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Today in History - July 17 : 2007 - 2017
2007 Jul 17, The US offered additional food aid to Zimbabwe to ease its famine but criticized what it said were reckless actions by Pres. Robert Mugabe to try to deal with the problem.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Jim Nicholson, Secretary of the US Veteran’s Administration abruptly resigned in the wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in the Iraq war.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 14,000 for the first time before ending the day at 13,918.22.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The California State Water Resources Control board passed a 70-year mercury cleanup plan for the SF Bay.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 17, In Virginia Michael Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was indicted by a federal grand jury along with 3 others on charges related to competitive dog fighting. In Dec. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit bulls.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A6)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Jul 17, Whole Foods launched an internal investigation after it became public that CEO John Mackey had for many years posted critical comments online against Wild Oats prior to a planned acquisition of the firm this year.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.62)
2007 Jul 17, In Sao Paulo, Brazil, a TAM airlines Airbus-320 slammed into a gas station and a TAM building and burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked runway at Congonhas airport. All 187 people aboard were killed along with 12 on the ground.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, A British court sentenced Yassin Nassari (27), a British-born Syrian cleric, to 3½ years in prison for bringing missile plans into Britain in 2006. He had led a branch of the Islamic Society at the Univ. of Westminster. Nassari served just over seven months of his sentence.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.61)(
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/28/terror.release)
2007 Jul 17, Cambodia's government issued a directive preventing Christians from promoting their religion in public places, or using money or other means to persuade people to convert.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A foreman from a kiln in north China where workers were beaten and forced to work 18-hour days was sentenced to life in jail and another man was sentenced to death for the beating death of a laborer. A total of 29 people were convicted in seven different courts in Shanxi for their roles in the slavery scandal.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, An international think-tank said China's smog-choked cities and contaminated waterways are leaving many people sick and unable to work, in turn fomenting unrest and threatening the country's economic growth.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, It was reported that the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP estimated that the cereal deficit for East Timor this year and next will reach 86,364 tons. With commercial imports anticipated at 71,000 tons, the shortfall needs to be filled through food assistance.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Lawmakers loyal to anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they are ending a nearly five-week boycott of parliament sessions after officials accepted their demands for rebuilding a Shiite shrine damaged by bombings. In eastern Baghdad a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army patrol in Zayouna, a mostly Shiite area, killing 10 people including six civilians. The bodies of two security guards were found in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, two days after they were kidnapped from the office of a cell phone company where they worked. 29 members of a Shiite tribe were massacred overnight in Diyala province when dozens of suspected Sunni gunmen raided their village near Muqdadiyah. The dead included four women. 3 American soldiers were killed in separate bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 17, In Lebanon militants continued to resist the army's advance. Security officials said Army troops are making "significant" gains in their long-running battle against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians have been killed in fighting since May 20.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Libya's foreign minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV have been commuted to life in prison. The ruling came after the families of the children each received $1 million and agreed to drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Najib Razak, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said Malaysia is an Islamic state and not a secular one, while carefully assuring members of minority faiths that their rights will be protected. More than 60% of Malaysia's 27 million people are Muslim Malays and Islam is the official religion under the country's constitution. But while the constitution defines the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also guarantees freedom of religion.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a key oil supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's Ogoniland region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has affected the company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six villages whose residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A suicide bomber killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, hours after pro-Taliban militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. An apparent suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 16 people and injured 44 at a rally where the former chief justice was scheduled to speak.
