• A ceremony is held at Thiepval, Picardy in France to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. ( BBC)
• At least 60 people die from a car bomb in a market in Sadr City, a Shiite district of Baghdad. (Turkish Press)
• The Qingzang railway is formally opened by President Hu Jintao. (BBC)
• Operation Summer Rains:
  • Israel rejects demand to free 1,000 prisoners in return for the release of abducted Cpl. Gilad Shalit. A Palestenian deputy minister says Shalit is in stable condition, but no sign of life is yet given. (Haaretz)
  • The Australian reports Israel has now threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh if Israel's captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, is not released unharmed. (The Australian)

• A judge orders the arrest of former Mexican President Luis Echeverría on charges relating to the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. (Reuters)
• The United States military orders an investigation into claims that five US soldiers raped an Iraqi woman and then murdered her and three members of her family. (Houston Chronicle)
• With the election of Trish Law in a by-election, the National Assembly for Wales becomes the first legislature in the world to have a majority of female members. (BBC)
• Operation Summer Rains:
  • On the sixth day since the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, his father calls the abductors, asking them to provide him with a sign of life from Gilad, as a humane requisite. He also personally thanks Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for his personal involvement in resolving the crisis. (Ynet)
  • Israeli air strike kills one Islamic Jihad militant in the Gaza Strip, the first Palestinian fatality in the IDF incursion. A child is lightly wounded in another air strike in the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
  • A Qassam rocket lands in the cemetery of Ashkelon, an Israeli city with a population exceeding 117,000. This is the furthest range Qassam rockets have reached to date. (Ynet)

• A new audio tape, allegedly from Osama Bin Laden, is released praising Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (Associated Press)
• The United States House of Representatives votes to end a 25-year ban on off-shore drilling. (MSNBC)
• Former Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama Don Siegelman is convicted of bribery and conspiracy. (WTVM)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes up over 215 points as a result of the United States Federal Reserve saying that it would consider the overall economy, and direction of inflation, in setting the interest rate. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the 17th consecutive time to 5.25% due to ongoing concerns about inflation. (Associated Press) (Yahoo) (International Herald Tribune)
• A suicide bomber attacks the funeral of a Shiite soldier in Kirkuk, Iraq, killing four and wounding 27. (USA Today)
• The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the Bush Administration has no authority to try detained prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay by military tribunal, and that the proceedings violate the Geneva Convention as well as the US constitution. (BBC)
• British House of Commons by-elections for the constituencies of Blaenau Gwent and Bromley and Chislehurst are held to fill vacant parliamentary seats. (BBC)
• Operation Summer Rains:

• Israeli government puts off an offensive to the northern Gaza Strip, and freezes military operations in the southern Gaza strip, to allow further time for diplomatic negotiations. There have been no Palestinian fatalities in two days of Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. (Haaretz)
• Six Qassam rockets are launched from the northern Gaza Strip against Israeli towns. The Israel Defense Forces fire over 400 artillery shells at unpopulated areas in the Gaza Strip, to suppress further rocket attacks. (Ynet)
• Russia asks Israel to avoid harming Palestinian civilians in any offensive in the Gaza Strip and urges militants to free the abducted Israeli soldier. (Independent SA)
• The body of Israeli student Eliyahu Asheri is found buried in a field near Ramallah with a head shot. Asheri, 18, was kidnapped and killed on Sunday night by a Palestinian militant group. (Haaretz)
• Failed Israeli air strike against two Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza leaves one civilian lightly wounded. (Ynet)
• The body of Noam Moskovich, an Alzheimer's patient who was claimed to be abducted by Palestinian militants, is found in Rishon LeZion. Police ruled out both criminal and terrorist motives. (Jerusalem Post)
• Israeli soldiers arrest 62 Hamas members in the West Bank, including 8 ministers and 20 lawmakers in the Palestinian Authority, raising concern at concurrent G8 summit. Israeli officials announce that further arrests are expected, and that the suspects will face standard criminal proceedings. (Haaretz), (Reuters Alertnet)

• Kuwait holds a Parliamentary election, the country's first with universal suffrage. Opposition parties win a parliamentary majority but no women are elected. (Fox News) (Turkish Press)
• The cabinet Balkenende II of the Netherlands resigns after a row between the coalition partners about the citizenship of former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (Expatica.com), (BBC)

• Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania area of the northeast United States are ordered to evacuate their homes due to the rising level of the Susquehanna River. 46 of 67 of Pennsylvania's counties are under a state of emergency. Extensive flooding is also occurring in surrounding states, including New York, where Governor George Pataki states "This is the worst flooding by far I’ve seen in my 12 years as governor." Governor Jon Corzine declares his entire state under a state of emergency. (CBS News Alert) (FOX News)

• An angry mob in Dili, East Timor, attacks a refugee camp as the 2006 East Timor crisis continues. (Melbourne Age)

