Portal:Current events/2006 July 27

July 27, 2006 (Thursday)

U.S. Heat Wave of 2006: A heat wave in California causes at least 90 deaths. (KOVR-TV / CBS 13)
Somalia's interim government unravels as at least 20 government members resign, most being parliament members, accusing the country's virtually powerless government of failing to bring peace. (Houston Chronicle)
The three main militia groups in the troubled DR Congo eastern province of Ituri have agreed to lay down arms and begin integrating into the Congolese army.(BBC).
More than 80 people dead and missing in China as a result of Typhoon Kaemi. (Mail and Guardian)
In Rome, the President of the Venice Biennale Davide Croff and the Director of the 63rd Venice Film Festival Marco Müller have presented the line-up of the festival, which runs August 30 - September 9. (La Biennale di Venezia)
2006 Kodori crisis: the rebel renegade Emzar Kvitsiani escapes as one civilian gets killed in the fighting. civil.ge. The hitherto Tbilisi-based Government of Abkhazia-in-exile will assume control of the gorge located in the northeastern part of breakaway Abkhazia after the first phase of the Georgian police operation is successfully over.(civil.ge)
The government investigation of the assault that partially paralyzed Fu Xiancai, a Chinese activist protesting the displacement caused by the Three Gorges Dam, concludes that he hit himself in the back of the neck, breaking three vertebrae. (BBC)
The team for 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis announces that he failed a drug test during the race, with high levels of testosterone. (Sports Illustrated), (Reuters)^{[permanent dead link]}
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
- Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, openly supports Hezbollah attacks on Israel, Calling for Jihad until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq". (CNN), (Washington Post) Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine, (Associated Press)
- Israel says diplomats' decision not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive at a Middle East summit has given it the green light to continue.(BBC NEWS)
- The Israeli military has been taken by surprise by the ferocity of Hezbollah's resistance and may rethink its strategy. (New York Times) (The Guardian, London)
- The Israeli Cabinet decides not to expand the Lebanese offensive. (Associated Press)
- Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh claims that up to 600 civilians may have been killed in the Israeli bombardment. (The Australian)^{[permanent dead link]}
Already-convicted murder Robert Charles Browne pleads guilty to another killing, and leads authorities to suspect he might be America's most prolific serial killer (Boston Herald)^{[permanent dead link]}
2006 Ukraine parliament crisis. Ukraine's president, Yushchenko, holds crisis talks over political stalemate. (Fox News)