Today in History - December 7
Return to home
International Civil Aviation Day. In 1996 the UN General Assembly proclaimed December 7 as International Civil Aviation Day.
( https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/international-civil-aviation-day )(Econ, 11/24/12, p.68)
For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
43BC Dec 7, Cicero (b.106BCE), considered one of the greatest sons of Rome was assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius. Cicero, elected Consul in 63, had chosen to support Pompey over Caesar. He translated Greek works that they might be understood by his fellow Romans, and tried to apply Greek ethical thought to Roman business and politics. His last work was "On Duties," where he propounds a common solution to all social problems i.e. "Always do the right thing... that which is legal... that which is honest, open and fair...keeping your word... telling the truth... and treating everyone alike. In 2002 Anthony Everitt authored "Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician," a biography based on his letters. In 2006 Robert Harris authored “Imperium," a novel that covers Cicero’s early courtroom feats.
(V.D.-H.K.p.74)(HN, 12/7/98)(WSJ, 6/11/02, p.D7)(WSJ, 11/10/06, p.W4)
185 Dec 7, Emperor Lo-Yang of China saw a supernova (MSH15-52?).
(MC, 12/7/01)
967 Dec 7, Abu Sa'id ibn Aboa al-Chair, Persian mystic, was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
983 Dec 7, Otto II the Red (~28), German king and emperor (973-83), died. Otto III [aged 3] took the throne after his father's death in Italy.
(HN, 12/7/98)(MC, 12/7/01)
1542 Dec 7, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland (1560-1587), was born. [see Dec 8]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1598 Dec 7, Giovanni "Gian" Lorenzo Bernini (d.Nov 28, 1680), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, was born. He was the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and worked under the patronage of Pope Urban VII. His work included the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa," “David" and “Daphne and Apollo."
(WSJ, 12/4/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R53)
1637 Dec 7, Barnardo Pasquini, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1761 Dec 7, Madame Tussaud [Marie Grosholtz], creator of the wax museum, was born. [see Dec 1]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1787 Dec 7, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1796 Dec 7, Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States. [see Nov 3]
(AP, 12/7/97)
1808 Dec 7, Electors chose James Madison to be the fourth president of the United States in succession to Thomas Jefferson.
(HN, 12/7/98)(AP, 12/7/08)
1810 Dec 7, Theodor Schwann, German physiologist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1817 Dec 7, William Bligh (63), British naval officer of "Bounty" infamy, died.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1820 Dec 7, Peru’s army, after sweeping out the Spanish, swore in the first mayor of the Peruvian Republic, in Chaupimarca plaza, the central district of Cerro de Pasco. By 2010 the town faced destruction due to industrial mining.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1823 Dec 7, Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (Tensor of Kronecker), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1835 Dec 7, The Adler, a steam engine built in Newcastle by British father and son George and Robert Stephenson, began running between Nuremberg and Furth, marking the birth of the German railway system.
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.77)
1836 Dec 7, Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1840 Dec 7, Hermann Goetz, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1842 Dec 7, The New York Philharmonic gave its first concert.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1861 Dec 7, USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halted the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captured J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1862 Dec 7, Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
(HN, 12/7/99)
1863 Dec 7, Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robbed and then killed Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1868 Dec 7, Jesse James gang robbed a bank in Gallatin, Missouri, and killed 1 person.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1873 Dec 7, Willa Cather, American author famous for “O Pioneers" and “My Antonia," was born.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1877 Dec 7, Thomas A. Edison demonstrated the gramophone. [see Dec 6]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1888 Dec 7, Joyce Cary (d.1957), Irish-born novelist (The Horse's Mouth), was born. "It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know -- and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything."
(HN, 12/7/00)(AP, 1/30/99)
1888 Dec 7, Ernst Toch, composer and pianist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1888 Dec 7, John Boyd Dunlop (1840-1921), Scotland-born inventor, patented a pneumatic tire. Two years after he was granted the patent Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson (1822–1873), had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847. Dunlop's patent was later declared invalid on the basis of Thomson's prior art.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_Dunlop)
1889 Dec 7, Gilbert and Sullivan’s "Gondoliers," premiered in London.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1895 Dec 7, Sir Milton Margay, first Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, was born.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1896 Dec 7, Stuart Davis, painter, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1905 Dec 7, Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-US astronomer (moons of Uranus, Neptune), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1907 Dec 7, The first Christmas Seals to help the fight against tuberculosis were sold, in Wilmington, Del. [Some sources say Dec. 9].
(AP, 12/7/07)
1909 Dec 7, San Francisco held a kick-off luncheon for the acquiring the PPIE in 1915 campaign.
(SFC, 12/8, 1909)
1909 Dec 7, Dr. Leo H. Baekeland patented Bakelite, the 1st completely synthetic plastic thermosetting plastic. [see 1907]
(HNQ, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 12/7/01)
1913 Dec 7, Aaron Montgomery Ward (b.1844), Chicago founder of the mail-order industry (1872), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Montgomery_Ward)
1915 Dec 7, Eli Wallach (d.2014), American film, TV and stage actor, was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.E5)
1917 Dec 7, The US declared war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress and became the 13th country to do so.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1918 Dec 7, Spartacists called for a German revolution.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1926 Dec 7, Victor Kermit Kiam II CEO (Remington shavers), NFL owner (Patriots), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1926 Dec 7, A gas refrigerator was patented.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1928 Dec 7, Noam Chomsky, writer, linguist and political activist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1931 Dec 7, A report indicated that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1934 Dec 7, Wiley Post discovered the jet stream.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1938 Dec 7, Philip Barry's "Here Come the Clowns," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1939 Dec 7, Lou Gehrig, 36, was elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1941 Dec 7, At 7:50 a.m. [7:55 a.m.] Japan launched an aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet, and forced US entry into the war. They also attacked the Philippines, the Int’l. Settlement at Shanghai, Thailand and Hong Kong. Relations between Japan and the United States had been strained for a decade as both nations sought to dominate the Pacific. Long aware that a Japanese surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor could precede war, U.S. authorities were still woefully unprepared when 363 Japanese fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes sunk or damaged eight battleships and three light cruisers, destroyed 188 planes and killed 2,400 men in just over two hours. The Battleship Arizona lost 1,177 men. An estimated 900 were entombed in the sunken ship. 429 people aboard the battleship Oklahoma were killed as the ship capsized. The US lost [18] 19 ships, 140 aircraft and 2,300 [2,338] lives. In all 2,403 people were killed and 1,178 were wounded; 187 planes were destroyed and 159 damaged. The Japanese lost 29 planes and 5 midget submarines. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced December 7, 1941, as a "date which will live in infamy" as he asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
(TL,1988,p.112)(SFC,12/7/96,p.A3)(SFC12/6/96, p.A5)(SFC,12/5/97, p.A29)(AP, 12/7/97)(HNPD, 12/7/98)(SFC, 3/23/19, p.A5)
1941 Dec 7, Evidence arose in 1999 that one of five Japanese mini submarines penetrated Pearl Harbor and hit at least one ship with torpedoes. In 1999 Robert B. Stinnett published "Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor." Edward Latimer “Ned" Beach (1918-2002), former Navy captain authored “Scapegoats! A Defense of Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor."
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)(SFC, 12/2/02, p.A19)
1941 Dec 7, Australian bombers landed on Timor and Ambon.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1941 Dec 7, The 8 month German siege of Tobruk ended.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1941 Dec 7, The 1st Japanese submarine was sunk by a US ship, the USS Ward.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1942 Dec 7, Harry Chapin, rock vocalist (Taxi, Cat's in the Cradle), was born in NYC.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1942 Dec 7, The U.S. Navy launched the USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1945 Dec 7, The microwave oven was patented. Percy LeBaron Spencer accidentally discovered that microwaves would also heat food. Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation.
(HN, 9/5/01)(Econ, 10/29/11, p.100)
1946 Dec 7, The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, ordered all striking miners back to work.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1946 Dec 7, A fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.
(AP, 12/7/04)
1947 Dec 7, Johnny Bench, baseball catcher (Reds), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1947 Dec 7, Nicholas Murray Butler (b.1862), former presidential advisor and president of Columbia Univ. (1902-1945) and won the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1931) died. In 1940, Butler completed his autobiography with the publication of the second volume of “Across the Busy Years." In 2006 Michael Rosenthal authored “Nicholas Miraculous," a biography Butler.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.D10)(http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1931/butler-bio.html)
1948 Dec 7, Yoko Morishita, prima ballerina (Baterina No Habataki), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1949 Dec 7, Tom Waits, Calif, rocker and song writer (Blue Valentine), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1949 Dec 7, The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organized a non-Communist international trade union.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1949 Dec 7, The Nationalist Chinese government escaped to Formosa.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)
1953 Dec 7, Audrey Hepburn was featured on the cover of Life Magazine.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C6)
1953 Dec 7, Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retired.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1956 Dec 7, Larry Bird, American basketball player for the Boston Celtics, was born. He won the NBA MVP award three years in a row.
(HN, 12//99)
1960 Dec 7, The first episode of "Coronation Street", the longest running TV soap opera in the world, was broadcast by Granada.
(http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1057710,00.html)
1962 Dec 7, Great Britain performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1963 Dec 7, During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-showed a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. Navy beat Army, 21-15.
(AP, 12/7/03)
1964 Dec 7, UC Pres. Clark Kerr held an unprecedented campus-wide meeting at the Greek Theater to propose a compromise that fell short of campus free speech demands. Mario Savio attempted to announce an FSM rally to vote on the proposal and was dragged away by police officers.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)(SSFC, 9/21/14, p.A13)
1968 Dec 7, The Rolling Stones released their album "Beggar’s Banquet" in the US, one day after it was released in the UK. They soon filmed a concert performance right after the Who’s performance of "A Quick One" that the Stones did not match and the film was shelved. In 1996 it was planned to release the film where Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal are also featured. The album included the song "Sympathy for the Devil."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_Banquet)(SFC, 8/16/96, p.D11)(SFC, 10/23/00, p.F3)
1970 Dec 7, Rube Goldberg (87), US cartoonist (Mike & Ike, Pulitzer 1948), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg)
1970 Dec 7, In Pakistan polling began for 300 seats in the National Assembly. The Awami League, led by Sheik Mujibur Rahman, emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly by winning 160 seats. It was also able to win 288 out of 300 seats in the East Pakistan Assembly. However, the party failed to win even a single seat in the four Provincial Assemblies of West Pakistan. The Pakistan People’s Party, led by landlord Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, won a majority in West Pakistan. Mr. Bhutto and military leader, Gen. Yahya Khan, refused to honor the results.
(www.storyofpakistan.com/articletext.asp?artid=A140&Pg=2)(Econ, 9/21/13, p.90)
1970 Dec 7, Poland and West Germany signed a pact renouncing use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1972 Dec 7, America's last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 12:33 a.m. It landed on the moon December 11 at 3:15 p.m. and took a historic photo of the Earth that showed our "isolated blue planet."
(AP, 12/7/97)(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A19)(HNQ, 7/21/99)
1972 Dec 7-1972 Dec 8, Two skeletons were found on the Ulap fairgrounds in Berlin. They were later identified as Hitler's deputy Martin Bormann (1900-1945) and Ludwig Stumpfegger, one of Hitler’s doctors.
(http://greyfalcon.us/restored/myPictures/Martin%20Bormann.htm)
1972 Dec 7, Jean McConville, a widowed Belfast mother, was abducted from her home by 12 IRA members and was never seen alive again. The IRA suspected her of being an informant. Her 10 children were put into foster care. In 1999 the IRA admitted responsibility and revealed the general location of her body. Her body was found in Aug, 2003.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A17)(AP, 11/1/03)(SFC, 11/28/14, p.A4)
1972 Dec 7, Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who was then shot dead by her bodyguards.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1975 Dec 7, Thornton Wilder (b.1897), American novelist and playwright, died. In 2008 his selected letters, edited by Robin G. Wilder and Jackson R. Bryer, were published.
(HN, 4/17/99)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
1975 Dec 7, Indonesia invaded East Timor nine days after the Timorese political party Fretilin claimed independence. Some 600,000 were left dead after a prolonged war.
(SFC, 7/21/96, Z1, p.8)(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A19)(HNQ, 11/9/00)
1976 Dec 7, The UN Security Council endorsed Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) of Austria for a 2nd 5-year term as UN Secretary-General.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/12_7/6/index.html)
1977 Dec 7, Peter Carl Goldmark (b.1906), Hungarian-born engineer, died in the US. He developed the first commercial color television and the long-playing phonograph record. Goldmark's LP records were introduced by Goddard Lieberson (1911-977), who later became president of Columbia Records (1956-1971 and 1973-1975).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carl_Goldmark)
1979 Dec 7, Gannet Co. bought California Marin County’s San Rafael Independent Journal. The Gannet chain owned 78 daily papers in 30 states.
(SFC, 7/28/00, p.A19)(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1979 Dec 7, Walter A. Haas Sr. (b.1889), former head of Levi Strauss (1928-1955), died in his sleep.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_A._Haas%2C_Sr.)
1981 Dec 7, The Reagan Administration predicted a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1982 Dec 7, Convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Junior became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas. Brooks, convicted of murdering an auto mechanic, received an intravenous injection of sodium pentathol.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1982 Dec 7, In Suriname 15 politicians, journalists, union leaders, lawyers and soldiers, were rounded up and slain in a hundreds-year-old fort in Paramaribo. In 2007 Desire Bouterse, the former dictator, faced trial for the murders. In 2008 a military tribunal in Suriname ruled that those accused of a 1982 massacre, including the country's former dictator, must stand trial.
(AP, 3/12/07)(WSJ, 10/8/07, p.A6)(AP, 4/5/08)
1983 Dec 7, In the SF Bay Area three of Marsha Carter's (25) four boys found a pool of blood on her bed in Richmond. Her body was later discovered in the trunk of a car in West Sacramento. In 2018 a jury convicted Sherill Smothers (56), a former boyfriend, of fatally stabbing Carter. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2021 Smothers was givern a new trial as DNA evidence under the victims fingernails led to Kevin Sennett, an Army reservist living in wisled to Kevin Sennett, an Army reservist living in Wisconsin.
(SFC, 9/21/18, p.D1)(https://tinyurl.com/bh9nnp3f)(SFC, 7/23/21, p.B4)
1983 Dec 7, Edgar Graham (b.1954), member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, was shot dead by IRA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Graham)
1983 Dec 7, In Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff, killing all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 aboard the Iberia jet.
(AP, 12/7/03)
1985 Dec 7, Retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart died in Hanover, N.H., at age 70.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1987 Dec 7, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Reagan.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1987 Dec 7, A Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner crashed in California after a gunman apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots. Flight 1771, bound for San Francisco, crashed and killed all 43 people onboard. The FBI later said David Burke, a fired USAir worker, shot his former supervisor and the pilots in cockpit.
(AP, 12/7/97)(SSFC, 12/23/12, DB p.42)
1988 Dec 7, A magnitude 6.9-8.0 earthquake devastated Spitak in northern Armenia; an estimated 25,000-55,000 people died with some $14 billion in losses.
(AP, 12/7/97)(AP, 6/22/02)(www.who.int/archives/inf-pr-1997/en/pr97-08.html)
1989 Dec 7, East Germany's Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the opposition in paving the way for free elections and a revised constitution.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1990 Dec 7, As President Bush arrived in Venezuela on the last stop of his South American tour, his chief spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, warned Iraq that there was “no lessening in the threat of war," despite Iraq’s promise to release its hostages.
(AP, 12/7/00)
1991 Dec 7, Fifty years after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a visibly moved President Bush led the nation in services commemorating the anniversary.
(AP, 12/7/01)
1992 Dec 7, The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law that required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1993 Dec 7, US Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed that the government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret.
(AP, 12/7/98)
1993 Dec 7, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders suggested that the government study the impact of drug legalization.
(AP, 12/7/98)
1993 Dec 7, Colin Ferguson, a Jamaican immigrant, opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 19 in Garden City, Long Island. His lawyers pursued an unsuccessful "black-rage" defense, saying a lifetime of racial prejudice had driven Ferguson insane.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Long_Island_Rail_Road_shooting)(Econ., 11/28/20, p.25)
1994 Dec 7, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Gaza City, pledged to protect Israelis from militant extremists.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1995 Dec 7, Under Republican pressure, President Clinton reluctantly presented a seven-year balanced-budget plan that was quickly criticized by GOP lawmakers.
(AP, 12/7/00)
1995 Dec 7, Bill Gates announced Microsoft’s Internet counterattack on Netscape and the browser market.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.B1)
1995 Dec 7, A 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter's atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was presumably destroyed.
(WSJ, 1/23/96, p.A-1)(AP, 12/7/97)
1995 Dec 7, US paratrooper James N. Burmeister (21) shot and killed Jackie Burden and Michael James. He was convicted on Feb 27, 1997 of 1st degree murder and conspiracy in the hate crime and faced the death penalty. The jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of death so the judge sentenced him to 2 consecutive life terms in prison. He will have to serve at least 50 years before becoming eligible for parole. Malcolm Wright, a fellow soldier, was also charged in the murders and convicted on May 2, 1997.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1995 Dec 7, 5000 Serbs protested in Serajevo against the US brokered peace accord. They were opposed to control by the Bosnian-Croat federation.
(WSJ, 12/8/95, p.A-1)
1996 Dec 7, The space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a nearly 18-day mission marred by a jammed hatch that prevented two planned spacewalks.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1997 Dec 7, Singer Bob Dylan, actor Charlton Heston, actress Lauren Bacall, opera singer Jessye Norman and ballet master Edward Villella shared the 20th annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C.
(AP, 12/7/98)
1997 Dec 7, Republicans threatened Attorney General Janet Reno with contempt of Congress over her decision to forgo an independent counsel's investigation of White House campaign fund raising.
1997 Dec 7, A new Presidential Decision Directive was reported to replace one put into place by Pres. Reagan in 1981. It reset the guidelines for the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons would still be maintained as a deterrent.
(SFC, 12/897, p.A14)
1997 Dec 7, It was reported that some 19 sperm whales washed up along the Danish and German North Sea coasts over the last several weeks.
(SFEC, 12/797, p.A27)
1997 Dec 7, It was reported that the world’s tiger population was down to 6000, from 100,000 a century ago. 5 of 8 subspecies are left: Indian (Bengal), Sumatran, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Amur (Siberian).
(SFEC, 12/797, Par p.12)
1997 Dec 7, Three skydivers, 2 Americans and an Austrian, died while jumping to the South Pole on a trip organized by Adventure Network Int’l.
(SFC, 12/897, p.A18)
1997 Dec 7, In Israel the Histadrut labor federation declared an end to a 4-day strike by 700,000 public sector workers.
(SFC, 12/897, p.A18)
1997 Dec 7, In Serbia elections failed to elect a president with a 50% majority. Milan Milutinovic, an ally of Slobodan Milosevic received 42% and Vojislav Seselj, a former paramilitary leader, had 33%. Vuk Draskovic received 16% and threatened to call a boycott in a Dec 21 runoff.
(SFC, 12/9/97, p.A13)(SFC, 12/10/97, p.A13)
1998 Dec 7, Pres. Clinton announced the removal of Iran from the list of drug problem countries due to an energetic campaign to eliminate opium poppies.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 7, On the eve of historic hearings, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said there was a "compelling case" for impeaching President Clinton. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1998 Dec 7, South Carolina ended its participation in the antitrust case against Microsoft.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A3)
1998 Dec 7, The UN agreed to give Cambodia’s UN seat to the new government.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 7, In Chechnya a rescue attempt was made to free 4 men kidnapped Oct 3. The action led to the murder of the 4 men whose severed heads were found the next day.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Dec 7, On the secessionist Comoros island of Anjouan separatist militias broke a short cease fire and some 10 people were reported killed.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 7, Congolese rebels dismissed the tentative truce worked out in Paris by UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 7, In Russia Pres. Yeltsin left the hospital, fired several aides and returned to the hospital to recover from pneumonia.
(WSJ, 12/8/98, p.A1)
1999 Dec 7, Daniel S. Goldin, NASA administrator, acknowledged the failure of the Mars Polar Lander and planned to appoint an independent committee of experts to examine the Mars program. In 2000 it was determined that a computer signal was misread and caused breaking to stop at 130 feet above the surface.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/29/00, p.A1)
1999 Dec 7, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed suit against Napster for being a haven for music piracy.
(WSJ, 9/9/03, p.B1)
1999 Dec 7, In Germany Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won re-election as leader of the Social Democrats.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 7, In Holland a student (17) in Veghel shot and wounded a teacher and 4 fellow students in the 1st school shooting in Dutch history. The student was reported to have been upset over a romance. The student's father (35) and sister (15) were arrested 2 days later as accessories.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A15)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.D8)
2000 Dec 7, Al Gore's lawyer, David Boies, pleaded with the Florida Supreme Court to order vote recounts and revive his presidential campaign. Republican attorneys called George W. Bush the certified, rightful victor.
(WSJ, 12/6/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/7/01)
2000 Dec 7, In Texas Claude Howard Jones was executed for the Nov 14, 1989, slaying of Allen Hilzendager in Point Blank. Jones was the 40th execution this year and the 239th since 1982. Jones was executed based on a single hair as evidence from the liquor store killing. DNA analysis later found the strand of hair did not belong to Jones.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D4)(SFC, 11/12/10, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/33p23qm)
2000 Dec 7, Some 4,000 protestors clashed with police at the opening of the EU summit in Nice.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.A20)
2000 Dec 7, In Ghana presidential elections were held. Representatives for the 200-seat parliament were also chosen. Opposition candidate John Agyekum Kuffuor led Vice Pres. John Atta Mills 48-44% in the 1st round of elections. A runoff vote was planned within 3 weeks.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C18)(SFC, 12/11/00, p.F8)(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 7, In India indigenous rebels massacred 30 Hindi-speaking people in Assam state.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.T10)
2000 Dec 7, In Indonesia a separatist mob attacked a police station in Jayapura, Irian Jaya, and 2 officers were killed.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D9)
2000 Dec 7, In the Philippines the Senate began the impeachment trial of Pres. Estrada.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A12)
2001 Dec 7, Americans held services on the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2001 Dec 7, The US called to cut off discussions about enforcing a 1972 Biological Weapons Convention on the final day of a 3-week conference in Geneva. The conference sought binding measures and disbanded in chaos.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 7, The US Senate voted 65 to 33 in a procedural vote to defeat an effort to block an automatic pay raise of 3.4% ($4,900) to $150,000.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 7, In New Jersey nearly 230 teachers were ordered freed from jail after their union agreed to end the 9-day strike and go into mediation.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 7, The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station, delivering a new three-member crew to relieve a crew in place since August.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2001 Dec 7, The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 5.7 percent in November, the highest in six years.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2001 Dec 7, Jason-1, a satellite for tracking rising sea levels, was launched as a joint US and French effort. Its useful life ended in 2013.
(SFC, 7/4/13, p.D3)
2001 Dec 7, In Afghanistan Taliban soldiers fled Kandahar and left the city in chaos. Day 62: Assaults continued around Tora Bora where up to 2,000 bin Laden loyalists were positioned at a mountain redoubt. Aryana Airline made its 1st domestic flight since Oct 7 with a flight from Herat to Kabul.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A1,14)(SFC, 12/14/01, p.E6)
2001 Dec 7, David Astor (b.1912), English newspaper publisher and member of the Astor family, died. Astor had edited the Observer, Britain’s principal source of information from 1948 to 1975. His father had purchased the paper in 1911. In 2016 Jeremy Lewis authored the biography “David Astor."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Astor)(Econ, 2/27/15, p.74)
2001 Dec 7, Statistics Canada reported a jobless increase to 7.5%, the highest level since mid-1999.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 7, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Palestinian security compound in Gaza. Arafat said his forces had arrested 17 of 33 militants wanted by Israel.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 7, Russia and Nato proclaimed a commitment “to forge a new relationship" following a meeting in Brussels.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 7, In Sri Lanka Pres. Kumaratunga called on Ranil Wickremesinghe, head of the United National Party, to form a government. The UNP promised to pursue peace talks with Tamil rebels.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A6)
2002 Dec 7, Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu beat Republican Suzanne Terrell in a runoff 52-48%, despite a recent visit by Pres. Bush.
(WSJ, 12/4/02, p.A1)(AP, 12/8/02)
2002 Dec 7, Entertainment giant Vivendi Universal signed an agreement to build a Universal Studios theme park in booming Shanghai, beating much-fancied Walt Disney Co to the punch.
(Reuters, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 7, Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth along with space station voyagers Peggy Whitsun, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev.
(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 7, In Australia wildfires raging across Sydney's northern fringe blackened 250,000 acres.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 7, In Bangladesh 19 people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in near-simultaneous bomb blasts at four cinemas packed with families celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
(Reuters, 12/7/02)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A9)(AP, 12/7/03)
2002 Dec 7, In London Azra Akin, Miss Turkey, won the Miss World Pageant bringing to a close the pageant that had incited deadly rioting in Nigeria, the original site of the event.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 7, The Iraqi government presented to the rest of the world a 12,000 page declaration detailing its nuclear, chemical and biological activities and formally declaring to the UN that it has no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein grudgingly apologized to Kuwaitis for invading their country in 1990.
(AP, 12/7/02)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 7, In Kashmir 14 people, including eight Muslim rebels, were killed in fresh separatist violence, as a four-day truce announced by a hardline militant group neared its end.
