Portal:Current events/July 2010

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- In response to a rocket attack on southern Israel, Israeli airforce jets strike several targets in Gaza overnight, including Yasser Arafat International Airport, a weapons manufacturing facility and an infiltration tunnel into Israel. (Xinhua) (Arab News) (The Jerusalem Post)
- European Union High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton says the planned demolition of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem for an archeological park and tourist center is "an obstacle to peace" and "illegal under international law". (Arab News) (Israel National News)
- The Methodist Church of Great Britain votes in Portsmouth to boycott Israeli-produced goods and services from the West Bank because of what it termed Israel's "illegal occupation of Palestinian lands". (The Jerusalem Post)
- United States Middle East envoy George J. Mitchell accuses Hamas of “unacceptable and inhuman behavior” with regard to captive soldier Gilad Shalit, held in isolation in Gaza for the last four years, and calls for his immediate release. (The Jerusalem Post)
- The son of a founding member of Hamas is granted asylum in the United States. (Aljazeera)
11 Kurdish, a soldier and three members of a Kurdish militia, part of the security forces, are killed in clashes in southeast Turkey, reports Anatolia news agency. (Khaleej Times)
At least 42 people are killed and at least 175 are injured in three suicide bomb explosions at the Data Darbar Sufi shrine in Lahore. (The News International) (Aljazeera) (BBC) (CNN) (Xinhua)
Somali President Sharif Ahmed joins Somali troops on the front line during battles on the 50^th anniversary of the country's independence. (CNN) (BBC)
Millions of people in Senegal mourn the death of Grand Marabout of the Mourides, Serigne Mouhamadou Lamine Bara Mbacké. (ABC News) (BBC) (AP)

Arts and culture

People take to the streets in Ottawa to celebrate Canada's 143rd birthday. (CTV)

Business and economy

China
- China's Xinhua launches a global 24-hour English TV news channel. (AP via Yahoo!) (Channel News Asia)
- The Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway goes into operation; the journey takes 73 minutes with a top-speed of 350km/h (217 mph). (Shanghai Daily) (Xinhua)

Disasters and accidents

Hurricane Alex, the first hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, makes landfall in northeastern Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h), and causes tornadoes that force people into shelters in southern Texas. (National Hurricane Center) (The Australian) (Aljazeera)
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
- According to recent estimates, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has overtaken Ixtoc I in volume to become the United States' worst oceanic oil spill in recorded history. (MSNBC News Services) (USA Today)
- Animal welfare groups sue BP for burning endangered sea turtles and ask the court to stop the controlled burning of spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming BP is violating the Endangered Species Act and other laws. (The Australian)
Six people are killed and ten others injured in Shenzhen after a space shuttle simulator ride plunged to the ground at a popular amusement park. (ntdtv)

International relations

Inter-Korean Relations
- North Korea asks the United Nations Security Council to investigate the sinking of the Cheonan. Diplomats say South Korea wants the council to condemn North Korea. (Aljazeera)
- Two North Koreans are jailed in South Korea over an assassination plot on a high-ranking North Korean defector, Hwang Jang-yop. (Yonhap) (BBC)
The Afghan government calls for an international inquiry amid what it sees as "unjust" claims made by Nita Lowey, current chair of the House Appropriations Committee in the United States, that suitcases of cash are being flown out of the country. The United States blocks billions of dollars of aid due to Lowey's claims. (AFP via Daily Times)

Law and crime

More than 300 kilograms of drugs - opium, morphine, ice (methamphetamine hydrochloride), ketamine and dancing outreach - are incinerated in the suburbs of Lhasa, Tibet. (tibet.cn)
An estimated 52,000 people took part in anti-government protests in the former British colony of Hong Kong. BBC News Bloomberg
The United States Government actively seizes the domains of 7 U.S. based Websites for copyright infringement and replaces them with this. (The Register UK)
The United Kingdom's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) reports there has been a surge in cases of gay and bisexual men in some communities being forced to marry by their families. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

Pierre Nkurunziza, the incumbent President of Burundi and sole candidate in the presidential election, is re-elected with more than 91% of the votes. (AFP), (AfricaNews), (Xinhua via CPD)
The Parliament of Finland approves the construction of two nuclear power stations. (BBC) (CNN) (YLE)
Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo is elected president of Somaliland by defeating incumbent Dahir Riyale Kahin. (Aljazeera)
Kenyan MPs vote to increase their salaries by 18%, making them among the best-paid lawmakers in the world. (BBC) (News24.com) (Reuters)

Science and technology

Fossils discovered at the Franceville site in Gabon are claimed to be evidence that multicellular life on Earth began at least 1.5 billion years earlier than currently reckoned. (The Australian) (BBC)
Astronomers confirm the first-ever direct picture of an extrasolar planet orbiting its star. (National Geographic)

Sport

Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue is unveiled after a £2.7 million restoration, in a display of green and yellow honouring the Brazil national football team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (BBC)

July 2, 2010 (Friday)

News

Aftermath of the Gaza flotilla clash:
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu states in a televised address that Israel will not apologize to Turkey for the Gaza flotilla clash and that no compensation will be paid to the injured. (Haaretz) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Turkey considers banning Israeli commercial flights, while Israeli Industry, Trade and Labour Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer denies reports he promised compensation for those killed in the Israel Navy's raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. (Haaretz) (The Irish Times)
Israel's blockade on Gaza
- A series of studies published by Palestinian scientists in The Lancet claims that Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip threatens to cause long-term health damage, malnutrition and stunted growth in children. (Reuters)
- The German Bundestag passes a cross-party motion demanding Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) (Deutsche Welle) (Bernama)
Africa
- Senegal enters eight days of national mourning as President Abdoulaye Wade swears allegiance to the new Grand Marabout of the Mourides following the death of his predecessor, Serigne Mouhamadou Lamine Bara Mbacké. (Reuters)
- At least 17 civilians are killed and dozens of others are injured during fighting between the government and anti-government in Mogadishu. (Aljazeera)
- Former South African Police Service national commissioner and ex-Interpol president Jackie Selebi is found guilty of corruption. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
- A priest accused of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide is arrested in Uganda after he entered from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC) (CNN)
Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) hideouts in the Qandil mountains and the Hakurk region of Iraq, the day after 17 people die in Siirt. (Aljazeera) (Xinhua)
Amnesty International calls for an independent investigation into the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, while the United States agrees. (Aljazeera)
Eight soldiers are killed during two roadside bombs in Narathiwat and Yala in Thailand. (Aljazeera)
At least four people are killed and several others are wounded as six suicide bombers storm a USAID compound before dawn in Kunduz, Afghanistan. (AP via The Washington Times) (Aljazeera)
Protests take place in Lahore and Karachi among other places amid calls for resignations following yesterday's bombings of Data Darbar in Lahore. (Aljazeera)
American hotel heiress Paris Hilton is arrested in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, for allegedly smoking marijuana during the 2010 FIFA World Cup match between Brazil and the Netherlands. (The Daily Telegraph)

Science

Russian cargo ship Progress fails to dock with the International Space Station. (BBC) (France24) (Fox News)

Politics and Elections

Somaliland presidential election, 2010
- Newly-elected President Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo promises to campaign "vigorously" for the recognition of "our democracy" during his time in office. (AFP)
Ian Paisley condemns the invitation for the Pope to visit Britain and calls child-abusing Catholic priests "Antichrists". (The Sydney Morning Herald)
President of the United States Barack Obama signs into law the CISAD Act, which bans US banks from doing business with foreign banks that provide services to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. (Aljazeera)
Germany vows to suspend aid to Zimbabwe unless occupiers leave a farm owned by a German national. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Gazprom and Beltransgaz sign a gas transit deal, setting the transit fee for this year. (Xinhua)

July 3, 2010 (Saturday)

Current Events

More than 230 people are killed and 200 injured after a fuel tanker overturns and explodes in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Xinhua)
Gaza
- More than 10,000 Palestinians, including many patients needing medical treatment, are reported to have crossed into Egypt via the Rafah border since its 1 June opening in the aftermath of the Gaza flotilla raid. (Independent Online)
- Hamas demolishes the homes of 20 families as part of a housing regulation plan. (Aljazeera)
12 people are killed and 12 injured after a bus falls from a bridge near South Korea's main Incheon International Airport. (BBC) (The Korea Herald) (Taiwan News)
China jails a Tibetan environmentalist on charges of 'splitting the nation'. (BBC) (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva probes the deaths of eight soldiers over two days. (Aljazeera)
Police apologize to American hotel heiress Paris Hilton after she was cleared of drug charges made against her while she was watching a 2010 FIFA World Cup match in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (in2town) (AP via Google News)
The U.S. Pentagon alleges that Iran has violated United Nations sanctions against itself by providing an advanced radar system to Syria, a system the Pentagon claims would hurt Israel's ability to launch surprise attacks against Iran. (CNN) (FOX)
Poland and the United States sign a deal in Kraków allowing the United States to position an American anti-missile shield in Poland to defend Europe from the perceived threat of Iran and other countries: Russia objects. (Aljazeera)
Guillermo Fariñas, a hunger striker in Cuba, is reported to be "close to death" by authorities, in his latest hunger strike attempt. BBC News

Politics and Elections

Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva is officially sworn in as President. (Aljazeera) (The Hindu) (AFP) (Xinhua)
Guinea announces it will hold a run-off presidential election as last Sunday's first round vote resulted in no winner. (Aljazeera)
Former Argentine military ruler Jorge Rafael Videla goes on trial. (BBC)
United States Republican Party chairman Michael Steele is heavily criticised by members of his own party and by members of the Democratic Party for saying America's war in Afghanistan is "a war of Obama's choosing". (Aljazeera)

Sports

Serena Williams beats Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 6–2 to win her fourth Wimbledon women's singles title. (BBC)

July 4, 2010 (Sunday)

Current events

Australia celebrates indigenous culture with NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'.(ABC)(NAIDOC)

Iranian human rights activist Mina Ahadi tries to stop death by stoning for an Iranian woman convicted of adultery. (CNN)
Lebanese Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah dies suddenly in Beirut. (Aljazeera) (CNN) (Press TV) (RTÉ) (Xinhua)
At least 15 people are killed and 48 are injured after the driver of a runaway bus smashes into a concrete wall in the Philippines. (BBC) (People's Daily) (news.com.au) (The Times of India)
At least four people are killed and dozens of others are wounded in a bombing at Ramadi's provincial government building. (Aljazeera)
Women and children march towards Mahmoud al-Zahar's house in Gaza to hand him a letter calling on Hamas to insist on the release of 1,000 Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners during their talks with Israel. (Xinhua)
President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes his last tour of Africa as president. (BBC)
David Petraeus formally takes command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. (CBC),(BBC)
Iran passes on to Tehran's Swiss embassy what it describes as evidence proving that the United States Central Intelligence Agency abducted Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri. (Aljazeera)
Japan's competitive eating champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi is arrested after disrupting the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City, United States. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics and Elections

Polish presidential election, 2010
- Polish voters head to the polls for the second round of presidential voting.
- Jaroslaw Kaczynski initially concedes defeat after exit polls show Bronislaw Komorowski winning, but later withdraws his concession as exit polls show the result narrowing. (BBC)
Mexican gubernatorial elections, 2010
- Voters in 14 Mexican states states vote to elect governors and mayors. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Sky News)
- Exit polls show the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party winning in 8 of the 14 states, with a strong showing in mayoral elections. BBC News
In a referendum, voters in the German state of Bavaria vote to ban smoking at all pubs and restaurants. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Sports

Rafael Nadal of Spain wins the men's singles titles at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. (AFP), (BBC)

July 5, 2010 (Monday)

Current Events

Australia celebrates indigenous culture with NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'.(ABC)(NAIDOC)

Imam Ahmad Afzali leaves the United States for Saudi Arabia, under plea deal in the case involving Najibullah Zazi's alleged plan to bomb the New York City subway. (CNN)
Somalia:
- Anti-government demonstrators, including women dressed in full hijabs brandishing AK-47 automatic rifles, march in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, protesting killings by the African Union Mission in Somalia. (CNN)
- Somali pirates hijack a Marshall Islands-flagged ship with 18 Filipino sailors on board in the southern Red Sea. (Daily Nation Kenya) (AP) (BBC News)
The European Union withdraws a trade concessions deal with Sri Lanka after the former accused the latter of not improving its human rights record. (BBC News) (Hindustan Times)
Iran accuses Germany, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom of refusing to provide fuel to its passenger planes. (BBC News) (Swissinfo) (The National UAE)
Afghan Police and international forces kill 64 people in a three-day drug bust operation in Helmand province, Afghanistan, and destroy 16,641 kilograms (36,687 pounds) of narcotics. (CNN)
A nationwide strike takes place in India in protest at a recent rise in fuel prices. (Times of India) (CNN) (New York Times)
Foreign relations of Israel:
- Israel drops all restrictions on the free flow of consumer goods into the Gaza Strip, while still restricting a blacklist of weapons, construction materials and dual-use items. These materials will be allowed into the territory with the coordination of international agencies. (AP) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
- International Middle East Envoy Tony Blair and UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry praise Israel's easing of the Gaza blockade and its adoption of a "blacklist" system of restrictions. (AP) (Aljazeera) (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Turkey threatens to break diplomatic ties with Israel over the Gaza flotilla raid. (Ynet) (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Israeli diplomats call off a strike to accommodate Benjamin Netanyahu's visit with US President Barack Obama. (The Independent)
Fate of Gilad Shalit
- A concert was held in the town of Sderot in support of captured Shalit. (BBC News)
- 15,000 marchers arrive at Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, to rally for the release of Shalit. (Ynet)
- Former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yisrael Meir Lau, says he is “willing to trade places” with Shalit. (Ynet)

