Timeline 2009 January
to March
Return to home
2009 Jan 1, In
the SF Bay Area a BART police officer shot Oscar Grant (22) on the
platform of the Fruitvale BART Station in the early morning in the
midst of a brawl between 2 young rival groups. Grant died later that
morning at Highland Hospital. Witnesses said Grant was lying face down
with his hands behind him when he was shot in the back by Officer
Johannes Mehserle (27). On Dec 6 an attorney for the family filed a $25
million claim against BART. On Jan 13 Mehserle was arrested in Nevada
and charged with homicide.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.B1)(SFC, 1/7/09,
p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 1, Bank of America
purchased Merrill Lynch to save it from bankruptcy. It was later
revealed that the company had awarded $3.6 billion in bonuses to over
39,000 employees just before the acquisition by BofA. The bonuses
included $121 million to four top executives.
(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.C3)(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.C3)
2009 Jan 1, Claiborne Pell
(b.1918), former US Senator from Rhode Island (1660-1997), died. He was
the chief sponsor of the 1965 law establishing the national Endowment
for the Arts and the national Endowment for the Humanities. He also
sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunities
Grants (1972), which provided direct aid to college students. The
awards were renamed the Pell Grants in 1980.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.B6)
2009 Jan 1, A suicide car bomb
exploded near an Afghan and NATO military convoy in the western
province of Herat and killed an Afghan policeman. 2 UN staff of the
World Food Program and 4 others were kidnapped in Nimroz province by
alleged Taliban militants. The 2 UN workers were freed on Jan 27.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 1, The IMF announced
plans to lend Belarus $2.5 billion to help the country cope with the
global economic crises.
(WSJ, 1/2/09), p.A5)
2009 Jan 1, The Czech Republic
took over the six-month rotating presidency from EU heavyweight France.
It will face the daunting task of implementing a $258 billion European
economic stimulus package approved by EU leaders under the French
presidency.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2009 Jan 1, In Germany thieves
over the last 24 hours stole an estimated $250,000 in art work from the
Fasanengalerie, a private art gallery in western Berlin.
(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 1, In India 3 bombs
exploded in the restive northeast, killing at least five people and
wounding 50, about an hour before the nation's top security official
arrived in the area.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, The United States
handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's presidential
palace to Iraqi authorities in a ceremonial move described by the
country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's sovereignty.
British forces handed over control of Basra airport, its main military
base in southern Iraq, to Iraqi officials in accordance with an
agreement signed with Baghdad this week. A roadside bomb killed two
Iraqi soldiers in the town of Jalula, 80 miles northeast of Baghdad. In
Mosul a parked truck bomb killed three police officers trying to search
it and wounded a bystander. In Kirkuk Iraqi and US troops killed three
suspected al-Qaida gunmen during a raid. American soldiers shot and
wounded a woman after she failed to heed warnings to stop near a
Baghdad checkpoint recently targeted by suicide and car bombs.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 1, Israel
assassinated Nizar Rayan (52), a Hamas strongman, in its first assault
on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial
offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion.
The aerial strike also killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's
four wives and four of his 12 children. Officials said more than 400
Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded. The UN said
the death toll included more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children.
Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in rocket
attacks from Gaza.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Vilnius, Lithuania, a
city of about 550,000 people, opened the year sharing the EU Capital of
Culture title with Austria’s Linz.
(SSFC, 7/22/07,
p.G6)(www.culturelive.lt/en/european_capitals_of_culture)
2009 Jan 1, Mexican federal police
captured two alleged hit men after the suspects threw a hand grenade at
police and soldiers who cornered them at a house. Eight officers were
wounded in the confrontation. In the western town of La Huerta, a
shootout between rival families at a New Year's party left four dead,
and a clash between soldiers and alleged drug traffickers in Chihuahua
state reportedly killed three smugglers.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan
a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft destroyed a vehicle,
killing at least three foreign militants. The US drone killed 2
Al-Qaida leaders from Kenya, Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim
Swedan. Pakistani authorities arrested Ustad Mohammed Yasir, a former
Taliban spokesman, during a raid on his relatives' house in Peshawar
near the Afghan border. Yasir had been previously arrested by Pakistan
in 2005 and sent to Afghanistan where he was released in 2007 in
exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 1, Russia’s Pres.
Medvedev signed a bell ending jury trials in cases involving treason,
terror, armed revolt and sabotage. Instead, defendants will have to
face three judges.
(WSJ, 1/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 1, Russia cut off the gas
to Ukraine after a contract dispute but increased supplies to other
European states to try to reassure customers worried about possible
disruption.
(Reuters, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Slovakia became the
16th European Union member state to adopt the euro. This day also marks
10 years since the euro was introduced.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Somali pirates seized
the Blue Star, an Egyptian cargo ship, and its 28 crewmembers. A
Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being
hijacked in the new year's first attacks by pirates in the dangerous
Gulf of Aden. A crew of the French warship "PM L'Her" dispatch boat
intercepted two speedboats carrying 8 Somali pirates as they were
preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship. The Blue Star and its crew
of 28 were freed on March 5 after a ransom was dropped from a plane.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/2/09)(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Jan 1, Helen Suzman (91),
South African anti-apartheid activist, died. She won international
acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the
injustices of racist rule. Suzman, who was twice nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize, fought a long and lonely battle in the South African
parliament against government repression of the country's black
majority and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 1/1/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.77)
2009 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said its
forces have captured a key crossroads from Tamil Tiger rebels in the
north and that it will seize the guerrillas' de facto capital within
two days. The fighting killed 50 rebels and four soldiers. A roadside
bomb blast blamed on the rebels killed two policemen on a foot patrol
in the eastern region.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1-2009 Jun 30, In Mexico
there were some 3,247 drug related killing over this period, compared
with 1,935 in the same period in 2008.
(Econ, 7/11/09, p.38)
2009 Jan 2, In SF the AsianWeek
newspaper, founded in 1979, published its final print edition. It
planned to continue a presence online at www.asianweek.com.
(SFC, 1/1/09, p.C1)
2009 Jan 2, Idaho investors met
with Daren Palmer of Idaho Falls and were informed that as much as $100
million in their investments was gone. State security regulators soon
launched an investigation into Palmer (40) and his Trigon Group Inc.
under allegations that he had operated a long running Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 2, In Britain 2 people
were feared dead after a light aircraft crashed into a major railway
line, causing severe disruption to train services between Rugeley and
Stafford.
(AFP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, In Burundi an
8-year-old albino boy was hacked to death in front of his mother and
made off with his arms and legs. The body parts of a single albino, to
be used in witch doctor potions, fetched about $1000. This attack
followed another on a 6-year-old girl.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 2, Ghana's leader
appealed for calm and urged his people to accept the results of a tight
presidential election as voters in a single district cast ballots that
could decide the West African nation's next president. Election results
from all other districts showed opposition leader John Atta Mills ahead
of his ruling party rival Nana Akufo-Addo by only around 23,000 votes
out of more than 9 million cast.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, India eased foreign
borrowing for real estate and certain other companies and allowed
additional liquidity for non-banking financial firms to boost growth.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, In Iraq a suicide
bomber sneaked into a luncheon gathering called by the leader of a
local tribe in Youssifiyah, killing at least 23 people and wounding
110. Gunmen killed two people when they opened fire on a checkpoint
manned by members of the Sons of Iraq in Jurf al-Sakhar. Four other
people were reported wounded in the attack 40 miles south of Baghdad.
(AP, 1/2/09)(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 2, Israel bombed a mosque
it claimed was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a
dozen Hamas operatives, but under international pressure, the
government allowed hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports to
leave besieged Gaza. Thus far more than 400 Gazans have been killed and
some 1,700 have been wounded. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier
have also died in the rocket attacks.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, Kenya's Pres. Mwai
Kibaki signed into law a media bill that opponents say threatens the
country's hard-fought reputation for having one of Africa's most
vigorous press. A controversial part of the bill, which parliament
passed last month, allows the government to shut down media outlets by
declaring a state of emergency. Kibaki said that part was not included
in the bill he signed.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 2, Mexican Federal
prosecutors said they placed three municipal policemen in the northern
border city of Ciudad Juarez under house arrest on suspicion of aiding
drug traffickers. In the northern city of Monterrey, prosecutors
accused former Nuevo Leon state policeman Aldo Perales (34) of leading
a gang of bank robbers and participating in more than 30 robberies.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 2, In southern Nigeria an
oil pipeline was blown up with dynamite.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 2, Pakistan reopened the
main supply route for US and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan after
blocking it for three days during a military operation against
militants who have been attacking convoys.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, Luis Fortuno (48),
Puerto Rico's new governor was sworn, inheriting an island government
that is battling a recession, a soaring murder rate and a deficit of
more than $1 billion.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, Singapore said its GDP
had contracted at an adjusted annualized pace of 12.5% in the 4th
quarter. Its biggest contraction since it began publishing data in 1976.
(WSJ, 1/3/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 2, Crewmen fired high
pressure water jets to fight off heavily armed Somali pirates trying to
board a Greek oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden in the fourth such attack
since the start of the year. A Chinese cargo ship evaded two pirate
boats chasing it in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/2/09)(AFP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, In northern Sri Lanka
government forces captured the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital, dealing
a devastating blow to the rebels' quarter-century fight for an
independent state. A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide attacker on a
motorcycle detonated a bomb near the air force headquarters in the
heart of Colombo during the afternoon rush hour, killing two airmen.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 2, Ugandan Lord's
Resistance Army rebels killed two wildlife rangers and six other people
in a remote national park in northeastern Congo.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 2, Ukraine sought support
in European capitals a day after Russia cut off gas supplies and
hardened its stance on prices. The cutoff came after Ukraine made a
$1.5 billion overdue payment, but Russia demanded another $600 million,
including $450 million penalties for the late payment for gas shipped
in November and December. The two sides also have not agreed on prices
for 2009. Russia accused Ukraine of stealing gas destined for the rest
of Europe.
(AP, 1/2/09)(Reuters, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 3, The United States
blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement calling for an
immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 3, In New Orleans Danny
Platt (22), was arrested and accused of committing an "extremely
hideous" murder because he was ordered to pay child support. He
initially told police that gunmen had kidnapped his 2 1/2-year-old son.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 3, Sir Alan Walters
(b.1926), a top economic adviser to former British PM Margaret
Thatcher, died. Walters received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II
in 1983.
(AP, 1/6/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 3, Tens of thousands of
people demonstrated in European cities against Israel's bombardment of
Gaza, including protesters who hurled shoes at the tall iron gates
outside the British prime minister's residence in London.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In eastern China an
explosion at an illegal fireworks factory killed 13 people in the city
of Weifang in Shandong province. A boy, Zou Chuanshuo (2) was killed
with an ax in Luoyang in Hubei province. The child's grandmother Zhu
Deqing (43) and six others were also killed. On Jan 11 authorities
arrested junk collector Xiong Zhenlin (32) in Wuhan, the capital of
Hubei province. He confessed to the murders, which included a widow who
jilted him. A Chinese court sentenced him to death on Feb 9 for the
murders. Zhenlin was executed on april 16 in the central city of
Suizhou.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 2/9/09)(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Ghana opposition
leader John Atta Mills was declared the next president in the closest
electoral race this West African nation has ever seen. The peaceful
ballot secured Ghana's place as a beacon of democracy on a volatile
continent.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Iraq two brothers
were killed and another was wounded when a bomb they were concealing in
their car exploded near the town of Sinjar, 75 miles west of Mosul.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes,
gunboats and artillery units bombarded more than 40 Hamas targets,
including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders'
homes. Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike on a
mosque in the Gaza Strip killed 10 people and wounded dozens in the
northern town of Beit Lahiya.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In southwest Pakistan
two paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in a landmine
explosion in Dera Bugti, Baluchistan province. Sarbaz Khan, a spokesman
for the Baluch Republican Army, later claimed responsibility of the
attack.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Russian gas flows to
four European Union countries fell normal levels after Moscow cut off
supplies to Ukraine in a pricing row with no talks in sight to resolve
the dispute. Bulgaria's Bulgargaz joined energy firms in Poland,
Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in supply.
(Reuters, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents appeared to be scrambling for power, taking over several
police stations in the capital as Ethiopian troops who have been
propping up the government began to pull out.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Sri Lankan troops
advanced on the military headquarters of the Tamil Tigers and engaged
the rebels in fresh gun battles. At least three people were wounded in
a bomb blast in Colombo.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 4, Pres. Obama signed a
law expanding SCHIP, a health scheme covering children in poor
families.
(Econ, 2/7/09, p.26)
2009 Jan 4, New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrew under
pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors
landed a lucrative transportation contract.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 4, In Louisiana 8 people
were killed when a PHI Inc. helicopter, bound for offshore oil fields,
crashed about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.
(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 4, In Syracuse, NY, Shawn
Rhines (15) killed public works department employee Casimir Snyder
(47). Police later said Ja-Le Johnson and Rhines would often hang out
in an attic across the street and shoot target practice with rifles
from a window. Police recovered two rifles from the attic. Rhines
confessed and faced 10 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In
Afghanistan 12 insurgents and 11 civilians were killed in fighting in
central Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, British PM Gordon
Brown pledged to create 100,000 jobs through a public works program and
said he would press banks to resume normal lending as Britain faces its
sharpest economic downturn in decades.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, A northern Guatemala
mudslide left at least 37 people dead. At least 50 people were still
missing in Aquil Grande.
(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Indonesia a
series of powerful earthquakes toppled or badly damaged more than 100
buildings and left one person dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber blew herself up among a crowd of pilgrims worshipping at
a revered Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, killing at least 38 people
and wounding about 72.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Israeli ground troops
and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip, cutting the coastal
territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of
a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. Gaza
officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught.
Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar fire. The new deaths
brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec 27.
At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel, wounding five people.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, In a densely
forested region of Indian Kashmir a gun battle between government
forces and suspected Islamic insurgents raged for a fourth day leaving
at least seven combatants killed.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Nepal
dozens of people were missing after an overcrowded boat carrying mostly
women and children capsized in the Saptakosi river. More than 50 people
were believed on board the boat and only 14 were rescued.
(AP, 1/4/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 4, Gunmen hijacked a
vessel and 9 crewmen belonging to French oil services group Bourbon off
Nigeria's Niger Delta as it traveled toward a Royal Dutch Shell
offshore oilfield. The 9 crewmen: five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one
Cameroonian and one Indonesian aboard. were released on Dec 7.
(Reuters, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber attacked police as they rushed to treat civilians
injured by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and wounding at
least 25 others. During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, the
army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of
explosives. Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a
house in the Khyber tribal region.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Russia's military
leaders approved a plan by the navy to station warships permanently in
friendly ports across the globe.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Russia asked the EU to
provide monitoring of Ukraine's gas transit system and charged Ukraine
was stealing gas bound for Europe, as Kiev leveled its own charges.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the state-controlled company wanted
$450 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from its last offer of $418. The
reductions in gas supplies spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.
(AP, 1/4/09)(Reuters, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, A French warship
foiled attempts by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two
cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, Sri Lanka’s
rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that the insurgents stalled
a military advance on the road to Mullaittivu, killing 53 soldiers and
wounding 80 others.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, Jimmy Mohlala, a South
African official who blew the whistle on alleged corruption in the
building of a stadium for the 2010 World Cup, was shot dead by unknown
gunmen. The 46,000-capacity Mbombela stadium, scheduled for completion
this year, is one of 10 venues for the 2010 World Cup.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In South
Africa a lethal storm on the eastern coast killed 18 people over the
weekend, including four family members struck dead by lightning.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 5, President George W.
Bush authorized the immediate use of US aircrafts to transport supplies
to the international peacekeeping force in Darfur.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 5, Pres. Elect Obama
named William Panetta (70) to head the CIA.
(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 5, The US Federal Reserve
began buying mortgage bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and
Ginnie Mae, in an effort to make home financing more affordable.
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.C3)
2009 Jan 5, The California Supreme
Court decided that churches that break away from a national
denomination may not take church assets with them.
(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 5, Alexander James
Trabulse (61) of Colma, Ca., was arrested at San Francisco Airport,
after arriving from France. He had been charged 3 days earlier with
mail fraud. Authorities said he had sent account statements to
investors in his Fahey Fund that inflated the hedge fund’s returns by
as much as 200%. On Nov 3 Trabulse pleaded guilty for defrauding
investors of some $8.3 million. In 2010 Trabulse was sentenced to over
8 years in federal prison.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.C1)(SFC, 11/4/09, p.D3)(SFC, 5/5/10,
p.C5)
2009 Jan 5, Former US
Representative Joseph P. Kennedy said Citgo Petroleum, the US refiner
owned by the Venezuelan government, planned to stop deliveries to his
Boston-based nonprofit, Citizens’ Energy, due to falling oil prices.
The stop order was removed 2 days later.
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.A7)(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 5, A Minnesota board
certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state’s US
Senate recount by 225 votes over Republican Norm Coleman, whose lawyer
promised a legal challenge.
(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 5, Boeing signed a $2.1
billion deal with India for eight P-81 maritime patrol aircraft.
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 5, In Illinois Steven L.
Good (52), chief executive of Sheldon Good & Co, one of the
nation’s largest real estate auction firms, was found dead of an
apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a forest outside Chicago. In
2003 he authored “Churches, Jails and Gold Mines… Mega-Deals from a
Real Estate Maverick.”
(WSJ, 1/7/09, p.A9)
2009 Jan 5, In Afghanistan 9
Taliban militants were killed in a gunfight by Afghan and NATO troops
in the southern province of Kandahar. 2 gunmen shot a Muslim cleric to
death inside a mosque in Kandahar city.
(AFP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 5, British company
Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the maker of classic china and crystal, filed
for bankruptcy protection after attempts to restructure the struggling
business or find a buyer failed.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, Chile’s Pres. Michelle
Bachelet announced a $4 billion economic stimulus package.
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.A9)
2009 Jan 5, China launched a major
crackdown on Internet pornography targeting popular online portals and
major search engines such as Google.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, A Chinese woman (19)
died from bird flu in a Beijing hospital, but the World Health
Organization said the case did not appear to signal a new public health
threat.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 5, In eastern Congo rival
rebel chief of staff Bosco Ntaganda announced the dismissal of Laurent
Nkunda and has taken control of the CNDP rebel movement.
(AFP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 5, Germany’s ruling
coalition agreed to a 2-year fiscal stimulus package of as much as $69
billion (€50 billion).
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 5, In southwestern
Germany the body of billionaire Adolf Merckle (74) was found near
railway tracks at Blaubeuren. He had committed suicide after his
business empire ran into trouble in the global financial crisis.
Merckle’s VEM holding company controlled Ratiopharm, building materials
giant HeidelbergCement and one of Europe's biggest wholesale drug
distributors, Phoenix. In 2008 Forbes Magazine ranked Merckle as the
world’s 94th richest man.
(AP, 1/6/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.58)(AP, 3/18/10)
2009 Jan 5, In Greece gunmen
sprayed Athens riot police with automatic weapons fire, seriously
wounding a policeman in an escalation of violence that broke out after
the fatal police shooting of a teenager last month.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, In Hong Kong a new
survey said one in five residents is considering leaving the city
because of its dire air quality, raising fears over the financial hub's
competitiveness.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, India handed to
Pakistan what it said was evidence linking the country to the Islamic
militants who attacked Mumbai in November.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, In Iraq the US
inaugurated its largest embassy ever in the heart of the Green Zone,
officially opening the $700 million fortress-like compound that was
built as a testament to America's commitment to Iraq. Four bombs
exploded in different parts of Baghdad just before noon, killing four
people and wounding 19. Subhi Hassan, who handles political relations
for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and a bodyguard were killed after
unidentified gunmen chased down their car after it passed through a
checkpoint. US troops killed a civilian in a vehicle after the driver
failed to heed warnings to stop in Baqouba.
(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 5, Israel consolidated
its hold on parts of the Gaza Strip, seizing high-rise buildings on the
outskirts of the territory's biggest city as a stream of world leaders
headed for the region to press for a truce. About 12 Palestinian
children were killed. The 10th day of fighting put the Palestinian
death toll at an estimated 550. 3 Israeli soldiers were killed and 24
others wounded by friendly fire. Gaza health officials said an Israeli
airstrike outside a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip killed 39
people, many of them children. An Israeli missile struck a building in
Zeitoun where Palestinians had been herded. At least 30 people were
killed.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A3)(AP, 1/11/09)(Econ,
1/17/09, p.49)
2009 Jan 5, In Indian Kashmir Omar
Abdullah (38), a young pro-India Muslim, was sworn in as the new chief
minister after elections that attracted a higher turnout than many
politicians and voters expected.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, Ahmed Aboutaleb (47),
a Moroccan immigrant, was installed as mayor of Rotterdam, the
Netherlands' second largest city, in a move hailed as a significant
step for the integration of minorities in the European Union nation.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, In Pakistan three
bullet-riddled bodies were found along a road some 16 miles east of
Miran Shah. Police said suspected Taliban militants had executed a
Pakistani construction contractor and two Afghan men they accused of
spying for the US.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, Sri Lanka’s government
troops captured a strategic Tamil Tiger-held town and moved closer to a
key rebel base, as citizens raised flags and held a moment of silence
to honor the military as it battles to end the country's 25-year-old
civil war. The rebels, as well has hundreds of thousands of civilians
displaced by the fighting, were confined to a jungle area slightly
larger than the city of Los Angeles.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, The Vatican said that
Bishop Allen H. Vigneron will replace Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida at the
head of the Detroit archdiocese. The pope also named the auxiliary
bishop of Halifax, Claude Champagne, as the new bishop of Edmundston in
Canada. Benedict appointed the Rev. Cirilo Flores as new auxiliary
bishop of Orange, California.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, Turkey restored the
citizenship of its most famous poet Monday in a symbolic step meant to
show it was addressing criticism of its human rights record in hopes of
joining the European Union. Turkey had stripped Nazim Hikmet of his
nationality in 1951 at the height of the Cold War because of his
communist views, branded him a traitor and imprisoned him for more than
a decade. He died in exile in Moscow in 1963.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 6, Pres. Bush designated
parts of 3 Pacific island chains as national monuments to protect them
from oil and gas extraction and commercial fishing. The areas totaled
some 195,274 square miles and included the Mariana Trench as well as
waters and coral surrounding 3 islands in the Northern Mariana Islands,
Rose Atoll in American Samoa and 7 islands along the equator in the
central Pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 6, Roland Burris of
Illinois, President-elect Barack Obama's appointed successor, was
turned away when he appeared at the US Capitol to take his in the
convening of the 111th Congress.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, North Dakota Gov. John
Hoeven reported a budget surplus and plans to grow reserves to between
$800 million and $1.2 billion.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.43)(http://governor.nd.gov/media/speeches/090106.html)
2009 Jan 6, Hal Ellis (b.1931),
co-founder of the Grubb & Ellis real estate company (1958), died at
his home in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/8/09, p.C1)
2009 Jan 6, In southern
Afghanistan a NATO serviceman was killed in a hostile incident. In
eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed 32 armed insurgents
during a clash in Laghman province. The troops also destroyed two
caches of weapons and roadside bomb-making materials that were too
unstable to move to another location. Residents reported that some
civilians died when buildings collapsed as the cache was destroyed. In
western Farah province, Afghan army and coalition troops killed six
militants in raid on a compound.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 6, In Bangladesh Sheikh
Hasina Wajed was sworn in for her second spell as prime minister,
restoring democracy to the impoverished country after almost two years
of rule by an army-backed regime.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, Bahrain’s credit
outlook was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service amid tumbling crude
prices and the global financial crises.
(WSJ, 1/7/09, p.A7)
2009 Jan 6, Ethiopia's parliament
adopted a controversial bill imposing heavy restrictions on
foreign-funded humanitarian groups operating in the war- and
famine-ravaged country. Under the new law, any group that draws more
than 10 percent of its funding from abroad will be classified as
foreign, and thus banned from working on issues related to ethnicity,
gender, children's rights and conflict resolution.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AFP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 6, A natural gas crisis
loomed over Europe, as a contract dispute between Russia and Ukraine
shut off Russian gas supplies to six countries and reduced gas
deliveries to several others. Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania,
Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, Signs mounted that the
conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's
towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on
Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, A cease-fire
initiative to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in
Hamas-ruled Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to follow up
on the proposal. A Hamas rocket hit Gedera, 20 miles from Tel Aviv, the
farthest one has reached to date.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.24)
2009 Jan 6, In Mexico masked
gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a television station in
Monterrey as it aired its nightly newscast, leaving behind a message
warning the station about its coverage of drug gangs. Gunmen in Tijuana
opened fire from several cars, killing a 22-year-old standing with his
family outside his house. Two bodies were found wrapped in blankets and
dumped on the street near a cemetery.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 6, In southern Nigeria
armed men robbed an offshore oil platform operated by a subsidiary of
US oil giant ExxonMobile although the attack did not disrupt oil
production.
(AFP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 6, In Papua New Guinea
Police a woman was tied to a wooden pole, surrounded by rubber tires
and set on fire. Rumors said she was suspected of spreading witchcraft
through the South Pacific island nation.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 6, In Senegal 9 men,
including a prominent activist, were convicted of homosexual acts and
sentenced to eight years in prison. Senegal, a primarily Muslim nation
in West Africa, is one of 38 countries on the continent that
criminalize homosexual acts.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 6, In Somalia 3 masked
gunmen fatally shot a Somali aid worker. The UN envoy to Somalia said
the UN should create a Baghdad-style Green Zone in the African country
so he can base all his aid workers there. Aid workers Keiko Akahane
(32), a Japanese doctor, and Dutchman nurse Willem Sools (27), were
released after being held by Somali gunmen for 108 days.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 6, South Korea said it
will invest 50 trillion won ($38.1 billion) over the next four years on
environmental projects in a "Green New Deal" to spur slumping economic
growth and create nearly a million jobs. Opposition lawmakers ended
their violent, 12-day siege of the parliament after successfully
delaying a key vote on a US free trade deal and other legislation.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, Sri Lankan forces
overran the Tamil Tigers' northernmost defense line and took full
control of Muhamalai, forcing the rebels to fall back about 600 yards
to another defense line. Armed men attacked a private Sri Lankan
television station, tossing hand grenades, shooting out TV screens and
starting a fire that caused heavy damage. Reporters Without Borders
said the attack follows accusations by state media that the Maharaja
Organization's television and radio stations were not "patriotic"
enough in their coverage of the government's recent victories.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, Turkey held a shipment
bound for Venezuela from Iran saying it contains equipment that can
make explosives.
(WSJ, 1/7/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 6, The WHO said at least
1,732 people have died in Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic and the number of
cases diagnosed has risen to 34,306.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, Venezuela ordered
Israel's ambassador expelled from the country in protest over the
Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 7, The United States said
it has released another $99 million as part of an aid package to
support Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug
cartels. The US released $197 million in December as part of the $1.3
billion US anti-drug package, known as the Merida Initiative.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, The SEC charged Joseph
S. Forte of Broomall, Pennsylvania, an investment fund manager, with
running a Ponzi scheme since at least 1995. Losses to investors were
estimated at $50 million.
(WSJ, 1/28/09,
p.A12)(www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr20847.htm)
2009 Jan 7, US health officials
said an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick
across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital.
(Reuters, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, A new federal report
said Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen pregnancy rate,
displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Oakland, Ca.,
demonstrations over the New year’s killing of Oscar Grant (22) by a
BART police officer turned violent. BART Officer Johannes Mehserle quit
his job avoiding an interview with police internal affairs
investigators.
(SFC, 1/8/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 7, Bank of America Corp.
raised more money to cope with US economic turmoil by selling part of
its stake in China Construction Bank Ltd., China's second-biggest
commercial lender, for $2.8 billion.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, Afghan locals said
that operations by the NATO-led force in the southern province of
Helmand had killed 19 civilians.
(AFP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Argentina an
Italian climber and an Argentine guide both died when a storm trapped
five mountaineers just below the summit of the Aconcagua peak, the
highest mountain in the Americas. The three others survived.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 7, In China a court in
Hangzhou, a prosperous city in eastern Zhejiang province, sentenced
Wang Rongqing (65) to 6 years in jail on charges of subverting state
power for organizing the banned China Democracy Party.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 7, The EU said Russia and
Ukraine will accept using international monitors to verify the transit
of natural gas from Russia through Ukraine's pipelines. Russia's gas
giant Gazprom completely stopped sending gas to European consumers at
7:44 a.m. (0544 GMT). 80% of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, Freezing temperatures
and exceptional snowfall caused travel delays across Europe and were
blamed for at least 12 deaths, including that of a man in Milan who was
crushed when a canopy collapsed under the weight of snow.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Hungary a masked
gunman shot to death Jozsef Takacs (62), a school principal, and Laszlo
Papp (32), a teacher, at a school in the Budapest neighborhood of
Csepel. 2 suspects were arrested the next day. Police said a security
guard shot the two men, hours after he and an accomplice, a 36-year-old
former administrator at the school, were fired by the principal on
suspicion of embezzling up to 4 million forints ($20,000, euro14,600).
(AP, 1/7/09)(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 7, B. Ramalingu Raju, the
chairman of India's Satyam Computer Services Ltd., quit after admitting
the company's profits had been doctored for several years, shaking
faith in the country's corporate giants as shares of the software
services provider plunged nearly 80 percent. Raju was arrested 2 days
later as Indian authorities fired the remaining board members and
launched an accounting review of the company.
(AP, 1/7/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 7, In northern Iraq a
female suicide bomber allegedly planning to blow herself up among
Shiite pilgrims was arrested, as millions joined processions across the
country to honor the martyrdom of one of their most revered saints.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, Israel ordered a
three-hour pause in its Gaza offensive to allow food and fuel to reach
besieged Palestinians, and said it welcomed a cease-fire proposal as
long as Hamas halts rockets and weapons smuggling. About 300 of the
more than 670 Palestinians killed so far were civilians. French
President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Israel and the Palestinian
Authority have accepted an Egyptian-French plan for Gaza.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, Wildlife activists
said the box turtle is disappearing across Malaysia because of
increased illegal hunting for its meat and use in traditional Chinese
medicine.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Mexico four
decapitated bodies were found in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of Tijuana.
The victims' heads were left inside a black bag at the scene.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, Pakistan’s PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani fired national security advisor Mahmood Ali Durrani after
he gave media interviews on national security issues without consulting
Gilani. The move came hours after Durrani and other top officials told
reporters that the sole surviving Mumbai attacker was a Pakistani
citizen.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 7, Sri Lanka officially
outlawed the Tamil Tigers, ruling out for now the possibility of peace
talks to end a 25-year civil war.
(WSJ, 1/8/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 7, Taiwan’s central bank
unexpectedly cut its key interest rates by half a percentage point and
urged banks to increase corporate lending. The finance ministry had
just reported that ex[ports in December had fallen 41.9% from a year
earlier.
(WSJ, 1/8/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 7, Turkey’s state news
said police had detained about 40 people, including 3 retired generals,
in a probe of an alleged plot to overthrow the Islamist-rooted AK Party
government.
(WSJ, 1/8/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 7, Venezuela's Citgo
Petroleum Corp. announced its fuel oil aid program would continue, just
two days after its partner nonprofit group, Boston-based Citizens
Energy, said Citgo had halted the free fuel shipments due to the world
economic crisis.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Zimbabwe seven
members of the main opposition party were the first of dozens of jailed
dissidents to be formally charged, and they pleaded not guilty in a
bombing plot. Zimbabwe delayed the opening of schools by two weeks,
amid fears that teachers may not show up for classes due to the
country's worsening humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 1/7/09)(AFP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 8, President-elect Barack
Obama warned of dire and lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump
unprecedented dollars into the economy, making an urgent pitch for his
mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since his election.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, The US Navy said a new
international force to battle pirates off the Somali coast is being
formed under American command in a bid to focus more military resources
to protect one of the world's key shipping lanes.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, Dell Inc. announced
that it is moving its Irish manufacturing operations to Poland by 2010,
as part of a cost cutting measure that will result in the loss of some
1,900 Irish jobs.
(WSJ, 1/9/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 8, Department-store
operator Macy's Inc. said it will close 11 underperforming stores in
nine states, affecting 960 employees, and lowered its forecast for the
fourth quarter after one of the weakest holiday seasons in years.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, Flooding in the US
Pacific Northwest led to mudslides and avalanches and closed 20 miles
of I-5 between Olympia, Wa., and the Oregon line.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 8, Rev. Richard John
Neuhaus (b.1936), Catholic priest and author, died. His book included
“The Naked Public Square” (1984), which argued that religious values
have a crucial place in American politics.
(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 8, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai's office said that reports suggested 17 civilians, including
women and children, were killed in the Jan 6 US raid in Laghman
province. A suicide bomber struck US troops patrolling on foot in
southern Afghanistan, killing three civilians, 2 Americans and wounding
at least nine others. A coalition strike on a bomb-making network in
Zabul killed five militants.
(AFP, 1/8/09)(AP, 1/8/09)(AP, 1/9/09)(SFC, 1/9/09,
p.A10)
2009 Jan 8, The Bank of England
cut interest rates from 2% to 1.5%, the lowest level since its founding
in 1694, taking it into uncharted territory as it attempts to ward off
a prolonged recession.
(AP, 1/8/09)(WSJ, 1/9/09, p.A5)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.49)
2009 Jan 8, Britain's Financial
Services Authority fined insurance broker Aon Ltd. 5.25 million pounds
($8 million) for weak anti-bribery controls, the largest penalty of its
kind.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, In eastern Congo Mai
Mai militiamen attacked a group of seven rangers killing one in a
government-controlled sector in the far north of Virunga National park.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 8, A magnitude 6.1
earthquake rocked Costa Rica killing at least 20 people with dozens
still missing.
(AP, 1/9/09)(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Iraq 2 simultaneous
roadside bombs tore through an Iraqi army patrol responding to a mortar
attack north of Baghdad, killing six Iraqi soldiers. Two other Iraqi
soldiers died in another blast near the city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, Israeli
representatives arrived in Cairo for Egyptian-brokered talks on a
cease-fire proposal after the UN Security Council failed to agree on
action to end the crisis in Gaza.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, The UN halted aid
deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip, citing Israeli attacks on a UN
truck that killed 2 Palestinian workers. For a 2nd straight day, Israel
suspended its Gaza military operation for three hours to allow in
humanitarian supplies. Israel killed at least 11 people, including
three who were fleeing their homes, raising the death toll from its
13-day offensive to 699 Palestinians. 11 Israelis have died since the
offensive began. Militants in Lebanon fired at least three rockets into
Israel. UN figures said as many as 257 children have been killed and
1,080 wounded, about a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/8/09)(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 8, Kuwait’s top
investment bank, Global Investment House, said it had defaulted on most
of its $3 billion in debt, raising concerns that other Arab Gulf
financial firms may follow as the global financial crises spreads
through the region.
(WSJ, 1/9/09, p.C2)
2009 Jan 8, In Pakistan a fire
swept through a slum in Karachi, killing 38 people, many of them
children.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 8, Russia's
state-controlled gas monopoly said it would restore supplies to Europe
through Ukraine, cut off after a dispute between Moscow and Kiev, as
soon as international monitors are in place.
(Reuters, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Somalia
gunmen fatally shot a UN World Food program worker during a food
distribution, the second staff member killed this week.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Spain Leonidas
Vargas (60), a convicted Colombian drug baron with links to two major
smuggling cartels, was shot dead in a Madrid hospital.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, Sri Lankan troops
captured an important Tamil Tiger base and pounded the rebels with air
attacks, forcing the insurgents to withdraw deeper into the dwindling
area that remains under their control. Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and
killed Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper
critical of the government, the second violent attack on media this
week. Three days after he was gunned down execution-style,
Wickrematunge's newspaper published a haunting, self-written obituary
in which he says he was targeted for his writings and adds: "When
finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."
(AP, 1/8/09)(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 8, Darfur rebels accused
Sudan's army of bombing their positions over the last 24 hours,
breaking a period of relative calm in the country's violent west.
(Reuters, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Zimbabwe opposition
members accused of being involved in a bomb plot said they were
tortured into making false confessions.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 9, The US House of
Representatives voted 390-5 for a bill declaring “unwavering
commitment” to Israel.”
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.48)
2009 Jan 9, The US Labor
Dept. reported that unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent in December,
the highest level in 16 years, as nervous employers slashed 524,000
jobs. The labor market is expected to remain weak as mass layoffs
continue.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, The US government
began collecting DNA samples from all immigrants arrested and detained,
despite concerns that the move violates their privacy rights.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 9, California officials
said they will close state offices two Fridays a month as the state
faced a $42 billion budget gap.
(WSJ, 1/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 9, The Illinois House
voted to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich, an unprecedented step in state
history.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, Chicago-based Merisant
Worldwide Inc., maker of the artificial sweetener Equal, filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, hobbled by the global credit crisis
and sliding sales.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.77)(http://tinyurl.com/ykx7ghs)
2009 Jan 9, Baltimore Mayor Sheila
Dixon (55) was indicted on charges that she accepted illegal gifts,
including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that
she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree. Her trial
began on Nov 9.
(AP, 1/10/09)(SFC, 11/10/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 9, In Miami Charles
Taylor Jr. (31), the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor,
was sentenced to 97 years in prison for mutilations and executions
carried out in Liberia, in the first US prosecution for torture
committed abroad.
(Reuters, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, Jon Hager (67), who
performed in the musical comedy duo The Hager Twins on "Hee-Haw," died
in Nashville. His brother Jim died in May, 2008. The syndicated TV
show, which debuted in 1969, satirized country life with a mixture of
music and comedy.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body
inside a produce shop, killing 10 civilians and 2 policemen. 3 US
soldiers were killed in southern Zabul province.
(AP, 1/9/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 9, Lloyds TSB Bank said
it has agreed to pay a 350-million dollar penalty to settle a probe
that it illegally handled financial transfers from 1995 to 2007 for
Iran and Sudan in violation of US sanctions.
(AFP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, In Worcestershire,
England, four armed robbers shot and killed Craig Hodson-Walker (29), a
postmaster's son, during a robbery in Fairfield near Bromsgrove. His
father was wounded in the leg.
(AFP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, Cambodian judges
denied that they paid kickbacks to government officials to secure jobs
on a genocide tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, In Germany Commerzbank
AG issued a euro5 billion ($6.8 billion) bond, the first to be backed
by the government's massive stabilization package.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, In India some 55,000
white collar workers at state-run oil companies called off a three-day
strike, after causing a severe fuel shortage in India.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting worshippers on their way to pray at a Shiite mosque in
Baghdad killed three people.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, Israeli jets and
helicopters bombarded Gaza and Hamas responded with a barrage of
rockets on at least two cities as both sides defied a UN call for an
immediate cease-fire. By the afternoon 22 Palestinians had been killed,
pushing the death toll to 776 and in the two-week-old conflict.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, Kenya’s government
said 10 million people risked going hungry after harvests failed
following a drought.
(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 9, Lithuania’s FlyLAL
airline, privatized in 2005, announced that SCH Swiss Capital Holdings,
a Switzerland-based firm, has purchased it for $1 million and debt of
about 1 million euros. On Jan 17 FlyLAL airline said it has suspended
its operations after a buyout deal by Swiss investment firm SCH Swiss
Capital Holdings failed.
(AP, 1/9/09)(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 9, Pakistan’s PM Gilani
said his intelligence agency has given India information about the
Mumbai attacks, as US Vice President-elect Joe Biden arrived in
Pakistan for talks with the country's top leaders. A series of blasts
have gone off near a theater in the eastern city of Lahore, but there
has been no immediate word on casualties.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, A Russian helicopter
owned by the state gas giant Gazprom crashed while on a hunting trip in
the mountains of Western Siberia, killing eight aboard. 3 people
survived. The crash involved government officials on an illegal hunt.
(AP, 1/11/09)(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 9, Somali pirates
released the MV Sirius Star, an oil-laden Saudi supertanker seized on
Nov 15, after receiving a $3 million ransom. Five of the Somali pirates
drowned with their share of the $3 million ransom after their small
boat capsized.
(AP, 1/9/09)(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, Somali pirates
released a captured Iranian-chartered cargo ship. The ship Delight was
carrying 36 tons of wheat when it was attacked in the Gulf of Aden Nov.
18 and seized by pirates. All 25 crew were in good health and the
vessel sailed toward Iran.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, Sri Lankan troops
captured Elephant Pass, the Tamil Tigers' last stronghold on the Jaffna
peninsula, seizing control of a symbolic highway and isolating the
retreating rebels in a shrinking slice of northeastern jungle.
Government soldiers seized a rebel training camp near the village of
Mulliyaweli, in Mullaitivu.
(AP, 1/9/09)(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 10, President-elect
Barack Obama made public a detailed analysis by his economic advisers
that estimates the $775 billion plan of tax cuts and new spending would
create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 10, A winter storm left
large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast covered in snow and freezing
rain. 10 inches of snow forced some 100 cancellations at Chicago’s
O’Hare Int’l. Airport. At least 8 inches fell on lower Michigan and
Ohio.