(Reuters, 12/8/02)
2002 Dec 7, In Liberia civilians were killed in a government offensive on a rebel-held town. Their deaths were blamed on crossfire.
(AP, 12/9/02)
2002 Dec 7, In the Seychelles after 3 days of voting Pres. France Albert Rene's party retained control of parliament even though the main opposition party more than tripled its number of seats.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2003 Dec 7, Daniel Morcombe (13) was last seen waiting for a bus in northern Queensland. In 2011 west coast truck driver Brett Peter Cowan (41) was charged with Morcombe's abduction, murder and interfering with his corpse. Police confirmed that three bones recently found at Beerburrum State Forest belonged to Morcombe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Daniel_Morcombe)(AFP, 8/28/11)
2003 Dec 7, Grayson Perry (43), British artist, was named winner of the 20th annual Turner Prize. He decorated ceramic vases with disturbing images and texts.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.D8)
2003 Dec 7, The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, founded in 1942, was dissolved under Stephen Harper and merged into the Conservative party of Canada.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Canada)
2003 Dec 7, Tropical Storm Odette lashed the Dominican Republic with torrential rains, prompting thousands to flee their homes and killed at least 8 people before it dissipated over the Atlantic.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, A group of 160 Colombian paramilitary fighters handed over their weapons, becoming the second faction of outlawed right-wing militias to do so in less than two weeks.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Voters on the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique rejected reforms to their legislatures that opponents had criticized as a step toward independence from France.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Former Guatemala Pres. Arnoldo Aleman, dogged by corruption allegations for years, was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars from his impoverished country and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, In Indian-held Kashmir an overcrowded bus skidded off a steep mountain road and plunged 1,500 feet into a gorge, killing 23 passengers and injuring 13 others.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, In southern India Hindu-Muslim clashes broke out overnight in Hyderabad, killing at least five and injuring 27.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, Insurgents attacked a U.S. military patrol in northern Iraq, killing one soldier and wounding two.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, In Liberia government troops launched U.N.-sponsored disarmament.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, A Nicaraguan judge sentenced former Pres. Aleman to 20 years for diverting some $100 million in government funds to his campaigns.
(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 7, Palestinian militants rejected a comprehensive truce offer to Israel despite intense pressure from Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Egypt to sign onto a deal.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Russia held Duma elections. The pro-Kremlin United Russia party won about 36% of the vote. Ultra-nationalists and Communists each won 13%.
(AP, 12/7/03)(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 7, Saudi security forces stormed a gas station and killed one of the country's most wanted terrorist suspects and a second militant.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth rather than endure a suspension after members in Nigeria decided to extend the southern African country's suspension from the organization of Britain and its former colonies.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2004 Dec 7, In Illinois after Babs the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo, decided to allow surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in their social family. One by one, the gorillas filed into the Tropic World building where Babs' body lay, arms outstretched. Curator Melinda Pruett Jones called it a "gorilla wake."
(AP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 7, IBM and China’s Lenovo Group planned a joint PC venture. Lenovo was expected to pay some $2 billion for a majority share of IBM’s PC business. Lenovo announced a $1.75 billion cash and stock deal to acquire a majority interest in IBM’s PC business.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A3)(SFC, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 7, Jay Van Andel (80) Amway co-founder died in Ada, Mich.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2004 Dec 7, Singer Jerry Scoggins (93), who performed "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme song to "The Beverly Hillbillies," died.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2004 Dec 7, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 7, The mayor of Albania's capital Tirana, painter Edi Rama (40), was elected "World Mayor 2004" in an Internet competition organized by a London-based NGO.
(AFP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 7, DragonMart, a 1.2km dragon-shaped mall in Dubai featuring Chinese products, opened its doors to the public as the biggest Chinese shopping mall outside of China.
(www.dragonmart.ae/HelpFAQs.html)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.78)
2004 Dec 7, The German-registered MSC Ilona was punctured during a collision night with the Panama-registered Hyundai Advance near the mouth of the Pearl River, northwest of Hong Kong. The collision of the container ships caused a huge oil spill and cleanup effort.
(AP, 12/9/04)
2004 Dec 7, A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi National Guard patrol south of Baghdad, killing three guardsmen and wounding 11.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 7, Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier and wounded four with an explosion in a booby-trapped chicken coop. An Israeli aircraft fired a retaliatory missile at armed Palestinians near Gaza City leaving 4 gunmen dead.
(AP, 12/7/04)(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 7, Libya listed three conditions under which it is prepared to drop charges against five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death on suspect charges of spreading AIDS.
(AFP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 7, Nigerian villagers lifted their blockade of three oil pumping stations in the volatile Niger Delta after energy giants Shell and ChevronTexaco agreed to discuss funding local development projects.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2005 Dec 7, In Miami, Florida, US Air Marshals shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar on suspicion of having a bomb. No bomb was found, and federal officials later concluded there was no link to terrorism. Witnesses said his wife, Anne, frantically tried to explain he was bipolar, a mental illness also known as manic-depression, and was off his medication.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine picked Rep. Menendez to serve out his Senate term. Wining the governorship let him appoint his own successor.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 7, US Congress voted to add nearly 5,000 acres of Rancho Corral de Tiera, an area between Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, to California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Congress still needed to appropriate $15 million to buy the land from the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.B1)
2005 Dec 7, A new economic report said a sustained decline will hit the U.S. housing market next year, costing the nation as many as 800,000 jobs.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Clearlake, Ca., Shannon Edmonds (31) shot and killed 2 of 3 intruders at his home. Renato Hughes Jr. (21), the 3rd intruder, was charged with 2 counts of 1st degree murder under a controversial legal theory. In 2008 Hughes was acquitted of murder by a jury in Contra Costa County. He was found guilty of 2 lesser charges, assault and burglary. The jury deadlocked on a final charge of assault causing great bodily injury. On Sep 8 Hughes was sentenced to 8 years in prison with credit for 33 months in custody.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.B8)(SFC, 8/9/08, p.B1)(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B3)(SFC, 9/9/08, p.B3)
2005 Dec 7, An Afghan court cleared an American, but convicted two Britons and an Indian of gun-smuggling charges and gave them two-year suspended sentences, following a one-day trial that one of them called a "circus." Sargon Heinrich of Rio Vista, Cal., Naveen Joshi of India and Peter Eaton and Mike Shaw, both of Britain, had been jailed since their Oct. 13 arrests.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Australia’s Treasurer Peter Costello unveiled details of the nation’s Future Fund with seed capital of $13.56 billion to cover public service pension liabilities.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 7, In Chile Gen. Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity by an appeals court, allowing his trial in the disappearance of 29 additional dissidents during his 1973-90 dictatorship.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In northern China an explosion tore through the Liuguantun coal mine in Hebei province and killed at least 91 workers. Police arrested seven people accused of responsibility for a coal mine disaster.
(AFP, 12/11/05)
2005 Dec 7, Some 25 American anti-war activists marched from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago toward the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay to protest treatment of terror suspects there.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The UN rejected an Eritrean order to expel Western members of the peacekeeping mission that monitors its tense border with Ethiopia amid concerns that war between the two countries could re-ignite.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The EU and host Canada piled pressure on the US to join an international pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the predicted chaos from global warming.
(Reuters, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, European businesses rushed to sign up for the new ".eu" Internet domain name, putting in 100,000 Web site applications by the end of its first day available.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said that German Wings, a low-cost airline, had placed a firm order for 18 Airbus 319 airliners.
(AFP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Egypt police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds trying to break through blockades of polling stations in an opposition stronghold, the final day of parliamentary elections, and a hospital official said two people were killed.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Honduras' ruling-party candidate for president conceded defeat, even though official results were still unavailable 10 days after the election because of vote-counting delays.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Iraq gunmen killed three police officers when they burst into a hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk and freed a wounded man who had been arrested for plotting to kill a judge in the Saddam Hussein trial.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Iraq gunmen kidnapped the 8-year-old son of a bodyguard for a judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car carrying Palestinian militants, killing at least one militant and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev was officially declared the winner of last weekend's election, while the opposition insisted the vote was manipulated.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The Hague war crimes tribunal sentenced Miroslav Bralo (aka Cicko), a former Bosnian Croat soldier, to 20 years in jail on eight counts of war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war in central Bosnia.
(Reuters, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Northern Ireland Chris Ward (24), a Northern Bank supervisor who claimed he aided a gang of robbers under the threat of death, was charged as a willing participant in the record Dec 20, 2004, $50 million heist.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Peru and the US completed negotiations on a free-trade agreement.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 7, In Russia an explosion, apparently caused by a natural gas leak, killed one person and injured at least five others at a Moscow apartment building.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The governing African National Congress accepted the withdrawal of Jacob Zuma, its popular deputy president from leadership duties for the duration of his rape trial.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Spanish authorities arrested former Gen. Ante Gotovina, the top Croatian war crimes suspect, after four years on the run. He was captured in the Canary Islands when special police agents surprised him as he dined in a luxury beach hotel.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, A UN court in Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's genocide convicted Paul Bisengimana, former mayor of Gikoro, for abetting the 1994 slaughter, but dropped three counts including genocide.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Thailand a 5-year-old boy became the country’s 2nd bird flu fatality in two months.
(AP, 12/9/05)
2006 Dec 7, Pres. Bush and Britain’s PM Tony Blair vowed to fight to victory in Iraq and both were skeptical that talks with Iran and Syria would be useful. President Bush gave a chilly response to the Iraq Study Group's proposals for reshaping his policy, objecting to talks with Iran and Syria, refusing to endorse a major troop withdrawal and vowing no retreat from embattled US goals in the Mideast.
(WSJ, 12/8/06, p.A1)(AP, 12/7/07)
2006 Dec 7, The US military transferred the first group of Guantanamo Bay detainees to a new maximum-security prison on the naval base.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2006 Dec 7, The 3,300-member Seminole Tribe of Florida said it was buying the Hard Rock business in a $965 million deal with Rank Group PLC, a British casino and hotel company.
(SFC, 12/8/06, p.D2)
2006 Dec 7, The Norma CDO 1 Ltd. was established as a company in the Cayman Islands with N.I.R. Group LLC of NYC as its manager. The company packaged derivatives linked to triple-B rated mortgage securities In March 2007 Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings gave Norma their seal of approval and Merrill Lynch sold Norma to investors. By October much of Norma dropped to junk status as the US mortgage market declined.
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.A1)
2006 Dec 7, Scientists at MIT reported the development of a strain of baker’s yeast that can speed ethanol production by about 50%.
(WSJ, 12/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 7, Zillow.com, led by Richard Barton, began offering US for-sale real estate listings in competition with such firms as Trulia.com and Reply Inc.
(SFC, 12/9/06, p.C1)
2006 Dec 7, Researchers said the Ebola virus may have killed more than 5,000 gorillas in West Africa (Congo-Gabon), enough to send them into extinction if people continue to hunt them.
(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Johnnie Bryan Hunt (79), founder of Arkansas-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services (1969), died.
(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.A5)
2006 Dec 7, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick (80), an unabashed apostle of Reagan era conservatism and the first woman U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, died.
(AP, 12/8/06)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.127)
2006 Dec 7, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy killed two civilians in Kandahar. Elsewhere a district chief and a senior policemen were killed by Taliban gunmen.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Armenia 3 teenagers and their grandmother set themselves on fire in Yerevan to protest what they said was authorities' inaction on investigating a relative's death, a family member said. Two of them were injured. They argued that the case was not being investigated because of discrimination against the Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group. About 50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, In northeastern Bulgaria a truck collided with a bus, sending both vehicles off a bridge into a river and killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, Gao Qinrong (51), a Chinese journalist jailed in 1998 after exposing government corruption, was released 5 years early for good behavior. He maintained that he was innocent and that he would continue trying to clear his name.
(AP, 12/12/06)(AP, 12/20/06)
2006 Dec 7, Egyptian authorities expelled two Belgians and eight French terrorist suspects, but an American and another French citizen remained in Egyptian custody.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Fiji's newly-imposed premier, Jona Senilagakali (77), admitted the army ouster of the elected government was illegal and that elections could be two years away, but said the nation did not need Western-style democracy.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, The Constitutional Court ruled Indonesia's much-criticized truth and reconciliation commission to be illegal, casting doubt on whether victims of former dictator Suharto will ever see justice.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, Ali Reza Asgari, a retired general who served in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, arrived in Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria. He had become involved in the olive business after retirement. Iranian officials later said that he disappeared on Dec 9. In March, 2009, a former German Defense Ministry official said Asgari had defected and was providing information to the West on Iran's nuclear program. Asgari allegedly told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an Israeli airstrike that targeted a site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007. In November Iranian news Web sites reported that Asgari had been abducted by Israeli agents and is now being held in Israel.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2006 Dec 7, A series of bombings and shootings killed at least 23 people in Iraq, including a 7-year-old girl and two college professors. Iraqi police found 35 bullet-riddled bodies that had been bound and blindfolded and left in different parts of the capital. A roadside bomb killed an American soldier during a joint patrol with the Iraqi army.
(AP, 12/7/06)(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, A Jordanian military court convicted three Syrians and one Iraqi and sentenced them to death for firing rockets at two US warships in August 2005.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev called for US troops deployed in the former Soviet nation to be stripped of diplomatic immunity after a US serviceman fatally shot a Kyrgyz civilian. The US air base said the serviceman who fatally shot a Kyrgyz truck driver had been threatened with a knife and responded as his training required.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition called for its supporters to take to the streets this weekend in a massive show of force, stepping up the pressure on the US-backed government, which has vowed not to give in to protesters.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Gunmen attacked a southern Nigerian oil installation belonging to a subsidiary of Italy's Eni SpA, taking three Italians hostage and killing another person.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, The Prosecutor General's office said Russia has opened a criminal case in the poisoning death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko. The office also said it had opened a criminal investigation into the attempted killing of Dmitry Kovtun, one of at least two Russian businessmen who met Litvinenko in London's Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1, hours before the former spy fell fatally ill.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia armed men shot and killed two guards outside a prison in the western city of Jiddah before taking cover in a residential building where they were surrounded by Saudi security forces.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Islamic militants in control of most of southern Somalia warned that war will erupt over a UN decision authorizing an African force to protect the country's virtually powerless government.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, The South African central bank raised its key lending rate by half a percentage point to 9.0%. In the wake of the repo rate increase, the country's four main commercial banks announced increases of their prime lending rates by half a point to 12.5%.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Turkey offered to open a major seaport and an airport to longtime foe Cyprus to try to keep its EU entry talks on track. The EU called the step positive but insufficient.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2007 Dec 7, US Congressional Democrats demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA had obstructed justice by destroying videotapes documenting the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Howard Krongard, the US State Department's embattled inspector general, announced his resignation. He was accused of impeding a Justice Department investigation of Blackwater Worldwide.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, US federal officials outlined a new plan on how to allocate water to California, Arizona and Nevada from the Colorado River in case of shortages.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 7, Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison for accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services company.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty in San Francisco to charges he'd lied to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, In NYC 2 window washers fell 47 stories from a Manhattan skyscraper when their scaffolding failed; Edgar Moreno was killed, but his brother, Alcides, miraculously survived.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Afghan and NATO troops surrounded the town of Musa Qala and launched air strikes to dislodge Taliban rebels who had been in control for 10 months.
(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Aruba prosecutors' office said a judge has ordered the release of a Dutch suspect who was re-arrested last month in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Australian police said they had smashed an international cocaine smuggling ring spanning three continents and operating out of the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada. Of the total 40 people arrested, 14 Canadian and Australian nationals of Chinese and Vietnamese descent were picked up in Sydney and Melbourne over the past six months. Australian conman Peter Foster, once linked to the "Cheriegate" scandal involving the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, was jailed for money laundering. Foster, who pleaded guilty to a charge related to fraudulently obtaining 234,000 US dollars from the Bank of the Federated States of Micronesia, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.
(AFP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 7, Canada's TV watchdog blessed the launch of Vanessa, a national pay TV porn channel.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in Guyana, agreed to open up its markets to certain European goods, on the condition that entertainment workers from the region are allowed free access to Europe.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Six French nationals detained in Chad on suspicion of trying to illegally fly 103 children to Europe started a hunger strike, complaining their case was being neglected.
(Reuters, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, China said it will not consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States and other industrialized countries should take the lead in fighting climate change by embracing a less-extravagant lifestyle.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The World Health Organization confirmed that the father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has been infected with the virus that causes the disease, saying it could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human infection.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Zagazig, Egypt, 3 students were killed and dozens injured when a fire broke inside an Al-Azhar university campus building in the Nile Delta.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Germany's top security officials said they consider the goals of the US-based Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and will seek to ban the group.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Iraq’s Diyala province a female suicide bomber attacked the offices of an anti-al-Qaida group that has joined forces with the US, killing 16 people. The bomber was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party whose two sons joined al-Qaida and were killed by Iraqi security forces. A second attack at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and another of the US-backed groups killed 10 people.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Officials said swarms of desert locusts have invaded Kenya's arid northeast for the first time since 1962.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, NATO ministers pledged to keep their KFOR peace force in Kosovo at current strength as the Serbian province heads towards independence and to make more troops available as necessary to deal with any violence.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Gyude Bryant, a former president of Liberia (2003-2005), was arrested for violating the conditions of his bail while on trial on charges of embezzling $1.3 million in government funds.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Two gunmen barged into a central Philippine town hall and killed the vice mayor, a human rights advocate who had condemned a series of killings of left-wing activists.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, A crane-carrying vessel collided with the Hebei Spirit, an oil tanker off of South Korea's west coast, spilling nearly 80,000 barrels of crude oil in what was believed to be South Korea's largest offshore oil leak. On Jan 21, 2008, courts indicted Samsung Heavy Industries and the owner of the tanker on charges relating to the spill.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/20/07)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2007 Dec 7, A UN court in Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide sentenced Francois Karera, a former provincial governor, to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, including helping soldiers kill refugees in a church.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2008 Dec 7, NYC police officers escorted a drunken Gap designer (29) to her East Village apartment. In 2011 a Manhattan jury acquitted two officers of rape, but found them guilty of misconduct for three unauthorized post midnight visits to her apartment.
(SFC, 5/27/11, p.A6)
2008 Dec 7, Off the coast of Cameroon at least three dozen people were missing and feared dead after a ferryboat accident. It was transporting 43 people in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 7, Former Central African Republic president Ange-Felix Patasse arrived in Bangui after 5 years in exile in Togo to participate in long-delayed peace talks in the troubled country.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, China protested strongly to France over President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama, calling it a "rude intervention" into Chinese affairs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Francois-Xavier Lalanne (81), French sculptor, died at his home in Ury. For 40 years he and his wife worked in tandem, producing some works jointly, others independently.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/arts/design/14lalanne.html)
2008 Dec 7, Ghanaians voted for a new president in a tight race between two foreign-educated lawyers hoping to lead the West African nation into an era of greater prosperity thanks to offshore oil. Two technocrats were expected to get the most votes in a filed of 8 seeking to replace incumbent Pres. John Kufuor. No candidate managed to win a majority and Nana Akufo-Addo and John Atta Mills were scheduled for a runoff on Dec 28.
(Reuters, 12/7/08)(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/11/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 7, In Greece rioters rampaged through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, hurling Molotov cocktails, burning stores and blocking city streets with flaming barricades after protests against the fatal Dec 6 police shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15) in Exarchia erupted into chaos.
(AP, 12/7/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.59)
2008 Dec 7, In Iraq a bomb hidden in an abandoned store exploded as the mayor of Baqouba was leading a tour through the city center. The blast wounded the mayor, Abdullah al-Hiali, and 34 other people. In northern Iraq Dr. Adel Hussein, freelance journalist, was pardoned by Massoud Barzani, the president of the self-ruled Kurdish region in the country's north. He had been imprisoned for 13 days for violating a public decency law by writing a story in 2007 about homosexuality. He was among 121 people pardoned by the president in advance of the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha.
(AP, 12/7/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 7, Large crowds voted in several towns in Indian Kashmir, while separatists in other areas boycotted the polls and clashed with government forces in the fourth phase of state elections in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Kenya’s PM Raila Odinga said foreign troops should prepare to intervene in Zimbabwe to end a worsening humanitarian crisis and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Kurdish rebel group declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against Turkey, calling it a "first step toward peace."
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, In southern Malaysia a bus skidded off a highway, smashed into a tree and plunged into a ditch, killing nine people and injuring 19 others.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Mexico 10 suspected drug traffickers and a soldier were killed in gunbattles in southern Guerrero state. 6 people were killed when assailants opened fire inside a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Mexican government Learjet plunged into Atlangatepec lake in central Mexico, killing two pilots in the second deadly crash in a month involving a federally owned plane.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, Gunmen blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more than 160 vehicles, including 790 Humvees, destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line. The losses possibly exceeded $10 million.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Pakistani security forces overran a militant camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, Pakistani Kashmir's main city, and seized Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged mastermind of the attacks that shook Mumbai last month. Zarar Shah, another top operational commander, and 10 others were seized at the camp run by the banned group Laskhar-e-Taiba.
(AP, 12/8/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 7, In the Philippines Abu Sayyaf and Muslim militants engaged in fierce clashes with governments troops who took over a southern village on Basilan island notorious as a hide-out for kidnappers and al-Qaida-linked rebels. At least five soldiers were killed and dozens wounded.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia nearly 3 million Muslims converged on a rocky desert hill outside Mecca to perform the ritual of forgiveness marking the climax of the annual hajj.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Thailand's main opposition party called for an emergency parliament session to prove its majority in a bid to form the next government and end months of political chaos, as loyalists of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra struggled to stay in power.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2009 Dec 7, Pres. Obama met with Turkey’s PM Recep Erdogan, who stressed the role of diplomacy in persuading Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Erdogan made clear his unwillingness to back new coercion and said he was willing to mediate negotiations.
(SFC, 12/8/09, p.A9)
2009 Dec 7, In New York a federal jury convicted Joseph Bruno, a former NY state Senate leader, on 2 counts of corruption.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, Scientists at Stanford University in California reported that they have successfully turned paper coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a "paper battery" that holds promise for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.
(Reuters, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 7, Virgin Galactic unveiled its first commercial spaceship, the VSS Enterprise, at the Mohave Air and Space Port in California. Initial trips to the edge of space were expected to cost $200,000 per person.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 7, Rick Hendricks (54), SF-based composer and steel guitar player, passed away of brain cancer as a huge gathering of the musical cohorts and many friends assembled at the Amnesia club, San Francisco's home of bluegrass and roots music, on Valencia Street.
(www.cbaontheweb.org/read.asp?messageid=39821&search)
2009 Dec 7, In Utah Susan Powell (28) was last seen at her West Valley City home as her husband, Josh Powell, took their two boys (ages 2 and 4) on a camping trip. Powell later claimed she ran off with another man. In 2012 authorities found her blood in the family home and a hand-written note expressing fear about her husband.
(SSFC, 12/27/09, p.A10)(SFC, 9/19/11, p.A4)(SFC, 3/31/12, p.A5)
2009 Dec 7, Afghan lawmakers, refusing to be a rubber stamp, demanded a full, not partial, list of President Hamid Karzai's new Cabinet, the first test of the embattled leader's commitment to clean up graft and bribery in his government. Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi 963) was found guilty of awarding a contract for a city project without competition. An Afghan court sentenced him to four years in jail and ordered him to repay more than $16,000 involved in the contract. A British soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment was killed in Nad-e Ali in southern Helmand Province. He became Britain’s 100th soldier to die in the current war.
(AP, 12/7/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 7, Brazilian authorities arrested 11 people in an alleged US work-visa scam that raked in more than $50 million from thousands of Brazilians since 2002. Some of those scammed went to the US and wound up as illegal aliens because promised jobs didn't exist.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, ITV, the British TV channel behind hit show "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!", apologized for the death of a rat during filming in Australia, as the stars who killed it faced police charges.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, Government forces in the Central African Republic attacked rebel positions near the border with Chad to prevent them from storming a key northern town. Several fighters from the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) were reported killed as well as 2 government soldiers.
(AFP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 7, In China 8 children died in a crush after someone stumbled while hundreds of children leaving their evening classes raced down the narrow stairway closest to their dormitory in Xiangxiang city, Hunan province.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Denmark the largest and most important UN climate change conference in history opened in Copenhagen, with organizers warning diplomats from 192 nations that this could be the last best chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming. This was the 15th conference of the parties to the 1992 UNFCCC in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 12/7/09)(Econ, 12/5/09, SR p.3)
2009 Dec 7, In Iran security forces and militiamen clashed with thousands of protesters shouting "death to the dictator" outside Tehran University, beating them with batons and firing tear gas on the officially designated “Student Day." Students demonstrated nationwide.
