Timeline 2006 January to
March
Return to home
2006 Jan 1,
President Bush strongly defended his domestic spying program, calling
it legal as well as vital to thwarting terrorist attacks.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Jan 1, The California Energy
Commission introduced mandatory standby requirement for various
electronic devices.
(Econ, 3/11/06, Survey p.34)
2006 Jan 1, Raging bushfires have
destroyed at least 10 homes and threatened scores more in southeast
Australia as a scorching heat wave hit Sydney with its hottest New
Year's Day on record.
(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, The Royal Mail's
350-year-long monopoly of the letter-delivery business in Britain
ended, as new rules kicked in to allow rival operators to win a slice
of the market.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2006 Jan 1, Toronto wrapped up
2005 with 78 homicides, 52 of them gun-related.
(CP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 1, The Central America
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) failed to start due to legal and
regulatory reforms. Juan Carlos Paiz of the Guatemalan Union of
Nontraditional Products blamed the US in large part for the delay,
saying Washington was requiring too much of its poorer partners. The 6
participating nations included, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El
Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua,
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In China a new policy
took effect that allowed listed companies to grant stock options to
senior executives and certain employees as incentives.
(WSJ, 1/6/06, p.A8)
2005 Jan 1, Denmark’s PM Anders
Fogh Rasmussen, in response to cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten
depicting the prophet Muhammad, condemned in his new year’s speech any
attempt to demonize groups of people on the basis of religion or ethnic
background.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.44)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders
said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor
rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In Haiti 2 kidnapped
American journalists, who said their captors threatened to kill them,
were freed after friends and family assembled a ransom for their
release.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Officials said a cold
snap sweeping northern India has killed another five homeless people,
taking the toll to 101 since the start of December.
(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, An Islamic militant
group kidnapped nine Iranian soldiers near that country's border with
Pakistan. On Jan 4 Al-Arabiya said the group threatened to kill them
unless the Tehran government released 16 members from prison.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 1, Insurgents exploded 13
car bombs across Iraq, including eight in Baghdad within a three-hour
span, but the New Year's Day onslaught killed no one and injured only
20 people.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Subcomandante Marcos
(b.1957), identified by the Mexican government as Rafael Guillen, began
a tour of 31 Mexican states under the name “Delegate Zero.” The leader
of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask to protect his
identity, railed against the government and free trade to kick off a
six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A12)(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 1, Norway passed
legislation requiring every publicly traded company in Norway to have
40% women on its board by Jan 1 2008.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/international/europe/12oslo.html)
2006 Jan 1, A coalition of
thousands of Islamic schools vowed to resist a Pakistani government
plan to deport their foreign students, calling the proposal immoral.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Palestinian security
forces stormed a building where an Italian hostage was being held,
freeing the man after a shootout with his kidnappers.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Russia took over the
annual presidency of the G8 club of industrialized democracies for the
first time from Britain on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Russia's natural gas
monopoly halted sales to Ukraine in a price dispute and began reducing
pressure in transmission lines that also carry substantial supplies to
western Europe. Supplies of natural gas to Poland have been hit by cuts
imposed by Russia on the amount of gas entering the pipeline system in
neighbouring Ukraine.
(Reuters, 1/1/06)(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Spanish smokers faced
a wrenching change New Year's Day as a nationwide ban on tobacco in the
workplace came into force in a country known for its smoky bars.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In Venezuela 32
privately operated oil fields returned to state control. A 2001
hydrocarbons law had required oil production to be carried out by
companies majority-owned by the government.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
2006 Jan 1, In northern Yemen
tribesmen kidnapped five Italians, a day after the government
negotiated the release of five Germans held hostage. Tribesmen soon
freed three Italian women, who were among a group of five Italian
tourists, and pressed for the release of kinsmen held by the
authorities.
(Reuters, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 2, No. 4 Ohio State beat
No. 5 Notre Dame 34-20 in the Fiesta Bowl.
(AP, 1/2/07)
2006 Jan 2, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in 7 northern counties
making them eligible for disaster aid. The aid was soon extended to 16
more counties.
(SFC, 1/3/06, p.A1)(SFC, 1/4/06, p.B1)
2006 Jan 2, Grass fires in New
Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas left at least 4 people dead with over 250
structures burned.
(SFC, 1/3/06, p.A4)
2006 Jan 2, In Tallmansville, West
Virginia, an explosion at the Sago coal mine trapped 13 miners more
than a mile underground. After 1½ days 12 miners were found
dead. Randal McCloy (27) was the lone survivor.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 2, Independence Air,
formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines, said it will shut down on
Jan 5. The DC based carrier only began operations Jun 16, 2004.
(SFC, 1/3/06, p.E1)
2006 Jan 2, The Afghan government
said it has ordered the US Embassy, the UN and other organizations to
remove security barriers that are blocking streets in Afghanistan's
capital and causing traffic jams.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, In Afghanistan a
suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car near a US
military convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing himself and
wounding an American soldier and two passers-by. Suspected Taliban
gunmen killed an Afghan aid worker who was praying in a mosque in
southern Afghanistan. A policeman was killed in a separate firefight
with militants.
(AP, 1/2/06)(AFP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 2, In eastern Australia 5
people were killed when a plane carrying a group of skydivers plunged
into a dam near Brisbane.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, China’s Xinhua News
reported that the nation’s GDP grew 9.8% in 2005.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
2006 Jan 2, The roof of an ice
rink with about 50 people inside collapsed after a heavy snowfall in a
town in the Bavarian Alps killing 15 people, most of them teens and
children.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 2, In India’s Orissa
state police shot and killed 12 tribals who were seeking to block
construction of a steel plant in Kalinga Nagar. Tensions were
heightened after the "tribals hacked to death a senior constable."
Hundreds of protesters, some armed with bows and arrows, soon blocked a
highway to protest the police shooting.
(AFP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 2, In central Indonesia
flash floods swept away hundreds houses and schools, killing at least
57 people.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 2, In Iraq the main Sunni
Arab group, the Iraqi Accordance Front, and Kurdish regional Pres.
Massoud Barzani agreed on broad outlines for a coalition government.
(SFC, 1/3/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 2, A suicide car bomber
targeted a busload of police recruits north of Baghdad, killing seven
people, and gunmen in the capital killed five workers.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, US aircraft bombed a
house in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, killing seven people and
wounding four. Iraqis claimed an innocent family was killed. US
military said a recon drone had recorded men planting a roadside bomb
and traced them to the building.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 2, An Israeli
intelligence report said Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft
missiles into the Gaza Strip along with tons of other military hardware
since Israel withdrew in September.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, A car exploded in
northern Gaza after nightfall, killing at least one Palestinian.
Witnesses said an Israeli aircraft was overhead.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, More than 130 Libyan
political prisoners, mostly members of the banned opposition Muslim
Brotherhood group, started a hunger strike in a Tripoli prison, saying
the government broke its promise to release them.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 2, The leader of Mexico's
Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, railed
against the country's government and free trade to kick off a six-month
tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, Communist rebels in
Nepal announced they would end a four-month cease-fire, saying they had
to take up arms to defend themselves against government attacks.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, Russia's
state-controlled natural gas monopoly accused Ukraine of diverting
about $25 million worth of Russian gas intended for other customers, a
day after Moscow halted deliveries to Kiev in a price dispute whose
effects were spreading across Europe.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, A heavily-criticized
Russia promised to restore full gas supplies to Europe after Germany
warned that its dispute with Ukraine over deliveries could hurt its
long-term credibility as an energy supplier.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, In Sri Lanka 5
civilians suspected of working for separatist rebels were allegedly
killed when their grenades exploded before they could hurl them at
troops. Forensic tests showed that the victims had been shot dead. The
incident referred to as Trincomalee massacre happened when 5 minority
Sri Lankan Tamil high school students playing by the beach were briefly
detained and then shot dead.
(AP, 1/3/06)(AP,
2/14/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Trincomalee_massacre)
2006 Jan 2, Kizza Besigye,
Uganda's main opposition leader, was released on bail, and greeted some
12,000 cheering supporters outside the courthouse where he is on trial
for charges he says were fabricated to keep him out of next month's
presidential election.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, Yemeni tribal and
state officials said 3 Italian women kidnapped in north Yemen have
refused to go free until their abductors release two Italian men held
with them.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 3, Jack Abramoff, the US
lobbyist who spawned a congressional corruption scandal, pleaded guilty
to 3 felonies and pledged to cooperate in a criminal probe edging
closer to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, In Pennsylvania the
Dover School Board rescinded its policy of presenting intelligent
design as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes.
(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 3, Rhode Island became
the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can
still be prosecuted under federal law.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, The US DJIA rose
129.91 to 10847.41 on expectations for an end to interest rate
increases based the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting
in December.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, The Committee to
Protect Journalists reported that 47 journalists were killed in 2005,
and that more than three-quarters were murdered to silence their
criticism of punish them for their work. Iraq accounted for 22 of the
deaths.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Jan 3, The UN secretariat of
the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species ordered a
temporary halt to the global export of caviar to compel nations to
demonstrate that their fishing practices are not pushing caviar
producing fish to extinction.
(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Jan 3, Armed men beheaded a
teacher in the central Afghan town of Qalat, the latest in a string of
attacks against educators at schools where girls study. Officials
blamed Taliban militants.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, Argentina repaid $9.57
billion in debt to the International Monetary Fund, a measure officials
depicted as a means to help reclaim Argentina's economic independence.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, A Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman said Egypt will deport 654 Sudanese refugees who were
violently evicted from a protest camp in a Cairo park last week.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, A top official said
Iran has decided to resume research into nuclear fuel production in a
statement certain to increase concerns that Iran is moving toward
production of nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Gunmen attacked a car
carrying construction workers in western Baghdad, killing three and
wounding two. Gunmen in the same neighborhood fired on a car carrying
civilians, killing two and wounding three. The sister of Iraqi Interior
Minister Bayan Jabr was kidnapped and her bodyguard killed. The nephew
of Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Yasiri, Baghdad rescue police commander, was
kidnapped.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 3, Urbano Lazzaro (81), a
resistance fighter credited with arresting fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini at the end of World War II, died in Vercelli, Italy.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, In Japan Yoshie Sato
(56) was killed near the Yokosuka base. Japanese media later reported
that a US serviceman (21) had admitted to US military authorities to
killing her.
(AFP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 3, Peru formally asked
Chile to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori so he can
be tried on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Russian and Ukrainian
officials agreed to resume talks on resolving a dispute over the price
of natural gas that has reverberated across the continent and left
Ukraine cut off from its supplies.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Serb officials
acknowledged that war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic was drawing an army
pension until at least mid-November 2005.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, Venezuela President
Hugo Chavez offered Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales diesel fuel,
trade benefits and help in financing his social reforms as the two
leftists cemented ties, reasserting their opposition to US policy in
Latin America.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court
allowed federal prosecutors to take custody of “enemy combatant” Jose
Padilla so he could face criminal charges.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 4, A US federal appeals
court in Atlanta reinstated a $54.6 million verdict against two retired
Salvadoran generals, Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova (67), and Jose
Guillermo Garcia (72), accused of torture during the civil war
(1980-1992) in their home country.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 4, The Univ. of Texas
Longhorns scored a 41-38 win over Southern California in the Rose Bowl.
Official tickets sold for $175 and resellers on the internet hawked
them for as much as $3000.
(AP, 1/5/06)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.58)
2006 Jan 4, In a triple-overtime
game that began Jan. 3 and finished after midnight, No. 3 Penn State
beat No. 22 Florida State 26-23 in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 4, Scientists said
protected ocean areas are needed to save deep-sea fish which have been
driven to near extinction by commercial fishing.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Chad's President
Idriss Deby urged the UN to take control of Sudan's volatile Darfur
region because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to
destabilize neighboring states.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In China’s central
province of Hunan a mismanaged silt clean-up project allowed the
industrial chemical cadmium, which can cause neurological disorders and
cancer, to flood out of a smelting works and into the Xiangjiang River.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 4, Two Egyptian guards
were shot dead at the border with Gaza after armed Palestinians made a
hole in the border wall. Palestinian militants angry at the jailing of
their leader stole two bulldozers and smashed through the border wall
between Gaza and Egypt.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, French Interior
Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France will create a special police force
to ensure security for railway passengers after a band of marauding
youths robbed and sexually assaulted train travelers Jan 1 in southeast
France.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Indonesia
landslides triggered by heavy rains swept down on a village on Java
island, burying homes beneath tons of mud and leaving dozens of people
missing and feared dead. The number of dead or missing from days of wet
weather rose to over 200.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 4, An Iraqi Interior
Ministry official said more than 7,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians,
were killed in violence in 2005, the first year that Iraqi officials
have kept such records.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 32 mourners and wounded dozens at a funeral for the
nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks across the
country that killed a total of 53 people.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Israel’s PM Ariel
Sharon was rushed to an operating room to staunch a brain hemorrhage;
his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 4, The world’s largest
bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), opened for business with
$1.6 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 4, The Russian and
Ukrainian natural gas companies agreed on a plan to resume gas
shipments to Ukraine that allowed both sides to claim victory after a
commercial and political dispute that had raised fears of gas shortages
in Europe.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Tanzania rocks and
boulders tumbled down Mount Kilimanjaro and crashed into tents where
tourists were sleeping, killing 3 American climbers and seriously
injuring 2.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 4, Sheik Maktoum bin
Rashid Al Maktoum (62), the emir of Dubai and prominent owner and
breeder of thoroughbred horses, died during a visit to Australia.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Intel asked the
Vietnamese government for a license to build a chip plant worth 605
million dollars in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Regulators approved the
plans in February.
(AFP, 1/5/06)(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 5, Christian broadcaster
Pat Robertson suggested that Israeli PM Ariel Sharon’s stroke was
divine punishment for “dividing God’s land.” Robertson later apologized.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2006 Jan 5, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger in his State of the State speech called for over $222
billion for public works projects.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 5, The Florida Supreme
Court struck down the voucher system that allowed some children to
attend private schools at taxpayer expense, saying that it violates the
state constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public
schools.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker in Kandahar detonated explosives strapped to his body
during a visit by the US ambassador, killing 10 Afghans and wounding 50.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, The wife of Dragomir
Abazovic, a Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, was killed in a shoot-out
when European Union (EUFOR) peacekeepers moved in to arrest her husband
at their home. Abazovic and the couple's 11-year-old son were also shot
and injured.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, The UN said around
2,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees have arrived in Burundi in the past month,
many saying they feel insecure in Rwanda or are being refused
permission to cultivate their land.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, China’s government
announced the closing 5,290 coal mines in a safety crackdown on the
world's deadliest mining industry.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, In China Feng Bingxian
(59), a businessman who led investors against the government seizure of
oil fields in northern China, was convicted along with 2 co-defendants
of organizing illegal protests and sentenced to 3 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/6/06, p.A8)
2006 Jan 5, In China an oil spill
occurred at Gongyi city in neighboring Henan province when a frozen
pipe broke, causing six tons of oil to spill into a tributary of the
Yellow River.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 5, In western China
violent blizzards have forced the evacuation of 97,000 people in a
largely Muslim region of Xinjiang, as the nation braced for its worst
winter in 20 years.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, In Colombia local TV
reported that 2 soldiers had been arrested for giving weapons to
leftist rebels, their main battlefield enemy, in exchange for cocaine.
14 FARC guerrillas and two soldiers were killed in clashes in a
coca-growing area on the edge Sierra Macarena National Park in southern
Colombia.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, In France a
76-year-old performance artist was arrested after attacking Marcel
Duchamp's (1917) "Fountain," a porcelain urinal, with a hammer at
the Pompidou Center.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, The leader of Haiti's
largest business association called for a general strike next week to
protest the wave of kidnappings that has sparked fear in the capital
and contributed to the chaos that prompted authorities to postpone
elections.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, A shootout between
inmates at Honduras' biggest prison left at least 13 inmates dead and
another 30 wounded.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, A suicide bomber
infiltrated a line of police recruits in Ramadi, killing at least 58
and wounding dozens including a US Marine and soldier. 11 US troops
were slain during the day. 5 soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb
south of Karbala. 2 soldiers were killed in the Baghdad area when their
vehicle hit a roadside bomb. 2 US Marines were killed by separate small
arms attacks while conducting combat operations in Fallujah. An
explosion near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines killed at least 5
people. The day’s death toll rose to at least 136 people in a series of
attacks as politicians tried to form a coalition government.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, Iraq's largest oil
refinery closed again, a day after insurgents ambushed a convoy of
tanker trucks carrying gas from the facility.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, Israel’s PM Ariel
Sharon (77) fought for his life following seven hours of emergency
surgery to stop widespread bleeding in his brain. The massive stroke
made it unlikely that he would return to power. Vice Premier Ehud
Olmert was named acting PM and convened the Cabinet for a special
session.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, Suspected rebels
killed 3 police and wounded 4 more in attacks across Nepal, while
hundreds of protesters marched through Kathmandu, demanding restoration
of democracy.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, Pakistan said it had
taken all "appropriate action" to break up the underground nuclear
network run by its former chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, Peru recalled its
ambassador from Venezuela, accusing President Hugo Chavez of meddling
in Peru's upcoming presidential race.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 5, In Saudi Arabia a
building used as a hostel by pilgrims in Mecca collapsed as millions of
Muslims converged for the annual hajj, and at least 76 people were
killed.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, A Turkish teenager
whose brother died of bird flu also succumbed to the disease. Fatma
Kocyigit (15) died in a hospital in the eastern city of Van, four days
after the death of her brother, Mehmet Ali Kocyigit (14). The children
helped raise poultry on a small farm in the eastern town of
Dogubeyazit, close to Iranian border, and were in close contact with
sick birds. Their 11-year-old sister died the next day.
(AP, 1/5/06)(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 5, In Venezuela a
viaduct, carrying the motorway that crosses the mountains between
Caracas and the int’l. airport, was closed due to geologic and
structural problems. Travel time one way rose up to 5 hours.
(Econ, 1/14/06, p.44)
2006 Jan 6, Al-Qaida's No. 2
official, Ayman al-Zawahri, said in a videotape that a recent US
decision to withdraw some troops from Iraq represented "the victory of
Islam."
(AP, 1/6/07)
2006 Jan 6, The 115-year-old
Pilgrim Baptist Church of Chicago was destroyed by fire.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2006 Jan 6, In Florida Martin Lee
Anderson (14) died a day after he was brutally beaten at a juvenile
detention boot camp. Videotape showed that he was punched and kicked. A
2nd autopsy on Mar 13 indicated that Anderson did not die of natural
causes. An earlier autopsy said his death was due to a sickle cell
trait. In May 2007 the Florida state legislature agreed to pay
Anderson’s family $5 million to settle civil claims. On Oct 12, 2007,
an all-white jury acquitted 8 former boot camp workers of manslaughter.
(AP, 2/17/06)(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A4)(SFC, 10/13/07,
p.A4)
2006 Jan 6, Lou Rawls (72),
singer, died in Los Angeles. He started as a church choir boy and went
on to sell more than 40 million albums. He won three Grammy Awards in a
career that spanned nearly five decades and a range of genres. His 1st
solo release was the 1962 jazz album “Stormy Monday” recorded with the
Les McCann Trio.
(AP, 1/6/06)(SFC, 1/6/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 6, Hugh Thompson Jr., a
former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians
during the My Lai massacre, died in Alexandria, La., at age 62.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2006 Jan 6, Bulgarian officials
said Gazprom was pushing it to switch to a system in which it pays
transit fees and charges Sofia market prices. Bulgaria rejected the
offer and said its current is good to 2010.
(WSJ, 1/9/06, p.A11)
2006 Jan 6, In China a farmer
angry over a court ruling set off a bomb in a courthouse in Gansu
province, killing himself and four other people. Qian Wenzhao (62) was
angry over a ruling in a property dispute involving the house of his
late son and daughter-in-law.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 6, A study published in
Britain's leading medical journal said war-ravaged Congo is suffering
the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis, with 38,000 people dying
each month mostly from easily treatable diseases.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, An Indian Supreme
Court panel accused France of violating an international treaty on
hazardous waste movement by sending an asbestos-laden warship to be
scrapped in an Indian shipyard.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, A suicide car bomber
struck a police patrol in Baghdad, killing one officer.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Israel’s PM Ariel
Sharon had emergency brain surgery for five hours after doctors
detected further bleeding and increasing pressure.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, The Kazakhstan
Parliament voted to ditch the Central Asian state's old national anthem
in favor of "My Kazakhstan," a song written in 1956 and adapted by
Pres. Nazarbayev.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Liberia's
President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf agreed to pay out benefits and
pensions to widows of soldiers killed in a civil war after they blocked
roads in the capital Monrovia in protest.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Comandante Ramona
(47), a leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement and an advocate for
women's rights, died after a decade-long struggle with a kidney disease.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Morocco's King
Mohammed, under pressure from human rights groups to apologize for more
than four decades of past repression by the state, offered his sympathy
for the victims.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Nigeria’s government
anti-AIDS agency said it will double the number of centers where AIDS
patients can get free drugs in the next three months as part of a major
drive to widen access to treatment.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Stalinist North Korea
demanded billions of dollars in compensation for alleged atrocities
against its prisoners of war and spies formerly held in South Korea.
The demand sparked outrage among politicians in Seoul.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 6, Venezuela said it will
expand a program to provide discounted home heating oil to low-income
Americans, bringing savings to some Indian tribes in Maine.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, Vietnam said it was
prepared to join some UN peacekeeping operations for the first time in
a move seen as a major shift in its attitude towards the world body.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 6, In Yemen 5 Italian
hostages were freed in good health after six days in captivity when
their kidnappers surrendered to government troops.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 7, US Representative Tom
DeLay (R-Texas), facing corruption charges, stepped down as House
majority leader.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2006 Jan 7, In East Palo Alto,
Ca., police officer Richard May (38) was gunned down after responding
to a report of a fight at a taqueria. Alberto Alvarez (23) was arrested
the next day. In 2009 a jury convicted him of first-degree murder and
recommended that he be executed. On Feb 8, 2010, a judge sentenced
Alvarez to death.
(SFC, 1/9/06, p.A1)(SFC, 11/26/09, p.C2)(SFC,
12/23/09, p.C2)(SFC, 2/9/10, p.C2)
2006 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb blew up as a van packed with police cadets and trainers
was driving through the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing a passer-by
and wounding a police colonel and driver.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, In eastern Australia a
21-year-old woman died after a shark attack near North Stradbroke
Island. A camper on a nearby beach said the woman had been scuba diving
in waist-deep water at the time of the attack.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Heinrich Harrer (93),
an Austrian mountaineer and former Nazi who became a friend and tutor
of the young Dalai Lama, died. Actor Brad Pitt played Harrer in the
1997 film "Seven Years in Tibet," which was based on Harrer's 1953
memoir of his time in Tibet.
(AP, 1/7/06)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.83)
2006 Jan 7, A study reported by
Brazilian media said more than 1,000 children have been living
underneath highway overpasses, inside tunnels and on city squares in
Sao Paulo.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, The World Bank under
Paul Wolfowitz halted all lending to Chad saying the country broke a
deal to use oil money to cut poverty.
(WSJ, 1/7/06, p.A1)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.69)
2006 Jan 7, China's ruling
Communist Party called on its members to do more to fight widespread
corruption and politically explosive problems such as unpaid back wages
for migrant workers.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Haiti Brazilian Lt.
Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, commander of UN peacekeepers,
was found dead in an apparent suicide in a room at the Montana hotel in
Port-au-Prince.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Iraq gunmen
kidnapped Jill Carroll, a female American journalist, and killed her
Iraqi translator in western Baghdad. Carroll was freed almost three
months later.
(AP,
1/7/07)(www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/p01s04-woiq.html)
2006 Jan 7, Talib Enezy Ghadban,
an Iraqi detainee held at the US-controlled Abu Ghraib prison in
Baghdad, died in custody. The military said he died of complications
from an apparent stroke and an investigation was under way.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Jan 7, A US Black Hawk
helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing all 12 Americans believed
to be aboard. 2 US Marines were killed by roadside bombs in separate
incidents.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 7, The French engineer,
Bernard Planche (52), was pushed out of a car near a checkpoint in a
Baghdad suburb. He had been kidnapped Dec 5.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 7, Visiting Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw has said it was hoped Britain's 8,000 troops would
start to withdraw from Iraq in a matter of months.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Japanese police
arrested William Oliver Reese (21), an American sailor, on charges of
robbing and beating a Japanese woman to death. Reese was accused of
robbing Yoshie Sato (56) of $129.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Environmentalists
continued attempts to thwart Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, as
both sides accused each other of underhand tactics in the high-seas
struggle.
(AFP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Cross border firing at
a Pakistani village near the Afghan border killed eight people in
Saidgi village. Pakistan protested the incident to the US military.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Pakistan assailants
armed with rockets and assault rifles attacked a newly built checkpoint
near the Afghan border before dawn, killing all eight security forces.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Pakistan some 50
survivors of the Oct 8 earthquake commandeered 2 UN relief helicopters
to flee the disaster zone.
(WSJ, 1/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 7, In Sri Lanka an
explosives-rigged fishing boat rammed a navy patrol, killing 13 sailors
in a suspected rebel attack.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, American singer Harry
Belafonte led a delegation of Americans including the actor Danny
Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West in a meeting
with Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, The cost of a US 1st
class postage stamp rose to 39 cents.
(WSJ, 1/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 8, Wildfires in the
southwest US spread to Arkansas and Colorado destroying 9 more homes.
Over the last 2 weeks the fires in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas have
destroyed 475 homes and left 5 people dead.
(SFC, 1/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 8, In Washington DC David
E. Rosenbaum (63), a recently retired journalist for the NY Times, died
from injuries suffered in a robbery on Jan 6. Michael Hamlin (24) and
Percy Jordan Jr. (42) were soon arrested and charged with felony
murder. Both men were convicted of murder. In 2007 Hamlin was sentenced
to 26 years in prison after he pleaded guilty and testified against his
cousin.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.A3)(SFC, 10/25/06, p.A3)(SFC,
1/4/07, p.A3)
2006 Jan 8, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban gunmen burned down a primary school in the southern
city of Kandahar, the latest in a spate of attacks against teachers and
institutions that educate girls.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, A car ploughed into a
group of 12 cyclists in North Wales, killing four and leaving four
others seriously injured.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, State media said China
will invest more than $3 billion over the next five years to clean up
the Songhua River, a key source of drinking water for tens of millions
of people that was polluted in November by a toxic spill that flowed
into Russia.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, The Indian capital of
Delhi saw its first winter frost in 70 years as a cold wave sweeping in
from the frigid heights of the Himalayas. The death toll from the cold
rose to 137 people in northern India.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Iraq 3 Marines were
killed by small arms attacks in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. 5
people were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad, including a
policeman killed by a suicide car bomber that targeted an Interior
Ministry patrol. Seven others were wounded.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, Almost 500 would-be
illegal immigrants have arrived on Italy's Mediterranean island of
Lampedusa, between Sicily and North Africa, in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, Greenpeace claimed a
Japanese whaling ship deliberately rammed its ship Arctic Sunrise,
denting the ship's bow but causing no injuries. Greenpeace said it
would continue hounding Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters
despite the damaging collision.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 8, Jordan's parliament
approved a law that prevents Amman handing over US citizens accused of
war crimes to the international criminal court (ICC).
(Reuters, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, The US and South Korea
withdrew their last remaining staff from the site of two North Korean
nuclear reactors, ending a decade-old construction project amid
rekindled tension over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Morocco a senior
official said Royal Air Maroc (RAM), encouraged by its majority
shareholdings in the national airlines of Senegal and Gabon, is
planning a major expansion of routes in Africa.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, The UN envoy to
Myanmar, Razali Ismail of Malaysia, said he had quit his post after
being refused entry for the past 2 years to the military-ruled country
where he pushed for reforms.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, Nigeria's
multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas company Nigeria NLNG said it
had shipped the first cargo of gas from its fourth production plant to
the US.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, The Islamic militant
group Hamas launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip as part of its
expansion into Palestinian politics.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 8, In the Philippines
fire raced through a dormitory in Manila's congested university
district, killing at least eight people, including some clustered near
a second-floor exit.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Tajikistan a fire
swept through a home for mentally disabled children in the capital of
Dushanbe, killing 13 children before firefighters arrived.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Turkey Anatolia
news reported that a court has approved the release of Mehmet Ali Agca
(46), the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, saying he completed
his prison term.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, Three Turks were
reported to be infected with a deadly strain of bird flu in the capital
Ankara.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Venezuela American
singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President Bush "the greatest
terrorist in the world" and said millions of Americans support the
socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 9, The US charged a
husband and wife Florida Int’l. Univ. employees, one a teacher, with
spying for decades for Castro’s regime in Cuba.
(WSJ, 1/10/06,
p.A1)(www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-10-voa7.cfm)
2006 Jan 9, The US sent 15
migrants back to Cuba after officials concluded that the section of the
partially collapsed bridge where they landed did not count as dry land
under the government's policy because it was no longer connected to any
of the Keys.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 9, Confirmation hearings
opened in Washington for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2006 Jan 9, "The Phantom of the
Opera" leapt past "Cats" to become the longest-running show in Broadway
history.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2006 Jan 9, The US DJIA rose 52.59
to close at 11,011.9, its 1st close above 11,000 since Jun 7, 2001.
(SFC, 1/10/06, p.E1)
2006 Jan 9, Howard Stern began his
new Sirius Satellite radio show.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Don Stewart (70), soap
opera actor (Guiding Light), died in Santa Barbara, Calif.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2006 Jan 9, Taliban leader Mullah
Omar purportedly warned of a coming surge in violence, clearly
rejecting the Afghan president's proposal a day earlier to "get in
touch" if he wants to talk peace.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Bolivian
President-elect Evo Morales met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in
Beijing and called China an "ideological ally," a day after he invited
the communist country to develop Bolivia's vast gas reserves.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, In Chile a judge
granted bail to former military strongman Augusto Pinochet in the case
of nine dissidents who disappeared during his dictatorship, but the
general will remain under house arrest while another court reviews the
decision.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, China and Japan agreed
to hold new talks to resolve a dispute over gas deposits in the East
China Sea that could help ease their increasingly strained relations.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, China’s
state-controlled oil company CNOOC Ltd. said it is paying $2.3 billion
for a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian oil field.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, The US launched a
diplomatic initiative to try to mark the contested border between
Ethiopia and Eritrea, a dispute that led to a 2 1/2-year war in an area
where both countries are again massing troops.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, In Haiti business
ground to a halt in a general strike called to protest a wave of
kidnappings that has terrified people and cast a shadow over already
troubled efforts to restore democracy.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Experts urged the
Indian government to enforce laws against prenatal gender checks and to
work to change attitudes after a study showed up to 10 million female
fetuses may have been selectively aborted in India over the past two
decades.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Iran state TV reported
that 14 alleged members of an Islamic extremist group had been
detained. The group in late December grabbed and held nine soldiers
hostage.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 9, In northwestern Iran a
small military passenger jet crashed, killing at least 13 people,
including the commander of the ground forces of Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guards.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, In Iraq insurgents
exploded a suicide car bomb and launched two mortar shells at the
Interior Ministry during National Police Day celebrations, killing 29
people and injuring 18.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Israel permitted
Palestinian politicians to campaign in disputed Jerusalem, reversing an
initial ban and clearing an obstacle to holding Palestinian parliament
elections on Jan. 25.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, The death toll from
snowstorms that have blasted northern and central Japan since early
December rose to 71 after three people died while clearing snow.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Diplomats from Mexico,
Central America, Colombia and the Dominican Republic demanded guest
worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the
United States, while criticizing a US proposal for tougher border
enforcement.
(AP, 1/10/06)(Econ, 1/14/06, p.40)
2006 Jan 9, In Turkey a Health
Ministry official said preliminary tests showed five more people have
been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 10, Oil magnate Boone
Pickens donated $165 million to Oklahoma State Univ. for the
development of new sports facilities. The 100-acre site under
consideration in Stillwater faced problems with low-income residents.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncf&id=2286807)(WSJ,
3/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 10, Apple Computer CEO
Steve Jobs unveiled an iMac computer based on Intel chips.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2006 Jan 10, Bruce Sutter became
the 4th relief pitcher elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2006 Jan 10, Australia said it
will send an extra 110 troops to Afghanistan to bolster the fight
against Islamist militants, increasing its presence in the country to
about 300.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10-2006 Jan 11, The
bodies of 24 Haitian migrants, who apparently suffocated crossing the
border in a sealed truck, were found in the Dominican Republic. The
victims were among 69 Haitians, mostly adult men, who were driven
across the border illegally at the northern Dominican town of Dajabon.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 10, European airlines
lost a legal bid that aimed to strike down new EU rules guaranteeing
passengers compensation for flight delays or cancellations.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, The European
Commission ordered that Greece allow genetically modified corn seed
(GMO) to be planted there despite objections by Greek farmers.
(WSJ, 1/11/06, p.A13)
2006 Jan 10, Iran removed UN seals
on uranium enrichment equipment and resumed nuclear research Tuesday,
defying demands it maintain a two-year freeze on its nuclear program
and sparking an outcry from the US and Europe.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il passed through China on the way to Russia, a source with
knowledge of the stopover said. South Korean and Japanese media said
Kim was making a secret visit to China.
(Reuters, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, A battle between
Pakistani security forces and suspected Islamic militants firing
rockets and assault rifles left 21 dead in a tribal region near the
Afghan border.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, Panama's agricultural
minister resigned, accusing the US of pressuring the Central American
country to accept lower agricultural inspection standards.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, Peru's National
Election Board formally rejected a bid by jailed former President
Alberto Fujimori to run in April's presidential race, citing a
congressional ban on his holding public office.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, Spanish police
arrested 20 people, mostly Moroccans, linked to Islamic terrorism and
violence in Iraq in raids across Spain.
(AFP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, In Thailand
protesters pushed through a police barricade outside a hotel where
negotiators were trying to hammer out a US-Thai free trade pact, as
demonstrations against the deal gained momentum but failed to disrupt
the talks.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, Preliminary tests
showed another person in Turkey has tested positive for a deadly strain
of bird flu, raising the number in the country to 15. The number of
people hospitalized with symptoms climbed to about 70.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 10, Ukraine’s Parliament
fired the Cabinet because of a new deal with Russia that nearly doubled
what Ukraine pays for natural gas. PM Yuri Yekhanurov and the justice
minister, however, said the vote was nonbinding and vowed that the
current Cabinet would continue working.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 11, The US Interior Dept.
agreed to open some 400,000 acres on Alaska’s North Slope for
exploratory oil drilling.
(SFC, 1/12/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 11, Latin American and US
scientists reported that as many as 112 species of frogs have
disappeared since 1980. Some 65 amphibian species in Central and South
America had also disappeared. Global warming was suspected.
(SFC, 1/12/06, p.A7)
2006 Jan 11, The Asia Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate opened in Sidney. It
brought together senior ministers from the US, Australia, Japan, China,
South Korea and India, along with executives from energy and resource
firms. The US and Australia insisted at the opening of a two-day
climate change conference that industry leaders can be relied upon to
voluntarily slash emissions blamed for heating the earth's atmosphere.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, British PM Tony Blair
said that Western countries were likely to seek economic sanctions
against Iran after Tehran restarted its nuclear program, but a powerful
cleric said it would not curtail its research.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, Samir Ait Mohamed, an
Algerian-born man accused of helping in the plot to bomb the Los
Angeles airport on the millennium, was quietly deported from Canada to
an unknown destination after years fighting for refugee status there.
(AP, 1/13/06)(WSJ, 1/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 11, New customs figures
indicated that China's trade surplus surged to $101.9 billion in 2005,
more than triple the $32 billion gap recorded the year before.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, The WHO said 2 more
people sickened by bird flu in China have died, bringing the total
number of humans killed by the disease in the country to five.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, Congo officials said
a new constitution for was approved by a landslide vote, paving the way
for historic presidential and parliamentary elections in March.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, Egypt released 164
Sudanese migrants who were detained last month when police evicted them
from a city park in a violent operation that brought international
condemnation.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Egypt a tour bus
carrying Australian tourists overturned on a wet highway, killing six
people and injuring at least 24.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Georgia a court
convicted a man of trying to assassinate President Bush and the leader
of Georgia during a rally last year, and it sentenced him to life in
prison. Vladimir Arutyunian (27) also was convicted of killing a
policeman during a shootout while authorities were trying to arrest him
several weeks after the May 10, 2005, grenade incident.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Haiti clashes
between gangs and UN peacekeepers reportedly killed one person and
wounded at least 17.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Indonesia police
arrested 12 suspects in the killings of 2 American teachers in a 2002
ambush. The suspects include Anthonius Wamang, who was indicted by a US
grand jury in 2004 on two counts of murder, eight counts of attempted
murder and other related offenses in connection with the slayings.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Iraq US troops in
Baghdad killed 6 insurgents, including 2 wearing explosive belts.
(WSJ, 1/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 11, Felipe Calderon,
ruling-party presidential hopeful, registered his campaign with
election officials, saying he understands the problems facing common
Mexicans and will stem the flow of migrants who head north in search of
higher-paying jobs.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 11, The Mongolian
People’s Revolution Party (MPRP) pulled out of the government, accusing
the current leadership of failing to fight corruption and worsening
poverty in the former communist country. The move would leave the
government without the minimum number of seats required to stay in
power.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Nigeria gunmen
stormed an offshore oil platform run Royal Dutch Shell and kidnapped
four foreign oil workers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the
Nigerian Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. The four were freed
nearly three weeks later.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.47)(AP, 1/11/07)
2006 Jan 11, The British weekly
New Scientist said Norway is to build a "doomsday vault" in a mountain
close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to ensure food
supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change, nuclear war or
rising sea levels.
(AFP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, Pakistani security
forces killed 12 suspected militants in a gunfight following the deaths
of 3 soldiers whose vehicle struck a land mine in the country's restive
southwest.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Russia a
knife-wielding man (20) shouting "I will kill Jews!" attacked a
synagogue in downtown Moscow, slashing and stabbing at 9 people before
the son of a rabbi wrestled him to the ground. In September Alexander
Koptsev was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
(AP, 1/11/06)(Econ, 5/13/06, p.59)(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Jan 11, Rebel sources said
Sudanese troops had entered Hamesh Koreb, a town in eastern Sudan, and
threatened to evict ex-southern rebels in a move that could threaten a
landmark year-old peace deal.
(AFP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 12, The US mint began
shipping a new Jefferson nickel.
(SFC, 1/13/06, p.C1)
2006 Jan 12, In Palm Springs, Ca.,
Richard Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente Ban of Cahuilla
Indians, apologized to other tribal leaders for the scandal tied to
Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He addressed tribal leaders on the
2nd day of a 3-day conference for casino-operating tribes. Abramoff and
associates had collected some $66 million from 6 American Indian tribes
seeking influence in Washington.
(SFC, 1/13/06, p.B14)
2006 Jan 12, The United Farm
Workers left the AFL-CIO to join 5 other unions in a new confederation
due to a rift over organizing tactics.
(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 12, The winning entry in
New Jersey’s slogan contest was: "New Jersey: "Come See For Yourself."
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, Houston became the
largest school district in the country to adopt a merit pay plan for
teachers that focuses on students' tests scores.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 12, Nikon announced that
it would no longer make most film cameras. A week later Minolta said it
was quitting the camera business.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.75)
2006 Jan 12, Starbucks announced
plans to promote a new film, ramping up its ambition to move into the
entertainment business.
(WSJ, 1/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 12, In Fort Lauderdale 4
youths went cruising to beat up some bums. Norris Gaynor (45), a
homeless man, was beaten to death with baseball bats in one of 3
attacks. A surveillance camera captured the beating of Jacques Pierre
in one of the non-lethal attacks. [see Jan 15]
(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A5)
2006 Jan 12, Australia and East
Timor agreed to equally share revenue from the Greater Sunrise natural
gas project in the Timor Sea.
