July 2008

July 2008

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July 2008 was the seventh month of the current leap year. It began on a Tuesday and ended after 31 days on a Thursday.

International holidays

July 1 - Canada Day (Canada)
July 1 - July Morning (Bulgaria)
July 1 - Republic Day (Ghana)
July 3 - Independence Day (Belarus)
July 4 - Independence Day (United States)
July 5 - Independence Day (Venezuela)
July 6 - Independence Day (Malawi)
July 7 - Saba Saba Day, Tanzania
July 7 - San Fermin (Pamplona and Spain)
July 7 - Tanabata (Japan)

July 9 - Independence Day (Argentina)
July 14 - Bastille Day (France)
July 15 - Birthday of Don Luis Muñoz Rivera (Puerto Rico)
July 17 - Constitution Day (South Korea)
July 20 - Independence Day (Colombia)
July 20 - Seventeenth of Tammuz and beginning of The Three Weeks (Judaism)
July 21 - Racial Harmony Day (Singapore)
July 21 - Independence Day (Belgium)
July 25 - Commonwealth Constitution Day (Puerto Rico)
July 27 - Birthday of Dr. José Celso Barbosa (Puerto Rico)
July 28 - Independence Day (Peru)

Portal:Current events

July 1, 2008 (Tuesday)

At least 38 people die as a motorised ferry sinks in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta. (CNN)
Police in Portugal announce that they are closing the investigation on the disappearance of Madeline McCann. (NineMsn news)
Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol break world records for the 100 metres backstroke at the United States Olympic trials. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
A jury orders pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis to pay $114 million in compensation to the Government of Alabama for overcharging for Medicaid prescription drugs. (AP via Google News)
Starbucks announces that it will close 600 underperforming coffee shops in the United States. (AP via CNN Money)
A man stabs five people to death in a Shanghai police station. (AP via Google News)
A four-day state of emergency is declared in Mongolia after violent protests following the legislative elections. (BBC News)
Thousands of citizens battle local government officials in a major riot in Guizhou in China over a police cover-up dealing with the death of a local girl. (Straitstimes)

July 2, 2008 (Wednesday)

LDU Quito wins the Copa Libertadores 2008 defeating Fluminense in the final after a penalty shootout. (ESPNsoccernet)
31 years after its launch, the Voyager 2 spacecraft sends a detailed view of the shock wave that marks the thinning of the solar wind, the charged particles streaming from the sun, confirming that the heliosphere is actually egg-shaped, possibly due to a tilted magnetic field in local interstellar space. (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via Google News) (Fox News)
Colombia
- Íngrid Betancourt, held captive by the FARC guerilla for six years, is rescued in an operation by the Colombian government. (BBC News)
- Three American hostages rescued at the same time as Ingrid Betancourt arrive at Lackland Air Force Base to be reunited with their families. (AP via Yahoo! News)
Admiral Michael Mullen, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States, warns Israel of the dangers of an attack on Iran. (ABC News)
The President of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa is flown to Paris for treatment after suffering a stroke at the African Union summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (BBC News)
2008 Jerusalem bulldozer rampage: A man drives a bulldozer into several vehicles on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, killing three and leaving dozens other injured, before being shot dead by police officer. (Ynet)
Nine oil workers are killed when a civilian Mi-8 helicopter carrying 16 people crashes in Siberia. (Turkish Press)

July 3, 2008 (Thursday)

The Pentagon extends the tour of duty of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan. (AP via Google News)
The European Central Bank increases interest rates in the Eurozone to 4.25 per cent to tackle inflation. (AP via Forbes)
French authorities charge Continental Airlines and five individuals over the Concorde disaster. (The Guardian)
MV Princess of the Stars disaster: The Board of Marine Inquiry says that two of four ballast tanks were empty, leaving the ship unstable. (Inquirer.net)
Google is ordered to divulge the viewing habits of every user to Viacom if they have watched Youtube videos. (BBC News)
NASA announces discovery of water in the atmosphere of Mercury by its MESSENGER probe. (Planetary Society)
A series of explosions at a depot storing 1,500 tonnes of obsolete munitions forces the evacuation of some 2,000 people in Sofia and the closure of the Bulgarian capital's main airport. (BBC News)
Olympic athletes including Roger Federer, Yao Ming, Laure Manaudou, Liu Xiang, and Yelena Isinbayeva are among the stars of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s latest public service announcement entitled “Heroes”.^[1]

July 4, 2008 (Friday)

