Portal:Current events/2007 August 13

August 13, 2007 (2007-08-13) (Monday)

• Two Belgian tourists who went missing last week in Iran appear to have been kidnapped by a bandit who is demanding that his brother be freed from prison. (AFP via AfricaAsia)
• A scandal erupts in Argentina when a Venezuelan businessman is caught trying to smuggle $800,000 into the country on a plane belonging to Enarsa, Argentina's government-owned energy company. (New York Times)
• Archaeologists using radar imagery reveal that Angkor, the former capital of the Khmer Empire, was the largest preindustrial urban centre of its time covering a 3,000 square kilometre area and with a population of up to half a million. (AFP via Independent Online South Africa)
• Werner Velasquez, mayor of the town of Santa Ana Huista in Guatemala, is shot dead in a political attack before the election on September 9. More than 40 Guatemalans have died in pre-election violence. (Reuters Alertnet)
• Chile withdraws its ambassador from Peru for consultations after Peru publishes a map of maritime territory claimed by both countries. (Reuters via CNN)
• The Taliban releases two of the 23 South Korean hostages kidnapped three weeks ago. (BBC) (CNN)
• 2007 Pacific hurricane season: A state of emergency is declared on the island of Hawaii as Category 3 Hurricane Flossie approaches. (Reuters)
• A 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes the island of Hawaii about 25 miles south of Hilo, Hawaii. (AP via USA Today)
• Iraq War: United States troops in Iraq launch an offensive against Al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants and alleged Iranian linked Shiite militants. (Gulf Daily News)
• Five members of a single family die when they fall from a ferris wheel car at an amusement park outside of Busan, South Korea. (Guardian Unlimited)
• A Russian luxury train going from Moscow to Saint Petersburg derails near Malaya Vishera. (BBC)
• Pakistan releases 134 Indian prisoners detained in its jail on its Independence Day eve.
• Salvage crews prepare to try to refloat a cargo ship that collided with an oil tanker off Europa Point, the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, and ended up partially submerged. (International Herald Tribune)
• Philip Ruddock, the Attorney-General of Australia, appoints Federal Court judge Susan Kiefel to the High Court of Australia. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Eric Laroche, the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Somalia raises concerns about recent killings of eminent Somali journalists. (BBC)
• Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and George W. Bush's leading political adviser, tells the Wall Street Journal that he intends to resign at the end of August. (BBC)
• Solidarity, a South African trade union, calls a strike in coal mines. (Reuters South Africa)
• Zhang Shuhong, the head of a Chinese toy company at the centre of a worldwide toy recall commits suicide. (News Limited) (AP via the Melbourne Age)
• Nineteen people are killed and seven seriously injured in a bus crash on the North-South Expressway in Malaysia. (BBC)
• The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea meets to select a new Speaker and Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea with Sir Michael Somare re-elected as Prime Minister. (Radio New Zealand) (Reuters)
• Flooding caused by Tropical Storm Pabuk causes widespread flooding in Guangdong Province in southern China affecting up to 1.2 million people. (Reuters)

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