(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A8)
2006 Jan 12, In Bahrain an
official said Prince Faisal (15), the sixth son of the king, Sheik
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, was killed in an accident while driving a car.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, The British, French
and German foreign ministers said that negotiations with Iran over its
nuclear program had reached a "dead end" and the Islamic republic
should be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, China’s government
released a white paper outlining its African policy.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.44)
2006 Jan 12, Chinese Foreign
Minister Li Zhaoxing gave four million US dollars to Dakar within hours
of his arrival in Senegal, the latest west African country to have
recently ditched Taiwan in favor of mighty Beijing.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, In Ecuador police
used tear gas to disperse about 2,000 demonstrators after they burned
an American flag in front of the government palace to protest a free
trade pact with the United States.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, EU governments
refused to ascribe market-economy status to 13 Chinese shoemakers,
opening the way for duties to be imposed on their imports to Europe.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, A German court
convicted Amin Lokman Mohamed (33), an Iraqi man, of aiding a terror
group in his home country and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, In Lucknow, India,
police said 4 men, who were arrested last week on charges of spreading
homosexuality, were running a secret Internet club for homosexuals.
Homosexuality is illegal in India. Activists called for their release.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, Italy's Air One said
it will buy 30 Airbus A320s under a $1.8 billion deal for delivery by
2008 and plans to exercise an option to buy 10 more planes this year.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, In Kenya gunmen shot
and killed, Joan Wells Root (69), a well-known British environmentalist
and wildlife filmmaker, at her home in the central Rift Valley.
(AFP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 12, Hundreds of
protesters stormed the headquarters of Mongolia's biggest political
party (MPRP), one day after it pulled out of the country's 15-month-old
ruling coalition.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, A Palestinian
militant blew himself up and two other Palestinians were killed in a
gunbattle with Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank
town of Jenin.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, Thousands of Muslim
pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj
tripped over luggage, causing a crush in which 363 people were killed.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2006 Jan 12, Spanish police
detained Omar Nakcha (23), a Moroccan whom they suspect of being the
leader of two extremist groups recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, In Sri Lanka at least
9 sailors died when a bus they were traveling on was blown up by a mine.
(Econ, 1/14/06, p.47)
2006 Jan 12, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said he wants the US and European countries to help form a
tough mobile force that would stop the bloodshed, rape and plunder in
Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, Mehmet Ali Agca (48),
the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from prison
after serving more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot
against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 12, Turkey’s government
said 2 more Turks tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird
flu in preliminary tests, bringing the total number of human infections
to 18.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 13, President Bush met
with Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, at the White House.
German's security services faced the prospect of a parliamentary
inquiry, triggered by reports that German agents in Baghdad had helped
the United States pinpoint bombing targets on April 7, 2003. Foreign
Minister Walter Steinmeier confirmed that Germany had 2 agents in
Baghdad, who helped American with coordinates for non-targets.
(Reuters, 1/13/06)(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)(Econ,
1/21/06, p.49)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 13, US attorneys general
in 12 states said that the Bush administration's plan to ease rules on
reporting legal toxin releases would compromise the public's right to
know about possible health risks in their neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, NBC's Nashville
affiliate closed "The Book of Daniel" after the show, whose main
character is a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son and a
pot-dealing daughter, drew thousands of complaints.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, North Dakota State
University's North Central Research Center, Basin Electric Power
Cooperative and other partners described plans for a station in Minot
to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles using wind power.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, The population of New
Orleans was estimated at 40% of its original 460,000.
(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 13, Eldon Dedini,
cartoonist, died in Carmel, California. His ribald drawings appeared in
the New Yorker and Playboy magazines.
(SFC, 1/19/06, p.B7)
2006 Jan 13, In the Bahamas the
Compleat Angler Hotel on North Bimini Island was destroyed by fire. The
hotel's owner Julian Brown helped the guests escape before disappearing
in the flames to fight the fire. The hotel claimed to be a one-time
writing headquarters for Ernest Hemingway and advertised room No. 1 as
the place where Hemingway worked on "To Have and Have Not."
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Bolivia's
president-elect ended an around-the-world tour with a promise to
respect foreign investments and vowed not to nationalize the Bolivian
operations of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras SA.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A battle for
livestock between Ethiopian and Kenyan nomads left 38 people dead in
drought-stricken northern Kenya, in the remote village of
Lokamarinyang, along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The fighting killed 30
of the Dongiro raiders and eight Kenyans, all of them women and
children. A drought that has impoverished some 11.5 million people in
the area, most of them nomads, has exacerbated tensions between the
tribes.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 13, Maimuma Taal-Ndure,
Gambia’s director of aviation, was arraigned on charges of economic
crime, mostly related to the improvement of Banjul Airport. Taal-Ndure
had resisted efforts transfer aviation agency funds to another
government agency. Her case was dismissed following a trial that
stretched over 18 months.
(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2006 Jan 13, Iran threatened to
block inspections of its nuclear sites if confronted by the UN Security
Council over its atomic activities. The hard-line president reaffirmed
his country's intention to produce nuclear energy.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A US Army
reconnaissance helicopter was shot down by insurgents in the northern
city of Mosul, killing its two pilots.
(AP, 1/13/06)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 13, In Lithuania Mykolas
Burokevicius (78), former Communist Party leader, was freed from
Lukiskes Prison after serving 12 years for murder and other crimes.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Raul Anguiano
(b.1915), Mexican painter, sculptor and muralist, died in Mexico City.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 13, Mongolia’s Parliament
voted to dissolve the government of PM Tsakhilganiin Elbegdorj.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 13, A Hong Kong newspaper
reported that North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong Il is on a
two-day visit to the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A local lawmaker said
a US airstrike on a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan
killed at least 17 people, including women and children. The American
military said it had no reports of an attack. The provincial government
said at least four foreign terrorists died in the purported US
airstrike aimed at al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in Damadola. The strike
destroyed three houses and killed 18 people. The US missile strike in
Pakistan killed a relative of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri
and a terror suspect.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 13, A Philippine judge
issued arrest warrants for four US Marines charged with rape, putting
pressure on the United States to hand them over to Philippine
authorities.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, In southern Russia a
bus transporting workers after their shift at a local factory collided
with a train, killing at least 21 people and severely injuring five.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, South Korea agreed to
resume imports of some American beef, banned two years ago over fears
of mad cow disease. The US government pressed South Korea to accept all
US beef imports.
(AFP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Sudan rejected a
suggestion by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the United States
and Europe help set up a possible mobile force in Darfur to supplement
African troops now on the ground.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko said that his country should produce its own nuclear
fuel for power plants.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Venezuela’s President
Hugo Chavez on blasted an attempt by the US to block Spain from selling
Venezuela 12 military planes with American parts.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 14, Johnny Weir won his
third straight title at the US Figure Skating championships; Sasha
Cohen won the women's division; Michelle Kwan was given a berth on the
U.S. Olympic figure skating team.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2006 Jan 14, It was reported that
Dr. Alexandra Imre and colleagues of the Univ. of Notre Dame, Indiana,
had constructed logic gates from tiny magnets. Until this time
electrical charge was used for data processing, while electrical spin
was used for data storage.
(Econ, 1/14/06, p.78)
2006 Jan 14, Christopher Penley
(15) was shot by a SWAT team in a Longwood, Fl., middle school when his
pellet gun was mistaken for real pistol. Penley died the next day.
(SSFC, 1/15/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 14, Shelley Winters
(b.1922), Hollywood film star born in St. Louis as Shirley Schrift,
died in Beverly Hills. Her 99 films included “A Patch of Blue” (1965)
and “Lolita” (1962).
(SSFC, 1/15/06, p.B7)
2006 Jan 14, In Afghanistan gunmen
killed Mohammed Khaksar, a former Taliban leader. He had renounced the
hard-line Islamic regime after it was ousted in late 2001 and had since
supported Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 14, In southern China
scores of protesters were wounded and a girl was killed as hundreds of
police used electric batons and tear gas to quell a land protest.
(AP, 1/15/06)(WSJ, 1/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 14, Egypt and France were
locked in legal wrangling over a decommissioned aircraft carrier
containing asbestos, leaving the French warship stranded off the
Egyptian coast for the third day running.
(AFP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 14, The European
Commission cleared 3 types of genetically modified corn made by
Monsanto Co. for use in the EU.
(WSJ, 1/16/06, p.A13)
2006 Jan 14, The chief judge in
Saddam Hussein's trial (Rizgar Mohammed Amin) submitted his
resignation. He was succeeded by Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman. An Iraqi
sailor was killed and nine were captured by an Iranian Navy vessel
during a skirmish in the Gulf near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Iraqi coast guardsmen were pursuing suspected oil smugglers in disputed
territorial waters.
(AP, 1/17/06)(SFC, 1/18/06, p.A7)(AP, 1/14/07)
2006 Jan 14, Tens of thousands of
women marched through Milan to demand Italy keep its liberal abortion
law intact while gays rallied in Rome to push for legal recognition for
homosexual couples.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 14, Japan’s Fire and
Disaster Management Agency said the death toll from heavy snow reached
87 as relatively mild weather over the weekend sparked several
avalanches.
(AFP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 14, In Bamako, Mali,
China unveiled plans to boost its ties with Africa, outlining a new
relationship with the continent based on a "win-win" concept of
economic and military cooperation.
(AFP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 14, In Nepal Maoist
rebels assaulted two police stations on the outskirts Kathmandu,
killing 12 and wounding six.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 14, Sadatu Abubakar Rimi,
the wife of a senior Nigerian opposition figure, was hacked to death in
the early hours by suspected hired assassins.
(Reuters, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 14, Pakistan condemned a
purported CIA airstrike on a border village, and said it was protesting
to the U.S. Embassy over the attack that killed at least 18 people.
(AP, 1/14/06)(WSJ, 1/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 14, In southwestern
Romania 7 miners were killed and five injured in a gas explosion at a
mine. Union leaders blamed it on a lack of investment in safety
measures.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 15, A spokesman said Rep
Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican implicated in a lobbying corruption
investigation, will step aside temporarily as chairman of the US House
Administration Committee.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 15, Police in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, arrested Brian Hooks and Thomas Daugherty, two
teenagers charged with murdering Norris Gaynor (45), a homeless man.
Three such attacks were conducted in the early hours of January 12,
leaving Gaynor dead and two others seriously wounded. In 2008 Brian
Hooks (21) and Thomas Dougherty (19) faced trial for murder and
attempted murder. 2 other youths played lesser roles. On Oct 23
Dougherty was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/15/06)(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A5)(SFC, 10/24/08,
p.A4)
2006 Jan 15, The NASA space
capsule, Stardust, returned safely to Earth in a desert near Salt Lake
City with the first dust ever fetched from a comet, a cosmic bounty
that scientists hope will yield clues to how the solar system formed.
(http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/er.html)(AP,
1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb hit a Canadian military convoy, killing
three civilians, including a Canadian diplomat.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, Chileans voted in a
presidential runoff election that pitted Michelle Bachelet, a socialist
pediatrician promising to maintain the country's free-market policies,
against Sebastian Pinera, a Harvard-trained economist and
multimillionaire businessman vowing to fight poverty. Michelle Bachelet
(54) won the elections with 53% of the vote, compared to 46% for Pinera.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 15, Finnish President
Tarja Halonen won the first round of the country's presidential
election, but failed to obtain an absolute majority and will be forced
into a runoff.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, Iran’s Pres. Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad proposed his 1st budget bill. The government expected some
$36 billion in oil revenues, promised to build 300,000 housing units
and planned to maintain energy subsidies amounting to 10% of GDP.
(Econ, 2/11/06,
p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinezhad)
2006 Jan 15, Iran said it would
sponsor a conference to examine the scientific evidence supporting the
Holocaust.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, The US military freed
509 Iraqi detainees from three prisons in Iraq, including two
journalists who work for Reuters.
(AFP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, Israel’s acting PM
Ehud Olmert faced his first major test when he led his Cabinet in a
unanimous decision to let Palestinians vote in Jerusalem later this
month.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, Crown prince Sheik
Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, in his mid-70s and ailing himself, assumed
the throne of Kuwait following the death of emir Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed
Al Sabah.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, In Malaysia a
homemade bomb filled with nails and bullet casings exploded outside a
shopping mall on Penang island, killing one man and injuring another.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 15, Separatist gunmen
shot dead several Nigerian troops and overran an oil plant run by the
Anglo-Dutch Shell, amid fears for the safety of four kidnapped foreign
workers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND)
claimed responsibility. MEND told Shell to pay $1.5 billion to the
state of Bayelsa for pollution it said Shell has caused.
(AFP, 1/15/06)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.47)
2006 Jan 15, North Korea news
reported that North Korea has awarded a medal for the first time to an
American, Ellsworth Culver (1927-2005), the late leader of Mercy Corps,
a U.S.-based aid group, for his efforts to help the communist state
fight hunger and poverty.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, An overcrowded boat
capsized during a religious sea parade in a remote central Philippine
province, and at least 16 people drowned and more were missing.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, Taiwan's ruling party
elected a former close aide to President Chen Shui-bian as its new
leader, a move seen as an endorsement of Chen and his pro-independence
stance.
(AFP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 15, A Turkish girl died
from suspected bird flu, while her brother was critically ill in
hospital after testing positive for the virus.
(Reuters, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 16, The Palestinian film
"Paradise Now," which explores the lives of a pair of suicide bombers,
won the Golden Globe for best foreign film. "Brokeback Mountain" won
four Golden Globes, including best motion picture drama; "Lost" won
best dramatic television series while "Desperate Housewives" won for
best musical or comedy series.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/16/07)
2006 Jan 16, A suicide bomber on a
motorbike drove up to a crowd watching a wrestling match in Spin
Boldak, an Afghan border town, killing 23 people and wounding at least
30 others. A bomb hit a convoy of Afghan army trucks loaded with troops
as they were driving through Kandahar, killing four people and wounding
16.
(AP, 1/16/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A18)
2006 Jan 16, A lawyer told a
government inquiry that Australia's wheat exporter, AWB Ltd., knowingly
provided hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam
Hussein's regime and deceived the United Nations about the payments
under the oil-for-food program.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, Chinese state media
reported that foreign currency reserves rose 34% last year to a record
$818.9 billion.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.C5)
2006 Jan 16-2006 Jan 18, In
southwestern China workers protesting the sale of a factory in Chengdu
clashed for three days with baton-wielding police. According to
Boxun.com, an overseas-hosted Chinese-language Web site, the factory
was worth $37 million, but was going to be sold for $9.9 million.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 16, Colombia's president
ordered an investigation into allegations that outlawed paramilitary
groups have infiltrated congressional campaigns using illegal drug
money.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, In Strasbourg,
France, demonstrators fought with police and smashed windows at the
European Parliament building during a protest over a proposal to make
port operations in the European Union more competitive.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, A US-registered
private jet crashed in the French Alps outside Bourdeau and 4 people
were killed.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 16, State radio reported
that Iran has allocated the equivalent of $215 million for the
construction of what would be its second and third nuclear power plants.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, In Baghdad, Iraq, a
car bomb detonated next to a police convoy, killing a 6-year-old child
and five police officers. A US military helicopter crashed north of
Baghdad killing the two crew members. It was the third American chopper
to go down in 10 days.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, Israeli police seized
buildings and rooftops in a Jewish settler enclave in Hebron, restoring
order after three days of riots sparked by plans to evict Israeli
squatters from an abandoned Palestinian market.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, Galymzhan Zhakiyanov
(41), a Kazakh opposition leader jailed for more than three years,
returned home, to the cheers of hundreds of supporters. The leader of
the now-disbanded Democratic Choice party, was sentenced to seven years
in prison in 2002 on abuse-of-office charges.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
pledged a "fundamental break" with Liberia's violent past as she was
sworn in as president, carving her name into history as Africa's first
elected female head of state.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, In Mongolia some
2,000 people gathered in the main square of Ulan Bator, demanding their
president resign.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, Deputy PM Alexander
Zhukov said more money entered Russia than left it last year for the
first time in the country's post-Soviet history.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, Turkish health
officials said preliminary tests have confirmed that a girl (12) who
died was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising
Turkey's death toll to four.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 17, The US rejected a
Philippine request to hand over 4 Marines to be tried for rape, setting
off anti-American protests in Manila and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 1/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 17, Civil liberties
groups filed lawsuits in NYC and Detroit seeking to block President
Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, arguing the electronic
surveillance of American citizens was unconstitutional.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, The US Supreme Court
told the Justice Department to butt out of the private decisions of
terminally ill patients in Oregon, the only state that specifically
allows physician-assisted suicide. The court ruled 6-3 ruling that
Congress hadn't given the Justice Department authority to take such
action.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 17, The US SEC voted on
proposals for a massive revamp on how companies disclose executive pay.
(WSJ, 1/17/06, p.C1)
2006 Jan 17, California executed
Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest death row inmate, minutes after his 76th
birthday, despite arguments that putting to death an elderly, blind and
wheelchair-bound man was cruel and unusual punishment. He was sentenced
to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two
bystanders.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Austria said it will
honor an arbitration court decision and give five precious Gustav Klimt
paintings to a California woman who says the Nazis stole them from her
Jewish family.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Outgoing President
Eduardo Rodriguez fired Bolivia's army chief over his decision to have
28 Chinese shoulder-launched missiles destroyed in the US.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Cambodia, under US
pressure, released four prominent government critics from a Phnom Penh
prison but said they will still face defamation charges.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, In Ghana first lady
Laura Bush announced a US-backed program to provide 15 million
textbooks for students in sub-Saharan Africa where more than one-third
of primary school aged children are not enrolled in school.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, In Haiti gunmen
killed two Jordanian UN peacekeepers and seriously wounded a third at a
checkpoint in Cite Soleil, a slum in Port-au-Prince.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Subur Sugiarto, an
alleged key aide to a Malaysian fugitive blamed for a series of deadly
terrorist attacks in Indonesia, was captured in the central Javanese
town of Boyolali en route to Jakarta. A local officer alleged that
Sugiarto was "a henchman" of Noordin Top, who is believed to be a
senior member of the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group
Jemaah Islamiyah.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 17, Iran lifted its ban
on CNN, a day after the government barred the US network from the
country because of its mistranslation of nuclear comments by Pres.
Ahmadinejad.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, In Iraq masked gunmen
killed two people in attacks on an election headquarters and a Kurdish
political party office in the northern city of Kirkuk. Hostage American
reporter Jill Carroll appeared in a silent 20-second video aired by
Al-Jazeera television, which said her abductors had given the United
States 72 hours to free female prisoners in Iraq or she would be
killed. Carroll was freed unharmed on March 30, 2006.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/17/07)
2006 Jan 17, Thousands of
pro-Syrian Lebanese chanting "Death to America" protested near the US
Embassy against what they called American meddling in the country's
affairs.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il appeared to have left China after meeting Chinese leaders
in Beijing to discuss six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's
nuclear weapons program.
(Reuters, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Napoleon Ortigoza
(73), a former army captain who spent a third of his life in Paraguay
jail as a political prisoner, died in a hospital. Ortigoza was
imprisoned in 1962 by Alfredo Stroessner's security apparatus on
charges of conspiring to topple the right-wing military strongman.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 17, In the Philippines 4
officers, accused of leading hundreds of troops in a failed 2003
mutiny, escaped from an army prison. The army lieutenants were
identified as Lawrence San Juan, Sonny Sarmiento, Nathaniel Rabonza and
Patricio Bumindang.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Russia's foreign
minister indicated that Moscow was not ready to support moves by the
U.S. and its European allies to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council
over its nuclear program, while the West stepped up pressure on Tehran.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, In Russia 2 people
died of exposure and 14 more were hospitalized in a single day as
temperatures plunged in Moscow dropping from about freezing to minus-28
Celsius (minus-18 Fahrenheit) overnight.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Suspected Tiger
rebels set off two more mines and fought a gunbattle with troops
leaving 3 people dead. The United Nations urged talks and peace-broker
Norway made a fresh bid to pull Sri Lanka back from the brink of war.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 17, Taiwan's PM Frank
Hsieh announced his resignation, paving the way for a Cabinet reshuffle.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 18, Pres. Bush ordered
assets of Asef Shawkat, head of Syria’s military intelligence, to be
frozen and barred trade with him because of violent meddling in Lebanon.
(WSJ, 1/19/06,
p.A1)(www.iht.com/getina/files/303997.html)
2006 Jan 18, The US Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that a lower court was wrong to strike down New
Hampshire abortion restrictions, but steered clear of a major ruling on
the volatile issue.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18-2006 Jan 19, The US
Justice Dept. filed a motion requiring Google to disclose information
about consumer Web searches. Google refused to comply.
(WSJ, 1/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 18, Knicks forward
Antonio Davis climbed into the stands out of concern for his wife and
was ejected without a scuffle during New York's overtime loss at
Chicago. He was suspended for five games.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2006 Jan 18, Thomas Murphy, former
head of General Motors (1974-1981), died in Florida.
(WSJ, 1/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 18, In China senior
envoys from the United States, North Korea and China held a
"beneficial" meeting on the stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang's
nuclear program.
(AFP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 18, In China alarmed by
the spread of bird flu beyond East Asia, nations pledged nearly $2
billion to fight the disease, far exceeding expectations at the
fundraising conference in Beijing. The US promised $334 million.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, In Colombia some
3,000 armed troops were deployed to the Sierra Macarena National Park,
one of Colombia's most pristine national parks, as part of an operation
to clear the rebel-controlled region of coca plants and the
laboratories used to make cocaine.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, President Fidel
Castro announced a long-awaited renovation of Cuba's energy system to
combat blackouts that have afflicted the island nation for the past two
summers.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, Egypt released 233
Sudanese migrants detained after security forces broke up a protest
camp in a Cairo square last month.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 18, The European
Parliament rejected plans to liberalize port services across the
European Union that had sparked mass strikes by dock workers and a
violent protest in front of the EU legislature in France.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, In Germany thousands
of doctors marched through Berlin to demand changes to the state health
care system, including better pay and less bureaucracy.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, In Iraq gunmen killed
at least 10 security guards and seized an African engineer from Malawi
in an ambush. 2 Americans were killed in a roadside bombing in Basra.
The sister of Iraq's interior minister was freed by kidnappers about
two weeks after being seized in Baghdad. The bodies of three men were
found in a Baghdad apartment with gunshot wounds to the head. Sadad
al-Batah, a Sunni Arab tribal leader related to Defense Minister
Saadoun al-Dulaimi, was killed along with his nephew and a third
person. 30 people were dragged from their cars and shot execution style
in Nibaei.
(AP, 1/18/06)(SFC, 1/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Jan 18, Former PM Shimon
Peres said Israel would be ready to open negotiations with the
Palestinians on a permanent peace accord after Israeli elections on
March 28.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, In western Ivory
Coast 4 pro-government protesters were killed when UN peacekeepers
opened fire to repel an attack on their base in a third day of anti-UN
riots.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, Japan's main stock
market index tumbled for a second day led by a sell-off in technology
shares in a session that was halted 20 minutes early because of heavy
trading volume amid a widening criminal investigation of the Internet
startup Livedoor. Technical glitches forced an emergency closing for
the 1st time in the exchanges 57-year history.
(AP, 1/18/06)(WSJ, 1/19/06, p.A1)(Econ, 1/21/06,
p.64)
2006 Jan 18, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il said he is committed to a peaceful resolution of the
standoff over his country's nuclear ambitions, as Pyongyang confirmed
that the reclusive Kim had visited China over the past week.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, Interfax news
reported that Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom has reduced supplies
to European customers because of a cold snap at home.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, Gervan Lubbe, a South
African inventor, was reported to have developed an anti-malaria
wristwatch to help combat one of Africa's biggest killers by monitoring
the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite
is detected.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, Syrian authorities
released five pro-democracy activists, including two prominent former
legislators, after they had served nearly four years of their five-year
prison sentences.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 18, In Thailand 2
fishermen were sentenced to death in the rape and murder of a British
tourist, a crime that prompted the PM to demand the maximum penalty.
Bualoi Posit (23) and Wichai Somkhaoyai (24) pleaded guilty to the New
Year's Day slaying of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old student from
Wales.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, An American couple
claiming to be of Lao royal descent were shot dead in northeastern
Thailand. Anouwong Sethathirath IV (49) and Oulayvanh Sethathirath (38)
were killed at a Buddhist monastery in Nong Khai. The next day Thai
police said they might have been targeted by Laos' government on
suspicions that they were working against the communist regime.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, The Bush
administration issued a 42-page Justice Dept. white paper to support
the president’s domestic spying program. Vice President Cheney defended
the administration's domestic surveillance program, calling it an
essential tool in monitoring al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations.
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A10)(AP, 1/19/07)
2006 Jan 19-2015 Jul, NASA
launched its New Horizons spacecraft on a mission to Pluto following a
2-day delay. Scientists won't be able to receive data on Pluto until at
least July 2015, the earliest date the mission is expected to arrive.
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 19, Global News Blog: a
weblog of Global Geopolitics Net, began breaking news and analysis on
global security and intelligence issues. The site is sponsored by the
Eurasia Research Center. Alan Fogelquist, the site editor, is a
historian and geopolitical analyst.
(http://globalnewsblog.com/blog/?m=200601)
2006 Jan 19, Lifeline Systems Inc.
announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement with Royal
Philips Electronics under which Philips will acquire Lifeline, a leader
in personal emergency response services. Royal Philips Electronics NV
paid $750 million for Massachusetts based Lifeline.
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/334w4c)
2006 Jan 19, In West Virginia 19
miners escaped after a conveyor belt caught fire inside Aracoma Coal's
Alma No. 1 mine. The bodies of 2 others, who failed to escape, were
recovered Jan 21 and Gov. Joe Manchin said he planned to introduce
legislation dealing with rapid responses in emergencies. In September 2
miners with safety responsibilities at the mine committed suicide.
(AP, 1/22/06)(WSJ, 9/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 19, Wilson Pickett
(b.1941), soul music pioneer, died in Reston, Va. His hits included
“Mustang Sally” (1966) and “In the Midnight Hour” (1965).
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 19, Al-Jazeera broadcast
portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying
al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but
offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Dragan Vasiljkovic, a
Serbian-Australian man accused of ordering the torture of Croats during
the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia, was arrested in Sydney.
Authorities said Vasiljkovic trained and commanded a unit of the
Croatian Serb special forces known as the "Kninjas." At the time, the
rebels were engaged in a major campaign of ethnic cleansing, forcing
tens of thousands of local Croats to flee their homes.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, In Bolivia a flatbed
truck drove off the side of the mountainous road near Tarija, killing
at least 38 people.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, Pres. Chirac said
France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that
carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its
nuclear deterrent.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In Germany
environmentalists positioned a 55-foot dead whale in front of the
Japanese Embassy in Berlin to protest against Japanese whale-hunting.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, President Omar Bongo
(69) of Gabon, was sworn in for another 7-year term. Bongo has been
president since Dec. 2, 1967, taking over upon the death of Leon M'Ba,
the country's only other head of state since independence from France
in 1960. Gabon produces about 290,000 barrels of oil a day and boasts
sub-Saharan Africa's third largest reserves, around 2.5 billion
barrels. Half the country still lives below the poverty line.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In northeastern
Hungary a Slovak military plane crashed as it ferried troops back from
Kosovo, killing at least 42 people. Only one person survived the crash
of the AN-24 aircraft.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, India said that it
had agreed to pay the Czech Republic 20 million dollars to resolve a
trade dispute dating back to the Cold War. The move was announced at
the end of a three-day visit by Czech President Jiri Paroubek.
(AFP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In India Jet Airways
confirmed that it has agreed to buy Sahara Airlines for $500 million in
cash. In 2005 Jet overtook the government owned Indian Airlines as
India’s largest domestic carrier.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.60)
2006 Jan 19, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a visit to Syria to consolidate an old
alliance made increasingly crucial as both countries face mounting US
pressure and the threat of international sanctions.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In Iraq 2
near-simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad coffee
shop and nearby restaurant, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Italy’s defense
minister said Italy will withdraw all its troops from Iraq by the end
of this year, in the first official timetable for Rome to end its
mission.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Violent street
protests erupted in Ivory Coast for a fourth day as hundreds of
government supporters ignored the president's call to stay home, angry
about a deadly firefight involving UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Nepal's royalist
government detained nearly 80 activists and cut off mobile phone
services to foil organizers of an anti-government rally.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Nigerian kidnappers
said their US hostage was gravely ill and threatened to kill three
other foreign oil workers held captive if he died.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, Pakistani security
officials said Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, an al-Qaida explosives and
chemical weapons expert and a relative of the terror network's No. 2
leader, were among four top operatives believed killed in a US missile
strike last week, as authorities arrested five more militant suspects.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up at a Tel Aviv fast-food stand, killing himself
and wounding 15 people.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Philippine
congressional committee approved a resolution calling on the government
to abrogate an accord allowing large-scale American military exercises
in the country after US officials refused to hand over four US Marines
accused of rape.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Another seven people
died overnight in Moscow and concerns over energy supplies in Russia
and Europe grew as record bone-chilling cold forced cutbacks.
(AFP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Suspected Tamil Tiger
rebels exploded anti-personnel mines twice in eastern Sri Lanka,
killing four people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Swedish man who
confessed to killing two women and drinking their blood was charged
with double murder. The 29-year-old man was arrested in October on
suspicion of stabbing the women to death in two separate attacks.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Syria asserted that
Iran had a right to atomic technology and said Western objections to
Tehran's nuclear ambitions were not persuasive.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Taiwan's president
appointed Su Tseng-chang, a popular politician and former party chief,
as the island's next premier in a move aimed at regaining support for
the ruling party ahead of the 2008 presidential election.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Venezuelan officials
said that they have approved a new anti-drug agreement with the US,
months after suspended cooperation amid allegations of US spying.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 20, The US Treasury
Department issued a license allowing the Cubans to participate in the
16-team World Baseball Classic.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, A federal judge
ordered Los Angeles to pay $1.1 million in legal costs to the family of
slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. as sanctions for intentionally
withholding evidence during the family's civil lawsuit trial.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 20, Michael Fortier, the
government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was
released from federal prison after serving more than 10 years for
failing to warn authorities about the plot.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2006 Jan 20, FirstEnergy agreed to
a record $28 million fine as workers at its Ohio Davis-Besse nuclear
power station were accused of providing false statements on cleaning
and inspections at the reactor vessel head.
(WSJ, 1/21/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 20, Greenpeace said that
its two vessels shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet in the icy
Southern Ocean were ending their protests because their fuel and food
were running short.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Chile former
dictator Augusto Pinochet was stripped of immunity from prosecution on
charges involving 59 cases of torture and kidnapping at a secret
detention center where hundreds of dissidents were held.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Ethiopia at least
two people were killed and 36 injured, three seriously, after commotion
erupted in Addis Ababa on the final day of celebrations marking the
2-day Orthodox Epiphany, or Timkat.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, German factory
workers at Swedish home-appliances maker AB Electrolux launched a
strike, demanding a better severance package when the plant shuts down
late next year.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Haiti a judge
dropped charges against Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste (59), a supporter of
ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in the death of a journalist,
but indicted him on two lesser counts.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In India a bomb
exploded at the entrance of a state-owned petroleum Refinery in the
northeastern state of Assam, leaving 10 people injured.
(AFP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Indonesian security
forces opened fire on a group of protesters outside a central Papua
police station, killing one person and injuring two.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 20, Iran’s Central Bank
Governor said Iran moving its foreign currency reserves out of European
banks as a pre-emptive measure against any possible UN sanctions over
its nuclear program.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Iraq’s election
commission said an alliance of Shiite religious parties won the most
seats in Iraq's new parliament but not enough to rule without coalition
partners.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, A top Sunni
politician appealed for the release of American journalist Jill Carroll
and urged US and Iraqi forces to stop arresting Iraqi women as a
deadline set by the reporter's kidnappers was set to lapse.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Japan halted imports
of US beef just a month after lifting a ban, following the discovery of
spinal material in a shipment that should have been removed due to the
risk of mad cow disease.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, A crowded bus veered
off a steep mountain road in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at
least 53 people.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Kuwait’s PM Sheik
Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah agreed to take charge of Kuwait due to the poor
health of the new emir. The move was perceived as a first step toward
his eventually taking over the top office.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In west Nepal
suspected communist rebels attacked a security checkpoint, killing at
least four policemen and injuring four others.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Papua New Guinea a
landslide sent mud and boulders smashing through a remote village,
killing at least eight people and leaving five more missing and feared
dead.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 20, The head of Russia's
atomic energy agency said that Iran is ready for detailed discussions
on the proposal to conduct Iran's uranium enrichment in Russia.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Russia's coldest
winter in a generation killed 7 more people overnight lifting the
reported death toll to 123 putting huge pressure on the Soviet-era
heating and power network.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Taiwan allowed
students and tour groups to fly direct to China for the first time in
the third annual installment of symbolic Chinese New Year flights aimed
at warming tense relations with the mainland.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Mehmet Ali Agca, the
man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, returned to prison, after an
appeals court ruled that he should serve more time for the killing of a
Turkish journalist and other crimes.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Colorado a
military jury convicted Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., an
Army interrogator, of negligent homicide. During an interrogation on
Nov 26, 2003, he put a sleeping bag over the head of Iraqi Maj. Gen.
Abed Hamed Mowhoush and sat on his chest as the man suffocated.
(AP, 1/22/06)(SSFC, 1/22/06, p.D4)
2006 Jan 21, In Las Vegas Manny
Pacquiao avenged his defeat 10 months ago and handed Erik Morales the
worst beating of his career before finally stopping him in the 10th
round of their 130-pound showdown.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Las Vegas Jennifer
Berry, a 22-year-old ballerina from Oklahoma, was crowned Miss America.
The pageant went without coverage from a major television network for
the first time since 1954, but aired on Country Music Television.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, Rescuers in West
Virginia found the bodies of two miners who'd disappeared after a
conveyor belt caught fire deep inside a coal mine.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2006 Jan 21, Ashok Malhotra (43)
was shot dead at 2380 Aberdeen Way in Richmond, Ca. 2 suspects, Ishtiaq
Hussain (38) and Jose Antonio Barajas (22) were arrested Jan 24
following a chase at the Canadian border, where Hussain was shot.
(SFC, 1/25/06, p.B4)
2006 Jan 21, Afghanistan formally
approved a five-year development plan, the Afghanistan Compact, to be
presented to its international supporters at a key conference in London
at the end of this month.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Afghanistan a
local police chief was killed in a suspected Taliban ambush in Ghazni
province.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Bangladesh at
least 15 people were injured as police and opposition supporters fought
street battles in Dhaka ahead of a nationwide strike called by
opposition parties. The Awami League and its 13 left-leaning allies
called for a Sunday strike to press for removal of the chief election
commissioner and two newly appointed commissioners.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, A lost whale that
strayed up the Thames in central London was gently lifted onto a barge
as crowds lined the river banks to watch a unique rescue operation.
Wally, a young bottle-nosed whale, died while being returned to the sea.
(AFP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Colombia a video,
released by Colombian guerrillas, showed 12 kidnapped lawmakers
pleading with their government to work with Venezuela's leftist
President Hugo Chavez to help obtain their release.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, Guyana's government
deployed soldiers to protect flood control gates and reservoirs after
saboteurs set fire to drainage systems in coastal areas threatened by
recent flooding. Since December, flooding has covered thousands of
acres in waist-deep water and displaced more than 5,000 people.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Iraq Sunni Arab
politicians called for a government of national unity and signaled they
will use their increased numbers in parliament to curb the power of
rival Shiites, who have claimed the biggest number of seats in the new
legislature.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, A spate of bombings
and shootings across Iraq killed at least eight Iraqis. Britain
announced the death of a British security worker in a roadside blast.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Feb 13, Ilan Halimi (23), a
young Jewish man, was killed in a Paris suburb after being kidnapped on
Jan 21 and tortured for 24 days. The trial of a self-proclaimed "gang
of barbarians" accused of killing him went on trial in 2009. Among the
27 defendants was the girl who is alleged to have been used as bait to
capture Halimi and young men accused of taking part in the abduction
and guarding the captive. Youssouf Fofana, the leader of the
"barbarians," fled to the Ivory Coast but was extradited to France on
March 4, 2006. On July 10, 2009, a Paris court convicted Fofana (28)
for the kidnapping, torture and murder Halimi and sentenced him to life
in prison, a verdict that drew a thumbs-up sign from Fofana. 24 others,
including eight women, also were found guilty in the kidnapping,
torture and murder of Ilan Halimi.
(AP, 4/29/09)(AP, 7/11/09)
2006 Jan 21, Kosovo President
Ibrahim Rugova (61), the ethnic Albanian leader and embodiment of the
province's decades-long struggle for independence from Serbia, died of
lung cancer.
(AP, 1/21/06)(Econ, 1/28/06, p.84)
2006 Jan 21, The families of 426
HIV-infected Libyan children asked for $12 million in compensation for
each child as part of efforts to resolve the case of five Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor charged with intentionally infecting
the children.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nepal police fired
tear gas to disperse activists protesting the Nepalese king's seizure
of absolute power last year. At least 300 people were arrested and 50
were injured.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In southern Nepal
Maoist rebels and government forces clashed in Phapar Badi village,
killing 14 militants and six security forces.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nigeria, a police
spokesman said 14 suspects have been arrested following clashes in
Lagos earlier this week in which three people were killed.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, A helicopter used by
the Red Cross for earthquake relief operations in Pakistan went missing
with seven crew members on board. The wreckage of the copter and the
bodies of the seven people on board were found in June 2006.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2006 Jan 21, Palestinian security
forces cast ballots for parliamentary candidates in the official start
of this week's Palestinian elections.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, US Navy vessels sent
warning shots and captured the crew of a suspected pirate ship in the
Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast. The US Navy boarded the pirate ship
and detained 26 men for questioning. Sailors aboard the dhow told Navy
investigators that pirates hijacked the vessel six days ago near
Mogadishu and thereafter used it to stage pirate attacks on merchant
ships.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 21, African nations were
split over Sudan's bid to head the African Union, a move which could
scuttle peace talks in the country's Darfur region and damage Africa's
efforts to improve its image abroad.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 22, Kobe Bryant scored 81
points, the second-highest in NBA history, in the Los Angeles Lakers'
122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2006 Jan 22, The Pittsburgh
Steelers won the AFC title game over the Denver Broncos 34-17. The
Seattle Seahawks claimed the NFC title over the Carolina Panthers 34-14.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2006 Jan 22, In Massachusetts the
bodies of Rachel (27) and 9-month-old daughter Lillian Entwistle were
found in their home in Hopkinton. Rachel was shot in the head and the
young baby in the body. They had been killed as much as 3 days earlier.
On Jan 27 Neil Entwistle (27) was seen leaving his parents home in
Worksop, Nottinghamshire, accompanied by two plain-clothes detectives.
He was soon extradited back to Massachusetts. In 2008 Entwistle was
convicted of murder.
(AP, 1/27/06)(SFC, 6/26/08, p.A2)
2006 Jan 22, An Afghan boy and
four men, including staff of a US security firm, were freed after being
briefly kidnapped by Taliban rebels.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, In Afghanistan 7
Taliban rebels escaped from Policharki Prison, the main high-security
prison outside Kabul. 10 prison guards suspected of aiding the escape
were arrested.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 22, An
opposition-sponsored strike closed shops and shut down public transport
across Bangladesh as authorities deployed thousands of security forces
to deter violence.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Evo Morales,
Bolivia's first Indian president, took office with a promise to lift
his nation's struggling indigenous majority out of centuries of poverty
and discrimination.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Cambodia held its
first Senate election. PM Hun Sen's ruling party secured a landslide
victory. Only 123 parliamentarians and 11,261 members of commune
councilors, local administrative bodies, were able to vote.
(AFP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 22, Xinhua News reported
that US-based General Electric has won an 196-million-dollar bid to
help build China's West-East Gas Pipeline.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Georgia began
receiving natural gas late in the day from Azerbaijan following
explosions on pipelines in southern Russia that cut off delivery of gas
to Georgia and its neighbor Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 22, Iran said it was not
withdrawing its foreign currency reserves from European banks, despite
reports late last week that it already had begun the process.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, The US military
confirmed that the last of 2 Reuters journalists detained by US
military in Iraq was freed after nearly eight months without being
charged. 2 others were released Jan 15.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 22, Bomb blasts,
shootings and rocket-propelled grenade attacks killed at least 13
people throughout Iraq, including a policeman's four children. Sunni
Arab leaders opposed anyone linked with sectarian violence being given
ministries in the next government. 2 American airmen died in a roadside
bombings near Taji. Another car bomb exploded on a highway about 20
miles south of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi civilian and wounding four
others. Drive-by gunmen shot dead a doctor who worked at the Iraqi
Health Ministry as he drove to work in Baghdad's Saydiyah neighborhood.
