There is major outcry in Iran following the death of democracy activist Akbar Mohammadi in Evin Prison. Mohammadi was condemned to death for his role in the 1999 student protests at Tehran University. He had been on a hunger strike for more than a week, protesting the refusal by the Islamic Regime to allow him to seek proper medical treatment for life threatening injuries suffered as a result of torture. Reportedly he was beaten severely by prison guards the night of his death.(Persian Journal), (AKI), (Guardian)
The International Committee of the Red Cross have so far extracted 28 bodies from the rubble, 19 of whom are children, in the wake of Sunday's airstrike on Qana. Earlier reports by the Lebanese police reported double the current confirmed deathtoll, claiming at least 56 fatalities, including 37 children. (ICRC)
Israel's Security Council approves expansion of ground offensive in Lebanon and rejects a cease-fire until an international peacekeeping force is in place. (CBS)
An Israeli civilian is killed and 16 wounded as more than 210 rockets are fired at northern Israel, the biggest daily number since the beginning of the conflict on 12 July. (Ynet), (Haaretz), (BBC NEWS)
In the centre and south of the country, Shiites waved Iraqi flags and chanted "Death to America! Death to Israel!" as they boarded convoys of buses bound for Baghdad's Sadr City. These and other Shiite protesters were summoned to the capital by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to protest against Israel's attacks on Lebanon. The protest is timed to begin after Friday prayers. Perth News (australia)International Herald Tribune
Four US soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before shooting them, a military court has heard from a fellow soldier.(BBC NEWS)
8 Israeli civilians are killed and 39 wounded as some 160 rockets hit Israeli towns. All 28 civilian Israeli fatalities in the ongoing conflict were killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks, which have caused no military fatalities. (Ynet), (Haaretz)
The IDF investigation into the attack on Qana that killed a number of civilians has been completed. It states that the IDF was not aware that there were civilians in the building and assumed that they had been evacuated. The IDF also blamed Hezbollah for using civilians as human shields, and pointed out that over 150 rockets had been fired from the Qana area since the current conflict began. (Haaretz)(YNet)
Human Rights Watch publishes a report criticizing Hezbollah for hiding behind civilians as well as the Israeli forces for deliberately targeting civilians. (Haaretz)[permanent dead link]
Three Hezbollah rockets hit near the Israeli town of Hadera, 50 miles (80 km) south of the Lebanese border and the deepest penetration within Israel to date. (AP via CNews)
A senior Iranian official admits for the first time that Tehran did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hezbollah, capable of carrying a 600-kg warhead an estimated 210 km. (Haaretz)
3 Israelicivilians are killed and at least 50 wounded as some 140 rockets hit Israeli towns, raising to 10 the number of Israeli Arab citizens killed in the ongoing conflict. (Ynet), (Haaretz),(MFA)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi calls for the "formation of an international investigation committee to probe the ongoing atrocities of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, and to prosecute and punish the ones responsible for these catastrophes." (AFP)
Fifteen local employees of the French charity organisation Action Against Hunger are found dead in a town in northeastern Sri Lanka at the center of heavy fighting between Tamil rebels and government forces. Both sides have denied involvement in the killings. (BBC)
Lebanon rejects a draft U.N. resolution calling for an end to the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah, insisting it must include an explicit demand for a full Israeli pullout from south Lebanon.(The Hindu)
In an interview with the German magazine Welt am Sonntag, Israeli Prime MinisterEhud Olmert asks European nations, "Where do they get the right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket. I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians." (al Jazeera)
Israeli troops attack the Lebanese town of Qana claiming to destroy the launchers that launched the missiles at Haifa. (USA Today)
At least six rockets hit Haifa, Israel; one more rocket hits right outside of Haifa, and others hit the Ma'alot, Carmiel area, and Kiryat Shmona. The death toll is at least three in Haifa and 12 for Northern Israel as a whole. (Ynet News), (AP)
Reuters has pulled a photograph of Beirut, Lebanon, admitting that it was altered by the photographer, Adnan Hajj, saying "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvenience." (Ynet News)(Reuters)
Tomo Križnar, the Slovenian diplomatic envoy and human-rights activist to Sudan, is formally charged with espionage and illegally entering Darfur. Križnar, who admits entering Darfur without the required visa, was arrested in July. (BBC)
A US military hearing has examined the testimony by one of the accused in an incident where an Iraqi girl and her three family members were allegedly killed by four U.S. soldiers. (BBC)
