January 2007
January 2007 is the first month of that year. It began on a Monday and 31 days later, ended on a Wednesday.
[edit] International holidays
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- Raymond Van Barneveld beats Phil Taylor 7-6 in sets to win the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship and collects £100,000.
- The Bulgarian political party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, which had only been founded on 2006-12-03 by Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov, instantly comes second in a public poll on party support, trailing only the Bulgarian Socialist Party. (Angus-Reid)
- The Palestinian factional violence flares up again. (Ynet)
- War in Somalia:
- Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union. (IHT) (BBC)
- Slovenia adopts the euro, replacing the tolar and becoming the second enlargement to the eurozone. (IHT) (BBC)
- CITIC, a state-owned investment enterprise of the Chinese government, buys Nations Energy Company, a Canadian petroleum extraction company, giving it a majority stake in KazMunayGas, the state-owned oil and gas company in Kazakhstan, for USD $1.91 billion. The deal is highly controversial because of the amount of control China now has over Kazakhstan's natural resources. Kazakh Oil Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov has criticized the deal since it was first considered in October 2006. (The Boston Herald)
- The Armenian government detains citizen Vahan Aroyan for allegedly plotting a coup d'état against Armenian President Robert Kocharyan. The Association of Armenian Volunteers, a political opposition group, denounces Aroyan's detainment, saying the move is an attempt to silence dissidence. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
- Adam Air Flight 574 disappears over Indonesia with 102 people on board. (Sky News)
- In Switzerland civil unions for same-sex partners are possible.(Tagesanzeiger)
- Irish becomes the 21st official language of the European Union
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- Buffalo American terrorist James Charles Kopp has appealed his sentence to federal court. Jury selection is underway. (WKBW)
- Josefa Iloilo is restored as President of Fiji by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, leader of the December 2006 coup d'état. (AP)
- A Russian Soyuz 2 rocket body re-enters the atmosphere as "space junk", breaking up and disintegrating over Denver, Colorado, and is seen throughout the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The rocket was used to launch the French CoRoT astronomy satellite on December 27, 2006. None of the "space junk" fragments are confirmed to have struck Earth. (KMGH) (KDVR)
- Quadrantids meteor shower of 2007: An irregular metallic object, the size of a golf ball and the weight of a can of soup, severely damages a house in Freehold Township, New Jersey. No one is injured. (Fox News)
- Nancy Pelosi is elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and becomes the first woman to hold that post. (CNN)
- The New Way Forward in Iraq War leadership:
- NASA announces Nature article, Cassini-Huygens found methane lakes on Titan, a moon of Saturn. (NASA) (Saturn Daily)
- Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of the United States Congress and the first African American elected to the House from Minnesota is sworn in using Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an. (AP via The Guardian), (Asian Tribune), (Al Jazeera), (CTV)
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- A bus bomb near the Sri Lankan town of Nittambuwa kills 5 and injures at least 30. The Sri Lankan government declares the Tamil Tigers responsible, but the rebel group denies involvement. (BBC News) (UPI)
- In the Canadian city of Vancouver, the roof of the world's largest air supported domed stadium, BC Place Stadium, is intentionally deflated due to a tear in a fabric panel. (Vancouver Sun)
- Alexander Litvinenko poisoning: Traces of polonium-210 have been found in a second restaurant in London. The Health Protection Agency had been monitoring the establishment in connection with the Alexander Litvinenko assassination. (BBC News)
- Team Canada wins its third straight gold medal at the IIHF world junior ice hockey championship with a 4-2 win over Russia on Friday in Leksand, Sweden. (CBC News)
- A second victim of the National Express Coach crash, a male, is still not identified. Authorities have appealed to the public in the hopes of identifying the victim. (BBC News)
- Four are injured in a coach crash in the French Alps. (BBC)
- Hitachi breaks the 1 terabyte barrier in hard disk drive capacity. (PC World), (Bloomberg)
- Josefa Iloilo appoints Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the leader of the December 2006 coup d'état, as Prime Minister of Fiji. (BBC)
- United States President George W. Bush will nominate Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to replace Alejandro Daniel Wolff as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If Khalilzad is confirmed by the Senate, he will be the first Muslim to serve in the position, and he will continue to be the highest serving Muslim American official in the U.S. government. (USA Today)
- Australia beats England by ten wickets in the final Ashes cricket test match. The 5-0 series whitewash is only the second in history, the previous being in the 1920-1921 series. It is the final test match for Australian team members Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer. (The Australian)
- Leading U.S. Democrats oppose Bush's plan of deploying more troops to Iraq, calling it "a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed." (CNN) (Reuters)
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- An overnight storm knocked out power to thousands in the Vancouver and Victoria area. The storm also uprooted trees in Stanley Park, and filled BC Place with water after the roof tore open a day earlier. (MSN News) (CTV.ca)
- The Sunday Times (UK) reports that Israel has drawn up plans to possibly destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons in the event that U.S. intervention does not occur, and non-nuclear strikes are ruled out. Iran has responded saying that "anyone who attacks will regret their actions very quickly." Israel denies such plans were made.(Times)(The Jerusalem Post)(Haaretz)
