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2005-12-19 : 19.December, Monday

2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
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Categories: 2005 | Current events

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2005-12-18 : 18.December, Sunday

• Hong Kong police detain 900 protesters at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2005 after an anti-globalization demonstration became violent. The protesters object to trade rules that they say hurt poor farmers. 74 people are injured. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Palestinian militant Khaled Abu Sitta is killed and three others injured when Sitta's car explodes in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources say the explosion was caused by an Israeli air strike, although this has not been verified, and the Israeli Defense Force denies any involvement. (BBC) (Y-Net) (Haaretz) (Reuters)
• Condoleezza Rice and the African Union request additional funds to enable the A.U.'s peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan to continue. Without additional aid, the African peacekeeping force will run out of funds in four months. Violence in the region has resurged recently. (Boston Globe) (Reuters) (LA Times via Chron.com)
• A group of over 40 people, dressed in Santa Claus costumes, go on a rampage through downtown Auckland, New Zealand, robbing stores and assaulting security guards. (AP)
• Thieves use a flatbed truck to steal a 2-ton Henry Moore statue from the grounds of his foundation in Hertfordshire, England. The statue is valued at more than $5.2 million dollars. (AP)

2005-12-17 : 17.December, Saturday

• Bulgaria starts withdrawing its troops from Iraq. (Reuters)
• Extreme levels of radiation have been found at a chemical factory in Chechnya. (BBC)
• Senator John McCain persuades President George W. Bush to accept a ban on torture. (AP)
• The United States House of Representatives has requested that the Bush administration give Congress details on any secret detention facilities overseas. (AP)
• The United States Senate rejects the extension of the PATRIOT Act. Critics had said it infringed on civil liberties and made the government too powerful. (AP). On the same day, United States President George W. Bush refuses to comment on whether the National Security Agency spied on American citizens without a legal warrant. (AP)
• Conflict in Iraq: Iraqi Police claim that they captured Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and then released him by mistake. (BBC)
• Hamas, the Palestinian opposition party whose armed wing has carried out scores of attacks against Israeli civilians, make a large series of gains in municipal elections. (BBC)
• At least 39 people, 33 of whom were patients, die after a fire breaks out in a hospital in the city of Liaoyuan, near Changchun in China's Jilin Province. The cause of the fire is unknown. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: an Israeli man, Yossi Shok, a resident of the settlement of Beit Hagai, succumbed to his wounds at Hadassah Ein-Kerem hospital in Jerusalem after sustaining serious wounds in a drive-by shooting attack south of Hebron. The Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the attack, saying it came in response to recent targeted killings by Israel. (Ynetnews) (RTÉ)

2005-12-16 : 16.December, Friday

• Former United States presidential candidate Al Sharpton agrees to pay $100,000 to the Federal Election Commission in a settlement over alleged corrupt practices during his 2004 electoral bid. (Reuters)
• South Korean biomedical researcher Hwang Woo-Suk admits that he faked nine of eleven stem cell colonies used in what had been hailed as a medical breakthrough in the journal Science. (BBC)
• Thousands of Iraqi Shia protest against Al Jazeera after a guest on a talk show on the network suggested that the Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Shia Islam's most senior cleric, should stay out of politics. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel continues to strike Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip. (RTÉ)
• The European Council meets to discuss the next 7-year budget for the European Union. (BBC)
• Voting starts in Iraq to elect the first permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly under the new Constitution of Iraq. (BBC)
• A new study by the journal Nature says that Wikipedia is almost as accurate on science topics as the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, the study also says that Wikipedia suffers from faulty or disorganized writing more often than Britannica. (Nature) (BBC) (NPR)
• A Nepalese soldier shoots dead 11 people at a temple in Nagarkot, near Kathmandu. (BBC)
• Marwan Barghouti launches a new party called al-Mustaqbal (The Future), splitting from the Fatah movement in the Palestinian National Authority. (BBC)
• Bradley John Murdoch, convicted murderer of British backpacker Peter Falconio, is sentenced to a non-parole period of 28 years in prison in Australia. (NineMSN)

2005-12-15 : 15.December, Thursday

• Bradley John Murdoch, convicted murderer of British backpacker Peter Falconio, was sentenced to a non-parole period of 28 years in prison today. (NineMSN)

2005-12-14 : 14.December, Wednesday

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Four American Soldiers are killed following an IED attack in the Iraqi Capital Baghdad. (AP)
  • The U.S. ambassador issues a statement saying that the total number of abused prisoners found so far in jails run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry came to about 120. (AP)
• The Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization opened in Hong Kong. European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said that he expected little progress on resolving disagreements between ministers. Meanwhile, some protesters from South Korea unsuccessfully attempted to bypass the cordon to reach the location of the conference by swimming across Victoria Harbour. (BBC) (AP via Yahoo!News) (Reuters via Yahoo!News)
• A residential building in New Jersey collapses sending plumes of smoke, visible from Manhattan, into the air and fears grow for any still inside. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• The President of the United States, George W Bush, acknowledges approx. 30,000 Iraqi deaths since the commencement of the Iraq War. (The Australian)
• Swiss Councillor Dick Marty, commissioned by the Council of Europe to investigate CIA black sites and prisoner abuse in Europe says that the CIA has "disregarded all standards of legality". (CNN) (Houston Chronicle)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Palestinian stone thrower is shot in the head and killed by Israeli troops raiding the West Bank city of Nablus. At least ten other Palestinians were injured by the IDF troops while two Israeli soldiers were injured by a bomb during the raid. (BBC)
• An earthquake of Richter scale magnitude 6.7 rocks South Asia. According to the US Geological Survey, the quake was centred in the Hindukush region of northeastern Afghanistan. (Times of India) (BBC) (CNN)
• Stanley Williams is executed at San Quentin State Prison by the U.S. state of California. (BBC)

2005-12-13 : 13.December, Tuesday

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe grossed $65 million in the United States ($107 million worldwide) on its opening weekend, making it the #2 December opening weekend film of all time (behind The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and in front of the first two Lord of the Rings films). With this news, Disney has officially given the greenlight to cinema production of the second book in the series, Prince Caspian, by 2007.
• Stanley Williams is denied clemency by Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. The US Supreme Court also refuses to stay his execution. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 0:01 PST on December 13. There are some concerns of potential rioting and violence tonight across the state. (SF Chronicle) (Governor's statement(PDF))
• Gebran Tueni, a prominent Lebanese anti-Syrian member of parliament and managing editor of the leading liberal An-Nahar newspaper, has been killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut. He had spent months in Paris because of security concerns, reportedly only returning to Lebanon on Sunday. Another An-Nahar journalist, the anti-Syrian writer Samir Kassir, was killed in a car bomb in June. (BBC)
• ASEAN Summit begins in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Channel News Asia)

2005-12-12 : 12.December, Monday

• Brian Chase of Nashville, Tennessee admits putting false information about John Seigenthaler Sr. into a Wikipedia article, leading to widespread debate. (NYT via Seattle Times)
• A suicide bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, injures 1 person. (Reuters) (Guardian)
• 2005 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire: Explosions are reported at the Buncefield oil depot north of London ten miles from the Luton airport. (BBC) (Sky News)
• Racially motivated violence erupts in the suburbs of Sydney, leading authorities to condemn the incidents as "shameful". (ABC)
• Korean Airline, both national and international has been shut down due to the strike going on in Korea. The national airplane circulation has been stopped already and the Korean Airline planes that were in a foreign country are returning to Korea.

2005-12-11 : 11.December, Sunday

• The International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General Mohamed ElBaradei receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. (BBC)
• At least 103 people are killed and 7 injured when Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crashes enroute to Port Harcourt from the Nigerian capital Abuja. (CNN)

2005-12-10 : 10.December, Saturday

• The Groups for the 2006 FIFA World Cup to be held in Germany are finalized. (BBC)
• The Bush administration summons Canadian ambassador Frank McKenna, and is expected to formally lodge a complaint after Prime Minister Paul Martin's criticism on December 7 of the United States at the Montreal conference on climate change. U.S.-Canada relations are already a major issue in the upcoming Canadian federal election. (CBC)
• Reports emerge of an alleged massacre of protesting farmers and fisherman in Dongzhou, Guangdong, China by police forces. The protesters are believed to be upset with government plans to build a new power plant in the area and infill part of the bay. The death toll, pegged at 20, is the worst act of violence by Chinese security forces since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. The town is reportedly still sealed off by government forces. (IHT)

2005-12-09 : 09.December, Friday

• An eight-year-old is killed after Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 skids off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Two Palestinians, believed to be militants, are killed following an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
  • An Israeli soldier dies after being stabbed by a Palestinian at a Checkpoint in the West Bank. (BBC)
  • President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remarks that Israel should be moved to Europe and the "issue will be resolved." He also alleged that the Holocaust did not take place. His remarks were condemned by Israeli, European and American spokesmen. (BBC) (Reuters) (AP)
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 30 people have died following an attack on a bus in Baghdad. (BBC) (Fox News)
• Croatian general Ante Gotovina, rated the third-most-wanted war criminal from the Yugoslav wars by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, is arrested by Spanish police in Tenerife and extradited to face the tribunal in The Hague. (BBC)
• Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher has left hospital after being given a clean bill of health by doctors after feeling faint yesterday. (BBC)
• The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement adopt a Red Crystal design, allowing Israel to join as a fully-participating member. (BBC)
• UK Law Lords rule in A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department that evidence which may have been obtained by torture cannot be used against suspects in terrorism cases. (BBC)
• Lawyers for convicted murderer and Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams meet with Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger in a last-ditch plea for clemency. (MTV)

2005-12-08 : 08.December, Thursday

• Microsoft loses South Korea antitrust case. (Reuters) South Korea fines Microsoft $32m. (BBC)
• A U.S. Federal Air Marshal fatally shoots Rigoberto Alpizar on American Airlines Flight 924 in a jetway at Miami International Airport in Florida. Alpizar, a U.S. citizen who had disembarked from an American Airlines flight from Medellín, Colombia, claimed to have a bomb. No explosive was found. (BBC) (CNN)
• Nobel Prize in Literature winner Harold Pinter accuses Britain and the United States of engaging in state terrorism in Iraq and demands the prosecution of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. (Reuters) (BBC)
• An Italian court rules that calling someone a "dirty negro" while commiting a crime is not a hate crime. (Reuters)

2005-12-07 : 07.December, Wednesday

• BBC World Service reports that the US are moving into four new bases in Romania, one of the bases is where the CIA has been accused of carrying out extraordinary rendition.
• An Iranian C-130 Hercules airplane crashes into a ten-story building in a civilian area of the Iranian capital Tehran, killing all 94 people aboard and 34 residents of the building - a total of 128 people. (BBC) (BBC)
• David Cameron wins the leadership election for the United Kingdom Conservative Party. (BBC)
• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) photographs what appears to be a new mammal species in Borneo. The lemur-like carnivorous mammal is apparently a member of the viverrid family, related to the mongoose and civet. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Two suicide bombers kill 27 Iraqi Police at a police academy in Baghdad. (BBC)
• The Red Cross mulls adding a new Red Crystal symbol to ensure continuing acceptance of its work. (BBC)

2005-12-06 : 06.December, Tuesday

• 2005 Lake Tanganyika earthquake: Many people were feared dead after an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck Lake Tanganyika near the town of Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (TimesOnLine) (News24) (The Independent) (BBC)
• Civil Partnership Act 2004: The United Kingdom begins registration of civil unions for same-sex couples. (BBC)
• 2005 Kashmir earthquake: Pakistan renews SOS Children's Villages role as custodian of all orphans and unaccompanied children following the earthquake. (SOS)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A suicide bomb attack kills at least five people in Netanya, north-western Israel. The attack follows confirmation from Shaul Mofaz that Israel will resume its policy of "targeted killings". (Ynetnews) (BBC)
• Venezuelan parliamentary elections apparently result in Hugo Chavez's party and allies winning all 167 seats, as opposition parties boycott the election claiming election fraud. (BBC)

