Timeline 2010 January-March
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2010 Jan 1, About 15 New Hampshire gay couples braved the cold to exchange vows outside the Statehouse in Concord, as the state joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont in allowing gay marriage.
(SFC, 1/1/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 1, In the Rose Bowl at Pasadena Terrelle Pryor passed for a career-high 266 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for 72 more and threw a 17-yard scoring pass to DeVier Posey with 7:02 to play, leading the No. 8 Buckeyes to a 26-17 victory over No. 7 Oregon.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, Damon Martin (35) of Detroit was shot and killed in Hampton, Ga. Rap music producer Demetrius Lee Stewart (28), aka Shawnty Redd, was arrested for the murder.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A11)(www.rashaentertainment.com/blog/?p=5350)
2010 Jan 1, In Afghanistan 5 civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a bomb on a main road in Bala Murghab district in the northern province of Badghis. At least 4 security guards for a road construction crew were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern part of Khost province.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported that Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the deadly cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils, raising hopes that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In southwestern Bangladesh a speeding bus lost control and hit a tree before crashing into a canal, killing 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Brazil a rain-loosened slab of hillside collapsed on 3 houses and an upscale lodge after New Year celebrations at a resort on the island of Ilha Grande near Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 26 people. On the mainland, a torrent of reddish mud cascaded into the Carioca slum in the nearby coastal city of Angra dos Reis, killing at least 18 people and reducing rickety shacks to rubble. 10 people died in Sao Paulo state. 3 people died in Minas Gerais as heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides. Nearly 80 other mudslides have been reported throughout the region in recent days. Together with flooding, they have killed at least 76 people.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Britain the VAT returned to 17.5% after 13 months in which it was reduced to 15% to help combat the economic downturn.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.41)
2010 Jan 1, Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno called on rebel forces in the troubled central African nation to lay down their weapons, saying constant conflict was hindering development.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Colombia a New year’s Eve dessert, distributed to the homeless in Bogota’s El Calvario neighborhood, contained ground glass and poison that caused one death and sickened 44 others. Air and ground assaults on two rebel camps killed 18 insurgents and captured 13, 112 miles south of Bogota. An attack by guerrillas a few hours earlier killed a soldier and a teenage girl at a boardinghouse 164 miles southwest of Bogota.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A Congolese army officer said the Democratic Republic of Congo forces are to mount a new offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country with the backing of UN troops.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In the Czech Rep. liberalized drug laws went into effect. Those caught with small amounts of drugs intended for personal use faced only a fine.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Denmark Muhudiin Mohamed Geele (29), a Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda, broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard (74), a Danish cartoonist, whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage. The attacker, who was shot and wounded by police, was charged the next day with two counts of attempted murder. On Feb 3, 2011, Geele was convicted of terrorism. The next day he was sentenced to 9 years in prison to be followed by permanent expulsion.
(Reuters, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/3/11)(Reuters, 2/4/11)
2010 Jan 1, In Dubai a British woman (23) told police she had been raped the previous evening by a waiter at a 5-star hotel. Police arrested her after she revealed during questioning that she had drunk alcohol and had sex with her fiance, with whom she was on holiday.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.48)
2010 Jan 1, In Germany a technical problem left card holders unable to use cash machines. It was caused by microchips in about a quarter of all cards in circulation being unable to cope with the changeover to 2010. On Jan 8 retailers announced that the problem was mostly corrected.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iran a shootout with drug smugglers in an eastern desert region left 11 policemen dead.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iraq a US soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Ireland a new law against blasphemy went into effect. It was already a criminal offense under the country’s 1937 constitution, but the language was too murky to make prosecutions feasible.
(SFC, 1/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, In Japan a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth 300 million yen ($3.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. On Jan 7-8 three men and 3 women were arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the jewelry heist. Police suspect many of the watches were mailed from Japan to Hong Kong, with some then sent to mainland China.
(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 1, Malaysia’s Islamic morality police arrested 52 unmarried couples for sexual misconduct following raids in hotel rooms on New Year’s Day. The detained couples were expected to be charged with khalwat (close proximity), and faced a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison and a fine.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 1, In Mexico gunmen killed Jesus Escalante, the chief police investigator in the northern state of Sinaloa, hours after he started investigating the kidnapping of Jose Luis Romero (40), a local radio journalist. Mexico opened the New Year with 69 murders in one day, including 26 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico’s drug related killings for 2009 totaled over 6,500.
(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, North Korea called for an end of hostile relations with the United States in a New Year's message and said it was committed to making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden vehicle on a field during a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat city, killing 101 people and wounding more than 70. A suspected US missile struck a car carrying alleged militants in North Waziristan tribal region, killing 3 men. Karachi, the country's largest city, came to a virtual standstill after religious and political leaders called for a general strike to protest a Dec 28 bombing that killed 44 people and subsequent riots. A roadside bomb exploded near a car in the Bajur tribal region, killing an anti-Taliban tribal elder and five of his family members. A local Taliban commander and his four companions were killed in an exchange of fire with troops in Kolachi village, 25 km (16 miles) west of the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Peru a riot by about 500 inmates erupted New Year’s Eve at a northern prison and left two inmates dead. 6 guards were held hostage until negotiations got the prisoners to end their protest.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, The Russian government set a minimum price for vodka that more than doubles the cost of the cheapest vodka on the market in an effort to fight rampant alcoholism.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked a British-flagged cargo ship, the Asian Glory, with 25 crew including eight Bulgarians, 620 miles (1,000 km) east of Somalia. It was transporting cars from Singapore to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The Singaporean-flagged Pramoni, a chemical tanker with a crew of 24, was seized by pirates in the heavily defended Gulf of Aden. The ship was carrying fertilizer from the US to India. The Pramoni was released on Feb 26 after a ransom was delivered by parachute.
(AFP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Jan 1, Spain took over the presidency of the EU, with PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promising to work to end the continent's economic crisis.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Ugandan troops killed Bok Abudema, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, effectively the number two of the brutal militia, in the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars went into effect. This made it least the 29th state to ban smoking in restaurants and 24th for bars.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, Afghanistan's parliament dealt a stinging rebuke to President Hamid Karzai by rejecting 17 out of 24 of his nominees for a new cabinet, including a regionally powerful warlord and the country's only female minister.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Australia Indian accounting graduate Nitin Garg (21) was stabbed by unknown attackers before collapsing in the Melbourne burger restaurant where he worked. On June 17 a 15-year-old Australian boy was charged with the stabbing murder. On June 18 the boy (16) was charged with accessory to the killing. On April 20, 2011, the boy (16) pleaded guilty to the murder and one count of attempted armed robbery. On Dec 22 the boy was sentenced to up to 13 years in jail.
(AFP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 6/17/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP, 4/20/11)(Reuters, 12/22/11)
2010 Jan 2, French police said about 30 works of art, including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau, have been stolen from the home of a private collector in southern La Cadiere-d'Azur, near Marseilles. The theft comes days after a drawing by Impressionist Edgar Degas worth euro800,000 ($1.15 million) was stolen from the Cantini Museum in Marseilles.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 2, In northern India 4 trains collided in two separate accidents caused by dense winter fog, killing 10 people and injuring 47 others.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, Israeli warplanes struck and destroyed two tunnels under Gaza's border with Israel. The Israeli military says Gaza militants had planned to use the tunnels to enter Israel and carry out attacks.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In northern Mexico a bus carrying farm workers and their families home plunged off a cliff, killing 14 people and injuring 21. Hugo Hernandez (36) was kidnapped in Sonora state and taken to neighboring Sinaloa state where assailants skinned his face and stitched it onto a soccer ball. His body was later left on the streets of Los Mochis in seven pieces.
(AP, 1/3/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 2, Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in the capital to support the communist government's policies for the new year, including improved relations with the US and South Korea and a higher standard of living.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Somalia Al-Shabab attacked Dusamareb, 500km north of the capital Mogadishu, and captured it from Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, a traditional Sufi group, for a short while before being forced out again. At least 50 people died in the fighting.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycmkkye)(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 2, In southern Sudan armed Nuer tribesmen killed at least 139 members of a rival tribe in an attack in Tonj, one of the most remote parts of the oil-producing south.
(Reuters, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Tajikistan a magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck the Pamir Mountains. Some 783 people were left homeless. 98 houses were completely destroyed and nearly 1,000 others damaged by the quake that hit several villages in the Gorno-Badakhshansky region.
(AP, 1/3/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 2, Yemen security officials said they deployed several hundred extra troops to two mountainous eastern provinces that are al-Qaida's main strongholds in the country and where the suspected would-be Christmas airplane bomber may have visited.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 3, The US and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen in the face of al-Qaida threats, after both countries announced an increase in aid to the government to fight the terror group linked to the failed attempt to bomb a US airliner on Christmas.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, John Irwin (80), former criminal turned writer and criminologist, died at his SF home. Irwin was released from Soledad Prison in 1957 after serving 5 years for armed robbery. In 1967 He began teaching at SF Univ. and founded Project Rebound, a program to help those coming out of prison to go to college. His 6 books included “The Felon" (1970).
(SFC, 1/7/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 3, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered parliament to cancel its winter recess so lawmakers can consider his new cabinet nominees. In southern Afghanistan 4 US troops and a British soldier were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In southeastern Australia more than 1,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Coonamble, in central New South Wales, as the worst floodwaters to hit the area in a decade threatened to swamp a remote farming town.
(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr, the country's first and second biggest banks by assets, said they had agreed to accept real estate in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in public sector debt.
(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Eric Rohmer (b.1920), French new Wave film director and critic, died in Paris. His first feature film, “The Sign of Leo," was released in 1959.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 3, In northern India police said more than 30 people have died in cold weather-related incidents in the past 24 hours, including 10 people killed in train accidents caused by dense fog.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Pakistan's northwest tribal region a suspected US drone missile strike killed at least 2 people. A roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the Hangu district of North West Frontier Province, killing a former irrigation minister and 3 others. Another roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying anti-Taliban elders in the Bajur tribal area, killing 2 and critically wounding 4 others. The bullet-riddled bodies of a man and a woman were found in the Mamund area of Bajur with a note saying they were guilty of violating Islamic law.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Serbian police arrested Darko Jankovic, a war crimes suspect. He was wanted for the killing of at least 19 civilians in eastern Bosnia and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Switzerland avalanches killed at least four skiers and a rescue doctor. Two of the avalanches occurred in Diemtig Valley, the first hitting a group of skiers, the second the rescuers who came to their aid. A third avalanche buried two skiers near Switzerland's borders with France and Italy.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In northwestern Turkey a passenger train crashed head-on into another train, killing one of the engine drivers and injuring 14 other people.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 4, James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark. Along with "Titanic," the others are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $1.13 billion, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at $1.06 billion and "The Dark Knight" at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, The US Census Bureau kicked off its $300 million campaign to prod, coax and cajole the nation's more than 300 million residents to fill out their once-a-decade census forms.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Solis Palma, a Mexican migrant, was shot and killed after he reportedly attacked a US Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona with rocks.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 4, Bobby DeLaughter (55), a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, reported to federal prison for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation. DeLaughter was sentenced to 18 months in November after pleading guilty to lying about secret conversations he had with a lawyer while presiding over a dispute between wealthy attorneys over legal fees. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped conspiracy and mail fraud charges.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Nevada Las Vegas Johnny Lee Wicks (66), disgruntled over cuts in his Social Security benefits, opened fire in the lobby of the federal court house in Las Vegas killing a court security officer and wounding a deputy. Police officers returned fire and Wicks was killed as he fled across the street.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 4, Novartis, a Swiss drug company, agreed to buy a controlling 52% stake in Alcon, an American listed but Swiss-based eyecare company, from food giant Nestle Corp.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.66)
2010 Jan 4, NASA scientists reported that the new Kepler space telescope has discovered 5 fiery-hot planets in the depths of the Milky Way, each far larger than Earth.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 4, Edward Nathan (1919), longtime grantmaker for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, died in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 4, In Algeria an Algerian employee of Canadian construction firm SNC-Lavalin was kidnapped by insurgents southeast of Algiers. The engineer was freed on Jan 7.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 4, A new report by Canada's Alzheimer Society said Canadians are developing dementia at such a rapid rate that dealing with the problem will cost a total of more than C$870 billion ($835 billion) over the next 30 years unless preventive measures are taken.
(Reuters, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China 21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Dubai inaugurated the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, hoping to shift international attention away from the Gulf emirate's deep financial crisis and rekindle the optimism that fueled its turbocharged growth. The name was secretly switched from Burj Dubai and unveiled to the public as the Burj Khalifa, after the emir of Abu Dhabi and UAE president Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The observation deck was the only part of the tower that opened. It was closed in February following an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped. The deck reopened on April 4. Work continued on the rest of the building's interior.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/5/10)(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 4/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iran dozens of Tehran University professors appealed to the supreme leader to halt the ongoing violence against protesters, adding a new and respected voice in support of the opposition.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iraq 3 policemen were killed and eight people were wounded by two explosions in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Irish writer Colm Toibin was named novelist of the year in Britain's lucrative Costa Book Awards for his emigrant saga "Brooklyn."
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Israel approved construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the US is laboring to get peace talks moving again.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Kenya US citizen Sharon Brown (39) and her daughter Margaux (1) were trampled to death when a lone elephant charged out of the brush just outside Mount Kenya National Park.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Mexico Josefina Reyes, a human rights activist, was been killed in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Myanmar's ruling junta chief confirmed that the country's first general elections in two decades will be held this year but gave no date for the balloting, which is expected to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Nigerian soldiers shot 2 contract workers dead and injured 4 others at a Chevron plant under construction. This led to a riot and left several buildings destroyed and halted operations at the southern Escravos gas project.
(www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10293513)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 4, The Norwegian Chess Federation said Magnus Carlsen (19) is the youngest person to hold the title since ratings were introduced in 1971.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Serbia filed a lawsuit against Croatia at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide during the 1991-1995 Balkan war, which killed or displaced thousands of people.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, A tsunami unleashed by an earthquake plowed into the Solomon Islands with the crashing waters devastating at least one village, leaving over a thousand people homeless. The US Geological Survey recorded 8 earthquakes in the region since late Jan 3. The magnitude 7.2 was centered 64 miles (103 km) southeast of Gizo, and followed a 6.5 tremor less than two hours earlier centered 54 miles (90 km) southeast of Gizo at a depth of 6 miles (10 km).
(AP, 1/4/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Africa Pres. Jacob Zuma formalized his marriage to a third wife in a traditional ceremony in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Korea Seoul residents slogged through the heaviest snowfall in modern Korean history after a winter storm dumped more than 11 inches (28 cm), forcing airports to cancel flights and paralyzing traffic in the bustling capital.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Yemeni security forces killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in clashes outside the capital Sanaa, as the US and British embassies extended their closure for a second day because of threats of attack by the terror group's offshoot here. France became the latest foreign mission to close in Yemen as security around embassies and the airport was boosted.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 5, The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in SF overturned Washington state’s ban on voting by convicted felons. The ruling could extend ballots to prisoners in other states.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 5, US sports broadcaster ESPN said it will show some World Cup soccer matches live from South Africa in 3-D and Japan's Sony teamed up with Discovery and IMAX to launch a 3-D TV network in the United States.
(AFP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, Google introduced its Nexus One smart phone.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.D1)
2010 Jan 5, In California 3 biologists with the California Dept. of Fish and Game were killed along with their helicopter pilot while they were surveying deer in the foothills of Sierra national Forest after their vehicle clipped a power line and crashed.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.C2)
2010 Jan 5, In Illinois a small Learjet cargo plane crashed into the Des Plains River in Glenview killing two pilots onboard.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 5, Kentucky lottery officials said Rob Anderson (39) and his wife were winners of the $128.6 million Powerball jackpot, the largest in the state's history. The central Kentucky autoworker held on to the $128 million Powerball ticket he bought on Christmas Eve during some last-minute shopping, after it was printed by mistake.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 5, In Utah deputy sheriff Josie Greathouse Fox was killed following a traffic stop in Delta. Police searched for suspect Roberto Miramontes Roman, who had just sold drugs to a relative of the slain officer.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales said he's inviting activists, scientists and government officials from around the world to an alternative climate conference following the failure of a summit in Copenhagen to produce binding agreements.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, In Bulgaria gunmen shot dead Bobbie Tsankov, a popular radio show host and crime journalist, and critically injured two other men in a busy part of the capital, Sofia.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, A fire in a coal mine in central China killed at least 25 workers. Search efforts continued for at least three others trapped underground at the Lisheng coal mine in Xiangtan city in Hunan province.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 5, Iceland’s Pres. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson rejected a bill passed by parliament on Dec 30 on a state guarantee for €3.9 billion owed to British and Dutch governments. This amount would cover compensation paid to savers in those countries following the collapse of Landsbanki and its internet-banking scheme, Icesave, one of three stricken Icelandic banks nationalized in October 2008.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.52)
2010 Jan 5, In India global car manufacturers eyeing the explosive growth of the Indian market unveiled new compact models at the Delhi auto show as they sought to break the dominance of entrenched local producers.
(AFP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, In Nairobi, Kenya, public transit was paralyzed after minibus drivers went on a 3-day strike following claims of extortion and corruption by police.
(SSFC, 1/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 5, Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born radical Muslim cleric, was stuck in Kenya despite attempts to deport him because other nations are refusing to allow him to transit through their countries. He has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed. The British government has said he was a key influence on July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, The UN food agency said it is stopping aid distribution to about 1 million people in southern Somalia because of attacks against staff and demands by armed groups that aid organizations remove women from their teams.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, Taiwan’s parliament voted to reinstate a ban on imports of US ground beef and offal amid mad cow concerns, challenging a decision by Pres. Ma Ying-jeou to allow some shipments.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 6, It was reported that Santa Barbara-based Cybersitter has filed a $2.2 billion lawsuit against China, accusing Beijing of stealing its technology to bar Internet access to political and religious sites in China. The suit alleges that the Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally copied more than 3,000 lines of code from its filtering software, and conspired with China's rulers and computer manufacturers to distribute more than 56 million copies of the pirated software throughout China.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Gilbert Arenas, a Washington DC Wizards basketball guard, was suspended indefinitely without pay by NBA commissioner David Stern, for carrying guns into the Wizards' locker room. With each game he misses, Arenas will lose about $147,200 of the $16.2 million he will earn in the second season of a six-year, $111 million contract. The punishment came on his 28th birthday.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (56) resigned as part of a deal with prosecutors following allegations that she stole gift cards that had been donated to the poor.
(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 6, George Leonard (86), writer and pioneer in the human potential movement, died at his home in Mill Valley, Ca. From 1953 to 1970 he worked as a writer and editor for Look magazine. His best-selling books included “Education and Ecstasy" (1968).
(http://beststudentviolins.com/education.html)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A1)
2010 Jan 6, In Afghanistan an explosion tore through a group of children gathered around foreign soldiers visiting a US-funded road project, killing 4 kids and a policeman and wounding scores, including at least 3 American troops in eastern Nangarhar province. The blast occurred when a passing police vehicle hit a mine. In a separate attack in the province, 4 Afghan policeman were killed when a remote-controlled bomb blew up their vehicle in the Khagyani district. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at a market in eastern Khost city. Soldiers found more than 5,300 pounds (2,400 kg) of processed opium, more than 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) of wet opium paste, about 50 pounds (20 kilograms) of heroin and multiple firearms with ammunition in the Maywand district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, In the waters off Antarctica the trimaran Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boat, had its bow sheared off and was taking on water after it was struck by the Shonan Maru 2, a Japanese whaling ship. The trimaran’s 6 crew members were safely transferred to the bob Barker, another of the Society's vessels. The Ady Gil was left to sink the next day after a tow rope snapped and the Bob Barker resumed its pursuit of the Japanese whalers.
(AP, 1/6/10)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez ordered the military to declassify all "dirty war"-related documents.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Britain unusually heavy snowfall stranded hundreds of motorists, disrupted trains and shut down schools and airports across the land as the country suffered through its longest cold snap in nearly 30 years.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Chile investigators accused Rev. Ricardo Munoz Quinteros (55), a Catholic priest, and his girlfriend, Pamela Ampuero, of soliciting sex from young girls, including one who later bore his child.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Egyptian security forces and Palestinians clashed at the Gaza border over the delay of an international aid convoy, killing one Egyptian border guard and wounding 15 Palestinians. 3 gunmen in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd leaving a church in the town of Nag Hamadi, about 40 miles from the ancient ruins of Luxor. The lead attacker was identified as a Muslim. 6 male churchgoers and one security guard were killed on the Coptic Christmas Eve. The 3 suspects in the drive-by shooting gave themselves up to police on Jan 8 after being surrounded by security forces. On Jan 16, 2011, a court convicted and sentenced to death a Muslim man for his part in the drive-by shooting. "I am a victim; I did not do it," screamed Mohammed Ahmed Hassanein, whose trial lasted 11 months. He was convicted of first degree murder and terror-related charges.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Honduras the chief prosecutor asked the Supreme Court to issue arrest warrants charging Honduras' military commanders with abuse of power for sending President Manuel Zelaya out of the country in his June 28 ouster.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, A conservative Iranian Web site reported that a parliamentary probe has found Saeed Mortazavi, a former Tehran prosecutor, responsible for the death by torture of at least 3 anti-government protesters detained in the turmoil following the disputed June elections.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, A diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Norway told Norwegian television that he had resigned in protest over a crackdown on demonstrators in Iran. The government in Tehran denied the report. In mid-February the Norwegian Immigration Directorate gave Mohammed Reza Heydari and his family permission to remain in Norway as political refugees after going through "all necessary information pertaining to the case."
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Jan 6, Five Iraqis were killed and eight injured after their minibus collided with a US military vehicle that was traveling in the wrong lane 80 km south of Baghdad. In northern Iraq a US army soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Indian Kashmir suspected Muslim militants opened fire in the main market area of Srinagar, killing one police officer and sending residents running for cover. A suicide bomber struck an army facility in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, killing four soldiers and wounding 11 others in an area where such attacks are rare.
(AFP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Israel announced it successfully tested a high-tech shield against future mortar and rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled territory. Once installed later this year, the Iron Dome system could deprive Hamas of an important means of threatening Israel.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, Madagascar security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital near the presidential palace. The demonstrators, who are aligned with three of the country's previous presidents, went to present the country's military-backed leader with a letter questioning whether or not coup leader Andry Rajoelina still wants reconciliation.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, A Malaysian court charged an air force sergeant and a businessman with stealing two fighter jet engines. The engines, each worth 50 million ringgit ($14 million), were stolen while they were undergoing repairs and were allegedly shipped toward Argentina before being offloaded to another vessel bound for Uruguay.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Tijuana, Mexico, three 16-year-old students, two boys and a girl, were killed. At least one of the victims was a known drug dealer who frequently missed classes and sometimes peddled narcotics at or near the school.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Morocco the first Berber TV channel in the ancient but marginalized tongue of Amazigh was launched after a decades-long struggle.
(AFP, 1/18/10)(http://tinyurl.com/yfl4jpp)
2010 Jan 6, In Northern Ireland the major British Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defense Association, announced it has fully disarmed, finally meeting the key requirement of the province's 1998 peace accord.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Pakistan 2 suspected US drone missile strikes killed 13 people in North Waziristan, an area of the volatile northwest teeming with militants suspected in a recent suicide attack that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, Palestinian work crews broke ground on Rawabi, what they hope will be the first modern, planned Palestinian city, a step that officials say will help build an independent state in spite of the current deadlock in the peace process with Israel. The $500 million project hinges on Israel's approval of a short stretch of road.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new gas pipeline link to Iran from Turkmenistan, which he said would take ties to a "new level."
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Russia a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed car at a police station in Dagestan province, killing six officers and wounding at least 16 people on the outskirts of Makhachkala. Investigators determined that the homemade bomb packed into the Niva, a small Russian-made SUV, was equivalent to 80 to 100 km (175 to 220 pounds) of TNT.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Yemeni security forces captured Mohammed al-Hanq, a key Al-Qaeda leader, and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa. The US embassy reopened after a 2-day closure due to terror threats.
(AFP, 1/6/10)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 6, Zimbabwe state media reported that Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has signed an eight million dollar deal with Botswana to revive a shut-down thermal power station and ease national blackouts.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, The so-called Liberty Head nickel, a rare 1913 US coin once owned by an Egyptian king and later featured in a famous US TV detective series, was sold for more than $3.7 million (2.3 million pounds) in a public auction in Florida.
(Reuters, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, US scientists released a paper saying that mountaintop coal mining is so destructive that the government should stop issuing permits to do it. Earlier in the week the EPA issued a new permit for the Hobet 45 mine in West Virginia.
(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A11)
2010 Jan 7, Intel CEO Paul Otellini introduced a technology called Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) that allows a user to beam the contents of a computer screen to a TV.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.D1)
2010 Jan 7, Oaksterdam Univ., a pioneering college dedicated to the cannabis industry, held its grand opening in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.E3)(www.oaksterdamuniversity.com/)
2010 Jan 7, In St. Louis, Mo., three people were killed and four wounded after a man armed with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire at a manufacturing plant.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 8 civilians and a senior security commander in Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province, hours after a provincial governor survived a blast in nearby Khost province. A roadside bombs in Uruzgan province killed 8 Afghan soldiers. Another roadside bomb in the east killed a US service member.
(AFP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/8/10)(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 7, In Algeria a stand-off with police began in the industrial town of Rouiba after the 5,000 employees of the state-owned National Company of Industrial Vehicles (SNVI) started an indefinite strike action to demand higher wages and better terms.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Argentina Martin Redrado (b.1961), governor of the central bank, was dismissed by Pres. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. She signed a decree firing him for refusing to use currency reserves to pay foreign debt.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8447428.stm)
2010 Jan 7, China executed 7 gang leaders in Hebei province for murder, gun sales, gambling and other crimes in what state media called their province's worst gang case since the founding of communist China 60 years ago. In eastern China some 100 hired thugs beat farmers who had resisted eviction in the city of Pizhou in Jiangsu province. One woman was killed and another woman was severely injured. The next day up to 2,000 angry villagers descended on government offices in Pizhou to protest the issue and clashed with police over the forced evictions.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 7, In the Dominican Republic 4 people, including two US citizens, went missing on a fishing trip off the southern coast. Robert Wayne and Laura Ricart left Boca Chica with Spaniard Javier Jorge and Dominican Plinio Jacobo, aboard a 24-foot (7m) boat.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 7, Eurostar passengers faced further disruption after one of its high-speed trains got stuck for 2 hours in the Channel Tunnel again, weeks after a major breakdown due to the cold.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Egypt thousands clashed with police during a funeral procession for the seven people killed in an attack on churchgoers leaving a midnight Mass for Coptic Christians.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Iran armed pro-government demonstrators opened fire on the car of former presidential candidate and opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi, as he was leaving a building in Qazvin .
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Iraq a series of 5 blasts killed at least 8 people in western Anbar province. In Diyala province a bomb exploded near a police station, killing one policeman and injuring ten other people near the Iranian border.
(AP, 1/7/10)(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 7, In Indian-controlled Kashmir government forces ended a 20-hour gunbattle with suspected rebels in Srinagar, shooting and killing the two attackers who paralyzed the region's main city.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Kenya attempted to deport Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born radical Muslim cleric, to Gambia after several countries, including the United States, denied him a transit visa. Kenya's immigration minister said Gambian authorities have agreed to help el-Faisal find his way home to Jamaica. Attempts to deport el-Faisal failed because he was denied a transit visa when he arrived in Nigeria en route to Gambia, which had agreed to host him. El-Faisal was flown back to Kenya on Jan 10.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Mexico gunmen attacked an army patrol in the western state of Michoacan with assault rifles and grenades, touching off a gunbattle that killed a soldier and four suspects.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, A Moroccan court sentenced 14 members of a suspected terror cell to prison terms of four to 15 years for planning attacks against tourist and government targets. Prosecutors had alleged that the group known as Fath Al Andalous (Conquest of Andalusia) was well advanced in planning attacks on tourist sites in the southern city of Agadir and a military barracks in Laayoune.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, Gaza militants fired at least 10 mortar shells at Israel, causing no injuries or damage. international activists delivered hundreds of tons of medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The convoy was led by maverick British lawmaker George Galloway, who said the group "will be back with more (aid) until this criminal siege imposed on the people of Gaza, to punish them for how they voted in a free election, is lifted."
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Nepal began releasing hundreds of former child soldiers, who once fought for the Maoist rebels, from the UN-monitored detention camps they have called home for the past three years to begin new lives as civilians.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Russian police in Dagestan killed two suspected militants in a counterterrorism operation launched in response to a suicide blast that took the lives of six officers. One of the slain militants was named as Ismail Ichakayev, a man reportedly wanted for masterminding several bombings and other attacks on officials.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Rwanda and France pledged to improve ties after a lengthy freeze in diplomatic relations triggered by a French judge issuing arrest warrants for top aides to President Paul Kagame.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Zimbabwe halted a controversial sale of 300,000 carats of diamonds, but blamed bureaucratic hold-ups rather than a scandal over rights abuses by the military in the diamond fields.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, A top UN human rights investigator said video footage purportedly showing troops shooting blindfolded, naked Tamils in the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war, appeared to be authentic. The video, reportedly shot by a soldier with a mobile phone, revived calls for a war crimes investigation and cast a shadow over the upcoming presidential elections.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In NYC 2 men linked to an alleged Al-Qaida associate were arrested after one of the men caused a traffic accident while under surveillance. Zarein Ahmedzay (24) and Adis Medunjanin (25), former classmates of Najibullah Zazi, were first publicly linked to an investigation of a plot to attack NYC with homemade bombs in September. Zazi was arrested in Denver on Sep 19 after investigators found evidence of a planned attack in his rented vehicle in NYC on Sep 10. On April 23 Ahmedzay pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He said Al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan in 2008 had encouraged him and Zazi to target structures in NYC.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A9)(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A7)
2010 Jan 8, Lashonda Booker, a former Federal Emergency Management employee and her cousin, Peggy, Hilton were charged with stealing over $721,000 in Hurricane Katrina relief money. Booker had worked in FEMA’s Biloxi, Miss., office.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/yer5crg)
2010 Jan 8, It was reported that YMax Corp., the company behind the magicJack, the cheap Internet phone gadget that's been heavily promoted on TV, has made a new version of the device that allows free calls from cell phones in the home, in a fashion that's sure to draw protest from cellular carriers.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Art Clokey (88), American animator, died in Los Osos, Ca. His bendable creation Gumby became a pop culture phenomenon through decades of toys, revivals and satires. Gumby grew out of a student project Clokey produced at the University of Southern California in the early 1950s called "Gumbasia."
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Afghanistan two local intelligence guards were killed at a dog fight in the provincial capital of Pul-e Alam in Logar province. A suspected suicide bomber had entered the dog fight and opened fire. Other intelligence officers killed the gunman, who never detonated his alleged cache.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Angola hooded gunmen sprayed the Togo soccer team’s bus with gunfire as it traveled through the restive northern Cabinda enclave. The bus driver was killed and 7 others were injured. The attack was claimed by the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which has been fighting for decades for the independence of the oil-rich territory. The next day media officer Stanislas Ocloo and assistant coach Amalete Abalo died from their wounds. Virgilio Santos, an official with the African Nations Cup local organizing committee COCAN, said teams had been told explicitly not to travel to the tournament by road.
(Reuters, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Australia angrily condemned an Indian newspaper cartoon likening its police to the Ku Klux Klan over their investigations into the recent murder of a young Indian man. 4 men reportedly poured an unidentified fluid on Jaspreet Singh (29), a man of Indian descent, and set him alight in a suburb of Melbourne, leaving him with 15% burns. Singh was later charged with making a false report to police and criminal damage with a view to gaining financial advantage over the incident, allegedly to make an insurance claim.
(AFP, 1/8/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 8, Virgin Money, part of Richard Branson's Virgin empire, took big strides towards becoming a major retail bank able to compete in a battered sector seeking to recover from the financial crisis.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, The beleaguered Eurostar train service cancelled half of its trains between London and Paris because of freezing temperatures.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Canada Wiebo Ludvig (68), an anti-energy-industry activist was arrested in Grande Prairie, Alberta, in connection with the investigation into a series of pipeline bombings in northeastern British Columbia. Ludwig had been convicted a decade ago of bombing oil and gas wells. The next day Ludwig was released without charges.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A2)(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 8, Charles Massi (57) a former minister and head of the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP), died following the torture he was subjected to. The Central African Ministry of Defense formally denied killing Massi in a statement on 21 January and said that the government did not know where he was.
(AFP, 1/16/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Massi)
2010 Jan 8, The China Passenger Car Association reported that China overtook the US as the biggest auto market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth this year.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In southeastern China a fire in coal mine trapped and killed 12 workers in Xinyu city, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, The EU said it will pursue a new deal on global warming through the Group of 20, since last month's UN climate conference of nearly 200 nations led to unwieldy negotiations that didn't accomplish much.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Officials said Guinea's No. 2 leader, Gen. Sekouba Konate, is going to Senegal for medical treatment for cirrhosis of the liver, heightening fears of a power vacuum since the country's president is already hospitalized in Morocco following an assassination attempt. Guinea's Health Minister denied reports that the nation's No. 2 leader was heading to Senegal to be hospitalized, rejecting rumors he was being evacuated for a medical emergency.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza killed three men in a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli cooks doubled the previous record for the world's biggest serving of hummus, set in October by cooks in Lebanon. An adjudicator sent from London by Guinness World Records, Jack Brockbank, confirmed that Israeli chefs now held the record for hummus. He put the exact amount of hummus in a giant satellite dish at 9,017 pounds (4,090 kg).
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Italy at least 37 people were wounded in Rosarno, following clashes between the migrants, police and local residents. The wounded included 5 migrants, 14 residents and 18 police officers.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Government forces in Indian Kashmir killed two suspected rebels in a gunbattle. The fighting started after troops cordoned off a house in Khrew village after receiving a tip that suspected militants were hiding there.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Malaysia 3 churches were attacked with firebombs, causing extensive damage to one, as Muslims pledged to prevent Christians from using the word "Allah," escalating religious tensions in the multiracial country. On Aug 13 a Malaysian court sentenced two Muslim brothers to five years in prison for torching a Christian church during the height of the dispute.
(AP, 1/8/10)(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Mexico a major regional newspaper in the northern city of Saltillo announced it would stop covering drug violence altogether after the body of a reporter was found outside a motel with a threatening message. Valentin Valdes (28) had written about the Dec. 29 arrests at the Marbella Motel of five alleged members of the Gulf drug cartel. He also covered the arrests on Jan 6 of five others who barged into the same hotel and stole the surveillance tapes. All 60 policemen in the embattled town of Tancitaro were fired because they had failed to stop a series of killings and other crimes. Michoacan state police and soldiers planned to take over security duties in the town. In Ciudad Juarez a man's body was found on a street with its hands and head cut off. Another man's body, with its head cut off and eyes gouged out, was found elsewhere in the city and two women's bodies were found in a vacant lot. The body of a man whose legs had been surgically amputated some time ago was also found on a dirt road on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. A man riding a bicycle was shot to death in the city. 5 people were killed in drive-by shootings and a group of 3 men were shot to death at a fast-food restaurant near a school.
(AP, 1/8/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Nigeria a crude-oil pipeline operated by Chevron was attacked by unknown gunmen in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Pakistan a US missile strike killed 4 militants in North Waziristan, as US Senator John McCain, visiting Islamabad, defended the attacks which fuel anti-American sentiment in the Muslim nation. 8 suspected insurgents were killed when explosives intended for a bomb attack accidentally blew up, destroying a militant safe house in Karachi.
