Timeline 2005 April - June
Return to home
2005 Apr 1,
President Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger,
pleaded guilty to sneaking classified documents out of the National
Archives; he was later sentenced to two years' probation.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2005 Apr 1, Oil prices closed
on Nymex at a record $57.27 per barrel sending the DJIA down 99
points to 10,404.
(SFC, 4/2/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 1, It was reported
that scientific evidence from Brookhaven National Laboratory
indicated the creation of a quark-gluon plasma, a form of matter
that last existed moments after the big bang.
(WSJ, 4/1/05, p.B1)
2005 Apr 1, Suspected Taliban
gunmen ambushed a convoy of civilian trucks carrying vehicles to the
US military in southern Afghanistan, killing three drivers. A bomb
planted on a tractor trolley killed two people and injured five in
the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif while a roadside bomb blast in
southern Kandahar province killed two teenagers.
(AP, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 1, Australia and NATO
signed an agreement to cooperate in the fight against international
terrorism, weapons proliferation and other global military threats.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, UN officials said a
cholera epidemic has killed at least 4 and infected dozens in a
squalid camp for displaced people in northeastern Congo, and it
threatens to spread across the entire region.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, Influential Sunni
scholars encouraged Iraqis to join the country's security forces and
protect the country, issuing an edict that departed sharply from
earlier warnings against participating in the fledgling police and
army.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, Nepal's royal
government freed a popular former prime minister and 258 other
detainees, the biggest prisoner release since King Gyanendra seized
full power 2 months ago.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, In Pakistan
motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a Shiite scholar and injured two
people including his daughter in a suspected sectarian attack in
Lahore.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, Saudi Arabia’s
Tadawul All-Share Index reached a record 10853, up 28% for the year
this far.
(WSJ, 4/4/05, p.C18)
2005 Apr 1, Saudi Arabia
beheaded 3 men in public in the northern city of al-Jawf where in
2003 they killed a deputy governor, a religious court judge and a
police lieutenant.
(AP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 1, The Vatican
reported that Pope John Paul II was near death, his breathing
shallow and his heart and kidneys failing.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2005 Apr 1, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the previous day's elections as
"massive fraud" and accused President Robert Mugabe of treating his
country like "his private property."
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 2, In Florida Terri
Schiavo's body was cremated as disagreements continued between her
husband and her parents, who were unable to have their own
independent expert observe her autopsy.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2005 Apr 2, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants stormed a government building in Deshu
district and killed 3 Afghan soldiers in a two-hour gunbattle before
fleeing. A Western security source in Kandahar linked the attack to
an ongoing counter-narcotics drive in Helmand province and said
security was deteriorating there.
(AFP, 4/3/05)(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A9)
2005 Apr 2, An Australian navy
helicopter crashed on the earthquake-devastated Indonesian island of
Nias. Media reported that nine people were killed and two were
rescued.
(AP, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 2, Brazilian state
police detained 2 police officers in the Mar 31 shooting spree that
left 30 dead in Rio’s north side.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A9)
2005 Apr 2, UN troops killed up
to 38 militia fighters during a raid by hundreds of peacekeepers
backed by helicopter gunships in the Ituri district of eastern
Congo.
(Reuters, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 2, The Czech
information minister resigned, becoming the 4th Czech government
member to do so this week in fallout over a scandal surrounding PM
Stanislav Gross' luxury apartment.
(AP, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 2, Ecuador's former
president Abdala Bucaram returned home after spending eight years in
exile in Panama, telling thousands that he plans to lead a
"revolution of the poor" modeled after President Hugo Chavez'
Venezuela.
(AP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 2, In central Iraq a
car bomb exploded, killing five people, including 4 police officers
on patrol. A gunmen killed an education official in Baghdad. A US
Marine was killed in Ramadi. 40-60 insurgents attacked the Abu
Ghraib prison but were repelled by US forces.
(AP, 4/2/05)(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 2, Pope John Paul II,
born in Poland in 1920 as Karol Wojtyla, died in Rome at age 84. He
was elevated to Pope in 1978 and was the first non-Italian pope in
455 years. In November Viking published “John Paul the Great:
Remembering a Spiritual Father” by Peggy Noonan.
(AP, 4/2/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.D8)
2005 Apr 2, President Robert
Mugabe's ruling party won 78 out of 120 contested seats in
Zimbabwe's disputed parliamentary elections, giving him enough seats
to press ahead with plans to change the constitution to strengthen
his grip on power. The Opposition for Democratic Change (MDC) won 35
seats.
(AP, 4/2/05)(SFC, 4/2/05, p.A12)(Reuters, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 3, Daylight Savings
Time (DST) began on this 1st Sunday in April.
(SFC, 4/2/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 3, In Arizona
Minuteman anti-immigrant activists began showing up to guard the
border against illegal crossings. Grupo Beta, a Mexican
government-sponsored organization that tries to discourage people
from crossing illegally and aids those stranded in the desert, began
patrolling that area along with state police officers.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 3, Residents in
China’s Zhejiang province clashed with police officers and workers
sent in to quell their protests over pollution from chemical
factories. As many as 60 cars were destroyed and some people were
reported killed.
(SSFC, 10/2/05,
p.C1)(www.christusrex.org/www1/news/nyt-4-14-05b.html)
2005 Apr 3, Iraqi lawmakers
elected Sunni Arab Hachem Hassani as parliament speaker and Shiite
and Kurdish leaders as his deputies, ending days of deadlock.
(AP, 4/3/05)(WSJ, 4/4/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 3, In eastern Pakistan
hundreds of Islamic radicals protesting against the participation of
women in a road race hurled stones and bricks at competitors, and
clashed with police, leaving at least 18 people injured.
(AP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 3, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas announced plans for a jobs program aimed at militants.
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/6ldnx)
2005 Apr 3, In central Saudi
Arabia a gun battle began that left 7 suspected al-Qaida militants
killed in a shootout with Saudi security forces in ar-Rass.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 3, In southern
Thailand 2 near-simultaneous bombs exploded, including one at the
airport in Hat Yai city killing one person and wounding a dozen.
(AFP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 3, A day after the
death of Pope John Paul II, the body of the pontiff lay in state.
Millions prayed and wept at services across the globe, as the
Vatican prepared for the ritual-filled funeral and conclave that
would choose a successor.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2005 Apr 4, The Los Angeles
Times and The Wall Street Journal captured two Pulitzer Prizes
apiece; Marilynne Robinson received the fiction award for her novel
"Gilead," while John Patrick Shanley received the drama Pulitzer for
"Doubt."
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A11)(AP, 4/4/06)
2005 Apr 4, The North Carolina
Tarheels won the NCAA men’s basketball championship over Illinois,
75-70.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 4, The US Supreme
Court ruled that IRAs can’t be seized in bankruptcies.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 4, The US Treasury
Dept. said all Series EE bonds sold after May 1 will pay interest
rates that are fixed for at least 20 years.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 4, US Coaches Jim
Boeheim and Jim Calhoun were elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2005 Apr 4, Oil prices hit an
interday high of $58.28 per barrel.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 4, Chevron announced
plans to purchase Unocal Corp. for $18.4 billion. Chevron’s eventual
acquisition of Unocal included a stake in the Yadana project in
Myanmar, in which Unocal invested in the 1990s along with France’s
Total, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the petroleum Authority of
Thailand. Total with a 31% stake operated the project. The Yadana
project brought in an estimated $969 million to the government
undercutting international sanctions to isolate the regime.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/4/07, p.A10)(SFC,
4/29/08, p.D3)
2005 Apr 4, Evergreen Int’l., a
Panamanian shipping line, pleaded guilty to over 2 dozen counts of
illegal dumping around the US. It was ordered to pay a fine of $25
million, one of the largest ever imposed for polluting the ocean.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.B8)
2005 Apr 4, The leaders of
Australia and Indonesia signed a partnership agreement that they
said would lead to new security pact between their countries.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, In Brazil
authorities arrested 11 police suspected of participating in death
squad killings that left 30 people dead in two towns on Rio's poor
outskirts.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 4, In Canada Edward
Bronfman, Canadian businessman, died. Bronfman and his brother,
Peter, built Edper Investments Ltd. into a business with interests
ranging from forestry and mining to banking, beer and hockey to form
the core of what is today Brascan Corp.
(SFC, 4/6/05, p.B7)(http://tinyurl.com/6jsag)
2005 Apr 4, China's foreign
ministry called in Japan's ambassador to Beijing to express its
"indignation" at Tokyo's approval of nationalist school history
textbooks.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 4, Shanghai, China's
largest city, enacted a new rule requiring home owners to pay off
their mortgages before selling property, the boldest measure yet in
new efforts to cool surging real estate prices.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 4, About 300
university students staged a rowdy protest in downtown Cairo calling
for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down and further
democratic reforms.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 4, Maoist rebel
leaders in southern India said they had given up on efforts to make
peace, blaming local police for mounting violence since a truce
collapsed more than three months ago.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, A joint US-Iraqi
attack on dozens of insurgents in eastern Diyala province left two
American soldiers and one Iraqi soldier dead. A suicide bomber blew
himself up near the gates of Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 4/5/05)(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 4, PM Junichiro
Koizumi proposed privatizing Japan's postal service by 2017, a step
that would create the world's biggest bank out of the mammoth pile
of cash deposited at post offices by conscientious Japanese savers.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, Kyrgyz President
Askar Akayev, who fled the country last month after demonstrators
stormed his offices, signed a resignation agreement.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, A minister said
Malaysia plans to hire 169,000 foreign workers to overcome an acute
labor shortage after a crackdown on illegal migrants.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, Nepal's King
Gyanendra, in his first address to the military since he seized
power, urged the security forces to crush a long-running revolt by
Maoist rebels, accusing the militants of "terrorism."
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, A Palestinian
official immediately denounced Israeli plans to dispose of garbage
on Palestinian land in the West Bank, as violating international
law, saying, "We are not a dumping ground."
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 4, Tens of thousands
of pilgrims paid their final respects to Pope John Paul II after his
body was carried on a crimson platform to St. Peter's Basilica.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2005 Apr 5, The US State Dept.
toughened passport rules and announced that Americans returning from
Canada, Mexico and elsewhere would be required to show their
passports in a program to be fully phased in by Dec 31, 2007.
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.D1)
2005 Apr 5, Zalmay Khalilzad, a
former White House official who has served as US ambassador in his
native Afghanistan, was named to take over the post in Iraq.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 5, Crude futures
prices fell as traders took profits from a recent run-up. The EU cut
its economic growth forecast and OPEC began discussions on another
output increase.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 5, Peter Jennings
(b.1938), Canada-born ABC News anchorman revealed, he had lung
cancer. He died in August 2005.
(AP,
4/5/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jennings)
2005 Apr 5, Saul Bellow (89),
Nobel winning novelist, died in Brookline, Mass. His books included
“The Dangling Man” (1944), “Herzog” (1964), and “Ravelstein” (2000).
(SFC, 4/6/05, p.A1)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.76)
2005 Apr 5, Dale Messick
(b.1906), creator of the Brenda Starr cartoon series, died. The
strip began in 1940 in Long Island.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.B7)
2005 Apr 5, The IMF warned that
the growing market for credit derivatives and other complex
securities could suffer a rapid selloff if conditions turned
negative.
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.A6)
2005 Apr 5, In Brazil
authorities charged eight policemen with murder for the Mar 31
death-squad killings that left 30 people dead on the outskirts of
Rio.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 5, Amnesty
International said China accounted for the majority of executions
reported worldwide last year, but the true frequency of the death
penalty is impossible to count because many death sentences are
carried out secretly.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 5, China's top
industrial safety official said the number of deaths in China's
accident-plagued coal mines surged by nearly 21% to 1,113 in the
first three months of this year despite a national safety crackdown.
(AP, 4/5/05)(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 5, In Baghdad's
southern Dora neighborhood, an abandoned taxi exploded on an
expressway near a U.S. patrol, killing a US soldier and wounding
four others. A US Marine was killed by an explosion in the
sprawling, western province of Anbar.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 5, Rebels opposed to a
bus link joining parts of Kashmir controlled by rivals India and
Pakistan set off bombs and fought gun battles with troops, two days
before the service was due to start.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 5, Guadalupe Garcia
Escamilla (39), radio reporter, was wounded in the chest, abdomen,
legs and arms during an attack in the Mexican border city of Nuevo
Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. She died from her wounds April
16.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 5, Saudi police killed
2 more militants, bringing the total to 9, as security forces
continued a tense standoff in ar-Rass. Among those killed were
Moroccan Kareem Altohami al-Mojati and Saudi Saud Homood Obaid
al-Otaibi, who were ranked 4 and 7 respectively on Saudi Arabia's
list of 26 most wanted al-Qaida-linked terror suspects.
(AP, 4/5/05)(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 5, Tens of thousands
of Sudanese marched through the capital Khartoum against a UN
resolution referring war crime suspects to the International
Criminal Court.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 5, The UN handed
prosecutors from the International Criminal Court thousands of
documents and a list of 51 people to be investigated for alleged war
crimes in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region.
(AP, 4/6/05)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.38)
2005 Apr 6, A joint session of
US Congress listened to Ukrainian Pres. Yushchenko as he called for
an end to trade barriers and a new era in US-Ukraine relations.
(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 6, Matthew Hale (33),
an avowed white supremacist, was sentenced in Chicago to 40 years in
prison for trying to have a federal judge killed in 2002.
(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 6, Frank Conroy (69),
novelist and director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, died in Iowa
City.
(WSJ, 5/18/05, p.D14)
2005 Apr 6, The World Bank
warned that the global economic recovery has peaked and that the
severity of the coming slowdown depended on how skittish foreign
investors are about buying US-dollar denominated assets.
(WSJ, 4/7/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 6, In southeast
Afghanistan a US military helicopter crashed in bad weather. 15 US
service members and 3 American civilians were killed when their
Chinook helicopter crashed.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 6, A government
official said China plans to build 40 nuclear power plants over the
next 15 years, making them the main power source for its booming
east coast.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 6, The European
Commission proposed a major boost in EU spending in the 2007-2013
period to create jobs, spur growth and fund programs to make the
25-nation European Union safer and healthier for its 455 million
inhabitants.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Under pressure to
stem a rising tide of textile imports from China, the European
Union's executive unveiled guidelines for imposing curbs on a
country which already has 20 percent of a $400 billion market.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Colombia's
president met top Chinese leaders during a visit to boost trade,
seek financing for an oil pipeline and to promote sales of Colombian
coal to fuel China's booming economy.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Marxist rebels
ambushed a Colombian military convoy on Wednesday, killing 17
soldiers, the latest in a spate of bloody attacks that have
undermined government claims the rebels are being defeated.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In India police
beat up hundreds of people protesting against the razing of their
homes by the government in the country's financial hub, Bombay.
Authorities flattened an estimated 90,000 shanties in the city early
in January. The slum clearance drive has left more than 300,000
people homeless.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, The Iraqi
parliament chose Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new
interim president, reaching out to a long-repressed minority and
bringing the country closer to its first democratically elected
government in 50 years.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In Srinagar 2
suspected Islamic militants stormed a building housing passengers on
the eve of a historic bus ride across the divided Himalayan
territory of Kashmir, in an attack targeting the biggest
India-Pakistan peace gesture in decades. Both attackers were killed
and at least six people wounded, but all the bus passengers were
safe.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Ivory Coast's
warring factions agreed to end hostilities, start immediate
disarmament and make plans for new elections.
(AP, 4/6/05)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.39)
2005 Apr 6, Prince Rainier III
(b.1923) of Monaco died at age 81, nearly a month after he was
hospitalized with a lung infection. His fairy-tale marriage to
Hollywood star Grace Kelly brought elegance and glamour to one of
Europe's oldest dynasties.
(AP, 4/6/05)(SFC, 4/6/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 6, Pakistani police
arrested some 40 faithful of the Muttahida Majlis Amal in Gujranwala
as they protested a mixed sporting event. The MMA, a 6-party
religious alliance, has demanded the ouster of Pres. Musharraf for
being pro-West and secular.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.38)
2005 Apr 6, Security forces
killed one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted Islamic militants. At least
14 militants were killed over the 4 straight days of shootouts with
extremists in different parts of the kingdom.
(AP, 4/6/05)(SFC, 4/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 6, South Korea, faced
with ballooning foreign-exchange reserves, announced plans to drive
companies to invest excess dollars abroad rather than at home.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.A15)
2005 Apr 6, Security forces
stormed the headquarters of Sudan's main opposition party, arresting
scores of its members and top officials, apparently because of
celebrations marking an anti-government uprising nearly 20 years
ago.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In Trinidad gunmen
snatched Balram Maharaj (62), a US citizen, from a bar and held him
for ransom. The body of the Vietnam War veteran were found in a
forest in January 2006. 7 men were convicted in a US trial in 2009.
(http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/wfo041509.htm)(AP,
3/23/11)
2005 Apr 7, Pres. Bush met with
Premier Berlusconi and Pres. Ciampi one day after viewing the pope’s
body at the Vatican.
(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A13)
2005 Apr 7, California state
prosecutors charged Julie Lee, a top volunteer fund-raiser for
former Sec. of State Kevin Shelley, with grand theft and other
felonies. In 2008 Lee (62) was found guilty on 5 of 7 charges
relating to Shelley’s 2002 campaign, All the charges related to a
$500,000 grant for a SF Sunset District community center that was
never built. In state court Lee pleaded guilty to 9 counts.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A1)(SFC, 7/12/08, p.A1)(SFC,
7/17/08, p.B1)
2005 Apr 7, In Delaware police
arrested Allison L. Norman (22) after he killed 2 people and wounded
4 others during a rampage.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 7, Montana voted to
ban smoking in all public places. Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he
would sign the legislation.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 7, Pfizer Inc. agreed
to suspend sales and marketing of its arthritis drug Bextra at the
request of US and EU drug regulators, who said the risks outweigh
the drug's benefits.
(AP, 4/7/05)(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A1)
2005 cApr 7, Riza Malaj (34),
Albania's most wanted man, blew himself up while fishing with
dynamite. He lost both hands, badly hurt his eyes and suffered
serious wounds all over his body while trying to catch trout.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 7, Australia’s PM John
Howard and Malaysia’s Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced plans to
negotiate a free trade agreement but refused to concede ground on
key differences regarding Canberra's role in the region.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 7, A bomb blast rocked
a Cairo bazaar popular with foreigners. An American tourist died the
next day from wounds sustained in a bomb blast raising the death
toll to three. Hassan Rafaat Ahmed Bashandi (17-18), was carrying
almost 7 pounds of TNT in a leather bag filled with nails when it
exploded prematurely.
(AP, 4/8/05)(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 7, Ibrahim al-Jaafari,
a Shiite, was named Iraq's interim prime minister; Kurdish leader
Jalal Talabani was sworn in as interim president.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2005 Apr 7, The Irish
Republican Army said it will consider an appeal by Sinn Fein party
chief Gerry Adams to renounce violence, a long-elusive goal in
Northern Ireland peacemaking.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 7, Mexico City's
leftist mayor formally declared his intention to run for president
next year even as Congress was to decide whether he should face
criminal charges for allegedly disobeying a court order in a
land-use case.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 7, Passengers on
historic bus trips between the Pakistani and Indian portions of
Kashmir crossed a bridge spanning the de facto border, voyages both
sides hope will lead to lasting peace on the subcontinent. Kashmiris
walked across the “Peace Bridge,” on the Line of Control between
India and Pakistan.
(AP, 4/7/05)(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 7, President Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe defied a European Union travel ban and arrived in
Rome to join world leaders attending Pope John Paul II's funeral.
Italy has a pact with the Vatican in which it does not interfere
with people transiting the country to see the pope.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 8, In Washington DC
Humayun A. Khan (47) of Islamabad, Pakistan, was indicted for
supplying India and Pakistan with outlawed components for nuclear
weapons and ballistic missile systems.
(SFC, 4/9/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 8, ChevronTexaco Corp.
said it has awarded a $1.7 billion contract to build Nigeria's third
natural gas-to-liquids plant to a consortium including Halliburton
Co. subsidiary KBR.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Angola’s death toll
from the Marburg virus, which has no effective treatment, rose to
181 with no signs of abating. Doctors without Borders urged the
government to close the regional hospital at Uige to help contain
the spread. Suspected cases have been identified in 7 provinces.
(SFC, 4/9/05, p.A8)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 8, The Wiggles, 4
Australian performers, topped BRW Magazine's list of Australia's 50
richest performers in 2004 with an estimated gross income of $34.5
million, up from $10.7 million in the previous year.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, The EU’s executive
commission said it had recommended guidelines to member states to
boost the market for low-cost, high-speed Internet access delivered
over electricity power supply lines.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Kalman Ferenczfalvi
(84), credited with saving the lives of some 2,000 Jews during the
Holocaust, died in Hungary.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 8, Indonesia's Pres.
Yudhoyono was greeted in East Timor on a visit to bolster
reconciliation between Jakarta and the territory it once occupied
with brutal force.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, In Iraq 4 children
collecting trash were killed by a homemade bomb in Baghdad, and
masked gunmen killed an Iraqi Army officer in a restaurant in the
southern city of Basra.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Fadhil al-Shawky, a
senior al-Sadr official who had arrived from Karbala to take part in
a protest, was gunned down in the New Baghdad neighborhood.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 8, The Gulmarg Gondola
was inaugurated. The Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation (JKCCC)
made the second phase of the Gulmarg Gondola operational taking it
to the heights of the Afarwat peak.
(SSFC, 2/26/06,
p.E1)(www.natives.co.uk/news/2005/04/13indi.htm)
2005 Apr 8, Lawmakers stripped
Mexico City's mayor of immunity from prosecution, clearing the way
for criminal charges. The shaky legal case against Lopez Obrador
alleges that in 2001, the city government failed for 11 months to
obey a court order to vacate contested land that it had expropriated
for the purpose of building a road.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Raul Gibb Guerrero,
director of La Opinion of Poza Rica newspaper, was shot to death in
an apparent ambush by drug hit men, the 2nd attack on Mexican
journalists in a week.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 8, Nepalese soldiers
repelled a major rebel assault overnight on one of their bases in
the country's mountainous northwest, killing at least 50 communist
guerrillas during a battle that lasted more than 12 hours. Soldiers
soon recovered more bodies of Maoists killed in the raid, taking the
toll of rebels to 113 in the deadliest clash in the country in five
months.
(AP, 4/8/05)(AFP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 8, Former Salvadoran
President Francisco Flores, the U.S. government's choice to lead the
Washington-based Organization of American States, withdrew his
candidacy. His withdrawal means that, for the first time in the
57-year history of the OAS, Washington's candidate will not win.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 8, The World Food
Program said food rations will be cut for more than one million
Darfuris who have fled fighting to makeshift camps in the region
because of a drastic shortage of funds.
(Reuters, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, In northern Zambia
a truck packed with high school students skidded off a mountain
road, killing at least 38 and seriously injuring 50.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 8, World leaders
joined pilgrims and prelates in St. Peter's Square for the funeral
of Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2005 Apr 9, Andrea Dworkin
(58), feminist author, died in Washington.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2005 Apr 9, The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast the Bangladesh economy would grow at a
modest 5.2 percent in the 2004-2005 financial year despite floods
and high oil and commodity prices.
(AFP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, Chinese PM Wen
Jiabao arrived in Bangalore on the last leg of a 4 nation South Asia
tour for talks with Indian leaders expected to boost trade and
narrow differences.
(AFP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, Czech PM Stanislav
Gross said he would resign and make way for a new coalition
government because of a scandal surrounding the financing of his
luxury apartment.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, Prince Charles and
Camilla Parker Bowles were married in a modest civil ceremony at the
17th century Guildhall, and the second marriage for each was blessed
by the Church of England.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, Haitian police shot
and killed Remissainthe Ravix, a prominent rebel leader, who helped
force former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile last year.
(AP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 9-2005 Apr 10, In
India at least 58 Hindu pilgrims were drowned overnight during a
ritual bathing when the gates of a dam several kilometers upriver
were opened by officials unaware of the religious festival on the
Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh state.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 9, Tens of thousands
of Shiites marked the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad with a
protest against the American military presence at the square where
Iraqis and U.S. troops toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein two years
ago.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, Militants in Iraq
kidnapped Malik Mohammed Javed, a Pakistani diplomat, on his way to
a mosque for prayers. the Omar bin Khattab group, a previously
unknown group, claimed responsibility for the abduction.
(AP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 9, Israeli border
troops shot and killed 3 Palestinian youths in a southern Gaza Strip
refugee camp in violence that ended weeks of calm.
(AP, 4/9/05)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 9, In Nepal 2 Russian
tourists were injured, two Nepali citizens were killed and 13 others
wounded in separate bombings by Maoist rebels.
(Reuters, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, In South Africa the
federal council of the New National Party, the successor to the
National Party that led apartheid, overwhelmingly approved the
party's dissolution at a meeting in Johannesburg. The National
Party, which came to power in 1948, presided over 48 years of
systematic and often brutal oppression of the country's black
majority, who were denied the right to vote or to mix with whites.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 9, A day after the
funeral for Pope John Paul II, cardinals began an intense period of
silence and prayer before their conclave to choose the next pope.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2005 Apr 10, Tiger Woods won
his fourth Masters with a spectacular finish of birdies and bogeys.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2005 Apr 10, Steve Vaught (39)
left his San Diego, Ca., home on a walking trip to New York in an
effort to loose some of his 400 lbs. By July he was in Arizona and
down to 350 lbs. A year later he was in Ohio with less than 400
miles to NYC. His weight was down to 292. He completed his walk at
178th and Broadway in New York City on May 9, 2006; he had lost
approximately 100 lbs.
(SFC, 7/9/05, p.A2)(www.thefatmanwalking.com)
2005 Apr 10, A blizzard hit
eastern Colorado knocking out power and stranding travelers along
highways and at the Denver airport.
(SFC, 4/11/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 10, In Indian Kashmir
2 civilians were killed and 20 others wounded when suspected Muslim
rebels hurled a grenade in a crowded area.
(Reuters, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 10, In Iraq Pres.
Talabani called for extending amnesty to insurgents, but excluded
clemency for al Qaeda and other armed foreign groups.
(SFC, 4/11/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 10, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in Texas to meet with President Bush.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2005 Apr 10, Thousands of
Israeli police encircled Jerusalem's Old City to keep Israeli
ultranationalists out of a disputed holy site and prevent protests
by jittery Muslim worshippers.
(AP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 10, It was estimated
that Maoist guerrillas controlled two-thirds of Nepal.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.C6)
2005 Apr 10, Nepal agreed to
immediately allow UN monitors into the country to help prevent human
rights abuses.
(AFP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 10, Colonel General
Anatoly Trofimov, a former head of the FSB branch for Moscow and the
Moscow region, was killed when the gunmen opened fire on his jeep in
a northern residential area of Moscow.
(http://tinyurl.com/4vn9s)
2005 Apr 10, Spanish police
seized a cache of explosives in an operation against the armed
Basque separatist group ETA one week before a Basque regional
election.
(AP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 11, During a meeting
at his Texas ranch, President Bush told Israeli PM Ariel Sharon he
could not allow further West Bank settlement growth and said Israeli
and Palestinian doubts about each other were hampering peace
prospects.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2005 Apr 11, Chelsea Cooley,
the reigning Miss North Carolina, was crowned Miss USA in the 54th
annual pageant.
(AP, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 11, Officials said UC
Berkeley will lead a 5-year, $19 million project, funded by the NSF,
to prevent a hacker threat from decimating US computer networks.
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.B1)(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.B3)
2005 Apr 11, Some 12,000
Wisconsin citizens took part in an advisory poll on shooting
free-roaming domestic cats. 57% voted to allow shooting them. An
advisory committee dropped the issue May 13 following an outcry from
animal rights groups.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.27)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 11, Andrea Dworkin
(58), feminist writer, died in Washington DC. Her books included
“Woman Hating” (1974).
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.B4)
2005 Apr 11, Maurice Hilleman
(85), US pioneer vaccine research scientist, died of cancer in New
Jersey. He helped develop vaccines for mumps, measles, chicken pox
and other childhood scourges.
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.B5)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.83)
2005 Apr 11, In Afghanistan at
least 12 suspected Taliban rebels were killed and two American
soldiers wounded in a battle that began with a botched rebel attack.
(AP, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 11, In central
Argentina a riot broke out in a crowded prison after a fight between
rival gangs, killing 13 people.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 11, In Bangladesh a
nine-story building toppled when a boiler exploded, killing at least
30 people and trapping 200. The death toll soon rose to 57. Up to
another 100 bodies remain under the mountain of bricks and concrete
slabs.
(AP, 4/12/05)(Reuters, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 11, Britain imposed a
year-long ban on delivering first-time visas to Nigerians aged 18 to
30, citing a backlog of applications, most of which are rejected.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 11, China reported
rioting in Dongyang after 2 older women were killed in a clash with
police during a pollution protest.
(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 11, In Germany
thousands of public sector workers staged warning strikes aimed at
forcing German states to agree to a deal that would introduce
performance-rated pay.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 11, India and China
agreed to form a strategic partnership to end a border dispute and
boost trade in a deal marking a major shift in relations between the
Asian giants.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 11, Indonesia
sentenced Aceh Gov. Abdullah Puteh to 10 years in prison plus a fine
($52,631) for padding the price of a helicopter, purchased with
state funds in 2002, and keeping the extra money for himself.
(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.A18)(Econ, 4/30/05, p.40)
2005 Apr 11, In Iraq
people were killed in Samarra when a bomb went off near a passing US
convoy. Jeffrey Ake (47), a contract worker from LaPorte, Ind., was
abducted in Iraq.
(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.A1)(AP, 4/11/06)
2005 Apr 11, The Kyrgyz
parliament accepted the resignation of ousted Pres. Askar Akayev.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 12, President Bush
visited soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, marking the two-year
anniversary of the end of Saddam Hussein's regime.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2005 Apr 12, Three men with
suspected al-Qaida ties, already in British custody, were charged
with a years-long plot to attack the New York Stock Exchange and
other East Coast financial institutions.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2005 Apr 12, The US Commerce
Dept. said the US trade deficit, aggravated by surging imports of
oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in
February.
(AP, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 12, Fifteen traders at
the NY Stock Exchange were indicted for trading for their firms’ won
accounts at the expense of customers.
(WSJ, 4/13/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 12, Wal-Mart said it
will spend $35 million over 10 years to conserve land equal to the
total US footprint of its stores and other facilities.
(WSJ, 4/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 12, China said it will
soon begin “trial sales” of hitherto untraded stocks it holds in
publicly traded companies.
(WSJ, 4/13/05, p.C16)
2005 Apr 12, An EU feasibility
study deemed Serbia and Montenegro worthy to start accession talks.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.43)
2005 Apr 12, The Iraqi
government said it captured Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud Al-Mashadani, a
former member of Saddam Hussein's regime who was believed to be
funding the insurgency. Al-Mashadani was a high-ranking member of
Saddam's Baath Party and was "among the main facilitators of many
terrorist attacks. Militants ambushed a convoy carrying Iraq's
deputy interior minister, killing a bodyguard and wounding the
deputy's son and two other people.
(AP, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 12, Donors exceeded
Sudan's aid requests by pledging $4.5 billion to help it recover
from Africa's longest civil war amid criticism of Khartoum for
failing to halt atrocities in Darfur.
(Reuters, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 12, Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lodged a first court
challenge against results from March 31 polls it says were rigged.
(Reuters, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 13, Eric Rudolph
pleaded guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996
Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in back-to-back court
appearances in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2005 Apr 13, US Gymnast Paul
Hamm received the 75th Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur
athlete.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2005 Apr 13, National
Geographic and IBM Corp. announced a project to collect DNA samples
from people around the globe to trace the routes of human migration.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 13, Johnie Johnson
(b.1924), pianist who worked with Chuck Berry, died in St. Louis.
Johnson had initially hired Berry as a replacement in his
rhythm-and-blues trio.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.B4)
2005 Apr 13, Algerian Islamic
militants killed five people, including three security force
members, and injured eight others in attacks ahead of an expected
general amnesty.
(Reuters, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 13, Australia’s Mining
giant BHP Billiton said it had won a 71.5% rise in iron ore prices
with a number of its steel customers.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 13, Top border
officials of India and Bangladesh meet in Dhaka to discuss thorny
issues including New Delhi's plan to fence off the frontier and
Dhaka's claim that India harbors Bangladeshi militants.
(Reuters, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 13, Britain and India
agreed to more than double the number of flights between the two
nations, opening up dozens of lucrative new routes for airlines.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 13, In England Kamel
Bourgass (31) of Algeria, captured in Jan 2003, was sentenced to 17
years in jail for planning attacks using ricin, cyanide and other
poisons. He is already serving a life sentence for the murder of
policeman Stephen Oake. 8 others arrested in the case were acquitted
or not brought to trial.
(AP, 4/14/05)(SFC, 4/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 13, The European
Parliament approved the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the EU in
2007, but it said both countries still need to carry out necessary
reforms.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 13, Al-Jazeera showed
video of Jeffrey Ake, who the US Embassy said appeared to be the
American kidnapped earlier this week in Baghdad. A bomb exploded
while being defused near a Kirkuk pipeline and 11 members of the
Facilities Protection Service were killed. A suicide bomber killed 5
Iraqis when he drove his car into a US convoy down Baghdad’s airport
road. 4 US contract workers were injured.
(AP, 4/13/05)(SFC, 4/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 13, Italian regulator
Consob said it has approved a bid by Spanish bank Banco Bilbao
Vizcaya Argentaria SA for Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, in
what would become the euro zone's largest cross-border banking
takeover.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 13, Japan and India
took a first step to a possible free trade deal with an agreement to
spend a year looking at the effects of a pact on the two major Asian
economies.
(AFP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 13, Lebanon’s
pro-Syrian premier quit for the 2nd time in 6 weeks.
(WSJ, 4/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 13, In Nepal
businesses reopened and traffic resumed on major highways after an
11-day general strike called by communist rebels that crippled life
across the kingdom. The student wing of Maoist rebels demanded all
private schools shut down indefinitely.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 13, Norway’s Statoil
ASA announced oil exploration drilling from the offshore rig Eirik
Raude has been shut down after its 3rd spill into ecologically
fragile Arctic waters in just over two months.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 13, The UN approved a
global treaty aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism by making it a
crime for would-be terrorists to possess or threaten to use nuclear
material.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 13, Zimbabwe state
radio reported President Robert Mugabe's government has acquired six
fighter jets "to deal with any challenges." The aircraft appeared to
be the K-8 advanced jet trainer, a Chinese copy of the British
Aerospace BAE "Hawk." Zimbabwe's opposition released a dossier to
back claims that last month's elections were rigged to hand victory
to President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 14, Pres. Bush threw
out the 1st pitch at RFK Stadium as the Nationals brought baseball
back to the capital. Washington, DC, had last hosted a major-league
game in September, 1971.
(WSJ, 4/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 14, The US House of
Representatives voted 302-126 to pass legislation that will make it
tougher for consumers to avoid repaying debt by filing for
bankruptcy. It cleared the Senate last month and now goes to the
White House. Pres. Bush has said he's eager to sign it.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, The US indicted 3
businessmen in the UN oil-for-food inquiry for paying kickbacks to
Iraq during Saddam Hussein rule.
(WSJ, 4/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 14, A US Federal Court
ruled in favor of Neutraceutical Corp. and struck down the 2004 ban
on supplements containing ephedra, a once-popular weight-loss aid.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A6)
2005 Apr 14, The DJIA dropped
125.18 to close at 10,278.75, the worst close since Nov 3, 2004. Oil
futures closed at $51.13. The US dollar strengthened against other
currencies.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.C3)
2005 Apr 14, The Oregon Supreme
Court nullified nearly 3,000 marriage licenses issued in 2004 to
same-sex couples in Portland’s Multnomah County.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A6)
2005 Apr 14, Amanda Vanstone,
Australia’s immigration minister, said Australia would take in
140,000 immigrants in 2005-06, the biggest number for 35 years.
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.40)
2005 Apr 14, Australian
authorities seized some 5 million ecstasy tablets and arrested 4 men
in what they said was the biggest ever haul of the party drug
anywhere in the world.
(AFP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 14, Canada cut its
economic growth forecast as the Canadian dollar’s strength put a
drag on exports. Canadian currency had risen 25% against the US
dollar since 2003.
