Timeline 2006 April-June
Return to home
2006 Apr 1,
Former hostage Jill Carroll arrived in Germany, where she strongly
disavowed statements she had made during captivity in Iraq and
shortly after her release, saying she had been repeatedly
threatened.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2006 Apr 1, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb wounded five US troops when it hit their
vehicle. A suicide attack on a US-led coalition convoy in the
country's south killed the bomber but hurt no one else. In southern
Afghanistan a Taliban rebel posing as a traveler shot dead four
policemen at a remote checkpoint after eating dinner with them and
sleeping in their quarters. A fifth officer shot the rebel dead.
(AP, 4/1/06)(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, Cracking down on
visitors who come to Brazil for sex, police raided clubs in Natal
known for using call girls and strippers, detaining 118 foreigners
to discourage what authorities called "sexual tourism."
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao arrived in Australia for a visit aimed at finalizing a
uranium supply deal and speeding up free trade negotiations between
the two nations.
(AFP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, In eastern China a
blast at an explosives plant killed at least 20 workers and injured
two. Nine workers were missing.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, Calls emerged
within the Shiite alliance Saturday for PM Ibrahim al-Jaafari to
step aside as the bloc's nominee for another term as pressure
mounted against him from Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, A US Apache
helicopter crashed southwest of Baghdad. It was believed to have
been shot down and the two crew members were presumed dead. Iraqi
police reported that at least 39 bodies were found in several
neighborhoods of Baghdad. Joint US-Iraqi troops killed four
insurgents and wounded another after two failed attacks near Balad,
50 miles north of Baghdad. Two American soldiers were killed by a
roadside bomb while on patrol in central Baghdad.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants attacked a military base in a
tribal region, killing one soldier and injuring four others.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, A Soyuz capsule
docked with the international space station (ISS), bringing Brazil's
first astronaut, a new Russian-American crew and a fresh load of
supplies, equipment and experiments.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Three explorers
from Britain and New Zealand claimed to be the first to have
traveled the Nile from its mouth to its "true source" deep in
Rwanda's lush Nyungwe rainforest.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Karl Bushby was
briefly detained after walking from Alaska across the icy Bering
Straits into Russian territory, a treacherous crossing for which he
was joined by Dmitri Kieffer, a French-born US citizen who
videotaped the adventure. Authorities confiscated the two men's
passports and other belongings, effectively making it impossible for
them to move. Bushby was on a quest to trek around the world. Bushby
set out on foot from southern Chile on November 1, 1998 with the
intention of walking back to his home in the northern English city
of Hull, a 36,000-mile (58,000-kilometer) odyssey that he was
scheduled to complete by 2010. On April 14 a Russian court ordered
the deportation of the British adventurer for illegally crossing
into Russia, dealing a potentially fatal blow to his dream of
walking around the world.
(AFP, 4/6/06)(AFP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 1, Tens of thousands
of people gathered at a rally in the northern city of Bilbao to call
for greater Basque self-determination and negotiations between the
Spanish government and separatists.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Fresh clashes
between Kurdish protesters and police in southeast Turkey killed one
protester and injured 10.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 2, Thunderstorms
packing tornadoes and hail as big as softballs ripped through eight
US states, killing at least 27 people. Tennessee was hit hardest,
with tornadoes striking five western counties and killing 23 people,
including an infant. Severe thunderstorms, many producing tornadoes,
also struck parts of Iowa, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio,
Illinois and Indiana. Strong wind was blamed or at least three
deaths in Missouri.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 2, It was reported
that Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in
South Dakota, had joined with 14 co-chairs to form the South Dakota
Campaign for Healthy Families. The group planned a referendum in
favor of abortion.
(SSFC, 4/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Apr 2, Alcatel SA and
Lucent Technologies Inc. said that the French telecom equipment
maker would acquire its US rival. The deal valued Lucent at about
$13.5 billion (11.1 billion euros) in a stock swap that would form a
major new global player. Headquarters would be in Paris and about
8,800 jobs would be cut.
(AP, 4/2/06)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.63)
2006 Apr 2, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban militants shot dead 9 policemen and wounded three
others. Insurgents fatally shot a Turkish road engineer and burned
his body in Nimroz province.
(AP, 4/2/06)(WSJ, 4/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 2, The World Health
Organization (WHO) confirmed that four Egyptians have caught bird
flu, including two who died from the virus.
(Reuters, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 2, In France the
contested First Job Contract appeared in the Official Journal, where
new laws are recorded.
(WSJ, 4/3/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 2, Iran announced its
second major new missile test within days, saying it has
successfully fired a high-speed torpedo called Hoot (whale), capable
of destroying huge warships and submarines.
(AP, 4/3/06)(SFC, 4/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 2, Iraqi police
reported that at least 3 more bodies were found in several
neighborhoods of Baghdad. A Sunni clerical association announced
that gunmen had assassinated a Sunni Arab sheik, Abdul-Minaam Awad,
in his village of Zobaa 40 miles west of Baghdad. 6 insurgents died
while manufacturing a homemade bomb inside a house in Madain, about
15 miles southeast of Baghdad. Drive-by shooters killed a police
captain outside his home in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood. 5 Marines
were killed and one was injured when the seven-ton US military truck
rolled over in a flash food. 4 American troops were killed by
hostile fire. Gunmen killed a Shiite man and three of his relatives
at their home in southern Baghdad. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made a surprise trip
to Iraq to urge its leaders to form a unified government.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AP, 4/3/06)(AP, 4/2/07)
2006 Apr 2, Mauritanian
officials said a boat packed with West Africans trying to reach
Europe collided with a fishing vessel, leaving 32 of the migrants
missing and believed drowned.
(CP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 2, In Pakistan’s
neighboring South Waziristan the bullet-riddled body of Maulana
Zahir Shah, was found. The cleric was killed by suspected Islamic
militants over suspicion he was a spy for the US and Britain. Ten
people including five tribal police were killed and 13 injured in
separate bomb blasts in the restive southwestern Pakistani province
of Baluchistan.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AFP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 2, Thailand citizens
voted in snap parliamentary elections. Thailand's PM urged citizens
to ignore an opposition boycott, saying the vote was crucial to
ending the country's deepening political stalemate amid demands for
his resignation. Bombs exploded at three polling stations in restive
southern Thailand, injuring four soldiers and a police officer.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 2, In southeastern
Turkey one protester died after police opened fire to disperse
Kurdish demonstrators, raising the death toll in six days of street
violence to nine. A group of men stopped a passenger bus and tossed
gasoline bombs at it, sending the vehicle careening into pedestrians
and killing 3 in Istanbul as pro-Kurdish riots continued to spread.
The countrywide death toll from nearly a week of unrest climbed to
15.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, The Pentagon
released 2,733 pages of declassified transcripts of Guantanamo Bay
detainee hearings.
(SFC, 4/4/06, p.A4)
2006 Apr 3, In Boston a 10-ton
construction platform collapsed and fell 13 stories killing 3 people
on Boylston St.
(SFC, 4/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 3, Denver area transit
workers went on strike for the 1st time in 24 years. A tentative
contract was reached on April 5.
(SFC, 4/4/06, p.A3)(SFC, 4/6/06, p.A18)
2006 Apr 3, David Wittig,
former chairman and CEO of Westar Energy, was sentenced in Kansas to
18 years in prison for defrauding the company. Former VP David Lake
was sentenced to 15 years. Both men were ordered to pay fines of $5
million each.
(WSJ, 4/4/06, p.C3)
2006 Apr 3, Florida beat UCLA,
73-57, to win its first NCAA title in men's basketball.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2006 Apr 3, Charles Barkley,
Dominique Wilkins and Joe Dumars were among six people elected to
the Basketball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2006 Apr 3, Constellation
Brands and Vincor Int’l., Canada’s largest wine company announced
plans for a $1.3 billion merger.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.F2)
2006 Apr 3, Australia agreed to
sell China uranium for nuclear power stations despite concerns that
Beijing could divert the material to atomic weapons.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Czech officials
declared a state of emergency in seven flood-hit regions while
rivers continued to rise in neighboring European countries, forcing
evacuations in some areas. Flooding was also reported in Germany,
Poland, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, The National Bank
of Greece paid $2.8 billion for 46% of Finansbank, Turkey’s 3rd
largest bank. It planned a public offer for a controlling stake.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.74)
2006 Apr 3, In western
Guatemala 4 young men accused of trying to rob a school were whipped
by their parents in a sentence dictated by Mayan elders.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, A suicide truck
bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in northeastern Baghdad as
worshippers were leaving after evening prayers, killing at least 10
people and wounding 30. A car bombing in Baghdad's eastern Shiite
slum of Sadr City killed at least two civilians and wounded six
others, including a 9-year-old boy. 4 people were wounded when a car
bomb struck the central district of Karradah in Baghdad. Six people,
a navy officer, two policemen, two workers at an electrical plant
and a boy, were killed by drive-by shooters in a market area of the
southern city of Basra.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, PM Bertie Ahern
pledged that Ireland will legalize civil partnerships for gay
couples, as he opened new offices for the country's main gay rights
group.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, In Jordan a bomb
exploded at a shop selling Iraqi scrap metal, killing two people and
wounding four.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Dozens of Mexican
newspapers, frustrated by fruitless police probes of slain and
missing journalists, simultaneously published the first in a series
of reports on the cases.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Morocco’s state
news agency MAP said security forces were holding nine suspected al
Qaeda activists. Local newspapers said they were part of a ring that
plotted bomb attacks in France, Italy and Morocco.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, The chief of
Nepal's communist rebels promised to suspend attacks on the capital
ahead of a planned nationwide strike, a first sign of easing
tensions in a battle of nerves between the king's government and its
opponents.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb killed five people riding a minibus and security
forces shot dead two suspected militants in North Waziristan
province.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Negotiations in
Vienna on the future of Kosovo appeared to founder as UN mediators
struggled to overcome Serb demands for autonomy within the majority
Albanian territory.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Former Liberian
President Charles Taylor pleaded not guilty before an international
war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, denying he'd helped destabilize
West Africa through killings, sexual slavery and sending children
into combat.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2006 Apr 3, A senior South
African policeman went on a shooting rampage in Johannesburg,
killing eight people, including a 2-year-old baby, before being shot
dead by colleagues. A pedestrian was killed during a police chase of
the suspect.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 3, Jan Egeland, the
U.N.'s top humanitarian official in Sudan, said the government
barred him from visiting Darfur to prevent him seeing poor
conditions there.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Mohammed al-Maghout
(72), a Syrian poet and playwright known for his satirical
depictions of authoritarian Arab regimes, died of a stroke at his
home in Damascus.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, PM Thaksin claimed
victory in Thailand's general election that followed weeks of
anti-government protests, saying his party won more than half of the
popular vote, the threshold he had set for staying in office.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 3, Venezuela seized
control of oil fields from France's Total SA and Italy's Eni SPA in
a show of force against those resisting President Hugo Chavez's
efforts to pry more profits from the industry at a time of high oil
prices.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 3, Dao Dinh Binh (61)
Vietnam's transport minister resigned and his deputy was arrested in
a major corruption scandal in which public officials embezzled
millions of dollars in government funds. The reformist newspapers
Thanh Nien (Young people) and Tuoi Tre (Youth Daily) had published a
joint expose of the transport ministry’s road building unit. In 2009
the government refused to renew the contracts for the papers.
(AFP, 4/4/06)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.43)
2006 Apr 4, Republican Rep. Tom
DeLay of Texas, the House of Representatives' fallen majority
leader, announced the end of a re-election fight he was in jeopardy
of losing and said he would soon step down from the US Congress.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, In Massachusetts
legislators passed a bill requiring all citizens to have health
insurance. Gov. Romney signed it on April 12. The cost of the plan
was estimated at $1 billion, about as much as the state spends on
the uninsured. A dearth of primary-care physicians threatened to
undermine the program.
(WSJ, 4/5/06, p.A1)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.35)(SFC,
4/12/06, p.A4)(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.B1)
2006 Apr 4, Maryland beat Duke,
78-75, in overtime to win its first NCAA women's basketball title.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2006 Apr 4, Computer Sciences
Corp. said it plans to cut about 5,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of
its work force, over two years and is considering selling the
company.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Arab diplomats said
top intelligence officers from several Arab countries and Turkey
have been meeting secretly to coordinate their governments'
strategies in case civil war erupts in Iraq and in an attempt to
block Iran's interference in the war-torn nation.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 4, A boatload of 52
dazed and exhausted African men arrived at the Canary Islands, the
latest of a stream of desperate migrants risking everything on the
open sea for a slim chance at life in Europe.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, In Colombia
authorities announced the arrests of 7 active and retired police and
army officers working for one of Colombia's largest cocaine cartels,
who used commercial cargo planes to ship drugs to the US.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Wen Jiabao arrived
in Fiji as the first Chinese premier to visit the Pacific islands,
seeking to deepen China's influence in the region and contain
Taiwan's diplomatic clout.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Human Rights Watch
said tens of thousands of street children across Congo risk being
recruited by political parties to create chaos, intimidate voters
and contest the results of up-coming elections.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, In France a
nationwide strike shut down the Eiffel Tower and snarled air and
rail travel for the second time in a week while students barricaded
themselves in schools to protest a jobs measure that has riven the
country and put the government in crisis mode.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Mphasis BFL Ltd.,
an Indian software services company, welcomed a $380 million bid by
Electronic Data Systems for a 52% stake.
(WSJ, 4/5/06, p.B3)
2006 Apr 4, Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran is prepared to negotiate on the
large-scale enrichment of uranium but will never abandon its right
to enrich uranium.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, The Iraq tribunal
announced new criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and six
others, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity
stemming from a 1980s crackdown against Kurds. A car bomb exploded
in a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 and
wounding 28. Another blast in Baghdad killed a woman and two of her
young sons.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Denis Donaldson
(55), former British agent inside Sinn Fein, was killed by shotgun
blasts in northwest Ireland.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 4, Israeli warplanes
fired three missiles into the presidential compound of Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas, wounding 2 people and leaving deep craters in
the ground.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Kuwaiti women voted
and ran as candidates for the first time in a municipal election in
the conservative country's capital, but initial reports indicated
not many women were casting ballots.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Charles Taylor
appeared in a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone with 11 counts of
crimes against humanity and other violations of int’l. law.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.46)
2006 Apr 4, The South Korean
ship 628 Dongwon was seized by eight armed assailants, who
approached in two speed boats firing guns off the coast of Somalia.
25 crew members were reported safe and officials sought their
release. The sailors were released July 30 after more than $800,000
in ransom was paid.
(AP, 4/5/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Apr 4, Thailand’s
Embattled PM Thaksin Shinawatra abruptly announced he will step down
from office, bowing to a mounting opposition campaign seeking his
ouster over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 4, Venezuelan
authorities found the bullet-ridden bodies of three Canadian boys
who had been kidnapped more than a month ago. John Faddoul (17),
along with his brothers Kevin (13) and Jason (12) were abducted Feb.
23 when unidentified men dressed as police stopped their car at a
checkpoint in Caracas as the boys were on their way to school.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Seattle customs
authorities arrested 18 men and 4 women who had arrived from China
in a 40-foot cargo container.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 5, Katie Couric
announced she was leaving NBC's "Today" show to become anchor of
"The CBS Evening News."
(AP, 4/5/07)
2006 Apr 5, Mike Pressler, the
lacrosse coach of Duke Univ., resigned amid allegations that 3
players had raped a stripper at an off-campus party in March. Duke
cancelled the lacrosse season. The rape charges were later dropped,
but the players still faced allegations of sexual offense and
kidnapping; all maintained their innocence.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.A2)(AP, 4/5/07)
2006 Apr 5, Apple Corp.
introduced free software to allow users of its latest Mac models to
run MS Windows.
(Reuters, 4/5/06)(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 5, SF picked Google
and EarthLink to bring free Internet access to the city.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 5, Brown-Forman said
it will lay off 76 people and close its Fetzer Vineyards’ Valley
Oaks Hospitality Center in Hopland. Brown-Forman acquired Fetzer in
1992.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.F2)
2006 Apr 5, Allan Kaprow
(b.1927), an artist who coined the term “happenings” in the late
1950s, died at his home in Encinitas, Ca. In 1966 he published
“Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings.”
(SFC, 4/11/06, p.B5)(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.D7)
2006 Apr 5, Gene Pitney
(b.1941), US singer and songwriter and pop music star of the 1960s,
died during a tour of Britain. His chart-topping hits included “Town
Without Pity” (1961) "Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa" and "Something's
Gotten Hold Of My Heart."
(AP, 4/5/06)(SFC, 4/6/06, p.B7)(Econ, 4/15/06,
p.86)
2006 Apr 5, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed an insurgent and dropped 2,000-pound bombs
on a band of Taliban.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 5, A Brazilian
congressional investigative committee gave its final approval to a
report recommending prosecution of over 100 people linked to a
campaign finance and corruption scheme run by former members of the
governing Workers Party.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Britain reiterated
its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and rejected Argentina's
claims in a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Britain’s Serious
Fraud Office began criminal proceedings against nine individuals and
five companies it alleges fixed the price of two widely prescribed
generic drugs sold to the country's free National Health Service
(NHS).
(AFP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Home Secretary
Charles Clarke said London would press for Romania to be granted
membership of the European Union "as soon as possible" as he praised
the country's work against people trafficking.
(AFP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Cuban coast guard
officials fatally shot a suspected migrant smuggler and arrested two
others after confronting them in an apparent operation to ferry 39
migrants out of the country on a US-registered speedboat. State
television later said that the migrant smuggler who was fatally shot
had left the island as a migrant himself three weeks earlier, but
returned as a crew member on the same boat to repay a debt.
(AP, 4/7/06)(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 5, In France
demonstrators blocked roads, rail lines and mail delivery trucks in
a second straight day of protests to demand the repeal of a divisive
jobs law, while unions vowed they would not compromise in talks with
President Jacques Chirac's ruling party on the issue.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, In Indonesia an
explosion in the headquarters of the paramilitary police command in
the western city of Medan killed two officers and injured several
others.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, A video posted on
the Internet in the name of an extremist group claimed to show Iraqi
insurgents dragging the burning body of a US pilot on the ground
after the April 1 crash of an Apache helicopter.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, In Iraq a Sunni
professor was found dead hours after he was abducted in the southern
city of Basra.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, In Nepal police
detained dozens of opposition politicians and ordered a night curfew
to thwart a planned general strike aiming to pressure King Gyanendra
to restore democracy.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Pakistani security
forces and suspected Islamic militants battled for a second day near
the Afghan border, leaving four soldiers and 16 fighters dead.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, PM Ismail Haniyeh
said the new Hamas-led government is broke and missed the April 1
monthly pay date for tens of thousands of Palestinian public
workers.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, In the Solomon
Islands former premier Sir Allan Kemakeza narrowly clung to his seat
in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 5, Militants who
captured the South Korean fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia
denied they were pirates and said they were defending their waters
from illegal fishing.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Sudan said it would
allow UN Undersecretary Jan Egeland to visit Darfur.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Thailand’s PM
Thaksin Shinawatra handed over power to a longtime friend and fellow
police officer, less than 24 hours after saying he would step down
over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, Actor Michael
Douglas presented UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with an award for
his dedication to ridding the world of land mines, marking the first
international day to honor the cause.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 5, In Venezuela Jorge
Aguirre, a photographer for the Caracas daily El Mundo, was shot and
killed on the way to an anti-crime protest. He managed to take a
picture of his assailant fleeing on a motorcycle. Homicide charges
were filed on April 15 against Boris Lenis Blanco (33), a police
officer, who was arrested April 13.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 6, Newly released
court records cited Lewis "Scooter" Libby saying that in the summer
of 2003 President Bush told Vice President Cheney to tell the vice
president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to disclose
highly classified information regarding Iraq intelligence in order
to try and discredit legitimate criticism of the administration.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Louis Eppolito (57)
and Steven Caracappa (64), former NYC detectives, were convicted of
moonlighting as hit men for Anthony Casso, a Luchese family
underboss from 1986-1990.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 6, At the death
penalty trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, former New
York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described his own harrowing
experience in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2006 Apr 6, US Rep. Cynthia
McKinney (D-Ga.) apologized for an altercation in which she'd
entered a Capitol building unrecognized, refused to stop when asked
by a police officer and then hit him.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2006 Apr 6, Maine’s Gov. John
Baldacci signed legislation to allow stiffer penalties for those
convicted of attacks on homeless people.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 6, Gold futures
climbed to a 25-year high of 601.90 in Asian trading and settled at
599.70 per ounce in NY.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.D1)
2006 Apr 6, In California 3 ski
patrollers were killed when snow collapsed around a volcanic gas
vent at Mammoth Lakes.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A2)
2006 Apr 6, A manuscript called
the Judas Gospel, probably copied from the original Greek around the
year 300, was unveiled. Discovered in the 1970s near Minya, Egypt,
the volume, including the gospel and other documents, was sold to an
Egyptian antiquities dealer in 1978.
(Reuters, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, A mortar blast near
the main US military base in Afghanistan left a civilian dead.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Britain's national
farming union said tests have confirmed a dead swan found in
Scotland had the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Colombia bombs
exploded on two buses in a working class district of Bogota,
injuring two dozen passengers, including three children with burns
over half their body.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, A government
minister said Egypt has found two more people infected with the bird
flu virus, bringing the number of human cases in the country to 11.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Guatemala Mario
Pivaral, an opposition congressman, was shot to death as he stepped
out of his party's headquarters, the 2nd lawmaker assassinated in
the past two years.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Students protesting
a new labor law put more pressure on France's embattled government
by blocking roads, trains and a convoy of parts heading to the
factory that builds the world's largest airliner.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Shiite politicians
also blocked a bid to have parliament try to break the deadlock on
forming a new government. A car bomb exploded in the Shiite holy
city of Najaf, killing at least 13 people.
(AP, 4/6/06)(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 6, An Iraqi soldier
allegedly shot and killed a US Marine at a base near the Syrian
border. Another American Marine then wounded the Iraqi soldier. One
US service member was killed by a roadside bomb near Beiji and
another in action in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 6, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav formally chose acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to
form Israel's next government.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Japan said it would
launch free trade talks with six Gulf kingdoms that provide
three-quarters of its oil imports, during a visit by a Saudi crown
prince aimed at expanding business ties.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, At least 28 people
received medical attention after suspected pickpockets used
pepper-spray to escape police at a Tokyo train station. Media
reports said the suspects are believed to be members of a South
Korean organized pickpocket gang which has preyed on Japan's train
system.
(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, An attack in Laos
killed 26 Hmong civilians, mainly unarmed women and children. In
June the US called on communist-ruled Laos to investigate the murder
of the Hmong civilians amid allegations that Lao military forces had
killed the group.
(AFP, 6/2/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Mexico hundreds
of machete-wielding farmers opposed to a hydroelectric dam project
briefly seized a pumping plant, cutting off much of the water supply
to Acapulco just days before tourists flock to the Pacific resort
for their Easter vacations.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Nepal police
arrested 300 protesters in Katmandu, chasing them down narrow lanes
and beating them with batons on the first day of a general strike to
demand the king restore democracy. Maoist rebels said they had shot
down an army helicopter for the first time, during clashes in which
police reported five of their officers and three guerrillas killed.
(AP, 4/6/06)(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Palestinian PM
Ismail Haniya said his Hamas-led government would study any Israeli
offer for negotiations following an unprecedented peace overture to
the UN.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Russian prosecutors
said Vasily Aleksanian, an executive recently assigned to saving
Yukos, Russia's former biggest oil producer, from bankruptcy was
arrested on charges of embezzlement and money-laundering.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, It was reported
that Russian health and sanitary officials had imposed a ban on
Georgian and Moldovan wines effective May 1. Authorities said the
wines contained pesticides and heavy metals. The ban was soon
extended to brandy and sparkling wines.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Cheese and butter
from the Danish company Arla were back on supermarket shelves in
Saudi Arabia after an Islamic group ended a boycott of the dairy
producer sparked by Denmark's publication of drawings of the Prophet
Muhammad.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, The US Court of
International Law ruled that US Customs violated a provision of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in applying a law known
as the Byrd amendment to antidumping and countervailing duties on
goods from Canada and Mexico.
(Reuters, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Republican leaders
called on Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., to step down from his ranking
post on the House ethics committee because of allegations that he
provided legislative earmarks benefiting companies and individuals
who helped make him a millionaire.
(SFC, 4/8/06, p.A4)
2006 Apr 7, Dena Schlosser,
charged with murder for cutting off her baby daughter Margaret's
arms in what her lawyers portrayed as a religious frenzy, was found
not guilty by reason of insanity by a judge in McKinney, Texas.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2006 Apr 7, In Tennessee 10
people were killed as tornadoes hit the area for the 2nd time in a
week.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 7, It was reported
that scientists at MIT had harnessed a replicating virus, that binds
to gold and cobalt oxide, to create a nanotechnology battery.
(WSJ, 4/7/06, p.B2)
2006 Apr 7, In southern Algeria
gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents traveling through the
desert, killing 13 and wounding eight others.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Australian PM John
Howard moved to ease Indonesian outrage over a decision to grant
visas to asylum-seekers from Papua, saying his government would
review the process.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, In Austria a 2-day
meeting began in Vienna for European Imams aimed at creating a
distinct identity for European Muslims.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A16)
2006 Apr 7, A British judge
ruled that author Dan Brown did not steal ideas for "The Da Vinci
Code" from a nonfiction work.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2006 Apr 7, Britain’s BAE
Systems announced plans to sell its stake in aircraft maker Airbus
to its French-German partner EADS.
(AFP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 7, In Chile an appeals
court upheld the indictment of former dictator Gen. Pinochet on
charges of evading up to $3 million in taxes related to secret
accounts in foreign banks.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, The EU said it has
cut off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led Palestinian government
because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, A bus skidded off a
narrow mountain road and plunged into a river in a remote region of
Indian Kashmir and dozens were feared dead.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, A toned-down
edition of Playboy magazine went on sale in Indonesia, defying
threats of protests by Islamic hardliners in the world's most
populous Muslim nation.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, At least 2 suicide
attackers, one wearing a woman's cloaks, blew themselves up at the
Buratha Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad, killing some 79-90 people
and wounding scores. One US service member died of wounds suffered
while on patrol in western Baghdad.
(AP, 4/7/06)(AP, 4/8/06)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.48)
2006 Apr 7, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian man during an overnight arrest raid in the
West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Israeli missiles
slammed into a car in Gaza City, killing two members of a
Palestinian rocket squad in the 2nd deadly airstrike since the
Islamic militant group Hamas assumed power last week. An Israeli
airstrike killed six Palestinian militants and wounded five at a
militant training camp in central Gaza.
(AP, 4/8/06)(SFC, 4/8/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 7, Japan’s health and
welfare ministry said the nation’s population shrank in the year
through November 2005, the first annual decrease on record,
confirming an earlier government prediction.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, In Nepal police
fired tear gas and fought frenzied street battles with protesters on
the second day of a strike called by government adversaries of King
Gyanendra. Protesters said 150 people were arrested.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, It was reported
that some AIDS patients in South Africa were choosing cash
disability grants over advanced AIDS drugs in order to sustain their
families.
(WSJ, 4/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 7, In Turkey a suicide
bomber blew herself up injuring 2 people, including a suspected
accomplice. Turkish forces killed 6 Kurdish rebels in Sirnak.
(WSJ, 4/8/06, p.A1)(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 7, The UN appealed for
$426 million to help victims of drought in Horn of Africa, where
more than 40 percent of people are undernourished and thousands have
died because of complications due to hunger.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Venezuela Attorney
General Isaias Rodriguez said that five suspects were being charged
with willful homicide in the slayings of the 3 Faddoul brothers,
whose bodies were found April 4. Supporters of President Hugo Chavez
pelted the car of the US ambassador with eggs and tomatoes, then
chased after his convoy on motorcycles.
(AP, 4/7/06)(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, The New Yorker
magazine reported in its April 17 issue that the administration of
Pres. George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against
Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key
Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility.
(AFP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, Democratic Party
leaders in Vermont passed a motion asking Congress to immediately
begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush.
(Reuters, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 8, The US cost to date
of the Iraq war was put at $250 billion. Estimates suggested that
the costs could reach $2.24 trillion by 2015.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.33)
2006 Apr 8, In western
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb outside a NATO military base in Herat
city killed two Afghans and wounded seven others.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, Belarussian
President Alexander Lukashenko has been sworn in for a third
five-year term and used the occasion to lash out at his foreign
critics.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, In Canada 8 men
were found dead inside abandoned vehicles in a remote wooded area of
a farmer's property. All were all from greater Toronto and all knew
each other.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 8, The Rolling Stones
made their debut in mainland China with a censored, but still
raucous, concert in Shanghai.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2006 Apr 8, Harley-Davidson
Inc. opened its first dealership in China, with promises to bring
its trademark easy-riding attitude to bikers in the world's most
sought-after market.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, In Ghana an
overloaded motorboat carrying about 150 passengers on Lake Volta,
and 110 people are missing and feared dead. Only 40 people are known
to have survived the sinking.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 8, Police found four
headless bodies showing signs of torture that were dumped on a farm
about 20 mile north of Baghdad. 7 other bodies were found in 3
Baghdad neighborhoods. A mortar round hit a house near the Education
Ministry in central Baghdad, killing two men. In the southern
neighborhood of Dora, gunmen killed a Shiite cigarette vendor and
police found the body of a man killed by a roadside bomb near a
highway. 6 Shiite pilgrims were blown up by a suicide car bomber on
a road leading to Shiite shrines south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/8/06)(AFP, 4/8/06)(SSFC, 4/9/06, p.A14)
2006 Apr 8, In Nepal security
forces fired on anti-monarch demonstrators in separate marches,
killing one and wounding five.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, In Nigeria at least
a dozen people drowned when an overcrowded dugout canoe capsized in
a remote creek in the delta region. 5 employees of a contractor to
US oil company Chevron were among the dead. Nigerian newspapers said
at least 20 people died, adding 12 bodies had been recovered.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 8, North Korea's top
negotiator to stalled six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arms
program began discussions with other envoys involved in the
negotiations in an effort to put the process back on track.
(Reuters, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, Thousands of
Russians left behind by their country's economic boom came out onto
the streets to protest at what they said was the widening gulf
between rich and poor.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 8, Turkish forces
killed a Kurdish rebel outside Batman and arrested a Kurdish suspect
in a deadly bombing at a seaside resort last year. 2 soldiers were
killed by a land mine blast in Elazig.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 9, The White House
sought to dampen the idea of a military strike on Iran, saying the
United States was conducting “normal defense and intelligence
planning” in response to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 4/9/07)
2006 Apr 9, More than half a
million people in 10 US states rallied for immigrant rights.
(AP, 4/9/07)
2006 Apr 9, In Afghan 2 bombs
exploded within minutes of each other in Kandahar, wounding 11
people.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Austria a
gathering of Imams and Islamic leaders urged European governments to
launch affirmative action-style programs and streamline citizenship
paths to help ease integration for the continent's 33 million
Muslims.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, Paulo Mendes da
Rocha, Brazilian architect, was named winner of the 2006 Pritzker
Architecture Prize. His work included the Brazilian Sculpture Museum
in Sao Paulo.
(SFC, 4/10/06, p.A2)
2006 Apr 9, Croatia’s Pres.
Stjepan Mesic visited the SF Bay Area, home to some 50,000
Croatians, for economic support. Croatia’s population stood at about
4.5 million people.
(SFC, 4/10/06, p.A2)
2006 Apr 9, Hungary's ruling
Socialists appeared to hold a narrow lead in the first round of
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, A Beauty pageant
was held in a Baghdad social club and the initial winner, Tamar
Goregian, gave back the crown four days later. Silva Shahakian, an
Iraqi Christian, received the title of Miss Iraq when the initial
winner stepped down after receiving death threats and two other
runners-up also bowed out. Shahakian soon went into hiding.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 9, Five roadside bombs
killed at least three people in Iraq, the three-year anniversary of
the Baghdad's fall to US forces. American troops killed eight
suspected insurgents during a raid north of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, Israel's security
Cabinet recommended that the government cut all ties with the
Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, including Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, and declare it a "hostile entity." Israeli artillery
fire killed a Palestinian police officer and wounded 16 people in
Gaza, as Israel escalated its retaliation for militant rocket
strikes and put pressure on the new Hamas-led government that
refuses to stop the attacks.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9-2006 Apr 10, Italy
held parliamentary elections. Conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi
faced a strong challenge from his center-left opponent Romano Prodi
in a bitter campaign marked by disenchantment over Italy's stagnant
economy.
(AP, 4/9/06)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.28)
2006 Apr 9, A capsule carrying
a Russian, American and Brazilian landed in Kazakhstan following a
weeklong trip to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SSFC, 4/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 9, In Nepal security
forces fired at anti-monarchy demonstrators in eastern Nepal,
killing at least one man.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Pakistan
provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub said "The federal
government has declared Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) as
terrorist organization over its involvement in sabotage and
subversive activities."
(AFP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Pakistan at
least 29 women and children were suffocated or crushed to death in a
stampede at a religious gathering in southern Pakistan. More than 70
people were injured.
(Reuters, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, Peruvians faced a
close, three-way presidential contest that put their Andean nation
on a leftist track akin to Venezuela and Bolivia. Ollanta Humala
(43), a former army officer, won with only 31% of the vote.
(AP, 4/9/06)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.42)
2006 Apr 9, A Swiss
investigator has issued an international arrest warrant for Iran's
former intelligence chief in the killing of an exiled Iranian
opposition leader. It demands the arrest of Ali Fallahian,
intelligence minister from 1989-1997, on grounds he "decided and
ordered the execution of Kazem Rajavi." Rajavi was shot to death in
Geneva in 1990.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 10, Tens of thousands
of immigrants spilled into the streets of Atlanta and other US
cities in a national day of action billed as a "campaign for
immigrants' dignity." Some 200,000 gathered in DC; 10,000 in San
Jose, Ca., and 5000 in SF.
(AP, 4/10/06)(SFC, 4/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 10, Former Enron Chief
Executive Jeffrey Skilling began testifying in his fraud and
conspiracy trial in Houston, declaring himself “absolutely
innocent.”
(AP, 4/10/07)
2006 Apr 10, In northwestern
Afghanistan gunmen killed five medical workers, while two policemen
and a truck driver transporting food for US-led coalition troops
were slain in bombings and shootings in a southern Taliban
stronghold.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Mark Vaile,
Australia's trade minister, said he did not read a string of
diplomatic cables warning that the country's monopoly wheat exporter
allegedly was paying multimillion-dollar kickbacks to Saddam
Hussein's regime.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Australian
scientists reported the discovery of an "anti-freeze gene" that
allows Antarctic grass to survive at minus 30°C, saying it could
prevent multi-million-dollar crop losses from frost.
(www.techimo.com/newsapp/index.pl?photo=16314)
2006 Apr 10, In Canada 5 men
were charged in the slayings of 8 people who were found on an
isolated farm in Ontario in what police called an "internal
cleansing" of a motorcycle gang. Most of the victims were either
full or associate members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 10, It was reported
that China has agreed to open a corridor through its tightly
restricted airspace. This could save airlines $30 million a year in
fuel and trim an average half hour off flight times between China
and Europe.
(WSJ, 4/10/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 10, In China an
explosion in a hospital parking garage killed at least 30 people.
The blast occurred in an underground garage at a hospital for the
staff of the Xuangang Coal and Electricity Co. Ltd. in Shanxi
province's Yuanping county. Local authorities found explosives at
the site.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 10, In northwest China
a truck crashed into a minivan and a passenger bus after its brakes
failed, killing at least 26 people and injuring 24.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Cuba and Venezuela
signed agreements for a joint venture to revamp an unfinished
Soviet-era refinery in Cuba and supply it with oil from Venezuela.
(WSJ, 4/12/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 10, Egypt’s Health and
Population Minister Hatem el-Gabali said a 12th case of human bird
flu has been found.
(Reuters, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 10, The EU barred
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of his senior
officials from entering any bloc countries to protest his
re-election last month in a vote that international observers said
was rigged.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, EU foreign
ministers endorsed a freeze of aid to the Palestinian government but
said they would seek alternative ways of providing money for
humanitarian projects.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, French President
Jacques Chirac threw out part of a youth labor law that triggered
massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from
students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier in a bid
to end the crisis.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Haiti's interim
leader PM Gerard Latortue announced a probe into the finances of all
government agencies amid allegations of corruption by state
officials in the aftermath of a bloody revolt that toppled the
previous government.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, In Indonesia
separatist rebels armed with bows and arrows stormed a military post
in Papua province, sparking a battle that killed two soldiers and
two attackers.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 10, Israel suspended
formal security ties with the Palestinians in a bid to further
isolate the new Hamas government one day after declaring it a
hostile entity.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, A Kenyan military
plane carrying politicians to a peace conference crashed while
attempting to land in northern Kenya, killing a Cabinet minister,
six other politicians and at least seven other people.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Salman Khan, one
of Bollywood's biggest film stars, was sent to prison for five years
for killing a protected antelope.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, In northern India
a fire swept through tents at a trade fair in a consumer electronics
show in the town of Meerut, killing at least 52 people.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 10, Lebanon arrested 9
Lebanese and Palestinians suspected of plotting the assassination of
Hezbollah’s leader.
(WSJ, 4/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 10, Mexican soldiers
seized 128 suitcases packed with 5.6 metric tons of cocaine worth
more than $100 million from a commercial plane arriving from
Venezuela. Smugglers had purchased the DC-9 plane with laundered
funds transferred through US banks Wachovia Corp. and Bank of
America. In 2010 court papers said a gang under Walid Makled
operated the DC-9 and flew the cocaine from Simon Bolivar
International to Campeche, Mexico. Makled was arrested Aug 19, 2010
in Colombia in the border city of Cucuta. In Nov 2010 Colombia
denied an extradition request for Makled by the US, saying that the
suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country.
(AP, 4/12/06)(SFC, 6/30/10, p.D1)(AP, 11/17/10)
2006 Apr 10, In Maputo,
Mozambique, African leaders launched a campaign to get every child
in school by 2015, and Britain responded by pledging $15 billion in
education aid to developing countries over the next decade.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, In Nepal security
forces fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons to break up
democracy rallies as the political crisis deepened.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10-2006 Apr 12, About
25 people were killed in three days of skirmishes between two
Nigerian tribes over ownership of land in the central state of
Plateau.
(Reuters, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 10, Hadil Ghaben (8)
was killed when 2 Israeli shells blew huge holes in a concrete block
house in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The girl's mother
and seven siblings were hurt in the attack.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, In New Jersey a
jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages to a man who blamed his
heart attack on Vioxx, finding that manufacturer Merck & Co.
failed to warn about the risks of its arthritis drug and
misrepresented the risks to physicians.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, In Michigan Proof
(Deshaun Holton), a member of rap group D12 and a close friend of
Eminem, was shot to death early today at a Detroit nightclub along
Eight Mile Road. Keith Bender, shot by rapper Proof (32), just
before Proof himself was killed, died of his wounds on April 18.