At least 11 people died after a plane crash in Tuzla, Romania. (Mediafax)
Deepwater Horizon oil spill:
- Tar balls from the Gulf oil disaster reach Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain and the shores of Texas near Galveston, on day 77 of the disaster. (The Australian) (CNN) (The Houston Chronicle)
- BP's costs for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill reach $3.12 billion, for cleanup, containment, relief well drilling and damage claims. (USA Today)
- Initial test results from A Whale, an oil tanker retrofitted to skim oil from the sea, were inconclusive, due to rough seas. An additional test of the vessel has been ordered. (BBC News)
- A 2007 memo is released showing that two U.S. Federal agencies, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Minerals Management Service, underestimated the possibility of a large-scale oil spill from drilling in the Gulf and its effects on Gulf Coast wildlife. (The New York Times)
Security is boosted in Xinjiang in western China on the anniversary of the July 2009 Ürümqi riots. (The Guardian) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Human rights groups say at least 52 prisoners have disappeared from Saidnaya Military Prison in Syria, following disturbances in 2008 that led to the deaths of 22 people. (Al Jazeera) (Khaleeej Times)
Toyota begins recalling 91,903 Japanese vehicles due to an engine defect in its luxury Lexus range and Toyota Crown luxury sedans. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Authorities in China sentence Chinese-American geologist Xue Feng to 8 years in prison for "selling state secrets"; the U.S. expresses "dismay" at the sentence. (BBC News) (CNN)
The website of pop star Justin Bieber is targeted by a prank aimed at sending him to tour North Korea. (BBC) (The Independent)
The body of late chess legend Bobby Fischer has been exhumed in Iceland, in an effort to settle paternity questions. (CNN)

Science

Japanese scientists believe the SELENE probe has spotted rocks that originated deep within the Moon on its surface. (BBC News)

Politics and Elections

Polish presidential election, 2010
- Bronisław Komorowski has won the election having received 53.01% of the vote. Opponent Jarosław Kaczyński has 46.99% of the vote. (BBC News)
Local government elections in Mexico
- The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) did not achieve as big a win as exit polls indicated, with the National Action Party (PAN) running ahead in three states that are currently controlled by PRI. (BBC News)
A local politician and provincial Bayan Muna party leader in Aklan, Fernando Baldomero, is shot dead bringing the total number of political and human rights activists killed in the Philippines since the return of democracy in 1986 to over 1,200. (New York Times) (CNN)
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga condemns the nation's lawmakers for voting themselves a huge pay increase, which makes them the best paid lawmakers in the world. (BBC News)
United Kingdom - Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announces that a referendum on introducing the alternative vote system for national elections will be held on 5 May 2011. (BBC)

July 6, 2010 (Tuesday)

Current events

Australia celebrates indigenous culture for NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'.(ABC)(NAIDOC)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Somali Civil War
- East African leaders call for 20,000 troops to be deployed across Somalia to support the United Nations-backed Transitional Federal Government and for the United Nations to replace the African Union Mission to Somalia. (AllAfrica.com) (BBC News)
- 16 people are killed in clashes between rival factions in the capital Mogadishu. (AFP)

Asia
- Ameer Ullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander and one of the founders of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, is killed by the Pakistani army. (CNN)
- Protesters try to enter the United Nations compound in Colombo, Sri Lanka, calling for the United Nations to abandon an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses in the final stages of the civil war between the government and Tamil rebels that ended last year. Staff are unable to leave until being assisted by Sri Lankan police. (Aljazeera) (CNN)
- Thailand extends a state of emergency in several provinces and in the capital Bangkok, and lifts the decree in a further five provinces. (Bangkok Post) (The Guardian) (Xinhua)
- Three people are killed in Srinagar, Kashmir after police shoot at people protesting at the fatal shooting of people by police. (Aljazeera)

Middle East and Africa
- The Israeli military announces it will charge an army sniper with the killing of two Palestinian women during the Gaza offensive. (Aljazeera) (The Guardian) (BBC) (CNN)
- An Egyptian bus driver shoots and kills six labourers and injures 12 who were travelling on a bus in Cairo. (Reuters Africa) (AP) (BBC) (News24.com)
- The head of the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions in the Darfur region of Sudan calls for the immediate lifting of restrictions on their movements. (AP)
- 12 members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and 3 Turkish soldiers are killed in clashes in southeast Turkey. (CNN) (Al Jazeera) (Today's Zaman)

Europe
- 3 people are killed in shooting at a McDonald's restaurant in Finland. (CNN)

Law and politics

Bradley Manning is finally charged with leaking the Collateral Murder video to Wikileaks, along with other documents, after spending more than a month detained in Kuwait without charge. (ABC) (AP)
The Ghana national football team are to receive national awards after their success at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, while former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan writes of his heartbreak. (The Washington Post) (IOL)
The Federal government of the United States files a lawsuit against the U.S. state of Arizona in its bid to overturn its controversial immigration law. (CNN)
President of France Nicolas Sarkozy denies allegations of alleged illegal payments from France's richest woman, L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. (Aljazeera) (CNN)
Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Hawaii Linda Lingle vetoes a bill allowing same-sex civil unions. (AP via Oroville MR)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington, D.C. for talks with President of the United States Barack Obama. (BBC News) (CNN) (Ynet)

Business and economy

Rupert Murdoch takes a share in a rival to Aljazeera. (The Guardian)
The Khan Shatyry Entertainment Center, which features the tallest tent in the world, opens to the public in Astana, Kazakhstan. (BBC News)

Arts and entertainment

Sierra Leonean writer Olufemi Terry wins the Caine Prize for African Writing. (BBC) (CBC) (National Post)
Men at Work are forced to give away 5% of their "Down Under" royalties after a Sydney court rules they plagiarised a flute solo from "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree". (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Sky News)
Singer Cheryl Cole is diagnosed with malaria after fainting. (BBC) (The Independent)
Singer George Michael is arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive. (BBC News)

July 7, 2010 (Wednesday)

Current events

Australia celebrates indigenous culture for NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'.(ABC)(NAIDOC)

Science and weather

Researchers publish in Nature their discovery of stone tools in Norfolk suggesting that humans landed there almost a million years ago. (BBC)
A study shows that a married person's risk of encountering marriage troubles increases by up to 75% if a co-worker, friend, or a family member gets a divorce. (Vitals)
A heat wave kills 9 people in Canada and the United States. (The New York Times) (CNN) (BBC)

Armed conflicts and incidents

A suicide bomber attacks a Shia pilgrimage in Baghdad, Iraq killing at least 41 and wounding 174. (Aljazeera) (BBC News) (CNN)
The Colombian Air Force launches an aerial attack killing 13 FARC rebels, including two rebel leaders. (BBC News)
A Norwegian asylum centre burns to the ground during protests at conditions at the facility. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The United Kingdom is to hand over responsibility for Afghanistan's Sangin area to the United States. (BBC News)
A judge orders the arrest of Bruno Fernandes de Souza, one of Brazil's top footballers, in connection with the disappearance of his former mistress. (BBC News)
Protests in Hong Kong and Taiwan mark the 73rd anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. (CDNews) (Sina HK)
Several thousand residents affected by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and requesting help in Rome are skirmished by police, with two of the residents sustaining injuries. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Star)
Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev is charged with the rape of a boy in Thailand. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Law and politics

Two men from Cameroon and Iran "unanimously" win asylum in the UK in a landmark ruling after initially being rejected and told they could hide their homosexuality by "behaving discreetly". (BBC) (Reuters) (The Scotsman) (Daily Express)
A Paris court sentences former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to seven years in jail for money laundering in France for the Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s. (Canadian Press via Google News) (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
The Constitutional Court of Turkey annuls key parts of government-backed constitutional reforms designed for possible European Union membership, rejecting opposition calls for the rest to be rejected as well and permitting the rest to be put to a national referendum in September. (BBC)
Israeli Uri Brodsky, suspected of assisting the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, is permitted to be extradited from Poland to Germany. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Israel rejects as "failed to meet the criteria" the application of Fatima Sharif, the Gaza human rights attorney who hoped to study for a master's degree in human rights and democracy at Birzeit University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Reuters)
Cuba releases 52 political prisoners in its aim to improve its human rights record, the largest number the country has released for decades. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
China executes Wen Qiang, Chongqing's top justice official, in its crackdown on corruption. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Standard) (Xinhua)
An openly gay cleric is blocked from becoming a Church of England bishop amid fears his consecration might split the Church. (The Daily Telegraph)
Tunisia jails Fahem Boukadous, the journalist who covered violent protests in Gafsa in 2008. Boukadous was already in hospital with breathing problems before his jailing. (BBC) (News24.com)
Human Rights Watch calls on Iran to stop the execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman convicted of adultery. She denies the charges. (BBC)
French prosecutors launch an investigation into alleged illegal campaign funding for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (BBC News)
New Zealand environmental activist Peter Bethune is given a two year suspended sentence in a Tokyo District Court for his role in boarding a Japanese whaling ship. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Guardian) (BBC) (CNN)
A Nigerian hospital worker is arrested for possessing bags that contain more than 70 dead babies. (BBC)

Business

ISPs in Africa have service disruption after the SEACOM underwater cable failed. Emergency repairs are expected to take days to complete. (BBC)
Apple Inc. bans a developer from the iTunes Store for hacking the accounts of 400 users. (BBC News)
Blizzard Entertainment announces it is to force people playing its World of Warcraft game to post under their real name. (BBC) (Boston Globe) (CBC News)
The European Union reveals its list of 91 stress test banks. (BBC)

Sport

FIFA World Cup 2010
- Spain defeats Germany 1-0 to win its semi-final and for its first time, along with Netherlands make the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final. (ESPN)
- The Ghanaian Sports Minister asks FIFA to change its rules after the elimination of their national team, and calls for the African Union to campaign against the "allegedly unfair treatment" of African teams. (BBC News)

July 8, 2010 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

A series of bombings over the three-day Shia pilgrimage to the mausoleum of Musa Kadhim in Iraq kill at least 70 and wound 300.
A fugitive rebel captain in the Philippines, Nicanor Faeldon, accused of participation in the Oakwood mutiny, turns himself in after three years. (Al Jazeera) (BBC News) (Philippine Inquirer)
A bomb rips through the engine and coach of a passenger train in Assam, India, killing one person. (Times of India) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics

The Palestinian Authority calls on U.S. President Barack Obama to end tax breaks on American donations to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. (BBC)
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recalls his envoy and closes an office in Sri Lanka due to protests over a war crimes panel. (UN News Centre) (Al Jazeera) (Times of India)
Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas ends a 134 day hunger strike after the Cuban government is to release 52 political prisoners. (CNN) (AP)
CNN's veteran Middle East editor Octavia Nasr writes on Twitter that she "respected" the recently deceased Lebanese Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. The comment is deleted from Twitter and Nasr is promptly sacked by CNN. (BBC News) (The Australian)
Amnesty International calls on Israel to completely lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip after Israel removes the restrictions on all consumer goods. (Bernama)
David Lloyd Johnston, president of the University of Waterloo, is announced as Canada's next Governor General. He will succeed Michaëlle Jean in September. (CBC News)
United States Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele again resist calls for him to step down after he asserted that the War in Afghanistan was a "war of Obama's choosing". (MSNBC)

Law

US federal judge Joseph Louis Tauro, in two separate cases, rules that a federal ban against gay marriage is unconstitutional, as it interferes with a state's right to define marriage. (MSNBC)
Brazilian footballer Bruno Fernandes de Souza surrenders to police in connection with the disappearance of his former mistress. (BBC News)
Los Angeles Police announce that they have arrested Lonnie David Franklin, Jr., suspected to be the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, yesterday. He is arraigned on various murder charges. (CNN)
BT Group and TalkTalk Group announce they are seeking a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act 2010. (BBC News)
Russian Spy Ring in the United States
- 10 people uncovered by the FBI as Russian spies plead guilty in court to conspiracy to act as foreign agents. (BBC News)
- The spies are sentenced to time served, and deported from the United States in exchange for 4 people imprisoned for alleged contact with Western intelligence bodies. (MSNBC).
BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant
- Johannes Mehserle is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the killing of Oscar Grant in 2009. (MSNBC)
- Sentencing is set for August. (CNN)
- At least 50 people are arrested in Oakland, California, after protests against the involuntary manslaughter verdict turn violent. (MSNBC)

Business and economics

Greece heads for a general strike after legislators raise the retirement age from 60 to 65. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The IMF raises global economic growth forecast for this year from 4.2% to 4.6%. (BBC News) (Business Week)
Mozambique announces it will build a new bridge across the Zambezi to allow for a giant coal project in Tete Province. (Afrol News) (BBC News)

Science and weather

Atlantic Tropical Depression Two makes landfall near South Padre Island in Texas. (CNN)
Dolphin Moko's corpse is believed to have washed up on a beach in New Zealand's North Island. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The Swiss Solar Impulse project's solar powered plane remains aloft for 24 hours, a record for a solar powered craft. (AP via Fox News)
British researchers publish the results of an 11-year study, challenging the traditional notion that childhood obesity is a result of inadequate exercise, arguing instead that obesity leads to inadequate exercise. (BBC News)
A study conducted by Stanford University suggests that heat waves will become more common in the future, due to climate change and global warming. (MSNBC) See Climate change mitigation scenarios.
Scientists discover antibodies that may eventually lead to the development of a vaccine against AIDS. (MSNBC)
A hoard of 52,503 Roman coins dating to the third century is found in Somerset, England. (BBC News) (The Telegraph)
Two undiscovered species of pancake batfish are discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, in areas affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Reuters)

Sports

NBA free agent LeBron James announces in an hour-long TV special that he plans to sign with the Miami Heat for the upcoming season. (USA Today), (ABC Online)

Other current events

Two people are gored and five injured during the Running of the Bulls at the San Fermín festival in Spain. (AP)

