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Current events
of 1 August 2009 (2009-08-01)
(Saturday) |
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Current events
of 2 August 2009 (2009-08-02)
(Sunday) |
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- One person is killed and 75 injured after an outdoor stage
collapses at the Big Valley Jamboree country music
festival in Alberta, Canada. (CBC) (CNN)
- One person dies of pneumonic plague and eleven of his
relatives are quarantined in Hainan Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture. (People's Daily
Online)
- Three workers from the Russian Emergency
Ministry are killed in Ingushetia. (Kyiv Post) (RIA Novosti)
- Nine families who have been living in East Jerusalem since 1956 are evicted by
force. (Previous reports of 'two families' are wrong.) (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (BBC)
- Merpati Nusantara
Airlines Flight 9760, a Twin Otter plane
with 16 on board, disappears over Papua, Indonesia. (Japan Today) (Bernama) (AFP)
- Two newly discovered works by Mozart—a prelude and concerto movement—are performed in Salzburg, Austria. (BBC) (Associated Press) (Reuters)
- A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS is discovered in a woman from Cameroon. (MSNBC)
- Chinese police detain a
further 319 people over unrest in the Xinjiang region last month.
(Xinhua) (Press TV) (Reuters India)
- Hundreds of firefighters on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands are continuing to battle
wildfires. (The Times) (The
Telegraph)
- At least 33 people die and several are injured as a bus flips
over thrice in Zimbabwe.
(BBC)
- Around 2700 people are evacuated as 530 forest fires burn in British
Columbia, Canada. (The Age) (AFP)
- A large oil spill
occurs in Langesund, Norway, after a Chinese ship, the
Full City, drifted aground. (Stockholm News) (The Local)
- Former Iranian President
Mohammad
Khatami critizes the "show trial" of election protestors
currently underway in the country. (Press TV) (The
Independent)
- The death toll from sectarian clashes in
northern Nigeria rises to
700. (This Day) (CNN)
- The BBC obtains a photograph
showing Yusuf
Mohamed, leader of the Boko Haram sect, was alive when captured by
the Nigerian army. (BBC)
- The remains of Michael Scott
Speicher, the first United States Gulf War casualty, are located in the Al Anbar
Governorate desert. (The Irish
Times)
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Current events
of 3 August 2009 (2009-08-03)
(Monday) |
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- Bolivia becomes the
first country in the history of South America to declare the right of
indigenous people to govern themselves. (MercoPress)
- Georgia accuses Russia of trying to seize more of its territory
as the anniversary of the 2008 war between the two
countries approaches. (BBC).
- Several earthquakes, including one of 6.9
magnitude, hit northwestern Mexico. (USGS) (BBC)
- Continental Airlines Flight 128, from Rio de Janeiro to
Houston, makes an emergency
landing in Miami after severe
turbulence, injuring dozens. (New York Daily
News)
- Evidence that haggis was
invented by the English is unearthed. (IOL) (News.com.au)
- Iran is reportedly ready to
build a nuclear
weapon, according to Western intelligence services. (The Times)
- Barclays posts a
profit of £2.98bn for the first half of the year, up 8% on the same
period of 2008. (Sky News)
- Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei formally
approves the second-term presidency of Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. (BBC) (Press TV) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- Water supplies in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, China, are cut off to over
580,000 people after contaminants caused the hospitalization of
4,125 people due to gastrointestinal
illness. (Xinhua) (Associated Press)
- A town in Qinghai,
China, is sealed off after a second person dies of pneumonic
plague. (Xinhua) (The Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Somali pirates release a
Malaysian tugboat with 11
Indonesian crew after
being held for more than seven months. (Reuters) (People's Daily)
(The Straits
Times)
- The Washington Post newspaper
in the United
States reports that officials are considering a plan to move Guantánamo
Bay detainees to a prison camp. (RTÉ)
- An Australian radio
show is axed and presenter Kyle Sandilands sacked from a
television show after a lie detector stunt sees a 14-year-old girl
say she was raped so her mother
could claim Pink
tickets. (Bangkok Post)
(BBC) (CTV) (The Guardian)
(Herald Sun) (IOL)
- 185 people are killed in tribal clashes in South
Sudan. (Associated Press) (AHN) (BBC)
- The death sentences of more than 4000
prisoners in Kenya are commuted
to life
imprisonment. (BBC) (Capital FM)
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Current events
of 4 August 2009 (2009-08-04)
(Tuesday) |
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- A European Commission report finds
that more than 50% of all Europeans regularly surf the Internet, up 33% in five years. (Deutsche Welle)
- Burundian police detain
opposition leader and former journalist Alexis Sinduhije at Ruyigi in eastern Burundi, where he is accused
of hosting an illegal meeting. (IOL)
- Pro-government activist, Lina Ron,
surrenders to Venezuelan
authorities one day after attacking opposition television station
Globovisión. President Hugo Chávez
condemns the attack, saying it helps his opponents brand him as a
tyrant. (BBC) (The
Guardian)
- Amos Kenan,
Israeli columnist, painter, sculptor, playwright, novelist and
leading intellectual of Canaanism died at the age of 82 in Israel, his funeral is scheduled
for Thursday, August 6th, at a kibbutz cemetery in central Israel. (The Associated
Press)
- Former United
States President Bill Clinton arrives
in Pyongyang, North Korea, and
secures the freedom of two detained
American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. (BBC) (Yonhap) (KCNA) (Al Jazeera) (The Times) (BBC)
- Georgia
- Police in Australia
foil a major terror operation involving a suicide attack on a
military base understood to be Holsworthy Barracks on Sydney's western outskirts. (Sky News) (The Age) (The Hindu)
- 5,300 people flee flames which thousands of firefighters fight
in British
Columbia. (BBC) (Canada.com) (CBS News) (National
Post)
- Bangkok
Airways Flight PG 266 crashes into a
disused control tower at Samui Airport on the island of Ko Samui, Thailand, killing at least one person. (Bangkok Post)
(BBC) (China Daily) (RTÉ)
- A referendum on
whether to extend Mamadou Tandja's presidency for a third term is held in Niger. (BBC) (Associated Press)
- Gotland governor Marianne
Samuelsson is forced to resign after she was taped arguing that a local
businessman should be given favourable treatment. (The Local)
- UBS remains cautious about
its prospects after client withdrawals spurred by protracted U.S. tax litigation
drags the Swiss bank
into another big quarterly loss. (Reuters)
- John Yettaw,