(AP, 1/22/06)(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 22, An Israeli aircraft
fired at three Palestinian gunmen trying to infiltrate Israel from the
Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding the other two.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, In Nepal an electoral
candidate in Janakpur was murdered.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.40)
2006 Jan 22, Thousands of angry
Pakistanis protested against a US airstrike that killed civilians,
chanting "Long live Osama bin Laden!" as anti-American rallies in the
country entered their second week.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Portugal voted in a
presidential election. Anibal Cavaco Silva (66), a former centre-right
prime minister (1985-1995), won over his five left-wing rivals. He has
pledged to help lead Portugal out of an economic slump and supports
deeper European Union integration.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 22, Explosions hit
pipelines running through southern Russia, cutting the natural gas
supply to Georgia and Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Sudanese President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir urged the world to provide more equipment and
other support for cash-strapped African forces monitoring a tentative
truce in Sudan's violent Darfur region.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Sudanese police
raided a human rights meeting, seized documents and laptops and briefly
detained participants on the eve of an African summit in the country.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 22, The UN refugee agency
said a smuggler's boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, killing at
least 22 people. Twenty-eight were reported missing.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 23, The US government
cleared Pakistan from the threat of having its trade preferences
withdrawn after the country took action to clamp down on copyright
theft. The announcement coincided with a visit to Washington by
Pakistani PM Shaukat Aziz, who told the US Chamber of Commerce that his
government was serious about clamping down on copycat piracy.
(AFP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, A US military jury at
Fort Carson, Colo., ordered a reprimand, but no jail time, for an Army
interrogator convicted of killing an Iraqi general.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2006 Jan 23, The US Trade
Representative's Office said a 2nd layer of sanctions on Ukraine has
been removed because of that country's progress in fighting piracy of
US music and films.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, The US Treasury
Department briefed South Korean officials on its investigations into
suspected illegal financial activities by North Korea that Washington
says helped fund Pyongyang's nuclear arms program.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, West Virginia
lawmakers passed a bill requiring mines to use electronic devices to
track trapped miners and to stockpile oxygen to help keep them alive.
(SFC, 1/24/06, p.A4)
2006 Jan 23, Alan Crotzer (45) was
freed in Florida after DNA testing and other evidence convinced
prosecutors he was not involved in the 1981 armed robbery and rapes
that led to a 130-year prison sentence. DNA has been used to clear at
least 172 people wrongly convicted of crimes in 31 states since 1989,
according to the Innocence Project.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, US researchers
reported that chimpanzees may be more closely related to human
beings than they are to other apes.
(Reuters, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, Albertson's Inc., the
nation's second biggest traditional grocery store chain, said it has
agreed to sell the company. The deal was valued at about $17.4 billion
in cash and stock and debt to an investment group including supermarket
chain Supervalu Inc. and drugstore chain CVS Corp. In June the new
owners announced the closure of 37 underperforming stores in Northern
California. In 2007 the remaining stores were renamed under the Lucky
name.
(AP, 1/23/06)(SFC, 1/24/06, p.E1)(SFC, 6/8/06,
p.C1)(SFC, 7/19/07, p.C3)
2006 Jan 23, Ford Motor Co., the
nation's second-largest automaker, said that it will cut 25,000 to
30,000 jobs and idle 14 facilities by 2012 as part of a restructuring
designed to reverse a $1.6 billion loss last year in its North American
operations.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, African leaders began
their annual summit in disarray, failing to resolve dissension over
Sudan's bid to chair the 53-state body. An AU official said 5 African
leaders have asked Sudan to withdraw its bid to head the African Union
because the appointment could sink Darfur peace talks and dent the
group's credibility.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, In Australia
commercial fishing was banned in Sydney's harbor due to dangerous
levels of poisonous dioxin being found in prawns and fish. Prawn
fishing had already been banned a month earlier. Greenpeace said some
of the pollution originated in Homebush Bay on the Parramatta River,
some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from Sydney Harbor Bridge. From 1957 to
1976 Union Carbide made chlorinated herbicides there, including
2,4,5,-T a component of the infamous Agent Orange used during the
Vietnam War.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, Wildfires raged
across southern Australia. A firefighter was killed as a fire truck
overturned speeding to a blaze. Distraught ranchers shot cattle injured
by the flames.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, In northwest
Bangladesh 6 people were killed and around 100 were wounded when police
opened fire on a crowd of 10,000 rioting farmers demanding improved
electricity supply.
(AFP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, Belgian brewer InBev
NV, the world's largest brewery by volume, said it has agreed to buy
the largest brewer in China's Fujian province for 614 million euros
($740 million).
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, In Bolivia Evo
Morales appointed a Marxist energy minister and a Cabinet of Indians,
intellectuals and union leaders, backing his promise to establish a
socialist shape.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, Canadians began
voting on whether to send their Liberal Party packing after 13 years.
Conservatives won and Stephen Harper pledged to quickly carry out his
campaign promises to cut taxes, get tough on crime and repair strained
ties with Washington.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, Canadian officials
said a cow from Alberta had tested positive for mad cow disease.
(SFC, 1/24/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 23, In Chile Gen. Augusto
Pinochet's wife and four grown children were indicted and ordered
arrested on charges of tax evasion related to the former dictator's
multimillion-dollar accounts at overseas banks.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, China's Ministry of
Health announced the country's 10th human case of bird flu infection
after a 29-year-old woman from the southwest of the country was
diagnosed with the H5N1 virus.
(Reuters, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, Saudi King Abdullah
met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing, amid efforts by China
to secure overseas oil and gas reserves for its power-hungry economy.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, Ugandan rebels killed
eight Guatemalan peacekeepers in Congo in an ambush near the border
with Sudan. The gunbattle also left 15 attackers dead.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, A senior envoy said
Iran will immediately retaliate if referred to the UN Security Council
next week by forging ahead with developing a full-scale uranium
enrichment program.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, A suicide car bomber
killed at least three Iraqis Monday near the Green Zone housing the US
Embassy and Iraqi government. 2 American servicemen died in a roadside
bombing in Baghdad. 2 Marines died in a vehicle accident in western
Iraq. Armed men, some wearing police commando uniforms, raided homes
and a mosque in a predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of northern
Baghdad. They shot and killed three men on the spot and detained more
than 20.
(AP, 1/23/06)(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, Takafumi Horie, chief
executive of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor, was arrested for
alleged securities law violations in a scandal that has caused a week
of turmoil in Japan's stock market. On Jan 25 Horie resigned from the
board of Livedoor.
(AP, 1/23/06)(Econ, 1/28/06, p.60)
2006 Jan 23, In Kenya a five-story
building collapsed in central Nairobi with more than 280 construction
workers inside, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 60.
The government next day said the owner and contractor of a building
were rushing workers to complete the structure before the concrete on
lower levels had set.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, In Mali a closing
ceremony was held for a gathering of the World Social Forum. Other
gatherings were set for Pakistan and Venezuela. The first World Social
Forum was held in Brazil in 2001 and coincides each year with the
market-friendly World Economic Forum of political and business leaders
in Davos, Switzerland.
(AP, 1/24/06)(SFC, 1/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 23, Raul Osiel Marroquin
was arrested in Mexico City. On Jan 26 he described killing four gay
men. His arrest was the 1st confirmation of a serial killer targeting
homosexuals.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 23, In Montenegro a
packed passenger train derailed and plunged into a steep river canyon
outside the capital of Podgorica, killing at least 44 people and
injuring more than 135, more than half of them children.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 23, Nepal's royal
government vowed to hold municipal elections next month despite a
boycott by major parties, street protests, a candidate's assassination
and rebel violence that killed 26 over the weekend.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, Russia's main
intelligence agency said it had uncovered spying by four British
diplomats, using electronic equipment inside a fake rock, and accused
them of channeling funds to non-governmental organizations, including
one of the country's most well-known human rights watchdogs.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 23, The family of Thai PM
Thaksin Shinawatra sold their controlling stake in the telecom Shin
Corp. for $1.87 billion to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. Legal
loopholes were used to avoid taxes on the sale.
(WSJ, 2/6/06, p.C10)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.39)
2006 Jan 23, A Turkish court
dropped charges against Orhan Pamuk, the country's best-known novelist,
for insulting "Turkishness," ending a high-profile trial that outraged
Western observers and cast doubt on Turkey's commitment to free speech.
He had been charged under articles 301 and 305 of the penal code.
(AP, 1/23/06)(Econ, 1/28/06, p.50)
2006 Jan 23, The United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) appealed for $805 million to provide aid to
children and mothers in 29 emergencies worldwide.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 24, US Supreme Court
nominee Samuel Alito won a 10-8 party-line approval from the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2006 Jan 24, A US coalition of
electric utilities kicked off a national campaign to push auto makers
to make plug-in hybrids. UC Prof. Andrew Frank began configuring
electric motors with rechargeable batteries and small gasoline engines
in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jan 24, Disney announced that
it had agreed to acquire Pixar Animation Studios in a stock deal valued
at $7.4 billion.
(http://tinyurl.com/af74n)
2006 Jan 24, FedEx Corp. said it
would take over local distribution from its Chinese joint-venture
partner DTW Group in a $400 million buyout.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 24, Fayard Nicholas
(b.1914), the elder half of the Nicholas Brothers tap dancing duo, died
in Los Angeles. The story of the dancing brothers was chronicled in the
2000 book “Brotherhood in Rhythm” by Constance Valis Hill.
(SSFC, 1/29/06,
p.B7)(news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article341244.ece)
2006 Jan 24, Character actor Chris
Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead at an
apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa
Monica.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 24, Officials said 4
people were killed in Carlsbad, Ca., when a twin-engine plane from
Idaho skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, At least 10 men in
Mexican military-style uniforms crossed the Rio Grande into the United
States on a marijuana-smuggling foray, leading to an armed
confrontation with Texas law officers near Neely's Crossing, Texas. The
three sport utility vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed south
toward the border, a few miles away.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2006 Jan 24, Vienna's subway
tracks cracked, German authorities shut a key canal to ships after it
iced up, and a zoo moved its penguins indoors as a deadly deep freeze
tightened its arctic grip on much of Europe.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Brazil rebellious
inmates ended a one-day prison uprising in the remote jungle state of
Rondonia that left four dead.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, The British
government unveiled a plan to put one million of the 2.7 million people
on incapacity benefits back to work within the next decade, saving huge
sums of taxpayers' money.
(AFP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, China shut down Bing
Dian, a newspaper supplement known for its in-depth reporting on
sensitive issues, the latest measure by the communist government to
tighten control over the media.
(AP, 1/25/06)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.39)
2006 Jan 24, Fidel Castro accused
the US of seeking to rupture the minimum remaining diplomatic ties with
his country, addressing tens of thousands of Cubans before starting a
march outside the American mission in Havana.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Shafik Handal (75),
leader of the Salvadoran left, died of a heart attack in San Salvador.
The ex-guerrilla commander had fought US-backed troops during the
country's 12-year civil war.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Georgia’s energy
minister said Iran has expressed a readiness to export natural gas to
Georgia to make up for a sharp drop in Russian deliveries.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Germany automaker
DaimlerChrysler AG said that it would cut administrative staff by 20
percent worldwide over three years, dropping 6,000 jobs in order to
save some $1.2 billion a year and make the company leaner and more
profitable.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, India's central bank
raised short-term borrowing rate a quarter percent point to 5.5
percent, citing fears of inflation amid strong economic growth.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Iran 2 bombs
exploded in a bank and outside a government building in Ahvaz, a
southwestern city with a history of violence involving members of
Iran's Arab minority. 6 people were killed and 46 others wounded. A Web
site claiming to represent Arab secessionists in the Ahvaz region said
they carried out the attack. On June 8 a court found 9 defendants to be
enemies of God, and sentenced them to death. 15 other defendants
received sentences ranging from seven to 30 years in prison. In July
Iran's Supreme Court confirmed death sentences for five Iranian Arab
separatists convicted for the bombings.
(AP, 1/24/06)(AP, 6/28/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jan 24, In northern Iraq
gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped two German engineers. Both
were later released. British troops detained several police officers
among more than a dozen people linked to a series of killings, bombings
and kidnappings in the southern city of Basra. US Marines and Iraqi
soldiers killed 7 insurgents in Ramadi. Mahmoud Zaal (30), a cameraman
for the Baghdad TV network, was mistaken for a combatant and killed by
Marine fire.
(SFC, 1/26/06, p.A10)(AP, 1/24/07)
2006 Jan 24, Biotechnology company
Amgen Inc. said it will build a manufacturing plant in Ireland to
supply its growing European customer base.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Japan launched the
leading rocket in its space program for the first time in nearly a
year, putting into orbit one of the world's largest land observation
satellites to monitor natural disasters.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Kuwait’s Parliament
voted unanimously to oust the ailing emir, ending a nine-day leadership
crisis by temporarily handing power to the Cabinet headed by PM Sheik
Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, A Mexican government
commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing
highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb
the death toll among illegal border crossers.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Mongolia some
1,000 protesters gathered in Ulan Bator, calling for the resignation of
the president and an end to corruption.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Kathmandu, Nepal,
police fired tear gas and beat pro-democracy activists with batons,
hours after authorities lifted a ban on demonstrations. Communist
rebels fighting to topple Nepal's monarchy staged a major assault on
Nepalgunj, a western border town, that left at least eight people dead,
but security forces repulsed the insurgents.
(AP, 1/24/06)(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Port Harcourt,
Nigeria, an armed gang dressed in police uniform attacked the offices
of Agip oil company, a unit of Italy's ENI, and at least 9 people were
killed.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Palestinian gunmen in
Nablus linked to the ruling Fatah movement killed Abu Ahmed Hassouna
(44), one of their party leaders, increasing tensions on the eve of
parliamentary balloting.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, A government
spokesman said Sudan has withdrawn from the competition to lead the
African Union amid criticism of its human rights record. Diplomats said
the presidency would go to the Republic of Congo.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Venezuela
activists gathering for the six-day World Social Forum in Caracas. 2
other gatherings were set in Mali and Pakistan. The World Social Forum
was first held in Brazil in 2001 and coincides each year with the
market-friendly World Economic Forum of political and business leaders
in Davos, Switzerland.
(AP, 1/24/06)(SFC, 1/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 25, Republicans John
McCain and Tom Coburn said they're putting their colleagues on notice:
They will challenge special projects that senators insert into spending
bills until the practice stops.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, US authorities
discovered what they say is the largest and most sophisticated tunnel
under their border with Mexico, one that was used by drug trafficking
gangs. The tunnel began near Tijuana’s airport and ended 2,400 feet
away in a warehouse on the US side of the border. The find included 2
tons of marijuana.
(AFP, 1/27/06)(SFC, 1/27/06, p.B14)
2006 Jan 25, Hattie McDaniel, the
first black actress to win an Academy Award, was honored with a U.S.
Postal Service commemorative stamp. McDaniel became the 29th person
honored in the Postal Service's long-running Black Heritage stamp
series.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, "Survivor" Richard
Hatch was convicted in Providence, R.I., of failing to pay taxes on his
$1 million winnings. He was later sentenced to more than four years in
prison.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2006 Jan 25, Ameriprise Financial
Inc. said it has notified about 226,000 people that their names and
other personal data were stored on a laptop computer that was stolen
from an employee's vehicle.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, Konami Digital
Entertainment reported that West Virginia school officials had struck a
partnership to use Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution video game in all of
its 765 public schools to attack a youth obesity problem.
(SFC, 1/25/06, p.C1)
2006 Jan 25, Microsoft offered to
license access to its source code for Windows in an effort to fend off
pressure from US and EU authorities.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 25, The US-based UPN and
WB television broadcast networks agreed to merge.
(SFC, 1/26/06, p.E1)
2006 Jan 25, Heart device maker
Guidant Corp. agreed to be bought by Boston Scientific Corp. for $80
per share, or about $27 billion, and terminated an agreement to be
acquired by Johnson & Johnson.
(Reuters, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, It was reported that
Wyoming rancher Allen Cook (57), with no connection to the University
of Pittsburgh, has given the school 4,700 acres of land littered with
dinosaur fossils.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, In Florida a car full
of siblings headed home was crushed between a truck and a stopped
school bus, killing the seven adopted children just two miles from
where they lived.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, In Australia
emergency crews rushed to clean up 10,000 liters of fuel oil that
fouled mangroves off Gladstone City near the Great Barrier Reef after
two vessels collided.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, The older daughter of
former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was detained upon arrival in
Washington after failing to obey a summons by a Chilean judge, who
indicted her on tax evasion charges.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, Google Inc. launched
a search engine in China that censors material about human rights,
Tibet and other topics sensitive to Beijing, defending the move as a
trade-off granting Chinese greater access to other information.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, In Haiti 2 French
missionaries and two Haitians were kidnapped near Cite Soleil, a
volatile slum outside Port-au-Prince. Last month, there were 162
reported kidnap cases in Haiti, and January has seen 37 so far. The
actual number is probably much higher because victims' families often
prefer to negotiate with kidnappers rather than notify police.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator said that Tehran views Moscow's offer to have Iran's uranium
enriched in Russia as a positive development but no agreement has been
reached between the countries.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, The Iraqi Ministry of
Justice said it would release 5 of 8 female detainees as part of a
larger release program. Police in Baghdad reported the discovery of 10
blindfolded men in water-holding tanks at a sewage treatment facility.
Insurgents in Kirkuk killed 2 city officials.
(SFC, 1/26/06, p.A10)(SFC, 1/27/06, p.A10)
2006 Jan 25, Kamal Said Qadir
(48), an Austrian citizen sentenced by a court in northern Iraq to 25
years in prison last month after being convicted of dishonoring the
Kurdish cause, was released from custody. After moving to Austria a few
years ago, he wrote articles that accused the powerful Kurdistan
Democratic Party of corruption.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, In Iraq a US soldier
was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb blast south of
Baghdad, while three Iraqi police died in a similar attack.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, Iraqi police shot
dead a Sunni cleric at a checkpoint north of Baghdad. Gunmen killed a
policeman in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, The UN said that
thousands of refugees were without help after riots forced it to
curtail operations in Ivory Coast.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, Juana Barraza (48)
was arrested while fleeing from a home where an elderly woman was
slain. She was suspected to be the serial murderer known as the
"Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer." Barraza's fingerprints
matched those left at the scene of 10 other murders, plus at the scene
of an attempted murder.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, Mongolia's president
and parliament approved Mieagombo Enkhbold (41), the chairman of the
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, as the new prime minister, a
major step toward rebuilding the former communist country's collapsed
government.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, A minibus struck a
land mine in southwestern Pakistan, killing six passengers and wounding
five.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, Palestinians cast
ballots in their first parliamentary election in a decade. Hamas won a
huge majority in parliamentary elections as Palestinian voters rejected
the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast
peacemaking into question. Hamas counted up to 6 leaderships: notional
chief Khaled Meshal in exile in Damascus; Ismail Haniyeh and other
heavyweights in the Gaza Strip; members in the West Bank; convicted
prisoners in Israeli jails; unconvicted prisoners detained in Israeli
military jails; and heads of the armed wing.
(AP, 1/26/06)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.51)
2006 Jan 25, Sri Lanka's president
and the leader of Tamil Tiger rebels agreed on to resume peace talks.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, The World Economic
Forum opened in Davos, Switzerland. 15 heads of state, top business
leaders and celebrities attended the session to brainstorm on key
issues facing the globe, including high oil prices, Iran's nuclear
ambitions, new business models and the shifting balance of power in
Asia.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, An Arctic weather
front wreaked more havoc across a wide swath of eastern Europe, killing
53 people overnight in Ukraine alone and severely disrupted transport
networks in half-a-dozen countries.
(AFP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, Pope Benedict XVI
said in his first encyclical, "God is Love," that the Roman Catholic
Church has no desire to govern states or set public policy, but can't
remain silent when its charity is needed to ease suffering around the
world.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, In Venezuela
thousands of activists marched through Caracas demanding an end to the
war in Iraq and shouting slogans against U.S. imperialism at the
opening of the World Social Forum backed by President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, Venezuela’s VP Jose
Vicente Rangel said that some Venezuelan military officers have been
detained after they allegedly passed information to US officials.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, President Bush said
that Hamas cannot be a partner for Middle East peacemaking without
renouncing violence, and he reiterated that the United States will not
deal with Palestinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to
exist.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, The Arizona Supreme
Court ordered first-term Republican Rep. David Burnell Smith to leave
office at midnight for violating a state's public campaign financing
system during his 2004 primary race.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 26, California
legislators became the 1st in the US to designate secondhand tobacco
smoke as a toxic air contaminant.
(SFC, 1/27/06, p.B1)
2006 Jan 26, The US federal
deficit was projected to widen to $360 billion in fiscal 2006.
(WSJ, 1/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 26, Confronted by Oprah
Winfrey on her syndicated talk show, author James Frey acknowledged
lies in his addiction memoir "A Million Little Pieces."
(AP, 1/26/07)
2006 Jan 26, In eastern
Afghanistan a rocket killed two police officers during a battle with
Taliban rebels in Paktika province.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Britain said it will
send at least another 4,000 troops, four times its current deployment,
to Afghanistan in coming months as a NATO mission expands into a
dangerous region rife with Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, British port and
ferries group P&O said it has accepted a takeover bid from
Singapore's PSA International worth 3.545 billion pounds (5.2 billion
euros, 6.4 billion dollars).
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Colombian authorities
led dozens of simultaneous raids across five cities in collaboration
with US officials and dismantled a false passport ring with links to
al-Qaida and Hamas militants.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 26, Iran's Civil Aviation
Organization said it has proposed resuming direct flights between Iran
and the United States after more than 25 years, despite political
hostilities between the two countries.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, In Iraq the US
military released five Iraqi women detainees, a move demanded by the
kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life, but an official
said the release was coincidental.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Mexico said it will
suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to cross the US
border illegally. An official said the decision was made because the
maps would show anti-immigrant groups where migrants likely would
gather.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Under request from
Pakistan Interpol said it has issued international notices seeking the
arrest of former PM Benazir Bhutto and her husband on corruption
charges. Both were currently visiting the US.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, In southwestern
Pakistan suspected tribal militants blew up a stretch of railway track,
severing train links with rest of country.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Hamas leader Mahmoud
Zahar said he was ready to maintain a cease-fire with Israel forged in
February 2005 if Israel does likewise, but that the Islamic group will
respond to attacks. Hamas supporters raised their flag over the
Palestinian parliament and rushed into the building amid clashes with
Fatah loyalists.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Russian military
prosecutors and top officers pledged a thorough inquiry into one of the
most brutal hazing incidents in the Russian military in years. Doctors
said the legs and genitals of Pvt. Andrei Sychev (18) were
amputated after a New Year's Eve incident at the Chelyabinsk Tank
Academy. On Sep 26 a Chelyabinsk military court found Junior Sergeant
Alexander Sivyakov guilty of abuse of power that led to severe bodily
harm, and sentenced him to four years in prison.
(AP, 1/26/06)(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Jan 26, Saudi Arabia recalled
its ambassador in Denmark to protest a published series of caricatures
of the prophet Muhammad. Protests spread across the Muslim world for
weeks, and dozens of people were killed.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2006 Jan 26, Serbian police
arrested Jovo Djogo, the former chief of security for Bosnian Serb
wartime general Ratko Mladic, over suspicions he is helping the war
crimes fugitive avoid justice. Djogo was a close aide to the Bosnian
Serb political and military leadership from the start of the former
Yugoslav republic's 1992-1995 war.
(AFP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 26, A South Korean court
ordered Dow Chemical and Monsanto, US manufacturers of the defoliant
Agent Orange, to pay $62.5 million in medical compensation to 20,000
Korean veterans of the Vietnam War and their families.
(AP, 1/26/06)(WSJ, 1/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 26, In Sri Lanka a rocket
propelled grenade shot at rebel vehicles in the east of the island
killed a rebel commander. Rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
said government forces fired the grenade a day after a deal to end a
three-year deadlock in talks.
(AFP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, A US government
report said economic growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter to the
weakest pace in three years as consumers spent less robustly, growth in
home building eased and businesses were less eager to boost investments.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Lawmakers in
Washington state passed a gay rights bill and Gov. Chris Gregoire said
she will sign it on Jan 31.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 27, Police in Houston,
Texas, said they had arrested 8 gang members from New Orleans as
suspects in 11 slayings.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 27, The first inhalable
version of insulin, "Exubera," won federal approval.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2006 Jan 27, Microsoft Corp's
founder Bill Gates in Davos, Switzerland, pledged $900 million to fight
tuberculosis, kick-starting a $31 billion funding drive against a
disease which kills one person every 15 seconds.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Western Union
delivered its last telegram.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2006 Jan 27, Belgium’s food safety
agency closed 96 pig and chicken farms as it traced the source of
dioxins found by a Dutch firm last week back to a vat of Belgian pork
fat.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 27, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo
Morales cut his salary by more than half and declared no Cabinet
minister can collect a higher wage than his own, with the savings to be
used to hire more public school teachers.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, a sudden flood caused by heavy rains killed at least four
people in the underground parking garage of a shopping mall.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 27, British port operator
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. switched prospective
suitors for the second time after Dubai Ports World raised its offer
for the company to almost $7 billion, trumping an offer from
Singapore's PSA International Ltd.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Christopher Lloyd
(84), iconoclastic English gardener, died.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.78)
2006 Jan 27, Five Caribbean
islands held their last parliamentary elections as members of a unified
Netherlands Antilles. Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St.
Eustatius have set a target date of July 1, 2007 for breaking off to
form their own governments.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, China's biggest
lender, state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, signed a
$3.78 billion investment deal with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., American
Express Co. and Germany's Allianz AG.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Mittal Steel, the
world's biggest steel producer, launched a takeover bid worth 18.6
billion euros (22.7 billion dollars) for European group Arcelor in an
ambitious attempt to create a dominant global giant.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Georgia's president
said that Iran had agreed to start providing emergency gas supplies to
the Caucasus mountain nation as early as this weekend, signaling an end
to an energy crisis made worse by an extreme cold snap.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Johannes Rau (75),
former German president (1999-2004), died. He urged his country to open
up to foreigners and promoted deeper ties with Israel.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Three French citizens
and a Haitian who were kidnapped near a volatile slum outside of the
capital were released unharmed.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, It was reported that
one of every two German oak trees was sick due to pollution and global
warming.
(www.dawn.com/2006/01/27/int14.htm)
2006 Jan 27, In Honduras Manuel
Zelaya was inaugurated as the new president. He promised to fight
corruption and help criminal and gang members become useful citizens.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Basra's governor
threatened to stop dealing with British forces unless they release
several Iraqis detained this week, including policemen suspected of
links to local killings and kidnappings. Iraqi special forces backed by
US troops raided houses in Baghdad and detained 60 suspected insurgents.
(AP, 1/27/06)(WSJ, 1/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 27, Libya said it is
heading toward allowing private newspapers, radio and television news
in what has been a state-controlled media environment for more than 30
years.
(AFP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Malaysian dissident
politician Anwar Ibrahim sued former PM Mahathir Mohamad for defamation
after Mahathir refused to apologize for calling him a homosexual.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, Angel Hidalgo
Espinosa, the leader of a farmers' group in Mexico's southern Chiapas
state, was convicted in the 2001 slayings of 8 peasants and sentenced
to 37 years in prison.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, In Mexico authorities
got into a shootout with drug traffickers in Acapulco and at least 4
people were killed.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 27-2006 Jan 28, In Nepal
11 Maoist rebels fighting to overthrow the monarchy and two soldiers
were killed in a battle in the eastern part of the kingdom.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 27, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form a new government after his vanquished
Fatah Party rejected a role in the Cabinet and Israel ruled out peace
talks. In the wake of Hamas' triumph in Palestinian parliamentary
elections, thousands of outraged Fatah supporters burned cars and fired
in the air across the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/27/06)(AP, 1/27/07)
2006 Jan 27, A Panamanian ship
collided with two other vessels near the Peruvian port of Callao,
splitting in two and leaving one sailor missing.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, The UN said killings,
rapes and indiscriminate attacks on civilians continue in Darfur,
accusing Sudanese soldiers of apparently coordinating with armed
militia in terrorizing the troubled region.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 28, A 20-million US
dollar FA-18 Hornet strike fighter jet was lost when it crashed during
a training exercise off the Queensland coast.
(AFP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 28, Close to 200 teams in
NYC participated in the 3rd annual Idiotarod, a race of shopping carts
pulled by a human team.
(WSJ, 2/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 28, In southern Arkansas
police found the bodies of 3 children lying side-by-side on a bed in
their home after Paula Eleazar Mendez (43), their mother, said she
smothered them.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 28, Warren Mundine,
previously an advisor on Aboriginal issues to the conservative
government of PM John Howard, took over the role of Australian Labor
Party president. The first Aborigine to be elected president of an
Australian political party, Mundine said that he wanted to enter
parliament after his term finishes.
(AFP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, A 2-day European
conference on the future of the EU ended in Salzburg, Austria. European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that Europe must face
globalization head-on and not shy away from the issue.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, Beijing prepared to
usher in the Lunar New Year with bang, after authorities lifted a
12-year ban on fireworks.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, China’s state-owned
CNOOC began gas production at the Chunxiao field near the disputed
border region with Japan.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.A13)
2006 Jan 28, Karnataka Governor
T.N. Chaturvedi invited H.D. Kumaraswamy (b.1959), son of former Indian
PM H.D. Deve Gowda, to form the government in the state after Dharam
Singh resigned earlier in the day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.D.Kumaraswamy)
2006 Jan 28, The UN Children Fund
(UNICEF) said 3 more children have contracted polio in Indonesia,
bringing the total cases to 302 since the crippling disease resurfaced
last year.
(AFP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, Iran's foreign
minister said Tehran and Moscow have agreed to expand the number of
countries participating in the plan to enrich Iranian uranium in
Russia, describing a compromise that could satisfy U.S. concerns about
the nuclear program.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, According to a new
tape the kidnappers of four Christian peace activists threatened to
kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraqi and US
prisons. The aired tape was date Jan 21. The 4 workers disappeared last
Nov 26.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, A Sunni Arab leader
condemned recent police crackdowns on Sunni neighborhoods in the Iraqi
capital and demanded government protection from further raids. At least
eight people were killed in attacks across Iraq. A US soldier was
killed in a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/28/06)(SFC, 1/30/06, p.A7)
2006 Jan 28, At least 8 people
were killed in a gunfight between Indian security forces and Kashmir
rebels.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri
(106), a leader of the Kabbalah school of Jewish mystical thought who
wielded great influence over Israeli politics, died in Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 28, North Korea warned of
nuclear war and vowed to strengthen its deterrent forces as it demanded
that Washington show evidence backing its allegation that the communist
regime is counterfeiting US money.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, In Pakistan suspected
tribal rebels have fired rockets at a major gas field, blasted a main
power line and tried to blow up a rail track in the restive
southwestern province of Baluchistan.
(AFP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, Fatah activists
marched to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' compound, police briefly
stormed the parliament building in Gaza and security forces clashed
with Hamas gunmen as the long-ruling party lashed out in anger for its
devastating election loss.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 28, In southern Poland an
exhibition hall collapsed during a racing pigeon show in Katowice,
killing at least 65 people and injuring 160. On June 26 three men, who
helped design the exhibition hall, were arrested on suspicion of
endangering lives by failing to meet building codes.
(AP, 1/31/06)(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A3)(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jan 29, Nam June Paik (74),
the avant-garde artist credited with inventing video art in the 1960s
by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live
performers, died in Miami, Fla. In a 1974 report commissioned by the
Rockefeller Foundation, Paik wrote of a telecommunications network of
the future he called the "Electronic Super Highway," predicting it
"will become our springboard for new and surprising human endeavors."
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 29, Heavy rains in Brazil
led to the deaths of 12 people in Rio de Janeiro, including six people
killed when an underground shopping mall garage filled with water.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 29, The Chinese New Year
ushered in the year of the Dog. As many as 10 million dogs were
slaughtered annually for food consumption in China. Fireworks
explosions killed 36 people and injured hundreds more in China as
traditional Lunar New Year celebrations led to much mayhem as well as
joy across the nation.
(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.A3)(AFP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 29, In eastern Congo
rebels in Rutshuru forced a local radio station off the air after a
wave of fighting and looting in the troubled Central African nation.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Jan 29, Denmark's PM said his
government could not act against satirical cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammed after Libya closed its embassy in Copenhagen amid growing
Muslim anger over the dispute.
(Reuters, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 29, Finland's first
female president said she was confident of re-election in a runoff
vote. Polls suggested a close race after a steady surge in support for
her conservative challenger. Pres. Tarja Halonen clinched a narrow
re-election victory over a rival with a pro-alliance agenda. She won a
new six-year term with 51.8 percent of the vote.
(AP, 1/29/06)(AFP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 29, Avalanches swept away
skiers and at least one hiker in the French Alps, killing five people
over the weekend.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 29, In Iraq ABC news
anchor Bob Woodruff and camera operator Doug Vogt were seriously
injured in a roadside bombing near Taji.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 29, Car bombs exploded in
a synchronized spree of attacks outside at least four churches in
Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least three Iraqis
and wounding 9. US troops killed three suspected insurgents wearing
Iraqi police uniforms in Kirkuk. A bomb killed 11 people in a shop
selling sweets in the town of Iskindiraya south of Baghdad overnight.
Violence killed at least 20 people, including 13 Iraqi policemen and
soldiers. A car bomb killed 4 Iraqi soldiers in Uja. Former Lt. Gen.
Mahmoud Idham was assassinated near Tikrit.
(AP, 1/29/06)(Reuters, 1/29/06)(SFC, 1/30/06, p.A7)
2006 Jan 29, Sheik Sabah IV Al
Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah was sworn in as the new emir of Kuwait.
(AP,
1/29/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabah_Al-Ahmad_Al-Jaber_Al-Sabah)
2006 Jan 29, The Mexican
government said the US Border Patrol in New Mexico arrested Francisco
Javier Gutierrez, a Mexican immigration official, who was allegedly
trying to help a group of undocumented migrants sneak into the US.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 29, A Pakistani express
train with up to 600 passengers aboard derailed, killing at least three
people and injuring as many as 40.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 29, Republic of Congo
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso launched his role as a top African peace
mediator, meeting with the prime minister of civil war-divided Ivory
Coast days after taking over as African Union head.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 29, In Bucharest,
Romania, a stray dog killed a Japanese businessman. The mayor called
for a crash program of canine sterilization and euthanasia to control
the city’s 60,000 stray dogs.
(www.inyourpocket.com/romania/bucharest/en/)(Econ,
2/4/06, p.48)
2006 Jan 29, Russia resumed
sending natural gas to Georgia after finishing repairs to a major
pipeline damaged by mysterious blasts a week earlier.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 30, Pres. Bush nominated
Edward Lazear, Stanford Univ. prof. of economics, as his chief
economics adviser, replacing Ben Bernanke, the new chairman-select of
the Federal Reserve.
(SFC, 1/31/06, p.E1)
2006 Jan 30, The Smithsonian
Institute selected a space on the National Mall near the Washington
Monument as the site of Its National Museum of African American History
and Culture.
(SFC, 1/31/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 30, Exxon Mobil posted
record profits for any US company: $10.71 billion for the fourth
quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the year.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2006 Jan 30, In Goleta, Ca.,
Jennifer San Marco, a female ex-postal worker, opened fire at a mail
processing plant, killing 5 people before committing suicide. A former
neighbor was found slain the next day and a critically wounded worker
died Feb 1.
(AP, 1/31/06)(SFC, 2/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Jan 30, Playwright Wendy
Wasserstein (55) died. She celebrated women confronting feminism,
careers, love and motherhood in such works as "The Heidi Chronicles"
and "The Sisters Rosensweig."
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, Australian Gas Light
Company (AGL) announced that it would build the country's largest wind
farm as part of efforts to meet its legal obligation to invest in
renewable energy. The 95 megawatt facility would cost 236 million
dollars (177 million US dollars) and use 45 wind turbines over an area
of 14 square kilometers (5.6 square miles) near the town of Hallett in
South Australia.
(AFP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, The University of
Vienna announced that it plans to build a new Holocaust research center
in honor of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, Music retailers said
the Rock band Arctic Monkeys have smashed the British record for the
fastest-selling debut album of all time.
(AFP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, Chile’s
President-elect Michelle Bachelet unveiled a Cabinet that fulfilled her
campaign promise to give half the jobs to women and kept a balance
among the four parties in her center-left coalition.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 30, Feng Xiliang (86), a
US-trained journalist, died in Beijing. In 1978 he helped to launch the
China Daily, the communist government's main English-language newspaper.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Jan 30, The controversy over
Danish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad escalated as gunmen seized an EU
office in Gaza and Muslims appealed for a trade boycott of Danish
products. Denmark called for its citizens in the Middle East to
exercise vigilance. A roadside bomb targeted a joint Danish-Iraqi
military patrol near the southern city of Basra.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, Iran’s Interior
Ministry said 7 Iranian soldiers kidnapped last month by Jundallah,
(God's Brigade), have been freed. No word was given on the fate of 2
other kidnapped soldiers.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 30, European Union
foreign ministers called on Hamas to recognize the state of Israel,
renounce violence and disarm. “It is the view of the Quartet (UN, EU,
American and Russia) that all members of a future Palestinian
government must be committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and
acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the
Roadmap. We urge both parties to respect their existing agreements,
including on movement and access."
(AP, 1/30/06)(http://tinyurl.com/fut5w)
2006 Jan 30, Iraqi and UN health
officials said a 15-year-old girl who died this month was a victim of
the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the first confirmed case
of the disease in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, In Iraq US soldiers
backed by warplanes killed two militants in Ramadi, while at least one
Iraqi policeman died and dozens were wounded in a suicide car bomb
attack on their base south of Baghdad.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, In Nigeria 4 foreign
oil workers were released after being held hostage for more than two
weeks by a militia demanding that residents in southern Nigeria benefit
more from its energy wealth.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, In Adana, Turkey, a
bomb exploded at a Turkish-American friendship association in a
southern city that hosts a US air base, wounding five Turks.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 31, Pres. Bush in his
State of the Union address appeared to tone down his criticism of North
Korea and concerns over the growing competitiveness of China and India.
Bush had harsh words for Iran and the militant Palestinian group Hamas
and raised concerns over Indonesia. He also defended the legality of
his wiretaps program and called for the US to quit its addiction to oil.
(AP, 2/1/06)(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, The US Senate
confirmed Samuel Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice. The 58-42
vote tilted the court rightward.
(WSJ, 2/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, Alan Greenspan (79)
served the last day of his 18-year tenure as chairman of the US Federal
Reserve. At Greenspan's final meeting, the central bank voted to boost
its target for the federal funds rate to 4.5 percent. It was the 14th
quarter-point move in a credit-tightening campaign that began 19 months
ago. The US Senate approved Ben Bernanke (52), Princeton Univ. prof. of
economics, as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
(SFC, 1/31/06, p.E1)(Econ, 9/3/05, p.63)(AP, 1/31/07)
2006 Jan 31, In Arkansas Tom
Coughlin (57), a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman who was a
protege of founder Sam Walton, pleaded guilty to fraud and tax charges,
admitting that he stole money, gift cards and merchandise from the
world's largest retailer.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In El Cerrito, Ca.,
Edward Wycoff (37) stabbed and bludgeoned to death his sister Julie
Wycoff Rogers (47) and her husband Paul Rogers (48) at their home 1467
Rifle Range Road. He had hoped to adopt his niece and nephew after the
killings. In 2009 Wycoff was convicted of murder with special
circumstances and was sentenced by a jury to die by lethal injection.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.B3)(SFC, 10/28/09, p.D2)(SFC,
11/6/09, p.C2)
2006 Jan 31, In Texas opening
arguments began in the Enron trial against former Chairman Kenneth Lay
and former Pres. Jeffrey Skilling.