2005-12-05 : 05.December, Monday

• Exit polls indicate that Kazakhstan's incumbent leader Nursultan Nazarbayev wins the presidential election by a landslide. (Forbes), (Financial Times), (Guardian), (Xinhua)
• Conflict in Iraq -
  • Former chief of the RUC police force will head a British investigation into possible infiltration of Iraq's police force by insurgents. (BBC)
  • Former prime minister Iyad Allawi says he survived an assassination attempt at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. Police say his group fled from the Shi'ite Muslim shrine under a hail of debris by a mob. (ReutersUK) (NYTimes)
• Former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser calls for a worldwide ban on capital punishment. (The Australian)
• The people of Venezuela vote in Parliamentary Elections. (BBC)
• In the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, Philippines leads the medal tally with 106 gold medals over Thailand with only 62 gold medals. (Xinhua)
• A London tabloid claims that the CIA's use of Scotland's airports was part of an alleged CIA operation to catch and transfer terrorist suspects to secret prison camps in Europe. The three airports allegedly involved were Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, and Edinburgh Airport (BBC News) (Hindustan Times) (Photo of aircraft (Airliners.net))

2005-12-04 : 04.December, Sunday

• The University of Southern California Trojans and the University of Texas Longhorns earned the right to face each other at the Rose Bowl by defeating the UCLA Bruins and the University of Colorado Buffaloes respectively. This match up will also be college football's BCS National Championship Game and will take place in Pasadena, CA on January 4, 2006. (Sports Illustrated)
• Talks on the new EU budget may not be completed under the United Kingdom's presidency, the UK's minister for Europe warns (BBC)
• Republic of China (Taiwan) opposition party Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) makes major gains in municipal elections, taking 14 of 23 mayor or county magistrate seats. Ruling Democratic Progressive Party takes six seats. People First Party and New Party each takes one seat, and an independent wins one seat. DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang resigns to take responsibility for his party's defeat. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)
• Pakistan's information minister claims Pakistani forces have killed al-Qaeda operational commander Abu Hamza Rabia in fighting along the Afghanistan border. (BBC)
• Roadside Bomb about 60 miles from Baghdad, attack kills 19 Iraqi Troops. (Yahoo)
• Some 40,000 protest inaction on global warming in Montreal. The demonstration, held as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, is one of the largest environmental protests ever and is accompanied by marches worldwide, including one in hurricane-devastated New Orleans. (CTV)

2005-12-03 : 03.December, Saturday

• United States describe a propaganda program to plant stories in Iraqi newspapers. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman states it is not clear whether the program violated the law or Pentagon policy, adding, "You can do something perfectly legal, but that is inconsistent with the policy or procedures of the department. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's the right thing to do." The White House acknowledges concerns over the legitimacy of the program. (The Miami Herald)
• Conflict in Iraq: 10 US Marines are killed following an insurgent roadside bomb attack in Falluja. (BBC)
• Scientists in Gabon and Congo discover that three species of fruit bat serve as animal reservoirs for the ebola virus. The virus probably first spread from animal to human in 1976 by local hunters eating the bats. (Nature) (LA Times)
• Hurricane Epsilon strengthens from a tropical storm to become the record breaking fourteenth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. (CNN) (Reuters via Yahoo)
• Kenneth Boyd becomes the 1000th person to be executed in the USA since the re-introduction of capital punishment in 1976. (BBC)
• Australian Van Tuong Nguyen is executed by hanging in Singapore for drug trafficking. (AP via Yahoo)
• An independent commission to investigate the Malaysian prisoner abuse scandal is established by Prime Minister of Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. (The Sun Malaysia)

2005-12-02 : 02.December, Friday

• Van Tuong Nguyen is executed by hanging in Singapore. (AP via Yahoo)

2005-12-01 : 01.December, Thursday

• The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has officially ended at 11:59 pm EST (0459 UTC December 1), although Tropical Storm Epsilon continues to be active. (US NHC)
• Gabon: Africa's longest serving president (since 1967), Omar Bongo, wins presidential elections, securing a further seven years. (Reuters)
• The United States military is accused by the Los Angeles Times of carrying out a media manipulation program in Iraq to gain public support. (Al Jazeera)
• A new campaign against Iraqi insurgents begins with joint U.S.-Iraqi troops conducting Operation Iron Hammer in western Iraq. (ABC)
• New policy document on American involvement in Iraq, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq", is published by the White House. (UPI)
• Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant. (BBC)
• Death toll in northeast China coal mine blast reaches 150. (Science Daily)
• Giovanni Prezioso, the General Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, announces that he's leaving that post, although he'll remain until early 2006 to aid with the transition. (SEC website)

2005-11-30 : 30.November, Wednesday

• The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season nears its official end but the 26th named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Epsilon, forms from a non-tropical low east of Bermuda. (US NHC) (CNN)
• Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner grants clemency in the case of convicted murderer Robin Lovitt. It was about 24 hours before Lovitt was scheduled to be executed. Evidence against Lovitt had been illegally destroyed after his trial by a court clerk, preventing DNA testing that may have exonerated him from the crime. Lovitt's execution was to be the 1,000th execution in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (Reuters)
• Host country Philippines leads in the medal tally in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres says he may leave the Labour Party to join Ariel Sharon's government after the next election if he is re-elected and if Sharon's new party is to form a government. (ABC)
• Conflict in Iraq: A German woman is kidnapped in Iraq. (BBC)
• The Government of Lesotho offers all its citizens a free HIV test. Aimed at stopping and reversing the spread of AIDS, this is believed to be the first programme of its kind in the world. (BBC)
• President of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, has cancelled the Fatah Primary Elections after accusations of Voter Fraud were made. (BBC)
• Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, accused Vice-President Dick Cheney of ignoring a decision by President Bush on the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror. (BBC)
• Two bomb attacks occur in the Bangladeshi cities of Chittagong and Gazipur. Six people are killed and 65 others wounded. (Reuters)
• Activist investor Carl Icahn announces that he has hired Lazard to advise him as he wages a proxy fight for control of Time Warner, the media empire. (thestreet.com)

2005-11-29 : 29.November, Tuesday

• Reports that Darshan Singh has been dismissed as chief hangman of Singapore are denied by prison officials. They would not say if he would perform the hanging of Nguyen Tuong Van. (ABC)
• Canadian federal election, 2006: Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government is defeated in a confidence motion by a vote of 171 - 133. The Prime Minister announces he will request a dissolution of parliament from the Governor General tomorrow. (CBC).
• The tribunal trying Saddam Hussein and 7 co-defendants adjourned for a second time after hearing posthumous evidence. (BBC)
• EU Justice commissioner Franco Frattini makes an unprecedented call for the suspension of any member state found to have hosted a CIA black site. (ABC)
• Running water is restored to the city of Harbin, in Heilongjiang, China after several days of a water cut-off due to the toxic benzene spill. Yilan County, Heilongjiang, however, is still without running water. (The Guardian)

2005-11-28 : 28.November, Monday

• Conflict in Iraq: Four Westerners have been kidnapped in Iraq while in Baghdad. (BBC)
• The former Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, has claimed in the Observer newspaper, that Human Rights abuses by Shia militias within Iraq's Interior Ministry are as bad now as they were in the time of Saddam Hussein. (BBC)
• Presidential elections are taking place today in Honduras with either Porfirio Pepe Lobo or Manuel Mel Zelaya expected to win. (BBC)
• Singapore's hangman Darshan Singh is dismissed after his identity is revealed in an Australian newspaper prior to the planned 2 December execution of Australian Nguyen Tuong Van. A new hangman is expected to be imported from Malaysia for Nguyen's execution. (Sky News) (The Australian)
• An earthquake hits southern Iran, measuring 5.9 on the moment magnitude scale. (BBC)

2005-11-27 : 27.November, Sunday

• The Rafah crossing linking the Gaza Strip and Egypt turns over to Palestinian control for the first time. (BBC)
• An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Moment magnitude scale hits the area near Ruichang, Jiangxi in China, killing more than 14. (BBC) (USGS)
• Vijaypat Singhania of India sets a world record for highest hot air balloon flight, reaching 69,852 feet (20.29 km). (AP)
• British government suppresses further details of the Bush/Blair memo. (WikiNews)

2005-11-26 : 26.November, Saturday

• The European Commission starts a legal action against the Bank of Italy and its President, Antonio Fazio, who allegedly favored the Italian bank Banca Popolare Italiana in the race to acquire Banca Antonveneta, thus penalizing Dutch group ABN AMRO. (BBC)
• Cebu leads the "soft-opening" of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines. Games will formally start on November 27, 2005 at Manila's Quirino Grandstand. (Manila Bulletin)
• The president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, calls for the Holodomor to be internationally recognised as an act of genocide. (BBC)
• Papua New Guinea decides to evacuate the 1500 inhabitants of Carteret Atoll to Bougainville, 100 km away, over the next two years. The atolls, maximum elevation 1.5 metres, are the first inhabited land to be abandoned to rising sea levels and they are expected to be totally inundated by around 2015. (Guardian) (Straits Times)
• George Best, the Northern Irish international footballer who won the European Footballer of the Year award in 1968, has died of lung infection and organ failure at the age of 59. (BBC)
• Arab-Israeli Conflict: Israel hands over the bodies of three Hezbollah fighters its Defense Forces killed earlier in the week to the Lebanese Government. (IOL)
• Al Jazeera Bombing Memo:
  • Reporters Without Borders voice concerns over the Al Jazeera bombing memo and their shock over the reporting ban placed by the UK government on the issue. (New Kerala)
  • Peter Kilfoyle, MP lodges Early day motion 1084 in the House of Commons calling on the government to publish the memo in full. (Daily Telegraph)
  • Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera's director general, is reportedly flying to the UK to discuss the matter with the UK government. (BBC)

2005-11-25 : 25.November, Friday

• The city of Khabarovsk in Far Eastern Russia declares a state of emergency as the 80 km benzene slick released by an explosion in a Chinese chemical plant on 13 November, which has already caused water supplies for 4 million inhabitants of the Chinese city of Harbin to be suspended, approaches the Amur river which is the main water source for 1.5 million people in Russia. (Forbes), (Moscow Times)
• Two people were injured in a balloon accident at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York when the balloon was tangled in a light pole and fell near Times Square. (AP via Yahoo! News)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • 15 people die after a Suicide Bomb attack in Hilla. (ABC aus)
  • Prisoners at an Iraqi detention centre revealed to the BBC details of apparent widespread use of torture and abuse in prisons and detention centres in Iraq. (BBC)
  • At least thirty people have died following a car bomb outside a hospital in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. (BBC)
  • Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyim, one of the most important Sunni Arab Tribal leaders in Iraq has been shot dead, along with his three sons and a son-in-law in Baghdad. The Gunman appeared to be a member of the new Iraqi Army. (BBC)
• Canadian federal election, 2006: Opposition leader Stephen Harper introduces a motion of no confidence in the Canadian House of Commons. With the support of all opposition parties, it is expected to pass on Monday, toppling Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberals and forcing a campaign spanning the holiday season. (CBC) (BBC)
• There are further calls in the media and Parliament of the UK for Prime Minister Tony Blair to publish a full account of his discussions with US President Bush on the bombing of Al Jazeera TV station headquarters in Doha. A memo on the conversation has been partly leaked to the Daily Mirror newspaper, before the Official Secrets Act was invoked. (Guardian) The widow of journalist Tareq Ayyoub, who was killed in the 2003 bombing of Al Jazeera offices in Baghdad says she is considering legal action against the US government. (Adnki) Al Jazeera staff later staged a 15 minute symbolic walk-out from all their offices around the world in protest (BBC news)

2005-11-24 : 24.November, Thursday

• Israeli troops capture terror suspect Iyad Abu Rob, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, in the Israeli city of Jenin. (Reuters)
• The record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season continues as Tropical Storm Delta forms from a non-tropical low 1000 nautical miles southwest of the Azores. (US NHC)
• The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a bill by 370-18 requiring local branches of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to reregister as Russian organizations subject to Russian jurisdiction, and thus stricter financial and legal restrictions. The bill gives Russian officials oversight of local finances and activities. The bill has been highly criticized by Human Rights Watch, Memorial rights organization, the nonprofit think tank Indem. (Reuters)
• An explosion at a chemical factory on the Songhua River in northeastern China releases high levels of benzene into the river water. Authorities shut off the water supply for the downstream city of Harbin. (BBC)
• The new Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, goes to Paris, France for her first foreign trip in office. Some observers see this as a signal that intra-European affairs will be a high priority. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is officially declared as the winner of the Liberian presidential runoff, after she took 59.4 percent of the vote, making her Africa's first elected female head of state. (BBC)
• Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has dismissed his entire cabinet and deputy ministers after voters rejected a draft constitution. (BBC), (Reuters)

