Timeline 2008 April-June
Return to home
2008 Apr 1, A
top US immigration official said Washington has started deportation
proceedings against thousands of Vietnamese living illegally in the
US under a pact between the two countries.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, The US EPA took
over cleanup of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, Ca., after failed
efforts by Greka Oil & Gas to clean up a spill. 2 spills since
last summer had left some 29,000 gallons of crude oil and
toxin-laden water in a creek in Los Olivos.
(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B6)
2008 Apr 1, Virginia’s Gov.
Timothy Kaine ordered a moratorium on executions until the US
Supreme Court decides whether lethal injections are constitutional.
(SFC, 4/3/08, p.A6)
2008 Apr 1, A California state
Senate committee declined to act on a bill by Senator Leland Yee to
declare the Cow Palace in Daly City to be surplus property.
(SFC, 4/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 1, In southwestern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber hit a police compound, killing two
officers and wounding five others in Nimroz province. A mine struck
a civilian vehicle in southwestern Nimroz province, killing the
driver and wounding two civilians.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Argentina’s
President Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally of
20,000 supporters, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to
a 1976 strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, An Australian court
charged a Vietnam Airlines pilot with smuggling millions of dollars
in drug profits out of the country. Quoc Viet Lai (58,) faced 40
counts of money laundering after allegedly taking 3.7 million
dollars (3.4 million US) out of Australia between June 2005 and June
2006.
(AFP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Bangladesh an
official said Tareque Rahman, the son of detained former Bangladesh
premier Khaleda Zia, has been formally charged with corruption as
part of the military-backed government's anti-graft drive.
(AFP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Bolivian officials
said Tristan Jay Amero (26), a California man convicted of hotel
bombings that killed two people in Bolivia's capital, had died in
prison. He was serving a 30-year sentence.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Botswana Seretse
Ian Khama (b.1953), the half-white son of Botswana’s first
president, was sworn in as president. Festus Mogae retired
after 10 years in office.
(www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-01-voa55.cfm?rss=politics)
2008 Apr 1, In Brazil Juan
Carlos Ramirez Abadia, a reputed Colombian drug lord whose cartel is
accused of having shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine, was sentenced
to more than 30 years in prison in Brazil for crimes committed in
that country.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Brazil
protesters burned a bridge after police arrested Paulo Cesar
Quartiero, president of Roraima rice growers association, for
blocking a federal highway. Quartiero was later released on bail. A
second bridge was set alight the next day. Police planned to begin
clearing the remaining non-Indian settlers from the 4.2-million-acre
Raposa Serra do Sol Indian reservation next week.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 1, In France the
stockmarket watchdog Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) filed a
formal complaint against the European Aeronautic Defense and Space
Company, the parent company of Airbus, and more than a dozen current
and former executives. It confirmed evidence of massive insider
trading in shares of EADS in late 2005 and early 2006 in the
knowledge that the A380 airbus program was in deep trouble.
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.80)(http://tinyurl.com/3kd8vh)
2008 Apr 1, Hungary’s coalition
partner pulled out of the government leaving the Socialists without
a parliamentary majority.
(WSJ, 4/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 1, India scrapped
import duties on cooking oils and maize and extended a ban on pulse
exports, escalating its fight against surging inflation driven by
rises in global commodity prices.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki said in a statement that his office will recruit 10,000
more police and army forces and will move to enhance public services
Basra. His comments came after a peace deal between radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government brought a tense calm
following a week of clashes. Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen.
Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said that 200 people had been killed, 600
wounded and 170 suspects detained during operations in Basra.
Britain froze plans to withdraw about 1,500 soldiers from its
4,000-strong military force this spring and hand over more security
responsibility to the Iraqis.
(AP, 4/1/08)(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Kenya police
tear gassed about 100 protesters who demonstrated in Nairobi against
plans to increase the number of Cabinet posts.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, A woman's severed
head was found on a Scottish beach. She was later identified as
Jolanta Bledaite (35) from Alytus, Lithuania. On April 4 police
arrested two Lithuanian men in connection with the murder.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 1, Strong fighting
broke out in northern Sri Lanka as government troops launched a
fresh offensive against Tiger rebels. The heavy fighting left 42
rebels and a soldier dead.
(AP, 4/1/08)(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Switzerland UBS
AG's chairman abruptly resigned as the Swiss bank reported a
first-quarter loss of $12.1 billion and said it would seek $15.1
billion in new capital.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Poor countries at a
UN conference in Thailand said they won't sign a global warming pact
unless industrialized nations guarantee them billions of dollars
needed to adapt to the impact of climate change.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Ukraine
President Bush said he is putting his full weight behind the desire
by Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO even though Russia is opposed
and the alliance is split.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Tanks took to the
streets of southern Yemen cities to discourage rioting by
disaffected youths and retired military officers over unfulfilled
government promises to enlist them in the army.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Zimbabwe an
independent African monitor said top members of President Robert
Mugabe's party worried the government may have lost weekend
elections, even as a tediously slow release of results fueled fears
of rigging. A ruling party projection said opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai will beat President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's crucial
election, but be forced into a runoff vote in three weeks.
(AP, 4/1/08)(Reuters, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 2, Arkansas Gov. Mike
Beebe singed legislation to repeal a botched marriage law, and
reinstated 17 as the minimum age to marry for boys and 16 for girls.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 2, In Arkansas 3 men
were presumed drowned when scaffolding underneath an Arkansas River
bridge collapsed. They were working on a project to install a water
main beneath the bridge for the Central Arkansas Water utility.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 2, Argentine farmers,
rebelling over soaring export taxes on their crops, declared a
30-day truce suspending a three-week-long strike that has stripped
grocery shelves of beef and produce, granting Cristina Fernandez a
reprieve in the first major crisis of her presidency.
(AP, 4/3/08)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 2, Australia began
pumping carbon dioxide underground to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, using a technology that locks dangerous gases deep in the
Earth.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Chad's main rebel
group urged former colonial ruler France to stop backing President
Idriss Deby Itno and cease flying over rebel positions in the
central African nation's restive east.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Diplomats said that
China has given the UN nuclear watchdog intelligence linked to
Tehran's alleged attempts to make nuclear arms.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Cubans snapped up
DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time as
Raul Castro's new government loosened controls on consumer goods and
invited private farmers to plant tobacco, coffee and other crops on
unused state land.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Norberto Collado
Abreu, the helmsman of the Granma yacht that carried Fidel Castro
from Mexico to Cuba to launch his revolution in 1956, died in
Havana.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Newspapers reported
that Egypt has ordered the seizure of the March 25 special edition
of the German news magazine Der Spiegel after it was deemed to be
insulting to Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, France pledged to
send up to 1,000 troops to Afghanistan in a move that will avert a
Canadian threat to pull its contingent out of NATO's war in the
violent south.
(Reuters, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, In northern Iraq, a
suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi checkpoint west of Mosul, killing
seven people, including a woman and a 5-year-old child. A US
airstrike destroyed a house in the southern city of Basra, killing a
militant, the US military said, and Iraqi witnesses and hospital
officials said at least three civilians were among the dead. A
roadside bomb targeting a US convoy exploded near a restaurant in
Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, killing at least 3
Iraqi civilians and wounding 13. 4 US-allied fighters were killed
and 4 others abducted at a fake checkpoint near Duluiyah.
(AP, 4/2/08)(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 2, Irish PM Bertie
Ahern, one of Europe's longest serving leaders, announced that he
will resign next month amid growing pressure over alleged financial
irregularities.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, In Kazakhstan
Zhaksybek Kulekeyev, a former government minister and head of the
state railway company, was formally charged with taking a $100,000
bribe.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.49)
2008 Apr 2, Myanmar democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party urged voters to reject a
military-backed draft constitution, saying it was undemocratic and
drafted under the junta's direct control.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, In New Zealand new
government population figures showed that the Asian population is
growing faster than any other ethnic group and will outnumber
indigenous Maori by 2026.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Russia's foreign
minister said that Moscow will not allow newly independent Kosovo to
become a member of the UN.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Pyotr Kuznetsov,
leader of a Russian doomsday cult, apparently tried to kill himself
after most of his followers abandoned a bunker where they had been
awaiting the end of the world for five months. The last 9 of 35 cult
members emerged on May 16.
(Reuters, 4/4/08)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 2, In Sri Lanka
government troops captured a strip of land from Tamil Tigers. 2
civilians were shot dead by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in the
Wilpattu wildlife park.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Thailand's Health
Ministry ordered hospitals and medical clinics to temporarily stop
performing castrations for non-medical reasons, saying that the
procedure performed on transsexuals needs stricter monitoring.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, In Yemen security
forces killed one demonstrator and wounded four others in the fourth
day of rioting that has engulfed the country's south.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, In Zimbabwe the
main opposition party claimed outright victory for its leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, saying he had won 50.3 percent of the vote compared to
43.8 percent for President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 3, President Bush won
NATO's endorsement for his plan to build a missile defense system in
Europe over Russian objections. The proposal also advanced with
Czech officials announcing an agreement to install a missile
tracking site for the system in their country. NATO decided not to
put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement
Russian opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically
important Black Sea nations will become members one day.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, The whistleblowers
who exposed maintenance and inspection problems at Southwest
Airlines told Congress their jobs were threatened and their reports
of noncompliance were ignored for years by their superiors.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Corn prices jumped
to a record $6 a bushel, driven up by an expected supply shortfall
that will only add to Americans' growing grocery bill and further
squeeze struggling ethanol producers.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, ATA Airlines
discontinued all flights and filed for bankruptcy.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, It was reported
that Nikolai Shaposhnikov and Lev Titarchuk had discovered a small
black hole in the Milky Way with the aid of NASA's Rossi X-ray
Timing Explorer satellite. They presented the findings earlier this
week at an American Astronomical Society conference. It was
discovered alongside a normal star in a binary system called XTE
J1650-500, named for its coordinates in the constellation Ara. The
system was discovered in 2001.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Wayne "Frosty
Freeze" Frost (44), a hip-hop pioneer, died. His acrobatic
performance with the legendary Rock Steady Crew in the 1983 movie
"Flashdance" helped set off a worldwide breakdancing craze.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, In eastern Kunar
province, a truck supplying fuel to NATO troops hit a roadside bomb
that killed the Afghan driver.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, In Chile Yasna
Provoste, Chile’s education minister, was impeached following the
discovery of $560 million shortfall in the ministry for 2004-2006.
(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasna_Provoste)
2008 Apr 3, Hu Jia, a Buddhist
Chinese dissident outspoken on Tibet and other sensitive topics, was
jailed for three-and-a-half years, a conviction likely to become a
focus of rights campaigns ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
(Reuters, 4/3/08)(WSJ, 4/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 3, Ivan Korade (44), a
retired Croatian army general suspected in a grisly quadruple
murder, died during a shootout with police that also killed one
officer. On April 1 Korade was charged with the March 27 killing of
four people in his village of Velika Veternicka: a 16-year-old boy,
his 62-year-old grandmother and two men, including a former Korade
aide.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Ledra Street, a
main shopping street in Cyprus' divided capital that had come to
symbolize the island's ethnic partition, reopened for the first time
in 44 years, boosting hopes for a renewed drive to reunify Cyprus.
Authorities were forced to close it for nearly two hours following a
dispute over how to police the street.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, French protesters
hurled bottles and stones at riot police who responded with tear gas
during a march by high school students in Paris over teacher job
cuts.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Iraqi troops killed
7 militants and detained 16 in three separate incidents in the Basra
area. A coalition air strike there killed two militants. A parked
car bomb targeting a police patrol in western Baghdad killed at
least one civilian and wounded 10 other people, including three
officers. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol elsewhere in
the predominantly Sunni Yarmouk neighborhood in the capital, killing
one soldier and wounding three others. The office of Muqtada al-Sadr
called for a "million-strong" turnout for an anti-American
demonstration next week to mark the fifth anniversary of the capture
of Baghdad by invading US troops. A US airman was killed by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/3/08)(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, Alitalia edged
closer to bankruptcy protection after Air France-KLM abruptly broke
off talks to buy the struggling national airline and Alitalia's
chairman of seven months resigned in frustration.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Japanese police
arrested Olatunbosun Ugbogu (22), a Nigerian national serving in the
US Navy, in the March 19 stabbing death of a taxi driver near an
American naval base outside Tokyo. He was handed over to Japanese
authorities just before the arrest under a bilateral security pact.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Kenya’s president
and opposition leader agreed on a cabinet as part of their
power-sharing deal to end violence.
(WSJ, 4/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 3, The UN tribunal in
The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that there was not enough evidence to
convict former Kosovo PM Ramush Haradinaj of murder, torture and
rape of Serbs and non-Albanians during the Kosovo war.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, In Sri Lanka
battles along the northern front lines left 21 rebels and five
soldiers dead.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, In Suriname a
twin-engine Antonov-AN28, operated by Surinamese carrier Blue Wing
airlines, crashed on approach to an airstrip in the Benzdorp mining
region, near the country's border with French Guiana. All 19 aboard
were killed. Blue Wing, which has operated since 2002, was barred
from landing at European airports in June 2006 after French aviation
officials found safety deficiencies during an inspection of planes.
The airline was removed from the blacklist in 2007 after a
commission said the company had resolved the issues.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, In Tibet Wang
Xiangming, the deputy Communist Party secretary of Lhasa, said 800
had been arrested in local violence, while another 280 had
surrendered to take advantage of a police offer of leniency. New
violence broke out in a volatile Tibetan region of western China,
leaving eight people dead. Chinese police opened fire during a
"riot" in a Tibetan populated area of southwest China.
(AP, 4/3/08)(AP, 4/4/08)(AFP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 3, A group of about
200 Uighur Muslims demonstrated against China before the Olympic
torch ceremony near Istanbul's Blue Mosque, one of Turkey's most
famous tourist destinations.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Zimbabwe's ruling
party geared up for a final battle to keep Robert Mugabe in power,
saying it was ready for a presidential election run-off with
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AFP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, President Hugo
Chavez ordered the nationalization of Venezuela's cement industry,
saying his government cannot allow businesses to continue exporting
raw materials needed to help tackle a domestic housing shortage.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, The US labor Dept.
reported that employers slashed 80,000 jobs in march, the most in
five years, as the national unemployment rate climbed to 5.1
percent.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, Child welfare
officials scrambled to find foster homes for dozens of girls removed
from a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist
leader Warren Jeffs after a 16-year-old living there complained of
physical abuse. By April 8 Texas had taken 416 children into
protective custody. Some 140 women came along voluntarily. It was
later reported that over half of the teenage girls from the Yearning
for Zion Ranch had children or were pregnant. The number of 14-17
year old girls with children was later reduced as ages became
confirmed. On May 22 a state appeals court ruled that authorities
had no right to take children from the polygamist compound. In 2009
jurors convicted sect member Raymond Jessop (38) of sexually
assaulting a girl, who became pregnant at age 16.
(AP, 4/5/08)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.36)(WSJ, 4/29/08,
p.A1)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A2)(SFC, 5/23/08, p.A2)(SFC, 11/6/09, p.A6)
2008 Apr 4, In SF cyclist Tammy
Thomas, Univ. of Oklahoma law student, was found guilty of lying to
a federal grand jury about her use of banned drugs.
(SFC, 4/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 4, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a Canadian soldier, while a
suicide attack in the same region left three policemen and a
civilian dead.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Argentina a
court sentenced the adoptive parents of a baby born to a missing
political prisoner to up to eight years in prison for concealing the
child's identity, in a landmark case with roots in Argentina's
dictatorship.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Brazil officials
said floods triggered by two weeks of torrential downpours have
killed at least 10 people and forced more than 30,000 people to flee
their homes in the normally arid northeast.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, In London a
prosecutor told a court that Assad Sarwar (27), a man accused of
plotting to down trans-Atlantic airliners, was also developing plans
to cripple nuclear power stations, a European gas pipeline and
Britain's electricity grid.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, A Bulgarian
official revealed that the country's communist-era border troops
killed East Germans and others who tried to get to the West by
sneaking across this Balkan country's borders during the Cold War.
Documents detailed at least two cases in which citizens of then
communist East Germany were killed, one in 1974 and one in 1988.
Archives also showed that 22 Bulgarians were shot while trying to
escape to Greece or Turkey between 1964 and 1967.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, Chile's
Constitutional Court halted a government program that provided the
contraceptive known as the "morning-after" pill free to women and
girls as young as 14.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In China the
traditional Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day), was celebrated as
an official holiday for the first time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival)
2008 Apr 4, Interpol issued a
"red notice" for the capture of Colombian rebel leader Rodrigo
Granda, wanted in connection with the 2004 high-profile kidnapping
and killing of Cecilia Cubas (31), the daughter of former Paraguay
Pres. Raul Cubas.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, US President George
W. Bush arrived in Croatia after a NATO summit at which leaders
invited the former Yugoslav republic to join the 26-nation western
alliance.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, At least three
Haitians were killed and 25 others injured amid food riots and
clashes with UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, Indonesia's Supreme
Court overturned the conviction of a notorious militia leader
accused in attacks that left about 1,000 people dead following East
Timor's 1999 independence vote. With Eurico Guterres' upcoming
release, all 18 suspects originally indicted will have been
acquitted or set free.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, Iraq's prime
minister ordered a nationwide freeze on raids against suspected
Shiite militants after the leader of the biggest militia complained
that arrests were continuing even after he ordered fighters off the
streets. A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded 8
when he blew himself up during a policeman's funeral in Sadiyah.
Military and police officials in Basra said a number of Iraqi
soldiers and police were reported to have mutinied or refused to
engage al-Sadr's militants during last week's fighting. A roadside
bomb killed four policeman and wounded one in Hillah. In the
Hayaniyah area of Basra a house was destroyed in an airstrike.
Police said five people were killed, acknowledging they included an
unspecified number of militants who had fired a mortar at Iraqi
security forces.
(AP, 4/4/08)(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, An executive for a
prominent Tuscan wine producer said authorities confiscated some
600,000 bottles of his company's 2003 Brunello di Montalcino,
alleging too many bottles were produced for it to be entirely
authentic.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Mexico two
soldiers deserted and were later killed during a gunbattle with
police in the state of Nuevo Leon. 3 state police officers and a
civilian also died in the violence. The Mexican army said soldiers
looking for drug traffickers found $6 million in cash inside a truck
near the US border and arrested five men at the scene. The daily El
Universal reported that five soldiers had been arrested for passing
information to the Sinaloa alliance of Pacific Coast smugglers.
(AP, 4/5/08)(Reuters, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In the West Bank 12
members of the members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fled the
Palestinian-run Jneid Prison in Nablus, complaining that guards had
pummeled them with clubs following a fight among the detainees.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Panama Cecilio
Padron (66), a Cuban-American businessman tied to an influential
anti-Castro organization, was kidnapped. He was released on Feb 23,
2009 following a $3 million ransom. Three national police officers
and two civilians were later detained in connection with the
kidnapping. The police were accused of handing Padron over to his
kidnappers in exchange for $500 each.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2008 Apr 4, President Gloria
Arroyo announced major investments to overhaul the Philippine
agriculture sector, as the country grapples with soaring rice prices
that have raised fears of social unrest.
(AFP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, Russian President
Vladimir Putin strongly criticized NATO's eastward expansion plans
but ruled out chances of a new Cold War, insisting that Moscow wants
to be friends with the Western military alliance.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Russia an
explosion, apparently caused by an accident with gas-powered welding
equipment in an apartment, ripped through a Moscow apartment tower,
blowing out exterior walls, sparking a fire and killing at least
three people.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, Pirate attackers
off Somalia’s coast stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant as it returned
without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. French
officials hoped to avoid using force to free the 30 crew members.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 4, Lee Kun-Hee (66),
the head of South Korea's biggest business group, Samsung, appeared
for questioning as part of a high-profile probe into an alleged
multi-million dollar bribery slush fund.
(AFP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, A South Korean
official said quarantine workers have destroyed more than 100,000
chickens following the first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu
in the country in more than a year.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, Sri Lanka's air
force bombed and destroyed a Tamil separatist training camp in the
island's north.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Thailand climate
negotiators ended 5 days of talks. More than 160 nations agreed to
consider how to reduce rapidly growing emissions from air and sea
travel as they worked toward drafting an ambitious new treaty on
global warming.
(AFP, 4/4/08)(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 4, In Zimbabwe the
ruling ZANU-PF party decided President Robert Mugabe should contest
a runoff vote against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if neither
wins a majority in a presidential election. Hundreds of guerrilla
war veterans who support President Robert Mugabe marched through the
capital, raising fears he might turn to violence to prolong his
rule. Authorities introduced a new 50 million bank note, state media
reported. The new Zimbabwe dollar note is worth $1 in black market
trading and can buy just three loaves of bread.
(Reuters, 4/4/08)(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 5, Skybus Airlines, a
low-cost carrier based in Columbus, Ohio, shut down and filed for
bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest of the nation's airlines
to fall because of rising fuel costs and a slowing economy.
(AP, 4/5/08)(SFC, 4/8/08, p.D3)
2008 Apr 5, Charlton Heston
(84), film star, died. he won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the
chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid
and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 5, Afghan and NATO
forces killed 15 Taliban insurgents in separate raids in southern
Afghanistan, where police also captured Abdul Jabar, a senior
Taliban commander.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 5, British PM Gordon
Brown called the current global economic crisis the largest
challenge of its kind in centuries while addressing some of the
world's key decision makers at a summit on climate change, the
economy and global poverty.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, London Heathrow
airport's new Terminal 5 was hit by fresh flights disruption when
the baggage system suffered a major software problem.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, In Croatia
President Bush celebrated NATO's expansion into former communist
territory and urged further enlargement, highlighting differences
with Moscow hours before final talks with outgoing Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, Iran said it would
not make any concession in exchange for incentives offered by the
West to halt sensitive atomic activities.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, Youssef Adel, an
Assyrian Orthodox priest, was killed in a drive-by shooting in
Baghdad. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb exploded on a minibus carrying
morning commuters on the busy Palestine Street, killing at least
four passengers and wounding 15.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, In Japan G8
development officials began a two-day ministerial meeting in Tokyo
on how to ease suffering in Africa and other impoverished states as
well as bolster their efforts in foreign development aid.
(AFP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, In Kashmir police
fired tear gas to break up a protest by stone-throwing demonstrators
against alleged prison abuses as a strike paralyzed life in
revolt-hit Srinagar.
(AFP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, Electoral officials
said Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF took 30 seats in elections for the
country's senate, or upper house of parliament, with the combined
opposition taking the same number. The president and tribal chiefs
are to appoint the remaining 93 seats. Opposition chief Morgan
Tsvangirai claimed outright victory in presidential elections and
warned Robert Mugabe's ruling party would resort to violence to
cling to power. 3 cattle ranchers were driven off their land, and
equipment and livestock were seized.
(Reuters, 4/5/08)(AFP, 4/5/08)(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, American evangelist
John Hagee announced donations of $6 million to Israeli causes and
said that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Texas Erick
Daniel Davila (21) opened fire at a child’s birthday party killing
Annette Stevenson (48), her granddaughter (5) died the next day.
(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 6, US and Afghan
forces attacked a remote village in a mountainous region of
northeastern Afghanistan following reports that an infamous
insurgent leader was in the area. At least 16 people were killed.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, Thousands of
anti-China protesters draped in Tibetan flags disrupted the Olympic
torch relay through London, billed as a journey of harmony and
peace.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Merritt, British
Columbia, a girl and two boys aged 10, 8 and 5, were found dead by
their mother in her trailer home. Allan Schoenborn (40), their
father, was arrested April 16 in connection with the murders after
local residents discovered him hiding in rugged bush.
(Reuters, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Egypt thousands
of demonstrators angry about rising prices and stagnant salaries
torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police who
responded with tear gas in a northern industrial town as part of a
nationwide strike. Three people were killed and more than 150
injured over two days of unrest in Mahalla, the culmination of more
than a year of strikes by workers at a giant state-run textile
factory.
(AP, 4/7/08)(AP, 4/4/09)
2008 Apr 6, Iraqi troops backed
by US forces battled Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City in
clashes that killed 20 people and wounded more than 50 despite a
cease-fire between the government and the militia. 3 US service
members were killed and dozens wounded in rocket attacks on the
fortified Green Zone. 2 more US soldiers died in roadside bombings.
(AP, 4/6/08)(AP, 4/7/08)(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A17)
2008 Apr 6, In Japan the Group
of Eight (G8) rich nations vowed to step up cooperation with
emerging donors such as China and India and said they remained
committed to a goal to double their own aid to Africa by 2010.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In southern Mexico
a truck carrying Central American migrants in a hidden compartment
plunged into a reservoir, killing at least eight people. Most of the
migrants were believed to be from Guatemala.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, Montenegrins voted
in the tiny Balkan state's first presidential election since it
split from Serbia two years ago. President Filip Vujanovic won
re-election by a landslide, cementing Montenegro's westward economic
and political course since breaking away from Serbia two years ago.
(AP, 4/6/08)(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Nigeria
unidentified gunmen i kidnapped an 11-year-old boy in Port Harcourt,
wounding his mother and killing the family's police guard and their
driver.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, A Palestinian boy
(8) was killed by shrapnel in an explosion in the central Gaza
Strip. The source of the shrapnel was not identified.
(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 6, In Russia President
George W. Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin ended their last
face-to-face meeting as heads of state with warm words for each
other but no solution to their row over missile defense.
(Reuters, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Somalia 4 people
were killed in Mogadishu in separate attacks overnight, as violence
raged in the shattered east African nation.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, Angry Sudanese
border guards killed one civilian and wounded three others in a
market after opening fire indiscriminately in Darfur's political
capital.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, A suspected Tamil
Tiger suicide bomber assassinated Jeyaraj Fernandopulle (55), Sri
Lanka's highways minister, as he opened a marathon in an attack that
also killed 13 others and wounded 100.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Yemen a housing
complex used by foreigners in the capital came under attack, with
explosions shattering windows and prompting residents to evacuate
with suitcases and boxes.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, Zimbabwe’s state
Sunday Mail newspaper reported that President Robert Mugabe's ruling
party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of
presidential election results, prompting outrage from the opposition
party. Several foreigners, including New York Times correspondent
Barry Bearak, remained in custody after being charged with
"illegally observing an election without official accreditation."
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 7, The Washington Post
won 6 Pulitzer Prizes, the most in its history. Junot Diaz won the
fiction award for “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Tracy
Letts won the drama award for “August: Osage County.” Bob Dylan won
a special citation for his life’s work.
(SFC, 4/8/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 7, In North Carolina
Thomas Wright, a former state lawmaker, was convicted of mishandling
charitable contributions and fraudulently obtaining a loan. He was
sentenced to 6-8 years in prison.
(WSJ, 4/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 7, In Ohio 9 mortgage
lenders agreed to modify adjustable-rate mortgages for borrowers
facing foreclosure. In Pennsylvania mortgage companies and consumer
advocates opened talks to help cash-strapped homeowners avoid
foreclosure. Last week Maryland’s Gov. signed a measure creating a
150-day moratorium on foreclosures.
(WSJ, 4/8/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 7, Samuel (b.1913)
Frankel, Detroit area developer and philanthropist, died. In the
1960s Frankel collaborated with Harry Cunningham to create the
discount-store concept, building the first Kmart store. In 1969, he
developed Somerset Mall. In 2005 he and his wife Jean provided a $20
million endowment to establish the Frankel Institute for Advanced
Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.
(www.lsa.umich.edu/judaic/html/history_goals_3_2.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/5srvs6)
2008 Apr 7, In southern
Afghanistan, militants attacked a police convoy in Uruzgan province,
and the ensuing clash left 13 insurgents dead and five wounded. In
the western province of Herat, Taliban militants attacked a
checkpoint in Shindand district, killing two police officers and
wounding another.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 7, In Australia 5
teenage boys armed with machetes and baseball bats invaded a Sydney
high school, smashing classrooms and injuring 18 students and a
teacher.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, In London a
coroner's jury decided that Diana and Dodi Fayed were unlawfully
killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by
the reckless pursuit of vehicles chasing them, not as part of a
murder conspiracy.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 7, In London Oleg
Gordievsky, a double agent who became the most senior Soviet spy to
defect to the West during the Cold War, said that he became sick
after taking the pills at his home in southern England on Oct. 31.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, In Bulgaria gunmen
killed Georgy Stoyev, the country’s best-known author of books on
the mafia. The night before, Borislav Georgiev, the chief executive
of a large energy company, was killed in his apartment building with
two bullets to the head.
(http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOiGGOjL2rCkZuEhCa9kkLtaA5LA)
2008 Apr 7, China’s official
Xinhua News Agency said Zhang Rongkun, a Shanghai tycoon, has been
sentenced to 19 years in prison in a pension funds scandal that
toppled the city's communist party chief.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, China and New
Zealand signed a free-trade agreement effective October 1.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/07/content_6596491.htm)(WSJ,
4/8/08, p.A14)
2008 Apr 7, A Chinese fishing
boat capsized after colliding with a South Korean cargo ship off
South Korea's southernmost island, leaving six Chinese sailors
missing.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, The Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition force, called on Egyptians
to boycott local council elections due on Tuesday in protest at the
disqualification of most of its candidates.
(Reuters, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, The EU opened the
way for air travelers to use mobile phones to talk, text or send
e-mails on planes throughout Europe's airspace.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, Security officials
extinguished the Olympic torch three times as protests against
China's human rights record turned a relay through Paris into a
chaotic series of stops and starts. France's former sports minister,
Jean-Francois Lamour, said that though the torch had been put out,
the Olympic flame itself still burned in the lantern where it is
kept overnight and on airplane flights.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, In Haiti protesters
angered by high food prices flooded the streets of Port-au-Prince,
forcing businesses and schools to close as unrest spread from the
countryside. Witnesses said at least one person was killed by hotel
security guards during a protest in the southern city of Les Cayes.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 7, Iraq’s prime
minister issued his strongest warning yet to radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or face political
isolation. The Sadrists said a move to ban them from elections would
be unconstitutional. Hospital officials said nine more people were
killed, including five children and two women, and dozens wounded as
gunbattles continued. That pushed the two-day death toll to at least
25.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resumed
face-to-face negotiations, trying to push forward peace efforts
after nearly two months marred by heavy Gaza Strip violence and new
Israeli plans to expand settlements.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, Italian police
arrested 38 suspects in a sweep against a clan of the 'ndrangheta
organized crime syndicate accused of murder, extortion and arms and
drug trafficking.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, Kosovo’s leaders
signed the country’s new Constitution.
(SFC, 4/8/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 7, In Morocco 9
Islamists serving long sentences for the deadly 2003 Casablanca
bombings escaped from Kenitra prison, north of Rabat. In January,
2009, Hicham Alami one of the escapees who had been sentenced to
life, was captured in Algeria and returned to Morocco.
(AFP, 4/7/08)(AP, 1/9/09)
2008 Apr 7, Nepal was rocked by
two bombings, the latest violence to hit campaigning for this week's
vote on the country's political future following a peace deal with
Maoist rebels.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, Spanish officials
said 2 people in Spain have died of the human variant of mad cow
disease, in the first such fatalities since 2005. The two new
victims apparently contracted the disease prior to 2001 and health
controls on livestock and meat production are much tighter now than
they were then. Spain has reported more than 700 cases of mad cow
disease since it was first detected in this country in 2000.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, Switzerland's
Novartis AG said it will spend about $39 billion in a two-step bid
for a majority stake in U.S. eye-care company Alcon.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, It was reported
that Thailand’s market bubble in religious talismans had popped
leaving many small business people in debt. The market in Jatukam
Ramathep amulets had swelled to $1.5 billion in 2007.
(WSJ, 4/7/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 7, In Yemen 7 people
were arrested on suspicion of involvement in attacks the previous
day against a residential complex for Westerners in San’a, Yemen's
capital.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 7, Zimbabwe
authorities released Barry Bearak, a NY Times journalist, along with
an unidentified British citizen. They had been accused of reporting
without official accreditation.
(WSJ, 4/8/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 8, Congressional
auditors reported that federal employees charged millions of dollars
for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and
other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a
15-month period.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, US Citizenship and
Immigration Service closed the window for H1B visa applications one
week after opening it, as the yearly cap of 65,000 for skilled
workers and 20,000 for master’s and doctoral graduates was reached.
(WSJ, 4/8/08, p.A12)
2008 Apr 8, Steven Karvellas
(48), former board member of the New York Mercantile Exchange,
pleaded guilty to 2 felony counts of illegal natural-gas trading.
(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.C1)
2008 Apr 8, Washington Mutual
Inc , the largest US savings and loan, said it obtained a $7 billion
capital injection from private equity firm TPG Inc and other
investors, but that mortgage problems will lead to a $1.1 billion
quarterly loss and the elimination of 3,000 jobs.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, ConocoPhillips and
BP said they will begin work immediately on a gas pipeline in
Alaska, with completion in about 10 years and costs estimated at
over $30 billion.
(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.B1)
2008 Apr 8, IBM began shipping
high-end computers built around the Power6 processor, the fastest
chip to date.
(SFC, 4/9/08, p.C1)
2008 Apr 8, Intel executives
said their venture capital arm has completed its first round of
investment in China and plans to invest an additional $500 million
during the next several years.
(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.B4)
2008 Apr 8, In southern
Afghanistan militants killed 17 road workers, part of a spike in
violence that has left 40 people dead in two days. 16 other
construction workers were wounded in the attack in Zabul's Shinkay
district. A Polish soldier died and one was wounded when a NATO
patrol hit a roadside bomb in Ghazni province. Taliban militants
ambushed a police patrol. An ensuing battle left four militants and
a police officer dead in Zabul province.
(AP, 4/8/08)(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, An Australian man
was sentenced to nearly three years in jail for shining a laser
pointer at a police helicopter and temporarily blinding the pilot.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, English Channel
tunnel operator Groupe Eurotunnel SA reported profits of $1.57
million for 2007, its first annual net profit, less than a year
after the company nearly drowned in debt.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, Chilean police said
Marko Kulju (26), a Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off an
ancient Moai on Easter Island, is being allowed to go home after
paying a US$17,000 (euro10,830) fine and agreeing not to return for
three years.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, China denounced
protesters who upstaged Olympic Games torch relays in London and
Paris and asked the United States to ensure the next leg in San
Francisco avoids similar mayhem. Olympic chiefs raised the prospect
for the first time of abandoning the international legs of the
Beijing Games torch relay, amid a wave of protests targeting the
flame overseas.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, A Colombian court
sentenced nine rebel leaders to 40 years in prison for killing a
state governor, a former defense minister and eight others during a
botched hostage-rescue operation in 2003. Six Colombian soldiers
were killed after they walked into a mine field while pursuing a
column of leftist guerrillas.
(AP, 4/8/08)(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, Dubai’s crown
prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum bought 16
camels for $4.5 million, including one female camel for $2.7
million.
(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 8, Egypt rushed to
grant bonuses to workers amid riots over food costs. Turnout for
local elections was later reckoned at under 5% under a boycott by
the Muslim Brotherhood.
(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.32)
2008 Apr 8, In Guatemala gunmen
killed Victor Rivera, a former top government security adviser, a
week after he was fired by President Alvaro Colom amid complaints he
had become too powerful.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Haiti hungry
protesters stormed the presidential palace throwing rocks and
demanding the resignation of Pres. Rene Preval over soaring food
prices.
(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 9, India ended its
first-ever summit with African nations, aimed at deepening ties with
the resource-rich continent and trying to ensure it is not eclipsed
by Asian rival China.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, Indonesian Internet
companies blocked access to YouTube and MySpace, heeding a
government order aimed at stopping people from watching an
anti-Islam film by a Dutch lawmaker.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, Iran's Foreign
Ministry condemned for the first time rocket and mortar attacks
against the US-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad by supporters of
anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A US soldier died from
wounds sustained when his vehicle was destroyed in a roadside
bombing the previous evening.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to lift a seven-month freeze on his Mahdi
Army militia if the Iraqi government does not halt attacks on his
followers or set a timetable for a US withdrawal. military spokesman
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said a total of 82 militants, 36
civilians and 37 soldiers had been killed since March 16 in fighting
in Baghdad, mostly in Sadr City.
(AP, 4/8/08)(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, Kenya’s opposition
party suspended talks with the government and hundreds of backers
set fires to protest delays in reaching a power-sharing agreement.
(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 8, Libyan authorities
released 90 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a
group with suspected links to al-Qaida, after they renounced
violence.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Mexico Pres.
Calderon said he would ease some bureaucratic barriers, and allow
Pemex to pay outside contractors a "bonus," not a percentage cut,
for oil found in deep-water reserves.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Nepal police
shot dead seven Maoists, and a man protesting the killing of an
election candidate was also shot dead by police. An election
candidate was assassinated in the west of the country.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, Nigeria's
government filed graft charges against the daughter of ex-president
Olusegun Obasanjo and two ministers sacked last month.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Pakistan a gas
leak sparked an explosion and fire at a nuclear plant that is
believed to produce enriched plutonium for the country’s atomic
weapons program. Two workers were killed.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Palestine’s
Hamas threatened to burst across the Israeli border to end Israel's
blockade of Gaza if Egypt and Israel do not lift their blockade.
(AP, 4/9/08)(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 8, A Peruvian court
convicted a former general and three members of a military death
squad of kidnapping and murder in a ruling that prosecutors say
could set a precedent in the trial of former President Alberto
Fujimori. Judges found them guilty of participating in the 1992
kidnapping and murder of nine students and a professor from La
Cantuta University who were suspected of being rebel collaborators.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, A Philippine court
sentenced 9 military officers to jail terms ranging from 12 to 40
years for taking part in a foiled coup plot against President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo in 2003.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, A Russian capsule
carrying South Korea's first astronaut and two cosmonauts blasted
off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, en route to the
international space station.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, The riot-damaged
market in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa opened its doors amid plans
to allow foreign tourists to enter the restive region by the end of
the month.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, The UN refugee
agency unveiled a new partnership with Internet giant Google to help
track refugees from Iraq to Darfur and raise public awareness of its
work.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Vietnam a small
military plane crashed near Hanoi, killing all five aboard.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, Opposition
officials accused Zimbabwe's ruling party of orchestrating a
campaign of violence in remote rural areas in an effort to
intimidate opponents of President Robert Mugabe ahead of a likely
runoff election. A farmers' union said more than 60 mostly white
Zimbabwean farmers have been evicted from their land by war veterans
loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the weekend.