detained in Burma for making an
uninvited visit to Aung San Suu Kyi, is taken to hospital
suffering seizures. (BBC) (AFP) (CNN)
- After a public demonstration in support, a High
Court judge in Ireland orders the release of Thomas Cook
staff, including one woman who went into labour, who were arrested
after occupying the company's premises on Grafton Street, Dublin. (The Irish
Times) (Reuters) (RTÉ) (The Times)
- About 100 Algerians and
Chinese clash in Algiers. (Reuters India) (BBC)
- Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua
orders an investigation into the recent sectarian violence in
the north of the country. (NEXT) (Reuters)
- Opposition groups in Iran call
for further protests ahead of President
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's inauguration. (Associated Press)
- The trial of a Sudanese
woman accused of public indecency after wearing trousers is adjourned for a
second time after police disperse protesters outside the court. (IOL) (Al Jazeera)
- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki commutes
the sentences of more than 4,000 death row inmates to life
imprisonment. (IOL)
- Nigerian airport
officials release an Ukranian aircraft and its crew arrested in June
with an arms cargo bound for Equatorial Guinea. (IOL)
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Current events
of 5 August 2009 (2009-08-05)
(Wednesday) |
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- The 40th Pacific Islands Forum leaders'
meeting opens in Cairns,
Australia. (RNZI)
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is officially
sworn in as President
of Iran for a second term. (Press TV) (BBC)
- The funeral of Corazon Aquino, the first
female President of an Asian country and the Philippines, takes
place in the Philippines. (CNN)
- Brazilian President Lula da Silva says
his country is “now advising the International Monetary
Fund, IMF”. (MercoPress)
- Bolivian President Evo Morales expresses concern in La Paz about the possibility that
the “Pinochetistas” in Chile and
the “fascist right” in Argentina could win the general elections in
those countries and that it "would be very serious for Latin American
democracy and for South America". (MercoPress)
- Iraq's government announces that all Bremer walls will be
removed from Baghdad within
forty days. (BBC)
- 11 men drown when a boat sinks on the Nile near Khartoum, Sudan. (IOL)
- Two United
States journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been detained
by North Korea,
return home with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. (CNN)
- Former Madagascar
leader Marc
Ravalomanana is hopeful that a relaunch of peace talks between
the country's rival factions will bring progress toward a return of
political stability. (IOL)
- A dog featured in an American film called I Love You,
Man, which was named after assassinated Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, leads to a court case as
bloggers complain that their
country has been insulted. (BBC)
- Fourteen people are shot at a women's dance
class in LA Fitness
gymnasium in Collier
Township, Pennsylvania, United States. Three women die, as does
the gunman. (BBC News)
- Eight people are injured when an Airbus A320 plane
catches fire on one of its engines at Paris-Orly Airport. The fire is
quickly brought under control. (Reuters) (BBC News)
- Three more men are charged with plotting a suicide attack on
a military base in Australia. (BBC News)
- Ireland's Health Service Executive
threatens several pharmacies with High Court injunctions if they do
not adhere with their contracts to dispense drugs. (The Irish
Times) (RTÉ)
- Part-nationalised UK lender Lloyds Banking Group reports
pre-tax losses of £4 billion for the first half of this year. (Sky News)
- Chansa Kabwela, the news editor of the The Post, goes
on trial in Zambia after being
accused of distributing obscene images. (BBC) (IOL)
- Police fire teargas at
protesters rallying in support of Lubna al-Hussein, the Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing
trousers in public. (IOL)
- A court in Moscow opens a
new trial into the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. (RIA Novosti) (BBC) (AFP)
- A Chinese teenager sent to an
internet addiction
rehabilitation camp is allegedly beaten to death by its
counsellors. (BBC) (Global
Times)
- The United
States White
House defends its decision to award its Presidential Medal of
Freedom to former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. (Irish Examiner)
(The Irish
Times) (The Sydney Morning
Herald)
- Austrian police probe
the shooting of two adolescents who allegedly broke into a
supermarket and died by police. (Deutsche Welle)
- An anthem sung by FC Schalke 04's fans draws Islamic protests because of its
reference to the Prophet Muhammad. (BBC)
- Romanians who fled Belfast following racist attacks return to Northern
Ireland. (BBC) (The Irish
Times)
- Belgian Justice Minister
Stefan de Clerck is under fire after three men with criminal
records escape from a courthouse in Brussls. The escape follows the
helicopter breakout of three inmates, including one of Belgium's
most dangerous criminals, and the ladder breakout of six more
convicts all in the space of twelve days. (Deutsche Welle)
- Former Argentine President Fernando
de la Rúa is indicted in a bribery case. (MercoPress)
- Former Lieutenant
Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands Timothy
P. Villagomez is sentenced to seven years in prison for political
corruption. (Sapain
Tribune)
- Thirty-three people are reported missing following the sinking
of the Princess Ashika ferry in Tonga. (RNZI)
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Current events
of 6 August 2009 (2009-08-06)
(Thursday) |
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- 64th anniversary
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings
- Supporters of Iran's
opposition leader, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, battle riot
police as they hoot horns and take to the streets of Tehran shouting "Death to
the dictator". (BBC)
- An Indian court sentences to
death three people for carrying out bombings that killed
more than 50 people in Mumbai
in 2003. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The New York
Times)
- Malagasy crisis
talks resume between interim leader Andry Rajoelina, ousted president Marc
Ravalomanana and former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy in Maputo, Mozambique. (IOL)
- New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key says he believes Fiji’s self-appointed Prime
Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama has given up on the
Pacific Islands Forum. (RNZI)
- Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia express concerns whilst Peru supports a planned accord by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to
allow United
States troops to use several bases. Venezuela announces trade measures against
Colombia. (BBC)
- Brazil returns 1.500
tonnes of syringes, condoms
and dirty nappies which were sent from the United Kingdom.
