Recent Current events & Happenings.
* Hurricane Dean enters the Caribbean Sea, intensifying into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Jamaica.
* An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru.
* A series of four suicide bomb attacks in Kahtaniya, Iraq results in at least 400 deaths and another 375 injuries, most of whom belonged to the minority Yazidi religion.
* Yone Minagawa of Japan dies at 114, making Edna Parker of the United States, 106 days younger, the oldest living person in the world.
* NASA opts not to repair damaged thermal protective tiles on the Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour, currently on a 14-day mission to expand the International Space Station.
* Typhoon Sepat lands in the Chinese province of Fujian after nearly a million people have been evacuated. (Xinhua)
* Two more suspects are arrested in relation to a triple murder in a Newark, New Jersey elementary schoolyard. (CNN)
* North Korea launches a flood relief program to help the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
* Somalia:
o An armed clash between two Somali clans in the village of Goobo results in at least 16 people being killed and 30 injured. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
o The Deputy Governor of Mogadishu Abdullahi Hassan Geney survives an assassination attempt after his car hits a landmine. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
* One person is dead, four people are missing, after a fire at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall. (BBC)
* Survivors of the 2007 Peru earthquake flee the worst hit areas as looting intensifies. (Reuters)
* Voters in the Maldives go to the polls in a constitutional referendum to decide between a presidential or parliamentary system of government. (NDTV)
* Voters in Kazakhstan go to the polls for the Kazakhstani legislative election, 2007. (BBC via ABC News Australia)
* Scientists announce that Pavlof Volcano in Alaska is set to have a huge eruption that could disrupt air traffic. (Associated Press)
* Afghanistan:
o A suicide bomber kills at least 15 people in the southern Kandahar province. (Voice of America)
o A female German aid worker is taken captive at gunpoint in Kabul. (BBC)
* Hurricane Dean (2007):
o Hurricane Dean has already claimed three lives in the Lesser Antilles and is due to pass south of Haiti and the Dominican Republic en route to Jamaica where emergency shelters have been opened. (BBC)
o Hurricane Dean is expected to intensify to a Category 5 hurricane. (RTT News)
o Cuba's National Civil Defense declares a state of alert for the following provinces: Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey. (La Prensa)
o NASA shortens a spacewalk during the current Space Shuttle Endeavour mission so that the crew can prepare for a Tuesday landing to avoid Hurricane Dean. (BBC)
o U.S. President George W. Bush preapproves an emergency declaration for Texas if Hurricane Dean hits the state. (Reuters)
* An Atlas Jet plane en-route from Nicosia in Cyprus to Istanbul in Turkey is hijacked. Some passengers were freed while the plane refueled in Antalya in southern Turkey. All 142 people escape unhurt while the hijackers surrender. (Xinhua) (Reuters via Sydney Morning Herald) (AP via Houston Chronicle) (AndhraNews.net)
* Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he will contend in the upcoming presidential election "because the country needs him." (AndhraNews.net)
* Rescuers race to reach over 180 coal miners trapped in two flooded mines in Shandong province in China. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
* At least one person is dead and thousands evacuated as Typhoon Sepat hits Taiwan. (Times of India)
* Six members of the Iranian security forces are killed in a helicopter crash near the town of Piranshahr close to the Iraqi border. (Daily Times, Pakistan)
* Five people are killed when the top floor of a building in South Mumbai, India, collapses on an adjoining building. (AndhraNews.net)
* A dozen Taliban die in an attempted ambush of a joint patrol of Afghan police and Coalition troops in Helmand province. (Times of India)
* France circulates a draft United Nations Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the 13,600 United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon. (AP via the Washington Post)
* Interpol issues warrants for the arrest of Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter Raghad Hussein and his first wife Sajida Khairalla Tulfa for providing support to Iraqi insurgents. (NYT)
* Texas oil executive David B. Chalmers, Jr pleads guilty to wire fraud connected with the United Nations oil-for-food program associated with the United Nations. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
* Russia, China and four Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conduct war games in the southern Ural Mountains area of Russia with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, proposing that they be held regularly. (The Hindu)
* A Nile boat sinks off the northern Egyptian town of Beni Suef with dozens feared missing. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
* 172 coal miners are trapped in a flooded mine in Shandong province in eastern China. (AFP via ABC News Australia) (ChinaDaily)
* The search for six miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah is suspended indefinitely after the death of three rescue workers. (AP via Forbes)
* Vladimir Putin announces that Russia will resume patrols over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by its nuclear-capable Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers after a 15-year hiatus. (NYT)
* Ashley Mote, a Member of the European Parliament for South East England, is convicted on 21 counts of fraud. (BBC)
* Hurricane Dean:
o Hurricane Dean intensifies into a Category 4 hurricane after hitting the Lesser Antilles. (Reuters)
o The Prime Minister of Jamaica Portia Simpson-Miller convenes an emergency cabinet meeting as it is likely to cross Jamaica on Sunday. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