(WSJ, 4/15/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 14, Ethiopia police
said authorities have seized more than 1,100 pounds of illegal
ivory, stuffed animals and ostrich eggs that were destined for
collectors abroad.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, In Haiti a
Filipino soldier was killed as U.N. forces pushed into a volatile
slum controlled by heavily armed gangs loyal to deposed President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 14, India and the
United States signed an "Open Skies" aviation agreement allowing
each other's carriers to operate as many flights as they want
between the two countries.
(AFP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, India freed 24
Pakistani prisoners in an apparent response to similar gestures by
Islamabad ahead of President Pervez Musharraf's visit to New Delhi.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, In Iraq 2 car
bombs tore through a crowded street in front of the Interior
Ministry in central Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding three
dozen others. Seven gunmen in northern Iraq fired on a police
station just south of Kirkuk, killing 5 police officers and one
civilian. A suicide bomber blew himself up near an Iraqi police
checkpoint in Mahawil, 50 miles south of Baghdad, killing 4
policemen and wounding 6 others.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, Israeli troops
shot and killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, In Mexico 3
would-be casino developers were killed outside a popular Monterrey
restaurant. The murders delayed a congressional vote to amend a
gambling ban and sparked calls for stricter controls on the few
places Mexicans are allowed to place bets.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 14, Nepal’s King
Gyanendra said he was ordering municipal polls to be held by
mid-April 2006 in view of an "improving law and order situation"
since he seized power. Opposition parties dismissed the king's
pledge as a sham and have urged a boycott of the municipal polls.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 14, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas on ordered reforms of his security services, a key
Israeli and U.S. condition for renewing peace negotiations.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, It was reported
that the bird flu virus was found in some 70% of a random sample of
ducks and geese in Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, and in 21% of
sampled chickens.
(WSJ, 4/14/05, p.A14)
2005 Apr 15, The DJIA dropped
191 to close at 10,087, the worst close since May 19, 2003.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 15, It was reported
that paleontologists have identified a new dinosaur species, an
early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that probably roamed what is now
the Southeastern US about 77 million years ago. The scientists made
the identification from hundreds of fossilized fragments collected
mostly in Montgomery County, Ala., and southwestern Georgia. They
named the new dinosaur Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis, which means
"the Appalachian lizard from Montgomery County." The 25-foot-long
creature roamed the earth 10 million years before T. rex and was
smaller and more primitive, with a narrower snout.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 15, Belize
Telecommunications Limited (BTL) suffered an apparent act of
sabotage which left the entire country without any phone, Internet
or fax services. Unfortunately, BTL was unable to restore its
services for the entire weekend, leaving Belize completely stranded.
(www.sanpedrosun.net/old/05-161.html)(Econ,
4/30/05, p.34)
2005 Apr 15, Administrators for
Britain’s MG Rover Group said they intend to break up the company,
laying off 5,000 workers, in a bid to find buyers for different
units after the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. made clear it was
not interested in a joint venture.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 15, Ecuador’s Pres.
Lucio Gutierrez declared a state of emergency in Quito and dissolved
the Supreme Court, saying the unpopular judges were the cause of
three days of pot-banging street protests.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 15, In France a fire
swept through a Paris hotel used by the city to house needy African
families. 24 people were killed, half of them children.
(AP, 4/16/05)(AP, 4/15/06)
2005 Apr 15, Sunni militants
seized a 35-50 Shiite hostages in the central Iraqi town of Madain
and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites leave.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 15, Italy’s government
teetered near collapse after 2 coalition parties said they would
withdraw from PM Berlusconi’s government.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A7)
2005 Apr 15, Communist rebels
in southern Nepal dragged at least 10 males from their homes,
including a 14-year-old boy, and gunned them down for refusing to
take up arms with the guerrilla movement.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 15, Police in Peru
seized more than a ton of cocaine destined for the US as it was
being packed into a shipment of canned fish at the Colra Fish
Factory in Tacna.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 15, Peruvian
authorities said 3 poachers have been charged with killing 7 people
during a five-year crime spree in which they allegedly slaughtered
2,500 vicuna, a protected Andean animal prized for its wool.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 15, A Russian Soyuz-FG
rocket lifted off at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying 3 men to the
int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 15, In Sri Lanka at
least five renegade Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a fresh bout
of violence in the restive northeast.
(Reuters, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 15, Turkish troops
backed by attack helicopters killed 21 Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi
border overnight in the biggest clash since the rebels declared a
unilateral truce more than five years ago. 3 Turkish soldiers and a
village guardsman also were killed in the clash 25 miles from the
Iraq border between the town of Pervari in Siirt province and Eruh
in Sirnak province.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 16, Authorities in
Hillsborough County, Fla., found the body of missing 13-year-old
Sarah Michelle Lunde. A suspect, David Lee Onstott, was charged with
her murder on April 17.
(AP, 4/16/06)(SSFC, 4/17/05, p.A13)
2005 Apr 16, It was reported
that Laszlo Kish and Maria King of Texas A&M had devised a new
technique for identifying small quantities of bacteria in minutes
using a combination of virology and microelectronics.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.70)
2005 Apr 16, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 22 people to death and six others to life in jail for
killing an opposition lawmaker on May 7, 2004. 18 of the accused
were tried and sentenced in absentia.
(Reuters, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, The Brazilian
government created "Raposa Serra do Sol" reserve in Roraima state,
which borders Venezuela and Guyana. The 1.7-million-hectare
(4.2-million-acre) reserve was set aside for the 15,000 people of
the Macuxi, Taurepang, Wapixana and Ingariko indigenous populations
that had demanded the territory for 30 years.
(AFP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 16, Kay Walsh
(b.1911), Actress and filmstar died in London.
(AP,
4/16/06)(www.leninimports.com/kay_walsh.html)
2005 Apr 16, Protesters in
Shanghai threw stones and broke windows at Japan's consulate and
Japanese restaurants as tens of thousands of people defied
government warnings and staged demonstrations against Tokyo's bid
for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, Ecuador’s Pres.
Lucio Gutierrez revoked the one-day-old state of emergency as
thousands of people took to Quito's streets in defiance of the ban
on demonstrations.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 16, A Finnish mediator
said Aceh rebels and Indonesian government delegates have made a
"breakthrough" at peace talks on the tsunami-ravaged province, and
will continue negotiations in Finland May 26-31.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, Indian troops shot
dead 7 Muslim rebels, including 2 commanders of Kashmir's main rebel
group as Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf visited India for the
first time in 4 years.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, Bombings around
Iraq killed 24 people. 11 detainees upset about their treatment by
US captors escaped from the military's largest detention center in
Iraq by climbing through a hole in the fence. Armed militants tried
to force their way into Camp Blue Diamond near Ramadi and some
suffered casualties.
(AP, 4/16/05)(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 16, Marla Ruzicka
(28), California-based founder of CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent
Victims of Conflict), died in a car bombing in Iraq, where she had
been on and off since the March 2003 invasion began, conducting
door-to-door surveys to determine the number of civilian casualties.
(AP, 4/18/05)(SFC, 4/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 16, Lebanon's
president Emile Lahoud named moderate pro-Syrian lawmaker Najib
Mikati (49) as prime minister.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, Pakistan's Pres.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf arrived in India to discuss the Kashmir
dispute in an effort to ease five decades of hostility.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, Pakistani
authorities seized nearly two tons of morphine worth millions of
dollars from a remote southwestern village near the Afghan border.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 16, Caribbean leaders
in Trinidad inaugurated a court that will serve as the highest
judicial body for much of the region, a step toward shedding their
170-year-old dependence on Britain's Privy Council that many have
resented as a vestige of colonialism.
(AP, 4/16/05)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.34)
2005 Apr 16, Cardinals meeting
at the Vatican destroyed the late Pope John Paul II's ring and lead
seal to formally end his reign.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2005 Apr 16, Yemen's PM
Bajammal said underground religious schools that promote extremist
forms of Islam are drawing in many young students across the
country. He promised to eliminate the underground schools, which he
estimated numbered about 4,000 and drew about 330,000 students.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 17, In Washington
concern that rising oil prices could harm the global economy
dominated weekend meetings of world finance ministers (G-7) and
central bankers.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Registered sex
offender David Lee Onstott was charged with first-degree murder in
the death of Sarah Michelle Lunde, the 13-year-old Florida girl
whose body had been found the day before.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2005 Apr 17, In Colombia FARC
rebels with homemade rockets attacked Toribio, the same town they
bombarded three days earlier, killing at least one police officer.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 17, Millions of Cubans
elected municipal assemblies across the communist-run island Sunday
in local elections Pres. Castro defended as "the most democratic in
the world."
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Mehmet Ali Talat
(53) captured 56% of the vote for the presidency of the breakaway
Turkish Cypriot state, replacing its 81-year-old founder, Rauf
Denktash. Talat pledged to work to reunite this divided
Mediterranean island and restart peace talks with Greek Cypriots
following a resounding win he labeled "a silent revolution."
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 17, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak and Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi discussed joint projects
to allow their respective countries to benefit from the waters of
the Nile River.
(AFP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Egypt's Interior
Ministry identified 4 men it accused of training a bomber who killed
three tourists and himself in a Cairo bazaar.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, The leaders of
India and Pakistan agreed to work to roll back their military
deployments on a Himalayan glacier that is claimed by both countries
and believed to be the world's highest battlefield, concluding the
first day of talks intended to push forward a 15-month-old peace
process.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, In Indonesia
authorities arrested 9 young Australians, the Bali Nine, for trying
to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin to Australia. In Feb, 2006, 2 of the 9
were sentenced to death and the rest to life in prison. An appeal by
4 sentenced to prison led to a change in their sentences to death.
In 2008 three of the convicted Australians had their death sentences
reduced to life imprisonment. In 2011 Australian drug smuggler Scott
Rush (24) won an appeal reducing his death sentence to life
imprisonment.
(Econ, 9/16/06,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Nine)(AFP, 3/6/08)(AP,
5/10/11)
2005 Apr 17, Iraqi security
forces raided a town in central Iraq where Sunni militants were
holding dozens of Shiite Muslims hostage and threatening to kill
them. 3 American soldiers were killed and 7 service members wounded
overnight when insurgents fired mortar rounds at a US Marine base
near Ramadi.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Israel's Cabinet
unanimously approved the release of nine Jordanian prisoners.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Israeli defense
industry executives said the US has frozen Israel out of the
development of a prestigious jet fighter as punishment for its
military cooperation with China.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Armed Palestinian
militants shut down a government building in the West Bank and
threatened to kill members of the Palestinian parliament, demanding
the Palestinian Authority provide jobs to former prisoners and to
relatives of people killed in fighting.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, In northern Spain
the Basque region's ruling nationalists faced a test of their drive
to secure more autonomy as elections got under way. The Basque
Nationalist Party (PNV), led by Juan Jose Ibarretxe, lost 4 seats.
(AP, 4/17/05)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.51)
2005 Apr 17, A Swiss tourist
bus carrying 27 people plunged into an Alpine ravine near the Great
St. Bernard Pass, and at least 100 rescuers descended to the wreck
on ropes to try to aid the injured. 12 people were killed.
(AP, 4/17/05)(AP, 4/17/06)
2005 Apr 18, The Boston
Marathon was won by Hailu Negusie of Ethiopia, 2:11:45; Catherine
Ndereba of Kenya became the first woman to win a fourth Boston
Marathon with a time of 2:25:13.
(WSJ, 4/19/05, p.A1)(AP, 4/18/06)
2005 Apr 18, Lance Armstrong
announced he was retiring after the upcoming Tour de France.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients
included Isidro Baldenegro of Mexico (forest protection), Rev. Jose
Andres Tamayo Cortes of Honduras (unregulated logging), Kaisha
Atakhanova of Kazakhstan (fighting the import of nuclear waste),
Corneille E.N. Ewango of Congo (animal and plant protection),
Stephanie Daniel Roth of Romania (for fighting an open-cast gold
mine), and Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of Haiti (for teaching
sustainable agriculture).
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Apr 18, Adobe Systems
announced a $3.1 billion all stock merger with Macromedia.
(SFC, 4/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 18, Australia and
China agreed to start talks on a free trade pact. Visiting PM John
Howard also announcing Canberra's recognition of China as free
market economy.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to widen the arms embargo in Congo as part
of stepped-up efforts to bring peace to the African country's
volatile east.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, In Ecuador
anti-government protests spread from Quito as a river of
demonstrators poured into the streets of Guayaquil to demand that
President Lucio Gutierrez step down.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, India and Pakistan
agreed to open up the militarized frontier dividing Kashmir, capping
a landmark visit to New Delhi by President Pervez Musharraf.
(Reuters, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, Iran suspended the
nationwide operations of Arab TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera, accusing it
of inflaming violent protests by the Arab minority in its southwest.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, Iraqi security
forces, backed by U.S. military, swept into Madain, a town south of
Baghdad, but found no hostages despite reports that Sunni militants
had kidnapped as many as 100 Shiites there.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, Italy's Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed a deal with rebel ministers of the
Christian Democrat UDC party to form a new centre-right government
and avoid snap elections.
(AFP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, Lebanese lawmaker
Bassel Fleihan (41), a former economy minister, died of wounds
received 2 months ago in a bombing that killed his close friend,
former PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 18, Madagascar’s Pres.
Ravalomanana signed a $110 million, 4-year aid package in
Washington, designed to fix problems with corruption and local bank
loans. The grant was from the Millennium Challenge Account, unveiled
by Pres. Bush in 2002 to fund honest governments pursuing sound
economic policies
(WSJ, 4/18/05, p.A1)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.75)
2005 Apr 19, The US government
sacked its one-size-fits-all food pyramid in favor of a dozen
different guides geared to individual nutritional needs and
lifestyles.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, The US Mint said
it will produce its 1st 24-karat gold coin in 2006.
(WSJ, 4/20/05, p.D2)
2005 Apr 19, General Motors
reported a loss of $1.1 billion for the 3 months ending in March,
its worst quarterly performance since 1992.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.71)
2005 Apr 19, US forces killed
more than 12 insurgents in a clash in southeastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 19, Britain's GW
Pharmaceuticals announced its multiple sclerosis (MS) pain relief
drug Sativex, the world's first containing cannabis, has been
approved for use in Canada.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Canada released a
federal policy statement that said it will use more soldiers, more
foreign aid and more diplomats to carve its own niche in a
fast-changing world.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, A car exploded in
the southern Russian region of Dagestan, killing two people in what
investigators believe was a botched attempt to kill a local
prosecutor.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Hours after
Ecuador's embattled President Lucio Gutierrez said he would not
resign, at least 30,000 people tried to march to the presidential
palace in the capital's largest demonstration yet against the
country's leadership, demanding that Gutierrez resign.
(AP, 4/20/05)
2005 Apr 19, Ethiopians
welcomed the return of the first piece of a giant, 1,700-year-old
granite obelisk that was looted from the African country 68 years
ago by Italian troops.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, India and its
eastern neighbor Bangladesh traded blame over a weekend border clash
that killed an Indian military officer and two Bangladeshi
villagers.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, A suicide car bomb
outside an Iraqi army recruitment center and other attacks killed a
dozen people and wounded more than 50.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, In Kuwait
lawmakers agreed to permit women to vote and run in local council
elections, although the measure requires more legislative action
before it becomes law.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Nepali soldiers
killed 22 Maoist guerrillas as the royalist government brushed aside
a rebel prediction of a victory in the nine-year civil war.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Dutch authorities
arrested a Chechen citizen in the Netherlands in connection with the
November 2 slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. A 2nd suspect
was arrested May 18 in Tours, France. Both were believed to have
ties to a group of Islamic fundamentalists which prosecutors dubbed
the Hofstad network.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 Apr 19, A Spanish court
convicted Adolfo Scilingo (58), a former Argentine naval officer, of
crimes against humanity for throwing 30 naked and drugged prisoners
from planes during his country's "dirty war" more than two decades
ago. It sentenced him to 640 years in prison. During the trial,
Scilingo insisted he fabricated the taped testimony to trigger an
investigation into Argentina's "dirty war."
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger (78) of Germany became Pope Benedict XVI. As the 265th
pope he promised to enforce strictly conservative policies for the
world's Roman Catholics. In Germany Ratzinger's latest book, "Werte
in Zeiten des Umbruchs" (Values in Times of Upheaval), was already
sold out after its release a week ago. Ratzinger viewed secularism
and moral relativism as the chief adversaries of God and the church.
After Ratzinger was elected pope, the Holy See's No. 2 official,
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, signed a decree assigning "in perpetuity and
worldwide" the copyrights of all Benedict's works, including the
hundreds he wrote before becoming pope, to the Vatican's publishing
house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV).
(AP, 4/19/05)(WSJ, 4/20/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/19/06)
2005 Apr 20, Pres. Bush signed
new legislation to make individual bankruptcy more difficult.
(SFC, 4/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 20, The US government
said consumer prices jumped 0.6 percent in March, the biggest
inflation surge in 5 months, as the costs of energy, clothing and
airline fares all rose sharply. The DJIA fell 115.5 to 10,012.36.
(AP, 4/20/05)(SFC, 4/21/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 20, The NYSE, in a
move toward computerized trading, agreed to buy Archipelago Holdings
of Chicago in a reverse merger. The new company, to be called NYSE
Group was valued at $3.5 billion.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 20, Gov. Jodi Rell
signed legislation making Connecticut the 2nd state after Vermont to
offer civil unions to gay couples.
(SFC, 4/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 20, An air tanker
Lockheed P-3 Orion crashed in California’s Lassen National Forest
killing 3 crew members.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.B3)
2005 Apr 20, In Afghanistan 2
former Taliban leaders joined a reconciliation drive that American
commanders hope will undermine a three-year-old insurgency.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 20, Ecuador’s
100-member Congress voted 60 to 0 to remove President Lucio
Gutierrez from office amid street protests calling for his ouster
for abuse of power and misrule. Brazil granted asylum to Gutierrez.
Alfredo Palacio, a heart surgeon and Ecuador's vice president,
assumed the presidency.
(SFC, 4/21/05, p.A3)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.37)
2005 Apr 20, Pernod, French
spirits producer, announced the $14 billion purchase of Britain’s
Allied Domecq.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.62)
2005 Apr 20, Haiti's former
national police commander agreed to plead guilty to two of eight
counts in a federal indictment accusing him of smuggling drugs and
laundering money.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 20, Iraq’s President
Jalal Talabani said the bodies of more than 50 people have been
recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified. The bodies
were believed to have been those of hostages seized in the Madain
(Madaen) region earlier this month.
(AP, 4/20/05)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.19)
2005 Apr 20, Italian Premier
Silvio Berlusconi said he would step down but pledged to form a new
government, an attempt to strengthen a coalition left weakened by
electoral defeat and concerns over a slow economy.
(AP, 4/20/05)
2005 Apr 20, Mexican
prosecutors charged Mexico City's popular leftist mayor with abuse
of authority in a case that could knock him out of the 2006
presidential race.
(AP, 4/21/05)(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 20, Oxfam reported
that Vietnam’s Red River was at its lowest point for 100 years, and
if the drought persisted beyond May then significant numbers of
people will need food aid.
(www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/emergencies/country/eastasia/)
2005 Apr 20, In his first Mass
as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI pledged to work for unity among
Christians and to seek an open and sincere dialogue'' with other
faiths.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2005 Apr 21, Army Sgt. Hasan
Akbar was convicted by a military jury at Fort Bragg, N.C., of
premeditated murder and attempted murder in an attack that killed
two of his comrades and wounded 14 others in Kuwait.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2005 Apr 21, Anna Ayala, the
woman who claimed she found a finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili on
Mar 22 in San Jose, Ca., was arrested at her home in Las Vegas.
(AP, 4/22/05)(SFC, 4/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 21, US and Afghan
soldiers backed by warplanes and artillery battled suspected
insurgents in clashes near the border with Pakistan. 4 fighters and
1 Afghan soldier were killed.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 21, Police in
Melbourne seized 18 million dollars (14 million US) worth of the
party drug ecstasy a week after announcing a world-record haul of
the substance.
(AFP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 21, Canada’s PM Paul
Martin apologized to the nation for a corruption scandal that has
shaken his Liberal Party, delivering a rare televised address aimed
at rescuing his minority government.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 21, Tradeable shares
on China’s 2 stock exchanges were reportedly worth $150 billion,
about the same as Denmark’s stock exchange.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 21, In China a
chemical plant blast in Chongqing left 19 people missing.
(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 21, Zhang Chunqiao
(88), a member of The Gang of Four, died. Beginning around 1965 the
Gang of Four were able to manipulate the Chinese media and youth to
leverage their positions over party moderates, such as Deng
Xiaoping. Mao’s death in 1976 ended their influence and led to their
imprisonment and trial in 1980-81 for their role in the Cultural
Revolution, during which some 34,800 people died.
(SFC, 5/11/05, p.B7)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.90)
2005 Apr 21, Haiti's Supreme
Court overturned the convictions of 38 army and paramilitary leaders
who were sentenced for their roles in a mass slaying a decade ago.
The men had been sentenced in 2000 in connection with a 1994 raid on
the seaside shantytown of Raboteau.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 Apr 21, It was reported
that the US has quietly given thousands of guns to the Haitian
National Police and was moving to approve the sale of thousands more
despite a 14-year arms embargo and allegations the force is corrupt,
brutal and responsible for unjustified killings.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 21, In western India a
passenger train departing from a pilgrimage site slammed into a
parked cargo train, throwing cars off the tracks and killing at
least 24 people.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 21, A commercial
helicopter contracted by the US Defense Department was shot down by
missile fire north of Baghdad. 11 people aboard, including 6
American bodyguards, were killed. A roadside bomb exploded on the
highway leading to Baghdad's airport morning, heavily damaging 3
SUVs carrying civilians. Police said 2 foreigners were killed and 3
others wounded.
(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.A1)(AP, 4/21/06)
2005 Apr 21, Saudi authorities
extended their limited experiment in democracy to the holiest cities
of Islam with elections for some local council seats in Mecca and
Medina, in the third and final round of the kingdom's first
nationwide vote.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 21, Islamic militants
clashed with Saudi security forces in Islam's holiest city of Mecca
and nearby Jiddah, killing two militants and two policemen.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 21, In western Turkey
a gas explosion caused a coal mine to collapse, killing at least 17
workers deep underground.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 21, Health officials
said a polio outbreak in Yemen may be due to pilgrims returning from
Mecca.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 21, In Vietnam 31 war
veterans including 14 women and a driver were killed in a bus crash
while en route to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the end of the
Vietnam War.
(AP, 4/21/05)(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 21, In Zambia at least
51 people were killed in a blast at a Chinese-owned
mining-explosives factory in Chambisi.
(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/2/07, p.A1)
2005 Apr 22, President Bush
named Gen. Peter Pace to be the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2005 Apr 22, Zacarias Moussaoui
pleaded guilty for participating in a 2001 broad conspiracy by al
Qaeda to fly planes into American buildings.
(SFC, 4/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 22, The US Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corp. agreed to take over the underfunded pension
plans of United Airlines and assume some $6.6 billion in
liabilities.
(SFC, 4/23/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 22, The Nasdaq Stock
Market said it will buy Instinet Group’s electronic trading network
for $934.5 million.
(SFC, 4/23/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 22, Daron Acemoglu
(37) of MIT, Turkish-born economist, won the John Bates Clark medal
for his work on key factors in a nation’s economic destiny.
(WSJ, 4/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 22, Elwood Norris,
inventor of a HyperSonic Sound system, received the $500,000 annual
Lemelson-MIT Prize. His system worked by sending a focused beam of
sound above the range of human hearing. When it lands on you, it
seems like sound is coming from inside your head.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 22, Eduardo Paolozzi
(b.1924), sculptor and printmaker, died. In 1952 he helped form an
association of British artists called The Independent Group.
Paolozzi, born in Scotland of Italian parents, became known as a key
contributor to British pop art.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.A23)(Econ, 4/30/05, p.82)
2005 Apr 22, In Colombia FARC
guerrillas hit the village of Jambalo with mortars and gunfire in
combat that began overnight and ended at dawn. Clashes have spread
across a 14-mile-long strip along the western face of the Central
Cordillera of the Andes.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 22, Indian Foreign
Minister Natwar Singh met Nepal's King Gyanendra on the fringes of
an international summit in Jakarta and pushed for a restoration of
democracy.
(AFP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 22, A car bomb
exploded during prayers at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing eight
people and wounding 20. A militant group claimed responsibility for
shooting down a Russian-made helicopter carrying 11 civilians and
released a video purportedly showing insurgents shooting the crash's
lone survivor.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 22, Al Jazeera
television reported that insurgents gave Romania 4 days to
withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to save the lives of 3
journalists kidnapped last month.
(Reuters, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 22, Japan's PM Koizumi
apologized for his country's World War II aggression in Asia in a
bid to defuse tensions with regional rival China, but a Chinese
diplomat dismissed the remarks, saying "actions are more important"
than words.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 22, The US Embassy in
Caracas announced that President Hugo Chavez's government has
unexpectedly ended a military exchange program with US.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 23, Larry Lasater
(35), Pittsburg, Ca., police officer, was shot while chasing 2
robbery suspects. Doctors declared him brain dead the next day. In
2007 Alexander Hamilton (20) and Andrew Moffett (20) were convicted
of murder and robbery and a jury said Hamilton should be executed.
Moffett was 17 at the time and not eligible for the death penalty.
In 2007 Hamilton was sentenced to death by lethal injection. In 2008
Moffet was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.B1)(SFC, 8/14/07, p.B3)(SFC,
9/13/07, p.B3)(SFC, 7/25/08, p.B9)
2005 Apr 23, Two Bangladeshi
farmers were shot dead by Indian border forces in the latest in a
spate of frontier clashes.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, British actor Sir
John Mills (97) died at his home in Denham. His over 100 films
included “Great Expectations” (1946) and “Ryan’s Daughter”
(1970).
(SSFC, 4/24/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 23, The government of
the Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus resigned, making way
for PM Mehmet Ali Talat to take over as president following his
election win.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, The leaders of
China and Japan met in an effort to end a dispute over Japan's World
War II aggression that has badly damaged relations between them.
They met on the sidelines of a summit for Asian and African leaders
in Jakarta.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, Indian troops
killed four Islamic rebel infiltrators who sneaked across the
heavily fortified frontier dividing Indian and Pakistan held
Kashmir.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, In Indonesia
leaders from Asia and Africa struck what they called a historic deal
to build economic and political links.
(Reuters, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, Iraqi insurgents
struck across the country with bomb attacks, killing at least 16
people, including an American soldier. US forces captured six men
suspected in the downing of a civilian helicopter and the shooting
death of the lone survivor.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, A television
cameraman working for The Associated Press was killed when gunfire
broke out after an explosion in the northern city of Mosul. An AP
photographer was wounded in the same incident.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, Silvio Berlusconi
formed a new government and will present his choice of Cabinet
ministers to Italy's legislators for approval in the hopes of
avoiding new elections. Berlusconi was sworn in as head of Italy's
60th government since the end of World War II.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2005 Apr 23, Leaders of the two
Koreas agreed to resume talks between their nations that broke down
last summer and to discuss the international standoff over the
North's nuclear weapons ambitions.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 23, In western Nepal 5
children were killed and three others wounded when a crude bomb left
by suspected Maoist rebels exploded.
(Reuters, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 23, President Hugo
Chavez says "Don Quixote" is a must-read for Venezuelans — and his
government has printed 1 million free copies to mark the 400th
anniversary of the classic tale of the knight who dared to dream.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 24, An unusual spring
storm dumped nearly 2 feet of wet snow on parts of the Midwest and
Appalachians, covering newly sprouting plants, snapping power lines
and taking a bite out of baseball. 80,000 in the Cleveland area lost
their electricity.
(AP, 4/25/05)(WSJ, 4/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 24, In northeast China
rescuers worked to free 69 coal miners trapped in a flooded mine at
the Tengda Coal Mine, run by the local government in Jiaohe, a city
in Jilin province.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 24, Some 82 people
died in floods that swept eastern Ethiopia on the weekend.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 24, In Indonesia
representatives of more than 100 African and Asian countries closed
out a summit (b.1955) with promises to boost economic relations and
counter the threat of globalization.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 24, A car bomb
exploded outside a police academy in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's
hometown. Another one went off moments later as authorities rushed
to the scene, killing at least six Iraqis and wounding 33. Deaths
from car bombings targeting police and civilians in Tikrit and
Baghdad rose to 29.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 Apr 24, A US soldier was
killed when a roadside bomb exploded as his convoy passed west of
Baghdad.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 24, Ezer Weizman (80),
former Israeli president (1993-2000), died. He was a political
moderate who pioneered contacts with Palestinian leaders and helped
bring about the Jewish state's first peace treaty with an Arab
country. As defense minister in 1979, he was instrumental in
negotiating Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.
(AP, 4/25/05)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.81)
2005 Apr 24, Syrian troops
burned documents and dismantled military posts in their final hours
in Lebanon, before deploying toward the border and effectively
ending 29 years of military presence in the country.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 24, In southern
Thailand suspected Islamic separatists detonated a bomb, killing two
police officers and wounding three other people.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 24, Voters lined up
across Togo to choose a new president, hoping to establish democracy
after the tiny West African nation was thrown into months of
political turmoil by the death of Africa's longest-serving ruler.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 24, Pope Benedict XVI
formally began his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church; the
former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his installation homily
that as pontiff he would listen to the will of God in governing the
world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2005 Apr 25, President Bush
sought relief from record-high gas prices and support for Middle
East peace as he opened his Texas ranch to Crown Prince Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 Apr 25, The CIA's top
weapons hunter in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, said his search for weapons
of mass destruction had been "exhausted" without finding any.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2005 Apr 25, Mayor Dick Murphy
(62) of San Diego announced his resignation effective July 15 under
the weight of mounting scandals and fiscal probes. San Diego faced a
$50 million budget deficit and a $1.3 billion pension shortfall.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 25, Bashir Noorzai
(44), alleged Afghan heroin dealer, was arrested while traveling to
NY.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 25, In Chicago 11
reputed mob figures were indicted on charges of plotting at least 18
murders including the 1986 hit on Tony Spilotro.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 25, It was reported
that Didemnum, a species of sea squirt, were spreading unabated off
New England and the Pacific Northwest to the detriment of valuable
shellfish beds and habitat for bottom feeding fish.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A6)
2005 Apr 25, A 3-man
U.S.-Russian-Italian crew from the Int’l. Space Station landed in
northern Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A3)(AP, 4/25/06)
2005 Apr 25, Alex Trotman (71),
retired Ford Motor Co. Chairman (1993-1998), died at his home in
England. He spearheaded a $5 billion restructuring to restore the
automaker to profitability in the 1990s.
(AP, 4/25/05)(Econ, 4/30/05, p.63)
2005 Apr 25, Jiri Paroubek (52)
was officially named as the new Czech prime minister. Paroubek,
local development minister in Gross's government and deputy chairman
of the Social Democrats (CSSD), became the country's third prime
minister in nine months.
(AFP, 4/25/05)
2005 Apr 25, The 3rd and final
piece of the Axum obelisk was returned to Ethiopia from Italy.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 Apr 25, EU trade ministers
backed a full investigation into allegations that cheap textiles and
clothing from China were flooding the EU market, but disagreed on
imposing fast action to block imports.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 Apr 25, In San Pedro
Sacatepequez, Guatemala, gunmen killed Jose Victor Bautista Orozco,
a judge who ruled on drug smuggling cases, shooting him as he left
his home for work.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 25, Indian troops
killed 6 Islamic militants in a mountainous Kashmir district
bordering the Pakistani-zone of the divided state, while suspected
rebels hanged to death a civilian.
(AFP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 25, A packed commuter
train that was behind schedule and may have been speeding jumped the
tracks and hurtled into an apartment complex, killing 107 people and
injuring 450 in Japan's worst rail accident in 40 years.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 25, Pakistan said the
start of a free trade agreement with Sri Lanka in June is expected
to double business between the 2 countries to almost 300 million
dollars in the first year.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 Apr 26, US Congressional
aides said global terrorist attacks rose to 650 in 2004 from 175 in
2003.
(WSJ, 4/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 26, A federal jury in
Virginia convicted Islamic scholar Ali al-Timini of urging followers
to join the Taliban and fight the US after the 9/11 attacks.
(WSJ, 4/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 26, Florida’s Gov.
Bush signed legislation giving people the right to meet “force with
force,” effective Oct 1.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 26, Clarence Williams
(58), suspected of raping at least 25 women in 3 states, was
arrested in NYC following DNA tests that linked him to a 1973 rape
case.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 26, A US soldier and
four Afghan police officers were killed in separate rebel attacks,
while at least two Afghan civilians were injured by gunfire
following the bombing of an American patrol in the east of the
country.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 26, In Australia, a
state official said thousands of wild camels will be shot in the
Outback from helicopters in an effort to reduce their numbers.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, Actress Maria
Schell died in Preitenegg, Austria, at age 79.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2005 Apr 26, In Bangladesh at
least 17 people were killed and 33 injured when a bus hurtled down a
bridge.
(Reuters, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, A bomb exploded at
a busy market in Myanmar's key tourist city of Mandalay, killing at
least two people and wounding 15 others.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 26, In Nicaragua
President Enrique Bolanos' attempt to address protesters demanding
his resignation was met with a barrage of rocks, which missed him
but injured his son.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 26, Augusto Roa Bastos
(88), one of South America's most celebrated novelists whose
fictional writings often examined Paraguay's social and political
struggles, died. Bastos was best known for his book "I, The
Supreme," a novelized version of the career of Gaspar Rodriguez de
Francia, who ruled Paraguay with an iron fist from 1814 until 1840.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, President Vladimir
Putin started the first visit to Egypt by a Russian head of state in
more than 40 years, in an effort to reinforce Moscow's political and
economic ties with the Arab world.
(AFP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, Syria ended its
29-year military domination of Lebanon as soldiers flashing victory
signs completed a withdrawal.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, Lien Chan, the
leader of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party, arrived in China on
an 8-day trip for the first meeting between the party of Chaing
Kai-shek and the communists since both sides split amid civil war
nearly six decades ago.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, Togo’s ballot
results showed Faure Gnassingbe, the son of Togo's longtime
dictator, won 60 percent of the vote. Opposition supporters upset by
the results built flaming barricades in the capital and threw stones
at passing cars.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 26, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan nominated former Turkish finance
minister Kemal Dervis to lead the UN Development Program, breaking
with a tradition of giving top UN posts to major contributor
nations.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 27, Touting technology
as a way to solve the country's energy problems, President Bush
called for construction of more nuclear power plants and urged
Congress to give tax breaks for fuel-efficient hybrid and
clean-diesel cars.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2005 Apr 27, The Airbus A380,
the world's largest jetliner, made its maiden flight.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2005 Apr 27, Abdus Samad Azad
(83), a former foreign minister and Bangladeshi independence hero,
died in Dhaka.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 27, The Dominican
Republic education secretary said all public elementary and
secondary schools will institute mandatory English classes by the
next school year.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, Hundreds of
pro-democracy activists protested in 15 Egyptian cities and towns,
drawing out large numbers of riot police who briefly detained 75
protesters.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, The world's
largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, completed a maiden flight
in France that took it over the Pyrenees mountains.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, Police fired on
protesters demanding the release of detainees loyal to Haiti's
ousted president, killing at least five demonstrators.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, Indian troops
killed nine suspected Islamic militants in three separate clashes in
Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, Lamia Abed
Khadouri al-Sagri, a member of the National Assembly and of outgoing
premier Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List party, was killed in her house in
the Hay Aour neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, Vladimir Putin
became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel, capping a historic
rapprochement between two nations that once faced each other as
bitter enemies across the Cold War divide.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, In northwestern
Sri Lanka an intercity passenger train collided with a bus that
tried to dash through a railroad crossing, killing 35 people.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 27, A UN tribunal in
Tanzania sentenced Mika Muhimana, a former local government official
in western Rwanda, to imprisonment for the rest of his life for
shooting to death and raping mostly Tutsi victims during the 1994
genocide.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 27, Opposition
supporters protesting the presidential election victory by the son
of Togo's longtime dictator threw Molotov cocktails and rocks during
street clashes with security forces in the capital, leaving at least
six people dead and some foreign embassies damaged.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 28, Pres. Bush
endorsed changes to Social Security that would cut benefits for
future middle-class and wealthy retirees, while raising retirement
checks for the poor.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 28, A military jury at
Fort Bragg, N.C., sentenced Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death for the 2003
murders of two officers in Kuwait.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2005 Apr 28, More than 100
volunteers joined police in Duluth, Ga., in searching for Jennifer
Wilbanks, a bride-to-be who had vanished two days earlier. Wilbanks
turned up in Albuquerque, N.M., having run away on her own.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2005 Apr 28, Steve Wynn opened
the new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas casino-resort.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 28, Scientists
reported that deep ocean readings promised a steadily warming world
and attributed global warming to human activity.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 28, Percy Heath (81),
bassist and last surviving member of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ),
died in Southampton, NY.