(SFC, 7/18/07, p.A13)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 17, Russia vowed a "targeted and appropriate" response to Britain's expulsion of four diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the radiation poisoning death of a former KGB officer.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad was sworn in for a 2nd, seven-year term in office.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern Thailand twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other people, as the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In western Ukraine a train carrying yellow phosphorus derailed, releasing a cloud of toxic gas into the air over 14 villages. 20 people were hospitalized and hundreds evacuated.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2008 Jul 17, Kay Ryan (b.1945) of Fairfax, Ca., was named the 16th poet laureate of the US. She was selected by James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, The US Treasury moved to freeze assets of four Algerians it said were leaders of an al Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for deadly bombings in Algeria last month.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, The US government lifted a salmonella warning on tomatoes, but still warned caution on fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, It was reported that the US debt amounted to $455,000 per household. By September the national debt reached $10 trillion and obliged the national debt clock in New York’s Times Square to move its dollar sign to make room.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.A10)(Econ, 10/9/10, SR p.6)
2008 Jul 17, Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), led a global day of action targeting KKR-owned sites in 25 countries, calling for an end to favorable tax treatment of private equity.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.70)
2008 Jul 17, California became the first US state to approve green building standards.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 17, In western Afghanistan US Special Forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a raid on a militant cell, killing 15 insurgents while freeing 15 hostages in Herat province. Taliban militants attacked a convoy carrying supplies for NATO forces in Zabul. A following gunbattle killed an Afghan security worker and wounded five.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was arrested by Afghan police, who found recipes for explosives and descriptions of New York landmarks in her handbag. [see Aug 5]
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A5)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Jul 17, Algeria and Germany wound up two days of talks in Algiers with a call for more economic cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Algeria a truck and a bus collided on one of the main highways in the Relizane region killing 7 people with 28 seriously injured.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Argentina's Senate narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package, a government-backed proposal that has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food shortages.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Sidney, Australia, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stinging attack on pop culture, consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic pilgrims gathered for World Youth Day.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Belgium's King Albert II refused to accept the resignation of the prime minister and his government, calling on key officials to redouble efforts to resolve a longtime disagreement over more self-rule for the country's Dutch and French speakers.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, A new company of Chinese engineers deployed to Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur, boosting the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to 8,000.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Wikimania 2008 opened in to Alexandria, Egypt, for a 3-day tradecraft meeting. The gathering of online encyclopedia creators drew some 650 Wikipedians from 45 countries.
(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W1)(
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
2008 Jul 17, In Amman, Jordan, a gunman shot and wounded six people near a Roman amphitheater. He shot himself in the head as he was chased by police, and was in critical condition. A police official identified the assailant as Thaer al-Weheidi (19), a resident of Baqaa camp, the largest of 11 Palestinian refugee settlements in Jordan. Al-Weheidi died on July 22.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 17, Kuwait's official news agency says the tiny Gulf country has named an ambassador to Iraq for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Macedonia's main opposition party walked out of parliament after its deputy leader was arrested and charged in a corruption probe.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Six prominent members of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC met this day with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega according to Nicaragua’s La Prensa newspaper. The members of the guerrilla organization arrived in Nicaragua in a Cessna airplane from Venezuela. Both Ortega and Venezuela denied the newspaper report.
(
http://colombiareports.com/2008/07/23/ortega-met-with-farc-delegation-says-la-prensa/)
2008 Jul 17, Nigerian villagers blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the Nigerian subsidiary of Italian group Eni, cutting production.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Violent protests erupted at Pakistan's main stock market as growing economic and political uncertainty pushed Pakistani shares to a new 18-month low.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, A survey team member said a Russian government audit has revealed that up to 50,000 pieces are missing from the country’s museums, everything from Pre-Revolutionary medals and weapons to precious works of art.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Sri Lankan air force jets bombed a group of ethnic Tamil rebels. Troops attacked rebel bunkers along the front lines in the Vavuniya area, killing 10 Tamil Tiger fighters. Fighting in the area also killed four soldiers, while a fifth soldier was missing in action. Fighting in Welioya killed nine rebels and one soldier, while another rebel was killed in Jaffna.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An official of the Swiss bank UBS announced that it was halting its offshore banking services for US citizens after it came under scathing criticism for facilitating massive tax evasion.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An organization claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim insurgency announced it will end all violence in the region as of July 14. Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro said the organization that made the announcement represented 11 different underground groups operating in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Venezuela's ruling party pledged to seek to reform the nation's constitution to let President Hugo Chavez seek indefinite re-election.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2009 Jul 17, In Douglas, Georgia, federal authorities arrested Cecil Stephen Haire (51), the so-called “limping bandit." He was said to have robbed 23 banks across the Southwest over the last 3 years.
(SFC, 7/22/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 17, Walter Cronkite (b.1916), TV journalist, died with his family by his side at his Manhattan home after a long illness. On April 16, 1962, he replaced Douglas Edwards as anchor of the CBS "Evening News." Polls in 1972 and 1974 had pronounced Cronkite the "most trusted man in America."
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb tore through a vehicle, killing a British soldier and 11 civilians, including five children. In Nangarhar province, a gunfight broke out between Taliban fighters and local civilians after militants fired at an Afghan army officer who had come to visit his relatives. 3 militants and two civilians were killed and one civilian was missing. Eleven militants were captured, eight of them Pakistanis.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AP, 7/18/09)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, Leszek Kolakowski (b.1927), Polish-born Oxford philosopher and historian of ideas, died in Oxford. “We Learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are." His work included the 3-volume series “Main currents of Marxism: Its Rise, Growth and Dissolution" (1976).
