Timeline 2006 July-September
Return to home
2006 Jul 1, New
Jersey failed to approve a budget and Gov. Jon S. Corzine began closing
the state government amid a bitter dispute with fellow Democrats in the
Assembly over his plan to increase the sales tax, threatening to
shutter beaches, parks and possibly casinos in the coming days.
(AP, 7/1/06)(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.27)
2006 Jul 1, An estimated 5,000
bikers rode into Hollister, Ca., for the annual 4th of July motorcycle
rally, even though it was officially cancelled last year by the City
Council.
(SSFC, 7/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 1, Thunderstorms forced
NASA to call off the launch of Discovery, delaying the first space
shuttle flight in a year. Discovery was launched three days later, on
July 4.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2006 Jul 1, Phillip Rieff (83),
sociologist and a severe critic of contemporary academic culture, died.
He was best known for his 1966 book “The Triumph of the Therapeutic:
Uses of Faith After Freud.” His final work: “Charisma: The Gift of
Grace, and How It Has Been Taken Away from Us,” was published in 2007.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.P12)(http://tinyurl.com/lphph)
2006 Jul 1, In southern
Afghanistan 2 rockets fired by insurgents slammed into the main
coalition military base. The wounded included five American and two
Canadian soldiers, as well as three foreign contract workers. 2 British
soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed when their base in
Sangin district in Helmand province came under attack. Afghan forces
killed 11 militants in a separate attack in the same area. A total of
five British troops have been killed since the start of Operation
Mountain Thrust.
(AP, 7/1/06)(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 1, China’s new $4.2
billion, 710-mile-long railway from Golmud to Lhasa, Tibet, began
operations. Canada’s Bombardier manufactured high-tech cars for the Sky
Train with regulated oxygen levels to cope with 16,500-foot passes.
(SFC, 6/30/06, p.A18)(Reuters, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, It was reported that
Chinese consumers had begun ganging up on retailers by arriving en
masse at pre-arranged times, arranged online, to push for bargain
prices.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.59)
2006 Jul 1, China reported a new
outbreak of bird flu near Zhongwei in the Ningxia region.
(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 1, Sources said East
Timor's outgoing foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta will head the
government until a new premier is appointed in coming days.
(AFP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, About 100 Ethiopian
troops entered the Somali border town of Beled-Hawo in eight military
vehicles, the latest sign that Ethiopia might try to bolster this
country's weak interim government as an Islamic militia gains
increasing power.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, Finland began its
6-month rotating presidency of the EU.
(www.government.fi/eu/suomi-ja-eu/2006/en.jsp)
2006 Jul 1, Thousands of people
marched through Paris to protest plans to tighten restrictions on
immigration and step up deportations of immigrant families with
children who are in the country illegally.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 1, The 3-week Tour de
France began. 4 favorites, including Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, were
barred with 5 others from the cycling competition after their names
popped up in a Spanish probe of a network that allegedly supplied
riders and other athletes with banned drugs and doping know-how.
(AP, 6/30/06)(SFC, 7/1/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 1, In Gambia a summit of
more than 50 African leaders opened with the aim of pursuing regional
integration, but conflicts in Darfur and Somalia are inevitably topping
the agenda. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Africa to forge
closer ties with Latin America to combat what he called a threat of
U.S. hegemony.
(AFP, 7/1/06)(Reuters, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, Thousands chanted
slogans and marched through Hong Kong's streets in a pro-democracy
protest, while a pro-Beijing parade also drew a big crowd to mark the
ninth anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, India's PM Manmohan
Singh announced an 835-million-dollar relief package to aid farmers in
the country's main cotton belt where crippling debts and falling prices
have led to thousands of suicides. A court convicted three men of
involvement in a 2002 terrorist attack on a Hindu shrine in western
India that killed 33 people, and it sentenced them to death.
(AP, 7/1/06)(AFP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, Ryutaro Hashimoto
(68), former Japanese PM (1996-1998), died. He had stood up to the US
in trade negotiations and helped diffuse tensions over US military
bases in Japan.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, A parked car bomb
exploded at a popular outdoor market in a Shiite slum in Baghdad,
killing at least 66 people and wounding dozens. It was the bloodiest
attack to hit Iraq since the death of terror leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi. Gunmen in Baghdad kidnapped a Sunni female legislator along
with seven of her bodyguards. Iraqi and US authorities freed 495
prisoners from US facilities, completing a mass release announced by
the prime minister last month as part of his national reconciliation
efforts.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, Palestinian militants
holding an Israeli soldier issued a new set of demands, calling for the
release of 1,000 prisoners and a halt to Israel's military offensive in
Gaza. But Israel rejected them.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, A new law, combined
with a series of bureaucratic bungles, forced some 30% of Russian
liquor stores to close indefinitely because they will have nothing to
sell. The law, which aimed to block counterfeit wine sales, requires
distributors to place new, government-issued excise labels on all wine
and liquor. But a series of delays and misunderstandings has meant few
properly labeled imports will be ready in time.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, In Geneva developing
countries emerged from a failed World Trade Organization meeting more
united than ever and warned rich countries not to undermine the
development thrust of the Doha Round of global trade talks.
(AFP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, US researchers
reported that astemizol, an allergy drug pulled off the market in 1999,
could work to treat malaria. It was marketed under the brand name
Hismanal by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and
can kill the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes malaria.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, Jan Murray (born as
Murray Janofsky in 1916), comedian and film and TV actor, died in
Beverly Hills. He hosted the TV game show “Treasure Hunt” (1956-1959).
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 2, In Afghanistan up to
30 extremists, firing guns and mortars, attacked a coalition patrol
that had just found a weapons cache in Sangin. About 20 militants were
killed. Afghan police killed seven insurgents that attacked a police
checkpoint in Nawzad district in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 2, Africa's leaders
meeting in Gambia agreed to send troops to Somalia to support regional
efforts at calming the chaotic east African state.
(Reuters, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, In Bangladesh 2 people
were killed and nearly 200 injured in clashes as opposition parties
enforced a countrywide transport shutdown.
(Reuters, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, Bolivians voted for a
national assembly that will rewrite the constitution. They voted "yes"
or "no" on a ballot question on whether to offer the country's nine
states greater autonomy in political and financial affairs. President
Morales' supporters failed to win control of an assembly that will
rewrite Bolivia's constitution, leaving him no choice but to compromise
over his ambitious plans to empower the indigenous majority and boost
state control over the economy. Morales allies won 132 seats in the
255-person body. Voters in four of Bolivia's nine states overwhelmingly
chose greater political and economic autonomy for their states.
(AP, 6/29/06)(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 2, EADS's French co-chief
executive Noel Forgeard and Airbus's German head Gustav Humbert
tendered their resignations over delays to deliveries of the A380
superjumbo that has wiped billions of euros (dollars) off EADS's share
price. Louis Gallois became the new EADS co-CEO; Christian Strieff was
named the new president and CEO of Airbus.
(AFP, 7/2/06)(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 2, Pirates in the Strait
of Malacca off Indonesia's coast boarded two UN-chartered ships
carrying construction material for the reconstruction of the
tsunami-hit Aceh. They stole and damaged equipment on the first ship
and robbed the crew of cash and personal belongings on the other.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 2, Israeli aircraft sent
missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh in
an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli
soldier.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, Iraq’s largest Sunni
Arab bloc in parliament said it was suspending its participation in the
legislature until a kidnapped colleague was released, dealing a blow to
efforts to involve the disaffected minority in the political process. A
roadside bomb in Baghdad killed Col. Muthanna Faeq Abdul-Razzaq, the
assistant commander of the Iraqi army's 7th Division, and wounded his
driver. 2 policemen were killed and six were wounded in a shootout
between gunmen and Iraqi police. A bomb struck a house in Baqouba,
killing two people and wounding four. Clashes between insurgents and
Iraqi police southwest of Kirkuk left one policeman and two insurgents
dead.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, Liechtenstein remained
on the list of uncooperative tax havens because, unlike 33 other
jurisdictions, it had not made a commitment to the OECD to improve
transparency and to establish effective exchange of information for tax
purposes with OECD countries. The population stood at some 34,600.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, Mexico held
presidential elections. Felipe Calderon (43) calling himself “the
candidate of jobs,” faced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: “For everyone’s
good, the poor first.” Lopez Villanueva, head of the Francisco Villa
Popular Front, arranged to have 10,000 members as poll watchers for
Lopez Obrador. A tight race delayed the results to July 5. The per
capita GDP was $10,000. Oil production was 3.35 million barrels per
day. On July 6 Calderon was named the winner by 234,000 votes. The
final outcome rested with the electoral court, Trife, and its decision
was due by September 6.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)(WSJ, 6/28/06, p.A1)(Econ,
7/15/06, p.35)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 2, In Nicaragua Herty
Lewites (b.1939), former mayor of Managua (2000-2004) and recent
presidential candidate, died of a heart attack. He broke with the
leftist Sandinista party to run against its leader Daniel Ortega.
(http://tinyurl.com/omz5w)(AP, 7/3/06)(Econ,
11/4/06, p.45)
2006 Jul 2, A Peruvian rescue team
found the bodies of 3 American mountaineers killed during an icy climb
high in the Andes. They located Kristen Yoder (21), her brother Dustin
Yoder (23) and Brennan Larson (24) in a 100-foot-deep crevasse on the
Artesonraju peak.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 2, Senegal's President
Abdoulaye Wade said his country would try Chad's former leader Hissene
Habre, wanted by Belgium for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
(AFP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, Sri Lanka’s Tamil
Tigers, claiming they have just trained 6,000 civilians in armed
combat, accused the UN of exaggerating the number of child
fighters in the rebels' ranks. Police said Sampath Lakmal, a freelance
Sri Lankan journalist, has been gunned down near the capital Colombo.
(AFP, 7/2/06)(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 3, Former Private Steven
D. Green was charged in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., with raping a
14-year-old Iraqi girl (Abeer Qassim al-Janabi) and killing her (March
11), her parents and sister. Four members of Green's unit were charged
as well; one later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 100 years in
prison.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2006 Jul 3, A US federal judge
issued a temporary retraining order barring the Navy from using a type
of high-intensity sonar that could harm marine animals during war games
that began last week in the Pacific Ocean. On July 7 the US Navy and
environmental groups agreed on a settlement which prevented the Navy
from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly established
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument during the
exercises.
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A3)(SFC, 7/8/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 3, Benjamin Hendrickson
(55), an Emmy Award-winning actor on the "As the World Turns" soap
opera, was found dead of suicide with a gunshot to the head in his Long
Island home.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 3, Jack Smith (b.1913),
singer and TV host for “You Asked for It,” died at his home in southern
California. In 1958 he replaced Art Baker, who created the show in 1950.
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B4)
2006 Jul 3, A US general said the
United States is giving $2 billion worth of military weapons and
vehicles to modernize Afghanistan's national army.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, Judges and prosecutors
from Cambodia and abroad were sworn in to begin the UN-backed judicial
process to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes
against humanity.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, China's new train from
Beijing to Tibet arrived in the ancient capital of Lhasa, ending its
maiden journey after climbing to elevations so high that ballpoint pens
and packaged foods burst.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, It was reported that
579 Cubans had entered the US over the last 9 months by landing on
Puerto Rico’s Mona Island, 40 miles from the coast of the Dominican Rep.
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 3, Iraq’s parliament
convened despite a boycott by Sunni Arab legislators protesting a
colleague's abduction. Bombs struck markets north and south of Baghdad,
with nationwide attacks killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, Nissan Motor Co.
approved opening talks with General Motors Corp. over a possible
alliance.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, In India's
Jammu-Kashmir state clashes between Indian government forces and
suspected Islamic separatist militants killed 13 people.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, Two bitter rivals
declared themselves Mexico's next president, sparking fears of
violence. Electoral officials said they wouldn't name a winner until a
vote-by-vote hand count.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, In northwestern
Pakistan an explosion hit a bus carrying paramilitary troops, killing
at least 6 soldiers and wounding 5 others.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, Palestinian militants
holding an Israeli soldier gave Israel less than 24 hours to start
releasing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and implied that he would be
killed if it did not comply, but Israel said it would not negotiate.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, A subway train
derailed in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia, killing 43 people.
"Initial investigations show it was an accident," said Vicente Rambla,
spokesman for the Valencia regional government.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2006 Jul 3, At least seven people
were killed and dozens wounded in three Claymore mine attacks carried
out by Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's northern and eastern regions.
(AFP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, Sudan's foreign
minister rejected calls by the top UN envoy in the country to make
additions to a peace deal for Darfur after widespread rejection of the
accord. A group of Sudanese rebels in more than 50 cars attacked the
town of Hamarat Sheikh in the Kordofan region of Darfur. At least a
dozen people were killed. In southern Sudan at least six people were
killed and 11 wounded when gunmen ambushed a German aid agency vehicle.
Witnesses said the attackers, some of whom were uniformed, were rebel
fighters with the LRA.
(Reuters, 7/3/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(AFP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 4, The US space shuttle
Discovery took off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral,
Florida, with 7 astronauts. Up to six pieces of debris that could be
foam insulation fell off Discovery's troublesome external fuel tank
minutes after liftoff. News arrived that North Korea had launched test
missiles [see July 5].
(AFP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 4, In Gustine, Ca.,
Trevor Branscum (38) killed his 4 young children with a hunting rifle
and then turned the weapon on himself.
(SFC, 7/5/06, p.B3)
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan 5
laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US military
base. US-led coalition forces killed 35 suspected militants during a
raid late in the village of Gujdar in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 4, Two former currency
dealers for Australia's biggest bank were jailed for their part in a
260 million US dollar rogue trading scandal. Vince Ficarra (27) and
David Bullen (34) made a raft of fictitious trades for the National
Australia Bank (NAB) between September 2003 and January 2004 to mask
massive losses. Bullen was sentenced to 44 months in prison and Ficarra
to 28 months.
(AFP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan 5
laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US military
base.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Gunmen attacked a
Russian military convoy in the Chechnya region, killing at least five
troops and wounding as many as 25 others, officials said. Pro-rebel Web
sites claimed more than 20 Russian soldiers were killed.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, A French court
convicted respected wine exporter Georges Duboeuf Wines of fraud after
one of its wineries mixed a variety of grapes in its Beaujolais.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Iraq’s justice
minister demanded that the UN Security Council ensure that a group of
US troops are punished in the March 11 rape and murder of a young Iraqi
and the killing of her family. In eastern Baghdad gunmen in camouflaged
uniforms kidnapped Iraq's deputy electricity minister along with 11 of
his bodyguards. The minister was released after several hours.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, PM Ehud Olmert ignored
a deadline to begin releasing Palestinian prisoners and instead issued
a veiled threat against Syria, vowing to strike "those who sponsor" the
militants in the Gaza Strip who seized a young Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Japan initiated new
rules that tightened 89 existing laws covering the financial industry.
It doubled the maximum jail sentence for fraud to 10 years and gave
extra power and broader authority to the Financial Services Agency
(FSA).
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.67)
2006 Jul 4, The parties of
Kazakhstan's leader and his eldest daughter announced a merger, a move
that tightens President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grip on power.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lopez Obrador,
Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate, called for a recount of
election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by 1
percentage point.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lars Korvald (90), the
first Christian Democrat to serve as prime minister of Norway
(1972-1973), died.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Palestinian militants
hit an Israeli city with a rocket from Gaza for the first time, causing
no casualties but drawing a pledge of harsh retaliation from Israel
while it was already in the midst of a military offensive.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Radical Islamic
militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were
watching a World Cup soccer broadcast. The Islamic group that controls
Somalia's capital soon arrested two of its own militiamen for killing
two people who were watching the soccer match.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 4, President Hugo Chavez
marked Venezuela's entry into the South American trade bloc Mercosur
with a six-nation summit, an alliance that he says should be a common
front against US free trade deals.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Saakashvili and backed Georgia’s bid to join NATO.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Japan, the United
States and Britain readied a UN Security Council resolution demanding
that nations withhold all funds, goods and technology that could be
used for North Korea's missile program.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, New Jersey's casinos
ushered the last of the gamblers away from slot machines and tables,
and janitors locked the doors behind them as a state government
shutdown claimed its latest victims.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Greg Anderson, weight
trainer for Barry Bonds, was sent to federal prison fro refusing to
testify before a grand jury investigating Bonds and steroid use.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Crude oil for August
delivery jumped to a record close of $75.19 per barrel. The previous
high was $75.15. The DJIA closed down 76 to 11,151.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 5, Researchers reported
that carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, from industrial
emissions was raising the acidity of the world’s oceans and threatening
organisms that form the base of the entire marine food web.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 5, Kenneth Lay (b.1942).
Enron Corp. founder and chief executive, died of a heart attack at his
vacation home in Colorado. He was convicted in May for his role in the
in the Houston-based company's downfall.
(Reuters, 7/5/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.81)
2006 Jul 5, Prince Tu'ipelehake
(56), a Tongan prince known for promoting political reform in his South
Pacific island nation, died in a car crash along with his wife,
Princess Kaimana (46) and driver Vinisia Hefa when a teenage driver,
Edith Delgado (18), slammed into them on Highway 101 in Menlo Park, Ca.
In 2007 Delgado was sentenced to 2 years in jail and 3 years probation.
(AP, 7/7/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B3)(SFC, 11/6/08, p.B2)
2006 Jul 5, In Afghanistan 3 bombs
targeting government workers and security forces exploded in Kabul,
killing one bystander and wounding at least 47 other people. A
coalition soldier and eight rebels were killed in new clashes in
Paktika province. A British soldier and six more militants were killed
and six captured in two separate incidents southern Zabul province. The
family of Abdul Khaliq, a legislator from Uruzgan province, was fired
upon killing Khaliq’s brother-in-law. Khaliq put the blame on American
and Australian troops.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AFP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 5, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai met Japanese Emperor Akihito in Tokyo and said he wanted to
build peace in the war-torn nation so he could some day invite the
emperor and empress. Tokyo has provided about $1 billion in assistance
for security and development, and in January pledged another $450
million.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 5, In El Salvador
violence broke out after police fired tear gas to disperse students
protesting against a hike in electricity rates and public
transportation fees. Two officers were killed and 10 others were
wounded by gunshots. The next day police arrested Luis Antonio Herrador
Funes (37), who allegedly was captured on tape shielding a man who was
shooting an M-16 rifle. Police were still looking for the shooter.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 5, A France court
convicted 38 people in a vast party financing scandal centered on Paris
City Hall from 1987 to 1993, when Jacques Chirac was mayor.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, France beat Portugal
1-0 and will play Italy for Soccer’s World Cup on July 9.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Germany's Cabinet
approved a 2007 budget that foresees trimming the deficit to comply
with EU rules, and the finance minister said Berlin likely would hit
the target this year.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, In India heavy rains
kept schools and colleges shut for a third day and meteorologists
forecast more downpours in Bombay, as the nationwide death toll rose to
more than 250 since the monsoon began in June.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, An Iraqi vice
president said kidnappers of a Sunni legislator have demanded the
release of all detainees, a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign
troops and an end to attacks on Shiite mosques in exchange for her
freedom.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Israeli leaders
authorized troops to move into residential areas of the Gaza Strip as
they increase pressure on militants holding an Israeli soldier and look
to create a security zone to prevent Palestinians from firing rockets
into Israel.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Italian prosecutors
said they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were
seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the
alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Macedonia held
parliamentary elections. President Branko Crvenkovski urged a free and
fair vote in a country struggling to ease tensions between majority
Macedonian Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up about
a quarter of the nation's population.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 5, Mexico’s recount of
election results put Lopez Obrador ahead of Louis Calderon with 83% of
the votes tallied.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, North Korea test-fired
a long-range missile that may be capable of reaching America, but it
failed seconds after launch. North Korea also tested shorter range
missiles in an exercise the White House termed "a provocation" but not
an immediate threat. The early morning tests came as the US celebrated
the Fourth of July and just minutes ahead of the US launch of the space
shuttle Discovery.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, In southwestern
Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter gunships targeted
hideouts of tribal militants accused of blowing up gas pipelines and
attacking officials, killing 25 suspects in a 2-day operation.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Venezuela marked its
Independence Day showcasing recent arms deals that have alarmed
Washington. Pres. Chavez proposed that Mercosur members: Brazil,
Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay, should one day join their
militaries to guarantee the region's security.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 6, A US federal rule was
published designating some 36,750 square miles in the Bering Sea and
Gulf of Alaska as critical habitat for right whales. The rule takes
effect Aug. 7.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 6, New Jersey’s governor
and lawmakers reached a deal on a new state budget. The deal included
an increase in sales tax from 6 to 7%, half of which would be used to
lower property taxes, which were among the highest in the US.
(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A7)
2006 Jul 6, New York's highest
court ruled that gay marriage is not allowed under state law, rejecting
arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violates their
constitutional rights.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Emmanuel "Toto"
Constant (49), an elusive former strongman from Haiti, accused of
sanctioning rape to silence dissent there in the early 1990s, was
arrested in a mortgage fraud scheme on Long Island, NY.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 6, Alan Newton (44) of
NYC was released from prison after DNA evidence cleared him of a 1985
rape conviction. He had served 20 years of a 40 year sentence.
(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 6, The Amalgamated Santas
gathered in Branson, Missouri, for their first annual convention. In
2007 the group started to splinter following internal squabbles.
(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/5mw4kv)
2006 Jul 6, The space shuttle
Discovery docked with the international space station, bringing with it
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who began a six-month
stay aboard the station.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2006 Jul 6, Ralph Ginzburg
(b.1929), journalist, magazine publisher and photographer, died in NYC.
His magazine included Eros (1962), Avant Garde (1968) and Fact (1964).
In 1962 he wrote “100 Years of Lynchings,” a chronicle of racist
hangings in the South. He was at the center of two First Amendment
battles in the 1960s and served 8 months in federal prison for
obscenity.
(AP, 7/6/07)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B9)
2006 Jul 6, Kasey Rogers (80),
film and TV actress, died in Los Angeles. Her films included “Strangers
on a Train” (1951).
(SFC, 7/15/06, p.B6)
2006 Jul 6, In southern
Afghanistan a US-led coalition soldier and five militants were killed
in a clash in the Baghran Valley in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 6, An Australian
consortium led by Macquarie Bank said it has agreed to a friendly 1.59
billion US dollar takeover of US utility Duquesne Light Holdings.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Brazilian police broke
up an international drug ring and arrested Luciano Geraldo Daniel, a
man suspected of being the country's top cocaine trafficker.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, China’s state media
said torrential rains and a tornado killed at least 30 people as storms
battered eastern China this week, with millions more affected by
flooding and other storm damage.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, China and India
reopened the 14,000-foot Nathu La pass, an ancient Silk Road pass high
in the Himalayas, more than 40 years after it was shut by war.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, The European Central
Bank held its key interest rate steady at 2.75% as was widely
anticipated but pledged to exercise "strong vigilance" on inflation.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Four former officers
in Georgia's Interior Ministry were convicted of causing bodily harm
leading to death in the case of a banker, Sandro Girgvliani (28), whose
beating and stabbing death became a political scandal in this former
Soviet republic.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, In Iraq a suicide car
bomb tore through buses carrying Iranian pilgrims near a Shiite shrine
on the outskirts of Kufa, killing 14 people and wounding 38.
(AP, 7/7/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 6, Israeli forces took
over the remains of three abandoned Jewish settlements in the northern
Gaza Strip and entered a nearby Palestinian town, creating a temporary
buffer zone to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets at
Israel. At least 21 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in
the fighting.
(AP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 6, Israel signed a
contract with Germany for 2 new Dolphin submarines capable of carrying
nuclear warheads.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Jul 6, It was reported that
African scholars have launched the continent's first bible commentary
which tackles issues like female circumcision, HIV/AIDS and ethnic
violence to make the scriptures more relevant for Africans. The African
Bible Commentary was launched this week in Kenya and is meant to
interpret the bible for Africans by using local proverbs and tradition
and by applying Christian teaching to contemporary problems on the
poorest continent.
(Reuters, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, PM Vlado Buckovski
conceded defeat to the nationalist opposition in Macedonia's
parliamentary elections, a vote considered crucial for the tiny Balkan
nation's aspirations to join the EU and NATO. Nikola Gruevski led the
winning VMRO-DPMNE party.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Felipe Calderon won
the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race, a
come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist
rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court.
Calderon won 35.9% of the vote against Obrador’s 35.3%.
(AP, 7/7/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.4)
2006 Jul 6, In Moldova an
explosion ripped apart a small bus in Tiraspol, capital of the
separatist region of Trans-Dniester, killing eight people and injuring
46. The blast was caused by a bomb carried onboard by a passenger.
Transdniestrian politicians blamed Moldovan provocateurs.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.48)
2006 Jul 6, A general strike in
Niger demanding lower prices for basic goods paralyzed the capital of
one of the world's poorest nations, following a similar attempt last
month that was met with inaction from the government.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, In Nigeria a Dutch oil
worker was kidnapped by armed men from a Royal Dutch Shell gas plant.
He was released July 10.
(AP, 7/6/06)(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 6, A defiant North Korea
threatened to test-fire more missiles and warned of even stronger
action if opponents of the tests put pressure on the country.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Members of the radical
Islamic group that controls Somalia's capital met African, Arab and
European officials and repeated their opposition to the deployment of
peacekeepers to stabilize the lawless country.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, A delegate from
Spain's ruling party met with the leader of an outlawed Basque
separatist group in historic talks hailed by both sides as a possible
step toward peace.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Ukraine's pro-Russian
opposition ended a 10-day parliament blockade and lawmakers elected a
speaker. The pro-Western coalition was sent into a tailspin by a ballot
that in a surprise move saw its smallest faction, the Socialists, join
with pro-Russian parties to elect its leader Olexander Moroz as speaker.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, A UAE freighter sank
in strong winds in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa, killing
seven crew members. The ship was owned by al-Hufuf Maritime Co., based
in the United Arab Emirates, but it sailed under the flag of Panama.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 7, The Arkansas state
board barred Dr. Randeep Mann from prescribing narcotics after
officials said 10 of his patients died from a lethal mix of drugs or an
overdose of prescription medicines.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Louisiana joined 21
other states in banning Internet hunting, the practice of using a mouse
click to kill animals on a distant game farm.
(www.livescience.com/othernews/060707_internet_hunting.html)
2006 Jul 7, Oil hit a fresh record
high of $75.78 a barrel, boosted by strong demand in the US and global
tension ranging from Iran's nuclear work to North Korea's missile tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Fighting in southern
Afghanistan killed a US-led coalition soldier and at least eight
suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Syd Barrett (60), a
founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died at his home in
Cambridge, England. The band’s first album was “The Piper at the Gates
of Dawn.”
(Reuters, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B7)(Econ,
7/22/06, p.83)
2006 Jul 7, In Canada 2 Mounties
were wounded near the Saskatchewan community of Spiritwood as they
investigated what appeared to be a family dispute. Constables Robin
Cameron (29) and Marc Bourdages (26) died from their wounds on July 15
and 16.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 7, In northern China a
fire ignited explosives at a home in Dongzhai, a village in the
coal-mining province of Shanxi, killing at least 47 people, many of
them neighbors who had rushed to the scene to battle the flames. A
seven-story apartment building collapsed in the major city of Zhengzhou
in central China, killing at least two people and burying an unknown
number of others.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, UN peacekeepers in
Haiti found the bodies of 16 people believed killed in a surge of gang
violence.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Iraqi forces backed by
US aircraft battled militants in a Shiite stronghold of eastern
Baghdad, killing or wounding more than 30 fighters and capturing an
extremist leader who was the target of the raid. Residents claimed up
to 11 civilians died. A series of bombs and a mortar round targeting
the main Islamic weekly service struck four Sunni mosques in the
Baghdad area and a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing 17 people
and wounding more than 50.
(AP, 7/7/06)(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Israel launched an
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three Palestinians
were killed. The Israeli military said the attack on the town of Beit
Lahiya targeted a group of militants. Palestinians said 32 people had
died in days of Gaza fighting.
(AP, 7/7/06)(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 7, Former Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi was ordered to stand trial following an investigation
into the sale of television rights at Mediaset SpA.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The first batch of
Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, North Korea announced
a scientific breakthrough. State-run media boasted that
researchers developed a new cosmetic agent to make skin supple.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Pakistan's president
amended a controversial Islamic law so that women facing charges for
adultery and other minor crimes can be released on bail. The
much-awaited amendment by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the Hadood
Ordinance will initially affect 1,300 female prisoners.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, In the Philippines 6
fugitive military officers linked to a failed 2003 mutiny against
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were arrested.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Officials said Russian
authorities have dramatically curtailed the number of stations
broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America news
programs, sending an unsettling signal about the state of press
freedoms in Russia.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, A Spanish judge
charged two former Guatemalan dictators with genocide and issued
international warrants for their arrest. National Court Judge Santiago
Pedraz issued warrants on charges of genocide, torture, terrorism and
illegal detention against Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Gen. Oscar Humberto
Mejia Victores and six other men.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Spain’s Agriculture
Ministry said it has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu. The
deadly strain was found in a water fowl in a marsh area outside the
northern city of Vitoria.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The UN General
Assembly unanimously approved a series of reforms that were welcomed by
the US as a long overdue step toward greater efficiency and
accountability. A two-week UN conference reviewing efforts to fight the
illegal weapons trade ended in failure, with nations too divided on too
many contentious issues to agree on the best way to combat a scourge
that fuels conflict worldwide. Japan introduced a draft UN Security
Council resolution to sanction North Korea for test-launching a series
of missiles. The Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution on
July 15.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 8, The US military
charged 4 more US soldiers with rape and murder and a fifth with
dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman
and the March killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 8, New Jersey Gov. Jon S.
Corzine issued an executive order that ended a weeklong state
government shutdown, bringing slot machine bells noisily to life as
Atlantic City casinos reopened.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Georgia police found
the decomposed body of Carlnell Walker (23), a Morehouse student from
Richmond, Ca., in the trunk of his car in Riverdale. On July 21, 2006,
3 men were arrested for his murder. In 2007 4 men were indicted for the
murder.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A1)(SFC,
3/23/07, p.A2)
2006 Jul 8, Discovery astronauts
Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test
a repair technique for space shuttles.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2006 Jul 8, June Allyson (b.1917),
chorus girl and film star, died in Ojai, Ca. her films included “The
Glenn Miller Story” (1953).
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 8, The Guggenheim
Foundation announced it had commissioned American architect Frank Gehry
to build a new branch of the Guggenheim modern and contemporary art
museum in Abu Dhabi.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Afghan and coalition
forces pounded a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, killing
five rebels and leaving an Afghan and three foreign soldiers wounded.
An explosion attributed to a land mine in western Afghanistan killed a
Peruvian solder and slightly wounded four Spanish troops.
(AFP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, China launched a Web
site, www.linese.com, offering free Chinese lessons and materials to
promote the study and use of the language abroad.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In central China a
landslide at a construction site buried migrant workers sleeping in a
tent, killing 11 of them.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Kinshasa, Congo,
gunmen killed Mwamba Bapuwa (64), an independent journalist, a day
after foreign donors called on the government to guarantee press
freedoms ahead of historic elections this month. Bapuwa had recently
criticized the government and survived a previous attack several months
ago.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Jose Ramos-Horta,
Nobel peace laureate, was named East Timor's new prime minister.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Hungary several
thousand labor union members demonstrated in Budapest against a
government austerity package they say requires a disproportionate
sacrifice from workers.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In northern India 15
people were killed and eight injured when the bus they were traveling
in plunged into a gorge and fell into Bhagirathi river.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Iraq 3 American
soldiers were killed in fighting in the western province of Anbar.
Gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood,
forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of
horrified bystanders. Gunmen killed three people working in an ice
cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan.
Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in
eastern Baghdad. At least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and
mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and
northern Iraq. Iraqi and US authorities released 368 prisoners as they
continue to whittle down the number of inmates.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Indian Kashmir a
politician and four civilians died and at least 45 others were injured
when suspected Islamic rebels hurled a grenade outside a Muslim shrine.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist presidential
candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to
the streets, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's
extremely narrow elections. Obrador called on a huge crowd of
supporters to keep peacefully protesting as he goes to court to
challenge what he called his fraudulent electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal
judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis
Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4
children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were
killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week
standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to release an
Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the
soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with militants in eastern
Gaza.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Poland's governing
party accepted the resignation of PM Marcinkiewicz and recommended
party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother, to
replace him. A group with roots in Poland's anti-communist Solidarity
trade union movement signed an unprecedented accord to join forces with
the country's two main post-communist parties.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Saudi officials said 7
suspected terrorists had escaped from a prison in Riyadh a few days
earlier.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Islamic militiamen
controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a
band, the Mogadishu Stars, was playing and women and men were
socializing together. Band members were flogged with electric cables.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.47)
2006 Jul 8, Pope Benedict XVI
stressed family values during a visit to Spain, where church influence
has waned and the government has angered the Vatican with its liberal
take on issues including gay marriage.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Yemeni court
acquitted 19 alleged al-Qaida members of charges they plotted to blow
up a hotel frequented by Americans, citing a lack of evidence. The
state prosecutor appealed the collective acquittal, and the defendants
were returned to their cells at the intelligence services' jail where
they have been held for more than two years. 14 Yemenis and 5 Saudis
had been caught with guns and fake Iraqi passports.
(AP, 7/8/06)(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 9, Freescale
Semiconductor, a former division of Motorola, announced the commercial
availability of a chip called Magnetoresistive random-access memory
(MRAM), which is fast to read and write and can keep data without
power. In September the Blackstone Group offered $17.6 billion for
Freescale.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A3)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.73)
2006 Jul 9, In Washington DC Alan
Senitt (27), a British volunteer for the potential presidential
campaign of former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, was killed in the
Georgetown neighborhood by robbers who slashed his throat and tried to
rape his female companion. Within three hours of the attack, police
arrested and charged two men, and two other suspects surrendered a few
hours later. On May 21, 2007, Christopher Piper and Jeffery Rice
pleaded guilty to robbing and killing Alan, and committing other
robberies in the city. They were sentenced August 24, 2007, to 37 and
52 years respectively in prison.
(AP,
7/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Senitt)
2006 Jul 9, In Missouri 5 youths
(10-17) including 4 siblings drowned in the Meramtec River during a
church outing at Castlewood State Park. One had become caught in an
undertow and the others jumped in to help.
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 9, In southern
Afghanistan a Canadian coalition officer died of wounds suffered in
fighting near an opium-rich insurgent stronghold. At least 15 militants
were killed. A coalition patrol found the bodies of 10 militants killed
in an airstrike in Panjwayi.
(AP, 7/9/06)(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 9, Roger Federer ended a
five-match losing streak to Rafael Nadal, winning 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-7
(2), 6-3 to earn his fourth straight Wimbledon title.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 9, India test-fired its
nuclear-capable Agni III missile for the first time. The missile
plunged into the Bay of Bengal short of its target. 14 more people were
reported to have died in rain-related incidents in northern India,
taking the nationwide death toll since the beginning of the monsoon
season in May to 286. Supporters of Shiv Sena, a Hindu fundamentalist
party, went on a rampage in Mumbai protesting the defacing of a statue
of Meenatai, the wife of the movement’s founder, Balasaheb Thackeray.
(AFP, 7/9/06)(AP, 7/10/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.39)
2006 Jul 9, Masked Shiite gunmen
stopped cars in western Baghdad and grabbed people off the streets,
singling out the Sunni Arabs among them and killing at least 42. Gunmen
killed an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Shiite city of Karbala, one
of several deadly shootings targeting security forces. Iraqi troops
launched a pre-dawn raid on Kadhimiya, a mainly Shi'ite district next
to Shula, killing nine militants and capturing seven.
(Reuters, 7/9/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 9, Top officials said
Israel will push forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip until
Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and halt their
rocket attacks.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 9, Italy beat France 5-3
in a shootout following a 1-1 tie in the World Cup final. Zinedine
Zidane, captain of the French team, was sent off for head-butting an
Italian player.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.49)
2006 Jul 9, A Russian Airbus 310
passenger plane skidded off a rain-slicked Siberian runway and plowed
through a concrete barrier, bursting into flames. At least 125 of 203
people on board were killed.
(AP, 7/9/06)(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 9, In Somalia 20 people
were killed in bloody fighting as Islamic fighters fought supporters of
Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, who refused to disarm.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, A US presidential
commission urged Washington to spend $80 million to help
nongovernmental groups hasten change in Cuba, but some dissidents here
said the move would do them more harm than good.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Colorado Gov. Bill
Owens cut a deal with Democratic leaders on a package of bills to deny
some state services to illegal immigrants and to punish employers who
hire them.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 10, In Berkeley, Ca.,
Cody’s flagship bookstore on Telegraph Ave. opened and closed for the
last time, one day after celebrating its 50th anniversary. Its last
store on Shattuck Ave. closed in 2008.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.B1)(SFC, 6/23/08, p.A7)
2006 Jul 10, In NYC a four-story
townhouse collapsed and burned in an apparent gas explosion after what
witnesses described as a thunderous explosion that rocked the
neighborhood just off Madison Avenue. Dr. Nicholas Bartha (66), owner
of the building, was pulled alive from the rubble. He had recently lost
a $4 million judgement in a divorce case. Bartha died from his wounds
on July 15.
(AP, 7/10/06)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A4)(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 10, Falling concrete
slabs crushed a car inside one of Boston's troubled Big Dig tunnels,
killing Milena Delvalle (38) and tying up traffic with another shutdown
in the massive building project that has become a central route through
the city. In 2007 the family of Delvalle reached a $6 million
settlement with the epoxy supplier blamed for the accident. In 2008 the
family settled a wrongful death suit for over $28 million.
(AP, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A5)(SFC, 12/26/07,
p.A4)(SFC, 10/1/08, p.C5)
2006 Jul 10, Kraft Foods Inc., the
No. 1 US food company, said it will pay about $1.07 billion to acquire
the Spanish and Portuguese units of United Biscuits and reclaim the
rights to Nabisco trademarks in the European Union, Eastern Europe, the
Middle East and Africa.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants as a
warplane dropped 500-pound bombs on a militant compound in Uruzgan
province. Britain announced it would send 900 more soldiers to southern
Helmand province.
(AP, 7/10/06)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 10, Fred Wander (b.1917),
writer and Holocaust survivor, died in Vienna. His 1970 novel, “The
Seventh Well,” describes his survival. The German edition was
translated to English in 2007.
(SFC, 12/11/07,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Wander)
2006 Jul 10, Bolivia's education
minister called for an end to religious education in the country's
schools, drawing criticism from the Roman Catholic Church which could
see its schools affected by the proposed change.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Britain unveiled a $6
million program to replace Belfast's towering paramilitary wall murals
in the most hard-line Protestant areas with more positive, less
threatening art works.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Chechen warlord
Shamil Basayev (41) was killed in Ingushetia. He had claimed
responsibility for modern Russia's worst terrorist attacks including
Beslan in 2004. He was killed along with 4 other militant while
accompanying a truck filled with 220 pounds of dynamite that blew up in
the Ingush village of Ekazhevo. Shortly before his death he was
appointed vice-president of Ichkeria, the rebel’s name for their
non-existent state.
(AP, 7/10/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.84)
2006 Jul 10, The government of
Colombia announced that it was nominating Ernesto Samper as ambassador
to France. This sparked outrage among many Colombians and allies in
Washington in the war on drugs. In a statement, Pres. Uribe said Samper
had declined the France ambassadorship so as not to harm Colombia's
national interests.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 10, Nobel laureate Jose
Ramos-Horta was sworn in as PM of East Timor in a move aimed at ending
months of political uncertainty and street violence.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, In Honduras a bus
with failing brakes slammed into the back of another bus on the
outskirts of Tegucigalpa, killing 15 people and injuring more than 24.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 10, In Iraq 2 car bombs
struck a Shiite district in Baghdad, killing at least eight people and
wounding dozens. Gunmen also ambushed a bus in the predominantly Sunni
neighborhood of Amariyah in western Baghdad, killing six passengers,
including a woman, and the driver. A bomb exploded in the Shurja market
in central Baghdad, killing 3 people and wounding 18. In Kirkuk a
suicide truck bomber struck an office of one of the main Kurdish
political parties in Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, killing
five people and wounding 12. A member of the provincial council in
Diyala, Adnan Iskandar al-Mahdawi, was killed and two of his guards
were wounded in a drive-by shooting. A former high-ranking officer from
Saddam Hussein's army, ex-staff Maj. Gen. Salih Mohammed Salih, was
killed in a shootout in the southern city of Basra.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at a car in southern Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad
militants. Israeli PM Olmert rebuffed criticism of Gaza tactics as 8
Palestinians died.
