2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
The women's division employed a slightly more complicated format. The fourth and fifth placed sides faced off against one another with the winner taking on third place to earn a right in the preliminary final. The top two sides competed in a major semi final with the winner progressing to the final and the loser taking the second spot in the preliminary final. The remaining spot in the World Cup final was assumed by the winner of the preliminary final.


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
Semi Final 1 (1st vs 4th) - winner to final, loser to bronze medal match


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
Semi Final 2 (2nd vs 3rd) - winner to final, loser to bronze medal match


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
Bronze Medal Match - winner receives bronze medal, loser to World Cup Plate final


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
Major Semi Final (1st vs 2nd) - winner to final, loser to preliminary final


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
Qualifying Final (3rd vs 5th) - winner to minor semi final, loser knocked out


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Semi finals
Minor Semi Final - winner to preliminary final, loser knocked out


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Finals
World CupThe World Cup final was contested between Australia and South Africa. This final was the sixth consecutive appearance in a World Cup final and was the first for South Africa. Despite performing below expectations early in the tournament, Australia easily accounted for England in their semi final. The South African side, on the other hand, came through a tough encounter with the New Zealand side by just three runs.


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Finals
In the end, Australia managed a narrow but comfortable victory to claim their sixth consecutive title.


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Finals
World Cup PlateA secondary and subordinate final was played between England (the loser of the bronze medal match) and France (the highest ranked side from the bottom three teams). England rebounded from their heavy loss against New Zealand in the bronze medal match to claim the first Plate title.


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Finals
Women's DivisionThe Women's World Cup Final featured Australia and South Africa. South Africa entered the side as favourites having accounted for Australia in all but one of their encounters in the earlier stages of the World Cup. Australia, however, rebounded and managed to claim their fifth consecutive World Cup title.


2007 Indoor Cricket World Cup, Player of the tournament
Nineteen year old Lee Irwin of Australia was awarded player of the tournament.


2007 Indy Japan 300
The 2007 Indy Japan 300 was an IndyCar Series motor race held on April 21, 2007, at the Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Tochigi, Japan. It was the third race of the 2007 IndyCar Series season, the fifth annual edition of the Indy Japan 300 in the IndyCar Series, and the tenth anniversary running of the race (including its five years on the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) schedule). Andretti Green Racing driver Tony Kanaan won the race with a 0.4828 second margin of victory over Chip Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon. Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top five.


2007 Indy Japan 300
Hélio Castroneves, the defending champion of the Indy Japan 300, won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying. In the race, Wheldon gained the lead from Castroneves on lap 44 and led for more than half of the 200 laps, but a pit stop with 14 laps remaining forced him to relinquish the top position. Kanaan took the lead because of a late pit stop by Dixon, and held off a late challenge by Wheldon to secure first place.


2007 Indy Japan 300
There were four cautions and nine lead changes among five different drivers during the race. It was Kanaan's first win of the season, and the eighth of his career. The result moved Wheldon into the lead of the Drivers' Championship, three points ahead of Kanaan. Dixon, who led the championship before the race, dropped to third.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Background
The Indy Japan 300 was confirmed as a part of the Indy Racing League's (IRL) 2007 schedule for the IndyCar Series in September 2006. It was to be the fifth consecutive year the race was held in the series, and the tenth Indy Japan 300, counting the period from 1998 to 2002 when it was a CART event. Uniquely in the 2007 season, the race took place at a non-American location. The Indy Japan 300 was the third race scheduled for 2007 by the IRL, out of 17. At this early stage in the season, Dixon held the lead in the point standings with 80 points. Castroneves and Wheldon were tied for second with 75 points, and Kanaan and Hornish Jr. were fourth and fifth on 65 and 61 points, respectively.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Practice
Two days before the race, on April 19, a pair of two-hour practice sessions were held at the Twin Ring Motegi. The racers were split into two groups, which were each allowed to run laps for one hour per session. The first practice session began at 10:30 a.m. Japan Standard Time (JST); five minutes later a yellow caution flag came out due to a crash by Vítor Meira, who was forced into a backup car when he returned later in the day.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Practice
A second caution flag was shown at noon local time to allow for an inspection of the track; 30 minutes later the session came to an end. From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m JST, the second practice session of the day took place. Danica Patrick posted the fastest lap of the day, going around the circuit in 26.9585 seconds in an average speed of 202.979 miles per hour (326.663 km/h). Japanese driver Kosuke Matsuura, who called the Indy Japan 300 his "most important" race of the season, had the second-fastest lap time of the day, followed by Castroneves, Kanaan, and Wheldon.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Practice
Before qualifying took place on April 20, there was a third round of practice from 10:30 a.m. to 12:05 p.m JST; the drivers were each allowed 45 minutes of track time. Two caution flags came out; the first came half an hour into the session when Jeff Simmons spun out coming off the track's fourth turn. The other caution was a track inspection, which came 18 minutes into the second group's allotted time. Kanaan had the best lap of the session; his average speed of 204.465 miles per hour (329.055 km/h) topped Patrick's leading mark from the previous day.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Qualifying
An hour and 25 minutes after the last practice session ended, the 18 drivers determined the starting grid through qualifying. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitors' fastest times. Castroneves, the winner of the 2006 Indy Japan 300, gained pole position with a lap time of 26.6416 seconds; it was the second consecutive year he qualified first. Two-time race winner Wheldon earned the other front-row starting position; his lap was .0328 seconds slower than Castroneves'.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Qualifying
Kanaan and Patrick qualified third and fourth, respectively; they were followed by Hornish Jr. and Dixon, who would start in the third row. Dario Franchitti and Tomas Scheckter qualified in the fourth row, while Matsuura and Marco Andretti rounded out the top 10. The difference between the first and tenth-best lap times was less than three-tenths of a second.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
The conditions on the grid were dry but cloudy before the event with an air temperature between 70–74 °F (21–23 °C) and a track temperature of 80 °F (27 °C). Bridgestone CEO Soshi Arakawa commanded the drivers to start their engines. The race began at 1:00 p.m. JST, as Tomikazu Fukuda, governor of Tochigi Prefecture (location of the Twin Ring Motegi track), waved the opening green flag to signify the start. Shortly afterward, however, Matsuura suffered an accident; he crashed into the turn two wall during the first lap after he spun, and did not return to the race.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
A caution flag came out as a result of the incident; several drivers made pit stops for new tires, fuel and car adjustments during the caution, and Meira made two stops. On lap 9, the field returned to green flag racing, and Castroneves maintained his lead, which reached nearly three seconds by lap 25. The second caution flag of the race was flown on lap 31, to allow for the removal of debris on the track in the fourth turn.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
A round of pit stops occurred during the caution; Castroneves held on to the lead, with Wheldon and Kanaan in second and third. The green flag came back out on lap 39, and Hornish Jr. immediately took third place from Kanaan. Lap 44 saw a lead change as Wheldon passed Castroneves; he would go on to lead 126 of the race's 200 laps. Wheldon gradually increased the lead to almost two seconds by lap 80. Kanaan had risen to second by this point, ahead of Franchitti and Castroneves.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
From laps 81 to 90, pit stops were made by all the drivers. After Ed Carpenter's stop, one of his wheels came off while he attempted to return to the track; he would ultimately finish 15th, eight laps behind. At the end of this series of pit stops under the green flag, Wheldon remained out in front, ahead of Kanaan. By the halfway point of the race, Kanaan had begun to narrow his deficit, which by lap 115 was less than a second.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
Wheldon, meanwhile, was faced with a mechanical problem—his radio was malfunctioning, preventing him from talking to his pit crew; he later said that he and his team "lost radio contact early on". On lap 122, Kanaan made a pass while coming out of turn two, taking the lead from Wheldon. Soon after, the drivers began their third round of pit stops, and Wheldon took back the lead before Andretti was afflicted with oversteer and crashed into the turn four inside wall on lap 135, bringing out a caution flag. The yellow flag period saw pit stops continue.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
Castroneves stopped twice on pit lane on top of a prior stop just before the caution; during the second yellow flag stop, he overshot his designated area on pit road, and his car needed to be pushed into position by crew members. With 51 laps left, the caution period ended, and Wheldon slowly built a gap over Kanaan of 1.8834 seconds entering the final 20 laps.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
Wheldon made a pit stop on lap 186, giving Kanaan, who had been conserving fuel since early in the race, the lead. Four laps later, Kanaan stopped, and the lead briefly went to Hornish Jr., before he too pitted and Dixon assumed the top spot. On lap 196, however, Dixon was also forced into the pits. Kanaan had come off pit road ahead of Wheldon after his stop, and therefore was in position to assume the lead. Wheldon closed in on Kanaan, and by the final lap was less than four-tenths of a second behind.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
Kanaan, though, held off Wheldon to win the race with a .4828 of a second margin of victory. Third place went to Franchitti, who was over 11 seconds off the pace. Dixon was fourth, followed by Hornish Jr., who finished one lap behind the leaders, having stalled his engine on pit road in the closing laps. Scott Sharp was the sixth-place finisher, and early leader Castroneves wound up seventh. Simmons, Scheckter, and Buddy Rice finished eighth through tenth; all other drivers ended the race two or more laps behind.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race
There were nine lead changes in the race; five drivers reached the front of the field. Wheldon's total of 126 laps led was the highest of any competitor. Kanaan led four different times, for a total of 26 laps. The victory was the eighth of Kanaan's IRL career and the first of a series-high five wins he posted in the 2007 season.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race, Post-race
In interviews after the race, Kanaan credited his team's fuel strategy for being the main factor in his victory. During many of the laps that Wheldon led, Kanaan drafted behind him to use less fuel than normal, and he was able to stay on the track longer than other drivers as a result. He said of the strategy, "that's what probably gave me the win." On the other hand, Wheldon later said that his radio problem forced more "conservative" pit stop planning by himself and his team.


