Portal:Current events/February 2007

Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling announces the release date for her book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment in the Potter series to be 21 July 2007. (J.K.Rowling Official Site)
The Government of France has banned the smoking of cigarettes in every second-hand smoke area. (ABC News) (wikinews)
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, questioned for a second time in Scotland Yard's 'Cash for peerages' probe. Calls for an early departure for Blair increase.
36 people are killed in clashes between Bundu dia Kongo, an opposition secessionist religious group and the police in a dispute over the election of provincial governors. (BBC)
Shia insurgency in Yemen: Ten Yemeni soldiers have been killed and 20 wounded in a fresh attack on an army roadblock, a security source says. (Aljazeera)
Palestinian factional violence: Hamas gunmen ambush a convoy carrying weapons to Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard unit. Six Fatah members are killed, more than 70 people are wounded and 12 others are kidnapped in ensuing battles. (Ynet)
A trial for the murder of Janelle Patton on Norfolk Island starts with the defendant pleading not guilty. The murder was the first on the island for 150 years. (BBC)
The Enhanced Fujita scale begins operational use. This scale measures the intensity of tornadoes based on the damage they cause in the United States.

February 2, 2007 (Friday)

One 38-year-old policeman is killed in the Catania football clashes in Italy. 71 people are taken to the hospital.
Ali Hassan Al Majeed, commonly known as Chemical Ali, admits he ordered Iraqi troops to engage in genocide against the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan. He says the "emptying" of villages was justified because the Kurds assisted Iran forces in the Iran-Iraq war. (Gulf News)
Palestinian factional violence: Hamas and its rival Fatah renew their truce when violence broke off again after the initial ceasefire. (BBC) (CNN) (Reuters)
Chinese President Hu Jintao signs a series of economic deals with Sudan, which China has protected from UN sanctions. (BBC)
War in Somalia: Eight people are killed in a mortar attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu. (BBC)
Martti Ahtisaari unveils a United Nations plan for the final status of Kosovo. Serbian leaders denounced the proposal. (CNN) (Reuters)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change publishes its fourth assessment report, concluding that global climate change is "very likely" to have a predominantly human cause. (BBC)
Storms hit Florida during the early morning hours, forecasters suspect tornadoes as the cause. At least 20 fatalities are reported from the storm. (CNN) (The Sun-Sentinel)
Tongan MP Clive Williams is arrested and charged with sedition arising from the 2006 Tonga riots. Williams had earlier claimed that Tongan soldiers had beaten hundreds of people following the riots. (Radio NZ)

February 3, 2007 (Saturday)

Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, openly states for the first time that the governments of Iran and Syria are supporting Hezbollah financially, with weapons, and with training, and "everybody knows it." (The Jerusalem Post)
Iraq War: at least 135 people are killed and 226 injured in a truck bombing in Baghdad (BBC); five people are killed and 40 injured in car bombs in Kirkuk. (BBC)
An outbreak of the deadly strain of avian flu, H5N1, is confirmed at a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Holton, Suffolk in the United Kingdom. (BBC)
A State of Emergency is declared in Bolivia after 'El Niño'-like flooding. (NDTV)
Catania football violence: After calls from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to cancel all matches, Italian Football Federation commissioner Luca Pancalli indefinitely suspends all football matches in Italy while an investigation into riots on February 2, during which a 38-year-old police officer was killed and 71 people were injured, begins. (The Guardian) (Wikinews)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair urges Labour Party to 'weather the storm' during current political crisis for the party, and that 'policies will win the next election'. (BBC)
The Spring Festival travel season in China begins, in which 156 million passengers will travel by train, and 2 billion bus trips are expected. (Xinhua) (People's Daily)
Russia investigates smelly orange snow, oily to touch, which has fallen across an area of 1500 square kilometres in the Omsk region of the country. (BBC)
American football: Michael Irvin, Thurman Thomas, Gene Hickerson, Bruce Matthews, Charlie Sanders and Roger Wehrli are selected for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (ESPN)

February 4, 2007 (Sunday)

Palestinian factional violence: Fatah and Hamas take some of their gunmen off the streets of the West Bank and free some hostages under a new declared ceasefire. (BBC)
At least 20 people are killed and 340,000 are made homeless by floods in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. (BBC) (AP via ABC News)
Global spread of bird flu: UK authorities incinerate more than 50,000 turkeys as they are working to contain the bird flu. (BBC)
Three former high-ranking American military officers have warned against any military attack on Iran. (BBC)
Chinese President Hu Jintao continues his eight-nation tour in Africa as he arrives in Lusaka and hold talks with Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. President Hu launched a copper mining partnership with Zambia and promised more in aid. (AP via ABC News) (BBC)
The U.S. military admits publicly for the first time that four U.S. helicopters were downed by ground fire in Iraq. (BBC)
Greece's conservative government wins a vote of confidence, ending a three-day debate that started with the opposition Socialist Party calling for early elections (AP)
A boat sailing from Tiko in Cameroon to Oron in Nigeria capsizes, leaving up to 85 people dead. (BBC News)
Germany beat Poland 29:24 in the final of the 2007 World Men's Handball Championship, becoming the new world champion in team handball. Office website
American football: The AFC champion Indianapolis Colts defeat the NFC champion Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI, claiming their first Super Bowl victory since winning Super Bowl V in 1971. (CBS Sport) (BBC Sport)

