Portal:Current events/January 2006

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Recent Deaths

January 31: Coretta Scott King 30: Wendy Wasserstein 29: Paik Nam-june 27: Johannes Rau 26: Henry McGee 24: Fayard Nicholas 24: Chris Penn 21: Ibrahim Rugova 20: Dave Lepard 19: Tony Franciosa 19: Wilson Pickett 18: Anton Rupert 15: Sheikh Jaber of Kuwait 14: Jim Gary 14: Christopher Penley 14: Shelley Winters 10: Sidney Frank 8: Tony Banks 8: Elson Becerra 7: Heinrich Harrer 6: Lou Rawls 5: Merlyn Rees 4: Irving Layton 4: Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum 2: Steve Rogers 1: Charles Steen

Events
Ariel Sharon illness Abramoff scandal Avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak Black sites scandal Horn of Africa food crisis Iran's nuclear program Malawi food crisis Muhammad Drawings controversy North Ossetia sabotages North Indian cyclone season Pacific typhoon season Southern Hemisphere cyclone season   • Tropical Cyclone Boloetse   • Tropical Cyclone Jim Winter X-Games, Aspen, CO Stormontgate

Wars and conflicts
Acholiland insurgency Arab-Israeli conflict (Al-Aqsa Intifada) Chad-Sudan conflict Second Chechen War Second Congo War Darfur conflict in Sudan Iraq War Ivorian Civil War Nepal Civil War South Thailand insurgency

Elections
boban trajkovski from veles to fonko hd Results 29: Finland, President second round 25: Palestinian Nat'l Auth., Legislature 23: Canada, Federal 22: Portugal, President 20: Iraq, Legislative 15: Chile, President runoff

Trials
Chile: Alberto Fujimori Chile: Augusto Pinochet Indonesia: Bali Nine Iraq: Iraqi Special Tribunal —Saddam Hussein, among others Netherlands: ICTY —Slobodan Milošević trial Russia: Nur-Pashi Kulayev UK: Leo O'Connor and David Keogh U.S.: Tom DeLay U.S.: Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling U.S.: Zacarias Moussaoui U.S.: Brian Nichols

1 January 2006 (Sunday)

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accuses European nations of trying to complete the Holocaust by creating a "Jewish camp" Israel in the Middle East. "Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their aims in creating a regime of occupiers of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Isn't that an important question?" He went on to say that Europe should cede some of their territory for a Jewish state, and that anti-Semitism has a long history in Europe, while Jews have lived peacefully among Muslims for centuries. (Reuters)
• Russia-Ukraine gas dispute: Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom cuts gas supplies to Ukraine, following Ukraine's rejection of a 460% price increase. President Vladimir Putin had offered a three-month price freeze if Ukraine would agree to pay the higher price thereafter, but this was rejected. Ukraine pays US$50 per 1000 cubic metres, Russia claims the market rate is $230. (BBC)
• Tropical Storm Zeta continues activity in the Atlantic Ocean, becoming only the second North Atlantic tropical cyclone to exist across two calendar years and extending the already historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season even further. (CNN)
• At least three Qassam rockets landed in the western Negev, despite Israel Defense Forces' Operation Blue Skies. At least one Qassam rocket landed in Sderot, in which the Red Dawn alert system was activated around 15:30. Two Qassam rockets landed in an open area near Israeli communities in the western Negev. In all the cases there were no injuries. (Ynetnews)
• Residents brace as a second winter storm hits the region, a day after the first caused floods and mudslides across northern California. (LA Times) (AP via Yahoo!)

2 January 2006 (Monday)

• Ugandan presidential candidate Kizza Besigye is released from prison. Besigye was arrested on November 14 on treason and rape charges. (News24)
• Thirteen U.S. coal miners are trapped after an underground explosion in Upshur County, West Virginia. (ABC)
• Russia-Ukraine gas dispute: Countries across Europe report reductions in gas supplies after Russia disconnected supplies to Ukraine yesterday. Russia accuses Ukraine of stealing 100 million cubic metres of gas yesterday from pipelines transiting the country; Ukraine denies this but has previously claimed the right to 15% of the gas as a transit toll. Hungary reports supplies are down by 40%, France and Italy by 30%, and Poland by 14%. Germany, Russia's principal customer, also reports reductions. Russian supplier Gazprom says that it will increase supplies and return them to normal by Tuesday night. (Sky News)
• Police are investigating the New Year's Day murder of Bryan Harvey, who with his wife and two young daughters were found dead with their throats slashed in the basement of their South Side Richmond, Virginia, home, which was then set afire. Harvey was former singer and guitarist of 1980s band House of Freaks and his wife was the half-sister of Steven Culp, who played Rex Van De Kamp on Desperate Housewives. The fire was discovered by Johnny Hott, HOF bandmate and drummer for the band Cracker (ABC) wikinews (New York Daily News) (Billboard)
• Eleven people are killed when the roof of an ice rink collapse in Bad Reichenhall, southern Germany, under the weight of recent snowfall, trapping some 50 skaters underneath. (CNN)
• Several exploits of a severe Windows security vulnerability are spreading over the Internet, permitting compromise of any Windows computer merely by viewing a maliciously crafted image on a website or in e-mail or instant messaging. No patch from Microsoft is available, however an unofficial patch exists Hexblog.com. The vulnerability affects every version of Windows, potentially affecting more computers than any prior computer security vulnerability in history. (Microsoft) (CERT) (Slashdot) (Sans) (F-Secure)
• The leader of the Maoist guerrillas in Nepal issued a statement that his group, the People's Liberation Army, will resume its war with the monarchy after a four month truce. (New Kerala)
• Severe storms affected East Java, Indonesia, leading to flooding and landslides. At least 57 people are believed to have been killed in the flooding and up to a further 200 people were assumed to be buried alive in the town of Cijeruk 350 kilometers east of Jakarta. (BBC)