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.76)(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_Ko%C5%82akowski)
2009 Jul 17, In China government officials in Beijing descended on the Open Constitution Initiative (OCI), a public interest lawyer’s group that challenged abuse and corruption by state and local governments. They took away almost everything the group owned and tax authorities ordered it to pay $207,900.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.38)
2009 Jul 17, The Republic of Congo's top opposition politician, Mathias Dzon, filed for an annulment of the incumbent president's re-election and claimed there had been vote-rigging and intimidation.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Ecuador a US anti-narcotics force flew its last surveillance mission from Ecuador's Pacific Coast. The force had begun dismantling its operation and would be out of the country by September, two months before the end of its lease.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Indonesia suicide attacks at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta killed 9 people including 2 suspected suicide bombers and wounded 53. Suspicion quickly fell on Jemaah Islamiyah and anti-terror desk chief, Ansyaad Mbai, said evidence pointed to Malaysian-born extremist Noordin Mohammed Top. In 2010 the South Jakarta District Court found Amid Abdillah guilty of violating the Anti-Terror Law by helping a splinter of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah plan the suicide bombings. The same court has earlier sentenced Saefudin Zuhri, an in-law of Top, and Aris Susanto to eight years in prison for assisting and harboring Top and two other suspects.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AFP, 7/18/09)(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 8/7/09)(AP, 6/14/10)
2009 Jul 17, In Iran tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer sermon, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests. Outside, pro-government Basiji militiamen in front of a line of riot police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Iraq two bombs exploded around 3 a.m. in Karmah near the house of police Capt. Bahjat Khawam. The bombs were planted under the police officer's car and near a gate to his house. The officer's daughter (12) and a granddaughter (4) were killed in the attack. In Baghdad bombings killed 3 Iraqis and injured over 40 others. One bomb planted under a bridge killed a married couple who were among hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims heading to a shrine to commemorate Imam Mousa al-Kazim.
(AP, 7/17/09)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, In Japan 10 senior citizen climbers were found dead in the northern mountains of Hokkaido, apparently from hypothermia. Police began investigating possible negligence by the tour organizers.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, The Malian army announced that it had killed 26 "Islamist fighters" in the far north of the country.
(AFP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Nouakchott, Mauritania, police exchanged fire with suspected Islamic extremists, killing one and wounding another who was wearing explosives wrapped around his body. A 3rd suspect reportedly escaped.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, Mexico's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point, dropping the interbank rate to 4.5% to stimulate a recession-dogged economy.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Namibia 2 European journalists were fined $625 (US) by a court for filming the annual seal hunt along the coast of the southern African nation. On July 31 British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers were found guilty of violating the Marine Resources Act by entering a restricted area without permission.
(AFP, 7/18/09)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Pakistan a missile believed to have been fired by a US drone killed five militants in North Waziristan, a tribal region known as a haven for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. Militants destroyed two NATO fuel tankers in separate roadside bomb attacks in the Khyber tribal region, one of the two land routes for supplies going to Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, Russia said it would lift a ban on live pigs and raw pork imports from the US state of Wisconsin and Canada's Ontario province from July 18 due to what it said was a "stabilization" of the situation of the H1N1 virus in those places.
(Reuters, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, The UN said an international accord requiring governments to publicly identify sites of environmental pollution will come into force on Oct. 8.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2010 Jul 17, In Afghanistan a British and an American soldier died in Taliban-style bomb attacks. Another NATO soldier was killed in a separate attack. 4 Afghan policemen died when insurgents attacked a checkpoint in Gereshk district of Helmand province. One Afghan soldier died and another was wounded in Sabari district of Khost province after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
(AFP, 7/17/10)(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Albania 14 people died and 12 others were injured, many of them seriously, when a bus fell off a cliff 140 km (87 miles) north of the capital, Tirana.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, In China 28 miners were killed when an electrical cable caught fire inside a coal shaft in northern Shaanxi province. There were no survivors. 8 coal miners died when a blaze engulfed a mine in central Henan province.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Typhoon Conson weakened as it headed toward Vietnam, after passing over the Chinese island of Hainan where falling billboards killed at least two people.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, In France rioters exchanged gunfire with police in Grenoble early in the day, setting fire to shops and cars after police shot dead a man accused of robbing a casino.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, Hong Kong adopted its first minimum wage law, but no rate was yet set
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.73)(
http://tinyurl.com/2cx6os2)
2010 Jul 17, In Kenya Pastor John Kamau and accomplice Samuel Chege Gitau were arrested with a substance believed to be ammonium nitrate, a detonator and a safety fuse.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Lithuania’s state-owned forests reportedly amounted to 830,000 hectares or 3204 square miles and were operated by 42 companies. Government plans called for a single forestry company charged with managing the industry on a commercial basis.