(MercoPress)
- Micro-blogging website Twitter is knocked offline by a distributed denial-of-service attack
targetted at a Georgian
blogger. (RTÉ) (CNN) (BBC)
- South African
photographer Neil Hartmann, accused of documenting Namibia's annual seal cull, is
detained without charge for nearly seven hours less than a month
after the arrest of two journalists. (IOL)
- A company manager claims that an 77-day occupation of a car
plant by hundreds of laid-off workers in South Korea has come to an end. (BBC)
- Japan's first jury trial for
more than 60 years ends with a man in his 70s being sentenced to 15
years in prison for murder. (ABC News) (BBC) (The Guardian)
(The
Independent) (The New York
Times)
- Iran bans all pilgrimages to
Saudi Arabia
during the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan in an attempt to contain the spread
of swine
flu. (BBC)
- Hundreds of panic-stricken people queue at hospitals in Pune, India, to be tested for swine flu following the
first death from the disease
in that country. (BBC)
- The Iraqi cabinet agrees a
draft law to restrict smoking in public places and ban tobacco advertising. (BBC)
- President Jacob Zuma names Sandile Ngcobo as
Chief Justice of South
Africa. (IOL) (Mail &
Guardian)
- Sonia
Sotomayor is confirmed by
the United States Senate as Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court, replacing David Souter. (Reuters) (CNN)
- At least nine people are killed and several inhale fumes after
a fire at a retirement home in Melle, Belgium. (BBC)
- The Presidents of Democratic
Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame, pledge to boost economic and
security ties after a rare meeting. (BBC)
- Scientists say they have decoded the entire genetic structure
of HIV-1—the main cause of AIDS in
humans. (BBC)
- News
Corp. announces its intent to start charging online customers
for news content across all its websites, including The Times, The
Sun, The Wall Street Journal,
New York
Post and Herald Sun. (BBC) (The New Zealand
Herald) (Reuters)
- At least 34 people are feared dead after their bus plunges into
the Indus River in
Pakistan. (BBC)
- The Slender-billed Vulture, one of
the world's most endangered birds and said to be rarer than the Tiger, is twice successfully bred
in Haryana and West Bengal. (BBC)
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Current events
of 7 August 2009 (2009-08-07)
(Friday) |
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- The leaders of three South African opposition parties urge President Jacob Zuma to withdraw
his statement on the nomination of Sandile Ngcobo to replace outgoing Chief Justice Pius Langa, calling it
"unconstitutional". (IOL)
- Senator Miguel Carrioza says the Congress
of Paraguay is not interested in considering the protocol for
Venezuela’s
incorporation to Mercosur.
(MercoPress)
- Mel Martinez,
U.S.
Senator from Florida,
announces his resignation. (MSNBC)
- Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the new
leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, is detained in Thailand. (BBC)
- According to both Pakistani officials and Taliban insurgents, Baitullah
Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani
Taliban, was killed in a drone strike. (New York Times)
- Shootouts leave
at least 11 dead in the escalating violence since Mexico's continuing national crackdown on the illegal
drug trade. (AP foreign-UK
Guardian)
- Ronnie Biggs,
one of the participants of the Great Train Robbery, is
freed on medical grounds. (UK Guardian)
- Bomb attacks on a Shia mosque and pilgrims at Shreikhan
village near Mosul kill at least
36 people as Iraq's largest Muslim community marks one of its
biggest feasts, gathering in Karbala to mark the birth of Muhammad
al-Mahdi. (BBC)
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Current events
of 8 August 2009 (2009-08-08)
(Saturday) |
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Current events
of 9 August 2009 (2009-08-09)
(Sunday) |
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Current events
of 10 August 2009 (2009-08-10)
(Monday) |
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- In an open letter four South African opposition leaders accuse President Jacob Zuma of abuse of
power after his naming of Sandile Ngcobo as Chief Justice. The office
of President Jacob Zuma responds by saying there was "nothing
unconstitutional" in Zuma's action. (The Times) (IOL)
- The UNASUR summit opens in
Quito to discuss issues such as
Venezuela's “ethics
responsibility” clause, Colombian military bases and the Honduras crisis. (MercoPress)
- At the funeral of Vice-President Joseph Msika, President Robert Mugabe lashes out at "racist"
western countries, saying "Zimbabwe need not be tied to any one corner of
the world, least of all, to a corner of former imperialist and
racist colonisers". (The Times) (IOL)
- During a tour of Africa,
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the United States Secretary of State,