(WSJ, 1/31/06, p.C1)
2006 Jan 30, Coretta Scott King
(78), the widow of Martin Luther King Jr, died of respiratory failure
at a clinic in Mexico. She had turned a life shattered by her husband's
assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights
and equality.
(AP, 1/31/06)(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, Moira Shearer,
ballerina and film star (Red Shoes), died in England.
(WSJ, 2/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, Envoys from nearly 70
nations and international bodies vowed to maintain their financial
support for Afghanistan, which is still plagued by violence and poverty
more than four years after the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Dr. Christian
Schwarz-Schilling (b.1930), former German cabinet minister, was
appointed as the EU's High Representative in Bosnia, succeeding Lord
Ashdown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Schwarz-Schilling)(Econ,
6/30/07, p.60)
2006 Jan 31, British lawmakers
watered down a bill banning religious hate speech, then narrowly voted
it into law.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Chile received two US
F-16 warplanes out of 10 it had ordered as part of a major military
upgrade that has worried some of its South American neighbors.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In Colombia thousands
of right-wing paramilitary fighters accused of drug trafficking by the
US turned over more than 1,000 weapons in one of the largest
disarmament ceremonies to date.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In Egypt 14 tourists
from Hong Kong were killed and 30 wounded when their bus spun off the
road along the Red Sea coast in one of the deadliest crashes involving
foreign nationals in recent years.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, An international
human rights group said thousands of school and college students have
been detained over the past three months in continued unrest in
Ethiopia.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, French PM Dominique
de Villepin made a televised address urging French and other European
chief executives to be better organized to resist attacks by foreign
companies. The statement was made in response to the takeover of
Arcelor by Mittal Steel.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.56)
2006 Jan 31, An official said
India's air force was ready to handle civilian air traffic control as
protesting airport workers threatened to strike after the government
opened bids to privatize the two biggest airports.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, India and Pakistan
signed an agreement to restart a second cross-border train service next
month, the latest step in peace talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Iran struck back at
the Big Five's decision to refer the country's nuclear file to the
Security Council, saying the move has no legal justification and would
be the end of diplomacy.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, A British soldier was
killed in a roadside bombing, the second member of the country's armed
forces to die in Iraq in as many days and the 100th fatality since the
conflict began nearly three years ago.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In Iraq the bodies of
11 men were found in western Baghdad. Some had been shot repeatedly and
bore marks of torture. Gunmen killed 2 members of the Dawra district
council. Gunmen killed Malik Razoki Abd, a district council member in
western Baghdad.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Jan 31, Israeli troops killed
two Islamic Jihad militants, including Nidal Abu Saada, the group's top
leader in the West Bank, during a shootout that erupted during an
arrest raid.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Japan said it will
begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in March and complete the
pullout by May, ending its largest military mission since the end of
World War II.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Myanmar's military
government adjourned a constitution-drafting convention after almost
two months of deliberations, delegates said, amid growing frustration
with the slow pace of democratic reforms. Karen insurgents, marking
nearly six decades of fighting, said there was little chance Myanmar's
military rulers would come to the negotiating table and end their
bloody campaign against the ethnic minorities.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, NATO ended its
earthquake relief operation in Pakistan, the first big disaster mission
involving ground troops outside an alliance country.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, North Korea renewed
its commitment to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, while at the same
time vowing to strengthen its stockpile of atomic weapons to counter
what it called extreme US hostility.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In the Economist
Intelligence Unit's biannual survey Oslo was reported to have overtaken
Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. Tokyo had held the top spot
for 14 years. Of 17 US cities featured in the survey, the most
expensive were New York (27th), Chicago and Los Angeles (tied for
35th), and San Francisco (40th).
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Jan 31, The Philippine health
department warned that an AIDS crisis threatens the country as the
number of people who are HIV carriers has doubled in just over three
years.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Philippines troops
killed at least 18 communist rebels in their bloodiest clash in months.
The clash happened outside Santa Ignacia town in Tarlac province, about
80 miles north of Manila.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, George Koval (1913),
American-born Soviet spy, died in Moscow. In 1932 his family moved from
Iowa to Birobidzhan, a Siberian city that Stalin promoted as a secular
Jewish homeland. From 1940 to 1948 Koval, groomed as a Russian spy, was
able to infiltrate the Manhattan Project. He fled the US after the war.
In 2007 Pres. Putin posthumously awarded him Russia’s highest award.
(SFC, 11/12/07, p.A12)
2006 Jan 31, Saudi Arabia and
Jordan pressed the Islamic militant group Hamas to moderate its stand
on Israel and to entice the defeated Fatah party into a deal to share
power.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan offered a grim assessment of Kosovo's progress toward
stability, saying in a report that the region had fallen behind in
efforts to create a multiethnic and democratic society.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan, In Arkansas Riceland
Rice, the world’s largest miller and marketer of rice, became aware of
genetically modified rice in its commercial bins. In July American
agricultural officials learned that unapproved rice had been found in
commercial bins in Arkansas and Missouri. The EU soon demanded that
rice be tested and certified.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.43)
2006 Jan, In California LiveWell
Medical Clinic, modeled after a chain of mall-based clinics in the
Philippines called Healthway Medical, opened in San Bruno’s Tanforan
Shopping Center. QuickHealth, which 1st opened in San Mateo in 2005,
opened a 2nd outlet in SF with a flat fee of $39 to see a doctor and a
range of services at fixed prices.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.C1)
2006 Jan, An Illinois law took
effect banning investment in Sudan-related bonds, private equity and
stock due to genocide in the Darfur region.
(SSFC, 10/1/06, p.C6)
2006 Jan, Arthur Mumphrey was
released from prison in Texas after his lawyer found DNA evidence
clearing him in the rape of a 13-year-old girl. Mumphrey had been
sentenced in 1986 to 35 years in prison. He awarded more than $450,000
after spending 18 years in prison for a sexual assault conviction. His
brother, Charles, confessed to the rape while serving time in jail for
unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, shortly after his brother's
release.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Jan, The US National Science
Foundation launched 2 initiatives improve the Internet. The Global
Environment for Networking Innovations (GENI) planned an advance test
bed network for piloting new protocols and applications. The Future
Internet Design (FIND) planned to examine how best to equip the
internet for the needs of the future.
(Econ, 3/11/06, Survey p.32)
2006 Jan, Hewlett-Packard
announced that it will open a global delivery service center in Sofia,
Bulgaria, in June with some 1000 Bulgarian employees.
(SFC, 5/16/06,
p.C1)(http://iinbulgaria.com/newsletter/html/biin-37.html)
2006 Jan, Faisal Wangita (25), son
of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, was part of a 40-strong gang that
attacked Somali teenager Mahir Osman (18), in a busy street in north
London. Osman was stabbed 20 times, attacked with baseball bats,
bottles and hammers, punched and kicked and died within a minute. In
2007 13 people were convicted over the attack at two trials that ended
in April, including three men found guilty of murder. Wangita was
acquitted of murder but was then jailed for five years for conspiracy
to wound and violent disorder for apparently kicking Osman when he was
on the ground.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2006 Jan, In Alberta, Canada,
Premier Ralph Klein disbursed prosperity checks of C$400 to every adult
in his province.
(Econ, 4/8/06,
p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_Bonus)
2006 Jan, A free trade agreement
between the Morocco and the US came into force and covered industrial
and agricultural goods, intellectual property, services, customs,
employment, the environment and telecommunications.
(AFP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jan, The presidents of
Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil met in Brazil and promised to come up
with the first set of preliminary studies in March for a $20 billion,
5,000-mile gas pipeline, stretching from Venezuela to Argentina.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan, In Egypt El-Kabir (21),
a Cairo minibus driver, intervened in an argument between police and
his cousin. Kabir was arrested by police, who sodomized with a wooden
pole and filmed the incident on video. The tape later made it onto the
Internet and in 2007 a judge ordered 2 police officers into custody
pending trial.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2006 Jan, In Germany Mario
Mederake (36), an unemployed laborer, snatched Stephanie Rudolph (13)
off the street as she was on her way to school in Dresden. Over the
course of the next 36 days, Mederake turned her into his "sex slave",
raping her more than 100 times.
(AFP, 11/6/06)
2006 Jan, Mani Shankar Aiyar,
India’s petroleum minister, visited China and signed a series of
cooperation agreements.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.59)
2006 Jan, Italy’s PM Silvio
Berlusconi sent out letters telling the parents of some 600,000 babies
born in 2005 how to receive a 1,000 euro "baby bonus" from the state.
The letter was sent to all families with a new-born, including
immigrants, even though the cash bonus was meant only for Italian
babies. In April the Economy Ministry asked all those who claimed the
money but were not entitled to it, estimated at 3,000 immigrant
families, to pay it back.
(Reuters, 4/21/06)
2006 Jan, In the Hague Col. Vidoje
Blagojevic (56), Bosnian Serb wartime commander of the Bratunac
brigade, was convicted of war crimes and complicity in genocide by the
Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal. In 2007 an appeals panel overturned the
charge of complicity in genocide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2006 Jan, Vodka producers in
Russia began shutting down due to the lack of new government tax
stickers.
(WSJ, 2/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan, Suriname’s Trade
Minister Siegfried Gilds stepped down after prosecutors named him a
suspect in a money laundering investigation. In 2007 he stood trial on
charges of money laundering and participating in a criminal
organization.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2006 Jan, In Turkmenistan some
100,000 people had their pensions cancelled and another 250,000
pensions were severely cut back.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.40)
2006 Feb 1, The US Congress passed
the Deficit Reduction Act which included lopping off $12.7 billion form
the student loan program.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.71)
2006 Feb 1, In his first case on
the Supreme Court, new Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's
conservatives, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate
contesting lethal injection.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2006 Feb 1, New SEC rules went
into effect for many hedge funds. US funds with over 15 American
investors were required to register.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.61)
2006 Feb 1, The Roman Catholic
Diocese of Spokane, Wa., offered a $45.7 million settlement to 75
people who said they were molested by priests.
(SFC, 2/2/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 1, United Airlines left
bankruptcy after a painful restructuring that lasted more than three
years.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2006 Feb 1, In West Virginia the
deaths of 2 mine workers prompted Gov. Joe Manchin to call for all coal
companies in the state to halt production and perform safety checks.
(SFC, 2/2/06, p.A5)
2006 Feb 1, Burger King's parent
company said it plans to sell shares to the public for the first time
in the fast-food chain's 52-year history, part of its attempt to recoup
ground lost in fierce competition with rivals McDonald's Corp. and
Wendy's International Inc.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, The journal Nature
reported that object UB313 is larger than Pluto according to German
heat calculations.
(WSJ, 2/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 1, A provincial governor
said avalanches in northeast Afghanistan have killed at least 18 people
and destroyed dozens of homes in the past week.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at an army
checkpoint, killing five Afghans and wounding four.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 1, A joint British and
Irish report said the Irish Republican Army has halted violence but is
still gathering intelligence on enemies and remains deeply involved in
organized crime.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, In southern England
thieves driving Jeeps forced entry to the Ramsbury Manor, a property
tycoon Harry Hyams, stealing around 300 museum-grade artifacts. The
value of the stolen art was later put at $142 million.
(AP,
4/24/06)(http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=171132006)
2006 Feb 1, In northern China a
blast at the Sihe Coal Mine, the subsidiary of a state-owned coal mine,
killed 23 workers and injured 53 others in Shanxi Province.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Colombia's attorney
general charged seven soldiers in the shooting deaths of five members
of a peasant family, including a 6-month-old baby.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Two top Egyptian
officials called on Hamas to recognize Israel, disarm and honor past
peace deals, the latest sign Arab governments are pushing the militant
group to moderate after its surprise election victory.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, French and German
newspapers republished caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in what they
called a defense of freedom of expression.
(SFC, 2/2/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 1, In eastern Indonesia
naval vessels picked up 114 survivors from a passenger ferry that went
down in rough seas, but there was no sign of dozens of others still
missing.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Saddam Hussein and
four other defendants refused to attend their trial, and their defense
attorneys boycotted the proceedings, demanding the removal of the chief
judge they claim is biased against the former Iraqi leader.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, A bomb exploded
alongside a group of Iraqi men waiting for work in eastern Baghdad,
killing at least eight and wounding more than 50. A key Sunni Arab
leader threatened to call for a nationwide "uprising" unless the Shiite
interior minister is replaced.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, A roadside bomb blast
killed three US soldiers south of Baghdad, while a fourth soldier died
the same day from wounds sustained in a small-arms fire attack in the
capital's southwest. A US Marine was fatally wounded during combat near
the western city of Fallujah.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israeli forces
completed the evacuation of the Amona West Bank settlement outpost,
ending a violent operation in which dozens of people were injured in
clashes between police and Jewish settlers.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israel said it froze
this month's transfer of $45 million in tax rebates and customs
payments to the Palestinian Authority while it reviews its options
following the Hamas victory in last week's parliamentary election. A
senior Palestinian official said Saudi Arabia and Qatar pledged
Wednesday to transfer millions to ease the crisis.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, In Kenya Four
suspended senior officials of the City Council of Nairobi were charged
with negligence in the Jan 23 collapse of a building in Nairobi that
killed at least 17 people and injured more than 100.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Liberia’s Pres. Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf fired top officials appointed by a transitional
administration to help run the Finance Ministry, a perceived center of
corruption.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 1, Nepal's king pledged
to hold national elections within 15 months, the one-year anniversary
of his power grab, and claimed success in fighting communist rebels,
despite an overnight attack that killed at least 20 security forces.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, In Amsterdam an
experimental ban on smoking marijuana went into effect intended to
reduce loitering and petty crime. “No toking” signs appeared as part of
the ban on the street in "De Baarsjes," one of the city's poorer
neighborhoods. Amsterdam soon began selling the "no toking" signs to
prevent the official ones from being stolen as collector's items.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 2, US House Republicans
elected Ohio Rep. John Boehner as majority leader to replace Texas Rep.
Tom DeLay.
(WSJ, 2/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 2, In California Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory announced that it will install a battery
of machine guns to deter terrorists. The Gatling guns will be capable
of firing 4,000 rounds a minute from 6 barrels with a range of nearly a
mile.
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.B1)
2006 Feb 2, Tornadoes tore through
New Orleans neighborhoods that had been hit hard by Hurricane Katrina
five months earlier.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2006 Feb 2, NYC Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, a billionaire known for his philanthropy, anonymously
donated $100 million to Johns Hopkins University to support stem cell
research.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, United Airlines' new
stock debuted on the Nasdaq Stock Market, a day after the carrier
emerged from bankruptcy following a three-year restructuring.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, In New Bedford, Mass.,
Jacob D. Robida (18) used a hatchet and a gun to attack 3 patrons at a
gay bar. On Feb 4 in Arkansas Robida shot himself after he killed a
Gassville police officer and a woman in his car. He died the next day.
(AP, 2/3/06)(AP, 2/5/06)(SFC, 2/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 2, Climate experts
confirmed the start of La Nina, a mild cooling of the tropical Pacific
Ocean. It often coincides with more numerous hurricanes, a wetter
Pacific Northwest and a drier South.
(SFC, 2/3/06, p.A18)
2006 Feb 2, German
alternative-power company Solarworld AG said it will buy businesses
from Shell to take over as the top maker of solar power equipment in
the US.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, The Greek government
reported that mobile phones belonging to top Greek military and
government officials, including the prime minister and the US embassy,
were tapped for nearly a year beginning in the weeks before the 2004
Olympic games. It was not known who was responsible for the taps, which
numbered about 100.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, Guatemalan police said
they have arrested 7 Christian fundamentalist vigilantes who extorted
travelers and may have killed five people they believed were criminals.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, Honduras numbered 24
state prisons, but only one, the National Penitentiary, was actually
built to house inmates. Prison facilities built for 6,000 prisoners
housed 13,000.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, Eight survivors were
rescued two days after an overcrowded Indonesian ferry sank in rough
seas on the western side of Timor island. At least 20 people were still
missing.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, A US helicopter fired
rockets into a crowded Shiite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, killing
a young woman, after the aircraft was fired on. In eastern Baghdad 2
bombs exploded about 20 minutes apart, killing at least 11 Iraqis and
wounding dozens. A US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 2/2/06)(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 2, In Iraq a mortar
attack on the Northern Oil. Co. in Kirkuk resulted in devastating
pipeline fires and a shut down of all oil operations in the area. The
director of the plant was arrested 2 days later along with several
employees and police officials and all were charged with helping to
orchestrate the attack.
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A18)
2006 Feb 2, Italy's government won
a vote of confidence in the upper house of parliament on a broad decree
that includes financing for the country's mission in Iraq.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, Lebanese officials
said the bullet-ridden body of a 15-year-old shepherd was found in
disputed territory occupied by Israel.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, Mexican authorities
captured Oscar Arriola Marquez, leader of the Arriola Marquez cartel,
wanted in the US on cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges,
and ranked among the world's most-wanted fugitives.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 2, In Nepal the homes of
3 mayoral candidates loyal to the king were bombed, a week before
nationwide municipal elections that insurgents have called a sham and
vowed to disrupt.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, Armed militants,
angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in
European media, surrounded EU offices in Gaza and threatened to kidnap
foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic
world. A fatwa was issued by Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a Brotherhood sheikh
with his own program on al-Jazeera. Other radical groups joined the
fray. Although there is no Quranic injunction against images, Islam in
its early years came into contact with a version of Christianity that
was militantly iconoclastic and some Muslim theologians issued fatwas
against any depiction of the Godhead.
(AP, 2/2/06)(WSJ, 2/8/06, p.A16)
2006 Feb 2, South Korea decided to
begin talks with the US toward achieving a free trade agreement between
the two countries.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, South Korea's spy
agency said that North Korea was not currently producing counterfeit
currency, apparently contradicting US allegations that have become the
latest obstacle in nuclear disarmament talks with the communist country.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, In Russia 3 bombs
ripped through slot-machine parlors in the southern city of
Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, killing at least two people
and injuring up to 25 others.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 2, Russia and Ukraine
announced the signing of an agreement finalizing their Jan 4 compromise
on natural gas prices.
(WSJ, 2/3/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 2, The Vatican announced
that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of an auxiliary
bishop of Detroit, Thomas Gumbleton, a liberal voice in the US church
who recently revealed that a priest abused him 60 years ago.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, President Hugo Chavez
said that Venezuela is expelling a US Navy officer for allegedly
passing secret information from the Venezuelan military to the Pentagon
and warned he will throw out all US military attaches if further
espionage occurs.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, Responding to
Venezuela's expulsion of a US naval officer from Caracas, the State
Department declared a senior Venezuelan diplomat persona non grata and
gave her 72 hours to leave the United States.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, PG&E agreed to pay
$295 million to settle lawsuits over drinking wells contaminated with
the toxic chemical chromium.
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 3, Merck & Co.
received approval from the US FDA to begin marketing RotaTeq, a vaccine
for rotavirus, an intestinal virus that annually kills nearly half a
million children around the world.
(WSJ, 2/4/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 3, A Kama Sutra worm was
set to activate. It was designed to corrupt unprotected documents using
the most common file types, including ".doc," ".pdf," and ".zip."
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Alabama 5 small
Baptist churches were found burned to the ground in Bibb County. 4 of
the churches had white congregations, one was black. On Dec 20 three
former college students, aged 19-20, pleaded guilty to burning 9
churches over 2 nights. In 2007 Benjamin N. Moseley and Matthew L.
Cloyd were sentenced to 8 years in prison. Russell L. DeBusk Jr., who
only took part in the 1st burnings, was sentenced to 7 years [see Feb
7].
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A3)(SFC, 12/21/06, p.A3)(SFC,
4/10/07, p.A5)
2006 Feb 3, Al Lewis (95), TV
sitcom actor, died. He played officer Schnauzer in “Car 54, Where Are
Your?” (1961-1963) and the patriarch in “The Munsters” (1964-1966).
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 3, In southern
Afghanistan fierce fighting involving US warplanes and Afghan troops
left at least 16 Taliban rebels and three police dead.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Bangladesh nearly
1,150 people were arrested in Dhaka, a day before opposition supporters
were due to converge on the city in a campaign to oust the government.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 3, British author
Phillippe Sands said in a new edition of his 2005 ”Lawless World” that
Pres. Bush commented in a White House meeting with Tony Blair on Jan.
31, 2003, that the US intended to go to war even if inspectors failed
to find evidence of a banned weapons program. Sands cited a memo of the
meeting as saying Bush also told Blair that military intervention was
scheduled for March 2003 even without UN backing.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Some 200,000 Cubans
crowded Revolution Plaza for a ceremony granting Hugo Chavez UNESCO's
2005 Jose Marti International Prize. President Castro himself handed
over the framed certificate to Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez. UNESCO
introduced the Marti prize in 1994 to recognize an individual or
institution contributing to the unity and integration of countries of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, An Egyptian passenger
ferry carrying 1,408 people, mostly Egyptian workers returning from
Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea overnight. The 35-year-old ship,
"Al-Salam Boccaccio 98," went down 40 miles off the Egyptian port of
Hurghada between midnight and 2 a.m. Rescue boats picked up at least
362 survivors from the ferry that caught fire and sank in the Red Sea,
apparently so fast there was no time for a distress signal. But more
than 1,000 missing passengers and crew were feared drowned. The report
into the sinking found the ship was overloaded and using forged
documents to hide a shortage of safety equipment. In 2008 an Egyptian
court acquitted in absentia Mamdouh Ismail, the owner of the ferry and
his son, of negligence and corruption. Ismail, is a member of
parliament's upper house, and his son Amr was a top executive in the
ferry company. In 2009 Mamdouh Ismail was convicted of involuntary
manslaughter and negligence and sentenced to seven years in prison.
(AP, 2/3/06)(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 4/19/06)(AP,
7/27/08)(AP, 3/11/09)
2006 Feb 3, BNP Paribas, France’s
2nd largest bank by assets, declared that it was buying a 48% stake in
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), Italy’s 6th largest bank, and that it
would bid for the rest.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.70)
2006 Feb 3, Indian health
officials reported that over 5,600 new cases of chikungunya, a
crippling and incurable mosquito-born disease, had infected people on
the island of Reunion.
(www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04459988.htm)
2006 Feb 3, Iran warned it no
longer would consider a Kremlin proposal to move its uranium enrichment
program to Russia if it is referred to the UN Security Council for
allegedly violating a nuclear arms control treaty.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, The bullet-riddled
bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men purportedly seized by Shiite-led forces
last week were found in Baghdad. The next day a prominent Sunni
politician accused the government of pushing Iraq toward "civil war."
Iraqi police rounded up nearly 60 people in Baghdad and Basra in a
security crackdown.
(AP, 2/4/06)(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 3, A study by the Israeli
Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs determined that more
than $14 billion has been spent on West Bank settlements since
capturing the territory in 1967.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Japan’s parliament
enacted a law awarding compensation to former leprosy sufferers who
were forced into isolated leper colonies in Taiwan and Korea by Japan's
imperial government decades ago.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Hezbollah guerrillas
attacked an Israeli military position in a disputed part of the south
Lebanon border, provoking a swift Israeli airstrike on suspected
Hezbollah sites.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Malaysia's national
carmaker Proton renewed its alliance with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors
Corp. with a technical pact that involves jointly developing new
vehicles.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, The Muslim world
erupted in anger after cartoons they found offensive were re-published
in Europe. Streets in Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia,
Palestine, Pakistan and Turkey filled with demonstrators calling for
boycotts of European goods and burning the flag of Denmark, where the
cartoons first appeared.
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 3, A pro-government
candidate in Nepal's municipal election died after being shot by
communist rebels, the 2nd person to be assassinated ahead of next
week's polls.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 3, Foreign Minister Ben
Bot said Netherlands will send 1,200 additional troops to Afghanistan,
the day after parliament gave the green light to the deployment.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, North and South Korea
agreed to hold military talks on the level of generals for the first
time in nearly two years and the South said they would focus on
preventing naval clashes.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Russia Stanislav
Dmitriyevsky, the head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society in
Nizhny Novgorod, was convicted of inciting ethnic hatred, a verdict he
condemned as part of a state assault on non-governmental organizations.
Dmitriyevsky had campaigned against rights abuses in Chechnya.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Mas Selamat Kastari,
Singapore's most-wanted man, believed to have planned bomb and
plane-crash attacks on the island's airport, was deported to Singapore
following his arrest in Indonesia under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
(Reuters, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 3, The $10 million
Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves Iraq" opened in Turkey. It fed off
the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbored toward
Americans. In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American
soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in
front of his mother.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, Some 55,000 Darfuris
fled Janjaweed attacks in Mershing, Sudan. Panic-stricken refugees
stampeded, trampling to death about 13 infants. Another 220 children
disappeared during the flight.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/s4pj4)
2006 Feb 3, The UN Security
Council authorized planning for the expected UN takeover of
peacekeeping operations in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Jamal al-Badawi, a man
considered a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors
in a Yemeni port in 2000, was among 23 people who escaped from a Yemen
prison. At least 13 of the 23 escapees were convicted al-Qaida
fighters, who escaped via a 140-yard-long tunnel dug by the prisoners
and co-conspirators outside.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Arkansas Jacob D.
Robida (18) shot himself after he killed a Gassville police officer and
a woman in his car. Robida died the next day. 2 days earlier Robida had
used a hatchet and a gun to attack 3 patrons at a gay bar in Mass.
(AP, 2/3/06)(AP, 2/5/06)(SFC, 2/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 4, In Southern California
nearly 2,000 inmates rioted at the Castaic North County Correctional
Facility, throwing mattresses and banging heads against bunk beds, in
an uproar that officials said stemmed from racial tensions. One inmate
was killed.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Betty Friedan (85),
feminist crusader and author of “The Feminine Mystique” (1963), died at
her home in Washington. In 1966 she co-founded the National
organization for Women (NOW).
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A6)(Econ, 2/11/06, p.82)
2006 Feb 4, About 250 Afghan
forces fought more than 200 rebels in the area's fiercest fighting in
months. At least 19 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a land
mine ripped through a police vehicle, killing six officers and wounding
four in Kandahar.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
thousands of fans surged through security barriers at an autograph
session for a wildly popular Mexican band, leaving three people crushed
to death and 38 injured.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Dumarsais Simeus (65),
a presidential candidate whose name was dropped from the ballot despite
two Haitian Supreme Court rulings, said the interim president, the
prime minister and the electoral council should be jailed.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, Indian airport workers
called off a four-day anti-privatization strike that had created chaos
at the nation's airports after the government promised them job
security.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, The ISNA news agency
reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the
cancellation of economic contracts with countries where the media have
carried cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, The UN nuclear
watchdog reported Iran to the UN Security Council in a resolution
expressing concern that Tehran's nuclear program may not be
"exclusively for peaceful purposes." Iran retaliated immediately,
saying it would resume uranium enrichment at its main plant instead of
in Russia.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, A three-day energy
meeting in Mexico City wrapped up after moving to a Mexican-owned
hotel. It was the first private-sector oil summit between Cuba and the
US. The meeting between Cuban officials and US energy executives was
moved to another hotel after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton asked the
Cubans to leave. On Feb 6 Mexico launched an investigation into whether
the US government pressured the American-owned hotel into expelling
Cuban guests.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 4, A Palestinian man
stabbed five people on a minibus in central Israel, killing one woman
before passengers subdued him.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Jihad Momani, a
Jordanian tabloid editor, was arrested after his newspaper published
controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, while an
investigation was launched into a second weekly newspaper that also
printed the cartoons. Momani, editor-in-chief of the weekly gossip
newspaper Shihane, was fired from his job the previous day.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, In the Philippines
thousands of people lined up outside a stadium near Manila to watch a
TV game show surged toward the gates in the mistaken belief they were
open, and at least 88 people were trampled to death. Over 300 people
were injured.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, Rage against
caricatures of Islam's revered prophet poured out across the Muslim
world. Aggrieved believers in Syria called for executions, stormed,
European buildings and torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in
Damascus. In Gaza Palestinians marched through the streets, storming
European buildings and burning German and Danish flags.
(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 2/4/07)
2006 Feb 4, Tens of thousands of
people filled a plaza near the Thai parliament, chanting slogans
demanding that PM Thaksin Shinawatra step down amid allegations of
official corruption. Thaksin said he would step down if the king asked.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 5, In Detroit, Mich., the
Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl over the Seattle Seahawks 21-10.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 5, Alan Shalleck,
writer and director, was beaten and stabbed to death at his Boynton
Beach home in West Palm Beach, Fla. He had collaborated with the
co-creator of "Curious George" to bring the mischievous monkey to TV
and a series of book sequels. In 2007 Rex Ditto (31) pleaded guilty and
was sentenced to life in prison for killing. His co-defendant and
former lover, Vincent Puglisi (56) was scheduled for trial in early
2008.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2006 Feb 5, Jacob Robida,
suspected of an attack at a Massachusetts gay bar, the killing of an
Arkansas officer and the slaying of a mother of three, was mortally
wounded in a shootout with authorities.
(AP, 2/5/07)
2006 Feb 5, Actor Franklin Cover
(“The Jeffersons”) died in Englewood, N.J., at age 77.
(AP, 2/5/07)
2006 Feb 5, In Afghanistan 172
Taliban and other Islamist fighters surrendered as part of a government
amnesty scheme, vowing to lay down arms and work to rebuild the country.
(AFP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, In Bangladesh at least
40,000 opposition supporters converged on Dhaka to demand the ouster of
the government after a three-day protest march marked by heavy security
and the arrest of key activists.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Cambodia's king
pardoned exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy who was sentenced to jail
for defamation, in a move officials said was at the request of PM Hun
Sen.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Costa Rica held
elections and former pres. Oscar Arias was expected to win.
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A19)
2006 Feb 5, Iran ended all
voluntary cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog but said it was open
to a proposal to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia, softening its
earlier response to being reported to the Security Council over fears
it wants to produce nuclear arms.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, The head of a
government watchdog agency said Iraqi authorities issued arrest
warrants for Meshaan al-Jiburi, a Sunni Arab member of parliament and
his son, Yazin, accusing them of embezzling millions of dollars meant
to protect vulnerable oil pipelines.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, In Iraq the
bullet-riddled bodies of two Shiites were found in the latest round of
killings between rival Sunni and Shiite groups.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Israeli aircraft fired
three missiles at a building used by militants in Gaza City, killing
three people and wounding five.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Israel agreed to make
a crucial payment of $54 million in tax and customs revenues to the
Palestinians, but officials said future transfers will be halted once
Hamas militants form the next Palestinian government.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Thousands of Muslims
rampaged in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish
flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church as violent
protests spread over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, A general strike
called by communist rebels to disrupt elections in Nepal forced schools
and markets to close, and highways and city streets remained deserted
in much of this Himalayan nation.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb ripped through a passenger bus, killing at least 13
people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Andrea Santoro (60),
an Italian Roman Catholic priest, was shot dead in his Santa Maria
church by a 16-year-old boy in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon.
In 2007 the teen was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison, but was
expected to serve only 10.
(AP, 2/5/06)(AP, 10/4/07)
2006 Feb 6, President George W.
Bush proposed a $2.77 trillion budget for 2007 that cuts domestic
programs from Medicare to community policing while bolstering security
spending, even as he seeks to tame a soaring deficit. The budget
reduced funding for the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps,
created by Pres. Clinton in 1993, from $27 million to $5 million with
the goal of closing it down.
(AP, 2/6/06)(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A5)
2006 Feb 6, US Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales defended the Bush administration's eavesdropping
program before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Terrorist conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui disrupted the opening of his sentencing trial in
Alexandria, Va., and was tossed out of court.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2006 Feb 6, Prosper.com, an
Internet company to link borrowers and lenders, went live with its
website. Chris Larsen, co-founder of Pleasanton’s E-Loan, co-founded
Prosper backed by $20 million in venture capital. Puerto Rican bank
Popular Inc. purchase E-loan for $300 million in 2005.
(SFC, 3/6/06, p.C1)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.79)
2006 Feb 6, Royal Caribbean Intl.
announced that it has ordered the world’s largest and most expense
cruise ship. The $1.24 billion ship, capable of holding 6,400
passengers, will be built by Norway’s Aker Yards.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Feb 6, Afghan security forces
opened fire on demonstrators, leaving at least four dead, as
increasingly violent protests erupted around the world over published
caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. European and Muslim
politicians pleaded for calm.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, A US soldier was
killed when his patrol came under attack in central Afghanistan while a
militant was killed in a separate incident in the east.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, Police investigating
the deaths of 13 hospital patients in eastern Australia on Monday
recommended charging Dr. Jayant Patel, an Indian-born American surgeon,
with four counts of manslaughter and six counts of grievous bodily harm.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, Australian police
arrested three men over a shipment of almost 46 kilograms (101 pounds)
of crystal methamphetamine hidden in a speedboat imported from Canada.
(AFP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Canada Stephen
Harper, dismissed less than two years ago as unelectable, was sworn in
as the country's 22nd PM.
(CP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, China’s banking
watchdog said it unearthed irregularities involving some $95 billion at
mainland banks in 2005.
(WSJ, 2/7/06, p.A13)
2006 Feb 6, In Costa Rica with 78%
of the votes counted, former president Arias had 40.7% compared to 40
percent for opposition figure Otton Solis of the Citizens' Action Party.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, Analysts and companies
said the boycott of Danish goods called by Islamic countries to protest
the publication of Prophet Muhammad caricatures was costing Danish
businesses more than $1 million a day.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, El Salvador said it
will send another contingent of 380 soldiers to Iraq, making it the
country's sixth group to serve six-month rotations in the war-torn
nation.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, Isabelle Dinoire, the
Frenchwoman who'd received the world's first partial face transplant,
showed off her new features at a news conference.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2006 Feb 6, Public employees in
the southern German state of Baden Wuerttemberg walked off the job in
protest of plans to make them work longer without increasing their pay.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, India's benchmark
stock index charged past the 10,000 mark for the first time, but
couldn't hold the level and ended at 9,980.42, still a record close.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, Austrian and Danish
embassies in Iran were attacked in protests over the publication of
Prophet Muhammad caricatures.
(WSJ, 2/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 6, Police uncovered the
bullet-riddled bodies of two Sunni brothers in Baghdad. Gunmen also
shot and killed a retired teacher, aged 60, and wounded his son in
another drive-by shooting in southern Baghdad. Drive-by gunmen and
roadside bombs killed at least 11 people across Iraq.
(AP, 2/6/06)(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Iraq 3 US Marines
were killed by a bomb blast in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad. Another
Marine died from wounds caused by a bomb blast a day earlier in an
unspecified location within Anbar province.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Rome, Italy, a bus
loaded with Turkish tourists veered off a road in the Italian capital
and slid about 50 feet down a ravine, killing 12 people.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, Israeli forces fired a
missile at a car in the northern Gaza Strip after nightfall killing two
Palestinian militants, including a man described as a senior commander.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Ivory Coast 12
villagers were shot and hacked to death in an apparent grudge attack
over a pay dispute not far from the western town of Guiglo.
(Reuters, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 6, Japanese electronics
maker Toshiba Corp. said that it was buying nuclear plant builder
Westinghouse Electric Co., the US-based unit of the British
government's British Nuclear Fuels PLC, for $5.4 billion.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Morocco police
broke up an international network helping Indians migrate illegally to
Europe with 70 arrests.
(AFP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, John Sawyers,
political director of the British foreign office, told a group of
Kosovo Serbs that the contact group of 5 western countries had decided
that Kosovo should have independence.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.50)
2006 Feb 6, Sudanese officials
said some seven people were killed in southern Sudan in recent clashes
between renegade armed militias and the south Sudan army, despite a
2005 peace deal to end Africa's longest civil war there.
(Reuters, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan announced he was establishing a foundation for agriculture
and women's education in his home continent of Africa as he received a
500,000-dollar environment prize.
(AFP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 7, The US Dept. of
Defense submitted a budget request for $439.3 billion for FY 2007. This
was over 7% more than for FY 2006.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.29)(http://tinyurl.com/rvmbl)
2006 Feb 7, US federal Judge
Kathryn Ferguson penalized the law firm of Gilbert, Heintz &
Randolph $13 million for conflicts of interest while working on the
Congoleum asbestos bankruptcy, while at the same time representing some
10,000 people with asbestos claims against the New Jersey flooring
manufacturer.
(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.B1)(http://tinyurl.com/lg4qf)
2006 Feb 7, Phoenix Coyotes
assistant coach Rick Tocchet was charged with financing a nationwide
gambling ring based out of New Jersey.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2006 Feb 7, SF Supervisor Chris
Daly placed a resolution on the board’s consent calendar calling for
the impeachment of Pres. Bush and VP Cheney.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B1)
2006 Feb 7, Alabama state
officials reported four more rural Baptist churches following rash of
suspected arsons that burned five others south of Birmingham last week
[see Feb 3].
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Nevada’s State Gaming
Control Board sent a letter to casinos expressing concern about
“gangster rap.”
(WSJ, 3/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 7, General Motors Corp.,
under shareholder pressure to return to profitability, announced it is
cutting in half its yearly dividend to $1 a share and reducing the
salaries of its chairman and senior leadership team.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Microsoft said it will
offer a new security service to PC users for $49.95 per year.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.C3)
2006 Feb 7, In southern
Afghanistan a suspected suicide bomber blew up a guard post outside
police headquarters in Kandahar, killing 13 people and wounded 11.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, In western Afghanistan
a Turkish engineer, an Indian national and their driver were killed
when a bomb struck their vehicle.
(AFP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, NATO peacekeepers
exchanged fire with protesters who attacked their base in the second
straight day of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan over the
publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. One demonstrator
was killed and dozens wounded.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Mario Condello (53),
an Australian underworld figure due to face court on incitement to
murder charges, was shot dead in his driveway overnight, bringing the
toll in a gangland war to 28. Melbourne's gang war began in 1998 when
self-styled "Godfather" Alphonse Gangitano, 40, was shot dead in his
laundry.
(Reuters, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales asked the US to reconsider a proposed cut in anti-drug aid,
and called on the world to strengthen drug-fighting alliances.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Indians from Brazil
and four other South American countries called for the "resurrection"
of an Indian nation, the 250th anniversary of the killing of a tribal
chief by European soldiers.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, A British jury
convicted firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri of inciting
followers to kill non-Muslims in speeches at his London mosque, which
has been linked to Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe
bomber" Richard Reid.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Officials in Canada
announced an agreement to close 5 million acres in British Columbia’s
Great Bear Rain Forest to logging. Loggers will be guaranteed a right
to selectively cut in 10 million acres of the forest.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 7, An apparent gas
explosion destroyed a two-story military barracks in Chechnya, killing
at least two people and injuring 32.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, An aid group that
provides food to tens of thousands of people in war-ravaged Chechnya
suspended its operations after Chechen officials banned all Danish
organizations because of the publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Ramon Isaza (65), a
founder of Colombia's anti-rebel paramilitary movement, laid down his
weapon, ending nearly three decades of outlawed, jungle warfare. Isaza
was joined by 990 fighters from his Medio Magdalena Bloc of the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, handing over 754 weapons, 15
vehicles and abundant munitions.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Costa Rican electoral
officials began counting votes by hand in a laborious effort to
determine the winner of one of the country's closest presidential races
in history.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, In Germany Mounir el
Motassadeq (31), a Moroccan convicted of belonging to a terrorist cell
that included three Sept. 11 hijackers, was freed from prison after a
federal court ruled he shouldn't be jailed with appeals still pending.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Haitians jammed
polling stations as UN peacekeepers fanned out to guard the country's
first presidential election in nearly six years.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, In Indonesia
scientists exploring an isolated jungle in remote Papua province
reported the discovery of dozens of new species of frogs, butterflies
and plants, as well as mammals hunted to near extinction elsewhere.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, A prominent Iranian
newspaper said it would hold a competition for cartoons on the
Holocaust to test whether the West extends the principle of freedom of
expression to the Nazi genocide as it did to the caricatures of the
Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Masked gunmen
assassinated a Sunni Arab cleric who headed the city council in
once-restive city of Fallujah, and two bombs exploded minutes apart
near a central Baghdad square, killing at least seven people and
wounding 20.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, In Ivory Coast the UN
was due to enforce sanctions on three political leaders judged to have
blocked a peace process.
