Portal:Current events/2008 July 21

Current events of July 21, 2008 (2008-07-21) (Monday)

The Congress of France (the National Assembly and the Senate meeting together) passes a bill that would make major changes to the Constitution of France, with a margin of only one vote; this bill is designed to strengthen Parliament, while establishing a two-term presidential term limit and allowing the President to speak before Parliament.(BBC News) Russia and China sign a pact demarcating their 4,300-kilometer border, bringing an end to more than 40 years of negotiations. (BBC News) Fugitive Radovan Karadžić, indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, is arrested in Serbia. (BBC News) The United States Food and Drug Administration finds the same salmonella strain responsible for the 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak in Mexican-grown jalapeño peppers. (AP via Google News) The first terrorism trial of a Guantanamo Bay inmate begins with Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the former driver and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, pleading not guilty. (CBC) Yahoo! reaches a deal with Carl Icahn giving him three seats on its board of directors. (Bloomberg) Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe introduces a new 100-billion-dollar bank note as the annual inflation rate hits 2.2 million percent. (BBC News) (The Guardian) Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change sign an agreement to start talks on a powersharing arrangement in Zimbabwe. (AP via Google News) Nepal's presidential election concludes with Ram Baran Yadav winning with a majority. (China Daily) At least three people die and 14 are injured in deliberate explosions on buses in the city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in the People's Republic of China. (Reuters) A United States Air Force B-52 bomber crashes near Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. (AP via MSNBC) Pope Benedict XVI holds a special mass in Sydney for victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic Church clergy. (Al-Jazeera)