February 5, 2007 (Monday)

U.S. Presidential Election, 2008: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) officially files for candidacy for President of the United States of America. (FOX)
Space Shuttle astronaut Lisa Nowak is arrested in Florida for attempted kidnapping. (CNN)
Boris Berezovsky tells the BBC that Alexander Litvinenko, on his deathbed, said that Andrei Lugovoi was responsible for his poisoning. (BBC)
U.S. President George W. Bush has submitted a $2.9 trillion budget to Congress including almost $700 billion in new military spending. (BBC)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his country can play a major role in international efforts to end the Civil war in Iraq. (BBC)
French police arrest 13 Kurdish Turks for allegedly funding PKK terrorist operations. (Bloomberg)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will present a herbal treatment for AIDS that the Iranian government says is effective in helping patients to cure their symptoms. (Fox)
A coalition of charity, faith groups and unions have warned Tony Blair that any military action against Iran would have "unthinkable" consequences. (BBC)
Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad hosts a conference calling for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to be tried by an unofficial tribunal for war crimes in Iraq. (Reuters)^{[permanent dead link]}

February 6, 2007 (Tuesday)

At least three domain name system root nameservers are under denial-of-service attack. (The Register). See DNS Backbone DDoS Attacks
Representatives of the Lord's Resistance Army say they will continue fighting with the Government of Uganda if negotiations are not moved to another location outside of southern Sudan. (Al Jazeera)
A Human Rights Watch report concludes that European Union sanctions on the Government of Uzbekistan, which came in response to the "Andijan massacre" in May 2005, have failed due to a lack of commitment in enforcing them. (EurasiaNet)
United States President George W. Bush approves a Pentagon plan for establishing a new command center in Africa. (BBC)
An international passenger train crashes into a freight train in Komárom, Hungary, causing the engineer's death. Two of the 25 passengers also suffered injury. (HírTV)
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says people are "increasingly alarmed" by Iran's nuclear program but military action was not being planned against it. (BBC)
The Iranian Government confirms that an Iranian envoy in Baghdad has been kidnapped by men wearing Iraqi army uniforms, and says it holds the United States responsible for his life. The U.S. denies any involvement of U.S. and Iraqi troops. (BBC)
UK newspaper The Sun has obtained a video tape of a U.S. pilot shooting a UK convoy in a friendly fire incident during the Iraq War, killing one British soldier and injuring four. The pilot, and others, are said to have made a series of crucial mistakes. (The Sun)
Three people in the United Kingdom have been jailed after plotting over internet chatrooms to abduct and rape two teenage girls. (The Times)

February 7, 2007 (Wednesday)

Avivim incident: Israel Defense Forces and Lebanese Armed Forces exchange fire at the Israel-Lebanon border. (Ynetnews)
2007 United Kingdom letter bombs: A letter bomb, the third in as many days, has injured a woman working at the main DVLA centre in south Wales. Today's attack follows two others, at other road transport agencies in the UK. (BBC) (BBC) (BBC).
Indonesia's West Irian Jaya province, on New Guinea, changes its name to West Papua. (Radio New Zealand)

February 8, 2007 (Thursday)

British police arrest Abu Izzadeen, the spokesman for al Ghurabaa, an organization the British government has designated as terrorist, on charges of inciting terrorism. (USA Today)
Seven alleged members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda, are on trial in Tajikistan. (RFE/RL)
Media celebrity Anna Nicole Smith dies at the age of 39 At Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

February 9, 2007 (Friday)

Iraq War: A report by the U.S. Defense Department's inspector general has found the The Pentagon "purposely manipulated" pre-war intelligence. Senator Carl Levin, D-MI, as chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee has called the report "very damning" and said of its results, "highly disturbing". (Baltimore Sun)
Cross-Strait relations:
- The government of the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan, has announced the name change of a number of state-owned enterprises, including Chunghwa Telecom, Chunghwa Post, China Shipbuilding Corporation and Chinese Petroleum Corporation to use the name Taiwan in their titles. (The China Post) (Taipei Times)
- The U.S. State Department has stated the U.S. does not support this action. (China Daily) (Radio Taiwan) (U.S. State Department)
- ROC President Chen Shui-bian says this does not violate his "four noes" pledge. (Radio Taiwan)

February 10, 2007 (Saturday)

Iraq War: General David Petraeus takes command of the United States forces in Iraq. (BBC)
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticizes the United States for its "almost uncontained" use of force around the world during his speech at the 43rd annual Munich Conference on Security Policy. (BBC) (Transcript of Putin's speech in English, 10 February.)
War in Somalia: Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi modifies the roster of the Transitional Federal Government by removing army chief-of-staff Ismail Qasim Naji and assigning him as ambassador to Oman, while also appointing new ambassadors to Kenya, Djibouti, and Yemen. Meanwhile, the Somali People's Resistance Movement emerges as an insurgency movement out of the underground members of the Islamic Courts Union. (Shabelle)
2008 United States presidential election: Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) officially announces his candidacy for president during a speech at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. (CNN)

February 11, 2007 (Sunday)

