Dates of 2007

▪ 2008

January

"Ladies and gentlemen: on this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory."

— U.S. Pres. George W. Bush, asking for support for his planned troop “surge” in the Iraq war in his state of the union address, January 23

January 1

      With the beginning of the new year, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany assumes the presidency of the European Union.

      Bulgaria and Romania officially accede to the European Union, bringing the number of member states to 27.

      Slovenia becomes the 13th member of the European Union to adopt the euro as its official currency.

      Belarus achieves a last-minute agreement with the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom to pay $100 per thousand cubic metres of gas, up from $46 but still well below market prices, to avert a cutoff of gas supplies.

      Islamist forces in Somalia abandon their final outpost, in Kismayo.

      The name of the Indian state of Uttaranchal officially changes to Uttarakhand.

January 2

      The annual Hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, ends without incident.

      A new constitution comes into effect in the British dependency of Gibraltar; it grants more powers to the residents and fewer to the government of the U.K.

      Gang fighting breaks out in a prison in Uribana, Venez.; 16 inmates are killed in the melee.

      In Australia, the Aboriginal Githabul tribe reaches an agreement with the state government of New South Wales that gives the Githabul joint ownership with the government over an area of 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq mi), including national parks and forests.

 American television personality Oprah Winfrey officially opens the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, S.Af., with an initial class of 152 11- and 12-year-old girls; the eventual enrollment will be 450.

January 3

      The U.S. government announces that John D. Negroponte will resign as director of national intelligence in order to become deputy secretary of state, filling a post that has been vacant since the resignation of Robert B. Zoellick.

      Pres. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela dismisses his interior minister and his vice president, citing unacceptably high levels of violent crime and prison violence in the case of the former but giving no explanation for the action against the latter.

      Kenya closes its border with Somalia in an attempt to prevent Islamist militia members from entering the country.

      Robert L. Nardelli resigns as chairman and CEO of home-improvement company Home Depot.

January 4

      In Fiji, coup leader Frank Bainimarama restores Ratu Josefa Iloilo as president and dismisses Jona Senilagakali, whom Bainimarama had appointed interim prime minister after the coup; the following day Bainimarama is sworn in as interim prime minister.

      Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California becomes speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; she is the first woman to hold the post.

      Two bombs go off at a gas station in Baghdad, killing 13 people; in various other places in the city, the mutilated bodies of 47 people are found.

January 5

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush names Zalmay Khalilzad, currently U.S. ambassador to Iraq, as his choice to become UN ambassador.

      A bomb on a bus in Nittambuwa, Sri Lanka, in a usually peaceful area, kills at least 5 people and injures 30; the following day a bomb on a passenger bus near Hikkaduwa kills some 11 people.

January 6

      Government officials in India say that a series of attacks by the United Liberation Front of Assam over the past two days have left at least 55 people dead in that state.

      Rioting breaks out in Mogadishu, Somalia, in protest against Ethiopian troops and against a government disarmament program that protesters were unaware had already been canceled.

January 7

      At an enormous Fatah rally in Gaza City, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas reiterates his demand for early elections.

      The U.S. Air Force conducts a raid in southern Somalia, using a gunship against suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

      On the occasion that he was to be enthroned as Roman Catholic archbishop of Warsaw, Bishop Stanislaw Wielgus instead resigns after having admitted collaboration with the Polish secret police during the communist era; Jozef Cardinal Glemp is reappointed archbishop.

January 8

      Russia shuts down its oil pipeline that runs through Belarus, accusing Belarus of siphoning off fuel intended for other European countries; the cutoff affects supplies in Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

      Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez announces plans to nationalize CANTV, the country's main telecommunications company, as well as the rest of the telecommunications industry and the electricity industry; the Caracas and U.S. stock markets react sharply negatively.

      Daniyal Akhmetov resigns as prime minister of Kazakhstan.

      For a second consecutive day, in the midst of India's Ardh Kumbh Mela celebrations that involve pilgrims' ritual bathing in the Ganges River, Hindu holy men, or sadhus, protest the pollution of the river, saying it is too dirty to wash away sins.

      The University of Florida defeats Ohio State University 41–14 in college football's Bowl Championship Series title game in Glendale, Ariz., to win the national Division I-A championship.

January 9

      Hundreds of American and Iraqi troops fight insurgents in a daylong battle in downtown Baghdad.

      A third day of violent protests intended to force the postponement of elections takes place in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

      Cal Ripken, Jr., who played in 2,632 consecutive games, and slugger Tony Gwynn are elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame; former home-run king Mark McGwire is rejected.

      At the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs introduces the novel touch-screen based iPhone, combining music player, camera, Web functions, and phone with other innovations; he also announces a change to his company's name, from Apple Computer to Apple Inc.

January 10

      In a televised speech to the country, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush acknowledges difficulties in Iraq and announces that he will send 20,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq in what he calls a “surge” to end the violence in Baghdad.

      China reports a record trade surplus for 2006 of $177.47 billion.

      Pres. Omar Hassan al-Bashir of The Sudan and leaders of several rebel groups in Darfur agree to a 60-day cease-fire in a truce brokered by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

      The Sudan begins circulating a new currency, to be known as the sudani, to supplant the dinar, in circulation since 1992; the dinar will not be accepted as currency after July 1.

      The UN Security Council votes to extend the UN and French peacekeeping mission in Côte d'Ivoire for a further six months.

January 11

      Alfred Gusenbauer is sworn in as chancellor of Austria at the head of a grand coalition government.

      Bangladeshi Pres. Iajuddin Ahmed declares a state of emergency, postpones elections, and resigns as caretaker prime minister.

      The Los Angeles Galaxy announces that it has signed Real Madrid star David Beckham to play Major League Soccer in the U.S. starting in the summer.

January 12

      Ukraine's Supreme Council (legislature) passes a law that removes the right of the president to reject a prime minister chosen by the council as well as the right to choose the foreign and defense ministers, and it limits presidential decrees.

      Mexico's minister of the economy, Eduardo Sojo, announces plans to suspend tariffs on corn products to relieve pressure on the price of tortillas, which has risen 25% in a week.

      Pres. Iajuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh names Fakhruddin Ahmed head of the interim government ahead of elections and relaxes some controls imposed under the state of emergency.

January 13

      Meeting at Cebu, Phil., the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agree to create a free-trade zone in the region by 2015 and approve the outline of a governing charter.

      Somalia's Transitional Federal Assembly declares a state of emergency, imposing three months of martial law.

      Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran makes his second visit in five months to Venezuela to meet with that country's president, Hugo Chávez.

January 14

      Nicolas Sarkozy, French minister of the interior, is chosen as the presidential candidate of the ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement Party.

      U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas in Ram Allah in the West Bank; she will spend the next two days shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian officials in an attempt to bring them to an agreement.

January 15

      A temporary constitution that makes the prime minister, rather than the king, head of state is approved in Nepal, and 83 Maoist rebels take the seats in the interim legislature that the document grants them.

      Rafael Correa is sworn in as president of Ecuador; he orders that a referendum be held on March 18 on amending the constitution to decrease the power of traditional parties.

January 16

      Two car bombs and a suicide bomber kill at least 70 people at Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, and other assorted acts of violence kill 15 others throughout the city.

      In Burundi the High Court clears former president Domitien Ndayizeye and former vice president Alphonse Kadege of charges that they plotted the overthrow of the current government.

      In response to a crush of people in Moldova seeking visas and citizenship applications for Romania following Romania's accession to the EU on January 1, Moldovan Pres. Vladimir Voronin agrees to allow Romania to set up two temporary consulates, in Balti and Cahul.

      Blizzard Entertainment releases Burning Crusade, the first full retail expansion of the online role-playing game World of Warcraft, which has more than eight million subscribers.

January 17

      In a speech to the European Parliament as president of the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel states her goals of reviving the drive to pass the EU constitution and completing the Doha round of trade talks.

      On the eighth day of a general strike intended to force the resignation of Pres. Lansana Conté of Guinea, security forces and demonstrators clash in Conakry, and street protests begin taking place in other cities.

January 18

      U.S. government officials reveal that China carried out a successful test of an antisatellite weapon some days earlier, destroying an old weather satellite; it was the first antisatellite test since the U.S. tests in the mid-1980s.

      In China the People's Daily reports that dams, overfishing, and pollution have resulted in the extinction of one-third of all fish species in the Huang Ho (Yellow River).

January 19

      After reports that United Nations Development Programme money may be being misused in North Korea, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for systemwide outside auditing of all UN activities.

      The newly appointed government of Czech Republic Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek wins a vote of confidence.

      Prominent ethnic-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is shot to death outside his office in Istanbul.

      In a change in policy, Mexico extradites to the U.S. four people believed to be major drug traffickers as well as seven lower-level drug dealers.

January 20

      A U.S. helicopter crashes—possibly shot down—north of Baghdad, killing all 13 aboard, and five American soldiers are killed in battle in Karbalaʾ.

      Philippine officials report that DNA tests have confirmed that a man killed in battle with Philippine troops in September 2006 is Khadaffy Janjalani, leader of the militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf; Abu Sulaiman, Janjalani's apparent successor, had been killed a few days previously.

 The innovative Olympic Sculpture Park opens in Seattle on the site of a former fuel-storage depot.

January 21

      The National Art Center, a large new museum designed by Kisho Kurokawa, opens in Tokyo with a collection on loan from several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; the National Art Center has no permanent collection.

      Winners of the 29th annual Dakar Rally are French driver Stéphane Peterhansel in a Mitsubishi, Frenchman Cyril Despres on a KTM motorcycle, and Dutch driver Hans Stacey in a MAN truck.

      Yokozuna (grand champion) Asashoryu defeats ozeki (champion) Kotooshu on the final day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo; the previous day Asashoryu had clinched his 20th Emperor's Cup.

January 22

      Two car bombs in a market in Baghdad explode at noon, a very busy time, and kill at least 88 people.

      In fighting between antigovernment protesters and security forces in Conakry, Guinea, some 20 people are killed.

      In the field of children's literature, the Newbery Medal is awarded to Susan Patron for The Higher Power of Lucky, a somewhat controversial book, and David Wiesner wins the Caldecott Medal for illustration for his book Flotsam.

      In Thoroughbred horse racing's 2006 Eclipse Awards, Invasor is named Horse of the Year.

January 23

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush delivers his sixth state of the union address; he asks for support for his strategy in Iraq and makes modest health care proposals and plans to reduce gasoline consumption.

      From today, U.S. citizens returning by air from any country in the Western Hemisphere must show a passport to reenter their home country; citizens of Canada and countries of the West Indies are also now required to show a passport when arriving in the U.S. by air.

      Ethiopian troops begin pulling out of Somalia.

      Fighting breaks out on the streets of Beirut between supporters of Hezbollah and partisans of the government; at the end of a full day of conflict, at least three people have been killed.

      The Ministry of Justice of Israel announces that the attorney general intends to indict Pres. Moshe Katsav on charges of rape, sexual harassment, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice.

      Government figures show that by 2006 the Chinese territory of Macau had become the world's biggest gambling centre, with gaming revenue exceeding that in Las Vegas.

January 24

      Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, declares that the opposition has decided not to bring down Lebanon's government.

      Italy's Constitutional Court strikes down a law that restricts the circumstances under which a court verdict may be appealed; the ruling could make it possible for the acquittal on corruption charges of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to be appealed.

      For the second time this month, U.S. military forces conduct an air strike in Somalia.

January 25

      Charles Rabemananjara is sworn in as prime minister of Madagascar.

      A committee of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) approves the request of Pres. Moshe Katsav to be suspended from duties; Dalia Itzik is named acting president.

      The Ford Motor Co. announces a loss of $12.7 billion for 2006, its largest single-year loss ever.

      Composer Steve Reich and jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins are named winners of the Polar Music Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

January 26

      UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari presents his proposals for the future of the region of Kosovo in Serbia; the plan would allow Kosovo to declare independence but envisions international supervision to protect the rights of the Serbian minority there.

      A gathering of representatives from 60 countries in Kobe, Japan, reaches the first global agreement on a plan to protect the declining numbers of tuna in the world's oceans.

      Martial law that was imposed in Thailand after the coup in September 2006 is lifted in Bangkok and 41 provinces.

January 27

      Two car bombs go off at a busy market in Baghdad where crowds had gathered for a preparatory ritual for the Shiʿite holy day of ʿAshuraʾ; at least 15 people are killed.

      A suicide bomber kills 14 people, mostly police officers, just before a planned religious procession in Peshawar, Pak.

      American Serena Williams defeats Mariya Sharapova of Russia to win her second Australian Open women's tennis championship; the following day Roger Federer of Switzerland defeats Chilean Fernando González to win the men's title for the third time.

January 28

      A battle takes place in an orchard outside Al-Najaf, Iraq, between Iraqi and American forces and a group of militants apparently intent on disrupting observations of the holy day ʿAshuraʾ; at least 250 people are killed.

      As violence between Hamas and Fatah that has claimed more than 20 lives in the past four days continues in Gaza, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia invites both factions to hold reconciliation talks in Mecca; both sides say they will accept the invitation.

      The Roman Catholic party Sinn Fein agrees to endorse the Northern Ireland police force, which is to change over the next 15 years from being mostly Protestant to being proportionately representative of both the Protestant and the Roman Catholic communities.

      Winning films at the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony in Park City, Utah, include Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), Padre Nuestro, Hear and Now, and Grace Is Gone.

      The automobile endurance race 24 Hours of Daytona in Florida is won by the team consisting of former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia, Scott Pruett of the U.S., and Salvador Duran of Mexico.

January 29

      China announces a plan to lend $3 billion in preferential credit to countries in Africa without political or other conditions.

      Meeting in Addis Ababa, Eth., the African Union chooses Pres. John Kufuor of Ghana to assume the organization's rotating presidency, rebuffing The Sudan for the second consecutive year because of worsening violence in Darfur.

January 30

      In violence connected with the observance of ʿAshuraʾ in Iraq, some 50 people are killed, at least 23 of them by a bomb in Karbalaʾ.

      Lord Levy, the top Labour Party fund-raiser in the U.K., is arrested for the second time in an inquiry into whether seats in the House of Lords had been made available in exchange for financial considerations.

      Supporters of Pres. Rafael Correa of Ecuador try to storm the National Congress, which has been at odds with the president; violent clashes with the police ensue.

      Vice Pres. Cassim Chilumpha of Malawi goes on trial for treason; he is accused of having hired hit men to assassinate Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika.

      Vista, Microsoft's new Windows operating system, and its software suite Office 2007 go on sale.

      Archaeologists in England report the discovery at Durrington Walls on Salisbury Plain of what seems to be ruins of the largest Neolithic village ever found in Great Britain; the 4,600-year-old site was built about the same time as nearby Stonehenge.

January 31

      Venezuela's National Assembly grants Pres. Hugo Chávez the power to govern by decree for the next year and a half.

      After two weeks of ethnic unrest in the Terai region of Nepal, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala says in a televised address that he will press for Nepal's new system of government to be a federal one, a key demand of the Madhesi people of Terai.

February

"Our lips are full of praise but our hearts are far removed from the prophets we all claim. That's why the world is in the shape that it's in."

— Louis Farrakhan, in his last public address as head of the Nation of Islam, in Detroit, February 25

February 1

      Two suicide bombers kill at least 60 people in a crowded market in Al-Hillah, Iraq, while at least 46 people die in assorted violent incidents in Baghdad.

      Taliban forces sack the town of Musa Qala, Afg., which had been turned over to local control by British forces in October 2006 in an effort to end fighting.

      The winner of the annual Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, which honours outstanding achievement in contemporary music, is announced; the prize will be presented to British composer Brian Ferneyhough in May.

February 2

      The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first section of its four-part report; it says that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is almost certainly the cause and cites the scientific evidence for these conclusions.

      In the Gaza Strip, 17 people are killed in fighting between adherents of Fatah and Hamas, and Fatah members attack Islamic University in Gaza City.

February 3

      A suicide truck bomber detonates an estimated one ton of explosives in a crowded Shiʿite market in Baghdad, killing at least 130 people.

      British officials confirm that H5N1 avian flu has been found on a poultry farm in eastern England.

February 4

      Several former government ministers from both major political parties are arrested in a crackdown on corruption in Bangladesh; also, a new head of the election commission is appointed.

      Two days after a police officer was killed in rioting following an association football (soccer) match between Catania and Palermo in Sicily, the Italian Olympic Committee suspends all further matches.

      In Miami the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears 29–17 to win the National Football League's Super Bowl XLI.

February 5

      Chung Mong-koo, chairman of the South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Co., is sentenced to three years in prison for embezzling corporate funds, but he is allowed to remain free on appeal and to remain in his position.

      The computer company Apple Inc. and Apple Corps Ltd., which licenses Beatles music and related products, announce a new agreement whereby Apple Inc. will own all trademarks but license some of them back to Apple Corps; a dispute arose when Apple Computer began selling music through iTunes in 2003.

      Astronaut Lisa Nowak is arrested in Orlando, Fla., after a bizarre attempted attack on a perceived rival in a romantic triangle.

February 6

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announce that the United States Africa Command, to oversee U.S. military operations in Africa, will be established by Sept. 30, 2008; responsibility for Africa is now divided between three commands.

      In Acapulco, Mex., gunmen dressed in khakis and red berets and carrying machine guns invade two police stations, gunning down seven officers.

      For the second time in two days in England, a letter bomb explodes in a motoring-related company, this one in the offices of an accounting firm in Wokingham; the first was in a building near Scotland Yard headquarters in London.

February 7

      A Marine transport helicopter is shot down near Baghdad; it is the sixth helicopter to crash in combat in three weeks.

      A letter bomb explodes at the main British motor vehicle agency in Swansea, Wales; it seems to be of an incendiary nature, as were the ones that preceded it.

 British author Stef Penney wins the Costa (formerly Whitbread) Book of the Year Award for her first novel, The Tenderness of Wolves.

      Despite a loss in the final game to the host team, the Carolina Giants (Gigantes) of Puerto Rico, the Cibao Eagles (Águilas) from the Dominican Republic win baseball's Caribbean Series with a tournament record of 5–1.

      Sweden's Ministry of Agriculture gives the country's reindeer herders some $5.3 million in emergency aid to keep their animals from starving; thick ice has made it impossible for the reindeer to eat the lichen that is their usual diet.

February 8

      A paper published in Nature magazine describes an experiment by a team of researchers led by Lene Vestergaard Hau that used Bose-Einstein clouds to stop a pulse of light and reconstitute it in another location, where it continued on its way.

      Officials in Italy decree that association football (soccer) matches may resume but no spectators will be allowed in most of the country's stadiums because of fears of violence.

February 9

      Rioting breaks out in Jerusalem on the fourth day of Palestinian protests against an Israeli renovation project at the site that is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

      The Advance Market Commitment, a program in which wealthy countries support the development of vaccines for children in less-developed countries and commit to purchasing the vaccine for those countries, is introduced in Rome; the first initiative is a vaccine against pneumonia.

      Jim Samples resigns as general manager of the cable television Cartoon Network after a guerrilla marketing campaign involving electronic advertisements placed in unexpected places in several major cities caused a bomb scare on January 31 in Boston.

February 10

      Violent protests break out throughout Guinea the day after Pres. Lansana Conté named his ally Eugène Camara prime minister; at least eight people are killed.

      At the meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized countries in Essen, Ger., members agree to devote serious attention to the hedge fund industry.

      Gen. David H. Petraeus assumes responsibility for U.S. troops in Iraq, replacing Gen. George W. Casey, Jr.

February 11

      Acting president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov wins the presidential election in Turkmenistan.

      Harvard University names Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, university president; she will be the first woman to serve in the post.

      At the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, the top winner is the country music trio the Dixie Chicks, who win five awards, including album of the year, for Taking the Long Way, and both record of the year and song of the year, for “Not Ready to Make Nice”; the best new artist is country singer Carrie Underwood.

February 12

      Four bombs at two markets in Baghdad leave at least 67 people dead and scores more injured.

      The World Health Organization for the first time approves a vaccine against rotavirus, which causes diarrhea and kills some 600,000 children a year; the approval means UN agencies can use it in mass-vaccination campaigns.

      After days of rioting, martial law is declared in Guinea and a 20-hour curfew is imposed.

      Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe reaches a new high of 1,593%.

February 13

      In the six-country talks about North Korea's nuclear program, an agreement is reached that will give North Korea fuel oil and financial aid in exchange for starting to dismantle its nuclear facilities and for allowing UN inspectors back into the country.

      The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that the country's trade deficit in 2006 reached $763.3 billion, a 6.5% increase over the previous year and a new record for the sixth consecutive year.