(AP, 4/8/08)(Reuters, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Washington US
commander Gen. David Petraeus called for an open-ended suspension of
US troop withdrawals this summer because of concern over the renewed
fighting.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, The California
Supreme Court rejected San Francisco’s appeal of a lower court
ruling that limited its ability regulate handguns as approved by
voters in 2005.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.B1)
2008 Apr 9, In SF officials
rerouted the rout of the Beijing Olympic torch at the last minute
avoiding most protestors and spectators.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 9, In Afghanistan
international forces' warplanes dropped bombs on a group of Taliban
militants traveling by motorcycle overnight, killing 3 insurgents in
Zabul province.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, State media said
China will ban smoking on school campuses as part of an effort to
cut down on tobacco use before the Olympics.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Haiti a
desperate appeal from Pres. Preval failed to restore order to
Port-au-Prince, and bands of looters sacked stores, warehouses and
government offices.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, Oasis Hong Kong
Airlines cancelled all flights and went into liquidation as a result
of high fuel costs.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.C4)
2008 Apr 9, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki told Pres. Bush during a 20-minute telephone conversation
that Iraqi security forces are capable of carrying out their duties
and US troops should be pulled out as the situation permits. 23
people, including 3 children, died in Baghdad's Sadr City as clashes
between security forces and Shiite militiamen continued on the fifth
anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. 2 US soldiers died from
non-combat related injuries. 3 US soldiers died in a roadside
bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/9/08)(AP, 4/10/08)(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 9, Japanese lawmakers
approved Masaaki Shirakawa as the new central bank chief, ending a
power vacuum that had left the nation's top economic job vacant for
weeks with global markets in disarray.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, Nepal was hit by
fresh violence, the eve of a landmark vote to decide the
impoverished country's political destiny and scrap the monarchy.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Pakistan a
street fight between pro- and anti-government attorneys broke out in
Karachi leaving 7 people dead.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 9, Palestinian
militants crossed into southern Israel and killed two Israeli
civilians in a surprise attack before fleeing back to the Gaza
Strip. At least one of the militants who attacked the Israeli
terminal delivering fuel to the Gaza Strip was killed. Israel sent
tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory after the
raid, killing at least 8 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, and
warned that more reprisals could be coming.
(AP, 4/9/08)(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Peru 5 French
tourists visiting the Nazca lines were killed when their small plane
crashed after becoming tangled in power lines.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, Singapore's Media
Development Authority, which regulates and censors media and the
arts, said it fined StarHub S$10,000 (3,675 pounds) for airing a
commercial for a song that featured "romanticized scenes" of
lesbians kissing and portrayed the relationship as "acceptable."
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, The conservative
party of South Korea's new president won an overall majority in
parliamentary elections, according to TV exit polls, giving him the
power to push through sweeping economic reforms. The GNP won 153
seats in the 299-member legislature.
(AP, 4/9/08)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.50)
2008 Apr 9, Spanish astronomers
announced the discovery of "GJ 436T," the smallest planet discovered
to date outside the solar system, located 30 light years from earth.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Sudan gunmen
attacked police from the African Union and UN peacekeeping force
(UNAMID) in Darfur for the first time, pistol whipping one officer
in the back of the neck. UNAMID police do not carry weapons and this
particular patrol was on duty without protection.
(AFP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 9, Thai police dropped
charges against Viktor Bout (41), a Russian man accused of being one
of the world's most prolific black market arms dealers, saying they
will proceed with hearings to extradite him to the United States.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, President Hugo
Chavez's government said it will nationalize Sidor, Venezuela's
largest steel maker, bringing one more key industry under state
control in its drive toward a socialist economy.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, President Hugo
Chavez's government said it will nationalize Sidor, Venezuela's
largest steel maker and a unit of Ternium SA, bringing one more key
industry under state control in its drive toward a socialist
economy. Ternium, based in Luxembourg, was controlled by Argentine
owners.
(AP, 4/9/08)(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 9, International calls
for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to release long-delayed results from a
presidential vote mounted as ruling party militants continued to
overrun white-owned farms and the opposition accused the government
of waging a campaign of violence.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, Most families in
the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech mass shootings agreed to an $11
million state settlement.
(WSJ, 4/11/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 10, In Oakland, Ca.
Larae Brown, the former city controller, filed suit claiming she was
fired last year after informing her superiors and elected officials
of potentially disastrous flaws in the city’s bookkeeping.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.B1)
2008 Apr 10, In Virginia a jury
convicted Rev. James Bevel (71), a noted civil rights figure, of
incest after concluding he had sex with his teenage daughter 15
years ago. His had daughter testified that Bevel had begun molesting
her at age 6.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 10, The Pacific
Fishery Management Council voted to cancel the chinook salmon
fishing season in an effort to reverse the disappearance of the
fish.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 10, American Airlines
cancelled 933 flights to inspect and repair wiring bundles in its
MDF-80 aircraft.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 10, Powerful storms
brought hail, heavy rain and possible tornadoes to Arkansas, Texas,
and Oklahoma, causing flooding and power outages for thousands of
customers and at least one death.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, American Airlines
canceled more than 900 flights to fix faulty wiring in hundreds of
jets, marking the third straight day of mass groundings as company
executives offered profuse apologies and travel vouchers to calm
angry customers.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, In San Francisco
Luis Solari (38) was shot and killed in an apparent incident of road
rage. His 2 young sons survived as his car spun out of control
before stopping on I-280.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 10, In Kandahar city,
Afghanistan, a suicide car bomber targeting a US-led coalition
convoy killed 8 civilians and wounded 25 other people, including
three coalition soldiers.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, Australia’s PM
Kevin Rudd met China's premier for talks expected to touch on what
Rudd has called significant human rights problems in Tibet. Rudd
said Chinese paramilitary police will not be allowed to run
alongside the Olympic torch in Australia, after their heavy-handed
tactics drew criticism in earlier legs of the relay.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, The Bank of
England cut its key interest rate .25% to five%, balancing the risks
of rising near-term inflation and economic slowdown spread by the
credit crisis.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, The West's last
remaining feudal system came to an end after the Privy Council
endorsed a vote by locals on the tiny Channel Island of Sark to
change the way they are governed.
(Reuters, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, In China a police
spokesman said authorities have detained 45 East Turkestan
"terrorist" suspects (Uighurs), and foiled plots to carry out
suicide bomb attacks and kidnap athletes to disrupt the Beijing
Olympics.
(Reuters, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, Berlin police
found a body that is probably that of Anna Mikhalchuk (52), a
missing Russian artist, who had been condemned by the Orthodox
Church for an exhibit in her homeland. The death was an apparent
suicide.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, Iran reported that
the SenIran Auto plant in Thies, Senegal's second largest city, has
built its first Iran-Khodro Samand sedan. Iran Khodro is the largest
carmaker in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa regions
with annual production of more than one million various vehicles
including cars, trucks and buses.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.49)
2008 Apr 10, A US airstrike
targeted a building in Baghdad's Sadr City, hours after American
soldiers clashed with Shiite militants in fighting that left 15
people dead. Police said the four killed in the air strike were
civilians, including two brothers who were under 10 years old.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, Israel cut off all
fuel supplies to Gaza's 1.4 million residents, one day after
militants killed 2 civilians at a fuel terminal.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, Leftist lawmakers
took over both chambers of Mexico's Congress to protest President
Felipe Calderon's energy reform bill, which would make it easier for
the state oil company to seek outside help to develop oil fields.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Mexico police,
working with FBI agents in the small town of Tacambaro, arrested
Cpl. Cesar Laurean (21). He is charged with first-degree murder in
the December, 2007, death at Camp Lejeune, NC, of Marine Lance Cpl.
Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, Nepal gave an
historic vote of support for a peace process that is set to abolish
an unpopular monarchy and reshape the impoverished country. The
final results were not expected for several weeks. Sporadic
violence, including two deaths in the ethnically tense south, was
reported.
(AFP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Pakistan Ahmad
Shah, a Taliban commander also known as Mullah Ismail, was killed in
a shootout with security forces near Peshawar. He was blamed
for the deadliest attack on US troops since they entered Afghanistan
in 2001.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Sri Lanka
government forces attacked Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers along the front
lines in the war-ravaged northern region, triggering gunbattles that
killed 13 rebels and wounded 11 soldiers.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Thailand 54
illegal migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an
unventilated truck, while the rest of the passengers being smuggled
to Thailand pounded on the container and screamed in vain for the
driver's help. 37 of the dead were women and 17 were men. A Thai
court the next day convicted some 64 survivors of illegal entry and
rule to send them back to Myanmar.
(AP, 4/10/08)(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, The UN Environment
Program said dumping of waste by ships in the Mediterranean Sea will
become illegal as of May 1, 2009.
(AFP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, G7 finance
officials endorsed a plan to prevent financial crises and reiterated
its demand that Beijing allow the yuan to rise. They also issued a
warning to financial markets that they won’t sit by and watch the
dollar continue to slide.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C2)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 11, Crystle Stewart
(26), of Missouri City, Texas, was named Miss USA, besting 50 other
beauty queens for the coveted crown in Las Vegas.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 11, In SF the
directors of the Haight Ashbury Food Program closed their soup
kitchen at 1525 Waller St. due to reduced grants and donations. It
had served as many as 450 people a day for some 25 years.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.B3)
2008 Apr 11, American Airlines
cancelled 570 flights to inspect and repair wiring bundles in its
MDF-80 aircraft. The cancellations were expected to continue for one
more day. Over 3,000 flights were cancelled during the week leaving
hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 11, Afghan and foreign
troops clashed with and called airstrikes on militants in southern
Afghanistan, leaving 24 dead and eight wounded.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 11, Runners surrounded
by rows of security carried the Olympic flame past thousands of
jubilant Argentines in the most trouble-free torch relay in nearly a
week.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Sabeel Ahmed (26),
a doctor originally from Bangalore in India, pleaded guilty to
withholding information from police about the June 29, 2007, attack
at Glasgow airport. His brother died after a failed suicide car
bombing at the airport.
(AFP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, An indignant China
said the US "seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" when
Congress passed a resolution calling on Beijing to stop cracking
down on Tibetan dissent and talk to the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Chen Liangyu, the
former Communist Party chief of China's financial capital, was
sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a massive corruption
scandal involving the city's pension fund and state-owned companies.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, In Cuba new
regulations allowed thousands of Cubans to get title to state-owned
homes, a step that might lay the groundwork for broader housing
reform.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 11, In Cyprus Turkish
Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat crossed over to the Greek Cypriot
part of the island's ethnically divided capital, the first head of
the Turkish Cypriot north to do so in more than three decades.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner said France will boost its contribution to NATO
forces fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan to some
3,000 troops, around double the present level.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, French officials
said pirates have freed the 30 crew from Le Ponant, a French luxury
sailing ship, which was seized off Somalia on April 4, and had been
tailed by the French Navy. Helicopter-borne French troops seized 6
of the dozen hostage takers, after the hostages were freed, and
recovered sacks of money, apparently ransom paid by the ship’s
owners.
(AFP, 4/11/08)(SFC, 4/12/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 11, In India Rajiv
Agarwal, a senior official of Uttar Pradesh state, said state
authorities have banned the sale of a cheap variety of hair dye
after debt-ridden farmers were found to be drinking it to end their
lives.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Riyadh al-Nouri, a
senior aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was
assassinated in Najaf. A roadside bomb destroyed an armored vehicle
in eastern Baghdad, killing an Iraqi. An unmanned drone fired on a
group of gunmen carrying grenades and mortars overnight in Sadr
City, killing six of them. A helicopter hit a group of gunmen in the
Hayaniyah district of central Basra overnight, killing six of them.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Israeli forces
launched air strikes and a ground raid in the Gaza Strip, trading
fire with gunmen in clashes that killed 8 Palestinians including a
12-year-old boy.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, In Moldova a
Sudanese-owned transport plane laden with fuel crashed shortly after
takeoff from an airport near the capital and burst into flames,
killing all 8 people on board.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 11, In Rwanda a
grenade thrown by an unknown attacker killed a policeman guarding
the Gisozi genocide museum in Kigali, in a rare attack in the
central African nation still mourning the 1994 ethnic slaughter.
(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Soldiers destroyed
two Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers in northern Sri Lanka while fighting
in the region left 11 separatists dead and eight soldiers wounded.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 11, In Taiwan Liu
Chao-shiuan (65), who heads Taipei's prestigious Soochow University,
said President-elect Ma Ying-jeou asked him to head the Cabinet.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 11, Zimbabwe state
radio said President Robert Mugabe will snub a regional summit at
the weekend that was expected to pressure him to release delayed
election results. Police said all political rallies had been banned
because officers were too busy guarding ballot boxes or deployed to
prevent post-election violence.
(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 12, Jerry Zucker (58),
Israeli-born American businessman and chief executive of Hudson's
Bay Co., died of cancer. Zucker's wife Anita Zucker became governor
of HBC, Canada’s largest retailer, making her the first woman to
hold that position in the company's 338-year history.
(Reuters, 4/13/08)(WSJ, 4/19/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 12, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked an Indian road construction crew in the
southwestern Nimroz province, killing two people, including an
Indian engineer. Eight other people, including five Indian workers
and two civilians, were wounded in the blast. Militants killed four
eradication police in Kandahar’s Maiwand district.
(AP, 4/12/08)(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 12, About 20,000
workers rioted over high food prices and low wages close to the
Bangladesh capital Dhaka, amid spreading global unrest over soaring
grocery costs.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, A unit of Canada’s
national police boarded and seized the Farley Mowat, a Dutch
registered yacht belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
The ship was used to protest Canada’s annual seal hunt.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.48)
2008 Apr 12, Chinese President
Hu Jintao defended the crackdown on protests in Tibet and denied the
disturbances were linked to human rights in his first public
comments on the incident.
(AFP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, In Ecuador 5 young
British women were killed in a bus crash while the 15 other people
on board were injured.
(AFP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 12, Haiti’s President
Rene Preval announced a drop in the price of rice in a bid to defuse
anger of rising food prices that fueled days of deadly protests and
looting. Haitian lawmakers dismissed PM Jacques Edouard Alexi,
hoping to defuse widespread anger over rising food prices.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, In Iran an
explosion killed 14 people inside a mosque in the southern city of
Shiraz. A Police official said a homemade bomb caused the explosion.
The next day Abbas Mohtaj, deputy interior minister in charge of
security, said the explosion was "the result of an accident." In May
a report by the official news agency IRNA again said the explosion
was no accident, and those responsible had ties to the West. In
November Iran's Revolutionary Court convicted three men of
involvement in an explosion and sentenced them to death.
(AP, 4/13/08)(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A7)(SFC, 4/14/08,
p.A13)(AP, 5/8/08)(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Apr 12, Shiite militants
fought US and Iraqi forces around Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr
City despite a call for calm by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
following the assassination of one of his top aides. At least 13
Shiite militants died in the clashes, which erupted the previous
evening and tapered. Iraqi soldiers acting on tips from detained
Shiite militiamen found 14 bodies that had been buried in a field
south of Baghdad. The bodies were found after members of al-Sadr's
Mahdi Army militia were detained and confessed to killing and
burying dozens of Sunnis as well as some Shiites killed for criminal
purposes. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/12/08)(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Apr 12, Macedonia's
lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament and hold early elections,
following a dispute with neighboring Greece that halted the Balkan
nation's bid to join NATO.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, It was reported
that an international team of scientists had completed an inventory
of life on Madagascar, one of Earth’s largest and most diverse
islands.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 12, Election officials
said Nepal's communist former rebels have won control in 11 of the
21 constituencies where vote counting has been completed in the
election for an assembly to write a new constitution.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, King Harald V
opened Norway's $840 million national opera house on the shores of
the Oslo Fjord, kicking off a gala performance. The parliament's
decision to approve construction and funding of a national opera
house belatedly confirmed an overly optimistic 1881 report in an
Oslo newspaper that the capital was about to get a new opera house.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 12, Spain's re-elected
PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was sworn in for his second term. He
announced a government which for the first time included more women
than men and a female defense minister.
(AFP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, In Sudan the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) clashed with Sudanese armed
forces in West Darfur near the Sudan-Chad border. Both sides claimed
they had inflicted heavy casualties.
(Reuters, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 12, Taiwan's vice
president-elect said he and Chinese President Hu Jintao held "candid
and harmonious" talks in the highest-level contact ever between the
sides, and they had brought results.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, Thousands of
secularist Turks rallied in Ankara against the ruling AK Party,
which is facing a high court challenge by a prosecutor who wants it
shut down for alleged Islamist activities.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 12, Investigators in
Turkey found the body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo (33), an
Italian artist known as Pippa Bacca. She was last seen on March 31
hitchhiking in a wedding gown. She was on her way to Israel in a
plea for peace. Police detained a man suspected of killing her. In
June, 2009, Murat Karatas was sentenced to life in prison for her
rape and murder.
(AP, 4/12/08)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A4)
2008 Apr 12, African leaders
hoped to find a resolution to Zimbabwe's deepening political crisis
at an emergency summit in Zambia, but state media reported that
President Robert Mugabe would not attend the "unnecessary" meeting.
The Electoral Commission said it would conduct a full recount of the
presidential and parliamentary ballots cast in 23 constituencies,
all but one of them won by the opposition.
(AP, 4/12/08)(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, The World Bank,
IMF and G7 ended three days of meetings eliciting calls for economic
coordination but no joint emergency plan.
(WSJ, 4/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of
this year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos
(43) of Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group
promoting sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation;
Marina Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which
forced the rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo
Fajardo (35) and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the
Amazon Defense Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping
oil and wastewater into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of
Puerto Rico, head of a movement to protect the Las Cicharillas
Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of Belgium, head of a movement to
establish Belgium’s 1st and only national park; Jesus Leon (42) of
Mexico, co-founder of the Center for Integral Small Farmer
Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 13, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants ambushed a police truck, killing four officers and
wounding 7 in Helmand province. Taliban militants attacked a group
of police officers sleeping on the mud floor of an isolated roadside
checkpoint, killing 11. The two soldiers from Afghanistan's
47,000-strong NATO-led force were killed and two wounded in an
explosion in the south.
(AP, 4/13/08)(AP, 4/14/08)(Reuters, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, Australia’s PM
Kevin Rudd named Queensland governor Quentin Bryce as the next
governor-general, the first woman to act as the British queen's
representative in the country.
(AFP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Brazil armed
men firing from pickup trucks and flying in a helicopter attacked a
maximum-security prison holding some of Brazil's highest-profile
inmates but were repelled by guards in Campo Grande, the state
capital of Mato Grosso do Sul.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, Bulgaria's
powerful Interior Minister Rumen Petkov resigned amid a snowballing
corruption scandal that exposed links between top crime-busters and
suspected criminals.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Ethiopians voted
in a first round of elections that the main opposition coalition
boycotted to protest alleged intimidation by ruling party officials.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Hong Kong the
historical epic "The Warlords" dominated the Hong Kong Film Awards
scooping 8 gongs including best film and best actor in martial arts
star Jet Li.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, In eastern India
Biranchi Das (40), the controversial coach of a young boy who ran a
marathon in an attempt to set a world record, was shot dead. Also in
eastern India Naxalite rebels fatally shot five policemen and a
luggage porter and seriously wounded two others in an attack on a
railroad station.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, Officials said the
Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen
who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive
against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra. Gunmen in Basra
assassinated police Maj. Ali Haider, a commander in the department's
serious crimes directorate. Militants firing rocket-propelled
grenades ambushed an American patrol in eastern Baghdad. Fire from
armed helicopters and an Abrams tank repulsed the attack, killing
six of the gunmen. US soldiers discovered a mass grave near
Muqdadiyah, which contained 20 to 30 badly decomposed bodies that
appeared to have been buried nearly eight months. 2 US Marines were
killed by a roadside bomb in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/13/08)(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 13, Italians went to
the polls in general elections likely to return conservative Silvio
Berlusconi to the prime minister's office for a third time at the
expense of new centre-left flagbearer Walter Veltroni.
(AFP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Kenya’s President
Mwai Kibaki named rival Raila Odinga as prime minister, implementing
a power-sharing deal after protracted negotiations over the
agreement they signed more than a month ago.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Election officials
said Nepal's Maoists had extended a stunning early lead in historic
polls, as vote counting continued.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Palestinian
medical officials said 3 people died in an explosion in a house in
the Gaza Strip. They said the blast likely resulted from the
accidental detonation of explosives.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Khasan Yandiyev
(51), a top judge in Russia's southern troubled province of
Ingushetia, was shot dead. He had led trials of Islamic rebels.
(Reuters, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, The Saudi Arabia
beheaded two Nigerian men convicted of smuggling cocaine into the
kingdom. 42 people have been beheaded this year, according to an AP
count.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Somalia
suspected Islamist insurgents dragged two British nationals and two
Kenyans out of their home in Beledweyn and killed them.
(AFP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, In South Africa 2
Americans and a Norwegian tourist on a shark cage diving adventure
drowned when their boat was hit by a freak wave.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, South Korea's
government confirmed a fourth outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in
the country's southwest, as the tally of birds slaughtered to
control the spread of the disease rose to 1.3 million.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Sri Lanka marked
its traditional new year with security forces and Tamil separatists
locked in fierce combat resulting in heavy losses on both sides.
Defense officials said at least 87 guerrillas had been killed in the
last 24 hours. Security forces smashed through defenses of Tamil
separatists, killing at least five rebels.
(AFP, 4/13/08)(AFP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Tanzania about
1,000 people cheered and marched with a team of 80 athletes and a
Cabinet minister participating in the Olympic torch relay, the
flame's only stop in Africa.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said his government is working to create a
NATO-like South America defense council along with Brazil and other
countries.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Zambia African
leaders ended an emergency meeting of the Southern African
Development Community and called for the swift verification of the
Zimbabwe voting results in the presence of all parties. The
declaration fell far short of opposition calls for neighboring
leaders to pressure President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28
years in power.
(AP, 4/13/08)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.53)
2008 Apr 14, Pres. Bush ordered
the release of $200 million in emergency aid as the UN Sec. Gen.
said a global food crises has reached emergency levels.
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 14, A US judge
sentenced Samuel Israel III (48), the "mastermind" behind the
collapsed hedge fund Bayou Group, to 20 years in prison. The
sentence reflected the big losses suffered by investors in the $400
million fund.
(Reuters, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Delta Air Lines
and Northwest Airlines announced an agreement to a $17.7 billion
merger creating the world’s largest carrier.
(SFC, 4/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 14, Ollie Johnston
(b.1912), the last of Walt Disney's original team of animators,
known as the Nine Old Men, died. He had worked for Disney for 43
years, drawing characters for animated Mickey Mouse short films
before contributing to such classics such as "Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs" (1937), "Pinocchio" (1940), "Peter Pan" (1953) and
"The Jungle Book" (1967).
(Reuters, 4/16/08)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.109)
2008 Apr 14, Algeria, the
world’s 4th largest gas exporter, said it will stop signing long
term gas contracts and switch to shorter term ones.
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.A14)
2008 Apr 14, Train service
between Bangladesh and India resumed after a 43-year hiatus.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Brazil a top
energy official said a deep-water exploration area could contain as
much as 33 billion barrels of oil, an amount that would nearly
triple Brazil's reserves and make the offshore bloc the world's
third-largest known oil reserve.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, In London Nepalese
Gurkha soldiers demonstrated outside a landmark immigration tribunal
which could decide if 2,000 veterans who fought for Britain can
settle here.
(AFP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 14, China’s state
television said police found 30 firearms in a Tibetan monastery in
Aba prefecture of Sichuan province last month.
(Reuters, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Cuba lines
stretched for blocks outside phone centers as the government allowed
ordinary Cubans to sign up for cellular phone service for the first
time.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Ethiopia
explosions at two national oil company gas stations killed two
people in the capital of Addis Ababa.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 14, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel arrived in Dublin to discuss a European Union reform
treaty that still bemuses most Irish voters ahead of a June
referendum that will determine the pact's fate.
(Reuters, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Grand Ayatollah
Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran's most senior dissident cleric, charged
that recent parliamentary elections were not free or fair because
thousands of reformists were barred from running.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Richard Butler, a
kidnapped British journalist, was rescued by Iraqi troops after two
months in captivity in Basra. A roadside bomb in downtown Baghdad
killed five people and wounded nine. In northern Iraq 18 people were
killed in two car bombings and a suicide attack. The US military
said it will release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein,
more than two years after he was detained by US Marines on
suspicions of links to insurgents. The military said it has
determined Hussein is not a threat and plans to free him Apr 16.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 14, An Israeli
airstrike hit a vehicle in northern Gaza, fatally wounding Ibrahim
Abu Olba (42), a senior Palestinian militant. Former President Jimmy
Carter deplored Palestinian militant attacks on Israel as a
"despicable crime" as he toured Sderot, a rocket-battered town.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Italy exit
polls put media mogul Silvio Berlusconi ahead in parliamentary
election but suggested he was uncertain of winning the upper house
majority he needs to steer the country through an economic downturn.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Japan and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said they had
finished signing a deal to tear down trade barriers between the
world's second-largest economy and the 10-member bloc.
(AFP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Japan’s government
said violent clashes with animal rights groups and fewer whale
sightings forced its whaling fleet to head home from the Antarctic
with only 55 percent of its 985-whale hunting target.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Kenyan police in
Nairobi fired bullets and tear gas to clear machete-waving Mungiki
gang members who blocked roads and set a police post on fire to
protest the killing of an imprisoned gang leader's wife. At least 13
people were killed.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 14, The Olympic torch
arrived in Oman amid tight security and expectations of a smooth
relay on the Middle Eastern leg of the flame's round-the-world tour.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Multan,
Pakistan, a crowd protesting power cuts rioted in the home city of
the new prime minister, ransacking the office of the state
electricity company, torching a bank and leaving at least 13 people
injured. The protest was organized by a textile industry
association, which had set April 13 as a deadline for the
electricity company to reduce power outages, known locally as
load-shedding.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Turkmenistan
agreed to supply the EU with 10 billion cubic meters of gas
beginning next year.
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.A14)
2008 Apr 14, Zimbabwe's High
Court rejected an opposition demand for the immediate release of
results the March 29 presidential election.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 15, Pope Benedict
arrived at Andrews air Force Base in Maryland and was met by
President Bush and Catholic dignitaries. Benedict turned 81 the next
day.
(AP, 4/16/08)(SFC, 4/16/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 15, Data firm
RealtyTrac said home foreclosure filings surged 57% in the 12
month-period ended in March and bank repossessions soared 129% from
a year ago. US inflation at the wholesale level soared in March at
nearly triple the rate that had been expected as the costs of energy
and food both climbed rapidly.
(Reuters, 4/15/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Mike Leavitt, the
top US health official, said US food and drug regulators will start
working in China next month once Beijing gives its final approval.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, J Street, an
American pro-Israel and pro peace lobby was established under
director Jeremy Ben Ami. It argued for a 2-state solution based on
Israel’s pre-1967 borders. It is the first and only federal
Political Action Committee (PAC) established to explicitly promote
meaningful American leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian and
Israeli-Arab conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.40)(www.jstreet.org/files/images/JStreet_MediaAdvisory_041507.pdf)
2008 Apr 15, A draft report by
the US National Toxicology Program acknowledged concerns over
bisphenol-a (BPA), a chemical found in thousands of everyday plastic
products, saying it may cause cancer and other serious disorders.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 15, California Sen.
Leland Yee dropped efforts to put the Cow Palace in Daly City up for
sale and settled on a compromise plan to allow an adjoining parking
lot to be sold.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.B14)
2008 Apr 15, Hazel Court
(b.1926), British-born horror film queen, died in Tahoe City, Ca.
Her films included “Devil Girl From Mars” (1954). Her autobiography,
“Hazel Court: Horror Queen,” was published later this month.
(SFC, 4/19/08, p.B5)
2008 Apr 15, A Bangladesh
official said at least 17 people were killed when a train plowed
through a packed bus at a railway crossing in Tangail district.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 15, Brazil and Russia
signed an agreement to jointly develop top-line jet fighters and
satellite launch vehicles.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 15, In Brazil a police
raid on drugs and dealers in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown set off a
fierce gunbattle that killed at least nine people and wounded seven.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 15, Colombia's Nevado
del Huila volcano erupted in a shower of hot ash, prompting
thousands of people to leave their homes.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, In eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 44 people were killed and up
tot 100 injured when a passenger plane crashed onto a market
district after taking-off at Goma.
(Reuters, 4/16/08)(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 15, In Egypt a
security official said 25 members of the opposition Muslim
Brotherhood have been sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, French high school
students threw bottles and rocks on the fringes of a Paris
demonstration that drew thousands of protesters to a march against a
government plan to cut teaching jobs.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 15, A parked car bomb
targeting a police patrol in central Baghdad, killed four civilians
who were passing by and wounding 15 other people. In Baqouba a car
parked in front of a restaurant exploded killing at least 35 people.
In Ramadi a parked car bomb exploded near a kebab restaurant killing
at least 13 people. US soldiers backed by an airstrike killed six
militants during clashes in the Sudayrah area near Baghdad's Sadr
City. American troops killed four militants who fired
rocket-propelled grenades at a tank elsewhere in the area. More
clashes in Sadr City left four militiamen killed and 15 others
wounded.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Israel said it
will resume some crucial fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip. Defense
officials confirmed that Israel will let Jewish settlers build new
houses in existing West Bank settlements if they remove unauthorized
settlement outposts. An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a
motorcycle in northern Gaza, killing Mohammed Ghausain, an Islamic
Jihad commander.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Italy's Silvio
Berlusconi (71) pledged to use his big election win to push through
economic reforms, and vowed to close the border to illegal
immigrants in a crackdown on criminals he called "the army of evil."
He owed his majority in parliament to the support of the xenophobic
Northern League, which won 8 percent of votes.
(Reuters, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Kazakhstan joined
other Black Sea grain exporters in curbing shipments to combat
double-digit inflation. Wheat exports were suspended until Sep 10.
Kazakhstan will become the world’s 5th largest wheat exporter this
year, shipping half its record 2007 crop.
(WSJ, 4/16/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 15, In Mexico gunmen
held up a family of US tourists in Baha and made off with their
small plane from a hotel airstrip in Mulege.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Nepal's former
rebels surprised observers by winning more than half of the directly
elected seats where counting was complete in an assembly that will
shape the Himalayan nation's political future. Re-voting was held in
six constituencies.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, In New Zealand 5
people were killed and three others missing after they were swept
away by a storm-swollen river in the Mangatepopo Gorge.
(AFP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Former US Pres.
Jimmy Carter visited the West Bank and laid a wreath at the grave of
Yasser Arafat. Carter was criticized by Israel and Washington for
his plans to meet with Hamas leaders in Syria.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 15, In the northern
Philippines army troops clashed with communist rebels, leaving three
people dead in Quezon province's General Nakar town.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, President Vladimir
Putin accepted the leadership of the dominant United Russia party,
securing his grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin and becomes
PM next month.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, In Uganda a fire
tore through a primary school dormitory overnight, killing 19 girls
and two adults. Police said that the blaze may have been
deliberately set.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Venezuela moved to
take a greater cut of windfall oil profits, approving a 50 percent
tax on foreign oil companies when crude tops US$70 a barrel.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, An opposition
general strike to demand the release of Zimbabwe's delayed election
result flopped and the ruling party in South Africa said the
situation in the neighboring country was "dire."
(Reuters, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 16, The US government
reported plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested
by a federal law enforcement agency, a move intended to prevent
violent crime but which also is raising concerns about the privacy
of innocent people.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, The US Supreme
Court ruled that the combination of drugs used in the death chambers
of most states does not create a substantial risk of sever pain and
therefore is constitutional.
(SFC, 4/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 16, Computer
consultant John Schiefer (26) pleaded guilty in Los Angeles to
raiding hundreds of thousands of computers with spyware to steal
users' identities and commit fraud.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 16, In Colorado
firefighters hoped rain and snow would help them stop wildfires that
blazed through thousands of acres of grass, forced hundreds of
residents to evacuate and left three people dead.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, In Oklahoma Custer
County Sheriff Mike Burgess (56) resigned just as state prosecutors
filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of
second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five
counts of bribery by a public official. On March 24, 2009, Burgess
was sentenced to 79 years in prison for forcing drug defendants to
have sex with him.
(AP, 4/18/08)(SFC, 3/25/09, p.A7)
2008 Apr 16, Edward Lorenz
(90), the father of chaos theory, died of cancer. He showed how
small actions could lead to major changes in what became known as
the "butterfly effect."
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, In southern
Afghanistan 2 NATO soldiers were killed and two others were wounded
in an explosion.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, Britain’s PM
Gordon Brown, on the first of a 3-day visit to the US, met with
bankers to discuss solutions to the credit crisis.
(WSJ, 4/17/08, p.A12)
2008 Apr 16, In Cambodia an
attacker hurled a hand grenade into a crowd of people dancing at a
Buddhist temple to celebrate the traditional New Year, killing one
villager and wounding 25.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 16, China’s state
media reported that over the last 2 days police in northeastern
Gansu province have found guns, dynamite, bullets and satellite
receivers hidden in 11 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.
(Reuters, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, The euro struck an
all-time peak of 1.5969 dollars as eurozone inflation spiked to a
record high.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, A security
official said Egypt's ruling party has won 92 percent of the votes
in April 8 municipal elections boycotted by the main opposition
group the Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, A military plane
belonging to Equatorial Guinea crashed off its coast with at least
13 people on board. There are no survivors.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 16, Mount Egon volcano
on Flores island in eastern Indonesia spewed ash and smoke 2 1/2
miles into the sky, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of nearby
villagers.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, In western India
at least 44 people, nearly all children heading to school for final
exams, drowned when their bus plunged off a bridge into a canal in
Bodeli, Gujarat state.
(AFP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, The Iraqi
government said 33,121 detainees have been released since a general
amnesty went into effect in February. The US military released
Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein after holding him for
more than two years without filing formal charges. An unmanned US
drone fired two Hellfire missiles at militants attacking Iraqi
soldiers in a Shiite militia stronghold in Basra, killing four of
the gunmen. In Baghdad, clashes between US-backed Iraqi troops and
Shiite militiamen in the Sadr City district killed two men and
wounded 18 others. A mortar shell slammed into a house in eastern
Baghdad, killing at least three civilians and wounding three others.
Gunmen opened fire on a minibus near Muqdadiyah, killing two women
and wounding three men.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin's official
visit as "historic and strategic" during a state dinner at the Bab
Azizia palace.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 16, The Malaysian
government shut down the Tamil-language Makkal Osai, or People's
Voice, a newspaper catering to ethnic minority Indians. The next day
the daily's news editor slammed the move as punishment for its
critical coverage of social and political issues.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 16, Palestinian
militants ambushed an Israeli ground force in northern Gaza, killing
three soldiers. The army responded with an airstrike and identified
hitting militants in the Bureij area. Fadel Shana (23) a cameraman
with the Reuters news agency, was struck, along with two bystanders,
as he filmed Israeli tank movements in the distance during the
bloodiest day in Gaza in more than a month. He had been in the area
to film the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike that killed 12
Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15. Israeli airstrikes
left at least 19 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 16, In Pakistan
runners carried the Olympic flame around the outside of a sports
stadium, an invitation-only event in front of an elite, sparse crowd
with heavy security to deter any anti-China protesters or terrorist
attacks.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, South Korea
dispatched 200 soldiers to chicken farms to slaughter poultry
infected with bird flu, as the government confirmed another outbreak
of the disease.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, Turkish warplanes
hit a group of Kurdish rebels reportedly trying to infiltrate Turkey
from the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq. A clash between
Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeastern border
with Iraq left a Turkish soldier dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 16, President Mugabe's
security forces clamped down hard on unrest during a general strike,
arresting dozens of opposition supporters before the stoppage
fizzled out. A coalition of Zimbabwean doctors said its members had
seen and treated more than 150 patients who had been beaten and
tortured since the elections at the end of March. A court acquitted
an American and a British reporter who had been charged with
covering Zimbabwe's March 29 election without official
accreditation.
(AFP, 4/16/08)(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 17, The May contract
for light sweet crude oil hit a trading record of $115.54 as the
dollar fell to a new low against the euro.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 17, In Fresno, Ca.,
Jesus Carrizales (17), a Roosevelt High School sophomore, attacked a
campus police officer with a baseball bat. Officer Junus Perry
received a 2-inch gash in the head before shooting and killing
Carrizales.
(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B14)
2008 Apr 17, George P. Cressman
(b.1919) former head of the US National Weather Service (1965-1979),
died. Under his tenure the agency bulked up its computers and data
collection and began issuing predictions for an entire week’s worth
of weather.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 17, Danny Federici
(58), the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen, died. His
stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from
"Hungry Heart" through "The Rising."
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 17, Afghan and foreign
troops battled militants who ambushed their patrol in central Ghazni
province, leaving nine Taliban fighters dead. A suicide attack in
front of a mosque in Nimroz province killed 16 people and wounded
over 30.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.A15)
2008 Apr 17, In Burundi
suspected rebels attacked the capital, Bujumbura. A series of
attacks killed at least 17 people.
(AP, 4/18/08)(WSJ, 4/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 17, Retired Gen.
Manuel Contreras (78), former chief of Chile's secret police force,
was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the disappearance of a
dissident during the dictatorship of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, In Egypt former
President Carter met with a Hamas delegation from Gaza, part of a
series of talks with the Islamic militant group that has drawn sharp
criticism from US and Israeli officials.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, A renegade group
of Gibraltar's Barbary apes has annoyed residents so much that
authorities announced plans to kill them.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17,
India's central bank tightened monetary policy to fight high
inflation, raising by half a percentage point the amount of cash
commercial banks must keep in reserve.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, In India runners
carried the Olympic flame along a heavily guarded route through
central New Delhi, protected by about 15,000 police who kept Tibetan
exiles and other anti-China protesters from disrupting the ceremony.
Tens of thousands of pro-Tibetan demonstrators gathered across India
to protest the torch relay.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.A16)
2008 Apr 17,
A suicide bomber struck the funeral of two anti-al-Qaida Sunni
tribesmen in a town north of Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and
wounding dozens. An unmanned drone killed two gunmen in Baghdad's
Sadr City district.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, In
Italy Silvio Berlusconi returned to the
world diplomatic stage by hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin
at his villa in Sardinia. The event lost some of its luster when
Putin was forced, before the glare of television cameras, to deny
reports he had secretly divorced his wife and planned to marry an
Olympic gymnast.
(Reuters, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 17, In Japan Buddhist
Monks at the ancient Zenkoji Temple decided to pull out of hosting
an April 26 ceremony for the protest-marred Olympic torch relay
because of China's crackdown in Tibet, as visiting Chinese Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi rebuffed Japanese pressure over Tibet,
reiterating that Beijing sees it as an internal matter.