UK's Vodafone buys 67% stake in India's fourth largest mobile operator, Hutch Essar, for $11.1 billion. (BBC) (Economic Times)
Nine people are shot dead in Rio de Janeiro as police battle drug gangs and private militias for control of the favelas or shanty towns. (BBC)
The Queen wins the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Film of 2006 with Helen Mirren winning the award as Best Actress. Forest Whitaker wins the Best Actor award for his role in the The Last King of Scotland which won the Best British Film Award. (Sydney Morning Herald)
The Dixie Chicks dominate the 2007 Grammy Awards by winning five statuettes, including Record and Song of the Year ("Not Ready to Make Nice"). (NME) With the completion of the "big three" music awards, Mary J. Blige and American Idol winner Carrie Underwood are the only two artists this season to sweep all three major music awards (American Music, Billboard Music, and Grammy Awards). (Billboard) (Yahoo Music).
Portugal votes on an abortion referendum which despite failing due to low turnout, has a clear result in favor of legalizing abortion, prompting Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates to say abortion will be legalized through the parliament. (BBC)
Islamist insurgency in Somalia:
- An explosion at a ceremony in Kismayo kills at least four people and injures 24 others, including senior military officers and regional leaders. General Abdi Mahdi, the recently appointed Somali military chief, is among the injured. (Aljazeera)
- Mortar attacks in two areas of Mogadishu kill at least five people and injure several others, a day after a PRMLTM said it increase attacks. (Aljazeera)
Two people die in protests in Priština, Kosovo over a United Nations plan for the future of the Serbian province. (BBC)
Iran:
- The U. S. military accuses the government of Iran of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs to insurgents in Iraq. (BBC)
- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed calls by Western countries for Iran to suspend its nuclear program. (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
U. S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) following a political rally in Ames, Iowa, regretted saying the lives of military personnel had been "wasted." (Register) (Boston Hereld)^{[permanent dead link]}
Voters in Turkmenistan vote in their first presidential election to select a successor to former President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov. Interim leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is widely expected to win the election. (BBC)
Rakhat Aliyev, son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and First Vice Foreign Minister, is demoted to ambassador to Austria for the second time amid accusations he stole money from Nurbank bank and alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murdering of two Nurbank officials. (EurasiaNet)
A top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been suspended from her job for six months while a corruption inquiry is conducted, officials say. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
The National Court of Spain finds five out of six Algerian men guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and document forgery for terrorist purposes, sentencing each of them to 13 years imprisonment. All six were acquitted of conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack

February 12, 2007 (Monday)

A gunman kills five people in the Trolley Square shopping center in Salt Lake City, Utah, before being shot by police. (Salt Lake Tribune), (KSL-NBC), (KUTV-CBS), (CNN), (BBC)
India's Hindalco Industries buys Atlanta-based Novelis for US$6 billion. (BusinessWeek) (Forbes) (NYTimes)
Approximately 60,000 people in Mozambique are evacuated in the Zambezi River valley due to floods caused by three weeks of heavy rain. (BBC)
A suspicious brown substance is found in envelope at the Virginia Supreme Court building in Richmond, Virginia, United States, on the same day that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks at the Jefferson Hotel. (Richmond Times-Dispatch) (CBS News) (Forbes.com) (Fox News) (Guardian Unlimited) (International Herald Tribune)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad states in an interview that Iran does not fear the U.S. and that any foreign attack would be "severely punished". (BBC)
United States Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Christopher R. Hill, announces that tentative agreement has been reached over North Korean nuclear disarmament pending review by the signatories. (CNN)
Iraq's High Tribunal sentences former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan to death for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 men and boys in Dujail following an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein. (CNN)
Italian police arrest in raids 15 people who the police claimed were associated with the Red Brigades terrorist group. (BBC)
Iraq War: At least 76 people are killed in four bomb attacks in Baghdad. (BBC)
An earthquake of a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale strikes about 160 km east of Cabo de São Vicente, Portugal, at 11:36 am (CET). (Bloomberg)
A German court orders the release of Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a former member of the Red Army Faction, also known as the "Baader-Meinhof Gang"; she has served 24 years in prison for her involvement in kidnappings and murders in the 1970s. (CNN)
2007 Guinean general strike: Unions in Guinea resume a general strike to protest the President of Guinea Lansana Conté appointing Eugène Camara as Prime Minister of Guinea. At least 17 people have died in protests over the weekend. The protest started on the morning of the 12th with a march from the centre of Conakry to the palace. Widespread problems with armed bandits taking advantage of the insecurity have also been reported. Lansana Conté has now declared a state of emergency. (Reuters) (SOS) (AP via Houston Chronicle)
China's trade surplus increases by 67%, increasing pressure on the government to float the yuan. (BBC)
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claims that one of its ships has collided with a Japanese whaling vessel in the Ross Sea, leading to the Japanese vessel lodging a distress call. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Islamist insurgency in Somalia: Five mortar bombs explode in Mogadishu, killing at least three people. (Reuters)
Four state-owned enterprises of the Republic of China (Taiwan)—Chunghwa Post, the Chinese Petroleum Corporation, the China Shipbuilding Corporation, and the Central Bank of China—change their names to remove "China" from their titles at the request of President Chen Shui-bian. The decision is condemned by the Pan-Blue Coalition, the United States and People's Republic of China as a move towards Taiwan independence. (CNN) (Reuters)^{[permanent dead link]}
Israel has carried out a successful test of its Arrow missile, the defence ministry says. (BBC)
Australian Prime Minister John Howard criticizes U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) for his stance on Iraq, saying that al-Qaeda in Iraq should be praying for Obama to win the election. The opposition Australian Labor Party says that Howard's statement imperiled the relationship Australia might have with the United States under a Democratic administration. (Sydney Morning Herald) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

