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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