Portal:Current events/2007 June 20
June 20, 2007 (Wednesday)
- A fire in a Russian nursing home in Omsk kills at least ten people. (BBC)
- The Special Court for Sierra Leone issues the first-ever guilty verdicts by an international court related to the military use of children. (BBC)
- The government of Dubai announces that it has purchased the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 from Cunard Line for US$100-million. It intends to turn her into a floating hotel at the Palm Jumeirah when she leaves service in late 2008. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan, dissolves parliament, triggering a legislative election for August 18, 2007. (BBC)
- Ehud Barak, the new Minister for Defense, states that Israel will admit "humanitarian cases" of Palestinians fleeing the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. (AP via CBC)
- The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, announces plans to buy three Spanish-designed warships and two large Spanish landing ships for the Royal Australian Navy at a cost of $A11-billion. (AAP via the West Australian)
- The Sri Lankan military claims to have killed 30 members of the Tamil Tigers in overnight clashes in the east of the country. (BBC)
- Industrial action in Nigeria over increases in fuel duty and a doubling of sales tax is stepped up to become a general strike. (BBC)