(Reuters, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Kuwait's new Emir
Sheik Sabah Al Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah (76) turned to his brother,
Sheik Nawwaf Al Ahmed Al Sabah (68), as the new crown prince and
successor to the throne. Sheik Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah (65) was
appointed PM and directed to form a new government.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, The owner of a Mexican
newspaper in Nuevo Laredo said there will be no more investigative
coverage of drug gangs, a day after the paper's offices were sprayed
with bullets and a reporter hospitalized with five gunshots.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, In Nepal Communist
rebels killed at least seven security forces and wounded 15 in two
overnight attacks. Government troops were given orders to shoot anyone
who tries to disrupt municipal elections.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, A ship with 2,000 tons
of donated rice from India arrived in North Korea. The Indian
government has donated humanitarian aid, including food and medicine,
to North Korea on nine occasions since 1995.
(AFP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Russia announced that
it would pay off a big chunk of its sovereign debt ahead of schedule
this year. Russia also announced plans to forgive $668 million owed to
Moscow by 16 of the world’s highly indebted countries.
(WSJ, 2/8/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 7, It was reported that
Russia’s Yukos oil company, which says it owes $6.3 billion in back tax
claims, has sold a 49 percent stake in Slovak pipeline operator
Transpetrol for $105 million, to Russia’s Russneft oil company.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, South Korean
conglomerate Samsung Group said it would donate more than $800 million
in corporate and private assets to charity as part of an apology for
several recent scandals.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, Chandrika Kumaratunga,
Sri Lanka's former president (1994-2005), returned her expensive
retirement gift, a 1.5 acre (0.68 hectare) area of land near the
national parliament to the state, after legal action was filed against
her.
(AFP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, President Bush
condemned deadly rioting sparked by cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as
he urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading violence.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2006 Feb 8, In the 48th annual
Grammy Awards U2 captured five Grammy awards for their album "How to
Dismantle An Atomic Bomb," including album of the year.
(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A2)(AP, 2/8/07)
2006 Feb 8, The NY Times reported
that Representative Heather Wilson of New Mexico, who chairs the House
Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an
interview that she had "serious concerns" about the Bush
administration's domestic spying program.
(AFP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Steve Fossett (61)
soared out over the Atlantic from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a quest to
break the 25,000-mile record for the world's longest aircraft flight.
The 80-hour voyage would break the airplane distance record of 24,987
miles set in 1986 by the lightweight Voyager aircraft piloted by Dick
Rutan and Jeana Yeager, as well as the balloon record of 25,361 miles
set by the Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, Afghanistan lauded a
decision by the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel its debts
to the three countries, totaling more than $10 billion.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Afghan police shot
four protesters to death to stop hundreds from marching on a southern
US military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly
rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Australia and New
Zealand vowed to work to build a single economic market on the back of
strengthening trade ties, but stopped short of endorsing a single
currency.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, China's Ministry of
Health announced one more human case of bird flu, bringing the number
of the country's confirmed cases in humans to eleven.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, A deputy minister
said Ecuador is not likely to extend a deal that allows the
United States to use an anti-narcotics air base on its territory due to
a surge in sentiment against the American military presence.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Egypt's antiquities
chief announced that American archaeologists from the Univ. of Memphis
have uncovered an 18th Dynasty tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the
first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen’s in 1922. The 18th
Dynasty ruled from around 1560 B.C. to 1085 B.C.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, A dispute over the
fate of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem threatened to ignite
tensions as workers removed skeletons from the site despite Muslim
pleas for the work to end. Israeli developers and archaeologists were
removing the tombs to make room for the Los Angeles-based Simon
Wiesenthal Center to build a multi-million-dollar Museum of Tolerance,
dedicated in part to promoting understanding among different religions.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, The Italian Senate
approved a bill that would dramatically increase the number of women
elected to parliament in a country with one of the lowest number of
female lawmakers in Europe.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, Japan and North Korea
ended five days of high-level talks aimed at establishing diplomatic
relations without any agreements, citing major differences on the
North's abduction of Japanese nationals and its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Kenya’s government and
the UN said Kenya needs $221.5 million in aid to help feed 3.5
million people threatened by starvation due to drought and avoid a
"massive humanitarian catastrophe."
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Libya the leaders
of Sudan and Chad signed a peace agreement to end increasing tension
over Sudan's Darfur region, pledging to normalize diplomatic relations
and deny refuge to each other's rebel groups. A communique issued by
Sudan, Chad and Libya, as well as Burkino Faso, Congo and the Central
African Republic, whose leaders attended the talks, said a committee of
African countries overseen by Libya would monitor the implementation of
the deal.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, A rebel attack and an
army shooting of protesters marred Nepal's first elections in seven
years, as few voters turned out at schools, shrines and temples for
municipal balloting seen as a referendum on the king. At least six
people were killed.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, The World Organization
for Animal Health said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected
on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria, the first reported
outbreak in Africa. Researchers later reported that 3 different strains
of bird flu had entered Nigeria and most closely resembled those
identified in Egypt, Mongolia and Russia.
(AP, 2/8/06)(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 8, Hundreds of
Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in Hebron,
throwing stones and smashing windows as dozens of foreigners were
trapped inside.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Khaled Batch, a leader
of the militant Islamic Jihad group, said the group rejects the idea of
a long-term truce with Israel and will not join a Hamas-led government.
Islamic Jihad, which is believed to be funded, in part, by Iran,
boycotted last month's Palestinian parliament election.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Thailand
skydivers from 31 countries set a new world record of 400 people
holding hands in a midair free-fall formation.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 9, President Bush
outlined details of an alleged plot to hijack an airliner and fly it
into a skyscraper in Los Angeles. The next day security officials and
terrorism experts in Southeast Asia said Malaysian engineer Zaini
Zakaria (38) was among three men al-Qaida was preparing to take part in
an attack on Los Angeles. Zaini has been detained without trial under
the Internal Security Act in Malaysia since he surrendered in December
2002.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 9, The US Treasury Dept.
sold $14 billion of 30-year bonds at 5.52%. The last 30-year auction
was on Aug. 15, 2001.
(SFC, 2/10/06, p.D3)
2006 Feb 9, Neil Entwistle (27), a
British man, whose wife and daughter were found shot dead in their
Massachusetts home, was arrested in Britain and charged with murder.
(AFP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, American International
Group, Inc. (AIG), agreed to pay $1.64 billion to resolve allegations
that it used deceptive accounting practices to mislead investors and
regulatory agencies.
(SFC, 2/10/06, p.D3)
2006 Feb 9, Sir Freddie Laker
(83), pioneer of low-cost airline travel, died in Florida.
(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.A1)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.82)
2006 Feb 9, An Australian inquiry
into alleged kickbacks paid to Iraq under the UN oil-for-food program
claimed its first scalp with the resignation of Andrew Lindberg, the
chief executive of wheat exporter AWB.
(AFP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Afghanistan
hundreds of Shiite Muslims and Sunnis clashed in Herat during an
important Shiite festival, exchanging fire, hurling grenades and
burning mosques. At least five people were killed and 51 injured.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Australian senators
voted to remove an effective ban on abortion drug RU-486.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Tesco, Britain's
biggest retailer and the world's third-biggest retailer, said it is
preparing to take on number-one Wal-Mart on its own turf after
unveiling plans to set up shop in the US next year.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Rene Preval took a
strong lead in Haiti's presidential election, with most of the first
votes counted going to the former president who is seen as a champion
of the poor.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 9, In central Indonesia
an Islamic teacher named Sahal, suspected of involvement in a Southeast
Asian terrorist network, was arrested in the town of Poso.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 9, A roadside bomb blast
killed two US Marines near the western Anbar province city of Fallujah.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 9, Kidnapped American
journalist Jill Carroll appeared in a video aired on a private Kuwaiti
TV channel, appealing for her supporters to do whatever it takes to win
her release and saying "there is a very short time." She was freed on
March 30, 2006.
(AP, 2/9/06)(AP, 2/9/07)
2006 Feb 9, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's government easily won a confidence vote in the Chamber of
Deputies on a bill that included financing the country's military in
Iraq.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, An Italian judge
dismissed an atheist's petition that a small-town priest should stand
trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed. Luigi Cascioli, a
72-year-old retired agronomist, had accused the Rev. Enrico Righi of
violating two laws with the assertion, which he called a deceptive
fable propagated by the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 9, Japanese officials
said 45 cows at a farm in northern Japan were suspected of having mad
cow disease and will be destroyed.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Moroccan state media
reported that the US has handed over three suspected Islamic militants
held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
(Reuters, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Nepal thousands of
opposition protesters flooded the streets of Kathmandu, as early
results showed pro-government candidates sweeping local elections that
were marred by rebel attacks, the shooting of protesters and low
turnout.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Some 58 containers
were swept from the P&O Nedlloyd ship Mondriaan, which got caught
in a storm about 9 miles off the coast of the island of Terschelling,
in the North Sea. The next day thousands of tennis shoes, aluminum
briefcases and children's toys washed onto the beach of a Dutch island,
drawing crowds of treasure-hunting residents.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 9, Health authorities
imposed a quarantine on poultry farms across northern Nigeria. 2 more
states reported cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
(AP, 2/9/06)(SFC, 2/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Feb 9, North Korea has
requested 150,000 tons of fertilizer from South Korea, months after it
demanded that the UN World Food Program halt emergency food shipments.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Pakistan’s
Northwest Frontier province a suspected suicide bombing and gunfire
killed at least 29 minority Shiite Muslims and gunmen killed at least
four more people in an attack on a bus in Hangu.
(AP, 2/9/06)(SFC, 2/10/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 9, Palestinian
prosecutors froze bank accounts and seized assets of dozens of suspects
in a widening corruption probe of senior government officials believed
to have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Two masked gunmen shot
out the tires of a diplomatic vehicle and kidnapped Egypt's military
attache to the Palestinian Authority, in a brazen daylight abduction
just outside the heavily guarded Egyptian mission in Gaza City.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Russian President
Vladimir Putin invited leaders of Hamas to Moscow, saying his country
does not see the Palestinian group as a terrorist organization.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Spanish police in
Madrid arrested Ricardo Taddei (63), a former Argentine police officer,
wanted in connection with kidnappings and torture during his country's
"dirty war" against leftist dissidents.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Turkey a bomb
attack wounded at least 17 people at an Internet cafe in Istanbul. A
hardline Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez unleashed more criticism toward President Bush and accused
the US and Britain of planning to invade Iran.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 10, Former federal
disaster chief Michael Brown told a Senate committee he had alerted the
White House to how bad things were in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,
and agreed with senators who said he'd been made a scapegoat for
government failures.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2006 Feb 10, The FBI and the
California attorney general’s office said they had begun investigations
in the theft by an int’l. counterfeiting ring of debit card numbers
belonging to as many as 200,000 consumers.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 10, J Dilla (32), a
founding member of hip-hop act Slum Village, died in Los Angeles. The
Detroit-hailing rapper/producer succumbed to complications from lupus.
(Reuters, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 10, Dr. Norman Shumway
(83), who performed the first successful heart transplant in the U.S.,
died in Palo Alto, Calif.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2006 Feb 10, In Afghanistan 8
soldiers were killed in an area NATO peacekeepers were set to enter.
(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 10, Tens of thousands of
Muslims demonstrated against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in
Afghanistan, Kenya, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A12)
2006 Feb 10, The presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated one-on-one on ways to end the 18-year
conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but reached no
conclusion and planned more talks.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Azerbaijan’s Health
Ministry said a British laboratory had confirmed the H5N1 strain of
bird flu in wild ducks and swans on its Absheron Peninsula. WHO said 88
people have died from bird flu since 2003.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A8)
2006 Feb 10, Sam Rainsy, an exiled
Cambodian opposition leader, returned home to cheering crowds of
supporters after a royal pardon ended his long feud with PM Hun Sen.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, China's Ministry of
Health said a woman had died of bird flu in the central province of
Hunan, the eighth person killed by the virus in the country.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Volkswagen announced
that it would cut up to 20,000 jobs over the next 3 years from its
western German workforce of 103,000, as well as demanding longer hours
for no extra pay. The company share price rose 15% on the announcement.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.57)
2006 Feb 10, Greece and Italy said
they had found swans with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first known
cases in the European Union of wild birds with the deadly strain of the
disease.
(Reuters, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 10, Hong Kong’s
government announced that a dead chicken and Japanese White-eye found
in Hong Kong have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird
flu.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, In northern India
Swami Sadanand Sant Gyaneshwar, a Hindu religious leader, and seven of
his followers were shot and killed near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh
state.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 10, A car bomb exploded
outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 8 people.
Masked gunmen appeared at the scene later, killing one woman and
wounding several other people near the blast-damaged building.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Opening ceremonies
were held in Turin, Italy, for the 20th Winter Olympics. Cross-country
skier and gold medalist Stefania Belmondo lit the caldron.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/10/07)
2006 Feb 10, A leading marine
conservation organization said Japan's stock of whale meat from hunting
for scientific research is so large that the country has begun selling
it as dog food.
(Reuters, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Kosovo lawmakers
elected Fatmir Sejdiu (54), a moderate new president, paving the way
for the start of talks on the province's future status.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Myanmar government
officials said Win Aung, a former foreign minister ousted in a Cabinet
reshuffle by the country's ruling military junta, has been put on trial
for corruption charges.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, In western Nepal
communist rebels clashed with soldiers, leaving seven people dead, as
the royal government announced its mostly uncontested candidates swept
discredited local elections.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, The editor of a small
Christian newspaper in Norway apologized for offending Muslims by
reprinting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in January.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, In northwestern
Pakistan Shiites and Sunnis battled each other with rockets and
gunfire, raising the death toll of two days of Muslim sectarian
violence to 38.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, FBI agents in Puerto
Rico searched five homes and a business to thwart what the agency said
was a "domestic terrorist attack" planned by militants favoring
independence for the US island territory.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, In southern Russia 2
days of fighting in a town in the Stavropol region, 25 miles north of
Chechnya, left 12 suspected rebels and seven policemen dead.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Sicily NATO
defense ministers sought to calm Islamic anger over cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad at a counterterrorism meeting with Arab countries
including Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and
Mauritania.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Turkey a Syrian
was charged with masterminding suicide bombings that killed 58 people
in Istanbul, and Turkish prosecutors claimed that Osama bin Laden
personally ordered him to carry out terror attacks in this pro-Western
country. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa (32) was accused of serving as
a point man between al-Qaida and homegrown militants behind the series
of suicide bombings in Istanbul in 2003, said the indictment. It said
al-Saqa gave the Turkish militants about $170,000. He was captured in
Turkey in August after an alleged failed plot to attack Israeli cruise
ships in the Mediterranean.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, The UN said
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sent Ivory Coast President Laurent
Gbagbo a $3.6 million bill for UN property and equipment damaged or
lost during January riots.
(Reuters, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 11, Vice President Dick
Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington (78), a hunting companion,
during a weekend quail hunting trip at the 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch
in Texas. Whittington, peppered with bird shot, was in stable condition.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 11, Dubai Ports World, a
state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, won approval from a
secretive US panel for a $6.8 billion deal to take over operations at
six American ports.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2006 Feb 11, Adventurer Steve
Fossett completed the longest nonstop flight in aviation history,
flying 26,389 miles in about 76 hours, but he had to land early in
southern England because of mechanical problems.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, It was reported that
the town of Hull was one of many in central Iowa whose groundwater has
been contaminated by farm chemicals. It pinned hopes for its future
water supply on the new Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, due to open
in 2018. The system planned to pump Missouri River water across South
Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.33)
2006 Feb 11, Peter Benchley (65),
"Jaws" author, died in Princeton, N.J.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2006 Feb 11, The presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach agreement after two days of
talks on how to end the bloody conflict over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Nova Scotia's
Conservative party chose Cape Bretoner Rodney MacDonald, a professional
fiddler and former gym teacher, as their leader and the province's new
premier following a dramatic convention in Halifax.
(CP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Denmark said it has
temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia
because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper's
publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, An Egyptian diplomat
abducted at gunpoint in the Gaza Strip was released.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, In Indian Kashmir 8
people, including three security personnel, were killed in separate
overnight clashes and rebel attacks. An Islamic separatist women's
group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed
to prevent couples celebrating Valentine's Day.
(AFP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Iran's president
rejected US and European pressure to freeze the country's nuclear
program and hinted that Iran may withdraw from the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, An Iraqi army
spokesman was assassinated in Basra.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Italy dissolved its
parliament and scheduled elections for early April, opening a campaign
that pits Premier Silvio Berlusconi against a strong center-left
opponent.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, American Chad Hedrick
won the 5,000 meters in speedskating at the Olympics in Turin, Italy.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2006 Feb 11, Altynbek Sarsenbayev
(43), a Kazakh former minister and leading member of the political
opposition, was abducted in Almaty. He was found shot dead 2 days later
along with his bodyguard and driver later near Almaty. Sarsenbaev held
a senior position in Alban, a subdivision of the Elder Horde, one of
Kazakhstan’s 3 great traditional tribal groupings. Relatives and
supporters of Sarsenbayev accused authorities of covering up for those
behind the high-profile killing as 10 defendants faced trial on June 15.
(AP, 2/13/06)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.44)(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Feb 11, In Pakistan tribal
insurgents killed three soldiers and injured 10 others in two attacks
on paramilitary forces in southwestern Baluchistan province.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Suspected US military
fire struck the tent of a nomad family on the Pakistan side of the
rugged border with Afghanistan, killing two women and injuring at least
four children.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 11, In Moscow G-8 finance
ministers called for stepped up efforts to ensure a stable worldwide
energy supply.
(SSFC, 2/12/06, p.A23)
2006 Feb 11, In Sri Lanka a
suspected separatist rebel boat carrying explosives blew up, apparently
killing at least four men on board.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 11, In southern Sudan a
military transport plane blew a tire while landing at Aweil, swerved
off the runway and exploded, killing all 20 people on board.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 11, Thailand's PM
Shinawatra, facing growing calls for his resignation, agreed to hold a
national referendum on amending the country's constitution.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11-2006 Feb 15, The
Pacific archipelago of Tokelau, population ~1,500, voted in a
referendum (349-232) to remain as a territory of New Zealand rather
than becoming a self-governing state in free association with New
Zealand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau_self-determination_referendum,_2006)
2006 Feb 11, In Tunis US Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and leaders of Tunisia pledged to build
closer military ties to help combat Islamic extremism.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, It was reported that
drought in northern Vietnam threatened 740,000 acres of rice as the
level of the Red River continued to fall to its lowest level in over
100 years.
(SFC, 6/4/04, A1)
2006 Feb 12, A major storm slammed
the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states with nearly 2 feet of windblown
snow, nearing record levels as it blacked out thousands of customers
and shut down air travel from Washington to Boston. A record 26.9
inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park.
(AP, 2/12/06)(AP, 2/12/07)
2006 Feb 12, In Kansas, Toby Young
(48), a married mother and dog trainer, helped John Manard (27), a man
convicted of felony murder, escape from a Lansing Correctional
Facility. They were caught Feb 24 in Tennessee. Young was sentenced to
27 months in prison. Manard was given an additional 10 years to his
life sentence.
(SFC, 2/17/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 2/9/08, p.A1)
2006 Feb 12, In Algiers Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with senior government leaders on what
Pentagon officials said they believe to be the first visit to Algeria
by a US defense secretary.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Bangladesh's main
opposition party the Awami League ended its 13-month boycott of
parliament and tabled proposals to reform the country's election system.
(AFP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Jan Egeland, UN
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said the
international community must provide $680 million in aid for Congo this
year to stop a humanitarian disaster that kills as many people as the
2004 Asian tsunami every six months.
(Reuters, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Greek archaeologists
said they had discovered the largest underground tomb in Greek
antiquity in the ancient northern city of Pella, birthplace of
Alexander the Great.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Iran reaffirmed its
commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a day after its
hard-line president implied Tehran was considering withdrawing from the
pact after being reported to the UN Security Council.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Shiite lawmakers
chose incumbent Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be Iraq's new prime minister,
taking a key step in forming a government nearly two months after
national elections.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Video images of
British soldiers allegedly beating Iraqi youths with batons and fists
aired throughout the Middle East and Britain, outraging locals and
prompting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to vow a full investigation.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Bomb blasts and
shootings killed at least three people in Baghdad and north of the
Iraqi capital, including an Education Ministry official and an elderly
woman. At least 22 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Injured figure skater
Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Turin Olympics (she was replaced on the
US team by Emily Hughes). Snowboarding superstar Shaun White, known as
"The Flying Tomato," beat American teammate Danny Kass to win the
Olympic gold medal.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2006 Feb 12, Myanmar's leader
Senior General Than Shwe lashed out at the US and the EU over their
sanctions against his regime, amid rising global pressure for it to
reform.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, In South Africa
British PM Tony Blair, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
and 5 other leaders pledged to push for a new global trade deal that
will help poor countries. The 2-day summit in Hammanskraal was the 7th
meeting of center-left leaders since the Progressive Governance Network
was created in 1999 by Blair and former US president Bill Clinton. Also
attending were South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, South Korean PM Lee
Hae-Chan, Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi, Swedish PM Goeran Persson and New
Zealand PM Helen Clark.
(AFP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 13, US government
investigators told the Senate that FEMA has let nearly 11,000 unused
manufactured homes deteriorate on old runways and open fields in
Arkansas, and spent $416,000 per person to house a few hundred
Hurricane Katrina evacuees for a short time in Alabama last fall.
Auditors reported that millions of dollars in disaster aid had been
squandered, paying for such items as a $450 tattoo and $375-a-day
beachfront condos.
(USAT, 2/14/06)(AP, 2/13/07)
2006 Feb 13, Joey Cheek (26),
American speedskater, won a gold medal in the 500-meter sprint in
Turin, Italy, and announced that he would donate his $25,000 award from
the US Olympic Committee Olympic Aid, founded by Olav Koss in 1994 and
direct it to a refugee program in Chad. Hannah Teter won gold and
Gretchen Bleiler won silver in the halfpipe. Tatiana Totmianina and
Maxim Marinin won the gold medal in pairs figure skating, extending
Russia's four-decade dominance of the event.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/13/07)
2006 Feb 13, A bomb hit a US
military vehicle in central Afghanistan, killing four American troops.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, President Evo Morales
appealed to the Bush administration to extradite a former President
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who fled to the US amid an uprising that
left about 60 people dead after a military crackdown on demonstrators.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva created two new national parks in the Amazon
rain forest and expanded another to protect an environmentally
sensitive region where the government plans a major highway project.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 13, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw and his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa,
agreed to boost economic ties between the two countries and hold an
annual business forum to this end.
(AFP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, Testimony presented
in an annual UN human rights report said Colombian security forces had
killed civilians and covered it up by dressing the bodies as Marxist
guerrillas.
(Reuters, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, The UN launched a
$680 million aid plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo, complaining
the world remained ignorant of what it called the worst humanitarian
crisis since World War Two.
(Reuters, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, DP World, a ports
operator owned by the government of Dubai (UAR), paid $6.8 billion to
acquire P&O, a British firm which runs a global network of maritime
terminals including 6 American ports.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.33)
2006 Feb 13, Ilan Halimi (23), a
young Jewish man, was killed in a Paris suburb after being Kidnapped on
Jan 21 and tortured for 24 days. The trial of a self-proclaimed "gang
of barbarians" accused of killing him went on trial in 2009. Among the
27 defendants was the girl who is alleged to have been used as bait to
capture Halimi and young men accused of taking part in the abduction
and guarding the captive. Youssouf Fofana, the leader of the
"barbarians," fled to the Ivory Coast but was extradited to France on
March 4, 2006.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2006 Feb 13, In Germany some
22,000 public workers in 8 of 16 federal states stopped work to protest
an expanded workweek with no increase in pay.
(WSJ, 2/13/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 13, In Haiti election
results showed the former president Preval slipping further below the
50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Indonesia 2
Australians were sentenced to life in prison for trying to smuggle
heroin from the Indonesian resort island of Bali to their homeland.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, Diplomats said Iran
has started small-scale enrichment of uranium, a process that can
produce fuel for nuclear reactors or bombs. Talks with Moscow on moving
Iranian enrichment to Russia as a way ensuring Iran has no direct
control were put on indefinite hold.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Baghdad a suicide
bomber detonated an explosive belt in a line of Iraqis waiting to
receive government payments, killing 8 people and wounding about 30,
including children. 11 other people were killed in attacks elsewhere in
the country, including five members of a Shiite religious party and
four policemen, among them a colonel.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Monterrey, Mexico,
2 police chiefs, Hector Ayala and Javier Garcia, were shot and killed
within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region near the US
where drug smugglers have been battling for control of key routes
across the border.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Nepal a
controversial anti-corruption body set up by Nepal's King Gyanendra was
dissolved, paving the way for the release of jailed ousted PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba.
(AFP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, A transit strike in
Managua, Nicaragua, entered a 2nd week, as workers demanded that the
government subsidize their fuel and gas prices.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A5)
2006 Feb 13, In northwestern
Pakistan police fired tear gas and wielded batons to stop about 7,000
students protesting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from marching on
the governor's residence.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Lahore gunmen on a
motorcycle killed Ahmad Javed Khawaja (72), a Pakistani doctor who
spent six months in jail on suspicions of harboring al-Qaida suspects
and possessing illegal weapons.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, The outgoing
Palestinian parliament passed legislation giving Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas the power to appoint a court that could veto legislation
passed by the new Hamas-led parliament to be sworn in this week.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In North Ossetia 6
women whose relatives were victims of the 2004 Beslan school hostage
seizure were on hunger strike for a fifth day, protesting what they say
are efforts by authorities to prematurely end the trial of the only
alleged remaining attacker.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Spain survivors
and relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks worldwide gathered
to share stories of their common tragedy, discuss ways to fight the
scourge and hear what governments plan to do to make their citizens
safer.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Turkey a bomb
exploded at an Istanbul supermarket during the afternoon rush, injuring
15 people. A Kurdish news agency reported that a Kurdish militant group
claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 14, The Bush
administration announced it will step up enforcement of US trade laws
governing China, following a top-to-bottom review of America's trading
relationship with the Asian giant.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, The NY Times reported
that the US and Israel are considering a campaign to starve the
Palestinian Authority of cash so Palestinians would grow disillusioned
with their incoming militant Hamas rulers and return ousted Fatah
moderates to power.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Texas lawyer Harry
Whittington, who was accidentally injured 3 days earlier by birdshot
fired by VP Cheney, suffered a minor heart attack.
(SFC, 2/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 14, Pharmaceutical maker
AstraZeneca PLC said that it has decided to withdraw its controversial
anticoagulant Exanta from the market and terminate its development
because of links to liver injury.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Sanyo and Nokia
announced they will set up a joint venture to make advanced cell
phones, underlining the ambitions of the Japanese and Finnish
manufacturers to grow globally in the competitive mobile market.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, The UNHCR said the
floods last week left more than 50,000 Sahrawi refugees homeless,
destroying up to half of the mud-brick houses in their camps of Awserd,
Smara and Laayoune in the Tindouf region of western Algeria. Tents,
blankets and other emergency aid were being rushed to the camps in the
Algerian Sahara hit by rare torrential rains.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 14, Two Australians were
sentenced to death by firing squad for leading a drug smuggling ring on
Indonesia's resort island of Bali, verdicts that could strain ties
between the countries. Andrew Chan (22) and Myuran Sukumaran (24) had
masterminded the trafficking of 18 pounds of heroin to their homeland.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Porto Alegre,
Brazil, leaders and envoys from across Christianity opened their most
ambitious gathering in nearly a decade with a host of troubles on their
agenda, from the faith's many internal rifts to easing discord with
Islam, even as it deepens over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Britain's lower house
of Parliament voted to ban smoking in all public places in England,
including pubs, both public and private.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In southern China
toxic wastewater was flushed untreated into a river, prompting the
government to cut water supplies to 28,000 people in Guanyin for at
least four days. A power plant on the upper reaches of the Yuexi River
in Sichuan province was to blame for the pollution.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 14, The Egyptian
parliament approved the two-year postponement of municipal polls
despite objections from opposition Islamists and the US. President
Hosni Mubarak issued a decree last week calling for the delay of the
elections which was passed by parliament's upper chamber on Feb 12 and
approved this day in two readings by the lower chamber.
(AFP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 14, The UN said 13
Eritreans employed by the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea have been
detained by local authorities and another 30 are in hiding for fear of
being arrested.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Iran said it had
resumed uranium enrichment; Russia and France immediately called on
Iran to halt its work.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2006 Feb 14, Gunmen attacked a
group of Iraqi Shiites working on a farm north of Baghdad, killing 11
and wounding two. A roadside bomb killed a US Marine in western Baghdad
in one of two attacks that also wounded six coalition military
personnel.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, An Israeli court
sentenced the eldest son of ailing PM Ariel Sharon to 9 months in jail
after he pleaded guilty to illegally raising funds for one of his
father's political campaigns.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, At Turin, American
Ted Ligety won Olympic gold in men's combined skiing, while Bode Miller
was disqualified for straddling a gate.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2006 Feb 14, The UN asked Lebanon
to explain reports of arms shipments crossing the Syrian border
destined for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, armed men forced their way into a hospital and killed a
teenager under treatment for an earlier attempt on his life.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 14, Bilal Lamrani (21), a
Dutch Muslim, was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting
murder and attempting to recruit prison inmates to carry out terrorist
attacks.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Pakistan thousands
of protesters rampaged through Islamabad and Lahore, storming into a
diplomatic district and torching Western businesses and a provincial
assembly in Pakistan's worst violence against the Prophet Muhammad
drawings. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, A senior Russian
official said Russia will not pay more to base its Black Sea Fleet in a
Ukrainian port, rebuffing Ukrainian demands and setting the stage for
the latest dispute between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Darfur rebels said
they had shot down a government helicopter and captured the only
surviving crew member, named as Captain Muawiya Zubeir.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Zimbabwe police
arrested at least 60 women who took part in a march with a Valentine's
Day theme calling for love and harmony and protesting food shortages
and alleged human rights violations.
(CP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 15, Vice President Dick
Cheney accepted blame for accidentally shooting a hunting companion,
calling it “one of the worst days of my life,” but was defiantly
unapologetic in a Fox News Channel interview about not publicly
disclosing the accident until the next day.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2006 Feb 15, A US Republican-led
House committee report, “A Failure of Initiative,” cited major failures
at all levels of government in the handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Several top Bush administration officials were singled out for
criticism. Testifying before the Senate, Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff acknowledged delayed aid and fumbled coordination in
the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/15/07)
2006 Feb 15, Members of Congress
blasted four US tech giants (Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Cisco Systems
Inc. and Google Inc.) accusing the companies of willingly helping China
oppress internal dissent in return for access to a booming Internet
market.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Ben Bernanke made his
debut before the US Congress as Federal Reserve chairman. He said
inflation is still a risk and suggested that interest rate increases
are not over.
(WSJ, 2/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 15, Merril Lynch handed
its $544 million fund operation to Black Rock in exchange for just
under half of the combined firm. Black Hawk financed the $9.8 billion
transaction with its own stock.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.73)
2006 Feb 15, Police in Los
Angeles, Ca., busted 8 people connected to an int’l. car theft ring.
The racket, disguised as a charity group, was linked to Chechnya and
police believed proceeds from the stolen cars was used to finance
Chechen terrorist operations.
(WSJ, 12/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 15, Robert Rich (92),
inventor of frozen non-dairy topping, died. In 1990 he was among the
1st 4 people inducted into the Frozen Food Hall of Fame.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.89)
2006 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai pressed his Pakistani counterpart on to root out militants
Afghanistan claims have launched a spate of recent cross-border suicide
bombings.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, The beheaded bodies
of two Afghan intelligence agents were found dumped in western
Afghanistan as the first of thousands of British troop reinforcements
arrived in the south. The intelligence agents had been captured in
Farah province two days ago by suspected remnants of the Taliban.
(AFP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, An Australian
television network broadcast photographs and video clips Wednesday that
it said were previously unpublished images of the abuse of Iraqis held
in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. Many of the images
broadcast were more graphic than those previously published, showing
what appear to be dead bodies, as well as wounded people and prisoners
performing sex acts.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, British lawmakers
voted to ban glorifying terrorism, giving PM Tony Blair a badly needed
victory on a measure he said was key to preventing future attacks.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Chilean
environmental agency approved ambitious plans for an open-pit mine high
in the Andes mountains were unanimously, but the project's future
remained unclear because the agency rejected its most controversial
aspect, relocating three glaciers to reach the gold underneath.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, China announced a
plan to combat widespread pollution and leave a better environment for
future generations, citing the need to stave off possible social
instability.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In southern Colombia
hundreds of paramilitary fighters handed in their weapons and renounced
violence in a ceremony. Rebels attacked a crew that was removing coca
plants from one of Colombia's national parks and killed at least six
police guards.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, President Jacques
Chirac ordered the Clemenceau, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, to
return to France after a top administrative court suspended its
transfer to India.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Germany said further
tests had confirmed H5N1 bird flu in two swans, prompting other
European countries to step up efforts to prevent the virus infecting
domestic livestock.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Rene Preval was
declared the winner of Haiti's presidential election under an agreement
between the interim government and electoral council.
(AP, 2/16/06)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.35)
2006 Feb 15, Nermine Othman,
Iraq's human rights minister, said that some 170 Iraqis were tortured
last year in a secret prison in Baghdad and she would recommend
prosecutions of officials, including judges who did not report the
abuses. The torture occurred in Interior Ministry buildings, including
one in Baghdad's Jadriyah district.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, A bomb exploded on a
central Baghdad street, killing three girls and a boy walking to
school. The dead included two sisters and their brother. At least 14
other people, including six policemen, died in car bombings and
shootings across the Iraqi capital. In July, 2006, Spc. Nathan Lynn
(21) of South Williamsport, Penn., was acquitted of voluntary
manslaughter and conspiracy to obstruct justice over the death of Gani
Ahmed Zaben during a Feb. 15 raid on a suspect's house.
(AP, 2/15/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Jordanian military
court sentenced to death nine men, including al-Qaida in Iraq leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for a plot to carry out a chemical attack against
the kingdom. Al-Zarqawi and three others received the death penalty in
absentia.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In central Mexico a
bus careened off a windy highway and into a ravine in the Sierra Gorda
mountains, killing 23 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Nepal insurgents
ambushed an army patrol near the village of Bibeke, about 150 miles
west of Kathmandu, killing at least three soldiers and injuring two
others.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, More than 70,000
people joined Pakistan's biggest protest yet against Prophet Muhammad
cartoons, burning movie theaters, a KFC restaurant and a South
Korean-run bus station. Three people died and dozens were injured in
two cities.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Pakistan deported
nearly 600 Afghans who had been jailed in the southern city of Karachi
for up to six months on charges of illegal immigration.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Gunmen on a
motorcycle killed three Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver in
a remote tribal region of southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Peru Arndt Hubert
Kupper (36) and Eva Noruzka la Torre (22), a German man and his
Peruvian wife, were arrested for trafficking Peruvian babies to
adoptive parents in Europe through an Internet site.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 15, Russia's foreign
minister said that Iran must eliminate international concerns it could
use its nuclear program to make weapons before Moscow will support
Tehran's right to domestically enrich uranium.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Kurdish protesters
armed with firebombs and stones battled with Turkish police to mark the
seventh anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 16, President Bush said
he was satisfied with Vice President Dick Cheney's explanation about
his shooting accident; Texas authorities said they had closed their
investigation without filing any charges.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2006 Feb 16, Pennsylvania Sen.
Arlen Specter asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether
a top aide improperly helped direct nearly $50 million in Pentagon
spending to clients represented by her husband. His request followed a
USA TODAY report that he secured $48.7 million in projects for six
clients of the aide's spouse's firm.
(USAT, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 16, Scientists reported
that glaciers in Greenland were melting twice as fast as previously
believed. The melting of glaciers in South America and in the Himalayas
was also accelerating due to global warming.
(SFC, 2/17/06, p.A14)
2006 Feb 16, The UN released a
report saying the US should shut down the prison for terror suspects at
Guantanamo Bay and either release all detainees or bring them to trial.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, In Afghanistan the
bodies of two Italian aid workers were found in a guarded compound in
Kabul. The Italian news agency ANSA said the two could have died from
carbon monoxide poisoning from a defective stove in the compound.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, Australia's
parliament stripped regulatory control of an abortion drug from the
country's health minister, a staunch Roman Catholic who once warned of
an "epidemic" of abortion in Australia.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, A Belgian court found
three men guilty of belonging to an Islamic group linked to terrorist
attacks in Madrid and Casablanca and sentenced them to at least six
years in jail.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 16, In China Li Datong
said the Bing Dian newspaper supplement, known for hard-hitting
coverage of sensitive issues, will resume publication March 1. However
he and deputy editor Lu Yuegang were removed from their posts and
transferred to the News Research Institute, another department of the
China Youth Daily.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, Two shipping
accidents off eastern China's Fujian province left 61 sailors missing.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 16, Egypt confirmed its
first cases of H5N1 bird flu.
(Reuters, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 16, Indonesia signed an
agreement with Newmont Gold Corp. to drop a civil suit in
exchange for $30 million to be paid over 10 years for a fund to monitor
environmental and community development.
(WSJ, 2/17/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 16, A top official said
Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that
Shiite-led death squads have been operating in the country. Attacks
around the country killed at least 19 people, including six Iraqis in a
car bombing and three sheiks in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 2/16/06)(WSJ, 2/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 16, In Baghdad, Iraq,
gunmen wearing Iraqi special forces uniforms kidnapped Ghalib Abdul
Hussein Kubba, director-general of the Basra International Bank, and
his son after killing five of their bodyguards.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 16, In southern Iraq 2
Macedonians working for a cleaning company were abducted in Basra. A $1
million ransom was demanded for their release.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 16, Russia's Evgeni
Plushenko beat world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland by an
unfathomable 27.12 points to win the gold medal in men's figure skating
at the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2006 Feb 16, In Karachi, Pakistan,
some 40 thousand people shouting "God is Great!" marched and burned
effigies of the Danish prime minister in the country's fourth day of
protests over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, A human rights group
said that homophobic rhetoric has escalated in Poland since a socially
conservative party came to power, threatening the rights of gays and
lesbians.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, In Romania
authorities investigating the leak of secret military documents,
including details on coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrested
Marian Garleanu, a Romanian journalist, for possession of leaked
material. Garleanu denied any wrongdoing and said he was targeted
because he has repeatedly exposed corruption in the Ministry of Defense.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 16, Serbia rejected
European Union's guidelines for an independence vote in Montenegro,
increasing tensions within the troubled Balkan state.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 16, A government
spokesman said a swan found in Slovenia this month died of the lethal
H5N1 avian flu virus strain, according to laboratory tests performed in
Italy.
(Reuters, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 17, Harry Whittington,
the lawyer shot by Vice President Dick Cheney while quail hunting, left
a Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital, saying "accidents do and will
happen."
(AP, 2/17/07)
2006 Feb 17, A federal jury in New
Orleans cleared Merck and Co. in the death of a 53-year-old Florida man
who had taken the painkiller Vioxx.
(AP, 2/17/07)
2006 Feb 17, Two US CH-53E
helicopters crashed off the coast of Djibouti. Only 2 of 12 crew
members survived.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 17, Louisiana lawmakers
voted to assume control of new Orleans levees from local boards.
(WSJ, 2/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 17, A fierce storm system
swept across the Midwest moving eastward, ripping the roof off an
Indiana church, pelting Arkansas with hail and cutting power to
thousands in Michigan.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, Radio Shack Corp. ,
whose chief executive has admitted to lying on his resume, said
quarterly profit fell 62 percent after a switch in wireless providers
led to an inventory write-down, sending its shares to a nearly
three-year low. The company announced a new turnaround plan that
includes closing 400 to 700 company-operated stores.