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.57)
2010 Jul 17, In Mexico 4 policemen were shot dead by unknown assailants on a rural road near the port of Acapulco. Six other violent deaths were recorded in Ciudad Juarez including a man and his daughter were shot by gunmen who entered his home early in the day.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In central Nigeria Muslims attacked a Christian village, killing eight people with machetes and burning seven houses and a church in fresh religious violence.
(AFP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In northwest Pakistan suspected militants ambushed a convoy of vehicles being escorted by security forces, killing 18 people, including two women in the Kurram region. 6 people were injured when two bomb blasts hit a market in Lahore, damaging two Internet cafes. Jet fighters killed 18 militants in strikes on suspected hideouts in the Orakzai region.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)(AFP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, Gaza's Hamas rulers banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the Palestinian people.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Poland thousands of gays and lesbians from around Europe marched through Warsaw to demand equal rights and more tolerance toward homosexuals.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Puerto Rico US federal authorities arrested Jose Figueroa Agosto (45), a fugitive alleged drug kingpin, after a decade-long chase through the Caribbean marked by his narrow escapes and public taunting that he paid off police to remain free.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2011 Jul 17, Afghanistan began handing responsibility for security from NATO soldiers to its own troops, igniting a process designed to leave the country free of foreign combat forces by 2014. Afghan and NATO troops killed at least 13 Taliban fighters in Nangarhar province after an overnight gunbattle ended with an airstrike on a building occupied by the insurgents. Gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked the home of Jan Mohammed Khan, an adviser to President Karzai, killing him and Uruzgan lawmaker Mohammed Ashim Watanwal. One attacker was killed and the other blew himself up.
(AFP, 7/17/11)(AP, 7/17/11)(AP, 7/18/11)(SFC, 7/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 17, Christian Martinez, an Australian convert to Islam, was pinned down and lashed 40 times for drinking alcohol by a group of 4 Muslim men who broke into his Sidney home to punish him for breaking sharia law. Two of the men were soon charged with aggravated breaking and entering with intent to commit an indictable offense.
(AFP, 7/19/11)(AP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 17, Bahrain's main Shiite opposition bloc, Al-Wefaq, said it was pulling out of a national dialogue with the government on political reform because the initiative was not serious.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, London police arrested Rebekah Brooks (43), Rupert Murdoch's former British CEO, in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal. The former News of the World editor said she was assisting the police with their inquiries.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, The Central African Republic government and a 500-man breakaway faction of the country's last active rebel movement, a dissident faction of the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP), signed a peace deal in Nzako.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Chile a man boarded a subway train, pulled out a gun and began shooting at the Plaza Maipu station in the southwestern part of Santiago. He killed two people and wounded four more before leaving the station and killing himself.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, Egypt's PM Essam Sharaf named 12 new Cabinet members in a reshuffle under pressure from protesters demanding a purge of remnants of the former regime.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In India officers in the western state of Gujarat, the scene of serial blasts in 2008, arrested Sahazad Rangrez and recovered eight live bombs from his possession. Rangrez's wife Reshma reported him to the police after suffering domestic violence.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Indonesia the Mount Lokon volcano on northern Sulawesi island erupted again and released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 11,400 feet (3,500 meters) into the sky.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, Several Iranian Kurdish rebels based in Iraq were wounded in hours of clashes with Tehran's forces along the two countries' border.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Iraq a roadside bomb targeting a security patrol killed one policeman and a passer-by in western Baghdad. An American soldier died in Iraq in a noncombat incident.