July 9, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

A suicide bomb in Pakistan's tribal areas near the Afghanistan border kills at least 50. (AP via Google News) (Al Jazeera)
Floribert Chebeya's autopsy returns an "inconclusive" result. (BBC)
The head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in southern Lebanon appeals for calm after attacks by villagers. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera) (AFP)

Politics

Israel criticises Britain's ambassador to Lebanon for eulogising Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who recently died. (BBC)
Two weeks after the sacking of General Stanley A. McChrystal over comments that appeared in Rolling Stone, a top French general is attacked for publicly criticising the United States-led war attempt on Afghanistan and questioning if the United States is controlling its allies. (France24)
Guinea's presidential run-off is postponed due to allegations of fraud. (BBC)
Following the recent parliamentary elections in Slovakia, Iveta Radičová substitutes Robert Fico as Prime Minister, becoming the first female incumbent of the post.
The United Nations Security Council issues a Presidential Statement condemning the sinking of the South Korean warship ROKS Cheonan. (United Nations) (CBC)
At least 50,000 West Papuans march on the Papua provincial parliament in Jayapura calling for the rejection of special autonomy status offered by Indonesia in favor of independence; 20,000 camp outside the parliament overnight. (RNZI) (Jakarta Globe)
The Australian Government is conducting a review on the proposed national internet filter. (BBC News)

Business and economics

Johnson & Johnson recalls 3 million bottles of medicines, including Tylenol, Benadryl, and Motrin, because of odors traced to a chemical in pallets used to transport and store the medicines. (Reuters)
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in Zhejiang, China, is closed after a UFO sighting. (Daily Mail) (Shanghai Daily) (oneindia)
China renews the internet content provider license for Google allowing it to continue operating in the country. (BBC News) (Daily Mail) (Radio Television Hong Kong)
The United States Government gives BP a 24-hour deadline to answer questions about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as well as providing detailed information and plans on stopping the leak. (BBC News)
The South Korean Central Bank unexpectedly raise interest rates from 2% to 2.25%. (BBC News)
Wall Street ends the week with the strongest gains in a year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 5.3%, and NASDAQ rising 5%. (Reuters)

Law and crime

A plane containing 10 members of a Russian spy ring arrives in Vienna, Austria, from the United States. (BBC News)
Pope Benedict XVI appoints Archbishop Velasio de Paolis to lead the Legion of Christ following the previous head who had engaged in child sex abuse and a number of other crimes throughout his career. (AP via Asia One) (IPS)
Chinese officials seize 64 tonnes of raw dairy materials contaminated with melamine. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera)
Iran announces that a woman convicted of adultery will no longer face stoning to death after international concern. She may, however, still face the death penalty. (National Turk) (BBC News) (Press TV)
Salman Hossain, a Bangladeshi immigrant to Canada, is charged with online advocation of genocide against Canadian Jews. (AFP)

Arts, culture and entertainment

A painting in a Johannesburg shopping centre depicting an autopsy on the corpse of Nelson Mandela surrounded by nosy world leaders attracts controversy as the topic of Mandela's eventual death is taboo in South Africa. (BBC)
Australia celebrates indigenous culture in NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme "Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way". (ABC)(NAIDOC)
Mel Gibson:
- The American-born Australian actor is being called a "potential suspect" in a domestic violence investigation. (MSNBC) (IMDB)
- An audio tape reportedly containing the voice of the actor surfaces online, with the actor allegedly making bigoted remarks against Latinos. (New York Daily News)
- The actor is reportedly dropped by his talent agency. (Reuters)

Science

American researchers discover that some fruits and vegetables grown today have less nutritional value than those grown in the 1950s. (MSNBC)

Sport

19-year-old French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre sets a national record of 9.98 seconds and becomes the first genetic European to run 100 metres in less than 10 seconds. (France24)

July 10, 2010 (Saturday)

Arts, culture and entertainment

After more than a century in British collections, the head of Noongar leader Yagan is ceremonially buried on the 177th anniversary of his last full day of freedom. (ABC) (Perth Now) (The West-Yahoo!-7)

Business and economy

After public outcry, gamemaker Blizzard Entertainment rescinds its plan to force users of its World of Warcraft online game to post under their real names. (BBC News)
Chinese exports rose by 43.9% this past June, compared to the same time last year. (BBC News)

Law and crime

Gunman Raoul Moat shoots and kills himself after a 6-hour standoff with police, ending the largest manhunt in United Kingdom's recent history. (BBC News) (Daily Telegraph)

Politics and elections

An aid ship trying to carry aid to Gaza is forced to dock at el-Arish in Egypt, after coming under heavy Israeli pressure to not break Israel's Gaza blockade. (BBC News)
A new bill is introduced in the Israeli Knesset that would force Haredi Jewish schools to teach core subjects such as mathematics, science, English, and civics, or lose state funding. (Haaretz)
Between 1.1 and 1.5 million people, according to organisers, and 56000 demonstrators, according to spanish protesters-counting specialized company Lynce, demonstrate in central Barcelona demanding greater autonomy for Catalonia within Spain. (BBC News) (Times of India) (AFP)
A breakaway group from the National League for Democracy in Burma registers to participate in the general election later this year. (BBC News) (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan makes a final campaign push on the eve of the country's Upper House election. (Channel NewsAsia)
North Korea offers to return to the six-party talks over its nuclear weapons programme. (Al Jazeera) (Arirang News) (AP)
Sri Lankan lawmaker Wimal Weerawansa ends his hunger strike against United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's decision to send a human rights panel to investigate war crimes to the country. (The Hindu) (AFP) (Xinhua)
The leaders of North and South Sudan begin talks on a strategy to deal with the results of next year's referendum on independence for the latter. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (AFP)

Science

The Rosetta probe makes a flyby past the 21 Lutetia asteroid to gather scientific data. (BBC News)
BP is set to remove the containment cap over the destroyed Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, and replace it with a bigger cap. Oil and gas will spew unrestricted from the well for an estimated four to seven days until the new cap is in place. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera)

Sports

2010 FIFA World Cup: Germany defeats Uruguay 3-2 to finish third. (BBC)
UEFA President Michel Platini is released from hospital. (France24)

July 11, 2010 (Sunday)

Politics and elections

The DPJ-led ruling coalition loses its majority in the upper house of the Diet of Japan. (BBC News) (Ahasi)
Libyan ship, Amalthea, carrying activists and 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine to Gaza, is met with a cold response by Israel which launches intense efforts to prevent it reaching its destination. (The Guardian)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Ten Colombian soldiers are killed after entering a minefield while pursuing FARC rebels trying to blow up electrical towers. (The Jerusalem Post)
Two bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital Kampala kill at least 64 people; the Somali militant group Al-Shabab, which has pledged loyalty to al-qaida, is suspected of being behind the attack. (BBC News) (The Monitor) (AP) (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

Liberian deputy parliamentary speaker Togba Mulbah is released after briefly being held under house arrest in Monrovia for allegedly ordering the beating unconscious of a policeman. (BBC)
Police in northern Eleuthera, The Bahamas, capture Colton Harris-Moore, a 19-year-old fugitive known in the United States as the "Barefoot Bandit". (AP via The Washington Post)

Arts

Spanish film-maker Augusti Vila wins the main prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic for his film The Mosquito Net. (BBC) (CBC News) (People's Daily) (The Independent)

Science

A total solar eclipse occurs in the south Pacific Ocean with thousands viewing the event on Easter Island. (BBC News)

Sport

Spain defeats the Netherlands by a score of one goal to nil in extra time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with Andrés Iniesta scoring the winning goal. (ABC Online) (FIFA)
Nelson Mandela attends the closing ceremony after "extreme pressure" from FIFA. (BBC News) (Mail & Guardian) (Calcutta Telegraph) (Aljazeera)
FIFA President Sepp Blatter rejects criticism of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (BBC)
World women's 800 metres champion Caster Semenya is left out of South Africa's team for the upcoming African Championships. (BBC Sport) (France24) (The Star)

July 12, 2010 (Monday)

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

A new cap on the destroyed oil well is put in place, and will undergo more than 2 days of testing. (AP via MSNBC)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Afghan rights group Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) releases its report stating that 2010 has been the most violent in the landlocked country since the United States led an invasion in 2001, though notes a reduction in airstrikes - a policy favoured by former General Stanley A. McChrystal - has led to less civilian deaths via this method in 2010. (Aljazeera)
A gunman opens fire at a fiber optics plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, killing two and wounding four before committing suicide. (AP via Yahoo)
At least eight people are injured after a tornado strikes the German island of Duene in the North Sea. (BBC)

Science and environment

Files indicate that GlaxoSmithKline knew Rosiglitazone (Avandia) had high heart risks since 1999, and made efforts to cover up the findings. (The New York Times)
The UK Ministry of Defence unveils Taranis, its new long-range unmanned plane intended to damage enemy territory. Tests are due to begin in 2011. (BBC) (CBS News) (The Scotsman) (The Sun)

Politics and elections

An Israeli military probe into the naval raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla praises the naval commandos who killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American but criticises poor Israeli intelligence that did not have a sufficient backup plan for its troops in the event that the Flotilla's passengers reacted violently to the raid. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Aljazeera) (The Independent)
The United States is pleased after Russia suggests Iran could build a nuclear weapon in future, an unusual admission from Moscow. (Reuters)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy goes on national TV to dismiss allegations that he received illegal campaign donations from Liliane Bettencourt. (BBC News) (France24)
The United Kingdom Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley outlines a radical proposal to reform the country's National Health Service, including the privatisation of hospitals. (BBC News)
The EU agree to impose tougher sanctions against member countries that violate the Stability and Growth Pact. (Channel NewsAsia)

Law and crime

The U.S.internet search company Google agrees to submit to official Chinese censorship of "law-breaking content". (Aljazeera)
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman due to be stoned to death for adultery, is given a temporary stay of execution. (Aljazeera)
The International Criminal Court charges Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with three counts of genocide for his role in the Darfur conflict. (Aljazeera) (AP) (BBC) (Japan Today) (The Independent)
Cuba releases 7 political prisoners and sends them into exile in Spain, the first in a wave of 52. (AP via Google News)
Italian military police general Giampaolo Ganzer is sentenced to 14 years imprisonment and fined €65,000 for drug smuggling between 1991 and 1997. (BBC)

Arts and entertainment

Switzerland rejects a request from the United States to extradite Franco–Polish film director Roman Polanski to face sentencing on charges of unlawful sex with a minor in 1977. (The Daily Telegraph)
Two Russian men, Andrei Yerofeyev and Yuri Samodurov, are convicted of inciting hatred for setting up a Forbidden Art exhibition at the Sakharov Museum. (BBC) (The Independent)
Singer Jon Bon Jovi opts to continue with Bon Jovi's world concert tour despite tearing his calf muscle at the end of a concert in New Jersey. (Reuters)

Sport

Spain's victorious 2010 FIFA World Cup "campeones" return to Madrid where they are met by millions of people in the streets, the royal family and politicians. (BBC) (The Australian)
Paul the Octopus retires. (BBC)

July 13, 2010 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

82 police officers are injured overnight in riots across Northern Ireland, sparked by the annual Orange march through Catholic neighborhoods. (BBC News)
A ship bound from Libya, the Al-Amal, due to deliver humanitarian aid from Algeria, Morocco and Nigeria to the Gaza Strip, changes course for Egypt after being warned to stay away by the Israeli Navy and receiving pressure from the United States to "act responsibly". (Aljazeera)
Pakistani embassy officials confirm missing Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who was reported to have been kidnapped by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, is taking refuge in the country's Washington, D.C. embassy. (Aljazeera)
Chile tests a package marked "anthrax" delivered to the country's foreign ministry. (Reuters)
Farmers in Gaza are shot at by Israeli militants as they attempt to harvest their crops. (Aljazeera)
Ugandan authorities arrest a number of people in connection with the July 2010 Kampala attacks which left at least 74 people dead. (Aljazeera)
An Afghan soldier attacks British soldiers as a base near Lashkar Gah, killing three (one a Nepalese citizen) and wounding four more, before defecting to the Taliban. (AP) (Aljazeera)

Arts, culture and entertainment

There is a row in the United States about privacy fears connected to an exchange in ownership of a gay teenagers' database. (BBC) (CNET News)
One death and three injuries result from a stampede during pulling of Ratha-Yatra chariots in Puri, India. (samaylive)
Los Angeles police in the United States review a recording of actor and director Mel Gibson allegedly verbally abusing his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. (BBC) (News24.com) (iAfrica)

Business and economy

The Washington, D.C.-based global lender International Monetary Fund halts funds to the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) used by oil-producing nations in Central Africa, impacting on the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. (Reuters Africa)
The EU announces that Estonia is to become the seventeenth member of the euro on 1 January 2011. (BBC) (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (The Washington Post)
At least 4 groups of Chinese private investors are interested in acquiring American International Assurance (AIA), the Asian division of insurance giant American International Group (AIG). (Channel NewsAsia)
Data collected by the United States Federal Reserve System suggests that the country's financial market, while still fragile, is showing signs of improvement. (Reuters)
The Nigerian Minister of Finance announces that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is insolvent, and is asking the government for funds to help pay off debts and continue operations. (BBC News)

Health

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS figures demonstrate a fall by up to 25 per cent in the prevalence of HIV among young people aged between 15 and 24 in Africa. (BBC) (Reuters)
President of the United States Barack Obama unveils his country's first national strategy to cut HIV/AIDS infections and improve care for those with the disease. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Law and crime

