April 2007 - Portal:Current Events

• Second and last day of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) 177th Annual General Conference
• United States Presidential Election, 2008: Former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson announces his candidacy for president. (CNN)
• Iranian Basiji students protest outside the British embassy in Tehran. (CNN)
• World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship pay-per-view, WrestleMania 23 takes place at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, setting an arena record of 80,103. (Detroit News)
• Ukrainian political rivals rally in Kiev in response to the threat that President Viktor Yushchenko might dissolve the parliament and call for new elections. (BBC)
• William (Bill) Lee Fraijo Died at home on April 1 of a blood clot in the left leg. He was a law enforcement officer of LA County Probation and an evangelist. His mission of spreading the bible to juveniles in detention, led to many life changing changes by some of LA County's hardest young criminals. (September 27, 1947 - April 1, 2007)

• President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko dissolves the parliament during a nationally televised speech, calling for parliamentary elections on 27 May 2007. (All Headline News)
• India's Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon, says that Iran is likely to get an observer status in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. (IHT) (Times of India)
• An earthquake and the resultant tsunami strike the Solomon Islands, killing at least 15 people. (BBC)
• The University of Florida Gators defeat the Ohio State Buckeyes 84-75 in the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament championship game, becoming the first school in Division I history to win both the men's college basketball and college football titles in the same academic year. (ESPN)
• The United States and South Korea reach an agreement on bilateral free trade, concluding ten months of negotiations. (CNN),(USTR), (USINFO)
• The United States Supreme Court rules that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases and must do so unless it can provide some scientific reason proving otherwise. (New York Times)

• United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi travels to Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad as she continues a visit to the Middle East disregarding the objections of the Bush administration. (BBC)
• The 14th annual summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) begins in New Delhi, India, and Afghanistan becomes its 8th member. (IHT) (VOA) (Hindu)
• Colorado State University experts forecast a very active 2007 Atlantic hurricane season with 17 named storms, 9 hurricanes and 5 intense hurricanes. (CSU)
• The V150, a modified TGV train, breaks the land speed record for railed vehicles on the new Paris-Strasbourg LGV Est line with 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph). (Reuters)
• Diego Gasques wins the 7th edition of Big Brother Brasil. (Globo.com)
• Hong Kong's richest woman, Nina Wang dies from an unspecified illness. According to Forbes magazine, Wang was Asia's 35th richest person with a fortune of $4.2 billion. (BBC)

• Are We Done Yet Released in Australia

• Three men are charged with involvement in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. (BBC)
• Former rebel leader Ramzan Kadyrov takes office as President of Chechnya. (BBC)
• The Greek cruise ship M/S Sea Diamond, with 1,153 passengers and 390 crew, runs aground off Santorini and sinks on the following day. No serious injuries are reported, but Frenchman Jean-Christophe Allain, 45, and his daughter Maud, 16, are reportedly missing. (Reuters) (BBC)

• Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy: Monica Goodling, who was an assistant counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, resigns after refusing to testify before the Congress. (BBC)
• Cuba-United States relations: A judge in El Paso, Texas orders the release of accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, pending an immigration hearing. Federal prosecutors plan to appeal the ruling. (BBC)

• Turkish soldiers are killed in a clash with Kurdistan Workers' Party forces in Şırnak province. (Voice of America)
• A recently released Iranian diplomat claims that he was tortured by the CIA while in captivity in Iraq. (The Observer)
• Cambridge University defeats Oxford University by one and a half lengths in the 153rd University Boat Race.(BBC)
• Thousands of people protest in Los Angeles, California calling for citizenship rights for undocumented immigrants to the United States. (BBC)
• The World Wide Fund for Nature expresses concern over the potential destruction of coral reefs after the 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake, which caused the island of Ranongga in the New Georgia Islands group to rise three meters (10 ft.), extending its entire shoreline by 70 meters on average. (AFP via Yahoo!)
• The captain of the Greek cruise ship M/S Sea Diamond is charged in Greece with criminal negligence in connection with its sinking. If the two missing passengers are found dead, he may face more serious charges. (CNN)
• Hungarian American software developer Charles Simonyi launches on board Soyuz TMA-10 towards the International Space Station, becoming the fifth space tourist. (CNN)
• A jeep carrying a gelatin-based explosive for a highway construction project explodes in the Indian village of Chendur in Tamil Nadu killing at least 16 people. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• Israeli helicopters fire at least two missiles into the northern Gaza Strip. The missile killed a Palestinian militant "while mounting an operation near the border" in a statement released by Islamic Jihad. (BBC)

• Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops call on the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe to stand down or face "open revolt" in a message posted on church bulletin boards across the country. (AP via CNN)
• Suspected Islamist militants open fire on a military patrol in northwestern Algeria leaving nine soldiers and six attackers dead. (AP via the Houston Chronicle)
• Pope Benedict laments the violence in Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, stating, "nothing positive is happening in Iraq" in his Easter homily. (CNN)
• War in Afghanistan:
  • Seven NATO soldiers die as a result of car bombings in southern Afghanistan as it conducts an offensive against the Taliban. (AP via Forbes)
  • The Taliban claims it has killed an Afghan reporter abducted with Daniele Mastrogiacomo because the government of Afghanistan refused to meet ransom demands. (BBC)
• Voters go to the polls in Japan for local elections including 13 gubernatorial elections and 4 mayoral races with the most closely watched race being for the Governor of Tokyo. (BBC)
• Zach Johnson wins golf's 2007 Masters Tournament with a score of 289 (1 over par). (ESPN)

• The Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer signs legislation changing the date of the New York primary election to February 5, 2008. (AP via Herald News Daily)
• Thirteen detainees at Guantanamo Bay are conducting a hunger strike to protest against harsher conditions in a new prison unit and are being force fed. (AP via CNN)
• The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence bans any more of the 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines held captive by Iran from selling their stories to the media reversing a previous decision following widespread criticism. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
• Tim Montgomery, a former 100-metre world record holder, pleads guilty to charges of bank fraud and money laundering. (BBC)
• President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran announces that his country can now produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale. (BBC), (CNN)
• Ministers from natural gas exporting countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran meet in Doha, Qatar, prompting speculation that they might be looking at transforming the Gas Exporting Countries Forum into a cartel similar to OPEC. (BBC)
• Iraq War: Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calls for an anti-American protest on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Hundreds of thousands of Shias gather in Najaf for a demonstration calling for U.S.-led troops to leave Iraq. (Reuters via Gulf Times), (BBC)
• East Timorese voters go to the polls to elect a new President of East Timor to replace Xanana Gusmão.(New York Times)
• Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina protest against the death of Carlos Fuentealba, a school teacher having been severely injured by a tear gas canister fired by police during a protest the previous week over pay and working conditions. (BBC)

• A Somali committee estimates the death toll of recent fighting between Ethiopian and Somali Government forces and insurgents in Mogadishu at more than 1,000. (Reuters Alertnet)
• The United States authorises $59 million worth of aid for the Palestinian Authority. (CNN)
• Sudan claims that an attack from Chad on its territory led to the loss of 17 Sudanese soldiers. Chad denies the allegations but claims that it repulsed an attack from Sudan. (Reuters Alertnet)
• Iraq War: United States military begins construction of a wall around the Sunni district of Baghdad (Guardian)
• Iraq War: United States and Iraqi forces backed by attack helicopters fight gunmen in Baghdad in the heaviest fighting since the launch of a security crackdown in February 2007. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
• Seven French doctors will face charges related to the deaths of 110 patients who developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after taking growth hormones in the 1980s. (AFP via News Limited)
• India's largest private airline, Jet Airways, has restarted talks to purchase Air Sahara. (Forbes)
• Serbia's war crimes court has jailed four Serb paramilitaries who were filmed as they shot dead six captured young Bosnian Muslims.(BBC)
• Ethiopia acknowledges that it has detained 41 suspected international terrorists from 17 countries and claims that foreign investigators were given permission to interrogate them. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
• Two suspected militants die in a security operation in Casablanca, Morocco. (BBC)
• At least 17 people die in Sri Lanka as a bus collides with a truck 80 km south of Colombo. (BBC)
• The government of Japan extends economic sanctions against the North Korean government by an additional six months, citing a lack of progress in resolving kidnapping cases of Japanese citizens. (Bloomberg)
• Australian Prime Minister John Howard announces that 300 soldiers from the Australian Special Air Service Regiment will be sent to Orūzgān Province, Afghanistan to combat the Taliban. (ABC News Australia)
• Johnny Cash's Nashville Home destroyed by a fire. (SFGate.com)