(AP, 4/11/06)(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 11, June Pointer (52),
the youngest of the Pointer Sisters, died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2006 Apr 11, In eastern
Afghanistan a rocket slammed into a packed school yard near a US-led
coalition base, killing seven children and wounding 34 other people.
Police blamed Taliban militants for the explosion at the Salabagh
School in Asadabad, Kunar province.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, Colombia’s
attorney general said the bodies of more than 30 people had been
found in a series of mass graves in a violent area of Northern
Santander province, home to drug traffickers, far-right
paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas. Most of the villagers blamed
a bloc of far-right paramilitaries that operated there until its
demobilization in 2004.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 11, A European
spacecraft went into orbit around Venus on a mission to explore the
mysterious atmosphere of Earth's nearest planetary neighbor.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, Former Iranian
President Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Iran has enriched uranium
using 164 centrifuges, a major development in nuclear fuel cycle
technology.
(AP, 4/11/06)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.47)
2006 Apr 11, In Iraq a bomb
exploded on a minibus in a Shiite area, killing three people. 5 US
soldiers were killed including 3 from an IED north of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/11/06)(WSJ, 4/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 11, Israel's Cabinet
declared PM Ariel Sharon permanently incapacitated, officially
ending his five-year tenure.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2006 Apr 11, Center-left
challenger Romano Prodi claimed an outright electoral victory over
Premier Silvio Berlusconi before official results were in, but the
slim margin could return Italy to political paralysis and
instability.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, Bernardo
Provenzano (73), Italy's reputed No. 1 Mafia boss, was arrested at a
farmhouse in Sicily after frustrating investigators' efforts to
catch him during more than 40 years on the run.
(AP, 4/11/06)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 11, In Karachi,
Pakistan, a bomb exploded during evening prayers at a park, killing
at least 50 people and injuring over 100. The bombing killed the
entire leadership of Sunni Tehreek, a moderate Muslim group.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A13)(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 11, In Peru with 80%
of the votes counted Ollanta Humala led with 30.3%. Former president
Alan Garcia (56) held a narrow lead over pro-business former
Congresswoman Lourdes Flores (46) in the race to face Ollanta Humala
(43) in a presidential runoff vote.
(AP, 4/11/06)(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 11, In Spain a judge
handed down the first indictments in the Madrid train bombings,
charging 29 people with murder, terrorism or other crimes after a
two-year investigation.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, In northeast Sri
Lanka a mine exploded and killed 10 sailors in a military bus.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 11, The UN said it has
ended its policy of unrestricted political contacts with the
Palestinians and will now assess every request for political talks
with the new Hamas-run government.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, The UN Security
Council demanded that the Sudanese government and rebels reach
agreement by April 30 to end the conflict in Darfur.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 12, The US Treasury
Department said "transactions with the Palestinian Authority by US
persons are prohibited, unless licensed." It said the decision was
based on "existing terrorism sanctions."
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 12, Jurors in the
Zacarias Moussaoui trial listened to a recording of terrified shouts
and cries in the cockpit as desperate passengers twice charged
panicked hijackers during the final half hour of doomed United
Flight 93 on Sept. 11.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2006 Apr 12, Police checking on
a home in Leola, Pennsylvania, discovered a gruesome scene: the
bodies of six people, some wrapped in sheets and blankets in the
basement, and blood, bone fragments and a hammer upstairs. Jesse Dee
Wise (21) was charged the next day for the murder of 6 relatives.
(AP, 4/13/06)(SFC, 4/14/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 12, The Indiana Toll
Road was leased for $3.8 billion to a Spanish-Australian consortium
that is to maintain and run it for 75 years.
(WSJ, 4/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 12, Google Inc. CEO
Eric Schmidt defended the search engine's cooperation with Chinese
censorship as he announced the creation of a Beijing research center
and unveiled a Chinese-language brand name.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, The Rev. William
Sloane Coffin (81), a former Yale chaplain known for Vietnam-era
peace activism, died in Strafford, Vt.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2006 Apr 12, Walter Clyde
Pearson (77), US poker champion, died in Nevada. He won the 1973
World Series of Poker championship and introduced the “freeze-out”
style of tournament poker where all players start with the same
amount of chips and the winner takes all.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.B7)
2006 Apr 12, Joe Van Holsbeeck
(17) was stabbed to death at the Brussels Central train station in a
robbery by 2 men for his MP3 player. On August 2 a Polish teen,
suspected in the murder, was extradited to Belgium and taken into
police custody.
(AP,
8/2/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Van_Holsbeeck)
2006 Apr 12, In Brazil federal
prosecutors charged a former top presidential aide and dozens of
others with trying to bribe legislators into supporting Brazil's
ruling party.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Britain and the US
called for sanctions against four Sudanese who have blocked peace
efforts and violated human rights in the conflict-wracked Darfur
region.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Officials said
Canadian and US police have broken up a criminal ring that smuggled
dozens of Indian and Pakistani nationals into the US at a cost of up
to $35,000 each.
(Reuters, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, The final leg of
Canada's contentious seal hunt moved to the ice floes off
northeastern Newfoundland and Labrador, with sealers expected to
harvest another 234,000 harp seal pups.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 12-2006 Apr 13,
Sudanese Janjaweed militia with local Chadian recruits shot or
hacked to death 118 villagers in eastern Chad in a bloody spillover
of violence from Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 5/25/06)
2006 Apr 12, In southern China
thousands of villagers clashed with police over government plans to
tear down sluice gates built for irrigation, leaving one woman dead
and several people injured.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 12, Authorities said
Colombia's biggest right-wing paramilitary group has disbanded as
part of an ongoing peace process, but some renegade factions
continued to operate.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Government troops
and UN peacekeepers launched a fresh military offensive in Congo's
restive east, targeting Rwandan Hutu rebels blamed for attacking
civilians at home and in Congo.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Ecuador's
Environment Minister Ana Alban said some 5,000 Ecuadorians illegally
residing in the ecologically fragile Galapagos Islands will face
deportation to the mainland.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, France's lower
house of parliament approved a compromise youth job plan to replace
a measure that triggered nationwide protests and plunged the country
into crisis.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, An Indian court
struck down a controversial order banning dance bars in the
financial hub of Mumbai, bringing cheers from champions of the
drinking houses.
(AFP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Raj Kumar (77),
Indian movie star, died in Bangalore.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2006 Apr 12, In Jakarta,
Indonesia, some 150 members of the Islamic Defenders' Front,
protesting Playboy's decision to launch an Indonesian edition of the
magazine, clashed with police and stoned the company's editorial
offices.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Iran’s deputy
nuclear chief said the country intends to move toward large-scale
uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges, signaling its
resolve to expand a program the international community has insisted
it halt.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, In Iraq car and
roadside bombings killed 13 people, including three US soldiers, and
injured dozens. Gunmen in Baghdad hunted down three different
government employees and shot them dead on their way to work. A car
bomb exploded as worshippers were leaving a Shiite mosque near
Baqouba, killing 26 people and injuring 32 others. The US military
in Iraq detained Bilal Hussein (35), an Iraqi citizen and an
Associated Press photographer. He was accused of being a security
threat but charges were never filed and no public hearing was
permitted. 5 months later military officials said Hussein was being
held for "imperative reasons of security" under UN resolutions. In
the few years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to
Guantanamo, the US military has created a global network of overseas
prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees
beyond the reach of established law.
(AP, 4/12/06)(WSJ, 4/13/06, p.A1)(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Apr 12, The Israeli army
killed to Al Aqsa infiltrators trying to enter from Gaza.
(WSJ, 4/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 12, Italian police
arrested three people suspected of aiding Italy's No. 1 fugitive and
reputed Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano, who was captured a day
earlier.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, In Kyrgyzstan Edil
Baisalov, leader of a coalition of civic groups called For Democracy
and Civil Society, suffered a gunshot wound in the back of the head
when he was leaving his office in the capital, Bishkek. Baisalov has
led a campaign against a bid by alleged criminal boss Ryspek
Akmatbayev to become a lawmaker.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Malaysia abandoned
plans to build a controversial new bridge to Singapore, saying that
the city-state's demand for airspace access in return for its
agreement was unacceptable.
(AFP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Two people were
killed in a grenade attack on a restaurant and a shop owner was
gunned down as violence shook towns on Mexico's resort-studded
Pacific coast.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 12, In southern Nepal
police shot and killed an anti-government protester as authorities
foiled pro-democracy activists' plans to hold a mass rally in the
heart of Katmandu and detained dozens of demonstrators.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, In Karachi,
Pakistan, mobs of youths rioted for a second straight day to protest
a suicide bombing that killed at least 56 people, which a top
Pakistani official said was aimed at "eliminating" the leadership of
a moderate Sunni Muslim group.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Pakistani army
helicopters struck a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan in an
attempt to kill a wanted senior al-Qaida operative. Seven suspected
militants and two children were believed killed. Mohsin Musa
Matawalli Atwah (45), an Egyptian and al-Qaida member wanted for his
suspected role in the bombings of US embassies in East Africa, was
killed.
(AP, 4/13/06)(SFC, 4/14/06, p.A15)
2006 Apr 12, In northeastern
Sri Lanka 2 explosions in a market killed 17 people in the town of
Trincomalee and cast a cloud over upcoming peace talks.
(AP, 4/13/06)(AFP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 13, Two more retired
US generals called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign,
bringing the total to 6 this month, claiming the chief architect of
the Iraq war and subsequent American occupation should be held
accountable for the chaos there.
(Reuters, 4/14/06)(WSJ, 4/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 13, Confessed al-Qaida
conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui expressed no remorse for his role in
the Sept. 11 attacks as he took the stand for the second time in his
death-penalty trial in Alexandria, Va.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2006 Apr 13, In California an
independent task force issued a 29-page report faulting UC
executives and the Board of Regents for lack of oversight in pay
practices and the use of public funds.
(SFC, 4/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 13, The Nebraska
Legislature voted to divide the Omaha school system into 3
districts, one mostly black, one mostly white, and one largely
Hispanic. Gov. Dave Heineman signed the measure into law, effective
July 2008.
(SFC, 4/14/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 13, It was reported
that Iowa had counted at least 515 cases of mumps this year, where
it had previously averaged 5 cases per year. Another 100 cases were
reported in Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana,
Michigan, Missouri and Illinois.
(SFC, 4/1/06, p.A3)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A14)
2006 Apr 13, In Tennessee’s
Cherokee National Forest a black bear killed a 6-year-old girl and
critically injured her mother and 2-year-old brother.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 13, European
scientists released new photos of Venus’ south pole from the
orbiting Venus Express spacecraft. The images revealed a mass of
sulfuric acid clouds swirling in 220 mph winds.
(SFC, 4/14/06, p.A2)
2006 Apr 13, A military court
convicted a British air force doctor of disobeying orders and
sentenced him to eight months in prison after he called the Iraq war
illegal and refused to return for a third tour of duty.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, The Danube reached
record-high levels in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, flooding fertile
farmland as authorities in southeastern Europe considered ordering
evacuations.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Chad government
troops using tanks and attack helicopters repelled a rebel assault
on N’Djamena, Chad's capital. At least 100 rebels were killed.
President Deby went on state-run radio to assure residents he
remained in control, and he blamed Sudan, whose Darfur crisis has
spilled over into his country.
(AP, 4/13/06)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.50)
2006 Apr 13, China's
controversial choice for a Tibetan holy figure made his first major
appearance before an international audience, saying Tibetan
Buddhists should be patriotic and "defend the nation."
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, Chinese
Vice-President Zeng Qinghong met with Lithuanian Foreign Minister
Antanas Valionis in Beijing. Zeng said the relations between China
and Lithuania are developing smoothly with frequent high-level
contacts and fruitful cooperation in economic and cultural sectors.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com)
2006 Apr 13, In western
Colombia mudslides roared down on settlements, killing at least 10
people, leaving dozens missing and blocking a key highway to the
Pacific coast.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 13, Bayer AG made its
official takeover bid for fellow German drugmaker Schering AG,
offering 16.5 billion euros ($20.01 billion), slightly more than its
previous 16.3 billion euro ($19.76 billion) offer that Schering's
board had recommended be accepted.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, In India
distraught fans smashed cars, burned buses and battled with police
in the southern Indian city of Bangalore after they were prevented
from seeing the body of Raj Kumar (77), an Indian film icon who died
this week.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Indonesia
police asked Playboy magazine to stop publishing its Indonesian
edition out of fears it could enrage Muslims. Officials of the
publication said they were considering the request.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, Al-Qaida's deputy
leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged all Muslims to support insurgents
fighting in Iraq "for the dignity of Islam" and said the "enemy has
begun to falter," according to a video posted on the Internet.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Iraq dozens of
policemen were missing and some 20-30 were dead after insurgents
ambushed a police convoy near a US base. By the next day only 35 of
80 policemen had returned to Najaf, after picking up new vehicles at
the US base of Taji. In western Iraq 2 US Marines were killed and 22
wounded two of them critically, in fighting in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/14/06)(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 13, Dame Muriel Spark
(b.1918) died in Tuscany, Italy. Her spare and humorous novels made
her one of the most admired British writers of the post World War II
years. Her work of 23 novels, included the autobiographical "The
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961), which was later adapted for a
Broadway hit (1966) and a movie. In 2010 Martin Stannard authored
“Muriel Spark: The Biography.”
(AP, 4/15/06)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.83)(SFC, 6/12/10,
p.E2)
2006 Apr 13, In Jordan security
forces stormed a prison to put down a riot after inmates claimed
they had taken two policemen hostage. One prisoner was killed in the
clashes while 15 police and 20 inmates were injured.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Nepal police
fired rubber bullets and tear gas on hundreds of lawyers protesting
in Katmandu, the eighth day of pro-democracy demonstrations.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Russia a group
of young men beat inhabitants with metal bars, killing a man and a
woman and leaving an 80-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl
gravely wounded. 9 people were later arrested in connection with the
attack on the Roma camp in the southern Volgograd region.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 13, The three parties
that were central to Ukraine's Orange Revolution signed a protocol
aimed at advancing the formation of a coalition government and
ending their wrangling after last month's elections.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 14, President Bush
rebuffed recommendations from a growing number of retired generals
that he replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, saying, “He
has my full support.”
(AP, 4/14/07)
2006 Apr 14, Kobe Bryant broke
the Los Angeles Lakers’ single-season scoring record, getting 50
points to eclipse Elgin Baylor’s long-standing total of 2,719 points
in a 110-99 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
(AP, 4/14/07)
2006 Apr 14, In Oklahoma Kevin
Ray Underwood (26) was arrested after investigators found the body
of Jamie Rose Bolin (10), missing since April 12, in a bedroom
closet in his apartment. The girl's unclothed body was inside a
large plastic tub. Police said she was killed as part of the
neighbor's elaborate plan to eat human flesh. On February 29 2008, a
jury found him guilty of first degree murder after deliberating for
twenty-three minutes. This quick verdict was attributed to the
showing of Underwood's videotaped confession. On Thursday, April 3,
2008, McClain County District Judge Candace Blalock approved a
recommended death sentence.
(AP,
4/16/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ray_Underwood)
2006 Apr 14, Tornadoes hit the
campus of the Univ. of Iowa in Iowa City. One person was killed
outside of town.
(WSJ, 4/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber rammed a British military convoy
and 3 soldiers were wounded. More than 3,000 British troops had
moved into Helmand province as part of a NATO mission to expand its
presence there. They planned to train Afghan forces, operating from
a new $80 million army barracks, to hunt druglords and destroy opium
stockpiles. A bomb planted by Taliban militants hit a government
convoy in the east of the country near the town of Khost, killing
three policemen and injuring two others.
(AFP, 4/14/06)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.38)
2006 Apr 14, Afghan security
forces backed by coalition helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban
hideout in southern Afghanistan, setting off an intense gunbattle
that killed 41 rebels. It was later reported that Afghan police may
have been killed by the US-led coalition forces.
(AP, 4/15/06)(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 14, Miguel Reale (95),
widely considered one of the chief architects of Brazil's civil
code, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, The Central
African Republic said it has asked the International Criminal Court
to investigate crimes against humanity allegedly committed by its
former president and a Congolese vice president. Government
spokesman Celestin Gamou said CAR suspects ex-President Ange-Felix
Patasse and Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba of ordering or
committing murder and rape against civilians, as well as of
embezzling funds and destroying public and private property.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, Chad broke off
diplomatic relations with Sudan and threatened to expel 200,000
Sudanese refugees, blaming its neighbor for a rebel attack that
killed 350 in the capital.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, Cuba ordered the
expulsion of a Czech diplomat, accusing him of spying for the United
States. Stanislav Kazecky, who was in charge of political, cultural
and media affairs for the Czech embassy, was given 72 hours to
leave.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, In Egypt
worshippers at three Christian churches came under attack from
knife-wielding assailants during Mass. Police said one worshipper
was killed and more than a dozen wounded in the simultaneous attacks
in the northern city of Alexandria.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, Five publishers,
all members of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood, were detained
as they prepared to publish material criticizing Egypt's emergency
law.
(AFP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 14, In India 2 bombs
exploded at New Delhi's main mosque shortly after hundreds of
worshippers offered Friday prayers, injuring at least 13 people.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, In Indonesia a
passenger train bound for Jakarta crashed into another train stopped
at Gubuk station, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than
25.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 14, A roadside
bomb exploded in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, killing
three Iraqi soldiers. In the southern city of Basra, four gunmen
killed the director of traffic police as he was driving to work. At
least one civilian was killed in fierce fighting between insurgents
and the army in Fallujah.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 14, Mahmut Bakalli
(70), Kosovo's communist-era leader, died of throat cancer. He lead
the disputed province's communists in the late 1970s and early
1980s, stepping down following disagreements with the central body
of the Yugoslav Communist Party over the handling of unrest by
ethnic Albanian students.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, In Kashmir a
series of grenade attacks by suspected separatist rebels shook
Srinagar, killing five people and wounding at least 18.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, Commercial life
halted in several Pakistani cities in a strike called by an Islamic
party to protest this week's suicide attack that killed its top
leaders and some 50 others.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, In the Philippines
at least 11 devotees were nailed to crosses during Good Friday
reenactments of Christ's final hours.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, A bankruptcy
supervisor at the shattered Yukos oil company said that he had won a
temporary injunction from a New York court banning the company from
selling its assets as it goes into bankruptcy hearings.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, Russia's OAO GAZ
automaker agreed to buy DaimlerChrysler AG production lines in
suburban Detroit and move them to Russia, where it will produce
DaimlerChrysler cars under license.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 14, Jailed Russian
tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was hospitalized after another prisoner
slashed him in the face while he slept. In 2011 Alexander Kuchma,
Khodorkovsky's former cellmate, told a Russian online publication
that authorities forced him to attack the jailed tycoon and falsify
a sexual harassment suit.
(AP, 4/15/06)(AP, 5/16/11)
2006 Apr 14, Security forces at
a Shiite mosque in northern Yemen fought with supporters of a slain
anti-US cleric in a clash that left at least four people dead.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, Stanford Univ.
said it will use a $3.3 million gift from the Malone Family
Foundation of Englewood, Colo., to offer an online high school for
gifted students.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.B2)
2006 Apr 15, In Redwood City,
Ca., 3 men were shot and killed at the Headquarters Bar.
(SFC, 4/16/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 15, Taliban fighters
simultaneously attacked two police checkpoints on a southern Afghan
highway, and up to 14 militants were killed or wounded in the
ensuing gunbattle. Suspected Taliban attacked coalition and Afghan
army troops with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in central
Uruzgan province, sparking a gunbattle that killed three attackers.
Suspected Taliban shot and killed a district administrator in
Helmand province. US-led coalition forces using warplanes and
artillery clashed with a small band of militants holed up in a house
and a cave complex in Kunar province in fighting that killed seven
Afghan civilians and wounded three. The US airstrike aimed at
militants in eastern Kunar province mistakenly killed seven
civilians.
(AP, 4/16/06)(AP, 4/15/07)
2006 Apr 15, Bangladesh said it
will vaccinate about 18 million children aged 5 and under to combat
polio, which recently re-emerged after authorities believed it had
been eradicated five years ago.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, Cambodian soldiers
departed to Sudan for a UN-backed landmine clearing operation,
saying they hoped they could use their experience recovering from
civil war to help the war-torn Sudanese.
(AFP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, Chad threatened to
cut off its flow of oil unless the World Bank releases $125 million
frozen in a dispute over how the central African country should
spend its oil revenues.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, In southern
Chechnya rebels killed two Russian soldiers and wounded five others
in an ambush.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 15, China announced
tariff cuts on imports of fruit and fish from Taiwan, offering the
self-ruled island new trade concessions in an effort to boost
sentiment for uniting with the communist mainland.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, China reported
that the orbiting capsule of its Shenzhou VI spacecraft, which was
launched into space six months ago, has returned to earth after
orbiting 2,920 times.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, Shiite politicians
suggested a formula for replacing their nominee for prime minister
to break the deadlock over Iraq's new unity government. At least 12
Iraqis died in a car bombing near a Baghdad restaurant and other
attacks. 4 US Marines were killed in combat in western Anbar
province.
(AP, 4/15/06)(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 15, In Libya US singer
Lionel Richie jived and rocked for an adoring audience in a concert
to mark the 20th anniversary of a US raid on the North African
country. Libya renewed a demand that Washington apologize and pay
compensation.
(AP, 4/15/06)(Reuters, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 15, Palestinian police
sealed off a main road and briefly stormed a government building in
the central Gaza town of Khan Younis, angered by the Hamas-led
government's failure to pay them.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15, Saudi Arabia's
Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz began a two-day visit to Pakistan
during which he is expected to discuss a possible arms deal.
(AFP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 15-2006 Apr 17, In
southern Sudan 15 people including 11 civilians were killed in
clashes between militia fighters, straining a deal that ended the
country's north-south civil war.
(Reuters, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 15, Suspected Tamil
Tiger rebels detonated mines near two military vehicles in
northeastern Sri Lanka, killing eight people in separate attacks.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, Kohlberg Kravis
Roberts (KKR), an American private equity firm, announced that it
was buying 85% of Flextronics Software Systems (FSS) for $600
million in cash and $250 million in interest due in 8 years.
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.62)
2006 Apr 16, Stephen Marshall,
a Canadian man suspected of murdering two registered sex offenders
in their Maine homes, took his own life with a gun on a crowded bus
in Boston.
(Reuters, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 16, Canada confirmed a
new case of mad cow disease. Canadian cattle ranchers were still
recovering from a two-year ban on their beef in the US.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 16, Chad's Pres. Deby
promised the UN that refugees from Sudan's Darfur region will not be
forcibly returned.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 16, In Egypt police
fired live ammunition into the air and lobbed tear gas into rioting
crowds of Christians and Muslims in a third day of sectarian
violence in Alexandria. Egyptian police detained 43 university
students on suspicion of membership in the banned Muslim
Brotherhood, the country's largest Islamic fundamentalist group.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, A 37-year-old
Ethiopian-born German man suffered life-threatening head and brain
injuries in a beating at a tram stop in Potsdam. On April 19 a
15-strong Nigerian delegation was to check into Potsdam's Voltaire
Hotel and stay for a week, but pulled out after hearing about the
weekend attack.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 16, In northern Greece
a passenger train crashed into a truck at a crossing and derailed,
killing four people and injuring at least 40.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, In India heavily
armed Maoist rebels (Naxalites) killed 10 police officers in an
attack in eastern Chhattisgarh state. The Maoists, who have bases in
11 of India's 29 states, say they are fighting to restore the rights
of neglected tribes and landless farmers.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, State-run
television reported that Iran will give the financially strapped
Palestinian Authority $50 million in aid.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, In Iraq 6 people
were killed during a raid as American troops hunted down an al-Qaida
suspect at a safehouse south of Baghdad. In Baghdad, a bomb hidden
in a shopping bag on a minibus killed 4 passengers. A car bombing
near a market in the town of Mahmudiyah, 30 kilometers (20 miles)
south of Baghdad left 10 dead and 25 wounded.
(AFP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, The Rev. Cesar
Torres (42) killed Veronica Andrade Salinas (22), who was pregnant,
at his parish on Mexico City's eastern outskirts. He used a kitchen
knife to cut off her head and hack her body to pieces, which he
packed the pieces into plastic bags and dumped near a cemetery in
Chimalhuacan. The couple had an 18-month-old daughter. Torres
admitted to the murder on April 19.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 16, Nepal's sidelined
political parties called for a massive pro-democracy protest in the
capital on April 20 and urged citizens to stop paying taxes and
utility bills to help bring down the royal government.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, president of the Philippines, said in an Easter announcement
that she would commute the death sentences of some 1,200 convicts,
including about a dozen al-Qaida-linked militants.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, Suspected
pro-Taliban militants beheaded two tribesmen in a remote part of
Pakistan for allegedly working for US forces across the border in
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 16, In Spain a bus
carrying Boy Scouts overturned on a northern highway, killing at
least four people, including three minors.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 16, In his first
Easter message as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI urged nations to use
diplomacy to defuse nuclear crises and prayed that Palestinians
would one day have their own state alongside Israel.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2006 Apr 17, In the Boston
Marathon was won by Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot in a record time of
2:07:14. Rita Jeptoo of Kenya won among the women in 2:23:38.
(WSJ, 4/18/06, p.A1)(AP, 4/17/07)
2006 Apr 17, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a law mandating names-based reporting of HIV
cases.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 17, Georgia's Gov.
Sonny Perdue signed a sweeping immigration bill that supporters and
critics say gives the state some of the toughest measures against
illegal immigrants in the nation.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Chicago a jury
convicted former Gov. George Ryan of steering state contracts and
leases to political insiders during his term as secretary of state
in the 1990s and then governor for one term. He was later sentenced
to 6 1/2 years in prison,
(SFC, 4/118/06, p.A5)(AP, 4/17/07)
2006 Apr 17, Oil closed at a
record $70.40 per barrel in NY trading. This was the 1st time it had
closed above $70 in NY.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.D1)
2006 Apr 17, Afghan and US
soldiers killed five militants during a Operation Mountain Lion
targeting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in a volatile eastern region
near Pakistan. Some 6,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops
have started moving into the rebellious southern provinces.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 17, Jean Bernard
(b.1907), French doctor, died. His research on blood disease helped
to found the discipline of hematology.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 17, In central Iraq a
car apparently driven by a suicide bomber exploded in front of a US
observation post. At least one civilian was killed and seven wounded
in a gunbattle between insurgents and the Iraqi army in northern
Baghdad. Police recovered 17 bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad as
rebels killed nine people in fresh attacks across the country. At
least 5 insurgents were killed and two Iraqi troops wounded in
fighting. The body of Taha al-Mutlaq, the brother of the Iraqi Front
for National Dialogue leader, was discovered in a Shiite area of
western Baghdad. He had disappeared last month en route to
Salahuddin province north of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/17/06)(AFP, 4/17/06)(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 17, Israeli soldiers
holed up in a home in Nablus opened fire on stone-throwing
protesters outside the building, wounding two people, including a
13-year-old boy. Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, blew
himself up outside a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv during the
Passover holiday, killing 9 other people and wounding at least 49 in
the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year. Islamic Jihad
claimed responsibility.
(AP, 4/17/06)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 4/22/06,
p.47)
2006 Apr 17, In Indian Kashmir
2 guards were killed and a politician injured in a gun attack by
suspected Islamic militants. The army announced it had arrested 10
rebels and killed two others.
(AFP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Mexico an
overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a
highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier, plunging
more than 650 feet into a ravine near Maltrata, a town about 125
miles east of the capital. 58 people were killed. There were 2
survivors.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Nepal security
forces in a southern town shot into a crowd marching on the main
highway to protest the royal dictatorship, killing one and wounding
five. Nepal deployed the army to ensure that food reaches the
capital and threatened to impose a new state of emergency, the 12th
day of a strike in which neither the king or opposition is backing
down.
(AP, 4/17/06)(AFP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 17, In central Peru a
passenger bus tumbled off a mountain road and came to rest in a
gorge, killing at least 25 people on board in Jaucan district.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 17, Qatar said it
would give the Palestinian government $50 million in aid to help
make up for a shortfall after the US and the EU cut off funding.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 17, Somalia granted
the US Navy permission to patrol coastal waters to combat piracy.
(WSJ, 4/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 17, In northern Sri
Lanka land mines blasts in killed 4 soldiers and 2 Tamil Tiger
rebels, raising the death toll from a week of bloody unrest to at
least 50.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 18, Pres. Bush
nominated former Ohio Rep. Rob Portman to head the White House
budget office.
(SFC, 4/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 18, Chinese President
Hu Jintao arrived in Washington state, toured the Redmond campus of
Microsoft and had dinner at the home of MS Corp. Chairman Bill
Gates.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 18, In a plea deal
unsealed in federal court, US contractor Philip Bloom admitted that
between December 2003 and December 2005, he conspired with some
public officials, including several U.S. Army officers, to rig bids
on Iraq rebuilding contracts.
(Reuters, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Two Duke
University lacrosse players were arrested on charges of raping and
kidnapping a stripper hired to dance at an off-campus party on March
13. The DA said he hoped to charge a third person soon. A Dec
pre-trial hearing disclosed that no DNA material from the players
had been found in the stripper and that this information had been
withheld in an initial report. DNA evidence from several other men
was found. In late December rape counts were dropped when the
alleged victim changed her story. On April 11, 2007, all charges
were dropped. Stuart Taylor and K.C. Johnson soon authored “Until
Proven Innocent” (2007), their evaluation of the incident and
following trial.
(AP, 4/18/06)(WSJ, 12/23/06, p.A1)(SSFC,
12/24/06, p.A18)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.46)
2006 Apr 18, In SF thousands
gathered for the 100 year anniversary of the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 4/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 18, Josephine Crawford
(84), a Galloway Township widow, hit a $10 million jackpot, the
biggest in the history of casino gambling in Atlantic City, NJ.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 18, In Rhode Island
the 1940 Jamestown Bridge was demolished. It connected North
Kingstown and Jamestown and was replaced by the Jamestown-Verrazano
Bridge.
(SFC, 4/19/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 18, Australia said it
will send up to 110 troops to the Solomon Islands to help restore
calm after the election of a new prime minister sparked rioting.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Christian
Schwarz-Schilling, Bosnia's international administrator, said the
international community should end its decade-long control and allow
Bosnia to assume the responsibilities of a "normal" democracy.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, In northern
Baghdad clashes left 5 Iraqis dead and six people, including
civilians, wounded. A bomb exploded at a Baghdad cafe frequented by
police in the eastern neighborhood of Suleikh, killing at least
three policemen and four civilians and wounding more than 20 other
people. Authorities discovered 15 dead men shot in the head in
various parts of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/18/06)(SFC, 4/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 18, Israel decided to
revoke the Jerusalem residency rights of four Hamas lawmakers, a
response to a suicide bombing that killed nine civilians in a Tel
Aviv restaurant. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop
in Gaza City.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Jordan accused
Hamas activists of smuggling missiles and other weapons into the
kingdom and said it was canceling a planned visit of the Palestinian
foreign minister, the second diplomatic snub for the Hamas-led
government in a week. Jordan later reported that it had detained
more than 20 Hamas activists for smuggling arms from Syria.
(AP, 4/18/06)(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 Apr 18, In Kenya officials
said the Sabaki River, swollen by heavy rains, had overflowed its
banks, forcing at least 10,000 people to flee their homes.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, In Mongolia
thousands of demonstrators marched outside government headquarters,
burning effigies of the nation's leaders and demanding their
resignations because of alleged corruption and the mishandling of
mineral wealth.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, In Morocco an
appeals court upheld record damages imposed on a weekly newsmagazine
in a defamation suit that some rights groups say the government is
using to intimidate independent media.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Noor Jehan, a
14-year-old Pakistani girl, was shot 5 times by male relatives over
a rebuffed marriage proposal and left for dead on the outskirts of
Karachi. She died at a hospital in Karachi on May 21.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 Apr 18, A security
official said Saudi authorities arrested five suspected terrorists
linked to the February 24 deadly attack on the world's largest oil
processing facility.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Mobs of Solomon
Islanders looted stores, torched buildings and cars, and pelted
police with stones after lawmakers elected Snyder Rini as the new
prime minister. He associated with a previous administration accused
of corruption. Seven officers were injured.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Thailand's
government said it will extend a state of emergency in southern
Thailand as part of measures to combat a Muslim insurgency that has
left over 1,000 people dead.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Greenpeace said in
a new report that more than 90,000 people were likely to die of
cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster,
countering a United Nations report that predicted the death toll
would be around 4,000.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Vietnam's
communist party opened its 10th five-yearly congress. The 8-day
session, likely to reshuffle the national leadership, opened
with a stern warning from party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh that
corruption threatens the regime's survival. During the session Bloc
8406, a new dissident group, emerged with a “manifesto on freedom
and democracy.”
(AFP, 4/18/06)(Econ, 4/26/08, SR p.16)
2006 Apr 19, White House press
secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation as part of a
shake-up of President George W. Bush's senior aides. White House
political mastermind Karl Rove surrendered his role as chief policy
coordinator.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2006 Apr 19, The US government
released the most extensive list yet of the hundreds of detainees
who have been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Nearly all 558 on
the list were labeled enemy combatants, but only a handful of whom
have faced formal charges.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, The 2006 US
estimated cost of the war in Iraq was put at $94 billion.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 19, US Immigration
agents arrested 7 executives and 1,187 illegal immigrants employed
by IFCO Systems, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of crates and
pallets, as part of a crackdown on employers of illegal workers.
(AP, 4/19/06)(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 19, In Croatia workers
who have been occupying a tobacco factory in Zagreb for nearly two
weeks asked the chief state prosecutor to investigate their claims
that the facility was illegally sold to a local tobacco giant.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, Cuba agreed to buy
another $30 million in food from Nebraska, strengthening trade
relations with the US farm state already selling corn, wheat,
soybeans and other products to the communist island.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Ecuador approved
revisions to its Hydrocarbons Law to increase state revenue from
private crude-oil producers. The changes became effective on April
25.
(WSJ, 4/21/06, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 19, The Egyptian
government said it had arrested a group of 22 militant Islamists
planning bomb attacks on tourist targets, a gas pipeline near Cairo
and Muslim and Christian religious leaders. The statement listed 22
members, led by a 26-year-old humanities student named Ahmed Mohamed
Ali Gabr.
(Reuters, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, In Guatemala a mob
burned a man and a woman to death after accusing them of several
child abductions in the predominantly Mayan town of Sumpango, where
residents have long claimed youngsters are snatched and the police
do nothing.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Militants broke
into two schools in a mainly Shiite district of Baghdad and
allegedly killed a school guard in front of students and a teacher
as he arrived. The attack occurred at the Amna and Shaheed Hamdi
elementary schools in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood. Police in the
neighborhood denied that the attack occurred.
(AP, 4/19/06)(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, A top Italian
court confirmed the slim electoral victory of center-left economist
Romano Prodi over Premier Silvio Berlusconi, according to Italian
television.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Japan defied South
Korean protests and dispatched two ships to begin a maritime survey
near disputed islets between the two nations, raising the stakes in
the territorial standoff.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, In Kyrgyzstan
Pres. Bakiyev threatened to expel American troops from the Central
Asian nation unless the US agrees to pay more for its military
presence.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, The Mexican
Congress enacted a law that allows journalists to protect the
confidentiality of their sources.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 19, In southeastern
Nepal security forces opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy
protesters, killing at least 4 and wounding several others.
(AFP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Nigerian militants
killed two people in a car bomb attack on an army barracks in the
southern city of Port Harcourt, extending a four-month onslaught
against the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, Hyundai Motor Co.
said its chairman and his son will donate $1.1 billion worth of
personal assets to the public amid a slush fund scandal engulfing
South Korea's largest automaker.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, A UN spokesman
said Sudan has refused to grant visas for a UN military assessment
mission planning a UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur.
(Reuters, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, In Venezuela a
riot erupted at a western prison, leaving 10 inmates dead and one
wounded. A day earlier authorities had seized weapons and illegal
drugs from gang members in the jail.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 20, Pres. Bush
welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao to the White House as the two
leaders embarked on talks aimed at cooling tensions over a yawning
US-China trade gap. Bush urged Hui Jintao to make trade concessions,
improve human rights and exert more influence over North Korea. The
2 leaders broke no new ground on sensitive issues.
(AP, 4/20/06)(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 20, The CIA fired Mary
McCarthy, a top intelligence analyst, who admitted leaking
classified information about a network of secret CIA prisons. She
had provided information that contributed to a Washington Post story
last year disclosing secret US prisons in Eastern Europe.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 20, John Negroponte,
US National Intelligence Director, said the US employs almost
100,000 people in 16 federal departments and agencies dealing with
intelligence.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A18)
2006 Apr 20, America’s FDA
issued a statement saying that smoked marijuana has no accepted
medical use in treatment in the US. Medicinal use of marijuana was
well established around the world.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.83)
2006 Apr 20, Arkansas
Republican Governor Mike Huckabee signed a $1.10 state minimum wage
increase into law to be effective Oct 1. The previous minimum was at
the federal standard of $5.15 per hour.
(http://tinyurl.com/mrppf)
2006 Apr 20, Georgia’s Gov.
Sonny Perdue signed a bill into law that offered
government-sanctioned elective classes on the Bible in public high
schools. He also signed a bill permitting the display of the Ten
Commandments at courthouses.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 20, In Columbus,
Kansas, 5 teenage boys were arrested for threatening to carry out a
shooting spree at their high school on the anniversary of the
Columbine bloodbath.
(SFC, 4/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 20, In SF federal and
local agents raided a chapter of the Hells Angels in the Dogpatch
neighborhood of Potrero Hill. They found a pound of methamphetamine.
Agents targeted 16 locations including Livermore and San Mateo
County recovering weapons and a total of 6 pounds of
methamphetamine.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 20, Oil jumped to a
fresh record high above $74 a barrel after a steep drop in US
gasoline inventories fueled fears of tight summer supplies at a time
of growing anxiety over Iran's exports.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 20, Scott Crossfield,
the hotshot test pilot who in 1953 became the first man to fly at
twice the speed of sound, was killed in the crash of his small plane
in Georgia.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2006 Apr 20, Stanley Hiller Jr.
(b.1925), boy-wonder and helicopter pioneer, died in California.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.B7)
2006 Apr 20, Suspected Taliban
militants killed six Afghan policemen in Afghanistan's volatile
south and burned four of their bodies. US military said a soldier
was killed in a clash while inspecting a weapons cache in the
central Uruzgan province's district of Dihrawud.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 20, The Belgian
parliament narrowly approved a bill to grant same-sex couples equal
rights in adoption. Belgium became the fourth European Union member
state to allow same-sex couples equal rights in adoption, after
Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 20, China denied it is
engaged in industrial espionage in Canada, calling accusations by
Ottawa's foreign minister baseless and irresponsible.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 20, In northeastern
Colombia leftist rebels ambushed a military convoy, killing 16
soldiers and secret police officers in the deadliest attack on
security forces this year.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 20, In northeastern
India a bus carrying wedding guests veered off a road and plunged
into a lake, killing at least 64 people. Another bus crash later in
the day killed at least 15 people.