2007 Indy Japan 300, Race, Post-race
Third-place finisher Franchitti said: "We had to take the gamble to try to get the win. I thought we had as good a car as TK (Tony Kanaan) and Dan (Wheldon). I think I could have hung with them, but I don't think I could have caught up with them." Matsuura admitted his first-lap accident was his fault and apologized to his Japanese fans. After his accident on the 135th lap, Andretti was taken to the track's infield care center for a precautionary X-ray scan of his right shoulder which showed a negative result. He said that he struggled with controlling his car but was happy. With his second-place finish, Wheldon gained the season points lead with 118, three ahead of Kanaan and six in front of Dixon. The standings were closely contested, with the top six drivers separated by 27 points.


2007 IndyCar Series
The 2007 IRL IndyCar Series began with a night race on Saturday March 24 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The season's premiere event, the 91st Indianapolis 500 was held May 27. The season finale was held at Chicagoland Speedway on September 9. Dario Franchitti, who won four races during the season, including the Indy 500, clinched the 2007 IndyCar Series Championship on the final lap of the final race, by winning the race after points leader Scott Dixon ran out of fuel while leading with less than ⅓ of a lap to go.


2007 IndyCar Series
At the conclusion of the season, Danica Patrick was voted Most Popular Driver for the third consecutive year.


2007 IndyCar Series
All races were televised on the ESPN family of networks. In addition, all races were broadcast live on the IMS Radio Network, and XM IndyCar Channel 145 and simulcast on XM Sports Nation.


2007 IndyCar Series
The 2007 schedule was the twelfth season of the IRL IndyCar Series, and part of the 96th recognized season of top-level American open wheel racing. It was the final season that IndyCar Series ran independently before the IRL merged with Champ Car in 2008. It also marked A. J. Foyt's 50th anniversary of participation in IndyCar racing.


2007 IndyCar Series, Season summary, Schedule
O  Oval/Speedway R  Road course S  Temporary street circuitBOLD indicates Superspeedways.


2007 Insight Bowl
The 2007 Insight Bowl, part of the 2007-08 NCAA football bowl games season, was played on December 31, 2007, at Sun Devil Stadium on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, Arizona.


2007 Insight Bowl
The opponents were the Indiana Hoosiers of the Big Ten Conference and the Oklahoma State Cowboys of the Big 12 Conference. This was the third straight year of the Big 10 and Big 12 tie-ins for this bowl game.


2007 Insight Bowl
Both teams had tumultuous seasons. The Hoosiers' previous head coach, Terry Hoeppner, died in June 2007 and Bill Lynch took over the program. The season-long mantra was "Play 13," as in playing a 13th game, a bowl, after the 12-game regular season. (This is IU's first bowl since 1993.) Meanwhile, Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy became famous throughout North America for a tirade against a sportswriter for The Daily Oklahoman. The outburst was repeated many times on TV sportscasts and online. The Cowboys were 6–6 on the season and unranked nationally. Generally accepted as a disappointing year for the highly touted pre-season offense led by Zac Robinson who replaced Bobby Reid at the starting quarterback position early in the year.


2007 Intense Football League season
The 2007 Intense Football League season was the third season of the Intense Football League (IFL). The league champions were the Louisiana Swashbucklers, who defeated the Corpus Christi Hammerheads in Intense Bowl III on August 11, 2007. The championship game (Intense Bowl III) was the first indoor league championship in history available as a podcast.


2007 InterLiga
The tournament has begun the January 3rd and will give two places in the Copa Libertadores 2007. Eight teams participate in this tournament


2007 Intercity Football League
The 2007 season was the first season of the Intercity Football League in Taiwan. Eight teams were scheduled to compete in the 2007 league season, but Kaohsiung County withdrew before the league's opening. The seven remaining teams were Taipei City (represented by Tatung F.C. ), Taipei County, Tainan City, Tainan County, Chiayi County (sponsored by Le Beau Max Resort), Kaohsiung City, and Yilan County.


2007 Intercontinental Rally Challenge
The 2007 Intercontinental Rally Challenge was the second season of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The season consisted of nine rounds and began on March 9, with the Safari Rally. The season ended on November 11 with the China Rally. Enrique García Ojeda won the title ahead of Nicolas Vouilloz and Andrea Navarra.


2007 International Bowl
The 2007 International Bowl, held on January 6, 2007 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was one of the college American football bowl games that ended the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game pitted the University of Cincinnati against Western Michigan University.


2007 International Bowl, Background
Besides the historic significance of the game itself, the UC–WMU matchup was of particular interest because newly hired Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly coached Central Michigan University during the 2006 regular season. Kelly and Central Michigan, the main rival of WMU, defeated Western Michigan 31–7 just eight weeks earlier. In addition, both schools had been charter members of the Mid-American Conference (WMU is still in the conference today, but UC left after the 1952–53 academic year).


2007 International Bowl, Game summary
The game drew a crowd of 26,717. In this game, Cincinnati jumped out to a 24–0 lead with 10:22 left in the first half, but Western Michigan was able to score 24 unanswered points to tie the game at 24 early in the fourth quarter. The Bearcats defeated the Broncos 27–24 with WMU missing a late 51-yard field goal that could have sent the game into overtime.


2007 International Bowl, Broadcast
The on-air ESPN crew included John Saunders, who was born and raised in Toronto and graduated from WMU; and Doug Flutie, who played two seasons with the Toronto Argonauts, both of which ended in Grey Cup championships.


2007 International Challenge Cup
The 2007 International Challenge Cup was held between March 7 and 11, 2007 in The Hague. Skaters competed in the ladies' single skating across the levels of senior, junior, novice, and the pre-novice discipline called "Debs".


2007 International Criminal Court judges election
A special election for three judges of the International Criminal Court was held during the 6th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in New York on 30 November and 3 December 2007.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election
The election was to replace three judges who had resigned during 2006 and 2007.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Background
The judges elected at this election took office on the date of their elections. Two were to remain in office until 10 March 2012, one judge (to be chosen by drawing of lots) until 10 March 2009.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Background
The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Background
Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Nomination process
Following these rules, the nomination period of judges for the 2007 election lasted from 1 June to 24 August 2007. The following persons were nominated:


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Nomination process
The candidature of Sunday Akinola Akintan of Nigeria was withdrawn.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Minimum voting requirements
Minimum voting requirements governed part of the election. This was to ensure that article 36(8)(a) cited above is fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements existed; they were to be adjusted once the election was underway.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Minimum voting requirements
Regarding the List A or B requirement, there was a minimum voting requirement (not to be waived at any time) of two judges from List A .


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Minimum voting requirements
Regarding the regional criteria, there was no minimum voting requirement.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Minimum voting requirements
Regarding the gender criteria, there was no minimum voting requirement.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Minimum voting requirements
The regional and gender criteria could have been adjusted even before the election depending on the number of candidates. Paragraph 20(b) of the ASP resolution that governed the elections states that if there are less than double the number of candidates required for each region, the minimum voting requirement shall be a (rounded-up) half of the number of candidates; except when there is only one candidate which results in no voting requirement. Furthermore, if the number of candidates of one gender is less than ten, then the minimum voting requirement shall not exceed a certain number depending on the number of candidates.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Minimum voting requirements
The regional and gender criteria could have been dropped either if they were not (jointly) possible any more, or if after four ballots not all seats were filled.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Ballots
The first two ballots took place on 30 November 2007. The other two ballots took place on 3 December 2007.


2007 International Criminal Court judges election, Ballots
The drawing of lots had Saiga serve until 2009 and Cotte and Nsereko until 2012.


2007 International Darts League
The 2007 Tropicana International Darts League was a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands from May 4–12. The tournament was sponsored by Tropicana — a Dutch-based soft drink manufacturer. Raymond van Barneveld entered the tournament as three-times and defending champion.


2007 International Darts League
Darts history was made when the tournament became the first televised event to witness two nine dart finishes. On May 8, Phil Taylor hit his fourth perfect game on television against Raymond van Barneveld and the following night Tony O'Shea matched the effort against Adrian Lewis.