(SSFC, 1/11/09, p.A14)
2009 Jan 10, In Argentina 6
children died in Buenos Aires after a fire ripped through a former bank
being used as a home by poor families.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 10, Australian police
said a Canadian man has been charged with trying to smuggle more than
two million dollars (1.4 million US) worth of cocaine inside
forklift battery cells into Australia from Mexico.
(AFP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 10, Two British climbers,
including the youngest Briton to conquer Everest, fell hundreds of
meters to their deaths on Mont Blanc in the French Alps.
(AFP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 10, In Guinea-Bissau a
boat carrying passengers on the Geba River capsized in strong winds,
leaving 42 people missing.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 10, Israeli forces
pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza and planes
dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian
militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel. The Israeli
military said more than 15 militants were killed in overnight fighting.
An Israeli tank shell killed nine people in a garden outside a home in
the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. In Cairo, Egypt, Palestinian
Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas urged both Israel and Hamas to agree to
an Egypt-brokered truce. Syria-based Palestinian militant groups
including Hamas rejected the idea of deploying international observers
or troops in Gaza.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 10, In Nigeria leaders of
ECOWAS, West Africa's regional economic body, suspended Guinea's
membership following a military coup in the country.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 10, In northwestern
Pakistan at least 40 people were killed over the last 24 hours in
clashes between Sunnis and Shiites in villages of the Hangu district.
(AP, 1/10/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 10, In northern Peru a
bus ran off a slick mountain road into a ravine, killing at least 33
people.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 10, Russia and the EU
took a step toward securing the resumption of gas flows to Europe when
the two signed a deal on monitoring the supplies through Ukraine. PM
Vladimir Putin said Russia will restart gas supplies to Europe once an
EU-led monitoring mission begins to track gas transit via Ukraine.
(AP, 1/10/09)(Reuters, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 10, South Korean
officials arrested Park Dae-sung (31), a blogger writing under the
pseudonym Minerva. They charged that his postings had led to a plunge
in the value of the won, forcing the government to intervene in
trading. In April 20 Park Dae-sung was cleared of spreading false
information.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A11)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.45)(AP,
4/20/09)
2009 Jan 10, In Sri Lanka
government soldiers captured a guerrilla camp in the village of
Aiyamperumal in Mullaittivu. A pro-rebel TamilNet Web site reported
that four civilians were killed in a government artillery assault on a
rebel-held village in Mullaitivu.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, At the Golden Globe
awards, "Slumdog Millionaire" emerged as the potential film to beat at
the Academy Awards, an unexpected position for a movie with a cast of
unknowns and a story set among orphans and criminals on the streets of
Mumbai. The late Heath Ledger won a best supporting actor Golden Globe
for “The Dark Knight.”
(AP, 1/12/09)(WSJ, 1/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 11, A US federal rule
took effect allowing visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or
wildlife refuge as long as the person had a permit for a concealed
weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed
concealed firearms. Previously, guns in parks had been severely
restricted. The Bush administration had issued the gun rule in December
in response to letters from half the Senate asking officials to lift
the restrictions on guns in parks that were adopted by the Reagan
administration in the early 1980s. On March 19 a US district Judge
blocked the rule.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 11, South Korea’s Hyundai
Genesis was named North American Car of the Year and the Ford F-150 as
the 2009 North American Truck of the Year. The awards were first given
in 1994. This was the first time a Korean automaker has won.
(Econ, 3/7/09,
p.71)(www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/)
2009 Jan 11, Marcus Schrenker's
plane went down en route to Destin, Fla., from Anderson, Ind. Schrenker
(38), an Indiana investment manager, had reported that the windshield
imploded and that he was bleeding profusely. Federal marshals believe
he faked a distress call before parachuting from his plane over Alabama
and disappearing on a motorcycle he had stashed in advance. US Marshals
apprehended Schrenker on Jan 13 at a northern Florida campground.
Officers had to tend to Schrenker's self-inflicted gash to the wrist
before he was airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. In August
Schrenker pleaded guilty was sentenced in Florida to 4 years and 3
months in federal prison.
(AP, 1/13/09)(AP, 1/14/09)(SFC, 8/20/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 11, Australia's Defense
Ministry said its special forces in Afghanistan had killed Taliban
commander Mullah Abdul Rasheed, who had been involved in recruiting
suicide bombers and foreign fighters in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, In Indonesia scores
of people were feared dead after a ferry carrying more than 260
passengers and crew sank in stormy seas off Sulawesi island.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, In Iraq US soldier
Pfc. Sean McCune died of a non-combat related injury near Samarra north
of Baghdad. Sgt. Miguel A. Vegaquinones later pleaded guilty to
involuntary manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of McCune.
Vegaquinones was sentenced in July to three years in jail for the
shooting. A US Marine died in a non-combat related incident west of
Baghdad.
(AP, 1/12/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 11, Israeli troops made
their deepest advance into the Gaza Strip's most heavily populated
area, encountering increasingly fierce resistance from Islamic Hamas
fighters as they warned civilians to stay clear of the battle zone.
Human Rights Watch said that Israel's military has fired artillery
shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza and a
doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the case of 10 burn
victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, In northwestern
Pakistan security forces repulsed an attack by 600 fighters, most of
whom had crossed the border from Afghanistan, leaving at least 40
militants and 6 soldiers dead and scores of others wounded.
(AP, 1/11/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 11, An estimated 2,500
Lebanese and Palestinians protested peacefully in downtown Beirut
against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, as hundreds of
demonstrators in neighboring Syria shouted insults at the both the
Jewish state and Arab leaders.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, Two Nigerian soldiers
were killed and one wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen in the
restive oil-rich Niger Delta. Police said the attack might be connected
with the police seizure of a vessel, the Sandra Valleta, which was
carrying stolen crude oil.
(AFP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 11, Arne Naess
(b.1912), Norwegian philosopher, writer and mountaineer, died. He was
best known for launching the concept of "deep ecology," promoting the
idea that Earth as a planet has as much right as its inhabitants, such
as humans, to survive and flourish.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 11, Russia, Ukraine, and
the EU struck an agreement to try to resume Russian supplies through
Ukraine to Europe. President Dmitry Medvedev said energy giant Gazprom
would only resume gas supplies once Russia had a copy of the document
signed by Ukraine and once the various teams of international observers
were in place. The text of the accord calls for the EU, Russia and
Ukraine to each provide 25 experts to "carry out checks on the basis of
equal parity both on Ukrainian and Russian territory.
(Reuters, 1/11/09)(AFP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, Slovakia reopened a
nuclear power plant it was forced to shut down as part of its bid to
join the European Union, prompting condemnation from neighboring
Austria, which described the reactor at Bohunice as unsafe.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, In central Somalia
clashes between Islamist militias killed at least 29 people and wounded
more than 50 others. It was the latest sign of divisions within an
Islamist insurgency the US government says has links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, New Thai PM Abhisit
Vejjajiva's government won the most seats in by-elections,
strengthening his shaky coalition in its first test at the polls.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, A Turkish court
formally arrested 12 more people for ties to an alleged secularist plot
by ultranationalists to bring down the Islamic-rooted government,
bringing the total of people implicated in the case to more than 100.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 12, The US Senate said it
will seat Roland Burris, the junior senator from Illinois.
(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 12, The US slapped
sanctions on people and firms linked to Pakistani scientist Abdul
Qadeer Khan’s black market nuclear network.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 12, Minnesota officials
said lab tests had confirmed salmonella bacteria in a five pound
container of King Nut brand peanut butter. King Nut of Solon, Ohio, had
recalled the product on January 10. At least 6 people had been killed
and over 470 sickened nationwide in 43 states.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A2)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 12, In El Reno, Oklahoma,
a woman and her 4 children, aged 3-7, were found killed. Texas
officials the next day arrested the mother’s boyfriend, Joshua Steven
Durcho (25).
(SFC, 1/14/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 12, Sofa retailer Land of
Leather filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest British
retailer to succumb to a downturn in consumer spending amid the global
economic slowdown.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, State media said
China has shut down 91 websites for pornographic and other "vulgar"
content, as well as a political blog portal, since announcing its
latest bid to ensure Internet morality.
(Reuters, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, In China a Shanghai
distributor of a popular brand of dog food said it had suspended sales
of the product following reports that dogs who ate it had died from
aflatoxin poisoning. This appeared to involve an imported product,
Optima, a brand of dog food made by Nashville, Tennessee-based Doane
Pet Care Co. It was not clear if the pet food sold in China was the US
brand.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, War crimes
prosecutors in The Hague accused former Congolese vice president
Jean-Pierre Bemba of using systematic rape to terrorize civilians
suspected of supporting rebels during a bloody power struggle in
neighboring Central African Republic.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Cuba published new
regulations encouraging classic car owners to apply for taxi licenses
and set their own prices for the first time in nearly a decade as the
communist government turns to the free market to improve its woeful
transportation system.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Dubai Kabir
Mulchandani, chairman of the Dynasty Zarooni development company, was
arrested on charges of fraud and embezzlement. He was accused of
defrauding investors of more than $100 million. He has been under
investigation in India for the past 10 years by the excise department,
directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), enforcement directorate
(ED), and income tax authority.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.C3)(http://tinyurl.com/amevml)
2009 Jan 12, Fiji authorities
rushed to deliver clean drinking water and other supplies to thousands
of villagers who fled flooding from tropical storms. The storms left 11
people dead.
(AP, 1/12/09)(SSFC, 1/25/09, p.E2)
2009 Jan 12, French teachers
hurled shoes and other objects at police to protest President Nicolas
Sarkozy's high school reforms, prompting police to respond with tear
gas.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Germany’s coalition
government approved a $67 million spending package to mitigate
recession effects.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.52)
2009 Jan 12, In Greece 3 gunmen
had grabbed Periklis Panagopoulos (74), founder of one of Greece's
largest ferry operators, and his driver in the southern Athens suburb
of Vouliagmeni. Panagopoulos was released unharmed on Jan 20 following
a large ransom payment.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Haiti Police
Commissioner Philippe Jean Raymond of Port-de-Paix was poisoned after
several million dollars of cash seized from the uncle of a prominent
drug smuggler went missing.
(Econ, 2/14/09, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/dz7gcq)
2009 Jan 12, In Iraq a series of
bombs targeted Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. At least 10 people
died as Vice President-elect Joe Biden arriving in Baghdad following
trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Israeli warplanes
pounded the homes of Hamas leaders and ground troops edged closer to
the Gaza Strip's densely populated urban center, as Israel weighed a
decision to escalate its devastating offensive. Militants managed to
fire off at least four rockets. Gaza officials said the offensive has
killed some 870 Palestinians.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Alitalia's board
accepted Air France-KLM's offer to buy 25 percent of the company and
become its international partner.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Kazakh PM Karim
Masimov told his ministers to start personal blogs to get them closer
to the people of the former Soviet state.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Mozambique
authorities said torrential rains have killed 19 people in the past few
days and that worse flooding may lie ahead.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Nigeria Susanne
Wenger (93), Austrian-born sculptress, died. She had been initiated as
a Yoruba traditional priestess and was responsible for towering works
of art in one of Nigeria's two World Heritage sites.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Pakistan the
bodies of two men killed by Taliban militants for allegedly spying for
the US were found in the North Waziristan tribal region to the south of
Mohmand. The two were abducted a week ago as they attempted to flee
with their families. Trucks and other vehicles blocked the main
Quetta-Chaman highway, forcing about 100 trucks carrying NATO supplies
to park.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, Russia's state-run
monopoly Gazprom announced it will resume shipping natural gas to
Europe, where tens of thousands of homes and buildings have been left
without heat in freezing weather.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Somalia Islamist
insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace in Mogadishu.
At least 13 people were killed in 2 attacks. The United States
circulated a draft resolution calling for a UN peacekeeping force to be
deployed in Somalia to replace a small African Union force, but leaving
the Security Council to make a final decision by June 1.
(AP, 1/13/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 12, In Sri Lanka heavy
fighting was reported around guerrilla-controlled Mullaittivu district,
with troops seizing a rebel administration base, a training camp and a
bunker line.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 12, Taiwan's parliament
voted through a controversial bill lifting a decades-old ban on
casinos, despite protests that gambling could lead to a damaging
decline in public morality.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 13, President George W.
Bush declared his administration had achieved "a good, solid" record
and gave thanks to both his closest aides and Americans across the
country.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, The Pentagon said
that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release
from custody.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, The city of Los
Angeles, plagued by 23,000 violent gang crimes since 2004, including
784 murders and 12,000 felony assaults, announced that it had won its
first civil judgment, for $5 million, against a criminal gang that had
dominated the heroin trade downtown for decades.
(CSM, 1/15/09)(http://tinyurl.com/85n3cl)
2009 Jan 13, Citigroup announced
that it will spin off its SmithBarney retail brokerage into a joint
venture with Morgan Stanley. Plans were also afoot for Citigroup to
shrink by a third.
(WSJ, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 13, Patrick McGoohan
(b.1928), Emmy winning TV and film actor, died. He created and starred
in the cult classic TV show “The Prisoner” (1967). The British show
premiered in the US in 1968.
(SFC, 1/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 13, Nancy Bird-Walton
(93), Australian aviation pioneer, died from natural causes. She was
the first woman in Australia to operate a commercial aircraft. Sir
Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first man to fly across the mid-Pacific,
taught Watson how to fly in 1933, when she was just 17 years old. Two
years later, she obtained a commercial pilot's license and began taking
paying passengers for joyrides around the country.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, In Austria Umar
Israilov (27), a Chechen refugee, was shot dead on a Vienna street.
Officials said they had no proof the killing was political, but human
rights activists said his death was linked to his opposition to
Chechnya's pro-Moscow president. On Jan 28 Austrian authorities
arrested seven suspects, all Chechens, in the killing. On February 19
Polish police arrested Turpal Ali J. (31), a man suspected of killing
Israilov. In 2010 Austrian investigators concluded that Chechnya Pres.
Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the kidnapping of one of his critics and former
bodyguards and that Israilov was shot to death when the abduction went
awry.
(AP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/22/09)(AP, 4/27/10)
2009 Jan 13, China's government
reported that exports fell at their fastest rate in a decade as the
country's trade slump worsened again in December, a decline that's led
to masses of layoffs and growing fears of social unrest.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Ethiopia handed over
security duties in neighboring Somalia to a joint force of Somali
government security forces and Islamic militiamen, a shift some fear
will leave a power vacuum in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Iran’s judiciary
announced that 2 men were stoned to death last month for adultery.
(WSJ, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 13, Israeli ground troops
closed in on downtown Gaza City, battling Palestinian militants in the
streets of a densely populated neighborhood, destroying dozens of homes
and sending terrified residents running for cover as gunfire and
explosions echoed in the distance. Some 15 rockets and mortar shells
were fired toward Israel, causing no injuries. Egyptian mediators
pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas group to accept a truce proposal
for the embattled Gaza Strip in talks. The UN secretary-general headed
to the region to join the multitrack diplomatic efforts for a
cease-fire in Israel’s 18-day offensive, in which more than 900
Palestinians have been killed, half of them civilians.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, In Latvia a protest
against economic reforms that drew thousands in Riga turned violent as
small pockets of rioters clashed with police and attacked government
buildings.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Pirates attacked a
Norwegian cable ship off the coast of Nigeria but failed to seize the
boat despite gunfire, leaving the crew of 52 unhurt.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Russia and Ukraine
hotly blamed each other as Russia restarted natural gas supplies but
little or no gas flowed toward Europe. EU officials watched in dismay
and criticized both nations for their intransigence.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, A Russian warship
helped foil an attack on a Dutch container ship by suspected Somali
pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, Sudanese army planes
bombed near Muhajiriya in south Darfur, targeting rebels who had
rejected a 2006 peace agreement and the unconditional ceasefire
declared by Bashir last year.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, Swedish truck maker
AB Volvo said it will lay off more than 1,600 employees in Sweden as it
slows production amid falling demand for trucks.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, The WHO said
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and
almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in
Africa's worst outbreak in nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 14, The US stimulus
plan’s price tag, originally estimated at $775 billion, neared $850
billion as a result of negotiator’s decisions to emphasize investments
to spur job creation.
(WSJ, 1/15/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 14, In Atlanta, Georgia,
a federal appeals court upheld the state’s voter ID law.
(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A13)
2009 Jan 14, Trammell Crow
(b.1914, Texas real estate developer, died. His projects included the
Dallas Decorative Center (1955) and the 10-million square foot Dallas
Market Center. In the 1970s and 1980s Crow was the nation’s biggest
real estate developer. In 1981 he founded Wyndham Co., which became one
of the nation’s largest hotel chains.
(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 14, Ricardo Montalban
(b.1920), the Mexican-born actor, died at his home in Los
Angeles. His 1980 autobiography was titled "Reflections: A Life in Two
Worlds." He became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the
wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island" (1978-1984).
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 14, Al-Qaida chief Osama
bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel and condemned
Arab governments as allies of the Jewish state in a new message aimed
at harnessing anger in the Mideast over the Gaza offensive.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Afghanistan 2
British NATO soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Helmand
province.
(AFP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Brazil Cesare
Battisti (54), a leftist fugitive who wrote police thrillers while
evading a life sentence for two political murders, was granted refugee
status in Brazil and an official said he could go free this week.
Italy's government protested the decision. Battisti escaped from an
Italian prison in 1981 while awaiting trial on four counts of murder
allegedly committed when he was a member of the Armed Proletarians for
Communism. He fled to France and reinvented himself as a mystery
writer. Battisti has repeatedly insisted on his innocence. On March 5,
2010, he was sentenced to two years in prison for passport fraud.
(AP, 1/14/09)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2009 Jan 14, Canada’s Nortel
Networks Corp, North America's biggest telephone equipment maker, filed
for bankruptcy, hoping to save a once high-flying business whose
decade-long decline has accelerated with the global economic crisis.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Jan Kaplicky
(b.1937), a British-based Czech architect, died in Prague just hours
after his wife Eliska gave birth to their daughter Johanka. He designed
the award-winning media center at Lord's cricket ground in London.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 14, The developer of a
Dubai skyscraper set to soar two-thirds of a mile said it's halting
work on the project for a year as the boomtown grapples with the
financial crisis.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Dubai Kabir
Mulchandani, chairman of the Dynasty Zarooni development company, was
arrested on charges of fraud and embezzlement. He was accused of
defrauding investors of more than $100 million. He has been under
investigation in India for the past 10 years by the excise department,
directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), enforcement directorate
(ED), and income tax authority.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.C3)(http://tinyurl.com/amevml)
2009 Jan 14, A French court
acquitted six doctors and pharmacists in the deaths of at least 114
people who contracted a brain-destroying disease after being treated
with tainted human growth hormones.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Shares in Deutsche
Bank, Germany's biggest bank, slumped after it announced massive losses
for the fourth quarter and new terms for its takeover of giant retail
lender Postbank.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Iraq two people
were killed and two wounded in a suicide car bombing in the northern
city of Mosul.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Italian police
arrested Giovanni Setola, a top Mafia fugitive, who had eluded capture
earlier this week by climbing through a trap door and into a sewer
below his hideout.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Guerrillas in Lebanon
rocketed northern Israel for the second time in a week, drawing Israeli
artillery fire and threatening to drag the Jewish state into a second
front as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce in Gaza intensified. Gaza
health ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said the offensive has
killed 1,000 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 300
children. The Israeli navy intercepted an Iranian ship loaded with
medicine, food and clothing destined for Gaza and forced the vessel to
Egypt instead. Palestinian surveyors estimated that Israel's fierce
assault on Gaza's Hamas rulers has destroyed at least $1.4 billion
worth of buildings, roads, pipes, power lines and other infrastructure.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Police in
Indian-controlled Kashmir said they have arrested Mohammed Ahsan Dar,
the founder and commander of the region's largest rebel group, calling
it a major setback for the separatists.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Pakistan reopened a
supply route for NATO and US forces in Afghanistan after tribesmen
ended a three-day blockade. Thousands of people protested in Quetta
after four police officers were shot dead in what an official said was
a sectarian attack against Shiites.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Philippine officials
said weeklong rains have triggered flash floods, landslides and sea
surges across the Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and
another 8 missing.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Russia and Ukraine
wrangled over gas supplies again. Bulgaria and Slovakia, cut off by the
row for a freezing week, launched missions to plead for Russian gas
flow to be restored.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Saudi Arabia's most
senior cleric was quoted as saying it is permissible for 10-year-old
girls to marry and those who think they're too young are doing the
girls an injustice.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace and clashed
with government forces, leaving at least five civilians dead a day
after Ethiopian troops handed over security duties.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, South Africa’s health
ministry said the death toll from a cholera outbreak has risen to 15,
with more than 2,100 cases registered in a spillover from Zimbabwe's
epidemic. The UN said the death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak
has risen to 2,106.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, South Korea's Chosun
Ilbo newspaper said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has reportedly
ordered a crackdown on street markets in an apparent move to reassert
control over the economy amid an influx of foreign goods into the
isolated country.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Sri Lankan defense
officials said troops have established total control over the northern
peninsula of Jaffna after flushing out the last remaining pockets of
rebel resistance.
(AFP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Sudanese security
officers arrested iconic opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi (76) two
days after he urged the head of state to surrender to the International
Criminal Court. Al-Turabi was freed on March 9.
(AP, 1/14/09)(Reuters, 3/9/09)
2009 Jan 14, The UN Security
Council authorized 5,200 UN peacekeepers to replace a 3,300-strong EU
force in Chad and Central African Republic, which have been seriously
affected by fighting in neighboring Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Venezuelan lawmakers
approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow President
Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely, the final step before
the proposal goes before voters in a referendum.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Venezuela and Bolivia
broke off diplomatic relations with Israel to protest its military
offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, Pres. George W. Bush
offered his own first draft of history, summarizing eight years in
office. He told the country that while his policies have been
unpopular, there can be little debate about the results saying America
has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our
soil.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 15, Pres. Bush passed new
rules to end over fishing of 40 struggling marine species. Under the
rules the nation’s 8 regional fishery management councils must draw up
measures to end over fishing by 2010.
(WSJ, 1/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 15, Eric Holder, Obama’s
choice for attorney general, called waterboarding torture and vowed to
shut Guantanamo.
(WSJ, 1/16/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 15, Roland Burris was
sworn in as junior senator from Illinois.
(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 15, The US dollar
strengthened against the ruble to a record 32.40 rubles, well above the
high set in 2003. The depreciation was expected to continue.
(WSJ, 1/16/09, p.C8)
2009 Jan 15, A US Airways Airbus
A320 jetliner, piloted by Chesley B. Sullenberger and bound for
Charlotte, NC, landed in the Hudson River after both engines failed
shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia and an encounter with a flock of
geese. All 155 people aboard Flight 1549 survived.
(AP, 1/16/09)(WSJ, 1/16/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 15, In western
Afghanistan Gen. Fazaludin Sayar, a top Afghan army general, was killed
in a helicopter crash. All 12 others aboard were also killed.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Australia's tropical
Queensland state declared a flood disaster over an area the size of
France and Germany after recent monsoon storms. The floods are
eventually expected to move inland, helping fill lakes and relieving a
long-running drought in parts of Australia's desert interior and
tropical north.
(Reuters, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 15, The British
government announced its support for a controversial third runway at
London's chronically overcrowded Heathrow Airport, despite angry
opposition from green groups and locals.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Bulgarians held a
rally outside parliament for the second day to demand that their
government resign because of alleged corruption and a deepening
economic crisis.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, A police official
said Chinese authorities have detained 13 members of a gang suspected
of kidnapping and selling children, sometimes swooping by on
motorcycles and snatching them in broad daylight. Xinhua News Agency
said Su Tonghua (21) was arrested on Dec. 31. His 12 accomplices were
arrested last week.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Denmark's central
bank lowered its key interest rate by 0.75 to 3 percent.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, The European Central
Bank cuts its key rate by half a point to 2%, matching its lowest level
ever, set in December 2005.
(WSJ, 1/16/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 15, The last Ethiopian
troops backing Somalia's fragile government left Mogadishu, as Islamist
forces took control of bases that the Ethiopians had vacated. An
Islamist court under Shabab publicly executed politician Abdirahman
Ahmed (55) to death by firing squad for showing sympathy for
Christianity.
(AP, 1/15/09)(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdirahman_Ahmed)
2009 Jan 15, In Hong Kong Grace
Mugabe (43), the wife of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, struck a
photographer in the face repeatedly as her bodyguard grabbed him when
he was trying to snap photos of her leaving the five-star Kowloon
Shangri-la Hotel. She was later granted diplomatic immunity from
prosecution over her alleged assault of the British journalist.
(AFP, 3/22/09)(http://tinyurl.com/clw9hb)
2009 Jan 15, Iraq's minister of
higher education escaped injury when a roadside bomb exploded near his
convoy in central Baghdad. A government security guard was killed and
four people were wounded in another blast. Iraqi police arrested 13
suspected Sunni insurgents north of Baghdad, including three senior
members of an al-Qaida front group.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, The Irish government
nationalized Anglo Irish Bank after its chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick,
failed to disclose some €83 million in personal loans.
(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.54)(www.gavinsblog.com/2009/01/15/anglo-irish-bank-nationalised/)
2009 Jan 15, Israel shelled the
United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip, engulfing the compound
and the main warehouse in fire and destroying thousands of pounds of
food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees.
Fighting killed at least 70 people including 2 top Hamas leaders, Said
Siam (49), the minister of the interior, and deputy Salah Abu Sharah.
Gaza medical officials said 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since
Israel's offensive started Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/15/09)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 15, Kazakh lawmakers
approved legislation to guarantee at least two political parties are
represented in parliament, a move designed to improve the Central Asian
nation's tarnished democratic credentials.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, A Luxembourg court
ordered Swiss bank UBS AG to pay French financial company Oddo &
Cie euro30 million ($40 million) it had invested in a fund linked to
the alleged fraud perpetrated by US financier Bernard Madoff.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Police in New Zealand
said they had nabbed a man who was trying to crack a bar's safe after
posting security camera footage of the act on the Internet networking
site Facebook.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Pakistani officials
said 71 people have been arrested in a crackdown on groups allegedly
linked to the Mumbai attacks, while adding that the information India
has handed over needs work before it can be used as evidence in court.
Pakistan also said security forces had closed five training camps run
by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attack, and
arrested the entire top, middle and lower-level leadership and those of
a related charity. Security forces killed and injured a large number of
militants in the Swat valley in the country's northwest. Four local
militant commanders died in the clash.
(AP, 1/15/09)(Reuters, 1/15/09)(AP, 1/16/09)(WSJ,
1/16/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 15, In the Philippines
gunmen abducted three Red Cross workers in a southern Muslim militant
stronghold, prompting a search operation by US-backed Filipino troops
through dense jungles in the country's worst foreign hostage crisis in
nearly eight years. Seven suspects including three police officers were
later arrested in connection with a wide-ranging official enquiry into
the abductions on the southern island of Jolo. Eugenio Vagni (63),
Italian Red Cross worker, was released on July 11. A Swiss and a
Filipino, had been freed earlier in the year by the militants.
(AP, 1/15/09)(AFP, 4/6/09)(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jan 15, The US Air Force
began airlifting heavy machinery to Rwandan troops serving in an
international mission in Darfur, the first time the new US Africa
Command has undertaken a large-scale peacekeeper support operation.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Novartis AG said it has secured a $486 million contract to build
a new flu vaccine plant in North Carolina.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, Togo agreed to
extradite to the US Solano Cortez Jorge, an alleged druglord from
Colombia, who was arrested trying to smuggle hundreds of pounds
(kilograms) of cocaine through this West African nation last year.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 15, In Turkmenistan Pres.
Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov fired almost one-third of his Cabinet and
the head of the state oil company in a large-scale reshuffle
reminiscent of his eccentric predecessor's frequent purges.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 15, Ukraine rejected
Russia's latest request to pipe natural gas westward to increasingly
frustrated EU consumers, deepening the bitter economic and political
dispute that has paralyzed energy shipments to Europe.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 16, A US government
watchdog said 83 of the nation's 100 largest corporations, including
Citigroup, Bank of America and News Corp., had subsidiaries in offshore
tax havens in 2007, and some of the companies received federal bailout
funding.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, The US Treasury Dept.
froze the assets of 4 key al-Qaida operatives including Saad bin Laden,
Osama bin Laden’s 3rd son. Mike McConnell, US Director of National
Intelligence, said Saad bin Laden is no longer under arrest in Iran and
is probably in Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 16, Citigroup said it is
splitting into two businesses as it reported a fourth-quarter net loss
of $8.29 billion, its fifth straight quarterly loss.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Bank of America Corp
, posted its first quarterly loss in 17 years and slashed its dividend,
hours after winning a multibillion-dollar lifeline from the US
government to help absorb Merrill Lynch, which lost a record $15.31
billion in the quarter.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Kellogg Co. of Battle
Creek, Mich., recalled 16 products containing peanut butter due to
possible salmonella contamination as federal officials confirmed
contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85
food companies.
(SFC, 1/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 16, Circuit City, a
bankrupt electronics retailer based in Richmond, Va., said it failed to
find a buyer and will liquidate its 567 US stores resulting in the loss
of some 30,000 jobs. Circuit city’s last day of sales was on March 8.
(SFC, 1/17/09, p.C1)(SFC, 3/9/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 16, Artist Andrew Wyeth
(b.1917), American artist, died at his home in the Philadelphia suburb
of Chadds Ford. He had portrayed the hidden melancholy of the people
and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in
works such as "Christina's World."
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, In Afghanistan 10
people were killed and more than 30 others had to be rescued when
avalanches buried their vehicles in the Salang pass north of Kabul.
(AFP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 16, An Algerian customs
officer was killed by armed Islamists west of Algiers. The 35-year-old
official had his throat slit after being stopped at a fake barricade
put up and manned by about 10 armed Islamists at Miliana near Ain Defla.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, Australia granted
asylum to 28 people from Afghanistan and Iran, in the first such move
since relaxing tough rules on asylum seekers.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, British pop star Boy
George (47) was sentenced to 15 months in jail for imprisoning a
Norwegian male escort (29) after a nude photoshoot. The singer and disc
jockey, who stood trial under his real name George O'Dowd, admitted to
police to handcuffing Audun Carlsen to his bed on April 28, 2007, as he
investigated the Norwegian's alleged tampering with his computer.
(AFP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Farhad Hakimzadeh, a
wealthy US businessman with a passion for books about the Middle East,
was sentenced to two years in jail for stealing pages from rare texts
at two of Britain's most venerable libraries.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, John Mortimer
(b.1923), British lawyer and writer, died. He was the creator of the
curmudgeonly criminal lawyer Rumpole of the Bailey.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, In eastern Congo the
leader of a splinter rebel faction said his forces would stop fighting
the government and the two sides would work together to battle Rwandan
militias at the heart of the conflict. Ugandan rebels, according to the
UN, massacred 100 civilians in Tora, a village in northeast Congo, the
latest atrocity blamed on the insurgents.
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 16, The EU threatened new
sanctions against Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe, blamed for
political deadlock, a surging cholera epidemic and runaway inflation.
The UN said the death toll from the cholera outbreak had risen to 2,201
and that the epidemic is still not under control.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Frenchman Lluis Colet
broke the world record for the longest speech after rambling nonstop
for 124 hours about Spanish painter Salvador Dali, Catalan culture and
other topics.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, In India a herd of
nearly 150 hungry elephants rampaged through a village in the remote
northeast, trampling to death a young family as they slept in their hut.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, In Iraq a Shiite
candidate for provincial elections was assassinated while campaigning
south of Baghdad, underscoring fears that political rivalries will lead
to a spike in violence ahead of a Jan. 31 vote.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Israel said it was
close to winding up its offensive against Hamas, and diplomats in
Washington said the US will provide assurances on ending weapons
smuggling into Gaza as part of a cease-fire. More than 1,100
Palestinians have been killed since the war began on Dec. 27, including
346 children. Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' political chief, rejected Israeli
conditions for a Gaza cease-fire and demanded an immediate opening of
the besieged territory's borders. Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish told
Channel 10 that his house in the northern Gaza strip town of Jebalia
had been hit by Israeli shells and his daughters, ages 22, 15 and 14,
were killed.
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Jan 16, Kenya's president
declared the country's food crisis a national disaster and asked
international donors to contribute $406 million toward emergency food
aid. The US and Britain signed legal agreements with Kenya, essentially
extradition treaties, in which Kenya agreed to try suspected pirates.
(AP, 1/16/09)(WSJ, 2/17/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 16, In Lithuania police
used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse some 7,000anti-government
protesters throwing rocks and eggs at the Parliament building. They had
gathered to demonstrate against unpopular reforms aimed at combating
the Baltic state's deepening economic crisis. The Finance Ministry
announced it intended to borrow 1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) from
the European Investment Bank to help plug a yawning budget gap.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Mauritania and Qatar
suspended contacts with Israel to protest the Gaza bloodshed at an Arab
summit that deepened the divisions between pro-US Arab nations and
their rivals in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, Mexico’s central
bank, the Bank of Mexico, cut its benchmark interest rate a half point
to 7.75%.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.42)
2009 Jan 16, Nicaragua’s Supreme
Court overturned former President Arnoldo Aleman's conviction and
20-year prison sentence for money laundering, ending a long-running
legal saga that has been colored by Nicaragua's political landscape.
Hours later Mr. Aleman’s Liberal Constitutional Party ended a
filibuster in the National Assembly and voted to let the Sandinistas
run the legislature’s affairs.
(AP, 1/16/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.40)
2009 Jan 16, South African police
and game park rangers said they have arrested 11 suspects in an
international rhinoceros poaching ring. Some of the rhinos had their
horns hacked from them while they were still alive.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, In South Korea Yonhap
news agency said Busan District Court handed a man named Lim (42) a
suspended 30-month sentence for raping his wife (25) at knifepoint. It
was the first time a man in traditionally male-dominated South Korea
has been convicted of marital rape. Lim was found dead of apparent
suicide on Jan 20.
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 16, The UN Security
Council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing its intention to
establish a UN peacekeeping force in Somalia, but putting off a
decision for several months in order to assess the volatile situation
in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, In Venezuela a
takeover of the Caracas City Hall began violently when dozens of armed
Chavez supporters wearing ski masks stormed in after shooting at the
building and tying up security guards. Chavez backers occupied the
civil registry and other municipal buildings to protest Ledezma's
decision to cut them off the city payroll. Caracas Mayor Antonio
Ledezma took to working from an undisclosed friend's office.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 17, President-elect
Barack Obama rolled into the capital city after pledging to help bring
the nation "a new Declaration of Independence" and promising to rise to
the stern challenges of the times. He kicked off a four-day inaugural
celebration with a daylong rail trip, retracing the path Abraham
Lincoln took in 1861.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 17, The US Department of
Defense announced that it transferred six detainees out of Guantanamo,
leaving about 245 at the offshore prison. Four detainees were sent to
Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan. Since 2002, more than 525
detainees have departed Guantanamo. Haji Bismullah (29) of Afghanistan
had always insisted that he was no terrorist.
(AP, 1/18/09)(SFC, 1/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 17, A US researcher who
visited the North said North Korea has hardened its stance on
disarmament, saying it has "weaponized" plutonium into warheads, but
hopes for better ties with President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Susanna Foster (84),
film star, died. Her dozen films included "The Phantom of the Opera"
(1943).
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.B6)
2009 Jan 17, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb hit outside the German embassy in Kabul, killing four
civilians and wounding dozens of people including a US soldier who
later died of his injuries.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, PM Gordon Brown told
British banks they must own up to the extent of their bad assets amid
more reports his government could launch a fresh bailout of the
struggling sector.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Edmund de Rothschild
(93), former chairman of N.M. Rothschild and Sons merchant bank and a
noted horticulturist, died at his home in England.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 17, A human rights groups
said Ugandan rebels in eastern Congo have ruthlessly killed at least
620 people in the past month, and vulnerable civilians in the region
desperately need protection. According to Ugandan troops, the Lord's
Resistance Army rebels set fire to a church in the village of Tora. it
was unclear how many people were killed.
(AP, 1/18/09)(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 17, A helicopter carrying
10 French soldiers crashed off the coast of Gabon in central Africa. At
least 2 survived and 2 were killed as rescuers searched for 6 missing.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Iran's state news
IRNA reported that four Iranians have been convicted and sentenced to
prison in an alleged US-backed plot to topple the government.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Israel bombarded
dozens of Hamas targets hours before a government vote on an Egyptian
brokered cease-fire, prompting Egypt to demand an immediate halt to the
3-week-old Gaza offensive.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Malaysia's opposition
snatched a parliamentary seat from the beleaguered coalition
government, in a by-election seen as a test of the nation's political
mood.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, In Tijuana, Mexico, a
prostitute (19) was smothered to death. 2 US sailors, petty officers
Jarrett Monzingo and Joshua Dockery, were taken into custody and faced
murder and attempted-murder charges while being held at La Mesa Prison.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Jan 17, Two dehydrated men
from Myanmar were found bobbing in an ice box in the Torres Strait off
Australia. They told authorities they had spent 25 days adrift after
their fishing boat sank. There was no sign of 18 other crew members.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 17, Pakistani security
forces, backed by artillery and tanks, killed 14 Taliban insurgents in
heavy fighting in the Mohmand region on the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 17, Russia and Ukraine
held gas crisis talks in Moscow that the European Union said were the
"last and best chance" to resolve the row that has left Europe
struggling without key gas supplies.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Sri Lanka’s
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said troops have almost completely
cornered the Tamil Tigers in their northeastern jungle base and that
the rebels' elusive supremo may already have fled the island.
(AFP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 17, Near Yemen hundreds
of people were missing and feared dead after three boats carrying about
400 migrants from Somalia capsized.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Bob May (69),
American TV and film actor, died. He donned the Robot's suit in the hit
1960s television show "Lost in Space" (1965).
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 18, The Polar Mist
unexpectedly sank 25 miles (40 kilometers) off the Argentine coast,
near the mouth of the Straits of Magellan, as it was being tugged to
dry land. 8 crew members had been rescued 2 days earlier. The owners of
its cargo said nearly $22 million in unrefined gold and silver went
down with it, and they asked insurer Lloyd's of London to foot the bill
for the costly recovery operation. Argentine news media and maritime
experts asked whether the precious metals were aboard at all. On July
14 divers recovered nearly a ton of unrefined silver from the ship
easing suspicions about insurance claims on the vessel. Divers
concluded their mission on August 2 to retrieve 9.5 tons of unrefined
gold and silver.
(AP, 4/8/09)(AP, 7/16/09)(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Jan 18, Australia listed the
world's largest sea turtle, the leatherback, as endangered due to the
threats posed by overfishing and the unsustainable harvesting of its
eggs and meat.
(AFP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, The roof of a
Brazilian church in Sao Paulo caved in shortly after a religious
service, killing 9 people and injuring 106 more.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 18, British television
presenter Tony Hart (83) died. He had charmed generations of children
with his artsy antics.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Central African
Republic President Francois Bozize dissolved the government, after
pledging to form a unity government at recent peace talks.
(AFP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, China’s public
security bureau of Lhasa, Tibet, launched a "strike hard" campaign
against crime, with raids on residential areas, Internet cafes, bars,
rented rooms, hotels and guesthouses.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 18, Denmark said it is
expanding its financial rescue package by lending the country’s banks
and mortgage $17.8 billion.
(SFC, 1/19/09, p.D1)
2009 Jan 18, Dubai said it has
reached a deal with Nigeria to invest in the African nation's
conflict-ravaged oil industry and other sectors of the economy.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, In El Salvador polls
ahead of six-party elections indicated the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front, a former guerrilla group known as the FMLN, will
increase its 32-seat plurality in the 84-member legislature while
winning the capital and most of the 262 mayors races up for grabs.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Militants in
Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed to a weeklong cease-fire with Israel, after
three weeks of violence that Palestinian medics say has killed more
than 1,200 people, about half of them civilians. The announcement came
about 12 hours after Israel declared its own unilateral ceasefire. On
March 19 a final tally of Palestinians killed in Israel's recent war on
Gaza's Hamas rulers was reported to be 1,417, including 926 civilians.
A Palestinian human rights groups published the names, ages and other
information about the dead on its Web site.
(AP, 1/18/09)(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Jan 18, Kyrgyzstan began to
come under a massive cyber attack attributed to Russian
“cyber-militia.” Less than 20% of the country’s 5.3 million population
had online access. Proposed reasons for the attacks included the US use
of an air base for operations in Afghanistan or a hit on the fledgling
Kyrgyz opposition, which has used the Internet to express its
discontent.
(WSJ, 1/28/09, p.A10)
2009 Jan 18, Moldovan poet Grigore
Vieru (b.1935) died in a car crash. He was admired for his courage in
promoting Romanian, the country's native language, when Moldova was a
Soviet republic. In the 1970s, he wrote "The Little Bee," Moldova's
first Romanian-language school manual for young children.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 18, Nigerian militants
attacked a loading vessel, a tanker and a tug boat at a crude oil
platform operated by Shell in Bonny and took 8 crew members hostage.