      Seven bombs, at least five of them car or truck bombs, destroy police stations in six towns in Algeria, killing six people; a group that says it is a local affiliate of al-Qaeda claims responsibility.

      Felicity's Diamond Jim, an English springer spaniel, wins Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club's 131st dog show.

February 14

      In the first major sweep by U.S. and Iraqi forces through several Baghdad neighbourhoods, very little resistance is encountered as the forces implement a new security plan for the city.

      Stephen Curtis resigns as head of the UN police force in the Kosovo enclave of Serbia; on February 10, UN police in Pristina had fired rubber bullets at demonstraters who were protesting terms of the UN plan for the enclave, and two protesters were killed.

      In Zahedan, Iran, a car bomb explodes in front of a bus carrying Revolutionary Guard members; at least 11 people are killed.

      At the Brit Awards for popular music, the Arctic Monkeys win for best British group and best British album, and the Killers win best international group and best international album.

February 15

      The Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority resigns, and Pres. Mahmoud Abbas immediately asks the prime minister, Ismail Haniya, to form a new government.

      The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts grants its inaugural International Literature Awards to Archipelago Books of Brooklyn, which is to publish Amaia Gabantxo's translation of Vredaman by Basque writer Unai Elorriaga; to Dalkey Archive Press of Champaign, Ill., which is to publish Karen Emmerich's translation of the short-story collection I'd Like by Amanda Michalopoulou of Greece; and to Etruscan Press of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., which is to publish Diane Thiel's translation of Amerikaniki Fouga by Greek writer Alexis Stamatis.

      France's TGV high-speed train reaches a speed of 538 km/h (334 mph) in a test run between Paris and Strasbourg, setting a new speed record for the train; the previous record was 515 km/h (320 mph), established in 1990.

February 16

      A court in Italy brings indictments against 26 Americans, most of them CIA officers, as well as the former head of Italy's spy agency, in connection with the disappearance of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, who says he was kidnapped and sent to Egypt, where he was tortured; this is the first case ordered to trial involving the U.S. program of “extraordinary renditions.”

      The first Internet cafes in Turkmenistan open in Ashgabat.

February 17

      Tens of thousands of people march in Vicenza, Italy, to protest a planned doubling in size of the U.S. military base in the area.

      In Quetta, Pak., a suicide bomber detonates his weapon in a small district courtroom, killing 15 people, including a senior judge.

      The Chinese film Tuya de hun shi (Tuya's Marriage), directed by Wang Quanan, wins the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

February 18

      Two bombs explode shortly before midnight on the Attari Express train traveling from Delhi to the border between India and Pakistan just outside Diwana, India; at least 66 people are killed.

      Shortly after a U.S. and Iraqi military patrol has passed through, two car bombs go off in rapid succession in a market in Baghdad; at least 60 people are killed.

      In Daytona Beach, Fla., Kevin Harvick wins the 49th Daytona 500, the premier NASCAR race, by an exceptionally close 0.02 second, while behind him a multicar crash occurs.

      In London, Sunday in the Park With George wins five Laurence Olivier Awards—outstanding musical production, best actor in a musical (Daniel Evans), best actress in a musical (Jenna Russell), best lighting design, and best set design.

February 19

      At the Anglican church gathering in Dar es Salaam, Tanz., the Anglican Communion directs the Episcopal Church USA, to ban the blessing of same-sex unions within eight months and establishes a council and vicar to address the concerns of conservative American congregations.

      The rival satellite radio companies XM and Sirius announce a merger; the combined company, with a total of 14 million subscribers, will be headed by Mel Karmazin of Sirius as CEO and will be called Project Big Sky by XM.

      JetBlue Airways announces that it will pay financial penalties to customers who were stranded because of mistakes made by the airline; the previous weekend bad weather compounded by bad decisions had left hundreds of passengers stuck for up to eight hours on planes on the tarmac at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport and led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

      María Consuelo Araújo resigns as Colombia's foreign minister in the midst of a scandal involving financial ties between the government and drug-trafficking paramilitaries.

February 20

      Nigeria's Court of Appeal rules that the fact that Vice Pres. Atiku Abubakar is a presidential candidate for a political party not in power is not an adequate reason for Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo to dismiss him.

      Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's minister of the environment, announces a plan to phase out the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs within the next three years in favour of far more energy-efficient bulbs, including compact fluorescent bulbs.

February 21

      An arsonist's fire at the biggest rubber warehouse in Thailand's Yala province destroys some 5,000 tons of rubber.

      The $100,000 A.M. Turing Award for excellence in computer science is granted to Frances E. Allen for her work on optimizing compiler performance at IBM; she is the first woman to win the prize, which has been awarded since 1966.

      During a performance by a traveling circus in Cúcuta, Colom., a gunman kills two clowns in front of a small crowd of children and adults, shocking the country's populace.

February 22

      The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is steadily and quickly increasing its ability to enrich uranium, defying the United Nations.

      A federal jury orders Microsoft to pay $1.52 billion in royalties to Alcatel-Lucent for patents involved in the development of the MP3 audio file format.

      Executives of the All England Club announce that henceforth the prize money for men and women competing at the Wimbledon tennis tournament will be equal.

February 23

      The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down a law permitting the indefinite detention of foreign-born terrorism suspects; the ruling is suspended for a year so that Parliament may draft a law consistent with the ruling.

      The British medical journal The Lancet publishes data from trials operated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Kenya and Uganda that suggest that a circumcised man's risk of contracting HIV/AIDS is only about 65% of that of an uncircumcised man.

      Margaret M. Chiara is dismissed as U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich.; she is the eighth U.S. attorney to be removed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the past few months in what is becoming a political scandal.

February 24

      A truck bomb goes off near a Sunni mosque, a school, an Iraqi police station, and a public market in Habbaniyah, Iraq, killing at least 36 people; in addition, U.S. forces briefly detain Amar al-Hakim, son of a Shiʿite leader, provoking an international furor.

      Three days after Romano Prodi resigned as prime minister of Italy, Pres. Giorgio Napolitano asks him to form a new government.

February 25

      Presidential elections are held in Senegal; voters reelect Pres. Abdoulaye Wade, who bests 14 challengers.

      At the 79th Academy Awards presentation, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, Oscars are won by, among others, The Departed (best picture) and its director, Martin Scorsese, and actors Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Alan Arkin, and Jennifer Hudson.

      Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, gives what he intends to be his final major address, in Detroit.

February 26

      Opening ceremonies are held in Washington, D.C., London, and Strasbourg, France, for the International Polar Year, a two-year project undertaken by scientists from more than 60 countries to learn as much as possible by studying at the North and South poles; the last such international scientific study took place in 1957–58.

      Hold Me Close, a memorial to the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 by artist Louise Bourgeois, is unveiled in Hat Nopparat National Park in Thailand.

      Iraq's cabinet approves a draft law that will allow oil revenues to be distributed to regions on the basis of population and that will permit foreign companies to develop oilfields.

      Pres. Lansana Conté of Guinea appoints Lansana Kouyaté prime minister; Kouyaté was on a list of candidates deemed acceptable by union leaders.

      The private investment groups Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and the Texas Pacific Group announce their $45 billion purchase of the Texas energy company TXU.

      The PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction is granted to Philip Roth for his novel Everyman; Roth has won the award for a record third time.

February 27

      A sudden sell-off of stocks in the Shanghai market triggers a worldwide landslide in stock markets; in the U.S. the Dow Jones industrial average suffers its biggest one-day point loss since 2001, the S&P 500 its largest drop in nearly four years, and the Nasdaq its biggest slide since 2002.

      A suicide bomber explodes his weapon outside the main gate of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, killing some 23 people; U.S. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney is inside the base at the time.

      A UN-convened panel made up of 18 scientists from 11 countries issues a report forecasting drastic climatic changes and recommending that carbon dioxide emissions remain static in 2015–20 and curtailed to one-third of that level by the end of the century.

February 28

      In Indian-administered Kashmir, seven policemen are charged with killing a Kashmiri carpenter whom they claimed was an Islamic militant; the accused were implicated in a larger plot to kill civilians for material gain.

      The NASA spacecraft New Horizons, launched in January 2006, reaches Jupiter; the craft will gather data on the planet and four of its moons until June, when it will continue on to Pluto.

 At the CERN facilities in Switzerland, the centrepiece of the Large Hadron Collider, the Yoke Barrel 0, which is the largest segment (weighing some 2,000 tons) of what will be the world's most powerful particle accelerator, is lowered into its underground man-made cavern amid much fanfare.

March

"In short, European unification must be striven for and secured time and time again. That is our guiding mission for the future."

— German Chancellor and EU Pres. Angela Merkel, observing the 50th anniversary of the union, March 25

March 1

      Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin appoints Ramzan A. Kadyrov president of the republic of Chechnya; Kadyrov heads a security force that is believed to have been responsible for a number of atrocities.

      Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declares that there is no evidence to show that the country's military forced foreign women into sexual servitude during World War II; this contradicts the position held by the government since 1993.

      Police in Copenhagen evict squatters from a vacant building—known as the “youth house”—that for decades has been a centre of international counterculture; the action triggers two days of rioting.

March 2

      U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates dismisses Francis J. Harvey as army secretary over Harvey's response to revelations of poor care of soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Lieut. Gen. Kevin Kiley is replaced as temporary head of the hospital by Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker.

      Negotiators for the U.S. and the European Union reach a preliminary agreement on a so-called “open skies” treaty that would eliminate almost all restrictions on cross-Atlantic air travel routes; full agreement is reached on March 22.

March 3

      An unusually large preelection rally led by Russian opposition leader and former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in St. Petersburg leads to a crackdown by riot police and a brief melee; more than 100 people are arrested.

      At the 20th Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco) in Burkina Faso, Africa's biggest film festival, the Golden Stallion goes to Nigerian director Newton I. Aduaka for his film Ezra.

March 4

      After a suicide car bombing near Jalalabad, Afg., American troops open fire on a highway, killing at least 16 civilians; also, in response to a rocket attack, American forces in Afghanistan carry out an air strike on a compound near Kabul, reportedly killing 9 civilians, all members of a single family.

      Bruce S. Gordon announces his resignation as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) after only 19 months on the job; his vision for the organization differed from that of its board.

      Members of the Cherokee Nation in the U.S. vote to deny membership in the tribe to African American descendants of slaves once owned by Cherokee.

March 5

      A car bomb goes off in Baghdad's historic literary quarter, destroying buildings and leaving at least 20 people dead.

      The day after Australian forces struck at the stronghold of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado in East Timor, triggering massive demonstrations in support of Reinado, Timorese Pres. Xanana Gusmão declares a state of emergency.

March 6

      In various incidents in Iraq, at least 113 Shiʿite pilgrims preparing for the celebration of Arbaeen are killed, including at least 77 killed by back-to-back suicide bombers in Al-Hillah.

      After the publication in The Guardian newspaper of a report on developments in the scandal over accusations that seats in the House of Lords were sold for campaign contributions, the British High Court lifts the ban imposed on March 2 that prevented the BBC from reporting on the matter.

      Abu Dhabi signs an agreement with France to pay $520 million for use of the name of the Louvre Museum and $747 million more for art loans and management advice; the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, is scheduled to open after 2012.

      Fireworks and dancing in the streets as well as a recitation of the speech made in 1957 by Kwame Nkrumah, the country's first leader, marks the celebration of the 50th anniversary of independence for Ghana.

March 7

      At least 70 people are killed in assorted incidents in Iraq, 30 of them by a suicide bombing at a café in Baʿqubah.

      A scandal involving the murders of four Guatemalan police officers results in the resignation of the interior minister and police chief; the police officers, themselves in custody for the killing on February 19 of three Salvadoran lawmakers and their driver, were suspected of having ties to drug gangs.

      In comic books that arrive in stores today, the Marvel Entertainment superhero Captain America, who first appeared in 1941, is killed.

March 8

      The winners of the annual $100,000 TED Prize announce the projects that they intend to use the money for: former U.S. president Bill Clinton has a foundation that is building a rural health care system in Rwanda; biologist Edward O. Wilson is creating an Internet database to catalog all species of living things; and photographer James Nachtwey is creating a display of photographs about an unknown “big story.”

      In New York City the winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards are announced as Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss (fiction), Simon Schama for Rough Crossings (nonfiction), Julie Phillips for James Tiptree, Jr. (biography), Daniel Mendelsohn for The Lost (autobiography), Troy Jollimore for Tom Thomson in Purgatory (poetry), and Lawrence Weschler for Everything That Rises (criticism); John Leonard is granted the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.

March 9

      Pakistan's government suspends Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry; the reasons are unclear.

      The European Union approves an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases by 20% from 1990 levels, obtain one-fifth of its energy from renewable resources, and run 10% of its vehicles on biofuels by 2020.

March 10

      UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari declares that those involved in negotiations between Serbia and ethnic Albanians in the enclave of Kosovo have failed to find a compromise solution to the question of the enclave's status and that he will send his proposal for its independence to the UN Security Council.

      Hundreds of thousands of people gather in Madrid to protest the granting of house arrest to José Ignacio de Juana Chaos, a leader of the Basque militant organization ETA who had been in prison.

March 11

      Pres. Jacques Chirac of France announces that he will not seek reelection as president and will retire from politics at the end of his term in May; he does not endorse another candidate at this time.

      The energy services company Halliburton announces that it is moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai, though it will maintain its incorporation in the U.S.

March 12

      In Lahore, Pak., a group of lawyers marching to show their displeasure over the suspension and apparent house arrest of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry are beaten by police and respond by throwing stones.

      The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland inducts singer Patti Smith and the groups Van Halen, the Ronettes, R.E.M., and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five; the latter is the first hip-hop act to be inducted.

      Lieut. Gen. Kevin Kiley is removed as army surgeon general in the furor surrounding the poor outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

March 13

      The UN Observer Mission in Georgia opens an investigation into missile attacks that took place in three villages in the Kodori Gorge area of the separatist region of Abkhazia.

      Pres. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed of Somalia moves for the first time to Mogadishu, the capital, from the government stronghold of Baidoa; within hours a mortar attack is made on the presidential palace.

 Lance Mackey wins the 1,820-km (1,131-mi) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race, crossing the Burled Arch in Nome after a journey of 9 days 5 hours 8 minutes 41 seconds; Mackey's father and brother are previous winners of the race.

March 14

      The fruit company Chiquita Brands International agrees to pay a $25 million settlement in a case in which it was accused of having illegally paid a right-wing militia to protect banana plantations in Colombia.

      Charles Taylor, a Canadian professor of law and philosophy, is named the winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities.

March 15

      A new Palestinian government composed of a unity coalition of Hamas and Fatah ministers is announced; led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, it fails to recognize Israel's right to exist or to promise not to use or support violence against Israel.

      In Athens the heads of state of Russia, Greece, and Bulgaria sign an agreement to build an oil pipeline that will run from Burgas, Bulg., to Alexandroupolis, Greece, bypassing the Bosporus strait in Turkey.

      In Bijapur in India's Chhattisgarh state, Maoist rebels attack a remote police post staffed largely by anti-Maoist counterinsurgents, slaughtering 49 police officers.

      NASA scientists announce that a radar instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has indicated huge ice deposits some 3.7 km (2.3 mi) thick at Mars's south pole.

March 16

      A five-year rebuilding plan for Iraq, called the International Compact with Iraq, is launched by Iraqi Vice Pres. Adil ʿAbd al-Mahdi at the United Nations.

      A new law permitting same-sex civil unions goes into effect in Mexico City.

      The inaugural Jackson Poetry Prize is awarded to Elizabeth Alexander.

March 17

      Several brands of gravy-style pet food are recalled by manufacturer Menu Foods after the foods are linked to deaths from kidney failure of a number of dogs and cats.

      With its 46–19 defeat of Scotland, France wins the Six Nations Rugby Union championship, having achieved a won-lost record of 4–1.

March 18

      The coach of Pakistan's cricket team, Bob Woolmer, is found dead in his hotel room in Kingston, Jam., the day after Pakistan's ignominious defeat by Ireland in World Cup play; on March 22 the police report that he was murdered.

      In his first race driving for Ferrari, Kimi Räikkönen of Finland wins the Australian Grand Prix, the inaugural event of the Formula One auto-racing season.

March 19

      U.S. and Iranian officials report that Russia has told Iran that it must suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the UN before Russia will deliver nuclear fuel for the nuclear power plant being built at Bushehr.

      Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Pres. Robert Kocharyan of Armenia ceremonially open the first section of a natural gas pipeline that will deliver gas from Iran as far as Yerevan, Arm.

      An international team of mathematicians and computer scientists announces that after four years of work they have succeeded in mapping Lie group E₈, a Lie group with 248 dimensions that was theorized in 1887 and considered impossible to solve.

March 20

      Replacements for 21 of the 57 members of Ecuador's National Congress who had been dismissed by the Electoral Tribunal because of their opposition to Pres. Rafael Correa's planned new constitution are sworn in.

      Pakistani officials report that fighting in the South Waziristan region between foreign al-Qaeda adherents and local tribesmen has killed some 58 people in the past few days; by the following day the death toll has risen to 110.

March 21

      Bishops of the Episcopal Church USA, meeting outside Houston, reject an order from the Anglican Communion to accept a parallel leadership to serve conservative congregations who object to the Episcopal Church's stand on homosexuality.

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces new rules that will prevent advisers who receive substantial money from drug manufacturers from voting on whether to approve products made by those manufacturers.

      Musician Paul McCartney announces that he will be the first artist to sign with Hear Music, the record label of the coffee chain Starbucks.

March 22

      China ends six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program because funds that all agree are due to North Korea have not been transferred into the appropriate bank account.

      News Corp. and NBC Universal announce a new venture in which they will distribute videos, such as episodes of TV shows, on AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, and MySpace as well as on a new video site that the companies plan to launch.

      The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awards its annual Abel Prize for outstanding work in mathematics to American mathematician Srinivasa Varadhan for his work on calculating the probability of rare events.

March 23

      Fifteen British sailors and Marines on patrol in the Persian Gulf are seized by Iranian sailors, who say that the British personnel were in Iranian national waters; British authorities maintain that their naval forces were in Iraqi territory.

      At the Berlin Zoo, the baby polar bear Knut, abandoned by his mother and hand-raised by zoo staff despite demands by animal rights groups that he be left to die, makes his public debut before a large international crowd of reporters and photographers.

March 24

      A truck bomb kills at least 20 people at a police compound in Baghdad; another suicide truck bomber in Haswah destroys a Shiʿite mosque and kills at least 11 people; three suicide car bombers kill 8 people in Al-Shuhadaʾ; and a further 8 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Tal Afar.

March 25

      In a runoff presidential election, Sidi Mohammad Ould Cheikh Abdallahi wins 53% of the vote over Ahmed Ould Daddah to become Mauritania's first elected president.

      The European Union celebrates the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the EU.

      Ozeki Hakuho defeats yokozuna Asashoryu in a stunning upset at the spring grand sumo tournament in Osaka to win his second Emperor's Cup.

      Canada defeats Denmark to win the 2007 women's world curling championship in Japan.

March 26

 In their first-ever direct talks, Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein agree to form a power-sharing government for Northern Ireland in a move that will return self-rule to the province for the first time since 2002.

      David Hicks, an Australian citizen who has been incarcerated in the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since he was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, is the first detainee to appear before a military tribunal under a law passed by the U.S. Congress in fall 2006; after the military judge disallows two of his lawyers, he pleads guilty to having provided material support to a terrorist organization.

      Researchers report that heart patients who have been implanted with stents to improve blood flow to the heart were no better off than patients treated only with statins and similar heart drugs in a five-year trial; the results are unexpected.

March 27

      A suicide truck bomb at a Shiʿite market in Tal Afar, Iraq, kills some 152 people.

      Pres. Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d'Ivoire agrees to appoint rebel leader Guillaume Soro prime minister as part of a new reunification plan.

      A riot is touched off when police try to arrest a subway turnstile jumper in Paris; hundreds of youths rampage for the next seven hours.

      The president of Tajikistan orders that all babies born to Tajik parents be registered with Tajik names, leaving off the Slavic endings most Tajik surnames now have; he changed his own surname from Rakhmonov to Rakhmon the previous week.

March 28

      Portugal inaugurates a solar power plant in Serpa believed to be the world's most powerful one at 11 MW with 52,000 photovoltaic modules expected to produce 20 gigawatt hours annually; it eclipses the previous most powerful solar plant opened in Benejama, Spain, on March 22.

March 29

      Ethiopian troops enter central Mogadishu, Somalia, provoking a violent reaction; more than 30 people, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire, are killed.

      Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the embattled president of Kyrgyzstan, names opposition figure Almazbek Atambayev prime minister.