(AP, 7/10/06)(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 10, In Morocco ministers
from 57 European and African countries gathered in Rabat to seek ways
to combat illegal immigration to Europe "with dignity but firmness",
from tightening border controls to stimulating African development.
(AFP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, In eastern Pakistan a
passenger plane slammed into a wheat field and burst into flames
minutes after takeoff. All 45 people on board were killed.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, In the Philippines a
fire destroyed more than 200 shanties in a squatter colony north of
Manila, killing one resident, injuring 6 others and leaving about 5,000
people homeless.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Somalia's Islamic
militia battled a pocket of resistance, pounding Mogadishu with
machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades and at least 7 people
were killed.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, South African writer
Mary Watson was named the 7th winner of the Caine Prize for African
writing her 2004 book “Moss,” a collection interlinked stories. The
prize was created in honor of the late Sir Michael Caine, a British
businessman with a deep interest in Africa who for almost 25 years
chaired the management committee of what is today known the Man Booker
Prize.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.83)
2006 Jul 10, In Taiwan the
son-in-law of President Chen Shui-bian was indicted on insider trading
charges, one of several high-profile corruption cases involving Chen's
family and inner circle.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 11, The American League
edged the National League 3-2 in the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2006 Jul 11, The Bush
administration pledged that detainees at Guantanamo will be accorded
basic human rights protections under the Geneva Conventions.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, In Chicago, a Blue
Line train derailed and started a fire during the evening rush hour,
filling a subway tunnel with smoke and forcing dozens of soot-covered
commuters to evacuate.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2006 Jul 11, It was reported that
Nielsen Media Research will begin formal ratings for TV commercial
breaks.
(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, Kathy Augustine (50),
Nevada state controller, died suddenly. Her husband, Chaz Higgs, said
it was a heart attack and chalked it up to the stress of an uphill
election battle for state treasurer. But just days after her death,
Higgs tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists. On Sep 29 Police
arrested Higgs in Hampton, Va., after toxicology tests found a drug in
his wife’s system that would have paralyzed her. Higgs was convicted on
June 29, 2007, of killing Augustine by injecting her with
succinylcholine, a paralyzing drug. He was sentenced to life with a
possibility of parole after serving 20 years.
(AP, 7/21/06)(SFC, 9/30/06,
p.A3)(www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6762551)
2006 Jul 11, Barnard Hughes
(b.1915), film and theater actor, died in New York.
(AP,
7/11/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard_Hughes)
2006 Jul 11, Coalition and Afghan
forces hunting a Taliban commander killed an estimated 30 extremists in
a raid on a hide-out in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, In northern
Bangladesh a train plowed through a bus at an unmanned railway
crossing, killing at least 33 people and injuring about 15 others.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, The Bank of Canada
held its key overnight interest rate steady, as expected, and gave no
sign it was considering further hikes.
(Reuters, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Central American
presidents agreed on a plan to ease border controls and install a
common customs system on the way to negotiating an eventual free-trade
agreement with the EU. The agreement signed by Panama, Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize would allow
residents to cross borders without passports or visas.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, EU finance ministers
made Slovenia the 13th member of the euro zone. This gave Slovenia 5
months to print and mint euro notes to replace the tolar on January 1.
(WSJ, 7/12/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 11, A survey, sponsored
by the German development agency GTZ, reported that breast ironing, the
use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt
breast growth in girls, is widespread in Cameroon. The age-old practice
was said to be traditional in West and Central Africa, including Chad,
Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few.
(Reuters, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, China's president
issued an unusual public appeal to a visiting North Korean official to
avoid aggravating tensions with its missile test program, as the US and
Japan urged Beijing to press its ally Pyongyang for concessions.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Andres Pastrana,
Colombia's ambassador to the United States, resigned in anger over
President Alvaro Uribe's selection of Ernesto Samper, a disgraced
former Colombian leader (1994-1998) as ambassador to France.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 11, Police in Kinshasa,
Congo, fired tear gas to break up stone-throwing demonstrators who were
alleging electoral irregularities ahead of the country's first
presidential vote in four decades.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 11, In India 8 explosions
hit Mumbai's commuter rail network during the evening rush hour,
killing over 200 people and wounding over 500. Police said
Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.39)(AP, 7/11/07)(WSJ, 12/8/08,
p.A6)
2006 Jul 11, Indonesia passed a
law granting tsunami-ravaged Aceh province greater autonomy and paving
the way for elections, cementing the terms of a landmark 2005 peace
accord with separatist rebels. The law allowed local political parties
and for the Acehnese to keep 70% of the revenues from their oil and gas
reserves.
(AP, 7/11/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.42)
2006 Jul 11, Sunni Arab
representatives said they will end their boycott of Iraq's parliament
following promises that a kidnapped colleague will be released and a
call for reconciliation by a radical Shiite cleric. Gunmen in Baghdad
intercepted a minivan carrying a coffin to the Shiite city of Najaf,
killing all 10 people on board. Another five people were killed in a
double bombing at a restaurant near the Green Zone. Bombings and
shootings killed at least 50 people Baghdad. An al-Qaida-linked group
posted a Web video purporting to show the mutilated bodies of two US
soldiers, claiming it killed them in revenge for the rape-slaying of a
young Iraqi woman by American troops from the same unit. The Mujahedeen
Shura Council had previously claimed responsibility for killing the two
soldiers, who were seized in a June 16 attack near the town of
Youssifiyah. The bodies were found on June 20. Gunmen kidnapped Wissam
Jabr al-Awadi, an Iraqi diplomat who specializes in relations with
Iran, as he was driving near his home in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, Israeli leaders
ordered new incursions into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas leader said
he would not free an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, In Italy Piaggio
& C. SpA, the maker of the iconic Vespa scooter, defied weak market
conditions that have derailed other planned public offerings recently
to see its shares surge above the IPO price in their debut in Milan.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, In Kashmir a series
of grenade attacks killed eight people and wounded more than two dozen
in the Srinagar.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, An officials said
Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry has decided to expel two US diplomats for
"inappropriate" contacts with nongovernment organizations.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, State Department
official Paula Dobriansky held talks with Libyan PM Baghdadi Mahmudi
and announced that the US has lifted sanctions on Libyan air transport.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 11, In Mexico a man was
shot to death in front of Acapulco's City Hall and a naval officer was
abducted, the latest violence in this resort city hit by a wave of
drug-related crime. The 2 men slain were later identified as military
officers responsible for the mayor's security.
(AP, 7/11/06)(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 11, With the release of
hundreds of prisoners, wrestling matches and hordes of warriors on
horseback, Mongolia began a once-in-800-year party in honor of its
famed emperor Genghis Khan.
(AFP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Nepal's Maoists
revealed for the first time how many soldiers they have, 36,000, in
published remarks.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, In northwestern
Pakistan torrential rains triggered flooding that washed away homes in
a village, killing 13 people and injuring about 300.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, President Mahmoud
Abbas' office said it had received $50 million from the Arab League,
the most international aid Palestinians have gotten since the Islamic
militant group Hamas won legislative elections.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Hundreds of fighters
who were battling Somalia's Islamic militia in Mogadishu surrendered
after a surge of violence that killed more than 70 people and wounded
150.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, In South Korea more
than 10,000 workers and activists rallied in the 2nd day of
demonstrations aimed at blocking a free-trade agreement under
discussion with the US.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Four Tamil Tiger
rebels were killed when Sri Lanka's navy retaliated against an
attacking rebel boat in the sea off Northern Jaffna peninsula.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Ukraine's newly
created pro-Russian governing coalition proposed Viktor Yanukovych, a
bitter rival of President Viktor Yushchenko, as the next prime
minister, an appointment that would mark a humiliating defeat for the
president.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, The tiny nation of
Vanuatu, one of the "happy isles of Oceania," has topped a new index,
the UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF), that measures quality of
life against environmental impact, with industrial countries, perhaps
unsurprisingly, faring badly.
(Reuters, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 12, The US government
announced a five-year, 547-million-dollar aid package to Ghana to help
the African nation develop agriculture and alleviate poverty.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, A spokesman said
computer break-ins at the US State Department that caused broad
disruptions in recent weeks apparently originated in the East
Asia-Pacific region.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The US FDA approved
Atripla, a single pill, 3-drug combination, to fight AIDS. 2 of the
drugs were made by Gilead Sciences and the 3rd by Myers Squibb.
(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 12, An experimental
spacecraft bankrolled by real estate magnate Robert Bigelow
successfully inflated in orbit, testing a technology that could be used
to fulfill his dream of building a commercial space station. Genesis I
flew aboard a converted Cold War ballistic missile from Russia's
southern Ural Mountains at 6:53 p.m. Moscow time.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The Afghan defense
minister said it would take at least 150,000 troops to secure his
country, more than 5 times what he commanded. In eastern Afghanistan a
suicide attack on a US military convoy killed a boy playing nearby,
while a market bombing in a southern border town left two people dead.
British and Afghan forces repelled a brazen insurgent attack on a
police headquarters in the southern town of Nawzad, killing at least 19
militants. In Musa Qala district insurgents fired rocket-propelled
grenades and machine guns at coalition troops, who returned fire and
killed local Taliban commander Mullah Saeef. In southern Zabul
province, three Afghan border guards were killed in a clash with armed
tribesmen crossing from Pakistan.
(AP, 7/12/06)(AP, 7/13/06)(WSJ, 7/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 12, Tony Blair's top
fundraiser, Lord Levy, was arrested in an investigation into whether
Labour Party leaders improperly nominated their financial backers for
seats in the House of Lords.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, In central Chile
flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain left at least 11 people
dead and forced 30,000 to flee their inundated homes.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, The EU fined
Microsoft Corp. $357 million and threatened new penalties of $3.82
million a day beginning July 31 because it says the software maker
failed to obey a 2004 antitrust order to share program code with rivals.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The EU joined the US
in warning Iran it faced UN Security Council action if no solution
could be found to a stand-off over its nuclear program. World powers
agreed to send Iran back to the UN Security Council for possible
punishment, saying the clerical regime has given no sign it means to
negotiate seriously over its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, Hong Kong's supreme
court struck down a ruling that allowed police to carry out
controversial government wiretaps, a move activists hailed as a victory
for freedoms in the Chinese city.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, The Iraqi Accordance
Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, lifted its legislative
boycott. It thanked the parliament for its help in seeking the release
of kidnapped legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani and called for a new
spirit of cooperation. Gunmen stormed a bus station in Muqdadiya,
seizing over 24 people and killing 22 of them. A suicide bomber blew
himself up in a restaurant in the southeastern mixed Sunni-Shiite
neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 30.
Gunmen on a motorcycles killed a former member of the ousted Baath
Party and a taxi driver in separate attacks in Kut. The US military
said Saddam Hussein and three of his co-defendants have been on a
hunger strike for nearly a week to protest what the defense says is a
lack of security for their attorneys. At least 45 people were killed
across Iraq.
(AP, 7/12/06)(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 12, Hezbollah militants
captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. 3 Israeli
soldiers were killed in the raid along with one Hezbollah militant.
Dozens of Israeli troops crossed the Lebanese frontier with warplanes,
tanks and gunboats to hunt for the captives. 5 more Israelis were
killed in a tank that hit a mine. Two Lebanese civilians were killed in
an Israeli air strike on a coastal bridge at Qasmiyeh.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.45)
2006 Jul 12, Israel killed 18
Palestinians in Gaza including nine members of one family in an air
strike that destroyed a residential building where the army said top
Hamas commanders were meeting.
(Reuters, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, Tens of thousands of
supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador headed to Mexico City, leaving mountain towns and sprawling
industrial cities to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, In Nigeria 2
explosions hit oil installations belonging to an Italian oil company
along two Agip pipelines in Baleysa state.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Protestants will
share power with the Catholics of Sinn Fein "over our dead bodies," Ian
Paisley thundered as tens of thousands of Protestant marchers
celebrated the most divisive day on Northern Ireland's calendar.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Acting on behalf of
Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft UN Security Council
resolution demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza Strip and
release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, President Vladimir
Putin signed into law a bill cutting the length of military service in
Russia, but also canceling many deferments from the draft. The
legislation reduced the current two-year conscription term to 1½
years beginning next year, then to one year in 2008.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, In South Korea some
70,000 people, including 13,000 farmers, rallied in a plaza in downtown
Seoul on the third straight day of anti-FTA demonstrations.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, A UN official said
rebels in Darfur are fighting each other with the Sudanese military
apparently supporting one faction, sometimes with aircraft disguised as
relief planes.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, UNESCO, meeting in
Vilnius, Lithuania, added 8 sites added to its World Heritage list
including a panda refuge in China and an agave producing region in
Mexico.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 13, President Bush met
with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Stralsund, Germany, while on
his way to the G8 summit in Russia.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, Former CIA officer
Valerie Plame sued Vice President Dick Cheney, presidential adviser
Karl Rove and other White House officials, saying they orchestrated a
"whispering campaign" to destroy her career.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2006 Jul 13, Tongsun Park (71), a
South Korean businessman accused of being an Iraqi agent and trying to
influence the oil-for-food program, was convicted of conspiracy in New
York federal court. Park, arrested last year, was the first person
tried in the scandal. He will be sentenced in October and could face
more than a dozen years in prison for his role in the decade-long
conspiracy.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 13, The Massachusetts
Turnpike authority said it found as many as 240 potential defects in
ceiling bolts on Boston’s Big Dig tunnel. Gov. Mitt Romney filed
emergency legislation and called for the resignation of the head of the
Turnpike Authority in the wake of falling concrete slabs that killed a
woman on July 10.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 13, Hazleton, Pa., passed
Mayor Louis Barletta’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act in an effort to
get rid of undocumented immigrants. In August federal lawsuits were
filed against Hazleton and other local governments for attempting to
regulate immigration. A 1976 US Supreme Court decision said regulation
of immigration is exclusively a federal power. In 2007 a federal judge
struck down the Hazleton anti-illegal immigration law.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A5)(SFC, 7/27/07, p.A13)
2006 Jul 13, The Dow Jones fell
166 to 10846 and Nasdaq closed down 36 to 2,054. Crude oil for August
delivery closed at a record $76.70.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 13, The Sawtooth Complex
fire in southern California grew to 40,000 acres and remained out of
control. It looked to soon merge with the 2,500-acre Millard fire.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 13, Red Buttons (87),
comic film and TV star, died at his home in Century City, Ca. His over
30 films included “Hatari” and “The Poseidon Adventure.” Buttons was
born as Aaron Chwatt in NYC on Feb. 5, 1919.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.B9)
2006 Jul 13, A collaborative
effort to study malaria went public via the Web site Africa@home.
Project leaders planned to use spare computing capacity to study
malaria. By July 19 it reached the stable level of some 5000 computers
needed at this stage for MalariaControl.net.
(Econ, 7/15/06,
p.79)(http://africa-at-home.web.cern.ch/africa%2Dat%2Dhome/index.htm)
2006 Jul 13, British and Afghan
forces battled Taliban holdouts after repelling a brazen insurgent
attack on a police headquarters a day earlier. Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed nine militants after suspected Taliban fighters
attacked two army checkpoints in the latest fighting to rock southern
Afghanistan. More than 30 enemy extremists were killed in an operation
in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 7/13/06)(AP, 7/14/06)(AFP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Belarus Alexander
Kozulin (50), an opposition leader, was convicted of organizing an
unauthorized rally against the disputed election of Pres. Lukashenko
and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in jail.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Brazil gangs
torched buses and attacked banks and police stations across Sao Paulo,
deepening crime fears as a wave of rampant violence entered its third
day.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, The NatWest British
bankers David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby were extradited
to the US for a $20 million fraud linked to the collapsed Enron Corp.
Many viewed the March, 2003, US and British extradition treaty as
imbalanced and favoring US interests.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.12, 56)
2006 Jul 13, The Guardian
newspaper said PM Tony Blair wants China, India, Brazil, Mexico and
South Africa to join the G8 to secure multilateral deals on trade,
climate change and Iran.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, Three Canadian
military personnel were killed and four others injured on after their
helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during a search and rescue
training exercise off Canada's east coast.
(Reuters, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, Canada confirmed its
second case of mad cow disease in as many weeks, and the 7th since 2003.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, A Chinese reporter
who posted essays on foreign Web sites criticizing the ruling Communist
Party was sentenced to two years in prison on subversion charges.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, The EU criticized
Israel for using "disproportionate" force in its attacks on Lebanon
following the cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas who captured 2
Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, Indian police
detained about 350 people for questioning in the Bombay train bombings
amid suspicion that Kashmiri militants could be linked to the attacks
that killed at least 200 people. Officials said they believe the
bombings were the work of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based Islamic
militant group.
(AP, 7/13/06)(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A17)
2006 Jul 13, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad shrugged off a decision by world powers to refer Iran to
the U.N. Security Council over its atomic program, saying Tehran would
never abandon its "right to exploit peaceful nuclear technology."
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, British and
Australian forces handed over security duties for a relatively peaceful
southern province to Iraqis in the first such transfer of an entire
province. Gunmen killed the coach of Iraq's national wrestling team in
a botched abduction attempt but a player escaped. A suicide car bomber
struck a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing five
people and wounding five. At least 19 people were killed in attacks
nationwide.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, An Israeli warplane
bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, collapsing part of the
structure and causing widespread damage in the area.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, Israel unleashed a
furious military campaign on Lebanon's main airport, highways, military
bases and other targets, retaliating for scores of Hezbollah guerrilla
rockets that rained down on Israel and reached as far as Haifa, its
third-largest city, for the first time. The death toll in two days of
fighting rose to 57 people. Lebanese guerrillas fired three rockets at
the northern Israeli town of Safed, wounding seven people. Israel
imposed a sea and air blockade on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to
Lebanese militants. Israel hit hundreds of targets in Lebanon as part
of its effort to force the release of two soldiers captured by
Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Television broadcast
pictures of the Iranian supplied 333mm Raad-1 rocket used in an attack
on the Israeli army base near Safed.
(AP, 7/13/06)(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 13, In the northern
Philippines a powerful Asian storm strengthen to a typhoon after
killing at least nine people.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Thailand a top
court decided to accept a case that accuses PM Thaksin Shinawatra's
ruling party and its main rival of electoral fraud.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, The presidents of
Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia formally opened a pipeline designed to
bypass Russia and bring Caspian oil to Europe, a route that President
Bush said would bolster global energy security.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 14, A US federal appeals
court reversed a ruling that struck down Nebraska's same-sex marriage
ban, which was approved by voters in 2000.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, The US Court of
International Law slapped an injunction on the United States government
preventing it from handing over any more duties from Canadian softwood
lumber imports to US industry competitors.
(Reuters, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 14, US Gen. Bantz
Craddock, head of the US Southern Command, was announced as the next
chief of NATO.
(WSJ, 7/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 14, The Dow Jones fell
106 to 10,739 and Nasdaq closed down 16 to 2,037. Crude oil for August
delivery closed at a record $77.03. Spurred by Mideast fighting, oil
prices rose to an intraday record $78.40 a barrel.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.D1)(AP, 7/14/07)
2006 Jul 14, The Sawtooth Complex
fire in southern California merged with the Millard fire creating a
69,000-acre blaze. Some 1,800 firefighters battled the fire which so
far had destroyed 45 homes.
(SFC, 7/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 14, Actress Carrie Nye
(b.1936) died in New York at age 69.
(AP, 7/14/07)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0638559/bio)
2006 Jul 14, A suicide bomber was
the sole victim in a failed attack on an Afghan police convoy in the
Gurbuz district of southeastern Khost province, bordering Pakistan.
Skirmishes between coalition and Taliban militants raged throughout the
southern Uruzgan province. An estimated 31 enemy extremists were killed
during engagements in Chora, Kala Kala, and Khorma villages. Afghan and
coalition soldiers also killed two male "foreigners" wearing burkas,
the body-shrouding veil worn by women, and detained five Taliban in
Uruzgan's Dihrawud district. The Afghan army killed eight rebels in
Sangin.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AFP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 14, The World Bank said
it and Chad had resolved a dispute over oil revenues that will result
in significant increases in government spending on projects that
benefit the poor.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, In China Qiu Xinhua
(47) killed the abbot of the Tiewadian temple in the northern city of
Ankang, five staff members and four pilgrims. He reportedly believed
the abbot had flirted with his wife. Xinhua was executed on Dec 28.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Jul 14, East Timor's
President Xanana Gusmao swore in a new government as his tiny nation
looked for a return to political order after several weeks of unrest.
(AFP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, Militants forced open
a border gate between Egypt and Gaza, wounding an Egyptian officer and
letting hundreds of Palestinians who had been trapped on the Egyptian
side of the border to get into Gaza.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, India's PM Singh said
the Bombay train bombers were "supported by elements across the border"
and that Pakistan must rein in terrorists before a peace process can
move ahead.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, A bomb struck a Sunni
mosque in Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding five, while
mortars barraged a Shiite mosque north of the capital, leaving five
wounded. At least 26 people were killed across Iraq, including 13 Iraqi
soldiers in an attack on their checkpoint near the northern oil hub of
Kirkuk.
(AFP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, Israel tightened its
seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world
and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time to punish
Hezbollah and with it, the country for the capture of 2 Israeli
soldiers. Israel destroyed the home and office of Hezbollah's leader,
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Lebanese guerrillas fired a barrage of at least
60 Katyusha rockets throughout the day, hitting more than a dozen
communities across northern Israel. Israeli warplanes destroyed the
building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern
Beirut. Hezbollah guerrillas attacked an Israeli warship that had been
firing missiles into southern Beirut. A senior Israeli intelligence
official said Iranian troops helped Hezbollah fire a missile that
damaged the warship off the Lebanese coast. He also said about 100
Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made,
radar-guided C-102 at the ship that killed one and left three missing.
Deaths in 3 days of fighting rose to 61 people in Lebanon and 10 in
Israel.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AP, 7/14/07)
2006 Jul 14, Japan’s central bank
raised a key interest rate for the first time in six years, ending an
unorthodox experiment meant to jump-start the country after a decade of
economic doldrums. The rate increased from zero to .25%.
(AP, 7/14/06)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.65)
2006 Jul 14, In Kazakhstan police
under Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov moved in to destroy the illegal
Shanyrak settlement on the outskirts of Almaty. 30-40 people on each
side were injured. A policeman died after being doused with petrol and
set on fire.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.39)
2006 Jul 14, Kyrgyzstan and the US
resolved a payment dispute that had threatened the future of the US
military base near Bishkek.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, In Karachi, Pakistan,
a suicide bomber killed a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric and two other
people in an attack that was likely to heighten sectarian tensions.
About 80% of Pakistan's 150 million people are Sunni; most of the rest
are Shiite.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, Malaysia's government
declassified documents on negotiations with Singapore over an aborted
bridge in a bid to counter criticism from defiant ex-premier Mahathir
Mohamad.
(AFP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, Poland's Pres. Lech
Kaczynski (57) swore in his identical twin brother, Jaroslaw, as prime
minister, along with a socially conservative Cabinet made up largely of
the same ministers who resigned in a shake-up days earlier.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, authorities detained more than 200 anti-globalization activists
hoping to protest the G-8 summit, as protest organizers vowed to hold a
march despite a ban on demonstrations.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, In Serbia criminal
charges were filed against 9 people accused of helping UN war crimes
suspect Ratko Mladic evade justice. The 9 were indicted for "hiding and
helping hide Mladic although they knew that he was charged" with war
crimes.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, Somalia's nearly
powerless interim government said it would boycott weekend peace talks
with the Islamic militia that has seized control of nearly all the
nation's south, accusing the group of civilian massacres and ties to
foreign terrorists.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, Sri Lankan government
troops clashed with Tamil Tiger rebels in the worst fighting since a
cease-fire halted the civil war in 2002, leaving as many as 16 dead.
The military said 13 soldiers were missing.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, In Trinidad a
high-court judge convened a special hearing that stayed an arrest
order against Satnarine Sharma, the chief justice of Trinidad, who was
charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by helping
former PM Basdeo Panday.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.40)
2006 Jul 15, In a chilly prelude
to a Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, President Bush
blocked Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization. Russia and
the US failed to strike a bilateral deal allowing Russia to join the
WTO but agreed to set a deadline to wrap up talks within three months.
(AP, 7/15/07)(Reuters, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, US authorities
extradited Jean Succar Kuri, a Mexican businessman with alleged ties to
associates of a powerful state governor, to face charges in Mexico of
child pornography, statutory rape and corruption of minors.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, Robert Wilson (64),
theater and opera director, opened his $12 million Watermill Center on
Long Island, NY. The arts center was setup to host conferences, student
workshops and serve as an intercultural exchange.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.82)
2006 Jul 15, Phoenix, Ariz.,
residents were reported to be in fear of 2 serial killers, who have
struck in recent months. Six killings were being attributed to the
"Baseline Killer," whose name refers to the street where he is believed
to have committed his first crimes. The 2nd suspected predator, dubbed
the "Serial Shooter," has been definitively linked to the Dec. 29
wounding of one man and authorities believe he could be responsible for
a total of five shooting deaths.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, The space shuttle
Discovery undocked from the international space station.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2006 Jul 15, More than 40
insurgents were killed as hundreds of coalition troops, many dropped by
helicopter, wrested a desert town from the Taliban and U.S. forces
battled militants across southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, Arab foreign
ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo over Israel's expanding
assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24
years.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, A gas explosion in a
coal mine in Shanxi province killed at least 50 miners in the
Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Jinzhong. In Hunan province 14 coal miners
were killed after rains burst a dam, flooding the pit and collapsing
buildings above ground at the Shenjiawan Colliery.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 15, Thousands of
Ecuadorian villagers fled their homes on the slopes of the Tungurahua
volcano since it began erupting lava and toxic gases.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, GDP for the Falkland
Islands was estimated at $25,000 per head. Fishing licenses around the
Falkland Islands generated some $40 million a year. Seismic studies
indicated a possible 500,000 barrels of oil in the surrounding waters.
Britain insisted that it would not discuss sovereignty of the islands
unless its 3,000 citizens there requested it.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.38)
2006 Jul 15, In Haiti thousands of
demonstrators demanding the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide marched to the National Palace, pushing past riot police in a
dramatic show of support for the exiled former leader.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, A Honduras newspaper
quoted a senior military official that the United States is helping
Honduras establish a new military base to combat international drug
trafficking in the northeastern province of Gracias a Dios.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, Police investigating
Bombay's deadly train bombings swept through several neighborhoods,
rounding up more than 300 people for questioning.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, Heavy clashes between
Iraqi soldiers and gunmen in downtown Baghdad left 11 people wounded.
Provincial police in Ramadi confirmed that gunmen had killed a member
of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Gunmen kidnapped Ahmed al-Sammarai, the
head of Iraq's Olympic committee, and more than a dozen employees
storming a sports conference in Baghdad. The kidnappers wore camouflage
Iraqi police uniforms and security guards outside the meeting said they
did not interfere because they thought the gunmen were legitimate law
enforcement.
(AP, 7/15/06)(AP, 8/22/08)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli warplanes
pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold and roads around the
country killing at least 33 people. At least 12 Lebanese villagers,
including women and children, were killed in what appeared to be an
Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the
border with Israel in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah expanded its rocket
fire, hitting another of Israel's main cities, and Israel warned that
the guerrillas could strike Tel Aviv. At least 88 people have died in
Lebanon, most of the them civilians, in the four-day Israeli offensive,
sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers. On the Israeli
side, at least 15 have been killed, four civilians and 11 soldiers.
(AP, 7/15/06)(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli aircraft
fired at least one missile at a house in Gaza City. Palestinian rescue
workers said two Palestinians were killed and many others wounded.
Since the offensive began in Gaza, 86 Palestinians have been killed,
many of them gunmen.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, US Middle East envoy
David Welch flew into Tripoli for talks with Libyan officials on
strengthening economic and financial ties between the two countries.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, A landslide triggered
by monsoon rains swept through a village in northwest Nepal before
dawn, killing at least 17 people as they slept.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, In Karachi, Pakistan,
hundreds of youths set fire to a Pizza Hut, two gas stations and a
dozen vehicles after a funeral for an Islamic Shiite cleric killed in a
suicide attack.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, world leaders tore up a carefully prepared G8 summit agenda and
turned their attention to a growing crisis in the Middle East, hoping
to reach common ground on ways to stop the fighting. About 150
protesters faced off with police as they tried to exercise their right
of assembly.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, The UN Security
Council unanimously passed resolution 1718 condemning North Korea's
multiple missile launches on July 5 and imposed limited sanctions; a
defiant North said it would launch more missiles.
(AP, 7/16/07)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.63)
2006 Jul 16, President Bush and
other Group of Eight world leaders meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia,
urged Israel to show "utmost restraint" and blamed Hezbollah and Hamas
for escalating violence in the Middle East. G8 leaders adopted
statements on the summit's three priority areas of energy security,
education and the fight against infectious diseases.
(AP, 7/16/06)(AP, 7/16/07)
2006 Jul 16, US federal officials
arrested David Carruthers in Texas, the British boss of BetonSports, as
he changed planes enroute from London to Costa Rica. He was charged the
next day, along with 10 others, with conspiracy and fraud related to
online gambling.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.61)
2006 Jul 16, Robert Brooks
(b.1937), chairman of Hooters of America, died in South Carolina. He
made a fortune selling chicken wings served by scantily clad waitresses.
(www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/16/obit.hooters.ap/index.html)(Econ, 7/29/06,
p.78)
2006 Jul 16, In Afghanistan Amir
Gul Hassanyar was arrested in northern Kunduz province. He allegedly
carried out numerous roadside bombings and trafficked in weapons and
drugs.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 16, A British soldier was
killed and 3 others wounded in two different attacks near Iraq's main
southern city of Basra. 17 people were killed in rebel violence across
Iraq. Six of 29 people seized at an Iraqi Olympic Committee meeting
were released in Baghdad.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, Seven Canadians from
the same Montreal family, including four young children, were killed in
Lebanon when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the south of the
country.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 16, Hundreds of exhausted
evacuees flew into Cyprus as Western countries moved their citizens
from the Middle East amid continued Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, A small German
tourist plane crashed on takeoff from the Italian island of Elba,
killing four people aboard and seriously injuring one.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, Iran said that
Western incentives to halt its nuclear program were an "acceptable
basis" for talks, and it is ready for detailed negotiations.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, A suicide bomber
detonated explosives inside a cafe packed with Shiites in Tuz Khormato,
a mostly Turkomen city 130 miles north of Baghdad. 26 people were
killed and 22 injured. In the south, a British soldier was killed and
another wounded during a raid against a "terrorist suspect" in Basra.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 16,
Lebanese guerrillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the
northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing eight people at a railway depot
and wounding seven in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict
that has shattered hopes for Mideast peace. Israeli airstrikes reduced
entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in
swaths of Beirut.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, In Mexico City Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador led hundreds of thousands of marchers demanding a
full recount of in the disputed election.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 16, North Korea rejected
a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning the communist nation for
recent missile tests and warned the measure was a prelude to a renewed
Korean War.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan signaled that his government was planning a tough
response to mounting violence by Kurdish rebels after 13 members of the
security forces were killed in the southeast over the past week.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, Ugandan negotiators
at talks to end one of Africa's longest wars demanded on that Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) rebels disarm and hand over all their weapons in
order to receive amnesty.
(Reuters, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 17, US Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales said President George W. Bush blocked a Justice
Department probe into a secret program to tap international phone calls
and electronic communications of US citizens.
(AFP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Louisiana Attorney
General Charles Foti alleged that a doctor and two nurses decided to
administer lethal doses of morphine and a sedative to at least four
trapped and desperately ill patients during Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Space shuttle
Discovery and its crew of 6 returned to Earth through thick clouds,
ending an impressive mission that put NASA's space program back on a
solid, safer course.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, Mickey Spillane
(b.1918), American mystery writer, died in South Carolina. His 13 Mike
Hammer novels began with “I, the Jury” (1946). A number of his books
were made into films including “The Girl Hunters” (1963) in which he
played the starring role.
(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.78)
2006 Jul 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan coalition forces killed four al-Qaida suspects and captured
three others. Separate attacks killed three Afghan soldiers and three
government employees in the south.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In China tropical
storm Bilis left at least 612 people dead as it pounded the southeast
over the weekend, toppling houses and forcing the evacuation of a
prison and thousands of villages.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 17, Congo officials said
Peter Karim, a warlord accused of kidnapping seven UN peacekeepers, has
agreed to disband his militia and become a colonel in Congo's army.
Gunmen opened fire on an election rally and killed several people in
Congo's volatile east, the latest outburst of violence as the nation
prepares for its first free legislative and presidential balloting in
46 years.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 17, Europe’s Airbus,
reeling from a management shakeup that followed delays in its flagship
superjumbo jet program, unveiled a long-awaited revamp of its mid-sized
A350 at the Farnborough Air Show in England.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 17, In India some 500
suspected communist rebels attacked a government-run relief camp and
two police stations in eastern Chattisgarh state, killing at least 26
villagers. Four rebels also died.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In Indonesia a
magnitude 7.7 earthquake sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into
Pangandaran on Java island, killing at least 659 people with some 330
missing.
(AP, 7/19/06)(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 17, Iraq and the US
signed a commercial cooperation agreement. In Mahmoudiya dozens of
heavily armed attackers raided an open air market, killing at least 41
people and wounding about 90. Police said they found 12 bodies in
different parts Mahmoudiya, possible victims of reprisal
killings. A bomb killed two people and wounded nine in east
Baghdad. 3 American soldiers were killed in separate attacks, two in
the Baghdad area and one in Anbar province west of the capital.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israeli warplanes
pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, killing at least 17 people. Hezbollah
patron Iran said a cease-fire and a prisoner swap were possible, and
the international community signaled willingness to send peacekeepers
to back a diplomatic solution. 3 rounds of rockets fired by Hezbollah
guerrillas struck Haifa, with one destroying a three-story building and
wounding three people. Hezbollah fired a total of 50 rockets in to
Israel. Total deaths in Lebanon reached 210 and 24 in Israel.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/18/06, p.A1,7)
2006 Jul 17, Israel bombed the
Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, pushing ahead with
its 3-week offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, British PM Tony Blair
and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment of
international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, a proposal
that Israel quickly rejected.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, One of two young twin
brothers who led a small band of ethnic rebels calling themselves
"God's Army" surrendered to Myanmar's military government. Johnny Htoo
(18) and 8 fellow members of the group surrendered with weapons in two
separate groups on July 17 and 19 at the coastal region military
command in southeastern Myanmar.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 17, Nigeria signed a deal
with the Clinton Foundation to make cheap AIDS drugs available to fight
the disease.
(AFP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, G8 leaders called on
North Korea to stop its missile tests and to abandon its nuclear
weapons program.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, The presidents of
Russia and Kazakhstan agreed at the G8 summit to create a joint venture
to process natural gas from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas field.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In Moscow full
trading began in the shares of Rosneft Oil Co. The company raised $10.4
billion with shares at $7.55. The next day a London court dismissed a
blocking plea by Yukos and full trading began in London.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.71)
2006 Jul 17, A Serbian court
issued an international arrest warrant for the widow of former
President Slobodan Milosevic, who now lives in Moscow.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In western Venezuela
a fire broke out at the Amuay oil refinery. Officials said it was soon
extinguished without reported injuries or loss of deliveries.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 18, The US Senate voted
after two days of emotional debate to expand federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research, sending the measure to President George
Bush for a promised veto.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2006 Jul 18, A doctor and two
nurses who labored at a flooded-out New Orleans hospital in Hurricane
Katrina's chaotic aftermath were arrested and accused of killing four
trapped and desperately ill patients with injections of morphine and
sedatives.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2006 Jul 18, The Club Deluxe on
Haight Street in SF celebrated the 1st anniversary of its open mike
poetry and jazz. It was initiated by New York poets Jennifer Barone and
Ingrid Keir and jazz musician Dan Heffez.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.E1)
2006 Jul 18, The Seattle Sonics
basketball team said a group of Oklahoma businessmen had purchased the
club for $350 million. The new ownership group said it plans to keep
the team in Seattle, if it can work out a deal for a new arena in the
next 12 months. Officials in Seattle said they planned to hold the
Sonics to their lease, which expires in 2010.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.33)(http://tinyurl.com/qga3e)
2006 Jul 18, A heat wave in the US
left at least 7 people dead including 5 in Oklahoma and 2 in
Pennsylvania.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 18, US researchers
reported that men and boys with autism have fewer neurons in the
amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotion and memory.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 18, The Afghan government
announced plans to re-establish a Vice and Virtues Ministry, but it
assured the public the office would not resemble the Taliban version
that became a symbol of the brutal regime toppled by US forces in 2001.
One coalition soldier was killed in fighting in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 7/18/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A13)
2006 Jul 18, China reported its
fastest economic growth in a decade and warned that booming
construction and bank loans could fuel inflation, raising expectations
that Beijing might nudge up interest rates and possibly the value of
its currency.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 18, The UN said fighting
between the army and leftist guerrillas in western Colombia has forced
hundreds of civilians from their homes and trapped others in their
villages.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, Egypt and Israel
reopened the Rafah border crossing for the first time in three weeks,
triggering a rush to the border by thousands of Palestinians who had
been waiting in Egypt.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 18, In India
Lashkar-e-Qahhar (Army of Terror), a little-known Islamic militant
group that claimed responsibility for the Bombay train bombings, warned
that it was planning attacks against government and historic sites in
India in an e-mail to an Indian television station. Indian police
called the e-mail a hoax.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, In India several
telecom operators confirmed that they had blocked a number of Web sites
on orders from India’s Dept. of Telecommunications.
(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 18, In southern Iraq a
suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of laborers gathered
across the street from a major Shiite shrine in Kufa, killing 59 people
and wounding 105. National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said
Diyar Ismail Mahmoud (known as Abu al-Afghani), a Jordanian who killed
two U.S. soldiers last month, was fatally wounded in a clash with
security forces. The country's largest Sunni Arab party called for a
conference of all religious and political leaders to end sectarian
killing and save the country from sliding into civil war.
(AP, 7/18/06)(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 18, The UN reported that
nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike
that coincided with rising sectarian attacks. The report said 2,669
civilians died in May and 3,149 in June, the first full month of the
al-Maliki government.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, Israel struck a
Lebanese army base outside Beirut and flattened a house near the
border, killing 31 people in a new wave of bombings. Hezbollah fired
more rockets at northern Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding
several others. Israel said its offensive in Lebanon could last several
more weeks and involve large numbers of ground forces.
(AP, 7/18/06)(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 18, Authorities freed
about 100 Poles forced into virtual slavery as Italian and Polish
police arrested 25 people involved in a human trafficking ring that
brought farm workers to Italy.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, Kyrgyz police in Osh
arrested six men suspected of taking part in an uprising in neighboring
Uzbekistan last year and seized 14 ounces of TNT from them.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, Pakistan welcomed a
move by Britain to ban one of the major rebel groups, the Baluchistan
Liberation Army. Islamabad outlawed the group in April. In eastern
Pakistan 3 men convicted of gang-raping a woman during a robbery in
2000 were hanged after President Musharraf rejected their plea for
mercy.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 18, In the southern
Philippines Armando Pace (56), who often attacked corruption among
politicians and the illegal drug trade in Digos city, was gunned down
as he was riding home on a motorcycle. He was the ninth journalist
killed in the country this year and the 82nd since 1986, based on a
count by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 18, In Somalia Islamic
militiamen who rule Mogadishu arrested about 60 people for watching
videos in several overnight raids.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, South Korea's
disaster agency said a fifth straight day of monsoon rains have left 19
people dead and 31 missing.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 18, In northern Sri Lanka
a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others, including
four government soldiers.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 18, Nearly 300 striking
doctors in Zimbabwe ignored government demands for them to return to
hospital wards. The junior doctors walked out on July 13 after
authorities extended their seven-year attachment to state hospitals by
another year, to be spent working at rural facilities.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, President Bush used
his first veto to underscore his politically risky stand against
federal funding for the embryonic stem cell research that most
Americans support.
(Reuters, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 19, Chicago prosecutors
reported that local police tortured scores of black suspects from the
1970s to the 1980s to extract confessions, but that the cases were too
old or too weak to prosecute.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 19, The Dow Jones rose
212.19 to 11,011 and Nasdaq closed up 37.49 to 2,080 following remarks
by Ben Bernanke that inflation seems to be under control.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 19, Alain Rappaport
premiered the web site www.medstory.com, a consumer search product for
information on health and medicine.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 19, Jack Warden (b.1920),
an Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor, died in NYC. He
played gruff cops, coaches and soldiers in a career that spanned five
decades and included almost 100 feature films.
