PORTAL:CURRENT EVENTS 2010 AUGUST 7

August 7, 2010 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announces Monday as the day he will present evidence reputed to implicate Israel in the 2005 car bomb assassination of then Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafiq Hariri. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Israel announces that Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Avigdor Lieberman have chosen Yosef Ciechanover, who formerly held posts in the Foreign Ministry, Defence Ministry and defence mission to the United States, to represent it on the United Nations panel to investigate May's Gaza flotilla raid. (The Jerusalem Post) (Haaretz)
The MV Mavi Marmara arrives in Turkey; the remaining three non-Turkish flotilla vessels plus the MV Rachel Corrie cargo ship, which followed days later, remain in Israeli custody. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
10 people, including 2 Afghan civilians and 8 International Assistance Mission aid workers, are killed in Nuristan Province. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (Voice of America)
14 people die and 35 others are injured in Basra due to an explosion, possibly caused by a power generator. (BBC) (France24)
5 Iraqi policemen are killed in an overnight shootout in western Baghdad, while 1 policeman is killed at a checkpoint outside Fallujah. (AP via The Guardian)

Arts and entertainment

Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, hospitalised after falling in the United States last month, is not released from hospital as had been initially expected due to a negative reaction to her morphine. (BBC)

Business and economy

Disasters

Pakistan issues a red alert as the worst floods in its history move south towards Sindh, with hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated, at least 10,000 cows killed and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani appealing on television for help from the international community. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
Pollution hits record levels in Moscow as large wildfires continue to devastate Russia. (Aljazeera)
At least 16 miners are killed during a fire at a gold mine in Zhaoyuan, Shandong, in China. 23 others are still trapped inside. (Aljazeera) (Xinhua)
Efforts intensify to rescue at least 34 people trapped in a mine near Copiapó, Chile, in the Atacama Desert. (Aljazeera) (Bangkok Post)^{[
permanent dead link]} (People's Daily) (news.com.au)
3 people are killed as a result of storms and flooding in Saxony. (Deutsche Welle)
At least 127 people have died and 1,300 missing following landslides caused by heavy rains in China's northwestern Gansu province. (AFP via Google News), (Bloomberg via Business Week)
An oil spill stretching at least two miles long occurs in the Arabian Sea offshore Mumbai, India, after a vessel from Panama collides with another vessel from St. Kitts. The Panamanian ship was carrying 2,662 tons of oil, 283 tons of diesel and 88,040 liters of lube oil when it became grounded and started to leak. (CNN) (Sify)

International relations

Law and crime

A Turkish court annuls an arrest warrant issued against 102 military officers over an alleged coup plot in 2003. (Aljazeera)
An appeals court in Iran upholds a five year jail sentence against the owner of Mehdi Karroubi's opposition website. (IOL)
A man accused by witnesses of domestic violence informs a New Zealand court that he and his wife were performing the Turkish kolbasti traditional dance at the time of the alleged incident in Hawera. (BBC) (Canadian Press) (The New Zealand Herald) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Age)
Saudi Arabia BlackBerry ban:
- Saudi Arabia decides it will not ban BlackBerry instant messaging after agreeing a deal to iron out security fears. (The Daily Telegraph)
- According to Saudi officials, a deal is close to prevent the ban of the devices. (BBC)

Politics and elections

President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo is diagnosed with lymphoma. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Buenos Aires Herald)
Juan Manuel Santos is sworn in office as 59th President of Colombia, succeeding Álvaro Uribe, at a ceremony attended by more than 100 international delegations. (BBC) (Aljazeera) (France24) (The Irish Times) (CNN)
Fidel Castro delivers a short speech to the Cuban Parliament to warn about the risk of a nuclear war between the United States and Iran, accusing Barack Obama of provoking conflict with Iran and North Korea and urging him to prevent such a conflict. (Aljazeera) (BBC)

Science

United States astronauts Douglas H. Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson fail on the International Space Station (ISS)'s longest spacewalk and sixth longest spacewalk to repair a cooling system, which means two more spacewalks are now required. (BBC) (TIME)^{[
permanent dead link]}

Sport

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