combat
operations in Iraq's eastern Diyala province.
(AP, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 29, The three cousins,
10-year-old Mahmoud Ghazal, 10-year-old Sara Ghazal and 12-year-old
Yehiya Ghazal, were killed when Israeli troops combating Palestinian
rocket squads spotted figures moving near rocket launchers in
northern Gaza and ordered a strike.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 29, The 11-day Venice
Film Festival opened for its 75th anniversary edition.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.E5)
2007 Aug 29, Lithuania's top
politicians attended an official ceremony in Vilnius to unveil
probably the first monument in the world honoring basketball, which
is said to be the second religion of this Baltic country.
(http://tinyurl.com/2omkbv)
2007 Aug 29, In Myanmar
pro-government gangs on trucks staked out key streets in Yangon as
the country's military rulers sought to crush a rare wave of dissent
by pro-democracy activists protesting fuel price increases.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, A senior official
said Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former rival
Benazir Bhutto have reached an agreement regarding Musharraf's
military role, a key step toward a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, JEM and Sudan
Liberation Movement (SLM) attacked an army base in the Kordofan
region next to Darfur, which they said was the logistical and supply
centre for ongoing attacks in South Darfur. The rebels said 15
soldiers were killed. The government later reported that 41 people
were killed in the Kordofan region. Officials said floods across
Sudan have killed 101 people, spread disease and destroyed
livelihoods by wiping out agricultural crops.
(Reuters, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(Reuters,
9/1/07)
2007 Aug 29, Thousands of
hardline supporters of Robert Mugabe marched through Harare,
denouncing the Zimbabwe president's Western critics and endorsing
his controversial program of farm seizures. Zimbabwe's state media
called on the government to sever ties with Australia, accusing PM
John Howard's government of seeking to topple Pres. Mugabe.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 30, In a serious
breach of nuclear security, a US B-52 bomber armed with six nuclear
warheads flew cross-country unnoticed; the Air Force later punished
70 people.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2007 Aug 30, A draft report by
US congressional auditors said that the Iraqi government has failed
to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out
by lawmakers to assess President Bush's Iraq war strategy.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, In Michigan the
Legislature approved moving the state’s presidential nomination to
Jan 15, just days after national Democrats vowed to punish states
that vote too early. A suspected serial killer was arrested in the
deaths of 5 women over the last month.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.A6,16)
2007 Aug 30, Taliban militants
released the last 7 South Korean hostages. Mullah Brother, a wanted
Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a US-led raid
in the southern province of Helmand.
(AFP, 8/30/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, A major new study
said nearly 10 percent of Australians are living in poverty despite
a booming economy, but its findings were disputed by PM John Howard.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, A speeding train
carrying hundreds of commuters slammed into an empty train near Rio
de Janeiro, killing eight people and injuring more than 80.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, In London a
diamond-encrusted skull by British artist Damien Hirst (41) sold for
100 million dollars (75 million euros), a record price for work sold
by a living artist.
(AFP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Michael Jackson
(65), a leading world beer critic, died in London. He praised the
brews of Belgium and his books "The Great Beers of Belgium" and
"World Guide to Beer" introduced them to many export markets,
including the United States.
(AP, 8/31/07)(www.beerhunter.com/)
2007 Aug 30, Canadian police
arrested Adel Arnaout (37), with three home-made bombs in the trunk
of his car. The arrest was connected to an investigation into letter
bombs delivered recently to three homes in and around Toronto.
(Reuters, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Chilean police
arrested at least 750 people as protesters’ calls for higher wages
and better working conditions led to looting in Santiago.
(WSJ, 8/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 30, China’s government
said it has replaced five Cabinet ministers, including the finance
minister and the head of the secret police, just weeks ahead of a
major Communist Party meeting that will set the country's policies
for the next five years. The official Xinhua News Agency said China
removed four officials accused of corruption from its legislature.