Lebanon's government meets today, to decide to send the Lebanese army to the southern end of the country, according to political sources. It decides unanimously to send 15,000 troops to the south of the country as Israeli troops pull out. (Reuters)
AOL publicly releases 20 million unfiltered search keywords for 500,000 users, containing personally identifiable information about users' search habits. (TechCrunch)
Amid news of slower-than expected growth and a quarterly rise in the unemployment rate in the United States, Federal Reserve System Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that there will be no increase to the Fed fund rate, ending a two-year period of rising interest rates. (Bloomberg)
The Indianstate of Kerala bans the sale and manufacture of soft drinks belonging to PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company due to the high levels of pesticide residue in the water used in these products. (AP)
Spokeswoman for IsraeliPrime MinisterEhud Olmert calls BBC "the only international English-speaking news outlet that is downright hostile to Israel on every level." The BBC's response to that noted that "our duty is to provide independent reporting and analysis of all perspectives of a story, so our audiences can make sense of what's going on in the world." (Jerusalem Post)
Pakistan's intelligence service claims that its cooperation with British intelligence helped to uncover the plot. CNN reports that sources have informed it that it was recent arrests in Pakistan that convinced Britain to act quickly. (Reuters)(CNN)
Heathrow Airport closed to most European flights as a result on bans on flights of three hours or less. Congestion builds due to ban most types of hand luggage. (New York Times)
Intelligence officials claim that the suspects were intending to hold a dry run within the next 2 days with the actual attack to be held within 10 days. (KSLA News)
In Marietta, Ohio, United States two men were arrested on money laundering in support of terrorism. They were found with lists of travelers on airplanes and information on airport security checkpoints. (Associated Press)
Ehud Olmert accepts the emerging Middle East peace deal after earlier threatening an expansion of the ground war in Lebanon. The agreement calls for the deployment of 30,000 Lebanese and U.N. troops along the Israel-Lebanon border. (Boston Herald)
40 people have been arrested throughout Italy, in Muslim communities "as part of an extraordinary operation that followed the British anti-terrorist operation." (Fox News)
The date the plot was to be carried out has been revealed to be August 16. (Daily Mail)
Lebanese officials claim that Israeli missiles killed 15 civilians in the village of Rachaf 10 kilometres from the border with Israel. (AP)[permanent dead link](BBC)
A Lebanese government meeting on the disarming of Hezbollah south of the Litani River is cancelled following an announcement by the Shi'ite organization that it was not willing to discuss the subject. (Haaretz)
Jiji Press reports that Japan Ground Self-Defense Force uniform officers examined enshrining troops in Yasukuni Shrine in the event of their death during their non-combat mission in Iraq. Critics accuse the examination of being against Japanese constitutional separation of state and religion. (Mainichi Daily News)[permanent dead link]
Thousands of displaced Lebanese and Israelis have begun returning home hours after a UN ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah came into force.(BBC NEWS)
The ceasefire takes effect at 8am Lebanese time. (CNN)
The United Kingdom government is to seek Parliamentary approval to grant posthumous pardons for over 300 soldiers executed for cowardice during the First World War. The soldiers' families have long claimed that they were suffering from shell shock (posttraumatic stress disorder). (BBC)
NJ Transit says that service has been suspended between New York's Penn Station and Secaucus due to a suspicious item found on the tracks east of the Secaucus junction. (WABC New York)
Terminal 18 of the Port of Seattle is evacuated after bomb-sniffing dogs indicate that at least one container recently taken off a ship may contain explosives. (AP) However, none of the containers are found to hold explosives. (Seattle Herald)
A Russian border patrol boat fires on a Japanese crab fishing boat near Kaigara Island, part of the Kuril Islands. One fisherman is killed and three others detained by the Russian authorities. (AP)
Thai police claim that John Mark Karr has confessed to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Karr tells reporters after the press conference that he was with the child when she died but didn't mean to kill her. (CBS)
Australia: The first person convicted under new anti-terrorism laws has been acquitted on appeal. Jack Thomas was convicted in March on two counts of receiving funds from a terrorist network and for carrying a falsified passport. According to ABC News his 5-year sentence was today quashed by the Victorian Court of Appeal, which ruled information obtained during an interview with Australian Federal Police Officers in Pakistan, conducted without legal representation and under threat of torture, was inadmissible.