Six more New Orleans police officers are charged with: shooting dead two civilians, injuries caused to four other civilians, and conspiracy to cover up the incidents on a bridge in the aftermath of the deadly Hurricane Katrina in 2005. (BBC) (Reuters) (CBC News)
A Zimbabwe court frees human rights activist Farai Maguwu on bail after five weeks in detention, accused of providing false information about the diamond trade, charges he denies. (BBC) (IOL) (The Irish Times) (Mail & Guardian) (South Africa Mercury)
Human rights groups express concern that some of the soldiers due to march down the Champs Elysées in Paris tomorrow as part of the Bastille Day celebrations may be war criminals and write an open letter to President of France Nicolas Sarkozy. (France24)
The United Kingdom strips Russian spy Anna Chapman of her citizenship after the United States deports her. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Colton Harris-Moore, otherwise known as the "Barefoot Bandit", pleads guilty to illegally landing a plane in The Bahamas, and currently faces jail or deportation. (CNN)
A four-year-old boy dies during an exorcism ritual carried out by a traditional healer in the Russian Far East. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics and elections

Cuban ex-President Fidel Castro makes his first televised appearance in nearly a year, predicting possible nuclear war in the Middle East. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Spain receives a group of seven dissidents freed by Cuba for human rights reasons. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
A strike in Kashmir in protest at lack of independence from India leads to the closure of shops and businesses on Martyrs' Day, for a third successive day. (Aljazeera)
Senior Rwandan opposition official André Kagwa Rwisereka disappears after his car is found abandoned by the Mukula River near Butare. (Reuters)
Senior religious leaders in Southern Sudan call on people to vote for independence in a referendum to be held in January 2011. (BBC)
Fiji expels Australia's acting High Commissioner as part of a long-running dispute. (BBC)
France's lower house of parliament approves a bill that bans wearing burqa and niqāb in public. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (France24) (RTÉ)
Tens of thousands of surviving Africans in 12 former colonies who served France in two world wars and Algeria's war of independence are to have their war pensions raised to the same level as those of their French comrades, according to Nicolas Sarkozy. (BBC)
French Labour Minister Éric Wœrth resigns as UMP party treasurer at the request of President Nicolas Sarkozy to focus on pension reform. (France24)
The French government approves a draft law that would raise the retirement age to 62 from the age of 60 that has been enshrined since 1982. (BBC) (France24) (RTÉ)
The Supreme Court of India tentatively approves the Tamil Nadu government's new quota law, providing 69% of employment in educational institutions to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes. (samaylive)
Israeli authorities use bulldozers to demolish three Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem. (BBC)
The United States 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City strikes down the Federal Communications Commission's "fleeting expletives" policy that gave it power to fine broadcasters who air a single expletive on air. (The Washington Post)
President of the United States Barack Obama nominates Jacob Lew to replace Peter Orszag as the chief of the Office of Management and Budget. (The Washington Post)
The United States Senate announces it will vote on financial reform legislations on 15 July. (The Washington Post)

Science & Weather

The Philippines' first typhoon of the year moves toward the country's eastern coast, with 33 of the country's 81 provinces and the capital Manila being placed under storm alert. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The company behind the Green Dam Youth Escort internet filtering software in China has closed its operation, due to lack of funding. (Information Week)
17 people die and a further 44 are missing in Chinese landslides. (The Irish Times)

Sports

South Africa confirms a plan to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics after its success in hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup which concluded on Sunday. (BBC Sport) (Reuters)
The 2010 FIFA World Cup runner-up Netherlands national football team embarks on an open-top boat tour of Amsterdam's canals drinking beer, lined by hundreds of thousands of people. (BBC Sport) (Chicago Tribune)
Cricket: Australia and Pakistan contest the first neutral Test at Lord's Cricket Ground since 1912. (BBC Sport)
George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, dies after suffering a massive heart attack in Florida. (NBC Sports/MSNBC)

July 14, 2010 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts & attacks

The corpse of senior Rwandan opposition politician Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, who was recently reported missing, is found near his car with the head almost entirely severed off. (BBC)
Israeli warships force the Gaza-bound aid ship Amalthea to change course to El Arish port in Egypt. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
More than 60 people are hospitalised after a suspected chlorine gas leak in Mumbai. (BBC) (Arab News) (News24.com) (The Age) (The Independent)
The United States discusses the arrest of Bradley Manning, accused of providing secret information about US military corruption to Wikileaks. (BBC)
India's Home Secretary G. K. Pillai states Pakistan's intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) co-ordinated the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (Aljazeera) (Deutsche Welle)
Former Balochistan senator Habib Jalib is shot dead outside his home in Quetta, leading to riots and widespread mourning. (BBC) (The News International) (Xinhua)
Senior Indian Army officer Major A. K. Thinge is killed in battle in Kashmir. (BBC) (The Times of India) (Indian Express) (People's Daily)

Arts, culture & entertainment

Romanian pop singer Mădălina Manole commits suicide by poisoning. (Mediafax)
The Zutons frontman Dave McCabe denies breaking a man's nose by headbutting him outside a nightclub in Liverpool. (BBC) (Liverpool Daily Post) (Oxford Mail)
It is announced that the last roll of Kodachrome manufactured has been developed for photographer Steve McCurry. (Wichita Eagle)

Business & economics

Airline Ryanair is reprimanded by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority for misleading customers with their advertisements for low fares. (BBC)

Law & crime

A group of more than 30 journalists from such countries as Turkey, Spain, Germany, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Kingdom and the United States announces it is to take legal action against Israel for equipment lost and money stolen due to the Gaza flotilla raid. (Aljazeera)
Previously secret papers released as a result of civil proceedings brought by six former Guantánamo Bay inmates against MI5 and MI6, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and the Attorney General's Office reveal the British government was involved in the abduction and torture of its own citizens following the September 11 attacks. (The Guardian)
Tens of thousands take part in a church-sponsored demonstration against same-sex marriage outside Congress in Buenos Aires, as senators prepare to vote on a bill which would make Argentina the first South American country to legalize same-sex marriage. (France 24) (BBC)
German prosecutors raid 13 branches of Credit Suisse while probing tax fraud. (BBC)
Venezuela extradites Colombian Carlos Alberto Renteria to the United States: the US claims he is a major drug cartel leader. (BBC) (The China Post) (Reuters)
Former MI6 worker Daniel Houghton pleads guilty to breaching the Official Secrets Act by unlawfully disclosing top secret material to Dutch agents. (BBC)
Former Prime Minister of Bulgaria Sergei Stanishev is charged with mishandling classified documents: he calls the charges "politically motivated". (BBC)
Former Colombian politician and hostage Íngrid Betancourt drops her lawsuit against the state. (BBC)
The man accused of murdering aid worker Margaret Hassan in Iraq in 2004 disappears before his retrial. (RTÉ) (BBC) (The Irish Times) (The Independent)
Sri Lankan police file a new case against Sarath Fonseka accusing him of employing military deserters. (Aljazeera)
A new text service to report hate speech and to be monitored by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission is launched in Kenya ahead of the upcoming referendum on a new constitution. (BBC)
Police find 48 kilograms of illegal cannabis in Launceston and charge two men, after a week-long operation in one of the largest seizures of the drug in Tasmanian history. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics & elections

Two more Cuban dissidents arrive in Spain out of the 52 political prisoners due to be released on humanitarian grounds. (BBC)
The United Nations, European Union and United States express their opposition to the demolition of six more Palestinian homes by Israel. (Aljazeera)
The Sri Lankan cabinet meets in Kilinochchi, the former capital of the Tamil Tigers in the far north of the island. (BBC)
Irish Fianna Fáil Senator Ivor Callely is suspended for 20 days without pay due to a travel expenses scandal. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna goes to Islamabad for talks with his counterpart of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, for the first time since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (BBC)
Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and nearly half her cabinet begin a five-day visit to Russia, China and Kazakhstan as part of an attempt to boost trade, energy and security links. (BBC) (Der Spiegel) (Deutsche Welle)
Beijing authorities begin to gate and lock some lower-income villages, imposing curfews in order to control the flow of migrant workers. (AP)
A controversial Bastille Day parade gets underway in Paris. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

Science & weather

Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist allegedly abducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, leaves U.S. soil: Iran states it will continue to pursue the case "legally and diplomatically". (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Boeing unveils Phantom Eye, its unmanned hydrogen-powered spy plane capable of flying for up to four consecutive days. (BBC)
An 18th-Century wood-hulled ship is discovered at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, New York City. (The New York Times)
Researchers find that the Vatican Radio transmitters increase the risk of tumours and leukaemia in children who live nearby. (BBC)

Sports

The United Kingdom announces its refusal to issue visas to a lacrosse team representing the Iroquois Confederacy, whose departure has been delayed since Friday, after the United States Department of State earlier in the day cleared the team's departure with tribal passports. The UK stated that it will only recognise passports from the United States or Canada. (BBC) (The New York Times)
Controversial French footballer Thierry Henry moves to a team in the United States. (BBC Sport) (Toronto Sun)
UK Athletics (UKA) requests changes to Britain's tax laws after sprinter Usain Bolt declines to appear at a meeting in London for financial reasons. (BBC Sport)

July 15, 2010 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

More than 20 people are killed and 100 injured in a suicide attack at a mosque in southeastern Iran. (BBC) (Press TV) (Aljazeera) (Arab News)
40,000 people flee their homes and whole villages are burned to the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC)
At least six people are killed and seventeen others receive wounds after a car bomb explodes in Tikrit in Iraq. (Aljazeera)
Jwani Mwaikusa, a senior Tanzanian defence lawyer at the United Nations-backed tribunal for Rwanda, is fatally shot outside his home in Dar es Salaam. His nephew and neighbour are also killed. (BBC)
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in Germany, says Russian investigators have identified the killer of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova and an "international search" is underway. (BBC) (France24) (iafrica)
A man claiming to be the killer of three British soldiers in Helmand contacts the BBC to say he was angered at what he described as the murder of civilians, including children, by British troops. (BBC)
Gunman Raoul Moat, who spent last week as a fugitive before being fatally cornered by UK police, repeatedly requested assistance from social workers and psychiatrists months before he committed murder but was ignored. (BBC) (ITN) (The Daily Telegraph)

Arts, culture and entertainment

Four people, including celebrity photographer François-Marie Banier, are arrested in a tax-evasion investigation into L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. (BBC)
Robbie Williams and Take That reunite. (BBC)

International relations

Shahram Amiri:
- Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who says he was abducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, returns to Tehran. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (Sky News)
- Amiri says he was put under extreme mental and physical torture by the Americans and rejected bribe offers. (BBC) (Press TV) (Aljazeera)
- An Iranian Foreign Ministry official says Amiri is not a nuclear scientist but a university researcher. (Press TV)
10 Russian agents of influence deported from the United States face three weeks of testing to eradicate potential double agents. (The Age)
North Korean officials attend a rare meeting with members of the American-led United Nations Command. (BBC)(Samaylive)
President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez orders a review of Venezuela's ties with the Vatican following tensions between the government and Roman Catholic bishops. (BBC)

Law and crime

The Vatican issues a decree making the "attempted ordination of women" a grave crime in ecclesiastical law equivalent to child sexual abuse. (The Guardian)
A Gambian judge sentences eight men to death for their role in an alleged coup plot. (BBC) (Afrol News) (Reuters Africa)
The International Criminal Court orders the first accused at The Hague, Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic Republic of the Congo accused of allegedly recruiting child soldiers, be freed. (BBC) (CNN) (Reuters India)
An Iraqi court orders a search for a man, who disappeared yesterday, accused of involvement in the murder of aid worker Margaret Hassan in 2004. (BBC)
The Vatican issues new instructions to speed up its own cases of priestly sexual abuse that are considered "most urgent". (BBC)

Politics and elections

A report by Amnesty International says that North Korea's healthcare system is in a state of "crisis". (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (Amnesty International)
Argentina becomes the first Latin American country to legalise same-sex marriage. (The Washington Post) (The New York Times) (BBC) (Aljazeera)
President of Mexico Felipe Calderón replaces his Secretary of the Interior, Fernando Gomez Mont, after weeks of speculation. (BBC)
Two major US TV networks, CBS and NBC, censor the "Kill the Ground Zero Mosque" advertisement by conservative group National Republican Trust which calls plans to erect a mosque near New York City's Ground Zero a "monstrosity". (BBC) (Reuters)
Former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney admits he has received a small heart pump to combat "increasing congestive heart failure". (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sends to Congress a bill proposing that corporal punishment, including spanking, be outlawed. (BBC)
The United States Senate passes the financial reform package, aimed at curbing misconduct on Wall Street, with a 60-39 vote. (The Washington Post) (Aljazeera)

Science and weather

BP reports that no oil is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for the first time since it began in April. (Reuters)
Hundreds of Russians die, including 233 who drowned while swimming after consuming alcohol, amidst a heat wave and drought. (BBC)
World Trade Center site workers in the United States excavate a 32 foot-long ship hull said to have been buried in the 18th century. (BBC)
Researchers discover a new species of fossil primate, Saadanius hijazensis which could be a common ancestor of Old World Monkeys and apes, including humans. (NatureNews) (BBC News) (The Guardian)

Sports

Golfer Rory McIlroy ties the record for lowest score (9-under par) at a major championship. (The Belfast Telegraph) (The Guardian) (RTÉ) (Irish Independent)
World 800 metres champion Caster Semenya wins her first race since her comeback. (BBC Sport) (Arab News)
Controversial French footballer Thierry Henry retires from international football. (Arab News) (CNN) (Hindustan Times) (Vancouver Sun)
Zoo Aquarium de Madrid bids for Paul the Octopus. (Arab News) (The Guardian) (Sky News)

July 16, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Federal Defence Minister John Faulkner rules out withdrawing Australian troops from Afghanistan, alleging it would undo nine years of hard work. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Six people are killed and 15 others are wounded during a bomb at a weekly market selling second-hand cars in Khyber. (BBC) (News24.com)
South Africa warned Ugandan intelligence services last October that it might be attacked like it was on Sunday evening. (The Guardian)
The United States places U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on its "terror blacklist". (BBC) (Reuters)
July 2010 Zahedan bombings
- The death toll from the suicide bombings in Zahedan, Iran, rises to 27. (AP via Google News)
- The United Nations Security Council condemns the bombings in the "strongest terms". (Xinhua)