(AP, 7/17/11)(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 17, Japan’s female soccer team, fourth place finishers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, came from behind twice to beat world-number ones and twice champions the United States 3-1 on penalties in the final of the World Cup in Frankfurt. It was the first football World Cup title for any Asian country.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Libya rebel attacks on the eastern oil city of Brega stretched into their fourth day, with reports of pitched battles in the residential areas. NATO jets destroyed a military storage facility and other targets in Tripoli's eastern outskirts.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Morocco thousands of demonstrators, including Islamists, held peaceful rallies in Rabat, Casablanca and Tangiers to demand greater political reforms and social justice.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, A spokesman for the Hamas-run medical services in the Gaza Strip, said 4 children and 3 adults suffered moderate injuries in air strikes in the northern Beit Hanun area. Israel denied it had carried out any such raid.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, Voters in the tiny west African archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe voted for their next president. 54% of the country's 200,000 people have been described as poor by the UN Development Program (UNDP). Former strongman Manuel Pinto da Costa led the field with 35.85% of the vote. Speaker Evaristo Carvalho was second with 21.82% and will challenge the 73-year-old former president on July 24.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Switzerland the son of an American UN diplomat was attacked by up to a dozen assailants in Geneva, who beat him with metal rods and attempted to throw him into the river Rhone before a passing cyclist raised the alarm.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, Syrian troops backed by tanks stormed the town of Zabadani near the border with Lebanon. Security forces reportedly have rounded up more than 500 people, including a leading dissident, across the country over the past two days. 6 bodies from various sects were found dumped in Homs, apparently in revenge attacks. Pro-government thugs called shabiha then went on a rampage, opening fire in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods in Homs.
(AP, 7/17/11)(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 17, In southern Thailand a girl (5) and a local government official were shot dead and 11 people were injured when gunmen burst into a Buddhist temple during an annual fair.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Tunisia 6 police officers were injured, four seriously, in a series of overnight attacks on police stations and public buildings in cities across the country.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Uruguay Juan Maria Bordaberry (b.1928), former President-turned-dictator, died at home, where he was serving a 30-year sentence for killings and disappearances during his country's war against so-called subversives.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to Cuba to begin chemotherapy nearly a month after surgery to remove a tumor.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, Vietnamese police rounded up at least 10 people as they broke up an anti-China rally for the 2nd weekend running in a series of protests over tensions in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Yemen hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded streets across the country to demand the ouster of President Saleh. Thousands of the embattled leader's supporters staged counter rallies to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of his rule.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2012 Jul 17, In Alameda, California, a civil jury ordered convicted murderer Hans Reiser (48) to pay $60 million to his young son and daughter for strangling their mother in 2006.
(SFC, 7/18/12, p.C2)
2012 Jul 17, Two Afghan police and three civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Bati Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province. 9 Afghan soldiers were killed in an attack by Taliban insurgents on an army post in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/17/12)(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jul 17, Britain’s visiting minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham, said Britain will give its poor former colony Malawi additional aid of 24 million pounds for its economic recovery program.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, London-based HSBC apologized for failing to apply anti-laundering rules as US lawmakers accused it of giving Iran, terrorists and drug dealers access to the US financial system.
(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jul 17, India's Jindal Steel and Power scrapped plans to invest $2.1 billion in a Bolivian mining project and blamed the South American nation's "non-friendly business attitude" for the deal's collapse.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, Iraq's government urged all its citizens living in Syria to return home immediately to escape the escalating civil war.
(AP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, In Israel the centrist Kadima Party broke from PM Netanyahu’s right-wing government prompted by a dispute over a bill to draft religious students into the military.
(SFC, 7/18/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 17, In Malaysia an Australian woman and a Nigerian man were arrested after one kg (2.2 pounds) of methamphetamine was discovered in a car they were driving in Kuala Lumpur.
(AFP, 7/28/12)
2012 Jul 17, Mali's interim PM Cheick Modibo Diarra presented a roadmap for rescuing his country from a post-coup crisis to the region's lead mediator. It laid out a one-year plan for a return to constitutional rule, and the formation of a unity government to oversee the transition.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, Malian journalists went on strike for a day of "dead press," and marched in Bamako to protest recent attacks against journalists by armed men believed to be linked to the former junta.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, In central Nigeria a ten-year-old boy was killed when an assailant fired a heavy weapon at an Islamic school in the city of Jos.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, Romania's interim President Cris Antonescu signed a new law that requires a majority of registered voters to take part in a referendum for it to be valid, giving suspended President Traian Basescu a fighting chance of remaining in office when his impeachment comes up for a public vote.
(AP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, A Saudi newspaper reported that a Lebanese man, nicknamed the "tattoo king," has been sentenced to one year in prison and 200 lashes. Charges included having met privately with women.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, In South Africa Madagascar's exiled former president Marc Ravalomanana was served with a summons at his hotel in Pretoria over a $23 million lawsuit filed by victims of 2009 unrest that led to his ouster.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, Spain successfully tapped bond market investors for €3.6 billion ($4.4 billion) in the first debt auction since the government's latest package of spending cuts and tax increases.