attacks a Congolese university
student for asking about the opinion of her husband Bill Jefferson Clinton. (IOL) (New York Daily
News) (ABC News) (The
Guardian)
- Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is
sworn in for a second term vowing to deepen his socialist
“revolution”. (MercoPress)
- The interim government in Honduras agrees to accept a delegation from
the Organization of American
States to help solve the political crisis in
the country. (AFP) (CNN)
- Pope
Benedict XVI triggers a “scandalous poverty” debate in Argentina, with Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli
preparing to meet with all Catholic bishops of his area. (MercoPress)
- The head of Hyundai Asan, embarks on a mission to North Korea to attempt
to secure the release of a company worker. (BBC)
- Libya and Chad sign seven agreements to boost trade,
security and political co-operation. (IOL)
- Negotiators gather in Austria for informal talks aimed at unblocking
a 34-year-old dispute between Morocco and the Western Sahara independence movement. (IOL)
- The head of MI6 John Scarlett
denies complicity in the alleged torture of British detainee
Binyam
Mohamed, as the government rejects
calls for an inquiry. (BBC) (The Times) (The Daily
Telegraph)
- More than 350 new species—including 244 plants and 16
amphibians—are discovered in the Eastern Himalayas. (WWF) (The Daily
Telegraph) (Xinhua)
- The Fatah Palestinian faction votes
in leadership elections for the first time in 20 years. (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
- A series of bombings in Iraq
kill 48 people and injure 231 in Baghdad and Mosul in continuing violence between Shiites and
Sunnis in the area. (CNN)
- Ecuador’s Health
Minister Caroline Chang says South America’s twelve nations have
pledged to respect regional vaccine price ceilings to prevent
businesses from exploiting fear of the A/H1N1 flu pandemic. (MercoPress)
- Two Namibians and a Chinese who are suspected in
a corruption investigation involving a firm linked to the son of
China's President Hu Jintao appear in a Windhoek court asking to be released on bail.
(IOL)
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Current events
of 11 August 2009 (2009-08-11)
(Tuesday) |
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- President of Costa Rica, Óscar Arias Sánchez is diagnosed with Influenza AH1N1 but his
condition is stable, according to official reports. (ANSA) (AP) (MercoPress)
- A court ruling in Pretoria bars President Jacob Zuma from
appointing a successor to axed prosecutions chief Vusi Pikoli. (IOL)
- UNASUR leaders express
fresh concerns over Colombian plans to grant United States
troops access to its military bases but cannot agree on a
declaration to formally condemn the proposals. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez warns
that "the winds of war are beginning to blow" across the region. (MercoPress)
- Former Cuban President
Fidel Castro calls
Colombia "disloyal", saying the pending military deal with the
United States could be used to attack other Latin American
countries. (MercoPress) (Granma)
- A court in Burma finds Aung San Suu
Kyi guilty of violating the terms of her detention, and
sentences her to a further 18 months house arrest. (BBC) (The Straits
Times) (The Bangkok
Post) (Al Jazeera)
- Rescue operations continue in southern China and Taiwan in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot. (The Times) (Taiwan
News)
- Two strong earthquakes hit Asia; a 7.6 magnitude quake off the Indian Andaman Islands and a 6.5 magnitude quake in the Tokyo area of Japan, killing one and injuring dozens. (Press Association) (Associated Press) (BBC)
- A German court sentences
former Nazi
army commander Josef Scheungraber to life in prison
for his role in the murder of 10 Italians in Tuscany in 1944. (RTÉ) (BBC) (IOL) (The Sydney Morning
Herald)
- Thousands of people worship a baby born with four arms and four
legs in Ramechhap, Nepal, revering him as the
reincarnation of Ganesh. (The
Guardian)
- Kuwait foils an al
Qaeda-linked plan to bomb a United States army camp and other
"important facilities" in the country. (The Irish
Times) (Reuters) (BBC)
- Nine corpses are recovered from a Handlová coal mine following a fire and explosion in Slovakia. (Irish
Independent) The government meets in emergency session and
declares a day of mourning. (TSAR)
- Argentina’s Cabinet
Chief Aníbal Fernández comments on the suspension of the debt-ridden Primera División by saying
that football transmission should be
free because it is not only a national passion but an industry that
generates many jobs and activity. (MercoPress)
- Two members of the Russian
humanitarian organisation Let's Save the Generation are found dead
in Grozny, Chechnya. (Al Jazeera) (RIA Novosti) (Press TV)
- Police in Pakistan
register a criminal case with former President Pervez
Musharraf over the latter's decision to detain judges in 2007.
