Today in History - August 24
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79AD Aug 24,
Pliny the Elder, Roman naturalist, witnessed the eruption of
long-dormant Mount Vesuvius and was overcome by the fumes as he
tried to rescue refugees. The eruption buried the Roman cities of
Pompeii, Stabiae, Herculaneum and other, smaller settlements in 13
feet of volcanic ash and pumice. An estimated 20,000 people died.
The event was described by Pliny the Younger, the elder’s nephew, in
a letter to Tacitus.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(DD-EVTT, p.70)(AP, 8/24/97)(WUD,
1994, p.1106)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A2)(HNQ, 6/16/98)
410 Aug 24, Rome was overrun by
the Visigoths, an event that symbolized the fall of the Western
Roman Empire. German barbarians sacked Rome [see Aug 18].
(V.D.-H.K.p.87)(AP, 8/24/97)(HN, 8/24/98)
1103 Aug 24, Magnus III
Berbein, [Blootbeen], King of Norway (1093-1103), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1113 Aug 24, Geoffrey
Plantagenet, conquered Normandy, was born in France.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1215 Aug 24, Pope Innocent III,
following a request from King John, declared the Magna Carta
invalid. The barons of England soon retaliated by inviting King
Philip of France to come to England. Philip accepted the offer.
(MC, 8/24/02)(ON, 7/04, p.2)
1217 Aug 24, Eustace "the
Monk", French buccaneer, was killed in battle.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Aug 24, Some 6,000 Jews,
blamed for the Bubonic Plague, were killed in Mainz.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Aug 24, Jews of Cologne
Germany set themselves on fire to avoid baptism.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1391 Aug 24, Jews of Palma
Majorca, Spain, were massacred.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1516 Aug 24, At the Battle of
Marj Dabik, north of Aleppo, the Turks beat Syria. Suliman I (Selim
the Grim), the Ottoman Sultan, routed the Mamelukes (Egypt) with the
support of artillery capturing Aleppo and Damascus. This opened the
way to 400 years of Ottoman Turkish rule over most of the Arab
world.
(PC, 1992, p.169)(Econ, 11/14/09, p.101)
1542 Aug 24, In South America,
Gonzalo Pizarro returned to the mouth of the Amazon River after
having sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes
Mountains.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1572 Aug 24, The slaughter of
French Protestants at the hands of Catholics began in Paris as
Charles IX of France attempted to rid the country of Huguenots.
Charles, under the sway of his mother Catherine de Medici, believed
the Huguenot Protestants were plotting a revolution. France’s fourth
war of religion started with the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day,
in which 50,000 Huguenots and their leader, Admiral Gaspard de
Chastillon, Count the Coligny, were killed in and around Paris.
Meyerbeer's 1836 opera "Les Huguenots" was centered on the struggle.
The House of Guise played a leading role in the massacre. In 2009
Stuart Carroll authored “Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and
the Making of Europe.”
(AP, 8/24/97)(HN, 8/24/98)(WSJ, 11/23/99,
p.A21)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.78)
1591 Aug 24, Robert Herrick,
English poet (Gather ye rosebuds) was baptized.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1595 Aug 24, Thomas Digges,
English astronomer (Universe Infinite), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1662 Aug 24, An Act of
Uniformity, a part of the Clarendon Code (1661-1665), was passed by
the English Parliament and required that England's college fellows
and clergymen accept the newly published Book of Common Prayer.
Charles II attempted to suspend the operation of the Clarendon Code
by issuing a 2nd Declaration of Indulgence, but opposition from
Parliament forced him to retract it in 1663.
(PC, 1992,
p.249)(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=the%20Clarendon%20Code)
1669 Aug 24, Alessandro
Marcello (d.1747), composer, was born in Venice.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1680 Aug 24, Colonel Thomas
Blood, Irish adventurer who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of
London in 1671, died. Captured after the theft, he insisted on
seeing King Charles II, who pardoned him.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1682 Aug 24, Duke James of York
gave Delaware to William Penn.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1750 Aug 24, Laetitia
Bonaparte-Ramolino, mother of Napoleon, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1751 Aug 24, Thomas Colley was
executed in England for drowning a supposed witch.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1759 Aug 24, William
Wilberforce (d.1833), was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England. He
became best known for his efforts relating to the abolition of
slavery in the British Empire.
(www.nndb.com/people/824/000049677/)(HNQ,
12/6/02)
1759 Aug 24, Ewald C. von
Kleist (44), German poet, died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1733 Aug 24, David Traugott
Nicolai (d.1799), composer, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1770 Aug 24, Thomas Chatterton
(b.1752), English poet (Revenge), committed suicide.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1780 Aug 24, King Louis XVI
abolished torture as a means to get suspects to confess.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1787 Aug 24, Wolfgang A. Mozart
completed his viola sonata in A, K526.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1810 Aug 24, Theodore Parker,
anti-slavery movement leader, was born.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1814 Aug 24, 5,000 British
troops under the command of General Robert Ross marched into
Washington, D.C., after defeating an American force at Bladensburg,
Maryland. It was in retaliation for the American burning of the
parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada.
Meeting no resistance from the disorganized American forces, the
British burned the White House, the Capitol and almost every public
building in the city before a downpour extinguished the fires.
President James Madison and his wife fled from the advancing enemy,
but not before Dolly Madison saved the famous Gilbert Stuart
portrait of George Washington. This wood engraving of Washington in
flames was printed in London weeks after the event to celebrate the
British victory.
(AP, 8/24/97)(HNPD, 8/24/98)(
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bladensburg))
1816 Aug 24, Daniel Gooch, laid
1st successful transatlantic cables, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1817 Aug 24, Aleksei K.
Tolstoy, [Kozjma Prutkov], Russian poet, writer, was born.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/aleksey_konstantinovich_tolstoy)
1824 Aug 24, Simon Bolivar's
army beat the Spanish in Peru in the Battle at Junin.
(PC, 1992, p.394)
1831 Aug 24, John Henslow asked
Charles Darwin to travel with him on HMS Beagle.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1847 Aug 24, Charlotte Bronte,
using the pseudonym Currer Bell, sent a manuscript of "Jane Eyre" to
her publisher in London.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1853 Aug 24, The 1st potato
chips were prepared by Chef George Crum at Saratoga Springs, NY.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1857 Aug 24, The New York
branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co. failed, sparking the
Panic of 1857. Financial pressures exerted negative market
influences as noted in a letter to the Economist in 1865. The sharp
but short 1857-58 financial crash in the US was touched off by the
failure of the New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust
Company. Over speculation in real estate and railroad securities fed
the panic.
(AP, 8/24/07)(WSJ, 9/28/95c, p.A-18)(HNQ, 6/6/00)
1858 Aug 24, Richmond "Daily
Dispatch" reported 90 blacks arrested for learning.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1862 Aug 24, The C.S.S. Alabama
was commissioned at sea off Portugal's Azore Islands, beginning a
career that would see over 60 Union merchant vessels sunk or
destroyed by the Confederate raider. The ship was built in secret in
the in Liverpool shipyards, and a diplomatic crisis between the US
government and Britain ensued when the Union uncovered the ship’s
birth place.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1869 Aug 24, Cornelius
Swarthout of Troy, New York, patented the waffle iron.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1872 Aug 24, Max Beerbohm
(d.1956), critic, caricaturist, writer, wit (Saturday Review), was
born in England. His work included "Nobody ever died of
laughter."