3 January 2006 (Tuesday)

• U.S. pilots targeting a house outside of Baghdad where they believed insurgents had taken shelter killed a family of 12. (Washington Post)
• Israeli television claims that Police in Tel Aviv found evidence that proves Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon's family took bribes while Sharon was running for the leadership of the Likud Party. An aide dismissed the allegations. (BBC)
• Sago Mine disaster: In West Virginia, US, family members now say only one trapped miner has been brought out alive from the collapsed coal mine. All 12 others are dead. Earlier news reports, at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST, indicated that 12 miners were found alive. Rescue crews found one body late Tuesday after 13 miners were trapped following an explosion on Monday. (Yahoo!) (ABC)
• Russia-Ukraine gas dispute: The Russian and Ukrainian natural gas companies agree to end their dispute and resume gas supply to Ukraine under a complex price scheme in which OAO Gazprom will sell gas to the Rosukrenergo trading company (owned by Gazprom Bank and Raiffeisen Bank) for US$230 (E195) per 1,000 cubic meters as of Jan. 1, and Ukraine will buy gas from the company for US$95 (E80). (IHT)
• Chinese journalist and whistleblower Jiang Weiping, who was jailed in 2000 for violating the State Secrets Law on charges of "subversion," is released after the one year left on his prison sentence is commuted. In 1999 Jiang wrote two articles for a Hong Kong magazine accusing Bo Xilai, who at the time was governor of Liaoning province, but is now China's economic minister, of covering up corruption. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: Six members of the same family of 14 have been confirmed killed following a U.S. airstrike in Northern Iraq. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel Police prevents Palestinians in East Jerusalem from campaigning in the upcoming Elections in the Palestinian National Authority. (BBC)
• Rescue workers are still battling to find survivors after the roof of an ice rink collapsed in Bad Reichenhall, southern Germany, leaving at least 10 people dead, some of them children. It is thought many are still trapped under the rubble. (BBC)
• Bidding continues in an international auction for Canadian steel company Dofasco Inc., Hamilton, Ont. – the latest bid, C$4.9 billion, came Tuesday from German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG. (CBC Business News)
• Four years after defaulting on its external debt, Argentina pays its USD 9.57 billion debt with the International Monetary Fund. (Reuters)
• Jack Abramoff of the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal pleads guilty to federal conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges. According to NPR, this puts Abramoff on the prosecutor's side and he is expected to cooperate in the continuing investigation that could involve "up to 20 members of Congress" (NPR). The court filing is available as a PDF on NPR.org
• Mirant Corp., Atlanta, Georgia, a power generation company that filed for bankruptcy court protection in July 2003, emerges from Chapter 11 status after converting more than $6 billion of debt and liabilities into equity. (company website)

4 January 2006 (Wednesday)

• Turkey announces two confirmed human cases of the avian influenza. (BBC)
• The King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah al-Saud, offers to pay for repairs to the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India. The King also offers to fund education in India. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 50 die following a series of insurgent attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bomb at a Shia funeral which left 36 mourners dead. (BBC)
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, suffers "a significant stroke". He is "[currently] under anesthesia and receiving breathing assistance". Power is transferred to his deputy, Vice Minister Ehud Olmert. (CNN)
• Dow Jones & Co., one of the world's most important financial publishers, announces its new CEO, Richard Zannino, takes over from Peter Kann. Since Mr. Zannino is not a reporter, this breaks a century-old tradition of keeping newsmen at the helm. (New York Sun)
• A leaked intelligence report states that Iran has been "successfully scouring Europe" for the equipment needed to create a nuclear bomb, as well as parts for a ballistic missile. (The Guardian)
• Fourteen people are killed, with many more feared dead, after a landslide destroys a village in Java after flash floods in the region. It is the second such incident in the region within a week. (BBC)
• Fourteen people are now confirmed dead in the Bad Reichenhall ice rink roof collapse, with one person still trapped in the rubble. (New York Times)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israel shells eight roads in Palestinian areas of the Gaza Strip. (IMEMC)
  • Seven Qassam rockets are fired on civilian Israeli targets by Palestinian insurgents. Two rockets land near a gas station on a road leading to the Israeli town of Sderot, and another five land near Kibbutz Zikim. There are no reports of injuries or damage. (B92)

