Today in History - August 16
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1290 Aug 16, Charles of Valois married Margaret of Anjou.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1397 Aug 16, Albrecht II von Habsburg, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1419 Aug 16, Wenceslas (b.1361), son of Charles IV and King of Germany, died. He served as King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia (1363) and King of the Romans (1378-1400).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1419 Aug 16, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, became king of Bohemia following the death of Wenceslaus IV, but was ejected by the Hussites due to the execution of Jan Huss.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1498 Aug 16, Christopher Columbus reached the island of Margarita (Venezuela).
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v3.htm)
1513 Aug 16, Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeated the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1645 Aug 16, Jean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work "Characters of Theophratus," was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1678 Aug 16, Andrew Marvell (b.1621), English poet (Definition of Love), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1691 Aug 16, Yorktown, Va., was founded.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1745 Aug 16, Skirmish at Laggan: Glengarry beat the Royal Scots.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1777 Aug 16, American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vt.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1777 Aug 16, France declared a state of bankruptcy.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1799 Aug 16, Vincenzo Manfredini (b.1737), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1780 Aug 16, American troops under Gen. Horatio Gates were badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/16/98)(ON, 12/01, p.9)
1812 Aug 16, American General William Hull surrendered Detroit without resistance to a smaller British and Indian forces under General Isaac Brock.
(AP, 8/16/97)(HN, 8/16/98)
1819 Aug 16, English police charged unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field in the Manchester Massacre. Marchers were demanding voting rights for the working class. 18 people were killed in the Peterloo massacre. The press responded with a volley of attacks that included “The Political House that Jack Built" by William Hone and illustrator George Cruikshank.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.104)
1829 Aug 16, The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston aboard the ship Sachem to be exhibited to the Western world.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1846 Aug 16, Gioacchino Rossini married Olympe Pelissier in Paris and stopped composing operas.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1852 Aug 16, In northern California trader James Savage entered the Kings River Indian reservation and encountered Major Harvey, who had led an attack there on local Indians. A fight ensued and Harvey shot and killed Savage.
(SFC, 5/23/15, p.C2)
1854 Aug 16, Duncan Phyfe (86), NYC furniture maker, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1858 Aug 16, A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. The cable linked Ireland and Canada and failed after a few weeks.
(AP, 8/16/97)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)
1861 Aug 16, President Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1861 Aug 16, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1862 Aug 16, Amos Alonzo Stagg, football pioneer, inventor of the tackling dummy, was born in West Orange, New Jersey.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1863 Aug 16, Chickamauga campaign took place in GA. Union General William S. Rosecrans moved his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)(MC, 8/16/02)
1864 Aug 16, Battle of Front Royal, VA. (Guard Hill).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1868 Aug 16, Bernard McFadden, publisher responsible for the magazine True Story, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1868 Aug 16, Charles Sanford Skilton (d.1941), composer, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1875 Aug 16, Charles Grandison Finney (b.1792), American revivalist preacher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grandison_Finney)
1876 Aug 16, Wagner's Opera "Siegfried" premiered at Bayreuth. [See Aug 13]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_(opera))
1884 Aug 16, Hugo Gernsback (d.1967), sci-fi writer, publisher (1960 Hugo), was born in Luxembourg.
(www.nndb.com/people/381/000045246/)
1886 Aug 16, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian Hindu mystic, saint, and religious leader, died in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna)
1894 Aug 16, George Meany, the first president of the AFL-CIO, was born in New York City.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1894 Aug 16, Indian chiefs from the Sioux & Onondaga tribes met to urge their people to renounce Christianity and return to their old Indian faith.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1896 Aug, 16, A white man from California named George Carmack, a fellow not employed at anything in particular, was hiking around northwest Canada’s Yukon River area with his two Indian brothers-in-law "Skookum Jim" Mason and "Tagish Charley." The three found gold on Rabbit Creek, a stream that feeds the Yukon River near Dawson, Alaska.
(CFA, '96, p.88)(HN, 8/19/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush)
1897 Aug 16, Robert Ringling, circus master, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1898 Aug 16, Edwin Prescott patented a roller coaster.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1904 Aug 16, NYC began building the Grand Central Station.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1906 Aug 16, A magnitude 8.6 earthquake in Valparaiso, Chile, left an estimated 20,000 people dead.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Z1 p.5)(AP, 6/22/02)
1912 Aug 16, Virginia executed Virginia Christian (b.1895) in the electric chair. Christian, an African-American maid, was convicted for the murder of her white employer Mrs. Ida Virginia Belote (72), a white woman, in her home at Hampton on March 18.
(AFP, 9/21/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Christian)
1913 Aug 16, Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman (1977-83) and Nobel Peace Prize (1978) recipient, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)(MC, 8/16/02)
1914 Aug 16, Liege, Belgium, fell to the German army.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1914 Aug 16, Zapata and Pancho Villa over ran Mexico.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1915 Aug 16, A hurricane hit Galveston, Texas. It caused 12 deaths and an estimated $5-8 million in property damage in the city.
(http://www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1915/)
1916 Aug 16, In San Francisco the 1,000 ton Ohio Building, created for the Panama-Pacific Expo, was dragged on skids to a barge and shipped 23 miles to San Carlos. In 1956 it was intentionally torched to clear the property.
(SFC, 2/24/21, p.B5)
1917 Aug 16, In San Francisco six United Railroads substitute platform men were arrested after they drove in an out of a parade of striking carmen. The men were recruited from Los Angeles. Two other machines carrying seven men each escaped. Loaded revolvers were found in the side pockets and under the chauffeur’s coat along with black jacks and clubs.
(SSFC, 8/13/17, DB p.50)
1918 Aug 16, US troops overthrew Archangel (Russia).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1920 Aug 16, Charles Bukowski, poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1924 Aug 16, Conference about German recovery payments opened in London.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1929 Aug 16, Bill Evans, jazz pianist, was born. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 8/16/00)
1930 Aug 16, Ted Hughes, English poet laureate, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1930 Aug 16, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (b.1891), an American-trained National Guard general, began ruling as dictator of the Dominican Republic and continued to 1961, when he was assassinated.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo)
1934 Aug 16, US explorer William Beebe descended 3,028' (923 m) in Bathysphere.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1936 Aug 16, The 11th Olympic games closed in Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1936 Aug 16, Spanish poet Garcia Lorca was arrested in Granada. He disappeared shortly thereafter. The 1997 film "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" was an attempt to depict the circumstances of his disappearance. Lorca was the author of "Gypsy Ballads," "Blood Wedding" and "The Poet." Spanish poet Fredico Garcia Lorca was shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own grave.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.12B)(HN, 8/19/98)(MT, Spg. ‘99, p.2)
1940 Aug 16, Bruce Beresford, Australian film director, was born. His films include "Breaker Morant" and "Driving Miss Daisy."
(HN, 8/16/00)
1940 Aug 16, 45 German aircrafts were shot down over England.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1942 Aug 16, The US Navy L-8 patrol blimp crash-landed at 419 Bellevue St., Daly City, Ca., after drifting in from the ocean. The ship’s crew, Lt. Ernest Dewitt Cody (27) and Ensign Charles E. Adams (38), were missing and no trace of them was ever found.
(GDCH, 1986, p.17)(Ind, 5/3/03, p.5A)
1943 Aug 16, Bulgarian czar Boris III visited Adolf Hitler.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1944 Aug 16, US bombers of the 8th Air Force raided the oil refinery at Rositz, Germany. As of 1998 21 unexploded bombs were dug up at the site.
(WSJ, 11/24/08, p.A12)
1944 Aug 16, Chartres, France, was freed.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, Suzanne Farrel, ballerina, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1945 Aug 16, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, was released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1945 Aug 16, Takijiro Ohnishi, leader of Japanese kamikaze pilots, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, The communist dominated Polish government signed a treaty with the USSR to formally cede eastern territories, including Galicia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_areas_annexed_by_the_Soviet_Union)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.51)
1946 Aug 16, A 3-day riot began in Calcutta that left some 6,000 people dead. The day marked the start of what is known as “The Week of the Long Knives".
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.71)
1948 Aug 16, Famed home-run slugger George Herman "Babe" Ruth died at age 53 in New York City. He is credited with turning baseball from a game of speed and skill to one of power. During a flamboyant major league career that began as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1914 and ended with his retirement from the Boston Braves in 1935, the Babe hit an astonishing total of 714 homers, a feat that was not surpassed until Henry Aaron of the Atlanta Braves broke Ruth’s record in 1974. The fans loved the warm-hearted Babe Ruth, who had a reputation as a hard drinker, carouser and womanizer. In 1931, at the height of his career with the Yankees, Ruth earned $80,000, which made him the highest-paid ballplayer in history. At a special "Babe Ruth Day" just two months before his death, the cancer-stricken Babe donned his uniform for the last time and appeared before a cheering crowd at Yankee Stadium. In 2006 Leigh Montville authored “The Big Bam," a biography of Babe Ruth.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/16/97)(HNPD, 8/16/98)(WSJ, 5/9/06, p.D6)
1948 Aug 16, Harry Dexter White, former assistant US Treasury Secretary, died of a heart attack. White had helped write the UN Charter. A few days earlier he had testified before the House-Un-American Activities Committee and denied leaking secrets to Soviet intelligence. Later evidence confirmed that he had worked for Soviet intelligence. In 2004 R. Bruce Craig authored "Treasonable Doubt," a study of White.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.W8)
1949 Aug 16, Margaret Mitchell (48), US writer (Gone With the Wind), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1953 Aug 16, Shah Pahlavi of Persia and princess Soraya fled to Baghdad and then Rome.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1954 Aug 16, Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1955 Aug 16, Fiat Motors ordered the 1st private atomic reactor.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1956 Aug 16, Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. John F. Kennedy made his convention debut at the Democratic convention in Chicago. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver withdrew his name from the balloting and asked his 200 delegates to support Adlai E. Stevenson for the presidential nomination. Stevenson won the nomination on the first ballot with 905 votes to New York Governor Averell Harriman's 200 votes. Kefauver then went on to narrowly defeat Senator John F. Kennedy for the party's vice-presidential nomination.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 8/10/99)(AP, 8/16/97)
1956 Aug 16, Bela Lugosi (b.1882), actor (Dracula), died of heart attack in Hollywood. He was born in Hungary as Bela Blasko.
(Internet)
1958 Aug 16, Madonna [Ciccone], entertainer and singer whose biggest record was "Like a Virgin," was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1959 Aug 16, William F. Halsey (Bull Halsey), US vice-admiral (WW II Pacific), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1960 Aug 16, Timothy Hutton (actor: Taps, Made in Heaven, Ordinary People, The Dark Half, The Temp, Q&A), was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1960 Aug 16, American test pilot Joe Kittinger’s history-making parachute jump was from an altitude of 102,800 feet, or 19.3 miles. In a gondola lifted by a 360-foot helium balloon, Kittinger reached the highest altitude ever reached by man in nonpowered flight. His free fall lasted four minutes and 36 seconds and he became the first man to exceed the speed of sound without an aircraft or space vehicle. In 1984 Kittinger became the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon alone.
(HNQ, 5/21/99)(WSJ, 2/27/06, p.A1)
1960 Aug 16, Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus. Archbishop Makarios began serving as the 1st post-independence president. He chose Spyros Kyprianou (28) as foreign minister. Under the provisions of the independence settlement, Turkey, along with Greece and Britain, maintained a right to military intervention if the island’s constitutional order is threatened.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A26)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.47)
1961 Aug 16, Martin Luther King protested for black voting rights in Miami.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 16, Some 250,000 West Berliners demonstrated against East Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1962 Aug 16, The Beatles dropped Pete Best as their drummer. They took on Ringo Starr on Aug 17. Best later authored the autobiography "Beatle! The Pete Best Story."
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.G5)(MC, 8/16/02)
1965 Aug 16, The Watts riots ended in south-central LA after six days with the help of 20,000 National Guardsmen; the riots left 34 dead, 857 injured, over 2,200 arrested, and property valued at $200 million destroyed. The riots started when police on August 11th brutally beat a black motorist suspected of drunken driving in Watts area of LA.
(HN, 8/16/00)(MC, 8/16/02)
1969 Aug 16, Canned Heat performed "Let's Work Together" live Woodstock.
(www.chromeoxide.com/canned.htm)
1970 Aug 16, Benny Bufano (b.1898), California-based Italian-American sculptor, died. He was known for his late-career bullet-shaped public sculptures.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.C1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Bufano)
1972 Aug 16, The Moroccan Air Force attempted to shoot down a Boeing 727 carrying King Hassan II. The attempt failed and the coup leaders were arrested. Gen. Mohammad Oufkir was shot to death for the attack. In 2000 a letter was produced that implicated Abderrahmane Youssoufi, the prime minister, in conspiracy with Oufkir.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_II_of_Morocco)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/15/00, p.D2)
1973 Aug 16, Pres. Richard Nixon proclaimed August 26 as Women’s Equality Day. A joint resolution of the US Congress, submitted in 1971, had designated August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day. Roxcy O’Neal Bolton (1927-2017) had prompted Pres. Richard Nixon to proclaim August 26 as Women's Equality Day.
(http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=106917)(Econ 6/17/17, p.82)
1974 Aug 16, The Ramones 1st performed at the CBGB in NYC. Dee Dee Ramone (d.2002) had formed the Ramones punk rock band in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens along with Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings (aka Johnny Ramone, d.2004) and Tom Erdelyi.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.D4)(Econ, 9/25/04, p.100)
1977 Aug 16, In San Francisco some 16 thousand kids paid $6.50 apiece to watch the Kiss concert at the Cow Palace.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.C1)
1977 Aug 16, Elvis Presley (b.1935), The "King" of rock-n-roll, died in the upstairs bedroom suite at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn. of a drug overdose at 42. Elvis died of heart failure after years of substance abuse. In 1994 Peter Guralnick published "Last Train to Memphis," the first of a 2-part biography on Elvis. In 1998 Guralnick published "Careless Love." More than 150 books were in print on Elvis in 1997. In 1998 Ernest Jorgensen published "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music. The Complete Recording sessions."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Par p.7)(SFEC, 8/3/97, DB p.33)(AP, 8/16/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W1)
1978 Aug 16, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he'd been set up by a mysterious man called "Raoul."
(AP, 8/16/03)
1978 Aug 16, Antonio Guzman assumed office as president of the Dominican Rep. Mindful of the fate of Juan Bosch sixteen years before, Guzman determined to move slowly in the area of social and economic reforms and to deal as directly as possible with the threat of political pressure from the armed forces.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ht3e)
1978 Aug 16, The World Bank under Robert McNamara issued its first World Development Report (WDR). the 68-page document provided a comprehensive assessment of global development issues.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/d3xzs6)
1984 Aug 16, A federal jury in Los Angeles acquitted auto maker John Z. DeLorean of trafficking in cocaine due to entrapment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_De_Lorean)
1985 Aug 16, Mary Gioia (22) of New York and Gregory Kniffin (18) of Connecticut were shot and killed in Berkeley, Ca. Their bodies were soon found in the SF Bay with gunshot wounds to the head. They had been staying at a homeless encampment in the Berkeley Marina while waiting for the next Grateful Dead concert. Ralph International Thomas was convicted of the murders. In 2009 the 2 convictions against Thomas (55) were overturned. In 2012 the US Ninth Circuit court of Appeals said Thomas (57) was entitled to a new trial due to missing witnesses in his first trial.
(SFC, 9/16/09, p.D3)(SFC, 5/11/12, p.C3)
1986 Aug 16, Flozelle Woodmore (18), shot and killed her abusive boyfriend, Clifton Morrow, with a .357 magnum in the presence of their 2-year-old son in Los Angeles. In 2007 Gov. Schwarzenegger, said he no longer oppose her parole.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.B12)(http://tinyurl.com/2mvdzg)
1987 Aug 16, Thousands of people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the "harmonic convergence," which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind. Nearly 5,000 people gathered at Mount Shasta, Ca., for the Harmonic Convergence aimed at bringing about world peace.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.C5)
1987 Aug 16, In Michigan 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from a Detroit airport; the sole survivor was 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan. The MD-80 plane hit a freeway overpass in Romulus following takeoff.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A12)(AP, 5/15/13)
1987 Aug 16, Iraqi warplanes bombarded the northern Kurdish village of Balisan, dropping bombs that spread a smoke smelling "like rotten apples." Helicopters then came and bombed the mountains to prevent the villagers from taking refuge anywhere.
(AP, 8/23/06)
1988 Aug 16, VP George Bush tapped Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle to be his running mate.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1989 Aug 16, A rare "prime time" lunar eclipse occurred over most of the United States, although clouds spoiled the view for many.
(AP, 8/16/99)
1990 Aug 16, President Bush met with Jordan’s King Hussein in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he urged the monarch to close Iraq’s access to the sea through the port of Aqaba.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1990 Aug 16, In Iraq, President Saddam Hussein issued a statement in which he repeatedly called Bush a "liar" and said the outbreak of war could result in "thousands of Americans wrapped in sad coffins."
(AP, 8/16/00)
1991 Aug 16, Pope John Paul the Second began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary.
(AP, 8/16/01)
1991 Aug 16, In Moscow, Alexander Yakovlev, a top adviser to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, resigned from the Communist Party, warning that hard-liners were plotting "a party and state coup."
(AP, 8/16/01)
1992 Aug 16, On the eve of the Republican National Convention in Houston, President Bush and party officials heatedly denied a report in The New York Times that a confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was motivated by political concerns.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1993 Aug 16, President Clinton opened his campaign for health care reform with a speech to the nation's governors in Tulsa, Okla.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1993 Aug 16, New York police rescued business executive Harvey Weinstein from a covered 14-foot-deep pit, where he'd been held for ransom for nearly two weeks.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1993 Aug 16, Actor Stewart Granger (80) died in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1994 Aug 16, President Clinton and other top Democrats were scouring the House of Representatives for converts in hopes of reviving a stalled anti-crime bill.
(AP, 8/16/99)
1994 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka the People’s Alliance government came to power and promised to end the civil war.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1995 Aug 16, The US government more than doubled its estimate of rapes or attempted rapes in the US each year, to 310,000, a finding praised by leaders of women’s groups.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1995 Aug 16, In Orinda, Ca., Maria Corrieo and her sister, Gina Roberts, were killed by Dalton Lolohea and 2 others during a robbery. Lolohea was tried and convicted for the double murder in 2000 along with robbery and burglary. David Ross was sentenced to 20 years in prison in exchange for testifying against Corey Williams. In 2013 the state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Williams.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A19)(SFC, 2/18/00, p.D3)(SFC, 8/18/00, p.A22)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.D1)
1995 Aug 16, Rebel soldiers in Sao Tome overthrew Pres. Miguel Trovoada. This is a two-island nation off the west coast of Africa.
(WSJ, 8/16/95, p. A-1)
1996 Aug 16, A jubilant Bob Dole set out from the Republican convention, promoting his tax-cut plan as a boon to working families.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1996 Aug 16, The brokerage firm E*Trade Group went public and saw its shares rise 7.1% on its first day of trading.
(WSJ, 11/13/07, p.A21)
1996 Aug 16, In Brookfield, Ill., a 3-year-old boy fell 15-feet into a concrete area of a zoo’s gorilla exhibit and was rescued by Binti-jua, a 7-year-old gorilla with her own 2-year-old on her back.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A3)(MC, 8/16/02)
1996 Aug 16, Eric Nesbitt (21), an airman at Langley AFB, was shot and killed after he was abducted and forced to withdraw money from an ATM machine by Daryl R. Atkins and another man. Atkins scored 59 on an IQ test in 1998, below the Virginia cut-off of 70 for retardation. In 2002 the US Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. In 2004 Atkins scored 74 and faced another trial. In 2005 a jury found Atkins to be mentally competent.
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A9)(SFC, 8/6/05, p.A4)(www.vuac.org/capital/row.html)
1996 Aug 16, Dominican Rep. Pres. Balaguer left office. Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna (b. 1953), a 42-year-old lawyer who grew up in New York City, was the 100th president of the Dominican Republic. He replaced Joaquín Amparo Balaguer Ricardo (1906-2002), President of the Dominican Republic from 1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986-1996.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Balaguer)
1996 Aug 16, In Mexico Attorney General Antonio Lozano fired 734 members of the judicial police in an attempt to reform the drug-fighting force.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A14)
1997 Aug 16, Thousands of Elvis Presley fans thronged Graceland on the 20th anniversary of his death.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1997 Aug 16, It was reported that the US led the world in arms sales last year with 35.5% of all orders. Britain ranked 2nd with 15.1% and Russia 3rd with 14.5%.
(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 16, In Mexico Alejandro Ortiz Martinez, brother of the finance minister Guillermo Ortiz, was shot and killed by three gunmen in Mexico City.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.A21)
1997 Aug 16, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the most popular singer in Pakistan, died in a London hospital. He was considered one of the world’s greatest singers of Sufi devotional music in a style called qawwali, where long performances built up emotion and complexity to the backdrop of stringed instruments and the harmonium.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.D8)
1997 Aug 16, Scientists reported that an underground seismic event occurred in Russia. Inquiries were being made about nuclear testing. Russian scientists claimed a magnitude-2 earthquake near the Novaya Zemlya test range triggered the event.
(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 16, Two cosmonauts just returned from Mir (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin) rejected criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging, problem-plagued space station.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1998 Aug 16, A day before President Clinton was to face a criminal grand jury about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, his lawyer said, "The truth is the truth, and that's how the president will testify."
(AP, 8/16/99)
1998 Aug 16, An int’l. crew broke the 1995 Steve Fossett record for sailing across the Pacific Ocean. The Explorer twin-hulled catamaran set sail from Yokohama on Aug 2 and arrived in SF after 14 days, 17 hours and 22 minutes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 16, Steve Fossett ran into heavy storms and plunged with his balloon into the Coral Sea, 500 miles from Queensland, Australia.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 16, It was reported that about 80% of breeding-age swordfish had been eliminated by overfishing.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T9)
1998 Aug 16, Congo Pres. Kabila flew to Angola to meet with Pres. dos Santos and request direct support against rebels. Air cargo support was being provided as well as several thousand Congolese exiles known as the Katangese Gendarmes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 16, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland united in uncomprehending grief over the car bomb slaughter of 29 people in Omagh a day earlier.
(AP, 8/16/03)
1999 Aug 16, The TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" began a limited two-week run on ABC. Imported from London, the show was hosted by Meredith Vieira and it was still on the air in 2008. This became the most popular TV show of the 1999-2000 season pulling in 28.5m viewers every Tuesday night.
(AP, 8/16/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Wants_To_Be_A_Millionaire%3F)(Econ, 5/1/10, SR p.10)
1999 Aug 16, Republican Lamar Alexander folded his presidential campaign.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, Four months after two gunmen sent them fleeing in horror, students reclaimed Columbine High School in Colorado for the start of the school year.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, In Lebanon Abu Hassan, a Hezbollah commander, was killed by a roadside bomb in Sidon. Guerrillas blamed the attack on Israel.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 16, In Russia Vladimir Putin was confirmed as prime minister, the fifth since early 1998.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, In Kosovo 2 Serbs were killed in a mortar attack from an ethnic Albanian village.
(WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 16, In South Africa thousands of state workers stayed home from work and some 10,000 Telkom and post office workers demonstrated in Pretoria and other cities.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A10)
2000 Aug 16, Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles formally nominated Al Gore for president.
(AP, 8/16/01)
2000 Aug 16, Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona) was diagnosed with a second bout of melanoma. The cancer was later surgically removed, with no sign that it had spread.
(AP, 8/16/01)
2000 Aug 16, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot declared the whole state a disaster area due to the raging fires.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 16, In Afghanistan the Taliban shut down 25 bakeries run by widows saying that Islam forbids women to work.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 16, In Brazil armed hijacked an airliner and forced it to land in southern Parana state. They escaped with an estimated $3.3 million in stolen money.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A15)
2000 Aug 16, In Chechnya 2 civilians were killed when rebels blew up a police car in Grozny.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2000 Aug 16, Hipolito Mejia (59) assumed the presidency of the Dominican Republic succeeding Leonel Fernandez. He proceeded to use foreign borrowing to finance public spending.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)(Econ, 12/13/03, p.35)
2000 Aug 16, It was reported that Libya had paid millions to free 9 Westerners held hostage by Muslim rebels in the Philippines.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A17)
2000 Aug 16, In Uganda at least 18 people died after a fire ignited while they scooped oil from an overturned tanker.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2001 Aug 16, Zacarias Moussaoui (33), a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested in Eagan, Minnesota, on immigration charges. He was taking lessons on flying Boeing jets with no interest in taking off or landing. He was later suspected as a 5th member of one of the Sep 11 WTC attack teams. In Nov the FBI reported that Moussaoui wanted to learn how to take off and land but not to fly. Mueller also said Ramzi Omar of Yemen, aka Ramsi Binalshibh, may have been the 20th hijacker. The local FBI contacted the CIA for action on Moussaoui when FBI managers failed to take action. Agent Coleen Rowley later charged that senior officials fumbled an opportunity to possibly prevent the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A7)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/4/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A14)
2001 Aug 16, Wild fires in the 10 Western US states covered over 50,000 acres, half in Oregon. 20,000 fighters fought 42 major blazes.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 16, Paul Burrell, trusted butler of Princess Diana for many years, was charged with the theft of hundreds of royal family items, a charge he denied. He was tried for theft in 2002 but the trial collapsed after evidence was given that Queen Elizabeth II had spoken with him regarding the disputed events. In 2003 he released his book, “A Royal Duty," which talks about his time as butler to Diana.
(AP, 8/16/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Burrell)
2001 Aug 16, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana signed legislation giving the military broad new powers to wage war with less scrutiny from human rights monitors. Gunmen in Santo Tomas killed 12 people for being members in the ELN.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 16, In Indonesia Pres. Sukarnoputri, in her 1st state of the nation speech, apologized for atrocities in rebellious provinces, urged the military to reform itself and ruled out independence for Aceh and Irian Jaya.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 16, A Jamaica government commission recommended that marijuana, aka ganja, be legalized for personal use by adults.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 Aug 16, In Nepal the government outlawed discrimination against members of the lowest caste, the Dalits, who would be free to enter any temple or religious structure.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 16, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic, former commander of Bratunac, pleaded innocent at the Hague war crimes tribunal for 1995 war crimes in Srebrenica. On January 17, 2005, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic became the second indictee to be convicted on Srebrenica Genocide charges and other human rights violations. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. On May 9, 2007, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled that Col Blagojevic had not been complicit in the genocide at Srebrenica because he had not known his troops intended to commit it. Blagojevic’s sentence was reduced to 15 years.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre)
2002 Aug 16, Major League Baseball players set a strike deadline of Aug. 30. The two sides finally reached an agreement with just six hours to spare.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Aug 16, Jeff Corey (88), blacklisted actor, died in Santa Monica. Corey developed a post blacklist career teaching and then appeared in over 70 films or TV shows.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A19)
2002 Aug 16, Stephen P. Yokich (66), former United Auto Workers president died in Detroit.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Aug 16, In Algeria Islamic insurgents reportedly killed 26 people, including women and children, in a rural western hamlet.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, In Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, police arrested two people on suspicion of murdering a pair of 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells (b. 10-4-1991) and Jessica Chapman (b. 9-1-1991), who vanished from a rural village on August 4th. On December 17, 2003 Ian Huntley (28), a caretaker at the local secondary school, was convicted by two eleven-to-one majority jury verdicts, and on that day began serving two concurrent life sentences. On September 29, 2005, the High Court announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years, a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. His girlfriend Maxine Carr (25), a classroom assistant, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. She was given three-and-a-half years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice but cleared of two counts of assisting an offender. She was freed and electronically tagged within 30 days, because she had already spent 16 months in jail.