- A second bus bomb in Sri Lanka, this time near the tourist resort of Hikkaduwa has killed at least 15 and injured dozens more. The Sri Lankan government declared the Tamil Tigers responsible, but the rebel group is denying involvement. (BBC News) (Reuters) (The Asian Tribune)
- At least 40 people have died in a bus crash in Comilla, Bangladesh. (BBC News) (The Telegraph)
- Nine bound and gagged bodies are found in grave in Uruapan, Michoacan state, Mexico. Drug gangs are suspected. (BBC News)
- The British Army raises its maximum recruitment age from 26 years to 33, but denies that this is a reaction to a failure to recruit sufficient young people. The normal term of engagement remains 22 years, meaning that some soldiers could still be serving to age 55. (BBC News)
- Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and billionaire has joined the "budget space race" with a test burn of the Blue Origin passenger rocket, the New Shepard. (The Guardian)
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- The United States Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal of Gilmore v. Gonzales, which was a challenge to travel papers and secret laws. (USAToday) (PapersPlease)
- An unknown odor persists in Manhattan, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey throughout much of the day, resulting in the evacuation of several high-rise buildings and the temporary shutdown of PATH train service under the Hudson River. (CNN)
- Russian oil supplies to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine are cut as the Russia-Belarus energy dispute escalates. (BBC)
- It is reported that Chinese police killed 18 members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement organization and arrested 17 others in a raid in the Pamir Plateau on 5 January. ETIM members shot and killed one officer and wounded another. Police found 22 grenades and enough explosive material to make 1,500 more. (Xinhua) (USA Today) (BBC)
- War in Somalia:
- Kazakh Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov unexpectedly resigns without explanation. Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov, Akhmetov's longtime rival, is expected to replace him. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
- SPÖ and ÖVP agree on a coalition government after the October 2006 Austrian elections. Both parties will get an equal share of ministers with the SPÖ's Alfred Gusenbauer set to become Chancellor of Austria, and the ÖVP has had more success in implementing their demands in the coalition agreement. The government will be sworn in on 11 January. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
- Indonesian naval ships discover large metal objects off the west coast of Sulawesi that could possibly be the wreckage of Adam Air Flight 574 missing a week ago. (BBC) (CNN)
- The Principality of Sealand, a micronation off the English coast, is put up for sale. (The Times)
- Mounir El Motassadeq is sentenced by a court in Hamburg, Germany to 15 years in jail for his role in the planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks. (BBC)
- The discovery of the first example of a "triple quasar" is announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. (BBC)
- Chicago Alderman Arenda Troutman is arrested by the FBI and charged with accepting a bribe from a federal informant as part of an undercover investigation. (Chicago Sun Times)
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chooses Patti Smith, R.E.M., Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, the Ronettes, and Van Halen as 2007 inductees. (Reuters) (Billboard) (Detroit Free Press) (CBC)
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- U.S. President George W. Bush announces, in a televised address, his strategy change in response to Iraq Study Group criticisms. This will involve a surge of 21,500 more troops to fight in the War in Iraq. (CNN)
- The Tajik Parliament approves a Memorandum of Understanding between Tajikistan and Iran agreeing to begin a nuclear program with assistance from the Iranian government in building a power plant. Tajikistan is the second nation in Central Asia to pursue a nuclear program, the other being Kazakhstan. (IRNA)
- Kazakhstan political shakeup of 2007: Karim Masimov is confirmed by the Parliament of Kazakhstan as Prime Minister. Massimov appoints his former superior and political rival Daniyal Akhmetov to Defense Minister and Economy Minister Aslan Musin to Deputy Prime Minister. (IHT)
- Sudan adopts a new currency; the Sudanese pound replaces the Sudanese dinar. The change is part of reconciliation measures after the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War. (E Canada Now)
- Mirsad Bektašević, a 19-year-old Swedish citizen of Bosnian descent, is convicted of terrorism-related charges by a court in Sarajevo and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. (Reuters) (The Local)
- War in Somalia: Somali official says that a senior al-Qaeda suspect responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa eight years ago is possibly killed in a U.S. airstrike in the Battle of Ras Kamboni. (AP via ABC News) (CNN) (CBS)
- Two Squirrel helicopters collide at RAF Ternhill in Shropshire, UK, killing one and injuring two others. (BBC News)
- Iranian news agency reports a UFO has crashed in the Kerman province. (Fars News Agency)
- India launches four satellites at a time with their PSLV-C7 rocket, including the SRE-1 test article, which will return to Earth in a test for a future Indian manned spaceflight program. (Reuters)
- The European Commission announces proposals for the EU to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 and 60% by 2050 in order to mitigate global warming. (BBC News)
- Following the 2006 general election, Daniel Ortega becomes the new President of Nicaragua, replacing Enrique Bolaños. (CBS)
- The Social Democratic Party of Austria, the future majority partner in the grand coalition government that will be sworn in in Austria on January 11, 2007, announces its future ministers. (Gulf Times)
- Start of the 12th ASEAN Summit and 2nd East Asia Summit in Metro Cebu, Philippines. Meetings involve heads of the 10 member states and 6 dialogue partners with major discussions on relevance, diplomacy, security, economy and free trade and other important global issues. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- A general strike starts in Guinea, with trade unions calling for pay rises, the return to jail of Mamadou Sylla and the resignation of President Lansana Conté. (BBC)
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