Arts, culture and entertainment

The Bangladeshi government outlaws the works of Abul Ala Maududi. (BBC)
Orlando Figes agrees to pay damages to Rachel Polonsky and Robert Service for fake book reviews he posted on Amazon.com. (The Guardian) (BBC)
President of Tajikistan Emomalii Rahmon's daughter Zarina Rahmonova presents the news on Channel One. (BBC)
Singer P!nk is hospitalised without serious injury after falling out of a harness and colliding with a barricade during a concert in Nuremberg. (BBC) (CBC News) (USA Today)

Business and economics

American company Goldman Sachs pays a record $550 million (US) fine to settle civil fraud charges. (Aljazeera)
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen pledges the majority of his estimated $13.5 billion fortune to philanthropy after his death. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)

Disasters

A hotel fire in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya kills at least 29 people and injures another 21. (Xinhua) (Aljazeera) (Arab News)

Law and crime

Rwandan police arrest a business partner of opposition politician Andre Kagwa Rwisereka in connection with his recent murder. (BBC)
An American judge sentences a former State Department worker to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and his wife to 6¾ years for spying for Cuba for three decades. (BBC) (Reuters) (Houston Chronicle) (Sky News)
Philip Alston expresses concern at the rise in murders in Ecuador and the declining number of murderers being caught. (BBC)
Three Chechens are charged by France in connection with a conspiracy to attack Russia; another man is released. (BBC)
Maria Jepsen, the world's first female Lutheran bishop, resigns due to her handling of an alleged case of sexual abuse. She is the third German bishop to resign in recent months. (BBC)
800 gambling dens are raided in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China, (including Hong Kong and Macau) and 5,000 people arrested for illegal betting on the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (Aljazeera) (BBC News)

Politics

The United Kingdom and United States decide last year's release from a Scottish prison of Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was "a mistake". (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Pakistan's foreign minister criticises the behaviour of the Indian foreign minister during their first talks in two years. (BBC)
Ousmane Conté, the eldest son of Guinea's dead leader Lansana Conté, is released from prison after 16 months. (BBC) (News24.com)
Human Rights Watch expresses its dissatisfaction with President of Syria Bashar al-Assad's human rights record on the tenth anniversary of his rise to the top, calling it "a wasted decade". (Aljazeera)

Science and weather

Photos taken on Mount Everest from the same spot where similar pictures were taken by George Mallory in 1921 reveal what is described as an "alarming" loss of ice. (BBC)
President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez announces the exhumation of 19th-century revolutionary Simón Bolívar to investigate suspected foul play in Bolívar's death. (AP)

Sport

Police in Nigeria seize the passports of four top football officials who were sacked after the national football team's poor performance at the 2010 FIFA World Cup leads to fraud allegations. (BBC News)
Pakistan's cricket captain, Shahid Afridi, quits in controversy after losing his team's first Test to Australia. (The Guardian)

July 17, 2010 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Dozens of English football fans clash with dogs and riot police in a busy shopping square in York, causing its closure. (BBC)
At least 50 automobiles sustain burns in Grenoble, France, as people protest the fatal shooting of a man by police. The man was shot during a chase following a robbery after firing on police. (BBC) (The Age) (Aljazeera) (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters) (News24.com)
300 JEM rebels and 86 Sudanese Army soldiers are killed in Darfur. (Aljazeera)
At least eight people are killed by machete-wielding attackers near Jos, Nigeria in scenes reminiscent of events earlier this year. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
South Korea develops a long-range cruise missile capable of striking North Korea, Japan, Russia and China. (WAtoday)
Suspected militants armed with assault rifles attack a bus in northwest Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, resulting in at least 16 casualties. (ABC Australia Online)
Thousands of mourners gather in Zahedan for a mass funeral for those killed in recent bombings; Iranian officials indicate that they believe the West carried out the atrocities. (The Age) (BBC)
The Mexican military says Thursday's attack in Ciudad Juárez was a car bomb. (Aljazeera)

Arts, culture and entertainment

Tens of thousands of people take part in a landmark European gay rights rally in Warsaw, the first time Europride is being held in Central and Eastern Europe. (BBC)
Film director Roman Polanski appears in public for the first time since being released from house arrest, watching his wife perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival. (BBC) (France24) (CBC News) (Reuters)
The Welsh language is spoken for the first time in a ceremony at England's Westminster Cathedral in honour of martyred saint John Roberts. (BBC)
30 bottles of champagne believed to pre-date the French Revolution are found on the Baltic seabed off the coast of Finland; it may be the world's oldest drinkable champagne. (BBC) (The Independent) (The Irish Times) (News24.com)

Business and economy

British tour operator Goldtrail collapses, stranding thousands of holidaymakers abroad. (BBC) (The Age)

Disasters

Israeli settlements dump untreated chemical waste directly into a sewage canal that runs through agricultural land in the West Bank, giving Palestinians skin and respiratory illnesses. (Aljazeera)
Typhoon Conson makes landfall near Hai Phong, Vietnam, after devastating Southern China and the Philippines with at least 65 dead. (JTWC) (NDCC)
One month after Israel's announcement it was easing its Gazan blockade the humanitarian situation remains dire. (Sky News)
More than 2,000 firefighters fight a fire at the port of Dalian after two oil pipelines explode. (WAtoday) (BBC)
Greece experiences its first forest fires of the summer season. (WAtoday)
Twenty-eight coal miners die after a fire in their mine near Hancheng City in China's Shaanxi Province. (CRI English)

International relations

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle criticises a reported Israeli plan that would lead to Gaza's separation from the rest of the Palestinian territories becoming final. (The Hindu)
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton attends a joint press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad after their meeting in Ramallah. (Xinhua)
Venezuela recalls its ambassador to Colombia following Colombian accusations that Venezuela is hosting rebels on its territory. (Aljazeera)

Law and crime

German minister Ilse Aigner expresses annoyance at Facebook's privacy policy, saying the website is breaking the law by collecting information such as phone numbers. (The Age)
Bangladeshi police arrest an army major who allegedly possessed hundreds of bottles of Phensedyl, an illegal cough syrup. (BBC)
Hugo Chávez exhumes the corpse of Simón Bolívar to investigate suspicions of foul play being involved in his death. (WAtoday)

Politics and elections

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Michael Somare will reportedly be asked to resign as both prime minister and leader of the National Alliance Party on Monday. (PNG Post-Courier)
The Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard calls a federal election for 21 August 2010. (iPrime) (Aljazeera)
Dozens of residents protest against plans to build four wind turbines in a field in Berkshire, England. (BBC)

Science and weather

The United States government run National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) claims 2010 could be the warmest year on record since 1880. (Aljazeera)
Ten endangered species previously known only by their Latin titles are named. (Channel 4)
Unmanned solar-powered plane Zephyr, reaches its seventh consecutive day of flight. (BBC)

Sports

The opening ceremony of the XXI Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico is delayed after a tornado causes disruption in Mayagüez. (BBC)
Salman Butt captains Pakistan for the rest of their tour after Shahid Afridi's retirement from Tests. (The Guardian)
One of the balls used in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final sells for £48,200 on eBay. (Sky News)

July 18, 2010 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

- War in Afghanistan (2001–present):
14 inmates are freed from a jail in Farah after a successful prison break led by the Taliban. (Aljazeera)
NATO forces claim to have foiled a plot to attack an international donor conference in Kabul due to feature leaders from more than 60 nations. (Aljazeera)
At least three people are killed by a suicide bomber on a bicycle in Kabul. (BBC)
A suicide bomber kills 43 people in Adhamiya in Iraq, many of whom were members of the Iraqi Army or a government-supported, Sunni, anti-al-Qaeda group called Sa hwa or Sons of Iraq. (Sky News Australia) (Aljazeera) (The Guardian)
At least 17 people are killed and at least 10 others are wounded during a pre-dawn gun attack on a birthday party in Torreón, Coahuila state in Mexico, across the border from Texas. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for a full investigation into allegations that recent killings of opposition figures in Rwanda were politically motivated ahead of the country's election next month. (The Observer)
Ugandan police arrest 20 people, including several Pakistanis, for their alleged role in the recent bombings in Kampala. (AFP via Google)

Arts, culture and entertainment

Zsa Zsa Gabor is hospitalised in serious condition after falling out of bed and breaking her hip and several other bones. (BBC), (Daily Mail), (KTLA)
North Rhine-Westphalians party on the autobahn between Duisburg and Dortmund. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Star) (Sky News)
The first Nelson Mandela International Day is held on Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday. (Aljazeera)

Disasters

At least 14 people are killed and at least 12 others sustain wounds after a bus plummets off a cliff in Pukë, Albania; a national day of mourning is declared. (BBC)
A bus falls off a cliff in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China resulting in the death of 23 people. (AP via Google News)
United Nations figures indicate around 225 families remain homeless in Gaza since Israel's three-week military offensive was launched in December 2008. (Taiwan News)
A series of two earthquakes, the second quake measuring magnitude 7.3, hit New Britain in Papua New Guinea. A tsunami warning is issued but later retracted. (ABC)

International relations

Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who says he was abducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, says the United States wanted him to confess to being a spy as part of a plan to force the release of three Americans spies caught by Iran. (Aljazeera)
The Arab League, speaking in Cairo, states written guarantees are required if Palestine is to enter into direct negotiations with Israel as Egyptian, Israeli, Palestinian and American representatives meet to talk. (Aljazeera)
Colombia takes Venezuela to the Organisation of American States over claims that the latter tolerates training camps for left-wing guerrillas, particularly FARC and ELN within its borders. (BBC)
EU commissioner Chris Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, speaking during his first visit to Gaza since 2002, calls the Israeli blockade of Gaza an "immoral failure", expresses shock at the "huge new settlements" in the West Bank, and states the United States dominance of the Quartet on the Middle East - US, EU, UN and Russia - is wrong. (The Guardian)
A 2001 film, depicting Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu discussing methods of undermining the Oslo Accords and saying the United States is "easy" to manipulate, is aired on Israel's Channel 10. (Aljazeera)
The United Kingdom plans to reduce or eliminate international aid to countries such as the "powerhouses" of Russia and China, as well as South American and eastern European countries. The government plans aid increases to some poorer nations including a 40% increase to Afghanistan. (The Observer)
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says that Israel must go beyond easing its blockade of Gaza and throw open its long-closed border. (BBC) (Xinhua)
An Israeli religious group plans to build flats in Ajami, Jaffa. (The Observer)

Law and crime

Omar Deghayes, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee and one of six suing the British government, says notes taken during his interrogation by British security service officers have been censored to hide the fact that he was tortured by agents and to avoid potentially embarrassing questions. (The Guardian)
Saddam Hussein's former foreign minister Tariq Aziz and other senior members are summoned and appear in an Iraqi court charged with "squandering the public wealth". (Aljazeera)
President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, speaking in Marange, says he will ignore anyone who desires mention of LGBT rights in a draft of the next constitution of Zimbabwe. (AFP via Google) (RTÉ)
A decade-long manhunt orchestrated by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation ends with the capture of José Figueroa Agosto in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Women rights groups in Pakistan say the life of a woman convicted of adultery is now in grave danger; she faces death by stoning as her man has abandoned her to the courts. (The Guardian)
Health experts condemn tobacco companies for openly flouting European Union laws against advertising by using glitzy sales teams and techniques to promote cigarette brands at young people on Facebook and at music festivals. (The Observer)
Customs officers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport discover 400 rare tortoises, more than 40 rare tomato frogs and an unidentified number of chameleons bound with masking tape and stuffed into socks allegedly smuggled from Madagascar in the luggage of two women. (BBC) (ABC News)
Police in Grenoble, France arrest four people for attempted murder whom they claim protested the fatal shooting of a man by police. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that he will oppose a conversion bill that would give the Chief Rabbinate of Israel the legal power to decide whether any conversion is legitimate and could cause immigrants who converted to Judaism abroad to be denied Israeli citizenship. (AP)

Science and weather

Rhinoceros experts worry after the last female in the Krugersdorp game reserve near Johannesburg is attacked by helicopter, shot with tranquiliser guns, and has her horn hacked off by poachers, slowly bleeding to death. (The Observer)

Sports

Golfer Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa wins the 139th Open Championship, played at the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. (The Guardian) (BBC Sport)

July 19, 2010 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Greek investigative journalist, blogger and broadcaster Sokratis Giolias is killed after being shot more than 15 times outside his home in Ilioupoli, Athens ahead of the publication of his report into corruption. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
Amnesty International releases its "Agents of Fear" report, accusing Khartoum's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) of torturing and abusing political dissidents, including journalists, human rights activists and students, in an attempt to silence them. (Aljazeera)
Several people are killed in a clash between Somali fighters and government forces in the capital Mogadishu. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (Press TV) (AP)

Arts, culture and entertainment

75-year-old author Alan Shadrake is arrested in Singapore while promoting his book about the use of the death penalty. He is charged with criminal defamation and faces two years imprisonment. (BBC) (The Independent)
A Tel Aviv judge orders the opening of safe deposit boxes believed to contain manuscripts and drawings by Bohemian writer Franz Kafka at a bank in Zürich. (BBC)
A collection of posters is released to mark the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. (BBC)
An undiscovered painting by Caravaggio is discovered in Rome, according to l'Osservatore Romano. (BBC) (Christian Science Monitor)
Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev appears in court in Thailand, accused of the rape of a 14-year-old male, though he denies this. (BBC)
The Fromelles Military Cemetery is opened in Fromelles in northern France containing the graves of 250 Australian and British soldiers who died in the Battle of Fromelles in World War I and had previously been buried in a mass grave. (BBC)
The United Kingdom's oldest person, a Gateshead great-great grandmother, dies at the age of 111. She would have been 112 next month. (BBC)