      The journal Nature publishes the result of a study of molecular and fossil data that indicates that the ancestors of most mammal groups existed before the mass extinction of dinosaurs at the boundary between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary periods and that the great diversification did not begin for another 10 million years after the event.

      British architect Richard Rogers is named winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize; he is best known for his work on the Pompidou Centre in Paris, completed in 1977.

March 30

      U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez announces that the U.S. will begin imposing tariffs on imports from China, starting with high-gloss paper; the U.S. maintains that China illegally subsidizes some exports.

      Fighting between Uzbek militants and local tribesmen in Pakistan's South Waziristan region begins anew; some 52 people are killed.

      In response to a violent brawl between fans of rival women's volleyball teams in Greece in which one person is killed and several injured, the government suspends all team sports matches for a period of two weeks.

March 31

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush meets with Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil at Camp David to discuss world trade negotiations and cooperation in ethanol development.

      At the swimming world championships in Melbourne, American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks his own world record in the 400-m individual medley to win a record seventh gold medal.

      Invasor, 2006 Horse of the Year, wins the Dubai World Cup, the world's richest horse race.

April

"He didn't say, ‘Get down.' He didn't say anything. He just came in and started shooting."

— Virginia Tech sophomore Trey Perkins, describing the campus attack on a classroom Perkins was in, April 16

April 1

      In an unusually brazen and deadly ambush, Sudanese rebels attack an African Union peacekeeping contingent that was traveling to provide a guard for a water source in Darfur; five peacekeepers are killed.

      Negotiators for the U.S. and South Korea reach a bilateral free-trade agreement that will eliminate tariffs on more than 90% of the categories of goods traded between the countries.

      With his win at the Professional Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions in Uncasville, Conn., Tommy Jones breaks the record (2 years 6 months 11 days) by four days that was held for 45 years by bowling great Dick Weber for shortest time between capturing his first and 10th PBA titles.

April 2

      The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Environmental Protection Agency is required by the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases in automobile emissions unless the agency can prove that such gases do not contribute to global warming.

      In a complex financial transaction, real-estate tycoon Sam Zell becomes the owner of the Tribune Co., a media firm that includes several major newspapers, more than 20 television stations, and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

      The music company EMI announces that it will begin offering songs on Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store that are free of copyright-protection software.

 The National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in men's basketball is won for the second consecutive year by the University of Florida, which defeats Ohio State University 84–75; the following day the University of Tennessee defeats Rutgers University 59–46 to win the women's NCAA title.

April 3

      The cabinet of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich commands government agencies to disregard the decree issued the previous day by Pres. Viktor Yushchenko ordering the legislature dissolved, with elections to be held on May 27.

      The French TGV bullet train, running three double-decker cars, reaches 574.8 km/hr (357.2 mph) in a demonstration of its capabilities, setting a new world speed record for conventional trains.

April 4

      Reanne Evans of England wins her third consecutive women's world snooker championship in Cambridge, Eng.

April 5

      The European Commission announces that it will investigate whether the interim government of Somalia and the government of Ethiopia committed war crimes in fighting in which more than 300 civilians died in Somalia the previous week.

      The 15 members of the British Royal Navy who had been held captive in Iran since they were seized in the Persian Gulf on March 23 are released; Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad characterizes the move as a “gift” to the U.K.

April 6

      The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the second of its four reports; this one details the effects of global warming, describing changes already occurring and warning that action to cope with future changes, which will have a disproportionate impact on the world's poorest regions, is imperative.

      A suicide truck bomber driving a fuel tanker loaded with chlorine gas detonates in a residential area of Al-Ramadi, Iraq, killing some 30 people.

      The Sea Diamond, a Louis Cruise Lines ship, which was evacuated after hitting rocks while trying to dock at the island of Thera (Santorini) in Greece, sinks; two of the passengers remain missing.

April 7

      Israel makes its third military strike in the Gaza Strip in two weeks, this one against militants believed to be planting a bomb; one of the militants dies in the air strike.

      Martin Strel of Slovenia becomes the first person to swim the length of the Amazon River when he reaches Belem, Braz., after having taken 66 days to complete an exceptionally challenging swim of 5,265 km (3,272 mi).

      Cambridge defeats Oxford in the 153rd University Boat Race; Cambridge now leads the series 79–73.

April 8

      The Roman Catholic bishops of Zimbabwe issue an Easter message that calls on Pres. Robert Mugabe to step down and demands a new constitution.

      Six NATO soldiers, all of them Canadian, are killed by a roadside bomb near Kandahar, Afg.

      Zach Johnson wins the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga., by two strokes in his second PGA Tour victory.

April 9

      Presidential elections are held in East Timor; there is a larger-than-expected turnout, and a runoff between Francisco Guterres and José Ramos-Horta is required.

      Donald Tsang is officially appointed to a second term as Hong Kong's chief executive by China after winning the first election for the post held since Hong Kong came under Chinese rule.

      In Al-Najaf, Iraq, tens of thousands of supporters of Shiʿite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rally to demand that the U.S. military leave Iraq.

April 10

      An attempt to arrest several men suspected of involvement in the March 11 bombing of an Internet café in Casablanca, Mor., results in three of them blowing themselves up; a total of four suspects and one policeman die.

      A raid of a mosque in Baghdad by the Iraqi army triggers a fierce daylong battle between the Iraqi army backed by U.S. soldiers and Sunni militants supported by neighbourhood residents.

      The U.S. files two official complaints against China with the World Trade Organization, saying China tolerates trademark and copyright violation and unfairly limits the importation of books, films, and music.

      The winners of the annual Avery Fisher Career Grants are announced; they are violinist Yura Lee, double bassist DaXun Zhang, and the Borromeo String Quartet.

April 11

      Pak Pong Ju is removed from office as prime minister of North Korea; he is replaced by Kim Yong Il, who had been minister of transport.

      A suicide car bomb severely damages the Governmental Palace in Algiers, and a second car bomb destroys a police station in the suburb of Bab Ezzouar, Alg.; at least 23 people are killed in the two explosions, for which an al-Qaeda-affiliated organization is responsible.

      U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announces that tours of duty for most active-duty members of the U.S. Army serving in Afghanistan and Iraq will be extended by 3 months, to 15 months.

      NBC News cancels its simulcasts of shock jock and radio host Don Imus's talk show in response to public outrage over Imus's gratuitous racial insult of the women's basketball team of Rutgers University; the following day CBS cancels the show altogether.

April 12

      The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announce that fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics that includes Cipro, should no longer be used to treat gonorrhea, which has mutated to become resistant to drugs of that class; in the 1980s the disease became resistant to penicillin, which necessitated the move to fluoroquinolones.

      The world's largest food company, Nestlé SA, announces its purchase of the baby food company Gerber; Gerber dominates the American baby food market.

      The U.S. Postal Service begins selling the “forever” stamp at the new rate of 41 cents per stamp; unlike any previous stamp, this one will still be valid in the event of future postal rate increases.

April 13

      The computer search company Google reaches an agreement to acquire the online advertising company DoubleClick.

      Opening ceremonies for the Museo Alameda, a new museum to showcase Latino culture, take place in San Antonio, Texas.

April 14

      In a market near a bus station in Karbalaʾ, Iraq, a suicide car bomber kills at least 37 people in the worst single event of the day's carnage in Iraq.

      As many as 300,000 people turn out in Ankara, Tur., to protest growing official Islamization in the country.

      Long-shot jumper Silver Birch wins the Grand National steeplechase horse race at the Aintree course in Liverpool, Eng.

April 15

      Voters in Ecuador overwhelmingly approve a plan to hold a constitutional convention to create a new constitution to replace the one that has been in place since 1998.

      In Karachi, a rally of tens of thousands of people takes place to protest a radical cleric who has started an antivice campaign.

      The U.S. closes its consulate in Morocco, citing security fears.

      The 60th anniversary of the first major league baseball game that Jackie Robinson played in, introducing racial integration to the league, is observed by players throughout the league wearing Robinson's number, 42, on their uniforms, including the entire roster of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

April 16

      A deranged student, well-armed, methodically guns down 32 people, most of them in classrooms, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Va., before killing himself.

      Shiʿite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr orders the six ministers in the Iraqi government who are members of his political bloc to withdraw from the government.

      In New York City the winners of the 2007 Pulitzer Prizes are announced: the top journalistic award goes to The Wall Street Journal, which also wins for international reporting; winners in letters include Cormac McCarthy in fiction and Lawrence Wright in nonfiction, while Ornette Coleman wins in music.

      On a stormy day the 111th Boston Marathon is won for the second consecutive year by Robert K. Cheruiyot of Kenya, with a time of 2 hr 14 min 13 sec; the top woman finisher is Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia, with a time of 2 hr 29 min 18 sec.

April 17

      Iccho Ito, the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, is gunned down and killed by an organized crime figure in broad daylight.

      For the first time the UN Security Council takes up the issue of global warming.

      A technical glitch disconnects more than 5,000 users of Blackberry personal digital assistants from e-mail; service is restored after 10 rather frantic hours.

      The pound sterling reaches an exchange rate of $2, its highest rate against the U.S. dollar since 1992.

April 18

      A powerful car bomb in Baghdad near the Sadr City neighbourhood kills at least 140 people; four other explosions in the city bring the death toll to 171.

      China inaugurates high-speed train service with 280 such trains making their first runs; one train travels 112 km (70 mi) from Shanghai to Suzhou in just 39 minutes.

      In the ongoing pet food crisis, melamine is found in rice protein concentrate imported from China, expanding the list of pet foods that must be recalled to some 100 brands in all; previously the toxic ingredient had been found only in wheat gluten from China.

      Officials in the U.S. state of Georgia report that two wildfires are threatening the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and have necessitated the evacuation of more than 1,000 people.

April 19

      Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is sworn into office as Mauritania's first democratically elected president; the following day he names Zeine Ould Zeidane prime minister.

      Romania's legislature suspends Pres. Traian Basescu in a political dispute; Nicolae Vacaroiu is named acting president the following day.

      Joseph Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest Communications International, is convicted on 19 out of 42 counts of insider trading in Denver.

April 20

      Bollywood superstars Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan marry in a Hindu ceremony in Mumbai (Bombay); thousands of fans outside strain for a glimpse of the couple.

April 21

      Chaotic and clearly flawed presidential elections take place in Nigeria; the ruling party's candidate, Umaru Musa Yar'dua, is later declared the winner.

 A Russian Soyuz spacecraft returns to Earth after carrying to the International Space Station new crew members Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, both from Russia, to replace Mikhail Tyurin (left) of Russia and Michael López-Alegría (centre) of the U.S.; space tourist Charles Simonyi (right) rides round-trip.

April 22

      First-round presidential elections take place in France: conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal take the lead and will face each other in a runoff in May.

      A car bomb kills 18 people in Baghdad; Sunni Arabs in Mosul, Iraq, execute 23 members of the Yazidi religious sect; and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki orders a halt to construction on the wall being built by the U.S. military in Baghdad.

      Martin Lel of Kenya wins the London Marathon with a time of 2 hr 7 min 41 sec, and Zhou Chunxiu of China is the fastest woman in the race, with a time of 2 hr 20 min 38 sec.

April 23

      The Dutch banking giant ABN AMRO reaches an agreement to be acquired by Barclays of Great Britain and to sell LaSalle Bank to Bank of America.

      A suicide car bomb in Iraq's Diyala province kills nine U.S. soldiers, and a suicide bomber kills several people in a popular restaurant in the International Zone (Green Zone) in Baghdad.

      The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, faced with a lawsuit, agrees to add the pentacle, which symbolizes the Wiccan religion, to the list of symbols that may be engraved on the headstones of veterans.

April 24

      Rebel gunmen attack a Chinese-run oil field in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, killing more than 70 people, 9 of whom are Chinese, and kidnapping 7 Chinese and 2 African workers.

      Newmont Mining Corp., an American company that is one of the world's largest mining concerns, after a 21-month trial in Indonesia is acquitted of criminal charges that its method of disposing of tailings from a gold mine in an underwater pipe caused toxic pollution in Buyat Bay.

      Japanese carmaker Toyota overtakes the American company General Motors to become the largest carmaker in the world, with sales of 2,348,000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2007.

      A team of astronomers led by Stéphane Udry of the Geneva Observatory say that a planet has been found orbiting the dim red star Gliese 581 about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra; the new planet is within a distance from its sun called the habitable zone, which means that conditions on the planet could be such that life is possible.

April 25

      The Royal Bank of Scotland with Banco Santander Central Hispano of Spain and Fortis of Belgium make an unsolicited bid to buy ABN AMRO that is larger than the previously agreed-to offer from Barclays.

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 13,000 for the first time; the following day the index of 30 stocks posts a new record high of 13,111.19.

April 26

      Pres. Vladimir Putin of Russia in his annual address to the legislature announces that Russia is suspending its compliance with the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed by members of NATO and of the Warsaw Pact.

      Canada announces a plan by which industries are required to reduce their rate of production of greenhouse gases by 18% over the next three years, a rate well short of the goals of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change but one that industries say they will be hard put to meet.

April 27

      The removal of a Soviet-era World War II memorial, the Bronze Soldier, from the square in downtown Tallinn, Est., to an international military cemetery results in rioting; Russian-speaking nationalists saw the statue as a symbol of the Red Army's liberation of Estonia in 1944 from Nazi occupation, but Estonians viewed it as a painful reminder of the country's absorption in 1939 into the Soviet Union.

      In the first round of presidential voting in Turkey's legislature, the sole candidate, Abdullah Gul, who is associated with political Islam, fails to win enough votes to be confirmed because of a boycott of the vote by members of secular parties.

      The euro reaches a record high against the U.S. dollar, with an exchange rate of $1.3682 to the euro.

April 28

      In the controversial final of the cricket World Cup in Barbados, Australia dominates Sri Lanka to win its third successive title; bowler Glenn McGrath, with a record 26 wickets in the final match of his career, is named Player of the Tournament.

April 29

      After a raid by U.S. and Afghan troops on a suspected bomb-making compound in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province in which six people are killed, local residents demonstrate against the U.S. presence for five hours.

      In the Nascar Nextel Cup race series, Jeff Gordon wins the Aaron's 499 in Talladega, Ala., passing the late Dale Earnhardt's career victory total on the anniversary of his birth, to the displeasure of Earnhardt loyalists among the fans.

April 30

      Pres. Hugo Chávez announces the formal end of Venezuela's membership in both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

      Morocco and the Polisario Front agree to hold direct talks on the future of Western Sahara.

      Deutsche Börse, operator of the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Ger., acquires the U.S.-based International Securities Exchange, the world's second largest options exchange.

May

"We cannot undo our sad and turbulent past. And none of us can forget the many victims of the Troubles. But we can, and are, shaping our future in a new and better way."

— Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, on the inauguration of a new power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, May 8

May 1

      It is reported that Rupert Murdoch, head of the international media empire the News Corp., has made an unsolicited offer to buy Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

      The Caribbean country of Saint Lucia restores diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which it broke in 1997, and ends relations with China.

      At the National Magazine Awards in New York City, the big winner is New York magazine, which wins five awards, including one for general excellence; other winners include National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Wired, and, in the online category, Belief.net.

May 2

      The day after Turkey's highest court annulled the Grand National Assembly's vote for president, the assembly votes to hold national elections on July 22.

      An Afghan government investigation into the recent aerial bombardment by U.S. military forces of a valley in western Afghanistan finds that the action left at least 42 civilians dead.

      Austria's legislature lowers the voting age to 16; people as young as 18 may run for most offices.

May 3

      The China National Petroleum Corp. announces that the oil field recently discovered in Bohai Bay has a reserve of some 7.35 billion bbl; it is the largest oil deposit found in the country in more than 40 years.

      Results of the April 29 presidential election in Mali are released; Amadou Toumani Touré was reelected.

      Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom begins a six-day visit to the United States, her first since 1991.

May 4

      In Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and Pres. Viktor Yushchenko reach an agreement to hold early elections.

      Hubert Ingraham is sworn in as prime minister of The Bahamas, replacing Perry Christie, two days after the opposition Free National Movement won legislative elections.

      A large tornado all but destroys the small town of Greensburg, Kan., killing at least 10 people and injuring 63.

May 5

      Over the objections of Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria installs Martyn Minns as bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a branch of the conservative Nigerian church, in Virginia.

      In Las Vegas challenger Floyd Mayweather defeats fellow American Oscar De La Hoya to become the World Boxing Council super welterweight (junior middleweight) champion.

      Street Sense wins the Kentucky Derby, the first race of Thoroughbred horse racing's U.S. Triple Crown, before a crowd that includes Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

May 6

      Nicolas Sarkozy is elected president of France in a runoff election against Ségolène Royal.

      Thousands of supporters turn out as suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry gives a speech in Lahore, Pak.; thousands more had greeted him on his trip from Islamabad to Lahore.

      Islamic politician Abdullah Gul withdraws as a candidate for president of Turkey.

May 7

      Two car bombs kill some 25 people near Al-Ramadi, Iraq.

      Astronomers report having observed an extremely massive star explode in the constellation Perseus in what may have been an example of a “pair instability” explosion, theorized but never observed.

May 8

      Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionists and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein are sworn in as leader and deputy leader of Northern Ireland's new executive government.

      André Boisclair resigns as leader of the separatist Parti Québécois in the Canadian province of Quebec after the party's disappointing third-place showing in provincial elections in March.

      Findings by geneticists that suggest that there was a single human migration to Australia and Papua New Guinea some 50,000 years ago and that that population remained in isolation until recent times are published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

May 9

      Former Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta easily wins the runoff elections for president of East Timor; he takes office on May 20.

      The first pages of the Encyclopedia of Life, a Web-based compilation of all that is known about all the world's species of living things, are shown in Washington, D.C.; it is expected to take 10 years to create the database.

      Officials in Afghanistan say that U.S. air strikes during a battle against Taliban fighters in the village of Sarban Qala the previous day killed 21 civilians.

May 10

      Turkey's Grand National Assembly approves a constitutional amendment to allow the direct popular election of the president, presently chosen by the assembly; Pres. Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoes the legislation on May 25.

      The European Commission announces that its deal to produce a large satellite navigation system called Galileo in partnership with a consortium of private companies is off after the consortium misses the last of a number of important deadlines for management of the project.

      NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., announces that he will leave his late father's team, Dale Earnhardt Inc., at the end of the stock-car racing season.

May 11

      In Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI canonizes Friar Antônio Galvão (1739–1822), making him Brazil's first native-born saint.

      In state elections in India's Uttar Pradesh, the opposition Dalit-led Bahujan Samaj Party wins a majority of seats; the party leader, Mayawati, becomes chief minister.

May 12

      Competing rallies in Karachi held by supporters of the Pakistani government and supporters of the suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on the occasion of a planned speech by Chaudhry, result in violence in which at least 39 people die.

      Parties constituting a pro-government coalition win the majority of seats in legislative elections in Armenia, which for the first time are said to largely meet international standards.

      Rangin Dadfar Spanta is ousted as Afghanistan's foreign minister by a no-confidence vote in the legislature, as was the minister of refugees earlier in the week; this is in response to the forcible repatriation of some 50,000 Afghans by Iran in the past three weeks.

 In Helsinki the Serbian singer Marija Serifovic wins the Eurovision Song Contest with her rendition of “Molitva.”

May 13

      Government officials in Afghanistan report that the leading Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah, was killed in a joint operation by Afghan, U.S., and NATO forces in Helmand province.

      Nigeria launches Africa's first communications satellite; both satellite and launch service are provided by China.

      Canada defeats Finland 4–2 to win the gold medal in the ice hockey men's world championship tournament in Moscow.

May 14

      Japan's legislature passes a law that calls for a national referendum on amendments to the country's pacifist constitution, dating from 1946 and imposed on the country at the time by the U.S.

      The automobile company DaimlerChrysler AG announces that the private equity company Cerberus Capital Management will buy Chrysler (including its health and pension obligations) from what will become Daimler AG.

May 15

      Serbia's legislature approves a new power-sharing government headed by Vojislav Kostunica as prime minister four months after inconclusive elections.

      Pres. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland awards Helgi Tomasson, the Icelandic-born artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet, the Order of the Falcon at the Highest Order, Iceland's highest honour; a member of the arts was last so rewarded in 1957.

      A suicide bomber kills at least 22 people in a crowded restaurant in Peshawar, Pak.

      Officials in Nigeria say that protesters have taken over an oil hub in the Niger Delta, contributing to a 30% reduction in Nigeria's output in the wake of its recent election.

May 16

      At least 19 Palestinians are killed in Gaza on the fourth day of renewed violence between gunmen loyal to Fatah and those attached to Hamas.