State media said China's top legislature has adopted a measure
allowing the government to seize private homes on state-owned land,
as long as owners are compensated and properly resettled.
(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Hundreds of
Colombian peasants returned home from Ecuador after the government
promised to protect them from leftist rebels trying to sabotage a
coca eradication campaign.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, In Croatia six men
were killed and seven badly injured when they were trapped battling
a fierce forest blaze on Kornat Island. 8 men were soon detained on
suspicion of arson. PM Ivo Sanader promised an investigation saying
it was the biggest tragedy in Croatian firefighting.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Addis Ababa city
officials said Ethiopia will try to remove tens of thousands of
beggars from the streets to create a more "conducive" atmosphere for
coming Millennium celebrations. Still using the Julian calendar,
abandoned by the West in the 16th century, Ethiopia enters its new
millennium on September 12 with a huge concert expected to draw
hundreds of thousands of partygoers and international celebrities.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Pres. Sarkozy
became the first ruling head of state to address the Medef, France’s
leading business organization. He laid out the second stage of his
economic reforms, including a wholesale review of tax and social
security contributions.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 30, Anti-American
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to rescind the order unless the
Iraqi government stops detaining his followers in Karbala and
elsewhere within the next 48 hours. In the southeastern city of
Nasiriyah about 20 gunmen attacked a Badr headquarters. The attack
caused no injuries, but the building was partially burned.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, A cargo ship,
anchored about 2 miles from Israel's coast near the port city of
Haifa, when it was hit by the Salamis Glory, a Cypriot passenger
ship. 11 crew escaped from the sinking cargo ship. The first mate
and engineer, both residents of Slovakia, were missing.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Hundreds of police
raided a small town in southern Italy and arrested more than 30
suspected members of organized crime clans believed to be involved
in a feud that killed six Italians in Germany earlier this month.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, The Rome-based
Hands Off Cain, an anti-death penalty group, reported that more
people were put to death in 2006, 5,628, than in either of the
previous two years. China alone accounting for 5,000 executions.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, In Kisii, Kenya,
an oil tanker truck rolled down a hill and smashed into four
minibuses, killing 29 people and injuring more than 30. The death
toll was expected to rise.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Kosovo's PM Agim
Ceku vowed to declare independence unilaterally if internationally
brokered talks do not "open a way for us," staking out a tough
position as the latest round of negotiations began in Vienna.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, A transport
vehicle hit a land mine in tense northern Mali, killing 10 people.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 30, Pakistan’s
President Pervez Musharraf rejected pressure from former premier
Benazir Bhutto to make a snap decision on a power-sharing deal that
would see him quit as army chief. Pro-Taliban fighters, led by
Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, captured over 200
Pakistani troops in South Waziristan. On Nov 4 they released 211
troops. Baitullah Mehsud had this year cobbled together the
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which became known as the Pakistani
Taliban.
(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 11/4/07)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.34)
2007 Aug 30, Dozens of Sri
Lankan journalists took to the streets to condemn censorship and
support a columnist who exposed alleged corruption in the purchase
of second-hand supersonic jets.
(AFP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Darfur rebels
accused the Sudanese government of bombing South Darfur, the latest
attack in an aerial campaign that has driven thousands of people
from their homes over the past month.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, The UN nuclear
agency said that Iran was producing less nuclear fuel than expected
and praised Tehran for "a significant step forward" in explaining
past atomic actions that have raised suspicions.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 31, President Bush met
privately at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who
conveyed their concern about a growing strain on troops and their
families from long and repeated combat tours in Iraq. Bush also
announced a set of modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in
mortgage defaults.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2007 Aug 31, Mike Nifong,
the disgraced former district attorney of Durham County, N.C., was
sentenced to a day in jail after being held in criminal contempt of
court for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three
falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2007 Aug 31, A federal appeals
court allowed the US Navy to resume underwater sonar blasts in
anti-submarine warfare tests off of Southern California, saying
military needs come before whales. A federal judge ruled that giant
pumps in northern California supplying water to southern California
were killing smelt and would have to be shut down for much of the
year.