One person was killed in the attack. Nigerian rebels holding two
British oil workers said they had moved 3 British hostages to another
location after what it claimed was a botched rescue attempt by
government troops.
(AFP, 1/18/09)(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Pakistan’s
information minister said the government will push to quickly reopen
girls' schools destroyed by Islamic militants in the northwest Swat
valley.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Russia and Ukraine
announced a deal to end the bitter dispute that has blocked Russian
natural gas from Europe following talks between Russian PM Vladimir
Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko. Under the terms,
Ukraine will pay 20 percent less than the European "market price" price
for gas this year, which Russia says is $450 per 1,000 cubic meters.
That's more than twice as much as the $179.50 Ukraine paid in 2008.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, The UN-African Union
peacekeeping mission said rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement
have taken control of Muhajaria town in the western Sudan region of
Darfur.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, President George W.
Bush In his final acts of clemency granted early prison releases to
Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, two former Texas-based US Border
Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer in
2005 fueled the national debate over illegal immigration.
(AP, 1/20/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 19, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's office said that Russia is ready to cooperate on defense
matters with Afghanistan. The announcement coincided with an
increasingly public tussle between Afghan and Western officials.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, The Arab League’s 22
leaders met in Kuwait City for a 2-day session on infrastructure
projects and ways to deal with the global financial crises.
(SFC, 1/19/09, p.D1)
2009 Jan 19, Britain announced a
second rescue plan for the country's ailing banks, hoping to thaw
frozen lending by offering to insure banks against large-scale losses
on bad assets they already hold.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, CAR President
Francois Bozize reappointed Faustin-Archange Touadera as prime minister
of Central African Republic, just a day after the president dissolved
the government.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Chile's former top
air force commander was arrested on charges of taking graft in the 1994
sale of 25 Belgian military planes to the government. Air Force Gen.
Ramon Vega and three other retired officers were charged with tax
evasion, misappropriation of public funds and improper negotiation.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 19, China warned of a
rising bird flu risk after a second person died of the virus in less
than a month, and said it could be especially dangerous as the nation
headed into the Lunar New Year holiday.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, China’s state media
reported that nearly 1,000 people have been caught cheating on China's
notoriously competitive civil service entrance exams, some with
high-tech listening devices in their ears.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 19, El Salvador's chief
leftist party lost its stronghold in the capital but was winning the
most seats in the Legislative Assembly.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 19, Some 25 people, most
of them Haitians, were aboard an overloaded boat that was illegally
traveling the 100-mile (160-kilometer) passage from the Dutch territory
of St. Maarten to the British Virgin Islands. They were apparently
island-hopping in hopes of eventually reaching US shores when the boat
hit a reef, pitching passengers into the ocean. 13 migrants were
rescued by a passing fishing boat. In September 4 men, two Sri Lankans
and two residents of St. Kitts, were convicted and sentenced to prison
terms ranging up to 2 1/2 years for organizing the doomed sea voyage
from St. Maarten.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Jan 19, Iran's state news
agency reported that two internationally renowned Iranian AIDS
physicians were among four men sentenced to prison over the weekend for
allegedly participating in a US-backed plot to overthrow Iran's Islamic
regime. Arash and Kamyar Alaei have been held in prison since June 2008.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Patrick Rocca (42),
Irish property tycoon, was found dead of apparent suicide at his home
near Dublin.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.A13)
2009 Jan 19, Israeli officials
said they hope to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time
Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States on Jan
20. This was the last full day of fighting as Hamas fired 19 rockets
into Israel. About 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the
offensive, which started Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/19/09)(Econ, 1/24/09, p.53)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Jan 19, The International
Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the United States defied its
order when authorities in Texas on Aug 5, 2008, executed a Mexican
convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Militant attacks
killed a Pakistani soldier near the crucial supply route to US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan. Suspected Taliban militants bombed five schools
in a nearby valley in their growing campaign against girls' education.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Russia released a
text by President Dmitry Medvedev ordering the government to introduce
economic sanctions against countries supplying weapons to Georgia.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Russia and Ukraine
signed a deal that restores natural gas shipments to Ukraine and paves
the way for an end to the nearly two-week cutoff of most Russian gas to
a freezing Europe.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Russia Stanislav
Markelov (34), a human-rights lawyer who unsuccessfully fought the
early release of a Russian colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen
woman, was shot dead on a Moscow street along with reporter Anastasia
Baburova (b.1983). Markelov had told reporters he was considering file
an international court appeal against the early release of Col. Yuri
Budanov, who was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years, including
time served, for strangling 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva in 2000. He
admitted to killing her, saying he believed she was a Chechen insurgent
sniper. Budanov was freed last week with more than a year left on his
murder sentence. On Nov 4 Nikita Tikhonov and a female comrade were
detained for the murder and Tikhonov confessed to the crime.
(AP, 1/19/09)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.79)(AP, 11/6/09)(Econ,
11/14/09, p.63)
2009 Jan 19, Rwanda said it was
restoring relations with Germany after a diplomatic spat between the
two countries over Berlin's arrest of a top Rwandan official for
complicity in the 1994 genocide. A Rwandan court passed a life sentence
on Agnes Ntamabyariro, a former justice minister accused of ordering
the killing of Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, a Tutsi official who opposed
Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 1/19/09)(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 19, The Saudi king said
his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after
the devastating Israeli offensive and told Israel that an Arab
initiative offering peace will not remain on the table forever. The
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency cut its benchmark lending rate a half
point to 2%, and its deposit rate by three-quarters point to .75%.
(AP, 1/19/09)(WSJ, 1/20/09, p.A11)
2009 Jan 19, An Atheist Bus
Campaign's message, translated into Catalan, began appearing on two
routes in Barcelona, with plans to extend the campaign to the rest of
the country. A campaign with the concise message "There's probably no
God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," took to the road in
Britain this month. In Italy buses with the slogan "The bad news is
that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him" will
begin traversing the northern Italian city of Genoa on February 4.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Russia a girl
disappeared after leaving her home in St. Petersburg for school. Vity
prosecutor's spokesman later Sergei Kapitonov she was killed that
night, and that body parts believed to be hers were found in plastic
bags scattered around the city. Yuri Mozhnov (19), a florist, and Maxim
Golovatskikh (19), a street-market butcher, were arrested on Jan 31 on
suspicion of killing her and eating parts of her body.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Thailand Harry
Nicolaides (41), an Australian writer, was sentenced to three years in
prison for insulting Thailand's royal family in his novel, a rare
conviction of a foreigner amid a crackdown on people and Web sites
deemed critical of the monarchy. Bangkok's Criminal Court sentenced
Nicolaides to six years behind bars but reduced the term because he had
entered a guilty plea. His 2005 book “Verisimilitude” had sold 7
copies. Nicolaides returned home on Feb 21, after he was granted a
royal pardon.
(AP, 1/19/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Turkey Abdulkarim
Kirca committed suicide. He was found shot in the head in his apartment
in Ankara, following allegations in the Turkish press that he had been
involved in extra-judicial killings of Kurds.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.58)(www.journalistinturkey.com/date/2009/01/)
2009 Jan 19, The United Arab
Emirates central bank cut its benchmark lending rate a half point to 1%,
(WSJ, 1/20/09, p.A11)
2009 Jan 19, In Zimbabwe Southern
African mediators tried to forge a compromise between Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, in a
last-ditch effort to save a power-sharing deal. The power-sharing talks
ended without a deal and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said no
progress was made on what he called the "darkest day of our lives."
(AFP, 1/19/09)(Reuters, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Washington DC some
2 million people packed the National Mall to celebrate the inauguration
of Barack Obama as America's 44th and first black president. “The
Question we ask today is not whether government is too big or too
small, but whether it works.” Obama's new administration ordered all
federal agencies and departments to stop any pending regulations until
they can be reviewed by incoming staff, halting last-minute Bush orders.
(AP, 1/20/09)(Reuters, 1/20/09)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 20, The head of US
Central Command said the US has struck deals with Russia and
neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American
troops in Afghanistan through their territory. US officials have said
that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on
through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is
via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and
then through Uzbekistan.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, State Attorney
General Jerry Brown said California will get $54 million as its share
of a national settlement with drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. for
marketing the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for unapproved uses. Lilly
agreed to pay $1.415 billion to US state and the federal government,
the largest recovery in a health care fraud case in US history.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A21)
2009 Jan 20, In SF Edgar Diaz
(23), a member of the Down Below Gang, was sentenced to 40 years in
federal prison after admitting that he took part in 3 murders: Beverly
Robinson in April 2004, and Kenya Taylor and Antoine Morgan in June
2004.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.B2)
2009 Jan 20, Chrysler and Italy’s
Fiat confirmed they had reached an agreement on an alliance that would
give Fiat a 35% stake in Chrysler, but only if Chrysler gets $3 billion
more in financial help from Washington.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 20, US software
protection firm F-Secure said a computer worm known as "Conficker" or
"Downadup" had infected more than nine million computers and was
spreading at a rate of one million machines daily.
(AFP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Afghanistan the
coalition said a nighttime raid had killed 19 militants, including
Mullah Patang, a locally feared leader, during an operation in the
Tagab Valley, in Kapisa province just 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of
Kabul. The Afghan news agency Pajhwok quoted villagers saying 25
civilians had been killed. On Jan 27 US commanders traveled to the
village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in the
US raid. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the
operation.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Belgium the
“Entropa” art installation at the EU headquarters, by Czech artist
David Cerny, covered up the part that showed Bulgaria as a squat toilet
after protests from the aggrieved nation.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, The Bank of Canada
cut its key interest rate by a half-point to a fresh 50-year low of 1
percent, as expected, and predicted a period of falling prices this
year as an economic recession takes hold.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, The Central African
Republic's main opposition grouping said it refused to join PM
Faustin-Archange Touadera's government because he failed to play by
allegedly established rules.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Chechnya Hundreds
of people rallied in Grozny to protest the slaying of Stanislav
Markelov (34), a lawyer who opposed the early release of a Russian army
officer convicted of strangling an 18-year-old Chechen woman.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In central China a
16-year-old boy infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus died, the
country's third fatality from the disease this month.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Hundreds of Rwandan
troops rolled into the Democratic Republic of Congo to join Congolese
forces hunting Rwandan rebels operating there since 1994.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Iraq the spokesman
of PM al-Maliki said Iraq is willing to have the US withdraw all its
troops and assume security for the country before the end of 2011, the
departure date agreed to by former Pres. George W. Bush. In Baghdad 2
bombings left 5 people dead.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A22)
2009 Jan 20, In Japan Toyota
tapped Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, as president,
paying homage to its roots at a time when the company faces its first
operating loss in 70 years.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Kuwait the deeply
divided Arab League failed to come up with a plan to reconstruct the
devastated Gaza Strip and could not agree on whether to back Egyptian
peace efforts to end the crisis.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Mexican prosecutors
said three heads were found in an ice box south of Ciudad Juarez, which
lies across from El Paso, Texas. The heads belonged to three
unidentified men and were found in a rural town about 50 kilometers (30
miles) from Ciudad Juarez. A headless body was discovered in a canal a
few miles (kilometers) away. Mexican federal police said they have
found 3 suspected drug tunnels under construction in Nogales near the
Arizona border.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Pakistani police said
suspected Taliban militants killed six alleged US spies in a lawless
region of northwest Pakistan where American missile attacks have
reportedly killed several al-Qaida leaders in recent months. A bomb
wounded five police officers in Peshawar, the capital of North West
Frontier Province. An industry official said bus drivers in northwest
Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their
vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against
those who played music or movies for their passengers.
(AP, 1/20/09)(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Gaza UN chief Ban
Ki-moon voiced sorrow and frustration over the suffering of civilians
during Israel’s 3-week war on Hamas rulers. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas
legislator, celebrated the blood battles as proof of Hamas strength and
defiance.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A21)
2009 Jan 20, Russian gas reached
Europe via Ukraine for the first time in two weeks after Moscow and
Kiev ended a contract row that cut supplies to about 20 European
countries.
(Reuters, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Saudi Arabia’s prince
Alwaleed bin Talal said his conglomerate Kingdom Holding Co. lost about
$7.9 billion in 2008.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.A11)
2009 Jan 20, Abdullahi Yusuf (75),
Somalia's former president and an ex-warlord who was forced from
government, arrived in Yemen in a private jet from his impoverished
homeland, seeking political asylum. Islamic insurgents and Somali
forces clashed in Mogadishu, killing at least 14 people in the latest
sign the Islamists are making inroads into the few areas the UN-backed
government still controls.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, South Korean police
commandos stormed a vacant office building occupied by displaced
tenants in central Seoul, sparking a clash and a blaze that killed six
people and injured 23.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Spain 6 people of
Pakistani origin were arrested on suspicion of "fraud" in Barcelona.
They were suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out
thefts and sending money raised from criminal activities to Pakistan.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez challenged President Barack Obama to remake US policy
toward Latin America, but said he isn't holding out much hope for major
changes. Police used tear gas, plastic bullets and a water cannon to
break up a protest by university students against Chavez's attempt to
eliminate term limits.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, President Barack
Obama's first public act in office was to institute new limits on
lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid
aides, in a nod to the country's economic turmoil. A judge quickly
granted President Barack Obama's request to suspend the war crimes
trial at Guantanamo of a young Canadian in what may be the beginning of
the end for the Bush administration's system of trying alleged
terrorists. Obama took the oath of office again with Chief Justice John
Roberts to correct the previous day’s initial flub in wording.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Rev. John Skehan
(81), one of two Florida priests accused of embezzling hundreds of
thousands of dollars from their church, pleaded guilty as jury
selection was set to begin in the case. Prosecutors said he and Rev.
Francis Guinan plucked cash from the offering plate and spent it on
upscale homes, gambling trips to Las Vegas with a mistress, even a
$275,000 rare coin collection. On March 24 Skehan was sentenced to 14
months in prison. On March 25 Guinan was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(SFC, 3/25/09,
p.A7)(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 21, Arizona’s Republican
Sec of State, Janice Brewer (b.1944), became governor after Democrat
Janet Napolitano vacated her office to become Pres. Obama’s Sec. of
Homeland Security.
(Econ, 11/7/09,
p.33)(www.azgovernor.gov/About_Gov.asp)
2009 Jan 21, Haydar Al-Shukri, the
director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock, said a previously unknown fault, could trigger
a magnitude 7 earthquake with an epicenter near a major natural gas
pipeline.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Missouri a father
was arrested in Daviess County after two sealed coolers with the
remains of two infants were found. a third child is believed to have
died in Oklahoma. A surviving child, a 3-year-old boy, was in state
custody. The man was suspected of fathering four children with his
teenage daughter and faced charges of killing at least one after human
remains were discovered at their rural home.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Portland, Oregon,
officials said they would begin a criminal investigation into newly
elected Mayor Sam Adams (45), who admitted shortly after taking office
on January 1 that he had lied during his campaign about a sexual
relationship with a much younger gay man.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 21, In Blacksburg,
Virginia, Haiyang Zhu (25), a Chinese doctoral student at Virginia
Tech, decapitated Xin Yang, a new Chinese graduate student.
(SFC, 1/23/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 21, Charles Schneer
(b.1920), Hollywood film producer, died in Florida. His 25 films
included “It Came From Beneath the Sea” (1955) and “Hellcats of the
Navy” (1957).
(SFC, 1/27/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked a wedding party in the northern province of
Baghlan, wounding five children and a district police chief. A suicide
car bomber detonated his explosives near an Afghan army convoy in
western Afghanistan, killing two troops.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Scientists reported
that the entire Antarctic continent has been gradually warming since at
least 1957.
(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A10)
2009 Jan 21, Brazil’s central bank
cut its benchmark overnight rate, the Selic rate, to 12.75%, the
highest rate in the America’s, even considering its nearly 7% inflation.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 21, Official data showed
Britain's economy is weakening fast, with more figures due this week
expected to confirm the country has sunk into recession for the first
time since 1991.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Germany banned the
production, sale or possession of a synthetic marijuana-like drug known
as "Spice," effective as of Jan 22, becoming the 4th nation to ban the
substance, marketed as an herbal room-freshener, after Austria, the
Netherlands and Switzerland.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In northeastern India
an Assam Rifles paramilitary soldier shot and killed six of his
colleagues, then fled their military camp in a remote and dangerous
outpost.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Iraq a top Sunni
politician escaped assassination in a Baghdad car bombing that killed
at least 2 other people. Samira Ahmed Jassim (nickname Umm
al-Mumineen), a woman suspected of recruiting more than 80 female
suicide bombers, was arrested, dealing a major blow to one of the most
effective forms of attacks in Iraq.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A1)(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 21, The last Israeli
troops left the Gaza Strip before dawn, as Israel dispatched its
foreign minister to Europe in a bid to rally international support to
end arms smuggling into the Hamas-ruled territory. The Palestinian
Center for Human Rights released a final tally, saying 1,284 Gazans
were killed and 4,336 wounded, the vast majority civilians. Israel's
military said it will investigate charges that its forces used
phosphorous shells in a way that burned civilians during the fighting
in Gaza. Hamas officials conceded that they are executing Palestinians
suspected of collaborating with Israel during the 3-week invasion.
Fatah officials said at least 19 of its members have been executed and
more brutally tortured. On Sep 9, 2009, the Israeli rights group
B'Tselem published figures it said were compiled in months of research,
including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were
killed, including 773 civilians (including 252 children younger than
16) and 330 combatants. 13 Israelis also died, including 4 civilians.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Jan 21, Kosovo armed forces
took over security duties, less than a year after the territory
declared independence and in the face of strong protests from Serbia.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Indonesia’s Health
Ministry said 2 people have died of bird flu, apparently after contact
with sick chickens, raising the country's death toll to 115.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Nigeria the
best-known militant group in the Niger Delta said one of its allies
carried out an attack on a tanker in southern Nigeria in which one
Romanian crewman was taken hostage. He was soon released. The MT
Meredith, loaded with 4,000 tons of diesel, was attacked by gunmen in
speedboats and sustained "massive damage" during the attack.
(AFP, 1/21/09)(AFP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, North Korea and Iran,
two nations with nuclear aspirations the US wants to thwart, both
signaled that they were open to new initiatives from President Barack
Obama that could defuse tensions.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Pakistan a Saudi
called Zabi ul Taifi was among seven Al-Qaida suspects caught when
government forces mounted a raid near the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, Portugal became the
3rd euro zone country this month, after Spain and Greece, to have its
credit rating cut by Standard & Poor’s.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A9)
2009 Jan 21, Russia's military
said that an old Soviet-built nuclear-powered satellite has spewed
fragments in orbit, but insisted they do not threaten the international
space station or people on Earth.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Sri Lanka's military
declared a "safety zone" to enable some 250,000 trapped civilians to
cross into government-controlled territory from the diminishing area
held by Tamil Tiger rebels in the war-torn north.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Three relatives of
Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian pleaded guilty to charges of
money laundering, as part of a massive corruption case in which the
ex-leader has been implicated.
(AFP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Zimbabwe activists
launched a hunger strike to demand faster political change and urge
African leaders to isolate the country's president, Robert Mugabe, who
is accused of overseeing its political and economic collapse.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 22, President Obama
signed an executive order to shutter Guantanamo within one year,
fulfilling his campaign promise to close a facility that critics around
the world say violates the rights of detainees. Obama also banned the
CIA from operating secret prisons.
(AP, 1/22/09)(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 22, Pres. Obama named
George Mitchell as envoy to the Mideast and Richard Holbrook as envoy
to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 22, US federal agents
raided Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense systems, 2 small
Pennsylvania defense contractors. They were given millions in federal
funding by Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the defense appropriations
committee. In 2007 the WSJ identified Murtha as the largest earmarker
in the House.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 22, John Thain (53),
former head of Merrill Lynch, was forced out of top job at Bank of
America, after it was revealed that he had approved multi-million
bonuses for Merrill executives in the wake of big quarterly losses
ahead of its acquisition by Bank of America.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 22, In Bangladesh the
Awami League won a landslide victory in the country’s 481 upazilas
(subdistricts). Three people were killed, 150 injured and voter
intimidation was rife.
(Econ, 1/31/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 22, In Bolivia the
government of President Evo Morales began publishing its own newspaper
"Cambio" (Change). Morales grew so irked at the local press last month
that he said he would no longer hold press conferences for local
reporters and said that only 10 percent of journalists are "honorable.”
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Asian economic gloom
worsened when China said growth plunged in the final quarter of 2008
while Japan said exports fell at a record pace in December amid
weakening Western consumer demand.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, A Chinese court
condemned two men to death and gave a dairy boss life in prison in the
first sentences handed down in the tainted milk scandal, which ignited
public anger and accusations of cover-ups.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Congolese and Rwandan
troops advanced on the headquarters of Tutsi rebel leader, Laurent
Nkunda, as Kinshasa used its neighbor to smother a rebellion in eastern
DR Congo. Rwanda arrested Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda after he
fled a joint operation launched by the armies of the two nations.
(AP, 1/22/09)(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 22, Estonia said it will
end its nearly six-year military mission in Iraq after it failed to
agree with the Iraqi government on terms for its troop deployment.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, European Union
antitrust regulators said they raided Slovakia's main telecom operator
last week on suspicion of monopoly abuse.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, In Germany Klaus
Zumwinkel (65), the former chief executive of Deutsche Post, admitted
in court that he evaded taxes by squirreling money away in
Liechtenstein, calling it the greatest mistake of his life. A court on
Jan 26 convicted Zumwinkel of tax evasion, giving him a two-year
suspended sentence and a hefty fine.
(AP, 1/22/09)(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 22, In Iraq gunmen killed
eight members of a Sunni family and kidnapped two others in a tense
area northeast of Baghdad where Shiite militiamen still operate. A US
soldier was killed in a non-combat vehicle accident.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 22, Israel said it is
lifting restrictions on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip, a
ban that had drawn strong criticism from news media.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 22, Mexico inaugurated
one of the world’s largest wind farms, a $550 million project built by
Spain’s Acciona Energia.
(SFC, 1/23/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 22, In Mexico a man
accused of helping a drug kingpin dispose of hundreds of victims by
dissolving their bodies in caustic soda was arrested in the border city
of Tijuana. Authorities said Santiago Meza Lopez confessed to disposing
of at least 300 bodies over a decade. Army troops acting on a tip
raided a chili-drying warehouse, belonging to the brother of Zacatecas
state Sen. Ricardo Monreal, and found people loading marijuana onto
trucks. More than 11.4 tons of the drug were seized at the plant, near
the city of Fresnillo.
(AP, 1/23/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 22, NATO's Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said President Barack Obama's plan to
nearly double American troop numbers in Afghanistan needs to be matched
by a similar surge in development workers and aid funding.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Hundreds of workers
toiled in southern Gaza to repair dozens of tunnels dug under tents or
fake greenhouses while smugglers brought in food and fuel just days
after Israel ended a barrage of bombs and missiles aimed at cutting off
the supply route from Egypt.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Russia's Central Bank
said it will widen the ruble's trading range to allow an effective 10
percent devaluation of the national currency.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, The Sri Lankan
military shelled a village and a makeshift hospital inside a
government-declared "safe zone" for civilians in the north, killing at
least 30 people and injuring scores of others, according to local
health officials.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Sudanese troops
battled with rebels in southern Darfur, and the fighting killed five
rebels and two soldiers.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Turkey’s police
detained 39 more suspects in a new wave of arrests connected with
Ergenekon, an alleged secularist plot to bring down the Islamic-rooted
government.
(AP, 1/22/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.58)
2009 Jan 23, President Barack
Obama struck down the Bush administration's “global gag rule,” a ban on
giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or
provide abortion information, an inflammatory policy that has bounced
in and out of law for the past quarter-century.
(AP, 1/24/09)(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 23, US federal fisheries
regulators announced rules to protect marine mammals during Navy sonar
training along the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. Similar
regulations were issued previously by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration covering the West Coast and Hawaii.
(SFC, 1/24/09, p.A2)(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 23, Gov. David Paterson
picked Democratic US Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York's vacant
US Senate seat, a day after Caroline Kennedy abruptly withdrew from
consideration.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Joseph Bruno (79),
former majority leader of the New York Senate, was indicted on federal
corruption charges.
(SFC, 1/24/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 23, Geron Corp., a Menlo
Park, Ca., biotechnology company, announced that it had received a FDA
clearance to mount a study of its stem cell treatment for spinal cord
injuries in up to 10 patients.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 23, In Afghanistan a NATO
soldier died in a bomb blast in the south of the country. Taliban
militants attacked a police post in Kandahar province sparking a battle
in which three policemen died. A roadside bomb blast struck a joint
Afghan army and NATO forces convoy in western Farah province, killing
an Afghan soldier and wounding five NATO troops.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Australia rescuers
poured water on the parched skin of sperm whales beached on a remote
sand bank on Perkins Island to keep them alive until the next high
tide. All 45 whales died with 2 days.
(AP, 1/23/09)(AP, 1/24/09)(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 23, Authorities in the
Bahamas charged an island lawmaker and detained two other people in an
alleged plot to extort money from actor John Travolta after the death
of his son. Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, an attorney from Grand Bahama,
was arrested a day earlier and charged with abetment to extort and
conspiracy to extort.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Belgium a man went
on a rampage at a day care center, stabbing two young children and a
female worker to death and slashing 10 other children all over their
bodies.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo
Morales seized control of Pan-American Energy’s local natural gas
producer and warned other privately owned companies they would face
similar fates if they do not comply with Bolivian laws.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 23, The British economy
was officially declared in recession as a galloping economic crisis has
driven down the value of the British pound to a 23-year low and
threatened to remake the country's political landscape.
(McClatchy Newspapers, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Colombia's national
police chief said that fugitive drug boss Daniel Rendon, the country's
leading drug lord, has offered assassins a bounty of $1,000 for each
police officer they kill. The defense minister said another 10
Colombian soldiers have been fired for negligence in connection with
the killings of civilians to inflate guerrilla casualty figures. A
major was the highest ranking of the 10 cashiered soldiers from the
Popa Battalion in the northern city of Valledupar.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh was hospitalized and will undergo heart bypass surgery after
doctors found blocked arteries.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Turkey, Iraq and the United States have
agreed to set up a joint command center in northern Iraq to gather
intelligence to fight Kurdish PKK rebels in the region.
(Reuters, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Iraq's top security
official called a decision by his government to close Camp Ashraf,
housing some 3,500 members of an armed Iranian opposition group north
of Baghdad "irreversible," saying the Iraqi authorities do not allow
anti-Iran activities on their soil. Members of the terrorist People's
Mujahedeen, known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, will either be deported to
Iran or be given the option of going to a third country. A bomb hidden
inside a traffic police booth exploded in western Baghdad, killing a
7-year-old boy and wounding his mother.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Japan’s space agency
(JAXA) launched Ibuki (breath), the first satellite dedicated to
monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. Officials hoped to gather
information on climate change and help the country compete in the
lucrative satellite-launching business.
(AP, 1/23/09)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.90)
2009 Jan 23, Officials said
Liberia's worst caterpillar plague in three decades has spread to
neighboring Guinea after swarms of the crop-eating insects devastated
more than 45 towns.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, In northern Norway an
off-duty police officer shot and killed his ex-girlfriend with another
officer's service pistol, then critically wounded himself outside the
elementary school where she was a student teacher.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Pakistan 2
suspected US missile attacks killed 14 people just east of the Afghan
border. At least five victims were identified as foreign militants. A
suicide attack and a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and three
civilians in the Swat Valley.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Puerto Rico three
of five co-defendants reached plea agreements days after another
co-defendant, former Acevedo aide Eneidy Coreano, agreed to testify in
a federal corruption trial against former Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila and
have her charges dropped.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Said Ali al-Shihri, a
Saudi man released from Guantanamo after spending nearly six years
inside the US prison camp, is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch,
according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Sri Lanka
assailants on motorbikes attacked and wounded a newspaper editor and
his wife as they drove to work, the latest in a string of assault on
journalists.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Zimbabwe city
workers in Harare began an indefinite strike, demanding to be paid in
hard currency. President Robert Mugabe's ruling party refused to budge
on opposition demands for a unity government, whose fate hinges on the
outcome of a regional summit next week. The WHO said cholera in
Zimbabwe has so far killed 2,773 people.
(AP, 1/23/09)(AFP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 24, President Barack
Obama took to the airwaves to promote his economic aid plan in
what's-it-mean-to-me terms: thousands of better schools, lower
electricity bills, health coverage for millions who lose insurance.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Las Vegas Miss
Indiana Katie Stam was crowned Miss America 2009 by Miss America 2008
Kirsten Haglund.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Kansas two people
were killed and seven wounded in a shooting on the ninth day of the
wake at a house in Wichita.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed 15 militants in an overnight
operation in Laghman province. Local legislators put the number of dead
at more than 20 and said they included women and children.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, Bahamas Sen. Pleasant
Bridgewater, accused of trying to extort money from actor John Travolta
after his son's death, resigned and vowed to prove her innocence.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, Mariana Bridi (20),
Brazilian model, died from complications related to a generalized
infection caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bacteria
is known to be resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics. The
infection reduced the flow of oxygen to her limbs, causing her feet to
be amputated last week and her hands this week.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, China announced the
death of a 31-year-old woman from bird flu, its fourth human victim
this year, sparking fears of an outbreak during the country's main
festive season.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In El Salvador final
results showed that the former leftist rebels won more seats than any
other party in legislative elections but fell short of a majority.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In India a right-wing
Hindu nationalist group, outraged by what they viewed as "obscene"
behavior, stormed a fashionable bar in the southern city of Mangalore
and the assaulted female patrons. The Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army)
claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AFP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Iraq a suicide car
bomber struck a police patrol in the former insurgent stronghold of
Karmah west of Baghdad, killing four people, including a senior
officer, and wounding six others. Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint
south of the capital manned by government-backed Sunni fighters who
have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq. Two of
the so-called Sons of Iraq were killed in the attack in Jurf al-Sakr
and two others were wounded. North of Baghdad a man and a woman were
killed and a child was wounded during a US-Iraqi military operation in
Hawija.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Italy some 600
migrants and refugees broke out of an overcrowded immigration facility
on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to protest their treatment. The
migrants returned to the facility after several hours.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, Pakistan urged
President Barack Obama to halt US missile strikes on al-Qaida
strongholds near the Afghan border, saying that civilians were killed
the previous day in the first attacks since Obama's inauguration.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Singapore a couple
treated open air diners to a 15-minute naked parade, triggering both
embarrassment and applause for a scene almost unheard of in the
conservative city-state. The couple, a Caucasian man and an ethnic
Chinese woman in their 20s, were arrested and released on bail.
(Reuters, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Somalia 17 people
were killed in Mogadishu by a suicide car bomb targeting African Union
peacekeepers. The dead included a police officer, who tried to stop the
suicide bomber’s car. A gunfight between peacekeepers and insurgents
followed left 5 more dead.
(AFP, 1/24/09)(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 24, In South Korea Kang
Ho-sun (38) was arrested at his workplace in Ansan, a city about 20
miles (30 kilometers) south of Seoul, in connection with the killing of
a student who disappeared last month. Her body was found in a nearby
town the next day. Kang later confessed to kidnapping and killing the
student and then admitted to slaying six other women between December
2006 and December 2008.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 24, A storm killed 11
people in Spain, including four children who were killed when a sports
center collapsed near Barcelona, and four in France as high winds swept
across Spain and southern France.
(AP, 1/24/09)(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, Sudanese government
planes bombed a key town in south Darfur, a week after it was seized by
Darfuri JEM rebels. The next day peacekeepers said the bomb attack
killed and wounded civilians.
(Reuters, 1/24/09)(Reuters, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, Pope Benedict
rehabilitated four traditionalist bishops who lead the far-right
Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and
rejects modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine. One of
the four, British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying
the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by
mainstream historians.
(Reuters, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 25, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai condemned a US operation he said killed 16 civilians,
while hundreds of villagers in Laghman province denounced the American
military during an angry demonstration.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 25, Bolivians easily
approved a new constitution aimed at increasing their strength while
allowing leftist President Evo Morales a shot at staying in power
through 2014. The proposed document grants new rights to more than 5
million indigenous inhabitants of 35 distinct “nations.” It would
create a new Congress with seats reserved for Bolivia's smaller
indigenous groups and eliminates any mention of the Roman Catholic
Church, instead recognizing and honoring the Pachamama, an Andean earth
deity.
(AP, 1/25/09)(SSFC, 1/25/09, p.A6)(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 25, In China a Richter
scale 5.0 earthquake hit an area inhabited by the Xibe people. It
destroyed nearly 200 homes and damaged nearly 3,000 buildings. The
community, originally from Manchuria, had established a frontier
garrison in Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty.
(Reuters, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 25, Indian police shot
dead two suspected militants from Pakistan in a pre-dawn car chase near
New Delhi.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 25, Liberia’s Ministry of
Agriculture said it has set up a command post and called on
international experts to help fight an invasion by millions of
crop-devouring caterpillars that are eating their way across the
country with dire economic consequences.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 25, In Mexico Chiapas
state Attorney General Raciel Lopez said Mariano Herran has been
charged with embezzling funds while working as Chiapas economy
secretary last year. Herran was Mexico's drug czar from 1997 to 2000,
replacing Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who was convicted of aiding a
top drug lord.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 25, Sri Lankan troops
overran the last town controlled by Tamil rebels, striking a major blow
in Asia's longest-running ethnic conflict.
(AFP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 25, An avalanche slammed
into a group of Turkish hikers on a trip to a remote mountain plateau,
dragging them more than (1640 feet) 500 meters into a valley and
fatally burying 10 of them.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 25, A small ferry
overloaded with holiday shoppers sank in central Vietnam, killing at
least 40 people ahead of the traditional Lunar New Year. Most of the
dead were women and children.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 26, President Barack
Obama said the nation can't afford "distractions" or "delays" when it
comes to the economic stimulus plan working its way through Congress.
He also ordered the government to re-examine whether California and
other states should be allowed to have tougher auto emission standards,
a clean break from Bush administration policy.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The US Senate voted
60-34 to confirm Timothy Geithner (b.1961) as Treasury secretary.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 26, The US Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that managers cannot retaliate against employees whop
cooperate with discrimination probes.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 26, Fannie Mae estimated
that it would need a capital infusion of 11-16 billion dollars from the
US Treasury to cover losses related to home mortgage defaults.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 26, Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich skipped the start of his impeachment trial preferring to
make his case on national TV.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 26, Two Pennsylvania
judges were charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to
send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.
Prosecutors later said Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella (58) and
Michael Conahan (56) took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile
offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company,
Western PA Child Care LLC.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Jan 26, Nicholas Cosmo,
founder of Agape World Inc., was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme
that bilked investors of an estimated $370 million. His Long Island,
NY, firm promised profits of 48-80% a year.
(WSJ, 1/28/09,
p.A12)(www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1874283,00.html)
2009 Jan 26, Caterpillar Inc
announced it would cut nearly 20,000 jobs and warned of a tough year
ahead as a downturn that began in the United States metastasized into a
full-blown global recession, gutting orders for earth-moving equipment.
At least 1,500 of the lost jobs were in greater Peoria, Ill.
(Reuters, 1/26/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.37)
2009 Jan 26, Halliburton said is
has agreed to pay $559 million to the US to settle charges that one of
its former units bribed Nigerian officials during the construction of a
gas plant.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.B3)
2009 Jan 26, Home Depot Inc.
announced plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs while closing four dozen stores
under its smaller home improvement brands as the recession continues to
batter the nation's housing market. Its shares climbed more than 5
percent in morning trading.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Pfizer Inc. said it
is buying rival drug maker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal that will
increase its revenue by 50%. At the same time Pfizer announced cost
cuts that include slashing more than 8,000 jobs as it prepares for an
expected revenue crash when its cholesterol drug Lipitor loses patent
protection in November 2011. Pfizer also said it has agreed to pay $2.3
billion to settle a federal investigation into its alleged off-label
marketing of the now withdrawn painkiller Bextra.
(AP, 1/26/09)(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.B2)
2009 Jan 26, In Bellflower,
California, Nadya Suleman (33) gave birth to eight babies, only the
second time in history octuplets have survived more than a few hours.
The woman already had six other children and never expected to have
eight more when she took fertility treatment. Her mother later said the
woman had conceived all 14 of her children through in vitro
fertilization, is not married and has been obsessed with having
children since she was a teenager.
(AP, 1/27/09)(AP, 1/30/09)(AP, 1/31/09)(SFC,
1/31/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 26, Argentina's Pres.
Cristina Fernandez declared an agricultural emergency in the nation's
breadbasket provinces, responding to a key demand by powerful farm
organizations amid the worst drought in decades.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 26, A Bahamas paramedic
was charged in an alleged scheme to extort $25 million from John
Travolta after his chronically ill son died of a seizure at the
family's vacation home.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 26, China greeted the
arrival of the Year of the Ox with fireworks and celebrations, bidding
farewell to a tumultuous 2008 marked by a massive earthquake, the
Olympics, and a global economic crisis.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, China’s state media
reported that an 18-year-old man has died from bird flu in southern
China, the fifth human death from the virus in the country this year.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The armies of Congo
and Rwanda, battling together against Rwandan Hutu militiamen in
eastern Congo, clashed with fighters trying to retake a village and
killed 4 of them.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 26, It was reported that
recent analysis of vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant in
Patancheru, where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues,
enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one
stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Iran’s state radio
reported that several members of its border security forces were killed
in an ambush near the Pakistani border.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, In the Netherlands
the first-ever trial of the International Criminal Court began at The
Hague with Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia commander, denying he
committed war crimes by recruiting hundreds of child soldiers to kill
and rape.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, European Union
leaders said they were willing to take in prisoners being released from
the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, but stressed that American
authorities must show ex-inmates pose no security threat before they
can be resettled.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The European Union
decided to remove an Iranian opposition group from the EU's terror list
and lift the restrictions on its funds, a move likely to further damage
relations strained over Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, European Union
nations announced the addition of 27 Zimbabwean officials and 36
companies to the EU's visa and assets freeze blacklist to pressure
President Robert Mugabe to share power with Zimbabwe's opposition.
(AP, 1/26/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.52)
2009 Jan 26, Iceland's coalition
government collapsed, leaving the island nation in political turmoil
amid a financial crisis that has pummeled its economy and required an
international bailout to keep the country afloat.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, In northern Iraq 2 US
helicopters crashed in Tamim province, killing four American troops, in
the deadliest single incident for US forces in more than four months.
Enemy fire was later reported as the cause of the collision.
(AP, 1/26/09)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 26, In Madagascar
thousands of demonstrators demanding a new government in Madagascar
took to the streets and set the country's state TV complex on fire to
protest the apparent shutdown of the opposition's radio station.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Norway announced a 20
billion kroner ($2.89 billion) stimulus package to boost growth and
employment.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 26, In northwest Pakistan
a bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded on a major road in Dera Ismail
Khan, killing at least five people and wounding 20 in the latest attack
to rattle the volatile region. In the southwest gunmen shot dead the
leader of a small Shiite political party in Quetta, triggering violent
protests. Several hundred people torched vehicles and a bank. Elsewhere
in the northwest a man whom militants accused of spying for America was
found shot dead in Datta Khel village in North Waziristan.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Southern African
leaders opened fresh talks in Pretoria to end Zimbabwe's political
crisis amid a new threat by President Robert Mugabe to form a
government excluding his arch rival from power.
(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Spain's Prado Museum
named Asensio Julia as the workshop assistant believed mostly likely to
have painted "Colossus" (1808-1912), a work that was once attributed to
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.
(AP,
1/26/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colossus)
2009 Jan 26, A UN spokesman in
Colombo said dozens of civilians have been killed in Sri Lanka's
embattled north during ongoing heavy fighting between government troops
and Tamil rebels. At least 10 civilians were killed today inside an
area declared as a "safety zone." Over the weekend, dozens of people
were killed or wounded.
(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Sudanese warplanes
bombed Darfur rebel positions near the key town of El-Fasher ahead of
an expected ground offensive.
(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Economist
magazine said this week's edition has not been distributed in Thailand
because of local objections to an article about the royal family, the
second disruption in two months.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Thai navy
detained a boat filled with 78 illegal Rohingya migrants, many of whom
had lacerations and burns they said were inflicted by Myanmar soldiers.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, President Barack
Obama chose an Arabic-language satellite TV network for his first
formal television interview as president, delivering a message to the
Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy."
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Eddied Perez (b.1957,
former gang leader and mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, surrendered to
police to face a bribery charge related to home renovations.
(SFC, 1/28/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 27, In California federal
prosecutors said purchasing managers for Kraft Foods and Frito-Lay have
admitted to taking $318,000 in bribes from Randall Rahal, a former
sales broker for SK Foods of Lemoore, a major Central California tomato
processor. On August 11 Robert Watson (59), former Kraft Foods
purchasing manager, was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months for taking
$158,000 in bribes.
(SFC, 1/28/09, p.B3)(SFC, 8/12/09, p.D2)
2009 Jan 27, The social-networking
site Facebook removed a group whose title advocated raising money so a
gunman could be hired to "liquidate" Bolivia's leftist president, Evo
Morales. The Spanish-language group, created in August, had 8,069
members and had drawn the attention of at least one outraged blogger,
when The Associated Press alerted Facebook. Creator Hony Pierola (20)
denied any malice.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, A new study led by
the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said
climate change is "largely irreversible" for the next 1,000 years even
if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be abruptly halted.