(AFP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 17, Russian President
Vladimir Putin wrapped up his two-day visit with Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi by writing off $4.5 billion in Libyan debts in
exchange for multibillion-dollar deals for Russian companies.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17,
Gaza militants who tried to carry out a new attack on a border
crossing were stopped by Israeli troops. One was killed, another was
wounded and a third fled the scene. Israeli troops surrounded a
militant hideout in the town of Qabatiya, and exchanged fire for
about an hour with two Islamic Jihad militants inside, before
shooting them dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17,
Aime Cesaire (b.1913), a Martinique poet honored throughout
the French-speaking world and a crusader for West Indian rights,
died.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, Chief Juan Muniz,
the Mexican police chief of the border city of Reynosa, was arrested
for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, Former Roman
Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo asked thousands of supporters at his
final campaign rally to help him end 61 years of one-party rule in
Paraguay and to build a new nation for the poor and indigenous.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, A government
spokesman said South Africa has waived Cuban debt totaling more than
100 million dollars.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17,
In South Korea special prosecutors indicted Chairman Lee
Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung Group, on charges of tax evasion
and breach of trust, ending a probe that shook South Korea's biggest
conglomerate for months. A South Korean court sentenced Kim
Kyung-jun, a former business partner of President Lee Myung-bak, to
10 years in prison for stock manipulation, embezzlement and forgery.
Chairman Lee Kun-hee was ordered to pay $40 million in taxes and
$95.6 billion in fines. A 3-year prison sentence was suspended.
(AP, 4/17/08)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.74)
2008 Apr 17, In Spain a bomb
exploded in the offices of the governing Socialist party in the
northern Basque city of Bilbao, injuring seven police officers.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, Umeaa University
said the world's oldest living tree on record is a 9,550 year-old
spruce discovered in central Sweden. That would mean it had taken
root in roughly the year 7,542 BC.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17,
Zimbabwe's government accused opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai of treason by plotting with former colonial power Britain
to oust veteran President Robert Mugabe. G8 foreign ministers called
for the swift release of the results of Zimbabwe's disputed
presidential polls, condemning recent violence there.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18,
President George W. Bush and South Korea's leader Lee
Myung-bak held talks on pushing ahead with a huge free trade deal
and fortifying their half-century security alliance. Bush welcomed
Lee at Camp David for the two-day talks, that are to include their
economic and defense teams. Just hours before the Bush-Lee talks,
South Korea announced it had agreed to give US beef greater access
to its market.
(AFP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, A magnitude 5.2
earthquake hit southern Illinois in the Ozark Dome region and was
felt across the Midwest.
(SFC, 4/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Apr 18, In New Jersey 5
people were shot and 3 others stabbed in 4 separate incidents in
Irvington.
(SFC, 4/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 18, In Afghanistan the
son of the Netherlands' top military officer was killed by a
roadside bomb, the day after his father assumed command of the Dutch
armed forces.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, In Bolivia
American rancher Ronald Larsen, who has extensive land holdings
there, and his son Duston were named in a criminal complaint for
"sedition, robbery, and other crimes." Ronald Larsen, of Montana,
was accused of firing on the vehicle Alejandro Almaraz, the Deputy
Minister of Land. and holding the minister hostage as he tried to
carry out a government inspection of Larsen's ranch in southern
Bolivia on February 29. Larson said Almaraz was drunk and had showed
up at the ranch at three in the morning.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 18, The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police arrested Benoit Corbeil, a former senior Liberal
official, on fraud charges in connection with an advertising scandal
that helped topple the Liberal government in 2006.
(Reuters, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, In Chile 5
high-ranking retired navy officers were indicted for the abduction,
torture and killing a British-Chilean priest and other dissidents in
the days following Chile's 1973 military coup.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18,
In China 56 fishermen were reported missing as one of the
earliest typhoons to hit the region in six decades barreled down on
the southern island of Hainan. 38 swam to a reef area after their
boats were damaged leaving 18 still missing.
(AP, 4/18/08)(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 18, Ecuador's
constitutional assembly approved a decree revoking most of the
mining concessions in the country, following up on the leftist
government's pledge to take greater control over natural resources.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, Iraqi police said
a company of government troops in Sadr City retreated when they came
under attack from Shiite militiamen who used the cover of a
sandstorm. Overnight clashed killed two people and injured nine.
Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaida's No. 2, said in a new audiotape that the
US will lose whether it stays in Iraq or withdraws, and he sneered
that President Bush just wants to pass the problem on to his
successor. It was reported that US commanders have begun releasing
Iraqi detainees. 8,000 have been released since September with plans
to release half of the 23,000 currently held.
(AP, 4/18/08)(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 18,
The Israeli government revealed plans to build 100 homes in
two Jewish settlements, one of them deep in the West Bank, in
violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion. The Al Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades said Hani Al-Kabi, a leader of the group in the
Balata refugee camp, was killed by Israeli troops during a raid in
Nablus.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, In western Mexico
a military helicopter crashed, killing 11 soldiers and seriously
injuring another.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 18,
In Mongolia more than 20,000 people flooded the center of the
capital, Ulan Bator, to demand that the government do something
about rising food prices that have nearly tripled in some cases.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, In Morocco French
PM Francois Fillon announced the signing of economic tie-ups with
Morocco, alongside the sale of a naval warship to aid defense
coordination.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, In southern Nepal
Rudra Bahadur Singh, a candidate in last week's election from a
party that supports Nepal's discredited king, was fatally shot.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 18, In the northern
Philippines a passenger bus plunged into a ravine, killing nine
people and injuring more than 20.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18,
In Singapore J.B. Jeyaretnam (82), interim secretary general
of the Reform Party, vowed to fight what it called the "enslavement"
of Singapore after nearly half-a-century of rule by the People's
Action Party (PAP).
(AFP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18,
South Africa's main transport union thwarted the delivery of a
controversial shipment of Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe, saying
its workers would not offload the cargo. The Chinese ship left the
South African harbor and headed for neighboring Mozambique. Angola
and Mozambique said the ship is not welcome. China defended the
cargo against international criticism.
(AFP, 4/18/08)(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/22/08)(SFC,
4/23/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 18,
Spain's newly re-elected government announced an
18-billion-euro plan to revive the economy, which is suffering a
slowdown after a decade-long boom that had been the envy of the rest
of Europe.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18,
Former US Pres. Jimmy Carter arrived in Syria where he met
Pres. Bashar Assad, the political leader of the militant Palestinian
Hamas group and Syrian businessmen.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18,
Thailand's PM Samak Sundaravej said that Thais should be
honored the Olympic torch is passing through their country and
protesters have no reason to disrupt the relay. Up to 2,000 police
will guard the April 19 relay, a 6.3-mile run.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, In northern Yemen
gunmen assassinated Saleh Hendi, a ruling party lawmaker, along with
his son.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In NYC Pope Benedict XVI preached in St. Patrick's cathedral,
assuring priests and nuns that he was close to them as they battled
the damage left by the clergy sex scandal.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, Alfonso Lopez
Trujillo (b.1935), Vatican enforcer and former archbishop of
Medellin, died. In 1995, as head of the Pontifical council for the
Family, he published a “Lexicon of Ambiguous and Debatable Terms.”
(Econ, 5/3/08,
p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_L%C3%B3pez_Trujillo)
2008 Apr 19, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a civilian vehicle, killing three
people and wounding another. An Afghan policeman and two Taliban
fighters were killed in a firefight in Panjwayi, Kandahar province.
Afghan police clashed with Iranian forces at the southwestern border
with Iran, leaving one civilian dead and two Iranian officers
wounded.
(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/20/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Argentina
President Cristina Fernandez surveyed more than 200 raging brush
fires by air as a thick cloud of smoke covered Buenos Aires for a
fifth day. She vowed to prosecute anyone who lit the blazes that
have sent smoke clouding highways and grounding jetliners.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In Australia PM Rudd opened a summit of the nation's top minds
to discuss fresh policy ideas for the future.
(Reuters, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In Austria 3 men posing as policemen were shot along S1
highway, one fatally, when they tried to rob two men who turned out
to be real officers.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In central Bangladesh a speeding bus plunged off a road,
killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Ecuador flames
started by fireworks swept through a nightclub in Quito, killing at
least 14 people who were unable to escape through the club's
padlocked doors.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, In France the
charred body of Sussanna Zetterberg (19), a Swedish teenager, was
discovered in woods outside Paris just hours after she left a
nightclub. A postmortem showed she had been stabbed.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Twelve people died in overnight clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City
district. The US military said one of its attack helicopters located
and hit a mortar crew in Sadr City at 3:30 a.m., killing two gunmen
and destroying the weapon. In the town of Suq al-Shiyoukh a
firefight killed one militant and left six policemen injured. The US
military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb
while on patrol in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, In northern
Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule, carrying South Korean bioengineer Yi
So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight
engineer Yuri Malenchenko, landed 260 miles off its mark.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Typhoon Neoguri swept through Macau, after it struck Hainan
island south of mainland China the night before.
(AFP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in
February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television saying
he was being held by the Taliban and urged Islamabad to meet their
demands.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Hamas militants drove two cars laden with explosives to an
Israeli border crossing with Gaza under the cover of morning fog and
detonated one. 4 militants were killed in the huge blasts and
exchanges of fire with at least 13 Israeli soldiers wounded. Israel
killed 5 Hamas militants in a series of airstrikes after the group
detonated the explosives.
(AFP, 4/19/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 19, In southern Spain
a crash of a bus filled with Finnish tourists left nine people dead
near the resort town of Benalmadena. Police arrested the driver of
the other vehicle, who was not seriously injured, after he failed a
blood alcohol test.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Syria defying
US and Israeli warnings, former President Jimmy Carter met again on
with Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of the militant Hamas group,
and his deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Zimbabwe held a partial recount of votes from last month's
general election as the opposition accused President Robert Mugabe
and his party of trying to rig their way back to power.
(AFP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 20, Pope Benedict XVI
held a Mass at Yankee Stadium on his last day in the US.
(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 20,
The US Coast Guard recovered the bodies of 20 migrants, 19
Haitians and one Honduran, from the sea near the Bahamas after their
boat apparently capsized.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Emeryville,
Ca., Chad Clarke (38), a suspected marijuana dealer, was shot a
killed. In 2011 Anthony Ramirez (25) was convicted of the murder and
sentenced to 25 years in prison. Co-defendant Ricco Orlando Earl
(31) had testified against Ramirez and faced 12-16 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/24/11, p.C3)
2008 Apr 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a child was killed in a militant rocket attack on an
army base in Kunar province. 4 Taliban were killed in a gun
battle with Afghan security forces in Kandahar province.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Brazil Rev.
Adelir Antonio de Carli, a 41-year-old Roman Catholic priest, went
missing after he lifted off under hundreds of balloons from the port
city of Paranagua wearing a helmet, an aluminum thermal flight suit,
waterproof coveralls and a parachute. Tugboat workers discovered a
body off Rio de Janeiro in early July that authorities believed
belonged to the cleric. DNA confirmed that it was the body of the
priest.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Apr 20,
China unveiled a new draft food safety law that provides for
penalties of up to life imprisonment for people responsible for the
production of substandard food.
(Reuters, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, The second and
final day of voting in Ethiopia's local and parliamentary polls was
held amid tight security. The 2 largest opposition parties boycotted
the elections saying intimidation had forced out over 17,000 of
their candidates.
(AP, 4/20/08)(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 20, A Georgian
unmanned reconnaissance flight was shot down over the Georgian rebel
region of Abkhazia. The next day Georgia's air force commander said
a Russian fighter jet shot down the spy plane as it flew over
Abkhazia, but Russia said it had been shot down by separatist forces
and that the flight violated UN ceasefire agreements. A UN report on
May 26 said a Russian jet shot down the spy drone.
(Reuters, 4/22/08)(AP, 4/22/08)(SFC, 5/27/08,
p.A12)
2008 Apr 20, In Indonesia
several thousand hardline Muslims protested outside the presidential
palace in Jakarta demanding that Pres. Yudhoyono ban Ahmadiyah, an
unorthodox but moderate Muslim sect founded in India in the 19th
century.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.59)
2008 Apr 20,
US troops killed 12 militants during an "uptick" in fighting,
as fierce clashes broke out in Baghdad's Sadr City district after
radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned he will declare war if a
crackdown against his followers persists. 6 civilians, four men and
two boys ages 8 and 10, were killed in fighting in Sadr City after
midnight. An armed drone fired a Hellfire missile at a group of
gunmen killing all three. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
arrived in Baghdad for a trip she said was intended to promote fresh
political gains she sees to be flowing from the government-led
assaults on radical militias.
(AP, 4/20/08)(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 20,
Israeli airstrikes killed 2 more Hamas militants one day after
the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of
explosives on the Gaza border.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20,
In Mauritius a conference of the 14-nation Southern African
Development Community (SADC) opened for talks on poverty and food
prices.
(AFP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Pakistan gunmen
riding a motorcycle killed three paramilitary soldiers in an ambush
in the town of Hub.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 20,
A group of Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraq-Syria
border since 2006 flew to Chile under a resettlement plan sponsored
by the Catholic Church in the South American country and the UN
agency for refugees.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20,
Paraguay held elections. The Colorado Party, in office since
1947, had the longest current run of uninterrupted governance in
Latin America. Fernando Lugo (56), a former Roman Catholic bishop,
won over Blanca Ovelar, a protege of President Nicanor Duarte. She
had sought to become Paraguay's first woman president. 43 percent of
the country's 6.5 million people lived in poverty.
(AP, 4/20/08)(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 20, Russia closed down
a plutonium producing reactor in Seversk, marking a milestone in US
nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, Pirates off the
Somali coast, armed with grenade launchers, stormed a Spanish tuna
fishing boat, the Playa de Bakio, with 26 crew members.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 20,
Sri Lankan forces killed a Roman Catholic priest who was also
a top human rights campaigner inside rebel-held territory, as
fighting raged in the troubled north.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, Zimbabwe announced
a delay in the partial recount of its disputed March 29 election.
The opposition accused the authorities of waging a "war" that has
killed 10 people and injured 500 others since disputed parliamentary
and presidential elections. The secretary general of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change said 400 opposition supporters have
been detained in Zimbabwe following the elections.
(AFP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 21, A US judge in
California sentenced Tai Mak (58) to 10 years in federal prison for
attempting to take unclassified but sensitive information about US
naval technology to China in 2005.
(SFC, 4/22/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 21,
It was reported that the 4th generation Oqo Model 02 personal
computer, which weighed one pound and clipped onto a belt, was
available for a starting price of $1,300. It had been developed over
the last 8 years in SF in a venture begun by former Apple and IBM
engineers.
(SFC, 4/21/08, p.D1)
2008 Apr 21, Crude oil futures
settled at a record $117.48 per barrel.
(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 21,
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson announced that Australia
has extended control of its continental shelf by nearly 1 million
square miles under an agreement with the UN.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21, The 6-member Gulf
Cooperation Council met in Bahrain, along with representatives from
Egypt, Jordan and Condoleezza Rice for the US, to discuss diplomatic
support for Iraq as well as other issues. Rice failed to secure firm
commitments on debt relief for Iraq.
(SFC, 4/22/08, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 21,
The Bank of England announced a 50-billion-pound plan, the
special Liquidity Scheme, to free up Britain's home loan market in
one of the biggest moves by a major central bank to combat the
global credit crunch.
(AFP, 4/21/08)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.96)
2008 Apr 21,
The Ethiopian government announced it was severing diplomatic
relations with Qatar, accusing the Gulf Arab state of destabilizing
the Horn of Africa region.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21, The Paris city
council bestowed the title of "honorary citizen" on the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
In Indonesia Self-proclaimed Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders Abu
Dujana and Zarkasih, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, were
sentenced to 15 years each at separate trials in the South Jakarta
district court.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki urged other Arab
countries to reopen their embassies in the capital as a show of
support for his government as it cracks down on Shiite militias in
Iraq. 6 people died in clashes in Baghdad's embattled Shiite enclave
of Sadr City. They included 3 policemen and 3 civilians. In Baqouba
a woman wearing an explosive vest blew herself up at the
headquarters of group of US-allied Sunni fighters. The blast killed
3 people and wounded 4. An unmanned drone killed two gunmen in
Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district. US troops were hit by a
roadside bomb and then attacked with small-arms fire. They returned
fire and killed 3 attackers. 2 US soldiers were killed by a bomb in
Salahuddin province. A US Marine was killed by a roadside bomb in
Basra.
(AP, 4/21/08)(AP, 4/22/08)(SFC, 4/22/08,
p.A10)(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 21, Israeli military
forces killed three Palestinian militants who were trying to
infiltrate into Israel from Gaza. Former President Carter said that
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has called for the
destruction of Israel, is prepared to accept the right of the Jewish
state to "live as a neighbor next door in peace." Hamas said it
would accept a Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders.
(AP, 4/21/08)(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 21, In Japan PM Yasuo
Fukuda met with South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak and both declared
a new era of closer cooperation.
(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 21, Pirates in the
Gulf of Aden fired on a Japanese oil tanker, unleashing hundreds of
gallons of fuel into the sea. The attack took place 170 miles off
the coast of Yemen while the 150,000-ton tanker was heading to Saudi
Arabia.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
Malaysia's leg of the Olympic torch relay passed off largely
without incident with a heavy police presence netting just five
protesters and thousands of well-wishers braving torrential rain.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
A rebel group from Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta said it
attacked two major oil pipelines there in what it called a message
to the United States to stop supporting "injustice" in the troubled
region.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
A prison official says Pakistan has ordered the release of
Sufi Muhammad, a pro-Taliban leader who sent thousands of fighters
against the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21, In South Korea an
Agriculture Ministry official said at least 5.3 million birds will
be slaughtered to contain its latest outbreak of bird flu.
(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 21, In Sudan gunmen
killed a second driver delivering food aid for the UN's World Food
Program in the Darfur region, where banditry has forced vital
rations to be halved.
(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 21,Thailand’s
government said more than 10 million people in parts of its rice
bowl region have been hit by drought causing further concerns as
prices of the staple grain soared.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22, In New Orleans
Pres. Bush ended a 2-day meeting with PM Harper of Canada and Pres.
Calderon of Mexico as all three defended NAFTA. Bush denied the US
is in recession calling the current economic situation a slowdown.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 22, In Pennsylvania
Hillary Clinton won the primary with about 55% of the vote to 45%
for Obama.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 22, A US district
Court in Manhattan charged Ben-ami Kadish (84), a former US Army
mechanical engineer, with 4 counts of conspiracy. He was charged of
spying for Israel and sending classified documents on nuclear
weapons to an employee of the Israeli consulate.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 22, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger designated the historic Irvine Ranch, nearly 40,000
acres of protected habitat, as the 1st California Natural Landmark.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.B6)
2008 Apr 22, In California a
grizzly bear named Rocky (5) killed trainer Stephan Miller (39) at
the Randy Miller’s Predators in Action center in San Bernadino
County.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A2)(SFC, 4/24/08, p.B2)
2008 Apr 22, The Bank of Canada
cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 3
percent, as expected, but suggested it might pause a little before
cutting rates again.
(Reuters, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22, In Colombia former
Sen. Mario Uribe, a 2nd cousin and close political ally of President
Alvaro Uribe wanted for allegedly backing illegal militias,
surrendered to police after Costa Rica denied him political asylum.
Charges included seeking support from right-wing paramilitary gunmen
in 2002 and buying land that was illegally obtained by them.
(AP, 4/23/08)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.55)
2008 Apr 22, In Indonesia
torchbearers ran laps with the Olympic flame in front of an
invitation-only crowd after officials changed the relay route from
Jakarta's streets to a sports stadium amid pressure from China to
keep away demonstrators.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki, at a meeting in Kuwait, urged neighboring countries to
help dry up "the springs of terrorism" by preventing militants from
obtaining weapons and financing from abroad.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22, In Iraq a Shadow
reconnaissance crashed south of Baghdad. A female suicide bombing in
Diyala province killed 18 people including 10 Iraqi civilians, a
Kurd and 7 Iraqi policemen. A car bomb in Mosul killed on person. In
Baghdad 21 suspected gunmen were killed in Shiite militia
strongholds. Officials said 15 civilians were among the dead,
including two women. A US airstrike killed a militant planting a
bomb wire. Police said an air strike killed 8 civilians. A car bomb
killed 2 US Marines and 10 Iraqis in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/22/08)(AP, 4/23/08)(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 22,
Alitalia flew into the unknown after Air France-KLM withdrew
its takeover offer, leaving Italy's long-struggling flagship airline
with little choice but to contemplate bankruptcy or receivership.
The outgoing center-left government allowed a loan of €300 million
to Alitalia.
(AP, 4/22/08)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.68)
2008 Apr 22, Anglo-Dutch oil
group Shell reported output loss of 169,000 barrels per day
following the sabotage of its key supply pipelines in southern
Nigeria.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22,
Senior representatives said Hamas has softened its position
and is willing to accept a cease-fire in just the Gaza Strip,
dropping a demand that the truce immediately include the West Bank.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22,
The Royal Bank of Scotland announced a record share issue of
12 billion pounds to shore up its finances after huge
subprime-related writedowns and the blockbuster takeover of Dutch
giant ABN Amro.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22,
Security forces in northern Somalia stormed a hijacked ship carrying
food, rescuing hostages and arresting seven pirates. The seizure was
the latest in a spate of pirate attacks off the increasingly lawless
Somali coast.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22, In Sri Lanka
rebels said Tamil separatists had destroyed an army tank after Sri
Lankan war planes bombed a Roman Catholic church compound killing a
man and wounding two children.
(AFP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22,
In Sudan counting started in a census seen as a vital step
towards holding democratic elections after a landmark 2005
north-south peace deal. In southern Sudan ethnic clashes broke out
that also targeted equipment and facilities used in the nationwide
census. Later reports said some 95 people were killed.
(AP, 4/22/08)(AFP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 23, Actress Megan Fox
was named the world's sexiest woman by an annual online poll, while
the world's most Googled woman, Britney Spears, barely scraped in at
No. 100 after a shocker of a year.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, The Bush
administration promoted Gen. David Petreaus head of Central Command.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno would succeed him as senior commander in
Iraq.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 23, The US Supreme
Court ruled that police can conduct searches and seize evidence
during arrests, even it the arrests turn out to violate state law.
(WSJ, 4/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said the
US is scrapping a $20 million virtual fence, developed by Boeing
Corp., on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system failed to
adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 23, New York’s Gov.
David Paterson signed into law a $1.25 per pack tax hike on top of
the state’s $1.50 per pack cigarette tax. NYC has an additional
$1.50 per pack tax. By July 1 smokers will be paying an average
$9.00 a pack for legal cigarettes. The taxes have encouraged major
criminal smuggling.
(WSJ, 5/7/08, p.A17)
2008 Apr 23, Vicorp Corp., the
Denver-based owner of Bakers Square and Village Inn restaurants,
said it had filed for Bankruptcy as it struggled amid a slowing
economy and higher operating costs.
(WSJ, 4/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 23, It was reported
that home foreclosures in California and the SF Bay Area soared over
300% during the first 3 months of 2008.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 23, In southern
Afghanistan a spate of suicide bombings and other attacks on
security forces left 13 people dead and 24 others wounded.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said
Bangladesh has begun evacuating thousands of stranded workers who
were trafficked into war-ravaged Iraq by illegal manpower traders.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, PM Gordon Brown
pledged that Britain would promote proposals for an arms embargo on
Zimbabwe.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, German publisher
Bertelsmann said it planned to publish the world's first reference
book based on entries from Wikipedia, the popular online
encyclopedia. The single volume, 992-page tome would contain about
50,000 condensed entries and sell for about $31.80.
(AP, 4/23/08)(SFC, 4/24/08, p.C1)
2008 Apr 23, Two US soldiers
were killed in an accident in Salahuddin province when their vehicle
rolled onto its side. Another American soldier died in a
single-vehicle accident on a highway in neighboring Kuwait.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, Norway raised its
main interest rate a quarter point to 5.5%.
(WSJ, 4/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 23, Officials and a
rebel spokesman said Pakistan's new government has drafted a peace
agreement with Taliban militants in its troubled tribal belt
bordering Afghanistan. A militant letter attributed to Baitullah
Mehsud, a Pakistani Al-Qaeda warlord accused of ordering Benazir
Bhutto's assassination, told followers to halt attacks amid peace
talks with the government.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, A threatened
shutdown of the Gaza Strip's only power plant was averted after
Israel agreed to pump in about 260,000 gallons of diesel fuel,
enough to run the plant for at least 3 days. An Israeli airstrike
killed a Palestinian civilian near the town of Beit Hanoun.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, In Somalia
residents said four more corpses were found Mogadishu, bringing the
death toll from last weekend's shelling and seizure of small towns
by the Islamists' to at least 103. Amnesty Int’l. Ethiopian
soldiers, stationed in Somalia to bolster the interim government,
had killed 21 people and captured dozens of children in a raid on
the Al Hidaaya mosque earlier this week during operations against
Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, In Sri Lanka
officials said at least 52 guerrillas and 38 soldiers were killed
and hundreds more wounded as Tamil separatists reported repulsing a
Sri Lankan offensive ahead of key local elections. The defense
ministry said its forces killed more than 100 Tigers and reported
losing 43 soldiers, with another 33 missing in action. It was the
security forces' biggest loss in a single offensive since October
2006. Later reports said at least 165 government soldiers were
killed and 20 more left missing in the battle with Tamil
separatists.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AFP, 4/24/08)(AFP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 23, Switzerland said
it had frozen the assets of a further 12 Iranian companies in
accordance with new UN sanctions aimed at stopping Tehran's alleged
nuclear program.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, Syria handed over
a trove of some 700 looted artifacts to Iraq after seizing the items
from traffickers since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam
Hussein.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, In Turkmenistan
Pres. Berdymukhamedov abolished the calendar introduced by his late
predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who named months after himself and
his parents as part of an elaborate personality cult.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, The UN nuclear
monitoring agency announced what it called a "milestone" agreement
with Iran that aims to provide answers about allegations that Tehran
tried to develop nuclear weapons.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez joined with his leftist allies to create a
$100 million program to fight the rising cost of food for Latin
America's poor.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, Zimbabwe state
media reported the first results from an election recount under way
showing President Robert Mugabe's party has won an additional
parliamentary seat. The recount in Goromonzi concluded with just a
one-vote difference from the original count from the poll, giving
the seat to Mugabe's ZANU-PF party,
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 24, It was reported
that the US military’s health insurance program has been swindled
out of more than $100 million over the past decade in bogus claims
filed in the Philippines, where US bases were closed in 1992.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 24, Film star Wesley
Snipes was sentenced to 3 years in prison for willfully failing to
file tax returns.
(SFC, 4/25/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 24, UC Berkeley
officials defended an arrangement that allowed campus Police Chief
Victoria Harrison (54) to retire last year with a $2.1 million
package and then return to the same job for more money.
(SFC, 4/25/08, p.B1)
2008 Apr 24, The
Washington-based Cato Institute announced that Yon Goicoechea (23),
a law student in Venezuela, was winner of the $500,000 Milton
Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Goicoechea took a central role
last year in rallying students to oppose what he sees as threats to
personal liberties and democracy in Venezuela.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, It was reported
that surviving members of the Grateful Dead band have decided to
give the group’s archives to the US Santa Cruz library.
(WSJ, 4/24/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 24, James Day (89),
co-founder of San Francisco’s KQED TV station (1954), died in NYC.
In 1995 he published “The Vanishing Vision: The Inside Story of
Public Television.”
(SFC, 4/30/08, p.B9)
2008 Apr 24, In Argentina
authorities detained Luis Abelardo Patti, a politician and former
police officer targeted in a Dirty War-era human rights probe in
Argentina, just hours after Congress barred him from taking up a
seat that would have afforded him immunity.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 24, In Bolivia a
packed SUV collided with a group of cyclists on Bolivia's "Highway
of Death," killing 9 people, including a British man who was the
second foreign tourist to die this week along the notorious road.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, In England police
in Leeds found Damien Oldfield (33) stabbed to death. Anthony Morley
(36) attacked Damien Oldfield (33) during a night the pair spent
together at Morley's home. Morley slit Oldfield's throat as he lay
in his bed, stabbed him repeatedly and cooked some of his flesh. On
Oct 20 Morley was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)(http://tinyurl.com/6nw7hx)
2008 Apr 24, Canada’s British
Columbia province shut the door on exploring for radioactive
minerals, saying companies cannot claim rights to them even if the
discovery is by accident.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, China said a
shipment of arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South
African workers refused to unload the vessel and other neighboring
countries barred it from their ports.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Ethiopia launched
a commodities exchange market, aimed at boosting fair trade and
stabilizing its food market.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, In Honduras gunmen
ambushed and killed Altagracia Fuentes (60), the leader of Honduras'
largest workers federation and two traveling companions.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 24, Britain's foreign
secretary held talks with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki. PM al-Maliki
said all political blocs have agreed to return to the government. At
least 13 people were reported killed in the ongoing fighting between
Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and US-led forces. A US soldier was
killed in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AP, 4/25/08)(WSJ, 4/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 24, An Israeli
airstrike in Gaza wounded three militants and tanks were moving
toward the area. Hamas proposed a six-month cease-fire with Israel,
saying it will stop firing rockets out of Gaza if the Jewish state
simultaneously lifts its blockade of the coastal strip.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Nepal's former
communist rebels were declared the biggest party in a new governing
assembly. While the Maoists won't have a majority, they are expected
to usher in sweeping changes for the poor Himalayan nation.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, In Nigeria members
of a white-collar union working for Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN),
an affiliate of US oil group ExxonMobil, began an indefinite strike
over pay and working conditions. MEND fighters sabotaged a Royal
Dutch Shell oil pipeline in southern Rivers State.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 24, Sri Lanka carried
out retaliatory air strikes against Tamil Tiger rebels, a day after
intense artillery battles left hundreds killed or wounded, according
to officials on both sides.
(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Syria dismissed US
accusations that North Korea was helping it build a nuclear reactor
that could produce plutonium. Israeli warplanes bombed a site in
Syria on Sept. 6, 2007, that private analysts said appeared to have
been the site of a reactor, based on commercial satellite imagery
taken after the raid. Syria later razed the site.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Taiwan's Supreme
Court cleared the island's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou of
corruption charges, delivering a final ruling in the high-profile
case less than a month before he takes office.
(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Elections were
held in Tonga as part of its transition to full democracy.
(Econ, 5/3/08, p.52)
2008 Apr 25, Wachovia Corp.
agreed to pay as much as $144 million to settle an 18-month
government investigation into its relationships with telemarketers
that allegedly harmed 350,000 to 500,000 consumers.
(WSJ, 4/26/08, p.A6)
2008 Apr 25, In San Diego a
bomb exploded at the FedEx building. Another bomb exploded at a
downtown San Diego courthouse on May 4. There were no injuries in
either of the early morning bombings. On August 6 authorities
indicted 3 people: Rachelle Carlock, Ella Louise Sanders and Eric
Reginald Robinson, for both bombings.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 25, Near San Diego,
Ca., a shark killed triathlete David Martin (66) at Solano Beach.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Chicago a
tractor trailer that witnesses said didn't seem to slow down rammed
into a crowded bus shelter and a Chicago Transit Authority train
station during the evening rush hour, killing two people and
injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 25, Enrico Donati
(99), Italian-born American painter, died in Manhattan. He was
considered by many to be the last of the Surrealists. Donati had
also served as chairman and CEO of Houbignant Inc., one of the
oldest purveyors of French perfumes. He had bought the company in
1965.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.B5)
2008 Apr 25, Some 50 Taliban
attacked Afghan police at Charbaran in Paktika province. The police
called in American help and American helicopters broke the attack.
Several insurgents were later tracked by drones and killed.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.37)
2008 Apr 25, Police swarmed a
Rio de Janeiro slum in search of a drug lord, touching off a
shootout that killed 11 people including a 70-year-old woman. Two
bystanders were wounded. Emival Barbosa Machado (50), an Amazon
farmer who received death threats after reporting illegal logging to
authorities, was shot to death as he left his house in Tucurui.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 25, China's government
agreed to a meeting with an envoy of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai
Lama, a step that follows weeks of calls from world leaders for
dialogue in the wake of anti-government protests in Tibet.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, China banned a
controversial type of irreversible brain surgery used to treat
schizophrenia.
(WSJ, 4/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Apr 25, Iranians voted in
parliamentary run-off elections expected to leave conservatives
firmly in control because most reformist candidates were barred from
running.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr called for an end to clashes between his militia
fighters and Iraqi troops, saying that his threat of an "open war"
applied only to US-led foreign forces. The US military said American
and Iraqi forces killed 10 militants in overnight clashes in
northeastern Baghdad. Local hospital officials said 7 people,
including two women, were killed and 45 others were wounded in the
clashes.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Japan
protesters waved the Tibetan flag and denounced China's rulers as
the Beijing Olympic torch arrived for the latest leg of a worldwide
relay marred by demonstrations.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, In northwestern
Pakistan a car bomb killed three people, despite calls from Taliban
leaders asking Islamic militants to refrain from attacks amid
efforts by the new government to reach peace deals in the region.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, A Palestinian
militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards at a factory
along the divide between Israel and the West Bank. The attacker was
lightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire but managed to escape.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Sri Lanka a
bomb in a bus baggage rack exploded outside Colombo killing 24
people and wounding 40.
(SFC, 4/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes
and artillery units struck Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq who were
preparing to cross the border to carry out attacks. The strikes
continued the next day.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Zimbabwe
heavily armed police swooped down on opposition headquarters and
independent election observers' offices, arresting hundreds and
beating and shoving scores of people.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 26, Eos Airlines, a
business-class carrier launched in 2005, filed for bankruptcy. It
ceased operations the next day.
(SFC, 4/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 26, A wildfire broke
out in southern California, 10 miles northeast of Pasadena.
Officials the next day said that it has scorched 270 acres and
forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in neighborhoods might not
be under control for days.
(AP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 26, In South Carolina,
Nathaniel Dickson (18) was arrested for the shooting of his father
(46), stepmother, stepsister and younger brother. The family was
found shot dead earlier in the day at their home just outside of
Easley, SC.
(SFC, 4/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 26, Henry Brant
(b.1913), Canada-born composer, died in Santa Barbara. He was a
pioneer in the use of spatial effects and his work included “Ice
Field,” which premiered in SF in December 2001. It won him the 2002
Pulitzer Prize for Music.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.B5)
2008 Apr 26, In Austria police
found a woman (42), missing since 1984, in the town of Amstetten
following a tip. Elisabeth said her father, Josef Fritzl, had kept
her captive in a cellar for almost 24 years, that he had repeatedly
raped her, and that she gave birth to 7 children, one of whom later
died. In November Fritzl (73) was charged with murder as well as
rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery. On March 18, 2009,
Fritzl pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including
homicide, after his daughter appeared unexpectedly in the courtroom.
On March 19 Fritzl was convicted of homicide and sentenced him to
life imprisonment in a secure psychiatric facility.
(AP, 4/27/08)(AP, 11/13/08)(AP, 3/18/09)(AP,
3/19/09)
2008 Apr 26, In Canada transit
workers in Toronto went on strike after rejecting a tentative
contract deal, shutting down bus, streetcar and subway service in
Canada's most populous city.
(Reuters, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, In Iran according
to final results Conservatives consolidated their control of the
legislature in runoff elections but moderates within the bloc
opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged as a stronger
force.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, Clashes continued
in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, a sprawling district in
northeastern Baghdad, although they did not appear as fierce in
recent days. Hospital officials said 8 bodies were received of
people killed in overnight fighting. 12 other people, including a
schoolboy, were wounded early in the day. 3 suicide car bombers also
targeted Iraqi security forces, killing at least 7 people in Mosul.
Another suicide car bomber struck a police patrol elsewhere in the
city, killing 4 people and wounding 7.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, Israeli forces
entered a northern Gaza town and seized a local Hamas leader from
his home amid heavy fighting with Palestinian gunmen. The wanted
man's 14-year-old daughter was killed in the clashes.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, In Mexico running
gunbattles between suspected drug traffickers broke out on the
streets of the border city of Tijuana, killing 13 people and
wounding nine.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, In Morocco fire
broke out at a mattress factory in Casablanca, killing at least 55
people, and fire-fighters were still searching the smoldering
building for more bodies.
(Reuters, 4/26/08)(AFP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 26, The Spanish
government said the 26 crew members onboard the Playa de Bakio
fishing boat, hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia nearly a
week ago, have been freed. A maritime official said it was freed
after a 1.2 million-dollar ransom was paid.
(AP, 4/26/08)(AP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 26, In Sri Lanka the
defense ministry said a total of 54 Tiger guerrillas were killed in
separate clashes with security forces and heavy ground fighting was
continuing. The ministry said seven troops were also killed.
(AFP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 26, Turkey's PM
Erdogan was in Syria in a bid to restart peace negotiations between
Damascus and its Mideast foe, Israel.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, Official results
showed Zimbabwe's main opposition movement has won a historic
victory over President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, but the outcome
of the presidential vote remained unknown.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 27, It was made public
that Mars Inc. of McLean, Va., together with Berkshire Hathaway had
agreed to acquire Wrigley Co. of Chicago, Ill., for about $23
billion. The deal closed on Oct 6.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/7/08, p.D2)
2008 Apr 27, In Arizona a truck
jammed with as many as 60 illegal immigrants crashed near Arizona
City killing 4 people.
(SFC, 4/28/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 27, In San Ramon, Ca.,
Kashmir Billon (42), a mortgage lender, was shot and killed. On May
1 Reginald Robinson (31) was charged with the murder. They were
involved in a deal to sell a home to a fictitious person and leave a
bank holding the bag.
(SFC, 5/2/08, p.B1)(SFC, 5/8/08, p.B1)
2008 Apr 27, Hal Stein, veteran
jazz saxophonist and teacher, died at his home in Oakland, Ca. His
career spanned the swing and bebop eras of jazz.
(SFC, 5/6/08, p.B5)
2008 Apr 27, Suspected Taliban
militants attacked the Mujahideen Day parade attended by the Afghan
president, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent foreign
dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover.
3 people, including a lawmaker, were killed and 8 were wounded.
Pres. Karzai later appeared on television saying several suspects in
the attack had been arrested. The Afghan government later accused
the Pakistani intelligence service of organizing the plot to
assassinate Pres. Karzai. Taliban militants attacked an Australian
patrol with automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades in
southern Afghanistan, and the ensuing battle left one of the
commandos dead and four others wounded.
(AP, 4/27/08)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.50)(SFC, 6/26/08,
p.A10)
2008 Apr 27, President Rene
Preval chose Ericq Pierre, an international banking official, to be
the troubled country's next prime minister.
(AP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 27, Iraq's PM
al-Maliki met with the Sunni Arab vice president to discuss
reintegrating Sunni political parties into the Shiite-dominated
government. Police said five people died in violence in Baghdad.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a
security checkpoint in the eastern neighborhood of Zayouna killing
three people and injuring nine. Shiite extremists lobbed rockets or
mortar shells at the US protected Green Zone as American and Iraqi
troops engaged militants in the most violent clashes in weeks in
Baghdad. Abrams tanks were used to repel attacks on two army
checkpoints, killing 22 militants in one clash. 16 other militants
were killed in separate firefights. A US military statement said an
unmanned drone had killed a total of five militants using Hellfire
missiles in three separate engagements.
(AP, 4/27/08)(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 27, A summit aimed at
kick-starting Maghreb economic integration was disrupted when
Moroccan and Algerian government ministers clashed over the disputed
Western Sahara region.