(SFC, 9/1/07, p.B3)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.36)
2007 Aug 31, In Iowa Polk
County Judge Robert Hanson cleared the way gay marriage when he
ruled that a state law allowing marriage only between a man and
woman violated the constitutional rights of due process and equal
protection. County attorney John Sarcone said the county would
appeal to the state Supreme Court, and he immediately sought a stay
that would prevent gay couples from seeking a marriage license until
the appeal is resolved.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, The 34th annual
Telluride Film Festival opened in Colorado.
(SFC, 9/3/07, p.E1)
2007 Aug 31, The World Trade
Organization opened a formal investigation into allegations by the
US and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range
of industries.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a barrage of rockets missed a US-led coalition base but
hit houses in the nearby village of Babul, killing 10 civilians and
wounding seven. Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, a suicide
car bomber targeting a patrol of German soldiers killed two Afghan
soldiers and wounded 10 others. A senior Afghan official close to
the negotiations alleged the South Koreans paid a ransom for their
released hostages. In southern Helmand province, a combined police
and US-led coalition patrol came under attack with mortar,
rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire. In the fight that
ensued, "almost two dozen" insurgents were killed. More than 20
insurgents were killed and 11 others were detained, while officers
also discovered a bomb-making factory in the remote Pitigal Valley
border region. Afghan police attacked a group of Taliban who were
planning to strike security forces in the central Afghan province of
Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six others.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, Australia and
India agreed to study the possibility of a free trade agreement.
Trade Minister Warren Truss said it was a natural result of New
Delhi's rising economic power.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Vienna,
Austria, negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement, at
a UN conference on climate, on rough targets aimed at getting some
of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the
greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
(AP, 8/31/07)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 31, China officially
put in place systems to recall unsafe food and toys, one of its
strongest steps yet to deal with recurring quality problems. At
least 12 miners were missing after an explosion in central China.
Authorities continued their efforts to reach 181 workers trapped in
flooded coal shafts for two weeks.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Colombia's Alvaro
Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed to allow a
representative of Colombia's largest guerrilla group to travel to
Caracas for talks aimed at freeing dozens of rebel-held hostages,
including three U.S. defense contractors.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Finland
representatives of feuding Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq began a
2-day meeting at a seminar behind closed doors to discuss ways of
ending the bloodshed.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Officials in
Greece said all major blazes were under control, and firefighters
were working to extinguish smaller fires in the southern part of the
country. The fires cost the country at least $1.6 billion and left
67 people dead. The government provided 13,000 euros to those
suffering losses.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/8/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.47)
2007 Aug 31, As of today at
least 3,737 members of the US military have died since the beginning
of the Iraq war in March 2003. The figure includes seven military
civilians. At least 3,061 died as a result of hostile action. Iraqi
health officials said up to 10 people have died from cholera in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/1/07)(SFC, 9/1/07, p.A6)
2007 Aug 31, Israeli divers
found the bodies of two sailors missing in the Mediterranean Sea, 12
hours after their cargo ship sank in a collision with a passenger
liner.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Leading Japanese
mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will tie up with
broadband provider ACCA Networks to introduce ultra-fast mobile
WiMAX technology.
(AFP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Lebanese army
helicopters stepped up raids on al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants
barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north
after five soldiers were killed over the last 2 days.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In southern Nepal
tainted liquor killed at least 15 people and sickened several others
on the outskirts of Janakpur over the last 2 days.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Gaza a protest
of Hamas rule by Fatah supporters turned violent when Hamas men
began forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating
demonstrators and reporters. Five people were wounded in the
clashes, including two French journalists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, A car bomb
exploded near a police vehicle in Russia's troubled North Caucasus
region, killing four police officers in Nazran, Ingushetia.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia will accept a partition of
Serbia's Kosovo province if that is the solution agreed by Belgrade
and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Both Serbia and the Kosovo
Albanians have said they oppose partition but they have shown no
sign of reaching agreement on the central issue of independence for
Kosovo.