(AP, 4/9/97)(MC, 8/24/02)
1880 Aug 24, Joshua L. Cowen,
inventor of the electric train, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1889 Aug 24, Jan E. Matzeliger,
Suriname inventor (shoe lacing machine), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1889 Aug 24, Auguste Neal, a
convicted murderer, was executed in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon,
becoming the first and only person to be executed by guillotine in
North America. The device was specially shipped from Martinique for
the execution.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.E5)
1890 Aug 24, Jean Rhys, author
of "Wild Sargasso Sea," was born.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1891 Aug 24, Thomas Edison
filed a patent for the motion picture camera.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1893 Aug 24, A fire in south
Chicago left 5,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1894 Aug 24, Congress passed
the first graduated income tax law, which was declared
unconstitutional the next year. It imposed a 2% tax on incomes over
$4000. The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. [see Aug 27]
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A20)(HN, 8/24/98)
1895 Aug 24, Richard Cushing,
the director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, was
born.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1896 Aug 24, Thomas Brooks was
shot and killed by an unknown assailant, beginning a six year feud
with the McFarland family.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1898 Aug 24, Malcolm Cowley,
poet and translator, literary critic and social historian was born.
He wrote "The Dream of the Golden Mountains."
(HN, 8/24/98)
1898 Aug 24, Ernest Narjot
(b.1826), French-born painter, died in SF. He came to California
with the Gold Rush in 1849 and became one of the state’s foremost
artists. Much of his work was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.
(SFCM, 10/28/01, p.20)
1899 Aug 24, Jorge Luis Borges
(d.1986), Argentine poet and philosophical essayist, was born in
Buenos Aires.
(WUD, 1994, p.171)(WSJ, 9/21/98, p.A26)(AP,
8/24/99)
1902 Aug 24, Fernand Braudel
(d.1985), French historian, was born. He was one of the most
important historiographers of the 20th century: "History may be
divided into three movements: what moves rapidly, what moves slowly
and what appears not to move at all."
(AP, 9/5/97)(DT internet 11/28/97)
1904 Aug 24, In the field
battle at Liaoyang, China, some 200,000 Japanese faced 150,000
Russians. The Japanese defeated the Russians in October.
(MC, 8/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.654)
1905 Aug 24, Arthur "Big Boy"
Crudup, blues singer, was born. He was a major influence on Elvis
Presley.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1909 Aug 24, Workers started
pouring concrete for Panama Canal.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1912 Aug 24, US passed an
anti-gag law giving federal employees the right to petition
government.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1912 Aug 24, By an act of
Congress, Alaska was given a territorial legislature of two houses.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1912 Aug 24, NYC held a ticker
tape parade for Jim Thorpe and victorious US Olympians.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1915 Aug 24, Alice H.B.
Sheldon, science fiction writer, was born. He also worked as an
artist, CIA photo-intelligence operative, lecturer at American
University and major in the U.S. Army Air Force.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1923 Aug 24, Kate Douglas
Wiggin (66), author (US kindergarten movement), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1929 Aug 24, Yasser Arafat
(d.2004), leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Nobel
1994), was born in Cairo according to his Cairo birth certificate.
He was the 5th child of Palestinian merchant Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa
al-Husseini. In 1998 Said K. Aburish published his biography
"Arafat: From Defender to Dictator."
(SFC, 11/11/04,
p.A18)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Yasser-Arafat)
1929 Aug 24, In the Hebron
massacre 65–68 Jews are killed by Arabs and the remaining Jews are
forced to leave Hebron.
(www.zionism-israel.com/Hebron_Massacre1929.htm)
1932 Aug 24, Amelia Earhart
became the first woman to fly nonstop across the United States,
traveling from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just over 19 hours.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1934 Aug 24, In Philadelphia,
Pa., Philo T. Farnsworth (28), a San Francisco scientist, produced a
televised picture of the moon, the first recorded use of television
in astronomy.
(SSFC, 8/16/09, p.46)
1936 Aug 24, FDR gave the FBI
authority to pursuit fascists and communists.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1937 Aug 24, Treasure Island in
SF Bay was completed after 18½ months. All told 20 million
cubic yards of sea bottom had been dredged, dug, dumped and poured
inside the rocky walls.
(www.treasureislandfestival.com/island.php)
1937 Aug 24, There was a
Republican offensive near Belchite, Spain.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1938 Aug 24, Mason Williams,
composer (Classical Gas), writer (Smother Brothers Hour), was born
in Abilene, Tx.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1940 Aug 24, Luftwaffe bombed
London.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1942 Aug 24, In the battle of
the Eastern Solomons, the third carrier-versus-carrier battle of the
war, U.S. naval forces defeated a Japanese force attempting to
screen reinforcements for the Guadalcanal fighting.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1944 Aug 24, Allied forces
captured Bordeaux.
(www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1944.htm)
1948 Aug 24, Edith Mae Irby
became the University of Arkansas' first African-American student.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1949 Aug 24, Stephen Harrison
Paulus, composer, was born in New Jersey.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1949 Aug 24, The North Atlantic
Treaty went into effect.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1951 Aug 24, Oscar Hijeulos,
novelist, was born. His work included "The Mambo Kings play Songs of
Love."
(HN, 8/24/00)
1954 Aug 24, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act, virtually outlawing
the Communist Party in the United States.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(AP, 8/24/07)
1954 Aug 24, In Brazil Pres.
Getulio Vargas killed himself in the midst of a scandal.
(WSJ, 4/6/06,
p.D8)(http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=428)
1958 Aug 24, Leo Blech (87),
German conductor and composer, died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1959 Aug 24, Three days after
Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first
Chinese-American U.S. Senator while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as
the first Japanese-American U.S. Representative.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1961 Aug 24, Johannes Vorster,
a former Nazi leader, became South Africa's minister of justice.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1967 Aug 24, Henry J. Kaiser
(85), industrialist (Boulder Dam, Liberty ship), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1968 Aug 24, France became the
world's fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in
the South Pacific.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1970 Aug 24, A bomb planted by
anti-war extremists exploded at the University of Wisconsin's Army
Math Research Center in Madison, killing 33-year-old researcher
Robert Fassnacht. On Sep 2 the FBI began a nationwide hunt for
Dwight Armstrong (19), Karleton Armstrong (22), David S. Fine (18),
and Leo F. Burt (22). Dwight Armstrong (1951-2010), the last to be
caught, was arrested in Toronto in April, 1977.
(AP, 8/24/97)(SSFC, 6/27/10, p.C9)
1974 Aug 24, France
performed another nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.atomicforum.org/france/1974.html)
1975 Aug 24, Charles H. Revson
(b.1906), US cosmetic magnate, died.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/500688/Charles-H-Revson)
1976 Aug 24, In Buenos Aires a
government task force kidnapped Marcelo Gelman (20) and his pregnant
wife Maria Claudia Garcia Irureta (19). Marcelo was shot and killed
2 months later and packed in cement in an oil drum. His wife
disappeared after giving birth in a military hospital in Uruguay.