(SFC, 4/30/05, p.B4)
2005 Apr 28, India’s central
bank raised its key interest rate to 5% to stem inflation.
(WSJ, 4/29/05, p.A15)
2005 Apr 28, Indian troops shot
dead four Muslim rebels who infiltrated into Indian Kashmir from the
Pakistani-zone of the divided state.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's new government won approval from the Italian Senate,
ending a government crisis that followed an embarrassing defeat in
regional elections.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, In Iraq Ahmad
Chalabi captured a key position in the new government, a deputy
prime minister's spot and temporary control of the lucrative oil
ministry.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, Lt. Col. Ala'a
Khalil Ibrahim, who worked in the visa section of the Interior
Ministry, was shot dead on the way to work by gunmen in Baghdad's
eastern section of al-Shaab. A suicide car bomb exploded near an
Iraqi army checkpoint, wounding four Iraqi soldiers, three U.S.
soldiers and seven Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, Four US soldiers
were killed and two wounded when a Task Force Freedom convoy was hit
by a roadside bomb in Tal Afar city, 90 miles east of the Syrian
border.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 28, Islamic militant
group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it shot dead six abducted Sudanese
drivers working for U.S. forces in Iraq, according to a video posted
on the Internet.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, A twin-engine army
plane slammed nose-first into Peru's southern desert coast, killing
all 13 people aboard.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, A military
helicopter crashed into a wooded ravine on a northern Philippine
mountain, killing all nine people on board.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, Dharmeratnam
Sivaram (46), a top Tamil journalist whose articles favored the
mainstream Tamil rebels over a breakaway faction, was fatally shot
hours after being seized by attackers at a restaurant in Colombo.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, The African Union
agreed to more than triple the size of its peacekeeping force in
Sudan's western Darfur region.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, Swiss engineers
blasted through the final four yards of rock to complete the bore of
the first of two deep rail tunnels under the Swiss Alps linking
north and south Europe. The 21-mile Loetschberg tunnel, part of a
massive construction project to move heavy European Union trucks off
Switzerland's narrow highways and onto transport trains, will
shorten the travel time between Germany and Milan, Italy, by an
hour.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28-2005 Oct 14, At
least 3,663 Iraqis were killed in war-related violence during this
period leading up to the vote on a new constitution according to an
Associated Press count.
(AP, 10/14/05)
2005 Apr 29, NASA again delayed
the first space shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster, worrying
that ice falling off fuel tank could doom Discovery.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2005 Apr 29, Apple began
selling the Tiger operating system, OS X version 10.4, for the Mac
computer.
(SFC, 4/30/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 29, Afghan security
forces opened fire during a celebration in a western city, killing a
mother and her daughter. In central Afghanistan an airstrike on a
suspected insurgent camp killed three civilians and four militants.
A bomb tore through a jeep carrying Afghan anti-drug police in
eastern Afghanistan, killing 3 officers and injuring two more, in
the first deadly attack on the country's new counter-narcotics
forces.
(AP, 4/30/05)(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 29, In Colombia
government troops consolidated their grip on Tacuejo, a mountain
town retaken from leftist rebels, and the town's Indian residents
slowly began to return despite fears of more violence.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, The German
government finally scaled back its 2005 growth forecasts,
acknowledging that its earlier prognosis had been too optimistic in
face of high oil prices and an unexpected economic contraction at
the end of last year.
(AFP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, An audiotape
purportedly by America's most-wanted insurgent in Iraq, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, posted on the Internet and threatened more attacks
against U.S. forces and urges followers to be wary of any American
attempts at dialogue.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Insurgents staged
a series of car bombings and other attacks, killing at least 41
people, including three US soldiers, a day after the country's first
democratically elected government was approved.
(AP, 4/29/05)(AP, 4/29/06)
2005 Apr 29, India signed a
pact with the United Nations to combat HIV infections among military
personnel after defense authorities sounded a health alert last
week.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, The head of
India's new task force, fighting to save the nation's dwindling
stock of tigers, said the big cats were on the verge of extinction,
because of rampant poaching for their body parts.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Insurgents set off
at least 17 bombs in Iraq, killing at least 50 people, including 5
US soldiers, in a series of attacks aimed at shaking Iraq's newly
formed government.
(SFC, 4/30/05, p.A1)(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 29, Italy and the
United States said they had failed to agree on whether U.S. soldiers
were at fault in the death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 29, Italy slashed its
2005 growth forecast by almost half to 1.2 percent and warned its
budget deficit could hit 4 percent of gross domestic product.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Japanese PM
Junichiro Koizumi wooed India, aiming to build a partnership with
New Delhi to cope with the growing clout of China in a changing
continent.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Heavy rains in
western Romania have flooded hundreds of villages, forcing 3,700
people to abandon their homes and disrupting rail and road traffic.
(Reuters, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Russian President
Vladimir Putin laid a wreath on the late-Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's tomb and held talks with Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas,
but Palestinians held out little hope for concrete results.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Sri Lanka's
government ordered a "full-scale investigation" into the slaying of
a senior Tamil journalist who was abducted overnight as he left a
restaurant.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, The UN health
agency reported 18 new cases of polio in Yemen and said more people
are believed infected, sparking fears of an epidemic in the Middle
Eastern country with a low immunization rate among children.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Vietnam marked the
30th anniversary of war's end.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2005 Apr 30, James Toney
outpointed John Ruiz to win the WBA heavyweight title in NY.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2005 Apr 30, Jennifer Wilbanks
(32) of Duluth, Georgia, turned up in Albuquerque, NM, after being
missing for 4 days. She was scheduled to be married Apr 30, and got
“cold feet.”
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 30, “With all of its
liabilities in dollars and most of its assets in foreign currencies,
America gets a wealth boost when the dollar drops.” The Bank of
Japan and other central banks have amassed $2 trillion in
foreign-exchange reserves, perhaps 70% in dollars. Should the dollar
fall, these central banks will be exposed to heavy capital losses.
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.70,74)
2005 Apr 30, In Egypt a bomb
blast and tour bus shooting took place near Cairo tourist sites. A
man identified as a suspect in an April 7 bombing blew himself up as
he leapt off a bridge during a police chase. Less than two hours
later 2 veiled women opened fire on a tour bus in a historic part of
Cairo and one of them was killed in a gunbattle with security
guards.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 30, Insurgents
launched fresh attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq, killing at
least 10 Iraqis and wounding more than 30.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 30, Nepal's King
Gyanendra lifted a state of emergency he imposed after seizing power
in February.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 30, Palestinian
security officials said Israeli special forces entered Tulkarem
before dawn and arrested 18-year-old Mohammed Shalhoub. Israeli
military officials said Shalhoub was an Islamic Jihad militant
preparing an imminent suicide attack against Israelis and had
already filmed the video testament often left by suicide bombers.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 30, Students and
administrators at the main campus of Puerto Rico's largest
university agreed to end a 3-week-old strike called to protest a 33
percent tuition increase.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 30, Sudanese leaders
began work on drafting an interim constitution expected to seal a
peace deal with the south, but major opposition groups boycotted the
opening session.
(AFP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 30, In western Turkey
a police officer was killed and four others were injured when a
parcel bomb exploded in the hands of a bomb disposal expert in a
seaside resort town.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 30, Vietnam marked the
30th anniversary of the war's end.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2005 Apr, Moshe Alamaro of MIT
proposed the creation of small, man-made cyclones to cool the ocean
and prevent large natural hurricanes.
(Econ, 6/11/05, TQ p.8)
2005 Apr, In Arizona the
Hualapai Indian tribe began construction of the Skywalk, a glass
overhang over the Grand Canyon, to be completed in March, 2007. The
$30 million project was initiated by David Jin, a Las Vegas
businessman from Shanghai, who planned to collect half of the $25
ticket sales.
(SFC, 12/15/06, p.A33)
2005 Apr, The decomposing body
of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was found in a
ravine in the French Riviera, five months after he disappeared from
his home in Cannes. In 2007 his mistress testified that he had been
strangled to death by Mohamed M'Barek, the brother of his wife,
Jamila M'Barek.
(AFP, 5/23/07)
2005 Apr, Canada, backed by
Minnesota and other states, provinces, environmental groups and
Indian leaders, asked for a year-long expedited review by the
International Joint Commission on a $25 million plan by North Dakota
to take water from land-locked Devils Lake to the nearby Sheyenne
River with the goal of stabilizing the lake at current levels. The
water would ultimately drain into Manitoba's Lake Winnipeg, the
world's 10th largest freshwater lake.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 Apr, China began
promulgating Document 16, a rallying cry for local propaganda
officials to combat specific practices—most notably yidi baodao, or
"reports from other places," in which papers dispatch teams of
reporters to the site of scandals in distant provinces, far from
their immediate government minders.
(Econ, 8/20/05,
p.32)(http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8272398/site/newsweek/)
2005 Apr, Chinese journalist
Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally providing
state secrets to foreigners. He had detailed how his newspaper
colleagues were instructed not to commemorate the 15th anniversary
of 1989 pro-Democracy action. He was identified by his e-mail
address provided by Yahoo.
(WSJ, 9/8/05, p.A16)
2005 Apr, The Council of
Europe, Europe's top human rights body, rejected euthanasia as a
legitimate means to end life.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2005 Apr, The Ahwazi intifada
(uprising) began in Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province. Since the
1979 Islamic revolution a third of some 5 million Ahwazis, the
native Arabs, were driven from the oil-rich province.
(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.A16)
2005 Apr, Oleg Deripaska,
Russian oligarch, planned to buy KAP, Montenegro’s aluminium plant.
KAP accounted for up to 40% of Montenegro’s GDP and was seen as an
environmental nightmare. The deal included $20 million for
environmental clean-up.
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.47)
2005 Apr, Singapore PM Lee
Hsien Loong announced his government’s decision to legalize
gambling.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.43)
2005 Apr, Sudan and Uganda
mounted their 1st joint military operations against the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA).
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.41)
2005 Apr, Yemen troops put down
a resumption of violence by the followers of cleric Hussein Badr
Eddin al-Hawthi (al-Houthi), who was killed in September. It was
thought to be led by his father, Badr Eddin al-Hawthi, in fighting
that tribal sources say killed 250 people on both sides.
(AP, 4/20/05)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.51)
2005 May 1, Newsweek, in its
May 9th edition, ran a story that said US interrogators at
Guantanamo Bay prison had flushed a Quran, the Muslim holy book,
down a toilet.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.32)
2005 May 1, Hundreds of
thousands of workers mobilized on May Day to demand more political
muscle in the face of global capitalism, as clashes with police
marred some rallies.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, On what was to have
been her wedding day, "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks was led by
Albuquerque, N.M., police to an airplane that flew her home to
Georgia.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2005 May 1, The bodies of 3
Afghan women were found raped, hanged and dumped on a roadside in
Baglan province with a warning not to work for foreign relief
organizations.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A15)
2005 May 1, Chinese computer
maker Lenovo completed its purchase of IBM's personal computer
division.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2005 May 1, In Egypt police
detained about 200 people from the home villages of 3 attackers
responsible for a bomb blast and tour bus shooting near Cairo
tourist sites the day before.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, In Iraq insurgents
launched a 3rd straight day of attacks, including ambushes, car
bombs and a drive-by shooting, killing nine Iraqis and wounding more
than 20.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, Five suspects were
arrested by Iraqi forces and confessed to the kidnapping and murder
of British aid worker Margaret Hassan.
(AFP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, In northern Iraq a
car bomb obliterated a tent packed with mourners at the funeral of a
Kurdish official, killing 25 people and wounding more than 50 in the
single deadliest attack since insurgents started bearing down on
Iraq's newly named government late last week.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, A videotape
released by Iraqi militants showed Douglas Wood (63), a kidnapped an
Australian man living in California, who pleaded for U.S.-led
coalition forces to leave Iraq to save his life.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, In Nepal about ten
thousand people marched through Kathmandu, demanding the restoration
of democracy in the biggest show of opposition strength since King
Gyanendra seized absolute power three months ago.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, North Korea
test-fired a short range missile.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.A16)
2005 May 1, Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Alexy II wished health and happiness to millions of
Orthodox Christians as believers marked Easter, the holiest day in
the Orthodox calendar.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, Thai fishermen
netted a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish believed to have been the
world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 May 1, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Israel for a visit seeking to mend
relations with the Jewish state and join in a new wave of Middle
East peace efforts.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 2, Florida’s Gov. Bush
signed legislation imposing 25-year jail terms for some child
molesters and forcing many to wear satellite tracking gear upon
release.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 2, Utah’s Gov. Jon
Huntsman signed a measure defying the Bush administration's No Child
Left Behind Act despite a warning from the federal education
secretary that it could cost $76 million in federal aid. The
legislation gives Utah's education standards priority over federal
requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, Pvt. 1st Class
Lynndie England, the young woman pictured in some of the most
notorious Abu Ghraib photos, pleaded guilty at Fort Hood, Texas, to
mistreating prisoners. However, a judge later threw out the plea
agreement; England was later convicted in a court-martial and
sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2005 May 2, Neiman Marcus
agreed to be sold to Texas pacific Group and Warburg Pincus for $5.1
billion.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.B1)
2005 May 2, Verizon
Communications won its bid to buy MCI Inc. in a $8.44 billion deal.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 2, Bob Hunter (63),
inspirer of Greenpeace, died.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.89)
2005 May 2, In Afghanistan an
arms cache, hidden under the house of a warlord and former
government militia commander named Jalal Bashgah, exploded in a
bunker beneath his home killing 34 people, injuring 16 and
devastating surrounding buildings.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 2, Brazil posted a
record trade surplus for the month of April. During the month its
currency rose 5% against the dollar.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A14)
2005 May 2, Jose Miguel
Insulza, Chile’s interior minister, became head of the Organization
of American States.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.A16)
2005 May 2, Coalition soldiers
fought suspected insurgents near Qaim, a Syrian border town, in a
battle that killed 12 militants, injured a 6-year-old girl and
wounded six coalition soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, A car bomb exploded
in an upscale shopping district of Baghdad, killing at least six
Iraqis and setting fire to an apartment building.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, Israeli cabinet
minister Natan Sharansky resigned to protest the planned Gaza
withdrawal, which he called a "tragic mistake" that will encourage
Palestinian violence and deepen the rift in Israeli society.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Israeli soldier
and a Palestinian fugitive were killed in a shootout at Seideh in
the West Bank.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 2, Italian
investigators blamed US military authorities for failing to signal
there was a checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American
soldiers killed an Italian agent, concluding in a report that
stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, In Kuwait a push to
allow women to participate in local elections stalled when Islamist
and conservative lawmakers abstained en masse from a key vote in
parliament, leaving the measure undefeated but short of the number
of votes needed for passage.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Oman state
security court convicted 30 people of plotting to overthrow the
sultan and install an Islamic government, but spared them the death
penalty. Another defendant was convicted of a lesser crime.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, Pakistani
authorities arrested Abu Farraj al-Libbi, head of al-Qaida
operations in Pakistan. The nation's most-wanted militant had a $10
million bounty on his head. A 2nd militant was seized with al-Libbi,
who has a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head, was himself a
key Al-Qaeda figure with a reward tag of four million dollars.
(AP, 5/4/05)(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 2, Yevgeny Adamov,
Russia's former nuclear energy minister, was arrested in the Swiss
capital on a US warrant accusing him of diverting up to $9 million
from funds intended to improve Russian nuclear security.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 2, The world's nations
gathered, for the 7th time since it took force in 1970, to reassess
how well the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is working.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 3, The US Federal
Reserve hiked the fed funds target rate by a quarter-point to an
even 3%, marking a cumulative increase of two full percentage points
in the past 10 months. That increase was matched by a quarter-point
increase in commercial banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark rate
for millions of consumer and business loans, which moved up to 6
percent, the highest that rate has been since the fall of 2001.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 3-2005 May 4, American
troops and Afghan police killed 64 rebels and captured six during a
battle in the mountains of southern Afghanistan. 9 Afghan troops and
one policeman were also killed in the clashes in the southern
provinces of Zabul and Kandahar.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 3, The WHO said
Indonesia has detected its first case of polio in a decade,
prompting the government to launch a massive vaccination campaign
that is expected to inoculate more than 5 million children.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Iran told a United
Nations nonproliferation conference it would press on with its
uranium-enrichment technology.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2005 May 3, Shiite Arab leader
Ibrahim al-Jaafari was sworn in as prime minister as Iraq's first
democratically elected government took office.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Two American
soldiers died in roadside bomb attacks by insurgents in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 3, Insurgents attacked
coalition forces in Ramadi, setting off a battle that killed 12
militants, an Iraqi soldier and two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Israeli officials
said Hamas must disarm before participating in Palestinian
parliament elections this summer, in a new twist to their standoff
with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over his refusal to use force
against militants.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir suspected rebels killed six people in
attacks, while at least six militants died in an overnight gunbattle
with soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Kuwait’s Parliament
created a constitutional roadblock that effectively kept women out
of this year’s race for municipal council seats.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.A3)
2005 May 3, ChevronTexaco's
Nigerian subsidiary said it would overhaul its aid projects in the
country's oil-rich south after finding much of the tens of millions
of dollars spent yearly was fueling violence and wasted by
corruption.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 3, In Pakistan a
parliamentary committee issued 32 recommendations on how the
government should address grievances in Baluchistan.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.37)
2005 May 3, On World Press
Freedom Day Pakistan police beat journalists with sticks and
detained at least 30 of them for staging a rally in the capital,
Islamabad.
(Reuters, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, In Lahore,
Pakistan, gas cylinders exploded in the basement of an apartment
building as residents slept, causing the three-story structure to
collapse. At least 25 people were killed and 20 injured.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, An explosion
erupted as Somalia's provisional prime minister was starting a
speech, killing at least seven people and causing an undetermined
number of injuries at a government rally in Mogadishu's soccer
stadium.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 4, Constantin
Brancusi's "Bird in Space" shattered the record for a sculpture at
auction when it soared to an astonishing $27,450,000 at Christie's
sale of Impressionist and modern art.
(Reuters, 5/5/05)
2005 May 4, A military judge at
Fort Hood, Texas, threw out Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England's guilty
plea to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, saying he was
not convinced the Army reservist knew her actions were wrong at the
time. England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced
to three years in prison.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, Prosecutors rested
their case in the Michael Jackson molestation trial.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, ABC aired a segment
of "Primetime Live" in which former "American Idol" contestant Corey
Clark claimed an affair with judge Paula Abdul, who denied the
allegation.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, Col. David H.
Hackworth (1931-2005), Vietnam war veteran, died. His books included
“About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior” (1990) and
“Hazardous Duty: America's Most Decorated Living Soldier Reports
from the Front and Tells It the Way It Is,” (1996) co-authored with
Tom Matthews.
(SFC, 5/7/05, p.B5)
2005 May 4, In China 178 birds
were found dead at Bird Island in Qinghai province in a lake that
served as a major area for research on migratory water fowl. They
were killed by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus. The number
of dead birds was later raised to 1,500 with bar-headed geese among
the most dead.
(WSJ, 5/23/05, p.A11)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A5)
2005 May 4, Chinese authorities
confined residents in Yanqing, 50 miles north of Beijing, to their
homes following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle.
Numerous farms were put under quarantine.
(WSJ, 5/24/05, p.A10)
2005 May 4, It was reported
that Cuba and Venezuela agreed to start a joint shipyard in
Venezuela, the latest sign of strengthening economic ties between
the Latin nations.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, The Danish
government said that the mission of Denmark's 530 troops in southern
Iraq would be extended until Feb 1.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Thousands of
supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic
group, protested across the country in an escalation of the
opposition campaign demanding political reform. Police arrested
hundreds of protesters.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, An Iraqi carrying
hidden explosives detonated them outside a police recruitment center
in Arbil where people were applying for jobs, killing at least 60
Iraqis and wounding some 100. The Iraqi militant group Ansar
al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the bombing saying in a Web
statement the attack was revenge for the Kurds' alliance with US
forces.
(AP, 5/4/05)(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A1)(Econ, 5/7/05,
p.19)
2005 May 4, Israeli Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz said he is freezing the handover of West Bank
towns to Palestinian security control because the Palestinians have
failed to honor their promise to disarm militants.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed two Palestinian youths in a West Bank village near
the city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 4, Japanese media
reported Japan will withdraw its 550 soldiers from their non-combat
mission in Iraq in December.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Mexico's government
cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a
nasty political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised
criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top
rival from running for president.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, President Bush met
with Nigerian Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo. They discussed oil and
Obasanjo said he would explore how to address US concerns that
former Liberian President Charles Taylor be brought to justice.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, The Bush
administration set aside a rule protecting 33% of national forests
from roads. This opened some 58.5 million acres for possible
commercial use. New rules by the Bush administration in 2008
repealed a 1982 regulation requiring that fish and wildlife habitats
be managed to maintain viable populations. On June 30, 2009, these
changes were reversed by a federal judge in San Francisco.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A4)(WSJ, 5/6/05, p.A1)(SFC,
7/1/09, p.A6)
2005 May 5, US National Prayer
Day. It has been celebrated since 1952 but was only fixed by
Congress in 1988.
(SFC, 5/5/05, p.B1)
2005 May 5, "Precious Doe," a
slain girl mourned but unknown for four years in Kansas City, Mo.,
was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green; her mother and
stepfather were charged with murder.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2005 May 5, Michael Jackson's
lawyers opened their case in his molestation and conspiracy trial
after the judge denied a defense motion for an acquittal.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2005 May 5, The Arab-American
National Museum opened across from City Hall in Dearborn, Mich.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.E6)(http://tinyurl.com/ajzhu)
2005 May 5, Merck & Co.
said that Raymond V. Gilmartin is stepping down effective
immediately from the top jobs at the drugmaker, which has been
slammed by mounting lawsuits and falling revenues since recalling
its blockbuster painkiller Vioxx last fall. He was succeeded by
Richard Clark, who steered Merck through the Vioxx affair.
(AP, 5/5/05)(WSJ, 5/6/05, p.A1)(Econ, 9/16/06,
p.75)
2005 May 5, June MacCloy Butler
(b.1909), film actress, died.
(SFC, 5/19/05, p.B7)
2005 May 5, Charlie Muse (87),
inventor of the baseball batting helmet, died in Florida.
(WSJ, 5/17/05, p.A1)
2005 May 5, Tony Blair was
elected to a historic third term as Britain's prime minister.
Conservatives, Michael Howard, announced that he would step down
after a stinging election defeat at the hands of PM Tony Blair's
Labor Party.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 5, Dominica's
governing party won a narrow victory in parliamentary elections
apparently convincing voters of the need for an austerity program
and a switch in diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, Two American
soldiers accused of arms trafficking emerged from jail and were
handed over to US officials, but a top Colombian official tried to
delay their deportation, saying a treaty granting them immunity
might be invalid.
(AP, 5/5/05)(WSJ, 5/5/05, p.A1)
2005 May 5, In central Congo a
Russian-made airplane crashed, killing 10 of the 11 passengers
aboard.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, Insurgents killed
at least 20 people in three separate attacks targeting Iraqi
security forces in Baghdad, including one by a man who blew himself
up while waiting in line outside an army recruitment center.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, Palestinians voted
for local governments in dozens of towns and villages across the
West Bank and Gaza Strip. More than 2,500 candidates were vying for
seats on 84 municipal councils.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, Russia's Federal
Security service said it foiled planned terror attacks ahead of
Victory in Europe celebrations, discovering a truck near Grozny
packed with more than a ton of explosives and a cache of poisons
allegedly intended for chemical attacks.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, In northern Uganda
rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army attacked villagers tending
their fields, hacking to death at least 10 people and wounding some
14 others.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 6, President Bush
arrived in Riga, Latvia, as he opened a fast-paced, four-country
journey to mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2005 May 6, Joe Grant (96),
pioneering Disney artist/storyman, died. He was co-story director on
"Fantasia," co-writer of "Dumbo" and designer of the witch/queen
character in "Snow White." Grant remained vital and active at Disney
feature animation until his death.
(www.talkdisney.com/forums/printthread.php?t=27485)
2005 May 6, In Bahrain about
5,000 citizens jammed a main road in the capital, waving red and
white Bahraini flags in the 2nd rally for constitutional reforms in
a month.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 6, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair unveiled his Cabinet, changing leadership in
defense and health but keeping mostly familiar faces after a third
term victory dampened by a reduced majority in Parliament.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2005 May 6, Holocaust Memorial
Day (Yom Hashoah). In 1951 Israel’s Parliament set the day of
commemoration for the 27th of Nissan, a few days after the end of
Passover.
(WSJ, 5/6/05, p.W11)
2005 May 6, An Indian federal
probe into disappearing tigers in a state-protected reserve has
found the entire population of big cats has been wiped out by
poachers. "The special investigation team in its preliminary
assessment report has indicated that there was no evidence to prove
the presence of tigers in Sariska (national park)."
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, Arab television
station al-Jazeera said militants holding an Australian engineer
hostage have issued a 72-hour ultimatum for Australia to start
pulling troops out of Iraq.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, Insurgent car bombs
struck a market in Suwayrah killing 17 civilians, and a police bus
in Tikrit, killing at least 8 policemen.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, At least a dozen
bodies were found buried at a garbage dump on the outskirts of
Baghdad, some of them blindfolded and shot in the head.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, In Lebanon an
explosion ravaged a shopping area and set off a fire near a
Christian religious radio station in the port city of Jounieh north
of Beirut.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 6, In southwestern
Nepal unidentified gunmen fatally shot Narayan Pokhrel, the chief of
the World Hindu Council's Nepal chapter, while he was touring
villages.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement narrowly fended off a strong
challenge by Hamas to win local elections, but the Islamic militant
group captured the 3 biggest races in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip, establishing itself as a major political force.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, Romania's foreign
minister said his government would keep its troops in Iraq
supporting postwar operations despite the kidnapping of three
Romanian journalists.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, The UN Sec. Gen.
appointed Alvaro de Soto as the Special Coordinator for the Middle
East Peace Process. De Soto resigned in May, 2007.
(www.un.org/unsco/coordinator.html)
2005 May 7, Giacomo, a 50-1
shot, defied the odds and won the $2.4 million Kentucky Derby in a
gigantic upset, running down Afleet Alex in the final strides and
generating a huge payoff.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 7, Peter Rodino (95),
the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman who
directed the impeachment investigation of President Richard Nixon,
died in New Jersey. Rodino represented a Newark, NJ, district from
1949-1989.
(AP, 5/8/05)(SSFC, 5/8/05, p.A2)
2005 May 7, MIT students held
their 1st convention for time travelers.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.75)
2005 May 7, In Afghanistan a UN
worker from Myanmar was among three people killed in a suicide
attack at an Internet cafe in Kabul.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 7, In northeastern
Australia a commuter airplane carrying 15 people slammed into a
hillside and everyone on board was feared killed.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, Canadian Press
reported that Canada will send up to 150 military personnel to Sudan
to help the African Union and a UN mission keep the peace.
(CP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, China and Japan
agreed to try to improve strained ties and meet soon to discuss a
disputed gas field.
(Reuters, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, After extensive use
of H2OIL fuel additives for over 15 years, China will begin
manufacturing F2-21 nanotechnology fuel additives. H2OIL's first
overseas plant in Tianjin opened under a joint venture agreement
with PetroChina's Huafu Oilfield Chemical Company. F2-21, developed
by H2Oil president Richard Hicks, is a mixture of water, shampoo and
baby oil that forms nano-sized globules which explode in an engine’s
combustion chamber helping the gas to burn more cleanly and
completely.
(www.h2oil.com/press.shtml)(SFC, 3/23/06, p.C3)
2005 May 7, In central India
about 200 Maoist rebels, some armed with AK-47 assault rifles,
attacked a mining unit of Hindalco Industries, India's largest
aluminium and copper producer, shutting down its operations.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 7, In Iraq US forces
began Operation Matador, aimed at clearing a region believed to be a
haven for foreign fighters slipping into Iraq from Syria.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 7, Two suicide car
bombs exploded in a central Baghdad square, killing 22 people,
including two American contract workers. 3 US Marines and one sailor
were killed in a bombing and firefight in Haditha.
(AP, 5/7/05)(SFC, 5/9/05, p.A1)
2005 May 7, In Iraq gunmen
stopped a minibus in which the 6 men were carrying the coffin of a
relative to a funeral service in the Shiite city of Najaf. The 6
men, 3 of them brothers, were kidnapped and killed, and the
attackers threw the coffin into the nearby Euphrates River.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 7, In Riga, Latvia,
Pres. Bush said the Soviet domination of central and eastern Europe
after World War II will be remembered as "one of the greatest wrongs
of history" and acknowledged that the United States played a
significant role in the division of the continent.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, Gen. Michel Aoun,
who led a quixotic battle to oust Syria's army from Lebanon 16 years
ago, returned to Lebanon from a lengthy exile in France.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, In Myanmar 3
explosions rocked the capital, Yangon, killing at least 19 people
and wounding 162 others.
(AP, 5/8/05)(Reuters, 5/15/05)
2005 May 7, David Trimble,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the architects of Northern
Ireland's 1998 peace accord, resigned as head of the Ulster Unionist
Party after losing his seat in this week's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 8, Steve Nash edged
Shaquille O'Neal by 34 points to win the NBA's most valuable player
award.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2005 May 8, In Zion, Ill.,
Laura Hobbs (8) and Krystal Tobias (9), out on a Mother's Day
bicycle ride, were stabbed multiple times and left to die near a
bike path. Laura’s father Jerry Hobbs (34), just out of a Texas
prison a few weeks, led police to the girls' bodies in a ravine. He
was charged with murder on the second day of questioning by police.
(AP, 5/10/05)(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 8, Lloyd Cutler (87),
White House counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton and adviser to
presidents of both parties, died at his Washington home.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2005 May 8, Kristi Black (19)
was found strangled in the apartment shared with Ivan Villa (22) in
Ruidoso, New Mexico. Villa disappeared with Justin, his 16-month-old
stepson, leading to a frantic search for the toddler. Later in the
month Justin was recovered in Mexico. On Oct 5, 2006, Villa turned
himself in to US authorities in Guadalajara.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2005 May 8, In eastern
Afghanistan insurgents trying to escape US Marines took refuge in a
cave and killed 2 Americans during a 5-hour battle that left an
estimated 23 rebels dead.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 8, In Brazil top
government officials from the 11 South American nations and 22
Middle Eastern and North African countries attending the Summit of
South American-Arab Countries met ahead of the two-day summit's
opening on May 10.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Central African
Republic a coup leader who seized power in a rebel war two years ago
sought the presidency in a runoff election against a man
representing the former ruling party he ousted. The military
strongman Francois Bozize faces former PM Martin Ziguele in a poll
that many hope will bring an end to an era of army coups and
revolts.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 8, In Alexandria
Egypt, some 3,000 female supporters of the opposition Muslim
Brotherhood gathered to demand democratic reforms.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, The new Turkish
Cypriot government of Premier Ferdi Sabit Soyer won a vote of
confidence in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In India the number
of rare bacterial meningitis cases in New Delhi rose by at least 30
over the last 24 hours with 15 confirmed deaths from the disease.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Indonesia US
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick signed an agreement to
build a $245 million road along Aceh's western coast.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, Iraq's parliament
approved six Cabinet nominees, handing four more posts to the
disaffected Sunni Arab minority. Iraq's newly approved human rights
minister turned down the job, saying he was selected only because he
was a Sunni Arab.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Iraq gunmen shot
and killed a senior official in Iraq's Transportation Ministry in
Baghdad. Zoba Yass, director general of the ministry's projects, and
his driver were killed.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Nepal seven
mainstream opposition parties agreed to form a united front to push
for a return to democracy following King Gyanendra's seizure of
power. Nepal's Maoist rebels soon threw their support behind the
decision.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 8, In central Iraq 3
US soldiers were killed in separate attacks.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Iraq the Ansar
al-Sunnah Army kidnapped Akihiko Saito (44), after ambushing a group
of five foreign contractors. It later said Saito was "seriously
injured" in the fighting and that the others had died.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 8-2005 May 9, American
troops backed by helicopters and war planes launched a major
offensive against insurgents in a remote desert area near the Syrian
border, and about 100 militants were killed in the first 24 hours.
(AP, 5/9/05)(SFC, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2005 May 8, In southeastern
Niger a swarm of locusts has descended on a town, sparking fears
that the West African nation, where millions of people face food
shortages, could endure another invasion of the crop-munching
insects.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 8, President Bush paid
homage in the Netherlands to the "terrible price" paid by World War
II soldiers who never came home from their fight against tyranny.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Pakistan's
northwestern tribal region a bomb ripped through a car, killing 2
tribesmen.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Moscow Pres.
Bush and Vladimir Putin went out of their way to take a unified
stand on Middle East peace and terrorism after sharp words in recent
days about democratic backsliding and postwar Soviet domination.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, Russia began a
pomp-filled, high-security celebration of the 60th anniversary of
the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Saudi Arabia a
Pakistani man was beheaded for attempting to smuggle heroin into the
kingdom.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In Syria a
prominent Kurdish Islamic scholar was murdered in Damascus.
(WSJ, 6/6/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, President Bush,
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac
and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder commemorated the 60th
anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with a lavish
military parade in Moscow. President Bush then traveled to Georgia.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Actress Renee
Zellweger married country music star Kenny Chesney on the island of
St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The marriage was annulled just
months later.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Eight-year-old
Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias were found stabbed to
death in Zion, Ill.; Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs III, was later
charged with killing the girls.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, In Hingham, Mass.,
the bodies of two homeless men were found. They had likely been
killed the previous April. In 2007 Eric Snow (25) and James Winquist
(23) were accused of beating the 2 men to death with baseball bats.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2005 May 9, In Espertantina,
Brazil, Mayor Felipe Santolia (32) declared May 9 as an official
Orgasm Day.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In northern China
nearly a dozen homes built into hillside caves were buried when the
soil above them collapsed, trapping 24 people.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, In Ecuador former
President Gustavo Noboa was placed under house arrest on charges he
mishandled Ecuador's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year
term.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In Tbilisi Pres.
Bush, before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people, said
that the former Soviet republic of Georgia is proving to the world
that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from
oppressive rulers.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Werner G. Seifert,
the long-serving chief executive of the German stock exchange, was
ousted by The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), a British hedge
fund. In 2006 Seifert authored his account of the affair: “Invasion
der Heuschrecken: Intrigen, Machkampfe, Marktmanipulation.”
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.64)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.81)
2005 May 9, In Athens, Greece,
Christian leaders, theologians and religious activists from around
the world gathered for a meeting to assess some of the most serious
challenges for the faith, such as growing rifts between churches and
African congregations ravaged by AIDS.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Iran confirmed that
it has processed 37 tons of uranium into gas, a key step into the
using the material as a fuel for reactors or weapons.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon
told Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will
be put off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on
July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Nepali troops
killed 26 Maoist rebels who attacked a military base at Bandipur. 3
policemen and one soldier were also killed.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, Palestinian
militants and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns
Monday, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack
down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid
footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, World leaders
joined Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Red Square for a lavish
military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied
victory over Nazi Germany.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 10, A federal
bankruptcy judge freed United Airlines from responsibility for
pensions covering 120,000 employees.
(SFC, 5/11/05, p.A1)
2005 May 10, In Riverside
County, Ca., David McGowan (44) killed his wife, mother and 3
children, a boy (14) and 2 girls (8 and 10), while they slept. He
then killed himself at their home in Garner Valley.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.A5)
2005 May 10, Peter Costello,
Australia’s finance minister, proposed his 10th budget that included
income tax cuts worth almost $17 billion.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.44)
2005 May 10, Egypt's parliament
overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment allowing
multicandidate presidential elections for the first time, but the
opposition denounced the reform, saying it won't shake President
Hosni Mubarak's grip on power.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, A leading human
rights group said systematic political repression in Ethiopia's
largest state has kept people there from freely participating in the
country's third general election campaign on May 15.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, Germany dedicated
its national Holocaust memorial in Berlin, an undulating field of
2,711 concrete slabs.