2005-11-23 : 23.November, Wednesday

• After two months of negotiations, Angela Merkel is elected the first female Chancellor of Germany by a coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD delegates in the Bundestag. (BBC)
• Kenyan voters overwhelmingly reject a new constitution, which would have given the president greater power, in a national referendum, which used symbols on the ballot paper to assist illiterate voters. (BBC)

2005-11-22 : 22.November, Tuesday

• The Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon announces his resignation from Likud and his intention to form a new party, and asks the President of Israel to call a general election. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Five Iraqi civilians, including three children, are shot dead by US Troops as they approached a checkpoint in Baquba. The minibus they were travelling in failed to stop as it approached a roadblock. (BBC)

2005-11-21 : 21.November, Monday

• Pakistani army radio reports Ariel Sharon, the current Prime Minister of Israel, will leave Likud and create a new centrist party positioned between it and Labour. This move ends more than a year of Likud infighting between Sharon and hard-right members led by Benjamin Netanyahu who opposed withdrawal from Gaza, and closely follows Labour's departure from the present grand coalition government. Early elections are now a near-certainty. (BBC) (Haaretz)
• U.S. President George W. Bush attends a church service during his visit to People's Republic of China as he presses for greater freedoms of expression and faith during his east Asian tour. (BBC)
• Russia:
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Japan with 100 business leaders for trade talks. (BBC)
  • A Cessna light aircraft departing northward from the Russian city of Voronezh to the capital Moscow explodes upon landing. Igor Olshansky, an assistant to a deputy in the State Duma (The lower house of the Russian legislature), is one of eight people believed to have died in the plane crash. (Gulf News)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the latest film based on the books by J. K. Rowling, earns US$101.4 million in its first three days of release across North America, making it the fourth-largest opening ever. (Reuters)

2005-11-20 : 20.November, Sunday

• U.S. President George W. Bush attends a church service during his visit to People's Republic of China as he presses for greater freedoms of expression and faith during his east Asian tour. (BBC)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Japan with 100 business leaders for trade talks (BBC)

2005-11-19 : 19.November, Saturday

• Tropical Storm Gamma forms from a regeneration of Tropical Depression 27, becoming the 24th named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. (NHC)
• Suicide bombers kill 74 worshippers at two mosques in eastern Iraq while in Baghdad two car bombs destroy the blast wall protecting a hotel housing foreign journalists and kill eight Iraqis. (Ynetnews)

2005-11-18 : 18.November, Friday

• The press baron Conrad Black is charged with multiple counts of fraud regarding his dealings with Hollinger International. (BBC)
• Controversial historian David Irving is arrested in Vienna on charges of denying the Holocaust, a criminal offence in Austria. (Reuters)
• Former rock star Gary Glitter, previously convicted on child pornography charges, is being sought by Vietnamese authorities who seek to question him about under-age sex allegations. (Reuters)
• The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world-wide Anglican Communion, is challenged to rethink his personal stance on the ordination of gay clergy in the light of scripture by nearly half of all the Anglican Primates. (Guardian Online)
• French Police declare a "return to normalcy throughout France" as civil unrest subsides. (Le Monde)
• British Secretary of State for Education Ruth Kelly promises that student selection will not return to schools. (BBC)
• Members of the European Parliament pass an item of controversial chemical safety testing legislation, known as the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) law. (BBC)

2005-11-17 : 17.November, Thursday

• 1 person is killed, and 15 are injured in Hakkâri, Hakkari Province, Turkey during fighting between Turkish police and Kurdish PKK rebels. (Reuters)
• In the 2005 Burkina Faso presidential elections incumbent Blaise Compaoré celebrates victory several days ahead of the release of the voting results. International watchdogs and opposition officials allege widespread vote rigging. (BBC)
• The Chinese Health Ministry announces the country's first two confirmed cases of avian flu in humans in Hunan province, and one suspected case in Anhui. (BBC)
• The United States government has won its fight to keep its supervisory authority over the internet through the ICANN, despite opposition from many nations. (BBC)
• Major areas of the Australian city of Adelaide have been "locked down" ahead of the arrival of United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the 17th annual AUS-MIN meeting. (ABC)

2005-11-16 : 16.November, Wednesday

• 173 prisoners are found in an Iraqi government bunker in Baghdad starved, beaten and tortured. (CBC), (BBC)
• Terrorism in Pakistan:
  • A car bomb explodes outside a KFC outlet in Karachi, Pakistan around 08:45 (UTC+5). At least three people are killed and eight others wounded. (CNN)
• Quebec, Canada: Former Minister André Boisclair was elected Leader of the Parti Québécois, the provincial official opposition and Quebec's main party promoting separation of the french-speaking province from Canada, in the Parti Québécois leadership election, 2005. (CBC)
• Mid-November 2005 Tornado Outbreak: Many tornadoes (at least 23 confirmed) have been reported during the afternoon and evening across central North America, stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Damage has been reported in many areas, and at least one person was killed. [1]
• Japan: 2005 Sanriku Japan Earthquake A 6.9-magnitude earthquake, as determined by the Japan Meteorological Society, occured off the northern coast of Japan near Sanriku at 6:39am Japan Standard Time (UTC+9), prompting a tsunami warning to be issued in Japan and the western coast of the United States. (Yahoo) (USGS)
• Sayako, Princess Nori of Japan marries a commoner and thereby leaves the Imperial Family, taking the surname of her husband. (TheAge), (Reuters ), (BBC)
• The French Parliament permits President Jacques Chirac's government to extend emergency powers for three months to quell civil unrest. (BBC), (Guardian), (IndianExpress)

2005-11-15 : 15.November, Tuesday

• Japan: 2005 Sanriku Japan Earthquake A 6.9-magnitude earthquake, as determined by the Japan Meteorological Society, occured off the northern coast of Japan near Sanriku at 6:39am Japan Standard Time (UTC+9), prompting a tsunami warning to be issued. (Yahoo) (USGS)

2005-11-14 : 14.November, Monday

• British doctors are to continue checks on Andrew Stimpson, a Scotsman whose body has reportedly cured itself of the HIV virus. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq - Iraqi president Jalal Talabani tells British television that Iraqi troops could replace UK forces by the close of 2006. (BBC)
• Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi defends his handling of opposition demonstrations against claims of abuse. (BBC)
• 7.5 millions voters in Burkina Faso participate in the presidential elections of 2005. (BBC)
• Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asks Nepalese King Gyanendra to take steps towards restoring democratic rule. (BBC)
• Thailand confirms its 4th H5N1 bird flu case this year. The victim is an 18 month-old boy living in Bangkok. Health experts advise the public to be on high alert. (The Nation) (Bangkok Post)
• Explosions in a Chinese chemical plant force the evacuation of over 10,000 people. (Xinhua)
• Following the bomb attacks in Amman, Jordanian police arrest a woman said to be the wife of a suicide attacker. (BBC)

2005-11-13 : 13.November, Sunday

• Amir Peretz, the new head of the Israeli Labour Party, warns Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that if Sharon does not pick a date for an early election, Peretz will institute a motion of no-confidence forcing a snap election within 90 days. (Reuters)
• Germany/Switzerland: A rare earthquake is measured in the region. The earthquake has a magnitude of 4.4. (Yahoo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, makes a surprise visit to Iraq and expresses support for an Arab League conference discussing cooperation with Iraq's many factions. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • Four people die following a car bomb in Baghdad. (BBC)
• Tens of thousands of people gather at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv in a rally to mark a decade since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. (Ynetnews)

2005-11-12 : 12.November, Saturday

• British hostages are freed in Iran after intense pressure from the British Foreign Office. The trio were seized at gun point by Iranian Navy patrol boats on 28 October, when they sailed their boat to the disputed island of Abu Musa, which is claimed by both Iran and the United Arab Emirates. (BBC)
• Albania suffers its worst ever electric power shortage. Due to low water levels, hydroelectric power is reduced to the minimum and there are blackouts in all the country. Water supplies won't last for more than two weeks, so electricity is currently available just six hours a day. The government plans to import power from neighbouring Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. (BBC)
• A Pakistani cargo plane carrying eight to ten people crashes near Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. There are no survivors. The cause of the crash is unknown. (BBC)
• The deadly H5N1 bird flu is found in Kuwait. It's the first case of the virus in the Middle East. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabia becomes a member of the World Trade Organization after twelve years of talks. (BBC)

2005-11-11 : 11.November, Friday

• Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf wins the Liberian presidential runoff, defeating George Weah and becoming the first female president in Africa.
• Investigations of the 17th Street Canal, whose failure flooded much of New Orleans, Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, show that metal pilings were 7 feet shallower than engineering specifications. (Times-Pi cayune)
• The United States House of Representatives drops a provision in the Deficit Reduction Bill that would permit the drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for fear of losing moderate Republicans when the bill comes to a final vote. (SFGate) (Seattle-PI)
• A Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner jet aircraft breaks the record for the longest non-stop passenger airline flight. The 20,000-kilometer (12,500-mile) flight from Hong Kong to London lasted 23 hours. (Boeing) (BBC)
• Conflict in Afghanistan: Afghan Insurgents, suspected members of the Taliban, kill seven police in an ambush in Kandahar. Two civilians from Uruzgan were also found decapitated. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 30 people have died following an insurgent suicide bomb attack on a restaurant in Baghdad. (BBC)

2005-11-10 : 10.November, Thursday

• Facing the world's highest HIV infection rate, Swaziland is drafting a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill proposing the death penalty for child rape, incest and the intentional transmission of the HIV. (IRIN)
• Amir Peretz is elected leader of the Labour Party in Israel, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Shimon Peres. (BBC)
• A gunbattle between the Indonesian police and militants in East Java kills seven militants, including terrorist mastermind Azahari Husin who is believed to have blown himself up. (Reuters) (Reuters)
• Three explosions rock the city of Amman, Jordan, killing at least 67 and injuring more than 300 other people, mostly Westerners. (BBC)
• In Israel, archaeologists discover two lines of a Phoenician or Hebrew alphabet on a stone dating to the 10th century BC, suggesting that literacy existed in ancient Israel earlier than had been thought. "All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit," says the excavation's director. (IHT) (AP)
• In the United States, the visit of Iraqi Deputy Premier Ahmed Chalabi to the Department of State and Department of the Treasury arouses controversy. (BBC)
• In the United Kingdom, the Government loses a key House of Commons vote on detaining terrorism suspects for 90-days without charge, in the report stage of the Terrorism Bill. (BBC)
• Venus Express, the first mission to Venus in over a decade, lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (BBC)
• U.S. General Election, 2005
  • California special election, 2005: voters reject all eight statewide ballot propositions, including four backed by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

2005-11-09 : 09.November, Wednesday

• U.S. General Election, 2005:
  • California special election, 2005: Polls close, counting begins.
  • Virginia gubernatorial election, 2005: Democrat Tim Kaine is declared the winner and next Governor of Virginia.(Yahoo)
  • New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2005: Democrat Jon Corzine is declared the winner and next Governor of New Jersey.(AP)
• French President Jacques Chirac declares a state of emergency on the 12th day of the civil unrest. Chirac's move followed the re-activation in a cabinet emergency session of a 1955 law allowing local authorities to impose curfews. (NYT) (CNN)
• Trials of Saddam Hussein: Three gunmen assassinate Adel al-Zubeidi, the defense lawyer for Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former Iraqi Vice President under Saddam Hussein. (Reuters)
• Italian state-owned channel Rai News 24 airs a controversial documentary in which Iraqi people and ex-U.S. soldiers report that white phosphorus, a chemical weapon, was used by the U.S. Army against civilians in Fallujah last year. (BBC) (Rai News 24, with video)
• Australian police claim to have disrupted a large-scale terrorist attack as 17 suspects are arrested in Melbourne and Sydney following raids. ( Sydney Morning Herald) (CNN)
• The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says that the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research is about to start a controversial program that could kill up to 940 whales in the name of scientific research, abusing the rights under the International Whaling Convention. (abc.net.au)(IOL)

