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Current events
of 1 August 2007 (2007-08-01)
(Wednesday) |
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- New Zealand
launches its first
commercially available biofuel, which consists of 90 percent petrol and 10 percent bioethanol made from
cows' milk. (AFP via The China
Post)
- The President of the United
States George
W. Bush orders senior adviser Karl Rove not to testify before a United
States Senate committee on the Dismissal of U.S.
attorneys controversy. (BBC)
- The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex lost
615 points in a single day becoming the third biggest such crash in
its history.
- The bridge carrying Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses into the Mississippi
River late in the afternoon rush hour, killing at least six. (Star-Tribune) (CNN)
- The remains of the RMS Titanic's Unknown Child, initially identified
as Eino
Viljami Panula, are re-identified by a Canadian research team and found to be those of
another young passenger, Sidney Leslie Goodwin. (AP via FOX)
- The Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) sign an agreement to bolster economic and security
relationships. It also called for negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement between ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand by the end
of 2008. (AP via Forbes)
- A French court orders the
release of two suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
(AP via IHT)
- At least 28 people die in Uttar Pradesh, India as an overcrowded boat carrying flood evacuees and aid workers
capsizes on the Rohni
River. Monsoon floods
have killed more than 150 people in India during July while at least 82 people have
died in Nepal over the past two
weeks and 38 in Bangladesh. (BBC)
- 2007
Russian North Pole expedition: A Russian expedition with the aim of claiming petroleum beneath the Arctic reaches the North Pole. (AP via CNN)
- The Accordance Front, Iraq's largest Sunni party, withdraws from the government while at least 70 people die
in three bomb attacks. (AP via Boston
Herald)
- US
crude oil prices reach a new high of $78.77 a barrel due to
declining stocks and decreased output. (Reuters)
- Russia’s gas exports monopoly Gazprom will almost halve supplies to Belarus from August 3 after failing to reach a deal
with Minsk over a $456
million energy debt. (Financial Times)
- 18 militants killed near Banda checkpoint of North
Waziristan, Pakistan
by Pakistan troops.
- The United
Kingdom Office of Fair Trading levies a
fine of £121.5 million
on British
Airways for price collusion over long distance passenger fuel
surcharges. British Airways and Korean Air later plead guilty to
conspiracies to fix the price of passenger and cargo fees in the United States with
fines of $300 million each being levied. (Wall Street Journal) (Washington Post)
- Sudan pledges support for UNAMID, a
joint United
Nations and African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. (BBC)
- Sixty-nine Chinese coal
miners are rescued from the Zhijian mine in Henan province. (AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- The US House of
Representatives passes a resolution to lift travel restrictions
on Taiwan's president and
other high-level officials visiting the United States. (AP via China Post)
- The Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez
Zapatero visits the Canary Islands to inspect the damage
caused by five days of fires on
the islands of Gran
Canaria and Tenerife.
(BBC)
- Norihiko
Akagi resigns as Japan's agriculture minister
after scandals involving him adversely affected the Liberal Democratic
Party's performance in the Japanese House
of Councillors election, 2007. (ABC News Australia)
- Sumo wrestler Asashoryu becomes the
first Yokozuna in history
to be suspended from competition. (Mainichi)
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Current events
of 2 August 2007 (2007-08-02)
(Thursday) |
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Current events
of 3 August 2007 (2007-08-03)
(Friday) |
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- The former deputy director of Augusto Pinochet's secret police, Raul Iturriaga, is captured by the police
after having entered in rebellion in June 2007 against the Chilean
state and justice Los Angeles Times.
