Portal:Current events/2007 January 31

January 31, 2007 (Wednesday)

Lord Levy, The British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Middle East Envoy, and the Labour Party's chief fundraiser (or 'Lord Cashpoint') is arrested for a second time in the Cash for Honours investigation by John Yates of Scotland Yard. This time Levy is arrested on account of perverting the course of justice.
French President Jacques Chirac, in an interview with the International Herald Tribune, says that if the Government of Iran produces one or two nuclear weapons it will pose little danger to its neighbors. If Iran were to try to use a nuclear weapon against Israel, "It would not have gone off 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed to the ground." He later retracts his statements, saying he did not realize his comments were on the record. (International Herald Tribune)
Ross Wilson, the Ambassador of the United States to Turkey, says the Bush administration opposes a bill in the United States Congress that will recognize the Armenian Genocide, which the United States Government does not recognize. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is criticized after it is revealed that he described the Kyoto global warming protocol as a "socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations" in a 2002 letter. (CBC)
Bolat K. Nurgaliyev, Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Japan, is elected Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Nurgaliyev previously served as Ambassador to the United States and to the Republic of Korea. He stressed the need for the SCO to fight against the Three Evils. (CEN)
US Airways, the United States' largest low-cost hub and spoke airline, announced that it was dropping its $9.8 billion bid for Delta Air Lines. The airline dropped the bid after Delta's creditors threw their support behind the airline's plan to emerge from bankruptcy on its own. (US Airways Press Release)^{[permanent dead link]} (BBC) (Bloomberg)
India's TATA Steel buys steel giant Corus Group for £6.7 billion, making it the world's fifth largest steel manufacturer. (Bloomberg) (BBC) (CNN)^{[permanent dead link]} (Wikinews)
A terror plot has been foiled in the UK, where nine people have been arrested in Birmingham under suspicion of planning the kidnap and filmed execution of a British Muslim soldier. The alleged plot intended to pressure Prime Minister Tony Blair into withdrawing British troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. (The Times)
Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of Khalid El-Masri. (BBC)
Archaeologists announce the excavation of the apparent village of the builders of Stonehenge, the largest Neolithic settlement discovered in Britain. (BBC) (Wikinews)
Boston transit officials and the U.S. Coast Guard shut down parts of Interstate 93, two bridges, and a section of the Charles River after the discovery of suspicious devices placed around the city. Turner Broadcasting released a statement that the items were marketing tools placed within ten U.S. cities for the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force. One arrest was made Wednesday. (The New York Times)