July 17, 2006 (Monday)
- Space Shuttle Discovery lands successfully on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility of the Kennedy Space Center, ending a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. (BBC)
- In the United Kingdom, the Crown Prosecution Service announce that police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in the aftermath of the attempted bombings of London on July 21, 2005 will not face criminal charges, although the Metropolitan Police Service is to be prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act. (BBC)
- A 7.7 Mw earthquake off the coast of Indonesia causes a tsunami to crash into Java, causing significant property damage and killing over 100 people. Concern is raised over lack of a warning system for the south coast despite warnings from international agencies.(BBC), (USA Today), (Associated Press), (CBS News)
- At least 40 Iraqis are killed and dozens injured in the town of Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad in an insurgent attack. (BBC)
- Kofi Annan states that he is working with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to deploy an armed force in the Middle East to quell the escalation of conflict between Israel, Palestinian insurgents and Hezbollah. Tony Blair supports the plan. (Bloomberg)
- 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis:
- Israel has rebuffed a UN call for an international monitoring force to be deployed in Lebanon as it continued to attack the country.(Al-Jazeera)
- At least 10 Lebanese have died in an Israeli attack on their vehicles in the south of the country, sources say.(BBC NEWS)
- Israel extends its air campaign to northernmost Lebanon, killing at least 14, among them 9 soldiers, after Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa. (BBC), (Haaretz), (Al-Jazeera)
- Israel claims to have destroyed a long-range Iranian missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv in an airstrike on Lebanon. (India Daily)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Operation Summer Rains)
- Israel Air Force strikes the Palestinian Foreign Ministry for a second time in a week, wounding 5 people. (Al-Jazeera), (Haaretz)