      The Spanish association football (soccer) club Sevilla FC defeats RCD Espanyol of Barcelona to win the Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA) Cup in Glasgow, Scot.; Sevilla is only the second side in the cup's history to have won the trophy in two consecutive years.

May 17

      Paul D. Wolfowitz resigns as president of the World Bank; his controversial tenure had been capped by a furor over a promotion package he arranged for his partner, Shaha Ali Riza, who also worked for the World Bank.

      Alex Salmond of the separatist and opposition Scottish National Party is sworn in as first minister of Scotland after his party's victory in May 3 elections for the Scottish Parliament.

      Estonian Minister of Defense Jaak Aaviksoo declares that the devastating cyberattacks on the country's government and corporate Web sites over the past two weeks seem to have originated with the government of Russia.

      In legislative elections in Algeria, the ruling National Liberation Front wins a majority of seats in spite of losing 67 of the seats it had held.

 For the first time since the Korean War, two passenger trains cross the border between North and South Korea, one traveling in each direction.

May 18

      Officials in Panama say that some 6,000 tubes of toothpaste recently found to contain the poison diethylene glycol appear to have originated in China; in 2006 mislabeled diethylene glycol from China that was mixed into cough medicine killed at least 100 people in Panama.

      Kazakhstan's legislature votes to amend the constitution and allow Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev to serve more than the two-term limit.

      A bomb kills 11 people when it explodes in the historic Mecca Masjid mosque in Hyderabad, India; in later fighting between Muslims and government security forces, 5 more people die.

May 19

      Voters in Romania resoundingly vote against the impeachment of Pres. Traian Basescu on grounds of having overstepped his authority.

      In the Iraqi village of Hamid Shifi, men in Iraqi army uniforms, after having been waved through a checkpoint, pull 15 Shiʿite Kurds onto the street and kill them.

      Curlin noses out Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense to win the Preakness Stakes, the second event in U.S. Thoroughbred horse racing's Triple Crown.

      In Durban, S.Af., the Bulls (Pretoria) defeat the Sharks (Durban) 20–19 to win the Super 14 rugby union tournament.

May 20

      Violence between Lebanese security forces and members of the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam breaks out in the vicinity of a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, Leb.; 22 Lebanese soldiers and 17 militants die on the first day, and the death toll increases over the following days.

      Jozsef Petretei resigns as Hungary's minister of justice and police; the previous day five policemen were arrested in a rape case, and a number of other policemen have been charged with crimes in recent months.

May 21

      The conglomerate General Electric agrees to sell its large plastics division to the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic).

      The tea clipper Cutty Sark, which had its maiden voyage in 1869 and has been undergoing restoration in London, is badly damaged by fire.

May 22

      A bomb goes off in Ankara, the heavily guarded capital of Turkey, killing at least six people.

      Researchers report that a hammerhead shark born at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb., in 2001 to an isolated female has been found to be the result of a form of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis, which had not previously been seen in sharks.

      Invitations to the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference scheduled for 2008 are sent out; neither openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson nor conservative Martyn Minns, who was installed as bishop by Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, is invited.

      The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars reports that diplomats attempting to visit one of its directors, Haleh Esfandiari, who was arrested in Iran while on a visit to her mother, have been denied access, as have her lawyers and her family members.

May 23

      A law is passed in Japan to fund the reorganization of U.S. forces in the country and to pay $6 billion toward the move of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam; the U.S. will contribute $4 billion for the transfer.

      In association football (soccer), AC Milan defeats Liverpool to win the UEFA Champions League championship in Athens.

      The inaugural Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is awarded to Paul Simon at a gala in Washington, D.C.

      The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is presented in Chicago to Lucille Clifton; Clifton is the first African American winner of the prize.

May 24

      Parliamentary elections are held in Ireland; the party of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern retains its majority.

      In Fallujah, Iraq, a Sunni tribal leader who was working in opposition to al-Qaeda is assassinated, and hours later a car bomb kills at least 27 people when it explodes in a crowd of mourners for the slain leader.

      The U.S. Congress passes a law raising the minimum hourly wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three stages over two years; the wage was last increased in 1997.

May 25

      Shiʿite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr makes his first public appearance in a few months, making a speech in Kufah, Iraq, in which he exhorts Iraqis to stop fighting each other to concentrate on driving out U.S. forces.

      The world governing organization of association football (soccer), the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), institutes a ban on games to be played at altitudes higher than 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level, igniting anger in many Latin American countries that have stadiums at high elevations.

May 26

      Israel bombs several Hamas buildings and camps in Gaza; at least five Palestinians are killed.

May 27

      After days of jockeying for control of security forces, Ukrainian Pres. Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich agree to hold early elections on September 30.

      Pres. Bashar al-Assad of Syria is elected to a second seven-year term with 97.6% of the vote; he is the only candidate on the ballot.

      The broadcasting license of Venezuela's oldest television network, RCTV, is permitted to expire; the popular station had been critical of government policies.

      The 91st Indianapolis 500 auto race, delayed and shortened by 34 laps because of rain, is won by Dario Franchitti of Scotland.

      At the Cannes Film Festival, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's film 4 luni, 3 saptamini, si 2 zite wins the Palme d'Or; the Grand Prix goes to Japanese director Naomi Kawase's Mogari no mori (The Mourning Forest).

      In his second consecutive tournament victory, ozeki Hakuho wins sumo's Natsu Basho with an undefeated record; on May 30 the 22-year-old Mongolian is promoted to the rank of yokozuna.

May 28

      Japanese Minister of Agriculture Toshikatsu Matsuoka commits suicide; he has been under investigation in scandals involving expense padding and bid rigging.

      Wildlife experts report that they have found a population of hundreds of wild elephants on an island in the south of The Sudan, an area that they had been unable to access until the end of the civil war in the region.

May 29

      Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is sworn in as president of Nigeria.

      Zheng Xiaoyu, who was head of China's food and drug safety agency from its inception in 1998 to 2005, is sentenced to death after pleading guilty to corruption.

May 30

      A constitutional court in Thailand bans Thai Rak Thai, the political party founded by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and bans Thaksin and 110 other party members from participating in politics for the next five years.

      The World Health Organization issues guidelines calling for far more aggressive testing for HIV in countries in which the infection is a major problem and asking health workers to recommend the testing for all patients.

      The Standard & Poor's 500 index closes at a record high of 1,530.23, eclipsing its former record, set on March 24, 2000, of 1,527.36; in addition, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sets a new record close of 13,633.08.

May 31

      The government of Niger falls after losing a no-confidence vote occasioned by an embezzlement scandal.

      Latvia's parliament chooses Valdis Zatlers to be the country's next president.

      Voreque Bainimarama, Fiji's acting head of state, lifts the state of emergency that he imposed after he seized power in December 2006.

June

"This is the beginning of the separation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This is the lowest point in our struggle. We Palestinians are writing the final chapters of our national enterprise."

— Mkhaimar Abusada, Palestinian political scientist, on the Hamas takeover of Gaza, June 14

June 1

      The Lebanese army attacks Fatah al-Islam positions outside the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp for most of the day; at least 18 people are killed.

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that it has found the poison diethylene glycol in several brands of toothpaste made in China and warns consumers not to use Chinese-made toothpaste.

 British artist Damien Hirst unveils For the Love of God, an 18th-century human skull cast in platinum and encased in diamonds and valued at $100 million, as part of a solo exhibition at London's White Cube gallery.

June 2

      The Sarha bridge, a major crossing that connects Kirkuk, Iraq, to a highway to Baghdad, is destroyed by bombing.

      The Derby, in its 228th year at Epsom Downs in Surrey, Eng., is won by favourite Authorized, ridden by Frankie Dettori; the following day Dettori wins the French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club) in Chantilly, France, aboard Lawman.

June 3

      A suicide truck-bomb attack on the Mogadishu residence of Somalia's transitional prime minister, Ali Muhammad Ghedi, kills six of his bodyguards and a civilian.

      Legislative elections in Senegal are boycotted by the opposition, which leads to a low turnout.

      An enormous landslide destroys much of the Valley of the Geysers, a tourist area in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula that contains some 90 geysers and many thermal springs.

June 4

      On the 16th day of the siege at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon near Tripoli, skirmishes between Lebanese forces and Islamist militants also break out at the Ain al-Hilwe refugee camp near Sidon in the south; four people die.

      China issues a national plan for addressing global warming; it sets a target of a 20% increase in efficiency by 2010, which would slow but not reverse the increase of greenhouse-gas emissions.

June 5

      In Spain the Basque separatist organization ETA announces the end of the “permanent cease-fire” declared in March 2006.

      Police in Nairobi crack down on the Mungiki, a murderous Kikuyu sect inspired by the Mau Mau movement of the 1950s, killing 22 and arresting 100.

      I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby, former chief of staff to U.S. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney, is sentenced to 30 months in prison for having lied to investigators looking into the exposure of the name of a covert CIA operative.

June 6

      After a city inspector roughs up a female student for operating an illegal street vending stall in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, hundreds of students go on a rampage.

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration calls for the makers of the diabetes drugs Avandia and Actos to place black-box warnings onto packaging about the heart risks associated with the drugs.

      The Group of Eight industrialized countries' summit meeting begins in Heiligendamm, Ger., as thousands of people stage protests against U.S. policy and against globalization.

      The Anaheim Ducks defeat the Ottawa Senators 6–2 to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League championship.

      Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins the Orange Broadband Prize, an award for fiction written by women and published in the U.K., for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun.

June 7

      It is reported that over the past three days close to 400 ethnic Tamils have been expelled from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka; the following day Sri Lanka's Supreme Court orders that the expulsions stop and those already removed be allowed to return.

      At the Group of Eight summit meeting, Pres. Vladimir Putin of Russia proposes a joint U.S.-Russian missile defense system based in Azerbaijan in place of the systems that the U.S. planned to place in the Czech Republic and Poland to the great displeasure of Russia.

      The organizers of the Tour de France bicycle race announce that Bjarne Riis of Denmark is no longer the winner of the 1996 race, which is now considered to have had no winner; Riis has admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs during that race.

June 8

      In Iraq suicide bomb attacks kill at least 19 people in Daquq and at least 15 people in Al-Qurnah, while 14 people are killed in an attack on the home of a police chief in Kanaan.

      A report from an investigation for the Council of Europe is released; it gives detailed descriptions of secret prisons run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Poland and Romania.

      In light of the U.S. government's inability to issue great numbers of passports quickly, the State and Homeland Security departments suspend new rules requiring passports for Americans returning to the U.S. by air from other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

      The 2007 winners of the Kyoto Prize are announced: Hiroo Inokuchi (advanced technology), Hiroo Kanamori (basic sciences), and the choreographer Pina Bausch (arts and philosophy).

June 9

      In a daylong battle between Lebanese military forces and those of the militant group Fatah al-Islam at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, 11 Lebanese soldiers are killed.

      The Boeing Co. announces that it has signed a cooperation agreement with Russia's state-owned Unified Aircraft Corp. and that Aeroflot has purchased 22 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with delivery scheduled to begin in 2014.

      Justine Henin of Belgium defeats Ana Ivanovic of Serbia to win her third consecutive women's French Open tennis title; the following day Rafael Nadal of Spain defeats Roger Federer of Switzerland for the third year in a row to capture the men's championship.

      After stumbling out of the gate, Rags to Riches wins the Belmont Stakes, the last event in Thoroughbred horse racing's U.S. Triple Crown, by a head; she is the first filly to win the race in 102 years.

June 10

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush is greeted effusively in Albania as he becomes the first American president to visit the country since the fall of communism there.

      The 61st annual Tony Awards are presented in New York City; winners include the productions The Coast of Utopia (which wins seven Tonys), Spring Awakening (with eight), Journey's End, and Company and the actors Frank Langella, Julie White, David Hyde Pierce, and Christine Ebersole.

      The 52nd Venice Biennale opens and for the first time features a pavilion for African art and another for Roma (Gypsy) art; the Malian photographer Malick Sidibé is awarded the festival's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

      Suzann Pettersen of Norway wins the Ladies Professional Golf Association championship.

June 11

      Pakistan's Supreme Court rules that suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry may contest his removal before the entire court.

      Guy Verhofstadt resigns as prime minister of Belgium the day after his party lost in legislative elections.

June 12

      Pres. Omar Hassan al-Bashir of The Sudan agrees to allow a combined United Nations and African Union force of some 20,000 troops to be deployed in the Darfur region.

      Police in Jamaica announce that independent autopsies have determined that Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistani cricket team who was found dead during the Cricket World Cup, was not murdered, contrary to the medical examiner's initial report in March.

      Chinua Achebe of Nigeria is named winner of the Man Booker International Prize, which is awarded once every two years for a body of fictional work.

June 13

      Hamas takes control of most of Gaza.

      Bombs destroy the golden minarets of the Askariya shrine in Samarraʾ, Iraq, known as the Golden Mosque and revered by Shiʿites; an attack that destroyed the shrine's dome in February 2006 had set off greatly increased levels of violence.

      Walid Eido, a prominent anti-Syrian member of Lebanon's legislature, is assassinated in Beirut by a bomb that kills nine other people as well.

      The completion of the 100-volume catalog of all the works of Johann Sebastian Bach is reported; the first volume appeared in 1953.

June 14

      As Hamas consolidates its control over Gaza, Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas dissolves the government, dismisses Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, and declares a state of emergency.

      The Audobon Society releases a report showing that the numbers of 20 common meadow birds, including the Northern bobwhite and the Eastern meadowlark, have declined to less than half of their populations of 40 years ago; suburban sprawl and large-scale farming are believed to have contributed to the change.

      The journal Nature reports the discovery in the Inner Mongolia region of China of a birdlike dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago, was some 7.5 m (25 ft) long, and weighed about 1,360 kg (3,000 lb); named Gigantoraptor erlianensis, it is considerably bigger than other birdlike dinosaurs.

      Switzerland opens the Lötschberg rail tunnel under the Alps; at 35 km (21 mi), it is the longest rail tunnel built through land.

      The San Antonio Spurs defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 83–82 in game four of the best-of-seven tournament to secure the team's fourth National Basketball Association championship.

June 15

      Samoa's legislature elects former prime minister Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi head of state to replace Malietoa Tanumafili II, who died on May 11.

      Bob Barker makes his final appearance as host of the CBS television game show The Price Is Right; he hosted the show for 35 years.

June 16

      A Sunni mosque in downtown Basra, Iraq, is blown up; it is the second Sunni mosque in the area destroyed in as many days.

      Police in China arrest Heng Tinghan after a nationwide manhunt; he is believed to have held workers in effective slavery in a brick-making kiln in Shanxi province, from which police rescued 31 workers after one man was beaten to death.

June 17

      In Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas swears in an emergency government headed by Salam Fayad as prime minister; Hamas declares the new government illegal.

      A bomb destroys a police bus in Kabul, killing at least 24 people, 22 of them police instructors.

      Ángel Cabrera of Argentina bests Americans Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk to win the U.S. Open golf tournament in Oakmont, Pa.

      Swimmer Kate Ziegler sets a new world record for the 1,500-m race of 15 min 42.54 sec, eclipsing the record 15 min 52.10 sec set in 1988 by fellow American Janet Evans.

June 18

      The U.S. drops its embargo of the Palestinian Authority, freeing up financial aid for the new Fatah government in the West Bank, and the European Union announces that it will resume direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.

      The Japanese Geographical Survey Institute changes the official name of the island of Iwo Jima to Iwo To, its name before World War II.

      The computer company Yahoo! announces that Terry S. Semel has been replaced as CEO by one of the company's founders, Jerry Yang.

June 19

      A suicide truck bomb is detonated in a large Shiʿite mosque in Baghdad; at least 87 people are killed.

      The government of Nicaragua files criminal charges against Enrique Bolaños, accusing him of having covered up human trafficking during his presidency (2002–07) of the country.

      At a fire at a furniture warehouse in Charleston, S.C., the roof collapses; nine firefighters are killed in the deadliest event for firefighters in more than 30 years, aside from the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

      The Samuel Johnson Prize, the most important award for nonfiction in the U.K., goes to Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran; the book describes life in Baghdad's Green Zone during the time of the Coalition Provisional Authority (2003–04).

June 20

      The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency finds that China has surpassed the U.S. in carbon dioxide emissions; carbon dioxide is the most significant greenhouse gas.

      Pres. Nursultan A. Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan dissolves the Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, and calls for elections in August; the next election had been scheduled to take place in 2009.

June 21

      A U.S. federal judge finds that three major pharmaceutical companies illegally inflated wholesale prices of their drugs paid for by Medicare, insurers, and patients and must pay damages.

      The World Health Organization releases a plan for a global campaign against drug-resistant tuberculosis.

      A rebel attack on a remote army base in Niger kills 13 soldiers; the rebels take at least 47 soldiers prisoner.

June 22

      In a battle between Taliban militants and NATO forces in Kunjak, Afg., some 30 Taliban and at least 25 civilians are killed.

June 23

      The European Council, meeting in Brussels, agrees to begin negotiations on a reform treaty to replace the European Union's unsuccessful proposed constitution.

      Drew Weaver becomes the first American to win the British amateur golf championship since 1979 when he finishes ahead of Tim Stewart of Australia at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, Eng.

June 24

      In southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, an apparent car bombing kills six UN peacekeepers.

      Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” because of his guidance of poison gas attacks against Kurds in northern Iraq during the late 1980s, is found guilty of genocide in an Iraqi courtroom and is sentenced to be hanged.

      In Chicago the U.S. defeats Mexico 2–1 to win the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup in association football (soccer).

      In the 148th running of the Queen's Plate Thoroughbred horse race in Toronto, Emma-Jayne Wilson becomes the first female jockey to win the race when her mount, long shot Mike Fox, wins by half a length.

June 25

      North Korea promises to shut down its main nuclear plant now that it has received the money pledged in the agreement made with the U.S., South Korea, Russia, China, and Japan on February 13.

      In a hotel in Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonates his weapon in the lobby, killing 12 people, among them 4 Sunni sheikhs from Anbar province who were fighting against al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and 2 Shiʿite sheikhs who were meeting with them; also, the leader of the U.S. offensive to establish security in the Iraqi town of Baʿqubah says that more than half of the insurgents there have eluded U.S. forces.

      Robert Zoellick is confirmed as president of the World Bank by that organization's executive board.

June 26

      The oil companies ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil decline to cede control of their oil-production enterprises in Venezuela to the country's government.

      The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency releases to the public 702 pages of documents detailing illegal activities engaged in by the agency during the 1960s and '70s; these documents have long been known as the “family jewels.”

 The Hangzhou Bay Bridge from Jiaxing to Cixi in China receives its final link; at about 36 km (22.5 mi), the cable-stayed bridge is believed to be the world's longest transoceanic span.

June 27

      Tony Blair steps down as British prime minister; he is replaced by former chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

      The Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo announces that it has identified a mummy originally found in 1903 in Tomb 60 as being that of the long-sought 15th-century-BC Egyptian queen Hatshepsut.

June 28

      Pres. Álvaro Uribe of Colombia says that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) killed 11 legislators the guerrilla group kidnapped in 2002; FARC had claimed that the hostages died in the cross fire during a rescue attempt, but Uribe says no attempt was made, as the location of the hostages was unknown.

      The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a manufacturer may dictate minimum prices that dealers must charge for its products, overturning a 1911 ruling forbidding such a practice; in addition, it rules that public school systems may not consider race in admission policies, which have attempted to ensure diversity.

      Rodrigo de Rato of Spain announces that he will step down from his post as managing director of the IMF in October, two years before the end of his term.

      The U.S. Department of the Interior announces that the bald eagle is no longer considered an endangered species; there are now nearly 10,000 mating pairs in the U.S.

June 29

      Two Mercedes sedans that had been packed with explosives to make them into car bombs are discovered in London and defused by police; the populace is shocked.

      As a plane carrying Prime Minister Guillaume Soro of Côte d'Ivoire lands in Bouaké, it is attacked by heavy gunfire; three people are killed, but Soro escapes unharmed.

      The new Apple iPhone goes on sale throughout the U.S., to the elation of customers who stood in line for hours or, in some cases, days to make sure they were able to acquire the new gadget.

June 30

      Two men drive a burning SUV through the doors of the Glasgow, Scot., airport; the men are arrested and no one at the airport is injured, but it is assumed that this incident is connected with the discovery the day before of car bombs in London.

      A spokesman for the Lord's Resistance Army says that the militant group has reached an agreement with the government of Uganda over how to deal with war crimes.

July

"Everyone thinks that there's no justice in the country, that only generals get to decide everything. But the court today was very brave."

