Portal:Current events/2007 August 20

August 20, 2007 (Monday)

Delegates from the Russian Communist Youth Union vote 98-1 to back the pro-Kremlin, center-left party A Just Russia in December's State Duma elections. (The Moscow Times)
NASA clears the Space Shuttle Endeavour for an early landing tomorrow at Cape Canaveral. (Reuters)
The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to extend the African Union Mission to Somalia. (BBC)
At least 20 people have died as a result of flooding in the United States with further flooding likely in Minnesota and Wisconsin. (New York Times)
A military judge dismisses two charges against Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, a United States Army officer in charge of the interrogation centre at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Jordan still faces several more charges including cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, disobeying a superior officer and failure to obey orders. (Reuters via News Limited)
The thirteenth and final victim is recovered from the site of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge Collapse. (AP via CNN)
An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude hits south of the Philippines. (The Gulf Times)
The Grand National Assembly starts voting to select a new President of Turkey. The frontrunner Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül fails to achieve a necessary two-thirds majority in the first round with 341 out of 550 but is highly likely to be elected in later rounds when a simple majority of 50 per cent is required. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick agrees to a plea deal to charges of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and conspiracy to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture in Richmond, Virginia, United States. (ESPN.com)
British police have released CCTV footage of a motorcyclist shortly before his murder on the M40 motorway near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. (Sky)
Muslim groups occupy Sikh Bhai Taro Singh Jee temple in Lahore, Pakistan
An official of Murray Energy Corp, the operators of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, say that six trapped miners "may never be found". (Wikinews)
An earthquake of 5.2 magnitude hits northern Tanzania 85 kilometres north of Arusha. (Reuters)
Mohammed Ali al-Hasani, the Shia governor of Iraq's southern Al Muthanna Governorate is killed by a roadside bomb at Samawa. (BBC)
The Tasmanian Labor Party expels Harry Quick, the Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Franklin. (ABC News Australia)
Hurricane Dean:
- The eye of Hurricane Dean rapidly moves westward, passing just south of Jamaica, bringing strong hurricane-force winds and storm surges to bear down on the island nation, though the strongest wind is believed to have been offshore. (CNN)
- Mexico evacuates tourists from the Yucatán Peninsula and anthropologists prepare Mayan heritage sites for the possible impact. (AP via Washington Post)
- Hurricane Dean strengthens to Category 5 status as it already claims the lives of 11 people on Caribbean islands. (Reuters)
- Petróleos Mexicanos evacuates 18,000 offshore workers from sites in the southern Gulf of Mexico. (AP via the Houston Chronicle)
A summit between US president George W. Bush, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, and about 30 CEOs from the three countries begins in the resort town of Montebello, Quebec, near Ottawa. The talks will deal with the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Protesters representing a variety of issues hold demonstrations regarding the exclusion of civil society from the talks and the secrecy of the process; police respond with tear gas. (CBC News)
A China Airlines Boeing 737 airplane explodes less than a minute after all passengers and crew are evacuated shortly after landing at Naha, Japan. (Wikinews)