Portal:Current events/2007 September 4

September 4, 2007 (Tuesday)

In a ceremony at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, priests chanted prayers in honor of the Russian Defense Ministry's 12th Main Directorate, which is responsible for the storage and maintenance of Russia's nuclear arsenal. (The Moscow Times)
German authorities arrest three people for planning attacks on Frankfurt and a United States military base in Ramstein. (Reuters)
A spokesman for Idaho Senator Larry Craig indicates that the Senator is rethinking his decision to resign following his plea of guilty to "disorderly conduct" charges in Minneapolis. (New York Times)
Mattel and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the United States announces that it is recalling 700,000 Chinese-made toys on the grounds of excessive lead paint making it the third recall in the past month. (AP)^{[permanent dead link]}
Klaxons win the Mercury Prize for their album Myths of the Near Future beating favourites Amy Winehouse and the Arctic Monkeys. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
A week-long heat wave in Southern California results in the death of 13 people and 500,000 people losing power in outages. (Reuters), (AP via Fox News)
Hurricane Felix:
- Hurricane Felix makes landfall on the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua as a Category 5 hurricane. (LA Times)
- Four people are killed as Hurricane Felix makes landfall but it is downgraded to Category 1 later in the day. (Radio New Zealand)
- Hurricane Felix is downgraded to a tropical storm but still threatens mudslides and floods in Honduras and Guatemala. (Euronews)
Adventurer Steve Fossett is reported missing over the Nevada desert. (CNN)
Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairperson Khaleda Zia expels party Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Joint Secretary General Ashraf Hossain accusing breaching party discipline.
Former President of Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani is elected the chairman of the Assembly of Experts (AP)^{[permanent dead link]}
The Iraqi Supreme Court confirms the death sentence passed on Ali Hassan al-Majid, Sultan Hashim al-Tai and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti. (RTE)
2007 Lebanon conflict: Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias al-Murr claims that at least 222 Fatah al-Islam militants were killed during the struggle. (Reuters via News Limited)
2007 Pacific Hurricane season: Tropical Storm Henriette becomes Hurricane Henriette on its way to Baja California. (AP via Google)
The United States Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Indian Navy, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and Republic of Singapore Navy conduct exercises in the Bay of Bengal, (BBC)
Israel threatens to cut off electricity, water and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip for hours if Hamas launches rocket attacks. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
The strike by Rail Maritime and Transport Union employees on the London Underground continued but the strike was called off later in the day after lengthy talks with Transport for London. (AFP via ABC News Australia) (The Daily Telegraph) Archived 2008-04-13 at the Wayback Machine
Australian company Zinifex and Belgian company Umicore merge their zinc smelting operations to form Nyrstar, the largest zinc smelting company. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Denmark's intelligence service arrests several people on suspicion of plotting a bomb attack. (Reuters and AFP via Melbourne Herald-Sun)
The Iranian military bombs villages in northern Iraq, targeting PEJAK militants. (NYT)
Pakistan bombings:
- A bomb explodes on a bus carrying employees of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission destroying the bus in Rawalpindi, Pakistan while a second bomb on a motorbike explodes in a bazaar. (Reuters)
- The death toll from the two bombings reaches at least 24 with 66 injured. (ABC News Australia and Reuters)
- Security is raised in many areas of Pakistan.
APEC summit meeting:
- The New South Wales Police Force arrests 11 climate-change activists who attach themselves to coal-loading equipment at Carrington in Newcastle, New South Wales. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- President George W. Bush arrives in Sydney to attend the APEC summit. (The Daily Telegraph)
- Singapore and Peru conclude negotiations for a free trade agreement. (DPA via EarthTimes)
- The New South Wales Police Force takes legal action to deter demonstrations near the Sydney Opera House where the APEC summit is taking place. (Bloomberg)
Jamaica election: With all the votes counted, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is headed to victory with 31 seats compared to the incumbent People's National Party (PNP) with 29 seats. The current Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, is calling for a recount in marginal seats. (Reuters)
A Eurostar train sets a new record of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds for rail travel between Paris and London, on the inaugural journey from Gare du Nord to St Pancras International on the new High Speed 1 line. (BBC)