Today in History - July 12
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c100BCE Jul 12, Gaius Julius
Caesar (d.44BC), Roman general and statesman, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.208)(AP, 7/12/97)(HN, 7/12/98)
783 Jul 12, Bertha "with the
great feet", wife of French king Pippin III, died.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1096 Jul 12, Crusaders under
Peter the Hermit reach Sofia in Hungary.
(HN, 7/12/99)
1109 Jul 12, Crusaders captured
harbor city of Tripoli.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1191 Jul 12, Richard Coeur de
Lion and Crusaders defeated the Saracens at Acre.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1290 Jul 12, Jews were expelled
from England by order of King Edward I.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1450 Jul 12, Jack Cade was
slain in a revolt against British King Henry VI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cade)
1536 Jul 12, Desiderius Erasmus
(b.1469 in Rotterdam) died, humanist, priest (Novum instrumentum
omne), died. His most famous works included "In Praise of Folly" and
a Greek text of the New Testament. In 1999 Prof. Charles Trinkaus
published "Collected Works of Erasmus: Controversies," an
examination of the religious conflict between humanism and the
Reformation.
(V.D.-H.K.p.159-160)(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A26)(WSJ,
1/31/03, p.W13)(MC, 7/12/02)
1543 Jul 12, England's King
Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who
outlived him.
(AP, 7/12/97)
1630 Jul 12, New Amsterdam's
governor bought Gull Island from Indians for cargo and renamed it
Oyster Island. It later became Ellis Island.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1679 Jul 12, Britain's King
Charles II ratified Habeas Corpus Act.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1690 Jul 12, Due to
British calendar changes in 1752, the July 1, 1690, Battle of Boyne
(in Ireland) was adjusted for celebration on Jul 12.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)(AP, 7/11/05)
1691 Jul 12, William III
defeated the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of
Aughrim, Ireland.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1712 Jul 12, Richard Cromwell
(85), English Lord Protector (1658-59), died.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1730 Jul 12, Josiah Wedgwood,
pottery designer, manufacturer (Wedgwood), was born in England.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1771 Jul 12, James Cook sailed
Endeavour back to Downs, England.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1774 Jul 12, Citizens of
Carlisle, Penn., passed a declaration of independence.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1776 Jul 12, Capt. Cook
departed with Resolution for 3rd trip to Pacific Ocean.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1790 Jul 12, The French
Assembly approved a Civil Constitution providing for the election of
priests and bishops.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1794 Jul 12, British Admiral
Lord Nelson lost his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1804 Jul 12, Alexander Hamilton
(47), US Sec. of Treasury, died in New York of wounds from a pistol
duel in New Jersey with VP Aaron Burr. In 1920 Frederick Scott
Oliver authored a Hamilton biography. In 2002 Stephen Knott authored
"Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth." In 2004 Ron
Chernow authored the biography "Alexander Hamilton." Lawyer Ambrose
Spencer (1765-1848) said Hamilton “more than any man, did the
thinking of his time.”
(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.M3)(WSJ,
10/20/04, p.D12)
1806 Jul 12, The Confederation
of the Rhine was established in Germany.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1812 Jul 12, United States
forces led by General William Hull entered Canada during the War of
1812 against Britain. However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to
Detroit. Madison had called for 50,000 volunteers to invade Canada
but only 5,000 signed up.
(AP, 7/12/99)(ON, 9/02, p.2)
1817 Jul 12, Henry David
Thoreau (d.1862), essayist, naturalist and poet, was born in
Concord, Mass. His work included "On Walden Pond." He referred to
the three Greek goddesses of fate: Clotho (spinner of the thread of
destiny), Lachesis (disposer of lots) and especially Atropos (who
holds the scissors that will cut endeavor short). "We have
constructed a fate, an Atropos, that never turns aside." He was also
the author of the essays "Civil Disobedience and Slavery in
Massachusetts."
(AHD, p.1339)(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.66)(HFA,
'96, p.34)(HN, 7/12/98)
1843 Jul 12, Mormon leader
Joseph Smith said God encourages polygamy.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1849 Jul 12, William Osler
(d.1919), physician, author (circulatory system), was born in
Canada. "The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of
the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of
tomorrow."
(AP, 10/15/98)(MC, 7/12/02)
1852 Jul 12, Dr. John Hudson
Wayman camped at the City of Rocks in Idaho and called it “one of
the finest places of its kind in the world.” US Congress named the
area a national reserve in 1988.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.E2)
1854 Jul 12, George Eastman
(d.1932), inventor of the Kodak camera, was born in Waterville, N.Y.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1859 Jul 12, William Goodale
patented a paper bag manufacturing machine in Mass.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1861 Jul 12, Anton Stepanovich
Arensky, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1862 Jul 12, The US Congress
authorized the Medal of Honor. Between 1861 and 1999 the medal was
awarded to 3,410 members of the US armed forces. The Web site for
the US Army Center of Military History:
www2.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm
(AP, 7/12/97)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A7)
1862 Jul 12, Federal troops
occupied Helena, Arkansas.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1864 Jul 12, President Abraham
Lincoln became the first standing president to witness a battle as
Union forces repelled Jubal Early's army on the outskirts of
Washington, D.C.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1874 Jul 12, Start of Sherlock
Holmes Adventure, "Gloria Scott."
(MC, 7/12/02)
1878 Jul 12, A Yellow Fever
epidemic began in New Orleans. It killed 4,500.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1884 Jul 12, Amadeo Modigliani,
painter and sculptor (Reclining Nude), was born in Italy.
(HN, 7/12/01)(MC, 7/12/02)
1892 Jul 12, In France flood
waters burst from a lake buried under a glacier on Mt. Blanc killing
at least 175 people in the St. Gervais valley.
(SFC, 8/26/10, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/2aygvoz)
1895 Jul 12, Kirsten Flagstad,
Norwegian opera singer, was born.
(HN, 7/12/01)
1895 Jul 12, R. Buckminster
Fuller (d.1983), architect and engineer, was born. "The more we
learn the more we realize how little we know."
(AP, 7/1/97)(HN, 7/12/01)
1895 Jul 12, Oscar Hammerstein
II, lyricist who worked with Richard Rodgers, was born in NYC.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1904 Jul 12, Pablo Neruda
(d.1973), Chilean poet and political activist (Residence on
Earth-Nobel 1971), was born as Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in
Parral, Chile.
(HN, 7/12/01)(SFC, 7/15/04, p.E11)
1906 Jul 12, French Captain
Alfred Dreyfus was found innocent in France of his earlier
court-martial for spying for Germany. Dreyfus had served over 4
years on Devil’s Island before a top French court rehabilitated his
name in what came to be called the Dreyfus Affair.
(PC, 1992, p.664)(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A16)
1908 Jul 12, Milton Berle
(d.2002), comedian, was born as Mendel Berlinger in New York City.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A15)(AP, 7/12/08)
1908 Jul 12, The Missouri
Gazette began publishing under Joseph Charless.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M5)
1909 Jul 12, "Curly" Joe DeRita
(Joseph Wardell) (The Three Stooges: The Outlaw is Coming, Snow
White and the Three Stooges, Have Rocket, Will Travel; died July 3,
1993), was born.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1917 Jul 12, Andrew Wyeth,
painter who focused on the northeastern United States, was born in
Chadds Ford, Pa. In 1998 Beth Venn and Adam Weinberg published
"Unknown Terrain," a companion piece to a Whitney Museum exhibition
of his art.