(Reuters, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In northwest Sri
Lanka government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery
fire, with each side claiming heavy casualties against the other as
well as among civilians.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, The Thai
government said it has lifted a four-month ban on YouTube after the
popular video-sharing Web site's operator agreed not to allow videos
that violate the country's laws or are deemed offensive to Thai
people. 3 people including a state railway worker were shot dead in
separate attacks in the restive Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Turkey's PM
Erdogan laid out a policy vision for the next five years that
focuses on pursuing EU membership and defending the state's secular
and democratic principles.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, State media said
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has banned all pay rises without
authorization and given himself extra powers in a new bid to curb
the world's highest inflation rate.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug, In London, England,
Baby P (Peter Connelly) was 17 months old when he died in a
blood-spattered cot, having spent much of his life being used as "a
punchbag." Social workers, police and health professionals failed to
save him despite 60 visits over eight months, during which time he
suffered more than 50 horrific injuries. His mother (27) and 2 men
were charged with causing the baby’s death. The trio received
minimum prison terms of 5, 12 and 3 years respectively. Sharon
Shoesmith was sacked as director of children's services from
Haringey Council in December 2008 after a damning Ofsted report into
her department's role into the death of Baby P. In 2010 Dr Jerome
Ikwueke (63) was found guilty of misconduct after a series of
failings during consultations with the toddler at his north London
surgery.
(AFP, 11/12/08)(AFP, 4/23/10)(AFP, 7/16/10)
2007 Aug, A financial crises
that soon gripped all major economies was later said to have begun
about this time.
(Econ, 4/25/09, p.31)
2007 Aug, China’s President
visited Kazakhstan. Soon after a it was announced that a new oil
pipeline would be built from Kazakhstan to China, and that a new gas
pipeline linking Turkmenistan with China would run through
Kazakhstan.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.54)
2007 Aug, Iran and Turkey
concluded a number of energy deals including the establishment of a
joint company to carry Iranian natural gas via Turkey to Europe and
the construction of three thermal power plants by Turkish companies
in Iran.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.49)
2007 Aug, In Italy over a
hundred people became ill in Castiglione di Cervia, near Ravenna,
with a disease that was later identified as chikungunya, a tropical
disease spread by the tiger mosquito. This was the first such
outbreak in modern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.A22)
2007 Aug, In Mali Ag Bahanga
took up arms and kidnapped 36 soldiers, in spite of a peace pact
signed in neighboring Algeria in July 2006. The last 22 of those
troops were released on March 8, 2008, following intervention by
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2007 Aug, Dutch schools were
forced to offer afternoon child-care following a government effort
to get house-bound Dutch mothers to work.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.55)
2007 Aug, In Peru the body of
Claudia Gomez was found in a large suitcase that washed up on a
Pacific Ocean beach. William Trickett Smith II of Pennsylvania was
extradited to Peru in 2010 to face charges that he killed his
Peruvian wife, Claudia Gomez in early July at a hotel in Lima.
Trickett entered a guilty plea on May 19, 2011. On May 23 he was
sentenced to 35-years in prison and ordered to pay $21,000 in
restitution to the family of Claudia Gomez.
(AP, 5/20/11)(http://tinyurl.com/4xcl9xo)(AP,
5/23/11)
2007 Aug, A census in the
Philippines put the population at almost 89 million.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.62)
2007 Sep 1, The Mountaineers of
Boone, North Carolina, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in
college football history as Appalachian State beat No. 5
Michigan 34-32.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, Clay Buchholz
threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, just hours after
being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz struck out nine,
walked three and hit one batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory
over Baltimore.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2007 Sep 1, Idaho Sen. Larry
Craig announced his resignation, saying he would leave office on
Sept. 30, 2007, in the wake of fallout over his arrest and guilty
plea in a Minnesota airport gay sex sting. However, Craig later
reversed his decision, saying he would serve out the rest of his
term.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2007 Sep 1, It was reported
that it is now more expensive to execute someone in the US that to
jail him for life. In North Carolina each capital case was said to
cost some $2 million to legal fees.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.21)
2007 Sep 1, In eastern
Tennessee a small plane carrying 5 Jehovah’s Witness ministers
crashed in the Cherokee National Forest killing all 5 aboard.