— Ali Ahmed Kurd, an attorney for Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on a Pakistani Supreme Court ruling reinstating his client as chief justice, July 20

July 1

      Officials in Afghanistan say that NATO air strikes in a battle two days earlier in Helmand province killed 62 insurgents and 45 civilians.

      Police and government inspectors raid stores in Zimbabwe to force the store owners to obey a decree from Pres. Robert Mugabe to cut the prices of basic commodities in half; chaos had resulted.

      The presidency of the European Union rotates to the prime minister of Portugal, José Sócrates.

      In Southern Pines, N.C., American golfer Cristie Kerr wins the U.S. Women's Open; it is her first victory in one of the major golf tournaments.

July 2

      A suicide car bomber plows into a convoy of Spanish tourists in Yemen before detonating his weapon; seven Spaniards and two Yemenis are killed.

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush commutes the 30-month prison sentence meted out to I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby, former chief of staff to the vice president, for perjury and obstruction of justice.

      The Coles Group, which owns supermarkets, liquor stores, and office-supply retailers in Australia, encourages its shareholders to approve a proposed buyout by the home-improvement conglomerate Wesfarmers.

July 3

      Violence erupts between Pakistani security forces, who have taken up positions surrounding the Islamist Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, and students of two madrassas affiliated with the establishment; at least 10 people are killed.

      Fumio Kyuma resigns as Japan's minister of defense in the face of a furor in response to a remark of his that seemed to support the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan in World War II.

      The 32nd America's Cup yacht competition is won for the second consecutive time by Switzerland's Alinghi, which sails across the finish line near Valencia, Spain, just one second ahead of Team New Zealand's vessel in race seven to take the title by a score of 5–2.

July 4

      The International Olympic Committee awards the 2014 Winter Games to Sochi, Russia, turning down Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, S.Kor.

      BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped on March 12 by a small Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, is released to Hamas officials and then freed.

      At the 92nd annual Nathan's Famous hot-dog-eating contest, held at New York City's Coney Island, Joey Chestnut of the U.S. outeats six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, consuming a record 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes.

July 5

      The International Olympic Committee decides on the creation of a new Youth Olympics, for athletes aged 14–18; the first event is planned for summer 2010, with the venue to be decided in February 2008.

      Results of the June 30 legislative election in East Timor are released; no party won a legislative majority, though the most seats (29%) were won by the ruling party, Fretilin.

      The Swiss banking giant UBS unexpectedly announces that its CEO, Peter A. Wuffli, has been replaced by his deputy, Marcel Rohner.

July 6

      UN health officials report that the number of people infected with HIV in India is 2.5 million, not 5.7 million as previously believed, and that India therefore ranks third in the world, not first, in number of infections, behind South Africa and Nigeria; the new tally was gleaned from a new and more accurate survey.

      William J.S. Elliot is named the new commissioner of the troubled Royal Canadian Mounted Police; he is the first person to serve in the position without any previous police experience.

July 7

      A powerful truck bomb kills as many as 150 people in the Iraqi village of Amerli, a town of Turkmen Shiʿites; many are crushed to death by collapsing houses.

      American Venus Williams defeats Marion Bartoli of France to take the All-England (Wimbledon) women's tennis championship; the following day Roger Federer of Switzerland wins the men's title for a fifth consecutive year when he defeats Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

 Live Earth, a series of concerts to promote environmental awareness in an effort to combat global warming, is broadcast on television, satellite radio, and the Internet; the concerts take place in Sydney (Australia; see photo), Tokyo and Shanghai (Asia), Hamburg and London (Europe), Rothera research station (Antarctica), Johannesburg (Africa), Rio de Janeiro (South America), and East Rutherford, N.J., and Washington, D.C. (North America).

July 8

      Israel's cabinet approves the early release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, most belonging to the Fatah party.

July 9

      Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces that the country will buy patrol ships to assert the country's claim to the Northwest Passage; many believe that continued global warming could make possible its being turned into a major shipping channel.

      Near the village of Maraiguda in India's Chhattisgarh state, 24 policemen are killed in a gun battle with Maoist rebels.

      The Chicago Board of Trade agrees to merge with its rival, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, for $11.9 billion; the combined exchange will be one of the world's largest.

      X. William Proenza steps down as director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center after having aroused the enmity of the staff, who asked for his resignation.

July 10

      After seven days of fighting and a failed attempt to negotiate peace with the militants inside the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, Pak., government forces storm the mosque compound; in a daylong battle, 8 members of the security forces and some 73 militants, including Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque's leader, are killed.

      Mexican Pres. Felipe Calderón responds to a series of bomb attacks against gas pipelines in Guanajuato state by increasing security along the pipelines.

      The Vatican issues a document that states that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church established by Jesus Christ and that other denominations “suffer from defects.”

      Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China's food and drug regulatory agency, is executed.

July 11

      An Iraqi government official reports that guards at the Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad have stolen $282 million in U.S. dollars from the private bank.

      The movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens at midnight in theatres throughout the U.S.; the film takes in a record $12 million from these screenings alone and goes on to set a single-day record for a Wednesday release.

July 12

      The annual Orange Order parades in Northern Ireland take place without incident and without the need for heavy policing to prevent violence between the Protestant marchers and Roman Catholics who disliked the processions' taking place near their neighbourhoods.

July 13

      The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has agreed to allow the agency to inspect its heavy-water reactor in Arak; the inspection is to take place before the end of the month.

      Unable to achieve a quorum in the Palestinian legislature because of a Hamas boycott, Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas names Salam Fayad, head of the 30-day emergency government, prime minister of a caretaker government.

      Canadian-born media baron Conrad Black is convicted by a jury in Chicago on three charges of fraud against his newspaper company, Hollinger International, and one charge of obstructing justice.

July 14

      North Korea informs the U.S. that it has shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and has admitted a team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

      Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin announces that in 150 days the country will suspend its participation in the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty; the move is in response to U.S. plans to deploy missile-defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

      Pete Sampras of the U.S., Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario of Spain, Sven Davidson of Sweden, and American sports photographer Russ Adams are inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Newport, R.I.

July 15

      Two suicide bombings in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, one aimed at a police recruiting centre and the other at a military convoy, leave at least 49 people dead.

      The opening of a reconciliation conference to which more than 1,300 clan elders in Somalia were invited is postponed when opposition leaders among them fail to attend.

      In Venezuela, Brazil defeats Argentina 3–0 to win its eighth Copa América, the South American championship in association football (soccer).

July 16

      A suicide truck bomber kills at least 85 people in Kirkuk, Iraq, and in a remote village in Diyala province, men in Iraqi army uniforms round up and massacre 29 people.

      Pres. Evo Morales of Bolivia announces plans to renationalize the country's railroads, which were sold to private companies in the 1990s.

      A magnitude-6.6 earthquake occurs in rural Niigata prefecture in Japan, killing at least 10 people and causing tremendous destruction, notably at the world's biggest nuclear power plant.

July 17

      In Islamabad, Pak., a suicide bomb attack kills at least 14 people at a rally just a half hour before a planned speech by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the suspended chief justice.

      A Brazilian TAM Airlines Airbus A320 airplane attempting to land at São Paulo's Congonhas Airport skids off a runway and into a building; 199 people are killed.

      Libya's High Judicial Council commutes to life in prison the sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who twice had been sentenced to death on charges of having injected hundreds of children with HIV.

July 18

      Geologists from Boston University announce that they have found an immense underground lake in the impoverished Darfur region of The Sudan; they recommend that 1,000 wells be dug.

      Former South African president Nelson Mandela announces the formation of the Elders, a new international alliance backed by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, among others, that will examine and offer solutions to intractable world problems; members include Mandela, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 14,000 for the first time; also, the Standard & Poor's 500 closes at a record high of 1,553.08.

      Laotian-born American psychologist Jerry Yang uses his aggressive playing style to capture the 38th Annual World Series of Poker and earn $8,250,000 in prize money.

July 19

      Some 115 wildfires are reported in southern Greece in the midst of a heat wave that is baking southern Europe.

      Pres. Idriss Déby of Chad agrees to allow a European Union force to help contain violence that has spread into the eastern part of the country from the Darfur region of The Sudan.

      Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan seize 23 South Korean church-group volunteers, mostly women, from a bus on the highway between Kabul and Kandahar; the following day a Taliban spokesman says the captives will be killed unless South Korea withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.

July 20

      Pakistan's Supreme Court rules that Pres. Pervez Musharraf's suspension of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as chief justice was illegal and reinstates Chaudhry, dismissing all charges against him.

      A spokesman for the World Bank says the organization has found that global warming is causing rainfall to mountain lakes and wetlands in the Andes to lessen, threatening the water supply to many South American cities.

      A U.S. court of appeals rules that the government must make available to the court and to lawyers its information on detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who are challenging decisions by military tribunals that they continue to be held, saying that meaningful review of the tribunals requires that information.

July 21

      Legislators in India choose Pratibha Patil as India's next president; she is the first woman named to the largely ceremonial position.

      The much-anticipated final volume of the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released worldwide at midnight, breaking book sales records over the next 24 hours in the U.K. (some 2.7 million copies).

      New Zealand wins the rugby union Tri-Nations trophy, defeating Australia 26–12 in the final.

July 22

      Legislative elections in Turkey result in an increase in the number of seats for the ruling Justice and Development Party, which wins 46.7% of the vote.

      An exhibit of Chinese artworks comes to a close at the Hong Kong Museum of Art; the works were loaned in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China and featured the storied and rarely seen 12th-century scroll painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan.

      Padraig Harrington wins the British Open golf tournament at the Carnoustie Golf Club in Carnoustie, Scot., defeating Sergio García of Spain in a four-hole play-off; Harrington is the first Irishman to win the tournament since Fred Daly in 1947.

July 23

      The UN reports that over the past week some 10,000 people have fled from Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of a continuing exodus that has reduced the city's population by more than one-fifth since the defeat of the Islamic Courts Union in late December 2006.

      Flooding of the Thames River in central England after a month of heavy rains causes widespread destruction and hardship; the area is experiencing its worst flooding in 60 years.

July 24

      After visits to Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi by Cécilia Sarkozy, wife of French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy, and a complex agreement in which several European countries will provide money for Libya, the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who have been in a Libyan prison for the past eight years are freed and flown to Bulgaria.

      In the U.S. the minimum hourly wage is increased for the first time since September 1997, from $5.15 to $5.85; an additional raise is scheduled to take place each of the next two summers.

      At the end of two days of playing poker, professionals Phil Laak and Ali Eslami eke out a victory by winning two of three rounds in a matchup with Polaris, a software program developed at the University of Alberta.

July 25

 After Iraq's association football (soccer) team defeats South Korea in a penalty shoot-out to win a semifinal match in the Asian Cup competition, jubilant Iraqis take to the streets in cities throughout the country in celebration (see photo); car bombs that explode among the revelers in Baghdad leave 50 dead.

      The U.S. House of Representatives passes a resolution asking Indiana to reconsider a permit it granted to allow the BP oil company to increase the amount of pollutants its plant in Whiting, Ind., releases into Lake Michigan in conjunction with an expansion; the plans have angered officials and residents of Chicago.

July 26

      A car bomb in Baghdad destroys nine cars, sets a building on fire, and kills at least 25 people; also, a car bomb kills at least 6 people in Kirkuk, and a suicide bomber near Mosul kills 7 people.

      Delegates from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, the Arab League, and the UN meeting in Amman, Jordan, to find ways to deal with the influx of some two million Iraqi refugees in the Middle East fail to arrive at solutions.

      The overall leader of the Tour de France, Michael Rasmussen of Denmark, is removed from the race by his team because of questions regarding the location of his training and because he missed drug tests; two days earlier another favourite, Aleksandr Vinokurov of Kazakhstan, withdrew after failing a drug test.

July 27

      Hundreds of Islamists try to reoccupy the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, Pak., when the government reopens it for prayers, and a suicide bomber kills at least 13 people; the government regains control of the mosque and closes it indefinitely.

      The U.S. stock market falls sharply for the second day in a row; it has been nearly five years since the market lost this much value in one week.

July 28

      In Gstaad, Switz., the U.S. women's team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh wins the beach volleyball world championship for the third consecutive year; the following day the U.S. men's team of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser also takes gold.

July 29

      In elections for the House of Councillors, the upper house of Japan's legislature, the opposition Democratic Party wins a substantial majority of votes, taking control from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has run Japan almost without interruption since 1955.

      The New England Journal of Medicine publishes online reports from three separate groups of researchers who have identified the same gene, one that makes the interleukin-7 receptor, as being linked to multiple sclerosis; this pinpoints the area in which research might find a solution to the disease.

      Iraq defeats Saudi Arabia 1–0 to win the Asian Cup in association football (soccer) for the first time in tournament history.

      Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador wins the Tour de France, completing the race only 23 seconds faster than Cadel Evans of Australia.

July 30

      The chairman of Iran's Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, dies; the Assembly's powers include choosing and monitoring the supreme leader.

      Legendary filmmakers Ingmar Bergman of Sweden and Michelangelo Antonioni of Italy both die.

July 31

      The Bancroft family, owners of Dow Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal, agrees to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $5 billion.

      Bollywood matinee idol Sanjay Dutt is sentenced in Mumbai (Bombay) to six years in prison for the illegal possession of weapons; the pistol and automatic rifle were given to him by the masterminds of a terrorist bombing in the city in 1993.

      The price of oil closes at a record-high $78.21 a barrel.

August

"The first principle of Arctic sovereignty is use it or lose it."

— Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announcing new military bases in the Arctic to guard the Northwest Passage, August 10

August 1

 Iraqi cabinet members belonging to the Iraqi Consensus Front, the main Sunni political faction, resign from the government; meanwhile, in Baghdad a fuel tanker is blown up, killing some 50 people, and a car bomb outside an ice cream shop kills 20 others.

      Industry analysis shows that in July for the first time, sales of cars in the U.S. made by foreign manufacturers overtook sales of cars from American automakers.

      The American toy maker Mattel recalls 967,000 Chinese-manufactured toys that had been painted with lead-based paint.

      An eight-lane bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota collapses during the evening rush hour, dropping dozens of vehicles into the river and leaving 13 people dead.

August 2

      Russian explorers in minisubmarines plant a Russian flag made of titanium on the seafloor beneath the North Pole to underscore Russia's claim to the Arctic region.

      James H. Billington, the American librarian of Congress, names Charles Simic the country's 15th poet laureate; Simic succeeds Donald Hall.

August 3

      The mortgage lender American Home Mortgage Investment goes out of business, citing difficulties in the secondary-mortgage market as well as the housing market.

      Experts determine that the painting Head of a Man, owned by the National Gallery of Australia and for the past 70 years attributed to Vincent van Gogh, is in fact not his and is probably the work of one of his contemporaries.

      Police in Oakland, Calif., raid the Your Black Muslim Bakery and arrest seven people in connection with the murder of the editor of a weekly newspaper; the victim had been working on an article about the possible connection of the bakery with a number of other murders.

August 4

      NASA launches the Phoenix Mars Lander; it is expected to land on May 25, 2008, in the north polar region of Mars, where it will collect and analyze soil samples.

      British authorities burn the bodies of 60 cattle and impose a cordon around a farm in Guildford, Surrey, where foot-and-mouth disease was discovered two days earlier.

      Ron Pierce, driving trotter Donato Hanover, wins the Hambletonian harness race in New Jersey.

      The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, inducts tight end Charlie Sanders, wide receiver Michael Irvin, running back Thurman Thomas, offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, cornerback Roger Wehrli, and guard Gene Hickerson.

August 5

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush signs into law legislation that increases the government's authority to eavesdrop on electronic communications between Americans and people in other countries.

      Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa wins the women's British Open golf tournament by four shots over Lee Jee Young of South Korea and Maria Hjorth of Sweden in the first women's professional golf tournament to be played at the St. Andrews Old Course in Scotland.

August 6

      Pres. José Ramos-Horta of East Timor names former president Xanana Gusmão prime minister.

      Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel meets with Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Jericho; it is the first time since 2000 that an Israeli prime minister has been in Palestinian territory.

      Police officials in Zimbabwe report that 7,660 business owners and managers have been arrested since late June for failing to cut the prices of their goods as ordered by the government.

      Robert L. Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot, is publicly announced as the new head of Chrysler at a celebration of the car company's return to American ownership; the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management finalized its purchase of Chrysler on August 3.

      A shaft in the Crandall Canyon deep coal mine in Utah collapses with enough force to register as an earthquake, trapping six miners.

August 7

      Gela Bezhuashvili, the foreign minister of Georgia, contends that the previous day Russia fired a missile at the Georgian town of Tsitelubani; Russia denies the accusation.

      Police in France recover two paintings and a drawing by Pablo Picasso that were stolen in February from the apartment of the artist's granddaughter Diana Widmaier-Picasso; the works are all said to be in good condition.

      Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hits his 756th home run off Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik at AT&T Park in San Francisco to take over the Major League Baseball record of most career home runs from Hank Aaron, who had held the record since 1974.

August 8

      The baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, is officially declared extinct in a report by a scientific expedition that engaged in an intensive and fruitless six-week search for the animal, which is considered the first cetacean species extinguished by human activity; however, an unconfirmed sighting is reported in the Chinese media on August 29.

      The space shuttle Endeavour takes off on a mission to work on the building of the International Space Station; its mission specialist, Barbara R. Morgan, is also a schoolteacher who trained for the teacher-in-space program in 1986, before the Challenger disaster, and who plans to teach classes from space.

August 9

      Nature magazine publishes a study by anthropologists who found evidence that Homo habilis and H. erectus coexisted for some half a million years, which suggests that H. erectus did not descend from H. habilis, as has been believed, but that both evolved from a common ancestor.

      The government of South Africa confirms that it has fired Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the deputy health minister, who had been internationally praised for her work to combat the AIDS pandemic in the country; she had clashed with the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who recommended the use of garlic and vitamins against the disease.

      A UN spokesman warns that if the main crossings to the Gaza Strip remain closed, preventing trade, the economy of the area is likely to collapse; the crossings have been shut since the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

August 10

      A spokesman for the African Union says that the organization is looking into reports of an outbreak of fierce fighting in the Darfur region of The Sudan between rebel militias and government troops in which the deaths of more than 100 soldiers have been rumoured.

      Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces that the country will build two new military bases in Nunavut, one in Nanisivik and one in Resolute Bay, in order to protect its claims to the Northwest Passage.

      The UN Security Council passes a resolution increasing the scope of its mission in Iraq to promote reconciliation and consensus and to assist in border disputes.

August 11

      Sierra Leone holds its own presidential and legislative elections for the first time since 1996; the opposition All People's Congress wins a majority of legislative seats, but a presidential runoff is required.

      The governor of Al-Qadisiyah province in Iraq, together with the police chief and three bodyguards, is killed by a roadside bomb; the area is known to be a battleground between Shiʿite factions.

      The centre span of the fourth bridge (the first three were built in 1591, 1854, and 1934) across the Grand Canal in Venice is put in place; the new bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava, is scheduled to open in December.

August 12

      At the final ceremony of a four-day Peace Jirga convened by Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai and attended by hundreds of Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders in Kabul, Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf for the first time admits that there has been support for Islamist militants in Pakistan and recognizes that this has been a source of difficulty for Afghanistan.

      A team of Danish scientists begins an expedition to the Arctic region in an effort to map the underwater Lomonosov Ridge, seeking evidence that it is attached to Greenland, which could give Denmark sovereignty over the North Pole, together with possibly lucrative mineral and shipping rights.

      Tiger Woods defeats Woody Austin by two strokes to win the Professional Golfers' Association of America championship at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., and Maria Uribe of Colombia defeats Amanda Blumenherst of the U.S. by one stroke in the women's amateur golf championship in Carmel, Ind.

      The 48th Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contribution to the arts is awarded to American documentary filmmaker Les Blank at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H.

August 13

      For the second time, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party nominates Abdullah Gul as its candidate for president.

      Karl Rove, the closest aide of U.S. Pres. George W. Bush, announces his resignation as deputy chief of staff.

      A passenger train traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg is derailed by a bomb explosion; dozens of people are injured, and rail service is suspended.

August 14

      In the Iraqi villages of Qahtaniya and Jazeera, located in the Kurdish-speaking region near Syria, four truck bombs kill at least 500 people; most people in the area are members of the Yazidi religious sect.

      Government officials in Peru say that they have captured 21 people believed to be members of the Maoist insurgent organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).

August 15

      An earthquake measuring magnitude 8.0 strikes off the coast of southern Peru, destroying the city of Pisco; at least 540 people are killed, and some 200,000 are made homeless.

      Pres. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela unveils a program of proposed changes to the constitution, in particular a provision that would allow him to be reelected to an unlimited number of terms of office.