Juan Gelman, the poet father of Marcelo, later campaigned in search
of his grandchild and authored the book "Not Even God's Feeble
Pardon." In 2008 the granddaughter of Argentine poet Juan Gelman
urged Uruguayan courts to reopen a probe into the 1976 disappearance
of her dissident mother, weeks before her grandfather was scheduled
to receive the Spanish-speaking world's most prestigious literary
prize.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A16)(AP, 2/27/08)
1981 Aug 24, Mark David Chapman
(b.1955) was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for
the murder of rock star John Lennon.
(AP,
8/24/97)(www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/app_c_sentencinghearing.htm)
1982 Aug 24, Some 800 US
Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a joint US-French
peacekeeping force.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/usmnf.htm)
1987 Aug 24, A military jury in
Quantico, Va., sentenced Marine Sgt. Clayton Lonetree to 30 years in
prison for disclosing U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union. The sentence
was later reduced; with additional time off for good behavior,
Lonetree ended up serving eight years in a military prison.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1987 Aug 24, Bayard Rustin
(b.1912), gay civil rights activist, died of cardiac arrest. In 2003
a documentary of his life by Nancy Kates: "Brother Outsider: The
Life of Bayard Rustin," was aired on PBS TV. He was the chief
architect of the 1963 march on Washington. In 2003 John D'Emilio
authored "Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin."
(SFC, 1/16/03, p.E1)(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.M3)
1988 Aug 24, Democratic
presidential nominee Michael Dukakis picked up the endorsement of
the AFL-CIO while Republican nominee George Bush campaigned in
California with President Reagan.
(AP, 8/24/98)
1988 Aug 24, Leonard Frey
(b.1938), American actor, died of AIDS. His film roles included
“Boys in the Band” (1970) and “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971).
(www.answers.com/topic/leonard-frey)
1988 Aug 24, Max Shulman
(b.1919), author (Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap), died.
(www.answers.com/topic/max-shulman)
1989 Aug 24, Commissioner A.
Bartlett Giamatti banned Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose from
major league baseball for gambling.
(AP, 8/24/99)
1989 Aug 24, Voyager II passed
within three thousand miles of Neptune sending back striking
photographs.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)(AP, 8/24/99)
1989 Aug 24, British brewery
Bass bought the Holiday Inn hotel chain.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/8_24/7/index.html)
1989 Aug 24, Colombian drug
lords declared "total war" on the government.
(AP, 8/24/99)
1989 Aug 24, Poland appointed
Tadeusz Mazowiecki prime minister, becoming the first country in the
Soviet bloc to name a non-communist prime minister since the late
1940s. Krzysztof Skubiszewski (d.2010 at 83) became foreign minister
under PM Mazowiecki. Skubiszewski served under three more prime
ministers before leaving the job in 1993.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)(AP, 2/8/10)
1990 Aug 24, Iraqi troops
surrounded foreign missions in Kuwait.
(AP, 8/24/00)
1990 Aug 24, Irish hostage
Brian Keenan was released by his captors in Lebanon after being held
more than four years.
(AP, 8/24/00)
1990 Aug 24, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev sent a message to Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein warning the Persian Gulf situation was "extremely
dangerous."
(AP, 8/24/00)
1991 Aug 24, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev resigned as head of the Communist Party,
culminating a stunning Kremlin shakeup that followed the failed coup
by hard-liners. In Moscow, thousands of people held a martyrs'
funeral for three men killed fighting the coup.
(AP, 8/24/01)
1991 Aug 24, Ukraine declared
independence from USSR.
(www.users.bigpond.com/kyroks/ukrhist10.html)
1991 Aug 24, Bernard Castro
(b.1904), Sicilian-born inventor of the convertible couch, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Castro)
1992 Aug 24, Hurricane Andrew
smashed into Florida causing record damage; 55 deaths in Florida,
Louisiana and the Bahamas were blamed on the storm. It swept across
Coral Gables, Florida, and destroyed two-thirds of the Fairchild
Tropical Garden. It cost $15.5 bil in insured losses and was the
most expensive natural disaster in US history. Insurance losses in
the US and Bahamas totaled $21.5 billion.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(AP, 8/24/97)(Econ, 8/21/04,
p.62)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.73)
1992 Aug 24, China and South
Korea established diplomatic ties.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1993 Aug 24, The Clinton
administration unveiled its proposed revisions to wetlands policy,
which would expand protection but also give landowners some
flexibility.
(AP, 8/24/98)
1993 Aug 24, NASA’s Mars
Observer, which was supposed to map the surface of Mars, was
declared lost.
(HN, 8/24/99)
1994 Aug 24, Israeli and PLO
negotiators agreed on an accord to give the Palestinians control of
health care, taxation, education and other services in West Bank
areas still controlled by Israel.
(AP, 8/24/99)
1995 Aug 24, Microsoft
Corporation began selling its highly publicized Windows 95 personal
computer software. The Windows 95 operating system was priced at $89
for an upgrade.
(WSJ, 4/4/00, p.A16)(AP, 8/24/00)
1995 Aug 24, Harry Wu, Chinese
human rights activist and writer, was sentenced to 15 years in
prison by Chinese law and then expelled from China. China expelled
Harry Wu, hours after convicting him of spying.
(SFC, 5/19/96, Zone 1, p.3)(AP, 8/24/00)
1996 Aug 24, Four women began
two days of academic orientation at The Citadel; they were the first
female cadets admitted to the South Carolina military school since
Shannon Faulkner.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1996 Aug 24, Steve Fossett
sailed across the Pacific Ocean and set a solo speed record of 20
days in his 60-foot 3-hulled boat, the Lakota.
(SFC, 8/25/96, p.B6)
1996 Aug 24, In Mozambique
crops in the fertile districts of Manica were severely damaged by an
invasion of red locusts.
(SFC, 8/24/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 24, In North Korea
American Evan Carl Hunzike was arrested for spying. He entered
illegally from China to get information on the domestic situation.
(SFEC, 10/7/96, A8)
1997 Aug 24, Officer Jeremy
Charron, 24, was shot and killed Gordon Perry (22) and Kevin Paul
(18) in Epsom, New Hampshire. Both captured suspects were on
probation. Paul later received a 16- to 50-year prison sentence.
Perry was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(SFC, 8/25/97,
p.A8)(www.odmp.org/officer/14959-patrolman-jeremy-t.-charron)
1997 Aug 24, In Cambodia troops
of Hun Sen overran O’Smach, the last frontier town held by forces
loyal to Prince Ranariddh.
(SFC, 8/25/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 24, In France Pope
John Paul II offered tough challenges and affectionate encouragement
to more than 1 million faithful attending Mass during closing World
Youth Day ceremonies in Paris.
(AP, 8/24/98)
1997 Aug 24, In Honduras a
power outage at a state-run hospital resulted in the death of 14
patients. The Sunday blackout was not reported until Monday.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 24, In Zambia former
pres. Kaunda accused Pres. Frederick Chiluba of trying to kill
him after he was wounded by riot police during a protest rally.
(WSJ, 8/25/97, p.B5A)
1998 Aug 24, The United States
and Britain agreed to allow two Libyan suspects in the bombing of
Pan Am flight 103 to be tried by a Scottish court sitting in the
Netherlands. A former Libyan intelligence agent was later convicted
of murder; the other suspect was acquitted.
(AP, 8/24/08)
1998 Aug 24, A federal court
rejected the Census Bureau's plans to use statistical sampling for
the 2000 census, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court.
