- 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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