(AP, 7/22/06)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.B6)
2006 Jul 19, In southern
Afghanistan coalition forces retook Garmser and killed 2 Taliban.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A13)
2006 Jul 19, Britain faced the
hottest day ever recorded in July as a heat wave swept much of Europe.
Temperatures hit 96.6 degrees south of London.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, In Canada teamsters
railway workers said they initiated a strike against Canadian National
Railway in an effort to resolve a long-standing contract dispute.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, Doku Umarov, the
leader of the Chechen rebels, dismissed a Russian amnesty offer, saying
attacks outside his home region would be his rebels' answer to Moscow.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, It was reported that
factories and cities in China dump some 40-60 billion tons of
waste-water and sewage into lakes and rivers each year.
(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 19, Director Gerard Oury
(87), a cultural icon of France whose decades-old comedies remain hits
today, died at his Riviera home. His top hits include the 1973 movie
"Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob" (The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob).
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 19, In Iraq gunmen
kidnapped 20 employees of a government agency that cares for Sunni
mosques and shrines nationwide, and the organization suspended its work
until further notice. At least 49 people were killed in a string of
bombings and shootings, mostly in Baghdad. Sixteen other bodies were
found in widely separate parts of the country, apparent victims of
sectarian death squads. An explosion in a cafe killed 5 people in
Kirkuk. In Basra assailants slit the throats of a mother and her 3
children and killed the mother’s sister. The family had fled there to
escape threats that they had cooperated with Americans.
(AP, 7/19/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 19, A government report
said Ireland's population has surged this year to a modern high of more
than 4.2 million people largely because of immigrants from the newest
EU nations.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, Israeli troops
clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border,
while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 56 people
overnight as fighting entered its second week with the US signaling it
will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire. Lebanon's PM Fuad
Saniora called for a cease-fire and said that 300 people have been
killed, 1,000 have been wounded and a half-million displaced in
Israel's eight-day-old onslaught on Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets slammed
into the Arab-Israeli town of Nazareth killing two young brothers as
they played outside and wounding 18 other people.
(AP, 7/19/06)(Reuters, 7/19/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 19, Israeli forces killed
six Palestinians after tanks moved into a refugee camp in central Gaza
under cover of machine gun fire.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, In Nigeria a 4-story
apartment building collapsed overnight in Lagos. Red Cross officials
confirmed that at least 24 people were killed.
(AFP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 19, Pakistani police
mounted more raids to catch suspected Taliban fighters living in
Baluchistan province. Police said more than 200 Afghans have been
arrested in the last 3 days.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, South Korea's
president condemned North Korea for potentially sparking an arms race
with its recent missile launches, while the North said it was ending
reunions between relatives separated by the Korean Peninsula divide. An
aid group in North Korea said floods and landslides have left more than
100 people dead or missing.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, Sweden launched a
fresh effort to salvage Sri Lanka's troubled truce as ceasefire
monitors reported at least 900 people killed in a surge of ethnic
violence since December.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 19, Taiwan’s largest air
carrier launched the 1st direct cargo flight between the island and
China since 1949.
(WSJ, 7/20/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 20, President Bush
delivered his first address to the 97th annual NAACP convention after
having declining invitations for five years in a row. He received mixed
support. Bush said he knew racism existed in America and that many
black voters distrusted his Republican Party; Bush promised to improve
the GOP's rocky relations with blacks.
(AP, 7/20/06)(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A4)(AP, 7/20/07)
2006 Jul 20, The US Senate voted
98-0 to renew the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act for another
quarter-century.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2006 Jul 20, The US released new
postage stamps featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and
a half dozen other superheroes.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, The SEC filed
criminal and civil charges against executives at Brocade Communications
in San Jose, Ca., for back-dating stock options. Estimates had it that
some 29% of 7,774 US companies may have backdated option grants from
1996-2002.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.C3)
2006 Jul 20, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger authorized $150 million in loans to the state’s stem
cell agency. A day earlier Pres. Bush vetoed legislation that would
have expanded federal funding for stem cell research.
(SFC, 7/21/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 20, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed 6 Taliban in the district of Garmser in Helmand
province.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 20, The UN food agency
said China became the world's third-largest food aid donor in 2005, the
same year it stopped receiving assistance from the World Food Program,
while the US and the EU remained the top two contributors.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, German and US
scientists began a 2-year project to decipher the genetic code of the
Neanderthal.
(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 20, India arrested three
men in connection with last week's Mumbai bombings that killed more
than 180 men.
(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 20, Iraq's top Shiite
cleric urged his followers to refrain from reprisal violence against
Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian
bloodshed that threatens to erupt into full-scale civil war. Car bombs
in Baghdad killed 9 police officers and 6 civilians. A roadside bomb in
eastern Baghdad killed 2. Police in Baghdad found 38 bodies, most of
whom were shot in the head. A car bomb exploded at a village gas
station in Tikrit, killing 13 people who had gathered around the
vehicle after discovering a corpse inside. An explosion in Kirkuk
killed 7 people. Gunmen assassinated a former official of Saddam's
Baath party in Karbala.
(AP, 7/20/06)(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli troops met
fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas as they crossed into
Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, and
Israel hinted at a full-scale invasion.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli forces killed
3 people and wounded six in the Gaza Strip. The army dropped leaflets
on towns and villages warning that homes hiding weapons would be
attacked.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, In southwest Pakistan
300 tribal militants surrendered to authorities, where President Pervez
Musharraf says an insurgency is dying down. In a search near the former
rebel stronghold of Dera Bugti, troops seized 10 surface-to-air
missiles, 195 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, 270 hand grenades,
205 rockets and 201 mortar shells.
(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 20, Residents of central
Somalia said that hundreds of Ethiopian troops were patrolling the town
of Baidoa in armored vehicles, less than a day after Islamic militants
moved near the base of the weak, UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, Bio Fuel Systems, a
Spanish company, claimed to have developed a method of breeding
plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a
potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel.
(Reuters, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, Luis Jefferson Lira
Rodriguez (20), a Venezuela soldier, massacred 8 people at Ranch Adi,
but said he acted on orders from at least one other lieutenant who
claimed there was a Colombian rebel camp nearby. Officials later said
rape was the motive and that the soldier acted alone.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Jul 21, In NYC residents of
Queens suffered through a 5th day of power blackouts. ConEdison said
power blackouts in Queens had affected some 25,000 customers.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 21, The California Dept.
of Education said an estimated 5% of high school seniors (40,173 of
436, 374) did not qualify for graduation because they failed exit exam.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 21, Mako (b.1933 as
Makoto Iwamatsu), Japanese-born film and TV actor, died at his home in
Ventura Ct., Ca. His films included “The Sand Pebbles” (1966). In 1965
he co-founded the East West Players, the 1st Asian-American theater
company.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.B8)
2006 Jul 21, The Netherlands’
military chief said Dutch commandos had killed 18 enemy fighters who
set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Cambodia Ta Mok
(80), known as "The Butcher" for his brutality as military chief of the
communist Khmer Rouge, died.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.77)
2006 Jul 21, India urged Pakistan
to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its determination
to fight terrorism.
(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Iraq US troops
raided a neighborhood northeast of Baghdad, killing 5 people, including
two women and a child, after gunmen fired from the rooftops of
buildings. Bombs killed two worshippers at mosques in Iraq during
prayers and the authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad after
one of the bloodiest weeks this year.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, Israel called up
reserve troops and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled
southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up
a deep buffer zone. Hezbollah guerrillas fired two volleys of rockets
at Haifa, wounding five people and damaging shops and office buildings.
At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the Israeli
campaign. 34 Israelis also have been killed, including 19 soldiers.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, A Hamas activist and
three relatives were killed in an explosion at his home in Gaza City,
hospital officials said. Palestinians said the house was hit by an
Israeli tank shell.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, An Islamic militia
leader called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops protecting
Somalia's weak UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
protests initiated by striking teachers continued. Protest leaders said
their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom
they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using force to
repress dissent.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, It was reported that
Saudi Arabia has ordered 76 artillery howitzers from the French
armaments manufacturer Giat Industries as defense minister Crown Prince
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz completed a two-day visit.
(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, The UN refugee agency
said international aid operations in refugee camps in the Zalinge area
of Sudan's Darfur region have been suspended after three water workers
were killed by a mob.
(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, Turkey killed 4
Kurdish rebels after a soldier died in an attack.
(WSJ, 7/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 21, Venezuela formally
entered Mercosur, increasing the South American trade bloc's economic
might and vowing to transform the policy organization into a force for
profound social change. Cuba’s Fidel Castro signed a modest trade at
the 2-day Mercosur meeting in Cordoba, Argentina.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.36)
2006 Jul 22, President Bush in
Texas conferred with PM Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey about how to help the
Lebanese people caught up in the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 22, Some 3,000 people
gathered at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas for the annual Lifestyles
conference, a five-day, $700-per-couple event that offers a mix of
seminars, socializing and sex.
(Reuters, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 22, Former Spokane, Wa.,
Mayor James E. West (55), ousted by a sex scandal in 2005, died of
complications from recent cancer surgery.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.B6)
2006 Jul 22, Tamika Mack Norton
(31), the wife of Quincy Norton Sr. (32), was stabbed to death at her
home in Daly City, Ca. Norton was arrested a month later and charged
with her murder. In 2008 he was convicted of murder after his sons
testified against him, but the conviction was overturned on the grounds
that his defense attorney was incompetent. In 2009 a new trial date was
set.
(SFC, 4/22/08, p.B2)(SFC, 5/16/08, p.B5)(SFC,
9/23/09, p.D2)
2006 Jul 22, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed 13 Taliban over the last 48 hours in the
district of Garmser in Helmand province. 2 suicide blasts struck in
Kandahar. A suicide car bomb ripped into a Canadian patrol and killed
two soldiers and wounded eight others. Ten Afghans were wounded. About
an hour later an attacker blew himself up among a crowd of people who
had assembled about 100 meters (yards) from the site of the first
explosion. Four Afghan passers-by were killed.
(AP, 7/22/06)(AFP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 22, In Preston, England,
Shezan Umarji (20), a bank worker and business student, was stabbed in
the brawl between around 50 white and South Asian youths. Days later 3
men, one aged 17 and two aged 19, were "jointly charged with murder and
violent disorder."
(AFP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 22, A magnitude-5.1
earthquake hit southwestern China, killing at least 19 people.
(AFP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 22, East Timor's newly
installed PM Jose Ramos-Horta offered a weapons amnesty to prevent a
repeat of communal clashes which left 21 dead two months ago.
(AFP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 22, Ethiopian troops sent
to bolster Somalia's weak government against a powerful Islamic militia
moved into a second Somali town and seized a strategic airport.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 22, In Haiti a new rash
of kidnappings has raised fears that well-armed, politically aligned
street gangs are seeking to destabilize the new government, threatening
UN-led efforts to restore security 2 1/2 years after a crippling
revolt. At least 30 people have been kidnapped so far in July, about
the same number for all of June.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 22, Iraq's parliament
speaker Mahmud Mashhadani bitterly criticized US forces in Iraq,
accusing them of "butchery" and demanded that they pull out of the
country. 7 Shiite workers were gunned down in a religiously mixed area
of west Baghdad, and explosions in the heart of the capital shattered a
one-day calm after a ban on private vehicles expired. 3 people were
killed and 5 injured in a bombing and shooting in the market in
Baqouba. At least 6 more people died in attacks elsewhere across Iraq.
US and Iraqi troops battled Mahdi fighters in Musayyib, 40 miles south
of Baghdad in a three-hour gunbattle that killed 15 extremists and one
Iraqi soldier. 2 US soldiers were killed in Baghdad, one from a
roadside bomb, the other from small arms fire.
(AP, 7/22/06)(AP, 7/23/06)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 22, Israeli tanks and
hundreds of troops moved in and out of Lebanon, taking over Maroun
al-Ras village, entering a UN observation post and engaging Hezbollah
militants by land, sea and air. Israeli warplanes blasted
communications and television transmission towers in central and
northern Lebanese mountains. Over 130 rockets struck northern Israeli,
hitting Karmiel, Kiriyat Shemona, Nahariya and smaller communities such
as Bet Hilel, Mayan Baruch and Mashov Am. Five Israelis were wounded.
The Lebanese health ministry reported 362 deaths in Lebanon so far in
the onslaught. 34 Israelis also have been killed.
(AP, 7/22/06)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 22, Japan's death toll
from floods and mudslides triggered by this week's torrential rain rose
to 19 as an evacuation warning was issued in the country's southwest.
Heavy rains caused mudslides and flooding killed four people in
southern Japan. About 100,000 people were urged to flee their homes.
(AFP, 7/22/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 22, Police said Mudassir,
a top Kashmiri militant commander blamed for dozens of attacks and
tourist killings, has been arrested in the Indian portion of Kashmir.
He was believed to be the chief planner of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a
Pakistan-based Islamic militant group linked to "25 incidents of
grenade attacks and other violent incidents.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 23, US cyclist
Floyd Landis (31) won the 3-week, 2,267-mile Tour de France 57 seconds
ahead of Oscar Pereiro of Spain. Reports on July 27 Landis said had
tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone. In 2007
arbitrators upheld results that showed he had used synthetic
testosterone and that he must forfeit his title.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.D1)(Reuters, 7/27/06)(WSJ, 9/21/07,
p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, Tiger Woods won his
2nd consecutive British Open golf title.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, In southern Indiana 2
sets of sniper attacks within hours of each other left one man dead,
another wounded and four vehicles peppered with bullet holes. On July
25 police said a Gaston youth (18) confessed to weekend sniping.
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, In Afghanistan 19
Taliban were killed and 17 fighters, including two Pakistani nationals,
arrested in a raid by Afghan forces in southern Helmand province.
Police said three policemen were killed and three others kidnapped in a
Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in southeastern Ghazni province.
Attackers hurled grenades into the home of a village postman in eastern
Khost province, killing three of his daughters.
(AFP, 7/23/06)(AFP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot
Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from
Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds
of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued
the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and
listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the
cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100 million. After a year of
planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap
in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A9)
2006 Jul 23, In England a gust of
wind blew an inflatable art exhibit from its moorings at a park in
Durham, killing two people and injuring 12. Up to 30 people were on the
"Dreamspace", an inflatable network of multicolored tunnels, when wind
blew it 30 feet in the air.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Police in India
raided a forest hideout for communist rebels in the southern state of
Andhra Pradesh state, killing Burra Chinnaiah, a guerrilla chief, and
at least 7 other people.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, PM Al-Maliki left for
Washington for talks on reversing the country's slide toward civil war.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden minibus amid a crowd of
day laborers seeking work in a crowded market in Baghdad's mainly
Shiite district of Sadr City, killing at least 34 people. This was
followed by a bomb attack in front of the area's town hall, which
killed eight. Three hours later a one-ton car bomb exploded outside a
courthouse in the mixed northern city of Kirkuk, leaving at least 22
dead and 100 injured.
(AFP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Israeli warplanes
struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting in southern
Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and
Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the
peace along the border. Hezbollah rockets killed two civilians in
northern Israel. Layal Nejim (23), a photographer working for a
Lebanese magazine, was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near her
taxi.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, In Indian Kashmir 4
people were killed in three separate incidents.
(AFP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Palestinian militants
in Gaza fired three rockets at Israel, despite reports that they had
agreed to halt such attacks.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Zuleyka Rivera
Mendoza (18) of Puerto Rico was crowned as Miss Universe 2006. She
hoped to someday star in US and Latin American films.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 23, In Somalia a local
rights group said gunmen have killed 682 civilians, including a foreign
journalist, in executions over the past year.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Syria, one of
Hezbollah's main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end
the fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group but only in
the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 24, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to launch diplomatic
efforts aimed at ending 13 days of warfare.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Amnesty Int’l. issued
a report saying security agents in Jordan were torturing terrorism
suspects on behalf of the US.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, The US FDA approved
Anthelios SX, a sunscreen that protects against a type of ultra-violet
radiation linked to skin cancer.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, Rescuers from the US
Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members from a
cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2006 Jul 24, Police officers in
Salt Lake City found the body of missing 5-year-old Destiny Norton in
the basement of a home in her neighborhood and arrested Craig R.
Gregerson (20) who lived there. Destiny disappeared from outside her
house on July 16.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, SF City Attorney
Dennis Herrera announced that his office had obtained a civil
injunction and $20,000 in penalties against Carlos Romero for his
graffiti. This marked the 1st time SF has filed a civil suit against a
graffiti tagger.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, HCA Inc., the largest
US for-profit hospital operator, has agreed to be purchased by a group
of investors for about $21.3 billion plus the assumption of $11.7
billion in debt. Shareholders of the Nashville-based company, which was
founded by the family of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, will
receive $51 in cash for each share of common stock.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Power companies
worked to restore electricity to thousands of customers throughout
California as a scorching heat wave threatened to push the state into a
power emergency with the potential for more blackouts. Storm problems
cut power to areas of New York and Missouri.
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, It was reported that
Jeff Bezos (42), founder of Amazon.com, planned to develop a private
spaceport at his private ranch in West Texas. A draft environmental
review was filed with the FAA and a timetable set commercial flights to
begin in 2010.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 24, In southwestern
Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled
grenades attacked a district headquarters overnight in Farah, killing 3
police and wounding 7. Four suspected suicide attackers riding two
motorcycles died in a confrontation with Afghan police. In the west,
gunmen killed two Afghans working for international aid agency World
Vision who had been delivering medicine. Fighting in Kunar province
left a US soldier dead. 7 suspected Taliban were killed in Paktika
province.
(AP, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, In Belarus leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exchanged declarations of solidarity
with the authoritarian leader of isolated Belarus, who shares his
anti-US views. During the talks with Lukashenko, the two sides signed
seven agreements on military-technical cooperation, economic and other
ties as well as a declaration pledging a strategic partnership.
Bilateral trade was just under $16 million in 2005.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, In Colombia 13
doctors were abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC. They were on a 10-day mission to remote communities and Indian
tribes in Putumayo province.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, A UNICEF report said
more than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo and even more
are displaced, sexually abused or swept into the camps of combatant
groups.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Costa Rica relaxed
visa requirements for visitors from 102 nations, in the Central
American country's most sweeping migration reform in decades.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Hungary’s central
bank raised its core interest rate half a percentage point to 6.75% in
an aggressive move to stabilize its currency. This followed a quarter
point raise in June. Inflation stood at 2.8%.
(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A8)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.64)
2006 Jul 24, A UN report on the
economic impact of HIV/AIDS in India estimated infections there,
currently over 5 million, could increase to 20-25 million by 2010.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 24, Hezbollah's
representative in Iran struck a defiant tone, warning that his Islamic
militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until "no place" is
safe for Israelis.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Iraqi PM Nuri
al-Maliki condemned Israel's bombing of Lebanon's civilian
infrastructure and vowed to push for a ceasefire during talks with his
British PM Tony Blair. Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police unit in central
Baghdad, triggering a gunbattle in which six officers were killed and
30 were wounded. Mahmoud Ali Hussein al-Nida, the head of Saddam
Hussein's Baijat tribe, was killed when gunmen attacked a meeting in
the office of a prominent sheik in Tikrit. The gunmen also killed a
lawyer and wounded sheik Mizahim al-Mustafa. Two other civilians caught
in the crossfire also were killed.
(AFP, 7/24/06)(AFP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli ground forces
pushed deeper into Lebanon in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas.
An Israeli Apache helicopter crashed near the Lebanese border while
attempting an emergency landing, and there were two casualties.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli artillery
shelled a town in the Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to fire
rockets, and hospital officials said three Palestinians were killed and
eight were wounded.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Kosovo formally made
its pitch for independence in Vienna, Austria, face-to-face with Serbia
at their 1st top-level talks since NATO bombs drove Serb forces from
the province in 1999.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Liberia began
training the first soldiers of a post-war army that officials hope will
grow into a small but effective force to take over peacekeeping from UN
troops.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, A Malaysian princess
was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him from attacking
her husband (74). The son (21) later died of an apparent drug overdose.
Tengku Puteri Kamariah, whose brother is Sultan Ahmad Shah, ruler of
the eastern state of Pahang, died at her home in Pekan town, Pahang.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a
pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and
stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making
methamphetamine.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, In Sudan’s South
Darfur's vast Kalma camp, 17 women were raped by armed militiamen as
they went out to collect firewood.
(Reuters, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 24, WTO members in Geneva
called a halt to more than five years of commerce liberalization talks
(the Doha talks) as differences over farm aid proved unbridgeable. The
25-nation EU criticized US intransigence over agricultural subsidies
for the breakdown, while the US blamed Brazil and India for being
inflexible on cutting barriers to industrial imports and the EU for
refusing to make deeper cuts in its farm import tariffs.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 25, President Bush was
visited at the White House by Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, who said he and
Bush agreed that training and better arming Iraqi forces as quickly as
possible was central to efforts to stabilizing his country. A Darfur
rebel leader was in Washington to meet President Bush, who is trying to
convince Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers to quell the increasing
violence in Sudan's remote west. President Bush pressed Darfur rebel
leader Minni Arcua Minnawi to help implement a deal aimed at ending the
violence in western Sudan.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/25/07)
2006 Jul 25, In NYC 14 athletes
competed in the 10th annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in
Jamaica, Queens. The 51-day event was sponsored by followers of
meditation master Sri Chinmoy.
(Reuters, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, SF Supervisors gave
final approval to a plan to provide health care coverage to the city’s
estimated 82,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 7/26/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 25, Hewlett-Packard
signed a $4.5 billion agreement to buy Mercury Interactive Corp., a
maker of software for information technology networks.
(SFC, 7/26/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 25, The Afghan
government, together with the UN, appealed for $76 million to head off
an "imminent food crisis" due to drought. A roadside bomb exploded in
Kabul, killing two Afghans riding in a taxi. US-led coalition troops
killed seven suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan. In
Musa Qala district 10 militants were killed and 15 wounded by coalition
and Afghan forces backed by airstrikes.
(AP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 25, Canada said it
planned to pay a total of C$1.1 billion ($965 million) to around 5,500
people who had contracted hepatitis C from transfusions.
(Reuters, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, Greek protesters
toppled a statue of President Truman and clashed with police during
demonstrations against the fighting in Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, The first edition of
a newspaper owned by the Iranian version of Hezbollah appeared on
newsstands with messages of support for its Lebanese cousins in their
fight against Israel.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, In Iraq police in
Diyala province said five bodies were found on the streets in
Muqdadiyah. Gunmen killed a police officer in front of his office in
Mosul. 2 roadside bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing two civilians and
wounding two bystanders and a policeman. 4 other civilians were shot
dead around the capital. Two members of a Shiite family were killed and
one was wounded when their removal van was sprayed with bullets. US and
Iraqi soldiers captured six members of an alleged "death squad" in
Baghdad, hoping to quell the rampant sectarian violence dividing the
capital. Attacks elsewhere in Iraq left at least 34 people dead,
including an American soldier.
(AP, 7/25/06)(AFP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, Israeli troops sealed
off the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in fierce fighting
in south Lebanon. Warplanes struck Nabatiyeh and destroyed a house
killing seven people, four from the same family. Guerrillas fired
rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl. An Israeli airstrike killed
4 UN observers at a UNIFIL post in southern Lebanon. The observers were
from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. Irish observers had warned
that airstrikes were too close. UNIFIL was created in 1978 after
Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there
ever since.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 25, Italian carmaker Fiat
Group and India's Tata Motors Ltd. announced they have signed an
agreement for a joint-venture in India to make passenger vehicles,
engines and transmissions for Indian and overseas markets.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, The Slovak central
bank raised key interest rates by 50 basis points.
(Econ, 8/12/06,
p.43)(www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=24271)
2006 Jul 25, Sri Lanka, which at
80,000 has the largest contingent of expatriate workers in Lebanon,
wants those trapped in the conflict to stay put and those who have fled
the bombings to return, a minister said.
(AFP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, Officials and news
reports said the Swedish government knew in 2000 that Saddam Hussein's
government demanded kickbacks from companies participating in the UN
Oil-for-Food Program.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, Thailand's three
election commissioners, seen as close allies of embattled PM Thaksin
Shinawatra, were convicted of allowing unqualified candidates to run in
parliamentary elections and sentenced to four years in prison.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 26, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki addressed US Congress and asked for more US reconstruction
aid. He did not talk of sectarian violence in Iraq and did not mention
Hezbollah.
(SFC, 7/27/06, p.A12)
2006 Jul 26, The Washington state
Supreme Court upheld a ban on gay marriage, saying lawmakers have the
power to restrict marriage to unions between a man and woman.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Chicago’s City
Council voted by a veto-proof margin to require big-box stores like
Wal-Mart to pay employees at least $10 per hour plus benefits.
(WSJ, 7/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 26, In a dramatic
turnaround from her first murder trial, a jury in Houston found Andrea
Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning of her children
in the bathtub; she was committed to a state mental hospital.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2006 Jul 26, SF police officer
Nick-Tomasito Birco (39) was killed when a Dodge van carrying 4 robbery
suspects broadsided his patrol car at Cambridge and Felton. Steven
Wayne Petrilli (19) was charged the next day with murder, manslaughter,
evading police and robbery.
(SFC, 7/27/06, p.A1)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 26, In southern Zabul
province, gunmen ambushed and killed one Afghan worker and wounded
three others as they drove to work on a road being built between the
town of Qalat to a new US air base just outside town. 5 militants were
killed and 11 were wounded when they battled 200 Afghan police in
Garmser. All 16 people including two Dutch soldiers and at least 2
American civilians were killed when their helicopter crashed in
southeast Afghanistan. The Russian-made helicopter was operated by a
logistics company ferrying supplies and fuel from Kabul to the Khost
airport.
(AP, 7/26/06)(AFP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 26, China's PM Wen Jiabao
called for urgent steps to prevent economic overheating, as the
government forecast more double-digit growth in the next quarter.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 26, Xinhua News said
heavy rain from Tropical Storm Kaemi caused a levee in southern China
to collapse, threatening to inundate an area that's home to 20,000
villagers.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, An unhappy China said
that Canada's decision to bestow honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama
could hurt commercial relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Jessica Gilbert (19),
a British chess prodigy, fell from an eighth-floor hotel room window in
the Czech Republic where she was competing in an international chess
tournament. Her death took place days before the trial of her father,
whom she had accused of rape, was to begin. In December Ian Gilbert
(48), a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was acquitted of 5
counts of raping Jessica, while she was still a child, and 6 sexual
offenses against other people.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Jul 26, Georgian authorities
reported sporadic fighting in a mountainous region where police are
trying to subdue a defiant militia leader, the latest confrontation in
a volatile former Soviet republic plagued by separatist movements.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Germany, Israel and
the US signed an agreement opening to researchers an archive of
millions of Nazi files describing how the Holocaust was carried out.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Israel suffered its
bloodiest day in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah, with
militants killing at least nine soldiers in a battle for the strategic
town of Bint Jbail.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Israeli strikes
killed 23 people in the Gaza Strip, including 16 militants and a mother
and her two young daughters, in the deadliest day of fighting since
Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last year.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, In Indian Kashmir 5
people were killed and 12 wounded, including nine in a tourist area, in
4 different gun battles.
(AFP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Pro-government
militia fighters in western Ivory Coast began laying down arms, the
first step of a delayed nationwide disarmament program.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 26, Power was restored to
parts of Liberia's dilapidated capital Monrovia for the first time in
15 years, another step in the country's emergence from more than a
decade of civil war.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, A UN report said the
death toll from floods and landslides in North Korea this month has
risen to at least 154 people, with 127 others missing.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 26, Somalia's virtually
powerless government said a cargo plane landed at the capital's airport
and was carrying weapons for Islamic militants who have seized control
of much of southern Somalia. A spokesman for the country's official
government, based 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, said the plane was
carrying land mines, bombs and long-range guns from Eritrea for a
militia loyal to the Supreme Islamic Courts Council.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Sri Lanka's military
carried out air attacks against suspected Tamil Tiger positions in
northeast Sri Lanka after the rebels allegedly blocked an irrigation
canal.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 27, Pres. Bush signed the
Adam Walsh Act of 2006. It required convicted child molesters to be
listed on a national Internet database and face a felony charge for
failing to update their whereabouts.
(SFC, 7/28/06,
p.A1)(www.fd.org/odstb_AdamWalsh.htm)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.9)
2006 Jul 27, Floyd Landis'
stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown into
question when he tested positive for high levels of testosterone during
the race. Landis denied cheating.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2006 Jul 27, An Arkansas judge
approved a $90 million settlement between Google Inc. and advertisers
who claimed improper billing for fraudulent clicks on ads.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D3)
2006 Jul 27, In California as many
as 126 people were reported dead over the last 12 days from a heat
wave. The heat also killed an estimated 16,000 livestock in the Central
Valley as well as some 1 million poultry. By the end of the month the
heat wave left 164 dead in California and moved east.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A1)(SFC,
8/3/06, p.C2)
2006 Jul 27, In Richmond,
California, police and federal agents arrested Jose Santos Bonilla
(33), a suspected leader of the local MS-13 street gang. The gang was
in a street war with Richmond Sureno Trece (RST).
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 27, Sharman Networks
Ltd., the company behind Kazaa file-sharing software, said it will
redesign its software and pay over $115 million in penalties to leading
music and movie companies.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D3)
2006 Jul 27, Robert Charles
Browne, serving a life sentence in Colorado for murdering a teenage
girl, claimed responsibility for as many as 48 slayings across the
country dating back from 1970 until his arrest in 1995. The other
claims include 17 murders in Louisiana, nine in Colorado, seven in
Texas, five in Arkansas, three in Mississippi, two each in California,
New Mexico and Oklahoma, and one in Washington state.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 27, In California the
Trust for Public Land donated 6,845 acres of coastline property north
of Santa Cruz to the state for public use. The Coast Dairies property
was initially settled by the Moretti and Respini families in 1866.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 27, Matthew Amorello,
chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, resigned in the wake
of problems with Boston’s Big Dig tunnels.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 27, Intel introduced a
new line of microprocessors called Core 2 Duos. New features included
higher performance and lower power consumption.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 27, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, issued a worldwide call for Muslims to rise up
in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza
until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, A fire raged through
a rain forest along Brazil's eastern coastline, burning up to 25,000
acres of trees.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Canadian police said
they had busted two cross-country drug smuggling schemes, seizing 110
kilograms (243 pounds) of cocaine worth C$8.8 million ($7.8 million)
and charging six people.
(Reuters, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, China’s government
introduced new taxes on real estate to discourage speculation. State
media said flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Kaemi have
killed at least 25 people in southern China, including six who died
when a torrent of water washed away a military barracks.
(AP, 7/27/06)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 27, In Kinshasa, Congo, 3
policemen and a civilian were killed in clashes outside a stadium where
40,000 supporters greeted Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, a rebel
leader turned presidential candidate.
(AFP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, The European Court of
Human Rights found Russia guilty of violating the "right to life" of a
young Chechen who disappeared after a Russian general ordered him shot.
Khadzimurat Yandiyev (25) was last seen in the hands of Russian troops
in February 2000.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, French health
officials said 64 people have died in a heat wave that has gripped the
country for nearly two weeks.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili said his troops had established control over the Kodori
Gorge area after Emzar Kvitsiani, a former presidential envoy, said he
was reactivating a local militia.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 27, Greek authorities
said 5 schoolchildren have been charged with killing an 11-year-old boy
who disappeared five months ago. Alex Mechisvili dropped from sight in
the northern town of Veroia. His body has not been found.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Former Haitian PM
Yvon Neptune was released from jail, more than two years after his
arrest on charges of orchestrating the killing of political opponents
at the start of a rebellion that engulfed the country.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, In India police
arrested two more men in connection with Bombay's deadly train blasts,
bringing to eight the number of people detained by investigators since
the explosions killed more than 200 people earlier this month.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 27, In Iraq a rocket and
mortar barrage followed by a car bomb blasted an upscale, mostly Shiite
district of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding 153. 4 US Marines
died in action in western Anbar province. A Salvadoran soldier was
killed in Iraq, the 2nd soldier from El Salvador to be killed in the
conflict in 8 days. Armed men in Iraqi army uniforms and driving Iraqi
army vehicles stole $1.35 million in Iraqi currency in West Baghdad.
Gunmen killed 3 men working for a foreign security company in Baghdad’s
Mansour neighborhood. The bodies of at least 19 men, shot in the head
and bearing signs of torture, were found in various parts of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/27/06)(AP, 7/28/06)(SFC, 7/28/06,
p.A3)(Reuters, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 27, Top Israeli Cabinet
ministers decided not to expand the country's Lebanon offensive but
ordered the call up of thousands of additional reserve soldiers to
boost the campaign. The decision came as Israeli jets pounded across
Lebanon, extending their air campaign.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, The Israeli air force
fired missiles at a target in eastern Gaza City, wounding 15 people, at
least one of them critically. 5 Palestinians were killed including a
woman (75) and a child. A Palestinian was shot and killed in Jerusalem
after he attacked a police patrol. The severely burned body of man,
thought to be Israeli, was found in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/27/06)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 27, Japan said it will
allow US beef imports, suspended for the past six months, to restart
from all but one of 35 US beef processing plants authorized by the US
government as suppliers to Japan.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Malawi's former
President Bakili Muluzi was arrested on corruption charges related to
millions of dollars in donor funds that allegedly ended up in his
personal account. He was released on bail after being questioned.
Muluzi faced 42 counts of theft, corruption and breach of trust.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 27, President-elect Alan
Garcia made good on a pledge to draw talent from across the political
spectrum in his 16-member Cabinet by appointing six women, including
Peru's first female justice and interior ministers.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, The head of Russia's
state arms-trading agency said that Russia has signed contracts with
Venezuela for 24 military planes and 53 helicopters.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, A Russian rocket that
was to put 18 satellites in orbit crashed shortly after liftoff. The
Dnepr rocket crashed about 15 miles south of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. The rocket was carrying a Russian satellite and 17 from
other countries, including the United States and Italy.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, At least 20 members
of Somalia's parliament resigned, accusing the country's virtually
powerless government of failing to bring peace. The parliament is
supposed to have 275 member but 16 members have defected to the Islamic
militia and other seats remain unfilled after members' deaths.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Police found the
bodies of four Africans on a boat packed with 26 other would-be
immigrants that was intercepted off Spain's Canary Islands.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 27, Zambian opposition
leaders were scrambling after President Levy Mwanawasa called elections
for Sept. 28 and dissolved the parliament and Cabinet.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 28, Actor-director Mel
Gibson launched an anti-Semitic tirade as he was arrested on the
Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., for driving drunk; Gibson
later apologized and was sentenced to probation and alcohol treatment.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2006 Jul 28, Clark McLeod, who had
been chairman and chief executive of McLeodUSA, agreed to turn over
$4.4 million in profits he was accused of receiving from the so-called
act of "spinning." The former executive was accused by NY Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer of directing more than $77 million of McLeodUSA's
investment banking business to Salomon Smith Barney. In exchange, the
company "secretly" gave McLeod shares of 34 stocks before its initial
public offering, which resulted in a windfall of $4.8 million on the
first day of public trading of the stock.
(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 28, The Pfizer Board of
Directors named Jeffrey B. Kindler Pfizer's chief executive officer. He
succeeds Hank McKinnell, who will remain Pfizer's chairman of the board
until his retirement in February, 2007. McKinnell vacated Pfizer’s CEO
spot 19 months before he was scheduled to step down, under pressure
from investors angered about his retirement package and a drop of as
much as 40% in the company's stock price during his five years in
charge. The company later disclosed in a filing with the SEC that the
package totaled more than $180 million. It includes an estimated $82.3
million in pension benefits, $77.9 million in deferred compensation,
and cash and stock totaling more than $20.7 million.
(http://mediaroom.pfizer.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=83)(AP,
12/21/06)
2006 Jul 28, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
said it is ending its loss-generating business in Germany just two
months after leaving South Korea in what analysts welcomed as a move to
focus resources on expanding in more profitable international markets
like China and Latin America. Wal-Mart sold its 85 German stores to
Metro, the local market leader.
(AP, 7/28/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.54)
2006 Jul 28, In Seattle, Wash.,
gunman Naveed Afzal Haq (30) killed Pam Waechter (58) of Seattle and
wounded five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Haq
said he was "angry at Israel." On June 4, 2008, a jury found him not
guilty on one count of attempted murder (for victim Carol Goldman); on
the remaining counts, the jury declared itself to be hung. The judge
declared a mistrial. In 2009 a jury found Haq guilty of 8 counts,
including aggravated first-degree murder. The murder verdict carried an
automatic life sentence.
(AFP, 7/29/06)(AP,
7/30/06)(http://tinyurl.com/6myx9k)(SFC, 12/15/09, p.A9)
2006 Jul 28, In New Orleans 4 men,
3 brothers and a friend, were killed in the Treme neighborhood as they
sat on the porch of an abandoned house. The dead included 16-year-old
twins, their brother (21) and a friend (39). Another shooting the next
day put the year to date homicide number in New Orleans at 77.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A15)
2006 Jul 28, Fourteen Taliban
fighters were killed in a "clearance operation" in southern Helmand
province's Garmser district. In the northeastern province of Kapisa,
police killed four Taliban militants including a "famous commander"
while also losing one of their own men. 2 policemen guarding an
archaeological site in northern Balkh province were killed and another
was wounded when unknown assailants attacked them overnight.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 28, A US airman convicted
of raping three teenage British girls was sentenced to 12 years in
prison. Prosecutors said Staff Sgt. James Gardner took advantage of
vulnerable girls who lived in a children's home near the US base at
Menwith Hill in northern England.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, David Gemmell
(b.1948), British writer of fantasy novels, died. He wrote over 30
novels.
(WSJ, 1/23/08,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell)
2006 Jul 28, In eastern China an
explosion at a chemical plant killed at least 22 people and prompted
the evacuation of 7,000 others. 28 people were missing.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Haiti hundreds of
people fled their homes in a hillside slum of Port-au-Prince to escape
fierce fighting between gangs that has killed at least 30 people in the
past 2 months.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 28, A bomb planted
between a Sunni mosque and a youth center exploded during prayers,
killing four people and wounding another nine. gunmen in Tikrit killed
two civilians who were employed by US troops.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Israeli warplanes and
artillery intensified strikes, hitting Hezbollah positions and crushing
houses and roads in towns in southern Lebanon, killing as many as 12
people. Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket, called the
Khaibar-1, striking near the northern Israeli town of Afula. Beirut
said 600 people have been killed in Lebanon, with confirmed fatalities
at 445, since fighting broke out, most of them Lebanese civilians. 33
Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting and 19 civilians were killed
in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns.
(AP, 7/28/06)(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 28, Hezbollah
politicians, while expressing reservations, joined their critics in the
government in agreeing to a peace package that includes strengthening
an international force in south Lebanon and disarming the guerrillas.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, The UN decided to
remove 50 unarmed observers (UNTSO and UNIFIL) from posts along
the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly armed UN
peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Israeli troops
withdrew from northern Gaza after a bloody two-day sweep that killed 29
Palestinians.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, The Laos government
and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said an outbreak of the
H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 2,000 chicken on a poultry
farm. The Xaythani district farm found 155 dead chickens on July 14,
and about 2,000 dead birds the following day.
(AFP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Nepal Communist
rebels and the government have extended a cease-fire for another three
months to allow talks aimed at ending a decade-long conflict to
continue.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Dutch retail giant
Ahold has announced that its 1.1 billion-dollar (941,000-euro)
settlement with US and Dutch investors over the company's accounting
scandal that broke in 2003 and sent share prices plummeting, is now
final.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Quetta, Pakistan,
a bomb believed rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a bank and
wounded 21 people, one critically.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Alan Garcia returned
to the presidency of Peru, pledging to battle poverty 16 years after
ending his first term.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Poland's conservative
President Lech Kaczynski vowed to campaign for a return of the death
penalty in the European Union.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Russia Pres. Putin
signed a law making slander of a public official a crime.
(WSJ, 7/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 28, Hundreds of people
rioted near the headquarters of Somalia's virtually powerless
government after a Cabinet minister was fatally shot outside a mosque.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, South Korea sent a
satellite into orbit primarily for making geographical surveys but also
possibly for tracking military movements in North Korea, which raised
regional security concerns by launching missiles on July 5.
(Reuters, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 28, The Spanish
government approved a divisive bill allowing reparations for victims of
the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco
Franco.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 28, Sudanese government
forces and allied militias attacked bases of a new rebel alliance in
Darfur despite a ceasefire in the violent west.
