Portal:Current events/2007 August 17

August 17, 2007 (Friday)

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.
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) Archived 2012-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
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:
- Hurricane Dean intensifies into a Category 4 hurricane after hitting the Lesser Antilles. (Reuters)
- 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)
- BP starts evacuating its oil and gas workers from the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Dean. (The Scotsman)
- 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 crisis. (Bloomberg)
2007 Peru earthquake
- 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)
- A powerful aftershock earthquake of 5.9 magnitude hits the Huancavelica region. (The Scotsman)
- 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.
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)