Portal:Current events/2008 January 16

January 16, 2008 (Wednesday)

The proposed lyrics for the Spanish national anthem are withdrawn. (AP via The International Herald Tribune)
The discovery of Tahina spectabilis, a palm in northern Madagascar that dies after flowering, is announced. (BBC News)
Three United States Army soldiers are killed and another two wounded by small arms fire in the northern Salahuddin province of Iraq. (Reuters)
War in Somalia (2006–2009): A huge blast in Mogadishu targeted an Ethiopian army convoy as it drove through a major intersection, killing seven soldiers on board, witnesses reported. (Garowe Online)
War in Pakistan (2004–present); Sararogha Fort raid: Islamic militants overrun and capture a Pakistani military outpost, Sararogha Fort, close to the Afghan border in a battle that kills seven Pakistani soldiers and leaves 20 missing. The Pakistani military claims 50 attackers also died. (AP via Google News)
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister, resigns from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with 10 party colleagues resigning from the government as well. (AFP via Google News)
The Israel Defense Forces are dispatched to evacuate two settlements on the West Bank. (AP via Google News)^{[permanent dead link]}
A roadside bomb hits a bus in Buttala in southeastern Sri Lanka killing at least 23 people and injuring 67 others. (AP via Yahoo! News) (CNN)
Sun Microsystems announces the acquisition of MySQL AB, a leading open source relational database management system vendor, for US$1 billion. (AP via Google News)