July 7, 2010 (Wednesday)
Current events
- Australia celebrates indigenous culture for NAIDOC Week with the 2010 theme 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'.(ABC)(NAIDOC)
Science and weather
- Researchers publish in Nature their discovery of stone tools in Norfolk suggesting that humans landed there almost a million years ago. (BBC)
- A study shows that a married person's risk of encountering marriage troubles increases by up to 75% if a co-worker, friend, or a family member gets a divorce. (Vitals)
- A heat wave kills 9 people in Canada and the United States. (The New York Times) (CNN) (BBC)
Armed conflicts and incidents
- A suicide bomber attacks a Shia pilgrimage in Baghdad, Iraq killing at least 41 and wounding 174. (Aljazeera) (BBC News) (CNN)
- The Colombian Air Force launches an aerial attack killing 13 FARC rebels, including two rebel leaders. (BBC News)
- A Norwegian asylum centre burns to the ground during protests at conditions at the facility. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- The United Kingdom is to hand over responsibility for Afghanistan's Sangin area to the United States. (BBC News)
- A judge orders the arrest of Bruno Fernandes de Souza, one of Brazil's top footballers, in connection with the disappearance of his former mistress. (BBC News)
- Protests in Hong Kong and Taiwan mark the 73rd anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. (CDNews) (Sina HK)
- Several thousand residents affected by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and requesting help in Rome are skirmished by police, with two of the residents sustaining injuries. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Star)
- Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev is charged with the rape of a boy in Thailand. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Law and politics
- Two men from Cameroon and Iran "unanimously" win asylum in the UK in a landmark ruling after initially being rejected and told they could hide their homosexuality by "behaving discreetly". (BBC) (Reuters) (The Scotsman) (Daily Express)
- A Paris court sentences former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to seven years in jail for money laundering in France for the Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s. (Canadian Press via Google News) (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Bangkok Post)[permanent dead link]
- The Constitutional Court of Turkey annuls key parts of government-backed constitutional reforms designed for possible European Union membership, rejecting opposition calls for the rest to be rejected as well and permitting the rest to be put to a national referendum in September. (BBC)
- Israeli Uri Brodsky, suspected of assisting the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, is permitted to be extradited from Poland to Germany. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
- Israel rejects as "failed to meet the criteria" the application of Fatima Sharif, the Gaza human rights attorney who hoped to study for a master's degree in human rights and democracy at Birzeit University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Reuters)
- Cuba releases 52 political prisoners in its aim to improve its human rights record, the largest number the country has released for decades. (BBC) (Aljazeera)
- China executes Wen Qiang, Chongqing's top justice official, in its crackdown on corruption. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Standard) (Xinhua)
- An openly gay cleric is blocked from becoming a Church of England bishop amid fears his consecration might split the Church. (The Daily Telegraph)
- Tunisia jails Fahem Boukadous, the journalist who covered violent protests in Gafsa in 2008. Boukadous was already in hospital with breathing problems before his jailing. (BBC) (News24.com)
- Human Rights Watch calls on Iran to stop the execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman convicted of adultery. She denies the charges. (BBC)
- French prosecutors launch an investigation into alleged illegal campaign funding for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (BBC News)
- New Zealand environmental activist Peter Bethune is given a two year suspended sentence in a Tokyo District Court for his role in boarding a Japanese whaling ship. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Guardian) (BBC) (CNN)
- A Nigerian hospital worker is arrested for possessing bags that contain more than 70 dead babies. (BBC)
Business
- ISPs in Africa have service disruption after the SEACOM underwater cable failed. Emergency repairs are expected to take days to complete. (BBC)
- Apple Inc. bans a developer from the iTunes Store for hacking the accounts of 400 users. (BBC News)
- Blizzard Entertainment announces it is to force people playing its World of Warcraft game to post under their real name. (BBC) (Boston Globe) (CBC News)
- The European Union reveals its list of 91 stress test banks. (BBC)
Sport
- FIFA World Cup 2010
- Spain defeats Germany 1-0 to win its semi-final and for its first time, along with Netherlands make the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final. (ESPN)
- The Ghanaian Sports Minister asks FIFA to change its rules after the elimination of their national team, and calls for the African Union to campaign against the "allegedly unfair treatment" of African teams. (BBC News)