(AFP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 27, Hundreds of
workers at Scotland's only oil refinery began a 48-hour strike. This
forced BP PLC to shut a pipeline system that delivers almost a third
of Britain's North Sea oil.
(AP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 27, A North Korean
defector tried to set himself on fire to halt the Olympic torch
relay through Seoul, while thousands of police guarded the flame
from protesters blasting China's treatment of North Korean refugees.
A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea for the first time in
a decade across the heavily fortified border dividing the countries.
(AP, 4/27/08)(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 27, In Sri Lanka Tiger
rebels used aircraft to bomb military targets, dealing a
psychological blow to security forces, as the two sides fought heavy
ground battles.
(AFP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 27, In Sudan China’s
state-owned China Water and Electric Corp (CWE) and Sino-Hydro
signed a 400-million dollar (255-million euro) deal to raise the
height of Sudan's oldest dam, in the southern Blue Nile state.
(AFP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 28, The US Supreme
Court upheld Indian’s voter-ID law, passed in 2005. It ruled that
states can require voters to produce photo identification without
violating their constitutional rights, validating
Republican-inspired voter ID laws.
(AP, 4/28/08)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)(Econ, 5/3/08,
p.40)
2008 Apr 28, The IRS began
depositing tax-rebate checks in thousands of bank accounts as the US
stimulus program began early.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 28, In Washington
truck drivers honked horns, waved placards and shouted through
bullhorns at the Capitol to protest rising fuel prices they say are
hurting their livelihood.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 28, In Oakland, Ca., a
jury convicted Hans Reiser, a computer programmer, of 1st degree
murder in the death his wife Nina Reiser, even though her body has
not been found.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 28, In South Carolina
the new 140-acre Hard Rock Park opened for business in Myrtle Beach.
The official opening was set for May 9. The park closed in
September. On Jan 6, 2009, a Delaware court approved a request the
company to begin liquidating. Private investors had put up some $75
million for the them park and raised another $320 million in debt to
fund the operation.
(WSJ, 1/7/09,
p.B1)(www.oceancreek.com/blog/hard-rock-park/2008/04/)
2008 Apr 28, In southeast
Virginia 6 destructive tornadoes resulted in much devastation and
over 200 injuries but no deaths. Gov. Timothy Kaine declared a state
of emergency in the hardest hit areas.
(AP, 4/29/08)(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 28, In Australia
police in Perth arrested Robert Agius (58) on charges of running a
money laundering scheme that helped clients avoid taxes by
transferring $93 million through offshore bank accounts.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, In China a
policeman and a Tibetan activist were killed following a raid
against ethnic Tibetans in Qinghai province.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A11)
2008 Apr 28, In eastern China a
high-speed passenger train jumped its tracks and slammed into
another train, killing 72 people and injuring 416 in China's worst
train accident in a decade.
(AP, 4/28/08)(AP, 7/24/11)
2008 Apr 28, Egypt’s official
MENA news agency reported that PM Ahmed Nazif has urged anyone who
can resolve the nationwide problem of price rises to come forward
with ideas.
(AFP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, In Indonesia
hundreds of protesters in West Java province chanted "Kill, kill"
and set fire to a mosque belonging to the Muslim Ahmadiyah sect they
claim is heretical. Last week, a team of prosecutors, religious
scholars and government officials said the sect "had deviated from
Islamic principles" and recommended it be outlawed.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Iran and Russia
discussed the outlines of "serious proposals" aimed at assuring the
international community that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful,
state media reported.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Shiite extremists
lobbed more rockets or mortar shells at the US protected Green Zone.
A suicide attacker on a motorcycle struck a checkpoint manned by
US-allied Sunni fighters in eastern Baghdad, killing at least one
and wounding four other members of the awakening council. Gunmen
killed a local commander of al-Sadr, Ali Ghalib, in Basra. US
soldiers killed 7 extremists in Sadr City after coming under small
arms fire. 4 US soldiers were killed in Baghdad by rocket or mortar
fire.
(AP, 4/28/08)(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A5)
2008 Apr 28, An Israeli tank
shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home during a skirmish with
gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they
prepared to sit down for breakfast. A militant and an unidentified
man were also killed in fighting in Beit Hanoun, a northern border
town frequently used by militants to fire rockets and mortars at
southern Israel.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Residents of Rome
elected Gianni Alemanno, the Italian capital's first right-wing
mayor since World War II. He took 53.6 percent of the vote to 46.3
percent for Francesco Rutelli, a former two-time center-left Rome
mayor.
(AP, 4/29/08)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.61)
2008 Apr 28, In Morocco 3
people burned to death in a factory fire in Casablanca.
(AFP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 28, Baitullah Mehsud,
a Pakistani Taliban commander, pulled out of a peace deal with the
government after it refused to withdraw the army from tribal lands
on the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Russia ordered two
American military attaches at the US Embassy in Moscow to leave the
country following the expulsion of a pair of Russian diplomats from
Washington. One Russian military officer was ordered to leave
Washington in November last year. The second was ordered to leave on
April 22.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 Apr 28, Sri Lanka hailed
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit as an important step
in cementing closer ties between the two nations.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, A Ukrainian
helicopter crashed onto an offshore drilling platform in the Black
Sea, killing all 20 people on board.
(Reuters, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Officials said
Vietnam is ending a child adoption agreement with the United States
after being accused of allowing baby-selling and corruption.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, The Olympic torch
arrived in Vietnam from North Korea, where tens of thousands of
citizens were mobilized to celebrate the relay in Pyongyang in the
flame's first visit to the authoritarian nation.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 28, Lawyers in
Zimbabwe appealed for the release of some 200 jailed opposition
activists as officials defied pressure from the West to release the
results of last month's presidential election.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 29, Sen. Barack Obama,
US presidential candidate, angrily repudiated Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
his former pastor, for his recent remarks on race and US foreign
policy.
(WSJ, 4/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 29, California’s Gov.
Gov. Schwarzenegger said the state deficit could grow to as much as
$20 billion.
(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 29, James Woodward
(55) walked out of a Dallas court after DNA testing overturned his
conviction over 27 years ago for the murder and rape of his
girlfriend.
(Reuters, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 29, The videogame
“Grand Theft Auto IV,” produced by Take-Two Interactive Software,
hit the stores with expectations of record sales. First week sales
topped $50 million.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.B7)(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.B8)
2008 Apr 29, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb tore through a team preparing to eradicate opium poppy
fields, killing at least 19 people and injuring over 40 others in
eastern Nangarhar province. 12 police officers were among the dead.
(AFP, 4/29/08)(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 29, Australia's
government promised to spend about $2.9 billion to buy river water
from farmers in a bid to address the country's worst drought in a
century.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, A Chinese court
jailed 30 people for terms ranging from three years to life for
their roles in Tibet's deadly riots, which triggered anti-China
protests across the globe ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, In China a
newspaper reported that thousands of children in southwest China
have been sold into slavery like "cabbages," to work as laborers in
more prosperous areas such as the booming southern province of
Guangdong.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Colombia police
killed Victor Manuel Mejia in a raid at his ranch hideout. The
government initially said it was his brother Miguel Angel. Both were
wanted for extradition to the United States, with US$5 million
rewards for their capture. In 2009 Miguel Angel Mejia was extradited
to the US on drug trafficking charges.
(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A2)
2008 Apr 29, Gastao Salsinha,
the leader of a group of East Timor rebels accused of trying to
assassinate President Jose Ramos-Horta, surrendered with 12 of his
men, raising hopes that the troubled young nation can find some rare
stability.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, European nations
failed to convince Lithuania to allow the EU to launch talks on a
new partnership pact with Russia.
(AFP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, EU nations signed
a premembership trade-and-aid pact with Serbia to help pro-Western
parties win elections. The deal would only be implemented if
Belgrade fully cooperates with the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal.
(WSJ, 4/30/08, p.A11)
2008 Apr 29, A $7 billion gas
pipeline that would link Iran and India topped the agenda as the
Islamic republic's president made his first visit to New Delhi,
despite strong US objections to the project.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 29, In Iraq a roadside
bomb hit Dhia Jodi Jaber, director general at the Ministry of Labor
and Social Affairs, as he left his Baghdad home in his car.
Militants killed the nephew of Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an
Interior Ministry spokesman, and hanged the body from an electric
pole in Baghdad. The attack was in apparent retaliation for the
spokesman's role in a government crackdown against Shiite militias.
US soldiers killed 28 militants during a four-hour firefight in
Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City. 2 US were killed
soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/29/08)(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 5/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 29, Migrant rights
activists applauded a vote by Mexico's Congress to remove
long-standing criminal penalties for undocumented migrants found in
the country. President Felipe Calderon's office declined to say
whether he would sign the popular measure into law.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Human rights
watchdog Amnesty International accused Mozambique police of killing
and torturing people with impunity as the country struggles to deal
with growing crime.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, The International
Criminal Court in The Hague published an arrest warrant for Bosco
Ntaganda (35), known as "the Terminator," a Congo militia leader
wanted for allegedly using child soldiers.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Russia announced
it was beefing up its peacekeeping force in Georgia's breakaway
Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, saying it had evidence Tbilisi
was readying its forces for an attack.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Workers returned
to the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland after a 48-hour
strike that forced the closure of a major North Sea pipeline system.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, An explosion in
southwestern Somalia killed four Ethiopian troops and the subsequent
gunfire killed two civilians.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Albert Hofmann
(102), the father of the mind-altering drug LSD, died. His medical
discovery inspired, and arguably corrupted, millions in the 1960s
hippie generation. The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid
diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a
fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals
firm in Basel. He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when
a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a
laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943. Hofmann to LSD for the last
time when he was 97.
(AP, 4/30/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.21)
2008 Apr 29, In Taiwan the de
facto US envoy assured incoming president Ma Ying-jeou that
Washington will continue to back Taiwan militarily while it pushes
for peace talks with China.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, A power outage
left wide swaths of Venezuela without electricity, including much of
the capital. The blackout was caused by a forest fire that
overheated power lines in the central state of Guarico.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 30, The US Federal
Reserve cut interest rates for a 7th time in 8 months, but signaled
that the rate-cutting may be nearing an end. The federal funds rate
was lowered to 2% from 2.25%.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 30, Scientists at
Hewlett-Packard said they have discovered a fourth basic type of
electrical circuit that could lead to a computer you never have to
boot up. The three fundamental elements of a passive circuit
included resistors, capacitors and inductors. In 1971 Leon Chua of
the University of California at Berkeley, theorized there should be
a fourth called a memory resistor, or memristor, which remembers the
direction and the amount of charge that flows through it.
(Reuters, 5/1/08)(SFC, 5/1/08, p.C1)
2008 Apr 30, Afghan security
forces raided a Kabul hide-out where militants with suspected links
to the attack on President Hamid Karzai were holed up. Seven people
died in the pre-dawn raid, including a child.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, Attorney General
Robert McClelland said Australian gay and lesbian couples will have
the same rights as heterosexuals under new laws but marriage will
remain off limits.
(AFP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, Western Australia
state police raided the Perth offices of the Sunday Times, which is
published by Australia's largest newspaper publisher, Rupert
Murdoch's News Limited. Staff said police were searching for the
source of a leak that led to a story alleging the state government
planned to use 16 million dollars (14.9 million US) in taxpayer
funds on an advertising campaign to help its re-election.
(AFP, 5/1/08)
2008 Apr 30, Canada pledged an
extra C$50 million ($49.5 million) for international food aid and
said it would also allow its money to be used to buy food abroad and
not tie it to purchases of Canadian produce.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, Syncrude Canada's
operations were under investigation by environmental regulators
after as many as 500 birds landed in the waste water in the oil
sands region of northern Alberta.
(Reuters, 5/1/08)
2008 Apr 30, The Olympic torch
returned to Chinese soil after a turbulent 20-nation tour, landing
in the bustling financial capital of Hong Kong where officials
deported at least seven activists before the flame's arrival.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, In Egypt state
news agency MENA said Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo for
talks with Egyptian security officials have agreed to an Egyptian
proposal for a truce with Israel starting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, Baghdad sent a
delegation to Tehran with "evidence, confessions and pictures"
indicating that Iran is supplying weapons and training fighters who
are locked in a violent standoff with US and Iraqi troops. PM
al-Maliki accused the Mahdi Army of using civilians as human
shields, and vowed to continue the crackdown against militias. 2
people were killed and 16 wounded overnight in Sadr City. Clashes in
Baghdad killed at least 25 people. 3 US soldiers were killed in
Baghdad. A US soldier was killed by an explosion in Ninevah
province.
(AP, 4/30/08)(AP, 5/1/08)(SFC, 5/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 30, Ethiopian troops
allied to Somalia's shaky government opened fire on civilians in a
street in southwestern Somalia, killing 13 after an explosion there
killed two soldiers.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, An official said
Nepal will give the families of the 13,000 people killed in the
country's decade-long civil war more than 1,500 dollars each in
compensation.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, In Niger a summit
of nine west African states convened in Niamey to consider a
proposed 20-year, 5.5 billion euro (8.6 billion dollar) program to
rescue the Niger River from extinction and guarantee the future of
110 million people.
(AFP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, In the southern
Philippines troops captured a camp that housed a bomb-making factory
of al-Qaida-linked militants after heavy fighting.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 30, It was reported
that the value of spinner dolphin teeth in the Solomon Islands has
appreciated 400% in the last year from about .065 US cents to 26 US
cents. Dolphin teeth have been used there for centuries as currency.
(WSJ, 4/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 30, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in
southern Sudan and called for demarcation of the contested oil-rich
border region between the north and south.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 Apr 30, President Hugo
Chavez ordered the expropriation of Sidor, Venezuela's largest steel
maker, after attempts by the government to acquire a majority stake
in the company failed. Chavez said Venezuela will turn Siderurgica
del Orinoco, which was controlled by Luxembourg-based Ternium SA.,
into "a socialist company."
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 Apr 30, Zimbabwe said it
has decided to float its local currency on foreign exchange markets
in an attempt to eliminate speculation on the black market. Farmers
tore up their tobacco crop in protest on the auction floors of
Harare as state price controls to combat hyperinflation threatened
to wipe out their profits. An unidentified senior official with
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party said results from the March 29
election gave opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai 47% of the votes
while Mugabe trailed with 43%.
(AP, 4/30/08)(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 Apr, The US government
halted a family reunification resettlement program for East Africans
after DNA testing revealed widespread fraud.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr, According to the US
Coast Guard 36 Cubans died at sea this month while attempting to
reach the US. Some 3,846 Cubans had made the trip over the last 8
months with about 40% intercepted at sea.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.50)
2008 Apr, In Lufkin, Texas,
nurse Kimberly Saenz (34) injected 10 patients at a dialysis clinic
with bleach killing five of them. In 2009 she was charged with
murder and assault.
(SFC, 4/2/09, p.A7)
2008 Apr, Colton Harris-Moore
(17) escaped from a juvenile detention center in Washington state.
He had logged his first criminal conviction at age 12 and continued
to evade authorities with burglaries and robberies in Canada.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A17)
2008 Apr, In southern England
Isa Ibrahim (19), a British Muslim convert, was arrested for
planning a bomb attack at the Broadmead shopping mall in Bristol. In
2009 he was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in jail.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2008 Apr, In Cyprus human bones
from mass graves of some 100 individuals dating back 30-40 years
were laid out for relatives to collect for reburial. Almost 1500
Greek-Cypriots and some 500 Turkish-Cypriots had long been listed as
missing persons.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.71)
2008 Apr, In Namibia a
16th-century Portuguese trade vessel was found by chance as mine
workers created an artificial sand wall with bulldozers to push back
the sea for diamond dredging. Six bronze cannons, several tons of
copper, huge elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational
instruments, and a variety of weapons including swords, sabres and
knives were soon tugged out of the beach sand. Over 2,300 gold coins
weighing some 21 kilograms (46 pounds) and 1.5 kilograms of silver
coins were also found.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Apr, The Nikki Beach
Resort & Spa opened In the Turks and Caicos Islands. In 2009 the
exclusive resort that catered to celebrities and offered personal
butlers and a pillow menu closed after less than two years of
operation.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2008 Apr, The population of
Vietnam was about 85 million.
(Econ, 4/26/08, SR p.3)
2008 May 1, Pres. Bush proposed
$770 million in US food aid on top of $200 million released 2 weeks
ago to alleviate the global surge in food prices.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, Pres. Bush imposed
new sanctions against property owned or controlled by the military
junta in Myanmar.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 1, The National Marine
Fishery Service announced a ban on fishing for chinook salmon in the
ocean off California and most of Oregon.
(SFC, 5/2/08, p.B2)
2008 May 1, Philadelphia’s
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey announced a major
reorganization of the department's command structure and the
addition of nearly 250 officers on street patrols, part of a
crime-fighting strategy he said was already showing results. Mayor
Michael Nutter and the police commissioner had hoped to have 200
more police officers on the streets by this time as part of a new
33-page crime-fighting plan. Murders in the city had reached 392 in
2007. Gov. Ed Rendell agreed to help foot the bill.
(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.33)(http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_9120792)
2008 May 1, A report by the
American Lung Association said the eight metropolitan areas
considered to be the nation's most polluted by every measure were
Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia-Porterfield and
Hanford-Corcoran, all in California; Washington-Baltimore; St.
Louis; and Birmingham, Ala.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, Deborah Palfrey
(b.1956), a woman from Vallejo, Ca., known as the “D.C. Madam,” was
found hanged at her mother’s home in Tarpon Springs, Fl. She had
been convicted on April 15 of racketeering and other charges related
to a prostitution ring, whose clients included high profile
government officials.
(SFC, 5/2/08, p.A13)
2008 May 1, In Afghanistan 2
roadside bombs killed a NATO soldier and 8 civilians.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, In Australia 6
people were killed in Sydney Harbor when a boat packed with revelers
on a nighttime joyride and a fishing trawler collided.
(Reuters, 5/1/08)(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales celebrated May Day by announcing the nationalization of
Entel, the country’s leading telecommunications company, and
returning four foreign-owned natural gas companies to state control.
Bolivia privatized the struggling Entel in 1995, handing 50 percent
of the company to Stet International in exchange for the Italian
company's promise to invest $608 million to modernize its services.
Stet later merged with Telecom Italia. The Bolivian government said
Telecom Italia fell short on promised investment and owes some $25
million in taxes.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, Pascal Marlinge,
the country head of Save the Children UK in Chad, was shot dead by
gunmen who held up his three-car convoy between the villages of
Forchana and Hadjer Hadid, not far from the border with Sudan's
Darfur region. UN aid agencies suspended all but their most urgent
work in eastern Chad for two days in a "symbolic protest."
(Reuters, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, China inaugurated
one of the world's longest bridges, which will provide an important
new route into Shanghai. The 36-kilometer (22-mile) structure
connected Jiaxing city near Shanghai to the port city of Ningbo in
the eastern province of Zhejiang.
(AFP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, Cuba announced a
major shake-up of its troubled farm sector on May Day, shifting
control of the island's farms from officials at the Agriculture
Ministry to more than 150 local councils.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, A speeding tourist
bus carrying dozens of Europeans and Canadians overturned, rolled
off an embankment and burst into flames on a desert highway in
Egypt's Sinai peninsula. At least nine passengers were killed and
about 30 wounded.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, Rescuers found the
bodies of five French ski mountaineers who had been missing since
the day before when they were swept away by an avalanche during an
excursion on Punta Basei, a 10,000-foot peak in Italy's northwestern
Alps.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, In Hong Kong 18
people were killed and at least 44 injured when a coach taking
elderly local residents to a religious ceremony overturned.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, It was reported
that Iran has stopped using dollars for oil deals as it seeks to
reduce reliance on the US.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, A double suicide
bombing killed at least 36 people during a wedding procession as
people cheered the bride and groom in Balad Ruz, a town northeast of
Baghdad. A car bomb aimed at a US patrol in Baghdad killed at least
nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi
patrol car, killing two Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. 3 al-Qaida
insurgents fired on US soldiers as they tried to stop a vehicle near
Mosul. The soldiers returned fire, killing all three as well as the
driver of the vehicle. The US military said it killed 18 militants
overnight amid escalating fighting in the Shiite slum Sadr City.
Around Iraq, at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces were
killed nationwide last month, average of 36 a day, according to an
AP tally, down from March's total of 1,269, or an average of 41 per
day.
(AP, 5/1/08)(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, Roberto Velasco,
head of Mexico’s federal police organized crime division, was
murdered. Police later said the murder was likely ordered by Arturo
Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 1, Russia said an
extra contingent of its troops had begun arriving in Georgia's
breakaway region of Abkhazia, a move Tbilisi said was an illegal act
of military aggression.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, An Islamic
insurgent group said the US military killed Aden Hashi Ayro, a man
believed to be the head of al-Qaida in Somalia, and 10 others in an
airstrike overnight.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, South Africa lifted
a 13-year ban on killing elephants. The country had some 18,000
elephants.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 1, Three bombs
exploded in Spain's Basque region. No one was injured in the blasts,
which police said were carried out by the separatist group ETA.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, In Sri Lanka
suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a roadside mine, killing two
police commandos, as violence raged on across the north.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, A cabinet minister
said a runoff will be necessary to decide Zimbabwe's presidential
election, citing the government's own election results.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 2, The US Federal
Reserve and key European central banks announced a fresh offensive
against a global credit crisis that has gridlocked lending and
slowed the world economy.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Severe storms
rolled across Arkansas and killed 8 people, including a teenager
crushed by a tree while she slept in her bed. The deaths came after
earlier storms seriously damaged homes and businesses in the Kansas
City, Mo., area.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Sami al-Haj, an
Al-Jazeera cameraman, was released from US custody at Guantanamo
Bay. he returned home to Sudan after six years of imprisonment that
drew worldwide protests.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Britain's ruling
Labor Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record.
Labor won 24% of the votes, a warning to PM Brown that he must fix
Britain’s credit crunch.
(AP, 5/2/08)(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A1)
2008 May 2, In Chechnya
suspected Islamic militants clashed with police, killing two law
enforcement officers. The rebel-linked Web site Kavkaz Center
claimed that at least nine law enforcement officers were killed in a
gunfight that lasted for four hours.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, In southern Chile
authorities evacuated hundreds of people from villages after the
snowcapped Chaiten volcano, considered dormant for thousands of
years, erupted.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Colombian police
captured Miguel Angel Mejia, the second of two drug-trafficking
twins who were among the country's main cocaine shippers.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Cuba computers
went on sale to the general public and potential consumers were
lining up outside store windows to gawk and consider buying.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Honduras 31
prisoners were attacked by their cellmates with knives and guns just
hours after they were transferred to a prison in Tegucigalpa from
San Pedro Sula. At least 18 inmates died in the attack.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, Shiite clerics
offered sharply different visions in the showdown between government
forces and Shiite militias, one predicting that armed groups will be
crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be
prosecuted for crimes against his people. Al-Qaida insurgents,
mostly Sunnis, raked a police car with automatic weapons, killing 8
Iraqi policemen in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border. 2
civilians were killed and 7 others wounded in Baghdad's central
Salihiyah district after a mortar round apparently fired by Shiite
extremists toward the US-protected Green Zone fell short. According
to US military 10 militants were killed in fighting, including a
sniper and a triggerman accused of planting armor-piercing roadside
bombs in Sadr City and the adjacent Ubaydi area. A roadside bomb
attack in eastern Baghdad killed a US soldier. A roadside explosion
killed 4 Marines in western Anbar province.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman
said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq
for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in
northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Nigeria’s high
court ruled that former president Olusegun Obasanjo's daughter,
Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, currently in hiding, must face corruption
charges.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, A UN official said
rising prices and funding shortages have forced the UN to stop
providing emergency food aid to more than 13 percent of the 750,000
Palestinian refugees it feeds in Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Saudi Arabia a
German-based quartet staged the first-ever performance of European
classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender, largely
expatriate audience.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, South Sudan's
defense minister, Lieutenant General Dominic Dim Deng, was killed in
a plane crash along with 23 other people, most of them senior
members of the southern former rebel leadership.
(AFP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, In northern Yemen a
motorcycle bomb exploded amid a crowd of worshippers leaving a
mosque after prayers, killing at least 18 people and wounding about
45.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Zimbabwe elections
officials said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the
vote in the presidential elections, more than longtime President
Robert Mugabe but not enough to avoid a runoff. The opposition said
it was willing to share power with the ruling party, but not with
longtime President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 3, Big Brown pulled
won the Kentucky Derby 4 3/4 lengths ahead of the filly Eight
Belles, who was euthanized by injection on the track with 2 broken
ankles.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 3, In Berkeley, Ca.,
student Christopher Wooton (21) was stabbed to death during an off
campus scuffle. In 2010 former student Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield (22)
was convicted of 2nd degree murder and faced 16 years to life in
prison. In 2010 Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield was sentenced to 16 years to
life in prison.
(SFC, 5/14/10, p.C4)(SFC, 6/11/10, p.C5)
2008 May 3, In Philadelphia
police officer Liczbinski was shot with an assault rifle after a
robbery. One suspect was fatally shot by police soon after, another
was arrested the next day and a third was captured May 7.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 3, The Asian
Development Bank, announced emergency funding to help poor countries
struggling with rice prices that have nearly tripled in four months.
The Manila-based organization made the announcement while meeting in
Spain.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 3, An embassy
representative said 11 US diplomats have left Belarus after a row
with the tightly controlled former Soviet state over human rights
and sanctions.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, Early results
showed Boris Johnson defeating Ken Livingstone as mayor of London.
Voters also picked opposition candidates in more than 300 municipal
council races, prompting PM Brown to humbly pledge to heed the
scathing verdict.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, Thousands of
marijuana enthusiasts marched in downtown Toronto, many openly
smoking the drug as part of a globally coordinated rally meant to
celebrate cannabis culture and push for the drug's legalization.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, In Guinea prison
authorities said more than 30 prisoners escaped from a jail by using
spoons to scoop a hole in the baked earth wall of their prison
building which had been softened by rain.
(Reuters, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, The US military
fired missiles at a target about 50 yards away from the general
hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City district, wounding more than 20
people and destroying ambulances. US soldiers killed four militants
elsewhere in Baghdad. A US soldier died of wounds sustained in a
roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat
patrol in eastern Baghdad a day earlier.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, Insurgents attacked
an army convoy in northern Mali, violating a cease-fire and sparking
a fire fight that left five people dead.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, A tropical cyclone
slammed into Myanmar's main city of Yangon, ripping off roofs,
felling trees and raising fears of major casualties. Later counts
guessed that some 138,000 died or went missing due to the cyclone.
Foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's
deadliest storm on record. In 2010 Emma Larkin authored “Everything
Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma.”
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/6/08)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.86)
2008 May 3, Rebels in Nigeria's
oil-rich Niger Delta blew up three oil wells operated by Royal Dutch
Shell, their fifth attack in recent weeks against the petroleum
industry.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, In southern
Pakistan thousands of Islamists rallied to condemn an anti-Koran
film by a Dutch lawmaker and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in
Danish newspapers.
(AFP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, In Sri Lanka heavy
fighting between government troops and Tamil separatists left 35
rebels and eight soldiers dead.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 3, In Yemen 3 soldiers
and four rebels died in the overnight skirmishes that took place in
the remote mountain province of Saada, near the Saudi Arabian
border.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 4, Democrat Barack
Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton by just 7 votes in Guam's
nominating contest after record numbers of residents voted in the
tiny US territory's primary.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Abkhazian
anti-aircraft forces shot down 2 unmanned Georgian spy planes. A
Georgian Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claims as
"completely absurd disinformation" aimed at increasing tension in
the area.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In Afghanistan an
accidental explosion left 2 people dead and 13 wounded at a refuse
dump in Kabul’s northern outskirts.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, Residents of
Bolivia voted on an autonomy referendum whose likely passage is seen
as a rebuke to the country's leftist president. Exit polls showed
the Santa Cruz referendum would pass in a landslide. Pres. Morales
denounced the vote but quickly invited state governors for further
negotiations.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, In Brazil a boat
ferrying people home from a religious festival sank in the Amazon
region on the Solimoes River leaving at least 41 dead and dozens
missing.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 4, In the Cayman
Islands 5 captive Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, critically endangered
lizards that resemble miniature turquoise dragons, were found
scattered across a breeding park in the British dependency after
they apparently were stomped and gouged.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 4, In Chechnya a
remote-controlled bomb exploded on a roadside in Grozny, leaving
five police officers dead, while another officer was fatally shot
near the city.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao said he was hoping for positive results with envoys of the
Dalai Lama, as talks opened, but state media kept up a barrage of
attacks on Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. In Shenzhen envoys of
the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials held a day of talks aimed at
mending fences following a wave of unrest that pushed Tibet to
centre stage ahead of the 2008 Olympics. They agreed to further
contact.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)(Reuters, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, China's Health
Ministry issued a nationwide alert after the enterovirus 71 virus,
or EV-71, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, infected more
than 4,500 children in central Anhui province. The outbreak was
centered around Fuyang city, where 22 deaths have occurred.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In India 16 people,
including three children, were killed when an overcrowded jeep
crashed into a truck outside Mumbai. The jeep was filled with
members of a family traveling to a wedding party.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, A bomb hit a
motorcade carrying Iraq's first lady through Baghdad. Iraqi health
officials said at least 10 people, including two children, were
killed in the past 24 hours in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr
City. 2 Iraqi civilians were wounded in a Hellfire missile attack in
Baghdad's southwestern Aamel neighborhood and were evacuated to a
military hospital.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, In Japan thousands
of activists, artists and scholars gathered for an international
peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese
Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and
prevent the clause from being weakened.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Senegal’s Pres.
Abdoulaye Wade called the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO) a “bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own
functioning.”
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.69)
2008 May 4, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers during a
gunfight in Mogadishu. Inter-clan fighting in western Somalia, which
broke out the previous evening, left at least 12 people dead and at
least 15 others wounded in a land dispute.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In South Korea at
least eight were people killed when they were swept away by high
waves that hit the port of Boryeong Namdo on the west coast.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In Sudan government
bombs hit a primary school and a busy market place in Darfur,
killing at 12 people, including 6 children. Darfur rebels said three
other areas were also bombed: Ein Sirro and Jabel Medop in North
Darfur and an area in West Darfur near rebel-held Jabel Moun.
(Reuters, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 4, A Shiite rebel
leader in Yemen warned that his group will escalate its fight
against the government if the army continues an offensive that has
left almost 20 rebels and soldiers dead over the past two days.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 5, Philadelphia police
stopped the suspects' car while investigating a triple shooting. No
weapons were found in the car or on the suspects, but officers said
they had seen them shoot three people on a drug corner moments
earlier. Video shot by WTXF-TV from a helicopter showed officers
gathered around the vehicle as they pulled three men out. About a
half-dozen officers held two men on the ground on the driver's side.
Both were kicked repeatedly, while one was punched; one also
appeared to be struck with a baton. A review of the video led to the
firing of 4 officers with disciplinary action for 4 others. In 2009
a grand jury cleared the officers involved saying no excessive force
was used.
(AP, 5/8/08)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A2)(SFC, 8/7/09,
p.A5)
2008 May 5, Oil futures hit a
trading record of $120.36 before closing at a record $119.97.
(SFC, 5/6/08, p.D1)
2008 May 5, In Richmond, Ca., a
toxic spill of toluene killed some 200-300 fish in an irrigation
canal. The spill was the result of the theft of valves on holding
tanks. Damages from the theft of the brass worth $10 totaled some
$250,000.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.B1,3)
2008 May 5, Hugh Bradner
(b.1916), UC physicist and diver, died. In 1952 he invented the
neoprene wetsuit.
(SSFC, 5/11/08, p.B6)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.A8)
2008 May 5, Irvine Robbins
(b.1917), co-founder of the Baskins-Robbins ice cream chain, died.
Robbins and his brother-in-law Burt Baskin (d.1967) became partners
in 1948. They sold the company to United Fruit in 1967.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.A8)
2008 May 5, In Afghanistan 2
accidental explosions in Kabul left 7 people dead and more than 20
wounded, including some counternarcotics police. In Nangarhar
province US-led coalition troops killed several militants during a
raid. A roadside bomb in the south wounded 5 people, including 3
policemen.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 5, Canada banned all
smoking in federal prisons because a partial ban was largely
ignored. The full effect of the ban would not be felt until hidden
stockpiles of cigarettes are depleted.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)
2008 May 5, In China, state
media said a deadly viral outbreak that preys on children has
appeared in Beijing, and the number of infections in China has grown
to more than 8,000. Enterovirus 71 was blamed and went on to kill at
least 43 people with over 24,000 sickened.
(AP, 5/5/08)(SFC, 5/24/08, p.A8)
2008 May 5, Egypt's parliament
endorsed a government bill to raise taxes and fuel prices less than
a week after President Hosni Mubarak announced a 30 percent salary
increase for all government employees.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 5, Guatemala's
attorney general said 2,286 pending foreign adoptions have been
placed on hold for at least a month while officials review related
paperwork.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 5, An Iranian envoy
rejected nuclear inspections while Israel stays outside the global
nonproliferation treaty.
(WSJ, 5/6/08, p.A1)
2008 May 5, Iraqi health
officials said 41 that people, including women and children, have
been wounded in the last 24 hours in the militia stronghold of Sadr
City. At least 6 people were killed by US air strikes in Sadr City.
An attack in Mosul killed three prostitutes and wounded two others.
2 policemen were killed in clashes with unidentified gunmen in
Mosul. In eastern Mosul 2 gunmen were killed by police. In Tikrit a
car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in the central part of
the city killed four people and wounded 8 others. US and Iraqi
forces raided two police stations and arrested 48 policemen
suspected of having links to Shiite militias. A US Air Force gunship
strafed Shiite extremists who attacked US soldiers in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A3)
2008 May 5, In southern Mexico
a prominent cattle rancher hid from gunmen who killed two of his
sons and kidnapped his daughter in weekend attacks that left 17
people dead.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 5, Polish authorities
arrested the Kuwaiti ambassador's son (23) for briefly abducting
three Jewish teenagers at a hotel and claiming he had a bomb. Police
said a heavily intoxicated Mohammad A. had pulled three 16-year-old
Brazilians into their sixth-floor room of Warsaw's Holiday Inn.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 5, In the southern
Philippines communist rebels ambushed an army convoy with land mines
and machine-gun fire, killing three soldiers and wounding 13.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 5, In Somalia troops
opened fire and killed at least two people as tens of thousands of
people rioted over high food prices in Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 5, In Zimbabwe 2
truckloads of youths, led by senior members of Pres. Mugabe’s party,
marauded through Chiweshe and beat to death 11 opposition activists.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.A15)
2008 May 6, Sen. Barack Obama
climbed within 200 delegates of clinching the Democratic
presidential nomination. In the Indiana primary Clinton won 51% to
49%. In North Carolina Obama won 56% to 42%.
(AP, 5/7/08)(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A1)
2008 May 6, In New Mexico Wayne
Bent (66), the leader of an apocalyptic sect, was arrested and
charged with felony sex crimes against children.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A4)
2008 May 6, In California the
Vallejo City Council voted to declare bankruptcy after talks with
public employee unions failed to address a $16 million shortfall.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.B1)
2008 May 6, The California
Community College system announced a $50 million gift from the
Bernard Osher Foundation.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.B1)
2008 May 6, In Georgia William
Earl Lynd (53) was executed for the murder of his live-in
girlfriend. He was the first inmate executed since the Supreme Court
upheld lethal injections on April 16.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A2)
2008 May 6, In Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and another was wounded in a gun battle
with insurgents near Kandahar city.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 6, Canadian
researchers reported that suicide victims who were abused as
children have clear genetic changes in their brains in a finding
they said shows neglect can cause biological effects.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Chile’s Chaiten
volcano spewed lava and blasted ash more than 12 miles into the sky,
prompting a total evacuation of the provincial capital and other
settlements.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Chinese President
Hu Jintao arrived in Tokyo for a feel-good visit that will use ping
pong and pandas to take the edge off more contentious problems like
border disputes, historical animosity and concerns over China's rule
in Tibet.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Djibouti, a key US
ally in the Horn of Africa, urged the UN Security Council to take
immediate action to prevent a conflict with its northern neighbor
Eritrea.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Egyptian border
police fatally shot a Nigerian man who was trying to cross illegally
into Israel. Guards also shot three Sudanese men and one woman who
were also trying to sneak into Israel.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Officials in
Indonesia said at least 13 illegal gold miners were killed in a
landslide in remote Papua province.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, At least four
civilians were killed overnight in the Baghdad Shiite neighborhood
of Sadr City. The US military announced that about 3,500 American
soldiers are scheduled to leave Iraq in the coming weeks. US
Hellfire missiles killed 3 militants planting a roadside bomb in the
Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/6/08)(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A3)
2008 May 6, In Italy the
data-protection authority ruled that releasing tax returns into
cyberspace was illicit. Tax authorities had recently put all 38.5
million tax returns for 2005 up on the internet. A measure
authorizing the released had been signed on March 5, but not enacted
until the defeat of the Prodi government.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.61)
2008 May 6, Kenya froze the
assets of businessman Felicien Kabuga, the most wanted suspect in
Rwanda's genocide, saying it would stop him avoiding capture or
helping other fugitives. The US government has offered a $5 million
bounty for Kabuga's capture.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)(AP, 9/23/09)
2008 May 6, Lebanon’s
government declared Hezbollah’s military telecommunications network
illegal and said it was a threat to state security. The cabinet
removed Beirut airport’s security chief over alleged ties to
Hezbollah.
(WSJ, 5/7/08, p.A1)(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 6, In northern and
central Mali attacks by Tuareg rebels on several army posts left one
person dead.
(AFP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Mauritania’s
President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi said in a statement he had
named economist Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef (50) as prime minister.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 6, Myanmar's junta
decided to postpone voting on a new constitution in areas
hardest-hit by a devastating cyclone as the death toll soared above
22,500.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Niger Delta rebels
said that former US President Jimmy Carter had agreed to act as a
mediator if invited by Nigeria's government, and the group promised
to declare a ceasefire if talks went ahead.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, In northwest
Pakistan a suicide bomber riding a rickshaw attacked a police
checkpoint and gunmen fired on officers guarding a bank, killing
five people and testing the new government's fledgling peace
process.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Russia and the US
signed a long awaited civilian nuclear cooperation pact that will
allow firms from the world's two biggest atomic powers to expand
bilateral nuclear trade.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, In Somalia hundreds
of youths in Mogadishu lobbed stones at shops and cars and set tires
ablaze in a second day of violence over soaring food prices. Amnesty
Int’l. accused Ethiopian troops in Somalia of killing civilians and
committing atrocities, including slitting people's throats, gouging
out eyes and gang-raping women.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Swiss bank UBS,
hard hit by the US subprime crisis, reported a first-quarter loss of
$10.97 billion and said it will slash almost 7 percent of its work
force.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Two senior
Taiwanese officials resigned over the loss of millions of dollars in
a failed attempt to persuade Papua New Guinea to officially
recognize Taiwan.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, Tennessee Gov. Phil
Bredesen said 2,011 state jobs will be eliminated to shore up the
state’s budget. Voluntary buyouts would begin in June.