- The Governor of California Arnold
Schwarzenegger declares a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County, California with hundreds of people ordered
to evacuate due to wildfire. (AP via Fox News)
- US President George W. Bush
signs a bill to implement recommendations of the 9-11 Commission. (AP via San Diego Union
Tribune)
- The United States Congress allocates
$250 million to rebuild the I-35W Mississippi River
bridge in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. (BBC)
- The United States Senate votes to
extend the powers of intelligence agents to eavesdrop on suspected
terrorists in a victory for President of the United
States George
W. Bush. (AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- Raids at the Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland,
California allegedly produces evidence that links the bakery to
the murder of Chauncey
Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post, and
two other people. (CNN)
- The Canadian government
agrees to make available a judicial report on the treatment of Maher Arar falsely
accused of terrorism. (ABC News Australia)
- Mexican archaeologists
announce the discovery of what is believed to be the tomb of Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl. (IHT)
- Russia says that it will
launch a criminal case against Andrei Lugovoi if
the United
Kingdom provides it with convincing evidence of Lugovoi's
involvement in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. (Reuters via ABC News
Australia)
- 50 people are feared drowned and 100 are missing after a boat
capsized in Sierra
Leone (Reuters via CNN)
- The President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe signs the Interception of
Communication Act into law, allowing the Zimbabwean government
to listen to private telephone conversations, open mail and intercept faxes and e-mail. (AFP via Africaasia)
- Two Cuban boxers, Guillermo Rigondeaux Olympic bantamweight champion
and amateur welterweight world champion Erislandi Lara, who deserted their team at
the 2007 Pan American Games are
found in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil and will
be sent back to Cuba. (CNN)
- An outbreak of foot and mouth disease at a cattle farm in
Surrey, UK is confirmed by Defra. The
unlicenced movement of all livestock throughout the UK is
prohibited. (BBC)
- George W.
Bush invites representatives of the UN and major industrialized and
developing countries to a conference to discuss a
post-Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gas emissions. (Reuters)
- 2007 South Asian floods: Monsoon floods make millions homeless in India, Nepal
and Bangladesh with a
death toll of 145 in India and 65 in Bangladesh. (BBC/AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- Turkey's two largest
cities, Ankara and Istanbul, struggle with water
shortages with Ankara rationing water to two
days on, two days off as a result of having 5% left in their reservoirs. (AP via the Guardian)
- The Supreme Court of Pakistan
frees Javed
Hashmi, the leader of the Alliance for the Restoration of
Democracy and Pakistan Muslim League faction
leader, who was jailed in 2003 for writing a letter critical of the
President of Pakistan Pervez
Musharraf. (BBC)
- Rebel groups in Darfur
hold meetings in Tanzania
jointly mediated by the United Nations and the African Union to
resolve disputes. (BBC)
- Patriarch Teoctist of the Romanian Orthodox Church is
buried in a ceremony in Bucharest led by Bartholomew I, the
leader of the Eastern Orthodox churches. (AP via IHT)
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Current events
of 4 August 2007 (2007-08-04)
(Saturday) |
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- A natural gas
pipeline between Turkey and Greece is completed allowing gas
to be sent from the Middle East to Europe. (Today's Zaman)
- An outbreak
of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey, England prompts the banning of exports of
British livestock and
other animal products. (Globe&Mail)
- A United States Army soldier Jesse
Spielman is sentenced to 110 years for his role in the rape and
murder of a 14-year-old girl in Iraq and the murder of her family. (CNN)
- The United States House
of Representatives passes the budget for the United States
Department of Defense. (Fox News)
- The United States House
of Representatives passes an energy bill which aims to expand the use of renewable
energy and reduce tax concessions to oil companies. (BBC)
- A vehicle with Florida
license plates driven by men of Middle Eastern origin is stopped by police
in Goose Creek, South
Carolina, and found to be carrying explosive
devices. (ABC)
- The United States House