2007 International Darts League
Despite the presence of current BDO and PDC World Champions and four other former world champions in the field, none progressed beyond the quarter-finals. 36 year old Gary Anderson won his first major title with a 13–9 victory over fellow BDO/WDF player Mark Webster.


2007 International Darts League, Prize fund
The total prize fund is €135,000 (plus €26,000 for a nine-dart finish)


2007 International Darts League, 2007 controversy
The staging of the 2007 IDL has been filled with controversy. There have been several format changes, disagreements and even court cases surrounding the event.


2007 International Darts League, 2007 controversy
In 2006 the BDO secured an agreement for 28 of their players to participate in the event until 2010. However, as the popularity of the PDC circuit grew in the Netherlands, the organisers decided to renege on the deal and invite only 12 BDO players. The remaining 20 players would qualify from the PDC including their top 12 ranked players plus four wildcards and four from a PDC/PDPA qualifying event.


2007 International Darts League, 2007 controversy
This led to a threat from the BDO to take court action against the organisers who wanted their agreement upholding. A compromise was reached and the organisers introduced a preliminary round. The original 16 BDO/WDF players who believed they had missed out were to be joined by a further four automatic qualifiers from the PDC Order of Merit and a further four players from an already confirmed qualifying event in April. This expanded the field from 32 to 56 players.


2007 International Darts League, 2007 controversy
However the sponsors of the four wildcard players (Michael van Gerwen, Mervyn King, Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort) were upset that their players had been relegated to the preliminary round when they felt they had an agreement to be automatically into the televised stages. The BDO also felt that all 28 of their players should not have to face a preliminary round. The dispute was resolved on April 25 when a Dutch court rejected the claims of the four wildcard players. Three of the players managed to qualify from the preliminary round with only van der Voort missing out.


2007 International Darts League, 2007 format
The field was scheduled to contain 56 players with 12 automatically from each organisation going into the group stages. Some players from the BDO withdrew citing the uncertainty over the staging of the event as their reason.


2007 International Darts League, 2007 format
Eight players from the preliminary round will go through to join the 24 automatic qualifiers in the group stages.


2007 International Fight League
The first full season of the International Fight League (IFL) was composed of 11 events (9 normal events, 1 semi-final event and 1 final championship event). Over the span of nine events each of the 12 IFL teams competed in 3 events each and the top four teams with the best records advanced to the semi final event. After the semi final event the top two teams met in the Championship event which took place at the Los Angeles Forum. Each of the first 9 events also included at least one superfight. {www.ifl.tv}


2007 International Fight League
1 Originally Ivan Salaverry was supposed to partake in the superfight but along with an IFL agreement he had a contract with the now defunct WFA. After the UFC bought out the WFA Salaverry's contract was put up into limbo preventing him from participating in the superfight.


2007 International Fight League
2 Originally the superfight was to be between IFL coaches Maurice Smith and Marco Ruas but during training Ruas injured himself cancelling this fight. It has now been rescheduled for the May 19th show.


2007 International Formula Master
The 2007 International Formula Master was the inaugural International Formula Master series season. The season started on the weekend of May 18–20 at Valencia, and served as a support series to the World Touring Car Championship in all the latter's European races except Zandvoort, Netherlands.


2007 International GT Open
The 2007 International GT Open season was the second season of the International GT Open, the grand tourer-style sports car racing founded in 2006 by the Spanish GT Sport Organización. It began on 21 April at ACI Vallelunga Circuit and finished on 11 November, at Barcelona after six double-header meetings with one single race round.


2007 International GT Open
Overall championship was won by Autorlando drivers Joël Camathias and Richard Lietz, GTA class was won by Scuderia Playteam SaraFree drivers Michele Maceratesi and Andrea Montermini, while GTS class title was clinched by Riccardo Romagnoli.


2007 International League season
The 2007 International League season took place from April to September 2007.


2007 International League season
The Richmond Braves defeated the Durham Bulls to win the league championship.


2007 International League season, Playoffs
The following teams qualified for the postseason: Durham Bulls, Richmond Braves, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, and Toledo Mud Hens.


2007 International League season, Playoffs, Division Series
Durham (South Division Champion) 3, Toledo (West Division Champion) 0Richmond (Wild Card) 3, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (North Division Champion) 1


2007 International League season, Playoffs, Championship series
Richmond (Wild Card) 3, Durham (South Division Champion) 1 Richmond played in their first Triple A Championship Game against the Sacramento River Cats. They lost to Sacramento. They following season they played their final season in Richmond before relocating to Gwinnett County and being renamed the Gwinnett Braves.


2007 International Pokka 1000km
The 2007 International Pokka 1000km was the sixth round of the 2007 Super GT season and the 36th running of the 1000 km Suzuka. It took place on August 19, 2007.


2007 International Rules Series
The 2007 International Rules Series was to be the 14th series of international rules football to be played between Ireland and Australia since the establishment of the annual international rules series tournament and the 16th tour overall and was to have been held in Australia. The tour, however, was cancelled after violence marred the 2005 and  2006 series, with much of the blame being laid by Irish commentators on the rough tactics of the Australian team. In December 2006, the GAA decided to abandon the 2007 series.


2007 International Rules Series
"On the recommendation of the Management Committee, it was agreed that there would be no Junior or Senior Series of games in 2007."


2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie
The 2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie was a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It was the fourth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2007 ATP Challenger Series. It took place in Nouméa, New Caledonia between 2–7 January 2007.


2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Singles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie – Doubles
Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Todd Widom were the defending champions but chose not to defend their title.


2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie – Doubles
Alex Kuznetsov and Phillip Simmonds won the title after defeating Thierry Ascione and Édouard Roger-Vasselin 7–6(7–5), 6–3 in the final.


2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie – Singles
Gilles Simon was the defending champion but chose not to defend his title.


2007 Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie – Singles
Michael Russell won the title after defeating David Guez 6–0, 6–1 in the final.


2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg
The 2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 21st edition of the Internationaux de Strasbourg, and was part of the Tier III Series of the 2007 WTA Tour. The tournament took place at the Centre Sportif de Hautepierre in Strasbourg, France, from 21 May until 26 May 2007. Sixth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues won the singles title and earned $25,865 first-prize money.


2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg, Finals, Doubles
Yan Zi /  Zheng Jie defeated  Alicia Molik /  Sun Tiantian, 6–3, 6–4


2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg – Doubles
The Doubles Tournament at the 2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg took place between 21 and 26 May on the outdoor clay courts of the Centre Sportif de Hautepierre in Strasbourg, France. Yan Zi and Zheng Jie won the title, defeating Alicia Molik and Sun Tiantian in the final.


2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg – Singles
Nicole Vaidišová was the defending champion, but chose not to participate that year.


2007 Internationaux de Strasbourg – Singles
Anabel Medina Garrigues won the title, defeating Amélie Mauresmo in the final 6–4, 4–6, 6–4.


2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo
The 2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 20th edition of the Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, and was part of the WTA Tier IV tournaments of the 2007 WTA Tour. It was held in Palermo, Italy, from 16 to 22 July 2007.


2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, Singles main draw entrants, Other Entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, Doubles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following pairs received wildcards into the doubles main draw:


2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, Champions, Doubles
Mariya Koryttseva /  Darya Kustova def. Alice Canepa /  Karin Knapp, 6–4, 6–1


2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo – Doubles
The Women's Doubles Tournament at the 2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo took place between 16 and 22 July on outdoor clay courts in Palermo, Italy. Mariya Koryttseva and Darya Kustova won the title, defeating Alice Canepa and Karin Knapp in the final.


2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo – Singles
The Singles Tournament at the 2007 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo took place between 16 and 22 July on outdoor clay courts in Palermo, Italy. Ágnes Szávay won the title, defeating Martina Müller in the final.


2007 Interprovincial Hurling Championship
The 2007 Interprovincial Hurling Championship was the 80th staging of the Interprovincial Championship since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1927. The championship began on 13 October 2007 and ended on 27 October 2007.


2007 Interprovincial Hurling Championship
Leinster were the defending champions, however, they were beaten by Munster in the semi-final.


2007 Interprovincial Hurling Championship
On 27 October 2007, Munster won the championship following a 2-22 to 2–19 defeat of Connacht in the final at Croke Park. This was their 44th championship title overall and their first title since 2005.


2007 Interprovincial Hurling Championship
Munster's Eoin Kelly was the championship's top scorer with 1-20.


2007 Invercargill mayoral election
The 2007 Invercargill mayoral election commenced on Saturday, 13 October 2007 and was conducted under the First Past the Post system using the postal voting system. It was held as part of the 2007 New Zealand local elections.


2007 Invercargill mayoral election
The incumbent mayor Tim Shadbolt was comfortably returned to his position with 83% of the vote.


