November 2007

Nov 3  President Musharraf suspends the constitution and declares a state of emergency, saying he will not allow Pakistan to commit suicide. He blames militant violence and judges who have paralysed government. Restrictions are put on the media and hundreds arrested.

Nov 4  A suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, installs four pairs of sunpowered traffic lights.

Nov 4  A BBC Poll taken in twenty-two countries, including China, suggests that three out of four people "would back energy taxes if the cash [were] used to find new sources of energy, or boost efficiency."

Nov 7  In Russia, according to a C.J.Chivers article in the New York Times, inattention to public safety has created a death rate from fire more than ten times what is typical for Western Europe and the United States. In Russia in 2006 nearly 13 people in every 100,000 died in a fire.

Nov 9  Major-General Joseph Fils, US commander of forces in Baghdad, describes murders there being down 80 percent since June and adds that "the Iraqi people have decided that they've had it up to here with violence." (See Oct 26 for another report of declining violence in Iraq.)

Nov 10  In Iraq, Abu Ibrahim, leader of former insurgents, tells the Associated Press that his fighters ambushed al-Qaida members near Samarra on Friday, killing 18 people and seizing 16 prisoners.

Nov 11 China sentences six Muslims charged with having been involved in a violent separatist movement, including bomb making, in the far west province of Xinjiang. The punishment for at least three of the six will be death.

Nov 11  A survey done by the South African Institute of Race Relations reveals that in 2005 South Africa had 4.2 million living on $1 dollar a day, up from 1.9 million in 1996.

Nov 11  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a plan for Liberia that involves a three-year growth program to reduce poverty and help finance its international debt obligations. The IMF is cancelling Liberia's debt to the agency.

Nov 15  In Saudi Arabia an appeals court gives a 19-year-old rape victim, a Shia, a sentence of 200 lashes and five years in jail. Her seven Sunni assailants receive a prison sentence of between one and five years. The woman was faulted for having been in the company of men with whom she was not related.

Nov 16  In Russia a group calling itself the "True Russian Orthodox Church" has barricaded itself in a cave with supplies as they wait for the end of the world, which they expect in May. Four children are with the group. They threaten to blow themselves up if authorities attack. Their leader is a former engineer, Pyotr Kuznetsov, who is being held by authorities and examined psychologically.

Nov 17  A Japanese whaling fleet leaves for the South Pacific on the 18th and plans to take 1,000 whales including 50 humpbacks until mid-April. Japanese fishery officials claim that the humpbacks have returned to "substantial numbers" – after having been hunted to near extinction four decades ago. Taking 50 from a population of tens of thousands, they say, "will have no significant impact whatsoever."

Nov 23  In Michoacan, Mexico, a Chinese and Mexican investment partnership begins contruction of an auto assembly plant for cars that will retail for as low as $6,280. Production is scheduled to begin by 2010.

Nov 27  Of the 1.5 million or so Iraqi exiles in Syria, around 800 begin their return on busses provided by the Iraqi government, encouraged by news of improved security.

Nov 27  Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, complains that the lack of a united Somalian government and lack of a sufficient number of peacekeepers in Somalia prevent Ethiopian forces from withdrawing from their fight against Islamists there, whom the Ethiopians see as a threat to their country.

to October 2007 | to December 2007

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