• Israel launches an offensive into the southern Gaza Strip, following aerial strikes on bridges and electric power installations. Meanwhile, four Israeli war planes fly over the palace of Syria's president Bashar Assad in Latakia, reportedly while he was at the palace. (Haaretz), (CNN), (BBC), (Reuters)

• Members of the militant wing of Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, claim they have launched a chemical-tipped missile at the Israeli town of Sderot. The same group has recently claimed to possess about 20 biological warheads for Qassam rockets fired daily at Israeli towns. The Israeli Army says they have not detected a launch of any such rocket, nor received reports of such a weapon hitting Israel. At least four Qassam rockets are launched against Israeli towns on Wednesday. (Reuters), (Haaretz)

• Chadian rebels attack the neighboring Central African Republic. They have reportedly formed an alliance with CAR rebels. Large areas of both countries have descended into violence. (BBC)
• Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agree to allow the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh to decide the region's future status through a popular vote. (Radio Free Europe-Armenian Liberty)
• The most recent attempt in the United States to adopt a flag desecration amendment fails in the Senate by one vote. (CNN)
• Popular musician Axl Rose from the band Guns N' Roses is arrested in Stockholm, Sweden, for alleged violent conduct including biting a security guard on the leg. (BBC)
• Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran does "not need" to talk with the United States over its nuclear program. (CBS News)
• The Hamas-led Palestinian government has reportedly agreed to implicitly recognise Israel, paving the way to reopening peace talks with it. Other Hamas officials later deny these reports. (BBC).
• A Palestinian militant group kidnaps and an hour later kills a 19-year-old Israeli tertiary student, Eliyahu Asheri. The same group later threatens it will kill the student if the Israeli offensive continues. (Haaretz)
• The Iraqi Special Tribunal announces that Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants will face trial on August 21 in relation to the 1980s Anfal campaign in which 100,000 Kurds are estimated to have died. (China Post)
• A vote in the Legislative Yuan to recall Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, who is implicated in numerous corruption scandals, fails to gain the necessary two-thirds majority. (Bloomberg) (AP)
• Nguyen Minh Triet becomes President of Vietnam with Nguyễn Tấn Dũng expected to become the new Prime Minister of Vietnam. (CNN), (BBC)

• Electronic IDs will be distributed to all under the age of 12 in Belgium, as a means of protection from child abduction, and will carry a special code in addition to a hotline. (The Telegraph Group Limited)
• U.S. President George W. Bush criticises the disclosure of a program to monitor financial transactions by suspected terrorists as "disgraceful". White House Press Secretary Tony Snow also states that news organizations, including the New York Times, should think if "the public's right to know, in some cases, might override somebody's right to live..." (CNN) (White House Press Briefing)
• Waziristan War: a suicide car bombing kills six Pakistani soldiers. BBC
• Marí Alkatiri resigns as Prime Minister of East Timor after weeks of political unrest. (Melbourne Herald-Sun), (Reuters)
• A suicide bomb in Pannapittya, Sri Lanka, kills three people, including Parami Kulkathunga, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Sri Lankan Army. (Asian Tribune)
• Israel has stated that they will ensure that the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government is "toppled" if their captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, is killed. Three Palestinian groups claiming to hold Shalit refuse to provide information about his health via the Palestine Red Crescent, unless all jailed Palestinian women and teenagers are released from Israeli prisons. Three Qassam rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip against Israeli towns, one of them wounding 4 civilians in Sderot and causing a power outage throughout the city. (ABC News America), (Haaretz), (AFP/High Ranking Source), (Jerusalem post)
• Italians reject the modification of their constitution. In a two-day referendum, "No" beats "Yes" aproximately 61% to 38%, thus keeping the text unchanged. The Northern League had announced its withdrawal from the centre-right opposition coalition if reform was defeated. Votes of Italians living abroad are still to be counted. (BBC) (CorriereDellaSera)

• The Sudanese government announces the lifting of a partial ban on United Nations operations in the conflict-hit Darfur region. The ban was made after the government accused the UN of transporting a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal. (BBC)
• Arcelor declares its merger with Mittal Steel. The new company will be called Arcelor-Mittal. (CNN-IBN) (BBC)
• Eight Palestinian militants, including Hamas militants, infiltrate into an army post in Israel using a tunnel. Two Israeli soldiers are killed, one kidnapped and three wounded in the attack, in which at least two Palestinian militants die. Israeli PM vows a fierce military response to the attack once the soldier, Gilad Shalit, is returned. Two infantry brigades and supporting armoured regiments are deployed along the Gaza Strip border, in preparation for a major offensive. (Haaretz), (Reuters UK), (BBC)
• José Ramos Horta resigns as both Foreign and Interim Defence Minister of East Timor amidst ongoing political turmoil. (SMH)
• Italians vote in a referendum on whether to approve the modification of 53 articles in the constitution. Approval would give more power to the prime minister and to the regions, making Italy a federal state. (Scotsman)
• The world's second richest man, Warren Buffett, pledges to donate approximately $37 billion USD in shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, effectively making it the largest charitable organization in history. (Fortune) (NYT) (BBC)

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