(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 1, The industry
ministry of Algiers announced that Algeria is inviting bids to
privatize 13 companies in the electronics, iron, and public works
sectors.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, Life expectancy in
Andorra was reported to be longer than in any other world country,
while the same in Swaziland was reported to be the shortest.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.14)
2007 Sep 1, Police arrested
four suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA in
south-west France, believed to be linked to the deadly Madrid
airport bomb in December.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, A US Navy hospital
ship Comfort brought state-of-the-art medical care to Haiti during a
regional goodwill mission aimed at countering leftist Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez's influence.
(AP, 9/7/07)(http://tinyurl.com/2squrt)
2007 Sep 1, It was reported
that Mumbai, India, had a population of 14 million, making it the
largest city in south Asia. The UN said it expected Mumbai to reach
25 million by 2015.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.33)
2007 Sep 1, In Basra gunmen on
a motorcycle assassinated Muslim al-Batat, an aide to the country's
top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. US National
Public Radio said a draft report from the US embassy in Baghdad says
PM Maliki's government is failing to stop officials from committing
fraud and is undermining its own watchdog agency, preventing it from
carrying out effective investigations. The Hunter unmanned aerial
vehicle, or UAV, dropped a precision bomb on two suspected
insurgents believed to be preparing to plant roadside bombs. This
was the US Army's first-ever use of a drone aircraft to kill enemy
fighters in Iraq.
(AP, 9/1/07)(AFP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 1, Takehiko Endo,
Japan's latest agricultural minister, acknowledged that a private
farming group he leads exaggerated weather damage to the 1999 grape
harvest in order to receive government compensation, which amounted
to $9,930.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Mexico Tropical
Storm Henriette dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, flooding streets and
prompting officials to close more than 1,000 schools, while Tropical
Storm Felix formed in the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Morocco
Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn signed a deal to build an assembly
plant in Tangiers, with a planned investment of one billion euros
(1.36 billion dollars) and final capacity of 400,000 vehicles.
(AFP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, North Korea and the
US began face-to-face talks in Geneva aimed at reaching an agreement
on how to proceed with Pyongyang's denuclearization pledge.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, Former Pakistani PM
Benazir Bhutto said in London that talks on a power sharing deal
with President Pervez Musharraf had stalled but she would return to
Pakistan very soon even without an agreement. A suicide bombing
killed four Pakistani troops near the Afghan border, as tribal
elders met with Islamic militants elsewhere to seek the release of
at least 120 Pakistani soldiers. In Karachi a section of a newly
constructed highway bridge came crashing down. At least 6 people
were killed and 13 others injured. Authorities suspended six
officials from the state-run National Highway Authority, which is
responsible for supervising highways in Pakistan, and the National
Logistic Cell, a military-run construction company that built the
Karachi bridge.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 1, Hamas gunmen opened
fire on their own supporters, killing a teenager at a protest on the
Gaza-Egypt border, as tens of thousands of flag-waving Hamas
supporters gathered at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to
demand it be reopened.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Panama Pedro
Miguel Gonzalez Pinzon, a man wanted in the US on charges of
involvement in the killing of an American soldier 15 years ago in
Panama, was elected president of that country's congress.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Poland 2 small
planes collided during an acrobatic display at the Radom Air Show
killing both pilots.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, The population of
Tanzania was about 39 million, with a GDP per head of $860.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.44)
2007 Sep 1, In Venezuela more
than two dozen Colombian prisoners arrested three years ago in an
alleged plot against President Hugo Chavez were freed in a goodwill
gesture he hopes will help facilitate a prisoner exchange in
Colombia.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, The World Health
Organization (WHO) confirmed five human bird flu cases in Vietnam,
four of them fatal. The four, including two women, died between June
21 and August 3 while a fifth person, a 29-year-old man, had
recovered.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, Hundreds of riot
police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse thousands of retired
officers and soldiers in southern Yemen who were demanding to be
allowed back into the military. The protesters were largely members
of the army of south Yemen who were ousted after being defeated by
northern forces.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 1, State media
reported that Zimbabwe's government will allow hotels, restaurants
and bars to raise their rates by up to 50 percent. A woman and a
child were killed in stampedes at an agriculture show in Harare
packed with people lured by scarce snack foods and cheap Chinese
toys and exhibitors hoping to skirt a government price freeze and
sell their animals.