(AP, 8/17/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders)
2002 Aug 16, In Germany authorities evacuated thousands of people near Dresden's historic center as floodwaters in the Elbe River rose to a record high and spilled into a square close to some of the city's cultural landmarks.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, Sabri al-Banna, aka Abu Nidal (65), Palestinian guerrilla commander and head of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, died from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad home. Iraqi officials said he killed himself.
(Reuters, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A18)(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 16, In central Nigeria gunmen killed Ahmad Ahman Pategi, Kwara state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and a senior official of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party, along with his police bodyguard.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 16, Russia and Iraqi officials planned to sign a 5-year $40 billion economic cooperation agreement.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 16, Pope John Paul II returned to Poland for a 3-day visit.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 16, President Hugo Chavez railed against a Supreme Court decision to absolve four military officers accused of leading an April coup but urged Venezuelans to accept it.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zambian government has rejected donations of genetically modified corn from the United States, even though a massive food shortage threatens nearly 2.3 million of its people with starvation.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zimbabwean government appeared to be cracking down on white farmers who defied orders to leave their land, charging seven in court and detaining at least 27 others across the country.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2003 Aug 16, The Midwest and Northeast were almost fully recovered from the worst power outage in U.S. history.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2003 Aug 16, Bill Janklow (64), US Congressional Representative and former South Dakota governor, ran a stop sign and killed motorcyclist Randolph E. Scott (55) near Flandreau, SD. On Aug 29 Janklow was charged with manslaughter. Janklow was found guilty of felony manslaughter on Dec 8 and announced his resignation effective Jan 20. Janklow was sentenced to serve 100 days in a county jail.
(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A3)(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A5)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A3)
2003 Aug 16, Haroldo de Campos (73), Brazilian poet, died in Sao Paulo. He was the best know of the Brazilian Concrete poets.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A19)
2003 Aug 16, In Nigeria's southern oil port city of Warri, authorities imposed a nighttime curfew following gunbattles between rival tribal militias that have killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 16, In southern Pakistan unidentified gunmen shot to death Ibn-e-Hasan (45), a Shiite Muslim doctor, sparking rowdy protests by hundreds of youths.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 16, In north central Uganda rebels from the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army slashed up to 15 people to death with machetes during an attack on the village of Bata. They also made off with 40 children. All the people killed were formerly abductees who had been rescued. The army said the next day it had killed 20 rebel fighters and rescued 127 abducted children.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 16, Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of his people in the 1970s, died in a Saudi hospital where he had been critically ill for weeks. In 2006 the film “The Last King of Scotland," was adopted from a novel by Giles Foden that focused on Idi Amin. The film, directed by Kevin McDonald, featured Forest Whitaker as Amin.
(AP, 8/16/03)(www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html)(WSJ, 9/29/06, p.W1)
2003 Aug 16, It was reported that African swine fever (ASF) had killed half of the pigs in Uganda this year.
(SFC, 8/16/03, p.A24)
2004 Aug 16, Pres. Bush announced plans to pull 70-100 thousand US troops from Europe and Asia and redeploy them to meet the demands of the global war on terrorism.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, Colorado certified a ballot question that would make it the 1st state to award electoral votes by popular-vote percentages, not as winner take all.
(WSJ, 8/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 16, The FDA approved the 1st surgical device to clear clots from the brains of stroke victims.
(WSJ, 8/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 16, The children’s TV show “Lazytown" made its US premier. Magnus Scheving spent over a decade building the brand in Iceland before moving overseas.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.76)(www.tv.com/lazytown/show/29257/episode_listings.html)
2004 Aug 16, General Motors said it will start making Cadillacs in China this year, joining a race by foreign luxury car brands to sell to the country's newly rich elite.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, Costco began piloting the sale of discounted coffins.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.50)
2004 Aug 16, Kamala Markandaya (79), Indian novelist, died. Her books focused on rural life, interracial relationships and conflicting Eastern and Western values.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.D12)
2004 Aug 16, In China villagers in an eastern province dug with farm tools to search for 24 people missing in massive landslides unleashed by Typhoon Rananim.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Nigeria an oil tanker truck went out of control and plowed into a bustling Nigerian market in Kano, killing 17.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Russia the Novy Ochevidets (New Eyewitness) magazine was introduced in Moscow. It resembled the New Yorker.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Aug 16, Election officials in Venezuela announced that voters had overwhelmingly chosen to keep President Hugo Chavez in office.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Pres. Bush selected Donald Winter of Northrup Grumman to be Navy secretary and Michael Wynne, Pentagon aide, as Air Force head.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, The Bush administration reduced the estimated value of recreation in national forests from $111 billion to $11 billion. Environmentalists warned the new Forest Service assessment could be used to justify increased logging.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A4)
2005 Aug 16, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman secured a deal for his state to export $17 million in agricultural goods to communist Cuba. The first US shipment of great northern beans to the island since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Several new computer worms hit systems running MS Windows 2000. On Aug 25 authorities in Morocco arrested Farid Essebar (18) for writing the Zotob worm. Atilla Ekici (21) was arrested in Turkey for paying Essebar to write the worm. In 2006 Morocco sentenced Farid Essebar (19) to 2 years in prison and Achraf Bahlouo (21) to one year for their role in unleashing the Zotob worm. Ekici’s trial continued in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.A2)(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.B3)(WSJ, 11/21/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay $350 million to settle claims over the role it played in the fraud that led to the collapse of Enron in 2001.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.C3)
2005 Aug 16, Francy Boland (75), jazz pianist, died in Geneva, Sw.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 16, Vassar Clements (77), fiddle virtuoso, died in Nashville, Ten. He recorded on more than 2,000 albums in various styles from bluegrass to classical.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 16, Two helicopters carrying NATO-led forces to prepare for next month's elections crashed in the desert in western Afghanistan, killing at least 17 Spanish troops.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, It was reported that scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antimicrobial drugs for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills HIV.
(Reuters, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, In Britain an official investigation contradicted the police account of the July 21 killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, an electrician from Brazil.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A12)
2005 Aug 16, Bulgaria's Parliament overwhelmingly approved historian Sergei Stanishev (39), the leader of the Socialist Party, as the country's new prime minister bringing to power his socialist-liberal coalition government.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A university professor in Shanghai said is he is offering China's first class on homosexuality and gay culture and that several hundred students have applied for the 100 openings.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 16, In Taize, France, Brother Roger, the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical religious community dedicated to peace and reconciliation, was knifed to death by an apparently deranged Romanian woman at an evening prayer service attended by 2,500 people. Brother Roger founded the Taize religious community in 1940 emphasizing the need for all Christians to come together in peace, love and reconciliation.
(AP, 8/17/05)(WSJ, 8/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, A top Indian official said Indian and Chinese oil firms will sign agreements aimed at bidding jointly for foreign oil and gas projects and reducing cut-throat competition.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Iraqi leaders, a day after failing to meet their deadline, expressed confidence they would overcome differences over key issues like the role of Islam and the power of regional governments and finish the new constitution by next week.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Israeli security forces clashed with hundreds of opponents of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, arresting dozens of people in the roughest confrontation between troops and settlers since the start of the operation.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A 7.2 earthquake shook northeastern Japan, triggering landslides, sending a shower of ceiling debris into a crowded indoor swimming pool and shaking skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo. At least 59 people were reportedly injured.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, North Korean officials visited South Korea's parliament for the first time in a symbolic gesture of reconciliation with their democratic rivals.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 16, Peru’s President Alejandro Toledo swore in a new Cabinet with Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the former finance minister, as prime minister and cabinet chief.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 16, Russia's Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision banning the National Bolshevik Party, handing a rare victory to the radical youth organization known for flamboyant acts of political protest.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Russia said an outbreak of bird flu in Chelyabinsk was dangerous to humans, as teams of sanitary workers destroyed birds in Siberia in an attempt to prevent the westward spread of the deadly virus.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home from Panama to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The pilot had been attempting an emergency landing after both engines failed.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2006 Aug 16, New York City officials released new tapes of hundreds of heart-wrenching phone calls from the World Trade Center on 9-11, along with other emergency transcripts.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2006 Aug 16, Google launched a free wireless network for its hometown of Mountainview, Ca.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr (41), a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for the December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed JonBenet was later discredited.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 16, Over 80 immigrant workers in New Orleans filed suit against Decatur Hotels LLC saying they were being exploited. The workers from Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Rep. had not been reimbursed for travel and were not getting the promised work hours.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A16)
2006 Aug 16, In southeastern Afghanistan US and Afghan forces raided compounds suspected of being al-Qaida sanctuaries, seizing weapons and explosives and arresting 8 people. US-led forces killed eight suspected militants after coming under attack in Kunar province. A US soldier was killed when his vehicle struck a Soviet-era mine in Paktika province. Western officials said opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels, up by more than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Alfredo Stroessner (93), anti-communist dictator of Paraguay (1954-1989), died in exile in Brazil. He used the right-wing Colorado Party to rule with a blend of force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ouster in 1989. During his rule membership in the Colorado Party was compulsory for all teachers, doctors, engineers, officers or those who hoped for government service. Party dues was docked from salaries.
(AP, 8/16/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.71)
2006 Aug 16, Colombian police arrested 14 top paramilitary leaders for violating the terms of a peace accord that has led to the demobilization of 30,000 right-wing fighters. Anti-narcotics police said they chemically fumigated the Sierra Macarena national park last week, clearing its entire 11,370 acres of coca. The spraying destroyed coca capable of producing 17.5 tons of high-grade cocaine and was likely a major blow to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.28)
2006 Aug 16, In northeast India a grenade exploded in a Hindu temple, killing at least four people and leaving 40 others injured, mainly in a stampede that followed the blast.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Bombings in Baghdad, killed 21 people and wounded 59. One American soldier was also killed as he was distributing candy to the children. British troops drove off gunmen who attacked the Basra governor's office, apparently to avenge a tribal leader killed the day before. In Mosul armed clashes between police and assailants in three predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods killed least five gunmen with six arrested. A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol north of Hillah, killing three soldiers and wounding four. In Karbala 10 militia fighters were killed and 281 arrested. A US soldier died of wounds suffered in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Kashmir 5 Islamic rebels were shot dead by Indian troops after they sneaked across the de facto border from the Pakistani zone. The army suffered one casualty.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Top foreign diplomats planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international force to enforce a cease-fire in southern Lebanon, but the government was divided over whether Hezbollah should lay down its arms or even withdraw them from the border with Israel.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza, killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol boat opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Mogadishu, Somalia, Islamic leaders gave seven men 40 lashes each for using or selling marijuana, meting out the punishment in public in a dramatic example of the region's new fundamentalist rule.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official opening the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and Mozambique. This was another step in the creation of the 14,000 square mile Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the 3 countries.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 16, A South Korean aid group claimed that massive floods in North Korea last month left about 54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tamil Tiger positions as troops hunted rebel infiltrators in northern Jaffna peninsula after resisting a guerrilla advance.
(AFP, 8/16/06)
2007 Aug 16, The US offered Israel an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Jose Padilla, a US citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks. Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," was later sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison on the unrelated terror support charges.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 16, US authorities indicted Igor Klopow (24), a Russian national, for his role in an ID theft gang that targeted wealthy individuals. Klopow was lured to the US and arrested under the Brooklyn Bridge.
(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.B2)
2007 Aug 16, A new Jefferson one dollar coin went into circulation nationwide. It followed the Washington coin, which was introduced in February, and the John Adams coin, introduced in May. The coin honoring James Madison was scheduled to go into circulation in November.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, US officials said C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina, collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base. The firm was run by sisters Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten (d.2006). The owners had exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or US bases that were labeled “priority" were usually paid automatically.
(www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=ardg6DwCCMFI&refer=home)(Reuters, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 16, Kathleen Culhane (40), former private investigator in California, was sentenced to 5 years in state prison for forging documents to save the lives of Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 16, CARE spokeswoman Alina Labrada said the donation of wheat and other crops does not help in regions where people consistently go hungry because local farming has been weakened by international competition. The Atlanta-based group turned down $46 million worth of US food aid, arguing that the way the American government distributes its help hurts poor farmers.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Utah the search for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. The search for six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon Mine was later abandoned. In 2012 mine operator Genwal Resources Inc. agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor criminal charges and pay a $500,000 fine.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/16/08)(SFC, 3/10/12, p.A6)
2007 Aug 16, In Afghanistan 6 civilians, including 3 children, were killed by the mortar and machine-gun attack on the village of Nangarkhel, Paktika province. Two other civilians died of their wounds in a hospital. 7 Polish soldiers were later charged with war crimes. On Jun 1, 2011, a military court in Poland acquitted the soldiers saying there was not enough evidence to support war crime charges. On March 19, 2015, four Polish soldiers were cleared of war crimes over the killing of the six civilians, but were convicted of lesser charges for which three of them were given suspended sentences.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nangar_Khel_incident)(AP, 6/1/11)(Reuters, 3/19/15)
2007 Aug 16, Australia’s PM John Howard said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India, subject to strict conditions.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 16, It was reported that a highly infectious swine virus, blue pork disease, had spread to 25 of China’s 33 provinces, prompting pork shortages and an 85% increase in pork prices over the last year.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 16, In Greece a huge forest fire burned two dozen homes, animals and cars in the northern outskirts of Athens before firefighters extinguished most of it.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, A conservation group said mercury used by gold miners has seeped into rivers and streams and sickened scores of Indian villagers in rural Guyana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The Iraqi prime minister and president announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and Kurds in a push to save the crumbing government, saying a key Sunni bloc refused to join but the door remained open to them. In Baghdad, a car bomb struck a parking garage in a central commercial district during the morning rush hour, killing at least nine people and wounding 17. US troops clashed with suspected Sunni insurgents holed up in a mosque north of Baghdad and launched an air-to-ground Hellfire missile into the structure. One American soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/16/07)(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled through its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least nine lives and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake. The mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of Tajimi in the afternoon, breaking a previous national record of 105.4 degrees set in 1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Uganda announced plans to send 250 extra soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu, but Somalia's government warned they were not enough and urged other African nations to commit troops.
(Reuters, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Opponents of President Hugo Chavez vowed to block his plans to radically overhaul the constitution, warning the changes would give him unlimited power and cripple democracy in Venezuela.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia for its 27th summit. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform at the summit of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country's political and economic crisis.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.43)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2008 Aug 16, Afghan and foreign troops clashed with militants in a mountainous area of Zabul province, killing 7 militants. In Kandahar province a roadside blast killed 10 police officers on patrol. In eastern Paktika province police clashed with militants in the Shwak district, killing 4 insurgents. In Helmand province British troops accidentally killed 4 civilians during an operation against Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 8/17/08)(WSJ, 8/18/08, p.A9)(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, Jailed Belarusian opposition leader Alexander Kozulin, considered in the West to be the ex-Soviet state's most prominent political prisoner, was released. Kozulin was one of two opposition candidates to run against Lukashenko in a 2006 election and was jailed for 5 1/2 years for helping stage mass protests against the official result declaring the president the winner by a landslide.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dorival Caymmi (b.1914), Brazilian composer, died. He had composed over 100 songs and catapulted to fame when Carmen Miranda performed one of his songs in 1938.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff between Thailand and Cambodia appeared to be ending as both sides pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Carol Huynh, whose parents fled communist Vietnam in the 1970s, won Canada's first gold of the Olympics in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling. Usain Bolt of Jamaica was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in the Olympic men's 100 meters final in a world record time of 9.69 sec.
(AP, 8/16/08)(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Authorities in the Central African Republic gave the green light for a leading rebel group headed by a former defense minister to form a political party. Both the rebel group and the new NAP party are headed by former defense minister Jean-Jacques Demafouth, currently in exile in France.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez promised to boost agricultural production and warned of dire economic times as he was sworn in for a third term.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tropical Storm Fay lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains and floods that killed at least 18 people including at least 14 people in Haiti, feared to have died aboard a bus that tried to cross a flooded river.
(AP, 8/17/08)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In India police arrested the alleged leader of the July Ahmadabad bombings. Mufti Abu Bashir was arrested in the northern Indian city of Lucknow.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tens of thousands of Muslims marched in India's portion of Kashmir in honor of a prominent separatist leader killed in a recent wave of violence that has rocked the volatile Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, On Indonesia's Sumatra island at least nine people have died and dozens were injured when a slow-moving passenger train hit a parked freight locomotive.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Russian forces pulled back from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later suggested there would be no immediate broader withdrawal. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over 13 villages in Georgia and a power plant. Russian troops blew up a key railroad bridge linking the Caucasus to the Black Sea coast.
(AP, 8/16/08)(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb exploded as Shiite pilgrims were boarding minibuses in Baghdad, killing at least 3 people, in a third straight day of attacks on travelers heading to a religious ceremony in Karbala. Iraqi police and hospital employees said six people were killed and 11 injured. The US military put the toll at three dead and eight injured.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A man used Semtex in a rocket-propelled grenade attack against Northern Ireland police officers, the first attack using the deadly explosive since paramilitary groups agreed to hand in their weapons.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 16, A top ruling party official gave Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a two-day deadline to quit or face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Rwanda Jozefina Zaninka (75), a woman who lost nearly all her family in the 1994 genocide, was murdered, in the latest of several killings of survivors of the slaughter. Some 167 survivors of the genocide have been murdered between 1995 and mid-May 2008.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In South Africa a regional summit of southern African leaders opened with Zimbabwe's crisis high on the agenda, and with the country's main political rivals in attendance.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka a series of raging battles across the northern war zone killed 27 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven government troops. Soldiers took control of a rebel training base in Andankulam in the Welioya region after Tamil Tiger fighters fled the area.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2009 Aug 16, Y.E. Yang (37) of South Korea won the PGA Championship at Chaska, Minnesota, with a 2-under par 70 beating Tiger Woods who shot a 5 over par 75.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, In San Francisco BART management and union leaders reached a tentative contract agreement less that 6 hours before a planned strike to shut down the regional rail system.
(SFC, 8/17/09, p.A1)
2009 Aug 16, Afghan President Hamid Karzai took part in a live television debate with two of his main rivals running in this week's election, a first for an incumbent head of state in the war-scarred country. The Afghan defense ministry said that more than 30 rebels, including foreigners, were killed in an operation pounding Taliban centers in a bid to secure a northeast troublespot for key elections. Two US troops and a US civilian died in gun and bomb attacks in eastern Afghanistan. 3 British soldiers were killed in an explosion in the volatile south.
(AFP, 8/16/09)(AFP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, Chinese authorities in central Henan province called off the takeover of Linzhou Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., a state-owned steel plant, after workers protested and trapped an official in the factory office for four days, the second time in a month that the country's steelworkers have rallied to successfully avoid privatization.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, Iran expanded its mass trial of opposition supporters, adding 25 more defendants including a Jewish teenager who are accused of involvement in unrest over the disputed presidential election.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, The US Peace Corps says it has pulled more than 100 American volunteers out of Mauritania for security reasons. The volunteers left for neighboring Senegal and will not return to Mauritania.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il held talks with Hyun Jeong-eun, the head of South Korea's Hyundai Group, in a rare meeting that could warm prospects for a resumption of stalled cross-border projects.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, In Pakistan seven suspected Taliban militants were killed during a gunfight with soldiers in Kabal village, about 20 kilometers northwest of Mingora in the Swat Valley. Police arrested militant commander Qari Saifullah, a close Mehsud aide, as he was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 16, It was reported that Peru has become the world’s largest “factory" of counterfeit US dollars. Police were said to seize some $10 million in false dollars each month in Lima alone. The Peruvian dollars were mostly found in such countries as Italy, France, Germany and Ecuador. Gunmen robbed 12 foreigners on an ecological tourism trip to the Manu nature reserve in the Tres Cruces area of the Cusco region.
(SSFC, 8/16/09, p.A4)(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, Two Russian air force fighters rehearsing acrobatic maneuvers collided near Moscow, killing one pilot and sending the jets crashing into nearby vacation homes.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, An American cargo plane arrived in Taiwan with supplies for victims of the recent Typhoon Morakot disaster. It was the first American military aircraft to land in Taiwan in the 30 years since the US severed its diplomatic ties in favor of China.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.36)
2009 Aug 16, In Uruguay some 20 dead Fraser's dolphins turned up this weekend on the Punta Negra beach in Piriapolis outside Montevideo. Experts theorized the tropical dolphins became disoriented or were carried there by changing water currents.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2010 Aug 16, The US Justice Dept. dropped its 6-year investigation of former US House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex) and his interactions with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
(SFC, 8/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, The US Interior Dept. announced new rules for offshore drilling.
(SFC, 8/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, US-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, one of the world's largest diamond trading networks, said it will expel members who knowingly trade Zimbabwean stones tainted by allegations of killings and human rights abuses.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Sheriff’s deputies at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Ca., stunned inmate Martin Harrison (51) with Tasers as they tried to move him to another cell so that his could be cleaned. Harrison was in the midst of alcohol withdrawal and died two days later. In 2015 Alameda County and Corizon Health Inc. agreed to pay $8.3 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by his four adult children.
(http://tinyurl.com/ldo9487)(SFC, 2/11/15, p.D1)
2010 Aug 16, Shrimpers returned to Louisiana waters for the first commercial season since the Gulf oil disaster, uncertain what crude may still be in the water and what price they'll get for the catch if consumers worry about possible lingering effects from the massive BP spill.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In South Carolina Shaquan Duley suffocated her 2 sons, ages 3 years and 14 months, put their bodies into a car and rolled the car into the North Edisto River. On March 16, 2012, she pleaded guilty to murder charges.
(SFC, 3/17/12, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/75e5z3u)
2010 Aug 16, Mazda Motor Corp announced a recall of 215,000 Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 vehicles sold in the United States because of the risk that they could lose power steering without warning.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 16, Dell Inc. said it's buying 3Par Inc., a maker of enterprise data storage equipment, for about $1.13 billion cash or $18 per share. Hewlett Packard soon countered with a higher bid and a bidding war ensued raising the value of 3Par $2 billion, or $30/share. HP ended an 18-day battle with a $33 per share offer. On Sep 2 Dell refused to continue bidding and said it was entitled to a $72 million termination fee.
(AP, 8/16/10)(SSFC, 8/29/10, p.A9)(SFC, 9/3/10, p.D4)
2010 Aug 16, Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan (50), who made headlines for performing multiple surgeries on reality TV star Heidi Montag, died in a car crash in southern California. He was texting while driving and accidentally went over a cliff. Ryan opened his private practice in 1994, the same year he established his namesake charitable foundation that provides free removal of gang-related tattoos and hosts day and overnight camps for children at Malibu's Bony Pony Ranch.
(http://tinyurl.com/2fv4r8f)
2010 Aug 16, In South Carolina Shaquan Duley (29) suffocated her two boys (18 months and 2 years old) and rolled her car into the North Edisto River in an attempt to cover their murder. She confessed to their murder the next day.
(SFC, 8/18/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, In Afghanistan 6 police officers in Kandahar province were poisoned by a cook who defected to the Taliban.
(SSFC, 8/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Aug 16, Teams from Australia, Germany and Switzerland have set off from Geneva in electric vehicles for what they hope will be the first carbon neutral race around the world. The race set up by Swiss inventor Louis Palmer will pass through 150 cities including Berlin, Moscow, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Cancun before returning to Geneva in January after 18,642 miles (30,000 km) on the road.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Bolivia protesters suspended road blockades and hunger strikes, saying government officials agreed to address their grievances after 19 days of demonstrations that paralyzed Bolivia's southern Potosi region. The government agreed to build a new airport and cement factory in the area to end the 3-weeks of roadblocks.
(AP, 8/16/10)(SSFC, 8/22/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, In northeast China a massive explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing 19 workers, damaging nearby buildings and causing secondary blasts.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In China at least 36 more people have died and 23 others were missing in fresh flooding from torrential rains in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, A Boeing 737 jetliner with 131 passengers aboard crashed on landing and broke into three pieces at Colombia’s at San Andres Island in the Caribbean. The region's governor said it was a miracle that only one person died. On Sep 1 a girl (11) died from her injuries raising the death toll to two.
(AP, 8/16/10)(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Greece Dimitrios Ioannidis (87), a feared security chief, died. He led the 1974 countercoup against Greece's military leaders and provoked Turkey's invasion of Cyprus. He was jailed in 1975 for life for his part in the 1967-74 dictatorship.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Iran said it plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds, with construction on the first starting in March, in continuing defiance of international efforts to curb its nuclear development.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb killed four Iranian Shiite pilgrims and an Iraqi citizen travelling on a bus northeast of Baghdad with women among nine others wounded.
(AFP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant who the military said was planting a bomb along the border.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, Mexico's Supreme Court voted to uphold a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples, drawing jubilant cheers from gay advocacy groups and angry protests from Roman Catholic Church representatives.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Mexico 4 inmates were found dead with their throats slashed at a prison in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, Nigerian officials said a cholera outbreak has killed 87 people during the past month while 1,315 others have been infected.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Pakistan angry flood survivors blocked a highway to protest slow delivery of aid and heavy rain lashed makeshift housing as a forecast of more flooding increased the urgency of the massive international relief effort.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Peru American Lori Berenson apologized for aiding leftist rebels and asked a Peruvian court to let her remain free on parole after serving 15 years of her 20-year sentence behind bars.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Romania a fire at a Bucharest maternity hospital killed 3 babies. A 4th died the next day and seven remained in critical condition. The accident provoked a wave of public indignation, throwing light on Romania's poorly funded and understaffed health system.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, Russia’s ruling party said it would not re-nominate Georgy Boos, the unpopular governor of Kaliningrad, for a new term.
(Reuters, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Russia Gabriel Grecu, first secretary in the political department of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, was detained while trying to obtain secret military information from a Russian citizen. He was given 48 hours to leave the country.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Sudan lightning struck a religious school in the country's western Darfur region, killing seven children.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2011 Aug 16, The US National Marriage Project reported that the number of Americans with children who live together without marrying has increased 12-fold since 1970.
(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A6)
2011 Aug 16, Tampa police arrested Jared Cano (17), an expelled student, after thwarting what they called a "catastrophic" plot to set off a bomb at his former high school next week.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, Seattle voters approved a measure to build the biggest ever deep bore tunnel to carry cars past the city’s downtown. The $1.9 billion tunnel would be part of a $3.1 billion project to demolish a 2-level viaduct on the scenic waterfront.
(SFC, 8/18/11, p.A8)
2011 Aug 16, In Afghanistan a gunman riding a motorcycle killed Rabia Sadat, a woman who works for the Afghan government, in a drive-by shooting outside of her home in Kandahar. A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at a market in Uruzgan province killing 8 people.
(AP, 8/16/11)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 16, In Bahrain an international panel investigating unrest closed its office after angry crowds scuffled with staff members following reports that government officials would be cleared of committing abuses against protesters seeking greater rights.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Britain a 16-year-old boy was ordered to stand trial for the murder of a retiree attacked when he confronted rioters in London. Richard Bowes (68) was found lying in a street during violence in Ealing, on Aug. 8. He died of head injuries three days later.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Hackers attacked the website of a prominent Canadian newspaper and posted a false news item alleging Quebec Premier Jean Charest had died of a heart attack.
(Reuters, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel called for greater economic and political unity among the 17 nations that share the euro.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, In India anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare (74), arrested for planning a public hunger strike, began his fast behind bars as his supporters held protests across the country, with thousands detained by police. The government decided to release as public anger rose, but Hazare refused to leave jail unless he was given written permission to resume his fast in a park in central Delhi.