of Representatives approves legislation expanding the United States Government's ability to
conduct surveillance without a court order on foreign terrorism suspects. (Reuters)
- Brazilian Defense Minister
Nelson Jobim fires
the head of the Brazilian airports authority, José
Carlos Pereira for recent problems including the crash of TAM
Linhas Aéreas Flight 3054 and hires Sergio Gaudenzi, the
President of the Brazilian Space Agency. (New York Times)
- San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds ties Hank Aaron for most
career home runs with 755,
while Alex
Rodriguez becomes the youngest player to hit 500 home runs in
Major League Baseball. (TSN), (Sports Illustrated)
- Oakland police claim that a 19-year-old man has
confessed to the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the
Oakland Post. (CNN)
- United
States forces claim that they have killed Haitham
al-Badri, the leader of al-Qaeda in Salahuddin province in
Iraq and believed to be the man
responsible for the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra in June. (Reuters)
- NASA launches the Phoenix Mars Lander which is due to land in
Planum Boreum on
the Martian northern ice cap
next year. (AP via Washington
Post)
- The Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom Gordon Brown holds an emergency COBRA
cabinet meeting to discuss an
outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a farm in Surrey, England. The foot and mouth strain has been
identified as a rare strain used at the nearby Institute for Animal
Health at Pirbright. (Reuters) (BBC)
- 2007 South Asian floods: The Ganges River system will come under further
strain from monsoon floods as 20 million are homeless
in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Almost 200 people have died. (ABC News Australia) (BBC)
- Ten pro-Taliban
militants and four Pakistan Army soldiers are killed in a clash in North Waziristan near the Afghanistan border. In
another incident, a suicide car bomber kills six in Parachinar, North West
Frontier Province in Pakistan. (BBC)
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Current events
of 5 August 2007 (2007-08-05)
(Sunday) |
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Current events
of 6 August 2007 (2007-08-06)
(Monday) |
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- Turkish President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer gave a mandate to Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to form his
second cabinet following a landslide victory for the Justice and Development
Party (Ak Parti) in the general elections. (Turkish Daily News)
- Mexico and Brazil sign an agreement on
developing technology for oil and natural gas exploration
and exploitation involving co-operation between Pemex and Petrobras. (AP via IHT)
- The Lebanese government
claim that the police have killed Abu Hureira, the second
in command of Fatah al-Islam. (AP via Forbes)
- Trinidad Chief Magistrate Sherman
McNicolls orders the extradition of three men to the United States to
face charges of involvement in a terrorist attack on John F. Kennedy Airport. (New York Times)
- United
States District Court judge
Ronald Whyte strikes down a California law aiming to
prohibit minors from
buying or renting violent videogames on First
Amendment grounds. (IGN)
- An Arizona judge rules that that a United States Border Patrol
agent Nicholas Corbett must stand trial for murder for shooting dead a Mexican immigrant. (Reuters)
- The United States Food and Drug Administration
approves Pfizer's AIDS drug Selzentry. (Reuters via National
Post)
- 50 feared dead when a boat carrying 130 passengers overturned
in the midstream of River Ganga
in Bihar, India.
- Five members of the Iraqiya coalition led by former Prime
Minister of Iraq Ayad Allawi suspend their participation in
the current Cabinet led by Nouri
al-Maliki. (New York Times), (BBC)
- NASA reports that three galaxies the size of the Milky Way are colliding
with another galaxy three times the size of the Milky Way in cluster CL0958+4702. The
eventual galaxy could be up to ten times the size of the Milky Way.
(BBC)
- A second case
of foot and mouth disease is reported in Surrey, England resulting in the culling of more cattle. (AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- Six miners are trapped in a
coal
mine 15 miles west of Huntington, Utah. A 3.9 to 4.5 (USGS) magnitude earthquake was reported
in the area around the time of the cave-in. (Reuters)
- Former Bangladesh
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina files petitions challenging
government move to try her in connection with an extortion
case.
- North Korea and
South Korea exchange
gun fire over the border, the first such incident in a year.