(AP, 8/24/99)
1998 Aug 24, Tropical Storm
Charley dropped a foot of rain on South Texas and northern Mexico
and left at least 14 people dead and over 60 missing.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 24, E.G. Marshall,
actor, died in Mount Kisco, N.Y, at age 84.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A17)(AP, 8/24/99)
1998 Aug 24, In Burma Aung San
Suu Kyi bowed to medical problems and ended her 13-day roadside
standoff against the government.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 24, In Congo some
2,000 Angolan troops captured a coastal naval base and oil port and
moved up the Congo River to battle the rebels.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 24, In Egypt Abu Nidal
was captured after crossing the border from Libya. He had split from
the PLO in 1974 and was responsible for terrorist bombings in 1985
at the Rome and Vienna airports and a 1986 hijacking of Pan Am
Flight 73 as well as a number of assassinations of PLO figures.
Egypt denied the report of Nidal’s capture.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A6)(WSJ, 8/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 24, In Indonesia Lt.
Gen’l. Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of former Pres. Suharto, was
discharged. He had been the chief of Kopassus, a special forces unit
that was implicated in abductions and torture of political
dissidents.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 24, Israel agreed to
turn over an additional 13% of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 24, In Sierra Leone a
jury found 16 people, including 5 journalists, guilty of
collaborating with the ousted military junta.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 24, It was reported
that Salaheldin Idris, a Saudi Arabian banker, planned to sue the US
for $50 million for damages to his Ashifa pharmaceutical factory in
Sudan.
(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A9)
1999 Aug 24, The Federal
Reserve raised borrowing costs for millions of Americans, increasing
its target for the federal funds rate by a quarter point to 5.25
percent, and hiking the discount rate a quarter point to 4.75
percent.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A1)(AP, 8/24/00)
1999 Aug 24, In Ohio a federal
judge halted the state's 4-year-old tuition voucher program saying
that it violated constitutional mandates for separation of church
and state. Officials scrambled to absorb 3,800 students
participating in the program. The judge later reversed the decision
and allowed some students to use vouchers, but no new participants.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A3)(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 24, Congo rebel
leaders agreed to sign a peace accord.
(WSJ, 8/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 24, In Dagestan rebels
forces pulled back and Russian forces took control of 5 villages
that had been seized 3 weeks earlier.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A17)
1999 Aug 24, In Russia Sergei
Kiriyenko, Boris Nemtsov and Irina Khakamada formed the Union
Right-Wing Forces Block.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A18)
1999 Aug 24, In South Africa an
estimated 100,000 workers joined marches across the country in a
one-day strike for wage increases.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 24, The death toll in
Turkey’s August 17 earthquake was raised to near 18,000.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A14)
2000 Aug 24, Pres. Clinton and
Vice President Al Gore met with Pres.-elect Vincente Fox of Mexico.
Fox promoted his ideas on an open border a day before he met with
Texas Gov. George W. Bush in Dallas.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.A14)(AP, 8/24/01)
2000 Aug 24, Ricardo Miguel
Cavallo, a suspected torturer from the Argentine "dirty war"
(1976-1983), was arrested in Mexico after former political prisoners
identified him. Cavallo was extradited to Spain in 2003 and charged
with genocide and terrorism.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D4)(AP, 6/30/03)
2000 Aug 24, Fighting from
Chechnya spilled into Ingushetia and 100 rebels were reported killed
by Russian forces.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2000 Aug 24, It was reported
that 13 street kids had been killed over the last 7 months in
Honduras.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 24, In India it was
reported that 49 people were killed following torrential rains in
Andhra Pradesh.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2000 Aug 24, India and Pakistan
traded accusations over a clash in Kashmir. India claimed that 10
Pakistani fighters were killed, while Pakistan said 2 were killed.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2000 Aug 24, John Kaiser (67),
an American priest of the Society of St. Joseph, was found shot to
death near Naivasha, Kenya. Kaiser was critical of the government’s
human rights record. In 2007 a Kenyan court ruled that his death was
a homicide.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D7)(AP, 8/11/03)(AP, 8/1/07)
2000 Aug 24, In the Philippines
police found the bodies of 5 truck drivers kidnapped 2 days earlier
in Maguindanao province.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2000 Aug 24, In Russia Pres.
Putin raised wage 20% for members of the military, police and
security forces effective Dec 1.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2001 Aug 24, President Bush
blamed the slumping economy for the shrinking budget surplus, rather
than his tax cut, and said it was up to Congress to restrain
spending.
(AP, 8/24/02)
2001 Aug 24, Tom Green, a
Mormon fundamentalist with five wives and 30 children, was sentenced
by a court in Provo, Utah, to five years in prison in the state's
biggest polygamy case in nearly half a century.
(AP, 8/24/02)
2001 Aug 24,
Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to pay $7.5 million to the family of
Marisa Rodriguez, who was paralyzed in a Ford Explorer crash in
2000. Ford settled before the trial for $6 million.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A3)
2001 Aug 24, Pope Shenouda III,
the 117th successor of St. Mark and head of the 12-million member
Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, was denied access to a site in
Marin, Ca., where a new monastery was planned.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 24, Actress Jane Greer
died at age 76.
(AP, 8/24/02)
2001 Aug 24, In Angola gunmen
fired a missile at a passenger bus near Malanje and sprayed it with
gunfire. At least 50 people, including women and children were
killed.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 24, In Macedonia
rebels agreed to hand over some 3,000 weapons. The government had
earlier charged that the rebels had 85,000 weapons.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 24, Yugoslavia’s Pres.
Kostunica accused Serbia’s government of failure to tackle rising
crime and corruption.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A8)
2002 Aug 24, In Oregon City,
Ore., the FBI uncovered human remains in an outbuilding behind the
house of Ward Weaver III, a suspect in the case of two missing girls
who lived across the street. Authorities recovered the remains of
Ashley Pond (12) and Miranda Gaddis (13). In 2004 Weaver pleaded
guilty to aggravated murder and no contest to other charges of
sexual abuse. A plea bargain allowed him to avoid the death penalty
and he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
(AP,
8/24/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Weaver_III)
2002 Aug 24, It was reported
that Algerian elite soldiers, backed by artillery and helicopters,
killed 16 suspected Islamist rebels during a week-long operation
against guerrillas east of Algiers.
(Reuters, 8/24/02)
2002 Aug 24, Azerbaijani voters
overwhelmingly approved changes to the constitution in a referendum
the opposition charged was marred by fraud.
(AP, 8/25/02)
2002 Sep 24-2002 Sep 25, In the
Canary Islands over a dozen beaked whales beached themselves
following NATO exercises that involved a cluster of warships and
submarines. 9 of the whales washed ashore dead and showed lesions in
the brain and hearing system, consistent with acoustic impact.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A20)(SFC, 10/7/02, p.A6)
2002 Aug 24, Suspected rebels
shot dead eight Muslim villagers, including three women, in Indian
Kashmir as a U.S. envoy took his peace mission to Islamabad to try
to cool tensions on the subcontinent.
(Reuters, 8/24/02)
2002 Aug 24, A Palestinian
militia shot and killed a Palestinian woman suspected of
collaborating with Israel, then dumped her bullet-riddled body on a
street in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. The next day her son said
that Palestinian gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about
his mother's involvement.
(AP, 8/24/02)(AP, 8/26/02)
2003 Aug 24, The US Justice
Department reported the crime rate in 2002 was the lowest since
studies began in 1973.