(AFP) (Indian Express)
(The
Nation)
- The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope finds
evidence of a high-speed collision between two burgeoning planets
orbiting a young star. (BBC)
- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
delays sending a new ambassador to Ukraine after criticising its "anti-Russian"
stance. (AFP) (Xinhua) (ITAR-TASS)
- A pilot flying from England to Ireland is airlifted to safety
after his two-man aircraft crashes into the Irish Sea near Tuskar Rock. (RTÉ) (The Irish
Times)
- Swedish Princess
Madeleine announces her engagement to lawyer and longterm
boyfriend Jonas Bergström, becoming the second
royal in Sweden to announce
her engagment after Crown Princess
Victoria. (Aftonbladet)
- A Russian woman is
arrested after throwing a teacup at the Mona Lisa portrait in the Louvre, Paris. (Irish
Independent) (CNN)
- A passenger plane carrying 13 people, including nine Australians, en route to Kokoda, site of a hiking trail
and famous World War
II battle, is reported missing over Papua New Guinea. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Nepenthes attenboroughii,
a new species of giant carnivorous plant, is discovered in the
highlands of the central Philippines. (BBC)
- Two Kenyans, two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian held captive since November 2008 are
freed by their Somali
kidnappers. (IOL)
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Current events
of 12 August 2009 (2009-08-12)
(Wednesday) |
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- At a meeting in Caracas,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Argentine President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner sign agreements expanding trade between their two
countries. (MercoPress)
- It is discovered that the Killer Whale creates and visits 'social
clubs'. (BBC)
- Yemeni troops, backed by
tanks and fighter aircraft, launch a major offensive on the stronghold of
Shia fighters
in northern Yemen. (Al Jazeera)
- Thirty people are killed in Warrap state in southern Sudan, in a resurgence of the nomadic
conflicts. (IOL)
- Russia's navy is deployed
to find the MV
Arctic Sea, a missing ship reportedly hijacked three
weeks ago in the Baltic
Sea. (BBC News)
- About 700 people missing in southern Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot are located
alive. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Indonesian police
say DNA tests show that a militant killed in a weekend raid was not
Noordin Mohammed Top, one of the region's
most wanted men. (BBC)
- The wreckage
of an Airlines PNG
De Havilland Twin Otter 300 plane carrying 11 passengers and 2 crew
is found near Isurava, Papua New Guinea; there are no signs
of survivors. (Al Jazeera) (RNZI)
- Gunmen shoot dead five Pakistani Muslim preachers outside a mosque in Galkayo, Somalia. (IOL) (BBC)
- Gregoire Ndahimana, a Rwandan fugitive accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, is
arrested by a joint Rwandan-Congolese military
operation. (IOL) (BBC)
- An estimated 20,000 people march through Noumea, New Caledonia, to
denounce violent clashes by USTKE trade unionists
against police. (RNZI)
- MV
Princess Ashika sinking
- German CDU politician Vera Lengsfeld
attracts controversy for displaying a photo of Angela Merkel in a
revealing gown without the authorisation of the Chancellor. (BBC)
- Lubna
al-Hussein, the Sudanese
woman facing forty lashes for wearing trousers in public, is
prevented from leaving the country for a trip to Lebanon, where she was to take part in a
televised talk-show about women's issues. (IOL) (BBC)
- Diego León Montoya Sánchez,
Norte Valle Cartel leader, pleads guilty to drug, murder, and racketeering charges.
(www.BackgroundNow.com)
- The Roman Catholic
Church is expresses "unease" and "mortification" over
revelations surrounding the private life of Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi. (BBC)
- Astronomers discover WASP-17b, the first planet that orbits in the
opposite direction to the spin of its star. (BBC)
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Current events
of 13 August 2009 (2009-08-13)
(Thursday) |
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- On an official visit to Colombia, Mexican President Felipe
Calderón offers his country’s mediation in the conflict between
that country, Ecuador and Venezuela. (MercoPress)
- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
praises Chile for its “great
image” as he meets its President Michelle
Bachelet in Santiago and says he expects the United States to
take "more drastic
actions" against the de
facto government of Roberto Micheletti. (MercoPress)
- Eleven people, including four policemen, are killed in several
separate insurgent attacks in Russia's Republic of
Dagestan. (AFP)
- At least 23 government soldiers and more than 20 Muslim extremists are killed in a
day-long clash in the southern Philippines. (France 24)
- Former Afghan President Burhanuddin
Rabbani survives an ambush
by the Taliban in the Ali Abad
District of Kunduz province, Afghanistan. (Voice of
America)
- Supporters of Guinea's
self-declared President, Captain
Moussa Dadis Camara, form a movement, Dadis Must Stay, to call
for him to be allowed to continue in office. (BBC)
- The French and German economies rebound,
helping push the Eurozone
to the brink of economic recovery in the second quarter, delivering
a further signal that the worst of the global crisis may be
coming to an end in Europe. (FT)
- The European
Union will extend its sanctions on Burma to cover members of the judiciary responsible for
the verdict in the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi. (Reuters)
- A rare signed copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf sells at the Mullock’s
auction at Ludlow Racecourse, Shropshire, for £21,000 (€24,400). (The Irish
Times) (BBC) (Evening Herald)
(The Guardian)
(The New York
Times) (Toronto
Star)
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Current events
of 14 August 2009 (2009-08-14)
(Friday) |
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- Pakistan begins its
first international freight train service from Islamabad to Istanbul. (BBC)
- Hundreds of people protest in Caracas, Venezuela, after journalists
protesting a new education law were beaten the previous day. (El Universal)
(Associated Press)
- Malagasy peace
talks break down when the armed forces reject one clause in the
peace deal. (IOL)
- The MV
Arctic Sea, missing since late July, is reportedly
found 400 nautical
miles off the Cape
Verde islands. (BBC) (The Times)
- A Canadian court orders
the government to repatriate Omar Khadr, the sole remaining Western
citizen held in Guantanamo Bay detention
camp. (The Star) (Canadian Press)
- At least 13 people have died after a bus-train collision
in Iaşi County,
Romania. (Euronews) (Le Figaro) (Mediafax)
- Paraguay’s government withdraws a bill
approving Venezuela's
incorporation to Mercosur,
fearing a defeat in Congress could hurt relations
between the two countries. (MercoPress)
- In an unexpected move, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
replaces Salah Gosh,
his country's chief of security and intelligence since the
mid-1990s, with General Mohamed Atta al-Mawla. (BBC)
- The remains of over 2,000 people discovered in Poland's largest mass grave from
World War II are