(HN, 7/12/98)(MC, 7/12/02)(www.wyethcenter.com)
1918 Jul 12, A Japanese
battleship exploded in the Bay of Tokayama and some 500 people were
killed.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1925 Jul 12, Roger Smith, CEO
(General Motors) ("Roger and Me" movie), was born.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1926 Jul 12, Gertrude Bell
(b.1868), British archeologist and intelligence officer, died in
Baghdad. From 1900 to 1913 she journeyed some 20,000 miles from
Istanbul to the Syrian desert and on to Iraq. In 2006 Georgina
Howell authored ”Daughter of the Desert: The Remarkable Life of
Gertrude Bell.”
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.79)(http://tinyurl.com/p59fy)
1934 Jul 12, Van Cliburn,
American concert pianist, was born.
(HN, 7/12/01)
1935 Jul 12, Alfred Dreyfus,
French officer of Jewish background, died in Paris. His trial and
conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most
tense political dramas in modern French and European history. It is
still known today as the Dreyfus Affair.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus)
1937 Jul 12, Bill Cosby,
comedian, actor, was born.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1940 Jul 12, Rufus Robinson and
Earl Cooley (1911-2009) jumped out of a Travelair plane to fight the
a forest fire in Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest. The were the
first smoke-jumpers.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.B5)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.102)
1941 Jul 12, Moscow was bombed
by the German Luftwaffe for the first time.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1942 Jul 12, Richard Stoltzman,
clarinetist (Tashi), was born in Omaha, Nebraska.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1943 Jul 12, The US submarine
Pampanito was christened in New Hampshire. In 1982 the sub opened to
the public at Pier 45 in San Francisco.
(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A23)
1943 Jul 12, Pope Pius XII
received Baron von Weizsacker, the German ambassador.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1943 Jul 12, Russians beat
Nazis in a tank battle at Prochorowka. Some 12,000 died.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1944 Jul 12, US government
recognized the authority of General De Gaulle.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1944 Jul 12, The Theresienstadt
Family camp disbanded and some 4,000 people were executed.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1946 Jul 12, Benjamin Britten's
"Rape of Lucretia," premiered in Glyndebourne.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1948 Jul 12, The Democratic
national convention opened in Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1948 July 12, The Marshall Plan
Conference convened in Paris. It was attended by 16 European nations
and established the Committee for European Economic Cooperation.
(HNQ, 9/28/99)
1951 Jul 12, A mob tried to
keep a black family from moving into all-white Cicero, Ill.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1954 Jul 12, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower proposed a highway modernization program, with costs
to be shared by federal and state governments.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1957 Jul 12, The U.S. surgeon
general, Leroy E. Burney (d.1998 at 91), reported that there is a
direct link between smoking and lung cancer. Dr. John Altshuler
(1931-2004) co-researched the "Joint Report of Study Group on
Smoking and Health," published by the US Public Health Service.
(HN, 7/12/98)(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A17)(SFC, 2/7/04,
p.A20)
1957 Jul 12, Santa Susana in
Los Angeles County began receiving the nation’s first commercial
electricity from a small, civilian-owned, nuclear reactor. It was
shut down in 1964 and scientists later reported that the plant might
be responsible hundreds of cancer cases. PG&E had teamed with
General Electric to establish the Vallecitos atomic energy plant,
the world’s 1st privately owned and operated nuclear facility.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)
1966 Jul 12, There were race
riots in Chicago.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1966 Jul 12, D.T. Suzuki (96),
Zen Buddhism scholar, died in Tokyo, Japan.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1967 Jul 12, Blacks in Newark
rioted. 26 were killed, 1500 injured and over 1000 arrested.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1967 Jul 12, Greek regime
deprived 480 Greeks of their citizenship.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1971 Jul 12, Kristi Tsuya
Yamaguchi, figure skater, was born in Hayward, Cal. In 1992 she won
an Olympic gold medal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristi_Yamaguchi)
1974 Jul 12, President Richard
Nixon's aides G. Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman and two others were
convicted of conspiracy and perjury in connection with the Watergate
scandal. They were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil
rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist.
(AP, 7/12/97)(HN, 7/12/98)
1974 Jul 12, The US Budget
Control Act was signed into law. It stripped away from the president
the power to withhold appropriated spending, and placed it in the
hands of Congress. The Congressional budget Office was formed.
(WSJ, 2/27/00,
p.A1)(http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/index.html?pagenum=28)
1975 Jul 12, The islands of Sao
Tome and Principe achieved independence from Portugal.
(AP, 7/18/03)
1976 Jul 12, Edward Charles
Allaway, a campus janitor, killed 7 people in a library at
California State Univ. at Fullerton. He was found not guilty by
reason of insanity and was confined at a state mental hospital.
(SFC, 12/22/01,
p.A5)(www.spock.com/Edward-Charles-Allaway)
1977 Jul 12, President Carter
defended Supreme Court decisions limiting government payments for
poor women's abortions, saying, "There are many things in life that
are not fair."
(AP, 7/12/97)
1979 Jul 12, "Disco Demolition
Night" at Comiskey Park, caused fans to go wild. It also caused the
White Sox to forfeit 2nd game of a doubleheader to Tigers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night)
1979 Jul 12, Pop singer Minnie
Riperton (b.1947), famed for her three-octave range, died of cancer.
”Lovin’ You,” Riperton’s international blockbuster, topped the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. She was a member of Stevie Wonder's
backup group, Wonderlove, in 1973.
(http://tinyurl.com/dd5q3)
1979 Jul 12, The Gilbert
Islands gained independence from Britain and became a nation, the
Archipelago of Kiribati. It is a chain of 35 islands that sprawls
1,860 miles from east to west. Fanning Island was renamed to
Tabuaeran.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Kiribati.htm)(SFC,
7/1/97, p.A9)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)
1984 Jul 12, Madonna's "Like a
Virgin" video premiered on MTV and became an instant hit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_a_Virgin_%28song%29)
1984 Jul 12, Democratic
presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced he had chosen
U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate;
Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major
party ticket.
(AP, 7/12/97)(HN, 7/12/98)
1985 Jul 12, Doctors discovered
what turned out to be a cancerous growth in President Reagan’s large
intestine, prompting surgery the following day.
(AP, 7/12/00)
1987 Jul 12, For the first time
in 20 years, a delegation of Soviet diplomats arrived in Israel for
what was described as a "technical mission" to document Soviet
citizens and make an inventory of Soviet property.
(AP, 7/12/97)
1988 Jul 12, The American
League beat the National League 2-1 in the All-Star game played in
Cincinnati.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1988 Jul 12, Democratic
presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis tapped Texas Sen. Lloyd
Bentsen as his running mate.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1988 Jul 12, Russia’s PHOBOS 2
Flyby and lander was launched. It failed within 480 miles of Mar’s
moon Phobos.
(SFC, 11/19/96,
p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1989 Jul 12, President Bush
continued his visit to Hungary, where he held talks with officials
and made a speech at Karl Marx University in Budapest.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1989 Jul 12, A farmer in
eastern France went on a shooting rampage, killing 14 people before
being captured.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1990 Jul 12, CBS introduced the
TV saga "Northern Exposure." The show ran to 1995. Margaret Phillips
(d.2002) played general-store owner Ruth-Anne Miller.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D5)(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.A9)(SFC,
11/12/02, p.A26)
1990 Jul 12, Russian republic
president Boris N. Yeltsin shocked the 28th congress of the Soviet
Communist Party by announcing he was resigning his party membership.