(CNN)
- José
Ramos-Horta, the President of East Timor,
selects Xanana
Gusmão as the Prime Minister of East Timor. (BBC)
- A truck bomb in Tal Afar in northern Iraq kills at least 25 people and destroys 10
homes. (Reuters)
- Sir Michael
Somare's National
Alliance Party forms a coalition with six partners which will be the
next government of Papua New Guinea. (Radio New Zealand)
- Flooding in Lagos, Nigeria, leads to thousands of people being
forced from their homes and six people going missing. (Reuters via Press
TV)
- International Atomic
Energy Agency inspectors examine the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. (AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- Japan marks the 62nd
anniversary of the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima. (Reuters via Washington
Post)
- A state of emergency is declared in
the Croatian city of Dubrovnik due to a forest
fire. (BBC)
- The Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert and the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas meet
to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state. (Reuters)
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Current events
of 7 August 2007 (2007-08-07)
(Tuesday) |
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- Six new species of animal are discovered in a forest west of Lake Tanganyika
in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo including a horseshoe bat, a rodent, two shrews and two species of insects. (China Daily)
- Two men are arrested in Paris for stealing Pablo Picasso paintings from the apartment of his
granddaughter. (AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- Argentina signs an
"energy security treaty" with Venezuela in Buenos Aires. (BBC)
- Barry Bonds of
the San Francisco Giants hits his
756th career home run,
passing Hank Aaron as
the all-time
leader in Major League Baseball. Bonds hits
the shot against Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik in the
fifth inning of their game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. (MLB.com), (BBC)
- Seismic activity frustrates rescue efforts
for six coal miners trapped underground near Huntington,
Utah. (AP via Houston
Chronicle)
- Two buses crash on the Panamerican
Highway in southern Peru
resulting in 17 casualties and 37 injuries. (AFP via Times of
India)
- Astronomers of the
Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet
Survey announce the discovery of TrES-4, the largest known planet in the universe, circling the star GSC 02620-00648 in the Hercules Constellation. (AP via IHT) (BBC)
- The Taliban attacks
Firebase Anaconda in Uruzgan province
but is repulsed by a joint force of Afghan fighters and United States
Army forces with 20 militants killed. (AP via CNN)
- Jordan opens its government schools to Iraqi refugees. (BBC)
- Israel evicts Jewish
settlers from Hebron. A
dozen religious members of the Israeli Army refuse to
participate and are sentenced for up to a month in a military jail.
(AFP via ABC News
Australia)
- Juan Carlos
Ramirez-Abadia, Colombian cocaine trafficker boss of the Norte
del Valle Cartel is apprehended in Brazil and faces extradition to the United States. The
US Government had offered a reward of US$5 million dollars. (Reuters)
- Malaysia bans hiring
of foreign security guards following rape and
murder of a student by a Pakistani security guard recently.
- Georgian-Russian relations: Two Russian aircraft
allegedly violate Georgia's airspace with one firing an
air-to-surface guided rocket onto Georgian territory. The rocket did
not explode and the Russian
government denies the incident took place. (civil.ge) (Reuters via CNN)
- Tests confirm a second outbreak of foot and mouth
disease in Surrey, England. Inspectors think that
there is a "strong probability" that the disease came from a
research site at Pirbright shared by Merial, a vaccine company and the Institute for Animal
Health. (The Telegraph) (BBC)
- The United
Kingdom asks United States Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice to release five
residents of the UK from the Guantanamo Bay detention
camp. (AP via FOX)
- Youths in East
Timor attack Australian Army forces and United Nations
personnel following the announcement that Xanana Gusmão
would be the next Prime Minister. (News Limited)
- Fortune magazine lists Mexican businessman Carlos Slim as the
richest man in the world ahead of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. (BBC)
- The Pakistan
Army launches a strike on a militant base in the Degan area near Miranshah in North Waziristan. (BBC)
- A storm kills at least 17
people in Vietnam with
another 12 missing. (AP via Washington
Post)
- Bangladesh