(AP, 5/10/05)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.48)
2005 May 10, Cheered by tens of
thousands in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, President Bush
urged the spread of democracy across the former communist world and
beyond.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2005 May 10, In central India a
man with a sword cut off the hands of a government social worker for
trying to stop child marriages. The attack on the woman highlighted
the difficulty of ending the centuries-old practice in the region.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 10, Iran officially
launched production of its first locally built submarine, dubbed
Ghadir, a craft that can fire missiles and torpedoes at the same
time.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, Gunmen kidnapped
the governor of Iraq's western Anbar province and told his family he
would be released when US forces withdraw from Qaim, the site of a
major new offensive against followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Gov.
Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi was later killed.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2005 May 10, US forces backed
by helicopter gunships and warplanes swept through western Iraq near
the Syrian border for a third day, raiding desert outposts and safe
houses belonging to insurgents.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, Italy's
center-left opposition celebrated as returns from local elections in
Sardinia and 2 northern regions dealt Premier Berlusconi's forces
another embarrassing defeat.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, A Moroccan jailed
for involvement in the Casablanca bombings two years ago died during
a hunger strike by some 1,000 predominantly Islamist inmates.
(Reuters, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, A UN resolution
backed by the US urged Nigeria to hand Charles Taylor to a court in
Sierra Leone on the grounds that Taylor had violated his terms of
asylum.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.52)
2005 May 10, Northern Ireland
State prosecutor Gordon Kerr told Belfast High Court that
prosecutors have accepted a police recommendation to charge Sean
Gerard Hoey (35) with the murders of all 29 people killed by the
Aug. 15, 1998, bomb in Omagh.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, Philip Agustin,
publisher of a weekly in Dingalan, Philippines, was shot dead in his
house. He had with him 500 copies of his newspaper featuring reports
on corruption in Dingalan.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.39)
2005 May 10, Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin and top European Union leaders unveiled a new
partnership accord which aims in particular to deepen ties in the
economic sphere, where Europe's thirst for energy dovetails with
Russia's need for investment.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 10, Senegal passed a
law that criminalized forcing another into begging for financial
gain, under penalty of a large fine and imprisonment for between two
and five years. It did not begin enforcing the ban until 2010.
(AP, 9/5/10)(www.hrw.org/en/node/89479/section/8)
2005 May 10, Taiwan arrested 17
military officers and civilians on suspicion of passing secrets
about the island's intelligence capability to rival China.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 10, The UN children's
agency said it is sending medical aid to the West African country of
Sao Tome and Principe to combat a cholera outbreak that has infected
131 people, killing three.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 11, The US Real ID Act
of 2005 was signed into law. It was Division B of an act of the
United States Congress entitled Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and
Tsunami Relief, 2005.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act)
2005 May 11, In Afghanistan
demonstrators angry over the alleged desecration of the Quran at
Guantanamo Bay smashed car and shop windows and stoned a passing
convoy of US soldiers. Police opened fire on the protesters, killing
four and injuring at least 71, as protests spread over the Newsweek.
Newsweek later apologized for what it termed errors in the article.
(AP, 5/11/05)(AP, 5/12/06)
2005 May 11, Actor Macaulay
Culkin took the stand at Michael Jackson's trial to denounce the
molestation allegations against the pop star as "absolutely
ridiculous."
(AP, 5/12/06)
2005 May 11, Lawmakers in
Austria and neighboring Slovakia voted overwhelmingly to ratify the
new European constitution, giving much-needed support to the charter
intended to strengthen the 25-member European Union.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 11, In northeastern
China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed nine miners.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 11, The European Union
parliament voted to abolish loopholes that give member states,
especially Britain, a way around the bloc's 48-hour maximum
workweek.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 11, French police
swooped down by helicopter to the luxury Riviera villa of
self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, seizing documents and
computers.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 11, India and Pakistan
agreed to start a bus service between the cities of Lahore and
Amritsar, and share information on fishermen in each other's
custody.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 11, In the Indian
portion of Kashmir a series of rebel bomb attacks and gunfights with
security forces left at least 13 people dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 11, In Hawija, Iraq, a
man with explosives strapped to his body killed at least 30 people
at a recruitment center. A wave of explosions and gunfire across
Iraq killed at least 39 more people.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 11, In western Iraq 4
Marines were killed when their troop transporter was struck by a
bomb near Karabilah, a village close to the Syrian border, during
Operation Matador.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 11, A Katyusha rocket
fired from Lebanon landed in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi
heavily damaging a factory and drawing an Israeli threat of
retaliation.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 11, Qatar's first hard
look at its own human rights shortcomings produced a catalogue of
abuses that include prolonged detentions, mistreatment of foreign
workers and the use of children as jockeys in camel races.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 11, In Sudan's
conflict ridden Darfur region 2 main rebel groups signed a
declaration pledging to adhere to a cease-fire and help facilitate
the flow of humanitarian relief aid.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 12, The US Foreign
Relations Committee voted 10-8 along party lines to advance John
Bolton's nomination to be UN ambassador without the customary
recommendation that the Senate approve it.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2005 May 12, Microsoft
officially unveiled its Xbox 360, a video game console boasting
improved graphics over its predecessor.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2005 May 12, The Islamic Center
of America, a $12 million mosque, opened in Dearborn, Mich., down
the road near the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Co.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.E6)(www.icofa.com/)
2005 May 12, Police clashed
with anti-U.S. demonstrators in two Afghan towns, killing at least
three people, and Afghan students burned an American flag in Kabul
as protests spread over reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the
U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Australian police
arrested five men after seizing more than 115 kgs (253 pounds) of
heroin, with a street value of more than A$60 million (US$46
million), hidden in containers of plastic chairs from China.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 12, Austrian
authorities reported the break up a major human trafficking ring led
by Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian criminals who smuggled more than
5,000 East Europeans to the West, many enduring horrific conditions
in tiny hiding spaces in cars, trucks and trailers.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Leaders from 12
South American and 22 Arab nations ended their first summit by
endorsing a "Declaration of Brasilia," urging Israel to abandon
Palestinian territory and insisting free trade must be harnessed to
benefit the world's poor.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, It was reported
that Colombia’s Pres. Alvaro Uribe is creating a political party to
formally unite his followers, who until now have been known simply
as "Uribistas." The plan is being resisted by the opposition and
even some of his supporters, who worry about a political party based
on one man's hardline ideals.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Alberto
Santofimio, Colombia's former justice minister, was arrested in
connection with the 1989 assassination of Luis Carlos Galan, leading
presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader killed at a
campaign rally.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, More than 13.5
tons of cocaine stored in underground chambers was seized near
Colombia's southwest coast.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 12, Gunmen ambushed a
UN peacekeeping patrol in Congo's restless eastern Ituri region,
killing one soldier and injuring five.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Militants
assassinated a general and a colonel who were en route to work, and
a car bomb exploded near a busy market and movie theater in eastern
Baghdad, part of a wave of attacks that killed at least 21 Iraqis
and wounded more than 70.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, In Srinagar,
Kashmir, a grenade thrown by suspected Islamic rebels exploded
outside a school, killing two women and wounding at least 57 people,
many of them schoolchildren and their parents.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Latvia’s
parliament issued a declaration that said: "The Soviet Union
occupied and annexed the Republic of Latvia, destroyed its state
system, killed, tortured and deported hundreds of thousands of
people, robbed them of their property without any legal reason."
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 12, Roads in Peru's
Colca Canyon were blocked by townspeople demanding a larger share of
revenue from tourists who come to see condors soar over the
desert-dry moonscape and white-water raft in one of the world's
deepest valleys.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Nikolai Patrushev,
Russia's security chief. said that his agency has uncovered US,
British, Kuwaiti and Saudi spy activity that was being conducted
under the cover of non-governmental organizations. He also suggested
that foreign governments are using NGOs to fund and support changes
of power in former Soviet republics.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, In Andijan,
Uzbekistan, supporters of 23 jailed local businessmen stormed the
jail where they were held freeing them and other prisoners. The
businessmen had been jailed as alleged Islamic extremists.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.39)
2005 May 13, The Pentagon
proposed the most sweeping changes to its network of military bases
in modern history.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2005 May 13, Michael Ross (45),
a serial killer who fought to hasten his own execution and was
forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind, was put to death in
Connecticut in New England's first execution in 45 years.
(AP, 5/13/05)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A4)
2005 May 13, Afghan police and
demonstrators clashed, killing at least 4 people, as protests over
allegations that interrogators at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay
desecrated Islam's holy book spread to more cities.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, Canada said it
would go ahead with plans to send military advisors to Sudan's
Darfur region despite Khartoum's insistence that it did not want the
troops to enter the country.
(Reuters, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, A senior Chinese
official met with President Fidel Castro during a visit aimed at
cementing political and economic ties between the two communist
nations.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 13, East Timor
finished talks in Sydney, Australia, that managed to overcome 2 main
sticking points on their maritime border and revenue from the
Greater Sunrise gasfield. They agreed to defer the boundary issue
for 50 years along with a 50% revenue split.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.46)
2005 May 13, John Jairo
Velasquez, the man who directed hit teams for drug kingpin Pablo
Escobar, said that Alberto Santofimio Botero, a former top
politician, was behind the 1989 assassination of Colombia’s leading
presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, In India's
southern Andhra Pradesh state police shot dead six opposition party
supporters, sparking a riot in which hundreds of political activists
stoned to death a policeman and burned cars and trucks.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, Indonesia reported
that researchers had found a strain of bird flu in pigs on Java, and
feared the virus could spread to humans.
(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.A14)
2005 May 13, Iraq announced it
has renewed its state of emergency for another 30 days following two
weeks of insurgent-led violence that killed hundreds of people.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, Hezbollah shelled
Israeli positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms near the border, and
the Israeli army returned fire in the heaviest exchange in months
between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla force.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, Pres. Fox praised
the dedication of Mexicans working in the US, saying they're willing
to take jobs that "even blacks" won't do. Pres. Fox apologized for
his comments a few days later saying he regretted any hurt feelings
his statements may have caused.
(AP, 5/17/05)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A3)
2005 May 13, Russia struck a
landmark deal to repay up to $15 billion it owes to the West,
sealing its rapid transformation from economic basket case to
emerging markets powerhouse. The deal crowns Finance Minister Alexei
Kudrin's drive to use Russia's growing oil wealth to reduce the $43
billion it owes to the Club's other 18 members.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, The 2 main rebel
groups fighting in Sudan's Darfur region announced they were willing
to resume stalled peace talks, dropping their previous conditions
for new negotiations.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, In southern
Thailand a roadside bomb exploded near a passing military truck,
killing two Thai marines and seriously wounding eight others.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 13, In Andijan,
Uzbekistan, soldiers opened fire on thousands of protesters after
demonstrators stormed a jail to free 23 local businessmen accused of
Islamic extremism. The next day Pres. Karimov said 10 soldiers were
killed in the clash. An estimated 700-1000 demonstrators were
killed. The Uzbek government put the death toll at 187.
(AP, 5/13/05)(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.A10)(Econ,
10/1/05, p.39)
2005 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
appointed SF Archbishop William Levada (68) as the new prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s top
arbiter of questions of faith and morals.
(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A1)
2005 May 14, The retired
aircraft carrier USS America sank to the bottom of the Atlantic
Ocean following a series of explosions over 25 days.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 14, In Brazil more
than 12,000 landless farmers who have marched nearly 125 miles to
protest the slow pace of land reform reached the outskirts of
Brasilia.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, Congo's
legislature adopted a constitution that reduces the required age for
presidential candidates, a change that would allow President Joseph
Kabila to stand in the country's next elections.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, A magnitude 6.9
undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sumatra island.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 14, In Iraq insurgents
staged a series of attacks, killing at least 9 people. The US
military wrapped up Operation Matador, a major offensive in a remote
desert region near the Syrian border.
(AP, 5/14/05)(AP, 5/14/06)
2005 May 14, In Indian Kashmir
suspected Muslim rebels shot dead the brother of an ex-militant who
became a moderate separatist leader.
(AFP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 14, In western Nepal
government soldiers rescued about 600 students who were abducted
from their classrooms in a series of bold strikes by communist
rebels.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, Russian security
forces and police killed six suspected militants, including two
female suicide bombers, who had holed up in an apartment in
Cherkessk. Russian forces in Chechnya killed 4 rebels including
former separatist vice president Vakha Arsanov.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, Warlords began
withdrawing thousands of militia fighters from the Somali capital in
a bid to restore order after more than 15 years of anarchy and civil
war.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, A surprise
election victory for Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP), marred by a record-low voter turnout, gave a limited
endorsement of President Chen Shui-bian's policy of standing up to
China.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 13, Turkish soldiers
killed 9 Kurdish rebels in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Automatic weapons, plastic explosives, grenades, and a
rocket-propelled grenade launcher were seized in the operation. A
Syrian citizen was among those killed.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 14, Thousands of
terrified Uzbeks waiting to flee across the border into Kyrgyzstan
stormed government buildings, torched police cars and attacked
border guards in a 2nd day of violence spawned by an uprising
against the iron-fisted rule of US-allied Pres. Islam Karimov.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 15, Newsweek, in its
May 23rd edition, issued a partial apology for a story from its May
9th edition that said US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay prison
flushed a Quran, the Muslim holy book, down a toilet. The next day,
under pressure from the Bush administration and others, Newsweek
retracted the story.
(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A1)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.32)
2005 May 15, Algerian Islamic
militants with alleged links to al Qaeda killed 11 soldiers in the
worst attack on government troops in months.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 15, In southern
Bangladesh at least 22 people have died and over 70 are missing
after a twin-deck ferry with more than 100 aboard sank on the Char
Kazal river during a storm.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 15, The Czech Republic
denied Canada its third straight title and won the world ice hockey
championship 3-0 in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2005 May 15, Ethiopia held
elections. EU monitors later said the elections did not meet int’l.
standards. Ethiopia's opposition soon claimed major gains in the
unprecedented open parliamentary election that drew a turnout of
90%. Post election violence left close to 200 people dead.
(WSJ, 8/26/05, p.A1)(AP, 5/16/05)(AP, 12/22/09)
2005 May 15, The bodies of 46
men shot execution-style were found dumped at an abandoned chicken
farm, a trash-strewn lot and an insurgent stronghold west of the
capital. Gunmen in two cars shot dead Industry Ministry official
Col. Jassam Mohammed al-Lahibi and his driver in western Baghdad's
Ghazaliyah neighborhood. attackers killed Shiite cleric Sheik Qassim
al-Gharawi and his nephew in the capital's New Baghdad neighborhood.
2 explosions detonated about five minutes apart in a busy street as
residents were heading to work in Baqouba killing four people and
wounding 37.
(AP, 5/15/05)(SFC, 5/16/05, p.A1)
2005 May 15, Gunmen freed the
kidnapped governor of Iraq's western Anbar province after US troops
ended a weeklong offensive in the region. 125 insurgents were
reported killed along with 9 US soldiers in Operation Matador.
(AP, 5/15/05)(WSJ, 5/16/05, p.A1)
2005 May 15, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Iraq to express support
for its new government.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2005 May 15, In Saudi Arabia 3
reform advocates were sentenced to terms ranging from six to nine
years in prison, prompting a human rights activist to call their
trial a "farce."
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 15, Ali al-Dimeeni
(al-Domeini), already jailed more than a year in a Saudi prison
outside Riyadh, was sentenced to nine years in prison for sowing
dissent, disobeying his rulers and sedition. His 1998 novel "A Gray
Cloud," centered on a dissident jailed for years in a desert nation
prison where many others have done time for their political views.
(AP, 5/25/05)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.51)
2005 May 15, In eastern
Uzbekistan groups of attackers killed several soldiers before
fleeing across the border into Kyrgyzstan. About 500 bodies were
laid out in nearby Tefektosh, where troops fired on a crowd of
protesters.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 16, A US Senate report
detailing alleged misuse of the program said almost one third of the
oil allocations granted under the United Nations' 1996 to 2003 Iraqi
Oil-for-Food program went to Russian parties or individuals.
(AFP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 16, The US Supreme
Court in Swedenburg v. Kelly ruled 5-4 that wine lovers may buy
directly from out-of-state vineyards if those states allow direct
shipments from in-state wineries. Vintner Juanita Swedenburg
(1925-2007) had filed her suit against a New York state law in 2000.
(AP, 5/16/05)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/16/07,
p.A6)
2005 May 16, Army Specialist
Sabrina Harman was convicted at Fort Hood, Texas, of six of the
seven charges she faced for her role in the mistreatment of Iraqi
prisoners at Abu Ghraib. She was sentenced to six months in prison
after testimony about her acts of kindness toward Iraqis before she
became an Abu Ghraib guard.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2005 May 16, Newsweek magazine
retracted its Quran abuse story that sparked deadly protests in
Afghanistan that left about 15 people dead and scores injured.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2005 May 16, In Coeur d’Alene,
Idaho, police found Mark McKenzie (37), Brenda (40) and Slade Groene
(13) bound and slain. Shasta Groene (8) and Dylan Groene (9)
were missing. Shasta was found alive July 2.
(AP, 5/18/05)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.A18)
2005 May 16, In Afghanistan 4
armed men kidnapped Clementina Cantoni (32), an Italian relief
worker, from her car in Kabul. Authorities described the group as
thieves.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 16, In Brazil
thousands of landless farmers, organized as the Movement of Landless
Rural Workers (MST), swarmed into Brasilia.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.39)
2005 May 16, In Brazil the
Indian rights group Survival International said logging companies
were cutting down the forest in the Rio Pardo area, about 1,400
miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, despite repeated reports that
there were isolated Indians in the region.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 16, Many French
workers ignored the new national "Day of Solidarity," an extra work
day in place of the annual Pentecost holiday, that was part of the
government's response to a 2003 heat wave that killed 15,000 people.
Under a new law workers give up a holiday, while their employers pay
into a government fund to improve health care for the aged and
handicapped.
(AP, 5/15/05)(WSJ, 5/17/05, p.A10)
2005 May 16, In southern India
firecrackers illegally stored in a home in Hassan exploded, killing
eight people.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 16, In Iraq 8 more
bodies were found executed by insurgents. Attacks left at least 24
Iraqis dead.
(WSJ, 5/17/05, p.A1)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A1)
2005 May 16, The Kuwait
Parliament extended political rights to women, but religious
fundamentalists who opposed women's suffrage succeeded in attaching
a clause requiring future female politicians and voters to abide by
Islamic law.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 16, Mexican President
Vicente Fox regretted any hurt feelings for saying that Mexicans in
the United States were doing the work that even blacks wouldn't.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2005 May 16, Nepalese troops
resumed their search for hundreds of children taken hostage by
Maoist insurgents in the mountains of western Nepal. In the latest
fighting, 4 rebels, 3 army soldiers and a policeman were killed in
Sandheni area, about 100 miles southeast of Kathmandu. Meanwhile,
Nepal's anti-corruption agency charged former Prime Minister Sher
Bahadur Deuba and five others with embezzling $53 million.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 16, Senior Russian
officials said Russia is prepared to reduce its strategic nuclear
arsenal below 1,500 warheads, less than the level agreed to with the
United States, but Moscow is concerned about nuclear threats on its
border.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 16, In Sri Lanka at
least one man was killed and four wounded in fresh violence, as
international aid donors tried to nudge the island's warring parties
to revive peace talks.
(AFP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 16, In Turkey 2
Kurdish guerillas trying to attack the home of a Turkish governor
were killed after police fired on them as they approached the
building.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 16, Gunfire persisted
in the eastern city of Andijan where Uzbek security forces fired on
protesters last week, a clash that reportedly left several hundred
dead. New accounts emerged that violence in nearby towns killed
hundreds more.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 17, The US Department
of Homeland Security said it detained Luis Posada Carriles, after
the longtime Castro opponent granted interviews to TV stations and
The Miami Herald for the first time since surfacing in the United
States two months ago.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 17, British lawmaker
George Galloway denounced US senators in testimony on Capitol Hill,
denying accusations that he'd profited from the UN oil-for-food
program and accusing them of unfairly tarnishing his name.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2005 May 17, Los Angeles
Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa (52) trounced Mayor James Hahn to
become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century as
voters embraced the promise of change in a metropolis troubled by
gridlock, gangs and failing schools.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 17, Toyota said it
will build a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Camry at its
plant in Georgetown, Ky.
(WSJ, 5/18/05, p.D4)
2005 May 17, Frank Gorshin
(72), actor, died in Burbank, Ca. He played the Riddler on the
Batman TV series (1966-1969).
(SFC, 5/19/05, p.B7)
2005 May 17, In Bolivia a
measure increasing taxes on foreign oil companies became law. It
slapped a 32% production tax on top of royalties of 18% paid by
producers of natural gas and oil. The president and thousands of
street protesters wanted the industry nationalized.
(AP, 5/18/05)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.42)
2005 May 17, PM Tony Blair
unveiled plans to shake up Britain's welfare state, tackle terrorism
and introduce Britain's first national ID card since WW II in a
challenging third term agenda that could spark revolt in his restive
Labour Party and test his waning authority.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 17, In Canada British
Columbians re-elected Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal government,
but voters resoundingly signaled they wanted to end the government's
free ride, electing more than 30 New Democrats.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 17, Eritrean President
Issaias Afeworki met with Sudan Pres. Omar al-Beshir in Tripoli,
Libya. Beshir demanded that Eritrea refrain from harboring armed
Sudanese opposition and stops offering assistance to that
opposition.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, Ethiopia's ruling
party claimed to have won just over half the seats in parliamentary
elections, but opposition leaders said it was still too early to
tell who would form the next government.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, In northern India
a bus carrying a wedding party fell into a mountain gorge, killing
37 people and injuring 20 others.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, In Baghdad gunmen
killed a Shiite Muslim cleric, and two missing Sunni clerics were
found shot dead. Gunmen abducted and killed former Baath Party
member Kanis Mohammed al-Janabi and his three sons, aged 17 to 25 in
Tunis.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, Cyrus Kar,
Iranian-American filmmaker, was arrested by Iraqi security forces
after washing machine timers were found in the trunk of a taxi in
which he was traveling. He was in Iraq to film footage on the
ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great. Kar was released July 10. In
2006 Kar sued US military officials for his 55-day detention.
(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A18)(AP, 7/10/05)(SFC, 7/8/06,
p.A3)
2005 May 17, In Kashmir
suspected Muslim rebels threw a grenade at a group of mourners in
Srinagar, killing two and wounding at least 20. Earlier in the day
suspected rebels killed four villagers by slitting their throats on
the outskirts of Srinagar.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, In southeastern
Nigeria hundreds of youths stormed a police station and set fire to
cars after a protester was fatally shot by a police rifle.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, Russian security
services killed Alash Daudov, a prominent Chechen rebel wanted for a
series of planned chemical attacks.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, Russia and
Venezuela signed a contract for 100,000 Russian assault rifles to be
provided to the Latin American nation.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 17, Spain’s Parliament
approved a resolution authorizing a “negotiated end” to almost 40
years of separatist violence. Parliament backed Socialist PM Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's offer of talks with ETA if its groups end
violence.
(WSJ, 5/18/05, p.A12)(AP, 3/22/06)
2005 May 17, The captain of the
Greenpeace boat, "The Rainbow Warrior," was sentenced to six months
in prison for disobedience during a protest against the war in Iraq
in 2003. The case stemmed from the detention of five men on March
14, 2003, for staging a protest aboard the boat captained by Daniel
Rizzotti, an Argentine citizen, near the U.S.-Spanish Rota naval
base in southern Spain.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, Uzbekistan's top
prosecutor said that 169 people were killed in last week's violence
in the eastern town of Andijan. opposition activists maintained more
than 700 died, most of them civilians.
(AP, 5/17/05)(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 17, In Vietnam an
international consortium led by French group Technip signed a
1.5-billion-dollar deal to build Vietnam's first oil refinery.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 17, The UN WHO health
agency said confirmed polio cases reached 83 in Yemen. The country
was believed to have been free of the disease until last month.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, President Bush
offered his unqualified support for Egypt's political reform process
as he received PM Ahmed Nazief at the White House.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2005 May 18, An Internet
audiotape was posted, purportedly by al-Qaida-in-Iraq leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, In which he justifies the deaths of fellow Muslims
in attacks against US troops and their Iraqi allies by saying that
jihad, or holy war, dwarfs all other concerns.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18-2005 May 19,
Suspected Taliban militants ambushed and killed 11 Afghans working
on a US-funded project to end opium farming in Helmand province.
Chemonics, which employed 14,000 people, suspended operations.
(AP, 5/18/05)(AP, 5/19/05)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.40)
2005 May 18, In Afghanistan
Shaima Rezayee (24), a host on an MTV-style music show, was shot
dead in the head at her Kabul home.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 18, Cambodia's
legislature ratified a pact with the US exempting each country's
citizens from extradition for prosecution by the International
Criminal Court, an agreement sought by Washington to avoid political
trials of its citizens.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, A UN report said
Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in eastern Congo have killed, raped,
or kidnapped more than 900 civilians over the past year.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, Authorities in the
Republic of Congo quarantined two districts hit by the deadly Ebola
virus to ensure the highly contagious disease does not spread.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 18, Egyptian security
detained 56 men in northern Egypt in the latest of a series of
sweeps against the banned but usually tolerated Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, Ethiopia's two
main opposition parties claimed victory in parliamentary elections
seen as a test of the African nation's commitment to democracy,
saying they have won enough seats to form a government.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, Hong Kong said it
would place a cap on its currency's exchange rate to the U.S dollar,
but an official denied that the move signaled China would soon
revalue its currency.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, Insurgents gunned
down a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official and the bodies of
seven men shot in the head were found dumped west of Baghdad.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, An Israeli
aircraft fired at a group of Hamas militants who were about to shoot
mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, Police arrested
nine terror suspects during raids in northern Italy in what they
said was a crackdown on extremist cells accused of planning attacks
in Italy and abroad.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, In Petra, Jordan,
Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama and other Nobel Prize laureates debated
solutions to challenges facing the modern world.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, Spain's Senate
ratified the new European Union constitution, becoming the ninth
country to approve the landmark document.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 18, In Sudan at least
17 people were killed in clashes between refugees and police in a
squatter area some 10 kilometers (six miles) east of Khartoum.
(AFP, 5/19/05)
2005 May 18, A Muslim rebel
group claimed it had seized control of Korasuv, a small Uzbek town
on the border of Kyrgyzstan, and vowed to build an Islamic state.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 19, The film “Star
Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,” premiered.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, Republicans and
Democrats tangled over President Bush's judicial nominees and the
Senate's filibuster rules, with Democrats accusing Bush of trying to
"rewrite the Constitution" and Republicans accusing Democrats of
"unprecedented obstruction."
(AP, 5/19/06)
2005 May 19, J.P. Morgan Chase
introduced a no-swipe plastic credit card that used an embedded chip
and RFID technology as well as the usual magnetic strip.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.C1)
2005 May 19, The US FCC voted
to require internet phone companies to offer 911 service.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.67)
2005 May 19, UN health
officials said death from the Angola Marburg fever outbreak had
exceeded 300.
(WSJ, 5/20/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, British
researchers reported the creation of the country's first, and the
world's second (South Korea), cloned human embryo.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, The Canada House
of Commons split 152-152 on a confidence motion and it took a vote
by the parliament speaker to give Martin's minority government its
one-vote victory.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, Five Chilean
soldiers froze to death and 65 were missing after a fierce snowstorm
pounded the Andes mountains.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, In northern China
a large gas explosion in a coal mine left at least 51 workers
trapped. 40 bodies were later found and 10 remained missing.
(AP, 5/19/05)(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 19, Colombian rebels
ambushed a police convoy and fought government forces along the
border with Ecuador in separate attacks, killing at least 13 police.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, In Egypt
authorities detained 14 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood
in the south in a crackdown on the large Islamist movement. The
number of detained rose to more than 780.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, Indonesia lifted 2
years of emergency rule in Aceh.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, Iraq's prime
minister called on Syria to block the infiltration of foreign
fighters trying to start a civil war. 25 Iraqis, including an Oil
Ministry engineer, and 4 US soldiers were reported killed in the
ongoing daily bloodshed. Oil Ministry employee Ali Hamid Alwan
al-Dulaimy (31) walked out of his house toward his car when three
men firing pistols from a minivan killed him.
(AP, 5/19/05)(WSJ, 5/20/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, South Korea
scientists announced the creation of 11 different stem cell lines
matching the DNA of human patients with a variety of diseases. The
work was later discredited.
(SSFC, 5/29/05, p.A17)(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 May 19, The leaders of
Togo's bitterly divided ruling and opposition parties, meeting in
Nigeria, failed to agree on a power-sharing deal to end a bloody
post-election crisis.
(AFP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, Uzbekistan troops
retook an eastern Uzbek town from rebels who said they would build
an Islamic state, arresting the group's leaders. Uzbekistan said it
opposes an int’l. investigation into Andijan.
(AP, 5/19/05)(WSJ, 9/2/05, p.A13)
2005 May 20, The US military
condemned the publication of photographs showing an imprisoned
Saddam Hussein naked except for his white underwear, and ordered an
investigation of how the pictures were leaked to a British tabloid.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2005 May 20, A federal judge in
SF tossed out half of the convictions against former Ukrainian Prime
Minister Pavlo Lazarenko in a multi-count money-laundering and fraud
verdict, but refused to grant a new trial.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Illinois lawmakers
voted to have the state sell off about $1 billion worth of
investments in companies doing business with Sudan, part of a
nationwide campaign to protest genocide in the African nation.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, US Airways and
America West merged in a $1.5 billion deal.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.C1)
2005 May 20-2005 May 23, In
Arizona 12 illegal immigrants were reported dead while crossing the
border under triple digit heat.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A3)
2005 May 20, Australia stepped
up diplomatic efforts to stop Japan from increasing its whale hunt,
saying up to 35 countries were opposed to the plan.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Officials said 3
ferry accidents in Bangladesh in the past week left at least 133
people dead as hope faded for 187 people still missing.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, British scientists
reported the discovery of a new species of monkey in Tanzania, the
Lophocebus kipunji.
(SFC, 5/21/05, p.A1)
2005 May 20, A bus crash north
of Edmonton killed 6 people. RCMP later charged truck driver
Inderjit Singh Virk (32), of Brampton, Ontario, with dangerous
driving.
(CP, 11/28/05)
2005 May 20, Young Chilean
soldiers who made it out of a blizzard alive said they had to leave
behind comrades who collapsed from exhaustion and cold. The soldiers
were on a training march in the Andes Mountains May 18, when hit by
the worst snowstorm in the area in decades. As many as 41 soldiers,
40 draftees and one officer, were believed to have died.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Chinese state
media reported China is to lift a decades-old ban on mainland
tourists visiting political rival Taiwan. Ultimately, however, it
was up to the Taiwan government to decide whether the floodgates
should be opened.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, In northern China
20 people died in mine explosions in two neighboring mines in Shanxi
province.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 20, Ashraf Saeed
Youssef (27), ringleader of 3 recent attacks that targeted Western
tourists in Egypt, died in the Cairo hospital he'd been transferred
to a week ago for treatment after hitting his head several times
against the wall of his prison cell.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Hurricane Adrian
slammed into El Salvador, unleashing torrential rains in an area
prone to devastating floods and forcing some 14,000 people to seek
higher ground.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, The EU and NATO
called for an int’l. investigation into the May 13 suppression of
protestors at Andijan, Uzbekistan.
(WSJ, 9/2/05, p.A13)
2005 May 20, The Finnish paper
industry, which accounts for 15% of world production, remained at a
standstill after labor talks between unions and employers ended
without resolution.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Paul Ricoeur (92),
a French philosopher whose broad interests included biblical
interpretation and the study of human perception, died.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, In Guatemala an
angry mob in the remote settlement of Cruz Chich set fire to 6
people accused of forming a band of robbers, killing 4 as
authorities tried to stop the violence.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 20, Thousands of
Shiites, many waving Islam's holy book over their heads, protested
the US presence in Iraq. Sunnis shut down places of worship
elsewhere in a show of anger over alleged sectarian violence against
the minority.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Palestinian
militants fired six anti-tank missiles and a mortar round and opened
up with light arms at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, A bomb exploded in
an apartment building in southern Russia's Dagestan region, killing
the area's minister for ethnic relations and his bodyguard.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Syrian Ambassador
Imad Moustapha said Syria has cut off military and intelligence
cooperation with the US over the last 10 days amid strains in
relations between the two countries over the insurgency in Iraq.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 21, Afleet Alex
regained his footing and his drive after being cut off by Scrappy T
in a frightening collision and breezed home to win the Preakness
Stakes; Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo finished third.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2005 May 21, In Oakland, Ca.,
groundbreaking took place for the new Cathedral of Christ the Light
at the northwest tip of Lake Merritt. It was built on the site of an
1893 neo-Gothic brick church damaged by the 1989 earthquake. The
$131 million Catholic project was designed by Craig Hartman.
Completion was expected in 2008. Dedication ceremonies for the $190
million cathedral were later set for Sep 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A1)(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A7)(WSJ,
2/18/09, p.D7)
2005 May 21, In east Cleveland,
Ohio, a fire broke out during a sleepover at a crowded house,
killing Medeia Carter (33), 4 of her children and 4 other children.
In 2010 a judge ruled that suspect Antun Lewis (27) is mentally
disabled and can’t face execution. On Feb 14, 2011, Lewis was
convicted for the arson deaths.
(AP, 5/22/05)(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)(SFC, 2/15/11,
p.A10)
2005 May 21, In NYC a Cessna
172S crashed at Coney Island killing all 4 people aboard.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A4)
2005 May 21, Howard Morris
(85), best known for playing poetry-spouting hillbilly Ernest T.
Bass on the "Andy Griffith Show," died at his home in the Hollywood
section of Los Angeles.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 21, In eastern
Afghanistan fighting between insurgents and US-led coalition and
Afghan forces left 12 rebels dead and one U.S. soldier slightly
wounded. In southern Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a U.S.
military patrol, killing one American soldier and wounding two
others.
(AP, 5/21/05)(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 21, Azerbaijani
protesters demanding free elections were beaten back by police, who
arrested dozens as they broke up a banned rally.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, The Belgian film
“The Child,” by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, won the Palme d’Or at
the Cannes Film Festival.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A2)
2005 May 21, China ordered
emergency measures to prevent an outbreak of avian flu after
investigators said migratory birds found dead in a western province
this month were killed by the virus.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21-2005 May 22, Some
160 delegates from Cuba’s opposition movement held an assembly in
Havana without government interference.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.40)
2005 May 21, Germany's
prestigious Academy of Arts was reopened at its pre-World War II
site next to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, Sunni groups
joined forces to form a political and religious organization to
represent the minority as it seeks to gain influence in Iraq's new
Shiite-dominated government.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, In South Korea
Chung Se-yung (76) died in Seoul. He helped build Hyundai Motor Co.
into one of the world’s biggest car companies.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.B4)
2005 May 21, In Libya reporter
Daif al-Ghazal (32) was taken from the northern city of Benghazi by
armed men and taken to an unknown location. His body was found a
week later.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 May 21, In Lahore,
Pakistan, some 300 male and female runners participated in .06-mile
footrace in a symbolic victory for co-ed running.