• Trade officials from the United States, European Union, India and Brazil meet in New Delhi, India, to revive the World Trade Organization's Doha round of negotiations. (Forbes) (BusinessWeek)
• The United States Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates meets with the Defense Ministers of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark as well as officials from Estonia and Romania to discuss progress in Afghanistan in expectation of a Taliban offensive. Two Canadian soldiers are killed when a roadside bomb explodes. (New York Times) (Reuters via Washington Post)
• The United States Senate votes to ease funding restrictions on stem-cell research but President Bush threatens to veto the bill. (BBC)
• The United States extends the tour of duty for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from a year to 15 months. (BBC)
• Joseph Biden, chair of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential candidate, calls for the use of military force in Darfur. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• A spring snow storm hits the midwestern United States, leading to the cancellation of flights and closure of schools. (CNN)
• Former U.S. Senator and prospective presidential candidate Fred Thompson announces he has lymphoma. (Bloomberg)
• Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina is charged with murder. (BBC)
• Traces of water vapor are reported to have been found in the atmosphere of HD 209458 b, a first for extrasolar planets. (Xinhua)
• Several explosions in Algiers, Algeria, leave 23 dead and dozens of people injured. (Sky) (BBC)
• Russian deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says a U.S. war against Iran would lead to a catastrophe. (RIAN)
• Macau's Monetary Authority says that holders of the North Korean accounts frozen at a bank by the United States can now withdraw or transfer their money. (CNN)
• North Korea claims that it can shut down its main nuclear reactor within a month. (ABC News Online) (BBC)
• Protestors gather in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to call for the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. (BBC)
• Premier of the People's Republic of China Wen Jiabao arrives in Japan for a summit visit that could help improve bilateral relations. He is the first Chinese Premier to visit Japan in almost seven years. (BBC)
• American novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies on April 11, 2007, in Manhattan after a fall at his Manhattan home several weeks prior results in irreversible brain injuries
• There will be a runoff election to select the next President of East Timor after no candidate achieves a majority of votes in the first round of voting. There are three candidates in contention for the runoff; the Prime Minister of East Timor Dr José Ramos-Horta, the Fretilin candidate Francisco Guterres and Fernando de Araújo of the Democratic Party. (ABC News Online) (AFP via News Limited) (BBC)
• Ice hockey: The 2007 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs begin. The inaugural matchup features the Pittsburgh Penguins visiting the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ontario.
• Football: The semi-finals of Copa del Rey begin in Nou Camp. Argentinian Lionel Messi scored a spectacular goal against Getafe CF.That goal is very similar to a Diego Maradona's goal against England in Mexico World Cup 1986.Both of them passed six defenders including goalkeeper and scored.

• India's DRDO successfully tests its nuclear-capable Agni-III, a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of more than 3000 km. (Reuters) (BBC) (NDTV)
• Italian riot police clash with hundreds of Chinese merchants in Milan after scuffles break out over traffic problems in Chinatown. (Reuters via the Melbourne Age)
• Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine suffers numerous serious injuries resulting from a hit and run car accident on the Garden State Parkway in Galloway Township. (WPVI-ABC) (Reuters)
• Cuba-United States relations: Accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is released from jail and handed over to U.S. immigration officials. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
• The Bush administration admits that it may be missing e-mails related to the dismissal of eight United States Attorneys as the Senate Judiciary Committee authorises chairman Patrick Leahy to subpoena documents related to the issue. (International Herald Tribune)
• Paul Wolfowitz, the President of the World Bank, apologizes for his role in a pay scandal involving his girlfriend. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• U.S. talk radio personality Don Imus is fired by CBS Radio after making racially offensive comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. His simulcasted television show "Imus in the Morning" on MSNBC is also cancelled. (MSNBC)
• Iraqi insurgency:
  • An explosion in the cafeteria of the National Assembly of Iraq kills eight people, including MP Mohammed Awad, and wounds many others. (BBC) (News Limited)
  • A truck bomb explodes on the al-Sarafiya Bridge in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and putting cars into the Tigris River. (FOX) (BBC)
• Al Qaida claims responsibility for the bombings in Algiers, Algeria. (Channel 4)
• Several candidates in the first round of the East Timor presidential elections, including the Prime Minister José Ramos-Horta, have called for a recount amid allegations of voting irregularities. (BBC)
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dismisses Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju and appoints Kim Yong-il in his place. (News Limited) (KCNA)
• Premier of the People's Republic of China Wen Jiabao urges Japan to admit to their actions in World War II during a landmark address to the Diet of Japan. (BBC)
• The Kremlin vetoes an investigation into the death of Yuri Gagarin on the 46th anniversary of the first orbit of Earth. (MOSNEWS) (Belfast Telegraph)
• The anchor handling tug supply vessel Bourbon Dolphin capsizes in the North Sea. Three people are dead and four are missing. (BBC) (VG) (Aftenposten)