(AFP, 1/8/10)(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 8, Portugal's parliament passed a bill that would make the predominantly Catholic nation the sixth in Europe to permit gay marriage.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Puerto Rico officials said they have killed 800 monkeys blamed for scavenging crops and damaging natural resources in southwest region. Most of those killed were patas monkeys. About 200 rhesus monkeys were sent to the Caribbean Primate Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico and to other countries. The monkeys had escaped from research labs in the 1960s and '70s.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, An avalanche in Russia's southern Caucasus mountain range killed five climbers including an instructor. The novice climbers, all from Moscow or St. Petersburg had undergone an intensive, six-day training course in the climbing base of Bezengi, in the province of Kabardino-Balkaria. Four climbers in a party of nine survived the snow slide, which struck as they were ascending the Gedan-tau peak.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Steven Lin of Hsinchu-based Heli-Ocean Technology, a Taiwanese company, said his company had agreed to a request from a firm in China to procure sensitive components with nuclear uses, then shipped them to Iran. Such transactions violate UN sanctions imposed on the Middle Eastern nation. Lin said he received an Internet order from a Chinese firm in January or February 2008 to obtain an unspecified number of pressure transducers, which convert pressure into analog electrical signals.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez issued a presidential decree devaluing the currency by up to 50%.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.39)
2010 Jan 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez issued a presidential decree devaluing the currency by up to 50%. Finance minister Ali Rodriguez admitted that this would boost the inflation rate, 27% last year, by 3-5 percentage points.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.39)
2010 Jan 9, California-based eSolar Inc. said it will help build a series of solar thermal power plants in China, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases tries to decrease its heavy reliance on coal, imported gas and oil.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, A company called TrueCompanion premiered the "lifelike" sex robot, Roxxxy on the floor of the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb7w8gr)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.65)
2010 Jan 9, Afghan President Hamid Karzai presented a second slate of nominees to fill his Cabinet after parliament rejected 70 percent of his first picks. Afghan and NATO officials signed an agreement for NATO to hand over control of the prison at Bagram airbase near Kabul to Afghan authorities. A blast hit a convoy carrying a provincial council member from Wardak province, killing a bodyguard and wounding five others. Another explosion killed one policeman and wounded two in Kandahar. In southern Helmand province an explosion outside Nawa village killed a US Marine and Sunday Mirror journalist Rupert Hamer (39), a veteran war correspondent. Hamer became the first British journalist killed in the conflict. Photographer Philip Coburn (43) was seriously wounded. Mahmoud Mahdi Zeidan, a Jordanian militant who served as a bodyguard for al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, was killed in a US drone attack near the Afghan-Pakistan border.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, Algerian security forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in an ambush in the region of M'sila, 400 km (250 miles) east of Algiers. A "large quantity" of weapons were seized during the operation. Islamists looted and burned a Protestant church, suggesting they were inspired by a recent spate of religious intolerance in the Arab and Muslim world.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 9, British media reported that Iris Robinson (60), the disgraced wife of Northern Ireland's leader, will step down as a lawmaker within days as pressure mounted on Peter Robinson and the province's shaky coalition government. The reported move follows the revelation that she had an adulterous relationship with a man nearly 40 years her junior, and allegations that she solicited tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) from businessmen to help the teenager launch a cafe. She was 58 at the time, and the man was 19.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In the Central African Republic the wife of Charles Massi (57), head of the only rebel group in the CAR still fighting the government, said that he has been captured and is in a critical condition in jail. The former prime minister lead the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP). On Jan 16 Denise Massi and his party said in a statement that Massi has been dead since Jan 8 after being subjected to torture.
(AFP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Dagestan a car with three men inside exploded during a shootout with police in the Kumtorkala district. The men were part of a local terrorist group and were transporting explosives.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Egypt Muslims and Christians set fire to each others' homes and shops near the southern town of Nagaa Hamady, three days after a gunman killed six Coptic Christians in a drive-by shooting there.
(Reuters, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Four suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA were arrested in Portugal and France, one driving a van loaded with explosives near a police barracks. two police officers stopped the van in Spain when their suspicions were raised by its French license plates. The driver of the van then pushed passed the police and proceeded to flee the scene driving off in their patrol car which he stole. The police alerted their Portuguese counterparts who rapidly arrested the man and a woman, who had been following the van in a presumed getaway vehicle with French plates.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, Germans faced the cancellation of hundreds of flights as fresh snow blew in from the south, and Britons shivered through the country's longest cold snap in three decades as icy weather maintained its grip on Europe.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Iran about 30 "mourning mothers," with children who were killed or disappeared during the post-election unrest, were arrested in a Tehran park and taken to a detention center in the capital. The mothers had gather in Tehran's Laleh park every Saturday.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Italy some 300 African migrants were bused out of Rosarno, a southern Italian town rocked by two days of clashes between the migrants, police and local residents. The rioting began after two men, one from Nigeria and the other from Togo, were lightly wounded by a pellet gun attack on Jan 7. Migrants alleged they were earning illegally low wages, as little as euro20 euros ($30), for a 12-hour day picking citrus fruit and other crops.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, the Jordanian doctor who killed 7 CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, said in video clips broadcast posthumously today that all jihadists must attack US targets to avenge the death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Speaking in Arabic in the video shown on al-Jazeera, the Arabic network, and Aaj, a Pakistani channel, al-Balawi noted that the Pakistani Taliban had given shelter to "emigrants" — Muslim fighters from abroad.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Malaysia a fourth church was hit by firebombs, stoking concern among Christians as a dispute rages over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Pakistan 2 missiles fired by a suspected unmanned US drone hit a house in Data Khel, an area in North Waziristan that is a stronghold of the Haqqani militant network. 2 people were killed and 3 wounded. Intelligence officials later said the missile strike killed Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim. Pakistani officials called him an al-Qaida member, but the FBI says he was a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist group. According to an FBI Web site, Rahim is wanted for his alleged role in the Sept. 5, 1986, hijacking of Pan American World Airways Flight 73 during a stop in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Some 20 passengers and crew, including two American citizens, were killed during the attack.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Sri Lanka more than 700 former Tamil Tiger rebels were reunited with family members after months in rehabilitation camps since the country's decades-long civil war ended last year.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Togo's national soccer team, devastated by a shooting attack on its bus in Angola that killed at least 3 and left 8 gravely injured, withdrew from the African Cup of Nations.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 10, US Republicans moved to draw attention to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s racially tinged remarks about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race. Reid had acknowledged that he had described Obama as “light skinned" and possessing no “Negro dialect" in a private conversation with two reporters, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the new book “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" (2010).
(SFC, 1/11/10, p.A4)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A12)
2010 Jan 10, Juliet Anderson (71), adult film star born as Judith Carr, died at her home in Berkeley, Ca. She had begun her career in 1978 and appeared in some 80 hardcore porn films. In 1984 she cast and directed Nina Hartley in “Educating Nina."
(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.C12)
2010 Jan 10, Abu Dhabi Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family being tried in connection with the videotaped beating of an Afghan man, was cleared of all charges. The video showed the prince beating the man with stick, pouring salt on his wounds and driving over him in a car. The victim, identified as Afghani grain dealer Mohammed Shapoor, survived the beatings.
(AP, 1/10/10)(Econ, 1/16/10, p.48)
2010 Jan 10, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed three charity workers and wounded two others in Uruzgan province. Bombs killed an American service member and two Afghan road construction workers in separate attacks in Helmand province.
(AP, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Algeria a collision between a bus and a truck killed 15 people and injured another 15 on a major highway in the Ghardaia region in the Sahara desert.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, New data showed that China has overtaken Germany as the world's top exporter after December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In southeast Congo 6 people, including 5 children, died in a tin mine collapse. 2 people were left missing.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, Croatia held a presidential run-off vote pitting a left-wing professor against the populist Zagreb mayor. Front-runner Ivo Josipovic vowed to crack down on corruption and lead the recession-hit nation into the EU. Law expert and classical music composer Josipovic (b.1957) won the runoff presidential vote, beating popular Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic.
(AFP, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Dagestan 2 militants were gunned down in the provincial capital, Makhachkala, after police surrounded and stormed a house where a group of wanted terrorists was hiding.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Heavy snowfall caused havoc in parts of Europe, causing hundreds of traffic accidents, downing power lines in Poland, halting flights out of southern France and trapping more than 160 people overnight on a frozen highway in northeastern coastal Germany.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Voters in French Guiana overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give local government more autonomy while remaining a part of France. 70% voted "no," with 48% turnout.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Hong Kong police arrested a man after two bottles of corrosive liquid were hurled into a crowd in the city's Kowloon area. At least 30 people were injured in the city's latest acid attack.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Iran a parliamentary investigation was made public that found Saeed Mortazavi, the former Tehran prosecutor, responsible for the deaths of at least three anti-government protesters imprisoned in the turmoil following Iran's disputed June elections. Iran freed a Syrian journalist working for Dubai television who was detained during anti-government protests two weeks ago.
(AP, 1/10/10)(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Israel's government approved a plan for the construction of two massive fences along the long and porous southern border with Egypt. PM Netanyahu said he wants to stem a growing flood of African asylum seekers and to prevent Islamic militants from entering the country. The project is expected to cost about $400 million.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Malaysia firebombs were thrown at 3 more churches and another was splashed with black paint, the latest in a series of assaults on Christian houses of worship following a court decision allowing non-Muslims to use "Allah" to refer to God.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Voters in Martinique overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give local government more autonomy while remaining a part of France. Election officials said 80% of voters rejected the plan, with 55% participation. An estimated 50,000 people were unemployed on Martinique, home to some 400,000 inhabitants.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Pakistan four bodies were found in Karachi, three of them headless, in a wave of targeted attacks among rival political groups that some say is aimed at destabilizing the country's ruling coalition. Pakistan's Interior Ministry said that 41 people have died in targeted killings in Karachi since the beginning of the year, including 10 MQM workers, 10 from a breakaway faction called Haqiqi, and 16 members of a committee set up by the ruling party in Lyari to control violence in the area.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, About 50,000 Philippine policemen began enforcing a 5-month ban on carrying guns in public in hopes of avoiding bloodshed in the buildup to May elections, arresting 18 violators at checkpoints across the country.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Somalia clashes began between rival Islamic militias battling for control of in Belet Weyne, a strategic western town. At least 14 people were killed as the clashes continued into the next day.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says there's too much capitalism on Venezuelan TV. So he's urging producers to start making films and TV shows that stress socialist values.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Fox News announced that Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate, would become a regular commentator on its cable channel.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 11, Mark McGwire ended more than a decade of denials and evasion admitting that steroids and human growth hormone helped make him a home run king. His record of 70 home runs in 1998 was surpassed by Barry Bonds' 73 homers in 2001, the year of McGwire's retirement and the apex of the Steroids Era. McGwire said he first used steroids between the 1989 and 1990 seasons, after helping the Oakland Athletics to a World Series sweep when he and Jose Canseco formed the Bash Brothers. He returned to steroids after the 1993 season, when he missed all but 27 games with a mysterious heel injury, after being told steroids might speed his recovery.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Afghanistan 6 NATO service members, including 3 Americans, were killed, making it the deadliest day for the international force in more than two months. The Americans died in a firefight with militants during an "operational patrol" in southern Afghanistan. A French officer was killed during a joint patrol with Afghan troops in Alasay, some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Kabul. A French service member was killed in the clash. A 6th NATO service member was killed by a roadside bomb in the south. A new poll was released that said nearly 7 in 10 Afghans support the presence of US forces in their country, and 61% favor the military buildup of 37,000 US and NATO reinforcements now deploying. A missile fired from an unmanned aircraft killed three insurgents farther south in the Nad Ali district of Helmand. A member of the Afghan National Police was killed and two others were wounded in a suicide at a police station in Uruzgan province. 13 insurgents were killed in the early hours when the Marines called in a Hellfire missile strike from an unmanned Predator drone into Bar Now Zad.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)(Reuters, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, Algeria's foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador to "strongly protest" the North African country's placing on a 14-nation terror watch list drawn up by the Obama administration.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Angola said it had arrested two people suspected of taking part in an attack on a bus carrying the Togo national soccer team to the African Nations Cup in which two delegation members were killed.
(Reuters, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Riversdale, an Australian mining firm, said the Mozambican government has given it the green light to build a 800-million-dollar coal mine in the country's northwest. Riversdale has predicted that the Benga project will produce some of the lowest-cost coking coal in the world.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Britain former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal lost a test case against Ministry of Defence over pension rights at the High Court in London.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Chile inaugurated the Museum of Memory in Santiago to make sure the tens of thousands of people who were imprisoned, killed or disappeared during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship are not forgotten.
(AP, 1/12/10)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.43)
2010 Jan 11, China's top prosecutorial office said thousands of Chinese officials have fled overseas with as much as $50 billion in their pockets in stolen government funds during the country's economic boom over the past three decades. Zhao Shiying, the secretary-general of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, was taken into custody by authorities from his home in southern Shenzhen. He was released on Jan 25.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 11, China’s state media reported that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020, citing a study that blamed sex-specific abortions as a major factor. A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned the imbalance will dash many young men's chance at marriage and lead to increased crime.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's military, according to state media, successfully tested a ground-based system for intercepting missiles in mid-flight.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Cyprus Andy Hadjicostis (41), the director of the Dias publishing group, was fatally shot outside his home in central Nicosia, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a contract killing. The gunman fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. 3 men were soon arrested and held pending formal charges. On Feb 5 Cyprus police formally pressed murder charges against TV host Elena Skordelli, her brother Anastasios Krasopoullis and Andreas Grigoriou in the suspected Jan 11 contract killing of Andy Hadjicostis (41), the island's most powerful publisher.
(AP, 1/12/10)(AP, 1/15/10)(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Ecuador Quito Mayor Augusto Barrera said his government will impose new driving restrictions to keep 80,000 private cars off the capital’s congested streets during rush hour.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Indian PM Manmohan Singh laid out ambitious plans to make his country a global leader in solar power as he launched a government initiative to boost use of the technology. Andy Pag (35) was detained in the western state of Rajasthan for having an unlicensed satellite phone. He (Andrea Pagnacco) was ordered held for 14 days while police investigate whether he is a threat to national security. The London-based environmental campaigner was traveling around the world in a biofuel-driven bus. In March ordered to pay a fine for illegally using a satellite phone and became free to leave India 69 days after his arrest.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Iraq a bomb attached to a pickup truck in an Iraqi Shiite lawmaker's convoy wounded five people, including three of his bodyguards, when it exploded in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Israel's parliament adopted legislation that bans the state from paying for the funeral of any citizen who commits terror attacks against the Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, Dutch brewer Heineken said it will buy the beer-making operations of Mexico’s Femsa, the maker of Dos Equis and Sol beers, in an all-share deal valued at $5.5 billion, excluding debt.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 11, Northern Ireland's speaker of the regional assembly said Protestant leader Peter Robinson will temporarily step down for 6 weeks in the wake of a scandal over his wife's affair with a 19-year-old man. He will be replaced by his Protestant colleague Arlene Foster.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, North Korea called for talks on a treaty to formally end the Korean War, saying it wants better ties with the United States and an end to sanctions before pushing ahead with nuclear disarmament.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Pakistani police in Karachi arrested a couple on charges of stabbing their 3-month-old baby to death. A witch doctor had advised them to kill the girl after telling them it would make them rich.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir retired as commander-in-chief of the army, in what sources said was a procedural move before the first multi-party elections in 24 years.
(Reuters, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 12, The US National Safety Council said 28% of all traffic accidents are caused when people talk on cell phones or send text messages while driving.
(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A11)
2010 Jan 12, In California a state commission voted unanimously to approve the most stringent, environmentally friendly building code standards of any state in the nation. The new code, dubbed Calgreen, will take effect next January.
(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A1)
2010 Jan 12, In Georgia a disgruntled ex-employee stormed a Penske Truck Rental facility in Kennesaw killing 2 people and critically wounding 3 others.
(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A11)
2010 Jan 12, Officials shut down a North Carolina port and urged people to leave the area after nine containers with highly explosive materials were accidentally punctured by a fork lift operator. The chemical involved is pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETV), a powerful explosive.
(AP, 1/12/10)(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 12, Google's announced that it was considering a withdrawal from China, after what it said were attacks from China on human rights activists using its Gmail service and on dozens of companies.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, Texas-based Apache Corp. said it made its sixth oil and gas discovery in the Faghur Basin play in Egypt's far Western Desert near the Libyan border.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Kenn Allan Davis (78), newspaper illustrator and mystery novel writer, died at his home in Placer County, Ca. His 8 detective novels featured Carver Bascombe, an African American private eye. The first in the series was titled “The Dark Side" (1976), co-written with John Stanley.
(SFC, 1/19/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 12, In Afghanistan protesters claiming that international troops destroyed copies of the Quran clashed with Afghan and foreign security forces, leaving six people dead in Helmand province's Garmsir district. Coalition troops saw a group of insurgents near a safe house preparing ammunition as well as insurgent mortar teams moving equipment and launched one missile in the Naw Zad area of Helmand province, killing the 13 militants. A French army captain died of wounds suffered a day before during an insurgent ambush in the Alasay valley east of Kabul.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, China took new steps to control bank lending, ordering institutions to set aside more reserves in a move to avert a surge in credit that Beijing worries might fuel inflation or asset price bubbles.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, The European Court of Human Rights condemned British anti-terror legislation allowing people to be searched by police without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Guinea's wounded junta leader, Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara, arrived in Burkina Faso from Morocco to recuperate after last month's assassination attempt. One of his top opponents said the surprise move could help him avoid prosecution.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, A powerful 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti and crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace. Thousands of people were believed dead and untold numbers were trapped. An estimated 3 million people were in need of emergency aid. The quake left over 200,000 people dead. Some 4,500 prison inmates escaped during the earthquake. By April they were terrorizing neighborhoods and fighting turf battles. The UN later estimated 222,570 people were killed and 300,572 injured. In 2011 a report commissioned by USAID contended that between 46,000 and 85,000 people were killed by the quake, far below the Haitian government's death toll of 316,000.
(AP, 1/13/10)(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)(SFC, 4/8/10, p.A2)(Econ, 3/19/11, p.46)(AFP, 6/1/11)
2010 Jan 12, The Indonesian government, which has promised to stamp out corruption, was embarrassed by revelations that rich and powerful prisoners are living in luxury behind bars.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Iran Masoud Ali Mohammadi (50), a nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election, was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle blew up outside his home in Tehran. The government blamed the rare assassination on an armed Iranian opposition group that it said operated under the direction of Israel and the US. In 2011 Majid Jamali Fashi, charged with the killing of Mohammadi, went on trial. Fashi was also accused of cooperating with Mossad. On Aug 28 Fashi was sentenced to death.
(AP, 1/12/10)(AP, 8/23/11)(AP, 8/28/11)
2010 Jan 12, Iraqi security forces locked down large swathes of Baghdad, seized hundreds of pounds of explosives and arrested 25 men suspected of plotting terror attacks possibly timed to coincide with the run-up to parliamentary elections in March.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Israeli police broke up the harem of Goel Ratzon (60), who was suspected of enslaving a cult-like harem of at least 17 women and 37 children. Ratzon, who's lived this way for two decades, denied any wrongdoing. He maintained the harem with 17 women in a state of near-total obedience in apartments in the Tel Aviv area. On Feb 14 he was charged in a Tel Aviv court with enslavement, rape, incest and other sexual offenses.
(AP, 1/14/10)(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Mexico druglord Teodoro Garcia Simental, known as "El Teo," was seized by federal troops when they stormed a seaside vacation home near the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. He was accused of ordering massacres, beheadings and the dissolving of bodies in caustic soda.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, Nigerian lawmakers voted to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss "issues of national importance" with ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua as protests mounted for him to stand down. Gunmen seized 3 Britons and a Colombian, shooting dead their police escort in the first major kidnapping for six months in southern Niger Delta. Gunmen soon demanded a ransom of 300 million naira (1.98 million dollars, 1.38 million euros) for the release of three Britons and the Colombian. On Jan 18 gunmen freed the 3 British expatriate workers and their Colombian colleague.
(AFP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/15/10)(AFP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Papua New Guinea 38 people were killed and 18 others hospitalized after two speeding buses crashed head-on while trying to drive around potholes.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, A web site linked to leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Poland's tax office has levied a fine of 2.3 million zlotys ($820,000) on an unemployed woman for failing to pay tax on income worth at least 13.7 million zlotys she said she had earned as a prostitute.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, Saudi Arabia said that 82 Saudi soldiers been killed and 21 are missing since November when it joined the fighting in battling rebels along the Yemeni-Saudi border.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Sri Lanka Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying supporters of the main opposition presidential candidate, killing one political activist.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Novartis, a Swiss drug company, announced its decision to spend $24 million to secure exclusive licenses and options on drug delivery technologies developed by Proteus Biomedical, a California start-up.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.62)
2010 Jan 12, Switzerland's highest court ruled that $4.6 million seized from bank accounts linked to Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier can be handed over to his family. The decision was not published until Feb 3. Many in Haiti considered that money to be stolen from public funds. Duvalier was ousted in 1986.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Jan 12, Yemeni military forces killed 20 rebels in a door-to-door sweep of the main northern city Saada and arrested 20 more in an operation dubbed "Strike on the Head." Yemeni security forces killed Abdullah Mihzar, a suspected militant, who was on a government list of wanted al-Qaida figures. 4 others were arrested in a raid on a house in the remote mountainous province of Shabwa.
(AP, 1/12/10)(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, US hearings began by the 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate at least 22 potential causes of the financial crisis.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Crisis_Inquiry_Commission)
2010 Jan 13, Wall Street executives said they underestimated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and apologized for risky behavior and poor decisions. They also defended their bonus and compensation practices to a skeptical commission investigating what caused the collapse.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In the SF Bay Area aspiring bass player Dewey Tucker (24) of Vallejo, Ca., was shot a killed on I-80 near Crockett. A year later 4 suspected gang members from Santa Rosa were arrested for his murder. They included Raul Vega (19), the suspected shooter, Christopher Mancinas (29), Hector Barragan (28) and Javier Lopez (20).
(SFC, 1/13/11, p.C3)
2010 Jan 13, Prosecutors in New York City said that, after a series of hung juries, they would not seek a 5th retrial against John “Junior" Gotti on charges that he ordered several murders.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.A14)
2010 Jan 13, In Florida a 3-day state-coordinated hunt began to track down invasive pythons. It was feared that the African rock python would begin breeding with the Burmese python, which has already gained a foothold in the Everglades, and produce a new “super snake."
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle, Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling the world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with smuggling black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US citizen to buy guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and around the Quinault Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 13, R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass (b.1950) died of colon cancer. He was one of the most electric and successful figures in music until a 1982 car crash left him in a wheelchair.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, Edgar Vos (78), "the emperor of Dutch fashion," died of a heart attack while on vacation in Florida. Vos built a chain of 15 stores across the Netherlands, where he sold designer clothes cut to bring out the best from all figures and tailored to most budgets.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Afghanistan 2 US soldiers, a French trooper and 5 Afghans were killed in bomb blasts. The United Nations reported that 2,412 Afghan civilians killed in 2009, the highest toll since the US-led invasion in late 2001. Four would-be suicide bombers were killed in a premature explosion near the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 1/13/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, The head of Algeria's national oil corporation Sonatrach was suspended from his job and ordered to appear before investigators probing corruption. Mohamed Meziane was replaced in his job by vice-president Abdelhafid Feghouli.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 13, Heavy snow hit central London as a fresh whiteout covered much of the country, forcing airports to close as businesses counted the cost of the worst winter in decades.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Britain’s Huddersfield University launched an investigation after its students allegedly started an Internet craze for a Hitler drinking game. The original page on the social networking site had nearly 12,000 members but has now been shut down, although another similar page has since been set up.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Major Inuit organizations said Canada's Inuit people have filed a lawsuit against the European Union in a bid to overturn an EU ban on imports of seal products. The EU ban was imposed in July after decades of protests from animal activists, who said the annual seal hunt was cruel and inhumane. The ban will go into effect in time for the 2010 hunting season.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Amnesty Int’l. said the Czech Republic is defying a European court by continuing to place thousands of healthy Gypsy children in schools for the mentally disabled.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 13, Ethiopia’s biggest hydroelectric dam was opened by PM Meles Zenawi and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The Gilegel Gibe II dam was financed by Italy.
(AFP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, In France a Chinese student (26) stabbed to death a 49-year-old secretary and wounded three teachers in an attack at a university in the southern town of Perpignan.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Indonesia hundreds people pelted each other with stones outside parliament as lawmakers grilled Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over a controversial bank bailout. Some 400 anti-graft protesters from rival groups set upon each other in the latest sign of mounting anger over pervasive corruption.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Iraqi police arrested Khalid al-Khonfisi, a man wanted for his alleged involvement with al-Qaida in Iraq. He was captured in a police raid of his hideout near Jurf al-Sakhar, about 43 miles south of Baghdad. A water truck loaded with explosives was detonated in a suicide attack in Saqlawiya, Anbar province, killing 7 people.
(AP, 1/14/10)(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 13, Japanese prosecutors raided the fund-raising office of ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa over a widening money scandal, dealing a fresh blow to the troubled government.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Lebanon a bomb apparently meant for a Hezbollah figure went off in the village of Kfar Fila, a southern stronghold of the militant group, wounding his daughter and two other students waiting for their school bus.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Mexico hundreds of troops in combat gear fanned out in Ciudad Juarez, where 2,650 people died in narco violence last. Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna said 2,000 federal police reinforcements would arrive over the next few days.
(Reuters, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Nigerian high court ruled that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can take executive powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, in hospital in Saudi Arabia since November.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, North Korea said it will begin to allow in more American tourists after years of heavy restrictions on visits to the isolate country. North Korea's military warned that it would retaliate against South Korea if Seoul doesn't stop activists from launching propaganda leaflets across their divided border.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In eastern Pakistan a passenger train hit a school bus at an ungated railroad crossing in amid dense fog, killing at least 8 children and the bus driver.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Somalia 7 children were among ten people killed in shelling by Somali government forces in Mogadishu as troops backed by African Union peacekeepers fired mortars into districts held by Islamist insurgents.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Sudanese forces clashed with rebels in a key area of the troubled western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez indefinitely suspended rolling blackouts in Caracas, just a day after they began, and sacked his electricity minister saying he was responsible for mistakes in the way the rationing plan was applied.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, Zimbabwe civil servants, who earn only 150 US dollars a month, rejected the government's "paltry" offer to raise salaries by a maximum of 14%.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Zimbabwe state daily reported that the nation’s power utility has been ordered to stop electricity exports to Namibia until it can meet its own country's needs.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 14, Pres. Obama proposed that as many as 50 financial firms with assets greater than $50 billion each be hit by a levy to help recoup taxpayer bailout money and trim the federal budget deficit. The “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" was proposed to cover taxpayer losses of $117 billion on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
(AP, 1/14/10)(SFC, 1/15/10, p.D1)(Econ, 1/16/10, p.73)
2010 Jan 14, US union leaders bowed to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost medical insurance plans. The tentative agreement included significant concessions by the Obama administration.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 14, The Doomsday Clock, set up in 1947, was set back 1 minute for the first time in its 63-year history. In moving the clock from 5 minutes before midnight to 6 minutes before midnight, scientists expressed optimism for humanity's future. The actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS) office in Chicago, Ill.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/doomsdaydeferredendofworldclocksetback1minute)
2010 Jan 14, Los Angeles-based Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, the law firm representing a Santa Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet content filtering software, said its attorneys on Jan 11 started received emails containing Trojans, which can allow outside access to the target's computer.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Florida Chad Reed (33), a Dixie County sheriff’s deputy, died in a shootout with a man suspected of killing his sister and another woman near Brooksville. John Kalisz (55) was wounded in the shootout.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Massachusetts Phoebe Prince (15), an Irish immigrant, hanged herself following extensive bullying at South Hadley High School. 9 teenagers later faced charges including statutory rape by 2 boys and criminal harassment by 9 girls.
(SFC, 3/30/10, p.A10)
2010 Jan 14, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber apparently planning to attack a meeting of NATO and tribal officials blew himself up in a busy market district in Dihrawud, Uruzgan province, killing at least 20 people, making it the deadliest attack against civilians in more than three months. Another suicide bomber targeted a police patrol in the southern town of Musa Qala, killing an Afghan national police officer and wounding four civilians.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Austrian scientists stopped a 2-week old avalanche experiment that involved burying pigs in snow and monitoring their deaths, following vehement protests by animal rights activists.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 14, Hundreds of Bulgarians protested against planned legal amendments allowing mass monitoring of emails, electronic messages and phone calls to fight crime and corruption.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Colombia extradited William Suarez (42), a suspect in the nation's most notorious pyramid scheme, to face trial in the United States. Suarez was the principal partner of his brother-in-law David Murcia, creator of the company DMG, which offered investors interest rates far above what banks offer, but was actually a pyramid scheme that bilked Colombians out of millions of dollars.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Haiti planes carrying teams from China, France and Spain landed at Port-au-Prince's airport with searchers and tons of food, medicine and other supplies, with more promised from around the globe. Tens of thousands were feared dead in the Jan 12 earthquake and the international Red Cross estimated 3 million people, a third of the 9 million population, may need emergency relief.
(AP, 1/14/10)(Econ, 1/16/10, p.38)
2010 Jan 14, In India hundreds of thousands of Hindus bathed in waters considered sacred across large parts of India to mark the start of a religious festival. In West Bengal state six women were among seven people killed in a stampede as thousands bathed at the confluence of Ganges river and the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Iraq's electoral commission barred 500 candidates from running in March's parliamentary election, including a prominent Sunni lawmaker, in a decision that is sure to deepen Iraq's sectarian divides. A Baghdad court sentenced 11 Iraqis to death by hanging after convicting them of carrying out the first of a series of audacious attacks on Aug 19, 2009, targeting government buildings in the heart of the city.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Jordan there was an attack on a convoy of Israeli diplomats heading home for the weekend. It was the first roadside bombing in Jordan and exposed a security gap for Israeli diplomats. On Jan 31 a Jordanian security official said authorities have arrested dozens of Muslim militants in connection with the failed bomb attack.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 14, Mongolia's Pres. Elbegdorj Tsakhia announced a moratorium on the death penalty, a move that rights groups welcomed as a step toward changing Mongolian law to ban executions permanently.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Key southern African leaders gathered in the Mozambican capital Maputo for a special summit on the political crises in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Leaders called for a return to dialogue in the ongoing political crisis in Madagascar. A medical aid group said Zimbabweans crossing illegally into neighboring South Africa after holidays at home are being raped and robbed by gangs on both sides of the border.
(AFP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Pakistan at least four missiles from unmanned drones pounded a militant training camp in the morning along the remote and mountainous border area between Taliban strongholds North and South Waziristan. The US drone missile strike targeted Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, but the militia denied reports that he was among the15 killed. Abdul Basit Usman, a Filipino militant wanted by the US, was believed to have been killed in an American drone strike close to the Afghan border. Another 11 militants were also killed in the strike on a militant compound.
(AFP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Panama former Pres. Ernesto Perez Balladares (194-1999) was put under house arrest while authorities investigate accusations that he laundered money.
(AP, 1/15/10)(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 14, A Russian Su-27 fighter jet disappeared while on a training mission in the country's far east. Late-night traffic on one of Moscow’s roads slowed as a couple's explicit escapades appeared across the 9-by-6-meter (yard) display. A hacker attack was likely to blame. City police said they have yet to receive any complaints and have not opened an investigation.
(AP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, The US State Department said it will soon give China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google Inc to threaten to pull out of China.
(Reuters, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Johnson & Johnson issued a massive recall of over-the-counter drugs including Tylenol, Motrin and St. Joseph's aspirin because of a moldy smell that has made people sick.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Arizona an oversight board voted to close 13 state parks in response to budget cuts. Since July the Legislature has cut 61% of the state parks budget.
(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 15, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck a family traveling home after visiting a shrine, killing five people, including four children. Kabul police investigated a rocket attack in the Shar-e-Naw district, home to embassies, businesses and residences in Kabul.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Afghanistan Pfc Andrew Holmes from 5 Joint Base Lewis-McChord killed an unarmed teenage villager from 15 feet away after fellow soldier Cpl. Morlock tossed a grenade at him. In 2011 Holmes pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Prosecutors said soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord killed three civilians for sport during patrols in January, February and May. Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs killed a second victim with Spc. Michael Wagnon, and tossed an AK-47 at the man's feet to make him appear to have been an enemy fighter. In May, Gibbs threw a grenade at the victim as he ordered them to shoot. In 2011 Gibbs (26) was sentenced to 10 years in prison. During his court-martial Gibbs acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses to keep as war trophies.
(http://tinyurl.com/42w29jn)(SFC, 9/24/11, p.A4)(SFC, 11/11/11, p.A18)
2010 Jan 15, A Brussels court sentenced Mark Frroku and three other Albanians in absentia to 10-year prison terms related to the March, 1999, murder of Aleksander Kurti. Prosecutors believed that Kurti's murder was the result of clashes between gangs involved in prostitution.
(http://tinyurl.com/na5hfrl)(AP, 4/2/15)
2010 Jan 15, Opposition parties in the Central African Republic announced that they were quitting the electoral process and demanded the resignation of the head of the Independent Electoral Commission. The walkout involved 15 of the 30 members of the commission, which was set up in August to organize and supervise elections at dates yet to be announced.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Chinese police in Beijing shut down what would have been the country’s first-ever gay pageant an hour before it was set to begin, highlighting the enduring sensitivity surrounding homosexuality and the struggle by gays to find mainstream acceptance.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Guinean military rulers decided to keep wounded junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara convalescing abroad, leaving his deputy and an opposition leader to restore civilian rule.
(Reuters, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Haiti the UN and other aid organizations struggled to get food and water to stricken millions. Fears spread of unrest among the people in their fourth day of desperation. France urged Haiti’s creditors to cancel the nation’s debt.
(AP, 1/15/10)(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 15, In Hong Kong protesters against a national high-speed rail network scuffled with police as they tried but failed to storm the legislature. Another 500 staged a sit-in in front of the Hong Kong leader's mansion, shutting down traffic. The $55 billion Hong Kong dollar ($7.1 billion) project to link Hong Kong to a national high-speed rail network has run into a growing protest movement.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In India suspected Maoist rebels blew up a police jeep in eastern Jharkhand state killing six officers and their civilian driver.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Iran's police chief warned opposition supporters not to use cell phones and e-mail messages to organize protest rallies against the government, saying those who do so will be prosecuted and punished.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Kenya at least 7 people were killed during a demonstration in Nairobi by Muslim youth protesting the arrest of a radical Jamaican-born Muslim cleric whose teachings influenced one of the 2005 London transport system bombers.
(AP, 1/15/10)(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 15, Malaysian student Mohamad Tasyrif Tajudin (25) was charged after allegedly posting comments on Facebook about throwing a gasoline bomb amid a recent spate of attacks on churches, most of which were hit by Molotov Cocktails. He was charged under Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of the Internet, which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine if found guilty.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Manuel Acosta (42), the lead investigator in the Dec 31 slaying in Mexico of Roberto Salcedo, a Southern California school board member, was shot several times in the chest and torso, but survived in critical condition. He succumbed to his wounds on Jan 26.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 15, A UN official said North Korea is meting out harsher punishment to citizens who try to flee the country, a sign that overall human rights conditions remain dire in the communist state.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Pakistan a US drone missile attack killed five militants in the tribal belt on the Afghan border, destroying their compound.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Russian lawmakers ended years of resistance and ratified an international agreement intended to strengthen and speed up the work of the European Court of Human Rights. The measure still needed to be approved by the upper house and signed by Pres. Medvedev, but both steps were expected to occur soon.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced a 25% increase in the minimum wage to try to blunt the effects of soaring inflation, and playing down criticism of his government's handling of an energy crisis and other domestic problems.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 15, A Yemeni airstrike killed six al-Qaida operatives, including a key leader, in a desert village bordering Saudi Arabia. Officials said four of those killed were on Yemen's list of most-wanted al-Qaida figures, including Qassim al-Raimi, who had been accused of plotting to assassinate the US ambassador in 2004. Al-Raimi escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006 with 21 other militants.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 16, President Barack Obama declared one of the largest relief efforts in US history to help Haiti four days after an earthquake killed up to 200,000 people and devastated the Caribbean nation's capital.
(Reuters, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, A small boat packed with illegal immigrants overturned off the San Diego coast at Torrey Pines State Park. 2 people died and 5 were injured. 16 people, all Mexican citizens, were accounted for. On Jan 28 two men were indicted on charges of illegal smuggling.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.A14)(SFC, 1/18/10, p.A6)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 16, Afghanistan's parliament rejected more than half of President Hamid Karzai's second list of Cabinet nominees, including two of three women, dealing him a fresh political blow as his government struggles to face the growing Taliban threat. The Taliban kidnapped two Chinese engineers and four Afghans accompanying them in the north of the country.