security officials arrest 24 suspected militants at Zia International Airport en
route to Kabul, Afghanistan. (Times of India)
- Chinese police arrest six
protesters calling for a free Tibet by unfurling banners on the Great Wall
of China. (AP via the
Guardian)
- Paul Calvert
announces his resignation as President of the
Australian Senate and as a Senator for Tasmania effective from next week. (AAP via Melbourne Herald
Sun)
- An earthquake of
6.4 preliminary magnitude occurs off the coast of Okinawa in
Japan. (Reuters)
- Satsuki Eda of
the Democratic Party of Japan is
chosen as the President of the House of Councillors making him
the first member of an Opposition party to hold the position. (BBC)
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1 year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the
launching of The Olympic Adventures Of Fuwa
- A British Army
helicopter crashes
near the Catterick Garrison army base in Yorkshire causing at least
two deaths. (AP via Forbes), (BBC)
- Tropical
Storm Pabuk causes deadly landslides in the Philippines before
hitting Taiwan causing power
cuts. This comes after floods
from another tropical storm kill
34 in central Vietnam. (AP via the New York
Times), (Reuters via Washington
Post)
- Street gunbattles continue for a third successive day in Port Harcourt, Nigeria as part of a criminal
turf war. (Reuters via CNN)
- Endeavour lifts off from
Kennedy Space Center for the STS-118 assembly mission of the
International Space
Station. (CNN)
- Nouri
al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, visits
Iran to seek co-operation in
reducing the level of violence. (AP via Forbes)
- Authorities tighten security on the site of the I-35W Mississippi River
bridge collapse following the arrest of 16 people for trespass and hindering
investigations. (CNN)
- Powers Fasteners, the company that supplied the epoxy blamed for the Big Dig ceiling collapse in Boston, Massachusetts is indicted on a manslaughter charge.
(AP via the
Guardian)
- A United
States raid and air strike on a Shiite militant base in Sadr City results in 32
deaths. (New York Times)
- A third outbreak of foot and mouth
disease has been discovered in southern England but a ban of sending animals to
slaughter is lifted in most of the country. (Reuters via News
Limited)
- A tornado touches down
in Brooklyn, New York just after dawn during a
violent thunderstorm that dropped near three inches of rain in the
New York City
area, crippling the city's subway and commuter rail system during
the morning rush hour. (CNN), (Reuters)
- Two fossils found in Kenya challenge existing views of
human
evolution by showing that Homo erectus and Homo habilis
lived side by side in eastern Africa for half a million years. (New York Times)
- An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 hits Jakarta, Indonesia. (Sky)
- 2007 South Asian floods: Fresh
round of floods hits Gujarat, India. People make trains at railway stations
their homes in Bihar. Many
places inaccessible by road or rail.
- In Germany the labour court of Nuremberg prohibited the strike prepared by
the Gewerkschaft
Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL), which was to be the
largest in 15 years. According to the Deutsche Bahn train company, the
strike was prohibited because of the heavy tribute which would have
been paid by the national economy (BBC).
- Two people killed and several injured as a bomb hidden in a
bicycle parked at a police station explodes at Jorhat, Assam, India
- The Pakistani
government claims to have killed at least 10 pro-Taliban militants in North
Waziristan. (BBC)
- China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region celebrates its 60th Anniversary.
Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong visits its capital, Hohhot, and participates in a
series of large celebration events. (CCTV International)
- China sends investigators to
investigate illegally-built government offices in 30 provinces. (ABC)
- The Reserve Bank of Australia
raises interest rates to 6.5%, the highest level
in Australia since 1996. (News Limited and
AAP)
- The Yangtse River
Dolphin is declared extinct. (The Scotsman) (Guardian)
- Violence erupts in the Western Highlands of Papua New
Guinea with security forces and villagers exchanging gunfire.
(ABC News Australia)
- Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce is sworn in as the new Governor of
South Australia. (AAP via the Melbourne
Age)
- Xanana
Gusmão is sworn in as the Prime Minister of East Timor with the
opposition Fretilin party boycotting the ceremony. (BBC)
- North Korea and
South Korea agree to
hold summit in Pyongyang
from August 28 through
the 30th. (Yonhap News)
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