February 13, 2007 (Tuesday)

The TGV beats the record of the world's fastest conventional train with a speed of 553 km/h (344 mph) reached during a test run on the LGV Est. (Le Vif / L'Express)^{[permanent dead link]}
Iraq War:
- A suicide truck bomb kills at least 15 people in Baghdad. (AP via San Jose Mercury News)^{[permanent dead link]}
- Operation Imposing Law: Abboud Gambar announces that Iraq is closing its borders with Syria and Iran for 72 hours. (CNN)
- Ayman al-Zawahri, deputy to Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden releases an audio tape calling U.S. President Bush a former alcoholic and a lying gambler who wagered on Iraq and lost. (CBS)
- Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, says he opposes a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq because it would lead to civil war. (RFE/RL)
Dutch oil-trading company Trafigura agrees to pay the Côte d'Ivoire government $198 million to clean up a 2006 toxic waste spill which led to the deaths of 10 people. (BBC)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his administration is open to negotiations regarding its nuclear program. (BBC)
2008 United States presidential election: Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney (R) formally announces his candidacy for president. (CNN)
A tornado strikes New Orleans, Louisiana leaving one dead and three people injured. (CNN)
A small business jet heading to Berlin, Germany crashes during take-off at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, Russia. (Interfax), (BBC)^{[permanent dead link]}
Ma Ying-jeou, the party chairman of the Kuomintang, resigns after being indicted by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei. (Taipei Times News)
Fatmir Rexhepi [sq], the Interior Minister of Kosovo, resigns after two people died in recent protests. (AKI)^{[permanent dead link]}
Japan holds an international conference to push for the resumption of commercial whaling. Anti-whaling nations in the International Whaling Commission such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have boycotted the conference. (AP via AHT)
At least three people have been killed in bomb blasts that hit two buses in the village of Bikfaya near Beirut, Lebanon. (BBC) (ITV)
The World Bank has approved construction of the Baglihar Dam on the Chenab River in Indian-administered Kashmir. (BBC)

February 14, 2007 (Wednesday)

The United States redeploys the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Afghanistan to prepare for an anticipated spring offensive by the Taliban. (CNN)
Bombay Stock Exchange sells 5 percent stake to Germany's Deutsche Börse. (International Herald Tribune) (Reuters) (Forbes)
The Parliament of Serbia rejects a United Nations plan for the independence of Kosovo. (BBC)
United States Senate election, 2008: Author and comedian Al Franken announces his candidacy for Senator of Minnesota. (CNN)
Vodafone's Chief Executive, Arun Sarin, says the company will spend US$2 billion to enhance its investments in India. (Forbes) (BusinessWeek)
Mid-February winter storm: A major weather system reaches the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada and hammers the region with snow and ice. The same system is responsible for severe weather in the Midwest and a tornado in New Orleans, Louisiana. (AP via CBS News)
Iraq War:
- Operation Imposing Law: U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell announces that Muqtada Al Sadr fled Iraq several weeks ago and is in Iran. (Washington Post) (Alertnet)
- White House Press Secretary Tony Snow confirmed that the White House believes Iran is equipping Shia insurgents in Iraq. (BBC)
- Iraq War troop surge of 2007: The U.S. House of Representatives debates the proposed non-binding resolution to oppose President Bush's surge plan. (BBC)
- The U.S. military confirms that a United States Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter that crashed on 7 February 2007 was shot down by insurgents. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
- French counterterrorism police arrest 11 people who were allegedly part of a network to recruit Islamic radicals to work with Al-Qaeda in Iraq. (Fox)
The European parliament has approved a report on secret CIA flights which condemns member states that allowed the operations. (BBC)
Tens of thousands rally in Beirut, Lebanon to mark the second anniversary of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. (BBC )
Leaders of the Anglican Church meet in Tanzania with a possibility of a schism over the issue of homosexual clergy. (BBC)
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is sworn in as President of Turkmenistan. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
The foreign ministers of China, India and Russia meet in New Delhi, India to discuss greater cooperation between the three Asian countries on issues including terrorism, drug trafficking and Afghanistan. (BBC) (Forbes)
A bus belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has been hit by a car bomb in Zahedan killing 18 people. (Reuters via ABC Australia)
The World Food Program predicts that 285,000 people in Mozambique will require food aid after severe flooding. (BBC)
Georgina Beyer, the world's first transgendered member of parliament, resigns from the Parliament of New Zealand. (NZ Herald)

February 15, 2007 (Thursday)