(AP, 1/16/10)(AFP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, A small part of Antarctica turned green as the ice-covered continent's biggest wind farm, which can generate enough electricity to power 500 homes, was formally switched on in a joint New Zealand-US project on Antarctica's Ross Sea coast.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, Egypt's largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood announced its new leader, Mohammed Badie (66), a member of the group's conservative faction. He was chosen by the movement's 30-member international council and becomes the group's eighth supreme leader since its foundation in 1928.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In Iraq gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on a police checkpoint in the western neighborhood of Baiyaa, killing two policemen.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In Israel the Yediot Ahronot daily reported that Lillian Peretz, who worked as the Netanyahu family housekeeper in their beachside home in the town of Caesaria for six years, has filed a lawsuit accusing Sara Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister's 3rd wife, of abusing her in the first scandal to hit Benjamin Netanyahu's year-old administration. Peretz claims Sara Netanyahu verbally abused her and forced her to change clothes and shower several times a day to keep a "sterile" environment. It also alleges she was paid less than minimum wage and forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath even though she is an observant Jew.
(AP, 1/17/10)(Econ, 1/23/10, p.45)
2010 Jan 16, Mexican authorities seized over 3 1/2 tons of pseudoephedrine, a chemical used in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, found hidden in a shipment of fire extinguishers at the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo.
(AP, 1/18/10)
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 16, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran said they had agreed to work together more closely to combat extremism, illegal weapons trading and drug trafficking.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In the Pakistani section of Kashmir a suicide bomber attacked an army vehicle, wounding two soldiers.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In the Philippines a fire raced through a slum near the main port Manila, leaving 4,000 people homeless and killing a 5-year-old girl.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, Senegal offered free land to Haitians wishing to "return to their origins" following this week's devastating earthquake, which has destroyed the capital and buried thousands of people beneath rubble.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, Sudanese warplanes and artillery pounded insurgents in the troubled western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, Venezuelan authorities said they have captured Salomon Camacho Mora (65), a prominent Colombian drug trafficker wanted by the United States. Venezuelan intelligence and counter-drug agents captured Mora during the past week in the city of Valencia.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Hoover, Alabama, a fire at a Days Inn motel killed 4 college students from Mississippi Univ. for Women in Columbus, Miss.
(SFC, 1/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 17, Arizona made $735 million by selling more than a dozen state buildings, including the state's Capitol.
(http://tinyurl.com/yjd8vjr)
2010 Jan 17, In Texas 5 people were gunned down in a small home in Bellville. A man (20) who lived with them was arrested after trying to break into a nearby house.
(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 17, Glen Bell Jr. (86), founder of the Taco Bell fast food chain (1962), died at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Ca.
(SFC, 1/19/10, p.C4)
2010 Jan 17, Erich Segal (b.1937), former Yale professor and author of “Love Story" (1970), died at his home in London.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.C7)
2010 Jan 17, In Burkina Faso Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara, Guinea's exiled leader, appealed for tolerance and reconciliation after he agreed to resign and remain in exile following a tumultuous one-year rule that culminated in a December assassination attempt.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, Chile held presidential elections. Sebastian Pinera won the election by a 52-48%margin over former President Eduardo Frei. His election victory ended two decades of uninterrupted rule by a center-left coalition, and returned to power the same political parties that provided civic support for Augusto Pinochet's brutal 1973-1990 dictatorship.
(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 17, In China text messaging services restarted with some restrictions for cell phone users in far western China, more than six months after deadly ethnic rioting prompted the government to shut them down.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew to Haiti to support earthquake relief efforts and to visit his staff's devastated headquarters in what the agency is calling the most challenging disaster it has ever faced.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In India Jyoti Basu (95), communist leader of West Bengal’s opposition and the state’s chief minister for 23 years, died.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.82)
2010 Jan 17, In Iran lawyer Hooshang Pour-Babai said senior reformist and former MP Mohsen Safai Farahani (61), detained since June 20, has been sentenced to six years in jail. He was accused of "acting against national security, propaganda against the system, insulting officials and spreading lies."
(AFP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Iraq Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the gassing of Kurds in 1988, killing more than 5,000 in an air raid thought to be the worst single attack of its kind on civilians.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak began a one-day visit to Turkey. Israel and Turkey said they had smoothed over differences following a diplomatic spat and were working to develop relations and further military projects.
(AFP, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Mexico a severed human head and a flower were found in front of the tomb of deceased Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva. Police found the bodies of five men scattered around the Michoacan state capital of Morelia, each bearing a handwritten note suggesting they were killed by vigilantes.
(AP, 1/18/10)(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Nigeria clashes took place in the central city of Jos as tensions reignited between Muslims and Christian gangs, a year after similar fighting killed hundreds of its residents. Angry Muslim youths set a Catholic church filled with worshippers ablaze, starting a riot that killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 300 others.
(Reuters, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 17, At least one suspected US drone fired on a house in Pakistan's volatile tribal region, killing 20 people in the 11th such attack since militants in the area orchestrated a deadly suicide bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan. The house targeted was being used by Usman Jan, the head of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Five Uzbeks were killed in the strike. The other 15 people killed were Pakistani Taliban. Two anti-Taliban tribal elders were killed in separate attacks in the Bajur tribal.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, Ukrainians voted in presidential elections. Voters in the first round gave opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, the 2004 Orange Revolution's chief target, a big lead over his rival, Orange heroine and PM Yulia Tymoshenko. Analysts said Yanukovich's 35.4% to 25% lead over Tymoshenko, with 97.7% of votes counted, is misleading, because she is likely to pick up most of the votes of 16 also-rans in a Feb 7 runoff. Almost 67% of eligible voters cast ballots.
(Reuters, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, US officials said on some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that Alaska corporations and a multinational firm are planning to build the first fiber optic cable between Asia and Europe through the Arctic. The project estimated at $1 billion, involved laying 10,000 miles of undersea fiber optic cable from Tokyo, along the Alaska coast, through the Northwest Passage, past Greenland to London.
(SFC, 1/18/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 18, Robert B. Parker (77), crime novelist and author of the popular Spencer novels, died in Cambridge, Mass. Parker reinvigorated the detective novel genre with “The Godwulf Manuscript" (1973).
(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.F6)(SFC, 5/14/10, p.F6)
2010 Jan 18, Afghan Taliban militants wearing explosives vests launched a brazen assault on the heart of Kabul, as suicide bombings and gunbattles near the presidential palace and other government buildings paralyzed the capital for hours. The 12 people killed included 7 attackers, 2 of whom detonated suicide bombs.
(AP, 1/18/10)(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 18, Kate McGarrigle (63), Canadian folk singer, died of cancer at her home in Montreal. She performed with her sister Anna as the McGarrigle Sisters. Their songs included “Heart Like a Wheel."
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.C7)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that China was tightening smoking regulations by enforcing a ban on smoking in any indoor public space in seven provincial capitals.
(www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_478846.html)
2010 Jan 18, In China rescue workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of the northwest after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four people and left half a million snowed under. Storms in far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, EU finance ministers began 2 days of talks with worries over Greece's swelling debt expected to dominate the session, as the euro fell to a ten-day low against the dollar.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, The European Union said some 200,000 people may have been killed in the magnitude-7.0 quake, quoting Haitian officials who also said about 70,000 bodies have been recovered so far.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In Egypt and Israel heavy rains and flash floods left seven people dead, including a British tourist who was killed when a sailboat capsized on the Nile River.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, The OSCE, Europe's main security and human rights watchdog, said that Turkey was blocking some 3,700 Internet sites for "arbitrary and political reasons" and urged reforms to show its commitment to freedom of expression.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In Iran gunmen fatally shot Vali Hajgholizadeh, a court prosecutor, outside his home in the town of Khoy, near the Turkish border. An Iranian official said Kurdish rebels may have been involved in the assassination. Opposition groups flooded the Web with calls for a huge show of force on the Feb 11 commemoration of the Islamic Revolution.
(AP, 1/19/10)(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 18, In Iraq gunmen broke into the office of an Iraqi humanitarian organization in Baghdad and killed five employees.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israel's Cabinet convened for the first time in Berlin, the former heart of the Nazi regime, for a special joint session with the German government highlighting the two nations' strong bond six decades after the Holocaust.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israeli police arrested 9 people at a radical Jewish settlement in connection with the Dec 11, 2009, torching of a West Bank mosque and other attacks on Palestinian property.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. The leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Pakistani troops killed 10 Taliban militants and arrested five others in a clash in the northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border. Militants attacked anti-Taliban militiamen in the Bazai section of Mohmand tribal area near the Afghan border, killing one and wounding another. Authorities also found the bullet-riddled body of another anti-Taliban militiaman in a nearby area, two days after he was kidnapped.
(AFP, 1/18/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, A Spanish Foreign Ministry official said the country will take in two inmates from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In southern Sudan clashes began in the troubled southern state of Jonglei leaving 9 people dead.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 18, Swiss Reinsurance Co. said it transferred part of its US life insurance business to American investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.27 billion) to free up capital and invest it more profitably.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Mehmet Ali Agca (52), the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from prison after more than 29 years behind bars. Doctors at military hospital concluded that he was unfit for compulsory military service because of "severe anti-social personality disorder as Agca proclaimed that he was a messenger of God and that the world will end in this century.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko rushed to the east of the country after an explosion in a hospital killed seven people.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, The US Justice Dept. arrested 22 executives and employees at suppliers to the military and law enforcement agencies on the eve of their industry’s annual trade show following a 2½ year undercover sting operation aimed at schemes to bribe a foreign official.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 19, In Massachusetts Democrat Martha Coakley lost to Republican State Sen. Scott Brown (50) in a special election slowing down President Barack Obama's agenda and loosening the Democratic grip on the US Senate.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, In New Jersey Republican Chris Christie was sworn in as the state’s 55th governor. The state was plagued by the nation’s highest taxes and a deficit that could hit $10 billion by July as well as unemployment near 10%.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 19, In Virginia a gunmen killed 8 people before firing on law enforcement officers and hitting a police helicopter. Suspect Christopher Speight (39), a former security guard, surrendered the next morning in a wooded area of Appomattox County. On Feb 15, 2013, Speight was sentenced to 5 life terms.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A4)(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A6)(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)
2010 Jan 19, Nina Nilssen (29), a graduate student at San Francisco State Univ., was stabed to death during a port call in Antigua. On Jan 29 Suspect Tishara Daniel (24) was arrested and confessed to fatal stabbing of Nina Nilssen.
(SFC, 1/25/10, p.A1)(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 19, A UN report said corruption in Afghanistan is so entrenched that Afghans had to pay bribes worth nearly a quarter of the country's GDP last year. 13 Uighers and two Turks were killed by a missile fired by a US unmanned aircraft near the Pakistan border.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 19, An Angolan human rights lawyer said that police are rounding up peaceful activists and accusing them of responsibility in a deadly attack on the Togo national soccer team's bus as it headed to the African Cup of Nations tournament.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The British government said it will ban drinking contests in bars and force pub owners to offer patrons tap water in a bid to help tackle the country’s boozy culture.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, British chocolate bar maker Cadbury melted into the arms of US giant Kraft in a multi-billion-dollar deal to create a world leader in food and confectionery that sparked fears of job losses.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, China’s Foreign Ministry said Google Inc will not be treated as an exception to China's demand foreign companies obey its laws, a week after the world's largest search engine warned it could pull out of China. Google said it had postponed the launch of two mobile handsets in China, in the latest fallout from its threat last week to withdraw from the Asian giant over cyberattacks and censorship.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A former Chinese Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes. Huang Songyou, the court's former vice president, is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and convicted on such charges.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Cuba Mariela Castro, the daughter of pres. Raul Castro and head of the Center for Sex Education, said Cuba has begun performing state-sponsored sex-change operations. The government had lifted a longtime ban on the procedure in 2007.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 19, A Guinean government spokesman said leaders have appointed Jean-Marie Dore, an opposition veteran, as prime minister, a key step to prepare the West African nation to transition from military rule to democratic elections later this year.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Troops in Haiti struggled to control looters in Port-au-Prince a week after the devastating earthquake, as rescuers continued to pull women and babies from the rubble and kept alive hope of finding more survivors. A riot in a prison in Les Cayes began when some of the 400-plus prisoners tried to escape a week after the Jan 12 earthquake, because they were terrified of aftershocks in the overcrowded prison. Police were later accused of then rushing into the building and opening fire killing at least 10 prisoners. In 2011 13 officers faced trial for murder, attempted murder and other crimes. On Jan 19, 2012, eight police officers were convicted for their role in the prison riot.
(www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/americas/22haiti.html)(AP, 11/8/11)(AP, 1/19/12)
2010 Jan 19, The head of an Iraqi national reconciliation committee said he hopes to place all the estimated 96,000 members of the Sons of Iraq movement in government jobs by the middle of the year. The government said it has found jobs for nearly 50,000 Sunni fighters who played a key role in US efforts to fight insurgents.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Japan Airlines filed for one of the country's largest bankruptcies ever, entering a restructuring that will shrink Asia's top carrier and its presence around the world.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Mexico "El Teo" Teodoro Garcia Simental, an alleged drug kingpin blamed for much of Tijuana's gang violence, was ordered to face trial. The military said it caught three purported members of his gang about to dissolve a body in chemicals. State police found the bodies of four young men in an abandoned car near a hotel in Guerrero's capital, Chilpancingo. A police report said the men appeared to have been asphyxiated by plastic tape covering their faces.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, Mexico’s telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim pledged $65 million for genetic research on cancer, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Nigeria religious violence between Christians and Muslims erupted again in central Nigeria. Gregory Anyating, Plateau state's police commissioner, declared a 24-hour curfew as the number of dead reached close to 150 in 3 days of violence.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, North and South Korea discussed development of their joint industrial complex, despite Pyongyang's recent threats it might break off all dialogue with its neighbor and could even stage an attack.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Pakistan a suspected US drone attacked a compound in the Deegan area of North Waziristan, killing four people as part of an unprecedented wave of strikes since a deadly attack against the CIA across the border in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A Saudi court sentenced a teenage girl (13) to a 90-lash flogging and two months in prison as punishment for assaulting a teacher. The assault happened after the girl was caught with a camera phone at school.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 19, The Slovak Foreign Ministry said the country has agreed to take in three inmates from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in an effort to help President Barack Obama to close it down.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Sudan's Pres. Bashir said he would support the country's oil-producing south if it chose independence in a looming referendum, in his closest acknowledgement of the possibility of separation. A Sudanese court sentenced another two Darfur rebels to death for a deadly 2008 attack, raising to 105 the number of Justice and Equality Movement fighters ordered hanged for the raid.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, Swiss bank Credit Suisse said that it would reduce bonuses paid to its top executives in London by about 30% in response to a tax announced last month by British authorities.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, The United States extradited to Bosnia Nedjo Ikonic (45), a former Serb policeman. He was suspected of taking part in genocide against Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, Europe's worst massacre since WWII.
(Reuters, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said about 1.5 million Graco strollers sold at Wal-Mart, Target and other major retailers are being recalled after some children's fingertips were amputated by hinges on the products. The strollers were made in China by Graco and sold at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Meijer, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers nationwide from October 2004 to December 2009.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, US researchers reported that shaving 3 grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States, while saving $24 billion in health costs per year.
(Reuters, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, The Afghan government and its international partners agreed to significantly increase the country's security forces and outlined plans to lure Taliban militants from the fight and combat corruption in a bid to turn the tide of the war. A NATO raid in the Qara Bagh district targeted a Taliban commander and killed 4 suspected insurgents, including a 15-year-old boy shot while allegedly reaching for a soldier's gun. Villagers insisted the dead were civilians.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Belgium the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, shut down production in its home country, in an escalation of a standoff over job cuts with its Belgian workers which is causing beer shortages in shops.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, A top regulator said China will slow its massive lending spree and step up monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in real estate and other assets while keeping the country's economic recovery on track.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The Dominican government announced a deal with Honduras' president-elect to give ousted leader Manuel Zelaya safe passage to this Caribbean nation.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (b.1960), one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, was poisoned and electrocuted overnight in his hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989. On Jan 29 Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating the veteran operative. In 2013 it was reported that Ben Zygier took part in the killing by a Mossad hit-team of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mahbouh.
(AP, 1/29/10)(Reuters, 2/14/13)
2010 Jan 20, Three more Egyptians died in flooding in the southern Sinai Desert, bringing the toll for three days of unseasonably heavy rains to 10.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, A French court ruled that a Russian Orthodox cathedral built on the French Riviera nearly a century ago under Czar Nicholas II now belongs to Moscow. The ruling was a defeat for an association founded by Russians who fled the Bolshevik Revolution that has been fighting to maintain its control over the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Nice, and its archbishop is accusing the Russian government of a land grab as part of a national pride campaign.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Greece dozens of prostitutes, most using headscarves or hoods to hide their faces, demonstrated in central Athens, demanding working licenses for brothels across Greece.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, A 6.1 aftershock struck Haiti, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Iraq an audacious robbery attempt in Baghdad left 3 dead and 6 wounded. The suspects escaped. A roadside bomb struck a patrol in Kirkuk killing a police lieutenant. A US soldier died of injuries from a vehicle accident that was not related to combat.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, Israel deported Jared Malsin, the American editor of a Palestinian news agency, back to NYC after he was questioned about his “anti-Israeli" views. Malsin was the chief English editor of the Maan News Agency based in Bethlehem.
(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 20, In Jerusalem, Israel, burglars broke into the Ashdod Museum where hundreds of artifacts recovered from the black-market were on show and snatched several valuable items, including a silver ring belonging to Alexander the Great and gold earrings.
(Reuters, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, Malaysian police announced the arrest of eight Muslim men who allegedly attacked a Christian church with a firebomb, the first suspects in a spate of assaults on churches after a court ruled that non-Muslims could use the word "Allah" to refer to God.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mexican authorities found seven corpses in two abandoned cars between the resort communities of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo along with written messages referring to drug cartels. 24 inmates were killed and several others injured during a prison brawl at a penitentiary in northern Durango city. 4 days of rain unleashed heavy flooding in parts of the border city of Tijuana, killing a 5-year-old girl and leaving at least 10 other people missing.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Jos, Nigeria, charred bodies with scorched hands reaching skyward lay in the streets and a mosque with blackened minarets smoldered after several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Pakistan’s government reached an agreement to hand back responsibility for maintaining order in South Waziristan to tribal leaders, following a 3-month military offensive.
(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 20, In Siberia Konstantin Popov (47), a reporter for Tomskaya Nedelya weekly, died after nearly two weeks in a coma. He had been taken in police custody to sober up. Police officer Alexei Mitayev (26) shot him in the genitals after beating him up. On Feb 11, 2011, Mitayev was convicted of beating and shooting Popov and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2010 Jan 20, South Korea’s health ministry said in a statement that switches will be flicked at 7.30 pm every third Wednesday in the month to "help staff get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing." Low birthrate was a pressing issue in this fast-ageing society.
(AFP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Turkey the independent Taraf newspaper exposed an alleged military plan, codenamed “Sledgehammer," which sought to create chaos and panic to justify a military takeover of the government.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/yhwj9sb)
2010 Jan 20, In Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez opened the new 1.8 km. Metro Cable in Caracas.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.27)(http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5176)
2010 Jan 20, Vietnam convicted 4 democracy activists of trying to overthrow the communist government and sentenced them to up to 16 years in prison for promoting multiparty democracy. Le cong Dinh (41), a lawyer, was sentenced for 5 years and activist Nguyen Tien Trung (26) was sentenced to 7 years. In May a court upheld the 16-year sentence against Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and the 5-year sentence against U.S.-trained human rights attorney Le Cong Dinh. It reduced the sentence of businessman Le Thang Long.
(AP, 1/20/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.52)(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 Jan 20, Yemeni airstrikes targeted Ayed al-Shabwani, one of the country's most wanted al-Qaida figures, for the second time in a week.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, The US Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections, ruling 5-4 that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress. The decision drastically altered who gives and gets hundreds of millions of dollars in elections. Super PACs, political action committees went on to reshape the 2012 presidential campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission)(Econ, 10/9/10, p.50)(Econ, 2/25/12, p.35)
2010 Jan 21, In North Carolina John Edwards, former Democratic presidential candidate, admitted that he fathered a child during an affair before his 2nd White House bid, dropping long-standing denials just ahead of a book by a former campaign aide.
(SFC, 1/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 21, Conan O'Brien told NBC good riddance in a $45 million deal for his exit from "The Tonight Show," allowing Jay Leno to return to the late-night program he hosted for 17 years.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Air America Radio, a radio network that was launched in 2004 as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, shut down abruptly due to financial woes.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 21, General Motor Co.'s Opel unit will cut 8,300 jobs across Europe, including 4,000 in Germany, and close a plant in Antwerp, Belgium, cutting over 2,300 jobs.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Silversea Cruises christened its newest ship, the Silver Spirit. It was built to accommodate 540 guests and became the largest and most luxurious of the company’s ships.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.67)
2010 Jan 21, Toyota said it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the US to fix accelerator pedals with mechanical problems that could cause them to become stuck. The announcement comes just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 21, New York State police found the body of Dean Pierson (59) in his Copake barn. They said the upstate dairy farmer had shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 21, Angola's parliament approved a new constitution under which the president would no longer be directly elected by the people, but would be chosen by the parliament. In effect the leader of the largest party in parliament automatically becomes president. The charter must now be approved by the Constitutional Court, a step seen as a formality. Critics said giving parliament the power to name the president will only further entrench President Eduardo Dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Economist, 9/1/12, p.52)
2010 Jan 21, China declared it is over the global crisis and signaled a shift in focus to controlling inflation, sparking concern it could hamper growth and the country's contribution to a worldwide rebound.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Finland’s Nokia Corp. said it will offer free navigation services globally for users of its smart phones, in a drive to counter a similar move by Google Inc.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Kenya radical Muslim cleric Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal was flown out of the country enroute to Jamaica. El-Faisal once served four years in a British jail for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Malaysia vandals tried to burn down two Muslim prayer rooms, following a string of arson attacks on churches amid a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, A Dutch airlift brought 106 children from quake-ravaged Haiti to new lives in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as anxious families waited to hug children they had been in the process of adopting for months.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, New Zealand said that biblical citations inscribed on US-manufactured weapon sights used by its troops in Afghanistan will be removed because they are inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions. The inscriptions on products from defense contractor Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, came to light this week in the US where Army officials said on Jan 19 they would investigate whether the gun sights, also used by US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, violate US procurement laws. Trijicon said biblical references were first put on the sites nearly 30 years ago by the company founder, Glyn Bindon, who was killed in a plane crash in 2003.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Nigeria religious leaders in Jos prepared for mass burials after four days of Christian-Muslim clashes left nearly 300 dead.
(AFP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, The Pakistani army said during a visit by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that it can't launch any new offensives against militants for six months to a year to give it time to stabilize existing gains.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In southern Sudan clashes continued for a 4th day in the troubled southern state of Jonglei leaving 15 more people dead.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 21, Sweden's Royal Academy of Sciences awarded Austria-born American scientist Walter Munk (92) the 2010 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences for his research on ocean circulation. The Crafoord award has been given annually since 1982 for scientific research in areas not covered by the Nobel Prizes.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Turkey a July, 2009, constitutional amendment paving the way for military officers to be tried in civilian courts was struck down by the constitutional court.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.57)(http://tinyurl.com/ybprno6)
2010 Jan 21, Officials said Yemen will stop issuing visas to foreign visitors upon arrival to try to prevent Islamic militants from sneaking in to meet and train with an al-Qaida offshoot that has established a stronghold in the fractured and impoverished country.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 22, James Mitchell (b.1920), theater, film and TV actor, died. For nearly three decades he played gruff patriarch Palmer Cortland on the ABC soap opera "All My Children." His film credits include "The Band Wagon" (1953) with Fred Astaire, "Deep in My Heart" (1954) and "Oklahoma" (1955).
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 22, Jean Simmons (80), British-born film actress, died in Santa Monica, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 22, Afghanistan banned the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which was also used to make bombs, giving farmers and other holders a month to turn in their supplies. 4 Afghan soldiers were killed and one wounded when the convoy of the governor of Wardak province near Kabul was struck by a bomb. 7 Afghan civilians were killed and one wounded in the north when they tried to dig out a bomb left over from the Soviet invasion.
(AP, 1/22/10)(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, Belgian scientists said nearly 80 percent of the 300,000 conflict-related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases like diarrhea, not violence.
(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, The British government raised its terror threat assessment from substantial to severe, suggesting an attack was "highly likely", ahead of international meetings on Yemen and Afghanistan in London next week.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Britain two brothers, ages 10 & 11, from the Yorkshire village of Edlington were convicted of torturing and sexually abusing two younger boys in an ordeal that one of them close to death.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.61)
2010 Jan 22, Sir Percy Cradock (86), the British diplomat who negotiated the terms for returning Hong Kong to Chinese rule, died. He was ambassador to Beijing in 1983 when Britain opened negotiations on the hand-over of Hong Kong. Britain gained an agreement on the principle of "one nation, two systems" which preserved some of Hong Kong's democratic and economic freedoms.
(AP, 1/29/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.87)
2010 Jan 22, Beijing issued a stinging response to US criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its "information imperialism" on China. An attorney for a US free speech group said US trade officials have asked for more information as they consider whether to pursue a possible World Trade Organization case against Chinese Internet barriers.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Some 124 refugees, who said they are Kurds and Tunisians, landed on the southern shore of Corsica after a lengthy journey at sea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In East Timor police launched a full-scale anti-ninja operation and later extended it for six months with support from the armed forces.
(AFP, 4/6/10)
2010 Jan 22, Aid officials said Haitians are fleeing their quake-ravaged capital by the hundreds of thousands, as their government promised to help nearly a half-million more move from squalid camps on curbsides and vacant lots into safer, cleaner tent cities.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Indonesia incessant rain caused floods in two remote villages in eastern Indonesia leaving eight people dead and 13 others missing.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In northern Iraq Saad Uwayid Obeid Mijbil al-Shammari, also known as Abu Khalaf, a key al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed during a joint Iraqi-US raid in Mosul. Intelligence officials said he was responsible for bringing hundreds of suicide bombers across the border from Syria.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 22, Police in Mexico City rescued 150 ferrets from armed robbers after a high speed chase. 14 boxes of ferrets imported from the US were taken by force by 3 robbers from a truck after it left the Mexico City airport. Two suspects were under arrest and another escaped.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, New Zealand’s commerce minister, Simon Power, said New Zealand is reviewing its liberal system of company registration after investigators found a shell company based here leased an airplane that smuggled arms from North Korea. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., leased an airplane seized last month in Thailand carrying an illegal arms shipment from North Korea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Pakistani gunship helicopters pounded a suspected militant hideout in a northwestern tribal area known for sheltering Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Russia a court sanctioned on fraud charges the arrest of Alexei Dymovsky, a police officer who has complained on YouTube of abuse and corruption in the country's law enforcement system. In November Dymovsky posted 3 videos on YouTube in which he said he was promised a promotion in return for jailing an innocent person. He also accused his superiors of forcing officers to fake reports on unsolved crimes. Dymovsky was fired and founded a rights defense group.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Rwanda the latest feature film on the 1994 Rwanda genocide premiered in Kigali. Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw shot "Le jour ou Dieu est parti en voyage" (The Day God Stayed Away) over two months -- June to August 2008 -- partly in Kigali, partly in the southwestern province of Cyangugu. It shows in excruciating detail what day-to-day life must have been like for those who survived beyond the first days of the killing.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Serbia Irinej Gavrilovic, a moderate who recently called for better ties with the Roman Catholics, was chosen as the new head of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Singapore rejected allegations by a US-based human rights group that it is a "politically repressive state."
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In South Africa the national parks authority said poachers have killed 14 rhinos this year. The parks authority announced military patrols in Kruger National Park, where 7 of the rhinos were killed. The other 7 were killed in the North West province.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Sri Lanka a key opposition activist was targeted at home by a bomb attack blamed on the ruling party as violence escalated ahead of next week's presidential election.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, A Swiss court ruled that Switzerland cannot hand over files on 26 suspected tax cheats to US authorities because their failure to declare assets does not constitute fraud under Swiss law.
(SFC, 1/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 22, Turkish police launched a nationwide crackdown on suspected militants linked to the al-Qaida terror network, rounding up 120 people in simultaneous pre-dawn raids.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Vietnam 19 rare Asiatic moon bears, found at an illegal Taiwanese-owned operation in southern Vietnam, reached a new home at Tam Dao National Park, joining 29 bears already at the rescue center. Ultrasound tests had found evidence of thickened gall bladders, a telltale sign of gall bladder milking. Some may need to have the organ removed because of extensive damage.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Yemen rebel leader, Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi, appeared in a video posted on the group's Web site to disprove Yemeni government claims that he was killed in an attack last month. Al-Hawthi was shown sitting on a chair and speaking into a microphone.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, President Barack Obama said he can't imagine "anything more devastating to the public interest" than the Supreme Court's decision to ease limits on campaign spending by corporations and labor unions.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Abby Sunderland (16) of Thousand Oaks, Ca., sailed into the Pacific aboard a 4-foot craft called wild Eyes in an effort to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. On April 24 Sunderland wrote on her blog that it would be "foolish and irresponsible" to keep going after losing use of her boat's main autopilot.
(SFC, 1/25/10, p.A5)(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Texas an 800-foot oil tanker and towing vessel collided spilling oil in the southeast port of Port Arthur. The spill, estimated at 462,000 gallons, was contained to a 2-mile area along the Sabine Neches Waterway.
(AP, 1/24/10)(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.A10)(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 23, Afghanistan’s Pres. Karzai unveiled an ambitious Western-funded plan to offer money and jobs to tempt Taliban fighters to lay down their arms. Militants in the south killed two US soldiers and kidnapped a police chief in a series of attacks. Insurgents killed 3 Afghan women in the eastern province of Paktika. 12 militants were killed in Helmand.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Brazil extradited Manuel Juan Cordero Piacentini, a retired Uruguayan military officer, to Argentina to face charges of human rights abuses allegedly committed more than 30 years ago. Under "Operation Condor," the military dictatorships that ruled much of South America in the 1970s and 1980s secretly cooperated in the torture and disappearances of each others' citizens.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, The British Department for Business Innovation and Skills halted the export of the ADE651 after a Jan 22 BBC Newsnight investigation challenged the claims of the company, ATSC. The broadcaster took the key aspects of the device to a laboratory, which concluded that a component intended to detect explosives contained technology used to prevent theft in stores. The government banned its export to Iraq and Afghanistan because of the risk that it could hurt British and allied forces.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Haiti's government declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, saying there is little hope of finding more people alive 11 days after much of the capital was reduced to rubble.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, The US Marine Corps wrapped up nearly seven years in Iraq, handing over duties to the Army and signaling the beginning of an accelerated withdrawal of American troops as the US turns its focus away from the waning Iraqi war to a growing one in Afghanistan. Iraqi-American contractor Issa T. Salomi (60) went missing in Baghdad. Shiite militants executed the kidnapping after luring him into central Baghdad with promises of visiting distant relatives. In a video that later surfaced, his abductors from the League of the Righteous, demanded the release of militants and the prosecution of Blackwater security contractors accused of killing 17 Iraqis in 2007 in Baghdad. Salomi was freed on March 25 in exchange for 4 militants.
(AP, 1/23/10)(AP, 2/6/10)(SFC, 8/13/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 23, In southern Mexico about 150 migrants were pulled off a train by unidentified assailants in the state of Oaxaca. On Jan 26 a Salvadoran official filed a complaint with Mexican officials saying 3 men were slain and 4 women were raped in the attack.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 23, In New Zealand 48 pilot whales stranded at Port Levy on South Island, but scores of volunteers joined Department of Conservation workers to refloat them off the shallow, muddy inlet. By the next day rescuers managed to coax 33 back out into deep waters, but another 15 of the pod died.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 23, In central Nigeria a village headman said at least 150 bodies were recovered from wells following deadly Muslim-Christian clashes, taking the unofficial death toll past 400.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed at least four people including two children in northwestern Gomal. Militants destroyed a NATO tanker outside Peshawar. Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead two soldiers and wounded two others in Khuzdar town, 350km (217 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan. Militants ambushed Pakistani security forces at checkpoints in the Orkazai and Kurram regions close to the Afghan border, sparking gunbattles that left 22 insurgents and two troops dead.
(AFP, 1/23/10)(AP, 1/23/10)(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 23, Russian PM Vladimir Putin declared that peace has returned to North Caucasus, the center of a growing Islamist insurgency, and called for the region's economy to be rebuilt. He also ordered officials in the North Caucasus to ensure what he called the "normal work" of human rights groups operating in the volatile region.
(Reuters, 1/23/10)(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Saudi Arabia’s assistant defense minister said Saudi forces have recovered the bodies of 20 soldiers who had been reported missing in fierce battles with Yemeni rebels on the border, raising the Saudi death toll in the conflict to 133.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Sudan a military spokesman said at least 24 people have been killed in clashes in the troubled southern Sudanese state of Jonglei in recent days.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Venezuela tens of thousands opposed to President Hugo Chavez took to the streets, blaming him for rolling blackouts, water rationing, widespread crime and other problems they say are making daily life increasingly difficult. This day marked the 1958 uprising that ousted Venezuela’s last military dictator. The Chavez regime told cable TV operators to stop carrying RCTV, a pro-opposition channel.
(AP, 1/24/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 24, The US sent 3 detainees held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Slovakia, the latest transfers as the Obama administration tries to close the facility.
(Reuters, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, Wal-Mart Stores of Bentonville, Ark., said it will cut some 11,200 jobs at Sam’s Club warehouses as it turns the task of in-store product demonstrations to an outside marketing company, Shopper Events.
(SFC, 1/25/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 24, Daniel Kerrigan (70), the father of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, died after a disturbance at the family's Massachusetts home. Brother Mark Kerrigan (45) was charged with assaulting the 70-year-old father.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, Pernell Roberts (b.1928), TV actor, died at his home in Malibu, Ca. He played the eldest Cartwright son (1959-1965) in the “Bonanza" TV series. After Bonanza he played the lead in the “Trapper John M.D." TV series.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 24, Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message threatening more attacks on the US.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, An Afghan official said authorities have arrested the ringleader of a group that staged a brazen attack in Kabul and now believe the assault was coordinated by al-Qaida. 3 US service members were killed in two bombings in the south. An explosion in the southern of Helmand killed a British soldier. A rocket attack struck the Kandahar Air Field, injuring four Bulgarians and at least two Romanians.
(AP, 1/24/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged fire near a disputed border temple, the latest in a string of gun battles between the countries since last year.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Haiti’s communications minister said the confirmed death toll from the Jan 12 earthquake has topped 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, with many more thousands dead around the country or still buried under the rubble.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In India environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China said that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The group, known by the acronym BASIC, pledged to strengthen its unified stance but would seek consensus with developed countries.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Indonesia gunmen attacked a convoy near the world's largest gold mine in Papua, wounding at least seven people including a foreigner.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Iran a Russian-made Iranian Taban Air plane carrying 157 passengers and 13 crew caught fire upon landing at northeastern Mashhad airport injuring at least 46 people.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Israel's PM Netanyahu declared that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever, a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of visiting US envoy George Mitchell.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Japanese voters in Nago city on Okinawa island elected a mayor who opposes plans for a controversial new US air base, complicating a row with Washington over relocating troops.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In northern Mexico a shootout between troops and suspected drug traffickers killed two soldiers and four gunmen in Nuevo Leon state. In Veracruz state the mutilated body of Nayeli Reyes, a federal court official, was discovered in the same residential neighborhood of Boca del Rio, Vera Cruz state, where she was abducted.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Nigeria the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jos condemned clashes between Christians and Muslims there which are said to have claimed more than 450 lives. Reverend Peter Imasuen, the Anglican bishop of Benin City, was kidnapped in southern state of Edo shortly after saying mass.
(AFP, 1/24/10)(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, North Korea threatened South Korea with war after Seoul warned it would launch a pre-emptive strike if the North was preparing a nuclear attack, the latest salvo in a battle of rhetoric despite signs of improved cooperation across the militarized frontier.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Pakistan intelligence officials and a local resident said a suspected US drone had crashed in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. The bodies of 7 men, accused by Taliban militants of spying for the US, were found shot dead in the northwest tribal belt. A paramilitary soldier was killed when Taliban militants fired a rocket at a convoy near Malik Deenkhel village in Khyber.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Peru some 3,900 tourists were cut off in villages near Machu Picchu in the Andes mountains, when mudslides blocked the railway to the city of Cuzco, which is the only way in or out of the area. Torrential rain, due to El Nino, in the Cusco area left at least 26 people dead and destroyed the homes and livelihood of some 20,000.