A fire sweeps through the Biological Museum at Djurgården in Stockholm, leaving parts of the 115-year-old landmark charred and severely damaged. (Svenska Dagbladet) (Dagens Nyheter)
After 69 years, the main embassy of the United States in Germany returns to its old roots near the Brandenburg Gate. At the celebration, Chancellor Angela Merkel, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and the U.S. Ambassador to Germany William Timken open the building at the Palais Blücher in the center of Berlin. Spiegel (German)
Georgian forces shell Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. (BBC News)
Four people are shot dead in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during a street party. (AP via The New York Times)
Íngrid Betancourt returns to France two days after her rescue. (The New York Times)

July 5, 2008 (Saturday)

In rugby union, New Zealand defeat World Cup winners South Africa 19–8 in the opening match of the Tri Nations. (The International Herald Tribune)
Margaret Hoelzer sets a world record for the 200 metre backstroke at the United States Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska. (AP via CNNSI)
The Mississippi River reopens for traffic after recent flooding. (AP via Forbes)
Venus Williams defeats sister Serena 7-5, 6-4 at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships Ladies' Final. (BBC News)
Watermelon has been found to have effects similar to Viagra. Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center reports that citrulline, found in watermelon, affects the body like Viagra. (AP via Chicago Sun-Times)

July 6, 2008 (Sunday)

Gunmen kill a United Nations official in Mogadishu as he leaves a mosque and injure two others. (AP via CNN)
Rafael Nadal of Spain wins the 2008 Wimbledon Championships for the first time defeating Roger Federer of Switzerland in a marathon match, winning 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. (AP via The New York Times)
NBC agrees to buy the Weather Channel. (Bloomberg)
The United Arab Emirates forgives the 7 billion dollars (USD) of foreign debt Iraq owes it. (CNN)
World leaders arrive in Japan for the G8 summit to be held in Tōyako, Hokkaidō. (Reuters)
An explosion near the Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital Islamabad kills at least 10 people. The attack came on the first anniversary of the deadly siege and storming of the Red Mosque. (France 24)

July 7, 2008 (Monday)

Austrian People's Party leader Wilhelm Molterer pulls his party out of the ruling grand coalition, forcing a snap general election. (BBC News)
Hurricane Bertha becomes the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. (Reuters)
A suicide car bomber strikes outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, with at least 41 people killed. (Reuters) (AFP via The Melbourne Age) (BBC News)
MV Princess of the Stars disaster: Ship owner Sulpicio Lines ask a court to stop the Board of Marine Inquiry's investigation and sue the body for allegedly contributing to unfair negative publicity surrounding Sulpicio. (ABS-CBN News)
The Church of England's governing body votes to allow female bishops. (BBC News)
Unenriched uranium leaks into the Gaffière and Lauzon rivers from the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Bollène, France resulting in the plant being closed. (BBC News)

July 8, 2008 (Tuesday)

The United States and the Czech Republic sign an initial agreement to base a United States missile defense system in the Czech Republic. (AP via Google News)
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responds to this development, "We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods." (The Times)
The President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicates that he does not expect an attack by the United States or Israel because he considers George W. Bush to be a lame duck president. (Bloomberg)
Leaders of the G8 nations meeting at the 34th G8 summit in Japan agree to a target of cutting world greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. (BBC News)
The former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra goes on trial facing corruption charges. (BBC News)
The Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gillani denies any involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul. The Government of Afghanistan has hinted that it believes that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had some involvement. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Reuters)
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa is stable after undergoing an operation to improve his breathing, his deputy says. (BBC News)
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee votes in Quebec City and adds 27 new sites to the World Heritage List. (Unesco)

July 9, 2008 (Wednesday)

Questioned about conspiratorial ties at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, Senator John McCain does not deny he was president of the New Citizenship Project (forerunner of the neo-conservative Project for the New American Century). Instead he states his pride in the 9/11 Commission. (therawstory) (Current.com)
India formally submits the nuclear safeguards agreement to IAEA to implement the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. (The Washington Post)
The Senate of the United States approves legislation overhauling the rules for eavesdropping and offering immunity to telecom companies who may have violated wiretapping and privacy laws after the September 11, 2001 attacks. (AP via The New York Times)
Five peacekeepers are killed and another 17 missing following an ambush on a patrol by the joint United Nations/African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. (AP via Google News)
Three members of the Turkish police force are killed during an armed attack on the United States consulate in Istanbul with three attackers also dead. The US ambassador states that it is an "obvious case of terrorism". (Hurriyet) (CNN)
Iran test-fires nine long- and medium-range missiles, including the Shahab-3. (Reuters via The New York Times)
A road crash near Potosí in southern Bolivia leaves at least 47 dead. It is unclear if the vehicle was a bus or a truck. (BBC News) (ABC News)
Tillman Thomas succeeds Keith Mitchell as the new Prime Minister of Grenada following the general elections. (The Nation)