(AFP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Near Los Angeles
police found the bodies of 7 people at a home in Wilmington.
Ervin Lupoe (40) killed his five children and his wife before turning
the gun on himself. Both adults were recently fired from their hospital
jobs.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 27, John Updike (b.1932),
American writer and poet, died of lung cancer. He released more than 60
books, including 28 novels, in a career that started in the 1950s,
winning virtually every literary prize.
(AP, 1/28/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.89)
2009 Jan 27, Gunmen abducted 10
Afghan workers in a daring ambush in Herat. 2 local UN staff, kidnapped
on New Year’s Day by alleged Taliban militants, were freed. One captive
was already freed, but 3 remained hostage. A roadside bomb struck a
vehicle carrying civilians in Kandahar province, killing four and
wounding nine.
(AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Bahrain police
fired tear gas at dozens of rioters as the public prosecutor charged
three Shiite Muslim activists with promoting a coup.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Brazil some
100,000 activists of all stripes converged on the Amazon city of Belem,
opening the 9th World Social Forum.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Brazil established a
new set of bureaucratic hoops for importers, raising worries about
creeping protectionism.
(WSJ, 1/28/09, p.A10)
2009 Jan 27, Lord Mandelson,
business secretary to Britain’s PM Gordon Brown, announced loan
guarantees of up to 2.3 billion pounds (2.5 billion euros, 3.2 billion
dollars) in credit funding for its ailing auto industry.
(AP, 1/27/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.63)
2009 Jan 27, Canada's Conservative
government unveiled a two-year C$40 billion ($32 billion) stimulus
package to help pull the economy out of recession, laying out plans for
a budget deficit for the first time after 11 straight years of surplus.
(Reuters, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, The UN refugee agency
said thousands of Congolese civilians have fled across the border to
South Sudan to escape rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Iceland's center-left
Social Democratic Alliance Party was chosen to lead the country
following the collapse of the island nation's government amid deep
economic troubles and intense political discord.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Iceland raised it
quota on whale hunting to 250 a year, a dramatic increase over past
levels.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Ramaswamy
Venkataraman (98), India's eighth president (1987-1992), died. He
helped draft the country's 1950 constitution.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Indonesian police
opened fire on hundreds of people in Papua province during a protest
against alleged police violence. 4 people were injured.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a Kurdish party's office in the northern city of Mosul,
killing at least three Iraqi soldiers only days before pivotal
elections. A Sunni insurgent group claimed responsibility for downing
two US helicopters that crashed a day earlier, killing four US troops.
The US military denied the claim.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Jamaican police said
a gunman shot a woman (55) in her one-room wooden shack and then set it
ablaze, leaving her 3 grandchildren to perish alongside her in the fire.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Japan announced a
$16.7 billion stimulus package to help businesses that have en
decimated by the global financial crisis.
(www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/timeline/Credit_Crisis_Timeline.pdf)
2009 Jan 27, Japan’s No. 38 Yoshi
Maru fishing boat was seized by Russian authorities in waters between
the two countries and was taken to the Russian port of Nakhodka. On Feb
7 Russian authorities released all 10 Japanese crew members seized
after allegedly straying into Russian waters.
(AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Mexico thieves,
apparently targeting people who exchange money at Mexico City's
international airport, shot a French citizen in the head. Authorities
warned that gangs have put lookouts at exchange windows in the
terminal. Mexico City prosecutors soon detained two suspects in the
shooting. French scientist Christopher Augur died at a Mexico City
hospital four days after his assault.
(AP, 1/27/09)(AP, 1/30/09)(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 27, Pakistani tribal
elders urged the government to stop military operations against Taliban
militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and to start peace
talks.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Palestinian militants
detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling near Gaza
and Israel responded with an airstrike. Not long after the bombing, a
27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border
several miles away. An Israeli airstrike wounded 2 men, at least one of
whom was a Hamas gunman. Israel closed its crossings into Gaza to
humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them.
(AP, 1/27/09)(SFC, 1/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 27, Pacific Island
leaders gathered in Port Moresby and threatened to expel Fiji from
their forum if coup leader Frank Bainimarama fails to announce credible
plans for elections.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.48)(www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2475598.htm)
2009 Jan 27, A Peruvian court
freed two men accused of belonging to a military death squad linked to
several massacres in the early 1990s, after the suspects completed six
years in prison without a conviction. Douglas Arteaga Pascual and Angel
Pino Diaz were charged in 2001 and accused of belonging to a death
squad known as the "Colina group." A verdict was expected this year.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 27, Russian Orthodox
bishops, monks and laymen voted for a new head for the world's second
largest Christian church in a contest between a powerful modernizer and
an influential conservative. Metropolitan Kirill (62) defeated a
conservative rival, Metropolitan Kliment, with 508 of 700 votes.
(AP, 1/27/09)(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 27, In South Africa the
15-nation SADC grouping said after a meeting, its fifth attempt to
secure a deal on forming a unity government, it had agreed that
opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be sworn in as prime
minister by February 11. An analyst said chances for a deal appeared
slim. The recently introduced 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note cannot
buy a loaf of bread, which costs Z$30 trillion. Two weeks ago, a loaf
of bread cost Z$30 billion.
(Reuters, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, South Korea’s central
bank announced that a woman will appear on its banknotes for the first
time, with the issuance of a new 50,000-won ($36) bill.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Sri Lanka a health
official alleged that at least 300 civilians were wounded and scores
feared killed by Sri Lankan army artillery shells fired into a
designated "safe zone" for ethnic Tamils trapped by fighting between
the military and Tamil rebels.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Sudanese armed forces
waged air strikes and artillery attacks on rebels in two key areas of
Darfur for a second day.
(AFP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 28, President Barack
Obama signed requests from Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Arkansas
Gov. Mike Beebe for federal emergency declarations as crews worked
around the clock to resurrect power lines downed by thick ice in both
states. Since the storm began building on Jan 26, the weather has been
blamed for at least six deaths in Texas, four in Arkansas, three in
Virginia, six in Missouri, two in Oklahoma, and one each in Indiana and
Ohio.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 28, A White House
official said President Barack Obama will press Afghan President Hamid
Karzai to extend government control beyond the capital and fight
corruption under a new US policy with a "significant non-military
component."
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, US federal regulators
guaranteed $80 billion in uninsured deposits at the institutions that
service the nation’s credit unions.
(WSJ, 1/29/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 28, Peanut Corp. expanded
its recall to all peanut products produced at its Blakely, Ga., plant
since Jan 1, 2007, due to a salmonella outbreak.
(SFC, 1/29/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 28, Billy Powell (56),
Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player, died in Florida. He played on such hits
as "Sweet Home Alabama" and survived the Oct 20, 1977, plane crash that
killed three band members.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 28, Five African and
international human rights groups called on the African Union to press
Senegal to move forward with the trial of former Chadian dictator
Hissene Habre.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Albania awarded a
35-year concession to the British-Swiss Zumax AG group for a euro1.18
billion ($1.55 billion) container terminal for ships in southwestern
Albania.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, China’s state media
said at least 81 people have been detained as the country launched a
security sweep in Tibet ahead of one of the region's most sensitive
anniversaries in years.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Cuba’s President Raul
Castro began the first visit to Russia by a Cuban leader since the end
of the Cold War, the latest sign of reviving ties between the two
countries.
(Reuters, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, El Salvador police
said they found the remains of what they believe to be eight to 10 gang
victims at the bottom of a well in Tonacatepeque, located outside San
Salvador.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 28, The European Union
promised billions of dollars in aid to the world's poorest nations to
entice them to sign a new global climate change pact.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, French PM Francois
Fillon said 1,000 French 1,650 soldiers would be pulled out from the
EUFOR mission to protect refugees in Chad. He also says France's
1,800-strong contingent in Ivory Coast will be reduced by half.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, In Iceland both
parties of the new coalition government supported the appointment of
social affairs minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (66), an openly gay
former air hostess, as interim prime minister.
(SFC, 1/29/09, p.A8)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.52)
2009 Jan 28, In Iraq special
voting began for those needed on duty for Jan 31 elections, such as
security forces and government officials. Iraqis held in detention also
were expected to take part in the early voting.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Israeli warplanes
struck Gaza smuggling tunnels and a weapons factory. There were no
reports of casualties. George Mitchell, Pres. Obama's new Mideast
envoy, said a long-term Gaza truce must be based on an end to weapons
smuggling to Hamas and the re-opening of the territory's blockaded
borders.
(AP, 1/28/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 28, Israel’s chief
rabbinate cut ties with the Vatican to protest the reinstatement of
English-born Bishop Richard Williamson (b.1940), who has continued to
deny the Holocaust. Williamson was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic
Church in 1988 because of his unauthorized consecration by French
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, deemed by the Holy See to be "unlawful" and
"a schismatic act."
(WSJ, 1/29/09,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Williamson_(bishop))
2009 Jan 28, Japan's defense
minister ordered the dispatch of ships to fight pirates off the shores
of Somalia, joining other countries in the battle against the outlaws.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan’s territorial
row with Russia was re-ignited as Japan announced that it had cancelled
humanitarian aid to the four disputed Russian-held islands, north of
Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido, following new Russian demand
that a disembarkation card be submitted in addition to the usual
procedures.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's former prime
minister Shinzo Abe signed a partnership accord with Iraq, on a rare
visit to the country for a senior leader of the close US ally.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, In Kenya a massive
fire swept through a supermarket in downtown Nairobi. 28 shoppers were
burned alive.
(AP, 1/30/09)(AP, 2/3/09)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.42)
2009 Jan 28, In Madagascar
thousands of opposition supporters demanded the resignation of Pres.
Marc Ravalomanana. The director of the main hospital said 43 people had
burned to death as protesters set fires in political violence earlier
in the week.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, A new UN report said
Myanmar faced food shortages in many parts of the country, largely
because of last year's cyclone and a rat infestation that destroyed
crops. A human rights group said the Chin people, Christians
living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to
forced labor, torture, extrajudicial killings and religious persecution
by the country's military regime.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Pakistan arrested
nine men suspected in a string of deadly bombings last year which
devastated the Danish Embassy, killed an army general and wounded
several FBI personnel. The day’s raids turned up about 220 pounds (100
kilograms) of explosives and other materials suitable for making vests
worn by suicide bombers.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 28, Russia’s military
said it has halted plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border, in
what could be a sign Moscow is seeking better ties with the new US
president.
(Reuters, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, In Serbia the editor
of a popular liberal radio show, critical of Serb nationalism, said
attackers have disrupted the broadcasts of Pescanik (Hourglass) and
hacked into its Web site.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Sri Lankan forces
fought their way into another village still held by Tamil Tiger rebels,
as neighboring India raised fears for civilians caught up in the war.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, A Sudanese man,
Mohammed el-Sari, was jailed for 17 years on charges of trying to help
the International Criminal Court investigate a minister suspected of
war crimes in Darfur. He was arrested in June accused of trying to
solicit information about special police in Darfur, men trained and
paid by the government and supervised by current Minister of
Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, In Switzerland some
2,500 business and political leaders met at Davos for the World
Economic Forum, as the worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression served to mute the enthusiasm of previous years. China’s
Premier Wen Jiabao and Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin blamed the US-led
financial system for the global economic slump.
(AP, 1/28/09)(WSJ, 1/29/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 28, A Thai court
convicted 66 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally
entering the country, raising the prospect they could be sent back to
Myanmar despite fears they would be persecuted there.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, President Barack
Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, an equal pay
bill, into law, declaring that it's a family issue, not just a women's
issue.
(AP, 1/29/09)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.25)
2009 Jan 29, In Illinois Pat Quinn
(60), the Democrat Lt. Gov., became governor after the state Senate
voted 59-0 to convict Rod Blagojevich (52) of abuse of power.
(AP, 1/30/09)(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 29, A California judge
ruled that Gov. Schwarzenegger can force state workers to take
furloughs to help close the budget gap.
(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 29, In southern
Afghanistan coalition troops killed four militants in a strike on a
bomb-making operation.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 29, The African Union
said the exclusion from its summit of Mauritania and Guinea, which both
suffered coups recently, proved the continent had moved on from its
checkered past. The summit was scheduled for Feb 1-3 in Ethiopia.
(Reuters, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, An Australian man
(36) was charged with murder after allegedly throwing his four-year-old
daughter from a Melbourne bridge into the Yarra River during peak hour
traffic.
(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, In Bolivia the last
US drug enforcement agents left the country, ordered out by Pres.
Morales, even as police reported that coca cultivation and cocaine
processing were on the rise.
(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 29, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown vowed to act with "purpose and determination" to restore economic
growth a day after the IMF said Britain would be the country worst hit
by the global recession.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, An international
rights group said Cameroon's government is employing extrajudicial
killings and torture to crush political opponents, and such violence
may escalate as the global economic crisis deepens.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, The first of more
than 6,000 Congolese rebels took part in a ceremony to integrate their
units into the regular army as part of a deal to end the conflict in
eastern DR Congo.
(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, The ship Monchegorsk
arrived in Cyprus. It was examined twice after it arrived under
suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza, and
detained. The US military had stopped the ship last month in the Red
Sea, and said it found artillery shells and other arms on board. But it
could not legally detain the ship, which continued to Port Said, Egypt,
and then to Cyprus.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Jan 29, The European Union
signed an agreement to give Ethiopia 251 million euros (322 million
dollars) in aid to boost development projects across the Horn of Africa
nation.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 29, In France hundreds of
thousands of workers staged a nationwide strike to try to force
President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to protect
jobs and wages during the economic crisis.
(Reuters, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, India began a plan to
issue a new biometric identity card to its whole 1.2 billion
population. On June 25 Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder of Infosys, was
given ministerial status and appointed to run the scheme.
(Econ, 7/4/09, p.36)(http://tinyurl.com/nvfahh)
2009 Jan 29, Iraq said it will bar
Blackwater Worldwide from providing security protection for US
diplomats because its contractors used excessive force, sanctioning a
company whose image was irrevocably tarnished by the 2007 killings of
17 Iraqi civilians. Hazim Salim al-Zaidi (51), former Iraqi army
officer in Mosul, was among three Sunni candidates killed two days
ahead of elections. One of the other Sunnis was killed in a drive-by
shooting in western Baghdad. The third was abducted along with his
brother and cousin in the Diyala province town of Mandali near the
Iranian border. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found later in the day.
(AP, 1/29/09)(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 29, George Mitchell,
President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, turned his attention to the
Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank. Palestinians
fired a rocket into Israel, and residents of the south Gaza town of
Khan Younis said an Israeli airstrike there wounded an unidentified man
on a motorcycle and five passers-by, among them children walking home
from school. Senior officials in the Islamic group Hamas indicated a
willingness to negotiate a deal for a long-term truce with Israel as
long as the borders of Gaza are opened to the rest of the world.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, Japan hanged four
convicted murderers, carrying out the country's first executions of the
year despite international criticism.
(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, Madagascar's
president made a conciliatory gesture, promising to put a radio station
back on air after its closure sparked anti-government rioting that left
at least 43 dead. A US envoy later estimated over 100 dead while police
said 76 had died in the rioting.
(AP, 1/29/09)(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Jan 29, Mexican police
detained an Ecuadorean man for carrying about $2.5 million in cash in a
suitcase at Mexico City's international airport.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 29, New Zealand’s central
bank lowered its key interest 1.5 percentage points to a record low of
3.5%, in response to a decelerating global growth outlook.
(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 29, In Nigeria gunmen
kidnapped a Nigerian boy (9) in the oil city of Port Harcourt, shooting
dead a domestic worker who was taking him to school.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, Pakistani police
arrested three men who they alleged carried out a deadly 2006 bombing
in Pakistan on the orders of India's intelligence agency.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, The UN launched an
emergency appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from
Israel's three weeks of military operations in Gaza.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, In the Philippines a
powerful explosion destroyed a fireworks factory and a nearby
electronics plant south of Manila, killing at least six people and
injuring more than 40.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, Somali pirates
hijacked a German gas tanker, the MV Longchamp, and its 13-man crew in
the Gulf of Aden, the third ship captured off the Horn of Africa this
month. The ship was released along with its 13 crew members on March 28.
(AP, 1/29/09)(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A16)(AP, 3/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, A South Korean
biotech company claimed to have cloned dogs using a stem cell
technology for the first time in the world.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, In Sri Lanka UN
workers evacuated hundreds of severely wounded civilians from behind
rebel lines as government troops fought to secure final victory over
the Tamil Tigers. Up to 250,000 civilians were trapped in the combat
zone in the northeast of the island.
(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, Swiss police said
they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation last year while using
Google Earth, the search engine company's satellite mapping software.
They arrested 16 people and seized 1.1 tons (1.2 US tons) of marijuana
as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, At the economic forum
in Davos, Switzerland, Israel’s Pres. Peres (85) traded accusations
with Turkey’s PM Erdogan, who declared: “You kill people,” and
criticized Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Erdogan stalked off stage after
being cut short during the exchange.
(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A4)(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 29, Zimbabwe Finance
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said citizens will be allowed to conduct
business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwean dollar. A UN
report said Zimbabwe's humanitarian disaster is far worse than
anticipated with only six percent of the population formally employed
and more than half in need of emergency food aid.
(Reuters, 1/29/09)(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, President Barack
Obama signed a series of executive orders that he said should "level
the playing field" for labor unions in struggles with management.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, The Republican Party
chose former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele as the first black
national chairman in its history.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 30, US Senator Claire
McCaskill (D., Mo.) introduced legislation that would limit the salary,
bonuses and stock options of executives of financial companies getting
federal bailout aid to no more than what the US president earns:
$400,000 a year, excluding benefits.
(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 30, Exxon Mobil Corp.
reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record
for a US company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent
from a year ago. Chevron reported a record $23.93 billion annual profit.
(AP, 1/30/09)(SFC, 1/31/09, p.C1)
2009 Jan 30, Scientists reported
that serotonin, a brain chemical that affects people’s moods, can also
transform dessert locusts into swarms that ravage the countryside.
Serotonin, a messenger molecule, carries signals between nerve cells.
(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A9)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.85)
2009 Jan 30, A trip to the Grand
Canyon turned deadly when a bus carrying Chinese tourists overturned on
an Arizona highway near the Hoover Dam, killing seven people and
injuring 10 others, several critically.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 30, In West Virginia a
small plane crashed in snowy weather killing all six on board.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 30, In Algeria at least
27 people were wounded and several buildings torched during clashes
among Muslim worshippers outside a mosque in Ghardaia.
(AFP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 30, Melbourne,
Australia's second-largest city, struggled to cope with a
once-in-a-century heatwave as temperatures hit 109 degrees. The heat
wave has claimed dozens of lives and sparked wildfires that have razed
up to 20 homes.
(AFP, 1/31/09)(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 30, Bahrain’s riot police
in Manama used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters angry
with perceived government discrimination against the Shiite majority.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, At least two million
worshippers gathered north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for the
Bishwa Ijtema, or World Muslim Congregation, a three-day event billed
as the largest annual Islamic event after the hajj. It was first held
in the 1960s and was launched by Tablig Jamaat, a non-political group
that urges people to follow Islam in their daily lives.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Brazil officials
in Rio Grande do Sul state said 10 victims had drowned in the city of
Pelotas, and that floods had driven thousands from their homes.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Britain wildcat
strikes against foreign workers spread through oil refineries and other
energy facilities, fuelled by fears of rising job cuts due to the
global slowdown.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Ethiopia said that
4.9 million of its people will need emergency food aid in the first six
months of 2009 due to drought and appealed for $390 million from donors
to pay for it.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Libreville, Gabon,
leaders of the six Central African states (Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, CAR,
Congo, Equatorial Guinea), began meeting to discuss closer economic
ties, including the creation of a new regional airline. The Economic
and Monetary Union of Central Africa, known as CEMAC, planned
discussions on such issues as monetary reform and the free movement of
citizens.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Hans Beck (79),
creator of the colorful plastic Playmobil toy figures that sold by the
millions around the world, died in Germany. Beck had created and
developed the 3-inch (7.5-centimeter) tall line of figures for the
company in 1971. they were dubbed Playmobil and brought to market in
1974.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Jan 30, Georgia's PM Grigol
Mgaloblishvili (35) resigned, citing health reasons after just three
months on the job as President Mikhail Saakashvili's second-in-command.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Guatemala's
government filed 3,350 criminal complaints accusing former soldiers,
paramilitaries and others of human rights violations against more than
5,000 civilians during the country's 1960-1996 civil war.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indian officials said
tigers have killed at least three children and four adults in northern
Uttar Pradesh in recent weeks, forcing frightened villagers to stay
indoors while forest rangers search for the wild cats.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indonesia said it
will repatriate 174 "economic migrants" who fled Myanmar claiming
persecution, as new accounts emerged of their harrowing sea journey and
alleged abuse by the Thai navy. The 174 Rohingya and 19 Bangladeshis
being kept at an Indonesian naval base landed in Weh Island off
northern Sumatra on January 7.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, An Israeli rights
group said it to use a database detailing the complicity of Israel's
government in widespread illegal construction in West Bank settlements
to help Palestinians file lawsuits over their lost land.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Kuwait’s National
Assembly passed a law banning women from working between 8 pm and 7 am
except in hospitals. Legislation also limited the workweek to 48 hours
and required accommodation for expatriate workers. New penalties for
begging carried a 6-month sentence and a fine of 500 Kuwaiti dinars
followed by deportation.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 30, Nigerian militants
called off a cease-fire after clashing with government forces.
(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 30, North Korea announced
that it is scrapping agreements with South Korea on easing military
tensions, accusing Seoul of pushing relations to the brink of war.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, A roadside bomb hit a
Pakistani army convoy near a Taliban stronghold in the Swat valley,
killing three soldiers and wounding another six.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Gaza City some
5,000 people rallied as Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Hayeh emerged from
hiding and declared victory in the 23-day Israeli offensive in Gaza.
(SFC, 1/31/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 30, Russia moved to
rebuild ties with Cold War ally Cuba, granting it loans and signing
deals on energy and industrial cooperation.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, South African
President Kgalema Motlanthe signed legislation that disbands the
country's elite anti-crime investigating unit, known as the Scorpions.
The unit will now be part of the standard police forces.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Sri Lanka rejected
growing international calls for a ceasefire amid fears for the safety
of 250,000 civilians trapped as the military pushed for victory against
Tamil rebels.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Turkmenistan's
authoritarian President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov ordered members of
his government to go back to school or lose their jobs. He said that
officials are under qualified to implement the necessary reforms in the
energy-rich Central Asian nation.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Venezuela an armed
group vandalized Caracas' oldest synagogue, shattering religious
objects and spray-painting walls in what Jewish leaders called the
worst attack ever on their community. On March 26 prosecutors filed
charges against eight police officers and three other people, accusing
them of involvement in the attack.
(AP, 2/1/09)(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Jan 30, Zimbabwe's opposition
decided to join a government with President Robert Mugabe next month,
ending a paralyzing political deadlock that has worsened the desperate
economic and humanitarian crisis. WHO reported that the death toll in
Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak had reached 3,161, out of 60,401 recorded
cases.
(Reuters, 1/30/09)(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 31, President Barack
Obama promised to lower mortgage costs, offer job-creating loans for
small businesses, get credit flowing and rein in free-spending
executives as he readies a new road map for spending billions from the
second installment of the financial rescue plan.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Maryland Goucher
College President Sanford Ungar told faculty and students in an e-mail
that Professor Leopold Munyakazi (59) was removed from teaching after
officials learned he had been indicted in 2006 on genocide charges in
Rwanda.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 31, John Lipsky, deputy
head of the IMF, announced that the fund would double its lending
capacity to $500 billion. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, India’s chief
economic planner, deemed the proposal too modest and suggested that
member triple their quotas.
(Econ, 2/7/09, p.67)
2009 Jan 31, Afghanistan's
interior minister announced a US-backed plan to create militias and
give them guns to fight the Taliban. It drew criticism from local
authorities in areas where the first units are being rolled out. An
Afghan tribal leader from southeastern Paktika province was fatally
shot by a NATO patrol after the vehicle he was in failed to stop in
response to signals from soldiers. A second Afghan was wounded. A
Canadian soldier was killed when his armored vehicle hit an explosive
device on a road west of Kandahar.
(AP, 2/1/09)(Reuters, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Jan 31, On the streets of
Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English. This week
the city council made it official. England's second-largest city
decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're
confusing and old-fashioned.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao arrived in London in the latest leg of a European tour aimed at
tackling the global financial and economic crisis and improving
relations between the trading partners.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In southern China
revelers celebrating a birthday set off fireworks just before midnight
inside a bar, triggering a blaze that killed 15 people and injured 22.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, Security sources said
Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border
with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling to the Hamas-run
territory.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Porsche's new museum
in Stuttgart, a sprawling monument to 60 years of German engineering,
opened to the public.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 31, Roxana Saberi (31),
Iranian-American journalist, was detained in Tehran. In April she was
charged with espionage, two days after her parents visited their
daughter in prison. The government had revoked her press credentials in
2006. On April 13, 2009, she was tried and soon sentenced to 8 years in
jail for spying. Her lawyer appealed. She was released in May and in
2010 authored “Between Two Worlds” My Life and Captivity In Iran.”
(www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101315579)(AP,
4/8/09)(AP, 4/18/09)(SSFC, 4/18/10, p.F7)
2009 Jan 31, Iraq's
provincial elections wrapped up without any reports of serious
violence. The polls decided who sits on the councils that run 14 of
Iraq’s 18 provinces. The turnout was 51% of the 7.5 million eligible
voters. US soldiers killed two Iraqi policemen after coming under fire
during an operation against al-Qaida in northern Iraq. An American
soldier died of a noncombat-related injury in the northern city of
Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)(Econ, 1/24/09, p.54)(Econ,
2/7/09, p.40)
2009 Jan 31, In Kenya an
overturned gasoline tanker exploded as hundreds of people tried to
scoop up free fuel. Some 120 people were killed and 200 injured in the
inferno. Several witnesses said some police were charging 1,000 Kenya
shillings ($13) for 60 liters of fuel, an amount that usually costs
about $65, which enraged the crowd.
(AP, 2/1/09)(AP, 2/2/09)(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Pakistan two
motorcyclists lobbed a hand grenade at a police patrol in Baluchistan's
Khuzdar district, but hit bystanders instead, killing one person and
wounding 5 others.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, Palestinian militants
fired a rocket from Gaza that exploded close to the southern Israeli
town of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Thousands of
protesters rallied across Russia to criticize the government's economic
course and its response to the global financial crisis. In Moscow
minutes after protesters unfurled anti-Kremlin banners and chanted
"Down with KGB power" and "Russia without Putin," a dozen young men
jumped out of cars and started to beat them with fists and metal rods.
Police ignored the attacks by alleged members of "Young Russia," a
pro-Kremlin youth group.
(AP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Somalia moderate
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed was sworn in. The next day in
a published interview he called for a united front against violent
extremists and signaled his intent to try to bring together the
country's feuding Islamic factions.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, Sudan’s state media
reported that a US aid group has been thrown out of the Darfur region
after officials found thousands of Arabic-language bibles stacked in
its office. The Texas-based Thirst No More website described its work
in Darfur as focused on repairing and drilling water wells and makes no
mention of evangelism or other faith-based work.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Geneva,
Switzerland, riot police fired tear gas after some 1000 demonstrators
began throwing bottles protesting against the annual World Economic
Forum meeting at Davos.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Thailand some
30,000 supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in
Bangkok, promising to fight on indefinitely unless the new Thai
government leaves office within 15 days. In northeastern Thailand a
grenade blast killed eight people and wounded 27 others during an
outdoor celebration next to a Buddhist temple.
(AFP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, The Vatican announced
that the Pope has tapped the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner (54) to be
auxiliary bishop in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria province. Wagner
caused a stir in 2005 when he was quoted as saying that he was
convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier
that year was "divine retribution" for tolerance of homosexuals and
laid-back sexual attitudes in New Orleans.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan, Little Rock, Arkansas,
launched a $650,000 project to excavate the remains of its neglected
“Little Rock,” estimated to be 300 million years old, and restore it to
a place of dignity. In 1872 huge chunks of the rock were blasted away
to make room for a railway bridge.
(WSJ, 1/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan, In Ethiopia an
inauguration ceremony was held for the new headquarters of the
53-member AU. Completion was expected December 2011. The structure, a
gift to the AU, was designed by China, managed by China, financed by
China and constructed by China.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2009 Jan, In Kazakhstan newspaper
editor Ramazan Yesergepov was arrested and charged with revealing state
secrets in a move that has tarnished the ex-Soviet nation's democratic
credentials as it prepared to assume the chairmanship of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). His arrest
came after he published correspondence in the small-circulation weekly
Alma-Ata Info that appeared to show collusion in corruption between a
Kazakh businessman and the National Security Committee, the successor
agency to the KGB. On August 8 Yesergepov was sentenced to three years
in prison.
(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 Jan, The population of
Madagascar numbered some 20 million. It was estimated that 70% of the
people lived on less than $1 per day.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.E4)
2009 Jan, In Montenegro a huge
aluminium factory on the edge of Podgornica struggled under falling
metal prices. Controlled by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian tycoon, it
depended on large quantities of subsidized electricity. The factory and
its related industries accounted for 40% of the country’s GDP.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.46)
2009 Jan, In northeast Sudan
Israel carried out an attack in which at least 30 people were killed,
to stop weapons being transported to Gaza during its offensive against
Hamas. Reports from Sudan quoted a lone survivor of the attack as
saying two planes flew over the convoy then came back and shot up the
"four or five" trucks. Israeli aircraft or drones destroyed 23 lorries
carrying Iranian arms destined for Hamas. On May 25 Sudan’s Defense
Minister Gen. Abdul-Rahim Hussein told parliament that the airstrikes
killed 56 smugglers and 63 people they were trying to transport across
the border to Egypt, including Somali and Ethiopian migrants.
(Reuters, 3/27/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.50)(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 Jan, Four tourists, two
Swiss, a German and a Briton, were kidnapped on the Mali-Niger border.
They were transferred to Al-Qaida's North Africa branch, which asked
for a ransom and the release of a radical Islamist preacher held in
Britain. A Swiss and a German tourist were released in April. Edwin
Dyer of Britain, was killed by his captors on May 31. The 2nd Swiss
citizen, Werner Greiner, was released in July.
(AP, 4/23/09)(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jan, In Sharjah, UAE, a mob
of up to 50 people beat a Pakistani man to death with metal bars in a
fight over control of an illegal liquor business. In March, 2010, 17
Indians were sentenced to death for the beating. The sentences were
subject to appeal.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to February 2009
End of file
2009 February
2009 Feb 1, In Super Bowl XLIII at
Tampa, Florida, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals
27-23.
(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 1, In California police
officers and two armed robbers exchanged gunfire at a Papa John's Pizza
outlet in Chino, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Bystander
Daniel Baledran (21), of Rubidoux, died after he was shot by officers.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber in a car attacked a convoy of foreign troops in Kabul,
wounding two Afghans. Afghans demonstrated against an overnight US
military raid in Ghazni province that one villager said killed several
civilians. The US military said its forces only killed two militants.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, The African Union's
12th summit opened in Ethiopia with an agenda officially focused on
infrastructure development. Leaders set aside the first day to discuss
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's long-standing pet project to establish
a United States of Africa.
(AFP, 2/1/09)(Reuters, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, Algerian newspapers
reported that Ali Ben Touati, a leading member of Al-Qaeda's North
African branch, has surrendered to Algerian authorities.
(AFP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Brazil the world's
biggest counterculture political gathering ended with a flurry of
photo-snapping, tent folding and farewell embraces, as well as
uncertainty about what concrete results were accomplished in the
stifling heat of Belem.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, Colombia's battered
FARC rebels freed three police officers and a soldier held hostage for
more than a year, handing them over to the International Red Cross. A
car bomb exploded near a police post in the city of Cali, killing at
least one person and injuring at least 18 others after officers were
lured to the scene by a bogus fire alarm.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Iran police killed
10 drug smugglers in a shootout near the Afghan border. After the
shootout, police confiscated more than 2,500 pounds of drugs, most of
it opium.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Iraq according to
unofficial projections allies of Iraq's US-backed prime minister
appeared to have made gains in the provincial elections, rewarding
groups credited with reining in insurgents and militias.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Italy an Indian
(35) was attacked while sleeping on a bench in Nettuno, a town 50 miles
(80 kilometers) south of Rome. 3 young men were arrested for allegedly
beating and setting on fire the Indian immigrant.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 1, Mexico City shut down
a main water pipeline under a new conservation program, cutting service
to more than 2 million residents after some reservoirs dropped to their
lowest levels in 16 years.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Pakistan at least
16 suspected militants, one soldier and 19 civilians were killed in
clashes over the last 24 hours in the northwestern Swat Valley, as the
military escalated its offensive against insurgents in the one-time
tourist haven. In the southwest a bomb rigged to a motorcycle
exploded in a market, wounding at least 10 people.
(AP, 2/1/09)(WSJ, 2/2/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 1, Gaza militants
launched at least 10 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel,
drawing a threat of "disproportionate" retaliation from Israel's prime
minister and further straining a cease-fire that ended Israel's Gaza
offensive. Israeli warplanes bombed the area where Hamas smuggles in
weapons from Egypt.
(AP, 2/1/09)(WSJ, 2/2/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 1, Sri Lanka's army
declared that rescuing civilians trapped by its offensive against Tamil
Tiger rebels is now one of its top priorities, and said it captured two
camps used by suicide squads. Shells hit a crowded hospital in the
northeast combat zone, killing at least nine people.
(AP, 2/1/09)(AFP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Sudan a spokeswoman
for the UN mission known as UNAMID said the has government asked
peacekeepers to clear out of the town of Muhajeria. She said Sudan
wants to launch an offensive against rebels from the Justice and
Equality Movement, a Chad-backed rebel group that has held the south
Darfur town since mid-January.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Switzerland the
5-day World Economic Forum at Davos ended with the realization that the
depth of the global financial crises is still unknown and that the
solution remains elusive.
(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 2, President Barack Obama
promised to establish a review board to oversee the government's $700
billion rescue package aimed at averting a financial meltdown,
declaring that some of the nation's banks would have to write down bad
debts, while other banks may fail.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, Eric Holder won US
Senate confirmation as the nation's first African-American attorney
general, after supporters from both parties touted his dream resume and
easily overcame Republican concerns over his commitment to fight
terrorism and his unwillingness to back the right to keep and bear arms.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, Tom Daschle, President
Barack Obama's choice to head the Health and Human Services Department,
apologized to the Senate panel that will decide his fate, saying he was
"deeply embarrassed and disappointed" about failing to pay more than
$120,000 in taxes. On Feb 3 Daschle withdrew his name from nomination.
(AP, 2/2/09)(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 2, In New Mexico Richard
Leon Goyette (47) was arrested in Albuquerque for conveying false
information. Angered over losses in the stock market he has sent
financial institutions angry e-mails and dozens of threatening letters
containing suspicious powder.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 2, In southern
Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber in a police uniform detonated his
explosives inside a police training center, killing 21 officers and
wounding at least 20.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, Hundreds more British
power plant workers went on strike in a widening labor campaign over
the use of overseas workers to build an oil refinery in Immingham.
Workers were upset over the decision by Italian construction company
IREM SpA to use Italian and Portuguese workers for a 200 million-pound
($280 million) project at a Total refinery. An estimated 6 million
people skipped work when the largest snowstorm to hit London in 18
years stopped bus and subway services, grounded airliners and hobbled
businesses.
(AP, 2/2/09)(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Cambodia police in
Siem Reap arrested Jack Louis Sporich (75), an American from Chicago.
He was charged with sexually abusing four Cambodian boys.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 2, In England a protester
hurled abuse and then a shoe at China's Premier Wen Jiabao as he
delivered a speech on the global economy at Cambridge University.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 2, A Chinese official
said an estimated 26 million desperately poor rural Chinese are jobless
after pinning their hopes on factory jobs that dried up due to the
global economic slowdown, noting that widespread unemployment could
threaten the country's social stability.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Ethiopia Libyan
leader Moamer Kadhafi was elected to head the 53-nation African Union
at a summit amid concerns over deadly unrest in Madagascar and a bid to
indict Sudan's president for war crimes.
(AFP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Greece riot police
fired tear gas at farmers to prevent them from driving their tractors
to Athens as part of a protest demanding government financial help.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, Guyana banned
nighttime flights because of a strike by air traffic controllers. The
strike began the night of Jan 30 over union demands for salary
increases of 5 percent. The government says it cannot grant the pay
hikes because it needs to upgrade airport safety equipment.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) signed a nuclear inspections deal with
India.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, Indonesia's navy
picked up 198 starving, dehydrated boat people from Myanmar who said
they drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them
to sea in a boat without an engine. Indonesian fishermen had discovered
the 40-foot (12-meter) boat off Aceh's coast in northern Sumatra and
towed it to shore.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 2, Iran successfully
launched a missile carrying Omid (hope in Farsi), its first
domestically made satellite into orbit. In 2005, Iran launched its
first commercial satellite on a Russian rocket in a joint project with
Moscow, which appears to be the main partner in transferring space
technology to Iran.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting an American convoy exploded. Two people were killed and
six others were wounded.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, A missile from an
Israeli aircraft struck a car traveling in the southern Gaza Strip,
killing a Palestinian militant and further straining a truce with the
territory's Hamas rulers. Defense Minister Ehud Barak proposed linking
Gaza with the West Bank by digging a tunnel through Israeli territory.
(AP, 2/2/09)(WSJ, 2/3/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 2, A volcano near Tokyo
erupted, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital
with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left
others puzzled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, In southwestern
Pakistan gunmen seized John Solecki, head of the UN refugee office in
the city of Quetta, as he traveled to work. On April 4 Solecki was
released unharmed.
(AP, 2/2/09)(SSFC, 4/5/09, p.A7)
2009 Feb 2, Saudi Arabia issued a
list of its 83 most wanted suspects living abroad, including six Saudis
released from Guantanamo Bay, and asked Interpol for help in arresting
them.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Somalia AU
peacekeepers opened fire on civilian vehicles and fatally shot 18
people after an AU vehicle was hit by a land mine in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 2/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 2, In Sri Lanka rare
images of suffering civilians trapped in the war zone emerged: Dead
parents still cradling their children. A teenage boy with no arms
crying in despair. A severely crowded hospital with many patients lying
on mats under already full beds.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, Zimbabwe's central
bank revalued its dollar again, lopping another 12 zeros off its
battered currency to try to tame hyperinflation and avert total
economic collapse.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 3, Michigan Gov. Jennifer
Granholm announced a new $54 million movie production facility to be
built at a former GM facility in Pontiac. The state offered $15 million
in film related tax credits and as much as $101 million in state
credits over 12 years.
(WSJ, 2/3/09, p.B2)
2009 Feb 3, Sayed Ansari,
spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security, said the
service has broken up a cell of suicide bombers allegedly responsible
for six attacks in Kabul that killed 20 civilians. He also said those
arrested had links to a Pakistani-based jihadist group, Harakat
ul-Mujahedeen, and Sirajjudin Haqqani, an eastern Afghan insurgent
leader.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Australia PM Kevin
Rudd announced a $27 billion stimulus package. Australia’s Parliament
passed the bill on Feb 13.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sz_2IM3K80)
2009 Feb 3, In Brazil hundreds of
riot police occupied one of Sao Paulo's biggest slums following a night
of clashes in which three police officers were shot. Residents said the
clashes were a response to the police killing of a man on Feb 1 in
Paraisopolis.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Brazil Ocelio Alves
de Carvalho was killed on the Kulina Indian reservation. An Indian who
witnessed the killing, and tried to stop it, arrived at the police
station to report the alleged murder the next day. The witness said
body parts were roasted and eaten.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 3, The Bank of England
said high-street banks had borrowed 185 billion pounds since April to
help to free up the home-lending market.
(AFP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Colombia leftist
rebels freed their fifth hostage in three days. Ex-governor Alan Jara
(51), held for 7½ years, said that President Alvaro Uribe and
the guerrillas are equally to blame for the country's still-festering
conflict.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Greece a suspected
left-wing terror group attacked a police station in Athens, shooting at
the building and throwing a hand grenade.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Indonesia’s central
bank cut its key interest rate a half point to 8.25%.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 3, Eluana Englaro (37), a
woman at the center of Italy's right-to-die debate, was transferred to
a hospital where she is to be allowed to die after 17 years in a
vegetative state.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, A medium-range rocket
from Gaza landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Hamas said it is
ready to commit to a yearlong cease-fire with Israel in exchange for a
full opening of Gaza's border crossings, ahead of a new round of talks
with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Kyrgyzstan said it
would end the US lease of an air base that supports military operations
in Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced his
intention to shut the base, at least for the moment, after Russia
agreed to provide Kyrgyzstan with $2 billion in loans plus another $150
million in financial aid. The lease deal obliges Kyrgyzstan to give the
US 180 days notice to clear the base.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Mexico the bodies
of retired Mexican General Mauro Enrique Tello and two other men were
found in a sport utility vehicle abandoned on a highway outside of
Cancun. All had been shot many times. Octavio Almanza, the suspected
head of the Zetas in Cancun, was later arrested on suspicion of
masterminding Tello's killing.