(AP, 8/24/04)
2003 Aug 24, Japan’s
Musashi-Fuchu routed East Boynton Beach, Fla., 10-1 to win the
Little League World Series.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Aug 24, It was reported in
Nature that a chemical in red wine called resveratrol was able to
increase the life a Saccharomyces yeast cell by 80%. A beneficial
effect on humans was implied.
(NW, 9/1/03, p.9)
2003 Aug 24, In Oregon 8
firefighters died as their van hit a tractor-trailer while returning
from fighting a wildfire in Idaho.
(WSJ, 8/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 24, John J. Rhodes Jr.
(86), former U.S. House Minority Leader, died in Mesa, Ariz.
(AP, 8/24/04)
2003 Aug 24, Sir Wilfred
Thesiger (93), British writer, explorer and chronicler of the
world's vanishing ways of life, died. Thesiger's most famous books
were "Arabian Sands," about his travels with the Bedu people across
the Empty Quarter of southern Arabia in the 1940s, and "The Marsh
Arabs," the story of the Shiite marsh dwellers of southern Iraq. In
2006 Alexander Maitland authored “Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the
Great Explorer.”
(AP, 8/26/03)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.79)
2003 Aug 24, Public power went
out in Kabul, Afghanistan, due to lack of water in the local
reservoirs. Return of power was not expected until Dec.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.30)
2003 Aug 24, In central
Colombia a rebel bomb exploded as passengers were disembarking from
a boat, killing six people, including the woman carrying the device.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2003 Aug 24, A 150-strong US
Marine force ended an 11-day deployment and headed back to warships
off the coast of Monrovia, Liberia.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2003 Aug 24, A twin-engine
turboprop Let L-410 crashed in Haiti and 21 people were killed.
(AP, 8/26/03)
2003 Aug 24, Hurricane
Ignacio sideswiped the southern tip of the Baja California
peninsula.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Aug 24, Palestinian
militants carried out their deepest rocket strike against Israel. A
Qassam-2 rocket, a makeshift weapon produced by the militant Islamic
group Hamas, landed near a lifeguard station on Zikim beach with no
damages or casualties. Israeli missile fire killed 4 Palestinian
militants in Gaza City.
(Reuters, 8/24/03)(SFC, 8/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 24, In northern Turkey
a bus in a wedding convoy veered off the road and slammed into a
retaining wall, killing 19 people and injuring several others.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2004 Aug 24, An independent
commission said the blame for abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison lay
mainly with the American soldiers who ran the jail, but said senior
commanders and top-level Pentagon officials could also be faulted
for failed leadership and oversight.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2004 Aug 24, Osama bin Laden's
chauffeur was arraigned at first U.S. military commission hearing
since World War II.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2004 Aug 24, Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross (78), a psychiatrist who revolutionized the way the
world looks at terminally ill patients and later as a pioneer for
hospice care, died in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her book "On Death and
Dying" (1969) identified five stages of grief. Her last book,
co-written with David Kessler, "On Grief and Grieving" was released
in July 2005.
(AP, 8/25/04)(Econ, 9/4/04,
p.81)(http://www.elisabethkublerross.com/)
2004 Aug 24, China evacuated
hundreds of thousands of people as Typhoon Aere lashed neighboring
Taiwan, triggering landslides and disruption and leaving at least
seven people feared dead and one missing.
(AFP, 8/24/04)
2004 Aug 24, Hong Kong
announced the official end to nearly 6 years of deflation.
(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 24, In India a 4-day
strike by truckers over a new tax paralyzed the movement of goods.
Employees of state-owned banks launched a strike over pay.
(WSJ, 8/25/04, p.A9)
2004 Aug 24, In Iraq a car bomb
killed at least 2 people in Baghdad. In Najaf US forces intensified
fighting against rebels loyal to al-Sadr.
(SFC, 8/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 24, Nepalese rebels
lifted a weeklong blockade that cut off Katmandu from the rest of
the nation.
(WSJ, 8/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 24, The Nigerian
Senate ordered Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to pay 1.5 billion
dollars (1.2 billion euros) compensation for damages caused by
nearly 60 years of exploration in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 8/25/04)
2004 Aug 24, The International
Committee of the Red Cross said it was mounting a major airlift of
relief supplies to Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AP, 8/24/04)
2004 Aug 24, A Russian airliner
crashed and a second disappeared from radar about the same time
night after both planes took off from the same Moscow airport,
raising fears that terrorism was involved. A distress signal was
activated on the second plane. All 89 passengers and crew were
killed, 46 aboard a TU-154 and 43 aboard a TU-134.
(AP, 8/25/04)(SFC, 8/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 24, In South Africa
Mark Thatcher, the son of former British PM Margaret Thatcher, was
arrested and charged with helping to finance a foiled coup attempt
in oil rich Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher was later fined three
million rand (approximately $500,000) and received a four-year
suspended jail sentence. In 2008 Equatorial Guinea issued an
international arrest warrant against Mark Thatcher, accusing him of
being an instigator of the abortive coup plot.
(AP,
8/25/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thatcher)(FP, 3/29/08)
2005 Aug 24, US military said
the Pentagon has ordered 1,500 additional troops to Iraq to provide
security in advance of two upcoming votes.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, A federal
commission voted against closing the New London submarine base in
Groton, Conn., and the Portsmouth shipyard in Kittery, Maine.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2005 Aug 24, Religious
broadcaster Pat Robertson apologized for calling for the
assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2005 Aug 24, Hawaii planned
caps on rising gas prices effective Sep 1.
(WSJ, 8/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 24, The New York Times
reported that officials in nine northeastern US states have reached
a preliminary agreement to freeze power plant emissions at their
current levels and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Tropical
Depression 12 strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina over the
central Bahamas; a hurricane warning was issued for the southeastern
Florida coast.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2005 Aug 24, In Dublin, Ga., a
girl shot, killed and robbed Fredrick Williams (25) and Reante
Stanley (26) after they had given her and a 14-year-old friend a
ride to a motel. The girls stole about $200 from the men. Lakeisha
Davis (15) of Dublin was charged with murder and armed robbery. The
14-year-old, who was not immediately identified, was tried in
juvenile court on a charge of theft. In 2008 Davis was sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 8/26/05,
p.A3)(www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-143798.html)
2005 Aug 24, In Afghanistan’s
Uruzgan province coalition aircraft killed 5 alleged insurgents
after a firefight with troops on the ground.
(AP, 8/25/05)
2005 Aug 24, The US-led
coalition and Afghan forces killed Payenda Mohammed, a suspected
Taliban commander and three of his fighters in the country's south.
(AP, 8/29/05)
2005 Aug 24, Strong
thunderstorms rolled through Argentina and Uruguay, slowing air
traffic, felling trees and leaving at least eight people dead.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Brazilian police
arrested Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazzos, a Colombian man accused
of being an unofficial ambassador for Colombia's largest rebel
group.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Brazilian
officials said an 80-year-old woman filmed drug traffickers near her
Copacabana beach apartment for two years and delivered 22 films to
police, triggering a massive raid against a slum drug gang. Police
arrested 15 suspected traffickers, including two Rio de Janeiro
state police officers.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Jack Slipper (81),
Scotland Yard detective, died. He pursued one of the fugitives from
Britain's "Great Train Robbery" across many years and two
continents.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Chinese share
prices surged after the government issued new market guidelines and
pledged to push ahead with shareholding reforms.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, In southern China
a bus swerved to avoid an oncoming bicycle and veered onto a
roadside crowded with pedestrians in Shenzhen, killing 19 people and
injuring 16.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, In northwest
Colombia suspected leftist guerrillas killed at least 14 peasant
farmers who were cultivating coca near Puerto Valdivia.