      It is reported that a highly contagious swine virus that causes the deadly blue-ear pig disease has spread to 25 of China's 33 provinces and regions.

      In Duisburg, Ger., six Italian men are shot to death; authorities in Italy believe the killings are related to a feud between two families involved in organized crime.

      The military government of Myanmar (Burma) unexpectedly doubles the price of rationed fuel.

August 16

      The U.S. and Israel agree to a plan in which the U.S. will give Israel $30 billion in military aid over the next 10 years.

      Jose Padilla, who was arrested as an enemy combatant in 2002 and then transferred to the civilian criminal court system in 2006, is found guilty by a U.S. federal jury on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

      A further collapse of the walls of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah in which six miners were trapped kills two rescue workers and a mine inspector, and efforts to find and rescue the six are temporarily suspended.

August 17

      Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center report that the amount of sea ice in the Arctic has reached the lowest point ever measured, at 5.26 million sq km (2.02 million sq mi), and that the melt season is expected to continue for another month; melting is reportedly occurring more quickly than predicted by computer models.

August 18

      A referendum takes place in Maldives on the framework of a new constitution; voters choose a strong presidential system over a parliamentary one.

      The ruling party in Kazakhstan wins all the contested seats in legislative elections that international observers describe as unfair.

      Israel implements a controversial new rule to immediately deport all migrants who cross the border from Egypt into Israel, returning some 50 Africans, many of whom are believed to be refugees from the Darfur region of The Sudan, to Egypt.

August 19

      A referendum is held in Thailand on a new constitution that weakens the power of the executive and shifts power to the military; as expected, the document is approved.

      Hurricane Dean roars through the Caribbean, leaving a trail of destruction in St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica; at least eight people die in the region.

      Lin Dan of China wins the men's badminton world championship, defeating Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia.

August 20

      The governor of Iraq's Al-Muthanna province is killed by a roadside bomb; he was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiʿite political party that had clashed with the Mahdi Army, a Shiʿite militia loyal to the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

      Gov. C.L. Otter of Idaho declares a state of emergency as firefighters give up on attempting to extinguish forest fires in three national forests, saying that under present conditions they lack the resources to be effective against the fires.

      Michael Vick, quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, agrees to plead guilty to felony charges related to dogfighting; on August 24 he is suspended indefinitely by the National Football League.

August 21

      A U.S. federal judge rules that the government has violated the federal law that mandates periodic studies by Washington on the impact of global warming; an assessment was due in 2004 and a research plan in 2006, and the judge requires a summary report by March 2008.

      In objection to the large military presence on campus that has been in place since January, students at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, engage in a second day of rioting, and violence spreads to other universities in the country.

August 22

      Some 300 people march in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma), to protest the large increase in the price of fuel imposed by the government; the demonstration is promptly squashed.

      The government of Bangladesh closes universities and colleges and imposes a curfew in six major cities.

      A U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter crashes in northern Iraq, killing all 14 soldiers aboard; mechanical failure is blamed for the crash.

August 23

      Inmates take over a prison in Ponte Nova, Braz., and 25 members of one gang are locked up and then burned to death.

      Pakistan's Supreme Court rules that Nawaz Sharif, whom Pres. Pervez Musharraf deposed as prime minister in 1999, has the legal right to return to the country and run for office.

August 24

      The families of the Islamist militants in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon leave under a truce worked out with the Lebanese army, which has been engaged in a standoff with the militants since May.

      A bomb explodes outside a police barracks during the night in Durango, Spain; police believe it to be the work of the Basque separatist organization ETA.

August 25

      Two bombs, one at a laser show at an open-air auditorium and one at a popular restaurant, kill at least 42 people in Hyderabad, India.

      A national state of emergency is declared in Greece as the death toll from relentless wildfires that are fueled by strong winds and high temperatures rises to at least 46.

August 26

      The head of Iran's central bank resigns; earlier in the month the ministers of oil and of industry had both resigned, and Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had dissolved the monetary policy-making Money and Credit Council.

      The government of Iraq announces that an agreement has been reached to allow former members of the Baʿth Party to hold government posts; Baʿthists were banned from the government in 2003.

      The Warner Robins American team from Warner Robins, Ga., defeats the Tokyo Kitasuna team from Japan 3–2 with a walk-off solo home run by Dalton Carriker to win baseball's 61st Little League World Series.

      Official ceremonies are held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to celebrate the fabled city's 2,750th anniversary.

      The National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., inducts players Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy, veteran Bobby Smith, and executive Alan Rothenberg.

August 27

      Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe replaces a cabinet made up largely of friends and supporters with one consisting of political veterans, among them Nobutaka Machimura as foreign minister and Masahiko Komura as minister of defense.

      U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales unexpectedly announces his resignation.

      Paul Barker, the director of programs in The Sudan for the international charity CARE, says that the organization has been told to leave the country.

August 28

      Armed violence breaks out during a religious festival in Karbalaʾ, Iraq, between the Badr Organization and the Mahdi Army, both Shiʿite militias; at least 50 people are killed.

      On the third ballot, Turkey's legislature elects the controversial Abdullah Gul president.

      In Afghanistan the Taliban agrees to release the remaining 19 South Korean hostages that the organization seized on July 19; two hostages had been killed and two released earlier.

August 29

      In Iraq the Shiʿite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announces, to the surprise of observers, that the Mahdi Army's operations will be suspended for six months.

      As a Muslim religious festival is celebrated in Agra, India, home of the Taj Mahal, a truck runs over and kills four men on a motorcycle, and violent rioting ensues; by afternoon the police have imposed a curfew, confining residents and tourists to their domiciles.

      Protests against the economic and social policies of the government take place throughout Chile, with violent clashes between protesters and police occurring in Santiago.

      China's official news source says that sandstorms are reducing to piles of dirt more than 59.5 km (37 mi) of the Great Wall in Gansu province.

August 30

      The International Atomic Energy Agency releases a report saying that Iran has been cooperative and forthcoming and that, though Tehran continues to expand its nuclear program, it is doing so at a much slower rate than had been expected.

      The six-week-long reconciliation talks intended to bring peace between Somalia's various clans conclude; agreement has been reached on a truce, the sharing of natural resources, and the holding of elections in 2009.

      Italian police carry out a raid in San Luca, arresting 32 people in an effort to stop a feud between rival families in the 'Ndrangheta crime organization.

      The television company NBC Universal notifies the computer company Apple that it will not renew its contract to sell digital downloads of its TV shows on iTunes; the contract expires at the end of the calendar year.

August 31

      Zimbabwe imposes a six-month freeze on increases in wages, rents, and fees in an attempt to stop runaway inflation; price controls have so far resulted in a burgeoning black market.

 Ceremonies are held in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia's independence.

September

"The clergy boycotts the violent, mean, cruel, ruthless, pitiless kings, the great thieves who live by stealing from the national treasury."

— Public statement issued by Buddhist monks in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma), September 20

September 1

      Iraq's Interior Ministry releases figures showing that the civilian death toll since July has risen by some 20% throughout the country but that the number of deaths in Baghdad, where the U.S. troop increase is focused, has dropped markedly.

      Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho announces his intention to resign in the wake of the revelation that he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge after he was accused of having solicited an undercover police officer for sex in a men's restroom in an airport; he later rescinds the resignation.

      In college football the lower-division Appalachian State Mountaineers of Boone, N.C., defeat the number-five-ranked University of Michigan Wolverines 34–32 in what is believed to be one of the sport's biggest upsets.

September 2

      The Lebanese armed forces storm and seize control of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp after a standoff that started in May with Fatah al-Islam militants who had taken over the camp.

      The Ogaden National Liberation Front declares a temporary cease-fire so that a UN fact-finding tour can safely enter the troubled Ogaden region of Ethiopia.

      China declares its intention to release information about its burgeoning military budget and to resume submitting data to the UN on its trade in conventional weapons; it had stopped sending such information in 1996.

September 3

      In Myanmar (Burma) the constitutional convention, the delegates to which were appointed by the military government, releases guidelines for a constitution that would allow the military to remain in power.

      Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister of Bangladesh, is arrested on charges of corruption in Dhaka a few weeks after the arrest of another former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wazed.

      The government of Pakistan reveals that some 270 soldiers have been captured and held hostage for the past four days by Islamist militants in South Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan.

 The ceremonial ground breaking of the project to expand the Panama Canal takes place at Paradise Hill in Panama; the project, which is expected to more than double the canal's capacity, is scheduled for completion in 2014.

      A high-speed train makes the inaugural HS1 trip from Paris to London, through the Channel Tunnel, in 123 minutes, a new record; it will start commercial operation on November 14.

      Aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett disappears in western Nevada after taking off in a single-engine plane; he was said to be looking for areas to practice driving his jet-powered race car.

September 4

      Two coordinated suicide bombings, occurring 20 minutes and less than 1.6 km (1 mi) apart, kill at least 25 people in Rawalpindi, Pak.

      In Iran former president Hashemi Rafsanjani is elected to head the Assembly of Experts, which monitors the supreme leader.

      Opposing factions of the recently bifurcated National Liberation Force engage in fierce fighting in Bujumbura, Burundi; at least 26 people are killed.

September 5

      The government of Germany announces that it has arrested three people who were in advanced stages of planning a major terrorist attack in Germany against American and German targets.

      Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki travels to Al-Najaf to hold talks with Shiʿite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

September 6

      Israel conducts air strikes against a target in Syria for the first time since 2003; the action is confirmed by the U.S. government on September 11 after Israel fails to respond to complaints by Syria.

      A suicide bomber detonates a weapon in a crowd waiting in Batna, Alg., to greet Algerian Pres. Abdelaziz Bouteflika; at least 22 people are killed.

      The online edition of the journal Science publishes research suggesting that a virus may be a major cause of the colony collapse disorder that has been afflicting honeybees in the U.S.; about a quarter of American beekeepers have reported mass die-offs in their hives.

      A U.S. federal judge rules unconstitutional a section of the USA PATRIOT Act that permits the government to demand customer records from communications companies and forbid the companies to reveal the existence of the demands; the section also limits judicial review of the demands.

September 7

      Poland's legislature votes to end its term two years early, forcing an early general election.

      Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy to North Korea, announces that an international delegation of nuclear experts from the U.S., Russia, and China is to inspect nuclear sites that North Korea has agreed to shut down.

      The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., inducts as members National Basketball Association coach Phil Jackson, Women's National Basketball Association coach Van Chancellor, international coaches Pedro Ferrándiz and Mirko Novosel, college coach Roy Williams, referee Marvin (“Mendy”) Rudolph, and the 1966 Texas Western (now University of Texas at El Paso) Miners college team.

      Police in Portugal name Kate and Gerry McCann suspects in the May 3 disappearance of their four-year-old daughter, Madeleine, from the British family's vacation rental in Praia da Luz; the highly publicized search for the child has engrossed the public in both Great Britain and Portugal.

September 8

      A runoff presidential election takes place in Sierra Leone; the winner is opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma.

      A van packed with explosives detonates in Dellys, Alg., killing 34 coast guard officers.

      Justine Henin of Belgium defeats Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia to win the women's U.S. Open tennis championship; the following day Roger Federer of Switzerland defeats Novak Djokovic of Serbia to win the men's title for the fourth straight year.

September 9

      A report is published in the journal Nature Genetics describing the finding that early humans with extra copies of the amylase gene, which creates an enzyme to convert complex carbohydrates to glucose, seem to have evolved in response to an increasing amount of complex carbohydrates in the diet.

      At the IAAF Grand Prix in Rieti, Italy, Asafa Powell of Jamaica sets a new 100-m record of 9.74 sec; the previous record of 9.77 sec was first achieved by Powell in Athens in 2005.

      With his win over Scott Dixon of New Zealand in the Indy 300 race in Joliet, Ill., Scottish driver Dario Franchitti wins the overall IndyCar championship.

September 10

      Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years in exile, arriving in Islamabad with a plan to challenge Pres. Pervez Musharraf; he is deported within hours.

      Bombs set at six points along four natural-gas pipelines and one oil pipeline in Mexico go off, creating major service disruptions; it is the third attack in three months against pipelines of the state oil company Pemex.

      A UN report is released saying that the number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan in the first eight months of 2007 increased by 69% over the same period in 2006.

      Diego Montoya, leader of what is believed to be the most dangerous drug cartel in Colombia, is arrested in Valle del Cauca department.

September 11

      Pius Ncube resigns as Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimb., after having been accused of adultery; Ncube was an outspoken critic of Pres. Robert Mugabe.

      Bruce Golding is sworn in as prime minister of Jamaica.

September 12

      Shinzo Abe resigns as prime minister of Japan.

      Mikhail Fradkov resigns as Russia's prime minister, and Pres. Vladimir Putin surprises observers by naming little-known Viktor A. Zubkov as Fradkov's replacement.

      A magnitude-8.4 earthquake with its epicentre undersea near Bengkulu on the Indonesian island of Sumatra leaves at least 10 people dead; a second earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8, strikes early the next morning about 320 km (200 mi) northwest of the first, and a third major earthquake occurs later that day.

      The euro reaches a new high of $1.3908 in trading against the U.S. dollar.

September 13

      Sheikh Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, the most prominent Sunni leader in Iraq to have begun fighting against jihadist insurgents, is assassinated in Anbar province.

      Off Hammerfest, Nor., the first liquefied-natural-gas plant in Europe begins production at the Snøhvit oil field.

      UNICEF releases figures showing that worldwide mortality for children under the age of five has dropped to 9.7 million; it is the first time since records began in 1960 that the figure has dropped below 10 million.

September 14

      The European Space Agency reports that satellite images have revealed that for the first time in recorded history, the Northwest Passage briefly became open to navigation because of the record low amount of Arctic sea ice.

      Kyrgyzstan's Constitutional Court rules that changes to the constitution made during mass protests in 2006 are not legal.

      The BBC reports that The Better Half, an unpublished play by Sir Noël Coward that was last performed in 1922, by the Grand Guignol Company of London, has been rediscovered by people researching the theatre company.

September 15

      Legislators allied with Shiʿite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announce their pullout from the United Iraqi Alliance political bloc.

      The 2007 Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards are presented; winners are Ralph Steinman for his discovery of dendritic cells and their important role in the immune system, Alain Carpentier and Albert Starr for their development of prosthetic mitral and aortic heart valves, and Anthony Fauci for his role as architect of U.S. AIDS and biodefense programs.

September 16

      The ruling New Democracy party, headed by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, is victorious in parliamentary elections in Greece.

      The Emmy Awards are presented in Los Angeles; winners include the television shows 30 Rock and The Sopranos and the actors Ricky Gervais, James Spader, America Ferrera, Sally Field, Jeremy Piven, Terry O'Quinn, Jaime Pressly, and Katherine Heigl.

      Tiger Woods wins the inaugural professional golf FedEx Cup by an astonishing eight strokes in the final game of the play-off series in Atlanta.

      The Phoenix Mercury defeats the Detroit Shock 108–92 to win its first Women's National Basketball Association championship.

September 17

      The government of Iraq announces that it has banned the American private security contractor Blackwater USA (now Blackwater Worldwide) from operating in the country the day after an incident in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians.

      Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announce the creation of a program to help less-developed countries recover national assets stolen by corrupt leaders and hidden in foreign banks.

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush nominates Michael Mukasey to succeed Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.

      The dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade is presented with the 2007 Capezio Dance Award in a ceremony in New York City.

September 18

      In response to the government's failure to make progress on the goal of abolishing the monarchy, Maoist members of Nepal's interim cabinet withdraw from the body.

      The U.S. Federal Reserve cuts its key interest rate by a half point, lowering it to 4.75%; this is a deeper cut than had been expected and is the first rate reduction in four years.

      The giant retailer Wal-Mart announces plans to greatly improve the employee health care plan, mollifying many who had been critical of the company's parsimonious benefits.

September 19

      Israel declares the Gaza Strip a “hostile entity.”

      The NBC Universal Television Group announces that, beginning in November, it plans to make some of its popular TV programs available for free downloads to personal computers for one week after they are broadcast.

September 20

      The UN International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea rules that the maritime boundary between Guyana and Suriname should be equidistant from the two countries, giving Guyana the lion's share of the coastal waters, including an area where oil and gas exploration had been halted pending the tribunal's decision.

      Borse Dubai, the Dubai stock market, acquires a 20% stake in Nasdaq and becomes the largest shareholder in the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with a 28% stake; by the next day, the rival Qatar Investment Authority, though outmaneuvered by Dubai, has acquired 23.8% of the LSE.

      The journal Nature publishes a report on the finding at the Dmanisi, Georgia, site of four skeletons that seem to show features of both Homo erectus and H. habilis and are expected to shed light on the transition from Australopithecus to Homo and on the hominin migration out of Africa.

      Buddhist monks pray at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest shrine in the country, and hundreds of them march through the streets of Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma), for the third day in a row in protest against the country's military government.

 Some 10,000 protesters march in Jena, La., to protest unduly harsh measures taken against six black local high-school students in a racial incident that took place in 2006.

      Floyd Landis is stripped of his title as winner of the 2006 Tour de France cycling race, and the Union Cycliste Internationale declares Oscar Pereiro, the second-place finisher, the official winner.

      In Paris the Japan Art Association announces the winners of the Praemium Imperiale awards: Daniel Buren of France (in painting), Tony Cragg of Britain (in sculpture), Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerland (in architecture), Daniel Barenboim (in music), and Ellen Stewart, founder of the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York City (in theatre/film).

September 21

      The stage-two trials of a vaccine against HIV that had been seen as promising are halted after it has become clear that the vaccination program is ineffective.

      Chile's Supreme Court agrees to the extradition of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori to Peru, where he is wanted on charges of human rights abuses and corruption.

September 22

      A delegation from Syria is received by a high-ranking government official in Pyongyang, N.Kor.

September 23

      Yasuo Fukuda is elected to the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan; he is installed as prime minister of Japan on September 26.

      The protests in Myanmar (Burma) grow as some 10,000 monks are joined by thousands of citizens marching side by side with them in Yangon (Rangoon) and some 10,000 people, including 4,000 monks, are reported to be marching in Mandalay.

      The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta declares an end to its four-month cease-fire in Nigeria, saying that it will resume attacks on oil installations.

September 24

      A one-day meeting on climate change takes place ahead of the meeting of the UN General Assembly; some 150 countries take part.

      Teachers at more than 60% of the schools in Bulgaria go on strike, demanding that their salaries be doubled.

      After having failed to reach a labour agreement, 73,000 members of the United Auto Workers union go on strike against General Motors; it is the first strike against the manufacturer since 1970.

      In Johannesburg, India defeats Pakistan by five runs to win the inaugural World Twenty20 cricket tournament.

September 25

      At the opening of the 62nd meeting of the UN General Assembly, Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserts that his country would disregard any UN resolutions regarding its nuclear program but would work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Brazilian Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addresses the Assembly with a vigorous promotion of ethanol and biofuels as a solution for global warming.

      A boycott by Hezbollah legislators prevents the Lebanese National Assembly from reaching a quorum, forcing it to postpone its selection of a new president.

      Halo 3, the much-anticipated third game in the popular Microsoft video-game series, goes on sale in much of the world.

September 26

      The management of the carmaker General Motors and the United Auto Workers union reach a tentative agreement on a contract that will shift the costs of health care for retirees to the union, ending a two-day strike.

      The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture opens as an interactive Web site; the physical museum is expected to open in eight years.

September 27

      The military government of Myanmar (Burma) concludes two days of brutal suppression aimed at putting an end to antigovernment demonstrations; several people have been killed, among them a Japanese press photographer.

      Researchers in France report that they have decoded the genome of the pinot noir grape; it is the first time that a fruit has been genetically mapped.

September 28

      Pakistan's Supreme Court dismisses two cases that challenge the constitutionality of Pres. Pervez Musharraf's candidacy for reelection as president while he is still head of the armed forces.

      Dominique Strauss-Kahn of France is named managing director of the IMF; he replaces Rodrigo de Rato of Spain.

September 29

      A rebel group invades a camp of African Union peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region of The Sudan, killing 10 of the peacekeepers; it is believed that the rebels may have kidnapped others and stolen weapons.

      A bomb goes off at the main gate of the central park in Male, the capital of Maldives; 12 foreign tourists are injured.

      In the Australian Football League Grand Final in Melbourne, the Geelong Cats defeat the Port Adelaide Power 24.19 (163) to 6.8 (44), a record-breaking margin of victory in the event.

September 30

      In legislative elections in Ukraine, the ruling Party of Regions wins 34.4% of the vote, and the Bloc of Yuliya Tymoshenko wins 30.7%.

      Elections take place in Ecuador for members of an assembly to write a new constitution.

      Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia wins the Berlin Marathon with a time of 2 hr 4 min 26 sec, a new world record for marathons, while his countrywoman Gete Wami is the fastest woman, with a time of 2 hr 23 min 17 sec.

October

"The house went up like a Roman candle.…If we weren't here the whole neighborhood would go up."

— San Diego resident Tom Sollie, who ignored evacuation orders to help in attempts to save neighbourhood houses from California wildfires, October 22

October 1

      Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin resigns as head of the Council for National Security, the military council at the head of Thailand's government, and accepts the position of deputy prime minister.

      After a heavy-handed police response to a demonstration in Islamabad, Pak., by lawyers opposed to Pres. Pervez Musharraf's candidacy for reelection, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry orders the city's police chief and two other officials suspended; also, in the town of Bannu, a female suicide bomber kills 14 people.

      Syria closes its borders to refugees from Iraq and imposes stringent new visa rules on Iraqis already in Syria.

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at an all-time high of 14,087.55 points, while the Nasdaq composite index closes at 2740.99, its highest point since February 2001.

October 2

      South Korean Pres. Roh Moo Hyun steps across the border with North Korea for a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il; he is the first South Korean president to walk into North Korea.

      A suicide bomber in Kabul detonates his weapon on a bus carrying police officers and employees of the Ministry of the Interior, killing at least 12 people.

      The 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters are named; recipients include Candido Camero, Andrew Hill, Tom McIntosh, Joe Wilder, and Quincy Jones, while Gunther Schuller wins the award for jazz advocacy.

October 3

      It is announced in Beijing that North Korea has agreed to disable all its nuclear facilities in return for 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or other economic aid.

      A broken water pipe damages an elevator and traps some 3,200 miners in a gold mine in South Africa; by the following day all have been rescued, and the mine is closed for an investigation into the cause.

October 4

      Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf announces an amnesty for those charged with corruption in 1988–99, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, which he says is part of a larger package to ensure fair elections; he also promises that he will resign as chief of army staff on November 15.

 The 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, is observed with, among other things, the unveiling of a monument in Korolyov, Russia; the launch kicked off the space race and led to the formation of NASA in the U.S.

October 5

      A U.S. air strike on the Shiʿite town of Gizani al-Imam, Iraq, kills at least 25 Iraqis; the U.S. military describes the dead as insurgents, while residents of the town say they were civilians.

      One of the largest makers of frozen beef patties in the U.S., Topps Meat Co., announces that it is going out of business in the wake of the recall of more than 9.8 million kg (21.7 million lb) of frozen beef products because of possible E. coli contamination.

      American track star Marion Jones pleads guilty to having lied to federal agents when she denied having used performance-enhancing steroids; three days later she relinquishes the three gold and two bronze medals she won at the Olympic Games in 2000.

October 6

      The presidential election in Pakistan, held in the national and provincial legislative assemblies, takes place in spite of an opposition boycott and results in a landslide victory for Pres. Pervez Musharraf.

      In Iraq rival Shiʿite leaders Muqtada al-Sadr and ʿAbd al-Aziz al-Hakim forge a peace agreement.

October 7

      On the Turkish border with Iraq, 13 Turkish soldiers are killed by Kurdish rebel fighters.

      In Pakistan's North Waziristan region, Pakistani security forces attack militant bases, leaving at least 20 militants and 6 soldiers dead, while elsewhere in the region militants attack a military convoy, and 10 soldiers and 18 militants are killed in the ensuing battle.

      During an all-night arts festival in Paris, revelers break into the Musée d'Orsay, and one punches a hole into the 1874 painting The Argenteuil Bridge by Impressionist Claude Monet.

      The Chicago Marathon is run on a day of unseasonable and extremely high heat and humidity, causing hundreds to become ill and helping contribute to the death of one runner; the organizers cancel the run, but not before Patrick Ivuti of Kenya has won it by 0.05 sec with a time of 2 hr 11 min 11 sec and Berhane Adere of Ethiopia has crossed the finish line as the women's victor with a time of 2 hr 33 min 49 sec.

      At the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Seattle, attended by more than 700 players from 74 countries who competed in PC and Xbox 360 games, the American team, with three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal, wins the overall championship.

October 8

      The International Court of Justice awards four islands to Honduras as the result of a new maritime border between Honduras and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea drawn to the satisfaction of both countries; on October 4 the court had granted joint administration of the Gulf of Fonseca on the Atlantic to Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

      British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces his intention of withdrawing half of the British troops in Iraq by the spring of 2008, citing progress in the training of Iraqi security forces and improvements in the situation in Basra, where British forces are based.

      A consortium composed of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Banco Santander, and Fortis wins control of Dutch banking giant ABN AMRO Holding, defeating a competing bid from the British bank Barclays.

      The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Americans Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies and Briton Martin Evans for their development of gene-targeting technology, in which particular genes in mice are silenced in order to learn the function of the gene; the trio previously won a Lasker Award, in 2001.

October 9

      In Stockholm the Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to Albert Fert of France and Peter Grünberg of Germany for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance, which was instrumental in the development of modern computer hard drives.

October 10

      A Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Yury I. Malenchenko, Peggy A. Whitson, who will become the first woman commander of a crew in the International Space Station, and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, the first Malaysian astronaut; Shukor will return to Earth with two of the current ISS crew members, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, on October 21.

      The Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Gerhard Ertl of Germany for his work elucidating chemical reactions that occur when gas molecules meet with solid surfaces.

      The band Radiohead releases its first album since 2003, In Rainbows, on a Web site without a record label and for any price its customers want to pay.

October 11

      Members of The Sudan's national unity government from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement of southern Sudan suspend their participation, saying that leaders from the north have failed to live up to commitments they made in the 2005 peace treaty.

      A U.S. military attack aimed at al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia leaders northwest of Baghdad kills 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, while one suicide car bomber kills 9 people in Kirkuk and another kills 8 people at an Internet café in Baghdad.

      The Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to British writer Doris Lessing.

      The 10th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is presented to comic Billy Crystal in a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

October 12

      The state media in China report that concerns over environmental damage, including the danger of landslides, in the area around the Three Gorges Dam have led to plans to relocate as many as four million people.

      In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Kirill Formanchuk—a leader of a movement of motorists fighting the pervasive police practice of making traffic stops in order to collect bribes—is arrested and severely beaten when he attempts to register his car; the event ignites popular anger throughout the country.

      The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to American politician and environmentalist Al Gore and to the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

October 13

      King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is hospitalized and diagnosed with cerebral ischemia.

      Norway defeats the USA 1 team to win the Bermuda Bowl, the world championship in men's team contract bridge, at the 38th world team championships in Shanghai; in the women's Venice Cup competition, USA 1 beats Germany.

October 14

      For the first time, a group of Shiʿite tribal and political leaders travel to Al-Ramadi, Iraq, to meet with leaders of the Sunni tribal coalition that is fighting against al-Qaeda.

      In Palm Desert, Calif., Lorena Ochoa of Mexico outscores Mi Hyun Kim of South Korea to secure the title of Ladies Professional Golf Association Player of the Year.

October 15

      Ukrainian Pres. Viktor Yushchenko's political party, Our Ukraine, reaches a coalition agreement with the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, which would enable Tymoshenko to take office as prime minister.

      Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America announce a new plan developed with the help of the U.S. Department of the Treasury that is intended to calm markets and prevent a recession from resulting from the turmoil in the housing market.

      The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences goes to Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Roger B. Myerson, and Eric S. Maskin for their development of and work using mechanism design theory, which explains interactions between individuals, markets, and institutions.

October 16

      A summit meeting of the five countries that border the Caspian Sea—Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan—takes place in Tehran; they agree not to allow military strikes launched from any member country against any other member country.

      The U.S. reaches an agreement with Costa Rica in which $26 million of Costa Rica's debt will be retired and the same amount of money will be dedicated to the protection of Costa Rica's tropical forests.

      Libya, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, and Croatia are chosen to replace the Republic of the Congo, Qatar, Ghana, Peru, and Slovakia as nonpermanent members of the UN Security Council.

      The Man Booker Prize for Fiction goes to Irish writer Anne Enright for her novel The Gathering.

October 17

      The Turkish Grand National Assembly overwhelmingly agrees to authorize the ordering of troops to cross the border into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels.

      A 24-hour transit strike begins in France, stopping all public transportation in Paris and its suburbs as well as the vast majority of the country's 600 train lines; train drivers in Germany also begin measured walkouts.

      Despite strong objections from China, the Dalai Lama of Tibet is awarded a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, D.C.

      The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that in 2005 some 19,000 people in the U.S. died after infection with invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, a much higher rate of infection than had been expected; most transmission was associated with hospitals and nursing homes.

October 18

      Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan after eight years in exile, greeted by joyous crowds, but two bombs go off near the procession carrying her through Karachi, killing at least 140 people.

      The leaders of the European Union agree on a new document to serve as a constitution for the organization; the reform treaty must be ratified by all 27 members.

      The euro trades at $1.4294 as the U.S. dollar reaches a new record low.

      South African reggae star Lucky Dube is murdered in an attempted carjacking in Johannesburg.

October 19

      Residents of Bolivia's wealthy Santa Cruz province retake control of Viru Viru International Airport, the country's busiest airport, a day after federal troops seized the airport from workers who were said to be demanding that landing fees and other payments be made to local officials rather than to the national airport authority.

October 20

      South Africa defeats England 15–6 in Paris to win the rugby union World Cup.

      In the Caulfield Cup Thoroughbred horse race in Melbourne, a sudden panic overtakes contenders Maldivian and Eskimo Queen in the starting gates, and both have to be scratched because of injuries; the eventual winner is Master O'Reilly.

October 21

      In legislative elections in Switzerland, the largest number of seats (62) go to the nationalist Swiss People's Party, which claims the highest vote percentage (29%) ever won by a single party in the country since the introduction of proportional representation in 1919.

      The Law and Justice party of Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is decisively defeated in legislative elections in which the voter turnout, 54%, is the highest it has been since 1989; the pro-business Civic Platform wins the most seats.

      A referendum on proposed changes to the constitution takes place in Kyrgyzstan; the voters approve, and the following day Pres. Kurmanbek Bakiyev dissolves the legislature.

      At the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, Chinese Vice Pres. Zeng Qinghong and two other members of the Political Bureau Standing Committee retire from their positions.

      Voters in Turkey approve several changes to the constitution, including one that would make the presidential term five years instead of seven and another that would require the popular rather than legislative election of the president.

      Finnish driver Kimi Räikkönen wins the Brazilian Grand Prix and with it the Formula 1 automobile racing drivers' championship.

October 22

      The legislature of Montenegro formally adopts the country's new constitution, and it goes into effect.

      A pitched battle between insurgents and Afghan and NATO forces in Afghanistan's Wardak province results in the deaths of some 20 insurgents and several civilians.

      As massive wildfires driven by Santa Ana winds burn throughout southern California for a second day, some 250,000 residents of San Diego county are told to evacuate.

      Joaquim Chissano, who was president of Mozambique in 1986–2005, wins the first Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

October 23

      A U.S. military helicopter returns fire after being shot at near Tikrit, Iraq, killing at least 11 civilians.

      A protest in Caracas by thousands of people against constitutional changes proposed by Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez is thwarted by police.

      The space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to install a module of living space onto the International Space Station and to help the station crew relocate a solar array.

      The government of Somalia releases Idris Osman, the head of World Food Programme operations in Mogadishu, a week after he was seized in an attack on a UN compound.

October 24

      UN officials report that fighting between two militias and government troops who were trying to restore peace has in the past few days brought the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo into a chaotic and catastrophic state.

      China launches the satellite Chang'e-1, which is expected to orbit the Moon for a year, returning images; it is China's first lunar probe and follows one launched by Japan in September.

      Richard J. Griffin, the Department of State official who oversaw security for U.S. ambassadors and facilities in other countries and thus was responsible for hiring private security contractors in Iraq, resigns in the wake of revelations of misbehaviour by Blackwater USA security personnel.

October 25

      U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announce new sanctions specifically targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Quds Force.

      Near the town of Mingora in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, a truck carrying paramilitary troops sent because of a recent outbreak of extremist Islamism is blown up; 17 soldiers and 3 civilians are killed.

      Philippine Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pardons former president Joseph Estrada, who had been sentenced in September to 40 years in prison for financial chicanery.

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush visits southern California to view the devastation from wildfires, which have destroyed 1,800 homes and 202,000 ha (500,000 ac); at least seven deaths have resulted as well.

October 26

      The price of oil briefly passes $92 a barrel before closing at a new record high of $91.86.

      Officials in Jiangsu province, China, announce their intention to undertake the cleanup of Lake Tai, the third largest freshwater lake in the country, which has become so badly polluted that it became necessary at one point to shut off drinking water for the 2.3 million people whose water comes from the lake.

October 27

      As much-heralded peace talks for the Darfur region in The Sudan get under way in Sirte, Libya, in spite of the boycott by many rebel leaders, the Sudanese government negotiator declares a unilateral cease-fire.

      Some 40 Maoist rebels surround an association football (soccer) field during a festival in the Indian village of Giridih in Jharkhand state and open fire, killing 17 people.

      The Breeders' Cup Classic Thoroughbred horse race is won by Curlin in exceptionally sloppy conditions at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, N.J.

October 28

      Cristina Fernández de Kirchner handily wins election as president of Argentina.

 Thousands of peasants who have marched for the past 26 days from Gwalior, India, arrive in New Delhi seeking enforceable rights to their land (much of Indian farmland is in small plots, and increasing industrialization has displaced growing numbers of peasants from their land); the following day the government sets up a panel to address the problem.

      The Boston Red Sox defeat the Colorado Rockies 4–3 in Denver in the fourth game of the World Series to win the Major League Baseball championship in a sweep.

October 29

      Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak announces that the country will build several nuclear reactors, reinstating a program that was halted some 20 years earlier.

      Ali Muhammad Ghedi resigns as prime minister of Somalia's transitional national government.

      A suicide bomber on a bicycle detonates his weapon at a police training exercise in Baʿqubah, Iraq, killing at least 29 policemen.

      Authorities in Chad say that nine French workers with the aid organization Zoé's Ark will be charged with kidnapping and fraud after they were arrested in Abeche while trying to fly 103 children to Europe to be adopted.

October 30

      A major battle between Afghan and NATO forces and hundreds of Taliban fighters begins in the Arghandab district outside Kandahar, Afg.; Taliban forces had been ousted from the area in 2001, and this was their first reappearance.

      The departure of E. Stanley O'Neal as CEO of financial powerhouse Merrill Lynch is announced.

      The chimpanzee Washoe, famed as the first nonhuman to have acquired human language, dies at a research institution in Ellensburg, Wash., at about the age of 42; Washoe was said to have had a vocabulary of some 250 words, all in American Sign Language, though some scientists doubted that she had true language skills.

October 31

      Russia invites only 70 of the usual 400 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe election observers to monitor the legislative elections scheduled for December 2.

      Milton Zuanazzi resigns as head of Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency; the country's aviation industry has been in a state of constant crisis for several months.

November

"This was an extraordinary circumstance, ladies and gentlemen; it needed extraordinary measures to control. No half-hearted measures could have delivered."

— Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf in a speech explaining his emergency rule, as he promises to lift it, November 29

November 1

      Some 30 guerrillas attack a police station in Ocobamba, Peru, killing the police chief.

      UN officials report that most of the 103 children that French aid organization Zoé's Ark was attempting to fly to Europe to be adopted were not orphans from The Sudan's war-torn Darfur region as Zoé's Ark had said but rather children from Chad who were living with their families.

      In Nagoya, Japan, Chunichi Dragons pitcher Daisuke Yamai throws eight perfect innings in his team's 1–0 defeat of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in game five of the best-of-seven Japan Series; it is the first baseball championship since 1954 for the Dragons.

November 2

      Venezuela's National Assembly approves 69 amendments to the constitution, some of which would greatly increase the power of the president; the amendments must be approved in a national referendum as well.

      Tens of thousands of people rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, in opposition to some of the policies of Pres. Mikheil Saakashvili.

      S.P. Tamilselvan, the political leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, is killed in an attack by Sri Lankan troops near Kilinochchi.

November 3

      Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf declares a state of emergency, suspending the constitution and in effect imposing martial law; he fires Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the rest of the Supreme Court.

 Astronaut Scott Parazynski undertakes a risky space walk quite a distance from the International Space Station to repair a tear in a solar array that helps power the station.

November 4

      Álvaro Colom wins a runoff presidential election in Guatemala; he pledged to fight poverty in his campaign.

      The face of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen is revealed for the first time since his death in 1323 BC as linen windings are removed from his mummified remains, which will be preserved in a climate-controlled case at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

      Martin Lel of Kenya wins the New York City Marathon with a time of 2 hr 9 min 4 sec, while Britain's Paula Radcliffe is the fastest woman, with a time of 2 hr 23 min 9 sec.

November 5

      In a meeting in the White House with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush promises American cooperation in intelligence in Turkey's fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

      The Writers Guild of America, West, and the Writers Guild of America, East, go on strike against the movie and television industries, demanding a greater share of revenue from TV shows and movies distributed by DVD and online.

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Americans Gary S. Becker, Francis S. Collins, Benjamin L. Hooks, Henry J. Hyde, Brian Lamb, and Harper Lee and to Oscar Elías Biscet of Cuba and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

      Robert K. Cheruiyot of Kenya and Gete Wami of Ethiopia are honoured in New York City as the inaugural winners of the World Marathon Majors championship.

November 6

      A suicide bomber attacks a delegation of legislators attending the opening of a sugar factory in Baghlan, Afg.; at least 72 people, including 6 legislators and 59 schoolchildren, are killed.

      The Liberal Democratic Party in Uzbekistan chooses Pres. Islam Karimov as its candidate in the presidential election scheduled for December 23, although he is constitutionally barred from running for a third term.

      Belgium passes its 149th day without a government following elections on June 10, breaking a record set in 1988; tension between leaders of the Flemish and the Walloon communities has caused the deadlock.

      Queen Elizabeth II of the U.K. cuts the ribbon at the unveiling of the magnificently restored St. Pancras train station in London; beginning on November 14 the station will serve as the London terminus of the Eurostar, a high-speed train that connects London to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel.

November 7

      After a day of violence between demonstrators and riot police in Tbilisi, Georgia, Pres. Mikheil Saakashvili declares a state of emergency.

      Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu meets with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Italy in an attempt to calm anger after the arrest of a Romanian immigrant in Italy for the murder of an Italian woman a week earlier ignited anti-Romanian feelings.

      The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission orders the recall of the Chinese-made toy Aqua Dots (called Bindeez in Europe and Australia); the toy consists of plastic beads that when wetted with water stick together to form toys but when ingested release a poisonous chemical related to GHB.

      The South Korean container ship Cosco Busan hits a stanchion of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, causing an ecological disaster as it spills 220,000 litres (58,000 gal) of bunker oil in San Francisco Bay.

November 8

      Pres. Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia unexpectedly calls for a presidential election and a referendum on the timing of legislative elections, both to be held on Jan. 5, 2008.

      The government of Brazil declares that huge new reserves of recoverable light oil have been found in the offshore Tupi oil field; the national oil company, Petrobras, believes that the field contains five billion to eight billion barrels of oil.

      Fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian supporters of Somalia's transitional government breaks out in Mogadishu; at least 21 people are killed, and the bodies of Ethiopian soldiers are dragged through the streets.

      At the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Dominican singer and songwriter Juan Luis Guerra wins five awards, including album of the year for La llave de mi corazón and song of the year and record of the year for the album's title cut.

November 9

      The World Food Programme reports that about half of the children living in Laos are chronically malnourished and that government policies are partially to blame.

November 10

      Stagehands in New York City go on strike, and 27 Broadway shows go dark.

      Police brutally break up a large demonstration in Kuala Lumpur, Malay.; the protesters were calling for electoral reforms.

November 11

      Left-leaning independent candidate Danilo Turk decisively defeats conservative Lojze Peterle in a runoff presidential election in Slovenia.

      A storm in the Black Sea causes at least 11 ships to sink, with some loss of life, and one tanker breaks apart in the Kerch Strait, spilling at least 1,000 tons of fuel oil and thus creating an environmental catastrophe.

      The drama series Quarterlife, produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, makes its debut on MySpace TV; it is the first television-style series to debut on the Internet.

November 12

      In South Korea the spokesmen for the former in-house lawyer for embattled electronics giant Samsung say that recipients of Samsung bribes included newly appointed Prosecutor General Lim Chae Jin and top corruption investigators Lee Jong Baek and Lee Gui Nam.

November 13

      The governing bloc narrowly wins a majority of seats in legislative elections in Denmark, allowing Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to retain his position.