2005-11-08 : 08.November, Tuesday

• French authorities decide to impose curfews in attempt to quell civil unrest simmering across France, which continued for a 12th straight night. (CNN)
• Australian police claim to have disrupted a large-scale terrorist attack as 17 suspects are arrested in Melbourne and Sydney following raids. ( Sydney Morning Herald) (CNN)

2005-11-07 : 07.November, Monday

• Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori arrives in Santiago, Chile after being exiled in Japan since 2000. Although he is the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant, the Chilean government said he cannot be arrested without an order from a Chilean judge. Fujimori arrives at a time of tension between Chile and Peru over sea boundaries. (CNN)
• People in several parts of Germany report several fireballs in the sky, leading to speculation that they may be UFOs. Scientists report that the sightings are of the Taurid meteor shower. (Yahoo! News)
• Azerbaijani citizens go to the polls in the Azerbaijan parliamentary election, 2005. Opposition parties have alleged that there is voting fraud. (Reuters)
• The tenth night of the 2005 French riots is reported as being the most intense yet, and the riots are now the subject of crisis meetings in the French government. President Jacques Chirac has called for the arrest, trial and punishment of the rioters. (BBC)
• Terra Moya Aqua Inc. has developed a new wind turbine design that is 43–45 percent efficient, creating up to 80 percent more power from the same wind than previous turbines. Although the blades of the turbine move more slowly, they generate more electricity and the overall turbine is smaller, safer, and makes less noise. (Reuters)

2005-11-06 : 06.November, Sunday

• Archaeologists in Israel discover the so-far most ancient Christian church. The church was uncovered near the prison at Megiddo and is dated at more than 1700 years old. (Reuters) (Ynetnews)

2005-11-05 : 05.November, Saturday

• The Old Bailey in the U.K. has sentenced five white supremacists to jail for 15 years for creating and distributing race hate material. (BBC)
• Three men arrested last month in the U.K. have been charged under the Terrorism Act. (BBC)
• The 2005 Paris suburb riots continue for an eighth consecutive night. Hundreds of arson attacks have taken place in the last few nights. Shots fired at police and firefighters. Rioting continues to spread. France described as facing a crisis. (BBC)
• Israelis have begun to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. (BBC), (Reuters), (IOL)
• Massive demonstrations against U.S. President George W. Bush continue to grow at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina (Reuters)

2005-11-04 : 04.November, Friday

• The 2005 Paris suburb riots continue for an eighth consecutive night. Hundreds of arson attacks have taken place in the last few nights. Shots fired at police and firefighters. Rioting continues to spread. France described as facing a crisis. (BBC)

2005-11-03 : 03.November, Thursday

• Donald E. Powell, former chief executive of the First National Bank of Amarillo, Texas and current Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman is named to coordinate rebuilding of the Gulf Coast by President George W. Bush. (White House) (WashingtonTimes)
• The Washington Post reports that the Central Intelligence Agency has been operating, perhaps illegally, a covert network of "black site" prisons for terrorist suspects in eight foreign countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand, and several Eastern European democracies for the last four years, with little or no oversight from the United States Congress. (The Washington Post)
• Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated Sadeq Mahsouli as Supervisor of Ministry of Petroleum of OPEC's number two producer, risking domestic political commotion and a parliamentry veto after already making a disturbance abroad with a call for Israel's destruction. (Reuters)
• The Delhi police have released three sketches of one of the suspected bombers involved in 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings. (NDTV)
• A car bomb kills six in Srinagar, India (Rediff)
• The British Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, David Blunkett, resigns a second time, following allegations of ministerial misconduct over his directorship and purchase of shares in a bioscience company. (Investment & Pensions Europe).
• The 2005 Paris riots continue for the sixth consecutive night. Rioting spread through impoverished suburbs, which was sparked by the death of two youths who were allegedly fleeing police and were accidently electrocuted while hiding in an electrical substation. The riots have caused increased strains between the authorities and the inhabitants of the poor suburbs. (AP)
• 80 of the world's top radio astronomers meet in Pune, India to decide how and where to set up the world's biggest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array. (NDTV)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An Israel Defense Forces soldier was seriously wounded and later died of his wounds in an overnight arrest raids near the West Bank town of Jenin. (Ynetnews)
• At least 23 people were killed and 150 wounded in clashes between opposition supporters and police in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. (Reuters)

2005-11-02 : 02.November, Wednesday

• The 2005 Paris riots continue for the sixth consecutive night. Rioting spread through impoverished suburbs, which was sparked by the death of two Muslim youths who were allegedly fleeing police and were accidently electrocuted while hiding in an electrical substation. The riots have caused increased strains between the authorities and the Muslim community of France. (AP)
• 80 of the world's top scientists meet in Pune to decide how and where to set up the world's biggest radio telescope. Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope project(NDTV)

2005-11-01 : 01.November, Tuesday

• Makybe Diva wins the Melbourne Cup for the third consecutive year, becoming the first horse to ever do so. (Herald Sun)

2005-10-31 : 31.October, Monday

• Italian Interior Minister Altero Matteoli announces interest in switching to nuclear power as the main source of energy within 10-15 years. Nuclear power has been banned in Italy since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. (Reuters)
• Hurricane Beta, the first hurricane named with the Greek letter Beta, approaches Nicaragua and Honduras as a Category 3 storm, (BBC), and makes landfall on the Mosquito Coast at Category 2 intensity. Thousands of residents of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua have been evacuated to shelters. (VOA), (Scotsman)
• Further rioting occurs overnight in the Parisian suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, France following the electrocutions of two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, and a third teenager suffering severe burns. Rioters attacked police and journalists. Critics allege that the teenagers were targeted because they were Muslim, though this claim has been denied by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. (BBC) (ABC News)
• After an official 3-day Visit to Pyongyang , North Korea, President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China returns to Beijing, having reached new directions in Sino-DPRK relations. This comes after North Korean Leader Kim Jung-Il called Hu the "most respected guest". (Xiaoxiang Morning News) ( QQ News)
• The Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a Protestant Church in Dresden, Germany is re-consecrated. The church was destroyed during the bombing of Dresden in World War II. The remains of the church had been left untouched by the government of East Germany as an anti-war monument. Some 60,000 people celebrated the reopening. Both Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and German President Horst Köhler said that the rebuilding was a 'symbol of reconciliation'. (Reuters), (AustBC), (Scotsman), (BBC), (CNN)

2005-10-30 : 30.October, Sunday

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • More than 20 people die when a car bomb detonates in Howaider, a Shia village near Baquba, 60 miles north of Baghdad. (BBC)
• A train derails in Andhra Pradesh, India, killing 100. (BBC)
• A series of blasts detonate in New Delhi, the Capital of India. 50 people are known to have died, many more are injured. (NDTV), (BBC)
• Three Christian Indonesian girls are beheaded by Muslims as they walk through a cocoa plantation near a private Christian School in Central Sulawesi. The motive for the attacks is unclear, but the area is noted for episodes of religious violence. (BBC)

2005-10-29 : 29.October, Saturday

• Sina-1, the first Iranian satellite built jointly with Russia was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Murmansk province in northwestern Russia at 22:52 Thursday local time (14:52 Friday UTC). Iran-daily.com
• Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, resigns after being indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice by a grand jury. (BBC)
• Elvis Presley tops Forbes´ list of Top Ten Earning Dead Celebrities for the fifth successive year, earning US$45 million in royalties. He is followed by Charles Schulz ($35M), John Lennon ($22M), and Andy Warhol ($16M). (Ireland Online)
• President Fidel Castro of Cuba agrees to allow three officials from the United States Agency for International Development into the country to assist in relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Wilma. The communist nation typically turns down offers of assistance from the United States since trade embargoes from the US have been in place for over 40 years. (Yahoo! via AP)
• In the continuing negotiations over global free trade,the trade commissioner for the European Union, Peter Mandelson, said Friday that the EU will cut its average farm tariff by 47%, reducing the highest rates by 60%. Jacques Chirac, the president of France, said that he doesn't have France's support in such a proposal. (Financial Times)

2005-10-28 : 28.October, Friday

• Conflict in Iraq: At least 20 Shia Militia members and Iraqi Police have died following a Sunni Arab ambush in Nahrawan, South East of Baghdad. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israeli troops raid the Palestinian town of Jenin, in the West Bank. (BBC) ( IMEMC)
  • At least seven Palestinians, including one militant, have died following Israeli Air Strikes in the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calls for the expulsion of Iran from the United Nations after the Iranian President called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". (BBC)
• As the relief operation of 2005 Kashmir earthquake is facing great difficulties in reaching victims due to bad weather, mountainous terrain, landslides and blocked roads, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz makes an appeal to millions of survivors in the mountains to leave their villages and come down to the valleys and cities for shelter before the start of winter in about three weeks. (Bloomberg)
• Former Northern Irish footballer George Best's medical condition worsens in an intensive care unit at a private English hospital, as he is reportedly suffering from serious internal bleeding. (BBC News)
• President George W. Bush's Supreme Court of the United States nominee for Associate Justice, Harriet Miers, has turned down the nomination made on October 3, 2005. The President has accepted her withdrawal. (CNN)

2005-10-27 : 27.October, Thursday

• The Chicago White Sox win the 2005 World Series, beating the Houston Astros 1-0 to win the series 4 games to 0. This is the first Series title for the Sox since 1917. Outfielder Jermaine Dye was named Series MVP. (Houston Chronicle)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for the destruction of Israel, calling it a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map" during a speech at the "World without Zionism" conference. (Reuters) (AP)
  • At least 5 people are killed and dozens injured in a bombing of a market place at the historical Israeli town of Hadera. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack. (YNETnews)
• Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to be relocated from the south island of Okinawa to the main island, affecting thousands of U.S. Marines. Protests from residents, environmental groups, local businessmen and politicians on both sides are likely to ensue. The move is partially due to the rape of a local Okinawa girl, a helicopter crash into a university campus in Ginowan last year, and racial tensions between locals and Marines. (AP) (BBC)
• Avian influenza:
  • The British Community Reference Laboratory for Avian influenza in Weybridge confirms that swans found near Orahovica, Croatia, were infected by the H5N1 flu strain. (BBC)
• The "Al-Tawhid trial" in Düsseldorf, Germany results in sentences between five and eight years against the defendants, four Palestinian men charged with plotting attacks on Jewish installations in Germany on the orders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
• The British Government, after several days of debating, confirms its plans to ban smoking in public places in England with the exemption of pubs and clubs not serving food. (BBC)
• A Wal-Mart internal memorandum determines that benefits costs are unsustainable, driven by an aging work force. A recommendation is to shift to more part time associates to lower health care enrollment. (WalmartWatch) (NYT)

2005-10-26 : 26.October, Wednesday

• Conflict in Iraq: Staff Sergeant George T. Alexander, Jr. becomes the 2000th U.S. military fatality in Iraq. (Yahoo/AFP) (DOD)
• Rumours that a 14-year-old Afro-Caribbean girl had been sexually assaulted, and possibly raped, by several Asian men, lead to a race riot in Birmingham, England. 20 are injured after gun shots and stabbings between South Asian and African gangs, and local police. (The Mercury)
• An Irish government-commissioned report, carried out of a retired Supreme Court judge, condemns two Irish bishops, the Roman Catholic Church, the Garda Siochána (police) and health authorities for their failure to deal with clerical sex abuse over 40 years in the Diocese of Ferns (Wexford). The report suggested that 10% of priests in the diocese sexually abused children. (RTÉ) (BBC)
• BBC World Service announces that it will launch an Arabic language TV news channel in 2007. Radio services in ten languages, mainly Central European but including Kazakh and Thai, will be abandoned in 2006 to release funding for the new service. (BBC)
• The Swedish telecoms manufacturer Ericsson has bought most of the troubled British telecoms manufacturer Marconi. (Guardian) (BBC)
• Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission announces that the country's draft constitution was approved in the vote held October 15. (AP)
• Paul Hackett, who in August narrowly lost his race for the U.S. House of Representatives to Jean Schmidt, announced that he will seek the Democratic Senate nomination to run against incumbent Mike DeWine. (The Cincinnati Enquirer)