(AP, 7/12/97)
1991 Jul 12, A Japanese
professor who had translated Salman Rushdie’s "The Satanic Verses"
was found stabbed to death, nine days after the novel’s Italian
translator was attacked in Milan.
(AP, 7/12/01)
1992 Jul 12, In an emotional
farewell speech, Benjamin Hooks, outgoing executive director of the
NAACP, urged the group's convention in Nashville, Tenn., to show the
world that it remained vital.
(AP, 7/12/97)
1992 Jul 12, Albert Pierrepont,
last British hangman (433 men and 17 women), died.
(www.inthe90s.com/generated/obit1992.shtml)
1993 Jul 12, Andrew Lloyd
Webber's musical "Sunset Boulevard" opened in London.
(www.reallyuseful.com/rug/shows/sunset/)
1993 Jul 12, 196 people were
killed when an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.8 struck
northern Japan.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1993 Jul 12, In Somalia a mob
avenging a deadly United Nations attack on the compound of Mohamed
Farrah Aidid killed Dan Eldon (22), a US photo-journalist working
for Reuters, and three colleagues. They were stoned and beaten to
death at the scene of a bombing by UN forces of a house believed to
be the headquarters of Gen’l. Aidid.
(SFEM,11/16/97, p.30)(AP, 7/12/98)
1994 Jul 12, The National
League won the US baseball All-Star Game, defeating the American
League 8-7.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1994 Jul 12, President Clinton,
visiting Germany, went to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first
president to do so since Harry Truman.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1994 Jul 12, US confirmation
hearings began for Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer.
(AP, 7/12/04)
1994 Jul 12, The shareholders
and employees of United Airlines approved a deal giving the majority
ownership to the employees (76,000+).
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.13)
1995 Jul 12, President Clinton
spelled out school-prayer guidelines, asserting the First Amendment
already guaranteed adequate freedom of religion.
(AP, 7/12/00)
1995 Jul 12, US public debt
said by the Treasury to be $4.93 trillion.
(WSJ, 7/12/95, p.A-1)
1995 Jul 12, In Bosnia Momir
Nikolic, an intelligence officer, was nearby when 80-100 prisoners
were decapitated and their headless corpses loaded onto trucks.
Nikolic was arrested in 2002 on charges that he was responsible for
the killing of some 1,000 Muslim males (16-60), who were taken from
a UN compound in Jul 1995. He was also charged for the deaths of
6,000 more prisoners captured while fleeing from Srebrenica. In 2003
Nikolic pleaded guilty to war crimes. In 2003 Nikolic accepted that
he was on duty when 80-100 prisoners were decapitated and their
corpses loaded onto trucks. Prosecutors recommended 20 years in
prison.
(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A8)(AP, 5/6/03)(AP, 10/28/03)
1996 Jul 12, The House voted
overwhelmingly to define marriage in federal law as a legal union of
one man and one woman, no matter what states might say.
(AP, 7/12/97)
1996 Jul 12, Hurricane
Bertha hit North Carolina's Cape Fear near Wilmington, then moved on
to batter a string of coastal towns.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/12/97)
1996 Jul 12, Lee Guthrie Jr., a
member of the Aryan Republican Army, was found dead of an apparent
suicide in a county jail in Kentucky. The group advocated killing
Jews, deporting African-Americans and setting up a Bible-based
nation.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A7)
1996 Jul 12, John Chancellor
(b.1927), news reporter, died. He had been an anchor reporter on NBC
Nightly News from 1970-1982.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A5)
1996 Jul 12, Gottfried von
Einem (b.1918), Swiss composer, died in Oberduirnbach.
(www.einem.org/en/komp_ll.htm)
1996 Jul 12, The EU warned that
it would freeze US assets and impose visa requirements on Americans
if European companies are penalized for investing in Cuba.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A9)
1996 Jul 12, A divorce
settlement between Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, the Prince of
Wales was agreed upon. Diana would be called "Her Royal Highness"
and would receive about $22.5 mil plus an annual $600,000 to
maintain her private office.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 12, In Libya at least
20 people were killed in Tripoli at a soccer match. Bodyguards loyal
to the sons of Moammar Ghadafi fired at spectators who shouted
hostile slogans. A stampede resulted.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A11)
1996 Jul 12, In Northern
Ireland authorities relented and allowed the Orange Order to march
through the village of Drumcree.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A1)(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 12, Russian banks were
undergoing a major shakeout. 2,132 banks were operating, a 20%
decrease since 1994.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 12, In southern Sudan
at least 700,000 people were facing starvation because of the
Khartoum government’s refusal to allow large-scale food aid.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A14)
1996 Jul 12, Venezuela was
awarded a $1.4 billion credit from the Int’l. Monetary Fund.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A10)
1997 Jul 12, In Copenhagen, the
last stop of an eight-day European tour, President Clinton said
political divisions in Europe were closing.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1997 Jul 12, In Berlin,
Germany, several hundreds of thousands gathered for the annual Love
Parade, a big party for fans of the electronic dance music known as
techno.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.D8)
1997 Jul 12, In Spain,
kidnapped Basque politician Miguel Angel Blanco was found mortally
dead shortly after a deadline set by his militant Basque captors.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1998 Jul 12, In Afghanistan
Taliban forces captured Maimana, the provincial capital of the
Faryab province from forces under Gen’l. Rashid Dostum.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 12, In Ecuador Jamil
Mahuad, the mayor of Quito, won the election according to exit
polls. His margin was 51.3% to 48.7 and he promised to fight
poverty.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A7)(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 12, In France the
French team beat Brazil, 3-0, for its first World Cup soccer
championship.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A1) (AP, 7/12/99)
1998 Jul 12, Honduras,
Guatemala and El Salvador agreed to join forces to build a $2
billion railroad network to link Central America with Mexico.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 12, It was reported
that Japan burns 38 million tons of garbage a year compared to 34
million for the US. Japan’s air was reported to contain 10 times
more dioxin that US air. Elections were held.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, Par p.16)(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 12, In Ballymoney,
Northern Ireland a firebomb killed 3 young boys, Richard, Mark and
Jason Quinn, who had been asleep in their beds. Garfield Gilmour
(24) was later arrested, convicted of murder and sentenced to 3 life
sentences for his role. Gilmour admitted that he drove an Ulster
Volunteer Force gang to the house that night, but that he was
coerced. He identified his companions but there was insufficient
evidence for charges.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/12/99)(SFC, 10/30/99,
p.A13)
1998 Jul 12, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels hacked, shot or burned to death 34 people who had gathered in
a hotel to watch the soccer finals.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 12, South Korea went
on alert after discovering the body of a North Korean commando and a
submersible boat that could carry five men.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A6)
1999 Jul 12, President Clinton
and Republican congressional leaders held their first face-to-face
budget meeting of the year; the talk was described afterward as
positive.
(AP, 7/12/00)
1999 Jul 12, The US Justice
Dept. sued Toyota Corp. for violating clean air standards after
Toyota rejected a settlement for $100 million in penalties. A
potential $60 billion in fines was reported.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A6)
1999 Jul 12, In St. Louis
several hundred workers and activists of MO-KAN blocked I-70 to
demand that more minorities be hired for state construction jobs.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 12, In Argentina
stocks fell nearly 9% as investors worried over the local political
and economic factors.