(AP, 1/27/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.42)
2010 Jan 24, In Sri Lanka dissident cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda did not return home. His disappearance triggered international condemnation of the island's rights record. The cartoonist was never seen again.
(AFP, 8/24/15)
2010 Jan 24, In Venezuela a cable television channel critical of President Hugo Chavez was yanked from the airwaves for defying new regulations requiring it to televise the socialist leader's speeches.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, The United States Justice Department approved the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, a concert promotion firm and ticketing company, pending certain conditions. The two companies had reached an agreement to merge in 2009.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation_Entertainment)
2010 Jan 25, In New York 2 Canadian men who pleaded guilty to conspiring to buy anti-aircraft missiles and other equipment for the Tamil Tigers rebel group in Sri Lanka were sentenced to 25 years in a US prison. Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam (41) and Sahilal Sabaratnam (30) were among four men arrested in Long Island, New York, in 2006 in an FBI sting operation as they tried to buy surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers and hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles to be used against Sri Lankan forces.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, In NYC Alfonso Portillo (b.1951), the former president of Guatemala (2000-2004), was charged with using foreign banks to launder millions of dollars plundered from charity and government coffers. He was charged with embezzling $15.7 million. Portillo’s whereabouts were unknown.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A4)(Econ, 6/19/10, p.42)
2010 Jan 25, In Pennsylvania Andrea Curry-Demus (40) was found to be mentally ill but guilty of 2nd degree murder and kidnapping for luring a pregnant teenager to her apartment, cutting out the baby and killing the mother. The infant, now 18 months old, was living with relatives.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 25, Electric vehicle network firm Better Place announced it has signed an agreement with an HSBC-led investor consortium for new equity financing of $350m (£217m), valuing the firm at $1.25bn. Better Place, led by former software entrepreneur Shai Agassi, hoped to be the leading infrastructure provider for the world’s growing fleet of electric cars.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/ycsyrdj)
2010 Jan 25, In Afghanistan a Norwegian soldier died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Faryab province in the north.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, The British and Irish governments launched a mission to save Northern Ireland's unraveling administration, a Catholic-Protestant coalition that the territory's 1998 peace accord intended would promote a lasting new era of nonviolent compromise.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to shut down its drug detention centers alleging abuses such as torture and rape, as well as the lockup of children and the mentally ill.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, China sharply rebuked the United States, denying involvement in any Internet attacks and defending its online restrictions as lawful after Washington urged Beijing to investigate an attack against Google.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In China the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi sentenced four more people to death for involvement in rioting last year in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, the country's worst ethnic violence in decades. Another person was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a penalty usually commuted to life in prison, while eight others were given sentences of up to life imprisonment.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 25, Official media reported that China is hoping to close thousands of local government lobbying offices in Beijing to cut down on waste and corruption.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, Cyprus police said they have busted a smuggling ring in Cyprus and recovered dozens of ancient artifacts it planned to sell for euro11 million (15.5 million), including a miniature gold coffin, silver coins and terra-cotta urns. Ten Cypriots were arrested during the raids over the weekend, and authorities were searching for another five suspects, including a Syrian man.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people caught fire and crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut. At least 34 bodies were recovered, but no survivors were found by nightfall. In 2012 a Lebanese report put the blame on pilot error and inexperience. Ethiopian Airlines immediately rejected the Lebanese findings saying the crash was likely caused by sabotage or a lightning strike.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/17/12)
2010 Jan 25, The National Bank of Hungary cut its main interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 6 percent, its lowest since September 2005.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Iraq suicide bombers struck near three hotels popular with Western journalists and businessmen just as Iraq announced the execution of Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin known as "Chemical Ali." At least 41 people were killed and more than 104 injured. The explosions came hours after an Iraqi security official defended the ADE651, made by the British company ATSC, a bomb-detecting device that Britain banned for export to Iraq because of questions about whether it works, saying it would be a "big mistake" to withdraw it from checkpoints.
(AP, 1/25/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.57)
2010 Jan 25, Sara Netanyahu sued the Maariv daily for libel and defamation of character, claiming it is "maliciously trying to humiliate" her. A story on Jan 22 stated that Mrs. Netanyahu fired a 70-year-old gardener at the prime minister's official residence. The gardener had lost a son in one of Israel's wars.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, The UN said that extreme winter weather in 19 of 21 provinces in Mongolia has killed over 1 million in livestock impacting the country’s food supply and worsening poverty.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 25, A Nigerian state police commissioner said sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in Jos left 326 people dead last week. Police in central Plateau state have arrested 303 suspects from last week's inter-religious violence. In southwestern Ogun State gunmen shot dead Chief Dipo Dina, a prominent opposition politician, amid rising tensions ahead of general elections next year.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, North Korea detained an American man for illegally entering the country from China, the 2nd arrest of a US citizen it has reported in the past few weeks. On Jan 30, a news report said the American man has sought asylum and wants to join the North Korean military. On April 7, 2010, state media said Aijalon Mahli Gomes (30) of Boston has been sentenced to eight years of hard labor and ordered to pay a $700,000 fine for crossing into the communist country illegally.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 25, A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman said Saudi Arabia has donated $50 million in relief to Haiti to cope with the devastating earthquake that hit the country nearly two weeks ago, making it the largest donation from the Middle East to date.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Somalia a mortar shell smashed into an African Union peacekeeping mission base in Mogadishu, killing several people, including a soldier.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, South Korea's president offered to help energy-hungry India build more nuclear plants as the two Asian powerhouses set a goal of doubling bilateral trade by 2014.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, Sweden’s Ericsson, the world leader in phone network equipment, announced an extra 1,500 job cuts under restructuring which bit deeply into 4th-quarter net profit.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Venezuela police and supporters of President Hugo Chavez clashed with students in cities across the country during protests over the government forcing an opposition channel off cable TV. One youth was reported killed and 16 people suffered injuries. A government official said that Pres. Chavez has accepted the resignation of Ramon Carrizalez, who also served as defense minister. Carrizalez’s wife, the environment minister, also resigned.
(AP, 1/25/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.46)
2010 Jan 25, It was reported that Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi, the leader of Yemen's Shiite rebels, has declared the war with Saudi Arabia over and that he will pull his fighters out of Saudi territory. At least 133 Saudis soldiers have died in the months of fierce fighting in the rugged border region.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 26, The US Justice Department said an Uzbek detainee held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been sent to Switzerland.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Oregon voters approved Measures 66 and 67, passed by their legislature last year, endorsing higher taxes on businesses and the rich amid the current economic slump.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A8)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.36)
2010 Jan 26, Toyota Motor Corp. announced it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles. Toyota said it is also suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1. It gave no date on when production could restart.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, General Motors agreed to sell Saab, its Swedish subsidiary, to Spyker Cars, a Dutch maker of sports cars, for $74 million in cash and preference shares worth $326 million.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)
2010 Jan 26, In Afghanistan gunmen killed 4 policemen overnight in Helmand province. Hours later a suicide car bomber targeted a US base in Kabul, wounding six Afghans and 8 Americans. In eastern Kunar province a NATO airstrike killed several suspected insurgents who were maneuvering into fighting position in an area previously used to stage attacks on int’l forces.
(AP, 1/26/10)(SFC, 1/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 26, Leftists in Brazil for a week of protests against capitalism denounced corporate greed on the second day of the World Social Forum, saying that big companies humbled by the global meltdown must be prevented from controlling natural resources and harming the environment.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland held a second day of talks with political parties in Northern Ireland as they struggled to keep the fractious Catholic-Protestant government there from collapsing.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, British actress Joanna Lumley was named "Oldie of the Year" by the monthly Oldie magazine for campaigning for the rights of retired Nepalese Gurkha soldiers wanting to settle in Britain.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Guatemalan police captured ex-President Alfonso Portillo at a beach preparing to flee the country by boat, a day after US authorities charged him with laundering money stolen from foreign donations to buy children's books.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Guinea Jean Marie Dore, one of the fiercest critics of Guinea's military junta, became prime minister. The crucial step toward democracy came amid worries the country's wounded coup leader is trying to influence the political process from exile.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Honduras a Supreme Court judge found six generals innocent of abuse of power charges for ordering soldiers to escort Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint. Hours later, Congress voted to approve amnesty for both the military and Zelaya, who had been charged with abuse of power and treason.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Hong Kong 5 pro-democracy lawmakers resigned their seats, vowing to turn the resulting elections into a populist campaign for universal suffrage in defiance of warnings from China.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the US of trying to use the Internet as a tool to confront the Islamic Republic, declaring that such a policy only showed Washington's frustration. The US Senate voted in July to adopt the Victims of Iranian Censorship Act which authorizes up to $50 million for expanding Farsi language broadcasts, supporting Iranian Internet and countering government efforts to block it.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Iraq a suicide car bomber struck a police crime lab in central Baghdad, killing at least 22 people and injuring dozens a day after suicide attacks hit several hotels favored by Western journalists. Baghdad officials put the death toll at 17.
(AP, 1/26/10)(SFC, 1/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 26, In Kenya US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said the US has suspended a five-year plan to fund Kenya's education programs following allegations that more than $1 million in funds went missing at the Education Ministry. Britain announced in December it was suspending its funding of the program.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Myanmar the Palaung Women's Organization reported that opium cultivation in Shan State has tripled in certain areas over the past three years. The Palaung are an ethnic minority in the northern state.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, NATO and Russia formally resumed military ties in the latest sign of improving relations between the Cold War rivals as they move to boost cooperation in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, A Nigerian naval helicopter crashed in the Niger Delta, likely killing the four people onboard.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Peru an Argentine identified as Lucia Ramallo (23) and a Peruvian guide, Washington Huaraya, were in their tents when a slope near Machu Picchu gave way and crushed them. The deaths raised to five the number of people killed by rain-triggered floods and landslides in the area. Government and private helicopters flew out 475 tourists as US authorities sent four helicopters to bolster rescue efforts.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, Sri Lankans voted between two Sinhalese war heroes, the president and his former army chief, in an election that could be decided by minority Tamils, who suffered most from the government offensive to end the civil conflict. President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a resounding re-election victory.
(AP, 1/26/10)(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, The ruling party of St. Kitts and Nevis seized a fourth consecutive term in early elections. PM Denzil Douglas' Labor Party claimed six of eight parliamentary seats allotted to St. Kitts.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Sudan's former PM Sadiq al-Mahdi vowed to put an end to "totalitarianism" and resolve the conflict in Darfur by taking power at elections in April.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Venezuela thousands of university students again protested against Pres. Chavez, accusing the socialist leader of forcing an opposition-allied TV channel off cable and satellite as a means of silencing his critics.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, A Yemeni court sentenced 7 suspected Al-Qaeda members between five and ten years in jail after convicting them of plotting to attack foreign interests and tourists.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 27, President Barack Obama, facing a divided Congress and a dissatisfied nation, unveiled a jobs-heavy agenda in his State of the Union address. Obama fought to recharge his embattled presidency with a State of the Union vow to get jobless millions back to work and stand on the side of Americans angry at Wall Street greed and Washington bickering.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story that Ishmael "Mike" Salinas admitted to bulk cash smuggling and failing to make a required report on currency brought into the US from Baghdad. The former employee of a New Mexico construction company with contracts in Iraq pleaded guilty to illegally bringing in more than $800,000.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In NYC an armed robber killed jewelry store worker Henry Menahem (71) and made off with nearly $1 million in jewels.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 27, Claude Irwin Jr. (62) of Spokane, a fugitive lawyer accused of stealing millions of dollars in an Idaho real estate development, was been captured in Los Angeles after living for years in Mexico. In 1998 he vanished and left his Powderhorn Ridge Ranch development near Harrison, Idaho, owing at least $3 million.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off a sleek tablet that it called the iPad, pitching the new gadget at $499, a surprisingly low price, to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops. It will go on sale in late March for $499-829.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.11)
2010 Jan 27, J.D. Salinger (b.1919), author of “Cather in the Rye" (1951), died at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. In 2013 David Shields and Shane Salerno authored “Salinger," a biography.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.F1)
2010 Jan 27, Howard Zinn (b.1922), Massachusetts-based historian, teacher and activist, died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Ca. His work included “A People’s History of the United States" (1980).
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 27, In northern Afghanistan a joint NATO-Afghan air and ground assault killed 11 suspected Taliban militants, including two senior commanders. Leaders of the Shinwari, one of the largest Pushtun tribes, agreed to support the Afghan government and battle insurgents. American commanders in exchange agreed to channel $1 million in development projects directly to the tribal leaders, bypassing the Afghan government.
(AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 27, In western Algeria the Oran criminal court sentenced eight people to jail terms for drug trafficking. Six of the convicted men were sentenced to 20 years, a seventh to life and the eighth, who was on the run, was also sentenced to life, after the seizure in 2008 of two tons of cannabis resin at Bechar in the southwest.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, Bangladesh executed 5 former soldiers for killing independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a 1975 military coup.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 27, In Belgium a five-story apartment building collapsed in Liege after an apparent gas explosion. At least 11 people were killed. An additional 21 people were injured, two of them seriously.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 27, Brazil's first working-class president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (64), got a hero's welcome at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, wowing 10,000 leftists with a vow to reproach the planet's business titans for causing the global meltdown when he meets with them this week at the Davos Swiss ski resort. Lula fell ill at the air force base in Recife where he was supposed to board a flight to Switzerland and his trip to Davos was canceled.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland presented a compromise plan to keep Northern Ireland's fractious politicians from breaking up their Catholic-Protestant government, but neither side accepted the deal.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Britain world powers gathered in London for talks on how to tackle Al-Qaeda militants operating out of Yemen. The conference was called to help world powers chart a roadmap out of Afghanistan amid rising US and NATO casualties and falling public support.
(AFP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, A Cambodian court convicted and sentenced in absentia Sam Rainsy, the nation's main opposition leader, to two years in jail on charges of uprooting border markings. Rainsy, who is in France, said by telephone that the court had made a "most unjust" ruling, saying the border markers he had uprooted in protest were illegally placed.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, France's main Jewish organization, CRIF, says at least 18 tombstones at the Cronenbourg cemetery in Strasbourg were found marked with swastikas and 13 of them were overturned. The desecration came as Jews marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Haiti teenager Darlene Etienne (17) was rescued from a collapsed home near St. Gerard University, 15 days after a great earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people, It was the first such recovery since Jan 23, when French rescuers extricated a man from the ruins of a hotel grocery store.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Honduras President-elect Porfirio Lobo, a conservative rancher, was sworn in as the new president, ending months of turmoil and the quest by ousted leader Manuel Zelaya to be restored to power. Lobo provided safe passage to Zelaya, who left his refuge at the Brazilian Embassy and flew to exile in the Dominican Rep.
(AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 27, In Indonesia Eko Budi Wardoyo (32), a suspected Islamist militant, was arrested in East Java province. He was allegedly involved in the 2005 bombing of a market that killed 22 people and the murder of a Christian priest in 2004.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 27, It was reported that Italian fashion house Armani has stopped selling online a T-shirt bearing a logo similar to Indonesia's national symbol, Garuda Pancasila, after some bloggers protested and other people called for the label to be sued.
(Reuters, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, Mexican authorities found a man's head and a threatening message referring to the La Familia drug cartel in the town square of Quiroga, Michoacan state. A headless body was found 60 miles (100km) away.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, NATO's top officer said that Russia had agreed to boost cooperation with the alliance in Afghanistan, including opening more transit routes for supplies to international troops and helping service Soviet-built helicopters used by the security forces. NATO said it had finalized an agreement with Kazakhstan to open the last leg on an overland route to Afghanistan from Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, offering an alternative to the one through Pakistan.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Nigeria Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria, said chilling text messages urged both Christians and Muslims to commit violence during rioting that left more than 300 people dead. He said his group has collected about 150 text messages that were sent before and during the violence in Jos.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, North Korea fired more than 80 shells into the sea near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, sparking an artillery exchange which fuelled tensions on the peninsula.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In northwestern Pakistan a bomb planted near a house in Upper Dir exploded after children playing nearby tried to open it, killing three of them. 13 police and civilian explosives experts were wounded when a homemade bomb they were trying to defuse in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir detonated.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, Panama's national police force killed three guerrillas from a Colombian rebel group in a confrontation along the sparsely populated frontier between the two countries. Two others were captured while and one escaped.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, A top Saudi defense official said Saudi forces have driven Yemeni rebels out of the border region between the two countries, suggesting that the three month conflict along the mountainous frontier may be winding down.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (8), a Somali boy, died just days after undergoing reconstructive surgery in Kenya. He had been horribly disfigured months ago by a stray bullet in Mogadishu. Ahmed personified the civilian toll in the brutal conflict in Somalia and drew offers of aid from around the world.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Sri Lanka the election commission declared Pres. Rajapaksa the winner with 57.8% of the vote to Sarath Fonseka's 40%. Rajapaksa beat back a challenge from his former army chief, who rejected the official results and said he feared arrest as troops surrounded his hotel. Dayanada Dissanayake, the distraught election commissioner, said the state media violated guidelines he had crafted, government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him, and he pleaded to be allowed to resign his post.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Thailand 13 tiger range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting their numbers. The meeting was being organized by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aimed to double tiger numbers by 2022. The 13 countries attending were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Zimbabwe a lawyer said the Supreme Court has ordered the central bank to safeguard millions of dollars' worth of diamonds from a mine where the military is accused of killings and forced labor. State media said a Zimbabwe high court has rejected a southern African court's ruling that blocked the government's move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned farms.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 28, A US government audit found that a $46 million American aid program aimed at strengthening the government in Pakistan's tribal regions and blunting the appeal of al-Qaida and the Taliban has achieved little since it began two years ago.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 28, The US formally pledged to the UN that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% (from what they were in 2005) by 2020. Meeting the target depended on getting a climate bill through Congress.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.38)
2010 Jan 28, In Arizona police Lt. Eric Shuhandler (42) was shot in the face as he walked back toward a pickup after finding the passenger had an arrest warrant. Shuhandler, the father of two girls, was rushed to a hospital, where he died shortly before midnight. A high-speed, 50-mile chase ended near the small mountain mining community of Superior when the suspects jumped out and opened fire on police before falling to the ground in a hail of bullets. The suspects were identified as Christopher A. Redondo (35) of Globe, and Daimen Irizarry (30) of Gilbert. Both were expected to survive.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Louisiana Mose Jefferson, the brother of former US Representative William Jefferson, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribing a former New Orleans school board president for her support in awarding contracts to a computer-based teaching system, which he sold.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co. said it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company behind the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.'s recent recall. Ford spokesman Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic built by a Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in December and only about 1,600 have been produced.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Oakland, Ca., Dhar Mann (25) opened iGrow, a one-stop shop for medical marijuana in a 15,000-square-foot warehouse near the Oakland Airport.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.C1)
2010 Jan 28, US researchers reported the development of a prototype vaccine that protects monkeys and mice against the emerging chikungunya virus. The mosquito-borne virus first appeared on Reunion Island in 2005 and has spread to more than 18 countries.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A13)
2010 Jan 28, The Afghan government invited the Taliban to a peace council of elders, the strongest signal yet that Kabul and its Western allies are looking for a way out of the eight-year war in Afghanistan. US soldiers shot and killed an Afghan cleric as he drove with his young son near an American base on the eastern edge of Kabul, underscoring the dangers facing civilians despite NATO efforts to minimize casualties. A homemade bomb killed a US soldier in southern Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Britain world powers agreed on a timetable for the handover of security duties in Afghan provinces starting in late 2010. The 70 nations said Pres. Karzai had promised to crack down on corruption and said a summit in Kabul later this year would offer specific plans to bolster his faltering government. The Afghan Taliban dismissed the London conference as a propaganda ploy and said the London summit will fail to produce results.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Denmark's government said that face-covering Muslim veils don't belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, France's ex-premier Dominique de Villepin was acquitted of charges of plotting to smear Nicolas Sarkozy and sabotage his presidential bid in a verdict seen as bolstering his chance at a comeback.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Honduras' new administration began its term saying the nation is bankrupt and will likely need international financial assistance to recover from months of diplomatic isolation over its June coup.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Iran executed two men, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmani Pour, accused of involvement in an armed anti-government group. The public prosecutor announced that new death sentences have been issued against opposition activists involved in protests over June's disputed presidential election.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Jan 28, In southern Iraq an American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdeljalil said he wants to resign because of "hindrances" and his inability to secure freedom for hundreds of prisoners who have been found innocent.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In southern Pakistan militants staged a rare attack against trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, wounding three people in the latest violence to plague the country's largest city. A bomb attached to a bicycle exploded, killing three people and wounding a dozen others in an area of Baluchistan province.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In the southern Philippines a decades-old military plane crashed into a residential area, killing a two-star air force general and eight other people.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Spanish police arrested two suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA in northern Spain and discovered a hidden cache containing explosives and bomb-making equipment.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Spain prosecutors say charges have been filed against Mohamed Benbrahim, a Muslim imam, for threatening a woman in Cunit, Catalonia, who refused to wear an Islamic headscarf.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Venezuela police fired tear gas to chase off thousands of students demonstrating in the capital, a fifth day of protests against President Hugo Chavez for pressuring cable and satellite TV providers to drop an opposition channel.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, President Barack Obama engaged in a rare face-to-face showdown with Republican critics and testily accused them of trying to block his policies while urging them to "join with me" in creating jobs.
(Reuters, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 29, A US storm that toppled power lines, closed major highways and buried parts of the southern Plains in heavy ice and snow began moving into the South, leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark. Nearly 142,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma were without power.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, According to a newly released audiotape Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for the world to boycott American goods and the US dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Afghan troops backed by NATO attack helicopters battled Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests who launched an assault in the heart of a Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province. 6 militants were killed in the assault. In Ghazni province 2 Afghans were killed after failing to stop their vehicle when ordered. An Afghan interpreter working for the US military shot dead two American soldiers in Wardak province. Iranian guards opened fire and killed 5 laborers as they crossed into Iran from the southwestern province of Nimroz.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AFP, 1/30/10)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A3)(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Brazil leftists who converged to protest what they view as uncontrolled capitalism ended the World Social Forum with vows to take advantage of the financial crisis to promote a global socialist agenda.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 29, Former British PM Tony Blair said there had been no "covert" deal with then US president George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, and robustly defended his decision to take Britain to war.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In China envoys of exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing for weekend talks amid subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive, riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized PM Meles Zenawi's statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia. The journalist was later identified as Ezedin Mohamed, editor of Al-Quds, a Muslim-orientated newspaper.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Haiti US soldiers halted a violent confrontation between looters and a private security guard who shot and killed one man inside an appliance store and appeared poised to shoot others.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir suspected Muslim rebels ambushed army soldiers, killing two troops.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Honda Motor Co. said it would recall a total 646,000 units of the Fit/Jazz and City models globally, including 140,000 in the United States. The recall was to fix a defective master switch, which could cause water to enter the power window switch and in some cases cause a fire.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, The office of Lithuanian Pres. Dalia Grybauskaite said in a statement that she would sign a decree to appoint Audronius Ažubalis as foreign minister. The tough-talking Grybauskaite forced the resignation of the last foreign minister Vygaudas Ušackas.
(http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/)
2010 Jan 29, Mexican authorities found the decapitated bodies of six men in Acahuato, Michoacan state. A group of at least a dozen armed men attacked a federal police convoy, opening fire on the vehicles from a highway overpass near the city of Maravatio, also in Michoacan, killing 5 officers and wounding 7. Four severely beaten men were seen walking along a busy street in the Michoacan town of Zamora carrying messages signed by La Familia. In Ciudad Juarez a group of rifle-bearing attackers opened fire on a family in a truck, killing a man, a woman and injuring a 5-month-old baby. A woman was later killed inside an ice cream parlor, a chase through the Galeana neighborhood left two dead, and a man was killed and a pregnant woman was injured in a spray of bullets in another part of town. Six more people were killed later in the day in four different locations, and when dawn broke the two decapitated bodies were found. Journalist Ochoa Martinez, director of El Sol de la Costa, was shot in the face as he left a food stand in the town of Ayutla. His small newspaper covered mostly local politics and community issues southeast of Acapulco.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AP, 1/31/10)(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Mexico a Texas man and his girlfriend were sentenced to nine years in prison for recruiting Mexican women to give birth in the US and sell their babies to couples there. Amado Torres, of Harlingen, Texas, and Maria Isabel Hernandez, of Mexico, had allegedly paid women up to $3,000 for their newborns.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Jan 29, In New Zealand police seized weapons used by two men to slaughter more than 30 dogs owned by a neighbor in what animal welfare authorities said could be the country's worst animal cruelty case.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Nigerian court rejected a demand by top lawyers that a caretaker head of state be appointed until ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua returns from hospital treatment in Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Pakistani security forces killed 24 suspected militants in air strikes and clashes in the northwest. One paramilitary soldier was also killed and three wounded in a clash in the town of Chinar in the district of Bajaur.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Russia test-flew a long-awaited new fighter aircraft, determined to challenge the United States for technical superiority in the skies and impress weapons buyers.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Somali insurgents sparked the heaviest day of fighting in the capital in months, launching simultaneous attacks on government forces and AU peacekeepers killing at least 19 people including women and children.
(AP, 1/29/10)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 29, In Sri Lanka police raided the office of defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka and arrested 15 of its workers as monitors and rights groups criticized the Sri Lankan election that returned President Mahinda Rajapakse to power.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, At Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft co-founder and his wife said The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world's poorest countries.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Thailand a dozen Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their habitats. The 13 countries included Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Vietnamese court handed a four-year jail term to writer Pham Thanh Nghien (32) for anti-state "propaganda," the latest in a string of jailings of democracy activists by the communist state.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Las Vegas Caressa Cameron (22) of Virginia became the nation's newest Miss America, emerging from a field of 53 contestants picked for their beauty, compassion and interview savvy. Cameron, the first black Miss America since Ericka Dunlap in 2005, said she wants to get a master's degree and eventually become a news anchor.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 30, In NYC a fire housing Guatemalan immigrants killed at least 5 people in Brooklyn. Arson was suspected.
(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.A16)
2010 Jan 30, A joint US-Afghan force clashed with Afghan troops manning a snow-covered outpost and called in an airstrike, killing four Afghan soldiers. Both sides called the clash a case of mistaken identity.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, China suspended military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions against American defense companies, just hours after Washington announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, The European Union said Italy is to stop fishing for bluefin tuna, the lucrative but over-exploited species beloved of Japanese sushi fans, for 12 months.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Haiti about 20 armed men blockaded a street and attacked UN a convoy carrying food from the airport. Ten American Baptists were detained for trying to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic without documentation.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Jan 30, Ashes of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, kept for decades by a family friend after his assassination, were scattered off South Africa's coast.
(AFP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, Thousands of Iranians gathered at dusk against a snowy mountain backdrop to light giant bonfires in an ancient mid-winter festival. Sadeh was the national festival of ancient Persia when Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion, before the conquest of Islam in the 7th century.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at a restaurant popular with security forces in Samarra, a city that was once a flash point for sectarian slaughter, killing at least two people.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Italy hundreds of judges walked out of nationwide ceremonies held to mark the start of the judicial year in protest at "destructive legislation" introduced by PM Silvio Berlusconi.
(AFP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Japan thousands of protesters from across Japan marched in central Tokyo to protest the US military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to move a Marine base Washington considers crucial out of the country.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In the Marshall Islands the government considered invoking special powers of quarantine as an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been declared a public health emergency.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Mexico armed men stormed a party, killing 15 high school and college students in Ciudad Juarez in what witnesses thought was an attack prompted by false information. Ten people were found dead at the scene and six died at hospitals. An official later said gunmen were directed to the neighborhood by a resident who said members of a rival gang were planning a party.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Jan 30, Nigeria's main rebel group called off a truce in the oil-rich Niger Delta, threatening an "all-out onslaught" and adding to the country’s political and economic woes. A leak was observed on the Anglo-Dutch Trans-Ramos pipeline. The leak was stopped and an investigation confirmed the leak was due to a sabotage. Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell shut down some oil production following the sabotage.
(AFP, 1/30/10)(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed 16 people at a police checkpoint in the northwest Bajur tribal area. 3 suspected US missiles hit a compound and a bunker in the Mohammad Khel area of North Waziristan. 2 missiles hit the compound being used by the militants, killing 7 of them. The third killed two more insurgents in a bunker.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, Russian PM Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that Libya has signed an arms deal with Russia worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion).
(Reuters, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, Russia opened its first new casino, under a plan to limit legalized gambling to 4 comparatively remote areas, since it closed all casinos a half year earlier. Along with the opening in Azov city, the new law limits legalized gambling to the Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic Sea, the Altai region of Siberia, and the Primorski region of the Far East.
(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 30, In Sri Lanka police shut down the offices of an opposition newspaper, as international rights groups accused the authorities of a vendetta against critical media. The chief editor was arrested. A court lifted a ban on the paper on Feb 1. On Feb 16 the chief editor of the pro-opposition Lanka newspaper, Chandana Sirimalwatte, was ordered to be released from police custody because there was no evidence against him.
(AFP, 1/30/10)(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Davos, Switzerland, government regulators from the US and Europe laid out their financial reform plans before a skeptical banking industry, asking financiers for input but adamant that change was coming with or without their support.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Yemen militant Saleh al-Shaoush was arrested as he prepared to carry out a suicide bombing in the southeastern port of Mukalla. He had been stopped on his motorbike and found to be wearing an explosives belt and carrying two bombs. His trial began in October.
(AFP, 10/9/10)
2010 Jan 31, Beyonce, pop's reigning diva, earned six Grammys, more than any woman on a single night of the 52-year-old awards show. Taylor Swift won four Grammys.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Jan 31, Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai appealed to Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons and accept Afghan laws as the government and its international allies push a program to entice militants away from the insurgency. Karzai also said that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, is sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one trillion dollars.
(AP, 1/31/10)(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Argentina Tomas Eloy Martinez (75), author and journalist famed for his writings about former President Juan Domingo Peron and his glamorous wife Eva, died.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, An Egyptian security official said 25 Egyptians were arrested on suspicion of planning a bombing attack against Jewish pilgrims in the country and belonging to a militant Islamist group. The suspects, rounded up over the past few weeks in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahlia, were found in possession of explosives and rudimentary rocket warheads.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Ethiopia UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the AU's annual summit in Addis Ababa and again failed to pledge peacekeepers for Somalia. Ban Ki-Moon criticized power-grabs in Africa in a speech to the continent's leaders as Libya's Moamer Kadhafi reluctantly handed over the presidency of the African Union to Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika. The AU agreed to consider a Senegalese proposal to resettle Haiti's earthquake homeless and possibly create a state for them in Africa.
(Reuters, 1/31/10)(AFP, 1/31/10)(Reuters, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, Ten American Baptists were being held in the Haitian capital after trying take 33 children out of Haiti at a time of growing fears over possible child trafficking. Doctors skirted a bureaucratic logjam to save the life of two critically ill child victims of Haiti's earthquake, flying them to US hospitals on a private jet to avoid a military suspension of medical evacuation flights.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir Wamiq Farooq (14), a Muslim boy, died after being struck by a shell fired by police to quell a demonstration by separatists in Srinagar.
(AFP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Jan 31, Mexican President Felipe Calderon arrived in Japan for a three-day visit, as the countries mark 400 years of official ties.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, A Jordanian security official said more than 40 alleged Islamist extremists have been arrested in Jordan since a Jordanian blew himself up in Afghanistan in December, killing seven CIA agents.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, A Libyan appeal court overturned a jail term slapped on Swiss businessman Rashid Hamdani on a charge of overstaying his visa, easing a Tripoli-Bern diplomatic spat.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In New Zealand Xiao Zhen killed Auckland taxi driver Hiren Mohini (39) and then fled to China. Zhen was arrested in Shanghai and tried for murder in 2011. Xiao (24) expressed remorse over the killing, which he said was in self-defense when an argument escalated after he refused to pay Mohini adequate cab fare. On Aug 17 Xiao Zhen was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 8/2/11)(www.police.govt.nz/operation-edgewater-hiren-mohini-homicide)(AP, 8/17/11)
2010 Jan 31, In northwest Pakistan fighter jets and helicopters pounded a district where a suicide bomber in Khar killed 17 people a day earlier. A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Safi, killing two security personnel who were riding in a water tanker. Militants blew up a government-run girls' primary school on the outskirts of the northwestern garrison town of Bannu. State television reported that TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud was dead, reviving rumors that he was killed in a US missile strike in mid-January. But the Taliban denied the report and the army only said it was investigating.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Russia several hundred demonstrators shouting "Shame!" gathered in a central Moscow square, defying a ban imposed by authorities. Moscow police detained dozens of people at an anti-Kremlin protest, including several prominent opposition leaders. A separate demonstration was held by dozens of residents of the Rechnik settlement to protest the demolition of their homes ordered by Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
(AP, 1/31/10)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.57)
2010 Jan 31, In Somalia heavy mortar fire between African Union peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents killed at least 12 civilians and left scores wounded in Mogadishu.
(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Jan 31, Switzerland's justice minister warned in an interview that top bank UBS could collapse if sensitive talks with the US over a high-profile tax fraud investigation fall through.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Davos, Switzerland, the world's foremost gathering of business and government leaders wrapped up a five-day meeting with widespread agreement that a fragile recovery is under way but no consensus on what's going to spur job growth and prevent another global economic meltdown.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, Yemen said it would stop its war on Shiite northern rebels only if they agree to a six-point truce offer, including a pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia, as fighting raged on 3 fronts.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan, Angola at this time produced about 1.9 million barrels of oil per day. Its reserves were estimated at 13 billion barrels.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.55)
2010 Jan, In Cuba a cold spell left 26 patients dead at the Havana Psychiatric Hospital. On Jan 31, 2011, over a dozen employees and officials at the hospital were convicted of negligence and sentenced from 5 to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/1/11, p.A2)
2010 Jan, It was reported that German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz have found a way to use electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) to punch holes into steel.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.80)
2010 Jan, Five Iranian exiles issued a Manifesto from abroad calling for the resignation of Pres. Ahmadinejad, fresh elections and the lifting of restrictions on political activity.
(http://garysick.tumblr.com/)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.26)
2010 Jan, A North Korean firing squad publicly executed a factory worker for sneaking news out of the reclusive communist country via his illicit mobile phone.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Jan, Palestine’s Pres. Abbas appointed Leila Ghanem (35) as governor of Ramallah, the first woman to become a Palestinian governor. Ramallah is most important of the West Bank's 10 Palestinian administrative districts.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Jan, Scientists at Russia’s Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions announced internally that they had succeeded in detecting the decay of a new element with Z=117 using the reactions.
(SFC, 4/8/10, p.C5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununseptium)
2010 Jan, Russian authorities confiscated the computers of Baikal Environmental Wave in Irkutsk in an alleged search for pirated software. The group was protesting a decision by PM Putin to reopen a paper factory that had long polluted nearby Lake Baikal. Similar raids in recent years have taken place against dozens of outspoken advocacy groups.
(SSFC, 9/12/10, p.A10)
2010 Jan, In Sudan an attack targeted a convoy travelling from Khartoum to Nyala in South Darfur. JEM rebels killed the convoy commander and 53 soldiers and stole fuel trucks and food supplies. In 2011 a Sudanese court sentenced seven members of a Darfur rebel group to death by hanging for ambushing the convoy.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2010 Feb 1, President Barack Obama unveiled a multitrillion-dollar spending plan, pledging an intensified effort to combat high unemployment and asking Congress to quickly approve new job-creation efforts that would boost the deficit to a record-breaking $1.56 trillion. Obama also made his first YouTube interview and spent about 40 minutes answering about a dozen of over 11,000 questions submitted by YouTube users following his State of the Union address. This included $708 billion requested by the Pentagon for 2011.
(AP, 2/1/10)(SFC, 2/2/10, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/ycfdtxv)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.34)
2010 Feb 1, NASA’s back-to-the-moon program, Constellation, fell victim to budget cuts.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.86)
2010 Feb 1, FBI agents arrested Mohammed Wali Zad, the father of terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi, at his suburban Denver home. A new indictment accused him of conspiring with others to destroy or hide evidence in a foiled NYC terrorism plot.