(AP, 8/17/11)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A3)
2011 Aug 16, Israeli aircraft struck 5 targets in the Gaza Strip, killing 1 militant and wounding 4 other Palestinians in retaliation for rocket fire on southern Israel the previous evening.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Ivory Coast Minister of Defense Paul Koffi Koffi said the government plans to disarm and demobilize some 10,000 fighters in the wake of postelection violence earlier this year. He said the process should be completed by the end of the year.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Libya rebels clashed with Gadhafi troops for control of the refinery in Brega. A rebel doctor said 18 rebels had been killed and 74 injured.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed into law a constitutional change eliminating the "pocket veto," a measure that formerly allowed presidents to kill legislation by refusing to sign it.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In southern Nepal an overcrowded boat carrying at least 35 people capsized in the rain-swollen Kamala river. At least 20 people were missing.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Norway’s Statoil said that the North SEa Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries together contain between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil, significantly more than previously thought.
(SFC, 8/31/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3u5v3zp)
2011 Aug 16, Poland's prosecutor general announced the dismissal of two officials who played a role in giving Belarus financial data about Ales Belyatsky, a leading human rights activist, information that resulted in his arrest.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Romania’s controversial Tourism Minister Elena Udrea sparked outrage with a frock she admitted cost as much as many Romanians make in more than a month. She defended the $1290 dress, insisting it cost less than the thousands of euros that media has reported.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Syria heavy machine-gun fire erupted across the besieged city of Latakia as the death toll rose to 35 from a military assault now in its fourth day. Army units began withdrawing from Deir el-Zour after clearing the city of "armed terrorist gangs" in an operation that lasted several days.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Yemen at least 33 people were killed over the last 24 hours in government raids in a restive tribal area northeast of the capital Sanaa. President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed to return to Yemen soon from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recuperating from wounds he suffered in an attack on his palace compound.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Zimbabwe former military chief Gen. Solomon Mujuru (62), one of the country’s main political power brokers and the husband of the vice president, died in an overnight fire at one of his homes.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2012 Aug 16, In California 12 federal counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud were brought against Terence Bonner (59), former leader of the national union representing Border Patrol agents. He allegedly filed false claims for hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2007-2010.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A6)
2012 Aug 16, In California gang member Pierre Mercado was found guilty in Los Angeles of 4 counts of murder during a mid 1990’s crime spree. He was a member of the Asian Boys founded by his brother, Marvin, now serving life in prison.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A8)
2012 Aug 16, William Windom, TV actor, died at his home in Woodacre, Ca. He received an Emmy for best actor for his performance in “My World and Welcome to It" (1970), a program based on James Thurber’s humorous essays. He also appeared in over 50 episodes of “Murder She Wrote."
(SFC, 8/21/12, p.C3)
2012 Aug 16, In Louisiana 2 sheriff’s deputies were killed and 2 others injured during a shootout in Laplace, John the Baptist Parish. 7 people were arrested in connection to the shootings. The suspects were later reported to be heavily armed adherents to an ideology known as the "sovereign citizens" movement.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A9)(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A5)(AP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 16, Detroit police found a woman and 2 children slain when officers went to notify her that her husband, Michael VanDerLinden had died in a fatal car crash in Indiana. He was driving the wrong way on an interstate and killed a stranger as he slammed into the man’s car.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 16, A solar powered toilet that turns urine and feces into hydrogen and electricity won a $100,000 first prize in the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge in Seattle, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A8)
2012 Aug 16, It was reported that lion bones have become a hot commodity for their use in Asian traditional medicine, driving up exports from South Africa to the East and creating new fears of the survival of the species.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Afghanistan Taliban fighters reportedly shot down a NATO helicopter during a firefight in Kandahar province. 11 people were killed in the crash, including 7 Americans and 4 Afghans. An Afghan army vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Baghlan province, killing 3 Afghan soldiers and wounding 3 others.
(AP, 8/16/12)(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A3)
2012 Aug 16, Prominent Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was found guilty of calling and participating in several illegal gatherings and sentenced to three years in jail. In December an appeals court reduced his sentence from three years to two.
(AP, 8/16/12)(AP, 12/11/12)
2012 Aug 16, British High Court judges dismissed a legal plea by Tony Nicklinson (58) for the right to die, unanimously ruling that it would be wrong to depart from a precedent that equates voluntary euthanasia with murder. Nicklinson had locked-in syndrome after suffering a stroke on a business trip to Athens in 2005. He died at his home in Melksham on Aug 22 after contracting pneumonia.
(AFP, 8/22/12)
2012 Aug 16, It was reported that Britain’s town of Bristol has re-scheduled the launch of the Bristol pound, usable only with member businesses in the city in southwest England, to Sep 19. The Bristol pound will not be legal tender and must be exchanged through the Bristol Credit Union, with a three percent charge for conversion back to sterling.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, setting up a diplomatic confrontation with Britain, which angrily insisted it would extradite him to Sweden.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Egypt a Cairo court charged controversial TV presenter Tawfiq Okasha with suggesting the killing of Pres. Morsi during his nightly TV show. The court also referred the chief editor of el-Dustour daily, Islam Afifi, for his newspaper's harsh criticism of Morsi.
(AP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, Thousands of Indians from the northeast of the country fled southern cities after rumors they would be attacked by Muslims in reprisal for recent ethnic violence. The army and paramilitary troopers called out in the Nalbari and Kamrup districts after mobs torched a bus, a car and a wooden road bridge. 11 people were injured when acid was thrown on a group in the western Assam town of Gossaigaon in the troubled Kokrajhar district.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, India's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki said that more than 500 workers had been sacked after riots on July 18 at a plant near New Delhi left one manager dead. Production was set to partially re-start on August 21 with 200 anti-riot police on rolling shifts inside the factory.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Iraq a wave of attacks killed at least 93 people. More than 100 people were wounded in 15 explosions, including seven car bombs, a suicide attack, and a shooting, in nine cities and towns nationwide.
(AFP, 8/16/12)(AP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Iraq Banin Haider (4) was kidnapped in Zubair, a rundown town just outside the city of Basra. Police later found her body in a derelict area with her hands and legs bound. She was raped multiple times, and her head was smashed by what was believed to be a large brick. An off-duty soldier assigned to a nearby army base, Akram al-Mayahi, was arrested in connection with the Banin's murder. He was found guilty on Oct. 22 and sentenced to death for abusing and killing the girl.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Italy 6 of 10 horses crashed during the latest Palio bareback horse race in Siena. One horse broke a front leg. Some 50 horses have died during the race since 1970.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 16, In Ivory Coast fighting broke out overnight with villagers near the economic capital Abidjan reporting heavy gunfire, trapping them in their homes. Armed men had attacked an army base, a prison and police stations overnight leaving 3 civilians dead. The local police commissioner said two gunmen were killed, about a dozen were arrested and that there were no army fatalities.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Malta said its navy has recovered two bodies and rescued around 160 Eritrean and Somali migrants from two boats which got into trouble on the Mediterranean Sea.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, A Mauritanian man has the throats of his four children to avoid the expense of buying them new clothes for the upcoming Muslim holiday Eid-al-fitr.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, In northwest Pakistan Taliban militants wearing explosive vests and armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked Air Force Base Minhas in Kamra, possibly linked to the country's nuclear program, and fought a two-hour battle that left one security official and 9 insurgents dead and the base in flames. Hours later in northern Pakistan, gunmen forced 22 Shiite Muslims off of 3 buses in the Naran Valley, lined them up and killed them.
(AP, 8/16/12)(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 16, Pakistani police in Islamabad arrested Rimsha, a young Christian girl with Down's Syndrome, after she was reported holding in public burnt pages which had Islamic text and Koranic verses on them. Pakistani cleric Khalid Chisti (30), who handed over the girl (14) to police, later claimed he did so to protect her from mob violence. On Sep 2 Chisti was arrested for falsifying evidence. On Sep 7 a Pakistani judge granted Rimsha bail of $10,500. On Nov 20 she was acquitted.
(AFP, 8/19/12)(AFP, 8/24/12)(SFC, 9/3/12, p.A3)(AP, 9/7/12)(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Aug 16, Unknown assailants firebombed a Palestinian taxi in the West Bank leaving 6 people wounded. Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu later vowed to bring the people responsible for the firebombing to justice. The Israeli military has counted 196 Palestinian firebomb attacks and six shooting incidents in the first half of 2012.
(AP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 16, Peru’s military said 5 soldiers have been killed in a clash with resurgent Shining Path rebels in the Junin region, 175 miles east of Lima.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 16, In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the top world Muslim body, suspended Syria, saying it can no longer accept a regime that "massacres its people", as rights groups accused Damascus of a new atrocity against civilians.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Singapore's High Court ruled that more than $23 million seized from the estate of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos rightfully belongs to a Philippine bank.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, South African police fired on strikers at the Lonmin platinum mine leaving 34 dead. This was the deadliest police action since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, In South Korea Hanwha Corp. chairman Kim Seung-youn, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, was sentenced to four years prison and fined 5.1 billion won ($4.5 million) for embezzlement in a ruling that shows a tougher stance against wrongdoing by leaders of the country's mightiest companies.
(AP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Syrian forces shelling the besieged city of Aleppo struck a bread line outside a bakery killing at least 10 people. The LCC said 49 people were killed all over Aleppo.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, The United Nations said deadly clashes between soldiers and a Muslim rebel group in the violence-plagued southern Philippines had displaced up to 45,000 people. Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) attacked several army detachments in the southern province of Maguindanao last week, triggering gunbattles that left at least five soldiers dead.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Yemen's top security committee said 62 officers and soldiers loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son were charged with resisting authorities and mutiny after trying to storm the Ministry of Defense 2 days earlier.
(AP, 8/16/12)
2013 Aug 16, In California a US District Judge ruled that a Los Angeles County law requiring adult film performers to wear condoms is constitutional.
(SSFC, 8/18/13, p.A12)
2013 Aug 16, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb late today killed 3 women in Helmand's Sangin district.
(AP, 8/17/13)
2013 Aug 16, A Bahrain activist said at least 40 prisoners were hurt when security forces used batons, tear gas, pepper spray and stun grenades against inmates protesting over their conditions.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, British PM David Cameron asked European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to "urgently" send monitors to Gibraltar's border with Spain where tightened security checks are fuelling a row between the two countries.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, In Egypt tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters took to the streets in defiance of a military-imposed state of emergency following bloodshed earlier this week. Street fighting in Cairo and other clashes across the country left 173 people dead.
(AP, 8/16/13)(AP, 8/17/13)
2013 Aug 16, Indian security forces said they had picked up Abdul Karim “Tunda," a bomb maker for the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Talib.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.42)
2013 Aug 16, In Iraq two bombings around Baghdad killed 7 people.
(SFC, 8/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 16, In Kenya some 40 armed extremist, believed to be from Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, killed at least 4 police in an attack on a police post near the Somalia border.
(AP, 8/17/13)
2013 Aug 16, In Lebanon a car bombing, blamed on Sunni extremists, killed 22 people in a Shiite neighborhood south of Beirut.
(SFC, 8/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 16, In southwestern Pakistan assailants fired a rocket at a moving train in a mountainous region, killing 2 passengers and wounding 19 near Dozan, Baluchistan province.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, In the Philippines a ferry disaster killed at least 64 people and 56 remained missing. The ferry sank after a collision with the Sulpicio Express 7, a cargo vessel just outside the central port of Cebu. The Sulpicio Express 7 is owned by unlisted firm Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp, formerly known as Sulpicio Lines Inc.
(AP, 8/17/13)(AP, 8/18/13)(SSFC, 8/25/13, p.A4)
2013 Aug 16, A WHO official said Somalia is suffering an "explosive" outbreak of polio and now has more cases — 105 — than all other countries in the world combined. The outbreak is complicated by the fact health workers have limited access to south-central Somalia, controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, Syrian warplanes struck targets in a rebel-held district in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people, wounding dozens of others and leaving some buried under the rubble of buildings.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2014 Aug 16, In California the search for Erin Corwin (19) ended when her body was spotted with a video camera 140 feet down a mine shaft on federal land near her home in Twentynine Palms, where her Marine husband was stationed. Former Marine Christopher Brandon Lee (24) was arrested the next day in Alaska. Corwin had disappeared on June 28.
(AP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Missouri vandals attacked stores in Ferguson early today, hours after police said the unarmed black teenager shot dead by a white officer in an incident that unleashed days of rioting was a robbery suspect. Protesters stormed into the same convenience store that Michael Brown was accused of robbing. Gov. Jay Nixon ordered a midnight to 5 am curfew as he declared a state of emergency in Ferguson.
(AFP, 8/16/14)(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A7)
2014 Aug 16, At Britain’s Tilbury Docks one man was found dead and 34 others still alive in a shipping container after staff at the port heard banging and screaming coming from inside. The men, women and children, were all from Afghanistan. On Aug 19 Northern Ireland police arrested a man (34) in Limavady suspected of smuggling the migrants.
(AFP, 8/16/14)(SFC, 8/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, China’s state media reported that police have arrested seven people in the northwest allegedly involved in a scheme that forced school children to donate blood.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, Egypt’s PM Ibrahim Mehlib blamed saboteurs for some 300 attacks on electricity pylons nationwide that have deepened the country’s energy shortage.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A4)
2014 Aug 16, It was reported that authorities in Guyana have discovered a 65-foot, diesel engine submarine near the border with Venezuela. It was locally built and believed to be used to ferry drugs across the Atlantic.
(SFC, 8/16/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, In Iraq airstrikes pounded the area around the Mosul Dam in an effort to drive out militants who captured it earlier this month. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced in Baghdad that his government would provide more than 24 million euros ($32.2 million) in humanitarian aid to Iraq.
(AP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Israel thousands of supporters of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority demonstrated in Tel Aviv to end the Gaza conflict.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Liberia residents in Monrovia’s in the West Point slum raided a quarantine center for suspected Ebola patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses. Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Pakistan thousands of protesters led by populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri alongside opposition leader Imran Khan's march, arrived in Islamabad to force Nawaz Sharif's government to step down for alleged election-rigging.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, In northern Mali 2 UN peacekeepers were killed and nine others injured in a suicide attack on a patrol base in the village of Ber.
(Reuters, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, Nepalese officials said flooding and lanslides in the west have killed at least 54 people and left 142 missing over the last three days.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, In the Philippines about 30 Abu Sayyaf gunmen breached a perimeter wall of the Sulu provincial government compound late today and took chief mechanic Ronald Pelegrin at gunpoint from the motorpool under cover of darkness. The gunmen also tried to seize Pelegrin's deputy, Dante Avilla, but the latter resisted and was shot and killed by the militants when he tried to run away.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, In South Korea Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs killed in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Joseon Dynasty.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of the al-Sheitaat (Shueitat) tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 8/16/14)(SFC, 8/19/14, p.A5)
2014 Aug 16, Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists fought skirmishes near the Russian border but there was no sign of the conflict widening after Kiev said it partially destroyed an armored column that had crossed the border from Russia. A rebel Internet news outlet said that separatist fighters had killed 30 members of a Ukrainian government battalion in fighting in Luhansk province. Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said 3 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed over the past 24 hours. Alexander Zakharchenko, self-proclaimed separatist government in the Donetsk region, said newly-trained fighters have 150 armored vehicles, including 30 tanks, and have gathered near a "corridor" along the Russian border.
(Reuters, 8/16/14)(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, Ukraine government forces captured a district police station in Luhansk after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighborhood. Separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane over the Luhansk region after it launched an attack on rebels.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, In eastern Yemen a drone attack killed 3 suspected al Qaeda militants in Hadramout province.
(Reuters, 8/16/14)
2015 Aug 16, In southern California two small planes collided midair as they approached Brown Field Municipal Airport in San Diego County, killing 5 people.
(SFC, 8/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Aug 16, In Brazil demonstrators took to the streets of cities and towns across the country for a day of nationwide anti-government protests.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi boosted police and judicial powers with a new anti-terrorism law that also imposes hefty fines for "false" media reports.
(AFP, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, East African leaders met in Ethiopia ahead of a deadline for South Sudan's warring leaders to strike a peace deal or risk international sanctions.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Indian and Pakistani troops traded heavy gunfire and mortar rounds for a seventh straight day along the highly militarized line of control in Kashmir. Indian police said six civilians had died in the Pakistani shelling over the last two days. Pakistan's army said that two civilians had been killed.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Indonesia an aircraft with 54 people on board crashed in the remote and mountainous region of Papua. The 27-year-old Trigana ATR 42-300 crashed into Tangok mountain. All 54 people on board the aircraft were killed.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)(Reuters, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 16, An Iraqi parliamentary panel called for dozens of security and political officials, including former PM Nuri al-Maliki, to be referred to court in connection with the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Iraq Islamic State militants launched an attack against government troops outside the militant-held city of Fallujah, killing at least 17 troops.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Libyan residents said the Islamic State has executed and displayed the bodies of 4 members of a rival group which had staged a revolt against the militants in the central city of Sirte. Unknown gunmen fired on the airport of Benghazi, partly destroying a passenger terminal. Rockets also landed in a residential district in the eastern city of Derna, from which Islamic State was expelled by a rival group in June.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Nicaragua 5 police officers were killed in the south of the country after being attacked by a criminal group trying to free a detained member in Punta Gorda.
(Reuters, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, Nigeria's ruling party called on the country's people to support efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari to recover billions of dollars lost to government corruption and punish the perpetrators in the graft-plagued nation.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram, denied he had been killed or ousted as chief of the jihadist group in an audio recording released today and attributed to him by security experts.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Pakistan a bomb killed Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada and 18 other people at his home in the political heartland of PM Nawaz Sharif. Lashkar-e-Islam, a Taliban-affiliated militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)(AP, 8/17/15)(Reuters, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 16, In the Philippines the decomposing body of Kevin Fleischauer, a 58-year-old American, was found. The body of his Filipino-American wife, Lolly Mangilaya Fleischauer (60), was found a day later in a well. They had been missing for about two weeks in a case of suspected robbery in Murcia town, Negros Occidental province.
(AP, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Portugal former Serb army commander Mile Mrksic (68), serving a 20-year sentence for his role in the massacre of Croats during the Balkans wars, died in Lisbon. The former officer in the Yugoslav army (JNA), was convicted in 2007 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for aiding and abetting the torture and murder of nearly 200 civilians in Vukovar in eastern Croatia in 1991.
(AFP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 16, In South Africa a small Namibian medical plane crashed in the Tygerberg Nature Reserve east of Cape Town, killing all 5 people aboard.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Spain an animal rights activist was beaten with a duck by a woman defending one of the country's most bizarre and controversial festival traditions in the Catalonian seaside town of Roses. Every year since 1918 about 50 ducks are thrown into the sea in the town north of Barcelona, with swimmers then racing in to catch them and bringing them ashore however they can.
(AFP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 16, A Syrian government air strike northeast of Damascus killed at least 96 people in a marketplace in Douma. A Syrian military source said air force strikes on Douma and nearby Harasta targeted the headquarters of the rebel group Islam Army.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)(AFP, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Yemen militia forces loyal to the exiled government fought their way deep into the central city of Taiz, largely pushing out Houthi militiamen from the country's third largest city.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)
2016 Aug 16, Authorities in southern California ordered the evacuation of 82,000 people, after a wildfire broke out in Cajon Pass to rapidly engulf 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) of terrain. The so-called Bluecut Fire erupted in heavy brush just west of Interstate 15, the main freeway between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, forcing the closure of one stretch of the highway. In nothern California the Clayton Fire was 35 percent contained.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, In Lousiana ExxonMobil Corp shut a crude distillation unit at its 502,500 barrel per day (bpd) Baton Rouge refinery as flooding disrupted operations at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China's Cabinet announced that preparations to connect the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges are "basically completed." Charles Li, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the city's stock market operator said the link would likely launched by Christmas.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 16, Iranian security forces killed 3 Sunni militants linked to Islamic State in Kermanshah city close to the Iraqi border, confiscating a weapons cache and belts armed with explosives.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Iran said that it arrested a British-Iranian last week on suspicion of links to the UK intelligence service.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir shot and killed four civilians and injured at least 15 others as clashes intensified with anti-India protesters in the troubled region.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Peru's supreme court overturned an embezzlement sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori, although the decision will not alter the 25-year prison term he is serving for crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, Russian warplanes took off from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, In South Korea an accidental explosion at a naval base left 3 soldiers dead and another injured in the southeastern port town of Jinhae.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Turkish police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into last month's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2017 Aug 16, The United States said it had sanctioned Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest of the anti-Indian Kashmiri militant groups fighting in the Himalayan territory divided between Pakistan and India.
(Reuters, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, The Trump administration formally terminated the 2014 Obama CAM parole program that granted Central American minors temporary legal residence.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.A6)
2017 Aug 16, The US National Parks Service announced that it will no longer allow parks to ban the sale of plastic water bottles, an option that was part of the 2011 Green Parks Plan adopted under former Pres. Obama.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.D1)
2017 Aug 16, In San Jose, Ca., a fire at the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park killed three people, including two young girls.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.D1)
2017 Aug 16, Fiat-Chrysler said it will cooperate with BMW to develop self-driving cars.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.C2)
2017 Aug 16, In eastern Afghanistan an American soldier was killed and several others were wounded in a battle with Islamic State militants in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province. A suicide car bomber killed three civilians while trying to attack an Afghan army base in the southern Helmand province late today. In southern Kandahar province, Taliban fighters stormed police checkpoints in two districts late today, killing seven policemen and wounding nine. In southern Zabul province the Taliban attacked a police base, killing eight policemen.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Algeria Ahmed Ouyahia began a fourth term as Prime Minister and held that position until March 12, 2019.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ouyahia)
2017 Aug 16, Belgium's Agriculture Minister Denis Ducarme said the government will join in legal action against those responsible for the egg contamination scandal, which has hit at least 17 countries.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, British police arrested Michal Konrad Herba (36), the brother of Lukasz Pawel Herba, a man accused of the recent abduction of British model Chloe Ayling in Italy, following a request from the Italian authorities.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Cambodian tax authorities denied there is a political motive for a crackdown on delinquent taxpayers that prominently targets media and civil society organizations critical of the government.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, In eastern Congo DRC at least 200 people were believed killed in a landslide in Tora village, Ituri province. 48 houses were destroyed. 140 bodies were soon recovered and over 100 were believed still buried.
(Reuters, 8/17/17)(SSFC, 8/20/17, p.A4)(AFP, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 16, Deutsche Post DHL Group and US automaker Ford unveiled a jointly manufactured electric delivery van amid growing demand for emission-free utility vehicles.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Guatemala at least two people were killed and five arrested when alleged gang members shot up one of the country's largest hospitals to free a prisoner.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Mehdi Karroubi (80), a detained Iranian opposition leader, started a hunger strike. He wanted to be out on trial rather than remain under house arrest where he has been held since 2011. Karroubi ended his hunger strike after one day after officials promised that the 12 guards watching over him would no longer be permanently stationed in his house.
(Reuters, 8/16/17)(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 16, In Iraq Islamic State group suicide bombers killed seven members of the security forces in an attack on police and army base in Baiji.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Israel said it is revoking the press credentials of an Al-Jazeera reporter Elias Karram after he told another TV station that the work of Palestinian journalists is part of the "resistance."
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Israeli forces demolished the home of Palestinian Omar al-Abed (19), who fatally stabbed three Israelis in a nearby Jewish settlement last July 21 at a time when tensions soared over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, A Kenyan government watchdog said it will investigate whether police killed a baby and a young girl during an Aug 12 crackdown on post-election demonstrations.
(Reuters, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Lebanon's parliament abolished a law, in place since the 1940s, that allowed rapists to avoid prison by marrying their victims.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Lebanese troops attacked IS positions on the other side of border with Syria, tightening the siege on them. Syrian warplanes bombarded mountainous areas controlled by the Islamic State group near the border with Lebanon.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, A short video that circulated online showing a hand holding a revolver firing at a target with an image of Mexico’s El Universal columnist Hector De Mauleon's face. De Mauleon has received previous threats after penning columns about organized crime in Mexico City.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 16, In the Philippines police, later identified as identified as Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz, reportedly shot Kian Loyd delos Santos (17) in the head and left his body next to a pigsty. Police said they shot delos Santos in self-defense after he opened fire on officers during an anti-drugs operation. But there was outrage when the CCTV footage emerged showing two officers marching a figure, subdued and apparently unarmed, toward the spot where the youth's body was later found.
(Reuters, 8/25/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Spain imam Abdelbaki Es Satty (40) died in an accidental explosion in Alcanar. He was later identified as the ideological leader of a cell planning an attack in Barcelona.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Barcelona_attack#Abdelbaki_Es_Satty)
2017 Aug 16, In Tanzania Wayne Lotter, the South African co-founder of the Protected Areas management Solutions (PAMS), a conservation group for the protection of elephants, was shot and killed in the Masa-ki district of Dar es Salaam.
(SFC, 3/18/17, p.A2)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.78)
2017 Aug 16, In Thailand at least eight people, first arrested in May, were re-arrested and charged with insulting the monarchy for allegedly burning portraits of members of the royal family.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 16, Venezuela’s government-stacked Supreme Court announced it was ordering the capture of German Ferrer, the ousted chief prosecutor's husband, and referring the case to the new, all-powerful constitutional assembly. Ferrer was accused of running a $6 million extortion ring.
(AP, 8/17/17)(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A4)
2017 Aug 16, In southern Venezuela at least 37 people were killed overnight during clashes between armed inmates and security forces at a prison in Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas state. Inmates had seized control of the prison several weeks earlier.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 16, Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema walked free from prison after treason charges against him were dropped, averting a trial that threatened turmoil in the southern African nation.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Zimbabwe police said first lady Grace Mugabe has claimed diplomatic immunity after being accused of assaulting a 20-year-old model, in an incident that could test cross-border relations. She is accused of attacking Gabriella Engels with an electrical extension cord on August 13 at a Johannesburg hotel where her two sons were staying.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2018 Aug 16, US newspapers big and small hit back at President Donald Trump's relentless attacks on the news media, with a coordinated campaign of editorials highlighting the importance of a free press.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, The Pentagon late today said that a show of US military prowess, originally scheduled for November 10 in Washington, was being pushed back to a possible date in 2019, after it emerged costs could soar as high as $92 million.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Arkansas a group called the Satanic Temple temporarily placed a a bronze statue of a goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet at the state capitol during a rally calling for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument mounted on Capitol grounds in 2017.
(SFC, 8/18/18, p.A7)
2018 Aug 16, In Colorado Christopher Watts (33) was arrested on suspicion of killing his pregnant wife and two daughters. The body of Shannan Watts (34) had been found on property owned by Anadarko Petroleum, Where Mr. Watts used to work. The bodies of the two girls, ages 3 and 4, were still missing. Watts told police his wife had strangled the girls after being told he wanted to separate. Police later learned Watts was having an affair with a co-worker. On Nov. 19 Watts was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/17/18, p.A5)(SFC, 8/20/18, p.A5)(SFC, 11/20/18, p.A6)
2018 Aug 16, The journal Science reported that the complex wheat genome, five times longer than the human genome, has been sequenced.
(SSFC, 8/19/18, p.A20)
2018 Aug 16, Aretha Franklin (76), the music legend, icon and Grammy-winning singer celebrated as the "Queen of Soul," died at her home in Detroit. She influenced generations of female singers with unforgettable hits including "Respect" (1967), "Natural Woman" (1968) and "I Say a Little Prayer" (1968).
