Portal:Current events/2005 August 4

August 4, 2005 (Thursday)

Ayman al-Zawahri, a leader of Al-Qaeda, has issued a televised statement blaming Tony Blair and his government's foreign policy for the July 2005 London bombings. (BBC)
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- The Ministry of Housing in Israel has issued tenders for the construction of a further 72 houses in an Israeli settlement of Betar Illit, near Bethlehem, on the West Bank. (BBC)
- Four Israeli Arabs, two Christian and two Muslim, are killed by Eden Nathan-Zadah, member of the banned Jewish extremist Kach party, when he opens fire on a bus in Shfar'am, Israel. He was later lynched by a mob. Nathan-Zadah was AWOL from his IDF post. (Haaretz), (the Guardian) (CNN), (BBC)
In the UK, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has cut its interest rate by a quarter percent to 4.5% (BBC)
The leaders of the recent bloodless Coup in Mauritania name Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, former national police chief, as the new president of the country (Al-Jazeera)
Scientists in Seoul National University, South Korea, have cloned a dog named Snuppy (Dong, South Korea) (Channel News Asia) (Science Daily)
New Zealand's ruling Labour Party state that they plan to set limit to claims to Waitangi Tribunals to 2008 and settlements to 2020 (Stuff) (Channel News Asia) (BBC)
Negotiations between the Philippines government and the National Democratic Front, the political wings of the Communist Party of the Philippines, break down. The Government has ended immunity of their members from arrest (INQ7) (Reuters AlertNet) (IHT)
The African Union suspends Mauritania from the group after the recent coup. (Reuters AlertNet)
Portuguese firefighters fight huge forest fires in the districts of Aveiro, Braga and Porto (Euronews)
Italian scientists have found cocaine residue in the Po River water (Medical News Today) (BBC)
The parliament in Senegal votes to put former prime minister Idrissa Seck on trial for embezzlement and threatening state security. (Reuters SA) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
The Nepalese court rejects criminal Charles Sobhraj's appeal against his life sentence. His lawyer intends to appeal to the United Nations Court of Human Rights (Himalayan Times) (BBC)
The Indian Supreme Court upholds the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal in connection with parliament attack case