(SFC, 2/2/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 1, US Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly a ton of marijuana hidden in a banana shipment at a cargo facility near the US-Mexico border. Officers opened boxes in a truck and found 235 packages of pot worth an estimated $1.1 million.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Brazil’s Cosan, a producer of ethanol, unveiled a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell to pool their retail operations.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.73)
2010 Feb 1, China launched a 10-day emergency crackdown on tainted milk products after several were found creeping back onto the market despite a massive scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, It was reported that Cuba has declared a two-month amnesty for citizens to register unlicensed guns. Starting Feb. 12, Cubans will have the "exceptional and one-time only" chance to register their guns with police, and will be allowed to keep them provided they are over 18 and have passed the proper tests administered at police stations.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Egypt’s Parliament amended an antiquities law to bring in stiffer punishments for the theft and smuggling of relics while granting patent rights to the country's antiquities council.
(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Many schools in Haiti's outlying provinces reopened for the first time since an earthquake devastated the nation, though it may take a month or more to open classrooms in the quake-crushed capital.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Iraq a female suicide bomber mingling among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people on the outskirts of the Shiite neighborhood of Shaab.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Israel two barrels, each containing 22 pounds (10kg) of explosives, washed up on Israel's shores late in the day. No one was hurt. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip said the failed attempt to send floating bombs toward Israeli beaches was meant to avenge the mysterious death of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Seven American and European scientists were named winners of Israel's prestigious $100,000 Wolf Prize. Its prize in medicine went to Axel Ullrich of Germany for groundbreaking cancer research that has led to development of new drugs. Sir David Baulcombe of Cambridge University was awarded for agriculture research in defending plants against viruses. The physics prize was shared by US professor John F. Clauser, Alain Aspect of France and Anton Zeilinger of Austria for their work in quantum physics. The mathematics prize was shared by two US-based professors: Shing-Tung Yau for geometric analysis, and Dennis Sullivan for contributions to algebraic topology and conformal dynamics. The Wolf Foundation was founded by the late German-born Dr. Ricardo Wolf, an inventor, philanthropist and former Cuban ambassador to Israel.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Lithuanian PM Andrius Kubilius visited Silicon Valley, San Francisco. He and his delegation met with managers at Oracle Corp., Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard. He also met with one of the most powerful groups in the IT sector, i.e. members of major Venture Capital Association Accel Partners and other IT investors. The participants of the meeting included Ilja Laurs, founder and CEO of GetJar, the only Lithuanian capital company with the head office in the Silicon Valley.
(http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/)(EW)
2010 Feb 1, In Mexico armed men burst into a bar Ciudad Juarez around dawn and killed four men and a woman. Gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 15 in a bar in Torreon, a city in the northern state of Coahuila. A shootout that began in a shopping center and spilled onto a highway in Torreon caused the death of 7 suspected Zetas gunmen and one federal police officer while freeing two kidnap victims. The La Familia gang, strung up about a dozen banners in the western state of Michoacan urging the public at large and other gangs to form a common "resistance" front against the Zetas.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 1, Polish scientists said they have discovered 3 Neanderthal teeth, dating back some 100,000 to 80,000 years, in the Stajnia Cave, north of the Carpathian Mountains.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100201/ap_on_re_eu/eu_poland_neanderthal_teeth)
2010 Feb 1, Officials from the two Koreas met in North Korea to discuss their joint industrial complex just days after an exchange of gunfire at sea emphasized the constant security threat on the divided peninsula.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Hayward, Ca., 2 men were killed outside the Manheim San Francisco Bay auto auction business. On Feb 4 police arrested Karl George Sanft (34) for the slaying of security guard Angelito Erasquin (63) and truck driver Jim Wightman (56). On June 24 Sanft, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, was convicted of two counts of first degree murder. On June 30 a judge ruled that Sanft was legally sane.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.C2)(SFC, 6/25/15, p.D3)(SFC, 7/1/15, p.D7)
2010 Feb 2, In Afghanistan gunmen on a motorcycle killed two associates of Pres. Karzai’s brother.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Australian researchers said they had discovered a gene associated with long-sightedness, a development they said could lead to drug treatments that will replace glasses.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, A remote Bosnian village, home to highly conservative Wahhabi Muslims, was raided by hundreds of police who said they were searching for an unspecified security threat.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Brazil’s government approved the 11 billion dollar Belo Monte project on the Xingu river that will flood 500 square km (193 square miles) and supply 11% of Brazil's electricity. Detractors said the dam in northern Para state will trigger droughts along a 100 km (60 mile) stretch of the Xingu, displace thousands of indigenous people, attract an army of job-seekers, and accelerate the deforestation and destruction of the rain forest.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Ethiopia African leaders wrapped up their annual summit less divided and looking at brighter economic prospects but still facing a raft of conflicts, including Sudan's predicted break-up. An AU official said leaders of the 53-member African Union want Madagascar's rival politicians to stick to the agreements meant to help the Indian Ocean island out of a prolonged crisis.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Germany and Switzerland headed for a fresh spat over banking secrecy after Berlin decided to buy a disc said to hold details of some 1,500 suspected tax-dodgers with funds in Swiss accounts.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Iran said it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the UN.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Kashmir Indian police and Muslim protesters clashed for the second day running over the death of a Muslim boy killed by a police tear-gas shell.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Latvia's government said it will accept one inmate from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, The key witness in a Mafia trial in Sicily told a court that a close ally of PM Silvio Berlusconi had direct links with the former "Boss of Bosses" of the Cosa Nostra.
(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Pakistan 8 missiles fired from US drones killed at least 4 militants in Dattakhel village, in North Waziristan. The death toll from the night time drone attacks, the heaviest ever in terms of the number of missiles fired, soon rose to 31.
(AFP, 2/2/10)(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Saudi Arabia said it will not get involved in peacemaking in Afghanistan unless the Taliban stops providing shelter and severs all ties with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Afghan Pres. Karzai was in Saudi Arabia hoping for an active Saudi role to persuade Taliban militants to switch sides.
(SFC, 2/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 2, UN and Sudanese officials said almost half the population of south Sudan is facing food shortages because of conflict and drought, a fourfold rise in the numbers needing aid since last year.
(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Venezuela deported alleged major drug traffickers to the US and France. Suspected Colombian drug kingpin Salomon Camacho Mora, French smuggling suspect Jean Marie Bonnamy and alleged Colombian paramilitary member Oscar Ospino were ferried to the nation's main airport for deportation.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The US government estimated that health care consumed a record 17.3% of all spending in the US economy last year.
(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 3, In NYC Aafia Siddiqui, a 37-year-old Pakistani-born mother and neuroscientist trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, armed assault, using and carrying a firearm and assault of US officers and employees and faces up to 60 years in prison. Siddiqui was arrested in July 2008 by US forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan on accusation of being a suicide bomber and alleged possession of "chemical and gel substances" for bomb making.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aafia_Siddiqui)
2010 Feb 3, In San Francisco Timothy Syed Anderson (66), billed as a dermatologist, was charged with 51 counts including practicing medicine without a license and grand theft through deception. He had been implicated in fraud in Sweden, before he left the country in 1996.
(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 3, In Vallejo, Ca., Amarjit Kaur (39), a widow raising 3 children, was found shot in the chest and slumped behind the wheel of a Tony’s Ice Cream truck. Two days later a boy (14) was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery. On Feb 18 another boy, Peter Montenegro (15), was charged as an adult in the shooting. Kaur was recovering from her wound. In 2011 Montenegro was sentenced to 7 years to life for attempted murder and 10 years for using a gun.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.C2)(SFC, 11/24/11, p.C3)
2010 Feb 3, In Florida Stephen Schafer (38) died following a shark attack off an Atlantic coast beach about 100 miles north of Miami.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 3, Afghan and NATO forces killed 32 suspected militants in southern Helmand province, the focus an imminent anti-Taliban offensive. Three Afghan soldiers were killed and four others wounded.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 3, New African Union President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi said that food security, transport infrastructure and energy will be his priorities.
(AFP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, "L'homme qui marche I" (Walking Man I), a 1961 life-size bronze statue of a man by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), smashed the world record for an art work at auction, selling in London for £65,001,250.
(AFP, 2/4/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Giacometti)
2010 Feb 3, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Lekang Dairy Company general manager Zhang Wenxue and vice general managers Zhu Shuming and Tong Tianhu have been charged with manufacturing and selling tainted milk powder in the latest crackdown. Xinhua quoted Health Minister Chen Zhu as saying "all melamine-tainted milk products will be found and destroyed," as part of the current 10-day crackdown.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The EU backed Greece's “stability and development" plan to shrink a massive budget gap as "achievable," but warned it would demand tougher cutbacks if Athens does not stick to promised spending curbs and reforms.
(AP, 2/3/10)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.55)
2010 Feb 3, Iran announced it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space. The launch of the rocket Kavoshgar-3, which means Explorer-3 in Farsi, was announced by Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi to mark the National Day of Space Technology.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, An Iraqi appeals court struck down a ban imposed on hundreds of candidates for suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing them to run in next month's election. A bomb planted on a parked motorcycle ripped through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 100, as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims made their way to an important annual Shiite religious observance. Hours earlier, two separate roadside bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims exploded in Baghdad, killing one and wounding seven others. A senior security official said agents arrested 13 suspects believed involved in making explosive belts for suicide attacks.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, Israel announced that British and American architects were named winners of its prestigious Wolf Prize. British architect David Chipperfield was recognized for overseeing the reconstruction of Berlin's Neues Museum in a building that had been abandoned since World War II. American architect Peter Eisenman designed the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, inaugurated in 2005.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The Lithuania’s Ministry of Finance announced that Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services has revised its outlook on Lithuania by increasing it from negative to stable.
(http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/)
2010 Feb 3, Mexico’s Agriculture Dept. said private companies there have begun the first legal plantings of genetically modified corn.
(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 3, At The Hague appeals judges said the International Criminal Court was wrong when it decided that Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir can't be charged with genocide in Darfur. The unprecedented ruling could lead al-Bashir's indictment with humanity's worst crime.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, New Zealand police warned that local teenager (19), who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money, did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal. Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than many countries. Prostitution among consenting adults is allowed in brothels and on the streets, and offering sexual services in print ads and online is also legal.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, In Pakistan a bomb killed 3 US soldiers, 3 children and a Pakistani soldier. 45 people, including 40 school girls, were wounded in the attack outside a girls school near Swat Valley. The Taliban claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks on Americans.
(Reuters, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 2, Somali pirates hijacked a North Korean cargo ship with an unknown number of crew on board. The MV Rim, owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya, was seized in the Gulf of Aden, outside the internationally recommended transit corridor patrolled by the anti-piracy naval coalition. The crew of one Romanian and 9 Syrians fought their way free on June 2 with the help of Ahmed, a pirate cook, who had smuggled food to the crew and then guns.
(AP, 2/3/10)(SFC, 6/19/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 3, South Africa's polygamist Pres. Jacob Zuma confirmed that he recently fathered a child with a woman who is not one of his three wives or fiancee, and criticized those who said his actions undermined the country's campaign against HIV/AIDS. The nation of about 50 million has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, In Sri Lanka thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of the capital to protest the results of the recent presidential election, which they say was marred by fraud.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The Swiss government approved the resettlement of two Chinese inmates at Guantanamo as part of its commitment to help President Barack Obama's administration close the detention center.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, Ukraine's security service said 5 Russian FSB agents were detained last month after being caught trying to obtain confidential military information from a Ukrainian citizen. The FSB said the Ukrainian citizen its agents were working with had himself been apprehended in November while allegedly spying on neighboring Moldova's Moscow-backed breakaway Trans-Dniester republic.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 4, A US federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of Gerardo Castillo Chavez, an alleged drug cartel hit man, after a jury in the Texas-Mexico border town of Laredo acquitted him on a gun charge and deadlocked on other charges. Chavez, also known as "Cachetes" or "Cheeks" in Spanish, was accused of being a member of the Mexican Gulf Cartel's hit squads that killed and kidnapped people in Laredo in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Denver Miguel Angel Caro Quintero (46) was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for racketeering in Colorado and conspiracy to distribute marijuana in Arizona. His Sonora cartel was tied to the 1985 torture and killing of an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 4, The New York Attorney General’s filed civil charges against Bank of America and former CEO Ken Lewis for misleading investors about Merrill Lynch before it acquired the Wall Street firm in early 2009.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.D4)
2010 Feb 4, The US “Tea Party Nation," a decentralized grassroots movement, began its first national convention in Nashville, Tenn. The event’s grand finale was a tirade against Pres. Obama by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.31)
2010 Feb 4, Joseph McStay (40), his wife, Summer (43), and their two children disappeared from their San Diego County home. Their white, 1996 Isuzu Trooper was found four days later in a strip mall in San Ysidro, about 70 miles from their home. In 2013 The bodies of the family were found in a shallow graves near Victorville.
(AP, 2/25/10)(http://tinyurl.com/lllfc82)(SFC, 11/16/13, p.A6)
2010 Feb 4, Australia said it used an anti-weapons of mass destruction law to block three shipments to Iran but calls for new sanctions against the Islamic state opened up a new international divide.
(AFP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Britain's Treasury said it will rush through new legislation after a court ruled the way it freezes the bank accounts of suspected terrorists was unlawful. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled last week that the asset-freezing system was unlawful.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In China two courts in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced 25 people to death for their roles in nine kidnapping cases.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, China told other world powers that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was counterproductive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A Chinese ministry statement ordered schools to sever all ties and cooperation with Oxfam saying school administrators must ban all campus volunteer recruitment efforts run by the group's Hong Kong office. It accused the Hong Kong branch of having a hidden political agenda. Oxfam has operated in mainland China for 20 years and worked in cooperation with the government's poverty alleviation department. Oxfam, a confederation of 14 national organizations that works in about 100 countries, was founded in Britain in 1942.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 4, Dubai's government, under pressure to repay billions of dollars in debt, said it has discovered a new offshore oil field, the first such find by the city-state in decades.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, The Irish Catholic party Sinn Fein halted marathon negotiations to save Northern Ireland's power-sharing government and said it's now up to the Protestant side to accept a compromise deal.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Pakistan protests erupted across the country after a US court convicted a Pakistani scientist of trying to kill US servicemen in Afghanistan. A jury in New York found Aafia Siddiqui (37), a mother and neuroscientist trained, guilty on all charges.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A South Korean news report said the director of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's secret moneymaking "Room 39" bureau has been fired. Analysts said the move may be a way to get around international sanctions. Room 39 is described as the lynchpin of the North's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family. The department is believed to finance his family and top party officials with business ventures, some legitimate and some not, that include counterfeiting and drug-smuggling.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A leading Russian lawmaker said Russia and Western powers have moved closer to agreement on the need for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Romania’s Pres. Traian Basescu says the country's top defense body has approved a US proposal to place anti-ballistic interceptors in Romania as part of a revamped US missile shield. The measure passed the Supreme Defense Council and must be approved by Parliament.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Russia hailed a new agreement with the United States intended to boost joint anti-drug efforts, but urged the US and NATO to do more to stem a flow of drugs from Afghanistan that has sickened millions of Russians.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Sudan 16 people were killed in clashes between south Sudan troops and cattle herders from the northern Messeria tribe in the southern Unity state.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 4, Turkey’s government scrapped its controversial security and public order “Emsya") protocol, which allowed the army to take charge in the provinces when law and order breaks down.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.56)
2010 Feb 4, Venezuelan police used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter hundreds of students protesting against the government, as Pres. Chavez's supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an army officer.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 5, The US White House increased its criticism of Republican Senators following reports that Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama had placed a blanket hold on more than 70 administration nominees in order to secure funding for home-state projects. On Feb 9 Shelby’s office said he will stop blocking Senate confirmation of some 70 nominees.
(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Alabama a boy (14) was shot by another student inside a middle school in Madison. The victim died at a hospital.
(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 5, In Pennsylvania about 18,000 people turned out before dawn for the 18th Wing Bowl, an eating competition dubbed the world's biggest, and an annual celebration of Philadelphia's raucous sports-crazed culture.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Afghanistan a bomb planted on a motorcycle ripped through a crowd gathered to watch a dog fight in southern Helmand province, killing three people and wounding more than 30. Afghan border police mistook a group of villagers gathering wood near the Pakistan border as insurgents and opened fire, killing seven civilians. US forces detained Atahullah Wahaab, deputy police chief in Kapisa province, for alleged corruption and links to insurgents.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 5, New Zealand explorers said 5 crates of whisky and brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered after being buried for more than 100 years under the Antarctic ice. The excavation of the whisky followed the discovery last month of two blocks of butter in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Defense giant BAE Systems said it had agreed to pay fines of nearly 288 million pounds settle charges brought by Britain's Serious Fraud Office and the US Department of Justice. The fines, 258 million pounds to the DoJ and 30 million pounds to the SFO, related to investigations into BAE deals with countries including Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Romania and South Africa.
(AFP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Britain’s chief prosecutor said 4 British lawmakers will face criminal charges and the prospect of jail for alleged shady accounting practices during Britain's 2009 expense claims scandal. A report issued a day earlier into the expense scandal ordered 392 current and former British legislators to repay a total of 1.12 million pounds ($1.7 million).
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, British actor Ian Carmichael (89) died at his home in northern England. He appeared in a series of comedies for the Boulting Brothers including "Private's Progress," "Brothers in Law," "Lucky Jim" and "I'm All Right Jack." Later in his career he played the upper-class twit Bertie Wooster, and Dorothy L. Sayers suave detective Lord Peter Wimsey, in television series.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 5, Canada and the US said they have reached a tentative deal with to end a dispute over "Buy American" provisions in US legislation that had strained bilateral ties.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, China said it will slap heavy anti-dumping duties on US chicken parts, a move likely to aggravate trade ties between two of the world's most important economies at a time of strained political relations.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Danish special forces disrupted the takeover by Somali pirates of the cargo ship Ariella in the Gulf of Aden. A frogmen unit scaled the sides of the ship using grappling hooks, secured the bridge, released the crew and then launched an hours-long search for a pirate the crew had seen.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In East Timor 20 members of dissident political group CPD-RDTL and underground political organization Bua-Malus were arrested on suspicion of involvement in "ninja" activities.
(AFP, 4/6/10)
2010 Feb 5, Guatemalan police say they have destroyed about 1,200 acres (500 hectares) of opium poppies along the border with Mexico. The plants were valued at $950 million.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Iraq twin car bombs tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims packing a highway as they walked to Karbala south of Baghdad for a major religious observance, killing at least 40 people and wounding 154 others. A roadside bomb struck a bus carrying pilgrims through Baghdad, killing one and wounding 13.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Indian Kashmir paramilitary soldiers charged at a group gathered in a playground in Srinagar, and began firing as they fled, killing Zahid Farooq Shah (17). The incident threatened to enflame protests that have rocked the city following the death of another boy on Jan 31.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Latvia sold a deserted town built around a Soviet-era radar station to a Russian investor who bid $3.1 million at an unusual auction. The town, formerly known as Skrunda-1, housed about 5,000 people during the Cold War but was abandoned over a decade ago.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Mexican authorities said they have found the decapitated bodies of six men in the western state of Michoacan. In central Mexico a landslide killed at least 11 people, adding to 18 deaths this week from severe and unseasonable winter storms that closed schools and freeways and flooded thousands of homes.
(AP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 5, A breakthrough deal to save Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government gave a new lease of life to an awkward partnership of former foes that still must overcome many obstacles to survive. The deal commits the Northern Ireland Assembly to elect a justice minister March 9 and Britain to transfer control of more than 20 criminal justice and law-enforcement agencies to Belfast on April 12.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Pakistan women and children were among the 12 people killed when a suicide attacker rammed a motorbike bomb into a bus carrying Shiites on one of Karachi's busiest roads. A 2nd bomber then killed 13 people, damaging ambulances and the entrance to the casualty department at Jinnah Hospital, where the victims of the first attack were being treated. Police defused a third bomb rigged inside a television and left in the hospital car park. By the next day 8 more people had died bringing the total death toll to 33.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 5, Portuguese police seized a large amount of explosives at a home being used by Basque separatist group ETA as a base to prepare attacks in neighboring Spain.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Russian PM Vladimir Putin criticized his party following an unusually large opposition protest, saying it has fed the country with empty promises.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, A Vietnamese court convicted Tran Khai Thanh Thuy (49), a journalist and democracy activist, of assault and sentenced her to three-and-a-half years in prison in a one-day trial that rights groups said was meant to silence government critics.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Zimbabwe's civil servants launched an open-ended strike, demanding that their wages be increased to at least 630 US dollars, from 150 dollars a month, piling pressure on the strained unity government struggling to fix the economy. Most of Zimbabwe's 230,000 civil servants appeared to have heeded the strike call.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 6, A blizzard battered the US Mid-Atlantic region, with emergency crews struggling to keep pace with the heavy, wet snow that has piled up on roadways, toppled trees and left thousands without electricity. A record 2 1/2 feet or more was predicted for Washington.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans, the first white man to hold the position since his father, Moon Landrieu, left office in 1978.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.A12)
2010 Feb 6, In Colorado 2 small planes collided in flames over Boulder's outskirts and killed all three people aboard, while a glider under tow by one aircraft cut loose and flew through the fireball to safety.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica — the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Australian miner Resourcehouse said it has signed a 60-billion-US-dollar coal deal with energy-hungry China, calling it the country's "biggest-ever export contract." The company said it had negotiated a 20-year agreement to supply China Power International Holding Limited with 30 million tons of coal a year from a proposed mine in central Queensland. The initial report mistakenly identified the Chinese company as China Power International Development (CPI).
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 6, Sir John Dankworth (b.1927), British jazz artist, died in London. His film score credits included “Darling" (1965), “Modesty Blaise" (1966) and the theme of television’s “The Avengers" (1961-1969).
(SFC, 2/8/10, p.C3)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060708/)
2010 Feb 6, G7 finance leaders met for a 2nd day in Iqaluit’s legislative building of Canada's Arctic territory of Nunavut. A senior official said Europe was determined to solve its problems without the International Monetary Fund. G7 countries told earthquake-ravaged Haiti that any debts it owes them needn't be repaid and international lenders should do the same.
(Reuters, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, China’s state media said a man who operated a porn website has been sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined 100,000 yuan (15,000 dollars), amid an ongoing campaign to crack down on online sexual content.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Ethiopia’s official news agency said US software giant Microsoft has launched Windows Vista in Amharic, the first operating system in its national language. 40 scholars from the Addis Ababa University had taken part in the translation of the software for the country of over 80 million people.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Interfax reported that French Pres. Sarkozy has sanctioned the sale of a Mistral amphibious assault ship to Russia.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 6, The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the number of sexual abuse cases in Germany by Catholic clerics and laymen is much higher than was previously thought. According to a poll by Spiegel more than 94 clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995. Only 30 have been prosecuted, due to the statute of limitations.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Iraqi leaders pushed the country's highest court to issue a quick ruling on hundreds of candidates who have been banned from running in March elections, warning that parliament will settle the controversy if the judges don't.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Japanese naval ships returned home at the close of an eight-year refueling mission in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, A Libyan court ordered Max Goeldi, one of two Swiss men entangled in a diplomatic row, to pay an 800-dollar fine for illegal business activities. Fellow businessman Rashid Hamdani was cleared last week of charges of overstaying his visa.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, In Mexico gunmen killed six people at a bar in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state. In Ciudad Juarez authorities announced the arrest of In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of a second suspect in last week's massacre of 15 people, many of them teenagers with no known criminal ties, the second suspect in last week's massacre of 15 people, many of them teenagers with no known criminal ties.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Nigerians voted to choose a governor for the politically turbulent state of Anambra in a race expected to test the country's readiness to hold credible presidential polls next year. The next day the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Peter Obi of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance victor despite glitches and fears the vote would be rigged in favor of President Umaru Yar'Adua's party.
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, The Irish National Liberation Army, a ruthless IRA splinter group responsible for some of Northern Ireland's most notorious killings, said it has surrendered its weapons just days before an Anglo-Irish disarmament deadline is due to expire.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, North Korea released Robert Park (28), who had strode illegally into the country on Christmas Day, shouting "I brought God's love" and carrying a Bible.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Pakistani security forces seized Damadola, a key Taliban stronghold in the northwestern Bajur area. The government had declared the area free of militants a year ago.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, In Rwanda Joseph Ntawangundi, an aide to the leader of the Unified Democratic Party (FDU), was arrested on a 2007 arrest warrant. He had been convicted in absentia for genocide by one of the grassroots courts known as gacaca in eastern Ngoma province. The FDU protested that Ntawangundi, sentence to 19 years in prison, was not in the country during the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 dead. In March he sentenced to 17 years in prison for genocide in a retrial by a local court.
(AFP, 2/8/10)(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Feb 6, In South Korea a giant steel float that will be part of a "floating island" in Seoul boasting off-shore entertainment facilities began a snails-paced trip towards Han River. The three-meter high float, 85 meters long and 49 meters wide, will be part of Viva, one of three artificial islets to be built near the southern end of Banpo Bridge.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Spanish matador Jairo Miguel Sanchez Alonso (16) killed six bulls in one afternoon, pulling off a feat normally attempted only by seasoned veterans and winning trophies for his skill, ears from animals he had just slain.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Venezuela’s government announced that it will spend $15 billion over the next 5 years to increase electricity production.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 7, The New Orleans Saints capped off an outstanding season with an upset over the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, in Super Bowl XLIV. The Saints' victory over Indianapolis was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in US television history.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 7, In Daly City, Ca., a fight at the Little Caesars Pizza near King and Callan left Jessy Wiley (21) of South San Francisco dead. In 2012 three suspected Norteno gang members were convicted in relation to Wiley’s death.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A2)
2010 Feb 7, In Connecticut an explosion during a test of natural gas lines at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown killed at least 5 workers. The 620-megawatt plant was being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas.
(SFC, 2/8/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 7, In Afghanistan 2 two British soldiers were killed by an explosion in Sangin in Helmand Province, taking the death toll in Afghanistan to 255 since 2001. This raised Britain's death toll to that of the Falklands war.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 7, In Canada Air Force Col. Russell Williams (46) was arrested in Ottawa and charged with first degree murder in the deaths of 2 women. He was also charged in the sexual assaults of 2 other women. In late April Williams was also charged with 82 counts of burglary. On Oct 18 Williams pleaded guilty to more than 80 crimes over more than two years, including murder, sexual assault and burglary.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A2)(SFC, 4/30/10, p.A2)(Reuters, 10/19/10)
2010 Feb 7, Andre Kolingba (73), former Central African Republic general and coup leader (1981-1993), died in Paris.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Kolingba)(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 7, Costa Rica held elections and elected its first woman president. Laura Chinchilla (50), a mother and a social conservative, who opposed abortion and gay marriage, won 47% of the vote after campaigning to continue free market policies. She served as vice president under current Pres. Oscar Arias. Otton Solis of the Citizens Action Party, got 25% of the votes. He and the other main rival, Libertarian Otto Guevara, quickly conceded defeat. Chinchilla’s National Liberation Party was the largest in congress, but held only 24 of 57 seats.
(AP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/8/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.41)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.40)
2010 Feb 7, Newspapers said Toyota will recall 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of brake flaws. Toyota said that it will soon announce plans to deal with braking problems in its prized Prius hybrid amid reports it has decided to issue a recall for the latest model in Japan, a possible new embarrassment for the world's biggest automaker.
(AFP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, India again successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit targets across much of Asia and the Middle East. It was the fourth test of the Agni III missile.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's atomic agency to begin enriching uranium to a higher level, a move that's likely to deepen international suspicion over the country's intentions for its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Iran's state media said Tehran has arrested seven people linked to the US-funded Radio Farda and accused some them of working for American spy agencies.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, A Libyan court dropped a case against Rashid Hamdani, a Swiss businessman for alleged illegal business activities, clearing the way for him to go home after 19 months stuck in the country.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Ukrainians voted between two presidential candidates in a run-off between PM Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich which could push the country into a fresh bout of instability. Yanukovich ended with 48.95% to Tymoshenko's 45.47%, a lead of 3.48 percentage points or some 888,000 votes.
(Reuters, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 8, The US federal government was shuttered while the Mid-Atlantic region dug out from as much as three feet of snow that left tens of thousands without power and blocked trains, planes and cars, with another storm looming.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, The Obama administration said it will spend $78.5 million on efforts to contain the Asian carp, which threatened to endanger the Great Lakes’ $7 billion fishing industry.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, In California a federal judge sentenced Dongfan Chung (74), a Chinese-born engineer, to over 15 years in prison for economic espionage. During his career at Boeing Co. and Rockwell Intl. He had hoarded sensitive information about the space shuttle and a booster rocket and was arrested on Feb 11, 2008, for allegedly passing classified documents to China.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit on what's likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Boeing Co.’s 250-foot 747-8 freighter, the biggest plane it has ever built, successfully completed its first flight from Paine Field, in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, John Murtha (b.1932), Pennsylvania’s Democratic representative, died in Arlington, Va., following complications from gall bladder surgery. He had won a special House election in 1974 to become the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 8, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula number two Said al-Shihri called for attacks against US interests "everywhere," in an audio message released on the Internet.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Australia tightened its migration rules in favor of English speakers and professionals, saying the country has been attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and engineers.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Australia ITV Studios, producer of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here," was fined 3,000 Australian dollars ($2,615) after pleading guilty of animal cruelty after two reality show contestants skinned, cooked and ate a rat during filming in Australia.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 8, Byzantium Novum was founded as a micronation dedicated to the revival of Byzantine civilization and culture.
(www.byzantiumnovum.org)
2010 Feb 8, The China Daily newspaper reported officials have recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia. The current 10–day emergency crackdown has made it increasingly clear that many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued new guidelines to local authorities and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals acquiring .cn domain names. Individuals wanting to set up a website will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 8, In southern China a bus collided with a sport utility vehicle and plunged down a mountain ravine, killing seven people and injuring 50.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Egypt Mahmoud Ezzat, the new deputy leader of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, and two other top figures were among 16 people arrested by police in a dawn sweep across the country targeting members of the nation's most powerful opposition group. They were accused of trying to set up training camps for staging attacks.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 8, French engineering giant Areva said that it will buy Ausra, a Mountain View, Ca., startup specializing in large-scale solar power.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 8, In Haiti the UN warned that it will cut off shipments of free medicine beginning immediately to any Haitian hospitals that it finds are charging patients. Evans Monsigrace (28), a rice vendor, survived 27 days trapped under the rubble of a flea market following the devastating Jan 12 earthquake.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 8, Iran moved closer to being able to produce nuclear warheads with formal notification that it will enrich uranium to higher levels, even while insisting that the move was meant only to provide fuel for its research reactor. The semiofficial ISNA agency said that former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh was sentenced to six years in prison by a Revolutionary court. The defense minister announced that Iran has launched two production lines to build unmanned aircraft with surveillance and attack capabilities.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Iran said it will cut ties with the British Museum because of the museum's failure to lend Tehran the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient Babylonian artifact described as the world's earliest bill of rights.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Israeli security forces raided a Palestinian refugee camp in annexed east Jerusalem, arresting 11 people in an operation police said was aimed at putting "some order" in the area. Israel's Supreme Court ordered authorities to release two foreign activists seized in a Palestinian-controlled part of the West Bank. Ariadna Jove Marti of Spain and Bridgette Chappell of Australia, had been in a pre-dawn raid on their apartment in the heart of Ramallah.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Kashmir 17 Indian soldiers were killed in an avalanche that slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Mexican federal police arrested Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental, suspected leaders of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured in La Paz on Jan. 12. The drug cartel had terrorized Tijuana for several years. The military announced that soldiers had seized more than 12 tons of marijuana found beneath a false floor of a tractor trailer. The drugs were found during a routine search at a checkpoint near San Felipe, a town in the central part of the Baja California peninsula. Federal police arrested five Tijuana police officers along with six cartel members who were holding two rival gangsters captive. The arrests were based on information obtained following the capture of Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental. Two of the officers, Francisco Ortega and Juan Carlos Espinoza, had been recently lauded as part of a new breed of honest cop. 3 marines died in a shootout that also killed three suspected gang members in the border town of Reynosa.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 8, The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a paramilitary group responsible for dozens of murders during Northern Ireland's three decades of sectarian violence, said that it had disarmed.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Pakistani authorities arrested 6 suspected Taliban militants with a suicide vest and hand grenades allegedly on their way to kill Americans at the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in Lahore. Police seized 26 hand grenades and five detonators from the militants, who were traveling by car and motorcycle.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Sri Lanka opposition politician Rauff Hakeem said former army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka has been detained on sedition charges.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Sweden's unemployment agency was found guilty of discrimination for expelling a Muslim man from a job training program because he refused to shake hands with a woman.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, International monitors hailed Ukraine's presidential election as "professional, transparent and honest," increasing pressure on PM Yulia Tymoshenko to concede to opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, who held a 2.7% point lead with all but 1.7% of the ballots cast counted.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez declared a national emergency in the electricity sector as the worst drought in 50 years dried up water supplies in hydroelectric dams.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 8, A Yemen military official said 10 soldiers have been killed, most of them by snipers, and 18 wounded in a fresh outbreak of fighting with Shiite rebels in north Yemen.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, US Federal government offices were closed for a second straight day and utility workers struggled to restore power knocked out by a weekend blizzard.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, California lawmakers called for federal and state investigations into Anthem Blue Cross regarding new rates hikes of as much as 39% for thousands of policyholders statewide. On Feb 13 Anthem announced that it would delay the increase for two months to allow state regulators to conduct a review. On April 29 WellPoint, the parent of Anthem Blue Cross, said it was withdrawing the proposed rate increase and planned to file new rates.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/10, p.C1)
2010 Feb 9, Phil Harris (53), the fishing boat captain whose adventures off the Alaska coast were captured on the television show "Deadliest Catch", died in Anchorage following a massive stroke on Jan 29.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 9, Walter Fredrick Morrison (90), the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, died at his home in Monroe, Utah. Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948. He sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the "Frisbee," with sales surpassing 200 million discs.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Afghanistan US Army soldiers launched a preliminary operation in support of a planned US-Afghan attack on Marjah, the largest Taliban-controlled town in the south. Two NATO service members were killed in separate attacks, including an American who died in a bombing in the south. A French soldier was killed during a gunfight after insurgents attacked an Afghan army convoy being escorted by French troops in the eastern Kapisa province.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Afghanistan massive avalanches roared down a northern mountain pass. The death toll soon reached 171 and it was unclear how many more bodies might be buried in the snow. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said 3,000 people had been trapped in vehicles along the mountain pass at 3,400 meters (11,000) feet.
(AP, 2/9/10)(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 9, Chile’s President-elect Sebastian Pinera named a Cabinet of technocrats to run his government, calling more on political independents than members of the Chilean conservative parties that made him their standard-bearer.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, A Chinese court sentenced activist Tan Zuoren (56), who investigated the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the country's massive 2008 earthquake, to five years in jail for inciting subversion of state power. In 2010 the Sichuan provincial high court upheld the ruling.
(AP, 2/9/10)(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, China said its first national pollution census has mapped nearly 6 million sources of industrial, residential and agricultural waste. The 2-year survey results gave the government one year to shape the next 5-year environmental protection plan.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 9, In Germany GM's Opel unit asked European governments for billions of euros (dollars) in aid even as it formally presented a restructuring plan that will result in some 8,300 job cuts in Europe.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Guatemala Manuel Pop Sun and Reyes Collin Gualip, two former sergeants who belonged to a military squad specializing in counterinsurgency, were arrested for their roles in the 1982 massacre of more than 200 people in the village of Dos Erres in the country's northern Peten region. They were among 17 soldiers in the army's elite Kaibil unit blamed for the bloodshed.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 9, India halted the release of the world's first genetically modified eggplant, saying further study needed to be done to guarantee consumer safety before it could be cultivated in the country.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Indonesian police said 8 people have died after drinking liquor laced with methanol on the country's main island of Java. The victims had bought the drink from the same stall on Feb 5.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level over the vociferous objections of the US and its allies who fear the process could eventually be used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Toyota officials went to Japan's Transport Ministry to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid. The automaker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the US and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan. The total recall amounted to 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Honda Motor Co. added 378,000 US vehicles and 41,000 in Canada to its 15-month-old global recall for faulty air bags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker. The next day 17,000 cars in Japan were added to the list.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 9, Authorities in Malaysia caned three Muslim women for having extramarital sex, making them the first women in the country to receive such punishment under Islamic law. Each woman reportedly received between four and six strokes of a rattan cane.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 9, Nigeria's Parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over for ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, whose absence has stoked unrest.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Pakistan a suicide car-bomber killed 18 people in the Khyber region on the Afghan border. A military helicopter gunship crashed in another part of Khyber, where security forces are fighting militants, killing the two crew. Militants later opened fire on an army rescue party, killing a senior officer and wounding two men.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 9, The UN said in an international appeal that aid groups in Pakistan need nearly $538 million over the next six months to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by army clashes against the Taliban.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Philippine prosecutors filed charges against Andal Ampatuan senior, the head of a powerful clan, and 195 others in the biggest and deadliest murder case since the country's WW II war crimes trials.