(AP, 12/7/09)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.51)
2009 Dec 7, In Iraq an explosion outside an elementary school in Sadr City, a Shiite district of Baghdad, killed at least 8 people including 6 children. Gunmen stormed a checkpoint near Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, killing five members of an anti-al-Qaida group. A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two others in southeastern Baghdad, and in the west of the capital, a bomb attached to a vehicle killed one civilian.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, Kenyan police arrested a suspected weapons smuggler with up to 100,000 bullets and an assortment of guns, a huge cache in a country with stringent gun laws.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, A Pakistani convoy embarked to Waziristan from Peshawar as a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police check point, killing 11 people.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.17)
2009 Dec 7, In Somalia hundreds of students marched in Mogadishu's streets in the first known protest against Islamic militants, as Somalia's government warned that militants are planning suicide attacks against key installations in Mogadishu.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, South Africa offered to slash the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by 2025, but in exchange wants rich nations to expand aid for poor countries to cope with climate change.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Sudan southern protesters torched offices of the ruling party after Khartoum police arrested 3 southern leaders and dozens of protesters in a crackdown against a pro-reform demonstration. Pagan Amum, Yassir Arman and Abbas Gumma from the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) were freed after a few hours.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel group, acting on its own initiative, carried out an assault in the central city of Tokat killing 7 Turkish soldiers. 3 soldiers were also wounded in the rebel ambush on a military vehicle.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 7, President Hugo Chavez said that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2010 Dec 7, Pres. Obama reached a deal with GOP leaders to extend all tax cuts in return for an extension of unemployment benefits.
(SFC, 12/8/10, p.A1)
2010 Dec 7, The New York Times reported that US officials believe the militant group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has acquired an arsenal of some 50,000 rockets and missiles, raising fears of an enlarged conflict with Israel. Iran and Syria were named as the sources.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, The three-yearly OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report said the United States has fallen from top of the class to average in world education rankings and warned of US economic losses from the trend. America came 26th in a ranking of high school math scores.
(AFP, 12/8/10)(Econ, 12/11/10, p.82)
2010 Dec 7, In California 52 Filipino hospital workers sued their employer, Delano Regional Medical Center, alleging they were the sole ethnic group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, Data released on education in California indicated that in 2009 some 37% of African American students in public schools had dropped out. The Hispanic dropout rate was 27%. The general dropout rate in SF was 9%, in Oakland it was 40%.
(SFC, 12/8/10, p.A1)
2010 Dec 7, In Connecticut the maker of Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a man who died of mouth cancer in what is believed to be the first wrongful-death settlement won from a chewing tobacco company.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange was remanded in custody until December 14 by a London court after he said he would fight extradition to Sweden where he faces rape allegations.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Elizabeth Edwards (b.1949), separated wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, died in North Carolina of cancer.
(SFC, 12/8/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 7, Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, a senior US Marine general in Afghanistan, declared the battle in the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah "essentially over."
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, John James Audubon's "Birds of America," a rare blend of art, natural history and craftsmanship, sold for more than $10.27 million at a London auction, making it the world's most expensive book.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, China hit back at the United States and its Asian allies for their refusal to talk to North Korea, saying dialogue was the only way to calm escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In central China an explosion at a coal mine killed 26 miners who were working despite an order to halt production, while a mine tunnel collapse elsewhere left four dead in the latest accidents to strike the country's mining industry.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, Hendrik Coetzee (35), an acclaimed South African outdoorsman, was dragged from his craft by a crocodile on the Lukuga River in Congo. 2 Americans watched, horrified, and paddled to safety. Coetzee was leading a kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo. In 2004 he had kayaked down the Nile, four months and 4,200 miles, from source to sea.
(AP, 12/9/10)(Econ, 1/1/11, p.78)
2010 Dec 7, The EU conceded that its previous bank stress tests were not stringent enough as it confirmed that it will start a new round in February, while the continent's strongest economies bet they can sort out the region's debt crisis without the need to top up bailout funds.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, An expert report submitted to the French foreign ministry said respected French epidemiologist Professor Renaud Piarroux conducted a study in Haiti last month and concluded the epidemic began with an imported strain of the disease that could be traced back to the Nepalese base.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Georgia said it has arrested six people, all of them Georgian citizens, suspected of being agents for Russia and accused them of staging a series of explosions, including one outside the US Embassy in the capital.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Leaders of six US-allied Gulf Arab nations, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said they were monitoring with "utmost concern" developments in Iran's disputed nuclear program and issued a thinly veiled warning to their Persian neighbor not to meddle in their internal affairs. The 2-day gathering of leaders from the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman followed the publication of leaked US diplomatic memos that revealed deeper concern among Gulf Arab leaders over Tehran's nuclear program than had previously been known.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Haiti furious supporters of an apparently eliminated candidate set fires and manned barricades in the streets of Port-au-Prince after officials announced that government protege Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat would advance to a runoff in presidential elections.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, In India a bomb hidden in a metal canister exploded in Varanasi as thousands gathered for a Hindu ceremony, killing a toddler and triggering a stampede that left many others wounded.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Jordanian computer engineer Mohammed Rateb Qteishat (33) was killed by Iraqi forces in Mosul. He was an al-Qaida operative fighting American forces in Iraq. In 2006, he was sentenced to death in absentia in his native Jordan for plotting attacks on Americans in Jordan and attempting to blow up hotels in Amman.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 7, Israel expressed disappointment with Argentina's recognition of a Palestinian state in territories Israel occupied in 1967, saying they undercut American-led efforts to create such a state through negotiations with Israel.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Israel 3 dozen top rabbis threw their support behind a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews, an indication of growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time of mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo, the man who the UN says lost the country’s presidential election, went ahead with naming his new cabinet anyway. He tapped Charles Ble Goude as minister of youth, professional education and employment. Goude was sanctioned in 2006 by both the US and UN. He has been accused of making repeated public statements advocating violence against foreigners and UN installations and personnel.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Mexico's Defense Department said soldiers killed six assailants in a clash in the northern state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas. In Cancun police said they found the bodies of three men who had been shot to death in neighborhoods far from where UN Climate Change conference was taking place. The body of a fourth man was found in another Cancun neighborhood.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In the Netherlands a teacher (27) was arrested on suspicion of molesting dozens of very young children. The man's computers containing child pornography were seized and he later confessed to dozens of sex crimes allegedly committed over the past year and a half.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 7, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged former US Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scheme involving oil services firm Halliburton Co. during the time he served as its top executive. A Nigerian court charged Charles Okah, the brother of an alleged militant, and three other suspects with treason and terrorism over the October 1 Independence Day twin car bombings that killed 12 people.
(AP, 12/7/10)(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the decision.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a convoy carrying the top official in the restive Baluchistan province, wounding 9 people but leaving the chief minister unscathed.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia the Omma Conference magazine said in a statement posted on its website that police arrested its editor Mohammed Al-Abdul Karim at his home and took him to Hayer prison outside the capital Riyadh. In an article last week, Al-Abdul Karim predicted that Abdullah's death might cause the oil-rich kingdom to fall apart.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, South Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak promised to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbor launched last month.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Switzerland 6 world powers wrapped up two days of "substantive" talks with Iran on its contentious nuclear program, with the two sides agreeing to meet again in Istanbul next month.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2011 Dec 7, US Pres. Obama and Canada’s PM Stephen Harper announced a new bilateral accord, called Beyond the Border, regarding trade and shared border security.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.41)
2011 Dec 7, In San Francisco police cleared the Occupy SF encampment in an early morning raid. Demonstrators returned in the evening and clashed with police. A half dozen people were arrested, but police pulled back as demonstrators refused to leave Justin Herman Plaza.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 7, In Illinois a federal judge sentenced impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to 14 years in prison, giving little weight to Blagojevich's first-ever apology this morning since his arrest three years ago.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nevada 5 people were killed when a helicopter flying tourists over the Hoover Dam crashed into a mountain range bordering Lake Mead.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A11)
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Pennsylvania prosecutors abandoned their 30-year push for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther convicted in 1982 of killing police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal (58) will spend the rest of his life in prison.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A11)
2011 Dec 7, TV and film star Harry Morgan (b.1915 as Harry Bratsberg) died in Los Angeles. He had played Col. Sherman T. Potter in the sitcom MASH as well as Bill Gannon in Dragnet.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A14)
2011 Dec 7, In southern Afghanistan a minibus struck a roadside bomb, triggering an explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Argentina Czech national Karel Abelovsky (51) was nabbed for trying to board a transatlantic flight with 247 live animals including poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles packed in a bulging suitcase.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 7, Bahrain's Health Ministry said a woman (27), who was seriously hurt during a recent anti-government protest, has died of her injuries. Bahrain halted trial proceedings for over 100 athletes and dropped all charges related to their participation in street protests against the island's Sunni monarchy. It was unclear what will happen to athletes already convicted.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The Brazilian government said it will invest more than $2 billion to curb the spread of crack cocaine.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Scotland Yard said Ilir Nazmi Kumbaro (58), a former Albanian intelligence chief, is on the run after failing to attend a Dec 1 extradition hearing in Britain over charges of torture and kidnap in his homeland.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Cambodia opened the Kamchay dam, the country's largest hydropower dam to date. The $280 million dollar Chinese-funded project has destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest and farmland and attracted criticism from environmental groups.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Chinese authorities said police last week had arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178 children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, China inserted itself into the fight over oil between Sudan and its former territory South Sudan, sending a special envoy to try to break a deadlock between two rivals who often appear on the brink of renewed conflict.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Colombia a hillside loosened by heavy rains collapsed on a bus, killing five adults and a boy. Rains since Sept. 1 have caused at least 140 deaths.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In CongoDRC with 89.2% of precincts counted, Pres. Kabila had 8.3 million out of the 17.3 million votes, or 48%. Tshisekedi was trailing with 5.9 million votes, or 34%.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Egypt's military ruler swore-in a new government that he says will have more powers than its predecessor. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi promised to transfer some of his ruling military council's executive powers to PM Kamal el-Ganzouri. The Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement that it won 36 of the 56 seats awarded to individual candidates in voting which concluded on Dec 6. A member of the junta said the army would have a final say over those appointed to write a new constitution next year.
(AP, 12/7/11)(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, India’s finance minister Pranab Mukherjee confirmed that retail reform to allow foreign supermarkets into India would be indefinitely suspended.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.47)
2011 Dec 7, Iran blocked an Internet website, http://iran.usembassy.gov/, the United States was touting as a "virtual embassy," and which senior MPs slammed as an attempt to deceive the Iranian people and divide them from the government.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Iraq a series of attacks mainly targeting security forces killed at least 5 people.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israeli warplanes hit targets east of Gaza City, killing one militant and injuring another two, with the military saying they were planning to fire rockets across the border.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israel's official Holocaust memorial says it has received its largest private donation ever, a $25 million gift from US casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. He also owns a leading daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is distributed in Israel for free.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Italian police captured Michele Zagaria, one of the country’s most-wanted fugitive mobsters, arresting the last major boss of the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra, one of Italy's bloodiest mafia clans.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Japan offered a "heartfelt apology" for the systematic mistreatment of Canadian prisoners during World War Two, helping to heal ties between the two nations.
(Reuters, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The Kenyan parliament approved a plan for their troops in southern Somalia to join a 9,000 strong African Union force supporting the weak UN-backed government based in Mogadishu.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Kenya hundreds of doctors from public medical facilities marched through Nairobi to demand a larger stock of drugs in their hospitals, better equipment and better pay.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Mexico gunmen attacked an ambulance in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing the driver, two patients and a fourth person in the vehicle. Authorities reported six other slayings in addition to the ambulance attack.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nepal hundreds of Buddhists demonstrated in Katmandu to protest the appointment of Maoist party chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal to head a project to develop Lumbini, an area where Buddha was believed born.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nigeria a powerful explosion rocked the northern city of Kaduna, killing 7 people, wounding many others. A Red Cross report said two men on a motorbike had stopped in front of an auto parts shop in Kaduna just before the explosion went off. The police's anti-bomb squad had concluded that the blast was accidental.
(AFP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The US government said it is giving Paraguay more than $1 million in equipment and training to help it combat a small guerrilla band in the north of the country.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Russian authorities should annul the results of the parliamentary vote and hold a new one, as popular indignation grew over widespread allegations of election fraud. Thousands of Russians have rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the last two days, facing off against tens of thousands of police and Interior Ministry troops. Popular anger boiled over into a 3rd straight night of protests with scores arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
(AP, 12/7/11)(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 7, In South Africa an investigation commissioned by the government into the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq cleared Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe of corruption. The probe was ordered in 2006 by then president Thabo Mbeki, into what has become known in the country as "Oilgate," to look at allegations of kickbacks sourced by senior members of the ruling party from the State Oil Marketing Organization of Iraq (SOMO). The UN oil-for-food program ran from 1996 until 2003.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Sudan's ruling party approved a new coalition government, giving representation to 14 other parties but keeping the top cabinet posts.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Syria’s Pres. Assad, speaking to veteran journalist Barbara Walters in a rare interview to foreign media, said he was not responsible for the bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and individual members of the military. Assad dismissed the death toll, estimated by the UN at more than 4,000 people, saying: "Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?"
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Thailand Arisman Pongruangrong, a militant leader of Thailand's "Red Shirt" protest movement, surrendered to authorities on terrorism charges over his role in opposition rallies last year, after almost 20 months on the run.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Yemeni regime and opposition spokesmen accused each other's forces of shelling government and residential areas in the capital. The accusations come in advance of the expected declaration of a national unity government to take over from ministers allied with embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Militants linked to al-Qaida attacked an army post in the south but were driven back, leaving nine of their dead behind. One soldier was also killed in the night firefight east of Zinjibar in Abyan province.
(AP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2012 Dec 7, Belarus Pres. Lukashenko signed a decree banning some industrial workers from leaving their jobs, in an effort to stem an expodus of workers to Russia.
(SFC, 12/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 7, In Brazil Michael Misick, the former jet-setting premier of the Turks and Caicos islands, was arrested after having disappeared a couple years ago.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, In London nurse Jacintha Saldanha (46) was discovered hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe in her nurses' quarters by a colleague and a member of security staff at London's King Edward VII Hospital. She had answered the phone on Dec 4 when two Australian disc jockeys called to seek information about the former Kate Middleton, who was being treated for severe morning sickness.
(AP, 12/13/12)
2012 Dec 7, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper approved China's biggest ever foreign takeover, a $15.1 billion bid by state-controlled CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen Inc., but drew a line in the sand against future buys by state-owned enterprises. He also approved a smaller deal for a Canadian gas producer by Petronas, Malaysia’s state energy company.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.38)
2012 Dec 7, On the French island of Corsica a man was shot dead and at least 17 houses were bombed. The vacation destination is also home to criminal gangs and a simmering homegrown nationalist movement.
(AP, 12/8/12)
2012 Dec 7, Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets after midday prayers in rival rallies and marches across Cairo, as the standoff deepened over what opponents call the Islamist president's power grab, raising the specter of more violence.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Ghana voters lined up to select their next president and parliament in a ballot that is expected to mark its sixth transparent election. 8 presidential contenders included President John Dramani Mahama and his main challenger Nana Akufo-Addo.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Iran's border police confiscated over 11 tons of narcotics after fierce clashes with drug traffickers in the southeast, the biggest single consignment ever seized in Iran's war against drugs.
(AP, 12/8/12)
2012 Dec 7, A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan’s Miyagi prefecture. This was the same Japanese coast devastated by last year's massive quake and tsunami. There were no reports of deaths or serious damage.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, In Kenya a grenade thrown at worshippers leaving a mosque in a Somali neighborhood of Nairobi killed 3 people and wounded 15.
(SFC, 12/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 7, The Dutch government approved a NATO request to send two batteries of Patriot missile defense systems to Turkey, following in Germany's footsteps.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Khaled Mashaal, the exiled Hamas chief, broke into tears as he arrived in the Gaza Strip for his first-ever visit. Mashaal had left the West Bank as a child. He leads the Islamic militant movement from Qatar.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad declared Damascus International Airport a "legitimate target" in a bid to cut off regime supplies, as clashes between government troops and rebels forced the closure of the airport road for the second time this week.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived back home in Caracas after 10 days of medical treatment in Cuba.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Zimbabwe's Pres. Mugabe said he would fire government ministers accused of soliciting for bribes in a bid to purge corruption from his party as loyalists met at a convention to map out a winning election strategy to end a conflict-ridden four-year-old coalition.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2013 Dec 7, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said that Afghanistan's defense minister reassured him that a security agreement with the US will be signed in a timely manner.
(AP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, A cold snap in the US led to at least 6 weather-related deaths in traffic accidents. Over 100,000 people in the Dallas area were without power as were thousands in other states.
(SSFC, 12/8/13, p.A12)
2013 Dec 7, Australia's first gay marriages were celebrated in the national capital Canberra, despite the prospect of a High Court decision ruling against the unions later this week.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, In Colombia 8 people were killed in a bombing blamed on FARC rebels currently engaged in peace talks with the government. 6 soldiers and 2 civilians died when a vehicle loaded with explosives blew up in the small town of Inza.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, An Egyptian court acquitted 155 people arrested during deadly clashes in the capital between Islamist protesters and police in October.
(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, French President Francois Hollande said France will increase its troop deployment in Central African Republic to 1,600 soldiers by this evening. The African Union agreed to increase its troops there to 6,000.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)(SSFC, 12/8/13, p.A4)
2013 Dec 7, In Bali, Indonesia, WTO leaders, ending a 4-day meeting, reached a deal to boost global trade. The Trade Facilitation Agreement was approved by the 159 member economies for the first time in nearly two decades, keeping alive the possibility that a broader agreement to create a level playing field for rich and poor countries can be reached in the future.
(AP, 12/7/13)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.64)
2013 Dec 7, In Iraq a bomb went off inside an outdoor market in the northern city of Mosul, killing two shoppers and wounding 15 others. An hour later 2 people were killed and seven others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded on a road frequently used by military convoys in Mishahda village, just north of Baghdad. Attacks nationwide killed 16 people, nine of whom were shot dead at alcohol shops in Baghdad.
(AP, 12/7/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, The Italian foreign ministry said Marcello Rizzo (55) has been kidnapped in the Niger felta of Nigeria. Rizzo was said to have disappeared several days earlier.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, Two Japanese whaling ships and a surveillance vessel left for the annual hunt in the Antarctic Sea. The three ships departed from the western port of Shimonoseki to join other ships to hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, In northern Kenya more than 10 people were killed in fighting in the town of Moyale where troops have been sent to stop a week of fighting between rival ethnic groups that has sent thousands fleeing into Ethiopia.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, Moroccan police violently suppressed a peaceful protest in the Western Sahara against a planned EU fishing accord with Rabat that covers the disputed territory's waters.
(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, North Korea freed Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old US veteran of the Korean War, after a weekslong detention.
(AP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, Pakistan's Supreme Court identified six 'missing persons' who relatives say were disappeared by the country's army from a detention center and ordered the defence ministry to produce them.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, A Palestinian boy, Wajih Wajdi Al-Ramah (15), died of a gunshot wound in the occupied West Bank. His father and two friends blamed Israeli troops guarding a nearby settlement for the shooting. The father said the boy had left a grocery store when he was shot from the nearby settlement, about 300 meters away.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, Polish authorities said icy winter storms with hurricane-force winds battering northern Europe have claimed four more lives in Poland, where some 350,000 homes remained without power. This brought the reported death toll from the storms across north Europe to 14.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, In northeastern Romania Chevron Oil Co. suspended exploration for shale gas after hundreds of anti-fracking protesters tore down fences.
(SSFC, 12/8/13, p.A4)
2013 Dec 7, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced the resignation of First Vice President Ali Taha. Taha was replaced by Lieutenant General Bakri Hassan Saleh.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, Syria’s largest Islamist rebel force seized arms depots belonging to the mainstream Western-backed Free Syrian Army. The Observatory said the arms had been brought across the border from Turkey and that five fighters were killed. Government aircraft pounded Raqqa, a rebel-held city in the country's northeast, killing at least 18 people including five children.
(AFP, 12/7/13)(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra ruled out a political comeback for her influential self-exiled brother and said an unpopular amnesty bill that would have allowed him to return has been scrapped.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2014 Dec 7, In northern California angry crowds hurled objects at police who responded with tear gas in a second night of clashes in Berkeley following a grand jury decision not to indict a white New York police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, Egyptian security forces raided a bath house and arrested 25 men for homosexuality, dragging them naked out of the building in downtown Cairo.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Greece a demonstration through central Athens to mark the 6th anniversary of the lethal police shooting of an unnamed teen quickly turned brutal as demonstrators damaged bus station and store fronts, and sets fire to clothing looted from a store.
(http://tinyurl.com/lur6csa)
2014 Dec 7, Israel's military said has opened 8 new illicit investigations into its Gaza conflict operations, including cases involving the fatalities of thirty Palestinians.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2014 Dec 7, Israeli warplanes struck near Damascus' international airport, as well as outside a town close to the Lebanese border.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Mexico a farmer made front pages when he immolated himself to demand the release of his father, an indigenous leader in Chiapas state arrested last year on charges stemming from demonstrations in 2011 that turned violent.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Nepal an overcrowded bus plunged off a mountain road killing at least 17 people and injuring 50 more.
(SFC, 12/9/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 7, North Korea released a report that clearly appreciated a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, which is producing an upcoming film that shows a murder plot against Pyongyang's supreme leader.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Pakistan a senior al Qaeda member and 3 other alleged militants were killed when a US drone attacked a home they were in.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2014 Dec 7, It was reported that Taliban commander Latif Mehsud, held under Afghan and NATO custody for some, has been handed over to Pakistan along with 3 others.
(http://tinyurl.com/o54f5a7)
2014 Dec 7, In the Philippines Typhoon Hagupit left at least 3 people dead.
(SFC, 12/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 7, Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin discussed energy collaboration with leaders of Hungary and Serbia.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2015 Dec 7, The United States said it has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the US P8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, US Vice President Joe Biden assured Ukraine of continuing US support and announced the release of an additional $190 million in US aid to help support reforms.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, US presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," immigrants and visitors alike, because of what he describes as hatred among "large segments of the Muslim population" toward Americans.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, Two Afghan men failed to report to maintenance training with the 81st Fighter Squadron while training with the US military at a base in south Georgia.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 7, The County of Hawaii said 119 residents and 17 visitors have been confirmed with dengue fever.
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 7, Lawyers hired by the Turkish government filed a civil suit against cleric Fethullah Gulen, a political enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, in a US court alleging human rights abuses. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 7, Thermo Fisher Scientific, a US based life sciences company, opened a new aseptic processing laboratory at its Molecular Biology Center of Excellence in Vilnius, Lithuanian capital. The new laboratory will produce Dynabeads, the magnetic beads. Coated with antibodies the magnetic beads stimulate lymphocytes, enabling the patient's cells to fight cancer and prevent metastasis. The company expects the new technology will replace conventional treatment methods to treat cancer.
(Xinhua, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bombing wounded nine people, including six policemen in the Surkh Rud district in Nangarhar province.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, In Brazil impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faced their first major hurdle with the formation of a special congressional committee that will analyze the accusations against her.
(AFP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Beijing issued its first-ever red alert for smog, urging schools to close and invoking restrictions on factories and traffic that will keep half of the city's vehicles off the roads.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Interpol agents arrested a Rwandan with a $5 million bounty on his head who is among the most wanted for the 1994 genocide. Ladislas Ntaganzwa was arrested in the eastern Congo city of Goma. Between about 14 and 18 April 1994 he is accused of substantially participating in the planning, preparation and execution of the massacre of over 20,000 Tutsis at Cyahinda Parish.
(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 7, Germany said the number of people registered as asylum-seekers this year hit 965,000 by the end of November.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, The German firm JAB Holding Co. announced a $13.9 billion acquisition of Keurig Green Mountain as part of its quest to dominate the global coffee industry. JAB Holding is the investment arm of the Reimann family, heirs to consumer goods company Joh. A. Benckisser GmbH.
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.D3)
2015 Dec 7, In eastern India a speeding train rammed into an SUV at an unmanned railroad crossing, killing all 13 people in the vehicle in Jharkhand state.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, Latvian PM Laimdota Straujuma said that she was resigning her post after political squabbles within her center-right ruling coalition and dissatisfaction about her leadership.
(Reuters, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released a video showing three men purportedly confessing to spying for the Mauritanian and French military and then one being taken out of a pick-up truck in the desert and shot in the head. The 22-minute video shows the men saying they had been spying in northern Mali since at least 2006.
(Reuters, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, A Palestinian man stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli in the West Bank city of Hebron and was then shot dead by security forces. Genadi Kaufman (41) died of his wounds on Dec 30.
(Reuters, 12/7/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Dec 7, The Kremlin said is not interested in the allegations made in a recent documentary because they do not concern the prosecutor general, but his sons. Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his team released an investigation and a documentary online last week, detailing what they described as shady deals involving sons of the prosecutor general and other senior prosecutors.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, In Russia five people were lightly injured when a grenade exploded at a bus stop in central Moscow. The hand grenade went off on Pokrovka Street, an area dotted with bars and restaurants.
(AFP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, In Somalia Abdimalik Jones, an American who had been fighting with al-Shabab, left the rebels and was arrested by Somalia's security forces in the southern port of Barawe. Jones claimed he fled al-Shabab because of rifts within the group.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, Syria's government accused the US-led coalition of launching airstrikes a day earlier on an army camp in Der el-Zour that killed 3 soldiers and wounded 13, which if confirmed would mark the first time US-led forces have struck troops loyal to President Bashar Assad. A US military official said the strike was from a Russian warplane.
(AP, 12/7/15)(SFC, 12/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 7, Syrian authorities released 35 opposition detainees in Homs, ahead of a deal that will lead to the departure of thousands of opposition fighters.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Eastern Tajikistan was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. State television said one person was killed ten were injured.
