July 17, 2008 (Thursday)
- 2008 Pacific typhoon season:
- Typhoon Kalmaegi (Helen) strikes Taiwan, resulting in at least one fatality, eight people missing and four people injured. (AFP via Google News)
- The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that an ethnic Tamil man denied asylum in Britain could not be sent back to his native Sri Lanka because he would be at risk of torture there. (The Daily Mirror)
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifts a warning on tomatoes following a recent salmonellosis outbreak. (Reuters)
- Kuwait names Ali al-Momen as its first ambassador to Iraq since the Gulf War. (AFP via Google News)
- Pope Benedict XVI speaks to 150,000 pilgrims in Sydney for World Youth Day 2008. (The Age)
- The Chinese National People's Congress holds a press conference and releases mid-year financial statistics on the nation's gross domestic product. (Phoenix TV)