(AP, 2/3/09)(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.A4)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 3, Islamist militants
blew up a bridge in northwestern Pakistan, cutting a major supply line
for Western troops in Afghanistan in the latest in a series of attacks
on the Khyber Pass by insurgents seeking to hamper the US-led mission
against the Taliban.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Hamas policemen broke
into an aid warehouse in Gaza City and confiscated 3,500 blankets and
more than 4,000 food parcels meant for 500 families after UN officials
refused to voluntarily hand it over to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social
Affairs. Ahmad Kurd, the Hamas Minister of Social Affairs countered
that the U.N. had been handing out relief to groups tied to Hamas'
opponents.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, A Russian military
Mi-24 helicopter gunship crashed about 700 kilometers (450 miles)
southeast of Moscow, killing all three people aboard.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, The Kremlin said
Russia and Belarus will create a new military system to monitor and
defend their air space.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 3, The hardline Somali
Islamist group Shebab called on its fighters to intensify their holy
war against African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Spanish police
arrested 13 people on suspicion of links to organized crime and
terrorism groups.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Sri Lanka patients
who could walk fled one of last functioning hospitals in the northern
war zone after it was hit by artillery shells, while the Red Cross
negotiated for the evacuation of those severely wounded. The military
said it captured the Tamil Tigers' seventh and final airstrip,
effectively grounding their tiny air force.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 4, President Barack Obama
imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed
financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying
Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Arkansas Gov. Mike
Beebe signed into law new animal-cruelty restrictions that make
aggravated cruelty to cats, dogs and horses a felony on the first
offense. According to the US Humane Society Arkansas became the 46th
state to make cruelty to animals a felony.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 4, A document was
released that listed thousands of people identified as customers and
victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 2/6/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 4, Dr. Randeep Mann
allegedly bombed the car of Dr. Trent Pierce, the chairman of the
Tennessee state medical board, in revenge for punishment after 10 of
Mann’s patients fatally overdosed on drugs he had prescribed. Pierce
lost an eye and was severely burned.
(http://a11news.com/1760/dr-randeep-mann-is-car-bomb-suspect/)(SFC,
1/7/10, p.A4)
2009 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed six bodyguards working for a controversial Afghan
district governor in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 4, In northeastern
Australia rain-battered residents were on alert for snakes in their
bathrooms and crocodiles in the road following repeated storms that
have sent local wildlife in search of dry land or a safe haven.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Brazilian police
killed at least 10 suspects, including two teenage boys, during
operations against drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, The British military
said an army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of
leaking official secrets. Britain’s Sun newspaper said Lt. Col. Owen
McNally had leaked figures about civilian deaths in coalition
operations to a worker from a human rights group.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Gao Zhisheng, one of
China's most daring lawyers, was arrested. In Jan, 2010, the Beijing
police officer who took Gao away said he "went missing" in September,
leading to fears for the lawyer's safety. On Jan 21, 2010, a Foreign
Ministry official said Zhisheng has been judged by legal authorities
and "is where he should be." This was China's first public comment on
the case. Zhisheng resurfaced in northern China on March 28, 2010,
saying he wants spend time with family and away from media attention.
(AP, 1/22/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A3)
2009 Feb 4, French-US telecom
equipment group Alcatel-Lucent said its net loss widened 48.5 percent
to 5.215 billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) in 2008, blaming asset
write-downs in a crumbling world economy.
(AFP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, French group Areva
signed a draft accord for the sale of two to six nuclear reactors to
India, a huge new market now open with the end of a nuclear trade
embargo on New Delhi.
(AFP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Germany countries
leading the drive to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear program
welcomed the new US administration's readiness to engage with Tehran.
Foreign Ministry officials from Germany and the five permanent members
of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the US,
met in Wiesbaden.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, A Greek police officer
(38) shot and seriously wounded a Greek private security guard (31)
outside the US Embassy in central Athens.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, An Iraqi lawmaker said
the prime minister's coalition will talk to other parties about sharing
power in mostly southern areas after initial projections showed the
Shiite leader's allies were the big winners in last weekend's
provincial elections. Early results showed the that PM al-Maliki’s
allies, the Coalition of the State of Law, finished first in 10 of the
14 provinces.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Kazakhstan allowed its
currency to devalue 25% in an effort to protect its foreign exchange
and gold reserves amidst falling oil prices.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 4, In Pakistan assailants
overnight torched 10 returning trucks stranded by the bombing of a key
bridge on the main supply route for US forces in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Poland’s defense
minister stated plans to end military missions in Lebanon, the Golan
Heights and Chad in an effort to cut spending due to the global
economic crisis.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Puerto Rico Sara
Kuszak (35) made a desperate call for help from the trunk of her
kidnapper's car, about an hour before she was found dead with her
throat slashed. Eliezer Marquez Navedo (36) confessed to kidnapping the
pregnant tourist as she was jogging and killing her. The FBI used a
signal from the victim's cell phone to help locate the suspect. Navedo
was later convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder and sentenced to 105
years in prison.
(AP, 2/5/09)(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Feb 4, Romania’s central bank
cut interest rates by a quarter point to 10%, still the highest in the
EU.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 4, Russia sought to
bolster its security alliance with six other ex-Soviet nations
(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
by forming a joint rapid reaction force in a continuing effort to curb
US influence in energy-rich Central Asia.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Somalia gunmen
killed Said Tahlil Ahmed, the director of the country’s largest media
company, HornAfrik, at a market in Mogadishu. Three Somali Canadians
had established HornAfrik in 1999.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, South Korea
implemented its Capital Markets Consolidation Plan (CMCA).
(www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7150292&action=article)
2009 Feb 4, Sri Lanka's president
said that the Tamil Tiger rebels are on the verge of defeat, but dozens
of civilians were reported killed as fierce fighting continued in
Asia's longest-running civil war. The last hospital in Sri Lanka's
shrinking war zone was evacuated as Red Cross staff and wounded
civilians fled attacks that apparently included cluster munitions. At
least 52 civilians were killed by shelling in the war zone.
(AFP, 2/4/09)(AP, 2/4/09)(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 4, The Vatican demanded
that Bishop Richard Williamson recant his positions on the Holocaust
before being admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 5, New US government data
said the number of US workers filing new claims for unemployment
benefits jumped to a 26-year high last week pointing to a rapid
deterioration in the economy.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb struck a convoy of foreign troops.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Bank of England
cut interest rates by a half-point to a record low 1 percent as it
fought a deepening recession brought on by the world financial crisis.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, British workers voted
to end a week-long unofficial strike over the use of foreign labor at a
French-owned oil refinery that sparked sympathy protests across Britain.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, The British Council
said that it has suspended work in Iran because of what it calls
intimidation by the authorities there. The British Council reopened its
Tehran office in 2001 after a 22-year break following the 1979 Islamic
revolution. It said 13,000 Iranians took part in English lessons and
other programs it ran in Tehran last year.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, A nongovernment
organization said the corrupt elite of Cambodia, one of the world's
most impoverished nations, has laid the groundwork for siphoning off
vast profits from a coming boom in mining and oil exploitation.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, China declared an
emergency in eight provinces suffering a serious drought that has left
nearly 4 million people without proper drinking water and is
threatening millions of acres of crops. The government published a plan
for the relocation and urbanization of farmers living near the Three
Gorges Reservoir. Some 1.4 million farmers would have to move again.
(AP, 2/5/09)(WSJ, 2/7/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 5, Germany's biggest
lender, Deutsche Bank, posted its first annual loss since World War II
after a terrible fourth quarter but said it would survive the global
meltdown without state aid. Deutsche Bank reported a 2008 loss of $5
billion, including $1.8 billion attributed a group run by Wall Street
trader Boaz Weinstein.
(AP, 2/5/09)(WSJ, 2/6/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 5, The Iraqi election
commission said that PM Nouri al-Maliki's party won 38 percent of the
votes in Baghdad in the Jan 31 election, followed by allies of anti-US
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a Sunni party with nine percent each. A
suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded restaurant in a Kurdish
city near the Iranian border, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Israeli navy
intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip
from Lebanon in the latest bid to defy Israel's blockade of the
militant-held territory.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, In Nigeria a private
security official said unidentified gunmen have attacked an
oil-industry vessel off the coast of Nigeria and killed its captain.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, In central Pakistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up near a Shiite mosque in the town of Dera
Ghazi Khan, killing 24 people.
(AFP, 2/5/09)(SFC, 2/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 5, Somali pirates said
that they were freeing, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and other heavy
weapons after receiving a $3.2 million ransom. The MV Faina was seized
last September 25. The Kenyan government claimed to the cargo, which
included 33 Soviet-designed battle tanks.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, The South Africa
Reserve Bank slashed its benchmark interest rate by a full point to
10.5 percent, following a half-point cut in December, saying inflation
is headed downward.
(AFP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, Sri Lanka's prime
minister rejected calls for a cease-fire from donor countries concerned
by reports of growing civilian casualties in the South Asian nation's
civil war and instead demanded the Tamil Tiger rebels' unconditional
surrender.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Swedish government
agreed to scrap a three-decade ban on building new nuclear reactors,
saying it needs to avoid producing more greenhouse gases.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, Jennifer Figge (56)
arrived in Trinidad, exhilarated and exhausted as she touched land this
week for the first time in almost a month, becoming the first woman on
record to allegedly swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Figge actually swam
only a fraction of the 2,100-mile journey. The rest of the time, she
rested on her crew's westward-sailing catamaran.
(AP, 2/8/09)(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 5, Turkey's parliament
approved the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The
parliament voted 243-3 after the Cabinet signed the protocol.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, Zimbabwe's parliament
passed a constitutional bill to allow a coalition government of
President Robert Mugabe and opposition rivals, being set up under a
deal to end political and economic crisis.
(Reuters, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 6, The US FDA approved
the first drug made with materials from genetically altered animals.
Atryn, developed by GTX Biotherapeutics, was made from the milk of a
genetically altered goat and would be used to treat a rare
blood-clotting disorder known as hereditary antithrombin deficiency.
(WSJ, 2/7/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 6, California ordered
200,000 employees, 90% of the state work force, to take an unpaid day
off amid a fiscal crises.
(WSJ, 2/7/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 6, In Ohio Gertrude
"Trudy" Steuernagel, a Kent State University professor, died a week
after she was severely injured in a Jan 29 beating by Sky Walker (18),
her autistic son.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 6, Phil Carey (b.1925),
film and TV actor, died in NYC. He was best known for his role as
business tycoon Asa Buchanan in the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live."
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 6, It was reported that
Canada has granted Lai Changxing a work permit. Chinese authorities
have accused Lai Changxing of masterminding a network that smuggled as
much as $10 billion of goods with the protection of corrupt government
officials. Before fleeing to Canada in 1999, Lai lived a life of luxury
in China complete with a mansion and a bulletproof Mercedes.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 6, Nigeria’s government
reported that 84 infants and children have died after swallowing My
Pikin Baby Teething Mixture, a teething syrup laced with diethylene
glycol. A failed bid to smuggle a bus filled with rice into Nigeria
from Niger left seven people dead including two customs officers set
ablaze with petrol.
(SFC, 2/7/09, p.A2)(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 6, A Pakistani court
freed nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. He had admitted to selling
weapon technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
(WSJ, 2/7/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 6, Pakistani forces
killed 52 Islamic militants in the northwest.
(WSJ, 2/9/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 6, The UN agency for
Palestinian refugees suspended aid to Gaza, accusing the Hamas rulers
of stealing a delivery of humanitarian supplies for the 2nd time in a
week. Jamil Shaqqura (51) died in a hospital of wounds from beating and
torture, a week after he was picked for interrogation by Hamas'
internal security.
(SFC, 2/709, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 6, Russia granted transit
rights to nonlethal US military supplies headed to Afghanistan, but
only after pressuring Kyrgyzstan to close an air base leased to the US.
(SFC, 2/7/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 7, San Francisco ushered
in the Year of the Ox with its annual Chinese New Year parade.
(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 7, Blossom Dearie
(b.1926), jazz pianist, singer and songwriter, died in NYC.
(SFC, 2/11/09, p.B7)
2009 Feb 7, In Bolivia President
Evo Morales and thousands of supporters celebrated the new constitution
as it took effect, saying the new document will enshrine indigenous
rights and end centuries of oppression.
(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Feb 7, A Bolivian woman died
from an injection of urine allegedly administered by her friend as a
form of health therapy. Investigating prosecutor Oscar Flores later
said that Gabriela Ascarrunz (35) died of an "infection caused by urine
that was injected by fashion designer Monica Schultz."
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Brazil 4 people at
the rear of a plane that crashed in a muddy Amazon river managed to
open an emergency door and swim to safety as the aircraft sank,
dragging 24 others to their death.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Ecuador President
Rafael Correa ordered the expulsion of a top US diplomat he accused of
suspending $340,000 in annual aid because Ecuador would not allow the
US to veto appointments to the anti-smuggling police.
(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Ethiopia Brian
Adkins (25) was killed in his home in Addis Ababa. He was serving as a
consular officer at the US Embassy there. A suspect was arrested on Feb
11.
(AP, 2/11/09)(www.huffingtonpost.com/news/africa)
2009 Feb 7, In Antananarivo,
Madagascar, at least 28 people were killed by security forces during
anti-government protests. Arrest warrants were issued the next day for
those deemed responsible for the political violence. A week of violence
left up to 100 people dead.
(SFC, 2/9/09, p.A2)(Econ, 3/21/09, p.50)
2009 Feb 7, Officials in Morocco
said heavy rains have claimed 24 lives and forced 2,000 people to be
evacuated over the past week.
(AFP, 2/7/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Gaza Hasan
al-Hijazi, who was shot by three masked men. Hamas later issued a
statement calling the killing a "mistake."
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Venezuela tens of
thousands of protesters marched in Caracas to oppose a constitutional
amendment that could allow President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election
indefinitely.
(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Feb 8, Coldplay’s “Viva la
Vida” won the Grammy for song of the year. Robert Plant and Alison
Krauss' unorthodox partnership yielded rich rewards on Grammy night, as
the pair nabbed five awards for their haunting "Raising Sand,"
including record and album of the year honors.
(WSJ, 2/9/09, p.A1)(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Fort Bragg, Ca.,
Aaron Vargas (31) shot and killed Darrell McNeill (63), a former
neighbor. McNeill, a former boy Scout leader and Big Brother, had begun
molesting Vargas at the age of 11 and continued as Vargas grew into his
20s. Over the next year 12 other men came forward with stories of
molestation by McNeill. On April 6, 2010, Vargas pleaded no contest to
voluntary manslaughter charges and faced up to 10 years in prison.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.A1)(SFC, 4/7/10, p.A1)
2009 Feb 8, In Illinois a broken
holding tank at a Caterpillar plant near Joliet spilled some 65,000
gallons of oil sludge and contaminated a 30-mile section of the Des
Plaines River.
(SFC, 2/9/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 8, A single-engine plane
carrying six US citizens crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the north
coast of Puerto Rico.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Afghanistan two
American soldiers died when a roadside bomb they were trying to defuse
exploded. An Afghan interpreter and a policeman also died in the blast.
a roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in Khogyani district,
near the border with Pakistan, killing two police and wounding three
civilians. A suicide bomber attacked a group of Afghan soldiers in
southwestern Nimroz province, killing one soldier and two civilians.
(AP, 2/8/09)(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Australia searing
temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a
swath of the country's Victoria state, where at least 750 homes were
destroyed and a death toll of at least 108. The town of Marysville and
several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles (100
kilometers) north of Melbourne, were utterly devastated.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In eastern Bangladesh
a ferry boat sank after colliding with a larger ferry on the Titas
River, killing 10 women and children.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In London the film
"Slumdog Millionaire", the rags-to-riches tale of a Mumbai tea boy who
wins big, swept the board at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs)
with seven prizes including best film.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, China’s government
said that there was no end in sight for its worst drought in five
decades. Some 4.4 million people lacked adequate drinking water in the
north as winter wheat withered.
(SFC, 2/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 8, Sigurdur Helgason
(b.1921), former Icelandic airline CEO (1974-1984), died on the
Caribbean private island of Mustique. He pioneered cheap flights that
carried legions of backpackers between Europe and the United States in
the 1960s and '70s.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Iraq Spc. James M.
Dorsey (23) of Beardstown, Ill., was found unresponsive by fellow
troops in Baghdad and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 8, Kuwait's Central Bank
governor unveiled a $5.15 billion economic stimulus package aimed at
helping struggling investment companies and offering bank loan
guarantees.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, Pakistani Taliban
militants released a graphic video showing the beheading of a Polish
engineer whom they said was killed because Islamabad refused to free
detained insurgents. Piotr Stanczak had been seized in the volatile
northwest on September 28.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, Two rockets fired by
Palestinian militants struck southern Israel, violating an informal
truce even as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to hurry closer
to a long-term cease-fire deal two days before Israeli elections.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Somalia at least
three civilians were killed when insurgents attacked African Union
forces and government troops in the strife-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Sri Lanka an
official said more than 15,000 civilians have fled the northern war
zone over the last three days, as government forces appeared poised to
crush the separatist Tamil Tigers.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, Voters in Switzerland
approved an expanded labor deal with the European Union that allows
Romanians and Bulgarians to work in the Alpine republic.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 9, US Federal judges
tentatively ordered California to release tens of thousands of inmates,
up to a third of all prisoners, in the next three years to stop
dangerous overcrowding.
(Reuters, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 9, Baseball player Alex
Rodriguez admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs with the Texas
Rangers from 2001 to 2003.
(WSJ, 2/10/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 9, In Argentina the
ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X said British Bishop Richard
Williamson, whose denials of the Holocaust led to Vatican demands he
recant, has been removed as the head of an Argentine seminary. On Feb
19 the bishop was ordered to leave Argentina within 10 days.
(AP, 2/9/09)(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Argentina at least
12 people were missing and over 1000 evacuated after a mudslide swept
away a railroad bridge and homes in the northern border town of
Tartagal.
(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 9, In Australia police
declared incinerated towns crime scenes, and PM Rudd spoke of "mass
murder" after investigators said arsonists may have set some of the
country's worst wildfires in history. The official death toll from the
wildfires was later downgraded to 173 from a previous count of 210.
(AP, 2/9/09)(AP, 2/10/09)(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Montreal, Canada,
researchers said that an Indevus Pharmaceuticals gel formulated to
protect women from the virus that causes AIDS appeared to protect about
a third of them from infection, the first time a so-called microbicide
has been shown to work.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Beijing, China, the
tower of a nearly completed skyscraper was destroyed by a fire believed
to have ignited by a fireworks display marking the end of the Lunar New
Year celebrations. It was part of the new headquarters for China
Central Television (CCTV). In 2010 a Beijing court sentenced 20 people
to up to seven years in prison over the deadly fire at CCTV's iconic
headquarters.
(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A6)(AP, 5/10/10)
2009 Feb 9, In Cuba Orlando
"Cachaito" Lopez (b.1933), considered the "heartbeat" of Cuba's
legendary Buena Vista Social Club for his internationally acclaimed
bass playing, died of complications from prostate surgery.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, The French government
said it would give $8.4 million in low interest loans to Renault SA and
PSA Peugeot-Citroen in exchange for pledges that the car makers won’t
close any factories of lay off workers in France for the duration of
the funding.
(WSJ, 2/10/09, p.B2)
2009 Feb 9, A senior Iraqi
security official said that four prisoners have been transferred from
the US military detention center in Guantanamo Bay to Iraqi custody. A
suicide bomber detonated his car near a US Army patrol in Mosul killing
4 soldiers and their Iraqi translator.
(AP, 2/9/09)(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 9, In northern Italy
Eluana Englaro (38) died at her clinic as the Italian Senate discussed
legislation clarifying the right to die. Englaro had been in a
vegetative state since a 1992 car accident and died after her family
cut off her food and water.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 9, Nissan said it is
slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope
with what Japan's third-largest automaker expects will be its first
annual loss in nine years.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, Scientists in Japan
reported that they have identified an enzyme which appears to suppress
breast cancer and they hope the finding will spur new therapies to
control the second most common cancer in the world.
(Reuters, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Madagascar defense
minister Cecile Manorohanta said she has resigned because civilians
were killed when security forces fired on anti-government protesters
over the weekend.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, A Palestinian fighter
died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft attacked two
targets in Gaza as mediators tried to broker a long-term cease-fire a
day before Israel holds national elections.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, In the Philippines Abu
Sayyaf militants holding three Red Cross workers tried to break a
military cordon that has boxed them in for days, setting off a clash
that wounded five marines and sparked concerns over the hostages'
safety.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, South Korean
prosecutors cleared police of any wrongdoing over a commando raid last
month that left six people dead in a clash with displaced tenants in
central Seoul.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, Spain's interior
minister blamed the armed Basque separatist group ETA for an explosion
in the east of Madrid, which police said caused extensive damage but no
casualties.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Sri Lanka a woman
with a bomb strapped to her body hid in a crowd of civilians at a
refugee camp in Vishvamadu, blowing herself up and killing 29 people as
security forces frisked people fleeing the northern war zone.
(AP, 2/9/09)(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A6)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.52)
2009 Feb 9, In Switzerland Paula
Oliviera (26), a lawyer from Brazil, claimed she was attacked by three
skinheads, one with a Nazi symbol tattooed on the back of his head,
outside a Zurich train station. On Feb 13 investigators said was
not pregnant and probably cut wounds into herself.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 10, Timothy Geithner, US
Treasury Secretary, outlined the government stimulus package. As much
as $2.5 trillion, including $350 billion from the bailout fund, would
come from the Federal Reserve and private investors. The US Senate
approved an $838.2 billion stimulus bill with 3 Republicans joining
Democrats in the 61-37 vote.
(SFC, 2/11/09, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/11/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 10, The US Postal Service
announced that the price of a first-class stamp will rise to 44 cents
on May 11. The Postal Service said it lost $2.8 billion last year and,
unless the economy turns around, is headed toward much larger losses
this year.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, General Motors Corp.
said it will cut 10,000 salaried jobs, citing the need to restructure
itself with a government deadline looming and amid some of the worst
sales in the auto industry's history.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, Teens in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, beat a 50-year-old bicyclist leaving the man critically
injured. On March 26 five teens were charged in the beating.
(SFC, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 10, In Oklahoma an
unusual cluster of twisters ripped across the state killing eight
people. The eight confirmed deaths included seven people in Lone Grove
and a truck driver who was driving through the area.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 10, The Utah state
Department of Agriculture said Africanized honey bees have been found
for the first time in the Beehive State. The bees, long the subject of
lore as "killer bees," were recently discovered in Utah's Washington
and Kane counties.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 10, The first-ever
collision between two satellites occurred over Siberia when a derelict
Russian military communications satellite crossed paths with a US
Iridium satellite.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Afghanistan a bomb
struck a NATO convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding one. Police
spokesman Wazir Pacha said the attack in Khost province was carried out
by a suicide bomber in a vehicle. But a NATO spokesman blamed the
attack on a roadside bomb.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, The British
government banned Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders from visiting
the country to show his anti-Islam film "Fitna" at the Houses of
Parliament. In a telephone interview Wilders called the government's
decision "cowardly" and vowed to defy it.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, In England William
Foxton (65), died from a single bullet wound to the head in the
southern port city of Southampton. He killed himself after losing his
life savings in an alleged $50 billion fraud run by Wall Street
financier Bernard Madoff. Foxton had served in the British Army and
more recently worked as a defense contractor in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 10, The European Union
announced that it has signed a pact with 17 social networking providers
including Facebook, MySpace and Google to improve safeguards against
the bullying of teenagers online.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, EU ministers demanded
the reopening of negotiations with Liechtenstein on fighting fraud.
(Econ, 2/21/09, p.53)
2009 Feb 10, A tanker burst into
flames after colliding with a container ship in a shipping channel off
the coast of Dubai. The Maltese-flagged tanker, Kashmir, was carrying
about 30,000 tons of oil condensate.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, President Nicolas
Sarkozy made the first-ever visit by a French head of state to Iraq,
seeking to reassert French influence in the country even as the US
prepares to draw down its forces.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Israel
front-runners moderate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former PM
Benjamin Netanyahu made last-minute appeals to voters as polls opened
in a close general election whose outcome could determine the course of
Mideast peace negotiations.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Mexico a drug gang
kidnapped and killed six people near a town in the US-Mexican border
region, prompting a series of gunbattles with soldiers that left 15
others dead. The violence started when gunmen kidnapped nine alleged
members of a rival drug gang in Villa Ahumada and executed six of them
along the PanAmerican Highway outside of the town.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 10, Nigerian union
officials said a 2-day-old strike by freight and forwarding agents to
protest high charges was worsening cargo congestion in Lagos, the
country's main seaport.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, Pakistan called for a
new strategy of dialogue to combat militancy and urged Washington to
reconsider military action on its territory in its first talks with US
envoy Richard Holbrooke.
(AFP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, An unmanned Russian
cargo ship lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying supplies and a space
suit to the international space station and its three-member crew.
American astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus are aboard the
station along with Russian Yuri Lonchakov. The crew size will be
doubled to six members later this year.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, Sri Lanka's military
spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said Tamil Tiger guerrillas shot dead 19
civilians and wounded 75 others fleeing territory still under rebel
control. The Red Cross loaded some 240 sick and wounded onto a boat to
evacuate them from the war zone.
(AFP, 2/10/09)(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, A Sudanese government
delegation met Darfur rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement in
the Qatari capital for their first peace contacts since 2007.
(AFP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, Taiwan's former first
lady admitted to laundering $2.2 million and forging documents, the
latest in a judicial process that has seen her husband stage a
jailhouse hunger strike, her daughter lash out at media, and her son
plead guilty to similar charges.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 11, US House and Senate
leaders agreed to a $789 stimulus package.
(SFC, 2/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 11, Massachusetts' top
securities regulator said the wife of accused Wall Street swindler
Bernard Madoff pulled $15 million out of a brokerage account only days
before her husband was arrested.
(Reuters, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 11, San Francisco city
leaders banned floats, beer and nudity for the upcoming 98th annual Bay
to Breakers run. On Feb 27 city officials agreed to allow nudity and
registered floats free of alcohol.
(SFC, 2/12/09, p.A1)(SFC, 2/28/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 11, BrightSource Energy
of Oakland, California, announced that it will sell southern California
Edison 1,300 megawatts of electricity from 7 large solar plants planned
for the California desert. This was believed to be the world’s largest
solar deal to date. In September BrightSource said it had ceased plans
for a solar plant at Broadwell Dry Lake in the Mojave desert.
(SFC, 2/12/09, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.D4)
2009 Feb 11, Estelle Bennett (67),
one of the Ronettes, was found dead at her home in Englewood, N.J. She
was part of the singing trio whose 1963 hit "Be My Baby" epitomized the
famed "wall of sound" technique of its producer, Phil Spector.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 11, In NYC Guido Salvador
Carabajo-Jara (26), an immigrant from Ecuador, died after he was hit by
a car then trapped under a van and dragged for nearly 20 miles.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 11, In Afghanistan 8
Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked 3 government buildings in
a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul just
ahead of a planned visit from the new US envoy to the region. A
spokesman for the Taliban, said the attacks were in response to the
alleged mistreatment of Taliban prisoners in Afghan government jails.
In Logar province a roadside bomb exploded near a French military
medical team's convoy, killing one French officer and two Afghans. Also
in Logar province a helicopter with the US-backed coalition killed five
civilians as it responded to ground fire.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 11, In Austria Mike
Brennan, a teacher and former football player from Jacksonville,
Florida, working in Vienna, was attacked by two undercover police
officers at a subway station. The police did not identify themselves
and left Brennan lying on the platform. In 2010 prosecutors charged an
undercover policemen with badly beating the black American teacher
after mistaking him for a drug dealer.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2009 Feb 11, In Azerbaijan a
gunman fatally shot air force chief Lt. Gen. Rail Rzayev (63) outside
his home. He had represented Azerbaijan in talks with Russia and the US
on Moscow's 2007 proposal to make a Soviet-built radar station in
Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 11, In Egypt archeologist
revealed the discovery of a burial chamber 36 feet below ground at the
necropolis of Saqqara dating back to about 640BC.
(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.A9)
2009 Feb 11, India’s Supreme Court
declared ragging, the bullying of first-year undergraduates by older
university students, a “human rights abuse in essence” and ordered
measures to stamp it out.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.38)(http://tinyurl.com/lg6v9a)
2009 Feb 11, In Iraq at least 12
people were killed and 25 others wounded in bombings in Baghdad
targeting Shiite pilgrims traveling to Karbala.
(AP, 2/11/09)(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 11, Inconclusive election
results sent Israel into political limbo with both Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni and hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu claiming victory
and leaving the kingmaker role to a rising political hawk with an
anti-Arab platform.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 11, In northwest Pakistan
provincial lawmaker Alam Zeb Khan was killed and seven other people
wounded after a bicycle bombing in Peshawar, as US envoy Richard
Holbrooke visited the city.
(AFP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 11, The Philippines
Supreme Court said in a statement it had ordered Manila to negotiate
with the US authorities for an "appropriate agreement on detention
facilities under Philippine authorities" for Lance Corporal Daniel
Smith. In 2006 Smith was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in jail
for raping a Filipina after he took part in military exercises north of
Manila in 2005.
(AFP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 11, Off Somalia the USS
Vella Gulf detained seven suspected pirates, the Navy's first arrests
since it established an anti-piracy task force this year.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 11, Officials in Uruguay
said a Cuban long-distance runner and track coach have disappeared and
apparently intend to defect. Aguelmis Rojas and Rafael Diaz had arrived
in January on a sports exchange program in Maldonado.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 11, Judges at the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal voted to suspend the trial of
ultranationalist Serb leader Vojislav Seselj after the prosecution said
its case was being undermined by witness intimidation. The decision
came after 71 prosecution witnesses had already been heard and with
only a handful still to testify.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 11, Zimbabwe's opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister, joining
President Robert Mugabe in a unity government after a decade of
struggling to push him from power.
(AFP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 12, The first of four new
pennies chronicling Abraham Lincoln's rise from a small Kentucky cabin
went into circulation to honor the 16th president's 200th birthday.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, A commuter plane,
Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., coming in for a
landing nose-dived into a house in suburban Buffalo, sparking a fiery
explosion that killed all 49 people aboard and a person in the home. It
was the nation's first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2
years. Historian Alison Des Forges (66), prominent human rights
advocate who documented genocide in Rwanda, was among the victims of
the crash.
(AP, 2/13/09)(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In New York Aasiya
Hassan (37) was found beheaded at the Bridges TV offices. Muzzammil
Hassan, founder and CEO of Buffalo, NY-based Bridges TV, was charged
after reporting the death of his wife. He had launched Bridges in 2004
with a mission to show Muslims in a more positive light.
(Reuters, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 12, Ed Grothus (b.1923),
owner of the Black Hole “nuclear waste” junk store in Los Alamos, NM,
died. The former Manhattan Project machinist began collecting rejected
equipment from the weapons lab at Los Alamos in 1969 and in 1972
established his Omega Peace Institute at a former Lutheran church,
which later became his First Church of High Technology.
(SFC, 3/14/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 12, In southern
Afghanistan a gunfight between Australian forces and Taliban fighters
killed at least 3 children who were caught in the crossfire in Uruzgan
province.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In eastern Algeria 2
bombs exploded hours after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he
will run for a new term, killing at least seven people.
(AFP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Canada said its
federal police will no longer use stun guns against suspects merely
resisting arrest or refusing to cooperate because the guns can cause
death. At least 20 Canadians have died after being zapped by stun guns.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, In Canada Timothy
Scott (22), a US Marine wanted for abandoning his unit, shot himself to
death outside his mother’s home in Nova Scotia after police tried to
talk him out of firing a gun. Scott had already served 2 terms in Iraq.
(SSFC, 2/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 12, Chile’s central bank
slashed its key interest rate 2.5% to 4.75%.
(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A8)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.40)
2009 Feb 12, China's President Hu
Jintao arrived in Mali at the start of a four-country African tour
which Beijing insists is about strengthening cooperation and not solely
for economic gain.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, The Aluminum
Corporation of China (Chinalco) announced that it would invest $19.5
billion in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto. In June it was reported
that Chinalco would not complete the deal.
(Econ, 2/14/09, p.73)(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Feb 12, Local officials
confirmed that swaths of western China that have large Tibetan
populations have been declared off limits to foreign visitors, ahead of
the politically sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, An Egyptian security
official said police have arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized
goods in a new crackdown on smuggling into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in
a crackdown that started last weekend.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, Researchers in
Germany, on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, said they
have completed the first draft of the Neanderthal genome, 3 billion
genetic building blocks that will shed new light on the ancient hominid
as well as the origins of humans, its closest relation. Lead scientist
Svante Paabo established in 1997 that Neanderthals were cousins rather
than ancestors of modern humans.
(AP, 2/12/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.80)
2009 Feb 12, Domenica Niehoff
(63), Germany's best-known former prostitute, died. She was a familiar
figure on TV talk shows in the 1970s and '80s and was instantly
recognizable for her 48-inch bust and notoriously revealing outfits.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Hong Kong's High
Court quashed the conviction of Australian Kevin Egan, one of the
city's most high-profile lawyers, who had been jailed for leaking the
identity of a protected witness to a journalist.
(AFP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, In India Chief
Justice A.P. Shah said the High Court in New Delhi is so behind in its
work that it could take 466 years to clear the backlog.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, In Indonesia at least
42 people were injured and hundreds of homes and buildings damaged when
a major earthquake struck off Sulawesi island near the Philippines.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, In Iraq a bomb attack
targeting Shiite pilgrims in Karbala killed 8 people and injured 52
others.
(AP, 2/12/09)(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, Mexican federal
police arrested 10 alleged members of a hit squad working for the
Beltran Leyva drug cartel, who had come to Mexico City to start a turf
war with a rival cartel.
(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 12, Pakistan’s government
said for the first time that last November's attack on Mumbai was
launched and partly planned from Pakistan, and it was holding in
custody a ringleader and five other suspects.
(Reuters, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, Hamas deputy leader
Moussa Abu Marzouk told Egypt's official MENA news agency that the
Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Off Somalia an
American helicopter from the USS Vella Gulf fired warning shots at
gunmen in two skiffs that had opened fire and tried to board the
Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya. US forces searched the skiff and found
weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, then took nine suspected
pirates aboard the American ship. A Russian nuclear-powered heavy
missile cruiser, Peter The Great, detained 10 Somali pirates closing in
on an Iranian-flagged fishing trawler. The men, were caught with
rifles, grenade-launchers, illegal narcotics and a large sum of money.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In Russia's restive
southern republic of Ingushetia insurgents and police clashed, leaving
four officers and three attackers dead.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Sri Lanka's army
disbanded the mostly ineffective "safe zone" it had established in the
war-wracked north and set up a new refuge for the tens of thousands of
civilians still trapped. A Sri Lankan (26) set himself on fire outside
the UN complex in Geneva in apparent protest against the military
campaign. A five-page letter found near his body identified the man as
a Tamil who had been living in Britain.
(AP, 2/12/09)(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 12, In Venezuela tens of
thousands clad in red flooded the streets of Caracas, saying a
referendum that would end term limits is the only way President Hugo
Chavez can complete what he calls a socialist revolution.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 13, US Congress approved
a $787 billion stimulus package. The House vote was 246-183, with all
Republicans opposed to the package. The Senate approved the measure
60-38 with three GOP moderates providing crucial support. It contained
provisions recognizing and compensating some 18,000 Filipino veterans
who fought under the American flag when the Philippines was still an
American colony.
(AP, 2/14/09)(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 13, The Lynchburg,
Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America, at the heart of a national
salmonella outbreak, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in US Bankruptcy
Court.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Southern
California Amber Dubois (14) disappeared while on her way to Escondido
high school. Her body was found on March 6, 2010, on the Pala Indian
Reservation. On May 15, 2010 John Albert Gardner was sentenced to life
in prison for attacks on Chelsea King (17) and Amber Dubois (14).
(SFC, 3/8/10, p.C3)(SFC, 5/18/10, p.A4)
2009 Feb 13, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke held key talks in Afghanistan aimed at stepping up the fight
against a Taliban-led insurgency that the top US intelligence chief
warned was escalating.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Australian
authorities charged a man with lighting one of the wildfires that
killed at least 189 people, and whisked him into protective custody to
guard him from public fury. Brendan Sokaluk (39), faced two charges
related to one of the February 7 fires that killed 11 people in
Victoria's Gippsland region, east of Melbourne.
(AP, 2/13/09)(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 13, Lloyds Banking Group
(LBG), already 43% owned by the British government announced a
£10billion loss at HBOS, which it had taken over last September.
(Econ, 2/21/09, p.56)
2009 Feb 13, State media reported
that China plans to create a blacklist of journalists who break its
reporting rules, adding to an array of controls used to restrict its
domestic media.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, The World Bank said
it will provide a $710 million loan to China to help rebuild areas hit
by last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, A Congolese military
spokesman said more than 40 members of a Hutu militia suspected of
atrocities during Rwanda's 1994 genocide were killed in an overnight
air raid.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Germany Ahmad
Obeidi (24), and Afghan immigrant, was convicted of murdering his
16-year-old sister in a so-called "honor killing."
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In eastern India at
least 15 people were killed and more than 160 injured when a train
derailed in Orissa state near Jajpur.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber attacked a tent filled with women and children resting
from a pilgrimage to Karbala, killing 40 people and injuring 60 others.
It was the deadliest attack in Iraq this year and the third straight
day of bombings against Shiite pilgrims.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Mexico
photographer Jean Paul Ibarra (33) and reporter Yenny Marchan were on
their way to the morgue in the southern city of Iguala when gunmen on
another motorcycle came alongside and opened fire. Marchan received two
bullet wounds but survived; Ibarra was killed.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 13, Myanmar's military
government extended the house arrest of the deputy leader of Aung San
Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party for one year, despite recent calls from
the United Nations for the release of political prisoners.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Oil giant Royal Dutch
Shell said it has declared force majeure on shipments from its main
Nigerian terminal because of increased attacks by insurgents on key
facilities. Force Majeure (French for "superior force") is a common
clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability
or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the
control of the parties.
(AP,
2/13/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure)
2009 Feb 13, Two rockets fired by
Gaza militants hit near a communal farm and the town of Sderot. An
Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed one man and critically wounded
another. The men were riding a motorcycle near the town of Khan Younis
when they were hit by fire from an Israeli drone.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In the southern
Philippines 9 gunmen snatched a Sri Lankan peace activist from his
home, the latest in a wave of kidnappings blamed on al-Qaida-linked
militants.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Sri Lanka the top
health official said artillery shelling and gunbattles between
government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels were killing about 40
civilians every day and wounding more than 100 others inside Sri
Lanka's war zone.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Turks and Caicos
Islands jet-setting PM Michael Misick said he will step down as leader
the at the end of March, citing a lack of support for his
scandal-plagued government. Premier Misick reportedly paid himself more
than Britain’s Gordon Brown for running the territory of 36,000 people.
(AP, 2/14/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.42)
2009 Feb 13, In Zimbabwe Roy
Bennett, a white farmer turned politician with Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested by state agents just as the
new cabinet was preparing to take office. Tsvangirai had named Bennett
to become the deputy minister of agriculture in the new coalition
cabinet.
(AFP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Alabama suspicious
fires destroyed 2 churches and damaged a third near the Georgia border.
(SFC, 2/18/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 14, In Canandaigua, New
York, Kimberly and Christopher Glatz were killed at their home. Mary
Silliman (23) was slain along with Randall Norman (41) a motorist who
intervened when he saw her being roughed up in the parking lot in a
pre-dawn attack outside Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport. In
August Frank Garcia, a nursing supervisor, was convicted of the Glatz
killings and faced another trial for the Brockport killings. On Sep 1
Garcia was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/14/09, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/myhxsv)(SFC,
9/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 14, Louie Bellson
(b.1924), big band and jazz drummer, died. The master musician
performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny
Goodman and his late wife, Pearl Bailey.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke met Afghan President Hamid Karzai as part of Washington's
push to step up efforts against extremism. The Afghan leader admitted
to tensions with its US ally. Marine Sgt. Daniel Hansen was killed
while supporting combat operations in Farah province.
(AP, 2/14/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.B4)
2009 Feb 14, Sir Bernard Ashley
(82), British businessman, died. He teamed up with his wife to build
the Laura Ashley (d.1985) fashion and home furnishing brand into a
global business.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, Over 6,000 people
have fled the Ndele region of the Central African Republic for a
Chadian border village after violence erupted between two ethnic
groups, the Runga and the Gulus.
