2008 - Lebanon’s new government won a vote of confidence, securing approval for a policy statement that recognises Hezbollah’s right to use all means possible to regain Israeli-occupied land claimed by Lebanon. One hundred members of the 128-seat parliament voted in support of the cabinet, formed as part of a deal that defused a deep conflict between the US-backed majority coalition and an opposition alliance led by Hezbollah. Hezbollah and its allies hold effective veto power in the new unity government headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The policy statement recognises the right of Lebanon, its government.
Other important events
1851 - Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, is launched.
1964 - South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies.
1971 - Syria severs diplomatic relations with Jordan as border fighting breaks out.
1972 - Last US ground combat unit in South Vietnam is deactivated.
1985 - A Japanese Boeing 747 carrying 524 people crashes in the mountains near Tokyo.
1988 - Rebels seize a major Afghan town for the first time, taking the northern provincial capital of Kunduz as Soviet troops pulled out.
2000 - A Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, sinks in the Barents Sea after two explosions in its weapons bay, killing 118.
2005 - Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is assassinated in Colombo.
2014 - US and Australia sign a Force Posture Agreement in Sydney.