(AP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In SF a free
concert in Golden Gate Park celebrated the 40th anniversary of the
Summer of Love featuring dozens of veterans of the era. Boots
Hughston bankrolled the $120,000 budget for the party.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.E1)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A9)
2007 Sep 2, Hurricane
Felix strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 storm as it toppled
trees and flooded homes on a cluster of Dutch islands before
churning its way into the open waters of the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2007 Sep 2, Detained former
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed was charged in a new graft case as
part of the emergency government's corruption crackdown.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In central Chinese
4 boats carrying the toxic chemical methanol caught fire in Wuhan,
causing one boat to sink and prompting fears of drinking water
contamination.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, In western Colombia
10 soldiers were killed in a clash with leftist FARC rebels. Five
more were missing.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, a protest by hundreds of youth activists turned violent,
with protesters setting fire to street barricades and cars and
smashing shop windows. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The unrest started after a demonstration the previous day
commemorating the Youth House, a makeshift cultural center for the
city's anarchists and disaffected youth that was demolished in
March.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Ethiopian rebels
declared a ceasefire to allow a UN mission to tour the eastern
Ogaden region and assess alleged rights violations and a worsening
humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Dozens of Muslim
clerics issued an edict against the construction of Indonesia's
first nuclear power plant on seismically charged Java island, saying
the potential dangers far outweighed the benefits.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, Iran's president
claimed that his country is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich
uranium for its controversial nuclear program. Haleh Esfandiari
(67), an Iranian-American academic imprisoned for months and accused
of trying to create a "soft revolution" in Iran was permitted to
leave the country and rejoin her family.
(AP, 9/2/07)(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, It was reported
that at least 1,809 civilians had been killed in August across Iraq,
compared to 1,760 in July. This brought to 27,564 the number of
civilians killed since the Associated Press began collecting data on
April 28, 2005. A US soldier was killed and three others injured
when a roadside bomb blew up next to their patrol outside of
Baghdad.
(SSFC, 9/2/07, p.A20)(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 2, Israeli police
recommended that former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson be
indicted on charges of stealing millions from a union he headed in
2003.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Lebanon the last
militant stronghold of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by more
than 3 months of fighting fell to the army. The army killed 39
militants and captured at least 15 others as they tried to break out
of the Nahr el-Bared camp. 5 soldiers were killed in the 2-day
fight, raising to 158 the number of troops killed in the conflict
that began May 20. The dead also included over 20 civilians and over
60 militants. Shaker Abbsi, leader of the Fatah al Islam militants,
managed to escape.
(AP, 9/2/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A13)(SFC, 9/11/07,
p.A4)
2007 Sep 2, In Nepal 3 bombs
exploded almost simultaneously in and around Katmandu, killing at
least two people and injuring 13 in the first attack on Katmandu
since a communist insurgency ended last year.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Following two days
of talks in Geneva, Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator,
said North Korea had agreed to account for and disable its atomic
programs by the end of the year; the head of the North Korean
delegation said his country's willingness to cooperate was clear,
but he did not cite any dates.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2007 Sep 2, Pro-Taliban
militants said they had abducted scores of Pakistani soldiers,
demanding the withdrawal of troops from tribal areas near the Afghan
border in exchange for their release.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Temasek,
Singapore’s state-owned investment company, said it would take a
8.3% stake in China Eastern Airlines and Singapore Airlines
announced a 15.7% stake.