(WSJ, 7/13/99, p.C16)
1999 Jul 12, In Belgium a new
coalition government under Guy Verhofstadt took office.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 12, In Colombia
fighting subsided after a 4-day guerrilla blitz.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 12, In Iran student
protests spread to 18 cities across the country. In Tehran security
forces and fundamentalist vigilantes emptied Tehran Univ. in a
campaign to crush the demonstrations.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 12, In Serbia some
7,000 people protested against Pres. Milosevic in Valjevo.
(WSJ, 7/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 12, From Sudan it was
reported that heavy fighting had left 150,000 people without food
after they fled their homes.
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 12, In Taiwan Pres.
Lee Teng-hui abandoned the operating "one China" principle in favor
of "state-to-state" relations.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A1,12)
1999 Jul 12, In Zimbabwe the
trial for 3 American held on sabotage and weapons charges was
scheduled. They were found guilty on Sep 10 and were sentenced to
1-year prison terms. They were released on Nov 6 and sent home.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A9)(WSJ,
9/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C14)
2000 Jul 12, The New Hampshire
House of Representatives voted to impeach Chief Justice David A.
Brock for perpetuating misconduct and a culture of secrecy. It the
first such action against an official in the state since 1790. He
was later acquitted in a state Senate trial.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A3)(AP, 7/12/01)
2000 Jul 12, In Philadelphia a
WPVI News camera showed city police beat and kick Thomas Jones (30)
over nationwide TV. Jones had stolen a patrol car and shot at an
officer. Jones later pleaded guilty to carjacking and other crimes,
and was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in prison. Ballistic tests later
showed that Officer Michael Livewell was shot in the thumb by
another officer during their struggle with Jones. 13 police officers
were later suspended for up to 15 days in connection with the
incident.
(SFC, 7/14/00, p.A1,16)(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A5)(AP,
7/12/05)
2000 Jul 12, Gemstar, a pioneer
in interactive TV, merged with TV Guide in a stock deal valued at
$14.2 billion with Gemstar founder Henry C. Yuen as chairman and
CEO. In 2003 the SEC filed fraud charges against Yuen for overstated
revenues and Yuen erased the contents of his hard drive. In 2005
Yuen pleaded guilty to one criminal count of obstruction of justice.
In 2006 a federal judge found Yuen liable on civil fraud charges and
ordered him to pay $22 million in disgorgement, interest and fine.
(WSJ, 4/25/07, p.A1,9)
2000 Jul 12, In Fiji coup
leaders released the last 18 hostages and ended a standoff that
began May 18.
2000 Jul 12, In India at least
71 people were killed after part of Balbati Hill collapsed in
eastern Bombay. The death toll from monsoon rains over 2 days
reached 135 for Maharashtra and Gujarat states.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.C4)(SFC, 7/14/00, p.D2)(SFC,
7/15/00, p.A13) (SFC, 7/13/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 12, Israel cancelled
plans to sell an AWACS-equipped plane to China.
(WSJ, 7/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 12, The Russian-made
Zvezda service module for the Int’l. Space Station was launched from
the Baikonur site in Kazakstan.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul 12, In Spain a car
bomb exploded at the entrance of the Corte Ingles department store
in Madrid. 10 people were injured.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.C4)
2000 Jul 12, In Togo 36 African
heads of state signed a draft treaty seen as a step toward an
African Union.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.C4)
2001 Jul 12, Abner Louima, the
Haitian immigrant tortured in a New York City police station, agreed
to an $8.7 million settlement.
(AP, 7/12/02)
2001 Jul 12, In Virginia a
woman delivered 5 boys and 2 girls by C-section. This was only the
3rd set of septuplets known to have survived birth.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.A3)
2001 Jul 12, The US space
shuttle Atlantis took off with a crew of 5 to deliver a portal for
spacewalks to the Int’l. Space Station Alpha.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A3)(SFC, 7/14/01, p.C1)
2001 Jul 12, In Bulgaria Simeon
Saxe-Coburgotski (64), the former King Simeon II, was chosen as
Prime Minister. He promised to solve the country's problems in 800
days.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A14)(Econ, 11/1/03, p.46)
2001 Jul 12, In Indonesia
paramilitary officers guarded 2 top police commanders in defiance of
demands by Pres. Wahid that they be arrested.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 12, In Northern
Ireland police fought with rioters following a day of marches by
Protestants.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 12, Israeli tanks
shelled police posts in Nablus after Palestinian gunmen wounded
Israeli motorists. One Palestinian police officer was killed.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 12, In Russia Pres.
Putin signed into law a bill that limited private donations to $100
per year and required political parties to have at least 10,000
members.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 12, In Somalia
fighting broke out between rival subgroups of the Abgal clan in the
Suq-Fad’ad market of Mogadishu and at least 14 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.A11)
2002 Jul 12, The Bush
administration expected a $165 billion deficit mainly due to a
falloff in tax revenues from stock market capital gains.
(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 12, The US Senate
adopted a ban on personal loans from companies to their top
officials, a practice that had benefited executives from Enron to
WorldCom.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2002 Jul 12, The IRS named Bill
Simon, GOP candidate for California state governor, in a case
involving potentially illegal offshore tax shelters. Dozens of other
wealthy investors were also named.
(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 12, In Canada an
Ontario court ruled that refusing legal recognition to gay and
lesbian marriages in unconstitutional.
(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 12, Chinese officials
reported that nearly 1,000 schoolchildren in northeast China were
rushed to hospital after being vaccinated in late June for
encephalitis and two senior officials were arrested and charged with
negligence.
(Reuters, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 12, A Colombia army
spokesman said clashes across Colombia this week left at least 52
rebels and government soldiers dead.
(AP, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 12, In India's Kashmir
region at least 10 people were killed and 15 wounded, some
critically, in a shootout. Shops and businesses downed shutters in
Srinagar, the summer capital of India's disputed state of Jammu and
Kashmir, in response to a strike call by separatists to honor
Kashmiri "martyrs".
(Reuters, 7/13/02)(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 12, In Indonesia a
woman was killed and four men were wounded when a bomb exploded near
Poso, Central Sulawesi.
(Reuters, 7/13/02)
2002 Jul 12, In Mexico farmers
desperate to keep their land from being seized for a new Mexico City
airport threatened to kill about a dozen hostages and spark
uprisings across the country.
(AP, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 12, Palestinian
free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra died of a gunshot wound in
the northern West Bank, and a fellow photographer said the shots
came from a machine gun on an Israeli tank July 11. 2 Palestinians
were killed in an exchange of gunfire in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/12/02)(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 12, Ismail Cem,
Turkey's former foreign minister, launched a new political party to
topple Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who is fighting to stay in
power despite poor health and a mutiny within his Cabinet.
(AP, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 12, The UN Security
Council agreed to exempt US peacekeepers from war crimes prosecution
for a year, ending a threat to UN peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2003 Jul 12, Pres. Bush met
with Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria. They discussed the
circumstances under which Liberian President Charles Taylor will
live in exile in Nigeria, Wrapping up a five-day tour of Africa,
President Bush said he would not allow terrorists to use the
continent as a base "to threaten the world."
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/12/04)
2003 Jul 12, Former White House
press secretary Ari Fleischer leaked the identity of a CIA operative
(Valerie Plame) to Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus during a
phone call. Pincus testified to this in 2007 as the first defense
witness in the CIA leak trial.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2003 Jul 12, The USS Ronald
Reagan, the first carrier named for a living president, was
commissioned in Norfolk, Va.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2003 Jul 12, Benny Carter (95),
jazz musician, composer and bandleader, died in Los Angeles. He was
know as "The King." His work included arrangements for the 1943 film
"Stormy Weather."