(SFC, 6/1/05, p.A8)
2005 May 21, The Palestinian
interior ministry said the Hamas militant group has agreed to halt
mortar and rocket fire on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, a
deal meant to save a truce threatened by three consecutive days of
violence.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, In central Peru a
passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river on, killing at least
35 people and injuring 30 others.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, In South Africa
several hundred people, most of them white, demonstrated to protest
a proposal to change the capital's name from Pretoria, the name
given to it by white settlers, to Tshwane, as the site was once
known to its original African inhabitants.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 The Eurovision song
contest was held in Kiev, Ukraine.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.57)
2005 May 21, In eastern
Venezuela armed gunmen stole a 2nd government-owned helicopter
before dawn after taking 3 security guards hostage at an airport in
Ciudad Bolivar.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 22, First Lady Laura
Bush was heckled by protesters during a visit to holy sites in
Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2005 May 22, Voice actor Thurl
Ravenscroft (91), who supplied Tony the Tiger's "They're
grrrrreeeat!" for more than 50 years, died in Fullerton, Calif.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2005 May 22, Egyptian
authorities arrested the 4th-highest official in the powerful Muslim
Brotherhood and 25 others. Mahmoud Ezzat, secretary-general of the
Islamist group and head of its Cairo operations, is the
highest-profile Brotherhood arrest since 1996.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In India bombs
tore through 2 cinemas in New Delhi showing a film considered
offensive by some Sikhs.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 22, Seven Iraqi
battalions backed by US forces launched an offensive in Baghdad in
an effort to stanch the violence that has killed more than 550
people in less than a month.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In Iraq gunmen
killed a top trade ministry official while aides of a radical Shiite
cleric met with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian
tensions.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In Iraq 3 Romanian
journalists and their Iraqi-American guide were freed after nearly
two months in captivity. Mohammed Munaf, their Iraqi-American
translator, was later tried and convicted on charges that he
assisted in the kidnapping. In 2006 Munaf was sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/22/05)(SSFC, 10/15/06, p.A20)
2005 May 22, Jordan, Israel and
the Palestinian Authority said they had agreed terms for a
feasibility study on transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead
Sea, to save the world's lowest sea from vanishing.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, A North Korean
cargo ship arrived in South Korea to pick up fertilizer, the first
such vessel from the isolated communist nation to dock here in 21
years.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, A top Kyrgyz
official said Uzbeks who fled into neighboring Kyrgyzstan to escape
violence in their Central Asian country are not refugees and must
return home.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In Mongolia
Nambariin Enkhbayar, a candidate from the former Communist Party,
won the presidency with 53% of the vote.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 22, In Palestine
protesters besieged Laura Bush during her visit to two of
Jerusalem's most sacred sites.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In South Africa 7
teenage girls drowned in a rip tide off the east coast and a boy was
missing after a beach outing turned tragic when the swimmers
ventured out before lifeguards were on duty.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 22, The UN condemned
as "utterly unacceptable" the alleged abuse of detainees at the main
US base in Afghanistan and called on the American military to allow
an investigation by Afghan human rights officials.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 23, US Senate
moderates reached a bipartisan compromise agreeing on a yes-no vote
on some disputed judicial nominees and not to block future ones
except in extraordinary circumstances. Republicans agreed to back
off a bid to end filibusters in such cases.
(WSJ, 5/24/05, p.A1)
2005 May 23, President Bush
said that US troops in Afghanistan will remain under US control
despite Afghan President Hamid Karzai's request for more authority
over them.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, Kansas City rapper
Anthony “Fat Tone” Watkins (24) and another man were found shot dead
in the Southern Highlands area of Las Vegas. Police later said that
a SF rap promoter named Andre Dow, aka “Mac Minister,” and Jason
Mathis killed the 2 men to avenge the Nov, 2004, killing of Andre
“Mac Dre” Hicks in Kansas. Mathis was arrested in 2005 in SF. Dow
was arrested in 2006 in SF.
(SFC, 5/26/05, p.B5)(SFC, 11/29/05, p.A1)(SFC,
3/3/06, p.B7)
2005 May 23, Afghan and
coalition forces killed two insurgents in a firefight in central
Afghanistan, while US aircraft bombed and destroyed a cave where
about six other rebels were believed hiding.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 23, Thousands of
British Broadcasting Corp. journalists and technicians began a
24-hour strike over proposed job cuts, severely disrupting radio and
TV programs.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, In Shenzhen,
China, 16 buildings toppled near the Hong Kong border in what state
media said was the largest urban demolition blast ever in China.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, In eastern Congo
militiamen calling themselves Rastas killed at least 18 people and
kidnapped at least 50 others in a late-night attack on the village
of Ninja, hacking their victims to death as they ran for safety.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 23, A Russian-made
plane crashed shortly after takeoff near Bunyakiri, Congo, killing
26 people.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2005 May 23, French
anti-terrorist officers captured three suspected members of the
Basque separatist group ETA in an early morning sweep in southeast
France.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, A string of car
bombs and suicide attacks across Iraq killed at least 49 Iraqis and
wounded more than 130. Militants assassinated a top national
security official. Five US troops were killed by roadside bombs and
a vehicle accident.
(AP, 5/23/05)(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 23, In Ireland a bus
full of high school students collided with two cars northwest of
Dublin on and tipped over into a ditch, killing five teenage girls
and injuring 50 people.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 23, Morocco's king
pulled out of the first North African summit in more than a decade,
over Algeria's latest comments in a long-running dispute over
independence for Western Sahara. Moroccan King Mohammed VI will be
represented at the two-day summit in Tripoli, Libya, by Morocco's
foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, The Norwegian
Petroleum Directorate announced a wildcat exploration well drilled
in the Norwegian Sea has made a promising natural gas strike,
although it was too early to say how large.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, The Palestinian
Election Commission said that parliamentary elections scheduled for
July 17 will be delayed because it needed more time to prepare for
the vote.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, Ryszard Kalisz,
Poland's interior minister, offered his resignation amid reports of
growing corruption in police forces around the country.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, The Vatican said
there was no investigation under way of allegations that Rev.
Marcial Maciel Degallado, the Mexican founder of a conservative
religious order, sexually abused seminarians more than 30 years ago.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, In Zimbabwe
paramilitary units armed with batons and tear gas patrolled Harare's
main roads as police warned they would not tolerate any more
protests against their crackdown on street trading, the only
livelihood for thousands in the shattered economy.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 24, Breaking years of
gridlock, the Senate cleared the way for confirmation of Priscilla
Owen to the US appeals court following a compromise on President
Bush's current and future judicial nominees.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2005 May 24, Ignoring President
Bush's veto threat, the House voted to lift limits on embryonic stem
cell research.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2005 May 24, A US State
Department brochure, distributed to hundreds of delegates at the
188-nation conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,
listed milestones in arms control since the 1980s, while touting
reductions in the US nuclear arsenal. But the timeline omitted a
pivotal agreement, the 1996 treaty to ban nuclear tests, a pact
negotiated by the Clinton administration and ratified by 121 nations
but now rejected under Pres. Bush.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 24, Texas lawmakers
tentatively voted to give juries the option of sentencing murderers
to life in prison without parole.
(SFC, 5/25/05, p.A3)
2005 May 24, Ismail Merchant
(68), film producer, died in London. He collaborated with James
Ivory and their films included adaptations of novels by Henry James
(e.g. The Europeans) and E.M. Forster (e.g. A Room With A View).
(SFC, 5/26/05, p.B6)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.82)
2005 May 24, Indigenous leaders
from Arctic regions around the world called on the European Union to
do more to fight global warming and to consider giving aid to their
peoples.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, In Bolivia
thousands of demonstrators blocked major roads in and around La Paz,
isolating the city in a protest demanding the nationalization of the
oil industry and opposing autonomy for an oil-producing region.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, The environmental
group Greenpeace nominated President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and
five others for its first "Golden Chainsaw" prize, to be awarded to
the Brazilian deemed to have contributed most to the Amazon's
destruction.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 24, The British
government approved the extradition of three British bankers the
United States is seeking to prosecute on fraud charges involving
Enron Corp.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, In the Central
African Republic military strongman Francois Bozize won the May 8
runoff presidential runoff election, a move toward legitimizing his
rule two years after he seized power.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, In Colombia
suspected leftist guerrillas carrying assault rifles swept into a
southern town and attacked government offices, killing six town
councilors and five others.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, The EU announced
that its members would double their aid to poor countries by 2015.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.77)
2005 May 24, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a Baghdad junior high school for girls, killing six
people. 3 US soldiers were killed in central Baghdad when a car bomb
exploded next to their convoy. A US soldier sitting in the back of a
Bradley fighting vehicle at an observation post was shot to death by
gunmen in a passing car.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, A Web site that
acts as the clearinghouse for messages from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
said that Iraq's most-wanted militant had been wounded "for the sake
of God" and asked Muslims to pray for his recovery.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 24, Italian police
raided the homes and offices of 186 suspected members of a child
pornography ring, including three Roman Catholic priests and a local
mayor, that downloaded pictures from an exclusive Web site.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, In Mexico Eduardo
Villalobos, the director of a state prison in the border city of
Mexicali, was shot to death in an ambush outside his home.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded in the house of a tribal elder in South Waziristan region,
killing five women and a child.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 24, In Slovenia police
said Mitja Ribicic (86), a former Yugoslav secret service leader,
has been charged in connection with the revenge killing of thousands
of Slovenes following World War II, the first such charge in this
ex-Yugoslav republic.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO will offer airlift, training
and other logistics support to African Union (AU) forces struggling
to end the civil war in Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 24, World Orthodox
leaders gathered in Istanbul, the ancient seat of Orthodoxy. They
decided to stop recognizing the beleaguered patriarch of Jerusalem,
Irineos I, for allegedly leasing sites in the Palestinian side of
the city to Jewish investors. They asserted a rare unified position
on the crisis facing the church in the Holy Land.
(AP, 5/24/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.A1)
2005 May 25, Pres. Bush met
with Indonesian Pres. Yudhoyono. The US decided to lift a ban on the
government sale of non-lethal defense equipment to Indonesia as part
of a step-by-step process to restore full military ties frozen due
to human rights abuses.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 25, The US Senate
confirmed Texas Supreme Court Judge Priscilla Owen to serve on the
US Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
(SFC, 5/26/05, p.A3)
2005 May 25, In Michigan City,
Ind., Gregory Scott Johnson (40) died by injection at 12:28 a.m. for
beating and stomping an 82-year-old woman to death in 1985, then
setting her house on fire to hide the crime. Gov. Mitch Daniels
rejected a request for a reprieve to allow Johnson to donate part of
his liver to his ailing sister.
(AP, 5/25/05)(SFC, 5/25/05, p.A3)
2005 May 25, Country sweetheart
Carrie Underwood won the latest edition of "American Idol."
(AP, 5/25/06)
2005 May 25, Ismail Merchant
(68), half of the prestigious Merchant-Ivory filmmaking team, died
in London.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2005 May 25, In Azerbaijan
officials opened the first section of a $3.6 billion, 1,100-mile
pipeline that will carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. The
presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey were on
hand for the ceremony at the Sangachal oil terminal.
(AP, 5/25/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.B2)
2005 May 25, China rolled out
the red carpet for Uzbekistan's Pres. Karimov, underscoring the
importance it places on curbing the rise of Islamic militancy as it
welcomed the authoritarian leader criticized in the West for a
bloody crackdown on protesters. China signed a $600 million joint
oil venture with Uzbekistan.
(AP, 5/25/05)(WSJ, 5/26/05, p.A1)
2005 May 25, In Egypt police
and plainclothes security men beat and arrested demonstrators
calling for a boycott of a government-backed referendum on
constitutional changes that would clear the way for Egypt's first
multicandidate presidential election.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 25, A new plaza on San
Salvador's Jerusalem Avenue was inaugurated in honor of the late
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Migrants from Palestine flowed to
El Salvador for decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
and several families became prominent in business and politics.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 25, About 1,000 US
Marines, sailors and soldiers encircled Haditha city in the troubled
Anbar province.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 25, In India Sunil
Dutt (75), sports minister and former Bollywood icon, died after a
heart attack.
(Reuters, 5/25/05)
2005 May 25, In Italy a judge
ordered best-selling author Oriana Fallaci to face trial on charges
of defaming Islam in her recent book "The Strength of Reason."
Fallaci, who is in her 70s, said she is accused of violating an
Italian law that prohibits "outrage to religion."
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 25, Japan and Malaysia
agreed to key elements of a free-trade pact, to be launched in
December, covering automobiles and most other economic sectors.
(WSJ, 5/26/05, p.A10)
2005 May 25, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, vowed to fight anyone who
tries to take away the group's weapons, which he said included more
than 12,000 rockets capable of hitting northern Israel.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 25, Riot police in
Panama City fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse people
throwing bottles and rocks during a protest by an estimated 10,000
workers and students against proposed changes in the country's
pension system.
(AP, 5/26/05)(WSJ, 5/26/05, p.A1)
2005 May 25, In Russia
electricity outages crippled large sections of Moscow and nearby
regions. Power was restored the next day.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 25, A powerful car
bomb exploded in Madrid after a warning call from the armed Basque
separatist group ETA. 18 people were injured.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 25, In Suriname Pres.
Venetiaan faced an electoral challenge from former dictator, Desi
Bouterse, a convicted cocaine smuggler and military strongman, whose
victory would threaten millions of dollars in promised aid from the
Netherlands.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 26, President Bush met
with Palestinian leader Mohmoud Abbas, praised his steps toward
democracy, and said the US will pay $50 million in housing aid for
Palestinians in Gaza.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, Investigators
confirmed five cases in which military personnel mishandled the
Qurans of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but said they had
found no "credible evidence" that a holy book was flushed in a
toilet.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2005 May 26, The US and Ukraine
signed an agreement to safeguard nuclear waste and upgrade storage
facilities in Ukraine.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.A3)
2005 May 26, In Tennessee 4
lawmakers and a member of a powerful political family were indicted
on charges of taking bribes in a FBI sting dubbed “Tennessee Waltz.”
State Sen. John Ford had received payments totaling $55,000 and
boasted to undercover agents: “You are talking to the guy that makes
the deals.”
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.A12)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.32)
2005 May 26, Eddie Albert (99),
actor who moved smoothly from the Broadway stage to nearly 100
movies, died. He found stardom as the constantly befuddled city
slicker-turned-farmer in television's "Green Acres."
(AP, 5/28/05)(SFC, 5/28/05, p.A2)
2005 May 26, Dale Velzy
(b.1927), pioneer surfboard builder, died in Mission Viejo, Ca. His
famous board, The Pig, was made in 1955. Velzy helped launch the
surfing-movie genre by funding Bruce Brown to shoot “Slippery When
Wet” (1957).
(SFC, 5/31/05, p.B4)
2005 May 26, It was reported
that Jayant "Jay" Patel (56), an America surgeon born and trained in
India and linked to the deaths of at least 87 patients in Australia
over two years (2003-2005, had been given glowing references by six
colleagues in the United States despite having been cited for
negligence there earlier. In 2006 a court issued warrants for
Patel’s arrest on three charges of manslaughter and five charges of
causing grievous bodily harm to patients at Bundaberg Base Hospital
in Queensland. Patel was hired at Bundaberg without disclosing that
he had been disciplined for negligence by medical boards in Oregon
and New York. In 2008 Patel was arrested by FBI agents in Oregon.
(AP, 5/26/05)(AP, 11/22/06)(AFP, 3/12/08)
2005 May 26, In Sao Paulo,
Brazil, at least 1.5 million evangelical Protestants rallied in the
heart of the financial district, demonstrating their growing clout
in the world's largest Roman Catholic country. "The purpose of this
march, and of all the other ones we have organized over the years,
is to conquer Brazil for Jesus Christ."
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, China’s Xinhua
news agency reported that China has developed vaccines that block
the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among birds and
mammals.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, Pascal Lamy,
former European Union trade chief, was named next head of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and immediately vowed to steer struggling
free trade talks to a successful end. He was selected on May 13.
(AP, 5/26/05)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.79)
2005 May 26, Officials
announced that a nationwide referendum to open the way for Egypt's
first multicandidate presidential elections passed overwhelmingly.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, In southwestern
France protesting winemakers set fire to train cars, pelted them
with rocks and blocked rail traffic on their way home from
demonstrations in Nimes.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, India and Pakistan
exchanged ideas on ending a two-decade-old military standoff on
Kashmir's Siachen glacier, as senior defense officials began a
two-day meeting.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, In northeastern
India mudslides killed at least 14 people, burying them alive as
they slept in Nagaland state.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 26, The WTO agreed to
allow Iran to open talks to join the body that governs international
commerce, a day after Iranian nuclear negotiators renewed Tehran's
vow to refrain from developing atomic weapons.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, The Iraqi
government announced that a security cordon of 40,000 Iraqi soldiers
and police will ring Baghdad starting next week to try to halt a
spree of insurgent violence. Attacks left 15 Iraqis and one Marine
dead.
(AP, 5/26/05)(WSJ, 5/27/05, p.A1)
2005 May 26, The Iraqi
government arrested Musaab Kasser Abdul Rahman Hassan, known as Abu
Younis, a suspected member of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in
Iraq. The government claimed he was responsible for building car
bombs and carrying out more than 60 bombings around the capital. The
arrest was not announced until June 19.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 May 26, In central Iraq 2
US soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down and
crashed.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 26, Police killed 2
gunmen in a Dublin post office, the first fatal shootings by
Ireland's largely unarmed force in five years.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, The South Africa
state agency responsible for names of towns and cities approved
plans to rename the capital of Pretoria as Tshwane.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, International
donors pledged an additional $200 million to fund the African Union
peacekeeping operation in Sudan's western Darfur region during a
conference in Ethiopia to discuss the ongoing violence.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, Suriname's ruling
coalition survived an election challenge from a former dictator. But
former dictator Desi Bouterse's National Democratic Party more than
doubled its seats in the National Assembly.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, Syria's UN
ambassador said Syria has arrested more than 1,200 people trying to
cross the border into Iraq in recent weeks and sent many back to
their home countries because of suspicions they were trying to join
the insurgency.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 26, In Tham Krabok,
Thailand, the largest refugee camp for ethnic Hmong, who had fled
communist Laos, was officially closed.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, Speaking out for
the first time in favor of controversial base closings, President
Bush told the Naval Academy commencement the nation was wasting
billions of dollars on unnecessary military facilities and needed
the money for the war on terrorism.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2005 May 27, Testimony ended in
the Michael Jackson child molestation trial after prosecutors showed
jurors a video of the accuser being interviewed by police and
defense lawyers decided not to put on a rebuttal case. Jackson was
later acquitted.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2005 May 27, Pfizer Inc.
acknowledged rare cases of blindness in men taking its impotence
drug Viagra and said it is in talks with US regulators to change the
drug's label.
(Reuters, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, A lawyer for
Thomas Noe, Ohio coin dealer and Republican Party man, reported that
as much as $13 million of the state’s $50 million investment in
Noe’s rare coin fund could not be accounted for [see Oct 27].
(SFC, 5/28/05, p.A4)
2005 May 27, In North Carolina
Junior Allen (65) walked out of prison after 35 years in prison for
stealing a black-and-white television set.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 27, Schapelle Corby
(27), an Australian woman, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years
in prison for smuggling nine pounds of marijuana onto Indonesia's
Bali island.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, Thousands of HSBC
staff belonging to the Amicus trade union staged the biggest
walk-out for more than eight years against a leading British bank
when they went on strike in a bitter pay dispute.
(AFP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, Chechen warlord
Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for a power outage that caused
chaos in Moscow. Rebels said they burned a Moscow theater and caused
the blackout.
(AP, 5/27/05)(WSJ, 5/31/05, p.A1)
2005 May 27, In Colombia Diego
Fernando Murillo, a right-wing (AUC) paramilitary leader accused of
killing a state congressman, surrendered after a four-day,
nationwide manhunt.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, The EU
constitution cleared its final legislative hurdle in Germany, two
days before French voters have their say on the document. The Prum
Treaty was signed by Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Austria and Belgium (Italy has since said it wants to
join too). It covers a series of justice and home affairs issues
including the "exchange of information" (in effect, the "principle
of availability").
(AP,
5/27/05)(www.statewatch.org/news/2006/sep/05eu-g6.htm)
2005 May 27, Talks between
India and Pakistan to break their two-decade-old stand-off on
Kashmir's Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield, ended in
apparent deadlock.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, An Internet
posting said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is in good health and is running
his terror organization.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 27, In Iraq gunmen
shot and killed a moderate Sunni Muslim tribal leader with close
ties to Iraqi Kurds in the northern city of Kirkuk. Sheik Sabhan
Khalaf al-Jibouri, 52, died in a hail of machine-gun fire outside
his home.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 27, In Nepal thousands
of activists rallied to demand a restoration of democracy in the
first such protest since the monarch seized power and ordered a
crackdown on politicians.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, In Pakistan a
suicide bomber set off explosives in the midst of Shiite Muslims
reciting the Quran, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens gathered
for a religious festival at a shrine near Islamabad.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 27, King Fahd, Saudi
Arabia's monarch for the last 23 years was hospitalized for
unspecified tests.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 27, According to
Israeli sources Syria test fired 3 Scud missiles, one of which broke
up over two Turkish villages causing no injuries, in an act of
defiance to the US and the UN. Syria denied the charges.
(AFP, 6/3/05)(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 May 28, It was reported
that American rancher John Cain Carter served as the driving force
behind Alianca da Terra, a Brazilian NGO promoting certification and
standards of good practice for ranchers and farmers.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.68)
2005 May 28, Bulgarian
President Georgi Parvanov flew Tripoli to meet with Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi, days before a Libyan court rules on the appeal of
five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death over an AIDS-tainted blood
scandal.
(Reuters, 5/27/05)
2005 May 28, In Ethiopia
provisional results showed that the ruling coalition and its allies
won a majority in parliamentary elections, but the opposition made
significant gains.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 28, In Indonesia 2
bombs exploded at a busy market on Sulawesi Island, killing at least
22 people and wounding 40 others in an area marred by years of
inter-religious fighting.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 28, Iran's hard-line
Guardian Council approved a law that puts pressure on the government
to develop nuclear technology that could be used to build atomic
weapons.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 28, In Iraq 2 suicide
attackers detonated car bombs in northern Iraq, killing at least
five Iraqis, and the government confirmed the death of a Japanese
hostage abducted earlier this month. Attacks killed at least 45
Iraqis over the past 2 days including 10 people returning from a
religious pilgrimage in Syria. A US Marine was killed when a
roadside bomb struck his vehicle in northwestern Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/05)(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 28, More than 40,000
Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by American troops and air
support, began “Operation Lightning” against insurgents in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 May 28, In Sudan tens of
thousands of chanting refugees lined the muddy streets of Darfur's
largest camp to greet the U.N.'s Kofi Annan, who later listened as
women raped during the conflict told their stories.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 29, Dan Wheldon won
the Indianapolis 500 as Danica Patrick's electrifying run fell
short. She finished fourth.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2005 May 29, In Bellefontaine,
Ohio, Scott Moody (18) who was about to graduate from high school is
believed to have fatally shot his grandparents, mother and two
family friends before killing himself.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 29, George Rochberg
(86), composer, died. He was America’s 1st evangelist for serialism,
a way of composing invented by Arnold Schonberg in the 1920s.
(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.D8)
2005 May 29, In southern
Afghanistan's Kandahar province gunmen shot and killed Mullah Abdul
Fayaz, the top Muslim leader.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 29, In Brazil almost 2
million gay men, lesbians, transvestites and their supporters, many
in lavish Carnival costumes and waving rainbow-colored flags,
paraded in Sao Paulo to celebrate gay pride and call for the
legalization of civil unions between homosexuals.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 29, French voters
rejected the EU's first constitution, dealing a potentially fatal
blow to the charter. In 2007 it was repackaged as the Lisbon treaty.
(AP, 5/30/05)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.28)
2005 May 29, In Iraq suicide
bombings and ambushes killed at least 30 people, including a British
soldier. Iraqi forces swept through Baghdad, erecting checkpoints
and searching vehicles as they launched the largest offensive of its
kind since Saddam Hussein's ouster.
(AP, 5/29/05)(SFC, 5/30/05, p.A1)
2005 May 29, In Iraq Maj. Gen.
Ahmed al-Barazanchi, the director of internal affairs of Kirkuk
province and a former police chief, was shot several times. He died
the next day.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 29, The body of Raja
Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi, governor of Anbar province, was found
killed. Insurgents had abducted him May 10.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 29, Israel's Cabinet
approved the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 29, Thousands of South
Korean students rallying against the US military's five-decade
presence clashed with police after trying to enter the American
base, and at least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were
arrested.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 29, Lebanon held
parliamentary elections. Candidates loyal to the son of assassinated
politician Rafik Hariri swept the 1st stage of the first Lebanese
election largely free of Syrian domination, claiming all 19
parliamentary seats in Beirut.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 29, In southwestern
Nepal Maoist rebels shot dead a policewoman and her four-year-old
son.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 29, The World
Association of Newspapers' (WAN), meeting in Seoul, awarded veteran
Sudanese journalist Mahgoub Mohamed Salih its 2005 press freedom
award.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 29, In Taipei
thousands of men in black gangster garb took part in the funeral
procession of a reputed Taiwan mob godfather, nicknamed "Mosquito"
and "The Great Arbitrator." Hsu Hai-ching died this month at 93
after a long illness.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 29, In Venezuela tens
of thousands of marched in Caracas demanding the US extradite a
Cuban militant wanted for his alleged role in the 1976 bombing of a
Cuban airliner.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 30, Quoting letters of
the fallen from the war in Iraq, President Bush vowed to a Memorial
Day audience at Arlington National Cemetery that America would honor
its dead by striving for peace and democracy, no matter the cost.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2005 May 30, Natalee Holloway
disappeared on the last night of a trip to Aruba to celebrate her
graduation from an Alabama high school.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 May 30, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants claimed responsibility for a bicycle bomb aimed at
a NATO-led vehicle which wounded at least 7 Afghans and a rocket
which slammed into the peacekeeping force's base in Kabul.
(AFP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, US-led warplanes
and troops killed up to 9 suspected Taliban rebels after the
militants launched 3 attacks in quick succession on Afghan and
US-led coalition forces.
(AFP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 30, In Graz, Austria,
the body of a slain infant was found at an apartment complex. 3 more
soon discovered: 2 stuffed in a basement freezer, one entombed in a
paint bucket filled with concrete and one in a plastic bag beneath
debris in a garden shed.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 May 30, Miss Canada,
Natalie Glebova, was crowned Miss Universe in the 54th annual
pageant held in the Thai capital of Bangkok.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 30, China scrapped
concessions meant to avert a trade war with the US and Europe,
withdrawing a plan to sharply increase export duties on Chinese-made
textiles that are flooding foreign markets. The turnaround followed
new import controls imposed by Washington and the EU, which China's
commerce minister called a violation of WTO rules.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, President Jacques
Chirac began a widely expected government shakeup to save face at
home as European Union officials worked to control damage after
French voters rejected the EU's first constitution.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, Germany's
conservative opposition nominated Angela Merkel, a former chemistry
researcher who entered politics during the collapse of communism, as
its challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, Indonesia's first
polio outbreak in a decade widened with two new cases reported, as
the government kicked off a massive eradication campaign that aims
to vaccinate 6.4 million children in one day.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of police officers in Hilla,
south of Baghdad, killing 31 people and wounding 108, while US
forces mistakenly detained a Sunni political leader on the 2nd day
of an Iraqi-led security sweep in the capital.
(AP, 5/30/05)(SFC, 5/31/05, p.A1)
2005 May 30, In Iraq separate
air crashes killed 4 American and 4 Italian troops.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 30, The Israeli
military targeted rocket launchers just before an attack was to be
launched from northern Gaza, and two launchers were destroyed.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, Officials in
Lebanon announced that Saad Hariri, the son of assassinated former
premier Rafik Hariri, had swept parliamentary elections in Beirut.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2005 May 30, Nicaragua
President Enrique Bolanos issued an emergency decree, allowing him
to raise electricity prices as demanded by producers.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, In Pakistan a
blast ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque in the southern city of
Karachi, leaving at least 4 people dead, 3 of them the attackers,
and a dozen injured in a suspected suicide bombing.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30-31, In Pakistan a
mob angered by an al-Qaida-linked suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque
set a KFC restaurant afire in overnight rioting, killing six
employees and bringing the day's overall death toll to 11. Police in
southern Pakistan later arrested eight Shiite Muslims for attacking
the KFC restaurant.
(AP, 5/31/05)(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 May 30, Russia agreed to
begin withdrawing its troops from two Soviet-era bases in Georgia
this year, resolving one of the most serious disputes between Moscow
and its pro-Western neighbor.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 31, President Bush,
faced with a string of setbacks on Capitol Hill, shrugged off
questions about his political clout and promised during a news
conference to keep pushing Congress for a Social Security overhaul.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2005 May 31, Vanity Fair
Magazine revealed that W. Mark Felt (91), former FBI official, was
the Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat, who helped bring down Pres.
Nixon in 1974.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 May 31, Human Events, a
conservative weekly, published a list of what 15 conservative
scholars considered to be the 10 most harmful books of the 19th and
20th century.
(www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591)(SSFC, 6/12/05, p.C3)
2005 May 31, The US Supreme
Court overturned the 2002 criminal Enron-related conviction of
Arthur Andersen LLP ruling that the trial judge erred by granting
the government’s request to loosen the standard jury instructions.
(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.A1)
2005 May 31, The Massachusetts
Legislature voted to override Gov. Romney’s veto of a bill easing
stem-cell research curbs.
(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.A1)
2005 May 31, Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD) introduced its 1st PC microprocessors with a dual-core
chip design, the Athlon 64 X2.
(SFC, 5/31/05, p.C4)
2005 May 31, James Wolfensohn,
former World Bank chief, assumed the post of special envoy for Gaza
disengagement for the Quartet (USA, Russia, EU and UN). He was
assigned to co-ordinate Israel’s imminent withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip and to focus on economic ways to help Palestinians after the
Israeli exit. He left the post a year later.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wolfensohn)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.55)
2005 May 31, NATO troops took
command of security and reconstruction efforts in western
Afghanistan from US forces under a plan that will likely soon put
NATO forces into insurgent hot spots.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, A Belarus court
sentenced 2 opposition leaders to 3 years of compulsory labor for
organizing a 2004 anti-Lukashenko demonstration.
(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.A1)
2005 May 31, In Bolivia
thousands of demonstrators prevented legislators from reaching the
congressional building Tuesday, forcing the suspension of their
first session after a weeklong recess caused by continued street
protests.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, In Brazil
authorities ordered the slaughter of 17,000 chickens after 6,000
chickens died from a mysterious respiratory illness in Mato Grosso
do Sul state. Brazil is the world's largest chicken exporter.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, China said
reporter Ching Cheong of The Straits Times, Singapore's main
English-language newspaper, has admitted to spying for a foreign
intelligence agency. Cheong’s wife said he was arrested April 22
after a source gave him documents about purged former Communist
Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who died this year.
(AP, 5/31/05)(WSJ, 5/31/05, p.A1)
2005 May 31, In Dagestan a
police bus was bombed in Makhachkala and 7 people were killed.
(WSJ, 7/29/05, p.A11)
2005 May 31, French President
Jacques Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who was
France's voice against the Iraq war, as prime minister.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, In Haiti a fire
burned through a large market in Port au Prince moments after a gun
fight erupted that killed at least one man.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, Two-thirds of
Israel's Ein Gedi nature reserve was destroyed by fire, causing
considerable damage to animal and plant life in the lush oasis
sandwiched between the harsh Judean Desert and the Dead Sea.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, Pakistan’s Pres.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Senior al-Qaida terrorist suspect Abu
Farraj al-Libbi, arrested on May 2, will be sent to the US for
prosecution. He is believed to be behind two assassination attempts
against Musharraf and could have received the death penalty here.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 May 31, A Russian court
declared oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of an array of
charges in a trial widely criticized as politically motivated,
sentencing him to nine years in prison minus time served.
Co-defendant Platon Lebedev also received a 9-year sentence and the
2 men were fined 17 billion rubles ($615 million).
(AP, 5/31/05)(SFC, 6/1/05, p.A3)
2005 May 31, Sudan arrested a
second aid worker from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid agency
over a report on hundreds of rapes in the troubled Darfur region.
(Reuters, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, In Switzerland
Griselidis Real (76), writer and well-known prostitute who
campaigned for the rights and dignity of sex workers, died in
Geneva. In 2009 she was re-buried in the presence of 200 people at
the Cemetery of the Kings, which is reserved for individuals that
have profoundly marked Swiss or international history.
(www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/griselidis-real-493264.html)(AP,
3/10/09)
2005 May 31, Trinidad police
arrested Basdeo Panday, former prime minister (1995-2001) and
opposition leader, and 3 others on corruption charges connected to
an airport construction contract.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May, Feds in Minnesota
shut down the flagship company, Xpress Pharmacy Direct, of
Christopher Smith (25) and seized $1.8 million in luxury cars, two
homes and $1.3 million in cash held by Smith and associates. The
Spamhaus Project, an anti-spam group, considered him one of the
world's worst offenders.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 May, US airlines were
required to begin disclosing the death of dogs being shipped as
cargo. By mid 2010 122 dog deaths were reported.
(SFC, 7/17/10, p.A4)
2005 May, Energy ministers from
Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela agreed to develop a field in
Venezuela’s heavy-oil belt in the Orinoco, a refinery in Brazil’s
north-east and an oil and gas venture in Argentina under the name
Petrosur.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.33)
2005 May, In Edmonton, Canada,
the body of Ellie May Meyer, a 33-year-old brunette, was found by a
farmer plowing his field northeast of the city. Over 16 years, 12
prostitutes have been found dead around Edmonton. No one has been
arrested.
(CP, 5/14/05)
2005 May, Italy reported that
it had fallen back into recession for the 1st quarter of 2005.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.13)
2005 May, In Nigeria Mike Amadi
was sentenced to 16 years in prison for setting up a Web site that
offered juicy but phoney procurement contracts. Amadi was caught by
an undercover agent posing as an Italian businessman.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 May, Norway announced a
new biennial prize for science, the Kavli prize, funded by
philanthropist Fred Kavli to begin in 2008. Only the fields of
astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience would be considered for
the $1 million prize.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.84)
2005 May, An arc of windmills
started supplying electricity to 40 per cent of Ilocos Norte
province, the first source of clean energy introduced in the
Phillipines, a nation with 84 million people reliant on oil and gas.
(AFP, 10/12/05)
2005 May, In Portugal an audit
estimated that the nation’s deficit could reach 7% of GDP this year,
well over the 1999 EU limit of 3%.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.53)
2005 May, South Africa’s ruling
ANC issued a paper suggesting that the nations massive unemployment,
estimated at over 40%, could be reduced if the labor market was more
flexible.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.49)
2005 May, US forces fired
across the Iraqi frontier and killed a Syrian soldier during an
American military operation. The event was reported by a Syrian
general 5 months later.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Jun 1, In his first day on
the job, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said he hoped the bank
could help transform Africa from a continent of despair to one of
hope. Wolfowitz began a five-year term as head of the 184-nation
World Bank.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, In California a
landslide destroyed 17 multimillion-dollar houses and damaged nearly
11 others in Laguna Beach.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 1, A 5-day UN World
Environment Day conference opened in SF.
(SFC, 6/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 1, Missouri opened its
1st season of legal hand-fishing following fierce lobbying efforts
by Noodlers Anonymous, a local support group for catching catfish by
hand.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.37)
2005 Jun 1, eBay announced its
$620 million purchase of Shopping.com, a shopping comparison
service.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.65)
2005 Jun 1, The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the web
suffix .xxx for porn oriented web sites.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.59)
2005 Jun 1, George Mikan (80),
Minneapolis Lakers basketball star, died. He was so big and dominant
in college that he sparked the goaltending rule.
(WSJ, 6/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 1, In Afghanistan a
bomb from a suicide attacker tore through a mosque during a funeral
in Kandahar for a Muslim cleric opposed to the Taliban, killing at
least 20 people. The local governor said an al-Qaida-linked militant
was responsible.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, Burkina Faso
President Blaise Compaore opened the 7th summit of Sahel and Sahara
countries, spurring the 21-member body to take a decisive role in
shaping globalization.
(AFP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 1, China began levying
a 5.5% tax on residential property sold after this date. It would
only be applied to property sold fewer than 2 years after its
purchase.
(WSJ, 5/26/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 1, China called a
resolution by Brazil, Germany, India and Japan to expand the U.N.
Security Council, and hopefully give them permanent seats,
"dangerous" and hinted it would use its veto power if necessary to
block final approval.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, In southern China
heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides, leaving about 200 people
dead or missing.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, In Haiti gunmen
killed Paul-Henri Mourral (53), a French diplomat, in Port-au-Prince
and stole his car.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 1, A suicide bomber
attacked the main checkpoint to Baghdad International Airport,
wounding at least 15 Iraqis.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, Jerusalem city
engineer Uri Shetrit said 88 homes in an Arab neighborhood are
marked for demolition to make way for an archaeological park
documenting the disputed city's ancient Jewish origins.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, About 200 people,
some throwing stones, broke into Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court and
evicted activists who had occupied the building for more than a
month in a protest on behalf of five losing parliamentary
candidates.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, Dutch voters
worried about social benefits and immigration overwhelmingly
rejected the European Union constitution in what could be a knockout
blow for a charter meant to create a power rivaling the United
States. Slow economic growth in the Netherlands was seen as a key
reason for the massive rejection of the EU constitution
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, Peruvian doctors
separated the fused legs of Milagros Cerron, a 13-month-old baby
girl known as Peru's "mermaid."