Business and economics

China surpasses the United States to become world's biggest energy consumer, consuming about 4% more than the U.S. (Washington Post)

Disasters

Two trains collide in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India with at least 50 people feared dead. (Times of India) (AFP) (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Chinese authorities launch a clean-up operation to tackle a 50 sq km slick following an explosion of two crude oil pipelines in Dalian. (BBC) (Xinhua) (AFP)
Retired United States Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the person in charge of cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico states that the cap is leaking but it is not a major concern so far. (AP via Google News)

International Relations

President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asks that the United States stop using what he describes as "cowboy logic" if it wants to engage in dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, adding that he would support negotiations. (BBC)
Scores of checkpoints appear overnight as 70 countries prepare to attend a conference in Kabul on the future of Afghanistan. (BBC)
The United States issues a warning to US citizens visiting or living in Uganda about the risk of terrorism as an African Union summit on maternal and child health summit starts. (CNN)

Law and crime

A two-year "Top Secret America" investigation by The Washington Post concludes that United States intelligence gathering has grown so much since the September 11 attacks that neither its true cost, size nor effectiveness in keeping the country safe is actually known. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
A former British Army commanding officer is accused of lying to a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian in his soldiers' custody. (BBC)
Kenyan pastor John Kamau Mbugua pleads not guilty to two charges over an alleged plot to bomb a campaign rally for next month's constitutional referendum. (BBC)
Taysir Hayb, the Israeli soldier who shot and killed British volunteer Tom Hurndall, is to be released next month after an Army committee headed by Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit decides to shorten his sentence. (Haaretz)
196 people are indicted in Istanbul for plotting to overthrow the government. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Guardian) (The News international) (People's Daily) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Hundreds of Italians commemorate anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino in Palermo, 18 years after he was killed by a car bomb. (BBC)
Syria bans the full face veil from being worn in its universities. (BBC) (Oneindia)
Authorities at Mexico City International Airport arrest a man who had flown from Lima and was attempting to smuggle 18 little monkeys into the country inside items of clothing. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics

A report states that U.S. and European intelligence agencies believe Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is dying of stomach and pancreatic cancer, and has one year left to live. The report states that Mubarak will likely die before the country's next presidential election. (Haaretz)
Dési Bouterse is elected President of Suriname by parliament. (BBC)
The United Nations Economic and Social Council grants the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission consultative status after a vote of 23 for, 13 against, 13 abstentions, and 5 absent. (San Diego Gay & Lesbian News) (The New York Times)
Prime Minister David Cameron launches his "Big Society" scheme. (BBC) (Channel 4)
David Cameron opts not to meet four United States senators to discuss allegations BP lobbied for the release of the terminally ill Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, though they may meet the ambassador instead. (BBC)
Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister Puka Temu joins with opposition MPs in an attempt to bring down the government of Prime Minister Michael Somare. (ABC News)

Science and weather

Queensland fossil hunters discover a cave of 15-million-year-old prehistoric marsupials. (BBC)
Farnborough Airshow, Hampshire, England:
- An anti-aircraft laser is unveiled, a first for naval warfare. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- A supersonic Bloodhound model is unveiled. (BBC)

July 20, 2010 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Navi Pillay states that Kyrgyzstan is detaining hundreds of people and using torture on some of them during the ongoing crisis. (BBC) (Arab News) (France24) (Reuters)
Thailand's government lifts a state of emergency in 3 provinces; it remains in 16 others, including Bangkok. (Arab News) (Aljazeera)
William Hague, the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, says that British soldiers should be out of Afghanistan by 2014. (Xinhua)
Uganda's government defends the forced repatriation of 1,700 Rwandan refugees, deemed "heavy-handed" by the United Nations; two people are killed in a group alleged to be a security risk following the July 2010 Kampala attacks. (Arab News)
Turkey says six of its soldiers were killed and fifteen wounded in an attack by Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border. Turkey also says that one rebel was killed during the attack, and that others were being pursued by the military. (BBC)

Arts and entertainment

Author Alan Shadrake is released on bail after being arrested while promoting his book on the death penalty in Singapore; a trial is forthcoming on 30 July. (Aljazeera)
The shortlist for the Forward Poetry Prize is announced. (The Guardian)
Actress Lindsay Lohan starts a 90-day sentence for breaking her parole for a 2007 conviction for drunk driving in California, United States. (The Australian) (BBC) (Reuters) (Sky News)
The shortlist for the 2010 Mercury Prize is announced. (BBC) (France24) (The Irish Times) (The Independent)

Business and economics

An American appeals court grants bail to newspaper publisher Conrad Black. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Samaylive Latest News)
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signs legislation to create a so-called "bad bank". (BBC)
A worker at a Foxconn subsidiary undergoes a fatal fall from a dormitory building in Foshan, Guangdong. (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (Reuters India) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Disasters

Preliminary investigations indicate driver error as the cause of yesterday's deadly train crash in West Bengal. (BBC) (San Jose Mercury News)

International relations

Two men imprisoned for nearly eight years in Guantánamo Bay are sent to Algeria and Cape Verde, according to the United States Pentagon, against their will. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Cuba's Ricardo Alarcón says the island is prepared to release further political prisoners after the 52 it announced earlier this month; he says they are free to remain in Cuba if they so wish. (BBC) (France24)
The United States announces it is to deploy troops along the US-Mexico border in August in what it sees as an effort to improve its security. (BBC)
An international conference on the future of Afghanistan opens in Kabul co-chaired by the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. The conference endorses a goal for Afghan forces to lead security operations across the country by 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggests raising the size of the Afghan National Army to 170,000 troops and the Afghan National Police to 134,000 officers by 2011. (BBC) (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Former North Korean spy Kim Hyon Hui is allowed into Japan via Haneda Airport on a government-chartered jet, after the country waives its own immigration rules. (BBC) (The Guardian) (iAfrica) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
North Korea executes by firing squad Kwon Ho Ung, a former cabinet official who led talks with South Korea from 2004 until 2007. (The Guardian) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashal meet for talks in Syria. (BBC) (CNN) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The leadership of Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon is attacked. (BBC)
ASEAN formally invites Russia and the United States to attend the East Asia Summit and urges Myanmar to hold free and fair elections in a foreign ministers meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Agence France Presse), (AP via Google News)

Law and crime

Former MI5 head Baroness Manningham-Buller gives evidence in public before the Iraq Inquiry into Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, admitting that the 2003 invasion of Iraq served to "substantially" increase the security threat to the UK. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Lesbian student Constance McMillen, banned by a high school in the United States from bringing her girlfriend to her leavers' dinner, is to receive a $35,000 settlement in response to a discrimination lawsuit. (BBC) (USA Today) (Miami Herald) (The Washington Post)
Police in Krasnodar investigate allegations of animal cruelty after a terrified donkey is forced to parasail off a beach as part of an advertising stunt in a film that has shocked Russians nationwide. (BBC) (IOL) (iAfrica) (Sky News) (Daily Mail)
Former Indian junior diplomat Madhuri Gupta is charged under the Official Secrets Act with spying for Pakistan. (BBC) (The Times of India) (Asian Age)
French prosecutors request that they be allowed to question Labour Minister Éric Wœrth as part of an investigation into the country's political scandal. (BBC) (Reuters)
Two prisoners flee a jail guarded by a dummy. (BBC)
Bailiffs and police officers swoop in and evict peace protesters from Democracy Village in Parliament Square, Central London, England (BBC)
A police officer discharges a 50,000-volt Taser gun into the groin of a Guillain–Barré syndrome sufferer in Somerset, England, prompting a possible legal battle; he denies he was acting in an aggressive manner. (BBC) (The Independent) (Daily Mail)
Ly Tong allegedly attacks Dam Vinh Hung with pepper spray during a concert in California, United States, accusing him of being a proponent of Communism. (BBC) (San Jose Mercury News)

Politics

ASEAN requests that Myanmar hold free elections. (Arab News) (The Age) (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron meets with US President Barack Obama to discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Afghanistan and the global economy. (BBC) (Samaylive News) (Aljazeera)
The Supreme Court of Guinea confirms there will be a presidential run-off in the country's election. (BBC) (Miami Herald) (Xinhua)
Campaigning begins ahead of the presidential election in Rwanda. (BBC) (News24.com) (The Irish Times) (Aljazeera)
Spain rejects a proposal to ban the burqa in public places; 183 to 162, with two abstaining. (Arab News)
Shirley Sherrod, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture, resigns after a video on the internet surfaced showing her apparently making racist remarks regarding the foreclosure of a farm owned by a white farmer. (CNN) (Fox News) Controversy ensues about the video having been heavily edited to convey false information. (mediamatters)
Cabinet formation in the Netherlands: Coalition meetings between People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Labour Party (PvdA), Democrats 66 (D66) and GreenLeft (GL) fails to form a new Purple government. (NOS)

Science and weather

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River faces its biggest flood control test since its completion last year. (BBC) (Business Week)
Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin announces the country is to invest $800 million into a new spaceport near Uglegorsk in the Far East. (BBC)

Sport

French footballers Franck Ribéry and Karim Benzema are placed under formal judicial investigation for soliciting sex with an underage prostitute. (BBC News) (Aljazeera) (Reuters) (iAfrica) (Montreal Gazette)
Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie selects Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjørn and Paul McGinley as his vice-captains. (The Guardian)
Alberto Contador apologises after he took advantage of Andy Schleck to obtain the yellow jersey in the 2010 Tour de France. (The Guardian)

July 21, 2010 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict:
- Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Murat Karayilan says the group would disarm under the supervision of the United Nations in return for an end to attacks on Kurdish civilians and arrests of Kurdish politicians in eastern Turkey, as well as additional linguistic and cultural rights. (BBC)
- Suspected PKK militants blow up an oil pipeline carrying oil from Iran. (Hurriyet) (UPI) (Times of India)
Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles fatally shoot Indian civil rights campaigner and environmentalist Amit Jethwa in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. (BBC)
At least 30 people are killed and 46 others are wounded, including women and children, as a car bomb explodes near a Shia mosque in Abu Sayeeda, Baqubah, Diyala in Iraq. (Aljazeera)
At least 34 people are killed in clashes in northern Yemen between Houthi rebels and pro-government tribes. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
The United States threatens to impose new sanctions on North Korea as part of its attempt to halt perceived nuclear weapons ambitions; North Korea describes United States military exercises in the Sea of Japan as "very dangerous sabre-rattling". (Aljazeera)
Assailants launch an attack on a hydroelectric plant in Kabardino-Balkaria in southern Russia killing two guards and letting off bombs. (Canadian Press via Google News) (Al Jazeera) (RIA Novosti)
Four people are killed and many more are injured by police fire in Assam in India during a protest by thousands against government registration. (BBC)
Three plainclothes Chinese police officers beat up, bruise and concuss a provincial official's wife by accident; the police are punished, while the woman is hospitalised. (BBC) (China Daily) (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters) (News24)
Three policemen are killed by suspected left-wing extremists in Pabna, Bangladesh. (BBC)
Two Palestinian militants of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine are killed and another six wounded by Israeli shelling as they approached the Gaza Strip-Israel border near Beit Hanoun. A ten-year-old girl is also wounded. (Haaretz) (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Arts and culture

A Stonewall study indicates that young people rarely see positive portrayals of lesbian and gay people on television, usually depicted as "promiscuous, predatory, or figures of fun", particularly on BBC One. (BBC)
The London Review of Books issues a public apology after more than 70 leading British writers, academics and arts figures accuse it of publishing a racist blogpost comparing African migrants to baboons and black shopkeepers to rottweilers. (The Guardian)
The Margaret Hewson Prize for new writing talent, judged by Beryl Bainbridge 10 days before her recent hospitalisation and eventual death, is awarded to Laura McClelland. (The Guardian)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron gifts President of the United States Barack Obama a painting, Twenty First Century City, by graffiti artist Ben Eine, while Obama gifts Cameron a signed lithograph, Column with Speed Lines, by Edward Ruscha. (BBC)
Austria's Leopold Museum agrees to pay $19 million to the estate of Jewish art dealer Egon Schiele's for Portrait of Wally, stolen from her by Nazism in World War II. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Washington Post)
Cécile Aubry, French film star, writer and ex-wife of Moroccan prince Si Brahim El Glaoui, dies. (BBC)
Google Images receives one billion page views per day and receives a revamp. (BBC)
Actor George Clooney is to receive an award for humanitarian work. (BBC) (News24) (Los Angeles Times) (The Washington Post)

Business and economics

A Burger King advertising campaign is outlawed in the United Kingdom after complaints. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Newspaper publisher Conrad Black is released from prison but restricted to the continental United States; he is to appear in a Chicago court on 23 July. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Indian banks turn away Muslims in record numbers. (BBC)
Energy company BP announces it is to sell billions worth of assets in Canada, Egypt, Pakistan, United States and Vietnam to part-fund the clean-up cost of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (BBC)
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán says his government would only talk about their 2011 budget with the European Union, not the International Monetary Fund. (Reuters)
The European Commission orders the closure of loss-making coal mines across the European Union over the next four years. (BBC) (CNBC)
Air traffic controllers in France go on strike in protest at a plan to unify European airspace. (France 24) (euronews) (Reuters India)

Disasters

The United Nations requests more aid to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the Sahel. (Al Jazeera)
The death toll from floods in China, the worst in a decade, rises to 700. (Xinhua) (Sify)

International relations

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrives in Chad, a member of the International Criminal Court, despite an arrest warrant. (Al Jazeera) (AP) (Reuters)
Despite pressure from Australia and New Zealand, a gathering of about 5 Pacific Island leaders is held in Fiji. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State, announces that the United States will impose further sanctions against North Korea as a result of the sinking of the South Korean warship ROKS Cheonan. (Bloomberg)