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A2)
2008 May 7, Oil closed at a
record high with light, sweet crude settling at $123.53 per barrel
on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.C5)
2008 May 7, Clearwire and
Sprint Nextel announced they will combine their wireless broadband
units to create a $14.55 billion communications company to be called
Clearwire.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.C1)
2008 May 7, In eastern
Afghanistan 3 people including a child were killed in blasts.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, London's new mayor
Boris Johnson announced a ban on alcohol on the capital's transport
system, as part of a wider clampdown on crime and anti-social
behavior.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, China’s state media
said the number of infections of hand, foot and mouth disease has
grown to more than 15,000 with 28 deaths.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 7, Colombia extradited
Carlos Mario Jimenez, one of the country's most feared paramilitary
warlords, to the US to face drug trafficking charges.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, Rosalina Rivera,
the sister of a Guatemalan congressman, was charged with running an
illegal adoption ring after police found nine children in her home.
Rivera is the sister of congressman Gudy Rivera, president of a
congressional committee on minors and family affairs.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, India successfully
test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit targets from
Beijing to Baghdad.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, In Iraq 7 militants
were killed in clashes around Baghdad. 5 suspected al-Qaida members,
including a Moroccan national, were killed in an operation in
Samarra. 4 Sunni insurgents were killed in the province of
Salahuddin when they attacked a checkpoint manned by Awakening
Council fighters.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 7, In Ireland Finance
Minister Brian Cowen was elected new prime minister, and he pledged
to keep the country on its pro-European course through choppy
economic waters.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 7, Conservative leader
Silvio Berlusconi formed Italy's 62nd postwar government for his
third stint as premier.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, The leaders of
Japan and China agreed to resolve a territorial row and start
regular summits to ease decades of tension, pledging that Asia's two
largest economies would not see each other as a threat.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, It was reported
that Japan was experiencing a problem with a growing population of
crows. Over the last 2 years utilities in Tokyo had reported almost
1400 cases of crows cutting fiber optic cables.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A10)
2008 May 7, In Lebanon
Hezbollah opposition supporters and government backers exchanged
gunfire and threw stones as a strike by the Shiite militant group
paralyzed large parts of Beirut. Labor unions had called for the
strike after rejecting a last-minute pay raise offer by the
government.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, In Mexico a leftist
rebel group (EPR) linked to a series of oil pipeline blasts on
rejected an offer from Mexico's government to hold talks. The
People's Revolutionary Army dismissed a proposal by President Felipe
Calderon because it said the offer showed no willingness to solve
crimes allegedly committed by current and past administrations
against its members.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, The international
relief effort for hundreds of thousands of Myanmar cyclone victims
picked up speed as India dispatched two planeloads of aid and
Myanmar authorized the UN to send its own air shipment.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, Nigeria announced
it was suspending import duties and other taxes on rice while
launching a raft of other measures to head off a food crisis in
Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, Dmitry Medvedev was
inaugurated as Russia's president, pledging to bolster the country's
economic development and civil rights, in what may signal a
departure from his predecessor's heavy-handed tactics.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, World Bank figures
indicated that donor countries and organizations had pledged some
$4.8 billion to aid Sudan. Norway, the host of a donors’ conference,
pledged $500 million. The EU promised $435 million and Japan
promised to double its contribution to $200 million.
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A8)
2008 May 7, Zimbabwe, already
facing a presidential run-off, hit new electoral turmoil after the
ruling party and opposition filed legal challenges to half of the
parliamentary results from March's polls.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, In Louisiana Carl
Hunter (73), a construction company owner who lost two homes in
Hurricane Katrina, claimed a $97 million Powerball prize, a jackpot
won off a ticket he bought at a convenience store where he stopped
to buy his wife a gallon of milk. Hunter took a lump sum payment
that will give him $33.9 million after taxes.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 8, Federal officials
arrested 13 fraternity members in San Diego, Ca., in a drug bust.
Officials said 128 people, including at least 75 SDSU students, had
been arrested as part of a 5-month investigation.
(SFC, 5/9/08, p.B2)
2008 May 8, In California the
owners of Tejon Ranch agreed to place 178,000 acres under a series
of conservation easements that will preserve the land as open space.
90% will be preserved for public recreation and the owner will be
allowed to develop 10%. A land grant in 1843 established Rancho El
Tejon.
(SFC, 5/9/08, p.A1)
2008 May 8, In Martinez, Ca.,
Contra Costa sex crimes prosecutor Michael Gresset (51) brought home
a fellow female prosecutor (30) for afternoon sex. She later accused
him of rape. That afternoon he convicted a man for molesting a
4-year-old relative. The case was not reported to police until Sep
26, 2008. A grand jury indictment against Gresset was issued in
October 2009. In 2011 A judge dismissed the rape case saying
prosecutors had failed to present exculpatory evidence to the grand
jury. The woman, at the time of the indictment, had been in the
process of securing a $450,000 civil claim settlement from the
county over the alleged attack.
(SFC, 7/27/09, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/11, p.C6)
2008 May 8, Eddy Arnold,
country singer, died, days short of his 90th birthday. His mellow
baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the
most successful country singers in history.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition killed several militants.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 8, President Evo
Morales agreed to stand for election in a nationwide recall vote,
gambling that Bolivians will re-elect him after just two years in
office and shore up support for his pending reforms.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 8, A Chinese
mountaineering team took the Olympic flame to the top of Mount
Everest, a feat dreamed up to underscore China's ambitions for the
Beijing games.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, Georgia's breakaway
region of Abkhazia said it had shot down another Georgian spy drone.
(Reuters, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, A rocket hit a
downtown Baghdad park, killing two people as American and Iraqi
forces battled Shiite militants believed responsible for many such
attacks. A bomb went off on a minibus in Baghdad's eastern Zayona
neighborhoods, killing two passengers and injuring five. 9 militants
were killed in two American missile attacks in the New Baghdad
neighborhood. US soldiers killed six Shiite extremists, who attacked
US forces with shoulder fired rockets and small arms, in several
clashes in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City.
(AP, 5/8/08)(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 8, Relief supplies
from the United Nations began arriving in Myanmar, but US military
planes loaded with aid were still denied access by the country's
isolationist regime five days after a devastating cyclone. Some
feared that lack of safe food and drinking water could push the
death toll above 100,000.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, In Lebanon violence
spread outside the capital. Sunnis and Shiites exchanged gunfire in
the village of Saadnayel in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah's
leader Hassan Nasrallah said a government decision to declare
the Shiite militant group's telecommunications network illegal
amounted to a declaration of war. At least four people were killed
and eight wounded Beirut.
(AP, 5/8/08)(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 8, A Malaysian Islamic
court allowed a Chinese convert to renounce Islam in a rare decision
for this conservative Muslim-led nation. Siti Fatimah, or Tan Ean
Huang (38), said she had never practiced Islamic teachings since she
converted in 1998 and only did so to enable her to marry Iranian
Ferdoun Ashanian.
(AFP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, Edgar Millan Gomez
(42), Mexico's acting federal police chief, was shot dead outside
his Mexico City apartment complex, as drug traffickers increasingly
lashed back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Bodyguards
at the scene arrested Alejandro Ramirez (34). Edgar Guzman, the son
of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin Guzman, was shot dead in Culiacan,
Sinaloa state. Also killed in the attack was Arturo Meza Cazares,
the son of Blanca Margarita Cazares, whom the US has identified as a
key money launderer for the cartel. Police later said Millan’s
murder was likely ordered by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a capo in the
Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/9/08)(SFC, 5/9/08,
p.A16)(http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/xarticle/ajc8708.htm)(Econ,
5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 8, In Nepal Ram Hari
Shrestha, a Kathmandu businessman and supporter of the former
rebels, died after he was abducted and beaten by Maoist cadre.
(AFP,
5/21/08)(www.nepalhorizons.com/beta/news.php?newsid=2851)
2008 May 8, A US diplomatic
cable, unveiled by WikiLeaks in 2010, described Nicaragua’s Pres.
Ortega as a "willing follower" of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The report said Ortega uses Venezuelan oil money to fund Sandinista
campaigns and that "several unconfirmed reports indicate that Ortega
will have as much as 500 million dollars at his disposal over the
course of 2008.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2008 May 8, North Korea handed
over thousands of pages of nuclear weapons documents to a US
diplomat, that will help verify the North’s plutonium holdings.
(WSJ, 5/9/08, p.A1)
2008 May 8, Vladimir Putin was
named prime minister of Russia after a fervent speech full of
ambitious plans that overshadowed his low-key successor and
suggested that he will keep a strong hand in ruling the country.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, In Somalia two
police officers and five insurgents died in the attack when Islamist
fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy submachine guns
at the heavily guarded K4 district of Mogadishu. Three other
insurgents were captured. Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Issa Adow
said fighters killed eight police and one Islamist fighter died and
two were wounded.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 8, Spain formally laid
claim to a shipwreck that yielded a $500 million treasure, saying it
has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials said the shipwreck at
the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a
Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in
1804 with more than 200 people on board.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, Sri Lanka’s defense
ministry said at least 74 Tamil Tiger rebels and three Sri Lankan
soldiers have been killed in 3 days of fighting in the island's
north.
(AFP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force.
(www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=17)
2008 May 8, In Zimbabwe
farmers' groups said the ruling ZANU-PF has pushed 40,000 workers
off farms in a post-election campaign targeting supporters of the
opposition ahead of a possible presidential run-off. Pressure
mounted to admit foreign observers to oversee a presidential
election run-off amid fresh claims pro-government militias were
instilling terror in the countryside.
(Reuters, 5/8/08)(AFP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 9, Oil closed at a
record high with light, sweet crude settling at $125.96 per barrel
on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.B4)
2008 May 9, In eastern
Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed several militants during an
operation in Nangarhar province. Villagers claimed that 3 civilians
were among those killed.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, The government of
Central African Republic (CAR), plagued by unrest since 2005, and
the country's main rebel group signed a ceasefire and peace accord
to take effect immediately.
(AFP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A newly disclosed
set of documents that Colombia's government says were recovered on
March 1 from a slain rebel's computers indicate senior Venezuelan
officials tried to help arm Colombia's main guerrilla army. The
price of crude rose above US$126 a barrel for the first time as
investors questioned whether a Wall Street Journal report regarding
the documents could lead to a confrontation between Washington and
Venezuela.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Dominica
legislators balked at deciding who can marry whom. Chief Charles
Williams, the leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in
the eastern Caribbean, recently suggested outlawing marriage to
outsiders to save a dwindling indigenous population.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In Balla, India, 5
armed men killed Sunita (21), 22-weeks pregnant, and her boyfriend,
Jasbir Singh (22). They were beaten, dragged into waiting cars,
driven away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid
out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a
sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded
murder. At the small police post in Balla, a constable later
admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the
village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially
Jasbir's family, to quietly drop the case.
(Reuters, 5/16/08)
2008 May 9, Shiite Hezbollah
gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector
from Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government in the country's
worst sectarian clashes since the 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired
by militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm
near Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in
retaliation and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Myanmar's junta
seized UN aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of
last week's devastating cyclone prompting the world body to suspend
further help. According to state media, 23,335 people died and
37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In northwest
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants killed a policeman and injured
two other police officers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, South African
President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart
Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors
reported a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A South Korean aid
group said North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in
rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In eastern Sri
Lanka a bomb hidden in a package exploded in a cafe in the town of
Ampara, killing 11 people on the eve local elections.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey
a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air
strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish
fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the
military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla
was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, A tornado rumbled
through Picher, Okla., killing at least 7 people. The same storm
system then moved into southwest Missouri, where tornadoes killed at
least 15 others. The storms moved eastward and killed at least one
person the next day in Georgia.
(AP, 5/11/08)(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A2)
2008 May 10, In Wisconsin a
medical helicopter crashed killing a surgeon, nurse and pilot.
(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A3)
2008 May 10, The main border
crossing between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Egypt was
temporarily opened under a deal between the Islamist group and
Cairo.
(Reuters, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, In Haiti an
overloaded ferry capsized off the southern coast, killing at least
13 people.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 10, Shiite militants
agreed on a ceasefire in Baghdad's embattled neighborhood of Sadr
City, holding out hope that weeks of clashes in the capital could be
at an end. In Mosul an Iraqi army commander announced the start of a
long anticipated offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq's last urban
stronghold. 4 people, including a woman and a child, were killed in
an operation against al-Qaida near Mosul. One US soldier was killed
when the vehicle he was traveling in rolled over near al-Asad.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 10, Hamas fired
rockets at southern Israel, hitting a house and a Jewish seminary
just hours after five Hamas policemen were killed in Israeli air
strikes.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Lebanon's army
command ordered troops to establish security in the capital and
called on all parties to withdraw their gunmen from the streets. An
army statement said an airport security chief fired by the
government for alleged ties to Hezbollah will be kept on. A Shiite
Muslim shop owner opened fire on a funeral procession, killing two
people and wounding six others in a Sunni neighborhood. A total of
25 people have been killed and dozens wounded in the recent
violence.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Juan Antonio Roman
Garcia, the No. 2 police officer in a Mexican border city across
from Texas, was shot dead, the latest high-ranking official killed
in an onslaught of attacks blamed on gangs resisting a crackdown.
Gunman sprayed Garcia's car with bullets outside his home in Ciudad
Juarez.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 10, Myanmar's military
regime distributed international aid but plastered the boxes with
the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief
effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda
exercise. Voting on a new constitution began in all but the hardest
hit parts of the country. The UN said at least one million survivors
remain without aid more than a week after the deadly cyclone.
(AP, 5/10/08)(AFP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Oil major Royal
Dutch Shell said it was losing the equivalent of 30,000 barrels of
crude oil per day because of recent attacks against its
installations in Nigeria.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, In northwest
Pakistan gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim shop owner and two of his
customers in an apparent sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Sudanese soldiers
clashed with Darfur rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement
(JEM) in the north of the capital Khartoum where a curfew has now
been imposed. Officials later said more that 200 people were killed
in the weekend fighting. The rebels had traveled from Chad in 191
land cruisers and pick-up trucks. On May 27 an official Egyptian
newspaper claimed that Sudanese forces searching the rebel JEM
movement found modern Iranian weapons with them and that authorities
had seized large amounts of ammunition and Iranian equipment.
(AFP, 5/10/08)(AP, 5/13/08)(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.59)(AFP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 10, Tamil Tiger rebels
sank the Invincible, a navy cargo ship moored in the northeast of
Sri Lanka, in an attack coinciding with key elections in the tense
eastern province. Allegations of fraud, voter intimidation and
sporadic violence marred the elections.
(AP, 5/10/08)(Econ, 5/17/08, p.56)
2008 May 10, Turkish warplanes
and artillery units destroyed key Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq, including a communications center, in a second day of
raids on rebel positions.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 10, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, said he would contest a presidential
runoff poll, but he called for peacekeepers and observers to ensure
a fair vote.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, In Santa Rosa,
Ca., the body of Patricia Barrales (25) was found by her mother in a
closet buried under toys in a toy chest. She had been stabbed 68
times. In Dec, 2009, Honorio Pantaleon (32) was convicted of the
murder of the mother of his 2 children.
(SFC, 12/19/09, p.C2)
2008 May 11, Rights groups and
local lawmakers about 300 Taliban suspects have been on a hunger
strike in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar prison for a week
demanding fair trials.
(AFP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, In Algeria 6
government troops died in an ambush allegedly by armed members of
the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) as the soldiers
were in a truck patrolling Medea province.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 11, China PM Wen
Jiabao launched Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (CACC), in
an effort to challenge the duopoly of Airbus and Boeing.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.82)
2008 May 11, In India suspected
rebels lined up and fatally shot eight railroad workers in the
insurgency-wracked northeastern region of Assam.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 11, Indian forces and
suspected Islamic militants clashed in two separate incidents in
Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing six people, including two
civilians and a news photographer.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, A Quran, with 14
bullet holes and graffiti marked on its paged, was found by Iraqis
near a former base outside the town of Radwaniyah, west of Baghdad.
An American sniper had used a Quran for target practice. On May 17
an apology was made by the US military. The unidentified soldier was
disciplined and removed from Iraq.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 11, In Lebanon heavy
fighting broke out between supporters of the Western-backed
government and opposition followers in the central mountains
overlooking the capital. Paramedics said at least 11 people were
killed in fighting in the mountains overlooking Beirut.
(AP, 5/11/08)(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 11, In Mexico
thousands of white-clad people marched silently to protest a surge
of drug-related violence in Ciudad Juarez, where the No. 2 police
officer was shot dead.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, In Myanmar a Red
Cross boat carrying rice and drinking water for cyclone victims
sank, while the death toll jumped to more than 28,000 and aid groups
warned of a humanitarian catastrophe.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, In Nepal police
detained more than 600 female Tibetan protesters, including many
Buddhist nuns, after breaking up several demonstrations against
China's recent crackdown in Tibet.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, In southern
Nigeria unknown gunmen raided a police station in the oil-rich state
of Bayelsa killing two police officers. The gunmen also stole arms
and ammunition during the attack at Okiki in Ogbia area of the
state.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 11, A member of the
militant group Hamas was killed in an explosion along Gaza's fence
with Israel.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, A divided Serbia
voted in parliamentary a election that gave its people the stark
choice of entering or rebuffing the EU after the trauma of losing
Kosovo. Voting went ahead in Kosovo despite opposition from the UN
and Kosovo Albanians, who see the polls as an illegal attempt by
Serbia to partition the breakaway territory. Boris Tadic claimed
victory saying his bloc had won 39% of the vote.
(AP, 5/11/08)(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A9)
2008 May 11, Sri Lanka's ruling
coalition was declared the winner of key elections in the east of
the island, and hailed its victory as a major boost for the war
against Tamil rebels.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, Sudan severed
diplomatic ties with Chad, accusing its neighbor of backing a first
ever Darfur rebel assault on Khartoum, and partly lifted a curfew
amid its clampdown on remaining rebels.
(AFP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, The US Supreme
Court affirmed a lower court ruling that multinational companies can
be sued in a US court for allegedly aiding and abetting the former
apartheid government in South Africa. Financial holdings prevented 4
justices from taking the case.
(www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p02s01-usju.htm)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A5)
2008 May 12, The US Postal
Service increased first-class postage a penny to 42 cents.
(SSFC, 5/11/08, p.A4)
2008 May 12, US immigration
agents arrested more than 300 people at Agriprocessors Inc, a kosher
meat plant in Postville, Iowa, amid an ongoing investigation into
identification theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, and
for illegal immigrants.
(Reuters, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Powerset, a
SF-based Internet company founded in 2005, announced a limited
release of its search engine. Executives said it fielded queries in
natural language with attempts to deduce intent.
(SFC, 5/12/08, p.D1)(www.powerset.com/)
2008 May 12, Oakley Hall
(b.1920), prolific author and writing teacher, died in Nevada City.
His books included “Warlock” (1958) and “The Art and Craft of Novel
Writing” (1994).
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.A1)
2008 May 12, Robert
Rauschenberg (b.1925), Texas-born artist, died of heart failure in
Florida. His use of odd and everyday articles earned him regard as a
pioneer in pop art, first gaining fame in the 1950s.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Algeria 3
government troops were killed in an ambush allegedly set by the
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) 120 kilometers (75
miles) east of Algiers in Bouira province.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Bangladesh a
ferry on the Ghorautura River capsized with nearly 150 passengers
and at least 44 people were killed.
(WSJ, 5/14/08, p.A13)
2008 May 12, Brazil announced
that it is forming a sovereign-wealth fund worth between $10 and $20
billion.
(WSJ, 5/13/08, p.A1)
2008 May 12, The Canadian
Federal Court said that Pakistan appears to have received a $500,000
bounty from the United States for the capture of Abdullah Khadr, a
Canadian wanted on charges of working with al Qaeda against US
forces in Afghanistan. Khadr was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 and
sent back to Canada in 2005.
(Reuters, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Chad closed its
border with Sudan and put a halt to bilateral trade, a minister
said, a day after Sudan severed diplomatic ties with Chad.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, The Commonwealth
re-admitted Pakistan as a full member after a six-month suspension
triggered by a clampdown by President Pervez Musharraf.
(AFP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Initial reports
said a 7.8 earthquake struck central China, killing over 9,000
people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their
school. 80% of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in
Sichuan province. The death toll soon exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan
province alone. 18,645 were reported buried in debris in the city of
Mianyang, near the epicenter of the quake, whose magnitude was
raised to 7.9. The Sichuan quake ended up killing some 80,000
people. Scientists in 2009 linked the quake to the Zipingu Dam, 5.5
km from the epicenter. In 2009 an official tally said 5,335 students
were left dead or missing.
(AP, 5/1208)(AP, 5/13/08)(WSJ, 2/7/08, p.A6)(AP,
5/7/09)
2008 May 12-2008 May 13,
Chinese police detained 16 Tibetan Buddhist monks from eastern
Tibet's Mangkam county, who were allegedly involved in a series of
bombings in early April.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 May 12, The Arab Network
for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said that an Egyptian
government-owned Internet service provider on May 4 blocked the
Egyptian Movement for Change - Kefaya website, in the latest
crackdown on the country's cyber dissidents.
(AFP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Haitian
legislators rejected President Rene Preval's pick for prime
minister, extending a monthlong period without a functioning
government. International banker Ericq Pierre (63) lost a vote that
ended his candidacy 51 to 35, with nine abstentions.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, In India
Renault-Nissan and India's Bajaj group said they planned to make a
2,500-dollar car by early 2011, the second effort to make a cheap
car for the South Asian nation's rapidly growing middle class.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Representatives of
firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main
Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire in an effort to
end seven weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. The fragile
cease-fire failed to stop fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City where
clashes between Shiite extremists and US-backed Iraqi forces killed
11 men and wounded 19. The latest cease-fire came as the US military
largely finished the building of a barrier to isolate extremists
from using the southern section of Sadr City and disrupt supply and
escape routes for militants.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Iraqi Kurdish
officials said Turkish jets overnight struck suspected Kurdish rebel
targets close to the border in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Israel’s police
raided Jerusalem’s city hall and seized documents as part of the
corruption probe of PM Ehud Olmert. A rocket fired by Palestinian
militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman, just as an Egyptian
mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Lebanon heavy
fighting broke out between government supporters and opponents in
Tripoli, where the two sides battled with rocket-propelled grenades,
heavy machine guns and mortars.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Mexican
authorities said a police officer and four other people, with
suspected ties to a powerful drug cartel, have been arrested in the
May 8 assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, the acting federal police
chief.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Myanmar state
television put the death toll for Cyclone Nargis at 31,938 with
29,770 people missing. The US White House said it was extending an
extra 13 million dollars in aid as the first US flight of emergency
supplies landed in the country.
(AP, 5/12/08)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A3)
2008 May 12, Former prime
minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of Pakistan's
six-week-old coalition government, plunging the volatile Muslim
nation back into political uncertainty.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Irena Sendler
(b.1910), Polish savior of children in the Warsaw ghetto, died in
Warsaw.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.110)(www.irenasendler.org/)
2008 May 12, Serbia's
pro-European alliance sought a coalition deal with smaller parties
on to stave off a challenge from nationalist runners-up who say they
too can form a government after Sunday's parliamentary election.
With about 98% of votes counted, the Democratic Party had 38.75% and
the nationalist Radical Party 29.2%.
(Reuters, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, South Korean
officials said they have killed all poultry in Seoul, to curb the
spread of bird flu following a new outbreak of the disease in the
city.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Sudan arrested its
leading fundamentalist Islamic ideologue, accusing him of aiding a
Darfur rebel attack on the capital. Hassan Turabi was arrested after
dawn at his home in Khartoum and at least 10 other members of his
Popular Congress Party members were detained in a government sweep
across the city. Authorities released al-Turabi and four members of
his party after detaining them for several hours.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, In Vietnam 2
reporters were arrested for their coverage of a bribery, gambling
and corruption scandal. Their arrests led to a highly unusual
confrontation between Vietnam's Communist government and the
country's state-controlled newspapers. The scandal, which erupted in
2005, led to the conviction of 9 people, including several
government officials.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 13, Hillary Clinton
won with 67 percent of the vote in the West Virginia primary.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 13, A research company
said more US homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month,
driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus
the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in
home values.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 13, In California
Assemblywoman Karen Bass (54) became the 67th speaker of the
Assembly, the 1st African American woman speaker of the state
Assembly.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.B3)
2008 May 13, Timothy Kooyman
(24), a homeless man in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca., was arrested on
animal cruelty charges. In 2009 additional charges of using scissors
to cut off feline tails was added to counts of soaking cats in gas
and torching them. Kooyman pleaded insanity.
(www.animalshelter.org/forum/Serial_Cat_Torturer,_Timothy_Kooyman/m_1804/tm.htm)
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.B4)
2008 May 13, In Florida
investigators searched for one or more arsonists behind a string of
wildfires that had destroyed or damaged over 160 homes along the
Atlantic coast.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.A4)
2008 May 13, EarthLink said it
is pulling out of its high-speed Internet network in Philadelphia,
and that it would shut down the operation on June 12.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.C3)
2008 May 13, Microsoft Corp.
introduced its WorldWide Telescope, bringing the free Web-based
program for zooming around the universe to a broad audience.
(AP, 5/13/08)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A1)
2008 May 13, Hewlett-Packard
Co. said it is buying Electronic Data Systems Corp. for $12.6
billion. The deal will create the second largest technology services
provider behind IBM.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, John Philip Law
(b.1937), film star, died. He played the blind angel opposite Jane
Fonda in “Barbarella” (1968).
(SFC, 5/16/08, p.B11)
2008 May 13, International and
Afghan troops forged ahead with an offensive against the Taliban
near the Pakistan border. Helmand governor Gulab Mangal insisted 150
rebels had been killed in Garmser in the past week.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, Two major
Australian banks agreed to a proposed merger which would create the
nation's biggest financial services group worth around 66 billion
dollars (62 billion US). St George, the country's fifth-largest
bank, said it had agreed to an 18.6 billion dollar offer from
Westpac Banking Corporation, Australia's third-largest bank by
market capitalization.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Brazil renowned
rain forest defender Marina Silva resigned as the environment
minister, saying she lacked the necessary political support to
protect the Amazon. A government study said Blacks will outnumber
whites in Brazil this year for the first time since slavery was
abolished, but the income gap between the two groups may take
another 50 years to bridge.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Canada a
helicopter with three people on board appeared to hover as if
looking for a landing spot before it crashed onto a street and burst
into flames in Cranbrook, British Columbia. A pedestrian Kenyan
exchange student, was killed along with the 3 in the helicopter.
(Reuters, 5/14/08)
2008 May 13, Colombia
extradited 14 top paramilitary warlords, many of them wanted on
drug-trafficking charges, to the United States, saying they failed
to comply with the peace pact under which they demobilized. They
included Ramiro Vanoy Murillo and Francisco Javier Zuluaga. In
October Murillo (60) and Zuluaga (38) pleaded guilty to cocaine
conspiracy charges and faced at least 2 decades in prison.
(AP, 5/13/08)(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A4)
2008 May 13, In India 8 bombs
ripped through bustling streets in Jaipur, killing 63 people and
injuring 216. Evidence pointed increasingly towards Indian Islamists
backed by a Bangladeshi militant group as being behind the blasts.
The Indian Majuhideen claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 5/14/08)(AP, 5/16/08)(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.54)
2008 May 13, In Iraq a Sunni
grammar school principal who was shot and killed in Abu Minasir, a
village west of Baghdad. A US soldier was killed when a roadside
bomb exploded next to his vehicle in northwest Baghdad.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 13, Italy's new PM
Silvio Berlusconi adopted a conciliatory tone with a pledge to reach
out to the left-wing opposition and to turn the country around
economically.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Kuwait Sheik
Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah (b.1930), who ruled here for just nine
days in 2006 before being removed for ill health, died.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, The Lebanese army
expanded its troop deployment to several tense areas around the
country, saying its soldiers would use force if needed to impose
order after clashes between the US-backed government and
Hezbollah-led opposition.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Malawi police
arrested former security and political leaders over allegations they
wanted to overthrow the government of Pres. Bingu Mutharika.
(WSJ, 5/14/08, p.A13)
2008 May 13, In Mexico more
than 2,700 soldiers and federal agents were sent to Sinaloa state as
part of a crackdown on drug-related violence.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 13, In Nigeria
unidentified gunmen in the restive south hijacked an oil-services
vessel carrying 11 crew members demanding about $250,000 for their
release. The crew members were released on June 25.
(AP, 5/14/08)(AFP, 6/26/08)
2008 May 13, In Qatar the 6th
Doha Interfaith Dialogue Conference opened. More than a dozen
rabbis, including two from Israel, were in attendance. This
conservative Muslim sheikdom recently opened the Doha International
Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, one of the Gulf's first scholarly
centers dedicated to interfaith dialogue.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 14, A triptych by
Francis Bacon (1909-1992), titled “Triptych 1976,” sold for $86.3
million in NYC, a record for contemporary art auctions.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.79)
2008 May 14, The US House
passed a veto-proof, $290 billion farm bill that included $40
billion in subsidies to commodity farmers. The Senate was also
expected to pass the bill by a veto-proof margin.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, US Interior Sec.
Dirk Kempthorne said the government will list the polar bear as
threatened under the Endangered Species Act, making it the 1st
animal to win protection due to global warming.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, US federal
prosecutors said Willbros Group Inc., a Houston-based oil services
company, agreed to pay $32.3 million in criminal and civil penalties
to settle charges that it bribed officials in Nigeria and Ecuador to
get contracts between 2003-2005.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.B2)
2008 May 14, Sen. Obama won the
support of John Edwards, former North Carolina Senator and
presidential candidate.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, In California UC
regents announced a 7.4% tuition increase and CSU voted for a 10%
increase. These marked the 6th increases in 7 years.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, Marc Dann (46),
Ohio’s attorney general, resigned under threat of impeachment due to
an extramarital affair with an employee.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A7)
2008 May 14, In Georgia Gov.
Sonny Perdue signed a new law allowing permitted gun owners to carry
concealed weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol, aboard public
transportation and in parks.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A3)
2008 May 14, Plaxo, an online
address book and social networking service, reported it had signed
an agreement to be acquired by Comcast. It was founded by Napster
co-founder Sean Parker, Minh Nguyen and two Stanford engineering
students, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring and was based in Mountain
View, Ca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaxo)
2008 May 14, In Austria
investigators discovered the bodies of five people after a man
turned up at a Vienna police station saying he had killed his wife
and daughter.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In eastern
Bangladesh 8 people died and one person was critically injured when
two trains collided at a station.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Brazil a
reporter and photographer for O Dia were abducted with their driver
and held for nearly eight hours in the western Rio de Janeiro
shantytown where they had been working undercover investigating
paramilitaries. O Dia said it contacted state security officials
immediately after the incident, but did not report it publicly until
Jun 1 to protect its journalists.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 May 14, China’s Xinhua
News Agency said that 2,000 troops had been sent to work on the
Zipingku Dam, upriver from Dujiangyan in Sichuan province as the
death toll from the May 12 earthquake approached 15,000.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, Colombian police
seized US$25 million (euro16 million) in properties from a
paramilitary warlord extradited to the U.S. on drug-trafficking
charges.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, In the Dominican
Republic 3 people, including a former congressman, were shot and
killed in Villa Vasquez ahead of May 16 elections.
(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 May 14, A French court
handed down jail sentences to seven men convicted of running a
network that recruited poor young Muslims in Paris to fight in the
Iraqi insurgency.
(AFP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In India a poor
worker and his 4-year-old daughter were crushed to death by a bus
after the conductor pushed them off for not having sufficient fare
for the journey. Angry passengers set the bus on fire near
Jharsuguda, Orissa state. The bus conductor was arrested and charged
with unintentional murder.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, Iran raided the
homes of top Baha’i leaders and threw six of them in the notorious
Evin prison north of Tehran. A 7th Bahai leader was detained March
5. A government spokesman said the arrests aimed to defend Iran's
national security and had "nothing to do with ideological issues."
In 2010 Iran cut the jail terms imposed on the seven from 20 to 10
years.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 9/18/10)
2008 May 14, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki visited the northern city of Mosul to supervise a military
offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq in its last major stronghold. In
Sadr City skirmishes left five dead and 22 wounded. In western
Baghdad a car bomb detonated next to a convoy carrying a lawmaker
from the mostly-Sunni Islamic Party, Ayad al-Samarrie, but he was
not hurt. One civilian was killed and 6 others wounded, including
four guards. A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded at least
35 at the funeral of a Sunni school principal west of Baghdad. A
girl strapped with explosives killed an Iraqi officer. 2 militants
were killed and a third was wounded by an air-to-ground Hellfire
missile as they placed a roadside bomb on a road between Sadr City
and the northern Sunni district of Azamiyah. In Sadr City one person
was killed when another Hellfire missile hit a group of militants
also attempting to plant a bomb.
(AP, 5/14/08)(AP, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, In Israel
President Bush said that 60 years of Israel's existence is cause for
optimism for democratic change throughout the Middle East, opening a
trip divided between ceremonial duties and a new push for
Israeli-Palestinian peace. A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a
shopping center in Ashkelon, southern Israeli, wounding at least 14
people.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Kenya an
international aid worker said officials backed by armed police are
forcing some 9,000 Kenyans displaced by postelection violence to
leave a refugee camp in Kitale.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Mexico 2 police
officers were shot and killed in Torreon, Coahuila state, when they
tried to stop gunmen from kidnapping a family. Assailants opened
fire and threw grenades at a police station in Guamuchil in the
northern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, The annual meeting
of the African Development Bank (AfDB) opened in Mozambique with the
organization’s head warning that rising growth rates are having
little impact on poverty levels.
(AFP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, Experts said the
1.5 million people left destitute by Myanmar's cyclone are in
increasing danger of disease and starvation, but the ruling junta
said no to a Thai request to admit more aid workers. The Red Cross
said the death toll could reach nearly 128,000. Another powerful
storm headed toward Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta and the UN
warned that inadequate relief efforts could lead to a second wave of
deaths among the estimated 2 million survivors.
(AP, 5/14/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, In Pakistan a
number of foreign militants were killed when 2 missiles hit a house
in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal region. The US
missile strike killed al-Qaida operative Abu Suleiman al Jaziery and
at least 14 others. Some of the dead were civilians. Authorities
freed militants and started to pull troops from a tribal region in a
bid to make peace with Islamic fighters. Suspected Islamic militants
soon killed a Pakistani soldier in revenge for the US missile strike
near the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)(AP,
5/16/08)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A14)
2008 May 14, In Spain a
booby-trapped van exploded outside a civil guard barracks in the
restive Basque country, killing one guard and wounding four others.
The government blamed the attack on separatist group ETA.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Sudan clashes
erupted in Abyei between the northern-based national army and former
guerrillas from the south. Arab Misseriya nomads, some armed by the
northerners, and the southern Ngok Dinka, protected by the SPLM,
held a historic animosity in the area over land and water. The UN
mission (UNMIS) there did little more than protect the local UN
base.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.66)(Econ, 11/22/08, p.33)
2008 May 14, A Swiss pilot
strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane for the first
public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure eights
and soaring high above the Alps.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, The California
Supreme Court affirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry.
(SFC, 5/16/08, p.A1)
2008 May 15, Anthony Pellicano
(64), a Hollywood private eye, was convicted on federal racketeering
and other charges for digging up dirt on well-heeled LA clients. He
and 14 others were initially indicted in February, 2006. On August
29 Pellicano and entertainment lawyer Terry Christensen (64) were
convicted of conspiring to illegally wiretap the ex-wife of
billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. The verdicts were the result of a 2002
FBI probe into Pellicano’s business. On Dec 15, 2008, Pellicano was
sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/16/08, p.B4)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A2)(SFC,
12/16/08, p.A15)
2008 May 15, In Santa Clara
County, Ca., 11 members of the San Jose El Hoyo Palmas gang were
indicted on charges related to 4 homicides over the last 2 years.
(SFC, 5/16/08, p.B7)
2008 May 15, CBS Corp.
announced it was buying SF-based Cnet Networks, an Internet
technology news provider, for $1.8 billion in cash.
(SFC, 5/16/08, p.C1)
2008 May 15, Will Elder
(b.1921), founding artist at Mad Magazine (1952), died. After Mad he
established himself at Playboy where he produced the “Little Annie
Fanny” cartoon.
(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.A8)
2008 May 15, Bob Florence
(b.1932), a Grammy Award sinning bandleader, died in LA. His
18-piece Bob Florence Limited Edition band was considered one of the
most musically challenging bands in jazz.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.B3)
2008 May 15, Willis Eugene Lamb
Jr. (b.1913), Nobel Prize winning physicist (1955), died.
(SFC, 5/23/08,
p.B10)(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1955/lamb-bio.html)
2008 May 15, In western
Afghanistan a suicide bomber wearing a burqa attacked a police
patrol at a crowded market, killing at least 12 people and wounding
27 others. Taliban militants attacked the compound of the Shinkay
district chief in Zabul province. The ensuing hour-long gun battle
left 5 Taliban dead and 6 wounded.
(AP, 5/15/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 15, Britain's
third-biggest bank, said that first quarter profits fell after
suffering a 1.0 billion-pound (1.25 billion-euro, 1.95
billion-dollar) hit from the global credit crunch.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, China warned the
death toll from this week's earthquake could soar to 50,000, while
the government issued a public appeal for rescue equipment as it
struggled to cope with the disaster.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, In Egypt Abdullah
Kamel Mohammed (42) man was sentenced to 1,000 years behind bars
after scamming hundreds of people out of 280 million pounds (around
52 million dollars).
(AFP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, In France hundreds
of thousands of teachers and other public sector workers went on
strike to protest jobs cuts and other changes proposed by Pres.
Sarkozy’s government.
(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 May 15, Gambia’s Pres.
Yahya Jammeh ordered homosexuals to leave the country and in a
televised speech threatened to cut off the head of anyone discovered
to be gay.
(SFC, 6/3/08, p.A3)
2008 May 15, In Greece the 2
largest labor unions staged strikes to protest pension changes and
recent privatizations.
(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 May 15, In northeastern
India suspected rebels gunned down 11 people in two attacks in Assam
state. Rebels allegedly stopped four cement company trucks and shot
10 employees in the vehicles before setting the trucks on fire. In a
separate attack, militants shot at a moving train, killing the
conductor and injuring three others.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, Government troops
began house-to-house searches for al-Qaida in Iraq militants in
Mosul, part of a major security operation to cleanse Iraq's third
largest city from cells of the terror network. An Iranian Embassy
convoy came under fire in Baghdad, wounding four people, including
three Iranians and an Iraqi. Overnight and early morning clashes
between US-backed Iraqi forces and militiamen loyal to al-Sadr left
eight men killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 5/15/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 15, Italian police
announced the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in
a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp
down. Police had arrested 383 people sing May 7.