(AFP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Thailand's military government blocked an anti-corruption protest, detaining about three dozen students and other activists who were headed to a park honoring past kings that was allegedly built with money from shady dealings involving several senior officers.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Turkey said it would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, The UN appealed for a record $20.1 billion (18.6 billion euros) to provide aid to a surging number of people hit by conflicts and disasters around the globe.
(AFP, 12/7/15)
2016 Dec 7, A transition official said president-elect Donald Trump will nominate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next US ambassador to China, choosing a longstanding friend of Beijing after rattling the world's second-largest economy by speaking to Taiwan's president.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Time Magazine named Donald Trump as Person of the Year.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 7, In Americus, Georgia, a man fatally shot police Officer Nicholas Smarr and wounded Officer Jody Smith before fleeing an apartment complex near Georgia Southwestern State Univ. Smith died of his wounds the next day and suspect Minquell Lembrick was found dead at a home where he was hiding.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A7)(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 7, In Michigan a federal judge who ordered the state to begin a recount of Nov 8 presidential voting, ended the recount following a state court ruling that found Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no legal standing to requests another look at the ballots.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 7, Amazon completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will become a trend in automated shipments by air. The delivery was made to a customer near Cambridge, England.
(AFP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 7, London-based think-tank Overseas Development Institute said one third of children living in the slums of Bangladesh's capital spend more than 60 hours a week making clothes for the garment sector, well beyond the legal working limit.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Bahrain British PM Theresa May and leaders from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreed to counter Iran's "destabilizing activities," a pledge meant to calm nerves following the nuclear deal with world powers. The summit aimed to advance plans to turn the (GCC) into a Gulf Union with tighter defense coordination.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.50)
2016 Dec 7, British musician Greg Lake (b.1947) died. He had co-founded both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. ELP broke up in 1979, reunited in 1991, later disbanded again and reunited for a 2010 tour.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, Paris, France, was smothered by its worst winter pollution in a decade, with commuters enjoying free public transport and half of all cars ordered off the road to try to clear the air.
(AFP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives toughened their tone on integrating migrants, passing a resolution on tackling forced marriage and honor killings, and cracking down on dual citizenship.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Ghana held elections. President John Mahama sought a second and final term. Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party said the government has mismanaged national finances, not least revenue from oil from an offshore field operated by British company Tullow that began to flow in 2010.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Indonesia a magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked Aceh province early today, killing more than 100 people and sparking a frantic rescue effort in the rubble of dozens of collapsed and damaged buildings.
(AP, 12/7/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, Iran struck a preliminary memorandum of understanding with Royal Dutch Shell to develop prospective oil fields.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.62)
2016 Dec 7, Iraqi army troops entered another neighborhood held by the Islamic State group in the southeastern part of Mosul. Soldiers from the 9th Division took over the hospital building in the al-Salam neighborhood.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Iraq's parliament speaker said an airstrike targeting the Islamic State-held town of Qaim near the Syrian border killed and wounded "dozens" of civilians, and that he is holding the Iraqi government responsible.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Ireland a Dublin judge ordered Irish authorities to unfreeze 100 million euros ($107 million) in cash belonging to exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ruling that police had provided no evidence that the funds were illegally gained as Russia contends.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said he would resign this evening now that Parliament has approved the 2017 national budget, a step required by the nation's president before he would let the leader step down. Pres. Mattarella had asked him to stay long enough to secure passage of the budget.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.51)
2016 Dec 7, Kazakhstan's state security service said it has detained several people suspected of stealing oil and fuel from a refinery in Aktobe and being linked to radical Islamists.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Kenya’s Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta urged medical workers to return to work saying nearly 20 people have died three days into a strike because of lack of care.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, Eastern Libyan forces said they thwarted an attempted advance on some of Libya's major oil ports, hitting a rival faction with air strikes and capturing some of its commanders.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, NATO’s top military officer said that about 150 Turkish officers have been recalled or retired from the alliance’s high command since Turkey’s July 15 failed coup.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, Netherlands said it will gradually phase out subsidizes for renewable energy and shift its climate change strategy to areas such as energy saving and carbon capture.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In northern Pakistan a plane carrying 47 people crashed on the slope of a mountain in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. There were no survivors.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)(AFP, 12/7/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, The CEO of Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company, said that it had agreed to sell a 19.5 percent stake to Swiss commodities giant Glencore and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Somalia soldiers loyal to the government retook control of Qandala port town from insurgents who had declared allegiance to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Syria rebels in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians after losing more territory including the Old City to a Syrian army offensive. The leaders of six major Western nations called for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo and condemned Russia and Iran for supporting the Syrian government.
(AFP, 12/7/16)(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Thailand’s military said Muslim separatist militants have shot dead six civilians over the last 24 hours in the southern provinces of Narathiwat and Pattani.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, In northern Thailand six drug smugglers were fatally shot late today in a gunbattle when they were confronted by soldiers. 554,000 methamphetamine tablets, 30 kg (66 pounds) of heroin, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of opium, an AK-47 assault rifle and a short-barreled rifle were seized.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 7, The UN Committee against Torture called on Sri Lanka to investigate "routine torture" of detainees by security forces and rebuked its government for failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's 26-year conflict.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2017 Dec 7, US Rep. Trent Franks, R.- Arizona, said he will resign next month after revealing that he discussed surrogacy with two female staff members. Trent resigned on Dec. 8 bowing to an ultimatum from Speaker Paul Ryan.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.A4)(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A5)
2017 Dec 7, US Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announced that he would resign in the coming weeks following charges of sexual harassment and indiscretions. On Dec. 13 Lt. Gov. Tina Smith was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to fill Franken’s seat.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.A4)(SFC, 12/14/17, p.A6)
2017 Dec 7, A flight to Somalia from Louisiana reached Dakar, Senegal before sitting on the runway for 23 hours and returning to the US because the relief crew was not rested enough. Ninety-two Somalis sat bound and shackled on an airplane for nearly two days, some urinating on themselves, during the botched US deportation attempt. This was according to a lawsuit later filed in US District Court in Miami.
(AP, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 7, California joined 13 other states to sue the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for ignoring an October 1 deadline to update the nation’s map of areas with unhealthy smog levels.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.D8)
2017 Dec 7, In southern California hundreds of Los Angeles area schools shut their doors as raging wildfires wreaked havoc, forcing about 200,000 people to flee and destroying hundreds of houses. Officials closed US 101 for more than a dozen miles along the coast, cutting off a major route between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for several hours as fire charred heavy brush along lanes.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, San Francisco-based Dignity Health and Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives announced plans to merge in a deal that create one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.C1)
2017 Dec 7, Gilead Sciences of Foster City, Ca., announced plans to acquire startup Cell Design Labs for up to $587 million.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.C2)
2017 Dec 7, In Hawaii the body of Telma Boinville (51), who moved to Hawaii from Brazil in the 1990s, was found downstairs in a house on Oahu's North Shore, where she reportedly was a house cleaner for the vacation property. Her 8-year-old daughter was found upstairs uninjured and tied up. Stephen Brown (23) and Hailey Kai Dandurand (20) were soon arrested on suspicion of murder.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 7, The NYC-based Morgan Stanley financial services firm said Harold Ford Jr., a former 5-term member of Congress representing Tennessee, has been fired for conduct inconsistent with company values and in violation of company policies.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.A4)
2017 Dec 7, The NYC Ballet confirmed that its leader Peter Martins (71) had requested and was granted a temporary leave following accusations of past sexual harassment.
(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A5)
2017 Dec 7, Bitcoin surged past $17,000 as the frenzy surrounding the virtual currency escalated just days before it starts trading on major US exchanges. Bitcoin has gained more than $5,000 in just the past two days. NiceHash, a company that mines bitcoins on behalf of customers, said it is investigating a breach that may have resulted in the theft of about $70 million worth of bitcoin.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East condemned the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as an incendiary move in a volatile region and Palestinians said Washington was abandoning its leading role as a peace mediator. The European Union and United Nations also voiced alarm at President Donald Trump's decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Australia's Parliament voted to allow same-sex marriage across the nation, following a bitter debate settled by a much-criticized government survey of voters that strongly endorsed change.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, British illustrator Quentin Blake presented the 33 first editions of classic books, with jackets specially created by leading artists, which will be auctioned to benefit London's House of Illustration museum, which he founded.
(AFP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Queen Elizabeth II formally commissioned into the British navy the UK's newest and biggest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, at a ceremony in Portsmouth.
(AFP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Congo DRC an attack in North Kivu province targeted a base of the UN's MONUSCO force, killing at least 14 UN peacekeepers from Tanzania. Five Congolese soldiers and a further 53 personnel were also injured in the worst single attack against a UN mission in recent history.
(AP, 12/7/17)(AFP, 12/9/17)(AFP, 12/15/17)
2017 Dec 7, The European Union announced that it is taking the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to court for failing to accommodate their fair share of refugees under a plan agreed to by the 28-country bloc two years ago.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, EU negotiators agreed new rules that give Brussels the power to check up on national car approval authorities and set targets for emission checks in the aftermath of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In southwestern Iran eight climbers died in an avalanche and a ninth was missing on Oshtorankouh mountain in the Zagros range.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 7, It was reported that Iraqi historian, scholar and blogger Omar Mohammed (31) has unveiled himself as Mosul Eye. Since 2014 Mosul Eye told the world what was happening in occupied Mosul. If caught, he too would be killed.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Israeli army gunfire and rubber bullets wounded at least 31 people in Palestinian protests in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Japan Nagako Tomioka (58), the head priests of the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo, was ambushed and killed with a samurai sword as she got out of her car, apparently by her brother, who then took his own life.
(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 7, In southern Nepal millions of people voted in the final phase of mostly peaceful elections for members of national and provincial assemblies.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Pakistani officials said a boat carrying dozens of pilgrims has capsized near an island in the Arabian Sea, killing 14 people. Over 30 people were missing after the boat sank near Thatta, 100 km (60 miles) east of Karachi.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Qatar's ruling emir and French Pres. Emmanuel Macron signed 12 billion euros ($14 billion) in deals during Macron's visit to Doha, including the purchase of 12 French-made Dassault Rafale fighter jets with the option of buying 36 more.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, A Thai court issued arrest warrants against five people over the discovery of a cache of weapons, including figures with links to the "Red Shirt" followers of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Police believed the weapons were hidden during the instability that led up to a coup in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was remanded in prison for at least two more months at the opening of his trial on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Jan Egeland, a top UN humanitarian adviser for Syria, said 12 people have died awaiting evacuation from government-besieged suburbs of Damascus. Egeland said the government has refused to approve evacuations on the UN list, which has now reached 494 names.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In northern Yemen Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed at least 23 civilians, including women and children in Saada.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2018 Dec 7, US Pres. Donald Trump announced his nomination of State Dept. spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next US ambassador to the UN. Trump also said he will nominate William Barr to serve as attorney general. Barr had already served as attorney general (1991-1993) under the late Pres. George H.W. Bush.
(SFC, 12/8/18, p.A7)
2018 Dec 7, In southern California CHP Officer Robert stephano (44) was arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct with two teenage girls. Investigators say he had solicited minors for sex as far back as 2010.
(SSFC, 12/9/18, p.A8)
2018 Dec 7, Court filings from prosecutors in New York and special counsel Robert Mueller's office laid out previously undisclosed contacts between Trump associates and Russian intermediaries and suggested the Kremlin aimed early on to influence Trump and his campaign by playing to both his political aspirations and his personal business interests.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, In western Afghanistan the Taliban staged a coordinated attack overnight on two Afghan army outposts in Herat province, killing 14 Afghan soldiers and taking 21 captive.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, ABC News reported that a 28-year-old Australian man will spend five months in prison for brutally killing a kangaroo in an attack filmed and posted on social media. Ricky Ian Swan was one of four men charged in September with using weapons to torture and kill two kangaroos.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, Meeting in Austria OPEC and non-OPEC countries agreed to cut oil production 1.2 million barrels a day in January for 6 months. Oil prices spiked sharply higher in response.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In northeastern Brazil at least 12 people were killed, including six policemen, in an early morning shootout between police and bank robbers on the main street in Milagres, Ceará state.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, British teenager George Duke-Cohan (19) was jailed for three years after his bogus bomb threats led to school evacuations and an airport security incident.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Former Colombian President Belisario Betancur (95) died in Bogota. He had attempted to broker peace with leftist rebels during his 1982-1986 administration.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, CongoDRC officials said authorities have arrested a Congolese colonel who failed to disclose that he had met with two UN experts just two days before the March 2017 killings of American Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zaida Catalan.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Police in Croatia said they have detained 13 people suspected of smuggling migrants who are trying to reach Western Europe through the Balkans.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In Cuba Decree 349, which was published in July, theoretically came into force. It gave government inspectors the right to shut down exhibits and performances deemed to violate Cuba's revolutionary values and to confiscate artists' belongings. The government said it would seek artists' backing for how it will be implemented, a move those who had protested against the decree hailed as a victory.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, Pete Shelley (63), the lead singer and songwriter with influential British pop punk band the "Buzzcocks", died at his home in Estonia. The band helped create the New Wave genre, fusing punk's energy with a more melodic sound.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, The head of the Czech Republic's counter-intelligence service said his agency broke a Russian spying network earlier this year and completely paralyzed its activities.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Germany's Christian Democrats elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (56) to replace Angela Merkel as party leader, a decision that moves her into pole position to succeed Europe's most influential leader as chancellor.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Rebels in Indonesia's troubled Papua province demanded that the government hold negotiations on self-determination for the province and warned of more attacks.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Mexico's Supreme Court suspended a new law that cuts public sector pay, freezing it until the tribunal has made a definitive ruling on the legislation, and dealing a blow to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, A Myanmar court jailed three activists for defaming the military during anti-war protests, amid growing concern about a clamp-down on civil society. Lum Zawng, Nang Pu, and Zau Jat were sentenced to six months in prison and fined $320 each..
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan said his country will no longer act as a hired gun in someone else's war, striking a note of defiance against US demands for Islamabad to do more in the battle against militancy.
(AFP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In Portugal a walkout by rail workers over pay disrupted train services amid a spate of strikes by government employees.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Qatar paid the salaries of nearly 30,000 Gazan civil servants, delighting the impoverished workers but angering some in the deeply divided Palestinian leadership who balked at the intervention of a foreign power.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Romania's President Klaus Iohannis refused to appoint two ministers, saying the government is run by a "criminal" through intermediaries.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin held Kremlin talks with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and overcome a rift over the expulsions of diplomats that have strained their traditionally friendly ties.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Prosecutors in Slovenia said they have filed charges against right-wing politician Andrej Sisko, who was shown leading a paramilitary group in a video circulating on social media.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In South Korea a former military intelligence chief was found dead in a suspected suicide. Former Defense Security Command head Lee Jae-su was being investigated by state prosecutors for allegedly ordering the illegal surveillance of families of people killed in a 2014 ferry sinking.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, South Korean prosecutors charged four people with illegally importing North Korean coal via Russia in violation of UN sanctions.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 7, Rath Rott Mony (47), a Cambodian labor activist, was arrested in Bangkok as he attempted to travel to the Netherlands with his family after helping produce a sex-trafficking documentary for the Russia Today channel in October. Cambodia has dismissed the documentary as fake.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Turkey and the United States agreed to speed up efforts to put in place an agreement on Syria's Manbij by the end of the year.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In southern Turkey an employee fired shots in a municipality building in Cukurova, Adana province, killing two of his colleagues. The gunman was reportedly motivated by a "personal" feud between the employees.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2019 Dec 7, US Pres. Donald Trump energized an audience that numbered in the hundreds at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Florida by recounting his record on issues of importance to Jews, including an extensive riff on his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and relocate the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
(AP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad held the first official talks with Afghanistan's Taliban since President Donald Trump declared a near-certain peace deal with the insurgents dead in September. The talks were held in Qatar.
(AP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, Arkansas police Officer Stephen Carr was shot and killed inside his patrol car outside a Fayetteville police precinct. Suspect London T. Phillips (35) was shot and killed. It was later reported that Carr was shot 10 times in the head and his killer was interested in anti-law enforcement groups.
(Good Morning America, 12/8/19)(AP, 12/14/19)
2019 Dec 7, It was reported that a flesh-eating bacteria linked to the use of black tar heroin has killed at least seven people over the past two months in the San Diego area.
(SFC, 12/7/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 7, Texas sheriff’s deputy Floyd Berry (49) was arrested after police say he performed unlawful strip-searches on at least six women in 11 days. An investigation discovered that Berry had “unlawfully strip-searched" six women while on patrol in the southern portion of Bexar County between Nov. 24 and Dec. 4.
(Miami Herald, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Texas Houston police officer Sgt. Christopher Brewster (32) was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence report. Suspect Arturo Solis was arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/wy7kfxb)(SFC, 12/9/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 7, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said that an experimental cancer therapy it acquired as part of its $74 billion deal for Celgene Corp produced positive results in a clinical trial. The treatment, liso-cel, is a newer type of immunotherapy known as CAR-T cell therapy, that takes immune cells from a patient, engineers them to better recognize and attack cancer and infuses them back into the patient.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia to discuss "key issues in our bilateral relations. Roughly 1,000 Belarusians joined an unauthorized demonstration against the prospect of a closer union with Russia.
(AFP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, In France truckers blocked roads in about 10 regions to protest against a planned reduction in tax breaks on diesel for road transport, while train and metro services remained heavily disrupted by a strike against pension reform. In Paris several hundred "yellow vest" protesters continued their weekly demonstrations over the cost of living.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, German farmers set up “warning bonfires" this evening at hundreds of sites across the country in a continuation of protests against new environmental controls that have caught Berlin on the back foot.
(The Telegraph, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Hong Kong hundreds of pro-government demonstrators packed a local park to denounce what they say is a reign of terror by anti-government protesters.
(SSFC, 12/8/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 7, Indonesian authorities arrested five suspected poachers of a pair of critically endangered pregnant Sumatran tigers and seized four fetuses that had been preserved in a jar. About 400 Sumatran tigers remained because of forest destruction and poaching.
(SFC, 12/9/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 7, Tehran announced the release of Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani from the United States shortly before Washington declared American researcher Xiyue Wang was returning home. Wang (38) has spent the past three years in jail on spying charges in a prisoner swap. Soleimani, an Iranian scientist, was arrested at Chicago airport last year and convicted on charges of violating US trade sanctions.
(AFP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported that a soldier has shot three policemen to death in the country's south. The soldier was immediately arrested.
(AP, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Lebanon scores of women marched through the streets of Beirut to protest sexual harassment and bullying and demanding rights including the passing of citizenship to children of Lebanese women married to foreigners.
(AP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Mexico four people were killed and two injured in a shooting near the National Palace, the presidential residence in the capital's historic downtown. The dead included the gunman who was killed by police.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, North Korea carried out a "very important" test at tits Sohae satellite launch site, a rocket testing ground that US officials once said Pyongyang had promised to close.
(AFP, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering planets orbiting distant suns, urged humans to fix the climate crisis and save the Earth at a news conference in Stockholm.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Syria airstrikes on areas in the last major rebel stronghold in the northwest killed at least 20 people, including women and children, and wounded others in the Idlib region as a three-month truce crumbled.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2020 Dec 7, A US federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's attempts to ban TikTok, the latest legal defeat for the administration as it tries to wrest the popular app from its Chinese owners.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions on 14 high-level officials in China's legislature for the body's enforcement of a controversial national security law imposed on Hong Kong.
(South China Morning Post, 12/8/20)(SFC, 12/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 7, A US judge rejected a bid to decertify President-elect Joe Biden's election victory in Michigan because of alleged irregularities and to have President Donald Trump declared the winner, the latest failed legal attack on the vote.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, said the US air pollution monitoring network has fallen into disrepair after years of budget cuts and neglect, leaving tens of millions of Americans vulnerable to undetected bad air quality from events like wildfires to industrial pollution.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, California compelled much of the state to close shop and stay at home, when some of the harshest coronavirus restrictions in the United States came into effect one day after the state set a record with more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Chuck Yeager (97), the first pilot to break the sound barrier and a central figure in the book “The Right Stuff," died in Los Angeles.
(NY Times, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, California to date had 1,351,199 cases of coronavirus and 19,882 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 170,707 cases and 2,039 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 14,949,299 with the death toll at 283,703.
(sfist.com, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Airbnb, the US home rental firm, said plans to sell 51.6 million shares at between $56 and $60 apiece later this week. It had earlier targeted a price range of between $44 and $50 per share for 51.9 million shares.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals said the US Food and Drug Administration had placed a clinical hold on patient enrollment and dosing in an early-stage trial of its cancer treatment, after the death of a patient. The company said the death was unrelated to the treatment, BPX-601, but that it would work with the FDA to resume the trial.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has dosed the first participant in a mid-stage clinical trial testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, INO-4800.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Britain reported 14,718 new cases of COVID-19, down from 17,272 cases a day earlier. The United Kingdom has recorded a total of 1.738 million cases of the disease and 61,434 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Doug Scott (79), part of the first British team to climb Mount Everest in 1975, diedat his home in the Lake District in northern England.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, Chinese vaccine company Sinovac announced that it is planning to complete a new facility to double its annual vaccine production capacity to 600 million doses by the end of the year, while also securing a $500 million investment in a boost to its COVID-19 vaccine development efforts.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, It was reported that Congo’s Pres. Felix Tshisekedi has announced an end to the coalition between his party and that of former president Joseph Kabila. Kabila’s supporters make up a majority in Congo's legislature, which Tshisekedi threatened to dissolve if the crisis persists.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, An Egyptian court extended the detention of Patrick George Zaki (28), an activist and researcher who previously worked for one of the country’s most prominent rights groups. Zaki worked as a gender rights researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR, which provides him legal representation.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, The EU adopted a version of the "Magnitsky laws," which sanction foreign officials who commit human-rights abuses or steal money. The laws were named after Sergei Magnitsky, who died in 2009 in a Russian prison after trying to investigate a $230 million fraud case.
(Econ., 1/23/21, p.58)
2020 Dec 7, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged “disagreements" with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi over human rights, but said it will not prevent France from reaching economic and defense deals with the North African country, which has seen the heaviest crackdown on dissent in its modern history.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Ghana held elections. Eleven candidates were in the race to unseat President Nana Akufo-Addo (76), who is running for his second term. At least five people were killed and a dozen injured in violence related to the presidential and legislative elections. Days later official results showed that Mr Akufo-Addo obtained 51.6% of the vote, compared with 47.4% won by his main rival, ex-President John Mahama.
(BBC, 12/7/20)(AP, 12/9/20)(BBC, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 7, Hong Kong authorities arrested 8 people in connection with an unauthorized protest at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus last month.
(SFC, 12/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 7, A senior Indian health department official said one person has died and more than 400 have been hospitalized in Andhra Pradesh state due to an unidentified infection that caused many to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea. Authorities were investigating water supplies at 20 locations within the city of Eluru where the outbreak was first reported.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, In Indonesia six followers of divisive cleric Rizieq Shihab were shot and killed by police officers on the outskirts of Jakarta. The officers were tailing the men as part of an investigation.
(SFC, 12/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 7, In northern Iraq protester Adham Suliman was shot and killed during a rally late today in Chamchamal, a town in northern Sulimaniyah province. For days, hundreds have been protesting in the streets of Sulimaniyah against two main Kurdish political blocs over public salary payment delays and perceived corruption. A total of eight protesters were killed in the areas of Chamchamal, Kefri Darbendikan, Khormal and Saidsadiq.
(AP, 12/8/20)(AP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 7, Japan's agriculture ministry said bird flu has been detected in a fifth Japanese prefecture, as a wave of infections at poultry farms sparks the Japan's worst outbreak in more than four years.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Forces of a Libyan commander who rules the eastern half of the country and who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, seized the Mabrouka, a Turkish cargo vessel heading to the western town of Misrata. The Jamaica-flagged cargo vessel was let go days later after local authorities questioned its crew and had them pay a fine for violations of sailing rules in Libyan waters.
(AP, 12/8/20)(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 7, Romania's PM Ludovic Orban claimed victory in his country's Dec. 6 elections. With 95% of ballots counted, the populist, corruption-prone and fiscally reckless Social Democrat Party (PSD) had around 30% of the vote, with the reformist center-right National Liberal Party of PM Orban trailing them by about 5%. Only 33% of potential Romanian voters went to the polls. Orban resigned after voters delivered a nominal victory to the left-leaning, populist opposition party.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)(SFC, 12/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 7, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for expanded coronavirus testing and more thorough tracing as the country struggles to control its latest and largest wave of infections.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Swiss authorities said a 3,500-ton stockpile of munitions sitting in an underground depot in the Bernese Alps since World War II must be cleared for safety reasons, advancing toward a giant project that could cost billions and require the evacuation of local residents from their homes for a decade — though likely not before 2030.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Two UN agencies said that the removal of subsidies in Lebanon without guarantees to protect the vulnerable would amount to a social catastrophe.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution urging Russia to immediately withdraw all its military forces from Crimea “and end its temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine without delay." The vote was 63-17 with 62 abstentions, close to the vote on a similar resolution adopted last year.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declared victory after his allies swept congressional elections boycotted by the opposition and considered fraudulent by international critics.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, In Yemen suspected al-Qaida militants targeted a checkpoint in southern Abyan province, killing at least six Yemeni troops.
(AP, 12/8/20)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to December 8
Return to home
International Civil Aviation Day. In 1996 the UN General Assembly proclaimed December 7 as International Civil Aviation Day.