(Reuters, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, US-based Space
Adventures announced it plans to build a $265 million spaceport in the
United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 17, Ray Barreto (76), a
Grammy-winning Latin jazz percussionist, died in New Jersey.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.B5)
2006 Feb 17, William Cowsill (58),
lead singer of the family band The Cowsills, died in Calgary, Alberta.
The pop family band was the inspiration for “The Partridge Family” TV
series (1970-1974).
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.B4)(AP, 2/17/07)
2006 Feb 17, UN and government
officials said 6 Congolese soldiers died of hunger in an army training
camp that ran out of food in the east of the country.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, French President
Jacques Chirac has arrived for his first visit to Thailand as head of
state, with Paris hoping to secure lucrative contracts in one of the
most dynamic countries in the region.
(AFP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, In Iraq authorities
also found the bodies of three men who had been bound and shot in the
head in northern Baghdad. 2 gunmen stormed into a fashion accessories
store in southern Baghdad's Maalif area and killed two brothers working
there. Drive-by gunmen killed a cigarette salesman in Husseiniyah, a
town about 20 miles northeast of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, An Iraqi contractor
pleaded guilty to adding $1.14 million in fraudulent surcharges after
Haliburton hired his company to fly in military cargo.
(WSJ, 2/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 17, In western Japan 2
young children were found stabbed on a roadside, one dead and the other
seriously injured.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, In Libya 11 people
were killed or wounded during a riot at the Italian consulate when
police firing bullets and tear gas tried to contain more than 1,000
demonstrators hurling rocks and bottles. The Libyans were angry over
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AFP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 17, Nepal's Supreme Court
ordered the royalist government to release 37 political detainees who
opposed the king's rule, while communist insurgents freed two abducted
officials amid a major army offensive in the southwest.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 17, Pakistan security
forces seized heavy weapons and munitions destined for Islamic
militants in a northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, A Pakistani cleric
announced a $1 million bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew Prophet
Muhammad, as thousands joined street protests and Denmark temporarily
closed its embassy and advised its citizens to leave the country.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, In the eastern
Philippines a rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated into a torrent of
mud, swallowing hundreds of houses and an elementary school in sludge
three stories high. 1,800 people were missing and feared dead, which
included nearly every man, woman and child who lived in Guinsaugon.
Logging in the area was cited as a contributing factor. 8.5 million
acres of forests had been logged in the Philippines over the last 15
years.
(AP, 2/18/06)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A9)
2006 Feb 17, Russian prosecutors
opened an investigation into the editor of a newspaper that reprinted
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, and another paper was ordered
closed after publishing a cartoon depicting Muhammad along with Jesus,
Moses and Buddha.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, David Sampson,
America’s Deputy Sec. of Commerce, announced in Kiev that the US now
recognized Ukraine as a market economy.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.86)
2006 Feb 18, Eight workers at a
meat processing plant in Nebraska won a record $365 million Powerball
jackpot.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Feb 18, Character actor
Richard Bright ("The Godfather") was struck and killed by a bus in New
York; he was 68.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Feb 18, In the US thousands
of people remained without power after a winter storm packing wind
gusts of up to 77 mph rolled across the Northeast, downing trees and
power lines. Four people were killed.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Brazil a coalition
of American churches sharply denounced the US-led war in Iraq, accusing
Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations
for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."
Christian leaders explored the question: Should churches use their
investment portfolios to protest Israeli policies toward Palestinians?
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, More than 10,000
angry people protested in central London against the Prophet Muhammad
cartoons that have infuriated many in the Muslim world.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, The Democratic
Republic of Congo adopted a new constitution aimed at bringing an end
to decades of dictatorship, war and chaos in the vast country, and
paving the way for elections by mid-2006.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, India confirmed the
H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens. Iran confirmed the virus in wild
swans. Indonesia confirmed its 19th death from the virus. Germany
France and Austria reported more dead birds. Nigeria claimed to be
bringing the virus under control.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, India and Pakistan
restored train service along a line that was severed during their war
40 years ago, establishing a second rail link between the two South
Asian rivals.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, A spate of roadside
bombings in Baghdad and north of the capital killed a US soldier and at
least 11 Iraqis.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, A German plane from
Azerbaijan went missing in northern Iraq. 5 Germans and an Iraqi on
board were found dead the next day.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 18, Italy's Reforms
Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned following deadly clashes in Libya
over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that he had made into T-shirts
and wore on state television.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Italy Kjetil Andre
Aamodt of Norway outwaited the weather and outran the field to
successfully defend the men's super-G title for his record eighth
Olympic Alpine medal. American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter
speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an
individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
(AP, 2/18/06)(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Feb 18, Conservation
officials said a searing drought in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania has
killed dozens of hippopotamuses and other wild animals, and disrupted
the annual migration of wildebeests and zebras between the two East
African nations.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 18, Libya suspended Nasr
al-Mabrouk, its interior minister, citing an "excessive use of force"
in riots the day before that left at least 10 people dead in the
bloodiest protest yet against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons roiling the
Muslim world.
(AFP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nepal's communist
insurgents called for an indefinite nationwide strike to begin Apr 3 as
the country's major political parties prepared for a weekend protest
amid growing anger at the king's autocratic rule.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Nigeria armed
militants carried out a wave of attacks across the troubled Niger
delta, blowing up oil and gas pipelines and seizing nine foreign oil
workers: 3 Americans, a Briton, 2 Egyptians, 2 Thais and one Filipino.
Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day
Forcados terminal after militants bombed the tanker loading platform.
(Reuters, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nigerian Muslims
protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and
burned churches, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest
confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 18, In southwestern
Pakistan insurgents blew up four gas pipelines and two people were
injured in landmine explosions in Baluchistan province.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form the next Palestinian government, but
demanded that the Islamic militant group recognize existing peace deals
and fall in line with his moderate policies, including negotiations
with Israel.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Hamas legislator
Abdel Aziz Duaik, a geography professor from the West Bank, was elected
speaker of the new Palestinian parliament.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, On the southern
Philippine island of Jolo, janitor for US troops was killed and 13
people wounded in an explosion near an army base. Abu Sayyaf was
suspected.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, The WHO said a
cholera outbreak in south Sudan has claimed 52 lives with more than
2,000 cases of the deadly disease.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 19, Jimmie Johnson won
the Daytona 500.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2006 Feb 19, The East rallied from
21 points down for a 122-120 victory over the West in the NBA All-Star
Game.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2006 Feb 19, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban rebels attacked a police checkpost in
insurgency-hit, killing three policemen.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Almost five months
after publishing 12 cartoons of the prophet to highlight what it
described as self-censorship, Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper
printed a full-page apology in a Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, French President
Jacques Chirac arrived in India for a whistle-stop visit aimed at
bolstering trade and civilian nuclear cooperation with the emerging
economic powerhouse.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Jacques Bernard, the
head of Haiti's electoral council, fled the country after opponents
threatened his life and burned down his farmhouse nearly two weeks
after disputed elections.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 19, India and France both
confirmed their first outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu among
fowl. Health officials and farm workers in western India began
slaughtering a half-million birds to check the spread of the disease.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, India's private
Kingfisher Airlines signed a deal to purchase 15 French ATR 72-500
aircraft for 270 million dollars, with the option to buy another 20.
Kingfisher began operations in May and has a 7.6 percent share of the
domestic market.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, In western India a
bomb exploded at a railway station in Ahmadabad, injuring at least 13
people.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Gunmen ambushed a
convoy of trucks carrying construction material to US military north of
Baghdad, killing four Iraqi drivers. A police general also died in a
roadside bombing in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Israel's Cabinet
approved an immediate freeze on the transfer of hundreds of millions of
dollars in tax money to the Palestinians in its first response to the
takeover of the Palestinian parliament by the militant group Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Amr Moussa, the head
of the Arab League, said that members would meet this week to hammer
out a plan for sending millions of dollars a month to the Palestinian
Authority, despite US attempts to stop the flow of money to the new
Hamas-led government.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, An Israeli aircraft
attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border
fence. Palestinians said two militants were killed.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, A gas explosion in a
northern Mexico coal mine trapped 65 miners some 600 feet below ground
with a limited supply of oxygen. In 2007 a judge ordered the arrest of
5 mine managers and inspectors on charges of negligent homicide in the
deaths of the miners.
(AP, 2/19/06)(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Feb 19, Ismail Haniyeh (46),
a Gaza lawmaker seen as a leader of Hamas' pragmatic wing, was
nominated to be Palestinian prime minister.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Pakistani security
forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off
the capital and used gunfire and tear gas to quell protests against
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 19, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf arrived in China on a visit that analysts said would
focus on anti-terrorism cooperation, trade and technological assistance.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, In Peru Hector
Aponte, a Shining Path guerrilla commander believed responsible for an
ambush that killed eight policemen in December, was killed in a
shootout with authorities in the Huallaga Valley. Aponte was a top
commander under Comrade Artemio, one of the last original Shining Path
leaders still at large.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, President George
Bush, visiting Milwaukee, outlined his energy proposals to help wean
the country off foreign oil.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 20, A senior US official
said Vietnam and the US have resumed their human rights dialogue after
a three-year suspension, renewing links with "productive" talks.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Louisiana Gov.
Kathleen Blanco outlined a $7.5 billion rebuilding, relocation and
buyout plan for residents whose homes were damaged by last year’s
hurricanes.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 20, Scientists feared
that leaping, hyperactive Asian carp, silver and bighead carp, will
reach the US Great Lakes, devour the base of the food chain and spoil
drinking water for 40 million people. The carp, which escaped lagoons
in Arkansas during late 1990s flooding, could set off an ecological
collapse in the lakes.
(Reuters, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Curt Gowdy (1919),
Montana-born sports announcer, died in Fla.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.B5)
2006 Feb 20, Archbishop Paul C.
Marcinkus (84), a former Vatican bank chief linked to a huge Italian
banking scandal in the 1980s, was found dead in his home in Sun City,
Ariz.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 20, In Austria right-wing
British historian David Irving (67) pleaded guilty to charges of
denying the Holocaust and conceded that he was wrong to say there were
no Nazi gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Milan Lukic, a
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect who had been indicted by a UN tribunal
in connection with atrocities during the former war in Bosnia, was
extradited from Argentina to The Hague.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Congo Reuters
obtained a copy of a 2005 report of a parliamentary investigation,
established to probe business deals signed during Congo's 1996-1997 and
1998-2003 wars. The report said dozens of government contracts struck
during Congo's wars must be renegotiated, some companies closed and
leading individuals brought to justice.
(Reuters, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Farmers clashed on
the island of Crete with striking seamen who kept Greece's ports closed
for a fifth day. The protest has caused food and gasoline supply
problems for some Greek islands, and forced farmers to dump perishable
goods.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Zalmay Khalilzad, US
ambassador to Iraq, warned Iraqi politicians they risk a loss of
American support if they do not establish a genuine national unity
government, saying the US will not invest its resources in institutions
run by sectarians. At least 24 people, including an American soldier,
were killed by bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere. Two Macedonian
contractors were freed by kidnappers four days after they were abducted
in Basra.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Iraq the governing
council of Karbala province said it was suspending contact with US
forces over the behavior of soldiers during a visit to the governor's
office two days ago.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, At the Turin
Olympics, Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto snapped the US medals
drought in figure skating with a silver; Russians Tatiana Navka and
Roman Kostomarov won the gold.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 20, Liberia's president
inaugurated a truth commission to investigate crimes and human rights
abuses committed in the war-battered country over the last quarter
century.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Nigeria militants
in southern Nigeria destroyed an oil pipeline and blew up a boat in
violence that has cut about 20 percent of crude production in Africa's
oil giant.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Hamas began coalition
talks to form the Palestinians' first government led by Islamic
militants after winning the nod from moderate Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Russian and Iranian
negotiators concluded a day of talks on Moscow's offer to enrich
uranium for Iran and agreed to continue.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, UN mediated talks on
the future status of Kosovo opened in Vienna as Serbs and ethnic
Albanians staked out tough positions. The talks produced no agreement
and were scheduled to resume in a month.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, Pres. Bush said he
would veto any legislation blocking a deal for a state-owned company in
Dubai to manage port terminals in US cities. Bush was not aware of the
pending sale of the port operations until after aides approved the deal.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 21, The US Supreme Court
ruled that federal narcotics do not trump the religious expression
rights of a Brazilian-based sect that uses a hallucinogenic tea in a
sacrament. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, with some
130 members in the US, had filed suit after federal authorities
intercepted a shipment of hoasca, whose ingredients included a
hallucinogenic plant, and threatened prosecution.
(WSJ, 2/22/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 21, US federal courts in
Ohio charged 3 men, originally from Jordan and Lebanon, with conspiring
to kill US forces in Iraq.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 21, In California the
execution of Michael Morales at San Quentin was put on hold after 2
anesthesiologists backed out of assuring that he would be unconscious
while dying per a requirement by US District Judge Jeremy Fogel.
(SFC, 2/23/06, p.A14)
2006 Feb 21, Stefan Eriksson (44)
was involved in the crash of a million-dollar Ferrari Enzo in northern
Malibu, Ca. In 2005 he and some partners had racked up some $400
million in losses in Gizmondo, a London-based subsidiary of Tiger
Telematics, that was developing a handheld gaming device. Prior to
Gizmondo Eriksson had served time in a Swedish prison for
counterfeiting. Eriksson was arrested on April 8 for failing to make
payments on 3 cars worth $3.5 million. On Nov 7 Eriksson was sentenced
to 3 years in prison for embezzlement and gun possession.
(SSFC, 4/9/06, p.A1)(SFC, 4/10/06, p.A2)(SFC,
11/8/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 21, New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art and Italy signed a deal under which it will
return antiquities Italy says were looted in exchange for long-term
loans of other artifacts.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, Lawrence Summers,
former US Treasury Secretary, announced his resignation as president of
Harvard Univ. effective at the end of the academic year.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 2/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 21, Google announced that
it hired Dr. Larry Brilliant (61) as executive director of Google.org,
a charitable effort funded by some $1 billion.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.C1)
2006 Feb 21, Taser Intl. said it
is working to deliver electricity to the human body using 12-guage
shotgun shells. Test models of the XREP reached 100 feet. The US
military challenged the company to extend the range to 330 feet.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 21, Donald Herbert (44),
a brain-injured Buffalo, N.Y., firefighter who suddenly spoke after
nearly a decade in a near-vegetative state, died.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2006 Feb 21, The Chinese
government issued a plan with promises to spend more on schools, health
care and aid for farmers in the poor countryside, where communist
leaders worry about potentially explosive unrest over poverty and other
problems.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, The commander of
Colombia's army, Gen. Reinaldo Castellanos, resigned amid a scandal in
which 21 soldiers were allegedly beaten, branded or sexually assaulted
by their superiors.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, Greek seamen extended
until early Friday a rolling strike that has shut down ports since last
week, causing food and fuel supply problems and halting many exports.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, Tests confirmed H5N1
in three birds found dead in Hungary, making the country the seventh EU
nation with an outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded on a street packed with shoppers in a Shiite area of Baghdad,
killing 22 people and wounding 28. Elsewhere 8 other Iraqis were killed.
(AP, 2/21/06)(WSJ, 2/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 21, Japan's trade
minister arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao,
the highest-level contact between the two countries since relations
soured last October.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, Kazakhstan's
intelligence agency said that five of its employees were among the six
arrested suspects in the Feb 11 murder of Altynbek Sarsenbayev, a
leader of the opposition Nagyz Ak Zhol party.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, In Cancun, Mexico,
Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, of Woodbridge,
Ont., were found in their hotel rooms at the all-inclusive five-star
resort on the Mayan Riviera in the early morning. Their throats had
been slashed. The crime apparently took place after a rehearsal dinner
ahead of a wedding in which the Lily, one of the Ianieros' twin girls,
was to be married at the resort. Prosecutors in Cancun said two
Canadian women were suspected in the killing and had fled to Canada.
(CP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 21, Christian mobs
rampaged through the southern Nigerian city of Onitsha, burning mosques
and killing several people in an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence that
followed deadly protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
over the weekend.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, In Pakistan 11
Islamic militants were sentenced to death for an assassination attempt
on a Pakistani army general that killed 10 people in 2004.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, Hamas presented its
choice for Palestinian prime minister. Ismail Haniyeh (43), a pragmatic
former university administrator, and the Islamic militant group reached
out to other factions, including Fatah, to join a broad-based Cabinet
that might stand a chance of gaining international approval.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, In Peru Miguel Toledo
(36), a nephew of Pres. Alejandro Toledo, was given a four-year
suspended sentence on charges he drugged and raped a 22-year-old woman
in 2004.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 21, Portugal's President
Jorge Sampaio was granted honorary citizenship of East Timor as he
began a three-day official trip to the former Portuguese colony.
(AFP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, The weekly Nash
Region became the second Russian newspaper in a week to shut down amid
heightened sensitivities about portrayals of Muhammad.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 21, It was reported that
the Stockholm chapter of the biker gang Hell's Angels is being
investigated for fraud after police found 70 percent of members were
certified as depressed by the same doctor and were getting state
sickness benefits.
(Reuters, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 22, South Dakota’s Senate
advanced a law banning abortion in virtually all cases, with the
intention of forcing the Supreme Court to reconsider its 1973 decision
legalizing the procedure. The law, which would punish doctors who
perform the operation with a five-year prison term and a $5,000 fine,
awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Michael Rounds and people on
both sides of the issue say he is unlikely to veto it.
(Reuters, 2/22/06)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, In Lincoln, Nebraska,
8 workers at a meat processing plant claimed the record $365 million
Powerball jackpot.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, A Rhode Island jury
found 3 companies, Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries and Millennium
Holdings, liable for creating a public nuisance by selling lead paint
decades ago, and that the companies should pay to clean it up from
homes and buildings in the state.
(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.D7)
2006 Feb 22-2006 Feb 25, The
annual Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference took place in
Monterey, Ca., with over 900 participants.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, In northern
Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a NATO peacekeeping convoy, killing
one Afghan civilian and wounding 12 people.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Former US President
Bill Clinton and Australia announced plans to combat AIDS in China,
Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, warning that 40 percent of all new
infections could be in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Bulgaria's parliament
endorsed a government decision to send a 120-member non-combat unit to
Iraq.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In China Yu Dongyue,
a man who was jailed for throwing paint on Mao Zedong's portrait
overlooking Beijing's Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy protests in
1989, was released after nearly 17 years in prison.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 22, Wu Hao, Chinese
filmmaker, was detained for allegedly working on a documentary film on
Christian churches not recognized by the Chinese government. Wu had
returned to China in 2004 after 12 years in the US. He was released on
July 11.
(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A1)(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Costa Rica results
from the Feb 5 elections indicated that Oscar Arias, a free trade
proponent, had won Costa Rica's presidential election by 18,167 votes,
one of the country's closest races ever.
(AP, 2/22/06)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, In Ecuador 2 dozen
pipeline workers held hostage by protesters escaped as soldiers and
police battled to end violent demonstrations that have interrupted the
flow of crude through the country's two main pipelines.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In England thieves
impersonated police officers and robbed the equivalent of up to $85
million from Securitas Cash Management Ltd., a cash center at Tonbridge
in Kent county, in one of the largest heists in British history. In
2008 five men were convicted over country's biggest cash robbery, which
saw some 53 million pounds stolen in southeast England. In 2009 Paul
Allen (31) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the
robbery. Allen had fled to Morocco after the robbery and was extradited
last year.
(Reuters, 2/23/06)(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 1/28/08)(AP,
10/5/09)
2006 Feb 22, Imprisoned Egyptian
opposition leader Ayman Nour asked US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice to look into whether Egypt can benefit from a US offer to help
developing countries develop nuclear energy.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Michaela Giersberg, a
nursing assistant, was convicted in Bonn, Germany, of killing 9 women
she had been caring for from 2003-2005. She was sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Indonesia said a
27-year-old woman died of bird flu earlier in the week in Jakarta and
authorities prepared to scour the capital for infected poultry.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Indonesia's Papua
province production at the world's largest gold and copper mine, run by
a local unit of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold
Inc, was suspended after illegal miners blocked the road leading to the
site.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Iran offered to help
finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant group, state
radio said in a report that brought a quick warning from Israel that it
would do all it could legally to stop the Palestinians from receiving
the money.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Iraq suspected
Sunni extremists dressed as police set off a large explosion that
heavily damaged the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, one
of Iraq's most famous Shiite shrines. The attack spawned mass protests
and triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques. The shrine
contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali al-Hadi, who died in
868 A.D., and his son Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874 A.D. and was
the father of Al-Mahdi, the hidden imam. Atwar Bahjat, a well-known
Iraqi TV journalist, was abducted while covering the bombing. In 2009
police arrested Yasser Mohammad al-Takhy in southwest Baghdad along
with three others for the rape and murder of Bahjat.
(AP, 2/22/06)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/09)
2006 Feb 22, In Iraq 7 US soldiers
were killed by a roadside bombs in Hawija north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/23/06)(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, A Tokyo court
convicted and sentenced Fusako Shigenobu (60), a founder of the
Japanese Red Army terrorist group, to 20 years in prison for kidnapping
and attempted murder in a 1974 attack on the French Embassy in the
Hague.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 22, Kazakhstan's
intelligence chief resigned after several of his subordinates were
arrested on suspicion of involvement in the slaying of an opposition
leader. Erzhan Utembaev, the top administrative official of the Senate,
was arrested for ordering the murder of opposition leader Altynbek
Sarsenbayev.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.40)
2006 Feb 22, In Nepal police
raided the house of Krishna Sitaula, a senior opposition leader
instrumental in organizing anti-government protests, and arrested him
two days after he was freed by the Supreme Court on similar charges.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Nigeria at least
20 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the eastern Nigerian city of
Onitsha. Gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns poured
through the streets of the mainly Christian southern city as the death
toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria rose to at
least 93.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Reuters, 2/22/06)(SFC, 2/23/06, p.A13)
2006 Feb 22, In the Philippines
thousands of activists seeking President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's
ouster clashed with riot police in Manila as they tried to march to a
monument to the 1986 "people power" revolt.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Serb security
officials insisted that top war crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic had
been located and that authorities were trying to persuade him to give
himself up.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Spanish PM Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero expressed reticence about a takeover bid for leading
domestic electricity group Endesa by E.ON of Germany, saying national
interest was paramount. In July Spain’s energy regulator (CNE) imposed
19 conditions on the bid for Endesa. On Aug 25 EU regulators warned
that government restrictions on E.ON’s bid were illegal.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.58)
2006 Feb 22, A secret list
compiled for the UN Security council said Sudan's interior and defense
ministers and its national intelligence chief are among 17 people the
UN Security Council should punish for blocking peace in Darfur.
(Reuters, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Pope Benedict XVI
named 15 new cardinals, including John Paul II's longtime private
secretary and prelates from Boston and Hong Kong, adding his first
installment to the elite group of churchmen who will elect his
successor.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 23, A US federal judge
ordered the Pentagon on to release the identities of hundreds of
detainees at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press by March 3, a move
which would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the
most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned there.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, The US State
Department said that North Korea has agreed to hold talks with the US
on its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities that led
to US sanctions and a breakdown in six-nation nuclear negotiations.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, A United Arab
Emirates company volunteered to postpone its takeover of significant
operations at six major US seaports, giving the White House more time
to convince skeptical lawmakers the deal posed no increased risks from
terrorism.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 23, In NYC Michael
Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services in New Jersey, was
charged along with 3 others of selling body parts for use in
transplants across the US. Joseph Nicelli, owner of a Brooklyn funeral
home, was among those charged.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 23, A New Zealand
teenager hacked into the University of Pennsylvania computer system.
Owen Thor Walker (18), known by his online name "AKILL," also was
linked to a network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and
skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts. In 2008
Walker was ordered to pay more than $11,000 in fines but avoided a
conviction so that he can help police solve computer crimes.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2006 Feb 23, Environmental Health
published a study that found the chromium industry had withheld key
data from the government involving the health risks of workers exposed
to the carcinogenic metal.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 23, A fire raged through
a Bangladesh textile mill, killing at least 54 people in the
three-story building inside an industrial park in Chittagong.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 23, China warned Hong
Kong’s new Cardinal Joseph Zen that he should avoid mixing religion and
politics.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 23, China’s Lenovo Group,
the world’s 3rd largest computer maker, announced it was introducing
low-priced desktop an notebook computers in the US and other countries.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.D1)
2006 Feb 23, In China a coal mine
explosion in eastern Shandong province killed 15 miners and injured 12
others. The mine belonged to the Zaozhuang Mining Group Co.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, A top UN humanitarian
official said thousands of civilians have taken refuge on floating
islands in the lakes of Congo's Katanga province to escape rape and
murder by government and militia fighters.
(Reuters, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Greece's seamen's
union called off a crippling eight-day strike and said it would allow
ships to begin sailing.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Gunmen pulled factory
workers off buses northeast of Baghdad and shot dead 47 of them. They
left their bodies in a ditch as militia battles and sectarian reprisals
followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended
their participation in talks on a new government. The bodies of 23 men
were found dumped at six sites in Baghdad, most of them in
predominantly Shiite parts of the city. In total over 100 people were
killed across Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/06)(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 23, The bodies of 3 Iraqi
Sunni journalists were found near Samarra. They included Atwar Bahjat,
a well-known correspondent for Al-Arabiya television, and her
colleagues engineer Adnan Khairullah and cameraman Khalid Mahmoud.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 23, Israeli troops killed
five Palestinians, including three fugitive gunmen, and seriously
wounded a sixth man during an arrest sweep in the Balata refugee camp.
The sweep, which began Feb 20, left a total of 8 Palestinians dead and
over 50 injured.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Japan's Shizuka
Arakawa stunned favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina
Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women's figure skating gold medal at
the Turin Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 23, Tens of thousands of
Lebanese Shiites beat their chests in mourning and shouted
anti-American slogans in a rally to protest the bombing of a Muslim
shrine in Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, A powerful earthquake
sent thousands of panicking people fleeing from swaying buildings in
Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and killed at least two people.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Christians in the
southern Nigerian city of Onitsha burned Muslim corpses and defaced
wrecked mosques, showing little repentance after days of sectarian
violence that has killed more than 120 people across the country.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, In Russia the
concave, snow-covered roof of Moscow’s Basmanny market collapsed,
killing at least 66 people.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 23, Ugandan voters lined
up to choose between a leader who has ruled for 20 years and four
challengers in the country's first multiparty elections in two decades.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Venezuela said it
will prohibit Continental and Delta Airlines from flying into this
South American nation. Initially effective March 1, the ban was soon
delayed to Mar 30. The ban was in response to a 1996 FAA ban on
commercial jets registered in Venezuela, because Venezuela allegedly
didn't meet international safety standards. Venezuelan officials say
they have improved safety standards since then.
(AP, 2/24/06)(WSJ, 2/27/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 24, Mitchell Wade, a US
defense contractor, pleaded guilty to conspiring with former Rep. Randy
Cunningham of San Diego County with bribes and help in evading taxes in
exchange for over $150 million in government contracts since 2002.
(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 24, Judge Walter Steed, a
small-town judge with three wives, was ordered removed from the bench
by the Utah Supreme Court for violating the state's bigamy law.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Georgia Judge T.
Jackson Bedford Jr. of Fulton County Superior Court issued a bench
warrant for Kirk S. Wright (35), a hedge fund manager, for fraud.
Wright’s Int’l. Management Associates LLC was suspected of up to $185
million in losses.
(WSJ, 3/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 24, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger issued an emergency declaration to speed improvement on
24 severely eroded portions of Bay Area delta levees.
(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 24, In North Carolina
more than a thousand flounder, spot and pin fish beached themselves at
the Marine Corps' New River air base, and then swam away. State and
local wildlife experts believed it was related to a popular phenomenon
known in coastal Alabama as "jubilee." Scientists know that a jubilee
occurs when variety of factors deoxygenate the water, forcing fish to
the shore.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 24, South Dakota
lawmakers approved a ban on nearly all abortions.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2006 Feb 24, Octavia Butler
(b.1947), African-American sci-fi writer, died in Seattle. Her 12 books
included “Kindred” (1979).
(SFC, 3/2/06,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler)
2006 Feb 24, Michael Joyce (63),
conservative US Catholic Democrat, died. He ran 2 of the right’s
biggest treasure troves, the John Olin Foundation (1979-1985). And the
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (1985-2001).
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.30)
2006 Feb 24, Don Knotts (81),
comedian and film star, died in Los Angeles. His half-century career
included more than 25 films and seven TV series.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 24, Dennis Weaver
(b.1924), TV and film actor, died in Colorado. He played Chester Goode
in the “Gunsmoke” TV series and Sam McCloud in “McCloud” (1970-1977).
(SFC, 2/28/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 24, In Afghanistan
Canadian troops officially took over the fight on the front lines of
Kandahar province from their American allies.
(CP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, began its yearly carnival. Officials expected some 600,000
tourists for this year's celebrations. Gunmen overpowered museum
security guards and stole four paintings by European masters, using the
cover of Rio's Carnival to make their getaway,
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, London Mayor Ken
Livingstone was suspended from office for four weeks for bringing his
office into disrepute. In Feb 2005 Livingstone compared Oliver
Finegold, a Jewish reporter from the Evening Standard to a Nazi
concentration camp guard: “You are just doing it because you’re paid
to, aren’t you?”
(AP, 2/24/06)(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 24, Detectives
investigating what could the biggest cash robbery in British history
recovered a "significant amount" of the money from a van just miles
from the heist site in Tonbridge in Kent.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Rodney MacDonald
(34), Canada's youngest premier, was sworn into office in Nova Scotia.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, Colombia suspended
arrest warrants for leaders of the National Liberation Army, the South
American nation's second-largest rebel group, as part of preliminary
peace talks in Cuba.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In northwest Colombia
Pedro Juan Moreno, a leading senatorial candidate and former adviser to
President Alvaro Uribe, was killed along with three other people in a
helicopter crash in a mountainous rainforest region.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, The EU opened an
in-depth antitrust probe into mining company Inco Ltd.'s $11 billion
planned purchase of Falconbridge Ltd., a deal that would create the
world's largest nickel producer.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, French legal
authorities refused to extradite to Lebanon Zouheir Mohammad Assediq,
an ex-Syrian intelligence officer, to answer questions about the murder
of former Lebanese PM Rafiq el-Hariri.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 24, India and the United
States said they had made some progress toward a landmark nuclear deal
but more work was needed to try and clinch it in time for President
George W. Bush's visit to New Delhi next week.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Iraq Abu Asma,
(aka Abu Anas and Akram Mahmud al-Mushhadani), Al-Qaida in Iraq's
leader in northern Baghdad, was killed in a raid. Gunmen stormed a
house south of Baghdad and shot dead five Shiite men.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Israel's air force
fired a missile at a group of Palestinian militants firing rockets at
Israeli targets.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Julia Mancuso won
gold in the women's giant slalom at the Turin Olympics.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2006 Feb 24, Japan suspended all
French poultry imports and threatened a similar ban on the Netherlands
following reported cases of H5N1 bird flu.
(Reuters, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, A prominent Malaysian
newspaper avoided punishment for publishing a cartoon about the Prophet
Muhammad drawings controversy, offering an apology that was accepted by
the government.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Christian youths
armed with machetes, stones and clubs attacked Muslims in the
southeastern Nigerian city of Enugu. A Reuters witness saw a mob beat
one man to death. Sectarian violence spread to three more Nigerian
cities, claiming at least seven lives and pushing up the death toll in
days of killings to at least 127.
(Reuters, 2/24/06)(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, A Nigerian court
ordered Royal Dutch Shell PLC to pay southern communities $1.5 billion
(1.2 billion euros) in compensation for environmental pollution and
degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell appealed against
the court's decision.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Northern Ireland a
gang stole $350,000 from a bank in Belfast. The tactics used were
similar to the Feb 22 robbery in London.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Pakistan thousands
of Muslims defied a ban on rallies in Islamabad, joining protesters
across the country in condemning the Prophet Muhammad cartoons printed
by some Western newspapers.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In the Philippines
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency, saying
she had quashed a coup plot, and the military confined troops to their
camps to keep them from joining growing protests against her rule.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Polish TV reported
that police had arrested about 30 people in several countries across
Europe in a sting operation against a suspected child-porn ring.
(Reuters, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Suicide bombers in
explosives-laden cars attempted to attack an oil processing facility at
the Abqaiq facility that handles about two-thirds of Saudi
Arabia's petroleum output, but were stopped when guards opened fire on
them, causing the cars to explode.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, South Korea’s Fair
Trade Commission released its report formalizing its preliminary ruling
against Microsoft late last year. MS vowed to appeal the decision which
concluded that MS had abused its market dominance. The commission
ordered MS to offer alternative versions of Windows.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Thailand's embattled
PM Shinawatra dissolved parliament, a move forcing national elections
three years early and guaranteeing a showdown with his political
opponents.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, It was reported that
Uruguay’s Pres. Tabare Vazquez backed two enormous plants that would
produce the raw material for paper on Uruguay's border with Argentina
while protesters, worried about the plants' impact on Argentina's
environment, have repeatedly blockaded border bridges, stalling crucial
truck and tourist traffic.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 25, A senior US diplomat
said the US will continue to give humanitarian aid to ease the plight
of the Palestinians despite militant group Hamas's victory in elections.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Rhode Island Brown
University announced it will stop investing in companies that do
business in Sudan because the country has been accused of genocide.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, It was reported that
researchers in SF had discovered a new virus, dubbed XMRV, inside
tumors of some men with prostate cancer.
(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 25, The population on
Earth was projected to hit 6.5 billion people.
(www.livescience.com/othernews/060224_world_population.html)
2006 Feb 25, It was reported that
there were 691 billionaires worldwide, compared with 423 in 1996.
(Econ, 2/25/06, Survey p.3)
2006 Feb 25, Darren McGavin (83),
TV and film star, died of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area
hospital. His 5 TV series included “Mike Hammer” and “Kolchak: The
Night Stalker.”
(AP, 2/26/06)(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.B8)
2006 Feb 25, An Afghan court found
Asadullah Sarwari (64), a communist-era intelligence chief, guilty of
ordering hundreds of killings and sentenced him to death.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Afghanistan
hundreds of inmates, including convicted al-Qaida and Taliban
militants, waving knives and wielding clubs made from furniture
overpowered guards and took control of parts of Policharki Prison, a
high-security prison in Kabul.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Bangladesh a
5-story building undergoing renovations collapsed in the Tejgaon
district of Dhaka, crushing tin-roof homes in a surrounding shantytown.
At least 18 people were killed and more were feared trapped.
(AFP, 2/25/06)(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 25, British police said
two men were arrested near Maidstone in Kent in southeast England in
connection with what may be Britain's biggest bank robbery.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Canada's Clara Hughes
celebrated her Olympic Games 5000m speedskating gold medal by revealing
that she was going to donate every penny she has in her bank account to
charity. Hughes will donate 10,000 dollars to the Right to Play
organization which aims to encourage disadvantaged youngsters to
improve themselves through sport.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, China Xinhua News
reported that an orphanage director and nine other people in Hengyang
had been sentenced to prison for buying and selling scores of infants
who were adopted by foreign parents. Another 22 officials were fired in
the case in Hunan province.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, China warned of the
threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country as it
reported two new human cases, a girl in eastern Zhejiang province and a
woman farmer in neighboring Anhui province.
(Reuters, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, In southern Colombia
leftist rebels killed 9 people in an attack on a passenger bus that
defied a guerrilla-imposed traffic ban.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, India reported an
outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a 2nd state. At least two
infected chickens were discovered at a farm in the Utchal area of
Gujarat.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Indonesia's Papua
province protesters obstructing access to a mine owned by a unit of US
firm Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. called off their blockade.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Indonesia raised its
death toll due to the H5N1 strain of bird flu to 20 after tests confirm
that a woman (27) had succumbed to H5N1 in Jakarta on Feb 20.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Iraq leaders of
rival factions held an emergency meeting and agreed to condemn
sectarian violence.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 25, A car bomb exploded
in Karbala, a Shiite holy city, killing 5 people. In Buhriz 13 members
of one Shiite family were gunned down northeast Baghdad. The surge of
attacks killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at
curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite
shrine. The government extended the daytime curfew for a second day in
Baghdad and the flashpoint provinces of Babil, Diyala and Salaheddin,
where the shrine bombing took place. The bodies of 14 Iraqi police
commandos were found near a Sunni mosque in southern Baghdad. Gunmen
fired on the funeral procession of correspondent Atwar Bahjat and
bombed an Iraqi military patrol that was escorting mourners. At least
three people were killed and six injured.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Indian Kashmir
Thousands of Shiite Muslims held noisy demonstrations for a third
straight day to protest the bombing of a revered shrine in Iraq.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Apolo Anton Ohno
upset favored South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo to win the gold in the
500-meter short track speedskating event at the Winter Games in Turin,
Italy.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2006 Feb 25, In Jamaica Portia
Simpson Miller, a Cabinet minister was positioned to become Jamaica's
next prime minister and first female head of government, after narrowly
beating a former Rastafarian in internal elections to head the
country's ruling party.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Mexico mining
officials said there was little hope of finding any of miners alive
from the Feb 19 gas explosion at the Industrial Minera Mexico mine near
San Juan Sabinas.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 25, Riots broke out in
Dublin, Northern Ireland, as republican demonstrators mounted a
counter-march to a scheduled loyalist rally. Damages were estimated at
$12 million.
(Econ, 3/4/06,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Dublin_Republican_riots)
2006 Feb 25, In northern Nigeria
35 were killed and five were injured when two buses collided head-on
and caught fire at Kwarna-Jagga in Jigawa state.
(Reuters, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 25, Portugal and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) signed an accord that could
lead to technology partnerships in the Iberian nation.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Uganda’s election
commission declared that President Yoweri Museveni (62) overwhelmingly
won re-election in the first multiparty elections in 25 years. The
national electoral commission counted ballots at each polling station
and immediately announced the results. Adding up those results, the
opposition and local media also produced a total count starkly
different from the official total. They suggested that fraud was
occurring at a national center where the total vote was tallied.
Museveni and his National Resistance Movement dominated state-run radio
and television and used state resources to campaign.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Zimbabwe Arthur
Mutambara, a former NASA researcher, was elected as president of a
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He vowed to unite
his divided party against the regime of Robert Mugabe which he accused
of creating chaos in the country.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, The Bush
administration said it has accepted a proposal from Dubai Ports World
for a 45-day review of national security implications of its plans to
take control of operations at 6 US ports.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 26, Sixty former Taliban,
including 5 high-ranking figures, surrendered as part of a government
amnesty scheme and vowed to lay down arms and work to rebuild
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Australia Joseph
Terrence Thomas (32), a former taxi driver known as "Jihad Jack" and
alleged by prosecutors to be an agent for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda
network, was convicted of receiving funds from the group but acquitted
on more serious terrorism charges.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, British police
searching for thieves who got away with around $87 million from a
security company said they found weapons and $2.3 million in a van they
believe the gang used.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Hans Singer (95),
British development theorist, died. He helped set up the UN Development
Program. His work with Raul Prebisch of Argentina led to the
Prebisch-Singer thesis which said that the benefits of trade were
distributed unequally between countries that imported agricultural
commodities and those that exported them, to the disadvantage of the
exporters.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.79)
2006 Feb 26, In Canada, 19
Catholic priests singed an open letter in Montreal’s La Presse
newspaper denouncing Vatican opposition to gay marriage and having
homosexuals into the priesthood.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 26, Egypt's antiquities
chief said archaeologists had discovered a pharaonic sun temple with
large statues believed to be of King Ramses II (1270-1213BC) under an
outdoor marketplace in Cairo.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Guyana gunmen on a
rampage left 8 people dead and a dozen bystanders wounded on the
outskirts of Georgetown. About 15 gunmen armed with rifles tried to rob
a gas station when security guards responded. They escaped with about
$40.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 26, Iran's nuclear chief
said an agreement was reached with Moscow to set up a joint uranium
enrichment facility on Russian soil, a deal that could assuage global
concerns that Tehran wants to build atomic bombs.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Iraq bomb blasts
and gunfire killed over 2 dozen people, including 3 US soldiers. A ban
on driving in Baghdad and its suburbs kept daytime attacks down. Mortal
shells at night hit the Shiite quarter killing 16 people with 53
wounded.