(AP, 6/1/06)
2005 Jun 1, In Poland
investigators published a report offering new details of allegations
that a priest was an informer for Poland's communist government
while he was close to Pope John Paul II's entourage in the 1980s.
The report says against Rev. Konrad Stanislaw Hejmo met secretly
with communist agents from 1975 to 1988 in upscale restaurants and
hotel rooms, giving them details about the church in return for
money and gifts of liquor.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 1, Zimbabwe’s state
Herald newspaper reported that police have arrested more than 22,000
people as a fierce blitz on illegal stores and shantytowns gathered
pace, sending homeless people fleeing for the countryside.
(Reuters, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 2, Pres. Bush tapped
California Rep. Chris Cox (52) to chair the SEC following the
resignation of William Donaldson.
(SFC, 6/3/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 2, Georgia "runaway
bride" Jennifer Wilbanks pleaded no contest to faking her own
abduction; she was sentenced to probation, community service and a
fine.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2005 Jun 2, Thirteen-year-old
Anurag Kashyap won the national spelling bee championship by
correctly spelling "appoggiatura," which refers to an embellishing
musical note.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2005 Jun 2, Network computer
maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said it agreed to buy Storage Technology
Corp. for $4.1 billion in cash, bolstering its presence in the
fast-growing market for data storage.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, Researchers
reported that human trust in others was related to the hormone
oxytocin.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.76)
2005 Jun 2, Australia led 15
countries including Britain, France and Germany in a protest on
against Japan's plans to expand its annual whale hunt.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, On Australia's
southwest coast up to 160 whales became stranded on 2 beaches after
2 pods beached themselves.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, Federal police
targeted Brazil's environmental protection agency in a crackdown on
illegal logging, arresting 48 officials and several independent
businessmen.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 2, In northeastern
Brazil a government bus carrying Indians from a health clinic went
out of control on a wet road and careened into a creek, killing at
least 19 people.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, Melita Norwood
(93), former Soviet Union spy in Britain (1937-1972), died.
(Econ, 7/2/05, p.52)(http://tinyurl.com/8f3yy)
2005 Jun 2, Chinese, Indian and
Russian foreign ministers, meeting in Vladivostok, agreed to
intensify joint work against terrorism and underscored their common
approach to international affairs.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, In northern Iraq 3
suicide car bombings struck within an hour. In Kirkuk a car bomb
targeting a restaurant where bodyguards of Iraq's Kurdish deputy
prime minister were eating killed nine people and wounded 25. A car
bomb attack killed the deputy head of Diyala provincial council and
three of his bodyguards. 2 parked motorcycles exploded in Mosul
killing 5 Iraqis. Gunmen in speeding cars opened fire on a crowded
market in Baghdad. The series of attacks killed at least 34 people.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, A suicide car
bomber targeted a home where a group of people had gathered, killing
at least 10 Iraqis and wounding 10 more in Saud, a remote village
north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 2, Israel released 398
Palestinian prisoners, completing a pledge made under a cease-fire
agreement, hours after Israel and the Palestinians announced their
leaders would soon meet for the first time since February.
(AP, 6/2/05)(WSJ, 6/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 2, The US and France
reached a tentative deal to boost the size of the UN peacekeeping
mission in Ivory Coast by nearly 2,000 troops and police to help
enforce a shaky peace deal. Meanwhile thousands fled a region where
a village was burned and 55 people killed by unidentified gunmen.
(AP, 6/3/05)(WSJ, 6/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 2, Latvian lawmakers
voted to ratify the European Union constitution and challenged other
European nations not to give up hope that the charter can be
implemented.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, In Lebanon Samir
Kassir, a prominent journalist known for his anti-Syrian writings,
was killed after a bomb placed in his car exploded in Beirut.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, The Maldives
ushered in a new political era when parliament voted to allow
parties to form for the first time in the remote Indian Ocean
archipelago, a move that ended centuries of autocratic rule. The law
passed in July.
(Reuters, 6/2/05)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.55)
2005 Jun 2, It was reported
that Russia's state-controlled gas giant was negotiating to buy a
controlling share of the influential Izvestia daily from a private
conglomerate, a move that could bring one of the country's largest
private newspapers under firm Kremlin control.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 2, Serbian police
reported the arrest of at least 8 men they say are shown in a 1995
video killing a group of Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, Schabir Shaik, the
financier of the African National Congress during its struggle to
end apartheid, was convicted of corruption by a South African court.
He was found to have given Jacob Zuma over $100,000 in bribes from a
French arms company. Shaik served 2 years and 4 months of his 15
year sentence before he was freed in 2009, supposedly on medical
grounds.
(AP, 6/2/05)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.51)
2005 Jun 2, In Sudan 5 people
were killed and 16 others injured when a passenger plane crashed
shortly after take-off from Khartoum and caught fire.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 2, In southern Ukraine
a freight train crashed into a passenger bus at a railroad crossing,
killing 14 people. In a separate accident, a train crashed into a
car at another crossing point, killing three people.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 3, The US accused 14
nations of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade
in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. The countries
included Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kuwait, Myanmar,
North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo the United Arab
Emirates, and Venezuela.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 3, US military
officials said no guard at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror
suspects had flushed a detainee’s Quran down the toilet, but
disclosed there were instances in which Qurans were abused by
guards, intentionally or accidentally.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2005 Jun 3, Nicholas Scott
Faibish (12) was mauled to death by 2 family pit bulls at 711
Lincoln Way, SF. In 2006 a jury deadlocked in a trial that charged
his mother, Maureen Faibish (40), with felony child endangerment.
(SFC, 6/4/05, p.A1)(SFC, 8/1/06, p.B1)
2005 Jun 3, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb exploded next to a US military convoy, killing
two American soldiers and wounding a third.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 3, Albanian novelist
Ismail Kadare (69) won the first international version of Britain's
prestigious Man Booker literary prize. Kadare became famous in his
homeland with the 1963 publication of his first novel, "The General
of the Dead Army." His other works include "The Concert," and "The
Palace of Dreams."
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, Bolivia's Pres.
Carlos Mesa called a constitutional assembly and a referendum over
greater regional autonomies, meeting the key demands behind street
protests that have virtually paralyzed La Paz for more than two
weeks.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, In Brazil new
logging permits were suspended in Mato Grosso state where the rain
forest is being cleared at an ever increasing rate.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, Gordon Brown,
Britain's treasury chief, proposed canceling all debt to Africa's
poorest countries, eliminating all trade barriers and selling gold
reserves as part of a "modern Marshall plan" for the giant
continent.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, Iraqi insurgent
commanders "apparently came face to face" with four American
officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa
near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 3, Gunmen killed a
city council official in Kirkuk. Gunmen also killed Razzouq Mohammed
Ibrahim, an Iraqi contractor in charge of renovating a mosque in
western Samarra. Two Iraqi civilians, including a child, were killed
when their car swerved into a US Bradley fighting vehicle near
Khalis.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, Oscar Espinosa
Villarreal, former Mexico City mayor (1994-1998) and tourism
secretary, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for
embezzling government funds and ordered to pay more than $26 million
in reparations.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 3, A Peruvian judge
ordered the arrest of 29 military officials for their alleged
involvement in the decades-old massacre of dozens of campesinos in
an Andean village.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in New Delhi, India, for talks on a free
trade agreement and civil aviation liberalization.
(AFP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 3, The Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) was formed with Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and
Singapore as partners. It aimed to integrate the economies of the
Asia-Pacific region.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership)
2005 Jun 3, UN Pres. Jean Ping
presented 191 member governments the first draft of a plan for
overhauling the United Nations, complete with demands to pay more
attention to poverty and human rights. The document avoided the
contentious issues of Security Council expansion, defining terrorism
and guidelines for using force.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, The White House
downplayed a Pentagon report detailing incidents in which U.S.
guards at Guantanamo Bay prison desecrated the Quran, saying in a
statement, "It is unfortunate that some have chosen to take out of
context a few isolated incidents by a few individuals."
(AP, 6/4/06)
2005 Jun 4, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said China is not a threat to the US but is
building up its military without being threatened by any other
country. The US commerce secretary warned China of a potential
political backlash in Washington amid tensions over mounting Chinese
trade surpluses, surging textile exports and rampant product piracy.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported
that Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp., planned to create a
database and journal to track improvements in world health through a
joint venture with Harvard that would be accompanied by as much as
$115 million. In 2006 Ellison decided against the donation due to
the resignation of Pres. Lawrence Summers.
(SFC, 6/4/05, p.C1)(SFC, 6/28/06, p.C1)
2005 Jun 4, In Afghanistan Haji
Sultan, division commander for the Taliban, was arrested with Mullah
Mohammad Rahim, another senior Taliban official, in the western
Farah province.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Australian
officials said a senior Chinese diplomat has sought Australian
government protection for himself and his family, claiming he faces
persecution if he goes home. Analysts said Chen Yonglin's defection
could muddy Canberra's relations with Beijing.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, Thousands of
opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of
President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital, urging
the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free
parliamentary elections this year.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, Bangladesh police
arrested the 2nd wife of former president Hussain Mohammad Ershad
(1982-1990), after he accused her of stealing money and threatening
his life.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Canada Bernard
Landry resigned as leader of the Parti Quebecois.
(CP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Masked Chechen
soldiers apparently avenging the killing of a woodcutter raided a
tiny village, beat and killed residents and set homes afire. The
raid in Borozdinovskaya pitted ethnic Chechens against ethnic Avars,
marking the first serious conflict between the two groups.
Villagers, failing to attract local authorities' attention to the
abuses, abandoned their houses June 16 and fled to nearby Kizlyar in
Dagestan.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported
that the death rate on China’s roads, according to the WHO, was 680
per day plus 45,000 injuries. American traffic deaths in contrast
were at 115 per day.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.25)
2005 Jun 4, Justine
Henin-Hardenne beat Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1 to win the French Open
women's singles title.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2005 Jun 4, In Haiti police
killed at least 4 people and burned 12 homes during raids against
gang members in a slum filled with supporters of ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Iraqi police
arrested Mutlaq Mahmoud Mutlaq Abdullah, also known as Abu Raad, a
key aide to the leader of the Mosul branch of the al-Qaida in Iraq
terrorist group. A suicide car bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi
police checkpoint on a main road connecting northern Mosul with the
nearby city of Tal Afar, killing two officers and wounding four.
Iraqi and US troops discovered 50 weapons and ammunition caches and
a huge underground bunker west of the capital fitted out with air
conditioning, a kitchen and showers.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Northern Ireland
Terence Davison (49), a reputed IRA veteran, was arraigned for the
Jan 30 killing of Robert McCartney.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 4, In Laos after
decades on the run, 170 women, children and old men of the Hmong
ethnic minority, once part of a U.S.-backed secret army fighting
communists, emerged from their jungle hideouts to surrender to the
government.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4-2005 Jun 5, An
overnight border raid by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Mgheiti, a
remote Mauritanian army post in the northern desert, sparked a
gunbattle that killed 15 Mauritanian troops and nine attackers.
Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat claimed responsibility
for the attack.
(AP, 6/5/05)(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Jun 4, Hundreds of
activists gathered in southern Nigeria to rally support for an
opposition conference, backed by the Nobel prize-winning author Wole
Soyinka, to end ethnic and political violence in Africa's most
populous nation.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Pakistan Gul
Hassan, Islamic militant and member of the outlawed
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, was convicted and sentenced to death for
planning two suicide attacks that killed 45 minority Shiite Muslims
on May 7 and May 31, 2004, at mosques in Karachi.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 5, "Monty Python's
Spamalot" won three Tony Awards, including best musical; the musical
play "The Light in the Piazza" won six prizes, while "Doubt" was
named best drama.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2005 Jun 5, FBI agents in Lodi,
Ca., arrested Hamid Hayat (22) for training at an al Qaeda camp in
Pakistan and his father (47) for lying about his son’s activities.
In 2006 Umer Hayat pleaded guilty to charges of lying to customs
agents to avoid a trial. In 2007 Hamid was sentenced to 24 years in
prison for supporting terrorists by training with them in Pakistan.
(SFC, 6/9/05, p.A1)(SFC, 6/1/06, p.B1)(SFC,
9/11/07, p.D2)
2005 Jun 5, In San Francisco
big city mayors from around the world signed a set of 21 urban
environmental accords, capping a 5-day UN World Environment
conference.
(AP, 6/6/05)(SFC, 6/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 5, Texas Gov. Rick
Perry signed anti-abortion and anti-gay legislation at the Calvary
Christian Academy in Fort Worth.
(SFC, 6/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 5, The Chinese
government said 3 days of flooding triggered by torrential rains
killed 204 people in China's south and desert northwest and left 79
missing at the beginning of the country's summer flood season.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 5, Spanish teenager
Rafael Nadal beat unseeded Mariano Puerta of Argentina 6-7 (6), 6-3,
6-1, 7-5 to win the French Open men's singles title.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2005 Jun 5, An accident inside
the Frejus Alpine tunnel between France and Italy killed at least
two people. A truck loaded with tires and another carrying glue
caught fire along with four other vehicles.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 5, In Jordan 14 men
who earlier admitted plotting terrorism and sparking riots that
killed six people in southern Jordan testified that they were
tortured into confessing. The men then pleaded innocent before a
military court.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 5, Five suspected
Islamic militants were killed in an ongoing gunbattle with troops in
Indian Kashmir's Rajouri district.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 5, Kuwait named two
women to public office for the first time, less than a month after
parliament passed a historic law granting women the right to vote
and run for office.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 5, Lebanon held its
2nd of a 4-stage vote. A week earlier anti-Syrian opposition
candidates took most of the capital's 19 parliamentary seats. 53
candidates vied for 23 seats in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, the
armed group considered a terrorist organization by the US, and its
Amal allies swept voting in southern Lebanon.
(AP, 6/6/05)(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 5, Adolfo Aguilar
Zinser (b.1949), Mexican scholar and diplomat, died.
(Econ, 6/18/05,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2005 Jun 5, Swiss voters
approved, by a 55-45% majority, joining the European Union in the
Schengen passport-free travel zone, abolishing checks on the
country's border by 2007. They also granted same-sex couples more
rights.
(AP, 6/6/05)(Econ, 6/11/05, p.48)
2005 Jun 5, Taiwan reported
that it had successfully test-fired a locally developed cruise
missile capable of striking southeastern areas of mainland China.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 5, In southeastern
Turkey Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish commando unit overnight,
killing four soldiers and wounding one near Tunceli.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 6, The US Supreme
Court ruled 6-to-3 that people who smoke marijuana because their
doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating
federal drug laws.
(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.A1)(AP, 6/6/06)
2005 Jun 6, Actor Russell Crowe
was arrested for throwing a phone that hit a hotel employee in New
York City; he later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2005 Jun 6, Scientists reported
success with monkeys in using vaccines to fend off the Ebola and
Marburg viruses.
(SFC, 6/6/05, p.A2)
2005 Jun 6, Apple Corp.
confirmed plans to switch to Intel Corp. microprocessors.
(SFC, 6/705, p.C1)
2005 Jun 6, IBM and Ecole
Polytechnique of Lausanne, Switz., announced a partnership to begin
building a computer model of the human brain.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.75)
2005 Jun 6, PropLogis, the
largest real estate investment trust in the US, announced that it
will buy SF developer Catellus Corp. for $4.9 billion.
(SFC, 6/705, p.C1)
2005 Jun 6, Washington Mutual
announced that it will take over Providian Financial in a deal
valued at $6.45 billion.
(SFC, 6/705, p.C1)
2005 Jun 6, Anne Bancroft
(b.1931), film actress, died in NYC. She won the 1962 best-actress
Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in “The Miracle
Worker,” but achieved greater fame as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in
“The Graduate.”
(AP, 6/7/05)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0000843/)
2005 Jun 6, Dana Elcar (77),
film and TV actor (MacGyver), died in California.
(AP, 6/6/06)(www.collinwood.net/cast/elcar.htm)
2005 Jun 6, It was reported
that the rate of rural suicide in Australia is among the highest in
the world as farmers battle the stress of years of drought, failed
crops, mounting debt and slowly decaying towns.
(Reuters, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 6, President Carlos
Mesa, his 19-month-old government unraveling amid swelling street
protests and a crippling blockade of the Bolivian capital, announced
his resignation in a nationally televised address.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 6, Chechnya’s
Moscow-backed Pres. Alu Alkhanov said Russian military forces carry
out up to 10 percent of the kidnappings that occur in turbulent
Chechnya.
(AP, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 6, In Ethiopia one
girl was killed and seven people were wounded in violence over
disputed election results that gave the ruling party control of
parliament.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 6, In Kyrgyzstan an
arrest warrant was issued for former prime minister Nikolai Tanayev,
accused of illegally transferring about $1 million in state funds to
a private construction company run by his son. A request for
Tanayev’s extradition was sent to Moscow.
(AP, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 6, In southern Nepal
at least 37 people were killed and dozens more wounded when a
crowded bus detonated a land mine planted by suspected communist
rebels.
(AP, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 6, The International
Criminal Court at the Hague formally announced the opening of a war
crimes investigation in Sudan's Darfur region after receiving a list
of 51 potential suspects from UN.
(AP, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 7, President Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair embraced a tentative plan to
forgive the debt of poor African nations.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2005 Jun 7, A Univ. of Alaska
Fairbanks student found a track from a three-toed dinosaur believed
to be about 70 million years old in Denali National Park, the first
evidence that the animals roamed there.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jun 7, General Motors
announced plans to close plants and eliminate some 25,000
manufacturing jobs in the US by 2008.
(SFC, 6/805, p.C1)
2005 Jun 7, Terry Long, former
Pittsburgh Steelers lineman, died in a hospital about five hours
after he was found unresponsive in his suburban Pittsburgh home. An
Oct 19 revised death certificate indicated that he had committed
suicide by drinking antifreeze, and did not die as a direct result
of football-related head injuries.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2005 Jun 7, In Australia 2
Chinese defectors, one of them a diplomat who walked away from his
post, claim that China is running a spy network in Australia and
other Western countries.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 7, Brazil’s Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to carry out a battle against
corruption that would reduce it to a "sad memory."
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, A Chilean appeals
court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution in
a tax evasion case stemming from multimillion-dollar bank accounts
the former dictator held in the US.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, In Egypt 12 people,
including two children, were killed and 16 injured when a building
collapsed in Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 7, In Ethiopia police
raided a technical college in Addis Ababa, firing rubber bullets and
beating up students defying a government ban on protests during a
2nd day of violence.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, The EU head office
said that Italy broke the bloc's budget rules with excessive
deficits in 2003 and 2004 and is likely to breach the limit again
this year and in 2006.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, In Hungary
legislators narrowly elected Laszlo Solyom (63), a center-right
opposition candidate as the new president, in a setback for the
governing coalition.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, Lal Krishna Advani
(77), India's most prominent Hindu nationalist, quit as head of the
country's main opposition party following criticism of his kind
words for the founding father of Pakistan, a man reviled in India.
His resignation as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, also
made it official that India's Hindu political movement was
splintering.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, A Sunni Arab
politician said two insurgent groups were willing to negotiate with
the government, possibly opening a new political front in embattled
Iraq.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, Iraqi security
forces captured Jassim Hazan Hamadi al-Bazi, also known as Abu
Ahmed. a reputed key member of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in
Iraq terrorist group who is accused of building and selling cars
used by suicide bombers.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 7, In northern Iraq 4
apparently coordinated bombings in seven minutes killed 18 people
and wounded 39, while a car bomb in Baghdad injured 28.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, A convoy of trucks
believed to be carrying supplies to a U.S. military base west of
Baghdad was ambushed, and reporters who arrived after the attack
said they saw the bodies of at least seven people.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 7, Two US commanders
were killed at a base near Tikrit. The US military later charged a
Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez of Troy, N.Y. National Guard with
murdering Capt. Philip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, in what is
believed to be the 1st case of a US soldier in Iraq accused of
killing his superiors. Martinez was acquitted of murder on Dec 4,
2008.
(AP, 6/17/05)(AP, 11/1/05)(SFC, 10/23/08,
p.A7)(SFC, 12/5/08, p.A6)
2005 Jun 7, Irishman Bob
Geldof, who organized the 1985 Live Aid concerts, urged people to
sail to France "in their thousands" and bring activists back to
Britain to press world leaders into doing more to end poverty in
Africa at their July summit in Scotland.
(AFP, 6/7/05)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.56)
2005 Jun 7, Israeli soldiers
killed a top Islamic Jihad militant in a West Bank gunbattle, and a
Palestinian mortar attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza killed two
non-Israeli workers.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, A Libyan court
acquitted 9 police officers and a doctor accused of torturing six
foreign medics sentenced to death for allegedly infecting children
with HIV.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 7, A convention
adopted sweeping changes to Taiwan's constitution that will boost
its top two political parties and require future amendments to go
directly before voters, a measure opposed by China.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 8, The US Senate
confirmed California judge Janice Rogers Brown for the federal
appeals court, ending a two-year battle.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2005 Jun 8, Former Boston
Bruins star Cam Neely, the late Valeri Kharlamov and Murray Costello
were named to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2005 Jun 8, Seagate introduced
a disk drive for notebook computers that stores 160 gigabytes of
data. It used new technology called perpendicular recording.
(WSJ, 6/9/05, p.B7)
2005 Jun 8, The WWF
conservation group reported that fishing nets claim the lives of
some 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises around the world each day.
(WSJ, 6/9/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 8, In eastern
Afghanistan rebel rockets struck US troops unloading supplies from a
helicopter, killing two and wounding 8.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Brazil the top
financial officer for Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's party denied
paying off congressmen to keep the fragile governing coalition
alive, making a bid to contain political damage from an alleged
bribes-for-votes scandal.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, Security forces
opened fire on stone-throwing demonstrators in Ethiopia, killing 26
people in a third day of protests over election results.
(AP, 6/8/05)(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 8, French PM Dominique
de Villepin easily won a parliamentary vote of confidence after
announcing a job creation plan worth $5.5 billion.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Haiti Butteur
Metayer (34), a gang leader who started the uprising that led to the
ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, died of kidney failure.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, In India a bus hit
a high voltage wire, killing 11 passengers and injuring 15 others in
the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, An American-Iraqi
offensive killed at least 10 militants, including four blown apart
by their own car bomb.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Mexico Alejandro
Dominguez took office as police chief of Nuevo Laredo, saying he
wasn't afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and
killed by gunmen who fired some three dozen times.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 8, Nepalese police
arrested 53 journalists as they protested press restrictions.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Nigeria 5 men
and one woman were shot dead in the poor Apo neighborhood Abuja.
Police initially said they were armed robbers caught in the act, but
an inquiry established that they were unarmed. In Dec Nigeria
apologized to the families of the people who were shot dead and
offered them 3 million naira ($22,600) each, setting a precedent in
a country where police brutality is a fact of daily life.
(Reuters, 12/03/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Norway US
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Norwegian counterpart
on signed an agreement allowing the US military to continue storing
equipment there.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Palestine 3
workers at a Jewish settlement in Gaza were killed in a Palestinian
mortar strike, two West Bank militants were shot dead by soldiers
and an infiltrator from Egypt to Gaza was gunned down by Israeli
forces.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 8, A 2-day conference
on racism sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) opened in Cordoba, Spain.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 9, Pres Bush nominated
CIA and FBI veteran Henry Crumpton as the State Department's
coordinator for counterterrorism policy. President Bush defended the
USA Patriot Act, saying it had made America safer and should be made
permanent.
(Reuters, 6/9/05)(AP, 6/9/06)
2005 Jun 9, The governor of
Massachusetts requested federal aid due to an unusually big red tide
of toxic algae that has crippled the state’s shellfish industry.
(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 9, Richard Eberhart
(101), Pulitzer Prize winning poet, died in New Hampshire.
(http://tinyurl.com/d72om)
2005 Jun 9, In Bolivia Vaca
Diez, president of the Senate, relinquished his claim to the
presidency, as did the president of the lower house. Eduardo
Rodriguez, the Supreme Court chief justice, automatically became
president.
(AP, 6/10/05)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.34)
2005 Jun 9, Canada’s high court
struck down a Quebec ban on private health insurance that pays for
foster care.
(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A6)
2005 Jun 9, Chinese officials
signed preliminary agreements to invest about $1.5 billion in
construction, timber, agriculture and other industries in Russia.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 9, Iraqi Pres. Jalal
Talabani said Sunni Muslim Arabs will be given up to 25 seats on the
committee drafting Iraq's new constitution.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 9, Clementina Cantoni
(32), an Italian aid worker kidnapped at gunpoint in the Afghan
capital three weeks ago, was released.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 9, North Korea boasted
it was building more nuclear bombs and had the ability to arm them
on missiles.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 9, In the Netherlands
thousands of civil servants went on strike to protest declining
social benefits and low wages.
(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A6)
2005 Jun 9, Russia said it will
not back an int’l. investigation into the May 13 suppression of
protestors at Andijan, Uzbekistan.
(WSJ, 9/2/05, p.A13)
2005 Jun 9, The US lifted its
freeze on a $10 million aid package for Serbia-Montenegro, saying
the Balkan country had shown better cooperation with the UN war
crimes tribunal.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 9, Syria's ruling
Baath Party endorsed reforms that include allowing some independent
political parties, relaxing a state of emergency and granting more
press freedom.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 9, Syrian forces
raided a suspected terrorist hideout near the capital, killing 2
men, arresting a third and foiling alleged bombing plots that
targeted the nation's Justice Palace.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 9, A strike over
Zimbabwe's razing of shantytowns made a slow start and the
opposition boycotted President Robert Mugabe's opening of a new
parliament elected in polls critics said were unfair.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 10, President Bush and
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun pressed North Korea to rejoin
deadlocked talks on its nuclear weapons program and tried to
minimize their own differences over how hard to push the reclusive
communist regime.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 10, Citigroup Inc.
said it will pay $2 billion to Enron Corp. shareholders who accused
it of helping the energy trader in a massive accounting fraud.
(Reuters, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, Jim Exon (83),
former governor of Nebraska (1971-1979) and US Senator (1979-1996),
died.
(SFC, 6/11/05, p.B4)
2005 Jun 10, In eastern
Afghanistan an American soldier was killed and three US troops were
wounded when insurgents ambushed a patrol.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 10, China resolved a
trade dispute over textiles with the EU.
(WSJ, 6/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 10, In northeast China
a torrent of water rushed down a mountain and hit a primary school
in Heilongjiang province, killing 91 people, most of them students,
and leaving another four people missing.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 10, In southern China
a fire raced through the top three floors of a hotel, killing 31
people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 10, Torrential rains
in northwestern Colombia unleashed mudslides on an impoverished
mountainside neighborhood in Colombia's coffee-growing region,
killing at least 6 people.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, In India
opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani agreed to stay on as president
of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, three days after
resigning over his comments on the founder of Pakistan.
(Reuters, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, In Iraq militants
killed five US Marines and authorities found 21 bodies in civilian
clothes scattered near Qaim, a town close to the Syrian border. 11
were shot in the head and another was beheaded.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, Two American
scientists and an Austrian conductor won this year's Kyoto Prizes,
the Japanese awards for achievement in the arts and sciences.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, In southern Japan
an 18-year-old student tossed a homemade bomb into a high school
classroom, injuring 58 teenagers.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, Jyrgalbek
Surabaldiyev, a Kyrgyz lawmaker and owner of Kyrgyzstan's largest
automobile market, was gunned down. He was a close ally of the
country's former leader.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, In Mexico lawyers
for the brother of a former Mexican president sought his release on
bail after an appeals court threw out his 27-year murder sentence.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, King Harald V of
Norway and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden met in the middle of the
Svinesund bridge and opened the span over a fjord south of Oslo.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, A Pakistani court
ordered the release next week of 12 men connected to a notorious
June 22, 2002, gang-rape of Mukhataran Mai, including six convicted
of the crime.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, In South Africa
Pius Langa (66), a former shirt factory worker was handed the chief
justice's robes at a ceremony marking the appointment of the first
black South African to head a court system assailed by allegations
of racism.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, Zimbabwe police
fought running battles until dawn with supporters of a general
strike called to protest a government campaign against shack
dwellers and street traders. The mass strike failed on its final
day.
(AFP, 6/10/05)
2006 Jun 11, Afleet Alex won
the Belmont Stakes by seven lengths.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2005 Jun 11, US officials said
a cow had tested positive for mad cow disease in November, opening
the door to possible changes in testing procedures in the US beef
industry. The cow was later identified as being calved in Texas in
1993.
(AP, 6/11/05)(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.A1)
2006 Jun 11, The first tropical
storm of the season, Arlene, sloshed ashore in the Florida
Panhandle.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2005 Jun 11, Lillian Lux (86),
star of Yiddish theater, died. She made her name with almost
continuous performances of “A Khasene in Shtetl” (A Village Wedding)
from the 1940s.
(Econ, 6/25/05, p.86)
2005 Jun 11, In southern
Afghanistan an Afghan army truck collided with a bus, killing three
villagers and wounding seven. A US soldier was killed by small-arms
fire in Orgun-e.
(AP, 6/11/05)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.B3)
2005 Jun 11, Police
investigating the disappearance of an Alabama honors student in
Aruba arrested a man at dawn, hours after one of three young men
already in custody admitted "something bad happened" to the woman
after they took her to the beach.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, Australian farmers
danced in the rain as downpours delivered the first soaking falls in
over four years to large parts of drought-ridden eastern Australia.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, Finance ministers
from the Group of Eight industrialized nations meting in London
agreed to a historic deal canceling at least $40 billion worth of
debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations. These included:
Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras,
Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda,
Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, In northern China
an attack on a shantytown left six people dead and wounded 48
others. Villagers had disputed compensation offered by officials for
their land and occupied the proposed site in 2004. Authorities have
arrested more than 100 people and began investigating two Communist
Party officials following the attack.
(AP, 7/11/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.40)
2005 Jun 11,Two Ethiopian
opposition leaders were placed under arrest, a day after the ruling
party agreed to work with its foes to end violent protests that have
left 29 dead.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, French journalist
Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi assistant were freed and in good
health after nearly five months in captivity in Iraq.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 11, In Iraq a suicide
bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up during roll call at
the heavily guarded headquarters of an elite commando unit killing 5
people. Gunmen attacked a busload of construction workers south of
Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 11 and wounding three others.
Attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 23 people.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, US fighter planes
equipped with precision-guided missiles launched airstrikes on an
Iraqi town near the Syrian border, killing about 40 insurgents who
were stopping and searching civilian cars.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, In the Philippines
thousands of protesters demanded President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
step down during the biggest anti-government rally since allegations
surfaced that she fixed last year's election and her family received
gambling kickbacks.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, More than 2,000
people defied a ban on a gay-rights rally in Poland's capital,
taking to the streets of Warsaw against the orders of the city's
conservative mayor.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, Vasco Goncalves
(83), former Portugal prime minister (1974-1975), died. He played a
key part in the 1974 April revolution that toppled 48 years of
right-wing dictatorship.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, A new round of
peace talks on Sudan's Darfur region ran into early problems as
Khartoum's negotiators rejected Eritrean participation, stopping the
first behind-closed-doors plenary session from going ahead.
(Reuters, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 11, Jose Maria
Corredor, a Colombian drug smuggler wanted by the US, bribed his way
out of Venezuela's secret police headquarters with help from federal
agents.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 12, Vice President
Dick Cheney, reacting to a growing chorus of calls to close the US
prison at Guantanamo Bay, told Fox News Channel there were no plans
to do so.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2005 Jun 12, At the LPGA
Championship, Annika Sorenstam closed with a 1-over 73 for a
three-shot victory over Michelle Wie, who shot a 69 to finish
second.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2005 Jun 12, A fire in
Philadelphia left 5 children dead. Security bars on windows may have
hampered escape attempts.
(SFC, 6/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 12, In Iran 4 bombs
exploded in Ahwaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province
on the Iranian border with Iraq. 9 people were killed and 36 wounded
in the deadliest explosions in the nation in more than a decade.
(AP, 6/12/05)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.42)
2005 Jun 12, The US military
announced the killing of 4 more soldiers, pushing the American death
toll past 1,700. Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled bodies of 28
people, many thought to be Sunni Arabs, buried in shallow graves or
dumped streetside in Baghdad.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12,The Kurdish
Parliament elected veteran guerrilla leader Massoud Barzani the
first president of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12, British troops
arrested a group of Iraqi insurgents suspected of carrying out
separate roadside bombings that killed two British soldiers.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12, The Venice
Biennale opened under the direction of Rosa Martinez and Maria de
Corral.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.80)
2005 Jun 12, Italians voted in
national referendums on whether to loosen assisted fertility
legislation. 90% voted to change the law but only 26% of eligible
voters bothered to turn out.
(AP, 6/12/05)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.48)
2005 Jun 12, UniCredit, Italy’s
largest bank, announced the takeover HVB Group, Germany’s 2nd
biggest.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.70)
2005 Jun 12, Kuwait state TV
reported that the Kuwaiti government has appointed its first female
Cabinet minister, a month after lawmakers in this oil-rich nation
granted women the right to vote and run for office. Massouma
al-Mubarak (54), a women's rights activist and columnist, was given
the planning and administrative development portfolios.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12, Lebanon held its
third round of a four-stage election. Michel Aoun, a Lebanese
Christian general, appeared headed toward a surprising victory. He
once fought the Syrian army and returned from exile just weeks ago.
Fifty-eight of 128 seats in parliament were at stake in the
elections in central and eastern regions of the country.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 12, Pakistan's army
seized control of the national telecoms firm after trade unions
called a strike against the company's privatization next week.
(AFP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12, The Palestinian
Authority carried out its first executions since 2001, killing four
convicted murderers as part of a new campaign to rein in lawlessness
and chaos.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12, In Russia an
explosion believed caused by a terrorist bomb derailed a train
traveling from Chechnya to Moscow during a national holiday,
injuring at least 15 people. The Day of Russia holiday, formerly
known as Independence Day, marks the Russian parliament's June 12,
1990, declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 12, In South Africa
Makobo Modjadji (27), the famed rain queen of the Bolobedu people,
died of unspecified causes.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, The US Senate
apologized for blocking anti-lynching legislation in the early 20th
century, when mob violence against blacks was commonplace.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2005 Jun 13, The Supreme Court
warned prosecutors to use care in striking minorities from juries,
siding with black murder suspects in Texas and California who
contended their juries had been unfairly stacked with whites.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2005 Jun 13, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger called for a special election on his initiatives to
change state government.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, A jury in Santa
Maria, Calif., acquitted Michael Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old
cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch. The pop music star was found
not guilty of child molestation, conspiracy and other counts.
(AP, 6/14/05)(AP, 6/13/06)
2005 Jun 13, Leonard Pickell,
former president of the James Beard Foundation, was sentenced 1 to 3
years in prison in NY state for stealing over a $1.1 million from
the foundation.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Jun 13, Philip Purcell
announced that he would resign as CEO and Chairman of the Board at
Morgan Stanley. He was forced out with a golden parachute valued at
$113.7 million. Purcell had orchestrated the 1997 merger between
Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley. In 2007 Patricia Beard authored
“Blue Blood & Mutiny: The Fight for the soul of Morgan Stanley.”