(AP, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 May 15, The Hezbollah-led
opposition and US-backed government reached a deal to end Lebanon's
worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war, now that the Cabinet has
reversed measures aimed at reining in the Iranian-backed militants.
The violence had left at least 81 people dead.
(AP, 5/15/08)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.67)
2008 May 15, In Mexico Pres.
Calderon held a signing ceremony for an agreement with Elba Esther
Gordillo, head of the national teacher’s union, to promote the
“Alliance for Educational Quality, an effort to improve teacher
quality.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.55)
2008 May 15, Myanmar's junta
warned that legal action would be taken against people who trade or
hoard international aid as the cyclone's death toll soared above
43,000. Myanmar announced that a constitution won massive support in
a referendum, a claim slammed by a leading rights group as an insult
to the country's people.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, In Nigeria a huge
explosion was triggered when an excavator accidentally pierced an
oil pipeline. The Nigeria Red Cross said some 100 people were killed
in a blaze that lasted more than a day. A local government official
put the death toll at 15.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 15, European and Latin
American leaders gathered in Peru for their fifth summit in a decade
with plans to tackle climate change, high food prices and poverty.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, An unmanned
Russian cargo ship blasted off with supplies, equipment and gifts
for the international space station.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, A body
representing genocide survivors said Generosa Mukanyonga (90), a
Rwandan genocide survivor, was stabbed and burned to death by a gang
that included four assailants who had confessed to taking part in
the 1994 slaughter.
(Reuters, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, In Sudan thousands
of civilians fled clashes between former north-south civil war foes
in the oil-rich central town of Abyei. The SPLM said more than $1
billion in oil revenues from Abyei has been taken by the ruling
National Congress Party rather than shared with the south as the
peace deal prescribes.
(Reuters, 5/15/08)
2008 May 15, Zimbabwe's
opposition reacted furiously to the prospect of a run-off poll being
delayed until the end of July, accusing authorities of flouting the
law to help Robert Mugabe cling to power. Zimbabwe introduced a new
half-a-billion dollar bank note in a bid to tackle cash shortages
fed by rampant inflation.
(AFP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 16, Under pressure
from Congress the US Energy Dept. said it would temporarily suspend
filling the US strategic oil stocks. Oil futures rose to a record
$126.29 on the NY Mercantile Exchange. Pres. Bush signed a bill to
stop the filling on May 19.
(SFC, 5/17/08, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A1)
2008 May 16, Robert Mondavi
(b.1913), the pioneering vintner who helped put California wine
country on the map, died at his Napa Valley home. He was 52 and a
winemaking veteran in 1966, when he opened the winery that would
help turn the Napa Valley into a world center of the industry.
(AP, 5/16/08)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A1)
2008 May 16, Maria Isavel
Vasquez Jimenez (17), a pregnant Mexican migrant worker, died after
succumbing to heat stroke from laboring more than 9 hours in a San
Joaquin County, Ca., vineyard.
(AP, 3/9/11)
2008 May 16, Osama bin Laden
said in a new audio recording that al-Qaida will continue its holy
war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, A bomb hit a group
of Afghan soldiers during a foot patrol in southern Kandahar
province. One soldier was killed and three were wounded. In eastern
Khost province, joint Afghan and foreign forces attacked insurgents
as they were planting roadside bombs before dawn. A brief gun battle
left two militants dead. Another wounded insurgent later died at a
military hospital. US-led coalition and Afghan troops called in
airstrikes during the raid on a compound suspected of housing
militants involved in bomb making activities. Afghan and foreign
troops in western Farah province bombed a Taliban hideout where two
hostages were being held, leaving eight militants dead.
(AP, 5/16/08)(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 16, In Australia
protesting pensioners brought traffic to a stand still in Melbourne
when some stripped to demand more money from the government.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, In Canada Nancy
Michaud (37), a political aide in Quebec, was disappeared from her
home in Riviere-Ouelle. Her body was found the next day in an
abandoned home. Francis Proulx was charged with her murder.
(www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/427352)(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A4)
2008 May 16, In China a strong
aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week's
powerful earthquake, while some survivors were pulled from rubble
after being buried for four days. The official death toll rose to
about 22,069, and another 14,000 still were buried in Sichuan.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez was favored to win a third term, despite
concerns over long-serving politicians in this Caribbean nation with
a painful history of rule by strongmen.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki offered members of armed groups in Mosul an amnesty in
exchange for surrendering their weapons. Ali Mansour Mohammed, an
Iraqi detainee, was shot and killed by US soldiers at or near their
forward operating base, Summerall, near Beiji. 1st Lt. Michael C.
Behenna and Staff Sgt. Hal M. Warner were later charged with the
shooting.
(AP, 5/16/08)(AP, 9/21/08)
2008 May 16, The EU aid chief
said that Myanmar's junta still would not budge on accepting foreign
relief workers, two weeks after the cyclone tragedy. State media
said the death toll had risen to nearly 78,000.
(AP, 5/16/08)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.A1)
2008 May 16, Pakistan's
ambassador to Afghanistan was freed unharmed three months after he
vanished in a tribal area in the border region. Tariq Azizuddin had
disappeared Feb. 11 along with his driver and bodyguard as they
drove from Peshawar toward the border.
(AP, 5/17/08)(SSFC, 5/18/08, p.A9)
2008 May 16, In Peru European
and Latin American leaders concluded their 5th summit in a decade
and pledged to fight poverty, global warming and high food prices,
presenting a show of unity amid a festering conflict between two
South American nations.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 16, In the Philippines
at least 8 bank employees and a security guard were lined up and
shot dead in the head in a bloody bank robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna
province. Another employee was in critical condition at a hospital.
On May 30 Ricardo Gomolon (38), a former soldier, was among three
people arrested over the murder of 10 people in one of the
Philippines' deadliest bank robberies. 2 suspects were still at
large.
(AP, 5/16/08)(AFP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 16, Pres. Bush arrived
in Saudi Arabia and appealed for increased oil production just as
prices hit another record high.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, Sri Lankan ground
troops killed at least 16 Tamil Tiger rebels while air force fighter
jets bombed guerrilla targets in the island's north. The offensive
came hours after a suicide bomber rammed into a police bus in the
capital of Colombo, killing 11 people and injuring more than 80.
(AFP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 16, London-based
Tullow Oil Plc announced the discovery of oil reserves in western
Uganda, boosting hopes for the energy-starved east African nation.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe acknowledged he had suffered an electoral
disaster in losing a first round against arch rival Morgan
Tsvangirai, as the date for a run-off was fixed for June 27.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 17, This was the
official release date by the US Mint for the Adams dollar coin, the
6th of its presidential dollar series.
(WSJ, 12/27/07,
p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_$1_Coin_Act_of_2005)
2008 May 17, In Louisiana 6
train cars derailed spilling 8-10 thousand gallons of hydrochloric
acid and forming a toxic cloud over Lafayette, 125 miles west of New
Orleans.
(WSJ, 5/19/08, p.A2)
2008 May 17, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast hit a vehicle in the eastern Paktia province, left
three civilians dead. A bomb placed on a bicycle exploded as a
police vehicle passed by outside Kandahar. The blast killed a
10-year old boy and wounded another civilian. 15 Taliban rebels were
killed in an operation by the Afghan military in southwestern Badgis
province.
(AP, 5/17/08)(AFP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 17, In China the
confirmed death toll rose to 28,881 as thousands of earthquake
victims fled areas near the epicenter, fearful of floods from rivers
blocked by landslides rattled loose in this week's powerful temblor.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook Sichuan province. At least 14
people died in a collision between a bus and a tractor in eastern
China.
(AP, 5/17/08)(Reuters, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez declared victory in the national election
and pledged to continue pushing forward economic projects that have
helped pull the Caribbean nation's economy out of crisis.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, In Egypt Pres.
Bush opened two days of talks with a string of leaders in Sharm
El-Sheik by sitting down with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, Voters in Kuwait
lined up to vote in parliamentary elections that could substantially
change the legislative body of this tiny, oil-rich Gulf emirate
following electoral reforms to reduce corruption and vote buying.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, Iraq’s PM al
Maliki met with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Baghdad. Her
visit came amid complaints the Iraqi government is not contributing
enough financially to the reconstruction of the oil-rich country.
Mortar shells slammed into a residential area north of the Iraqi
capital, killing at least four people, a man and 3 children, and
wounding 30. US airstrikes killed six militants and destroyed a
weapons cache after troops were attacked by rocket-propelled
grenades and small-arms fire near Khan Bani Saad, north of Baghdad.
American soldiers killed two other militants after coming under
attack by a roadside bomb and small-arms fire in Baghdad’s northern
Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
(AP, 5/17/08)(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 17, Frustrated world
leaders tightened the pressure on Myanmar, raising the allegation of
crimes against humanity over the regime's slow-moving response to
the cyclone disaster. Diplomats witnessed "huge" devastation in the
Irrawaddy delta and the toll of dead and missing from the cyclone
rose above 133,000 people.
(AFP, 5/17/08)(Reuters, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, In the Philippines
Tropical Storm Halong made landfall in Pangasinan province,
northwest of Manila. By May 20 the death toll from the storm had
reached 37.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 17, Somali pirates
hijacked a Jordanian-flagged ship, called the Victoria, in the
latest in a string of attacks off the lawless coast of Somalia.
Islamic insurgents in Somalia seized a major agricultural center
overnight in Jilib. 2 militia fighters were killed. The UAE-owned
ship was released on May 23.
(AP, 5/17/08)(AP, 5/18/08)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 17, Spanish police
announced the arrest of five people this week suspected of hacking
into or outright disabling thousands of Internet pages, some of them
run by government agencies in the US, Latin America and Asia. Two of
the suspects were 16 years old. The others were 19 or 20.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, Sri Lankan air
force helicopters bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel operations center in
the contested north. Separate ground battles killed 12 insurgents.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 17, In eastern Turkey
a clash between soldiers and Kurdish rebels left 6 rebels dead in
Van province.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, Zimbabwean
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai postponed his expected return
home to contest an election run-off after his party said it had
discovered an assassination plot against him.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 18, In SF the 97th
running of the Bay to Breakers drew some 60,000 participants, of
which 33,000 had officially registered.
(SFC, 5/19/08, p.A1)
2008 May 18, Surgeon Harry
Buncke (b.1922), Canada-born microsurgery pioneer, died in
California. In 1972 He performed the first toe-to-thumb transplant
at San Francisco’s Franklin Hospital, later called Ralph K. Davies
Medical Center. Buncke came to be called the father of microsurgery.
(SFC, 5/21/08,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Buncke)
2008 May 18, Lawrence Roman
(b.1921), screenwriter, died in Woodland Hills, Ca. His work
included the 1960 Broadway play “Under the Yum-Yum Tree,” which he
also adopted to film in 1963. During his career he wrote more than
20 films and teleplays.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.B3)
2008 May 18, Osama bin Laden
released a new message denouncing Arab leaders for sacrificing the
Palestinians and saying the head of the Shiite militant group
Hezbollah did not really have the strength to take on Israel.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 18, Sayed Parwez
Kambakhsh (24), an Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for
insulting Islam, denied the charges before an appeals court, saying
he only confessed to questioning the religion's treatment of women
because he was tortured. In 2008 an appeal court overturned the
death sentence, but upheld his conviction of blasphemy and sentenced
him to 20 years in jail. A police officer was killed and two others
injured when their patrolling convoy came under fire from rebels in
the southwestern province of Farah. A soldier with a US-led military
coalition and an Afghan "non-combatant" were killed when a bomb blew
up their vehicle in southern Afghanistan. A suicide bombing in
Helmand province killed four people.
(AP, 5/18/08)(AFP, 5/18/08)(AFP, 5/19/08)(AP,
5/20/08)(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 May 18, In Burundi as the
government and rebels sought unsuccessfully to reach agreement in
negotiations to reinstate a 2006 ceasefire deal, the army attacked
National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebel positions south of Bujumbura.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 18, China declared
three days of national mourning for earthquake victims and ordered a
suspension of the Olympic torch relay, as the search for survivors
of the disaster grew bleak with the confirmed death toll rising to
32,476.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, In Colombia
Eldaneyis Mosquera, also known as "Karina," a wanted leader of Latin
America's largest guerrilla army, handed herself over to Colombian
authorities.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 18, Cuban officials
said they have documented proof that US officials on the island are
delivering private funds to political dissidents in order to
undermine the communist government.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, In Egypt Pres.
Bush lectured the Arab world about everything from political
repression to the denial of women's rights but ran into Palestinian
complaints he is favoring Israel in stalled Mideast peace talks. His
message was aimed at the countries in the region where the political
and civil systems are far from free as he ended a five-day Mideast
trip.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, Ethiopia's
electoral board said the ruling party won nearly all seats in last
month's local polls and parliamentary by-elections that were marred
by boycotts and accusations of repression. Official data said the
ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won
97 percent of the vote held on April 13 and 20.
(AFP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, In eastern India
at least 16 people were killed in clashes between rival political
parties during local council elections. Over 200 people were injured
as supporters of the Communist Party, which governs in West Bengal
state, and the Congress Party that heads the federal government,
fought battles using guns and rocks.
(AP, 5/19/08)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A15)
2008 May 18, A parked car bomb
struck an Iraqi army patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing two soldiers
and wounding six other people.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, In Italy residents
of Naples, fed up with the stench from months of uncollected
rubbish, used the waste to barricade streets in protest at the
long-running crisis.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, Kuwait's
parliamentary elections showed strong gains for Muslim hardliners.
Women candidates failed to win a single seat.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, An American woman
(28) was among four people found dead in the Mexican beach town of
Playas de Rosarito, near border with California.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 18, A senior UN envoy
went to Myanmar to urge its military junta to accept more
international aid for cyclone survivors. A British minister
suggested the isolationist regime may be relenting.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, Pakistani Taliban
carried out a suicide attack in the northwestern city of Mardan. 13
people were killed there in revenge for an earlier suspected US
missile strike on a rebel hideout at Damadola.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 18, In South Africa
mobs killed at least six people and injured 50 in anti-foreigner
violence that has spread through poor suburbs of Johannesburg.
Zimbabweans were mainly targeted. The trouble started last week in
the sprawling township of Alexandra, where angry residents accused
foreigners of taking scarce jobs and housing.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, In Sri Lanka
government soldiers and the rebels fought several battles in
northern Mannar district, killing 40 rebels and 10 soldiers while
three other soldiers are reported missing. 21 other rebels and seven
soldiers were also killed in scattered fighting, mortar fire and
mine blasts across Jaffna. A pro-rebel Web site reported that the
rebels have stalled a military advance in Mannar, killing 26
soldiers and wounding more than 50. Three insurgents were also
killed in the battle the Web site reported, quoting an unnamed rebel
official.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 18, Turkmenistan held
a foundation-laying ceremony in Ashgabat for a new, $70 million,
607-foot monument that will rise twice as high as Turkmenistan's
current record-holder, a tower topped by a golden statue of late
dictator Niyazov that rotates to face the sun.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 18, A Yemeni-American
on the FBI's Most Wanted list of terror suspects was jailed in Yemen
after an appeals court upheld his 10-year prison sentence. Jaber
Elbaneh has been accused of belonging to al-Qaida, convicted of
plots to attack oil installations in Yemen and of involvement in a
2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg off Yemen's coast that
killed one person. On November 8 Elbaneh’s sentence was cut to 5
years after winning an appeal.
(AP, 5/19/08)(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 May 19, The US Justice
Department said international investigators have busted a vast
Internet fraud network and charged 38 suspects, most of them
Romanians living in the US.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Federal regulators
said eight former AOL Time Warner Inc. executives fraudulently
inflated the company's online advertising revenues by more than $1
billion between 2000 and 2002.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Al Gore received a
$1 million prize on Monday for his environmental work from an
Israeli fund. The Dan David Foundation awarded the former vice
president its annual "present" prize for alerting the world to the
crisis from the overuse of fossil fuels.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Google made
available a free service allowing customers to manage their medical
records online at www.google.com/health.
(SFC, 5/20/08, p.D1)
2008 May 19, Huntington
Hartford (b.1911), the deep-pocketed A&P grocery heir who burned
through most of a $100 million fortune in a series of fruitless
business and cultural endeavors before his life unraveled, died at
his home in Lyford Cay, Nassau, in the Bahamas.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew himself up near Afghan troops in
a bazaar near the Pakistani border, wounding four soldiers and a
civilian translator. 8 Taliban were killed in a military raid
elsewhere. The decapitated body of a policeman was found in the
southwestern province of Farah, a day after he had been captured by
Taliban fighters. In eastern Afghanistan militants fired mortars at
an aid agency's water tanker, killed the driver and stole his
tanker. In southwestern Nimroz province, a mine blew up a truck
transporting sheep and killed five men and several of the animals.
In Wardak, near Kabul, a mine apparently intended for police
exploded under a civilian car and killed two people. Two soldiers
with NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed in
separate insurgency-related incidents in southern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, Argentine farmers
announced plans to suspend a 13-day strike and resume grain sales,
paving the way for talks with the government to end contentious
export restrictions.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In Australia the
Tasmania state government said the Tasmanian devil will be listed as
an endangered species this week as a result of a deadly and
disfiguring cancer outbreak. Animal rights activists said Australian
authorities have started the controversial killing of about 400
kangaroos on the outskirts of Australia's capital of Canberra.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, British lawmakers
voted to approve controversial plans to allow the use of
animal-human embryos for research.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, China stood still
to begin 3 days of mourning over tens of thousands of earthquake
victims, and the government appealed for more international aid to
cope with the country's deadliest disaster in a generation. The
confirmed death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 34,073.
(AP, 5/19/08)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.57)
2008 May 19, In southern India
police said locally brewed liquor apparently tainted with lethal
chemicals killed at least 59 people over the weekend. By May 21 the
death toll rose to 156.
(AP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 19, The Iraqi Interior
Ministry reported the arrest of Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, a top
al-Qaida in Iraq figure in the northern city of Mosul, where
security forces have been carrying out an intensified crackdown to
root out the terror network. Lt. Col. Farhan Qassim, the police
chief of the southern town of Suq al-Shiyoukh, was killed by a bomb
that exploded in his office. Suspected Sunni insurgents near the
Syrian border ambushed a minibus carrying Iraqi recruits killing all
11 passengers.
(AP, 5/19/08)(SFC, 5/20/08, p.A8)
2008 May 19, In Ireland UN
chief Ban Ki-Moon called for a "visionary" global deal to ban
cluster bombs, as delegates from over 100 countries opened a
conference aimed at outlawing the lethal weapons.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Japan’s tourism
ministry named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in
China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among
kids and young women.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Nissan Motor Co.
and NEC corp. announced plans to begin mass-producing lithium-ion
batteries for electric cars. Nissan and Renault planned to have an
all-electric car in the US and Japan by 2010.
(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.B1)
2008 May 19, In Mexico the
military took over the town of Zirandaro near Texas after all 20 of
its police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 19, Myanmar declared
three days of mourning for cyclone victims after agreeing to an
international aid effort led by its Southeast Asian neighbors to
help two million survivors in dire need.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, In western Nepal
36 people were killed when an overcrowded bus careened off a
mountain highway into a river. Another 10 were presumed dead.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In the Philippines
a man strafed several houses during a shooting spree in a town south
of Manila, killing eight people and wounding six others. Five of the
dead were children aged 4-12 years who were sleeping inside their
homes in Calamba town. The lone suspect escaped.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Matrook al-Faleh
was arrested at King Saud University in the Saudi capital Riyadh,
where he teaches political science. A rights group said it came
after al-Faleh publicly criticized conditions in a prison where two
other human rights activists are serving jail terms. Faleh was
released in January, 2009.
(AP, 5/25/08)(AP, 1/11/09)
2008 May 19, In South Africa
police fired rubber bullets and made arrests to try to quell
outbursts of anti-foreigner violence in and around Johannesburg, as
the death toll reached 22.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Suspected members
of a Basque separatist group allegedly exploded a car bomb in a
northern Basque town, causing considerable damage but no injuries.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, In Turkey a law
extending a smoking ban to most enclosed areas — including taxis,
ferries and shopping malls — came into effect in the
nicotine-addicted nation.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Zimbabwe's
opposition party accused the country's military of plotting to
assassinate the group's presidential candidate using snipers.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 20, Sen. Barack Obama
won the Oregon primary 58% to 42% for Hillary Clinton. In Kentucky
Clinton won 65% to 30% for Obama. Obama’s delegate count rose to
1,956 with 1,776 for Clinton. 2,026 delegates were needed to win the
Democratic nomination.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.A1)
2008 May 20, Massachusetts Sen.
Edward Kennedy (76) was diagnosed with a malignant bran tumor.
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A1)
2008 May 20, Merck & Co.
announced that it had agreed to pay $58 million as part of a
multi-state settlement of allegations that its ads played down the
health risks for the painkiller Vioxx.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.C3)
2008 May 20, Scientists
delivered a warning about nanotechnology after tests on lab rodents
found that microscopic, needle-like fibers that are already in
commercial use led to lesions similar to those caused by asbestos.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Hamilton Jordan
(b.1944), former strategist and chief of staff for Pres. Jimmy
Carter, died in Atlanta, Georgia.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.A5)
2008 May 20, In Afghanistan
airstrikes and a 3-hour gun battle in Zabul province killed an
Afghan army soldier and 14 insurgents. 6 of the dead insurgents
appeared to be Arabs.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A9)
2008 May 20, Painted and
feathered Indians waving machetes and clubs slashed Eletrobras
engineer Paulo Fernando Rezende, an official of Brazil's national
electric company during a protest over a proposed hydroelectric dam
on the Xingu River. Environmentalists warned it could destroy the
traditional fishing grounds of Indians living nearby and displace as
many as 15,000 people. The government said the proposed US$6.7
billion (euro4.3 billion) dam would supply Brazil with an estimated
11,000 megawatts of power and is essential to meet growing energy
demand.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, British PM Gordon
Brown urged rich countries to end agricultural subsidies, and said
he will press for a global trade agreement to help the world's
poorest farmers escape poverty.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The Dalai Lama
began an 11-day visit to Britain, including talks with PM Gordon
Brown who faces a delicate balancing act between supporting Tibetan
rights while not offending China.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Howard Dill
(b.1934)), Canadian pumpkin grower, died in Nova Scotia. In 1979 he
grew a 438-pound pumpkin, the largest in the world and proceeded to
win the pumpkin growers world championship 4 years in a row using
his new seed variety, Dill’s Atlantic Giant.
(WSJ, 6/7/08, p.A12)
2008 May 20, In China the
confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000 as authorities
struggled to find shelter for many of the 5 million people whose
homes were destroyed in last week's earthquake.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Ethiopia 3
people were killed and four wounded when a bomb exploded near the
foreign ministry in central Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The UN children's
agency warned that a severe drought in Ethiopia threatens up to six
million children.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The European
Parliament censured Italy for its treatment of Gypsies.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.71)
2008 May 20, Xavier Lopez Pena
(49), the suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA, was
detained along with three other suspected ETA members in a sweep on
an apartment in the French city of Bordeaux just before midnight.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, Guinea’s Pres.
Conte unexpectedly fired PM Kouyate. Junior troops disgruntled over
back pay and demanding that Guinea's top generals resign began
firing into the air at several military bases on the outskirts of
the capital, Conakry. They took the army's second-in-command
hostage.
(AP,
9/29/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansana_Kouyat%C3%A9)
2008 May 20, Whale hunting
season began in Iceland as the country's first whaling ship of the
year set sail in defiance of a worldwide moratorium on the practice.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, West Bengal,
India, completed 2 weeks of local elections, which left 37 people
killed in fighting by rival parties.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.59)
2008 May 20, Thousands of Iraqi
troops moved unchallenged into Baghdad's Sadr City to seize the
Shiite militia stronghold. Four anti-al-Qaida fighters were killed
by gunmen in an ambush near Duluiyah, north of Baghdad. A boy (7)
was killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of
the head of the so-called awakening council in Mandali, east of the
capital. Shells slammed into the center of Balad Ruz, 45 miles
northeast of Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding nine
others.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Israeli aircraft
launched at least three strikes on Palestinians, killing a boy (13),
a Hamas fighter and an unidentified man. The first raid aircraft
fired on the northeastern Gaza Strip at a group of Palestinians
launching rockets. The 2nd aircraft fired at Palestinians who were
planting explosives along the fence in central Gaza.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Mexico’s
Durango state two rival groups opened fire at each other with
pistols and assault rifles on a highway, killing eight people.
Officials said the Mexican military took over the police department
of Villa Ahumada this week because all 20 officers on the force have
either been killed, run out of town or quit. The body of Victor
Enrique Payan, 2nd in command of police in Morelos, was found with a
second, unidentified Morelos state police officer in the trunk of a
car south of Mexico City.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 20, The UN's top
humanitarian official made fresh pleas to Myanmar's military
government to allow in more foreign aid for cyclone survivors, as
the country began three days of mourning for the 134,000 dead and
missing.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Russia Pres.
Medvedev convened top officials and lawyers to set up a task force
aimed at cleaning up the weak and often corrupt court system.
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A13)
2008 May 20, The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) said a wave of violence against
foreigners in South Africa has forced 13,000 people to flee their
homes and seek shelter in churches and other social centers.
Violence against foreigners had killed at least 24 people and
unnerved investors.
(AFP, 5/20/08)(Reuters, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Sri Lanka
ground battles in the Welioya, Vavuniya and Mannar areas bordering
the rebels' de facto state in the north killed 25 rebels. Tamil
leader Balasegaram Kandiah (43), known by his nom de guerre, Brig.
Balraj, died of a heart attack. He reportedly led a number of
battles against government forces.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, In Sudan deadly
fighting raged between rival forces in Abyei, a flashpoint oil
district between north and south whose status remains contested
three years after the end of civil war. 22 government troops died in
fighting that threatened the peace process.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, Taiwanese
prosecutors launched a corruption probe against outgoing President
Chen Shui-bian, hours after he completed eight combative years in
office. Ma Ying-jeou (57) took office and exhorted Beijing to build
a better future for people on both sides of the 100-mile-wide Taiwan
Strait.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Ian Shuttleworth
(42), a former British police officer, was arrested in Bangkok in an
international crackdown on a sex trafficking ring that saw nine
Thais detained last month in London. He was arrested at his
apartment in downtown Bangkok, where he had set up a security
company providing bodyguards to Thailand's elite. He is accused of
luring Thai women into prostitution by promising them well-paid
restaurant jobs in London, and then selling them to a madam.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Pres. Bush signed
legislation to protect people from losing their jobs or health
insurance when genetic testing reveals they are susceptible to
costly diseases. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was
designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in
health insurance and employment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act)(WSJ,
5/22/08, p.D6)
2008 May 21, American Airlines
said it will remove 75 of 954 aircraft in its fleet and start
charging some domestic passengers $15 to check a suitcase due to
rising fuel costs. Oil futures closed at a record $133.17.
(SFC, 5/22/08, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A1)
2008 May 21, In Afghanistan 2
NATO soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed when an
explosion hit them during a patrol in eastern Ghazni province. In
eastern Kunar province a rocket hit a schoolyard in Asmor district,
killing one student and wounding four others. The victims were
between eight and 14 years old.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A9)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, In Australia
Milton Orkopoulos (50), the former New South Wales state minister
for Aboriginal affairs, was jailed for nearly 14 years on child sex
and drugs charges.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi claimed that government troops have killed or captured 95
percent of rebels in the separatist Ogaden region.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, Hundreds of French
fishermen clashed with police in Paris and severely disrupted
cross-Channel traffic as they stepped up a 10-day-old protest
against soaring fuel costs.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Georgia held
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, India and Pakistan
signed a pact in Islamabad granting consular access to prisoners in
each other's jails but reported no significant progress in
negotiations on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In Indonesia
thousands of students took to the streets across the country to
protest the government's plan to raise fuel prices.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, At least 11 people
were killed when gunfire broke out after a roadside bombing in a
Shiite militia stronghold in eastern Baghdad near Sadr City, scene
of a major military clampdown. The shooting occurred in the Obeidi
neighborhood after three roadside bombs targeted joint US-Iraqi
troops. An Iraqi television cameraman, Wissam Ali Auda, of Afaq TV,
was killed in the fighting. A second journalist was killed north of
Baghdad. The bullet-riddled body of Hashim al-Hussein (35), a
correspondent for the Sharq newspaper kidnapped a day earlier, was
found dumped near the city of Baqouba. A US helicopter strike north
of Baghdad killed 8 civilians, including several children. The US
military said the assault targeted al-Qaida fighters but
acknowledged that children died.
(AP, 5/21/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, Brian Keenan (66),
a commanding figure during the Irish Republican Army's long march
from war to peace, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Israel and Syria
said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish
mediators on a dispute that centers on the Golan Heights.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi moved his Cabinet meeting to Naples, vowing to clean the
city's streets of the garbage that has piled up for months and
become a stinking symbol of government inadequacy.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Lebanon's feuding
factions reached a breakthrough deal, following talks in Qatar, to
end the country's 18-month political stalemate. The deal gives the
militant Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government
decision.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In northern Mali
27 people were killed, including 10 soldiers, following an insurgent
attack on an army base. Ethnic Tuareg rebels active in the area
claimed responsibility for the attack. They said only one of their
fighters died in the skirmish and that they had taken some 60
soldiers hostages.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon began a mission for Myanmar's cyclone victims, saying "our
focus now is on saving lives," as the military government gave
approval UN helicopters to distribute aid.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A1)
2008 May 21, In northern
Nigeria 46 soldiers, who just returned from a peacekeeping mission
in Darfur, were killed in a road accident. 10 people drowned and six
were rescued when their boat capsized in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, Pakistan's
government promised to "gradually" pull out troops from the
northwestern valley of Swat after signing a peace agreement with
Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In Moscow, Russia,
Manchester United prevailed over Chelsea in the soccer final of the
Champions League.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.77)
2008 May 21, The interior
ministers of Senegal and Spain signed an agreement extending
cooperation between the west African nation and the EU border
control agency Frontex to combat illegal immigration by one year.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In southern
Somalia dozens of heavily armed gunmen kidnapped two Italian aid
workers and their Somali colleague.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In South Africa
xenophobic violence, that has killed at least 24 people, spilled
over to the volatile Zulu heartland and security officials discussed
whether to use troops to quell unrest.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Dozens of men on
horseback armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades
ambushed Nigerian peacekeepers serving with the joint UN-African
Union force in Darfur. No casualties were reported.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, Two Swedish
contractors were arrested suspected of preparing to sabotage The
Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in southern Sweden, after traces of
explosives were found on one of the men. Police released the 2 men
the next day as technical experts continued an investigation.
(AFP, 5/21/08)(Reuters, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, Ukraine moved to
strengthen its currency, the hryvnia, by revising its peg to the
dollar form 5.05 hryvnia per dollar to 4.85.
(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.C14)
2008 May 22, The US Congress
enacted a farm bill over Pres. Bush’s veto sending new and bigger
subsidies for farmers and more food stamps to help the poor with
rising grocery prices.
(SFC, 5/23/08, p.A5)
2008 May 22, Several companies
agreed to pay a combined $24 million to pet owners to resolve
lawsuits over contaminated pet food linked to the illness and death
of animals. The settlement involving Canada-based Menu Foods Income
Fund and other pet food manufacturers and suppliers was outlined in
documents filed in the US District Court in New Jersey.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, The Summit Fire
began in the California’s Santa Cruz mountains. After 5 days it had
covered 4,270 acres and destroyed 31 residences before becoming
fully contained.
(SFC, 5/23/08, p.A1)(SFC, 5/28/08, p.B2)
2008 May 22, A tornado hit
northern Colorado killing one person.
(WSJ, 5/23/08, p.A1)
2008 May 22, In western
Afghanistan gunfire broke out in Ghor province at a protest against
a US sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice. Two
civilians were slain and seven others were wounded. A NATO soldier
from Lithuania was killed, the first of the Baltic country's troops
to die while serving there.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Bangladesh
reported its first confirmed case of human bird flu, but said the
16-month-old victim had now recovered from the virus.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Britain’s PM
Gordon Brown called for a total ban on the use of cluster bombs by
the British military. Nicky Reilly, would-be suicide bomber, tried
to detonate a nail bomb in a restaurant in Exeter but injured only
himself. He had embraced Islam between 2002 and 2003 and called
himself Mohammad Rashid Saeed Alim. In 2009 Reilly (22) was
sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in prison.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AP, 1/30/09)
2008 May 22, In Canada a
shoe-clad foot was discovered on a small uninhabited island south of
Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia, and is the fourth discovered in
the region in the past 10 months. Police did not know where they are
coming from.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, China said the
toll of dead and missing from last week's powerful earthquake jumped
to more than 80,000, while the government appealed for millions of
tents to shelter homeless survivors.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Tens of thousands
of French workers took to the streets as unions mounted a one-day
show of force against President Nicolas Sarkozy's government over
pension reforms.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Partial returns
and an exit poll showed President Mikhail Saakashvili's ruling party
heading for a strong majority in Georgia's parliamentary election.
United Opposition co-leader David Gamkrelidze alleged widespread
cheating and pressure on opponents by authorities in areas outside
Tbilisi.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Indonesians faced
runaway inflation and higher interest rates after the government
vowed to hike subsidized fuel prices by an average 28.7% despite
widespread protests.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Pres. al-Maliki
met with the Iraq’s most influential Shiite spiritual leader, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to discuss his government crackdowns.
Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing
religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against US-led
foreign troops is permissible.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, In Pakistan
unidentified gunmen shot dead Muhammad Ibrahim (44), a reporter for
Urdu-language Express newspaper, after he interviewed a spokesman
for Taliban militants in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, A Palestinian
suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with explosives as he tried
to ram a crucial crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. There
were no casualties besides the bomber.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, A US government
agency signed a political risk insurance deal with a Palestinian
firm to help guarantee investments in the West Bank as part of an
international effort to develop the beleaguered local economy.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, The South African
army mobilized in support of embattled police trying to quell a wave
of violence against immigrants that has claimed 42 lives and
displaced 16,000. More than 10,000 Mozambicans have fled home from
South Africa to escape the xenophobic attacks.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, In Sri Lanka
government soldiers killed 11 insurgents in three separate clashes
in Vavuniya. 10 soldiers were wounded. Other battles in Jaffna,
Mannar and Welioya killed 11 rebels and two soldiers.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, Thailand's PM
Sundaravej pledged to sell rice to Manila at "negotiable" rates, as
he began a visit to the Philippines, which is working to boost its
stocks of the grain.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Two Turkish
soldiers were killed in an overnight clash with Kurdish rebels in
southeastern Turkey. Troops killed two Kurdish rebels near the
southeastern city of Sirnak.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, Vallejo, Ca.,
officially declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy as it faced a $16 million
deficit with no money in reserve for fiscal year 2008-2009.
(SFC, 5/24/08, p.B1)
2008 May 23, In Kansas at least
17 tornadoes touched ground, one of which killed 2 people in a car
75 miles west of Wichita.
(SSFC, 5/25/08, p.A2)
2008 May 23, George Frederick
Jewett Jr. (81), former director of Potlatch Corp.,, philanthropist
and sailing buff, died in SF. He had chaired 5 America’s Cup
syndicates.
(SFC, 5/26/08, p.B3)
2008 May 23, Utah Phillips
(b.1935), a seminal figure in American folk music, died of
congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California. Born Bruce
Duncan Phillips in Cleveland, Ohio, he had performed extensively and
tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years.
(www.utahphillips.org/)
2008 May 23, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up as an Afghan army
convoy slowed to pass a pothole-riddled section of road, killing
four soldiers and a child. In southern Afghanistan several
insurgents were killed and six others detained during a US-led
coalition operation.
(AP, 5/23/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, In Brazil 12 South
American leaders gathered in Brasilia to set up a Union of South
American Nations. Unasur was expected to replace the South American
Community, declared in 2004, and unite the Mercosur and Andean
Community free trade areas.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.41)
2008 May 23, China and Russia
jointly condemned a US plan for a global missile defense system at
the start of a highly symbolic visit by new Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, UN peacekeepers
found over 100 bodies in three mass graves in the east of Democratic
Republic of Congo. A UN spokesman said they apparently were graves
dating back to the 1990s, but that is was difficult to know
accurately.
(Reuters, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, Indonesia's
government raised gasoline pump prices by nearly 30 percent because
of the surging cost of oil and gas on the global market. The move
triggered generally peaceful protests throughout the vast Indonesian
archipelago.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 May 23, Clashes between
Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip left five
militants dead.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Frank Phel (74),
an American tourist, was hit and killed by a train at a Rome station
as he was walking on the tracks in a daze after being drugged and
robbed. The suspected robber was arrested the next day.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 23, Japan allocated
$54 million in emergency grants to the UN to help Afghanistan,
Africa and Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Mexico's attorney
general said homicides related to organized crime jumped 47 percent
in 2008, in a rare confirmation of how bad violence has become.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Mexican federal
officials said they plan to clean up Acapulco's bay, where an
estimated 400 gallons (1,700 liters) of sewage spews into the
Pacific ocean every second.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Myanmar's junta agreed to allow
all aid workers into the country after weeks of refusing access to
foreign relief experts seeking to help cyclone survivors.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, The International
Court of Justice awarded Singapore sovereignty over a disputed
island at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Straits. The ICJ
ruled in favor of Singapore in the 28-year dispute with Malaysia
over a tiny but strategic uninhabited island the size of half a
football field. The court, however, gave Malaysia ownership of a
smaller uninhabited outcropping. Sovereignty over a third disputed
cluster of rocks was left to be determined later between the
countries when they sort our their territorial waters.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, In Somalia a
roadside bomb exploded near a compound housing African Union (AU)
peacekeepers in Mogadishu, causing some casualties.
(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, South Africa's
security chief accused right wingers, linked to the former apartheid
government, of fanning xenophobic violence that has spread to Cape
Town, the second largest city and tourist center.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, In Sri Lanka Army
troops launched two separate attacks along the front lines on the
Jaffna peninsula and destroyed 13 rebel bunkers. Guerrillas said 16
civilians were killed in a roadside bomb attack carried out by
government forces deep inside Tamil Tiger territory. Rebels also
said a government airstrike elsewhere in Kilinochchi killed an
infant and a teenage girl. Other fighting in the Vavuniya and Mannar
regions bordering the rebels' de facto state in the north killed
seven rebels and one soldier.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, In Turkey one
rebel and one village guard were killed in a clash near the border
with Iran.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, A UN food aid
agency said the response to its appeal for money to help meet
soaring fuel and food costs went beyond what it had hoped to
collect, saying $500 million from Saudi Arabia means it won't have
to cut rations.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, In California a
tour helicopter crashed on Santa Catalina Island killing 3 people
and injuring 3 others.
