Portal:Current events/2007 August 9

August 9, 2007 (Thursday)

Amama Mbabazi, the Security Minister of Uganda, warns the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that Uganda would consider re-entering the DRC if recent raids did not stop. (AllAfrica)
An Air Moorea airplane crashes in Moorea bound for Tahiti with at least 12 casualties. Initial reports indicate that all 20 passengers may have died. (News Limited) (ABC News Australia)
Democratic candidates in the United States presidential election appear in a televised forum sponsored by Human Rights Campaign Foundation and focusing on gay and lesbian issues. (CNN)
Two more bodies have been recovered at the site of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Reuters)
A blaze at the Cinecittà film studio complex in Rome burns down several buildings. (ABC News Australia)
Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada tours the Arctic regions of Canada to assert wider claims of sovereignty over the region following a recent claim by Russia to the North Pole. (BBC)
China temporarily bans exports from two toy manufacturers whose products were banned or recalled in the United States and other countries. (AP via the Washington Post)
Charges against two United States Marines accused of involvement in the killing of Iraqis in 2005 are dropped. (CNN)
BNP Paribas announced that it could not fairly value the underlying assets in three funds as a result of exposure to U.S. subprime mortgage lending markets. Faced with potentially massive (though unquantifiable) exposure, the European Central Bank (ECB) immediately stepped in to ease market worries by opening lines of €96.8 billion (then US$130 billion) in low-interest credit.

(New York Times - 9 August 2007)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by nearly 400 points due to credit worries. Canadian and European stocks also fall. The European Central Bank, United States Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada all inject money into their credit markets to ease concerns. (Market Watch)
The South Carolina Republican Party moves its primary election date forward to January 19. (AP via the Guardian)
The death toll from the 2007 South Asian floods rises to 2000. (AFP via News Limited)
Two trains collide in Zimbabwe. (ZimDaily)
India celebrates 65th anniversary of Quit India Movement.
The President of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa suspends the head of the Drug Enforcement Commission Ryan Chitoba for alleged misappropriation of money confiscated from criminals. (BBC)
Twelve people are killed by suspected United Liberation Front of Asom separatist gunmen in two different incidents in Assam. (AP via Forbes)
Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants ambush Philippines Government troops on the island of Jolo, killing nine. More than 50 people died in fighting during the day between the army, Abu Sayyaf and elements of the Moro National Liberation Front. (AP via International Herald Tribune) (BBC)
East Timor
- A standoff occurs at Dili Airport as to whether jailed former Government Minister Rogerio Lobato can leave East Timor for medical treatment in Malaysia. (ABC News Australia)
- Mobs burn hundreds of houses in pro-Fretilin areas between Viqueque and Baucau in protest at the appointment of Xanana Gusmão as the Prime Minister of East Timor with 60 people arrested in Baucau
The National Assembly of Mauritania adopts legislation criminalising slavery. (AFP via News Limited)
The President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf pulls out of a meeting with the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and tribal leaders in Kabul over fighting the Taliban. (CNN) (BBC) He is also resisting pressure to institute a state of emergency, insisting that the planned parliamentary election in October must proceed as scheduled. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Two of Australia's largest regional banks, Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank, agree to merge. (AAP via The Sydney Morning Herald)