( https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/international-civil-aviation-day )(Econ, 11/24/12, p.68)
For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
43BC Dec 7, Cicero (b.106BCE), considered one of the greatest sons of Rome was assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius. Cicero, elected Consul in 63, had chosen to support Pompey over Caesar. He translated Greek works that they might be understood by his fellow Romans, and tried to apply Greek ethical thought to Roman business and politics. His last work was "On Duties," where he propounds a common solution to all social problems i.e. "Always do the right thing... that which is legal... that which is honest, open and fair...keeping your word... telling the truth... and treating everyone alike. In 2002 Anthony Everitt authored "Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician," a biography based on his letters. In 2006 Robert Harris authored “Imperium," a novel that covers Cicero’s early courtroom feats.
(V.D.-H.K.p.74)(HN, 12/7/98)(WSJ, 6/11/02, p.D7)(WSJ, 11/10/06, p.W4)
185 Dec 7, Emperor Lo-Yang of China saw a supernova (MSH15-52?).
(MC, 12/7/01)
967 Dec 7, Abu Sa'id ibn Aboa al-Chair, Persian mystic, was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
983 Dec 7, Otto II the Red (~28), German king and emperor (973-83), died. Otto III [aged 3] took the throne after his father's death in Italy.
(HN, 12/7/98)(MC, 12/7/01)
1542 Dec 7, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland (1560-1587), was born. [see Dec 8]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1598 Dec 7, Giovanni "Gian" Lorenzo Bernini (d.Nov 28, 1680), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, was born. He was the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and worked under the patronage of Pope Urban VII. His work included the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa," “David" and “Daphne and Apollo."
(WSJ, 12/4/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R53)
1637 Dec 7, Barnardo Pasquini, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1761 Dec 7, Madame Tussaud [Marie Grosholtz], creator of the wax museum, was born. [see Dec 1]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1787 Dec 7, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1796 Dec 7, Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States. [see Nov 3]
(AP, 12/7/97)
1808 Dec 7, Electors chose James Madison to be the fourth president of the United States in succession to Thomas Jefferson.
(HN, 12/7/98)(AP, 12/7/08)
1810 Dec 7, Theodor Schwann, German physiologist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1817 Dec 7, William Bligh (63), British naval officer of "Bounty" infamy, died.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1820 Dec 7, Peru’s army, after sweeping out the Spanish, swore in the first mayor of the Peruvian Republic, in Chaupimarca plaza, the central district of Cerro de Pasco. By 2010 the town faced destruction due to industrial mining.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1823 Dec 7, Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (Tensor of Kronecker), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1835 Dec 7, The Adler, a steam engine built in Newcastle by British father and son George and Robert Stephenson, began running between Nuremberg and Furth, marking the birth of the German railway system.
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.77)
1836 Dec 7, Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1840 Dec 7, Hermann Goetz, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1842 Dec 7, The New York Philharmonic gave its first concert.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1861 Dec 7, USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halted the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captured J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1862 Dec 7, Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
(HN, 12/7/99)
1863 Dec 7, Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robbed and then killed Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1868 Dec 7, Jesse James gang robbed a bank in Gallatin, Missouri, and killed 1 person.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1873 Dec 7, Willa Cather, American author famous for “O Pioneers" and “My Antonia," was born.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1877 Dec 7, Thomas A. Edison demonstrated the gramophone. [see Dec 6]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1888 Dec 7, Joyce Cary (d.1957), Irish-born novelist (The Horse's Mouth), was born. "It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know -- and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything."
(HN, 12/7/00)(AP, 1/30/99)
1888 Dec 7, Ernst Toch, composer and pianist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1888 Dec 7, John Boyd Dunlop (1840-1921), Scotland-born inventor, patented a pneumatic tire. Two years after he was granted the patent Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson (1822–1873), had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847. Dunlop's patent was later declared invalid on the basis of Thomson's prior art.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_Dunlop)
1889 Dec 7, Gilbert and Sullivan’s "Gondoliers," premiered in London.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1895 Dec 7, Sir Milton Margay, first Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, was born.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1896 Dec 7, Stuart Davis, painter, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1905 Dec 7, Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-US astronomer (moons of Uranus, Neptune), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1907 Dec 7, The first Christmas Seals to help the fight against tuberculosis were sold, in Wilmington, Del. [Some sources say Dec. 9].
(AP, 12/7/07)
1909 Dec 7, San Francisco held a kick-off luncheon for the acquiring the PPIE in 1915 campaign.
(SFC, 12/8, 1909)
1909 Dec 7, Dr. Leo H. Baekeland patented Bakelite, the 1st completely synthetic plastic thermosetting plastic. [see 1907]
(HNQ, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 12/7/01)
1913 Dec 7, Aaron Montgomery Ward (b.1844), Chicago founder of the mail-order industry (1872), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Montgomery_Ward)
1915 Dec 7, Eli Wallach (d.2014), American film, TV and stage actor, was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.E5)
1917 Dec 7, The US declared war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress and became the 13th country to do so.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1918 Dec 7, Spartacists called for a German revolution.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1926 Dec 7, Victor Kermit Kiam II CEO (Remington shavers), NFL owner (Patriots), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1926 Dec 7, A gas refrigerator was patented.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1928 Dec 7, Noam Chomsky, writer, linguist and political activist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1931 Dec 7, A report indicated that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1934 Dec 7, Wiley Post discovered the jet stream.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1938 Dec 7, Philip Barry's "Here Come the Clowns," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1939 Dec 7, Lou Gehrig, 36, was elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1941 Dec 7, At 7:50 a.m. [7:55 a.m.] Japan launched an aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet, and forced US entry into the war. They also attacked the Philippines, the Int’l. Settlement at Shanghai, Thailand and Hong Kong. Relations between Japan and the United States had been strained for a decade as both nations sought to dominate the Pacific. Long aware that a Japanese surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor could precede war, U.S. authorities were still woefully unprepared when 363 Japanese fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes sunk or damaged eight battleships and three light cruisers, destroyed 188 planes and killed 2,400 men in just over two hours. The Battleship Arizona lost 1,177 men. An estimated 900 were entombed in the sunken ship. 429 people aboard the battleship Oklahoma were killed as the ship capsized. The US lost [18] 19 ships, 140 aircraft and 2,300 [2,338] lives. In all 2,403 people were killed and 1,178 were wounded; 187 planes were destroyed and 159 damaged. The Japanese lost 29 planes and 5 midget submarines. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced December 7, 1941, as a "date which will live in infamy" as he asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
(TL,1988,p.112)(SFC,12/7/96,p.A3)(SFC12/6/96, p.A5)(SFC,12/5/97, p.A29)(AP, 12/7/97)(HNPD, 12/7/98)(SFC, 3/23/19, p.A5)
1941 Dec 7, Evidence arose in 1999 that one of five Japanese mini submarines penetrated Pearl Harbor and hit at least one ship with torpedoes. In 1999 Robert B. Stinnett published "Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor." Edward Latimer “Ned" Beach (1918-2002), former Navy captain authored “Scapegoats! A Defense of Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor."
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)(SFC, 12/2/02, p.A19)
1941 Dec 7, Australian bombers landed on Timor and Ambon.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1941 Dec 7, The 8 month German siege of Tobruk ended.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1941 Dec 7, The 1st Japanese submarine was sunk by a US ship, the USS Ward.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1942 Dec 7, Harry Chapin, rock vocalist (Taxi, Cat's in the Cradle), was born in NYC.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1942 Dec 7, The U.S. Navy launched the USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1945 Dec 7, The microwave oven was patented. Percy LeBaron Spencer accidentally discovered that microwaves would also heat food. Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation.
(HN, 9/5/01)(Econ, 10/29/11, p.100)
1946 Dec 7, The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, ordered all striking miners back to work.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1946 Dec 7, A fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.
(AP, 12/7/04)
1947 Dec 7, Johnny Bench, baseball catcher (Reds), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1947 Dec 7, Nicholas Murray Butler (b.1862), former presidential advisor and president of Columbia Univ. (1902-1945) and won the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1931) died. In 1940, Butler completed his autobiography with the publication of the second volume of “Across the Busy Years." In 2006 Michael Rosenthal authored “Nicholas Miraculous," a biography Butler.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.D10)(http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1931/butler-bio.html)
1948 Dec 7, Yoko Morishita, prima ballerina (Baterina No Habataki), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1949 Dec 7, Tom Waits, Calif, rocker and song writer (Blue Valentine), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1949 Dec 7, The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organized a non-Communist international trade union.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1949 Dec 7, The Nationalist Chinese government escaped to Formosa.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)
1953 Dec 7, Audrey Hepburn was featured on the cover of Life Magazine.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C6)
1953 Dec 7, Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retired.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1956 Dec 7, Larry Bird, American basketball player for the Boston Celtics, was born. He won the NBA MVP award three years in a row.
(HN, 12//99)
1960 Dec 7, The first episode of "Coronation Street", the longest running TV soap opera in the world, was broadcast by Granada.
(http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1057710,00.html)
1962 Dec 7, Great Britain performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1963 Dec 7, During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-showed a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. Navy beat Army, 21-15.
(AP, 12/7/03)
1964 Dec 7, UC Pres. Clark Kerr held an unprecedented campus-wide meeting at the Greek Theater to propose a compromise that fell short of campus free speech demands. Mario Savio attempted to announce an FSM rally to vote on the proposal and was dragged away by police officers.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)(SSFC, 9/21/14, p.A13)
1968 Dec 7, The Rolling Stones released their album "Beggar’s Banquet" in the US, one day after it was released in the UK. They soon filmed a concert performance right after the Who’s performance of "A Quick One" that the Stones did not match and the film was shelved. In 1996 it was planned to release the film where Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal are also featured. The album included the song "Sympathy for the Devil."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_Banquet)(SFC, 8/16/96, p.D11)(SFC, 10/23/00, p.F3)
1970 Dec 7, Rube Goldberg (87), US cartoonist (Mike & Ike, Pulitzer 1948), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg)
1970 Dec 7, In Pakistan polling began for 300 seats in the National Assembly. The Awami League, led by Sheik Mujibur Rahman, emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly by winning 160 seats. It was also able to win 288 out of 300 seats in the East Pakistan Assembly. However, the party failed to win even a single seat in the four Provincial Assemblies of West Pakistan. The Pakistan People’s Party, led by landlord Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, won a majority in West Pakistan. Mr. Bhutto and military leader, Gen. Yahya Khan, refused to honor the results.
(www.storyofpakistan.com/articletext.asp?artid=A140&Pg=2)(Econ, 9/21/13, p.90)
1970 Dec 7, Poland and West Germany signed a pact renouncing use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1972 Dec 7, America's last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 12:33 a.m. It landed on the moon December 11 at 3:15 p.m. and took a historic photo of the Earth that showed our "isolated blue planet."
(AP, 12/7/97)(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A19)(HNQ, 7/21/99)
1972 Dec 7-1972 Dec 8, Two skeletons were found on the Ulap fairgrounds in Berlin. They were later identified as Hitler's deputy Martin Bormann (1900-1945) and Ludwig Stumpfegger, one of Hitler’s doctors.
(http://greyfalcon.us/restored/myPictures/Martin%20Bormann.htm)
1972 Dec 7, Jean McConville, a widowed Belfast mother, was abducted from her home by 12 IRA members and was never seen alive again. The IRA suspected her of being an informant. Her 10 children were put into foster care. In 1999 the IRA admitted responsibility and revealed the general location of her body. Her body was found in Aug, 2003.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A17)(AP, 11/1/03)(SFC, 11/28/14, p.A4)
1972 Dec 7, Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who was then shot dead by her bodyguards.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1975 Dec 7, Thornton Wilder (b.1897), American novelist and playwright, died. In 2008 his selected letters, edited by Robin G. Wilder and Jackson R. Bryer, were published.
(HN, 4/17/99)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
1975 Dec 7, Indonesia invaded East Timor nine days after the Timorese political party Fretilin claimed independence. Some 600,000 were left dead after a prolonged war.
(SFC, 7/21/96, Z1, p.8)(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A19)(HNQ, 11/9/00)
1976 Dec 7, The UN Security Council endorsed Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) of Austria for a 2nd 5-year term as UN Secretary-General.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/12_7/6/index.html)
1977 Dec 7, Peter Carl Goldmark (b.1906), Hungarian-born engineer, died in the US. He developed the first commercial color television and the long-playing phonograph record. Goldmark's LP records were introduced by Goddard Lieberson (1911-977), who later became president of Columbia Records (1956-1971 and 1973-1975).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carl_Goldmark)
1979 Dec 7, Gannet Co. bought California Marin County’s San Rafael Independent Journal. The Gannet chain owned 78 daily papers in 30 states.
(SFC, 7/28/00, p.A19)(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1979 Dec 7, Walter A. Haas Sr. (b.1889), former head of Levi Strauss (1928-1955), died in his sleep.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_A._Haas%2C_Sr.)
1981 Dec 7, The Reagan Administration predicted a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1982 Dec 7, Convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Junior became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas. Brooks, convicted of murdering an auto mechanic, received an intravenous injection of sodium pentathol.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1982 Dec 7, In Suriname 15 politicians, journalists, union leaders, lawyers and soldiers, were rounded up and slain in a hundreds-year-old fort in Paramaribo. In 2007 Desire Bouterse, the former dictator, faced trial for the murders. In 2008 a military tribunal in Suriname ruled that those accused of a 1982 massacre, including the country's former dictator, must stand trial.
(AP, 3/12/07)(WSJ, 10/8/07, p.A6)(AP, 4/5/08)
1983 Dec 7, In the SF Bay Area three of Marsha Carter's (25) four boys found a pool of blood on her bed in Richmond. Her body was later discovered in the trunk of a car in West Sacramento. In 2018 a jury convicted Sherill Smothers (56), a former boyfriend, of fatally stabbing Carter. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2021 Smothers was givern a new trial as DNA evidence under the victims fingernails led to Kevin Sennett, an Army reservist living in wisled to Kevin Sennett, an Army reservist living in Wisconsin.
(SFC, 9/21/18, p.D1)(https://tinyurl.com/bh9nnp3f)(SFC, 7/23/21, p.B4)
1983 Dec 7, Edgar Graham (b.1954), member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, was shot dead by IRA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Graham)
1983 Dec 7, In Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff, killing all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 aboard the Iberia jet.
(AP, 12/7/03)
1985 Dec 7, Retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart died in Hanover, N.H., at age 70.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1987 Dec 7, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Reagan.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1987 Dec 7, A Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner crashed in California after a gunman apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots. Flight 1771, bound for San Francisco, crashed and killed all 43 people onboard. The FBI later said David Burke, a fired USAir worker, shot his former supervisor and the pilots in cockpit.
(AP, 12/7/97)(SSFC, 12/23/12, DB p.42)
1988 Dec 7, A magnitude 6.9-8.0 earthquake devastated Spitak in northern Armenia; an estimated 25,000-55,000 people died with some $14 billion in losses.
(AP, 12/7/97)(AP, 6/22/02)(www.who.int/archives/inf-pr-1997/en/pr97-08.html)
1989 Dec 7, East Germany's Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the opposition in paving the way for free elections and a revised constitution.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1990 Dec 7, As President Bush arrived in Venezuela on the last stop of his South American tour, his chief spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, warned Iraq that there was “no lessening in the threat of war," despite Iraq’s promise to release its hostages.
(AP, 12/7/00)
1991 Dec 7, Fifty years after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a visibly moved President Bush led the nation in services commemorating the anniversary.
(AP, 12/7/01)
1992 Dec 7, The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law that required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1993 Dec 7, US Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed that the government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret.
(AP, 12/7/98)
1993 Dec 7, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders suggested that the government study the impact of drug legalization.
(AP, 12/7/98)
1993 Dec 7, Colin Ferguson, a Jamaican immigrant, opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 19 in Garden City, Long Island. His lawyers pursued an unsuccessful "black-rage" defense, saying a lifetime of racial prejudice had driven Ferguson insane.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Long_Island_Rail_Road_shooting)(Econ., 11/28/20, p.25)
1994 Dec 7, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Gaza City, pledged to protect Israelis from militant extremists.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1995 Dec 7, Under Republican pressure, President Clinton reluctantly presented a seven-year balanced-budget plan that was quickly criticized by GOP lawmakers.
(AP, 12/7/00)
1995 Dec 7, Bill Gates announced Microsoft’s Internet counterattack on Netscape and the browser market.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.B1)
1995 Dec 7, A 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter's atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was presumably destroyed.
(WSJ, 1/23/96, p.A-1)(AP, 12/7/97)
1995 Dec 7, US paratrooper James N. Burmeister (21) shot and killed Jackie Burden and Michael James. He was convicted on Feb 27, 1997 of 1st degree murder and conspiracy in the hate crime and faced the death penalty. The jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of death so the judge sentenced him to 2 consecutive life terms in prison. He will have to serve at least 50 years before becoming eligible for parole. Malcolm Wright, a fellow soldier, was also charged in the murders and convicted on May 2, 1997.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1995 Dec 7, 5000 Serbs protested in Serajevo against the US brokered peace accord. They were opposed to control by the Bosnian-Croat federation.
(WSJ, 12/8/95, p.A-1)
1996 Dec 7, The space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a nearly 18-day mission marred by a jammed hatch that prevented two planned spacewalks.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1997 Dec 7, Singer Bob Dylan, actor Charlton Heston, actress Lauren Bacall, opera singer Jessye Norman and ballet master Edward Villella shared the 20th annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C.
(AP, 12/7/98)
1997 Dec 7, Republicans threatened Attorney General Janet Reno with contempt of Congress over her decision to forgo an independent counsel's investigation of White House campaign fund raising.
1997 Dec 7, A new Presidential Decision Directive was reported to replace one put into place by Pres. Reagan in 1981. It reset the guidelines for the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons would still be maintained as a deterrent.
(SFC, 12/897, p.A14)
1997 Dec 7, It was reported that some 19 sperm whales washed up along the Danish and German North Sea coasts over the last several weeks.
(SFEC, 12/797, p.A27)
1997 Dec 7, It was reported that the world’s tiger population was down to 6000, from 100,000 a century ago. 5 of 8 subspecies are left: Indian (Bengal), Sumatran, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Amur (Siberian).
(SFEC, 12/797, Par p.12)
1997 Dec 7, Three skydivers, 2 Americans and an Austrian, died while jumping to the South Pole on a trip organized by Adventure Network Int’l.
(SFC, 12/897, p.A18)
1997 Dec 7, In Israel the Histadrut labor federation declared an end to a 4-day strike by 700,000 public sector workers.
(SFC, 12/897, p.A18)
1997 Dec 7, In Serbia elections failed to elect a president with a 50% majority. Milan Milutinovic, an ally of Slobodan Milosevic received 42% and Vojislav Seselj, a former paramilitary leader, had 33%. Vuk Draskovic received 16% and threatened to call a boycott in a Dec 21 runoff.
(SFC, 12/9/97, p.A13)(SFC, 12/10/97, p.A13)
1998 Dec 7, Pres. Clinton announced the removal of Iran from the list of drug problem countries due to an energetic campaign to eliminate opium poppies.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 7, On the eve of historic hearings, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said there was a "compelling case" for impeaching President Clinton. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1998 Dec 7, South Carolina ended its participation in the antitrust case against Microsoft.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A3)
1998 Dec 7, The UN agreed to give Cambodia’s UN seat to the new government.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 7, In Chechnya a rescue attempt was made to free 4 men kidnapped Oct 3. The action led to the murder of the 4 men whose severed heads were found the next day.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Dec 7, On the secessionist Comoros island of Anjouan separatist militias broke a short cease fire and some 10 people were reported killed.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 7, Congolese rebels dismissed the tentative truce worked out in Paris by UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 7, In Russia Pres. Yeltsin left the hospital, fired several aides and returned to the hospital to recover from pneumonia.
(WSJ, 12/8/98, p.A1)
1999 Dec 7, Daniel S. Goldin, NASA administrator, acknowledged the failure of the Mars Polar Lander and planned to appoint an independent committee of experts to examine the Mars program. In 2000 it was determined that a computer signal was misread and caused breaking to stop at 130 feet above the surface.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/29/00, p.A1)
1999 Dec 7, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed suit against Napster for being a haven for music piracy.
(WSJ, 9/9/03, p.B1)
1999 Dec 7, In Germany Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won re-election as leader of the Social Democrats.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 7, In Holland a student (17) in Veghel shot and wounded a teacher and 4 fellow students in the 1st school shooting in Dutch history. The student was reported to have been upset over a romance. The student's father (35) and sister (15) were arrested 2 days later as accessories.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A15)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.D8)
2000 Dec 7, Al Gore's lawyer, David Boies, pleaded with the Florida Supreme Court to order vote recounts and revive his presidential campaign. Republican attorneys called George W. Bush the certified, rightful victor.
(WSJ, 12/6/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/7/01)
2000 Dec 7, In Texas Claude Howard Jones was executed for the Nov 14, 1989, slaying of Allen Hilzendager in Point Blank. Jones was the 40th execution this year and the 239th since 1982. Jones was executed based on a single hair as evidence from the liquor store killing. DNA analysis later found the strand of hair did not belong to Jones.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D4)(SFC, 11/12/10, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/33p23qm)
2000 Dec 7, Some 4,000 protestors clashed with police at the opening of the EU summit in Nice.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.A20)
2000 Dec 7, In Ghana presidential elections were held. Representatives for the 200-seat parliament were also chosen. Opposition candidate John Agyekum Kuffuor led Vice Pres. John Atta Mills 48-44% in the 1st round of elections. A runoff vote was planned within 3 weeks.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C18)(SFC, 12/11/00, p.F8)(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 7, In India indigenous rebels massacred 30 Hindi-speaking people in Assam state.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.T10)
2000 Dec 7, In Indonesia a separatist mob attacked a police station in Jayapura, Irian Jaya, and 2 officers were killed.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D9)
2000 Dec 7, In the Philippines the Senate began the impeachment trial of Pres. Estrada.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A12)
2001 Dec 7, Americans held services on the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2001 Dec 7, The US called to cut off discussions about enforcing a 1972 Biological Weapons Convention on the final day of a 3-week conference in Geneva. The conference sought binding measures and disbanded in chaos.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 7, The US Senate voted 65 to 33 in a procedural vote to defeat an effort to block an automatic pay raise of 3.4% ($4,900) to $150,000.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 7, In New Jersey nearly 230 teachers were ordered freed from jail after their union agreed to end the 9-day strike and go into mediation.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 7, The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station, delivering a new three-member crew to relieve a crew in place since August.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2001 Dec 7, The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 5.7 percent in November, the highest in six years.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2001 Dec 7, Jason-1, a satellite for tracking rising sea levels, was launched as a joint US and French effort. Its useful life ended in 2013.
(SFC, 7/4/13, p.D3)
2001 Dec 7, In Afghanistan Taliban soldiers fled Kandahar and left the city in chaos. Day 62: Assaults continued around Tora Bora where up to 2,000 bin Laden loyalists were positioned at a mountain redoubt. Aryana Airline made its 1st domestic flight since Oct 7 with a flight from Herat to Kabul.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A1,14)(SFC, 12/14/01, p.E6)
2001 Dec 7, David Astor (b.1912), English newspaper publisher and member of the Astor family, died. Astor had edited the Observer, Britain’s principal source of information from 1948 to 1975. His father had purchased the paper in 1911. In 2016 Jeremy Lewis authored the biography “David Astor."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Astor)(Econ, 2/27/15, p.74)
2001 Dec 7, Statistics Canada reported a jobless increase to 7.5%, the highest level since mid-1999.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 7, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Palestinian security compound in Gaza. Arafat said his forces had arrested 17 of 33 militants wanted by Israel.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 7, Russia and Nato proclaimed a commitment “to forge a new relationship" following a meeting in Brussels.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 7, In Sri Lanka Pres. Kumaratunga called on Ranil Wickremesinghe, head of the United National Party, to form a government. The UNP promised to pursue peace talks with Tamil rebels.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A6)
2002 Dec 7, Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu beat Republican Suzanne Terrell in a runoff 52-48%, despite a recent visit by Pres. Bush.
(WSJ, 12/4/02, p.A1)(AP, 12/8/02)
2002 Dec 7, Entertainment giant Vivendi Universal signed an agreement to build a Universal Studios theme park in booming Shanghai, beating much-fancied Walt Disney Co to the punch.
(Reuters, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 7, Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth along with space station voyagers Peggy Whitsun, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev.
(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 7, In Australia wildfires raging across Sydney's northern fringe blackened 250,000 acres.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 7, In Bangladesh 19 people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in near-simultaneous bomb blasts at four cinemas packed with families celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
(Reuters, 12/7/02)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A9)(AP, 12/7/03)
2002 Dec 7, In London Azra Akin, Miss Turkey, won the Miss World Pageant bringing to a close the pageant that had incited deadly rioting in Nigeria, the original site of the event.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 7, The Iraqi government presented to the rest of the world a 12,000 page declaration detailing its nuclear, chemical and biological activities and formally declaring to the UN that it has no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein grudgingly apologized to Kuwaitis for invading their country in 1990.
(AP, 12/7/02)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 7, In Kashmir 14 people, including eight Muslim rebels, were killed in fresh separatist violence, as a four-day truce announced by a hardline militant group neared its end.
(Reuters, 12/8/02)
2002 Dec 7, In Liberia civilians were killed in a government offensive on a rebel-held town. Their deaths were blamed on crossfire.
