Wednesday 18 August 2010

Holidays:

• RC saints - Saint Helena of Constantinople,Saint Alberto Hurtado
• Buhe in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Famous Birthdays:

Famous Deaths:

• Hal Connolly: American Athlete and hammer thrower (Born1931).
• Benjamin Kaplan: copyright scholar.
• Scott Davis: American Announcer of Track and Field (Born1943).

Facts:

• The corpse of mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the Mexican town of Santiago, Nuevo León, is found handcuffed and blindfolded after his abduction on Sunday night. (Reuters)
• 18 countries, including the United States, deploy naval troops in joint exercises which they say are an attempt to defend the Panama Canal against terrorism. (United States Department of Defense)
• Julian Assange of Wikileaks says the United States has approached the website to try to negotiate the release of a further 15,000 Afghanistan war documents which the military desires to keep secret the United States denies this. (Aljazeera)
• The United States ends combat operations in Iraq as its last combat brigade departs for Kuwait. (MSNBC)
• 3 Indian peacekeepers serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are killed by rebels in an apparent ambush. (''Hindustan Times'')

• The United States deploys troops along its border with Mexico by the order of President Barack Obama. (BBC)
• The American Ballet Theatre is given permission by its country's President, Barack Obama, to perform in Cuba it would be the first time in 50 years. American tourists are still banned by their government from travelling to Cuba. (AFP via France24)
• Rupert Murdoch provides $1 million to the U.S. Republican Party ahead of an important election in November, more than doubling the party's funds with one of the largest handouts by a media organisation critics declare Fox News is not impartial. (''The Irish Times'')
• More than 1 million state workers in South Africa go on strike to demand an increase in pay. (''Times Live'')
• Iceland lowers its interest rate to 7%. (BBC)
• Foxconn holds employee rallies in a bid to stem the recent huge increase in suicides by its employees. (AFP via ''The Sydney Morning Herald'')
• 2010 Pakistan floods:
• The United Nations says that flood relief aid to Pakistan is ampquotarriving too slowlyampquot. (''The New York Times'')
• The European Union pledges an additional $39 million and the Islamic Development Bank pledges $11.2 million. (Aljazeera)
• A North Korean fighter plane crashes in China near the border, killing the pilot and possibly a second pilot bailing out. Pictures posted by local residents show a Soviet plane design which were used in the Korean War. It is suggested to have been a defection attempt. (Yonhap)
• At least 67 people are missing in new landslides in Yunnan, southwest China, with at least two deaths confirmed. (AP via Google News(
• Scientists blame a peculiar double earthquake earthquake for the deadly tsunami responsible for the deaths of 192 people in the South Pacific last September, and described as ampquotunlike anything seismologists have seen beforeampquot. (BBC)
• A bus plunges into a 100 metre ravine in the Philippines Benguet province resulting in 39 deaths. (CNN)
• 3 people are killed and 3 others are missing after a South Korean fishing boat sinks 400 miles from Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. (CNN)
• Moroccan activists blockading a Spanish enclave in protest at alleged abuses by border police agree to suspend the action during Ramadan. (Aljazeera)