Top Stories
Concerns over China Oil subsidary of Unocal buying into US Energy infrastructure Former CIA Director Woolsey talked about the purchase by the government backed China National Offshore Oil Corporation of Unocal Corporation. He said this is definately a strategic energy power move by China, and it was not for economic gains. 54 killed by suicide bomber at Musayyib gas station At least 54 people died today and 82 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a gas station near a mosque in Musayyib. Rep. Waxman: Karl Rove violated non-disclosure agreement Summary of nondisclosure agreement and a factual look at issues related to the Karl Rove controversy.

Wikipedia Current Events
The English version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released at midnight local time across the UK, Ireland and North America. KMT chairmanship election, 2005: Ma Ying-jeou defeats Wang Jin-pyng in a vote for the chairmanship of the Kuomintang (KMT) by 72% to 28% in the first direct election for the post in the party's history.

Next season's Coppa Italia football tournament adopts new format

A new format will be in place this year for the Coppa Italia (TIM Cup).

72 clubs will take part - all 20 from Serie A, all 22 from Serie B, and 30 clubs from Serie C.

All but the 8 Serie A clubs participating in UEFA's European competitions will begin play in the first elimination round. Those 8 will not join until the Round of 16.

The clubs will be seeded 1 (Inter, as defending champion) through 72 with matchups determined accordingly (not through a random draw). So in the first round, #9 seed will play #72, #10 vs #71, etc.

The first three rounds will be just one match, at the field of the lower-seeded team. Overtime and penalties will resolve ties (not replays). From the Round of 16 on, ties will be home-and-away.

The calendar:

Aug 7 - First elimination round

Aug 14 - Second elimination round

Aug 21 - Third elimination round

Nov 30/Dec 8 - Round of 16, 1st leg

Jan 5 - Round of 16, 2nd leg

Jan 25 - Quarterfinals, 1st leg

Feb 1 - Quarterfinals, 2nd leg

March 22 - Semifinals, 1st leg

April 12 - Semifinals, 2nd leg

May 3 - Final, 1st leg

May 11 - Final, 2nd leg

This article contains first-hand journalism by a Wikinews Reporter.

54 killed by suicide bomber at Musayyib gas station

At least 54 people died today when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a gas station near a mosque in Musayyib, about 60 km south of the Iraqi capital. Some 80 people are reported to have been injured.

Witnesses said a fuel tanker was slowly approaching the pumps at the station when the attacker ran towards it and detonated explosives strapped to his body. Police said the resulting huge blast destroyed a nearby apartment complex and damaged the mosque and some small businesses.

The gas station was located near the city-center. Iraqi gas stations normally include a number of small businesses selling tea, soft drinks and snacks where crowds of people often gather.

Mussayib, a religiously mixed town, lies in an area named the "triangle of death," due to the large number of kidnappings and killings of Shiite Muslims traveling between Baghdad and the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

Super Typhoon Haitang to make landfall in Taiwan

Super Typhoon Haitang is expected to make landfall in Taiwan within 48 hours. Haitang is currently a Category 5 typhoon, with winds at 160 mph (257 km/h) and gusts up to 195 mph (317 km/h), and is currently moving west-northwest at 14 knots (16 mph, 26 km/h). As of 12:00 GMT on July 16, Haitang was located at 20.7° N, 127.7° E.

Wind speeds will be slowing over the next few days. In 48 hours, max sustained winds are predicted to be down to 104 mph (167 km/h), with gusts up to 127 mph (204 km/h).

The Taiwan central weather bureau is expected to issue a sea warning later today and possibly a land warning tomorrow.

Shell quits Irish fuel retail market

Oil giant Shell has sold all its retail and distribution operations in Ireland to a distribution and logistics firm called Topaz. The businesses, which are believed to have an annual turnover of over €1bn, include 35 local distribution depots, 6 oil importation facilities, 55 retail service stations and the supply of fuel to 105 independent service stations throughout Ireland.

Shell is retaining its interest in the Corrib Gas field in County Mayo which it is currently developing. Shell has been known for some time to be anxious to exit the increasingly competitive Irish market. Since the arrival of Tesco to the petrol retail market last year, a price war has raged in parts of the country. Although Tesco only operates a limited number of stations in the republic, it has expressed a desire to expand throughout the country.

Ion Equity are the consortium behind the takeover which according to the Irish Independent is valued at over €100m. The business will be headed by former Emo Oil managing director Danny Murray.

Australian wins 2005 World Series of Poker

Australian poker player Joseph Hachem outlasted nearly 6,000 other players and a final table that lasted until nearly 7:00 AM local time to win the 36th World Series of Poker main event title. Hachem won a top prize of US$7.5 million.

On the sixth hand of heads-up play against American Steve Dannenman, Hachem made a seven-high straight on the flop, which held up until the river to give him the win. Dannenman took home US$4.25 million for the second place finish.

Hachem became the first non-American player to win the main event since Spaniard Carlos Mortensen won the title in 2001. He is also the first since Mortensen to win without qualifying through an Internet poker portal.

Notable finishers include Irish professional Andrew Black in fifth place, American professional Mike Matusow in ninth, American professional Phil Ivey in 20th, and 2004 champion Greg Raymer in 25th.

Three British Army soldiers killed in Iraq

The British MoD has confirmed in a statement that three British Army soldiers have been killed in a suspected roadside bomb in southern Iraq.

The three soldiers are from the Warrior-equipped 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment. Two others were wounded, though not life-threateningly.

The MoD spokesman said, "Their families are being informed, and no further information will be released until this process is complete."