2007 Inverclyde Council election
Elections to Inverclyde Council were held on 3 May 2007 the same day as the Scottish Parliament general election. The election was the first one using six new wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004; each ward will elect three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system, a form of proportional representation. The new wards replace 20 single-member wards which used the plurality (first past the post) system of election.


2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250
The 2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250 was a race in the 2007 IRL IndyCar Series. It was held over the weekend of June 22–24, 2007, as the eighth round of the seventeen-race calendar. It was the inaugural race at the brand-new 0.875-mile (1.408 km) Iowa Speedway.


2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250, Pre-Race
Practice scheduled for Friday was shortened due to thunderstorms in the area. Despite lack of Friday practice, many drivers expressed awe at the 7/8th mile track for being so fast, with practice speeds averaging over 180 mph (290 km/h). Drivers originally believed that it would be a competitive race, but soon found out that passing would be very difficult. The other main concern of the track was the physical requirements, with the 7/8th mile track driving like a superspeedway and drivers experiencing 4.8 lateral G-Forces during the race. Scott Dixon won the pole in qualifying on Saturday (182.360 mph/17.6486 secs). Hélio Castroneves qualified 2nd (182.272 mph/17.6571 secs), while Danica Patrick came in 11th (180.974 mph/17.7838 secs).


2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250, Race
The first half of the race was a "crashfest" with 7 cars crashing out in the first 100 laps. The largest crash occurred on a restart on lap 100, when cars tried to go 4 wide on the frontstretch. Danica Patrick, Sam Hornish Jr., and others were eliminated. Many driver's blamed the hard tires of the race. This was caused because of an unusually cool day, with temperatures around 75 degrees for the race, originally forecast as late as the night before the race around 90-95 degrees. Pole sitter Scott Dixon had steering problems at the start, and originally retired, though his team repaired the car and he ended up 10th, many laps down. The race ended up a battle between Andretti-Green Racing teammates Dario Franchitti and Marco Andretti, with Franchitti winning. Scott Sharp came in third.


2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250, Race, Note
Milka Duno was ordered by race officials to maintain a minimum speed and when she failed to meet that speed she was parked.


2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250, Caution Periods
There were six caution periods during the race, with a total of sixty-seven laps run under yellow.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team
The 2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Heading into the season, several players left the team while several other players ran into criminal allegations. Following a disappointing 2006 season that included losses to Indiana, Northwestern and Minnesota, the team was coached by Kirk Ferentz and played their six home games at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Previous season
Entering 2006 ranked 16th in the AP Poll and 17th in the Coaches Poll, the Hawkeyes had high hopes for the season. Following victories over Montana, Syracuse, Iowa State and Illinois, the Hawkeyes were 4–0 heading into their game with top-ranked Ohio State. With tickets for the game going for US$500 on eBay, the game was hyped as one of the biggest in Kinnick Stadium history. But quarterback Drew Tate threw 3 interceptions, and the Hawkeyes lost 38–17. In total, Iowa had 4 turnovers while Ohio State had zero.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Previous season
Following the loss to Ohio State, Iowa proceeded to score a season-high 47 points in a victory over Purdue. But the most notable score came during the 4th quarter, when Adam Shada intercepted a Curtis Painter pass and returned it a school record 98-yards for the touchdown. However, Iowa's joy would not last long, as the Hawkeyes were upset by Indiana only a week later. The 31–28 win was Indiana's biggest win since a victory over 9th-ranked Ohio State in 1987.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Previous season
From there, the season unraveled, and the Hawkeyes lost four of their remaining five games en route to a 6–6 record. The Hawkeyes were not invited to a bowl game following the conclusion of the 2007 season.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Before the season
On April 20, 2007, it was announced by Ferentz that two players, Ryan Bain and Justin Edwards, were leaving the team. Both are planning on transferring to other schools. Bain, who had 56 career tackles, was later found guilty on charges of disorderly conduct. About two months later, it was announced that Shonn Greene and Amari Spievey were no longer on the team. Greene, a junior running back, had 378 rushing yards and two touchdowns in his career. Another month later, and it was announced that Lucas Cox and Marcus Wilson were leaving the team.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Before the season
Wilson, a sophomore defensive back, played in all 13 games in 2006 and recorded 21 tackles and one interception. Earlier in July, senior defensive back Devan Moylan was given an additional year of eligibility. After suffering a leg injury in the fourth game of 2006 against Illinois, he applied for a medical hardship. Prior to the 2007 season, he had 28 tackles and one interception in his career.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Before the season, Criminal charges
On August 20, 2007, two Hawkeye wide receivers were arrested and charged with the unauthorized use of a credit card. Dominique Douglas and Anthony Bowman, both sophomores,  were suspended indefinitely by Ferentz following allegations that they bought more than $2,000 in merchandise with stolen credit cards. The crime is a felony, and if convicted, the two players can face up to five years in prison along with a $7,500 fine. Another player, Arvell Nelson, also experienced trouble with the law. Nelson posted a $545 bond for failure to appear in court after being charged with driving with a suspended license. He also paid a $390 fine for not having insurance. 1 in every 10 Iowa football players during the 2007 season had off-field arrests, the highest among any year in Kirk Ferentz's tenure at Iowa.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Before the season, Recruiting class
The Hawkeyes received 22 letters of intent on National Signing Day, February 7, 2007.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Schedule, Schedule notes
Due to the Big Ten's rotating schedule, Iowa did not play either Michigan or Ohio State in 2007. Instead, Iowa played Michigan State and Penn State, two teams that the Hawkeyes had not played since 2004.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Schedule, Schedule notes
Iowa's schedule was ranked as the 9th toughest (or 3rd easiest) in the Big Ten by SI.com.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Northern Illinois
Playing in Soldier Field in Chicago, the Hawkeyes defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies 16–3. Albert Young ran for 144 yards and a touchdown as Iowa's defense kept the Huskies from scoring a touchdown. Damian Sims also made his mark by running for 110 yards. The Hawkeyes held Northern Illinois to 21 yards rushing, and Charles Godfrey intercepted two Dan Nicholson passes. Sophomore quarterback Jake Christensen opened the season with 133 yards and one touchdown.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Syracuse
Behind a strong defensive performance, the Hawkeyes shut out the Syracuse Orange at Kinnick Stadium. Rebounding from a shaky performance against Northern Illinois, Christensen threw for 278 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to tight end Tony Moeaki. On special teams, Kenny Iwebema blocked two field goals to help preserve the worst loss for Syracuse coach Greg Robinson in his tenure with the Orange. After the game, Syracuse running back Curtis Brinkley said:


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Syracuse
We need to be a lot more fundamentally sound, there were a lot of missed assignments and there were a lot of people not hitting their targets. There's a little bit of everything we need to fix up.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Syracuse
The 35-point loss was Syracuse's most-lopsided since a 51–14 loss to Georgia Tech in the 2004 Champs Sports Bowl.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Iowa State
Iowa State kicked its way to a 15–13 victory in Ames.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Wisconsin
Iowa's defense forced three Wisconsin turnovers, but could not hold off the Badgers' 4th quarter rally, losing 17–13.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Indiana
Iowa was unable to contain a scoring explosion from Indiana, including three early touchdowns by Hoosier quarterback Kellen Lewis. Iowa added to its difficulties with penalties and breakdowns in pass protection. Although quarterback Jake Christensen passed for 308 yards and three touchdowns, he was sacked nine times, including four by Jammie Kirlew. The Hawkeyes also missed two field goals and an extra point.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Penn State
Quarterback Jake Christensen was sacked twice, and the Hawkeyes were held scoreless until an interception near the Penn State end zone set up Trey Stross' 4th-quarter touchdown reception in a 27–7 blowout loss on the road at Penn State. Iowa was held to eight first downs while Penn State had 26.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Illinois
Entering the game, Iowa had lost eight straight Big Ten games, with their last win a 47–17 decision over Purdue on October 7, 2006. Illinois, however, entered the game ranked 18th in the country, and was looking to become bowl eligible with a win over the Hawkeyes.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Illinois
From the very beginning, the game was a defensive one. The Hawkeyes held Illinois running back Rashard Mendenhall to 67 yards, and slowed the nation's fifth-best rushing offense to 137 yards total. But the Illinois defense remained strong against the run, and held the Hawkeyes to a three yards per rush average.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Illinois
Illinois did not trail until late in the third quarter, when Iowa quarterback Jake Christensen found tight end Brandon Myers down the middle for the touchdown. With the score at 10–6 in favor of the Hawkeyes, the Illini made a switch to Eddie McGee at quarterback, after starter Isiah Williams had a fumble recovered by Iowa. With McGee in, the Illini appeared to have stunned the Kinnick Stadium crowd with an 83-yard touchdown pass, but it was called back due to an Illinois penalty.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Illinois
Despite the penalty, Illinois was not done. On Illinois' final drive, McGee drove the Illini down to the Iowa 12 with passes of 28 and 24 yards to Arrelious Benn. But with 1:12 left in the game, a McGee pass was intercepted at the goal line by Iowa's Brett Greenwood. The win was Iowa's first over a ranked team since 2005.