      German Vice-Chancellor Franz Müntefering unexpectedly resigns; Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is chosen to replace him.

      An explosion in the south wing of the Philippines House of Representatives building kills three people, one of them Rep. Wahab Akbar of Basilan.

      Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia holds a prayer vigil with state and church leaders in an attempt to find a solution to the persistent and devastating drought the state is suffering.

      The 2007 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is awarded to performance artist Laurie Anderson.

November 14

      A bomb goes off near the presidential palace in Dushanbe, Tajik.

      John A. Thain, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, is named chairman and CEO of the financial company Merrill Lynch.

      The U.S. National Medal of Arts is awarded to Morten Lauridsen, N. Scott Momaday, Roy R. Neuberger, Craig Noel, Les Paul, Henry Steinway, George Tooker, and Andrew Wyeth.

November 15

      Cyclone Sidr makes landfall on the southwestern coast of Bangladesh, devastating a large area and leaving at least 3,500 people dead.

      A Philippine government official reports that an agreement has been reached with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on the creation of a homeland for Muslims on the southern island of Mindanao.

      Major League Baseball player Barry Bonds, holder of the record for most career home runs, is indicted in San Francisco for perjury and obstruction of justice in an inquiry into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

November 16

      The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe says its election monitors will not observe the Russian legislative election scheduled for December 2 because limits that Russia placed on the monitors will make it impossible to do its job well.

      Georgian Pres. Mikheil Saakashvili lifts the state of emergency and appoints Lado Gurgenidze to replace Zurab Nogaideli as prime minister.

      Donald Tusk is sworn in as prime minister of Poland.

      The Pakistani government releases former prime minister Benazir Bhutto from the house arrest it had placed her under on November 12, and Pres. Pervez Musharraf swears in a caretaker government in advance of January elections.

November 17

      The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases its final report of 2007, synthesizing the information in the previous three reports; it indicates that urgent action is needed to avert global climate disaster, which is likely to occur sooner than was once thought.

      At the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., the College Basketball Experience, which includes the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, celebrates its grand opening; the next day the Hall of Fame holds its first induction ceremony.

November 18

      The U.S. military in Iraq releases figures showing that the weekly number of attacks in the country has fallen to its lowest level since January 2006.

      A new pipeline that will carry natural gas originating in Azerbaijan to Greece from Turkey, bypassing Russia, is ceremonially inaugurated by the prime ministers of Greece and Turkey.

      After the final NASCAR race of the season, Jimmie Johnson is crowned winner of the Nextel Cup championship for the second year in a row.

      The Houston Dynamo wins the Major League Soccer title with a 2–1 victory over the New England Revolution in the MLS Cup in Washington, D.C.

November 19

      In Pakistan, Pres. Pervez Musharraf's now-handpicked Supreme Court dismisses the primary challenges to his reelection; the previous Supreme Court had been expected to rule in favour of the challenges.

      Jeff Bezos, head of the Internet bookseller Amazon, introduces a promising electronic-book-reading device, Kindle, which can store up to 200 books and makes it possible to quickly download books without the use of a computer.

November 20

      Online reports are published from two independent science teams, one in the U.S. and one in Japan, both of which have developed a technique to reprogram human skin cells to make them behave like embryonic stem cells.

      French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy asks transit workers to end their strike, and civil servants in France go out on an unrelated strike.

      The British government reveals that in October unencrypted computer disks containing detailed personal and financial information on 25 million people, 40% of the country's population, were lost; a government tax agency sent the disks unregistered to the National Audit Office, but they never arrived.

      An agreement is reached in a dispute in which the United States Bridge Federation had attempted to punish members of its team, which—after winning the Venice Cup in women's contract bridge—held up a political sign at an awards dinner, igniting a firestorm of controversy; in the end the team has agreed to keep politics out of awards ceremonies.

November 21

      Israel allows the export of some agricultural goods from Gaza for the first time since the Hamas takeover in June; it also allows the transfer of 25 armoured personnel carriers from Russia to the Palestinian Authority.

      The warship Shenzhen sails from China for the first port visit by the Chinese navy to Japan since World War II; the destroyer is to take part in military ceremonies with the Japanese navy.

November 22

      Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the transitional president of Somalia, nominates Nur Hassan Hussein to serve as prime minister in the transitional government.

      After close to three months of negotiations, Pres. Álvaro Uribe of Colombia withdraws his support for the involvement of Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez in negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) intended to lead to the release of dozens of hostages that FARC has held for several years.

      Because of an ongoing dispute over rules and eligibility, the organizers of the America's Cup yacht race announce that the next regatta, scheduled for 2009, will be postponed.

November 23

      As the presidency of Émile Lahoud ends and power passes to a caretaker government headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese legislature postpones for a further week the vote on the next president.

      A bomb lays waste to the Ghazil pet bazaar in Baghdad, killing some 13 people.

 The cruise ship Explorer strikes an iceberg while traveling 96 km (60 mi) north of the Antarctic Peninsula and sinks; all 154 aboard are rescued, but the ship poses an ecological threat.

November 24

      In parliamentary elections in Australia, the ruling Liberal Party of Prime Minister John Howard loses to the Labor Party, whose leader, Kevin Rudd, becomes prime minister.

      Two suicide car bombings take place in Rawalpindi, Pak.; one of them involves a bus carrying intelligence personnel, 15 of whom die in the attack.

November 25

      Kurdish demonstrators protesting attempts by state prosecutors to shut down the Democratic Society Party, which supports Kurdish autonomy, begin rioting when police try to stop them from marching in Diyarbakir, Tur.

      The Saskatchewan Roughriders capture the 95th Canadian Football League Grey Cup, defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23–19.

November 26

      Iraq and the U.S. sign an agreement to negotiate a formal document that will define long-term relations between the two countries, including the legal status of U.S. troops in Iraq.

      Youths and riot police engage in a second night of battles in Villiers-le-Bel, France, a suburb of Paris; the violence began after two teenagers on a motorbike were killed in a collision with a police car.

      Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher at a private school in The Sudan, is arrested and charged with having insulted Islam after it is learned that she permitted her students to give the name Muhammad to a teddy bear that was used in a school project.

November 27

      At a peace conference in Annapolis, Md., Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas agree to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008; the U.S. is to play a central role in negotiations.

      Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia warns that he may invoke a law permitting lengthy detention without trial if necessary in order to stop huge street protests that have been taking place in recent weeks.

November 28

      Almazbek Atambayev resigns as prime minister of Kyrgyzstan.

      An agreement is reached in Lebanon's legislature to amend the constitution so that Gen. Michel Suleiman, head of the country's military, would be eligible for the presidency.

      UN-sponsored negotiations in Austria between representatives of the government of Serbia and of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo over the future status of the enclave end without agreement.

      A settlement to the stagehand strike that has kept Broadway shows closed for 19 days is announced in New York City.

November 29

      Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf, who resigned his post as army chief the day before, is sworn in to a second term of office and shortly thereafter makes a speech in which he promises to end emergency rule on December 16; several decrees restricting liberty will remain in effect, however.

      Some 30 Philippine army officers and soldiers on trial for having staged coup attempts leave the courthouse and take over the Peninsula Manila Hotel, demanding that Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo be removed; after seven hours security forces storm and retake the hotel.

November 30

      Pres. Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua promulgates a decree establishing a new national cabinet consisting of 272 representatives and headed by Ortega; he also launches Citizen Power Councils, outraging many in the country.

      Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin suspends the country's participation in the NATO Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty.

      Transportation workers in Italy go on strike, halting trains, buses, ferries, cable cars, and some airline flights.

December

"This is the saddest day in the history of democracy in this country. It is a coup d'état."

— Koki Muli, cochairwoman of the Kenya Election Domestic Observation Forum, as Pres. Mwai Kibaki begins a second term as president of Kenya, December 30

December 1

      The Iraqi Accord Front, the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq's legislature, walks out to protest the detention of its leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi; in addition, al-Qaeda gunmen attack the village of Dwelah in Diyala province, killing 13 people.

December 2

      Voters go to the polls in Venezuela in a referendum on whether to accept 69 amendments to the constitution, some of which would increase the power of the president; in a major setback to Pres. Hugo Chávez, the amendments are defeated.

      Sergio Gómez, founder and lead singer of the popular Mexican grupero band K-Paz de la Sierra, is kidnapped, tortured, and killed after a concert in Michoacán state; he is perhaps the most prominent of some 13 grupero musicians murdered in the past year and a half, apparent victims of violence between drug gangs.

      A third-place finish in the Wales Rally GB secures a fourth successive world rally championship automobile-racing drivers' title for Sébastien Loeb of France.

      The Romanian film 4 luni, 3 saptamani, si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days) takes top honours at the European Film Awards in Berlin.

      The annual Kennedy Center Honors are presented in Washington, D.C., to film director Martin Scorsese, comedian Steve Martin, and musicians Leon Fleisher, Brian Wilson, and Diana Ross.

December 3

      A new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate is released that says that it is now believed that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and has not restarted it, though the country is producing enough highly enriched uranium to be able to make a bomb in the next few years; this represents a dramatic reversal of a previous NIE assessment in 2005.

      Kevin Rudd is sworn in as prime minister of Australia; his first official act is to sign documents ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

 Britain's Turner Prize is presented in Liverpool, Eng., to installation artist Mark Wallinger by actor and director Dennis Hopper; the artist's best-known works include State Britain, a meticulous re-creation of the one-man antiwar protest in London's Parliament Square that Brian Haw began in 2001, and his exhibition entry, Sleeper, a film in which Wallinger, dressed as a bear, wanders around a closed art gallery.

December 4

      Prime Minister Nikola Spiric of Bosnia and Herzegovina signs an accord with the enlargement commissioner of the European Union in the first step toward the country's joining the EU.

      Renan Calheiros resigns as president of Brazil's Federal Senate; he has been implicated in a corruption scandal.

      Tens of thousands of gold, platinum, and coal miners go on a one-day strike in South Africa to protest unsafe working conditions.

December 5

      After weeks of protests against its suspension of anticorruption investigator Aleksejs Loskutovs, Latvia's government resigns.

      A man armed with a gun opens fire at a shopping mall in Omaha, Neb., and kills eight people before turning the gun on himself.

      A roadside bomb kills 16 people on a passenger bus heading north from Kebitigollewa, Sri L.; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are believed responsible.

      The Guennol Lioness, an 8.26-cm (3.25-in) 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian limestone sculpture, is sold at auction in New York City for $57.1 million, a record price for any sculpture.

December 6

      In Washington, D.C., Director of Central Intelligence Michael V. Hayden informs employees that in 2005 the CIA destroyed videotapes of the interrogations of two al-Qaeda operatives; the revelation creates a furor.

      A package bomb delivered to a law office in downtown Paris kills the legal secretary who opens it and seriously injures a lawyer.

December 7

      NATO forces begin an offensive to retake Musa Qala, Afg., which fell under the control of Taliban insurgents in February; they succeed in forcing the Taliban to abandon the town on December 10.

      Off the west coast of South Korea, a barge carrying a construction crane comes loose from its tugboat in heavy seas and hits the anchored oil tanker Hebei Spirit, punching three holes in the tanker's hull and causing a massive and disastrous oil spill; later, the captains of the tug and the barge are arrested.

      The Right Livelihood Awards are presented in Stockholm to Sri Lankan legal scholar Christopher Weeramantry, to Dekha Ibrahim Abdi of Kenya for her work in conflict resolution, to Percy and Louise Schmeiser of Canada for their work defending agricultural biodiversity, and to the Bangladeshi solar-energy company Grameen Shakti.

December 8

      The conservative diocese of San Joaquin in California votes to secede from the Episcopal Church, USA; it is the first diocese to make the move.

      In Baiji, Iraq, a suicide truck bomber kills 11 people at a police station.

      University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow wins the Heisman Trophy for best college football player; he is the first sophomore to win the award.

December 9

      The Banco del Sur, a Latin American regional-development bank intended as an alternative to the World Bank, is inaugurated in a ceremony in Buenos Aires attended by the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela.

      Rajko Kuzmanovic is elected president of the Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a special election to replace Milan Jelic, who died in October.

      The opposition parties led by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif announce that in spite of misgivings they will participate in legislative elections in Pakistan scheduled for Jan. 8, 2008.

      Is He Dead?, a play written in 1898 by Mark Twain, receives its world premiere at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City in an adaptation by David Ives.

December 10

      Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin endorses Dmitry Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister and the chairman of the oil monopoly Gazprom, to succeed him as president.

      Thousands of people take to the streets of Pristina, the capital of the UN-administered Serbian enclave of Kosovo, as the deadline for an agreement on the enclave's future expires with no progress made.

      The New York Philharmonic announces that it has accepted an invitation to play a concert in Pyongyang, N.Kor., scheduled for Feb. 26, 2008; it will be the first major cultural visit from the U.S. to North Korea.

December 11

      A car bomb goes off in front of a government building in Algiers, engulfing a bus carrying students to a university campus, and another car bomb explodes shortly thereafter at a United Nations building, destroying it; a minimum of 37 people are killed, at least 17 of them UN staff members.

      The United States Sentencing Commission votes unanimously to reduce the punishment for some crimes involving crack cocaine, which have been punished far more harshly than those related to powder cocaine, and to make the change retroactive; the change will go into effect on March 3, 2008, and may affect some 19,500 prison inmates.

      Vikram Pandit is named CEO of financial services company Citigroup Inc., replacing Charles O. Prince, who resigned on November 4; Winfried Bischoff is named chairman.

December 12

      In the Beirut suburb of Baabda, a car bomb kills Brig. Gen. François al-Hajj, who was considered a strong candidate for the position of Lebanon's army chief.

      A nationwide strike against proposed changes to the social security system brings Greece to a halt.

      UNESCO reports that Cyclone Sidr, which killed some 3,500 people in Bangladesh in November, also devastated the Sundarbans, a large mangrove forest on the Ganges delta that is a World Heritage site and a tiger preserve.

December 13

      The right-wing Swiss People's Party pulls out of Switzerland's governing coalition; the departure of Switzerland's largest party ends a power-sharing system that had held since 1959.

      Leaders of the member countries of the European Union sign the Lisbon Treaty, a new document delineating the governance of the organization; it includes a permanent president with a two-and-a-half-year term of office and provisions for decisions to be made by majority, rather than unanimous, vote; it must now be ratified by all 27 members.

      U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne signs an agreement between the federal government and the state governments of California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada on the allocation of water from the Colorado River in the event that climate change causes water shortages.

      The long-awaited report on steroid abuse in professional baseball is released by its author, former senator George J. Mitchell; the report names 89 Major League Baseball players as having used illegal performance-enhancing substances.

December 14

      The World Bank reports that it has raised a record $25.1 billion for its International Development Association; for the first time, the U.K. passed the U.S. to become the organization's biggest donor.

December 15

      Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf lifts the state of emergency and restores the constitution but with amendments and decrees that leave his hand-picked Supreme Court in place.

      At the emotional and raucous final session of global climate talks in Bali, Indon., that began on December 3, the member countries agree to negotiate a new climate treaty by 2009 that will lead to the halving of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.

      Steer roper Trevor Brazile of Texas wins his fifth all-around cowboy world championship at the 49th annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

December 16

      Legislative elections take place in Kyrgyzstan; the ruling Ak Zhol party wins the majority of seats, though both the conduct of the election and the vote count seem dubious.

      British forces formally relinquish control of Basra province to Iraq's government; it is the most important province to have been handed back to Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

      In a National Football League game against the St. Louis Rams, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre sets a new all-time record as a 44-yd touchdown pass followed by a 7-yd pass brings his career total to 61,405 passing yards; the previous record was Dan Marino's 61,361 yd.

December 17

      Guy Verhofstadt agrees to stay in office as prime minister of an interim government in Belgium pending the formation of a permanent government, which the country has lacked since elections in June; the interim government is formed on December 19.

      In the town of Kohat in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, 12 Pakistani soldiers leaving an association football (soccer) match are killed by a suicide bomber.

  Researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Science and Conservation International report that two new species, one a very large rat and the other a tiny opossum, have been discovered in the remote Foja area of Papua province in Indonesia.

      The diversified conglomerate Loews Corp. announces that it will divest itself of Lorillard Tobacco, maker of Kent, Newport, True, and Maverick cigarettes; Lorillard will become an independent company.

December 18

      In South Africa the African National Congress party votes to replace Pres. Thabo Mbeki as its leader, electing Zulu politician Jacob Zuma in his place.

      The legislature of Ukraine approves the nomination of Yuliya Tymoshenko as prime minister.

      The U.S. Congress passes legislation mandating higher fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks for the first time in 22 years, the production of renewable fuels, and higher efficiency requirements for household appliances and government buildings.

December 19

      A conservative politician, Lee Myung-bak, wins election as president of South Korea in a landslide; voters think he will be able to improve the country's economy.

      In a no-confidence vote in the legislature, Ludwig Scotty is removed as president of Nauru and replaced by Marcus Stephen.

December 20

      Ivars Godmanis takes office as prime minister of Latvia.

      Thieves steal a painting by Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), and a painting by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari, The Coffee Worker (1939), from the Museum of Art in São Paulo; police believe the theft was ordered by a wealthy art collector.

      The Campbell Soup Co. announces that it will sell Godiva Chocolatier to a Turkish company; Godiva will become part of Yildiz Holding's consumer-goods arm, the Ulker Group.

December 21

      A bomb goes off in a mosque during Friday prayers and the celebration of ʿId al-Adha in Sherpao in northwestern Pakistan; at least 48 people are killed.

      Japan agrees, after being pressed by the U.S. and Australia, to suspend its plans to kill 50 humpback whales this season.

      The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union's Schengen zone, the members of which do not require passports for travel within the zone.

December 22

      China's new National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, designed by French architect Paul Andreu, holds its first public concert; the building, a glass dome over a shallow lake, is entered via a passageway under the lake.

      About 300,000 fans watch Argentine ballet star Julio Bocca give his farewell performance on an open-air stage in Buenos Aires.

December 23

      The People Power Party, which supports former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, takes the most seats in legislative elections in Thailand.

      Pres. Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan is overwhelmingly elected to a third term of office (one more than the constitution allows) in elections that fail to be recognized as free or fair.

      Two 1,500-year-old terra-cotta statues of the Hindu god Vishnu disappear from the cargo area of the international airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the statues had been en route to the Guimet Museum in Paris for an exhibition.

December 24

      Near Aleg, Mauritania, four French tourists picnicking on the side of a road are shot and killed, and a fifth is injured; law enforcement comes to believe that the attack was connected to al-Qaeda.

      Rap star Jay-Z announces that he will give up his position as president of the record label Def Jam Recordings.

December 25

      A suicide truck bomber rams his vehicle into a group of people waiting in line for cooking gas in Baiji, Iraq; at least 25 people are killed.

      At the San Francisco Zoo, a Siberian tiger escapes from its enclosure and attacks three people, killing one.

December 26

      The Serbian legislature overwhelmingly passes a resolution opposing independence for Kosovo and warning of international repercussions if the enclave should declare independence and other countries recognize it as independent.

December 27

      Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated after leaving a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pak., apparently shot by a gunman; moments later a suicide bomber detonates his weapon, killing at least 20 people in the crowd.

      A closely contested presidential election takes place in Kenya, pitting Pres. Mwai Kibaki against Raila Odinga; the turnout is unusually large.

      Pres. Omar Hassan al-Bashir of The Sudan swears in a new national unity government.

      Archaeologists report that an Aztec pyramid found in November in the Tlatelolco area of Mexico City may have been built as early as 1100, some 200 years before Aztec civilization in the area was thought to have begun.

December 28

      Nepal's legislature overwhelmingly votes to abolish the monarchy.

      Corruption charges are brought against newly elected African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma in South Africa.

      The election of the president in Lebanon's legislature is delayed for an 11th time, this time until Jan. 12, 2008.

      Wild Oats XI wins the 2007 Sydney–Hobart Yacht Race in Australia; it is the third consecutive win for the yacht.

December 29

      Government officials in China announce that the first election in which Hong Kong voters may directly elect their leader will not take place until at least 2017; previously it had been thought that the elections in 2012 might be held democratically.

      Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, says that the number of violent attacks in the country has fallen dramatically since June.

December 30

      In spite of clear evidence of fraud in the vote counts, Kenya's election commission declares that Mwai Kibaki has narrowly won reelection as president of Kenya, and he is immediately sworn in; the country erupts in violence.

      The U.S. says that North Korea has failed to fulfill the commitment it made in a disarmament treaty to make a full accounting of its nuclear activities by the end of 2007.

December 31

      The first legislative elections in Bhutan's history take place as voters choose members of the National Council, the legislature's future upper house.

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