2005-10-25 : 25.October, Tuesday

• Rosa Parks, whose famous refusal in 1955 to surrender her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama triggered a bus-boycott and the beginning of the modern US civil rights movement died at the age of 92. The recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom was known to have suffered from dementia. Sources state that she died at her home in Detroit of natural causes. (Bloomberg)
• The Terrafrica partnership, a US$4 billion, 12-year campaign supported by the African Union, World Bank, United Nations, European Commission, and regional African governments, and aimed at fighting current, and preventing future desertification in Africa, begins. (Reuters)
• Escalating a 'minor diplomatic crisis' between Russia and Norway, two Russian fishing trawlers are taken into custody by the Norwegian Coast Guard after allegedly having done illegal reloading of their vessels near the Norwegian Sea island of Bjørnøya. The incident happens only days after the chasing of a similar trawler from the Svalbard area towards Russian waters. The Russian ship had fled from the Coast Guard with two Norwegian fishery inspectors still aboard, to avoid arrest. (RIA Novosti) (Aftenposten)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Two Palestinian militants have died following an Israeli raid into the West Bank area of Tulkarm. (BBC) (IOL)
• 2006 World Cup: Gordon Strachan is named as FIFA/SOS Ambassador for Scotland (joining Wayne Rooney for England) for the 2006 World Cup. (SOS Children's Villages) (Celtic FC)
• Zhou Shaoning is selected as the Chief Chinese Operations Officer for Google China. (Yahoo!)
• 11 Nepali Sherpa and 7 French mountaineers are feared dead by an attempt to climb 6981 metre (20000 feet) Mount Kang guru in north-west Nepal. (NepalNews) (Reuters) (Japan Today) (Kantipuronline)
• U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Ben Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as chair of the Federal Reserve Board. (New York Times)

2005-10-24 : 24.October, Monday

• Avian influenza:
  • The Swedish National Veterinary Institute reports a dead duck discovered near Stockholm was infected with an undetermined strain of avian influenza. (ABC)
• Nigerian airline Bellview Airlines Flight 210 crashed in Oyo State, Nigeria shortly after take-off from Lagos en route to Abuja. The Red Cross reports there are no survivors. (theStar) (Reuters) (BBC) (CNN)
• The second round of the Polish Presidential election is held today between conservative candidates Lech Kaczyński and Donald Tusk. According to exit polls conducted by Polish television stations, Kaczynski is the winner. (Bloomberg) (AFP)
• A referendum to ban civilian manufacture and sale of firearms in Brazil is massively rejected by a vote of 64 percent to 36 percent. (ABC News)

2005-10-23 : 23.October, Sunday

• The second round of the Polish Presidential election is being held today between conservative candidates Lech Kaczynski and Donald Tusk.

[1]

2005-10-22 : 22.October, Saturday

• Telecom giant Inmarsat is weeks away from launching the second in a series of two super-satellites -- designed to be among the most powerful commercial communications spacecraft in orbit -- that will beam broadband data and voice services to almost any location on the planet.[1]
• Avian influenza detected in Croatia. Six still living swans that are infected by H5 modification of virus are found near Orahovica. It is suspected that swans have come to Croatia from European Union.
• Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, the defense lawyer of Awad Hamed al-Bandar in the Al-Dujail trial, is found dead of gunshot wounds near a Baghdad mosque, after having been kidnapped on Thursday evening by unknown assailants. AP
• In Portsmouth, UK, the parents of the brain-damaged baby Charlotte Wyatt have won a partial victory in their legal battle to have her resuscitated by doctors if she falls seriously ill. (BBC)
• The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service discovers anti-bodies of avian influenza and newcastle disease in pigeons imported from Canada to Melbourne, leading to a blanket ban on all live bird imports from Canada. (ABC) (ABC)
• Avian influenza found in a parrot that died in quarantine in England. The Department for the Environment, Fisheries and Food has not said if it is the lethal strain H5N1. (BBC)
• A United Nations investigation headed by Detlev Mehlis has found that high-ranking members of the Syrian and Lebanese governments were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. (ABC)
• A ceremony is held in Portsmouth, UK, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar; other events include the Queen Elizabeth II lighting one of many nationwide beacons. (BBC)
• An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the moment magnitude scale hits the Turkish city of İzmir, injuring 15 people and causing one fatal heart attack. This is the fourth strong tremor this week. (AFP) (AP) (USGS)

2005-10-21 : 21.October, Friday

• A United Nations investigation headed by Detlev Mehlis has found that high-ranking members of the Syrian and Lebanese governments were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. (ABC)

2005-10-20 : 20.October, Thursday

• The death toll in the 8 October Kashmir earthquake exceeds 79,000. (Guardian)
• Hurricane Wilma goes through one of the most intense rapid intensification processes in hurricane history to become the third Category 5 storm of 2005. Its central pressure falls to 882 mb (hPa), becoming the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. To date, the 2005 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season has seen 21 storms of tropical storm strength or greater and 12 hurricanes, both of which tie the records set in 1933 and 1969, respectively. (NHC) (AP/YahooNews)
• Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity. The former President of Iraq is led into court with seven associates, charged with ordering the killing of 143 Shi'a men in the town of Dujail in 1982. If convicted, Hussein could face capital punishment. (BBC)
• Avian flu:
  • China reports 2600 birds have died of the H5N1 virus near Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. (BBC)
  • Russia reports outbreaks of the virus in Kurgan Oblast, west Siberia, and in Tula Oblast, western Russia. (Mosnews) (AP/Canada.c om)
  • The European Union suspects a new outbreak has occurred in the Republic of Macedonia. (CNN)
• Liverpool City Council, UK, issued an apology for the destruction of the Welsh community of Capel Celyn in 1965 to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir, which supplies Liverpool and The Wirral with drinking water. (BBC)
• Former Congressman Bob McEwen of Ohio is considering challenging incumbent Jean Schmidt in the 2006 Republican primary. (The Cincinnati Enquirer)

2005-10-19 : 19.October, Wednesday

• Malawi food crisis: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) increases its appeal for Malawi to USD13 million, as the humanitarian crisis worsen with an estimated 46,000 severely malnourished children. (allAfrica)
• Conflict in Iraq: Two US Marines and around four Iraqi insurgents are killed in Western Iraq. (NBC)
• The independent electoral commission in Iraq issues a statement saying that statistical irregularities in the constitution ratification referendum on October 15, 2005 require that the balloting be audited, which will delay the announcement of the final count. According to the New York Times, "The statement made no mention of the possibility of fraud." (BBC), (New York Times)_(mirror), (MTV)
• William Evan Allan, the last surviving Australian First World War veteran, dies aged 106. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth is formally opened. Five years overdue and massively over budget, the tower offers the highest public vantage point in the UK. Project manager David Greenhalgh became trapped in the tower's external glass lift for over an hour at the opening. (BBC). (BBC)
• Authorities closed one of two highway tunnels carrying traffic under Baltimore, Maryland's harbor following a threat to detonate explosive filled vehicles.

2005-10-18 : 18.October, Tuesday

• Conflict in Iraq: The US claims to have killed 70 insurgents near Ramadi in eastern Iraq. However, eyewitnesses maintain that many killed were innocent civilians. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel bans Palestinians from travelling throughout the West Bank and cut off contact with the Palestinian Authority. (BBC)
• Jens Stoltenberg takes over as the Prime Minister of Norway after Kjell Magne Bondevik. In Stoltenberg's majority coalition government, ten ministers represent the PMs own party, the Norwegian Labour Party (Ap), five come from the Socialist Left Party (SV), and four from the Centre Party (Sp). Nine of the nineteen ministers are women. (Aftenposten)
• Helen Clark announces the formation of a Labour-led Government in New Zealand. The Progressive Party is in coalition. New Zealand First and United Future support the government and are each given ministerial positions outside Cabinet. (NZ Herald)
• Tropical Storm Wilma forms, making it only the second time there have been 21 recorded tropical storms in a single hurricane season in the north Atlantic basin, tying the 1933 season. (United States National Hurricane Center)

2005-10-17 : 17.October, Monday

• Helen Clark announces the formation of a Labour-led Government in New Zealand. The Progressive Party is in coalition. New Zealand First and United Future support the government and are each given ministerial positions outside Cabinet. (NZ Herald)

2005-10-16 : 16.October, Sunday

• The Iraqi people go to the polls to vote on whether to approve the proposed constitution, amidst heavy security. (AP)
• Crown Princess Mary of Denmark gives birth to her first child, a 3.5 kg boy, at 0157 local time (2357 UTC Friday). The prince, likely to be named Christian, is second in line of succession to Europe's oldest crown. (Reuters)
• The Brazilian government extends a state of emergency to cover the whole of Amazonas, the country's largest state, following a severe drought which has seen many rivers and lakes dry up. (BBC)
• Election officials in Somaliland's first multiparty parliamentary elections in the breakaway republic announce that the ruling party, the For Unity, Democracy, and Independence won the most seats. (seattlepi)

2005-10-15 : 15.October, Saturday

• 2005 Kashmir earthquake: SOS Children have been appointed temporary custodian of unaccompanied children. SOS will run the family tracing database and look after children meanwhile in their emergency centre in Islamabad and their other six villages in Kashmir (SO S)
• A high ranking undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer, known only as "Jose," will coordinate CIA, FBI, and State Department spying operations as the new director of the National Clandestine Service. (Reuters)

2005-10-14 : 14.October, Friday

• ABC investigative reporter Brian Ross reports that security at nuclear reactors on US college campuses is easily compromised. (ABC)
• Shenzhou 6 could be brought back one day earlier than planned due to weather conditions at the landing area and the physical condition of the astronauts. The People's Republic of China's second human spaceflight was originally planned for the mission to last five days. (SpaceDaily)
• Scores of suspected Chechen separatist rebels attack the southern Russian city of Nalchik in a coordinated operation against Russian security forces, killing dozens of people. [1]
• The presence of the dangerous H5N1 avian influenza virus is confirmed in dead birds found in Romania and Turkey, marking the first cases of the disease in Europe. [2]
• In Stockholm, it is announced that British playwright Harold Pinter is the 2005 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Reuters)
• Iraq's Constitutional Referendum: A four day curfew has been announced in order to hamper terrorists. Early voting has begun. (Reuters)

2005-10-13 : 13.October, Thursday

• CNN reports that the Louisiana attorney general is investigating the possibility that mercy killings of critically ill patients by staff medical professionals at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans occurred during Hurricane Katrina. (CNN) (B usinessWire)
• German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder resigns. He criticizes the United States for its response to Hurricane Katrina and "Anglo-saxon economic policies," while stressing the importance of Franco-Germanic ties. Reuters
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 30 people die following an insurgent suicide bomb attack in Talafar, North Western Iraq, the second such attack in as many days. (BBC)
• The People's Republic of China launches the manned Shenzhou 6 spacecraft. Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng will spend five days in orbit in their Shenzhou spacecraft. (People's Daily)
• Iraq's Constitutional referendum: the prospects of the proposed Iraqi constitution being approved in Saturday's referendum are boosted by a deal struck with a major Sunni Arab party, the Iraqi Islamic Party. (CNN)
• Syria's interior minister, Ghazi Kanaan, who was head of the country's military intelligence in neighboring Lebanon for nearly 20 years, has committed suicide. (CNN)

2005-10-12 : 12.October, Wednesday

• The People's Republic of China launches the manned Shenzhou 6 spacecraft. Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng will spend five days in orbit in their Shenzhou spacecraft. (People's Daily)
• Iraq's Constitutional referendum: the prospects of the proposed Iraqi constitution being approved in Saturday's referendum are boosted by a deal struck with a major Sunni Islam party, the Iraqi Islamic Party. (CNN)

2005-10-11 : 11.October, Tuesday

• New Orleans:
  • Three New Orleans officers accused of nearly Robert Davis beating to death, and assaulting a cameraman who taped the ordeal, plead not guilty.
  • Allegations that New Orleans police looted 200 cars (41 Cadillacs) are under investigation by Louisiana police.(Yahoo)
  • Widespread desertion, suicide, and crime among New Orleans police officers has been reported in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (Reuters)
• The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully tests a $10 million jet that travels at twice the speed of sound.(Reuters)
• 2005 Kashmir earthquake SOS Children have reported that despite the destruction of much of their Children’s Village in Muzaffarabad all of the children in their care are believed safe.SOS
• Conflict in Iraq: Insurgent attacks throughout Iraq leave seven Iraqis and one US soldier dead. (BBC)
• Following the German federal election, 2005, Christian Democrat Angela Merkel will become the next Chancellor of Germany, replacing Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, although Schröder's party will be the dominant party in the Grand Coalition. (BBC), (Reuters)
• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards Thomas Schelling and Robert Aumann the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics, "for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis". (Nobel Prize)
• Aardman Animations, the company behind films such as Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the just-released Wallace and Gromit film Curse of the Were-Rabbit lose their entire history, but not their film library, in a fire. (BBC)