• The genome sequence of the Rhesus Macaque monkey is published in the scientific journal Science. (Science) (Baylor College of Medicine)
• The Singapore Police Coast Guard suffers its first fatality in decades when two police officers and an illegal migrant are killed after their Interceptor Craft collides with a speedboat ferrying six illegal immigrants during a high-speed pursuit. (CNA) (SPF)
• The United States Senate holds hearings on the 2007 pet food recalls. (Chicago Tribune)
• A NASA Review Board finds that the Mars Global Surveyor stopped working in November 2006 due to computer programming errors. (New York Times)
• Google reaches a deal with DoubleClick to buy the company for US$3.1 billion. (New York Times)
• The Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq claims responsibility for yesterday's bombing of the National Assembly of Iraq. (AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)
• A police report shows that New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine was not wearing a seatbelt during the hit and run car accident that injured him the day before. (WPVI)
• Ja'afar Adam, a prominent Islamic cleric, is shot dead inside a mosque in Kano, Nigeria. (BBC)
• Thousands of people protest in Islamabad in support of the suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. (CNN)
• The Prime Minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama sends in troops to close down the headquarters of Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs. (ABC News Australia)
• A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hits Mexico just north of Acapulco, knocking out power to parts of Mexico City. (El Universal) (AP via MSNBC)
• The Australian Government announces plans to outlaw material such as films and books that advocate terrorism. (BBC)

• A speeding bus crashes into a tractor-trailer near Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, killing at least 23 people. (AP via the Guardian)
• Flash flooding kills at least 35 people in the Trang Province of Thailand. (AFP via Sunday Herald Sun)
• A suicide bomber kills 8 people in the Khost Province of Afghanistan. (AP via CNN)
• A bus carrying primary school students crashes with a truck on the Aksaray-Konya highway in central Turkey, resulting in the death of 32 people. (Reuters via News Limited)
• Garry Kasparov, Russian chess champion and opposition activist, is arrested with over 100 others while attempting to hold a protest march in Moscow. (RFE/RL)
• At least 300,000 secularist Turks march in Ankara to warn the Islamist Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party against seeking the presidency. (AP via CNN)
• Iraqi insurgency: A car bomb explodes in a bus station in the city of Karbala, killing or injuring at least 56 people and injuring at least 70. At least 10 people die after a suicide bomber explodes a bomb at the Jadiriyah bridge in Baghdad. (AP via ABC News) (AP via CBS News) (AFP via News Limited)
• Bill Richardson, a U.S. special envoy, predicts that North Korea will not meet a deadline of today set by the Six-Party Talks to shut down its nuclear reactor but will meet their obligations a few days after. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• Nigerian general election: Nigerian voters go to the polls for state governor and legislative elections. Security is tight in the northern city of Kano following the murder of militant Islamic cleric Ustaz Ja'afar Adam. (BBC)

• India's Essar Group buys Canadian steelmaker Algoma for US$ 1.63 billion. (Forbes) (Washington Post)
• A nor'easter in the northeastern United States causes flooding and disrupts travel in the region. One person is killed in a tornado in North Carolina and two people die in weather-related car accidents in New York and Connecticut. (New York Times) (AP via ABC News)
• Anti-Putin protesters in St. Petersburg, a part of the Dissenters March coalition, are beaten by Russian police. (Reuters) (National Post)
• Documents revealed under Freedom of Information legislation reveals that NASA paid $26.6 million to families of the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated during re-entry in 2003. (AP via Seattle Post-Intelligencer) (Orlando Sentinel)
• Iran announces plans for two more nuclear reactors. (AP via CNN)
• Iraq War:
  • Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announces plans that his political movement intends to quit the Iraqi government in an attempt to press its demand for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. (Reuters)
  • Two United Kingdom military helicopters collide near the town of Taji near Baghdad killing two soldiers. (AP via CNN)
• Voters in Ecuador go to the polls to vote on a referendum on convening an assembly to draw up a new constitution. Preliminary results indicate a 78% "yes" vote. (BBC)

• Winners of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize are announced. Author Ray Bradbury and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane receive special citations. (CBC)
• Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, calls for an end of fighting between the Philippines government and the Moro National Liberation Front, which has killed at least 12 people over the past few days. (AP via IHT)
• At least 33 coal miners are trapped in a mine in Baofeng county, Henan province, China. (BBC)
• Sudan agrees to allow 3,000 United Nations troops in Darfur to support a 7,000 strong African Union force. (BBC)
• A series of shootings at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (commonly referred to as Virginia Tech) campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, leaves at least 33 people (including the gunman) dead and 29 others wounded, making it the country's deadliest school shooting incident ever. (CBS) (CNN) (BBC) (Reuters)
• The offices of the Prosperous Armenia political party in Yerevan are bombed. No one is killed and no one has claimed responsibility. (RFE/RL)
• The United States, Japan and India carry out a joint naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to increase strategic cooperation. (AHN) (Hindu)
• Kalyk Imankulov, the former Chairman of the Kyrgyz National Security Service, joins the United Front For A Worthy Future For Kyrgyzstan political alliance. The alliance is staging its sixth day of protests as it calls for the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. (Interfax) (EurasiaNet)
• Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski and his ex-bodyguard Johan Tarculovski face trials for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague. (BBC)
• Wal-Mart retakes the #1 position on the 2007 Fortune 500 list with US$351.1 billion in revenue for F/Y 2006, beating previous #1 ExxonMobil by $3.9 billion. (Fortune Magazine)
• At least 11 people die in southern India as a passenger train runs into a minibus carrying local officials near the village of Thirumatpur in Tamil Nadu. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• At least ten Afghan police die in a suicide bombing in Kunduz in northeastern Afghanistan. (BBC)

• Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament suspends a former Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden and 29 other Members of Parliament for failing to attend sessions in recent months. (AP via Washington Post)
• Nineteen people die in Rio de Janeiro in gun battles between police and drug gangs. (BBC)
• Virginia Tech massacre:

• Seung-hui Cho is identified as the spree shooter in the attacks. (NPR)
• U.S. President Bush joins thousands of mourners at a memorial service for the victims. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

• Iccho Ito, the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, is shot at least twice outside his re-election campaign headquarters. The assassin, Tetsuya Shiroo, is alleged to be a senior member of a local gang affiliated to the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate. (Reuters) (AP via IHT)
• The Olympic Council of Asia chooses Incheon, South Korea over New Delhi, India, to host the 2014 Asian Games. (BBC)
• Four Nepalese United Nations workers and their driver are killed in a roadside bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Kevin Rudd, the leader of the Australian Labor Party, announces changes to the party's industrial relations policy, including the right to a secret ballot before strike action. (AAP via Melbourne Age)

• Colombia's Nevado del Huila volcano erupts, provoking avalanches and floods that sweep away houses and bridges, which, in turn, prompt hundreds to evacuate. (The Hindu)
• After the acquisition of Algoma Steel, India's Essar Group plans to buy U.S.-based Minnesota Steel for US$ 1.66 billion. (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• A diplomat claims that an International Atomic Energy Agency document claims that Iran has assembled some 1,300 centrifuges at a key underground nuclear plant in Natanz and has started to feed them with the uranium gas necessary for enriching uranium. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• The Supreme Court of the United States rules 5-4 in favor of upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart. (CNN)
• Virginia Tech massacre:
  • Virginia Tech police respond to what turned out to be an unfounded threat near Norris Hall, where 31 people died Monday in the United States's deadliest ever shooting spree. (CNN)
  • Authorities announce that Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who killed more than 30 people on Monday at Virginia Tech, has sent a package that contained disturbing images and video to NBC during the two-hour period between the shootings at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory and the shootings at Norris Hall. The new evidence is sent to the FBI for more analysis. (CNN)
  • Liviu Librescu, the Jewish Romanian engineering professor who was shot five times while holding off the gunman at his classroom entrance so his students could escape, is posthumously awarded the Star of Romania by the Romanian government. (Romanian press release)
• Iraqi insurgency:
  • At least 198 people are confirmed dead after a series of bombings in Baghdad. (The Times) (BBC)
  • United States Army soldiers raid buildings in a rural area northeast of Falluja, killing four suspected terrorists and capturing another 30. (CNN)
• At least 16 secondary school students die in Egypt's Al Jizah governorate as the truck they were traveling to school on collides with another vehicle. (Reuters via CNN)
• Three workers at a publishing house in Turkey that prints Bibles are murdered in ongoing sectarian violence. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Australia and the United States agree to exchange hundreds of asylum seekers kept in offshore detention camps in Nauru and Guantanamo Bay. (AP via IHT)
• Iccho Itoh, Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, dies after being shot in a suspected gangland killing on Tuesday. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denounces the murder as unforgivable. (Reuters) (BBC)
• The People's Republic of China begins a new service of high-speed trains capable of reaching speeds of 200km/h (124 mph). (BBC)
• Thirty-two steel workers are killed and two more injured in China after a ladle full of liquid steel failed, engulfing an adjacent room full of workers. (News.com.au)
• UEFA chooses Poland and Ukraine as joint hosts for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. (BBC)

• Virginia Tech massacre:
  • Tim Kaine, the Governor of Virginia announces an inquiry into the massacre. (BBC)
  • University officials confirm that the students killed during the massacre will all be posthumously awarded their degrees during commencement ceremonies. (Charleston Daily Mail)
• The Norwegian prime minister announces that the government has agreed to unilaterally cut Norway's carbon emissions by 30% by 2020, and proposes carbon neutrallity for 2050. (Norwegian Government)
• Joseph Nacchio, the former Chief Executive Officer of Qwest Communications, is found guilty of insider trading for stock sales worth tens of millions of dollars made in 2001. (CNN Money)
• The United States holds talks with NATO and Russian officials over plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe. (BBC)
• The Prime Minister of Australia John Howard states that the Murray-Darling Basin faces an "unprecedentedly dangerous" water shortage and that irrigation for farmers will be cut off unless there is significant rain in the next 6-8 weeks. (ABC News Australia)
• An Amnesty International report claims that the attacks on Afghan civilians by the Taliban are widespread and systematic. (BBC)