(AP, 12/9/02)
2002 Dec 7, In the Seychelles after 3 days of voting Pres. France Albert Rene's party retained control of parliament even though the main opposition party more than tripled its number of seats.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2003 Dec 7, Daniel Morcombe (13) was last seen waiting for a bus in northern Queensland. In 2011 west coast truck driver Brett Peter Cowan (41) was charged with Morcombe's abduction, murder and interfering with his corpse. Police confirmed that three bones recently found at Beerburrum State Forest belonged to Morcombe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Daniel_Morcombe)(AFP, 8/28/11)
2003 Dec 7, Grayson Perry (43), British artist, was named winner of the 20th annual Turner Prize. He decorated ceramic vases with disturbing images and texts.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.D8)
2003 Dec 7, The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, founded in 1942, was dissolved under Stephen Harper and merged into the Conservative party of Canada.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Canada)
2003 Dec 7, Tropical Storm Odette lashed the Dominican Republic with torrential rains, prompting thousands to flee their homes and killed at least 8 people before it dissipated over the Atlantic.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, A group of 160 Colombian paramilitary fighters handed over their weapons, becoming the second faction of outlawed right-wing militias to do so in less than two weeks.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Voters on the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique rejected reforms to their legislatures that opponents had criticized as a step toward independence from France.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Former Guatemala Pres. Arnoldo Aleman, dogged by corruption allegations for years, was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars from his impoverished country and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, In Indian-held Kashmir an overcrowded bus skidded off a steep mountain road and plunged 1,500 feet into a gorge, killing 23 passengers and injuring 13 others.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, In southern India Hindu-Muslim clashes broke out overnight in Hyderabad, killing at least five and injuring 27.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, Insurgents attacked a U.S. military patrol in northern Iraq, killing one soldier and wounding two.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, In Liberia government troops launched U.N.-sponsored disarmament.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 7, A Nicaraguan judge sentenced former Pres. Aleman to 20 years for diverting some $100 million in government funds to his campaigns.
(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 7, Palestinian militants rejected a comprehensive truce offer to Israel despite intense pressure from Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Egypt to sign onto a deal.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Russia held Duma elections. The pro-Kremlin United Russia party won about 36% of the vote. Ultra-nationalists and Communists each won 13%.
(AP, 12/7/03)(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 7, Saudi security forces stormed a gas station and killed one of the country's most wanted terrorist suspects and a second militant.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 7, Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth rather than endure a suspension after members in Nigeria decided to extend the southern African country's suspension from the organization of Britain and its former colonies.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2004 Dec 7, In Illinois after Babs the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo, decided to allow surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in their social family. One by one, the gorillas filed into the Tropic World building where Babs' body lay, arms outstretched. Curator Melinda Pruett Jones called it a "gorilla wake."
(AP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 7, IBM and China’s Lenovo Group planned a joint PC venture. Lenovo was expected to pay some $2 billion for a majority share of IBM’s PC business. Lenovo announced a $1.75 billion cash and stock deal to acquire a majority interest in IBM’s PC business.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A3)(SFC, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 7, Jay Van Andel (80) Amway co-founder died in Ada, Mich.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2004 Dec 7, Singer Jerry Scoggins (93), who performed "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme song to "The Beverly Hillbillies," died.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2004 Dec 7, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 7, The mayor of Albania's capital Tirana, painter Edi Rama (40), was elected "World Mayor 2004" in an Internet competition organized by a London-based NGO.
(AFP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 7, DragonMart, a 1.2km dragon-shaped mall in Dubai featuring Chinese products, opened its doors to the public as the biggest Chinese shopping mall outside of China.
(www.dragonmart.ae/HelpFAQs.html)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.78)
2004 Dec 7, The German-registered MSC Ilona was punctured during a collision night with the Panama-registered Hyundai Advance near the mouth of the Pearl River, northwest of Hong Kong. The collision of the container ships caused a huge oil spill and cleanup effort.
(AP, 12/9/04)
2004 Dec 7, A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi National Guard patrol south of Baghdad, killing three guardsmen and wounding 11.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 7, Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier and wounded four with an explosion in a booby-trapped chicken coop. An Israeli aircraft fired a retaliatory missile at armed Palestinians near Gaza City leaving 4 gunmen dead.
(AP, 12/7/04)(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 7, Libya listed three conditions under which it is prepared to drop charges against five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death on suspect charges of spreading AIDS.
(AFP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 7, Nigerian villagers lifted their blockade of three oil pumping stations in the volatile Niger Delta after energy giants Shell and ChevronTexaco agreed to discuss funding local development projects.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2005 Dec 7, In Miami, Florida, US Air Marshals shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar on suspicion of having a bomb. No bomb was found, and federal officials later concluded there was no link to terrorism. Witnesses said his wife, Anne, frantically tried to explain he was bipolar, a mental illness also known as manic-depression, and was off his medication.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine picked Rep. Menendez to serve out his Senate term. Wining the governorship let him appoint his own successor.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 7, US Congress voted to add nearly 5,000 acres of Rancho Corral de Tiera, an area between Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, to California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Congress still needed to appropriate $15 million to buy the land from the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.B1)
2005 Dec 7, A new economic report said a sustained decline will hit the U.S. housing market next year, costing the nation as many as 800,000 jobs.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Clearlake, Ca., Shannon Edmonds (31) shot and killed 2 of 3 intruders at his home. Renato Hughes Jr. (21), the 3rd intruder, was charged with 2 counts of 1st degree murder under a controversial legal theory. In 2008 Hughes was acquitted of murder by a jury in Contra Costa County. He was found guilty of 2 lesser charges, assault and burglary. The jury deadlocked on a final charge of assault causing great bodily injury. On Sep 8 Hughes was sentenced to 8 years in prison with credit for 33 months in custody.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.B8)(SFC, 8/9/08, p.B1)(SFC, 8/12/08, p.B3)(SFC, 9/9/08, p.B3)
2005 Dec 7, An Afghan court cleared an American, but convicted two Britons and an Indian of gun-smuggling charges and gave them two-year suspended sentences, following a one-day trial that one of them called a "circus." Sargon Heinrich of Rio Vista, Cal., Naveen Joshi of India and Peter Eaton and Mike Shaw, both of Britain, had been jailed since their Oct. 13 arrests.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Australia’s Treasurer Peter Costello unveiled details of the nation’s Future Fund with seed capital of $13.56 billion to cover public service pension liabilities.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 7, In Chile Gen. Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity by an appeals court, allowing his trial in the disappearance of 29 additional dissidents during his 1973-90 dictatorship.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In northern China an explosion tore through the Liuguantun coal mine in Hebei province and killed at least 91 workers. Police arrested seven people accused of responsibility for a coal mine disaster.
(AFP, 12/11/05)
2005 Dec 7, Some 25 American anti-war activists marched from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago toward the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay to protest treatment of terror suspects there.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The UN rejected an Eritrean order to expel Western members of the peacekeeping mission that monitors its tense border with Ethiopia amid concerns that war between the two countries could re-ignite.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The EU and host Canada piled pressure on the US to join an international pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the predicted chaos from global warming.
(Reuters, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, European businesses rushed to sign up for the new ".eu" Internet domain name, putting in 100,000 Web site applications by the end of its first day available.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said that German Wings, a low-cost airline, had placed a firm order for 18 Airbus 319 airliners.
(AFP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Egypt police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds trying to break through blockades of polling stations in an opposition stronghold, the final day of parliamentary elections, and a hospital official said two people were killed.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Honduras' ruling-party candidate for president conceded defeat, even though official results were still unavailable 10 days after the election because of vote-counting delays.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Iraq gunmen killed three police officers when they burst into a hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk and freed a wounded man who had been arrested for plotting to kill a judge in the Saddam Hussein trial.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Iraq gunmen kidnapped the 8-year-old son of a bodyguard for a judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car carrying Palestinian militants, killing at least one militant and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev was officially declared the winner of last weekend's election, while the opposition insisted the vote was manipulated.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The Hague war crimes tribunal sentenced Miroslav Bralo (aka Cicko), a former Bosnian Croat soldier, to 20 years in jail on eight counts of war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war in central Bosnia.
(Reuters, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Northern Ireland Chris Ward (24), a Northern Bank supervisor who claimed he aided a gang of robbers under the threat of death, was charged as a willing participant in the record Dec 20, 2004, $50 million heist.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Peru and the US completed negotiations on a free-trade agreement.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 7, In Russia an explosion, apparently caused by a natural gas leak, killed one person and injured at least five others at a Moscow apartment building.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, The governing African National Congress accepted the withdrawal of Jacob Zuma, its popular deputy president from leadership duties for the duration of his rape trial.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, Spanish authorities arrested former Gen. Ante Gotovina, the top Croatian war crimes suspect, after four years on the run. He was captured in the Canary Islands when special police agents surprised him as he dined in a luxury beach hotel.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 7, A UN court in Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's genocide convicted Paul Bisengimana, former mayor of Gikoro, for abetting the 1994 slaughter, but dropped three counts including genocide.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Thailand a 5-year-old boy became the country’s 2nd bird flu fatality in two months.
(AP, 12/9/05)
2006 Dec 7, Pres. Bush and Britain’s PM Tony Blair vowed to fight to victory in Iraq and both were skeptical that talks with Iran and Syria would be useful. President Bush gave a chilly response to the Iraq Study Group's proposals for reshaping his policy, objecting to talks with Iran and Syria, refusing to endorse a major troop withdrawal and vowing no retreat from embattled US goals in the Mideast.
(WSJ, 12/8/06, p.A1)(AP, 12/7/07)
2006 Dec 7, The US military transferred the first group of Guantanamo Bay detainees to a new maximum-security prison on the naval base.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2006 Dec 7, The 3,300-member Seminole Tribe of Florida said it was buying the Hard Rock business in a $965 million deal with Rank Group PLC, a British casino and hotel company.
(SFC, 12/8/06, p.D2)
2006 Dec 7, The Norma CDO 1 Ltd. was established as a company in the Cayman Islands with N.I.R. Group LLC of NYC as its manager. The company packaged derivatives linked to triple-B rated mortgage securities In March 2007 Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings gave Norma their seal of approval and Merrill Lynch sold Norma to investors. By October much of Norma dropped to junk status as the US mortgage market declined.
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.A1)
2006 Dec 7, Scientists at MIT reported the development of a strain of baker’s yeast that can speed ethanol production by about 50%.
(WSJ, 12/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 7, Zillow.com, led by Richard Barton, began offering US for-sale real estate listings in competition with such firms as Trulia.com and Reply Inc.
(SFC, 12/9/06, p.C1)
2006 Dec 7, Researchers said the Ebola virus may have killed more than 5,000 gorillas in West Africa (Congo-Gabon), enough to send them into extinction if people continue to hunt them.
(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Johnnie Bryan Hunt (79), founder of Arkansas-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services (1969), died.
(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.A5)
2006 Dec 7, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick (80), an unabashed apostle of Reagan era conservatism and the first woman U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, died.
(AP, 12/8/06)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.127)
2006 Dec 7, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy killed two civilians in Kandahar. Elsewhere a district chief and a senior policemen were killed by Taliban gunmen.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Armenia 3 teenagers and their grandmother set themselves on fire in Yerevan to protest what they said was authorities' inaction on investigating a relative's death, a family member said. Two of them were injured. They argued that the case was not being investigated because of discrimination against the Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group. About 50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, In northeastern Bulgaria a truck collided with a bus, sending both vehicles off a bridge into a river and killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, Gao Qinrong (51), a Chinese journalist jailed in 1998 after exposing government corruption, was released 5 years early for good behavior. He maintained that he was innocent and that he would continue trying to clear his name.
(AP, 12/12/06)(AP, 12/20/06)
2006 Dec 7, Egyptian authorities expelled two Belgians and eight French terrorist suspects, but an American and another French citizen remained in Egyptian custody.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Fiji's newly-imposed premier, Jona Senilagakali (77), admitted the army ouster of the elected government was illegal and that elections could be two years away, but said the nation did not need Western-style democracy.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, The Constitutional Court ruled Indonesia's much-criticized truth and reconciliation commission to be illegal, casting doubt on whether victims of former dictator Suharto will ever see justice.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, Ali Reza Asgari, a retired general who served in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, arrived in Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria. He had become involved in the olive business after retirement. Iranian officials later said that he disappeared on Dec 9. In March, 2009, a former German Defense Ministry official said Asgari had defected and was providing information to the West on Iran's nuclear program. Asgari allegedly told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an Israeli airstrike that targeted a site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007. In November Iranian news Web sites reported that Asgari had been abducted by Israeli agents and is now being held in Israel.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2006 Dec 7, A series of bombings and shootings killed at least 23 people in Iraq, including a 7-year-old girl and two college professors. Iraqi police found 35 bullet-riddled bodies that had been bound and blindfolded and left in different parts of the capital. A roadside bomb killed an American soldier during a joint patrol with the Iraqi army.
(AP, 12/7/06)(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 7, A Jordanian military court convicted three Syrians and one Iraqi and sentenced them to death for firing rockets at two US warships in August 2005.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev called for US troops deployed in the former Soviet nation to be stripped of diplomatic immunity after a US serviceman fatally shot a Kyrgyz civilian. The US air base said the serviceman who fatally shot a Kyrgyz truck driver had been threatened with a knife and responded as his training required.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition called for its supporters to take to the streets this weekend in a massive show of force, stepping up the pressure on the US-backed government, which has vowed not to give in to protesters.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Gunmen attacked a southern Nigerian oil installation belonging to a subsidiary of Italy's Eni SpA, taking three Italians hostage and killing another person.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, The Prosecutor General's office said Russia has opened a criminal case in the poisoning death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko. The office also said it had opened a criminal investigation into the attempted killing of Dmitry Kovtun, one of at least two Russian businessmen who met Litvinenko in London's Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1, hours before the former spy fell fatally ill.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia armed men shot and killed two guards outside a prison in the western city of Jiddah before taking cover in a residential building where they were surrounded by Saudi security forces.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Islamic militants in control of most of southern Somalia warned that war will erupt over a UN decision authorizing an African force to protect the country's virtually powerless government.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, The South African central bank raised its key lending rate by half a percentage point to 9.0%. In the wake of the repo rate increase, the country's four main commercial banks announced increases of their prime lending rates by half a point to 12.5%.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Turkey offered to open a major seaport and an airport to longtime foe Cyprus to try to keep its EU entry talks on track. The EU called the step positive but insufficient.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2007 Dec 7, US Congressional Democrats demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA had obstructed justice by destroying videotapes documenting the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Howard Krongard, the US State Department's embattled inspector general, announced his resignation. He was accused of impeding a Justice Department investigation of Blackwater Worldwide.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, US federal officials outlined a new plan on how to allocate water to California, Arizona and Nevada from the Colorado River in case of shortages.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 7, Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison for accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services company.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty in San Francisco to charges he'd lied to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, In NYC 2 window washers fell 47 stories from a Manhattan skyscraper when their scaffolding failed; Edgar Moreno was killed, but his brother, Alcides, miraculously survived.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2007 Dec 7, Afghan and NATO troops surrounded the town of Musa Qala and launched air strikes to dislodge Taliban rebels who had been in control for 10 months.
(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Aruba prosecutors' office said a judge has ordered the release of a Dutch suspect who was re-arrested last month in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Australian police said they had smashed an international cocaine smuggling ring spanning three continents and operating out of the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada. Of the total 40 people arrested, 14 Canadian and Australian nationals of Chinese and Vietnamese descent were picked up in Sydney and Melbourne over the past six months. Australian conman Peter Foster, once linked to the "Cheriegate" scandal involving the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, was jailed for money laundering. Foster, who pleaded guilty to a charge related to fraudulently obtaining 234,000 US dollars from the Bank of the Federated States of Micronesia, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.
(AFP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 7, Canada's TV watchdog blessed the launch of Vanessa, a national pay TV porn channel.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in Guyana, agreed to open up its markets to certain European goods, on the condition that entertainment workers from the region are allowed free access to Europe.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Six French nationals detained in Chad on suspicion of trying to illegally fly 103 children to Europe started a hunger strike, complaining their case was being neglected.
(Reuters, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, China said it will not consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States and other industrialized countries should take the lead in fighting climate change by embracing a less-extravagant lifestyle.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, The World Health Organization confirmed that the father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has been infected with the virus that causes the disease, saying it could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human infection.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Zagazig, Egypt, 3 students were killed and dozens injured when a fire broke inside an Al-Azhar university campus building in the Nile Delta.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, Germany's top security officials said they consider the goals of the US-based Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and will seek to ban the group.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, In Iraq’s Diyala province a female suicide bomber attacked the offices of an anti-al-Qaida group that has joined forces with the US, killing 16 people. The bomber was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party whose two sons joined al-Qaida and were killed by Iraqi security forces. A second attack at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and another of the US-backed groups killed 10 people.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Officials said swarms of desert locusts have invaded Kenya's arid northeast for the first time since 1962.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, NATO ministers pledged to keep their KFOR peace force in Kosovo at current strength as the Serbian province heads towards independence and to make more troops available as necessary to deal with any violence.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Gyude Bryant, a former president of Liberia (2003-2005), was arrested for violating the conditions of his bail while on trial on charges of embezzling $1.3 million in government funds.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, Two gunmen barged into a central Philippine town hall and killed the vice mayor, a human rights advocate who had condemned a series of killings of left-wing activists.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 7, A crane-carrying vessel collided with the Hebei Spirit, an oil tanker off of South Korea's west coast, spilling nearly 80,000 barrels of crude oil in what was believed to be South Korea's largest offshore oil leak. On Jan 21, 2008, courts indicted Samsung Heavy Industries and the owner of the tanker on charges relating to the spill.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/20/07)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2007 Dec 7, A UN court in Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide sentenced Francois Karera, a former provincial governor, to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, including helping soldiers kill refugees in a church.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2008 Dec 7, NYC police officers escorted a drunken Gap designer (29) to her East Village apartment. In 2011 a Manhattan jury acquitted two officers of rape, but found them guilty of misconduct for three unauthorized post midnight visits to her apartment.
(SFC, 5/27/11, p.A6)
2008 Dec 7, Off the coast of Cameroon at least three dozen people were missing and feared dead after a ferryboat accident. It was transporting 43 people in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 7, Former Central African Republic president Ange-Felix Patasse arrived in Bangui after 5 years in exile in Togo to participate in long-delayed peace talks in the troubled country.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, China protested strongly to France over President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama, calling it a "rude intervention" into Chinese affairs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Francois-Xavier Lalanne (81), French sculptor, died at his home in Ury. For 40 years he and his wife worked in tandem, producing some works jointly, others independently.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/arts/design/14lalanne.html)
2008 Dec 7, Ghanaians voted for a new president in a tight race between two foreign-educated lawyers hoping to lead the West African nation into an era of greater prosperity thanks to offshore oil. Two technocrats were expected to get the most votes in a filed of 8 seeking to replace incumbent Pres. John Kufuor. No candidate managed to win a majority and Nana Akufo-Addo and John Atta Mills were scheduled for a runoff on Dec 28.
(Reuters, 12/7/08)(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/11/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 7, In Greece rioters rampaged through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, hurling Molotov cocktails, burning stores and blocking city streets with flaming barricades after protests against the fatal Dec 6 police shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15) in Exarchia erupted into chaos.
(AP, 12/7/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.59)
2008 Dec 7, In Iraq a bomb hidden in an abandoned store exploded as the mayor of Baqouba was leading a tour through the city center. The blast wounded the mayor, Abdullah al-Hiali, and 34 other people. In northern Iraq Dr. Adel Hussein, freelance journalist, was pardoned by Massoud Barzani, the president of the self-ruled Kurdish region in the country's north. He had been imprisoned for 13 days for violating a public decency law by writing a story in 2007 about homosexuality. He was among 121 people pardoned by the president in advance of the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha.
(AP, 12/7/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 7, Large crowds voted in several towns in Indian Kashmir, while separatists in other areas boycotted the polls and clashed with government forces in the fourth phase of state elections in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Kenya’s PM Raila Odinga said foreign troops should prepare to intervene in Zimbabwe to end a worsening humanitarian crisis and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Kurdish rebel group declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against Turkey, calling it a "first step toward peace."
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, In southern Malaysia a bus skidded off a highway, smashed into a tree and plunged into a ditch, killing nine people and injuring 19 others.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Mexico 10 suspected drug traffickers and a soldier were killed in gunbattles in southern Guerrero state. 6 people were killed when assailants opened fire inside a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Mexican government Learjet plunged into Atlangatepec lake in central Mexico, killing two pilots in the second deadly crash in a month involving a federally owned plane.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, Gunmen blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more than 160 vehicles, including 790 Humvees, destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line. The losses possibly exceeded $10 million.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Pakistani security forces overran a militant camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, Pakistani Kashmir's main city, and seized Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged mastermind of the attacks that shook Mumbai last month. Zarar Shah, another top operational commander, and 10 others were seized at the camp run by the banned group Laskhar-e-Taiba.
(AP, 12/8/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 7, In the Philippines Abu Sayyaf and Muslim militants engaged in fierce clashes with governments troops who took over a southern village on Basilan island notorious as a hide-out for kidnappers and al-Qaida-linked rebels. At least five soldiers were killed and dozens wounded.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia nearly 3 million Muslims converged on a rocky desert hill outside Mecca to perform the ritual of forgiveness marking the climax of the annual hajj.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Thailand's main opposition party called for an emergency parliament session to prove its majority in a bid to form the next government and end months of political chaos, as loyalists of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra struggled to stay in power.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2009 Dec 7, Pres. Obama met with Turkey’s PM Recep Erdogan, who stressed the role of diplomacy in persuading Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Erdogan made clear his unwillingness to back new coercion and said he was willing to mediate negotiations.
(SFC, 12/8/09, p.A9)
2009 Dec 7, In New York a federal jury convicted Joseph Bruno, a former NY state Senate leader, on 2 counts of corruption.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, Scientists at Stanford University in California reported that they have successfully turned paper coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a "paper battery" that holds promise for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.
(Reuters, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 7, Virgin Galactic unveiled its first commercial spaceship, the VSS Enterprise, at the Mohave Air and Space Port in California. Initial trips to the edge of space were expected to cost $200,000 per person.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 7, Rick Hendricks (54), SF-based composer and steel guitar player, passed away of brain cancer as a huge gathering of the musical cohorts and many friends assembled at the Amnesia club, San Francisco's home of bluegrass and roots music, on Valencia Street.
(www.cbaontheweb.org/read.asp?messageid=39821&search)
2009 Dec 7, In Utah Susan Powell (28) was last seen at her West Valley City home as her husband, Josh Powell, took their two boys (ages 2 and 4) on a camping trip. Powell later claimed she ran off with another man. In 2012 authorities found her blood in the family home and a hand-written note expressing fear about her husband.
(SSFC, 12/27/09, p.A10)(SFC, 9/19/11, p.A4)(SFC, 3/31/12, p.A5)
2009 Dec 7, Afghan lawmakers, refusing to be a rubber stamp, demanded a full, not partial, list of President Hamid Karzai's new Cabinet, the first test of the embattled leader's commitment to clean up graft and bribery in his government. Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi 963) was found guilty of awarding a contract for a city project without competition. An Afghan court sentenced him to four years in jail and ordered him to repay more than $16,000 involved in the contract. A British soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment was killed in Nad-e Ali in southern Helmand Province. He became Britain’s 100th soldier to die in the current war.
(AP, 12/7/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 7, Brazilian authorities arrested 11 people in an alleged US work-visa scam that raked in more than $50 million from thousands of Brazilians since 2002. Some of those scammed went to the US and wound up as illegal aliens because promised jobs didn't exist.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, ITV, the British TV channel behind hit show "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!", apologized for the death of a rat during filming in Australia, as the stars who killed it faced police charges.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, Government forces in the Central African Republic attacked rebel positions near the border with Chad to prevent them from storming a key northern town. Several fighters from the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) were reported killed as well as 2 government soldiers.
(AFP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 7, In China 8 children died in a crush after someone stumbled while hundreds of children leaving their evening classes raced down the narrow stairway closest to their dormitory in Xiangxiang city, Hunan province.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Denmark the largest and most important UN climate change conference in history opened in Copenhagen, with organizers warning diplomats from 192 nations that this could be the last best chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming. This was the 15th conference of the parties to the 1992 UNFCCC in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 12/7/09)(Econ, 12/5/09, SR p.3)
2009 Dec 7, In Iran security forces and militiamen clashed with thousands of protesters shouting "death to the dictator" outside Tehran University, beating them with batons and firing tear gas on the officially designated “Student Day." Students demonstrated nationwide.