(Reuters, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 28, Taiwanese prosecutors
indicted a man for murder, alleging he helped his brother stage a train
derailment that ultimately led to the death of his brother's wife, and
said they will seek the death penalty. The wife of Lee Suan-chuan, a
train-ticket seller, was injured when the train she was traveling on
derailed and tumbled into a deep valley on March 27 in southern
Taiwan's Pingtung region.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, The five permanent
members of the UN Security Council reached a deal on a resolution that
would give Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment
or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Danilo Astori,
Uruguay’s Finance Minister, said Uruguay will make an early debt
payment of $900 million to the IMF due in 2007. The move will save
about $40 million in interest payments. This would cancel about half
its entire debt to the IMF.
(WSJ, 7/31/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 29, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice flew back to the Middle East for diplomatic
discussions aimed at ending the violence there.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Actor-director Mel
Gibson issued a lengthy statement apologizing for his drunken-driving
arrest and for what he called his "despicable" statements toward the
deputies who arrested him in Malibu, Calif.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2006 Jul 29, Nebraska
climatologist Mark Svoboda said more than 60% of the US has abnormally
dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and
across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Brazil about
$200,000 was found in a house in Natal, about 1,400 miles northeast of
Sao Paulo. Police were convinced the money was part of the $70 million
stolen from the Central Bank in Fortaleza in Aug 2005. By this time
only $8 million was recovered.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Jul 29, The Middle East
crisis dominated the first full day of PM Tony Blair's tour of
California, forcing his promotion of British business interests here to
take a back seat. Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
condemned Israeli action against Lebanon as "disproportionate" in the
first such comment by a senior British government minister. PM Blair
said an international agreement, leading to a cease-fire in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is possible sometime in the next few days.
(AFP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Daniel Lev (72), a
leading Indonesia scholar and longtime University of Washington
professor, died following a battle with lung cancer.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Jul 29, US-led coalition
forces detained 4 suspected al-Qaida operatives in eastern Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and Afghan police
killed 20 suspected Taliban who had attempted an ambush in Uruzgan
province. In Kandahar province 3 militants blew themselves up as they
laid an explosive on a road.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Bangladesh more
than 20,000 activists marched in Dhaka, defying driving rains, in the
fifth day of protests to press for electoral reforms ahead of January
polls.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Workers at Wal-Mart
stores in China formed their 1st trade union.
(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A3)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.43)
2006 Jul 29, Iran state radio said
the government would reject a proposed UN resolution to suspend uranium
enrichment by Aug. 31 or face the threat of international sanctions.
State media also reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to
replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as
"pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves."
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Tehran the
presidents of Iran and Venezuela pledged to support one another in
disputes with Washington, with the Iranian calling Hugo Chavez "a
brother and trench mate."
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, A car packed with
explosives blew up in a residential district of Kirkuk, killing four
people and injuring 13. A Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al-Qaida
in Iraq was killed while driving in Samarra. 4 unidentified bodies
riddled with bullets were found, two behind a school in western Baghdad
and two by the Tigris river. Gunmen fired on a taxi in Baghdad carrying
a father and son, killing the boy. The US command announced that it was
sending 3,700 troops to Baghdad to try to quell the sectarian violence
sweeping the capital, and a US official said more American soldiers
would follow as the military gears up to take the streets from gunmen.
The tours of 4,000 US soldiers in Iraq were extended for up to 4
months. 4 US Marines were killed in combat in Anbar province.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A3)(SFC,
7/31/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 29, Israel said it had
pulled forces out of Hezbollah's stronghold in south Lebanon after
completing its current operation there. Israeli planes targeted bridges
in southern and eastern Lebanon in new airstrikes, destroying one in a
resort area on the Syrian border. Israel rejected a request by the UN
for a three-day cease-fire in Lebanon to deliver humanitarian supplies
and allow civilians to leave the war zone.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Israeli tanks pushed
back into the Gaza Strip before dawn, a day after ending a bloody,
3-day sweep that killed 30 Palestinians. Israeli troops killed 2
militants including Hani Awijan (29), a leader of the radical Islamic
Jihad’s militant wing in Nablus, in a West Bank raid.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, A strike protesting
against a visit by India's president to Indian Kashmir shut much of the
region for a second day, while four soldiers were reportedly hurt in a
rebel attack.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Somalia's PM Mohammed
Ali Gedi accused Egypt, Libya and Iran of providing weapons for Islamic
militants who have seized control of much of this country's south.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Sri Lanka's air force
bombed Tamil Tiger rebel positions for a fourth day, killing at least 8
rebels and wounding 14.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Marathon talks to end
Ukraine's political paralysis broke off without an agreement between
President Viktor Yushchenko and the pro-Russian parliamentary majority
that has nominated his former Orange Revolution rival as prime minister.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, An oil spill occurred
in Russia’s western Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine and
Belarus. It affected a 4-square-mile area and contaminated water
sources. 2 days later Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said
that the oil pipeline leak threatened environmental damage, but the
pipeline’s operator said the spill only affected a 4,000-square-foot
area and that the consequences had been dealt with over the weekend.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 30, Afghan and coalition
forces killed 23 Taliban militants in clashes in Helmand province's
Garmser district.
(AFP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 30, In Bahrain 16 Indian
workers died when a fire broke out in the building where they lived in
the capital Manama. The six-storey building housed some 300 workers,
mostly Indians, working for a contracting company.
(AFP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, It was reported that
China had lowered the estimated number of HIV/AIDS infected people from
840,000 to 650,000.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A17)
2006 Jul 30, Congolese voted in
their first democratic election in more than four decades. Incumbent
President Joseph Kabila later won a runoff.
(AP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 30, Afghan soldiers and
police killed six Taliban fighters and captured eight during a clash in
southeastern Paktika province's Waza Khwa district. A suspected Taliban
died when a land mine he was planting north of Kandahar city exploded.
(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, In India at least 8
people died during heavy monsoon rains at the weekend and more than
25,000 were evacuated in the western state of Gujarat.
(AFP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, In Iraq gunmen killed
at least 23 pilgrims on their way to Najaf. A car bomb in Kirkuk killed
6 people and wounded 17.
(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 30, Israeli missiles hit
several buildings in Qana, a southern Lebanon village, as people slept,
killing 29, mostly children, in the deadliest attack in 19 days of
fighting. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert expressed "great sorrow" for the
airstrikes but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for using the area to launch
rockets at Israel. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called an emergency
meeting of the Security Council. Israel suspended air attacks on south
Lebanon for 48 hours in the face of widespread outrage over the
airstrike.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 30, In Indian Kashmir 6
people were killed in shootings and 10 wounded in a grenade attack on a
bus carrying Hindu pilgrims.
(AFP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 30, Residents on the tiny
island nation of Sao Tome and Principe off West Africa voted for a new
president.
(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, The first commercial
flight in a decade departed Mogadishu’s newly reopened international
airport, demonstrating how Islamic militants have pacified the
once-anarchic capital and much of southern Somalia.
(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, The Seychelles held
presidential elections. External debt was reported to be $590 million
for the population of 82,000 people.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.40)
2006 Jul 30, Sunbathers on a beach
in Spain's Canary Islands came to the aid of 88 African migrants whose
boat ran aground, giving them food, water and blankets after their
dangerous trip in search of a new life.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 30, Duygu Asena (60), a
best-selling writer and crusader for women's rights in Turkey, died
after a two-year battle with a brain tumor. In 1978 she founded the
first women's magazine in Turkey. Asena was the first Turkish writer to
explore such topics as women's rights, sexuality and wife-beating. Her
1987 book “Woman Has No Name" broke sales records when it was printed,
but was soon banned by the government which found it to be too lewd and
obscene. The ban was lifted after a two-year court battle. A film
adaptation of the book broke box office records in Turkey.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 30, In eastern Uganda a
minibus that was speeding collided with a fuel truck killing 30 people.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In California PM
Blair and Gov. Schwarzenegger committed to a number of actions to fight
global warming including a look for market-based ways to stem emissions
of the gases believed to cause global warming.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 31, In Los Angeles 2
women, Olga Rutterschmidt (73) and Helen Golay (75), were charged with
killing homeless men in hit-and-run car crashes in order to collect
over $2 million in life insurance. In 2008 both women were convicted of
murder and conspiracy. They were sentenced to spend the rest of their
lives in prison.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B6)(SFC,
7/16/08, p.B5)
2006 Jul 31, SanDisk Corp. of
Milpitas, Ca., agreed to buy M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. of
Israel for $1.56 billion in stock.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 31, Scientists reported
the development of a vaccine to control obesity in rats. The vaccine
produced antibodies against ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger
and fat storage.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 31, NATO took command of
southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the new commander of
the push to pacify the insurgency-wracked region vowed that he would
not fail millions of Afghans seeking peace and stability. A bomb
exploded outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan during a memorial
service for a mujahedeen commander, killing at least eight people and
wounding 16.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Australian PM John
Howard said he would seek a fifth straight term, ending his ambitious
deputy's leadership hopes and cementing his place as one of the world's
most successful conservative leaders.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, A lesbian couple lost
a legal battle to have their Canadian marriage legally recognized in
Britain.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency said two separate anthrax outbreaks in the Canadian
Prairies have killed about 500 animals on an estimated 100 farms.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Colombia suspected
rebels ambushed an army patrol, exploded a car bomb in Bogota and
another bomb in the southwest, killing at least 18 people in a wave of
attacks a week before the presidential inauguration.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Dozens of polling
stations reopened in Congo’s second-largest city, offering citizens
stymied by violence during their nation’s historic elections another
chance to vote.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Cuban President Fidel
Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, after
gastrointestinal surgery.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2006 Jul 31, France's agriculture
minister condemned the destruction of two fields of genetically
modified corn by activists in southwestern France.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Akbar Mohammadi (34)
died in Tehran’s Evin Prison after a nine-day hunger strike to protest
a lack of medical care. Mohammadi had been arrested for taking part in
protests at Tehran University in July 1999, Iran's biggest
anti-government demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The
EU later expressed grave concern regarding the harsh treatment of
dissidents, opposition leaders, student activists and all human rights
defenders in Iranian prisons.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military fatigues kidnapped 26 employees and customers from a
mobile phone store in the main shopping area of Baghdad. Sectarian
killings claimed 30 lives.
(AP, 8/1/06)(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, hours after agreeing to
temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed nearly
60 Lebanese civilians. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese soldier
when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior Hezbollah
official.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Indian Kashmir
four rebels and a policeman were killed in three separate gunbattles in
southern Poonch and Pulwama districts.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Every Kuwaiti citizen
will get a $694 gift from the government after parliament unanimously
backed the one-time payout. 2 million foreign workers, who make up the
rest of Kuwait's population of 3 million, do not get the payment.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Malawi's top
prosecutor said theft and corruption charges against the former
president Bakili Muluzi have been dropped after Pres. Bingu wa
Mutharika suspended the chief investigator in the case.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico supporters
of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed the Mexico
City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until the top
electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the disputed
race.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police found
the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been killed by a blow to the
head and thrown out of a moving car, was the 14th woman found dead in
Juarez so far this year.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Peru’s President Alan
Garcia cut government salaries, including his own, three days after
announcing a long list of austerity measures in his inaugural address.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Russian officials
said more than 220 pieces, including jewelry and enameled objects worth
about $5 million, stolen from the State Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg, were not insured. The theft was discovered after a routine
inventory check that began in October 2005 and was completed at the end
of July.
(AP, 8/1/06)(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 31, Serbia’s PM Vojislav
Kostunica said in published remarks that Serbia will reject
independence as a solution for Kosovo and continue to consider the
province part of its territory.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In South Korea Jeong
Kyung-hak (48) was arrested on charges of being a spy for North Korea
and having illegally arrived on Jul 27 with forged Philippines identity
documents.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Jul 31, In northeastern Sri
Lanka heavy fighting over control of a water supply killed 35 Tamil
rebels and seven soldiers. A rebel leader declared the island nation's
four-year-old cease-fire over.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Turkey named Gen.
Yasar Buyukanit as the new military chief. He favored a tougher line
against Kurdish rebels and negotiations on joining the EU.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The UN passed
Resolution 1696, which demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment by
the end of August.
(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8792.doc.htm)
2006 Jul 31, The UN scrapped a
meeting of nations that might contribute troops to help stabilize south
Lebanon, a decision that reflected the deep divisions among key nations
on how to end the three-week war between Israel and Hezbollah.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez praised Vietnam for its battle against "imperialism" and
pledged to help the communist country develop its nascent oil and gas
industry during a two-day state visit.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Zimbabwe devalued its
currency by 60% and slashed loan rates 550 points to 300%. 3 zeroes
were off denominations amid 1200% inflation.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul, Interpol, at the request
of the Bush administration, assembled central bankers, police agencies
and banknote industry officials to make the US case against
counterfeiting by North Korea. In 2008 a 10-month investigation by the
McClatchy newspapers found that evidence supporting charges was
uncertain at best.
(SFC, 1/10/08, p.A13)
2006 Jul, US Scientists reported
that the number of fires in the western United States had increased
fourfold since 1986 and attributed the increase to climate change.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.37)
2006 Jul, Eclipse Aviation of
Albuquerque, NM, hoped to get approval from the FAA for its new very
light jet (VLJ), which sets 5 passengers and a pilot.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.61)
2006 Jul, A study led by Roland
Griffiths of Johns Hopkins Univ. showed that psilocybin, the active
ingredient in “magic mushroom,” induces mental states akin to the
highest religious experiences, and that it has lasting effects on those
who take it.
(www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/)(Econ, 7/15/06,
p.78)
2006 Jul, Canada’s Montreal
Exchange announced plans to start trading credits for carbon-dioxide
emissions, a scheme modeled on the Amsterdam-based European Climate
Exchange set up in 2005.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.39)
2006 Jul, In Shanghai, China, a
financial scandal was uncovered that involved the misappropriation of
one-third of the city’s $1.2 billion social-security fund. An official
said that $2 billion had been embezzled from the fund since 1998.
Chinese investigators began looking into corruption and malfeasance
associated with Shanghai’s $1.2 billion pension fund. On Sep 24 the
probe brought down the city’s top official, Communist party Secretary
Chen Liangyu, a British educated architect. In 2007 the government made
a propaganda film titled “The Harm of Greed” featuring confessions from
11 people involved in the scandal.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.42)(WSJ, 11/14/06, p.C14)(WSJ,
2/6/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/30/08, p.A9)
2006 Jul, The Dominican Republic
government imposed a new law to combat crime, all bars, liquor stores
and nightclubs must close at midnight on weekdays and at 2 am on
weekends.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Jul, Some 162,000 Iraqis had
registered as refugees with 30,000 in this month alone. About 3,500
violent deaths were reported across Iraq including 1,500 in the Baghdad
area for just this month. Figures showed a steady increase in killings
since the beginning of the year.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.45)(AP, 8/9/06)(WSJ, 8/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul, In Japan fans of
pachinko slot machines queued up to play the latest Hokuto-no-ken
(North-star Fist) game. It was estimated that Japanese spent $260
billion playing pachinko and pachislot slot machines. Parlors gave
non-cash prizes, but shops nearby allowed winners to trade their prizes
for cash.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.60)
2006 Jul, Mauritania netted $700
million from the EU for fishing rights over 6 years. The amount of fish
in West African waters has declined by 50% over the past 3 decades.
(WSJ, 1/18/07, p.A13)
2006 Jul, In Myanmar the daughter
of junta supremo Than Shwe (73) was married. In November a leaked video
of the lavish wedding sparked outrage among ordinary people in the
military-ruled and deeply impoverished nation.
(Reuters, 11/2/06)
2006 Jul, In Pakistan some 7% of
Sindh province landowners hold over 40% of the Sindh’s land.
(Econ, 7/8/06, Survey p.12)
2006 Jul, Spain’s inflation stood
close to 4%, almost 1.5 points above the average for the euro area.
Spain’s current account deficit was among the highest in the world
heading for over 9% of GDP. Housing was estimated to be overvalued by
as much as 25-30%.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.49)
2006 Jul, In Sudan 8 Sudanese aid
workers were killed this month in attacks across Darfur.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul, Istanbul’s seventh high
court reopened prosecution against Elif Shafak (b.1971), Turkish
writer, for “denigrating Turkishness” in her latest novel “The Bastard
of Istanbul.” Her trial was set for Sep 21, 4 days she was due to give
birth.
(http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1815420,00.html)
2006 Aug 1, Former President
Clinton and mayors of some of the world's largest cities announced an
initiative to combat climate change and increase energy efficiency in
everything from street lights to building materials.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, A US report said graft
in Iraq reconstruction is running at $4 billion a year and growing.
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 1, US sanctions on
Myanmar were extended for up to three years under a law signed by
President Bush, an attempt to increase pressure on the government to
follow through with democratic reforms.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Mel Gibson issued a
statement in which he denied being a bigot; he also apologized to
"everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words"
he'd used when he was arrested in southern California for investigation
of drunken driving.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2006 Aug 1, Kansas voters in the
state’s primary ousted the conservative majority on the Board of
Education that favored “intelligent design” over Darwin’s theory of
evolution.
(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 1, Philip H. Knight,
founder of Nike Inc., pledged $105 million to the Stanford Graduate
School of Business. Most of it will be used for a new $275 million
facility to be called the Knight Management Center.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Aug 1, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants killed three British soldiers. 18 Taliban
militants and one policeman were killed as Afghan forces and coalition
aircraft raided an insurgent hide-out near Garmser.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 1, Cabinda, a 7,000 sq-km
province of Angola located on the western coast just north of the
CongoDRC, signed the “Memorandum of Understanding for Peace in Cabinda”
with the government of Angola, granting it “a special statute” and
greater autonomy. In 2007 the province pumped over half of Angola’s 1.7
million barrels per day oil production.
(Econ, 1/5/08, Angola p.8)
2006 Aug 1, Britain launched the
country's first public terror alert system and said it faces a severe
risk of another terrorist attack.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Chinese official media
reported that Mouding county in Yunnan killed as many as 50,000 dogs in
a 5-day government campaign ordered after three people died from
rabies. China’s government said police have seized about 6,000 illegal
firearms and tons of explosives in a two-month crackdown across three
provinces.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, A Congolese opposition
party and former rebel group denounced widespread fraud in the
country's historic elections in a protest that heralded a divisive
political dispute over the polls.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Fidel Castro remained
out of sight after undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily
turning over power to his brother Raul. He released a statement in
which he sought to reassure Cubans that his health was stable after
intestinal surgery.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/1/07)
2006 Aug 1, In northern India a
school bus carrying about 50 children plunged into a canal, killing at
least six children.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the UN Security Council resolution giving
Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment. Ahmadinejad added
that Tehran will pursue its nuclear program.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Bombings and shootings
across Iraq killed over 70 people, including 24 people in a bus
destroyed by a roadside bomb in Beiji. In the Karradah neighborhood of
Baghdad, a car bomb exploded during morning rush hour near a bank,
killing at least 14 people and injuring 37. A US report said graft in
Iraq reconstruction is running at $4 billion a year and growing.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/2/06)(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 1, Israel's air force
fired missiles into northern Gaza, killing a 14-year-old boy and
wounding four others near Beit Hanoun.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, In Indian Kashmir 4
security personnel were killed in a shooting at a popular tourist spot.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Heavy fighting raged
in the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, and Hezbollah
television said 35 Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded in the
fighting. Israeli warplanes pounded Shiite Lebanese villages in many
areas along the border and struck Hezbollah strongholds deep inside the
country.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, The Papua New Guinea
government declared a state of emergency in the resource-rich Southern
Highlands province. PM Somare said security forces had been sent to the
graft-ridden province and government controllers appointed to try to
restore good governance.
(AFP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, A Moscow judge
declared the Yukos oil company bankrupt, paving the way for the
liquidation of what was once Russia's biggest oil producer.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Dutch Cardinal
Johannes Willebrands (96), a key figure in the Roman Catholic Church's
efforts to improve relations with other Christians and Jews, died.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 1, Officials said
incumbent Seychelles President James Michel of the People's Progressive
Front won nearly 54% of the vote over the weekend, while opposition
leader Wavel Ramkalawan got 46%.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, A pro-rebel Web site
reported said Tamil Tiger rebels destroyed a Sri Lanka navy boat in a
battle near an eastern port killing 8 sailors. Navy spokesman Commander
D.K.P Dassanayake denied the report and said sailors destroyed three
rebel attack boats.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Assailants carried out
at least 40 bomb and arson attacks in Thailand's three Muslim-dominated
southernmost provinces. At least three people were reported hurt.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, A Pentagon official
said evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports
accusations that US Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including
unarmed women and children on Nov 19, 2005.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, Five days after being
pulled over by police, actor-director Mel Gibson was charged with
misdemeanor drunken driving, having an elevated blood-alcohol level and
having an open container of liquor in his car. Gibson later pleaded no
contest to drunken driving under a deal in which he received three
years' probation, paid a fine and agreed to attend alcohol
rehabilitation classes.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2006 Aug 2, Florida and CSX
Transportation struck a deal on a nearly $1 billion commuter rail
system in central Florida to relieve gridlock in and around Orlando.
(Reuters, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, AOL shifted to an
advertising strategy as customers cancelled their dial-up service and
jumped to high-speed Internet connections.
(SFC, 8/3/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 2, Australia's central
bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a six-year high of
6.0% in an effort to head off inflationary pressures in a booming
economy.
(AFP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, The Australian
government said it had started reducing troop numbers in East Timor as
security in the tiny nation was steadily improving.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 2, In southern Colombia a
land mine planted by leftist rebels killed six coca eradicators and
injured seven others.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, A Paris commercial
court granted Eurotunnel protection from creditors, enabling the
operator of the Channel Tunnel to freeze payments on its debt mountain
of 9.0 billion euros (11.5 billion dollars).
(AFP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, India banned children
under the age of 14 from working as domestic servants or at hotels, tea
shops, restaurants and resorts. The labor ministry said the ban would
come into effect from October 10.
(Reuters, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, President Jalal
Talabani said that Iraqi forces will assume security duties for the
whole country by the end of the year, taking over responsibility from
US and other foreign troops now policing all but one of the 18
provinces. Sectarian and political violence claimed at least 53 lives,
including 11 young soccer players and spectators who died when two
bombs exploded in a field in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. 2 US
Marines died in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/2/06)(AP, 8/3/06)(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Aug 2, Israel pressed the
first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 8,000 troops
into southern Lebanon and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah
fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town. Hezbollah
retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel, firing a record
number of more than 230 rockets. An Israeli-American was killed as he
fled for home by bicycle, and a stray rocket hit the West Bank for the
first time. People in the Lebanese village of Al Jamaliyeh, outside the
Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, used a front-end loader to carry away
some of the dead after a night of Israeli airstrikes and a commando
raid inside Baalbek that residents said killed at least 15 civilians.
(AP, 8/2/06)(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 2, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
about 500 women banging spoons against pots and pans seized a state-run
television station and broadcast a homemade video that showed police
kicking protesters out of Oaxaca's main square last month. In southern
Monte Orden village heavy rains caused a mountainside to give way,
burying 2 homes and killing 11 people, 4 of them children.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, Production at
Cantarell, Mexico’s biggest oil field, was reported to be declining.
The site accounted for about 60% of Mexico’s oil. A third of Mexico’s
federal budget depended on oil sales.
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 2, Somali leaders
struggled to regroup after a week in which 29 ministers quit the
government, with the defectors urging the virtually powerless
administration to reconcile with Islamic militants who have seized the
capital.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, South Africans faced
one of their harshest winters in years, with at least four deaths
blamed on flooding from heavy rain that has caused travel delays in the
south and west of the country.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, Tamil rebels said they
had overrun four Sri Lankan army camps around the northeastern port of
Trincomalee. The Defense Ministry acknowledged that five soldiers were
killed in the attacks and claimed its forces killed 40 insurgents and
wounded 70 others.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, In southern Thailand a
bomb planted along a railroad exploded and killed three policemen.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 3, US authorities
confirmed at least 25 deaths in 9 states from the heat wave that set in
on July 30.
(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 3, In Phoenix, Ariz.,
Dale S. Hausner (33) and Samuel John Dieteman (30), accused of shooting
two dozen people, including six fatally, were arrested after police
tailed them for a week. In 2009 Hausner was convicted of 6 murders. In
2009 Dieteman was sentenced to life in prison for random shootings in
the Phoenix area in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 3/28/09, p.A2)(SFC, 7/30/09, p.A4)
2006 Aug 3, Arthur Lee (61), rock
pioneer, died in Memphis. He fronted the band Love and established
himself as the 1st black rock star in the post Beatle’s era. The
group’s debut album, “Love,” was the 1st rock record released by
Electra Records.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.B6)
2006 Aug 3, Afghanistan's
government ordered around 1,500 South Korean Christians who came to the
Islamic republic for a "peace festival" to leave the country. The
US-led coalition killed 25 Taliban fighters in a joint operation with
Afghan forces in the country's south. A gunbattle near the capital
killed one militant. A suspected Taliban suicide car bomber killed 21
civilians and wounded 13 at a bazaar in Panjwayi. On the outskirts of
Kandahar city militant attacks killed 4 Canadian soldiers and wounded
another 10.
(AFP, 8/3/06)(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 3, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
(90), German-born opera soprano, died in Schrums, Austria.
(SFC, 8/4/06, p.B9)(Econ, 8/12/06, p.72)
2006 Aug 3, In Brazil officials
said authorities are evicting thousands of peasants who have been
ordered off ranches in northern Brazil by a court ruling obtained by
the land owners.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, More than 230,000
customers in Ontario and Quebec were without power following a series
of violent thunderstorms over the past couple of days.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, Typhoon Prapiroon
slammed into southern China, packing heavy rain and 75 mph winds as
authorities evacuated tens of thousands of people from their homes.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, State press reported
that China is building a 27-billion-dollar train line from Beijing to
the southern economic hub of Shenzhen and foreign investors will be
invited to join the project. The new 2,300-kilometer (1,420-mile)
railway will cut travel time between Beijing and Shenzhen, which
borders Hong Kong, from 24 hours to 10.
(AFP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, In eastern Congo a
small passenger plane crashed into a mountain and then tumbled into a
valley, killing all 17 passengers and crew.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 3, A pair of European
central banks raised interest rates, increasing expectations on Wall
Street that the Federal Reserve would follow suit next week. The
European Central Bank hiked rates .25% to 3%, with a similar hike by
the Bank of England to 4.75%.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, A French law that
allows regulators to force Apple Computer Inc. to make its iPod player
and iTunes online store compatible with rival offerings went into
effect.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, French health
officials said the sweltering temperatures that gripped Europe last
month killed 112 people.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, making his first trip to Haiti, called for strengthening
the national police force to stem an upsurge in kidnapping and
lawlessness.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, In India federal MPs
demanded a nationwide ban on Pepsi and Coke after the privately-funded
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said 11 drinks sold by the two
US companies contained unacceptable doses of pesticides.
(AFP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 3, Siti Fadilah Supari,
Indonesia’s health minister, declared that genomic data on bird flu
viruses could be accessed by anyone.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.65)
2006 Aug 3, In Iraq an improvised
explosive device in a pile of garbage exploded in the center of
Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and injuring 32. Gunmen shot to
death four people in separate incidents in Baghdad, Amarah, Mosul and
Basra. The bodies of 9 men were found floating in separate places in
the Tigris River. At least two of the bodies were blindfolded, bound
and shot. Coalition forces killed at least three "terrorists" during an
air strike and multiple raids southeast of Baghdad. A suicide bomber
drove into a soccer field in the town of Hatra near Mosul, setting off
a blast that killed 7 spectators and 3 policemen. Gunmen shot and
killed 4 people and wounded 8 from a Shiite family in Dujail. 2 US
Marine were killed in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Aug 3, A massive wave of
guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes,
killing 8 people. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, offered
to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. Israel lost four
soldiers in fighting. Israeli military said four Hezbollah fighters
were killed and two wounded. Lebanese security officials said a missile
crashed into a two-story house in the border village of Taibeh, killing
a couple and their daughter. Lebanese PM Fuad Saniora said Lebanon's
death toll in more than three weeks of Israel-Hezbollah fighting has
reached more than 900. France circulated a revised UN resolution
calling for an immediate halt to Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and
spelling out conditions for a permanent cease-fire in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, Israeli troops raided
southern Gaza, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four
militants and an 8-year-old boy.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, Japanese Foreign
Minister Taro Aso arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit, bringing with
him a loan of 3.3 billion yen ($29 million) to jump-start Iraq's
economic development.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, In Malaysia the
Islamic world's largest organization of countries demanded on that the
UN implement an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and investigate what it
called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, Pakistani Interior
Minister Aftab Sherpao and US envoy Ryan Crocker signed a memorandum of
understanding for $2.7 million in security and communications gear and
to help build more posts on the Afghan frontier.
(AFP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, Fresh fighting broke
out between Philippine forces and Al-Qaeda-linked militants after four
people were killed in a major operation to capture two suspected Bali
bombers.
(AFP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, In Sri Lanka artillery
fire hit 4 schools being used as shelters from fighting raging between
government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, killing at least 17 people in
the northeastern town of Muttur.
(AP, 8/3/06)(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A10)
2006 Aug 3, Ukrainian Pres. Viktor
Yushchenko nominated former foe Viktor Yanukovych for prime minister
after Yanukovych signed a memorandum on national unity.
(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 4, The US placed
sanctions on 7 firms from North Korea, Russia, India and Cuba for arms
dealings with Iran.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 4, In Philadelphia
Danieal Kelly (14), a disabled girl, was found dead in her mother's
squalid house covered with bone-deep, maggot-infested bedsores. She
weighed 42 pounds. In 2008 4 social workers were among nine people
charged in relation to her death. In 2008 Andrea Kelly, the mother, was
charged with murder and Daniel, the father, was charged with child
endangerment. Both parents retained lawyers who filed suits against
their criminal co-defendants, blaming them for the girl's demise. In
2009 mother Andrea Kelly pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20-40
years in prison.
(AP,
8/1/08)(www.philly.com/philly/news/26859869.html)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A4)
2006 Aug 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 police officers were killed and eight others wounded in a
roadside bomb aimed at a district governor. UNICEF said schools are
increasingly being attacked across Afghanistan and an estimated 100,000
children in the south are shut out of the classroom due to closures.
(AFP, 8/5/06)(Reuters, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Argentina Julio
Simon, a former police officer, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for
human rights abuses in connection with the 1978 disappearance of
Chilean Jose Poblete and his Argentine wife, Gertrudis Hlaczik, during
the military dictatorship.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 4, Bangladesh announced a
fresh round of polio vaccination drives amid growing signs that the
lethal disease has staged a comeback in the impoverished South Asian
country.
(AFP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Colombia leftist
rebels were blamed for two attacks, a car bomb that killed four
officers outside a Cali police station and an attack that killed two
soldiers in a western province.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In India floods caused
by heavy monsoon rains swept away people and destroyed homes in the
southern coastal area of Andhra Pradesh, killing at least 31 people
over the last 2 days.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, Hundreds of thousands
of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched
through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district in a massive
show of support for Hezbollah in its battle against Israel. At least 35
people were killed elsewhere in Iraq, many of them in a car bombing and
gunbattle in the northern city of Mosul. Some 3,700 soldiers of the
Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade moved into Baghdad from the northern city
of Mosul. In Mosul 20 militants were believed to have been killed
during prolonged street gunfights with security forces in the city's
eastern neighborhoods. Gunmen killed a bodyguard of a senior Justice
Ministry official in western Baghdad, and a police commando was killed
by a roadside bomb in the central city of Samarra.
(AP, 8/4/06)(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 4, Israel expanded its
assault on Lebanon, launching its first major attack on the Christian
heartland north of Beirut and severing the last significant road link
to Syria. Hezbollah renewed attacks on northern Israel, killing two
civilians in a barrage of 120 rockets. An Israeli airstrike hit dozens
of farm workers loading vegetables near the Lebanon-Syria border,
killing as many as 33. Five Lebanese civilians were killed and 19
wounded in the Israeli airstrikes north of Beirut in Christian areas
where Hezbollah has little support. Hezbollah's leader offered to stop
attacking if Israel ends its airstrikes. Israeli airstrikes flattened
two southern Lebanese houses and more than 50 people were buried in the
rubble, security officials and the state news agency said. Israel
denied attacking the villages.
(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/5/06, p.A11)
2006 Aug 4, Israel began pulling
tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion. Israeli troops
conducted house-to-house searches in the southern Gaza Strip and killed
three Palestinians with tanks and air strikes.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Mexico's
southernmost Chiapas state a 7-year-old boy and his father died,
bringing to 10 the number of people killed after eating poisonous
mushrooms. Officials said recent genetic mutations have made some
mushrooms, consumed for years in Indian communities, newly poisonous.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In southern Nigeria 3
Filipinos working for a US construction firm were kidnapped, a day
after a German was abducted in the same region.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In northern Pakistan
monsoon rains triggered fresh landslides and floods, as officials and
reports said 37 people had died over the last 4 days in weather-related
incidents.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, Sri Lankan troops
thwarted a Tamil Tiger rebel attack in northeastern Muttur, killing 35
insurgents. The Red Cross said 6,000 to 7,000 families were still
trying to flee Muttur. In 2008 a local rights group accused Colombo of
a major cover-up of the August 2006 killing of Action Against Hunger
(ACF) workers and for the first time named a list of suspects.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/7/06)(AFP, 4/3/08)
2006 Aug 4, In Turkey 2 explosives
detonated within minutes of each other in a southern city of Adana,
seriously wounding one person and injuring 16 others.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Uganda Vincent
Otti, deputy leader of The Lord's Resistance Army, said his group has
declared a unilateral cease-fire, but government negotiators said they
have not yet agreed to peace.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, The Ukraine Parliament
named Viktor Yanukovych prime minister. His fraud-tainted 2004
presidential victory was turned back by the Orange Revolution.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, The late Reggie White
was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with Troy Aikman,
Warren Moon, John Madden, Rayfield Wright and Harry Carson.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2006 Aug 5, In Oakland, Ca., CHP
Officer Brent Clearman (33) was critically wounded at the 66th Ave.
on-ramp in a hit-and-run incident. Clearman died the next day of his
severe injuries. Russell Rodrigues (47) surrendered on August 7, 2006,
and pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run charges on September 26, 2006.
He faced up to 4 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/27/06, p.B7)(www.porac.org/lineofduty6.html)
2006 Aug 5, Susan Butcher (51),
four-time Iditarod champion, died in Seattle, Wa. In 1986 she became
the Alaska race's second female winner and brought increased national
attention to its grueling competition.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 5, Afghan and NATO forces
aided by air strikes killed 17 Taliban in southern Afghanistan. A NATO
soldier was killed and three were injured when their armored jeep
crashed in Kandahar province. Taliban attacked a police patrol in
southern Ghazni province overnight which left an intelligence official
and a rebel killed and two police wounded.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AFP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 5, The US and France
reached agreement on a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending
the fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Thousands marched
through London to demand a halt to the Lebanon war as the British
government tried to deflect criticism that it has failed to call for an
immediate ceasefire.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Marie Stopes
International hosted Europe's first "Masturbate-a-thon" with the
HIV/AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. It expected up to 200
people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell,
central London.
(Reuters, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Floyd Landis was fired
by his team and the Tour de France no longer considered him its
champion after his second doping sample tested positive for
higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone. Landis maintained his
innocence.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2006 Aug 5, In Iraq 2 members of
Saddam's former regime were shot dead in separate incidents. A US
soldier died in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israeli naval
commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre,
while a guerrilla rocket killed a soldier in clashes on the border and
Israeli raids left at least eight people dead in multiple strikes
across the country. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief Council
said 907 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict. 75 Israelis have
been killed, 45 soldiers and 30 civilians.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israel pressed ahead
with its incursion into the southern Gaza Strip as airstrikes killed 5
Palestinians, including a mother and her 2 children. Tanks rolled to
the edge of Rafah.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Mexico's top electoral
court rejected a full recount in the disputed presidential election,
ordering a 9% partial count instead, angering leftist protesters camped
in the capital demanding a new vote-by-vote tally over their fraud
allegations.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 5, A minister said Nepal
plans to seize lands owned by King Gyanendra and other royal family
members and distribute them to the poor as it moves toward treating the
monarch like a "normal citizen."
(AFP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, In northwestern
Pakistan a bridge collapsed amid heavy rains, killing at least 23
people.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Interfax news said
Russian police have detained the husband of a museum curator and a 2nd
person suspected of stealing hundreds of artworks from St. Petersburg’s
Hermitage Museum.
(Reuters, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Russia's
state-controlled arms trader and top aircraft maker criticized
Washington for imposing sanctions on them over dealings with Iran. The
defense ministry said the move reflected US annoyance at arms sales to
Venezuela. A Russian rocket carrying US telecommunications equipment
blasted off, 10 days after another rocket carrying 18 satellites
crashed after launch.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Sri Lankan soldiers
retook control of Muttur after six days of fighting Tamil rebels there,
and the military urged thousands of displaced civilians to return.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 6, Oil giant BP announced
an indefinite shutdown of the biggest oilfield in the US, at Prudhoe
Bay in Alaska, after finding a pipeline leak. BP was able to maintain
partial operations.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2006 Aug 6, Walt Disney World
hiked ticket prices for the second time in 2006, raising the cost of a
basic one-day, one-park admission to $67, according to a pricing chart
posted on the company's media Web site.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, Scientists said a
recurring "dead zone" of low-oxygen water off the Oregon coast is
larger than in previous years and may be triggered by global warming.
They concluded that it is being caused by explosive blooms of tiny
plants known as phytoplankton, which die and sink to the bottom, then
are eaten by bacteria which use up the oxygen in the water.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Afghanistan 4
suspected Taliban killed two police using rocket-propelled grenades and
heavy machine guns at a checkpoint in Murghab district in western
Badghis province. A suspected suicide bomber in a small truck hit a
military convoy outside Kandahar, wounding at least one foreign
soldier. A British soldier was killed in Helmand province.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 6, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales officially opened a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the
nation's constitution.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Burundi gunmen
hurled a grenade at a bar frequented by army officers, killing four
people. Authorities said the attack was an attempt to undermine the
government.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, Cambodian customs over
the weekend seized 12 luxury vehicles stolen in Canada, including a
Hummer and a Cadillac popular with hip-hop music stars, giving an
intriguing insight into the world of international car smuggling.
(Reuters, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, In China an explosion
aboard a bus in Hunan province's Guiyang county killed eight people,
just days after a similar explosion killed 11. Fatal explosions aboard
public buses in recent years have been blamed on both bomb attacks and
accidents with gas canisters and other dangerous cargo.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, A former official of
Egypt's Gama'a Islamiya said that even if some members of the Islamist
group had joined al Qaeda it was unlikely that most would.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, In eastern Ethiopia
over 250 people were killed by flooding in Dire Dawa. As many as 300
remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 6, Hong Kong's
legislature passed a law regulating phone tapping and other
surveillance measures, a move critics fear will curtail civil liberties
in the former British colony now ruled by China.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, In India a boat
capsized in a rain-swollen river near New Delhi, leaving 3 people dead
and 27 others missing as the nationwide death toll from the monsoon
rose to at least 359.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, It was reported that
illegal logging in Indonesia’s Aceh province had risen to record levels
as people reached into virgin forests to rebuild some 130,000 homes
destroyed in December, 2004, tsunami. Deforestation across Indonesia
had already led to a 40% loss in the last 50 years.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.A20)
2006 Aug 6, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator said that Iran will expand uranium enrichment, in defiance
of a UN Security Council resolution giving the Islamic Republic until
Aug. 31 to halt the activity or face the threat of political and
economic sanctions.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Iraq 3 US soldiers
were killed in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad.
(AFP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, Israeli forces
arrested the speaker of the Palestinian parliament at his house in the
West Bank, and pressed their monthlong offensive in Gaza against Hamas.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, Hezbollah guerrillas
unleashed their deadliest barrage of rockets yet into northern Israel,
killing 12 reservists at a staging area. Israeli bombardment killed at
least 25 people in southern Lebanon as fighting only intensified
despite a draft UN cease-fire resolution. Hezbollah rockets crashed
into Haifa, killing at least three people and wounding more than 40.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 6, In Kyrgyzstan Imam
Mokhammadrafik Kamalov (53) was killed in the city of Osh along with
two suspected Islamic radicals during an operation to track down men
suspected of attacking Kyrgyz and Tajik border posts in May, killing
nine people.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Scotland the Fringe
Festival kicked off when an estimated 100,000-strong crowd turned out
on the streets of Edinburgh to watch a parade by 3,000 performers from
the Fringe and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
(AFP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, A government spokesman
said Somalia's top interim leaders have agreed to end a rift
threatening the fragile administration after crisis talks led by Seyoum
Mesfin, Ethiopia's foreign affairs minister.