5 January 2006 (Thursday)

• Peru recalls Carlos Urrutia, its ambassador to Venezuela, after Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez praises Peruvian presidential hopeful Ollanta Humala for his left-leaning policies. A spokeswoman for the Peruvian Foreign Ministry stated, "There are concerns of political meddling in Peru's electoral affairs and comments by President Chávez were out of place." (Yahoo! News)
• The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat Party, Charles Kennedy, admits being treated for alcohol-related problems for the last 18 months but has not drunk for the last two months. The revelation comes following mounting criticism of his leadership from party MPs. He calls a party leadership election, in which he will stand. (BBC)
• At least 130 people have died following insurgent attacks on the Iraqi cities of Kerbala and Ramadi. (BBC)
• At least 76 people have died following the collapse of a five story hotel in Mecca. The death toll is expected to rise. Most of the dead are foreign Muslim pilgrims who had made their way there for the Hajj. (Forbes)
• Hewlett-Packard, a computer manufacturing giant, and a private equity firm, the Blackstone Group, may bid for Computer Sciences Corporation, according to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. (thestreet.com)

6 January 2006 (Friday)

• Janjaweed militants cross the Sudanese border into Chad and attack the villages of Boroto, Ade, and Moudaina, killing nine and seriously wounding three others. Chad once again warns Sudan that it will retaliate for attacks by Janjaweed and UFDC rebel attacks. (Reuters)
• 2005 Kashmir earthquake: SOS Children report gastroenteritis, pneumonia and bronchitis rife in emergency camps as landslides block route to Muzaffarabad. The organization now has a total of 106 children with missing parents in its care. SOS
• The People's Republic of China announces that the last surviving member of the Gang of Four, Yao Wenyuan, died on December 23, 2005. (BBC)
• Zapatistas, led by Subcomandante Marcos, begin a six-month nationwide tour of Mexico to unite social movements for positive change. The tour coincides with presidential election campaigns. Marcos claims that the all the party candidates are liars and criminals who do not care about the Mexican people. (Scotsman)
• A third child from the same family in eastern Turkey dies of H5N1 avian influenza. Hülya Koçyiğit, 11, was the sister of Mehmet Ali, 14, who died last weekend, and of Fatma, 15, who died on Thursday. She was the third human fatality outside China and South-East Asia. A six-year-old brother is also being treated for the same disease. (Reuters) (Times)
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon successfully undergoes a third round of surgery to correct a rise in cranial pressure. (AP)
• The Supreme Court of India denies access to the Alang port to the French warship Clemenceau since it contains tonnes of asbestos. (BBC)

7 January 2006 (Saturday)

• Four suspected militants fatally shoot two border-policemen in the back at a crowded weekend market in Yala province, Thailand, where the South Thailand insurgency continues since an increase in violence in January 2001. (The Nation)
• The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, General Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, is found dead. UN officials believe his death to be suicide. (BBC News)
• Charles Kennedy, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom, announces his resignation with immediate effect after unprecedented criticism from his party's MPs. This comes despite previous vows to stand in the leadership election he declared two days earlier. (BBC News)
• Thirteen Sri Lankan soldiers are killed when a boat manned by Tamil Tiger rebels and filled with explosives rammed into a naval ship in the port city of Trincomalee. (CNN)
• The prime minister of Israel Ariel Sharon has been transferred to a radiography theater to undergo a CT scan to determine the level of pressure on his brain. (Ynetnews)
• A US military helicopter UH-60 Blackhawk has crashed in northern Iraq near Talafar. All 12 persons on board have been killed. (BBC)
• The president of Poland Lech Kaczyński performed a motion tabled by the prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and dismissed the minister of finance Teresa Lubińska, nominating on her place Zyta Gilowska and giving her a position of deputy premier.

8 January 2006 (Sunday)

• An estimated two million Muslims officially begin the annual pilgrimage, or hajj, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia (CNN).
• Singapore holds its largest civil counter-terrorism exercise, codenamed Exercise Northstar V, simulating bombing and chemical attacks at four Mass Rapid Transit stations and a bus interchange. Thirteen MRT stations and part of Toa Payoh Bus Interchange are closed for three hours, causing travel disruptions for over 15,000 commuters and triggering a response from some 2,000 personnel from 22 governmental organizations. (CNA)
• A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the moment magnitude scale hits Greece at 13:34. The earthquake's epicentre was in the sea region 25 km east of the island of Kythira, about 200 km south of Athens. Although it was felt as far as Sicily, south Italy, Egypt, and Amman in Jordan, it was not disastrous due to its deep hypocentre and the sea-bed epicentre. Little damage (mainly in Kythira) and few light injuries are reported. (CNN.com) (USGS)

9 January 2006 (Monday)

• General Sir Michael Rose, former United Nations commander in Bosnia, has told the BBC that British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be "impeached" over the war in Iraq. (BBC)
• Ahmad Kazemi, the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards ground forces, and ten others have been reportedly killed when their plane crashed in northwestern Iran. (IRNA) (BBC)
• The Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon has started breathing independently after doctors reduced the inflow of anaesthetic drugs in an attempt to waken the prime minister from deep sedation. (Ynetnews)
• U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized when he complained of breathing trouble. He was later released from the hospital. (AP via Yahoo!)
• Howard Stern debuted on Sirius Satellite Radio, ending a nearly 30 year run on terrestrial radio.
• The Phantom of the Opera surpassed Cats as the longest running Broadway musical with its 7,486th performance.
• A bus catches fire in downtown Rio Grande. All passengers were rescued by bystanders and 27 people were injured.