Law and crime

Mexico states that it has the support of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, the Federated States of Micronesia, Panama, Senegal, Turkey, and Uruguay in pursuing its case against Arizona's immigration law. (CNN)
An Arab residing in Israel is convicted of "rape by deception" and jailed for 18 months for having consensual sexual intercourse in 2008 with an Israeli woman alleged to believe he was Jewish. (Aljazeera) (The Guardian)
San bushmen in Botswana lose a court case in which they requested the re-opening of their traditional Kalahari waterhole from which the government forced them out when diamonds were discovered there in the 1980s. (BBC)
Four men go on trial in Nukuʻalofa charged with a mother's manslaughter in the MV Princess Ashika ferry disaster. (BBC)
Kenya awards compensation in a landmark ruling to civilians tortured by police during Daniel arap Moi's time in power in the 1980s. (BBC)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague orders the retrial of former Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj after stating his first trial was marred by witness intimidation. (Deutsche Welle) (Aljazeera) (The New York Times) (BBC)
Human Rights Watch calls for an independent investigation in Rwanda into the death of Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, who was killed weeks before a presidential election. (CNN) (AFP)
Italian police announce 67 arrests, €250 million worth of property seizures and the "wipe out" of a local clan. (WAtoday)
Israel tells the United Nations it will limit the use of fatal burning weapon white phosphorus in future conflicts after using it on civilians during its War on Gaza. (BBC) (France24)

Politics

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron offends his own war veterans by erroneously suggesting in a Sky News interview that his country fought as the "junior partner" alongside the United States in "...the 1940 war against Germany." (BBC)
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Michael Somare threatens the life of an opposition member after a vote of no confidence is thwarted. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The White House holds an official review after an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture was forced to resign regarding controversy about a video that surfaced on the Internet. (CNN) (The Guardian) (BBC News) (The New York Times)
President of the United States Barack Obama signs finance reforms into law, overhauling the country's Wall Street Financial District. (Aljazeera)
Nepal's lawmakers fail to elect a new Prime Minister as no candidate manages to secure the required number of votes . (Samaylive)

Science

Scientists investigate the deaths of approximately 500 penguins whose corpses washed up on Brazilian beaches. (BBC)
Scientists announce the discovery of R136a1, the most massive star ever found. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

Sport

Hockey India investigates after M. K. Kaushik, 1980 Olympic gold medalist and coach of the women's team, allegedly sexually harasses a squad member; he denies the allegation but temporarily resigns pending the outcome of the investigation. (BBC News) (The Hindu) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (NDTV)

July 22, 2010 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

15,000 villagers are to be displaced in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of British mining company Randgold Resources's search for gold. (BBC)
Fighting in north and south Yemen leaves 24 dead. (BBC) (News24)
Two Ugandans and one Peruvian are killed and 15 others are injured in a bomb in Baghdad, Iraq. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
The Israeli military tells the United Nations it will restrict its use of artillery shells containing white phosphorus. (BBC)
A Palestinian militant is killed and seven other people wounded when Israeli troops open fire in northern Gaza. (BBC)

Arts and culture

1984 Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu announces he is to withdraw from public life. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (euronews) (France24) (The New York Times) (Reuters Africa)
Writers such as Martin Amis, V. S. Naipaul, Orhan Pamuk, Philip Roth and Salman Rushdie begin selling ebooks via Amazon.com in a dispute over digital royalties. (The Guardian)
The UN's John Ging says more than 7,000 Palestinian children have successfully attempted a Guinness World Record by simultaneously dribbling basketballs. (CNN) (AP) (UN News Centre) (People's Daily)
Catalan tenor José Carreras announces he is to perform at La Scala for the first time in 14 years. (BBC)
Damon Albarn-fronted Gorillaz announce their first world tour and will visit at least four continents. (BBC) (Brisbane Times)
Coronation Street cat Frisky's ashes sell at auction for nearly six times the expected price in Gloucestershire, England. (BBC)

Business and economics

The International Monetary Fund cancels Haiti's $268 million debt and approves a new three-year loan worth $60 million; the IMF expects Haiti to start paying back interest in late 2011. (Aljazeera)
A proposal to develop nuclear energy is discussed at an energy policy meeting held by Asean in Da Lat, Vietnam. (BBC)

Disasters

Volunteers use their hands to clean an oil spill in the Yellow Sea after pipelines burst off Dalian in Northeastern China's Liaoning Province, spilling 1,500 tonnes of oil and covering an area close to 1,000 km² and about 90 km of coast. (Xinhua), (AFP)
Tornado strikes Battle Creek, Michigan

International relations

The International Court of Justice rules that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence was legal, in a move that could set a precedent for unrecognised countries.(Al-Jazeera) (BBC) (The Guardian)^[1]
Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon stalls on his earlier proposal for an international investigation into the Gaza flotilla raid. (Asia Times Online)
A spokesperson for North Korea suggests new United States sanctions against it are "in violation" of a United Nations statement which did not apportion blame for the sinking of a South Korean warship. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Aljazeera)
Belarus and Georgia form political alliance against Russia. (The Guardian)
Chad suggests the International Criminal Court is biased against African leaders. (BBC)
Fiji leader Frank Bainimarama opens a meeting, "Engaging the Pacific". (BBC)
The United States decides to resume training Indonesian soldiers after 12 years. (BBC) (Bangkok Post) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Washington Post)
Israel warns the United Nations that two ships carrying aid to Gaza would not, by "all necessary means", be allowed to reach their destination. (Reuters India) (AP)

Law and crime

It is announced that the police officer who was filmed pushing Ian Tomlinson to his death during the 2009 G-20 London summit protests will not face charges; his family call it "outrageous". (BBC)
Three more dissidents released by Cuba on humanitarian grounds arrive in Spain. (BBC)
Nobel Peace Laureates Desmond Tutu and Shirin Ebadi lead hundreds of rights groups in calling on Senegal to try exiled Chadian dictator Hissène Habré for mass murder and torture. (AFP) (Ekklesia) (The Independent)
Iran pressurises Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by lapidation, calling on her to name those campaigning for her release. (The Guardian)
Nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, released as part of a spy swap between Russia and the United States, asks to return home. (BBC)
Salon.com claims Irish teenager Phoebe Prince, driven to suicide by high school bullies in the United States, had serious psychological problems long before her death. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
A report by Transparency International indicates that Rwanda is the "least corrupt country in East Africa". (BBC)
Human Rights Watch alleges Chinese security forces beat and tortured protesters during 2008 unrest in Tibet. (BBC)
Bishops in Chile request clemency for those convicted of crimes committed under the military rule of the 1970s and 1980s. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Kyrgyzstani police arrest Akhmat Bakiyev, a brother of ousted leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev, in an apartment raid in Jalalabad. (BBC)

Politics

President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak makes a televised speech in contrast to concerns for his health. (BBC)
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday apologizes to Shirley Sherrod for firing her over a heavily-edited video tape of a speech, circulated by Tea Party activists, which alleged that Sherrod's actions were the result of racism, and offers her an official job. (EuroWeb.com) (BloombergBusinessweek)
Cabinet formation in the Netherlands: Former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers is appointed the new informateur for the formation of a new coalition cabinet. (NOS)
The funeral of Roy Oldham, the UK's longest serving council leader, takes place. (BBC)

Science

A woman is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease ("human mad cow disease") in Milan then hospitalised in Livorno, only the second case in Italy's history and the first since Sicily 2002. (WAtoday)
A new henge is discovered at Stonehenge World Heritage Site, described to be the biggest discovery of a major monument in over 50 years around Stonehenge. (BBC News)

Sports

Muttiah Muralidaran takes his 800th Test wicket for the Sri Lanka cricket team in his final ball before his retirement and finishes his career as the world record holder for number of wickets. (ABC Online)

July 23, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Nigerian part of Jos is sealed off as police search the city following the discovery of a booby-trap bomb. (BBC)
North Korea responds to nearby joint United States-South Korean military exercises by stating that the acts resemble 19th century "gunboat diplomacy", describing them as "a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole". (BBC)
One person is killed and 42 injured after a Swiss tourist train derails in the Alps. (CBC) (AP)
Israel Defense Forces soldiers kill a Palestinian man attempting to enter the Israeli settlement of Barkan. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post)
The United Nations Human Rights Council appoints Sir Desmond de Silva of Britain, Karl Hudson-Phillips of Trinidad and Tobago, and Mary Shanth Dairiam of Malaysia to investigate the Gaza flotilla raid. (Aljazeera) (Radio New Zealand)
Guinea and Djibouti pledge to contribute troops towards the African Union Mission supporting the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia. (Al Jazeera) (AP)

Arts and culture

The legal case over Precious is dismissed. (BBC)
The Diocese of Rome criticises homosexual priests, accusing them of leading a "double life" and advising them to leave the priesthood. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Singer Billy Corgan collapses during a performance of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" in the United States. (BBC) (CNN) (CBS News) (Daily Mail)
Black Swan is announced as the opening film of the 67th Venice International Film Festival. (BBC)
The British-Irish boy band, One Direction, is formed in the 7th series of the television show, X Factor UK (www.starpulse.com)

Disasters

Alarms on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig are found to have been disabled before the explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (The Guardian)

International relations

Serbia states its intention to never recognize Kosovo's independence after International Court of Justice's yesterday ruling. (BBC)
Venezuela severs diplomatic relations with Colombia after Colombia claims Venezuela is a "haven for guerrillas". (BBC) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (Samaylive News)

Law and crime

A Dutch court finds Trafigura guilty of illegally dumping toxic waste in Côte d'Ivoire in 2006. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Two Spaniards and a journalist sue Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, plus other Israeli ministers and officials, as a result of the Gaza flotilla raid. (BBC) (IOL) (The Irish Times)
An investigation by The Independent uncovers the first evidence of a UK-based rendition recruitment drive, free of American involvement, suggesting MI5 was directly involved in the 2004 "illegal" transfer of a Moroccan national from a Belgian prison to London. (The Independent)
Michael Conahan, a former judge in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, pleas guilty to racketeering conspiracy by assisting in the jailing of juvenile defendants in return for bribes. (BBC) (The Washington Post)
China sentences an Uyghur journalist who spoke to foreign media after riots in Xinjiang last year to 15 years imprisonment. (BBC) (Reuters Africa)
A court in the U.S. state of Arizona listens to challenges to the state's policy against illegal immigrants. (BBC)
A panel decides Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga should stay in jail in The Hague: Lubanaga says he is not guilty of the charges against him. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
A Pakistan court requests that a mentally-ill woman who was charged but never went on trial for a 1996 desecration of the Koran be released. (BBC)
Death of Ian Tomlinson:
- The family of Ian Tomlinson, filmed being pushed to his death by police while walking home from work past the 2009 G-20 London summit protests, say the incident is being covered up by authorities. (The Independent)
- The Independent Police Complaints Commission supports a prosecution for manslaughter. (The Guardian)

Politics

France's defense ministry says it aided a recent raid by Mauritania against al-Qaeda in North Africa in a failed search for a French hostage. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (IOL) (Reuters)
Nigeria's senate changes the country's constitution to reschedule elections. (BBC)
Former President of Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga criticises the current government for "completely forgetting the legacy" of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the first female prime minister on earth. (BBC)
A paralyzed Cuban political prisoner achieves a successful application to leave Cuba and go to the United States. (Aljazeera)

Science

President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces plans to launch a manned shuttle into space by 2019. (BBC) (Press TV) (The Straits Times)
The Indian government unveils a solar power touch-screen laptop, cheaper than America's iPad, expected to be on sale next year. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Independent) (The Jakarta Post)

Sport

The French Football Federation suspends its entire team that played in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (BBC Sport) (The Independent) (Reuters)
Professional footballer Gavin Grant is found guilty of murder. (BBC) (The Independent)
The torch lighting ceremony for the first Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Singapore from August 14 to 26, is held in Olympia, Greece. (The Straits Times)

July 24, 2010 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

The United States and South Korea begin showing off their navy and air force by maneuvering dozens of ships and planes and thousands of troops in the Sea of Japan with intent to "rattle" North Korea. (BBC)
The Royal Air Force tests fighter jets with which it intends to use to shoot down any rogue passenger planes. (BBC)
A mass grave containing at least 50 tortured and burned corpses is unearthed east of Monterrey, Nuevo León, in Mexico. (BBC)
France states its joint effort with Mauritania to free a French hostage is over, but no word is released on the whereabouts of the hostage or if he is even still alive. (Aljazeera)

Arts, culture and society

A massive stampede at the 2010 Love Parade in Duisburg kills 21 people and injures dozens more people. (Deutsche Welle) (Der Spiegel) (Aljazeera) (The Age) (BBC News)
Rallies occur in Berlin, London, New York City, Paris, Ottawa and elsewhere, calling for the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman facing execution for adultery in Iran. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
Beginning of the 2010 European Go Championship in Tampere, Finland. [1]
Thousands of people across the globe film their daily lives for Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott's YouTube-based documentary Life in a Day. (Huffington Post)

Disasters

More than half of Peru enters a state of emergency due to unusually cold weather. (BBC)
Chinese floods:
- Premier Wen Jiabao wades through water in Wuhan to warn of further devastation. (BBC)
- The Yangtze River's Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river reaches 158 metres and is about to overflow. (Aljazeera)
BP announces it is to start drilling for oil off Libya. (BBC) (France24) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Age)
The Lake Delhi Dam fails along the Maquoketa River in the U.S. state of Iowa. (CBS News)

Law and crime

Two Spanish activists and a journalist arrested in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla file charges against Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (BBC)
An investigation reveals that several dozen staff and contractors of the United States Department of Defense, some with high-level security clearances, allegedly downloaded child pornography; an undisclosed number did so on government-owned computers. (The Boston Globe) (The Guardian)

