Portal:Current events/2005 July 26

July 26, 2005 (Tuesday)

Conflict in Iraq:
- At least 12 workers have been shot dead as they are driven away from the state owned factory they work at, in the Abu Ghraib area, by insurgents. (BBC)
- Insurgents have released a video showing the two Diplomatic staff from Algeria kidnapped from Baghdad last week. (BBC)
Over 200 people have been killed in intense rain storms in Maharashtra, India, described by the Chief Minister of the state as the heaviest recorded rainfall in a single day in India. One third of the state Capital, Mumbai, is said to be underwater causing more than a two hundred thousand people to be stranded in offices and roads for about 24 hours. (Rediff), (BBC)
Several protesters have been injured again in India on this second day of protests. (BBC)
The Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off at 1039 EST this morning on mission STS-114. The NASA commentator says during launch "Lift-off, lift-off, and return to America's journey to the Moon, Mars, and beyond". (BBC).
Lebanese Christian militia leader, Samir Geagea, has been released from prison after 11 years. (BBC)
South Korean ambassador to the US, Hong Seok-Hyun, resigns for alleged involvement with slush fund scandal of illegal donations during a presidential campaign in 1997 (Chosun Ilbo) (Channel News Asia)
Burma/Myanmar forgoes 2006 chairmanship of ASEAN (Channel News Asia)
At least 1,000 protesters have staged a demonstration outside the main US base of Bagram in Afghanistan. (BBC)
In the Netherlands, Mohammed Bouyeri receives life sentence for murder of Theo van Gogh (Expatica) (IHT) (Al-Jazeera)
In Canada, geneticists in the University of Alberta are testing hairs that allegedly belong to sasquatch (CBC) (Reuters)
In Israel, there are reports that Jewish ultranationalists have cast a Pulsa diNura death curse over Ariel Sharon (Ynet) (Reuters Alertnet)
Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz calls for search of new suspected secret foreign accounts of Augusto Pinochet (International Justice Tribune) (Reuters)
In Mexico, court rules that there is insufficient evidence to try former president Luis Echeverría for genocide for a student massacre in 1971 (Reuters AlertNet)
In Israel, Omri Sharon, MP and son of Ariel Sharon, is indicted for involvement in illegal campaign contributions, perjury and forging documents. Omri Sharon states that he would give up his parliamentary immunity and stand trial (Jerusalem Post) (Haaretz) (Arutz Sheva) (Reuters)
In Somalia, transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf arrives in the town of Jowhar, intending to make it a base for his new government (BBC)
In Nepal, king's court sentences Sher Bahadur Deuba and three others to two years in jail for alleged embezzling. Deuba denounces the sentence as "character assassination". (Kantipur Online) (rising Nepal) (Reuters AlertNet)