(AFP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao toured the site of a new, Chinese-financed national theater in
Senegal, a day after signing a bilateral agreement promising the West
African nation over $90 million in gifts and loans.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, Egyptian Foreign
Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit held talks with Sudanese President Omar
al-Beshir amid reports that the International Criminal Court has
decided to issue a warrant for his arrest..
(AFP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Rome G-7 finance
ministers strongly rejected protectionism, pledging to work together to
support growth and employment and to strengthen the banking system so
the world can overcome its worst financial crisis in 50 years.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed two civilians and wounded four others, including a soldier,
when it exploded near an Iraqi army patrol in western Mosul.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, Irish authorities
learned about an oil spill through surveillance carried out by the
European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal. Irish military
aircraft flew over the area and saw the Russian aircraft carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov, a Russian oil tanker, and a Russian oceangoing tug
near the slick. this was the biggest oil spill in the waters around
Ireland in the last ten years.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, Mexico City set a new
record as nearly 40,000 people locked lips in the city center for the
world's largest group kiss. Gunmen killed a state police officer
Carlos Reyes and 10 members of his family, including five children in
the town of Monte Largo, Tabasco state. The shooting also killed a
street vendor in front of the house of the officer. In Jalisco state
gunmen burst into a restaurant, killing seven people and wounding five,
including 3 children.
(AP, 2/14/09)(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a
militant hide-out, killing 27 local and foreign insurgents. Two
officials said dozens of followers of Pakistan's top Taliban leader,
Baitullah Mehsud, were staying in the housing compound when it was hit.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, Saudi King Abdullah
(86), in an apparent bid to reform the religious establishment,
dismissed the head of the feared religious police and a hard-line
cleric who issued an edict last year saying it was permissible to kill
owners of satellite TV stations that show "immoral" content. King
Abdullah also appointed Noura al Fayez as deputy minister of women’s
education, the 1st female to hold a ministerial post.
(AP, 2/14/09)(SSFC, 2/15/09, p.A6)(Econ, 2/21/09,
p.48)
2009 Feb 14, In Somalia
legislators approved a former leader's son as the country’s new prime
minister. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke faced the task of uniting a
fractious government besieged by Islamic insurgents that control most
of the country.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Sri Lanka a
suspected Tamil Tiger rebel hurled a hand grenade at a bus full of
war-displaced refugees, killing a woman and wounding 13 others.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Washington state a
16-year-old girl was found dead and another teenage girl was discovered
unconscious in a barracks at Fort Lewis Army base south of Tacoma. In
March Army authorities charged Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt (19) if the drug
overdose of his girlfriend.
(AP, 2/16/09)(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 15, Illinois Republicans
called for the resignation of Democratic Sen. Roland Burris following
reports of contradicting statements regarding conversations with close
associates of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The next day Burris admitted
that he tried to raise money for Gov. Blagojevich before being
appointed to the US Senate.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/17/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said his government will take part in a US strategic
review of the war there in a sign of increased cooperation at a time of
strained relations. An appeals court upheld 20-year prison sentences
for two men who published a translation of the Quran that drove
religious leaders to call for their execution. The controversial text
is a translation of Islam's holy book into an Afghan language without
the original Arabic verses alongside. A host of Muslim clerics have
condemned the translation, which was published in 2007 and handed out
for free, as blasphemous and accused its publishers of setting
themselves up as false prophets. A coalition airstrike killed Ghulam
Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab.
Dastagir was a powerful Taliban commander who broke a promise to
renounce violence after village elders persuaded President Hamid Karzai
to free him from prison.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, A series of attacks
in Algeria left seven soldiers and a suspected militant dead, as
authorities ratcheted up efforts to secure the country before
presidential elections. An Algerian newspaper reported that security
forces killed a senior member of Al Qaeda's north African wing after a
tip-off from a former militant led them to his hideout. The daily
Ennahar reported that Mourad Bouzid (65), also known as Ami Slimane,
was a charismatic figure instrumental in recruiting and motivating
younger Al Qaeda fighters.
(AP, 2/16/09)(Reuters, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Britain's Sunday
Times reported that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought a 4
million pound ($5.6 million) home in Hong Kong. It was bought last
year, as Mugabe's 20-year-old daughter began studying at the University
of Hong Kong. The paper said it was one of several properties the
Mugabes own in Asia but the first to be documented.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, China and Tanzania
signed cooperation agreements worth millions of dollars during a visit
by President Hu Jintao to this east African country aimed to reinforce
ties.
(AFP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, French specialists
unveiled a new weapon against cancer, a molecular "decoy" that mimics
DNA damage and prompts cancerous cells to kill themselves.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, Iraqi officials
nullified election results in more than 30 polling stations across the
country due to fraud in last month's provincial balloting, but the
cases were not significant enough to require a new vote in any
province. A bomb hidden in a garbage pile killed one person and injured
18 others in Sadr City. In Mosul one civilian and one police officer
were killed in two separate attacks on police patrols. Police arrested
a would-be suicide bomber south of Baghdad who had explosives under his
clothes and said he was also planning to target pilgrims headed to
Karbala. US Staff Sgt. Dean D. diamond (41) was killed after an
improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
(AP, 2/15/09)(SFC, 2/18/09, p.B5)
2009 Feb 15, Authorities in
Malaysia arrested 26 unmarried Muslim couples in hotel rooms during
Operation Valentine, aimed at curbing illegal premarital sex in this
conservative country.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, A rickety boat
carrying illegal migrants from Morocco capsized in rough seas just off
Spain's Canary Islands and 19 of them drowned. At least three were
missing.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, The Taliban announced
a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley after freeing a Chinese
hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted
American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained
missing.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, In southern Russia a
fire ripped through a wooden apartment building, killing 16 people in
Molodyozhny, a village in the Astrakhan region.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Shots from a Russian
naval vessel sank the Chinese-owned cargo ship the New Star off
Russia's east coast. 8 the 16 crew members on board were killed. The
Sierra Leone-flagged, Chinese-owned vessel New Star had earlier fled
the Russian port of Nakhodka where it had been impounded for alleged
smuggling.
(AFP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Turkey police
clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country's
predominantly Kurdish southeast during protests marking the 10th
anniversary of a separatist rebel leader's capture.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Venezuela’s President
Hugo Chavez tried for a second time to win the right to seek
re-election far into the future with a referendum widely regarded as a
way to cement socialism. Some 55% percent of the voters approved the
amendment.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.39)
2009 Feb 16, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton launched her Asia tour in Japan calling US-Pacific ties
"indispensable" for curbing problems like climate change, the global
financial crisis and nuclear weapons.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Stamford,
Connecticut, a 200-pound domesticated chimpanzee was shot dead by
police after a violent rampage that left a friend of its owner badly
mauled. Travis (15) had once starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and
Coca-Cola. The chimp was acting so agitated earlier that afternoon that
the owner gave him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea. Owner
Sandra Herold later denied giving Xanax to the chimp. Charla Nash lost
her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the attack. Doctors later said she
will be blind for life.
(AP, 2/17/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A5)(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Kansas Republican
legislators blocked an effort by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to
transfer funds to allow the state to pay its bills. Income tax refunds
were suspended and the state payroll was threatened. The impasse was
resolved the next day as Gov. Sibelius met a key Republican demand and
signed a bill to balance the budget.
(WSJ, 2/17/09, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 16, Konrad Dannenberg
(b.1912), German-born rocket designer, died in Huntsville, Ala. He was
part of Werner von Braun’s rocket development team, which sent a rocket
into outer space (1942) and came to the US after WW II.
(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.A5)
2009 Feb 16, A new British
anti-terrorism law went into effect that could effectively bar
photographers from taking pictures of police of military personnel.
(SFC, 2/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 16, Authorities
acknowledged that nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France
collided in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, touching off new
concerns about the safety of the world's deep sea missile fleets. The
HMS Vanguard, the oldest vessel in Britain's nuclear-armed submarine
fleet, and the French Le Triomphant submarine, which was also carrying
nuclear missiles, both suffered minor damage in the collision.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Sir Ernest Harrison
(b.1926), British businessman, died. He led Racal Electronic PLC and
oversaw the birth of Vodafone Group PLC (1988).
(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 16, China’s Pres. Hu
Jintao arrived in Mauritius to sign deals worth more than 270 million
dollars to fund infrastructure projects on the Indian Ocean island. The
next day he pledged continued aid to Africa despite his country's
economic downturn, and wrapped up a four-nation visit to the continent.
(AFP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 16, France's top judicial
body recognized the French government's responsibility for the
deportation of Jews during World War II, the clearest such recognition
of the state's role in the Holocaust.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, On the French island
of Guadeloupe police detained about 50 people after coming under a
barrage of stones as they tried to take down barricades. On Martinique
as many as 10,000 demonstrators marched through the narrow streets of
the capital to protest spiraling food prices and denounce the business
elite.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Iraq roadside
bombs struck two minibuses filled with Shiite pilgrims returning to
Baghdad, killing eight people, in the latest of a series of deadly
attacks targeting the pilgrims.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Officials said Israel
has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank
settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500
settlement homes, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Japan warned it was
in the deepest economic crisis since World War II, after Asia's biggest
economy suffered its worst contraction in almost 35 years.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Madagascar
anti-government protesters threw stones and police responded with tear
gas as opposition leader Andry Rajoelina continued his attempts to
force out the president. No casualties were immediately reported.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Pakistan’s government
agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across
much the northwest in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban
insurgency spreading from the border region to the country's interior.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Russia’s Pres.
Medvedev replaced four provincial governors for their poor performance
amid financial crisis and named new governors for the western Oryol,
Pskov and Voronezh regions and the northern Nenets region.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Russia Pres. Medvedev
said Bolivia will receive helicopters from Russia to help fight drugs
as well as assistance to develop energy resources.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Cardinal Stephen Kim
Sou-hwan (86), South Korea's first cardinal, died. He was a tireless
advocate for democracy and stood up to a string of military dictators.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Spain Samsung of
South Korea unveiled the world's first solar-powered mobile phone at an
industry show where the sector is showcasing the new technology it
hopes will drive demand through the economic crisis.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, The UN said Tamil
Tiger guerrillas have prevented tens of thousands of civilians from
leaving Sri Lanka's war zone and those trying to escape have been "shot
and sometimes killed."
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, Pres. Obama announced
the deployment of 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan. Pres. Karzai
spoke on the phone with President Barack Obama for the first time.
(AP,
2/18/09)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090218/us_time/08599188024600)
2009 Feb 17, The US federal
government said Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's investment
businesses were too good to be true, and shut his companies down. The
SEC charged Stanford (58) with an $8 billion fraud. On Feb 19 Stanford
was tracked down in Virginia, where FBI agents served him with civil
complaint legal papers.
(AP, 2/17/09)(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A1)(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 17, Chrysler and GM told
the US government they may need up to $21.6 billion in combined bailout
loans. GM’s survival plan called for cutting a total of 47,000 jobs
globally and closing 5 more US factories.
(SFC, 2/18/09, p.C1)(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 17, Liberty Media Corp.
said it will invest $530 million in financially struggling satellite
radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, Trump Entertainment
Resorts Inc, the casino operator named for Donald Trump, filed for
bankruptcy protection as recession and declining gambling revenues
battered the company and its rivals.
(Reuters, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In the SF Bay Area a
sewage spill began at the Fort Baker treatment plant of the
Sausalito-Marin County Sanitaru District. By the next day some 300,000
gallons of bacteria-laden sewage had entered the SF Bay.
(SFC, 2/18/09, p.B4)
2009 Feb 17, In Atlanta, Georgia,
Eugenia Calle (57), a prominent researcher who studied links between
cancer and obesity, was found beaten to death in her condominium. Jamal
Thompson (22) was soon arrested and charged with her murder.
(SFC, 2/20/09,
p.A10)(www.inquisitr.com/18407/dr-eugenia-calle-murder/)
2009 Feb 17, In Afghan a US
airstrike reportedly killed six women and two children, despite a
recent US-Afghan agreement to increase participation of Afghan forces
in US missions, a step aimed at preventing civilian casualties. The US
coalition said that the strike in the Gozara district of Herat province
killed 15 militants and targeted a leader named Ghulam Yahya Akbari.
The US military on Feb 21 said an investigation into a coalition
operation Gozara found that 13 civilians were among 16 people killed.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 17, British experts that
they have found the first evidence of a hemophiliac contracting mad cow
disease from contaminated blood products.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, China and Russia
signed a $25 billion energy deal in Beijing that will see the Asian
country secure oil supplies from Moscow for the next 20 years in return
for loans.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, Colombia's main
leftist rebel group said that it "executed" eight Indians in the
country's remote southwest, accusing them of acting as paid informants
for Colombia's military. The communique posted on a Web site
sympathetic to the rebels followed widespread but unconfirmed reports
that as many as 27 Awa Indians had been killed.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, The UN said some 4.9
million more Ethiopians are in urgent need of food aid, bringing the
total number of people in Ethiopia who need relief aid to 12 million,
or 15 percent of the population.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Equatorial Guinea
gunmen clashed with security forces near the presidential palace.
Gunmen in two speedboats attacked the island capital before dawn. 16
men from neighboring Nigeria were arrested in the mysterious attack on
the presidential compound. The government said several attackers
drowned.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 17, France's lower house
of parliament unanimously passed a law granting government payments to
those who take time off work to care for dying relatives in their last
weeks of life.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister met with top Iraqi leaders in
Baghdad in the latest high-level visit by a major Western nation that
opposed the 2003 US-led invasion but has promised to help Iraq rebuild
now that security has improved.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In southern Iraq a
bus filled with Shiite pilgrims collided with a British military
vehicle, killing seven pilgrims and injuring 27 others.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 17, A Milan court
sentenced David Mills, the British former tax lawyer of Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi, to four-and-a-half years in jail for corruption.
(AFP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, Japan's Finance
Minister Shoichi Nakagawa abruptly resigned over allegations he made a
drunken appearance at a G-7 news conference, shaking PM Taro Aso's
already deeply unpopular government. On Oct 4 Nakagawa (56) was found
dead in his home. Police ruled out foul play.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AP, 10/4/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Japan US Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned North Korea against following
through on a threatened missile launch, saying it would damage its
prospects for improved relations with the United States and the world.
Clinton also signed an agreement with Japan that will move 8,000
Marines off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to the US territory
of Guam.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, Kosovo celebrated the
first anniversary of its unilateral declaration of independence from
Serbia. Thus far it was recognized by only 54 of the UN’s 192
countries. Five of the EU’s 27 countries so far refused recognition.
(Econ, 2/14/09, p.16)
2009 Feb 17, Business leaders in
Martinique agreed to a 20 percent price cut on most supermarket
products, despite initial refusal.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Mexico hundreds of
people blocked bridges to the US in three border cities, demanding the
army leave in another challenge for the Mexican government as it
struggles to quell escalating drug violence. 3 police officers,
including the operations director of the Ciudad Juarez city police,
were shot to death by unidentified assailants on a street near the US
consulate. Federal police fighting gunmen in the northern border city
of Reynosa had to call the army for help. After the fighting, which
left five gunmen dead and seven police injured, authorities seized
several assault rifles and even a 60 mm mortar. Cardboard signs with
handwritten messages appeared taped to the doors and windows of
businesses in ciudad Juarez, warning that one officer would be killed
every two days police chief Roberto Orduna did not quit.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 17, In southern Nigeria
gunmen attacked two oil facilities operated by Royal Dutch Shell. A
local militant leader claimed responsibility for the attack in a letter
and threatened further violence. A Nigerian appeal court sacked the
governor of the southwestern state of Ekiti after complaints of vote
irregularities and ordered a fresh poll within three months.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 17, NATO warned that
Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after it
struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive in
the former tourist haven of Swat.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Portugal Conchita
Cintron (b.1922), Peruvian-born matador, died. She faced her first bull
at age 13 and made her premier at the main arena in Lima in 1937. She
reportedly killed over 750 bulls during her career in Europe.
(SFC, 2/20/09, p.B8)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.93)
2009 Feb 17, The UN agency for
children said Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers have stepped up conscription of
child soldiers, as the rebels prepare to face a final onslaught by the
military. Tamil politicians accused the Sri Lankan government of
ignoring the safety of tens of thousands of civilians in its campaign
to wipe out the Tamil Tiger rebels, saying more than 2,000
noncombatants have been killed in the recent fighting.
(AFP, 2/17/09)(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, The Sudanese
government and Darfur's most powerful rebel group signed an declaration
to conduct future peace negotiations, but failed to agree on a
hoped-for cease-fire after a week of talks.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, Sudanese writer Tayeb
Salih (b.1929), one of the most respected Arab novelists of the 20th
century, died in London where he spent most of his life. His books
included the classic "Season of Migration to the North" (1966) about a
Sudanese man's experiences of life and love in Britain in the 1960s.
(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 17, The Yemeni Interior
Ministry announced the surrender of Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, a
former Guantanamo detainee who later became an al-Qaida field
commander. He was handed over to Saudi authorities.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe and his arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai sat at a cabinet
table for the first time as ministers of the country's new unity
government held their inaugural meeting. A Zimbabwe court charged Roy
Bennett, a senior MDC party official, over a plot involving terrorism
and insurgency, just days after the party joined a unity government.
(AFP, 2/17/09)(Reuters, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 18, President Barack
Obama unveiled the next step in his multi-pronged efforts to lift the
United States out of recession, pledging up to $275 billion to help
stem a wave of home foreclosures that sparked the US financial
meltdown. Obama advisors said he has settled on Kansas Gov. Kathleen
Sebelius as top choice for secretary of health and human services.
(Reuters, 2/18/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 18, Fifty-one Democrats
and 2 Republicans, sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him
to enforce a ban on importing assault weapons, saying many such guns
are later smuggled south to arm Mexico's ruthless drug cartels. The ban
was implemented under the administrations of Pres. George H.W. Bush and
Pres. Bill Clinton, and the US government can enforce it under
provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act. But the US Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has quietly abandoned the ban in
recent years.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 18, A Florida jury
ordered Philip Morris to pay $8 million in damages to Elaine Hess, the
widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer.
(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 18, Al Qaeda's
Algeria-based branch (AQMI) claimed it is holding two missing Canadian
diplomats hostage and 4 tourists. UN envoy Robert Fowler and his aide
Louis Guay, went missing in the West African country of Niger last
month.
(SFC, 2/19/09,
p.A2)(www.thestar.com/printArticle/589398)
2009 Feb 18, In Antigua panicky
depositors were turned away from Stanford International Bank and some
of its Latin American affiliates, unable to withdraw their money after
US regulators accused Texas financier R. Allen Stanford of perpetrating
an $8 billion fraud against his companies' investors.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 18, A British judge
discharged the jury in the trial of a group of British Muslims accused
of plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets in mid-air, citing
legal reasons. Britain’s high court ruled that Abu Qatada, an extremist
Muslim preacher, can be deported to Jordan despite fears he could
face torture there.
(AP, 2/18/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 18, A Chinese state news
agency said AIDS was the top killer among infectious diseases in China
for the first time last year, with 6,897 people dying in the nine
months through September.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Ecuador US
diplomat Mark Sullivan was declared a “persona non grata” and told to
leave. Pres. Correa later said Sullivan had directed CIA operations in
Ecuador.
(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 18, A leading Egyptian
dissident, Ayman Nour (44), who was jailed after challenging the
country's longtime president in the 2005 elections, was unexpectedly
freed after years of pressure from the United States.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Georgia and Russia
agreed to let monitors visit anywhere they want in Georgia and its 2
breakaway provinces.
(WSJ, 2/19/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 18, Greek police
destroyed a powerful car bomb left outside the offices of Citibank in a
northern Athens suburb in an escalation of left-wing militant attacks.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Guadeloupe rioters
manning barricades fatally shot Jacques Bino, tax agent and union
member, in a housing project in Pointe-a-Pitre, as he returned home
from protests. This was the first death in unrest that has convulsed
France's Caribbean islands for weeks.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Iran’s Deputy Defense
Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in published remarks that Iran has built an
unmanned surveillance aircraft with a range of more than 600 miles,
enough to reach Israel. Iran announced two years ago that it had built
an unmanned aircraft, but Vahidi's comments were the first by a top
official revealing its range.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul killed one
policeman. In Baghdad gunmen killed a local official from the Sunni
Iraqi Islamic Party.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Israel set a series
of tough conditions for accepting a proposed cease-fire with Hamas,
saying there would be no deal, and no open borders for Gaza, until the
Islamic militant group releases a captured Israeli soldier. Israeli
planes attacked smuggling tunnels around the Gaza-Egypt border and a
disused Hamas security base near the town of Khan Younis.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Japanese PM Taro Aso
met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on an island near disputed
resource-rich maritime territory, hoping to make progress toward
resolving a dispute lingering since World war II.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Morocco Abdelkader
Belliraj (50) was arrested together with a number of other people,
allegedly in possession of a large arsenal of firearms. The
Belgian-Moroccan national was suspected of spearheading a presumed
35-member terrorist ring.
(AFP, 4/3/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen in
a midnight raid attacked a compound housing ExxonMobil staff in the
Niger Delta but were repulsed after a fierce battle with Nigerian
troops.
(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Pakistan a
pro-Taliban cleric vowed to restore calm to the troubled Swat valley,
leading thousands of men in a march for peace after securing a
controversial deal to enforce sharia law. Gunmen killed a television
reporter hours after he covered the peace march in the Swat Valley.
(AFP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Polish police said
they have detained 78 people, including a priest and a doctor,
suspected of possessing child pornography and spreading it on the
Internet.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Sri Lanka
government artillery attacks and air raids inside the northern war zone
killed at least 38 civilians and wounded 140 others.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Sudanese forces
bombed rebel positions in Darfur, with the ink barely dry on a deal
between Khartoum and the strongest rebel group that was hailed as a
turning point in efforts to end the six-year conflict. The next day the
Sudanese army said that it was an allied armed group that fought Darfur
rebels the previous day, not government troops.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 18, Taiwan’s central bank
cut interest rates to a record low as a government statistician
predicted that its economy will shrink for five consecutive quarters.
(WSJ, 2/19/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 18, Zimbabwe’s the new
finance minister announced that Zimbabwe has begun paying government
workers in US dollars and will allow more trade in foreign currency in
the first act by a unity government that gave the opposition control of
much of the devastated economy. A court ordered ministerial nominee Roy
Bennett to be kept in custody until March 4, on the grounds there was
"reasonable suspicion" against him in a terrorism case.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 19, Barack Obama made his
first foreign trip as president to Canada where he sought to quell
Canadian concerns about US protectionism.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, The DJIA fell 89.68
to 7465.95, a new 6-year low.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 19, The California state
Senate approved a long-awaited budget intended to wipe out a $42
billion deficit, possibly steering the state clear of a fiscal disaster.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Banking giant UBS
said it has agreed to pay $780 million and turn over once-secret Swiss
banking records to settle allegations it conspired to defraud the US
government of taxes owed by thousands of American clients.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, In Daly City, Ca., a
car with 4 friends was sprayed by gun fire on John Daly Blvd., near the
BART station. Moises Frias Jr. (21), a student at City College, was
killed. Two men in a sedan escaped. The 4 friends had no known gang
affiliations. Police later arrested Luis Herrera (18) and Danilo
Velasquez (28), members of the MS-13 gang, for their participation in
the murder. Jaime Balam (20), a 3rd gang member was being sought. He
was deported to Mexico 8 days after the shooting, but before being
identified as a suspect.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.B2)(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D1)
2009 Feb 19, In Pennsylvania Roger
Leon Barlow (19) was charged with setting 9 fires in arson-prone
Coatesville, 35 miles west of Philadelphia.
(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 19, Virginia’s House of
Delegates voted 60-39 on a partial ban on smoking in bars and
restaurants. The Senate had voted 27-13 earlier on the bill, which was
supported by Gov. Timothy Kaine.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 19, Thomas E. Bolger
(b.1927), former head of Bell Atlantic (1983-1988), died.
(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.A5)
2009 Feb 19, In southern
Bangladesh 13 people died and scores were missing after a ferry
carrying more than 100 passengers collided with a cargo boat and
capsized.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Belgium took Senegal
to the International Court of Justice over the African nation's failure
to prosecute a former Chad president for crimes against humanity and
torture.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 19, Europe's highest
human rights court has awarded Abu Qatada, an extremist Muslim preacher
euro2,800 ($3,550), for being held unlawfully by British authorities
during an anti-terrorist probe. A day earlier Britain's highest court
ruled that Abu Qatada could be deported to Jordan despite fears he
could face torture there. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that
Qatada and 10 other detainees had their right to liberty violated when
they were held in high-security conditions.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, France bowed to
demands for wage increases in Guadeloupe in the hope of ending a
month-long strike that has plunged the French Caribbean island into
rioting.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, In southern India
lawyers sympathetic to Sri Lankan rebels set fire to a police station
in Chennai and clashed with police leaving 20 police injured.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 19, In Israel far-right
politician Avigdor Lieberman endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for Israeli
prime minister, all but guaranteeing that Netanyahu will be the
country's next leader.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Kyrgyzstan's
parliament voted to close a key US air base in the country, a move that
could hamper Pres. Obama's efforts to increase the number of US forces
in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, About 12 pirates
armed with guns attacked the tug and barge in the Malacca Strait and
kidnapped two crew members as the vessel was en route to Singapore.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 19, US Sen. John Kerry as
well as 2 other congressional Democrats came to the Gaza Strip, the
highest-level visit by a US official since the Hamas militant group
seized power in the territory nearly two years ago. Kerry said he was
in Gaza to view the aftermath of Israel's recent military offensive
against Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/09)(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 19, US Defense Sec.
Robert Gates, in Europe for NATO talks, signed a new military
cooperation agreement with Poland.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 19, A Moscow court
acquitted three men accused of helping murder Kremlin critic and
journalist Anna Politkovskaya, leaving Russia's most politically
charged killing in years still unsolved. This decision was overturned
in June.
(Reuters, 2/19/09)(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Feb 19, In Spain the mobile
phone industry's biggest trade show wrapped up after four days that
delivered exciting news for technophiles, average phone users and even
environmentalists. During the show leading manufacturers announced an
initiative to produce a standard charger that would fit all phones by
2012 in a step set to reduce waste and increase convenience.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said samples taken from a Syrian site
suspected of being a secretly built reactor have revealed new traces of
processed uranium.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Naser Abdel Karim
al-Wahishi, Yemen's most wanted fugitive and leader of al-Qaida in the
Arabian Peninsula, used an audio recording to urge Yemenis to rise up
against the government and called on Arabs in Saudi Arabia and Gulf
countries to help their brothers in Yemen.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Trading resumed at
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) after a three-month suspension but
transactions were carried out only in US dollars, the first time in
President Robert Mugabe's 29-year rule.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 20, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said up to 20 nations have offered to boost their civilian
or military commitments to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, A US Army medic was
convicted of murder for his involvement in the execution-style slayings
of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees shot in the back of the
head in the spring of 2007. The court sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger made nearly $1 billion in line-item trims and signed the
new budget bill. The 33 bills in the budget plan included $15 billion
in spending cuts, $11.4 billion in borrowing, $12.8 billion in taxes
and about $2 billion in funds from the new federal stimulus package.
(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A12)(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 20, In California
Ahmadullah Sais Niazi (34), the Afghan-born brother-in-law of Osama bin
Laden’s former bodyguard, was arrested in Orange County on charges that
he lied about ties to terrorist groups on citizenship and passport
papers.
(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 20, Louisiana Gov. Bobby
Jindal announced that he will decline stimulus money specifically
targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming
the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal
government’s payout to states.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/19092;_ylt=AlTYJh.MxX8VcaG8HASlBbYDW7oF)
2009 Feb 20, In Homer, La., police
officers Tim Cox and Joey Henry were involved in the fatal shooting of
Bernard Monroe Sr. (73). The shooting sparked protests and at least 2
investigations. In July both officers resigned from the police force.
(SFC, 7/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 20, General Motors
Corp.'s Swedish-based subsidiary Saab went into bankruptcy protection
so the unit can be spun off or sold by its struggling US parent.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Wampum,
Pennsylvania, Jordan Brown (11) shot his father's pregnant fiancee,
Kenzie Marie Houk (26), in the back of the head as she lay in bed. He
then put his youth model 20-gauge shotgun back in his room before going
out to catch his school bus. On March 29, 2010, a judge ruled that boy
will be tried as an adult.
(AP, 2/22/09)(SFC, 3/30/10, p.A10)
2009 Feb 20, Australian Federal
Police agents with search warrants boarded an anti-whaling group's
ship, the Steve Irwin, as it docked in the southern Australian city of
Hobart. They seized videotapes of violent clashes between the activists
and Japanese whalers.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, The Canadian units of
General Motors Corp and Chrysler sought as much as C$10 billion ($8
billion) in aid from the Canadian and Ontario governments as they
fought to survive an industry wide crisis.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders after
vowing not to let human rights block progress on the global economic
crisis, climate change and security.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Chinese authorities
closed a chemical plant being investigated for contaminating water
supplies to 1.5 million people in the country's east. Water supplies
were restored after a five-hour shutdown. Biaoxin Chemical Company
caused "massive" tap water pollution in Yancheng, a city in east
Jiangsu province. Investigators identified the pollutant as a phenol
compound used to make products including air fresheners, medical
ointments, cosmetics and sunscreens.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Egypt 5 crew
members died when a Ukrainian cargo plane crashed during takeoff, burst
into flames and slid down the runway in the city of Luxor.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Christopher Nolan
(43), an Irish poet and novelist, died in Dublin. He had refused to let
cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing. Using a "unicorn stick"
strapped to his forehead to tap the keys of a typewriter, Nolan
laboriously wrote out messages and, eventually, poems and books as
well. His autobiography, "Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of
Christopher Nolan," won the prestigious Whitbread Award in 1988.
(AP, 2/22/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.91)
2009 Feb 20, In Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu appealed to his moderate rivals to join him after the
hard-liner was formally tapped to put together Israel's next ruling
coalition, an alliance that would dilute the power of nationalists bent
on derailing Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Kyrgyzstan ordered US
forces to depart within six months from an air base key to military
operations in Afghanistan, complicating plans to send more troops to
battle rising Taliban and al-Qaida violence. A US military official
said Uzbekistan will allow non-lethal US military cargo heading to
Afghanistan to transit through the country.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Latvia's center-right
coalition government resigned after weeks of instability brought on by
the Baltic country's economic collapse. President Valdis Zatlers said
he accepted the resignation of PM Ivars Godmanis and his
administration, which had been in power since December 2007.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Madagascar security
forces regained control of four government ministries overnight from
opposition activists. Police arrested 50 people and no injuries were
reported.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Mexico criminal
gangs in Ciudad Juarez followed up on threats and killed police officer
Cesar Ivan Portillo and city jail guard Juan Pablo Ruiz as they left
their homes before dawn to head to work. Public Safety Secretary
Roberto Orduna, the police chief of Ciudad Juarez, stepped down
hours later.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Myanmar the
government announced an amnesty for 6,300 prisoners. Only a handful of
political detainees were among those released.
(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A2)(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 20, Nigeria ordered its
customs service and security and environmental agencies to clamp down
on illegal imports of potentially toxic electronic waste.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a slain Shiite Muslim
leader, killing 28 people and triggering deadly rioting.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, A Swaziland
government report said about 42 percent of pregnant women in the
country are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, a 3 percent jump
in a single year. An estimated 185,000 of Swaziland's 1 million people
are HIV positive, and about 30,000 are receiving antiretrovirals.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Somalia hardline
Islamist militia attacked African Union forces in Mogadishu, killing
one civilian and wounding two others.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Tamil Tiger rebel
pilots on a kamikaze mission crashed their planes in the Sri Lankan
capital, killing two people.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, Banking details of
eight American clients of Switzerland's largest bank were sent to US
authorities along with the names of more than 240 other American
clients of UBS. A Swiss court order blocking the move came too late to
stop the action.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, In southern Thailand
suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed a military convoy and beheaded two
soldiers in the second such attack this month.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Six African migrants
drowned and 11 more are presumed dead after smugglers in the Gulf of
Aden forced their passengers overboard in deep water off Yemen. The
smuggling boat was carrying 40 Somalis and 12 Ethiopians when it
approached Yemen's coast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 21, President Barack
Obama ordered the US Treasury to implement tax cuts for 95 percent of
Americans, fulfilling a campaign pledge he hopes will help jolt the
economy out of recession.
(Reuters, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, The US postal service
released a set of six 42-cent stamps honoring a dozen early civil
rights activists.
(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 21, The Journal Register
Co., a Yardley, Pa.-based company, filed for bankruptcy protection. The
company owned 2o daily and 159 nondaily newspapers with some 3,500
employees.
(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 21, In Afghanistan a
battle outside Kandahar killed at least six Taliban fighters. Fighting
continued into the next day. An airstrike against militants in Helmand
province killed 8.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 21, In India Sivaprakasam
(60), a former civil servant, burned himself to death in Tamil Nadu to
protest Sri Lanka’s campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels. His was
the 5th Tamil Nadu suicide by fire this year.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.46)
2009 Feb 21, In western Indonesia
a Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death, bringing to 5 the
number of people killed by the critically endangered cats in less than
a month.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 21, Iraq's infamous Abu
Ghraib prison reopened as the Baghdad Central Prison, with official
promises of humane treatment in a lockup notorious as a center for
abuse, both under Saddam Hussein and the US military.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, In Ireland around
100,000 people filled the streets of Dublin in protest at the
government's handling of the country's economic crisis.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, Jamaican regulators
said they are forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence
over the airwaves. The announcement followed a Feb. 6 ban that
specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting "daggering,"
a dance style popular among Jamaican youth that features pelvic
grinding simulating sex.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 21, In Kashmir two men
were killed when soldiers opened fire after a group of Kashmiri youths
hurled stones at them and chanted anti-India slogans. On March 21 the
Indian army said it would punish three soldiers for their role in the
shooting.
(AFP, 3/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, Two rockets were
fired from south Lebanon at Israel, with one slamming into a mostly
Christian Arab village and causing minor injuries to at least one
Israeli. Israel responded by firing at least 6 shells on a village in
the area where the rockets had been launched.
(AP, 2/21/09)(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A5)
2009 Feb 21, In Mexico assailants
in an SUV hurled two grenades at a police station in the Pacific resort
town of Zihuatanejo, wounding one officer and four civilians. Teenagers
stoned a 22-year-old man to death in Tuxtla Gutierrez because they
believed he had stolen a cell phone and a bicycle from one of their
friends.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, In central Nigeria
rioters burned homes, churches and mosques, when violence flared after
Muslims parked their cars in front of a church in Bauchi. The clashes
followed an argument between Christians and Muslims the previous day.
Authorities in northern Nigeria have deployed troops and imposed a
curfew following clashes between Christians and Muslims which left at
least 11 people dead.
(AP, 2/21/09)(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 21, A Pakistani official
said that the Taliban and the Pakistani government had agreed to a
"permanent cease-fire" in the restive northwest Swat Valley. A roadside
bomb apparently targeted an oil tanker headed to NATO troops in
Afghanistan. The remote-controlled bomb killed one person and wounded
two others near the Landi Kotal area. The Taliban had been engineering
a class revolt for years by exploiting fissures between a small group
of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants.
(AP, 2/21/09)(WSJ, 4/16/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 21, A few hundred Russian
opposition sympathizers held an anti-Kremlin rally in central Moscow
demanding the resignation of the government. Former chess champion
Garry Kasparov and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov addressed the
crowd from a truck.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, In Russia assailants
with automatic rifles blocked a car of 2 bank employees on a highway in
Tula province south of Moscow and stole about 43 million rubles ($1.2
million; euro 940,000) in cash at gunpoint. The bank employees, a
cashier and a driver, were traveling in a Toyota with no armed escort
despite the large amount of cash.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 21, In central Slovakia a
train collided with a bus, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others
near the town of Brezno.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, A South Korean
housewife broke a world record in marathon singing after crooning for
more than 76 hours without stopping at a Seoul karaoke bar.
(AFP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, In eastern Sri Lanka
a group of Tamil rebels stormed a village, killing two ethnic Sinhalese
farmers and wounding 15 others.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, Sudan's justice
minister said Sudan will free 24 Darfur prisoners as part of a goodwill
agreement with rebels, even as fresh reports of violence came in from
the battle-scarred region. Two Sudanese working for Aide Medicale
Internationale, a French humanitarian group in Darfur, were shot dead
in an attack that also left four people wounded. A gang of 24 men on
horses and camels ambushed the workers on a road between Kurunji and
Khor Abeshe in South Darfur.
(Reuters, 2/21/09)(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, The film "Slumdog
Millionaire," a tale of hope amid adversity and squalor in Mumbai, came
away with 8 Oscars, including best picture and director for Danny
Boyle. Sean Penn won his second best-actor Oscar, this one for playing
slain gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk in "Milk," while Kate Winslet took
best actress for "The Reader," in which she plays a former
concentration camp guard. Heath Ledger (d.2008) won as best supporting
actor in “The Dark Knight”; Penelope Cruz won as best supporting
actress for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
(AP, 2/23/09)(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 22, Mississippi Gov.
Barbour said he would join Louisiana Gov. Jindal in turning down
federal incentives to expand unemployment insurance coverage.
(WSJ, 2/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 22, In eastern Algeria 9
members of a private security firm were killed when Islamist militants
attacked their base near Jijel.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Brazil bubbles,
feathers and glitter swirled on the first night of parades in Rio's
Carnival, as the city's samba schools battled it out for top honors in
what many bill as the world's largest party.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Brisbane,
Australia, Father Peter Kennedy (71), a rebel Catholic priest who was
sacked for blessing gay couples and allowing women to preach, defied
his archbishop and led mass.
(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, In northern China a
gas explosion ripped through a coal mine outside Taiyuan, capital of
the main coal-producing province of Shanxi, killing at least 77 miners
and trapping dozens in the deadliest Chinese coal mine accident in more
than a year.
(AFP, 2/22/09)(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Egypt a group of
French teenagers on a school trip was hit hard by a bombing at Cairo’s
famed 14th century Khan al-Khalili bazaar. The attack killed a
17-year-old French girl and wounded another 24 people: 17 French, three
Saudis, three Egyptians and a German. Egyptian police soon arrested
three suspects. On May 23 Egyptian authorities said they had arrested
seven people for being part of an al-Qaida linked group accused of
carrying out the attack. They included two Palestinians, two Egyptians,
a British-Egyptian, a Belgian-Tunisian and a French-Albanian woman,
some of whom had entered Egypt as students.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, The bodies of four
people were found in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border, a
day after another body was discovered in the area. Border officials
said about 1,000 university students and holders of foreign residency
permits were eligible to cross, and by mid-afternoon, about 600 people
had made the trip.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, The heads of Europe's
largest economies agreed on the need for greater regulation of
financial markets and of products such as hedge funds, as they met in
Berlin to hammer out a joint European position for the G20 meeting in
London on April 2.
(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Greece Vassilis
Palaiokostas (44) and his Albanian accomplice Alket Rizaj staged a 2nd
getaway by helicopter. Palaiokostas was serving a sentence for robbery
and kidnapping when he first escaped with Rizaj in 2006 in a
helicopter. On Nov 16 Alket Rizaj was arrested with a female companion
at an isolated house near the town of Marathon.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Feb 22, Iran's official news
agency says the country's first nuclear power plant will begin
preliminary phase operation on Feb 25 after a series of delays.
(AP, 2/22/09)(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 22, A military official
said Iraqi authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Sunni
lawmaker accused of masterminding a series of high-profile attacks,
including mortar strikes on the Green Zone and a 2007 suicide bombing
inside the parliament building. Lawmaker Mohammed al-Dayni denied the
allegations.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Mexico gunmen in
Chihuahua city shot at a convoy carrying the governor of Chihuahua, a
violence-wracked border state, killing one of his bodyguards and
wounding two other agents. Police arrested two suspects March 31 in the
northern city of Chihuahua, who then led them to 2 more suspects.
(AP, 2/24/09)(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Pakistan a top
official said the local government the North West Frontier Province
will distribute 30,000 rifles to villagers to help security forces
fight the growing strength of Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, Gunmen in northern
Somalia kidnapped a Pakistani. Islamic insurgents claimed to have
carried out a suicide attack on an African Union peacekeeping base in
Mogadishu. 11 Burundi peacekeepers in Somalia were killed and another
20 injured in a suicide attack by a Somali contractor who delivered
supplies and had easy access to the base.
(AP, 2/22/09)(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Turkey Aydin Dogan
(72), chairman of Dogan Sirketler Grubu Holdings AS, a conglomerate
that controls 7 newspapers, 28 magazines and 3 Turkish television
channels as well as energy interests, accused PM Erdogan of seeking to
muzzle criticism. Dogan was recently hit with a corporate tax bill of
around $500 million. Most of the bill centered on the 2007 sale of a
stake in Dogan to Germany’s Axel Springer AG.
(WSJ, 2/23/09, p.A9)
2009 Feb 22, The United Arab
Emirates said it will spend $10 billion to bail out Dubai, whose huge
construction and financial sector expansion plans slowed under the
world wide downturn.