10 January 2006 (Tuesday)

• The defence lawyer in the O'Connor - Keogh official secrets trial is shown the secret Al Jazeera bombing memo and declares that it posed no threat to national security. He vows to have it made public by the court. The case will return to court on January 24. (The Guardian) (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Amnesty International claims torture and ill-treatment of terrorist suspects on the fourth anniversary of detainees being held without charge at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Forbes)
• Japanese whalers and anti-whaling environmental groups continue to clash in Antarctic waters near Australia, as calls for the Australian Government to intervene intensify. (ABC)
• Ukraine's parliament dismisses the Cabinet over its gas deal with Russia. (Yahoo!)
• Iran's standoff from the UN and the west deepens as the UN seals on the Natanz nuclear processing plant are broken. (BBC)
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair sets out his Respect agenda. (BBC)
• A fifteenth case of H5N1 is reported in Turkey. However, the Turkish government declares that the virus is "under control". (BBC)
• The Pakistani army announces that seven soldiers and fourteen suspected militants have been killed in fighting in the Waziristan area. (BBC)

11 January 2006 (Wednesday)

• The first ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate begins in Sydney, Australia. (BBC)
• A knife-wielding man enters a synagogue in Moscow and stabs at least eight people. (BBC)
• In Georgia, Vladimir Arutinian is convicted of the attempted assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush and terrorist charges and sentenced with life imprisonment. (BBC)

12 January 2006 (Thursday)

• The foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have reached a "dead end." They recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council, where the nation may face sanctions. (ABC)
• A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims. A similar crush claimed 244 pilgrims' lives at the same spot in 2004. (BBC)
• Mehmet Ali Ağca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, is released from jail. (BBC)
• The French warship Clemenceau reaches Egypt and is barred access to the Suez Canal. Two Greenpeace activists board the ship. (BBC)

13 January 2006 (Friday)

• The U.S. CIA attempts to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri by bombing Damadola, Pakistan, a village near the Afghanistan border. The attack kills at least 18 people: eight men, five women and five children. Anonymous U.S. government sources claim he was invited to a feast in the village, but did not attend. (CNN)
• Augustine Volcano in Alaska has erupted five times in the past three days, the first eruptions in nearly two decades. The island is uninhabited. (National Geographic)
• Tyco International announces that it will split itself into three companies, spinning off Tyco Healthcare and Tyco Electronics. (Tyco)

15 January 2006 (Sunday)

• President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya has declared the ongoing drought a national disaster and has appealed for US$150 million to feed the hungry. 2.5 million people have been left close to starvation due to the lack of rains over the last three years and corrupt officials who steal food aid. (Reuters)
• Russia and Ukraine are set to enter more diplomatic troubled waters over the alleged occupation of a lighthouse in the Black Sea. (BBC)
• Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea, is alleged to have made a journey to China as part of a fact-finding mission in the region. (BBC)
• Doctors perform a tracheotomy on Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, hoping this will help his recovery from a recent stroke. (BBC)
• The first round of voting in the Presidential election in Finland was held with no conclusive victor. Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö will continue to the second round which is held 29 January. (BBC)
• Michelle Bachelet is elected the first female President of Chile. (BBC)
• The Stardust spacecraft has successfully landed in the Dugway Proving Ground after collecting dust samples from the comet Wild 2. It is the first time extraterrestrial samples other than of the moon have been collected and the Stardust spacecraft is the fastest man-made object to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. (AP)
• The United Kingdom: Tony Blair to grant new powers to spy on Members of Parliament. (Independent)
• The French warship Clemenceau's transit through the Suez Canal is approved by Egyptian authorities. This decision is heavily criticized by Greenpeace and other environmental groups. (BBC)
• Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry is killed and two Canadian soldiers critically injured by a bomb blast in Afghanistan. He is the first Canadian diplomat to be killed on duty. (CBC)
• The ruling emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, dies at age 79. Kuwait's cabinet names crown prince Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah as the new emir. (Al-Jazeera)
• The Foreign Ministry of Iran announced it will hold a conference to evaluate the validity of the Holocaust, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently referred to as a "myth". (CBC)

16 January 2006 (Monday)

• Former United States President Gerald Ford is hospitalized with pneumonia. (CNN)
• Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, tenders his resignation, following criticism of his handling of the trial. (Daily Times)
• The United Nations appeals for US$240 million of food aid for West Africa to feed at least 10 million people affected by the food crisis, with Niger being the worst-affected country. (Reuters)
• A dockworkers' strike in Europe has thousands of workers off the job in protest over proposed liberalization of European Union rules on port services. A demonstration outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg leaves twelve French police officers injured. (BBC)
• Former US Vice President Al Gore blasts current President George W. Bush's policy of spying on American citizen conversations with suspected overseas terrorists, saying President Bush "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law in connection with the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, says the United States Constitution is in danger. (Houston Chronicle) (Text of Speech)
• The Premier of Western Australia, Geoff Gallop, resigns his office after announcing he is suffering from depression. (ABC Australia)
• At least 27 people are killed in two suicide bombings in Afghanistan. (CNN)
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. (CNN)
• Nine people die after jumping from a burning eight-story office building in the Russian city of Vladivostok amid allegations of blocked emergency exits and fire code violations. (CBC)
• Iran bans CNN from the country after a translator mistranslated a remark by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he defended Iran's right to nuclear energy. The comment was translated as the right to construct nuclear weapons. (ABC News)
• Iraq's electoral commission rules Monday that more than 99 percent of the ballots from the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections are valid, opening the way for a new government to start coming together. (CBS News)