reburied in a military cemetery. (ABC News) (BBC) (Boston
Globe)
- In Montevideo, President of Mexico Felipe Calderón and President of Uruguay Tabaré
Vázquez sign a Strategic Association accord to strengthen
political dialogue and bilateral trade relations. (MercoPress)
- After launching a major offensive attack on a suspected ASG
training camp, the day-long clash in the Southern Philippines resulted in
23 government casualties and 31 casualties from the Abu Sayyaf Group. (Philippines Government
Portal)
- Iranian reformists call for a
probe of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his
ability to rule. (Associated Press) (BBC)
- An archaeological excavation uncovers the foundations of the
17th-century Smock Alley
Theatre and several artefacts from theatrical performances in
Dublin. (RTÉ)
- Lynette
Fromme, a former member of the Manson family, is
released after serving 34 years in prison. (ABC News)
- Lawyers for the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al
Megrahi, say he is abandoning his second appeal against his
conviction for the December 1988
attack as Scottish
officials consider his request to be sent home to Libya. (MSNBC)
- The United
Kingdom imposes direct rule on the Turks and Caicos Islands after
an inquiry found evidence of government
corruption. (BBC) (Turks and Caicos
Sun)
- At least 13 people are killed and at least 85 are injured in a
fierce gun battle in Gaza. (BBC)
- United
States senator Jim
Webb arrives in Burma for
talks with General Than
Shwe. (Associated Press) (Bangkok
Post)
- A University of Glasgow study
suggests Asians may view faces
differently from others. (BBC)
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Current events
of 15 August 2009 (2009-08-15)
(Saturday) |
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- Hamas police claim to have
killed Abdel-Latif Moussa, head of the Islamic group Jund Ansar
Allah in a shootout. (The New York
Times) (Petra)
- Hong Kong posts 3.3%
growth over its previous quarter, far exceeding predictions,
signaling an end to its recession. (The Straits
Times)
- Colombia claims to
have completed talks with the United States to allow US troops to use
seven of Colombia's military bases. (BBC)
- Japan expresses remorse for
its actions in World
War II on the anniversary of its 1945 defeat, but former Prime Ministers Junichiro
Koizumi and Shinzo Abe visit the Yasukuni
Shrine, a controversial
war shrine seen as a symbol of its past militarism. (The Straits
Times) (Mainichi Daily
News)
- Former President of Zambia, Frederick
Chiluba, awaits the verdict in his trial into his criminal case
for being accused of plundering the national economy during his
decade-long rule. (The Sydney Morning
Herald)
- MV Arctic
Sea
- A suicide bomb attack occurs outside the NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least seven and
injuring 100. (The Times) (Xinhua) (RTHK)
- A prison riot in
the Mexican state of Durango leaves at least 19
people dead and 20 injured. (BBC) (Reuters) (Press TV)
- Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi speaks at a news conference to say his country will
crack down on organised crime over the next four years. (The Straits
Times)
- Burma is to free detained American John Yettaw, who
appeared uninvited at Aung San Suu Kyi's home, after a
meeting with US Senator Jim
Webb. (BBC) (The Straits
Times) (The
Telegraph)
- A blaze in a tent in Kuwait, where a wedding party is held, kills 43
women and children. The ex-wife of the groom confesses to starting
the fire. (Al Jazeera)
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Current events
of 16 August 2009 (2009-08-16)
(Sunday) |
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Current events
of 17 August 2009 (2009-08-17)
(Monday) |
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Current events
of 18 August 2009 (2009-08-18)
(Tuesday) |
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Current events
of 19 August 2009 (2009-08-19)
(Wednesday) |
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Current events
of 20 August 2009 (2009-08-20)
(Thursday) |
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Current events
of 21 August 2009 (2009-08-21)
(Friday) |
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- Argentina's association football championship kicks off after
President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner puts it on the state payroll to avoid a financial
crisis. (MercoPress)
- Brazil becomes Chile's third largest trading
partner, displacing Japan,
according to recently released government trade figures. (MercoPress)
- South African
President Jacob Zuma makes a
pilgrimage to a former anti-apartheid guerrilla camp in Angola where he lays a wreath and
pays tribute to fallen comrades. (IOL)
- The presidents or heads of state of five nations, including Seretse Ian Khama of Botswana and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, along with ministers and musical
troupes gather at the cricket stadium in Oranjemund, Namibia, for a welcoming ceremony at the
conclusion of explorer Kingsley Holgate's latest expedition,
which took him through nine countries. (IOL)
- William
Calley, the former US army officer found guilty of organizing
mass
killings in the Vietnamese community of My Lai during the Vietnam War makes a public apology.(NPR)
- A missile fired from a U.S. unmanned plane
destroyed a suspected militant hide-out in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing
at least 12 people in a stronghold of a jihadi leader blamed for
attacks in Afghanistan. (Associated Press)
- Four policemen are killed after 4 suicide bombs on bicycles detonate in Grozny, Chechnya. (RIA Novosti) (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
- A North Korean
delegation arrives in South Korea to mourn the death of former
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. (Al Jazeera) (Yonhap) (China
Daily)
- 20 people are killed and 40 injured after clashes between
pro-government and Islamist
forces in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Bloomberg)
- A rockfall on a beach
in the Algarve, Portugal, kills 5
holidaymakers and injures several others. (BBC) (The Daily
Telegraph) (euronews)
- Mexico decriminalises the
use of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs for "personal use". (The Times of
India) (Al Jazeera)
- U.S. President Barack Obama condemns
Lockerbie
bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al
Megrahi's homecoming in Libya. (CNN)
- A 34-year-old Tunisian
woman from Gafsa, thought to
have been pregnant with
12 babies and whose story had attracted international attention, is
determined to have been the victim of a phantom pregnancy. (IOL)
- László Sólyom, President of Hungary was declared
unwelcome by Slovakia
and was not allowed to step on Slovak soil to attend an unveiling
of a statue depicting King Saint Stephen, first King of
Hungary. (BBC)
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Current events
of 22 August 2009 (2009-08-22)
(Saturday) |
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Current events
of 23 August 2009 (2009-08-23)
(Sunday) |
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- Tens of thousands of people in the Baltic states mark the
twentieth anniversary of the 'Baltic Way' - when two million people formed
a human chain to protest against Soviet Union rule. (Aljazeera), (Guardian), (Baltic Times).