July 10, 2008 (Thursday)

The Capitoline Wolf, a statue once thought to be an Etruscan work, is shown to be from the 13th century CE. (BBC News)
China claims to have foiled the disruption of the 2008 Summer Olympics by suspected terrorists of separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement from Xinjiang province. (BBC News)
The Senate of the United States confirms the appointment of General David Petraeus as the Commander of the United States Central Command and Raymond T. Odierno as the Commander of the Multinational Force Iraq replacing General Petraeus. (AP via Google News)
Iran:
- The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warns Iran that it should have no doubt that the United States will defend its allies including Israel. (Reuters)
- French petroleum company Total S.A. refuses to invest in Iran because it is "too politically risky". (BBC News)
- Iran claims to have tested more medium and long range missiles a day after test firing the Shahab-3. (CNN)
Georgia recalls its ambassador from Moscow after Russian fighters entered Georgian airspace. (Civil Georgia)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie is awarded The Best of the Booker, as the best novel to have won a Man Booker Prize in the first 40 years of its existence. (BBC News)

July 11, 2008 (Friday)

Chinese restaurants in Bejing are told not to serve dog meat during 2008 Summer Olympics, but can continue to serve Donkey meat (The Times of India)
At a donors' conference in Brussels, 1.2 billion euros (1.9 billion U.S. dollars) are pledged to Kosovo's socio-economic development. (MarketWatch) (Xinhua)
The U.S. federal government's Office of Thrift Supervision closes down the IndyMac Bank, the largest savings and loan bank in the Los Angeles area, after determining that it is unlikely to be able to meet depositors' demands. (AP via Google News)
Wildfires force 10,000 Californians to evacuate their houses in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, with one man dying in Butte County after refusing to evacuate. (Bloomberg)
The Prime Minister of Lebanon Fuad Siniora forms a 30-member national government. (AFP via Google News)
The President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak proposes resumption of stalled summit talks with North Korea. (AP via The International Herald Tribune)
The first global study of coral reefs finds that one-third of coral-building species face extinction. (BBC News)
British politician David Davis wins the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, caused when he resigned his seat to highlight his concerns over civil liberties. (BBC News)

July 12, 2008 (Saturday)

Okmok Caldera on the island of Umnak in the Aleutian Islands erupts, forcing the evacuation of the eastern side of the island to Unalaska Island. (Reuters)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces that Syria and Lebanon have agreed to establish embassies in each other's capitals. (AP via CNN)
Six party talks being held in Beijing agree on steps to verify the end of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. (Al Jazeera)
North and South Korea exchange words over the death of a South Korean tourist shot dead at the Kumgangsan resort in North Korea. (AP via Google News) (AP via The Guardian)

July 13, 2008 (Sunday)

The Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert states that Israel has agreed to swap five prisoners with Hezbollah to provide the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006. (AFP via Google News)
A suicide bomber blows himself up next to a police patrol in Orūzgān Province of Afghanistan killing at least 18 people. (AP via Google News)
Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Sydney, Australia for World Youth Day 2008 celebrations. (Sydney Morning Herald)

July 14, 2008 (Monday)

The United States Federal Reserve tightens mortgage regulation in an attempt to stamp out the practices that led to the subprime mortgage crisis. (AFP via Google News)
United States President George W. Bush lifts a ban on offshore oil drilling. (AFP via Google News)
Etihad Airways from the United Arab Emirates buys 100 fuel-efficient aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. (Reuters)
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, accuses Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. (BBC)
Scientists at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne make a potential breakthrough in curing Malaria. (BBC News)
International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature classifies Makemake as the newest dwarf planet. (Universe Today)
The Taliban attack an outpost in Afghanistan, killing 9 ISAF soldiers. (Reuters) (International Herald Tribune)
Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela wins Miss Universe 2008. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev buys St. Louis, Missouri-based Anheuser-Busch for US$52 billion. (MSNBC)
Mass protests in South Korea regarding Japan's claim over Dokdo. Crowds in Seoul burned flags in front of the Japanese embassy, while the South Korean envoy in Tokyo left Japan. (Phoenix TV Hong Kong) (Hindu) (Chosun) (Hani)