(AP, 2/9/10)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.40)
2010 Feb 9, In South Africa a fire raged through the Hope in Christ Home orphanage at Newcastle in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. The blaze killed Sarah Holland, the director and founder of the Hope of Christ Home in KwaZulu-Natal province, along with two adults and eight children between the ages of 4 and 15. Holland died a hero, rescuing nine children as their rural home burned.
(AFP, 2/9/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 9, Sri Lanka's president dissolved the parliament, setting the stage for new elections a day after authorities arrested the leader of the opposition, a move analysts said was meant to prevent him from contesting the vote. The opposition called for countrywide protests after its defeated presidential candidate was arrested for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government while serving as army commander.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Sudan militias raided a Darfur refugee camp, shooting dead two people and injuring at least 10. The raid followed the murder of a militia member's relative who appeared to be searching the camps in Kass, South Darfur for the suspect.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, The US Treasury Department said it was freezing the assets in US jurisdictions of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction firm he runs because of their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 10, Snow, wind and slush hounded eastern commuters as blizzard warnings from Baltimore to New York City heralded the second major storm in a region already largely blanketed by weekend snowfall. Snow was falling from northern Virginia to Connecticut after crawling out of the Midwest, where the storm canceled hundreds of flights and was blamed for three traffic deaths in Michigan.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Charlie Wilson (b.1933), former Texas congressman (1973-1996), died. His deal-making funneled millions of dollars in weapons to Afghanistan to back rebels fighting the Soviet Army. He was also known as “Good Time Charlie" for his reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer. In 2003 George Crile authored “Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times." In 2007 the film “Charlie Wilson's War" starred Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson.
(SFC, 2/11/10, p.A8)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.84)
2010 Feb 10, Bolivia said it has created a space agency to build and launch the country’s first satellite. The government will initially invest $1 million in the Bolivian Space Agency.
(SFC, 2/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 10, In Brazil a TV news helicopter pilot steered his crippled, out-of-control aircraft away from a busy highway in Sao Paulo before crashing in a grassy field during rush hour, losing his own life but avoiding greater casualties. A cameraman onboard was seriously injured.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, A Brazilian health official said 32 elderly people had died in the southeastern city of Santos this week because of a heat wave that has pushed temperatures to unseasonably high levels.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 10, China declared a new food-safety campaign after contaminated milk products from an earlier scandal showed up repackaged in several places around the country, exposing weaknesses in the country's promise to stop such problems from happening again.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Greece a strike by civil servants shut schools and grounded flights across the country, as unions challenged cutbacks aimed at ending a government debt crisis that has shaken the entire European Union.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Iran's top police official says authorities have made a series of arrests of suspected opposition activists before expected Feb 11 protest rallies.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Iraq an American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 10, An Israeli TV station said it has uncovered evidence that Palestinian Authority officials have stolen millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Myanmar a court sentenced Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese-born American, to 3 years of hard labor for carrying a forged identity card, undeclared US currency and for not renouncing his nationality after becoming a US citizen. He was arrested last September when he returned to visit his mother, an imprisoned democracy activist suffering from cancer.
(SFC, 2/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 10, Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan removed the powerful justice minister in his first major step since assuming executive powers in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Outgoing Justice Minister and Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa had been among the group of ministers who held out most strenuously against formally transferring power to Jonathan.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Pakistan's top civilian security official said Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has died. It was the government's first categorical confirmation of Mehsud’s death, whose passing is likely to weaken, but not vanquish, the al-Qaida-linked insurgent network he led. On April 29 intelligence officials reversed claims that Mehsud had died, handing militants something of a propaganda victory.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Somalia at least 11 civilians were killed when African Union forces in Mogadishu responded to an insurgent mortar attack on their base. At least four security personnel and a civilian were killed when two groups of security officers fought over where to collect their salaries.
(AFP, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Sri Lanka opposition supporters protesting the arrest of their defeated presidential candidate scuffled with government-backers on the streets of Colombo before police fired tear gas and broke up the clashes.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Sudan Mohamed Musa (23), a Darfuri student, was abducted in Khartoum and later found dead. Fellow students later said they had seen his body, that his hands were burned, his head and body beaten, cut and swollen and his clothes soaked in blood.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 10, Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich called on defeated rival Yulia Tymoshenko to resign as prime minister, turning up the pressure even as her camp contested the result of the Feb 7 presidential election.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Uruguay former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, in office from 1971 to 1976, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating the constitution when he led a 1973 coup that began 12 years of dictatorship.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Vietnam’s central bank devalued its currency, the dong, by 3.4%. This followed a devaluation of 5.4% last November.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.59)
2010 Feb 10, Twelve Yemeni soldiers and 24 Shiite rebels were killed in clashes despite the announcement of an imminent accord to end six months of fighting.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The US military used a laser gun aboard a Boeing 747 jumbo jet to shoot down a missile near Point Mugu, Ventura County, Ca. The airborne laser program began in 1996 and has cost billion of dollars.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 11, A Taliban suicide bomber wearing a border police uniform entered a US military base near the Pakistani border and blew himself up injuring five Americans. A joint Afghan-NATO force killed several insurgents during a raid on a compound where troops discovered the bodies of two men and two bound and gagged women. Family members accused US soldiers of killing innocent civilians.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 11, In the Antarctic Ocean Sea Shepherd protesters shot butyric acid, produced from stinking rancid butter, at Japanese whalers to try to disrupt the annual whale hunt. The activists maintained that butyric acid is nontoxic.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Australia a shadowy group of cyber-activists succeeded in jamming key Australian government websites for a second consecutive day and warned they could shut down the sites for months in protest over controversial plans to filter the Internet. Codenamed "Operation: Titstorm", the hacking campaign involved hundreds of people from around the world and used a technique called Distributed Denial of Service to jam web traffic.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Brazil gunfire erupted in a Rio de Janeiro slum, killing at least seven suspected drug traffickers and a policeman a day before the Carnival celebrations kick off. Jose Roberto Arruda (57), the governor of Brasilia, was detained after a witness in a corruption investigation accused the governor of trying to bribe him.
(AP, 2/11/10)(Econ, 2/27/10, p.43)
2010 Feb 11, Volkswagen announced it was recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in Brazil because of a problem with the rear wheels that could cause them to seize or fall off.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen (40) was found dead at his London home. McQueen received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, when she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion leadership. A Feb 17 coroner’s report gave the cause of the fashion designer's death as asphyxiation and hanging.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 11, Christopher Grady (41) drove his car into the freezing into the River Avon in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, while his daughter was in the passenger seat. Gabrielle was trapped inside the submerged car for two hours and died three days later in hospital. His then six-year-old son Ryan Grady, survived after being rescued from the water by police. On March 18, 2011, Christopher Grady was convicted of murdering his daughter.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2010 Feb 11, In Ecuador tens of thousands of protesters crowded into downtown Guayaquil, answering a call from the mayor of Ecuador's biggest city to demonstrate against the national government. Mayor Jaime Nebot, a conservative, accused President Rafael Correa of trying to build a system that Nebot called a copy of Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Indonesia's former anti-graft chief, Antasari Azhar (56), was convicted of plotting the murder of a businessman and sentenced to 18 years in prison, in a case that has undermined the country's fight against corruption.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the US imposed new sanctions. Hundreds of thousands of government supporters massed in central Tehran to mark the anniversary of the revolution that created Iran's Islamic republic, while a heavy security force that fanned across the city moved quickly to snuff out counter protests by the opposition.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Iraqi interior minister said he had expelled 250 ex-employees of the American security firm Blackwater, whose guards were charged with killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Opponents of Israel's contentious separation barrier in the West Bank scored a long-awaited victory when the government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of a Palestinian village that has become a symbol of anti-wall protests and the site of frequent clashes. A Palestinian militant was killed and two young girls wounded by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Italy's Fiat SpA and Russian automobile company Sollers announced a euro2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) joint venture to produce up to 500,000 vehicles per year in Russia in a bid to become the country's second-largest car maker.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, A Libyan appeal court reduced the 16-month jail sentence of Max Goeldi, a Swiss businessman, for overstaying his visa to four months.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Pakistan a double bombing targeted police killing up to 15 people and wounding 25 others in the northwestern town of Bannu.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Philippines launched a European-funded program to reduce the country's large number of extralegal killings and disappearances of activists, journalists and union workers. The EU has pledged euro3.9 million ($5.36 million) for the EU-Philippines Justice Support Program to provide technical aid and training to bolster the country's criminal justice system.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Russian government forces killed 4 innocent civilians in the North Caucasus. 4 garlic pickers died along with 18 suspected Islamic militants in a three-day shootout in the mountainous forests that straddle the North Caucasus provinces of Ingushetia and Chechnya.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Saudi religious police launched a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to the banned celebrations of Valentine's Day.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Spain Roberto Florez Garcia (44), a former Spanish intelligence officer, was convicted of trying to sell secrets to Russia and imprisoned for 12 years. Garcia worked at Spain's intelligence headquarters from 1991 to 2004, when he quit. He was arrested on the Canary island of Tenerife in 2007 and went on trial in January.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Sri Lankan police swinging batons dispersed a crowd protesting the detention of the defeated opposition presidential candidate, former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who appealed to his supporters for calm.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Tanzania a UN tribunal found former Rwandan Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi guilty of exhorting a crowd to kill Tutsis and destroy their homes during the 1994 genocide that ripped through the Central African nation. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Thai prosecutors said they have dropped charges against the five-man crew of an aircraft accused of smuggling weapons from North Korea, saying the men, arrested on Dec 12, might be guilty but would be deported to preserve good relations with their home countries. The decision was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 12, In Alabama Amy Bishop (42), a biology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, gunned down three of her colleagues during a faculty meeting in an apparent tenure dispute. On Sep 11, 2012, Bishop pleaded guilty to killing her colleagues. On Sep 24 she was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/13/10)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A8)(AP, 9/24/12)
2010 Feb 12, In Oregon Jeffrey Grahn (46), an off-duty sheriff’s sergeant, shot and killed his wife and another woman before fatally shooting himself at a bar in Gresham.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A8)
2010 Feb 12, In Pennsylvania Max Ray Vision, formerly Max Ray Butler, of San Francisco was sentenced to 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $27.5 million to the banks and credit card companies that he victimized. In 2009 Butler (36) had identified himself in court as “Max Vision," the name he gave himself in the 1990s when he became a superstar in the computer security community.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.D1)(www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/butler_court/)
2010 Feb 12, Afghan and US troops fought back small-scale attacks by Taliban fighters on the northern outskirts of Marjah, as tribal elders pleaded for NATO to finish its planned attack on the Taliban stronghold quickly and carefully to protect civilians. Cars and trucks jammed the main road out Marjah as hundreds of civilians defied militant orders and fled the area ahead of the anticipated US-Afghan assault. A joint international-Afghan patrol fired on two men mistakenly believed to be insurgents in Gardez, south of Kabul. 3 women were "accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men." NATO confirmed its responsibility for the 5 deaths on April 4.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(SFC, 4/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 12-2010 Feb 13, A massive iceberg, about the size of Luxembourg, struck Antarctica, dislodging another giant block of ice from the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 12 In Azerbaijan lawmakers revised the country’s media laws to forbid journalists from filming, recording or photographing subjects without their permission.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 12, In Brazil the World's Greatest Party opened, but the everything-goes atmosphere of Carnival that has turned Rio de Janeiro into a giant oceanside den of debauchery was under assault. Amid the law-and-order makeover, a 7-year-old girl prepared to samba before a crowd of thousands as a Carnival drum corps queen.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, The XXI Olympic Winter Games began in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the Olympics' first-ever indoor opening ceremony. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a horrific crash on a training run, casting a shadow as Vancouver opened the Winter Olympic Games with a daredevil snowboarder, an aboriginal welcome, and Wayne Gretzky lighting the cauldron.
(AP, 2/12/10)(Reuters, 2/13/10)(SFC, 2/22/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 12, China raised the level of reserves banks must hold for the second time this year, spooking financial markets on the eve of its New Year holiday by showing it was intent to curb lending and inflation.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 12, In India thousands of devout Hindus bathed in the waters of the Ganges river as part of the Kumbh Mela, often described as the world's largest religious gathering. The festival began on January 13 in Haridwar, a temple-filled town at the foothills of the Himalayas where the Ganges river enters the sprawling plains of northern India. The festival ends April 28.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, In India Rouvanjit Rawla (12), a pupil at the prestigious La Martiniere for Boys school in the eastern city of Kolkata, hanged himself in his room after being caned for bringing stink bombs into class. Illegal but often tolerated, caning was rife in India's school system, but the suicide of the pupil after a beating brought the practice out of the shadows.
(AFP, 7/03/10)(http://tinyurl.com/29t956x)
2010 Feb 12, In Iraq a joint raid by American and Iraqi security forces on suspected weapons smugglers in the village of Ali al-Sharqi near the Iranian border left at least five people dead. The troops were searching for weapons allegedly smuggled across the border by suspected Iranian-backed Kateb Hezbollah fighters.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 12, Ivory Coast Pres. Laurent Gbagbo declared that he is dissolving the government and election commission. The move threw into doubt a political reconciliation process that had former rebels serving in top ministerial posts.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 12, Palestinian officials rallied around Rafiq Husseini, the chief of staff to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after a video surfaced showing him in the nude in an alleged attempt to trade his influence for sex. Pres. Abbas fired Husseini on April 7.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Feb 12, The WHO said a cholera outbreak on Papua New Guinea has killed at least 40 people over the last several months.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 12, Russian officials said that at least 14 suspected Islamic militants had been killed and one police officer wounded in two days of fighting in the southern province of Ingushetia.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 12, In Somalia at least eight people, including a six-year-old, were killed as mortars pounded Mogadishu during an attack on government soldiers by al-Shabab fighters. Hundreds of residents fled Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, A senior Yemeni official accused northern rebels of violating a cease-fire agreement hours after it took effect, killing a soldier and wounding another in an attack on a police station.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 13, In California, South African Chris Bertish won the $50,000 first prize at the 7th Mavericks Surf Contest north of Half Moon Bay. Earlier in the day a series of waves crashed into some of the thousands of fans who had flocked to a beach to try to see the action.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 13, In Alaska an avalanche near Seward buried Jim Bowles, head of Conoco Phillips Alaska and Alan Gage, part of the company’s capital projects team. They were among a party of 12 snowmobilers.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 13, Thousands Afghan soldiers and US Marines stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by air and ground, meeting only scattered resistance but facing a daunting thicket of bombs and booby traps that slowed their advance. NATO reported two troop casualties, an American and a Briton, on the first day of the offensive, called "Moshtarak," or "Together."
(AP, 2/13/10)(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Canada on the opening day of Olympic competition Vancouver police in riot gear confronted more than 200 masked protesters who hurled newspaper boxes through display windows of a popular department store selling Olympic souvenirs. Guillame Joseph-Marc Beaulieu (27) led a group of about 100 black-masked anarchists who spray-painted vehicles and smashed storefront windows as they marched. On Feb 16 police reported his arrest. Beaulieu, charged with mischief, had also led a group that blocked a street and forced organizers to re-route a relay transporting the Olympic flame to the opening ceremonies.
(AP, 2/13/10)(Reuters, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 13, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned his people to keep a "sober mind" about the challenges ahead in the new year as the country welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Tiger with noisy celebrations. Feb 14 officially marked the first day of the Lunar new Year.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, French transport and utility group Veolia was given the green light to run passenger trains in France in competition with national rail operator SNCF.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In India a terror attack took place at the German Bakery restaurant in the western city of Pune. The death toll reached 17 people with some 60 others injured. A group called Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi claimed responsibility in response to India's "refusal" to discuss the disputed region of Kashmir. A terror cell responsible for the attack was broken up in 2011.
(AFP, 2/13/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)(AP, 11/30/11)
2010 Feb 13, Fourteen Indian border guards were suspended for suspected involvement in the Feb 5 shooting death of Zahid Farooq Shah (17) in the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Indonesia contestants took part in the Social Cultural Transvestite Queen beauty pageant in Banda Aceh, Aceh province. The transvestite beauty pageant was held for the first time in the country's only province that officially adopted Islamic sharia law.
(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Iraq about 10 rockets struck Camp Sparrowhawk near Amarah early in the morning, injuring two Iraqi soldiers and damaging equipment.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Italian police said they have confiscated 500,000 tons of counterfeit goods discovered in eight industrial hangars on the outskirts of Rome. Once labeled with Italian brands, They would have brought in several million euros for the counterfeiters. The goods were suspected of being imported from China.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Italy an Egyptian youth, Hamed Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Essayyed Abdou, was stabbed to death in Milan in a killing blamed on Peruvian and Ecuadorian youths. 36 Egyptians and one Ivorian national were detained following a rampage by around 100 North Africans.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 13, Ivory Coast's opposition declared it would no longer recognize Laurent Gbagbo as president, a move likely to complicate his efforts to form a new government.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Mexico hundreds of people marched against the drug gang violence besieging the border city of Ciudad Juarez, gathering at a bridge where they simulated the massacre of a group of teenagers last month. Police, meanwhile, found the bullet-ridden bodies of five men, missing since Feb 6., in a town in the southwestern corner of Chihuahua state. A decapitated body was found dumped beside the highway leading into Acapulco.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Myanmar Tin Oo (82), the deputy leader of the pro-democracy party, was released by the military regime after almost seven years in detention and said he hoped the party's leader Aung San Suu Kyi would also soon gain freedom.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least 20 bus passengers were killed in Port Harcourt when a cable fell onto the bus and electrocuted the people inside.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, This day marked a new year according to the Chinese calendar, as it moved from the reign of the Ox to the year of the Tiger. The Chinese calendar is thought to have been formulated around 500 BC, though elements of it date back at least to the Shang Dynasty at around 1,000 BC.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/yearofthetigerallaboutthechinesezodiac)
2010 Feb 14, Billionaire Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp., and the crew of his trimaran USA-17 won the America’s Cup after winning a 2nd race against Swiss biotech magnate Ernesto Bertarelli in the 39-mile course off Valencia, Spain.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 14, In Arizona a helicopter crashed north of Phoenix killing 5 people onboard including Thomas Stewart (64), the head of Services Group of America.
(SFC, 2/16/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 14, An apartment fire in Cicero, Ill., killed at least 7 people including 4 children. The fire spread to nearby buildings and over 20 people were left homeless. On March 4 landlord Lawrence Myers (60) and handyman Marion Comier (47) were each charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A9)(www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2085374,CST-NWS-fire05.article)
2010 Feb 14, Doug Fieger (57), leader of the power pop band The Knack, died in southern California. He sang on the 1979 hit "My Sharona." Fieger, a Detroit-area native, formed The Knack in Los Angeles in 1978.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 14, John Thorbjarnarson (52), crocodile advocate, died. In 1988 he drew up an action plan to save crocodiles. All 23 species were threatened or declining.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.95)
2010 Feb 14, Twelve Afghans, including 6 children, died when two rockets fired at insurgents missed their target and struck a house during the second day of NATO's most ambitious effort yet to break the militants' grip on the country's dangerous south. Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops encountered pockets of resistance, as they moved deeper into Marjah, a town of 80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network in Helmand province. Afghan officials said at least 27 insurgents have been killed in the operation. In the south two British service members died, one from small-arms fire and the other from a roadside bomb explosion.
(AP, 2/14/10)(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 14, British documentary filmmaker Paul Martin (55) was detained at a Gaza military tribunal where he was to testify on behalf of a local man accused of collaborating with Israel. Hamas officials said that he would detained for 15 days. Martin was released on March 11.
(AP, 2/15/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 14, British author Dick Francis (b.1920), a former jockey whose thrillers rode high in best-selling lists for decades, died at his Caribbean home in Grand Cayman. His first book was a 1957 autobiography titled “The sport of Queens." His first novel, “Dead Cert," came out in 1962 and was followed by 41 more.
(AFP, 2/14/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Francis)(SFC, 2/15/10, p.C3)
2010 Feb 14, In Canada Alexandre Bilodeau, skiing under huge pressure, finally won Canada's first Olympic gold on Cypress Mountain when he snatched victory in a thrilling finale to the men's freestyle moguls.
(Reuters, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, Iraqi officials said only one in five candidates accused of being loyalists to Saddam Hussein's regime successfully fought an order banning them from running in the national elections. Armed assailants in Mosul killed Rayan Salem Elias, a Chaldean, outside his home.
(AP, 2/14/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 14, Kuwait's state news agency said the Kuwaiti telecom group Zain has agreed to offload its African assets to India's Bharti Airtel, in a deal valued at $10.7 billion.
(Reuters, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, In New Zealand Department of Conservation workers found 9 whales dead on Stewart Island's West Ruggedy Beach after they were alerted by a passer-by. Wild seas and strong winds made it impossible to mount a rescue for 19 survivors. Conservation officials were forced to euthanize the animals.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 14, In Singapore the Resorts Worlds Centosa casino complex opened.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/4ep2owf)
2010 Feb 14, South Korea’s Samsung, the world's second-biggest handset maker, unveiled its first phone to use its own new operating system, called 'bada'.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 14, Ukraine's election commission proclaimed pro-Russian Victor Yanukovych the official winner of the presidential poll, even as his rival Yulia Tymoshenko vowed to contest the results in court.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, Venezuelan authorities said they have discovered 28 airplanes on the outskirts of El Sombrero that were presumably being used by drug traffickers. Federal police and National Guard troops took control of the hangar and impounded the planes.
(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, A Yemeni military helicopter crashed killing at least 10 troops in the north, as the government sought to implement a ceasefire with Shiite rebels in the mountainous area.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 15, The US Federal Housing Administration adopted home-valuation reforms, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct" (HVCC) that were implemented last year by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite complaints by real estate agents, home buyers and sellers, mortgage brokers and appraisers.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/yesbts6)
2010 Feb 15, Astronauts successfully attached a fancy new observation deck to the International Space Station after a long, frustrating night spent dealing with stuck bolts and wayward wiring.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In New Jersey a small plane crashed at Monmouth Executive airport killing 5 people aboard.
(SFC, 2/16/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 15, Art Van Damme (b.1920), jazz accordionist, died. From 1945 to 1960 he worked for NBC, performing on The Dinah Shore Show, Tonight, The Dave Garroway Show and other radio and TV shows with Garroway. He recorded 130 episodes of the 15-minute The Art Van Damme Show for NBC Radio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Van_Damme)
2010 Feb 15, Jeanne M. Holm, the first woman to rise to the rank of general in the US Air Force and the first woman to become a two-star general in any US armed service, died in Annapolis, Md.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.C5)
2010 Feb 15, In Afghanistan sniper teams attacked US Marines and Afghan troops across the Taliban haven of Marjah, as several gun battles erupted on the third day of a major offensive to seize the extremists' southern heartland.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Antarctic waters Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based Sea Shepherd activist group, jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski with the stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the ship's captain and presenting him with a $3 million bill for the destruction of a protest ship last month. The Japanese government said Bethune will be charged with trespassing and assault and tried under Japanese law.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Belgium two commuter trains collided head-on after one ran a stop light at rush hour in a Brussels suburb, killing at least 18 people and injuring 55.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Brazil Julia Lira, Rio's 7-year-old Carnival drum corps queen, danced at the front of the samba parade. She didn't like the cameras that homed in on her, and reacted as any child might, by having a good cry.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In London, England, a 33-year-old man was arrested after the body of a Saudi man (32) was discovered at the prestigious Landmark Hotel in the Marylebone area. The suspect claimed to be a member of the Saudi royal family. Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was soon charged for the killing of Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz. On Oct 19 the prince was convicted of murder. Photographs of Abdulaziz stored on a mobile phone had shown that there was a "sexual element" to the abuse.
(AFP, 2/17/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Feb 15, British Airways said it would use low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014 once Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant was built by US biofuels specialist Solena Group. A plant to be built in London will convert 500,000 tons of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel annually.
(AFP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Canada PM Harper began a 2-day visit to Haiti and said his country will build the Haitian government a temporary base.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, A Montreal financial adviser convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, like the one that landed Bernard Madoff in jail for life, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Bertram Earl Jones was accused of swindling investors out of as much as C$50 million ($46.7 million).
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Congo’s Radio Okapi, a UN-run station, said Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed at least 27 people in eastern Congo already this month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Dubai police held a stunning news conference and blamed the Jan 19 slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on a team of 10 men and one woman carrying passports from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Spain, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Apple announced its new Windows Phone 7 software. Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile handsets, said it would merge its Linux Maemo software platform, used in its flagship N900 phone, with Intel's Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-sourced software, to create a new platform, MeeGo. The software deal was set to boost Intel's chances of getting its chips into the cellphones of the Finnish company, which controls around 40% of the global phone market.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)(SFC, 2/16/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 15, In eastern India suspected armed Maoist rebels riding motorcycles killed at least 24 policemen in a daring gun and bomb attack on a security camp. Two Maoist guerrillas were also killed in the raid in West Bengal state's Midnapore district.
(AFP, 2/15/10)(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Iraq greengrocer Fatukhi Munir was gunned down inside his Mosul shop in a drive-by shooting.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 15, Israel's PM Netanyahu called for "crippling sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear program after a meeting in Moscow with Russia's top officials, whom he praised for showing "an understanding" over the issue.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Libya suspended the issuing of entry visas to European citizens apart from British nationals. Italy's foreign ministry confirmed the measure and said it was in retaliation for Switzerland's recent decision to publish a blacklist of 180 Libyans banned from entering the country.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Myanmar sentenced four activists to prison terms with hard labor as special UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana arrived to assess progress on human rights in the country. The four women were arrested last October after being accused of offering Buddhist monks alms that included religious literature.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yara, a Norwegian fertilizer maker, agreed to pay $4.1 billion for Terra, an American company. This would extend Yara’s lead as the world’s biggest maker of nitrogen-based fertilizer.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.62)
2010 Feb 15, In Pakistan a suspected US drone fired a missile at a vehicle in the northwest, killing three people in the second such strike in as many days.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Spain said it is willing to take in five inmates from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, not just the two it had announced last month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Cyclone Rene battered Tonga with powerful winds, cutting phone links, ripping off roofs and downing power lines in the South Pacific island nation.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yemeni Shiite rebels handed over the first of five Saudi soldiers held captive since their border war.
(AFP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Simon Property Group Inc sought to pluck General Growth Properties out of bankruptcy, offering to pay $7 billion to creditors and nearly $3 billion to shareholders in a deal that would combine the two largest U.S. shopping mall owners.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.64)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F2JS20100216)
2010 Feb 16, In New Jersey Shamsid-Din Abdul-Raheem (21) threw his 3-month-old daughter off the Garden State Parkway Driscoll Bridge after the mother filed a restraining order against him. The body of the infant was found on April 24.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 16, William Gordon (b.1918), American astronomer, died. He designed the Arecibo radio telescope, completed in 1963, in Puerto Rico.
(Econ, 2/27/10, p.87)
2010 Feb 16, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez issued a decree seeking to control all shipping to and from the Falkland Islands, escalating her fight with Britain over drilling for oil and gas in the South Atlantic.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 16, In Austria 14 countries and the European Commission adopted the Danube River Basin Management Plan, a cleanup plan for the Danube River and its tributaries. Participating countries included Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Canada Maelle Ricker thrilled a rowdy hometown crowd and easily won the women's Olympic snowboard cross title, bagging the first gold for a Canadian woman on home soil.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Jorge Puello, who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the 10 Americans jailed in Haiti, acknowledged in a phone interview from the Dominican Rep., that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States. He was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police said he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member European hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander on Jan 19 in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region said it would allow sponsor Russia to build a military base on its soil for land troops, strengthening the region's dependence on Moscow and provoking ire from Tbilisi..
(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F3JE20100216)
2010 Feb 16, Greek customs officials and finance ministry employees walked off the job for a 3-day strike as protests grew against the government’s austerity measures, which aimed at pulling the country out a debt crises.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 16, In Guinea a decree said that Cmdr. Claude Pivi will stay on as minister in charge of presidential security. Pivi is considered a rogue commander who is accused of torturing civilians, including a group of students he arrested outside a nightclub after discovering the side mirror on his SUV was missing. Lt. Col. Moussa Tiegboro was appointed to a special ministerial post within Gen. Sekouba Konate's office. Tiegboro has been named in a UN investigation as one of the principle actors behind a Sept. 28 massacre of at least 157 unarmed civilians.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shrugging off international concerns, announced the country was moving ahead to expand its nuclear enrichment capacities by installing more advanced machinery at its main enrichment facility.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Iraq Zia Toma (21), an engineering student, was killed in Mosul, the third in as many days, as community leaders warned of rising violence against the minority ahead of Iraq's March 7 general election. The gunman also wounded pharmacy student Ramsin Shmael (22), both Assyrian Christians.
(AFP, 2/16/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 16, Mexican authorities found the decapitated bodies of five men in the town of Escuinapa, Sinaloa state. 2 of the heads were missing their ears and two more had a "Z" carved on their backs in an apparent reference to the Zetas drug gang.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Mozambique state media reported that a mob attacked health workers in a town in the northern town of Macoroja, killing one and injuring three others, after accusing them of spreading cholera.
(AFP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it was freezing executive pay and revamping bonus policy in the wake of a shareholder rebellion at its annual meeting last year.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Pakistani intelligence officials said the Taliban's top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's No. 2 leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured some days ago in Karachi.
(AP, 2/16/10)(Reuters, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Sudan gunmen attacked a police convoy outside Nyala in south Darfur, wounding seven Pakistani police officers serving with the UN-AU force. 2 people were soon arrested in connection with an ambush.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 16, Thailand officials said tests conducted by the government have found that British-made bomb detectors it bought for a total of $21 million have an accuracy rate of only 20 percent, but they will continue to be used.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, UN Sec. General Ban Ki-moon announced that the int’l. convention banning cluster bombs has received the 30 ratifications required and will enter into force on August 1.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 17, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq a new name, "Operation New Dawn," effective Sept 1, to reflect the reduced role US troops will play in securing the country this year as troop levels fall.
(http://tinyurl.com/3dhn288)
2010 Feb 17, San Francisco police along with state and federal agents arrested 28 suspected gang members in a daylong operation to clear the “worst of the worst" off the streets.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.C4)
2010 Feb 17, In Palo Alto, Ca., a Cessna 310 crashed into a neighborhood after takeoff from the fogged-in Palo Alto Airport, killing all 3 people aboard. 4 houses were damaged, but no one on the ground was injured. Pilot Doug Bourn (56), Brian Finn (42) and Andrew Ingram (31) worked for Tesla Motors Inc.
(SFC, 2/18/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 17, It was reported that a mysterious illness was killing brown pelicans along the northern California coast. Some 100 birds were in for treatment at the Int’l. Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Some 300 others found treatment at the center’s San Pedro branch. Biologists on Feb 22 said stormy weather had caused the disappearance of prey in stirred up waters possible due to El Nino and recent big storms.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.C2)
2010 Feb 17, Military commanders raised the Afghan flag in the bullet-ridden main market of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Marjah as firefights continued to break out elsewhere in the town between holed-up militants and US and Afghan troops. Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal said about 40 insurgents have been killed since the offensive began Feb 13. Four NATO service members have been killed, and one Afghan soldier.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 17, In Brazil the Unidos da Tijuca samba group was crowned champion of the Rio Carnival parades for the first time in more than seven decades. Viradouro, which chose a 7-year-old as a drums corps queen, placed last out of 12 schools in the drum corps category, and scored even lower in the float category.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 17, France's Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy made the first visit ever by a French president to Haiti, once his nation's richest colony. Sarkozy said France will cancel Haiti’s 56 million in debt and pledged hundreds of millions in aid for the catastrophic Jan 12 earthquake.
(AP, 2/17/10)(SFC, 2/18/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 17, In Haiti 8 American missionaries were freed from jail and left for Miami, nearly three weeks after being arrested trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country. Group leader Laura Silsby and her former nanny Charisa Coulter remained in jail.
(AP, 2/17/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 17, In Iraq the bullet-riddled body of Assyrian Christian student Wissam George (20) was recovered in Mosul after he went missing the same morning.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 17, In Myanmar Gaw Thita, a Buddhist monk, was quietly sentenced to seven years in prison violating immigration laws by taking a trip to Taiwan last year.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 17, Pakistan's government was forced into an embarrassing U-turn, withdrawing the recent appointments of top judges that sparked a showdown with the Supreme Court and a fresh crisis in the country. Police in Karachi arrested a suspected Taliban commander. He was identified as Abdullah, also known as Abu Waqas, a commander from the Bajaur region on the Afghan border. Unknown gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying militants in the Kurrum region on the border, killing six Taliban and wounding two. A US drone fired a missile into the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, killing at least three militants.
(AFP, 2/17/10)(Reuters, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 17, A court in Sri Lanka freed 14 men held on suspicion of plotting a coup with opposition leader and ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka.
(AFP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 18, President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama at the White House, brushing aside China's warning that talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could further damage strained Sino-US ties.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Pres. Obama created a bipartisan debt-reduction commission.
(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 18, The Obama administration ratcheted up pressure on health insurers, saying some planned double-digit rate hikes while making billions in profits and paying executives multimillion-dollar salaries.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, An absent-minded attendee at the Republican National Committee (RNC) confab in Boca Grande, Florida, left a 72-page document from its 2010 strategizing session in a hotel room. The memo tracks the fundraising presentation that RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart delivered to the RNC's $2,500-a-head annual retreat and revealed a GOP plan to use scare tactics to raise money. This became public on March 4.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100304/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1217)
2010 Feb 18, US researchers unveiled a vehicle that earns money for its driver instead of guzzling it up in gasoline and maintenance costs. The presentation of the box-like, unassuming looking Scion was the researchers' way of introducing the "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) concept as it begins to gain momentum in the United States and around the world.
(AFP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Texas Joe Stack (b.1956), a software engineer, committed suicide by slamming his single-engine Piper PA-28 into an Austin office building that houses the IRS. One person was missing and 13 were injured. Stack felt the federal government, especially its tax code, had robbed him of his savings and destroyed his career while allowing corrupt executives to walk away with millions.
(AP, 2/19/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 18, It was reported that a new type of computer virus is known to have breached almost 75,000 computers in 2,500 organizations around the world. The virus, known as "Kneber botnet," gathers login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and email systems from infested computers and reports the information back to hackers.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Microsoft won unconditional European Union approval for its planned search deal with Yahoo Inc to challenge market leader Google.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, The Afghan Interior Ministry said a NATO airstrike aimed at insurgents missed its target, killing 7 policemen in northern Kunduz province. Another Afghan official said Pakistan has captured two "shadow governors" belonging to Afghanistan's Taliban movement. The Afghan governor for Kunduz said Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Mohammad, respectively the shadow governors of the northern Afghan provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan happened in Pakistan's Baluchistan province and were captured about a week ago. 9 militants linked to al-Qaida were nabbed overnight near Karachi. Six coalition troops were killed in the assault on Marjah, making it the deadliest day since the offensive began. The death toll so far is 11 NATO troops and one Afghan soldier.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, London police released Ray Gosling, a veteran British TV reporter, on bail after he was arrested and questioned about claims he made on the air that he killed his lover who was dying of AIDS.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Speed skater Christine Nesbitt of Canada mounted a gutsy charge to the finish line to claim gold in the women's 1,000 meters at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Dubai police directly accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of orchestrating the Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander as the number of suspects rose to 18.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Germany attorney Ursula Raue said 115 former students have come forward with charges of sexual abuse at schools run by Germany's Jesuit order. Victims had named 12 priests and several women among the attackers. Most of the victims were former students of one of Germany's most prestigious high schools, Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Haiti’s PM Jean-Max Bellerive said the government will appropriate land to build temporary camps for earthquake victims. The decision was potentially explosive in a country where a small elite owns most of the land in and around the capital.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In India suspected Maoist rebels raided a village in eastern Bihar state, and killed at least 12 people in an apparent act of revenge after several guerrillas were captured and turned over to police. The dead included a family of 4 burned to death in Kasari.