(WSJ, 2/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 23, A government official
said US aid for the Gaza Strip's reconstruction will likely top $900
million, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to make her
first Mideast trip as America's top diplomat.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 23, The FBI said it has
rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as
13, in a nationwide 3-night sweep, Operation Cross Country, to remove
kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, The DJIA fell 250.89
(3.4%) to 7114.78, nearly half the peak it hit 16 months ago, and its
lowest close in over 11 years.
(WSJ, 2/24/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 23, California’s
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco introduced a bill to legalize
the recreational use of marijuana.
(SFC, 2/24/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 23, In SF Leticia Hunter
(33) was shot and killed in the Tenderloin district. On March 17 three
men were charged with murder, assault and cocaine trafficking
conspiracy.
(SFC, 3/18/09, p.B3)
2009 Feb 23, In Florida the Rev.
Francis Guinan (66) was convicted of 2nd degree grand theft for
embezzling thousands of dollars from his Delray Beach church.
(SFC, 2/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 23, In Vassalboro, Maine,
the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop began operations with a staff of 3
topless waitresses and one bare-chested waiter.
(www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/24/grand-view-topless-coffee_n_169670.html)
2009 Feb 23, Ford Motor Co. said
it has reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers union on
changes to retiree health care, becoming the first Detroit automaker to
secure union concessions on the key issue.
(Reuters, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Binyam Mohamed
(b.1978), Ethiopian-born former British resident, was freed from
Guantanamo after nearly seven year in US captivity without facing
trial. He claimed that he was tortured at a covert CIA site in Morocco.
He was arrested at the Karachi airport in April, 2002, while trying to
fly back to Britain on a false passport. During three months of
detention in Pakistan, he was allegedly tortured by Pakistani agents.
In 2004 he was taken to the US prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan
and signed a confession, which he later claimed was extracted under
duress. On Sep 20, 2004, he was flown to the US military detention
center at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, In Afghanistan a NATO
air strike killed up to 16 militants overnight in Badghis province. In
Nimrod province a twin suicide attack killed a policeman outside the
counter-narcotics office of the provincial capital of Zaranj. Lt.
General Jim Dutton, the deputy NATO force commander, said around 17,000
extra US troops earmarked for Afghanistan will deploy as fast as
possible and thousands more are requested for August elections. 3
Afghan children died when a shell blew up. Canada's army later said the
children had died after they brought back a Taliban improvised
explosive device to their village.
(AFP, 2/23/09)(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Feb 23, In southern Australia
more than 100 people evacuated their homes in Victoria state when new
bushfires threatened communities, two weeks after the nation's worst
fire disaster killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, China’s state media
said pig organs contaminated by a banned animal feed additive have been
blamed for sickening at least 70 people in southern China. The pig
organs tainted by the steroid clenbuterol were sold last week in
markets in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. Another 14
cases in Guangzhou were reported on Feb 25.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 23, Denmark seized
control of Fionia Bank A/S by injecting about $172 million in a deal
that will take away shareholder control and split the bank into two
parts until a sale can be realized. The bank was hit by mounting losses
on bad loans to property developers.
(WSJ, 2/24/09, p.C2)
2009 Feb 23, Finance Minister
Christine Lagarde said the French government is to provide 2.5-5.0
billion euros in loans to support the merger of banks Caisse d'Epargne
and Banque Populaire.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Iraq's restored
National Museum was formally dedicated, nearly six years after looters
carried away priceless antiquities and treasures in the chaos following
the US-led invasion. Iraq's Interior Ministry said it has arrested a
Shiite police gang accused of killing the Sunni vice president's
sister. 3 US soldiers and an interpreter were killed during fighting
north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 23, Honda Motor Co. named
Takanobu Ito (55), head of core automaking operations, as its new chief
executive, in an effort to provide fresh leadership to battle a global
crisis in the auto industry. He replaced Takeo Fukui (64) as CEO and
president.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Norwegian architect
Sverre Fehn (b.1924) died in Oslo. His unique style of blending modern
forms with Scandinavian traditions earned him the prestigious Pritzker
Architecture Prize (1997). His white concrete Glacier Museum (1991),
which has been hailed as a landmark within contemporary architecture.
It stands on a plain carved by Norway's Jostedal Glacier at Fjaerland
Fjord.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 23, Pakistani
paramilitary forces killed 10 Taliban militants in a tribal area
bordering Afghanistan and destroyed more than a dozen vehicles and a
main communications system.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, South Korea's Defense
Ministry said North Korea recently deployed a new type of medium-range
ballistic missile capable of reaching northern Australia and the US
territory of Guam.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Sri Lanka's Tamil
rebels, facing likely defeat on the battlefield, appealed for a
cease-fire, a call immediately rejected by the government. Rebels said
more than 30 civilians were killed and many more injured as the
government advanced on Puthukkudirirppu.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 23, Swedish power company
Vattenfall said it had made a friendly 8.5-billion-euro
(10.9-billion-dollar) offer for Nuon of the Netherlands in a takeover
aimed at creating one of Europe's biggest energy groups.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, Pres. Obama addressed
the US Congress and the American people to tap the deep well of
American optimism. Themes of responsibility, accountability and, above
all, national community rang throughout an address carefully balanced
by the gravity of its times. Republican leaders calling his plan
irresponsible and certain to increase taxes and federal debt.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 24, President Barack
Obama told Japanese PM Taro Aso that his nation was the cornerstone of
US security policy in East Asia and America's links to the world
economy.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In NYC Monzer
al-Kassan, a Syrian-born arms dealer, was sentenced to 30 years in
prison for conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian militants in 2007.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 24, A rocket carrying a
NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch, ending a
$280 million mission to track global warming from space.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four US troops in the deadliest
single attack on international forces this year. Japan said it will pay
the salaries of Afghanistan's 80,000 police officers for six months as
part of its ongoing financial support for the country. Afghan soldiers
killed 18 militants targeting a poppy eradication force in Helmand
province. Two soldiers were also killed in the battle. Afghan and
coalition forces killed 10 militants in Uruzgan province. A "precision"
airstrike was called in, killing most of the militants.
(AP, 2/24/09)(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 24, British mining group
Lonmin announced up to 5,500 job cuts in South Africa, dealing a new
blow to the continent's biggest economy as it contracted for the first
time in a decade.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, China’s state media
reported that a Chinese delegation will buy as much as $15 billion
worth of machinery, automobiles and food products while on a trip to
Europe this week.
(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.A11)
2009 Feb 24, Tour agencies and
other industry people reported that China has closed Tibet to foreign
tourists ahead of next month's highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a
failed uprising against Chinese rule.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, France’s Pres.
Sarkozy and Italy’s Premier Berlusconi signed a deal pairing utilities
from each nation to study the feasibility of building nuclear power
plants in Italy.
(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.A11)
2009 Feb 24, A Paris appeals court
overturned five men's terror convictions, ruling that French
intelligence officials improperly questioned them while they were
detained at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay. Lawyers for the men:
Brahim Yadel, Khaled ben Mustafa, Nizar Sassi, Mourad Benchellali and
Ridouane Khalid, hailed the decision. During their 2007 Paris trial,
the five acknowledged having spent time in military training camps in
Afghanistan but they said they had never put their combat skills to use.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Guinea Ousmane
Conte, the son of Guinea's late longtime dictator, was arrested on
allegations of drug trafficking.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Two Iraqi police
officers opened fire on 4 American soldiers and two interpreters inside
a police station in Mosul. One US soldier and an interpreter were
killed. The assailants, believed to be associated with Al-Qaida,
escaped. The two policemen an officer and a sergeant, were arrested in
June by US and Iraqi forces and handed over to Iraqi custody.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A2)(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Feb 24, The Kenya National
commission on Human Rights released a video showing a Kenyan policeman,
who was later killed, saying he saw other officers execute 58 suspects
instead of arresting them.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 24, Iran’s Pres.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Kenya with a delegation of nearly 100 officials
and business people. He soon struck a deal to export 4 million tons of
crude oil a year, to open direct flights between Tehran and Nairobi,
and to provide scholarships for study in Iran.
(http://tinyurl.com/yewhqnk)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.49)
2009 Feb 24, In Michoacan state,
Mexico, Vista Hermosa Mayor Octavio Carrillo was arriving at his home
when four gunmen waiting for him opened fire. He became the 6th elected
local official killed in Michoacan since June.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Nigeria 2 days of
clashes between rival gangs in the southern state of Edo left at least
eight people dead.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 24, North Korea said it
is preparing to shoot a satellite into orbit, its clearest reference
yet to an impending launch that neighbors and the US suspect will be a
provocative test of a long-range missile.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Taliban militants
extended a cease-fire in northwestern Pakistan's Swat valley, granting
more time for peace talks with the government that the US worries could
create a haven for insurgents in the nuclear-armed country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, South Korea signed a
$3.55 billion deal with Iraq to help rebuild the war-ravaged country in
return for oil and gas. The deal was inked by South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Sri Lanka’s
government troops advanced on the last urban area in the north still in
the hands of Tamil Tiger rebels. The defense ministry said 13 bodies of
rebel fighters were recovered. The LTTE said 10 civilians were
killed and 25 injured when troops fired artillery guns at the densely
populated Puttumattalan.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Sudan fighting
erupted in the key southern city of Malakal. Some 50 people were killed
and another 100 wounded in 2 days of fighting.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 24, Syria's nuclear chief
told the UN's nuclear agency that his nation has built a new missile
facility on the site of what the US says was a nearly finished nuclear
reactor bombed by Israel in Sep 2007.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Thailand thousands
of protesters surrounded the prime minister's office demanding that
parliament be dissolved and new elections held, the latest challenge to
the two-month old coalition government.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, A Kurdish politician
spoke to lawmakers in Turkey's parliament in the Kurdish language,
openly defying the law, to celebrate UNESCO world languages week.
State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, The United Arab
Emirates' official news agency said US firms Boeing Co. and Lockheed
Martin Corp. have been awarded almost $3 billion in contracts to supply
transport aircraft for the country's military.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Four Yemenis were
convicted and sentenced up to seven years in prison on for forming an
al-Qaida cell and plotting to attack government and foreign targets in
the country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Officials said
Zimbabwe's teachers have agreed to end a strike that emptied classrooms
for a year, after the government promised to review salaries and
appealed for 458 million dollars' aid for schools.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 25, Attorney General Eric
Holder said US and Mexican authorities have arrested 750 people over 21
months in an anti-drug sweep that included 52 members of Mexico's
Sinaloa drug cartel. The crackdown culminated 50 overnight raids. It
investigated crimes in the United States, Mexico and Canada, netted
some 59 million dollars in cash, 12,000 kilos (12 tons) of cocaine, 544
kilos (1,200 pounds) of methamphetamine and 1.3 million Ecstasy pills.
(AFP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 25, A Federal Grand Jury
returned a single count indictment charging Kody Ray Brittingham (20)
of Camp Lejeune, NC, with threatening the President-Elect of the United
States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 871,
which has a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment followed by up to
three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. In
August Brittingham pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill
Pres. Obama and armed robbery. Brittingham was arrested in mid-December
on an unrelated armed robbery charge and, as a result, separated from
the service on Jan 3. But a search of his barracks also turned up a
journal containing white supremacist material and a plan to kill Obama.
(www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/03/marine_obamathreats_032109w/)(SSFC,
12/6/09, p.A18)
2009 Feb 25, US Interior Sec. Ken
Salazar put the brakes on leases, created under the Bush
administration, on federal land for oil-shale development in Colorado,
Utah and Wyoming. He said the Bush royalty rates would shortchange
taxpayers.
(AP, 2/26/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the Summum group does not have a right to erect the “Seven
aphorism” of its beliefs in Pleasant Gove City, Utah, park just because
the Ten Commandments are displayed there.
(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 25, The FBI arrested
money managers Paul Greenwood (61) of North Salem, NY, and Stephen
Walsh (64) of Sands Point, NY, on charges of conspiracy, securities
fraud and wire fraud. They ware accused of misappropriating at least
$553 million.
(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 25, In Florida Pablo
Josue Amador (53), a Cuban immigrant and piano teacher, shot and killed
wife, Maria (45), and their youngest daughters, Prescilla and Rosa, 14
and 13, before killing himself. A teenage son escaped the shootings and
called police.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Afghanistan a
remote control bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in Kandahar city
as a convoy of soldiers was passing. Two Afghan bystanders were killed,
and eight people, including five soldiers, were wounded. A roadside
bomb killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. A 4th died from
wounds sustained in a firefight.
(AP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A1)(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Mutinous Bangladeshi
border guards opened fire at their headquarters in the capital and
seized a nearby shopping mall, injuring several people in an
insurrection apparently sparked by pay disputes. They agreed to
surrender after the government said it would grant them amnesty.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Danish and Chinese
warships stopped pirates attacking two different vessels off Somalia's
coast.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, An Estonian court
convicted a former top security official of treason for passing
domestic and NATO secrets to Russia, the Baltic country's biggest
espionage scandal since the Cold War. Herman Simm (61), the former head
of security at the Estonian Defense Ministry, pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison. Russia’s foreign
service (SVR) had recruited Mr. Simm on his holiday in Tunisia in 1995.
(AP, 2/25/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.56)
2009 Feb 25, The European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development said that it would invest a record 7.0
billion euros this year in the former Soviet bloc to combat an economic
crisis in eastern Europe.
(AFP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Paris an auction
of art works owned by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent
concluded with dazzling sales of nearly $500 million. Two rare bronze
sculptures that disappeared from China nearly 150 years ago and
demanded back by Beijing, sold for millions. The Chinese businessman,
who bid $15.1 million, later refused payment.
(AP, 2/26/09)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.92)
2009 Feb 25, A 24-hour strike by
Greek civil servants disrupted services across the country, forcing
public hospitals to accept only emergency cases and airlines to cancel
at least 68 flights.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, A UN survey said
homicides in Honduras had more than doubled from 2,155 in 2004 to 4,473
in 2008.
(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 25, In India police
charged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the man they say is the lone surviving
gunman in last year's Mumbai attacks, with "waging war" against India
and included two Pakistani soldiers among 37 others charged.
(Reuters, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Iranian and Russian
technicians conducted a test run of Iran's first nuclear power plant, a
major step toward launching full operations at the facility.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Iraqi authorities
ordered the mid-flight return of a plane carrying a Sunni lawmaker
accused of directing a private terror cell, forcing him back to Baghdad
hours before parliament lifted his immunity and cleared the way for his
arrest. Mohammed al-Dayni faced allegations he masterminded a string of
attacks that include a 2007 suicide bombing inside the parliament
building and mortar strike on Baghdad's Green Zone. Al-Dayni was picked
up by his personal security contingent before government security
arrived. He was later believed to be in Syria where he appeared on a
cooking show.
(AP, 2/25/09)(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A2)(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 Feb 25, A passenger bus
plunged into a river in the Indian part of Kashmir, killing at least 33
people.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Kenya announced its
first polio infection in 20 years, after a 4-year-old girl was
diagnosed with the disease along the country's remote border with Sudan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Lebanon 3 men
jailed for more than three years in the assassination of former PM
Rafik Hariri were set free on bail, days before an international
tribunal was to begin trying the case. Brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed
Abdel-Al, a member of a pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim fundamentalist group,
were detained in 2005. Syrian Ibrahim Jarjoura, was arrested in 2006 on
suspicion he gave false evidence and misled the investigation.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Macao passed its own
version of “Article 23” legislation, which provided sweeping but vague
language banning sedition, but had failed to pass in Hong Kong.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.43)
2009 Feb 25, In Martinique vandals
burned cars and looted stores overnight, as violence spread to a second
French Caribbean island in protests over high prices, low pay and
alleged neglect by officials in Paris.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Mexico’s government
said it will deploy extra troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez
across the border from Texas, where the police chief recently bowed to
crime gang demands that he resign.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Nigerian teachers in
the country's southwest launched an indefinite strike to press demands
for better pay.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Pakistan's Supreme
Court barred main opposition leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif
from holding office and contesting elections, sparking political
turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation. The court also turfed his younger
brother, Shahbaz Sharif, out of Punjab’s provincial parliament and his
post as its chief minister.
(AFP, 2/25/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.47)
2009 Feb 25, Militants in Gaza
launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli planes attacked
smuggling tunnels as a stable truce between the two sides remained
elusive. Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said he is seeking $2.8 billion in
foreign aid for rebuilding Gaza Strip. The rival Palestinian groups
Hamas and Fatah agreed to release each other's loyalists from
detention, seeking to lower tensions during reconciliation talks.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Russian news agencies
quoted Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky as saying that his
office has exposed an attempt by military officers to smuggle $18
million worth of stolen Russian weapons to China via Tajikistan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Russia issued a DVD
and a thick book of historical documents to dispute claims that the
Ukrainian famine of the 1930s amounted to genocide. It was argued that
the Stalin-era famine was a common tragedy across Soviet farmlands.
(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 25, Rwandan troops began
pulling out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a
controversial joint operation with Congolese troops against Rwandan
Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Saudi police were
reported to have clashed with Shiite pilgrims over several days near a
cemetery in Islam's second-holiest city, leading Shiite Cleric Sheik
Nimr al-Nimr to appeal to the king to put a stop to the "insults"
of the religious police. Shiites make up a small minority of the
country's 22 million people. Following the incendiary sermon, more than
35 people were arrested in a government crackdown and al-Nimr went into
hiding.
(AP, 2/25/09)(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Sierra Leone an
international court modeled after the Nuremberg tribunal convicted 3
top rebel leaders of crimes against humanity. Revolutionary United
Front leader Issa Sesay and one of his battlefield commanders Morris
Kallon were found guilty on 16 of 18 counts, including mutilation,
terrorism, rape, forced marriage, sexual slavery and the enlistment of
child soldiers. Commander, Augustine Gbao, was found guilty on 14 of
the 18 counts. On April 8 Sesay was sentenced to 51 years in prison,
Kallon to 40 years, and Gbao to 25 years.
(AP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 25, In Somalia an
artillery shell killed two schoolchildren in Mogadishu during the
second day of fighting between AU peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents.
The death toll in the worst fighting for weeks reached 81.
(AP, 2/25/09)(Reuters, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Spain’s Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Spain is open 'in principle' to
accepting prisoners from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Sri Lanka troops
fought on the outskirts of the last town under rebel control. Aid
groups estimated that more than 200,000 people were trapped in a small
strip of rebel-held territory.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, A Turkish Airlines
plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while
attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport. Nine people were killed
and more than 50 were injured, many in serious condition.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Standard and Poor's
said on it had cut Ukraine's credit ratings to a level indicating
vulnerability to default, amid worries over whether Kiev will receive
the next slice of a vital IMF loan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Uzbek President Islam
Karimov said he would allow the US to transport non-military supplies
through his country as part of a new supply route to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 26, President
Barack Obama unveiled a $3.6 trillion budget and promised to slash
federal spending by $2 trillion, even as the administration initially
invests large sums of money to revive the faltering economy. The budget
included $630 billion to start pushing toward a national health
insurance program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Obama
administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the
return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets when
families of the fallen troops agree.
(AP, 2/26/09)(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 26, Virgin Megastore, a
music and video retailer, announced the closures of its San Francisco
and New York stores. This would leave the company with 3 stores
(Hollywood, Denver, and Orlando) from a peak of 23 stores in 2002. The
San Francisco, which opened in 1995, planned to shut down in late April.
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 26, General Motors
reported a $9.6 billion 4th quarter loss bringing its loss for the year
2008 to $30.9 billion. This was its 2nd worst financial performance in
its 100 year history.
(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 26, The Australian
government announced a multi-million dollar investment in research on
reducing gas emissions from farm animals as part of the fight against
global warming.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Bangladesh
mutinous members of a paramilitary unit in Dhaka surrendered their
weapons as tanks surrounded their headquarters after a second day of
gunfire in a mutiny that killed about 50 people. Security forces
searching the headquarters of a mutinous border guard unit soon
discovered the bodies of dozens of officers in shallow graves on the
compound, raising the death toll to 76. The trial of some 3,500
paramilitary troops began in November. At least 48 had already died
while in custody. In April, 2010, 136 guards were given sentences
ranging from four months to seven years for their 2-day uprising.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)(AP, 2/27/09)(AP, 2/28/09)(Econ,
11/28/09, p.44)(AP, 4/18/10)
2009 Feb 26, British prosecutors
said they would not bring charges against Gary McKinnon, a computer
expert accused by a US attorney of the "biggest military hack of all
time," dealing a blow to his bid to avoid extradition.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, Former EastEnders
star Wendy Richard (65), who was diagnosed with cancer in January, died
in London. She best known for her role as Pauline Fowler in the
London-based soap whom she played for more than two decades.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Canada PM Harper
announced a new law to crack down on a wave of gang-related murders in
Vancouver, which was preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe said he's no longer allowing wiretapping by the
scandal-ridden domestic intelligence agency. The announcement followed
allegations that the spy agency, or DAS, has continued illegal
wiretapping of prominent journalists, Supreme Court justices and
opposition politicians. By the end of April 33 people were dismissed
from Colombia’s Dept. of Administrative Security in the wiretapping
scandal.
(AP, 2/26/09)(SFC, 4/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, In Iraq an American
soldier died while conducting a combat patrol in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 26, Kazakhstan announced
it was pulling out of the Central Asian power grid to protect its
energy supplies, a move that forced rolling blackouts and electricity
rationing on Kyrgyzstan, its tiny, power-starved neighbor.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, At The Hague UN
judges in the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal acquitted former Serb
President Milan Milutinovic of ordering a deadly campaign of terror by
Serb forces against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. The court convicted five
other senior Serbs and gave them prison sentences of between 15 and 22
years. The marathon trial started July 10, 2006.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Nigeria a source
close to negotiations said US drug giant Pfizer has agreed to settle a
multi-billion dollar damages case with 200 alleged victims of a drugs
trial in Kano. Pfizer and families of the victims of the drug trial
reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement in principle and agreed
to meet in Rome in March to put the deal in writing.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Nigerian military
raided and destroyed a militant camp in the volatile Niger Delta as
part of its drive to end unrest in the oil-producing region.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Pakistan thousands
of supporters of former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif protested, a day
after a court ruling to exclude him and his brother from elected office
raised fears of renewed political turmoil.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Royal Bank of
Scotland posted a 2008 loss of 24.1 billion pounds, the largest in
British corporate history, because of the credit crunch and the
mis-timed takeover of ABN Amro. The British government has meanwhile
agreed to insure RBS "toxic" assets worth 325 billion pounds in its
Asset Protection Scheme (APS) and will cover 90 percent of losses
stemming from such holdings. Sir Fred Goodwin (50), head of RBS for a
decade, insisted that he is entitled to his full pension of over
£700,000 ($980,000) a year. In March Goodwin received a $4
million tax-free advance as part of his negotiated pension package.
(AFP, 2/26/09)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.22)(SFC, 3/18/09,
p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, Sudan’s President
Omar al-Beshir, who faces a possible arrest warrant for alleged war
crimes in Darfur, said he wanted to hold "free" elections soon to
guarantee stability.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, Venezuela condemned a
US State Department report on human rights problems in the South
American country, saying Washington has no right to pass judgment on
its record.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 27, President Barack
Obama outlined his plan for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq by Aug.
31, 2010.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 27, The US government
said it will exchange up to $25 billion in emergency bailout money it
provided Citigroup Inc. for as much as a 36% equity stake in the
struggling bank. The deal is contingent on private investors also
agreeing to a similar swap. A Commerce Dept. report said the US GDP had
declined 6.2% in the 4th quarter of 2008.
(AP, 2/27/09)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 27, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 27, San Francisco handed
out pink slips to 262 city employees, with most cuts coming from the
Recreation and park Dept., the Human Services Agency, and the Dept. of
Public Works.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 27, Two members of the
Final Exit Network appeared in a Maryland court and waived an
extradition hearing on charges they aided the suicide of a 58-year-old
Georgia man who suffered for years from cancer of the throat and mouth.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, New Mexico
authorities said they have recovered bones from 13 victims at a desert
site west of Albuquerque. 2 victims were identified as prostitutes
reported missing in 2004.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 27, Alan Landers (68),
ex-smoker and former face for Winston cigarette advertising, died of
tonsillar cancer.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.88)
2009 Feb 27, In Argentina a new
rule took effect in which members of the armed forces, related to
crimes under the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, will be tried by
civil courts rather than military tribunals.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 27, In China US Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense David Sedney began talks with a
delegation led by Maj. Gen. Qian Lihua, the Chinese Defense Ministry's
head of foreign affairs, marked a resumption of military consultations
after a half-year suspension.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 27, A Tibetan monk, in
his late 20s, was shot after dousing himself with petrol and setting
himself alight in the Tibetan-populated town of Aba in China's Sichuan
province. Police put out the fire, and the man was taken to hospital
with burn injuries to his neck and head.
(AFP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 27, Leading international
financial institutions said Eastern Europe's struggling banks will
receive euro24.5 billion ($31.1 billion) worth of emergency help to
shore up their battered finances. Regional leaders were scheduled to
meet this weekend. The Hungarian, Polish and Czech currencies
strengthened on the news of the aid package.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, The French film
industry awarded the best film Cesar to Martin Provost's "Seraphine."
Yolande Moreau, who plays Seraphine, won in the 34th annual Cesar
awards best actress category for her portrayal of the dimwitted maid
whose talents as a painter were discovered by a German art collector on
the eve of World War I. The Cesar for best actor went to Vincent Cassel
in "Mesrine," a story based on the real life of a gangster.
(AP, 2/2709)
2009 Feb 27, Unions in Guadeloupe
scored a victory in getting a deal to raise some workers' salaries, but
said they will not end a general strike now concluding its sixth week.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, In Ireland the family
of banker Shane Travers was freed uninjured after he delivered millions
of euros stolen from his own branch. A gang had taken his family
hostage and threatened to kill them unless he cooperated. Irish media
put the amount at euro7 million ($9 million). The next day police
recovered millions in stolen cash and interrogated seven suspected
robbers.
(AP, 2/27/09)(AP, 2/28/09)(SFC, 2/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 27, In Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu failed to persuade his centrist rival, Tzipi Livni, to join
him in a broad coalition, increasing the likelihood that Israel's next
government will be an alliance of hawks and hard-line religious parties
opposed to substantial concessions for peace.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, A court ordered the
Japanese government to pay 5.6 billion yen ($57.7 million) to
compensate people whose lives are disrupted by the noise of warplanes
at a US air base on the southern island of Okinawa. The Fukuoka High
Court ruling doubled the 2.8 million yen compensation awarded in 2005
to the people living around Kadena Air Base, and upheld the appeals of
5,540 residents.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, In Pakistan police
fought running battles with supporters of former PM Nawaz Sharif near
Islamabad as protests against a court order barring him from elected
office continued for a third day.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, Researchers in Peru
said an unusually intact fossilized skull of a pelagornithid, a giant,
bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago, had been
found in the in the Pisco Formation, a coastal rock bed south of the
capital, Lima, known for yielding fossils of whales, dolphins, turtles
and other marine life dating as far back as 14 million years.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 27, In Sri Lanka
government forces drove deeper into the Tamil Tigers' dwindling
stronghold, confining the rebel group that once controlled a vast swath
of northern Sri Lanka to an area smaller than Manhattan.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, A UN tribunal in
Tanzania convicted a former Rwandan military chaplain of attempted rape
and genocide for crimes that included killing people who had sought
refuge in a seminary. The three-judge panel sentenced Emmanuel Rukundo
(50) to 25 years in prison. Rukundo will only serve 17 and half years
because the judges gave him credit for the seven and a half years he
has already spent in detention.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, The UN Children's
Fund said 53 million children are being targeted by a mass immunization
drive against polio in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger,
Nigeria, and Togo. Some 844 polio cases were reported in the 8
countries in 2008, 95% of them in Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Louisiana 3
½ years after Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard pulled the
last of its troops out of New Orleans, leaving behind a city still
desperate and dangerous.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, A fishing boat from
Clearwater, Florida, capsized as the four friends were pulling up the
anchor. Nick Schuyler was rescued on March 2. Oakland Raiders
linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and
former University of South Florida player William Bleakley remained
missing.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Feb 28, Paul Harvey (b.1918),
news commentator and talk-radio pioneer, died in Arizona. His staccato
style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices. Harvey had
been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his "News and Comment"
for ABC Radio Networks.
(AP, 3/1/09)(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai ordered that presidential elections be held by April,
months earlier than the August 20 date set by a voting authority, after
lawmakers said they would not recognize him as president after May 22.
Afghan security soldiers killed four militants in a clash in the
southern province of Uruzgan.
(AP, 2/28/09)(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Algeria an army
operation in the mountains of Blida province, about 100 kilometers (62
miles) south of Algiers killed 6 Islamist militants. One militant was
killed on Feb 26 before the army took the rest of the group by
surprise. Another 16 were reported killed during a search operation
near Soulahane.
(AFP, 3/2/09)(AFP, 3/3/09)
2009 Feb 28, China's legislature
enacted a tough new food safety law, promising tougher penalties for
makers of tainted products in the wake of scandals that exposed serious
flaws in monitoring of the nation's food supply.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, A US Marine died in a
non-combat related incident in Iraq's western Anbar province.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb 28, Two rockets fired
from Gaza crashed into southern Israel, one into a school that was
closed for the weekend in the coastal city of Ashkelon and another into
an open field.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, Police in southern
Mexico found the body of Rolando Landa, head of security in the
township of La Union, near the Pacific beach town of Zihuatanejo. The
body was accompanied by threatening messages apparently left by members
of the Familia Michoacana drug gang. Two police officers in the town of
Praxedis Guerrero, just south of the border town of Ciudad Juarez, were
shot dead in their patrol vehicle.
(AP, 2/28/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb 28, Pakistani officers
said troops have defeated Taliban militants in the Bajur region near
the Afghan border and are close to victory in the tribal region of
Mohmand after a grinding offensive.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Panama Tomas
Altamirano Mantovani (49), a prominent ruling party lawmaker and son of
a former vice president, died in a traffic accident.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, The yacht Serenity,
with two crew from the Seychelles on board, left the islands en route
to Madagascar and disappeared. One of the crew called his family on
March 24, saying he was being held by Somali pirates and begging for
help.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Feb 28, Somalia's new Pres.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said the government and an Islamic insurgent
group have reached a cease-fire deal, days after dozens of civilians
were killed in fighting in Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Thailand prominent
activists from military-ruled Myanmar and Cambodia were barred from a
meeting with Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN), upstaging the opening of
the annual summit billed as a historic step toward greater human rights
in the region.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, President Hugo Chavez
ordered troops to intervene in Venezuelan rice processing businesses,
saying some have balked at producing under regulated prices.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Robert Mugabe told followers at his lavish $250,000 birthday party to
respect the new power-sharing government but vowed to press on with
seizures of white farms. A melee broke out in a dining hall among
thousands lined up for a free meal of porridge and vegetables. Soldiers
used truncheons to maintain order.
(AFP, 2/28/09)(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A5)
2009 Feb, A Texas grand jury
returned a 106-count indictment against the former Montague Sheriff
Bill Keating and 16 others. It revealed that inmates had the run of
County Jail, having sex with their jailer girlfriends, bringing in
recliners, taking drugs and chatting on cell phones supplied by friends
or guards.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Feb, Scientists published a
study showing that genetically modified material did contaminate native
corn in the crop's birthplace in southern Mexico. Elena Alvarez Buylla,
author of the article published in the February edition of Molecular
Ecology, said the difficult atmosphere surrounding the original debate
persists.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Feb, An Australian man in
Victoria state was arrested on charges of raping his daughter for 30
years and fathering four children with her. The daughter first told
police about the alleged abuse in 2005, but no charges were filed
because she said she feared for her safety and would not cooperate with
police.
(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Feb, China extended
nationwide a program of government financed discounts for household
appliances. The program had been due to end in 2008, but was extended
to 9 provinces in December and was now expected to continue for 4 years.
(Econ, 2/21/09, p.44)
2009 Feb, Chinese authorities
started using fish to try to clean up Lake Taihu when they released 10
million mostly green and silver carp into the water, after the algae
tainted the drinking supply of millions of residents. In 2010
authorities planned to release 20 million more algae-eating fish into
the scenic lake ravaged by pollution.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2009 Feb, In India the high court
of Chhattisgarh state ordered an inquiry into the deaths of 12 Gond
tribe people allegedly killed by police in Singaram village.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb, US jets shot down an
Iranian unmanned surveillance aircraft over Iraqi territory about 60
miles northeast of Baghdad. The Ababil 3 was tracked for about 70
minutes before US jets shot it down "well-inside Iraqi airspace."
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Feb, Kazakhstan nationalized
BTA Bank, the largest bank in the country. Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov
was stripped of his position and left the country for exile in London.
Over a dozen more bank managers were arrested and awaited trial for
alleged racketeering and money laundering.
(Econ, 6/20/09, p.40)
2009 Feb, The government of
Liechtenstein fell. New PM Klaus Tschutscher pledged to work with other
countries to get off the “uncooperative” list of tax havens.
(Econ, 4/4/09, SR p.14)
2009 Feb, The UN estimated that 10
million people still lived in Somalia.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.49)
2009 March
2009 Mar 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb blew up near US-led soldiers, wounding six civilians
outside Jalalabad. Attacks in Kandahar province left seven security
guards dead. The US-led coalition killed four alleged militants in
Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Bangladeshi police
charged more than 1,000 border guards with murder and arson after a
bloody mutiny in the capital left as many as 148 people dead or
missing, most of them army officers.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, China's lunar
probe, the Chang'e-1, named for a moon goddess, ended its
16-month life with a planned crash into the moon.
(Reuters, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Scores of Tibetan
monks in southwestern China marched in protest over the banning of a
prayer service, the latest incident in an apparent increase in acts of
defiance against Chinese rule ahead of sensitive anniversaries.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 1, Germany rejected
appeals for a single multibillion euro (dollar) bailout of eastern
Europe, even after Hungry begged EU leaders not to let a new "Iron
Curtain" divide the continent into rich and poor.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, An adviser to Iran's
president demanded an apology from a team of visiting Hollywood actors
and movie industry officials, including Annette Bening, saying films
such as "300" and "The Wrestler" were "insulting" to Iranians. The film
"300," portrays the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force
of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in
Greece for three days. It angered many Iranians for the way Persians
are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to
the noble Greeks.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, In Iraq about 2,000
Shiites staged marches to protest the results of provincial elections
in tense Diyala province.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Israel's attorney
general notified PM Ehud Olmert that he planned to indict him on
suspicion of illicitly taking cash-stuffed envelopes from a
Jewish-American businessman, a sensational case that turned public
opinion so sharply against the Israeli leader that he was forced to
resign.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Officials said the
Malaysian government will issue a new decree restoring a ban on
Christian publications using the word "Allah" to refer to God.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Mexican federal police
made two arrests and confiscated weapons and marijuana in Tijuana,
across the US border from San Diego, after coming under attack by men
linked to a drug cartel.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, In northwest Pakistan
at least eight people were killed in two suspected US missile strikes
in South Waziristan near to the border with Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Tony Blair paid his
first visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as envoy of international
peace brokers and said reconstruction aid after Israel's offensive
would not have a lasting effect without peace. Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert
threatened painful retaliation against Gaza militants for rockets still
hitting Israel, six weeks after its military halted an offensive that
was supposed to have stopped them for good.
(Reuters, 3/1/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Russia's ruling party
cemented its grip on elected posts with big victories in local
elections despite an economic crisis, but the opposition complained of
widespread cheating.
(Reuters, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 1, In Spain Basque voters
chose a new government. Socialists scored big electoral gains at the
expense of nationalists who have held power there for nearly 30 years.
The nationalist coalition with 37 seats fell one seat short of the
needed majority.
(AP, 3/1/09)(AP, 3/2/09)(SFC, 3/2/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 1, In Sudan Riek Machar,
the vice president of the southern Sudan government, said clashes last
week between militia and local government troops in Malakal killed at
least 57 people and wounded nearly 100.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 1, In Thailand Southeast
Asian leaders (ASEAN) vowed to push ahead with ambitious plans to
become a European Union-style economic community by 2015 despite
roadblocks posed by the global financial crisis and Myanmar's dismal
human rights record.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 2, The Obama
administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets,
revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure
powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of
interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, The US government
unveiled a revamped rescue package to insurance giant American
International Group (AIG) and will provide the troubled company with
another $30 billion in taxpayer money on an "as needed" basis. The DJIA
fell 299.64 to close at 6763.29, falling below 7,000 for the first time
in 12 years.
(AP, 3/2/09)(WSJ, 3/3/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 2, A massive late winter
snow storm roared out of the Southeast and into the Northeast
overnight, idling hundreds of flights and making the morning rush
treacherous as motorists contended with nearly a foot of snow in spots.
Some 950 flights were canceled at the three main New York area
airports, an almost 300 canceled in Philadelphia.
(AP, 3/2/09)(SFC, 3/3/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 2, An asteroid named 2009
DD45, about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago, buzzed
by Earth. It measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter and came
to 48,800 miles from Earth.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 2, A study by Oceana, a
worldwide environmental group, said food supplies for large ocean fish
were dwindling due to industrial fishing to supply fish farms. An
estimated 4 to 11 pounds of prey fish were being consumed to produce
one pound of farmed salmon.
(SFC, 3/3/09, p.B1)
2009 Mar 2, In southern Australia
rescuers used jet skis, backhoes and human muscle to save dozens of
whales and dolphins stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's
King Island. Rescuers refloated 54 whales and five bottlenose dolphins.
A total of 194 pilot whales and seven dolphins became stranded the
previous evening.
(AP, 3/2/09)(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, A Chinese man said he
was the mystery collector behind winning bids for two imperial bronzes
auctioned last week at Christie's over Beijing's objections, and that
he made the bogus offers to protest any sale of the looted relics. The
sculptures disappeared from the Summer Palace on the outskirts of
Beijing when French and British forces sacked and burned it at the end
of the second Opium War in 1860. The sculptures date to the early Qing
Dynasty, established by invading Manchu tribesmen in 1644. The
Christie's catalog said they were made for the Zodiac fountain at the
imperial palace.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In China a top justice
official said courts will accept the cases of hundreds of families with
children sickened in last year's tainted milk scandal.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, Cuban President Raul
Castro's ousted powerful officials close to his brother Fidel in the
biggest government shakeup since he took power a year ago.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, At a donor’s
conference in Egypt Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas, seeking to shore
up his position against rival Hamas, asked international donors to
funnel millions of dollars through his government to rebuild the
devastated Gaza Strip. The gathering aimed to raise at least $2.8
billion from 80 donor nations and international organizations.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Guinea-Bissau
soldiers assassinated President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira in his
palace hours after a bomb blast killed his rival. A pre-dawn gunfight
at the palace erupted hours after armed forces chief of staff Gen.
Batiste Tagme na Waie, a longtime rival of the president, was killed by
a bomb blast at his headquarters. The military insisted no coup was
taking place.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, Iran dismissed US
concerns about how much fissile material the country has produced,
saying it isn't developing a nuclear bomb and that any effort to make
weapons-grade uranium would be difficult under the eyes of
international inspectors.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Iraq Ali Hassan
al-Majid, aka “Chemical Ali,” was sentenced to death for a 3rd time,
following his conviction relating to the Feb 19, 1999, death of
ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr. Previous convictions related the
killing of Kurds in the late 1980s and the 1991 crackdown on Shiites in
southern Iraq.
(SFC, 3/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 2, In Morocco Hassan Al
Haski (41), a Moroccan man already convicted over the 2004 Madrid
bombings, was sentenced on appeal to 10 years in jail for his role in
suicide attacks the year before in Casablanca that killed 45 people.
(AFP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed at least five people and wounded seven others at a
religious school in southwestern Kili Karbala village in Pishin
district.
(AFP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Peru's southern
province of Puno 10 people were killed dead and 16 left missing at a
remote mining camp buried by a mudslide.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, US President Barack
Obama and British PM Gordon Brown held their first White House talks.
They discussed the coordination of worldwide actions to stimulate
economies.
(AFP, 3/3/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 3, The IMF said 22 of the
world’s poorest nations may need a total of $25 billion in additional
funding this year.
(WSJ, 3/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Mar 3, In southern
Afghanistan 3 Canadian soldiers were killed and two wounded in a bomb
blast in Arghandab, northwest of Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 3, Bangladeshi police
arrested Syed Tauhidul Alam, the suspected ringleader of a deadly
border guard mutiny that killed 74 people, during a raid in a slum in
Dhaka. 4 other border guards were also arrested.
(AP, 3/3/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A4)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.48)
2009 Mar 3, Canadian banks cut
their prime lending rates after the Bank of Canada, the country's
central bank, cut its key interest rate by a half-point to a record low
of 0.5 percent.