(AP, 4/20/06)(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 20, Bowing to intense
pressure, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari agreed to abandon
his claim to another term.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2006 Apr 20, In Mexico a
violent confrontation between 800 federal and state police agents
and more than 500 striking steelworkers left two workers dead and
dozens of workers and police agents injured at the Siderurgica
Lazaro Cardenas-Las Truchas, SA (Sicartsa) steel plant in the port
city of Lazaro Cardenas in the state of Michoacan. The decapitated
heads of two police officials were found dumped in front of a
government building in Acapulco.
(http://ww4report.com/node/1879)(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 20, Nepalese police
opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters marching toward
the capital in defiance of a government-imposed curfew, killing at
least three and wounding dozens.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 20, Militants ambushed
a convoy of Pakistani troops in a northwestern tribal region near
the Afghan border, killing seven soldiers and wounding 22. A
suspected foreign Islamic militant linked to al-Qaida and a security
official were killed in a gunfight at a roadblock near Afghan
border.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 20, Tamil Tiger rebels
announced they were indefinitely postponing talks aimed at saving a
truce with the Sri Lankan government as 4 more people were killed in
fresh violence.
(AFP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 21, Pres. Bush began a
4-day visit to California. He denied Gov. Schwarzenegger’s request
for federal funds to repair Bay Area levees.
(SFC, 4/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 21, Chinese President
Hu Jintao wrapped up his US tour with a visit to Yale University in
New Haven, Conn.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2006 Apr 21, Crude oil futures
closed at $75.17 a barrel in New York for the first time, amid
increasing concerns about the Iranian nuclear crisis and a US
gasoline supply crunch.
(AP, 4/22/06)(WSJ, 4/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 21, G-7 ministers met
in Washington DC. They said the world economy remains buoyant but
cited threats from oil market developments, global imbalances and
growing protectionism.
(WSJ, 4/22/06, p.A4)
2006 Apr 21, The US Justice
Dept. gave assent to a Georgia law requiring photo IDs to vote.
(WSJ, 4/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 21, Miss Kentucky was
crowned Miss USA in the 55th annual pageant. Tara Elizabeth Conner
(20) of Russell Springs, was crowned by Chelsea Cooley of North
Carolina, who is Miss USA 2005.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, In western
Bangladesh dozens of people were feared to have drowned when a bus
packed with about 50 wedding guests plunged into a river.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, The Cambodian PM
Hun Sen ruled out sending troops to Iraq, rejecting a request by the
US for non-combat forces to assist with humanitarian work.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, Canada said 2 RCMP
members are heading to Sudan to assist the UN mission there in
training and supporting Sudanese police and, where possible,
advising them on policing methods.
(CP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, A bomb exploded on
a roadside in Chechnya where schoolchildren were cleaning up trash,
killing a boy and wounding five other children.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 21, In China Tong
Daning, an official from the social security fund, was executed on
charges of spying for rival Taiwan. Government employees were then
required to watch a video about the case. Tong had passed
information to the island's leaders about China's currency regime,
allowing them to avoid massive losses due to exchange rate changes.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP,
8/29/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_Daning)
2006 Apr 21, In Haiti polling
stations were nearly empty in a crucial legislative runoff. Hundreds
of candidates from more than a dozen parties sought 127 legislative
seats.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, Shiite politicians
nominated Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq's prime minister after outgoing PM
Ibrahim al-Jaafari gave up his bid for another term. 6 off-duty
Iraqi soldiers were captured and shot execution-style outside a
restaurant in Beiji in northern Iraq. In Baghdad, a Shiite baker was
killed in a drive-by shooting as he headed to work, and the
bullet-riddled bodies of four other Iraqis were found in the
capital. A senior UN official said some 15,000 detainees are being
held in Iraq by government ministries in violation of Iraqi law, and
nearly as many are being held by US-led multinational forces.
(AP, 4/21/06)(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 21, A senior military
commander said Israel is actively preparing to reoccupy the Gaza
Strip and a powerful lawmaker said the entire Palestinian Cabinet
could be targeted for assassination after the appointment of a
wanted militant to head a new security force.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, Nepal's king vowed
to return power to the people of this Himalayan kingdom after weeks
of massive protests and increasing international pressure. King
Gyanendra called on the seven main political parties to name a prime
minister as soon as possible.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas blocked Hamas' plans to set up a shadow
security force, which was to be made up of militants and to be
headed by the No. 2 on Israel's wanted list.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, Russia began
delivering advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Belarus.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 21, US aviation
authorities upgraded Venezuela's safety ranking, averting a ban that
would have blocked most US airlines from flying to the country.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, In Alaska 6
seventh-graders were arrested in North Pole, just outside of
Fairbanks, for conspiracy to commit murder during an assault on
their school. Authorities found weapons in their homes.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 22, In Spring, Texas 2
white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a Hispanic boy (16) who
had tried to kiss a Hispanic girl (12). David Henry Tuck and
17-year-old were later charged with aggravated sexual assault. The
beaten boy was in critical condition.
(SFC, 4/28/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 22, The 2-day Maker
Faire began in San Mateo, Ca., as a gathering of tinkerers to
display their gadgets.
(Econ, 5/3/08,
p.87)(http://makezine.com/faire/2006/)
2006 Apr 22, Ed Davis, former
LA police chief (1969-1978) and California state representative
(1980-1992), died in San Luis Obispo.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.B7)
2006 Apr 22, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb exploded as a Canadian armored vehicle drove by,
killing four soldiers.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Two British
scientists reported that the long-term effects of the Chernobyl
disaster could cause up to 66,000 extra deaths from cancer, 15 times
more than UN officials predicted last year. Their report was titled
"The Other Report on Chernobyl."
(AFP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, In Colombia Pedro
Gil Trujillo, a city council member in Rivera, was arrested while
giving a live radio interview by telephone for allegedly
masterminding a guerrilla attack that killed nine of his colleagues
on Feb 27.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Gunmen burst into
the home of Satyadeo Sawh (50), Guyana's agriculture minister, and
fatally shot him along with two relatives and a security guard.
(AP, 4/22/06)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.42)
2006 Apr 22, In India Pramod
Mahajan (56), the general secretary of the opposition Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, was shot and critically wounded
by his brother. Pramod Mahajan died from his wounds on May 3.
(AP, 4/23/06)(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 Apr 22, The population of
Kerala, India, was reported to be about 33 million. It boasted over
91% literacy. The per capita income was about half that of Goa,
India’s richest state. Some 3.5 million Keralans worked abroad, 85%
in the Middle East.
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.43)
2006 Apr 22, Iran's envoy to
the UN nuclear watchdog agency said the Islamic republic had reached
a "basic deal" with the Kremlin to form a joint uranium enrichment
venture on Russian territory, state-run television reported.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Iraq president
formally designated Shiite politician Jawad al-Maliki to form a new
government, starting a process aimed at healing ethnic and religious
wounds and pulling the nation out of insurgency and sectarian
strife. Parliament elected President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to a
second term and gave the post of parliament speaker to Mahmoud
al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab. Suspected insurgents set off two bombs
in a public market in northern Iraq, the second one timed to hit
emergency crews arriving at the scene, and the blasts killed at
least two Iraqis and wounded 17.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, In Fallujah, Iraq,
Sheik Shaukit al-Kubaisi, a Sunni cleric and imam of a local mosque,
was killed by gunmen. 5 US soldiers were killed in bombings in
southern Baghdad. US and Iraqi forces fought an hour-long gunbattle
with insurgents in Ramadi.
(AP, 4/22/06)(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 22, Alida Valli (84),
Italian movie star, died in Rome. She appeared in over 100 films
that included “The Third Man” (1949).
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.B7)
2006 Apr 22, Japan and South
Korea defused a tense standoff over disputed waters, with Japan
withdrawing a plan to survey the area and South Korea delaying plans
to submit name proposals for underwater features.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI pardoned all prisoners from the disputed territory of
Western Sahara currently being held in jails in the kingdom.
(AFP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Nepali security
opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters marching toward the
royal palace in defiance of a curfew, as opposition leaders rejected
the king's proposals for restoring democracy.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Saudi Arabia and
China signed defense, security and trade agreements in Riyadh on the
first day of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Hassan al-Turabi,
a Sudanese Islamist leader who once protected Al-Qaeda supremo Osama
bin Laden, was branded an apostate by the country's Muslim scholars
for taking a liberal stand on women's rights.
(AFP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 22, In eastern Ukraine
homemade bombs exploded in lockers at two supermarkets, wounding as
many as 14 people.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Thousands of
Venezuelans lay in the outlines of bodies chalked on a main avenue
to protest against President Hugo Chavez's handling of violent
crime, while supporters held a separate demonstration backing his
social policies.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 22, Vietnam welcomed
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who then spoke in Hanoi on Vietnam’s
potential in IT development.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A14)
2006 Apr 23, Some 10,000 people
marched in SF to denounce a bill in the US House of Representatives
that would make illegal immigration a felony. Latinos organized a
day of protests in over 100 cities. As many as 500,000 marched in
Los Angeles.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A1)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.14)
2006 Apr 23, In Alaska 2 small
planes collided midair and crashed about 20 miles north of
Anchorage, killing five people.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 23, In Maryland
Katrina Denise Powe (31) and Mystery Toma Hillian (9) were found
dead in an apartment in District Heights. A 12-year-old boy was
charged with the murders.
(SFC, 4/25/06, p.A5)
2006 Apr 23, It was
reported that Massachusetts has decided to begin requiring doctors
to state the names of anyone testing positive for HIV.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 23, Afghan security
forces surrounded Taliban fighters hiding in a village in southern
Ghazni province, launching a gunbattle that killed at least three
militants and a police officer. Another policeman was killed and two
others were wounded in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar
province when suspected Taliban militants attacked a road
construction company.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, Osama bin Laden
issued new threats in an audiotape broadcast on Arab television and
accused the United States and Europe of supporting a "Zionist" war
on Islam by cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian
government.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2006 Apr 23, In Canada the
bodies of Marc Richardson (42), his wife Debra (48), and son Jacob
(8) were discovered stabbed to death in their family home in
Medicine Hat, Alberta. Their daughter Jasmine (12) and her boyfriend
Jeremy Steinke (23) were arrested the next day in Saskatchewan. With
them were a bag of bloodstained clothing, knives and a purse
belonging to the preteen's mother. In 2007 a jury found Jasmine
guilty of first-degree murder for helping her adult boyfriend stab
her parents and little brother to death. Jasmine was sentenced to
serve four years in custody and another 4-1/2 years under community
supervision.
(Reuters,
7/6/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_family_murders)(AP,
11/9/07)
2006 Apr 23, Powerful waves
capsized a boat carrying Dominican migrants near a popular surfing
beach off the coast of Puerto Rico killing at least five people.
Small boats frequently attempt to smuggle migrants from the
Dominican Republic to the US Caribbean territory, a roughly 70-mile
journey across the often-perilous Mona Passage.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 23, In Hungary
Socialist PM Ferenc Gyurcsany's coalition won the runoff
parliamentary ballots, becoming Hungary's first administration to
win re-election since communism fell.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, In Iraq 3 US
soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb
northwest of Baghdad. More than 20 Iraqis also died in other
violence, including 7 who were killed in 3 explosions that occurred
just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, Japan agreed to
pay 59% of the $10.3 billion cost in transferring 8,000 US Marines
from Okinawa to Guam.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 23, In Mongolia some
200 demonstrators have ended their protests over alleged government
corruption and the mishandling of mineral wealth after the country's
leaders agreed to investigate their complaints.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 23, Nepali police
fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters, struggling to
enforce a curfew imposed to keep persistent pro-democracy
demonstrators off the streets in the Himalayan country's deepening
crisis.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, In North Korea 2
troop trains packed with soldiers collided head-on leaving more than
1,000 dead. A Buddhist humanitarian aid group reported the tragedy
June1.
(AFP, 6/1/06)
2006 Apr 23, The militant Hamas
group and the rival Fatah Party agreed to work together to restore
calm following violent clashes and mass protests across the
Palestinian areas over their struggle for control over security
forces.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, It was reported
that Sweden has allowed the letter 'W' into the mainstream of the
Swedish language. The Swedish language, according to the Swedish
Academy, now has 29 letters instead of 28.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, Opponents of
Thailand's outgoing prime minister wore black and tore up their
ballots to protest parliamentary elections they said were unfair.
Weekend elections failed to fill several seats in Parliament,
deepening the country's political crisis.
(AP, 4/23/06)(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 24, Speaking in
Irvine, Calif., President Bush said those calling for massive
deportation of the estimated 11 million foreigners living illegally
in the United States were not being realistic.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2006 Apr 24, Sanjay Kumar, the
former CEO of Computer Associates International Inc., pleaded guilty
to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges in a massive
accounting scandal at the Long Island-based software company.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 24, Scott McNealy (51)
stepped down as CEO of Sun Microsystems. He was replaced by Jonathan
Schwartz, who had served as chief operating officer.
(SFC, 4/25/06, p.C1)
2006 Apr 24, Rabbi Moses
Teitelbaum (91), the spiritual leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish
sect, died in New York.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2006 Apr 24, In Afghanistan a
US-leased Antonov-32 plane carrying counternarcotics officials
crashed into a nomad settlement while trying to avoid a truck on a
runway during landing. 2 Ukrainian crewmen were killed along with 3
people on the ground, including 2 girls sleeping in their homes. In
southern Afghanistan US-led coalition warplanes bombed a suspected
Taliban camp in Helmand province, killing 3 insurgents. 5 more
militants and one policeman died in a gunbattle in the Miana Shien
district.
(AFP, 4/24/06)(AP, 4/25/06)(WSJ, 4/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 24, In Rio de Janeiro
a law went into effect requiring “women-only” cars on subway and
above ground trains.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.G2)
2006 Apr 24, A tiny ecological
car was launched in Britain after three years of research financed
by the EU. The three-wheeled vehicle runs on natural gas and
consumes 2.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (94 miles per
gallon). Known as the Clever, Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban
Transport, the car is easy to park and can transport a driver and
one passenger, seated in the back.
(AFP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 24, In Egypt 3
explosions rocked the resort city of Dahab at the height of the
tourist season, killing 21 people and wounding more than 80. 3 of
the dead were thought to be suicide bombers.
(AP, 4/25/06)(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 Apr 24, In Haiti partial
results indicated that President-elect Rene Preval's party had won
at least 11 of 30 senate seats in the parliamentary runoff.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 24, In Iraq 7 car
bombs exploded across Baghdad, killing at least six people and
wounding dozens, as politicians met to try to finalize a new
Cabinet. Mortar attacks killed at least 15 people. Police discovered
28 bodies in Baghdad and Mosul, 15 of them security forces recruits.
(AP, 4/24/06)(SFC, 4/25/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/25/06,
p.A1)
2006 Apr 24, In northern Nepal
communist rebels stormed army bases and government buildings in a
bold assault. A night-long gunfight left six people dead. In the
capital, security forces fired rubber bullets on crowds of
pro-democracy protesters. King Gayendra appeared on national
television shortly before midnight and read words that restored the
parliament.
(AP, 4/24/06)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.44)
2006 Apr 24, In the Philippines
government prosecutors filed rebellion charges against a former
senator, six leftist lawmakers and 42 others suspected of plotting a
coup in February against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 24, Sri Lanka's
military accused ethnic Tamil minority rebels of killing six
Sinhalese rice farmers working in their fields to provoke ethnic
rioting.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 24, In Turkmenistan
Gurbanbibi Atajanova, former chief state prosecutor, was charged
with corruption. She begged not to be sent to prison after being
accused of possessing 25 houses, 36 cars and 2,000 head of cattle.
(Econ, 5/27/06,
p.39)(http://turkmenistan.neweurasia.net/?cat=3)
2006 Apr 24, Vietnam's ruling
Communist Party re-elected its leader, General Secretary Nong Duc
Manh (65), for a second five-year term. The Congress approved a new
five-year plan with targets for improving infrastructure and making
Vietnam a modern industrial nation by 2020.
(AFP, 4/24/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.38)
2006 Apr 25, President Bush
ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline,
making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen
prices at the pump. He also halted for the summer the purchase of
crude oil for the government's emergency reserve.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 25, US Deputy
Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless estimated that Tokyo will
pay some $26 billion for the realignment of the US military in
Japan. The number shocked Japanese officials.
(AP, 4/27/06)(Econ, 5/13/06, p.26)
2006 Apr 25, Charles Clarke,
Britain’s Home Secretary, said that since 1999 Britain had freed
1,023 foreign prisoners, including murderers, rapists and
pedophiles, who should have been considered for deportation at the
time of their release.
(Reuters, 4/25/06)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.59)
2006 Apr 25, The fox population
in London was reported to be an estimated 10,000.
(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 25, Canada’s central
bank raised its overnight interest rate a 6th straight time, a
quarter point to 4%.
(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 25, Jane Jacobs (89),
American-born Canadian writer and activist, died. Her books included
“The Death and Life of Great American Cities” (1961).
(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)(Econ, 5/13/06, p.97)
2006 Apr 25, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, said that the country is ready to
transfer its nuclear technology to other countries. Tehran
threatened to halt all cooperation with the UN atomic energy agency
if the UN Security Council imposes sanctions, warning that it might
hide its nuclear program if the West takes any other "harsh
measures."
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 25, In a rare video
posted on the Internet, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden and said any government formed
in Iraq would be merely a "stooge." A bomb hidden in a minibus
exploded near the offices of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in
eastern Baghdad, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding three.
(AP, 4/25/06)(AP, 4/25/07)
2006 Apr 25, In Nepal tens of
thousands of people celebrated in the streets and weeks of
pro-democracy protests were called off after the king gave in to a
key demand to reinstate parliament. Girija Prasad Koirala began his
4th term as prime minister. He succeeded Sher Bahadur
Deuba.
(AP,
4/25/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girija_Prasad_Koirala)
2006 Apr 25, Pakistani attack
helicopters pounded suspected Islamic militant hideouts near the
Afghan border as clashes killed three militants and two soldiers. In
northwestern Pakistan the body of Khan Mati, a taxi driver missing
since April 17, was found. Suspected Islamic militants decapitated
him over suspicions he was a US spy and a frequent visitor to an
American military base in Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/25/06)(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 25, In Puerto Rico
Gov. Acevedo Vila warned in a televised address that "Beginning next
Monday, May 1, the majority of agencies of the central government
will not be able to operate." Puerto Rico's House of Representatives
wants to impose a 4 percent sales tax instead and has refused to
review the governor's plan. The island now has no sales tax.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 25, Russia launched a
satellite for Israel that the Israelis say will be used to spy on
Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 25, A pregnant suicide
bomber blew herself up in front of a car carrying Sri Lanka's
highest-ranking general, killing 8 people and badly injuring the top
officer.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 25, The UN Security
Council imposed sanctions on four men accused of atrocities in
Sudan's Darfur region, the first time it has moved to punish those
responsible for three years of conflict that has left 180,000 dead.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 26, Pres. Bush
formally named Tony Snow, a Fox News commentator, to be his press
secretary.
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 26, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld paid
a surprise visit to Iraq, where they embraced the country's
fledgling leaders as independent and focused on the future.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2006 Apr 26, Florida lawmakers
agreed to shut down the state’s juvenile boot camps in response to
the Jan 6 death of a boy (14), who was beaten by guards. They would
be replaced with a new, less militaristic program.
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 26, It was reported
that John Prescott (67), Britain’s deputy prime minister, had
engaged in a 2-year affair with his much younger secretary, Tracey
Temple.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.60)
2006 Apr 26, Negotiators in
Canada reached an agreement to compensate some 80,000 Canadian
Indians who attended government-financed schools where many suffered
physical and sexual abuse. Nearly $2 billion would be paid out as
damages to survivors of the schools.
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.A12)
2006 Apr 26, About 2,500
foreign construction workers rioted over wages and working
conditions at a building site in Dubai, smashing equipment and
vehicles in the second violent protest by construction workers in a
month in the fast-growing city. "We get 450 dirhams ($123) a month,"
one worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he
feared retribution. "It's not enough. We can't save any money."
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 26, In Egypt 2 suicide
bombers struck outside the main base of the multinational
peacekeeping force near the Gaza border in Sinai, killing themselves
but causing no other casualties.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, EU Parliament
investigators said the CIA has conducted more than 1,000 undeclared
flights over European territory since 2001, a clear violation of an
international treaty.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, In Iraq US Marines
killed Hashim Ibrahim Awad (52) in Hamdaniya for allegedly setting a
land mine. On June 21 the US military announced murder and
kidnapping charges against 7 Marines and a Navy corpsman in
connection with Awad’s death. Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate (21) was
accused of killing Awad. On Oct 6 Corpsman Melson J. Bacos (21)
pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy and agreed to testify
about what he saw. On Nov 15 Pfc. John J. Jodka III pleaded guilty
to reduced charges and was sentenced to 18 months in custody. On Nov
16 Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson was sentenced to 21 months in prison
after he pleaded guilty to reduced charges. On Nov 21 Lance Cpl.
Jerry E. Shumate Jr. pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was
sentenced to 21 months in prison. In 2007 a military jury in San
Diego handed a bad conduct discharge to Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas,
convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder in the execution of
Awad. Marine Cpl. Marshall Magincalda was found guilty of
conspiracy, but acquitted of premeditated murder and kidnapping.
(SFC, 6/22/06, p.A13)(SFC, 6/22/06, p.A13)(SFC,
9/13/06, p.A12)(SFC, 10/7/06, p.A3)(SFC, 11/16/06, p.A17)(SFC,
11/17/06, p.A19)(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A10)(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A13)
2006 Apr 26, A Mexican boycott
urged people to shun all products from U.S. businesses on May 1, a
sort of "Day Without Americans," timed to coincide with the "Day
Without Immigrants" boycott planned by activists north of the
border.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, In southern Mexico
a speeding truck loaded with Guatemalan migrants en route to the
United States collided head-on with another truck, killing 10
migrants and injuring 16.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 26, In southwestern
Nepal soldiers killed six villagers after thousands of civilians
tried to overrun an army camp. The killings were not believed to be
connected to the political turmoil that has gripped Nepal for weeks.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, President Vladimir
Putin ordered a giant new oil pipeline to be routed away from Lake
Baikal, the world's deepest lake and home to hundreds of unique
species.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, Snyder Rini, the
new Solomon Islands prime minister whose election last week sparked
two days of rioting and looting in the archipelago's capital,
resigned after losing support in Parliament.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, In Sri Lanka
escalating violence between government forces and Tamil rebels left
at least 15 civilians dead and 15,000 Tamil villagers fleeing for
their lives.
(AFP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 27, The Bush
administration announced that it had reached a tentative agreement
with Canada to settle the long-running trade battle over softwood
lumber.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Alberto Gonzales,
the US Attorney General, said police nationwide had arrested 9,037
people in a roundup of fugitives from April 17 to 23, including over
1,100 sex offenders.
(WSJ, 4/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 27, The US states
joined by environmentalists sued the federal government to compel it
to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.
(WSJ, 4/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 27, The publisher of
the teen novel “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life”
pulled the book off the market after its author, Harvard student
Kaavya Viswanathan acknowledged that numerous passages had been
lifted from another writer.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2006 Apr 27, In NYC
construction began at the site of the World Trade Center on a
project to build 5 towers by 2012.
(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 27, A fiery crash in
the San Francisco’s Castro District killed one person and left at
least 8 vehicle gutted.
(SFC, 4/28/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 27, Austria, in its
role as current president of the EU, began a poster campaign called
"Temptress Europe" designed to reawaken Europeans to the continent's
"sensuous" side.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 27, Thousands of
Bulgarians demonstrated against a deal to allow US troops to use
military facilities in the country.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Canadian and US
scientists reported success with an experimental vaccine against the
Marburg virus in monkeys, even if the shot is given after infection.
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 27, China's central
bank raised interest rates by .27% in the government's strongest
move yet to cool an economy verging on overheating. The news sent
resource stocks, oil and commodity prices lower around the world.
(AP, 4/27/06)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.43)
2006 Apr 27, Liliana Gaviria
(52), sister of the former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria
(1990-1994), died in a botched kidnapping in the province of
Risaralda, 110 miles west of Bogota. She was real estate agent and
owner of a transport company. On Feb 26, 2010, Beatriz Villalba (25)
was arrested after being under observation for four months. She had
been conducting spying operations for the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia in Bogota. Prosecutors alleged that Villalba was in
charge of buying a building and modifying a vehicle used in the
abduction and transportation of Liliana Gaviria Trujillo. Gaviria's
bodyguard was shot dead during the kidnapping in Pereira.
(AP, 4/28/06)(AP, 2/26/10)
2006 Apr 27, Indian student
doctors staged a one-day strike at state-run hospitals in New Delhi
to protest government plans to boost quotas for the poor in top
education institutes.
(AFP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Iran's UN
ambassador denounced Israel's election as a vice-chair of the U.N.
Disarmament Commission, calling the Jewish state a threat to peace
in the Middle East.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 27, A sister of Iraq's
new Sunni Arab vice president was killed in a drive-by shooting in
Baghdad, a day after the politician called for the Sunni-dominated
insurgency to be crushed by force. In southern Iraq a bomb blast
rocked an Italian convoy at a base, killing three Italian soldiers
and a Romanian.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Israel's military
intelligence chief said in a published interview that Iran has
received its first batch of North Korean-made surface-to-surface
missiles that put European countries within firing range.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at two cars in Gaza packed with rockets, killing one
Islamic Jihad militant and critically wounding another.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 26, Malaysia’s central
bank raised its main interest rate by a quarter point to 3.5%.
(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 27, Reports from
Myanmar and Thailand said Myanmar troops were waging their biggest
military offensive in almost a decade and have uprooted more than
11,000 ethnic minority civilians in a campaign punctuated by
torture, killings and the burning of villages.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Nepal's communist
rebels pledged to halt attacks for three months to give the
Himalayan country a chance for peace as a new government takes over
in the wake of bloody protests that forced the king to reinstate
parliament.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, A Dutch agency
said the number of reported cases of legal euthanasia and
doctor-assisted suicide in the Netherlands increased in 2005 for the
third year in a row. Doctors reported 1,933 cases in 2005, up from
1,886 in 2004 and 1,815 in 2003.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, In Nigeria
President Hu Jintao said China wants a "strategic partnership" with
Africa, seeking to add a new political dimension to a blossoming
economic romance. China agreed to commit $4 billion for
infrastructure in exchange for 4 oil drilling licenses.
(Reuters, 4/27/06)(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 27, Russia’s
Agriculture Ministry said it has banned all imports of poultry and
poultry products in connection with violations of veterinary
regulations. Moscow claimed to have found diseased chickens and
insufficient veterinary monitoring on US poultry farms, but there
were also Russia media reports linking the ban to the country's
unhappiness over US President George W. Bush's decision to impose
hefty tariffs on foreign steel imports.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, In South Korea
state prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for Hyundai Motor Co.
Chairman Chung Mong-koo amid a bribery and slush fund scandal that
has rocked the large automaker.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, In Sri Lanka
rebels said some 40,000 civilians fled homes in northeastern Sri
Lanka to escape government airstrikes on Tamil rebel areas in recent
days that have killed at least a dozen people. In northern Sri Lanka
mine attacks killed five military personnel and wounded another
five. Police found five headless corpses near Colombo.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Turkey said it has
deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly
Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to
fight Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from coming across the
frontier.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, The UN panel
overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of
Kuwait said the UN has paid out a $248 million installment to cover
claims for losses and damages.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, President George
W. Bush approved Dubai's $1.24 billion takeover of Doncasters, a
British engineering company with US plants that supply the Pentagon.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Five member of US
Congress were willingly arrested and led away from the Sudanese
Embassy in plastic handcuffs after protesting the Sudanese
government's alleged role in atrocities in the Darfur region.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, The US government
adopted a federal advisory council’s recommendations for deep cuts
to the 2006 salmon season for California and Oregon.
(SFC, 4/29/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 28, Attorneys for Rush
Limbaugh, who had been accused by Florida prosecutors of "doctor
shopping" for painkillers, announced a deal under which a single
prescription fraud charge against the talk show host would be
dismissed after 18 months provided he stayed drug-free and did not
violate any laws.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2006 Apr 28, Storms battered
eastern Texas with wind up to 100 mph and hail the size of
baseballs.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2006 Apr 28, Rhode Island,
America's smallest state, was reported to be seeking to become the
first state to offer a wireless broadband network from border to
border. The Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) was
expected to be fully in place by 2007, providing wireless
connectivity throughout the state, whose land mass of about 1,045
square miles is only slightly more than double the size of
metropolitan Los Angeles.
(Reuters, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Ellen DeGeneres
swept the Daytime Emmy awards, winning best talk show host for the
second time and earning talk show honors for the third consecutive
year.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported
that a research team at UC Berkeley had created microscopic versions
of compound eyes as used by insects.
(SFC, 4/28/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 28, NASA launched 2
weather satellites designed to provide the 1st 3-D views of Earth’s
clouds and help predict how cloud cover contributes to global
warming.
(SFC, 4/29/06, p.A10)
2006 Apr 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai urged Taliban militants to end the violence raging
across the country and join forces with the new government to help
Afghanistan's reconstruction. NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed the
alliance's readiness to nearly double its peacekeeping operations in
Afghanistan, where violence is increasing.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In Brazil police
charged Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister, with four
crimes, including money laundering. He was viewed as the architect
of Brazil's economic recovery.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Prince Harry,
third in line to the British throne, launched a charity in memory of
his late mother Princess Diana to help AIDS orphans in Lesotho.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In Bulgaria
Secretary Rice signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement, which
included a US lease of 3 bases in Bulgaria.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/2006/65423.htm)(Econ,
6/24/06, p.62)
2006 Apr 28, Canadian currency
topped out at C$1.1162 to the US dollar, or 89.59 US cents, its
highest level since June 1978, rising for the sixth straight
session.
(Reuters, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Chinese President
Hu Jintao signed an oil exploration contract with Kenya, the latest
in a series of deals designed to keep Africa's natural resources
flowing to China's booming economy.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported
Baiyangdian Lake in northern China's Hebei province was choking for
its life. Large-scale fish deaths have occurred regularly since the
1980s as excessive amounts of untreated industrial waste water and
raw sewage, coupled with drought and constantly falling water
levels, have left fish farms decimated.
(AFP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Representatives of
the Colombian government and that nation's second largest rebel
group wrapped up four days of talks in Cuba without resolution, but
agreed to meet again after their country's May 28 elections.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A cargo plane
carrying telecom equipment crashed in eastern Congo, killing as many
as eight passengers and crew on board. Another aircraft carrying
three people disappeared in the same region.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In East Timor
hundreds of former soldiers burned cars and shops in Dili, sparking
violent clashes with police that left at least two people dead and
27 injured. The soldiers, who were dismissed last month for striking
against "discriminatory" working conditions, have held near-daily
rallies in Dili this week demanding that their grievances be heard.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, US forces killed a
local al-Qaida in Iraq leader and two other insurgents in a raid
north of Baghdad. Roadside bombs killed an American soldier and an
Iraqi policeman. The death toll in two days of fighting in Baqouba
climbed to 58, including seven Iraqi soldiers.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A senior Israeli
military official said Palestinian militants have smuggled dozens of
Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip, potentially threatening towns
well inside Israel.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican lawmakers
approved a bill that would allow people to possess small amounts of
cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican police in
Tijuana found the body of a US citizen kidnapped nearly 3 weeks
earlier. They said he had been beaten, strangled, stripped naked and
stashed in the trunk of a car. George Kwok Choi Chu, a seafood
wholesaler, worked in Tijuana but lived across the border in San
Diego.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported
that Morocco has just graduated its first team of women preachers to
be deployed as a vanguard in the kingdom's fight against any slide
towards Islamic extremism. A pioneer group of 50 Morchidat, or
guides, finished a 12-month course in early April. They were trained
to "accompany and orient" Muslim faithful, notably in prisons,
hospitals and schools.
(AFP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Nepal's Parliament
reconvened for the first time in four years, and legislators
proposed a cease-fire with the Himalayan country's Maoist rebels and
elections for a constitutional assembly.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, More than 45,000
Puerto Ricans marched through the streets of San Juan demanding
politicians resolve a budget impasse that could lead to a government
shutdown next week.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In South Korea
prosecutors arrested Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo in an
embezzlement and slush fund scandal.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, The UN food agency
said it is cutting rations in half for about 3 million refugees in
Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region because of a shortage of money,
calling it "scandalous" that it has to stretch out supplies while it
pleads for funds.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A powerful group
of developing nations blocked reform proposals that would have given
Secretary-General Kofi Annan more budget power, and rich countries
warned the move could push the world body toward financial crisis.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, An official said
Vietnam needs more than $400 million to fight bird flu and prepare
for a potential pandemic over the next five years, and expects about
half to come from international donors.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 29, Thousands of US
anti-war demonstrators converged on lower Manhattan to call for an
immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, A rock slide at
Ferguson Ridge, 8 miles west of El Portal, Ca., shut down the
Highway 140 connection to Yosemite National Park.
(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 29, John Kenneth
Galbraith (97), an influential liberal Canadian-born economist and
author, died in Massachusetts. His more than 40 works included
“American Capitalism” (1952), "The Affluent Society" (1958), in
which he argued that the US had become rich in consumer goods but
poor in social services and “The New Industrial State” (1967).
(Reuters, 4/30/06)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.86)
2006 Apr 29, Afghan security
forces clashed with Taliban militants hiding in a cave complex in
the southern Helmand province, killing 11 insurgents after militants
killed three policemen and wounded another in an ambush. An Afghan
cell phone company confirmed that an Indian contractor was being
held hostage by the Taliban. Afghan soldiers and police attacked a
Taliban camp co miles north of Lashkar Gah and killed at least 2
militants.
(AP, 4/30/06)(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 29, Bolivia's new
left-leaning president, Evo Morales, signed a pact with Cuba and
Venezuela on rejecting US-backed free trade and promising a
socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation. Bolivia
became the 3rd member of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(ALBA).
(AP, 4/29/06)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.38)
2006 Apr 29, A cyclone hit
Burma with 150 mph winds. Scattered deaths and injuries were
reported.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 29, A coalition of
Chinese Web activists launched a petition decrying censorship of the
Internet and challenging the legality of government information
controls on China's more than 100 million net users.
(Reuters, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 29, In northwestern
China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed at least 30 miners and
left eight missing at the Wayaobao Coal Mine in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 4/30/06)(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 29, It was reported
that just over 8% of workers in France belonged to a trade union
compared with 12% in America and nearly 30% in Britain.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.54)
2006 Apr 29, In Hong Kong while
riding a bus Elvis Ho asked Roger Chan to lower his voice while
talking on his cellphone. Chan proceeded to berate Ho for nearly 6
minutes and the encounter was captured on video camera by another
passenger, Jon Fong. The video became famous as “Bus Uncle.” Some
phrases in the video, such as “I’ve got pressure” and “It’s not
over,” quickly became part of Hong Kong’s lexicon.
(WSJ, 6/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 29, In central India
13 people abducted by insurgents were found dead but 37 others were
freed. 2 people were found dead a day earlier. Rebels had abducted
52 people from a single village in the district of Dantewada in
Chhattisgarh state on April 25.
(AFP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, In Iraq 6 people
were killed in scattered violence. A top Iraqi official said
sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to
flee their homes. A US Army soldier died when a roadside bomb hit
his convoy near Baghdad.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, In Kyrgyzstan
thousands of protesters demanding reform gathered in the main square
in Bishkek but dispersed peacefully after President Bakiyev and PM
Felix Kulov addressed the crowd.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Newly returned
Nepalese legislators demanded that King Gyanendra be stripped of
control over the 90,000-strong army, fearing he could use it to
regain power after his recent concession to weeks of pro-democracy
protests.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, A car bombing in
the Nigerian oil city of Warri destroyed at least five tanker
trucks. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND),
which demands more local control over the southern delta's oil
wealth, said it had used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kg (66 lb) of
dynamite in the bombing.
(Reuters, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 29, North Korea
claimed that the US conducted about 160 spy flights against the
communist state this month.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Peru recalled its
ambassador from Venezuela over what it called President Hugo
Chavez's "persistent and flagrant interference" in its upcoming
presidential elections.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, In the Philippines
military intelligence agents captured Abdasil Malangka Dima, an
alleged member of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group, in Isabela,
the capital of the southern island province of Basilan. He was
allegedly involved in the abduction of three Americans, including a
missionary couple, from a resort five years ago.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, A Qatar newspaper
reported that Qatar has frozen bilateral free trade talks with the
US, saying Washington was imposing preconditions that were not in
Doha's interest.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr
Mottaki to suspend enriching uranium and ensure full-scale
cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
(Reuters, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, The UN said
reports of a Ugandan army incursion into Congo were "credible" after
peacekeepers conducted a verification mission in the remote
northeastern border region.
(Reuters, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Scientists tried
to discover why some 400 dolphins washed up dead on a beach popular
with tourists on the northern coast of Zanzibar.
(AP, 4/29/06)(WSJ, 4/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 30, Some 100,000
rallied in Washington DC, SF and other US cities to urge the Bush
administration to take decisive action to stop the genocide in
Darfur.
(SFC, 5/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 30, It was reported
that on average a family of four should expect to pay $261 a day for
food and lodging when traveling in the US this summer.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.G2)
2006 Apr 30, In San Francisco
Daniel Elizalde (17) shot and killed Karl Bartolome (19) as
Bartolome walked with his girlfriend and nephew at Lisbon and Persia
streets in the Excelsior district. Elizalde later pleaded guilty to
2nd degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life.
(SFC, 12/25/09, p.D2)(http://tinyurl.com/ydhpjr4)
2006 Apr 30, In Afghanistan
Edward Caraballo (44), an American jailed for two years in Kabul on
charges of torturing alleged terrorists in a makeshift jail, was
freed two months early after a government decree. Police found an
Indian hostage's beheaded body in southern Afghanistan. Taliban
militants said they shot the hostage dead as he tried to escape.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, In Australia
rescuers made voice contact with two miners trapped a half mile
beneath the earth for nearly a week. Todd Russell (34) and Brant
Webb (37) were trapped April 25 when a small earthquake caused a
rock collapse at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine. One of their co-workers
was killed in the quake.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 30, A fisherman off
Barbados found a boat with the bodies of 11 men from Senegal. The
boat had left Senegal Christmas eve with 52 migrant people and was
apparently bound for the Canary Islands.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Apr 30, British
environment ministry officials said work has begun to cull chickens
at two more poultry farms in eastern England after the suspected
discovery there of the H7 strain of bird flu.