(SFC, 7/14/03, p.B4)(WSJ, 7/16/03, p.D8)
2003 Jul 12, In Belgium PM Guy
Verhofstadt took office as head of a new center-left government and
immediately agreed to replace a war crimes law that has soured
Belgium's relations with the United States.
(AP, 7/13/03)
2003 Jul 12, In Germany Techno
fans took part in the 15th Love Parade in Berlin. Hundreds of
thousands fans of techno music were expected to join the event.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2003 Jul 12, In southern
Chechnya rebels ambushed a Russian military vehicle and staged
hit-and-run attacks against federal positions, killing 16 soldiers
and wounding 13.
(AP, 7/13/03)
2003 Jul 12, Western Sahara's
rebels unexpectedly accepted a peace plan for the mineral-rich
region, but Morocco remained opposed.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2004 Jul 12, President Bush
defended the Iraq war during a visit to the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee, saying the invasion had made America safer.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2004 Jul 12, The Bush
administration announced a new rule to allow the nation’s governors
to help decide whether roadless areas in their states should be
opened for logging or other commercial activity.
(SFC, 7/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 12, Wall Street
brokerage Morgan Stanley settled a sex discrimination suit brought
by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, agreeing to pay $54
million.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2004 Jul 12, A foot or more of
rain fell in parts of the Northeast. No injuries had been reported
in the stricken areas of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
(AP, 7/13/04)
2004 Jul 12, Winter storms have
violently struck several South American countries in recent days,
leading to eight weather-related deaths in Argentina and Chile. Some
75,000 farm animals died in Peru and record below freezing
temperatures in southern Brazil.
(AP, 7/12/04)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.C8)
2004 Jul 12, Monsoon floods
continued to wreak havoc across South Asia, killing 37 more people
and forcing millions to flee their homes or seek emergency shelter.
Flooding has killed 36 people in Bangladesh this year. A total of 47
people have died in Nepal since June. In India a total of 158 people
have died in flooding since the beginning of June.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2004 Jul 12, The Danish
government upheld the clerical suspension of a Lutheran minister who
proclaimed last year that there was no God or afterlife, and he now
could be fired or fined for declaring his beliefs in the pulpit.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2004 Jul 12, Iraqi police in
Baghdad jailed over 500 criminal suspects in a large anti-crime
offensive. 1 suspect was killed in the crime-ridden Bab al-Sheikh
neighborhood.
(USAT, 7/4/04, p.5A)
2004 Jul 12, A Sri Lankan woman
was beheaded in the Saudi capital for murdering her employer. Bader
el-Nisaa Mibari had been convicted of killing Sara bint Mohammed
al-Haqeel, a Saudi woman, after trying to rob her with the help a
male companion.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2004 Jul 12, Newspapers in
Senegal and the Central African Republic suspended publication to
protest the jailings of leading journalists.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2005 Jul 12, Miguel Tejada and
Mark Teixeira led the American League to a 7-5 win over the National
League in Detroit for the AL's eighth straight All-Star victory.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2005 Jul 12, In Brazil Luiz
Gushiken, Pres. Lula’s communications wizard, was stripped of
ministerial status following reports that his business partners had
been blessed with fat federal contracts.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.33)
2005 Jul 12, British police
closed Luton's train station and carried out 9 controlled explosions
on a parked car, which the BBC reported contained explosives. At
least 3 Britons from Leeds of Pakistani descent were suspected of
carrying out the July 7 attacks that killed 54 and injured 700.
Surveillance cameras captured the men as they arrived in the capital
20 minutes before the explosions began.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 12, BP said it has
sent teams to fix its 'Thunder Horse' oil platform, which has been
listing since Hurricane Dennis hit the Gulf of Mexico. The platform,
located 150 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans, was
slipping by around 20-30 degrees following the passing of the storm,
but no injuries or leaks were reported.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 12, In Costa Rica a
fire at the Calderon Guardia Hospital killed 19 people. 2 more
people died later from complications. The building lacked proper
fire exits. On Oct 7 the country's top investigator said died the
fire was set deliberately.
(WSJ, 7/13/05, p.A1)(AP, 10/8/05)
2005 Jul 12, A raid by hundreds
of Ethiopian bandits on a remote village in northern Kenya, left at
least 45 people dead, including more than two dozen children. Kenyan
security forces pursued the bandits, who numbered between 300 and
500, and killed 16 of them.
(AP, 7/14/05)
2005 Jul 12, French company
Technip SA said it has been awarded a $800 million contract by
Chevron Corp. to develop its largest Nigerian oil project.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 12, India’s Supreme
Court scrapped a controversial immigration law, making it easier for
authorities to crack down on illegal aliens, a move likely to curb
Bangladeshi migrants in the country's northeast.
(Reuters, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 12, In Iraq armed men
stormed a house in Baghdad, killing 4 Iraqi human rights activists
and wounding another.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 12, Antonio Fazio,
governor of the Bank of Italy, informed his friend Gianpiero
Fiorani, head of Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), that BPI’s bid for
the Antonveneta bank had received a go ahead before making the news
public.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.67)(WSJ, 9/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 12, A car bomb hit the
motorcade of Elias Murr, Lebanon's outgoing deputy prime minister,
wounding him and killing at least one other person.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 12, Prince Albert II
(47) was formally instated as ruler of Monaco.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 12, Two gun attacks in
Belfast left one man dead and another critically wounded on the eve
of Northern Ireland's tensest day of the year — the divisive
"Twelfth" holiday of mass Protestant marches.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 12, Mohammed Bouyeri,
a Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo
van Gogh, unexpectedly confessed in court, saying he was driven by
religious conviction. Bouyeri was convicted and sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2005 Jul 12, Sami Abu Khalil
(18), from the West Bank village of Atil, detonated 22 pounds of
explosives strapped to his body outside a shopping mall in Netanya.
He killed two 16-year-old girls and a 31-year-old woman. A
50-year-old woman died in the hospital the next day.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2006 Jul 12, The US government
announced a five-year, 547-million-dollar aid package to Ghana to
help the African nation develop agriculture and alleviate poverty.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, A spokesman said
computer break-ins at the US State Department that caused broad
disruptions in recent weeks apparently originated in the East
Asia-Pacific region.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The US FDA
approved Atripla, a single pill, 3-drug combination, to fight AIDS.
2 of the drugs were made by Gilead Sciences and the 3rd by Myers
Squibb.
(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 12, An experimental
spacecraft bankrolled by real estate magnate Robert Bigelow
successfully inflated in orbit, testing a technology that could be
used to fulfill his dream of building a commercial space station.
Genesis I flew aboard a converted Cold War ballistic missile from
Russia's southern Ural Mountains at 6:53 p.m. Moscow time.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The Afghan defense
minister said it would take at least 150,000 troops to secure his
country, more than 5 times what he commanded. In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide attack on a US military convoy killed a boy playing
nearby, while a market bombing in a southern border town left two
people dead. British and Afghan forces repelled a brazen insurgent
attack on a police headquarters in the southern town of Nawzad,
killing at least 19 militants. In Musa Qala district insurgents
fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at coalition
troops, who returned fire and killed local Taliban commander Mullah
Saeef. In southern Zabul province, three Afghan border guards were
killed in a clash with armed tribesmen crossing from Pakistan.