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Afghanistan two gunmen besieged a compound belonging to the Afghan intelligence service in a northwestern Kabul neighborhood early today, opening fire as Afghan security forces moved in to cut them off. The standoff lasted for nearly six hours before police killed the gunmen and secured the area.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Australia Paul Bradshaw (74), a man with terminal cancer, said he could die happy after reaching a 1 million Australian dollar ($727,000) landmark settlement against the Catholic Irish Christian Brothers for sexual abuse he suffered more than 50 years ago at the hands of Brothers Lawrence Murphy, Bruno Doyle and Christopher Angus, who are all dead.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Austria authorities in Vienna decided to ban passengers from eating in the capital's subway trains. But they don't plan to punish offenders, at least to start with. The blanket ban will be introduced Sept. 1 on the U6 line and extended to the other four lines on January 15.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Bahrain's government rejected the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, saying that offences by Nabeel Rajab did not relate to his political views and that his trials had been independent and transparent. Rajab was sentenced to five years in prison in February for criticizing Saudi Arabia's air strikes in Yemen and writing tweets accusing Bahrain's prison authorities of torture. He was already serving a two-year term over a news interview in which he said Bahrain tortured political prisoners.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 18, In Chile, Argentina and Peru false bomb threats caused up to 11 commercial flights to take emergency measures. Chilean authorities soon arrested Franco Sepulveda Robles (29) for making false bomb threats in anger over an airline not returning his suitcase.
(SSFC, 8/19/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 16, Air France-KLM was tipped to name its first non-French chief executive, with Ben Smith, chief operating officer at Air Canada, set to be unveiled. Nine out of 10 Air France unions opposed the selection.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93) died after a prolonged illness. The Hindu nationalist had set off a nuclear arms race with rival Pakistan but later reached across the border to begin a groundbreaking peace process.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Iraq's air force carried out two airstrikes targeting Islamic State group inside Syria, killing at least 28 IS militants.
(AP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, Malaysia's new government repealed a widely criticized law prohibiting "fake news," in a move hailed as a landmark moment for human rights by a group of Southeast Asian lawmakers.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, The Malian government said President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won a landslide victory in a run-off against opposition rival Soumaila Cisse, giving him a second term to try to turn back a surge in ethnic and Islamist militant violence.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Mexican marines seized a record 50 tons of crystal meth from a drug lab in the state of Sinaloa.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Myanmar the Independent Commission of Enquiry held its first formal meeting in the capital, Naypyitaw, a day after holding talks with the country's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Pakistan's foreign ministry confirmed the suspension of a US military training program for Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, Qatari broadcaster BeIN said it has "irrefutable evidence" that a pirate channel illegally showing hundreds of live European football matches is being carried on the Saudi-based satellite provider Arabsat.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Peter Morgan, a Scottish man with far-right views, was sentenced in Edinburgh to 12 years in prison for attempting to build a bomb that prosecutors say could have caused carnage.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, A Thailand environment ministry official said imports of 432 types of scrap electronics will be banned within six months. Southeast Asia nations fear they are the new dumping ground for the world's trash after China banned the entry of several types of waste as part of a campaign against "foreign garbage".
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Turkish officials said four soldiers have been killed in violence in the southeast where troops are battling Kurdish rebels, three of them as a result of a friendly fire in Adiyaman province.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Three Ugandan lawmakers, critics of President Yoweri Museveni, were charged with treason for their suspected role in the August 13 stoning of his convoy. Lawmaker, pop singer and government critic Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, whose stage name is Bobi Wine, was charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition in a military court for his alleged role in the stone throwing.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Uganda police arrested Jimmy L. Taylor, an American man who in video footage is seen attacking a hotel worker with punches and racial insults. CCTV footage of the incident was posted on social media, angering some Ugandans who demanded his arrest.
(AP, 8/19/18)
2018 Aug 16, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's office said had it demanded a 15-year prison sentence for ousted ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, accused by Kiev of "betraying his nation" to Russia.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, It was reported that Venezuela's opposition-run supreme court in exile in Colombia has sentenced President Nicolas Maduro to 18 years in prison over the infamous Odebrecht corruption scandal, a move dismissed by the regime.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, A court in central Vietnam sentenced activist Le Dinh Luong (53) to 20 years in prison and five years of house arrest after finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the Communist government.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2019 Aug 16, The US justice department issued a warrant for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker, a day after a Gibraltar judge allowed the release of the detained vessel.
(AFP, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Iraq says it will comply with new orders issued by the country's prime minister regarding unauthorized flights in Iraqi airspace.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Washington, DC, encted emergency regulations to stop the federal government's plan to house unaccompanied migrant children there. Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration approved regulations that prohibited licensing facilities housing more than 15 residents.
(SFC, 8/16/19, p.A7)
2019 Aug 16, In southern California Hossein Nayeri (40), who previously escaped from jail and was on the run for a week, was convicted of kidnapping and torturing a marijuana dispensary owner in 2012 who he mistakenly believed had buried large sums of money in the desert.
(AP, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, In southern California Oscar nominated actor Peter Fonda (b.1940), who played a cool and introspective motorcyclist in the 1969 film "Easy Rider," died. His films also included Ulee's Gold" (1997) and "The Limey" (1999).
(Reuters, 8/17/19)(SFC, 8/17/19, p.C2)
2019 Aug 16, Police in Coral Springs, Florida, said Timothy Norris (60) has been charged in the knifepoint rape of a Florida woman at her home in 1983. DNA evidence led authorities to Norris serving time for bank robbery at a West Virginia federal prison.
(AP, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 16, A Georgia boy (17) was arrested at Wheeler High School in Marietta. He was accused of bringing a loaded 9mm gun on his school bus and to his high school, which was subsequently locked down amid threats.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Chicago a guilty verdict was returned against Jovan Battle (32), a homeless man who defended himself against murder and aggravated battery charges, in the fatal shooting of John Rivera (23), an off-duty Chicago police officer.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Iowa a judge sentenced Randy Constant (60), the mastermind of the largest known organic food fraud scheme in US history, to 10 years in prison, saying he cheated thousands of customers into buying products they didn't want.
(AP, 8/16/19)(SFC, 8/19/19, p.A5)
2019 Aug 16, Maryland scientists reported data on a growing "dead zone" in the Chesapeake Bay, confirming their dire warnings were correct. Environmental scientists said heavy rains washed wastewater and agricultural runoff into the bay and produced oxygen-stealing algae.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, A Missouri man who shot two police officers while they were serving him an eviction notice surrendered to authorities this afternoon after a long standoff.
(ABC News, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In upstate New York two of four young men, arrested for plotting to attack the Islamberg Muslim community near Binghamton with homemade explosives, were sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Brian Colaneri (20) and Andrew Crysel (19) pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy in June.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Texas more than 20 local governments faced a coordinated ransomware attack that was believed to have come from a single source.
(SFC, 8/21/19, p.A4)
2019 Aug 16, In rural Washington state the last four members of a wolf pack that preyed on cattle in an area bordering Canada were killed by state hunters in helicopters, prompting protests from environmental groups.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 16, AbbVie Inc priced its new rheumatoid arthritis treatment at $59,000 a year after gaining US approval, a big boost for the drugmaker struggling with rising competition for Humira, its blockbuster therapy for the same condition. A four-week supply of Humira, the world's best-selling medicine, has a list price of about $5,174, amounting to more than $60,000 for a year.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2017 Aug 16, In Algeria Ahmed Ouyahia began a fourth term as Prime Minister and held that position until March 12, 2019.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ouyahia)
2019 Aug 16, Bangladeshi and UN officials said Myanmar and Bangladesh are making a second attempt to start repatriating Rohingya Muslims after more than 700,000 of them fled a security crackdown in Myanmar almost two years ago.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Bangladesh a massive fire consumed several hundred shanties in a slum on the northern outskirts of Dhaka leaving some 3,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 16, A source in the Cameroonian army said number of seamen have been kidnapped after an attack on their vessel off the coast of Cameroon in the piracy-plagued Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Huawei Technologies sent a letter to The Wall Street Journal, refuting the publication's bombshell report describing how China's tech giant allegedly helped the governments of two African nations spy on their political opponents. Uganda and Zambia denied that Huawei employees had helped them conduct espionage
(South China Morning Post, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, Congo DRC health officials said a woman and her child were the first two cases confirmed with Ebola in the South Kivu region this week, opening a new front in the fight against the outbreak. The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has killed 1,808 people out of 2,765 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)(SFC, 8/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 16, Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Rupert Hogg resigned in a shock move, amid mounting Chinese regulatory scrutiny of the Hong Kong carrier over the involvement of its employees in the city's anti-government protests. Cathay Pacific, which has already terminated two pilots for engaging in illegal protests at the behest of the Chinese aviation regulator, named Augustus Tang as its new CEO.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Indian-controlled Kashmir hundreds of people protested an unprecedented security crackdown and clashed with police, as India's government said it was constantly reviewing the situation in the disputed region and the restrictions there will be removed over the next few days.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Israel's interior minister said he has received and granted a request by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib to enter the Israeli-occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds. The Michigan Democrat rejected the offer to let her travel to the West Bank, saying she would not visit her family after the Israeli government lifted a ban on her entry but imposed "oppressive conditions" to humiliate her.
(AP, 8/16/19)(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian driver they said had carried out a car-ramming attack that injured two Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank, one of them critically. Militants from the Gaza Strip fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Kazakh rights activist Serkzhan Bilash, who campaigned against the detention of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in special camps in China, pleaded guilty to a hate speech charge in exchange for securing his freedom.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, North Korea bluntly criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for continuing to hold military exercises with the US and over his rosy comments on inter-Korean diplomacy, and said Pyongyang has no current plans to talk with Seoul. Hours later South Korea's military detected two projectiles North Korea fired into the sea to extend a torrid streak of weapons display that's apparently aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over their joint drills and slow nuclear negotiations.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In southwest Pakistan a blast at a mosque in killed four people. 20 more people were wounded at the site 25 km (15 miles) from the city of Quetta.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In northern Peru a building in El Alto was set on fire in a protest against China National Petroleum Corp that devolved into clashes between police and demonstrators who want the company to make pledges to help the local community.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The union of Portugal's fuel-tanker drivers said it will suspend a five-day-old strike that led to fuel rationing at filling stations and negotiate with employers in government-brokered talks.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Syria a suspected Russian airstrike hit a displaced people's gathering in the town of Hass south of Idlib province, killing at least 13, including a number of children.
(AP, 8/16/19)(SFC, 8/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 16, Syria’s SANA news agency said that a projectile had entered the Syrian airspace overnight from Lebanon's airspace, heading toward the town of Masyaf in Hama province. Air defenses reportedly destroyed the missile before it reached the town.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, It was reported that Turkey's military pension fund OYAK has reached a provisional agreement to take over British Steel and could close the deal by the end of this year, potentially saving thousands of jobs.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, A group of UN human rights experts called for the immediate release of three Iranian women given long jail terms for protesting laws compelling women to wear veils.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN migration agency said more than 500 migrants have lost their lives in the Americas so far this year, about a 33% increase from a year ago.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN expert on human rights in Iran said last year saw increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and continuing violations of the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including 253 reported executions of adults and children.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Yemen's Houthis launched more drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's Abha international airport. The attacks reportedly halted air traffic at the airport.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Zimbabwe police combed Harare's streets rounding up suspected opposition supporters, enforcing a clampdown on dissent after using batons and water cannon to break up a protest that authorities had declared illegal.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2020 Aug 16, Congressional Democrats called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a donor to Republican President Donald Trump, and US Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify in an Aug. 24 committee hearing.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, More than 100 demonstrators converged outside the North Carolina mansion of postmaster general Louis DeJoy, protesting the cutbacks, delays and other changes to the USPS that have created fears for mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, California to date had 624,007 cases of coronavirus and 11,243 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 71,869 cases and 970 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,401,167 with the death toll at 170,019.
(sfist.com, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A monitoring station in Death Valley measured a temperature of 54.4 degrees (130 degrees F).
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.17)
2020 Aug 16, In Ohio at least 18 people were shot, including four killed, as gunfire erupted in several places around Cincinnati overnight.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A riot was declared in Portland, Oregon, as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early today, continuing a nightly ritual in the city.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Belarus thousands of people gathered in a square near the main government building for a rally to support President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition supporters whose protests have convulsed the country for a week held a major march in Minsk.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, China's health authority said new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 fell to a one-month low as a cluster in the western region of Xinjiang receded. Mainland China had 84,827 confirmed coronavirus cases, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Luis Rodolfo Abinader (53) was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, India reported 944 new coronavirus deaths pushing total fatalities to near 50,000.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 16, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that a deal to establish full diplomatic ties with the UAE proves that Israel doesn't need to retreat from occupied land sought by the Palestinians in order to achieve peace and normalization with Arab states. Telephone service between Israel and the United Arab Emirates began working.
(AP, 8/16/20)(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Israel closed the Gaza Strip's offshore fishing zone following a night of cross-border fighting with Palestinian militants, the most intense escalation of hostilities in recent months.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Lebanon registered 439 new virus cases and six fatalities. The new infections bring to 8,881 the total number of cases, where COVID-19 has killed some 103 people. An August 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate killed around 180 people and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, New Zealand reported 13 new infections, bringing the country's number of active cases up to 69. Most of the cases were from community transmission and are linked to a cluster in Auckland, which is under a new lockdown.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Thousands of Puerto Ricans got a second chance to vote for the first time, a week after delayed and missing ballots marred the original primaries in a blow to the US territory’s democracy. Gov. Wanda Vázquez acknowledged losing the primary of her pro-statehood party to Pedro Pierluisi, who briefly served as the US territory's governor last year amid political turmoil.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that Moscow was ready to offer Minsk military assistance if necessary to quell anti-government protests in Belarus.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Somali special forces ended a siege at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu that was stormed by armed al-Shabab militants. At least 12 people were killed at the beachside Elite Hotel, in addition to five militants.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, South Korea reported 279 new confirmed infections, the highest 24-hour jump since early March.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Authorities said flash floods have ravaged swaths of Sudan for weeks, leaving at least 60 people dead and destroying thousands of homes since late July. More than 185,000 people in all but one of its 18 provinces have been affected by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement's strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed.
(AP, 8/16/20)(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2021 Aug 16, The US federal government for the first time declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the Colorado River’s main reservoirs. The declaration triggers cuts in water supply that, for now, mostly will affect Arizona farmers. Beginning next year they will be cut off from much of the water they have relied on for decades.
(NY Times, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, A Proud Boys supporter pleaded guilty to making social media threats tied to the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol, including a threat to kill Georgia's incoming US senator Raphael Warnock. Eduard Florea (41), also admitted to storing a large collection of ammunition at his home in the New York City borough of Queens.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations to lead an independent investigation into the alleged disappearances of government critics and others at the hands of security forces in Bangladesh, an allegation the country's government has long denied. HRW listed 86 alleged victims, providing profiles and details of each case.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 36,697,292 with the death toll at 621,716.
(sfist.com, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, Fred, the sixth named storm of the season, redeveloped into a tropical storm and made landfall this afternoon in the Florida Panhandle.
(NY Times, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, NY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said state health care workers must be vaccinated by Sept. 27.
(NY Times, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that the New-Indy paper mill in Catawba, South Carolina, whose foul smell has triggered more than 30,000 complaints, has become one of the dirtiest polluters in the United States since being acquired by an investment group led by Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots football team.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, signed an executive order essentially gutting any school district’s effort to require its students to wear masks. According to the order, a student’s parent or guardian “shall have the right to opt out of any order or requirement" that the student “wear a face covering" at school, on school buses or at school functions.
(NY Times, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, In Virginia hundreds of workers at a Mondelez International bakery in Virginia went on strike, seeking to block the company’s demands for concessions in contract negotiations and end what the union calls the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico. They joined Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union workers striking since last week at a Mondelez bakery plant in Portland, Oregon, and at a sales distribution center in Aurora, Colorado.
(AP, 8/19/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the Catholic Church's most outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic, has COVID-19 and his staff said he is breathing through a ventilator in Wisconsin.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, US auto safety regulators said they had opened a formal safety probe into Tesla Inc's driver assistance system Autopilot after a series of crashes involving emergency vehicles.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Bayer, trying to contain billions of dollars in legal costs, filed a petition with the US Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court verdict that upheld damages to a customer blaming his cancer on the German group's glyphosate-based weedkillers.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, GlaxoSmithKline and CureVac said a study on macaque monkeys showed their jointly-developed mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate to be "strongly improved" in protecting against the virus compared with CureVac's first attempt.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said they have submitted to US regulators the initial data from an early-stage trial toward seeking authorization of a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, A plane carrying more than 100 Afghan servicemen landed in Tajikistan.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, In Australia New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said seven people in Sydney had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the state's previous record daily toll.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, European leaders said they will press for a unified international approach to dealing with a Taliban government in Afghanistan, as they looked on with dismay at the rapid collapse of two decades of a US-led Western campaign in the country.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues that Germany must urgently evacuate up to 10,000 people from Afghanistan for whom its has responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, In Germany an unknown number of missing people were tossed into a river in Bavaria's Valley of Hell when a sudden flood tore down a bridge they were on. At least four people had been pulled out of the water in the valley known as Höllentalklamm. Rescue teams recovered the body of a woman who was swept off a bridge. One person remained missing.
(AP, 8/16/21)(AP, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, More wildfires broke in hard-hit Greece, with two blazes fanned by strong winds triggering evacuation alerts for villages southeast and northwest of the Greek capital.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Grace, the seventh named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall in Haiti as a tropical depression, but soon restrengthened into a tropical storm.
(AP, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, Iran reported a record 655 COVID-19 deaths over the past 24 hours as the government started imposing tougher restrictions to combat a surge in coronavirus infections led by the highly contagious Delta variant. The total number of cases had reached 4,467,015 with 41,194 new cases in the past 24 hours, while total fatalities had increased to 98,483.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Israeli firefighters battled wildfires near Jerusalem for a second day after the blaze forced hundreds of residents from their homes. Around 17 square km (6.5 square miles) of forest had already burned.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Israel that was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. This was the first such attack since an 11-day war in May.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Malaysia's PM Muhyiddin Yassin and his entire cabinet resigned, signaling an end to a tumultuous 17-month reign.
(NY Times, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that the Islamic police force in Kano, a Muslim-majority state in Nigeria, has ordered shops to only use headless mannequins to advertise clothing. Sharia police commander Ibn-Sina also wants the headless mannequins covered at all times because to show "the shape of the breast, the shape of the bottom, is contrary to the teachings of Sharia [Islamic law]".
(BBC, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Poland's government said that its ambassador to Israel will remain in Poland until further notice after Israel downgraded diplomatic ties with Warsaw and strongly criticized a new Polish law that restricts the rights of Holocaust survivors to reclaim property seized by the country’s former communist regime.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Poland will send 650,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine. Polish media said the country has a surplus of vaccines after having fully inoculating about 57% of the adult population.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that Ukraine is moving ahead with an anti-corruption plan that will take more than 3,000 companies out of the hands of state officials, encouraging foreign investors to help create a more modern, Western-looking economy. All Russians will be banned from taking part in the huge new selloff of Ukrainian state-owned companies.
(The Daily Beast, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Security Council to "use all tools at its disposal to suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan" and guarantee that basic human rights will be respected.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that thousands of jobless workers in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City are trying to flee to their hometowns, many on motorcycles piled high with belongings, following an extension of restrictions in the epicenter of the country's worst coronavirus outbreak yet. Authorities worked to prevent them leaving and potentially spreading the virus to other parts of the country.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Zambia's the electoral commission said opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema had won 2,810,777 votes to Pres. Lungu's 1,814,201 in the Aug. 12 election. There were seven million registered voters. Mr. Lungu accepted defeat and congratulated Mr. Hichilema.
(BBC, 8/16/21)
2022 Aug 16, President Biden signed a long-awaited bill meant to reduce health costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise taxes on corporations and wealthy investors. The bill included a new 1% excise tax on corporate purchases of their own shares, effective in 2023.
(NY Times, 8/16/22)(SFC, 8/17/22, p.A1)
2022 Aug 16, The Food and Drug Administration decided to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter without a prescription to adults, a long-sought wish of consumers frustrated by expensive exams and devices.
(NY Times, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The US government spared seven Western states from mandatory Colorado River water cutbacks for now but warned that drastic conservation was needed to protect dwindling reservoirs from overuse and severe drought exacerbated by climate change.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The US Department of Education said former students of ITT Technical Institute will not have to pay $3.9 billion they still owe in federal student loans to the now-defunct for-profit college.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Federal law enforcement agents raided the Miami-area Healthplus Pharmacy after investigators uncovered evidence the establishment might be operating the largest opioid pill mill in Florida.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The US Food and Drug Administration adopted a final rule to create a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids that can be sold directly to millions of Americans. The rules take effect in mid-October.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, US officials announced that Arizona and Nevada, states reliant on water from the Colorado River, will face more water cuts as they endure extreme drought. Mexico will also face cuts.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 93,129,921 with the death toll at 1,041,099.
(sfist.com, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, Alaska voters got their first shot at using ranked voting in a statewide race. Sarah Palin, the state’s former governor whom Trump endorsed, and two rivals, Mary Peltola, a Democrat, and Nick Begich, a Republican, advanced to the November election for Alaska’s open House seat to replace Don Young, who died in March.
(AP, 8/16/22)(NY Times, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, A federal grand jury in California indicted Terrance John Cox (59), a former Democratic representative of Fresno, for an array of financial crimes, including a bid to divert campaign contributions during his election campaign in 2018. The FBI arrested Mr. Cox.
(NY Times, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that sightings of the Turkestan cockroach, first detected about a decade ago, are becoming increasingly common in California. Entomologists say it poses no real threat.
(SFC, 8/16/22, p.A7)
2022 Aug 16, Liz Cheney, Trump’s highest-profile critic within the Republican party, resoundingly lost her primary race for Wyoming’s lone House seat. Cheney vowed to do all she could to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
(NY Times, 8/17/22)(Reuters, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it will restrict political advertisers from running new ads a week before the election, an action it also took in 2020.
(Reuters, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Apple's Chinese supplier Luxshare Precision Industry and Taiwan-based Foxconn have started test production of Apple Watch in northern Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In Bangladesh Rohingya refugees implored UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet for protection after recent murders that have again left members of the stateless minority fearful for their safety.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Britain has launched a scheme to extend tariff cuts to hundreds of products, such as clothes and food, from developing countries, part of London's post-Brexit efforts to set up systems to replace those run by the European Union.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Britain has recorded its biggest rise in foreign workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year to June, driven overwhelmingly by workers from outside the European Union.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The mining industry in Chile, the world's largest copper producer, called on the government to take action to stop an "escalation of crime" that has hit operations in the country's far north.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, China imposed sanctions including an entry ban on seven Taiwanese officials and lawmakers it accused of being "independence diehards", drawing condemnation from the democratically governed island.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, China’s National Health Authority said China will discourage abortions and take steps to make fertility treatment more accessible as part of efforts to boost one of the world's lowest birth rates.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese military survey ship, docked at Sri Lanka's Chinese-built port of Hambantota after a delay of several days because of opposition to the visit from India, which vies with China for influence in crisis-hit Sri Lanka.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In eastern CongoDRC suspected rebels killed civilians and damaged a major hydropower plant under construction in Virunga National Park.
(Reuters, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, Estonia said it will remove all public Soviet memorials in its majority Russian-speaking city of Narva, citing rising tensions in the city and accusing Russia of trying to exploit the past to divide Estonian society. It was reported that Estonia this week will close its border to more than 50,000 Russians with previously issued visas, the first country in the European Union to do so, making it harder for ordinary Russians to enter EU.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Finland said it will slash the number of visas issued to Russians to 10% of the current amount from Sept. 1, amid a rush of Russian tourists bound for Europe.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Iran said it submitted a “written response" to what has been described as a final roadmap to restore its tattered nuclear deal with world powers.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Iran has identified its first case of monkeypox.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi resigned during a Cabinet meeting to protest the political conditions. Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar will become acting finance minister.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In Kashmir a bus carrying personnel from India's high-altitude border police rolled off a mountainous road and fell into a gorge, killing at least six officers.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Kenya’s opposition figure Raila Odinga said that he would challenge the results of the close presidential election with “all constitutional and legal options" after Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner, bringing new uncertainty to East Africa’s most stable democracy.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Lebanon’s state prosecutor released Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, a man who took up to 10 people hostage in a bank at gunpoint while demanding funds from his locked savings account. Hussein was released from custody after he went on a hunger strike and the bank dropped charges against him.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Liberia President George Weah suspended three government officials who were sanctioned by the US for what it said was their ongoing involvement in public corruption.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The body of Mexican journalist Juan Arjon Lopez was found in the northern border state of Sonora. He ran the Facebook webpage "A que le temes," and went missing on Aug. 9.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Pakistani police said a speeding bus collided with an oil tanker in Pakistan, killing 20 people in a fiery crash overnight near Multan.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Moscow denounced sabotage and Ukraine hinted at responsibility for new explosions today at a military base in the Russian-annexed Crimea region that is an important supply line for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Russian-installed officials in occupied areas of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said Ukrainian forces were shelling the city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, is located.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement after starting union for convicts.
(Daily News, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, A Russian state news agency said that Russia and Turkey had signed a contract to ship Ankara a second batch of S-400 air defence systems, but a Turkish defence official immediately cast doubt on the report.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Russian news agencies reported that court in Russia has fined streaming service Twitch, owned by Amazon, 2 million rubles ($33,000) for hosting a short video containing what it calls "fake" information about alleged war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought shares in Alphabet, Zoom Video and Microsoft as part of a wider pick of US stocks, bringing the market value of the sovereign wealth fund's investment portfolio to about $40.8 billion at the end of the second quarter. The PIF also acquired shares in JPMorgan, BlackRock, Starbucks, Adobe Systems, Advanced Micro Devices, Salesforce, Home Depot, Costco, Freeport-McMoRan, Datadog and NextEra Energy.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, A scientific study reported that the already endangered African penguin is being driven away from its natural habitat off the east coast of South Africa due to noise from ship refueling. 1,200 breeding pairs currently at St Croix are down from 8,500 pairs in 2016, an almost 85% decrease since bunkering started six years ago.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, South Korea agreed to expand its global health partnership with the foundation set up by Microsoft Corp co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Switzerland said it has signed an agreement with Uzbekistan on the return of $131 million seized as part of a money-laundering investigation against the eldest daughter of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The deal will see the funds placed in a United Nations trust and used “for the benefit of the population of Uzbekistan".
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In Sudan the death toll from floods triggered heavy rains rose to 66 since the start of the rainy season in June.
(SFC, 8/17/22, p.A15)
2022 Aug 16, Satellite images showed that the first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a wartime deal have ended up in Syria, even as Damascus remains a close ally of Moscow.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Taiwan's defence ministry said it detected 17 Chinese aircraft and five Chinese ships in and around the island and the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing continues its military exercises.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Turkish troops and US-backed Kurdish fighters exchanged heavy shellfire in the northern Syrian border town of Kobane, leaving one civilian dead as the conflict escalated. Turkey carried out an airstrike near Kobane killing at least 11 people.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that Venezuela would support Cuba in the reconstruction of its only supertanker port in Matanzas, which was partially destroyed by a fire after lightning struck one of the its crude tanks.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Zimbabwe said a measles outbreak has now killed 157 children with the death toll nearly doubling in just under a week.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
1290 Aug 16, Charles of Valois married Margaret of Anjou.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1397 Aug 16, Albrecht II von Habsburg, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1419 Aug 16, Wenceslas (b.1361), son of Charles IV and King of Germany, died. He served as King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia (1363) and King of the Romans (1378-1400).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1419 Aug 16, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, became king of Bohemia following the death of Wenceslaus IV, but was ejected by the Hussites due to the execution of Jan Huss.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1498 Aug 16, Christopher Columbus reached the island of Margarita (Venezuela).
