July 31, 2009 (Friday)
- Nigerian battles
- The commander of the operation against the Boko Haram group claims that Islamic sect leader Mohammed Yusuf was alive when captured. (BBC)
- Human Rights Watch calls for a probe into the death. (Al Jazeera)
- Spain
- Spain is on red alert as ETA marks its 50th anniversary following the bombing of Burgos and the bombing of Palma Nova. (Deutsche Welle) (RTÉ)
- An airport in Ibiza is evacuated as police search for four male and two female suspects. (The Daily Telegraph)
- Venezuela
- A new media law limiting freedom of speech, under which journalists could be imprisoned for publishing "harmful" material, is placed before the National Assembly. (BBC) (El Universal) (Miami Herald)[permanent dead link] (The Washington Post)
- The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) says the bill is "a devastating blow at the remains of democracy" in Venezuela. (El Universal)[permanent dead link]
- U.S. House of Representatives approves an extra $2 billion to the Car Allowance Rebate System. (The Wall Street Journal)
- A Norwegian cargo vessel with a crew of six sinks after a storm in Swedish waters near Strömstad. (CBC) (Reuters) (RTÉ)
- Eight Dutch tourists are killed and 42 people are injured in a bus crash near Barcelona. (Bangkok Post) (RTÉ) (The Times of India)
- Patrizia D'Addario, the escort at the centre of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex scandal, claims he and his party offered her a seat in the European Parliament until his wife complained. (BBC)
- Gazprom launches construction of the Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok gas pipeline. (Reuters) (UPI)
- British Airways loses £148m in the last three months, the company's first loss since privatisation in 1987. (Sky News)
- The verdict in the trial of National League for Democracy General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, scheduled for today, is postponed until August 11. (Bangkok Post) (Al Jazeera) (RTÉ) (The Straits Times)
- Twenty-nine people are killed in Iraq after bombs explode at Shiite mosques in Baghdad. (Yahoo News)
- Space Shuttle Endeavour lands at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States, ending a 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). (BBC)
- Aerial photographs reveal the streetplan of the lost Roman city of Altinum, regarded by some scholars as a forerunner of Venice. (BBC) (Der Spiegel) (The Times)
- Briton Gary McKinnon, accused of carrying out the biggest ever U.S. military hacking operation, loses his court appeal to have his case heard in Britain, and faces extradition to the United States. (CNN) (RTÉ)
- Filmmaker Benicio del Toro is presented with the International Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Prize by the Cuban government in Havana. (BBC) (The New York Times)
- Research claiming to have created human sperm in a Newcastle laboratory is withdrawn due to evidence of plagiarism. (The Daily Telegraph)
- Three United States tourists are detained by Iranians in Iraq. (BBC)
- The giant Swiss bank UBS and that nation's government have agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against UBS by United States tax authorities, in an agreement that seems likely to result in giving the Internal Revenue Service access to thousands of previously secret U.S. client accounts. (Globe & Mail)
- A church in Copenhagen offers blessings to 18 same-sex couples from around the world who are typically chastised. (The Copenhagen Post)