(AP, 2/18/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 18, In Iraq a suicide car bomb exploded outside the gate of the main government compound in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, killing at least 13 people, including 4 police. At least 26 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Vicente Zambada Niebla (34), a man accused of being an influential, second-generation member of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was extradited from Mexico to the US on charges he helped move tons of cocaine from Colombia to California, New York and Chicago.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Mozambique 7 people died in a riot in the district of Gurue sparked by false rumors that health workers were spreading cholera.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Niger armed soldiers stormed the presidential palace and witnesses said the president's whereabouts were unknown after heavy gunfire. Pres. Mamadou Tandja (72) was deposed in a military coup after he stayed in office months beyond his legal mandate.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 1/17/11)
2010 Feb 18, In Pakistan a bomb blast at a mosque in the northwestern Khyber tribal region killed 29 people including some militants. Missiles fired from a US unmanned drone aircraft killed Mohammad Haqqani, the brother of Afghan Taliban commander Siraj Haqqani, along with 3 associates. Both Haqqanis are sons of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former US ally in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(Reuters, 2/19/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 18, In northern Pakistan up to 37 people were feared dead after an avalanche slammed into a remote mountain village in Kohistan district.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Philippine troops arrested Jumadali Arad, a suspected Muslim militant accused in the high-profile kidnappings of three Americans, two of whom were later killed, and dozens of Filipinos nine years ago.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, Rwanda state radio said a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, Peday Ntihanabayo, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide by a grass-roots gacaca appeals court.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Turkmenistan Pres. Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said "If anyone wishes to propose creating a new political party, we can register one this year, as stipulated by the Constitution." The constitution, adopted in 1992, allows for the formation of political parties.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, Zimbabwe state newspapers reported that the Supreme Court has ordered two government mining firms to stop operations on British-owned diamond mining fields plagued by human rights abuses.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18-2010 Mar 3, In the northern Mexican border city of Reynosa 8 journalists were kidnapped over a period of two weeks in a wave of abductions unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere. Two were released alive and one was found dead with signs of torture.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 19, Pres. Obama, speaking in Nevada targeted Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada in a $1.5 billion “innovation fund" to assist homeowners struggling against foreclosure.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 19, The US Federal Reserve raised the rate banks pay for emergency loans by a quarter point to 0.75% effective today.
(SFC, 2/19/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 19, From Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Golf star Tiger Woods faced the world and formally apologized for his infidelity. Woods said part of his rehab would include a return to his Buddhist faith.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 19, A newly released study by a major US consulting firm found that premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase of only 5.2 percent the previous year.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Afghanistan a Western service member was killed in small arms fire as coalition forces continued to drive the Taliban from Marjah.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 19, Two Muslim women were stopped from boarding a flight at Manchester airport from Britain to Pakistan for refusing to go through new body scanners, citing religious and medical reasons.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 19, Lionel Jeffries (b.1926), British actor and film director, died. He played Grandpa Potts in the “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968). He wrote and directed the 1970 film “The Railway Children" adopted from the Edwardian children’s book by E. Nesbit.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.C11)
2010 Feb 19, A Canadian sailing ship, the three-masted SV Concordia, filled with high school and college students sank off the coast of Brazil in strong winds, but all 64 aboard were rescued. The students spent up to 16 hours on life boats before they were rescued by three passing cargo ships.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In the Central African Republic rebels of Uganda’s Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) kidnapped at least 40 people and wounded a soldier during an attack in the southwest.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 19, The German Tax Union said about 2,500 people in Germany have confessed to tax evasion to avoid punishment amid a heated debate over whether authorities should buy stolen data from Swiss bank accounts.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, Iraq rejected calls to abolish or suspend capital punishment made during a review by the UN's top human rights body. Iraq has also dismissed suggestions that it should reduce the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be imposed.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Ivory Coast anti-government demonstrations spread to at least eight cities. Police fired on demonstrators at a rally in Gagnoa, killing 5 people and wounding a dozen others in the latest protest since the president dissolved the government a week ago.
(AP, 2/19/10)(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 19, In Mexico one officer was killed and two others wounded when they were ambushed in Nogales, across the border from the Arizona city of the same name. The officers were responding to an apparently false report of a robbery at a beer store when gunmen opened fire on.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Morocco the minaret of the 18th century Bab Berdieyinne mosque collapsed in the city of Meknes, killing 41 people and injuring 76 others.
(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Niger a junta that seized power in a coup named a platoon commander as its leader, hours after soldiers announced on state TV that their group was in charge of the uranium-rich country.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, Hamas claimed that two ex-officers from the rival Fatah organization were involved in the Jan 20 assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai, and Fatah shot back by insinuating Hamas members were the ones who collaborated with the killers.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In the Philippines 2 soldiers were killed and one wounded on southern Basilan Island when they tripped the wire on a homemade bomb during an operation to track down militants.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Russia's Ingushetia region a series of bomb blasts killed at least two people and wounded 33, including senior police officials.
(Reuters, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Rwanda 3 grenade attacks in Kigali killed 1 person and injured 30. Another person died overnight from injuries in the attack.
(AP, 2/20/10)(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 19, Pope Benedict XVI approved sainthood for Mother Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), making the woman known for her work among the needy Australia's first saint. Sainthood was also approved for Stanislaw Soltys, a 15th-century Polish priest; Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Varano; Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola and a Canadian brother, Andre Bessette (d.1937). The formal canonization will take place Oct. 17 in Rome.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, Some 1,000 Zimbabwe civil servants marched through the streets of the capital Harare demanding hefty increases in their salaries.
(AFP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 20, It was reported that confidential US FDA reports have recommended the removal of Avandia, a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes, off the market. Also know as rosiglitazone, it was linked to 304 deaths due to heart attacks and heart failures during the 3rd quarter of 2009. GlaxoSmithKline held that Avandia should continue to be an option.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 20, Alexander Haig (b.1924), a former US Secretary of State and four-star general, died of complications from an infection. He had served as a top adviser to three presidents and had sought the Republican presidential nomination for the 1988 elections.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, In Florida 3 teenage girls crossing a bridge in Melbourne were killed by a freight train as they desperately tried to get out of its way. A helpless friend on the other side could only watch.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 20, Loni Ding (78), filmmaker, educator and activist, died in Oakland, Ca. Her work included “Ancestors in the Americas," a 1996 PBS documentary. Over 3 decades she turned out more than 250 programs for broadcast, many of which explored the experiences of Asians in the New World.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.C6)
2010 Feb 20, In Afghanistan 2 NATO service members were killed, one by rocket or mortar fire in the east and another in a bombing in the south. The fatalities was not related to the Marjah area fighting.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 20, China said 35 people were killed in fires during the week-long new year holiday as millions of people set off fireworks to usher in the Year of the Tiger.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, German weekly Der Spiegel reported that Germany's finance ministry has sketched out a plan in which countries using the euro currency will provide aid worth between 20 billion and 25 billion euros ($27-$33.7 billion) for Greece.
(Reuters, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, In India forestry officer Uday Vir Singh bluffed his way past private militia guarding the Belekeri port and proceeded to uncover a massive scam of illegal shipments of iron ore to China that involved hundreds of officials and politicians in Karnataka state.
(Econ, 3/15/14, p.23)
2010 Feb 20, Iraq's main Sunni party said it is dropping out of next month's national elections, seizing on U.S. concerns about Iran's influence in the political process as proof that the vote will not be legitimate. Iraqi police said they found Adnan al-Dahan (57), a Syrian Orthodox shopkeeper, shot to death in Mosul, the fifth Christian killing in a week thought to be related to March elections.
(AP, 2/20/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20 - 2010, Feb 23, In Iraq 8,080 computers, worth $1.8 million from US taxpayers, arrived at the port of Umm Qasr destined for school children in Babil, but failed to reached their destination. In August Iraqis auctioned 4,200 of the computers for $45,700. Whereabouts of the rest were unknown. In Sep arrest warrants were issued for 10 customs officials at Umm Qasr and investigations continued.
(SSFC, 9/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 20, Israeli forces wounded at least four Palestinians in a firefight in the southern Gaza Strip and two more in the West Bank as they tried to cross into Israel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade issued a joint statement saying their men had "attacked four Israeli army jeeps with rocket-propelled grenades, and they responded with machine-gun fire from an assault helicopter and tank fire."
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, Mexican police found the bound bodies of two men on a highway just outside the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The body of a third man, missing its head and limbs, was found in Ciudad Altamirano, an inland city in Guerrero.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, The Dutch coalition government collapsed over whether to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan, leaving the future of its 1,600 soldiers fighting there uncertain. An early election is now expected.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, A Pakistani army airstrike killed 30 militants in the Shawal mountains of the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Suicide attackers struck two police stations in Mansehra district, killing a police chief.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, On Portugal’s Madeira Islands torrential flash floods and mudslides killed at least 42 people in the capital city of Funchal. The number of people missing soon rose to 29.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 20, Rwandan police arrested 3 suspects in connection with three Feb 19 grenade attacks in Kigali that left two people dead.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 20, Darfur's most heavily armed rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, said that it had signed a framework agreement with the Sudanese government in Chad that provides for a ceasefire. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was due to sign the same agreement with JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim in Qatar on Feb 23, watched by diplomats and the presidents of Chad and Eritrea.
(AFP, 2/20/10)(Reuters, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 20, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko dropped her legal challenge to her rival's presidential election victory, saying she had lost faith in the country's courts.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 21, The US space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida following an assembly mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 21, Afghan and US Marine units converged on a dangerous western quarter of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, with NATO forces facing "determined resistance" as their assault on the southern town entered its second week. One service member involved in the Marjah offensive was killed in a roadside bombing. A NATO airstrike killed at least 27 Afghan civilians in central Uruzgan province, in the third coalition strike this month to kill noncombatants. A military report released on May 29 said inexperienced operators of a US drone aircraft ignored or downplayed signs that Afghan civilians were in the convoy in Uruzgan in which 23 civilians were killed and 12 others wounded.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 5/29/10)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A7)
2010 Feb 21, The British public was introduced to what one political journalist has painted as the dark face as the country's prime minister: A man so whose rages were so damaging that the country's top bureaucrat had to intervene to comfort his distressed staff. The description, carried in book "The End of the Party," by The Observer journalist Andrew Rawnsley, was vigorously contested by Brown and his lieutenants.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" swept the board at the BAFTA awards in London, winning the best film and director awards and leaving ex-husband James Cameron almost empty-handed.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, In Canada US skier Bode Miller snatched his first Olympic gold medal and US ice hockey goalkeeper Ryan Miller stopped Canada in a heartbreaking loss for the hockey-crazed host nation.
(Reuters, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants as they attempted to enter Israel illegally. A man threw a suitcase containing a makeshift bomb at Cairo's main synagogue. There were no injuries or damage to the synagogue. A man (49), with a record of Islamic extremism and drug abuse, was detained on Feb 23.
(AFP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 21, Haiti’s Pres. Rene Preval said the death toll from his country's earthquake could reach 300,000 once all the bodies are recovered from wrecked buildings.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Iranian state television reported that intelligence agents have killed four members of an armed Kurdish separatist group near the Kurdish town of Sardasht. The report accused the four of killing three policemen in a clash on Dec 26.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem are additions to the list of national heritage sites. Israel's air force introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes that can fly as far as Iran. Air force officials said the Heron TP drones can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads. Israeli shelling wounded five Palestinian day laborers along the northern border of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Mexico’s federal police captured Jose Vasquez Villagrana (40), described as a key operator of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, in his home town of Santa Ana. He served briefly in the US army before taking on the trafficking of 2 tons of cocaine a month into the US. 14 deaths were reported in Sinaloa state. In the worst incident, six people, including two women and a minor, were found shot to death in a cemetery in Juan Jose Rios. In the same town, two men were found strangled in a house, one with the cable of an iron and another with a wire hanger.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, In Pakistan a suicide car bomber hit a military convoy killing nine people, including children, in the Swat district, just months after the army claimed to have quelled a Taliban uprising. The body of Jaspal Singh one of three Sikhs abducted later January in Bara, Khyber district, was found beheaded. Taliban militants had kidnapped and beheaded him after relatives failed to pay a ransom, due Feb 20, for his release. The Sikh community blamed the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the beheading.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, In the Philippines Albader Parad, a top commander of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, was among six militants killed in fighting on Jolo island. Another of those slain, Abdulhan Jumdail, was identified as the cousin of Umbra Jumdail, one of the core leaders of the Abu Sayyaf.
(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, In southern Sudan weekend fighting between armed clan members and soldiers killed at least 30 people over the last 24 hours. After the attempt to seize weapons, the armed Gok Dinka, a sub-clan of the Dinka, the south's largest tribe, carried out a spate of attacks on an army base in Cueibet town.
(Reuters, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, Pres. Barack Obama put forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year compromise that would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriated consumers. Obama produced a health care plan of his own. It used legislation already passed by the Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to House Democrats.
(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, A Delaware grand jury returned an indictment on pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley of Lewes with 471 counts of sexual crimes against 103 children.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 22, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 15 people in Nangarhar province, including a key tribal leader who played a major role in a failed attempt to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, Latin American and Caribbean nations backed Argentina's claim of sovereignty to the Falkland Islands in a growing dispute with Britain over plans to drill for oil off the islands in the Atlantic. British exploration company Desire Petroleum PLC said it started drilling for oil about 62 miles north of the disputed islands.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 22, In eastern CongoDRC 3 people were killed when Congolese soldiers attacked a UN agency car and tried to loot it in South Kivu province. A combination of military personnel from the US Special Operations Command Africa, including US special forces and civilian specialists under contract, were said to be conducting training a battalion of Congolese soldiers in the city of Kisangani. The 8-month program for the battalion, which can consist of about 1,000 soldiers, will cover military basics but also will focus on human rights training. Human rights groups have previously accused Congo's poorly trained and irregularly paid army forces of attacking civilians.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 22, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Total Chairman Thierry Desmarest for talks about a labor strike that has shuttered over half of France's oil refining capacity. Workers at all six of Total SA's French refineries and at six of its 31 fuel depots have been on strike for five days over the uncertain future of a plant in Dunkirk, in northern France. Workers at France's fourth-largest refinery, British-owned chemicals company INEOS, met to vote on whether they too would join the widening strike.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, German airline Lufthansa went to court in a bid to halt a strike by some 4,000 pilots that disrupted more than one third of its flights. Later in the day Lufthansa pilots agreed to suspend for two weeks a strike that grounded about 900 flights, just as rival British Airways' cabin crew voted to join the fray to protest harsh cost cuts.
(AP, 2/22/10)(Reuters, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Indonesia a villager was killed in crossfire and three suspected militants were arrested when police raided a possible paramilitary training ground for the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in Aceh province.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, Iran said it plans to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers trying to curb Tehran's nuclear program for fear it is aimed at making weapons.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Iraq assailants killed 8 members of a Shiite family in a village outside Baghdad, shooting some and beheading others, just one of a series of pre-election shooting and car bombing attacks that swept the country, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 2/22/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 22, In Ivory Coast at least two protesters died during an opposition demonstration that turned violent, deepening the crisis sparked by the president's dissolution of the government earlier this month.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Libya Rashid Hamdani, one of two Swiss businessmen held in Libya for 19 months amid a diplomatic row between the two states, left for home as Max Goeldi emerged from his country's embassy to serve 4 months in jail. Goeldi was released on June 10 and prepared to fly home.
(AFP, 2/22/10)(AFP, 6/11/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Nigeria Abdullahi Adamu, the former governor of Nasarawa state, was arrested for allegedly embezzling $100 million of government money meant for public projects. He was currently serving as secretary to the board of trustees of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria's ruling political party.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Northern Ireland a car bomb detonated in Newry, between Dublin and Belfast. Irish Republican Army dissidents gave police officers just 17 minutes to evacuate the center of a border town before the blast. The attack on the courthouse was the first of its kind in nearly a decade.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Pakistan a suicide bomber targeting security forces killed at least 8 people in Mingora, the capital of the Swat Valley district.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 22, A crowd of Palestinian youths in Hebron pelted Israeli soldiers with stones and empty bottles, drawing tear gas and stun grenades in the most serious violence to rock this volatile West Bank city in months.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Peru 2 buses crashed head-on along a remote stretch of highway in the northeast, killing at least 38 people and injuring 58.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Spain Hokman Joma tried to hit Turkey’s PM Erdogan with a shoe as the Turkish leader got into a car during a visit to the southern city of Seville. Hokman shouted "Long live Kurdistan" in Spanish before being arrested. In June the Syrian Kurd was sentenced to three years in jail in Spain.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, Turkish police detained more than 40 high-ranking military commanders for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The detentions followed the gathering of wiretap evidence and the discovery of secret weapons caches, revelations that dealt a blow to the military's credibility.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, The United Arab Emirates said it has picked former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Hans Blix to head an advisory board for its nuclear power program. Blix was director general of the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, from 1981 to 1997. He led the UN search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, A UN report said sales of household electrical gadgets will boom across the developing world in the next decade, wreaking environmental havoc if there are no new strategies to deal with the discarded TVs, cell phones and computers.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 23, Intel CEO Paul Otellini unveiled a broad initiative, the “Invest in America Alliance," to create jobs and boost the nation’s competitiveness. Intel and 24 venture capital firms planned to invest $3.5 billion in US technology startups over the next 2 years.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 23, In Littleton, Colorado, gunman Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood (32) wounded two students at Deer Creek Middle School before math teacher David Benke (57) subdued him.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/25/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 23, It was reported that Florida wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades. A $26 permit allow hunters to kill the reptiles from March 8 to April 17.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 23, In Afghan Gen. Stanley McChrystal apologized for the Feb 21 strike in central Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21 people. The Afghan Cabinet said 27 civilians were killed including 4 women and a child. The video was also posted on a NATO Web site. The civilian deaths occurred as 15,000 NATO, US and Afghan soldiers were in their 10th day of fighting insurgents in Marjah, Helmand province. A Romanian soldier was killed and another was wounded in a bombing in the south unrelated to the offensive. A morning explosion in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, left eight people dead and at least 16 others wounded. The death toll of US troops in the Afghan war surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 23, PM Kevin Rudd said Australia plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from about 10 high-risk countries in a bid to combat extremism, which is now a "permanent" threat. He added that Australia will spend 69 million dollars (62 million US) on new biometric facilities and will set up a national control centre to coordinate efforts to fight extremism.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Bangladesh at least 20 people were injured and dozens of houses torched in fresh clashes between tribal groups and Bengali settlers in the insurgency-hit southeastern hills.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, The Chinese Communist Party issued a new code of ethics as the country's fight against widespread corruption intensifies.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Cuba Orlando Zapata Tamayo (42), an opposition political activist imprisoned since 2003, died after a lengthy hunger strike. His 3 year prison sentence for disrespecting authority had been lengthened to 25 years, in part because of his political activism while behind bars. The next day Cuban President Raul Castro issued an unprecedented statement of regret over the death of Tamayo.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Denmark's PM Lars Loekke Rasmussen (45) announced a major government shake-up, changing more than a dozen Cabinet posts including the ministers of defense, justice and foreign affairs to build his own team 10 months after taking office.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, Egyptian newspapers reported that former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei has said he is prepared to run for president of Egypt. He said Mubarak, head of state since 1981, would not necessarily win a free election and went on to criticize corruption and poverty in Egypt. The constitution as it stands barred an ElBaradei candidacy. It requires candidates to have been a leading member of a party for at least one year and for the party to have existed for at least five years.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India responded cautiously to an offer by a top Maoist guerrilla leader for a cease-fire and talks with the government, with the home minister saying he would wait for a formal proposal before considering the offer.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India announced it has recalled 100,000 of its best-selling A-Star hatchback cars due to a fuel leakage problem.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Indonesia a rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on the main island of Java buried scores of workers. At least 46 people were killed or missing.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran formally set out its terms for giving up most of its cache of enriched uranium in a confidential document, and the conditions fall short of what has been demanded by the United States and other world powers.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran said that its security forces have captured Abdulmalik Rigi, leader of the Jundallah group (Soldiers of God), an armed Sunni group whose insurgency in the southeast has destabilized the border region with Pakistan. State-run English-language Press TV said that Rigi was captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Iraq an American soldier died in a vehicle related accident in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Italy an oil spill began and spread south down the Lambro to Piacenza and Cremona overnight, despite efforts to contain it. By the next day if reached the Po River, with officials warning of an ecological disaster as they scrambled to contain the sludge before it contaminated Italy's longest and most important river. Milan regional officials said the cause was certainly sabotage at a former refinery turned oil depot, since the cisterns were opened and the oil allowed to flow unimpeded into the Lambro River near Monza.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Ivory Coast PM Guillaume announced a new unity government. The opposition coalition said it will participate in a new government, raising hope for an end to nearly two weeks of deadly protests after the president dissolved the previous one.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico Latin America and Caribbean leaders, gathered at a summit in Playa de Carmen, united to create a regional bloc excluding Canada and the United States. The bloc's formation is expected to take years and faces many challenges. The leaders agreed to meet again in Venezuela in 2011.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico gunmen stormed the southern town of San Vicente Camalote and killed 13 people, including a rancher and his 3 sons. Gunmen attacked the police headquarters in the town of Miguel Aleman. 6 officers were missing and presumed to have been kidnapped. A series of clashes along the northern border killed 6 gunmen and one soldier. 10 soldiers and a police officer were wounded. A small military anti-drug patrol plane was reported missing in northern Mexico. Wreckage of the plane with 3 dead occupants was reported found on Feb 26.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/26/10)(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Myanmar a Cameroon football player fled temporarily to the French embassy in Yangon as he was being taken to court by police for allegedly counterfeiting currency notes. He surrendered to police a short time later could face life imprisonment.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 23, The New York Times and Washington Post cited unnamed Pakistani security officials saying Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the militia's ruling council, was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan's northwest.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, A Polish court said a government move to slash the pensions of communist leaders who imposed martial law in 1981 was illegal. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled the move violated the constitution. It said the portion of the pensions earned during the crackdown itself could be cut but the rest could not. The cut, which took effect Jan 1, was part of a wider law intended to punish former officials and security agents for supporting the communist regime.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 23, South African’s National Energy Regulator said approved electricity rate increases of about 25% would become effective April 1, and that the increases would continue for each of the next three years.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Darfur's most powerful rebel group and the Sudanese government signed a truce in Cairo after a year of internationally sponsored negotiations, raising hopes the bloody seven-year conflict could draw to a close. According to the framework agreement, JEM would take part in the government's executive, judicial and legislative branches.
(Reuters, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, In Turkey prosecutors interrogated 51 Turkish military commanders over alleged plans to destabilize the country by blowing up mosques to trigger a coup and topple the Islamic-rooted government.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Turkey 13 workers were killed after a methane gas explosion caused a coal mine collapse near Dursunbey, in northwest Balikesir province.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 24, The US got help from Europe in its troubled drive to shut down Guantanamo Bay, as Spain accepted a former inmate from the prison for terror suspects and the tiny Balkan nation of Albania took in three more.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Akio Toyoda, scion of the beleaguered Toyota empire, apologized before a US House committee investigating deadly flaws that sparked the recall of 8.5 million cars.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved fresh curbs on shorting stock.
(Econ, 2/27/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 24, In Texas Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, a drug kingpin who once headed the extensive Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, one of Mexico's most notoriously violent cartels, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million, following a closed hearing in Houston. Cardenas-Guillen was the first cartel leader to employ a paramilitary group, former Mexican special forces soldiers who called themselves the Zetas.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, In San Jose, Ca., stealth start-up Bloom Energy publicly unveiled an innovative fuel cell that promises to deliver affordable, clean energy to even remote corners of the world.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Orlando, Florida, SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed after Tilikum, a 12,000 pound killer whale, grabbed her hair and pulled her under water. The orca, profiled in the 2013 documentary Blackfish, died at SeaWorld Orlando in early 2017 at an estimated age of 36.
(AP, 2/25/10)(SFC, 1/7/17, p.A7)
2010 Feb 24, Afghanistan's main opposition criticized President Hamid Karzai's removal of foreign observers from a UN-backed electoral watchdog as "autocratic" and urged international pressure to ensure impartial elections. The decree took effect on February 13 and Karzai now has the power to choose the ECC's members after consulting with the chief justice and heads of parliament's two chambers.
(AP, 2/24/10)(Econ, 2/27/10, p.48)
2010 Feb 24, Australia resumed free-trade talks with China after a 14-month gap, sweeping aside a brief plunge in ties to focus on a booming partnership tipped to deliver decades of growth.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said a group of South American nations has committed to providing $100 million in aid for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Colombia Mario Uribe (60), a former senator and second cousin to President Alvaro Uribe, was arrested by authorities on charges of colluding with far-right death squads. Mario Uribe was imprisoned for four months in 2008 on charges of colluding with paramilitaries, but he was released in August of the same year after Colombia's No. 2 prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to hold him.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Dubai police linked at least 15 more suspects carrying foreign passports to the Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander that the police chief claimed was likely carried out by Israel's Mossad secret service.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, French oil giant Total said it is to invest seven billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) in Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production over the next four to five years.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Germany's top Protestant cleric, Margot Kaessmann (51), resigned after she was caught driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, an incident that she said had undermined her authority.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Greek police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Athens after some 50,000 people finished a peaceful march against cutbacks intended to fix the country's debt crisis.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Israel's Haaretz daily said Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of one of Hamas' founders, was one of the Shin Bet security service's most valuable sources. Dubbed as "the Green Prince" by his handlers he served as a top informant for Israel for more than a decade. Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas," was to be published next week in the US by Tyndale House Publishers.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, A Nobel official said Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has asked the Nobel Peace Prize committee to disregard his nomination for the prestigious award.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, An Italian court convicted three Google executives of privacy violations because they did not act quickly enough to remove an online video that showed sadistic teen bullies pummeling and mocking an autistic boy. Judge Oscar Magi sentenced the three in absentia to a six-month suspended sentence and absolved them of defamation charges. A fourth defendant, charged only with defamation, was acquitted. In the US, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 generally gives Internet service providers immunity in cases like this, but no such protections exist in Europe.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Mexican police found two severed arms in an icebox, along with a threatening message. Guerrero state police said an anonymous tip led them to the remains in the town of Ciudad Altamirano.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Nigeria's ailing Pres. Umaru Yar'Adua returned home after a three-month stay in a Saudi Arabian hospital. An advisor said the leader needed time to recuperate and so the vice president would remain in charge.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Northern Ireland an unidentified man, believed to be between 35 and 40, was found shot in the head with his wrists bound and wearing only his underwear on the outskirts of Londonderry, near the border with Ireland.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Pakistan suspected US missiles killed at least 13 people in an al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold in the Dargah Mandi area of North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistani Taliban commander Mohammed Qari Zafar was among those killed when 3 missiles hit a compound and vehicle in the Dargah Mandi area. The bodies of two men alleged by militants to be US spies were discovered in Mir Ali, North Waziristan.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 24, Qatar signed a defense pact with Iran.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.47)(www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=214868)
2010 Feb 24, Thailand officials seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, A Turkish court formally charged and jailed seven senior Turkish military officers for allegedly plotting years ago to overthrow the country's Islamic-leaning government.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko challenged her opponents to oust her in a no-confidence vote, aiming to show they don't have enough votes to do so.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Venezuela's highest court annulled the election of an opposition mayor, replacing him with a supporter of President Hugo Chavez until a new vote is held. The Supreme Court threw out the 2008 election of Jorge Barboza, mayor of the Sucre municipality in western Zulia state, on grounds that he failed to pay $292 in local taxes. On March 4 the court reinstated Barboza. The constitutional council said that last week's ruling was unconstitutional because it violated Barboza's political rights.
(AP, 2/25/10)(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 25, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies argued for sweeping health care overhaul in an extraordinary live-on-TV summit with Republicans who want far more modest changes.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In California Rick Ray Liles (51) shot and killed deputy Joel Wahlenmaier (49) in Minkler, Fresno County, during an investigation of arson blazes in the village. Liles took his own life in the gunbattle at his mobile home.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A7)
2010 Feb 25, In California Chelsea King (17) failed to return from a run at a San Diego park. On Feb 28 John Albert Gardner III (30) of Lake Elsinore man was arrested for investigation of murder and rape. King’s body was found buried on March 2 in a shallow grave on the south shore of Lake Hodges. On April 16, 2010, Gardner pleaded guilty to the murder of King and Amber Dubois (14), who had vanished in February, 2009. On May 15 Gardner was sentenced to life in prison for attacks on King and Amber Dubois (14).
(AP, 3/3/10)(SFC, 4/17/10, p.A5)(SFC, 5/18/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 25, In Texas a copy of the 1939 comic book, Detective Comics No. 27, in which Batman makes his debut, sold at a Dallas auction for more than $1 million, breaking a record set just three days earlier by a Superman comic. A copy of the first comic book featuring Superman, a 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, sold on Feb 22 for $1 million.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, The Afghan government took official control of the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, installing an administrator and raising the national flag while US-led troops worked to root out final pockets of militants.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Algeria a police official shot dead Colonel Ali Tounsi, the national police chief, during a blazing row in his office in central Algiers.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Bangladesh a fire started at the seven-storey Garib and Garib Sweater factory in the industrial town of Gazipur. Witnesses said the exit gates on the top floor were locked at the time. The fire started on the 2nd floor of the factory, trapping scores of workers. Police say 14 women and 7 men were killed and around 40 people injured.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, Prosecutors in England and Wales received fresh guidelines on assisted suicide that reduce the likelihood of people facing criminal charges for helping ailing loved ones to die.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Rajib Karim, a British Airways computer specialist, was arrested at his BA desk in Newcastle. On Feb 28, 2011, he was convicted after a trial at Woolwich crown Court in London of plotting with US-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to blow up an airplane. He pleaded guilty to helping produce a terrorist group's video, fundraising and volunteering for terror abroad, but insisted he never planned an attack in Britain. On March 18, 2011, Karim was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(www.globaljihad.net/view_news.asp?id=1400)(AP, 2/28/11)(AP, 3/18/11)
2010 Feb 25, In Canada Kim Yu-Na (19) of South Korea, achieved her country's first Olympic figure skating title with a resounding victory in the Pacific Coliseum.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, Canada's ice hockey women celebrated a gold medal win by taking to the ice afterwards drinking beer and smoking cigars.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Canada police found the body actor Andrew Koenig (41) in a wooded area in Vancouver. He had played Boner in the 1980’s TV sitcom “Growing Pains."
(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A13)
2010 Feb 25, In China the People’s Daily reported that 62 workers had been poisoned in a poorly ventilated factory in Suzhou run Wintek, a Taiwanese manufacturer that makes products for firms including apple and Nokia.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 25, In China at least 29 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in a magnitude 5.4 earthquake in southwestern Yunnan province.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Egypt Ahmed Mostafa (20), an engineering student, was detained and charged with publishing false news and "tarnishing the military's image" after blogging about a student forced to leave the military academy to make room for a candidate from a wealthier family. A military tribunal later agreed to suspend proceedings in return for an apology.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Feb 25, India and Pakistan held their first official talks since the 2008 Mumbai siege, with both sides saying they wanted to rebuild trust shattered in that attack but acknowledging that the meeting was just a first step toward a renewed peace process.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In India a Hindu newspaper said India's best-known painter M.F. Husain (94), who went into exile after death threats from Hindu hardliners, has been granted Qatari citizenship, sparking new soul-searching about his persecution at home. Husain, known as the "Picasso of India," had angered hardline Hindus by portraying Hindu deities in the nude or in a sexually suggestive manner.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Iraq Saleh al-Mutlaq, a top Sunni lawmaker who just last week pulled his party out of the upcoming election, announced that his National Dialogue Front would contest the crucial March 7 vote.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi turned up the heat in his country's dispute with Switzerland, calling for jihad over a recent Swiss ban on the construction of minarets.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Mali at least 15 people died in a stampede in a Timbuktu mosque during services celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Mexico 4 suspected cartel gunmen were killed outside the city of Matamoros after they attacked an army patrol on a highway.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, Mozambique's health minister, Leonardo Chavane, said 36 people have died this year from a cholera outbreak in the northern and central parts of the southern African country. he said the situation is worrying because new cases are being reported daily and are complicated by rumors that health staff are spreading cholera rather than fighting it.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Pakistan’s government confirmed the arrest of Afghan Taliban leader Maulavi Abdul Kabir. The paramilitary Frontier Corps killed 25 militants near the northwestern district of Darra Adam Khel during a joint 2-day operation with police.
(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A4)(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Russia the Moscow City Court said in a statement that 12 mostly underage neo-Nazis who called themselves "White Wolves" have been charged with 11 murders and one assault since April 2007. Nine ultranationalists were sentenced to up to 23 years in jail for 6 hate-motivated killings and one assault.
(AP, 2/25/10)(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 25, In Rwanda French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy visited with pres. Paul Kagame too cement improved diplomatic relations following years of acrimony, recriminations and diplomatic standoffs over events surrounding the 1994 genocide. He said France made serious errors of judgment over the genocide, and those responsible for the killings should be found and punished, including any who might be residing in France.
(Reuters, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Sudan the head of the most heavily armed Darfur rebel group ordered the release of 50 Sudanese government personnel following the signing of a peace deal. The move followed the government's release a day earlier of 57 fighters of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, some 50 of whom had been condemned to death for their part in an unprecedented assault on Khartoum in 2008. A Darfur rebel group accused the Sudanese army of attacking its positions a day earlier, the same day that the president declared the Darfur war over. Aid workers said 100,000 people had fled the surge of fighting.
(AFP, 2/25/10)(Reuters, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Syria and Iran defended their strong ties and dismissed US efforts to break up the 30-year-alliance, saying America should not dictate relationships in the Middle East.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Arusha, Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), found lieutenant colonel Ephrem Setako (60) guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and murder. "The Chamber found that Setako ordered the killings on 25 April 1994 of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira military camp in Ruhengeri prefecture and around 10 other Tutsis there on 11 May 1994."
(Reuters, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, An unceasing winter storm unleashed multiple dangers across the Northeast, blasting the coast with hurricane-force winds that fanned a New Hampshire hotel fire, flooding parts of Maine, dropping 2 feet of snow on parts of New York, and cutting power to more than a million homes and businesses.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, New York Gov. David Paterson abandoned his campaign for a full term as state governor.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Washington state Jed Waits (30) shot and killed Jennifer Paulson (30), a special education teacher as she walked into her Tacoma elementary school classroom. Waits, who was apparently infatuated with Paulson, was killed in a shootout with a deputy.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Afghanistan insurgents struck in the heart of the Kabul with suicide attackers and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens. Pres. Karzai said were aimed at Indians working in Kabul. The dead included 6 Indians, an Italian diplomat, a French filmmaker and 3 police officers.
(AP, 2/26/10)(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 26, Australia warned Japan that "diplomacy comes to an end this year" on whaling, after presenting a bold plan to phase out the controversial hunts in the Southern Ocean.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Belize a single-engine aircraft crashed. Michael and Jill Casey of Albany, NY, and their two young children died in the accident on the island of San Pedro along with former senator and bottling magnate Sir Barry Bowen as the group headed to a fundraising event hosted by Bowen. The Caseys taught at a school in northwestern Belize owned by Bowen.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, London-listed Petra Diamonds sold a 507-carat diamond for $35.3 million, breaking a record as the highest price ever paid for a rough diamond.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Canada won the Olympic men's short track 5,000 meters relay with Charles Hamelin picking up his second gold of the day.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Colombia a Constitutional Court ruling blocked a referendum on whether Alvaro Uribe should be allowed to seek a third consecutive term. The high court ruled, in a 7-2 decision that is not subject to appeal, that a law passed by Congress to set up the referendum was unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Danish daily Politiken newspaper apologized for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Egypt a Costa Europa luxury cruise liner carrying nearly 1,500 passengers slammed into the pier as it docked Friday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik in fierce winds, leaving three crew members dead. Bad weather wreaked havoc across Egypt, pelting the capital with a freak hail storm.