Democratic Party officials in the U.S. Congress have warned President Bush that he does not have the authority to go to war with Iran. (BBC)
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been wounded in fighting in Baghdad according to Arab TV stations. (BBC)
Six Colombian legislators are arrested due to alleged links to paramilitary groups including Senator Álvaro Araújo, the brother of Foreign Minister María Consuelo Araújo. (BBC)
Former U. S. Vice President Al Gore announces plans for Live Earth concerts across seven continents in July 2007 to raise awareness of global warming. (Washington Post)
The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon ;clams that the Sudanese government had broken a promise to allow a human rights mission into Darfur. (Reuters Alertnet)
An Air Mauritania plane with 79 people on board is hijacked, and lands safely. (BBC)
The Iranian government says members of Jundallah were responsible for yesterday's attack in Zahedan, Iran. An Iranian lawmaker accuses the Pakistani government of harboring Jundallah militants. (Gulf Times)
The Hamas-led Palestinian government has resigned to make way for a new administration. The Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh remains as caretaker Prime Minister and will select a new cabinet. (Reuters/AFP via ABC Online Australia)
South Korea agrees to resume high level talks with North Korea following the deal over North Korea's nuclear program. (AFP via ABC Online)^{[permanent dead link]}
The United States will build a military communications facility near Geraldton, Western Australia. (AP via IHT)
The Foreign Minister of China, Li Zhaoxing, is visiting Japan hoping to improve bilateral relations between the nations. The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will visit Japan in April. (BBC)
Chris Ellison, the Australian Minister for Justice, warns anti-whaling protesters and the Japanese whaling fleet that they could face questioning over recent clashes in the Southern Ocean. Meanwhile, the crew were evacuated from the largest ship in the Japanese Antarctic fleet, the Nisshin Maru, following a fire. (ABC News Australia Online)
The trial of 29 suspects in relation to the 2004 Madrid train bombings begins in Madrid, Spain. (BBC)
The European Union plans to set up a single hotline for parents to report missing children. (BBC)

February 16, 2007 (Friday)

The G8 countries, plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, approve the 'Washington Declaration,' proposing a global Carbon emissions trading system to replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2009. (BBC)
Palestinians clash with Israeli police in East Jerusalem over archaeological excavations near the al-Aqsa mosque. (Reuters via ABC Australia Online)
Jundallah militants set off a second bomb in Zahedan, Iran. Firefights with Iranian police ensue. Casualties are unknown. (CBS News)
A Turkish court sentences seven convicted Al Qaeda associates to life imprisonment for their involvement in the 2003 Istanbul bombings. (AFP via ABC Australia Online)
Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari is charged in New York, New York with financing terrorism and material support of terrorism for allegedly passing on money for a training camp in Afghanistan. (AP via IHT)
General Motors is rumored to be in talks to buy DaimlerChrysler AG's struggling Chrysler Group in its entirety. (CNN)
The United States House of Representatives passes House Concurrent Resolution 63; a non-binding resolution criticising U.S. President George W. Bush's Surge Plan in Iraq. (BBC) (Clerk.House.gov)
An Italian judge has ordered 26 U.S. citizens, most of them CIA agents, to stand trial over the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. (BBC)
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the current leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been wounded in fighting in Baghdad according to Arab TV stations; however, the U.S. government denied the report.(BBC)
The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai meets with the Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi to discuss Italian contributions to the fight against the Taliban and drug traffickers in Afghanistan. (BBC)
Singer Britney Spears controversially shaves her head. [1]

February 17, 2007 (Saturday)

2008 United States presidential election: Presidential contender and U. S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has called for a 90-day deadline to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. She states in a video on her website: "If George Bush doesn't end the war before he leaves office, when I'm president, I will." (Reuters via ABC Australia Online)
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Iraq for talks. (Reuters Alertnet)
A suicide bomb in a district court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, Pakistan kills at least 13 people. (Times of India)
Italians demonstrate against the expansion of a United States Army base in Vicenza, home of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. (BBC)
Former professional wrestler Mike Awesome is found dead in his Tampa, FL residence. He was 42. [2]
Vietnamese New Year

February 18, 2007 (Sunday)

Shane Gibson, the Minister for Immigration for the Bahamas, resigns over rumours of a relationship with Anna Nicole Smith after he had fast tracked her application for permanent residency. (AP via AccessHollywood)
Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus announces the name of the party he wants to found; it is to be called Citizens' Power. (Daily Times)
Israeli Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi resigns after a Government commission finds that he ignored links between senior officers and underworld figures and failed to ensure a proper investigation of a 1999 killing of an alleged crime boss. (AP via Boston Globe)
2007 South Thailand bombings: 28 bombs explode in southern Thailand, killing three and injuring 50. Militants burn two public schools and shoot three people during the South Thailand insurgency. (New York Times)
Islamist insurgency in Somalia: A car bomb explodes in Mogadishu killing at least four people. It is the first ever car bomb in the capital. (Somalinet)
The U.S. and Israel will not work with a new Palestinian unity government unless it recognises Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. (BBC)
Iraq War:
- 18 February 2007 Baghdad bombings: At least 56 people are killed and more than 120 injured in two car bombs in a Shia district of Baghdad, police sources have said. (BBC)
- U.S. marine Robert Pennington is sentenced to eight years in military prison for his role in the killing of an Iraqi civilian. (BBC)
War in Afghanistan (2001–present):
- Eight U.S. troops are killed and 14 wounded in a helicopter crash in south-eastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition has said. (BBC)
Police in Pakistan detain 36 people, mainly Afghan refugees, over a suicide bombing inside a Quetta courtroom that killed a judge and 15 other people. (CNN)

February 19, 2007 (Monday)