(AP, 12/7/09)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.51)
2009 Dec 7, In Iraq an explosion outside an elementary school in Sadr City, a Shiite district of Baghdad, killed at least 8 people including 6 children. Gunmen stormed a checkpoint near Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, killing five members of an anti-al-Qaida group. A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two others in southeastern Baghdad, and in the west of the capital, a bomb attached to a vehicle killed one civilian.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, Kenyan police arrested a suspected weapons smuggler with up to 100,000 bullets and an assortment of guns, a huge cache in a country with stringent gun laws.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, A Pakistani convoy embarked to Waziristan from Peshawar as a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police check point, killing 11 people.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.17)
2009 Dec 7, In Somalia hundreds of students marched in Mogadishu's streets in the first known protest against Islamic militants, as Somalia's government warned that militants are planning suicide attacks against key installations in Mogadishu.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, South Africa offered to slash the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by 2025, but in exchange wants rich nations to expand aid for poor countries to cope with climate change.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Sudan southern protesters torched offices of the ruling party after Khartoum police arrested 3 southern leaders and dozens of protesters in a crackdown against a pro-reform demonstration. Pagan Amum, Yassir Arman and Abbas Gumma from the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) were freed after a few hours.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel group, acting on its own initiative, carried out an assault in the central city of Tokat killing 7 Turkish soldiers. 3 soldiers were also wounded in the rebel ambush on a military vehicle.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 7, President Hugo Chavez said that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2010 Dec 7, Pres. Obama reached a deal with GOP leaders to extend all tax cuts in return for an extension of unemployment benefits.
(SFC, 12/8/10, p.A1)
2010 Dec 7, The New York Times reported that US officials believe the militant group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has acquired an arsenal of some 50,000 rockets and missiles, raising fears of an enlarged conflict with Israel. Iran and Syria were named as the sources.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, The three-yearly OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report said the United States has fallen from top of the class to average in world education rankings and warned of US economic losses from the trend. America came 26th in a ranking of high school math scores.
(AFP, 12/8/10)(Econ, 12/11/10, p.82)
2010 Dec 7, In California 52 Filipino hospital workers sued their employer, Delano Regional Medical Center, alleging they were the sole ethnic group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, Data released on education in California indicated that in 2009 some 37% of African American students in public schools had dropped out. The Hispanic dropout rate was 27%. The general dropout rate in SF was 9%, in Oakland it was 40%.
(SFC, 12/8/10, p.A1)
2010 Dec 7, In Connecticut the maker of Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a man who died of mouth cancer in what is believed to be the first wrongful-death settlement won from a chewing tobacco company.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange was remanded in custody until December 14 by a London court after he said he would fight extradition to Sweden where he faces rape allegations.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Elizabeth Edwards (b.1949), separated wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, died in North Carolina of cancer.
(SFC, 12/8/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 7, Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, a senior US Marine general in Afghanistan, declared the battle in the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah "essentially over."
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, John James Audubon's "Birds of America," a rare blend of art, natural history and craftsmanship, sold for more than $10.27 million at a London auction, making it the world's most expensive book.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, China hit back at the United States and its Asian allies for their refusal to talk to North Korea, saying dialogue was the only way to calm escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In central China an explosion at a coal mine killed 26 miners who were working despite an order to halt production, while a mine tunnel collapse elsewhere left four dead in the latest accidents to strike the country's mining industry.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, Hendrik Coetzee (35), an acclaimed South African outdoorsman, was dragged from his craft by a crocodile on the Lukuga River in Congo. 2 Americans watched, horrified, and paddled to safety. Coetzee was leading a kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo. In 2004 he had kayaked down the Nile, four months and 4,200 miles, from source to sea.
(AP, 12/9/10)(Econ, 1/1/11, p.78)
2010 Dec 7, The EU conceded that its previous bank stress tests were not stringent enough as it confirmed that it will start a new round in February, while the continent's strongest economies bet they can sort out the region's debt crisis without the need to top up bailout funds.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, An expert report submitted to the French foreign ministry said respected French epidemiologist Professor Renaud Piarroux conducted a study in Haiti last month and concluded the epidemic began with an imported strain of the disease that could be traced back to the Nepalese base.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Georgia said it has arrested six people, all of them Georgian citizens, suspected of being agents for Russia and accused them of staging a series of explosions, including one outside the US Embassy in the capital.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Leaders of six US-allied Gulf Arab nations, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said they were monitoring with "utmost concern" developments in Iran's disputed nuclear program and issued a thinly veiled warning to their Persian neighbor not to meddle in their internal affairs. The 2-day gathering of leaders from the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman followed the publication of leaked US diplomatic memos that revealed deeper concern among Gulf Arab leaders over Tehran's nuclear program than had previously been known.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Haiti furious supporters of an apparently eliminated candidate set fires and manned barricades in the streets of Port-au-Prince after officials announced that government protege Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat would advance to a runoff in presidential elections.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, In India a bomb hidden in a metal canister exploded in Varanasi as thousands gathered for a Hindu ceremony, killing a toddler and triggering a stampede that left many others wounded.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Jordanian computer engineer Mohammed Rateb Qteishat (33) was killed by Iraqi forces in Mosul. He was an al-Qaida operative fighting American forces in Iraq. In 2006, he was sentenced to death in absentia in his native Jordan for plotting attacks on Americans in Jordan and attempting to blow up hotels in Amman.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 7, Israel expressed disappointment with Argentina's recognition of a Palestinian state in territories Israel occupied in 1967, saying they undercut American-led efforts to create such a state through negotiations with Israel.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Israel 3 dozen top rabbis threw their support behind a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews, an indication of growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time of mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo, the man who the UN says lost the country’s presidential election, went ahead with naming his new cabinet anyway. He tapped Charles Ble Goude as minister of youth, professional education and employment. Goude was sanctioned in 2006 by both the US and UN. He has been accused of making repeated public statements advocating violence against foreigners and UN installations and personnel.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, Mexico's Defense Department said soldiers killed six assailants in a clash in the northern state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas. In Cancun police said they found the bodies of three men who had been shot to death in neighborhoods far from where UN Climate Change conference was taking place. The body of a fourth man was found in another Cancun neighborhood.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In the Netherlands a teacher (27) was arrested on suspicion of molesting dozens of very young children. The man's computers containing child pornography were seized and he later confessed to dozens of sex crimes allegedly committed over the past year and a half.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 7, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged former US Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scheme involving oil services firm Halliburton Co. during the time he served as its top executive. A Nigerian court charged Charles Okah, the brother of an alleged militant, and three other suspects with treason and terrorism over the October 1 Independence Day twin car bombings that killed 12 people.
(AP, 12/7/10)(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the decision.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a convoy carrying the top official in the restive Baluchistan province, wounding 9 people but leaving the chief minister unscathed.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia the Omma Conference magazine said in a statement posted on its website that police arrested its editor Mohammed Al-Abdul Karim at his home and took him to Hayer prison outside the capital Riyadh. In an article last week, Al-Abdul Karim predicted that Abdullah's death might cause the oil-rich kingdom to fall apart.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, South Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak promised to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbor launched last month.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Switzerland 6 world powers wrapped up two days of "substantive" talks with Iran on its contentious nuclear program, with the two sides agreeing to meet again in Istanbul next month.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2011 Dec 7, US Pres. Obama and Canada’s PM Stephen Harper announced a new bilateral accord, called Beyond the Border, regarding trade and shared border security.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.41)
2011 Dec 7, In San Francisco police cleared the Occupy SF encampment in an early morning raid. Demonstrators returned in the evening and clashed with police. A half dozen people were arrested, but police pulled back as demonstrators refused to leave Justin Herman Plaza.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 7, In Illinois a federal judge sentenced impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to 14 years in prison, giving little weight to Blagojevich's first-ever apology this morning since his arrest three years ago.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nevada 5 people were killed when a helicopter flying tourists over the Hoover Dam crashed into a mountain range bordering Lake Mead.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A11)
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Pennsylvania prosecutors abandoned their 30-year push for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther convicted in 1982 of killing police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal (58) will spend the rest of his life in prison.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A11)
2011 Dec 7, TV and film star Harry Morgan (b.1915 as Harry Bratsberg) died in Los Angeles. He had played Col. Sherman T. Potter in the sitcom MASH as well as Bill Gannon in Dragnet.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A14)
2011 Dec 7, In southern Afghanistan a minibus struck a roadside bomb, triggering an explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Argentina Czech national Karel Abelovsky (51) was nabbed for trying to board a transatlantic flight with 247 live animals including poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles packed in a bulging suitcase.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 7, Bahrain's Health Ministry said a woman (27), who was seriously hurt during a recent anti-government protest, has died of her injuries. Bahrain halted trial proceedings for over 100 athletes and dropped all charges related to their participation in street protests against the island's Sunni monarchy. It was unclear what will happen to athletes already convicted.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The Brazilian government said it will invest more than $2 billion to curb the spread of crack cocaine.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Scotland Yard said Ilir Nazmi Kumbaro (58), a former Albanian intelligence chief, is on the run after failing to attend a Dec 1 extradition hearing in Britain over charges of torture and kidnap in his homeland.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Cambodia opened the Kamchay dam, the country's largest hydropower dam to date. The $280 million dollar Chinese-funded project has destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest and farmland and attracted criticism from environmental groups.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Chinese authorities said police last week had arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178 children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, China inserted itself into the fight over oil between Sudan and its former territory South Sudan, sending a special envoy to try to break a deadlock between two rivals who often appear on the brink of renewed conflict.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Colombia a hillside loosened by heavy rains collapsed on a bus, killing five adults and a boy. Rains since Sept. 1 have caused at least 140 deaths.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In CongoDRC with 89.2% of precincts counted, Pres. Kabila had 8.3 million out of the 17.3 million votes, or 48%. Tshisekedi was trailing with 5.9 million votes, or 34%.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Egypt's military ruler swore-in a new government that he says will have more powers than its predecessor. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi promised to transfer some of his ruling military council's executive powers to PM Kamal el-Ganzouri. The Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement that it won 36 of the 56 seats awarded to individual candidates in voting which concluded on Dec 6. A member of the junta said the army would have a final say over those appointed to write a new constitution next year.
(AP, 12/7/11)(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, India’s finance minister Pranab Mukherjee confirmed that retail reform to allow foreign supermarkets into India would be indefinitely suspended.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.47)
2011 Dec 7, Iran blocked an Internet website, http://iran.usembassy.gov/, the United States was touting as a "virtual embassy," and which senior MPs slammed as an attempt to deceive the Iranian people and divide them from the government.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Iraq a series of attacks mainly targeting security forces killed at least 5 people.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israeli warplanes hit targets east of Gaza City, killing one militant and injuring another two, with the military saying they were planning to fire rockets across the border.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israel's official Holocaust memorial says it has received its largest private donation ever, a $25 million gift from US casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. He also owns a leading daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is distributed in Israel for free.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Italian police captured Michele Zagaria, one of the country’s most-wanted fugitive mobsters, arresting the last major boss of the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra, one of Italy's bloodiest mafia clans.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Japan offered a "heartfelt apology" for the systematic mistreatment of Canadian prisoners during World War Two, helping to heal ties between the two nations.
(Reuters, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The Kenyan parliament approved a plan for their troops in southern Somalia to join a 9,000 strong African Union force supporting the weak UN-backed government based in Mogadishu.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Kenya hundreds of doctors from public medical facilities marched through Nairobi to demand a larger stock of drugs in their hospitals, better equipment and better pay.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Mexico gunmen attacked an ambulance in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing the driver, two patients and a fourth person in the vehicle. Authorities reported six other slayings in addition to the ambulance attack.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nepal hundreds of Buddhists demonstrated in Katmandu to protest the appointment of Maoist party chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal to head a project to develop Lumbini, an area where Buddha was believed born.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nigeria a powerful explosion rocked the northern city of Kaduna, killing 7 people, wounding many others. A Red Cross report said two men on a motorbike had stopped in front of an auto parts shop in Kaduna just before the explosion went off. The police's anti-bomb squad had concluded that the blast was accidental.
(AFP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The US government said it is giving Paraguay more than $1 million in equipment and training to help it combat a small guerrilla band in the north of the country.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Russian authorities should annul the results of the parliamentary vote and hold a new one, as popular indignation grew over widespread allegations of election fraud. Thousands of Russians have rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the last two days, facing off against tens of thousands of police and Interior Ministry troops. Popular anger boiled over into a 3rd straight night of protests with scores arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
(AP, 12/7/11)(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 7, In South Africa an investigation commissioned by the government into the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq cleared Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe of corruption. The probe was ordered in 2006 by then president Thabo Mbeki, into what has become known in the country as "Oilgate," to look at allegations of kickbacks sourced by senior members of the ruling party from the State Oil Marketing Organization of Iraq (SOMO). The UN oil-for-food program ran from 1996 until 2003.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Sudan's ruling party approved a new coalition government, giving representation to 14 other parties but keeping the top cabinet posts.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Syria’s Pres. Assad, speaking to veteran journalist Barbara Walters in a rare interview to foreign media, said he was not responsible for the bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and individual members of the military. Assad dismissed the death toll, estimated by the UN at more than 4,000 people, saying: "Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?"
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Thailand Arisman Pongruangrong, a militant leader of Thailand's "Red Shirt" protest movement, surrendered to authorities on terrorism charges over his role in opposition rallies last year, after almost 20 months on the run.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Yemeni regime and opposition spokesmen accused each other's forces of shelling government and residential areas in the capital. The accusations come in advance of the expected declaration of a national unity government to take over from ministers allied with embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Militants linked to al-Qaida attacked an army post in the south but were driven back, leaving nine of their dead behind. One soldier was also killed in the night firefight east of Zinjibar in Abyan province.
(AP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2012 Dec 7, Belarus Pres. Lukashenko signed a decree banning some industrial workers from leaving their jobs, in an effort to stem an expodus of workers to Russia.
(SFC, 12/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 7, In Brazil Michael Misick, the former jet-setting premier of the Turks and Caicos islands, was arrested after having disappeared a couple years ago.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, In London nurse Jacintha Saldanha (46) was discovered hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe in her nurses' quarters by a colleague and a member of security staff at London's King Edward VII Hospital. She had answered the phone on Dec 4 when two Australian disc jockeys called to seek information about the former Kate Middleton, who was being treated for severe morning sickness.
(AP, 12/13/12)
2012 Dec 7, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper approved China's biggest ever foreign takeover, a $15.1 billion bid by state-controlled CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen Inc., but drew a line in the sand against future buys by state-owned enterprises. He also approved a smaller deal for a Canadian gas producer by Petronas, Malaysia’s state energy company.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.38)
2012 Dec 7, On the French island of Corsica a man was shot dead and at least 17 houses were bombed. The vacation destination is also home to criminal gangs and a simmering homegrown nationalist movement.
(AP, 12/8/12)
2012 Dec 7, Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets after midday prayers in rival rallies and marches across Cairo, as the standoff deepened over what opponents call the Islamist president's power grab, raising the specter of more violence.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Ghana voters lined up to select their next president and parliament in a ballot that is expected to mark its sixth transparent election. 8 presidential contenders included President John Dramani Mahama and his main challenger Nana Akufo-Addo.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Iran's border police confiscated over 11 tons of narcotics after fierce clashes with drug traffickers in the southeast, the biggest single consignment ever seized in Iran's war against drugs.
(AP, 12/8/12)
2012 Dec 7, A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan’s Miyagi prefecture. This was the same Japanese coast devastated by last year's massive quake and tsunami. There were no reports of deaths or serious damage.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, In Kenya a grenade thrown at worshippers leaving a mosque in a Somali neighborhood of Nairobi killed 3 people and wounded 15.
(SFC, 12/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 7, The Dutch government approved a NATO request to send two batteries of Patriot missile defense systems to Turkey, following in Germany's footsteps.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Khaled Mashaal, the exiled Hamas chief, broke into tears as he arrived in the Gaza Strip for his first-ever visit. Mashaal had left the West Bank as a child. He leads the Islamic militant movement from Qatar.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad declared Damascus International Airport a "legitimate target" in a bid to cut off regime supplies, as clashes between government troops and rebels forced the closure of the airport road for the second time this week.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived back home in Caracas after 10 days of medical treatment in Cuba.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 7, Zimbabwe's Pres. Mugabe said he would fire government ministers accused of soliciting for bribes in a bid to purge corruption from his party as loyalists met at a convention to map out a winning election strategy to end a conflict-ridden four-year-old coalition.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2013 Dec 7, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said that Afghanistan's defense minister reassured him that a security agreement with the US will be signed in a timely manner.
(AP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, A cold snap in the US led to at least 6 weather-related deaths in traffic accidents. Over 100,000 people in the Dallas area were without power as were thousands in other states.
(SSFC, 12/8/13, p.A12)
2013 Dec 7, Australia's first gay marriages were celebrated in the national capital Canberra, despite the prospect of a High Court decision ruling against the unions later this week.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, In Colombia 8 people were killed in a bombing blamed on FARC rebels currently engaged in peace talks with the government. 6 soldiers and 2 civilians died when a vehicle loaded with explosives blew up in the small town of Inza.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, An Egyptian court acquitted 155 people arrested during deadly clashes in the capital between Islamist protesters and police in October.
(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, French President Francois Hollande said France will increase its troop deployment in Central African Republic to 1,600 soldiers by this evening. The African Union agreed to increase its troops there to 6,000.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)(SSFC, 12/8/13, p.A4)
2013 Dec 7, In Bali, Indonesia, WTO leaders, ending a 4-day meeting, reached a deal to boost global trade. The Trade Facilitation Agreement was approved by the 159 member economies for the first time in nearly two decades, keeping alive the possibility that a broader agreement to create a level playing field for rich and poor countries can be reached in the future.
(AP, 12/7/13)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.64)
2013 Dec 7, In Iraq a bomb went off inside an outdoor market in the northern city of Mosul, killing two shoppers and wounding 15 others. An hour later 2 people were killed and seven others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded on a road frequently used by military convoys in Mishahda village, just north of Baghdad. Attacks nationwide killed 16 people, nine of whom were shot dead at alcohol shops in Baghdad.
(AP, 12/7/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, The Italian foreign ministry said Marcello Rizzo (55) has been kidnapped in the Niger felta of Nigeria. Rizzo was said to have disappeared several days earlier.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, Two Japanese whaling ships and a surveillance vessel left for the annual hunt in the Antarctic Sea. The three ships departed from the western port of Shimonoseki to join other ships to hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, In northern Kenya more than 10 people were killed in fighting in the town of Moyale where troops have been sent to stop a week of fighting between rival ethnic groups that has sent thousands fleeing into Ethiopia.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, Moroccan police violently suppressed a peaceful protest in the Western Sahara against a planned EU fishing accord with Rabat that covers the disputed territory's waters.
(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, North Korea freed Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old US veteran of the Korean War, after a weekslong detention.
(AP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, Pakistan's Supreme Court identified six 'missing persons' who relatives say were disappeared by the country's army from a detention center and ordered the defence ministry to produce them.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, A Palestinian boy, Wajih Wajdi Al-Ramah (15), died of a gunshot wound in the occupied West Bank. His father and two friends blamed Israeli troops guarding a nearby settlement for the shooting. The father said the boy had left a grocery store when he was shot from the nearby settlement, about 300 meters away.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, Polish authorities said icy winter storms with hurricane-force winds battering northern Europe have claimed four more lives in Poland, where some 350,000 homes remained without power. This brought the reported death toll from the storms across north Europe to 14.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 7, In northeastern Romania Chevron Oil Co. suspended exploration for shale gas after hundreds of anti-fracking protesters tore down fences.
(SSFC, 12/8/13, p.A4)
2013 Dec 7, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced the resignation of First Vice President Ali Taha. Taha was replaced by Lieutenant General Bakri Hassan Saleh.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, Syria’s largest Islamist rebel force seized arms depots belonging to the mainstream Western-backed Free Syrian Army. The Observatory said the arms had been brought across the border from Turkey and that five fighters were killed. Government aircraft pounded Raqqa, a rebel-held city in the country's northeast, killing at least 18 people including five children.
(AFP, 12/7/13)(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 7, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra ruled out a political comeback for her influential self-exiled brother and said an unpopular amnesty bill that would have allowed him to return has been scrapped.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2014 Dec 7, In northern California angry crowds hurled objects at police who responded with tear gas in a second night of clashes in Berkeley following a grand jury decision not to indict a white New York police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, Egyptian security forces raided a bath house and arrested 25 men for homosexuality, dragging them naked out of the building in downtown Cairo.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Greece a demonstration through central Athens to mark the 6th anniversary of the lethal police shooting of an unnamed teen quickly turned brutal as demonstrators damaged bus station and store fronts, and sets fire to clothing looted from a store.
(http://tinyurl.com/lur6csa)
2014 Dec 7, Israel's military said has opened 8 new illicit investigations into its Gaza conflict operations, including cases involving the fatalities of thirty Palestinians.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2014 Dec 7, Israeli warplanes struck near Damascus' international airport, as well as outside a town close to the Lebanese border.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Mexico a farmer made front pages when he immolated himself to demand the release of his father, an indigenous leader in Chiapas state arrested last year on charges stemming from demonstrations in 2011 that turned violent.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Nepal an overcrowded bus plunged off a mountain road killing at least 17 people and injuring 50 more.
(SFC, 12/9/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 7, North Korea released a report that clearly appreciated a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, which is producing an upcoming film that shows a murder plot against Pyongyang's supreme leader.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2014 Dec 7, In Pakistan a senior al Qaeda member and 3 other alleged militants were killed when a US drone attacked a home they were in.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2014 Dec 7, It was reported that Taliban commander Latif Mehsud, held under Afghan and NATO custody for some, has been handed over to Pakistan along with 3 others.
(http://tinyurl.com/o54f5a7)
2014 Dec 7, In the Philippines Typhoon Hagupit left at least 3 people dead.
(SFC, 12/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 7, Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin discussed energy collaboration with leaders of Hungary and Serbia.
(Reuters, 12/7/14)
2015 Dec 7, The United States said it has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the US P8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, US Vice President Joe Biden assured Ukraine of continuing US support and announced the release of an additional $190 million in US aid to help support reforms.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, US presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," immigrants and visitors alike, because of what he describes as hatred among "large segments of the Muslim population" toward Americans.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, Two Afghan men failed to report to maintenance training with the 81st Fighter Squadron while training with the US military at a base in south Georgia.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 7, The County of Hawaii said 119 residents and 17 visitors have been confirmed with dengue fever.
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 7, Lawyers hired by the Turkish government filed a civil suit against cleric Fethullah Gulen, a political enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, in a US court alleging human rights abuses. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 7, Thermo Fisher Scientific, a US based life sciences company, opened a new aseptic processing laboratory at its Molecular Biology Center of Excellence in Vilnius, Lithuanian capital. The new laboratory will produce Dynabeads, the magnetic beads. Coated with antibodies the magnetic beads stimulate lymphocytes, enabling the patient's cells to fight cancer and prevent metastasis. The company expects the new technology will replace conventional treatment methods to treat cancer.
(Xinhua, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bombing wounded nine people, including six policemen in the Surkh Rud district in Nangarhar province.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, In Brazil impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faced their first major hurdle with the formation of a special congressional committee that will analyze the accusations against her.
(AFP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Beijing issued its first-ever red alert for smog, urging schools to close and invoking restrictions on factories and traffic that will keep half of the city's vehicles off the roads.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Interpol agents arrested a Rwandan with a $5 million bounty on his head who is among the most wanted for the 1994 genocide. Ladislas Ntaganzwa was arrested in the eastern Congo city of Goma. Between about 14 and 18 April 1994 he is accused of substantially participating in the planning, preparation and execution of the massacre of over 20,000 Tutsis at Cyahinda Parish.
(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 7, Germany said the number of people registered as asylum-seekers this year hit 965,000 by the end of November.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, The German firm JAB Holding Co. announced a $13.9 billion acquisition of Keurig Green Mountain as part of its quest to dominate the global coffee industry. JAB Holding is the investment arm of the Reimann family, heirs to consumer goods company Joh. A. Benckisser GmbH.
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.D3)
2015 Dec 7, In eastern India a speeding train rammed into an SUV at an unmanned railroad crossing, killing all 13 people in the vehicle in Jharkhand state.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, Latvian PM Laimdota Straujuma said that she was resigning her post after political squabbles within her center-right ruling coalition and dissatisfaction about her leadership.
(Reuters, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released a video showing three men purportedly confessing to spying for the Mauritanian and French military and then one being taken out of a pick-up truck in the desert and shot in the head. The 22-minute video shows the men saying they had been spying in northern Mali since at least 2006.
(Reuters, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, A Palestinian man stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli in the West Bank city of Hebron and was then shot dead by security forces. Genadi Kaufman (41) died of his wounds on Dec 30.
(Reuters, 12/7/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Dec 7, The Kremlin said is not interested in the allegations made in a recent documentary because they do not concern the prosecutor general, but his sons. Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his team released an investigation and a documentary online last week, detailing what they described as shady deals involving sons of the prosecutor general and other senior prosecutors.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, In Russia five people were lightly injured when a grenade exploded at a bus stop in central Moscow. The hand grenade went off on Pokrovka Street, an area dotted with bars and restaurants.
(AFP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, In Somalia Abdimalik Jones, an American who had been fighting with al-Shabab, left the rebels and was arrested by Somalia's security forces in the southern port of Barawe. Jones claimed he fled al-Shabab because of rifts within the group.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 7, Syria's government accused the US-led coalition of launching airstrikes a day earlier on an army camp in Der el-Zour that killed 3 soldiers and wounded 13, which if confirmed would mark the first time US-led forces have struck troops loyal to President Bashar Assad. A US military official said the strike was from a Russian warplane.
(AP, 12/7/15)(SFC, 12/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 7, Syrian authorities released 35 opposition detainees in Homs, ahead of a deal that will lead to the departure of thousands of opposition fighters.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Eastern Tajikistan was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. State television said one person was killed ten were injured.