- Tens of thousands of people protest against a new law which
gives women equal rights in marriage in Bamako, Mali.
(BBC) (Afrique en ligne)
- 26 men accused of plotting attacks on tourist resorts and ships
in the Suez Canal on
behalf of Lebanon's Hezbollah group go on trial
in an Egyptian security court.
(IOL) (BBC)
- Thousands of people are evacuated as forest fires reach the
outskirts of the Greek
capital, Athens. (Associated Press) (BBC) (Daily Mail) (RTÉ)
- North Korean
envoys meet the South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak for
the first time since he took office. (Al Jazeera) (Yonhap)
- A new picture of Fidel Castro is published in the Juventud
Rebelde state-run newspaper, apparently showing Cuba's ailing former leader in much
better health. (BBC) (CNN) (IOL) (Reuters Africa)
- Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main
rival Abdullah
Abdullah alleges fraud in the presidential
election. (Xinhua) (The Guardian)
(The Times of
India)
- Yemeni troops claim to have
killed more than 100 Shia rebels in the past two weeks,
including two leaders, but the rebels deny their leaders, Mohsen
Saleh Gawd and Salah Jorman, are dead and no independent
confirmation is made available. (BBC)
- A leak at an offshore oil rig that caused a large oil spill off the coast of
Australia "could take
weeks" to be plugged. (Associated Press) (The
Australian)
- A severe drought in northern China leaves 5 million
people short of water and
damages 8.7 million hectares of farmland. (The Straits
Times) (Press Trust of India) (China
Daily)
- England reclaim The Ashes
with a 2-1 series win over Australia.
(BBC)
- Iraq broadcasts a video of
former police chief Wissam Ali Kadhem Ibrahim, a Saddam Hussein
loyalist, confessing to orchestrating a truck
bombing at the finance ministry, the first of two bombings that
killed 95 people and maimed hundreds more in Baghdad on 19 August. (The Sydney Morning
Herald) (Straits
Times)
- ZANU-PF party members walk out of a meeting
of Zimbabwe cabinet members to review the work of a
unity government it has formed with its opponents, over charges of
electoral
fraud. (Reuters Africa)
- Honduras's Supreme Court rejects a Costa Rica-brokered deal
to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya to
power and orders his arrest if he returns. (BBC)
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Current events
of 24 August 2009 (2009-08-24)
(Monday) |
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- According to court documents, the Los Angeles
County coroner's
preliminary assessment is that Michael Jackson's death was caused by
an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.(Reuters)
- The district court in Stockholm orders BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay's
largest ISP,
Black Internet, to stop serving the website's traffic.(CNET News)
- Sweden's TeliaSonera AB
announces cash offers worth around $687.7 million in total for
shares it doesn't already own in Baltic operators Teo LT and Eesti Telekom. (The Wall Street
Journal)
- Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appears
on television for the
first time in more than a year. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Thieves kill an endangered Sumatran Tiger in an Indonesian zoo and steal
its body, leaving its intestines behind. (BBC) (Jakarta
Globe)
- Ireland's Green
Party and gay rights
organisations defend plans to introduce civil
partnerships for same-sex couples following
criticism of the move by Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. (The Irish
Times)
- China is to try 200 people
suspected of their involvement in the Ürümqi riots last month. (GBC) (Associated Press) (Press TV)
- Two mass graves containing the remains of communist soldiers dating from
the Vietnam War are
discovered in central Vietnam. (The Straits
Times) (China
Daily)
- A Malaysian Muslim woman, Kartika Sari
Dewi Shukarno, who was convicted of drinking alcohol, is granted a reprieve until after Ramadan. (Al Jazeera) (Bernama) (Xinhua) (IOL)
- Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill
defends his decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie
bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al
Megrahi. (BBC) (The Guardian)
(Al Jazeera) (Xinhua)
- Kenya's fifth national census takes place. (KBC) (BBC) (The Nation) (Associated Press)
- Captain Moussa Dadis Camara who seized
power in a military coup in Guinea, refuses to rule out
standing for President,
after previously promising not to. (BBC) (AFP) (IOL)
- At least 200 children are killed and around 900 hospitalised by
Japanese encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh, India. (BBC)
- Baitullah
Mehsud is confirmed dead by leaders of Pakistan's Taliban. (Associated Press)
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Current events
of 25 August 2009 (2009-08-25)
(Tuesday) |
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- At least 40 people are killed and 57 wounded in a car bomb
explosion in Kandahar,
southern Afghanistan. (Reuters) (BBC) (The New York Times) (Aljazeera)
- British Prime
Minister Gordon
Brown repeats that the British
Government played no role in the release from prison of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al
Megrahi, it being a matter for the Scottish
Government. (Daily Telegraph)
- The Malaysian opposition party
PAS defeats the government
party UMNO in the by-election at Permatang
Pasir, Penang. (Bernama)
- A suicide bombing in Mesker-Yurt, Chechnya, kills three police
officers. (Yahoo! news) (BBC News)
- Madagascar's
political rivals meet for a second round of talks in Maputo, Mozambique. (Reuters Africa)
- South Korea
launches its first space rocket, Naro-1, but fails to put the STSAT-2A
satellite into the planned orbit. (BBC News) (The Korea Times) (Yonhap)
- U.S. President Barack Obama nominates Ben Bernanke for his
second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. (Bloomberg)
- A bomb in Afghanistan kills four American soldiers, making 2009
the deadliest year for foreign troops since the 2001 invasion. (BBC)
- A gas explosion at a coal mine in Shanxi, China, kills at least 14 people. (China Daily) (BBC)
- The United States budget deficit for 2009 will
reach $1.6 trillion, the highest ever recorded. (BBC)
- 42 people are injured after a car bomb explodes at a crowded
restaurant with government officials in Narathiwat, southern Thailand. (Bangkok Post) (The Age)
- Syria and Iraq recall their ambassadors over a dispute
following the recent bombings in Baghdad last week. (The Daily Star Lebanon)
(Al Jazeera) (Syrian News Station)
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announces
plans to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia over the neighboring country's plan
to allow U.S.