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v3.htm)
1513 Aug 16, Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeated the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1645 Aug 16, Jean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work "Characters of Theophratus," was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1678 Aug 16, Andrew Marvell (b.1621), English poet (Definition of Love), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1691 Aug 16, Yorktown, Va., was founded.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1745 Aug 16, Skirmish at Laggan: Glengarry beat the Royal Scots.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1777 Aug 16, American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vt.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1777 Aug 16, France declared a state of bankruptcy.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1799 Aug 16, Vincenzo Manfredini (b.1737), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1780 Aug 16, American troops under Gen. Horatio Gates were badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/16/98)(ON, 12/01, p.9)
1812 Aug 16, American General William Hull surrendered Detroit without resistance to a smaller British and Indian forces under General Isaac Brock.
(AP, 8/16/97)(HN, 8/16/98)
1819 Aug 16, English police charged unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field in the Manchester Massacre. Marchers were demanding voting rights for the working class. 18 people were killed in the Peterloo massacre. The press responded with a volley of attacks that included “The Political House that Jack Built" by William Hone and illustrator George Cruikshank.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.104)
1829 Aug 16, The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston aboard the ship Sachem to be exhibited to the Western world.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1846 Aug 16, Gioacchino Rossini married Olympe Pelissier in Paris and stopped composing operas.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1852 Aug 16, In northern California trader James Savage entered the Kings River Indian reservation and encountered Major Harvey, who had led an attack there on local Indians. A fight ensued and Harvey shot and killed Savage.
(SFC, 5/23/15, p.C2)
1854 Aug 16, Duncan Phyfe (86), NYC furniture maker, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1858 Aug 16, A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. The cable linked Ireland and Canada and failed after a few weeks.
(AP, 8/16/97)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)
1861 Aug 16, President Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1861 Aug 16, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1862 Aug 16, Amos Alonzo Stagg, football pioneer, inventor of the tackling dummy, was born in West Orange, New Jersey.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1863 Aug 16, Chickamauga campaign took place in GA. Union General William S. Rosecrans moved his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)(MC, 8/16/02)
1864 Aug 16, Battle of Front Royal, VA. (Guard Hill).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1868 Aug 16, Bernard McFadden, publisher responsible for the magazine True Story, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1868 Aug 16, Charles Sanford Skilton (d.1941), composer, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1875 Aug 16, Charles Grandison Finney (b.1792), American revivalist preacher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grandison_Finney)
1876 Aug 16, Wagner's Opera "Siegfried" premiered at Bayreuth. [See Aug 13]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_(opera))
1884 Aug 16, Hugo Gernsback (d.1967), sci-fi writer, publisher (1960 Hugo), was born in Luxembourg.
(www.nndb.com/people/381/000045246/)
1886 Aug 16, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian Hindu mystic, saint, and religious leader, died in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna)
1894 Aug 16, George Meany, the first president of the AFL-CIO, was born in New York City.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1894 Aug 16, Indian chiefs from the Sioux & Onondaga tribes met to urge their people to renounce Christianity and return to their old Indian faith.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1896 Aug, 16, A white man from California named George Carmack, a fellow not employed at anything in particular, was hiking around northwest Canada’s Yukon River area with his two Indian brothers-in-law "Skookum Jim" Mason and "Tagish Charley." The three found gold on Rabbit Creek, a stream that feeds the Yukon River near Dawson, Alaska.
(CFA, '96, p.88)(HN, 8/19/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush)
1897 Aug 16, Robert Ringling, circus master, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1898 Aug 16, Edwin Prescott patented a roller coaster.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1904 Aug 16, NYC began building the Grand Central Station.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1906 Aug 16, A magnitude 8.6 earthquake in Valparaiso, Chile, left an estimated 20,000 people dead.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Z1 p.5)(AP, 6/22/02)
1912 Aug 16, Virginia executed Virginia Christian (b.1895) in the electric chair. Christian, an African-American maid, was convicted for the murder of her white employer Mrs. Ida Virginia Belote (72), a white woman, in her home at Hampton on March 18.
(AFP, 9/21/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Christian)
1913 Aug 16, Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman (1977-83) and Nobel Peace Prize (1978) recipient, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)(MC, 8/16/02)
1914 Aug 16, Liege, Belgium, fell to the German army.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1914 Aug 16, Zapata and Pancho Villa over ran Mexico.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1915 Aug 16, A hurricane hit Galveston, Texas. It caused 12 deaths and an estimated $5-8 million in property damage in the city.
(http://www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1915/)
1916 Aug 16, In San Francisco the 1,000 ton Ohio Building, created for the Panama-Pacific Expo, was dragged on skids to a barge and shipped 23 miles to San Carlos. In 1956 it was intentionally torched to clear the property.
(SFC, 2/24/21, p.B5)
1917 Aug 16, In San Francisco six United Railroads substitute platform men were arrested after they drove in an out of a parade of striking carmen. The men were recruited from Los Angeles. Two other machines carrying seven men each escaped. Loaded revolvers were found in the side pockets and under the chauffeur’s coat along with black jacks and clubs.
(SSFC, 8/13/17, DB p.50)
1918 Aug 16, US troops overthrew Archangel (Russia).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1920 Aug 16, Charles Bukowski, poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1924 Aug 16, Conference about German recovery payments opened in London.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1929 Aug 16, Bill Evans, jazz pianist, was born. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 8/16/00)
1930 Aug 16, Ted Hughes, English poet laureate, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1930 Aug 16, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (b.1891), an American-trained National Guard general, began ruling as dictator of the Dominican Republic and continued to 1961, when he was assassinated.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo)
1934 Aug 16, US explorer William Beebe descended 3,028' (923 m) in Bathysphere.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1936 Aug 16, The 11th Olympic games closed in Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1936 Aug 16, Spanish poet Garcia Lorca was arrested in Granada. He disappeared shortly thereafter. The 1997 film "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" was an attempt to depict the circumstances of his disappearance. Lorca was the author of "Gypsy Ballads," "Blood Wedding" and "The Poet." Spanish poet Fredico Garcia Lorca was shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own grave.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.12B)(HN, 8/19/98)(MT, Spg. ‘99, p.2)
1940 Aug 16, Bruce Beresford, Australian film director, was born. His films include "Breaker Morant" and "Driving Miss Daisy."
(HN, 8/16/00)
1940 Aug 16, 45 German aircrafts were shot down over England.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1942 Aug 16, The US Navy L-8 patrol blimp crash-landed at 419 Bellevue St., Daly City, Ca., after drifting in from the ocean. The ship’s crew, Lt. Ernest Dewitt Cody (27) and Ensign Charles E. Adams (38), were missing and no trace of them was ever found.
(GDCH, 1986, p.17)(Ind, 5/3/03, p.5A)
1943 Aug 16, Bulgarian czar Boris III visited Adolf Hitler.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1944 Aug 16, US bombers of the 8th Air Force raided the oil refinery at Rositz, Germany. As of 1998 21 unexploded bombs were dug up at the site.
(WSJ, 11/24/08, p.A12)
1944 Aug 16, Chartres, France, was freed.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, Suzanne Farrel, ballerina, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1945 Aug 16, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, was released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1945 Aug 16, Takijiro Ohnishi, leader of Japanese kamikaze pilots, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, The communist dominated Polish government signed a treaty with the USSR to formally cede eastern territories, including Galicia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_areas_annexed_by_the_Soviet_Union)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.51)
1946 Aug 16, A 3-day riot began in Calcutta that left some 6,000 people dead. The day marked the start of what is known as “The Week of the Long Knives".
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.71)
1948 Aug 16, Famed home-run slugger George Herman "Babe" Ruth died at age 53 in New York City. He is credited with turning baseball from a game of speed and skill to one of power. During a flamboyant major league career that began as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1914 and ended with his retirement from the Boston Braves in 1935, the Babe hit an astonishing total of 714 homers, a feat that was not surpassed until Henry Aaron of the Atlanta Braves broke Ruth’s record in 1974. The fans loved the warm-hearted Babe Ruth, who had a reputation as a hard drinker, carouser and womanizer. In 1931, at the height of his career with the Yankees, Ruth earned $80,000, which made him the highest-paid ballplayer in history. At a special "Babe Ruth Day" just two months before his death, the cancer-stricken Babe donned his uniform for the last time and appeared before a cheering crowd at Yankee Stadium. In 2006 Leigh Montville authored “The Big Bam," a biography of Babe Ruth.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/16/97)(HNPD, 8/16/98)(WSJ, 5/9/06, p.D6)
1948 Aug 16, Harry Dexter White, former assistant US Treasury Secretary, died of a heart attack. White had helped write the UN Charter. A few days earlier he had testified before the House-Un-American Activities Committee and denied leaking secrets to Soviet intelligence. Later evidence confirmed that he had worked for Soviet intelligence. In 2004 R. Bruce Craig authored "Treasonable Doubt," a study of White.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.W8)
1949 Aug 16, Margaret Mitchell (48), US writer (Gone With the Wind), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1953 Aug 16, Shah Pahlavi of Persia and princess Soraya fled to Baghdad and then Rome.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1954 Aug 16, Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1955 Aug 16, Fiat Motors ordered the 1st private atomic reactor.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1956 Aug 16, Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. John F. Kennedy made his convention debut at the Democratic convention in Chicago. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver withdrew his name from the balloting and asked his 200 delegates to support Adlai E. Stevenson for the presidential nomination. Stevenson won the nomination on the first ballot with 905 votes to New York Governor Averell Harriman's 200 votes. Kefauver then went on to narrowly defeat Senator John F. Kennedy for the party's vice-presidential nomination.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 8/10/99)(AP, 8/16/97)
1956 Aug 16, Bela Lugosi (b.1882), actor (Dracula), died of heart attack in Hollywood. He was born in Hungary as Bela Blasko.
(Internet)
1958 Aug 16, Madonna [Ciccone], entertainer and singer whose biggest record was "Like a Virgin," was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1959 Aug 16, William F. Halsey (Bull Halsey), US vice-admiral (WW II Pacific), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1960 Aug 16, Timothy Hutton (actor: Taps, Made in Heaven, Ordinary People, The Dark Half, The Temp, Q&A), was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1960 Aug 16, American test pilot Joe Kittinger’s history-making parachute jump was from an altitude of 102,800 feet, or 19.3 miles. In a gondola lifted by a 360-foot helium balloon, Kittinger reached the highest altitude ever reached by man in nonpowered flight. His free fall lasted four minutes and 36 seconds and he became the first man to exceed the speed of sound without an aircraft or space vehicle. In 1984 Kittinger became the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon alone.
(HNQ, 5/21/99)(WSJ, 2/27/06, p.A1)
1960 Aug 16, Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus. Archbishop Makarios began serving as the 1st post-independence president. He chose Spyros Kyprianou (28) as foreign minister. Under the provisions of the independence settlement, Turkey, along with Greece and Britain, maintained a right to military intervention if the island’s constitutional order is threatened.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A26)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.47)
1961 Aug 16, Martin Luther King protested for black voting rights in Miami.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 16, Some 250,000 West Berliners demonstrated against East Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1962 Aug 16, The Beatles dropped Pete Best as their drummer. They took on Ringo Starr on Aug 17. Best later authored the autobiography "Beatle! The Pete Best Story."
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.G5)(MC, 8/16/02)
1965 Aug 16, The Watts riots ended in south-central LA after six days with the help of 20,000 National Guardsmen; the riots left 34 dead, 857 injured, over 2,200 arrested, and property valued at $200 million destroyed. The riots started when police on August 11th brutally beat a black motorist suspected of drunken driving in Watts area of LA.
(HN, 8/16/00)(MC, 8/16/02)
1969 Aug 16, Canned Heat performed "Let's Work Together" live Woodstock.
(www.chromeoxide.com/canned.htm)
1970 Aug 16, Benny Bufano (b.1898), California-based Italian-American sculptor, died. He was known for his late-career bullet-shaped public sculptures.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.C1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Bufano)
1972 Aug 16, The Moroccan Air Force attempted to shoot down a Boeing 727 carrying King Hassan II. The attempt failed and the coup leaders were arrested. Gen. Mohammad Oufkir was shot to death for the attack. In 2000 a letter was produced that implicated Abderrahmane Youssoufi, the prime minister, in conspiracy with Oufkir.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_II_of_Morocco)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/15/00, p.D2)
1973 Aug 16, Pres. Richard Nixon proclaimed August 26 as Women’s Equality Day. A joint resolution of the US Congress, submitted in 1971, had designated August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day. Roxcy O’Neal Bolton (1927-2017) had prompted Pres. Richard Nixon to proclaim August 26 as Women's Equality Day.
(http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=106917)(Econ 6/17/17, p.82)
1974 Aug 16, The Ramones 1st performed at the CBGB in NYC. Dee Dee Ramone (d.2002) had formed the Ramones punk rock band in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens along with Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings (aka Johnny Ramone, d.2004) and Tom Erdelyi.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.D4)(Econ, 9/25/04, p.100)
1977 Aug 16, In San Francisco some 16 thousand kids paid $6.50 apiece to watch the Kiss concert at the Cow Palace.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.C1)
1977 Aug 16, Elvis Presley (b.1935), The "King" of rock-n-roll, died in the upstairs bedroom suite at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn. of a drug overdose at 42. Elvis died of heart failure after years of substance abuse. In 1994 Peter Guralnick published "Last Train to Memphis," the first of a 2-part biography on Elvis. In 1998 Guralnick published "Careless Love." More than 150 books were in print on Elvis in 1997. In 1998 Ernest Jorgensen published "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music. The Complete Recording sessions."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Par p.7)(SFEC, 8/3/97, DB p.33)(AP, 8/16/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W1)
1978 Aug 16, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he'd been set up by a mysterious man called "Raoul."
(AP, 8/16/03)
1978 Aug 16, Antonio Guzman assumed office as president of the Dominican Rep. Mindful of the fate of Juan Bosch sixteen years before, Guzman determined to move slowly in the area of social and economic reforms and to deal as directly as possible with the threat of political pressure from the armed forces.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ht3e)
1978 Aug 16, The World Bank under Robert McNamara issued its first World Development Report (WDR). the 68-page document provided a comprehensive assessment of global development issues.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/d3xzs6)
1984 Aug 16, A federal jury in Los Angeles acquitted auto maker John Z. DeLorean of trafficking in cocaine due to entrapment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_De_Lorean)
1985 Aug 16, Mary Gioia (22) of New York and Gregory Kniffin (18) of Connecticut were shot and killed in Berkeley, Ca. Their bodies were soon found in the SF Bay with gunshot wounds to the head. They had been staying at a homeless encampment in the Berkeley Marina while waiting for the next Grateful Dead concert. Ralph International Thomas was convicted of the murders. In 2009 the 2 convictions against Thomas (55) were overturned. In 2012 the US Ninth Circuit court of Appeals said Thomas (57) was entitled to a new trial due to missing witnesses in his first trial.
(SFC, 9/16/09, p.D3)(SFC, 5/11/12, p.C3)
1986 Aug 16, Flozelle Woodmore (18), shot and killed her abusive boyfriend, Clifton Morrow, with a .357 magnum in the presence of their 2-year-old son in Los Angeles. In 2007 Gov. Schwarzenegger, said he no longer oppose her parole.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.B12)(http://tinyurl.com/2mvdzg)
1987 Aug 16, Thousands of people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the "harmonic convergence," which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind. Nearly 5,000 people gathered at Mount Shasta, Ca., for the Harmonic Convergence aimed at bringing about world peace.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.C5)
1987 Aug 16, In Michigan 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from a Detroit airport; the sole survivor was 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan. The MD-80 plane hit a freeway overpass in Romulus following takeoff.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A12)(AP, 5/15/13)
1987 Aug 16, Iraqi warplanes bombarded the northern Kurdish village of Balisan, dropping bombs that spread a smoke smelling "like rotten apples." Helicopters then came and bombed the mountains to prevent the villagers from taking refuge anywhere.
(AP, 8/23/06)
1988 Aug 16, VP George Bush tapped Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle to be his running mate.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1989 Aug 16, A rare "prime time" lunar eclipse occurred over most of the United States, although clouds spoiled the view for many.
(AP, 8/16/99)
1990 Aug 16, President Bush met with Jordan’s King Hussein in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he urged the monarch to close Iraq’s access to the sea through the port of Aqaba.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1990 Aug 16, In Iraq, President Saddam Hussein issued a statement in which he repeatedly called Bush a "liar" and said the outbreak of war could result in "thousands of Americans wrapped in sad coffins."
(AP, 8/16/00)
1991 Aug 16, Pope John Paul the Second began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary.
(AP, 8/16/01)
1991 Aug 16, In Moscow, Alexander Yakovlev, a top adviser to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, resigned from the Communist Party, warning that hard-liners were plotting "a party and state coup."
(AP, 8/16/01)
1992 Aug 16, On the eve of the Republican National Convention in Houston, President Bush and party officials heatedly denied a report in The New York Times that a confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was motivated by political concerns.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1993 Aug 16, President Clinton opened his campaign for health care reform with a speech to the nation's governors in Tulsa, Okla.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1993 Aug 16, New York police rescued business executive Harvey Weinstein from a covered 14-foot-deep pit, where he'd been held for ransom for nearly two weeks.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1993 Aug 16, Actor Stewart Granger (80) died in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1994 Aug 16, President Clinton and other top Democrats were scouring the House of Representatives for converts in hopes of reviving a stalled anti-crime bill.
(AP, 8/16/99)
1994 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka the People’s Alliance government came to power and promised to end the civil war.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1995 Aug 16, The US government more than doubled its estimate of rapes or attempted rapes in the US each year, to 310,000, a finding praised by leaders of women’s groups.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1995 Aug 16, In Orinda, Ca., Maria Corrieo and her sister, Gina Roberts, were killed by Dalton Lolohea and 2 others during a robbery. Lolohea was tried and convicted for the double murder in 2000 along with robbery and burglary. David Ross was sentenced to 20 years in prison in exchange for testifying against Corey Williams. In 2013 the state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Williams.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A19)(SFC, 2/18/00, p.D3)(SFC, 8/18/00, p.A22)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.D1)
1995 Aug 16, Rebel soldiers in Sao Tome overthrew Pres. Miguel Trovoada. This is a two-island nation off the west coast of Africa.
(WSJ, 8/16/95, p. A-1)
1996 Aug 16, A jubilant Bob Dole set out from the Republican convention, promoting his tax-cut plan as a boon to working families.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1996 Aug 16, The brokerage firm E*Trade Group went public and saw its shares rise 7.1% on its first day of trading.
(WSJ, 11/13/07, p.A21)
1996 Aug 16, In Brookfield, Ill., a 3-year-old boy fell 15-feet into a concrete area of a zoo’s gorilla exhibit and was rescued by Binti-jua, a 7-year-old gorilla with her own 2-year-old on her back.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A3)(MC, 8/16/02)
1996 Aug 16, Eric Nesbitt (21), an airman at Langley AFB, was shot and killed after he was abducted and forced to withdraw money from an ATM machine by Daryl R. Atkins and another man. Atkins scored 59 on an IQ test in 1998, below the Virginia cut-off of 70 for retardation. In 2002 the US Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. In 2004 Atkins scored 74 and faced another trial. In 2005 a jury found Atkins to be mentally competent.
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A9)(SFC, 8/6/05, p.A4)(www.vuac.org/capital/row.html)
1996 Aug 16, Dominican Rep. Pres. Balaguer left office. Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna (b. 1953), a 42-year-old lawyer who grew up in New York City, was the 100th president of the Dominican Republic. He replaced Joaquín Amparo Balaguer Ricardo (1906-2002), President of the Dominican Republic from 1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986-1996.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Balaguer)
1996 Aug 16, In Mexico Attorney General Antonio Lozano fired 734 members of the judicial police in an attempt to reform the drug-fighting force.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A14)
1997 Aug 16, Thousands of Elvis Presley fans thronged Graceland on the 20th anniversary of his death.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1997 Aug 16, It was reported that the US led the world in arms sales last year with 35.5% of all orders. Britain ranked 2nd with 15.1% and Russia 3rd with 14.5%.
(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 16, In Mexico Alejandro Ortiz Martinez, brother of the finance minister Guillermo Ortiz, was shot and killed by three gunmen in Mexico City.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.A21)
1997 Aug 16, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the most popular singer in Pakistan, died in a London hospital. He was considered one of the world’s greatest singers of Sufi devotional music in a style called qawwali, where long performances built up emotion and complexity to the backdrop of stringed instruments and the harmonium.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.D8)
1997 Aug 16, Scientists reported that an underground seismic event occurred in Russia. Inquiries were being made about nuclear testing. Russian scientists claimed a magnitude-2 earthquake near the Novaya Zemlya test range triggered the event.
(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 16, Two cosmonauts just returned from Mir (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin) rejected criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging, problem-plagued space station.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1998 Aug 16, A day before President Clinton was to face a criminal grand jury about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, his lawyer said, "The truth is the truth, and that's how the president will testify."
(AP, 8/16/99)
1998 Aug 16, An int’l. crew broke the 1995 Steve Fossett record for sailing across the Pacific Ocean. The Explorer twin-hulled catamaran set sail from Yokohama on Aug 2 and arrived in SF after 14 days, 17 hours and 22 minutes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 16, Steve Fossett ran into heavy storms and plunged with his balloon into the Coral Sea, 500 miles from Queensland, Australia.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 16, It was reported that about 80% of breeding-age swordfish had been eliminated by overfishing.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T9)
1998 Aug 16, Congo Pres. Kabila flew to Angola to meet with Pres. dos Santos and request direct support against rebels. Air cargo support was being provided as well as several thousand Congolese exiles known as the Katangese Gendarmes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 16, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland united in uncomprehending grief over the car bomb slaughter of 29 people in Omagh a day earlier.
(AP, 8/16/03)
1999 Aug 16, The TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" began a limited two-week run on ABC. Imported from London, the show was hosted by Meredith Vieira and it was still on the air in 2008. This became the most popular TV show of the 1999-2000 season pulling in 28.5m viewers every Tuesday night.
(AP, 8/16/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Wants_To_Be_A_Millionaire%3F)(Econ, 5/1/10, SR p.10)
1999 Aug 16, Republican Lamar Alexander folded his presidential campaign.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, Four months after two gunmen sent them fleeing in horror, students reclaimed Columbine High School in Colorado for the start of the school year.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, In Lebanon Abu Hassan, a Hezbollah commander, was killed by a roadside bomb in Sidon. Guerrillas blamed the attack on Israel.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 16, In Russia Vladimir Putin was confirmed as prime minister, the fifth since early 1998.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, In Kosovo 2 Serbs were killed in a mortar attack from an ethnic Albanian village.
(WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 16, In South Africa thousands of state workers stayed home from work and some 10,000 Telkom and post office workers demonstrated in Pretoria and other cities.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A10)
2000 Aug 16, Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles formally nominated Al Gore for president.
(AP, 8/16/01)
2000 Aug 16, Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona) was diagnosed with a second bout of melanoma. The cancer was later surgically removed, with no sign that it had spread.
(AP, 8/16/01)
2000 Aug 16, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot declared the whole state a disaster area due to the raging fires.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 16, In Afghanistan the Taliban shut down 25 bakeries run by widows saying that Islam forbids women to work.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 16, In Brazil armed hijacked an airliner and forced it to land in southern Parana state. They escaped with an estimated $3.3 million in stolen money.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A15)
2000 Aug 16, In Chechnya 2 civilians were killed when rebels blew up a police car in Grozny.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2000 Aug 16, Hipolito Mejia (59) assumed the presidency of the Dominican Republic succeeding Leonel Fernandez. He proceeded to use foreign borrowing to finance public spending.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)(Econ, 12/13/03, p.35)
2000 Aug 16, It was reported that Libya had paid millions to free 9 Westerners held hostage by Muslim rebels in the Philippines.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A17)
2000 Aug 16, In Uganda at least 18 people died after a fire ignited while they scooped oil from an overturned tanker.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2001 Aug 16, Zacarias Moussaoui (33), a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested in Eagan, Minnesota, on immigration charges. He was taking lessons on flying Boeing jets with no interest in taking off or landing. He was later suspected as a 5th member of one of the Sep 11 WTC attack teams. In Nov the FBI reported that Moussaoui wanted to learn how to take off and land but not to fly. Mueller also said Ramzi Omar of Yemen, aka Ramsi Binalshibh, may have been the 20th hijacker. The local FBI contacted the CIA for action on Moussaoui when FBI managers failed to take action. Agent Coleen Rowley later charged that senior officials fumbled an opportunity to possibly prevent the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A7)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/4/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A14)
2001 Aug 16, Wild fires in the 10 Western US states covered over 50,000 acres, half in Oregon. 20,000 fighters fought 42 major blazes.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 16, Paul Burrell, trusted butler of Princess Diana for many years, was charged with the theft of hundreds of royal family items, a charge he denied. He was tried for theft in 2002 but the trial collapsed after evidence was given that Queen Elizabeth II had spoken with him regarding the disputed events. In 2003 he released his book, “A Royal Duty," which talks about his time as butler to Diana.
(AP, 8/16/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Burrell)
2001 Aug 16, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana signed legislation giving the military broad new powers to wage war with less scrutiny from human rights monitors. Gunmen in Santo Tomas killed 12 people for being members in the ELN.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 16, In Indonesia Pres. Sukarnoputri, in her 1st state of the nation speech, apologized for atrocities in rebellious provinces, urged the military to reform itself and ruled out independence for Aceh and Irian Jaya.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 16, A Jamaica government commission recommended that marijuana, aka ganja, be legalized for personal use by adults.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 Aug 16, In Nepal the government outlawed discrimination against members of the lowest caste, the Dalits, who would be free to enter any temple or religious structure.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 16, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic, former commander of Bratunac, pleaded innocent at the Hague war crimes tribunal for 1995 war crimes in Srebrenica. On January 17, 2005, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic became the second indictee to be convicted on Srebrenica Genocide charges and other human rights violations. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. On May 9, 2007, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled that Col Blagojevic had not been complicit in the genocide at Srebrenica because he had not known his troops intended to commit it. Blagojevic’s sentence was reduced to 15 years.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre)
2002 Aug 16, Major League Baseball players set a strike deadline of Aug. 30. The two sides finally reached an agreement with just six hours to spare.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Aug 16, Jeff Corey (88), blacklisted actor, died in Santa Monica. Corey developed a post blacklist career teaching and then appeared in over 70 films or TV shows.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A19)
2002 Aug 16, Stephen P. Yokich (66), former United Auto Workers president died in Detroit.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Aug 16, In Algeria Islamic insurgents reportedly killed 26 people, including women and children, in a rural western hamlet.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, In Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, police arrested two people on suspicion of murdering a pair of 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells (b. 10-4-1991) and Jessica Chapman (b. 9-1-1991), who vanished from a rural village on August 4th. On December 17, 2003 Ian Huntley (28), a caretaker at the local secondary school, was convicted by two eleven-to-one majority jury verdicts, and on that day began serving two concurrent life sentences. On September 29, 2005, the High Court announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years, a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. His girlfriend Maxine Carr (25), a classroom assistant, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. She was given three-and-a-half years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice but cleared of two counts of assisting an offender. She was freed and electronically tagged within 30 days, because she had already spent 16 months in jail.