(AFP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Thailand's military government blocked an anti-corruption protest, detaining about three dozen students and other activists who were headed to a park honoring past kings that was allegedly built with money from shady dealings involving several senior officers.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Turkey said it would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, The UN appealed for a record $20.1 billion (18.6 billion euros) to provide aid to a surging number of people hit by conflicts and disasters around the globe.
(AFP, 12/7/15)
2016 Dec 7, A transition official said president-elect Donald Trump will nominate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next US ambassador to China, choosing a longstanding friend of Beijing after rattling the world's second-largest economy by speaking to Taiwan's president.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Time Magazine named Donald Trump as Person of the Year.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 7, In Americus, Georgia, a man fatally shot police Officer Nicholas Smarr and wounded Officer Jody Smith before fleeing an apartment complex near Georgia Southwestern State Univ. Smith died of his wounds the next day and suspect Minquell Lembrick was found dead at a home where he was hiding.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A7)(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 7, In Michigan a federal judge who ordered the state to begin a recount of Nov 8 presidential voting, ended the recount following a state court ruling that found Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no legal standing to requests another look at the ballots.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A9)
2016 Dec 7, Amazon completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will become a trend in automated shipments by air. The delivery was made to a customer near Cambridge, England.
(AFP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 7, London-based think-tank Overseas Development Institute said one third of children living in the slums of Bangladesh's capital spend more than 60 hours a week making clothes for the garment sector, well beyond the legal working limit.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Bahrain British PM Theresa May and leaders from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreed to counter Iran's "destabilizing activities," a pledge meant to calm nerves following the nuclear deal with world powers. The summit aimed to advance plans to turn the (GCC) into a Gulf Union with tighter defense coordination.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.50)
2016 Dec 7, British musician Greg Lake (b.1947) died. He had co-founded both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. ELP broke up in 1979, reunited in 1991, later disbanded again and reunited for a 2010 tour.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, Paris, France, was smothered by its worst winter pollution in a decade, with commuters enjoying free public transport and half of all cars ordered off the road to try to clear the air.
(AFP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives toughened their tone on integrating migrants, passing a resolution on tackling forced marriage and honor killings, and cracking down on dual citizenship.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Ghana held elections. President John Mahama sought a second and final term. Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party said the government has mismanaged national finances, not least revenue from oil from an offshore field operated by British company Tullow that began to flow in 2010.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Indonesia a magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked Aceh province early today, killing more than 100 people and sparking a frantic rescue effort in the rubble of dozens of collapsed and damaged buildings.
(AP, 12/7/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, Iran struck a preliminary memorandum of understanding with Royal Dutch Shell to develop prospective oil fields.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.62)
2016 Dec 7, Iraqi army troops entered another neighborhood held by the Islamic State group in the southeastern part of Mosul. Soldiers from the 9th Division took over the hospital building in the al-Salam neighborhood.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Iraq's parliament speaker said an airstrike targeting the Islamic State-held town of Qaim near the Syrian border killed and wounded "dozens" of civilians, and that he is holding the Iraqi government responsible.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Ireland a Dublin judge ordered Irish authorities to unfreeze 100 million euros ($107 million) in cash belonging to exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ruling that police had provided no evidence that the funds were illegally gained as Russia contends.
(AP, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said he would resign this evening now that Parliament has approved the 2017 national budget, a step required by the nation's president before he would let the leader step down. Pres. Mattarella had asked him to stay long enough to secure passage of the budget.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.51)
2016 Dec 7, Kazakhstan's state security service said it has detained several people suspected of stealing oil and fuel from a refinery in Aktobe and being linked to radical Islamists.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Kenya’s Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta urged medical workers to return to work saying nearly 20 people have died three days into a strike because of lack of care.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, Eastern Libyan forces said they thwarted an attempted advance on some of Libya's major oil ports, hitting a rival faction with air strikes and capturing some of its commanders.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, NATO’s top military officer said that about 150 Turkish officers have been recalled or retired from the alliance’s high command since Turkey’s July 15 failed coup.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, Netherlands said it will gradually phase out subsidizes for renewable energy and shift its climate change strategy to areas such as energy saving and carbon capture.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In northern Pakistan a plane carrying 47 people crashed on the slope of a mountain in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. There were no survivors.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)(AFP, 12/7/16)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, The CEO of Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company, said that it had agreed to sell a 19.5 percent stake to Swiss commodities giant Glencore and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Somalia soldiers loyal to the government retook control of Qandala port town from insurgents who had declared allegiance to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, In Syria rebels in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians after losing more territory including the Old City to a Syrian army offensive. The leaders of six major Western nations called for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo and condemned Russia and Iran for supporting the Syrian government.
(AFP, 12/7/16)(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 7, Thailand’s military said Muslim separatist militants have shot dead six civilians over the last 24 hours in the southern provinces of Narathiwat and Pattani.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, In northern Thailand six drug smugglers were fatally shot late today in a gunbattle when they were confronted by soldiers. 554,000 methamphetamine tablets, 30 kg (66 pounds) of heroin, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of opium, an AK-47 assault rifle and a short-barreled rifle were seized.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 7, The UN Committee against Torture called on Sri Lanka to investigate "routine torture" of detainees by security forces and rebuked its government for failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's 26-year conflict.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2017 Dec 7, US Rep. Trent Franks, R.- Arizona, said he will resign next month after revealing that he discussed surrogacy with two female staff members. Trent resigned on Dec. 8 bowing to an ultimatum from Speaker Paul Ryan.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.A4)(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A5)
2017 Dec 7, US Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announced that he would resign in the coming weeks following charges of sexual harassment and indiscretions. On Dec. 13 Lt. Gov. Tina Smith was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to fill Franken’s seat.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.A4)(SFC, 12/14/17, p.A6)
2017 Dec 7, A flight to Somalia from Louisiana reached Dakar, Senegal before sitting on the runway for 23 hours and returning to the US because the relief crew was not rested enough. Ninety-two Somalis sat bound and shackled on an airplane for nearly two days, some urinating on themselves, during the botched US deportation attempt. This was according to a lawsuit later filed in US District Court in Miami.
(AP, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 7, California joined 13 other states to sue the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for ignoring an October 1 deadline to update the nation’s map of areas with unhealthy smog levels.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.D8)
2017 Dec 7, In southern California hundreds of Los Angeles area schools shut their doors as raging wildfires wreaked havoc, forcing about 200,000 people to flee and destroying hundreds of houses. Officials closed US 101 for more than a dozen miles along the coast, cutting off a major route between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for several hours as fire charred heavy brush along lanes.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, San Francisco-based Dignity Health and Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives announced plans to merge in a deal that create one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.C1)
2017 Dec 7, Gilead Sciences of Foster City, Ca., announced plans to acquire startup Cell Design Labs for up to $587 million.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.C2)
2017 Dec 7, In Hawaii the body of Telma Boinville (51), who moved to Hawaii from Brazil in the 1990s, was found downstairs in a house on Oahu's North Shore, where she reportedly was a house cleaner for the vacation property. Her 8-year-old daughter was found upstairs uninjured and tied up. Stephen Brown (23) and Hailey Kai Dandurand (20) were soon arrested on suspicion of murder.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 7, The NYC-based Morgan Stanley financial services firm said Harold Ford Jr., a former 5-term member of Congress representing Tennessee, has been fired for conduct inconsistent with company values and in violation of company policies.
(SFC, 12/8/17, p.A4)
2017 Dec 7, The NYC Ballet confirmed that its leader Peter Martins (71) had requested and was granted a temporary leave following accusations of past sexual harassment.
(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A5)
2017 Dec 7, Bitcoin surged past $17,000 as the frenzy surrounding the virtual currency escalated just days before it starts trading on major US exchanges. Bitcoin has gained more than $5,000 in just the past two days. NiceHash, a company that mines bitcoins on behalf of customers, said it is investigating a breach that may have resulted in the theft of about $70 million worth of bitcoin.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East condemned the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as an incendiary move in a volatile region and Palestinians said Washington was abandoning its leading role as a peace mediator. The European Union and United Nations also voiced alarm at President Donald Trump's decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Australia's Parliament voted to allow same-sex marriage across the nation, following a bitter debate settled by a much-criticized government survey of voters that strongly endorsed change.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, British illustrator Quentin Blake presented the 33 first editions of classic books, with jackets specially created by leading artists, which will be auctioned to benefit London's House of Illustration museum, which he founded.
(AFP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Queen Elizabeth II formally commissioned into the British navy the UK's newest and biggest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, at a ceremony in Portsmouth.
(AFP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Congo DRC an attack in North Kivu province targeted a base of the UN's MONUSCO force, killing at least 14 UN peacekeepers from Tanzania. Five Congolese soldiers and a further 53 personnel were also injured in the worst single attack against a UN mission in recent history.
(AP, 12/7/17)(AFP, 12/9/17)(AFP, 12/15/17)
2017 Dec 7, The European Union announced that it is taking the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to court for failing to accommodate their fair share of refugees under a plan agreed to by the 28-country bloc two years ago.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, EU negotiators agreed new rules that give Brussels the power to check up on national car approval authorities and set targets for emission checks in the aftermath of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In southwestern Iran eight climbers died in an avalanche and a ninth was missing on Oshtorankouh mountain in the Zagros range.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 7, It was reported that Iraqi historian, scholar and blogger Omar Mohammed (31) has unveiled himself as Mosul Eye. Since 2014 Mosul Eye told the world what was happening in occupied Mosul. If caught, he too would be killed.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Israeli army gunfire and rubber bullets wounded at least 31 people in Palestinian protests in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Japan Nagako Tomioka (58), the head priests of the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo, was ambushed and killed with a samurai sword as she got out of her car, apparently by her brother, who then took his own life.
(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 7, In southern Nepal millions of people voted in the final phase of mostly peaceful elections for members of national and provincial assemblies.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Pakistani officials said a boat carrying dozens of pilgrims has capsized near an island in the Arabian Sea, killing 14 people. Over 30 people were missing after the boat sank near Thatta, 100 km (60 miles) east of Karachi.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Qatar's ruling emir and French Pres. Emmanuel Macron signed 12 billion euros ($14 billion) in deals during Macron's visit to Doha, including the purchase of 12 French-made Dassault Rafale fighter jets with the option of buying 36 more.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, A Thai court issued arrest warrants against five people over the discovery of a cache of weapons, including figures with links to the "Red Shirt" followers of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Police believed the weapons were hidden during the instability that led up to a coup in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was remanded in prison for at least two more months at the opening of his trial on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, Jan Egeland, a top UN humanitarian adviser for Syria, said 12 people have died awaiting evacuation from government-besieged suburbs of Damascus. Egeland said the government has refused to approve evacuations on the UN list, which has now reached 494 names.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 7, In northern Yemen Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed at least 23 civilians, including women and children in Saada.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2018 Dec 7, US Pres. Donald Trump announced his nomination of State Dept. spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next US ambassador to the UN. Trump also said he will nominate William Barr to serve as attorney general. Barr had already served as attorney general (1991-1993) under the late Pres. George H.W. Bush.
(SFC, 12/8/18, p.A7)
2018 Dec 7, In southern California CHP Officer Robert stephano (44) was arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct with two teenage girls. Investigators say he had solicited minors for sex as far back as 2010.
(SSFC, 12/9/18, p.A8)
2018 Dec 7, Court filings from prosecutors in New York and special counsel Robert Mueller's office laid out previously undisclosed contacts between Trump associates and Russian intermediaries and suggested the Kremlin aimed early on to influence Trump and his campaign by playing to both his political aspirations and his personal business interests.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, In western Afghanistan the Taliban staged a coordinated attack overnight on two Afghan army outposts in Herat province, killing 14 Afghan soldiers and taking 21 captive.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, ABC News reported that a 28-year-old Australian man will spend five months in prison for brutally killing a kangaroo in an attack filmed and posted on social media. Ricky Ian Swan was one of four men charged in September with using weapons to torture and kill two kangaroos.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, Meeting in Austria OPEC and non-OPEC countries agreed to cut oil production 1.2 million barrels a day in January for 6 months. Oil prices spiked sharply higher in response.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In northeastern Brazil at least 12 people were killed, including six policemen, in an early morning shootout between police and bank robbers on the main street in Milagres, Ceará state.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, British teenager George Duke-Cohan (19) was jailed for three years after his bogus bomb threats led to school evacuations and an airport security incident.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Former Colombian President Belisario Betancur (95) died in Bogota. He had attempted to broker peace with leftist rebels during his 1982-1986 administration.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, CongoDRC officials said authorities have arrested a Congolese colonel who failed to disclose that he had met with two UN experts just two days before the March 2017 killings of American Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zaida Catalan.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Police in Croatia said they have detained 13 people suspected of smuggling migrants who are trying to reach Western Europe through the Balkans.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In Cuba Decree 349, which was published in July, theoretically came into force. It gave government inspectors the right to shut down exhibits and performances deemed to violate Cuba's revolutionary values and to confiscate artists' belongings. The government said it would seek artists' backing for how it will be implemented, a move those who had protested against the decree hailed as a victory.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, Pete Shelley (63), the lead singer and songwriter with influential British pop punk band the "Buzzcocks", died at his home in Estonia. The band helped create the New Wave genre, fusing punk's energy with a more melodic sound.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, The head of the Czech Republic's counter-intelligence service said his agency broke a Russian spying network earlier this year and completely paralyzed its activities.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Germany's Christian Democrats elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (56) to replace Angela Merkel as party leader, a decision that moves her into pole position to succeed Europe's most influential leader as chancellor.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Rebels in Indonesia's troubled Papua province demanded that the government hold negotiations on self-determination for the province and warned of more attacks.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Mexico's Supreme Court suspended a new law that cuts public sector pay, freezing it until the tribunal has made a definitive ruling on the legislation, and dealing a blow to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 7, A Myanmar court jailed three activists for defaming the military during anti-war protests, amid growing concern about a clamp-down on civil society. Lum Zawng, Nang Pu, and Zau Jat were sentenced to six months in prison and fined $320 each..
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan said his country will no longer act as a hired gun in someone else's war, striking a note of defiance against US demands for Islamabad to do more in the battle against militancy.
(AFP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In Portugal a walkout by rail workers over pay disrupted train services amid a spate of strikes by government employees.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Qatar paid the salaries of nearly 30,000 Gazan civil servants, delighting the impoverished workers but angering some in the deeply divided Palestinian leadership who balked at the intervention of a foreign power.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Romania's President Klaus Iohannis refused to appoint two ministers, saying the government is run by a "criminal" through intermediaries.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin held Kremlin talks with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and overcome a rift over the expulsions of diplomats that have strained their traditionally friendly ties.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Prosecutors in Slovenia said they have filed charges against right-wing politician Andrej Sisko, who was shown leading a paramilitary group in a video circulating on social media.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In South Korea a former military intelligence chief was found dead in a suspected suicide. Former Defense Security Command head Lee Jae-su was being investigated by state prosecutors for allegedly ordering the illegal surveillance of families of people killed in a 2014 ferry sinking.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, South Korean prosecutors charged four people with illegally importing North Korean coal via Russia in violation of UN sanctions.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 7, Rath Rott Mony (47), a Cambodian labor activist, was arrested in Bangkok as he attempted to travel to the Netherlands with his family after helping produce a sex-trafficking documentary for the Russia Today channel in October. Cambodia has dismissed the documentary as fake.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, Turkey and the United States agreed to speed up efforts to put in place an agreement on Syria's Manbij by the end of the year.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In southern Turkey an employee fired shots in a municipality building in Cukurova, Adana province, killing two of his colleagues. The gunman was reportedly motivated by a "personal" feud between the employees.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2019 Dec 7, US Pres. Donald Trump energized an audience that numbered in the hundreds at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Florida by recounting his record on issues of importance to Jews, including an extensive riff on his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and relocate the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
(AP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad held the first official talks with Afghanistan's Taliban since President Donald Trump declared a near-certain peace deal with the insurgents dead in September. The talks were held in Qatar.
(AP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, Arkansas police Officer Stephen Carr was shot and killed inside his patrol car outside a Fayetteville police precinct. Suspect London T. Phillips (35) was shot and killed. It was later reported that Carr was shot 10 times in the head and his killer was interested in anti-law enforcement groups.
(Good Morning America, 12/8/19)(AP, 12/14/19)
2019 Dec 7, It was reported that a flesh-eating bacteria linked to the use of black tar heroin has killed at least seven people over the past two months in the San Diego area.
(SFC, 12/7/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 7, Texas sheriff’s deputy Floyd Berry (49) was arrested after police say he performed unlawful strip-searches on at least six women in 11 days. An investigation discovered that Berry had “unlawfully strip-searched" six women while on patrol in the southern portion of Bexar County between Nov. 24 and Dec. 4.
(Miami Herald, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Texas Houston police officer Sgt. Christopher Brewster (32) was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence report. Suspect Arturo Solis was arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/wy7kfxb)(SFC, 12/9/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 7, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said that an experimental cancer therapy it acquired as part of its $74 billion deal for Celgene Corp produced positive results in a clinical trial. The treatment, liso-cel, is a newer type of immunotherapy known as CAR-T cell therapy, that takes immune cells from a patient, engineers them to better recognize and attack cancer and infuses them back into the patient.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia to discuss "key issues in our bilateral relations. Roughly 1,000 Belarusians joined an unauthorized demonstration against the prospect of a closer union with Russia.
(AFP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, In France truckers blocked roads in about 10 regions to protest against a planned reduction in tax breaks on diesel for road transport, while train and metro services remained heavily disrupted by a strike against pension reform. In Paris several hundred "yellow vest" protesters continued their weekly demonstrations over the cost of living.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, German farmers set up “warning bonfires" this evening at hundreds of sites across the country in a continuation of protests against new environmental controls that have caught Berlin on the back foot.
(The Telegraph, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Hong Kong hundreds of pro-government demonstrators packed a local park to denounce what they say is a reign of terror by anti-government protesters.
(SSFC, 12/8/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 7, Indonesian authorities arrested five suspected poachers of a pair of critically endangered pregnant Sumatran tigers and seized four fetuses that had been preserved in a jar. About 400 Sumatran tigers remained because of forest destruction and poaching.
(SFC, 12/9/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 7, Tehran announced the release of Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani from the United States shortly before Washington declared American researcher Xiyue Wang was returning home. Wang (38) has spent the past three years in jail on spying charges in a prisoner swap. Soleimani, an Iranian scientist, was arrested at Chicago airport last year and convicted on charges of violating US trade sanctions.
(AFP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported that a soldier has shot three policemen to death in the country's south. The soldier was immediately arrested.
(AP, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Lebanon scores of women marched through the streets of Beirut to protest sexual harassment and bullying and demanding rights including the passing of citizenship to children of Lebanese women married to foreigners.
(AP, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Mexico four people were killed and two injured in a shooting near the National Palace, the presidential residence in the capital's historic downtown. The dead included the gunman who was killed by police.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, North Korea carried out a "very important" test at tits Sohae satellite launch site, a rocket testing ground that US officials once said Pyongyang had promised to close.
(AFP, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 7, Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering planets orbiting distant suns, urged humans to fix the climate crisis and save the Earth at a news conference in Stockholm.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 7, In Syria airstrikes on areas in the last major rebel stronghold in the northwest killed at least 20 people, including women and children, and wounded others in the Idlib region as a three-month truce crumbled.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2020 Dec 7, A US federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's attempts to ban TikTok, the latest legal defeat for the administration as it tries to wrest the popular app from its Chinese owners.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions on 14 high-level officials in China's legislature for the body's enforcement of a controversial national security law imposed on Hong Kong.
(South China Morning Post, 12/8/20)(SFC, 12/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 7, A US judge rejected a bid to decertify President-elect Joe Biden's election victory in Michigan because of alleged irregularities and to have President Donald Trump declared the winner, the latest failed legal attack on the vote.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, said the US air pollution monitoring network has fallen into disrepair after years of budget cuts and neglect, leaving tens of millions of Americans vulnerable to undetected bad air quality from events like wildfires to industrial pollution.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, California compelled much of the state to close shop and stay at home, when some of the harshest coronavirus restrictions in the United States came into effect one day after the state set a record with more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Chuck Yeager (97), the first pilot to break the sound barrier and a central figure in the book “The Right Stuff," died in Los Angeles.
(NY Times, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, California to date had 1,351,199 cases of coronavirus and 19,882 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 170,707 cases and 2,039 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 14,949,299 with the death toll at 283,703.
(sfist.com, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Airbnb, the US home rental firm, said plans to sell 51.6 million shares at between $56 and $60 apiece later this week. It had earlier targeted a price range of between $44 and $50 per share for 51.9 million shares.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals said the US Food and Drug Administration had placed a clinical hold on patient enrollment and dosing in an early-stage trial of its cancer treatment, after the death of a patient. The company said the death was unrelated to the treatment, BPX-601, but that it would work with the FDA to resume the trial.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has dosed the first participant in a mid-stage clinical trial testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, INO-4800.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Britain reported 14,718 new cases of COVID-19, down from 17,272 cases a day earlier. The United Kingdom has recorded a total of 1.738 million cases of the disease and 61,434 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Doug Scott (79), part of the first British team to climb Mount Everest in 1975, diedat his home in the Lake District in northern England.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, Chinese vaccine company Sinovac announced that it is planning to complete a new facility to double its annual vaccine production capacity to 600 million doses by the end of the year, while also securing a $500 million investment in a boost to its COVID-19 vaccine development efforts.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, It was reported that Congo’s Pres. Felix Tshisekedi has announced an end to the coalition between his party and that of former president Joseph Kabila. Kabila’s supporters make up a majority in Congo's legislature, which Tshisekedi threatened to dissolve if the crisis persists.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, An Egyptian court extended the detention of Patrick George Zaki (28), an activist and researcher who previously worked for one of the country’s most prominent rights groups. Zaki worked as a gender rights researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR, which provides him legal representation.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, The EU adopted a version of the "Magnitsky laws," which sanction foreign officials who commit human-rights abuses or steal money. The laws were named after Sergei Magnitsky, who died in 2009 in a Russian prison after trying to investigate a $230 million fraud case.
(Econ., 1/23/21, p.58)
2020 Dec 7, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged “disagreements" with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi over human rights, but said it will not prevent France from reaching economic and defense deals with the North African country, which has seen the heaviest crackdown on dissent in its modern history.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Ghana held elections. Eleven candidates were in the race to unseat President Nana Akufo-Addo (76), who is running for his second term. At least five people were killed and a dozen injured in violence related to the presidential and legislative elections. Days later official results showed that Mr Akufo-Addo obtained 51.6% of the vote, compared with 47.4% won by his main rival, ex-President John Mahama.
(BBC, 12/7/20)(AP, 12/9/20)(BBC, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 7, Hong Kong authorities arrested 8 people in connection with an unauthorized protest at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus last month.
(SFC, 12/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 7, A senior Indian health department official said one person has died and more than 400 have been hospitalized in Andhra Pradesh state due to an unidentified infection that caused many to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea. Authorities were investigating water supplies at 20 locations within the city of Eluru where the outbreak was first reported.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, In Indonesia six followers of divisive cleric Rizieq Shihab were shot and killed by police officers on the outskirts of Jakarta. The officers were tailing the men as part of an investigation.
(SFC, 12/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 7, In northern Iraq protester Adham Suliman was shot and killed during a rally late today in Chamchamal, a town in northern Sulimaniyah province. For days, hundreds have been protesting in the streets of Sulimaniyah against two main Kurdish political blocs over public salary payment delays and perceived corruption. A total of eight protesters were killed in the areas of Chamchamal, Kefri Darbendikan, Khormal and Saidsadiq.
(AP, 12/8/20)(AP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 7, Japan's agriculture ministry said bird flu has been detected in a fifth Japanese prefecture, as a wave of infections at poultry farms sparks the Japan's worst outbreak in more than four years.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Forces of a Libyan commander who rules the eastern half of the country and who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, seized the Mabrouka, a Turkish cargo vessel heading to the western town of Misrata. The Jamaica-flagged cargo vessel was let go days later after local authorities questioned its crew and had them pay a fine for violations of sailing rules in Libyan waters.
(AP, 12/8/20)(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 7, Romania's PM Ludovic Orban claimed victory in his country's Dec. 6 elections. With 95% of ballots counted, the populist, corruption-prone and fiscally reckless Social Democrat Party (PSD) had around 30% of the vote, with the reformist center-right National Liberal Party of PM Orban trailing them by about 5%. Only 33% of potential Romanian voters went to the polls. Orban resigned after voters delivered a nominal victory to the left-leaning, populist opposition party.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)(SFC, 12/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 7, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for expanded coronavirus testing and more thorough tracing as the country struggles to control its latest and largest wave of infections.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Swiss authorities said a 3,500-ton stockpile of munitions sitting in an underground depot in the Bernese Alps since World War II must be cleared for safety reasons, advancing toward a giant project that could cost billions and require the evacuation of local residents from their homes for a decade — though likely not before 2030.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Two UN agencies said that the removal of subsidies in Lebanon without guarantees to protect the vulnerable would amount to a social catastrophe.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution urging Russia to immediately withdraw all its military forces from Crimea “and end its temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine without delay." The vote was 63-17 with 62 abstentions, close to the vote on a similar resolution adopted last year.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declared victory after his allies swept congressional elections boycotted by the opposition and considered fraudulent by international critics.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, In Yemen suspected al-Qaida militants targeted a checkpoint in southern Abyan province, killing at least six Yemeni troops.
(AP, 12/8/20)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to December 8