(Econ, 9/29/07,
p.68)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Eastern_Airlines)
2007 Sep 2, Sri Lanka said that
troops captured a Tamil Tiger naval base during a weekend advance
into rebel-held territory that the guerrillas said killed nine
civilians.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Yemen riot
police opened fire on a demonstration by retired officers and
soldiers, killing two people and wounding more than 20 on the second
day of protests demanding the right to rejoin the army.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, The Financial
Times, citing unnamed officials, reported that the People's
Liberation Army hacked into a computer system in the office of
Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June. China denied the
allegations.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, Jerry Lewis raised
nearly $64 million during his annual Labor Day Telethon.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2007 Sep 3, Steve Fossett
(b.1944), tycoon turned record seeker, disappeared in Nevada after
flying from the Flying M Ranch, owned by billionaire Baron Hilton.
In 2002 Fosset became the 1st person to fly around the world in a
balloon. In 2006 Fossett authored his autobiography “Chasing the
Wind.” A search was formally suspended on Oct 2. On Feb 15, 2008, an
Illinois court declared him legally dead. In 2008 wreckage of his
plane was found on Oct 1 in the rugged eastern mountains of
California.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A8)(SFC, 9/15/07, p.A1)(SFC,
2/16/08, p.B5)(Econ, 2/23/08, p.106)(Reuters, 10/2/08)
2007 Sep 3, The SF Bay Bridge
reopened 11 hours earlier than scheduled following the replacement
of a section of the upper deck east of Treasure Island.
(SFC, 9/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 3, A fire began east
of Morgan Hill, Ca., that burned 47,760 acres in and around Henry W.
Coe State Park. Margaret Pavese was later charged with a misdemeanor
for accidentally starting the fire when burning trash enar her
cabin.
(SFC, 9/27/07, p.B2)
2007 Sep 3, Hurricane Felix,
having passed the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire with
little damage, rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 5
storm and churned toward Central America, where forecasters said it
could arrive as a "potentially catastrophic" storm.
(AP, 9/3/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A17)
2007 Sep 3, In California
temperatures headed back toward triple digits, the seventh day of a
heat wave that has contributed to blackouts leaving thousands
without air conditioning.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Climate change
activists staged a break-in at an Australian power station as a
pattern of guerrilla-style raids emerged ahead of a summit of
Asia-Pacific leaders in Sydney.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Former Bangladesh
PM Khaleda Zia and one of her sons were arrested on charges of
corruption and misuse of power.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, A woman joined the
protectors of the Crown Jewels as one of the famed Beefeaters of the
Tower of London, becoming the first female Yeoman Warder since the
corps of Tower guards was created in 1485.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Bulgaria donated
$56.6 million in Soviet-era debt owned by Libya as its contribution
to a deal that led to the release of 6 medics convicted of infecting
Libyan children with HIV.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, In eastern China
about 2,000 ex-soldiers took part in riots that began and spread
over a 775-mile stretch in the cities of Baotou, Wuhan, and Baoji.
Demobilized soldiers are frequently rewarded for their service with
government jobs, and 6,000 of them were sent to 12 different railway
schools in July for two years of training. However, they were
angered by run-down dormitories, bad but expensive food and a lack
of study materials, At least 20 people were injured and five
arrested when riot police moved in to quell the disturbances.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 3, Congolese officials
reported killing 28 soldiers loyal to Gen. Nkunda, a renegade army
officer, in exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasting
several hours.