2005-10-10 : 10.October, Monday

• Three white New Orleans police officers are arrested after a video surfaces showing the officers brutally beating unarmed 64-year old Robert Davis. The victim, who is black, has been charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. (Reuters)
• New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame. (Reuters)
• In a joint statement, Anglican and Catholic leaders voice concerns over euthanasia as House of Lords gears up for debate on legislation. (BBC)
• Former actress and current Labour MP Glenda Jackson announces she intends to stand against Tony Blair in a leadership bid if he doesn't stand down in the near future. (BBC) (Scotsman)
• Tropical Storm Vince, the 20th named storm of the season (making the current Atlantic hurricane season the 2nd most active since recording first took place) gained hurricane strength while heading towards Europe. It's unusual for such a storm to form so far east in the Atlantic Ocean, and more so gaining hurricane strength, since the waters are much cooler than in the Caribbean area. (National Hurricane Center)
• Southend Pier, in the East of England, is devastated by a fire. (BBC)
• Canada - The members of the Canadian Media Guild vote 88% in favour of the proposed settlement of the lockout with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, officially ending the current labor dispute with the affected personnel resuming regular duties on October 11 with a gradual resumption of regular programming. (To ronto Star)

2005-10-09 : 09.October, Sunday

• The People's Republic of China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announces the latest measured height of Mount Everest is 8848.43 m. (Xinhua)

2005-10-08 : 08.October, Saturday

• 8 Oct Earthquake in North India: Strong tremors shook North India at around 9.30 a.m. IST. (NDTV) (Earth Quake Map) (Indian Express)

2005-10-07 : 07.October, Friday

• Five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group begun in Uganda, are targeted by the first arrest warrants to be issued by the International Criminal Court. (BBC)
• Gabon announces that the presidential elections is to be held on 27 November with security forces voting two days earlier, but opposition denounces the move as a ruse for ballot rigging. (allAfrica)
• Zimbabwe is facing increasing threat of military revolt, as soldiers are increasingly dissatisfied by the government's failure to increase their salaries and by chronic food shortages at their barracks. (allAfrica)
• New York City increases police presence in the New York City subway system after receiving a credible terror threat. (BBC)
• Hurricane Katrina: Louisiana National Guard officials say repeated news reports by CNN on September 1, 2005 that shots were fired at a UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter at the Louisiana Superdome were false. (Washin gton Post)
• Conflict in Iraq: As Iraqi president Jalal Talabani tells UK Prime Minister Tony Blair any troop withdrawal would be a "catastrophe" (BBC), 10 people die following a bomb near the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad. (BBC)
• The European Court of Human Rights rules the United Kingdom's ban on voting rights for prisoners is unlawful. (BBC)
• Properties in Manchester, England are searched by the Assets Recovery Agency during on-going investigations into the business activities of men alleged to have links with the Irish Republican Army. (BBC)
• Death toll of Hurricane Stan reaches 166. (Reuters)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel is to ban using Palestinians as human shields following a Supreme Court of Israel ruling. (BBC)
• Malalai Joya, a 27 year old women's rights worker, has won one of the first seats in Afghanistan's National Assembly, also called the Wolesa Jirga. (CNN)
• Ted Koppel will anchor his last broadcast of Nightline on 22 November and not in December as had been previously announced. (Reuters)

2005-10-06 : 06.October, Thursday

• Uganda-born John Sentamu is formally confirmed in office as the Archbishop of York, the second-highest post in the Church of England. (BBC), (The Telegraph)
• US Marine Leandro Aragoncillo is indicted for espionage, accused of passing classified information from the Vice President's office to the Phillipines. (Reuters)
• The Roman Catholic bishops of England Wales, and Scotland issue a teaching guide which explains biblical passages should not be taken literally. The Creation, Garden of Eden and the creation Eve from Adam's rib are considered to be "symbolic language". (Scotsman)
• Russian president Vladimir Putin in a ceremony at 10 Downing Street awards the Order of Maritime Service to six British military and civilian personnel responsible for the rescue of the mini-submarine AS-28 off the Kamchatka Peninsula. (North West Evening Mail)
• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, and Richard R. Schrock the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis". (Nobelprize.org)
• Five Thai soldiers are killed in a drive-by shooting in Thailand's Narathiwat province. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: The British Government alleges that Iran is responsible for recent attacks on British military forces. (BBC).
• Hurricane Stan strikes Mexico and Central America, at least 66 people have died, most of them in landslides in El Salvador. (CBC)

2005-10-05 : 05.October, Wednesday

• One million French transportation workers and teachers hold a nationwide strike in opposition to the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's economic and labor policies, forcing the closure of schools and airports. (Reuters)
• Ohio Iraqi War veteran Paul Hackett is expected to run in the state Democratic primary to contest the seat of Republican Senator Mike DeWine. Hackett lost in a closely contested House race on August 2.(The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch share in The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics. (Nobelprize.org)
• Four Ugandan civilians are killed in a rare afternoon ambush on a pickup truck in north east Uganda by Lord's Resistance Army rebels. The insurgents are suspected of shooting the driver and two passengers and killing a fourth with an axe. (BBC News)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A 37-year-old Palestinian mother of six, Hifa Hindiya, was shot and killed after she stabbed and lightly injured a female Israel Defense Forces soldier at the Hawara roadblock south of Nablus. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades took responsibility for the attack on the soldier. (Ynetnews)

2005-10-04 : 04.October, Tuesday

• Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren have been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease". (BBC)
• U.S. Representative Tom DeLay is indicted on a charge of money laundering. (Reuters)
• Up to 60 students have been swept away by powerful Typhoon Longwang in Fujian, south-east China. (BBC)
• Former Manchester United footballer George Best reported to be in intensive care (due to a kidney infection) at Cromwell Hospital, London. (BBC)
• At least 11 people die during a stampede at a concert in Sangju, South Korea. (BBC)
• On the first day of the U.S. Supreme Court's fall term, President George W. Bush nominates White House Counsel Harriet Miers to fill the seat presently held by Sandra Day O'Connor. (BBC).
• Conflict in Afghanistan: Afghan troops kill 31 suspects following clashes in Paktika, in eastern Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Millions of people view the solar eclipse which occurred at 10:31 UTC, mainly in Africa and south-west-Europe. (BBC)
• A train derails and crashes in Datia, Madhya Pradesh in India, killing 16 people. (BBC)
• NTL, the largest British cable television company, telco and ISP, announces its multi-billion pound purchase of Telewest, the second largest cable company, creating one of the largest companies in the British media industry. (Guardian) (Bloom berg)

2005-10-03 : 03.October, Monday

• Severely injured victims of the 2005 Bali bombings are being evacuated to medical facilities in Australia and Singapore. The Australian Government has made moves to assist Indonesia in its response, dispatching Australian Federal Police officers and forensic experts to assist in investigations. (ABC)
• The Ethan Allen, a boat on Lake George, in Upstate New York, capsized killing 21 people. (CNN)

2005-10-02 : 02.October, Sunday

• The Ilamatepec volcano erupts in a coffee-growing area 40 miles west of San Salvador, El Salvador, spitting rock and ash into the air. The Salvadoran government evacuates hundreds of people in the region and there are no reported injuries. With the additional volcanic debris, San Salvador's air quality is significantly worse then previous days, posing a threat to those who live in the already most polluted city in Central America. (Yahoo! news)
• A Russian rocket lifted the Soyuz spacecraft towards the International Space Station carrying the third fare-paying passenger. (CNN) (Flori daToday)
• Four explosions are reported in Bali at popular tourist areas, killing at least 36 and injuring 103 people. (CNN) (BBC)(WRKO)
• New Zealand's Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark is set to form a third-term government after the Nationals lose a seat following the count of 'special' votes. She begins talks with minor party leaders to form a coalition government as well obtain the support of enough minor parties to have a majority on supply and confidence issues. (SBS) (Reut ers) (NZ election results)
• The Indonesian government raises fuel prices by more than 100%, resulting in petrol prices of 4,500 rupiah (.44 $US) a litre. (Reuters )

2005-10-01 : 01.October, Saturday

• New Zealand's Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark is set to form a third-term government after the Nationals lose a seat. She begins talks with minor party leaders to form a coalition government. (SBS) (Reut ers) (NZ election results)
• The Indonesian government raises fuel prices by more than 100%, resulting in petrol prices of 4,500 rupiah (or 44 U.S. cents) a litre. (Reuters )

2005-09-30 : 30.September, Friday

• The New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released from federal jail after receiving a waiver from her news source, allowing her to testify in the investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. (CNN) (Yahoo News)
• Algerians vote in a referendum to grant partial amnesty to militants to end the Algerian Civil War.(SBS)
• The People's Republic of China Government unveils their new official internet website, now to be found at www.gov.cn. (Beelink)
• The family of Jean Charles de Menezes arrive in London looking for justice. The innocent Brazilian was shot six times by police exercising a shoot-to-kill policy. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair has offered his personal apology for the killing, but this has been rejected by the family. (The Times)
• By a vote of 78-22, the United States Senate confirms John G. Roberts, Jr. as Chief Justice, presiding over the Supreme Court. Roberts is sworn in later in the afternoon, and will preside over the Court's Fall term beginning October 3.
• The High Court of Australia has found that it is inappropriate for the court to judge whether the Howard Government's unapproved spending on an advertising blitz promoting the controversial industrial relations reform is unlawful. The case was brought by the Australian Labor Party and trade unions. (ABC)
• Ian Huntley, convicted of murdering two young girls, the Soham Murders, is sentenced to a minimum forty years in prison by a British court. (BBC)
• The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologised to Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year old Labour Party activist thrown out of the party's annual conference by stewards for heckling Jack Straw. (BBC)
• The government of Macau takes over the management of Banco Delta Asia bank, after a US report on its North Korea ties caused a panic run on deposits. (The Standard)
• California fire burns 17,000 acres, spurs evacuations near Freeway 118 and 101. (Bloomberg )

2005-09-29 : 29.September, Thursday

• The government of Macau takes over the management of Banco Delta Asia bank, after a US report on its North Korea ties caused a panic run on deposits. (The Standard)

2005-09-28 : 28.September, Wednesday

• Australian State and Territory leaders agree to implement the Commonwealth Government's tough new anti-terrorism laws with a sunset clause. The new laws allow police to detain terrorism "suspects" without charge for up to two weeks, and electronically tag them for up to a year. The measures have been attacked by civil libertarians and Muslim groups. (ABC) (ABC)
• Michaëlle Jean is sworn in as the 27th Governor General of Canada, replacing Adrienne Clarkson. (CBCUnlocked)
• Two Japanese researchers photograph a live giant squid. (NYTimes.com) (MSNBC [with pictures])
• The Australian Government dismissed a suggestion from former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke that Australia should store the world's nuclear waste. The Labor Party said Mr Hawke's view did not reflect party platform. (ABC)
• Typhoon Damrey hit Vietnam after killing at least 16 people in China. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Ten people are known to have died following an insurgent attack on a police recruits in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. (BBC)
  • Abu Azzam, who the US claims is an aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was shot dead by US soldiers. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Airstrikes on Palestinian areas continue. The Israel Defense Forces strikes three bridges in the Gaza Strip and a money-changer in Khan Younis, while a further 82 people were arrested in the West Bank. (BBC), (Reuters), (Al Jazeera), (Haaretz)
• The Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, survives a major leadership challenge within the Likud Party. The proposal, which would have ordered the next Party Leader election be held in October 2005 rather than April 2006, is voted down by the party's Central Committee, 48% to 52%. (Yahoo!News)

2005-09-27 : 27.September, Tuesday

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon survives a major leadership challenge within the Likud Party. The proposal, which would have ordered the next Party Leader election be held in October 2005 rather than April 2006, is voted down by the party's Central Committee, 48% to 52%. (Yahoo!News)

