July 2007 is the seventh month of that year. It began on a Sunday and 31 days later, ended on a Tuesday.
International holidays
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- Twelve defendants involved in the Chinese slave scandal are charged for illegal detention and murder. (Xinhua)
- Ayman al-Zawahri, the second in charge of Al Qaeda, issues a video calling for further jihad and calling for the overthrow of "corrupt" Governments in the Middle East. (Reuters)
- A landslide buries a bus carrying at least 40 people in mountains near Tehuacán in the Mexican state of Puebla. (New York Times)
- Investigators find a suicide note from the two men accused of involvement in the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack. (CNN)
- Fretilin wins more votes than any other party in the East Timorese election with 29 per cent of the vote but has to form a coalition with other parties to form a government. (AP via the Washington Post)
- A power blackout hits eastern Georgia, leaving 2.5m people without electricity and briefly stranding a thousand on the Tbilisi Metro. (BBC)
- The terror threat level in the United Kingdom is reduced from critical to severe. (The Guardian)
- The 9th summit of the Assembly of the African Union, which lasted for 3 days, ends in Accra, Ghana. (BBC) (Ghana Home Page)
- Over 700 students surrender at a mosque in Islamabad after being surrounded by Pakistani security forces. (BBC)
- Japan's first female Minister of Defense, Yuriko Koike, is sworn in a day after the resignation of her predecessor, Fumio Kyuma. (Marketwatch)
- The International Olympic Committee elects Sochi as the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics during its session in Guatemala City. (IOC)
- A tornado kills 14 people and injures at least 146 near Tianchang, Anhui Province, in eastern China. (Reuters)
- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem says the government is open to peace negotiations with Israel without preconditions. (The Peninsula)
- BBC reporter Alan Johnston, held captive in Gaza for nearly four months, is released. (Reuters) (BBC)
- War in Afghanistan: Six Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the Panjwaii district. (CTV)
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- Scientists announce the discovery of a new species of cephalopod, dubbed 'octosquid', found off the coast of Hawaii. (Star Bulletin)
- A gunman opens fire at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, wounding three before being captured. (Los Angeles Times)
- The Nigerian kidnappers of three-year-old British toddler Margaret Hill threaten to kill her, unless her father, Port Harcourt bar owner Mike Hill, takes her place. (Middle East Times)
- A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hits the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico. (Reuters)
- Bahrain will no longer participate in the boycott of Israel. (GulfNews)
- A Belgian court sentences former Rwandan army major Bernard Ntuyahaga to twenty years in jail for the murder of 10 Belgian Army peacekeepers and an undetermined number of civilians in the Rwandan genocide. (Reuters via CNN)
- The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions votes to strike for higher wages as inflation in Zimbabwe rises above 10,000%. (allAfrica)
- Nine people are killed at Culiacán International Airport in the Mexican state of Sinaloa as a cargo aircraft fails to take off and careens across a roadway, hitting several vehicles and business premises. (BBC News)
- An armed man holds several people hostage at a bank in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil. The situation is resolved without injury. (CTV)
- Two die and seven are seriously injured when a small plane crashes after missing the runway at Aerfort na Minna, in County Galway, Ireland. (RTÉ)
- 12 boats capsize during a junior regatta in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, on the Irish Sea, with 120 children swept out to sea. All have been rescued, according to the Irish Coast Guard, although 15 have been brought to hospital. (RTÉ)
- Eleven people are injured when a staircase collapses at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. (RTÉ)
- Russia has officially declined a request by the UK to extradite Andrei Lugovoi for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Russia's constitution bars extradition of its citizens. (The Guardian)
- A study at the University of Jordan concluded that the country's economic problems are not a result of the 750,000 Iraqi refugees who have sought sanctuary there. Iraqi refugees now comprise over 10% of the Jordanian population. (Press TV)
- On the 25th anniversary of their captivity, the Iranian government announces that Iranian diplomats Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevasselian, Kazem Akhavan and Taghi Rastegar Moghaddam are still alive and being held in Israeli jails. The men were captured in 1982 in Lebanon. (PressTV)
- Eleven people are injured after a London Underground train derails, leaving hundreds of passengers trapped in an east London tunnel. (The Telegraph) (thelondonpaper)
- Armed residents of the Indian state of Nagaland burn down villages in the neighbouring state of Assam. (BBC)
- Pakistani forces demolish the front walls of the Lal Masjid mosque in Islamabad. (CNN)
- Twenty-five people died and 33 are injured in an explosion in a karaoke bar in Tianshifu in northeast China. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
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- Pope Benedict XVI removes restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving an ancient Roman Rite Mass liturgy that was essentially abolished during the Second Vatican Council in 1962. (Wahington Post via AP)
- The New Seven Wonders of the World are announced. These are The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Mexico's Chichen Itza Mayan site, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- A bus crash in Java kills at least 14 people. 48 people were injured, many seriously. (AP via the Guardian)
- 2007 Amirli bombing: At least 105 people are killed when a suicide truck bomber attacks a market in Amirli in northern Iraq with a majority Shiite Turkmen population. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- The Government of Afghanistan states that it will investigate claims that United States and NATO air strikes caused heavy civilian casualties in Farah Province and Kunar Province. (Reuters)
- Live Earth gets underway with concerts in Australia, the United States, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan and China. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- King Gyanendra of Nepal celebrates his 60th birthday amid protests by students and youth wings of eight ruling parties.