Politics

In the United States House of Representatives, Republicans introduce Resolution 1553, which expresses United States support for Israeli use of any necessary military force to eliminate any threat it believes Iran poses. (Press TV) (Res. 1553)
Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin meets the Russian intelligence agents who were swapped with the United States. (BBC)
15th African Union summit in Kampala:
- African heads of state meet. (BBC)
- President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak opts not to attend, increasing concerns for his health. (BBC) (CTV) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Gordon Brown returns to make an appearance. (The Guardian) (BBC)

Science

Iran begins researching the development of an, as yet, non-existent nuclear fusion reactor. (BBC)

Sport

Snooker's "first television superstar" and two-times world champion Alex Higgins dies at the age of 61. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian) (The New Zealand Herald) (RTÉ) (Hindustan Times)

July 25, 2010 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

1 person is killed and at least 10 are injured after a bombing at a bus stop in Bangkok following a parliamentary by-election. (Aljazeera) (Channel 4) (Bangkok Post)
The Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb announces it has killed a French hostage in Mali after a failed rescue attempt by French and Mauritanian troops. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
There are reports that an airstrike on a village in Helmand Province has killed 45 civilians, including children, who were sheltering from violence. (BBC)

Disasters

Love Parade stampede:
- Survivors blame officials for yesterday's death stampede at the Love Parade in Duisburg. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (Der Spiegel)
- The death toll rises to 19. (Reuters)
- The event's founder axes the annual festival. (The Daily Telegraph) (Sky News)
It is revealed that BP chief executive Tony Hayward is negotiating his terms of exit after being negatively criticised by politicians in the United States over his handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (BBC) (The Guardian)

Economics

United States Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner pushes for Congress to allow the tax cuts for high-income taxpayers in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 to expire at the end of 2010, while extending the act's tax cuts for middle- and lower-income taxpayers. (CNN)

Politics

Iraq Inquiry witness Carne Ross alleges the British government is covering up "embarrassing testimony" about its decision to invade Iraq in 2003. (The Observer) (Channel 4)
Burmese military ruler General Than Shwe begins a five-day visit to India. (BBC) (The Times of India)
African Union summit:
- At the African Union summit in Kampala, attended by 53 countries, its president, the President of Malawi Bingu wa Mutharika, states International Criminal Court indictments against the Sudanese president undermine African peace and security and calls for the issue to be solved in a different way. (Aljazeera)
- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says the fight against Somali militant group al-Shabaab must be stepped up. (BBC) (Daily Nation)
Former President of Cuba Fidel Castro visits a mausoleum in Artemisa, his first reported appearance outside Havana since leaving office in 2006. (BBC)

Sport

Alberto Contador wins the 2010 Tour de France, his third, as seven-times winner Lance Armstrong makes his final appearance. (BBC Sport)
Fernando Alonso wins the German Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa at Hockenheim. (BBC Sport)
The FIVB World League 2010 ends with Brazil becoming the first country to win the competition nine times.

July 26, 2010 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

The President of France Nicolas Sarkozy confirms that Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb has executed Michel Germaneau, a French hostage taken in Mali. (Al-Jazeera)
The United States, European Union and United Nations pledge additional resources to the African Union's AMISOM peacekeeping force in Somalia. (Voice of America)
Two car bombs explode near the southern Iraqi city of Karbala, killing at least twenty people. (BBC)

Disasters

At least 26 people die after a bus crashes in the Daman District in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan. (AP via Sydney Morning Herald) (samaylive)
An Israeli Air Force helicopter crashes in Romania with six Israeli airmen and a Romanian military observer on board; all are feared dead. (Haaretz)

Law and crime

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch receives the verdict in his trial in Phnom Penh - the first of five surviving senior figures to do so. He is sentenced to 35 years in prison with 16 years off for time served. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (CNN)
United States investigators associated with INTERPOL track 200 bank accounts associated with alleged North Korean drug smuggling, counterfeiting, money laundering and arms trafficking. (ABC News Australia)

Politics

Release of The War Logs:
- Wikileaks releases over 92,000 documents detailing unreported killings of hundreds of Afghan civilians and other incidents related to the war in Afghanistan to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel, in one of the biggest leaks in U.S. military history. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Der Spiegel) (The New York Times)
- The United States government condemns the release of the files, calling it a "risk" and a threat to their security. (Aljazeera) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Julian Assange defends the release, saying the publication was in the public interest, and saying that Wikileaks had withheld the documents from release until it could redact the names of individuals whose safety might be at risk. US Senator John Kerry says the documents "raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan". (ABC)
Opening of the 15th Congress of the Philippines: Channel NewsAsia
- Juan Ponce Enrile is elected as Senate President
- Feliciano Belmonte is elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.
- President Benigno Aquino III delivers his first State of the Nation Address.

Science

The Plastiki, a catamaran made out of recycled plastic, arrives in Sydney, Australia, after travelling across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco, United States, to raise awareness of environmental issues. (AP via Yahoo News)

Sports

The opening ceremony of the 2010 European Athletics Championships takes place in Barcelona. Official website

July 27, 2010 (Tuesday)

Armed conflict and attacks

The Afghan War Diary claim that Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) orchestrated the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008, which left 40 dead. (samaylive).

Arts and culture

Experts verify that photographic negatives bought at a garage sale are early works of the American photographer Ansel Adams. (CNN)

Business and economics

BP announces that Tony Hayward is to step down as CEO following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and will be replaced by Bob Dudley on October 1st. (TV New Zealand), (Bloomberg)

Disasters

South China floods
- Flooding at the Three Gorges Dam is set to peak within the next 24 hours. (BBC) (Xinhua)
- A landslide in China's Sichuan Province caused by heavy rains results in 21 people being missing. (AP via Google News)
- A bridge collapse in Luanchuan County in Henan Province of China results in at least 37 deaths. (Reuters via Straits Times)
BP sets aside $32.2bn to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (BBC)
Lufthansa Cargo flight 8460, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes upon landing in Saudi Arabia, injuring the pilot and the first officer. (BBC) (Reuters)
An oil spill in Dalian, China, is contained from reaching international waters. (China Daily)

Law and crime

Two police officers in Egypt go on trial for brutality over the death of a man in custody in Alexandria. (Aljazeera) (Reuters Africa)
Following a court order, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb north of Beer Sheva, evicting 200 residents. (CNN)
A Dutch court rules that sailor Laura Dekker can attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo. (BBC)

Politics

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, describes the Gaza Strip as a "prison camp" during a visit to Turkey. Israel's ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, describes the people of the Gaza strip as "prisoners of the terrorist organization Hamas". (CNN)
The United States Congress provides funding for a troop increase for the War in Afghanistan. (Reuters)

Science

The wreck of the 19th century Royal Navy ship HMS Investigator is found in Mercy Bay in northern Canada. (National Post)

Sport

The Argentine Football Association decides not to renew Diego Maradona's contract as coach of the Argentina national football team. (The Telegraph)

July 28, 2010 (Wednesday)

Armed conflict and attacks

A bomb on a civilian bus in Nimruz Province in southwest Afghanistan results in at least 25 deaths. (Press TV), (samaylive)

Disasters

An explosion at a plastics factory in Nanjing, China, kills at least 12 people and injures hundreds. (RIA Novosti), (Reuters)
Airblue Flight 202 crashes in the Margalla Hills outside Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. (New York Times), (Xinhua), (Reuters), (Voice of America)
A United States Air Force Boeing C-17 crashes at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. (The News Tribune)
A boat sinks on the Kasai river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing as many as 140. (BBC) (UPI)

International relations

During a visit to India, British Prime Minister David Cameron warns Pakistan not to have any relationship with groups that "promote the export of terror". (BBC) (Indian Express)

Law and crime

Around 300 Bedouins living in "illegal settlements" in Israel's Negev desert have been made homeless after police raided their village and razed their homes. They are to be resettled in Rahat. (BBC)
United States federal judge Susan Bolton issues a ruling blocking Arizona from implementing sections of Arizona SB 1070 requiring police to check a person's immigration status and requiring immigrants to carry their papers at all times. (ABC Online)
French police find the bodies of eight new-born babies in the village of Villers-au-Tertre in north-east of France. (BBC)
Eight severed heads are discovered in four locations in the Mexican state of Durango. (UPI)

Politics and elections

The ruling Grand National Party in South Korea wins five out of eight seats in a by-election to National Assembly seats left vacant by resignations or convictions. (Yonhap)
Governor of the U.S. state of California Arnold Schwarzenegger declares a "fiscal state of emergency" requiring most state employees to take three days a month of unpaid leave until a new budget is enacted. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
The Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia bans bullfighting, the first region on the mainland to do so. (Los Angeles Times)

July 29, 2010 (Thursday)

Armed conflict and attacks

The SITE Institute, a terrorist-monitoring organisation, states that the al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic State of Iraq has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the offices of Al-Arabiya Television in Baghdad that killed four people and injured at least 10. (AFP via Google News) (Middle East News)
An investigation is launched into the unexplained damage suffered by the Japanese oil tanker M/V M. STAR in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

Arts and culture

U.S. talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres announces that she is leaving the American Idol television show after one year as a judge. (People)

Business and economics

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand lifts interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to three per cent. (Wall Street Journal)
Metro Bank opens its first branch, in Holborn, London, the first wholly new high street bank in the United Kingdom for more than a century. (BBC)

Disasters

Heavy monsoon rains delay the salvage of the wreckage of Airblue Flight 202 near Islamabad, Pakistan. (Reuters) (Daily Times of Pakistan)

International relations

The Arab League endorses direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel providing certain conditions are met. (Jerusalem Post)
North Korean foreign minister Pak Ui-chun arrives in Burma in the first visit since the two countries restored ties in 2007, amid worries over nuclear cooperation. (AFP) (BBC)

Law and crime

The Mexican Army kills Sinaloa Cartel drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal in Zapopan, Jalisco, during a raid. (CNN), (AFP via Google News)

Politics and elections

Malawi adopts a new national flag, replacing the previous flag originally adopted in 1964. (The Nation)
Greek police fire tear gas at demonstrating lorry drivers who were on strike in protest against new license charges. (BBC) (The Guardian)
People in the U.S. state of Arizona protest the introduction of state immigration laws with demonstrators being arrested outside the office of Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio. (CNN)
The United States House of Representatives Ethics Committee begins a public hearing into New York Democratic Congressman Charles B. Rangel. (CBS)
Musician Wyclef Jean announces that he has taken formal steps towards running for President of Haiti in the 2010 general election but has not yet decided on a candidacy. (Reuters)

Science

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee removes Ecuador's Galápagos Islands from its list of endangered World Heritage Sites. (New Zealand Herald)
Google claims that its Chinese Internet search and mobile search is blocked. (Reuters)
Moscow records its hottest temperature in recorded history with a heat wave expected to result in its hottest month on record. (CNN)

July 30, 2010 (Friday)

Armed conflict and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2001–present):
- A Taliban spokesman warns Afghans listed in the Afghan War Diary published on Wikileaks that "we know how to punish them". (The Telegraph)
- A United States Army private is transferred from Kuwait to a US Marines brig in Quantico, Virginia. (Fox News)
- At least 63 members of the US military have died in the War in Afghanistan during July 2010 making it the deadliest month for US forces in the history of the war. (The Guardian)
- Two United States embassy vehicles are set alight in Kabul following a collision between a US vehicle and a civilian vehicle. (AFP via Google News)
The Israeli Air Force launches several air strikes on the Gaza Strip following a BM-21 Grad missile strike by the Aza Din al-Kassem Gazan militant group on the Israeli town of Ashkelon. A Hamas rocket maker is killed and 13 other people are injured. (Jesusalem Post), (Al Jazeera)

Arts, culture and entertainment

Thousands of children in Gaza appear to have broken their own world record for the number of kites flown at the same time, the UN says. (BBC)
Sports presenter Clare Balding makes an official complaint to the UK's Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over an article mocking her sexuality in The Sunday Times. (BBC)

Disasters

Flooding caused by monsoonal rain causes hundreds of deaths in northwestern Pakistan. (Al-Jazeera)
At least 25 people have died as a result of forest fires in eastern Russia with thousands of Russians being evacuated in the hottest summer since records began. (Reuters via ABC Online)
A wildfire forces the evacuation of thousands of homes in Palmdale California, United States. (AP via Google News)

Law and crime

Multiple law-enforcement agencies seize a hoard of cannabis thought to be worth up to US$1.7 billion in the Sierra Nevada in southern California, United States. (BBC)
Former Prime Minister of Fiji Mahendra Chaudry appears in a Suva court to face charges of tax evasion and money laundering. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is cleared of claims that he assaulted a masseuse in Portland, Oregon in 2006. (Associated Press)
Two Armenian men sue Turkey, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and Ziraat Bankası bank in the United States district court in California for damages allegedly caused by the Armenian genocide in 1915. (Reuters via Yahoo News)

Politics and elections

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi King Abdullah, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani visit Lebanon amid reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will indict members of Hezbollah (Iloubnan) (UN News Centre) (AFP)
Vanuatu marks thirty years of independence. (Radio Australia)
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers block highways, attack factories and loot shops in Dhaka after rejecting a minimum wage increase offered by the Government of Bangladesh. (AFP via Google News)
A split develops in Italy's governing People of Freedom Party after a dispute between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Gianfranco Fini, President of the Chamber of Deputies. (Telegraph and agencies via Sydney Morning Herald)
Cabinet formation in the Netherlands: The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democratic Appeal inform informateur Ruud Lubbers of a possible new right-wing coalition cabinet between the two parties to form a minority government but with support of the Party for Freedom (PVV). (NOS)

Science

A Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute study suggests that the Nili Fossae area on the surface of Mars could be a good spot to search for evidence of past life on Mars. (MSNBC)

July 31, 2010 (Saturday)