2005-09-26 : 26.September, Monday

• Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District is the first direct challenge brought in United States federal courts against a public school district that has tried to mandate the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. Opening arguments are set for today. (LA Times)

2005-09-25 : 25.September, Sunday

• Unofficial reports from Hong Kong say the second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is expected to launch October 13 carrying two astronauts on a five day mission. (RedNova News)
• Human Rights Watch reports whistleblowers accuse U.S. troops of routinely torturing Iraqi prisoners and declining to investigate complaints. (Human Rights Watch), (IPS news), (USA Today) (NYT)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • At least five Israelis are injured after Palestinian militants fire some 30 Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip on Israeli communities. (The Jerusalem Post) (YNETnews)
  • The Israeli Air Force strikes Palestinian militant group Hamas targets in Gaza killing at least four of its members. (ABC News) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • The Palestinian Authority blames Hamas for the previous day's explosion at a weapons rally in Gaza which killed at least 19 people, including several senior Hamas members. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Hurricane Rita makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the Texas - Louisiana border at 2:38 am CDT . The storm was downgraded within four hours to Category 2. As of 10 pm CDT (0300 UTC, September 25), the center of Tropical Depression Rita was located on land 40 miles (65 km) north of Shreveport, Louisiana. Rita was moving north at 10 mph (16 km/h) with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 km/h) (CNN)

2005-09-24 : 24.September, Saturday

• Lester Crawford, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, resigns, citing old age. Critics accuse Crawford of incompetence regarding Vioxx, cloned beef, approval of malfunctioning heart devices, and alleged corruption. He served two months in office. (AP on Yahoo!)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • 10 Palestinians die and 80 are injured after a truck carrying home-made explosives accidently blew up in the middle of a Friday salat parade organised by Hamas, just one day after militants agreed to discontinue using weapons in public parades. (ABC News)
  • 3 Palestinian gunmen are killed following an Israeli military incursion into the West Bank. (BBC)
  • At least 3 Qassam rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip on the Israeli town of Sderot. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for the attack, saying it fired 10 rockets on Israel. (The Jerusalem Post) (Ha'aretz)
  • A United Nations report highlights that since 2000 sixty-one Palestinian women have been forced to give birth at Israeli checkpoints, resulting in 36 newborn deaths.(BBC), (Reuters), (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Conflict in Iraq: Five Iraqis, including three members of the Turkmen Front, die following a bomb on minibus in the capital Baghdad. (BBC)
• Hurricane Rita: 24 mostly elderly people are feared dead after a bus evacuating them away from the path of the oncoming hurricane exploded. (BBC)
• Earl Krugel, a leader of the Jewish Defence League, is sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a plot to blow up a Mosque in Los Angeles and a Lebanese-American congressman (Darrell Issa)s' office. His co-accused, Irv Rubin, committed suicide in 2002. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post)
• German election 2005: After talks between CDU/CSU and Alliance 90/The Greens, a "Jamaica coalition" between conservatives, liberals and greens is ruled out.

2005-09-23 : 23.September, Friday

• The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary votes 13 to 5 for the nomination of John G. Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. The appointment needs approval of the entire Senate, and that vote is expected during the week of September 26.(AP via Yahoo!)
• Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament of Ukraine) approves Yuriy Yekhanurov as the country's new Prime Minister. (VOA), (CNN), (Reuters), (CBC), (BBC)
• Six people die and 20 are injured in two bomb blasts in the Pakistani city of Lahore. (BBC)

2005-09-22 : 22.September, Thursday

• JetBlue Airways Flight 292 en route to New York from Burbank, California, experienced nose gear malfunctions shortly after takeoff; the nose wheels were rotated 90 degrees to the left. The Airbus A320-232 circled Los Angeles to burn off fuel before landing at LAX without serious incident or injury.(Los Angeles Times)
• Hurricane Rita reaches Category 5 intensity, the third most intense in recorded history. The current path tracks landfall at Galveston, Texas on Saturday. The inbound causeway to the Island has been closed and mandatory evacuation has been ordered. Residents on the Gulf Coast south of Galveston are urged to evacuate. (Houston Chronicle)(NHC)
• At least 50 people die following a series of storms and floods hit the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh and India, many more are missing and officials fear for the safety of over a hundred fishermen. (BBC)

2005-09-21 : 21.September, Wednesday

• North Korea announces that its offer to end its nuclear arms program is dependent on it being allowed to build a civilian nuclear reactor. (ABC), (BBC)
• 14 Indian soldiers die following an insurgent attack in the eastern state of Manipur. (BBC)

2005-09-20 : 20.September, Tuesday

• Tropical Storm Rita is forecast to become a major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico in the next few days, prompting mayor Ray Nagin to suspend re-entry to New Orleans, Louisiana, the city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina a few weeks ago. (KHON.com), (BBC), (Reuters), (CTV)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Private Johnson Beharry is formally awarded the first Victoria Cross in more than 20 years for saving 30 members of his unit in Iraq. (BBC)
  • UK forces storm an Iraq police prison in Basra to recover two undercover UK soldiers, detained on claims they had been planting bombs and evading arrest. (BBC) (Washington Post)
  • At least 10 people have died following a series of explosions at a Shia festival marking the birth of the Imam Mehdi in Karbala. (BBC)
• U.S. President George W. Bush is heavily criticized by his predecessor, Bill Clinton, for his policies on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and budget deficits. (Yahoo News)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An Israeli judicial inquiry rules out prosecuting police officers who shot dead 13 Israeli Arabs during a violent demonstration in 2000 due to lack of sufficient evidence. (BBC) (Ha'aretz)
• At least 154 of the dead in New Orleans were patients in hospitals and nursing homes. They represent more than 25 percent of the bodies recovered to date. (CivilRights.org)
• One person is injured following an apparent letter bomb attack in the British Embassy in the Croatian capital Zagreb. (BBC)
• One person dies following an apparent grenade explosion at the Kuwait information office in the Lebanese capital Beirut. (BBC)
• North Korea agrees to abandon all nuclear weapons programs and return "at an early date" to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Yahoo News/AP) (Reuters)

2005-09-19 : 19.September, Monday

• Vice Admiral Thad Allen warns that New Orleans drinking water is still unfit to drink. He cautions that mayor Ray Nagin's encouragement of residents outside the French Quarter to return is "extremely problematic" at this time. (Washington Times)
• Insurgents in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad kill three, including the Kurdish Member of Parliament, Faris Hussein. (BBC)
• President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, addresses the American Jewish Congress. He broke bread and led salat from the Quran, the first leader of a nation not recognizing Israel to do so. (BBC)
• Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks as Afghans vote in the Afghan parliamentary election, 2005, the first legislative elections in Afghanistan in decades . (Reuters)
• Federal elections are held in Germany. Provisional results give the CDU/CSU 35.2% of the vote and 225 seats, the SPD 34.3% and 222 seats, FDP 9.8% and 61 seats, the Left Party 8.7% and 54 seats, and the Green party 8.1% and 51 seats. There is likely to be several weeks of horse trading to form a workable coalition. (Deutsche Welle Election Night Ticker)

2005-09-18 : 18.September, Sunday

• In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected an offer from the European Union to halt its nuclear program, "the most far reaching step outside the requirements of the NPT … in keeping with Iran's inalienable right to have access to a nuclear fuel cycle."
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 30 people die following an explosion at a market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. (BBC)
• Tayseer Allouni, a reporter with Al Jazeera, is arrested by Spanish police for the second time. (BBC)
• Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, threatens to withdraw Israeli assistance for the upcoming Palestinian elections if Hamas takes part. (Reuters)
• In the New Zealand general election, the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Helen Clark, seems best placed to form a new government. Although the opposition National Party of Dr Don Brash makes the greatest gains, these are mainly at the expense of minor parties. All the existing minor parties lose seats, with only the new Māori Party making gains. (Elections New Zealand)

2005-09-17 : 17.September, Saturday

• 87 journalists are arrested at a protest in Nepal.(CTV)
• The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, has evoked outrage by suggesting that rape victims in Pakistan are part of a "money making concern". (BBC)
• Hurricane Ophelia is downgraded to a tropical storm as it appears to head out to the Atlantic Ocean. (Science Daily)
• The Bicentennial of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson is commemorated by a re-enactment of the 1806 waterborne state funeral procession on the River Thames in London. (BBC)
• New Zealand prepares to go to the polls on Saturday. (New Zealand Herald)

2005-09-16 : 16.September, Friday

• President Bush addresses the nation from Jackson Square in New Orleans saying: "We have witnessed the kind of devastation no citizen of this great and generous nation should ever have to know. We will do what it takes and stay as long as it takes to help New Orleans to return their community and their lives." He provides the FEMA phone number to assist families in reuniting: 877-568-3317. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Inaugurated Clinton Global Initiative in New York
• Israeli Supreme court rejects the opinion of International Court of Justice for the removal of Israeli West Bank barrier. The world court had called the barrier illegal and ordered the wall be torn down. (ABC News) (Ireland Online)
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 26 Iraqi police die following two car bombs in the Baghdad. Elsewhere, 3 Shia pilgrims are shot dead by a passenger in a passing car traveling to Karbala, two Iraqi police members are killed near Kirkuk and three civil servants die following an attack on the Ministry of Industry in East Baghdad.(BBC)
• Australia: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation rushed to air its interview with former Labor Party Opposition leader Mark Latham after fending off legal challenges from News Corporation, publishers of The Australian and the Herald Sun. (The Age) (ABC News).

2005-09-15 : 15.September, Thursday

• Mandatory evacuation is ordered for Outer Banks in North Carolina as Hurricane Ophelia approaches. (Washin gton Post), (Reuter s), (Guardian)
• Two American air carriers, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Delta has lost over six billion USD since the start of 2001.
• Ugandan Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army cross the White Nile for the first time to carry out attacks near Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. (BBC)
• Hamas blows a hole through the wall between Egypt and Gaza, allowing free passage for Palestinians to and from Egypt for the first time since 1967. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • 114 people die when a car bomb explodes in a Shia district of Baghdad called Kadhimiya. (BBC)
  • 17 people die in the town of Taji, near Baghdad when gunmen storm their homes. (BBC)
• Frances Newton is executed by lethal injection by the U.S. state of Texas for the murder of her ex-husband and two children. She is the first African American woman executed in Texas since 1858. (Reuters)

2005-09-14 : 14.September, Wednesday

• The rebel National Liberation Front of Burundi breaks off peace negotiations with the new government of Pierre Nkurunziza. (BBC)
• Many petrol stations across the United Kingdom experienced increased demand ahead of the 2005 fuel protests. (Reuters)
• Sony recalls 3.5 million faulty PlayStation 2 power adapters. (BBC)
• President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao meets with U.S. President George W. Bush at the United Nations during the Leaders' Gathering in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the UN's founding. (Ea st News)(White House)
• During the second day of confirmation hearings regarding the nomination of John Roberts to serve as Chief Justice of the United States, Roberts affirms his belief in a constitutional right to privacy, and answers questions from Senate Judiciary Committee members about civil rights in wartime, torture, and the role of international law in interpreting the US Constitution. (NPR)

