July 17, 2005

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[edit] July 17, 2005 (Sunday)

• Disneyland celebrates its 50th Anniversary.
• Former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath dies at his Salisbury home at the age of 89. (BBC)
• Time correspondent Matthew Cooper reveals that last week he told a grand jury that Karl Rove—a top White House political adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush— was the first to reveal Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent. (BBC)
• Fourteen Spanish Firefighters have died while attempting to battle a forest fire in the central province of Guadalajara. (BBC)
• According to the Military of Pakistan, 17 people have died, including a Pakistani soldier, following clashes on the border with Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: A fuel truck bomb kills 98 people south of Baghdad as three more suicide car bombers strike the Iraqi capital. (Economic Times)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • A Palestinian man is shot dead near the Israeli settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Israel Defence Force sources claim he was armed. (BBC) (Euronews) (ABC News Online)
  • Said Seyam, 30, a Hamas commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis is shot and killed by an Israeli sniper firing from an observation tower at the Israeli settlement of Ganei Tal.
  • Two Hamas mortars injure five residents of the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gaza Strip. Four Qassam rockets land on Israeli territory but no injuries are reported.
  • An Israeli Air Force missile strike on a car in Beit Lahiya misses the car but seriously wounds a Palestinian bystander. Two members of the Popular Resistance Committees are believed to have been in the car. (BBC) (Ha'aretz) (Reuters)
  • Israeli troops mass for a military offensive on the Gaza Strip border prior to a visit to Israel by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (BBC)
• Thailand declares emergency in three southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala because of increasing violence of Muslim insurgency. (Bangkok Post) (The Nation, Thailand) (Channel News Asia)
• In Yemen, president Ali Abdullah Saleh announces that he won't seek re-election next year. (Yemeni Observer) (Al-Jazeera) (Reuters AlertNet)
• In Egypt, presidential feminist aspirant Nawal el-Saadawi pulls out of the race due to restrictive election regulations for first-time candidates. (Al-Jazeera) (Reuters)
• In Germany, the Party of Democratic Socialism renames itself The Party of the Left. in a plan to join forces with the Labour and Social Justice Party. (Deutsche Welle) (Reuters)
• In The United Kingdom, Britain's Sunni Council announces a fatwa against suicide bombings. (BBC) (Al-Jazeera)
• In Nigeria, Amaka Anajemba is sentenced for two years involvement with a money transfer scam worth $242 million. (IOL) (Forbes) (BBC)
• Representatives of Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement reach a tentative peace settlement in negoations in Helsinki, Finland. They intend to sign a formal truce in August 15. (Jakarta Post) (Reuters) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• In Turkey, Kurdistan Workers Party has denied that it had anything to do with a minibus bombing in Kuşadası that killed five people. Turkish authorities have blamed the Party. (BBC)
• In India, the government has dismissed a claim of Sunni Waqf Board that it should own the Taj Mahal. (BBC)
• US golfer Tiger Woods wins his second Open Championship title on the Old Course at St Andrews.