(AP, 8/17/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders)
2002 Aug 16, In Germany authorities evacuated thousands of people near Dresden's historic center as floodwaters in the Elbe River rose to a record high and spilled into a square close to some of the city's cultural landmarks.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, Sabri al-Banna, aka Abu Nidal (65), Palestinian guerrilla commander and head of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, died from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad home. Iraqi officials said he killed himself.
(Reuters, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A18)(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 16, In central Nigeria gunmen killed Ahmad Ahman Pategi, Kwara state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and a senior official of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party, along with his police bodyguard.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 16, Russia and Iraqi officials planned to sign a 5-year $40 billion economic cooperation agreement.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 16, Pope John Paul II returned to Poland for a 3-day visit.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 16, President Hugo Chavez railed against a Supreme Court decision to absolve four military officers accused of leading an April coup but urged Venezuelans to accept it.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zambian government has rejected donations of genetically modified corn from the United States, even though a massive food shortage threatens nearly 2.3 million of its people with starvation.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zimbabwean government appeared to be cracking down on white farmers who defied orders to leave their land, charging seven in court and detaining at least 27 others across the country.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2003 Aug 16, The Midwest and Northeast were almost fully recovered from the worst power outage in U.S. history.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2003 Aug 16, Bill Janklow (64), US Congressional Representative and former South Dakota governor, ran a stop sign and killed motorcyclist Randolph E. Scott (55) near Flandreau, SD. On Aug 29 Janklow was charged with manslaughter. Janklow was found guilty of felony manslaughter on Dec 8 and announced his resignation effective Jan 20. Janklow was sentenced to serve 100 days in a county jail.
(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A3)(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A5)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A3)
2003 Aug 16, Haroldo de Campos (73), Brazilian poet, died in Sao Paulo. He was the best know of the Brazilian Concrete poets.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A19)
2003 Aug 16, In Nigeria's southern oil port city of Warri, authorities imposed a nighttime curfew following gunbattles between rival tribal militias that have killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 16, In southern Pakistan unidentified gunmen shot to death Ibn-e-Hasan (45), a Shiite Muslim doctor, sparking rowdy protests by hundreds of youths.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 16, In north central Uganda rebels from the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army slashed up to 15 people to death with machetes during an attack on the village of Bata. They also made off with 40 children. All the people killed were formerly abductees who had been rescued. The army said the next day it had killed 20 rebel fighters and rescued 127 abducted children.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 16, Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of his people in the 1970s, died in a Saudi hospital where he had been critically ill for weeks. In 2006 the film “The Last King of Scotland," was adopted from a novel by Giles Foden that focused on Idi Amin. The film, directed by Kevin McDonald, featured Forest Whitaker as Amin.
(AP, 8/16/03)(www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html)(WSJ, 9/29/06, p.W1)
2003 Aug 16, It was reported that African swine fever (ASF) had killed half of the pigs in Uganda this year.
(SFC, 8/16/03, p.A24)
2004 Aug 16, Pres. Bush announced plans to pull 70-100 thousand US troops from Europe and Asia and redeploy them to meet the demands of the global war on terrorism.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, Colorado certified a ballot question that would make it the 1st state to award electoral votes by popular-vote percentages, not as winner take all.
(WSJ, 8/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 16, The FDA approved the 1st surgical device to clear clots from the brains of stroke victims.
(WSJ, 8/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 16, The children’s TV show “Lazytown" made its US premier. Magnus Scheving spent over a decade building the brand in Iceland before moving overseas.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.76)(www.tv.com/lazytown/show/29257/episode_listings.html)
2004 Aug 16, General Motors said it will start making Cadillacs in China this year, joining a race by foreign luxury car brands to sell to the country's newly rich elite.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, Costco began piloting the sale of discounted coffins.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.50)
2004 Aug 16, Kamala Markandaya (79), Indian novelist, died. Her books focused on rural life, interracial relationships and conflicting Eastern and Western values.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.D12)
2004 Aug 16, In China villagers in an eastern province dug with farm tools to search for 24 people missing in massive landslides unleashed by Typhoon Rananim.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Nigeria an oil tanker truck went out of control and plowed into a bustling Nigerian market in Kano, killing 17.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Russia the Novy Ochevidets (New Eyewitness) magazine was introduced in Moscow. It resembled the New Yorker.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Aug 16, Election officials in Venezuela announced that voters had overwhelmingly chosen to keep President Hugo Chavez in office.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Pres. Bush selected Donald Winter of Northrup Grumman to be Navy secretary and Michael Wynne, Pentagon aide, as Air Force head.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, The Bush administration reduced the estimated value of recreation in national forests from $111 billion to $11 billion. Environmentalists warned the new Forest Service assessment could be used to justify increased logging.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A4)
2005 Aug 16, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman secured a deal for his state to export $17 million in agricultural goods to communist Cuba. The first US shipment of great northern beans to the island since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Several new computer worms hit systems running MS Windows 2000. On Aug 25 authorities in Morocco arrested Farid Essebar (18) for writing the Zotob worm. Atilla Ekici (21) was arrested in Turkey for paying Essebar to write the worm. In 2006 Morocco sentenced Farid Essebar (19) to 2 years in prison and Achraf Bahlouo (21) to one year for their role in unleashing the Zotob worm. Ekici’s trial continued in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.A2)(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.B3)(WSJ, 11/21/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay $350 million to settle claims over the role it played in the fraud that led to the collapse of Enron in 2001.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.C3)
2005 Aug 16, Francy Boland (75), jazz pianist, died in Geneva, Sw.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 16, Vassar Clements (77), fiddle virtuoso, died in Nashville, Ten. He recorded on more than 2,000 albums in various styles from bluegrass to classical.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 16, Two helicopters carrying NATO-led forces to prepare for next month's elections crashed in the desert in western Afghanistan, killing at least 17 Spanish troops.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, It was reported that scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antimicrobial drugs for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills HIV.
(Reuters, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, In Britain an official investigation contradicted the police account of the July 21 killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, an electrician from Brazil.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A12)
2005 Aug 16, Bulgaria's Parliament overwhelmingly approved historian Sergei Stanishev (39), the leader of the Socialist Party, as the country's new prime minister bringing to power his socialist-liberal coalition government.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A university professor in Shanghai said is he is offering China's first class on homosexuality and gay culture and that several hundred students have applied for the 100 openings.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 16, In Taize, France, Brother Roger, the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical religious community dedicated to peace and reconciliation, was knifed to death by an apparently deranged Romanian woman at an evening prayer service attended by 2,500 people. Brother Roger founded the Taize religious community in 1940 emphasizing the need for all Christians to come together in peace, love and reconciliation.
(AP, 8/17/05)(WSJ, 8/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, A top Indian official said Indian and Chinese oil firms will sign agreements aimed at bidding jointly for foreign oil and gas projects and reducing cut-throat competition.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Iraqi leaders, a day after failing to meet their deadline, expressed confidence they would overcome differences over key issues like the role of Islam and the power of regional governments and finish the new constitution by next week.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Israeli security forces clashed with hundreds of opponents of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, arresting dozens of people in the roughest confrontation between troops and settlers since the start of the operation.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A 7.2 earthquake shook northeastern Japan, triggering landslides, sending a shower of ceiling debris into a crowded indoor swimming pool and shaking skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo. At least 59 people were reportedly injured.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, North Korean officials visited South Korea's parliament for the first time in a symbolic gesture of reconciliation with their democratic rivals.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 16, Peru’s President Alejandro Toledo swore in a new Cabinet with Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the former finance minister, as prime minister and cabinet chief.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 16, Russia's Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision banning the National Bolshevik Party, handing a rare victory to the radical youth organization known for flamboyant acts of political protest.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Russia said an outbreak of bird flu in Chelyabinsk was dangerous to humans, as teams of sanitary workers destroyed birds in Siberia in an attempt to prevent the westward spread of the deadly virus.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home from Panama to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The pilot had been attempting an emergency landing after both engines failed.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2006 Aug 16, New York City officials released new tapes of hundreds of heart-wrenching phone calls from the World Trade Center on 9-11, along with other emergency transcripts.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2006 Aug 16, Google launched a free wireless network for its hometown of Mountainview, Ca.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr (41), a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for the December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed JonBenet was later discredited.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 16, Over 80 immigrant workers in New Orleans filed suit against Decatur Hotels LLC saying they were being exploited. The workers from Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Rep. had not been reimbursed for travel and were not getting the promised work hours.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A16)
2006 Aug 16, In southeastern Afghanistan US and Afghan forces raided compounds suspected of being al-Qaida sanctuaries, seizing weapons and explosives and arresting 8 people. US-led forces killed eight suspected militants after coming under attack in Kunar province. A US soldier was killed when his vehicle struck a Soviet-era mine in Paktika province. Western officials said opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels, up by more than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Alfredo Stroessner (93), anti-communist dictator of Paraguay (1954-1989), died in exile in Brazil. He used the right-wing Colorado Party to rule with a blend of force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ouster in 1989. During his rule membership in the Colorado Party was compulsory for all teachers, doctors, engineers, officers or those who hoped for government service. Party dues was docked from salaries.
(AP, 8/16/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.71)
2006 Aug 16, Colombian police arrested 14 top paramilitary leaders for violating the terms of a peace accord that has led to the demobilization of 30,000 right-wing fighters. Anti-narcotics police said they chemically fumigated the Sierra Macarena national park last week, clearing its entire 11,370 acres of coca. The spraying destroyed coca capable of producing 17.5 tons of high-grade cocaine and was likely a major blow to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.28)
2006 Aug 16, In northeast India a grenade exploded in a Hindu temple, killing at least four people and leaving 40 others injured, mainly in a stampede that followed the blast.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Bombings in Baghdad, killed 21 people and wounded 59. One American soldier was also killed as he was distributing candy to the children. British troops drove off gunmen who attacked the Basra governor's office, apparently to avenge a tribal leader killed the day before. In Mosul armed clashes between police and assailants in three predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods killed least five gunmen with six arrested. A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol north of Hillah, killing three soldiers and wounding four. In Karbala 10 militia fighters were killed and 281 arrested. A US soldier died of wounds suffered in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Kashmir 5 Islamic rebels were shot dead by Indian troops after they sneaked across the de facto border from the Pakistani zone. The army suffered one casualty.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Top foreign diplomats planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international force to enforce a cease-fire in southern Lebanon, but the government was divided over whether Hezbollah should lay down its arms or even withdraw them from the border with Israel.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza, killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol boat opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Mogadishu, Somalia, Islamic leaders gave seven men 40 lashes each for using or selling marijuana, meting out the punishment in public in a dramatic example of the region's new fundamentalist rule.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official opening the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and Mozambique. This was another step in the creation of the 14,000 square mile Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the 3 countries.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 16, A South Korean aid group claimed that massive floods in North Korea last month left about 54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tamil Tiger positions as troops hunted rebel infiltrators in northern Jaffna peninsula after resisting a guerrilla advance.
(AFP, 8/16/06)
2007 Aug 16, The US offered Israel an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Jose Padilla, a US citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks. Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," was later sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison on the unrelated terror support charges.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 16, US authorities indicted Igor Klopow (24), a Russian national, for his role in an ID theft gang that targeted wealthy individuals. Klopow was lured to the US and arrested under the Brooklyn Bridge.
(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.B2)
2007 Aug 16, A new Jefferson one dollar coin went into circulation nationwide. It followed the Washington coin, which was introduced in February, and the John Adams coin, introduced in May. The coin honoring James Madison was scheduled to go into circulation in November.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, US officials said C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina, collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base. The firm was run by sisters Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten (d.2006). The owners had exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or US bases that were labeled “priority" were usually paid automatically.
(www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=ardg6DwCCMFI&refer=home)(Reuters, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 16, Kathleen Culhane (40), former private investigator in California, was sentenced to 5 years in state prison for forging documents to save the lives of Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 16, CARE spokeswoman Alina Labrada said the donation of wheat and other crops does not help in regions where people consistently go hungry because local farming has been weakened by international competition. The Atlanta-based group turned down $46 million worth of US food aid, arguing that the way the American government distributes its help hurts poor farmers.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Utah the search for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. The search for six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon Mine was later abandoned. In 2012 mine operator Genwal Resources Inc. agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor criminal charges and pay a $500,000 fine.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/16/08)(SFC, 3/10/12, p.A6)
2007 Aug 16, In Afghanistan 6 civilians, including 3 children, were killed by the mortar and machine-gun attack on the village of Nangarkhel, Paktika province. Two other civilians died of their wounds in a hospital. 7 Polish soldiers were later charged with war crimes. On Jun 1, 2011, a military court in Poland acquitted the soldiers saying there was not enough evidence to support war crime charges. On March 19, 2015, four Polish soldiers were cleared of war crimes over the killing of the six civilians, but were convicted of lesser charges for which three of them were given suspended sentences.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nangar_Khel_incident)(AP, 6/1/11)(Reuters, 3/19/15)
2007 Aug 16, Australia’s PM John Howard said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India, subject to strict conditions.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 16, It was reported that a highly infectious swine virus, blue pork disease, had spread to 25 of China’s 33 provinces, prompting pork shortages and an 85% increase in pork prices over the last year.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 16, In Greece a huge forest fire burned two dozen homes, animals and cars in the northern outskirts of Athens before firefighters extinguished most of it.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, A conservation group said mercury used by gold miners has seeped into rivers and streams and sickened scores of Indian villagers in rural Guyana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The Iraqi prime minister and president announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and Kurds in a push to save the crumbing government, saying a key Sunni bloc refused to join but the door remained open to them. In Baghdad, a car bomb struck a parking garage in a central commercial district during the morning rush hour, killing at least nine people and wounding 17. US troops clashed with suspected Sunni insurgents holed up in a mosque north of Baghdad and launched an air-to-ground Hellfire missile into the structure. One American soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/16/07)(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled through its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least nine lives and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake. The mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of Tajimi in the afternoon, breaking a previous national record of 105.4 degrees set in 1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Uganda announced plans to send 250 extra soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu, but Somalia's government warned they were not enough and urged other African nations to commit troops.
(Reuters, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Opponents of President Hugo Chavez vowed to block his plans to radically overhaul the constitution, warning the changes would give him unlimited power and cripple democracy in Venezuela.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia for its 27th summit. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform at the summit of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country's political and economic crisis.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.43)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2008 Aug 16, Afghan and foreign troops clashed with militants in a mountainous area of Zabul province, killing 7 militants. In Kandahar province a roadside blast killed 10 police officers on patrol. In eastern Paktika province police clashed with militants in the Shwak district, killing 4 insurgents. In Helmand province British troops accidentally killed 4 civilians during an operation against Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 8/17/08)(WSJ, 8/18/08, p.A9)(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, Jailed Belarusian opposition leader Alexander Kozulin, considered in the West to be the ex-Soviet state's most prominent political prisoner, was released. Kozulin was one of two opposition candidates to run against Lukashenko in a 2006 election and was jailed for 5 1/2 years for helping stage mass protests against the official result declaring the president the winner by a landslide.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dorival Caymmi (b.1914), Brazilian composer, died. He had composed over 100 songs and catapulted to fame when Carmen Miranda performed one of his songs in 1938.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff between Thailand and Cambodia appeared to be ending as both sides pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Carol Huynh, whose parents fled communist Vietnam in the 1970s, won Canada's first gold of the Olympics in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling. Usain Bolt of Jamaica was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in the Olympic men's 100 meters final in a world record time of 9.69 sec.
(AP, 8/16/08)(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Authorities in the Central African Republic gave the green light for a leading rebel group headed by a former defense minister to form a political party. Both the rebel group and the new NAP party are headed by former defense minister Jean-Jacques Demafouth, currently in exile in France.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez promised to boost agricultural production and warned of dire economic times as he was sworn in for a third term.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tropical Storm Fay lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains and floods that killed at least 18 people including at least 14 people in Haiti, feared to have died aboard a bus that tried to cross a flooded river.
(AP, 8/17/08)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In India police arrested the alleged leader of the July Ahmadabad bombings. Mufti Abu Bashir was arrested in the northern Indian city of Lucknow.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tens of thousands of Muslims marched in India's portion of Kashmir in honor of a prominent separatist leader killed in a recent wave of violence that has rocked the volatile Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, On Indonesia's Sumatra island at least nine people have died and dozens were injured when a slow-moving passenger train hit a parked freight locomotive.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Russian forces pulled back from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later suggested there would be no immediate broader withdrawal. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over 13 villages in Georgia and a power plant. Russian troops blew up a key railroad bridge linking the Caucasus to the Black Sea coast.
(AP, 8/16/08)(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb exploded as Shiite pilgrims were boarding minibuses in Baghdad, killing at least 3 people, in a third straight day of attacks on travelers heading to a religious ceremony in Karbala. Iraqi police and hospital employees said six people were killed and 11 injured. The US military put the toll at three dead and eight injured.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A man used Semtex in a rocket-propelled grenade attack against Northern Ireland police officers, the first attack using the deadly explosive since paramilitary groups agreed to hand in their weapons.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 16, A top ruling party official gave Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a two-day deadline to quit or face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Rwanda Jozefina Zaninka (75), a woman who lost nearly all her family in the 1994 genocide, was murdered, in the latest of several killings of survivors of the slaughter. Some 167 survivors of the genocide have been murdered between 1995 and mid-May 2008.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In South Africa a regional summit of southern African leaders opened with Zimbabwe's crisis high on the agenda, and with the country's main political rivals in attendance.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka a series of raging battles across the northern war zone killed 27 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven government troops. Soldiers took control of a rebel training base in Andankulam in the Welioya region after Tamil Tiger fighters fled the area.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2009 Aug 16, Y.E. Yang (37) of South Korea won the PGA Championship at Chaska, Minnesota, with a 2-under par 70 beating Tiger Woods who shot a 5 over par 75.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, In San Francisco BART management and union leaders reached a tentative contract agreement less that 6 hours before a planned strike to shut down the regional rail system.
(SFC, 8/17/09, p.A1)
2009 Aug 16, Afghan President Hamid Karzai took part in a live television debate with two of his main rivals running in this week's election, a first for an incumbent head of state in the war-scarred country. The Afghan defense ministry said that more than 30 rebels, including foreigners, were killed in an operation pounding Taliban centers in a bid to secure a northeast troublespot for key elections. Two US troops and a US civilian died in gun and bomb attacks in eastern Afghanistan. 3 British soldiers were killed in an explosion in the volatile south.
(AFP, 8/16/09)(AFP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, Chinese authorities in central Henan province called off the takeover of Linzhou Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., a state-owned steel plant, after workers protested and trapped an official in the factory office for four days, the second time in a month that the country's steelworkers have rallied to successfully avoid privatization.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, Iran expanded its mass trial of opposition supporters, adding 25 more defendants including a Jewish teenager who are accused of involvement in unrest over the disputed presidential election.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, The US Peace Corps says it has pulled more than 100 American volunteers out of Mauritania for security reasons. The volunteers left for neighboring Senegal and will not return to Mauritania.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il held talks with Hyun Jeong-eun, the head of South Korea's Hyundai Group, in a rare meeting that could warm prospects for a resumption of stalled cross-border projects.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, In Pakistan seven suspected Taliban militants were killed during a gunfight with soldiers in Kabal village, about 20 kilometers northwest of Mingora in the Swat Valley. Police arrested militant commander Qari Saifullah, a close Mehsud aide, as he was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 16, It was reported that Peru has become the world’s largest “factory" of counterfeit US dollars. Police were said to seize some $10 million in false dollars each month in Lima alone. The Peruvian dollars were mostly found in such countries as Italy, France, Germany and Ecuador. Gunmen robbed 12 foreigners on an ecological tourism trip to the Manu nature reserve in the Tres Cruces area of the Cusco region.
(SSFC, 8/16/09, p.A4)(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, Two Russian air force fighters rehearsing acrobatic maneuvers collided near Moscow, killing one pilot and sending the jets crashing into nearby vacation homes.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, An American cargo plane arrived in Taiwan with supplies for victims of the recent Typhoon Morakot disaster. It was the first American military aircraft to land in Taiwan in the 30 years since the US severed its diplomatic ties in favor of China.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.36)
2009 Aug 16, In Uruguay some 20 dead Fraser's dolphins turned up this weekend on the Punta Negra beach in Piriapolis outside Montevideo. Experts theorized the tropical dolphins became disoriented or were carried there by changing water currents.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2010 Aug 16, The US Justice Dept. dropped its 6-year investigation of former US House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex) and his interactions with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
(SFC, 8/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, The US Interior Dept. announced new rules for offshore drilling.
(SFC, 8/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, US-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, one of the world's largest diamond trading networks, said it will expel members who knowingly trade Zimbabwean stones tainted by allegations of killings and human rights abuses.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Sheriff’s deputies at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Ca., stunned inmate Martin Harrison (51) with Tasers as they tried to move him to another cell so that his could be cleaned. Harrison was in the midst of alcohol withdrawal and died two days later. In 2015 Alameda County and Corizon Health Inc. agreed to pay $8.3 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by his four adult children.
(http://tinyurl.com/ldo9487)(SFC, 2/11/15, p.D1)
2010 Aug 16, Shrimpers returned to Louisiana waters for the first commercial season since the Gulf oil disaster, uncertain what crude may still be in the water and what price they'll get for the catch if consumers worry about possible lingering effects from the massive BP spill.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In South Carolina Shaquan Duley suffocated her 2 sons, ages 3 years and 14 months, put their bodies into a car and rolled the car into the North Edisto River. On March 16, 2012, she pleaded guilty to murder charges.
(SFC, 3/17/12, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/75e5z3u)
2010 Aug 16, Mazda Motor Corp announced a recall of 215,000 Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 vehicles sold in the United States because of the risk that they could lose power steering without warning.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 16, Dell Inc. said it's buying 3Par Inc., a maker of enterprise data storage equipment, for about $1.13 billion cash or $18 per share. Hewlett Packard soon countered with a higher bid and a bidding war ensued raising the value of 3Par $2 billion, or $30/share. HP ended an 18-day battle with a $33 per share offer. On Sep 2 Dell refused to continue bidding and said it was entitled to a $72 million termination fee.
(AP, 8/16/10)(SSFC, 8/29/10, p.A9)(SFC, 9/3/10, p.D4)
2010 Aug 16, Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan (50), who made headlines for performing multiple surgeries on reality TV star Heidi Montag, died in a car crash in southern California. He was texting while driving and accidentally went over a cliff. Ryan opened his private practice in 1994, the same year he established his namesake charitable foundation that provides free removal of gang-related tattoos and hosts day and overnight camps for children at Malibu's Bony Pony Ranch.
(http://tinyurl.com/2fv4r8f)
2010 Aug 16, In South Carolina Shaquan Duley (29) suffocated her two boys (18 months and 2 years old) and rolled her car into the North Edisto River in an attempt to cover their murder. She confessed to their murder the next day.
(SFC, 8/18/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, In Afghanistan 6 police officers in Kandahar province were poisoned by a cook who defected to the Taliban.
(SSFC, 8/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Aug 16, Teams from Australia, Germany and Switzerland have set off from Geneva in electric vehicles for what they hope will be the first carbon neutral race around the world. The race set up by Swiss inventor Louis Palmer will pass through 150 cities including Berlin, Moscow, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Cancun before returning to Geneva in January after 18,642 miles (30,000 km) on the road.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Bolivia protesters suspended road blockades and hunger strikes, saying government officials agreed to address their grievances after 19 days of demonstrations that paralyzed Bolivia's southern Potosi region. The government agreed to build a new airport and cement factory in the area to end the 3-weeks of roadblocks.
(AP, 8/16/10)(SSFC, 8/22/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 16, In northeast China a massive explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing 19 workers, damaging nearby buildings and causing secondary blasts.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In China at least 36 more people have died and 23 others were missing in fresh flooding from torrential rains in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, A Boeing 737 jetliner with 131 passengers aboard crashed on landing and broke into three pieces at Colombia’s at San Andres Island in the Caribbean. The region's governor said it was a miracle that only one person died. On Sep 1 a girl (11) died from her injuries raising the death toll to two.
(AP, 8/16/10)(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Greece Dimitrios Ioannidis (87), a feared security chief, died. He led the 1974 countercoup against Greece's military leaders and provoked Turkey's invasion of Cyprus. He was jailed in 1975 for life for his part in the 1967-74 dictatorship.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Iran said it plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds, with construction on the first starting in March, in continuing defiance of international efforts to curb its nuclear development.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb killed four Iranian Shiite pilgrims and an Iraqi citizen travelling on a bus northeast of Baghdad with women among nine others wounded.
(AFP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant who the military said was planting a bomb along the border.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, Mexico's Supreme Court voted to uphold a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples, drawing jubilant cheers from gay advocacy groups and angry protests from Roman Catholic Church representatives.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Mexico 4 inmates were found dead with their throats slashed at a prison in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, Nigerian officials said a cholera outbreak has killed 87 people during the past month while 1,315 others have been infected.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Pakistan angry flood survivors blocked a highway to protest slow delivery of aid and heavy rain lashed makeshift housing as a forecast of more flooding increased the urgency of the massive international relief effort.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Peru American Lori Berenson apologized for aiding leftist rebels and asked a Peruvian court to let her remain free on parole after serving 15 years of her 20-year sentence behind bars.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Romania a fire at a Bucharest maternity hospital killed 3 babies. A 4th died the next day and seven remained in critical condition. The accident provoked a wave of public indignation, throwing light on Romania's poorly funded and understaffed health system.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, Russia’s ruling party said it would not re-nominate Georgy Boos, the unpopular governor of Kaliningrad, for a new term.
(Reuters, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Russia Gabriel Grecu, first secretary in the political department of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, was detained while trying to obtain secret military information from a Russian citizen. He was given 48 hours to leave the country.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Sudan lightning struck a religious school in the country's western Darfur region, killing seven children.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2011 Aug 16, The US National Marriage Project reported that the number of Americans with children who live together without marrying has increased 12-fold since 1970.
(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A6)
2011 Aug 16, Tampa police arrested Jared Cano (17), an expelled student, after thwarting what they called a "catastrophic" plot to set off a bomb at his former high school next week.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, Seattle voters approved a measure to build the biggest ever deep bore tunnel to carry cars past the city’s downtown. The $1.9 billion tunnel would be part of a $3.1 billion project to demolish a 2-level viaduct on the scenic waterfront.
(SFC, 8/18/11, p.A8)
2011 Aug 16, In Afghanistan a gunman riding a motorcycle killed Rabia Sadat, a woman who works for the Afghan government, in a drive-by shooting outside of her home in Kandahar. A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at a market in Uruzgan province killing 8 people.
(AP, 8/16/11)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 16, In Bahrain an international panel investigating unrest closed its office after angry crowds scuffled with staff members following reports that government officials would be cleared of committing abuses against protesters seeking greater rights.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Britain a 16-year-old boy was ordered to stand trial for the murder of a retiree attacked when he confronted rioters in London. Richard Bowes (68) was found lying in a street during violence in Ealing, on Aug. 8. He died of head injuries three days later.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Hackers attacked the website of a prominent Canadian newspaper and posted a false news item alleging Quebec Premier Jean Charest had died of a heart attack.
(Reuters, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel called for greater economic and political unity among the 17 nations that share the euro.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, In India anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare (74), arrested for planning a public hunger strike, began his fast behind bars as his supporters held protests across the country, with thousands detained by police. The government decided to release as public anger rose, but Hazare refused to leave jail unless he was given written permission to resume his fast in a park in central Delhi.