(AP, 2/26/06)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 26, On the final day of
the Turin Winter Olympics, Sweden beat Finland 3-2 to win the men's
hockey gold. Germany led the gold medal count with 29. The US won 25
medals including 9 gold, Canada won 24, Austria 23 and Russia 22. Drew
Lachey leaped to victory with professional partner Cheryl Burke on
ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Shizuka Arakawa won a gold medal for
Japan in figure skating.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/26/07)
2006 Feb 26, In Pakistan about
25,000 people, some chanting "Death to America," rallied against the
Prophet Muhammad caricatures in Karachi, but police prevented a rally
in the eastern city of Lahore by arresting the religious ringleader and
detaining scores of supporters. Assailants fired rockets at the home of
a provincial Cabinet in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan
province, killing a guest and wounding eight other people.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In the Philippines a
challenge to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's state of emergency
ended peacefully after disgruntled marine officers ended a five-hour
standoff that started when their commander was relieved of duties.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, More than 1,000
demonstrators chanting anti-FBI slogans and carrying Puerto Rican flags
marched through the capital of this U.S. island territory.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, The Saudi Interior
Ministry identified two Feb 24 attackers as Abdullah Abdul-Aziz
al-Tweijri and Mohammed Saleh al-Gheith. Both were on a list of the 15
most-wanted terrorists the kingdom issued in June.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Thailand some 50
thousand people gathered in Bangkok for a new mass rally to demand the
ousting of PM Thaksin Shinawatra as opposition parties said they were
considering boycotting a snap election which he has called in response.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Yemeni President Ali
Abdullah Saleh said three al-Qaida convicts among the two dozen who
escaped earlier this month have turned themselves in.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 27, The US and Colombia
reached a free trade agreement after nearly 2 years of negotiations.
The pact needed approval by the legislatures of both countries.
(WSJ, 2/28/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 27, US District Judge
Federico Moreno in Miami ordered US federal officials to "use their
best efforts" to help the Cubans return to the United States. Moreno
wrote that "those Cuban refugees who reached American soil in early
January 2006 were removed to Cuba illegally."
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 27, The US Labor Dept.
reduced the acceptable lever of workplace exposure for hexavalent
chromium to 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The old 1971 standard
was 52 micrograms per cubic meter.
(SFC, 2/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 27, Connecticut state
officials said Venezuela will provide 4.8 million gallons of heating
oil at a 40% discount to households that qualify for state home heat
assistance. Venezuela has also sent shipments to Massachusetts, Maine,
Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Vermont. The Bronx in New York
City also joined the program.
(Reuters, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, Five California state
prison employees, who objected to questionable purchases for inmate
drug treatment programs, testified that they were told to stay quiet.
(SFC, 2/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 27, Experts in a hearing
on the collapse of several fish species in the Sacramento and San
Joaquin River Delta of northern California said that contributing
factors included water exports, pesticides, non-native species and
poisonous algae. Giant pumps near Tracy, which moved water south, also
ground up many fish.
(SFC, 2/28/06, p.B8)
2006 Feb 27, Effa Manley (d.1981
at age 81), co-owner of the Negro League Newark Eagles (1935-1948),
became the 1st woman elected to the baseball hall of fame. She was
elected along with 17 other Negro League players and officials.
(WSJ, 2/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 27, Otis Chandler
(b.1927), former publisher of the LA Times (1960-1980), died in Ojai,
Ca.
(SFC, 2/28/06, p.A2)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.81)
2006 Feb 27, Retired Brig. Gen.
Robert L. Scott (97), author of "God Is My Co-Pilot," died in Warner
Robins, Ga.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2006 Feb 27, In Afghanistan
kidnappers freed one of two Nepalese abducted earlier this month
outside Kabul. The second died of an illness in captivity, and his body
was released.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Afghanistan
security forces backed by tanks and heavy guns surrounded Kabul's
notorious Policharki Prison as authorities negotiated with rioting
prisoners controlling most of the facility. A government negotiator
said four inmates were killed during the rebellion blamed on al-Qaida
and Taliban militants. Officials had forced prisoners to wear uniforms
following the escape of 7 Taliban inmates. This sparked a four-day riot
that left six inmates dead and 40 injured. In April 2 of the escapees
were captured in Bulgaria and 2 in Uzbekistan.
(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 Feb 27, Bosnia's veterinary
office said tests at the EU reference laboratory had confirmed its
first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in two wild swans.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, Dan Brown, author of
"The Da Vinci Code," was accused in Britain's High Court of taking
material for his blockbuster conspiracy thriller from a 1982 book about
the Holy Grail. The court ruled in favor of Brown's publisher, Random
House, the actual target of the breach-of-copyright lawsuit.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2006 Feb 27, Britain’s Women and
Work Commission published a report on the gender pay gap, currently
measured at 17% less per hour than men.
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.51)
2006 Feb 27, British utility
National Grid PLC said it agreed to buy New York-based electricity and
natural-gas distributor KeySpan Corp. for $7.3 billion in a deal that
would create the third-largest energy delivery utility in the United
States.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Burundi a
government official acknowledged that rogue soldiers and police
officers have executed and tortured suspected rebels and civilians.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In China the trial of
17 members of the Three Ranks of Servants church began in the
northeastern city of Shuangyashan. The trial involved the alleged
killings of 20 members of Eastern Lightning, one of China's many
unregistered church groups.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 27, China’s Commerce
Ministry said Avon Products Inc. has received approval to become the
first company to resume direct sales in China following an eight-year
ban.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In southern Colombia
rebels burst into a hotel where local government officials were meeting
and killed eight town councilors.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Egypt an official
said a Liberian-flagged tanker, Grigoroussa 1, lost 3,000 tons of heavy
fuel in the Suez Canal after a collision with a quay caused a leak.
(AFP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, EU foreign ministers
threatened to freeze talks with Serbia on its membership bid, setting a
March deadline for Belgrade to hand over war crimes fugitive Ratko
Mladic.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, The EU agreed to
grant $145 million in urgent aid to the Palestinians before a
government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas takes power, a move
aimed at preventing a financial collapse that could add to the chaos in
the Middle East.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, France began
vaccinating 300,000 domestic fowl against bird flu.
(WSJ, 2/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 27, India's PM Singh
outlined a formula on how the government will separate its civilian and
military nuclear programs as it tries to clinch a landmark nuclear deal
with Washington.
(Reuters, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Japan that Tehran would not suspend
its atomic research and development, casting doubt over whether a
Russian agreement would defuse a crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, A top Sunni figure
said Sunni Arabs are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new
government if rival Shiites return mosques seized in last week's
sectarian attacks and meet other unspecified demands. A daytime curfew
ended in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/27/06)(WSJ, 2/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 27, A security official
said Iraqi Interior Ministry forces had captured Abu al-Farouq, a top
aide to al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, along with 5
other operatives during a raid in al-Bakr in western Iraq.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, A US soldier was
killed by small-arms fire west of Baghdad. At least 2,292 members of
the US military have died since the war began, according to an AP
count. Iraqi officials reported 36 people killed in violence that
included a fierce gunbattle between Iraqi commandos and insurgents
southeast of the capital.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 27, Israel said it will
not hold peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas because
he is powerless to enforce agreements while the Islamic militant group
Hamas controls his government.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, Nippon Sheet Glass
Co., Japan's second biggest sheet glass maker, said that it will pay
about $3 billion for the remaining 80 percent stake in Britain's
Pilkington PLC, which makes glass for cars and buildings.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, Omurbek Tekebayev,
the speaker of Kyrgyzstan's parliament, stepped down in response to the
president's criticism of lawmakers. Tekebayev had submitted his
resignation on Feb. 10 after saying that President Kurmanbek Bakiyev
"should go hang himself if he is a man."
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In the Netherlands
the International Court of Justice heard arguments by Bosnia accusing
Serbia of genocide, the first time a state has faced trial for
humanity's worst crime.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, A lab official said
Niger has become the second African country with confirmed cases of the
deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb explosion on a railroad track derailed a passenger
train shortly after it was attacked by gunmen.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, In the Philippines
police filed charges of rebellion against 16 people suspected of
plotting to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, as dozens of
protesters attempted to storm the legislature. Among those charged were
former opposition Sen. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, a veteran of past
coup attempts in the 1990s, five members of the House of
Representatives, a communist rebel leader and some soldiers. In 2009 a
military tribunal acquitted 11 officers of plotting the foiled coup.
The defendants were among a total of 28 military officers who were
detained following the alleged plan to force Arroyo from power.
(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 10/15/09)
2006 Feb 27, Saudi security forces
in Riyadh shot dead five suspected terrorists believed to be involved
in a foiled attack on the world's biggest oil processing complex. A
sixth suspect was arrested. Fahd Faraaj al-Juwair, the leader of
al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, and two men who helped attack the world's
largest oil-processing complex were among five militants killed during
the police raids.
(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 27, Taiwanese President
Chen Shui-bian terminated the governmental committee responsible for
unifying with rival China, significantly deepening tensions with
Beijing and defying opinion in Washington. The National Unification
Council had been inactive for 6 years.
(AP, 2/27/06)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.38)
2006 Feb 27, In Yemen a firing
squad executed Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, an Islamic militant who killed
three American missionaries in a south Yemen hospital in 2002.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 28, The US Supreme Court
voted 8-0 to bar the use of racketeering laws against antiabortion
protesters.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, The first Mardi Gras
since Hurricane Katrina drew a smaller-than-usual turnout.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2006 Feb 28, The San Francisco
Board of Supervisors passed a resolution (7-3) asking the city’s
Democratic congressional delegation to seek the impeachment of Pres.
Bush.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, In Gas City, Indiana,
a museum chronicling the short life of James Dean closed after
struggling financially since its opening in 2004. David Loehr said he
would soon be setting up a small display in the National Automotive
& Truck Museum in Auburn.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Feb 28, The US FDA approved a
selegeline skin patch to treat depression. Somerset Pharmaceuticals
said the drug will be marketed as Emsam. Selegiline as approved in pill
form in 1989 to help treat Parkinson’s disease.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A12)
2006 Feb 28, US coffee giant
Starbucks Corp said it planned to begin selling Rwandan specialty
coffee in 5,000 outlets across the US from next month.
(Reuters, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Bob Fu, a US-based
activist and a Chinese legal scholar, said leaders of an underground
Chinese church, who are accused of killing of 20 members of a rival
group, were tortured into confessing in a crackdown on unofficial
religious organizations.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Owen Chamberlain
(b.1920) Nobel Prize winning physicist (1959), died in Berkeley, Ca. He
and Emilio Segre shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics for their 1955
discovery of the anti-proton.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.B7)
2006 Feb 28, In Afghan police
fired at inmates trying to push down a gate at Kabul's main jail as
about 2,000 prisoners resumed rioting after a 24-hour pause in
violence. One inmate died and three were wounded in the renewed
fighting. A US soldier was killed by an IED.
(AP, 2/28/06)(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 21 Islamic militants, aged 21-25, to death for their part in
a deadly wave of blasts that saw more than 400 bombs explode almost
simultaneously across the country on Aug 17, 2005. All were members of
the militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and were
sentenced under the country's Explosive Substances Act."
(AFP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, The UN refugee agency
said fighting between soldiers and rebels in eastern Chad was sending
civilians fleeing across the border to Sudan’s Darfur region and were
being targeted by Sudanese militia.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 28, Sergei Abramov, the
Kremlin-backed PM of war-battered Chechnya, said he was stepping down
to give way to Ramzan Kadyrov (29), the widely feared head of a shadowy
security service.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 28, Chinese President Hu
Jintao denounced the Taiwanese president's decision to scrap an agency
dedicated to uniting Taiwan with the communist mainland, and warned
that Beijing will not permit the self-ruled island to pursue formal
independence.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, In El Salvador
thousands of street vendors, university students and labor unionists
marched in San Salvador against a regional free trade accord with the
US, which they say will hurt small businesses and organized labor.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, The deadly strain of
bird flu was confirmed in a cat in northern Germany, the first time the
virus has been identified in a mammal in the 25 nations of the European
Union.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Palaniappan
Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, unveiled the budget for the new
fiscal year. It forecast growth at 8.1% and included a 7.2% increase in
defense spending to $20 billion.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A6)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.38)
2006 Feb 28, In central India
suspected Maoist militants (Naxalites) attacked a group of trucks
jammed with passengers, killing 23 people and injuring 33.
(AP, 2/28/06)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.45)
2006 Feb 28, A suicide bomber
detonated an explosives belt at a crowded gas station killing 23 people
with 51 injured. 9 bullet-riddled bodies, including that of a Sunni
Muslim tribal sheik, were found off a road southeast of Baghdad. Sunnis
and Shiites in Baghdad traded bombings and mortar fire mainly at
religious targets, killing at least 75 people.
(AP, 2/28/06)(AP, 3/1/06)(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, Iraqi border guards
captured, Abdullah Salah al-Harbi, a Saudi who admitted he was involved
in the suicide attack on the Abqaiq oil facility in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, A car bomb targeted a
British patrol in Amarah, 180 miles from Baghdad, and 2 British
soldiers were killed. The deaths raised the British toll in the Iraq
conflict to 103.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, The Malaysian
government sharply raised fuel prices to trim a ballooning fuel-subsidy
bill. Interest rates and inflation were expected to rise as a result.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 28, Mexico City officials
moved to shut down a US-owned hotel that angered many Mexicans when it
kicked out a Cuban delegation under pressure from Washington. The
Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel would be closed because it was in violation
of building codes. The hotel could reopen when it had corrected the
violations and paid a $15,000 fine. The threat of closure was dropped
the next day.
(AP, 3/1/06)(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, Some 4,000 Mexican
miners struck copper mines owned by the operator of the coal mine where
65 men died in an explosion last week.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Nigerian separatist
militants stormed a tanker ship working in the Niger Delta and took a
large sum of cash, 12 days after they kidnapped nine foreign oil
workers from another vessel. The insurgent spokesman said the tanker
captain had parted with 500,000 naira as a "goodwill token" during the
encounter, although a shipping industry source put the sum at two
million naira (15,500 dollars / 13,000 euros).
(AFP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 28, In Peru 2 buses
crashed head-on in the southern Andes, killing 12 people, including one
American tourist. Nearly 50 people were injured.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, A top UN envoy said
Sudan has begun a campaign to keep African Union troops in Darfur and
prevent a UN force from taking over efforts to restore peace there.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi
rejected the replacement of an AU force in the Sudanese region of
Darfur by UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Uganda's main
opposition party pledged to challenge President Yoweri Museveni's
re-election in court, charging that many people were barred from voting
and some returns were falsified.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb, The government of Brazil
exempted foreign buyers of reais denominated bonds from income tax.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.78)
2006 Feb, Four works of art and
other objects, including paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Monet and Dali,
were stolen from the Museu Chacara do Ceu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by
4 armed men during Carnival. Local media estimated the paintings' worth
at around $50 million.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2006 Feb, China’s main television
and film regulator banned TV shows and movies that blend animated
characters with live-action actors. The move was aimed to nurture local
animators.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.E10)
2006 Feb, About 500 East Timorese
soldiers deserted in protest against alleged discrimination and
over-zealous surveillance. The fledgling East Timorese army has about
1500 regular soldiers and 1500 reservists.
(http://tinyurl.com/egj85)
2006 Feb, Iranian security forces,
according to a Kurdish group, killed 10 demonstrators.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.42)
2006 Feb, Mauritania began pumping
oil for export. 40% of its 3 million people lived below the poverty
line.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Feb, In Somalia a warlord
alliance, the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and
Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), was created with US support in a bid to curb
the growing influence of the Islamic courts, hunt down the extremists
they are accused of sheltering and disrupt feared plans for new
terrorist attacks.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Feb, In Sweden a painting by
Swedish writer and painter August Strindberg (1849-1912) was stolen
from a Stockholm museum. The 1893 painting "Svartsjukans Natt," or
"Jealousy's Night," was valued at $1.5 million. In 2008 police
recovered the work and arrested 2 suspects.
(AP, 3/8/08)
2006 Feb, In Venezuela
parliamentary hearings exposed some $1.5 million in bribes, kickbacks
and commissions involving the opening of the new Ezequiel Zamora
Agroindustrial Sugar Complex in Sabaneta, Barinas state, where the
father of Hugo Chavez is governor.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.31)
2006 Mar 1, President Bush, on an
unannounced visit to Afghanistan, vowed to stand by this emerging
democracy and "not cut and run" in the face of rising violence. He also
predicted Osama bin Laden would be captured despite a futile five-year
hunt.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, The Cape Town
Convention, aimed to cut the risk of financing the purchase or lease of
aircraft, became effective. It made it easier for creditors to seize
airplanes from deadbeat carriers.
(WSJ, 2/27/06, p.A4)
2006 Mar 1, A senior official said
authorities have regained control of Afghanistan's Policharki prison
after four days of rioting allegedly sparked by al-Qaida and Taliban
convicts. 6 inmates were killed in the revolt.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Algeria said it will
release more than 2,000 Islamist ex-fighters soon under an amnesty to
promote reconciliation after years of conflict in the oil-exporting
country.
(Reuters, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, British police charged
three suspects in the $92 million robbery at a cash depot in
southeastern England, the world's largest known peacetime theft.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Actor Jack Wild (53),
who'd played the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film "Oliver!," died in
Bedfordshire, England.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2006 Mar 1, China moved ahead with
3 new internet address suffixes in the Chinese language, as national
variants to .cn, .com and .net.
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.61)
2006 Mar 1, Congolese army
soldiers fighting alongside U.N. peacekeepers against ethnic militiamen
mutinied and ransacked a UN camp in the east of the vast country.
Hundreds of peacekeepers and thousands of government troops have fought
for three days to dislodge militia fighters from the town of Tchei in
northeastern Ituri district, where ethnic violence has killed 60,000
people since 1999.
(Reuters, 3/1/06)(Reuters, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, El Salvador became the
first Central American nation to join a regional free trade agreement
with the United States.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Greek lawmakers
approved new legislation to lift a standing ban on cremation of the
dead.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Two Haitian security
guards employed by the US Embassy were shot to death near the American
ambassador's official residence.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, In India tens of
thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting "Death
to Bush!" rallied in New Delhi to protest a visit by President Bush.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, In Iraq a car bomb
near a traffic police office in a primarily Shiite neighborhood in
southeast Baghdad killed at least 23 people and wounded 58. A bomb
hidden under a car detonated as a police patrol passed near downtown
Tahrir Square. 3 civilians died and 15 were wounded. Mortar shells fell
on 3 houses in the mixed Sunni-Shiite town of Mahmoudiya, 20 miles
south of Baghdad, killing 3 civilians. A fifth mortar shell slammed
into the mixed Qadisiyah neighborhood in west Baghdad, killing a woman
and wounding a child. At least 47 people were killed as sectarian and
insurgent killings continued.
(AP, 3/1/06)(WSJ, 3/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 1, It was reported that
Japan was on the verge of a shift in monetary policy. An end to a
policy of easy money, begun in 2001 to spur spending, was expected to
have a major effect on global financial markets as interest rates got
forced up.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 1, Inmates of Juweideh
prison released Jordan's top prison official along with a half-dozen
police officers they had taken hostage, ending a 14-hour riot in 3
prisons that broke out over the fate of two convicted al-Qaida killers.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, Kosovo PM Bajram
Kosumi resigned, days after the start of crucial talks on whether the
province will gain full independence or remain part of Serbia.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, Security forces in
western Nepal found 29 bodies of soldiers and suspected rebels at the
site of a fierce clash. Five insurgents were reported killed in an
accidental explosion.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, In Nigeria militants
released six foreign oil workers, including a diabetic Texan
celebrating his 69th birthday, taken captive last month to press
fighters' demands for a greater share of oil revenues generated in this
restive southern state.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships struck a militant hide-out in a
tribal region near the Afghan border, killing 45 fighters, including a
Chechen commander linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Palestinian leaders
returned some $30 million of $46 million that the US donated directly
to the government and will send back the rest before the militant Hamas
organization takes over. The current government, led by Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate Fatah Party, agreed under US pressure
to return about $46 million in unspent direct donations. The
Palestinian Authority gets about $1 billion of its annual $1.9 billion
budget from overseas donors, with European nations the largest
contributors.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, An explosion in a car
in Gaza City killed rocket maker Khaled Dahdouh (45), Islamic Jihad's
top military commander in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, which
carries out pinpointed attacks against militants in the coastal strip,
said it was not involved. Palestinian militants shot and killed a
Jewish settler traveling on a road near the settlement of Tapuah.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, Russia reported that
some 495,000 birds had died from H5N1 bird flu in regions near the
Caspian and Black seas since Feb 3.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.A6)
2006 Mar 2, On his first trip to
India, President Bush and his Indian counterpart agreed on a landmark
nuclear energy agreement that deepens ties between the world's oldest
and largest democracies.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, The Senate voted to
renew the USA Patriot Act.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2006 Mar 2, "Killer nurse" Charles
Cullen, who'd killed at least 29 patients, was sentenced in Somerville,
N.J., to spend the rest of his life in prison.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2006 Mar 2, LA prosecutors said 19
people, many of them former police officers or with police connections,
have been charged with staging home robberies in Southern California to
steal drugs, money and weapons.
(Reuters, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, The US Federal Reserve
began shipping a new colorized $10 bill to commercial banks.
(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.C3)
2006 Mar 2, It was reported that
Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, hoped that the new town of
Ave Maria in southwestern Florida would be governed under strict Roman
Catholic principles. The town was being constructed around Ave Maria
Univ. east of Naples. The town and university, bankrolled by Monaghan
with $250 million, were set to open in 2007.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 2, General Motors Corp.
said it has made major steps in developing a commercially viable
hydrogen-powered vehicle and expects it can get the emission-free cars
into dealerships in the next four to nine years.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, An oil spill in Alaska
curtailed Prudhoe Bay production. At least 265,000 gallons spilled onto
the tundra from a British Petroleum (BP) line handling 100,000 barrels
per day. The spill of 5,000 barrels was the largest in the field’s
29-year history.
(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.A1)(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)(SSFC,
8/13/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 2, Garrett Scott (37),
documentary film maker, died in Coronado, Ca., of cardiac arrest. His
2005 film “Occupation: Dreamland” was based on footage shot with
co-director Ian Olds, while embedded with the 82nd Airborne in
Fallujah, Iraq.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
2006 Mar 2, In Bangladesh Shaikh
Abdur Rahman, the fugitive leader of an Islamic militant group wanted
for a deadly wave of bombings. surrendered to police after a 33-hour
siege. Rahman, who fought in the Afghan war after graduating from
Medina University in Saudi Arabia, formed the Jamayetul Mujahideen in
the late 1990s.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Belarussian President
Alexander Lukashenko defiantly told his Western critics to stay out of
his country's affairs, while an opposition rival for the presidency was
beaten by security forces and detained.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Croatia 8 former
soldiers were convicted of torturing ethnic Serbs in a wartime prison,
four years after they were cleared of the same charges in a trial later
annulled as being flawed.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, It was reported that
Cuban academics hoping to attend a gathering of Latin America experts
in Puerto Rico had been denied visas by the American government,
marking the latest in the current US administration's trend of shutting
out Cubans.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, The European Central
Bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.5
percent amid worries about inflation.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Haiti's newly elected
Pres. Rene Preval met with Dominican Republic President Leonel
Fernandez in Santo Domingo amid rising tensions between their countries
over immigration and security.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 2, A bomb ripped through
a vegetable market in a Shiite section of Baghdad killing 38 people. A
leading Sunni politician escaped an attack on his convoy as unrelenting
violence pushing Iraq toward civil war.
(AP, 3/2/06)(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 2, John Pace, the former
UN human rights chief in Iraq said human rights abuses in Iraq are as
bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein. It was reported that
sectarian evictions by Sunnis and Shiites were growing in Baghdad
neighborhoods
(AP, 3/2/06)(SFC, 3/2/06, p.A12)
2006 Mar 2, Tommaso Onofri, a
17-month-old epileptic boy, was kidnapped from his home in
Casalbaroncolo, near Parma, Italy. His body was found April 1. He was
killed by blows to the head with a shovel. Suspects Mario Alessi, a
construction worker, and Salvatore Raimondi have been accusing each
other of killing the child shortly after the kidnapping. A woman was
accused of complicity in the kidnapping.
(AP, 3/7/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Kenya masked gunmen
identifying themselves as police raided the country's oldest newspaper
and its sister television station, two days after three journalists
were detained for a story about Kenya's president. The closures of The
Standard and the Kenya Television Network, ordered by security minister
John Michuki, appeared to mark the first time a Kenyan government has
shut down the operations of a major media company.
(AP, 3/2/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.52)
2006 Mar 2, Kosovo's president,
Fatmir Sejdiu, issued a statement calling on Lt. Gen. Agim Ceku (44), a
former leader of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, to become
prime minister and form a new government.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Libya released all 84
jailed members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement who had been
held since the late 1990s.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, North and South Korea
opened high-level military talks for the first time in almost two
years, aiming to reduce tension along the world's most heavily
fortified border and prevent accidental naval skirmishes.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Pakistan a suicide
attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying an
American diplomat in Karachi, killing diplomat David Foy and 3 other
people before President Bush's visit to Pakistan. Fifty-two people were
wounded. An Uzbek national, arrested in Pakistan in July, told
interrogators that Al-Qaeda had organized the suicide attack.
(AFP, 7/26/06)(AP, 3/2/07)
2006 Mar 2, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas said in a published interview that the al-Qaida terror
network has infiltrated the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Puerto Rico's Gov.
Anibal Acevedo Vila signed into law a ban on smoking in enclosed public
places, the toughest anti-tobacco prohibition in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 2, In South Africa early
results put the ruling African National Congress well ahead in local
elections, despite voter unhappiness with the rate of progress in
improving the lives of poor blacks.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, South Africa joined a
growing list of countries inviting Hamas leaders for talks, raising
Israeli concerns that the international front against the Islamic
militants is crumbling.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Venezuela's VP Jose
Vicente Rangel said that the US was the world's biggest consumer of
illegal drugs and had no "moral authority" to criticize Venezuela for
failing to control narcotics.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Vietnam announced it
has commuted the death sentence of Nguyen Van Chinh (45), a convicted
Australian drug trafficker, to life imprisonment after heavy lobbying
by the Australian government.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 3, President Bush arrived
in Pakistan to meet with top officials, including President Pervez
Musharraf, to discuss the war on terror. Thousands rallied across
Pakistan against cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and a planned visit by
President Bush as radical Islamic groups called a strike that shut
shops and businesses in several major cities.
(AP, 3/3/06)(AP, 3/3/07)
2006 Mar 3, The Pentagon released
the names and home countries of many detainees who have been held at
the isolated military prison for up to four years. A Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press forced the
Department of Defense afternoon to turn over some 5,000 pages of
transcripts from closed-door hearings on the detainees.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 3, US army Gen. George
Casey said the US military would continue paying Iraqi newspapers to
publish stories favorable to the US after an inquiry found no fault
with the practice. The practice would be illegal in the US.
(SFC, 3/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 3, Former US Congressman
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (64), who pleaded guilty last year to taking
$2.4 million in bribes, was sentenced by a federal judge in San Diego,
Ca., to eight years and four months in prison.
(Reuters, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 3, Research In Motion,
the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, agreed to
pay $612.5 million to NTP, a small Virginia intellectual properties
firm, to settle all claims in a 4-year patent dispute.
(SFC, 3/4/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 3, Officials in southern
California said archaeologists, excavating a housing development site,
had found a prehistoric milling area at the base of the Angeles
National Forest estimated to be 8,000 years old. Workers removed and
catalogued about 100 tools and implements used by the Gabrielino-Tongva
tribe. Azusa Land Partners is developing 1,250 homes on the 520-acre
site.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, In Austria talks
between EU negotiators and Iran over its nuclear ambitions broke up
without any agreement, paving the way for potential UN Security Council
action against Tehran as early as next week.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, 10 assault rifles and a pistol were stolen from a barracks by
seven gunmen wearing army-issued camouflage gear and ninja masks. The
gunmen overpowered three guards, stole the weapons from a small depot
and sped away in at least two cars waiting outside the building.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 3, Detectives
investigating Britain's largest robbery discovered several million
pounds in cash at a warehouse in southeast London.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, A US trade envoy said
China is failing to do enough to prevent growing product piracy and
could be forced to answer formal complaints over it in the World Trade
Organization if it doesn't take more aggressive action.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, In Ecuador a judge
released former President Lucio Gutierrez from prison, ruling he broke
no law by accusing his successor of conspiring to oust him from power.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, Egypt arrested Rashad
Bayyumi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, along with 7 members of Egypt's
main opposition group. Bayyumi sits on the Brotherhood's 13-member
Guidance Bureau. 3 more members were arrested the next day.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 3, Scientists reported
the discovery of a 19-mile wide crater in Egypt’s Sahara desert. The
newfound crater, named Kebira, was likely carved by a space rock that
was itself roughly 0.75 miles wide in an event that would have been
quite a shock, destroying everything for hundreds of miles. It was
discovered in satellite images by Boston University researchers Farouk
El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim.
(http://tinyurl.com/rukmd)
2006 Mar 3, The UN Security
Council called on Eritrea to lift a ban on UN helicopter flights in its
airspace, saying it imposes an "unacceptable restriction" that
endangers the safety of United Nations staff in the country.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, Anger against U.S.
President George W. Bush swept through parts of India as protesters
burned his effigy and carried posters of Osama bin Laden, and rioting
demonstrators clashed with Hindus in a northern city, leaving at least
one dead.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, Iran offered to
suspend full-scale uranium enrichment for up to two years during
discussion in Moscow. The proposal reflected Tehran's attempts to
escape UN Security Council action over the activity, which can be used
to make nuclear arms.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 3, Iraqi security forces
in bulletproof vests took to the streets in the bloodied capital to
enforce a daytime ban on private vehicles in an effort to blunt a surge
of sectarian violence that has pushed Iraq to the edge of civil war.
Insurgents attacks near Baghdad killed 19 people.
(AP, 3/3/06)(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 3, It was reported that
Save the Children USA, a Connecticut-based humanitarian organization,
will withdraw from Iraq due to deteriorating security there.
(SFC, 3/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 3, An Israeli couple set
off a series of firecrackers in the Basilica of the Annunciation in
Nazareth. The church was built on the site where Christians believe the
Angel Gabriel appeared before the Virgin Mary and foretold the birth of
Jesus.
(AP, 3/4/06)(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 3, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded a second person during an
early morning raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3-2006 Mar 5, Wooden
canoes, carrying West Africans seeking a better life in Europe,
foundered off the coast of Mauritania over 3 days leaving at least 45
people dead.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A3)(Reuters, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 3, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas'
political leader, rejected any discussion about the militant group's
refusal to recognize Israel, dealing a setback to Moscow's efforts to
persuade it to soften its stance.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, In the Philippines
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lifted a week-old state of emergency,
justifying the controversial decree by claiming a coup plot had been "a
clear and present danger." Isabela City Mayor Luis Biel II was shot and
killed outside his office. Bodyguards killed the gunman.
(AP, 3/3/06)(http://tinyurl.com/ytgzu6)
2006 Mar 3, South Korea rejected
North Korea's demand that the countries redraw their western sea
border, ending two days of high-level military talks without agreement.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, An EU executive said
Sweden's first case of mad cow disease has been confirmed by the
European Union's central laboratory.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, Zimbabwe’s minister of
mines announced that 51% of all foreign mining shareholdings would have
to be transferred to the government.
(Econ, 3/18/06, p.64)
2006 Mar 4, The US Army announced
it would start a criminal investigation into the 2004 friendly fire
death of former professional football player Patrick Tillman in
Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2006 Mar 4, Jenny McCarthy
received 3 Razzies: worst picture, worst actress and worst screenplay
as producer, for the gross-out romantic comedy “Dirty Love.”
(SSFC, 3/5/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 4, Some 10,000 fans paid
$50 to $450 to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at
Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
(WSJ, 3/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 4, A bomb killed four
Afghan intelligence agents when it blew up under their vehicle as they
were driving near the southern provincial capital of Lashkargah in
Helmand province.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, In Afghanistan Taliban
militia fatally shot Mohammad Hashim, a UN engineer, in the Bala Buluk
district of Farah province, where he was doing rural rehabilitation
work.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 4, Algeria began
releasing former Islamist fighters from prison, fulfilling an amnesty
aimed at promoting national reconciliation after more than a decade of
conflict.
(Reuters, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Detectives
investigating Britain's largest cash robbery arrested a 28-year-old man
on suspicion of the Feb 22 robbery in south London. Five people have
been charged so far in the case.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Cambodia deported an
American for running websites that promoted the impoverished kingdom as
a destination for people who wanted to end their lives. Californian
Roger Graham, 57, who owned the Blue Mountain Coffee and Internet Cafe
in the quiet coastal backwater of Kampot, had advertised his avid
support of euthanasia, or mercy killing, on his websites
www.euthanasiaincambodia.com and www.asian-hearts.com.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Chechnya's Parliament
unanimously approved Ramzan Kadyrov (29), the head of a security force
widely accused of human rights abuses, as PM of the war-battered
republic.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, A government spokesman
said China's military budget will rise 14.7% this year to $35.3
billion. China’s National People's Congress, largely a rubber-stamp for
decisions taken at the top level of the Chinese Communist Party,
approved a 14.7% increase in military spending to 35 billion dollars
(27 billion euros). Although this is paltry compared to the 419 billion
dollar (325 billion euro) US defense budget in 2006, the Pentagon last
year estimated that China's defense spending was two to three times the
publicly announced figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Mar 4, The French the defense
ministry said a French special forces officer was killed in clashes
with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. This was the second French
soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Youssef Fofana, the
suspected leader of a gang accused of torturing to death a young Jewish
man near Paris, was extradited from the Ivory Coast to France.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, In India hundreds of
Hindu protesters rampaged through the town of Sanvodem in the coastal
state of Goa, storming a police station, beating officers, looting
Muslim shops and burning vehicles and buildings.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Indonesia raised its
death toll due to the H5N1 strain of bird flu to 21 after tests confirm
that a boy (3) had succumbed to H5N1 in central Java.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Iraq's Kurdish
president said that he joined Sunni Arab and secular politicians in
trying to block the Shiite Muslim prime minister from a second term
because Ibrahim al-Jaafari has become a divisive figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, The Arab League said
it will open offices in Iraq for the first time since the 2003 US-led
invasion, part of its efforts to help reconcile the country's Sunni
Arab, Shiite and Kurdish communities.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, President Bush and
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recommitted their nations to the
difficult task of hunting down terrorists still hiding here and across
the globe. Police detained former cricket star Imran Khan and arrested
dozens of his opposition party's supporters to block a rally against
President Bush. Bush praised Pakistan's fight against terrorism as
unfaltering but turned down an appeal for the same civilian nuclear
help the US intends to give India.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 4, Final results showed
that South Africa's governing African National Congress won two-thirds
of council seats in local elections. President Thabo Mbeki vowed to
repay the confidence shown by voters in the ruling African National
Congress and speed up delivery of services to millions of poor blacks.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 4, Supporters of the
Basque separatist group ETA clashed with riot police in northern Spain
to protest the deaths of two jailed members of the militant
organization.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Sri Lanka said it will
put the clock back by half an hour and revert to its original time
after a 10-year experiment that largely failed to save energy. "The
change will take place from the Tamil and Sinhala New Year on April 13."
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, An armed group
attacked a Tamil Tiger rebel checkpoint in eastern Sri Lanka, killing
two guerrillas in what the rebels called a "serious" violation of the
country's cease-fire.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir repeated his country's refusal to allow any UN-led troop
intervention in strife-torn Darfur, but still insisted Khartoum was
committed to working with the world community.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 5, The film Crash” won
best picture in the Academy Awards. Lead-acting Oscars went to Philip
Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in "Capote" and Reese
Witherspoon as country singer June Carter in "Walk the Line," while
corporate thrillers earned supporting-performer Oscars for George
Clooney in "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz in "The Constant Gardener.
"Brokeback Mountain" filmmaker Ang Lee won the best-director award.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 5, AT&T Inc. said it
would buy BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion to acquire the rest of
Cingular Wireless it does not already own, and expand into the
southeastern US to gain heft to battle growing competition from cable
television and Internet companies.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 5, In Algeria a young man
injured three police officers and was then killed by a policeman in
Zeralda, a suburb of Algiers, triggering riots in which youths attacked
public buildings.
(AFP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 5, Premier Wen Jiabao
opened the annual session of China's figurehead parliament with
promises to spread prosperity to the restive countryside and
predictions of fast but steady economic growth.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Chinese Commerce
Minister Bo Xilai said on Sunday that anti-dumping duties by the
European Union and U.S. threats of more trade complaints contradict the
spirit of free trade and add to global protectionism.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, In eastern Congo UN
troops killed several militia fighters during heavy clashes after a
joint operation with the government army was aborted by a mutiny among
its soldiers.
(Reuters, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 5, Jacques Bernard, a top
election official who fled Haiti under threat, returned to help
organize a legislative runoff needed to form a new government.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 5, Egyptian security
forces arrested three more members of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking to
15 the number of Islamists from the banned opposition group arrested in
the last few days.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, French President
Jacques Chirac on a trip to Saudi Arabia preached greater tolerance and
respect after the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammad a month ago whipped up protests around the world.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Iran warned it will
start large-scale uranium enrichment if it is referred to the UN
Security Council because of international concerns over its nuclear
program.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, In Iraq 8 people were
killed in bombings and clashes around the country. Two British
newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Mirror, quoting unnamed
senior British Army sources, said the coalition intended to reduce its
presence on the ground over the next 12 months, while withdrawing
forces into bases. The US military strongly denied news reports that
coalition forces have finalized plans to quit Iraq.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, A top political ally
said Israel’s acting PM Ehud Olmert plans to withdraw from more West
Bank settlements immediately after forming the next government and to
set Israel's final borders within four years if it wins upcoming
elections.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Thousands of
protesters gathered on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to rally
against plans to relocate a US air base there, with reports saying the
protesters numbered as many as 35,000.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, State TV said Libya
had named a new prime minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi, as part of a major
cabinet reshuffle. Mahmudi replaced former premier Shukri Ghanem, who
had held the post since 2003. Ghanem would no longer be part of the
cabinet but would head the state-owned Libya National Oil.
(AFP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Malaysian PM Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi launched an information offensive to counter public dismay
after the government imposed the country's biggest ever fuel price
hikes.
(AFP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Nigerian militants
threatened to halve the country's oil output by cutting another one
million barrels a day this month in their campaign to gain more
autonomy for the southern delta region.
(Reuters, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Hundreds of people
lugging bags and bundles of clothes fled Miran Shah, a northwestern
Pakistan, town after a battle between pro-Taliban tribesmen and
security forces killed at least 51 people. The fighting came just days
after the army attacked a suspected al-Qaida camp in the village of
Saidgi near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Tens of thousands of
people massed in Pakistan and Turkey to protest cartoons of Islam's
Prophet, Muhammad, that have fired anger throughout the Muslim world.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Milan Babic (50), the
Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key figures
in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, committed suicide in prison in the
Netherlands.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 5, Tens of thousands of
Thais marched to Government House, demanding the resignation of PM
Thaksin Shinawatra in the fourth protest against him in as many weeks.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, In Yemen Hezam Ali
Hassan (17) and Khaled Saleh (18), convicted of trying to kill US
ambassador Edmund Hull in 2003, were sentenced to five years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Zimbabwe state media
reported that foreign hunters have bid a total of $1.5 million to shoot
leopards, lions, elephants and buffaloes in Zimbabwe this year.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 6, The US Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that colleges that accept federal money must allow
military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the
Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Gov. Mike Rounds of
South Dakota signed a sweeping state abortion ban. It was an
intentional provocation to set up a legal challenge to the 1973 Supreme
Court Roe vs. Wade decision that made abortion legal. Abortion-rights
groups were able to get enough signatures to put the measure to a vote,
and the ban was rejected in the November election.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A8)(AP, 3/6/07)
2006 Mar 6, A San Francisco judge
ordered the Univ. of California to pay over $33.8 million to some
40,000 students, who claimed their fees had been improperly raised.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 6, General Motors Corp.
said it will sell a 17.4% stake in Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. for $2
billion, scaling down its share in an effort to gain much-needed cash.