2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, Game summaries, Western Michigan
Mid -American Conference member Western Michigan surprised the Hawkeyes, 28–19, in Iowa City.


2007 Iowa State Cyclones football team
The 2007 Iowa State Cyclones football team represented Iowa State University during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They played their home games at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa. They participated as members of the Big 12 Conference in the North Division. They were coached by head coach Gene Chizik.


2007 Ipswich Borough Council election
Elections for Ipswich Borough Council were held on 3 May 2007. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.


2007 Ipswich Borough Council election
Following the election the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats continued to form the executive of the council.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel
On 23 March 2007, fifteen Royal Navy personnel from HMS Cornwall were searching a merchant vessel when they were surrounded by the Navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and detained off the Iran–Iraq coast. In the course of events, British forces claimed that the vessel was in Iraqi waters, but the Iranians insisted that they were in Iran's territorial waters. The fifteen personnel were released thirteen days later on 4 April 2007.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel
A year later, a British investigation report was released which stated that the area in which the incident took place was not covered by any formal agreement between Iran and Iraq.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Background
On 23 March 2007, a team of eight sailors and seven Royal Marines in two rigid-hulled inflatable boats from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall had been searching a merchant dhow for smuggled automobiles when they were detained at approximately 10:30 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3:00) or 11:00 Iran Standard Time (UTC+3:30) by the crews of two Iranian boats; a further six Iranian boats then assisted in the seizure. The British personnel were taken to an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran for questioning. Iranian officials claimed that the British sailors were in Iranian waters. A University of Durham analysis of the initial Iranian identification of the location of the boats showed that the position given was in Iraqi waters. According to the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Iranians issued a "corrected" location, which placed the boats in Iranian waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Background
Information provided by Britain initially consistently placed the boats in Iraqi waters. However, the subsequent report by the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee confirmed that the Ministry of Defence map presented to the worldwide media was "inaccurate" as it presented a boundary line when no maritime boundary between the two countries had been agreed upon, and so "The Government was fortunate that it was not in Iran's interests to contest the accuracy of the map." The Foreign Affairs Committee also criticised the government for failing to contact a key Iranian negotiator in a timely manner.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Background
Reports in April 2008, citing documents from the MoD inquiry into the incident, stated that the British sailors captured by Iran were in disputed waters, that the US-led coalition had drawn a boundary line between Iran and Iraq without informing the Iranians, and that Iranian coastal protection vessels regularly crossed this coalition-defined boundary.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Background
The British government stated that the team had been conducting a compliance inspection of a merchant ship under the mandate of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723. While moving along the Shatt al-Arab waterway, the merchantman had aroused the suspicion of a Royal Navy helicopter. Cornwall was part of the British contribution to multinational forces engaged in the Iraq War.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Background
Intense diplomatic efforts were made to secure the release of the detainees. On 28 March 2007 television channels around the world showed footage released by the Iranian government of some of the fifteen British sailors. This included a statement by captured Royal Navy sailor Faye Turney, along with a letter she wrote under compulsion, which apologised for British intrusions into Iranian waters. Over the next two days a further video was shown on Iranian television displaying three of the detained Britons; and two further letters attributed to Faye Turney were released, again claiming the British boats were in Iranian waters. Iran stated that an apology from British officials would "facilitate" the release of the personnel.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, British personnel involved
The fifteen Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel detained were:


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
On 4 April, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a news conference to announce the release of the personnel as "a gift" to Britain. When returned to the UK the group claimed to have been put under "constant psychological pressure" from the Iranian authorities. In addition, British equipment, including secure voice communication kit and navigational hardware, has not been reported as being returned.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
The Ministry of Defence announced on 7 April 2007 the beginning of a "detailed inquiry" into the circumstances leading to the capture of fifteen personnel by Iran. The confidential inquiry was headed by Lieutenant General Sir Robert Fulton, the Governor of Gibraltar (and former Commandant General Royal Marines). On 22 July 2007, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee released a report into the incident, although Fulton's report had not been released to the parliamentary committee.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Legal treaties in force at site
The Algiers Agreement, ratified by both nations in 1976, remains in force. It defined the Iran-Iraq international boundary in the Shatt al-Arab by a series of precisely defined turning points closely approximating the 1975 thalweg or deepest channel, ending at point "R". Point "R", at  (WGS84) is about 8.6 nautical miles (15.9 km; 9.9 mi) southeast of the tip of Iraq's Al-Faw peninsula at high tide. Point "R" is where the thalweg in 1975 was adjacent to the furthest point of exposed mud flats at "astronomical lowest low tide." Point "R" thus constitutes the end of the land boundary of the two nations, despite being under water at all but the lowest tides.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Legal treaties in force at site
According to analysis by the International Boundary Research Unit (IBRU) at the UK's Durham University, the location provided by the Ministry of Defence for the location of the seizure is 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 km; 2.0 mi) southwest of this Point "R" boundary terminus and 1.6 nautical miles (3.0 km; 1.8 mi) south of this international boundary line. The university stated: "The point lies on the Iraqi side of…the agreed land boundary." This was challenged by Iran, whose second set of released co-ordinates were inside its waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Legal treaties in force at site
The location provided by the British government was not in disputed territory according to IBRU, which said the boundary was disputed only beyond Point "R" (to the east and southeast). Confirming this, Richard Schofield, an expert in international boundaries at King's College London, stated "Iran and Iraq have never agreed to a boundary of their territorial waters. There is no legal definition of the boundary beyond the Shatt al-Arab."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Legal treaties in force at site
The Algiers Agreement came into effect after being signed by both states in 1975 and ratified by both states in 1976. Under international law, one state cannot unilaterally reject a previously ratified treaty, and the treaty had no clause providing for abrogation by one state only. A joint commission should conduct a survey of the Shatt al Arab at least every ten years. No such survey appears to have taken place, so there could be a dispute as to whether the boundary followed the line defined in 1975 or the current thalweg of the river. The IBRU contended that "it would need a dramatic reconfiguration of the coastline marked on current charts for the median line to run to the west of the point" at which MoD had stated the incident occurred, and so be in Iranian waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Legal treaties in force at site
A year after the incident a British MoD investigation report was released which stated that the area in which the incident took place was not covered by any internationally agreed delineation. US forces had defined an operational boundary, but that had not been communicated to Iran, and Iranian forces crossed this operational boundary an average of 12 times per month. Since the 1975 Algiers Agreement the Shatt al-Arab channel had shifted in favour of Iran, and any Iranian notional boundary was not known to the US coalition. While innocent passage is permitted in each other's waters, boarding and compliance inspections in another state's waters would not be lawful.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment
Cornwall was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate, lead ship of the Cornwall class. It constituted part of the British contribution to Combined Task Force 158 (CTF158) which controlled maritime security operations in the Northern Persian Gulf and included Royal Navy, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Royal Australian Navy and Iraqi Navy forces. The task force was under the command of Commodore Nick Lambert, embarked in Cornwall with a staff from Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment
In a joint Five News and Sky News interview, recorded on 13 March but not broadcast until after the captured service personnel had been released, Captain Chris Air acknowledged that he was operating close to the buffer zone between Iranian and Iraqi waters, saying: "It's good to gather intelligence on the Iranians" and that one purpose of patrols in the area was to gather intelligence on "any sort of Iranian activity".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment
On 23 March 2007 two boats from  Cornwall with the boarding team, fourteen men and one woman, conducted an unopposed boarding and compliance inspection of a merchant vessel suspected of smuggling automobiles. Following the inspection and after disembarking from the merchantman the team was detained by Iranian forces in six boats at around 10:30 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3:00) or 11:00 Iran Standard Time (UTC+3:30), and escorted to an Iranian naval facility in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment
Journalists on Cornwall reported that the British forces had chased and boarded a barge (or dhow) that had offloaded vehicles from the merchant ship. The merchant ship and barges, which had been observed the previous day when a barge was boarded, were suspected of smuggling.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment
According to Britain, Cornwall could not get closer to the merchant vessel because of shallow water. A Lynx helicopter monitoring the boarding had resumed its reconnaissance of the area, and by the time Cornwall realised what was happening the British team was already being escorted to shore by the Iranian border patrol.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment
Media reporting indicates that warnings of an increased risk of action by Iran, in response to the detention of Iranian officials in Iraq, had been communicated to the UK by the US Central Intelligence Agency but had not resulted in an increase in the area threat levels.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment, Rules of engagement
British armed forces are subject to rules of engagement which define acceptable limits on freedom of action for commanders. Extant rules were described by former First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West as de-escalatory to avoid provoking an intensification of action.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Operational environment, Rules of engagement
It was reported that CTF158's Commander Lambert requested advice from the Ministry of Defence but was told to hold fire. British Prime Minister Tony Blair later said the attitude of the British forces had been "entirely sensible"; if they had fired there would "undoubtedly have been severe loss of life".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Official briefings
The United Kingdom government stated the sailors were on a routine patrol of the area which was in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723. The Ministry of Defence indicated that the sailors had boarded the vessel 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 km; 2.0 mi) inside Iraqi territorial waters at . The Ministry of Defence stated that one of the boats remained data-linked to Cornwall throughout the operation and the GPS system showed them to be located well within the Iraqi area, although no direct evidence for this was given. According to British authorities, this position was later confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant vessel which, the Ministry of Defence indicated, had dragged east on its anchor to  (as shown in a photograph released by the Ministry).