(SSFC, 5/25/08, p.A6)
2008 May 24, In Georgia Kirk
Wright (37), convicted of leading an investment scheme, hanged
himself in the Union City jail. He faced up to 710 years in prison
and a fine up to $16 million. An SEC suit had already hit him with a
$20 million judgment for fraud and money laundering related to the
2006 collapse of his Int’l. Management Associates hedge fund.
(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.C12)
2008 May 24, Dick Martin (86),
the zany half of the comedy team whose "Rowan and Martin's
Laugh-In," died in Santa Monica, Ca. He took television by storm in
the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating
such national catch-phrases as "Sock it to me!"
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 24, Jimmy McGriff
(b.1936), blues organist, died in New Jersey.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.B5)
2008 May 24, Stuart Moldaw (81)
of Atherton, Ca., philanthropist and founder of Ross Stores (1981),
died. By 2007 Ross had become the country’s 2nd largest off-price
retailer with annual sales of $6 billion.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.B9)
2008 May 24, Disaster-prone
Bangladesh announced that it would plant 100 million trees to create
a "natural fence" against frequent floods and cyclones.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 24, Belgian police in
Brussels arrested Jean-Pierre Bemba (45), a Congolese warlord and
ex-presidential candidate, after he was secretly charged with rape
and torture. Bemba was accused of war crimes and crimes against
humanity as head of a militia that allegedly committed atrocities in
Central African Republic's conflict in 2002-2003.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 24, In England Rob
Knox (18), teenage actor who had a part in the next Harry Potter
film, was stabbed and killed in a scuffle outside a bar. Karl Bishop
(21), from Sidcup in Kent, was accused of the murder. On March 4,
2009, Bishop was convicted of murder. The next day he was sentenced
to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/27/08)(AP, 3/5/09)
2008 May 24, In China rescuers
rushed to reach 24 coal miners trapped underground by the earthquake
almost two weeks ago, as the government sharply raised the quake's
death toll, warning it could exceed 80,000.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 24, In Colombia a
moderate earthquake shook Bogota, killing at least six people and
injuring more than 10.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 24, Deutsche Telekom
acknowledged that in 2005 it had hired an outside firm to track
hundreds of thousands of phone calls by senior executives and
journalists to identify the sources of press leaks. The practice
continued into 2006.
(AP, 5/26/08)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.65)
2008 May 24, Lawmakers loyal to
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government of
trying to crush the movement and warned of "black clouds" on the
horizon for truces that have eased fighting between al-Sadr's
militia and security forces. Clashes broke out before midnight
between Shiite gunmen and US-Iraqi troops in the Amin area in
eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding three others,
including a 4-year-old boy.
(AP, 5/24/08)(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 24, Israeli forces
attacked two groups of Palestinian militants firing mortar shells in
the northern Gaza Strip, wounding 4 Hamas gunmen.
(SSFC, 5/25/08, p.A4)
2008 May 24, Top Pakistani
Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud said jihad, or holy war, would
continue in Afghanistan, despite peace negotiations between the
militants and Islamabad. Separate roadside bomb attacks in
Pakistan's volatile northwest killed three people, including a local
police chief.
(AFP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 24, Russia won the
Eurovision song contest in Belgrade with "Believe", sung by Dima
Bilan, giving an eastern European nation victory for the third time
in five years.
(AFP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 24, In Saudi Arabia
authorities beheaded a local man convicted of armed robbery and
raping a woman. The execution brings the number of people beheaded
this year to 55.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 24, In South Africa
thousands of people marched through Johannesburg, calling for an end
to xenophobic violence that has killed over 40 African migrants and
displaced tens of thousands.
(Reuters, 5/24/08)
2008 May 24, In northern Sri
Lanka a new round of fighting killed seven Tamil separatists and two
soldiers.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 24, Morgan Tsvangirai
returned to Zimbabwe for an election run-off with President Robert
Mugabe and said the veteran leader wanted to "decimate" MDC
structures.
(Reuters, 5/24/08)
2008 May 25, The Libertarian
Party picked Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman and
ex-Republican, as its US presidential candidate.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.38)
2008 May 25, Powerful storms
packing large hail, heavy rain and tornadoes made for a deadly
Memorial Day weekend across the nation's midsection, killing at
least seven people in Iowa and a 2-year-old child in Minnesota. 222
homes were destroyed in Iowa.
(AP, 5/26/08)(SFC, 5/28/08, p.A2)
2008 May 25, NASA’s Phoenix
Mars Lander landed safely in the Vastitas Borealis area and began
sending images home after a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey. On
May 24, 2010, NASA declared the Phoenix lander officially dead.
(AP, 5/26/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.83)(SFC, 5/25/10,
p.A4)
2008 May 25, In California the
decomposed bodies of 5 family members were found in a home in San
Clemente. 2 handguns were found with the bodies.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A3)
2008 May 25, J.R. Simplot
(b.1909) died in Boise, Idaho. He had left home in 1923 at age 14
with four gold coins given to him by his mother. He ended his life
as the spud king of America and one of the nation's richest men. In
2007 Forbes magazine listed him as the 89th richest American with
$3.6 billion.
(AP,
5/26/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._Simplot)(SFC, 5/29/08,
p.B5)
2008 May 25, In Kandahar,
Afghanistan, a suicide bomber hit a Canadian military convoy,
killing one boy. A US-led coalition soldier was killed in an
operation in western Farah province.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, Burundian
officials said the army killed three rebels near the capital over
the weekend, the latest in a series of violent clashes in the
central African nation.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 25, A 6.0 aftershock
hit quake-ravaged central China killed 6 people, left dozens more
injured and destroyed some 71,000 homes. Soldiers carrying
explosives hiked to a blocked-off river to alleviate the threat of
floods.
(AP, 5/25/08)(SFC, 5/26/08, p.A8)
2008 May 25, EU foreign
ministers approved much delayed plans to begin talks with Russia
aimed at forging a new "strategic partnership."
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 25, The French film
“The Class” (Entre les Murs) won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film
Festival. It was based on m a book by Francois Begaudeau. Matteo
Garrone’s “Gomorrah,” a study of the criminal underworld in Naples,
won the grand prize. Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” a portrait of
former Premier Giulio Andreotti, won the jury award.
(SFC, 5/26/08, p.F5)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.89)
2008 May 25, In India
authorities invited leaders of one of India's lowest castes for
talks as the death toll rose to 37 from three days of bloody
demonstrations over caste classification in western Rajasthan state.
The Gujjars sought to reclassify their hereditary sect to a lower
level in order to qualify for government jobs and university places.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata party won elections in Karnataka
state.
(AP, 5/25/08)(WSJ, 5/24/08, p.A16)
2008 May 25, Iran's state media
said at least 30 people have died and 38 were injured in an
explosion caused by fire at a factory in central Iran.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeted a patrol of US-allied Sunni Arab fighters near a
mosque in northern Baghdad, killing one of the so-called Awakening
Council members and wounding three others. An American soldier was
killed and two others were wounded in a roadside bombing in
Qadisiyah province.
(AP, 5/25/08)(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 25, An Iranian-born
Israeli was charged with passing defense information to Tehran. The
man told interrogators he repeatedly visited the Iranian consulate
in Istanbul, Turkey, and gave the Iranians names of acquaintances he
said served in the Israeli security forces.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, A nationwide power
outage hit Kenya as a result of a transmission fault from its
hydro-electric plants, sparking panic in the east African nation.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 25, In Lebanon Michel
Suleiman was elected president. He asked PM Saniora to stay on as
caretaker until a new administration is formed. Cabinet posts will
be distributed according to the Doha agreement: 16 for the majority,
11 for the opposition and three for president, who heads the
Cabinet.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 25, A 52-nation
international conference pledged tens of millions of dollars for
some 2.4 million Myanmar survivors in need of aid. Official
estimates put the death toll at about 78,000, with another 56,000
missing. Myanmar has estimated the economic damage at about $11
billion.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, In Pakistan
officials said heavy rains have killed at least 10 people in the
northwest, including six children who died when part of their mud
house collapsed.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, In the southern
Philippines at least 17 marines were wounded and two Muslim
separatist rebels killed as fierce prolonged fighting broke out on
Basilan island.
(AFP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, The Amiya Scan, a
Dutch freighter, was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
The ship and its crew of 4 Russians and 5 Filipinos were freed on
June 25.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 May 25, South African
President Thabo Mbeki made a rare national address in which he
condemned anti-immigrant violence as "an absolute disgrace." The
death toll from two weeks of anti-immigrant violence rose to 50.
Concerns mounted for some 35,000 people who have been displaced by
the backlash.
(AFP, 5/25/08)(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, It was reported
that an estimated 5.4 million of South Africa's 48 million people
have the AIDS virus, the highest total of any country. The epidemic
was killing nearly 1,000 South Africans a day and infecting even
more.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, Spanish coastguard
boats rescued 67 immigrants, including two corpses, from the sea
near the Canary Islands.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 26, David Mumford of
Brown University said he would donate his $33,333 portion of the
prestigious Israeli mathematics Wolf Prize, to a Palestinian
university and an Israeli group that tries to ease Israeli travel
restrictions on Palestinian students.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Earle H. Hagen
(b.1919), composer, died at his home in Rancho Mirage, Ca. He
co-wrote the jazz classic "Harlem Nocturne" (1939) and composed
memorable themes for "The Andy Griffith Show," "I Spy," "The Mod
Squad" and other TV shows.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 26, Sydney Pollack
(b.1934), American actor and director, died in Los Angeles. His
directed films included "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" (1970),
"Out of Africa" (1986) and "Tootsie" (1982).
(AP, 5/27/08)(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A2)
2008 May 26, Burundi's
government and last active rebel group signed an unconditional
ceasefire agreement, raising hopes of a definitive end to the small
central African nation's 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Canadian Foreign
Minister Maxime Bernier resigned after it emerged he had left
classified documents in the apartment of a former girlfriend who was
once linked to organized crime figures.
(Reuters, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, China said the
confirmed death toll had risen to 65,080 with 23,150 people still
missing. The final number of dead was expected to exceed 80,000.
officials said that the country's one-child policy exempts families
with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's
devastating earthquake.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, A small faction of
Rwandan Hutu rebels in east Democratic Republic of Congo pledged to
lay down their guns and return home, but the main rebel movement
refused and rejected the ceremony as a sham.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Egypt's parliament
at the request of the government extended emergency law for another
two years or until the government prepares an anti-terrorism law.
(www.ikhwanweb.com/Article.asp?ID=17228&SectionID=0)
2008 May 26, Ethiopia's Supreme
Court sentenced former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to death in
his absence, along with 17 senior officials of his regime,
overturning a previous life term on appeal. Mengistu has lived in
exile in Zimbabwe since he was toppled in 1991.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Germany turned red
as unusual weather brought iron-rich dust from Africa to Europe.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.79)
2008 May 26, In Iraq 6 teenage
boys who said they were being trained as suicide bombers were
detained in Mosul. Initial investigations showed they were being
trained by a Saudi militant who was killed in military operations. A
suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a checkpoint manned by Iraqi
police and US-allied Sunni fighters north of Baghdad, killing four
people. Suspected al-Qaida fighters kidnapped an awakening council
leader, Sheik Saleh al-Karkhi, and his brother after blowing up his
house in the village of Busaleh in Diyala province. A US soldier was
killed and two others wounded in a roadside bombing in the northern
Salahuddin province.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, In Italy police
arrested 49 suspected mobsters in raids on the Naples-based Camorra
mob, the equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia for the Naples area.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, In Japan the Group
of Eight (G8) environment chiefs pledged "strong political will"
toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring
that developed nations should take the lead in battling global
warming, but failed to agree on much more contentious near-term
targets.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Dutch scientists
claimed they have completed the first sequencing of an individual
woman's DNA.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Rebels from
Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said they had blown up a Royal
Dutch Shell pipeline and killed 11 soldiers in a firefight, but the
army denied losing any men.
(Reuters, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, In northwest
Pakistan gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Shiite Muslims, killing
four people before fleeing in what appeared to be a sectarian
attack,
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, A Russian an An-12
cargo plane crashed near Chelyabinsk, Siberia, killing all 9 people
onboard.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A3)
2008 May 26, In Somalia
Islamist insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers in
Mogadishu, sparking fierce clashes that killed at least 13 Somalis,
most of them civilians.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, South Korea and a
group of governments from the Middle East and Africa agreed to
launch a cooperative organization aimed at enhancing political,
cultural and economic ties. The Korea-Arab Society will group South
Korea with governments, corporations and organizations from 22
countries and authorities in the Arab world.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, In Sri Lanka a
bomb ripped through part of a packed passenger train during evening
rush hour, killing 8 people and wounding 70 others near the Colombo.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Zimbabwe’s
state-run Herald newspaper reported that President Robert Mugabe
will respect the will of voters if they end his 28-year rule in a
run-off election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 27, The US Supreme
Court strengthened civil rights laws for workers over retaliation in
bias cases relating to race and anti-age discrimination.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.A3)
2008 May 27, The US Treasury
said it will freeze the assets of four leaders of the Muslim
militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A6)
2008 May 27, In Afghanistan 12
people including three policemen were killed in two bomb attacks in
Farah and Logar provinces. Officials blamed Taliban extremists. In
Helmand province the US-led coalition killed several militants
during a hunt in Garmser district for a Taliban leader involved with
weapons smuggling operations in the area. Several other rebels were
killed in similar operations in eastern Paktia province, bordering
Logar. Altogether the days violence left 24 people dead including 13
police officers.
(AFP, 5/27/08)(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.A10)
2008 May 27, Argentine farm
groups vowed to suspend grain exports and meat sales, resuming
protests against controversial export taxes a day after talks with
the government stalled. DNA tests established the identity of an
Argentine woman taken from her parents during the country's military
dictatorship, the 90th such child identified by a group of
grandmothers searching for their missing relatives.
(AP, 5/27/08)(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 27, An Australian town
council unanimously rejected a contentious proposal to build a
1,200-student Islamic school, citing infrastructure concerns. Mayor
Chris Patterson of Camden said the decision had nothing to do with
religion but was based on the impact on traffic and loss of
agricultural land.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva swore in Carlos Minc, former environment
secretary for Rio de Janeiro state, as Brazil's new environment
minister. Silva used the swearing-in speech to lash developed
nations for alleged hypocrisy on environmental policy.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Horn-honking
truckers rumbled en masse into central London to protest against
soaring fuel prices.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Chinese officials
rushed to evacuate another 80,000 people in the path of potential
floodwaters building up behind a quake-spawned dam as soldiers
carved a channel to try to drain away the threat. A government
spokesman said the confirmed death toll in the earthquake more than
two weeks ago has risen to 67,183.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Germany unveiled a
memorial to the Nazis' long-ignored gay victims, a monument that
also aims to address ongoing discrimination by confronting visitors
with an image of a same-sex couple kissing.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Guinea's new PM
Ahmed Tidiane Souare announced a deal to pay mutinous soldiers years
of salary arrears, effectively ending the West African nation's
latest crisis.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 27, India's military
veterans staged protests nationwide to press for higher wages for
defense personnel and warned the unrest could spill over into the
serving ranks if New Delhi fails to act.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, An al-Qaida in
Iraq front group warned that insurgents were waiting for the right
moment to retaliate against a US-Iraqi security crackdown in the
northern city of Mosul. Gunmen killed a policeman near his station
in Mosul, when attackers opened fire with machine guns shortly
before noon. A car bomb in northern Iraq killed 4 civilians. A
US-allied fighter was killed and two others were wounded when a bomb
under their vehicle exploded near a market in northern Baghdad's
predominantly Sunni area of Azamiyah.
(AP, 5/27/08)(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.A1)
2008 May 27, Morris Talansky
(75), an American businessman who is key to a corruption probe of PM
Ehud Olmert, told prosecutors that over 14 years he had handed
Olmert cash-stuffed envelopes for $150,000. At least $40,000 was in
personal loans and never repaid.
(AP, 5/27/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.49)
2008 May 27, In Mexico 7
federal police and a suspected hit man were killed in a shootout as
authorities surrounded a suspected drug safe house in Culiacan, home
to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Myanmar's military
junta extended opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention by one
year, ignoring worldwide appeals to free the Nobel laureate who has
been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Nepal swore in 575
lawmakers who planned to declare a republic, which would
automatically displace the world’s last Hindu king.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.A8)
2008 May 27, South African
President Thabo Mbeki came under fire for traveling to Japan as
anti-immigrant violence spread to a new province and aid groups
struggled with thousands of displaced victims.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the UN will investigate
allegations by a leading children's charity that UN peacekeepers are
involved in widespread sexual abuse of children. The report by Save
the Children UK was based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory
Coast and Haiti.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 27, Zimbabwe's
opposition said a campaign of violence and intimidation designed to
fix President Robert Mugabe's re-election had now killed over 50 of
its supporters.
(AFP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 28, In Newton,
Massachusetts, a collision between two commuter trains killed driver
Terrese Edmonds (24). Passengers reported seeing Ms. Edmonds using a
cell phone moments before the collision.
(WSJ, 5/30/08, p.A2)
2008 May 28, In Reno, Nevada,
30 monkeys were found essentially cooked alive after a repair
technician left a heater on at a lab owned by Charles River
Laboratories. Two other monkeys had to be euthanized. The company
was fined $14,000.
(SFC, 3/18/10, p.A7)(http://tinyurl.com/yab2maj)
2008 May 28, In Afghanistan a
passenger truck ran off the road in a remote mountainous region of
Badakhshan province, killing 15 people and wounding 56. Three
suicide bomb attacks around the country killed one person.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, African leaders,
in Japan for a major development conference, lashed out at rich
nations for erecting trade barriers that prevent the continent's
economic development even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid.
Japan pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012 and to help the
continent boost rice production two-fold to ease food shortages.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Bahrain's King
Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa appointed Lawmaker Houda Nonoo, believed to
be the Arab world's first Jewish ambassador, as the country's envoy
to Washington.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, In Canada police
found the dead bodies of five adults and children in a suburban
Calgary home. Media outlets reported they were Joshua Lall (34) an
intern at an architectural firm, his wife Alison Lall (35), and
daughters Kristen (5), Rochelle (3) and a tenant reported to be
Amber Bowerman, who worked for a college newspaper. Police later
said Joshua Lall committed the murders sparing only his one-year-old
child.
(AP, 5/30/08)(Reuters, 5/31/08)
2008 May 28, China’s Xinhua
News Agency reported that torrential rains had killed 18 people in
southern Guizhou province since May 25, and that the rains were
expected to continue for 3 more days. 12 more people were reported
missing. Some 6,700 houses were damaged since the rains began.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A7)
2008 May 28, In southern
Ethiopia a bomb exploded in a hotel, killing 3 people and wounding
five others. The government suspected a terrorist group planted a
bomb in the hotel in Negelle Borena.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Iran's lawmakers
overwhelmingly picked conservative Ali Larijani as parliament
speaker, sending another strong message of discontent with Pres.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership by boosting one of his likely
challengers in elections next year.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Iraq's largest
Sunni Arab political bloc said it has suspended talks on ending its
boycott of the Shiite-led government due to a dispute over which
positions it would assume. The Sunni National Accordance Front held
44 of 275 parliamentary seats. Sporadic gunbattles broke out in a
Shiite stronghold in southeastern Baghdad as detentions and raids
against al-Sadr's followers continue to strain a truce. 3 civilians
were killed and five others wounded in the fighting. A roadside bomb
struck a car in the Qara Taba district, northeast of Baghdad,
killing a farmer and his son. US troops captured eight suspected
insurgents, including a man believed to be a longtime al-Qaida in
Iraq leader who was involved in a June 30, 2007, attack on American
forces in a remote area in Anbar province known as Donkey Island.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, In Ireland
diplomats for over 100 nations agreed on a treaty to ban current
types of cluster bombs. The talks did not involve the biggest makers
and users, which included the US, Russia, China, Israel, India and
Pakistan. Nations were expected to sign the document in December in
Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A3)
2008 May 28, An Israeli
airstrike in southern Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen during a
military operation. The airstrike also wounded four militants who
were firing mortars at Israeli forces.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, In Lebanon PM Fuad
Saniora won a new term with the backing of a pro-American coalition,
angering the Hezbollah-led opposition.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A10)
2008 May 28, In Nepal lawmakers
voted just before midnight to abolish the 240-year-old Hindu
monarchy and establish a secular republic.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, The first winners
of the new Kavli Prizes for outstanding research in nanoscience,
neuroscience, and astrophysics were to be announced in Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C1)
2008 May 28, Former PM Nawaz
Sharif said Pakistan's ruling coalition has agreed to expel
US-backed President Pervez Musharraf from power.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Slovakia revalued
its currency. Finance minister Jan Pociatek was soon accused of
leaking news of the revaluation to J&T, Slovakia’s leading
investment fund.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.58)
2008 May 28, Sri Lanka’s
military said 20 insurgents and one soldier were killed in fighting
in Jaffna and Welioya.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, In Sudan a Ugandan
policeman serving with the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force
in the western Darfur region was found dead riddled with bullets.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, Thailand police
said 3 soldiers and four suspected separatist rebels have been
killed in a series of incidents across the far south, including a
shootout at a wedding party.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Turkey's state-run
media said soldiers killed two Kurdish rebels during a clash near
the border with Iran.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Venezuela
announced that the new Intelligence and Counterintelligence Law,
passed by Pres. Chavez, would replace the Disip secret police and
Military Intelligence Directorate with 4 new agencies. Under the law
citizens who refuse to act as informants for intelligence agencies
could face as much as 4 years in prison.
(WSJ, 6/4/08,
p.A17)(www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3505)
2008 May 29, Police in San
Jose, Ca., said some 80 people had $45,000 drained from their bank
accounts after thieves pulled debit card data from an Arco station
at 5755 Camden Ave. A covert card-reading device allowed thieves to
collect debit card and pin data. Similar thefts had also been
reported in Los Altos and southern California.
(SFC, 5/30/08, p.B12)
2008 May 29, Harvey Korman
(1927), comedian, died in LA. He had won four Emmys for his
outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and
played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing
Saddles."
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 29, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber hit a convoy of international soldiers in Kabul,
killing three Afghans caught in the blast. A joint operation by
Afghan and NATO forces in Farah killed 30 Taliban fighters. One
policeman and two Afghan soldiers were also killed.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 29, Argentina's
government set a ceiling on variable grain export taxes, but farmers
said the change wasn't enough to make them lift a weeklong
suspension of beef and grain exports.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 29, Tomislav Petrovic,
a former Bosnian soldier, shot dead six people and wounded another
in a rampage in a Tuzla before being detained as he fired on a
parked car.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 29, In Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan, Canada, Chief Albert Mercredi spoke at the “national
day of action” and denounced the premiers of the 4 western provinces
for allowing mining development to pollute aboriginal air, land and
water.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.50)
2008 May 29, Chile's national
police chief and 10 other people were killed when the aging
Panamanian government helicopter they were riding in crashed into a
three-story building in the heart of Panama City.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 29, In Ethiopia a
flash flood hit Jijiga town late at night and swept away 200 houses,
killing 25 people of whom 19 were children.
(Reuters, 5/31/08)
2008 May 29, In France Pres.
Sarkozy’s government presented a draft bill that would effectively
scrap the 35-hour workweek.
(WSJ, 5/30/08, p.A9)
2008 May 29, Members of one of
India's lower castes blocked major roads, burned car tires, and
threw stones at police in several areas around New Delhi in a
continuation of protests in the country's north and west that has
left 39 people dead. Police said a truck ferrying people to a
wedding has plunged into a river in southern India, killing at least
39 people. An elephant rampaged through a village in northern India,
killing at least 7 people who tried to surround it.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 29, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in the
northwestern town of Sinjar, killing at least 16 men and wounding 14
others. Iraq's PM al-Maliki, at a UN conference in Sweden, called
for neighboring countries to forgive debts and war reparations that
he said hindered his nation's recovery despite a reduction in
violence. Iraq has at least $67 billion in foreign debt, most
incurred during the rule of Saddam Hussein and owed to Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 29, At a ceremony in
Jerusalem, Israel's President Shimon Peres announced that the hoopoe
is now the ornithological symbol of the country. Ornithologist Amir
Balaban, who runs the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, described the
hoopoe as a beautiful, native bird that is monogamous and takes good
care of its children.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 29, In the southern
Philippines 2 people were killed and 21 injured when suspected
terrorists detonated a bomb outside a US aid project office near an
air base.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 29, South Korea took
the final step to resume full imports of beef from the US, which it
banned in 2003 over fears of mad cow disease.
(WSJ, 5/30/08, p.A9)
2008 May 29, Sri Lanka's
military sank four Tamil Tiger rebel boats off the island's northern
coast after a battle that killed 7 rebels and one soldier. Army
troops captured the stronghold known as Munnagam Base after 3 days
of fighting. The military said 6 civilians were killed in a rebel
artillery attack. A pro-rebel Web site reported that guerrillas
raided a navy camp in Sirutheevu islet, killing 13 sailors and
seizing weapons. Other fighting in the Mannar and Vavuniya regions
in the north killed 4 rebels and wounded 8 soldiers.
(AP, 5/29/08)(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 29, Turkish warplanes
attacked several Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. No
casualties were immediately reported. Air raids destroyed 16 Kurdish
rebel facilities.
(AP, 5/29/08)(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 30, The US State
Department said the US and Libya have agreed to try to resolve
compensation claims from the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other
incidents Washington views as acts of terrorism by Libya.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 30, In Florida 2
veteran police officers were charged with providing protection for
purported shipments of cocaine and stolen goods in what was actually
an undercover FBI operation.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, A jury in
Syracuse, NY, found Hewlett-Packard guilty of infringing a patent
for data processing held by Cornell Univ. and ordered the company to
pay Cornell $184 million.
(SFC, 6/4/08, p.C5)
2008 May 30, A construction
crane collapsed on New York's Upper East Side, smashing into a
23-story apartment building before crashing onto the street below
and killing two workers.
(AP, 5/30/08)(SFC, 5/31/08, p.A3)
2008 May 30, Afghan forces
recaptured Bakwa, a remote district in the southwestern province of
Farah, which was captured eight months ago. Authorities said they
have killed more than 100 Taliban-linked militants in the
operation.
(AFP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 30, Agathon Rwasa, the
exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group, returned to the capital
to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to
peace in the tiny central African country.
(Reuters, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, In Honduras a
Grupo Taca Airbus A320 overshot a runway and raced onto a busy
street in Tegucigalpa, killing the pilot, two passengers and a
motorist on the ground. At least 65 people were injured.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 30, In India police
fired on protesters from one of the lower castes in western
Rajasthan, killing two people and bringing the death toll to 43
after a week of violence.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Diplomats from 111
nations, meeting in Ireland, formally adopted a landmark treaty
banning cluster bombs after futile calls for participation by the
weapons' biggest makers and users, particularly the United States.
Participants planned to sign the treaty in the Oslo, Norway, in
December. It would go into effect in mid-2009.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Tens of thousands
of Shiites, meanwhile, took to the streets in Baghdad and other
cities to protest plans for a long-term security agreement with the
United States. The rallies after Friday prayer services were the
first to follow a call by anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for weekly
protests against the deal. The US military removed a trooper from
duty for handed out coins promoting Christianity to Muslims in
Fallujah.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Italy declared a
state of emergency in the north of the country after flooding and
mudslides left at least three people dead in heavy rains that also
hit Belgium, Britain, France and Germany.
(AFP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, In Japan
participants closed a 3-day African development conference saying
they aim to double rice production in Africa in 10 years and expand
irrigated land by 20 percent in five years.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Jordan and France
signed an agreement to help the Arab kingdom develop its nuclear
energy program.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Myanmar's ruling
junta lashed out at foreign aid donors, saying cyclone victims did
not need supplies of "chocolate bars" and could instead survive by
eating frogs and fish.
(AFP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Tropical Storm
Alma weakened to a tropical depression after slamming into
Nicaragua's coast the day before, forcing tens of thousand of people
to evacuate and flooding low-lying areas before pushing into
neighboring Honduras.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Palestinian
doctors said Israel troops opened fire and wounded 7 Palestinians in
a demonstration at a crossing into Israel.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Sri Lanka’s Tigers
repelled an army advance into rebel-held areas of Vavuniya and
Mannar, killing 31 troops and wounding at least 52 in several
clashes according to Tamilnet.com. The rebels condemned government
moves to devolve more power to the north and east
(AFP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 30, In Yemen a gunman
opened fire in a mosque in a predominantly Shiite northern town,
killing at least 8 worshippers and wounding dozens. Police detained
the attacker.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 30, Zimbabwe’s
opposition declared itself the new ruling party and convened what if
called a session of Parliament.
(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.A1)
2008 May 31, The rules panel of
the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat the delegations of
Florida and Michigan with half their votes, all but securing the
nomination for Sen. Barack Obama. Obama said he has resigned his
20-year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago
"with some sadness" in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his
longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and more recent fiery
remarks at the church by a visiting priest.
(SSFC, 6/1/08, p.A1)(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, FDIC bank
regulators took over the First Integrity Bank in Staples, Minnesota.
This was the 4th FDIC-insured bank to fail this year.
(WSJ, 6/5/08, p.A1)
2008 May 31, The US shuttle
Discovery made a successful launch from Florida. It carried a
Japanese research laboratory and key parts to fix a broken toilet in
the International Space Station.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, In El Cerrito,
Ca., the new Playland-Not-at-the-Beach museum opened at 10979 San
Pablo Ave. It featured relics from San Francisco’s former
Playland-at-the-Beach, which was bulldozed in 1972, including one of
the 278 remaining Laughing Sals.
(SFC, 5/31/08, p.B1)
2008 May 31, In Afghanistan 2
NATO-led soldiers and as many Afghan civilians were wounded in a
suicide car bombing in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for that attack. 2 NATO soldiers were killed
in the attack.
(AFP, 5/31/08)(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, Tropical Storm
Arthur the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season,
kicked up surf when it made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border and
headed west.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, Chinese
authorities had evacuated nearly 200,000 people and warned more than
1 million others to be ready to leave quickly as a lake formed by a
devastating earthquake threatened to breach its dam. A
Russian-designed Mi-171 transport helicopter carrying 10 people
injured in the devastating earthquake and four crew members crashed
in fog and turbulence, and authorities searched for survivors. The
confirmed death toll from the May 12 earthquake, reached nearly
69,000, with another 18,000 still missing.
(AP, 5/31/08)(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, An Egyptian police
official said boxes of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and
anti-aircraft missiles have been found in a mountain in the northern
Sinai peninsula. He said the weapons were to be smuggled into the
neighboring Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, A former Deutsche
Telekom security chief said the national phone company spied
on its staff for years to see who had unauthorized contacts with
journalists.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, President Manuel
Zelaya said that Honduras would create a civilian airport for
commercial jets on a US military airfield, diverting traffic from
Tegucigalpa's notoriously dangerous airport following a deadly
crash.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, In Iraq 10 people
were killed when a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in Hit,
a town west of Baghdad. The dead included six policemen and four
civilians.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, In Latvia about
400 gay men and women and their supporters held a parade in Riga,
accompanied by a strong police presence and chants and insults from
anti-gay activists.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, Lebanese troops
shot and killed a suicide bomber near Lebanon's largest Palestinian
refugee camp. The would-be suicide bomber was identified as Mahmoud
Yassin Ahmad, a 28-year-old Palestinian who lived in the Ein
el-Hilweh camp. Earlier in the day a Lebanese soldier was killed in
an explosion in the north of the country.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, In Nigeria a
senior health department official for the federal capital said
smokers in public places in the capital of Abuja will be arrested
and prosecuted from June 1.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, An explosion in
the Gaza Strip house of Nader Abu Shaban, a Hamas militant, killed
him and wounded 16 of his relatives and neighbors.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, South African
police said on a wave of attacks on foreigners has killed 62 people
since the violence broke out three weeks ago.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, Tens of thousands
of South Koreans rallied against a government decision to import US
beef in the largest demonstration in a month of almost daily
protests.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, In Sri Lanka 9
Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers were killed in new clashes in
Sri Lanka's restive north.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 May 31, In Vietnam some
1000 workers walked off the assembly line of a Panasonic plant as
inflation reached a 13-year high of 25.2%. Some 300 strikes took
place in the first quarter as compared to 103 in the first quarter
of 2007.
(WSJ, 6/3/08, p.A12)
2008 May 31, Zimbabwe state
radio reported that 2 supporters of the ruling party have been shot
dead in the country's northeast over the last 2 days, amid mounting
violence ahead of a presidential run-off next month. Police arrested
Eric Matinenga, a lawyer of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), as he went to visit arrested members in Buhera where
more than 70 suspects had been arrested over recent outbreaks of
violence.
(AFP, 6/1/08)(Reuters, 6/3/08)
2008 May, Evaristo
Ortiz-Jimenez (36), Mexican human smuggler, and 4 others held
hostage 21 illegal immigrants in a Phoenix, Az., drop house. In 2009
they were indicted by a federal grand jury and in Sep Ortiz-Jimenez
was sentenced to 25 years in prison. 3 other defendants were yet to
be sentenced.
(http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=20423)(SFC, 9/23/09, p.A10)
2008 May, In Colorado
landscapers in Boulder stumbled onto a cache of more than 83 ancient
tools buried by the Clovis people, ice age hunter-gatherers, dating
back 13,000 years.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2008 May, In San Francisco Juan
Rodriguez was shot and killed on the 800 block of Huron Street. In
2009 Jonathan Cruz-Ramirez, an alleged member of the MS-13 street
gang, was charged with the murder.
(SFC, 10/23/09, p.A12)
2008 May, In the Dominican
Republic the state holding company for electricity generation, known
as CDEEE, employed over 2,000 people to do the work of 20 or 30.
More than a third of the power was being stolen. Pres. Fernandez
stood by the unreforming boss, Radames Segura.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.48)
2008 May, Georgia’s population,
as it aspired to NATO membership, was about 4.5 million.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.70)
2008 May, Churchill Mining, a
London-listed firm, announced that it had found 150 million tons of
coal in Indonesian Borneo. In 2011 it raised the amount to 2.8
billion tons.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.72)
2008 May, Kashmir’s state
government gave the overseers of the Hindu Amarnath shrine the right
to build facilities on 98 acres along the route to the shrine.
Separatist politicians portrayed this as loss of territory and rouse
violent protests, which eventually forced the government to change
its mind, which in turn infuriated the Hindus.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.33)
2008 May, Mauritania’s
President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi appointed 12 ministers, some
accused of corruption and all of whom had held prominent posts in
the government of former President Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, who
was ousted in the 2005 coup.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 May, In southeast Nigeria
20 teenage girls were rescued at the hospital in Enugu in a police
swoop on what was believed to be one of the largest infant
trafficking rings in the country. Buying or selling of babies is
illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 May, Pacific Island
nations imposed a series of measures aimed at halting overfishing. 8
of 17 members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission agreed on the measures In December the 9 remaining
members joined in imposing a conservation agenda on 20 million
square miles to take effect on January 1, 2010. The 17 members
included Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia,
Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau,
Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu,
Vanuatu
(SFC, 4/11/09, p.A3)(www.ffa.int/members)
2008 May, A South Korean
abductee escaped from North Korea after more than 30 years and was
under Seoul’s protection in China. Yoon Jong-soo, 65, ended up in
the North when his fishing boat and 32 other crew members were
seized off South Korea's east coast in 1975.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080609/ap_on_re_as/koreas_abductee_escape)
2008 May, The population of
Yemen was about 22 million. More than a fifth of the people were
malnourished. 75% of the food was imported. It was feared that
aquifers could dry up within a decade.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.55)
2008 Jun 1, NY Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton won Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary
68-32%. Only 16% of the voters went to the polls.
(www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/39241.html)(Econ, 6/7/08,
p.36)
2008 Jun 1, In California a
fire ripped through the back lot of Universal Studios destroying
film-set facades, videos and movie reels.
(WSJ, 6/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 1, Alton Kelley (67),
co-creator of psychedelic rock posters, died in Petaluma, Ca. He and
Stanley Mouse had formed Mouse Studios in SF and produced hundreds
of classic psychedelic rock posters. In 1965 he and 3 other people
formed Family Dog and staged the world’s first psychedelic dance
concert at the Longshoreman’s Hall in SF.
(SFC, 6/3/08, p.B5)
2008 Jun 1, In Afghanistan a
remote-controlled bomb detonated as a bus carrying Afghan soldiers
passed by in Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding five people.
In southern Zabul province overnight, suspected Taliban militants
gunned down a district governor and his body guard. Some 150
militants attacked a police checkpoint, triggering a daylong battle
in Murghab district, near the border with Turkmenistan. At least 10
militants were killed. Ashraf Nasery, the governor of Badghis
province, said 49 militants were killed and 35 wounded.
(AP, 6/1/08)(AFP, 6/1/08)(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 1, Australia, a
staunch US ally and one of the first countries to commit troops to
the Iraq war five years ago, ended combat operations there.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In southwest
Bangladesh police clashed with thousands of garment workers during
fresh protests over low wages and soaring food prices.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, Bolivians in two
opposition-controlled states voted overwhelmingly for autonomy
measures that aim to shield the country's remote Amazon basin from
President Evo Morales' leftist reforms.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, China became the
latest country to declare war on plastic bags in a drive to save
energy and protect the environment.
(Reuters, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Colombia a
mudslide following rains buried several dozen homes in a poor
district of Medellin and at least 23 people were killed.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 1, Yves Saint Laurent
(b.1936, one of the most influential and enduring designers of the
20th century, died in Paris.
(AP, 6/2/08)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.99)
2008 Jun 1, German researchers
reported that the development of a blood-based genetic test for
predicting lung cancer among smokers with 80% accuracy.
(WSJ, 6/2/08, p.B4)
2008 Jun 1, In Baghdad a car
bomb exploded near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad during morning
rush hour, killing at least two civilians and wounding five. A
senior police official was wounded when a bomb that was stuck to his
car exploded in a busy Baghdad intersection. A traffic officer was
killed and four other people were wounded in the attack. Ten
al-Qaida linked insurgents were captured in US-led operations in
Mosul and north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, Israel freed Nasim
Nisr (39), a convicted Hezbollah spy, and the militant group turned
over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war in
Lebanon.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Kuwait Muslim
hard-liners walked out of the inaugural meeting of parliament to
protest 2 female Cabinet ministers who were not wearing head
scarves.
(SFC, 6/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 1, In Liberia at least
eight people suffocated at an overcrowded stadium during a soccer
match between Liberia and Gambia.
(www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/02/2263028.htm)
2008 Jun 1, Macedonia's
parliamentary election was marred by violence in Albanian areas and
suspected fraud, with one person shot dead and nine wounded, and
voting halted in one town after a gun battle. PM Nikola Gruevski
scored an overwhelming election victory but monitors criticized
violence that marred the poll and could delay the country's progress
towards EU membership. The government said it will repeat voting in
22 poling stations that were shut down due to shootings or alleged
ballot fraud.