GM and Suzuki said the partnership between the automakers will continue.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, US scientists issued a
forecast that the next sunspot cycle would start in late 2007 or 2008
and peak in 2012. Solar storms in the 11-year cycle could disrupt power
and communications around the world.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A5)
2006 Mar 6, Dana Reeve (44),
singer, actress and non-smoker, died of lung cancer. She won worldwide
admiration for her devotion to her "Superman" husband, Christopher
Reeve (d.2004), through his decade of near-total paralysis.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 6, Baseball Hall of Famer
Kirby Puckett died in Phoenix at age 45.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2006 Mar 6-2006 Mar 7, Armenian
and Azerbaijani forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars at several
points along their border in the most serious fighting in months.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 6, PM John Howard in New
Delhi said Australia will consider selling uranium to India if it is
convinced about New Delhi's commitment to follow global nuclear
safeguards for its civilian atomic reactors.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Austrian authorities
said several cats have tested positive for the deadly strain of bird
flu in their first reported case of the disease spreading to an animal
other than a bird.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Bangladesh's second
top Islamist militant was captured after a gunbattle with security
forces. Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of the outlawed Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh group (JMB), was arrested along with his wife
at his hideout with two of his associates in the northern district of
Mymensingh.
(Reuters, 3/6/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.45)
2006 Mar 6, President Evo Morales
accused the US government of trying to intimidate Bolivia by announcing
it would cut some aid because of a disagreement over the appointment of
a military commander.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, A Chinese lawmaker
called for police to tape interrogations in possible death penalty
cases following widespread complaints of confessions being forced by
torture.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, France's highest
administrative body ruled that Sikhs must remove their turbans for
driver's license photos, calling it a question of public security and
not a restriction on freedom of religion.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, German drugmaker Bayer
AG said its fourth-quarter profit fell 33% after it set aside 275
million euros ($330.5 million) to settle claims that it colluded on
prices of rubber and plastic in the US.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Iraq explosions
killed at least 10 people and wounded 36 in Baghdad and Baqouba. In
Iraq 2 men were burned to death in their car after a shootout with
Iraqi police in Basra. Security officials said the victims were British
citizens. A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol exploded near a
market north of Baghdad, killing at least five people. A Sunni general
in charge of Baghdad defenses was killed by snipers. Attacks across
Iraq killed at least 25 people.
(AP, 3/6/06)(WSJ, 3/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 6, Israeli aircraft blew
up a truck carrying Islamic Jihad militants, killing two of them and
three bystanders, including two children. The Israeli military
confirmed it attacked the truck, saying the target was one of the dead
men, Islamic Jihad operative Moner Sukar, who had carried out rocket
attacks against Israel.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Zeev Rosenstein (51),
a suspected Israeli mob boss, was extradited to the US. Rosenstein was
suspected in the distribution of more than 1 million Ecstasy pills in
the US, mostly in NY and Miami.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Mexico Diego Santoy
(21) was captured at a police roadblock in the southern state of
Oaxaca, four days after he allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Erika
Pena, 18, strangled her 3-year-old sister and stabbed to death her
7-year-old brother.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 6, Nigeria unveiled
details of spending plans in its record 14.8-billion-dollar
(12.3-billion-euro) federal budget and made ambitious predictions for
strong economic growth.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Pakistani authorities
clamped a curfew on a Miran Shah and negotiated with tribesmen to try
to end three days of clashes that have left more than 120 pro-Taliban
rebels dead. Thousands of residents joined an exodus out of the town.
(AFP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, In comments aimed at
Afghanistan's leader, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said that the
"bad-mouthing" of his country must stop and that Pakistani officials
have caught terrorists "and will continue to do so."
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Hamas lawmakers in
Palestine voted to revoke decisions made by the Fatah-led parliament at
its last meeting in February, including more power for Pres. Abbas.
(WSJ, 3/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 6, President Vladimir
Putin signed a measure into law that allows the Russian military to
shoot down hijacked planes, the latest in a series of bills passed
following terrorist attacks.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Russia's environmental
agency gave final approval to a much-criticized plan to build a
2,550-mile oil pipeline past Lake Baikal, the world's largest
freshwater lake.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Seoul
representatives of South Korea and the US agreed to begin negotiations
in June on establishing a free trade agreement. A block away movie
actors, directors and farmers staged protests against any such deal.
(AFP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Leaders from the main
Darfur rebel group renounced Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, their party
president, saying he was acting unilaterally and endangering fragile
peace talks.
(Reuters, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Sandjar Umarov,
chairman of the opposition Sunshine Uzbekistan group, was sentenced to
more than 10 years in prison on charges of organizing a criminal group,
tax evasion and money laundering. Umarov pleaded innocent to all
charges.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, The Bush
administration drew a hard line on Iran, warning of "meaningful
consequences" if the Islamic government did not back away from an
international confrontation over its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2006 Mar 7-2006 Mar 8, The NYSE
under John Thain consummated its purchase of Archipelago Holdings, an
electronic trading system partly owned by Goldman Sachs. It began
trading as a for-profit public company, NYSE Group Inc., on Mar 8 under
the symbol NYX. Thain was formerly employed by Goldman.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.C1)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.67)
2006 Mar 7, Gordon Parks (93),
black photographer, writer and film director, died in NY. His
semi-autobiographical novel “The Learning Tree“ became a best seller in
1963. His films included “Shaft” (1971) and “Leadbelly” (1976).
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 7, In Buenos Aires,
Argentina, Mayor Anibal Ibarra was removed from office over allegations
that poor government safety regulation contributed to the death of 194
people in a December 2004 nightclub fire.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 7, Britain unveiled a new
system for screening immigrants. Entry would depend on points
accumulated in any one of 5 proposed tiers.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.52)
2006 Mar 7, In Colombia the
70-member La Gaitana company of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), handed over 63 weapons and a small aircraft during a
ceremony near Alvarado, a town 50 miles west of Bogota.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Nobel Peace laureate
Oscar Arias was declared Costa Rica's president-elect.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2006 Mar 7, In France protesters
opposed to a government plan to reduce joblessness by making it easier
to fire young workers rallied throughout the country, disrupting
airports, schools and the Paris Metro.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Varanasi, India,
explosions rocked a packed railway station and crowded Hindu temple in
Hinduism's holiest city. At least 10 people died in the explosions at
the train station, and five were killed in the blast at the temple.
Five people died overnight in hospitals. Indian police shot dead Salar,
an Islamic militant suspected of links to a triple bombing. He was
found with a pistol and 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of explosives after
he was shot on the outskirts of the Uttar Pradesh state capital
Lucknow, 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Varanasi.
(AP, 3/8/06)(AFP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 7, A four-year-old
Indonesian boy became the latest suspected human casualty of bird flu
as the virus spread in Nigeria and Poland. A Russian virus expert
warned that a human pandemic was highly likely and told the government
to get ready.
(AFP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In central Indonesia a
66-foot-high mountain of sand collapsed onto diggers, killing at least
11 people in Cipatat village near West Java's provincial capital of
Bandung.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the IAEA, the UN nuclear agency, to
compensate Iran for suspending its nuclear activities since 2003.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Iraq's president
postponed a decision on when to call the new parliament into session
after the dominant Shiite alliance requested a delay to resolve a
deadlock over the composition of the government. Bombings, gunfire and
mortars across Iraq left at least 11 people dead and more than a dozen
wounded.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, A US military patrol
and Iraqi police discovered 18 bodies, many of them handcuffed and
strangled, in an abandoned minibus in Baghdad. Bombings, mortar blasts
and gunfire killed 19 people. Police also reported finding four
bullet-riddled bodies, two with their eyes gouged out. A US soldier was
killed and 4 others wounded by a bomb explosion in Tal Afar. A US
Marine was killed by insurgents in Anbar province.
(AP, 3/8/06)(SFC, 3/9/06, p.A9)
2006 Mar 7, Iraqi forces captured
Mohammed Hila Hammad Obeidi, also known as Abu Ayman, the prime suspect
in last year's kidnapping of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. His
capture was not announced until April 6 due to DNA tests to verify his
identity.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, The Irish Supreme
Court ruled that Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, a legendary Irish Republican
Army figure who in 1983 oversaw the biggest prison breakout in British
history, should stand trial for kidnapping.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Ehud Olmert, the
acting Israeli premier, pledged a drastic cut in spending on Jewish
settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Ali Farka Toure
(b.1939), a traditional African musician who won two Grammy Awards,
died in his home in Bamako, Mali, after a long illness.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Malaysia said it has
lifted a ban on US beef imports in place for more than two years, to
make up for a shortage after it restricted access to Australian and New
Zealand beef.
(AFP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, More than 20,000 union
workers marched in downtown Mexico City, accusing the government of
meddling in the affairs of the national miners union by seeking to oust
its leader.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, heavily armed assailants killed a state police chief and an
officer and wounded two more officers in a brazen midmorning ambush.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Hundreds of communist
rebels attacked security bases overnight and bombed government
buildings in eastern Nepal, sparking battles that left at least 13
people dead.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, The World Bank
announced a $42 million grant to the Palestinian Authority, which was
plunged into a financial crisis by a drop in revenues after the Islamic
militant group Hamas won Palestinian parliament elections in January.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Sweden masked
gunmen crashed through an airport fence at the Landvetter airport
outside Goteborg, held up luggage handlers unloading crates of foreign
currency from an airliner, and left behind a suspicious package that
looked like a bomb.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, Venezuela's solidly
pro-Chavez National Assembly gave final approval to changes in the flag
proposed by the socialist president: an eighth star and a turnabout of
the horse that until now has galloped to the right.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Six months after
Hurricane Katrina, President Bush got a close-up look at the remaining
mountains of debris, abandoned homes and boarded-up businesses in New
Orleans. The Hornets played their first game at The New Orleans Arena
since Katrina; they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-107.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2006 Mar 8, US federal law
enforcement officials arrested 3 college students, Matthew Lee Cloyd
(20), Benjamin Nathan Moseley (19) and Russell Lee DeBusk Jr. (19), for
the string of church arsons that destroyed or damaged nine rural
churches in Alabama last month.
(AP, 3/8/06)(SFC, 3/9/06, p.A4)
2006 Mar 8, NFL owners agreed to
the players' union proposal, extending the collective bargaining
agreement for six years.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2006 Mar 8, Researchers reported
that single viral gene nef played a significant role in the
pathogenesis of AIDS.
(http://tinyurl.com/zmdlv)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.87)
2006 Mar 8, In eastern Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels hiding in a walled compound battled with
security forces, and a militant and a woman were killed.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 8, Argentina suspended
most beef exports for at least 180 days to prevent surging int’l. beef
prices from pushing local prices beyond the power of Argentine
families. Exceptions included the EU due to a quota program and
countries with bilateral beef-import accords.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A15)
2006 Mar 8, Thousands of women
from villages and cities across patriarchal Asia took to the streets
for International Women's Day to press for freedom, equal rights and an
end to discriminatory laws.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Brazil’s central bank
dropped its benchmark interest rate by .75% to 16.5%.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A15)
2006 Mar 8, In Brazil about 2,000
highly organized farm workers, mostly women, invaded a plantation owned
by a big paper and pulp company about 700 miles south of Sao Paulo.
They uprooted saplings and destroyed a laboratory in an environmental
rampage. Via Campesina said it organized the invasion "to denounce the
social and environmental impact of the growing green desert created by
eucalyptus monoculture.”
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Britain issued new
rules for diplomats to stop the publishing of tell-all memoirs such as
a recent portrayal of Prime Minister Tony Blair as starstruck and
senior ministers as "political pygmies."
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Chinese officials
promised to crack down on seizures of farmland for redevelopment that
were fueling unrest, saying as many as 1 million farmers lose their
land each year and are paid too little for it. Communist leaders
launched China's most ambitious initiative in decades, promising
billions of dollars in social spending and farm aid to help the 800
million people in its neglected countryside catch up with its booming
cities.
(AP, 3/8/06)(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 8, Xinhua News reported
that a court in southern China has sentenced 16 officials to jail terms
of up to six years in connection with The Aug 7, 2005, coal mine flood
that killed 123 people.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Ecuador soldiers
fired tear gas to disperse rock-throwing oil workers, hours after
President Alfredo Palacio declared a state of emergency in three jungle
provinces to quell a strike and regain control of oil installations.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, French government
attempts to stop Internet users downloading music and movies ratcheted
up a notch when Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy blasted the
widespread practice as theft.
(AFP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, A German minister
claimed that deadly bird flu was moving closer to infecting humans in
Europe after two more cats died of the virus. China reported its 10th
human fatality.
(AFP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Iran threatened the US
with "harm and pain" for its role in hauling Tehran before the UN
Security Council over its nuclear program. America's ambassador to the
United Nations said Iran's comments reflected the menace it poses.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Baghdad, Iraq,
gunmen in camouflage uniforms stormed the offices of a private security
company and kidnapped as many as 50 employees. Police found the bodies
of four handcuffed and strangled men in an open field in east Baghdad.
Another body, shot in the head, was found near a shop in an eastern
suburb. Bombings, gunfire and other violence claimed at least seven
other lives.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8-2006 Mar 9, In Japan 9
people in two groups were found asphyxiated in sealed cars, apparently
the latest cases of group suicides that have surged there. A record 91
people died in 34 Internet-linked suicide cases last year, up from 55
people in 19 cases in 2004.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 8, A Jordanian military
court convicted 11 militants, including five fugitives, of running a
network that recruited and smuggled fighters into Iraq to attack US
forces.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Kuwait Mishaal
al-Shimmiri, a Muslim fundamentalist convicted in absentia and
sentenced to 10 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist group,
turned himself in to an appeals court hearing a case that stemmed from
clashes with police in Jan 2005.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 8, Malaysia and the US
announced that they have agreed to begin negotiating a free trade deal
to eliminate trade barriers between the two nations.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Nigeria government
sources said the head of the Nigerian military in the oil-producing
Niger Delta has been removed from his post on suspicion of involvement
in the theft of crude oil. Militants killed at least 5 soldiers in a
firefight during an attack by the army in the southern Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 3/9/06)(AFP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 8, Train services linking
Pakistan with neighboring Iran were suspended indefinitely following
bombings and rocket attacks on the rail in southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Legislators of Sark, a
tiny self-governing island in the English Channel, voted to swap its
feudal government for democracy. After around 450 years of rule almost
exclusively by landowners, the smallest independent state in the
British commonwealth will allow each of the 600 residents to stand for
election.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Western powers sought
to persuade Sudan to agree to a weak African Union peacekeeping force
being turned into a more robust UN mission to stop killing in the
Darfur region. Thousands of Sudanese protested in Khartoum against any
deployment of UN troops in Darfur.
(Reuters, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Kampala,
Uganda, a church wall collapsed during a thunderstorm. 23 people were
killed and nearly 100 injured. A criminal investigation was launched
the next day.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Pres. Bush signed a
weakened patriot Act into law, a day before parts of it were due to
expire.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A5)
2006 Mar 9, Dubai Ports World
bowed to pressure from the US Congress and announced that it will sell
off its US operations to a US owner.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 9, The US Commerce Dept.
reported that the US trade gap for January widened to a record
$68.51 billion.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 9, Claude Allen, who
stepped down last month as Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was
arrested in Maryland on charges he swindled two stores out of more than
$5,000.
(Reuters, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, Exxon Mobil Corp. said
it would appeal the ruling by a US judge to allow villagers to sue the
oil giant for alleged abuses by Indonesian troops at facilities it
operated in Aceh province.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, California authorities
ordered Michael Jackson to shut down his Neverland Valley Ranch and
fined the pop star $169,000 for failing to pay his employees or
maintain proper insurance.
(Reuters, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Microsoft Corp. took
the wraps off its mysterious Project Origami, unveiling a computer
that's about the size of a large paperback book but runs a full version
of the Windows XP operating system.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Google announced that
it has bought Upstartle LLC, whose Writely.com service allows users to
create, edit and share documents online.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A16)
2006 Mar 9, Scientists from Sandia
National Laboratories in New Mexico reported that they produced
superheated gas exceeding temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin, or
3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit.
(www.livescience.com/technology/060308_sandia_z.html)
2006 Mar 9, Scientists reported
that images from the Cassini spacecraft showed plumes of water shooting
from fissures near a heated region of Enceladus, a 300-mile wide moon
of Saturn.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Mar 9, In Afghanistan’s
Helmand province a roadside bomb killed two Afghan soldiers when it hit
their convoy.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Argentina Raul
Castells opened a soup kitchen in the posh Puerto Madero section of
Buenos Aires near an outlet to the River Plate, with volunteers serving
fried bread cakes and hot herbal tea to about 600 people.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, An Argentine air force
plane providing aid for Bolivian flood victims crashed outside of La
Paz, killing all six people on board.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Bahamas Court of
Appeals ruled that Atain Takitota (41), a Japanese amnesiac who was
kept in a Bahamas prison and an immigration center for eight years
without being charged, was held unlawfully. He was awarded $500,000
"for the loss of eight years and two months" of his life.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, John Profumo (91), a
former British Cabinet minister, died. His 1963 liaison with a
prostitute nearly brought down a government after revelations that the
call girl was also involved with a Soviet spy. Profumo was Britain's
secretary of state for war when he was involved with Christine Keeler
at the same time she was seeing a Soviet naval attache and intelligence
agent.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, More than 300 police
backed by British and Irish troops mounted dawn raids on the home turf
of Thomas "Slab" Murphy, reputedly the Irish Republican Army's veteran
chief of staff and its most lucrative smuggler.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, A flood at a mine in
southwestern China killed 7 miners and injured 3 others. In central
China a coal mine explosion and fire killed 3 miners and left six
others missing.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Colombian navy
seized a 60-foot long submarine that likely was used to haul tons of
cocaine out to sea for shipment to the United States.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, The French parliament,
despite protests by students and unions, enacted a much-contested law
to reduce youth unemployment by using contract jobs.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, In France Christophe
Fauviau (46), a father who drugged his children's tennis opponents
leading to one player's death, was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, About 8,000 Georgians
took to the streets for the capital's biggest anti-government
demonstration since President Mikhail Saakashvili was swept to power
after leading the Rose Revolution protests more than two years ago.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, A German laboratory
said the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in a weasel-like mammal
called a stone marten.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In southern Germany a
delivery van struck a funeral procession after the driver had a fatal
heart attack. The crash killed two mourners.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Iran's supreme leader
Ali Khamenei and its president said that Tehran would not abandon its
nuclear program and rejected its referral to the U.N. Security Council
as unjust.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Iraq hanged 13
insurgents, marking the first time militants have been executed in the
country since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly three
years ago.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The body of Tom Fox
(54), an American man taken hostage with three other Christian peace
activists in Nov 26, 2005, was found near a railroad line in Baghdad
with gunshots to his head and chest.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, A dust storm enveloped
Baghdad as explosions killed 11 people and wounded 19, all civilians.
The US military confirmed that a mass abduction from a security firm
was the work of kidnappers masquerading as Interior Ministry commandos.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Bank of Japan
abandoned the super-easy monetary policy it has kept for five years,
saying it will gradually raise interest rates and start to cut the
excess cash in the banking system amid signs of economic recovery.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In southwestern Nepal
communist rebels attacked a security checkpoint with bombs, killing at
least three government security forces and wounding five.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, A fuel oil spill from
a chemical plant in southeastern Norway threatened hundreds of birds in
a salt water nature preserve, while snow and ice hampered a cleanup
operation. Nearly 200 barrels leaked during the transfer of fuel oil
from a ship on March 4, but because of ice in the harbor area the oil
was not visible and was not discovered before the ice broke up on March
8.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov said new customs rules imposed by Ukraine to
tighten its border with Moldova's breakaway region violate a 1997
agreement and are an attempt to pressure the separatist
Russian-speaking enclave.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Turkey a bomb set
off by suspected Kurdish guerrillas killed three people and injured 18
in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Turkey a bus
carrying about 40 people drove off a road and plunged into a river
before dawn, killing at least 16 passengers and injuring 11.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 10, The US Treasury said
February’s deficit of $119.2 billion set a one-month record. It cited
early tax filing, hurricane aid and Medicare drug costs.
(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 10, Bill Campbell (52),
former mayor if Atlanta, Georgia (1994-2002), was convicted of tax
evasion, but acquitted for corruption charges. In June he was sentenced
to 2 ½ years in prison and fined $6,300.
(WSJ, 6/14/06,
p.A1)(http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=nation_world&id=4267799)
2006 Mar 10, Ohio State,
acknowledging eight of nine violations alleged by the NCAA, was placed
on three years' probation.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2006 Mar 10, Hoisting American
flags into the air, tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly Latino,
from the Chicago area marched downtown in a display of support for
immigrant rights as a bill to stiffen border enforcement awaits action
in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 10, In Alaska another oil
leak was detected on a 2nd North Slope transmission pipeline. This
followed the recently plugged leak discovered on Mar 2.
(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)
2006 Mar 10, A NASA spacecraft,
the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, slipped into orbit around the Red
Planet.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2006 Mar 10, Opera singer Anna
Moffo died in New York at age 73.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2006 Mar 10, The African Union
decided to extend its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region for
six months to give itself time to negotiate a peace agreement, but it
promised to transfer control to the United Nations once that is
accomplished.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, In Bahrain riot
police clashed with demonstrators burning tires and garbage at a
suburban shopping center in Manama, and at least 11 people were
wounded. The demonstration began as a peaceful protest by about 175
people who were demanding the release of 20 supporters of a cleric who
have been detained since Dec 24. The government did not want
demonstrations while the tiny island state hosted thousands of
foreigners who had come for the Formula 1 Grand Prix on Mar 12.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Belarus told a group
of EU legislators who were planning to monitor the upcoming
presidential vote to stay home, labeling them troublemakers.
(WSJ, 3/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 10, Cuba said it will
open embassies in four more Caribbean countries, a move that will give
it a diplomatic presence in all 15 Caribbean Community nations.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Tamer Yusri Yassin,
who worked in Qatar and is considered the founder of a group of 14
people involved in terrorist attacks, was allegedly extradited to Egypt
from Qatar. The next day Qatar denied that Yassin was extradited.
Yassin was one of 14 people referred for trial by the public prosecutor
this week for involvement in two Cairo bombings on April 7 and April
30, 2005.
(AFP, 3/11/06)(Reuters, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 10, Legal experts from
Ethiopia and Eritrea flew to London for talks with international
mediators to discuss demarcating their common border.
(Reuters, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, The EU threatened
legal action against member states that create biotech-free growing
zones in their countries, warning that doing so would violate EU trade
rules.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, The EU threatened to
cut off aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government "unless it seeks
peace by peaceful means," its strongest signal to the new leadership.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, The EU and the US
signed a new wine deal that allows the US to export wines made using
practices many European vintners shun. The bilateral accord resolved
most elements of a 2-decade-long dispute over wine making methods and
names.
(SFC, 3/11/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 3/11/06, p.A4)
2006 Mar 10, An Indonesian health
ministry official said Bird flu has killed its 22nd human victim there,
a 12-year-old girl, according to tests by the WHO's Hong Kong
laboratory.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, President Jalal
Talabani issued a decree ordering Iraq's new parliament to hold its
first session March 19. Bombings and shootings killed at least 17
people. A suicide truck bomb ripped through a line of vehicles waiting
at a checkpoint in Fallujah, killing at least 7 civilians.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Acting PM Ehud Olmert
presented a sweeping vision for Israel's future in published
interviews, saying he will dismantle most West Bank settlements,
fortify remaining settlement blocs and set the nation's borders by 2010.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Prosecutors in Milan
said they have requested that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi be
indicted on corruption charges.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Japan, the second
largest contributor to the UN, called for minimum dues for permanent
members of the Security Council, forcing China and Russia to pay more
or lose their seats.
(AFP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Kosovo's parliament
elected Agim Ceku (45), a former ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander,
as the new PM. Ceku said that anything short of independence from
Serbia was "out of the question," but emphasized after his election
that respect for the province's Serb minority would be a priority for
his government.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, An anchorman for a
Mexican radio station was shot to death by gunmen waiting for him in
the bushes in front of his house in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, A Netherlands court
convicted 9 Muslims of belonging to a terrorist group because they
incited hatred for non-Muslims. Among the defendants was Mohammed
Bouyeri, the convicted killer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, In southwestern
Pakistan a crowded bus carrying a wedding party hit an anti-tank mine
in Baluchistan province, killing 28 people, mostly women and children.
(AFP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Pakistani soldiers
backed by helicopter gunships attacked a suspected militant hideout
near Miran Shah, the volatile tribal region near the Afghan border, and
killed about 30 militants.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 10, In Russia a bomb
exploded outside a government office in the southern city of
Makhachkala, killing a top-ranking police official.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 11, Investors began to
recoil from almost any asset class that looked risky.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.74)
2006 Mar 11, Rural house fires in
Tennessee and Indiana killed 15 members of two families, and most of
the victims were children.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Afghanistan’s
Helmand province the bodies of 2 policemen, kidnapped from their homes
a day earlier, were found beheaded and dumped in the desert. A roadside
bomb hit a police patrol in Helmand's Nad Ali district, killing a
policeman and wounding five others.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, Authorities in
Central African Republic accused exiled former President Ange-Felix
Patasse of forming a rebel movement and recruiting fighters to
overthrow the government.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 11, Michelle Bachelet, a
Socialist pediatrician who suffered prison, torture and exile under
Chile's military dictatorship, was sworn in as the nation's first
female president.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, A Chinese activist
who documented villagers' claims of forced abortions and sterilizations
was detained while trying to report the beating of his cousin. Chen
Guangcheng, his older brother and his cousin were taken away in a
police van and other vehicles from their home village of Dongshigu in
Shandong, as they were on their way to file a police report.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 11, Police stormed
France's famed Sorbonne University to dislodge students occupying the
building in protest of a new national employment measure, hours after
the demonstrators hurled furniture and ladders from the landmark's
windows.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, Iran threatened to
use oil as a weapon if the UN Security Council imposes sanctions over
its nuclear program.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Iraq at least six
people including Amjad Hameed (45), director of Iraq’s public TV
channel and a human rights activist, were killed in drive-by shootings.
(AP, 3/11/06)(SSFC, 3/12/06, p.A10)
2006 Mar 11, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi denounced Italy's judiciary as a danger to democracy and
promised changes to the system as he tries to hold on to the
premiership in next month's election.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Jordan 2 militants
were executed by hanging for the killing in Amman of a US diplomat.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, Nepalese officials
said a 15-year-old boy, whose followers believe he is the reincarnation
of Buddha, has disappeared after 10 months of meditation in the jungle.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 11, In the Netherlands
former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic (b.1941), the so-called
"butcher of the Balkans" being tried for war crimes after orchestrating
a decade of bloodshed during his country's breakup, was found dead in
his prison cell. Milosevic spent nearly five years at a UN detention
facility in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague. An autopsy showed that
he died of a heart attack. A Dutch toxicologist said he took
unprescribed pills that neutralized heart medication.
(SFC, 3/13/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/14/06, p.A1)(Econ,
3/18/06, p.83)
2006 Mar 11, In Lahore, Pakistan,
hundreds of kites filled the skies on the opening day of a traditional
spring festival, despite a ban that followed the deaths of seven people
killed by glass-coated or wire kite strings.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Sudan 5 members of
the main opposition group in eastern Sudan were arrested or detained,
in a move party officials said hindered any chance to start
long-delayed peace talks.
(Reuters, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, Turkish and Kurdish
intellectuals gathered under tight security for a major 2-day
conference in Istanbul to discuss a peaceful resolution to the
22-year-old Kurdish conflict.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Zimbabwe lawmaker
Giles Mutseyekwa of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and seven others were formally charged with violating security laws.
The eight were rounded up on Mar 7-8 after security agents had arrested
one of the suspects identified as Mike Peter Hitschmann over an arms
cache found at his home in Mutare.
(AFP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 11, Zimbabwe’s Central
Statistical Office said inflation was 782 percent for the 12 months
that ended in February. Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the
government-run Statistical Office, said prices of food and nonalcoholic
beverages rose 824 percent during that time.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 12, Capital One said it
was buying North Fork, a NY bank, for $14.6 billion in cash and shares.
Capital One was spun off from Virginia’s Signet Bank in 1994 as a pure
credit-card company.
(Econ, 3/18/06, p.69)
2006 Mar 12-2006 Mar 13, Swarms of
tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest states of
Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. It caused so much damage in Springfield, Ill., that the
mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded as a US armored vehicle drove by,
killing four American service members. In Kabul a suicide car bomb
exploded into the convoy of an Afghan politician leading reconciliation
efforts with the Taliban militia, injuring him and killing four other
people.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, Queen Elizabeth II
arrived in Australia for a five-day state visit that has reignited the
simmering debate over whether she should remain the country's head of
state.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, The Cameroon
government announced its first case of bird flu, becoming the fourth
African country to be struck by the virus. New cases were also reported
in Poland and Greece.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Colombia
supporters of President Alvaro Uribe dominated the congressional
elections in which candidates defined themselves by their views of the
Colombian leader. Voters in Sucre re-elected Alvaro Garcia to the
Senate and Erik Morris to the chamber of Representatives. Both men and
another senator from Sucre were later charged with financing right-wing
paramilitary groups.
(AP, 3/13/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.40)
2006 Mar 12, El Salvador held
elections. The next day the conservative ruling party claimed several
victories over former leftist rebels in elections for congressional
seats and mayorships across the country.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 12, Iran said it had
ruled out a proposal to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia,
further complicating the international dispute over the country's
nuclear program.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, The Iraqi Defense and
Interior ministries signed an agreement requiring them to conduct all
raids jointly, in a bid to stop the operations of alleged death squads
masquerading as police commandos. Bomb blasts, rocket and gunfire
killed over 50 people in eastern Baghdad’s Sadr City and injured over
200. Gunmen and explosions left 12 Iraqis dead elsewhere in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/12/06)(AP, 3/13/06)(SFC, 3/13/06,
p.A10)(Econ, 3/18/06, p.47)
2006 Mar 12, In Iraq a family of 4
in the Khasir Abyad area, about 6 miles north of Mahmoudiya, were found
killed. They included Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, who had been raped and
shot in the face, her sister and her parents. A neighbor said the Abeer
was 14 years old and her sister 10. In June up to 5 US soldiers of the
502nd Infantry Regiment were placed under investigation for the
murders. On June 3 federal prosecutors charged former Army Pfc. Steven
Green with the rape and killing of Abeer and her family. In 2007 Sgt.
Paul Cortez (24) was sentenced to 100 years in prison for the gang rape
and murder. Pfc. Jesse Spielman was sentenced to 110 years in prison. 3
other soldiers who pleaded guilty received sentences of 5 to 100 years.
In 2009 Pfc. Steven Green was convicted of rape and murder. On
September 4 a Kentucky court sentenced him to 5 consecutive life
sentences.
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A6)(AP, 7/3/06)(SFC, 2/23/07,
p.A3)(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A16)(AP, 5/22/09)(SFC, 9/5/09, p.A2)
2006 Mar 12, Residents of Iwakuni,
a southern Japanese city, voted no in an unprecedented non-binding
referendum on whether to host the relocation of an additional US naval
air wing.
(AFP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Jordan 5 Islamic
militants were convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on Jordanian
intelligence agents, foreign tourists and upscale hotels and sentenced
to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In northwestern
Pakistan villagers found the bodies two tribesmen shot dead by
suspected Islamic militants, with a note on one of the bodies warning
that anyone who spied for the US would meet the same fate.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Lahore, Pakistan,
skies normally alive with colorful kites to mark a spring festival were
largely empty after police arrested 1,400 people over three days to
enforce a ban imposed because of a series of fatal accidents.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, African Union
mediators presented cease-fire proposals for the conflict in Sudan's
Darfur region, asking rebels and the Sudanese government to work
together to end military activity against relief supply routes and
refugee camps.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, Tens of thousands of
opposition supporters marched in Taipei to protest the Taiwanese
president's decision to abolish a committee responsible for unification
with rival China.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 13, The US Agriculture
Dept. confirmed that a cow in Alabama had tested positive for mad cow
disease. The animal had not entered the food supply for people of
animals. This case of the disease, as well as one from Texas in 2005,
was later reported as atypical.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.A3)(SFC, 6/12/06, p.A6)
2006 Mar 13, The 47 lacrosse
players at Duke Univ., North Carolina, paid a couple of strippers to
entertain them. Events this night led to the arrest of 2 players on
April 18.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.46)
2006 Mar 13, Deadly tornadoes
raked the Midwest while wildfires scorched the Texas Panhandle.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2006 Mar 13, The Cleveland Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Black Sabboth, Blondie, Miles Davis,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Sex Pistols at a ceremony in NYC.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 13, The National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force announced a merger with the Institute for Welcoming
Resources, a religious group representing 1,400 Protestant
organizations that unconditionally welcome gays and lesbians.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 13, US Credit-card issuer
Capital One Financial Corp. said it has agreed to buy North Fork
Bancorp. Inc. in a stock and cash deal worth about $14.6 billion.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, The McClatchy Co.
said it has reached a deal to buy Knight Ridder Inc., the
second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, for about $4.5 billion in cash
and stock. McClatchy will also assume about $2 billion in Knight
Ridder's debt.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, South Korea’s Kia
Motors Corp. said it will build a $1.2 billion factory in West Point,
Ga., its first in the US. Toyota said it will build a plant in
Lafayette, Ind.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.D3)
2006 Mar 13, Heart researchers
said clogging of arteries by plaque was reversed through aggressive use
of an anticholesterol statin.
(WSJ, 3/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 13, Peter Tomarken (63),
former host of the 1980s TV game show "Press Your Luck," and his wife,
Kathleen Abigail Tomarken (41), were killed along with 2 others when
their small plane crashed into Santa Monica Bay, Ca.
(www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,18559,00.html?fdnews)
2006 Mar 13, Maureen Stapleton
(b.1925), film and stage actress, died in Lenox, Mass.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.B5)
2006 Mar 13, Abdul Rahim Wardak,
Afghanistan's defense minister, said the national army will be fully
operational within four to five years and ready to take over more
responsibility for security from international troops.
(Reuters, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, A UN agency said bird
flu has been found at two sites in Afghanistan and there's a high risk
that tests could prove it to be the deadly H5N1 strain.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Bangladesh riot
police fired tear gas in Dhaka to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing
activists who tried to march in support of a general strike.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Rana Abdel Rahim
Koleilat (39), a fugitive bank executive wanted for questioning in the
U.N. probe of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's
assassination, was arrested in Brazil on an unrelated charge. She
offered officers up to $200,000 to release her and was arrested on a
charge of attempted bribery. In 2003 Koleilat made headlines in Lebanon
and Europe in connection with questions about her role in the
disappearance of $300 million from the private Medina Bank where she
worked. The funds' disappearance was the worst financial scandal at a
Lebanese bank since the country's 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Defense Secretary
John Reid said Britain will cut its forces in Iraq by 10 percent, a
reduction of about 800 troops, by May because Iraqi security forces are
becoming more capable of handling security.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, In London 6 men
participated in a drug trial and soon became seriously ill. The men had
been given does of TGN1412, a monoclonal antibody developed by TeGenero
AG of Wuerzburg, Germany, for treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory
diseases and leukemia.
(AP, 3/16/06)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.78)
2006 Mar 13, Newly inaugurated
President Michelle Bachelet said that all Chileans older than 60 will
immediately begin receiving free care at public hospitals.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, News reports said the
world industrial-standards association has rejected China's
controversial wireless encryption standard for global use.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Liu Zhijun, China’s
minister of railways, announced $25 billion plans to build two new
high-speed train lines linking Shanghai with Beijing (1320km) and
another linking Shanghai and Hangzhou (175km). Plans included the use
of magnetic levitation technology that can reach speeds of 260 mph.
(AP, 3/13/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.69)
2006 Mar 13, Germany's public
sector strikes entered their sixth week developing into a test of union
strength and exposing cracks between the parties in Chancellor Angela
Merkel's coalition government.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Merck KGaA, a maker
of pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals, launched a 15-billion-euro
(18-billion-dollar) hostile takeover bid for Berlin-based rival
Schering, opening the way for a bitter bidding battle.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Indonesia's state-run
oil and gas company Pertamina and Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to jointly
operate the country's largest untapped oil field, ending a five-year
dispute that had shaken foreign investors' confidence in the sprawling
archipelago.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Iranian lawmakers
approved spending $15 million to investigate alleged American
intervention in the country.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Iraqi officials
received a report alleging that American soldiers had killed a family
of 4 in the Khasir Abyad area, about 6 miles north of Mahmoudiya.
Police found four hanged men dangling from electricity pylons in a
Baghdad Shiite slum, hours after car bombs and mortars shells ripped
through teeming market streets, killing at least 58 people and wounding
more than 200. An armed group that says it was created with government
backing to drive al-Qaida fighters out of a restive Iraqi province
claimed that it had killed five top members of the terrorist group. 2
US soldiers assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th
Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, were killed in
fighting in Anbar province.
(AP, 3/13/06)(AP, 3/15/06)(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Mar 13, The Tokyo Stock
Exchange said shares of disgraced Japanese Internet startup Livedoor
Co. will be delisted from the exchange next month over alleged
securities law violations.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Leaders of Lebanon's
rival factions resumed talks after a weeklong break in an attempt to
agree on the biggest issues that divide the country, the fate of the
pro-Syrian president and the U.N. call for Hezbollah's disarmament.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Mexico’s attorney
general said he will close a special prosecutor's office dedicated to
investigating atrocities committed by the government during its
two-decade campaign to weed out suspected guerrillas and leftists.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Myanmar reported its
first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Nepal's royal
government offered amnesty, cash, jobs and land to communist rebels who
surrender in the next three months.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, In Nigeria and
official report said ethnic and religious fighting, land disputes and
communal conflicts have driven more than three million Nigerians from
their homes since the return to democracy in 1999.
(Reuters, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, A Spanish judge
indicted 32 people for allegedly plotting to drive a truck packed with
explosives into a courthouse that has been the hub for anti-terrorism
investigations. Authorities suspected that Mohamed Achraf was planning
to ram a truck loaded with 1,100 pounds of explosives into the court in
downtown Madrid.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 13, Jan Egeland, the UN
humanitarian chief, said increasing violence has left hundreds of
thousands of civilians in Sudan's Darfur region without food and facing
the prospect of widespread disease and death within weeks.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Pope Benedict XVI and
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks at the Vatican about Iran,
Iraq and the prospects for lasting peace in the Middle East.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 14, A Washington DC judge
ruled that the slaughter of horses for meat may continue in the US.
(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 14, In California scores
of FBI agents and local police raided 14 homes and arrested 9 members
of the drug trafficking Project Trojans gang in Contra Costa County.
(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 14, In Hawaii an
1890s-era plantation dam failed in the rugged hills above northern
Kauai, sending water and mud surging through two homes and wiping out
the only highway. Searchers found one person dead and were looking for
at least seven others, some of them children who hadn't been seen since
the deluge. The torrent of water killed seven people.
(AP, 3/15/06)(AP, 3/14/07)
2006 Mar 14, Afghanistan's
president demanded greater cooperation from Pakistan in the fight
against terrorism following claims the neighboring country has been
supporting militant attacks here. Islamabad criticized the remarks and
said Afghanistan must do more to battle terrorism.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 14, A spokesman said NATO
peacekeepers in northern Afghanistan had found the biggest weapons
cache in recent years including 80 tons of TNT and 25,000 landmines.
The weapons were stored underground in old Soviet bunkers.
(Reuters, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 14, The WHO said it
believed test results showing three young women in Azerbaijan had died
of bird flu were reliable, but it awaited final confirmation from a
British laboratory.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 14, Belarus authorities
arrested more opposition activists as Belarusians cast early ballots
for the March 19 presidential election.
&