(AP, 8/25/05)
2005 Aug 24, Government
officials from Ecuador and Venezuela singed a preliminary agreement
by which Venezuela would lend Ecuador a million barrels of crude oil
between September and October. A loan of naphtha and diesel was also
part of the deal.
(WSJ, 8/25/05, p.A7)
2005 Aug 24, Egyptian security
forces besieging parts of rugged northern Sinai clashed with gunmen
and arrested 26 people during a massive search for suspects linked
to the recent attacks in the peninsula.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Israel and Egypt
reached an agreement to have 750 Egyptian troops take control of a
volatile Egypt-Gaza border area from Israeli forces.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, A Hong Kong judge
ruled that laws against gay sex, including one that demands a life
sentence for men under 21 who engage in sodomy, are unconstitutional
and discriminatory.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Officials in India
said the death toll from an outbreak of encephalitis in Uttar
Pradesh has increased to 178, with more than 60 deaths reported in
the past five days.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Sunni insurgents
killed 13 people in a series of raids in Baghdad. Sadr fighters
attacked pro-government Badr militia and fighting raged in 5 cities.
(WSJ, 8/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 24, Rumors of a coup
in Myanmar's ruling military junta weakened the Southeast Asian
nation's currency and boosted the price of gold in local trading.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli Army is expected to
leave the Gaza Strip by Oct. 4 at the latest.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Jailed Russian
tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky lashed out at the Kremlin and announced
a hunger strike to support his business partner, Platon Lebedev, who
was moved into an isolation cell on Aug 19.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, The Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria said it has suspended grants to Uganda
based on evidence of serious financial mismanagement.
(SFC, 8/25/05, p.A5)
2005 Aug 24, Venezuela
condemned American religious broadcaster Pat Robertson for
suggesting President Hugo Chavez should be killed, saying he
committed a crime that is punishable in the United States.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, In Vietnam a man
died of bird flu in Hanoi raising the regional toll to 62.
(WSJ, 9/1/05, p.A13)
2006 Aug 24, A US House report
said 70% of contracts for Hurricane Katrina were let with little or
no competition. 4 Katrina contractors were indicted for taking
$700,000 for no work.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, The US FDA
approved Plan B, also called the morning after pill, for sale
without prescription to women 18 and older.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, In Oakland, Ca.,
police moved to serve 65 arrest warrants and picked up 30 suspected
drug dealers. They planned to continue their sweep.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, A Kentucky judge
dropped charges against Gov. Fletcher in a plea deal in which
Fletcher acknowledged failure to follow the state’s merit-hiring
rules.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, In Essex, Vermont,
Christopher Williams (26) shot and killed 2 people after breaking up
with his girlfriend, and then shot himself in the head. Williams
killed Andrea Lambesis (57), the mother of his girlfriend at her
home. He then went to Essex Elementary School where he killed
teacher Mary Shanks (56) and wounded 2 others.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A5)(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Deadly storms
swept across the northern Plains, bringing tornadoes that ripped
roofs off houses and hail that smashed car windshields. One man was
killed when a tornado hit his home in Minnesota, and in Wisconsin,
lightning apparently killed a dozen cows and struck a woman as she
left a supermarket.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Carl C. Clark
(82), US auto safety and air-bag pioneer, died.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 24, Arthur Schiff
(b.1940), TV-advertising pitchman, died. His pitched products
included a kitchen knife, which he renamed Ginsu, made in Ohio. “But
wait, there’s more.”
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 24, Ralph Schoenstein
(73), American humorist, writer and NPR commentator, died in
Philadelphia. His 18 books included “Fatherhood” (1987), ghost
written for Bill Cosby.
(SFC, 8/28/06, p.B4)
2006 Aug 24, Leading
astronomers meeting in Prague declared that Pluto is no longer a
planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system
from nine planets to eight.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, American and
Afghan forces killed seven suspected al-Qaida operatives after
coming under fire during a raid in eastern Afghanistan. Police,
however, claimed those killed were members of two families trying to
resolve a dispute.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, A Bangladesh court
acquitted former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad of graft
charges in an oil and defense deal, easing the way for his return to
the political mainstream ahead of elections next year.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, An explosion in
Chechnya's capital Grozny killed four people.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, In China a blind
activist who was arrested after recording complaints of forced
abortions was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
Chen Guangcheng was convicted of damaging property and "organizing a
mob to disturb traffic" after a trial in the eastern province of
Shandong.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, China reported
that a chemical spill on the Mangniu River in Jilin province was
contained. A 3-mile slick had been created by a xylidine spill from
a local chemical company.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 24, A Danish
prosecutor charged four young Muslims with helping to supply weapons
and explosives for a planned terror attack in Europe. The four men,
arrested in Denmark last October 27, helped the two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing
a terror act.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, France said it was
ready to send an extra 1,600 troops to bolster a revamped U.N. force
for Lebanon, bringing the total French contingent to 2,000 and
making it easier to recruit other nations.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Murat Kurnaz
(b.1982), a German native, was released after spending more than 4
years locked up at Guantanamo Bay. He had been arrested in Pakistan
in late 2001. In 2007 he and Helmut Kuhn authored “Fünf Jahre
meines Lebens: Ein Bericht aus Guantanamo” (Five years of My Life: A
Report from Guantanamo).
(Econ, 2/3/07,
p.53)(http://tinyurl.com/36pdk5)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.97)
2006 Aug 24, In Iraq gunmen
overnight killed at least three people. A US soldiers was killed
south of Baghdad. 3 car bombs in Baghdad and a series of bombings
and shootings across the country killed 16 Iraqis and two US
soldiers. Police found four handcuffed bodies dumped separately in
the streets of Kut.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Israeli forces
crossed into the Gaza Strip in a raid that captured a local Hamas
militant leader and left his brother dead near a Gaza border town.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Jihad Hamad (20),
the second main suspect in a failed plot to bomb two German trains,
was arrested in his native Lebanon after surrendering to police.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Nigeria released
10,000 prisoners incarcerated for up to 10 years without trial.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, South Africa's
cabinet gave the green light for a bill allowing gay marriage, which
would make it the first country in Africa to accord homosexual
couples the same rights as their straight counterparts.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
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)
2008 Aug 24, The US Democratic
national convention’s credentials committee ruled to give full
voting rights to delegates from Michigan and Florida, despite their
defying party rules and holding their primaries early.
(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 24, In New Mexico 8
inmates escaped from a county jail in Clovis. 3 were captured the
next day and 5 remained at large.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 24, Taliban militants
attacked a patrol of US-led coalition troops in northern
Afghanistan, while insurgents came under fire by NATO aircraft after
attacking an Afghan army outpost in the south. At least 10 militants
were killed in the fighting. In eastern Kunar province, a civilian
Mi-8 supply helicopter contracted by NATO-led troops crashed shortly
after takeoff, killing one person on board and wounding three
others.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, Algerian security
forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in a security operation southwest
of the capital.