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Official briefings
Senior British military officers stated at a press conference on 29 March that there was no doubt where the dividing line between Iraqi and Iranian waters was, despite historic disputes between Iran and Iraq over those waters. However, this was disputed later by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report into the incident which concluded that "there is evidence to suggest that the map of the Shatt al-Arab waterway provided by the Government was less clear than it ought to have been. The Government was fortunate that it was not in Iran's interests to contest the accuracy of the map."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Official briefings
Communication with the boarding team was lost at 09:10 and Cornwall's Lynx helicopter returned to the scene immediately, having covered the initial stages of the operation. The pilot and the master of the merchant vessel stated that Iranian vessels surrounded the boarding team and escorted them away. The British boats were seen being taken up the Shatt-al-Arab waterway by Iranian Islamic Republican Guard Navy vessels.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Official briefings
According to the Ministry of Defence, the Iranian government provided two sets of co-ordinates for the incident, the first of which was inside Iraqi waters. The Ministry says that upon challenging the set, a second set of co-ordinates was provided indicating a position within Iranian waters less than one nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) away from the first set.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Official briefings
British special forces based in Baghdad began planning a contingency rescue effort. In support, Joint Special Operations Command scrambled a Predator drone to assist them but the window of opportunity for a rescue mission to take place closed when the captives were moved north to Tehran.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Official briefings
The British government demanded the return of the personnel. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said, "We sought a full explanation of what happened and left the Iranian authorities in no doubt that we expect immediate and safe return of our service personnel and boats." Prime Minister Tony Blair denied the British boats were in Iranian waters and called the detainment "unjustified and wrong".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
The Times raised concerns about what it termed a hostage crisis with the headline "Hostage fears over troops seized by Iran" on its front page on 24 March. The detainees were also routinely described as "hostages" by other newspapers.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
The BBC apologised to the anti-war group Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) for having used the words "abducted" and "hostages" in relation to the events. CASMII member Abbas Edalat was not satisfied with the apology, stating "We do not accept that because a story is at an 'early stage' misleading reports are therefore acceptable."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
Former Head of the Maritime Section at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Craig Murray, a vocal critic of the current British government, wrote that an agreed Iran/Iraq maritime boundary, as shown on the British government provided map, did not exist: "There is no agreed maritime boundary between Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf. Until the current mad propaganda exercise of the last week, nobody would have found that in the least a controversial statement."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
Murray noted that the Algiers Agreement required reviews every ten years of the position of the border within the Shatt al-Arab as the thalweg of the river shifts, but these had not been carried out, making even the internal waters border open to dispute. Murray was concerned that the map, notably unfavourable to Iran, could only harden the Iranian position delaying the return of the captives. He stressed that, equally, Iran could not say definitively that the UK crew had been in its waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
However, Murray's views appeared to conflict with the official position of the Iranian Government: in an interview for the Financial Times on 6 April the Iranian Ambassador in London Rasoul Movahedian made it clear that there was no disputed border line in the area where the incident took place and that it was the coordinates of the Royal Navy boats when detained that were the subject of the dispute between the UK and Iranian Governments.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, British claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
Some sections of the British press reacted angrily to the Iranian television footage of the detainees, particularly the prominence of servicewoman Faye Turney, and that she was seen wearing a head scarf. According to Iranian laws, all females above the age of 13 are required to observe the Islamic dress code of Iran.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
Iran's director general for Western European affairs, Ibrahim Rahimpour, said that the British boats had made "illegal entry" into Iranian territorial waters and that the personnel "were arrested by border guards for investigation and questioning".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
Mohammad Ali Hosseini, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, voiced his country's discontent at what he called "blatant aggression", accusing the United Kingdom of "violating the sovereign boundaries of other states". He further stated that Britain was trying to cover up the incursion.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
On 24 March, the Iranian Fars News Agency said the navigational equipment seized on the British boats shows the sailors were aware that they were operating in Iranian waters. On the same day, General Alireza Afshar, a top military official, said the sailors had confessed to illegal entry into Iran's waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on 25 March that they were considering charging the British personnel with illegal entry into Iranian waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
On 29 March, the Iranian navy displayed captured GPS devices, saying that they indicated the boats were 450 metres (1,480 ft) inside Iranian territorial waters at the time they were seized. It further stated: "After reading the information on their navigation equipment – the GPS seized from them – it was revealed that they had already intruded water borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran [5 times]". The chart that was used in the demonstration is marked at .