(AFP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, China successfully
tested a locally made magnetic levitation train, the first time the
country has achieved the feat without using foreign technology. The
20-ton test maglev train ran steadily on a 1,400-foot experimental
line in the provincial capital of Chengdu, the capital of
southwestern Sichuan province.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 30, Congo's electoral
commission said that national elections, the first in 40 years for
the violence-plagued central African nation, will take place July
30, about a month later than planned.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, Egypt's parliament
agreed to a two-year extension of emergency law requested by the
government while it prepares replacement anti-terrorism laws.
Egyptian security forces hunting bombers behind attacks last week in
the Sinai peninsula fought gunbattles with suspects and killed 3 of
them.
(AP, 4/30/06)(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 Apr 30, In Ethiopia
visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he
backed plans for an expanded United Nations Security Council, adding
that he would present his country's position at the African Union
(AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, In Iraq the office
of President Jalal Talabani said he had met with representatives of
seven armed groups and was optimistic they may agree to lay down
their weapons. Bombs and drive-by shootings killed 12 people. The
bodies of 7 Iraqi men, who apparently were kidnapped and tortured,
were found in three areas of the capital. Three security contractors
were killed and two others injured in a roadside bomb attack 30
miles south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/30/06)(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 30, Israel's Cabinet
voted to modify the route of its West Bank separation barrier to put
thousands of Palestinians on the "Palestinian" side of the
enclosure.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, Suspected Islamic
militants raided a village in Indian-controlled Kashmir and killed
22 Hindus, lining them outside their homes and shooting them
execution-style. Police found the bodies of 4 of 13 Hindu cattle
grazers who were abducted over the weekend by suspected Islamic
militants. 9 more bodies were found the next day.
(AFP, 5/1/06)(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 30, Laotians voted for
a new parliament in a largely symbolic exercise since all the
candidates belonged to the communist party. But in an effort to
bring in fresh faces, only about a quarter were incumbents.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, Nepal's Parliament
called for a cease-fire with Maoist insurgents and elections for an
assembly to rewrite the constitution, as the new PM Girija Prasad
Koirala (84) urged the rebels to sit down for talks.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, In Pakistan an
army spokesman said Mohammed Farooq, a senior Pakistani scientist
suspected of helping leak nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya,
and North Korea, has been released after two years in detention.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, Saudi King
Abdullah issued a decree lowering domestic gasoline prices by about
25%. That would lower the cost to about 16 cents per liter.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, Serbia braced for
suspension of EU aid and trade talks as deadline expired for the
arrest of war-crimes fugitive Ratco Mladic.
(WSJ, 5/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 30, In eastern Sri
Lanka at least 18 rebels were killed and many wounded when Tamil
Tiger guerrillas launched a major attack against a breakaway
faction.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 30, The Sudanese
government said it was ready to sign a draft peace deal with rebels
from its Darfur region, but the rebels said they still had
reservations about the agreement.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr, A report produced by
the US National Intelligence Ground Center said more than 500
chemical munitions have been discovered in Iraq since 2003. They
were produced in the 1980s for the Iran-Iraq war.
(www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15738)
2006 Apr, Sue Ellen Wooldridge,
the US government’s top environmental prosecutor, purchased a
$980,000 vacation home at Kiawah Island, SC, along with J. Steven
Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist, and Donald R. Duncan, a
vice-president for ConocoPhilips. 9 months later Wooldridge agreed
to let ConocoPhillips delay a half-billion-dollar pollution cleanup.
(SFC, 2/15/07, p.A6)
2006 Apr, As of this month
Google held 43% of the US search engine market share. This reached
50% counting AOL, which used Google’s search engine technology;
Yahoo had 28%, MSN had 13% and Ask, owned by IAC/Interactive Corp,
had 6%.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.65)
2006 Apr, In Afghanistan
delegates gathered in Kabul for a discussion on new information and
communications technology. Invitations to the conference were sent
on a Morse telegraph system.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.45)
2006 Apr, Anwar Kamal Marwat, a
PML-Nawaz politician in Peshawar, Pakistan, led 4,000 tribesmen in
an attack on a neighboring Pushtun tribe and killed 80 people. They
incurred a fine of $60,000.
(Econ, 7/8/06, Survey p.7)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.36)
2006 Apr, China and
Turkmenistan signed a gas-supply deal. Operations of the pipeline
was scheduled to start in 2009.
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr, France released 2
Slovenian brown bears in the Pyrenees and planned to add five more
to boost genetic diversity.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.60)
2006 Apr, Archeologists
unearthed a major Maya Indian royal burial site in the Guatemalan
jungle, discovering jade jewelry and a jaguar pelt from more than
1,500 years ago. The tomb, found by archeologist Hector Escobedo
contained a king of the El Peru Waka city.
(Reuters, 5/4/06)
2006 Apr, Investigators for
India's monopoly monitors accused US biotech group Monsanto, which
has a tight grip on the GM market, of overpricing its cotton seeds,
charging so-called "technology fees" on seed packets. Indian
government officials said more than 8,900 farmers had died from
suicide in four states since 2001. Rising costs and the failure of a
government minimum pricing policy had contributed to the farmers'
deaths.
(AFP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr, Jamaican police
arrested botanist George Proctor at the capital's airport as he was
about to board a plane to the United States. Prosecutors later said
Proctor had given a co-conspirator $90,000 to kill 4 women. In 2010
Proctor (89) was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to
kill his wife and three other women who lived in the couple's home.
The wife and the three women, whose identities and relationship to
the couple have never been released by authorities, were not harmed.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2006 Apr, IKEA opened its first
store in Japan.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.69)
2006 Apr, Peru’s Legislature
approved a trade pact with the US. The US Congress and Senate
approved the free trade agreement in late 2007.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A6)
2006 Apr, Saudi Arabia
announced plans to build an electrified fence along its 560-mile
border with Iraq.
(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr, Somalia’s
transitional government named Mohamud Hassan Ali (52), a resident of
Minnesota since 2000, as mayor of Mogadishu. His uncle had served as
mayor of Mogadishu from 1959-1963.
(SSFC, 6/11/06, p.A22)
2006 Apr, In South Africa the
government unveiled a project to build a luxury, four-star hotel at
Freedom Square in Soweto.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
2006 Apr, Basdeo Panday, former
Trinidad prime minister, was sentenced to 2 years in prison for
corruption.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.40)
2006 May 1, The EU imposed
additional retaliatory sanctions valued at $9.1 million against the
US in response to antidumping measures that were ruled illegal.
(WSJ, 5/1/06, p.A10)
2006 May 1, The US Supreme
Court ruled that Anna Nicole Smith could pursue part of her late
husband's oil fortune.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2006 May 1, A Florida judge
sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian (48) to another year and a
half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism
conspiracy case. Al-Arian signed a plea agreement April 14 in which
he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Thousands of people
rallied in cities across the US for what organizers called “A Day
Without Immigrants.” An estimated 100,000 gathered in San Jose, Ca.,
400,000 in Chicago, 400,000 in Los Angeles and some 75,000 in
Denver.
(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A1)
2006 May 1, In the SF Bay Area
KQED of SF and KTEH of San Jose announced their merger under the
name Northern California Public Broadcasting.
(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A1)
2006 May 1, Pure Digital
Technologies released its new $130 Pure Digital Point & Shoot
Video Camcorder.
(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.D1)
2006 May 1, Workers around the
world held May Day rallies to press for better factory conditions
and higher wages in mostly peaceful marches. Activists the
Philippines used the holiday to show their opposition to their
government in tense protests watched by police.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Belarus more
than 1,000 protesters carrying banned flags marched through Minsk to
demand the release of jailed opposition leaders who had pledged to
work for the removal of President Alexander Lukashenko.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales ordered the oil and gas sector nationalized, threatening
to evict foreign companies unless they cede control over production
within six months. The biggest natural gas field was operated by
Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras.
(AP, 5/2/06)(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A3)(Econ, 5/6/06,
p.37)
2006 May 1, Egyptian security
forces fatally shot three men wanted in terrorist bombings that
killed at least 18 people in a coastal Sinai Peninsula resort on
April 24. A police officer was also killed.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 1, In western India
police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse battling mobs of
Hindus and Muslims, killing two people as hundreds rioted after
authorities demolished a small Muslim shrine.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In southern India a
truck carrying mangos toppled over, killing 20 workers riding on
board to unload them.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In northern India a
sodium tank exploded at a paper factory, sparking a blaze that
killed at least nine nightshift workers and trapped hundreds more.
One official said 15 people were killed.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Indonesia 3
Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison for helping
shelter Southeast Asia's top terrorist mastermind and financing
bombings.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Israel interim
PM Ehud Olmert announced his Cabinet appointments, naming Tzipi
Livni as vice premier and foreign minister. Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her two daughters when
they fired on a West Bank house that an Islamic Jihad militant was
hiding in.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Locals in Macao
rioted in protests against outsiders, who were finding jobs while
many middle-aged Macanese remained jobless.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.40)
2006 May 1, A day-long protest
dubbed "A Day Without Gringos" drew thousands of Mexicans into the
streets and kept many away from US-owned supermarkets and fast-food
restaurants to support rallies in the United States demanding
immigration reform.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, The government of
Puerto Rico ran out of money, forcing the US commonwealth to close
public schools and shut down government offices, putting almost
100,000 people out of work.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Rwandan Hutu rebels
attacked a village and an army camp in a raid that left 7 residents
dead. Congolese troops killed six rebels during an attack at an army
camp that also claimed the lives of a soldier and his wife.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 1, Under pressure from
the US rebels in Sudan's Darfur region agreed to continue
negotiations in Nigeria with the Sudanese government after rejecting
a peace proposal that would end a conflict that has killed tens of
thousands of people.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Turkey, police
fired pepper spray and tear gas to disperse demonstrators denouncing
the IMF and the United States.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Louis Rukeyser (73)
died in Connecticut. The best-selling author, columnist, lecturer
and television host had delivered pun-filled, commonsense commentary
on complicated business and economic news.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, In Minnesota a
small, spiral-shaped snail that clones itself and is native to New
Zealand has been discovered in Duluth-Superior Harbor and the St.
Louis River estuary, raising concerns about the impact of another
invasive species.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, A pre-dawn fire in
NYC raged through a 21-acre site. It destroyed 15 industrial
buildings and was the worst city fire in 10 years.
(http://nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/home2.shtml)(WSJ,
5/27/06, p.P9)
2006 May 2, Joseph Clark was
executed at a state prison in Lucasville, Ohio. After Clark was
finally pronounced dead, 86 minutes after the process began, an
autopsy showed 19 needle puncture wounds from the process. In 2007
Irma Clark filed suit in the Cincinnati, Ohio, district court,
alleging her son was exposed to "excessive suffering" violating the
US constitution.
(AFP, 7/3/07)
2006 May 2, A suspected suicide
attacker set off a car bomb on a road between the Afghan capital
Kabul and a main US military base, killing himself and a civilian.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Bolivia's leftist
government said it would extend control over mining, forestry and
other sectors of the economy. Foreign governments warned relations
could be damaged. Soldiers guarded natural gas fields and refineries
across Bolivia after President Evo Morales ordered the sector
nationalized, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they
cede control over production within six months.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Canada's new
government released its first federal budget, offering broad tax
cuts and pledging to shore up the country's security with spending
increases for the military, border security and policing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, The Canadian dollar
cracked 90 US cents, setting a new 28-year high and helping
Canadians to realize cheaper US imports of everything from
vegetables and clothing to computers.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, China's official
Xinhua News Agency said glaciers in western China's Qinghai-Tibet
plateau, known as the "roof of the world," are melting at a rate of
7 percent annually due to global warming.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Colombia the
entire municipal council of Villavieja resigned and fled to Neiva in
Huila province, fearing for their lives amid a spate of political
killings.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, In western India at
least 30 people were killed when a crowded bus veered off a bridge
and plunged into a river. The bus, which had a capacity of 58 but
was carrying 69 passengers, was traveling from Kashimira town to
Thane, near Mumbai.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Iran a court
sentenced two Swedes to three years in prison each for photographing
military installations. The two men, both in their 30s, were
convicted of photographing military buildings and telecommunications
equipment on Qeshm, an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Iraq's parliament
speaker said in a nationally televised speech that the new
government's top priority will be ending widespread bloodshed in
cities such as Baghdad. But insurgents launched new attacks, killing
at least seven Iraqis and a US soldier. US soldiers raided an
al-Qaeda site and killed 10 insurgents, including 3 in suicide
vests. German engineers Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke were
released unharmed following 99 days in captivity.
(AP, 5/2/06)(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.A1)(AP, 5/3/07)
2006 May 2, PM Silvio
Berlusconi, the longest-serving leader in postwar Italy, resigned to
make way for a center-left government led by Romano Prodi.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Nepal's new prime
minister announced a seven-member Cabinet, designating a communist
as his deputy and foreign minister.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Norway 3 key
suspects were convicted in the theft of the Edvard Munch
masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" and sentenced to between
four and eight years in prison. The works were snatched by masked
gunmen from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004. They are still
missing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, An explosion
destroyed a building inside a Palestinian national security compound
in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two police officers and wounding
seven others.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Sri Lanka’s
President Mahinda Rajapakse called for immediate peace talks with
Tamil Tiger rebels, saying his tiny tropical island had seen enough
violence. Gunmen stormed the offices of the Uthayan newspaper in
Jaffna, 400 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, killing a
manager and another employee. The next day the government said the
murders were timed to embarrass it as Sri Lanka hosted UNESCO World
Press Freedom Day celebrations, while the rebel Tamil Tigers blamed
government forces for the attack.
(AP, 5/2/06)(AFP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3 In their second
meeting at the White House, President Bush and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel vowed to keep pressing Iran on its nuclear program as
other allies took the issue to the United Nations.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, The Bush
administration released a 234-page report on avian flu saying a
global bird flu epidemic could disable the US economy. It called for
stockpiling antiviral medication and new vaccine development.
(SFC, 5/4/06, p.A11)
2006 May 3, A federal jury in
Alexandria, Va., rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui, deciding he should spend life in prison for his
role in 9/11; as he was led from the courtroom, Moussaoui taunted,
"America, you lost. ... I won."
(AP, 5/3/07)
2006 May 3, Vernon Jackson
(53), owner of iGate, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Virginia, to
bribing Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., with more than $400,000 to
promote the Kentucky’s firm’s high tech business in Africa between
2001 and 2005.
(SFC, 5/4/06, p.A3)
2006 May 3, The US Postal
Service said it wants to raise the price of a first-class stamp by 3
cents to 42 cents, and proposed a "forever" stamp that people could
use as hedge against future rate increases.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, US federal agents
conducted raids in California targeting a SF-based cocaine and
methamphetamine trafficking operation. 19 indictments were unsealed.
(SFC, 5/4/06, p.B2)
2006 May 3, Sotheby’s auction
house sold “Dora Maar au Chat,” a painting by Pablo Picasso, for a
$95.2 million, the 2nd highest amount for a painting at auction.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.A7)
2006 May 3, A burglary at a VA
data analyst's home in Aspen Hill, Md., included loss of a laptop
with personal data for 26.5 million veterans and military personnel.
The burglary was disclosed May 22 and the VA first said the data was
for 50,000 veterans and military personnel. On June 29 federal
officials reported that the laptop was recovered.
(AP, 6/9/06)(SFC, 6/30/06, p.A1)
2006 May 3, In western
Afghanistan suspected Taliban gunmen killed a judge.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, An Armenian Airbus
A-320 crashed in stormy weather off Russia's Black Sea coast while
readying to land at the Sochi resort, killing all 113 people on
board, most of them Armenians.
(AP, 5/3/06)(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.A1)
2006 May 3, Australia raised
its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 5.75%. This sent
its currency to a seven-month peak against the US dollar.
(www.indiainfoline.com/news/news.asp?dat=77648)
2006 May 3, Bolivia's decision
to nationalize its natural gas industry drew challenges from Brazil
as top officials pledged to defend current gas contracts and suspend
investment in the Bolivian industry.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, A decade-old ban on
British beef, triggered by the mad cow crisis in the mid-1990s, was
officially lifted, allowing cattle farmers to resume exports.
(AFP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Britain and France
introduced a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Iran
abandon its uranium enrichment program, possibly setting the stage
for sanctions if Tehran does not comply.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Chadians voted for
president despite no real alternatives to incumbent Idriss Deby, who
rebuffed calls to delay the election in this emerging African oil
exporter in favor of peace talks with rebels.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, China's
state-approved Catholic church installed a bishop without Vatican
approval, the second this week.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Owners of a coal
mine in China's central Henan province falsely claimed that five
workers were killed and seven injured in a blast, when 66 miners
were underground. An investigation by the county government later
revealed that 10 workers were killed and 18 were injured in the
accident which occurred in Yegou village.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 3, The European
Commission fined 7 companies a total of $489.8 (388.1 euros) for
running a cartel in bleaching chemicals.
(WSJ, 5/4/06, p.A2)
2006 May 3, In New Delhi Muslim
separatists met India's prime minister for fresh peace talks on the
future of Kashmir. Hours before the talks were due to begin, four
rebels and three security men died in gunbattles in Kashmir.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, India and Pakistan
agreed to launch a truck service and a second passenger bus route
this summer linking the parts of Kashmir held by each country.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, The guardian of
Budhia Singh, a five-year-old Indian boy who runs 50 kilometers (31
miles) a day, denied media accusations he was flogging him for
personal gain. When Budhia’s father died two years ago, his mother,
a dish washer in Bhubaneswar, was unable to provide for her four
children and sold Budhia to a man for 800 rupees (20 dollars).
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In northern India,
a driver apparently lost control of his speeding bus, veering off a
bridge into a dry river bed near Rampur, a town in Uttar Pradesh
state. 21 people were killed and 26 were injured.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Indonesian police
detained the heads of the state electricity company Perusahaan
Listrik Negara (PLN) and a state fertilizer firm as suspects in
corruption cases.
(AFP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, Sunni insurgents
boldly attacked fellow Sunni Arabs, the latest in a growing campaign
against those who cooperate with the US-backed Iraqi government. A
suicide bomber cloaked in explosives killed two policemen and 13
police recruits gathered in Fallujah. Three more of the new Iraqi
soldiers were found dead in Khaldiyah. The bodies of 20 Iraqi men
were found in several areas of the capital, apparent victims of
death squads that kidnap civilians of rival Muslim sects, torture
them, and dump their bodies. In Wasit province southeast of Baghdad,
masked gunmen broke into the home of a Shiite family, killing the
husband, two of his sons and his sister.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Mexican President
Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill, hours
after US officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism."
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Mexico one
person was killed as machete-wielding protesters near Mexico City
clashed with police, blocking highways, throwing molotov cocktails
and briefly seizing six officers. The residents attacked police
after several of their companions were arrested in the nearby town
of Texcoco.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, Nepal's Cabinet
declared a cease-fire with communist rebels and will no longer
designate them as a terrorist group. Nepal's rebel chief ruled out
disarming his forces and launched a scathing attack on the nation's
new political leadership, according to the Maoists' website.
(AP, 5/3/06)(AFP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Pakistan gunmen
attacked a police post in a remote northwestern tribal region near
the Afghan border, killing three policemen.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, Peru confirmed that
ex-President Garcia placed 2nd in the April 9 voting and will face
nationalist Ollanta Humala in a June 4 runoff.
(WSJ, 5/4/06, p.A1)
2006 May 3, The European Union
suspended aid and trade talks with Serbia after Belgrade failed to
deliver fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, The Alexandros T, a
bulk carrier, sank off the South African coast with 33 crewmen. The
sip sank in heavy seas on its way from Brazil to China. Five managed
to reach life rafts in time and one was rescued with a life vest.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, In Virginia US
Judge Leonie Brinkema sent Zacarias Moussaoui to prison for life, to
"die with a whimper," for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. He declared: "God save Osama bin Laden, you will never get
him." The US military released video footage of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
in which the al-Qaida leader was seen wearing American tennis shoes
and unable to operate his automatic rifle.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2006 May 4, A US federal court
ruled that over 9,500 victims of human rights abuses under Ferdinand
Marcos (1917-1989) were entitled to $35 million in a US account,
which he established in 1972. Damages awarded in 1995 reached nearly
$2 million.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.B7)
2006 May 4, A US government
study said some 300,000 US children have been diagnosed with autism.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.A8)
2006 May 4, Afghan warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar pledged fealty to al Qaeda. He controlled a
large network in eastern Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A1)
2006 May 4, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Argentina’s Pres. Nestor
Kirchner, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez and Bolivia’s Pres. Morales in
response to Bolivia’s decision to nationalize its oil and gas
industry. Morales offered to refrain from cutting off supplies and
to negotiate prices.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.43)
2006 May 4, Britain took
command of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force as a tide of violence
raised apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of
security duties across the country from US forces.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Cambodia's highest
judicial body approved 30 Cambodian and UN judges to preside over a
long-awaited genocide tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Chinese weather
specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing's heaviest rainfall
of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China's
capital.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 4, Over Chinese and
Russian opposition, Western nations circulated a UN Security Council
resolution that would demand Iran abandon uranium enrichment or face
the threat of unspecified further measures, a possible reference to
sanctions.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Palaniappan
Chidambaram, India's finance minister, warned that a slowdown in the
US may trigger a worldwide recession that if "disorderly" will hit
emerging market economies hard. Speaking at the 39th annual meeting
of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said global economic growth
continued to depend heavily on the US economy.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, A suicide bomber
attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily guarded court
building in Baghdad, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding 52. Two US
soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Lithuania hosted
leaders from the European Union, United States and the burgeoning
democracies in the Black Sea region at a summit on the future of the
EU and the NATO military alliance. Vice President Dick Cheney, in
remarks that caused a stir in neighboring Russia, accused President
Vladimir Putin of restricting the rights of citizens and said that
"no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into
implements of blackmail.
(www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1746272&C=europe)(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Just before dawn
hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed
through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a
rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released
six badly beaten police hostages.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, In Nepal Communist
rebels agreed to a new round of peace talks with the government,
raising hopes for an end to a decade-old insurgency that has killed
13,000 people.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Nicaraguan Foreign
Minister Norman Caldera asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to
butt out of his country's political affairs after Chavez signed a
favorable oil pact with dozens of leftist Nicaraguan mayors.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 4, Puerto Rico moved a
step closer to resolving a partial government shutdown as the
island's Senate voted to impose a sales tax of 5.9% and a new levy
on large corporations.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Thousands of police
armed with batons stormed an abandoned school in South Korea to
evict activists who were protesting plans to expand a US military
base, sparking clashes that resulted in dozens of injuries.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, The Vatican
excommunicated two bishops ordained by China's state-controlled
church without the pope's consent, escalating tensions as the two
sides explored preliminary moves toward improving ties.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said he was withdrawing his ambassador from
Peru as a matter of principle after Peru called home its ambassador.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 5, CIA Director Porter
Goss resigned in a second-term shake-up of President Bush's team.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2006 May 5, The US State
Department disclosed that Albania has agreed to take in five
Chinese, ethnic Uighur detainees, held at Guantanamo Bay. They were
flown to Albania the next day.
(AP, 5/5/06)(WSJ, 5/6/06, p.A1)
2006 May 5, The US State
Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has waived a law
to make Myanmar refugees, almost all of whom back an armed group
fighting the Yangon military junta, eligible for resettlement into
the US.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, Porter Goss (67),
US CIA director, resigned under pressure after 18 months on the job.
(SFC, 5/6/06, p.A3)
2006 May 5, Valerie Plame,
former CIA agent, agreed to sell her memoir for $2.5 million. The
book, whose working title is "Fair Game," is scheduled to be
published in the fall of 2007 by Crown Publishing, an imprint of
Random House.
(www.rightnation.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=102710)
2006 May 5, A spokesman for
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said Nevadans will be able to buy
prescription drugs from Canada over the Internet starting next week,
despite objections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, The DJIA rose 138
points to a 6-year high. A report of modest job growth triggered
hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon end interest rate hikes.
(SFC, 5/6/06, p.C1)
2006 May 5, Forbes Magazine in
an article titled, "Fortunes Of Kings, Queens And Dictators," put
Fidel Castro in 7th place in a group of 10 world leaders with "lofty
positions and vast fortunes." The magazine estimated Castro's
personal wealth to be $900 million, nearly double that of the $500
million of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and just under Prince Albert
II of Monaco's estimated $1 billion. Forbes said it assumed Castro
has economic control over a web of state-owned companies including a
convention center, a retail conglomerate and an enterprise that
sells Cuban-produced pharmaceuticals. On May 15 Castro and Cuba’s
Central Bank President Francisco Soberon denied the claims. Soberon
said that all the money made from those companies is pumped back
into the island's economy, into sectors including health, education,
science, security, defense and solidarity projects with other
countries.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 5, Berkshire Hathaway
Inc., the investment company controlled by Warren Buffett, said it
purchased an 80% stake in Iscar, a privately held Israeli
metalworking firm for $5 billion.
(http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/05/news/companies/berkshire/index.htm)
2006 May 5, In eastern
Afghanistan a US-led coalition military transport helicopter crashed
while conducting combat operations, killing all 10 American soldiers
on board. The CH-47 Chinook crashed while on a mission in support of
Operation Mountain Lion, an offensive to root out Taliban and
al-Qaida militants near the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 5, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two Italian soldiers and wounded four as they
were traveling to help Afghan police hurt in an attack near Kabul.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, British PM Tony
Blair shuffled his Cabinet, replacing Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2006 May 5, In Windsor, Canada,
Const. John Atkinson (37) was shot to death as he approached two men
involved in a drug transaction in a parking lot outside a
convenience store. Nikkolas Brennan and Cody Defausses, both 18,
were charged with first-degree murder. Atkinson, a father of two,
was the first officer slain in the force's history of more than 120
years.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 5, In central China
explosions rocked two Internet cafes in Hefei, the capital of Anhui
province, killing two people, injuring four.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 5, The European
Commission said safety belts will have to be used in all seats on
tour buses and vans across the European Union.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, A roadside bomb
killed three US soldiers south of Baghdad. Coalition forces shot to
death three insurgents in Samarra, the site of the bombing of a
Shiite shrine in February that set off a wave of sectarian killings
in Iraq. An American soldier was killed by the roadside bomb in
Baghdad.
(AP, 5/5/06)(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 5, An Israeli air
strike killed 5 members of a group with close ties to the ruling
Hamas movement in a Gaza City neighborhood training ground for
militants.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 5, In Srinagar a
strike and protests to force the government to reveal names of
people caught up in a prostitution scandal paralyzed the summer
capital of Indian Kashmir and injured 20 people.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, Vice President Dick
Cheney traveled to Kazakhstan for talks with President Nursultan
Nazarbayev. Cheney promoted export routes for vast oil and gas
reserves that would bypass Russia and supply the West directly.
(AP, 5/5/06)(SFC, 5/6/06, p.A3)
2006 May 5, In Nicaragua riot
police stormed a government building and evicted about 200 striking
doctors who invaded it hours earlier in an effort to force President
Enrique Bolanos to restart wage negotiations.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, In Warsaw 2 parties
that opposed Poland's entry into the EU joined the government,
raising hopes for an end to six months of political wrangling.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, In Moscow a jury
voted to acquit Kazbek Dukuzov (32) and Musa Vakhayev (42), the two
men in the July 2004 death of Paul Klebnikov, a 41-year-old New
Yorker of Russian descent and editor of the Forbes Russian edition.
The Moscow City Court official handed down the verdict the next day.
Prosecutors said they would appeal the acquittal.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 5, A court in Russia's
Far East overturned a deportation ruling for US and British
adventurers accused of illegally crossing the border by walking
across the frozen Bering Straight from Alaska.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, In South Africa
Anthony Wakaba Mutheki, a Kenyan-born artist who once hawked his
works for as little as $1 apiece, was reported to have become one of
Africa's hottest young talents, fetching up to $12,000 for his
paintings.
(Reuters, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, South Korean
protesters clashed with police for the second day at a planned site
for a new US military base, leaving scores of people wounded, some
seriously. A military training jet crashed during an air show in
South Korea. The pilot was presumed killed, but no spectators were
hurt.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, Sri Lanka's navy
and air force hit Tamil Tiger targets on land and sea in the
island's northwest, while a policeman died in a fragmentation mine
attack, further straining a battered 2002 ceasefire.
(Reuters, 5/5/06)
2006 May 5, Sudan's government
and the largest Darfur rebel group agreed to sign a peace plan,
marking major progress in an internationally backed effort to end
the death and destruction in western Sudan. Two other rebel factions
rejected the deal. The Abuja deal allocates an initial $30 million
in compensation from the government for more than 3 million Darfuris
the United Nations says were affected by the conflict. Opposition
groups in the camps dismissed the $10 per person payout as a joke.
(Reuters, 5/5/06)(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 May 6, Vice President Dick
Cheney met with President Stipe Mesic of Croatia, the final stop of
a three-nation tour dominated by the issue of political reform in
countries making the post-Cold War transition toward democracy.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, Barbaro won the
Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2006 May 6, Lillian Gertrud
Asplund (99), the last American survivor of the sinking of the
Titanic, died in Shrewsbury, Mass.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2006 May 6, Chen Li (b.1929), a
Chinese journalist and former editor-in-chief of China Daily, the
communist government's main English-language newspaper, died in
Beijing.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 6, Gen. Frantisek
Perina (b.1911), a Czech WWII fighter ace who fought against Nazi
Germany in the French and British air forces died in Prague.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, In Athens, Greece,
some 30,000 people marched in an anti-war and anti-globalization
demonstration that also saw anarchist attacks on banks, shops and
police vehicles. The march was organized by the European Social
Forum, which was holding a four-day meeting on the outskirts of
Athens.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, At least seven
people, including three Iraqi army officers and two children, were
killed and seven others kidnapped in a series of rebel attacks
across Iraq.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, A chemical weapons
expert for a major Islamic extremist group was killed by security
forces in Baghdad. Ali Wali, a member of Ansar al-Islam, died during
a raid on a suspected militant safe house in the western Baghdad
neighborhood of Mansour.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 6, A British military
helicopter crashed in Basra and the 5 people were killed. Flight
Lieutenant Sarah Mulvihill died in the crash in the southern city of
Basra along with Wing Commander John Coxen, Lieutenant Commander
Darren Chapman, Lieutenant David Dobson and Marine Paul Collins.
Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to at least one
armored vehicle that rushed to the scene. Four Iraqi adults and a
child were reported killed during in the melee when Shiite gunmen
exchanged fire with British soldiers. 2 insurgents were killed in
Tikrit while they were planting a roadside bomb.
(AP, 5/6/06)(AP, 5/7/06)(AFP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 6, Teachers at five
schools in the West Bank city of Hebron went on strike, demanding
their overdue paychecks in the first sign of unrest by public
employees. Hundreds of government workers, most of them supporters
of Abbas' moderate Fatah faction, also protested in the West Bank
city of Nablus.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, Singaporeans voted
in legislative elections. The ruling party won a landslide victory
in parliamentary elections. It has won every general election held
in the island nation since it became independent in 1965.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, A local rights
group said Zimbabwe state security agents have stepped up the use of
torture against government opponents, with 19 cases reported in
March compared with three during the previous two months.
(Reuters, 5/6/06)
2006 May 7, Vice President Dick
Cheney endorsed the NATO membership aspirations of Croatia, Albania
and Macedonia.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, Golden West
Financial Corp. of Oakland, Ca., agreed to sell itself to Wachovia
Corp. for $25.5 billion. Investors soon expressed skepticism calling
the transaction risky and too costly.
(AP, 5/8/06)(SFC, 5/8/06, p.A1)
2006 May 7, Taliban militia
fighters ambushed a police patrol in southern Afghanistan, sparking
an hour-long gunbattle that killed two policemen and one attacker.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 7, China's official
Roman Catholic church named a new bishop, reportedly with papal
approval, as Beijing rejected Vatican criticism of the unauthorized
ordination of two other bishops.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, Iran's hard-line
parliament threatened to pass legislation that would force the
Tehran government to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2006 May 7, In Iraq 3 car bombs
rocked northern Baghdad within a span of half an hour while another
struck Karbala, killing at least 17 and wounding 44. Elsewhere in
Iraq, the bound and bullet-ridden bodies of 8 men were found in
eastern Baghdad. Two other bodies with bullet wounds were found
separately in eastern Baghdad. An American soldier was killed and
one wounded near Tal Afar while US troops were helping Iraqi forces
attack a building where insurgents were firing at civilians and
soldiers. A total of about 30 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad and
Karbala. Over the last 24 hours 51 bodies were found in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/7/06)(AP, 5/8/06)(SFC, 5/8/06, p.A3)
2006 May 7, Israeli police
armed with batons evicted dozens of Jewish squatters from a
Palestinian home in West Bank city of Hebron, in an important test
for Israel's new government and its plans to uproot tens of
thousands of settlers.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, In Northern Ireland
Michael McIlveen (15), a Roman Catholic teenager, was hospitalized
in critical condition after being bludgeoning with baseball bats in
the overwhelmingly Protestant town of Ballymena. He died the next
day. Police interrogated 5 Protestant men on suspicion of the
attack.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 7, In Pakistan an
11-year-old boy was strangled by relatives who killed him rather
than obey a tribal elders' order for them to marry one of their
womenfolk to the child.
(Reuters, 5/8/06)
2006 May 7, Officials said
pirates who hijacked a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia and
killed one of its crew members have released the vessel after
holding it for a week.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, In Sri Lanka a
senior Japanese envoy began talks with government officials to try
to save the peace process. Tamil rebels said troops abducted 8 men
in the island's north.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, A fire broke out at
a club in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, killing at least seven
people and injuring at least 49.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 8, The White House
said it will nominate General Michael Hayden to run the CIA and
defended the move to name a top military officer to run the civilian
intelligence agency.
(AFP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, US federal Judge
Gary Klausner in Los Angeles sentenced "botmaster" Jeanson Ancheta
(20) to 57 months in jail for taking control of an array of
computers he had corralled into his "Botnet."
(AFP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 8, Florida’s Gov. Jeb
Bush declared a state of emergency and called in the state National
Guard to help fight wildfires that have burned thousands of acres
and blanketed highways with thick smoke.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 8, Hawaii abandoned
gas-price controls after 8 months.
(WSJ, 5/9/06, p.A1)
2006 May 8, A former top aide
to Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney pleaded guilty and agreed to
cooperate in the corruption and influence-peddling investigation
involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
(Reuters, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Stunt artist David
Blaine emerged weak and wrinkly from a week spent submerged within
an eight-foot snow globe-like tank in the plaza of New York's
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, but without a world record
for holding his breath.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2006 May 8, Silicon Graphics, a
pioneer of 3-D visualization technology, filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection.
(SFC, 5/9/06, p.C1)
2006 May 8, Thermo Electron
said it will acquire Fisher Scientific for $10.6 billion.
(SFC, 5/9/06, p.C2)
2006 May 8, In Afghanistan US
airstrikes on a cave complex near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan
killed four Taliban militants and destroyed a truck loaded with
rockets.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Argentina requested
the extradition of five former Uruguayan military officers and a
former police officer wanted in the 1976 disappearance of Maria
Claudia Garcia, the missing daughter-in-law of poet Juan Gelman.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, In China Bai
Ningyang (19) walked into a Gongyi kindergarten in central Henan,
locked the door and set fire to two gasoline cans. Local authorities
said 13 children and one teacher were injured in addition to three
students killed. Ningyang was captured the next day.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 8, Oscar Arias (65),
Nobel Peace Prize winner (1987), returned to the Costa Rican
presidency, hoping to use his skills as a mediator to unite a
country sharply divided over free trade with the United States.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Indian voters
braved blistering summer heat as marathon state elections drew to a
close with ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi looking set to
regain her parliamentary seat in a by-election. The death toll from
a heat wave rose to 34.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Indonesia said it
supported Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful
means ahead of a visit to the country by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President Bush, proposing "new
solutions" to their differences in the first letter from an Iranian
head of state to an American president in 27 years.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2006 May 8, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed a US soldier. A car bomb went off near a main courthouse
in western Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding 10. In
eastern Baghdad, a car bomb exploded during morning rush hour near a
police patrol on Palestine street in eastern Baghdad, killing two
policemen and wounding 12 Iraqis. Gunmen killed 4 police officers in
Ramadi and 2 Iraqi soldiers in Tikrit. Violence across Iraq left at
least 34 dead.
(AP, 5/8/06)(Reuters, 5/8/06)(WSJ, 5/9/06,
p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)
2006 May 8, A report said UN
peacekeepers, aid workers and teachers are having sex with Liberian
girls as young as 8 in return for money, food or favors, threatening
efforts to rebuild a nation wrecked by war.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, In the Hague the UN
war crimes court sentenced Ivica Rajic, a Bosnian Croat former
militia leader, to 12 years in prison. Rajic admitted that forces
under his command operating in the Muslim village of Stupni Do in
central Bosnia in October 1993 "forced Bosnian Muslim civilians out
of their homes and hiding places, robbed them of their valuables,
willfully killed Muslim men, women and children and sexually
assaulted Muslim women".
(AFP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, In Gaza rival
gunmen from Hamas and Fatah fought with assault rifles and missiles,
killing 3 militants in the bloodiest internal fighting since Hamas
came to power six weeks ago.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Five lawmakers who
took refuge in the Philippine legislature for two months while
facing coup accusations walked out of the building in triumph after
a court dismissed the charges.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Puerto Rico's
governor and legislative leaders have agreed to abide by the
recommendations of a commission seeking a solution to a fiscal
crisis that has partially closed the island's government.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 8, Rwandan President
Paul Kagame said he was considering a plea for clemency from Pasteur
Bizimungu, the nation's first post-genocide president (1994-2000).
Bizimungu was in jail for crimes including inciting ethnic violence
and embezzling state funds.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, A judge acquitted
former Deputy President Jacob Zuma of rape in a politically charged
trial that left in tatters his aspirations to lead South Africa.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Darfur refugees
rioted and forced the UN humanitarian chief to rush from their camp,
then later attacked African peacekeepers and killed a translator in
a sign of deep tensions in Sudan’s war torn region despite a fragile
peace deal. Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, attacked Labado town
in South Darfur, killing and injuring up to 50 people. The AU has a
base in Labado town.
(AP, 5/8/06)(Reuters, 5/20/06)
2006 May 8, A senior American
diplomat pledged US support to impoverished Tajikistan in improving
security and expanding economic opportunities and political
plurality.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, Thailand's
Constitutional Court invalidated last month's parliamentary
elections and ordered fresh polls in a bid to end a political
impasse that has left the country unable to form a new government.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 9, The United States
bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new
program to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the
Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Vermont Gov. Jim
Douglas signed a health reform package to provide health insurance
to as many as 25,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)
2006 May 9, Cory Anthony Booker
(b.1969) was elected the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The
Democratic politician and former Newark Councilman and community
activist had run unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002 against longtime
incumbent Sharpe James. Booker inherited a $44 million deficit from
James, who had boasted of a $30 million surplus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker)
2006 May 9, Gold futures closed
above $700 for the 1st time since 1980.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.C1)
2006 May 9, Tornadoes swept
through two North Texas towns after dark, reducing houses to bare
concrete slabs in a path of destruction that left three people dead
and 10 injured.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Victor Gonzalez,
former butcher, murdered his roofing foreman Wilfredo Pinto.