(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Bolivia a truck
plunged off a cliff high in the Andes killing 21 people with 53 left
injured.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 24, In London some
40,000 people, including record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps,
gathered to celebrate 2012 host London taking over from Beijing as
the Olympic city.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, The Beijing
Olympics, played out against a background of political intrigue and
featuring 16 days of compelling and controversial action, drew to a
spectacular close. China's haul of 51 gold medals was the largest
since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. The US won 36 gold
medals and Russia came in 3rd with 23. Jamaica ended up with 11
medals including 6 gold. Cuba took home 24 medals, but only 2 gold.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.38)
2008 Aug 24, Kenya took home 14
medals from the Beijing Olympics, 5 of them gold.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.55)
2008 Aug 24, A wall of snow in
the Mont Blanc range of the French Alps buried 3 Swiss and 5
Austrian climbers.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Guatemala a
Cessna Caravan carrying humanitarian workers crashed about 60 miles
east of Guatemala City killing 10 people, including five Americans.
At least 2 people survived. The plane was headed to a village in the
area of El Estor to build homes for CHOICE Humanitarian, a group
based in West Jordan, Utah.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 24, The USS McFaul, a
US Navy warship carrying humanitarian aid, anchored at the Georgian
port of Batumi, sending a strong signal of support to an embattled
ally as Russian forces built up around two separatist regions. In
central Georgia, an oil train exploded and caught fire, sending
plumes of black smoke into the air. A Georgian official said the
train hit a land mine and blamed the explosion on departing Russian
forces.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In India about
40,000 protesters surrounded the Tata Motors factory slated to
produce the Nano, the world's cheapest car, alleging land for the
site was forcibly taken from local farmers. A day earlier Ratan
Tata, whose Tata Motors is India's top vehicle-maker, warned he
would move the plant out of the state if the demonstrations kept up,
although his company has already invested 350 million dollars in the
project.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In India Swami
Laxmanananda Saraswati, a hard-line Hindu leader, was killed in the
eastern state of Orissa. His death triggered violence between Hindus
and Christians that left dozens dead. Right-wing Hindu groups blamed
Christians for killing, but a month later Maoist rebels say they had
murdered the Hindu leader.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Aug 24, Iran's official
news agency said the country has begun designing its second
light-water nuclear power plant, a 360-megawatt facility in the
southwest.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Baghdad,
back-to-back roadside bombs targeting a police patrol killed three
Iraqi civilians and wounded 20, including six police officers. A
bomb in a pile of hay killed 3 farmers southeast of Baghdad. Three
separate attacks in Diyala province killed 9 people. A suicide
bomber struck west of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people. Raina, a
teenage Iraqi girl (b.1993) wearing a vest packed with explosives,
was captured on video as she turned herself in rather than go
through with a suicide bombing in Baquba. The US military announced
the arrest of Salim Abdallah Ashur Shujayri (aka Abu Uthman), a
Baghdad leader of al-Qaida in Iraq believed to have planned the 2006
abduction of US journalist Jill Carroll.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/25/08,
p.A8)(SFC, 8/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 24, In Kashmir
soldiers and police fired at Muslim protesters demanding an end to
Indian rule killing one person, as authorities arrested top
separatist leaders in a bid to quash unrest that has left at least
37 people dead since June.
(AP, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 24, In Kyrgyzstan a
Boeing 737 passenger jet carrying 90 people to Iran crashed near
Bishkek’s Manas Int’l. Airport. At least 65 people were killed.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Niger dozens of
land mines accidentally exploded during a ceremony in which a group
of former rebels were handing over arms, killing one person and
wounding about 40 including the regional governor.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, The "Benue", a
Nigerian ship with eight crew members, was hijacked. It was owned by
service and repair firm West African Offshore Ltd (WAO).
(AFP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 24, Pakistan rejected
a ceasefire offered by Taliban militants in the tribal belt near the
Afghan border as troops in the last 24 hours killed seven rebel
fighters. Officials said that Taliban militants in the area had slit
the throat of a 35-year-old man after accusing him of spying for US
troops across the border in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Somalia the
Shabab, the former military wing of the Islamic courts, and local
clan factions took control of the southern port of Kismayo. Muktar
Robow, a Shabab commander, wanted to merge with al-Qaeda.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.56)
2008 Aug 24, In Sri Lanka
soldiers reportedly killed 12 Tamil separatists in fighting along
the front lines dividing government territory from the rebels de
facto state.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2009 Aug 24, A senior
administration said that Pres. Obama has approved establishment of
the new unit, to be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation
Group, which will be overseen by the National Security Council.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, The US government
cash for clunkers program ended.
(SFC, 8/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 24, Reader’s Digest,
founded in 1922, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The
company piled on debt following a $1.6 billion leveraged buyout in
2007 by investors led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC, a NY private
equity firm.
(SFC, 8/25/09, p.D3)
2009 Aug 24, In the San
Francisco Bay Area Alexander Robert Youshock (17), a former
Hillsdale High School student in San Mateo, lit 2 of 10 pipe bombs
before he was tackled by teachers. Youshock also carried a chain saw
and a sword and planned to attack students as the ran from the
bombs.
(SFC, 8/25/09, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/09, p.A1)
2009 Aug 24, Mohammed Jawad
(~21), a Guantanamo prisoner once charged with wounding two US
soldiers and their interpreter was back home in Afghanistan, months
after a war crimes case against him unraveled when a military judge
ruled his confession was coerced.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, Argentine federal
police uncovered four tons (4,200 kilograms) of ephedrine worth
millions in oil drums and boxes to be sent to Mexico and the US. The
lead investigator called it the largest illegal shipment of the
methamphetamine precursor ever seized there.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, Bangladesh awarded
three offshore blocks to two global energy companies to explore for
gas in the Bay of Bengal. The US-based ConocoPhillips and Ireland's
Tullow Oil could start exploration work by early next year.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 24, In China 14
workers were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in northern
Shanxi province.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 24, In Honduras
foreign ministers from seven OAS nations launched a direct,
high-profile attempt to persuade the interim government to restore
ousted Pres. Manuel Zelaya. The delegation failed to win a pledge to
restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
(AP, 8/24/09)(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 24, In Iran
conservative rivals handed a new snub to Pres. Ahmadinejad,
appointing Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, the man he fired from the
post of intelligence minister, as the country's state prosecutor.
Senior opposition figure Mahdi Karroubi made public an account of a
prisoner who was raped by jailers. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei ordered the closure of Kahrizak prison, where at least 3
prisoners are known to have died.
(AP, 8/24/09)(SFC, 8/25/09, p.A3)
2009 Aug 24, Iraqi lawmakers
said major Shiite groups have formed a new alliance that will
exclude Iraqi PM al-Maliki, a step likely to stoke fears of
increasing Iranian influence and shake up the political landscape
before January parliamentary elections. The new bloc, called the
Iraqi National Alliance, will include the largest Shiite party, the
Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, or SIIC, and anti-US cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's bloc, which both have close ties to Tehran, as well as
some small Sunni and secular parties.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, Israeli soldiers
fired on a group of suspicious Palestinians across the border in
northern Gaza. 3 Palestinians were wounded. 2 mortar shells were
later fired from Gaza slightly wounding one soldier.
(SFC, 8/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 24, Kenya began its
first national census in a decade amid an outcry over one question
that asks people to identify their ethnic group, a contentious issue
in this East African nation. Kenya’s 2009 census put the population
at about 39 million.