(AP, 7/12/06)(AP, 7/13/06)(WSJ, 7/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 12, Tony Blair's top
fundraiser, Lord Levy, was arrested in an investigation into whether
Labour Party leaders improperly nominated their financial backers
for seats in the House of Lords.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, In central Chile
flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain left at least 11
people dead and forced 30,000 to flee their inundated homes.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, The EU fined
Microsoft Corp. $357 million and threatened new penalties of $3.82
million a day beginning July 31 because it says the software maker
failed to obey a 2004 antitrust order to share program code with
rivals.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The EU joined the
US in warning Iran it faced UN Security Council action if no
solution could be found to a stand-off over its nuclear program.
World powers agreed to send Iran back to the UN Security Council for
possible punishment, saying the clerical regime has given no sign it
means to negotiate seriously over its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, Hong Kong's
supreme court struck down a ruling that allowed police to carry out
controversial government wiretaps, a move activists hailed as a
victory for freedoms in the Chinese city.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The Iraqi
Accordance Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, lifted its
legislative boycott. It thanked the parliament for its help in
seeking the release of kidnapped legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani
and called for a new spirit of cooperation. Gunmen stormed a bus
station in Muqdadiya, seizing over 24 people and killing 22 of them.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the southeastern
mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing eight people
and wounding 30. Gunmen on a motorcycles killed a former member of
the ousted Baath Party and a taxi driver in separate attacks in Kut.
The US military said Saddam Hussein and three of his co-defendants
have been on a hunger strike for nearly a week to protest what the
defense says is a lack of security for their attorneys. At least 45
people were killed across Iraq.
(AP, 7/12/06)(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 12, Hezbollah
militants captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. 3
Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid along with one Hezbollah
militant. Dozens of Israeli troops crossed the Lebanese frontier
with warplanes, tanks and gunboats to hunt for the captives. 5 more
Israelis were killed in a tank that hit a mine. Two Lebanese
civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a coastal bridge
at Qasmiyeh.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.45)
2006 Jul 12, Israel killed 18
Palestinians in Gaza including nine members of one family in an air
strike that destroyed a residential building where the army said top
Hamas commanders were meeting.
(Reuters, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, Tens of thousands
of supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador headed to Mexico City, leaving mountain towns and sprawling
industrial cities to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, In Nigeria 2
explosions hit oil installations belonging to an Italian oil company
along two Agip pipelines in Baleysa state.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Protestants will
share power with the Catholics of Sinn Fein "over our dead bodies,"
Ian Paisley thundered as tens of thousands of Protestant marchers
celebrated the most divisive day on Northern Ireland's calendar.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Acting on behalf
of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft UN Security
Council resolution demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza
Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, President Vladimir
Putin signed into law a bill cutting the length of military service
in Russia, but also canceling many deferments from the draft. The
legislation reduced the current two-year conscription term to
1½ years beginning next year, then to one year in 2008.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, In South Korea
some 70,000 people, including 13,000 farmers, rallied in a plaza in
downtown Seoul on the third straight day of anti-FTA demonstrations.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, A UN official said
rebels in Darfur are fighting each other with the Sudanese military
apparently supporting one faction, sometimes with aircraft disguised
as relief planes.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, UNESCO, meeting in
Vilnius, Lithuania, added 8 sites added to its World Heritage list
including a panda refuge in China and an agave producing region in
Mexico.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2007 Jul 12, A Bush
administration assessment said Iraq had achieved only limited
military and political progress toward a democratic society; Iraqi
leaders responded by insisting they were making progress.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2007 Jul 12, Defying a White
House veto threat, the US House of Representatives approved
legislation to bring combat troops out of Iraq by April 1, 2008.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, A US government
report was released saying undercover investigators, working for a
fake firm, had obtained a license to buy enough radioactive material
to build a "dirty bomb," amid little scrutiny from federal
regulators.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In New Jersey
former Newark Mayor Sharpe James (71) was indicted on corruption
charges. James stepped down as mayor in 2006 to serve as a state
senator. Prosecutors alleged that James arranged the sale of 9
city-owned properties at a discounted rate to former girlfriend
Tamika Riley from 2001 to 2005. Riley quickly sold the properties at
a profit without required rehabilitation work. On April 16, 2008,
James and his ex-mistress were convicted of corruption charges.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A5)(WSJ, 4/10/08, p.A2)(SFC,
4/17/08, p.A4)
2007 Jul 12, The city of
Oakland, Ca., sued garbage hauler Waste Management in an attempt to
force the company to pick up trash during its 11-day lockout of
truck drivers. Isaac Haqq, founder and principal of Oakland’s
University Preparatory Charter Academy (2001), resigned amidst a
cheating scandal. Several Uprep teachers blamed him for a culture of
cheating and intimidation.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B9)(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, In Oakland, Ca.,
Michael John Wills, a sous chef, was shot and killed. Police later
determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle linked to
Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf
Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly
ordering the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, Robert Quill (52)
of Florida filed a federal lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Rev.
Francis G. DeLuca, who worked for the Catholic Diocese of
Wilmington, Delaware, for 35 years. The suit alleged that church
officials knew DeLuca was abusing boys as early as 1958.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 12, Philip Lum Jr.,
former mayor of Colma, Ca., was sentenced to 18 months in federal
prison for failing to report numerous free airline tickets from the
Lucky Chances Casino in 1999 and 2000.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B6)
2007 Jul 12, A coalition of US
and Canadian cities along the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River,
including Toronto and Chicago, vowed to cut water consumption 15% by
2015.
(Reuters, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, Jim Mitchell,
co-founder of the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theater in SF, died of
an apparent heart attack in Sonoma County, Ca. He and his brother
Artie had opened the adult theater in 1969 and went on to pioneer
pornographic films. In 1991 Jim shot Artie to death in Corte Madera
and served just under 3 years at San Quentin Prison for voluntary
manslaughter.
(SFC, 7/14/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 12, Arthur J. Kobacker
(83), discount shoe store entrepreneur, died at his home in Florida.
He set up his first dozen self-service shoe stores in 1960 starting
with one in Pittsburgh. “I’ve run into customers who say they have
200 pairs of shoes in their closet because of us.”
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 12, HM Capital
Partners LLC, a leading, Dallas-based private equity firm, and Booth
Creek Management Corporation sold Swift & Company to Brazil’s
JBS 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)
2008 Jul 12, Les Crane, pioneer
talk radio and TV host, died in Marin, California. In 1964 he hosted
the “The Les Crane Show,” a late night TV talk show on ABC that ran
for 4 months.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B5)
2008 Jul 12, Bobby Murcer (62),
former Yankee baseball player and broadcaster, died from a malignant
brain tumor in Oklahoma City. The only person to play with Mantle
and Mattingly, the popular Murcer hit .277 with 252 home runs and
1,043 RBIs in 17 seasons with the Yankees, San Francisco and the
Chicago Cubs. He made the All-Star team in both leagues and won a
Gold Glove.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, Tony Snow (53), a
conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with
reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as
President Bush's press secretary, died of colon cancer.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants executed two women just outside Ghazni
city after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a US base. A
soldier serving with ISAF died of wounds caused by an explosion in
northern Afghanistan. NATO troops killed Bismullah Akhund, an
insurgent leader in Helmand's Naw Zad district.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 12, NATO said a recent
border clash that wounded several Pakistani and Afghan security
personnel was sparked by insurgents in Afghanistan who fired at
targets in both countries, apparently to stoke cross-border
tensions.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, The Arab League
said it will hold crisis talks on Sudan after reports the
International Criminal Court may seek Sudanese President Omar
al-Beshir's arrest, amid fears for peace efforts in Darfur. It would
mark the first-ever bid by the ICC, based in The Hague, to charge a
sitting head of state. The African Union said that plans by the ICC
could jeopardize peace efforts in Darfur.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, Ethiopia said it
has arrested eight "Eritrean-trained" rebels suspected of carrying
out bombings that rocked the capital Addis Ababa and killed eight
people earlier this year.