Three Salvadoran deputies to the Central American Parliament from the ruling ARENA party are killed execution-style in Guatemala City. One of the dead is the son of former president and party founder Roberto D'Aubuisson. (BBC)
Between 40,000 to 100,000 Italians march in protest against the extension of Caserma Ederle, a United States Army military base near Vicenza. (BBC)
The U.S. moves forward with plans to base a missile shield for National Missile Defense in the Czech Republic and Poland. In response, Russian officials have claimed they may target the two Eastern European countries. The Russians also claimed they could pull out of the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. (International Herald Tribune)
Colombian foreign minister María Consuelo Araújo resigns days after the arrest of her brother, Senator Álvaro Araújo, in the country's ongoing para-political scandal. President Álvaro Uribe Vélez appoints Fernando Araújo as the new Minister. (BBC). (El Tiempo)
Also in Colombia the Nevado del Huila, the country's highest volcano, has showed increasing seismic activity including a cloud of ash. A high state of alert is in place for 4 departments. (El Tiempo)
A man is arrested over a series of letterbomb attacks that occurred in Britain during the past few weeks. (The Times)
A truth commission is set up by East Timor and Indonesia to promote reconciliation after the violence surrounding the 1999 independence referendum. (BBC)
Iraq War:
- Two suicide car bombs kill at least eleven people in Ramadi. (Reuters via Malaysia Star)
- Prime Minister of Australia John Howard announces plans to send up to 70 additional Australian soldiers to Iraq to train the Iraqi Army. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Samjhauta Express bombings: At least 66 people die in bomb blasts on the Samjhauta Express travelling from India to Pakistan. The blasts occurred near Deewana, 80 kilometres north of New Delhi. (DNA) (Reuters Alertnet) (AP via CNN) (Reuters via the Star Online)
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with the Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert and the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas. (BBC)
New Jersey becomes the third U.S. state to offer civil unions to homosexual couples, including all the rights and responsibilities of heterosexual marriage. (NY Times)

February 20, 2007 (Tuesday)

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves an African Union force to help stabilise Somalia. (AP via the Guardian)
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry denies Kazakhstan has a nuclear program, saying all alleged active nuclear sites were from the Soviet era. (Kazinform)
Felix Kulov, former Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, breaks his political alliance with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Kulov forms the United Front for a Worthy Future for Kyrgyzstan with Ar-Namys and other political parties. (RFE/RL)
Iran:
- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he wants talks on his nation's nuclear program, but only if no pre-conditions are imposed. (BBC)
- Nasrollah Shanbe Zehi, convicted of a bombing last week in Zahedan is hanged. (CNN)
- The BBC reports that U.S. plans for a possible military attack against Iran include nuclear sites and most of the country's military infrastructure. (BBC)
At least 35 people have died and up to 340,000 are affected by flooding after months of heavy rain in Bolivia. The eastern departments of Santa Cruz and Beni are the worst affected. (BBC)
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rules 2-1 to uphold an act of the 109th Congress removing the right of Guantánamo Bay detainees to challenge their detention in lower federal courts. The Military Commissions Act suspends the right to habeas corpus and bars anyone deemed an "enemy combatant" access to the federal courts. (Miami Herald) (Reuters)
Zilla Huma Usman, minister for social welfare of Punjab province, Pakistan, is assassinated near Lahore by Mohammed Sarwar for not wearing a hijab and campaigning for women's emancipation. (The Times) (FOX)
A river boat carrying children on a school trip on the Periyar River in southern India capsizes, killing at least 18 students and four teachers. (AP via CNN)
Kraft Foods announces plans to close up to 20 production facilities and cut up to 8,000 jobs worldwide. (AP via ABC News)
Australia announces plans to ban incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy efficient fluorescent bulbs. (BBC)
Global Spread of H5N1: Cases of avian flu are confirmed at two chicken farms near Moscow, Russia. Villages are quarantined until prescriptions can be filled. (The Times)
Anglican archbishops give the U.S. church an ultimatum over its approach to issues such as homosexual clergy and blessings of same-sex marriages. (BBC)
A powerful earthquake in northeastern Indonesia sparks a tsunami warning. (AP via IHT)
Volvo AB agrees to buy truckmaker Nissan Diesel for $1.1 billion. (Bloomberg)
NATO troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina carry out early morning raids on the houses of the children of convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić. (BBC)
Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney visits Japan to discuss regional security issues and Iraq. (BBC)
In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Horacio Garza, a federal congressman for the PRI, is seriously wounded by gunmen, and his driver killed. (BBC)

February 21, 2007 (Wednesday)

Police in Zimbabwe ban rallies in parts of Harare that are seen as strongholds of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change. (Washington Post)
Romano Prodi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, after a defeat by two votes in the Senate. (Ansa Notizie) (BBC)
Premier of Quebec, Canada, Jean Charest, calls a general election for March 26. (Canadian Press via Canoe)
Iran ignores a United Nations Security Council deadline for it to suspend its nuclear program. (ABC Australia)
Iraq War:
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces that 1,500 British troops will leave Iraq within weeks with another 1,500 by the end of the year. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
- Denmark will withdraw its 460 troops from Iraq by August. (BBC)
- A suicide car bomb strikes a police checkpoint near a market in Najaf. (AP via Columbian)^{[permanent dead link]}
At least five people die as an apartment building collapses in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP via CNN)
Juniata College defeats Susquehanna University in men's basketball to win first playoff game in the history of the program which is over 100 years old