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- Record breaking drought and heat continue as the 2007 Western North American heat wave kills hundreds of trout from water temperatures in Yellowstone, cities set all-time record highs, major interstate freeways are closed by wildfires (I-70, I-80, I-15), and a fire in central Utah becomes the largest in state history. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- Nigerian gunmen release British toddler Margaret Hill kidnapped in the south of Nigeria on Thursday. (CNN)
- The Boeing Company unveils its newest airplane, the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" at its facility in Everett, Washington, USA. The 787 is an alternative to Airbus's A350. (MSNBC) (BBC)
- Valdis Zatlers is sworn in as the third President of Latvia. (AP via IHT)
- Polling in the Papua New Guinea election is extended due to weather and transport problems. (ABC News Australia)
- A fierce battle breaks out between the Sri Lankan navy and the Tamil Tigers off the eastern coast of Trincomalee province. (AP via CNN)
- The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warns of an imminent terrorist threat in Indonesia. (AAP via News Limited)
- Roger Federer defeats Rafael Nadal 7–6, 4–6, 7–6, 2–6, 6–2 to claim his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title, equaling an Open Era record set by Bjorn Borg in 1980. Borg was in attendance to present the Wimbledon trophy to Federer. (BBC)
- Portia Simpson-Miller, prime minister of Jamaica, announces that the Jamaican general election, 2007 will be held on August 27th, 2007 at a rally for People's National Party in Kingston, Jamaica. (Toronto Star)
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- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announces plans to build a nuclear-powered submarine to patrol the waters off Brazil's coast at a cost of US$500 million. (Reuters Alertnet)
- Mexico's Interior Ministry increases security on strategic installations following attacks on pipelines. The People's Revolutionary Army (EPR) has claimed responsibility. (AP via Forbes)
- The Gadhafi Foundation announces a deal has been reached with families of more than 400 children infected with HIV in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor. (AP via the Guardian)
- The European Union chooses Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its nominee to head the International Monetary Fund, making him the frontrunner to fill the position in October. (AP via the NYT)
- All 24 police officers missing after a fight between police and Maoist insurgents in Chhattisgarh central India have been found dead. (Reuters via News Limited)
- Amy St. Eve, the judge in the Conrad Black fraud case, orders the jury to go back to work after it advised her that it couldn't reach a verdict on all the counts before it. (Canadian Press via the Edmonton Sun)
- Raúl Castro, the interim leader of Cuba, sets a date in late October for local elections. (CBC)
- Chester Turner is sentenced to death for the murder of ten women and an unborn child in Los Angeles, California in the 1980s and 1990s. (AP via the IHT)
- Pope Benedict XVI approves a document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which redeclares the doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, that only the Roman Catholic Church is the true Christian church, and no other Christian denomination has the "means of salvation." (AP via Yahoo! News)
- Mortars hit the Green Zone in Baghdad. The Green Zone has been attacked at least 80 times since March, killing 26. (CBS News)
- A Cessna 310 registered to the Competitor Liaison Bureau, an arm of NASCAR, attempting an emergency landing at Orlando Sanford International Airport crashes into two homes in Sanford, Florida. Three people in one of the homes are critically injured, and a fourth person, a four-year-old girl, died; an off-duty firefighter that first responded to the scene was also injured. Two people in the other house and both the pilot and passenger in the Cessna are killed; the passenger was Dr. Bruce Kennedy, husband of International Speedway Corporation president Lesa Kennedy and brother-in-law of NASCAR chief Brian France. (WESH.com)
- Julian Moti is appointed as the Attorney-General of the Solomon Islands despite being wanted in Australia on child sex charges. (AAP via News Limited)
- Simón Trinidad, a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is found guilty of conspiracy to hold three Americans hostage by a U.S. court. (BBC)