(Reuters, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, In southern Ethiopia a
cattle-herding tribe crowned Guyyoo Gobbaa (36) as their new king in a
secret ceremony considered so sacred that the Borena people believe it
has the power to kill unauthorized observers.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Germany the
building that houses the Cologne city archives collapsed. 3 people were
feared missing in other damaged buildings nearby.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, Guatemala’s President
Alvaro Colom announced that a new government commission will organize
and declassify military documents that could shed light on torture,
disappearances and other atrocities during Guatemala's 36-year civil
war. Inmates at a Guatemalan juvenile prison killed Winter Vidaurre,
one of their teachers, during a riot. They removed his heart before
police regained control of the prison using tear gas. The prisoners had
taken three of their teachers hostage to protest the transfer of
several of their fellow inmates to another detention center.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, Lawmakers in
Guinea-Bissau voted to uphold the constitution by which parliament
speaker Raimundo Pereira succeeds as interim president, following the
assassination of the head of state. Pereira took the oath of office.
(AFP, 3/3/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 3, An official said 4
Indonesians have died of bird flu over the last 2 months, bringing the
death toll in the country over the past several years to 119.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Iraq the body of
Munther Mohammed Shaheen, the son of a newspaper editor, was found in
Kirkuk. One American soldier was killed in Mosul as insurgents attacked
an US-Iraqi base there.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 3, In Kyrgyzstan Syrgak
Abdyldayev, a journalist with the Reporter-Bishkek weekly, was stabbed
repeatedly by four assailants after leaving his office. Opposition
parties described the attack as an attempt to stamp out freedom of
expression.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Mexico hundreds of
heavily armed soldiers fanned out across Ciudad Juarez, trying to
prevent a collapse in law and order just south of the US border.
Joggers found the decapitated bodies of 3 men near a bullfighting ring
in the border city of Tijuana. The heads were found nearby with a
message calling the men "snitches." One of the dead included Jorge
Norman Harrison (38), an American who had been convicted for drug
trafficking in the US. A fourth body, whose head was wrapped in masking
tape, was found in a creek.
(Reuters, 3/3/09)(AP, 3/3/09)(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Pakistan at least a
dozen men ambushed Sri Lanka's cricket team with rifles, grenades and
rocket launchers as they drove to the stadium ahead of a match in
Lahore, killing 6 policemen and a driver. The attackers melted away
into the city. None were killed or captured.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, Igor Panarin, dean at
the Russian Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a
regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels, told dozens of students,
professors and diplomats that: "There is a high probability that the
collapse of the US will occur by 2010." He also said the US will break
up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian
control.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Saudi Arabia
Khamisa Sawadi, a 75-year-old widow, was sentenced to 40 lashes and
four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close
relatives. The case drew new criticism for the kingdom's
ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 3, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir inaugurated a massive hydro-electric project that has
displaced tens of thousands and is the largest to be built along the
Nile in 40 years.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Zimbabwe’s
parliament former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in. A
judge ordered the release on bail of senior opposition lawmaker Roy
Bennett after nearly three weeks in prison on weapons charges.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 4, The Obama
administration kicked off a new program that's designed to help up to 9
million borrowers stay in their homes through refinanced mortgages or
loans that are modified to lower monthly payments. President Barack
Obama approved an order to overhaul the way the US government awards
contracts for work to be done by the private sector, reversing a Bush
administration policy.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, British PM Gordon
Brown addressed a joint session of the US Congress and bestowed an
honorary knighthood for Senator Edward Kennedy.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.65)
2009 Mar 4, In California David
Paradiso (28), a man accused of killing his girlfriend, was shot to
death in a Stockton courtroom after he attacked the judge presiding
over his murder trial.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Texas Kenneth Wayne
Morris was executed for killing a Houston man in a botched burglary
nearly 18 years ago.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 4, Joseph Bloch,
Juilliard School pianist and scholar, died.
(WSJ, 3/19/09,
p.D9)(www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/music/15bloch.html)
2009 Mar 4, In Afghanistan a car
bomb exploded outside the main US military base at Bagram and wounded
three people. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, In central China more
than 2,000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam
clashed with police during a protest over missing resettlement
payments, leaving 30 protesters injured.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Channel tunnel
operator Eurotunnel said it will pay its first ever dividend after
making a net profit of 40 million euros in 2008 despite fire damage of
200 million euros (250 million dollars).
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, The Finnish Parliament
approved controversial legislation that allows employers to track
workers' e-mails.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Union leaders on the
French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe agreed to suspend a 44-day-old
general strike as most of their demands continue to be met.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, In India officials
said investigators looking into an outbreak of hepatitis uncovered a
huge operation engaged in illegally recycling hundreds of tons of used
medical equipment. Gujarat state officials launched the probe 2 weeks
earlier after 56 people died of hepatitis B.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 4, In Ingushetia a man
fired several grenades at the home of former President Murat Zyazikov
in Nazran. Zyazikov was unhurt, but the attacker died in the explosion.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Iraq a suicide
bomber triggered an explosives-packed belt as he walked among members
of a police intelligence unit in central Baghdad, killing three people.
A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing at
least two policemen and wounding 15 people. Gunmen killed a Sunni
sheik, his wife and two sons near Samarra, 60 miles (100 kilometers)
north of Baghdad. Gunmen killed Brig. Gen. Salam Salman Mohammed, a
senior Ministry of Interior official, as he drove to work in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 4, The Israeli military
aircraft fired upon three smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt
border. An Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza killed Khaled
Shalan, described as a senior Islamic Jihad commander.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 4, Salvatore Samperi
(64), Italian director, died in his house on Lake Bracciano. He was
best known for erotic comedies that challenged the morals of Italy's
middle class.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Mexico a fight
between gangs in a state prison in Ciudad Juarez left at least 20
prisoners dead.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 4, In southern Nigeria
gunmen seized two passengers from a ferry near the Bonny Island gas
terminal. 19 others were released shortly after the ferry was seized.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 4, The UN described the
war zone in northern Sri Lanka as an "unfolding humanitarian
catastrophe," where civilians were trapped and dying because they
lacked food and medicine.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court has
ordered arrested. The French medical aid organization Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) said it was pulling staff out of Darfur after the
Sudanese government ordered them to leave. Sudan ordered at least 10
humanitarian groups expelled from Darfur.
(AP, 3/4/09)(AFP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Ukrainian masked and
armed security agents searched the headquarters of Naftogaz, Ukraine's
natural gas company, in a raid that the firm said threatened a deal
with Russia over the shipment of gas supplies to Europe. The raid was
said to be connected to a criminal investigation launched this week
into the alleged diversion of some 7.4 billion hryvna ($900 million) in
Russian gas by officials at Naftogaz.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Venezuela’s Pres.
Chavez ordered the expropriation of the rice operations of US grain
giant Cargill Inc. and threatened to take over beer and food
manufacturer Polar, the country’s largest private company.
(WSJ, 3/5/09, p.A9)
2009 Mar 4, Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan
Tsvangirai made his first call for an end to international sanctions,
part of his bid to start rebuilding the shattered economy. He also said
the detention of political prisoners is undermining donor confidence in
Zimbabwe's unity government, hurting efforts to rebuild the economy. US
President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying the
troubled African nation had not resolved its political crisis.
(Reuters, 3/4/09)(AFP, 3/4/09)(Reuters, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, A US federal grand
jury in LA charged Bruce E. Karatz (63) former chairman and chief
executive of KB Home, with multiple counts of fraud and other crimes
related to a stock option backdating scheme that authorities say bilked
shareholders out of millions of dollars.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 5, In Bozeman, Montana, a
natural gas explosion collapsed 3 downtown buildings and prompted the
evacuation of a 2-block area. One person was left missing.
(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 5, In Ohio 5 people were
found killed in one of Cleveland’s most horrific shootings in
years. Davon Crawford (33), a newlywed, was suspected of killing his
wife, his sister-in-law and three young children. Crawford shot himself
in the head the next day as police confronted in a home where he was
hiding.
(AP, 3/6/09)(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 5, Australia and South
Korea agreed during a summit between PM Kevin Rudd and President Lee
Myung-bak to deepen security ties and launch formal talks on a free
trade agreement.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, China fleshed out an
ambitious expansion in government spending designed to prevent the
sinking global economy from further dragging down the country's
recently buoyant growth and sparking unrest among laid-off workers and
poorer Chinese.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, The Bank of England
cut interest rates by 50 basis points to a record low of 0.5%, and said
it would pump 75 billion pounds of new money into buying assets in its
battle with recession.
(Reuters, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, A Colombian warlord
who has cooperated closely with prosecutors was extradited to the
United States despite human rights groups' objections that sending him
away could leave hundreds of murders unsolved. Heberth Veloza (41),
alias "HH," has admitted to personally killing more than 100 people and
acknowledged that fighters under his command killed hundreds more.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, The European Central
Bank cut its main interest rate by a half percentage point to 1.5
percent, dropping the cost of borrowing in the 16 countries that use
the euro to a new record low amid grim economic news.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, The European Court of
Justice said Britain's law requiring retirement at age 65 is legal
under EU rules. The advocacy group Age Concern took the British
government to court in 2006 to demand the reversal of the forced
retirement rule.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, Germany’s restored
Neues Museum was unveiled after six years of painstaking work to repair
World War II bomb damage that ruined much of the renowned Berlin
building.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, In Ingushetia five
policemen were killed trying to defuse a bomb. Violence continues to
wrack Ingushetia, with bombings, shootings and attacks on police
reported almost daily.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, Iraq's parliament
passed a $58.6 billion budget after agreeing to sharp cuts amid falling
oil prices. A car bomb exploded in a crowded livestock market selling
sheep, cattle and goats south of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people
and wounding dozens. Justin Pope (25), a US veteran who returned to
Iraq as a civilian contractor, was shot to death overnight while
protecting American diplomats in Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/5/09)(AP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 5, Israeli airstrikes
killed 3 gunmen close to the border after they fired an anti-tank
missile at Israeli forces. In Jerusalem Mari al-Radeideh (26), a
Palestinian driver, rammed a construction vehicle into a bus and police
car on a highway, wounding two officers before he was shot dead, the
latest in a string of attacks by militants using heavy machinery
against Israeli targets.
(AP, 3/5/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 5, The Israeli and
Turkish foreign ministers met secretly on the sidelines of a NATO
conference, the first high-level contact between the countries since
friction erupted over Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, A political scandal in
Japan widened when government figures, including an influential former
premier, said they had taken money linked to a firm whose murky
donations have shaken the opposition.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, In Kenya Oscar Kamau
Kingara and John Paul Oulu, who investigated extrajudicial
killings, were shot at close range night while their car was
stuck in traffic near the Univ. of Nairobi. The next day Kenya's top
human rights group charged that the slaying was part of a pattern of
assassinations of people who made allegations about police death squads.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 5, NATO foreign ministers
agreed to resume high-level formal ties with Russia, suspended last
year after Moscow's military thrust into Georgia.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, Pakistani officials
said that they have identified the gunmen who ambushed the Sri Lankan
cricket team in Lahore on March 3, leaving 8 people dead. Police
detained over 2 dozen men and most of them belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed
and Lashkar-e-Mohammed, groups linked to Al-Qaida and designated as
terrorist organizations by the US.
(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.A9)
2009 Mar 5, Protests spread from
two French possessions in the Caribbean to the island of Reunion in the
Indian Ocean, where about 15,000 people demonstrated in different
cities against high prices.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, Sri Lanka offered a
new safe passage for thousands of civilians trapped in the island's war
zone as a local Red Cross employee was killed while helping
non-combatants leave the area.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, Ukraine’s Naftogaz
paid its February bill for Russian gas just hours after Pres. Putin
said Russia would halt supplies if Ukraine failed to meet a March 7
deadline.
(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.A10)
2009 Mar 5, In Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai said more than 4,000 people have died in the cholera
epidemic that has hit at least 85,000 people, warning the figures were
likely an underestimate.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 6, The US Labor
Department reported that the nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1
percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting
employers slashed 651,000 jobs amid a deepening recession.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, The IRS said it would
not renew its expiring contracts with two private debt collection
agencies. An in-house tax collection program was cited as more
effective.
(WSJ, 3/7/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 6, The CIA destroyed a
dozen videotapes of harsh interrogations of terror suspects, according
to documents filed in a lawsuit over the government's treatment of
detainees. The 12 tapes were part of a larger collection of 92
videotapes of terror suspects that the CIA destroyed. The extent of the
tape destruction was disclosed through a suit filed by the American
Civil Liberties Union against the government.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 6, In California Annette
Yeomans (51) surrendered at the Vista jail and was booked for
investigation of grand theft and embezzlement. The former bookkeeper
reportedly embezzled $9.9 million, forcing her company to make layoffs
as she bought 400 pairs of shoes that she kept in a room-sized closet
decorated with a crystal chandelier and a plasma television.
Authorities alleged that Yeomans embezzled the money from 2001 to 2007
while she was chief financial officer for Quality Woodworks, Inc., a
cabinetry business in San Marcos.
(AP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 6, NASA's planet-hunting
telescope, Kepler, rocketed into space on a historic voyage to track
down other Earths in a faraway patch of the Milky Way galaxy.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Argentina Claudio
Lifschitz, a criminal attorney who accused former President Carlos
Menem of covering up the nation's worst terrorist attack, was kidnapped
and tortured by masked gunmen seeking information about the case.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 6, Colombia’s
anti-narcotics police seized 5.7 tons of cocaine and cocaine base in a
jungle laboratory reportedly run by the Black Eagles, the largest of a
new generation of paramilitary groups.
(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 6, The EU and Kenya
agreed to allow the country to prosecute suspected pirates captured by
European forces on the high seas.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, India's government
said it assisted an Indian businessman in his successful $1.8 million
bid for Mohandas Gandhi's eyeglasses and other items, despite initially
protesting the auction as a "crass commercialization" of the pacifist
leader's legacy. An Indian court had even filed an injunction in an
attempt to prevent the auction in New York.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 5, Indonesia and South
Korea agreed to cooperate more closely on a range of issues including
defense, the global financial crisis and alternative sources of energy.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, The Israeli foreign
ministry said it had closed its embassy after the government of
Mauritania asked the Israeli ambassador and his staff to leave.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, Kyrgyz lawmakers voted
overwhelmingly to suspend an agreement that allows US-led coalition
forces fighting in Afghanistan to use an air base on its territory.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, Mexico published a new
law allowing the planting of genetically modified corn for experimental
reasons.
(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 6, Morocco cut diplomatic
links with Iran after an outcry in the Sunni Muslim world over a
statement by an Iranian official questioning Sunni-ruled Bahrain's
sovereignty.
(Reuters, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Paraguay about 100
women disrobed in a square in downtown Asuncion to protest nuclear
weapons.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, The Sri Lankan
government appealed for tens of thousands of civilians to flee the
northern war zone and said it would open two safe passages for the
exodus. Sri Lankan soldiers assailed the last slice of land still
controlled by ethnic Tamil separatists, killing at least 32 rebels in
Mullaitivu.
(AP, 3/6/09)(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 6, A UN spokesman said
its human rights office will examine whether Sudan's decision to expel
aid groups constitutes a breach of basic human rights and possibly a
war crime. UN agencies warned that Sudan's decision to expel 13
international aid groups will leave more than a million people without
food or health care and could threaten thousands of lives.
(AP, 3/6/09)(AFP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, A senior employee of
Taiwan's presidential office was indicted on charges of providing
classified information to rival China. Wang Jen-bing was charged with
violating the national security law by leaking documents gathered
during the last three years of former President Chen Shui-bian's
eight-year tenure. Chen Pin-jen, a legislative aid, was indicted on
similar charges.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai was injured in a car crash that killed his wife. Tsvangirai
was flown the next day to neighboring Botswana for medical tests.
(Reuters, 3/7/09)(AFP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, President Barack Obama
promised to do "all that's necessary" to boost the economy and warned,
in an opening shot at critics of his budget proposals, that the country
had tough choices ahead.
(Reuters, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, SF Bay Area police
completed a 2-day sweep arresting at least 42 people, all alleged
member of the so-called “Taliban” gang.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 7, A widow in western
Afghanistan burned herself alive in what relatives called a desperate
move to escape her miserably poor life.
(AP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 7, In Algeria 2 people
were killed and five others wounded in an attack on the barracks of
security forces at Tadmait near Tizi Ouzou east of the capital.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, The British government
said it will take a majority stake in Lloyds Banking Group and
guarantee toxic assets, leaving only two major British banks outside
the state's control.
(AFP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, In France a commuter
train slammed into a group of football fans who were walking on railway
tracks in a Paris suburb, killing two youths and injuring 11 people.
(AFP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 7, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki called for an end to the practice of distributing top
government jobs along religious and ethnic lines, saying the system
leads to weakness and mismanagement.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, Suspected IRA
dissidents opened fire on British troops and pizza delivery men at the
entrance to Massereene army barracks in Antrim, west of Belfast,
killing two soldiers and wounding four other people. The attackers
fired on Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar again as they lay wounded on
the ground. A week later 3 men were arrested over the killings. On
March 27 Colin Duffy (41), a prominent dissident republican, was
remanded in custody after being charged with the murders of the two
British soldiers. He was linked to the soldiers' murder by DNA
evidence. On April 2 police arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of
gunning down the two British soldiers.
(AP, 3/8/09)(AFP, 3/14/09)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.59)(AFP,
3/27/09)(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Mar 7, In Pakistan Taliban
militants reportedly shot down a suspected drone aircraft in a tribal
area bordering Afghanistan. In the northwest a bomb-laden car exploded
as police tried to pull a body from it, killing 7 police and a
bystander. A roadside bombing in Darra Adam Khel killed 3 civilians. A
suicide bomber in the Khyber tribal region killed 4 people.
(AFP, 3/7/09)(AP, 3/7/09)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.A10)
2009 Mar 7, Palestinian PM Salam
Fayyad submitted his resignation, a move that could help pave the way
for an elusive power-sharing deal between Palestinian moderates and
militants.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, In Sri Lanka more than
100 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in two days of fighting as they
tried to break a military stranglehold.
(AFP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 8, In Illinois Pastor
Fred Winters was shot and killed during his Sunday sermon at First
Baptist Church in Maryville. He had deflected the first of Terry Joe
Sedlacek’s four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of
paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially
thought was a skit. Churchgoers wrestled Sedlacek (27) to the ground as
he waved a knife, slashing himself and two other people.
(AP, 3/9/09)(SFC, 3/9/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 8,
Country singer Hank Lochlin (b.1918) died at his home in Brewston,
Alabama. His 70 charted singles included “Send Me the Pillow You Dream
On” (1949 & 1958) and “Please Help Me, I’m Falling” (1960).
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.B6)
2009 Mar 8, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai welcomed President Barack Obama's call to identify moderate
elements of the Taliban and encourage them to reconcile with the Afghan
government. In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded, killing a
Canadian soldier and wounding four others in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/8/09)(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 8, In Argentina Matthew
Lizotte (25) of Aspen, Colorado, died while scaling the 11,411-foot
(3,480-meter) Mount Tronador in Nahuel Huapi National Park. Two
unidentified students were injured when the ice bridge they were
crossing broke.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 8, Ali Bongo (William
Oliver Wallace), English master magician, died at age 79.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.93)
2009 Mar 8, Iran, Afghanistan and
Pakistan carried out their first joint counter narcotics operation.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 8, The US military
announced that 12,000 American and 4,000 British troops will leave Iraq
by September, hours after a suicide bomber struck police and recruits
lined up at the entrance of Baghdad's main academy, killing about
30 people, including 5 police officers.
(AP, 3/8/09)(SFC, 3/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 8, Kim Jong Il was
unanimously re-elected to North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament.
Outside observers watched closely for hints leader Kim Jong Il may be
grooming a successor.
(AP, 3/8/09)(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 8, Sudan's Pres. Omar
al-Bashir threatened to kick out more aid groups and expel diplomats
and peacekeepers during his first trip to the beleaguered Darfur region
after an international court indicted him on war crimes.
(AP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 8, Off southern Thailand
a 60-foot (18-metre) diving boat, carrying 30 people including 19
foreigners, was reported missing in the Similan islands. Police and
navy rescued 23 passengers and crew the next day but two Swiss
nationals, two Austrians, a Japanese, a German and a Thai member of the
crew remained missing. The body of one woman was found on March 10.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, President Barack Obama
signed an executive order reversing the US government’s ban on funding
stem-cell research today and pledge to “use sound, scientific practice
and evidence, instead of dogma” to guide federal policy.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, The US and South Korea
began annual war games prompting North Korea to call its military into
full combat readiness.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 9, In North Carolina
Philip Guyett (42) pleaded guilty to falsifying records so that he
could sell human tissue from corpses that were riddled with cancer or
showed intravenous drug use. He was sentenced in October to 8 years in
prison.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.38)(http://tinyurl.com/yfnbh8p)
2009 Mar 9, The latest American
Religious Identification Survey said 15% of respondents had no
religion, an increase from 14.2% in 2001 and 8.2% in 1990.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman
and state house and senate leaders agreed to eliminate the state’s
40-year-old private club system in an effort to boost tourism.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 9, Virginia Gov. Tim
Kaine signed a bill that generally restricts smoking in bars and
restaurants to separate rooms that have their own ventilation.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 9, Merck & Co. said
it is buying Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion in stock and cash
in a deal that gives the companies more firepower to compete in a drug
industry facing slumping sales, tough generic competition and intense
pricing pressures. The merger was expected to eliminate some 16,000
jobs.
(AP, 3/9/09)(SFC, 3/10/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 9, California-based
Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, announced the first transfer of
BioIsoprene™ product to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. By December
the world’s first concept demonstration tires made with BioIsoprene™
technology, a breakthrough alternative to replace a petrochemically
produced ingredient in the manufacture of synthetic rubber with
renewable biomass, made their debut in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(http://tinyurl.com/27vewpy)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.79)
2009 Mar 9, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales ordered a US diplomat to leave his country for allegedly
conspiring with opposition groups, further straining tense relations
six months after he expelled the American ambassador.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, China's President Hu
Jintao ordered a "Great Wall" against Tibetan separatism, as extra
soldiers were deployed to the Himalayan region on the 50th anniversary
of a failed anti-Chinese uprising. Homemade bombs damaged police
vehicles in a Tibetan part of western China. Authorities expanded a
security cordon across the restive region ahead of the 50th anniversary
of a failed revolt that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.
(AFP, 3/9/09)(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, Chinese ships
surrounded and harassed a Navy mapping ship in international waters off
China, at one point coming within 25 feet of the American boat and
strewing debris in its path. The Obama administration said it would
continue naval operations in the South China Sea, most of which China
considers its territory, and protested to China about what it called
reckless behavior that endangered lives. China held that the USNS
Impeccable was operating illegally inside its 200-mile exclusive
economic zone.
(AP, 3/10/09)(WSJ, 3/11/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 9, Dubai’s public
prosecution indicted 7 suspects on bribery and fraud charges alleging
losses to the Dubai Islamic Bank of over $501 million in fake deals
from 2004 to 2007. Two of the men had left the country.
(WSJ, 3/10/09, p.A7)
2009 Mar 9, A group of Egyptian
army cadets stormed a police station in a southern suburb of Cairo,
leaving at least five policemen and three cadets injured. The attack
came after a local police chief arrested a cadet on March 5 for
loitering on a street corner and refusing to show any ID. The cadet was
taken to the police station, beaten and held overnight.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 9, A cargo ship sank off
the Red Sea coast of Egypt shortly after leaving port, leaving 14
sailors missing. At least 2 crew members drowned. 10 people were
rescued when the 5,600-tonne Ibn al-Battuta went down in the sea off
the port of Abu Dhunaima in Egypt’s Safaga region.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, French lawmakers
passed an amendment to ban the sale of alcohol to teens under 18, part
of an effort to tackle the rise of binge drinking in a country known
for a relaxed attitude toward a little libation.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, Helg Sgarbi, a man
dubbed "the Swiss gigolo" by the German media, was sentenced to six
years in prison for defrauding BMW heiress Susanne Klatten (46),
Germany's richest woman, of euro7 million ($9 million) and attempting
to blackmail her for tens of millions more.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Iraq rockets
slammed into the British military base outside the southern city of
Basra, killing one civilian. It was the first such attack on the base
in nearly three months.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, The Icelandic
government took control of Straumur Burdaras Investment Bank hf., the
last of the major Icelandic banks to collapse after running out of
liquidity.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed six people, including the police chief of Pungarabato, in a
series of attacks in mountain towns in the Pacific coast state of
Guerrero. Gunmen also shot and killed a Michoacan state police
commander outside police headquarters in the city of Zamora.
(AP, 3/9/09)(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 9, In Northern Ireland
Constable Stephen Paul Carroll (48) was shot in the head in an area
known to be home to nationalist republican supporters in Craigavon, 20
miles southwest of Belfast. The Continuity IRA said it killed the
police officer.
(AFP, 3/10/09)(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, Pakistan's top
security official warned opposition leader Nawaz Sharif that his recent
anti-government speeches amounted to treason, ratcheting up tensions in
the country ahead of planned protest rallies this week. A tribe in the
northwestern Bajur region, where the military has fought insurgents,
agreed to stop sheltering foreign fighters and hand over local Taliban
leaders. A tribal elder said some militants could be pardoned and freed.
(AP, 3/9/09)(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, The Sri Lankan
military said its troops had killed at least 250 Tamil Tigers during a
weekend of fierce fighting around the rebels' shrinking fiefdom in the
northeast of the island.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Sudan 4 soldiers
from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in the war-torn
Darfur region have been wounded in an ambush.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Sweden researchers
reported that a chimpanzee named Santino had collected a stash of rocks
and then hurled them at visitors at the Furuvik Zoo, confirming that
apes can plan ahead just like humans.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 9, In Uganda a cargo
plane carrying equipment for African Union peacekeepers in Somalia
caught fire and crashed into Uganda's Lake Victoria shortly after
takeoff, killing all 11 people on board.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Alabama Michael
McLendon (28) set off on a rampage of 10 slayings across two rural
counties and then killed himself.
(AP, 3/11/09)(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 10, The IMF warned that
the world economy will likely contract this year in a "Great Recession"
and African leaders said the financial crisis could undo hard-won
social-economic gains.
(Reuters, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb ripped through a minibus, killing four civilians and
wounding six other people in Helmand province. Gunmen in Kandahar
killed Jawed Ahmad (23), an Afghan journalist once held by the US
military in Afghanistan as an enemy combatant.
(AFP, 3/10/09)(AP, 3/11/09)(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 10, In Algeria border
guards seized 3.5 tons of cannabis in a desert region close to the
frontier with Morocco.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Egypt rival
Palestinian factions opened talks aimed at coming up with a
power-sharing agreement, hearing a call to forget their contentious and
sometimes bloody past.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, Germany's navy handed
over nine suspected Somali pirates to Kenyan authorities and they will
be taken to a court to face charges. The nine were arrested March 3
after they attacked the Hamburg-based MV Courier cargo ship.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, In northern Honduras
a plane from Venezuela that was carrying more than 2 tons of cocaine
crashed, killing the pilot. 2 US Drug Enforcement Administration
helicopters were allegedly pursuing the aircraft when it went down near
El Negrito town.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders touring a market after a
reconciliation meeting west of Baghdad, killing 33 people. A US Marine
died in an incident that did not involve combat.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, Two cargo ships
collided off the coast of a central Japanese island, leaving 16 South
Korean and Indonesian crew members missing.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Kenya youths threw
stones at police officers and looted stores and cars following a march
by about 1,000 university students through the Nairobi to protest the
deaths of a fellow student and two activists.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, Libya released Jamal
al-Haji and Faraj Humaid. They had been sentenced to prison in 2007 for
planning a peaceful demonstration to commemorate protesters who had
died in clashes with police.
(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 10, Malaysia’s government
unveiled a 60 billion ringgit ($16.26 billion) economic stimulus plan
amounting to 9% of GDP.
(WSJ, 3/11/09, p.A16)
2009 Mar 10, In western Mexico 5
human heads were found inside coolers along a highway. Authorities were
still searching for the bodies.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, Police in Northern
Ireland arrested 2 suspects in the fatal shooting of Constable Stephen
Paul Carroll. On March 24 one of the suspects, a Northern Ireland
teenager (17), was charged with the dissident IRA killing of Carroll.
The teen had an assault rifle and 26 rounds of ammunition and refused
to say a word to his interrogators during 13 days of questioning. On
March 25 Brendan McConville (37), a former Sinn Fein councilman was
arraigned on charges of murdering Carroll.
(WSJ, 3/11/09, p.A16)(AP, 3/24/09)(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 10, Pakistani security
forces claimed to have killed 35 militants in fresh fighting in the
northwest, on the Afghanistan border. Gunmen torched a truck in
Baluchistan province carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighboring
Afghanistan, leaving its driver and a helper wounded.
(AP, 3/10/09)(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, The Philippine
president signed a law affirming sovereignty over islands also claimed
by China and Vietnam, sparking protests over the control of strategic
South China Sea islands. The Chinese Embassy issued a statement
expressing its "strong opposition and solemn protest" over the signing
of the law.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Saudi Arabia a
huge sandstorm blanketed the city of Riyadh with a thick layer of
yellow dust.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 10, Spanish police said
they have arrested an Ecuadorian woman who tried to smuggle into
Barcelona liquid cocaine hidden in spray cans of products to starch
clothes or clean glass.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, In southern Sri Lanka
a rebel suicide bomber attacked a procession of Muslims celebrating a
religious holiday, killing 15 people and critically wounding Postal
Services Minister Mahinda Wijesekera (66).
(AP, 3/10/09)(AFP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 10, Syria opened its
first stock exchange, closed since the 1960s, as it shifted from
socialist policies toward a more market oriented system.
(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A2)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.50)
2009 Mar 10, Tibetans and their
supporters rallied across the Asia-Pacific region demanding an end to
Chinese rule in their homeland on the 50th anniversary of the Dalai
Lama being forced into exile. Paramilitary police and soldiers swarmed
cities and villages in Tibet and restive western China, on the alert
for possible unrest. The Dalai Lama said Tibet had become "hell on
earth" under Beijing's control.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, Turkey indicted 56
more people on charges of plotting to topple the Islamic-rooted AK
Party government. The 56 suspects, including 2 retired four-star
generals, were formally indicted on March 25.
(WSJ, 3/11/09, p.A11)(WSJ, 3/26/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 10, Venezuela's National
Guard destroyed an elaborate network of clandestine cocaine-processing
laboratories along the country's border with Colombia as part of its
anti-drug efforts.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 11, Pres. Obama signed a
$410 billion US spending bill, stuffed with earmarks, to fund the
operations of all but 3 Cabinet departments. He called it a departure
point and unveiled new rules to restrict earmarks.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A8)(WSJ, 3/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 11, Pres. Obama signed a
bill rolling back the Bush administration restrictions on Cuban
Americans visiting relatives in Cuba.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 11, VP Biden announced
that Pres. Obama has chosen Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske as the
nation’s new drug czar.
(WSJ, 3/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 11, US authorities
deported 60 Nigerians accused of theft, credit card scams and
drug-related offences.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 11, A California state
study said global warming is expected to cause a rise of nearly 5 feet
along the coastline and severely threatening SF Bay by 2100. The rising
waters could cost the state $14 billion of more to safeguard the coast.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 11, Forbes magazine
released its list of 793 of the world’s richest people. Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman, a suspected drug lord and Mexico's most-wanted fugitive,
made the list of billionaires with a fortune described as "self made."
He was No. 701 on the list. The list included 5 Indonesians.
(AP, 3/11/09)(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 11, In eastern Algeria
suspected Islamist extremists shot and killed a police officer and
wounded another in a shoot-out near Batna city. 3 armed Islamists were
killed by the security forces in Souk El-Thenine town.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 11, Australia said it
would provide funding to Zimbabwe's new unity government, the first
Western power to announce direct support to the new administration.
(Reuters, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, More than 30 shipping
containers of ammonium nitrate fell off a ship in stormy seas off
Australia, damaging the ship's hull and leaking up to 30 tons of oil
[see Mar 13]. Swire Shipping's cargo liner Pacific Adventurer released
about 200,000 liters (53,000 US gallons) of heavy fuel oil off the
coast of Queensland state as it travelled through cyclonic weather.
Australia later sought more than 18 million US dollars in compensation
from a Hong Kong-based shipping company. In August the Hong Kong-based
Swire Shipping company said it will pay Australia 25 million dollars
(21 million US) in compensation for the oil spill.
(AP, 3/11/09)(AFP, 5/6/09)(AFP, 8/8/09)
2009 Mar 11, Brazil’s Central Bank
cut its benchmark Selic rate by 1.5% to 11.25%. further cuts were
expected.
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.44)
2009 Mar 11, In Brazil a
prosecutor charged rancher Regivaldo Galvao, accused of murdering US
nun Dorothy Strang, with trying to fraudulently obtain a plot of the
rain forest that Strang had worked to protect.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 11, In eastern China 11
people were killed and 20 were injured after a blast led to the
collapse of a former factory that was housing railway workers.
Preliminary investigations revealed the collapse was triggered when
leftover aluminium powder in the building in Danyang city, Jiangsu
province ignited and exploded just after midnight.
(AFP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, French Pres. Sarkozy
announced that France will return as full-fledged member of the
26-naqtion NATO alliance.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 11, German prosecutors
said they have charged retired Ohio auto worker John Demjanjuk (88)
with more than 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his time as a
guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp, and will seek his extradition
from the US.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, In southwestern
Germany Tim Kretschmer (17) dressed in black opened fire at his former
high school in Winnenden, killing 12 people. He fled the scene and
killed a 56-year-old janitor of a nearby psychiatric hospital in a
park. He then fled in a hijacked car, and killed 2 more people before
apparently shooting himself to death. Kretschmer graduated last year
from the school of about 1,000 students.
(AP, 3/11/09)(AP,
3/12/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Kretschmer#Perpetrator)
2009 Mar 11, In Iraq Tariq Aziz,
Saddam Hussein's former foreign minister, was convicted of crimes
against humanity and sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 1992
execution of 42 merchants accused of price gouging while Iraq was under
UN sanctions.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, Italy's highest court
sided with the government and threw out key evidence in an alleged CIA
kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorism suspect in Italy, dealing a blow to
the trial of 26 Americans charged in the case.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, Prosecutors in
Kyrgyzstan charged a prominent opposition leader with murder in a case
that government critics say is politically motivated. Alikbek
Jekshenkulov was accused of involvement in the shooting of a Turkish
citizen in late 2007 and illegal possession of a weapon. Jekshenkulov
was foreign minister until February 2007.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, In Madagascar Col.
Andre Ndrianarijaona, the leader of a group of mutinous soldiers,
declared himself head of the army, raising questions about the
president's hold on power on this impoverished Indian Ocean island.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, Officials in Namibia
said at least 92 people had drowned in its northern regions since the
start of rainy season in Dec.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 11, Pakistan arrested
hundreds of opposition activists and banned protests in two regions
ahead of a planned rally outside the parliament that could weaken the
already shaky rule of the country's US-allied government.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, Saudi Arabia hosted
the leaders of Egypt and Syria in an effort to persuade Damascus to
move away from Iran and join with US-allied Arab countries in working
to blunt Tehran's influence.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 11, The African Union
extended by three months the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in
Somalia, and called on the UN to lift its arms embargo there.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 11, Sri Lanka’s military
killed Sabaratnam Selvathurai, a senior rebel leader, in fighting in
Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last town held by the rebels.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 11, In Sudan armed men
abducted three international aid workers and two Sudanese guards in the
Darfur region, a week after the government ordered aid groups expelled
in response to an international arrest warrant for Sudan's president on
war crimes charges. The abducted workers were from the Belgian branch
of Doctors Without Borders and they were seized from their offices in
the Saraf Umra area.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Bernard Madoff
pleaded guilty to charges that he carried out an epic fraud that robbed
investors around the world of billions of dollars, turning a revered
money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became
synonymous with the economic meltdown.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Texas Gov. Rick Perry
announced that he turned down $555 million of federal stimulus funding
that would expand the state's unemployment benefits, saying the money
would have required the state to keep paying for the expanded benefits
after the stimulus money ran out.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Anthony Doyle, former
Chicago police officer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for
racketeering. He was accused of providing information on gangland
investigations to reputed mob boss Joseph Lombardo.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 12, Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Roche agreed to pay $46.8 billion to buy the 44 percent of
biotech pioneer Genentech that it doesn't already own, ending a long
corporate struggle with its US-based cancer drug partner.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, The Pacific Fishery
Management Council agreed to extend for a 2nd year the fishing ban of
chinook salmon in California and Oregon.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.B1)
2009 Mar 12, Leonore Annenberg
(b.1918), the widow of billionaire publisher Walter Annenberg (d.2002),
died in southern California. She had continued directing the
philanthropy of the Annenberg Foundation based in Radnor, a suburb of
Philadelphia, Pa.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.B8)
2009 Mar 12, The UN refugee agency
said Angola is launching a fresh effort to bring back refugees still
displaced in neighboring African countries, seven years after the end
of the civil war in 2002.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Antiguan voters,
worried by the fallout from an alleged $8 billion fraud scheme
involving R. Allen Stanford, decided between the ruling party and the
one that welcomed the Texas financier to the Caribbean nation nearly
two decades ago. Preliminary results indicated that Antigua's ruling
party will stay in power, but with a narrower margin in parliament.
(AP, 3/12/09)(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Canada 17 people
died in the frigid waters off Canada's Atlantic coast after a Sikorsky
S-92 helicopter crashed while ferrying workers to an offshore oil
platform. It went down about 47 nautical miles southeast of the
Newfoundland and Labrador capital of St. John's. One person was rescued.
(Reuters, 3/12/09)(Reuters, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, China announced plans
to assist millions of unemployed migrant workers with increases in
grain subsidies and rural infrastructure projects.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Germany a
scientist accidentally pricked her finger with a needle used to inject
the deadly Ebola virus into lab mice. Within 48 hours of the accident,
the at-risk scientist, a woman (45) whose identity has not been
revealed, was injected with an experimental vaccine from Canada.
After 2 weeks the woman appeared to be healthy. At the time of the
accident, she was wearing three layers of protective gloves, and though
the needle stuck her, the plunger of the syringe was not pushed so it's
not certain the virus entered her bloodstream.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 12, The leaders of two of
Indonesia's biggest political parties signed an agreement on shared
goals amid speculation they could join forces against President
Yudhoyono.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Latvia's parliament
approved a new center-right government with Europe's youngest premier
as the economic crisis in this Baltic state deepened. A 67-21 vote made
PM Valdis Dombrovskis (37) and his 5-party coalition Latvia’s third
government in 15 months.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Liberia’s agriculture
ministry said the country has been hit by a 2nd invasion of
crop-destroying caterpillars. Over a hundred villages have so far been
affected by the plague.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Mexico extradited two
former US Border Patrol agents accused of taking bribes from migrant
smugglers. The US Embassy said Raul Villarreal and Fidel Villarreal
allegedly fled to Mexico after they learned US authorities were
investigating them in 2006. Two suspected migrant smugglers were also
extradited.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Dutch police arrested
Giovanni Strangio (30), an Italian man wanted for the August 15, 2007,
mob killings of six people in the western German city of Duisburg.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, Pakistani police
clashed with black-suited lawyers and opposition activists after the
launch of a cross-country protest rally in defiance of government
attempts to stop it. Paramilitary forces backed by jets and helicopter
gunships killed 18 militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region
bordering Afghanistan. A suspected US missile strike in northwest
Pakistan killed at least 24 people, most of them Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 3/12/09)(AFP, 3/12/09)(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, The Islamic militant
group Hamas made a rare criticism of Palestinian rocket fire on Israel,
saying now is the wrong time as truce talks continue.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Serbia’s war crimes
court convicted 13 Serbs of war crimes for the execution style killings
of some 200 Croats in 1991 during the Balkan conflicts. 7 former
soldiers received the maximum 20-year sentence.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 12, The Sri Lankan army
seized the last remaining medical facility held by separatist Tamil
Tiger rebels in the north of the island. The army estimated that fewer
than 500 Tigers were still fighting, although they had also forced some
civilians to fight as well.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Thailand's opposition
filed a censure motion against PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and five government
ministers, accusing them of corruption.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Turkish warplanes
carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq. The strike targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held autonomous
north of Iraq.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Zimbabwe Roy
Bennett, a top aide to PM Morgan Tsvangirai, was released on bail after
a legal battle that has raised doubts about Zimbabwe's new unity
government.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, The Obama
administration dropped the use of the term “enemy combatant” for
suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay and slightly modified
the legal standard used to justify their continued imprisonment.
(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 13, California said it
faced a new $8 billion shortfall by July 2010 due to declining tax
revenues.
(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 13, Alan W. Livingston
(91), the music executive who created Bozo the Clown and signed the
Beatles during his tenure as president of Capitol Records, died ion
Beverly Hills. He came up with the Bozo the Clown character for the
1946 album "Bozo at the Circus," which became a hit and spawned a
cottage industry of merchandise and the television series featuring the
wing-haired clown.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 13, Betsy Blair (85),
Oscar-nominated actress and teenage bride (1941-1957) of Gene Kelly,
died in London. In the late 1940s Blair took parts in "The Guilt of
Janet Ames," and "A Double Life." But her movie career stalled after
her enthusiasm for leftist causes landed her on Hollywood's blacklist.
The New Jersey-born actress later married film director Karel Reisz.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 13, Dozens of popular
tourist beaches on Australia's northeast coast wer