February 22, 2007 (Thursday)

Iraq War:
- The U.S. military reports that a helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad. (BBC)
- 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq: U.S. military officials say they are concerned about recent attacks by insurgents involving poisonous chlorine gas. (BBC)
- Prince Harry will serve a tour of duty in Iraq as part of the Blues and Royals regiment of the British Army. (New York Times)
- United States Army Sergeant Paul Cortez is sentenced to 100 years in prison with the possibility of parole after ten years for his role in the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family. (AP via USA Today)
Leaders of Italy's centre-left coalition have agreed to support Romano Prodi and a 12-point program meaning that he can resume serving as Prime Minister of Italy. (Reuters via Swissinfo)
Abdel Kareem Soliman is convicted of insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his weblog and is sentenced to four years in prison. (BBC)
Four men are arrested in Guatemala for the killing of three Central American Parliament members from El Salvador and their driver. (AP via CNN)
Japan records a trade surplus of ¥4.4 billion in January due to lower oil prices and strong exports. (Reuters via CNN)
Vice-President of the United States Dick Cheney arrives in Australia to discuss issues including Iraq, Afghanistan and the detention of David Hicks with the Australian government. Upon arrival he is greeted by violent demonstrations. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Seven people are detained in India in relation to the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings. (NDTV)
A fire breaks out on an Indonesian ferry, the Levina 1, carrying 350 passengers shortly after it leaves Jakarta. (BBC)
Cyclone Favio hits central Mozambique. (BBC)

February 23, 2007 (Friday)

Five people are killed and more than 40 people injured in fighting between two families associated with Hamas and Fatah respectively in Khan Younis on the Gaza Strip. (New York Times)
The United States and South Korea reach agreement to return control over South Korea's military to South Korea by 2012. (BBC)
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Michael Somare disbands an inquiry into the extradition of Julian Moti to the Solomon Islands to avoid extradition to Australia. (ABC News Australia)
At a summit in Oslo, Norway, forty-six nations agree to work towards a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs. (AP via Forbes)
Grayrigg derailment: A Virgin Pendolino train derails in Cumbria, United Kingdom, killing one person and injuring dozens more. (BBC)
Iraq War:
- Democratic Party members of the United States Senate are planning a challenge to the authority given to President Bush in 2002. (BBC)
- Ammar al-Hakim, son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq is detained by the U.S. military as he returns from Iran and is released with an apology 12 hours later. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
A fire in a nursing home in Alsunga, Latvia, kills at least 26 people. (BBC)
Pakistan successfully tests a new version of its Shaheen-II missile]] capable of carrying nuclear warheads. (AP via CNN)
The Sri Lanka Navy sinks two Tamil Tiger boats off the northwest coast killing nine rebels. (BBC)
Australia:
- New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia as well as the Australian Capital Territory have agreed to hand over control of the Murray–Darling basin to the federal government. Negotiations continue with Victoria. (Bloomberg)
- Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney expresses concern about China's military buildup in a speech to the Australian–American Leadership Dialogue in Sydney. (CNN)

February 24, 2007 (Saturday)

The Virginia General Assembly votes unanimously in favor of a motion expressing "profound regret" for Virginia's role in promoting slavery, which is the first apology for slavery passed by a U.S. state legislature. (AP via Boston Globe)
Thousands of people in Madrid, Spain, protest a decision by the Supreme Court to reduce the sentence served by Basque separatist Iñaki de Juana Chaos, who has been on a hunger strike for 110 days. (BBC)
Iraq War: At least 39 people are killed and 61 injured as a car bomb explodes at a mosque in Habbaniya. (CNN)
The official inquiry into the Grayrigg rail crash starts with early investigations focusing on a set of points. (BBC)
Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney warns Iran that "all options are on the table" if it continues to defy the international community about its nuclear program. (AP via Jerusalem Post)
Mario Chanes de Armas, one of the leaders in the Cuban revolution dies, 80 years old. After breaking with Castros authoritarian leadership, he was imprisoned for 30 years, longer than any other political prisoner anywhere. (New York Times)

February 25, 2007 (Sunday)

Iran's Nuclear Program: Ministers from Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, as well as Turkey's Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member bloc of Islamic states, held a meeting Islamabad, Pakistan to discuss resolution of the Palestinian problem and the stand-off over Iran's nuclear program. (Reuters India)^{[permanent dead link]} (Tehran Times)
79th Academy Awards: The Departed wins four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Martin Scorsese. Helen Mirren wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in The Queen. Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Alan Arkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Little Miss Sunshine with Jennifer Hudson winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Dreamgirls. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Pirates hijack the MV Rozen as it departed Somalia after delivering United Nations food aid. (FOX)
Israeli forces carry out a raid across parts of the West Bank town of Nablus. (BBC)
Iraq:
- President Jalal Talabani has been flown to Jordan for medical treatment after falling ill. (BBC)
- A suicide bomber kills at least 40 people at a campus of Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. (New York Times)
Prime Minister of East Timor José Ramos-Horta announces he is running for president. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
Iran successfully launches its first suborbital sounding rocket. (Gulf News) (AFP)
Voters in Senegal go to the polls to elect their next president, with incumbent Abdoulaye Wade facing a range of challengers including two former Prime Ministers: Moustapha Niasse and Idrissa Seck. (BBC)
The Levina 1, which caught fire on the 22nd, sinks, killing at least one more person. (WHDH-TV)