o BP starts evacuating its oil and gas workers from the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Dean. (The Scotsman)
o The Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency as a precaution. (Governor's Office)
* Stock prices in the United States and Europe rally after the Federal Reserve cuts its discount lending rate to restore confidence in the banking sector after the subprime mortgage financial crisis. (Bloomberg)
* 2007 Peru earthquake
o The death toll from the 2007 Peru earthquake rises to 510 with another 1,500 people being injured. Aid reaches affected areas with President Alan García appealing for calm after reports of looting. (AP via Forbes)
o A powerful aftershock earthquake of 5.9 magnitude hits the Huancavelica region. (The Scotsman)
o Over 600 inmates escape from the Tambo de Mora Prison in Chincha, 25 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake, after it collapses. (AP via the International Herald Tribune)
* The International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States Government advises that North Korea is co-operating with plans to shut down its nuclear program. (AP via Forbes)
* Four people die as a United States Marine Corps helicopter crashes on a training flight north of Yuma, Arizona. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
* Australian Prime Minister John Howard says the country has decided to export Uranium to India. (AndhraNews.net)
* Adriaan Vlok, South African Police Minister during the apartheid era, pleads guilty to one charge of attempted murder of black activist priest Frank Chikane by poisoning his underwear. He is given a suspended sentence of ten years in jail. (Reuters via the Age)
* The Parliament of Australia passes the Northern Territory Indigenous Bill making changes to the Australian welfare system and land rights. (ABC News Australia)
* 2007 Pacific typhoon season: Southeast China and Taiwan prepare for typhoon Sepat. (Xinhua)
* Six Islamic militants involved in planning the 2002 Bali bombings have their sentences reduced by five months due to good behaviour. (News Limited)
* Three people are killed and another six injured as a seismic jolt disrupts an attempted mine rescue effort at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, United States. (NYT)
* The leaders of Russia, China and Iran use the forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to warn the United States not to become too heavily involved in Central Asia. (AP via IHT)
* The British government is preparing to evacuate all Britons from Zimbabwe, about 22,000 people, due to increasing violence and shortage of food. (Times Online)
* International conservation group BirdLife International launches a critical fundraising campaign to save 189 endangered species of birds. (San Jose Mercury News)
* U.S. jihadist José Padilla is convicted on all counts of supporting terrorism. (AP via WTOP News)
* Subprime mortgage financial crisis:
o Share prices continue to fall in Asian markets as a consequence of the subprime mortgage financial crisis with South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines hardest hit. (NYT)
o The Bank of Japan injects 400 billion yen into its money market. (AP via IHT)
o The FTSE 100 falls below 6,000 points in trading in the morning session on the London Stock Exchange while other European markets fall as well. (Market Watch) (AP via Houston Chronicle)
o The Dow Jones Industrial Average sees a late recovery in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange after earlier losing 340 points. (Market Watch)
o The iBovespa falls by 3,500 points in the afternoon session on the São Paulo Stock Exchange. Brazil's stock market recorded its biggest one-day drop since the September 11, 2001 attacks. (Reuters)
o BSE Sensex falls by 642.70 points on a single day trade due to global factors. The fall is the second biggest in recent times. (AndhraNews.net)
* Human rights in Iran: Over 200 people are arrested in Iran for attending an "illegal rock concert" which included alcohol and female singers. (Press TV)
* The Red Cross estimates that the death toll from North Korean floods has reached 220. North Korea estimates that it has wiped out a tenth of its farmland. (BBC) (NYT)
* The United States and Israel agree to a $30 billion military aid package. (AP via Fox News)
* 2007 Atlantic hurricane season: Hurricane Dean becomes the first hurricane of the season, threatening the Lesser Antilles, while Tropical Storm Erin threatens Texas. At least five people died in thunderstorms resulting from Erin while another two people went missing. (CNN), http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6858449,00.html (AP via the Guardian)]
* Peru's civil defense agency estimates that the death toll from the 2007 Peru earthquake is now 337 with 827 more injured. The coastal province of Ica is hardest hit. A 6.3 magnitude aftershock hits the country. The Government of Peru declares a state of emergency. (The Telegraph) (Bloomberg) (AFP via ABC News Auatralia)
* The Supreme Court of Pakistan hears a petition from the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to be able to return to the country and contest elections. (BBC)
* War in Iraq:
o United States forces launch an airborne assault on a desert compound south of Baghdad in search of Sunni militants in the first phase of Operation Marne Husky. (Reuters)
o United States officials state that there is little hope remaining of finding survivors of the Qahtaniya bombings. (Reuters)
* The Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Almaz Atambayev and the President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao meet to discuss Kyrgyz participation in a Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline. (Radio Free Europe)
* Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, announces plans to abolish term limits for the President by changing the Constitution. (BBC)
* Japan is hit by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Honshu. (Bloomberg)