17 January 2006 (Tuesday)

• The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Gonzales v. Oregon by a 6–3 vote that Oregon's "Death with Dignity Act" providing for physician-assisted suicide is consistent with the federal Controlled Substances Act. (BBC)
• Kidnappers of journalist Jill Carroll demand that the United States release all female Iraqi prisoners within 72 hours. (CNN)
• Two Jordanian peacekeepers, serving as part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, have been killed by gunfire in Port-au-Prince. (Reuters)
• In Côte d'Ivoire, supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo attack United Nations peacekeepers after the Ivorian Popular Front withdraws from the Ivorian Civil War peace process. (BBC)
• South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk has been offered a job at Clonaid studying human embryonic stem cell lines. Clonaid is a subsidiary of the cult known as the Raelians, who believe that cloning is the first step toward immortality. (Reuters)
• A draft of the new version (3) of the GNU General Public License is released. The "new" version has provisions blocking GPL code from being used in, or "secured" by, digital rights management schemes. The "Freeness" provisions also restricts the patent rights coders can claim in their GPL-licensed programs. (wired) (text of draft)
• An original manuscript of the Chán Buddhist Wu Men Guan (Mumonkan) dated to 1246 is exhibited online by the i4uuu museum. (eMediaWire)
• Taiwanese Premier Frank Hsieh announces his resignation following the defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party in recent elections. (BBC)
• Japanese company Huser's president Susumu Ojima receives a summons of a witness by the Diet because of suspicions etc. that he instructed one-class authorized architect Hidetsugu Aneha to reduce the quantity of reinforced concrete. (The Japan Times Online)

18 January 2006 (Wednesday)

• Human Rights Watch in its annual report strongly condemns the United States, saying "it became disturbingly clear that the abuse of detainees had become a deliberate, central part of the Bush administration's strategy of interrogating terrorist suspects". (CBC) (BBC News) (Human Rights Watch press info)
• The Tokyo Stock Exchange closes 20 minutes early due to a flood of sell orders overwhelming the capacity of its trading system. (AP/Yahoo!News)
• Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers are attacked by Laurent Gbagbo's "Young Patriots" in Côte d'Ivoire. At least three people have been killed, and the UN has warned that the country is sliding towards war. (BBC)
• China has recorded its sixth death from the avian flu virus, according to a report on the Chinese Health Ministry's Web site. (CNN)
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il says he is committed to a peaceful resolution of the standoff over his country's nuclear ambitions. (CBS)
• A building collapses on the outskirts of New Delhi on Wednesday, trapping at least 15 people in the rubble. (CNN)
• Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels have ambushed a navy bus in Sri Lanka's northeast, injuring six sailors and a civilian. (CBC)
• Two people who conspired to extort money from Wendy's by planting a severed finger in a bowl of chili and then suing the restaurant are sentenced to about ten years each in prison. (CTV)

19 January 2006 (Thursday)

• Al Jazeera airs an audiotape from Osama bin Laden saying al-Qaeda is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a "long-term truce" to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. (MSNBC)(BBC)
• Iran warns of a world oil crisis if sanctions are imposed over its nuclear program even as the United States and Europe struggle to get support for UN Security Council action. (AFP)
• President Jacques Chirac warns that France could respond with nuclear weapons against any State-sponsored terrorism attack. (ABC News) (BBC)
• Two suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, leave at least 22 people dead and 26 wounded. (BBC)
• Italy will conclude its mission in Iraq by the end of the year, in the first clear timetable for Rome to withdraw its troops, says Defense Minister Antonio Martino. (ABC)
• The United States' largest independent film festival, the Sundance Film Festival, begins in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah. 2006's entries include documentaries about prominent politicians Al Gore and Ralph Nader. (Reuters)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: At least 32 people are injured, including one seriously, when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonates himself at a food stand near Tel Aviv's central bus station. Palestinian Islamic Jihad's al-Quds brigades claims responsibility for the attack. It is the first terrorist attack of the year in Israel. (YNETnews)
• Isabelle Dinoire, the world's first face transplant recipient, is using her new lips to take up smoking again, which doctors fear could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection. (CTV)
• A Slovak Antonov An-24 military aircraft carrying troops back from Kosovo crashes into a mountainside in northeastern Hungary, killing 42 people. Only one person survived. (CNN)
• At least thirty-one people have died during a four-day cold snap in Russia where temperatures have plunged to as low as −42° C (−44° F). (CBC)
• A leaked memo from the United Kingdom's Foreign Office reveals that the British government had a strategy aimed at suppressing a debate about the US practice of transporting detainees to secret centres where they are at risk of being tortured. (Guardian Unlimited).
• NASA Pluto probe New Horizons successfully launches at 14:00 EST. (NASA) (BBC)
• In Azerbaijan, two students (Turan Aliev from Baku State University and Namik Feiziev of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University) are readmitted and end their 22-day hunger strike, started in protest at their expulsion which they claim resulted from their political activities. (IWPR)