troops access to its military bases. (CNN)
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Current events
of 26 August 2009 (2009-08-26)
(Wednesday) |
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Current events
of 27 August 2009 (2009-08-27)
(Thursday) |
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- English youth Michael Perham,
aged 17 years, 5 months, becomes the youngest person to complete a
solo circumnavigation of the world by sailboat, breaking the
previous record by two months. (Reuters)
- South African
President Jacob Zuma is to visit Zimbabwe for talks on the
power-sharing government. (The Herald) (IOL) (AFP)
- Taiwan approves a visit by
the Dalai
Lama to comfort the victims of Typhoon Morakot. (Taiwan News) (Times South
Africa) (Al Jazeera) (Xinhua)
- Mali's parliament is
to review a law giving women greater rights after thousands of Muslims protested the proposed
law. (BBC) (AFP)
- The United
Nations Special Rapporteur on indigenous
rights, James Anaya,
says the Australian
government intervention in Aboriginal areas is
"discriminatory". (The Australian)
(Xinhua) (BBC)
- Colombia files a
complaint about Venezuela with the Organization of American
States, saying the country has been interfering in its domestic
affairs. (MercoPress) (BBC)
- Thousands of people flee fighting between government troops and ethnic
rebels in northeastern Burma. (Bangkok Post)
(AFP) (Australia Network
News)
- The head of the joint United Nations–African Union force in
Darfur, Martin Agwai, says the
war in the
region is over and is now only suffering low-level disputes. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Sri Lanka dismisses
a video purporting to show violence by its Armed
Forces against Tamils. (The Guardian)
(CNN) (SLBC)
- South Korea
proposes regular reunions of families separated by the Korean War to North Korea. (Yonhap) (Times of India)
(Associated Press)
- Judges at the Supreme Court of India agree to make their financial
assets public. (BBC) (Press Trust of
India)
- The Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress passes its first
law on the People's Armed Police, giving it
statutory authority to respond to riots, terrorist attacks or other
emergencies. (China Daily) (IOL) (The New York
Times)
- Russia deploys an S-400 anti-missile defence system
close to its border with North Korea. (The Guardian)
(Tehran
Times)
- A suicide bomber hits a Pakistani security checkpoint at the main
border crossing for convoys ferrying NATO supplies into Afghanistan, killing at least 18 border
guards. (MSNBC)
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Current events
of 28 August 2009 (2009-08-28)
(Friday) |
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- A suicide bomber lightly wounds Prince Muhammad bin
Nayef, deputy interior minister
of Saudi Arabia,
in his Jeddah office. (Associated Press) (NY Times) (The Washington
Post)
- Reading
Rainbow, the third longest-running children's show on United States
public-service television network PBS, ends its 26-year run. (NPR)
- The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule has been imaged for
the first time. The physical shape of single carbon nanotubes has been
outlined before, using similar techniques, but the new
method even shows up chemical bonds. (BBC)
- The United
Nations warns that poultry farms could become infected with the H1N1
virus, following the discovery of the virus in turkeys in Chile last week. (BBC)
- According to declassified documents released this week, a survival manual
produced by Transport Canada was used by U.S. interrogators to set
limits on dousing detainees with cold water as a form of water torture. (CBC) (CTV)
- Japan's unemployment rate reaches a record high of
5.7%. (BBC)
- Iceland's Althing votes in favour of
repaying more than US$5 billion owed to the
governments of the the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as
a result of the collapse of the Icesave bank. (BBC)
- The Los Angeles County coroner rules that American
entertainer and musician Michael Jackson's death was a homicide caused by acute intoxication from the
drug propofol. (Reuters)
- Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi launches legal
action against French
weekly Nouvel Observateur, Spanish newspaper El País, and Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and has authorized
his attorneys to prepare cases against British newspapers, charging the
newspapers with libel. (Reuters)
- King Mohammed VI of Morocco is
hospitalized for five days for treatment of a rotavirus and dehydration. (Monsters &
Critics)
- Clashes between rebels and government troops in the Kokang region of
northeastern Burma continue,
with around 30,000 refugees fleeing across the border to China. (China Daily) (The Times) (Reuters)
- United
Nations diplomats confirm the United Arab Emirates seized a North Korean ship
carrying weapons to Iran, in
violation of Security Council Resolution
1874. (Financial
Times) (AFP)
- Iranian President
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad calls for opposition leaders to be punished over election protests which
occurred earlier this year. (Al Jazeera) (Press TV)
- NASA launches the Space
Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) for a resupply and
crew rotation mission to the International Space
Station. The mission will also deliver the Multi-Purpose Logistics
Module Leonardo. This is Discovery's 37th flight and will
celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first flight during the
mission. (AFP) (Chosun
Ilbo)
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Current events
of 29 August 2009 (2009-08-29)
(Saturday) |
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Current events
of 30 August 2009 (2009-08-30)
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Current events
of 31 August 2009 (2009-08-31)
(Monday) |
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