(AP, 8/17/11)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A3)
2011 Aug 16, Israeli aircraft struck 5 targets in the Gaza Strip, killing 1 militant and wounding 4 other Palestinians in retaliation for rocket fire on southern Israel the previous evening.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Ivory Coast Minister of Defense Paul Koffi Koffi said the government plans to disarm and demobilize some 10,000 fighters in the wake of postelection violence earlier this year. He said the process should be completed by the end of the year.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Libya rebels clashed with Gadhafi troops for control of the refinery in Brega. A rebel doctor said 18 rebels had been killed and 74 injured.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed into law a constitutional change eliminating the "pocket veto," a measure that formerly allowed presidents to kill legislation by refusing to sign it.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In southern Nepal an overcrowded boat carrying at least 35 people capsized in the rain-swollen Kamala river. At least 20 people were missing.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Norway’s Statoil said that the North SEa Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries together contain between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil, significantly more than previously thought.
(SFC, 8/31/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3u5v3zp)
2011 Aug 16, Poland's prosecutor general announced the dismissal of two officials who played a role in giving Belarus financial data about Ales Belyatsky, a leading human rights activist, information that resulted in his arrest.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, Romania’s controversial Tourism Minister Elena Udrea sparked outrage with a frock she admitted cost as much as many Romanians make in more than a month. She defended the $1290 dress, insisting it cost less than the thousands of euros that media has reported.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Syria heavy machine-gun fire erupted across the besieged city of Latakia as the death toll rose to 35 from a military assault now in its fourth day. Army units began withdrawing from Deir el-Zour after clearing the city of "armed terrorist gangs" in an operation that lasted several days.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Yemen at least 33 people were killed over the last 24 hours in government raids in a restive tribal area northeast of the capital Sanaa. President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed to return to Yemen soon from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recuperating from wounds he suffered in an attack on his palace compound.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 16, In Zimbabwe former military chief Gen. Solomon Mujuru (62), one of the country’s main political power brokers and the husband of the vice president, died in an overnight fire at one of his homes.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2012 Aug 16, In California 12 federal counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud were brought against Terence Bonner (59), former leader of the national union representing Border Patrol agents. He allegedly filed false claims for hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2007-2010.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A6)
2012 Aug 16, In California gang member Pierre Mercado was found guilty in Los Angeles of 4 counts of murder during a mid 1990’s crime spree. He was a member of the Asian Boys founded by his brother, Marvin, now serving life in prison.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A8)
2012 Aug 16, William Windom, TV actor, died at his home in Woodacre, Ca. He received an Emmy for best actor for his performance in “My World and Welcome to It" (1970), a program based on James Thurber’s humorous essays. He also appeared in over 50 episodes of “Murder She Wrote."
(SFC, 8/21/12, p.C3)
2012 Aug 16, In Louisiana 2 sheriff’s deputies were killed and 2 others injured during a shootout in Laplace, John the Baptist Parish. 7 people were arrested in connection to the shootings. The suspects were later reported to be heavily armed adherents to an ideology known as the "sovereign citizens" movement.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A9)(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A5)(AP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 16, Detroit police found a woman and 2 children slain when officers went to notify her that her husband, Michael VanDerLinden had died in a fatal car crash in Indiana. He was driving the wrong way on an interstate and killed a stranger as he slammed into the man’s car.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 16, A solar powered toilet that turns urine and feces into hydrogen and electricity won a $100,000 first prize in the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge in Seattle, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A8)
2012 Aug 16, It was reported that lion bones have become a hot commodity for their use in Asian traditional medicine, driving up exports from South Africa to the East and creating new fears of the survival of the species.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Afghanistan Taliban fighters reportedly shot down a NATO helicopter during a firefight in Kandahar province. 11 people were killed in the crash, including 7 Americans and 4 Afghans. An Afghan army vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Baghlan province, killing 3 Afghan soldiers and wounding 3 others.
(AP, 8/16/12)(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A3)
2012 Aug 16, Prominent Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was found guilty of calling and participating in several illegal gatherings and sentenced to three years in jail. In December an appeals court reduced his sentence from three years to two.
(AP, 8/16/12)(AP, 12/11/12)
2012 Aug 16, British High Court judges dismissed a legal plea by Tony Nicklinson (58) for the right to die, unanimously ruling that it would be wrong to depart from a precedent that equates voluntary euthanasia with murder. Nicklinson had locked-in syndrome after suffering a stroke on a business trip to Athens in 2005. He died at his home in Melksham on Aug 22 after contracting pneumonia.
(AFP, 8/22/12)
2012 Aug 16, It was reported that Britain’s town of Bristol has re-scheduled the launch of the Bristol pound, usable only with member businesses in the city in southwest England, to Sep 19. The Bristol pound will not be legal tender and must be exchanged through the Bristol Credit Union, with a three percent charge for conversion back to sterling.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, setting up a diplomatic confrontation with Britain, which angrily insisted it would extradite him to Sweden.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Egypt a Cairo court charged controversial TV presenter Tawfiq Okasha with suggesting the killing of Pres. Morsi during his nightly TV show. The court also referred the chief editor of el-Dustour daily, Islam Afifi, for his newspaper's harsh criticism of Morsi.
(AP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, Thousands of Indians from the northeast of the country fled southern cities after rumors they would be attacked by Muslims in reprisal for recent ethnic violence. The army and paramilitary troopers called out in the Nalbari and Kamrup districts after mobs torched a bus, a car and a wooden road bridge. 11 people were injured when acid was thrown on a group in the western Assam town of Gossaigaon in the troubled Kokrajhar district.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, India's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki said that more than 500 workers had been sacked after riots on July 18 at a plant near New Delhi left one manager dead. Production was set to partially re-start on August 21 with 200 anti-riot police on rolling shifts inside the factory.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Iraq a wave of attacks killed at least 93 people. More than 100 people were wounded in 15 explosions, including seven car bombs, a suicide attack, and a shooting, in nine cities and towns nationwide.
(AFP, 8/16/12)(AP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Iraq Banin Haider (4) was kidnapped in Zubair, a rundown town just outside the city of Basra. Police later found her body in a derelict area with her hands and legs bound. She was raped multiple times, and her head was smashed by what was believed to be a large brick. An off-duty soldier assigned to a nearby army base, Akram al-Mayahi, was arrested in connection with the Banin's murder. He was found guilty on Oct. 22 and sentenced to death for abusing and killing the girl.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Aug 16, In Italy 6 of 10 horses crashed during the latest Palio bareback horse race in Siena. One horse broke a front leg. Some 50 horses have died during the race since 1970.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 16, In Ivory Coast fighting broke out overnight with villagers near the economic capital Abidjan reporting heavy gunfire, trapping them in their homes. Armed men had attacked an army base, a prison and police stations overnight leaving 3 civilians dead. The local police commissioner said two gunmen were killed, about a dozen were arrested and that there were no army fatalities.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Malta said its navy has recovered two bodies and rescued around 160 Eritrean and Somali migrants from two boats which got into trouble on the Mediterranean Sea.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, A Mauritanian man has the throats of his four children to avoid the expense of buying them new clothes for the upcoming Muslim holiday Eid-al-fitr.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, In northwest Pakistan Taliban militants wearing explosive vests and armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked Air Force Base Minhas in Kamra, possibly linked to the country's nuclear program, and fought a two-hour battle that left one security official and 9 insurgents dead and the base in flames. Hours later in northern Pakistan, gunmen forced 22 Shiite Muslims off of 3 buses in the Naran Valley, lined them up and killed them.
(AP, 8/16/12)(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 16, Pakistani police in Islamabad arrested Rimsha, a young Christian girl with Down's Syndrome, after she was reported holding in public burnt pages which had Islamic text and Koranic verses on them. Pakistani cleric Khalid Chisti (30), who handed over the girl (14) to police, later claimed he did so to protect her from mob violence. On Sep 2 Chisti was arrested for falsifying evidence. On Sep 7 a Pakistani judge granted Rimsha bail of $10,500. On Nov 20 she was acquitted.
(AFP, 8/19/12)(AFP, 8/24/12)(SFC, 9/3/12, p.A3)(AP, 9/7/12)(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Aug 16, Unknown assailants firebombed a Palestinian taxi in the West Bank leaving 6 people wounded. Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu later vowed to bring the people responsible for the firebombing to justice. The Israeli military has counted 196 Palestinian firebomb attacks and six shooting incidents in the first half of 2012.
(AP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 16, Peru’s military said 5 soldiers have been killed in a clash with resurgent Shining Path rebels in the Junin region, 175 miles east of Lima.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 16, In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the top world Muslim body, suspended Syria, saying it can no longer accept a regime that "massacres its people", as rights groups accused Damascus of a new atrocity against civilians.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Singapore's High Court ruled that more than $23 million seized from the estate of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos rightfully belongs to a Philippine bank.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, South African police fired on strikers at the Lonmin platinum mine leaving 34 dead. This was the deadliest police action since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 16, In South Korea Hanwha Corp. chairman Kim Seung-youn, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, was sentenced to four years prison and fined 5.1 billion won ($4.5 million) for embezzlement in a ruling that shows a tougher stance against wrongdoing by leaders of the country's mightiest companies.
(AP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Syrian forces shelling the besieged city of Aleppo struck a bread line outside a bakery killing at least 10 people. The LCC said 49 people were killed all over Aleppo.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, The United Nations said deadly clashes between soldiers and a Muslim rebel group in the violence-plagued southern Philippines had displaced up to 45,000 people. Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) attacked several army detachments in the southern province of Maguindanao last week, triggering gunbattles that left at least five soldiers dead.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Yemen's top security committee said 62 officers and soldiers loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son were charged with resisting authorities and mutiny after trying to storm the Ministry of Defense 2 days earlier.
(AP, 8/16/12)
2013 Aug 16, In California a US District Judge ruled that a Los Angeles County law requiring adult film performers to wear condoms is constitutional.
(SSFC, 8/18/13, p.A12)
2013 Aug 16, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb late today killed 3 women in Helmand's Sangin district.
(AP, 8/17/13)
2013 Aug 16, A Bahrain activist said at least 40 prisoners were hurt when security forces used batons, tear gas, pepper spray and stun grenades against inmates protesting over their conditions.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, British PM David Cameron asked European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to "urgently" send monitors to Gibraltar's border with Spain where tightened security checks are fuelling a row between the two countries.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, In Egypt tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters took to the streets in defiance of a military-imposed state of emergency following bloodshed earlier this week. Street fighting in Cairo and other clashes across the country left 173 people dead.
(AP, 8/16/13)(AP, 8/17/13)
2013 Aug 16, Indian security forces said they had picked up Abdul Karim “Tunda," a bomb maker for the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Talib.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.42)
2013 Aug 16, In Iraq two bombings around Baghdad killed 7 people.
(SFC, 8/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 16, In Kenya some 40 armed extremist, believed to be from Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, killed at least 4 police in an attack on a police post near the Somalia border.
(AP, 8/17/13)
2013 Aug 16, In Lebanon a car bombing, blamed on Sunni extremists, killed 22 people in a Shiite neighborhood south of Beirut.
(SFC, 8/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 16, In southwestern Pakistan assailants fired a rocket at a moving train in a mountainous region, killing 2 passengers and wounding 19 near Dozan, Baluchistan province.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, In the Philippines a ferry disaster killed at least 64 people and 56 remained missing. The ferry sank after a collision with the Sulpicio Express 7, a cargo vessel just outside the central port of Cebu. The Sulpicio Express 7 is owned by unlisted firm Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp, formerly known as Sulpicio Lines Inc.
(AP, 8/17/13)(AP, 8/18/13)(SSFC, 8/25/13, p.A4)
2013 Aug 16, A WHO official said Somalia is suffering an "explosive" outbreak of polio and now has more cases — 105 — than all other countries in the world combined. The outbreak is complicated by the fact health workers have limited access to south-central Somalia, controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, Syrian warplanes struck targets in a rebel-held district in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people, wounding dozens of others and leaving some buried under the rubble of buildings.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2014 Aug 16, In California the search for Erin Corwin (19) ended when her body was spotted with a video camera 140 feet down a mine shaft on federal land near her home in Twentynine Palms, where her Marine husband was stationed. Former Marine Christopher Brandon Lee (24) was arrested the next day in Alaska. Corwin had disappeared on June 28.
(AP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Missouri vandals attacked stores in Ferguson early today, hours after police said the unarmed black teenager shot dead by a white officer in an incident that unleashed days of rioting was a robbery suspect. Protesters stormed into the same convenience store that Michael Brown was accused of robbing. Gov. Jay Nixon ordered a midnight to 5 am curfew as he declared a state of emergency in Ferguson.
(AFP, 8/16/14)(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A7)
2014 Aug 16, At Britain’s Tilbury Docks one man was found dead and 34 others still alive in a shipping container after staff at the port heard banging and screaming coming from inside. The men, women and children, were all from Afghanistan. On Aug 19 Northern Ireland police arrested a man (34) in Limavady suspected of smuggling the migrants.
(AFP, 8/16/14)(SFC, 8/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, China’s state media reported that police have arrested seven people in the northwest allegedly involved in a scheme that forced school children to donate blood.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, Egypt’s PM Ibrahim Mehlib blamed saboteurs for some 300 attacks on electricity pylons nationwide that have deepened the country’s energy shortage.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A4)
2014 Aug 16, It was reported that authorities in Guyana have discovered a 65-foot, diesel engine submarine near the border with Venezuela. It was locally built and believed to be used to ferry drugs across the Atlantic.
(SFC, 8/16/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, In Iraq airstrikes pounded the area around the Mosul Dam in an effort to drive out militants who captured it earlier this month. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced in Baghdad that his government would provide more than 24 million euros ($32.2 million) in humanitarian aid to Iraq.
(AP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Israel thousands of supporters of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority demonstrated in Tel Aviv to end the Gaza conflict.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Liberia residents in Monrovia’s in the West Point slum raided a quarantine center for suspected Ebola patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses. Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Pakistan thousands of protesters led by populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri alongside opposition leader Imran Khan's march, arrived in Islamabad to force Nawaz Sharif's government to step down for alleged election-rigging.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 16, In northern Mali 2 UN peacekeepers were killed and nine others injured in a suicide attack on a patrol base in the village of Ber.
(Reuters, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, Nepalese officials said flooding and lanslides in the west have killed at least 54 people and left 142 missing over the last three days.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, In the Philippines about 30 Abu Sayyaf gunmen breached a perimeter wall of the Sulu provincial government compound late today and took chief mechanic Ronald Pelegrin at gunpoint from the motorpool under cover of darkness. The gunmen also tried to seize Pelegrin's deputy, Dante Avilla, but the latter resisted and was shot and killed by the militants when he tried to run away.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, In South Korea Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs killed in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Joseon Dynasty.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 16, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of the al-Sheitaat (Shueitat) tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 8/16/14)(SFC, 8/19/14, p.A5)
2014 Aug 16, Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists fought skirmishes near the Russian border but there was no sign of the conflict widening after Kiev said it partially destroyed an armored column that had crossed the border from Russia. A rebel Internet news outlet said that separatist fighters had killed 30 members of a Ukrainian government battalion in fighting in Luhansk province. Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said 3 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed over the past 24 hours. Alexander Zakharchenko, self-proclaimed separatist government in the Donetsk region, said newly-trained fighters have 150 armored vehicles, including 30 tanks, and have gathered near a "corridor" along the Russian border.
(Reuters, 8/16/14)(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, Ukraine government forces captured a district police station in Luhansk after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighborhood. Separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane over the Luhansk region after it launched an attack on rebels.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 16, In eastern Yemen a drone attack killed 3 suspected al Qaeda militants in Hadramout province.
(Reuters, 8/16/14)
2015 Aug 16, In southern California two small planes collided midair as they approached Brown Field Municipal Airport in San Diego County, killing 5 people.
(SFC, 8/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Aug 16, In Brazil demonstrators took to the streets of cities and towns across the country for a day of nationwide anti-government protests.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi boosted police and judicial powers with a new anti-terrorism law that also imposes hefty fines for "false" media reports.
(AFP, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, East African leaders met in Ethiopia ahead of a deadline for South Sudan's warring leaders to strike a peace deal or risk international sanctions.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Indian and Pakistani troops traded heavy gunfire and mortar rounds for a seventh straight day along the highly militarized line of control in Kashmir. Indian police said six civilians had died in the Pakistani shelling over the last two days. Pakistan's army said that two civilians had been killed.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Indonesia an aircraft with 54 people on board crashed in the remote and mountainous region of Papua. The 27-year-old Trigana ATR 42-300 crashed into Tangok mountain. All 54 people on board the aircraft were killed.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)(Reuters, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 16, An Iraqi parliamentary panel called for dozens of security and political officials, including former PM Nuri al-Maliki, to be referred to court in connection with the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Iraq Islamic State militants launched an attack against government troops outside the militant-held city of Fallujah, killing at least 17 troops.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Libyan residents said the Islamic State has executed and displayed the bodies of 4 members of a rival group which had staged a revolt against the militants in the central city of Sirte. Unknown gunmen fired on the airport of Benghazi, partly destroying a passenger terminal. Rockets also landed in a residential district in the eastern city of Derna, from which Islamic State was expelled by a rival group in June.
(AP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Nicaragua 5 police officers were killed in the south of the country after being attacked by a criminal group trying to free a detained member in Punta Gorda.
(Reuters, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, Nigeria's ruling party called on the country's people to support efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari to recover billions of dollars lost to government corruption and punish the perpetrators in the graft-plagued nation.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram, denied he had been killed or ousted as chief of the jihadist group in an audio recording released today and attributed to him by security experts.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Pakistan a bomb killed Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada and 18 other people at his home in the political heartland of PM Nawaz Sharif. Lashkar-e-Islam, a Taliban-affiliated militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)(AP, 8/17/15)(Reuters, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 16, In the Philippines the decomposing body of Kevin Fleischauer, a 58-year-old American, was found. The body of his Filipino-American wife, Lolly Mangilaya Fleischauer (60), was found a day later in a well. They had been missing for about two weeks in a case of suspected robbery in Murcia town, Negros Occidental province.
(AP, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Portugal former Serb army commander Mile Mrksic (68), serving a 20-year sentence for his role in the massacre of Croats during the Balkans wars, died in Lisbon. The former officer in the Yugoslav army (JNA), was convicted in 2007 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for aiding and abetting the torture and murder of nearly 200 civilians in Vukovar in eastern Croatia in 1991.
(AFP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 16, In South Africa a small Namibian medical plane crashed in the Tygerberg Nature Reserve east of Cape Town, killing all 5 people aboard.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Spain an animal rights activist was beaten with a duck by a woman defending one of the country's most bizarre and controversial festival traditions in the Catalonian seaside town of Roses. Every year since 1918 about 50 ducks are thrown into the sea in the town north of Barcelona, with swimmers then racing in to catch them and bringing them ashore however they can.
(AFP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 16, A Syrian government air strike northeast of Damascus killed at least 96 people in a marketplace in Douma. A Syrian military source said air force strikes on Douma and nearby Harasta targeted the headquarters of the rebel group Islam Army.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)(AFP, 8/17/15)
2015 Aug 16, In Yemen militia forces loyal to the exiled government fought their way deep into the central city of Taiz, largely pushing out Houthi militiamen from the country's third largest city.
(Reuters, 8/16/15)
2016 Aug 16, Authorities in southern California ordered the evacuation of 82,000 people, after a wildfire broke out in Cajon Pass to rapidly engulf 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) of terrain. The so-called Bluecut Fire erupted in heavy brush just west of Interstate 15, the main freeway between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, forcing the closure of one stretch of the highway. In nothern California the Clayton Fire was 35 percent contained.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, In Lousiana ExxonMobil Corp shut a crude distillation unit at its 502,500 barrel per day (bpd) Baton Rouge refinery as flooding disrupted operations at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China's Cabinet announced that preparations to connect the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges are "basically completed." Charles Li, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the city's stock market operator said the link would likely launched by Christmas.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 16, Iranian security forces killed 3 Sunni militants linked to Islamic State in Kermanshah city close to the Iraqi border, confiscating a weapons cache and belts armed with explosives.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Iran said that it arrested a British-Iranian last week on suspicion of links to the UK intelligence service.
(AFP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir shot and killed four civilians and injured at least 15 others as clashes intensified with anti-India protesters in the troubled region.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Peru's supreme court overturned an embezzlement sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori, although the decision will not alter the 25-year prison term he is serving for crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 16, Russian warplanes took off from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, In South Korea an accidental explosion at a naval base left 3 soldiers dead and another injured in the southeastern port town of Jinhae.
(AP, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 16, Turkish police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into last month's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2017 Aug 16, The United States said it had sanctioned Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest of the anti-Indian Kashmiri militant groups fighting in the Himalayan territory divided between Pakistan and India.
(Reuters, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, The Trump administration formally terminated the 2014 Obama CAM parole program that granted Central American minors temporary legal residence.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.A6)
2017 Aug 16, The US National Parks Service announced that it will no longer allow parks to ban the sale of plastic water bottles, an option that was part of the 2011 Green Parks Plan adopted under former Pres. Obama.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.D1)
2017 Aug 16, In San Jose, Ca., a fire at the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park killed three people, including two young girls.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.D1)
2017 Aug 16, Fiat-Chrysler said it will cooperate with BMW to develop self-driving cars.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.C2)
2017 Aug 16, In eastern Afghanistan an American soldier was killed and several others were wounded in a battle with Islamic State militants in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province. A suicide car bomber killed three civilians while trying to attack an Afghan army base in the southern Helmand province late today. In southern Kandahar province, Taliban fighters stormed police checkpoints in two districts late today, killing seven policemen and wounding nine. In southern Zabul province the Taliban attacked a police base, killing eight policemen.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Algeria Ahmed Ouyahia began a fourth term as Prime Minister and held that position until March 12, 2019.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ouyahia)
2017 Aug 16, Belgium's Agriculture Minister Denis Ducarme said the government will join in legal action against those responsible for the egg contamination scandal, which has hit at least 17 countries.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, British police arrested Michal Konrad Herba (36), the brother of Lukasz Pawel Herba, a man accused of the recent abduction of British model Chloe Ayling in Italy, following a request from the Italian authorities.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Cambodian tax authorities denied there is a political motive for a crackdown on delinquent taxpayers that prominently targets media and civil society organizations critical of the government.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, In eastern Congo DRC at least 200 people were believed killed in a landslide in Tora village, Ituri province. 48 houses were destroyed. 140 bodies were soon recovered and over 100 were believed still buried.
(Reuters, 8/17/17)(SSFC, 8/20/17, p.A4)(AFP, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 16, Deutsche Post DHL Group and US automaker Ford unveiled a jointly manufactured electric delivery van amid growing demand for emission-free utility vehicles.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Guatemala at least two people were killed and five arrested when alleged gang members shot up one of the country's largest hospitals to free a prisoner.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Mehdi Karroubi (80), a detained Iranian opposition leader, started a hunger strike. He wanted to be out on trial rather than remain under house arrest where he has been held since 2011. Karroubi ended his hunger strike after one day after officials promised that the 12 guards watching over him would no longer be permanently stationed in his house.
(Reuters, 8/16/17)(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 16, In Iraq Islamic State group suicide bombers killed seven members of the security forces in an attack on police and army base in Baiji.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Israel said it is revoking the press credentials of an Al-Jazeera reporter Elias Karram after he told another TV station that the work of Palestinian journalists is part of the "resistance."
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Israeli forces demolished the home of Palestinian Omar al-Abed (19), who fatally stabbed three Israelis in a nearby Jewish settlement last July 21 at a time when tensions soared over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, A Kenyan government watchdog said it will investigate whether police killed a baby and a young girl during an Aug 12 crackdown on post-election demonstrations.
(Reuters, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Lebanon's parliament abolished a law, in place since the 1940s, that allowed rapists to avoid prison by marrying their victims.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Lebanese troops attacked IS positions on the other side of border with Syria, tightening the siege on them. Syrian warplanes bombarded mountainous areas controlled by the Islamic State group near the border with Lebanon.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, A short video that circulated online showing a hand holding a revolver firing at a target with an image of Mexico’s El Universal columnist Hector De Mauleon's face. De Mauleon has received previous threats after penning columns about organized crime in Mexico City.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 16, In the Philippines police, later identified as identified as Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz, reportedly shot Kian Loyd delos Santos (17) in the head and left his body next to a pigsty. Police said they shot delos Santos in self-defense after he opened fire on officers during an anti-drugs operation. But there was outrage when the CCTV footage emerged showing two officers marching a figure, subdued and apparently unarmed, toward the spot where the youth's body was later found.
(Reuters, 8/25/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Spain imam Abdelbaki Es Satty (40) died in an accidental explosion in Alcanar. He was later identified as the ideological leader of a cell planning an attack in Barcelona.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Barcelona_attack#Abdelbaki_Es_Satty)
2017 Aug 16, In Tanzania Wayne Lotter, the South African co-founder of the Protected Areas management Solutions (PAMS), a conservation group for the protection of elephants, was shot and killed in the Masa-ki district of Dar es Salaam.
(SFC, 3/18/17, p.A2)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.78)
2017 Aug 16, In Thailand at least eight people, first arrested in May, were re-arrested and charged with insulting the monarchy for allegedly burning portraits of members of the royal family.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 16, Venezuela’s government-stacked Supreme Court announced it was ordering the capture of German Ferrer, the ousted chief prosecutor's husband, and referring the case to the new, all-powerful constitutional assembly. Ferrer was accused of running a $6 million extortion ring.
(AP, 8/17/17)(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A4)
2017 Aug 16, In southern Venezuela at least 37 people were killed overnight during clashes between armed inmates and security forces at a prison in Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas state. Inmates had seized control of the prison several weeks earlier.
(SFC, 8/17/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 16, Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema walked free from prison after treason charges against him were dropped, averting a trial that threatened turmoil in the southern African nation.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, Zimbabwe police said first lady Grace Mugabe has claimed diplomatic immunity after being accused of assaulting a 20-year-old model, in an incident that could test cross-border relations. She is accused of attacking Gabriella Engels with an electrical extension cord on August 13 at a Johannesburg hotel where her two sons were staying.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2018 Aug 16, US newspapers big and small hit back at President Donald Trump's relentless attacks on the news media, with a coordinated campaign of editorials highlighting the importance of a free press.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, The Pentagon late today said that a show of US military prowess, originally scheduled for November 10 in Washington, was being pushed back to a possible date in 2019, after it emerged costs could soar as high as $92 million.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Arkansas a group called the Satanic Temple temporarily placed a a bronze statue of a goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet at the state capitol during a rally calling for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument mounted on Capitol grounds in 2017.
(SFC, 8/18/18, p.A7)
2018 Aug 16, In Colorado Christopher Watts (33) was arrested on suspicion of killing his pregnant wife and two daughters. The body of Shannan Watts (34) had been found on property owned by Anadarko Petroleum, Where Mr. Watts used to work. The bodies of the two girls, ages 3 and 4, were still missing. Watts told police his wife had strangled the girls after being told he wanted to separate. Police later learned Watts was having an affair with a co-worker. On Nov. 19 Watts was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/17/18, p.A5)(SFC, 8/20/18, p.A5)(SFC, 11/20/18, p.A6)
2018 Aug 16, The journal Science reported that the complex wheat genome, five times longer than the human genome, has been sequenced.
(SSFC, 8/19/18, p.A20)
2018 Aug 16, Aretha Franklin (76), the music legend, icon and Grammy-winning singer celebrated as the "Queen of Soul," died at her home in Detroit. She influenced generations of female singers with unforgettable hits including "Respect" (1967), "Natural Woman" (1968) and "I Say a Little Prayer" (1968).