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 29 March British troops in Basra opened fire on the Iranian Consulate at 11:00 local time. It claimed the troops had besieged the consulate for two hours, but no injuries were reported. The attack was denied by Britain. Major David Gell, British military spokesman in Basra, said the incident was "geographic coincidence" after a British convoy was fired on and returned fire near the consulate.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
On 30 March Iran's ambassador to Russia said, "The legal phase concerning these British soldiers has started and if charges against them are proven, they will be punished". The ambassador did not specify what the legal moves were. The ambassador suggested a diplomatic settlement was still possible "if Britain's government admits its mistake and apologises to Iran for its naval personnel's trespassing of Iranian territorial waters, the issue can be easily settled." He expressed regret that the British government had raised the issue to an international level instead of trying to resolve the problem through diplomatic channels.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
On 31 March, the Iranian consulate in Basra claimed that British troops were carrying out "provocative acts", reiterating their earlier statement regarding a British attack on the consulate. The consulate said there has been intensive flying of fighter aircraft over the consulate building. Al-Hayat newspaper reported that the actions might be a scare tactic to pressure Iran into releasing the detainees.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commented on the seizure for the first time on 31 March by calling Britain "arrogant" for failing to apologise for entering Iranian waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Official briefings
In a press conference on 4 April 2007, President Ahmadinejad gave a history of Iran leading to an analysis of the Iranian view of world political asymmetry. He continued to comment on the bravery and courage of the Iranian coastguard and presented them all with the Medal of Honour. President Ahmadinejad then attacked British forces for sending out a woman with a child at home as part of a military force. He then announced that the sailors would be released as a "gift" to Britain.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
The Persian Journal reported that the 1975 Algiers agreement that defined the current Iran-Iraq boundary did not delimit the border beyond the shoreline into the territorial seas in the Persian Gulf, where Iran and Iraq had different approaches to the method that should be used. Iran wished to divide its maritime boundaries on the basis of the equidistance principle, whereas Iraq believed the entrance of the Persian Gulf required special criteria. The incident may have happened in an area that both sides considered as their own territory. Military units may have had the right of innocent passage in each other's waters, but the incident involved boarding and compliance inspection and was not simple innocent passage under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
Students from the Basij group, a paramilitary wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, called for the Britons to be put on trial, while the editor of Iran News, Dr Ali Pahlavan, stated that the Revolutionary Guard felt that the United Kingdom and the United States needed to be challenged.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
On 1 April students from Tehran University protested outside the British embassy in the capital, making speeches and throwing firecrackers and rocks into the embassy compound. A BBC correspondent reported they were chanting "death to England" and calling for a trial and apology. The crowd was dispersed by pepper spray fired by riot police.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
On 2 April, the two captured officers were shown on Iran's Alam-TV, in front of a map of the Persian Gulf area which showed a position for the capture inside Iran's waters. Carman said, "[...] I would like to say to the Iranian people, 'I can understand why you are so angry about our intrusion into your waters'".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iranian claims and reactions, Press and other coverage
On 3 April, Patrick Cockburn in The Independent gave new details about a US raid which captured five Iranians in Arbil ten weeks before this incident, suggesting that it was a serious escalation in the confrontation between the US and Iran, and was the reason behind Iran seizing the British sailors.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iraqi statements
On 24 March, Brigadier General Hakim Jassim, Iraqi military commander of the country's territorial waters, gave an interview with Associated Press. He doubted the British claims, saying: "We were informed by Iraqi fishermen after they had returned from sea that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control. We do not know why they were there."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Claims and reactions, Iraqi statements
On 25 March, the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, urged Iran to release the detained personnel, in a telephone call to his Iranian counterpart. In a statement released, he said that "according to the information available to the Iraqi authorities those soldiers were detained inside Iraqi waters. They were working with the multi-national forces with the approval of the Iraqi government and according to U.N. Security Council resolutions."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Diplomatic actions
The Iranian ambassador to the UK was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 23 March to see Peter Ricketts, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, was asked to explain the incident and told that Britain required the servicemen to be returned. He was summoned again on 24 March to see Lord Triesman, a junior foreign office minister, to reiterate Britain's demand that the personnel be released with their equipment.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Diplomatic actions
On 25 March the British ambassador to Iran went to the Iranian foreign ministry. The Iranians said he had been summoned so they could protest against "the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters". However the British said the meeting was at their request and that they had asked both for the immediate release of the personnel and for consular access to them. Prime Minister Tony Blair said if diplomacy fails he will take other measures to release the British sailors and marines. When asked what other measures he refused to answer directly if military action was a possibility.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Diplomatic actions
On 28 March, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that British servicewoman Faye Turney would be released by 29 March, at the latest. He maintained that the British personnel were illegally operating in Iranian waters, but stated that their presence may have been an honest mistake.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Diplomatic actions
On 29 March the head of Iran's supreme national security council, Ali Larijani, announced a suspension of the release of Faye Turney, stating that the announcement of the release had been met with an "incorrect attitude". Meanwhile, Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, had been meeting with Iranian officials during a summit in Riyadh. A letter supposedly written by Faye Turney calling for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq was also published by Iran.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Diplomatic actions
On 4 April reports emerged, later confirmed by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, that an Iranian representative will meet the five Iranian government employees captured in January in a US raid on an Iranian liaison office in Arbil, although this would not be an official consular visit. The US rejected any suggestion that the British naval personnel would be swapped for the five Iranian officials.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly announced the release of the captives halfway through a long press conference on the afternoon of 4 April 2007. Ahmadinejad reiterated the statement that Iranian waters had been breached, and he praised the border guards who detained the British personnel. Abolqassem Amangah, commander of Iran's southwestern Maritime Border Patrol Guard was awarded the third degree medal of bravery for stopping the sailors. Ahmadinejad also criticised the British government for sending the mother of a child to the battlefield, and asked the government "not to prosecute them for their confessions."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
The release was announced after the British government supposedly sent a letter of apology to the Iranian government, accepting the breaching of their border, the illegal insertion of military units in Iran and the promise that Iranian territory would never be violated again. However, the British government denies that such a letter exists, and says that the release was performed without any agreement from both sides.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
Despite British denial of such a letter, on 3 June 2009, during a televised presidential debate between the sitting president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad reiterated that his country's decision to release the fifteen British sailors was made after having received a letter of apology from the former British prime minister. The following day, Fars News Agency published a copy of a letter claimed to be a British apology.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
After the conference, the Britons met Ahmadinejad outside the presidential palace, where they reportedly showed their appreciation for their release. Later Tony Blair said he was glad and stated that he "bears Iranian people no ill will." They were released on 5 April 2007. Whilst in Iran one of the sailors stated that when interviewed by British media at home, he would say nothing different than comments he has made in Iran about being well treated by the authorities. "I would not say anything different to here and I will be completely truthful. I will definitely promote Iran actually; there is a lot of ignorance in the UK about Iran and the people".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
The release was presented to suggest that it was an Easter "gift" to the British people. Ahmadinejad is thought to have acted in response to a letter from Pope Benedict XVI who appealed to Iran's Supreme Leader to free the personnel as a "goodwill gesture before Easter".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release
The letter was drawn up in consultation with the British Embassy to the Holy See. However, the captives were not released to British consular officials but placed directly aboard British Airways flight BA6634 (flown by franchisee British Mediterranean Airways using Airbus A321 G-MEDL), a direct flight to the UK, on the morning of 5 April 2007, landing at about noon local time. They were given gifts of CDs, Persian candies, pistachio nuts, books, vases and handicrafts by the Iranians. After a briefing on board at London Heathrow, the press were allowed a short photographic opportunity, before the personnel were flown directly to Royal Marines Base Chivenor in north Devon by two Royal Navy Westland Sea King helicopters for medical checkups, a full debriefing and meeting with their families.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Debriefing
At a news conference on the afternoon of Friday 6 April 2007 some of the British personnel said of their capture that some of the Iranian sailors had become "deliberately aggressive and unstable", rammed their boats and pointed their machine guns at them. The British said they did not resist because they believed they could not win in a fight and that it would have caused "major strategic" consequences.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Debriefing
Upon their arrival at an Iranian naval base, the British said they were "blindfolded, stripped of all our kit" and then moved to another room where they were "...subjected to random interrogation. The questions were aggressive and the handling rough, but it was no worse than that". The next morning they were flown to Tehran and taken to a prison. Here, the British sailors said "the atmosphere changed completely".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Debriefing
According to the captives they were "blindfolded, their hands bound, and they were forced up against the wall." they said they faced "constant psychological pressure." Later, the British said they had been stripped and dressed in pyjamas. Over the next few nights they said they slept in "stone cells approximately 8 ft (2.4 m) by 6 ft (1.8 m), sleeping on piles of blankets" and kept in "isolation" and "interrogated" most nights. They said they were given two options: to admit they were in Iranian waters and be returned to the UK or face up to "seven years in prison". They claimed to have been "inside internationally-recognised Iraqi territorial waters" some "1.7 nautical miles" from Iranian waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Debriefing
They further stated that Faye Turney was at first kept separate from the men and for four days was deceived into believing that the men had been released.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Debriefing
Admiral Jonathon Band said, "I would not agree at all that it was not our finest hour. I think our people have reacted extremely well in some very difficult circumstances." It was also stated during the conference that although all British armed forces personnel receive training in what to do in the event of being captured, only that for pilots and special forces personnel specifically included training in hostage scenarios, and that there was no equivalent of the US "Code of the U.S. Fighting Force".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Iranian response
The Iranian reaction to 6 April press conference was to dismiss the entire thing as propaganda and to claim that the former captives had been dictated to by the British authorities into defaming Iran to hide the embarrassment of having violated Iranian waters.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Iranian response
The handling of the captives return from captivity, i.e. the helicopter trip away from the media at Heathrow, the overnight delay in holding the press conference and the fact that not all the captives were available at the press conference, has been used by the Iranians to sow doubt as to the veracity of the captives' account of the affair.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Iranian response
Theatrical propaganda cannot conceal the mistake made by British military on violation of Iran's territorial waters and their repeated illegal entry into the country. Immediate transfer of the marines to a military base, dictated instructions and coordination between the British and US media on simultaneous release of a purposeful press conference cannot damage the existing evidence and documents on violation of Iran's territories by the British military.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Publishing their stories
On 8 April, the Ministry of Defence announced that the detainees would, exceptionally, be permitted to sell their stories. It was subsequently revealed that the Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Adrian Johns made the decision to grant the marines and sailors permission to tell their stories. This decision has sparked anger and unease within the United Kingdom, with opposition MPs, such as Sir Menzies Campbell, expressing their concern. It is believed that Faye Turney sold her story for over £100,000.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Publishing their stories
On 9 April, the Ministry of Defence decided to ban personnel from selling their stories to the media until a review of the rules governing the issue is completed. Defence Secretary Des Browne said the review was aimed at making rules consistent across the armed forces. His announcement will not affect any of the fifteen service members who already have talked to media, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release, Publishing their stories
Tony Blair commented on 11 April that he was not made aware of the decision to allow the personnel to sell their stories until after the decision had been taken, and that "with hindsight" it was not a good idea, although he believed the move was made "completely in good faith". Following further pressure on the Government, Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted there would be no "witch hunt" for culprits.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release of kidnapped Iranian diplomat
It remains unclear whether the release of the fifteen British naval personnel had any coincidence with the release of a senior Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who was taken hostage during a kidnapping in 2007. He was released on Tuesday, 3 April 2007, and walked back into the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, although it is not clear who had abducted him. He was taken captive by a group of men dressed in uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion – a special Iraqi unit under US direction.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Release of kidnapped Iranian diplomat
After his release, Sharafi claimed he had been kidnapped and tortured by American troops and agents of an Iraqi organisation acting under the supervision of the US Central Intelligence Agency. Signs of torture were reportedly found on Sharafi's body for which he received medical treatment. Iran also allegedly now has access to five Iranian nationals arrested in the US raid on Iranian liaison office in Arbil. An International Committee of the Red Cross team also visited the Iranian detainees. The British government however repeatedly stated that it made no deals with the United States or with Iran to secure the release of the detainees, and the timing of these events may be purely coincidental.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context
On 21 June 2004, eight British servicemen were detained for three days, after Iran said they had entered Iranian territorial waters in somewhat similar circumstances. They were released unharmed after the British and Iranian governments agreed there had been a misunderstanding. Their equipment was not returned and a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) was put on display in a museum in Tehran.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context
During their detention, according to former detainee Marine Scott Fallon, he believed that they had endured a mock execution in which they were marched into the desert and made to stand blindfolded in front of a ditch while he heard their captors cock their weapons. They also appeared blindfolded on Iranian TV, where they were forced to apologise for their "mistake". There were, however, some differences between these two events.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context
In 2004 the Royal Navy boats were operating much closer to the northern coast of the Persian Gulf in the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway which divides southern Iran and Iraq. The weather was bad causing negligible visibility which may have contributed to a potential crossing of the Iranian border by the Royal Navy. After the crew were returned and events analysed the British government affirmed its belief that the personnel were actually still in Iraqi waters, however they consigned the incident to a misunderstanding and requested the return of the equipment. In the 2007 incident the boats were by contrast operating some distance from the Iraqi-Iranian mainland in open water and were (according to the British) 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territory. Visibility conditions were good and the crew had GPS navigational equipment (installed in part due to the 2004 incident).