20 January 2006 (Friday)

River Thames whale

• At 4 o'clock UTC NASA's Pluto probe New Horizons crossed the orbit of the Moon, eight hours and thirty-five minutes after launch. This is a new Earth-to-Moon-distance flight record.
• Three former workers at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio are indicted for repeatedly falsifying inspection reports and other information to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant's owner, FirstEnergy Corporation, accepts a plea bargain and $28 million in fines in lieu of criminal prosecution. (Toledo Blade)
• Archeologists digging under the Roman Forum, Rome, Italy, discover a tomb estimated at 3000 years old, predating the creation of the Forum by several centuries. (USA Today)
• Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have defused a huge car bomb found not far from their base near Kandahar. The discovery comes just days after a suicide bomber killed Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry and seriously wounded three soldiers travelling with him. (CBC)
• Embroiled in a nuclear standoff with the West, Iran says it is moving funds out of Europe to shield them from possible U.N. sanctions. (Reuters)
• Iraq's election commission says that an alliance of Shiite religious parties, the United Iraqi Alliance, has won the most seats in Iraq's new National Assembly after the December 2005 legislative elections. (CBS)
• At least 52 people including five children are killed after an overcrowded bus plunges down a deep gorge in Indian Kashmir. (CBC)
• Israel says it has proof that Iran financed the bombing of a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv, and that Syria carried it out. (ABC)
• Rescue teams search for two West Virginia miners missing after a coal mine fire. (ABC)
• Japan has halted the import of U.S. beef after an animal spine was found in a beef shipment at Tokyo International Airport. A ban has now been reinstated. (CNN)
• Turkish police are reported to have taken into custody, Mehmet Ali Ağca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 after an appeals court ordered his return to prison to serve more time for killing a journalist. (CNN)
• A whale, identified as a 5 metre (17') long Northern Bottlenose whale, is observed in the River Thames in Central London passing upstream of the Houses of Parliament. The "River Thames whale" is believed to have passed through the Thames Barrier about 1515 UTC on Thursday afternoon. Attempts are being made to guide it back to the Thames estuary, where a second whale has been sighted off Southend on Sea. (BBC), (Sky News)
• Protests by the pro-government Young Patriots in Côte d'Ivoire end after their leader, Charles Blé Goudé, tells them to "go home and clean up the streets". (BBC)

21 January 2006 (Saturday)

• Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova dies at 61, after a lung cancer. He was the first President of Kosovo, and the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).
• The Russian choreographer Igor Moiseyev, who founded the genre of balletic folk dance back in the 1930s, celebrates his centenary with a flamboyant show in the Moscow Kremlin Palace of Congresses. (New York Times)
• Two miners, trapped after a coal mine fire on Thursday in Melville, West Virginia, are found dead. (CNN)
• The "River Thames whale" dies during a rescue attempt. (BBC)
• The British government confirms and defends the practice of holding DNA samples of minors on the UK National DNA Database. (BBC)
• Richard Blackwood officially calls a day on his limping career by making his last update on his overly cerise website. Blueyonder.co.uk

22 January 2006 (Sunday)

• British diplomats are accused of spying on Russia using a fake rock. (BBC)
• Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous American president. (ABC News)
• Fears of sabotage ensue after explosions of two gas pipelines in Russia's North Ossetian Republic suspend gas supply to Georgia and Armenia. (BBC)
• Kobe Bryant scores 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest in NBA history, next to Wilt Chamberlain's 100.

23 January 2006 (Monday)

• In the ongoing dispute between the United States and Venezuela, the US has tried to veto a sale of Embraer airplanes to Venezuela. Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim branded the US attempted veto as "indefensible nonsense". The US recently failed to block a large sale of Spanish military equipment to Venezuela. (El Universal), (Spain Herald).
• In the Canadian federal election, the Conservatives win a plurality of seats in the House of Commons to form a minority government. Stephen Harper is to become the next Prime Minister. (Globe and Mail)
• An archeological expedition from Johns Hopkins University uncovers a statue of Queen Tiye, wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and mother of Akhenaten, at the temple complex at Karnak. (Al-Jazeera)
• Kuwait emir Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah has agreed to abdicate his position. (Al-Jazeera)
• After its brakes fail, a train crashes near Bioče, a village nine miles northeast of Podgorica in Montenegro, killing at least 39 and injuring more than 130 people, in the country's worst train disaster. (BBC News)
• Another case of mad cow disease has been confirmed in Canada but officials do not expect international borders to close to Canadian beef as a result. (CBC)
• United Nations says eight Guatemalan special forces soldiers deployed as U.N. peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo were killed and five wounded in a battle with Ugandan LRA rebels. (Reuters)
• Ford Motor Company announces plans to close 14 plants and cut up to 30,000 jobs (25% of its workforce) by 2012. (Detroit News)
• A five-story building in Nairobi, Kenya, collapses and kills at least eight people, burying dozens more. Rescuers use their bare hands to dig through the rubble. (Sky News) (BBC) (CTV)
• Azerbaijan has started supplying Russian natural gas to Georgia, the Georgian gas company says, helping compensate for a fuel cutoff caused by explosions in southern Russian pipelines that brought a new energy crisis to the region this weekend. (International Herald Tribune) (CBC)
• The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal from Research In Motion Ltd. which had asked it to reverse a lower-court ruling that found its BlackBerry wireless email device in violation of patents held by NTP, Inc., a Virginia patent-holding firm. The case now moves to a federal district court in Virginia, which will decide whether to reinstate an injunction against the U.S. sale of the popular BlackBerries. (MarketWatch)