(Reuters, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, President Nicolas
Sarkozy said France and Jordan want to work "hand-in-hand" to help
resolve crises in the Middle East, following talks with King
Abdullah II.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, The French
government tied up the long-delayed merger of Suez and state-owned
Gaz de France, giving the country another world energy champion in a
sector that Paris was eager to protect from foreigners.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Iraqi soldiers
hoisted the nation's flag over the Basra palace compound after
British troops withdrew from their last garrison in the city,
leaving the country's second biggest city largely in the hands in
the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite militias. In a statement posted
on an Islamic Web site, the Islamic State of Iraq, made up of 8
insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, said its leader Abu
Omar al-Baghdadi chose Mohammed Khalil al-Badria for the education
position. The so-called 10-member "Islamic Cabinet" was set up in
April to challenge the Iraqi government. President Bush made a
surprise visit to al-Asad Air Base west of Baghdad, hoping to
bolster his case that the buildup of US troops is helping
stabilizing the country.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Ireland’s
government said almost all the children who could not find
elementary school places in a Dublin suburb this year were black.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Jamaica's main
opposition won a narrow election victory, according to preliminary
results, but Portia Simpson Miller, the country's first female prime
minister, said the race was too close to call and the ruling party
would not concede defeat.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, Takehiko Endo,
Japan's scandal-hit farm minister, resigned dealing a fresh blow to
PM Shinzo Abe just a week after he reshuffled his cabinet in the
hope of cleaning up the government's image.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, In Lebanon troops
exchanged fire with fleeing militants killing 4 and capturing 2.
(SFC, 9/4/07, p.A14)
2007 Sep 3, A Lithuanian
research center launched a Web site that allows the public to access
original KGB documents online. The site kgbdocuments.eu contains
working documents from various KGB departments, as well as
descriptive articles on the activities of Soviet state security
agencies in Lithuania from 1940 to 1991.
(www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/18701/)
2007 Sep 3, In southwestern
Nigeria at least 20 people were killed when a bus collided with a
fuel tanker.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 3, A spokesman for
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the US has decided to remove
North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states and lift
sanctions against it.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Panamanian
President Martin Torrijos celebrated the start of construction on
two wider sets of locks being added to both sides of the Panama
canal.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sudan in a bid to jumpstart the peace
process in strife-torn Darfur ahead of a massive joint UN-African
Union peacekeeping operation.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, A Thai court issued
arrest warrants for former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife over
their alleged violations of stock-trading laws.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, The Zimbabwean
government completed its takeover of the country's leading cooking
oil manufacturer by acquiring US food giant H.J Heinz's 49% stake
for 6.8 million dollars.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 4, US President George
W. Bush arrived in Sydney for a regional summit with the city locked
down in the biggest security operation in Australian history.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Mattel Inc.'s
reputation took another hit after the world's largest toy maker
announced a third major recall of Chinese-made toys in little more
than a month because of excessive amounts of lead paint.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Florida Broward
County Sheriff Ken Jenne resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to
federal tax evasion and mail fraud charges.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 4, New York city’s
first Arab-language school opened.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.36)
2007 Sep 4, 5-nation war games
began in the Bay of Bengal. Indian and US aircraft carriers launched
fighter jets into the air as American submarines cruised below
Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 4, Afghan security
forces in overnight fighting said they have killed Mullah Mateen, a
Taliban commander alleged to be behind the July kidnappings of 23
South Korean church workers. The Taliban denied the dead man was one
of their militants. Up to 27 other insurgents were also slain.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said 7 insurgents were killed
in the clash, all of them ordinary fighters. He said the Taliban had
no commander called Mullah Mateen, and said he did not know who the
government was referring to. Afghan and coalition soldiers in Shah
Wali Kot district, in southern Kandahar province, came under attack
while on patrol. They fought back before calling in air support and
over a dozen insurgents were killed in the engagement. About 18
miles away, insurgents sheltering in a traditional low-walled Afghan
compound attacked another joint patrol. Airstrikes later pounded the
position, killing six insurgents.