(Reuters, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, Crews fought more than
20 forest fires in northern Spain and stopped blazes from advancing
into two historic towns. The fires killed three people and destroyed
thousands of acres of woodland. Authorities said most of the blazes
were deliberately set.
(AP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, Sri Lanka rejected
peace broker Norway's deal with Tamil Tiger rebels to lift a water
blockade at the root of the latest bloodshed that has claimed at least
425 lives.
(AFP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, Taiwan condemned China
after oil producer Chad switched diplomatic ties to Beijing from
Taipei, forcing Premier Su Tseng-chang to scrap his plans to visit the
African nation at the last minute.
(Reuters, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Arizona 9 illegal
immigrants died when their SUV, crammed with up to 22 people, flipped
while trying to evade pursuit by the Border Patrol.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, In the SF Bay Area
Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies seized over 20,000 marijuana
plants on Mount Hamilton. Street value at maturity was estimated at $80
million.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.B5)
2006 Aug 7, Sue Bierman (82),
former SF supervisor (1992-2000) died in a car crash in Cole Valley. A
park created in the wake of the demolition ramps leading to and away
from the Embarcadero Freeway (1959-1992) was soon renamed Sue Bierman
Park, after the former supervisor (d. 2006 at 82) who battled city
freeways.
(www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3563)(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A16)
2006 Aug 7, Wal-Mart announced
chainwide pay caps and said they were intended to move people up the
company ladder.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D3)
2006 Aug 7, Utah doctors
successfully separated conjoined twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin. The
4-year-old sisters had been born fused at the midsection with just one
kidney and one set of legs. Reconstruction surgery continued.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, A new finding implied
that the universe is about 15.8 billion years old and about 180 billion
light-years wide based on new evidence, which suggested that the Hubble
constant, a number that measures the expansion rate and age of the
universe, is actually 15% smaller than other studies have found.
(AP, 8/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/jnc7x)
2006 Aug 7, Oil company BP
scrambled to assess pipeline corrosion in Alaska that will shut
shipments from the nation's biggest oil field, removing about 8% of
daily US crude production and driving oil and gasoline prices sharply
higher. BP said it would have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the
Prudhoe Bay field.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/7/07)
2006 Aug 7, John Weinberg (81),
former head of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, died. He and John
Whitehead led the firm from 1976-1985. Weinberg led it by himself until
1990.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.73)
2006 Aug 7, Suspected Taliban
militants hanged a woman (70) and her son (30) from a tree in Helmand
province after accusing them of spying for the government.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 7, Robert McNaught of the
Siding Spring Observatory in Australia made the 1st sighting of a comet
that came to be called Comet McNaught.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.89)
2006 Aug 7, Belgian officials said
thefts of drain covers in Charleroi have soared in recent days as
skyrocketing metal prices have made them lucrative.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Brazil suspected
PCC gang members in the pre-dawn hours attacked 78 symbols of
government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, many in the city
itself. Police killed two suspects after they allegedly opened fire on
a gas station, torched a bus and tried to flee in a car as officers
chased them. This marked the third time in four months that the gang
has unleashed its fury on the streets to oppose the prison transfer of
its leaders.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, China’s state media
said the death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon, named after the Thai
god of rain, rose to 80 with 9 more people missing.
(AFP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, An explosion at a
Chinese perfume factory killed at least seven people and left three
hospitalized.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Colombia’s President
Alvaro Uribe inaugurated an unprecedented second term, promising to
seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while maintaining the
hardline security policies credited with a sharp drop in murder and
kidnappings.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Gunmen in Haiti killed
Guido Vitiello (67), an Italian businessman, and kidnapped his wife,
Gigliola Martino (65), amid a spate of violence in the impoverished
Caribbean nation. Martino was released Aug 10.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 7, Indonesia barred
Islamic militants from traveling to the Mideast to fight Israel after a
Jakarta group said more than 200 had already gone.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, A suicide truck bomber
struck the provincial headquarters of an Iraqi police commando force
north of Baghdad, killing ten policemen. In Baquba six Iraqi soldiers
were killed and another 15 wounded when insurgents attacked their
checkpoint. In all insurgent and militia attacks left at least 30
Iraqis killed or found dead. Two Iraqi journalists were killed in
separate incidents in Baghdad. Mohammed Abbas Hamad (28), a journalist
for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, was shot by
gunmen at he left his home. Police found the bullet-riddled body of
freelance journalist Ismail Amin Ali (30), about a half mile from where
he was abducted two weeks ago.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AFP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)(WSJ, 8/8/06,
p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in an
Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut reached 41.
Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with three Israeli
soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a
Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that
despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed. the Jiyyeh
plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15 a few days
into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of leaking oil had
already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese
coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, Morocco’s state news
agency reported that security services have arrested 44 suspected
terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police arrested
a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and charged him with
war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide that
tore apart his home country.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 7, A pro-North Korean
newspaper in Japan said floods last month in North Korea killed at
least 549 people and left 295 others still missing.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, In northwestern
Pakistan a discarded ordnance shell exploded in a tribal village,
killing three young brothers who were playing with the explosive. A
relief official said flooding and heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan
in recent days have left 144 people dead and 97 others injured.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka 17
civilians working for a French aid agency were found slain execution
style in Muttur after fierce battles between rebels and the government
over water supplies. All but one were Tamils.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 7, The only rebel leader
to have signed onto a peace deal for Darfur was sworn in as a senior
aide to the Sudanese president as international aid groups said the
fighting in the war-torn region has intensified.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Venezuelan authorities
captured Elias Verde, the alleged head of an international drug
trafficking group that was involved in a major cocaine smuggling
operation earlier this year in France.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, The US Federal Reserve
halted interest rate hikes at 5.25%. the DJIA fell 45.79 to 11,173.
Nasdaq fell 11.65 to 2,060. Jeffrey Lacker, head of the Richmond Fed,
voted against the decision halt rate hikes.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.C1)(Econ, 8/12/06, p.59)
2006 Aug 8, Medicare said it plans
to cut doctor payment rates by 5.1% and force hospitals to disclose
financial data.
(WSJ, 8/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 8, Voters in Connecticut
rejected three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman for Ned Lamont, a political
newcomer, in the nation's first major test of the depth of anger over
the Iraq war. Lieberman ended up winning re-election to the Senate by
running as an independent.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/8/07)
2006 Aug 8, Roger Goodell was
chosen as the NFL's next commissioner.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2006 Aug 8, In Indianapolis,
Indiana, a fatal stabbing boosted the homicides to 13 in just one week
in the midst of an upsurge of violence that has police working longer
shifts and saturating high-crime areas.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, In eastern Afghanistan
US military killed 15 insurgents who attacked a US base in Nuristan
province. 12 militants and 8 policemen were killed in fighting in
Kandahar.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 8, Chad and Sudan agreed
to reopen their borders and resume diplomatic relations that they
severed in a dispute four months ago.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 8, In Chile police used
tear gas and water cannons to disperse about 2,000 rock-throwing
students seeking better equipment for 21 schools in the Santiago area.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Gustavo Arcos Bergnes
(79), who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution but was
later imprisoned as a dissident, died in Havana.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, A car bomb killed a
prosecutor in Dagestan, Russia, and two police were shot dead as they
arrived on the scene.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Eritrea announced that
Brigadier General Kemal Gelchu, a dissident Ethiopian general, had
defected to Eritrea, said that he would be joining the OLF to fight for
his Oromo people's rights.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 8, Gunmen with automatic
weapons stormed Kaieteur News, Guyana's largest newspaper, killing at
least six people and wounding three in an attack that may have been
connected to a simultaneous protest at the nation's main prison.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 8, Indian officials said
flooding caused by monsoon rains have killed 69 people in western India
in the past three days, and caused tens of thousands to flee their
homes.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Indonesian health
officials said 2 teenagers have died of bird flu. This would bring
Indonesia's death toll to 44 and make it the world's hardest-hit
country.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, A series of bombings
and shootings killed at least 31 people in Baghdad and other parts of
Iraq as more US troops were seen in the capital as part of Operation
Together Forward, a campaign to reduce Sunni-Shiite violence that
threatened civil war. A US Army helicopter crashed in Iraq's western
Anbar province, leaving two crew members missing and four injured. A
policeman was killed and another wounded when they were trying to
defuse a roadside bomb in Samarra. An explosion at a mosque in Baqouba
left four people dead.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 8, Israeli forces battled
Hezbollah guerrillas across southern Lebanon as diplomats at the United
Nations struggled to keep a peace plan from collapsing over Arab
demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. At least 19 Lebanese
civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel reported five
soldiers killed.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 8, The Philippine
Congress began hearing new impeachment complaints against President
Gloria Arroyo, linking her to corruption and human rights abuses and
alleging she cheated in the 2004 election.
(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Russian officials said
drawings by the late architect Yakov Chernikhov (d.1951), worth
millions of dollars, had disappeared from the Russian State Archive of
Literature and Art. Chernikhov was widely admired for his avant-garde
and constructivist designs. Rosokhrankultura said it became aware of
the Chernikhov thefts after nine missing drawings were sold at auction
by auction house Christie's on June 22.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels released water from a disputed reservoir, ending a 19-day
blockade that sparked some of the worst fighting between government
troops and guerrillas in four years. In Colombo a car bomb killed two
people, including a 3-year-old girl.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Turkey battled the
largest recorded outbreak of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, which has
killed at least 20 people this year, and experts said more cases of the
Ebola-like disease are inevitable in coming months.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Five Yemeni army
officers were killed when their military helicopter crashed during a
heavy rainstorm.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, The White House said
neither Israel nor Hezbollah should escalate their month-old war, as
Israel decided to widen its ground invasion in southern Lebanon.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2006 Aug 9, In Ohio Osama Sabhi
Abulhassan (20) and Ali Houssaiky (20), both of Dearborn, Mich., were
charged with money laundering in support of terrorism after authorities
said they found airplane passenger lists and information on airport
security checkpoints in their car.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, The American Humane
Society said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against
rabies if it promises to immediately stop their mass slaughter in areas
where humans have died from the disease.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Physicist James A. Van
Allen (91), who discovered the radiation belts surrounding the Earth
that now bear his name, died in Iowa City, Iowa.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2006 Aug 9, Hamid Karzai,
Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, strongly hinted
in an interview that he will not run for another term in office. A
roadside bomb killed 2 Afghan soldiers and wounded 3 as they returned
after a mission to help police surrounded by insurgents in Paktika
province. In the eastern province of Nuristan US soldiers and warplanes
drove off an insurgent attack on a new American base, killing 19
militants. Local authorities pleaded for emergency relief for thousands
of villagers made homeless by heavy rain and flooding that has ravaged
provinces in eastern Afghanistan and left at least 35 people dead.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Roland Horngacher,
Vienna's top police commander, was suspended from duty on suspicion of
improperly accepting gifts, including travel vouchers from the former
head of an Austrian bank linked to the collapse of U.S. commodities
broker Refco Inc.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Buenos Aires Raul
Antonio Guglielminetti, a former intelligence agent and two retired
military officers, were arrested in connection with human rights abuses
dating to Argentina's "Dirty War" against political dissent.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Brazil suspected
gang members threw homemade bombs, sent banks on fire, and torched
buses in the region and two other cities overnight in Sao Paulo state.
In Rio de Janeiro gunbattles between gangs vying for control of the
city's lucrative drug trade have resulted in the deaths of 19 people
since Aug 6.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Brazil’s environment
ministry said police had arrested 46 people, including 16 agents of the
federal environmental protection agency, for allegedly operating
illegal logging operations in the Amazon rainforest and in southern
Brazil.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Two teenage Britons
were finally found guilty of killing 10-year-old Nigerian schoolboy
Damilola Taylor following a six-year investigation marred by legal and
forensic blunders. Danny Preddie (18) and Ricky Preddie (19) from
Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of Taylor who
died in November, 2000, after being stabbed in the leg with a broken
bottle.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Masked gunmen killed
five Indians in Colombia even as UN officials marked World Indigenous
Day with a call for illegal combat groups to keep Indians out of the
country's armed conflict. Colombian rebels kidnapped two engineers and
a helicopter pilot who were part of a seismographic oil exploration
crew in Choco state. The National Liberation Army (ELN) was believed to
be responsible.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Ethiopia’s army killed
13 rebels and caught other commanders of the eastern Ogaden National
Liberation Front, a separatist movement, after they crossed from
Somalia.
(Reuters, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 9, Kerala, a southern
Indian state, banned the sale and production of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite and
other soft drinks because of concerns over pesticide contamination.
Four Indian states, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh,
have already imposed a ban on sale of Coke and Pepsi at colleges,
schools and government offices. Several other states have said they are
examining the issue.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, In India authorities
arrested Pritam Singh, a former army soldier and his wife, for
allegedly aborting female fetuses, several of which were found dumped
in a well behind an illegal clinic in Patran town, Punjab.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Swollen rivers swamped
thousands of villages and towns across India's south and west, forcing
4.5 million from their homes as rescuers struggled to bring them food
and drinking water.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Gunmen on two
motorcycles assassinated Col. Qassim Abdel-Qadir, administrative head
of an Iraqi army division in the southern city of Basra. A roadside
bomb exploded near a US patrol in eastern Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood
of Habibiya, killing one bystander and wounding one US soldier. Police
found the bodies of three men who were shot in the head and dumped in
two locations in southwestern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Israel's Security
Cabinet approved a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon that was
expected to take 30 days as part of a new push to badly damage
Hezbollah. Israeli's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian
refugee camp, killing at least one person and wounding three others. An
Israeli airstrike killed a family of 7 in the Bekaa Valley. 15 Israeli
soldiers were killed in a single day of fighting. Israel said it killed
as many as 40 Hezbollah fighters but a Hezbollah spokesman said only 3
had been killed. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned all
Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa so the militant group
could step up attacks without fear of shedding the blood of fellow
Muslims.
(AP, 8/9/06)(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A10)
2006 Aug 9, In Mexico the body of
Enrique Perea Quintanilla (50), publisher of the magazine Dos Caras,
Una Verdad (Two Faces, One Truth) was found on a dirt road about 10
miles from Chihuahua City. Authorities said that organized crime was
likely behind the killing.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 9, Maoist rebels and the
Nepal government said they had settled a dispute over monitoring each
other's fighters and weapons, a move which revives their peace process
and power-sharing plans.
(AFP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Two Norwegians and two
Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship off the
coast of Nigeria.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Poland the US
specialists secretly removed 90 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from a
research reactor and transferred it to Russia for re-processing.
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 9, Sergei Skripal (55), a
retired Russian colonel, was sentenced by a military court in Moscow to
13 years imprisonment for passing along state secrets to Britain.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, A South Korean
citizens' group said North Korea has requested help from South Korea to
cope with devastating floods.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, A Justice Ministry
official said Swiss authorities will provide the US with details from
bank accounts US investigators suspect of being used for terrorist
funding.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Venezuela 8
candidates opposing Pres. Chavez called off a primary and agreed to
support front runner Gov. Manuel Rosales in the Dec 3 presidential
balloting.
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 10, In NYC organizers
said Germany's Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk (51) won the 3,100-mile
Self-Transcendence event, capturing the world's longest foot race in 41
days, eight hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds. Suprabha Beckjord (50)
was 14th overall and the only woman to finish, doing so after 60 days,
four hours, 35 minutes and 24 seconds.
(AFP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, Wal-Mart Stores said
it will work with Chinese government officials to establish labor
unions in all its outlets in China.
(SFC, 8/11/06, p.D2)
2006 Aug 10, NASA satellite data
showed that the ice sheet in Greenland is melting faster than expected.
(WSJ, 8/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians in Jalalabad.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, A Brazilian
congressional committee approved a report recommending the expulsion of
72 federal lawmakers from Congress on charges of participating in a
nation-wide plan to divert funds from the country’s health-care system.
(WSJ, 8/11/06, p.A5)
2006 Aug 10, British authorities
said they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up
several aircraft heading to the US using explosives smuggled in
carry-on luggage. US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said
the terrorists planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages
and other common products and detonators disguised as electronic
devices.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Chile a drug
trafficking network working on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) was dismantled. Police seized almost a half-ton of
cocaine and arrested 12 people.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 10, Saomai, the most
powerful typhoon to hit China in five decades, slammed into its
southeastern coast, destroying hundreds of homes and battering the
region with rain and wind after more than 1.3 million people were
evacuated. It ultimately killed at least 483 people.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2006 Aug 10, Hector Orlando
Martinez Quinto (38) was captured in Costa Rica. He was accused of
participating in a 2002 rebel (FARQ) attack that killed 119 civilians
in Boyaya, in one of the worst tragedies in Colombia's four-decade-old
guerrilla war.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, Rights activists said
at least nine inmates have died in Georgian prisons in the past 10 days
as the Caucasus Mountains nation suffers through high temperatures not
seen in two decades.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, In India 2 more
states banned the sale of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo soft drinks at
government-run schools and colleges over allegations they contain high
levels of pesticides.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated a belt of explosives near a highly revered Shiite
shrine in Najaf, killing at least 35 people and injuring 122.
(AP, 8/10/06)(SFC, 8/11/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 10, Israel said it will
hold back on its new ground offensive in Lebanon until the weekend to
give cease-fire efforts another chance. In Jerusalem a tourist (25) was
stabbed to death by an Arab youth near one of the gates to the walled
Old City in what was believed to be a political attack.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10-2006 Aug 11, Italian
police raided Internet cafes, money-transfer offices and long-distance
phone call centers catering to Muslims and arrested 40 people in a
crackdown linked to Britain's announcement it had thwarted an alleged
terror plot.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, Yasuo Takei, Japan’s
richest man, died. Forbes listed his assets at $5.4 billion. In 1966 he
founded Fuji Shoji, a consumer loan company. In 1974 it was renamed
Takefuji and grew to become a leader in Japan’s loan industry. In 2004
he was convicted for ordering an illegal wiretapping of a reported who
criticized his company.
(SFC, 8/14/06, p.B8)
2006 Aug 10, Malawi's President
Bingu wa Mutharika demanded the resignation of Ishmael Wadi, a top
prosecutor, for withdrawing corruption charges against the nation's
previous leader. Wadi dropped the charges after Mutharika suspended the
head of the anti-corruption bureau, Gustave Kaliwo. Wadi said the
suspension left the bureau with no powers to prosecute.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Mexico leftist
activists blockaded bank headquarters and called for a march on the
offices of federal prosecutors, as officials recounted some of the
ballots from the disputed presidential election. A protester was shot
dead when assailants fired on a march of about 8,000 people calling for
the governor's resignation in Oaxaca.
(AP, 8/10/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, In southern Nigeria
gunmen in military fatigues seized two foreign oil workers. A Belgian
and a Moroccan were abducted as they traveled through the city of Port
Harcourt taking to at least 10 the number kidnapped in the past week.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Serbia a panel of
international judges convicted and sentenced Selim Krasniqi and two
other former rebel fighters to 7 years in prison for detaining and
beating fellow ethnic Albanians who allegedly collaborated with Serb
authorities during the 1998 Kosovo war.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, The Sri Lankan
military attacked Tamil Tiger rebels from land and air, and the rebels
retaliated in heavy fighting that killed at least 13 combatants. A
Nordic cease-fire monitor warned that the situation was worsening.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 11, A Kentucky judge
ruled that Gov. Ernie Fletcher, under fire for a hiring scandal, is
protected by executive immunity and cannot be prosecuted while in
office.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, BP PLC announced it
would keep one side of the Prudhoe Bay oil field open as it replaced
corroded pipes, averting a larger crimp in the nation's oil supply.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2006 Aug 11, In SF Ed Jew,
operator of a Chinatown flower shop, filed to run as supervisor for
District 4. He won a surprise victory in November. In 2007 he faced
residency questions and an FBI investigation regarding money accepted
from a businessmen facing permit problems. On January 10, 2008 he
resigned from the Board of Supervisors. Jew had been accused of
violating the city charter by not living in the district he
represented. On November 6, 2007, federal prosecutors obtained a grand
jury indictment of Jew on five felony bribery, fraud and extortion
charges, accusing him of running a scheme to shake down Sunset District
businesses for $84,000 in bribes. His trial on federal charges was
slated to being in July 2008.
(SFC, 5/22/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Jew#Resignation)
2006 Aug 11, Jamie Gold (36), a
former Hollywood talent agent, won the $12 million grand prize in the
World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nv.
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 11, In Michigan 3
Palestinian American men from Texas were arrested after buying dozens
of cell phones at a Wal-Mart store. They were found with a 1000 cell
phones and later charged with federal fraud conspiracy and money
laundering. Initial terrorism charges were dropped.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 11, Mike Douglas (born in
1925 as Michael Delaney Dowd Jr.), popular television host, died in
Florida. His Mike Douglas Show began in Cleveland in 1961 and ended in
1982. In 1999 he authored the memoir “”I’ll be Right Back: Memories of
TV’s Greatest Talk Show.”
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.B6)
2006 Aug 11, A suicide car bomber
struck a NATO-led convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing one soldier.
In northeastern Afghanistan 3 US soldiers were killed and 3 wounded
after militants attacked an American patrol with rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms fire.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, In Brazil officials
said police had arrested 30 businessmen, government officials and
soldiers accused of taking part in a scheme to net millions of dollars
by over-billing for meals in the military and at schools.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, British officials
identified 19 of the suspects accused of planning to blow up US-bound
aircraft in the biggest terrorist plot to be uncovered since 9/11,
while investigators probed their movements, background and finances. In
addition, five Pakistanis have been arrested in Pakistan as suspected
"facilitators" of the plot, as well as two Britons arrested there about
a week ago. A Pakistani intelligence official said 10 Pakistanis were
arrested in Bhawalpur district, 300 miles southwest of Islamabad, in
connection with the terror plot in Britain.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, Typhoon Saomai, the
strongest storm to strike China in 50 years, weakened to a tropical
depression but drenched the country's southeast after killing at least
105 people with another 190 missing.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, German novelist
Guenter Grass (78) admitted in an interview that he served in the
Waffen SS, the combat arm of Adolf Hitler's dreaded paramilitary
forces, during World War II. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1999 for works including his 1959 novel, "The Tin Drum." His new memoir
about the war years, Peeling the Onion” was published in September,
2006. The English translation came out in 2007.
(AP, 8/11/06)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.M1)
2006 Aug 11, Indonesian officials
issued a last-minute stay of execution for three Christian militiamen
on death row, but they added that the sentences would still be carried
out. Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva, were
scheduled to be executed August 12. They had been sentenced to death
for inciting and carrying out attacks on Muslims in 2000 during
religious violence on Sulawesi that left 1,000 dead from both faiths.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, US soldiers raided a
funeral and detained 60 men suspected of ties to al-Qaida car bombings
in the first major roundup of suspected insurgents since troop
reinforcements began arriving for a new crackdown in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, Israeli airstrikes
pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least 14
people across Lebanon as ground fighting picked up intensity in the
south. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accepted an emerging Mideast
cease-fire deal and informed the United States of his decision. An
Israeli drone fired at a convoy of refugees fleeing southern Lebanon,
killing at least six people and wounding 16.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, North Kenya
authorities said they caught at least 45 sympathizers or members of the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a small Ethiopian group operating on the
border. Ethiopia reported having shot dead 11 Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLH) fighters.
(Reuters, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/19/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 11, An oil tanker sank in
rough seas off the Philippine coast of Guimaras Island, about 312 miles
southeast of Manila. About 528,000 gallons of industrial fuel was
leaking from the accident.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 11, The Sri Lankan air
force bombed Tamil Tiger-held areas in the east. Tamil Tigers warned of
a humanitarian crisis after 42,000 people were displaced by a surge in
violence that has left Sri Lanka's truce in tatters, as fighting
erupted on two new fronts.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AFP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, The UN Human Rights
Council condemned Israel for "massive bombardment of Lebanese civilian
populations" and other "systematic" human rights violations, and
decided to send a commission to investigate. UN Resolution 1701 called
for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/26/06,
p.11)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8808.doc.htm)
2006 Aug 11, The Zimbabwe Cabinet
slashed fuel prices for private motorists by almost half, but experts
said the move could lead to further shortages and fail to snuff out a
flourishing black market.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 12, Thousands of people
gathered across from the White House, even though President Bush was
out of town, to condemn US and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In
SF thousands of protesters decried US Mideast policy and Israel’s
military actions in Lebanon and Palestine. A smaller group demonstrated
on behalf of Israel.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.B1)(AP, 8/12/07)
2006 Aug 12, Afghanistan's Health
Ministry said the worsening security situation contributed to a
fourfold rise in polio cases this year, almost entirely in the
insurgency-wracked south. A highway police commander was killed by a
blast on his way to work in eastern Lagman province.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Rashid Rauf and Tayib
Rauf (22), brothers arrested in Pakistan and England, emerged as key
figures in the suspected plot to destroy US-bound aircraft during
flight. Prominent Muslims in Britain accused the government of
encouraging extremism through its foreign policy.
(AP, 8/12/06)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 12, President Joseph
Kabila's share of the vote in Congo's historic elections rose above 50%
as 1 million more votes were counted and certified.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The government said
PM Nouri al-Maliki had banned the Kurdistan Workers Party, a rebel
group fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey, from operating in
Baghdad. Two people were killed in the southern city of Basra when a
bomb exploded at a shop selling CDs featuring sermons and interviews of
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Police found a dozen bodies
trapped in a grate in the Tigris River, and a roadside bomb killed two
US soldiers on a foot patrol south of Baghdad as nearly 50 violent
deaths were reported across Iraq.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, Oil smuggling in Iraq
was said to be worth $4 billion a year.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.40)
2006 Aug 12, Israel staged
wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah heartland
as the UN raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire blueprint and
stop the heavy fighting still raging in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah
leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the militant organization would
abide by the UN cease-fire resolution but would keep fighting as long
as Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon. Israel lost 24
soldiers, including five on a helicopter shot out of the air by
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, In Indian Kashmir 7
people, including two civilians mistaken by the army for Islamic
guerrillas, died as a strike paralyzed life in the region's main city.
(AFP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, In northern Italy the
stabbed body of Hina Saleem (21) was found in the garden of the family
home at Sarezzo. She was killed by her father because she refused to
conform to an Islamic lifestyle. News reports said the family had been
insisting on an arranged marriage with a cousin in Pakistan. The father
and three other men, including her uncle, were charged with
premeditated murder and hiding the body.
(AP, 9/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/rfr4z)
2006 Aug 12, A passenger bus
skidded off a highway in central Mexico and rolled down a 320-foot
slope, killing 13 people and injuring a dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Nigeria pulled
thousands of troops out of the Bakassi peninsula ahead of an August 12
UN deadline for a complete withdrawal, but many residents said they
would resist a handover to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, In Northern Ireland
about 15,000 Protestants paraded through Londonderry, predominantly
Roman Catholic city, following a night of Catholic rioting.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Hundreds of
paratroopers joined the struggle to control scores of forest fires in
northwestern Spain. A total of 24 people have been arrested since Aug.
1 on suspicion of deliberately starting many of the fires.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, Sri Lankan rebels
attacked a key naval base as they mounted a fierce push to retake a
northeastern peninsula considered the traditional home of the country's
ethnic Tamils. Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tiger rebel positions as
the fiercest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire left at least 127 people
dead. A Sri Lanka government spokesman said the Tamil Tiger rebels
offered to renew peace talks. Weeks of intense fighting brought Sri
Lanka close to resuming its civil war. Ketheesh Loganathan, a Tamil
senior peace official, was assassinated. He was deputy chief of the
secretariat which coordinated the government's side of a
Norway-brokered peace process.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AFP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The Ugandan army
killed Raska Lukwiya, the third in command of the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army and war crimes fugitive, which could affect the stalled
south Sudan-mediated peace talks.
(AFP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The UN Security
Council adopted a resolution seeking a "full cessation" of violence
between Israel and Hezbollah, offering the region its best chance yet
for peace after a month of fighting that has killed more than 800
people and inflamed Mideast tensions.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Michigan City,
Indiana, fire swept through a two-story house, killing at least six
people. An unknown number of others were missing. It was not clear
whether they had left the scene or were still inside the home.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Afghanistan at
least 5 Afghan troops and 25 militants were killed.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 13, The 16th
International AIDS conference opened in Toronto with some 24,000 people
in attendance.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.A15)(Econ, 8/19/06, p.65)
2006 Aug 13, The death toll from
Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in 50 years, rose to
114 as more evacuees died when buildings used as shelters collapsed.
China’s state media reported About 17 million people in southwest China
don't have access to clean drinking water due to sustained drought.
(AP, 8/13/06)(Reuters, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, On his 80th birthday,
Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans that he faced a long recovery from
surgery and advised them to prepare for "adverse news," but he urged
them to stay optimistic.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, Iraq's health
minister, who is aligned to a powerful Shiite militia, claimed that US
forces arrested seven of his personal guards in a surprise pre-dawn
raid on his office. 4 vehicle bombs killed 63 Iraqis and wounded 140 in
a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AP, 8/14/06)(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 13, After a stormy
debate, Israel's Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to
silence the army's guns on Aug 14 at 8AM. The Israeli military embarked
on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas, rocketing
south Beirut with at least 20 missiles. Israeli warplanes fired
missiles into gasoline stations in the southern port city of Tyre,
killing at least 12 people in those and other attacks. Hezbollah fired
more than 150 rockets at northern Israel, killing an Israeli man. Two
Israeli air raids on a village in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley killed
at least seven people and wounded nearly two dozen.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Mexico a recount
confirmed Calderon as the next president. Lopez Obrador vowed to mount
new legal challenges.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 13, Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil Tiger rebels fought ground battles and artillery duels as the
weekend death toll rose to 186. The rebels denied they were ready to
talk peace. At least 15 people died in fighting around the St. Philip
Neri Church in Allaiiddy, a predominantly Tamil village located on an
island just west of the Jaffna Peninsula. The island, like the
peninsula, is held by the government.
(AFP, 8/13/06)(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Turkey the PKK
killed 2 policemen in a bomb attack near Tunceli.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.48)
2006 Aug 13, In Venezuela prison
officials discovered that Carlos Ortega, an anti-Chavez union leader,
had slipped out of the Ramo Verde prison west of Caracas, where he was
serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion. Three convicted
military officers also escaped.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, The US State
Department began issuing smart chip-embedded passports to Americans as
planned, despite ongoing privacy concerns and legal disputes involving
companies bidding on the project. New ones issued under this program
will cost $97, which includes a $12 security surcharge added last year.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 15, NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg
said he is putting $125 million of his own money into a new worldwide
anti-smoking campaign.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 14, In the largest
electronics-related recall involving the Consumer Products Safety
Commission, Dell Inc. agreed to replace 4.1 million notebook computer
batteries made by Sony Corp. because they can burst into flames.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, PepsiCo Inc.
announced that CFO Indra Nooyi will replace Steven Reinemundi as CEO,
making her the No. 2 female CEO in the Fortune 500 behind Patricia
Woertz of Archer Daniels Midland. ADM was ranked 56th in the Fortune
500 and PepsiCo was 61st.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D5)
2006 Aug 14, Bruno Kirby (57), a
veteran character actor known for playing the best friend in two of
Billy Crystal's biggest comedies, "When Harry Met Sally" and "City
Slickers," died in LA.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 14, In southern
Afghanistan clashes between police and militants killed 11 suspected
Taliban and six policemen. 4 NATO troops were wounded in one of two
bombings in Kabul.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, Australian PM John
Howard ditched plans for a tough new immigration law, conceding he did
not have sufficient support in parliament.
(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Brazil Guilherme
Portanova (30), a kidnapped television reporter, was freed after Globo
met the gang's demand to broadcast a video calling for improvements in
Brazil's troubled prison system. In Rio de Janeiro Andres Costa Ramos
Bordalo was stabbed to death by an assailant who stole his knapsack on
Copacabana beach. Police stepped up patrols but at least 22 tourists
were robbed during the week.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 14, The British
government downgraded its terror threat level from critical to severe,
saying intelligence suggested an attack was no longer imminent.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Chile a tough
nationwide anti-smoking law that took effect.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In China the death
toll from Typhoon Saomai rose to 255 after scores more bodies were
pulled from the sea.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, Cuban state
television aired the first video of Fidel Castro since he stepped down
as president to recover from surgery, showing the bedridden Cuban
leader talking with his brother Raul as well as Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2006 Aug 14, In southern Ethiopia
torrential rains spilled a river from its banks. At least 900 people
died as continuing rains submerged five villages, knocked down grain
silos and swept away cattle. Tens of thousands were marooned by the
waters.
(AFP, 8/15/06)(Reuters, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 14, At least 10 people
were killed in shootings and bombings across Iraq, including three
blacksmiths shot by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, Israeli soldiers
killed six Hezbollah fighters in three skirmishes in Lebanon after the
UN-imposed cease-fire took effect. The clashes came as Lebanese
civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their homes
in war-ravaged areas. Lebanese, Israeli and UN officers met on the
border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern
Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region. Lebanon
said nearly 791 people were killed since the fighting began. Israel
said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians were killed in fighting or from
Hezbollah rockets in the 34-day war.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, A Japanese tanker
spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian
Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship. The spill, which would
be about 4,500 tons, may be the largest ever involving a Japanese
tanker. The tanker was carrying about 77.6 million gallons, or 250,000
tons, of crude. It had left port in Oman bound for Japan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, Malaysia said it
would issue a "big fat no" to any nation or group that asked it to
dismantle a system of positive discrimination for its majority ethnic
Malays as part of trade talks.
(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, US authorities
arrested Tijuana drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (36) aboard
a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast. Mexican analysts doubted the
significance of Arellano Felix's arrest as the gang has effectively
lost much of its influence over the years.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 14, Nigeria formally
handed sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to
Cameroon after withdrawing its 3,000 troops in compliance with a
UN-brokered deadline. This ended a 13-year feud between Abuja and
Yaounde. Nigeria will maintain administrative control of southern
Bakassi for the next two years, after which the area will be in a state
of flux for another five years before it will be finally handed over to
Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Nigeria Ayo
Daramola, a member of the country's ruling party and a potential
candidate in Ekiti state, was found stabbed to death in his home, the
third killing of a potential gubernatorial candidate in recent weeks.
Armed men kidnapped four more foreign oil workers in the southern oil
city of Port Harcourt, but released 3 Filipinos abducted more than 10
days ago.
(AFP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Gaza American
reporter Steve Centanni (60) and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig (36)
were seized by masked gunmen near the headquarters of the Palestinian
security services. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a house in the Gaza
Strip, injuring at least eight people. The military said an Islamic
Jihad command center was targeted but Palestinians said the building
was empty.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, Fighting in Sri
Lanka's north and east, and a bombing in the capital, left at least 50
people dead, including 43 schoolgirls killed in what the Tamil Tigers
charged was a government air raid on a children's home in rebel
territory. Hours later in Colombo, an auto rickshaw packed with
explosives blew up as a car carrying Pakistan's high commissioner,
Basir Ali Mohmand, passed along a crowded road. At least seven people
were killed, including four army commandos guarding the envoy.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 15, US federal agents
arrested 138 alleged drug traffickers in 15 cities. They seized over 47
pounds of Mexican black tar heroin and confiscated over $500,000 in
illegal profits.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 15, US officials arrested
Edgar Alvarez Cruz on immigration violations in Denver. He was
suspected of participating in the rapes and killings of at least 10
women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where more than 100 young
women have been killed since 1993.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 15, Seven northeastern US
states said they had agreed on a model rule that would create the
country's first market for heat-trapping carbon dioxide by curbing
emissions at power plants.
(Reuters, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Afghan and US troops
killed an al-Qaida suspect and detained 13 others in southeastern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, The official death
toll in China from Typhoon Saomai jumped to 295 as fishing families
grieving the loss of loved ones said authorities were no help and had
covered up the number of fatalities.
(AFP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, In Colombia the last
major paramilitary leader to enter into a peace deal with the
government handed in his weapon, even as the future of that fragile
accord was called into doubt by other ex-militia leaders. Freddy Rendon
Herrera and 745 fighters from the Elmer Cardenas bloc handed in 447
rifles in a disarmament ceremony in Unguia, a village 370 miles
northwest of Bogota.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, French Interior
Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants with
school-age children applied for French residency under a special
government offer, and about 6,000 will get it.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in
Haiti for six months and urged its troops and police to help fight gang
violence and kidnapping.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, A suicide bomber
killed nine people at the party headquarters of the Iraqi president. In
Basra tribal leader Faisal Raji al-Asadi, an anti-American Shiite
cleric, was killed. Gunbattles between his supporters and Iraqi forces
left at least six people dead. In Karbala street battles between
security forces and followers of anti-American cleric Mahmoud
al-Hassani, left 12 dead, including two Iraqi soldiers. A suicide car
bomber killed nine people in an attack on the Mosul headquarters of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a Kurdish party headed by President Jalal
Talabani.
(AP, 8/15/06)(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)
2006 Aug 15, Israel began slowly
withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon and made plans to hand
over its captured territory as hopes were raised that a UN-imposed
cease-fire would stick, despite early tests on its first day.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Japan’s PM Junichiro
Koizumi made a pilgrimage to a Tokyo war shrine reviled by critics as a
symbol of militarism, triggering a further erosion in Japan's ties with
its neighbors just a month before he leaves office.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Maori Queen Te
Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu (75), aka Te Ata, died in New Zealand.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.B7)(AP, 8/15/07)
2006 Aug 15, Two Norwegian and two
Ukrainian oil workers being held hostage in Nigeria were freed as the
government promised to crack down on a surge in unrest in Africa's
largest oil producer.
(Reuters, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Pakistani forces
arrested 29 suspected Taliban militants in a raid on a private hospital
after they came from neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, New York City
officials released new tapes of hundreds of heart-wrenching phone calls
from the World Trade Center on 9-11, along with other emergency
transcripts.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2006 Aug 16, Google launched a
free wireless network for its hometown of Mountainview, Ca.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr (41),
a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for the
December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said he
tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went
awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed
JonBenet was later discredited.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 16, Over 80 immigrant
workers in New Orleans filed suit against Decatur Hotels LLC saying
they were being exploited. The workers from Peru, Bolivia and the
Dominican Rep. had not been reimbursed for travel and were not getting
the promised work hours.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A16)
2006 Aug 16, In southeastern
Afghanistan US and Afghan forces raided compounds suspected of being
al-Qaida sanctuaries, seizing weapons and explosives and arresting 8
people. US-led forces killed eight suspected militants after coming
under attack in Kunar province. A US soldier was killed when his
vehicle struck a Soviet-era mine in Paktika province. Western officials
said opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels, up by more
than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics
money.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Alfredo Stroessner
(93), anti-communist dictator of Paraguay (1954-1989), died in exile in
Brazil. He used the right-wing Colorado Party to rule with a blend of
force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ouster in 1989.
During his rule membership in the Colorado Party was compulsory for all
teachers, doctors, engineers, officers or those who hoped for
government service. Party dues was docked from salaries.
(AP, 8/16/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.71)
2006 Aug 16, Colombian police
arrested 14 top paramilitary leaders for violating the terms of a peace
accord that has led to the demobilization of 30,000 right-wing
fighters. Anti-narcotics police said they chemically fumigated the
Sierra Macarena national park last week, clearing its entire 11,370
acres of coca. The spraying destroyed coca capable of producing 17.5
tons of high-grade cocaine and was likely a major blow to the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.28)
2006 Aug 16, In northeast India a
grenade exploded in a Hindu temple, killing at least four people and
leaving 40 others injured, mainly in a stampede that followed the blast.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Bombings in Baghdad,
killed 21 people and wounded 59. One American soldier was also killed
as he was distributing candy to the children. British troops drove off
gunmen who attacked the Basra governor's office, apparently to avenge a
tribal leader killed the day before. In Mosul armed clashes between
police and assailants in three predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods
killed least five gunmen with six arrested. A roadside bomb exploded
near an Iraqi army patrol north of Hillah, killing three soldiers and
wounding four. In Karbala 10 militia fighters were killed and 281
arrested. A US soldier died of wounds suffered in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Kashmir 5 Islamic
rebels were shot dead by Indian troops after they sneaked across the de
facto border from the Pakistani zone. The army suffered one casualty.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Top foreign diplomats
planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international force to enforce
a cease-fire in southern Lebanon, but the government was divided over
whether Hezbollah should lay down its arms or even withdraw them from
the border with Israel.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen
from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza,
killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol boat
opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a
fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged
Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, Islamic leaders gave seven men 40 lashes each for using or
selling marijuana, meting out the punishment in public in a dramatic
example of the region's new fundamentalist rule.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of
South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official opening
the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and Mozambique. This
was another step in the creation of the 14,000 square mile Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the 3 countries.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 16, A South Korean aid
group claimed that massive floods in North Korea last month left about
54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Sri Lankan war planes
bombed Tamil Tiger positions as troops hunted rebel infiltrators in
northern Jaffna peninsula after resisting a guerrilla advance.