He then dismembered and bagged the body parts and scattered them on
NYC street corners. In 2009 Gonzalez was convicted of murder.
(SFC, 4/9/09,
p.A4)(www.mahalo.com/Victor_Gonzalez)
2006 May 9, Australia's
government unveiled a big-spending "boom budget" that will use a
projected 10 billion dollar (7.7 billion US) surplus to finance
across-the-board tax cuts and build up the military and national
security agencies.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Beaconsfield,
Australia, Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued from a mine more
than a half mile underground. A small earthquake on April 25 trapped
Webb and Russell in the 4-foot-tall safety cage they were working in
under tons of rock. Mourners gathered to bury, Larry Knight, who
died in the same rock collapse.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A plan by Bolivia's
leftist government to redistribute up to 54,000 square miles of land
to the poor generated protests by leaders in the wealthy province of
Santa Cruz, the stronghold of opposition to leftist President Evo
Morales.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Bosnia's war crimes
court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995
Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide
trial since it opened last year.
(Reuters, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A land mine killed
five Cambodian soldiers and maimed another as they tried to remove
it from an area being developed to build a casino.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, The Canadian dollar
hit a 28-year high against the US dollar, as the greenback came
under broad selling pressure.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Authorities said
Chinese and US had agents seized more than 300 pounds of cocaine in
March smuggled from Colombia in the country's largest ever cocaine
bust. Nine people involved in a drug ring were arrested in southern
China.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Egypt Nasser
Khamis el-Mallahi, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group wanted
for last month's bombings in Dahab, was killed in a gunbattle in the
mountains of the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A German court
handed down a life sentence for murder to Armin Meiwes, the German
cannibal jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh,
overturning a previous manslaughter conviction.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Officials said Iran
will supply crude oil and equity investment to build an oil refinery
in Indonesia that will supply China and provide Iran with a secure
outlet in the face of possible sanctions.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A8)
2006 May 9, Iran's president
declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed
worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the
U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly
rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about
Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Iraq a suicide
truck bomber hit a crowded public market in the northern city of Tal
Afar, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35. In Suwayra police
recovered the corpses on 11 people, 9 of whom had been beheaded. In
Salahuddin province 3 Iraqi detainees were shot and killed by US
soldiers near Samarra. On June 19 the US military announced murder
charges against 4 US soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd
Brigade. The soldiers said they were under orders to kill all
military-age males on “Objective Murray.” In 2007 Spec. Juston
Graber pleaded guilty to reduced charges. On Jan 25, 2007, Pfc.
Corey Clagett (22) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering
a detainee and taking part in the killing of 2 others. In 2007 Staff
Sgt. Ray Girouard was found guilty on 3 counts of negligent
homicide. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 5/9/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)(SFC, 6/20/06,
p.A4)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/26/07,
p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/07, p.A3)(AFP, 3/20/07)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers
handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows
that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud
and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In eastern Nepal a
school van plunged into a canal, killing at least nine students and
leaving several others missing.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes
between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians,
including five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories
could erupt in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Somalian factions
said they have agreed to a truce following clashes between Islamic
fighters and a warlord alliance that have killed about 60 people.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2006 May 9, UN members elected
47 countries to a new Human Rights Council. Cuba, Saudi Arabia,
China and Russia won seats on the new UN Human Rights Council
despite their poor human rights records. Two rights abusers, Iran
and Venezuela, were defeated.
(AP, 5/10/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A17)
2006 May 10, The US Federal
Reserve raised interest rates for the 16th time in a row by .25% to
5%. They said further moves may be needed to address inflation
risks.
(SFC, 5/11/06, p.C3)
2006 May 10, Daniel Biechele, a
former rock-band manager whose pyrotechnics caused a 2003 Rhode
Island nightclub fire that killed 100 people, was sentenced to four
years in prison.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2006 May 10, Oklahoma became
the last state to make tattoos legal when the governor Brad Henry
signed legislation to license and regulate tattoo artists and
parlors.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Val Guest (94),
British movie director, died in Palm Desert, Calif.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2006 May 10, John Hicks (64),
jazz pianist, died in NY.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B5)
2006 May 10, A.M. Rosenthal
(84), former New York Times executive editor, died.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2006 May 10, Soraya, a
Colombian-American singer and songwriter, died of breast cancer in
Miami.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.E1)
2006 May 10, In southern China
a gas blast at the Aotian Coal Mine in Sichuan province killed 11
people and injured nine.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Colombia's top
court voted to legalize abortion in specific cases, easing a
complete ban on the procedure in this majority Roman Catholic
nation.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, The UN reported an
upsurge of rapes, killings and torture by Congo's security forces
and warned that UN peacekeepers overseeing the postwar transition in
the country could end their cooperation with the police and army.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, A Cuban
pro-democracy activist presented a proposal for a new constitution
with expanded freedoms for Cubans, calling for the right to
criticize the government and operate private businesses.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, German customs
authorities arrested four men, breaking up a smuggling ring that
allegedly was supplying Iran with navigation equipment for military
use.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, In Iraq suspected
insurgents opened fire on a bus near Baqouba, killing at least 11
people and wounding three.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, Israel said it
will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they
are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally
set its final borders by 2008 if they don't. Israeli and Palestinian
officials said the Israeli company that provides fuel to the
Palestinian areas is cutting off supplies due to growing debts.
Israel said it was willing to release millions of dollars in funds
it has withheld from the Palestinians and was considering easing
restrictions on the transport of goods between Israel and the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 5/10/06)(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, The Italian
Parliament elected Giorgio Napolitano (80), a former Communist, to
be president, paving the way for a government headed by center-left
leader Romano Prodi to be formed within days.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, In Kyrgyzstan a
gunman in a passing car shot and killed Ryspek Akmatbayev, a reputed
crime boss, who was recently elected to parliament.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, In Lebanon a
quarter-million-strong wave of workers, students and activists, some
backed by pro-Syrian groups, marched through Beirut, protesting a
proposed tax hike and calling for the anti-Syrian prime minister to
resign.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, In southern
Nigeria a gunman riding a motorcycle shot to death an American oil
worker on his way to the office.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said senior members of the rival Hamas and
Fatah factions had forged a joint platform, including acceptance of
a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Puerto Rican
officials resolved a budget impasse that put more than 95,000 public
employees out of work, crippled government services and hurt
business in this U.S. island territory.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, President Vladimir
Putin called population declines of hundreds of thousands a year one
of Russia's most serious problems and urged parliament to offer
financial incentives for families to have more children. He used his
state-of-the-nation speech to call for a big increase in military
spending to protect Russian interests world-wide. He dismissed US
criticism that the Kremlin is curtailing democratic freedoms.
(AP, 5/10/06)(WSJ, 5/11/06, p.A1)
2006 May 10, Georgy Korniyenko
(81), Soviet diplomat, died. He served at the Soviet Embassy in
Washington during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and later was a
deputy foreign minister.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Alexander Zinoviev
(83), prominent Russian author, died in Moscow. Zinoviev's "The
Yawning Heights" (1976), a satirical description of Soviet society,
was published in Switzerland. It led to his ouster from his job at
the Academy of Sciences and his dismissal from the Communist Party.
He was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union in 1978 for his
satire aimed at the Communist regime. He had returned to Russia in
1999.
(AP, 5/11/06)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.89)
2006 May 10, In Madrid, Spain,
hundreds of thousands of small investors who fell victim to a stamp
scam demonstrated to try to recover lost savings potentially
amounting to billions of euros. A day earlier police arrested nine
directors of two philately organizations, Afinsa and Forum
Filatelico.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, Taiwan's President
Chen Shui-bian made a surprise visit to Libya, after he turned down
an offer to make a refueling stop in Alaska in an apparent sign of
diplomatic pique.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, In southern
Thailand a bomb exploded at a tea shop near a busy market, killing
at least three people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 11, Pres. Bush,
responding to reports that the National Security Agency has
collected telephone records of tens of millions of Americans, said
authorities are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of
ordinary Americans and that government efforts are focused on
terrorists.
(SFC, 5/12/06, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/12/06, p.A1)
2006 May 11, The US FDA
approved the drug Chantix. It was developed by Pfizer to help
smokers kick their habit. By mid-2009 the FDA had received reports
of almost 100 suicides related to its use. Clinical trials had
failed to test the product on people with mental illness.
(http://tinyurl.com/273o47o)(SFC, 12/18/10,
p.A10)
2006 May 11, The Philadelphia
City Council unanimously approved a plan to blanket the city's 135
square miles with a high-speed wireless Internet connection, a
measure the mayor is expected to sign soon.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 11, In SF 2 officials
of the defunct Pacific Cement company, including founder Ricardo
Ramirez, were arraigned on felony and grand theft charges for using
inferior concrete on Bay Area projects from 2001-2005. In 2008
Ramirez pleaded guilty to a single environmental count. He was
expected to serve a year of home detention and pay $427,000 in fines
and restitution.
(SFC, 5/12/06, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/9/06, p.A10)(SSFC,
6/1/08, p.A1)
2006 May 11, A priest was
convicted in Toledo, Ohio, of murdering a nun; the Rev. Gerald
Robinson was immediately sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for
the 1980 death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2006 May 11, In Kingston,
Tenn., deputy Bill Jones and a friend were shot and killed as they
served felony warrants alleging aggravated assault. Jones was shot
33 times by two brothers at a rural farmhouse. Leon Houston (47) and
his brother, Rocky Houston (46), were accused of shooting Jones and
Mike Brown. Court records show the brothers had filed at least 15
federal lawsuits since 1991 against federal and state judges, police
officers, clerks, attorneys and companies. Each petition claimed
their civil rights were violated while trying to expose government
fraud. All were dismissed.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 11, Environmentalists
and authorities said about 100 oil-coated penguins have turned up
dead in recent weeks off the coast of Argentina, most in a nature
reserve near the frigid southernmost tip of Patagonia. The source of
the oil was not known.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, Floyd Patterson
(71), former heavyweight champion died in New Paltz, N.Y.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2006 May 11, In Australia the
local assembly of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which
encompasses the national capital Canberra, adopted controversial
legislation in a late night vote providing for civil unions between
same-sex couples, the first such law in Australia.
(AFP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 11, Bangladesh PM
Khaleda Zia reaffirmed her government's determination to crack down
on Islamic militants who have killed at least 28 people in the past
year.
(AFP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In Antwerp,
Belgium, a gunman (18) shot and wounded a woman of Turkish descent,
then he turned his rifle on a black woman from Mali and the
2-year-old white girl in her care, killing both. In 2007 Hans Van
Themsche was sentenced to life in prison for the killings.
(AP, 5/12/06)(AP, 10/11/07)
2006 May 11, Thousands of
Egyptian riot police beat pro-democracy activists in Cairo, chasing
and dragging them through the streets to break up a demonstration in
support of judges who blew the whistle on election fraud.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 11, The EU and Latin
America opened a three-day summit in Vienna with over 60 national
leaders attending, including Venezuela's fiery, often
anti-Washington President Hugo Chavez. Bolivian President Evo
Morales said that foreign oil companies would not be compensated for
oil and gas resources that have been nationalized, and European
Union president Austria called for explanations.
(AFP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, Indian communists
swept to power in two of five state assembly elections. Sonia
Gandhi, the chief of the ruling Congress party, easily won a
parliamentary by-election.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, Iran's president
said he was ready to negotiate with the United States and its allies
over his country's nuclear program but he also suggested that any
threats against Tehran would make the dialogue more difficult.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In Iraq 2 US
soldiers were killed near Batrah when their vehicle was hit by a
roadside bomb. Another soldier died in a similar bombing near Zaybaq
in a separate attack. 4 US Marines drowned when their tank rolled
off a bridge and plunged into a canal, adding that while the
accident occurred in a Sunni insurgent stronghold, it was not the
result of an enemy action. Officials said a reporter, who worked for
a pro-Sunni Iraqi television station, had been gunned down in
Baghdad last week, making him at least the fourth media worker
killed in Iraq this month.
(AFP, 5/11/06)(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 11, In Nepal Matrika
Yadhav and Suresh Ale Magar, 2 top rebel Maoist leaders, walked free
from jail after the new government dropped murder charges against
them, marking the administration's first major release of militants.
(AFP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In Nigeria gunmen
kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in the
southern city of Port Harcourt.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, The UN’s World
Food Program said it has reached agreement with North Korea to
resume food aid to the hunger-stricken country, but the operation
will be smaller than it was before its suspension in December.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In southwestern
Pakistan 5 bombs ripped through a firing range at a police training
school, killing six members of an anti-terrorism unit and wounding
nine.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In Somalia
fighters loyal to secular warlords and Islamic extremists fired
artillery and mortars at each other Mogadishu as hundreds of
families fled violence that has killed at least 122 people over five
days.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, Officials in
Suriname said floods caused by days of rain have killed three people
and left up to 22,000 others homeless along riverbanks of the remote
central lowlands.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, Tamil Tiger rebels
sank two Sri Lankan navy gunboats in sea battles and attacked a
ferry transporting 700 soldiers. The military hit back with air
strikes. At least 50 rebels were killed and 17 Sri Lankan sailors
were missing.
(AFP, 5/11/06)(WSJ, 5/12/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Tony Snow made his
debut as White House press secretary.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2006 May 12, US Federal
authorities said the number of confirmed cases of a rare fungal eye
infection that can cause blindness has climbed to 122, most of them
contact-lens wearers who reported using Bausch & Lomb Inc.'s
newest lens cleaner. In Oct, 2007, Bausch & Lomb was acquired by
private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $3.67 billion. Chief
Executive Ronald Zarrella said the deal would allow the company "to
pursue the growth path we were on ... without a lot of outside
distraction." Over the past year, away from the glare of public
scrutiny, the optical products company quietly settled nearly 600
fungal-infection lawsuits with dozens more individual claims yet to
be resolved. The cost so far: Upward of $250 million.
(AP, 5/12/06)(AP, 6/1/09)
2006 May 12, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger proposed a $131 billion budget.
(SFC, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Kentucky Gov.
Ernie Fletcher said he will complete his first term and seek a
second one despite an indictment on misdemeanor charges that accuse
him of illegally rewarding political supporters with state jobs.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Jonathan Tisch
(52), co-chairman of Loews Corp., announced a donation of $40
million to Tufts Univ., his alma mater.
(WSJ, 5/12/06,
p.W2)(www.tufts.edu/main.php?p=flash)
2006 May 12, Gold surged to
730.65 a troy ounce.
(WSJ, 6/20/06, p.C12)
2006 May 12, Best Buy said it
will pay $180 million for a majority stake in China’s Jiangsu Five
Star Appliance. Co.
(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A6)
2006 May 12, It was announced
that "King Kong" star and Oscar nominee Naomi Watts of Australia has
agreed to serve as special representative for the Joint United
Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS).
(AFP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, In western
Afghanistan militants fired a rocket at a car carrying Unicef
workers killing 2 Afghans and wounding a third.
(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Relations between
Brazil and Bolivia sank to their lowest point in a century, as the
two sparred over Bolivia's nationalization of its energy sector and
threats to seize Bolivian land held by Brazilian farmers.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Gen. Oscar
Naranjo, the head of Colombia's judicial police, said he was shocked
to learn his brother, Juan David Naranjo (29), is suspected of
involvement in a major European drug trafficking ring.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, Gamal Mubarak, the
son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, met secretly with top White
House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney. Gamal is
widely seen as his father's heir-apparent.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 12, In Ethiopia 9
bombs exploded in Addis Ababa, killing 4 people and wounding at
least 26.
(AP, 5/12/06)(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Indonesia dropped
corruption charges against former strongman Suharto, disappointing
those who struggled against his repressive rule and had long hoped
to see him brought to justice.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Eight Iraqis died
in violence, including a soldier and a civilian killed in an armed
confrontation between two Iraqi army units.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, Gunmen attacked
border posts on both sides of the frontier between Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan, killing five people and injuring two.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, In southwestern
Nigeria a ruptured pipeline exploded as villagers rushed to collect
oil gushing from it and a local TV station said up to 200 people
were feared dead. Militants threatened to destroy NLNG, a $13
billion natural gas export plant.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, A Palestinian was
killed in a large Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Vladimiro
Montesinos, Peru's jailed ex-intelligence chief, was sentenced to 10
more years in prison and fined $15.2 million after pleading guilty
to charges of illicit enrichment.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, A small boat sank
during a tropical storm in the central Philippines, killing at least
21 people. Two other people were electrocuted in the storm, while
floods submerged 16 villages.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, Russia's finance
minister said that remaining restrictions on currency movement would
be removed as of July 1, as Russia seeks to make the ruble fully
convertible against a backdrop of oil-driven economic stability.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Local media said
Russian authorities had fired a string of high-ranking security and
law enforcement officials in a shake up described as part of a
Kremlin push to fight graft and cement control of key government
agencies.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, South Korean
prosecutors indicted disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk on
charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal
over faked stem cell research that shook the scientific community.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Spain's Banco
Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) agreed to the French bank BNP
Paribas' purchase of its 14.75-percent stake in Italy's Banca
Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), saying it will reap 567 million euros
(731 million dollars) in capital gains from the sale.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, Former Presidents
George Bush and Bill Clinton helped Tulane University celebrate its
"miracle" commencement, nine months after Hurricane Katrina put
two-thirds of the campus under water and scattered students to more
than 600 schools nationwide.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2006 May 13, The US government
filed a motion to intervene and seek dismissal of a lawsuit by a
civil liberties group against AT&T Inc. over a federal program
to monitor U.S. communications.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In Boston, Mass.,
unbeaten Ricky Hatton of England dethroned World Boxing Association
welterweight champion Luis Collazo, lifting the title with a
12-round unanimous decision in his welterweight debut.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, In Algeria
security forces found 28 bodies, most of them children, in a
secluded cave used as a hideout by an Algerian Islamic militant
group.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, The presidents of
Brazil and Bolivia said they patched things up after days of
accusations and threats.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, One of Brazil's
most notorious gangs staged dozens of attacks on police before dawn,
setting off gunbattles in three cities that killed at least 30
people, officials said. 74 of 140 prison uprisings were reported
across Sao Paulo state. Authorities blamed the violence on the
prison-based gang, First Command of the Capital (PCC), which formed
in the aftermath of the 1992 massacre at Carandiru Penitentiary. It
was later reported that a recording of Congressional talks to
transfer gang leaders to a remote prison had been leaked to the PCC.
(AP, 5/13/06)(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A7)(SFC, 5/23/06,
p.A6)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.39)
2006 May 13, In central China a
shaft collapsed in an iron mine, trapping eight miners 420 feet
underground at the Dalongshan Iron Mine near Anqing City.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, An international
charity said rich countries are not giving enough money to help
fight a humanitarian crisis in Congo, where more than 1,000 people
die daily from violence, hunger and disease.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, More than 11,000
people marched through Paris to protest a bill that would stiffen
rules for immigrants in France and give authorities power to choose
who can enter.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, PM Ferenc
Gyurcsany announced a plan to stabilize Hungary's economy involving
massive public sector layoffs, in an effort to get the country into
the eurozone by 2010.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In southern
Hungary a model airplane crashed into a crowd at an air show killing
two spectators.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In central India 4
special police were killed and five people were injured when
hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed a relief centre sheltering those
fleeing guerrilla violence.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In Indonesia a
summit of 8 large Muslim countries largely skirted a diplomatic
nuclear crisis engulfing its member Iran but agreed that members
should cooperate to develop atomic energy.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In central
Indonesia a landslide at a sand pit killed 11 workers, burying their
bodies beneath tons of mud and debris.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, In the
Indian-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir suspected Islamic
militants hurled a grenade at a Hindu political rally, killing two
people and wounding at least 35.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In southeastern
Iran armed bandits stopped four cars and killed 12 passengers on the
road between the cities of Kerman and Bam.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, Gunmen killed
Ahmed Midhat al-Mahmoud (22), the son of Iraq's top judge, along
with two of his bodyguards and dumped their bodies in Baghdad. Other
attacks outside Baghdad killed five Iraqis and a US soldier. The
bodies of three other Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured
were found in the capital. In Mosul suspected insurgents shot and
killed Idrees Shihatha, a local tribal sheik, as he drove his car.
In another part of Mosul, a drive-by shooting killed four Iraqis and
wounded one.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In Iraq 2 British
soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb as they patrolled in an
armored vehicle near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, The Kenyan
government banned smoking in public places in order to protect
non-smokers from the harmful effects of tobacco.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, Myanmar's ruling
military acknowledged that its army is targeting the Karen ethnic
minority, saying the offensive is necessary to suppress bombings and
other anti-government attacks.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, Nepal's communist
rebel chief put forth a peace plan that seeks the release of
political prisoners, the dissolution of parliament and the
constitution and the restructuring of the national army.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, A fishing trawler
sank off New Zealand's South Island, killing three people on board
and leaving three missing in treacherous seas.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, In Saroki,
Pakistan thousands of people gathered for the funeral of Amir Cheema
(28), a Pakistani student found dead in a German jail while awaiting
trial for an alleged assault over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Cheema was found dead from suicide in his cell at the Moabit prison
in Berlin on May 3.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, Poland’s general
unemployment was running at 18% with youth unemployment at 40%.
(Econ, 5/13/06, Survey p.3)
2006 May 13, Puerto Rican
lawmakers approved the first key pieces of legislation aimed at
resolving a budget crisis that has kept more than 100,000 public
employees out of work since May 1.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, In Somalia Islamic
militia and secular fighters pounded each other with heavy artillery
and mortar fire as the death toll rose to 142 in seven days of
fighting for control of a neighborhood north of the Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, Thousands of
activists held a candlelit vigil urging US troops to withdraw from
South Korea, a week after violent clashes left 210 injured.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, Spanish police and
rescue vessels intercepted six boats carrying over 460 sub-Saharan
illegal migrants off the coast of the Canary Island of Tenerife.
Officials said as many as 1,000 immigrants may have drowned on this
route over just the last 6 months.
(AP, 5/13/06)(Econ, 5/13/06, p.61)
2006 May 13, In Sudan 6 people
were killed when demonstrators opposed to a peace deal the Sudanese
government signed with Darfur rebels clashed with police in the
war-torn region.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, Tamil rebels
threatened to resume war if they are denied access to the sea and
claimed government naval forces killed eight Tamil civilians in an
attack in northern Sri Lanka.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, A bomb exploded
outside a garage in eastern Turkey, killing three children.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, The United Arab
Emirates and South Korea signed a series of accords, including a
memorandum of understanding on stockpiling Emirati oil in South
Korea, on the second day of a visit by the South Korean president.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
named a new bishop for Vietnam, a country that lacks ties with the
Vatican but has the second highest number of Catholics in Southeast
Asia.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 14, Mexican President
Vicente Fox telephoned President Bush to express his concern about
the border between the two nations, a day before Bush's planned Oval
Office speech on immigration.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 14, Maine's governor
declared a state of emergency in the southern most county, and the
governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire also declared states of
emergency as a 3-day deluge turned streets into rivers across
New England, flooding homes up to their door knobs, forcing dozens
of schools to close because the buses couldn't get through, and
threatening dams and communities as rivers rise.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 14, Aras Baskauskas, a
24-year-old yoga instructor from Santa Monica, Calif., won
"Survivor: Panama, Exile Island," the 12th edition of the CBS
reality show.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 14, Lew Anderson
(b.1922), who captivated young baby boomers as the Howdy Doody
Show's final Clarabell the Clown, died in Hawthorne, NY. Anderson
broke the clown's silence in the show's final episode in 1960. With
trembling lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show's
final words: "Goodbye, kids."
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 14, Marsha
Spicer (41) was raped and murdered in Lafayette County,
Missouri. On July 31, 2008, Richard D. Davis (44) was found guilty
of murder in her videotaped sexual torture and slaying. In
June 2008 Davis was convicted in the kidnapping and rape of Michelle
Huff-Ricci (36), whose body was found in June, 2006. On Oct 10 Davis
was sentenced to death.
(http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/2006/05/27/marsha-spicer-murder-51406/)(SFC,
8/1/08, p.A4)(AP, 10/10/08)
2006 May 14, Stanley Kunitz
(b.1905), former US poet laureate (2000), died at his home in
Manhattan.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.B5)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.83)
2006 May 14, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 10 Islamic militants to life imprisonment and three others
to 20 years in jail for their roles in deadly blasts across
Bangladesh last year.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Rene Preval was
sworn in as Haiti's president for the second time in a decade.
Prisoners rioted at Haiti's main prison, with gunfire heard within
its walls and scores of inmates massing on the roof and holding what
appeared to be two dead bodies.
(AP, 5/14/06)(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 14, In Iraq 2 suicide
car bombings killed 14 Iraqis and injured at least six near a main
checkpoint leading to Baghdad's international airport. 5 roadside
bombings in Baghdad killed 12 people with some 55 injured. Six
Shiite shrines were damaged in a series of blasts around the Baqouba
area northeast of the capital. US forces, planes and helicopters
attacked an insurgent haven in Youssifiyah, killing 25 insurgents.
Insurgents shot down a US helicopter south of Baghdad and killed two
soldiers, bringing the weekend death toll of American service
members to seven.
(AP, 5/14/06)(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 14, Israeli troops
raided a village in the West Bank, killing 5 Palestinians, including
a militant Israel blamed for several suicide bombings that have
killed dozens of Israelis.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants stormed a roadside security
post in a tribal region and shot dead an officer.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Exiled former
Pakistan prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif met in
London and agreed to a “charter of democracy” and to join in
opposition to the rule of Pres. Musharraf.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.46)
2006 May 14, Officials said a
searing heatwave in central Pakistan has killed at least 84 people
with temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in
the past week.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, The armed Basque
group ETA stated publicly for the first time since a ceasefire
declaration in March that it still demands self-determination for
the Basque Country.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Syria detained
Michel Kilo (66), a prominent writer and democracy campaigner,
who has long been one of the government's most outspoken critics.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 14, Vietnam’s state
media said the US had clinched a bilateral market access deal with
Vietnam that will help clear the path to its former wartime enemy
joining the World Trade Organization.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 15, Pres. Bush asked
Congress for $1.9 billion to permanently expand the civilian Border
Patrol. He endorsed a guest worker program and a program for
citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Bush also called for the development of a tamper-proof ID card for
workers and pledged to send the National Guard to tighten security
along the US border with Mexico.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/16/06, p.A1)
2006 May 15, The United States
restored full diplomatic ties with Libya, rewarding the longtime
pariah nation for scrapping its weapons of mass destruction
programs.
(Reuters, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, Washington banned
all US arms sales to Venezuela, punishing President Hugo Chavez for
his ties with Cuba and Iran and for what it believes is his inaction
against guerrillas from neighboring Colombia.
(Reuters, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, The Pentagon
disclosed the names, ages and home countries of everyone held at the
isolated Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in southeastern Cuba as a suspect
in the U.S.-led war on terror. None of the most notorious terrorist
suspects was included in the list, raising questions about their
whereabouts.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 15, Valeant
Pharmaceuticals received FDA approval to resume sales of Cesamet
(also called nabilone) a synthetic version of tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the active ingredient of marijuana, which it bought from
Lilly in 2004. Lilly received FDA approval in 1985, but withdrew it
from the market in 1989 for commercial reasons.
(SFC, 5/17/06, p.A3)
2006 May 15, In Brazil prison
riots and attacks on police by a criminal gang extended into a 4th
day, raising the reported death toll to 70.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, China's official
exchange rate broke through the psychologically important 8 yuan per
dollar level, its highest level in more than a decade, in a move
traders said might signal Beijing's willingness to allow its
currency to appreciate faster.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, Ecuador expelled
Occidental Petroleum following a dispute over the sale of
oil-drilling rights by Occidental to Canada’s EnCana Corp. without
government approval. Occidental filed for international arbitration.
(WSJ, 5/16/06, p.A12)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.41)
2006 May 15, A top official
said the EU will support an Iranian nuclear program that cannot be
put to military use and will boost political and economic
cooperation if Tehran accepts international oversight.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, More than 12,000
doctors across Germany went on strike in the biggest walkout in the
sector since a dispute over pay flared two months ago.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, Indonesia’s Mount
Merapi erupted violently, sending searing gas clouds and burning
rocks down its scorched flanks and threatening villagers who refused
to leave because of ancient mystical beliefs.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, In Iran
Mohammadi-Ashtiani was convicted of having an "illicit relationship"
with two men, according to her lawyer and London-based human rights
watchdog Amnesty International. Amnesty said she received 99 lashes
as per her sentence but was subsequently accused of "adultery while
being married" in September 2006 during the trial of a man accused
of murdering her husband. In 2010 her sentence of death by stoning
was temporarily halted.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2006 May 15, The chief judge
formally charged Saddam Hussein with crimes against humanity,
including torture of women and children, murder and the illegal
arrest of 399 people in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s. A
defiant Saddam refused to enter a plea. Iraq's interior ministry
arrested two al-Qaida in Iraq members: Salah Hussein Abdul-Razzaq in
Ramadi and Omar Ahmed Salah in Baghdad. Two US soldiers from 3rd
Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were killed when
their vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Balad. Gunmen killed Nazar
Abdel-Zahra, a manager of a local soccer team, near his home in the
southern city of Basra.
(AP, 5/15/06)(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 15, In Nepal David
Sharp (34), a British engineer, died at about 1,000 feet into
his descent from the summit of Mt. Everest. Dozens of people walked
right past him, unwilling to risk their own ascents.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 15, Northern Ireland's
legislature, shut down for more than three years, sprang back to
life as a first step toward forming a Roman Catholic-Protestant
administration, the elusive goal of the Good Friday peace accord
eight years ago.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, The Palestine
Liberation Organization reopened its Beirut office, closed since the
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 15, Zimbabwe state
media reported that police, carrying out a massive monthlong
roundup, had detained thousands of capital residents, charging many
were responsible for crime in Harare.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, The Pentagon
released the first video images of American Airlines Flight 77
crashing into the military headquarters building and killing 189
people on 9/11.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2006 May 16, The US State
Department apologized to Bangladesh's national carrier, Biman, after
a flight was barred from landing at New York's JFK Airport on May
13. The airline said that it would seek compensation for the
financial losses it suffered due to the FAA decision.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Seven
African-American members of the US Congress were arrested at the
Embassy of Sudan, where they were protesting atrocities in that
country's Darfur region.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 16, The US Postal
Service approved a one-year trial that allows businesses to purchase
custom postage from private companies that contract with the Postal
Service.
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.A1)
2006 May 16, After months of
intense pressure, the director of Los Angeles' J. Paul Getty Museum
agreed to recommend to the museum's board to return ancient
artifacts in its collections that Greece claims were illegally
spirited out of the country.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Richard Hatch, who
had won $1 million in the debut season of "Survivor," was sentenced
in Providence, R.I., to more than four years in prison for failing
to pay taxes on his reality TV prize and other income.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2006 May 16, Joe Paterno and
Bobby Bowden, the winningest coaches in Division I-A football, were
elected to the college football Hall of Fame.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2006 May 16, Militants attacked
a police post and a government office near Afghanistan's rugged
eastern border with Pakistan and a gunbattle killed four people and
wounded seven.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Bolivia's leftist
government outlined its plan to redistribute idle land to poor
peasants, ruling out mass expropriations and proposing instead the
distribution of state-owned property.
(Reuters, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, In Brazil an
unprecedented crime wave, that killed at least 97 people and
terrified the 18 million residents of Sao Paulo, seemed to be waning
as stores reopened and bus service was fully restored. Police struck
back at gangs that rampaged through Sao Paulo, killing 33 suspected
gang members in less than 24 hours and frisking motorists at
roadblocks while reporting only one death of their own.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Colombian-born
Pablo Rayo Montano, one of the world's most hunted drug traffickers
was arrested in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as part of an international
crackdown. He was accused of shipping more than 70 tons of cocaine
to the United States.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 16, Yang Tianshui, a
freelance writer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison amid one of
China's most severe media crackdowns since the 1980s. Yang was
convicted after being accused of posting articles on foreign Web
sites, receiving money from abroad and helping a would-be opposition
party.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, In Colombia
farmers and members of indigenous tribes clashed with police during
protests against a free-trade agreement with the US and the
re-election of President Alvaro Uribe, and protest leaders said an
Indian farmer was killed.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, The UN mission
Congo said Innocent Kaina, one of the founding members of a militia
group in northeastern Congo, has been wounded and captured in
fighting with the Congolese army.
(Reuters, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Scientists warned
that tropical forests, which house El Salvador's famed coffee
plantations and provide habitat for migrating birds, are being
depleted at an alarming rate.
(Reuters, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Fiji's
indigenous-dominated governing party led the Indian-dominated
opposition after a second day of general election vote-counting,
with voters polarized along racial lines.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, France's PM
Dominique de Villepin was in the firing line as parliament debated a
no confidence motion filed by the opposition over the Clearstream
dirty tricks scandal. Jean-Luis Gergorin, a senior executive at
EADS, was later identified as the anonymous informer who tried to
link important politicians to secret bank accounts in Luxembourg.
(AP, 5/16/06)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.63)
2006 May 16, Militants raided a
parking lot in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The
shot dead 5 militiamen working as guards and left behind a car bomb
that killed 18 would-be rescuers. A roadside bomb near Rasheed
airfield killed a US soldier. Suspected insurgents attacked a police
patrol in Kirkuk, killing two policeman. Gunmen in eastern Baghdad
killed police 1st Sgt. Latif Abdullah, who worked in Interior
Ministry intelligence.
(AP, 5/16/06)(SFC, 5/17/06, p.A8)
2006 May 16, In Iraq gunmen
kidnapped UAR diplomat Naji Rashid al-Nuaimi (28) as he left the
home of the United Arab Emirates' cultural affairs attache in
Baghdad's Mansour district. On May 30 it was reported that Al-Nuaimi
was released.
(AP, 5/17/06)(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 16, Irish rock star
Bono began a new African tour in Lesotho where he planned to unveil
a new initiative to fight AIDS in its ailing textile industry.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Italy’s top
sporting body put the national football federation under emergency
rule as prosecutors looked into a match-fixing scandal involving the
Juventus team of Turin in 19 games in the 2004-05 season.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.53)
2006 May 16, Electronics giant
Sony Corp said it will launch the world's first notebook personal
computer equipped with a next-generation Blu-ray optical disk drive
on June 24.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a
Somali-born member of Parliament, said she will resign and leave
Holland after the government said she was improperly granted
citizenship. She became an internationally known opponent of some
violent types of Islam.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, A powerful
magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred deep under the South Pacific near
an uninhabited chain of islands north of New Zealand.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, The Nigerian
Senate rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed
President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for a third term in office in
2007.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants ambushed a convoy of security
forces, setting off a shootout that left at least 7 militants and
one security official dead.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Shooting attacks
in the Gaza Strip left one Hamas member dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Saudi newspapers
reported that King Abdullah has told Saudi editors to stop
publishing pictures of women as they could make young men go astray.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, In Somalia
fighting between Islamic militias and rival secular fighters killed
two people on the outskirts of Mogadishu, despite a weekend
cease-fire ending days of bloodshed in the capital.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, South Korean
prosecutors indicted Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo in an
embezzlement and slush fund scandal. He was later convicted of
embezzling $90 million from his company. In August, 2008, he was
pardoned by Pres. Lee Myung-bak.
(AP, 5/16/06)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.13)
2006 May 16, The UN Security
Council passed a resolution pressing Sudan to cooperate with the
United Nations as it prepares take over peacekeeping in Darfur from
an underfunded African Union force.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Vietnam's PM Phan
Van Khai (70) said he has nominated Deputy PM Nguyen Tan Dung (56)
as his successor.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17, Pres. Bush signed
tax cut legislation that substantially increased taxes on American
working abroad in a provision that Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley
included under Section 911 of the tax code.
(Econ, 6/24/06,
p.78)(www.centerfortaxstudies.com/blog/taxnews/2006/05/18/)
2006 May 17, The FBI began
digging at a Michigan horse farm in search of the remains of former
Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa; the two-week search yielded no
evidence.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2006 May 17, Stocks plunged
after a stronger-than-expected rise in consumer inflation fueled
Wall Street's fear that interest rates will keep climbing. The Dow
Jones industrial average lost 214 points to end the day at 11205.61.
(AP, 5/17/06)(SFC, 5/18/06, p.C1)
2006 May 17, Scientists
reported the sequencing of the last chromosome in the Human Genome
project, which began in 1990. Chromosome 1 is packed with 3,141
genes and linked to 350 illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's disease.
(Reuters, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, The US Food and
Drug Administration said it approved Azilect, also called
rasagiline, for use as an initial single-drug therapy for early
Parkinson's disease. The FDA said Azilect, made by Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries of Israel, also has the potential to cause
involuntary movements, hallucinations and lowered blood pressure.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, US Navy divers
detonated explosives aboard the USS Oriskany, sending the retired
aircraft carrier on a 212-foot plunge to bottom of the Gulf of
Mexico 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., to create the
world's largest intentional reef.
(AP,
5/17/06)(www.irishmansoftware.com/Oriskany.htm)
2006 May 17, Broadway producer
Cy Feuer died at age 95.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2006 May 17-2006 May 18, Some
of the fiercest violence since the Taliban's 2001 ouster erupted
across Afghanistan, with coalition forces engaging in multiple
firefights, two suicide car bombs and a massive rebel assault on a
small village. Up to 105 people were killed. An attack on a police
and government headquarters in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand
province sparked eight hours of clashes with security forces. Mullah
Dadullah, the Taliban’s operational commander, claimed control of 20
districts in southern Afghanistan with 12,000 fighters.
(AP, 5/18/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.22)
2006 May 17, In Australia
widespread evidence of child abuse in Aboriginal communities has
sparked calls for the Australian government to take greater action
to protect children at risk.
(AFP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, In Brazil the body
count grew in Sao Paulo as police, who lost 41 comrades in gang
attacks, killed 22 more suspected criminals. Authorities said little
about the latest deaths, generating criticism from rights groups.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, It was announced
that Paul McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney,
had agreed to separate.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2006 May 17, In Canada 4 people
were reported killed at a mine being decommissioned in the British
Columbia. One of the victims may have gone undiscovered for two
days. Kimberley area media said the victims may have been overcome
by hydrogen sulfide gas, a highly toxic and explosive gas that is
slightly heavier than air and tends to concentrate at the bottom of
poorly ventilated areas.
(Reuters, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, Following a
meeting of the State Council China announced a series of policy
measures to rein in prices. These included levying profits taxes on
real estate.
(WSJ, 5/19/06, p.A6)
2006 May 17, Some 620,000
people were evacuated from southern China as Typhoon Chanchu, the
strongest storm to hit the region at this time of year, churned
towards the coastal province of Guangdong.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, The European
Parliament approved 864.4 billion euro ($1.11 trillion) budget for
2007-2013. The budget would cost EU citizens 26 European cents a day
to run the EU.