(Econ, 10/13/07,
p.98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Purcell)
2005 Jun 13, Scientists
reported the discovery of an Earthlike planet orbiting the star
Gliese 876, which is about 15 light-years from Earth. The planet was
2 million miles from its star and surface temperatures were
estimated at 400-700 degrees.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 13, Australia and
Pakistan signed a new counter-terrorism pact during a visit by
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, Australia handed
East Timor the base at Moleana, a tiny town near the border with
Indonesia, signaling the end of a six-year mission that heralded a
controversial new era of regional intervention in East Timor.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 13, Burundi began
forced repatriation of thousands of Rwandan refugees, who feared
reprisals at home. The UN condemned the action.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, Ethiopia's main
opposition leader was freed from house arrest after the country's
main political parties agreed to work together for peace after 10
days of political unrest left at least 37 people dead.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Ethiopia police
shot and killed an opposition politician, prompting the arrest of
six officers, as the government rejected an opposition offer to
renew a peace deal.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 13, The Paris Air Show
opened. The Russian Lavochkin Association demonstrated a new escape
pod for people trapped in tall, burning buildings.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.60)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.81)
2005 Jun 13, In India officials
said at least 275 people have died from sunstroke and dehydration in
northern India and neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh so far this
summer, as high temperatures sweep the region ahead of the monsoon.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, Iraqi insurgent
commanders "apparently came face to face" with four American
officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa
near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Iraq 4 suicide
car bombings and other insurgent attacks killed 10 people, and at
least 16 Iraqis were wounded after militants opened fire on
authorities trying to evacuate the injured from one of the blasts.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, Israel was elected
one of 21 vice-presidents of the next UN General Assembly session.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Italy a
Vatican-backed voter boycott helped defeat efforts to ease
restrictions on assisted procreation and embryo research.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Kashmir a bomb
hidden in a pickup truck exploded in the bustling town of Pulwama,
killing 15 people, including the suspected attacker, and injuring at
least 60 others.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Kyrgyzstan
guards outside a hotel opened fire on hundreds of traders who had
come to the southern city of Osh to demand fair market practices. 4
people were hurt.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Martinique
Patrick Mariello showed up at a police station to say he had set his
ex-girlfriend's car on fire. The charred body of the 28-year-old was
found near the car. In 2008 Mariello (32) Mariello testified that he
was upset his ex-girlfriend never told him she had an affair with
his best friend. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2005 Jun 13, Moroccan officials
said at least 12 people, six of them children, drowned when a rubber
dinghy carrying would-be immigrants to Europe capsized off Africa's
northern coast.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Nepal police
arrested nearly 100 journalists during a protest to demand King
Gyanendra immediately lift media restrictions imposed 4 months ago.
At least 14 rebels and security force members were killed in a
gunbattle.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, Alvaro Cunhal
(91), Portuguese Communist leader, died. He led Portugal's CP for
half a century and became a national hero after the overthrow of the
country's dictatorship.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, Ukraine
prosecutors said authorities had arrested the former head of
Ukraine's peacekeeping troops in Iraq on charges of smuggling.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, Mohammed ElBaradei
won a third term as head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 14, US Army deserter
Charles Jenkins, who crossed into North Korea in 1965, arrived in
the United States for his first visit in 40 years.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2005 Jun 14, Michelle Wie
became the first female player to qualify for an adult male U.S.
Golf Association championship, tying for first place in a 36-hole US
Amateur Public Links sectional qualifying tournament.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2005 Jun 14, The 7.0-magnitude
quake struck northern California about 90 miles southwest of the
coastal community of Crescent City, where a 1964 tsunami killed 11
people.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 14, A health expert
warned that Kabul is on the verge of a cholera epidemic, with more
than 2,000 cases of the disease and at least eight deaths reported
in recent weeks.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Fighting between
about 90 suspected Taliban rebels and hundreds of Afghan soldiers
and U.S.-led coalition troops left seven insurgents dead and 10
wounded, while a rebel attack on a medical clinic killed a doctor
and six others.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 14, The Argentine
Supreme Court struck down 2 amnesty laws passed in the 1980s.
Hundreds of people could be charged with torture, disappearances and
babynapping during Argentina's "Dirty War" against dissidents.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.39)
2005 Jun 14, A 7.9 earthquake
rattled cities in Bolivia and Peru and heavily damaged mountain
villages in northern Chile, killing at least 11 people including a
family of 6.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 14, Colombia unveiled
its own version of a deck of cards for its most wanted insurgent
leaders. Army officials planned to distribute 5,000 of the decks to
soldiers battling the rebels across the country.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, In Athens, Greece,
Asafa Powell of Jamaica, broke the world 100-meter dash record with
a time of 9.77 seconds.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 14, A bomb exploded
outside a bank in Kirkuk, killing 23 people, including child street
vendors and pensioners waiting for their checks. In Baghdad, the
bodies of 24 men killed in ambushes were brought to a hospital. 5
Iraqi and 3 US soldiers were killed.
(AP, 6/14/05)(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 14, A senior US
military official said up to 20 percent of suicide car bombers in
Iraq are from Algeria, a sign of growing cooperation between Islamic
extremists in northern Africa and like-minded Iraqis.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Carlo Maria
Giulini (91), renowned conductor, died in Brescia, Italy.
(SFC, 6/16/05, p.B7)
2005 Jun 14, Japanese automaker
Toyota Motor Corp. broke ground on a new assembly plant in St.
Petersburg, in a vote of confidence in the booming Russian consumer
market despite investors' jitters over the Yukos case.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.58)
2005 Jun 14, A strike called by
Kashmir separatists paralyzed India's portion of the disputed
Himalayan province, shutting almost all shops, schools and offices
to protest an apparent suicide attack that killed 15 people and
injured 60 a day earlier.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Raul Salinas, the
brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was
released on bail after 10 years in prison on charges he masterminded
the 1994 killing of a political rival.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Nepal freed all
the journalists detained in a protest of media restrictions, bowing
to international demands that the reporters be released at once.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, President Thabo
Mbeki dismissed his deputy Jacob Zuma, after he was implicated in a
corruption scandal, throwing wide open the question of who will
become the next leader of South Africa. Mbeki soon picked Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka, his minister for minerals and energy, to replace
Zuma.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.46)
2005 Jun 14, A UN report showed
South America's cocaine output rose by 2 percent last year, bucking
a five year downward trend as increases in Peru and Bolivia outpaced
Colombia's clampdown on coca cultivation.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Zimbabwe reported
that police have razed more than 20,000 shacks and other structures
in what President Robert Mugabe called “Operation Murambatsvina,”
(drive out the rubbish), an urban cleanup campaign. Some 700,000
people had their homes or businesses destroyed in the campaign.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 6/11/05, p.46)(Econ, 5/27/06,
p.46)
2005 Jun 15, A Republican-led
House voted to upend a provision of the Patriot Act that allows
federal agents to examine people’s book-reading habits at public
libraries. Pres. Bush threatened to veto any the Justice Dept.
spending bill if it weakens the act.
(SFC, 6/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 15, Former Baylor
basketball player Carlton Dotson was sentenced to 35 years in
prison, a week after he unexpectedly pleaded guilty to murdering
teammate Patrick Dennehy.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2005 Jun 15, The autopsy
released on Terri Schiavo backed the contention of her husband,
Michael, that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding she
was severely and irreversibly brain-damaged and blind as well.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2005 Jun 15, It was reported
that Microsoft Corp. will provide computer training to more than
2,000 disadvantaged youths in rural Bangladesh over the next year.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, The opera
“Gertrude Stein Invents A Jump Early On” with music by William C.
Banfield (b.1961) and words by Karren LaLonde Alenier (b.1947) had
its world premiere by the Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York
City under the direction of Nancy Rhodes.
(www.steinopera.com)
2005 Jun 15, In Afghanistan 4
people, including 2 boys, were killed by mines.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 15, Armenia said
Azerbaijan was stockpiling more arms than permitted by treaty.
(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 15, Blairo Maggi,
Brazilian soyabean magnate, governor of Mato Grosso, and winner of
this year’s Greenpeace “golden chainsaw” award for deforestation,
refused to accept the award and slunk out through the back door of
the school he was visiting, to the taunting shouts of hundreds of
children.
(Econ, 8/8/09,
p.70)(www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/brazilian_soy_k.php)
2005 Jun 15, Canada's minority
government survived a series of confidence votes, boosting Prime
Minister Paul Martin and greatly reducing the risk his
scandal-battered Liberal Party government could fall.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, China's biggest
automaker, FAW Car Co., warned that its first-half net profit could
fall by more than 50 percent amid sluggish sales, rising costs and
government moves to tighten credit for buying cars.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, Diego Murillo, a
brutal paramilitary warlord who made a fortune in Colombia's drug
trade, demobilized more than 400 of his AUC fighters at a ceremony
under a peace deal critics say could let him get away with murder.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, A US-based human
rights group said thousands of people have been arrested across
Ethiopia following violent clashes in which police killed 36 people.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, The EU commission
slapped a 40 million pound fine on pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca
for illegally pushing rivals of a stomach ulcer medicine out of the
market.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, In Guatemala a
rain-sodden hillside gave way and buried houses in seven
neighborhoods of a rural town, killing at least 21 people.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 15, Veteran civil
servant Donald Tsang effectively won Hong Kong's leadership race,
filing papers that showed he had the solid backing of an election
committee that picks the Chinese territory's leaders.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, India passed its
Rights for Information Act.
(Econ, 3/12/11,
p.18)(http://rti.gov.in/webactrti.htm)
2005 Jun 15, Indonesia reported
its 1st human case of bird flu.
(SFC, 6/16/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 15, Iraqi troops,
backed by US forces, freed Douglas Wood, an Australian-born contract
engineer, after six weeks in captivity. The release came as a
suicide bomber dressed in an Iraqi army uniform blew himself up in a
mess hall north of Baghdad, killing at least 25 Iraqi soldiers and
injuring 27. A suicide car bomber slammed into 3 police cars on
patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing 8 officers. Brutal attacks across
Iraq killed more than 50 people.
(AP, 6/15/05)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 15, Mexico's Supreme
Court ruled that former Mexican President Luis Echeverria can be
charged with genocide for his alleged involvement in the 1971
massacre of student protesters.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, A militant group
in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region kidnapped 2 German and 4
Nigerian workers of a contractor firm providing service for
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, OPEC agreed to
increase its production quota by half a million barrels a day in an
effort to cool high crude oil costs that have dampened the global
economy.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, Poland said it
will cut its 1,700-troop deployment to Iraq this summer by as many
as 300 troops.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, In Romania
Maricica Irina Cornici (23), an Orthodox nun, was found dead, gagged
and chained to a cross. Father Daniel (29), the superior of the Holy
Trinity monastery, had ordered the crucifixion of the young nun
because she was "possessed by the devil." The Orthodox priest
faced murder charges and was unrepentant as he celebrated a funeral
mass for his alleged victim. [see Jun 22]
(AFP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 15, In Russia
authorities failed to contain a spill of heavy fuel from a derailed
train and it flowed into waterways that supply Moscow with drinking
water. Some 770 tons of thick, tar-like fuel spilled from more than
a dozen tanker cars that went off the tracks about 100 miles
northwest of Moscow.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 15, In Russia 2
explosions ripped through a petroleum storage depot outside Moscow,
killing two workers, injuring another and forcing the evacuation of
hundreds from nearby homes and a hospital.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, Spanish
authorities said police had arrested 16 Islamic terror suspects in
raids in several cities, including 11 men accused of having ties to
Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's group al-Qaida in Iraq and recruiting people
for suicide attacks there.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, Sri Lanka's
president vowed to go ahead with a deal to share tsunami aid with
the rebel Tamil Tigers, despite a threat by a ruling coalition
partner to leave the government if she does not back down.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, Vietnam reported 6
new cases of bird flu in the past week.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A15)
2005 Jun 16, On the eve of
Iran's presidential election, President Bush said the voting was
designed to keep power in the hands of a few rulers "through an
electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy."
(AP, 6/16/06)
2005 Jun 16, James Weinstein
(b.1926), historian and founder of the political magazine “In These
Times,” died in Chicago.
(SFC, 6/25/05, p.B4)
2005 Jun 16, Taliban rebels
ambushed a police convoy in southern Afghanistan, taking at least 10
officers and a district police chief captive.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 16, Australian
scientists said they have found a way to make blood cells in volume
out of human master cells, which could eventually lead to production
of safe blood cells for transfusions and organ transplants.
(Reuters, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 16, In Brazil Chief of
Staff Jose Dirceu resigned over accusations he knew of a vote-buying
scheme in Congress, becoming the highest-ranking official hit by a
scandal that has shaken President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's
administration.
(AP, 6/16/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.37)
2005 Jun 16, In northwestern
Cambodia a man driven by a grudge against his former employer
spearheaded an assault on an international school in Siem Reap,
taking dozens of children hostage and silencing a crying a
2-year-old Canadian boy by shooting him in the head.
(AP, 6/17/05)(SFC, 6/17/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 16, EU leaders put on
hold plans to unite their 25 nations under a single constitution.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2005 Jun 16, Officials said the
Peace Corps has suspended operations in Haiti and evacuated its 16
volunteers because of increasing violence.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 16, India allowed
foreign funds to invest in local news publications, widening the
potential investor base within a 26 percent ceiling on foreign
ownership. Foreign firms were allowed to own 100% of non-news
publications.
(AP, 6/16/05)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.44)
2005 Jun 16, A roadside bomb
attack killed five US Marines, and gunfire killed an American sailor
in a western Iraqi town. A suicide car bomber slammed into a truck
that was carrying policemen along the main road connecting Baghdad
with its airport, killing at least eight officers and injuring at
least 25.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 16, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi,
Japanese resort and railroad kingpin, pleaded guilty to charges of
insider trading and falsifying records at the opening of his trial.
This was widely seen as a symbol of the growing pressures toward
transparency and social responsibility in corporate Japan.
(AP, 6/16/05)(SFC, 6/17/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 16, Board members of
the UN atomic watchdog agency approved a deal that exempts Saudi
Arabia from nuclear inspections, despite serious misgivings about
the arrangement in an era of heightened proliferation fears.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 16, Marxists lawmakers
quit Sri Lanka's governing coalition over the president's plan to
share tsunami relief with ethnic Tamil rebels.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 17, The US Roman
Catholic bishops agreed to a five-year extension on their
unprecedented policy of permanently barring sexually abusive clergy
from church work.
(AP, 6/17/06)
2005 Jun 17, MasterCard
International said a security breach had exposed about 40 million
payment cards of various brands to potential fraud in the biggest
such privacy violation ever reported. The breach was traced to
Atlanta-based CardSystems Solutions.
(Reuters, 6/18/05)(SSFC, 6/19/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 17, The US reported
that its Current Account Trade Deficit, the broadest measure of
international trade, rose to an all-time high of $195.1 billion from
January through March of this year as the country sank deeper into
debt to Japan, China and other nations.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 17, Marcus Wesson, the
domineering patriarch of a large clan he'd bred through incest, was
convicted in Fresno, Calif., of murdering nine of his children.
Wesson was later sentenced to death.
(AP, 6/17/06)
2005 Jun 17, Dennis Kozlowski,
former CEO of Tyco Int’l., and Mark Swartz, former CFO, were
convicted on all but one of 31 counts of various fraud charges. They
were convicted of looting their company of more than $600 million.
(SFC, 6/18/05, p.C1)(AP, 6/17/06)
2005 Jun 17, Crude oil prices
for July delivery hit a record high closing at $58.47 a barrel.
(AP, 6/18/05)(SFC, 6/18/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 17, Bank of America
signed an agreement to buy a 9 percent stake in state-owned China
Construction Bank for $3 billion, the largest single purchase of
stock in a Chinese bank by a foreign financial institution.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 17, San Francisco
enacted its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Commodities
Ordnance. It became the 1st US city take public health and
environmental stewardship into consideration when purchasing
products.
(SFC, 6/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Jun 17, Australia pledged
to ease a controversial policy of locking up refugees.
(AFP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 17, Egyptian security
forces in the Sinai mountains clashed with suspects in deadly
attacks last year on Red Sea resorts. Security officials said a
soldier and a fugitive were killed and four other soldiers were
wounded.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 17, In Germany former
US Pres. George Bush, one-time Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and
former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl received an award for their
role in ending Germany's Cold War division.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 17, In Haiti police
raided a slum of Bel Air teeming with gangs loyal to ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Residents accused the officials of
killing two people, including a 17-year-old girl.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 17, Iranians voted in
an election shaping up as the closest presidential race since the
1979 Islamic Revolution. Young people disillusioned by the theocracy
called for a boycott of the balloting. Voters failed to give any
candidate an outright majority and hard-liners made an unexpectedly
strong showing. A 2nd round between former president Rafsanjani and
conservative Tehran mayor Ahmadinejad was scheduled in a week.
(AP, 6/17/05)(AP, 6/18/05)(WSJ, 6/20/05, p.A13)
2005 Jun 17, The US military
launched a major combat operation with 1,000 Marines and Iraqi
soldiers in the hunt for insurgents and foreign fighters in a
volatile western province straddling Syria.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 17, In Iraq 2 US
soldiers were killed and one was wounded during a small-arms
skirmish with insurgents in Karabilah. A car bomb blew up outside a
mosque in the western town of Habaniyah, killing four people and
injuring another 15.
(AP, 6/17/05)(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 17, In Kyrgyzstan
several hundred unarmed supporters of a presidential hopeful who was
denied registration in next month's election stormed the government
headquarters. Troops with truncheons and tear gas beat back
protesters in the biggest unrest in Kyrgyzstan since its longtime
president was ousted in March. The clash injured 39 people.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 17, In Northern
Ireland Roman Catholic hard-liners assaulted police and Protestant
marchers in a religiously polarized part of Belfast, and nearly 30
people were injured.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 17, Pakistan said it
has completed arrangements to sell 26 percent of its state-run
telephone company amid employee protests over the sale.
(AP, 6/17/05)
2005 Jun 18, Former Texas
Congressman J.J. “Jake” Pickle died in Austin at age 91.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2005 Jun 18, In Australia more
than a dozen Chinese nationals detained for immigration violations
slashed their wrists and body parts in attempted suicide fearing
they will be deported.
(AFP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, In Austria an
explosion ripped through a pizzeria in a town in the southeastern
province of Styria, killing 2 children and injuring 7, in a blast
that may have been the result of an attack.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, In Azerbaijan
thousands of demonstrators chanting "Freedom" and carrying portraits
of President Bush marched across Baku, demanding the resignation of
the government and free parliamentary elections.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, Calgary, Canada,
declared an unprecedented state of emergency as flood fears prompted
by heavy rain forced 2,000 residents to be ordered out of their
homes.
(CP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, It was reported
that rising waters in China's central Dongting Lake, one of the
nation's largest freshwater bodies, are forcing millions of rats
into surrounding farmlands where the rodents are ravaging crops.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, EU leaders blamed
each other after a summit collapsed without any real agreement on
what lies ahead for the half-century project of uniting the
continent. But they agreed Europe is in a crisis.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, In Guatemala huge
explosions rocked a weapons storehouse on a military base north of
Guatemala City. There were no casualties.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, Reliance, India's
largest private sector conglomerate, said the $24 billion group
would be split between Anil and Mukesh Ambani in a deal brokered by
their mother.
(AP, 6/19/05)(WSJ, 6/20/05, p.A13)(Econ, 6/25/05,
p.58)
2005 Jun 18, Iraqi forces and
US Marines battled insurgents on two fronts in a restive western
province, killing about 50 militants. It was the 2nd day of
Operation Spear, Romhe in Arabic, the military’s latest campaign to
stop foreign fighters infiltrating from neighboring Syria. In
Baghdad a 10-year-old Iraqi girl was killed and 2 people were
injured when a roadside bomb missed a passing American military
convoy and detonated near the child.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, In Kyrgyzstan
Mukar Cholponbayev, who served as speaker of the Central Asian
nation's lower parliament house in the late 1990s, was arrested in
the capital Bishkek for allegedly helping to organize the previous
day’s takeover of the government headquarters.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, Militants in
southern Nigeria released six oil workers taken hostage by a group
demanding $20 million from Shell for local communities.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, The Palestinian
parliament passed a compromise election law afternoon removing a
major hurdle to new legislative elections that were originally
scheduled for next month but were postponed indefinitely.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, Palestinian
militants attacked a Gaza Strip settlement, sparking a gunbattle
that killed one of the attackers and wounded another.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, The beheaded
bodies of a Laotian couple were found in southern Thailand over the
weekend and were believed to be the latest victims of Muslim
separatist violence.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, A senior Saudi
police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mecca.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, In Scotland a
couple was wed in Britain's first legally recognized humanist
ceremony. 12 members of the Humanist Society of Scotland were
granted the right to legally conduct marriages by the country's
registrar general starting June 1.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 18, In Spain ETA
announced it will no longer kill elected members of political
parties.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2005 Jun 18, Sudan signed a
reconciliation deal with one of the country's largest opposition
groupings. The accord with the National Democratic Alliance is part
of the government's drive to clean up Sudan's multiple political and
military conflicts.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, Venezuela said
another land holding of Britain’s Vestey Group Ltd. has been found
to be idle and rightfully belongs to the state. The 67,000-acre
ranch, owned by Vestey subsidiary Agroflora, was reported to be
underutilized.
(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A14)
2005 Jun 19, Michael Campbell
answered every challenge Tiger Woods threw his way for a two-shot
victory in the U.S. Open.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2005 Jun 19, Fourteen Formula
One drivers refused to participate in the United States Grand Prix
because of unresolved concerns over the safety of their Michelin
tires. The race was won by Michael Schumacher, one of six drivers
who raced using Bridgestone tires.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2005 Jun 19, In southern
Afghanistan US warplanes and helicopters opened fire on a group of
suspected rebels after the ambush of a coalition convoy, killing
15-20 militants.
(AP, 6/19/05)(SFC, 6/20/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 19, China’s Xinhua
news agency reported that the China Regulatory Commission had
approved 42 more companies to take part in a state share reform
program. 4 maiden companies were named a month earlier.
(WSJ, 6/20/05, p.C16)
2005 Jun 19, Top Croatian
financial officials left for Washington to present a package of
fiscal proposals that should shore up this year's budget and save
the stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, Local Cuban media
reported that the communist government has revoked some 2,000
licenses from self-employed workers across the island, part of a
campaign to reassert state control over the economy.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 19, A new, domestic
French low-cost airline, Air Turquoise, took to the skies, opening
budget routes from the northeast city of Reims to Bordeaux,
Marseille and Nice.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, Guinea-Bissau
began its first presidential election since a 2003 coup, with 13
contenders vying to become the West African country's leader. The
candidates include the man the military ousted two years ago.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, A suicide bombing
ripped through a popular Baghdad kebab restaurant at lunchtime,
killing 23 people and wounding 36. A suicide car bomber struck an
Iraqi military checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and
one civilian, officials said. Thirteen others were wounded.
(AP, 6/19/05)(SFC, 6/20/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 19, Israel publicly
apologized to the US over arms exports to China that have drawn
criticism from Washington and strained U.S.-Israeli security ties.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, In Lebanon voters
cast their ballot in the last round of elections. The anti-Syrian
opposition secured a majority in the Lebanese parliament, after
opposition candidates swept all seats in the last round of
elections. The winning pro-Western coalition became known as the
March 14th alliance after the recent big anti-Syrian demonstrations.
(AP, 6/20/05)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.53)
2005 Jun 19, Mauritius expected
that by year's end, or soon afterward, to become the world's first
nation with coast-to-coast wireless Internet coverage, the first
country to become one big "hot spot."
(CT, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, Mexico City
introduced metrobus, a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.A11)
2005 Jun 19, A South Korean
soldier threw a grenade at his commander and then opened fire on
fellow soldiers near the border with communist North Korea, killing
8 and injuring 2 others.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, Palestinian
militants fired light arms and rocket-propelled grenades at Israelis
near an army post on the Gaza-Egypt border, wounding 3 Israelis. One
militant was killed in the attack.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 19, Voters in Spain's
northwest Galicia region were deciding whether to extend the 15-year
rule of Manuel Fraga (82), the last surviving politician of Gen.
Francisco Franco's regime. Fraga had served as Interior Minister
from 1975-1976, when police still occasionally fired on
demonstrators.
(AP, 6/19/05)(Econ, 4/17/10, p.57)
2005 Jun 19, Eastern Sudanese
rebels launched a major offensive near the country's main port,
capturing government troops in what Khartoum charged was an
operation mounted with the complicity of Eritrea.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 19, Vietnam’s PM Phan
Van Khai (71) arrived in Seattle. The first visit to America by a
prime minister from Vietnam in 30 years was greeted by demonstrators
shouting "Down with communists!" and calling for an end to political
and religious persecution in Vietnam. Khai hoped to strengthen ties
with Washington during his weeklong US tour.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, During a joint
news conference with European leaders, President Bush said he was
determined to complete the mission of establishing democracy in Iraq
because the world would be a better place for it.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2005 Jun 20, A US federal judge
threw out evidence against four men charged with laundering more
than $60 million through their chain of US Virgin Islands grocery
stores, ruling that FBI agents acted in "reckless disregard for the
truth."
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 20, John Rigas (80),
founder of Adelphia Corp., was sentenced to 15 years in prison for
looting the firm and lying about finances. His son, Timothy Rigas,
his ex-finance chief, received a 20-year sentence.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.D1)
2005 Jun 20, California state
and federal officials set aside $2 million to determine why smelt
and other species in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Delta has
dropped sharply. Numerous causes were suspect including nonnative
predators and increasing herbicide and pesticide runoff as well as
water draw down to supply Southern California and the Central
Valley.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.B3)
2005 Jun 20, H.J. Heinz Co.,
the largest ketchup maker in the US, said it has agreed to buy the
HP Foods and Lea & Perrins sauce divisions from France's Groupe
Danone for $852 mil.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, Charles D. Keeling
(b.1928), American atmospheric chemist, died in Montana. His
monitoring of the pure air at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and the South Pole,
begun in 1958, provided CO2 readings that climbed steadily and
became known as the Keeling Curve.
(WSJ, 6/24/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_David_Keeling)
2005 Jun 20, Jack Kilby
(b.1923), Nobel Prize winner and co-inventor of the integrated
circuit (1958), died in Dallas.
(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A5)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.75)
2005 Jun 20, Bernard Schriever
(b.1910), German-born American general. He played a major role in
the U.S. Air Force programs for space and ballistic missile
research. In 2009 Neill Sheehan authored “A Fiery Peace in a Cold
War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Adolph_Schriever)(SSFC,
10/25/09, Books p.F3)
2005 Jun 20, Fierce fighting
between Taliban rebels and Afghan security forces left 18 insurgents
and three others dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, Dutch scientists
reported that folic acid improved the memory of older adults.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 20, European Union
agriculture ministers agreed to share out an annual 12.7
billion-euro ($15.51 billion) package to support rural development.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 20, India raised
retail petrol and diesel prices by about 7 percent, the first
increase since November.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, India approved a
free-trade agreement with Singapore.
(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A14)
2005 Jun 20, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber killed at least 15 traffic police and wounded about 100
more outside the unit's headquarters in the northern Kurdish city of
Irbil. Suicide attacks left 37 dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 20, Japan said it
would dramatically expand its research whaling, doubling the number
of minke whales it kills annually for scientific study.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, The leaders of
Japan and South Korea failed to make progress on mending ties
damaged by a territorial dispute over islands in the Sea of Japan
and a flap over Tokyo's militaristic past during a tense summit.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, Massouma
al-Mubarak, Kuwait's first female Cabinet member, took the oath of
office over the shouts of Muslim fundamentalist and tribal lawmakers
opposed to women in politics.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2005 Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen
ambushed an Israeli minivan driving through the northern West Bank,
riddling the vehicle with bullets, killing one passenger and
wounding a second.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, In Thailand 3
Muslim men were shop dead in Pattani.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Jun 20, In Vietnam
officials said 2 more people from northern Vietnam have been
sickened with bird flu, and thousands of chickens have dropped dead
in the south.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, President Bush
told Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai that he supports
Vietnam's bid to join the WTO, in the first visit by the Vietnamese
leader since the war.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, It was reported
that the number of California state employees who earned over
$132,000 nearly doubled from 2002 to 2004.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 21, American warplanes
pounded a suspected Taliban safe haven in southern Afghanistan in an
assault that left up to 76 insurgents and five policeman dead and
five U.S. soldiers wounded.
(AP, 6/22/05)(SFC, 6/23/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 21, Edgar Ray Killen
(80) was convicted in Philadelphia, Miss., of manslaughter in the
1964 abduction and killing of 3 voter-registration volunteers.
(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 21, US researchers
said a common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous
cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy.
The adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80
percent of the population.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Argentina
retired Gen. Guillermo Suarez Mason (81), a former junta commander
under arrest in connection with probes of suspected illegal
adoptions dating to the past dictatorship.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, Austria’s Health
Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat announced a cow in an alpine farm
Austria has been found to be infected with mad cow disease.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, China appointed
Donald Tsang as Hong Kong's new leader for the next 2 years. The
veteran civil servant expressed confidence the territory will become
more democratic.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Ecuador police
reported the break up an international cocaine ring led by a
Lebanese restaurant owner suspected of raising money for Hezbollah,
the Shiite Muslim group the U.S. classifies as a terrorist
organization.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 21, President Bharrat
Jagdeo said Guyana will hire 600 new police officers and loosen
rules on wiretapping and asset seizures as part of a strategy to
fight increasing drug trafficking.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Iraq 3 US
soldiers were killed by small-arms fire during combat operations in
Ramadi.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 21, In southern Israel
a passenger train plowed into a coal truck and sent three cars
tumbling off the tracks in a sunflower field, killing seven people
and injuring nearly 200.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, A high-level
delegation from North Korea arrived in Seoul for bilateral talks and
was immediately confronted by demonstrators who angered the visitors
by displaying posters of their leader, Kim Jong Il, tied up in
ropes.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, The International
Whaling Commission meting in South Korea upheld its nearly
two-decade-old ban on commercial whaling.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Lebanon George
Hawi (67), a former Communist boss and critic of Syria, was killed
when his car blew up on a Beirut street in the 2nd slaying of an
anti-Syrian figure this month.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 21, Nuevo Laredo Mayor
Daniel Pena said that 150 police officers will be fired after
failing a screening process that included background checks and drug
testing. Former Mexican soldiers, turned into drug hit men (Zetas),
have taken the border city to the brink of anarchy, infiltrating
local police and threatening anyone who gets in their way.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met for the
first time since declaring a February truce, but the summit was
clouded by Israel's arrest of 52 Islamic Jihad activists and a
missile strike in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Manila Cardinal
Jaime Sin (76), an outspoken advocate of democracy who played a key
role in the "people power" revolts that ousted two Philippine
presidents, died.
(AP, 6/21/05)(Econ, 7/2/05, p.77)
2005 Jun 21, A Russian Northern
Fleet submarine launched the world's first solar-sail spacecraft, $4
million Cosmos 1, but the craft failed to reach orbit.
(AFP, 6/22/05)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A4)
2005 Jun 21, Saudi security
forces killed two suspected terrorists accused of fatally shooting a
senior security official outside his home.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, Taiwan sent two
warships to protect fishermen who have repeatedly been chased by
Japanese patrol boats away from rich fishing grounds near disputed
islands in the East China Sea, a decision likely to raise diplomatic
tensions.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 22, A US Senate
committee charged Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist, and Michael
Scanlon, a public relations executive, in a scheme that overcharged
Indian tribes, faked invoices, and shuffled money between nonprofit
groups and charities to conceal their involvement and avoid paying
taxes. Of $66 million collected since 2001, $22 million went
directly to Abramoff.
(SFC, 6/23/05, p.A5)
2005 Jun 22, The US reported
plans to send 50,000 tons of food to North Korea.
(WSJ, 6/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 22, US drug agents
launched a wide-ranging crackdown on medical marijuana providers in
northern California, raiding pot clubs, homes and businesses in San
Francisco and arresting a husband and wife in Sacramento. The
operation followed a 2-year investigation dubbed “Operation Urban
harvest.”
(AP, 6/23/05)(SFC, 6/23/05, p.A1)(SFC, 6/24/05,
p.B4)
2005 Jun 22, Amnesty
International and Oxfam said arms exports from Group of Eight
nations such as Britain and the United States to poor,
conflict-ridden countries are fueling poverty and human rights
abuses there.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, US military said a
US Air Force U-2 spy plane involved in a mission in Afghanistan
crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates,
killing the pilot.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Ameritrade Holding
said it will acquire TD Waterhouse from Toronto Dominion Bank, in a
deal estimated at $2.25 bil.
(SFC, 6/23/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 22, The IBM BlueGene/L
System at Lawrence Livermore National Lab., a computer with 62,000
microprocessors, was crowned king among supercomputers at a
conference in Germany.
(SFC, 6/22/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 22, Chinese state-run
oil firm CNOOC Ltd. announced an $18.5 billion cash offer for U.S.
producer Unocal will prevail in the takeover battle with Chevron
Corp.
(AP, 6/23/05)(SFC, 6/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 22, Xinhua News said
flooding triggered by torrential rains killed at least 27 people and
forced the evacuation of more than 300,000 in a mountainous region
of southern China.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, It was reported
that China's Pearl River estuary is so badly polluted the fish that
once thrived in its waters have virtually vanished.
(AFP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 22, Colombia’s
Congress passed a bill granting reduced punishments to right-wing
warlords who disarm, a key step in Pres. Uribe's strategy to wind
down a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, The European
Commission unveiled proposals for a radical overhaul on EU sugar
subsidies.
(Econ, 6/25/05, p.73)
2005 Jun 22, The European
Union's head office told Portugal to cut its burgeoning budget
deficit and public debt, saying the country's economic slowdown was
no excuse for violating euro-zone rules on sound finances.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Senior
peacekeepers said more than 15,000 gunmen have joined a UN
disarmament process in Congo's Ituri district but that militias were
still rearming and regrouping despite intense UN military
operations.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Egyptian police
opened the streets of north Cairo to political protests against and
in favor of President Hosni Mubarak, giving the opposition a chance
to argue their case with ordinary people.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, In Iraq gunmen
killed a former judge whose name once was on a list of Sunni Arabs
joining a parliamentary committee to draft Iraq's new constitution.
Separately, a Filipino hostage was released after almost eight
months in captivity. 4 car bombs exploded at dusk, killing at least
23 people, including sidewalk diners and passengers at a bus station
in Baghdad. In all, at least 32 people were killed across Iraq,
including a prominent Sunni law professor assassinated by gunmen.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, In La Spezia,
Italy, 10 former members of the Nazi SS were convicted in absentia
of taking part in the 1944 massacre of more than 500 villagers in
the Tuscan village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema and sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Consuelo Velazquez
(b.1916), Mexican pianist and composer, died. Her music included
Besame Mucho, first recorded in 1941 by Emilio Tuero. It was the
romantic vision of a chaste, convent-educated teenager growing up in
1930s Mexico, and was inspired by the sight of a smooching couple in
the street.
(www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jan/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1)
2005 Jun 22, North Korea said
it would not need nuclear weapons if the US treated it like a
friend, as the isolated nation joined South Korea for high-level
reconciliation talks.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, The first
Palestinian-Israeli summit in four months failed to propel peace
prospects forward or solidify a shaky truce, leaving main issues
unresolved and both sides disappointed.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Palestinian gunmen
fired shots and detonated an explosive device as PM Ahmed Qureia
left a building in a West Bank refugee camp where he was lecturing
militants on the need to restore order to the streets.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, A Romanian monk
and four nuns were charged with murder after a nun died during an
exorcism. Maricica Irina Cornici (23) was crucified and left without
food for three days. [see Jun 15]
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 22, South Asia endured
one of its hottest summers on record and at least 375 people were
reported to have died from sunstroke and dehydration in a month-long
heat wave sweeping India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, A lawmaker from
Thailand's ruling party fell to his death from his 10th floor
apartment, followed a few hours later by a woman with whom he had
been quarreling. Separately suspected Islamic separatists beheaded a
man at a teashop and then left his head in a sack on the side of the
road.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, An explosion
blasted through an oil tanker moored for repairs off Trinidad's west
coast, killing two people and leaving two missing.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 22, The UN Security
Council voted to temporarily enlarge the peacekeeping mission in
Haiti by more than 1,000 troops and police in the run-up to
elections set for later this year.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 23, The San Antonio
Spurs won a thrilling Game 7 over Detroit Pistons, 81-74, to claim
the NBA championship.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2005 Jun 23, The White House
defended presidential adviser Karl Rove against Democratic demands
he apologize or quit for saying "liberals saw the savagery of the
9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and
understanding for our attackers" while conservatives "saw the
savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."
(AP, 6/23/06)
2005 Jun 23, In Kelo vs. London
a divided US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that local governments may
seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private
development. In 2006 a group petitioned for signatures in Weare, New
Hampshire, to seize the home of Justice David Souter in order to
build an inn called the Lost Liberty Hotel. In 2009 Jeff Benedict
authored “Little Pink House,” the story of Susette Kelo’s battle in
New London, Connecticut, against eminent domain.
