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Ninety New Zealanders evacuated from Lebanon Ninety New Zealanders have been evacuated from war-torn Lebanon and are on their way to the safety of Cyprus. Three ships are helping in the evacuations, two British Navy and one United Nations (UN) chartered ferry International bodies express concern over Israel-Hezbollah conflict International humanitarian organisations and human rights watchdogs have expressed concerns over the rising civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis caused by the ongoing conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel.

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Bush uses his first veto ever on stem cell bill U.S. President George W. Bush has used the first veto of his presidency on a bill for federal funding of scientific research which uses embryonic stem cells.

Wikipedia Current Events
The Supreme Court of Japan rules that foreign governments are no longer immune to lawsuits filed in Japan. Israel moves thousands of troops to the Lebanese border including reserves to deal with fierce fighting. Israel is continuing its Lebanon military offensive, with war planes bombing more than 40 targets, mainly in southern parts of Beirut, on Friday. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will outline a plan for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and will tour the area next week. The UN-led call for a ceasefire is blocked by the US, UK and Israel. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, appears in court in The Hague to face 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper assigned airforce aircraft to pick up Canadians in Lebanon
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper fulfilled his promise to use his own assigned airforce aircraft to pick up Canadians fleeing from the assault on Lebanon and who are currently stranded in Cyprus.

About one hundred people were taken on board the Prime Minister's aircraft and flown out of the Cyprus with Harper.

Harper, who greeted the evacuees, told the media in an interview that the situation was challenging for the government due to the numbers of Canadians fleeing the war torn region by boat to Cyprus.

Canada has one of the largest groups of nationals in Lebanon of any country in the world, and has already seen eight citizens killed in an Israeli air strike to date.

"Today has been a successful day, as far as the evacuation has gone," "Nothing is perfect in ideal circumstances, and this is a war zone." said, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

Ninety New Zealanders evacuated from Lebanon
Ninety New Zealanders have been evacuated from war-torn Lebanon and are on their way to the safety of Cyprus. Three ships are helping in the evacuations, two British Navy and one United Nations (UN) chartered ferry.

There are 1,500 people onboard the two British ships "There are definitely New Zealanders aboard, but there just isn't an actual passenger list. We're hoping there are quite good numbers of New Zealanders onboard," Helen Tunnah, a spokeswoman for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), said.

Officer Andrew Greig's family, which includes his wife and two sons, are onboard the UN ferry.

This evacuation comes after Britain announced it will conduct a formal evacuation, which also includes New Zealand citizens because New Zealand does not have an embassy in Lebanon.

Israel has been attacking Lebanon for three weeks, trying to rescue an Israeli solider. Two Israeli soldiers have already died due to this conflict and as well as two Hizbollah fighters.

MFAT will help the New Zealand evacuees find accommodation and help them with getting travel arrangements. "Because of the sheer number of people wishing to leave, it is expected to take days before the evacuation is completed," Helen Tunnah said.

Microsoft to buy back US$40 B of its stock over 5 years
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT, HKSE:4338) has announced plans to buy back US$40 billion of its stock between now and 2011.

(All further figures in this article are in U.S. Dollars.)

Microsoft, the world's largest maker of computer software, will make a tender offer to repurchase $20 billion of its own stock by August 17, and will purchase another $20 billion by 2011. This is in addition to a previous $30 billion stock buyback offer it completed two years ago.

The company plans to accept offers in the form of a modified Dutch or 'reverse auction', and based on those offers for stock, come up with a price no less than $22.50 and no more than $24.75, that allows it to buy up to about 8.1% of the common shares outstanding, up to either 808,080,808 shares, or $20 billion. The company stated that it will not purchase shares below a price stipulated by a shareholder, and in some cases, may actually purchase shares at prices above a shareholder's indication under the terms of the modified Dutch auction. Prior to the announcement, Microsoft shares were trading at $22.75, with the announcement causing share prices to rise $1.32, or 5.8%, to $24.17.

Microsoft has been criticized in the past for "sitting on" huge reserves of cash without making additional purchases of companies or technology.