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context
An Iranian government-run media source, the IRNA, alleges violations of Iranian territory by British armed forces to have occurred several times in recent years.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context
A MoD inquiry report later stated that tactical commanders on HMS Cornwall and in the area were not well aware of this historical context and "did not know how much they did not know", in part because of a lack of continuity in staffing.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context, Official inquiries
19 June 2007 saw the release of information about two official reports, the confidential Fulton report into the military aspects of the April incident, and the published report by Tony Hall into the media aftermath. The reports concluded that although there were "failings" and a "collective failure of judgment" that these "were not the result of a single gross failing or individual human error".


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context, Official inquiries
On 22 July 2007 the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee released a report into the incident, however Fulton's Navy report had not been released to the parliamentary committee.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context, Official inquiries
In April 2008 redacted documents from the initial MoD inquiry for Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup were released to The Times under Freedom of Information laws.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context, Official inquiries
The Times stated that the British sailors captured by Iran were "in internationally disputed waters and not in Iraq's maritime territory as Parliament was told", that the US-led coalition had drawn a boundary line between Iran and Iraq without informing the Iranians, that Iranian coastal protection vessels regularly crossed this coalition defined boundary, and that the British were first to raise their weapons in the incident before the Iranian gunboats came alongside.


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context, Incident with Royal Australian Navy
Following the incident, the BBC reported that a similar incident had occurred in December 2004, this time with a boarding party of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) personnel from the frigate HMAS Adelaide. The sailors had boarded the freighter MV Sham from two RHIBs, which had grounded near the maritime border between Iraq and Iran. As they were leaving, the vessels were approached by an Iranian gunboat. The boarding party climbed back aboard Sham, took up defensive positions, and, according to BBC reporter Frank Gardner, "warned [the Iranians] to back off, using what was said to be 'highly colourful language'."


2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel, Historical context, Incident with Royal Australian Navy
During the next 45 minutes four more gunboats arrived, and the stand-off lasted for four hours before the Australians were evacuated by Adelaide's Seahawk helicopter. No shots were fired during the incident, and two of the Australians were later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for their conduct during the stand-off. The Australian Defence Force did not report the incident to the media at the time, stating that at the time, there was no need to highlight it.


2007 Iranian petrol rationing riots
Iranian petrol rationing riots started on 27 June 2007 when the Iranian government introduced petrol rationing. Iranians set fire to at least 12 petrol stations in Tehran, chanting that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be killed.


2007 Iranian petrol rationing riots
Private motorists were rationed to 100 litres of petrol a month. Petrol currently sells at the heavily subsidised price of 1,000 rials a litre (approx. €0.08 or US$0.11).


2007 Iranian petrol rationing riots
The Iranian government's justification for the rationing was to reduce Iran's vulnerability to potential sanctions by the United Nations Security Council which would be in response to Iran's nuclear programme. Iran had been planning to ration petrol for a year prior, but had postponed the policy out of fear of unrest. The Iranian Parliament voted on May 7 to increase the price of petrol to $0.64, but Ahmadinejad decided to ration it instead. Iranian newspapers have been criticizing the decision, despite a warning prior to the start of the rationing to not report the riots. Iranian newspaper Etemad Melli criticized the decision, saying that it had overwhelmed public transportation, stranding people on the streets, and wondered if the Iranian government enjoys or benefits from causing such difficulties.


2007 Iranian petrol rationing riots
Another Iranian newspaper, Seday-e-Edelat, reported that five gallons of petrol sold for US$15 in the southeast regions on Iran on the black market.


2007 Iraq cholera outbreak
A lack of clean drinking water in Iraq in 2007 led to an outbreak  of cholera. A total of approximately 7,000 people were infected, with 10 deaths reported.


2007 Iraq cholera outbreak
According to Ryadh Abdul Ameer, the director of the Basra health ministry, basic water sterilization became impossible in some places due to restrictions on the availability of chlorine for water sterilization.


2007 Iraq cholera outbreak
A shipment of 100,000 tons of chlorine was held up at the Jordanian border because of government restrictions on chlorine based on concerns that the chemical could be used in explosives.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing
On 12 April 2007, the canteen of the Council of Representatives of Iraq building was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing one to eight people and wounding 23 others. The attack, in the heavily fortified Green Zone of Baghdad, occurred ten minutes after the Council of Representatives had adjourned for lunch. It was on the first floor of the Baghdad Convention Center, which houses the parliament. Two further unexploded suicide vests were found near the canteen. The building had earlier been searched by dogs – very rare considering dogs are considered ritually unclean by Iraqis – suggesting the authorities suspected an attack was imminent. Following the attack the government closed down mobile phone networks and Apache helicopters flew overhead.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Casualties
The US military reported on 13 April that only MP Mohammed Awad had died, and that 22 others were wounded.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Casualties
Early reports however had said that eight people were killed, including three MPs, and at least 23 people were reported wounded. The MPs named were Mohammed Awad, a member of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, Taha al-Liheibi, a member of the Iraqi Accordance Front and an unnamed Kurdish MP.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Responsibility
Suspicions initially centered on the bomber having been the bodyguard of an MP. A government spokesman said "there are some groups that work in politics during the day and do things other than politics at night". Member of Parliament Mohammed al-Dayni accused the government of lax security at the site.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Responsibility
On 13 April, the Islamic State of Iraq posted a message on an Islamist website claiming to have sent "A knight from the state of Islam ... [ into] the heart of the Green Zone" to carry out the attack. It is not clear whether this claim is genuine, though some who monitor such websites believe it is.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Responsibility
In February 2009, two bodyguards of Iraqi National Dialogue Front MP Mohammed al-Dayni were arrested on suspicion of the attacks. Alaa Khairallah Hashim, al-Dayni's security chief and Ryadh Ibrahim al-Dayni, Mohammed al-Dayni's nephew, confessed on television to involvement in several attacks, including the parliament bombing. They said the MP had given authorisation for the bomber to enter the parliament area. The security forces asked the Council of Representatives of Iraq to lift al-Dayni's parliamentary immunity.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Responsibility
Mohammed al-Dayni claimed that the accusations were lies and that his bodyguards had been tortured into making a false confession because he had been disclosing human rights abuses in Iraqi prisons. al-Dayni took a flight to Jordan, but the aeroplane was forced to turn back; parliament then agreed to lift his immunity.


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Reactions
When the bombing occurred, Saleh al-Mutlaq, the head of oppositional Iraqi National Dialogue Front, the party of the killed MP Awad, called on the United States to overthrow the government of Nouri al-Maliki: "We need America to realize that this pro-Iranian government it has installed has allowed interference on the side of one against the other".


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Reactions
The Iraqi Council of Representatives held an emergency assembly the following day in response to the bombing, to "show resilience in the face of such attacks".


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Reactions
US President George W. Bush condemned the attacks, saying "there is an enemy willing to bomb innocent people and a symbol of democracy". The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Ali Hosseini described the attack as "inhumane and satanic ... target[ting] both its Shia and Sunni officials"


2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing, Reactions
Four days later three Ministers from the Sadrist Movement quit the government, citing, among other things, the growing insecurity in Baghdad.


2007 Ireland rugby union tour of Argentina
The 2007 Ireland rugby union tour of Argentina was a series of matches played in June 2007 in Argentina by Ireland national rugby union team.


2007 Ireland rugby union tour of Argentina
The Irish team, was very renewed, Eddie O'Sullivan tested many new players, and stars like Ronan O'Gara, Brian O'Driscoll remain at home, to rest before the starting of training for 2007 Rugby World Cup. In the first match, Irish lose a tight match, but had a bad defeat in the second.


2007 Irish Classic
The 2007 Irish Classic (often known as the 2007 Lucan Racing Irish Classic for sponsorship and promotion purposes) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 18 and 19 August 2007 at the Raphael's Snooker Club in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.


2007 Irish Classic
David Morris won in the final 5–3 against Fergal O'Brien.


2007 Irish Classic, Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:


2007 Irish Greyhound Derby
The 2007 Irish Greyhound Derby took place during August and September with the final being held at Shelbourne Park in Dublin on 7 September 2007.


2007 Irish Greyhound Derby
The winner Tyrur Rhino won €175,000 and was trained by Paul Hennessy, owned and bred by P.J.Fahy. The race was sponsored by the Paddy Power.