(AFP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 17, President Bush signed
new rules to prod companies into shoring up their pension plans.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 17, A federal judge in
Detroit ruled that President Bush's warrantless surveillance program
violated the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the
separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. The administration
said it would appeal.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2006 Aug 17, Several large
California auto insurers said they will set premiums based on driving
records rather than ZIP codes and reduce rates for most motorists.
(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 17, In New Orleans Merck
& Co. lost a second federal trial over its withdrawn painkiller
Vioxx and must pay $51 million to a retired FBI agent who had a heart
attack after taking the drug for more than two years.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, Scientists believe
they have found a key gene that helped the human brain evolve from our
chimp-like ancestors. In just a few million years, one area of the
human genome seems to have evolved about 70 times faster than the rest
of our genetic code. It appears to have a role in a rapid tripling of
the size of the brain's crucial cerebral cortex, according to an
article published in the journal Nature.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In the Arctic ice Lt.
Jessica Hill (31) and Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque (22), divers on the
US Coast Guard cutter Healy, died during a practice dive.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Aug 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb mistakenly dropped by a US-led coalition aircraft
killed 10 Afghan police officers in Paktika province. 16 more people,
including a US soldier, died in violence across the country.
(AP, 8/17/06)(WSJ, 8/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 17, An overnight volcanic
eruption in Ecuador's Andes mountains killed at least one person and
left more than 60 others missing. It was the first fatality reported
from a Tungurahua eruption since the volcano rumbled back to life in
1999 after staying dormant for eight decades.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez named four generals and a former law partner
to the Cabinet, a day after his party took control of the Caribbean
country's Congress for the first time.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 17, President Jacques
Chirac announced that France will immediately double to 400 troops its
contingent in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In Indonesia an
Islamic militant convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings was released from
prison and 11 others jailed for minor roles had their sentences reduced
to mark independence day.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In Indonesia a woman
died of bird flu in a village where authorities were investigating a
possible cluster of human cases of the H5N1 virus.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 17, In central Baghdad 2
car bombs killed 13 people and injured 55, hours after another bomb
killed 8 laborers. One US soldier killed when a roadside bomb exploded
near a foot patrol south of Baghdad. A gallon of gasoline on the black
market in Baghdad sold for about $4.92, although the official price was
64 cents a gallon. Iraq said it had doubled the money allocated for
importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's
worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster.
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A7)
2006 Aug 17, Jordanian envoy Ahmed
al-Lozi has presented his credentials to the Iraqi government, becoming
the first fully accredited Arab ambassador in the country since the
fall of Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 17, Lebanese troops,
tanks and armored vehicles deployed south of the Litani River, a key
provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended fighting between Israel
and Hezbollah. The deployment marks a first step toward extending
government control in a region Lebanese troops have largely avoided for
four decades. A Middle East Airlines passenger jet flew into Beirut
airport from Jordan as officials partially lifted a 36-day Israeli air
blockade.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, An outbreak of strain
of bluetongue, a disease transmitted to sheep by insects but which is
not contagious nor known to affect humans, was detected in the southern
Netherlands. Belgium and Germany soon reported cases.
(AFP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 17, Sri Lankan troops
beat back a fresh attempt by Tamil Tigers to overrun the main defenses
of the northern peninsula of Jaffna and killed at least 98 guerrillas.
At least six soldiers were killed and 60 wounded in the intense battle.
(AFP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 18, President George W.
Bush criticized a federal court ruling the day before that his
warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional, declaring that
opponents "do not understand the nature of the world in which we live."
(AP, 8/18/07)
2006 Aug 18, The US FDA approved a
mix of bacteria-killing viruses for spraying on cold cuts, hot dogs and
sausages to combat deadly microbes.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 18, Raymond Payne, a
former HSBC Bank USA vice president, pleaded guilty in Manhattan
federal court to a conspiracy charge over his role in a $30 million
telemarketing fraud targeting low-income people with poor credit
histories. Prosecutors said First Choice, run by Canadian co-defendants
Stephen Clark and Leslie Pinsky, extracted $30 million from people, and
transferred the money to the HSBC account. In 2007 Clark was sentenced
just over 11 years in prison.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)(Reuters, 6/15/07)
2006 Aug 18, In western Missouri
bone fragments from at least two people were found on a three-acre
wooded property northeast of Drexel. Michael Lee Shaver Jr. (33) was
arrested the next day and charged with murder for a killing in 2001.
Shaver claimed that he had killed, dismembered and burned 7 men in his
home following drug transactions.
(AP, 8/20/06)(SFC, 8/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 18, In Bristow, Oklahoma,
Donald Thompson (59), a former judge convicted of exposing himself
while presiding over jury trials, was sentenced to four years in prison
and ordered to pay a fine of $40,000.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 18, The Washington Post
reported that sprinter Marion Jones had tested positive for the
endurance drug EPO at the US Track and Field Championships on June 23.
A 2nd test came back negative and cleared the allegations. On October
5, 2007, Jones pleaded guilty to using steroids before the Sydney 2000
Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she
previously denied steroid use. Her sanction required disqualification
of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and
forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes. On January
11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months in jail. She began her
sentence on March 7, 2008 and was released on September 5, 2008.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A1)(SFC, 9/7/06,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Jones)
2006 Aug 18, Ford Motor Co.
announced sharp cuts in its North American production that would force
it to partially shut down plants in the US and Canada in the fourth
quarter.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Boeing took steps
toward shutting down production of its C-17 military cargo plane.
Production would continue until mid-2009 for the $200 million planes.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 18, Afghanistan Education
Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar said attacks have closed more than 208
schools, including 144 burned down, in the past year as militants
changed tactics to hit soft targets. At least 41 teachers and students
have been killed over the past 12 months in a wave of attacks on the
country's schools.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Anglo-Australian
resources giant BHP Billiton closed its operations at the world's
biggest copper mine in Chile and ended negotiations with striking
workers. The strike began on August 7 at the Escondida Mine, majority
owned by BHP. The Chilean government has signaled it was ready to
intervene.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, The Financial Times
reported that Britain has agreed to a multi-billion-dollar defense deal
to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Canada the 16th
International AIDS Conference ended in a firestorm with vitriol hurled
at G8 countries and South Africa over lapses in the battle against the
disease that has claimed 25 million lives.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Chile's Supreme Court
voted to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution,
allowing him to be tried on corruption charges for his once-secret
multimillion dollar overseas bank accounts.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, China’s central bank
announced its 2nd interest rate hike in 4 months to choke off excess
investment. The benchmark lending rate rose .27% to 6.12% effective Aug
19.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 18, The death toll from
Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in more than five
decades, jumped to 436 after more than 100 new deaths were confirmed in
the country's east.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, In southwest Ethiopia
search and rescue teams kept up frantic efforts to save thousands
marooned by fatal flash floods, where relief workers reported
near-total devastation. Some 73,000 people had been affected by raging
waters from unusually heavy seasonal rains.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Greece a
700-year-old icon, said to have the power to work miracles, was
discovered stolen from the cliff-side Elona Monastery. In September
police arrested a Romanian national in Crete and recovered the Madonna
and Child icon.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/grxc8)
2006 Aug 18, The United Liberation
Front of Asom announced that it would stop attacking the forces of the
Indian government, which announced a unilateral cease-fire Aug. 13. It
was the first truce announced by the rebel group since its formation in
1979.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Iraq 7 pilgrims
heading to a major Shiite religious gathering were shot dead in a Sunni
neighborhood.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, Steorn, an Irish
company, said it has developed technology that it claims produces free
energy. The company said its discovery is based on the interaction of
magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant
energy.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Israeli soldiers
killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confrontations in
Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 18, At least 10 people
died and as many as 40 were feared missing when a small boat packed
with illegal immigrants sank off Sicily, prompting Italy to call for
greater cooperation to fight human trafficking.
(Reuters, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, The Lebanese army
reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time in
decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered
stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845 Lebanese
were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68
Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the Israeli
side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many from the
3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated
infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was
later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12 billion.
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06,
p.51)
2006 Aug 18, In Lesotho a
14-nation southern Africa summit closed with a pledge to speed up
regional economical integration, even as leaders expressed concern
about crisis-plagued member-state Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Nigeria’s military
launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the oil-rich south as
militants released another foreign hostage taken in a spate of
kidnappings.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Greenpeace warned a
sunken Philippine oil tanker was a pollution timebomb as oil from its
punctured tanks destroyed coral reefs and washed up blackened fish on
pristine beaches. Oil trapped in the tanks of the Solar I, which went
down last week with 500,000 gallons of industrial oil on board, could
pour out at any time. To date some 50,000 gallons had leaked into the
sea close to the central island of Guimaras.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, The UN said more than
41,000 people on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, about 10 percent of its
population, were believed to have fled their homes and warned that
supplies in the area had reached "alarmingly low levels".
(AFP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, A bus carrying
Iranian tourists crashed into a truck in eastern Turkey, killing 18 and
injuring 29.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 19, In California
explorers from the Cave Research Foundation discovered a large cave in
Sequoia National Park, which they named Ursa Minor.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, Afghan police backed
by NATO aircraft and artillery killed 71 suspected Taliban militant in
fierce clashes that also left five Afghan forces dead in southern
Kandahar province. 3 US soldiers were killed and 3 others wounded
during a clash against Taliban militants in eastern Kunar province. In
southern Uruzgan province, an American and an Afghan soldier were
killed and 3 other Americans wounded in a four-hour clash with more
than 100 insurgents. The latest violence came as the country celebrated
the 87th anniversary of its independence from Britain.
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Roger Deakin
(b.1943), English writer and film-maker, died. His last book “Wildwood:
A Journey Through Trees,” was published posthumously in 2007.
(Econ, 7/28/07,
p.85)(http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1860073,00.html)
2006 Aug 19, In East Timor
rampaging youths set houses on fire in Dili, a reminder that stability
has not yet returned to Asia's newest nation following months of
violence.
(CP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Germany a
21-year-old Lebanese was arrested in a police swoop on the railway
station in Kiel as he tried to flee the city, where he was a student.
He was one of two men suspected of planting bombs on German trains in a
failed terrorist attack in July.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, At least 13 people
were killed around Iraq, including four Iraqi soldiers in a roadside
bomb explosion in Diwaniyah. An American soldier was killed in combat
in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli commandos
raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, sparking a fierce
clash with militants that left one Israeli soldier dead. Lebanon called
the raid a "flagrant violation" of the UN-brokered cease-fire, while
Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms smuggling from Iran and
Syria. A Lebanese civilian was killed when unexploded Israeli munitions
from the offensive detonated in the village of Ras al-Ein, outside Tyre.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli soldiers in
Ramallah arrested Nasser Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime minister.
He was the highest-ranking Hamas official rounded up in a
seven-week-old crackdown against the ruling party.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were found
and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd boat in 2
days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian island of
Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water after the boat
sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people on the boat.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Ivory Coast waste,
which contained hydrogen sulphide, was unloaded from a
Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, at Abidjan port and then
dumped in at least eight open air sites, including the city's main
rubbish dump. By mid-September 6 people had died and 16,000 had sought
treatment. Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, one of the world's leading
commodities traders, said it had chartered the ship and said the
material was a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings"
following the unloading of a cargo of gasoline in Nigeria.
(Reuters, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.58)
2006 Aug 19, French soldiers
landed in Lebanon, the first reinforcements for an expanded UN
peacekeeping force tasked with keeping the truce in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict. About 50 French troops, military engineers,
were to prepare for the arrival of 200 more soldiers expected next week.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were found
and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd boat in 2
days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian island of
Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water after the boat
sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people on the boat.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Mexican prosecutors
announced that they have charged two policemen with protecting the
Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang. Mexican police said they had
broken up a vote-buying scheme in Chiapas on the eve of state elections.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Demonstrations
erupted in Kathmandu, Nepal, after the government hiked fuel prices by
as much as 25% in a bid to save state-owned Nepal Oil Corp (NOC) from
bankruptcy.
(AFP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Nigeria government
troops arrested about 100 people in a search for militants suspected of
taking oil industry workers hostage in the petroleum-rich south.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Russia handed over
the body of a Japanese fisherman killed by a Russian patrol boat that
opened fire in disputed waters, sparking a diplomatic feud.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Sudan 2 African
Union peacekeepers from Rwanda were killed and 3 were wounded when
their convoy was ambushed in the Darfur region.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, The Turkish Foreign
Ministry said that it had forced two Syria-bound Iranian planes to land
and be searched for rockets and other military equipment, one on Jul 27
and the other on Aug 8, during the conflict between Israel and
Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, A suspected Kurdish
rebel attack caused an explosion and huge fire on a natural gas
pipeline in eastern Turkey.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 20, Robert K. Hoffman
(59), one of the 3 founders of the National Lampoon magazine, died in
Dallas, Texas. Hoffman, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney sold their
interests in 1975.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 20, Joe Rosenthal (94),
former Associated Press photographer, who had taken the iconic Iwo Jima
flag-raising picture (2/23/1945) during World War II, died in Novato,
Calif.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2006 Aug 20, In Afghanistan
militants ambushed a police patrol in western Farah province, sparking
a gunbattle that left one officer and 2 attackers dead. In Helmand
province a clash with insurgents left one British soldier dead and
three others wounded. A NATO airstrike killed nine militants including
a local insurgent leader in Helmand province. A roadside bomb killed
three Afghan policemen traveling on the main highway linking Murja and
Lashkar Gah districts. Two roadside bombs targeting border police in
southeastern Khost province killed two officers and wounded five
others. Tens of thousands of health workers fanned out across
Afghanistan in a polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 7
million children under age 5.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 20, President Joseph
Kabila failed to win an outright majority in Congo's first elections in
more than four decades. Kabila won 45% of the 16.9 million votes cast
in the July 30 ballot; Bemba had 20%. Former rebel leader Jean-Pierre
Bemba will face Kabila in a second round of voting. Security-forces
loyal to Kabila and Bemba fought gunbattles that killed at least two
people.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 20, Arab League foreign
ministers convened in Egypt for an emergency meeting to discuss how to
fund reconstruction in war-ravaged Lebanon and defuse Mideast tensions
amid rising discord between moderate Arabs and Syria, a main backer of
Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In northern France a
fire broke out in a run-down apartment building that mainly housed
immigrants, killing five people and injuring 10.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In India a Canadian
was arrested with illegal drugs worth five million dollars in New Delhi
in what was billed as a major effort to stop narcotics being shipped to
the West. About 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of ephedrine, hashish and
other illegal drugs were seized overnight from Girdish Singh Toor while
he was leading a convoy of vehicles.
(AFP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Snipers firing from
rooftops and a cemetery killed 20 people and wounded dozens in a series
of attacks on a Shiite religious procession that drew hundreds of
thousands of pilgrims to Baghdad. The "terrorist assaults" took place
when the pilgrims were walking through Sunni areas on their way to the
shrine of Imam Moussa Kadhim. 2 US Marines and a sailor were killed in
the western province of Anbar.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(Reuters, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 20, Israeli troops
detained Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the Hamas parliament,
pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against humanity,"
and Lebanon's defense minister warned any group that breaks the Middle
East cease-fire will be dealt with harshly.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Nepal’s government
withdrew hikes in gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel prices after
thousands of protesters clashed with police, blocked traffic and
vandalized government vehicles.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In New Zealand
Tuheitia Paki (51), eldest son of the late Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te
Atairangikaahu, wore his mother's feather cloak as he was named the new
Maori king in the village of Ngaruawahia.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, At least 11 people
were killed when militants engaged Nigerian troops in a fierce gun
battle in the restive Niger Delta. Local press reports said 12 people,
10 militants, a Shell worker and a soldier, were killed during the
shootout.
(AFP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 21, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers agreed to raise California’s
minimum wage by $1.25 over the next year to $8.00 per hour, making it
the highest minimum wage in the nation.
(SFC, 8/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 21, NATO and Afghan
forces used aircraft in clashes that left 14 militants dead, capping
several days of intense fighting that killed more than 100 people and
threatened efforts to stabilize southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, Burundi police
arrested former President Domitien Ndayizeye, apparently in connection
with an alleged plot to overthrow the tiny central African country's
government.
(Reuters, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, A fierce gun battle
pinned down foreign envoys in the Congolese capital Kinshasa as
fighting erupted for a second day following the announcement of a
presidential election run-off. At least five people died in overnight
gunfire.
(Reuters, 8/21/06)(AFP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, In northern Egypt a
passenger train barreled into railway station and collided with a
second train outside Qalyoub, killing at least 58 people and injuring
more than 100.
(AFP, 8/21/06)(SFC, 8/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 21, In London, England,
11 people were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the alleged
plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners. One person, a
woman, was released without charge. In 2009 Adam Khatib (23) was
sentenced for plotting with Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who was convicted of
leading the team. Ali was sentenced in September, 2009, to 40 years.
Nabeel Hussain (25) received eight years while Mohammed Shamin Uddin
(39) was jailed for seven years.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 12/10/09)
2006 Aug 21, In Haiti Amaral
Duclona, the leader of a major gang, defied President Rene Preval's
orders to disarm, saying his followers would give up their weapons only
if UN peacekeepers stop conducting raids in the slums.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, Diplomats and UN
officials said Iran has turned away UN inspectors wanting to examine
its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the
Nonproliferation Treaty.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Iraq a US
serviceman was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in was hit by a
roadside bomb north of Baghdad. A defiant Saddam Hussein refused to
enter a plea on genocide charges and dismissed the court as
illegitimate as his second trial began.
(Reuters, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/21/07)
2006 Aug 21, Police raided the
official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a
sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents.
Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in the
southern Lebanese village of Chamaa.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Mexico’s Chiapas
state Juan Sabines, of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party
(PRD), held a razor-thin lead over Jose Antonio Aguilar Bodegas, of the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who also is backed by
President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. Oaxaca sank further into
chaos as protesters armed with machetes, pipes and clubs seized 12
private radio stations, cut off highways, and blockaded bus terminals
and newspaper offices.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Nigeria soldiers
stopped cars at checkpoints and arrested 60 people in the third day of
a crackdown on militants in the volatile oil region.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Russia a bomb
blast tore through a Moscow market, killing at least 11 people and over
50 people. 3 detainees, all in their late teens or early 20s, confessed
to the crime.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/07)
2006 Aug 21, Somalia’s embattled
PM Ali Mohamed Gedi named a new Cabinet, two weeks after the old one
was dissolved amid a rift within the UN-backed transitional government
over how to respond to the growing influence of Islamic militants.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, South Korea and the
US launched joint military exercises, held annually since 1975, despite
protests from North Korea. The Ulchi Focus Lens exercises were
scheduled to run until September 1.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, In northern Spain at
least 6 people died in a train derailment.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, Saudi police killed
two armed men during clashes in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 22, US sprinter Justin
Gatlin agreed to an 8-year ban for doping and will forfeit his 100m
world-record tie, set May 12 at the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha.
(WSJ, 8/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 22, Paramount Pictures
severed ties to Tom Cruise after 14 years, citing unacceptable conduct.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2006 Aug 22, Berkeley, Ca.,
christened the new $70 million Berkeley City College, formerly known as
Vista College. Vista had begun in 1974 as Peralta College for
Non-traditional Study (PCNS). The name was changed to vista in 1978.
Classes were spread across more than 200 locations.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.B3)
2006 Aug 22, Sony Corp. announced
its purchase of Grouper, a small video-sharing site, for $65 million.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.58)
2006 Aug 22, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a
Canadian military patrol, wounding four soldiers. Insurgents ambushed a
police vehicle near the Pakistan border, killing five officers. In
Helmand province British troops using "high-explosive ammunition"
killed nine insurgents. In Kandahar province NATO warplanes killed at
least 11 Taliban fighters just hours after militant attacks left one
NATO soldier dead and five others wounded. NATO troops killed one
Afghan youth and wounded another after a suicide bombing in Kandahar
city that targeted a Canadian convoy, killing one soldier and wounding
three. 2 roadside bombs struck a truck and a motorbike in the Kandahar
district of Daman, killing three civilians and wounding one.
(AP, 8/22/06)(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 22, British government
figures said Britain has taken in an estimated 427,000 migrants from
eight former communist states since they joined the European Union in
2004, far more than an earlier prediction of 13,000 newcomers a year.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 22, In China visiting
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said China will expand its cooperation
in oil exploration and help his country build a fiber-optic
communications network under agreements to be signed in Beijing this
week.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, In Kinshasa fighting
flared for a third day between supporters of Congo's two presidential
candidates, as the UN called for an immediate cease-fire and a European
Union military force was sending reinforcements.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, An Egyptian tour bus
overturned in the Sinai peninsula killing 11 people, most of them
Israeli Arabs, and injuring more than 30.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, Kristjan Lepik of
Tallinn, Estonia, settled theft charges with the SEC. He agreed to
return over $550,000 in trading profits and pay a $15,000 penalty for
illegally trading on corporate information. The SEC said Lepik and
co-worker Oliver Peek made at least $7.8 million trading on advanced
looks at hundreds of press releases.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.C2)
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopia began
releasing water from dams taxed by two weeks of heavy rain to prevent
them from bursting as the confirmed death toll from devastating floods
climbed to 626.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopian troops
reportedly arrived in the central Somali town of Galkayo. The move may
stoke tensions with the Islamic militiamen who control most of southern
Somalia. They were seen inside the town in 13 vehicles.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, In India police
killed a Pakistani and arrested another in a shootout that authorities
said foiled a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India's financial capital.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, In Iraq two people
were killed in a bomb explosion in Baghdad and two people were killed
during clashes between British forces and gunmen in the southern city
of Amarah. A policeman was shot to death in a drive-by shooting in
Al-Hay, north of Amarah.
(AP, 8/22/06)(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 22, Israeli troops shot
and killed three militants from the Islamic Jihad group near the
Israel-Gaza border, as soldiers conducted house-to-house searches and
made arrests elsewhere in the coast strip.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, The Orizont, a leased
Romanian oil rig off the coast of Iran, came under fire from Iranian
military vessels and was later occupied by Iranian troops. A 2nd
Romanian rig had recently been towed from Iranian waters due to unpaid
bills.
(AP, 8/22/06)(WSJ, 10/14/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 22, A Russian passenger
jet with at least 170 people aboard crashed in Ukraine after sending a
distress signal. The Pulkovo airlines Tupolev 154, en route from the
Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, crashed near the
Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, In Spain Grigory
Perelman (40), a reclusive Russian, won a Fields Medal, the math
world's highest honor, for solving a problem that has stumped some of
the discipline's greatest minds for a century, but he refused the award.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, Thailand police
arrested 175 North Koreans, mostly women and children, who illegally
entered the country and were found hiding in an abandoned home in
Bangkok.
(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Alaska Republican
Gov. Frank Murkowski finished last in a 3-day primary election. Sarah
Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, won with over 50% of the vote.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Annie Donnelly (38)
of Long Island, NY, pleaded guilty to stealing $2.3 million (1.2
million pounds) from her employers. She spent the money on lottery
tickets, buying as much as $6,000 worth of tickets a day in a bid to
hit the jackpot.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, The Citadel released
the results of a survey in which almost 20% of female cadets reported
being sexually assaulted since enrolling at the South Carolina military
college.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, In Washington state
Gov. Gregoire declared a state of emergency due to a group of
southeastern wildfires that had covered 70 square miles near Dayton.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Maynard Ferguson
(78), Canadian-born jazz trumpeter, died in Ventura, Ca.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.B11)
2006 Aug 23, The Afghan and
Pakistani armies agreed to conduct coordinated and simultaneous patrols
with the US alongside their volatile border. The accord was reached
during the 17th meeting of Tripartite Commission. In southern
Afghanistan 18 Taliban rebels and an Afghan soldier were killed in a
clash that erupted after the militants attacked an army post in Zabul
province.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Argentina announced
an ambitious plan to expand its nuclear program to meet rising energy
demands, including extending the life of existing plants and possibly
resuming uranium mining.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Vytautas Pociunas, a
top Lithuanian spy posted to Belarus, was found dead in Brest. Some
linked his death to feuds within the Lithuanian security service (VSD)
over freight contracts. A parliamentary committee called for Arvydas
Pocius, the VSD chief, to go.
(Econ, 12/23/06,
p.74)(www.data.minsk.by/belarusnews/092006/25.html)
2006 Aug 23, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency confirmed that a mature beef cow in the Prairie
province Alberta tested positive for mad cow case. It was the 8th case
since 2003.
(Reuters, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, In western India 17
people were killed when a truck overturned and fell into a deep ditch.
Victims were sitting on top of sacks of salt that the truck was
transporting when it overturned into a ditch flooded from recent
monsoon rains.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Iran urged Europe to
pay attention to what it called "positive" signals in its
counterproposal to a nuclear incentives package aimed at persuading
Tehran to roll back its nuclear program. Russia and China backed Iran's
call for negotiations to end the standoff.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A roadside bomb
exploded in Baghdad and narrowly missed the interior minister's convoy,
killing two civilians and wounding several traffic policemen. A suicide
bomber blew himself up outside a police headquarters in Mosul, killing
at least one person. An Iraqi army officer, 1st Lt. Hassanein Saadi
al-Zerjawi (29) was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Amarah. A
roadside bomb missed a US military convoy in Fallujah, 40 miles west of
Baghdad, killing two pedestrians and injuring 12. One US soldier was
killed during a raid to capture "foreign terrorists." Two militants
also were killed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir a crowded bus swerved off a steep mountain road and plunged
into a gorge, killing at least 16 people and injuring 35 others.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A leader of Kurdish
rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview that his
guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm without a
"political project" that fulfills their calls for autonomy. PKK party
officials met with a group of journalists in the rugged, isolated
Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where the group is based.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In southern Lebanon 3
Lebanese soldiers were killed while they dismantled an unexploded
missile. An Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded in
southern Lebanon when their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw
grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun in
the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Oslo Villa Grande,
a sprawling mansion used by Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling
during World War II, opened as a center to oppose the intolerance,
hatred and treachery he represented.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A previously unknown
Palestinian group released the first video of two kidnapped Fox News
journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in US jails be released
within 72 hours in exchange for the men. Correspondent Steve Centanni
and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, Russia’s Gazprom
threatened to cut off gas exports to Bosnia on Oct 1 if strides toward
repaying $104.8 million from debts incurred during wars that ended in
1995.
(WSJ, 8/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 23, Somalia’s seaport in
Mogadishu reopened for the first time in 11 years, the latest sign that
the city's Islamic fundamentalist rulers are trying to restore
confidence after more than a decade of anarchy.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Sudan's ruling party
rejected a proposed Security Council resolution to transfer
peacekeeping duties in conflict-wracked Darfur to a UN force, saying it
would violate national sovereignty.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Syria opposed
deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms
shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in Lebanon
"explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed while
they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli soldier was killed
and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when their tank drove over
a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Taiwan's cabinet
decided to increase military spending by nearly 30% next year as
President Chen Shui-bian warned of rival China's continuing hostility
towards the island.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 24, A US House report
said 70% of contracts for Hurricane Katrina were let with little or no
competition. 4 Katrina contractors were indicted for taking $700,000
for no work.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, The US FDA approved
Plan B, also called the morning after pill, for sale without
prescription to women 18 and older.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, In Oakland, Ca.,
police moved to serve 65 arrest warrants and picked up 30 suspected
drug dealers. They planned to continue their sweep.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, A Kentucky judge
dropped charges against Gov. Fletcher in a plea deal in which Fletcher
acknowledged failure to follow the state’s merit-hiring rules.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, In Essex, Vermont,
Christopher Williams (26) shot and killed 2 people after breaking up
with his girlfriend, and then shot himself in the head. Williams killed
Andrea Lambesis (57), the mother of his girlfriend at her home. He then
went to Essex Elementary School where he killed teacher Mary
Shanks (56) and wounded 2 others.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A5)(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Deadly storms swept
across the northern Plains, bringing tornadoes that ripped roofs off
houses and hail that smashed car windshields. One man was killed when a
tornado hit his home in Minnesota, and in Wisconsin, lightning
apparently killed a dozen cows and struck a woman as she left a
supermarket.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Carl C. Clark (82),
US auto safety and air-bag pioneer, died.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 24, Arthur Schiff
(b.1940), TV-advertising pitchman, died. His pitched products included
a kitchen knife, which he renamed Ginsu, made in Ohio. “But wait,
there’s more.”
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 24, Ralph Schoenstein
(73), American humorist, writer and NPR commentator, died in
Philadelphia. His 18 books included “Fatherhood” (1987), ghost written
for Bill Cosby.
(SFC, 8/28/06, p.B4)
2006 Aug 24, Leading astronomers
meeting in Prague declared that Pluto is no longer a planet under
historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine
planets to eight.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, American and Afghan
forces killed seven suspected al-Qaida operatives after coming under
fire during a raid in eastern Afghanistan. Police, however, claimed
those killed were members of two families trying to resolve a dispute.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, A Bangladesh court
acquitted former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad of graft
charges in an oil and defense deal, easing the way for his return to
the political mainstream ahead of elections next year.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, An explosion in
Chechnya's capital Grozny killed four people.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, In China a blind
activist who was arrested after recording complaints of forced
abortions was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Chen
Guangcheng was convicted of damaging property and "organizing a mob to
disturb traffic" after a trial in the eastern province of Shandong.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, China reported that a
chemical spill on the Mangniu River in Jilin province was contained. A
3-mile slick had been created by a xylidine spill from a local chemical
company.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 24, A Danish prosecutor
charged four young Muslims with helping to supply weapons and
explosives for a planned terror attack in Europe. The four men,
arrested in Denmark last October 27, helped the two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing a
terror act.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, France said it was
ready to send an extra 1,600 troops to bolster a revamped U.N. force
for Lebanon, bringing the total French contingent to 2,000 and making
it easier to recruit other nations.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Murat Kurnaz
(b.1982), a German native, was released after spending more than 4
years locked up at Guantanamo Bay. He had been arrested in Pakistan in
late 2001. In 2007 he and Helmut Kuhn authored “Fünf Jahre meines
Lebens: Ein Bericht aus Guantanamo” (Five years of My Life: A Report
from Guantanamo).
(Econ, 2/3/07,
p.53)(http://tinyurl.com/36pdk5)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.97)
2006 Aug 24, In Iraq gunmen
overnight killed at least three people. A US soldiers was killed south
of Baghdad. 3 car bombs in Baghdad and a series of bombings and
shootings across the country killed 16 Iraqis and two US soldiers.
Police found four handcuffed bodies dumped separately in the streets of
Kut.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Israeli forces
crossed into the Gaza Strip in a raid that captured a local Hamas
militant leader and left his brother dead near a Gaza border town.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Jihad Hamad (20), the
second main suspect in a failed plot to bomb two German trains, was
arrested in his native Lebanon after surrendering to police.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Nigeria released
10,000 prisoners incarcerated for up to 10 years without trial. (WSJ,
8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, South Africa's
cabinet gave the green light for a bill allowing gay marriage, which
would make it the first country in Africa to accord homosexual couples
the same rights as their straight counterparts.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 25, A college student's
checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight that had arrived in
Houston from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was found to contain a stick of
dynamite, one of six security incidents that day that caused US flights
to be diverted, evacuated or searched.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2006 Aug 25, The US Navy debuted
Texas, its newest nuclear-powered submarine. in an Atlantic Ocean swing
off the Florida coast. This is the second in the latest fast-attack
class that marks a broad departure from the Cold War-era deterrence
boats.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 25, Bruce D.
Hopfengardner (46), a former US Army Reserve officer, admitted that he
steered millions of dollars in Iraq-reconstruction contracts in
exchange for jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors.
Hopfengardner (46) admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a US
citizen with businesses in Romania, Robert J. Stein Jr., a former
Defense Department contract official, and others to create a corrupt
bidding process that included the theft of $2 million in reconstruction
money.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Michael John O'Keefe,
the deputy nonimmigrant visa chief at the US Consulate in Toronto, was
indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges. International jewelry
executive Sunil Agrawal, a native of India, also was charged but
remains at large.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, The Alabama Supreme
Court ruled that Richard Scrushy, the fired CEO of HealthSouth Corp.,
must repay $47.8 million in bonuses he received during a massive
financial fraud at the medical services chain.
(WSJ, 8/26/06, p.A9)
2006 Aug 25, In SF former
Ukrainian PM Pavlo Lazarenko (53) was sentenced to nine years in
federal prison for money laundering, wire fraud and extortion. The
sentence, which also included $10 million in fines, was half of the
maximum sought by prosecutors. In March, he was elected to a regional
parliament office in Ukraine.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Coca-Cola was sued as
part of a campaign to force US soft drink makers to eliminate
ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene. Two companies, Zone
Brands and TalkingRain Beverage Co., had already settled similar
charges.
(SFC, 8/26/06, p.A5)
2006 Aug 25, Joseph Stefano (84),
who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," died in
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2006 Aug 25, President Hamid
Karzai ordered an investigation into the killings of eight people in
eastern Afghanistan during a raid that US forces claimed targeted
al-Qaida members. Afghan police clashed with suspected Taliban
militants in southern Zabul province, killing six insurgents and
wounding 12. Two French soldiers were killed in an ambush in eastern
Laghman province. Separate airstrikes in southern Uruzgan province
killed 23 militants, including a known Taliban commander. British
troops with a NATO-led force used artillery fire against a convoy of
insurgents that was moving into position for attack in Helmand
province. About seven insurgents were killed and seven vehicles
destroyed.
(AP, 8/25/06)(AP, 8/26/06)(AFP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Bangladesh
suspected Maoist attackers shot dead 4 policemen and a ruling party
official after hurling bombs and firing bullets in a crowded cattle
market. Police said they suspected the Purba Banglar Communist Party
(PBCP) was behind the attack.
(AFP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 25, Officials said drug
users who don't engage in dealing will no longer be sent to prison
under a new drug law now in effect across Brazil.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Zhao Yan (44), a
Chinese researcher for The New York Times who has been detained since
2004, was cleared of charges of revealing state secrets but convicted
of fraud and sentenced to three years in prison. Xinhua News said
communities in southeastern China are straining to resettle more than
15 million people left homeless by four devastating typhoons in recent
months. A moderate earthquake jolted southwest China, killing two
people.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, In China a tanker
truck loaded with 25 tons of liquid caustic soda, colorless,
transparent corrosive liquid that rapidly burns skin and eyes, fell
into a river 3 miles away from the Xuefeng reservoir in a city within
the municipality of Weinan in Shaanxi province. It polluted a reservoir
serving at least 100,000 residents for two days until water quality
returned to normal.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 25, The UN established a
new mission in East Timor but left Australian-led troops in place
following a dispute over whether they should remain independent or be
part of a UN force.
(Reuters, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, German police
arrested a 3rd suspect in connection with a failed attempt to blow up
two trains. Lebanese authorities picked up a 4th man believed to have
been involved.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Looters ravaged Camp
Abu Naji in Amarah, a former British base, a day after the camp was
turned over to Iraqi troops, taking everything from doors and window
frames to corrugated roofing and metal pipes. A police officer was
killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Samarra.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Israeli aircraft
attacked two buildings in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least nine people.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, A military truck
carrying UN peacekeepers crashed in Ivory Coast, killing six
Bangladeshi troops and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Jordan top leaders
of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party gave their leader
the go-ahead to begin forming a unity government with the militant
Hamas in an effort to end internal feuding and international isolation.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Japanese officials
said Kazusaku Tezuka, the president of precision instrument maker
Mitutoyo Corp., was arrested along with four other Mitutoyo executives
and employees for the alleged export to Malaysia of equipment that can
be used in making nuclear weapons.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, The UN said
unexploded cluster bomb litter homes, gardens and highways in south
Lebanon, as the US State Department reportedly investigated whether
Israel's use of the American-made weapons violated secret agreements
with the United States.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Mongolia the Dalai
Lama elevated a group of monks into the Buddhist priesthood's higher
ranks, bolstering the country's traditional faith as it struggles to
re-establish itself following decades of communist persecution.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Niger the UN food
agency inaugurated a program to help feed hundreds of thousands of
people as the impoverished West African nation struggles to recover
from severe shortages.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Nigerian soldiers in
Port Harcourt burned hundreds of slum houses located close to the
compound of an Italian oil company where at least one Italian worker
was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed overnight.
(Reuters, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Peru's jailed
ex-intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos was sentenced to six years
in prison for using government money to fund former President Alberto
Fujimori's 2000 re-election campaign. The sentence will be served
concurrently with Montesinos' 15-year prison sentence for various
corruption convictions.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 25, The UN food agency
said fighting between Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and security
forces has forced at least 204,000 people from their homes in the
eastern and northern parts of the country. A food relief ship began
unloading in northern Sri Lanka to lift a two-week siege of the Jaffna
peninsula as fresh clashes left five rebels dead.
(AP, 8/25/06)(AFP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 26, Tropical Storm
Ernesto strengthened over the Caribbean as it headed toward Jamaica and
the Cayman Islands, threatening to become the first hurricane of the
2006 Atlantic season.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Afghanistan a
large number of militants attacked the Musa Qala district government
compound in Helmand, provoking a clash with police that left 10
insurgents dead.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, Thousands of farmers
took to the streets across northern Bangladesh over the fatal shooting
of at least five people protesting against an open-pit coal mine.
(AFP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, Chad ordered US
energy giant Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas to leave the country
within 24 hours for failing to honor tax obligations, a move apparently
aimed at increasing control over its oil output. Chad's president
Idriss Deby suspended the oil minister and two other Cabinet members
who negotiated deals with the two foreign oil firms.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, Iran's hard-line
president inaugurated a heavy-water production plant, a facility the
West fears will be used to develop a nuclear bomb, as Tehran remained
defiant ahead of a UN deadline that could lead to sanctions.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki urged hundreds of tribal leaders to join his efforts to end
sectarian strife and terrorism Kidnapped Sunni lawmaker Tayseer
al-Mashhadani was released after being held for nearly two months.
Al-Mashhadani and 7 of her bodyguards were seized July 1 by gunmen in a
Shiite area of east Baghdad. Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on
two sisters working as translators for the British consulate, killing
one of them and seriously wounding the other. 26 people were killed in
dozens of attacks across Iraq. One US soldier was killed by a roadside
bomb.
(AP, 8/26/06)(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Nepal a landslide
in a mountainous western village killed at least 10 people and injured
three others.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Pakistan
government forces killed Nawab Akbar Bugti (79), the most prominent
leader in the rebellion by Baluch tribesmen, in a raid on his cave
hideout in the mountainous area of the southwestern provinces of
Baluchistan. A top security official said at least 16 security forces,
including four officers, were killed.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, In the West Bank,
Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a
standoff at a fugitives' hideout and doctors said a 16-year-old
Palestinian was killed. Twenty Palestinians were wounded in the clashes
in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Russia's Dagestan
region police surrounded a home and exchanged gunfire with suspected
militants, killing four and wounding a woman who was with the gunmen.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Sri Lanka police
found a large weapons cache hidden in a house on the outskirts of
Colombo, and arrested 17 people suspected of planning a major attack.
Sporadic fighting left 12 rebels killed and 20 injured during a battle
in the northeastern Batticaloa district. A bomb killed six Sri
Lankan soldiers and wounded 11 as they cleared up after fierce fighting
with Tamil Tiger rebels in the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula.
(AP, 8/26/06)(AFP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, A Sudanese court
charged reporter Paul Salopek (44) with espionage. He was detained by
pro-government forces in Darfur on Aug 6. Salopek was on freelance
assignment for National Geographic magazine.
(SSFC, 8/27/06, p.A19)
2006 Aug 26, An international
rights groups said a court in tightly controlled Turkmenistan has
sentenced three rights defenders to jail terms of six to seven years.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, Officials said Uganda
and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army have signed a truce to end a
19-year conflict that killed thousands of people.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 27, Heart-pounding spy
thriller "24" finally broke through at the Emmy Awards, winning the
prize as best drama series in its fifth try, while new workplace satire
"The Office" was crowned best comedy.