The attack — which brings the British forces death toll in Iraq to 92 — took place in central Al Amarah, capital of Maysan province. The city has a population of about 340,000 and has been the scene of previous violence against British forces. Two British soldiers died in the city in May. In 2004, Amarah was the scene of fierce fighting between British forces and Iraqi insurgents, which led to the awarding of the Victoria Cross to Private Johnson Beharry of the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment

The Staffordshire Regiment is the lead component of Task Force Maysan, based in Camp Abu Naji, just outside Amarah. The Task Force has responsibility for the entire province, which is north of Al Basrah province.

It is the largest loss of life in a single day for the British Army since 4 November 2004, when 3 soldiers of the Black Watch were killed in northern Iraq in a suicide car attack. The largest loss of life sustained by British forces as a whole took place on 30 January 2005, when a C-130K transport crashed north of Baghdad, killing nine RAF and one Army personnel.

Suicide bombing in Kusadasi, Turkey

A suicide bomber detonated herself Saturday aboard a minibus heading to popular beach in Kusadasi, an Aegean Sea resort town, killing at least four people, private NTV television said. Three of the victims were foreign tourists, a doctor who treated the casualties said.

Three foreign tourists were among the dead and five foreign tourists were critically injured in the explosion, a doctor at Kusadasi State Hospital said. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The five injured tourists were transferred to Izmir for treatment, the doctor added. According to some sources, there are five injured British tourists.

NTV television said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack on the bus, which was heading to a nearby beach. Kurdish rebels in the past have used female suicide bombers.

The explosion ripped off the roof of the white minibus.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Kurdish rebels have recently carried out bomb attacks in Aegean resort towns.

Earlier this month, a bomb hidden in a soda can wounded 21 people, including three foreign tourists, in the Aegean coastal town of Cesme. On April 30, a bomb in a cassette player killed a police officer and left four others wounded in Kusadasi.

A Kurdish guerrilla group that called itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organization or TAK claimed credit for both attacks and vowed to maintain attacks against tourist areas.

Concerns over China Oil subsidiary of Unocal buying into US Energy infrastructure

At a U.S. House Armed Services Committee meeting broadcast on CSPAN, former CIA Director Woolsey talked about the 18.5 billion dollar bid by the government-backed China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for the purchase of Unocal Corporation. He said this is definitely a strategic energy power move by China, and it was not for economic gains. Others are still worried about EMP.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow heads a committee that can block the takeover. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure in June by a wide margin to form the committee under Snow. U.S. national security concerns are at stake according to analysts and many conservatives.

The United States reluctance to allow China's unsolicited bid for an American oil company surprises some. When Russia claimed their own oil companies could not be bought by Americans for both "strategic" and "national security" reasons, the United States was vehemently opposed to that position.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince released

Crowds line up outside a Borders bookstore in Delaware, USA

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling was released today to hundreds of special midnight parties at bookstores. The book is expected to sell tens of thousands of copies in the first hour, and the waves of fans just keep on coming. As midnight spreads across the Atlantic and the North American continent, more and more stores will start selling.

The Royal Mail UK postal service delivered four hundred tons of the pre-ordered books this morning.

In British Columbia, fourteen copies of the book were accidentally sold at a supermarket on the 7th of July, eight days before the book's official release date. This led publishers to obtain a court order from the British Columbia Supreme Court stating that people who had received the books were forbidden from copying, selling, discussing, or reading the book.

In protest at the ruling, Richard Stallman, an advocate of less restrictive copyright law, called for a boycott of the books after the controversial Supreme Court ruling. He called anybody who "participated in requesting, issuing, enforcing, or trying to excuse" the injunction an "enemy of human rights in Canada."

Space Shuttle Discovery launch on indefinite hold

NASA engineers announced on Friday that the Discovery's launch is being put on hold indefinitely.

"We are going forward on a day by day basis," Space Shuttle Program Deputy Manager Wayne Hale said at a press conference this afternoon. "As soon as we fix the problem, we will be four days from launch. What is that date going to be? We don't know."

Launch controllers are still optimistic about a launch in the current window of opportunity, which lasts until the end of the month. Twelve teams of engineers are working across the US in order to resolve the problem with the fuel tank sensor.

The fuel tank sensor is vital as it shuts down the main engines when fuel is exhausted - if the engines run dry, the results could be disastrous.

When the huge main fuel tank was drained on Wednesday, the sensor continued to indicate "wet" instead of "dry", but in a series of later tests the sensor began performing properly.

Today in History
1815 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoléon surrendered to British forces at Rochefort, France, ending the Hundred Days.

1945 - Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry S. Truman met at the Potsdam Conference to decide how to administer post-World War II Germany.

1975 - History of East Timor: East Timor was annexed and became the 27th province of Indonesia.

1996 - Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 on board.

1998 - Biologists reported in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.
July 17 is Constitution Day in South Korea (1948)

Quote of the Day

"The Bitchun Society has had much experience with restores from backup—in the era of the cure for death, people live pretty recklessly. Some people get refreshed a couple dozen times a year." ~ Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

About Wikinews
We are a group of volunteer journalists whose mission is to create a diverse community where citizens from around the globe (including you) can collaborate to report the news on a wide variety of current events.If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit en.wikinews.org All stories on Wikinews are in the public domain. By making our content perpetually available for free redistribution and use, we hope to contribute to a global digital commons. Wikinews also aims to write stories from a neutral point of view.
Audio Wikinews
Audio Wikinews is a public domain, non point-of-view news radio program recorded daily. News Briefs are short, on-the-hours breaking news updates; while Full Reports are a thorough review of the day's news. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Audio_Wikinews
About Wikinews Print Edition
For more information about Wikinews Print Edition visit: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Print_edition

Sunday, July 17, 2005	Wikinews	Page 3

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit www.wikinews.org

July 17, 2005	The free-content news source that you can write!	Page 3

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit en.wikinews.org

Wikinews Back Page

2005-07-16T20:07:09