• 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan is injured during a peaceful protest against the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier. (Indymedia)
• President of Cuba Fidel Castro meets briefly with Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in his first official duties since transferring power in July 2006. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• The G4 group of nations, which includes Brazil, India, Germany and Japan, says that it would revive efforts for United Nations Security Council reform. (NDTV) (People's Daily)
• India and the People's Republic of China resume talks to resolve border disputes. (NDTV) (Australian)
• The United States asks India to stop military cooperation with Iran. (VOA)
• The U.S. state of Virginia observes a day of mourning for the victims in the Virginia Tech massacre. (BBC)
• Battle of Mogadishu (2007): Shelling and gunfire continues in Mogadishu after 21 died in fighting and a suicide attack at an Ethiopian base the previous day. (Aljazeera)
• Scientists prove that eating less salt reduces the chances of stroke or heart attack in the first long-term study on salt's effect on health. (The Times)
• A series of earthquakes, the strongest being 6.1 magnitude, strikes the Okinawa island chain of Japan. A tsunami warning is issued but later cancelled. (AFX via Forbes) (Bloomberg)
• The 2007 pet food recalls: A new study of pigs at a hog farm in California points to the possibility that melamine has entered the human food supply. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
• Johnson Space Center Shooting: A NASA spokesperson says that one of the buildings at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas has been evacuated after an employee opens fire. The gunman killed a male hostage as well as himself. (CNN) (BBC) (AFP via ABC News Australia)

• At least 10 people are missing in Chile following a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. (Reuters via News Limited)
• Soyuz TMA-9, with space tourist Charles Simonyi and two crew from Expedition 14 to the International Space Station on board, safely return to Earth. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• An aircraft of the United States Navy's Blue Angels precision flight team crashes during an air show in Beaufort, South Carolina, killing the pilot and injuring eight people on the ground. (MSNBC) (CNN)
• Mohammed al-Attar is sentenced to 15 years in an Egyptian prison after being convicted of being a Mossad agent. (BBC)
• An appeals court decides that the two candidates in the runoff election to decide the next President of East Timor will be current Prime Minister of East Timor José Ramos-Horta and Francisco Guterres of Fretilin. Two of the unsuccessful candidates have announced that they will support Dr Ramos-Horta. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• The United States and Australia issue travel advisories warning their citizens not to go to the Philippines due to a potentially imminent terrorist threat. (BBC)
• Protests against the Bakiyev administration in Kyrgyzstan become violent as protesters fight with government security forces. (RFE/RL)
• Nigerian militants attack government buildings in the oil region hours before voters go to the polls in the general election. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
• A U.N. investigation finds that Romanian police officers killed two Kosovars as they demonstrated against the Ahtisaari Plan in Pristina, capital of Kosovo, in February 2007. The Romanian force has since left Kosovo. (RFE/RL)

Otis' Corner Bar & Grill is made semi public

• Turkey Christians tortured and murdered and Turkey's government, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Islamist, has expresses concern over the spread of Christian activity in Turkey, VOA reported .
• Israeli troops have shot dead three Palestinians in raids in the West Bank, the army and local residents say.(BBC)
• According to exit polls, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal will meet in the second round of the French presidential election on May 6. François Bayrou and Jean-Marie Le Pen are believed to have received the third and fourth most votes respectively. (BBC)
• War in Iraq: Gunmen kill 21 members of northern Iraq's Yezidi community after dragging them from a bus. (CNN)
• War in Somalia (2006–present):
  • More than 60 people are killed in the fourth day of heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist militia in Mogadishu. (BBC)
  • Eritrea pulls out of the east African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development after a disagreement with Ethiopia over Somalia. (Aljazeera)
• Avraham Hirschson, the Finance Minister of Israel, stands down for three months while the Israeli police investigate a claim that he failed to report an embezzlement case when he was working for a trade union. (AP via IHT)
• South Korea agrees to resume food aid to North Korea, sending 400,000 tons of food north. (BBC)
• In Zimbabwe investigating officer Wellington Ngena accuses the Government of South Africa's Scorpions intelligence department of training members of the Movement for Democratic Change in combat to overthrow the Government of Zimbabwe. (allAfrica)

• Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin dies at the age of 76. (BBC) (CNN)
• Iraq Insurgency:
  • Prime Minister Nouri Maliki calls for construction to be halted on the three-mile wall being built by the United States military around the predominantly Sunni district of Adhamiyah, Baghdad. Thousands of Iraqis also protest the wall. (Guardian) (BBC) (CNN)
  • Nine U.S. soldiers are killed by a suicide car bomb near a United States Army patrol base in Diyala. (CNN), (BBC)
• Three of the six members of the Bali Nine – Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman – who were sentenced to death have launched a judicial review appeal with Denpasar's District Court. (ABC News Australia)
• Barclays plc agrees to buy ABN Amro in a €67 billion deal. (Bloomberg)
• Umaru Yar'Adua is declared the winner of Nigeria's presidential election that EU observers said "cannot be considered to have been credible." (Washington Post), (BBC)
• NASA releases the first 3D images of the Sun acquired by the STEREO spacecraft. (PhysOrg)
• The United States' 391st National Park Unit, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, is formally established. (NPS)
• VA allows Wiccan symbols on headstones. (CNN), (Fox)

• Kevin Tillman, brother of former American football player Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, accuses the U.S. military of manipulating his death during testimony to the U.S. Congress. (BBC)
• At least ten people are killed and 120 injured as a severe storm hits the twin towns of Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, on the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNN) (BBC)
• Jadarite, a mineral of the same composition as Superman's Kryptonite, has been found in a Serbian mine. (BBC)
• The United States Department of Veterans Affairs allows the Wiccan pentagram to be used on the tombstones of deceased soldiers. (New York Times)
• Abortion in Mexico: Mexico City's Legislative Assembly votes to legalise abortion on demand during the first trimester of pregnancy. (BBC)
• Thousands of people gather in Moscow, Russia to mourn former President Boris Yeltsin. (BBC)
• Prisoners riot at the New Castle Correctional Facility in Indiana, United States. (CNN)
• Ethiopian rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front raid a Chinese-run oil field in near the country's border with Somalia, killing 74. (BBC) (Houston Chronicle)
• The Tamil Tigers launch an air attack on the Sri Lankan military's main base in Jaffna. (BBC)
• British anti-terrorism police arrest five people in London and one in Luton for alleged breaches of the Terrorism Act. (CNN)
• Foreign Minister of Turkey Abdullah Gül is nominated as the AK Party candidate for President of Turkey. (BBC)
• Toyota overtakes General Motors in global vehicle sales from January to March as a result of increased demand for fuel-efficient cars. (Bloomberg)
• The military arm of Hamas fires rockets and mortars into Israel from Gaza. (New York Times)

• Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signs a decree delaying the 2007 parliamentary election from May 27 to June 24. (BBC)
• The United States House of Representatives passes legislation that would order United States forces to start withdrawing from Iraq by October 1. (AP via CNN)
• Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia, is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery following a funeral service in central Moscow. (CNN)
• Former Polish government minister Barbara Blida commits suicide during a police searching of her house (AP)
• U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs David Kramer, speaking on behalf of the U.S. government, offers to normalize relations with Belarus if it releases imprisoned politicians. (RFE/RL)
• The French centrist and pro-European Union leader of the Union for French Democracy François Bayrou announces the foundation of the Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2007 legislative election after his strong showing in the presidential election. (BBC)
• China detains four United States citizens who were protesting for Tibetan independence and against the Beijing Olympics at the Mount Everest base camp. (Reuters via News Limited)
• Japanese police raid the offices of a pro-North Korean group in relation to the alleged kidnapping of two children in the 1970s. (BBC)
• Buddhist monks protest in the streets of Bangkok, demanding that Buddhism be made the official religion of Thailand under a new constitution. (ABC News Australia)
• Astronomers announce the discovery of the Earth-like exoplanet Gliese 581 c, which may support liquid water and is potentially habitable. (BBC)
• An Argentine federal court overturns the pardons issued to General Jorge Videla and former Admiral Emilio Massera following convictions received for their activities during the "Dirty War" of the 1970s. The repeal of the pardons is largely symbolic, since the two are already under house arrest and serving lengthy sentences for other crimes. (Retuers via Yahoo! News)