(Reuters, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Kentucky a Comair
commuter jet carrying 50 people, crashed in a field and caught fire
shortly after taking off in light rain. The co-pilot was the sole
survivor. The taxi route for commercial jets using Blue Grass Airport's
main runway was altered a week before Comair Flight 5191 took the wrong
runway and crashed.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/07)
2006 Aug 27, Ernesto became the
first hurricane of the Atlantic season with winds of 75 mph, and
forecasters said it would strengthen as it headed toward the Gulf of
Mexico.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks in Helmand province killed a British soldier, while
10 suspected Taliban militants died when police repelled an attack on a
government compound in the same province. Insurgent attacks left seven
wounded in Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Brazil archbishop
Luciano Mendes de Almeida (75), an avid human rights defender, died.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Britain’s National
Patient Safety Agency reported that 2,159 patients died between April
2005 and March 2006 as a result of "patient safety incidents" in the
National Health Service (NHS).
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, China adopted a new
bankruptcy law making it easier to restructure insolvent firms. It
became effective on June 1, 2007.
(http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2006/08/revised_bankrup.html)
2006 Aug 27, State media quoted
officials saying that one-third of China's vast landmass is suffering
from acid rain caused by its rapid industrial growth, while local
leaders are failing to enforce environmental standards for fear of
hurting business.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In western India a
water tank collapsed during a Bharatpur town fair, killing 45 people
who had climbed on top of it to watch a wrestling match.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Iran test fired a new
submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf. A
brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb, or
Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water's surface
within less than a mile.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Baghdad 2
explosions killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens. Gunmen in 3
cars opened fire at the outdoor market of Khalis, a mostly Shiite town.
12 people were killed and 25 others were wounded. 7 US soldiers were
killed in and around Baghdad, 6 by roadside bombs and one by gunfire.
Bombings and shootings killed at least 73 people across the country. A
US service member died in fighting in Anbar province west of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)(SFC, 8/28/06, p.A3)(AP,
8/29/06)
2006 Aug 27, Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news
agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen. Two Hamas
militants were killed in separate airstrikes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Jordan's parliament
endorsed the country's first anti-terrorism law despite objections by
some lawmakers that the bill curtails freedoms.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mauritania police
said the bodies of 15 people found washed ashore on the beaches of
Nouakchatt, Mauritania's capital, are believed to be those of African
migrants who were trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands by boat.
Spain's Interior Ministry said more than 18,300 people have reached the
Canary Islands so far this year, the highest total ever.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mexican electoral
officials said Juan Sabines, a leftist candidate, won the governor's
race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out
Jose Antonio Aguilar, backed by President Vicente Fox's party by about
6,300 votes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Hundreds of rioters
angered by the killing of a rebel Baluch tribal leader rampaged through
Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, burning shops, banks and police
vehicles. Police arrested 450 rioters who rampaged overnight.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Militants freed Steve
Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, two Fox News journalists in the Gaza
Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Russia a man
doused himself with flammable liquids and set himself on fire on Red
Square before dozens of shocked tourists.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Turkey a bomb on a
minibus injured 21 people including 10 British tourists. The explosion
was in the popular Mediterranean resort town of Marmaris. 2 other bomb
blasts hit at the same time in garbage cans on the main boulevard.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14546503/)
2006 Aug 28, Prosecutors in
Colorado abruptly dropped their case against John Mark Karr in the
slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the
crime scene despite his repeated insistence he'd killed the 6-year-old
beauty queen.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2006 Aug 28, Rice farmers in
Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Texas sued
BayerCrop Science alleging that its genetically modified rice has
contaminated the nation’s crop. Japan had suspended imports of US
long-grain rice a week earlier. On Jul 31 US authorities learned that
Bayer’s unapproved rice had been found in commercial bins in Arkansas
and Missouri.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.E1)
2006 Aug 28, Columbus, Ga., beat
Kawaguchi City, Japan, 2-1 to win the Little League World Series
championship game.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2006 Aug 28, In southeastern
Kentucky a small plane from Wichita Fall, Texas, crashed and all 7
people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 28, Five people were
killed and dozens injured after a Montreal-bound Greyhound bus from New
York City overturned on a highway in upstate New York.
(Reuters, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, Ed Benedict (94),
legendary animator, died in Auburn, Ca. He put life, love and laughter
in TV cartoon characters like Fred Flintstone (1960), Huckleberry Hound
and Yogi Bear.
(AP, 10/10/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.B9)
2006 Aug 28, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in Lashkar Gah,
Helmand province, killing 21 people and wounding 43. US-led coalition
troops killed 18 suspected insurgents when about 60 militants attacked
with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Cahar Cineh
district of the southern Uruzgan province.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, Don Chipp (81), an
Australian politician famed for his pledge to "keep the bastards
honest," died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
(AFP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Chile Paul
Schaefer (84), former leader of Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony,
was sentenced to 7 years in prison for arms found at the secretive
enclave near Parral, 200 miles south of Santiago.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, Tropical Storm
Ernesto hit Cuba west of the US naval air base at Guantanamo after
killing 2 people in Haiti.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, Ene Ergma (62), a
Soviet-trained astronomer, failed to win enough votes in parliament to
become Estonia's next president, forcing a new vote on a second
candidate.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, Gunmen opened fire
with assault rifles in a Guatemala pool hall, killing eight people
including a 17-year-old boy. The attack occurred in the poor Guatemala
City suburb of Ciudad Quetzal.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, Guyana held
elections. Critics accused Guyana's government of turning a blind eye
to the cocaine flowing Guyana to the US and Europe. President Bharrat
Jagdeo's party appeared headed to victory in Guyana's election,
according to vote results.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 28, In India officials
said monsoon rains and flooding have killed at least 130 people in the
western state of Rajasthan, with huge swathes of desert underwater.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Iraq a suicide car
bombing in Baghdad killed 16 people. Clashes in Diwaniyah between
Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces left 73 people dead. A US
service member died of wounds sustained in a vehicle accident in Balad
north of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Ireland the
government and directors of the state-owned airline announced that Aer
Lingus Group PLC expects to raise more than $500 million by selling
stock for the first time in a public offering next month.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, An Israeli airstrike
on central Gaza killed 4 Palestinian militants.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, Italy approved 2,500
troops in a boost to an expanded international force in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, US Sen. Barack Obama
urged Kenyans to take control of their country's destiny by opposing
corruption and ethnic divisions in government during a policy speech at
the main university in his father's homeland.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, Mexico’s top
electoral court announced that a partial recount found no widespread
evidence of fraud.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 28, In the Netherlands
prosecutors at the International Criminal Court filed their first
indictment, charging Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord, for
allegedly abducting and recruiting children as young as 10 to fight in
Congo's brutal civil war.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Quetta, Pakistan,
mobs burned shops, banks and buses in a second day of rioting over the
killing of a top tribal chief by Pakistani troops, raising fears that a
decades-old conflict in the country's volatile southwest could widen.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, Palestinian municipal
workers responsible for garbage collection, water treatment, and sewage
processing went on strike in Gaza City and two other southern towns.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Sri Lanka at least
31 people were killed and another 105 wounded as security forces moved
to push back rebel artillery threatening a strategic port.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, In South Africa
Adriaan Vlok, whose ministry helped suppress anti-apartheid protests,
last weekend visited the offices of the Rev. Frank Chikane, a top
presidential aide, to apologize. Vlok brought his Bible and washed
Chikane's feet in an attempt to atone for the sins of the white racist
regime that ruled the country until 1994.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Turkey a bomb in
the resort city of Antalya killed 3 people and injured 18. A group
calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claimed responsibility.
(AP, 8/28/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.6)
2006 Aug 29, President George Bush
visited New Orleans one year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the
region to offer comfort and hope to residents.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2006 Aug 29, A US probe determined
that Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of
Governors, misused government funds on several occasions, overbilling
for his time and funneling unauthorized contracts to a friend.
(AP, 8/29/06)(WSJ, 8/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 29, Omeed Aziz Popal
(29), a native of Afghanistan, killed one pedestrian in Hayward, Ca.,
and injured another 16 at 11 locations in SF in a driving rampage. SF
police finally rammed him down at California and Spruce streets. In
2008 a SF judge ruled that Popal was legally insane.
(SFC, 8/30/06, p.A1)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.B1)
2006 Aug 29, In East Oakland, Ca.,
Anthony Quintero (24), a Brink’s guard, was killed during a robbery
that involved his partner Clifton Wherry Jr. and Dwight Campbell, who
shot Quintero. In 2009 Campbell (26) and Wherry (31) were convicted of
1st degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(SFC, 10/9/09, p.D5)(SFC, 12/12/09, p.C2)
2006 Aug 29, Warren Steed Jeffs
(50), a fugitive polygamist, was arrested in Nevada. He was on the
FBI’s 10 most-wanted list for sex crimes in Utah and Arizona. Jeffs
ruled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
(FLDS) since his father died in 2002. The sect had broken from the
Mormon Church over a century ago.
(SFC, 8/30/06, p.A11)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.34)
2006 Aug 29, Tropical Storm
Ernesto's leading edge drenched Miami and the rest of southern Florida.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2006 Aug 29, A suicide car bomber
struck a NATO-Afghan military convoy, killing two civilians and
wounding one in the violence-wracked south. A remote-controlled bomb
killed two police officers on patrol.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 29, About 50 former
militants surrendered and handed over their weapons in a ceremony led
by Chechnya's powerful prime minister, who said rebel numbers are
dwindling in the war-ravaged region.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 29, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad challenged the authority of the UN Security Council as Iran
faces a deadline to halt its uranium enrichment and he called for a
televised debate with President Bush on world issues.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 29, The bodies of 13
people, believed to have been aged between 25 and 35, were found dumped
behind a Shiite mosque in the Turath neighborhood in western Baghdad.
All were handcuffed, showed signs of torture and had been shot in the
head. 11 of the bullet-riddled corpses were found near a school in the
Shiite dominated Maalif neighborhood in southern Baghdad. A pipeline
carrying oil byproducts exploded near Diwaniyah, killing at least 36
people with 45 injured.
(AP, 8/29/06)(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 29, Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, rejected a court
decision upholding his rival's slim lead in the disputed July 2 race
and called on his supporters not to recognize a government led by
Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 29, In Quetta, Pakistan,
gunfire and rioting broke out for a fourth straight day after the
funeral service for a prominent tribal chief killed by Pakistani
government forces. One policeman was killed and dozens of shops
destroyed. Three factory workers were killed in a restaurant bombing in
the Baluchistan town of Hub.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 29, An extremist Kurdish
militant group warned that "the fear of death will reign everywhere in
Turkey" and it urged tourists to avoid travel to the country.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 29, A cease-fire between
Uganda's government and the LRA, a shadowy rebel movement that has
terrorized this east African nation for nearly two decades, went into
effect.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 30, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger and Democrats struck a deal to require state industries
to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
(SFC, 8/31/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 30, Glenn Ford (90),
American actor, died at his home in Beverly Hills, Ca. He played
strong, thoughtful protagonists in films such as "The Blackboard
Jungle," "Gilda" and "The Big Heat."
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 30, Brazil’s central bank
cut its key interest rate 0.5% to 14.25%, a quarter point more than had
been expected. Brazil also released weaker-than-expected data on GDP.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 30, Canadian miner
Uranium One said it had approved Australia's fourth uranium mine, the
Honeymoon project in the South Australian outback.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Conservationists said
the remains of 100 African elephants killed for their tusks have been
found in Chad not far from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 30, Nearly 60 inmates
escaped from an East Timor jail, including scores of people arrested in
recent violence that wracked the tiny nation and militiamen who opposed
the country's break from Indonesian rule.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Naguib Mahfouz
(b.1911), Arab writer, died in Cairo. He became the first Arab writer
to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1988) for his novels depicting
modern Egyptian life. Across the span of 35 novels, hundreds of short
stories and essays, over 20 movie scripts and five plays, Mahfouz
depicted with startling realism the Egyptian "Everyman" balancing
between tradition and the modern world.
(AP, 8/30/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.78)
2006 Aug 30, Iran released Ramin
Jahanbegloo, a Canadian-Iranian writer, who was accused of working with
the US to overthrow the government.
(Reuters, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, A roadside bomb
exploded in Baghdad's oldest and largest wholesale market district,
killing at least 24 people and wounding 35. An explosives-rigged
bicycle detonated near an army recruiting center in Hillah killed at
least 12 people and wounded 28. Bloodshed left at least 52 dead. 2
American soldiers and a Marine were killed.
(AP, 8/30/06)(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 30, Israeli troops
launched airstrikes on the outskirts of Gaza City and exchanged gunfire
with Palestinian militants, killing six people.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora said that he refused to have any direct contact with Israel and
that Lebanon would be the last Arab country to ever sign a peace deal
with the Jewish state. Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief, accused
Israel of "shocking" and "completely immoral" behavior for dropping
large numbers of cluster bombs on Lebanon when a cease-fire in its war
with Hezbollah was in sight.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Hurricane John lashed
tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain as the dangerous Category 4
storm marched up Mexico's Pacific coast.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2006 Aug 30, Nigerian officials
and the UN refugee agency appealed to some 6,000 recalcitrant Liberian
refugees to go back home, warning that time and hospitality were fast
running out for them.
(AFP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, In southwestern
Pakistan protesters angry over the killing of a rebel tribal chief
blocked highways in Quetta, preventing workers from reaching the
provincial capital and forcing most shops to close. In northwestern
Pakistan militants decapitated an Islamic cleric and an Afghan refugee
accused of spying for US and Afghan authorities.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Russia released two
Japanese fishermen held since their boat was seized for allegedly
fishing in Russian waters in a confrontation in which a crewman was
killed.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, In Sudan riot police
fired teargas and beat a journalist in central Khartoum on as
opposition party supporters gathered to demonstrate against a recent
rise in petrol and sugar prices.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez said in Damascus that he and Syrian President Bashar Assad
shared a "decisive and firm" stance against American "imperialism" and
"domination."
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 31, President George
Bush, speaking in Salt Lake City, predicted victory in the war on
terror, likening the struggle against Islamic fundamentalism with the
fight against Nazis and communists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2006 Aug 31, The United States
carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment successfully at an
underground test site in Nevada, the 2nd this year and the 23rd such
test since 1997.
(http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/100778)
2006 Aug 31, In California Tony J.
Daniloo (32) of Turlock was indicted on 122 charges of fraud and money
laundering for allegedly embezzling $7 million from homeowners in the
East Bay and the Central Valley.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.B12)
2006 Aug 31, NASA awarded a
multibillion contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to send astronauts to
the moon and maybe on to Mars. The projected Orion crew exploration
vehicle program will cost an estimated $7.5 billion through 2019.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A7)
2006 Aug 31, In southern Montana a
wildfire burned 20 houses and 15 other buildings as it spread over some
156,000 acres.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 31, In New York 2 state
troopers were shot while staking out the property of a former
girlfriend of escaped convict Ralph Phillips. Trooper Joseph Longobardo
(32) died from his wounds on Sep 3. Phillips, a 44-year-old career
thief who has spent 20 of the past 23 years in state prison,
surrendered Sep 8 without firing a shot.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Aug 31, J.S. Holliday
(b.1924), California historian, died. His book included “The World
Rushed In” (1981), a history of the California gold rush.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Aug 31, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked Naw Zad in Helmand province, sparking
intense fighting with government troops that left two insurgents dead.
In Zabul province a suicide attacker plowed his explosives-filled car
into a police convoy traveling on the main road, wounding three
officers. A Dutch F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Ghazni province in
central Afghanistan, killing the pilot.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, In Argentina tens of
thousands gathered in the central square of Buenos Aires for one of the
biggest anti-crime rallies ever seen there. It was organized by Juan
Carlos Blumberg, a businessman and leader of the law-and-order movement.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.39)
2006 Aug 31, A minister said
Bangladesh has bowed to demands from protestors and cancelled a 734
million pound (1.4-billion dollar) plan by British firm Asia Energy to
build an open-pit coal mine.
(AFP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Heng Pov, former
Phnom Penh police chief, was arrested at a hotel in Singapore when a
clerk brought food for him. A Cambodian court warrant had been recently
issued against him accusing him of involvement in a number of crimes
such as the killing of Phnom Penh judge Sok Sethamony, assassination
attempts on general Sao Sokha and judge Uk Savuth, as well as a number
of other criminal cases. Pov claimed that he was being framed for
refusing orders to kill Hok Lundy, the internal security chief.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtumm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Aug 31, A Chinese court
sentenced Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong reporter, to five years in prison
on spying charges in a case that prompted outcries by press freedom
groups. In Hunan Province a mine gas explosion killed at least nine
people.
(AP, 8/31/06)(Reuters, 9/3/06)
2006 Aug 31, Sen. Barack Obama,
D-Ill., visited a sprawling tent camp in eastern Ethiopia for people
displaced by devastating floods earlier this month, saying the US
military will continue to help the region.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Sexus Politicus, by
co-authors Christophe Dubois and Christophe Deloire, was published in
France. It revealed decades of philandering, adultery and seduction at
the heart of the French state, with politicians of all colors
apparently sharing the same passion for extra-marital sex.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Guyana’s elections
commission said President Bharrat Jagdeo won re-election and his ruling
People's Progressive Party increased its majority in Guyana's
parliament. The PPP received 183,887 votes, or about 55%, and increased
its seats in parliament by two to 36.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 31, In eastern India at
least 30 people drowned when a crowded boat capsized in the
rain-swollen Ganges River in the state of Bihar.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Indian officials said
more than 11,000 Tamil refugees have fled to India since January to
escape renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and separatist
rebels and more are likely to come.
(AFP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Iran defied a UN
deadline to stop enriching uranium.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2006 Aug 31, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said Iraqi security forces will take over Dhi Qar province in
September, and will take over the control of more provinces during the
rest of the year. A suicide car bomb targeting a line of cars waiting
at a Baghdad gas station killed two people and wounded 13. A barrage of
coordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad neighborhoods killed at
least 64 people and wounded 286 within half an hour. The dead included
at least 13 women and a dozen children. A total of 85 people were
killed across the country.
(AP, 8/31/06)(AP, 9/1/06)(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 31, The Israeli army said
that it has transferred control over a portion of the Israel-Lebanon
border to Lebanese and international troops for the first time in two
decades.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers
searching for tunnels and explosives withdrew from the outskirts of
Gaza City, ending a five-day operation that Palestinians said left 20
people dead and heavily damaged houses, streets and farmlands.
Palestinian militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel, defying
the calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the attacks.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Kenya stepped up
criticism of US Senator Barack Obama, accusing him of insulting the
Kenyan people and trivializing their achievements during a visit to his
father's homeland. Obama had rebuked Kibaki's government for failing to
address corruption and said Kenya's democratic progress "is in
jeopardy... being threatened by corruption."
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 31, Hurricane John
pummeled Mexico's resort-studded Pacific Coast with wind and rain.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, The UN Security
Council passed a resolution that would give the United Nations
authority over peacekeepers in Darfur as soon as Sudan's government
gives its consent, which it has so far refused to do.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, An internal
investigation concluded that a UN official steered millions of dollars
in contracts to a company owned by the government of his native India
in exchange for favors that included low-rent apartments.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 31, In southern Thailand
nearly two dozen bombs exploded almost simultaneously inside commercial
banks, killing two people in a region bloodied by a Muslim insurgency.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug, A report by the US
Census Bureau in its 2005 American Community Survey indicated that
marriage did not figure in nearly 55.8 million American family
households, or 50.2%. The trend represented a dramatic change from just
six years ago, when married couples made up 52 percent of 105.5 million
American households.
(AFP, 10/15/06)
2006 Aug, Norman Buckley (44) an
assistant at Manchester's Central Library, pleaded guilty to theft
charges for stealing more than 450 centuries-old books and documents
between January 2005 and March 2006. In October he received a 15-month
jail sentence, but it was suspended for two years.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Aug, In China a project was
begun in Shanghai to treat industrial waste with iron filings, a
process which had been found to be a cheap and efficient way to clean
up polluted water.
(Econ, 12/6/08, TQ p.11)
2006 Aug, In Colombia the
telenovela “Sin Tetas no hay Paraiso" (Without Breasts There's No
Paradise) premiered. It was based on a best-selling, true-to-life novel
by the same name and became very popular.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Aug, In India some 260
million people lived on less than one dollar a day. Nearly half the
country’s children under age six were undernourished and more than half
the women were illiterate. Half the homes in the country had no
electricity.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.64)
2006 Aug, In Macedonia within 3
days of the new government taking office as many as 544 managers and
top officials from state companies were sacked or shunted aside.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.62)
2006 Aug, In Nigeria Transcorp
acquired NITEL, the state-run telecommunication company. Pres. Olusegun
Obasanjo was widely believed to have a large stake in Transcorp. In
2009 the government voided the sale.
(AFP, 6/2/09)
2006 Aug, In Romania the heads of
the leading spy agencies quit along with the top prosecutor after they
failed to keep track of Omar Hayssam. The Syrian-born businessman,
arrested on terrorism charges, fled Romania after being paroled for
health reasons.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.62)
2006 Aug, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels abducted 56 boys and girls during a 4-day period this month in
Batticaloa district. UNICEF figures showed that 5,666 children had been
abducted between a cease fire in 2002 and July 2006. The organization
speculated that only about a third of such cases were reported to them.
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A17,18)
2006 Aug, In Turkey a
parliamentary report found that 1,091 honor-related crimes had been
committed over the last 5 years. Blame for many honor of the killings
was placed on the patriarchal and feudal system entrenched in the
Kurdish provinces.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.62)
2006 Sep 1, US military forces
launched a rocket interceptor that destroyed a mock warhead in outer
space.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 1, US federal agents
began rounding up illegal immigrants in Stillmore, Georgia. More than
120 illegal immigrants were loaded onto buses bound for immigration
courts in Atlanta. Hundreds more fled Emanuel County. The Crider
poultry plant was left scrambling for workers.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 1, Disrupting the start
of the Labor Day weekend, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto
drenched the Mid-Atlantic region, cut power to more than 400,000
customers and forced evacuations. 3 people were reported killed in
North Carolina and Virginia.
(AP, 9/2/06)(SFC, 9/2/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 1, Nellie Connally (87),
the former Texas first lady who was riding in President Kennedy's
limousine when he was assassinated, died in Austin, Texas.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2006 Sep 1, In Afghanistan
fighting across the volatile south killed nine Afghan policemen, at
least 13 suspected Taliban and a British soldier.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 1, Brazil pressured
Google to turn over data from Web sites that the government said were
used by criminals. Authorities gave Google 15 days to comply or face a
daily fine of $23,000.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 1, Cambodia’s PM Hun Sen
pushed a bill through the lower house of parliament banning
extra-marital affairs. The legislation could get adulterers up to a
year in jail.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Sep 1, In Chad US Senator
Barack Obama held talks with President Idriss Deby Itno on the crisis
in Sudan's Darfur region and on Chad's oil production, on the final
stop of the African-American politician's tour of the continent.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Colombia Jesus
Ignacio Roldan led special prosecutors and investigators to the alleged
grave of Carlos Castano, former right-wing paramilitary leader, near
the town of Valencia. Roldan says he killed Castano in April 2004 on
the order of Castano's older brother, Vicente Castano.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Greece beat the
Americans 101-95 in the semifinals of the world championships in
Saitama, Japan.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Hungarian poet Gyorgy
Faludy (95), a legend of resistance to the rise of Nazism and
Communism, died at his home in Budapest. He spent 1950-1953 in the
Stalinist concentration camp at Recsk. Faludy won international fame
with his autobiographical novel "My Happy Days in Hell" in the 1960s,
which related his escape from fascist Hungary and his return, and
imprisonment, in a country under communist rule.
(Reuters, 9/2/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.96)
2006 Sep 1, Iran underlined its
disregard for the UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment, now expired,
when its president vowed never to give up its nuclear program and
accused the West of misrepresenting Tehran's nuclear activities.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, In northeastern Iran a
Russian-made Tupolev 154 airplane with 148 people on board skidded off
the runway and caught fire, killing 29 people.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Kurdish leader Massoud
Barzani ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish
one in his northern autonomous region. Gunmen fatally shot one
policeman in each of two towns outside of Baghdad in separate
incidents. Police said they found the body of a Saddam Hussein-era
intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot. A US soldier died
from wounds sustained during action in Anbar province.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 1, Shinzo Abe, the
front-runner to be Japan's next prime minister, announced his
candidacy, promising to defend Japan's interests and maintain the
security alliance with the US.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Mexico City riot
police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's Congress
as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from delivering his
final state-of-the-nation address. Mexican lawmakers, protesting
conservative Felipe Calderon's victory in the July 2 presidential
election, stormed the congressional stage and refused to yield, making
Fox the first president in modern Mexican history not to deliver his
annual address to Congress. Fox handed in a written copy of his report
and delivered it over television.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 1, Morocco’s Interior
Ministry said security agents broke up a group planning terrorist
attacks on tourist sites and government facilities, arresting 56 people
who included soldiers and the wives of two pilots at the state airline.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, A strike paralyzed
Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province after the controversial burial
of a top rebel leader whose killing sparked days of deadly rioting.
Partial strikes also hit southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces.
(AFP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, World donors pledged
$500 million in aid for Palestinians, including $55 million for a UN
emergency appeal for humanitarian help. Carin Jamtin, Sweden's aid
minister and host of the donors' conference held in the Swedish
capital, said a total of $114 million of the money pledged will go
toward humanitarian aid, with the rest going to rebuilding
infrastructure and other projects.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Spain's Cabinet
approved sending 1,100 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon,
calling it a "legitimate" mission to help maintain peace in the region.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Spain
self-contained, nonsmoking areas with their own ventilation systems,
became requisite for larger restaurants and bars.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Sri Lanka's navy said
it sank 12 Tamil rebel boats overnight, including five suicide craft,
and killed as many as 100 rebel fighters during a fierce six-hour sea
battle off the country's northern coast.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 1, Human rights activists
and African Union officials said the Sudanese government has launched a
major offensive against rebels in war-torn Darfur.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said that Syria had pledged to step up border patrols and
work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1-2006 Sep 2, Separatist
Kurdish guerrillas killed 7 Turkish soldiers and wounded two in
stepped-up attacks against the military in southeastern Turkey.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, In Nevada’s Black Rock
Desert the Burning Man art festival culminated with the burning of a
40-foot wooden man. It included a Belgian art installation titled
“Uchronia” (aka the Belgian Waffle), a 250,000, 15-story wooden cavern
funded by Jan Kriekels and constructed by 90 Belgium artists.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 2, Bob Mathias (b.1930),
2-time Olympic decathlon champion (1948, 1952), died at his home in
Fresno, Ca. He also served in the US House of Representatives for 4
terms (1967-1976). He starred as himself in the film “The Bob Mathias
Story” (1954).
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 2, Walter Redman (75),
aka Dewey Redman, tenor saxophonist and bandleader, died in NYC. He cut
his 1st album in SF in 1966.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.B7)
2006 Sep 2, A NATO Nimrod
reconnaissance aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing 14
British servicemen. The alliance said there was no indication hostile
fire was involved. The Nimrod MR2 exploded after an air-to-air
refueling operation. A later investigation said that leaking fuel
ignited by a hot pipe was the most likely cause of a fire that
destroyed the plane. British patrol NATO and Afghan forces began
Operation Medusa in southern Afghanistan. Dozens of insurgents were
killed during the fighting.
(AP, 9/2/06)(AP, 9/3/06)(AP, 12/4/07)
2006 Sep 2, The UN said opium
cultivation in Afghanistan is spiraling out of control, rising 59% this
year to produce a record 6,100 tons, nearly a third more than the
world's drug users consume.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, Bangladesh's trade
shipments ground to a virtual halt as shipping companies refused to use
the nation's main port in a protest over container fees. Operations
began to resume the next day after 2 shipping companies agreed to
withdraw their boycott.
(AFP, 9/2/06)(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, British police
arrested 14 people in overnight raids and said they suspected the men
had been involved in training and recruiting for terror attacks. Two
others were arrested in an unrelated terror investigation in Manchester.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, In Chile miners at
Escondida returned to work following a 25-day strike that cost the
company some $200 million in lost profits. Their new deal included a
bonus of $12,000 on account of high copper prices.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.40)
2006 Sep 2, In China’s Guizhou
Province a mine gas explosion killed at least 8 people. Six miners died
when their pit in central Hubei province flooded.
(Reuters, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, A small boat of
African migrants from Eritrea was intercepted off the coast of Sicily.
They said eight people died during their grueling trip. They had left
from Libya 10-12 days earlier.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, Indonesia said it will
send up to 1,000 troops to southern Lebanon by the month's end, after
Israel dropped objections to its participation in the U.N. peacekeeping
force.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad vowed Iran would defend the aims of its nuclear program
during any negotiations as the EU gave Tehran extra time to show it was
serious about talks. Iran offered to help support the cease-fire in
Lebanon in talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and insisted
that diplomacy is the only way to resolve Tehran's nuclear dispute with
the West.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, In Iraq attacks killed
13 Pakistani and Indian pilgrims south of Baghdad and three bombings
left six people dead.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, Italian soldiers
poured into Lebanon, part of the first large contingent of
international troops dispatched to boost the UN force keeping the peace
between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, Hezbollah announced
the death of Hajj Ali Mohammed Saleh Bilal, a military commander, from
wounds suffered in monthlong fighting with Israel.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, At least eight boats
carrying 674 migrants from Mauritania reached the Canary Islands in the
space of 24 hours.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, The former Stella
Polaris, a historic ocean liner (1927-1970), sank overnight off Japan's
southeastern coast. The Swedish company Petro-Fast AB had planned to
operate the ship, renamed the Scandinavia, as a hotel-restaurant in
Stockholm.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, Unpaid teachers shut
down thousands of schools across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the
first day of the school year, in a major challenge to the Hamas
government.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, In Romania liberal
leaders expelled Mona Musca, one of the country's most popular
politicians, from the party after she admitted to having collaborated
with the Securitate secret police under the communist dictatorship of
Nicolae Ceausescu.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2-2006 Sep 3, In
northwestern Russia hundreds of people looted shops and burned a
restaurant belonging to Caucasus businessmen in Kondopoga in Karelia.
The outbreak of racial violence was triggered by the recent killing of
two locals.
(Reuters, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, Sudan's president
ordered the release of an envoy of Slovenia's president who was
convicted of espionage in the war-torn region of Darfur and sentenced
to two years in prison. Tomo Kriznar, the Slovenian president's envoy
to Darfur, was arrested in July and convicted on Aug. 14 by a court in
the North Darfur capital of el-Fasher.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 3, It was reported that
47% of US development aid is spent on overpriced technical assistance.
70% of US aid was contingent upon the recipient spending it on American
stuff including American-made armaments. In total 86 cents of every
dollar of US aid was said to be phantom aid, in that it never shows up
in recipient countries.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.E1)
2006 Sep 3, Andre Agassi retired
after losing the third-round match at the US Open.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2006 Sep 3, An apartment fire in
Chicago killed six children ages 3 to 14.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2006 Sep 3, Nina Reiser (31) of
Oakland, Ca., went missing. On Oct 10 police arrested Hans Reiser (42),
her estranged husband on suspicion of murder. In 2008 Reiser confessed
to strangling Nina in exchange for a reduced sentence and was sentenced
15 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 10/11/06, p.B1)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.B1)
2006 Sep 3, NATO and Afghan forces
hit the Taliban with air strikes and artillery in Operation Medusa in
southern Afghanistan. Four NATO soldiers, including 3 Canadians, and
more than 200 insurgents were killed in the first two days of a major
anti-Taliban operation under way in the Panjwayi district, about 10
miles from the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 3, Another 4 boats
carrying 522 migrants from Mauritania reached the Canary Islands. This
brought the total for 2 days to nearly 1200.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 3, The SMART-1
spacecraft, Europe's first moon probe launched Sep 27, 2003, signed off
its mission on schedule by crashing into the lunar surface, completing
a project scientists hope will tell them more about the moon's origin.
(Reuters, 9/3/06)(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 3, Indonesia reported
that 18% of its population of some 220 million are officially poor. The
government benchmark was based on an income of $16.80 per month. Use of
a $1 a day benchmark would raise the poverty number to over 80 million.
(Econ, 9/16/06,
p.53)(http://indonesiaupdate.org/2006/09/)
2006 Sep 3, Iraq's national
security adviser said that Iraqi and coalition forces had arrested the
second most senior figure in al-Qaida in Iraq. Hamed Jumaa Farid
al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured north of
Baghdad "along with another group of his aides and followers. A later
report dated his capture to June 19. At least 16 Iraqis and two US
soldiers were killed in bomb attacks and shootings nationwide. A US
soldier died from wounds in Anbar province and 2 Marines were killed
while fighting there.
(AP, 9/3/06)(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 3, In Pakistan Abdul
Rahim Muslim Dost and his brother, Badruz Zaman Badar Dost, published
“The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo,” an account of their 3 years in
detention at the US prison. On Sep 29 Abdul was jailed by the Pakistani
intelligence service in apparent response to criticism of the agency’s
role in the US-led war on terrorism.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 3, A bomb damaged a gas
pipeline in southwestern Pakistan, cutting supplies to thousands of
homes in the region.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 3, In southeastern Turkey
a remote-controlled bomb exploded in a tea garden, killing two people
and wounding seven.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, Lt. Col. Marshall
Gutierrez (41), whistleblower on food overcharging for the Iraq war,
was found dead in his quarters in Kuwait. A Kuwaiti contractor had
accused Gutierrez of seeking bribes.
(WSJ, 10/20/07, p.A1)
2006 Sep 4, Tropical storm Ernesto
soaked the East Coast of the US claiming 6 lives and left 19,000
customers in the new York area without power.
(WSJ, 9/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 4, In Berkeley, Ca.,
Nicholas Beaudreaux shot and killed Wayne Drummond in front of Blake’s
Restaurant. In 2009 Lamar Crowder (21) pleaded no contests to voluntary
manslaughter and testified against Beaudreaux (23), who was convicted
of first-degree murder in the shooting.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.D2)
2006 Sep 4, In south-central
Montana a wildfire had spread across 180,000 acres, over 280 sq. miles,
since it was sparked by lightning on Aug 22. It was only 20% contained.
(SFC, 9/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 4, In Newry, Maine, 4
people were found killed at the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast. The
victims were shot and then dismembered. Christian Nielsen (31), a
resident at the inn for 2-months, was arrested. The dead included owner
Julie Bullard (65), her daughter Selby (30), her friend Cindy Beatson
(43), and Arkansas resident James Whitehurst.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.B2)
2006 Sep 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 US warplanes accidentally strafed their own forces,
killing one Canadian soldier and seriously wounding five others. A
British soldier attached to NATO was also killed in a Kabul suicide
bombing, which left another four Afghans dead. 16 suspected Taliban
militants and five Afghan police died in separate Afghan violence.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, Steve Irwin (44),
world-famous Australian "crocodile hunter" and television
environmentalist, was killed by a stingray blow to the chest while
filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. His "Crocodile Hunter"
show, in which the adventurer appeared in his trademark khaki shorts
and shirt, was first broadcast in 1992 and has been shown around the
world on the Discovery cable network ever since.
(AFP, 9/4/06)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.82)
2006 Sep 4, Global press titan
Rupert Murdoch launched a new free title: thelondonpaper, a 48-page
color paper, dominated by gossip and real-life stories, in the city
centre. The first free paper in London was launched seven years ago, in
1999. Metro, a daily morning paper published by Associated Newspapers,
has a circulation of around a million copies in the capital and 13
other big towns.
(AFP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, In CongoDRC a boat
overloaded with passengers and freight sank in choppy waters on Lake
Kivu, killing at least 35 people.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Cyprus 3 British
holidaymakers were charged with willful manslaughter over the death of
a Cypriot teenager in a hit-and-run accident in the coastal resort of
Protaras last month. A rented Opel "repeatedly rammed" the moped in
what police described as a revenge attack following a fight outside a
Protaras disco in which a friend of the accused was beaten up.
(AFP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Egypt a passenger
train collided with a cargo train north of Cairo, killing 5 people and
injuring 30 others.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, In France the Airbus
A380, the world's largest passenger jet, took off with a full load of
passengers for the first time. Carrying 474 Airbus employees, the
308-ton jet left from Toulouse, southern France, on the first of four
test flights.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Iraq a popular
Iraqi soccer star was kidnapped. 33 bullet-riddled bodies were found in
Baghdad and 2 more in Kut. At least two people also were killed and six
were wounded in and around Baqouba. Two suicide bombers slammed into a
checkpoint on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and
wounding eight. Gunmen in Ramadi killed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Thumeil, who
had served in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's military. An
American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, while
a 2nd soldier died of non-combat related injuries. 2 US Marines and one
sailor were killed in fighting Anbar province.
(AP, 9/4/06)(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 4, Nabeel Ahmed Issa
al-Jaourah opened fire on tourists near a popular Roman ruins site in
Jordan's capital, killing Christopher Stokes, a British man, and
wounding five other foreigners and a local police officer. Police
overpowered and arrested the attacker at the scene. Al-Jaourah was
sentenced to death in December.
(AP, 9/4/06)(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Lebanon US civil
rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Hezbollah officials and
called on them to show proof that two captured Israeli soldiers are
still alive. A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
agreed to requests by Hezbollah and Israel that he mediate in
negotiations over the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers. Qatar
announced that it would contribute 200 to 300 troops to the UN
peacekeeping force in Lebanon, making the Persian Gulf state the first
Arab country to commit soldiers to the peace effort in Lebanon.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, Philippine marines
clashed with nearly 200 al-Qaida-linked rebels on Jolo Island. 6
government troops were killed and 19 wounded in the monthlong US-backed
offensive. In Dec the military said Khaddafy Janjalani, head of the
al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, was killed in the fighting and that his
remains had been found. DNA evidence confirmed his death.
(AP, 9/4/06)(AP, 12/27/06)(AP, 1/20/07)
2006 Sep 4, Somalia's weak
government and an Islamic militia that controls much of the south
signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, Sri Lanka President
Mahinda Rajapakse said security forces had captured Sampur, a key town
used by Tamil Tigers to target artillery at a major naval port.
Rajapakse urged the rebels to return to peace talks.
(AFP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 4, Sudan said it would
allow African troops to remain in Darfur only under African Union
control and accused Washington of attempting "regime change" in
Khartoum by trying to bring in a UN force.
(Reuters, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 5, Pres. Bush named Mary
Peters, former Federal Highway Administrator, to replace Norm Pineta as
transportation secretary.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 5, The Academy of
American Poets announced that Michael Palmer (63), a resident of San
Francisco, has been selected as the recipient of the 13th Wallace
Stevens Award for "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of
poetry." The award included $100,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/gcmho)
2006 Sep 5, Dan Rather said he has
donated $2 million to his alma mater, Sam Houston State University, the
largest single monetary gift in the school's 127-year history.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, Chevron and Devon
energy announced successful oil production from a new deep water region
in the Gulf of Mexico estimated at 3-15 billion barrels of oil plus gas.
(WSJ, 9/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 5, Bill Ford stepped
down as CEO of Ford Motor Co. and was replaced by Alan Mulally, a top
Boeing executive. Mulally will get a base salary of $2 million and an
immediate payout of $18.5 million which includes a $7.5 million hiring
bonus and $11 million to offset forfeited performance and stock option
awards from Boeing.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.C3)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 5, The US FDA granted
Abiomed approval to sell AbioCor, the world’s first implantable
artificial heart.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 5, The lower deck of the
SF Bay Bridge reopened after being shut down for the 3-day Labor Day
weekend due to demolition work.
(SFC, 9/5/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 5, The Wireless Silicon
Valley Project picked Silicon Valley Metro Connect, a collaboration of
Azulstar Networks, Cisco systems, IBM and Seakay, to build and operate
a wireless network across 38 cities in the SF Bay Area.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 5, A cook was charged
with shooting and dismembering the owner of a Maine bed-and-breakfast
and three other people in a Labor Day weekend killing rampage.
Christian Nielsen has since pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of
insanity.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2006 Sep 5, In southern
Afghanistan US artillery and airstrikes killed between 50 and 60
suspected Taliban militants, the fourth day of a NATO-led offensive.
NATO said 700 Taliban were trapped by the offensive.