2005-09-13 : 13.September, Tuesday

• In Norway, the Red-Green Coalition led by Jens Stoltenberg wins the 2005 parliamentary election. (R euters)
• Los Angeles Power Outage:
  • According to the Department of Water and Power, the power outage is "non-malicious cause" triggered by an accidental error in connecting lines to a newly installed computer. DWP General Manager Ron Deaton says repairs have been made and the system will in an orderly manner be restored. (Newsda y)
  • Despite the disruption to two million customers, the system's successfully controlled shutdown prevented a blackout from extending beyond the region.
• Michael D. Brown resigns as the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States (FEMA) following several days of criticism concerning his handling of the disaster following Hurricane Katrina, and allegations that his official biography is misleading and contains unsubstantiated claims. (MSNBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israel withdraws the last of its troops from the Gaza Strip, effectively completing its unilateral disengagement plan. (Reuters) (CNN) (Ha’aretz)
  • Following the pullout many Palestinians rush into abandoned Israeli settlements in celebration, some burning down synagogues which Israel's ministers voted against dismantling due to their spiritual significance, while others ransacked the remains of settlement homes, taking furniture, doors, electricity cables and what ever else they could find. (The Jerusalem Post),(YNETnews), (BBC), (Jerusalem Post)
  • Several hours after the pullout two Qassam rockets are fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip. The first lands near the Israeli town of Sderot, while the second lands near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. (Ha’aretz),(YNETnews)
• According to Palestinian witnesses, the Egyptian border patrol police opened fire at crowds swarming the Egypt-Gaza border at Rafah, killing a Palestinian man and injuring another. An Egyptian spokesman later denied that Egyptian troops fired the shots that killed the man. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera), (BBC)
• eBay announced it will buy Skype, the Luxembourg-based web telephone network, in a $2.6 billion deal. (BBC)
• Hong Kong Disneyland opens in a partnership between Disney and the Hong Kong government. This marks the first attempt of Disney tapping into the Chinese and southeastern Asian market. (BBC) (CNN)
• Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario, Canada rejects the use of Islamic sharia law as well as religious arbitration of all other faiths, declaring that one public law is to be used for all family disputes. The decision follows a year of debate and worldwide protests. (Gl obe and Mail)
• Oracle Corporation announced that it has agreed to purchase Siebel Systems for approximately $5.85 billion in cash. (BBC)
• England wins the 2005 Ashes 2-1. Final Test match ends in a draw. (BBC)
• Panic buying of petrol and diesel is in full swing across Britain, with long queues outside service stations in a worrying echo of the 2000 Fuel Protest. (BBC)

2005-09-12 : 12.September, Monday

• An eleven minute video tape purporting to be from Al Qaeda is delivered to American network ABC in Pakistan and shown on Good Morning America, warns of future attacks on Los Angeles, California and Melbourne, Australia. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an American convert to Islam, called the September 11, 2001 attacks: "blessed events" and: "This time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion. (Jerusalem Post) (ABC News), (R euters)
• New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin interviewed on NBC's Meet the Press is critical of suggestions that tent cities be constructed to house Hurricane Katrina survivors. He promises to lead the rebuilding of the city saying: "New Orleaneans are the only ones to rebuild. We're going to rebuild New Orleans and make sure we have resources to get the job done." (NBC)
• According to exit polls, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party has won a landslide victory in the Japan general election, 2005. Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada concedes defeat and announces his resignation as party leader. (Reuters), (Aljazeera)
• The death toll of the Japanese Encephalitis outbreak in Uttar Pradesh has reached an official number of 650, with estimates of aid agencies about double this number. (BBC), (China Daily), (Washin gton Post).
• Over 800,000 people in the Zhejiang province of China are evacuating as the province is hit by Typhoon Khanun which has a packing center winds of 144 kilometers per hour. (Chinadaily)
• The Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005, held September 12, is set to be a very close race, according to pollsters. The vote will determine the balance of power in the Storting for the coming four years. The centre-right government under Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik faces a centre-left opposition led by Jens Stoltenberg of the Norwegian Labour Party. (Aftenposten)

2005-09-11 : 11.September, Sunday

• Several police have been injured when Loyalist gunmen open fire after the Whiterock Orange Order Parade in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (BBC)
• Iraqi forces and US troops attack Iraqi insurgents in Tal Afar. (Reuters)
• The 2005 World Summit to take place on Wednesday, September 14 is expected to be the largest gathering of world leaders in history, with more than 170 world leaders in attendance. (Guardian) (FOX) (UN News) (Wikinews)
• Ahead of New Zealand's September 17 general election, Leader of the Opposition Don Brash denies lying about knowing of an anti-Labour pamphlet released by the Exclusive Brethren. (New Zealand Herald) (TVNZ) (TaiwanNews)
• Three young backpackers are killed and eight injured in a rural Queensland, Australia bus accident. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Russia is planning to build the world's first low capacity floating power plant at a cost of $200,000. The plant will produce 1/150th the power of a standard Russian facility. (MOSNEWS)

2005-09-10 : 10.September, Saturday

• United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff appoints Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen, chief of staff of the United States Coast Guard, to direct Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans, in place of Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown, who returns to Washington to direct planning for future disaster relief. (CTV.ca)
• During a military exercise, a Belgian Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashes in the Wadden Sea (Waddenzee), near the Dutch island of of Vlieland. The pilot failed to eject, and perished. (Expatica)
• Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Ottawa. The event is met with protesters and supporters to the Chinese government. Martin and Hu agree on a new "Strategic Parternership", and signed a series of agreements on transportation, food inspection, and scientific research. Hu also meets with Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. (CBC) (Chinesenewsnet) (CTV.ca)
• A federal grand jury in the Providence, Rhode Island has indicted Richard Hatch, winner of Survivor: Pulau Tiga, for income tax evasion and fraud for allegedly failing to pay taxes on his winnings and misusing charity funds. (Fox News)
• An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale has been detected off the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea, though no damage has been recorded. (Manichi Daily News) (BBC)
• Australian Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says the Australian Government's proposed new anti-terrorism laws would not deter terrorism. Others say the laws would radicalise young Muslims and civil liberty groups say the laws would make Australian society more dangerous.(ABC)(ABC)
• The Australian Secret Intelligence Service plans to recruit an additional 500 spies for its current staffing of 1,000 to counter terrorism. (The Australian)
• India and Pakistan will exchange civilian prisoners on September 12 at the Waga border. Those exchanged have completed their sentences. (The Indian Express)

2005-09-09 : 09.September, Friday

• Hosni Mubarak wins the first multi-candidate presidential election in the history of Egypt with 78 percent of the vote. Ayman Nour is the nearest runner-up with 12 percent. (Fox News)
• News Corporation says it will buy IGN Entertainment for $650 million. IGN is one of the largest multimedia sites on the internet and also owns the GameSpy Network and (AskMen.com) (BBC)
• Hurricane Katrina:
  • Emergency officials requisition 25,000 body bags as search and rescue operations continue in Louisiana. A spokesman for the state's department of health and hospitals said: "We don't know what to expect ... It means we are prepared." (The Guardian)
• Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko fires Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and most of his cabinet amid accusations of graft and serious infighting. (Yahoo! News)
• Guy Theunis, a Catholic priest from Belgium, has been arrested on a charge of republishing articles in a magazine that the authorities cite as encouraging genocide in Rwanda. (BBC)
• Reporters Without Borders accuses Yahoo! of assisting the People's Republic of China government to identify Shi Tao, the journalist sentenced to 10 years jail in April 2004. Shi released on the Internet a government letter which advised the Chinese media not to report on the the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. (Reporters sans frontières) (Daily Telegraph)
• 103 Croatians were arrested in Malta following supporter disturbances after a 2006 World Cup qualifying football match which Croatia unexpectedly failed to win. (HINA)
• Apple Computer has unveiled a pencil-thin iPod nano digital music player and a long-anticipated cell phone that plays music like an iPod, both aimed at extending its domination of the digital music market. (New York Times) (CNN)

2005-09-08 : 08.September, Thursday

• Hurricane Katrina
  • New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin again urges the city's remaining holdouts to leave the area. New Orleans is now only 60% underwater. The number dead in the city could be as few as 2,000 and as many as 20,000, according to estimates. (IHT
  • J. T. Alpaugh, pool helicopter reporter for the major media, says today on NBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann that: "There is the strong smell of rotting water, an awful smell, something you don't ever want to have to smell" rising high into the air space around New Orleans. ( Los Angeles Times)
• Moussa Arafat, cousin of Yassir Arafat and former Palestinian Authority security chief, is shot and killed by members of the Popular Resistance Committees. (BBC)
• Egyptian presidential election, 2005: The first ever multi-party elections in Egypt are conducted, with incumbent President Hosni Mubarak expected to win a fifth six-year term. (BBC), (BBC), (Reuters)
• The California State Assembly passes a bill recognizing same-sex marriage. Earlier this week the state Senate approved the measure; it now heads to the desk of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger where there is uncertainty whether he will sign or veto the measure. The legislation is the first passed by a U.S. state legislature recognizing same-sex marriage. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• A report by an independent inquiry commitee criticizes Secretary General Kofi Annan, the U.N. Security Council in the Oil for Food Scandal. (FOX)

2005-09-07 : 07.September, Wednesday

• Hurricane Katrina:
  • Jefferson Parish, Louisiana President Aaron Broussard told CBS's Early Show anchor Harry Smith today: "Bureacracy has murdered people in the Greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial in Congress today. Take whatever idiot they have at the top and give me a better idiot." ( News Busters)
  • President George W. Bush announced today he would head an investigation into the New Orleans disaster response. He told reporters in the Cabinet Room: "People want us here to play a blame game. We got to solve problems. We're here to solve problems. There'll be ample time for people to figure out what went right and what went wrong." (Al Jazeera)
  • Barbara Bush comes under criticism when while visiting Hurricane Katrina relief centers in Houston, TX, Mrs. Bush stated on the NPR program "Marketplace," "So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (chuckles)--this is working very well for them." The former First Lady also said that the fact that the 15,000 evacuees in the Astrodome might want to stay in Texas was "kind of scary".(EditorAndPublisher.com)
• Cairo: At least 34 people were killed and 60 injured by flames and an ensuing stampede when a fire broke out in the theater run by Egypt's Culture Ministry; about 1,000 people were watching the play. (Y! & AP) (BBC)
• Four people died and 27 were wounded following an explosion in Gaza City at the home of Nidal Farhat, a senior Hamas member, which had been operating as a weapons laboratory. (Haaretz & AP)
• Typhoon Nabi kills at least 21 in Japan with over 50 still missing. (AFP) Over 100,000 people were told to evacuate. (CBC)
• Almost 600 people have now been officially declared dead in an outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in India. Officials fear the actual death toll might be much higher because many deaths in rural areas are not reported. (BBC)
• Australian telecommunication company Telstra's share price tumbles to a two year low of $4.32AU as Prime Minister John Howard condemns their new management team as disgraceful and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission launches a criminal probe of Telstra's leaked and negative statements. (The Australian)

2005-09-06 : 06.September, Tuesday

• Ethiopian general elections, 2005: The National Elections Board of Ethiopia, following repeat voting in 31 areas, announces that the ruling EPRDF coalition has retained control of the government, obtaining 59 percent of the seats in Parliament. (IRIN)
• Cairo: At least 29 people were killed and 60 injured by the flames and ensuing stampede when the fire broke out in the theater run by Egypt's Culture Ministry as about 1,000 people were watching the play. (Y! & AP)
• Gaza City: In an explosion at the home of Nidal Farhat, a senior Hamas member, at least four people were killed and 27 were wounded. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei said that the blast was not caused by Israel. The Israel Defense Forces said that they have "no connection with this incident" and noted that such blasts are frequent "work accidents" when militants prepare Qassam rockets. Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called the explosion "regrettable" and said "security is investigating the cause." (Haaretz & AP)
• Typhoon Nabi (Category 3) reaches the Japanese coasts. It will make landfall today, and is expected to take 3 days to cross the island of Kyushu. (Reuters)
• Hurricane Katrina: Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton calls for a "9/11 Style Inquiry" into the U.S. federal government's ineffective response to the Hurricane. (The Myrtle Beach online)
• A cable car crash at Sölden, Ötztal, in the Austrian Alps leaves nine people dead when a helicopter carrying construction materials dropped concrete onto the cable. (BBC) (Sky News)
• American jurist John G. Roberts, Jr. is nominated by US President George W. Bush as the next Chief Justice of the United States. (MSNB C) Bush withdrew Roberts' original nomination to succeed retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
• Three teenage girls admit starting a fire in Paris on September 3 which left 16 people dead. (CFRA Canada)
• Google taps into the Chinese local markets by opening their fifth international Local Search Engine on Google China at bendi.google.com. (SINA)
• Ibrahim Rugova, the President of Kosovo, has announced that he has lung cancer but will not be stepping down. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Two British Soldiers have been killed following a roadside IED bomb in Basra, southern Iraq. (BBC)
• Mandala Airlines Flight 091: A Mandala Airlines flight crashes into a residential area of the Indonesian city of Medan, killing at least 100 passengers. Among the dead are the governor and former governor of Sumatra Utara, Rizal Nurdin and Raja Inal Siregar. (CNN)

2005-09-05 : 05.September, Monday

• Hurricane Katrina:
  • Estimates of the death toll in New Orleans are made by Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt: "I think it's evident it's in the thousands. It's clear to me that this has been sickeningly difficult and profoundly tragic circumstance" Leavitt said.