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Afghanistan two gunmen besieged a compound belonging to the Afghan intelligence service in a northwestern Kabul neighborhood early today, opening fire as Afghan security forces moved in to cut them off. The standoff lasted for nearly six hours before police killed the gunmen and secured the area.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Australia Paul Bradshaw (74), a man with terminal cancer, said he could die happy after reaching a 1 million Australian dollar ($727,000) landmark settlement against the Catholic Irish Christian Brothers for sexual abuse he suffered more than 50 years ago at the hands of Brothers Lawrence Murphy, Bruno Doyle and Christopher Angus, who are all dead.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Austria authorities in Vienna decided to ban passengers from eating in the capital's subway trains. But they don't plan to punish offenders, at least to start with. The blanket ban will be introduced Sept. 1 on the U6 line and extended to the other four lines on January 15.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Bahrain's government rejected the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, saying that offences by Nabeel Rajab did not relate to his political views and that his trials had been independent and transparent. Rajab was sentenced to five years in prison in February for criticizing Saudi Arabia's air strikes in Yemen and writing tweets accusing Bahrain's prison authorities of torture. He was already serving a two-year term over a news interview in which he said Bahrain tortured political prisoners.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 18, In Chile, Argentina and Peru false bomb threats caused up to 11 commercial flights to take emergency measures. Chilean authorities soon arrested Franco Sepulveda Robles (29) for making false bomb threats in anger over an airline not returning his suitcase.
(SSFC, 8/19/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 16, Air France-KLM was tipped to name its first non-French chief executive, with Ben Smith, chief operating officer at Air Canada, set to be unveiled. Nine out of 10 Air France unions opposed the selection.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93) died after a prolonged illness. The Hindu nationalist had set off a nuclear arms race with rival Pakistan but later reached across the border to begin a groundbreaking peace process.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Iraq's air force carried out two airstrikes targeting Islamic State group inside Syria, killing at least 28 IS militants.
(AP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, Malaysia's new government repealed a widely criticized law prohibiting "fake news," in a move hailed as a landmark moment for human rights by a group of Southeast Asian lawmakers.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, The Malian government said President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won a landslide victory in a run-off against opposition rival Soumaila Cisse, giving him a second term to try to turn back a surge in ethnic and Islamist militant violence.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Mexican marines seized a record 50 tons of crystal meth from a drug lab in the state of Sinaloa.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, In Myanmar the Independent Commission of Enquiry held its first formal meeting in the capital, Naypyitaw, a day after holding talks with the country's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Pakistan's foreign ministry confirmed the suspension of a US military training program for Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 16, Qatari broadcaster BeIN said it has "irrefutable evidence" that a pirate channel illegally showing hundreds of live European football matches is being carried on the Saudi-based satellite provider Arabsat.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Peter Morgan, a Scottish man with far-right views, was sentenced in Edinburgh to 12 years in prison for attempting to build a bomb that prosecutors say could have caused carnage.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, A Thailand environment ministry official said imports of 432 types of scrap electronics will be banned within six months. Southeast Asia nations fear they are the new dumping ground for the world's trash after China banned the entry of several types of waste as part of a campaign against "foreign garbage".
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Turkish officials said four soldiers have been killed in violence in the southeast where troops are battling Kurdish rebels, three of them as a result of a friendly fire in Adiyaman province.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Three Ugandan lawmakers, critics of President Yoweri Museveni, were charged with treason for their suspected role in the August 13 stoning of his convoy. Lawmaker, pop singer and government critic Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, whose stage name is Bobi Wine, was charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition in a military court for his alleged role in the stone throwing.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, Uganda police arrested Jimmy L. Taylor, an American man who in video footage is seen attacking a hotel worker with punches and racial insults. CCTV footage of the incident was posted on social media, angering some Ugandans who demanded his arrest.
(AP, 8/19/18)
2018 Aug 16, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's office said had it demanded a 15-year prison sentence for ousted ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, accused by Kiev of "betraying his nation" to Russia.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, It was reported that Venezuela's opposition-run supreme court in exile in Colombia has sentenced President Nicolas Maduro to 18 years in prison over the infamous Odebrecht corruption scandal, a move dismissed by the regime.
(AFP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 16, A court in central Vietnam sentenced activist Le Dinh Luong (53) to 20 years in prison and five years of house arrest after finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the Communist government.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2019 Aug 16, The US justice department issued a warrant for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker, a day after a Gibraltar judge allowed the release of the detained vessel.
(AFP, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Iraq says it will comply with new orders issued by the country's prime minister regarding unauthorized flights in Iraqi airspace.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Washington, DC, encted emergency regulations to stop the federal government's plan to house unaccompanied migrant children there. Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration approved regulations that prohibited licensing facilities housing more than 15 residents.
(SFC, 8/16/19, p.A7)
2019 Aug 16, In southern California Hossein Nayeri (40), who previously escaped from jail and was on the run for a week, was convicted of kidnapping and torturing a marijuana dispensary owner in 2012 who he mistakenly believed had buried large sums of money in the desert.
(AP, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, In southern California Oscar nominated actor Peter Fonda (b.1940), who played a cool and introspective motorcyclist in the 1969 film "Easy Rider," died. His films also included Ulee's Gold" (1997) and "The Limey" (1999).
(Reuters, 8/17/19)(SFC, 8/17/19, p.C2)
2019 Aug 16, Police in Coral Springs, Florida, said Timothy Norris (60) has been charged in the knifepoint rape of a Florida woman at her home in 1983. DNA evidence led authorities to Norris serving time for bank robbery at a West Virginia federal prison.
(AP, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 16, A Georgia boy (17) was arrested at Wheeler High School in Marietta. He was accused of bringing a loaded 9mm gun on his school bus and to his high school, which was subsequently locked down amid threats.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Chicago a guilty verdict was returned against Jovan Battle (32), a homeless man who defended himself against murder and aggravated battery charges, in the fatal shooting of John Rivera (23), an off-duty Chicago police officer.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Iowa a judge sentenced Randy Constant (60), the mastermind of the largest known organic food fraud scheme in US history, to 10 years in prison, saying he cheated thousands of customers into buying products they didn't want.
(AP, 8/16/19)(SFC, 8/19/19, p.A5)
2019 Aug 16, Maryland scientists reported data on a growing "dead zone" in the Chesapeake Bay, confirming their dire warnings were correct. Environmental scientists said heavy rains washed wastewater and agricultural runoff into the bay and produced oxygen-stealing algae.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, A Missouri man who shot two police officers while they were serving him an eviction notice surrendered to authorities this afternoon after a long standoff.
(ABC News, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In upstate New York two of four young men, arrested for plotting to attack the Islamberg Muslim community near Binghamton with homemade explosives, were sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Brian Colaneri (20) and Andrew Crysel (19) pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy in June.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Texas more than 20 local governments faced a coordinated ransomware attack that was believed to have come from a single source.
(SFC, 8/21/19, p.A4)
2019 Aug 16, In rural Washington state the last four members of a wolf pack that preyed on cattle in an area bordering Canada were killed by state hunters in helicopters, prompting protests from environmental groups.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 16, AbbVie Inc priced its new rheumatoid arthritis treatment at $59,000 a year after gaining US approval, a big boost for the drugmaker struggling with rising competition for Humira, its blockbuster therapy for the same condition. A four-week supply of Humira, the world's best-selling medicine, has a list price of about $5,174, amounting to more than $60,000 for a year.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2017 Aug 16, In Algeria Ahmed Ouyahia began a fourth term as Prime Minister and held that position until March 12, 2019.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ouyahia)
2019 Aug 16, Bangladeshi and UN officials said Myanmar and Bangladesh are making a second attempt to start repatriating Rohingya Muslims after more than 700,000 of them fled a security crackdown in Myanmar almost two years ago.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Bangladesh a massive fire consumed several hundred shanties in a slum on the northern outskirts of Dhaka leaving some 3,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 16, A source in the Cameroonian army said number of seamen have been kidnapped after an attack on their vessel off the coast of Cameroon in the piracy-plagued Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Huawei Technologies sent a letter to The Wall Street Journal, refuting the publication's bombshell report describing how China's tech giant allegedly helped the governments of two African nations spy on their political opponents. Uganda and Zambia denied that Huawei employees had helped them conduct espionage
(South China Morning Post, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, Congo DRC health officials said a woman and her child were the first two cases confirmed with Ebola in the South Kivu region this week, opening a new front in the fight against the outbreak. The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has killed 1,808 people out of 2,765 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)(SFC, 8/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 16, Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Rupert Hogg resigned in a shock move, amid mounting Chinese regulatory scrutiny of the Hong Kong carrier over the involvement of its employees in the city's anti-government protests. Cathay Pacific, which has already terminated two pilots for engaging in illegal protests at the behest of the Chinese aviation regulator, named Augustus Tang as its new CEO.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Indian-controlled Kashmir hundreds of people protested an unprecedented security crackdown and clashed with police, as India's government said it was constantly reviewing the situation in the disputed region and the restrictions there will be removed over the next few days.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Israel's interior minister said he has received and granted a request by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib to enter the Israeli-occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds. The Michigan Democrat rejected the offer to let her travel to the West Bank, saying she would not visit her family after the Israeli government lifted a ban on her entry but imposed "oppressive conditions" to humiliate her.
(AP, 8/16/19)(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian driver they said had carried out a car-ramming attack that injured two Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank, one of them critically. Militants from the Gaza Strip fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Kazakh rights activist Serkzhan Bilash, who campaigned against the detention of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in special camps in China, pleaded guilty to a hate speech charge in exchange for securing his freedom.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 16, North Korea bluntly criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for continuing to hold military exercises with the US and over his rosy comments on inter-Korean diplomacy, and said Pyongyang has no current plans to talk with Seoul. Hours later South Korea's military detected two projectiles North Korea fired into the sea to extend a torrid streak of weapons display that's apparently aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over their joint drills and slow nuclear negotiations.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In southwest Pakistan a blast at a mosque in killed four people. 20 more people were wounded at the site 25 km (15 miles) from the city of Quetta.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In northern Peru a building in El Alto was set on fire in a protest against China National Petroleum Corp that devolved into clashes between police and demonstrators who want the company to make pledges to help the local community.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The union of Portugal's fuel-tanker drivers said it will suspend a five-day-old strike that led to fuel rationing at filling stations and negotiate with employers in government-brokered talks.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Syria a suspected Russian airstrike hit a displaced people's gathering in the town of Hass south of Idlib province, killing at least 13, including a number of children.
(AP, 8/16/19)(SFC, 8/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 16, Syria’s SANA news agency said that a projectile had entered the Syrian airspace overnight from Lebanon's airspace, heading toward the town of Masyaf in Hama province. Air defenses reportedly destroyed the missile before it reached the town.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, It was reported that Turkey's military pension fund OYAK has reached a provisional agreement to take over British Steel and could close the deal by the end of this year, potentially saving thousands of jobs.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, A group of UN human rights experts called for the immediate release of three Iranian women given long jail terms for protesting laws compelling women to wear veils.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN migration agency said more than 500 migrants have lost their lives in the Americas so far this year, about a 33% increase from a year ago.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN expert on human rights in Iran said last year saw increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and continuing violations of the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including 253 reported executions of adults and children.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Yemen's Houthis launched more drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's Abha international airport. The attacks reportedly halted air traffic at the airport.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, Zimbabwe police combed Harare's streets rounding up suspected opposition supporters, enforcing a clampdown on dissent after using batons and water cannon to break up a protest that authorities had declared illegal.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2020 Aug 16, Congressional Democrats called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a donor to Republican President Donald Trump, and US Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify in an Aug. 24 committee hearing.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, More than 100 demonstrators converged outside the North Carolina mansion of postmaster general Louis DeJoy, protesting the cutbacks, delays and other changes to the USPS that have created fears for mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, California to date had 624,007 cases of coronavirus and 11,243 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 71,869 cases and 970 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,401,167 with the death toll at 170,019.
(sfist.com, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A monitoring station in Death Valley measured a temperature of 54.4 degrees (130 degrees F).
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.17)
2020 Aug 16, In Ohio at least 18 people were shot, including four killed, as gunfire erupted in several places around Cincinnati overnight.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A riot was declared in Portland, Oregon, as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early today, continuing a nightly ritual in the city.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Belarus thousands of people gathered in a square near the main government building for a rally to support President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition supporters whose protests have convulsed the country for a week held a major march in Minsk.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, China's health authority said new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 fell to a one-month low as a cluster in the western region of Xinjiang receded. Mainland China had 84,827 confirmed coronavirus cases, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Luis Rodolfo Abinader (53) was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, India reported 944 new coronavirus deaths pushing total fatalities to near 50,000.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 16, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that a deal to establish full diplomatic ties with the UAE proves that Israel doesn't need to retreat from occupied land sought by the Palestinians in order to achieve peace and normalization with Arab states. Telephone service between Israel and the United Arab Emirates began working.
(AP, 8/16/20)(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Israel closed the Gaza Strip's offshore fishing zone following a night of cross-border fighting with Palestinian militants, the most intense escalation of hostilities in recent months.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Lebanon registered 439 new virus cases and six fatalities. The new infections bring to 8,881 the total number of cases, where COVID-19 has killed some 103 people. An August 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate killed around 180 people and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, New Zealand reported 13 new infections, bringing the country's number of active cases up to 69. Most of the cases were from community transmission and are linked to a cluster in Auckland, which is under a new lockdown.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Thousands of Puerto Ricans got a second chance to vote for the first time, a week after delayed and missing ballots marred the original primaries in a blow to the US territory’s democracy. Gov. Wanda Vázquez acknowledged losing the primary of her pro-statehood party to Pedro Pierluisi, who briefly served as the US territory's governor last year amid political turmoil.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that Moscow was ready to offer Minsk military assistance if necessary to quell anti-government protests in Belarus.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Somali special forces ended a siege at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu that was stormed by armed al-Shabab militants. At least 12 people were killed at the beachside Elite Hotel, in addition to five militants.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, South Korea reported 279 new confirmed infections, the highest 24-hour jump since early March.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Authorities said flash floods have ravaged swaths of Sudan for weeks, leaving at least 60 people dead and destroying thousands of homes since late July. More than 185,000 people in all but one of its 18 provinces have been affected by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement's strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed.
(AP, 8/16/20)(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2021 Aug 16, The US federal government for the first time declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the Colorado River’s main reservoirs. The declaration triggers cuts in water supply that, for now, mostly will affect Arizona farmers. Beginning next year they will be cut off from much of the water they have relied on for decades.
(NY Times, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, A Proud Boys supporter pleaded guilty to making social media threats tied to the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol, including a threat to kill Georgia's incoming US senator Raphael Warnock. Eduard Florea (41), also admitted to storing a large collection of ammunition at his home in the New York City borough of Queens.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations to lead an independent investigation into the alleged disappearances of government critics and others at the hands of security forces in Bangladesh, an allegation the country's government has long denied. HRW listed 86 alleged victims, providing profiles and details of each case.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 36,697,292 with the death toll at 621,716.
(sfist.com, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, Fred, the sixth named storm of the season, redeveloped into a tropical storm and made landfall this afternoon in the Florida Panhandle.
(NY Times, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, NY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said state health care workers must be vaccinated by Sept. 27.
(NY Times, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that the New-Indy paper mill in Catawba, South Carolina, whose foul smell has triggered more than 30,000 complaints, has become one of the dirtiest polluters in the United States since being acquired by an investment group led by Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots football team.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, signed an executive order essentially gutting any school district’s effort to require its students to wear masks. According to the order, a student’s parent or guardian “shall have the right to opt out of any order or requirement" that the student “wear a face covering" at school, on school buses or at school functions.
(NY Times, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, In Virginia hundreds of workers at a Mondelez International bakery in Virginia went on strike, seeking to block the company’s demands for concessions in contract negotiations and end what the union calls the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico. They joined Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union workers striking since last week at a Mondelez bakery plant in Portland, Oregon, and at a sales distribution center in Aurora, Colorado.
(AP, 8/19/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the Catholic Church's most outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic, has COVID-19 and his staff said he is breathing through a ventilator in Wisconsin.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, US auto safety regulators said they had opened a formal safety probe into Tesla Inc's driver assistance system Autopilot after a series of crashes involving emergency vehicles.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Bayer, trying to contain billions of dollars in legal costs, filed a petition with the US Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court verdict that upheld damages to a customer blaming his cancer on the German group's glyphosate-based weedkillers.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, GlaxoSmithKline and CureVac said a study on macaque monkeys showed their jointly-developed mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate to be "strongly improved" in protecting against the virus compared with CureVac's first attempt.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said they have submitted to US regulators the initial data from an early-stage trial toward seeking authorization of a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, A plane carrying more than 100 Afghan servicemen landed in Tajikistan.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, In Australia New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said seven people in Sydney had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the state's previous record daily toll.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, European leaders said they will press for a unified international approach to dealing with a Taliban government in Afghanistan, as they looked on with dismay at the rapid collapse of two decades of a US-led Western campaign in the country.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues that Germany must urgently evacuate up to 10,000 people from Afghanistan for whom its has responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, In Germany an unknown number of missing people were tossed into a river in Bavaria's Valley of Hell when a sudden flood tore down a bridge they were on. At least four people had been pulled out of the water in the valley known as Höllentalklamm. Rescue teams recovered the body of a woman who was swept off a bridge. One person remained missing.
(AP, 8/16/21)(AP, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, More wildfires broke in hard-hit Greece, with two blazes fanned by strong winds triggering evacuation alerts for villages southeast and northwest of the Greek capital.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Grace, the seventh named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall in Haiti as a tropical depression, but soon restrengthened into a tropical storm.
(AP, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, Iran reported a record 655 COVID-19 deaths over the past 24 hours as the government started imposing tougher restrictions to combat a surge in coronavirus infections led by the highly contagious Delta variant. The total number of cases had reached 4,467,015 with 41,194 new cases in the past 24 hours, while total fatalities had increased to 98,483.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Israeli firefighters battled wildfires near Jerusalem for a second day after the blaze forced hundreds of residents from their homes. Around 17 square km (6.5 square miles) of forest had already burned.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Israel that was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. This was the first such attack since an 11-day war in May.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Malaysia's PM Muhyiddin Yassin and his entire cabinet resigned, signaling an end to a tumultuous 17-month reign.
(NY Times, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that the Islamic police force in Kano, a Muslim-majority state in Nigeria, has ordered shops to only use headless mannequins to advertise clothing. Sharia police commander Ibn-Sina also wants the headless mannequins covered at all times because to show "the shape of the breast, the shape of the bottom, is contrary to the teachings of Sharia [Islamic law]".
(BBC, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Poland's government said that its ambassador to Israel will remain in Poland until further notice after Israel downgraded diplomatic ties with Warsaw and strongly criticized a new Polish law that restricts the rights of Holocaust survivors to reclaim property seized by the country’s former communist regime.
(AP, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Poland will send 650,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine. Polish media said the country has a surplus of vaccines after having fully inoculating about 57% of the adult population.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that Ukraine is moving ahead with an anti-corruption plan that will take more than 3,000 companies out of the hands of state officials, encouraging foreign investors to help create a more modern, Western-looking economy. All Russians will be banned from taking part in the huge new selloff of Ukrainian state-owned companies.
(The Daily Beast, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Security Council to "use all tools at its disposal to suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan" and guarantee that basic human rights will be respected.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported that thousands of jobless workers in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City are trying to flee to their hometowns, many on motorcycles piled high with belongings, following an extension of restrictions in the epicenter of the country's worst coronavirus outbreak yet. Authorities worked to prevent them leaving and potentially spreading the virus to other parts of the country.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 16, Zambia's the electoral commission said opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema had won 2,810,777 votes to Pres. Lungu's 1,814,201 in the Aug. 12 election. There were seven million registered voters. Mr. Lungu accepted defeat and congratulated Mr. Hichilema.
(BBC, 8/16/21)
2022 Aug 16, President Biden signed a long-awaited bill meant to reduce health costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise taxes on corporations and wealthy investors. The bill included a new 1% excise tax on corporate purchases of their own shares, effective in 2023.
(NY Times, 8/16/22)(SFC, 8/17/22, p.A1)
2022 Aug 16, The Food and Drug Administration decided to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter without a prescription to adults, a long-sought wish of consumers frustrated by expensive exams and devices.
(NY Times, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The US government spared seven Western states from mandatory Colorado River water cutbacks for now but warned that drastic conservation was needed to protect dwindling reservoirs from overuse and severe drought exacerbated by climate change.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The US Department of Education said former students of ITT Technical Institute will not have to pay $3.9 billion they still owe in federal student loans to the now-defunct for-profit college.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Federal law enforcement agents raided the Miami-area Healthplus Pharmacy after investigators uncovered evidence the establishment might be operating the largest opioid pill mill in Florida.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The US Food and Drug Administration adopted a final rule to create a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids that can be sold directly to millions of Americans. The rules take effect in mid-October.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, US officials announced that Arizona and Nevada, states reliant on water from the Colorado River, will face more water cuts as they endure extreme drought. Mexico will also face cuts.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 93,129,921 with the death toll at 1,041,099.
(sfist.com, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, Alaska voters got their first shot at using ranked voting in a statewide race. Sarah Palin, the state’s former governor whom Trump endorsed, and two rivals, Mary Peltola, a Democrat, and Nick Begich, a Republican, advanced to the November election for Alaska’s open House seat to replace Don Young, who died in March.
(AP, 8/16/22)(NY Times, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, A federal grand jury in California indicted Terrance John Cox (59), a former Democratic representative of Fresno, for an array of financial crimes, including a bid to divert campaign contributions during his election campaign in 2018. The FBI arrested Mr. Cox.
(NY Times, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that sightings of the Turkestan cockroach, first detected about a decade ago, are becoming increasingly common in California. Entomologists say it poses no real threat.
(SFC, 8/16/22, p.A7)
2022 Aug 16, Liz Cheney, Trump’s highest-profile critic within the Republican party, resoundingly lost her primary race for Wyoming’s lone House seat. Cheney vowed to do all she could to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
(NY Times, 8/17/22)(Reuters, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it will restrict political advertisers from running new ads a week before the election, an action it also took in 2020.
(Reuters, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Apple's Chinese supplier Luxshare Precision Industry and Taiwan-based Foxconn have started test production of Apple Watch in northern Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In Bangladesh Rohingya refugees implored UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet for protection after recent murders that have again left members of the stateless minority fearful for their safety.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Britain has launched a scheme to extend tariff cuts to hundreds of products, such as clothes and food, from developing countries, part of London's post-Brexit efforts to set up systems to replace those run by the European Union.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Britain has recorded its biggest rise in foreign workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year to June, driven overwhelmingly by workers from outside the European Union.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The mining industry in Chile, the world's largest copper producer, called on the government to take action to stop an "escalation of crime" that has hit operations in the country's far north.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, China imposed sanctions including an entry ban on seven Taiwanese officials and lawmakers it accused of being "independence diehards", drawing condemnation from the democratically governed island.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, China’s National Health Authority said China will discourage abortions and take steps to make fertility treatment more accessible as part of efforts to boost one of the world's lowest birth rates.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese military survey ship, docked at Sri Lanka's Chinese-built port of Hambantota after a delay of several days because of opposition to the visit from India, which vies with China for influence in crisis-hit Sri Lanka.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In eastern CongoDRC suspected rebels killed civilians and damaged a major hydropower plant under construction in Virunga National Park.
(Reuters, 8/17/22)
2022 Aug 16, Estonia said it will remove all public Soviet memorials in its majority Russian-speaking city of Narva, citing rising tensions in the city and accusing Russia of trying to exploit the past to divide Estonian society. It was reported that Estonia this week will close its border to more than 50,000 Russians with previously issued visas, the first country in the European Union to do so, making it harder for ordinary Russians to enter EU.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Finland said it will slash the number of visas issued to Russians to 10% of the current amount from Sept. 1, amid a rush of Russian tourists bound for Europe.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Iran said it submitted a “written response" to what has been described as a final roadmap to restore its tattered nuclear deal with world powers.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Iran has identified its first case of monkeypox.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi resigned during a Cabinet meeting to protest the political conditions. Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar will become acting finance minister.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In Kashmir a bus carrying personnel from India's high-altitude border police rolled off a mountainous road and fell into a gorge, killing at least six officers.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Kenya’s opposition figure Raila Odinga said that he would challenge the results of the close presidential election with “all constitutional and legal options" after Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner, bringing new uncertainty to East Africa’s most stable democracy.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Lebanon’s state prosecutor released Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, a man who took up to 10 people hostage in a bank at gunpoint while demanding funds from his locked savings account. Hussein was released from custody after he went on a hunger strike and the bank dropped charges against him.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Liberia President George Weah suspended three government officials who were sanctioned by the US for what it said was their ongoing involvement in public corruption.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, The body of Mexican journalist Juan Arjon Lopez was found in the northern border state of Sonora. He ran the Facebook webpage "A que le temes," and went missing on Aug. 9.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Pakistani police said a speeding bus collided with an oil tanker in Pakistan, killing 20 people in a fiery crash overnight near Multan.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Moscow denounced sabotage and Ukraine hinted at responsibility for new explosions today at a military base in the Russian-annexed Crimea region that is an important supply line for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Russian-installed officials in occupied areas of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said Ukrainian forces were shelling the city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, is located.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement after starting union for convicts.
(Daily News, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, A Russian state news agency said that Russia and Turkey had signed a contract to ship Ankara a second batch of S-400 air defence systems, but a Turkish defence official immediately cast doubt on the report.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Russian news agencies reported that court in Russia has fined streaming service Twitch, owned by Amazon, 2 million rubles ($33,000) for hosting a short video containing what it calls "fake" information about alleged war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, It was reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought shares in Alphabet, Zoom Video and Microsoft as part of a wider pick of US stocks, bringing the market value of the sovereign wealth fund's investment portfolio to about $40.8 billion at the end of the second quarter. The PIF also acquired shares in JPMorgan, BlackRock, Starbucks, Adobe Systems, Advanced Micro Devices, Salesforce, Home Depot, Costco, Freeport-McMoRan, Datadog and NextEra Energy.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, A scientific study reported that the already endangered African penguin is being driven away from its natural habitat off the east coast of South Africa due to noise from ship refueling. 1,200 breeding pairs currently at St Croix are down from 8,500 pairs in 2016, an almost 85% decrease since bunkering started six years ago.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, South Korea agreed to expand its global health partnership with the foundation set up by Microsoft Corp co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Switzerland said it has signed an agreement with Uzbekistan on the return of $131 million seized as part of a money-laundering investigation against the eldest daughter of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The deal will see the funds placed in a United Nations trust and used “for the benefit of the population of Uzbekistan".
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, In Sudan the death toll from floods triggered heavy rains rose to 66 since the start of the rainy season in June.
(SFC, 8/17/22, p.A15)
2022 Aug 16, Satellite images showed that the first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a wartime deal have ended up in Syria, even as Damascus remains a close ally of Moscow.
(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Taiwan's defence ministry said it detected 17 Chinese aircraft and five Chinese ships in and around the island and the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing continues its military exercises.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Turkish troops and US-backed Kurdish fighters exchanged heavy shellfire in the northern Syrian border town of Kobane, leaving one civilian dead as the conflict escalated. Turkey carried out an airstrike near Kobane killing at least 11 people.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)(AP, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that Venezuela would support Cuba in the reconstruction of its only supertanker port in Matanzas, which was partially destroyed by a fire after lightning struck one of the its crude tanks.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
2022 Aug 16, Zimbabwe said a measles outbreak has now killed 157 children with the death toll nearly doubling in just under a week.
(Reuters, 8/16/22)
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