(Reuters, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, kicking
off a round of diplomacy with Middle East leaders ahead of an
EU-Mediterranean summit. Sarkozy said that Syria and Lebanon will
open embassies in each other's countries for the first time. Syria's
leader cautioned there was still work to be done before that could
happen.
(AP, 7/12/08)(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Jakarta,
Indonesia, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged cooperation on biofuels
during talks in a bid to take advantage of surging oil prices.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In western Nepal
about 500 riot policemen took senior officers hostage in a revolt
over ill treatment and poor food. They released their captives and
surrendered after a two-day standoff.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Nigeria a truck
drivers strike to protest soaring fuel prices entered its 2nd day.
At least 17 people died at a prayer meeting in rural Nigeria after
apparently breathing noxious fumes from their power generator while
asleep. Their bodies were discovered on July 15.
(AFP, 7/12/08)(Reuters, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 12, North Korea agreed
to completely disable its main nuclear facilities by the end of
October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify that all
necessary steps had been taken as the latest round of six-nation
disarmament talks concluded in Beijing.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In northwestern
Pakistan at least 13 paramilitary forces and three militants were
killed in an ambush and shootout when militants attacked a Frontier
Constabulary convoy in the Zargari area of Hangu district.
Provincial police in Hangu arrested half a dozen Taliban including
Rafiuddin, a lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud. The militants in
response captured 29-49 hostages.
(AP, 7/13/08)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 12, In Sri Lanka 18
rebels and a soldier were killed in Mannar district; 7 rebels and a
soldier were killed in Vavuniya and six guerrillas died in Welioya.
Each side often exaggerates the casualties and damage inflicted on
its enemy while underreporting its own losses.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, Pope Benedict XVI
left Rome on a flight to Australia for a 10-day pilgrimage. The Pope
said he will use his visit to Australia to apologize for sexual
abuse by priests and to examine how the Church can "prevent, heal
and reconcile".
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, President Hugo
Chavez said that he is expanding his Venezuela's Petrocaribe
oil-supply pact to include Guatemala.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 12, Thousands of
Venezuelans protested in the capital demanding that the Supreme
Court overturn a "blacklist" blocking key opponents of President
Hugo Chavez from running in upcoming elections.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2009 Jul 12, In Novato,
California, James Raphael Mitchell (27) allegedly bludgeoned to
death Danielle Keller, the mother of his one-year-old daughter. He
was arrested late the same day. Mitchell’s father, Jim Mitchell, was
the co-founder of San Francisco’s x-rated O’Farrell Theater. In 2011
Mitchell testified he did not kill Keller and had fought off two
attackers at her home on the day of her death. Mitchell was
convicted of 1st degree murder on July 12, 2011.
(SFC, 7/14/09, p.A1)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.C5)(SFC,
7/13/11, p.C3)
2009 Jul 12, Colombia’s
President Alvaro Uribe delivered reparations totaling nearly $1
million to 279 victims of Colombia's long-running conflict.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, The Republic of
Congo held elections. Pres. Denis Sassou-Nguesso was re-elected with
78.6% of the vote.
(SFC, 7/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 12, Hondurans enjoyed
their first night of unfettered freedom in two weeks after the
interim government lifted a curfew imposed following the ouster of
President Manuel Zelaya.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, Indian Maoists
killed at least 30 policemen, including a senior officer, in two
separate ambushes in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh. A section of
a bridge being built for the New Delhi metro rail system collapsed,
crushing to death 5 workers and injuring 13 in a major setback to
the project that officials hope to complete before the 2010
Commonwealth Games.
(AFP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 12, In Indonesia
gunmen killed a security guard working for US mining conglomerate
Freeport, then ambushed police responding to the attack blamed on
separatist rebels in one of Indonesia's most underdeveloped and
remote regions.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 12, Five Iranian
officials held in Iraq for more than two years by US forces returned
home after the US released them under pressure from the Iraqi
government. They were handed over to Iraqi officials on July 9. The
Iranians were detained in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in
January 2007. At the time, US authorities said the men included the
operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which
is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 12, In Iraq bombings
in or near churches killed at least four people, including one that
happened as worshippers were leaving Mass in eastern Baghdad. It was
reported that below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq bone dry for a second
straight year, wrecking swaths of farm land, threatening drinking
water supplies and intensifying fierce sandstorms that have coated
the country in brown dust. The severity of the drought has resulted
in a testy water dispute between Iraq and Turkey, which has built
five dams along the Euphrates upstream from where it enters western
Iraq.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, In Kyrgyzstan
government critic Almaz Tashiyev (Tashiev) died of complications
from head injuries after surgery. Relatives said he told them before
the operation that he had been beaten by eight police officers
earlier in the week. His death came after a series of attacks on
reporters and shortly before next week's presidential election,
reinforcing concerns about the risks faced by independent
journalists in the Central Asian nation. Junior lieutenant Shukurbek
Nurmatov was arrested July 16 on suspicion of being involved in the
beating.
(AP, 7/13/09)(AP, 7/17/09)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.38)
2009 Jul 12, Mexican federal
agents captured 2 suspects in connection with a series of attacks on
federal forces across Michoacan state that left 5 officers and 2
soldiers dead.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, Nigerian rebels
took their battle with the government into the country's main city,
targeting an oil tanker loading facility in Lagos harbor in an
unprecedented attack there.
(AFP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, Pakistani fighter
jets pounded suspected militant hide-outs in the South Waziristan
tribal region as part of ongoing operations against Pakistani
Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. At least 8 militants were killed. A
military statement described continued reports of unrest in the Swat
valley, including a remote-controlled bomb that wounded 7 tribal
police officers in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 12, Somali government
forces with the help of African Union tanks fought Islamic militants
in the capital, with clashes killing at least seven people.
Witnesses said dozens of people were killed and some 150 wounded.
(AFP, 7/12/09)(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, In Spain 10 people
were injured, two of them seriously, in the Pamplona bull run, two
days after a man was gored to death by a bull.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 12, Swiss police
divers harpooned a zander fish, which was 70 centimeters (two feet
three inches) long and weighed eight kilos (17.5 pounds), after it
bit six swimmers over the weekend in Lac Majeur.
(AFP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, Thailand's swine
flu death toll rose to 18 as the government confirmed three more
fatalities and opened a vaccine plant to prevent tens of thousands
of infections across the country.
(AFP, 7/12/09)
2010 Jul 12, Shahram Amiri, a
missing Iranian nuclear scientist who Tehran claims was abducted by
the US, took refuge at the Pakistani embassy in Washington and asked
to return to his homeland. Amiri (32) disappeared while on a
pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, Police in Los
Angeles County discovered thousands of pounds of marijuana in a
railroad car that entered this month from Mexico.