(AP, 6/23/05)(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.A1)(Econ, 8/20/05,
p.21)(SSFC, 1/22/06, p.A6)(WSJ, 1/26/08, p.A13)
2005 Jun 23, Former Ku Klux
Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for
the 1964 Mississippi slayings of three civil rights workers.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2005 Jun 23, Joseph Massino,
who went from the New York Mafia's last old-school don to its
highest-ranking turncoat in a betrayal that rocked organized crime,
was sentenced to life in prison after admitting his involvement in
eight mob murders.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Ohio Republican
Gov. Bob Taft was reported to be mired in a scandal that started
with a questionable state investment in rare coins. It had the
governor and other Republicans all the way to Pres. Bush scrambling
to give back potentially tainted campaign contributions.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, The US FDA
approved the heart failure drug BiDil for use by blacks. It will be
the 1st medication targeted for a specific racial group.
(SFC, 6/24/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 23, An indictment,
unveiled in US federal court in Los Angeles, said Seymour Lazar and
his family were plaintiffs in over 50 class action lawsuits against
both large and small companies. Prosecutors claimed that he received
$2.4 million in illicit kickbacks from a New York law firm believed
to be Milberg Weiss. In 2008 Melvyn Weiss (72) agreed to plead
guilty to racketeering and acknowledge that his firm, Milberg Weiss,
concealed secret payment arrangements with plaintiffs in
class-action suits.
(Econ, 7/2/05, p.65)(SFC, 3/21/08, p.C3)
2005 Jun 23, In Morongo Valley,
Ca., the first major wildfire of the summer raced across more than
5,500 acres of desert brush, destroying at least six homes.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Shana Alexander
(79), writer and liberal commentator on 60 Minutes (1975), died in
Hermosa Beach, California.
(SFC, 6/25/05, p.B5)
2005 Jun 23, Afghan and
U.S.-led coalition forces surrounded a rebel hide-out in southern
Afghanistan, and the number of insurgents killed from three days of
fighting rose to 102.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Aruba police
arrested the father of a young Dutch teen already in custody in
connection with the disappearance of a young Alabama woman, and said
that he was considered a suspect in the 3-week-old case.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 23, Australia's Deputy
Prime Minister John Anderson resigned because of health concerns.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, G8 foreign
ministers met in London. The Middle East peace process, Iran's
nuclear program and tackling opium production in Afghanistan topped
the agenda.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Ecuador’s foreign
minister said his country will not sign a pact to grant US military
personnel special immunity from the International Criminal Court,
even if that means more aid cuts from Washington.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, The French
government launched the partial privatization of utility company Gaz
de France through an initial public offering of shares worth up to
4.9 billion euros ($5.9 billion).
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Four apparently
synchronized car bombs in the Karada district of Baghdad killed 15
and wounded 50. A sniper killed 2 soldiers in western Baghdad. US
troops backed by Iraqi troops and helicopters killed 7 insurgents
who opened fire on the patrol from a home in western Baghdad's
Jamiaa. A web statement said Abdullah Mohammed Rashid al-Roshoud,
one of Saudi Arabia's most-wanted militants, was killed by a US
airstrike in northwestern Iraq. A suicide car bomb in Fallujah
and ensuing small-arms fire killed 6 US troops including 3 women. 11
of 13 wounded were female.
(AP, 6/23/05)(SFC, 6/24/05, p.A18)(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 23, A fast food chain
in northern Japan began offering a whale burger , even as
anti-whaling nations urged Japan to cut back on its catch at an
international conference on whaling.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Jerusalem
officials said they will ban the annual gay pride parade set for
next week, claiming the march would offend many of the holy city's
residents.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, The two Koreas
agreed to seek a peaceful resolution to the international standoff
over the North's nuclear program, but the rivals failed to set a
date for resuming stalled disarmament talks.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Palestinian
officials said they reached a tentative agreement to absorb about
700 gunmen in Nablus into the Palestinian security services.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Palestinian
militants killed an officer in an attack on a police station in the
West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 23, UN human rights
experts said they have reliable accounts of detainees being tortured
at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, In Uruguay
firefighters recovered the badly burned remains of eleven men killed
aboard a Ukrainian-flagged fishing vessel that caught fire in
Montevideo. The "Simeiz," carrying a crew of 39, caught fire before
dawn the previous day.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 23, Zimbabwe state
media reported that 2 children were crushed to death by rubble
during the demolition of illegal houses this month in a government
crackdown that has made tens of thousands homeless.
(Reuters, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 24, Despite growing
anxiety about the war in Iraq, President Bush refused to set a
timetable for bringing home U.S. troops and declared, "I'm not
giving up on the mission. We're doing the right thing."
(AP, 6/24/06)
2005 Jun 24, US Agriculture
officials said a 2nd case of mad cow disease was confirmed in a cow
from Texas. This case of the disease, as well as one from Alabama in
2006, was later reported as atypical.
(SFC, 6/25/05, p.A3)(SFC, 6/12/06, p.A6)
2005 Jun 24, Crude oil, at
close to $60 a barrel, caused widespread selling on global equity
markets, as shares in transport and automobile companies fell
sharply.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, In Yuma, Arizona,
6 people, including 4 children, were killed. Police said a man was
seen running from the scene and had not been apprehended.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 24, In New Jersey 3
boys were found dead in the trunk of a car following a massive,
two-day search. They had died from accidental suffocation.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, Paul Winchell
(b.1922), ventriloquist, inventor and children's TV show host best
known for creating the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh's animated
friend Tigger, died in LA, Ca.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 24, In Afghanistan 4
days of fighting left 114 people dead, including 102 insurgents.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, A flash flood hit
Britain's famous Glastonbury rock festival and left some 120,000
people trying to dry out after parts of the site soaked under
neck-deep water.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, Statistics Canada
said that if you divided the national net worth by the population
each Canadian would have a share equal to $134,400.
(CP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, China’s government
said flooding and mudslides have killed at least 567 people across
the country in the past two weeks, with more heavy rain forecast in
the southern province whose factories are the heart of the country's
booming export industries.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, Ecuador inmates
stepped up a protest for improved conditions. Some prisoners were
voluntarily hung from crosses and others using their blood to scrawl
out demands.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, India refused
permission for Pakistan's information minister, who once sheltered
anti-Indian Kashmiri separatists, to visit its part of Kashmir on a
new "peace bus".
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Iranians packed
polling stations in a tight presidential race. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
(49), the hardline Tehran mayor, won Iran’s presidency in a
landslide election victory that cements conservative control over
the nation's political leadership.
(AP, 6/24/05)(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, Three separate
roadside bombs exploded near US military convoys and a police
patrol. Iraqi security forces discovered the bodies of eight
beheaded men in 2 villages north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, An Italian
official said a judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for
allegedly helping deport an imam to Egypt as part of U.S.
anti-terrorism efforts. The agents are suspected in the seizure of
an Egyptian-born imam identified as Abu Omar on the streets of Milan
in February 2003.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, In Jordan Saddam
Hussein's daughter said his family will publish next week a novel
written by the ousted Iraqi leader before the U.S.-led war.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, In India's portion
of Kashmir Islamic militants triggered a car bomb by remote control
as an army convoy drove past a popular park, killing 9 soldiers and
wounding 22 other people.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, In Indonesia 15
convicted gamblers were flogged for illegal gaming, the first time
caning was used as punishment in the world's most populous Muslim
country.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Malaysia's ruling
UMNO party suspended cabinet minister Isa Samad for six years for
corruption.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, In Northern
Ireland veteran negotiator Reg Empey was elected leader of the
Ulster Unionists, a once-dominant Protestant party that has seen its
support crumble because it backed Northern Ireland's 1998 peace
pact.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, A Norwegian court
sentenced the pilot of a British Airways jet to six months in prison
for preparing to fly even though members of his crew were drunk.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire on a group of hitchhikers and killed one, the third
Israeli slaying in a flare-up of violence that threatens a truce
reached in February.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Russia, whose last
border guard left the Tajik-Afghan border last week, said
Afghanistan's heroin output was growing at breakneck speed and
presented a threat to the world community.
(Reuters, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Thailand police
reported that attackers in Yala province had slashed the necks of a
couple, almost severing their heads in the latest killings
attributed to Islamic separatists.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 24, The UN Security
Council approved the transfer of $200 million in oil-for-food
revenue to the Development Fund for Iraq and said an additional $20
million can be used to pay Iraq's past UN dues.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 25, Gov. Rod
Blagojevich signed a new state law that requires Illinois to divest
about $1 billion worth of pension investments in companies that do
business in Sudan to protest the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the
country's Darfur region.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, The NAACP selected
retired Verizon executive Bruce S. Gordon to be its new president.
(AP, 6/25/06)
2005 Jun 25, A shark attack
near Pensacola, Florida, killed a girl (14).
(WSJ, 6/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 25, Afghan forces
found the bodies of 76 suspected militants killed during a barrage
of their camps by Afghan and US forces. In all, a total of 178
militants were killed and 56 suspected insurgents have been captured
since Jun 21.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, In northern
Afghanistan a massive explosion at a weapons dump near an airfield
killed five Afghans and two German soldiers.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 25, Algerian militant
Amari Saifi, a leader of the al-Qaida-linked Salafist Group for Call
and Combat, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for helping
to create a terror group. He was considered the mastermind of the
2003 kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 25, Bulgarians voted
in general elections. The ex-communist Socialist party was expected
to see the Socialists topple ex-king PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg and take
over the tough task of steering the country into the EU in 2007.
(Reuters, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, In southern China
thousands of students rioted at Jiujiang Institute, a university
jointly run by the military, to protest high university fees,
overcrowded dorms and unappealing cafeteria food.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jun 25, In Colombia
leftist rebels killed at least 25 soldiers in two clashes.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 25, In Dagestan,
Russia, 4 explosions aimed at police vehicles and transportation
links, including one that derailed a cargo train, wounded eight
people.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 25, India said police
forces have destroyed one of the largest Myanmarese rebel bases in
India, deep in the mountainous jungles of the remote northeast. Some
200 guerrillas and supporters living in the Chin National Army camp
fled before the attack.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, Gujarat's chief
minister said Gujarat Petroleum Corp (GSPC) has made the India’s
biggest gas discovery 20 trillion cubic feet, worth $50 billion off
the southeast coast.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 25, Tehran Mayor
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidential
runoff election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he seeks to make his
country a "modern, advanced, powerful, and Islamic" model for the
world.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, Mohammed
Al-Sumaidaie (21), a university student, was killed when he took
Marines doing house-to-house searches to a bedroom to show them
where a rifle which had no live ammunition was kept. When the
Marines left, he was found in the bedroom with a bullet in his neck.
Iraq's UN ambassador later accused U.S. Marines of killing his
unarmed young cousin in what appeared to be "cold blood" and
demanded an investigation and punishment for the perpetrators.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jun 25, A suicide car
bomber blew himself up outside an Iraqi police officer's home north
of Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding at least a
dozen. 3 evening mortar rounds struck a crowded cafe in a
predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing 5 civilians
and wounding 7.
(AP, 6/25/05)(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 25, In Kenya 24 people
were killed after drinking an illegal brew laced with industrial
alcohol. By the next day death toll climbed to 49 with 174 people
hospitalized.
(AP, 6/26/05)(SFC, 6/27/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 25, Rebels in Sudan's
remote east urged the world's media to come and see damage in
civilian areas that they say was caused by government bombing. They
said the bombing began in the Barka Valley on June 23 and resulted
in a large but unknown number of civilian casualties who filled
hospitals in Port Sudan and the town of Tokar.
(AFP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, Taiwan reimposed a
ban on imports of American beef after the US confirmed its second
case of mad cow disease.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 26, Dozens of
international leaders met in San Francisco to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the UN’s birth.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2005 Jun 26, Tens of thousands
of festively dressed people marched in parades around the country to
celebrate the 35th anniversary of gay pride.
(AP, 6/26/06)
205 Jun 26, South Korea’s
Birdie Kim holed a 30-yard bunker shot to birdie the 18th hole and
win the US Women’s Open.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2005 Jun 26, In Bulgaria with
99.6% of the votes counted, the Socialists had 31% of the vote,
while the ruling center-right National Movement of PM Simeon
Saxcoburggotski had 20%. The Movement for rights and Freedoms, a
party for ethnic Turks, won 13%.
(AP, 6/26/05)(WSJ, 6/27/05, p.A12)(Econ, 7/2/05,
p.46)
2005 Jun 26, Toronto, Canada,
celebrated its 25th annual Pride Parade, one of the world's largest
gay and lesbian festivals under a blistering sun. NYC and SF also
hosted large parades as did other cities around the world.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 26, Thousands of
Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl,
set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in Chizhou, eastern
Anhui province.
(Reuters, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 26, In Egypt some 200
demonstrators gathered outside state security headquarters in Cairo
to protest torture.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 26, Heavy rains caused
flooding and landslides in El Salvador and Honduras, leaving a total
of 39 dead in both countries, including 21 people killed when a bus
was carried away by flood waters.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 26, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder arrived in Washington for a visit shortened by
election-year pressure.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 26, Iran
President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to pursue a peaceful
nuclear program, an effort the US maintains is really a cover for
trying to build atomic bombs, and said his government will not be an
extremist one.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber with explosives hidden beneath watermelons in a pickup truck
slammed into a police station near a market in Mosul killing 10
police officers and 2 civilians. In Sadiya 6 Iraqi soldiers were
gunned down outside their base. A bomber in Al Kasik killed 16 Iraqi
civilians arriving for work on an army base. In Mosul a suicide
bomber killed 5 Iraqi police. One US soldier was killed in Baghdad
by a homemade bomb.
(AP, 6/26/05)(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.A7)
2005 Jun 26, Israeli Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom released a letter saying Israel wished "to
express our regret for the activities which resulted in the arrest
and conviction of two Israeli citizens in New Zealand on criminal
charges and apologize for the involvement of Israeli citizens in
such activities." The two nations restored full diplomatic
relations.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 26, An Israeli court
ruled that Jerusalem's gay pride parade could proceed as planned and
ordered the city's mayor to pay $6,500 out of his own pocket for
trying to stop it.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 26, Jordan barred
publication of Saddam Hussein's fourth novel, titled "Get Out,
Damned One," due to political concerns. Saddam's eldest daughter,
Raghad, said her father finished the novel March 18, 2003, a day
before the U.S.-led war on Iraq began
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 26, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, 44 kidnap victims were freed in a series of raids by
soldiers and federal agents. Deputy Attorney General Gilberto
Higuera said those rescued were apparently "involved in criminal
activities and were not victims of kidnappings" for ransom.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 26, In Nepal communist
rebels freed 90 high school students who were seized from their
classrooms last week.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, The US Supreme
Court ruled 5-4 that Kentucky cannot display framed copies of the
Ten Commandments in county courthouses, and allowed the Texas
statehouse to keep the commandments as part of a display on its
grounds.
(AP, 6/27/05)(SFC, 6/28/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 27, The US Supreme
Court also ruled that cable-TV companies are not required to share
their high-speed Internet connections with rivals.
(WSJ, 6/28/05, p.B1)
2005 Jun 27, Bunnatine
Greenhouse, a senior contracting official for the US Army Corps of
Engineers, testified to a Democratic Party public committee,
alleging specific instances of waste, fraud, and other abuses and
irregularities by Halliburton with regard to its operations in Iraq
since the Iraq War. In August she was demoted in what her lawyer
called an "obvious reprisal" for her revelations about the
Halliburton contracts.
(SFC, 8/29/05,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Greenhouse)
2005 Jun 27, In Kansas BTK
suspect Dennis Rader (60) pleaded guilty to 10 counts of
first-degree murder, admitting in a chillingly matter-of-fact voice
to a series of slayings that terrorized the city from 1974-1991.
Rader later received multiple life sentences.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2005 Jun 27, Wal-Mart heir John
T. Walton (58), crashed and died while at the controls of a
homemade, experimental aircraft near Jackson Hole Airport, Wyoming.
His net worth was over $18 billion. Walton supported efforts to
educate low-income children.
(AP, 6/28/05)(SFC, 6/28/05, p.A2)
2005 Jun 27, Shelby Foote
(b.1916), novelist and historian, died in Memphis. His books
included the multi-volume “The Civil War: A Narrative” (1958-1974).
(SFC, 6/29/05, p.B7)
2005 Jun 27, Bangladesh
opposition parties led by the Awami League staged a human-chain
protest in Dhaka against what they called an anti-people budget
taking effect on Friday.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, Bosnian Serb
police said they had arrested 11 people on war crimes charges.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, PM Tony Blair
defended Britain's deportation of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers,
a policy that has triggered a refugee hunger strike.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, Colombia's main
leftist rebel group offered to swap three kidnapped American defense
contractors for two guerrilla leaders jailed in the United States,
but the US government immediately rejected the proposal.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 27, In northeastern
Congo militia fighters using women and children as human shields
battled with UN peacekeepers south of Bunia.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, French
investigators raided the home and offices of finance minister
Thierry Breton. It was part of a criminal probe sparked by
complaints filed by Rhodia investors Hughes de Lasteyrie du Saillant
and Edouard Stern. [see Mar 1]
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 27, France, Germany,
Brazil and Chile called for a tax on airline tickets to help finance
the global fight against poverty.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 27, Iraqi Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said that two years would be "more than
enough" to establish security in his country, a task Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld believes may take up to 12 years.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, The US military
said it planned to expand its prisons across Iraq to hold as many as
16,000 detainees.
(SFC, 6/28/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 27, A US Apache attack
helicopter crashed north of Baghdad, killing both pilots. A car bomb
exploded between a movie house and mosque in eastern Baghdad,
killing at least four people and injuring 16.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, An Israeli
military court convicted Wahid Taysir, a former Israeli soldier, of
manslaughter in the killing of Tom Hurndall, a pro-Palestinian
British activist on Apr 11, 2003. Taysir, a member of Israel's
Bedouin Arab minority, charged the army with racism, saying he was
prosecuted because he is an Arab and his victim was a foreigner.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, An undersea cable
carrying data between Pakistan and the outside world developed a
serious fault, virtually crippling data feeds, including the
Internet.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 27, It was reported
that a heat wave across Pakistan has killed about 175 people over
the past eight days.
(Reuters, 6/27/05)
2005 June 27, In Somalia gunman
hijacked the MV Semlow, a ship carrying food aid, and held the
vessel for 100 days before it was released Oct. 4.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Jun 27, South African
trade unions staged a one-day nationwide strike to protest high
unemployment and job losses, with employers reporting a mixed
response at job sites and tens of thousands of protesters marching
in major cities.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, A meeting in
Istanbul of the World Tribunal on Iraq, the culmination of 20
meetings around the world over the last 2 years, called the invasion
and occupation of Iraq illegal. The symbolic tribunal sought the
immediate withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq and payment of
reparations for the damage caused during the conflict.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 27, The UN said it
wanted to move hundreds of Uzbek refugees to third countries from
camps in Kyrgyzstan because there were fears Uzbekistan might try to
snatch them and take them home by force.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 28, On the first
anniversary of Iraqi sovereignty, President Bush, addressing the
nation from Fort Bragg, NC, rejected suggestions that he set a
timetable for withdrawal from Iraq or send in more troops as he
counseled patience for Americans who were questioning the war’s
painful costs.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2005 Jun 28, In Alabama a jury
acquitted former CEO Richard Scrushy of federal corporate corruption
charges in a $2.7 billion accounting fraud at HealthSouth. The SEC
soon announced that it would press a civil fraud case seeking $800
million from Scrushy.
(SFC, 6/29/05, p.C1)(SFC, 7/6/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 28, The Grand
Challenges in Global Health announced 43 winners. The program was
funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($450m), the UK’s
Wellcome Trust ($27m), and Canada’s Institute of Health Research
($4.5m).
(WSJ, 6/28/05, p.D6)(Econ, 7/2/05, p.69)
2005 Jun 28, Google unveiled a
free 3-D satellite mapping technology.
(SFC, 6/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 28, In Kunar province,
Afghanistan, 4 US Navy SEAL commandos radioed for help during a
reconnaissance mission for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, that was
part of Operation Red Wing. A US Chinook helicopter with 16 men
responded to the call and was shot down. Marcus Luttrell was rescued
by US forces on July 2. In 2007 Luttrell, the only survivor,
authored “Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing
and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.” Michael Murphy, a Navy Seal
who gave his life to call for help for his unit, was awarded the
Medal of Honor in 2007.
(AP, 6/29/05)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/23/07,
p.A1)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.A9)
2005 Jun 28, Austria launched
an energy exchange to trade carbon allowances in accord with the
Kyoto treaty to deal with greenhouse gases.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.64)
2005 Jun 28, Canada's
House of Commons passed legislation, drafted by PM Paul Martin, to
legalize gay marriage in spite of fierce opposition from
Conservatives and religious leaders. It would become only the third
country in the world to legalize gay marriage.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 28, Canada’s Supreme
Court said there is well-founded evidence that Rwandan exile Leon
Mugesera helped to incite the massacre of ethnic rivals in his
homeland and should be kicked out of Canada.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, China said it will
begin filling its strategic oil reserve by the end of the year.
(WSJ, 6/29/05, p.A13)
2005 Jun 28, Avian flu has
killed 5,000 wild birds in China's northwest, the World Health
Organization said, five times the number previously reported by the
Chinese government.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Cuban leader Fidel
Castro made a surprise visit to Venezuela for what he described on
arrival as an ''historic encounter'' with his top ally, Pres. Hugo
Chavez, and and 2-day summit with Caribbean leaders. This was his
4th trip to Venezuela since 1999 and his first outside of Cuba since
late 2003.
(www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/3212.html)
2005 Jun 28, Colombia began a
2-day operation in which 12 members of Colombia's navy were arrested
in raids that uncovered drug-making chemicals and documents linking
them to cocaine smuggling groups.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 28, In Dagestan,
Russia, a writer and critic of the Islamist movement was shot to
death in Makhachkala.
(WSJ, 7/29/05, p.A11)
2005 Jun 28, Egypt ordered five
public sector company bosses to stand trial in a multi-million
dollar corruption case, one of the biggest of its kind in recent
years.
(AFP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 28, In Ethiopia police
arrested four independent newspaper editors on criminal charges of
defaming the military. They were detained for seven hours and later
released on bail. The arrests stem from reports in their
Amharic-language weeklies about Ethiopian air force pilots who
sought political asylum while training in Belarus.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 28, An international
consortium chose France as the site for an experimental nuclear
fusion reactor, a $13 billion project that developers hope will one
day generate endless, cheap energy by reproducing the sun's power
source and wean the world off fossil fuels.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Stung by a recent
scandal that rocked India's booming business processing industry,
the government announced that it will tighten laws to prevent cyber
crime and ensure data secrecy.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 28, US troops
allegedly killed an Iraqi television director when he drove near a
US convoy. A suicide car bomb killed Sheikh Dhari Ali al-Fayadh, an
Iraqi Shiite legislator, his son and two bodyguards near Baghdad as
they were headed to a parliamentary session in the capital. A
suicide bomber near Balad killed a US soldier. A car bomb near
Tikrit killed another US soldier. In Samara police fired on a crowd
demanding jobs and one person was killed. A car bomb in Baquba
killed on e person. A suicide bomber in Musayyib killed a police
officer. Bloodshed killed at least 18 people throughout Iraq. In
Kirkuk a suicide car bomber slammed into a convoy killing a
bodyguard of traffic police chief Brig. Gen. Salar Ahmed.
(AP, 6/29/05)(SFC, 6/29/05, p.A15)
2005 Jun 28, More than 1,000
U.S. troops and Iraqi forces launched Operation Sword on Tuesday in
a bid to crush insurgents and foreign fighters in western Iraq, the
third major offensive in the area in recent weeks.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Pakistan's Supreme
Court overturned the acquittals of 13 men accused of gang-raping a
villager and ordered the suspects arrested in a case that has drawn
international attention to the brutal treatment of women in this
conservative Muslim country.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Lebanon's new
parliament overwhelmingly re-elected a pro-Syrian as speaker in a
political compromise by the anti-Syrian coalition that won the
elections.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Lawmakers
overwhelming approved a law allowing millions of Mexicans living
abroad to vote by mail in next year's presidential election, a
measure that could reshape the country's leadership race.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Mexico's Zapatista
rebels suggested they would seek to open a political front with
workers, farmers and students, a decision the government interpreted
as a move toward joining mainstream politics and away from armed
struggle.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Russia said it
intends to cancel $2.2 billion owed by the poorest African countries
in support of an initiative by the eight major industrialized
nations to write off more than $40 billion of debt.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 28, Saudi Arabia
issued a list of 36 men wanted for acts of terror and called on
people to report them to the police.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, South Korea's spy
agency said North Korea has cut most of its international phone
lines since late March over concerns that sensitive information
about its society will flow out of the isolated country.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Swedish truck and
bus maker Volvo AB said it will close an assembly plant in Botswana
and open a new factory in Durban, South Africa.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, In Madrid a
Tibetan group presented a criminal case against top Chinese
officials for genocide and crimes against humanity, seeking to take
advantage of Spain's laws on international human rights crimes.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, President Bush,
embracing nearly all the recommendations of a White House
commission, said he was creating a national security service at the
FBI to specialize in intelligence as part of a shake-up of the
disparate US spy agencies.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2005 Jun 29, In Manhattan a new
design, by architect David M. Childs, was unveiled for the Freedom
Tower.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.B1)
2005 Jun 29, The US military
said it sent a ship to Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea to train
west African nations to combat threats including terrorism, drug
trafficking and petroleum theft.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, A state dept.
officials said the US has suspended a shipment of M-16 rifles to
Nepal to protest at King Gyanendra's takeover in February.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, A propaganda
video, purportedly made by al-Qaida-linked terror suspect Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, was posted on militant Web sites. It showed suicide
attacks against US soldiers and Iraqi forces and emphasizes that the
war being waged by Iraqi insurgents is in retaliation for America's
war against Islam.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jun 29, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants attacked police checkpoints and a
village, and the fighting left 25 people dead, including tribal
elders who were taken hostage.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 29, In Haiti hundreds
of UN peacekeepers raided a slum filled with gangs loyal to ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, killing six gunmen.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, In Haiti a worker
for the International Committee of the Red Cross was kidnapped. Joel
Cauvin, a Haitian, was abducted and found dead near his home the
next day.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 29, The EU gave Italy
until the end of 2007 to cut its budget deficit in line with
euro-zone rules, a warning that is powerless as it carries no
punishment.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, In India 2 workers
were killed and up to 12 others were believed trapped after a tunnel
they were building to bring water to a village north of Bombay
collapsed in a landslide triggered by heavy rain.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Extremist
opponents of Israel's Gaza pullout plan scattered nails and oil
across a main highway during morning rush hour, bringing traffic to
a halt in the first of a wave of violent demonstrations planned
throughout the day.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Some 400 would-be
immigrants from Africa landed on Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island
south of Sicily, and air patrols spotted at least 200 more on their
way.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Lebanon’s
anti-Syrian lawmakers nominated Fuad Saniora, a former finance
minister known for his pro-market policies, to be the country's next
prime minister.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Hezbollah
guerrillas attacked Israeli forces in a disputed part of the south
Lebanon border, wounding six soldiers and triggering an Israeli
airstrike. The Israeli strike killed Hezbollah guerrilla Milhem
Hassan Salhab (35).
(AP, 6/30/05)(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jun 29, In Malaysia Hamisa
Abu Hassan Saari (22) was arrested after police found some drugs on
a friend. A police officer secretly recorded her with a cell phone
as she was forced to strip and do squats, though she had no drugs.
The recording got on the Internet and led to a special commission
that denounced the police procedures and led to significant changes.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A34)
2005 Jun 29, Mexico released a
series of five stamps depicting a child character from a comic book
started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico. The stamps
depicted an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin
Pinguin.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 29, Poles lined up to
buy collectors' coins with the image of the late Pope John Paul II,
issued by the central bank to honor Poland's most famous son.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas militants to join his Cabinet to improve
prospects of a peaceful takeover of the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jun 29, Philippine Pres.
Gloria Macagapal Arroyo said her husband, implicated in bribes and
influence peddling, has agreed to leave the Philippines.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 29, A Russian court
ordered the radical national Bolshevik Party, led by
ultranationalist writer Eduard Limonov, to disband.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 29, In the southern
Russian region of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya about 200 ethnic minority
activists occupied the regional government headquarters, demanding
urgent action to save their dwindling population. Members of the
tiny Abazin minority have demanded that the 13 villages where they
live be united in a single district with its own financing. There
were fewer than 30,000 Abazins left in existence, all of them in
Karachayevo-Cherkessiya.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Two Rwandan
businessmen were found guilty of war crimes by a 12-person jury in
Brussels for their role in the killings of thousands during their
country's 1994 genocide. Beer trader Etienne Nzabonimana, 53, was
found guilty on 56 counts, and his half brother, Samuel
Ndashyikirwa, 43, was found guilty on 23 counts of aiding and
abetting the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in their home
region of Kibungo.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, More than 1,000
South Korean sex workers rallied demanding recognition as legitimate
members of society and the withdrawal of an anti-prostitution law
they say threatens their livelihoods and their health.
(Reuters, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, A UN team of
experts called for an international tribunal to prosecute
Indonesia’s security forces and militia during its bloodstained exit
from East Timor in 1999.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Vietnam said it
would begin in August vaccinating poultry nationwide against bird
flu.
(SFC, 6/30/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 29, The UN World Food
Program in Zambia said lack of funds will soon force it to slash
rations and reduce the number of vulnerable women and children on
food aid.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 30, Pres. Bush, in
advance of the G-8 summit, announced a $1.7 billion aid package for
Africa and promised to double total assistance by 2010.
(SFC, 7/1/05, p.A15)
2005 Jun 30, The US Federal
Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point. It marked the 9th
increase since tightening began in 2004.
(SFC, 7/1/04, p.A1)
2005 Jun 30, Time editor Norman
Pearlstein agreed to hand over notes relating to the CIA-leak probe.
The next day Lawrence O’Donnell broke the story that the e-mails
that Time turned over to the prosecutor that day reveal that Karl
Rove is the source Matt Cooper is protecting. [see Jul 14,
2003, Sep 29, 2003]
(WSJ, 7/1/05,
p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/83v7r)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.A8)
2005 Jun 30, Bank of America
Corp. said it will acquire MBNA Corp. in a $35 billion cash and
stock deal that will result in 6,000 jobs cuts but transform the
nation's third-largest bank into one of the world's largest credit
card issuers.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Viacom launched
Logo, a gay oriented TV show.
(SFC, 6/30/05, p.E1)(Econ, 7/2/05, p.59)
2005 Jun 30, A 2-year,
11-nation investigation, called Operation Site Down, culminated with
arrests and the shut down of 8 major pirated film and software
distribution servers. Over 120 cyber pirates were identified.
(SFC, 7/1/05, p.B1)
2005 Jun 30, At El Cahon, Ca.,
5 illegal immigrants were killed and six others injured when their
van collided with a pickup truck shortly after it sped around a
border checkpoint.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 30, In Australia a
clinical audit of cases handled by surgeon Dr. Jayant Patel
nicknamed "Dr. Death" by his former colleagues, has found he
contributed to eight patient deaths during his two years at a
Queensland hospital, far fewer than earlier reported.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Storms lashed
Australia's east coast in a violent end to one of the country's
worst droughts on record.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, The income of
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, rose by 11% in 2004 to
more than $23 million, according to an annual financial report
released by his household.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Christopher Fry,
English playwright, died at age 97. Fry was England’s last
successful playwright to write in verse. His work included “Look
Back in Anger” (1956).
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.83)
2005 Jun 30, A Cambodia doctor
reported that 2 infants have died in Cambodia from influenza, part
of an outbreak that has hospitalized more than 1,000 children. He
said the illness appears to be a form of human flu, not the avian
influenza.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Chinese President
Hu Jintao visited Russia and is expected to bolster ties with
Beijing's former rival in hopes of quadrupling their trade turnover
to up to $80 billion a year by 2010.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, China overtook
Japan as the world’s largest holder of foreign exchange reserves.
The combined China and Hong Kong reserves stood at $833 billion.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.80)
2005 Jun 30, The EU and China
plunged into a 2nd trade row, this time over shoes, but Brussels
said a deal was still possible over Beijing's surging footwear
exports.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, In Kinshasa riot
police fired tear gas and beat demonstrators with batons as
thousands protested delays to Congo's first postwar presidential
elections. At least six died in violence nationwide.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, The Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic group, launched an alliance
devoted to the peaceful removal of President Hosni Mubarak, who has
been in power since 1981. Several other opposition groups promptly
lent their support to what the Brotherhood has called the an
alliance intended "to exercise peaceful pressure on the regime,
through legal and constitutional means, to make it respond to
democratic change."
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, In Honduras
Central American leaders agreed to create a regional special forces
unit to fight drug trafficking, gang violence and terrorism within
their borders. The 2-day regional meeting included the presidents of
Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico,
Nicaragua, and Panama.
(AP, 6/30/05)(SFC, 7/1/05, p.A14)
2005 Jun 30, The Israeli
military isolated the Gaza Strip, declaring it a "closed military
zone" to prevent Jewish extremists from going in.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, An ultra-Orthodox
Jew stabbed and wounded two marchers in the annual Jerusalem Gay
Pride parade.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Pres. Fox
signed a bill allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by
mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 30, Justice Minister
Yuri Chaika said that Russia was seeking to have assets of the
beleaguered Yukos oil company seized overseas and had asked
Netherlands and Lithuania for help.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Spain’s Parliament
voted 187-147 to legalize gay marriages, defying conservatives and
clergy making Spain the 3rd country to allow same-sex unions
nationwide.
(AP, 6/30/05)(WSJ, 7/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 30, Sudan announced
the imminent end of a 16-year state of emergency across most of the
giant country and began releasing political prisoners, including the
leading Islamic opposition figure.
(AP, 6/30/05)(WSJ, 7/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 30, The UN panel
overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of
Kuwait approved its final claims, bringing the total award to $52.5
billion.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Zimbabwe police
targeted an illegal settlement west of Harare in the government's
six-week demolition and resettlement campaign, and as many as three
people were reported dead. 2 women, one of them pregnant, died when
they fell off the back of trucks ferrying them to a "transit camp"
where thousands of displaced people are living in tents. A
4-year-old boy was run over by a truck
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun, The board of
MassMutual Financial Group voted to fire CEO Robert O’Connell
following an investigation that revealed padding in his supplemental
retirement account and other allegations that involved a romantic
affair with a top female executive.
(WSJ, 8/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun, In Colorado City,
Arizona, Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of
the latter Day Saints (FLDS) was indicted on 2 charges of organizing
child-bride marriages. Jeffs was jailed in February, 2008. In June,
2010, a judge dismissed all state charges against Jeffs after 2
alleged victims no longer wanted to proceed with prosecution.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.33)(SFC, 6/10/10, p.A5)
2005 Jun, The BATS (Better
Alternative Trading System), led by Dave Cummings, was incorporated.
Within 2 years the Kansas City operation became America’s 3rd
largest stockmarket.
(Econ, 3/17/07,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Alternative_Trading_System)
2005 Jun, NYC doctors reported
outbreaks of imipenem resistant Klebsiella.
(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A10)
2005 Jun, In Iraq construction
began about this time on a new US embassy complex with a target
completion date of June 2007. The 21 building complex on 104 acres
will be the largest US embassy in the world. Cost was estimated at
over $1 billion.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2005 Jun, In Morocco Nadia
Yassine (47), leader of the underground Justice and Charity Islamic
movement, was charged with publicly criticizing the monarchy after
she stated in a newspaper interview that the country would be better
off as a republic than as a kingdom. She demanded the abolition of
Article 19 of the constitution enshrining the king’s role as
Commander of the Faithful.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101472.html)
2005 Jun, The Trans-Sahara
Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan
intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9
north-east African countries considered fertile ground for Muslim
militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad,
Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun, In India the Salwa
Judum, an anti-Maoist group, formed in southern Chhattisgarh state.
It soon became an arm of the government to fight Naxalite rebels.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.39)
2005 Jun, India's tsunami-hit
Andaman islands signed a tourist deal with Thailand’s resort town of
Phuket. Environmentalists slammed the deal saying such a move would
destroy the fragile ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and
encourage the sex trade.
(Reuters, 8/3/05)
2005 Jun, San Marino set up a
central bank with supervisory powers.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.74)
2005 Jun, Article 301/1 of the
Turkish Penal Code, the “insulting Turkishness” law, took effect.
The law states “A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the
Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be imposed to a
penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years.”
(www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/694/prmID/172)
2005 Jun, Venezuela set up
Petrocaribe under which it offered 12 Caribbean countries cheap
credit for oil imports.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.33)
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2005