The company expects to sell more units of its Xbox 360 game console, which currently is unprofitable, helping to shore up weaker earnings from its Office flagship software package, of which a new version is not expected until sometime next year.

On July 20 the company said profit for the year will be $1.43 to $1.47 a share, an increase from an April forecast of $1.36 to $1.41. For the quarter ending September, expected profit will be 30-32c/share on revenue of between $10.6-$10.8 billion. For fiscal 2006, earnings were 11% higher than the previous year, at $12.6 billion on revenues of $44.28 billion, or $1.20 per share. In the year-ago quarter, Microsoft reported net income of $3.70 billion, with legal expenses of 5 cents per share plus tax benefits of 9 cents per share. This produced a net income of 34 cents per share for the quarter, opposed to the 31 cents which would have occurred without the tax benefits. For the previous fiscal year, income was $12.25 billion on revenue of $39.79 billion, or $1.13 per share.

Microsoft held an audio webcast at 2:30 p.m. PDT (5:30 p.m. EDT) July 20 with Chris Liddell, senior vice president and chief financial officer, Frank Brod, corporate vice president and chief accounting officer, and Colleen Healy, general manager of Investor Relations. The session may be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/msft. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on July 20, 2007.

Indonesia's president visits victims of tsunami
Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, visited the area worst hit by the tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Java Monday afternoon. Mr Yudhoyono toured the small town of Pangandaran meeting people who were staying in a temporary camp. Many of them are too scared to return home after the huge wave killed nearly 550 people. The tsunami was produced by an underwater earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale.

At the camp, Mr Yudhoyono told one woman to "be strong". According to a relief worker, about 3,000 people have taken refuge at the site, but only about 500 of them have lost their homes. She said people are too scared to go home because they live on the coast, a sentiment shared by one woman who told AFP: "I did not lose my home, and my husband and child are safe, but we are still traumatised by the tsunami and are too afraid to return home in case another one comes."

West Java Governor Danny Setiawan told journalists that officials are persuading people to return home, and he said a return to normality "could take five to six years".

Aid workers are working to provide relief to the 15,500 people who have been left homeless as a result of the two-meter high wave. Yesterday, 15 tonnes of rice and 1,600 boxes of instant noodles were dropped, but some residents have said government assistance is necessary for them to regain their livelihoods. One woman told Reuters, "I don't have anything, only 5,000 rupiah (£0.30, $0.55) in my wallet. The government should give us money to buy houses and a boat."

It is estimated over 300 people are still missing, and the army and police are using helicopters, boats and mechanical diggers in the hope of recovering survivors. Lieutenant Colonel Tri Yuniarta has told his 350-strong rescue team in Pangandaran to finish collecting bodies trapped under debris by next Monday.

The Indonesian government has been criticised for failing to inform residents that a tsunami was looming. After the underwater earthquake was detected, US and Japanese agencies issued warning notices, but the government has admitted it was unable to transmit the bulletins to coastal areas. Speaking yesterday, Mr Yudhoyono vowed to hasten efforts to build an early warning system planned after the 2004 Asian tsunami. "We want to expedite efforts to get infrastructure for the tsunami warning system in place," AP quoted him as saying. "I will work with parliament to get the budget".

Survivors have described the tsunami, which struck a 200km stretch of Java's southern coast. A Belgian tourist said he was in a beach side bar when the wave hit. "I saw this big cloud of dark sea water coming up to me".

Indonesia is situated on the Pacific Rim of Fire where 90% of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur.

Khmer Rouge "Butcher" dies ahead of trial
Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, visited the area worst hit by the tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Java Monday afternoon. Mr Yudhoyono toured the small town of Pangandaran meeting people who were staying in a temporary camp. Many of them are too scared to return home after the huge wave killed nearly 550 people. The tsunami was produced by an underwater earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale.