July 15, 2008 (Tuesday)

18 people are injured after a funfair ride composed of a spinning arm with a compartment at one end which carries passengers collapses at the Liseberg theme park Gothenburg, Sweden. (BBC News) (AP via Google News)
General Motors announces plans to suspend its dividend, sell off assets and cut 20% off salaried costs in a response to slumping car sales. (CNNMoney)
A videotape of an interrogation of terrorism suspect Omar Khadr by Canadian officials at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is released publicly. (The New York Times)
A suicide bomber at an Iraqi Army base near Baquba kills at least 35 people and injures another 55. (RTÉ) (AP via Yahoo! News) (The New York Times)
An earthquake with a 6.3 magnitude strikes near the island of Rhodes in Greece, leading to one death. (AP via Google News)
Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme resigns after less than four months in office. King Albert II does not accept his resignation. (AFP via Google News)

July 16, 2008 (Wednesday)

A train crash near Marsa Matrouh in northern Egypt kills at least 42 people with 40 more injured. (Reuters)

Former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky applies for parole in a bid to challenge Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to follow through on promises to build an independent judiciary, his lawyers said. (The International Herald Tribune) (AP via Google News)
The United States Senate agrees to triple funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to $48 billion. (AP via Google News)
Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, assures the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee that giant mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in "no danger of failing." (AP via Google News)
A large transport strike enters into its third day on the island of Malta, bringing the island to a halt with the blockage of several roads. Bus drivers even attempted to break into the Prime Minister's office. (Times of Malta) (Bloomberg)
The Sri Lankan military claims to have captured a major coastal town in the Northern district of Mannar from the Tamil Tigers. (BBC News)
Hezbollah transfers the bodies of captured Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in exchange for the Lebanese convicted murderer Samir Kuntar, four other Hezbollah militants captured by Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War (Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman), and the bodies of 200 Lebanese and Palestinians.(BBC News) (AFP via Google News)
Hundreds of bishops from the worldwide Anglican Communion gather at Canterbury as the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference begins one month after the GAFCON. (BBC News)
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is arrested over allegations he sodomised a male aide. (AP via Yahoo! News)
Afghan authorities confirm that 52 civilians were killed by an American airstrike at a wedding on Sunday. (BBC News)

July 17, 2008 (Thursday)

2008 Pacific typhoon season:
- Typhoon Kalmaegi (Helen) strikes Taiwan, resulting in at least one fatality, eight people missing and four people injured. (AFP via Google News)
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that an ethnic Tamil man denied asylum in Britain could not be sent back to his native Sri Lanka because he would be at risk of torture there. (The Daily Mirror)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifts a warning on tomatoes following a recent salmonellosis outbreak. (Reuters)
Kuwait names Ali al-Momen as its first ambassador to Iraq since the Gulf War. (AFP via Google News)
Pope Benedict XVI speaks to 150,000 pilgrims in Sydney for World Youth Day 2008. (The Age)
The Chinese National People's Congress holds a press conference and releases mid-year financial statistics on the nation's gross domestic product. (Phoenix TV)

July 18, 2008 (Friday)

A report by the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice finds that the Cook County Jail, which houses 9,800 people, systematically violated the constitutional rights of its inmates. (The New York Times)
A Cambodian general states that a border stand off between Cambodia and Thailand came close to a shootout last night over land near the World Heritage nominated Prasat Preah Vihear temple. (AP via Google News)
King Albert II of Belgium rejects the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, as no compromise was reached on devolution to the regions. (BBC News)
Australia's Qantas Airways announces plans to cut 1,500 jobs worldwide. (Reuters)

July 19, 2008 (Saturday)

In Jammu and Kashmir 10 Indian army soldiers are killed in land mine attack claimed by Hizbul Mujahideen (Times of India)
Iran advises a high-level meeting between it, the United States and European Union in Geneva over its nuclear program saying that it will not suspend production of enriched uranium. (Radio Netherlands)
2008 Cambodian-Thai stand-off: Some 500 Thai and 1,000 Cambodian troops have massed near Prasat Preah Vihear temple on the border between the two countries, increasing their presence on the fifth day of the tense stand-off. (France 24)
Fourteen people are killed, 29 injured and several are missing after a bus crash in Khare Khola, Nepal 100 miles west of Kathmandu. (AP via Google News)
Pope Benedict XVI apologizes to victims of abuse by Roman Catholic Church clergy in Australia during a mass in St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney for World Youth Day 2008. (BBC News)

July 20, 2008 (Sunday)