Reuters reports that Israeli aircraft have fired at targets in Eastern Lebanon reported to be a Hezbollah stronghold. An Israeli army spokesman said the army was checking the report. (Reuters)
Israel confirms that a commando unit was operating in Lebanon early this morning. One soldier is reported killed and two wounded, one of them seriously. (ABC America)
A Turkish-Iranian natural gas pipeline explodes in Turkey's northeastern Ağrı Province. Turkish authorities suspect separatist Kurds were behind the incident. (Internet Archive) (AP Story, no longer on original CNN site)
With nearly all votes counted, the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo heads toward a run-off election after neither candidate wins a fifty percent majority. Full provisional results show Joseph Kabila with 44.81 percent of the vote, to Jean-Pierre Bemba's 20.03 percent. There have been reports of automatic gunfire, and MLC representatives accused Kabila's Republican Guard of killing one of its men and injuring three policemen. (Reuters)(SBS)
Democratic Republic of the Congo general election: As a meeting between Bemba and foreign ambassadors representing the International Committee Accompanying the Transition to Democracy (CIAT) is taking place in Kinshasa, clashes break between Kabila and Bemba forces; Bemba's residence, hosting the meeting, comes under attack, reportedly by heavy machine guns and artillery. Several hours later, the UN spokesperson in the DRC, Jean-Tobias Okala, announced the foreign diplomats, including MONUC chief William Swing, were successfully evacuated to UN headquarters. (Mail & Guardian)(CBC)
Italy offers to lead the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon instead of France. Italy has offered to provide 2,000 forces, more than any other nation, and France is only offering to provide 200 civil engineers. (UPI)
The Channel Tunnel, which connects the UK to France, closes after smoke is seen coming from a freight train in the tunnel. (BBC)
U.S. university Virginia Tech closed campus and canceled classes today, the first day of classes, during the search for a man who was suspected of murdering a hospital security guard and a police officer. The suspect, William Morva, is in custody. (WTOP)
A bomb goes off in a Moscow market, killing 10 and wounding about 40. Authorities are not ruling out terrorism. It appears to have been intentional. (Reuters)(BBC)
Nominations have been called for the first Nunatsiavut Assembly General Election. The election will be held on October 3, 2006. VOCM[permanent dead link]
The Iranian Navy attacks and seizes control of a Romanian oil rig in the Persian Gulf. Iran took control of the radio room at 7 AM local time. "The Iranians fired at the rig's crane with machine guns," Tăbănescu said. "They are in control now and we can't contact the rig." There were 26 workers onboard. (Bloomberg)
A senior Israeli source says that Israel "may have to go it alone," saying that the Iranian response to a package of incentives to halt its uranium enrichment was just to "gain time," and said that Iran had "flipped the world the bird." (Jerusalem Post)
EU officials caution that the peacekeeping force in Lebanon will not disarm Hezbollah. Disarming Hezbollah is the responsibility of the Lebanese government and army. (NY Times)
Chad orders United States' ChevronTexaco and Malaysia's Petronas out of the country for failing to meet tax obligations. Chadian president, Idriss Déby, stated that Chad, whose new national oil company was to partner with an Exxon Mobil-ChevronTexaco-Petronas consortium, will continue to work with US' Exxon Mobil while attempting to "find a solution with the two other partners." (BBC)
Reports surface that UNIFIL troops in Lebanon continuously broadcast online sensitive information such as the strength and precise movements of the Israeli army.(Weekly Standard)
The Games Convention, the largest video game expo on both sides of the Atlantic closes with a record attendance of 183,000 visitors in 4 days of exhibiting. The projected attendance was set at 150,000. There are expansion plans of the expo for 2007 and beyond. MDR (German)
Three bombs explode in the Turkish coastal town of Marmaris following an explosion in Istanbul shortly after midnight local time (2100 UTC Sunday). At least 22 people have been injured in the explosions. A further explosion occurred hours later in nearby Antalya, killing at least three people. (News Limited)(BBC)
Dozens are killed in an explosion at a disused pipeline near Diwaniya, Iraq, apparently while scavenging for petrol.(Reuters)
A magnitude-5.4 earthquake strikes off the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Officials currently state that a tsunami is not possible, as their initial magnitude estimates have been downgraded. [1] This follows four magnitude-5 foreshocks the previous day. [2]
Conflict between Shiite militia and the Iraqi military in southern city of Diwaniyah leaves at least 19 dead. (BBC)
British rail company South West Trains begin a series of one-day strikes over claims that unqualified company managers were allowed to drive trains.(BBC)
Multiple bomb attacks across Baghdad, Iraq kill at least 40 people while 12 more die after bomb explodes near an army recruiting office in Hilla. (BBC)
The UK Government announces plans to make the possession of violent pornographic images illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison. (The Guardian)
Wake Island is evacuated, in preparation for its predicted inundation by Typhoon Ioke, now classified as a super typhoon, which is expected to destroy almost all structures on the island. (CNN)
Israeli police, at the request of the BritishEmbassy in Tel Aviv, captured a man who broke in to the Embassy and demanded asylum, threatening to kill himself if his demands were not met. (BBC)(BBC)
The future of UK model manufacturer Airfix, founded in 1939, is in doubt after the financial collapse of parent company Humbrol. Company administrators declare they wish to sell the Airfix brand. (BBC)
Syria welcomes Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who said yesterday that the two countries will "build a new world" free of U.S. domination and vowed to one day "dig the grave of U.S. imperialism." State Department spokesman Tom Casey retorts that Chávez should remind Damascus about its international obligations to prevent Hezbollah from receiving weapons. (AP)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, stated that Iran had the right to use nuclear technology on the day that a United Nations Security Council deadline expires. President Ahmadinejad said: "They should know that the Iranian nation will not yield to pressure and will not let its rights be trampled on." (CNN)