24 January 2006 (Tuesday)

• A US federal judge issues a summary judgement against Christopher William Smith and awards AOL US$5.3 million in damages and US$287,000 in legal fees, after Smith refused to participate in the lawsuit filed against him by AOL under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Smith is accused of sending millions of spam e-mails to AOL customers. (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Venezuela buys a further ^US$312 million of Argentina's national debt, adding to the ^US$1 billion already purchased. The government of Hugo Chávez says that the scheme will further South American integration. (Reuters)(Bloomberg)
• Miyeegombyn Enkhbold is chosen as the new Prime Minister of Mongolia by the State Great Khural. (BBC)
• Two mergers are announced in the American entertainment industry: Disney and Pixar Animation Studios will merge in a ^US$7.4 billion deal. (Story from E! Online via Yahoo.com) And CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. announce they will merge UPN and The WB television networks into a new network called The CW in fall 2006. (AP/Yahoo!)
• A bomb in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz kills six and injures up to 40. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to have visited the city today, however the trip was called off at the last minute. Lebanon's al-Manar television said the president had called off his trip after a security tip-off. Local MP Nezam Molla-Hoveyzeh accused Britain of being behind the attack. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Later, US President George Bush warns Iran over threat of "retaliation" against Israel. Moqtada Sadr has vowed to defend Iran. (Turkish Weekly), (LKBN ANTARA)
• Defeated Canadian prime minister Paul Martin announces he will resign as leader of the Liberal Party. (CBC)
• Opera web browser releases free "mini" mobile phone browser. (Red Herring), (InformationWeek)
• Web sites encouraged to support IE rivals, as Firefox 1.5 passes the 20 million downloads mark. Firefox browser has 11 percent of the UK market.(VNUNet), (iT News)

25 January 2006 (Wednesday)

• Lucia Pinochet, daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, asks for political asylum in the United States following her arrest at Washington Dulles International Airport on a Chilean arrest warrant for tax evasion. (Miami Herald)
• A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that Trasylol, a drug marketed by Bayer, designed to prevent excessive blood loss during heart surgery, doubles the risk of kidney failure and stroke. (Reuters)
• An international team of astronomers discovers the most earth-like exoplanet found thus far. The planet, OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, is about 25,000 light years away, close to the centre of the Milky Way. (Nature).
• Microsoft, in an effort to resolve a controversy with the antitrust authorities of the European Community, announced that it will license some of its source code to rivals. (c|net news).
• Google's launch of a new, self-censored search engine in China is a "black day" for freedom of expression, says leading international media watchdog Reporters without Borders. (BBC)
• Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, and the world's most profitable airline, announces that it intends to charge up to €7 per bag checked in by customers. In return, the airline fares will drop by 9%. (Ryanair press release)
• Uzbekistan joins the Eurasian Economic Community. (Interfax)
• Deus Caritas Est (Template:Lang-la), the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, is published (BBC)
• 2006 Palestinian elections: Palestinians prepare for the first elections to the PLC in ten years. (BBC)

26 January 2006 (Thursday)

• Islamist party Hamas' landslide victory in Palestinian elections ends four decades of rule by the Fatah party. Hamas secures 76 seats in the 132-member legislature through parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei announces he will resign and Fatah declares it will not join a Hamas-led coalition, although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to continue negotiations with Israel through the Palestine Liberation Organization.(BBC) (Haaretz)
• Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran reacts sharply to US Ambassador David Mulford's warning over the future of the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying on Thursday that it was "inappropriate" and not conducive to good relations between the two countries. (Express India)
• One day after US ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza claimed that Mexican soldiers had helped drug smugglers to escape pursuit by Texas state police on US soil near El Paso, Texas, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez suggested that the people involved may have been US soldiers wearing the uniforms of Mexican military. (Forbes)
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf rejects US objections to a proposed Iran–Pakistan–India pipeline for natural gas saying "It is in our economic interest. If somebody wants to stop us they should compensate us ... But at the moment we are going ahead". Musharraf also repeats his condemnation of the recent U.S. air strike in northern Pakistan which killed 18 people, including women and children. (VOA News)
• Liberal Democrat MEP for London, Sarah Ludford, who is leading a European Parliament investigation into the U.S. policy of "extraordinary rendition", says she may invite Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify. (Irish Independent Newspaper)
• In the long running dispute over Iran's nuclear program, the ambassador of the United States to India, David Mulford, has warned India to back the US plan to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council or face cancellation of a US-India nuclear deal.(Financial Times) India's foreign ministry calls the comments inapproapiate and summons the ambassador to Delhi for an explanation (BBC news). The Foreign Ministry of China says "We oppose impulsively using sanctions or threats of sanctions to solve problems" and also indicates that they would support Russian efforts to resolve the dispute. (Reuters)
• Republic Day celebrations in India. Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud is in India as chief guest for the Republic Day celebration. (NDTV)
• Interpol issues red notices against Pakistan ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabia recalled their envoy from Denmark after Muhammad Drawings controversy, and has initiated a boycott of Danish products. (BBC)