(WSJ, 5/18/06, p.A7)
2006 May 17, Fiji's caretaker
PM Laisenia Qarase claimed victory in parliamentary elections and
said he was committed to improving the South Pacific country's
relations between indigenous Fijians and the ethnic Indian minority.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, Medical services
in many parts of India were in chaos for a sixth day as student
doctor protests intensified over a government plan to boost seats
reserved for the poor in top universities.
(AFP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, Indonesia's bird
flu toll jumped to 30 after the World Health Organization (WHO)
confirmed five family members had died of the virus.
(AFP, 5/17/06)(SFC, 5/19/06, p.A3)
2006 May 17, Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a possible European offer for
incentives, including a light-water nuclear reactor, in return for
allaying fears about his country's nuclear program by giving up
uranium enrichment.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, In Iraq 3 roadside
bombs and a drive-by shooting targeted Iraqi forces in Baghdad,
killing one policeman. The bodies of two Iraqi men, handcuffed and
shot in the head, were found in western Baghdad. A US sailor died in
fighting with insurgents in Anbar province. 15 Tae kwon do athletes
were kidnapped in western Anbar province while driving to a training
camp in neighboring Jordan. In 2009 Iraqi commandoes and US forces
arrested a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of the tae kwon do
team.
(AP, 5/17/06)(AP, 5/18/06)(SFC, 9/28/09, p.A2)
2006 May 17, Israel's new
defense minister reopened the main cargo crossing between Israel and
the Gaza Strip, signaling a policy shift aimed at easing some of
Israel's security restrictions on the Palestinians.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, Romano Prodi
became prime minister of Italy, forming the country's 61st postwar
government more than a month after his center-left coalition
narrowly won parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, In Libya
Venezuela's anti-American president was given a warm welcome in
Tripoli by Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Chavez and Gadhafi planned to
discuss "social programs based on oil revenues."
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, Under withering
criticism, the Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk agreed to
rethink her threat to revoke the citizenship of a Somali-born former
lawmaker known for her opposition to fundamentalist Islam.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, A powerful bomb
blew up a gas pipeline in a remote town of southwestern Pakistan,
killing a 7-year-old girl.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, The Palestinians'
defiant Hamas-led government sent a 3000-man force into the streets
of Gaza, disregarding President Mahmoud Abbas' order banning the
creation of the security body and raising the stakes in their
deepening power struggle.
(AP, 5/17/06)(WSJ, 5/18/06, p.A1)
2006 May 17, In southern Russia
Ingushetia's Deputy Interior Minister Dzhabrail Kostoyev, two of his
bodyguards and four civilians were killed when a sedan packed with
explosives blocked a road on the outskirts of the region's main city
of Nazran and blew up. A rebel ambush killed 5 Russian soldiers.
(AP, 5/17/06)(WSJ, 5/18/06, p.A1)
2006 May 17, A secular alliance
that is battling fundamentalist Islamic militias in Somalia charged
that its rivals are bolstered by fighters from the Middle East,
Pakistan and elsewhere, and said it has the bodies to prove it. The
interim government said the US was supporting secular warlords
fighting Islamic groups for control of Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/17/06)(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A11)
2006 May 17, In Sri Lanka a
rebel sniper shot dead a soldier at a de facto front line while two
civilians were killed elsewhere.
(AFP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 17, The UN said armed
militiamen had ignored a peace pact and attacked several
villages this week in Sudan's Darfur region, killing at least 11
people and wounding many others.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, In Turkey
Alparslan Arslan (29), a lawyer, stormed into a meeting at Ankara’s
highest administrative court and opened fire. One pro-secular judge
was killed and 4 wounded. Arslan picked on the judges because they
supported a ban on the Islamic headscarf in public places, schools
and universities.
(AP, 5/17/06)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.49)(WSJ, 3/30/07,
p.A1)
2006 May 18, Visiting one of
the busiest crossing sectors between the US and Mexico, President
Bush said in Yuma, Ariz., that it made sense to put up fencing along
parts of the border but not to block off the entire 2,000 mile
length to keep out illegal immigrants.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2006 May 18, The US State
Department said that 16,000 computers it bought from a US-based
company partially owned by the Chinese government should be used
only for unclassified work after a lawmaker criticized the purchase
as potentially dangerous to national security.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, Prisoners with
makeshift weapons battled guards trying to save a detainee
pretending to commit suicide at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. The coordinated attack left six prisoners injured.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 18, The US proposed
that the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament negotiate a new treaty
banning production of the nuclear material needed to make atomic
bombs.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, A federal grand
jury in LA indicted Milberg Weiss alleging a 20-year conspiracy by
the law firm to funnel kickbacks to plaintiffs in dozens of
securities class-action cases.
(WSJ, 5/19/06, p.A1)
2006 May 18, In Florida Lionel
Tate (19) was sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating
probation by having a gun and robbing a pizza delivery man in 2005.
The teenager had been convicted of murdering a 6-year-old girl in
1999 in what his attorneys initially claimed was a pro wrestling
move.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, Burger King
Holdings began trading on the NYSE at $17. The IPO closed up 2.9% at
$17.50.
(WSJ, 5/19/06, p.C3)
2006 May 18, Andrew Martinez,
the famed Naked Guy at UC Berkeley (1992), died of suicide in a
Santa Clara County Jail. In 2009 Santa Clara County agreed to pay $1
million to settle a wrongful death suit.
(SFC, 5/19/09,
p.B4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Martinez)
2006 May 18, In western
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber rammed into two vehicles carrying
foreigners, killing an American working on a counter-narcotics
project and wounding two other people. A female Canadian soldier,
army Captain Nichola Goddard, was killed in Kandahar.
(AP, 5/18/06)(AFP, 5/19/06)(WSJ, 5/19/06, p.A1)
2006 May 18, In Australia
officials released a 2005 statement in which Australia's national
wheat exporter admitted paying money to Saddam Hussein's regime.
(AFP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, Australian PM John
Howard, during his first official visit to Ottawa, urged Canada to
work with his country on climate change, much to the horror of
environmentalists. Australia did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
(AFP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, More than 600
Toronto police officers swooped down in coordinated pre-dawn raids
across the city, arresting more than 78 people and seizing guns,
drugs and large amounts of cash.
(Reuters, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, A Canadian citizen
and two US navy sailors were handed lengthy prison sentences for
attempting to smuggle methamphetamine into Australia stashed in the
radar dome of a visiting warship.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, A smiling Alberto
Fujimori left jail after almost seven months when Chile's Supreme
Court granted the former Peruvian president bail as he fights
extradition to face corruption and human rights charges.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, China reported a
ban on Ao Mei Ding, a breast-enlarging liquid that was approved for
general use in 2000. Some 300,000 women were injected with the
liquid and some reported so much pain that they had their breasts
removed.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.A17)
2006 May 18, In northern China
an underground flood trapped as 56 miners in a coal mine in the
Xinjing Coal Mine in Shanxi province. 9 mine managers were soon
detained after apparently trying to conceal the scale of the
disaster. The last of the bodies were recovered on June 28.
(AP, 5/21/06)(AP, 5/22/06)(AFP, 6/28/06)
2006 May 18, Typhoon Chanchu
pummeled southern China, killing at least eight people and leaving
27 Vietnamese fishermen missing after their boats sank in Chinese
waters.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, In Cairo, Egypt,
police beat pro-reform protesters in the streets and arrested more
than 300 for the second week in a row as Egyptian courts dealt new
setbacks to activists seeking greater democracy.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, At least 18 people
were killed and a police chief narrowly escaped an assassination
attempt in attacks in Baghdad and Basra. Coalition forces killed
three insurgents and wounded 10 in fighting in and around the
northern city of Mosul. In Karbala gunmen killed a math teacher and
former senior Baath party member as he was leaving his house. In
northern Kirkuk, police reported that two people had been killed in
a drive-by shooting. They also said they found the beheaded body of
woman labor activist affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic party.
Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed when a
roadside bomb struck their vehicle northwest of Baghdad.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, In Indian Kashmir
one person was killed and 22 wounded in two grenade attacks by
suspected Islamic militants at busy markets.
(AFP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, In Kenya hundreds
attended the burial of Robert Wambugu, a black man shot by Thomas
Patrick Gilbert Cholmondeley, one of Kenya's wealthiest landowners.
In 2005 Cholmondeley was charged with murder in the shooting a
Massai game warden investigating reports of illegal wildlife
trading. The charge was dropped for lack of evidence.
(AP, 5/18/06)(AFP, 5/7/09)
2006 May 18, A Karen group said
Myanmar troops, who have driven an estimated 15,000 Karen villagers
from their homes, are throwing more battalions into a widening
offensive against the ethnic minority.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, In Nepal lawmakers
moved to reduce dramatically the powers of the king, calling for him
to be stripped of his legal immunity, authority over the army and
exemption from paying taxes. The proclamation also declared Nepal a
secular state, ending its unique status as the world's last Hindu
kingdom.
(AP, 5/18/06)(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 18, Thousands of
police loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas marched
in a show of force, a day after the Hamas-led government deployed
3,000 heavily armed militants in a daring challenge.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, In South Africa a
one-day national strike organized by the main trade union movement
to protest poverty and unemployment hit production in the mining and
car-manufacturing industries and had a patchy response in other
sectors.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 18, Sri Lanka asked
donor nations to nudge Tamil Tigers to the table. EU officials
agreed in principle to blacklist Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels as a
"terrorist" group, in a move the rebels said would only lead to war
in the country.
(AFP, 5/18/06)(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 18, Swiss astronomers
reported the discovery of a 3-planet system circling the star
HD69830 in the constellation Puppis.
(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A6)
2006 May 19, Sony Corp.’s film
“The Da Vinci Code,” opened. It was directed by Ron Howard and based
on Dan Brown’s best-selling 2003 novel. The weekend global debut
produced $224 million, Hollywood’s 2nd highest behind “Star Wars:
Episode III,” which took in $253 million.
(WSJ, 5/22/06, p.B4)
2006 May 19, The UN panel that
monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty said the
United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and
avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror. The
report by the Committee Against Torture came as the US military
disclosed that prisoners wielding improvised weapons had clashed
with guards trying to save a detainee who was pretending to commit
suicide.
(AP, 5/19/06)(AP, 5/19/07)
2006 May 19, In Detroit 12
people died over the last 2 days from an overdose of a drug called
fentanyl that was considered 80 times more powerful than morphine.
Some fentanyl was being mixed with heroine. Officials reported over
100 confirmed overdose cases from the drug since last fall.
(SSFC, 5/27/06, p.A21)
2006 May 19, The NRA opened its
annual convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wayne LaPierre, executive
VP, signed copies of his new book: “the Global War on Your Guns:
Inside the UN Plan to destroy the Bill of Rights.”
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.28)
2006 May 19, Freddie Garrity
(69), lead singer of the 1960s British pop band Freddie and the
Dreamers, died in Wales.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2006 May 19, Gunbattles in
Helmand province killed at least 6 militants and one Afghan soldier.
A US soldier was killed in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, Roadside bombs and
other attacks killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 26 people, including a US
soldier riding through Baghdad in a minesweeper.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, In Morocco the
prime ministers of Morocco and Pakistan expressed hopes for closer
bilateral ties, especially economically, after inking several
agreements during a visit by Pakistan's Shaukat Aziz.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Nepal's new
government declared a public holiday after parliament passed a
proclamation stripping King Gyanendra of his powers and thousands of
people staged a celebration rally.
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Nigeria sold to a
state-owned Chinese group licenses to explore four oil blocks,
underlining Beijing's increasing drive for energy resources. In
exchange for the drilling rights, China agreed to invest two billion
dollars in northern Nigeria's Kaduna refinery. The Movement for the
Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), rejected the claim and described
the allocation as a "bribe".
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, A gun battle
erupted between the new Hamas security force and rival Fatah forces
in Gaza City, police officials said. Two police officers were
wounded.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Officials said
Russia stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in international
AIDS funding because the World Bank has reclassified it as an upper
middle-income country.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, In South Africa
Noziphu Bhengu (32), a victim of AIDS and quackery, died.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.89)
2006 May 19, In Sudan's Darfur
region dozens were killed in a major attack by government-backed
militias on Shearia town, the latest in a wave of raids since a
peace deal was signed earlier this month.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, In southern Turkey
a truck carrying illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Bangladesh
crashed into a parked transport truck, killing at least 40 people.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Ukraine cultural
figures and celebrities criticized efforts to grant the Russian
language special status, calling it an act of war against the
Ukrainian language. Council officials said their decision is based
on a European charter, which was ratified by the Ukrainian
parliament in 2003, that protects regional and minority languages.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, The Vatican said
it had asked Rev. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the
conservative order Legionaries of Christ (1941), to renounce
celebrating public Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance"
following its investigation into allegations he sexually abused
seminarians.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, In Vietnam 5
people convicted of heroin dealing were executed by firing squad.
About 100 people were executed in Vietnam each year for drug-related
offenses.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, An official said
at least 150 Vietnamese fishermen were missing at sea and another 28
were found dead after getting caught in Typhoon Chanchu.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 20, Federal agents
searched the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson of
Louisiana as part of a bribery investigation.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2006 May 20, In Maryland
Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby, fractured an ankle at the
start of the Preakness; Bernardini won the race. Barbaro was
euthanized Jan 29, 2007, due to medical complications.
(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/29/07)
2006 May 20, New Orleans Voters
re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin, whose blunt style endeared him to some
but outraged others after Hurricane Katrina, giving him four more
years to oversee one of the largest rebuilding projects in U.S.
history.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Barry Bonds tied
Babe Ruth for second place on the career list with his 714th home
run.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2006 May 20, An explosion in
the Darby Mine No. 1 coal mine in Harlan County, eastern Kentucky,
killed five miners while one other miner was able to get out alive.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In southern
Afghanistan one French and 16 Afghan soldiers were killed and about
40 other troops were wounded in two firefights as rebels ambushed
two Afghan army convoys and US forces. At least 9 Taliban militants
were killed in the battle in Sangin district. 2 French special
forces troops were killed in neighboring Kandahar province.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Australian
Aborigines rejected calls for military peacekeepers to protect
indigenous women and children from violence, as a new report
revealed high levels of sexual abuse of young indigenous males.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In Brazil Sao
Paulo's government refused to release the names of 109 people killed
by police during a week of gangland violence, despite increased
pressure from activists who said public confidence in law
enforcement had been shaken.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, China held a
ceremonial pouring of a final slab of cement for its Three Gorges
Dam in Hubei province. The 600-foot dam cost at least $22 billion.
(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A12)
2006 May 20, President Hosni
Mubarak opened the World Economic Forum in a booming Red Sea resort
with a surprisingly tough speech that signaled deepening strains in
the once-ironclad links with Egypt's American allies and
benefactors. PM Ahmed Nazif said the Egyptian government is not in a
hurry to change the country's political system.
(Reuters, 5/20/06)(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Lordi, a Finnish
metal band with monster masks and apocalyptic lyrics, won the
Eurovision contest in Greece.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, India announced a
one billion dollar package to revive its tea industry blighted by
plummeting prices and a downturn in exports.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Iraq's parliament
approved a national unity government, achieving a goal Washington
hopes will reduce violence so U.S. forces can eventually go home.
But as the legislators met, a series of attacks killed at least 27
people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Irish police
removed Afghan hunger-strikers from a Dublin cathedral, where some
40 protesters gathered on May 15 demanding asylum and warning they
would kill themselves if officers came near.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Chanchu, the most
powerful storm to strike the South China Sea this early in the
typhoon season, killed nearly 90 people in Asia over the past week.
It was now weakened to a tropical storm and hovering off southern
Japan. 198 Vietnamese fishermen remained missing.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Lithuanian
police arrested Vidmantas Sungaila (41) for driving his truck down
the center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from Vilnius. Sungaila
(41) registered 7.27 grams per liter of alcohol in his blood
repeatedly on different devices. Medical experts say anything above
3.5 grams per liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most
people. Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the
EU. Last year 760 people died in traffic accidents in this country
of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 20, A bomb blast
seriously wounded Tareq Abu Rajab, the Palestinian intelligence
chief, at his headquarters in what security officials called an
assassination attempt against a key ally of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas. One bodyguard was killed.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In Gaza City an
Israeli missile killed Mohammed Dadouh, the top military commander
of the militant group Islamic Jihad. A 2nd missile killed civilians:
3 generations of the Amen family, a grandmother, mother and son were
killed, and a 4-year-old daughter and uncle were paralyzed. The
Israeli Defense Ministry later decided to pay the Amen family’s
medical expenses as "special humanitarian treatment."
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 May 20, South Korean media
reported that 4 North Koreans had overpowered a security guard and
scaled the wall of a US consulate in China in hopes of gaining
asylum from their impoverished, communist country.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, A man wielding a
box cutter attacked Park Geun-hye (54), the leader of South Korea's
main opposition party, slashing her face during a campaign rally.
Park's mother, Yook Young-soo, was fatally shot in 1974. Five years
later, Park's father was assassinated by the then-chief of the state
intelligence agency.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, US Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales said the government has the legal authority
to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A2)
2006 May 21, In Louisiana a
shooting spree at The Ministry of Jesus Christ church in Baton Rouge
left 4 people dead. Anthony Bell (25) then kidnapped his wife and
killed her. He was charged with murder in the deaths of his wife and
her grandparents, great aunt and a cousin.
(AP, 5/22/06)(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A3)
2006 May 21, In Oregon
demolition crews destroyed the 499-foot cooling tower of the Trojan
Nuclear Power Plant. Demolition of the containment dome was
scheduled in 2008.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A2)
2006 May 21, In SF some 62,000
runners participated in the annual Bay to Breakers race. Gilbert
Okari (27) of Kenya won in 34 minutes and 20 seconds. Among the
women Ukrainian Tetyana Hladyr won in 39:09. Mayor Newsom finished
the 7.46 miles in 59:04.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A1)
2006 May 21, Katherine Dunham
(96), a pioneering dancer, author and civil rights activist, died in
New York.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2006 May 21, Grand Ole Opry
legend Billy Walker (77) died in a traffic accident along an Alabama
interstate highway.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2006 May 21, In Afghanistan a
car bomb exploded on a busy road in Kabul, killing the driver of the
car and two civilians.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Greek Cypriots
voted to elect a new parliament on this divided island, their first
vote since rejecting a UN reunification plan. Voters put their
weight behind parties in President Tassos Papadopoulos' governing
coalition, a result likely to be seen as an endorsement of his
rejection of a UN plan to reunify this war-divided island.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, In Egypt global
business and political leaders focused on dialogue, democracy and
development in the Middle East. 3 major players, Iran, Hamas and
Syria, were absent.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Iraq's new PM
Nouri al-Maliki promised to use "maximum force" if necessary to end
the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence racking his country. A
suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and injured 17 when he blew
himself up in a downtown Baghdad restaurant frequented by police.
The attack came as PM Nouri al-Maliki pledged to soon fill vacancies
in his two key security ministries. Bombs and killings across Iraq
left a total of 30 people dead.
(AP, 5/21/06)(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A6)(AP, 5/21/07)
2006 May 21, The Israeli
Cabinet approved the transfer of $11 million worth of medicine and
health supplies to the Palestinians to help ease the deteriorating
humanitarian conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Officials
said that Israel has approved plans to expand four Jewish
settlements in the West Bank, a practice the United States has
opposed in the past.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Local authorities
said boats carrying more than 400 migrants have been intercepted off
Lampedusa over the past 48 hours, overwhelming the tiny island south
of Sicily.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Islamic militants
dressed as policemen hurled grenades and shot into a rally by the
ruling Congress party in India's portion of Kashmir, killing at
least 7 people and wounding 22 others. Two attackers were killed.
(AFP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Kuwait's ruler
dissolved parliament and called early elections amid a dispute
between the government and lawmakers over electoral reform.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, A Kuwait criminal
court acquitted five former Guantanamo detainees of charges that
they collected money for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Abdullah Salih al-Ajmi (29), released from Guantanamo in 2005, took
part in a suicide bomb attack in Mosul in April, 2008.
(AP, 5/21/06)(SFC, 5/8/08, p.A8)
2006 May 21, In Liberia tens of
thousands of children marched against hunger, adding their voices to
a global event to tackle food shortages that many in the
war-battered west African nation have felt firsthand.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Montenegro voted
by a slim margin to secede from Serbia and form a separate nation,
erasing the last vestiges of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.47)(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 21, In Nigeria rock
star and activist Bono told African finance ministers that the
recent goodwill of wealthy industrialized countries toward Africa
could dissipate unless the continent tackles corruption.
(Reuters, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Pakistan and Iran
officials met again in Islamabad to discuss a proposed 1,735-mile
pipeline that would deliver Iranian gas to Pakistan and India.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, In Sri Lanka 2
soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate Claymore
mine attacks in the northeastern Trincomalee district and the
northern district of Vavuniya. Figures maintained by the
Scandinavian truce monitoring mission showed that 510 people were
killed in Sri Lanka's embattled regions since December. Suspected
rebels attacked the offices of three international aid groups in
what appeared to be their first assault on foreigners. Tamil
separatists denied the charge.
(AFP, 5/21/06)(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 22, The US Supreme
Court ruled unanimously that police without a warrant can enter a
home to break up a fight, overturning 3 Utah court findings.
(WSJ, 5/23/06, p.A1)
2006 May 22, The Department of
Veterans Affairs said personal data, including Social Security
numbers of 26.5 million US veterans, was stolen from a VA employee
after he took the information home without authorization.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2006 May 22, AP reported that
the Wyoming Department of Family Services has funneled tens of
thousands of dollars to a grant program administered by a private
religious corporation that has funded churches, ministries and
religiously oriented anti-abortion centers.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Braxton Bilbrey
(7) of Arizona swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco in 47
minutes.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2006 May 22, The NYSE under
John Thain made a $10.2 billion cash and stock bid for Euronext NV,
a European exchange operator, in an attempt to become the world’s
first transatlantic stock trading center. Euronext had formed
earlier as a combination of the Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels
exchanges. The merged entity began trading April 4, 2007.
(SFC, 5/23/06, p.C3)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.66)(WSJ,
4/5/07, p.C12)
2006 May 22, Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. announced it was withdrawing from the highly competitive South
Korean retail market, agreeing to sell its 16 stores to the
country's top discount chain.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Seagate
Technology, a disk-drive manufacturer, completed its acquisition of
Maxtor Corp. and said it will fire some 6,000 Maxtor employees.
(SFC, 5/23/06, p.C1)
2006 May 22, A US-led coalition
said nighttime airstrike against Taliban rebels in a southern Afghan
village killed up to 80 suspected militants. The local governor said
16 civilians were killed and 16 wounded in Azizi in Kandahar
province.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, In Bangladesh
textile workers demanding better pay and one day off per week went
on a rampage at Savar, an industrial town near Dhaka, setting fire
to two factories and several buses.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, An explosion in an
illegal Chinese coal mine in the village of Siyuangou in Henan
province killed eight miners and left an undetermined number
missing.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 22, Colombia's
Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt said the peace process with
far-right paramilitary gunmen was back on track, following days of
tensions caused by a court ruling that tossed out part of a peace
pact. In Jamundi 10 police officers in a US-trained unit were
ambushed and killed in a ferocious attack by a platoon of 28
soldiers who unleashed a barrage of some 150 bullets and seven
grenades. The attack stunned Colombians and severely embarrassed
President Alvaro Uribe. An 11th man, an informant who led the police
squad to the scene promising they would find a large stash of
cocaine, was also found dead. When investigators removed his ski
mask, they found a bullet hole in his head. In 2008 a judge gave a
54-year prison term to a cashiered army lieutenant colonel who was
convicted of ordering the massacre of the anti-drug police. He also
slapped near-maximum sentences of 52 years on the unit's
second-in-command, and 50 years each on the other 13 soldiers
involved. Senior police believed former Lt. Col. Byron Carvajal and
his troops had been protecting a drug lord.
(AP, 5/22/06)(AP, 6/17/06)(AP, 5/8/08)
2006 May 22, Haiti’s President
Rene Preval said he has nominated former Cabinet member and close
ally Jacques Edouard Alexis as prime minister. UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan appointed Edmond Mulet (b.1951) of Guatemala as his
Special Representative in Haiti and Head of the UN Stabilization
Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Mr. Mulet succeeded Júan Gabriel
Valdés of Chile.
(AP,
5/22/06)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sga1007.doc.htm)
2006 May 22, India’s main
market index, the Sensex, set a record for intra-day volatility.
Share prices had fallen by nearly 20% within 2 weeks. The recent
drop was seen as a correction following a 3-year boom.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.70)
2006 May 22, In Iraq car bombs
and drive-by shootings killed 17 people, including seven police
officers, hours before Iraq's parliament met for its first session
after swearing in a new government.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Fed up with legal
stonewalling and political posturing, Lithuania's government
announced that it would submit a bill on nationalizing Mazeikiu
Nafta, the country's largest corporation and the only oil refinery
in the Baltics. If approved, the unprecedented move would ostensibly
end a slew of legal battles and intense competition surrounding the
enterprise, while at the same time possibly opening a Pandora's box
of litigation against the Lithuanian government.
(http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/15498/)
2006 May 22, A court found the
former chief executive and chief financial officer of Dutch retailer
Royal Ahold NV guilty of fraud, but ruled the pair will not have to
serve prison time.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, AP Television News
opened a full-time office in North Korea, becoming the first Western
news organization to provide regular coverage of that nation.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Hamas militiamen
and Palestinian police traded heavy fire near Gaza City's parliament
building, killing the driver of the Jordanian ambassador and
wounding six people in the worst internal fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Dr. Lee Jong-wook
(61) died following surgery for a blood clot on the brain. He
spearheaded the World Health Organization's successive battles
against SARS and bird flu and was the first South Korean to head a
UN agency.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 23, Pres. Bush met
with Israel’s OM Olmert and urged him to reach out to Abbas as an
alternative to dealing with Hamas.
(WSJ, 5/24/06, p.A1)
2006 May 23, A US federal
agency charged that employees at mortgage giant Fannie Mae
manipulated accounting so that executives could collect millions in
bonuses as senior management deceived investors and stonewalled
regulators. Federal regulators expected a $400 million settlement.
(AP, 5/23/06)(SFC, 5/24/06, p.C1)
2006 May 23, In a recording
posted on the Internet, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin
Laden said neither Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in
the US for the Sept. 11 attacks, nor anyone held at Guantanamo had
anything to do with the al-Qaida operation.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2006 May 23, ABC appointed
Charles Gibson to replace Elizabeth Vargas as anchor of its "World
News Tonight" evening newscast.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2006 May 23, In California the
Hercules City Council voted unanimously to use eminent domain to
prevent Wal-Mart from building a bog box store on a 17-acre lot near
the city’s waterfront on the SF Bay.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.B1)
2006 May 23, Washington Mutual
Inc., the nation's largest savings and loan, notified 1,400 workers
in Washington and Florida that they will lose their jobs as part of
the company's cost-saving strategy.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 23, MIT unveiled its
first working prototype of its $100 laptop designed for the Third
World under an initiative named “One Laptop Per Child.”
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.C3)
2006 May 23, Lloyd Bentsen
(b.1921), former Texas senator, died at his home in Houston. In 1988
Michael Dukakis picked him as his vice-president candidate. In 1993
he became Bill Clinton’s first treasury secretary.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.A2)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.84)
2006 May 23, In Afghanistan
Pres. Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into US airstrikes on a
village that killed at least 16 civilians and asked to meet with the
US commander of forces. A land mine blew up under a vehicle carrying
a team of Afghan health workers, killing a doctor, two nurses and
their driver.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In Bangladesh
angry garment workers set fire to seven textile factories in and
around the capital after news that an employee shot in the back
during recent protests over better pay and working conditions had
died.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Congo arrested a
group of foreign security guards on suspicion of plotting a coup
ahead of national elections. Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba said
there were three Americans, 10 Nigerians and 12 South Africans among
the group of 32 taken into custody. Mbemba said all the men had
received visits from their respective ambassadors.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 23, Fighting between
disgruntled former soldiers and the military left at least two
people dead in East Timor, as Australia and New Zealand offered to
provide troops to the tiny nation to help restore calm.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel met the Shanghai bishop from the Chinese Catholic
church on the final day of a visit in which rights issues took
center stage alongside trade.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Warplanes from
Greece and Turkey collided over the Aegean Sea island of Karpathos
as they shadowed each other. Officials said the Turkish pilot was
rescued unhurt, and a search was launched for the Greek pilot.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Iran’s government
closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its
editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused
members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, A bomb went off in
a motorcycle parked in the courtyard of a Shiite mosque in Baghdad,
killing 11 people and wounding at least nine, the deadliest of the
attacks across Iraq that claimed 40 lives. A US soldier died when
his patrol was attacked by small arms fire and rocket-propelled
grenades south of Balad.
(AP, 5/23/06)(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 23, Ibrahim Hamed
(41), a top Hamas military commander, surrendered in Ramallah after
Israeli troops surrounded his hideout and threatened to demolish it
with him inside. He was linked by Israel to attacks that killed 78
people, including five Americans.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Italy's new deputy
economics minister called the nation's economic situation "a
disaster," saying the deficit in 2006 may exceed 4.5 percent of
gross domestic product.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Ziad Khalaf Raja
al-Karbouly, an Iraqi government contractor, confessed on Jordanian
television to kidnapping and killing on the orders of al-Qaida in
Iraq before he was lured to Jordan and arrested.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Mexico’s Pres. Fox
began a five-day trip to the US in Utah before moving on to
Washington state and California. Immigration was the major focus of
Fox's trip as the US Senate considered legislation to strengthen
border security
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In Mexico 3 men
were shot to death in two different attacks in the border city of
Nuevo Laredo, bringing to at least 115 the number of people slain by
violence this year.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 23, The Dutch
parliament approved new anti-terrorism measures that make it easier
to arrest suspects without strong evidence and hold them longer
without charge.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Pakistani
officials said at least 7 people have died and thousands of others
have fallen sick after drinking contaminated water in Faisalabad, a
city famous for its textile mills. The outbreak of gastroenteritis
began May 14. The last two fatalities happened May 21.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, Serbia's president
said he recognized the results of the independence vote in
Montenegro that will separate the tiny Adriatic republic from its
union with Serbia.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, A high-level UN
delegation arrived in Sudan to press a reluctant government to
accept a large force of U.N. peacekeepers in the strife-torn Darfur
region.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In Thailand PM
Thaksin Shinawatra resumed his duties as challenges to his hold on
power mounted even after a self-imposed leave of absence for seven
weeks.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In northern
Thailand flash floods left thousands of people stranded on rooftops
and trapped inside trains. 9 people were reported killed.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 24, House Republican
and Democratic leaders jointly demanded the FBI return documents
taken in a Capitol Hill raid as part of a bribery investigation of
Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2006 May 24, In Alabama Regions
Financial Corp. and rival AmSouth Bancorp struck a $10 billion deal
to merge.
(WSJ, 5/25/06, p.A1)
2006 May 24, Taylor Hicks was
named the new "American Idol" over runner-up Katharine McPhee.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2006 May 24, The film “An
Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary on global warming, opened. The
Davis Guggenheim film featured Al Gore.
(WSJ, 5/26/06, p.W4)
2006 May 24, Vonage Holdings,
an Internet-based phone company, began trading on the NYSE at $17
per share and closed at $14.85.
(SFC, 5/25/06, p.C1)
2006 May 24, It was reported
that Google will shut down 6 sites on its Orkut service in Brazil in
response pressure from Brazilian law enforcement.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.C3)
2006 May 24, Pogo (48), one of
the oldest gorillas in the world, died at the SF Zoo.
(SFC, 5/25/06, p.B1)
2006 May 24, In Afghanistan
clashes left at least 24 militants and 5 Afghan soldiers dead. 13
insurgents and two police died in a battle in southern Helmand
province's Sangin district.
(WSJ, 5/25/06, p.A1)(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 24, The African Union
accepted a NATO offer to extend its assistance in Sudan's violent
Darfur region, stressing its presence there would remain small.
(Reuters, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika appointed Abdelaziz Belkhadem as the country's
prime minister.
(AFP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, In northern Benin
a tanker truck overturned and then exploded when people with
lanterns began siphoning gasoline. At least 35 people were killed.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 24, In England 10
people were arrested in a sweep targeting support for terrorism
outside Britain. Police served warrants at a number of addresses
before dawn in an operation involving about 500 officers.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, The Bank of Canada
raised its key overnight interest rate by a quarter percentage point
to 4.25 percent, as expected, and signaled that it would not hike
rates further at least for now.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, In Chile Paul
Schaefer (84), the leader of now-dismantled Colonia Dignidad, was
convicted of sexually abusing 25 children and sentenced to 20 years
in jail. The colony was founded by German immigrants in southern
Chile in the early 1960s.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 24, China's government
on raised state-set gasoline and diesel prices by about 10 percent
in response to soaring world oil prices.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 24, Election results
indicated that Dominican President Leonel Fernandez's party won the
recent legislative elections, which should enable him to carry out
economic reforms.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 24, Dubai hosted the
Middle East's first major international art auction.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, The EU, the US,
Japan, China, Russia and others initialed a $12.8 billion agreement
in Belgium to build an experimental fusion project they hope will
lead to a cheaper, safer, cleaner and endless source of energy. The
seven-party consortium, which also includes India and South Korea,
agreed last year to build the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor, or ITER, in Cadarache, in the southern French
region of Provence.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, International
peacekeepers and troops from Australia and New Zealand were headed
to East Timor to help restore order after gunbattles between
disgruntled ex-soldiers and the military killed two people and
wounded nine.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, Stone-throwing
Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilantes on in protest
against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
(Reuters, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, Iraq announced the
arrest in Lebanon of Bashar Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, a
nephew of Saddam Hussein, for crimes allegedly committed after the
fall of Saddam's regime. Drive-by shootings killed 12 people,
including a provincial official in northern Iraq and two of his
bodyguards. Authorities found the corpses of nine people who
apparently had been kidnapped and tortured.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, Thomas Patrick
Gilbert Cholmondeley (38), a descendant of Kenya's first white
settlers, was charged with murder in the shooting of Robert Njoya
Wambugu (37), who was shot in the back and died en route to a
hospital. Cholmondeley’s attorney said the victim unleashed several
dogs on Cholmondeley after the man was caught poaching an
impala. In 2009 Cholmondeley (40) was convicted of
manslaughter and was sentenced to 8 months in prison. He was
released on Oct 23.
(AP, 5/24/06)(AP, 5/14/09)(AP, 10/23/09)
2006 May 24, North Korea
abruptly canceled groundbreaking test runs of trains across its
highly guarded border with South Korea, citing an atmosphere of
confrontation.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, Fierce gunbattles
broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the heart of
the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing two Palestinians and
wounding 30. A Gaza security chief loyal to the Palestinian
president was killed when his car blew up, the second attack on a
top commander in less than a week.
(AP, 5/24/06)(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 24, Philippine
officials said the US States and the Philippines have forged a
security arrangement covering threats such as terrorism, piracy,
natural disasters and outbreaks of disease. The initiative was
launched last year and diplomatic notes for carrying out the
arrangement were exchanged in April.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, Russian
prosecutors said St. Petersburg police have detained eight members
of an extremist group suspected in racist murders, including the
shooting of a Senegalese student outside a nightclub.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, In Sri Lanka 3
security personnel died in a mine blast as a Norwegian peace envoy
arrived to salvage a collapsing ceasefire.
(AFP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, A huge fire
engulfed the cargo section of Istanbul's Ataturk International
Airport, temporarily disrupting air traffic and causing thousands to
flee nearby terminals.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 24, President Hugo
Chavez said that Venezuela will buy Russian jets because of a
dispute over parts for US-made aircraft, launching yet another
verbal assault on Pres. Bush.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, President Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the two politicians most
responsible for beginning a war now highly unpopular with both their
publics, acknowledged sour notes during a news conference at the
White House.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 25, In Texas a jury
found former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling guilty of
fraud and conspiracy in the collapse of the energy giant. Mr. Lay
died on July 25 and in October a judge vacated the conviction;
Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)(AP, 5/26/07)
2006 May 25, A major power
outage stranded thousands of rush-hour commuters between New York
and Washington, stopping trains inside sweltering tunnels and
forcing many passengers to get out and walk.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, In the biggest IPO
of the year, MasterCard Inc. (MA) sold shares for 46% of its equity.
The IPO at $39 closed at $46.
(AP, 5/25/06)(WSJ, 5/26/06, p.C3)(Econ, 5/27/06,
p.72)
2006 May 25, Researchers
confirmed that the human AIDS virus originated in a corner of
Cameroon in wild chimpanzees. The first known human to be infected
with HIV was a man from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo
in 1959.
(SFC, 5/26/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 5/26/06, p.A1)
2006 May 25, PM John Howard
increased Australia’s contingent to Timor-Leste to some 1,300
troops. 500 Malaysians and troops from New Zealand and Portugal were
also deployed.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.15)
2006 May 25, In Belarus the
Justice Ministry said it had asked a court to close down one of the
country's leading human rights groups, the Belarusian Helsinki
Committee.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, The British
government unveiled a major overhaul of the state pensions system,
revealing that it will increase the retirement age and link benefits
to earnings to avert a looming funding crisis as people live longer
and have fewer children.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, China angrily
rejected a US Defense Department report that says Beijing is a
potential military threat, insisting that its multibillion-dollar
buildup is defensive.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, In East Timor
fierce gunbattles raged in Dili as international troops started
arriving in the tiny nation to help quell a rebellion by disgruntled
ex-soldiers. Soldiers fired on unarmed police killing 10 and
wounding 27. At least 10 people died in other attacks.
(AP, 5/25/06)(SFC, 5/26/06, p.A15)(Econ, 6/3/06,
p.38)
2006 May 25, About 300
pro-reform judges staged a sit-in outside a downtown Cairo
courthouse to demand the independence of Egypt's judiciary as
thousands of riot police watched.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, India and Japan
pledged to step up military cooperation, as Tokyo tries to move
closer to the South Asian nation which is seeking to modernize its
armed forces.
(AFP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, Gunmen wounded an
Iraqi general in southeast Baghdad and a blast killed three people
in the heart of the capital.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, Desmond Dekker
(b.1941), Jamaican singer, died. He brought the sound of Jamaican
ska music to the world with songs such as "Israelites" (1968).
(AP, 5/26/06)(SFC, 5/27/06, p.B5)
2006 May 25, In Kashmir PM
Manmohan Singh said his country was "committed" to living in harmony
with neighboring rival Pakistan and to resolving the issue of
Kashmir with a lasting peace treaty. As he left militants killed
four people, a man, two women and a child, in an explosion that blew
up a bus carrying Indian tourists.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, A New York judge
cleared the way for bankrupt oil giant Yukos to sell a controlling
stake in Lithuanian oil refinery Mazeikiu Nafta.