(AP, 9/5/06)(WSJ, 9/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 5, A federal judge in
Argentina ruled unconstitutional a 1990 presidential pardon extended to
Jorge Rafael Videla, who led Argentina's military junta during the
worst periods of the so-called "Dirty War" crackdown on dissidents
between 1976 and 1983. A day earlier the same judge ruled that pardons
for Albano Harguinday, the interior minister under Videla, and Jose
Martinez de Hoz, the economy minister under Videla, were also
unconstitutional.
(http://tinyurl.com/0)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 5, Burundi Vice-President
Alice Nzomukunda resigned over corruption and human rights abuses that
she says are hampering her nation's progress.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5316690.stm)
2006 Sep 5, Danish authorities
said they foiled a serious terror plot with the arrest of nine men
accused of preparing explosives for a planned attack in Denmark. The
suspects were Danish citizens between the ages of 18 and 33. Eight of
them had immigrant backgrounds. In 2007 a jury in Copenhagen handed
down guilty verdicts to Mohammad Zaher (34), Ahmad Khaldhadi (22), and
Abdallah Andersen (32). Riad Anwer Daabas (19) was acquitted. Zaher and
Khaldhadi, described as the two most active, were each sentenced to 11
years in prison, while Andersen was given a four-year sentence.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 11/24/07)
2006 Sep 5, Cellular telephones
were found inside four prisoners in El Salvador's maximum-security
prison after suspicious officials took X-rays of each of the inmates.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, French oil and gas
field surveyor Geophysique said it will buy US rival Veritas for $3.1
billion in cash and stock, establishing a major new global player in
the booming oil exploration industry.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, The Iraqi parliament
voted to extend the country's state of emergency for 30 more days.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, Israeli forces left
five villages in southern Lebanon and were replaced by Lebanese troops,
who also moved into the center of a Hezbollah stronghold devastated by
weeks of fighting.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, In Kyrgyzstan Maj.
Jill Metzger (33), a US Air Force officer, went missing while shopping
in the capital of Bishkek. Metzger reappeared 3 days later and said she
had been seized by three young men and a woman in a minibus and held in
a rural area about 30 miles from the capital.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 5, In south Lebanon a
remote-controlled bomb wounded a senior police intelligence officer who
played a key role in the investigation into the slaying of a former
Lebanese prime minister. Four of the officer's aides and bodyguards
were killed in the sophisticated attack.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, The president of
Mexico's top electoral court recommended that the full tribunal uphold
the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. Marcelo Garza,
the top police investigator for Nuevo Leon, a northern Mexican state
that borders Texas, was shot to death by a lone gunman outside an art
gallery.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, Pakistan's government
and pro-Taliban militants signed an agreement in Miran Shah to ensure
"permanent peace" in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, seeking to
end five years of violent unrest in the area. Under the truce the
Pakistan army pulled back to barracks tens of thousands of troops that
had been involved in bloody operations against suspected Taliban and
al-Qaida hideouts, and militants agreed to halt attacks in Pakistan and
over the border against foreign troops in Afghanistan. Tribal elders
were supposed to police the deal. The truce ended in July 2007.
Lawmakers from a coalition of six Islamic groups threatened to vacate
their parliamentary seats if the government changes a rape law
criticized by human rights activists.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 7/16/07)
2006 Sep 5, Palestinian security
officers went on the rampage in Gaza City to demand back pay from the
cash-strapped Hamas-led government. Israel pressed ahead with its
offensive against Hamas militants, killing five with airstrikes in the
Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, Russian President
Vladimir Putin met South African leader Thabo Mbeki at the start of a
visit intended to forge closer ties between the mineral and diamond
superpowers.
(Reuters, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, Turkey became the
first Muslim country with diplomatic ties to Israel to pledge troops to
an expanding international peacekeeping force that will monitor a
fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, In Somalia thousands
of people massed in Mogadishu vowing to fight any foreign peacekeepers
sent to the embattled nation, while a coalition of East African nations
approved an ambitious plan to deploy troops in Somalia by early next
month.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, Police in Uruguay
arrested 27 people suspected of trafficking drugs to Europe and seized
a record 770 pounds of cocaine.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Pres. Bush
acknowledged that the CIA had subjected dozens of detainees to “tough”
interrogation at secret prisons abroad and that 14 remaining detainees
have been transferred to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, In Phoenix, Arizona,
police arrested Mark Goudeau (42), a construction worker, for 2 sexual
assaults. In December police identified Goudeau as the Baseline Killer
and recommended charging him with 71 counts including 9 murders
committed from August, 2005, to June, 2006.
(www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=39736)(SFC,
12/8/06, p.A13)
2006 Sep 6, In Chicago George Ryan
(72), former Illinois governor, was sentenced to 6½ years in
prison for offenses including racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 6, Philadelphia’s Art
Commission voted 6-2 to move a 2,000-pound bronze statue of Rocky
Balboa, commissioned by actor Sylvester Stallone, out of storage and
onto a street-level pedestal near the steps of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A2)
2006 Sep 6, Andy Ross, owner of
Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley, Ca., announced that the store had been
sold to Yohan Inc., a book company based in Tokyo.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 6, Intel announced it
would cut more than a tenth of its workforce as part of a drive to
become more efficient in the face of tough competition in the computer
chip market.
(AFP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Reporting in the
Annals of Internal Medicine, European researchers said virgin olive oil
may be particularly effective at lowering heart disease risk because of
its high level of antioxidant plant compounds.
(Reuters, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Research reported in
Nature magazine said thawing permafrost, due to global warming, is
releasing trapped methane at a much higher rate than was assumed.
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held talks on
counterterrorism in Kabul. NATO forces killed 21 militants in air and
ground attacks in southern Kandahar province. Afghan police killed four
Taliban fighters in southeastern Paktiya province. 3 British soldiers
were killed.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Six junior members of
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government resigned to protest his
refusal to set a date to leave office amid a growing Labour Party
revolt.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, State media said
hundreds of people in northwestern China have been hospitalized with
lead poisoning that was likely caused by pollution from a nearby
smelter. The first sign of trouble in the villages of Xinsi and Moba,
Gansu province, came on Aug. 18.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, In eastern India 50
miners were killed after an explosion inside a state-owned coal mine in
Jharkhand state.
(AP, 9/7/06)(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 6, An Indonesian appeals
court sentenced four Australian members of a drug smuggling ring to
death, prompting a protest from the Australian government. Scott Rush,
Tan Duc Than Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman had originally
received life terms for trying to take home more than 18 pounds of
heroin from Indonesia's resort island of Bali last year.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Iran unveiled its
first locally manufactured fighter plane during large-scale military
exercises. The report said the bomber Saegheh is similar to the
American F-18 fighter plane, but "more powerful."
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Iraq executed 27
"terrorists" convicted by Iraqi courts of killings and rapes in several
provinces. 2 bombs exploded in northern Baghdad within minutes of each
other, killing at least nine people and wounding 39 others. In
northeastern Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a procession of pilgrims
heading to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad,
killing one person and wounding two. Mortar attacks in residential
areas in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killed three people: a
2-year-old child in the Khan Bani Saad area and two people in
Muqdadiyah. In Baqouba gunmen killed three construction workers waiting
for a bus. An employee in the Diyala police and army coordination
office was shot to death as she left her house in the city's Tahrir
neighborhood. Gunmen also killed the owner of a food store in the same
area. Gunmen, in Baghdad kidnapped the nephew of Iraq's parliament
speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. 2 American soldiers were killed in
separate incidents. Attacks across Iraq left 36 dead and 29 corpses
were found.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Japan's Princess Kiko
gave birth to the royal family's first male heir in four decades. The
male heir was named Hisahito, meaning "virtuous, calm and everlasting"
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 6, In Macau Steve Wynn,
American gambling mogul, opened his $1.2 billion Wynn Macau, a near
replica of his Nevada casino.
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Mexico’s newly
declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his government
and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the disputed July 2
election. Gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico and tossed five
human heads on the dance floor. An avalanche left 10 villagers dead in
northern Mexico.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 6, Mexican authorities
arrested Jaime Maya Duran, a reputed major figure in one of Colombia's
largest and most feared drug cartels responsible for nearly half of the
cocaine smuggled into the US. He was flown immediately to New York,
where he is under indictment on drug trafficking and money laundering
charges.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 6, Unpaid employees in
the Palestinian prime minister's office joined a widespread strike that
is challenging the survival of the Hamas-led government. Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams met with a Hamas legislator in the West Bank and
advised Israel and the Palestinians to solve their problems using the
Northern Ireland formula, negotiations.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 6, The Philippine
government said it will take full control of Manila airport's
controversial new airport terminal despite an international court
ruling to return it to its builders. Philippine International Air
Terminals Co Inc (PIATCO) built the terminal under a
"build-operate-transfer" contract, but in 2002 President Arroyo revoked
the contract on the grounds that certain terms were illegally
renegotiated by Joseph Estrada, her deposed predecessor.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, A fire broke out
aboard the Daniil Moskovsky, a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents
Sea, killing two crew members and injuring another. The navy said there
was no radiation threat.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 6, More than 80
international scientists and academics released a letter that condemned
South Africa's AIDS policies as ineffective and immoral and called for
the firing of the health minister in a letter to President Thabo Mbeki.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Sudanese security
forces in Khartoum fired tear gas and beat demonstrators with sticks in
a crackdown on protests against price increases for basic goods, after
thwarting similar protests a week ago. In Khartoum the beheaded body of
Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the independent daily
Al-Wifaq, was recovered, a day after he was kidnapped by gunmen. He had
been accused of insulting Islam. A group claiming to be al-Qaida's
branch in Sudan said that it killed the chief editor. In 2007 ten
people were sentenced to death for the murder and beheading of Ahmed.
(Reuters, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(AP, 9/13/06)(AP,
11/10/07)
2006 Sep 7, American officials
said the US government has ordered Venezuela to close its military
purchasing office in Miami after suspending arms sales to the South
American country.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, Former Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage confirmed he was the source of a
leak that had disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame,
saying he didn't realize Plame's job was covert.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2006 Sep 7, Mohammad Khatami,
former president of Iran (1997-2005), spoke at Washington National
Cathedral as part of a 2-week speaking tour in the US. He urged
dialogue instead of threats. A group of Jewish Iranians, who say their
missing relatives were kidnapped and tortured by the Iranian
government, filed suit in Manhattan against Khatami. They delivered the
summons to him directly the next day as he visited the US.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A13)(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 7, BP America, the US arm
of British energy giant BP, said it will spend more than 550 million
dollars (432 million euros) over the next two years on improvements to
its Alaskan oil fields, including pipeline repairs.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, Hewlett-Packard
disclosed that an investigator, hired by its board of directors, had
secretly obtained phone records of 9 journalists as part of an effort
to unmask information leaks to the media. Director George Keyworth
resigned after he was found to be the source of the leak.
Sub-contractors engaged in pretexting, the use of false pretences, to
obtain personal information. HP faced Congressional hearings over the
tactics used to unveil Keyworth.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A1)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.70)
2006 Sep 7, Britain’s PM Tony
Blair reluctantly promised to resign within a year, hoping that
revealing a general time frame for his departure will appease critics
who are calling for him to step down.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, Burundi's government
and the country's last rebel group, the National Liberation Forces
(FNL) signed a permanent cease-fire as the central African nation
emerges from 12 years of civil war.
(AP, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.57)
2006 Sep 7, Chad Pres. Idriss Deby
and Chevron CEO David O’Reilly met in Paris for talks on oil taxes.
Chad said Chevron agreed to pay back taxes.
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 7, Cyprus impounded a
Panama-flagged vessel on arms smuggling suspicion. It carried 18 North
Korean mobile radar units and 3 command vehicles due for delivery to
Syria.
(WSJ, 9/8/06, p.A1)(Reuters, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 7, Gunmen held up a truck
in a restricted area of Guatemala City's international airport and made
off with $8 million of $22 million that was to be shipped from the Bank
of Guatemala to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, Coalition forces
handed over control of Iraq's armed forces command to the government.
Initially, this would apply only to the 8th Iraqi Army Division, the
air force and the navy. The other nine Iraqi division remain under US
command, with authority gradually being transferred. Six bomb attacks
targeting police patrols in Baghdad killed at least 17 people and
wounded more than 50. A British soldier died of injuries sustained when
his patrol came under fire in Qurnah.
(AP, 9/7/06)(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 7, Ivory Coast PM Charles
Konan Banny announced the resignation of his cabinet over the Aug 19
toxic waste scandal.
(Reuters, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, Workers at Lebanon's
only airport prepared to receive a full flow of commercial flights.
Israel began lifting its air blockade of Lebanon, but the naval
blockade will remain in place until troops from the new UN
international force are in place.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, In Mexico a landslide
buried buses and cars on a highway in the central state of Puebla and
killed at least four travelers.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, Russia's state-owned
nuclear power company said it was seeking to build Morocco's first
nuclear plant, as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed cooperation
deals with the Moroccan king as part of an economic mission to expand
Russia's African reach.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 7, In Siberia a blaze
broke out in the Darasun gold mine in the Chita region. 64 miners were
working underground when the fire broke out. 31 were rescued or
evacuated, including 15 who were hospitalized. Rescuers recovered 12
bodies. Eight miners emerged from the burning mine after two days. The
fate of at least nine others remained unknown in the accident that
killed at least 16. Rescuers on Sep 10 found the bodies of the last
four miners trapped deep underground at a remote Russian gold mine,
bringing the final death toll to 25. On Sep 11 Rescuers recovered the
bodies of the last of 25 miners.
(AP, 9/8/06)(AP, 9/9/06)(Reuters, 9/10/06)(AP,
9/11/06)
2006 Sep 7, Medical experts said a
killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been found in at least
28 hospitals across South Africa and that it jeopardized efforts to
deal with AIDS.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 7, A Thai court decided
to extradite a Vietnamese dissident to face charges of violating
airspace for a stunt that involved hijacking a plane and dropping
50,000 anti-communist leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. Ly Tong, a South
Vietnamese air force veteran who later became a US citizen, hijacked
the twin-engine plane from Thailand in November 2000.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 8, The Bush
administration said it has blocked access to the US financial system by
Iran’s Bank Saderat. The bank was alleged to have helped transfer
hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorist organizations including
Hezbollah and Hamas.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 8, The United States
Naval Air Station Keflavik (NASKEF) closed at Iceland’s Keflavik Int’l.
Airport.
(Econ, 10/11/08,
p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Keflavik)
2006 Sep 8, A Senate report
faulted intelligence gathering in the lead-up to the 2003 US invasion
of Iraq, and said Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather
than a possible ally, contradicting assertions President Bush had used
to build support for the war.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2006 Sep 8, Walter C. Anderson
(52), US telecom mogul, pleaded guilty to evading over $200 million in
federal and local taxes in an offshore scheme from the sale of
Mid-Atlantic Telecom. His plea agreement only covered transactions from
1998-1999.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 8, The Miami Herald
reported that 10 South Florida journalists, including three with the
Herald's Spanish-language sister paper, received thousands of dollars
from the federal government for their work on radio and TV programming
aimed at undermining Fidel Castro's communist regime. The Herald fired
3 of the journalists.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 8, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom
said 50 new security cameras will be installed in public housing
projects around San Francisco over the next 18 months.
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 8, In Minneapolis ground
was broken for the new Masjid An-Nur mosque, the 1st mosque in
Minnesota.
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.32)
2006 Sep 8, The Day fire in
California’s Los Padres National Forest burned out of control for a 5th
day and blackened over 11,500 acres (18 square miles).
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.B2)
2006 Sep 8, In Florida Melinda
Duckett (21) shot herself to death one day after taping a TV interview
with Nancy Grace for CNN. Duckett had reported that her 2-year-old son
had been kidnapped on Aug 27.
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.A13)
2006 Sep 8, A suicide car bomber
struck a convoy of US military vehicles in downtown Kabul, killing at
least 16 people, including two American soldiers, and wounding 29
others. It was the Afghan capital's deadliest suicide attack since the
Taliban's 2001 ouster.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, Opponents of President
Evo Morales stayed home from work and blocked key streets in four
cities to protest the governing party's handling of an assembly that is
rewriting the Bolivian constitution.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 8, The Toronto
International Film Festival got off to a multi-cultural start night
with the premiere of "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen," a drama about
Canada's Inuit people being stripped of their traditions by
Christianity.
(Reuters, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, In southern China
crowds angered by alleged police mishandling of a school teacher's
death attacked government offices in Rui'an City, sparking arrests and
beatings by riot troops. Students and local residents claimed police
falsified a report and colluded with the wealthy husband of high school
English teacher Dai Haijing, 30, to have her Aug 18 death classified as
a suicide.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 8, The UN's humanitarian
chief called for an end to the rapes plaguing women in war-battered
Congo and said the perpetrators, including those wearing military
uniforms, must be severely punished.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, In western India 2
bombs rigged to bicycles struck in the crowded streets of the city of
Malegaon, Maharashtra state, as Muslim worshippers were returning from
afternoon prayers At least 37 people were killed and 100 wounded. 8
suspects later arrested for allegedly planting the bombs were all
members of the Students' Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI.
(AP, 9/8/06)(AP, 11/27/06)(SFC, 11/28/08, p.A6)
2006 Sep 8, A roadside bomb in
Baghdad and a mortar attack on Shiite pilgrims south of the capital
killed five people. A roadside bomb also struck an Iraqi army convoy in
a village near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi
soldiers. An American soldier died after being wounded in a roadside
bomb explosion south of Baghdad. 3 mortar rounds landed on a procession
of pilgrims heading to Karbala for a ceremony, killing at least three
and wounding 22. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol In Baghdad
killed two people and wounded six.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, Israel lifted its
nearly two-month naval blockade of Lebanon after European warships
began patrolling to keep out weapons shipments for Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Mexico a small
plane crash near Ensenada on the US-Mexico border killed three American
medical volunteers.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Pakistan a bomb
killed at least five people in restive Baluchistan province. 21 other
people were wounded in the explosion near a bus station in the town of
Barkhan.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, Engineers covered in
head-to-toe protective gear inserted a neutralizing solution into bombs
filled with a nerve agent, officially starting the work of Russia's
first plant for destroying the deadly chemicals.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 8, It was reported that
Saudi Arabia’s religious police have issued a decree in Jiddah and
Mecca banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 8, In South Africa Hilda
Bernstein (b.1915), a London-born anti-apartheid activist and author,
died. Her husband was tried for treason alongside Nelson Mandela in
1964. Rusty Bernstein (d.2002) was the only defendant acquitted and
freed. Police harassment made life afterward so difficult for the
Bernsteins that the couple was forced into exile, leaving their
children behind. They crossed the border to Botswana on foot, a journey
described in Hilda Bernstein's book "The World That Was Ours."
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 8, Sudan's President Omar
al-Bashir agreed to release American journalist Paul Salopek and his
Chadian assistants after meeting with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 8, The UN General
Assembly adopted a long-awaited strategy to combat terrorism, though
many nations lamented that it does not include a definition or say
anything about states that commit terrorist acts.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 9, Space shuttle Atlantis
and its six astronauts blasted off on a mission to resume construction
of the international space station for the first time since the
Columbia disaster 3 1/2 years ago.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, Joanna Veil, aged 28
and pregnant, vanished after leaving work in Ben Lomond, Ca. Her body
was found Sep 14 in a remote area of Santa Cruz County. In 2007
authorities named Michael McClish (38) a suspect in the case. McClish
was convicted in 2007 for another murder and sentenced to 18 years in
prison. In 2008 he was charged with Veil’s murder.
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.B1)(SFC, 5/8/08, p.B2)
2006 Sep 9, Clair Burgener (84),
5-term US Republican congressman from San Diego (1973-1983), died.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B9)
2006 Sep 9, Elisabeth Ogilvie
(89), writer, died at her home in Cushing, Maine. Her 46 books included
the Tide trilogy, which centered on the Bennet family and
lobster-trapping life.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B9)
2006 Sep 9, Afghan and NATO
soldiers killed at least 40 suspected Taliban militants in fierce raids
that destroyed insurgent hideouts and a weapons-making factory in
Kandahar province. One NATO soldier died. 2 coalition soldiers training
Afghan troops were killed in combat. 2 policemen were killed when
dozens of Taliban rebels attacked their post in western Farah province
with machine guns and rockets. Gen. Ray Henault, chief of NATO’s
military committee, said he would ask the 26 alliance members for up to
2,500 more soldiers.
(AP, 9/9/06)(AP, 9/10/06)(SSFC, 9/10/06, p.A19)
2006 Sep 9, In Brazil Ubiratan
Guimaraes, the police colonel accused of ordering a 1992 jail massacre
of more than 100 inmates, was shot dead in his apartment in Sao Paulo.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 9, British PM Tony Blair
arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert
and other key players in the region on the stalled Middle East peace
process.
(AFP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, Five central Asian
countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan) signed a nuclear-free zone treaty, but it did not cancel
out a 1992 agreement to allow Russia to transport and deploy nuclear
weapons there under certain circumstances.
(SSFC, 9/10/06, p.A18)
2006 Sep 9, In CongoDRC it was
reported to take 155 days to register a business at a cost of 5 times
the average annual income of $120.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.60)
2006 Sep 9, In Finland leaders and
top officials from 38 Asian and European nations gathered in Helsinki
for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). The agenda included security
issues, trade and global warming.
(AFP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 9, In India recent
estimates by conservationists and some officials put the population of
Bengal tigers at 1,200 to 1,500. The government insisted the tiger
population was stable at around 3,500.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Sep 9, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator met with the European Union foreign policy chief for crucial
talks seen as the last chance for Iran to avoid U.N. sanctions over its
nuclear defiance.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, In Iraq the US-led
coalition said an Iraqi court has convicted 38 people of charges
related to the insurgency, including kidnapping and murder. Their
sentences ranged from six months to life. At least 15 violent deaths
were reported across the country. Millions of Shiite pilgrims thronged
Karbala for a religious festival that ended peacefully amid tight
security. Authorities found the bullet-riddled bodies of 6 people
dumped in Mahmoudiya. One unidentified body, blindfolded with hands and
feet bound, was found in the Tigris River in Suwayah.
(AP, 9/9/06)(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 9, The 10-week Israeli
military operation, code named Summer Rains, left 230 Gazans dead,
including over 60 children. It had no noticeable impact on militant
activities.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 9, Italy's PM Romano
Prodi said Syria has agreed "in principle" to a European Union presence
on its border to help stem the flow of weapons into Lebanon.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, The Chinese movie
"Still Life" won the top award at the Venice Film Festival.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2006 Sep 9, In Indian Kashmir
suspected Muslim militants shot dead two policemen in an attack on a
police check post. They also looted arms and ammunition.
(AFP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, The ship Moubarak
heading from Madagascar to the Comoros Islands sank in the Indian Ocean
this weekend in bad weather. Of the 76 people on board, 43 people were
rescued after the boat sank. 33 people were missing.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 9, It was reported that
some 15,000 students from Saudi Arabia were enrolling on college
campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational
exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, In northern Sri Lanka
at least 26 troops were killed and over 125 wounded in new fighting as
Tamil rebels resisted an army advance into guerrilla-held territory.
(AFP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 9, Sudan authorities
confiscated all copies of the independent al-Sudani newspaper, the
latest move in a resurgence of censorship since the beheading of a
journalist last week. Paul Salopek was released from a prison in the
war-torn Darfur region where he was held for more than a month on
espionage charges.
(Reuters, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 9, Tens of thousands of
red-clad protesters thronged Taiwan's capital, demanding that President
Chen Shui-bian resign over a series of alleged corruption scandals
involving his family and inner circle. Shih Ming-teh, a former chairman
of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), began camping with fellow
protesters in the center of Taipei.
(AP, 9/9/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.48)
2006 Sep 9, Pope Benedict XVI
began a six-day homecoming to his native Bavaria.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 10, Peyton Manning and
the Indianapolis Colts defeated Eli Manning and the New York Giants
26-21 in the first NFL game to feature two brothers starting at
quarterback.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2006 Sep 10, Golf pioneer Patty
Berg (88) died in Fort Myers, Fla.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2006 Sep 10, Bennie Smith (72),
St. Louis blues guitarist, died.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B8)
2006 Sep 10, Florence intensified
into the second hurricane of the Atlantic season as it headed for
Bermuda, where residents installed storm shutters and hauled their
yachts onto beaches.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 10, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai formally opened a 25-million-dollar Coca-Cola bottling
plant, one of the most significant investments in Afghanistan since the
ousting of the Taliban five years ago. In eastern Afghanistan Gov.
Abdul Hakim Taniwal (63) was killed with his nephew and bodyguard in a
suicide attack outside his office in the Paktia capital of Gardez. The
US military warned that a suicide bombing cell is targeting foreign
troops in Kabul. In the Panjwayi district of Kandahar 94 Taliban were
killed and one was wounded in four different engagements overnight. The
alliance offensive near the main southern city of Kandahar killed
another 92 suspected Taliban fighters, pushing its 10-day toll of
militant dead past 510. Gunmen kidnapped a Colombian aid worker and two
Afghan employees of a French-funded nongovernment organization west of
Kabul.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AFP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)(SFC,
9/11/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 10, Daniel Smith (20),
the son of Anna Nicole Smith (38) died suddenly in the Bahamas, three
days after the former Playboy Playmate gave birth to a girl. A second
round of toxicology tests revealed that he died of a toxic combo of
methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro.
(Reuters, 9/11/06)(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 10, in Bangladesh police
used batons to break up a protest, where demonstrators took to the
streets across the country in another general strike ahead of elections
in January.
(AFP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 10, In Brazil
international trade officials sought to strike a positive tone at the
end of a two-day meeting aimed at restarting negotiations for the
stalled World Trade Organization's Doha Round. The talks were billed as
a High Level Meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) developing nations, but
they represented the first time nearly all the parties involved have
come together since the Doha talks were suspended.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 10, China announced
detailed controls on the distribution of news by foreign news agencies,
banning all content that violates its own tight media restrictions.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 10, In Cuba leaders of
the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of 116 developing nations began
gathering for a 6-day summit (Sep 11-16). NAM was founded in 1961.
(Reuters, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 10, Wrangling forced
Iraq's parliament to suspend debate on a bill that Sunni Arab groups
fear would break up the country. At least 27 people were killed across
Iraq. In Kut 6 bodies bearing signs of torture were found in the Tigris
River. 2 bodies were found in Musayyib and 3 more near the Duluiya
bridge.
(AP, 9/10/06)(SFC, 9/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 10, The Chinese film
“Still Life” won the top award as the 11-day Venice Film Festival came
to a close. The Chinese film was about the Three Gorges Dam project.
(SFC, 9/11/06, p.D5)
2006 Sep 10, Montenegrins voted in
the first parliamentary elections since the tiny state split from
Serbia. Police announced a crackdown on an alleged ethnic Albanian
terrorist group authorities said had threatened the ballot. The
coalition of PM Milo Djukanovic headed for an absolute majority with a
projected 41 seats in the 81-seat parliament.
(AP, 9/10/06)(SFC, 9/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 10, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb explosion outside a roadside restaurant wounded 14
people in Quetta. In northwestern Pakistan suspected Islamic militants
killed a tribal elder.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 10, One ethnic Russian
man was killed and three were injured in a brawl with ethnic Armenians
at a cafe in the town of Volsk in the Saratov region, fueling fears of
a rise of ethnic violence across Russia.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 10, Islamic militants
controlling much of southern Somalia shut down a radio station for
playing love songs and other music, the latest step to impose strict
religious rule which has sparked fears of an emerging, Taliban-style
regime. Islamic militants, who closed down a Somali radio station,
allowed it back on the air so long as it does not play music or love
songs.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 10, Officials said Sri
Lanka's military had lost 28 soldiers in 3 days of stiff artillery and
mortar attacks as it advanced slowly toward northern Tamil Tiger rebel
strongholds. The rebels accused Colombo of ignoring moves by Norway to
end the latest bloodshed.
(AFP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 10, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV
(b.1918), King of Tonga, died in New Zealand. He was the son of Queen
Salote Tupou III and her consort Prince Tungi, and served as the King
of Tonga from the death of his mother in 1965.
(WSJ, 9/11/06,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taufa'ahau_Tupou_IV)
2006 Sep 10, Armed Yemeni
tribesmen kidnapped four French tourists in the east of the country to
press for their relatives to be released from jail.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 11, The nation paused to
remember the victims of 9/11 on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist
attacks. In a prime-time address, President Bush invoked the memory of
the victims as he argued for a continued military campaign in Iraq.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2006 Sep 11, It was reported that
Florida’s St. Lucie County was planning a $425 million plasma-arc
gasification facility to vaporize its garbage. The plant by Geoplasma,
a subsidiary of Jacoby Development Inc., was expected to go operational
in 2 years.
(SFC, 9/11/06, p.C4)
2006 Sep 11, The memorial statue
titled, 'To the Struggle Against World Terrorism', by Russian artist
Zurab Tsereteli, was dedicated in Bayonne, N.J. The 100-foot-tall
bronze monument with a 40-foot steel teardrop at it's center, a gift
from the Russian government and Tsereteli, is dedicated to victims of
terrorism.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, In SF measures to
turn back a surge in violence included police enforcement of a
long-ignored curfew for young teenagers as well as more police in high
crime neighborhoods.
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 11, GlaxoSmithKline
agreed to pay $3.4 billion to settle a US tax dispute covering the
period 1989-2005.
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.D6)
2006 Sep 11, The Pacifica,
California, town council voted to ban smoking on its public beaches
fishing pier.
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B10)
2006 Sep 11, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck in the Tani district of Khost
province at a funeral for Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal, a provincial
governor assassinated by the Taliban a day earlier. Five people were
killed and 30 wounded, but four Cabinet ministers at the service were
unhurt.
(AP, 9/11/06)(www.wcbs880.com/pages/81058.php?)
2006 Sep 11, Osama bin Laden's
deputy warned that Persian Gulf countries and Israel would be
al-Qaida's next targets, according to a new videotape aired by Arab
broadcaster Al-Jazeera on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, China said it will
send 1,000 peacekeeping troops to Lebanon.
(WSJ, 9/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 11, In Cuba a weeklong
summit of the Nonaligned Movement began with poverty, health care and
the Middle East at the top of the agenda. It will culminate with the
meeting of 50 heads of state, including anti-American leaders from Iran
and Venezuela.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, In Helsinki, Finland,
European and Asian leaders representing nearly half the world's
population promised to work to reduce global warming, to get world
trade talks back on track and to keep up the battle against terrorism.
They pledged to set new carbon dioxide emissions targets that go beyond
those now set for 2012 under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Joachim Fest (79),
German journalist and historian, died. He worked closely with Adolf
Hitler's architect Albert Speer on his memoirs. Fest's biographical
portrait "Hitler," published in English in 1974 the year after its
German release, is widely regarded as the best, among many, on the
dictator.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 11, Leaders of the
breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia said they would hold a
referendum on independence in November, a move likely to infuriate the
government in Tbilisi and stoke already spiraling tensions.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, In Haiti 3 gang
members surrendered their guns in the first handover of weapons in a
UN-led effort to disarm hundreds of Haitian criminals.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Iran closed down two
opposition newspapers, one of which had recently poked fun at hard-line
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the way his government has handled
nuclear talks with the West.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, In Iraq a mini bus
carrying a bomb exploded outside an army recruiting center in Baghdad
and killed 16 people, the deadliest of a string of attacks that left 29
Iraqis dead. A US soldier also died over the weekend.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Kazakhstan hosted the
Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana.
(Econ, 12/16/06,
p.81)(www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7191&geo=3&size=A)
2006 Sep 11, Nicaragua officials
said at least 35 people have died from drinking methanol-laced
sugarcane liquor in the past week and nearly 600 have fallen ill,
overwhelming hospitals in Nicaragua's worst health crisis in recent
history.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Taxi drivers in
Sierra Leone went on strike, bringing the capital to a standstill after
police jailed 100 of their colleagues for driving with bald tires,
broken lights or without a valid license.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, In Lebanon an angry
protester accusing Tony Blair of complicity in the Israeli bombardment
of Lebanon disrupted a news conference. Thousands of demonstrators
shouted outside as the British prime minister visited Beirut. Blair
pledged help in rebuilding war-ravaged Lebanon.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Pakistan's government
agreed to a compromise deal with hardline Islamic lawmakers over
proposed changes to a law that has long made punishing rapists almost
impossible in the country. Senator S.M. Zafar said the government had
agreed to compromise by letting rape victims choose between prosecuting
suspects under the four-witness rule, the 1979 Hudood Ordinance,
or under Pakistan's civil penal code.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniyeh agreed that their moderate Fatah
and militant Hamas parties would form a coalition government.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, President Vladimir
Putin gave final orders for a battalion of Russian engineers and
explosives experts to travel to Lebanon to help repair the damage
inflicted by Israel's campaign to uproot Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, In southern Russia a
military helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz, the
provincial capital of the republic of North Ossetia, killing at least
10 servicemen and injuring another four.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged mortar and artillery fire across their
northern front lines. The military said the death toll from five days
of heavy fighting rose to 148.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, A top Ugandan rebel
leader, Lord's Resistance Army deputy Vincent Otti, arrived at a
neutral camp in southern Sudan as part of a truce to end 19 years of
conflict with the government.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Uruguay arrested 7
former army and police officers in an investigation of dissidents who
disappeared during the South American country's military rule in the
1970s.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 12, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a minimum wage bill that will boost the hourly
rate by 75 cents in January and another 50 cents a year later to $8 an
hour.
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B3)
2006 Sep 12, Hewlett-Packard named
CEO Mark Hurd to succeed Patricia Dunn as board chairman as of
mid-January 2007 following the recent furor over phone probes of board
members.
(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 12, Joan Valerie
Bondurant, former spy and UC prof. of political science, died in
Tucson, Az. She had translated documents for the CIA in India where she
met Gandhi and grew fascinated by satyagraha, a thesis of nonviolent
resistance. Her books included “Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian
Philosophy of Conflict” (1958).
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.B5)
2006 Sep 12, Hurricane Florence
headed toward north Atlantic shipping lanes after blowing out windows,
peeling away roofs and knocking out power to thousands in Bermuda.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Afghan forces killed
12 suspected Taliban militants in a shootout south of Kabul. More than
30 suspected insurgents were detained as security forces fought back
against a deadly spike in violence. The UN urged NATO forces to take
military action to destroy the opium industry in southern Afghanistan,
saying cultivation of the crop is out of control.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Bangladesh police
in Dhaka baton-charged thousands of opposition supporters in violent
clashes outside the prime minister's office that left at least 110
people injured. A 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami League
is demanding electoral reforms ahead of January's national elections.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Canada and the United
States formally signed an agreement to end a protracted dispute over
Canadian softwood lumber.
(Reuters, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
delivered a speech at Regensburg Univ. that included brusque words
about Islam. He quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying “Show
me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find
things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached.” The speech quickly provoked criticism
from the world’s Muslim communities. The pontiff later said he
regretted that Muslims were offended.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A17)(AP, 9/12/07)
2006 Sep 12, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran since taking office and
planned to ask Tehran to prevent al-Qaida members believed to be in
Iran from crossing into Iraq to carry out attacks. A parked car bomb
detonated in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood, killing at least
six people and wounding 18 others. Bombings, mortar attacks and
shootings overnight and during the day left at least 24 people dead and
dozens wounded around the country.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, An Israeli military
court ordered the release of 18 imprisoned Hamas lawmakers, including
three Cabinet ministers, and raised questions about the army's case. A
spokesman for the outgoing Hamas-led administration said the group is
prepared to back peace efforts with Israel as part of the new coalition
government being formed by the Palestinians. Hamas militants killed an
Israeli soldier during a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and killed Enrique Barrera, police chief of the town of
Linares in the border state of Nuevo Leon, in the latest slaying of a
law officer in a region ravaged by a war between drug gangs.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, Montenegro's election
authorities said the governing pro-Western coalition led by Prime
Minister Milo Djukanovic won last weekend's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Serbia toughened its
stand on Kosovo as parliament decided that a planned new constitution
would refer to the disputed province as an "integral" part of Serbia,
regardless of U.N.-led negotiations on whether to grant it independence.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Syria armed
Islamic militants attempted to storm the US Embassy in Damascus. Four
people were killed, including three of the assailants. One of Syria's
anti-terrorism forces was killed and 11 other people were wounded. The
only Islamic militant arrested in the attack died from his wounds, and
authorities were unable to question him.
(AP, 9/12/06)(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Turkey a bomb
exploded near a park in a primarily residential area of Diyarbakir and
10 people were killed. 7 children were among the dead. The bomb was
made by hand, placed in a thermos and went off as it was being
transported.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, Uganda extended a
September 12 deadline for the rebel Lord's Resistance Army to agree to
a peace deal or lose an amnesty offer for war crimes charges its
leaders face.
(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Yemen a stampede
during a campaign rally for President Ali Abdullah Saleh killed at
least 51 people and injured more than 230, most of them schoolchildren
and teenagers.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 13, A letter from the
office of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, sent to the head of the US
House of Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence, said an
August 23 committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA
findings on Iran's nuclear activity.
(AP, 9/14/06)(SFC, 9/14/06, p.A15)
2006 Sep 13, In California water
users and environmentalists announced a settlement that requires Friant
to release 364,000 to 462,000 acre-feet of water in normal years to the
San Joaquin River, the state’s 2nd longest river.
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 13, The SEC froze trade
in the shares of Indigenous Global Development Corp. (IGDC), run by
Deni Leonard, a Native American businessman. An SEC suit said Leonard
claimed to have struck deals with Canadian tribes to develop and
purchase natural gas to be sold to power plants, but no deals were made.
(SSFC, 11/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 13, Ann Richards
(b.1933), former Texas Gov. (1990-1994), died after a battle with
cancer. As governor, Richards appointed the first black University of
Texas regent, the first crime victim on the state Criminal Justice
Board, the first disabled person on the human services board and the
first teacher to lead the State Board of Education. Under Richards, the
fabled Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black and female
officers.
(AP, 9/14/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.96)
2006 Sep 13, US financier George
Soros pledged to invest 50 million dollars in a development project
that aims to show how targeted investment can end extreme poverty in
African villages. The Millennium Villages project is involved in 79
villages in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 13, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, while opening a road linking to Pakistan, said Pakistan
and Afghanistan must unite to save their people from the menace of
terrorism. Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed as many as
30 Taliban in raids on three villages in Ghazni province. In southern
Helmand province police killed 16 Taliban in a mountainous area outside
the town of Garmser. NATO announced that suicide bombings have killed
173 people in Afghanistan this year. 151 of the year's suicide attack
victims were Afghan civilians, including children.
(AP, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 13, NASA scientists said
the ice in the Arctic Sea is melting in winter as well as in summer,
likely due to global warming. The ice was reportedly melting at 9% a
decade.
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.A1)(Econ, 9/9/06, Survey p.6)
2006 Sep 13, The presidents of
Brazil and South Africa, at a trilateral trade meeting in Brasilia,
said they supported changes in international rules to allow India to
buy nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States and other
countries. The trio created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue
Forum (IBSA) in 2003 to promote the interests of their emerging markets.
(Reuters, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, A man in a black
trench coat opened fire at a downtown Montreal college, slaying a young
woman, Anastasia De Sousa (18), a student at Dawson College, and
wounding at least 19 other people before police shot and killed him.
Officials soon identified the killer as Kimveer Gill (25), resident of
a Montreal suburb.
(AP, 9/13/06)(Reuters, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao vowed to continue his vast country's opening up to the
international community, notably rejecting suggestions Beijing is set
to crack down on foreign media.
(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 13, International police
deployed to East Timor in the wake of unrest in May formally handed
over their authority to the UN at a ceremony in the capital. A battle
between rival gangs armed with machetes killed one fighter and injured
five others in Dili.
(AFP, 9/13/06)(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, The EU's foreign
policy chief and Iran's top nuclear negotiator abruptly postponed talks
on easing tensions over the refusal of the Tehran regime to suspend
uranium enrichment.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 13, In Iraq police found
the bodies of 65 men who had been tortured, shot and dumped, most
around Baghdad. Car bombs, mortar attacks and shootings killed at least
39 people around Iraq and injured dozens more.
(AP, 9/13/06)(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 13, In Jordan a military
court convicted 10 suspected militants in two separate terrorism cases
that included conspiracies to kill Americans. Lawmakers approved a
measure that would only allow a state-appointed council to issue
religious edicts, a move aimed at denying Islamic hard-liners a forum
for disseminating extremist ideology. The measure will become law with
the expected approval of the upper house of Parliament and the king.
(AP, 9/13/06)(AP, 9/14/0