(SFC, 7/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 12, In New Jersey
Lassissi Afolabi (47), a man from the West African nation Togo, was
sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for his role in the
smuggling of girls and women who were forced to work at local hair
braiding salons. He pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with his
ex-wife and her son to commit forced labor.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, The American
branch of the YMCA announced that it would become “The Y.”
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.72)
2010 Jul 12, In Albuquerque,
New Mexico, Robert E. Reza (37), angered by a child custody dispute,
shot and wounded his girlfriend and killed 2 employees at her place
of work before killing himself.
(SFC, 7/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 12, BP Engineers
worked to replace a cap over a gushing oil well in the Gulf of
Mexico after reporting good progress in attempts to contain the
worst environmental disaster in US history. Expected to take between
four and seven days, the round-the-clock work began at midday on
July 10 when the old, less efficient cap was ripped off a fractured
pipe a mile down on the sea floor by robotic submarines.
(AFP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Utah a list of
over 1,300 alleged illegal immigrants living in the state was
received by law enforcement and politicians around the state. On Jul
16 the ACLU of Utah commended the swift action of Governor Gary
Herbert and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff in responding to the
legitimate public outcry and widespread demand that they investigate
the extraordinary breach of privacy by state employees, which became
publicly known earlier this week. 2 women, working for the state’s
main welfare agency, had recently sent the stolen names, addresses,
Social Security numbers - and even the due dates of expectant
mothers - of some 1,300 mostly Latino people whom they suspected of
being in the state illegally, to newspapers along with a letter
urging their immediate deportation.
(http://tinyurl.com/2vjl89x0)(Econ, 8/7/10,
p.25)(http://tinyurl.com/334kjoh)
2010 Jul 12, Harvey Pekar (70),
creator of the “American Splendor” comic book series, died. His
friend R. Crumb helped him illustrate the first issue in the series
in 1976. In 2003 it was made into an acclaimed film that starred
Paul Giamatti as Mr. Pekar.
(SFC, 7/13/10, p.C3)
2010 Jul 12, A Bangladesh
government minister said 40 people, suspected of killings, rape and
arson during its 1971 independence war, have been barred from
leaving the country ahead of a planned war crimes trial.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Brazil Paulo
Moura (77), clarinet jazz great and Latin Grammy winner, died after
a fight against cancer.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, Britain sentenced
the three final conspirators in a plot to bomb trans-Atlantic
airliners and kill thousands of people to at least 20 years each in
prison, bringing a long-running legal saga to an end.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, The Church of
England national assembly decided that women should be allowed to
become bishops, making only minor concessions to theological
conservatives who have threatened to break away over the issue.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, A Canada Steamship
Lines vessel ran aground near the Cote Sainte-Catherine canal lock
south of Montreal. The Montreal Gazette newspaper said the accident
punctured the ship's fuel tank, leaking between 50 and 200 tons of
oil into the surrounding waters.
(Reuters, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, In China a strike
began at the Atsumitec Co. in the city of Foshan, with about 90 of
the plant's 200 workers stopping work to demand a nearly 60% pay
increase. The plant supplied parts for Japan's Honda Motor. On July
14 nearly all of the remaining employees joined the stoppage in
response to a threat from factory management to fire the strikers.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Honduras 4
people were killed and another injured following a week of heavy
rains. 3 people died in various parts of the country after being hit
by lightning last week.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, Iran said it has
reached a final agreement with merchants on raising taxes following
protests that flared in Tehran's main bazaar earlier this week. The
new rate would set a top tax bracket of around 17 percent. The
strike continued into a 2nd week.
(AP, 7/12/10)(SFC, 7/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 12, A group of 91
Israelis, wounded by Hezbollah rockets during the 2006 war, sued the
Arab news network Al-Jazeera for $1.2 billion in a New York court
for allegedly aiding the Lebanese guerrillas. The suit claimed the
Qatar-based news network intentionally violated Israel's military
censorship regulations and reported the precise locations of rocket
strikes in Israel in live broadcasts during the monthlong 2006 war.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, Israeli
archaeologists said a newly discovered clay fragment from the 14th
century BC is the oldest example of writing ever found in
antiquity-rich Jerusalem. Dig director Eilat Mazar of Hebrew
University said the 2-centimeter-long fragment bears an ancient form
of writing known as Akkadian wedge script.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Indian Kashmir
shops, schools and offices were shut for a second day as politicians
met to discuss how to end weeks of violent and deadly street
protests against security forces.
(AFP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Mexico 3
assailants died in a shootout with soldiers in the border city of
Reynosa. The soldiers reportedly came under fire while on patrol,
returned fire and seized three rifles at the scene.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Northern
Ireland more than 50,000 Protestants assembled at 18 marching
locations across this British territory of 1.8 million. They paraded
under banners depicting the July 12, 1690, victory of Protestant
King William of Orange versus the forces of his rival for the
British throne, James II, at the Battle of the Boyne south of
Belfast. Some Protestant areas suffered violence early in the
morning during eve-of-parade celebrations around hundreds of
makeshift bonfires. 27 officers suffered mostly minor injuries
during street clashes the previous evening with more than 200 masked
Irish Catholics. Fresh rioting by Catholics opposed to Protestant
marches in Belfast injured another 28 police officers.
(AP, 7/12/10)(AFP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, In the Philippines
when Canadian Geoffrey Alan Bennun (60) and his Filipino girlfriend
were shot to death after a robber broke into their hotel room. Four
days later, Briton James Bolton Porter (51) and his girlfriend were
killed by a gunman in their house in Angeles' Malabanas village.
About a week later a gunman killed American Albert Mitchell (70), a
veteran of the US Air Force, along with his Filipino wife, Janet
(53), and three Filipino staff inside their Angeles home [see July
27].
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 12, Polish priest
Henryk Jankowski (73), who gained prominence in the 1980s by
supporting Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement but who later saw his
reputation marred by anti-Semitism and suspicions of pedophilia,
died in Gdansk.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, Two Russian
curators who angered the Russian Orthodox Church with an exhibition
that included images of Jesus Christ portrayed as Mickey Mouse and
Vladimir Lenin were convicted of inciting religious hatred and
fined, but not sentenced to prison.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Russia's
Dagestan region gunmen killed two policemen in separate shootings,
including Lt. Rasul Magomedov, whose father, mother and sister died
in previous attacks.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, The International
Criminal Court charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with three
counts of genocide in Darfur, a move that will pile further
diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, The Swiss
government declared renowned film director Roman Polanski a free man
after rejecting a US request to extradite him on a charge of having
sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. The Swiss mostly blamed US
authorities for failing to provide confidential testimony about
Polanski's sentencing procedure in 1977-1978.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Uganda
investigators found an unexploded suicide vest with ball bearings in
a disco hall in Kampala, suggesting that militants had planned a
third bombing during the World Cup final. Four foreign suspects were
arrested in connection with the find.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, In the US Virgin
Islands a Puerto Rican tourist (14) was killed in front of her
horrified family when she was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight
attributed to warring gangs.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 12, Venezuelan
intelligence agents detained Alejandro Pena Esclusa, a government
opponent, on suspicion of links to a Salvadoran man accused of
bombings in Cuba. His wife accused authorities of planting
explosives while her husband was handcuffed and she was in another
part of the apartment.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 12, A Zimbabwean high
court released Farai Maguwu, a rights activist charged with
endangering Zimbabwe's economic interests by highlighting abuses at
diamond mines. He had been arrested on June 3.
(AFP, 7/12/10)(Econ, 6/26/10, p.48)
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