(AP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, Syrian government forces backed by helicopter gunships battled rebels in heavy clashes in Damascus. The Muslim Brotherhood urged the Syrian people to rise up and back the rebels. The Israeli army intelligence chief said al-Assad has moved army forces from the Golan Heights area next to Israel toward Damascus and other internal conflict zones.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, The UN food agency warned the unrest in northern Mali means that efforts to contain the threat of desert locusts are being hampered and appealed for $10 million (8.1 million euros) in aid. It said control operations cannot be carried out because of political conflict and that 30 trucks and other equipment had been looted.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, The UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea Int’l. Prize for Research in the Life Sciences went to scientists from Egypt, Mexico and South Africa. The prize was sponsored by Equatorial Guinea’s Pres. Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who faced major allegations of corruption.
(Econ, 7/21/12, p.sd43)
2013 Jul 17, The American Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accused Barclay’s, a British bank, of manipulating energy prices in California and other states and slapped the bank with a $453 million fine. Barclay’s said its trading was legitimate.
(Econ, 7/20/13, p.64)
2013 Jul 17, Robert Seldon Lady (59), a former CIA base chief convicted in the 2003 abduction of a terror suspect from an Italian street, was detained in Panama after Italy requested his arrest in one of the most notorious episodes of the US program known as extraordinary rendition. After barely a day in detention, he was put on a plane to the US by the Panamanian government.
(AP, 7/18/13)(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 17, In Oakland, Ca., Alaysha Carradine (
was killed at a sleepover as bullets sprayed through an apartment door. Authorities later named Darnell Williams (22) as the shooter.
(SFC, 10/2/13, p.A1)
2013 Jul 17, In Massachusetts a jogger discovered the body of Stephen Rakes (59) in woods on the side of a street in Lincoln. Rakes had hoped to testify in the trial of mobster James Bulger.
(SFC, 7/19/13, p.A6)
2013 Jul 17, The Online user database of two big companies were reportedly hacked by political hacktivists working in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The private data of the users of TrueCaller and TangoMe were compromised which included private details of their social networks.
(AP, 7/21/13)(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Syria)
2013 Jul 17, In Afghanistan gunmen killed Afghan prosecutor Ahmad Wali Taheri in western Herat province. Taheri was the brother of Karzai's adviser on national security, Rangin Dafdar Spanta.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced Ali Ahsan Mojaheed, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, to death for his role in the kidnapping and killing of people involving Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, Britain legalized gay marriage after Queen Elizabeth II gave her royal stamp of approval, clearing the way for the first same-sex weddings next summer.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, In Dubai Marte Deborah Dalelv (24), a Norwegian woman, was sentenced to 16 months in jail for having sex outside marriage after she reported an alleged rape. On July 19 she decided to speak out in hopes of drawing attention to the risks of outsiders misunderstanding the Islamic-influenced legal codes in this cosmopolitan city. Norwegian diplomats secured her release and she has been allowed to remain at the Norwegian Seamen's Center in central Dubai. She said her alleged attacker received a 13-month sentence for out-of-wedlock sex and alcohol consumption. On July 22 Dubai pardoned Dalelv.
(AP, 7/19/13)(Reuters, 7/22/13)
2013 Jul 17, Several hundred supporters of Egypt's deposed Pres. Morsi massed outside the Cabinet building in Cairo, expanding their protests denouncing the country's new government and demanding the reinstatement of the Islamist leader. Suspected militants killed 3 policemen and seriously wounded two in an attack in the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 7/17/13)(AP, 7/18/13)
2013 Jul 17, Greece's shaky coalition government scraped through a vote on a bill to sack public sector workers as thousands chanting anti-austerity slogans protested outside parliament.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, Guinea government spokesman Albert Camara said that the army has been deployed to N'Zerekore, Guinea's second-largest city, to restore order. Officials later said 3 days of clashes in the southeast have killed 98 people and injured scores more.
(AP, 7/17/13)(Reuters, 7/24/13)
2013 Jul 17, In Iraq a bombing at a stream in Wajihiya where youngsters had sought refuge from the summer heat killed 4 people. Attacks targeting diners in cafes in Mosul and Baghdad killed at least 6 people.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, Gunmen assassinated Mohammed Darrar Jammo (44), a pro-government Syrian journalist, at his home in southern Lebanon, shooting him nearly 30 times in the latest sign of Syria's civil war spilling over into its smaller neighbor. On July 19 the Lebanese army said the killers had been detained and their weapons seized. On July 30 Lebanese news reported that Jammo's Lebanese wife, Siham Younes, and her brother and nephew were arrested after an investigation showed they were behind the killing.