At the camp, Mr Yudhoyono told one woman to "be strong". According to a relief worker, about 3,000 people have taken refuge at the site, but only about 500 of them have lost their homes. She said people are too scared to go home because they live on the coast, a sentiment shared by one woman who told AFP: "I did not lose my home, and my husband and child are safe, but we are still traumatised by the tsunami and are too afraid to return home in case another one comes."

West Java Governor Danny Setiawan told journalists that officials are persuading people to return home, and he said a return to normality "could take five to six years".

Aid workers are working to provide relief to the 15,500 people who have been left homeless as a result of the two-meter high wave. Yesterday, 15 tonnes of rice and 1,600 boxes of instant noodles were dropped, but some residents have said government assistance is necessary for them to regain their livelihoods. One woman told Reuters, "I don't have anything, only 5,000 rupiah (£0.30, $0.55) in my wallet. The government should give us money to buy houses and a boat."

It is estimated over 300 people are still missing, and the army and police are using helicopters, boats and mechanical diggers in the hope of recovering survivors. Lieutenant Colonel Tri Yuniarta has told his 350-strong rescue team in Pangandaran to finish collecting bodies trapped under debris by next Monday.

The Indonesian government has been criticised for failing to inform residents that a tsunami was looming. After the underwater earthquake was detected, US and Japanese agencies issued warning notices, but the government has admitted it was unable to transmit the bulletins to coastal areas. Speaking yesterday, Mr Yudhoyono vowed to hasten efforts to build an early warning system planned after the 2004 Asian tsunami. "We want to expedite efforts to get infrastructure for the tsunami warning system in place," AP quoted him as saying. "I will work with parliament to get the budget".

Survivors have described the tsunami, which struck a 200km stretch of Java's southern coast. A Belgian tourist said he was in a beach side bar when the wave hit. "I saw this big cloud of dark sea water coming up to me".

Indonesia is situated on the Pacific Rim of Fire where 90% of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur.

New Zealand policewoman found moonlighting as prostitute
An Auckland, New Zealand policewoman, who has not been named, has been working part-time as a prostitute. Her employer, Auckland City Police, did not know that she had been working as a prostitute for a limited time. She has been able to keep her police job.

Prostitution became legal in New Zealand in 2003.

The police officer was prostituting herself because of financial difficulties. A person working in the Christchurch sex industry said "It's usually either for debts or drugs."

She is now undergoing counselling.

The New Zealand Police would not comment on how long she had been acting as a prostitute.

Lyn Provost, Deputy Commissioner, said "the nature of the secondary employment was incompatible with policing and would never have been approved."

The police say that if a police officer was to seek secondary employment then it must be signed off, this job hadn't been. It would have been a conflict of interest.

Ron Mark, New Zealand First Party Law and Order spokesman, said "the case is concerning, because while prostitution is legal, it is associated with criminal activity."

A representative of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC) said there were law students and doctors who were sex workers.

"NZPC's philosophy is that we support people that are in that secondary employment ... we support them for their sexual health needs or any other needs ' emotionally, physically, spiritually ' that we can accommodate." a representative of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective said.

Today in History
1099 - First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon was elected the first Protector of the Holy Sepulchre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1456 - Forces under John Hunyadi lifted the Siege of Belgrade and defeated an Ottoman invasion into the Kingdom of Hungary.

1933 - Wiley Post became the first pilot to fly a fixed-wing aircraft solo around the world.

1946 - An Irgun bomb destroyed the headquarters of the British Mandate of Palestine at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90.

2003 - Coalition forces attacked a compound in Mosul, Iraq, killing two of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, the "aces of hearts and clubs" in the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis after the invasion of Iraq.

July 22 is Pi Approximation Day; Feast day of Mary Magdalene.

Quote of the Day

We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong.

We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.

We thought the long train would run to the end of Time.

We thought the light would increase.

Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it.

Now the boar and the asp have power in our time.

Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid.

Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth.

Our children know and suffer the armed men.

~ Stephen Vincent Benet ~

Word of the Day

celerity; n

Speed, rapidity.

(oceanography) The speed of individual waves (as opposed to the speed of groups of waves).

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