27 January 2006 (Friday)

• French President Jacques Chirac is successfully hoaxed by a Canadian DJ pretending to be Stephen Harper. (CNN)
• European leaders remember the Holocaust, with the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. (Yahoo!)
• A 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes the Banda Sea of eastern Indonesia. (USGS)
• The world honours Mozart on his 250th birthday anniversary. (CTV)
• President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia pledges to end his country's energy crisis by importing Iranian natural gas. Starting Monday, Georgia will import 2 million m³ of gas a day at $120/m³, $10 more than for Russian gas. Georgia's supply of Russian gas has been interrupted since Sunday due to pipeline explosions. Saakashvili has accused Moscow of sabotage for political gain. (RIA Novosti)

28 January 2006 (Saturday)

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez threatens to jail any United States spies caught gathering information about Venezuela. (BBC)
• The roof of a trade-exhibition hall in southern Poland collapses with several hundred people inside, trapping many beneath the wreckage, 62 people are killed and over 160 injured. Poland declares a day of national mourning. (CNN)

29 January 2006 (Sunday)

• Libya closes its embassy in Denmark over the Muhammad Drawings controversy. (BBC)
• Al-Jazeera releases two separate videos, one of Ayman al-Zawahiri condemning the bombing of Damadola and the other of Jill Carroll again pleading for the release of female prisoners so her life will be spared. (Yahoo!), (Reuters)
• ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt are seriously injured by an improvised explosive device near Taji, Iraq. (ABC News)
• Tarja Halonen is re-elected in the second round of the Finnish presidential election with 51.8% of the votes, defeating the other candidate Sauli Niinistö. (Helsingin Sanomat)
• An explosion in a firecracker warehouse kills 16 people in Henan on Chinese New Year. (Reuters)
• Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is confirmed as the new emir of Kuwait, ending a two-week leadership crisis. (BBC)

30 January 2006 (Monday)

• China and Russia agree to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear program in March 2006. (Reuters)
• In the United Kingdom, the High Court has ordered 10 Internet service providers to hand over the details of 150 UK customers accused of illegally sharing software. (BBC)

31 January 2006 (Tuesday)

Samuel Alito

• U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). (Wikinews)
  • Moments before the address began, anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan is arrested in the U.S. Capitol Building for refusing to cover up a t-shirt she was wearing to protest the war and occupation of Iraq. (CNN)
  • Also directed out of the U.S. Capitol Building was Beverly Young, wife of GOP congressman Bill Young, for wearing a t-shirt that read "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom" (ABC).
• Iran's nuclear program
  • Iran reacts with anger to its referral to the U.N. Security Council, saying diplomatic avenues have been closed. (CNN)
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced it has evidence within its report for the Thursday meeting that Iran obtained documents showing how to mold highly enriched grade uranium into the core of warheads. (Reuters)
• In Iraq, the British Armed Forces records its 100th military death. (ABC)
• In the United States, a female ex-postal worker opens fire in a mail-processing plant, killing six people and critically wounding another before committing suicide in what's believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out by a woman in U.S. history. (CNN)
• United States Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced renewed opposition to the U.S. decision to abandon the 30 year old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in favour of missile defence saying it would damage world security. He also claimed that Russia has developed a new category of hypersonic intercontinental missile which can zig-zag in flight and is immune to any missile defense system. (Washington Post)
• Nominations for the 78th Academy Awards were announced in Beverly Hills, California, by Academy President Sid Ganis and actress Mira Sorvino. (CNN)
• Coretta Scott King, widow of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr, dies at age 78. (MSNBC)
• A former US Marine, Jim Massey, has claimed on the Irish radio station Live 95FM that the US military has been illegally shipping depleted uranium through Shannon Airport for use in Iraq. (UTV) (The Limerick Blogger)(Live 95FM) If true, this would be a major breach of Irish neutrality and Irish-US agreements on the use of Shannon. The airport's use by the US military is already highly controversial, in part due to the connection with CIA captives. (IOL.ie)
• U.S. oil company ExxonMobil announced profits for 2005 of $36.1 billion, a record amount in US corporate history. In anticipation of a public backlash, the company simultaneously posted newspaper advertisements in the US to explain its success. (Seattle Times)
• A tourist coach crash in Egypt on the highway between Hurghada and Luxor kills 14 and injures another 30 people. All casualties are from Hong Kong and were joining Jetour Holidays tours.