February 26, 2007 (Monday)

Delwa Kassiré Koumakoye becomes the new Prime Minister of Chad, replacing interim PM Adoum Younousmi who stood in for Pascal Yoadimnadji since Yoadimnadji's death on 23 February 2007 in Paris. (IHT)
Guinean general strike, 2007: President of Guinea Lansana Conté appoints Lansana Kouyaté as the new Prime Minister of Guinea after reaching an agreement with the trade union movement and the Opposition. (BBC)
Talpiot Tomb: Film director James Cameron claims to have found ossuaries that once contained the remains of Jesus of Nazareth, his disciple Mary Magdalene, and their son, named Judah. (CNN)
Insurgency in Saudi Arabia: At least three French citizens have been shot dead in an attack near the historical site of Madain Saleh. (Al Jazeera)
Iraq:
- The Iraqi Government has come to an agreement to divide oil revenue and encourage foreign investment in the country. (CNN)
- A bomb inside the Iraqi Ministry of Public Works kills at least five people. It also injures Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi and the Minister for Public Works Reyad Ghareeb in a possible assassination attempt. (New York Times)
The International Court of Justice finds Serbia guilty of failing to prevent genocide in the Srebrenica massacre, but clears it of direct responsibility and complicity in a case brought forth by Bosnia and Herzegovina. (The Guardian)
The Daily Telegraph reports that Israel is negotiating with the United States for an air corridor over Iraq to carry out an air strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh calls the information "baseless." (The Daily Telegraph) Archived 2007-11-05 at the Wayback Machine (Persian Journal)^{[permanent dead link]} (United Press International) (Chicago Tribune)^{[permanent dead link]} (The Guardian)
The preliminary inquiry by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch into the Grayrigg rail crash finds that a key part of the set of points was missing. (The Daily Telegraph) Archived 2008-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
Scientists find over 20 new species of animals as the Larsen Ice Shelf breaks in the Antarctic. (The Times)
Four Guatemalan police officers jailed for the 19 February slaying of three Salvadoran deputies to the Central American Parliament are shot dead inside a maximum security prison; a riot ensues. (BBC)
Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney makes surprise visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan to encourage President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf and President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai to increase border security between the two countries and to take further action against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. (Bloomberg)
United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne announces the deployment of an additional 1,400 troops to Afghanistan. (BBC)

February 27, 2007 (Tuesday)

In Senegal, unofficial results from government sources indicate that incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade has won the 2007 presidential election with more than 50% of the votes. (CNN)
Richard M. Daley, the Mayor of Chicago, is elected for his sixth term. If he serves the length of this term, he will become the longest serving mayor of Chicago, surpassing his father Richard J. Daley. (NBC Chicago)
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, California announces plans to file for bankruptcy to put off 140 civil lawsuits related to alleged sexual abuse by priests. (AP via Daily Comet)
Canada's House of Commons votes not to extend provisions of its anti-terrorism legislation that allows for preventative arrests and forced testimony. (FOX)
After rumours that authorities were going to raise interest rates in an attempt to curb inflation, the SSE Composite Index of the Shanghai Stock Exchange tumbles 9% from unexpected selloffs, the largest drop in 10 years, triggering major drops in worldwide stock markets. (Forbes) (BBC) (Xinhua)
After the Chinese market drop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the United States drops 416 points amid fears for growth prospects, the biggest one-day slide since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Sell orders are made so fast that a second analysis computer has to be used, causing an instantaneous 200-point drop at one point. (Reuters)
Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommend that the agency approve a Sanofi-Aventis SA bird flu vaccine. (Bloomberg)
Israel Defence Forces withdraw from the West Bank town of Nablus, three days after a raid to arrest suspected militants. (ABC)^{[permanent dead link]}
2007 Bagram Air Base bombing: A suicide attack at Bagram Air Base while Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney is visiting kills 23, but the Vice President is not injured. The Taliban claims responsibility, and declares that Cheney was their intended target. (Bloomberg) (CNN)
North Korea and South Korea meet at a ministerial level for the first time since the conclusion of six-party talks about the North Korean nuclear weapons program. (BBC)
The ambassadors from the United States and Italy to Sri Lanka are injured by mortar fire while visiting eastern Sri Lanka. (CNN)
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Michael Somare removes Minister for Defence Martin Aini from office over the Julian Moti affair. (News Limited)
Drought in southwestern China is threatening the drinking water supply of 1.5 million people. (Reuters via CNN)
A hail storm damages the Space Shuttle Atlantis, delaying the STS-117 launch originally scheduled for March 15. (FOX)
Guinean general strike, 2007: Unions declare the strike over and urge workers to return to their jobs, following President Lansana Conté's appointment of a Prime Minister acceptable to them. (BBC)
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court names the former Sudanese minister Ahmed Muhammad Harun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb as chief suspects in its investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The Government of Sudan has announced that it will not hand over the named men to the ICC. (BBC) (VOA) (CNN)

February 28, 2007 (Wednesday)