(AP, 8/24/09)(Econ, 10/30/10, p.45)
2009 Aug 24, An American UN
peacekeeper under investigation for sexual exploitation and abuse of
minors in Liberia was found dead in his house in Monrovia. Sources
said it appeared that the American, a civilian in the Liberia
mission, known as UNMIL, had committed suicide due to the
investigations.
(Reuters, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 24, Mexican police in
the northern state of Sinaloa found four severed human heads in a
cooler by the side of a rural roadway.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, Myanmar police
seized more than 100 blocks of heroin and nearly 3 million
methamphetamine tablets near the border with Thailand in one of the
military-ruled country's largest drug seizures.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 24, Nigeria's
anti-graft agency EFCC declared two sacked bank directors wanted
over alleged frauds and running their institutions into insolvency.
(AFP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, In the eastern
Pakistani city of Sargodha, police arrested six militants in two
raids. They were said to be linked to Mehsud's Taliban and had
planned to launch strikes next week on at least two places of
worship. Among the six was Zaid Mustafa, said to have recruited
potential suicide bombers for training in Afghanistan and who is
suspected of providing logistics, explosives and other support for
terror attacks in Lahore, Karachi or Rawalpindi. Gunmen shot dead an
Afghan television journalist and severely wounded his colleague in
northwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, It was reported
that Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden
in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the
drug surgically implanted inside the birds.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, In Rustenberg,
South Africa some 13,000 platinum miners at Impala Platinum, the
world's second-largest producer, downed tools over a pay dispute.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 24, The Stockholm
District Court threatened to fine Internet provider Black Internet
500,000 Swedish kronor (about $70,000) unless it stopped serving
Pirate Bay. Court documents showed the company has to comply with
the order until the ongoing case between Pirate Bay and the
entertainment industry is over.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 24, Taiwan's
government confirmed that 292 people were killed and 385 missing
after Typhoon Morakot struck the island and caused its worst
flooding in half a century earlier this month.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2010 Aug 24, Attorneys general
in 17 US states demanded in a joint letter that SF-based Craigslist
remove its adult services section because the website cannot
adequately block potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution and
child trafficking.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.D1)
2010 Aug 24, In SF the
temperature hit a record 98 degrees. Records were broken across much
of northern California.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.C2)
2010 Aug 24, Scientists
reported that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has revealed a previously
unknown type of oil-eating bacteria, which is suddenly flourishing.
The dominant microbe in a studied deep water oil plume is a new
species, closely related to members of Oceanospirillales.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 24, Scientists said
they've identified a sun-like star with as many as seven different
planets — including one that might be the smallest ever found
outside the solar system. If confirmed, the planetary system around
HD 10180, a star more than 100 light years distant, would be the
richest ever discovered.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In Eastport,
Maine, the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) launched a $2.5
million prototype, tidal grid-compatible power system.
(Econ, 10/9/10,
p.48)(www.oceanrenewablepower.com/home.htm)
2010 Aug 24, In Afghan heavy
fighting overnight was reported in the southwestern provinces of
Nimroz and Uruzgan, adjoining the insurgent strongholds of Helmand
and Kandahar provinces. Numerous Taliban were reported killed. NATO
said Afghan and international forces have killed an estimated 40
Taliban fighters east of Kabul as part of operations to provide
security ahead of parliamentary elections next month. Two coalition
servicemen, including one American, were reported killed in fighting
in the south where the insurgency is most heavily entrenched.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, Authorities in
Bahrain arrested a suspect in the case of Canadian singer Fatima
Kama (28), whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at
London's Heathrow Airport on Jul 17, 1999. The body was found when a
member of the public spotted a black suitcase abandoned on the third
floor of a Heathrow Airport parking lot.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, British Columbia
signed an agreement that will see Canada's westernmost province
share tax revenue from the mining industry with aboriginal groups,
the first such deal in the mineral-rich region.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In China Zheng
Shaodong, an assistant public security minister who led the
country’s economic crimes investigation unit, was given a suspended
death sentence for taking more than $1 million in bribes and abusing
his position.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, A massive traffic
jam in north China stretched for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day
mark. It reportedly stemmed from road construction in Beijing that
won't be finished until the middle of next month.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In China a Henan
passenger plane with 91 passengers and crew overshot a runway in
northeastern Hichun city. 43 people were killed and 53 injured.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 24, Researchers in
Japan reported the creation of a highly accurate sensor that can
detect smells and gases using genetically engineered frog eggs.
(Reuters, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, A Kenyan official
said wildlife officers have seized two tons of elephant ivory and
five rhino horns at the main airport that were to be illegally
shipped to Malaysia.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In Lebanon 3
Hezbollah members and a follower of the conservative Sunni al-Ahbash
group were killed in the residential Bourj Abu Haider district, just
outside Beirut's downtown, in running battles with fighters wielding
assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The most serious
fighting in Beirut since 2008 appears to have been touched off by a
traffic dispute that escalated into deadly, hours-long street
battles.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 24, Mexican marines
found the dumped bodies of 72 people at a ranch in northern Mexico
following a shootout with suspected drug cartel gunmen that left one
marine and three suspects dead. Two migrants survived the massacre
and provided information in the investigation. 77 people were later
said to be in the group and that a 3rd migrant had survived with 2
still missing. The dismembered bodies of 2 men were found hung from
a bridge at the entrance to Chilpancingo, near Acapulco.
(AP, 8/25/10)(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/1/10)(AP,
9/5/10)
2010 Aug 24, In Nepal an Agni
Air plane heading to the Mount Everest region crashed in heavy rain
outside Katmandu, killing all 14 people aboard, including 4
Americans, a Briton and a Japanese national.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In Nigeria gunmen
ambushed Soboma George, leader of the feared Outlaws Gang, in the
oil town of Port Harcourt. The gunmen fired at George, and killed
one woman and wounded another during a running shootout. George’s
body was recovered Aug 27.
(AP, 8/25/10)(AFP, 8/28/10)
2010 Aug 24, Senegal’s PM
Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye said that those begging for money will be
given a place to stay if they leave the streets of Dakar and other
large cities to receive help from charities. The government soon
began enforcing a 2005 ban on begging. Officials said they recently
felt pressure to impose the law because the US and other donor
countries had threatened to cut off aid if Senegal does not address
human trafficking. Aid groups and human rights organizations
estimated that as many as 100,000 children in Senegal, population
13.7 million, are forced to beg every day by religious teachers
known as marabouts. Caught in the dragnet were handicapped adults
who used to line their wheelchairs along a stretch of the boulevard
leading to the presidential palace in downtown Dakar.
(AP, 9/5/10)(http://tinyurl.com/236esgh)
2010 Aug 24, In Somalia a
suicide bomber and gunmen wearing military uniforms attacked a hotel
near the presidential palace in Mogadishu, sparking a one-hour gun
battle with security forces. At least 32 people were killed,
including six Somali parliamentarians.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, The UN said some
80,000 people have been cut off by floods in Pakistan and that it
needs at least 40 more helicopters to ferry aid to increasingly
desperate people.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A3)
2010 Aug 24, In Vietnam at
least 9 people were killed when Typhoon Mindulle struck the central
coast.
(AFP, 10/17/10)(http://tinyurl.com/25z8plq)
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