(http://tinyurl.com/mrma5)
2006 May 25, Mexican President
Vicente Fox addressed the California legislature. He praised a US
Senate which had just approved sweeping immigration reforms as a
"monumental step forward" in the relationship between his country
and the United States.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 25, A Nicaraguan
appeals court granted former President Arnoldo Aleman an injunction
against extradition, effectively blocking US and Panamanian efforts
to try him on money laundering charges.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, A gunfight between
a Palestinian security force and a Hamas militia killed one police
officer and wounded four others in the latest outbreak of internal
Palestinian fighting.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, Poland welcomed
Pope Benedict XVI with cheers and fluttering yellow and white
Vatican flags as the German-born pontiff started a four-day visit
aimed at honoring predecessor John Paul II and healing wounds from
World War II.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, Russian President
Vladmir Putin and EU leaders met for a summit focused on EU concerns
about Russia's reliability as a key energy supplier.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, In Somalia renewed
fighting between Islamic militias and secular warlords killed at
least 38 people in Mogadishu and sent thousands of frightened
civilians running from their homes.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, South Korea’s
Constitutional Court ruled that a law granting massage licenses only
to the visually impaired was discriminatory against others who
wanted to practice the trade.
(http://tinyurl.com/nreer)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.49)
2006 May 25, Sudan said it
would permit the UN to lay the groundwork for possible deployment of
a peacekeeping force in Darfur, but cautioned that the world body's
role would be smaller than some Security Council members want.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 25, The son in law of
Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian was detained after hours of
questioning about his involvement in an alleged insider trading
scandal which rocked the island.
(AFP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 26, US Air Force
General Michael Hayden won confirmation to be the 20th CIA director
in a 78-15 Senate vote.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2006 May 26, Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed legislation making California the 1st state in
the country to adopt comprehensive controls on fish farming.
(SFC, 5/27/06, p.B2)
2006 May 26, American
International Group Inc. said that one of its units had received
approval from local Chinese regulators to provide group insurance
there, as the world's largest insurer makes a push to boost its
business in the world's most populous nation.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, Researchers
reported that a study involving 1200 marijuana users showed no
increased incidence of 3 cancers that were studied from smoking
marijuana.
(SFC, 5/26/06, p.A2)
2006 May 26, Tiffany Marie
Souers (b.1986), a Junior Civil Engineering major at Clemson
University, was found dead in her apartment at The Reserve in
Central, SC. In 2009 Jerry Buck Inman was sentenced to death for
raping and strangling Souers.
(www.clemsonwiki.com/wiki/Tiffany_Marie_Souers)(SFC, 4/23/09, p.A4)
2006 May 26, Cy Coben, American
song writer, died in California. His songs included “A Good Woman’s
Love” sung by Bill Monroe and other, and “Red Hot Women and Ice Cold
Beer” sing by New Riders of the Purple Sage in 1977.
(SFC, 6/12/06, p.B8)
2006 May 26, A US-led coalition
strike on a militant training facility in Afghanistan's borderlands
with Pakistan killed five suspected extremists. Nearly a dozen
people were killed in fresh clashes between police and Taliban
militants.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 26, In Belarus a
monument to Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky was
unveiled in Minsk, provoking protests from human rights defenders
and opposition politicians.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, Bosnia's war
crimes court sentenced Bosnian Serb former officer Dragoje Paunovic
to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity during the
country's 1992-95 war.
(Reuters, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, News Corp.'s
London-based newspaper The Times announced it will launch a US
edition next month as part of a push to make the paper an
international brand.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, In Bulgaria
lawmakers overwhelmingly approved an agreement allowing US troops to
use Bulgarian military facilities.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, Hundreds of
foreign troops struggled to keep East Timor from tipping into civil
war amid widening violence, including a mob attack that killed six
relatives of a government minister and set his house ablaze.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, The government of
Estonia banned rallies near a statue in Tallinn marking the Red
Army's victory over Nazi Germany, moving to ease recent tensions
between some ethnic Estonians and native Russian speakers.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, Arcelor, Europe’s
biggest steel maker, unveiled a plan to merge with Severstal, a
Russian steelmaker. This was part of an effort to fend off a hostile
bid by India’s Mittal Steel.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.58)
2006 May 26, In Germany a
knife-wielding teenager went on a rampage and attacked pedestrians
as they left a celebration in Berlin, wounding 27 people. The
attacker (17) had mingled with crowds leaving a sound-and-light show
inaugurating Berlin's new central rail station in the heart of the
capital.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 26, In Iraq a powerful
bomb exploded in an outdoor market in a majority Shiite part of east
Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding 30.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, Italy said it will
pull 1,100 of its troops from Iraq in June, giving its first
specific numbers about the planned withdrawal.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, In Naples, Italy,
the body of a man was found in a manhole with a knife in his
abdomen. He was soon identified as Lewis Brooks Miskell (49), a
Canadian diplomat missing since March.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 26, In Lebanon
security officials said a car bomb killed Mahmoud Majzoub (41), a
leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and his brother Nidal (39).
Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation. The Iran-backed militant group had
persisted in attacking Israel while other major factions adhered to
a cease-fire. Islamic Jihad is led by Ramadan Shallah, a Palestinian
from Gaza who now lives in exile in Syria. It considers the 1979
Iranian Revolution to be the beginning of a new era for the Muslim
world and wants to turn all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into
an Islamic state. It rejects compromise with Israel.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, The Hamas-led
government withdrew a controversial 3,000-member private militia
from the streets of Gaza, saying it wanted to reduce friction with
the rival Fatah movement.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, In Russia the only
known militant to survive the Beslan school siege was convicted in
the deaths of 331 people, many of them children, and sentenced to
life in prison.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, Yukos sold its
53.7% stake in Mazeikiai to the Polish PKN Orlen oil refining
company for US$1.49 billion. Orlen signed the agreement in Amsterdam
with the Yukos company’s Netherlands-registered subsidiary, Yukos
International, which had all along held the legal title to that
stake. The Lithuanian government had exercised its right to
authorize this sale-and-purchase three days earlier.
(http://cms2000.isn.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=16079)
2006 May 26, A Moscow court
upheld a ban by city authorities on what would have been the Russian
capital's first gay and lesbian pride parade. Organizers said they
were considering flouting the prohibition. Russian police, militant
Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay
rights march in Moscow, but the homosexuals claimed their
short-lived protest as a "great victory."
(AP, 5/27/06)(Reuters, 5/27/06)
2006 May 26, Las Vegas Sands
Corp., owner of The Venetian in Nevada, won a hotly-contested
license to build Singapore's first casino. The Marina Bay Sands
(MBS) opened in April 2010.
(AP, 5/26/06)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.72)
2006 May 26, In Sudan one
African Union soldier was killed and another critically wounded when
heavily armed men ambushed a patrol not far from their base in West
Darfur.
(Reuters, 5/29/06)
2006 May 26, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez moved to expand his oil-rich country's
influence in Bolivia with a set of accords to secure Venezuela's
role in the impoverished Andean nation's recently nationalized
energy industry.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 27, Simultaneous wine
tastings were held in London and Napa, Ca., to celebrate the 30th
anniversary of a Paris tasting in which California wines won over
French counterparts. In this session Cabernet Sauvignon wines from
California and Bordeaux, aged 30 years or more, were tasted.
California wines won the top 5 spots.
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.F1)
2006 May 27, In southern
California Phuong Le, his wife Ngoc Lam and their son (6) were
killed over an $80,000 debt. An 11-month old daughter was left
unharmed and found 2 days later sitting next to her dead mother. In
2010 Quang Van Quan was sentenced to 3 life terms in prison for
fatally stabbing the 3 family members.
(http://tinyurl.com/256wo4u)(SFC, 12/18/10, p.A6)
2006 May 27, Paul Gleason (67),
film star, died of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked
to asbestos. His over 60 films included in "Trading Places" and "The
Breakfast Club."
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 27, Michael Riffaterre
(b.1924), literary theorist, died in Manhattan. His books included
“Semiotics of Poetry” (1978).
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.B5)
2006 May 27, Seven leading
child advocacy organizations said more than 2 million children under
the age of 15 are living with HIV, almost all in sub-Saharan Africa
where there is no access to treatment and death almost certain.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, It was reported
that Colombia could become a net importer of oil by 2010.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.34)
2006 May 27, Congo released a
group of South Africans, Nigerians and Americans arrested over what
it called a suspected coup plot, saying it did not have time to try
them itself before long-awaited national elections in July. In the
volatile northeast Ituri district a Nepalese peacekeeper was killed
and seven others were feared kidnapped by militiamen during a
military operation. 2 peacekeepers were released on June 27. The
remaining 5 were released July 8.
(Reuters, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 May 27, East Timor's
capital descended into chaos as rival gangs set houses on fire and
attacked each other with machetes and spears, defying international
peacekeepers patrolling in armed vehicles and combat helicopters.
The prime minister said a coup attempt was underway.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, In Ethiopia 3
blasts in the town of Jijiga injured 42 people.
(Reuters, 5/29/06)
2006 May 27, The EU agreed to
give itself another year to sort out the impasse over its troubled
constitution and build confidence in the bloc's plans for further
expansion.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, Romeo Lucas Garcia
(81), former Guatemalan President (1978-1982), died in Venezuela.
His rule was marked by a bloody police raid on the Spanish Embassy.
(AP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 27, In central
Indonesia a 6.3 magnitude earthquake flattened homes and hotels on
Java Island as people slept, killing some 5,800 and injuring
thousands more in the nation's worst disaster since the 2004
tsunami.
(AP, 5/30/06)(SFC, 6/10/06, p.B8)
2006 May 27, A US Marine AH-1
Cobra helicopter crashed in an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq,
and two crew members were missing.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, In Kyrgyzstan
thousands of protesters demonstrated in the capital Bishkek to
demand that the government undertake promised constitutional
reforms.
(AP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 27, A Myanmar
government official said Nobel Peace Prize-winning pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi will remain under house arrest for another
year.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, Shiloh Nouvel
Jolie-Pitt, daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, was born in
Namibia, where the family had traveled for privacy.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2006 May 27, The Hamas-led
government sent its private militia back into the streets of Gaza, a
day after withdrawing the force to help calm an increasingly bloody
standoff with forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, Islamic militiamen and rival secular fighters traded
machine-gun, rocket and mortar fire, killing at least eight and
wounding a dozen as residents fled on foot or in hired minivans.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 27, In South Africa 13
were killed on a highway after a pickup truck slammed into the back
of a minibus taxi which exploded into flames.
(Reuters, 5/28/06)
2006 May 27, Unemployment in
Turkmenistan was estimated at over 70%. It was exacerbated by public
sector layoffs and laws restricting job seekers to their home towns.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.40)
2006 May 28, In SF Barry Bonds
hit his 715th home run passing the Babe Ruth record of 714 and
approaching Hank Aaron’s 755 record.
(SFC, 5/28/06, p.A1)
2006 May 28, Sam Hornish Jr.
won the second-closest Indianapolis 500 ever.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2006 May 28, In SF tens of
thousands jammed the Mission District for the 28th annual Carnaval.
81 official units participated in the “Land of Childhood Dreams”
parade.
(SFC, 5/28/06, p.B1)
2006 May 28, Afghanistan and
Iran pledged to crack down on drugs passing over their shared border
as Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Tehran. Officials also
signed seven agreements dealing with the reconstruction of
Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 28, Bangladesh
increased development spending by 21% to a record 3.8 billion
dollars for the new fiscal year to create more jobs and cut poverty
ahead of general elections.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, The BBC reported
that at least 1,000 troops have "deserted" the armed forces since
the US-led war was launched in Iraq three years ago.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, President Alvaro
Uribe won Colombia's presidential elections with 62% of the vote.
The turnout was 45% of those eligible. Uribe became the first
incumbent to win re-election in Colombia in more than a century,
beating his nearest rival by more than 40 percentage points with
pledges to continue fighting crime and reducing poverty.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.34)
2006 May 28, In East Timor
rival gangs torched homes and battled each other with machetes in
Dili, scattering and regrouping as Australian troops in armored
vehicles rumbled toward the sound of gunfire.
(AP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, In France, the
film “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” directed by Ken Loach, won
the Palme d’Or prize (Golden Palm) at the 59th Cannes Film Festival.
The film told the story of the Irish rebellion in the 1920s.
(SFC, 5/28/06, p.A2)
2006 May 28, Sheik Osama
al-Jadaan, a prominent Sunni Arab tribal leader, was assassinated in
Baghdad. He had provided fighters to help battle al-Qaida in western
Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, Lebanese
guerrillas fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, wounding
an Israeli soldier at a military base. Israel destroyed most of the
military positions of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along its
northern border. Rocket and artillery exchanges killed two
guerrillas in Lebanon and wounded two Israeli soldiers, two Lebanese
civilians and six militants.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 28, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected militants shot dead tribal elder, Malik Takhti
Khan, in a North Waziristan town while he was shopping at a weekly
open-air market.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 28, Pope Benedict XVI
urged some 900,000 Poles at a giant mass to fight growing secularism
by spreading their Christian faith across Europe and the world. He
visited Auschwitz.
(AFP, 5/28/06)(WSJ, 5/30/06, p.A1)
2006 May 28, Sri Lankan police
detained the drivers of 18 vehicles trying to smuggle explosives
across a de facto frontier post into the government-controlled part
of the Jaffna peninsula.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, Turkey’s culture
and tourism minister said two pieces from the treasure of King
Croesus that were returned to Turkey from the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York after a long legal battle have been stolen and
replaced with fakes.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, Pres. Bush in a
Memorial Day message said the US must continue the war on terror in
the names of those who have given their lives in the cause. He also
signed into a law a bill limiting protests at military funerals.
(WSJ, 5/30/06, p.A1)
2006 May 29, The U.S. military
said the number of Guantanamo Bay detainees staging a hunger strike
has grown from three to 75.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, In Washington DC
Jordan's King Abdullah II met with President Bush and urged him to
pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, In Afghanistan 5
Canadian soldiers were hurt and up to six militants killed in a
gunbattle west of Kandahar, while US-led coalition aircraft bombed
Taliban militants meeting in remote Helmand province, reportedly
killing dozens.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, A deadly traffic
accident involving US troops left 5 people dead and sparked the
worst rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban
regime, with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting
"Death to America!" Some 25 people were killed and 107 injured in
the riots. The unrest started after three US Humvee vehicles coming
into the city from the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic
jam, hitting several civilian cars. On July 20 the US military said
it was paying $112,000 in compensation to victims of the traffic
accident involving an American cargo truck.
(AP, 5/29/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.23)(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 May 29, A Belarus court
sentenced Sergei Lyashkevich, an opposition campaign official, to
five months in prison after convicting him of training and paying
people to riot. Lyashkevich had directed opposition candidate
Alexander Milinkevich's campaign office in Shchuchin.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, Burundi's only
hold-out rebel group began talks with the government in an effort to
end the central African country's 12-year civil war.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, In Canada hundreds
of thousands of frustrated commuters were forced to find alternate
ways to work as subway stations across Toronto were shut down and
buses and streetcars halted due to a labor dispute. Toronto transit
workers were ordered back to work, ending a wildcat strike that
stranded some 700,000 commuters and filled the streets of Canada's
biggest city with extra cars, bicycles and pedestrians as commuters
scrambled to get to work.
(AP, 5/29/06)(Reuters, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, China and India
pledged to deepen military exchanges during a visit by Indian
Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the latest sign of warming
relations between the neighbors and one-time foes.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, French Agriculture
Minister Dominique Bussereau ruled out changes to the EU's system of
farm subsidies, saying he would prefer that the Doha trade talks
fail instead.
(AFP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD), the US maker of computer chips, said it planned to
invest 2.5 billion dollars (1.96 billion euros) in expanding
capacity at its factory in Dresden, eastern Germany, over the next
three years.
(AFP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, A group of
prominent Indians called for national talks between Maoist rebels
and the government, while also demanding an end to a controversial
anti-rebel campaign in the worst-affected state of Chhattisgarh.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, In Indonesia a
boiling mud flow began from a volcano in Sidoarjo, east Java. By
2007 it covered 1.6 square miles destroying 4 villages and 25
factories and forced 16,000 people to leave their homes. The mud
flow was triggered by the drilling operations for gas of Lapindo
Brantas, an energy company whose major shareholder was the
family-owned Bakrie Group. Aburizal Bakrie, head of economics in
Yudhoyono’s cabinet, called it a natural disaster and tried to sell
Lapindo to obscure offshore buyers. The sale was blocked and Bakrie
was moved to the post of coordinating minister of public welfare. In
Feb 2007 engineers began dropping large cement balls into the crater
in an attempt to stem the flow. In 2008 international scientists
said they are almost certain that the mud volcano was caused by
faulty drilling of a gas exploration well.
(WSJ, 2/28/07, p.A1)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)(AP,
6/10/08)
2006 May 29, In Iraq 8 bombs
killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens in the worst wave of
violence to hit Baghdad in days. A car bomb exploded in Baghdad,
killing two British members of a CBS News crew, a US soldier and an
Iraqi interpreter, and seriously injuring CBS correspondent Kimberly
Dozier. The Iraqi government captured Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir
al-Batawi, a key terror suspect who allegedly confessed to hundreds
of beheadings. Samir al-Batawi was arrested by a terrorist combat
unit in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/29/06)(AP, 5/30/07)
2006 May 29, Israel announced
it would fully participate in a NATO naval exercise for the first
time, bolstering defense ties with the Western military alliance in
the face of arch-foe Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, In southwestern
Nigeria a truck hauling iron rods lost control and crashed into
several roadside buses as passengers were boarding, killing at least
30 people.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 29, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants fired at a car carrying
Meherdil Khan Shamankhel, a pro-government tribal elder, killing him
and wounding two other people in the vehicle.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 29, In Serbia an
explosion ripped through a chemical plant near Belgrade, killing at
least four people and injuring three. Police sealed off the Prva
Iskra chemical factory, which produces explosives as well as toxic
hydrofluoric acid, used as a component for household detergents.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels agreed to more talks to shore up the implementation of
a collapsing ceasefire as the EU moved to ban them as a terrorist
group.
(AFP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 30, Treasury Secretary
John Snow resigned, allowing President Bush to nominate Goldman
Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr. (b.1946) as his replacement.
(AP, 5/30/06)(WSJ, 5/31/06, p.A1)
2006 May 30, US Air Force Gen.
Michael Hayden was sworn in as CIA director.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2006 May 30, John Allen
Muhammad was convicted of 6 Maryland sniper killings. He was already
condemned to death in Virginia for his 2002 murder spree. On June 1
he was sentenced to 6 consecutive life terms without parole.
(WSJ, 5/31/06, p.A1)(SFC, 6/2/06, p.A5)
2006 May 30, The FBI said it
had found no trace of Jimmy Hoffa after digging up a suburban
Detroit horse farm.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2006 May 30, The Pentagon said
that the Sunni Arab heart of the Iraqi insurgency seems likely to
hold its strength the rest of the year, and some of its leaders are
now collaborating with al-Qaida terrorists.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, Actor Robert
Sterling (88), who appeared in the ghostly 1950s comedy series
"Topper," died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2006 May 30, Afghanistan's
parliament approved a nonbinding motion calling on the government to
prosecute the US soldiers responsible for a deadly road crash that
sparked the worst riots in Kabul in years.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 30, A missionary group
said more than one-quarter of Brazil's isolated Indian tribes face
extinction unless the government defines their boundaries and gives
them control of their land.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, In Bulgaria more
than 10,000 people protested in the streets of Sofia to demand
changes in the government's economic and social policy, which they
blame for the country's rising cost of living.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, A nationwide
protest by Chilean high school students demanding school reforms
turned violent as police struggling to contain hundreds of raucous
marchers opened fire with tear gas and water cannons. Some 600,000
pupils, backed by university students, teachers and many parents,
walked out of classes.
(AP, 5/30/06)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.35)
2006 May 30, In East Timor
machete-wielding mobs torched homes and ransacked buildings in Dili
as desperate residents scuffled over scarce food and the president
said he was taking over "sole responsibility" for the country's
national security.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, In Gambia Lamin
Cham, who works for the BBC's Africa service, was taken into custody
by authorities as part of a government crackdown on a US-based Web
site, Freedom Newspaper. Cham was released June 6. Authorities
continued to hold 2 other journalists.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 May 30, India's government
threatened to fire hundreds of government doctors striking to
protest an affirmative action plan for low-caste Hindus and said
replacements would prop up crippled medical services.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, Iran's foreign
minister said that Tehran is ready to restart negotiations with the
European Union on its nuclear program, but he ruled out direct talks
with the US.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, Iraq's prime
minister held meetings aimed at finding new defense and interior
ministers. A bomb hidden in a plastic bag detonated outside a bakery
in east Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 10. Car
bombs targeting Shiite areas devastated a bustling outdoor market
and an auto dealership, part of a relentless onslaught that killed
54 people and prompted the US to deploy more troops to combat
insurgents in western Iraq.
(AP, 5/30/06)(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 30, Israel launched
its first ground military operation inside the Gaza Strip since it
pulled out of the region nearly a year ago, killing three members of
a Palestinian rocket squad and a policeman in a fierce battle.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 30, In South Korea
Daewoo Group founder Kim Woo-Choong (69) was sentenced to 10 years
in prison for fraud and embezzlement relating to the collapse of the
firm under 82 billion dollars of debt in one of the world's largest
corporate failures. Kim Woo-Choong had admitted to accounting fraud
and embezzlement worth over $30 million.
(AFP, 5/30/06)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.9)
2006 May 30, Emirati
authorities said Naji Nuaimi, an Emirati diplomat held hostage in
Iraq since May 16, has been released without ransom.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 31, The US said it
would join in face-to-face talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear
program if Tehran first agreed to put challenged atomic activities
on hold; Iran dismissed the offer as "a propaganda move."
(AP, 5/31/07)
2006 May 31, Florida’s Gov. Jeb
Bush signed the Martin Lee Anderson Act, which replaced boot camps
with education based juvenile detention centers.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.29)
2006 May 31, NBC's "Today" show
threw a going-away party for 15-year host Katie Couric, who left to
become anchor of "The CBS Evening News."
(AP, 5/31/07)
2006 May 31, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban fighters fired a grenade at a police vehicle in
southeastern Zabul province, killing the provincial deputy police
chief and wounding three officers. In Uruzgan province hundreds of
suspected Taliban fighters attacked the town of Chora and briefly
occupied its police headquarters after driving out security forces.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, Smokers were
required to light up outside across much of eastern Canada, as one
of North America's most restrictive bans went into effect.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 May 31, The Canadian
dollar hit its strongest level in 28 years against the dollar,
piercing through a key chart level.
(Reuters, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, China closed 201
Hebei clinics that aborted female fetuses and offered subsidies to
families without sons to curb widespread gender engineering.
(WSJ, 6/1/06, p.A1)
2006 May 31, In Chile police
for a second day used water cannons to scatter demonstrations by
high school students that turned violent when masked protesters
started throwing rocks near downtown Santiago. President Michelle
Bachelet fired the commander of the Santiago riot police, Col.
Osvaldo Jara, in response to the initial clashes.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 May 31, The UN Security
Council cut the number of peacekeepers deployed in Eritrea and
Ethiopia by at least one-third while extending the UN mission's
mandate for another four months.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, In France youths
torched a dozen cars and hurled stones at police in a second night
of violence in the troubled Paris suburbs, raising memories of
rioting that rocked the nation last year.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, Greenpeace said
nuclear waste from a storage facility is seeping into groundwater in
the Champagne region of France and threatening vineyards that
produce the sparkling wine.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, In Indonesia a
local health official said preliminary tests have found that bird
flu has killed another person, as the country struggles to get a
grip on a spike in cases.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, Two Iraqi women
were shot to death north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired on
a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post. Iraqi police
and relatives said one of the women was about to give birth. Ali
Jaafar (25), a sportscaster for state-run al-Iraqiya TV, was gunned
down in a drive-by shooting near his home in southwestern Baghdad. A
parked car packed with explosives hit a police patrol in the
northern city of Mosul, killing at least five policemen and wounding
14. At least 25 Iraqis were killed across the country.
(AP, 5/31/06)(WSJ, 6/1/06, p.A1)
2006 May 31, A Dublin jury
convicted Rev. Daniel Doherty, a Roman Catholic priest, of raping a
13-year-old girl in 1985.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, Kenya approved
legislation that included provisions to punish those found guilty of
child prostitution and sex tourism and trafficking. The new law
aimed at curbing increasing sex abuse drew protest for failing to
criminalize marital rape while penalizing false rape reports.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 May 31, Lithuania's
three-party government collapsed with the withdrawal of the Labor
Party, a key coalition partner being investigated on corruption
allegations. PM Algirdas Brazauskas announced the Baltic country's
government was resigning after an emergency meeting with his
ministers.
(AP, 5/31/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.50)
2006 May 31, Malaysia’s PM
Abdullah Badawi announced a national 5-year plan. An elderly woman
and three children were feared dead following a landslide in Kuala
Lumpur that destroyed 43 homes.
(AFP, 5/31/06)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.50)
2006 May 31, Dutch pedophiles
registered a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for
sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child
pornography and sex with animals, sparking widespread outrage.
(Reuters, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, Palestinian
militants fired homemade rockets at an Israeli town near the Gaza
Strip, and Israeli media reported that one landed near the home of
Israel's defense minister.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, In Somalia Islamic
militias and secular warlords resumed fighting for control of
Mogadishu, killing at least 13 people and wounding 11 after a
five-day lull.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, South Korea's main
opposition party won 11 of 16 key regional posts in local elections,
according to exit polls, riding to victory on nationwide sympathy
for a leader wounded in a knife assault and widespread
disenchantment with the government.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, Taiwan's president
handed over day-to-day control of the island's government to the
premier in the wake of a series of scandals. Pres. Chen Shui-bian
pledged in a written statement night to give authority to Premier Su
Tseng-chang to control Taiwan's Cabinet. Police on May 24 arrested
Chen's son-in-law Chao Chien-min on suspicion he used insider
information to profit on the purchases of shares in partly
state-owned property company Taiwan Development Corp.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, The US and Vietnam
signed a trade pact that removes one of the last major hurdles in
Hanoi's bid to join the World Trade Organization.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May, A series of top
secret US special operations were launched to locate, target, and
kill key individuals in extremist groups. The campaign may have been
the greatest factor in reducing violence in Iraq. This was revealed
in Bob Woodward’s 2008 book “The War Within: A Secret White House
History, 2006-2008.”
(SFC, 9/15/08, p.B11)
2006 May, Joseph Guerriero
began publishing Success magazine in the US. The new Success
targeted entrepreneurs balancing their work and home life.
(www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/direct-mail/36493.html)
2006 May, Ernst & Young
reported that China’s stock of non-performing loans added up to $911
billion, over 5 times the government’s March estimate of $164
billion. The People’s Bank of China called the report ridiculous and
Ernst & Young soon withdrew it.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.78)
2006 May, The tribal council of
the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota voted to ban all abortions
and to temporarily suspend Cecilia Fire Thunder for soliciting
donations for an abortion clinic without council approval.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.31)
2006 May, Austrian financial
institutions and the government stepped in to stem a run on BAWAG,
Austria’s 4th largest bank. Creditors alleged that BAWAG, owned by
the OGB trade union federation, was complicit in the October 2005
bankruptcy of Refco.
(Econ, 5/6/06, p.72)
2006 May, In Colombia brothers
Arley Vallejo Cardona and Yon Garcia Cardona disappeared in
Medellin. On July 31, 2009, a court sentenced 15 Colombian soldiers
to as much as 30 years in prison for the slaying of the two brothers
falsely identified as guerrillas.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2006 May, Manvendra Singh
Gohil, an Indian prince, was disowned by his family after he
publicly announced he was gay. Homosexuality is outlawed in India by
a 145-year-old law.
(Reuters, 7/7/06)
2006 May, Mongolia imposed a
windfall tax on profits from gold and copper extraction when prices
reach specified levels.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.62)
2006 May, In Nigeria 30 men
stormed the headquarters of the National Agency for the Prohibition
of Traffic in Persons in Abuja, destroying filing cabinets and boxes
of documents. The same month, an investigator was murdered.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Jun 1, The US military
said more Guantanamo Bay detainees have joined a hunger strike,
raising the total to 89, and six of them were being force-fed.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 1, A contrite U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility for the flooding of New
Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2006 Jun 1, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger reluctantly reached an agreement with the federal
government to deploy 1,000 members of the California National Guard
along the US-Mexico border.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Jun 1, The Univ. of
California ceded control of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New
Mexico to a consortium, the Los Alamos National Security, which
included, UC, Bechtel, Washington Group Int’l., and BWX
Technologies.
(Econ, 6/17/06,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory)
2006 Jun 1, Texas Gov. Rick
Perry announced a plan to use night-vision Webcams along the border
and let Internet users serve as volunteer sentinels.
(http://tinyurl.com/k7z7a)(WSJ, 6/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 1, The NYSE under John
Thain agreed to acquire Paris-based Euronext NV, Europe’s 2nd
largest stock exchange, for $10 billion.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 1, Katharine Close, a
13-year-old New Jersey girl making her fifth straight appearance at
the Scripps National Spelling Bee, rattled off "ursprache" to claim
the title of America's best speller. For the first time in its
81-year history, the final rounds of the spelling bee were broadcast
live on prime-time network TV.
(AP, 6/2/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.31)
2006 Jun 1, In Indiana 7
Covarrubias family members, the youngest just 5 years old, were shot
to death in their Indianapolis home. The next day police arrested
suspect James Stewart (30) without incident after a traffic stop. A
second suspect, Desmond Turner (28), turned himself in on June 3.
Robbery was the suspected motive.
(AP, 6/2-3/06)(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.A11)
2006 Jun 1, In western
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb blew up near a convoy of Afghan and
US-led coalition troops, killing the attacker but hurting no one
else.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, In Vienna the US
and 5 world powers agreed to offer Iran proposals that would bring
it significant benefits if it halts its drive to master nuclear
power.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 6/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 1, Bolivian doctors
staged a 1-day strike to protest the presence of 600 Cuban
physicians providing free care as Pres. Morales cultivates links to
Castro.
(WSJ, 6/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 1, East Timor
President Xanana Gusmao made an emotional plea for peace after weeks
of violence, as the rebel leader pressed him to oust the unpopular
prime minister.
(AFP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, Jorma Ollila
stepped down as chief of Finland’s Nokia Corp. He was succeeded by
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. The new Nokia Nseries included the N73
camera-phone; the N91 phone, which doubled as an iPod-style music
player; the N92, a mobile TV; and the N93, a mobile video camera.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.64)
2006 Jun 1, The German
parliament overwhelmingly approved the government's plan to deploy
German troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo during its July
election, despite public skepticism about the mission.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, A German court
jailed Sabine Hilschenz (40) for 15 years for killing eight of her
newborn babies in the worst case of infanticide in the country's
criminal history. She had buried them in flower pots and a fish tank
at her parents’ home.
(AFP, 6/1/06)(SFC, 4/8/08, p.A3)
2006 Jun 1, In eastern India a
land mine thought to have been planted by communist rebels blew up a
police jeep, killing 12 officers from a paramilitary police force.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, The Iraqi
government decided to launch its own investigation into reports that
US Marines killed unarmed civilians last year. The top US general in
Iraq ordered American commanders to conduct ethical training on
battlefield conduct. In Iraq a bomb struck a group of construction
workers seeking jobs in central Baghdad, killing at least two and
wounding 18. A mortar barrage struck a number of houses in Baghdad's
southern Dora district. A first barrage of seven mortar rounds
killed nine and wounded 40, while another five rounds killed four
and wounded 29. Gunmen opened fire on Col. Ziyad Tariq,
deputy-commander of the oil protection force in the northern city of
Kirkuk, killing him and a bodyguard and wounding another bodyguard
as they left a restaurant. Police set up roadblocks around the
oil-rich southern city of Basra as a monthlong state of emergency
declared by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went into effect.
(AP, 6/1/06)(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 1, In Indian Kashmir a
3-day siege left 8 Muslim rebels and a paramilitary soldier dead as
troops hunted down armed rebels in ongoing operations.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, Thousands of Shiite
Muslims enraged by a TV comedy that mocked the leader of Hezbollah
took to the streets of southern Beirut, burning car tires and
blocking roads.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, In a published
interview Monaco's Prince Albert II acknowledged he is the father of
a second illegitimate child, a 14-year-old girl living in
California.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, In southern Nigeria
a major oil spill forced Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to cut
production by 50,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, In Pakistan
officials said sewage contamination in Faisalabad's water system has
caused an outbreak of gastroenteritis, sickening more than 19,000
people and killing nine. In southwestern Pakistan police raided a
militant hideout and arrested Habib Ullah, a leader of the outlawed
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni militant group, at a home in Quetta. He was
the alleged mastermind of sectarian attacks that killed more than
100 Shiite Muslims in July, 2003, and March, 2004.
(AP, 6/1/06)(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 1, Several thousand
police officers fired into the air and smashed windows of the
Palestinian parliament building, raising fears of new unrest in Gaza
after the Hamas-led government said it still cannot pay most of its
workers.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, Chung Dong-young,
the leader of South Korea's ruling party, resigned one day after the
conservative opposition won 12 of 16 key regional posts in local
elections.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, Spain's Supreme
Court acquitted the only person convicted of involvement in the
September 11 attacks in a trial last year of suspected Al Qaeda
members. Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, known as Abu Dahdah, had been
convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist murder and sentenced to
27 years in jail. He will, however, continue to serve a 12 year
sentence for leading a terrorist group.
(Reuters, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, In Spain Rocio
Jurado (61), hailed as the country’s greatest singer, died of
cancer. Her recordings included 5 platinum and 30 gold records.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.B9)
2006 Jun 1, The US pledged
"tangible military cooperation" with embattled Sri Lanka, but warned
the government here against a return to war with Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AFP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, Swedish lawmakers
approved a law that makes it possible for the Scandinavian country
to imprison former Liberian President Charles Taylor if a UN-backed
tribunal convicts him of war crimes.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 1, In western Turkey a
methane gas explosion ripped through a coal mine, killing 17 miners
in the village of Odakoy in western Balikesir province.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, The US government
and 5 news organizations agreed to pay $1.65 million to Wen Ho Lee,
a former nuclear scientist, who claimed his privacy was violated by
leaks that portrayed him as a spy.
(SFC, 6/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 2, The board of
Goldman Sachs appointed Lloyd C. Blankfein (51) to replace Henry
Paulson Jr., recently selected to head the US Treasury, as CEO.
(WSJ, 6/3/06, p.B1)
2006 Jun 2, Vince Welnick (55),
Grateful Dead pianist, died in California of apparent suicide. He
had taken over as the Grateful Dead's keyboard player in 1990 after
a succession of predecessors met untimely deaths.
(Reuters, 6/4/06)(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.B6)
2006 Jun 2, Four governments
(Brazil, Chile, France, and Norway), the UN and the world's soccer
federation launched a plan to use the proceeds of a new airline
ticket tax to treat people in the developing world suffering from
AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. Countries that have either approved
or say they expect to approve a new airline ticket tax include
Britain, Cyprus, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg,
Madagascar, Mauritius and Nicaragua.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, In Afghanistan
dozens of troops were dropped from coalition aircraft into a remote,
mountainous district of Uruzgan province and recaptured the area
which had been overrun by Taliban nearly three days earlier. Nearly
35 Taliban rebels were killed in the latest strikes as Afghan and
coalition troops took back a district that had been in rebel hands
for days.
(AFP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 2, British police
raided a house in east London house and arrested two men, shooting
and wounding one of them. Police said the raid was a response to a
specific threat of attack, refused to comment on news reports that
the men were plotting to use a chemical weapon. Mohammed Abdul Kahar
(23), who was injured in the dawn swoop, and Abul Koyair (20) were
freed June 9 after being held for questioning for a week.
(AP, 6/3/06)(AFP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 2, In Toronto, Canada,
17 people were arrested on "terrorism-related" charges including
plotting attacks with fertilizer bombs on Canadian targets. The
adult suspects from Toronto were Chand, alias Abdul Shakur, 25;
Fahim Ahmad, 21; Jahmaal James, 23; and Asin Mohamed Durrani, 19.
Those from Mississauga are Ghany; Shareef Abdelhaleen; Zakaria
Amara, 20; Asad Ansari, 21; Saad Khalid, 19; and Qayyum Abdul Jamal,
43. Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, were from
Kingston. 14 men and 4 youths, dubbed the “Toronto 18,” were
originally charged. In 2009 Saad Khalid pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to 14 years in prison. On Jan 18, 2010, Saad Gaya (22),
one of the "Toronto 18" group, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Zakaria Amara, the acknowledged ringleader, was sentenced to life in
prison. In 2010 a Canadian jury convicted Asad Ansari and Steven
Chand, the final two members of the "Toronto 18" extremist group,
for their role in the bomb plot to blow up Toronto landmarks. On
March 4, 2011, Abdelhaleen was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 6/4/06)(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.A1)(Reuters,
5/7/09)(Reuters, 9/3/09)(Reuters, 1/18/10)(SFC, 1/19/10,
p.A2)(Reuters, 6/23/10)(SFC, 3/5/11, p.A2)
2006 Jun 2, Teck Cominco Ltd.,
a Canadian mining company, agreed to pay millions to assess whether
pollution it dumped into the Columbia River damaged wildlife and
public health in Washington state.
(SFC, 6/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 2, Czechs cast ballots
in a tight parliamentary race that revealed deep divisions over
whether the nation needs bold reforms or the status quo. A forecast
predicted the right wing Civic Democratic party of Mirek Topolanek
would win legislative elections with 38% of the vote.
(AP, 6/2-3/06)
2006 Jun 2, Two Egyptian
security officers were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli
troops after crossing the border into Israel.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, The leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq urged Sunnis to confront Shiites and ignore calls
for reconciliation in a new audiotape posted on the Web, saying
Shiite militias are killing and raping the Sunni Arab minority. 2
bombs struck in quick succession at a pet market in central Baghdad,
killing at least five people and wounding 57. Some 10 minutes later,
an explosion near a Shiite mosque in the eastern Baghdad
neighborhood of Jadida killed two civilians and injured five.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Ireland passed an
emergency bill on under-age sex, and the Supreme Court ordered a man
at the center of the controversy to be reimprisoned for having sex
with a 12-year-old girl.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Israel has begun
laying the foundations for Maskiot, a new Jewish settlement deep in
the West Bank, breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening
its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its
final borders.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, The UN Security
Council added 1,500 peacekeepers to its mission in Ivory Coast in
renewed efforts to restore order in the troubled West African
country.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, A Japanese court
convicted a US sailor of killing a Japanese woman during a Jan 3
robbery near Tokyo and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, The 12th edition of
the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music opened in Fez, Morocco. It
brought together spiritual and religious music from Syria, Iran,
India, Mali, Latin America, Japan, Tibet, Azerbaijan and the
Mediterranean under the theme of "harmonies."
(AFP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 2, In Nepal tens of
thousands of Maoist rebels and supporters thronged the heart of
Kathmandu for their first mass meeting here to be addressed by
senior leaders.
