Portal:Current events/2006 July 18

July 18, 2006 (Tuesday)

The government of Angola and the Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda sign a peace agreement ending the Independence War in Cabinda. AngolaPress
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
- Western governments evacuate their citizens from Lebanon any way they can. (CNN)
- Israel intercepts a rocket shipment from Syria to Hezbollah. (Ynet)
- Israel closes Haifa's port after Hezbollah rockets rain on the port-city, wounding two people.
- The Nikkei 225 stock market index falls by 2.8 percent due to uncertainty in the Middle East. (Bloomberg)
- Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert vows to keep fighting until the captured soldiers are released and Israeli citizens are safe. (ABC News America)
The death toll from the July 2006 Java earthquake and the tsunami rises to 339. As scores of people are missing, the death toll is expected to keep rising. BBC
A car bomb kills at least 15 labourers and wounds dozens in the southern Iraqi town of Kufa. (BBC)
A doctor and two nurses from Memorial Medical Center in the U.S. city of New Orleans are charged with murder in connection with the possible mercy killings of 34 patients in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (CNN.com)
The United States House of Representatives fails to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage with a 236-187 vote; 47 short of the necessary two-thirds support needed to pass an amendment. (Washington Post) Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
Tropical Storm Beryl forms off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina, 180 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras. It is the second tropical storm to form in the North Atlantic in the 2006 hurricane season. (NBC Wilmington)
The Princess Cruises ship Crown Princess lists heavily, injuring several passengers. It immediately returns to Port Canaveral. (News.com.au)(FoxNews.com)
Turkey calls for Iraq and the United States to crack down on Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq, and issued a veiled threat to attack the rebel bases if there was no progress. Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group releases a report entitled “Iraq and the Kurds: The Brewing Battle over Kirkuk” which examines the dangerously neglected looming conflict in and around the northern Iraqi city. Reuters Alertnet LA Times ICG report
On the first day of the 90th International Four Days Marches Nijmegen, two participants die of heart failure due to exhaustion caused by the exceptionally warm weather in the Netherlands. Because even higher temperatures are predicted for the second day, the organization decides to cancel the remainder of the event. (expatica.com)