(AP, 7/17/13)(Reuters, 7/19/13)(AP, 7/30/13)
2013 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria mobile phone services returned in Yobe state, ending two months of signal blackout after a state of emergency was declared in areas struck by Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, A Romanian museum official said that ash from the oven of a woman whose son is charged with stealing 7 multi-million-dollar paintings from Rotterdam’s Kunsthal Musum (Nov 16, 2012) contains paint, canvas and nails. Olga Dogaru has claimed to have burned the stolen paintings last February after police began searching the village of Caracliu, where she lived. On July 22 Olga Dogaru told a Bucharest court that she did not burn the paintings in her stove.
(SFC, 7/18/13, p.A2)(AP, 7/22/13)
2013 Jul 17, In Russia senior central bank officials disclosed their personal wealth, many of them for the first time. First Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetso declared ownership of six apartments in Mexico and a home in the United States, possibly leaving him open to criticism as President Vladimir Putin campaigns to curtail holdings of foreign assets.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, The Turkish military said a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after days of clashes with Islamist fighters.
(Reuters, 7/18/13)
2013 Jul 17, The Yemen-based branch of al-Qaida confirmed that Saudi-born Saeed al-Shihri, the group's No. 2 figure and former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, was killed in a US drone strike. He had twice before been reported dead but the terror group later denied those reports.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2014 Jul 17, A judge ruled that gays can marry in Florida's most gay-friendly county, siding with same-sex couples in the Florida Keys who challenged a voter-approved ban as discriminatory. But an immediate state appeal quickly silenced their wedding bells.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Florida health officials reported the first domestically-acquired infections in the United States of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus that has spread rapidly through the Caribbean. More than 230 chikungunya cases have been reported in Americans this year, but all the others were travelers believed to have been infected elsewhere.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Massachusetts police recovered 12 human bodies from a storage unit in Weymouth, about 13 miles (20 km) southeast of Boston, rented by former funeral home operator Joseph O'Donnell (55). A day earlier police found cremated remains in a storage unit rented by O'Donnell in Somerville, just north of Boston.
(Reuters, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Wyoming, Michigan, the body of Brooke Slocum (18) was found in the trunk of Brady Oestrike (31). Her boyfriend Charles Oppenheimer (25) was found decapitated a day earlier. The couple had connected with Oestrike on Craigslist and arranged a sexual encounter. Oestrike fled a police chase and fatally shot himself after crashing his car.
(SFC, 7/22/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 17, Microsoft said it will cut 18,000 jobs over the next year, 14% of its total work force, in an effort to make the company more nimble.
(SFC, 7/18/14, p.C1)
2014 Jul 17, Elaine Stritch (b.1925), actress and singer, died at her home in Birmingham, Mi. Her films included “A Farewell to Arms" (1957), “September" (1987), “Out to Sea" (1997) and “Small Time Crooks" (2000).
(SFC, 7/18/14, p.A7)
2014 Jul 17, In Afghanistan four militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked Kabul International Airport. All 4 were killed by police special forces.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Australia's government repealed a much-maligned carbon tax on the nation's worst greenhouse gas polluters, ending years of contention over a measure that became political poison for the lawmakers who imposed it.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Brazil China's President Xi Jinpin pressed a charm offensive with Latin America, signing deals with Brazil, meeting regional leaders and proposing a $20 billion infrastructure fund that highlights Beijing's growing interests in the region.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 17, Airbus said that its orders and commitments for 496 aircraft at England’s Farnborough International Airshow. Boeing, meanwhile, secured business for 201 airplanes.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Cambodian police arrested two more opposition members of parliament on charges of leading an insurrection.
(Reuters, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police laid 31 charges against suspended Sen. Mike Duffy over some $200,000 of falsified expenses.
(SFC, 7/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 17, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said heavy rains and landslides over the past week have killed at least 45 people in southern China and left 21 others missing.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, A European court ordered Russia to pay damages for putting defendants in metal cages in court, a practice it condemned as "degrading treatment." The enclosures have held opposition figures, Greenpeace activists and untold numbers of less-prominent suspects across the country.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, French President Francois Hollande began a visit to Ivory Coast to boost economic ties with a nation emerging from a long conflict that divided it and set back production. Ivory Coast still hosts hundreds of French companies.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, France's parliament adopted a law calling for more use of probation and other measures to reduce overcrowding in a creaking prison system.
