Portal:Current events/2006 July 15
July 15, 2006 (Saturday)
- The 32nd G8 summit begins in Saint Petersburg, Russia. (BBC)
- The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution calling for weapons-related sanctions against North Korea. North Korea rejects the resolution. (AP)
- The 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games begin in the city of Cartagena, Colombia.
- British troops in Afghanistan are undertaking their biggest operation since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. (BBC)
- US President George W. Bush claims that the United States and Russia had almost reached agreement on Russia joining the World Trade Organization. Bush met with Vladimir Putin prior to the G8 meeting in Strelna. (Bloomberg)
- 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis:
- The presidents of the US and Russia differ in emphasis in voicing concern about the Mid-East crisis at the 32nd G8 summit in Strelna.(BBC)
- US President George W. Bush calls for Syria to urge Hezbollah to "lay down its arms and to stop attacking". Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov calls Hezbollah to "cease using terrorist methods, including attacks on neighboring countries". (Haaretz)
- Hezbollah fires more than a hundred Katyusha rockets against the Israeli cities of Tiberias, Karmiel, Nahariya and Safed, as well as numerous towns. Several civilians are injured as residential areas are heavily damaged. Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz is about to sign a "home front emergency" declaration, enabling local security forces to shut down schools and close certain areas for traffic, narrowing the damages of the expanding fighting. (Haaretz), (Ynet)
- Israel Air Force strikes Hezbollah targets and facilities in Lebanon. An Israeli general says all Lebanese coastal radars were destroyed, after they took part in the attack on an Israeli missile boat on Friday, killing 4 soldiers. Lebanese police reports at least 23 civilians are killed when an Israeli missile hits a van in southern Lebanon, after fleeing from a village and refused shelter by local UN forces. (Ynet), (Al-Jazeera), (Haaretz), (CNN),(BBC)
- United Nations Security Council turns down for now a Lebanese request to impose a cease-fire. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Israel would not end its military operation in Lebanon until the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1559, which calls for disarming Hezbollah and the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon. (Haaretz), (SF Gate)
- Since Wednesday morning, Hezbollah militants fired about 700 rockets against Israeli towns, killing 4 civilians and wounding more than 500. More than 100 Lebanese have been killed and hundreds were injured, including many civilians and an undisclosed number of Hezbollah militants. (Ynet), (Al-Jazeera)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Operation Summer Rains):
- Two Hamas militants killed in two Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, one of them on a house in Gaza city. (Reuters)[permanent dead link], (BBC), (Mediafax)[permanent dead link], (Ynet), (Haaretz), (Al-Jazeera)