(Reuters, 6/1/08)(Reuters, 6/2/08)(WSJ, 6/2/08,
p.A10)
2008 Jun 1, In western Mexico
Marcelo Ibarra, the mayor of Villa Madero, was forced from his car
and shot dead. Officials believed the killing was an attempted
robbery, although they haven't ruled out other motives.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 1, Gay rights
activists held small, scattered protests in Moscow, flouting
repeated refusals from city authorities for permission to hold
parades or demonstrations.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Slovakia a new
media law was set to go into effect giving anyone mentioned in an
article sweeping rights to an equally prominent rebuttal. Newspapers
responded by publishing blank front pages. Leading newspapers had
done this twice before during the Meciar years to protest
restrictions on press freedom.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.71)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.55)
2008 Jun 1, Voters in
Switzerland rejected a plan to give local communities the power to
decide which immigrants should be granted Swiss citizenship.
Currently, after living at least 12 years on Swiss soil, foreigners
who wish to acquire Swiss citizenship face a naturalization
procedure that includes a knowledge of the country's traditions,
history and culture.
(AFP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Zimbabwe police
in Harare jailed Arthur Mutambara, head of an MDC faction, for
allegedly making false statements that endangered state security.
(AP, 6/2/08)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.59)
2008 Jun 2, The US gave 31 used
trucks to Cambodia in its first direct supply of military hardware
in more than a decade, saying ties between the two countries were
improving.
(AFP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, The United States
lost an appeal in its long-running dispute with Brazil over U.S.
subsidies for cotton farmers at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(Reuters, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, SF mayor Gavin
Newsom unveiled a record $6.5 billion budget.
(SFC, 6/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 2, Melvin Weiss (72),
co-founder of the NYC law firm Milberg Weiss, was sentenced to 30
months in prison for his roll in a kickback scheme targeting US
corporations. He was also ordered to pay $9.7 million in forfeitures
and $250,000 in fines.
(SFC, 6/3/08, p.D4)
2008 Jun 2, Scott Coles (48),
Arizona financier, was found dead of apparent suicide. His firm
Mortgages Ltd., a company founded by his father in 1963, entered
bankruptcy on June 24.
(WSJ, 7/16/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 2, Bo Didley (b.1928),
rhythm and blues pioneer, died in Florida. He had been born as Ellas
Bates in McComb, Mississippi. His 1955 debut recording of “Bo
Didley” landed him a spot on the Ed Sullivan Show.
(SFC, 6/3/08, p.B5)
2008 Jun 2, Mel Ferrer
(b.1917), American actor, director and producer, died in Santa
Barbara, Ca. His films included “Lili” (1953) and “The Brave Bulls”
(1951).
(SFC, 6/4/08, p.B11)
2008 Jun 2, In Afghanistan
Taliban attacked a district in Helmand province, killing a
policeman. In the battle that followed, eight Taliban were killed.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Australia Mark
Standen, an assistant director of the New South Wales state Crime
Commission, was arrested for conspiracy to import controlled
substances and supply prohibited drugs, and with perverting the
course of justice. He is alleged to have assisted a drug-trafficking
syndicate in a plan to bring to Australia 1,300 pounds of the
chemical pseudoephedrine that could be used to make $114 million
worth of the methamphetamine known as "ice." The masterminds of the
syndicate were in the Netherlands, where 12 people were arrested
last week.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Bolivia Pres.
Morales ordered the nationalization of a natural gas pipeline
operator half-owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and a US investment
fund.
(WSJ, 6/3/08, p.A15)
2008 Jun 2, Carlos Minc,
Brazil’s new environment minister, said the government will impound
cattle caught grazing on illegally cleared pastures with an
operation, dubbed "Rogue Bull," to attack deforestation in the rain
forest. Government researchers said that preliminary data indicate
the Amazon lost at least 2,258 square miles (5,850 square
kilometers) of forest cover from August to April 2008.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 2, China began paying
sums of about $144 to each parent whose sole offspring was killed in
the May 12 earthquake.
(WSJ, 6/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 2, In eastern France 7
school children were killed when a train crashed into a bus carrying
schoolchildren near Allinges.
(AP, 6/2/08)(SFC, 6/3/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 2, In Germany Some
2,000 delegates from 162 countries and dozens of specialist agencies
opened a two-week conference to start tackling the details of a new
global warming agreement slated to take effect after 2012.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Iraq US troops
killed two suspects in Tikrit. The military said it had captured 31
others and destroyed bomb-making materials over the past two days in
raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq in central and northern swaths of
the country. In Mosul a suicide car bomber killed 9 people including
5 police officers.
(AP, 6/2/08)(SFC, 6/3/08, p.A6)
2008 Jun 2, Nigeria's President
Umaru Yar’Adua arrived in South Africa for a four-day state visit to
forge closer ties between Africa's most populous country and its
biggest economy.
(AFP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Pakistan a huge
car bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killed 8
people and wounded dozens more. Danish security said that al-Qaida
or an al-Qaida-related group likely was behind the attack. Evidence
indicated that a suicide bomber drove the car.
(AP, 6/2/08)(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A6)
2008 Jun 2, Somalia's
opposition alliance ruled out direct peace talks with the country's
transitional government unless it sets a timetable for the
withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, Foreign ships
gained UN authorization to enter Somali waters when fighting piracy
and armed robbery. The unanimous UN Security Council resolution made
it legal for foreign navies to chase pirates into Somali waters and
if need be sink them.
(AP,
6/2/08)(www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-20-pirates_N.htm)
2008 Jun 2, The South Korean
government said it was delaying the planned resumption of US beef
imports, after a request from the ruling party and large weekend
street protests.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, The chief of the
International Atomic Energy Agency says Syria has agreed to let
inspectors into the country this month to probe allegations of
illegal nuclear activity.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Venezuela the
vice president of a Venezuelan newspaper was shot and killed by a
gunman who police said could have confused the victim for his
brother, the president of Reporte Diario de la Economia, a daily
that has closely covered corruption cases.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 2, In central Vietnam
a collision between a speeding bus and a truck killed 14 people and
injured 18 others. Traffic accidents killed more than 13,000 people
last year in Vietnam.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 3, Barack Obama sealed
the US Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton did not
give up yet, but said she’d be interested in the No. 2 spot. Obama
won the Montana primary, while Clinton won the South Dakota primary.
(AP, 6/4/08)(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A1)(Econ, 6/7/08,
p.35)
2008 Jun 3, Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke said that US interest rates were "well
positioned" for an economy facing both price pressures and threats
to growth, but issued a rare warning on the inflation risks posed by
a weak dollar.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Ohio Christopher
Paul (44), pleaded guilty to planning terrorist attacks. He was
accused of joining al-Qaida in the early 1990s and helping teach
Muslim extremists how to bomb US and european targets.
(http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVlFdiHopuka4A5g4J-eVGRq-BzgD912SEC80)
2008 Jun 3, A Denver, Colorado
court fined Dow Chemical Co. and Boeing Co. a combined $926 million
for property damages caused by plutonium contamination from a
nuclear weapons plant. The initial trial had concluded in February
2006. Dow planned to appeal. The Rocky Flats plant was operated by
Dow from 1953 to 1975, and then by defense contractor Rockwell until
its closing in 1994; it supplied the plutonium triggers for the US
nuclear bomb arsenal.
(AFP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 3, SF voters (61%)
approved Proposition G endorsing plans for a major housing and
commercial development at the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick
Point. Voters also passed Proposition A, a $198 annual school parcel
tax, which would expire in 2028.
(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A1, B1)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.B1)
2008 Jun 3, UAL Corp's United
Airlines announced plans to slash jobs and flights, following a
similar move by AMR Corp's American Airlines last month.
(Reuters, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 3, General Motors said
it is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and
Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller
vehicles.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Afghanistan US
General David McKiernan took over the 52,000-strong International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at a ceremony in Kabul attended by
President Hamid Karzai and a host of dignitaries. 2 Afghan security
guards were killed when militants ambushed their convoy in the
southern province of Zabul. In eastern Khost province unknown gunmen
shot dead a district intelligence chief. A suicide car bomber
targeting Canadian troops in Kandahar province killed one Afghan
child. A Canadian officer was killed in Kandahar province when his
foot patrol came under enemy fire. In southern Afghanistan US-led
coalition forces killed more than a dozen insurgents.
(AFP, 6/3/08)(Reuters, 6/4/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 3, Four Algerian
Christians received suspended jail terms and fines for seeking to
convert Muslims in the latest in a series of cases to have provoked
accusations in the West of religious repression.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, Belize PM Dean
Barrow declared a disaster area in southern Stann Creek Valley as
flash flooding carried away houses and ripped a child from his
father's grasp. Falling trees killed two people in Honduras, raising
the death toll from Central America's twin tropical storms this week
to at least nine.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 3, In France a Paris
court convicted Brigitte Bardot of provoking discrimination and
racial hatred for writing that Muslims are destroying France. She
was fined $23,325.
(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Jun 3, Greece's first gay
weddings were held when two couples, abetted by a sympathetic local
mayor, defied the threat of criminal charges and the wrath of the
Orthodox church to tie the knot on the tiny Aegean island of Tilos.
(Reuters, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Iraq the US
military captured two al-Qaida in Iraq bombing suspects and a Shiite
militia leader in separate raids north and south of Baghdad. The
bodies of at least 23 Iraqis were discovered in a shallow grave and
a sewer shaft at separate sites near Baghdad.
(AP, 6/3/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 3, A Cabinet minister
said Malaysia will remove price controls on gasoline and diesel,
allowing stations to sell fuel at world market prices in an attempt
to reduce the government's ballooning subsidy bill.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Mexico Claudio
Conti (53) was reportedly kidnapped along Zicatela beach in Puerto
Escondido, where he operated the Da Claudio restaurant and a hotel.
On Feb 28, 2009, Mexican police said they had captured four men
suspected of kidnapping the Italian businessman, and that one of the
men told police the victim had been ordered killed, though it was
not clear if the slaying was carried out.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2008 Jun 3, The Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) raised its lending rate (MPR) to 10.25 percent from 10
percent to tame high inflation triggered by rising global food
prices.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, The Good Friends, a
Seoul-based humanitarian group, said that a highly contagious
disease has sparked a health alert with an estimated five or six
children dying every day since April 27 in North Korea’s city of
Hoeryong. A doctor said hand-foot-mouth disease could be spreading
from China, where it has killed several dozen children.
(AFP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Sweden world
chess star turned political activist Garry Kasparov told world news
industry leaders that PM Vladimir Putin had assaulted press freedoms
in Russia, and urged them to challenge Kremlin leaders over the
issue.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, California’s Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought after two years
of below-average rainfall, low snowmelt runoff and a court-ordered
restriction on water transfers.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In New York Thomas
Gioeli (Tommy Shots), said to be the acting boss of the Colombo
organized crime family, was arrested along with 8 other suspected
gangsters on federal charges of coast to coast Mafia crimes.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, Google said it had
signed a lease for 42 acres at Moffet Field, a former naval air
station near Mountain View, Ca. The deal called for an initial
annual rent of $3.7 million to the NASA Ames space agency.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C1)
2008 Jun 4, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, called on Muslims to launch a holy war to
break Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, in an audio
recording posted on an Islamic militant Internet site.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 2
suicide bombs killed 2 people and wounded several others near the
Pakistan border.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, In Algeria 2
simultaneous bombs in Bordj El Kiffan, a suburb of Algiers, killed a
suicide bomber and injured six others. The blasts targeted a
barracks and a seaside café.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bangladesh more
than 1,700 people were detained in the past 24 hours. That takes the
number of detainees to more than 10,000 since May 30 in a drive to
improve law and order before national elections planned for late
this year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Belgium riot
police armed with shields and batons charged hundreds of protesting
fishermen outside EU headquarters after a demonstration over high
fuel prices turned violent.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bosnia genocide
charges were filed against Vaso Todorovic (40), a former Bosnian
Serb police officer. He was accused of taking part in the 1995
massacre of more than 7,000 Muslims, Europe's worst slaughter since
World War II.
(www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080604-0441-bosnia-warcrimes.html)
2008 Jun 4, British officials
said an outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central
England is "highly pathogenic." All the chickens on the farm were
slaughtered following detection of the virus in Banbury,
Oxfordshire.
(AFP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Jonathan Routh
(80), English prankster and former star of Candid Camera, died. His
books included “The Good Loo Guide: Where to Go in London” (1965)
(Econ, 6/21/08,
p.105)(www.economicexpert.com/a/Jonathan:Routh.htm)
2008 Jun 4, In Canada angry
autoworkers blockaded the entrance to General Motors of Canada
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, one day after GM said it would shut
its Oshawa truck plant as well as 2 plants in the US and one in
Mexico.
(Reuters, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Chinese police
blocked access to a school that collapsed in last month's massive
earthquake, a day after breaking up a protest by parents of students
who died in the disaster.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Haiti thousands
of protesters, bearing photographs of victims and with fists thrust
in the air, marched through Port-au-Prince to demand that officials
crack down on a kidnapping scourge. UN police said more than 157
people have been kidnapped this year in Haiti, up 10 percent from
last year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Indonesian police
launched a major crackdown on Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a
radical Islamist group blamed for a weekend attack on a rally for
religious tolerance, arresting 59 including the outfit's firebrand
leader.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Iraq’s parliament
approved a bill to combat oil smuggling. To become a law, the
measure needs the signature of Iraq's three-member presidential
council. A suicide truck bomber struck near the Baghdad home of an
Iraqi police general, killing 16 people in the biggest such attack
on the capital in months. A 2nd car bomb killed 7 people, including
3 police commandos, in the Jadriya neighborhood of Baghdad. Iraqi
police said they uncovered a large weapons cache near Samarra. The
US military said it detained nine suspects and destroyed two
"terrorist safe houses" in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq across
central and northern parts of the country. 3 US soldiers were shot
dead in northern Tamim province.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AP, 6/5/08)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, The Israeli army
says it has closed the Gaza fuel crossing after an errant rocket
fired by militants wounded a Palestinian worker at the terminal.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, A Mexican court
sentenced Mario Villanueva, a former Quintana Roo state governor
(1993-1996), to 36 years in prison for fomenting drug trafficking,
overturning an earlier ruling that had imposed six years on lesser
charges. A husband and wife, both state police officers, were shot
dead while leaving their home in Ciudad Juarez, the border city
where drug gangs have stepped up attacks against security forces.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, The rival parties
in Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration announced a deal
that will permit both sides to elect a new leader and keep their
unlikely coalition running.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Officials said
Pakistan’s PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has moved suspend peace
negotiations with tribal groups along the border with Afghanistan,
until they agree to new conditions including the cessation of all
activities in Afghanistan. In northwest Pakistan a bomb explosion
ripped through a video shop in a business center, killing 3 people
and wounding 3.
(WSJ, 6/5/08, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Scientists issued
warnings about the puffin’s future as the population of the
orange-beaked seabird off Scotland's east coast has dropped by
nearly a third in less than five years.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka a bomb
blast targeting a passenger train wounded 18 bystanders in Colombo
in the latest attack on civilians in the island nation. Tamil Tigers
reportedly killed 10 soldiers while security forces reportedly
killed 35 rebels during the heavy clashes across the island's north.
According to the defense ministry, 4,068 Tamil Tigers and 335
government troops have been killed since January.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4-2008 Jun 5, In South
Sudan more than 20 people were killed, including soldiers and
several children, in Ugandan rebel attacks near the border with
Congo. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas had targeted the
villages of Nabanga and Yamba.
(AFP, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 4, Swiss
pharmaceutical Novartis announced it had bought Protez
Pharmaceuticals for $100 million (64.8 million euros), thus
acquiring the rights to a new antibiotic.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, An undetermined
amount of fuel oil was released after the Greece-registered Syros
slammed against the Malta-registered Sea Bird near Montevideo,
Uruguay.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, Zimbabwe police
detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was
stopped at a roadblock. The director of a national NGO association
said Zimbabwe has ordered aid groups Save the Children UK, CARE
International and ADRA to stop work in the country immediately due
to alleged political interference.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/4/08)(WSJ, 6/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 5, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
said he welcomed martyrdom at US hands, as he and four codefendants
faced trial for war crimes without the benefit of lawyers.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, Alain Robert (45),
the man known as the French "Spiderman," climbed The New York Times
building to draw attention to global warming, adding to earlier
conquests including the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Hours later a 2nd man ascended the building and was also arrested at
the top.
(Reuters, 6/6/08)(SFC, 6/6/08, p.A4)
2008 Jun 5, Continental
Airlines Inc said it would cut 3,000 jobs, or about 6.5 percent of
its work force, and retire 67 older planes as it scales down in the
face of soaring fuel prices.
(Reuters, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, A provincial
spokesman said NATO forces bombed a location in Paktika province and
killed all 32 Taliban who had gathered there. Afghan police killed
three Taliban militants in Jani Khail district of the same province
and two other militants were wounded. A roadside bomb struck a
civilian vehicle in Waza Khwa district of Paktika, killing a man,
his wife and son (12).
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, In Algeria a bomb
attack blamed on Islamist militants killed six Algerian soldiers and
wounded four in Cap Djinet, east of Algiers.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, Australian police
said 70 men have been arrested in a global crackdown on Internet
child pornography and more will be detained.
(AFP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, In China more than
10,000 people were moved to higher ground as water continued to rise
in a brimming lake formed by landslides from the May 12 earthquake
and another strong aftershock rocked the quake-battered region.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, Egyptian
archaeologists unveiled a 4,000-year-old "missing pyramid" that they
believed to have been discovered by an archaeologist almost 200
years ago and never seen again. The pyramid was thought to have been
built by King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight
years. The style of the pyramid indicates it was from the Fifth
Dynasty, a period that began in 2,465 B.C. and ended in 2,325 B.C.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, The European
Parliament called for the peacekeeping mandate for Russian troops in
the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia to be revised. The chamber
also demanded the EU sends its own border mission into the conflict
zone in Abkhazia.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, The US military
captured two Shiite militia suspects south of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, An Israeli missile
aimed at a group of Palestinian militants struck a house and killed
a girl (6), hours after an Israeli was killed by a Hamas mortar
barrage fired from the area.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, In Italy a 3-day UN
summit aimed at fighting hunger worldwide ended with pledges to
boost food output, calls to cut trade barriers and more research on
biofuels. Just before the meeting Saudi Arabia announced a donation
of $500 million.
(WSJ, 6/6/08, p.A10)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.70)
2008 Jun 5, Malaysia's
government faced street demonstrations and public outrage over its
decision to hike petrol prices 41 percent overnight, in a bid to
curb its massive subsidies bill.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, Amnesty
International said Myanmar's military regime has forced cyclone
survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food and stepped up a
campaign to evict displaced citizens from aid shelters.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, Dutch police
arrested Aqueel Ur Rehman Abbasi, a 26-year-old Pakistani man,
sought in Spain on terrorism charges. He was arrested in his prison
cell in Vught where he was being held by the immigration and
naturalization services.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, Pakistani
authorities arrested three suspected suicide bombers and seized more
than a ton of explosives in a suspected terror plot near Islamabad.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, South Korea's
antitrust regulator said it will order Intel Corp. to pay 26 billion
won ($25.4 million) for violating fair trade rules.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, Fighting in
northern Sri Lanka claimed 16 LTTE members and two soldiers.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, Sudan said it was
banning US companies from working with international peacekeepers in
Darfur and would not renew a contract held by a unit of US defense
firm Lockheed Martin Corp.
(Reuters, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, Diplomats said
Syria has told a 35-nation meeting that it will limit what UN
nuclear inspectors can see when they go to check on allegations that
Damascus is hiding atomic facilities.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, A Turkish TV
station quoted a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and
Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 5, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai vowed to push on with his bid to topple
Robert Mugabe at a run-off poll as he returned to the campaign trail
a day after being detained by police. The US Embassy said its
diplomats and British colleagues were attacked as they tried to
investigate Zimbabwe’s political violence.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AFP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 6, Pres. Bush signed a
transportation bill that freed $45 million for environmental studies
for a levitating train planned to run from Disneyland to Las
Vegas.
(SFC, 6/7/08, p.C2)
2008 Jun 6, The US Labor Dept.
said the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May,
the biggest monthly rise since 1986, as nervous employers cut 49,000
jobs.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, In NYC James Delayo
(60), the city’s chief crane inspector, was arrested and charged
with taking bribes for allow cranes to pass inspection.
(SFC, 6/7/08, p.A8)
2008 Jun 6, Crude oil settled
up $10.75 at a record $138.54 on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 6/7/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 6, A judge at City of
Westminster Magistrates Court said 4 men: Vincent Bajinya, also
known as Doctor Vincent Brown, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin
Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, should be sent back to Rwanda
for trial for their involvement in the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, Colombia's
presidential spokesman said Colombia and Ecuador are restoring
diplomatic ties at the charge d'affaires level following mediation
by former US Pres. Carter.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, An official said
Cuba has authorized sex-change operations and will offer them free
for qualifying citizens.
(AP, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 6, Dr. Paul Tessier
(b.1917), pioneering French surgeon, died in Paris. He introduced
innovative techniques in facial surgery.
(WSJ, 6/28/08, p.A7)
2008 Jun 6, In Iraq two
suspected Shiite militia leaders surrendered during raids by US
forces, while tens of thousands of Shiite faithful streamed out of
mosques to join protests against a security agreement with the
United States. The arrests and demonstrations came on the eve of PM
Nouri al-Maliki's trip to Iran, the second such visit in a year. A
suicide bomber, believed to be a woman, exploded herself near a
checkpoint in a village outside Ramadi, wounding two policemen.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, An Israeli
airstrike in Beit Lahiya targeted a Hamas base. One fighter was
killed during an Israeli army operation in the central Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, Russia's new Pres.
Medvedev met with leaders of a fractious alliance of ex-Soviet
republics, warning Ukraine and Georgia not to lead their countries
into NATO.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, In Sri Lanka at
least 23 people were killed and 67 wounded in two Tamil Tiger bomb
attacks on public buses packed with civilians.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, Turkey's ruling AK
Party held an emergency meeting after the top court overturned a
government-led reform which lifted a ban on Muslim headscarves at
universities.
(Reuters, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 6, Zimbabwe police
briefly detained Zimbabwe's opposition presidential candidate for
the second time this week and told him the party's rallies had been
banned indefinitely three weeks before the runoff election.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 7, Hillary Clinton
pledged her support for Barack Obama and asked her supporters to do
the same.
(WSJ, 6/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 7, In New York Nick
Zito saddled 38-1 long shot Da' Tara to a 5 1/4-length upset at
Belmont. Big Brown, the favorite, came in last.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, It was reported
that the AIDS epidemic was reckoned to have infected 33 million
people worldwide.
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.91)
2008 Jun 7, Jim McKay (b.1921),
former ABC sports broadcaster, died in Monkton, Md. He covered 10
Olympic games over 24 years and was the voice on the anthology
series “Wide World of Sports” for its first quarter century.
(SSFC, 6/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Jun 7, In Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier died after tumbling down a well while on night
patrol. Capt. Jonathan Sutherland Snyder (26) was the 85th Canadian
soldier, the third in a month, to die in Afghanistan since 2002.
(http://tinyurl.com/6bu2q9)(Reuters, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, Canada said it had
wrapped up free trade negotiations with Colombia and reached
agreement on related labor and environmental issues.
(Reuters, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 7, Congo President
Joseph Kabila met with UN envoys who backed his plans to disarm and
expel Rwandan rebels behind years of strife. They also planned to
refocus the biggest UN peace force on rebuilding the shattered
nation.
(Reuters, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Egypt thousands
of demonstrators fought with police after a protest over flour
rations in a town on the Mediterranean coast. Mustafa Khalil (88), a
former Egyptian prime minister (1978-1980), died. He was an
architect of the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and
Israel.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Baghdad 4 police
recruits were killed in a blast at the National Police headquarters.
US soldiers captured a Basra-based "special groups" leader at a
hideout in eastern Baghdad. The US military killed four suspected
militants, captured five others and destroyed two safehouses in
northern Iraq. An American soldier died when his vehicle was struck
by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 6/7/08)(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, An Israeli tank
killed a militant near Gaza City. Hamas confirmed the man was a
member of the group and said two of his comrades were wounded. The
Israeli military said the gunman was planting a bomb along the
border.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, A boat carrying 150
African migrants en route to Europe sank off the Libyan coast. The
Libyan authorities later recovered 40 bodies. The Libyan government
informed the Egyptian government of the incident on June 13 because
they believe that 12 of the passengers were Egyptians.
(AFP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 7, Macedonia’s State
Election Commission announced it would nullify results from 193
polling stations after detecting fraud and other irregularities in
the June 1 violence-marred parliamentary election.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Morocco violent
clashes between unemployed youths and the police left 44 people
including 27 police officers injured in the southwestern port of
Sidi Ifni.
(AFP, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Sri Lanka
separate clashes in Vavuniya district killed 8 rebels and wounded
five soldiers. Other battles in Jaffna and Welioya killed six rebels
and wounded 10 soldiers.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, President Hugo
Chavez said that his government will rewrite a new intelligence law
to calm fears in Venezuela that the decree could be used to stifle
dissent. Thousands of opponents of President Hugo Chavez protested a
"blacklist" unveiled by Venezuela's top anti-corruption official
that bars key opposition candidates from running in upcoming
elections.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 7, Zimbabwe's High
Court overturned a police ban on opposition rallies this weekend
ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off.
(Reuters, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 8, The new $47.5
million SF Contemporary Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind,
opened on Jessie Square next to St. Patrick’s Church on Mission St.
It was created in the former 1907 PG&E power station designed by
Willis Polk.
(SSFC, 6/8/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 8, Iowa schoolteachers
John (55) and Nancy (49) Vogel set off with their two twins (10),
Daryl and Davy, on a 3-year bicycle trip from Alaska to Argentina.
They expected to complete the trip in March, 2011.
(SSFC, 8/15/10, Par
p.8)(http://familyonbikes.org/blog/)
2008 Jun 8, In Ohio a small
plane crashed in a residential area of Sandusky County and all 6
people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 6/9/08, p.A5)
2008 Jun 8, In Texas a medical
helicopter crashed on an isolated ranch in Sam Houston National
Forest, killing a patient and three crew members.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In the Gulf of
Mexico 4 college students from Texas and a safety officer were
rescued after spending some 26 hours in choppy seas following the
sinking of their 38-foot Cynthia Woods, which was competing in the
Regatta de Amigos. Safety officer Roger Stone died in the capsized
vessel.
(SFC, 6/9/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 8, Wicked weekend
storms pounded the US from the Midwest to the East Coast, forcing
hundreds of people to flee flooded communities, spawning tornadoes
that tore up houses and killing at least eight people in Indiana
(1), Michigan (6), Connecticut (1). Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle
declared a state of emergency in 29 counties and President Bush
declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties, freeing up aid.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver declared an emergency in nearly a third of the
state's 99 counties.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Afghanistan the
body of Abdul Samad Rohani (25), an Afghan reporter for the BBC, was
found in Helmand province. 3 British paratroopers were killed in
Helmand province in a suicide bomb attack, bringing total British
military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 to 100.
(AFP, 6/8/08)(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Algeria 2 bombs
exploded at a railway station east of Algiers reportedly killing 13
people. Officials the next day said only 2 people, a French engineer
and his driver, were killed in the bombings.
(Reuters, 6/8/08)(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 8, Burundi's top rebel
leader and the government's chief negotiator pledged to work to end
15 years of civil war as they arrived in South Africa for talks on
the country's peace process.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In southwestern
Greece a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5
struck near the port city of Patras, killing at least two people and
injuring more than 200.
(AP, 6/8/08)(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A10)
2008 Jun 7, In Hong Kong a
routine inspection found chickens infected with H5N1 bird flu in a
poultry market. Authorities slaughtered 2,700 birds and banned live
poultry imports from China.
(WSJ, 6/9/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 8, An unidentified
gunman shot and killed a police officer in the city of Nazran in the
province of Ingushetia.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 8, A blast just
outside Baghdad's Green Zone killed three civilians and wounded 10.
6 shepherds were killed execution-style before dawn by suspected
militants linked to al-Qaida masquerading as fellow herders east of
Baghdad. The US military captured six more suspected Sunni
extremists in Mosul, including an alleged al-Qaida in Iraq leader
and another man who is a wiring expert in charge of a bombing cell
there. In northern Tamim province a suicide truck bomber, with
explosives concealed under tanned animal hides, struck a US patrol
base killing one US soldier and wounding 18 other Americans.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, G8 leaders meeting
in Japan pledged to fight skyrocketing energy prices by increasing
efficiency and accelerating investment in new technologies, while
urging producers to expand production.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Tokyo police
arrested Tomohiro Kato, a blood-spattered 25-year-old man, who they
said drove a truck into a crowd of people, then got out and began a
frenzied knife attack stabbing 17 people leaving at least 7 dead. On
March 24, 2011, a court sentenced the former auto plant worker to
death.
(Reuters, 6/8/08)(WSJ, 6/9/08, p.A1)(SFC,
6/10/08, p.A3)(AFP, 3/24/11)
2008 Jun 8, Malawi began its
fifth census since its 1964 independence from Britain, a decade
after the last head count was held in the AIDS-blighted and
impoverished nation.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In the Philippines
a television news team was abducted in Sulu province by armed men,
believed to be members of Abu Sayaf. A cameraman was released on
June 12, but 2 colleagues remained captive.
(SFC, 6/11/08, p.A15)(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Somalia 12
civilians were killed in Mogadishu in a cross fire between troops
and suspected Islamic insurgents.
(SFC, 6/9/08, p.A11)
2008 Jun 8, The leaders of
Sudan's northern and southern halves signed an agreement to settle a
dispute over the oil-rich Abyei region that, if implemented, could
stop the nation's slide back into civil war.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Tanzania a
growing criminal trade in albino body parts was reported to have led
to 19 killings over the past year. By the end of the year at least
35 albinos were reportedly murdered to supply witch doctors with
limbs, organs and hair for their potions.
(SSFC, 6/8/08, p.A22)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.50)
2008 Jun 8, In eastern Ukraine
a powerful explosion tore through a mine, trapping at least 37
miners who had been making repairs to improve safety conditions in
the mine. 23 miners were rescued on June 9.
(AP, 6/8/08)(Reuters, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 8, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez urged Colombian rebels to lay down their
weapons, unilaterally free dozens of hostages and end a decades-long
armed struggle.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 9, Democratic Rep.
Dennis Kucinich defied his party leadership by calling for the
impeachment of US President George W. Bush for launching the Iraq
war, but his move was not expected to go anywhere.
(Reuters, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, The US said it will
spend seven million dollars to help international observers ensure
that presidential elections due at the end of the month in Zimbabwe
are free and fair.
(AFP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, In New York Samuel
Israel III (48), the former chief executive of hedge fund firm Bayou
Management LLC, was supposed to begin serving a 20-year prison term.
Israel had pleaded guilty in 2005 for losses that cost investors
some $400 million. His car was found near the Bear Mountain Bridge
over the Hudson River. The words “suicide is painless” were written
in the dust on the hood. Israel surrendered to police in
Massachusetts on July 2.
(WSJ, 6/11/08, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/08, p.C3)
2008 Jun 9, Engineers from the
Los Alamos National Laboratory and IBM Corp. unveiled, the world's
fastest supercomputer, a $100 million machine that for the first
time has performed 1,000 trillion calculations per second in a
sustained exercise. Named Roadrunner it will be used primarily on
nuclear weapons work.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 9, In Georgia Linda
Yancey (44) and Marcial Cax Puluc (20), a Guatemalan day laborer,
were shot and killed in Atlanta’s Stone Mountain suburban community.
In 2009 Linda’s husband Derrick Yancey (49), a former sheriff’s
deputy, fled Georgia in April and was captured in September in
Belize.
(http://tinyurl.com/mqavw6)(SFC, 9/22/09, p.A5)
2008 Jun 9, Budweiser, US beer
brewer, announced that it would go on sale in Vietnam.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.82)
2008 Jun 9, Afghan officials
uncovered 236 tons of marijuana in a massive drug bust in southern
Kandahar province. The drugs, estimated to be worth more than $400
million, were burned on site.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 9, Thousands of
demonstrators marched on the US Embassy to demand that Washington
extradite Carlos Sanchez Berzain, a former Bolivian defense
minister, who directed a military crackdown on riots that killed at
least 60 people in 2003.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 9, Some 32 common
dolphins were found beached in and around a creek off the Percuil
River, near Falmouth, England. Some were rescued, but 26 dolphins
suffered painful, protracted deaths. 2 days later a marine animal
protection group said the dolphins may have been killed after
becoming disoriented by British navy sonar exercises.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 9, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak warned that the population could more than double to
reach 160 million by 2050, hindering social and economic development
unless something is done about the "urgent" problem.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, Indonesia issued a
quasi-ban against a minority Islamic sect in the face of violent
protests by Muslim hardliners. Liberal Indonesians accused the
government of caving in to extremists. Ahmadiyah leaders said they
did not recognize the decree and would appeal.
(AFP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 9, Iran's supreme
leader told the visiting Iraqi prime minister that the US military
presence is the main cause of Iraq's problems. A parked car packed
with munitions exploded near a passing Iraqi army patrol in eastern
Baghdad, killing three civilians and an army lieutenant. An alleged
al-Qaida in Iraq bomber was captured with another suspect in Mosul,
and another five men were arrested south of the city. Gunmen broke
into three gold shops in west Baghdad killing 3 goldsmiths and
wounding another. US soldiers under heavy fire during a raid in
northwestern Iraq called in airstrikes and killed five suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq militants.
(AP, 6/9/08)(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 9, Israeli officials
said they have transferred millions of dollars in delayed tax
revenue to the Palestinian authority, money that will help pay
thousands of workers who have not received their May wages.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, Safaricom Ltd., a
Kenya-based mobile-phone operation, made its debut in East Africa’s
largest public offering valued at about $800 million. Shares in a
25% stake were offered at 5 Kenyan shillings and closed at 7
shillings. The company enabled customers to transfer money and at
this time moved some $1.5 million a day across Kenya.
(WSJ, 6/10/08, p.C1)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.78)
2008 Jun 9, Bronislovas Lubys
(b.1938), former prime minister of Lithuania (1992-1993) and
president of Achemos Grupe, was named the richest man in Lithuania
with a personal worth of three billion litas (870 million euros). He
moved up to the top spot from last year according to the newest
rankings by Veidas magazine. Last year’s number one, Nerijus
Numavicius fell to second with a value of 2.8 billion litas (810
million euros). In third place was MG Baltic’s owner Darius Mockus
with 2.3 billion litas (666 million euros).
(http://www.alfa.lt/straipsnis/c75542)
2008 Jun 9, A note threatening
a Mexican journalist was found outside the office of a newspaper in
southern Mexico, two days after someone left a severed head there.
The letter was directed at Juan Padilla, editor of El Correo de
Tabasco, which recently carried reports about migrant smuggling and
kidnapping in the area.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 9, UN helicopters
fanned out across Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, ferrying critical
supplies to villages struggling to survive since a devastating
cyclone struck more than five weeks ago.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, Militants attacked
an oil security vessel off the coast of Nigeria and seized eight
navy personnel and a local Cameroon official. 3 soldiers escaped. On
June 15 Cameroon military headquarters said authorities searching
for the six people found five mutilated and bullet-riddled bodies
buried in the mangroves.
(Reuters, 6/9/08)(Reuters, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 9, Panama security
forces found 6 tons of cocaine in 273 packets on board three boats
off Coiba island. Police were searching for 15 people who escaped
the raid.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 9, Russia and Norway
met for 2-days talks in the hope of making progress in a decades-old
dispute over their maritime border in the Barents Sea, a part of the
Arctic that could hold large oil and gas reserves. After visiting
the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, the ministers will go to Murmansk in
northwest Russia.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, A soldier and a
police officer were killed when unidentified gunmen fired at a train
carrying troops from Chechnya that had pulled in to the town of
Khasavyurt in the republic of Dagestan.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, Somalia’s
government signed an agreement with an opposition alliance calling
for an end to violence and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. A
leader of the ousted Islamic movement rejected the UN-brokered deal.
(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A3)(SFC, 6/11/08, p.A15)
2008 Jun 9, South Africa's
ruling African National Congress party chief Jacob Zuma kicked off a
visit to India with talks with PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, A Yemeni security
court convicted 13 Shiite rebels of plotting terrorist attacks,
sentencing one of them to death.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 10, President Bush,
speaking in Slovenia at his final EU-US summit, said the United
States and Europe must rally to keep Iran from developing a nuclear
weapon, calling the threat an incredible danger to world peace.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 10, Levonda J. Selph,
a retired Army lieutenant colonel, pleaded guilty to steering a
Pentagon contract for warehouses in Iraq to a contractor in return
for $4,000 cash and a $5,000 trip to Thailand. She agreed to
cooperate in the investigation and to pay the government $9,000 in
restitution and serve a prison term.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 10, In NYC a million
pieces of stainless steel toy parts assembled into a nearly
seven-story model skyscraper glimmered under the hot sun. It was
created by American artist Chris Burden (b.1946). The 16,000-pound
(7,250-kg) "poetic interpretation" of the 30 Rock Building at
Rockefeller Center was made of replicated Erector set pieces from
the toy created by A.C. Gilbert in 1912.
(Reuters, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 10, SF supervisors
gave final approval to a program to create a $3 million fund to
provide rebates for residents and businesses that install solar
power systems.
(SFC, 6/11/08, p.B3)
2008 Jun 10, XTO Energy said it
will buy closely held Hunt Petroleum for $4.19 billion.
(WSJ, 6/11/08, p.B1)
2008 Jun 10, The nation's top
AIDS doctor said researchers have been undercounting new cases of
HIV infection in the United States, meaning the rate is probably 25
percent higher at 50,000 people per year.
(Reuters, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 10, US-led coalition
forces along the volatile Afghan border launched an airstrike that
killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops. Pakistan’s military
condemned it as an act of aggression within its border that "hit at
the very basis of cooperation" in the war on terrorism. The incident
followed a reported clash between Afghan forces and Taliban
militants in the same area. The Taliban said eight of its fighters
died in the skirmish.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 10, In Argentina a new
consumer price index came into effect. Under the new methodology
every time a product’s price rises too sharply, it will be removed
on the ground that consumers will switch to other goods. The
official current inflation was in single digits, as the true figure
soared above 20%.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.48)
2008 Jun 10, The British
government published its annual poverty figures. They showed a rise
in 2006-07 of 100,000 in the number of children living in poverty to
2.9 million.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.72)
2008 Jun 10, Chinese
authorities detained Huang Qi for posting articles on his Web site
criticizing the government's response to the massive earthquake that
struck Sichuan province the month before. In 2009 he was sentenced
to 3 years in prison.
(AP, 11/23/09)(AP, 11/23/09)