(AFP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Norwegian rig owner
Fred. Olsen Energy ASA said 8 foreign workers on an oil rig
operating off Nigeria were kidnapped overnight. The workers, six
British, one American and one Canadian, were aboard the drilling rig
Bulford Dolphin when it was attacked during the night.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, In northwestern
Pakistan 2 suicide attackers detonated an explosives-laden car amid
a military convoy on a strategic road, killing four soldiers and
wounding seven.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Russian President
Vladimir Putin removed his hawkish chief prosecutor in what analysts
said was a tactical victory for moderates over hardliners in a
Kremlin power struggle.
(Reuters, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Clashes between
Syrian security forces and Islamic militants in an area of Damascus
filled with government buildings left five dead and four wounded.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, In Timor-Leste
lawlessness raged in parts Dili as mobs looted government
warehouses, stealing computers, office chairs and file cabinets.
Foreign troops deployed to restore order were nowhere to be seen.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, The United Nations
General Assembly concluded a conference on AIDS by promising to set
"ambitious national targets," but falling short of setting exact
financial goals for the fight against the disease.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2006 Jun 3, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld, attending a security conference in Singapore,
branded Iran the world's leading terrorist nation yet hoped Tehran
seriously would consider incentives from the West in exchange for
suspending suspect nuclear activities.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2006 Jun 3, The 2006 World
Philatelic Exposition ended in Washington, DC. It is held in the US
every 10 years.
(SFC, 5/30/06, p.A2)
2006 Jun 3, Doctors reported
that a new experimental drug, lapatinib, from British-based
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, delayed the growth of advanced breast cancer in
women who had stopped responding to the drug Herceptin and were out
of treatment options. The company planned to sell the drug under the
name Tykerb.
(AP, 6/3/06)(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.A5)
2006 Jun 3, John Finley Scott
(b.1934), a retired UC Davis sociology professor, went missing from
his home outside Davis, Ca. Much spattered blood was found in his
bedroom and foyer. Scott was also known for inventing the mountain
bike. In January 2007 Yolo County authorities arraigned his
handyman, Charles Cunningham (38). Cunningham was charged with
murdering a witness and five other felonies. In December Cunningham
was sentenced to 31 years in prison.
(www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/scott_john.html)(SFC, 12/5/07, p.B2)
2006 Jun 3, Afghanistan's
government announced plans to replace dozens of police commanders,
including the police chief in Kabul. In southern Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels attacked a police station in Miana Shien,
but police repulsed them after a bloody battle that lasted several
hours. Witnesses said 12 rebels were killed and at least as many
wounded. 4 policemen and 18 Taliban were killed in a battle that
erupted after rebels attacked a police post in Kandahar province.
(AP, 6/3-4/06)
2006 Jun 3, Bolivia’s leftist
President Evo Morales launched a sweeping land reform plan by
handing over roughly 9,600 square miles of state-owned land to poor
Indians. The ceremony came after talks broke down between Morales
and agribusiness leaders on land reforms that involve handing out
77,000 square miles of government land, an area twice the size of
Portugal, over the next five years.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 3, British PM Tony
Blair had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, at which the
two men focused on the importance of inter-faith dialogue, in
particular with "moderate Islam", in achieving peace.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 3, In northeast China
a suicide bomber attacked his former wife's wedding, killing at
least eight other people and injuring five.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 3, In China a military
transport plane carrying 40 crashed in eastern Anhui province. All
40 people aboard were killed. 2 Beijing-backed newspapers later
reported that the plane was a surveillance aircraft carrying nearly
3 dozen electronics experts.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AP, 6/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Jun 3, Gunmen attacked a
car belonging to the Russian Embassy in Baghdad, killing one
diplomat and kidnapping four employees. Gunmen ambushed a police
checkpoint in Baqouba, killing seven policemen and wounding five
pedestrians. A suicide attacker blew up his car bomb at the main
market in the oil-rich southern city of Basra, killing at least 27
people and injuring 67.
(AP, 6/3/06)(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.A4)
2006 Jun 3, Montenegro's
parliament declared independence from Serbia, forming Europe's
newest country and dissolving the last vestiges of the former
Yugoslavia.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 3, The body of Zoran
Vukojevic, a key witness in the trial of the alleged assassins of
Serbia's first democratic prime minister since World War II, was
found outside Belgrade. Vukojevic, a member of so-called Zemun Clan
criminal group accused of plotting PM Zoran Djindjic's 2003 killing,
had testified in 2004 against his fellow gang members. Police also
discovered the body of another Zemun Clan member, Zoran Povic, in
central Belgrade.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 3, In Somalia 5 people
were killed in fighting between Islamic militiamen and their secular
rivals on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 3, Thousands of
Tibetan exiles cast their votes for a de facto prime minister.
Voting for one of two candidates took place at 53 polling stations
set up by the election commission in India, Nepal, North America,
Europe, Australia and Taiwan.
(AFP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 3, The long-awaited
first shipment of Caspian oil from the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)
pipeline got on its way from a Turkish port.
(AFP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 3, President Hugo
Chavez inaugurated a Venezuelan film studio to counter what he
called Hollywood's cultural "dictatorship." Venezuela received
30,000 Russian-made assault rifles, the first shipment in a deal for
100,000 rifles.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 4, The US military
said dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees have abandoned a hunger
strike, lowering the number of inmates refusing food to 18.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, A suicide car bomb
exploded in Kandahar city near a convoy carrying the governor of
Afghanistan's Kandahar province, missing the apparent target but
killing 3 civilians and injuring a dozen. In Farah province 4
policemen were killed. In Zabul province Afghan troops on a joint
mission with soldiers from the US-led coalition killed around five
Taliban fighters and arrested three more. In Helmand province troops
with the US-led coalition and Afghan army clashed with a group of
rebel fighters, five of whom were killed.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AFP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4-2006 Jun 5, In
Afghanistan 17 suspected militants were killed in three operations.
Two coalition soldiers were wounded in one of those battles.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Czech republic
faced weeks of uncertainty or even fresh elections after a deadlock
between center-right and leftist parties in weekend general
elections.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, In East Timor gangs
burned half a dozen buildings near the airport in Dili as residents
pleaded for a permanent police presence in their neighborhoods to
stop the violence.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Nikos Palaiokostas
(46), one of the most wanted men in Greece, pulled off a daring jail
break, landing a helicopter in the Korydallos prison yard to pick up
his brother and another inmate before fleeing in a fog of smoke.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4, In India 9 people
died in lightning strikes as the death toll from the early monsoon
hit 118. Some 25,000 people were displaced by flooding.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Gunmen dragged
passengers off 2 minibuses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21
people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared
four Sunni Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent
weeks. A gunbattle broke out after Iraqi police surrounded a Sunni
Arab mosque in the southern city of Basra, leaving at least 9 people
dead.(AP, 6/4/06)(WSJ, 6/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 4, In Nigeria 8
foreign oil workers, kidnapped on June 2, were released. Police
declined to say whether a ransom was paid and did not say who was
responsible for the hostage-taking.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government rejected a deadline to accept a proposal that
implicitly recognizes Israel, saying President Mahmoud Abbas' plan
for a referendum on the matter is illegal. Members of a new, unarmed
security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed
in Jenin in a move that residents feared could provoke clashes with
rival factions.
(AP, 6/4/06)(Reuters, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Peruvians faced a
choice in runoff presidential elections between former president
Alan Garcia (57), and Ollanta Humala (43), a fiery political
newcomer pledging to punish a corrupt political establishment.
Garcia beat Humala, a nationalist backed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez,
to regain control of the country 16 years after his first
presidential term ended in economic ruin and rebel violence.
Garcia’s American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party held
only 36 of 120 seats in Congress.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)
2006 Jun 4, US Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Vietnam for a visit aimed at
boosting security ties with a former foe that now shares American
wariness about China's rising military might.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 5, More than 50
National Guardsmen from Utah became the first unit to work along the
US-Mexico border as part of President Bush's crackdown on illegal
immigration.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2006 Jun 5, Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke warned of concern on core inflation. His
remarks knocked the DJIA down 199 points to 11,048.72.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.C1)
2006 Jun 5, Activists marked
World Environment Day with the United Nations warning that
desertification was a main obstacle to ending poverty and can
trigger conflicts.
(Reuters, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 5, Brookfield
Properties Corp. said it will acquire Trizec Properties and its
Canadian arm for $4.8 billion. The deal would create one of North
America’s largest landlords.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.C3)
2006 Jun 5, Frederick Franck
(b.1909), Netherlands-born artist, died of congestive heart failure
at his home in Warwick, NY. His art and writings reflected his deep
interest in human spirituality. Franck wrote more than 30 books,
including "The Zen of Seeing - Seeing/Drawing as Meditation" (1973),
and "To Be Human Against All Odds" (1991).
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 5, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban rebels stormed a highway police
checkpost and killed five policemen, abducted four others and stole
weapons.
(AFP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Austria’s Bawag PSK
bank agreed to pay at least $675 million to avoid prosecution and
settle bankruptcy claims for its role in the collapse of Refco Inc,
a US commodities brokerage firm.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.C6)
2006 Jun 5, In Chile protesters
clashed with police in Santiago as students stepped up demands for
reforms to the country's educational system, saying new government
concessions didn't go far enough.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 5, A top official said
China's pollution problems cost the country more than $200 billion a
year and called for better legal protection for grassroots groups so
they can help clean up the environment.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Czech opposition
leader Mirk Topolanek, whose party narrowly won the weekend's
parliamentary elections, said he would seek a governing coalition.
His Civic Democrats allied with the Christian Democrats and Greens
took 100 seats of the lower house.
(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.50)
2006 Jun 5, Iceland's PM
Halldor Asgrimsson (58) announced he was stepping down in the wake
of his party's poor performance in recent local elections.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 5, Gunmen in police
uniforms raided bus stations in central Baghdad, seizing at least 50
people, including drivers and passengers preparing to travel outside
Iraq. At least 2 students were shot dead elsewhere in Baghdad.
Mustafa Mohammed Jubouri was jailed for life by a Baghdad court for
the kidnapping and killing in 2004 of aid activist Margaret Hassan,
a British-born Iraqi citizen. At least 26 people died in Iraq,
including 15 in Baghdad alone. In southern Iraq a bomb exploded near
an Italian patrol killing one Italian soldier and wounding four.
(AP, 6/5/06)(AFP, 6/5/06)(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 5, In Japan investment
manager Yoshiaki Murakami admitted that he had violated insider
trading laws and said he would resign from his fund. He was arrested
later in the day.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Liberia, the first
African country led by a democratically elected woman, began
recruiting women into its new postwar army.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Mexico proposed
creating an environmental reserve (the Rio Bravo del Norte proposal)
about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green
wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas
that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Hamas militants
stormed a Palestinian TV broadcast facility in the southern Gaza
Strip, kicking workers out of the building and destroying equipment
in a shooting rampage. A large explosion ripped through a house in
northern Gaza, killing a member of the Hamas militant group and
wounding two other people, including his 8-year-old son.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Levon
Chakhmakhchyan, a regional lawmaker from Kalmykia, faced expulsion
from Russia's upper house of parliament after federal security
agents allegedly caught him accepting $300,000 in extorted money in
a sting operation.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, Serbian lawmakers
proclaimed their republic a sovereign state after Montenegro decided
to split from a union and dissolve the remnants of what was once
Yugoslavia.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 5, An Islamic militia
said it has seized Somalia's capital after weeks of bloody fighting
and 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation, raising fears
that the nation could fall under the sway of al-Qaida. Some 350
fighters and civilians had been killed over the past month with at
least 2,000 wounded.
(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.44)
2006 Jun 5, In South Africa the
Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE) became a listed company on its own
exchange. The JSE was the 17th largest in the world and the largest
in Africa. It listed only 25 foreign companies.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.72)
2006 Jun 5, Key Syrian
opposition figures urged Syrians to work to oust President Bashar
Assad by using acts of civil disobedience reminiscent to the
upheaval that freed nations behind the Iron Curtain.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 6, US Veterans Affairs
Secretary Jim Nicholson acknowledged a stolen computer contained
personal data on about 2.2 million active-duty military, Guard and
Reserve personnel, not just 50,000 as initially believed.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2006 Jun 6, In South Dakota
Bill Nguyen and his wife, Tina, stepped forward with the winning
ticket for a nearly $117 million Powerball lottery jackpot, beating
1-in-146 million odds.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Ford Foundation
launched an independent, African-led nonprofit that aims to give
Africans greater opportunity to solve the continent's problems
themselves. The Foundation committed $30 million to fund
TrustAfrica, which has been developed over the past five years. It
will now be based in Senegal's capital of Dakar and governed solely
by Africans.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Frank Lanza (74),
founder of US defense contractor L-3 Communications (1997), died in
White Plains, NY.
(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 6, Billy Preston
(b.1946), star rock ‘n’ roll keyboard player, died in Arizona. He
worked with the Beatles (the fifth Beatle) and the Rolling Stones
and wrote the 1974 Joe Cocker hit “You Are So Beautiful.”
(SFC, 6/7/06, p.B11)
2006 Jun 6, In eastern
Afghanistan 3 people were killed when a motorbike being rigged up as
a bomb exploded. A suspected suicide car bomb hit a US-led coalition
convoy, injuring 3 American soldiers. A roadside bomb killed three
Afghan soldiers in Kunar province. 2 American soldiers were killed
by a roadside bomb in eastern Nangarhar province. 5 suspected
militants were killed as Afghan and allied troops raided an area
near the southern town of Tirin Kot.
(AFP, 6/6/06)(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 6, Diplomats in
Austria said the US is prepared to provide Iran with some nuclear
technology if it stops enriching uranium.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Bahrain's
government said it had appointed its first woman judge. She is
believed to be one of the first female judges in the entire Gulf
region. Mona Al Kawari was appointed by order of the tiny Gulf
kingdom's ruler, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Bahrain has a Sunni
Muslim-dominated government, but its Shiite majority has grown
restive during the past few years, mounting frequent anti-government
protests.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, In Brasilia a melee
that erupted when hundreds of landless farmers demanding agrarian
reforms demonstrated at Brazil's Congress injured 20 people.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Britain’s BAA,
owners of Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick airports, accepted an $18.8
billion bid from Spain’s Grupo Ferrovial, led by Rafael del Pino.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.55)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.67)
2006 Jun 6, In Cambodia more
than 1,000 police, many armed and in riot gear, evicted hundreds of
families who had refused to leave a Phnom Penh shantytown, as
authorities moved to end a standoff that has stalled millions of
dollars in commercial development.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Chinese engineers
blew up a temporary barrier used during construction of the Three
Gorges Dam, unleashing the full force of the Yangtze River upon the
world's largest hydroelectric project.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Some 2,000
protesters calling for the ouster of East Timor's PM Mari Alkatiri
cruised around Parliament in a convoy of horn-blaring trucks and
motorcycles, hours after mobs set fire to buildings and looted a
warehouse filled with farm supplies.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, EU finance
ministers slammed the door on Lithuania's plea to adopt the euro
next year, saying the Baltic country has failed to put a lasting lid
on inflation. Lithuania planned to appeal to EU government heads at
a summit next week in Brussels, before a final decision is made in
July.
(http://tinyurl.com/h9r36)
2006 Jun 6, Haiti's president
Rene Preval appointed a coalition government in an effort to unite
the impoverished nation.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Santos Padilla
(40), a leader of a violent kidnapping gang that abducted and killed
the son of a former Honduran president in 1997, was among four
inmates who escaped from a prison outside Tegucigalpa.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Gas prices in India
rose 9.2%. Diesel prices rose 6.6%. The government left prices of
cooking fuels and liquefied petroleum gas unchanged.
(WSJ, 6/5/06, p.A10)
2006 Jun 6, In Iraq PM Nouri
al-Maliki said that 2,500 Iraqi prisoners will be freed from US and
Iraqi-run detention centers as part of reconciliation efforts.
Police found 9 severed heads in fruit boxes in a village northeast
of Baghdad, which followed a similar discovery there 2 days earlier.
A decapitated body was found in Aziziyah. A roadside bomb missed a
US military convoy in central Baghdad but killed a woman and wounded
3 other pedestrians. 3 local council workers were killed in a
drive-by shooting in western Baghdad. 2 mortar rounds slammed into
an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, killing 2 bystanders and wounding 9
others.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas gave the governing Hamas party on three more
days to accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel,
threatening to bring the issue to a national referendum.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Qatar Petroleum and
South Africa’s Sasol unveiled a new plant in Qatar to transform
natural gas into a synthetic fuel similar to diesel by a process
knows as gas-to-liquids (GTL). Sasol was also building a GTL plant
in Nigeria with Chevron Texaco.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.58)
2006 Jun 6, South Korean PM Han
Myung-Sook embarked on a four-nation European tour which will take
her to France, Portugal, Bulgaria and Germany.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Spanish
interior ministry said that 67 suspects had been arrested for
accessing child porn on the Internet over the past five days. The
international police operation arrested 38 in France, 10 in Spain, 9
in Slovakia, 7 in Belgium and 3 in the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, Suspected Tamil
rebels exploded bombs outside a naval base near Sri Lanka's capital,
wounding two people while three others were killed in a similar
attack elsewhere.
(AFP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Vatican issued
a sweeping condemnation of contraception, abortion, in-vitro
fertilization and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional
family has never been so threatened as in today's world.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 7, The International
Monetary Fund urged the Bush administration to set a more ambitious
goal of eliminating the federal budget deficit over the next five
years and said tax increases may be needed to accomplish that
objective.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, US communications
giant Motorola announced it is setting up a $100 million
manufacturing facility in India to make mobile phone handsets and
telecom network equipment.
(AFP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, In Houston, Texas,
Gabriel Granillo (14) was beaten by about a dozen gang members with
baseball bats and tire irons. A teenage girl in the group stabbed
him to death.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 7, In Afghanistan a
suspected suicide bomber also was killed when explosives he was
carrying into the offices of a Turkish construction company exploded
prematurely.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, In Brazil a
shootout between police and drug gangs in a Rio shantytown left 17
children injured, several hit by stray bullets even though their
teacher ordered them to lie down on the floor when the shooting
began.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, Britain’s
University and College Union agreed to accept a 13.1% pay rise over
the next 3 years.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.53)
2006 Jun 7, A Chinese
government report said more than 60% of recent land acquisitions for
construction in China are illegal, with the figure rising to 90% in
some cities. The report demanded investigations.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, State-run media
said storms pummeling southern China over the past week have killed
at least 46 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, In Indonesia a
defiant but demure second issue of the Indonesian edition of US
adult glossy Playboy hit Jakarta's streets, weeks after publishers
halted operations following violent protests by Muslim hardliners.
(AFP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki released nearly 600 detainees, making good on a pledge
intended to ease feuding between Sunni Arabs and Shiites. Violence
was unabated with at least 14 deaths reported. Al-Zarqawi and five
aides, including spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman, were killed
in a remote area 30 miles from Baghdad in the volatile province of
Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba. He was
killed when US warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated
safehouse.
(AP, 6/7-8/06)(WSJ, 6/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 7, Latvia's parliament
approved a bill to publish the names of nearly 4,500 suspected
Soviet secret police informants. The bill went to President Vaira
Vike-Freiberga for approval. Should she veto it, Parliament can
override it with a two-thirds majority vote.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, A Dutch court
convicted Guus Kouwenhoven (64) of violating a UN arms embargo
imposed on the regime of former Liberian President Charles Taylor
and sentenced him to eight years in prison. The court found that he
had traded guns for timber rights and used his lumber company to
smuggle weapons that were later used by militias to commit
atrocities against civilians in West Africa.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, In southern Nigeria
gunmen kidnapped five South Koreans in an overnight raid on a gas
plant owned by Shell. 10 soldiers were killed in the raid.
(AP, 6/7/06)(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 7, Palestine’s
Hamas-led government agreed to withdraw a controversial private
militia from public areas of Gaza in an agreement with the rival
Fatah movement aimed at halting weeks of bloody infighting. A border
clash with Israeli soldiers left 3 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 6/7/06)(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 7, In Somalia Islamist
leaders in control of Mogadishu agreed to talks with the country’s
transitional government. A counter-offensive by rival warlords,
supported by the US, still posed a threat.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A18)
2006 Jun 7, A mine explosion in
northeast Sri Lankan killed 8 civilians and wounded 14. Tamil Tiger
rebels said the attack was carried out by government troops who had
infiltrated an area held by the guerrillas.
(AFP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, Swiss senator Dick
Marty, the head of an investigation into alleged CIA clandestine
prisons, said 14 European nations colluded with US intelligence in a
"spider's web" of secret flights and detention centers that violated
international human rights law. Marty asserted that at least 7
European governments were complicit in the transports.
(AP, 6/7/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.49)
2006 Jun 7, In Syria Mohammad
Ghanem, a journalist who edits a Web site and advocates greater
rights for Kurds in Syria, was sentenced to a year in prison, but
the military court commuted his sentence to six months. Ghanem was
convicted on charges of "insulting the Syrian president,
discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest."
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, Turkey’s central
bank unexpectedly raised its interest rate by 1.75%. This raised its
overnight borrowing rate to 15%.
(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A13)
2006 Jun 7, Residential
property in Kiev, Ukraine, was reported to have risen to $2,600 a
square meter, from around $360 a square meter in mid-2002. Office
property stood 25-30% above the residential cost, making Kiev 2nd
only to Moscow as Eastern Europe’s most expensive market for office
space.
(WSJ, 6/6/06, p.B4)
2006 Jun 8, The US offered a
reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of
Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, a reputed Mexican drug cartel
chieftain, whose group allegedly smuggles tons of cocaine and
marijuana north each year.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 8, The US FDA approved
the vaccine Gardasil, developed by Merck to prevent most cases of
cervical cancer.
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 8, A jury in Memphis,
Tenn., convicted former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon for his role in the
Tennessee Waltz bribery sting. He was convicted on all five counts,
which centered on accepting $9,500 in bribe money to influence
legislation that would have been beneficial to E-Cycle Management
Inc., a fake company the FBI created to orchestrate the Waltz sting.
(http://tinyurl.com/kt8od)(WSJ, 6/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 8, Richard Miller,
writer, died in Monterey, Ca. His 13 books included “Bohemia: The
Protoculture Then and Now” (1977).
(SFC, 6/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jun 8, Afghan troops
killed 13 suspected Taliban rebels including two Pakistani nationals
in an operation in southern Afghanistan. The US military released 33
Afghans from a prison at Bagram Air Base. Violence killed nine
people around Afghanistan, including a regional security director
and two Afghan aid workers.
(AFP, 6/9/06)(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 8, In Azerbaijan the
Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Valdas Adamkus of
Lithuania met in the presence of the two countries’ delegations
following a one-on-one meeting.
(http://tinyurl.com/ffjol)
2006 Jun 8, Sheikha Haya Rashed
Al Khalifa, a pioneering lawyer and women's rights advocate from
Bahrain, was elected UN General Assembly president, the first woman
from the Middle East to take the post.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, A boat carrying
more than 70 people capsized in rough waters off Bangladesh's coast.
Rescuers recovered at least 16 bodies.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, In southern China
the bank of a rain-swollen river collapsed, flooding 11 villages
filled with sleeping people and causing an unknown number of deaths
and injuries.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, Fu Xiancai (47) was
called into the Zigui County Public Security Bureau in Hubei
province and criticized for his television appearance in which he
criticized the government's treatment of people who were forced to
relocate as a result of the Three Gorges dam project. He was
attacked after leaving the police station and was paralyzed after
assailants broke his neck. On July 26 the head of the security
bureau's forensics department and another county official said that
experts concluded the injuries were self-inflicted.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jun 8, The European
Central Bank (ECB) meeting in Madrid raised its key interest rate by
a quarter point to 2.75% amid worries that high oil prices would
spur inflation. Stock markets in Asia tumbled to their lowest levels
in months and European shares also declined amid anxiety that
possible US interest rates hikes will slow global growth.
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.D3)(AP, 6/8/06)(Econ, 6/10/06,
p.75)
2006 Jun 8, It was reported
that pollution in Hong Kong is worse than Los Angeles, the most
polluted city in the United States, and claims around 2,000 lives a
year.
(AFP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, Pres. Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to discuss "mutual concerns" over
his country's nuclear program, but he refused to first suspend
uranium enrichment.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, Iraq's parliament
approved three new key ministers, including a Sunni Arab to head the
defense ministry. Bombs struck a busy outdoor market and a police
patrol in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad. At least five bombs, most
them packed in vehicles, detonated in and around Baghdad, killing at
least 40 people. Gunmen kidnapped Muthanna al-Badri, a senior Iraqi
oil official in Baghdad, as he was returning home from work. In
Ghalbiyah, near where al-Zarqawi was killed, five civilians were
killed and three were wounded in a firefight.
(AP, 6/8/06)(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 8, The Israeli
military struck a PRC training camp in the southern Gaza town of
Rafah. Abu Samhadana (43), Hamas government's top security chief,
was killed when four missiles struck. 3 other militants were also
killed and 10 wounded. Palestinians fired 2 rockets into Israel
hitting a building in Sderot.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 8, In Nigeria
militants released one Nigerian and five South Korean gas workers
after a plea from the jailed militant leader in whose name they were
abducted.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, The Hamas-led
government's 3,000-member private militia showed no signs of
withdrawing from Gaza's streets despite a deal with the rival Fatah
movement to remove it from public areas.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, Breakaway factions
from two rebel groups that rejected last month's peace accord for
Sudan's violence-riven Darfur region signed declarations committing
themselves to the pact. Southern Sudanese leaders said they are
organizing peace talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the
Ugandan government to try to end the brutal war in northern Uganda
that has spilled across the border into their own country.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 9, President Bush said
the elimination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi two days earlier "helps a
lot" with security problems in Iraq but wouldn't bring an end to the
war.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2006 Jun 9, Former Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, bowing to legal and ethical troubles, left the
House of Representatives.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2006 Jun 9, Leonard Herzenberg,
Stanford geneticist and immunologist, was named a winner of the
Kyoto Prize for his work in developing the Fluorescence Activated
Cell Sorter (FACS).
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.B3)
2006 Jun 9, Bosnia's war crimes
court said it would deliver Serb war crimes suspect Dragan Zelenovic
to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague after he was handed over
to Sarajevo by Russia. Zelenovic, a former policeman, was wanted by
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for
atrocities committed against non-Serbs in the eastern Foca region
during the 1992-95 war. In 2007 Zelenovic was convicted of raping
women in Foca and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 6/9/06)(AP, 11/1/07)
2006 Jun 9, In Brazil police
arrested 28 people suspected of operating an illegal logging ring in
the Amazon rain forest and were looking for 46 more. Some 300
officers in five states were involved in the operation to shut down
a gang accused of using phony permits to harvest rare tropical
hardwoods.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, India announced a
218-million-dollar economic package to help Nepal's new government
rebuild the troubled Himalayan country.
(AFP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, In India at least
five people died and six were injured when a bomb exploded in
crowded marketplace in Gauhati, the main city in northeastern Assam
state. Police blamed the blasts on the outlawed United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA) rebel group that has been fighting for an
independent Assamese homeland since 1979.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, A roadside bomb hit
a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing one person
and wounding two, and three oil refinery workers were shot to death
near Tikrit. 8 bullet-riddled bodies were found floating near Kut,
and a firefight west of Baqouba killed five civilians and wounded
three. A roadside bomb near Kirkuk killed a US soldier and wounded
another.
(AP, 6/9/06)(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 9, In Jamaica PM
Portia Simpson Miller and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the
first women to be elected heads of state in Jamaica and Chile, met
in Kingston and said they will remove visa restrictions on travel
between Chile and Jamaica and work toward establishing air links to
improve trade.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, In Kenya police
commissioner Hussein Ali deported Artur Margariyan and Arthur
Sargsian, who claimed to be Armenian brothers, for mercenary
activities including organizing police raids on television and
newspaper offices.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.54)
2006 Jun 9, Palestinians fired
rockets into Israel and vowed to avenge Israel's assassination of
Abu Samhadana, the Hamas government's top security chief. Israeli
artillery fired shells at targets in the northern Gaza Strip. 8
civilians, including 5 children, died and over 30 people were
wounded at a beachside picnic. The Israeli government issued a
statement of egret and launched an investigation. A separate Israeli
strike killed 3 people in the northern Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 6/10/06, p.A3)(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 9, In Russia finance
ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) nations gathered for talks in
St. Petersburg. Russia offered to write off $700 million in
poor-nation debt.
(Reuters, 6/9/06)(WSJ, 6/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 9, In Russia gunmen
shot and killed a police commander, his three young children, driver
and bodyguard in the troubled southern province of Ingushetia.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, Tribal leaders
rejected the possibility of UN peacekeepers replacing African Union
forces in Darfur, with one chief threatening a "holy war" if
non-African troops come to the Sudanese region.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 9, In northern
Tanzania an overloaded bus plunged off a bridge and into a river
gorge, killing at least 54 people.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, Thailand's King
Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927), the world's longest-reigning monarch,
began celebrating his 60th anniversary on the throne. He became the
9th king of the Chakri dynasty, succeeding his older brother,
Ananda, killed by an unexplained shooting on June 9, 1946.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 9, A panel of Zimbabwe
lawmakers reported that prisoners there face acute food shortages
and are going weeks without soap or toilet paper.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 10, In New York Jazil
cruised to victory, holding off Bluegrass Cat in the Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2006 Jun 10, In NYC a
firefighter’s monument was unveiled for the 343 who died in the
Sept. 11 attacks.
(SSFC, 6/11/06, p.A2)
2006 Jun 10, Three Guantanamo
Bay detainees, 2 from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen, hanged
themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, bringing further
condemnation of the isolated camp where hundreds of men have been
held for years without charge. Yasser Talal al-Zahrani (21) of Saudi
Arabia, captured in Pakistan in 2002, was one of the 3 Gitmo
detainees who committed suicide.
(AP, 6/11/06)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.92)
2006 Jun 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the intelligence chief of Kabul,
missing him but killing three others. 2 suspected Taliban rebels
were killed in fighting with Afghan soldiers in Zabul province. In
Kandahar province a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying a district
police chief and government head, missing them but killing two of
their police guards. Gunmen killed four Afghan laborers working for
an Indian road construction company as they were driving in Kandahar
province. They stole $8,000 before killing them. The US-led
coalition said the worst three weeks of violence since the fall of
the Taliban have left more than 500 people dead.
(AP, 6/10/06)(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, Argentina
reaffirmed its claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, known
here as the Malvinas, and said it was ready for talks with Britain
over the issue. Argentina and Britain have disputed the sovereignty
of the remote south Atlantic islands since 1833.
(AFP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, In Brazzaville,
the Congo Republic, ministers from across Africa approved a draft
democracy charter, laying down guidelines on elections and good
governance in the world's poorest continent.
(Reuters, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, In Costa Rica a
Kansas high school student and teacher disappeared in the in the
waters off Palo Seco beach. The bodies of 2 other students were
recovered.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 10, Justine
Henin-Hardenne won the French Open, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4,
6-4.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2006 Jun 10, In India deaths
from the early monsoon storms reached at least 161 and flooding
pushed the number of displaced up to 30,000.
(SFC, 6/10/06, p.B8)
2006 Jun 10, A roadside bomb
targeting a police patrol exploded in an outdoor market in Baghdad,
killing four people and wounding 27. Insurgents signaled the fight
is still on after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet
video showing the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad
members in revenge for killing Sunnis.
(AP, 6/10-11/06)
2006 Jun 10, In Calabria,
Italy, killers shot a farmer who had filed complaints against people
who had put a squeeze on him. Calabria’s ‘ndrangheta, a homebred
Mafia, would often present bullets by post to intended targets.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.71)
2006 Jun 10, In Kashmir one
person died and eight were injured when Indian troops opened fire on
villagers protesting against the alleged desecration of a mosque by
soldiers.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, It was reported
that a recent outbreak of polio in Namibia had killed 7 people and
paralyzed another 33.
(SFC, 6/10/06, p.A6)
2006 Jun 10, Nepal's Parliament
stripped King Gyanendra of his veto power over the legislature, the
latest measure to curtail his authority. Lawmakers also will no
longer need to seek the approval of the king before signing a bill
into law.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, Pakistani security
forces destroyed a militant hideout in a pre-dawn strike near the
Afghan border, killing at least 15 suspected militants.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, The ruling Hamas
group fired a barrage of homemade rockets at Israel, hours after
calling off a truce with Israel in anger over an artillery attack
that killed seven civilians at a beachside picnic in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, In Poland several
thousand people staged an international rally in Warsaw in support
of gays, who complained of prejudice, hostility and violence.
(AFP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, finance ministers from the world's most industrialized
nations (G8) said that global growth remains strong, but pointed at
dangers from high energy prices and widening economic imbalances. US
Treasury Secretary John Snow said the US and Russia had made
progress in talks on Moscow's bid to join the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the two nations could reach a deal before
next month's G-8 summit.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, Tens of thousands
of Spaniards marched in Madrid to demand the government not hold
talks with Basque separatists.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 10, At least five
people were shot dead in Sri Lanka's restive northeast port district
of Trincomalee and the main city of Colombo.
(AFP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, Some 20,000
Taiwanese demonstrated in the capital, demanding the president
resign over allegations some of his relatives engaged in insider
trading.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 11, In the Tony Awards
in NYC the play “The History Boys” won best play and “Jersey Boys”
won as best musical. The award for best actor went to Richard
Griffiths of "The History Boys." Cynthia Nixon won best actress for
her role in “Rabbit Hole.”
(Reuters, 6/11/06)(SFC, 6/12/06, p.E3)
2006 Jun 10, James Cameron
(92), who survived an attempted lynching and went on to found
America's Black Holocaust Museum, died in Milwaukee.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2006 Jun 11, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai said his government will give weapons to local tribesmen to
help fight the surge in Taliban violence. Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed 15 suspected militants, including Mullah
Amanullah, a relative of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in Uruzgan
province. Ten militants were killed in Helmand province's Sangin
district in a battle involving Afghan and British forces.
(AP, 6/12/06)(SFC, 6/12/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 11, In Bangladesh
police fired tear gas at thousands of stone-throwing protesters
demanding the prime minister's resignation in Dhaka, leaving dozens
of people injured.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, A military
transport plane crashed as it tried to land at an unlit airport at
night in Chad's main eastern city, killing five people. Chad rebels
claimed that they shot the C-130 military plane down at Abeche
airport.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 11, Amnesty
International released a report saying China's sales of military
vehicles and weapons to Sudan, Nepal and Myanmar have aggravated
conflicts and abetted violence and repressive rule in those
countries.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, Foreign Minister
Jose Ramos-Horta said the East Timorese government has asked the UN
to form an "independent special inquiry commission" into violence
that has left 21 dead.
(AFP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator said that his country wants "unconditional" nuclear talks
and that a Western incentives package has "weak points."
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, Iraqi and US
officials released some 200 detainees from Abu Ghraib. Al-Maliki has
promised to release 2,500 prisoners by the end of this month. At
least five Iraqis were killed and a British soldier wounded in a
firefight which broke out between Shiite militiamen and British
troops in the southern city of Al-Amara. Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed
"major attacks" after the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a
US airstrike.
(AFP, 6/11/06)(AP, 6/12/06)(AP, 6/11/07)
2006 Jun 11, Jordan arrested
four lawmakers who visited the family of slain terrorist leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi. They were charged with "instigating sectarian
strike" and "fueling national discord" and remained jailed, serving
15-day detention orders.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 11, Palestinian
militants fired about 10 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip,
critically injuring an Israeli and nearly hitting a college in the
southern Israel town of Sderot. In return Israeli aircraft struck a
rocket-launching cell in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two
militants from the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, In the Philippines
a grenade blast wounded eight people in a market in Batangas
province. A nearly simultaneous explosion damaged a mobile police
station in Manila.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, Teams of
veterinarians were sent to destroy domestic poultry in northern
Ukraine after the first appearance of bird flu in the region.
(Reuters, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 11, US troops sent to
the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea to prepare for joint war games
left Ukraine after two weeks of protests organized by pro-Russian
parties prevented them from carrying out their mission.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 12, US officials said
that the Cuban government had cut off electricity to the US
diplomatic mission in Havana on June 5 and that requests for power
to be restored have gone unanswered. Power was restored the next
day.
(AP, 6/13/06)(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 12, The US Supreme
Court paved the way for more death row inmates to challenge
execution by lethal injection. In an unanimous decision, the court
allowed those condemned to die to make last-minute claims that the
chemicals used are too painful, and therefore amount to cruel and
unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's Eighth
Amendment.
(http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015070.html)
2006 Jun 12, FBI statistics
confirmed that violent crime in the US was on the rise, posting its
biggest one-year increase since 1991.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 12, In SF Superior
Court Judge James Warren struck down a voter approved ban on handgun
possession. Proposition H, pass last November, would have outlawed
possession of handguns by all city residents except law enforcement
officers and other who need guns for professional purposes.
(SFC, 6/12/06, p.B1)
2006 Jun 12, Forecasters issued
a hurricane warning for parts of Florida's Gulf Coast as the first
named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season quickly gained
strength in the Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 12, Charla Mack was
slashed to death in Reno, Nevada. Judge Chuck Weller (53) was shot
and wounded the same day by a sniper. Police issued a murder warrant
for Charla’s husband, David Mack (45), the next day and declared him
a suspect in the shooting of Weller. Mack surrendered to Mexican
police on June 23. In 2008 Mack was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 6/16/06, p.B6)(WSJ, 6/24/06, p.A1)(SFC,
2/9/08, p.A4)
2006 Jun 12, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed 12 suspected militants in Kandahar province.
Taliban militants killed Zulmai Khan, a district intelligence chief,
in a drive-by shooting in the Ghazni provincial district of Waghuz.
(AP, 6/12/06)(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 12, Gyorgy Ligeti
(b.1923), Hungarian composer, died in Vienna, Austria. Stanley
Kubrick used his scores in the 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Ligeti’s opera “Le Grand Macabre,” based on a play by Belgian
surrealist Michel Ghelderode, premiered in Stockholm in 1978.
(SFC, 6/12/06, p.B7)
2006 Jun 12, Brunei police said
3 men have been sentenced to a year in prison for sending cell phone
video clips that were considered seditious and insulting to the
royal family.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 12, Ken Thomson (82),
Canadian newspaper tycoon, died. He helped transform his father's
print empire into one of the world's biggest electronic publishers.
(Reuters, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 12, In northern China
a truck carrying the coal tar fell into the Dasha river in Shanxi
province. Cleanup crews scrambled to absorb 60 tons of toxic coal
tar accidentally dumped into a river before it reaches a reservoir
serving a city of 10 million people.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 12, EU foreign
ministers reached agreement with Cyprus on a formula to enable
Turkey to take its first step in detailed accession talks with the
25-nation bloc.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 12, In Guinea students
infuriated by a postponement of exams protested in Conakry, the
capital and in Labe, with some throwing rocks and burning tires. The
Red Cross said six people were killed during the demonstrations.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 12, Hungary’s director
of national epidemic affairs some 1,200 people th