• A man is killed and about 40 people are hurt during a night of unrest in Tallinn, Estonia. Demonstrators protesting against the removal of the Bronze Soldier statue clash with the police. Russia's authorities threaten to break off diplomatic relations with their Baltic neighbour. (BBC)
• At least 22 people, mostly insurgents, die and dozens more are wounded in several hours of heavy clashes which rage in the Somali capital Mogadishu. (Somalinet)
• U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) submits Resolution HRES 333, calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. (Asia Times) (AP via CBS News)
• A nationwide mid-morning power outage hits Colombia; government sources discount guerrilla activity and blame a technical fault. (BBC)
• North Korea and Myanmar restore diplomatic relations after a break of more than 20 years. (BBC)
• Syrian parliamentary election, 2007: Syria's ruling coalition, the Baath Party-led National Progressive Front, wins the vast majority of seats in the People's Council, with the opposition boycotting the process claiming it as a farce. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• The Senate of the United States approves a funding measure for the War in Iraq calling for the staged withdrawal of forces. U.S. President George W. Bush responded by stating that his reaction to the bill will be to veto it. (Bloomberg)
• United States presidential election, 2008: All eight official Democratic candidates debate in the first 2008 presidential debate, hosted by South Carolina State University and the South Carolina Democratic Party. (AP via CBS) (US News) (Huffington Post)
• A former commander of a United States military detention center in Iraq is detained and under investigation for "aiding the enemy". (Reuters Alertnet)
• The Sultan of Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, is formally installed as the 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. (The Star), (BBC)
• A multi-story apartment building collapses in Istanbul during an emergency evacuation, with several people trapped or killed. (AHN)
• New Hampshire became "...the first state to embrace same-sex unions without a court order or the threat of one."

• A Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter is shot down during the fighting near Shatoy, Chechnya by Chechen rebels, resulting in the death of at least 20 Russian soldiers. (Reuters via CNN)
• The U.S. Pentagon says that the CIA has arrested a senior al-Qaeda operative, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, and transferred him to the Guantanamo Bay detention center. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabia arrests 172 terrorist suspects in a series of raids after uncovering a plot to carry out suicide air attacks on oil and military installations. $32.4m in cash was also uncovered, as were many weapons. (BBC)
• Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and top Hamas official, declares in a sermon in Sudan his desire to kill all Jews and Americans "down to the very last one." (Jerusalem Post), (Memri TV)
• Celebrated cellist: Mstislav Rostropovich dies aged 80.

• Australia wins its third consecutive Cricket World Cup with a victory over Sri Lanka in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup finals in Barbados. (ABC) (BBC)
• Human rights in Tajikistan: Two police officers in Dushanbe, Tajikistan are found guilty of beating and torturing a 16-year-old boy while in police custody. They are sentenced to two years in prison. (RFE/RL)
• A bombing occurs at a mosque in Karbala, Iraq, killing 55. (BBC)
• A suicide bombing in Pakistan kills at least 22 and injures Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. (BBC) (CNN)
• Turkey's army warns against questioning the country's secular system after a disputed first-round presidential vote in parliament. (BBC)
• An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 on the Richter scale strikes Kent, England. (BBC)
• President of Ireland Mary McAleese dissolves the 29th Dáil and calls for a general election on 24 May 2007. (Irish Examiner) (BBC)
• 80,000 people gather throughout the United States joining 'Displace Me' to raise awareness of displaced refugees in Northern Uganda. (KOMO4)

• At least three people including the gunman die in a shooting at the Ward Parkway shopping center in Kansas City, Missouri . (AP via Wichita Eagle) (BBC).
• Worldwide protests occur on the fourth anniversary of the Darfur conflict in Sudan. (BBC via ABC News Australia)
• The People's Bank of China increases its deposit reserve ratio to prevent possible overheating of the economy. (Xinhua)
• More than a million secularist Turks march in Istanbul to protest against the candidacy of Islamist Abdullah Gül in the 2007 presidential election. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Iran's national security adviser Ali Larijani visits Iraq for talks. (BBC)
• The Tamil Tigers launch an air attack on the Sri Lanka's two oil facilities near the capital Colombo. (Reuters)
• Legally Blonde: The Musical opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City, New York.

• The European Union and the United States inks a new Open Skies Agreement which will take effect on 30 March 2008 and replace the restrictive Bermuda II agreement. (BBC)
• The United States Supreme Court decides the case of Scott v. Harris, holding that a "police officer's attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death." (CNN)
• President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez announces that Venezuela will withdraw from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. (New Zealand Herald) (Forbes)
• Morocco and the Polisario Front agree to United Nations sponsored talks about the future of Western Sahara. (BBC)
• General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the British Army, confirms that Prince Harry will deploy with the Blues and Royals regiment on a six-month tour of duty in Iraq. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• The Governor of Virginia Timothy Kaine tightens gun laws after the Virginia Tech massacre. (Radio New Zealand)
• Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is criticised by the Winograd Commission for taking Israel to war in Lebanon last year "hastily". (BBC)
• An indoor smoking ban comes into effect in Northern Ireland, three years after the Republic of Ireland. (RTÉ)
• A meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change starts in Bangkok to discuss approaches to climate change. (BBC)
• The US-led Coalition claims to have killed scores of Taliban forces in Afghanistan. (Reuters Alertnet)
• Five men arrested in 2004 as part of Operation Crevice are convicted at the Old Bailey of a plot to explode fertiliser bombs in the UK. (BBC) (Guardian) (CNN) (SMH)

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