(Reuters, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Iraq a bomb attack ripped through a sprawling Baghdad market, killing 5 people. An 18-year-old Australian man was later identified as the suicide bomber. In Taji a suicide bomber rammed his car into a military checkpoint, killing 7 people. Militants attacked the Turkuman town of Amirli overnight, striking from three directions. 9 insurgents and one soldier were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/18/14)(AFP, 7/21/14)
2014 Jul 17, Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan pumped an experimental 20,000 barrels of light crude from an oilfield recently seized from the federal authorities. It was the first time the Kurds pumped oil from Bai Hassan field -- 55 km (35 miles) northwest of Kirkuk. The field used to average 190,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Israeli tank fire killed three people in southern Gaza moments before a humanitarian truce began at 0700 GMT. The Israeli army said it had foiled a "major terror attack" by a group of 13 militants who managed to enter southern Israel by tunnel and were seen heading towards Sufa kibbutz near the fence. Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel just as a five-hour UN humanitarian cease-fire expired.
(AFP, 7/17/14)(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Israel launched a ground operation late today aimed at destroying tunnels and halting rocket fire by the enclave's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 17, Japan said it would join forces with Britain to jointly develop missile technology for fighter jets, while also moving to export Japanese-made parts for US surface-to-air missiles.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Lebanon filed a complaint against Israel at the UN Security Council, saying it had violated its sovereignty by opening fire on its territory in retaliation for rocket attacks. The foreign ministry said Israel fired 102 shells at Lebanon between July 11 and 14.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Libya several shells hit the terminal of the main airport in Tripoli, as fighting between rival militias for control of the airport continued for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Libya’s navy said it has retrieved the bodies of three would-be migrants and rescued almost 100 others after their boat sank.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 with 298 people on board was shot down over eastern Ukraine. Officials strongly suspected the Boeing 777 was downed by a missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow. More than half of the dead passengers, 189 people, were Dutch. Twenty-nine were Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, 9 British, 4 German, 4 Belgian, 3 Filipino, one Canadian, one New Zealand and 4 as yet unidentified. All 15 crew were Malaysian. Joep Lange, pioneering AIDS researcher, was among those killed.
(Reuters, 7/18/14)(Econ, 7/26/14, p.78)
2014 Jul 17, In Myanmar more than 700 workers protested in front of the South Korean Embassy to demand officials help them after a Korean-owned factory closed without paying their wages.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Pakistani police fought for more than 10 hours with militants they said were planning to attack the home of PM Nawaz Sharif. An intelligence officer and two militants were killed when the shootout erupted during an overnight operation in the eastern city of Lahore.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In the Philippines three aid workers were abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province. All three were freed after the government withheld anti-poverty funds, prompting an impoverished town to pressure the rebels to release the captives.
(AP, 7/23/14)
2014 Jul 17, Polish rescue services said 7 people have been killed after falling into a septic tank where they were overcome by toxic gas in the western village of Karczowka.
(Reuters, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Puerto Rican health officials declared an epidemic of the mosquito-borne virus known as chikungunya, which was introduced into the Caribbean region late last year.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 17, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin lamented the latest round of US sanctions against Russia, saying they will stalemate bilateral relations and hurt not only Russian but also American businesses.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Somalia one person died and another was seriously wounded when an explosive device attached to their car was remotely detonated in Mogadishu.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In South Korea a firefighting helicopter crashed near an apartment complex and school in the southern city of Gwangju, killing five.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Sri Lanka's government said Pres. Mahinda Rajapaksa has extended the terms of a commission investigating missing people and possible war crimes in the country's 26-year civil war, bringing in foreign experts for the first time to advise on the inquiry.
(Reuters, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, A Swaziland lawyer said two government critics have been found guilty of contempt of court after publishing articles in which they lamented alleged threats to judicial independence.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In central Syria Islamic militants killed as many as 270 Syrian troops, guards and workers as they captured the Shaar (Shaer) gas field in the desert region of Palmyra following daylong clashes. At least 40 militants were also reported killed. The fate of more than 200 people captured in the facility was unknown. Military helicopters dropped barrels packed with explosives on Morek. More than 20 bombs were dropped by aircraft and least 15 people, including 4 civilians, were killed in the fighting.
(AFP, 7/17/14)(AP, 7/17/14)(AP, 7/18/14)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.A2)(Reuters, 7/19/14)
2014 Jul 17, In northern Syria Jihadists in Tabaqa, Raqa province, accused a woman of adultery and stoned her to death.
(AFP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 17, In eastern Ukraine separatists carried out 27 attacks on army checkpoints and positions of government forces over the last 24 hours leaving 5 Ukrainian servicemen killed.
(Reuters, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Ukraine's SBU security agency released recordings of what it claimed were phone talks involving rebels and a Russian military intelligence officer admitting that they had hit a passenger jet after mistaking it for a military aircraft.
(AFP, 7/20/14)