- In observance of Captive Nations Week, there was a brief ceremony and laying of a wreath today at the Victims of Communism Memorial, Massachusetts and New Jersey Avenues, NW, Washington, DC. On 10 July, George W. Bush issued a Proclamation, designating July 15 through 21 as Captive Nations Week and called upon the American people to reaffirm the country's "commitment to all those seeking liberty, justice and self-determination." This year marks the 49th observance of Captive Nations Week. (The White House)
- Thailand's highest court rules that a corruption case may proceed against former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra. (ABC News Australia)
- China executes the former head of the State Food and Drug Association Zheng Xiaoyu for corruption. (MSNBC)
- A Tamil man from Sydney is charged with multiple terrorism charges over alleged links with the Tamil Tigers. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Pakistani forces storm the Lal Masjid Mosque in Islamabad, bringing the Lal Masjid siege to an end. At least 3 soldiers and 40 militants die in the assault. (Reuters) (FOX). Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a top clerics was confirmed dead according to Interior ministry sources.
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- The African kingdom of Lesotho declares a food crisis due to UN report showing a "major food gap" for 20% of the population. (Reuters)
- Two British teenagers are arrested at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, for attempting to smuggle 6.5 kg of cocaine worth £300,000 to the UK.(BBC)
- An attorney convicted of leaking evidence given by U.S. baseball player Barry Bonds and other athletes from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) Inquiry is sentenced to two and a half years in prison. (AP via San Jose Mercury News)
- A Mexican federal court suspends the genocide trial of former President Luis Echeverría. (BBC)
- The Spanish Civil Guard raids a boat operated by Odyssey Marine Exploration that it claims may have taken treasure worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a Spanish galleon. (Reuters via ABC News Australia) (BBC)
- Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, flies to Libya and visits the Bulgarian medics condemned to death for allegedly infecting children with HIV and also the families of the infected children. She will also meet Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, the President of Libya. (BBC)
- The Nepalese government introduces a budget that scraps payments to King Gyanendra of Nepal and nationalises royal property. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
- The Lebanese army has resumed shelling Fatah al-Islam positions inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli. All of the refugees have left the camp after recent fighting. (BBC)
- A Philippines ferry, the MV Blue Water Princess, sinks off the southeastern coast of Luzon, leading to four deaths and 18 people being declared missing. (News Limited)
- Iraq War:
- Al-Qaeda:
- Six Afghan policemen are killed by an improvised explosive device in the Khost Province. Another IED kills two civilians in the Paktika Province. (BBC)
- An Israeli soldier is killed by Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip. It is the first Israeli combat casualty since November 2006. (NYT)
- Six Swiss Army recruits are killed by an avalanche on the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland. (BBC)
- A false alarm causes the diversion of American Airlines Flight 136. The plane crew was concerned that a passenger of Middle Eastern descent might have bypassed security controls. (BBC)
- A ship carrying oil for fuel to North Korea departs from South Korea. The government of North Korea may close the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center after the shipment arrives. (BBC)
- The government of Côte d'Ivoire decides to ask the United Nations to probe the failed assassination attempt against Prime Minister Guillaume Soro. (BBC)
- President Pervez Musharraf praises the military for ending the Lal Masjid siege and vows to eradicate terrorism from Pakistan. (BBC)
- The government of Sri Lanka plans to hold a "victory party" in Colombo after the fall of the last Tamil Tiger base in Thoppigala. (BBC)
- The government of Liberia submits a bill to the Parliament which would allow the seizure of the assets of former President Charles G. Taylor, his relatives and associates. (BBC)
- At a press conference, U.S. President George W. Bush admits for the first time that someone in his administration may have leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. (WSJ)
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