(AP, 2/26/10)(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In France a strike by air traffic controllers disrupted flight for a 4th day and some Air France pilots walked off the job to protest cost cutting measures.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 26, German lawmakers voted 429-111 with 46 abstentions to increase the maximum number of German troops allowed to serve in Afghanistan to 5,350 from 4,500.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Jundallah insurgency, which says it's fighting for equal rights for the Sunni minority in southeast Iran, named al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch as its new leader. The statement described the capture of former leader Abdulmalik Rigi's by Iranian forces on Feb 23, but said all the tribes of Baluchistan had pledged allegiance to the new leader.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, Iraq reinstated 20,000 former army officers dismissed after the 2003 US-led invasion for serving under the former dictator, a landmark gesture at reconciliation ahead of the March 7 elections.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Italy telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia spent the night in police custody after flying in by private jet from the Caribbean to face charges in a money-laundering probe. Scaglia, the founder of Italy's second biggest telecoms company, Fastweb, was among 56 people for whom arrest warrants were issued in a case where prosecutors allege more than 2 billion euros (1.8 billion pound) was laundered via fake international phone service purchases and sales from 2003-2006.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Liberia religious clashes in the northern county of Lofa killed four people. The violence erupted in the town of Vionjama after the body of a child "with body parts extracted" was found near a mosque. Witnesses said rioters had burned down the Catholic, Baptist and Episcopal churches in the area.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Mozambique state media said 2 young men accused of having sex with a goat in central Mozambique are facing criminal charges, and the goat's owner is demanding they make traditional wedding arrangements.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Health officials in Puerto Rico declared an epidemic of dengue fever. Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez says 210 cases have been confirmed for January, more than triple the number in the same month of 2007.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Sierra Leone and five other west African countries (Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea) signed onto an action plan in Freetown for sustainable mangrove management.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Somali pirates hijacked the Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel. It was reported freed on July 20, 2010.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Sudan rebels and UN officials said heavy fighting between government forces and a rebel group in central Darfur led a French-aid group to suspend its activities. A government offensive on the rebel Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA) stronghold in Jebel Marrah began two weeks ago, but fighting intensified in the last few days, with confirmed reports of aerial bombardments in Deribat, a town of 50,000, and two other surrounding areas.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Thailand's highest court ruled to seize 46 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.29 billion in frozen assets, saying he had abused his political power for personal gain.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Turkey's PM Erdogan vowed to put everyone who conspired against the country's democracy on trial, as the number of military officers charged and jailed for allegedly plotting a 2003 coup against his Islamic-based government rose to 31.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Zimbabwe a cabinet minister said Zimbabwe stands by a new law requiring major foreign firms to sell 51 percent stakes to locals, but will allow companies to choose their own partners. The law takes effect on March 1, giving 45 days for companies valued at more than 500,000 US dollars to sell 51 percent stakes to locals. The Indigenization and Empowerment Bill was passed by parliament in 2007 and signed by President Robert Mugabe in 2008, before the creation of a unity government with long-time rival, PM Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, President Barack Obama signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation's main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 27, In NYC a new visitor center opened near the rediscovered cemetery from the 17th and 18th centuries to celebrate the ethnic Africans who had toiled, many unpaid, to help make New York the nation's commercial capital.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 27, Militant anti-whalers declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese harpoon ships in Antarctic waters, saying it was their most successful and intensely fought campaign so far.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In Australia thousands of people in lavish costumes and various states of undress danced and partied their way through Sydney's streets, in the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Canada bagged another three gold medals on the penultimate day of the Winter Olympics to ensure they will finish top of the medal standings, triggering wild celebrations across the country.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said it was the most powerful quake to hit the country in a half-century. Authorities the next day put the death toll from the earthquake at over 700. The death toll was later revised to 486 with 79 missing. Some 1.5 million Chileans were affected and 150,000 people were left homeless. A tsunami caused by the quake swept across the Pacific and killed several people on a Chilean island. It devastated coastal communities near the epicenter, but caused little damage in other countries. Damages were later estimated at $30 billion. By the end of March Chilean officials confirmed 432 people dead and 98 still missing in the earthquake and tsunami.
(AP, 2/27/10)(AP, 2/28/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)(AP, 3/19/10)(Econ, 3/20/10, p.43)(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Feb 27, Egypt's parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to regulate organ transplants in a bid to curb illegal trafficking and tourism over the issue.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Haitian officials said eight people were killed and two missing after heavy rain pounded the southwest and caused widespread flooding.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Mexican authorities said they have arrested a third suspect in the Jan 30 massacre of 15 people in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Chihuahua state prosecutors said he is a former police officer believed to have worked as a hit man for the Juarez cartel.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Mozambique's former transport minister was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing state funds, the highest-level corruption conviction ever in the southern African country. Antonio Munguambe, transport and communications minister from 2005 to 2008, was found guilty of acting as an accomplice in the embezzlement of 1.7 million dollars (1.25 million euros) from national airport company Airports of Mozambique.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In northwest Pakistan a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Karak, killing four people and wounding about two dozen. At least one person died and several others were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a procession in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In the southern Philippines Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants killed 11 people, hours after two hostages they were holding walked free.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In Thailand 4 banks were targeted with small explosives, but no one was hurt.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, The US White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed 11 civilians in the southern province of Helmand. A security worker was killed in main Qalat town of Zabul province when his vehicle was hit by a similar bomb. Elsewhere in Zabul five insurgents were killed during clashes between Afghan security forces and militants.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Brazil workers cleared some 80 tons of dead fish from Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Increased levels of harmful algae were suspected as the cause of the fie-off.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, Canada beat the USA in an extraordinary men's ice hockey final to capture a record 14th gold medal and end the Vancouver Winter Olympics on top of the world. The victory at a single Winter Games surpassed the previous mark of 13 jointly held by the Soviet Union (Innsbruck, 1976) and Norway (Salt Lake City, 2002). The USA also set a record for the most overall medals at a single Winter Olympics with 37, one more than Germany in 2002.
(Reuters, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In the Central African Republic Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) kidnapped at least 23 people from the southeastern village of Yalinga after pillaging the police station, the hospital and a safari shop.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Feb 28, In China a bus veered off a sleet-covered road and plunged into a reservoir in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province killing 19 people and injuring 7 others.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Feb 28, A UN-backed military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was launched. The operation will involve 18 battalions from the Congolese FARDC army in a series of targeted attacks throughout north and south Kivu provinces in Congo's conflict-racked east.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 28, Dubai police said forensic tests show a Hamas operative, who was killed on Jan 19 in his hotel room by an alleged Israeli hit squad, was drugged with a fast-acting muscle relaxant and then suffocated with a pillow.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that archaeologists have unearthed the massive head of one Egypt's most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago. Amenhotep III, the grandfather of Tutankhamun, ruled from 1387-1348 B.C. at the height of Egypt's New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, A violent late winter storm named Xynthia battered France, Spain, Portugal and Germany with fierce rain and hurricane-strength winds. The storm smashed sea walls and killed at least 62 people across western Europe.
(AP, 2/28/10)(AP, 3/1/10)(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, The leader of the armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France, in another setback for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken into custody in the last two years. Eta chief Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected separatists, Jose Ayestaran and Beinat Aginagalde, were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation in the village of Cahan, France.
(AP, 2/28/10)(Econ, 3/6/10, p.69)
2010 Feb 28, Guatemalan Pres. Alvaro Colom announced that he has fired Interior Minister Raul Velasquez for alleged corruption and replaced him with Carlos Menocal, a former journalist. Local media said that Velasquez authorized a $6.2 million contract with a private company to buy fuel for police but that the company embezzled the money.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Israel 16 people including two Israeli policemen were wounded in clashes at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, after police entered to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they believed were Jewish extremists.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Mexico Red Cross volunteer Maria Rogers (20) was killed by a stray bullet when gunmen went into a Red Cross hospital in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, trying to finish off a man who had been shot minutes earlier. The man survived.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Myanmar Sai Thein Win, a former major in the army, defected and brought papers confirming Myanmar’s intent, if not yet capacity, to enrich uranium and eventually build a bomb.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/35vxtvh)
2010 Feb 28, In Saudi Arabia Indian PM Manmohan Singh pitched for investment in his economy and closer petroleum sector cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the second day of a visit to the Middle East oil giant.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Switzerland operators restarted the Large Hadron Collider following a winter shutdown for improvements.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, Tajikistan held parliamentary elections. The Central Elections Commission said that 85% of the country's 3.5 million eligible voters had cast ballots. The main government-backed party was set to coast to the easiest of victories. President Emomali Rakhmon's two-decade grip on power remained as strong as ever. An initial tally showed the government-backed party with 71.7% and the main opposition Islamic Revival Party with just 7.7%. Int’l. monitors from the OSCE said that while the vote was peaceful, it was marred by ballot-box stuffing and proxy voting.
(AP, 2/28/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of three provinces for a second successive day to demand the independence of the country's south.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb, RT America, a TV channel based in Washington, D.C., was launched as part of the RT network, a global multilingual television news network based in Moscow, Russia, and funded by the Russian government.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_America)
2010 Feb, In Afghanistan Mathew Golsteyn, an American Green Beret, reportedly captured, shot and buried a suspected IED bomb maker in the Marjah area of Helmand province. He later went back out with two others to cremate the body and dispose of the remains. In 2011 Golsteyn reported his actions to the CIA a few months before he was awarded a Silver Star for other actions. In 2014 the Silver Star was revoked and in 2015 he faced possible dismissal for violation Geneva Conventions.
(AP, 5/16/15)
2010 Feb, In northeast Congo up to 100 people were killed this month when the rebel Lord's Resistance Army attacked a village. News of the massacre did not become public until May 1 when UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said he learned of the killings when he visited Niangara, the nearest town which he reached by helicopter.
(AP, 5/2/10)(Reuters, 5/2/10)
2010 Feb, In Dagestan the Makhachkala police chief died when his car was strafed with automatic weapons. Two doctors were charged in the killing. On Nov 28, 2012, Nov. 28, Dr. Marat Gunashev had just put a patient under anesthesia when law enforcement agents appeared in the operating room and took him away, refusing to allow him to finish the operation. Dr. Shamil Gasanov was preparing to operate in another part of the hospital when a group of men came in and asked to talk to him outside. Gasanov’s decapitated body was later returned to his relatives.
(AP, 12/19/12)
2010 Feb, In East Timor construction workers uncovered human bones while digging the foundation of a five-star hotel. Experts later said the 9 blindfolded and buried bodies were likely East Timorese freedom fighters executed and put in a mass grave early in the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999).
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Feb, Hungarian lawmakers made it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison to publicly deny, call into question or minimize the Holocaust. In June, the law was amended to refer instead to crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi and communist regimes.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2010 Feb, In India four men ambushed Dimple Patel (27) as she returned to her home in Ahmedabad from college. She spent 10 months in a coma following the vicious attack that left her severely disabled. In 2014 she identified her alleged assailants in court. Her brother Dharmendra Patel said his wife's relatives assaulted his sister to get back at him after a row over money.
(AFP, 8/14/14)
2010 Feb, Latvia’s unemployment reached 22.8%, the highest in the EU.
(Econ, 2/27/10, p.59)
2010 Feb, In Uzbekistan the health ministry ordered all medical facilities to “strengthen control over the medical examination of women of childbearing age." Rights groups later alleged that hundreds of Uzbek women have been surgically sterilized without their knowledge or consent
(SSFC, 7/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 1, The US Department of Transportation furloughed nearly 2,000 employees without pay as the government began to feel the impact of Republican Sen. Jim Bunning's one-man blockage of legislation that would keep a host of federal programs operating. Bunning's home state of Kentucky has no projects affected by his action. Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning relented March 2, freeing the Senate to approve stopgap legislation extending for another month a host of programs, including highway funding, health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and benefits for the long-term jobless.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3439731)(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, General Motors Co. said it is recalling 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars sold in the US, Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Detroit, Mi., Monica Botello (26) and her boyfriend Purcell Carson (26) were shot to death in a slaying that was reported to a 911 dispatcher by Botello’s daughter (9). On March 20 US marshals arrested Derrick Smith (42) in Gardena, Ca., for the murders.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 1, Afghanistan announced a ban on news coverage of Taliban strikes, saying such coverage only emboldened the Islamist militants. The move was denounced by Afghan journalism and rights groups. Two blasts hours apart killed at least six people in Kandahar. Four NATO service members died in separate attacks, including a suicide car bomb that targeted an international military convey as it crossed a bridge in the Taliban-dominated south.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AFP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Australia about 5,200 naked people embraced each other on the steps of Sydney's iconic Opera House for a photo shoot by Spencer Tunick.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Daniel Houghton (25), a former MI6 spy, was arrested after British intelligence posed as the potential buyer of top secret files on intelligence gathering techniques. Prosecutor Piers Arnold later said Houghton, who is a dual Dutch and British national, is accused of copying top secret files from the domestic agency MI5 to CD and DVDs while working for the MI6 overseas intelligence service between September 2007 and May 2009. On Sep 3, 2010, Houghton was sentenced to one year in prison. He was expected to walk free as he has already spent 184 days in custody.
(AP, 3/3/10)(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, British insurer Prudential PLC said it will buy the Asian unit of bailed out American International Group Inc. in a deal worth $35.5 billion that will allow AIG to pay back some of the money it owes US taxpayers.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China 11 newspapers took a rare stand against a Mao Zedong-era system blamed for the wide gap between the country's rich and poor. Within hours their jointly signed editorial had largely disappeared online. 11 newspapers published a joint editorial calling on the National People’s Congress (NPC) to scrap the hukou system, which was originally intended to stop rural migrants flowing into the cities.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.26)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Chinese rescuers worked to save 31 coal miners trapped underground by a flood at the Luotoushan, or Camel Head Mountain, coal mine in Wuhai city in northern Inner Mongolia. One miner was reported killed. On May 2 state news agency Xinhua reported that emergency workers have recovered 28 bodies from the mine in China's Inner Mongolia region that flooded in early-March. 3 people were still missing.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, The European Union urged Greece to take extra austerity measures within days to tackle a debt crisis that has shaken the euro zone and promised to help Athens overcome the problem.
(Reuters, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, France and Russia pursued their burgeoning courtship with a formal state visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Paris, which is angling to sell Moscow a massive warship and secure stakes in pipelines pumping Russian gas to western Europe.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Georgia and Russia reopened their only direct border crossing, more than three years after it was closed amid rising tension that erupted into war in 2008.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In southern India nearly 3000 Muslims protested a newspaper article they say was critical of Islam, clashing with police and leaving at least two people dead and dozens injured in Shimoga, Karnataka state.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Iran editor Behrouz Behzadi of the Etemaad daily said his newspaper was banned by the Press Supervisory Board. The order cited article six of the press law without elaborating. That article allows newspapers to be closed for offenses from security violations to insulting articles. A weekly called Irandokht was also closed down. One of its editors was arrested last month. Iranian media said six journalists and opposition activists held for suspected involvement in the country's postelection turmoil have been released on bail. Jafar Panahi (49), an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, was taken into custody along with another person who was in his company. Panahi was released on bail on May 25. In December Panahi was sentenced to 6 years in prison and barred from making films or participating in political activities for two decades.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AP, 5/25/10)(SFC, 12/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 1, Niger coup chief Maj. Salou Djibou signed a decree appointing 20 ministers. Five of the posts went to women and five to officers.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Nigeria a spokesman said police detained 17 officers over the weekend for questioning after the Al-Jazeera news channel aired a video on Feb 9 showing uniformed men executing people in Boko Haram town where religious rioting left 700 people dead last year. Gunmen attacked a van carrying 21 people working for the network's SuperSport channels after the crew filmed a soccer match in the Niger Delta. One of three kidnapped sports journalists escaped his captors.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 1, Pakistani militants attacked a tanker carrying fuel to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan. One insurgent was killed and the tanker was destroyed.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A World Food Program spokesman militants in Somalia are preventing food from reaching more than 366,000 people who need it, following a statement by Islamists that aid agencies were helping "apostates" in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The Al Nisr Al Saudi usually carried fuel oil but was empty when it was taken with 14 crew onboard. NATO said one of its destroyers sank a pirate mothership off the Somali coast. Pirate crew members were transferred to a smaller boat and allowed to return to the mainland.
(AP, 3/3/10)(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 1, Ukraine’s Pres. Viktor Yanukovych visited Brussels saying "Our priorities will include integration into the European Union, bringing up constructive relations with the Russian Federation, and developing friendly relations with strategic partners such as the United States."
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A Yemen government raid left Ali Saleh al-Hadi, a southern activist, his wife and three children dead during an ongoing crackdown on southern separatists.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A UN source said hundreds of civilians were feared to have died last week in a surge of fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels in the turbulent Darfur region.
(Reuters, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A Russian human rights group said the government of Uzbekistan has falsely accused about 200 people of killing officials and plotting a coup in the authoritarian Central Asian nation.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Uruguay Jose Mujica (74) took the presidential oath of office.
(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 1, In Zimbabwe a new law took effect, giving companies valued at more than 500,000 US dollars 45 days to inform the government of the racial make-up of their shareholders. The main labor body said the new law, requiring locals to own 51 percent of major foreign firms, could hurt the nation's economic recovery.
(AFP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 2, The Washington DC council voted to censure ex-mayor Marion Barry over a report accusing him of helping award a $15,000 city contract to a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 2, In California Jerry Brown, former 2-term Democrat state governor (1975-1983), announced that he would run for a 3rd term as governor.
(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 2, In Darien, Ill., the bodies of 3 family members were found shot to death. Prosecutors later said Johnny Borizov (28) had persuaded Jacob Nodarse (23) to kill the mother of his son, Angela Kramer, her parents and a brother over a custody dispute. Nodarse was arrested the next day in Florida.
(SFC, 3/8/10, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/yaejaep)
2010 Mar 2, In southeast New Mexico two employees at a Navajo oil refinery were killed and two others critically injured after a storage tank exploded into flames.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Rhode Island the Central Falls Teachers’ Union pledged to support reforms. The school board had voted last week to fire 93 teachers and staff from the high school after the end of the school year. On May 16 the school district announced that it had reached an agreement with the union to return all staffers.
(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A8)(SFC, 5/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 2, The Afghan government denied that it had banned live media coverage of insurgent attacks, saying it was developing guidelines, not restrictions, to prevent live footage from aiding fighters at the scene.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Australia Seth Enslow, an American motorcycle stuntman twice, broke the world record for the longest distance jumped on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, sailing through the air near Australia's Sydney Harbor to shatter the previous 10-year-old record. Bubba Blackwell set the previous record with a 157 foot (47.85 meters) jump in Las Vegas in 1999.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In London, England, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former Pakistani lawmaker and the leader of a global Muslim movement, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, that he calls an absolute condemnation of terrorism. The 600-page fatwa bans suicide bombing "without any excuses, any pretexts, or exceptions." The religious scholar is the founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran, a worldwide movement that promotes a nonpolitical, tolerant Islam.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, The BBC volunteered to become smaller.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.74)
2010 Mar 2, Egyptian newspapers reported that former UN atomic chief Mohamed ElBaradei has called for constitutional changes in his first statement since forming an opposition group.
(AFP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, French authorities arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan president killed in a plane crash, on a Rwandan warrant issued on genocide-related charges. She was soon freed on bail. The crash is widely considered the event that sparked the east African country's 1994 genocide. In 2004 France rejected her request for political asylum, alleging she was at the heart of the regime responsible for the genocide.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 3/6/10, p.65)
2010 Mar 2, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities retain data on telephone calls and e-mails, saying it marked a “grave intrusion" into personal privacy rights.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 2, Guatemalan authorities arrested Nelly Bonilla, the country’s anti-drug czar, Police Chief Baltazar Gomez, and police officer Fernando Carrillo, in a case involving stolen cocaine and slain police.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Ingushetia Russian forces killed Alexander Tikhomirov, also known as Said Buryatsky, in a gun battle near Nazran.
(Reuters, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Iran the kaleme opposition Web site reported that an appeals court has upheld the death sentence for Mohammad Amin Valian (20), a student who took part in an anti-government rally in December that left eight people dead. Valian was found guilty of Moharebeh, a religious offense that translates as defiance of God, a crime punishable by death under Iranian law.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, Mexico's interior department said prosecutors have detained 10 Mexican immigration agents and three airline workers at Cancun's international airport on suspicion of trafficking Chinese migrants. Oscar Arriola, reputed to have led a cartel that smuggled two tons of cocaine a month into the US before authorities dismantled the ring around 2004, was handed over to US officials and extradited to Colorado.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Reuters, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, The Moroccan state security service announced that police have dismantled a terrorist network “of six people imbued with Takfirist ideology," that was active in several towns in the northeast. Takfiris, a tiny minority of Muslims in Morocco, believe that society and its leaders have turned away from the narrow path of what they see as true Islam.
(AFP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Nigeria planted explosives in the Niger Delta damaged the Kokori oil flow station operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, marking the latest attack in a region supposedly brought under control by a government amnesty program.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, Ian Paisley (83), the hard-line Northern Ireland evangelist who led Protestants into power-sharing with Catholics, announced he will retire from the British Parliament after a 40-year career.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, It was reported that Spanish investigators, working with private computer-security firms, have arrested the three alleged ringleaders of the so-called Mariposa botnet, which appeared in December 2008 and grew into one of the biggest weapons of cybercrime. The Mariposa botnet infected almost 13 million computers across 190 countries. More arrests were expected soon in other countries.
(AP, 3/2/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.D1)
2010 Mar 2, South Sudan’s 17 rival political parties signed an election code of conduct, committing themselves to ensure upcoming polls in April are free and fair.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, Tajikistan's main opposition party said it plans to sue the Central Asian nation's elections board amid claims it abetted fraud in this weekend's parliamentary vote.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Ukraine PM Yulia Tymoshenko's pro-Western "Orange" coalition dissolved, losing its majority in parliament and paving the way for the new president to consolidate his power.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Uganda overnight landslides in the mountainous region of Bududa buried three villages and killed at least 92 people with 250 still missing.
(AP, 3/2/10)(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Uzbekistan an independent think-tank and a rights group claimed that authorities have instructed health workers to surgically sterilize women as part of a government campaign to reduce the birth rate.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In southern Yemen a three-story building collapsed when explosives stored in its basement went off, killing at least eight people. Officials said the basement was used by an arms dealer to store dynamite and other explosives.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Connecticut Barbara Hamburg (48) was found bludgeoned to death outside her home at 44 Middle Beach Road in the quiet, affluent seaside town of Madison. The small amount of DNA collected at the scene remained unidentified. No one has been arrested for the crime. In 2020 the 4-part HBO documentary "Murder on Middle Beach," by Barbara's son Madison, revealed a tale rife with suspects—all of them Hamburg’s closest relatives, who had varying motives for wanting to kill his mother.
(https://tinyurl.com/y6p5u9a3)(The Daily Beast, 11/13/20)
2010 Mar 3, NYC Rep. Charles Rangel (b.1930), announced he will temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, saying he didn't want his ethics controversy to jeopardize election prospects for fellow Democrats.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed legislation adopting an official Wyoming state code. Its “cowboy ethics" admonishments to residents included such phrases as: “ to live courageously, take pride in work, and to keep promises."
(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 3, Arab nations gave the green light for Palestinians to enter indirect negotiations with Israel for a preliminary four-month period, a decision likely to break the months-long deadlock over resuming Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A British judge ordered former Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic held in custody despite a request to release him while he challenges a Serbian demand that he be extradited for alleged war crimes. Ganic was arrested March 1 at Heathrow Airport after Serbia issued an arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes in connection with the 1992 deaths of Serbian troops in Bosnia.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Michael Foot (b.1913), British left-wing politician, died. He led the Labour party long before its media-friendly transformation under Tony Blair. He became Labour leader from 1980 to 1983, advocating left-wing policies like nuclear disarmament which led one colleague to call his 1983 election manifesto "the longest suicide note in history."
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Germany Christoph Schmidt-Rose, mayor of Niederzimmern, told local radio station MDR that people can buy a hole in the town for 50 euros (68 dollars). In return the authorities will repair it.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Greece announced painful new austerity measures worth euro4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) to deal with a financial crisis that has hammered the euro and unsettled financial markets.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Iraq a string of three deadly suicide bombings killed 30 people in the former insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, including a blast from a suicide bomber who rode in an ambulance with the wounded before blowing himself up at a hospital.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Italian police arrested seven people on suspicion of trafficking arms to Iran, two Iranians they believe are secret agents and five Italians. Two more Iranians were being sought. On April 29 Ali Damirchi-Lou and state television reporter Hamid Masoumi-Nejad were released from jail and placed under house arrest.
(AP, 3/3/10)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Laos senior officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam met in Luang Prabang to discuss the Mekong River. The Mekong River Commission in a draft report said severe drought has dropped the river to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, halting some cargo traffic and boat tours on the waterway, the lifeblood for 65 million people in six countries.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A Mexican woman charged that Rev. Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), the deceased, scandal-tainted founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ (1941), led a double life and fathered two children with her.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 3, Pakistan's paramilitary forces said troops had killed 38 militants during a week-long operation against the Taliban under the codename "Spring Cleaning". In central Pakistan a local police chief and four officers were arrested after a video allegedly showed one officer publicly beating suspects with a fat leather strap as the other officers held down the victims in the small town of Bhuwana in Punjab province.
(AFP, 3/3/10)(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A Philippine official said a wildlife officer is suspected of stealing more than 1,500 pounds (700 kilograms) of smuggled elephant tusks seized last year, an embarrassing setback for the country's anti-poaching efforts. The ivory worth $65,000 was part of a 8,800-pound (4,000-kilogram) shipment of tusks that was impounded at Manila airport in July and turned over for disposal to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Somali pirates seized the Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 3, An American diplomat based in South Korea fled to the Philippines after facing charges that he swindled a local woman out of nearly $200,000 in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 3, Freak waves off the coast of Spain smashed into the Louis Majesty, a Mediterranean cruise ship, flooding cabins, breaking windows in a restaurant and terrifying many travelers in an ordeal that claimed two lives.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 3, In western Sudan 11 people died in fighting between the Misseriya and Nuwayba tribes in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 3, The Ukrainian parliament ousted the government of PM Yulia Tymoshenko in a no-confidence vote, dealing a final blow to the leadership of the pro-Western Orange Revolution and leaving her to lead the opposition in parliament. The no-confidence resolution passed with 243 votes in the 450-seat chamber.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Zimbabwe's the industry minister said the cabinet will review new local ownership rules that have sparked concern among business leaders, saying the law had been published "prematurely."
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 4, A US congressional panel voted to label as "genocide" the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador from Washington.
(Reuters, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In California thousands of protesters lashed out against budget cuts to the state’s educational system in the “Day of Action to Defend Public Education."
(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 4, In Virginia John Patrick Bedell (36) of Hollister, Calif., was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police. He died from head wounds received when the two injured officers and another officer returned fire. Bedell had driven cross-country and arrived at the Pentagon’s subway entrance armed with two semiautomatic weapons. Bedell apparently left behind Internet postings resentful of the government and airing suspicions about the 9/11 attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Australia Gurshan Singh (3), who was visiting from Punjab in northern India, disappeared from a suburban house in Melbourne. His body was found about six hours later some 30 km (20 miles) away, not far from the city's airport. On march 7 police alleged that Gursewak Dhillon (23), a part-time taxi driver who had been sharing a house with the boy and his family, was responsible for the boy’s death.
(AFP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 4, Bangladesh police said Mahbub Sarwar (26), a Dhaka-based Facebook stocks tipster with more than 10,000 followers, has been arrested on charges of illegally manipulating Bangladesh's overheated stock exchange.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency, Anvisa, ordered all 1,987 passengers and 765 crew to remain aboard the "Vision of the Seas" anchored at Buzios, while teams of doctors treat the 195 passengers suffering vomiting and diarrhea and determine the cause of their illness.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A collection of 300 films capturing the final days of the British Empire in India and other parts of south Asia was released by the University of Cambridge. The free archive footage is available at www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html. The silent films, taken between 1911 and 1956, celebrate unique moments in history, from life after the Quetta earthquake of 1935 to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Chile’s government said it had identified 279 dead, dropping the confirmed official death toll from 802. The Feb 27 magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the strongest on record, and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-km (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on the sidelines of a meeting of regional officials in Costa Rica, said the Obama administration will resume aid to Honduras that was suspended after a coup last year and urged Latin American nations to recognize the new Honduran government.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A German court jailed four Islamic militants who dreamed of "mounting a second September 11" for a thwarted plot to attack US soldiers and civilians in Germany. The two German converts to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, each received 12-year jail terms. Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, got 11 years while Atilla Selek, a German of Turkish origin, was given five years in prison for what the court called a supporting role in the plot.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Greece launched a critical 10-year bond issue, a key test of its ability to raise funds to pay off expiring debts, and dig out of a financial crisis that has shaken the EU.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In India a stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 women and children at a Hindu temple in Kunda, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Iraq a string of blasts ripped through Baghdad targeting early voters and killing 17 people, raising tensions in an already nervous city as early ballots are cast for the March 14 parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Liam Adams, the brother of Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, surrendered to Irish authorities to face 23 charges of sexually abusing his daughter. He fled to the Republic of Ireland to avoid a November 2008 Belfast hearing over the charges of abusing his daughter Aine for eight years when she was a child.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Israel's Supreme Court reprimanded Jerusalem police for not permitting groups to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in favor of Jewish settlers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, The new Ivory Coast government announced it is now made up of 16 ministers drawn from President Laurent Gbagbo's FPI party and the former New Forces rebels as well as 11 ministers representing opposition parties.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Throngs of Mexico City gay and lesbian couples registered for marriage licenses, the day Latin America's first gay-marriage law took effect.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Pakistan robbers kidnapped Sahil Saeed, a five-year-old British boy, in the town of Jhelum, about 100 km (65 miles) south of Islamabad, demanding a ransom of 100,000 pounds, prompting his mother to make a tearful plea for the return of her boy. In the northwest an overnight gunbattle left 30 insurgents and one soldier dead in the Chamarkand area of the Mohmand tribal region. Sahil Saeed was released on March 16. Spanish police arrested 3 suspects in the kidnapping in Tarragona province. They were suspected of having traveled to another European city to collect ransom money.
(AFP, 3/4/10)(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A2)(AFP, 3/16/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 4, Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas government banned men from working in women's hair salons. The announcement came amid a Hamas campaign to impose Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Rwanda 2 grenade blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 4, Somali pirates hit a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Kenya with a rocket-propelled grenade as private security on board returned fire and fended off the would-be hijackers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A Syrian archaeologist said more than 250 silver coins dating back to the time of Alexander the Great have been unearthed. The coins were discovered two weeks ago in a bronze box in northern Syria when a local man was digging the foundations of his new home.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Taiwan a powerful 6.4 earthquake and more than a dozen aftershocks jolted southern Taiwan, injuring 96 people, toppling farm houses and derailing a carriage on a high-speed train.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Togo held presidential elections. Jean-Pierre Fabre (57), a deputy in the National Assembly and the top opposition candidate, said that this time around the people will not let the ruling party steal the election. Provisional results on March 6 indicated that Gnassingbe won 1.2 million votes, representing 60.9% of the roughly 2 million votes cast.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 4, Yemen's Interior Ministry said it has arrested 11 suspected al-Qaida militants during a raid on one of their homes. The father of one of the suspects was killed by police when he opened fire on police during the raid. Sharif Mobley (26), one of the 11 suspects and a US citizen of Somali descent, had worked for contractors at nuclear plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland from 2002 to 2008, mostly hauling materials and setting up scaffolding. In 2015 Mobley was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/13/10)(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2010 Mar 5, In Alabama Larry Langford (63), the former mayor of Birmingham, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for taking $241,000 in bribes.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 5, In Arizona 6 people were killed when a passenger bus hit another vehicle and rolled over on the interstate south of Phoenix.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, Edgar Wayburn (103), former 5-term president of the Sierra Club, died in SF. In 1999 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his years of efforts in preserving wilderness.
(SFC, 3/8/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 5, An Australian court ruled that the once-popular painkiller Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack and was unfit for consumption, awarding a man leading a class action suit against the drug's maker 287,000 Australian dollars ($259,000) in compensation.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, It was reported that the advocacy group Big Brother Watch found, through a series of Freedom of Information requests, that many local governments, called councils in Britain, are installing microchips in trash cans distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated them — in part because officials know the move would be unpopular. Proponents called it a bid to push recycling. Microchips were first fitted into some British trash bins eight years ago, and the debate over whether the state has the right to weigh or otherwise analyze residents' refuse has surfaced periodically since.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, Dutch anti-Islam maverick Geert Wilders (46) took his cinematic assault on the Quran to Britain's House of Lords, sparking heated debate inside the building and angry protests outside. Wilders screened his 15-minute film "Fitna" to about 60 people, including a half-dozen peers, in a wood-paneled committee room in Parliament. The film associates the Quran with terrorism, homophobia and repression of women.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, Canada’s Tim Hortons Inc unveiled a fresh strategy to take on Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in the US market, saying it would open hundreds of new American cafes that break the mold of Tim's iconic Canadian coffee shops.
(Reuters, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Chile 3 strong aftershocks shook the center of the country, sending panicked residents rushing out of their homes and leveling more buildings in an area already hard hit by the Feb 6 monster earthquake.
(AFP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Ethiopia 25 African states agreed to step up efforts to regulate mercenary activity on the continent amid an explosion of private security companies on the continent.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, Eight Fijian men were sentenced to jail terms of three to seven years for their roles in a 2007 plot to assassinate the armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the island nation's prime minister, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 2006.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, French President Nicolas Sarkozy summoned bank leaders to his Elysee palace to order them to boost lending to the economy and smaller companies.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, Germany and the group of countries using the euro ruled out any immediate financial aid for debt-ridden Greece at the start of a diplomatic tour by PM George Papandreou.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Greece masked youths attacked the leader of the country’s biggest union and stoned police in Athens in an outbreak of violence over cutbacks proposed by PM George Papandreou, who was abroad seeking European leaders' support for his efforts to defuse the country's debt crisis.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Israel clashes erupted between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police at a sacred and disputed hilltop compound following a sermon on a recent Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Mexico heavily armed gunmen ambushed a convoy of federal police on a highway near the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state, killing two officers and wounding three. Soldiers seized 28,000 pounds of marijuana, seven vehicles and 18 high-powered weapons in Altar, Sonora, 35 miles south of the Arizona border.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Pakistan a suicide bomber targeted Shiite Muslims on two buses being escorted by security forces through a northwestern border area rife with sectarian and insurgent violence, killing 12 people. Pakistan army helicopters destroyed a sprawling hideout of a key al-Qaida-linked militant leader, Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, in the northwestern tribal region of Bajur, killing 25 insurgents. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed and fellow commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, top Taliban commanders close to al-Qaida, were believed to have been killed in the army airstrike.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Pakistan Obaidullah Akhund, the Taliban's former defense minister arrested in 2007, allegedly died of heart disease in a Karachi prison. His relatives were informed of his death in February, 2012.
(AP, 2/13/12)
2010 Mar 5, Swarms of Somali pirates moved into the waters off East Africa, triggering four shootouts with French and Spanish fishing vessels including a skirmish with French military personnel that sunk a pirate skiff. Somali pirates near Madagascar hijacked the Norwegian-owned ship with 21 crew members. The UBT Ocean chemical tanker was carrying fuel oil.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Spain the regions of Madrid, Valencia and southern Murcia said they will keep bullfighting legal and give the sport cultural heritage protection.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 5, Election officials in Tajikistan declared the governing party the overwhelming winner of parliamentary elections that international observers say were marred by widespread fraud. The Central Election Commission said that a definitive count of ballots cast in the Feb 28 contest showed the People's Democratic Party winning 70.6% of the vote. It was now set to take 54 of the 63 seats in the Central Asian nation's lower chamber of parliament. The Islamic Revival Party came a distant second with 8.2% of the vote.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 6, Sandra Bullock won worst-actress for her romantic comedy flop "All About Steve" at the Razzies, a spoof of the Oscars that mocks Hollywood's low-points of the year.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 6, British PM Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, An operation in Germany to remove the gall bladder of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was "successful" and he was in hospital convalescing.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Germany 4 men brandishing handguns and machetes stormed into Berlin's Grand Hyatt hotel during a million-euro poker tournament and made off with hundreds of thousands of euros in cash. A man (21), who admitted to taking part in the raid, turned himself into authorities on March 15 and identified 3 accomplices who remained on the run. Authorities issued photos of the three: Ahmad el-Awayti (20), of undetermined nationality; Jihad Chetwie, a 19-year-old German; and Mustafa Ucarkus, a 20-year-old Turkish citizen. On March 21 police arrested a 5th suspect, a Lebanese citizen (28), believed to be the organizer of the attack.
(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 6, Icelanders voted in a referendum on a $5 billion deal to repay Anglo-Dutch loans. The referendum resoundingly rejected a deal to pay Britain and The Netherlands billions for losses in the Icesave bank collapse.
(Reuters, 3/6/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Indonesia a group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh" claimed to be the target of a police crackdown. Police have arrested 16 suspected militants in a series of raids in the deeply conservative province of Aceh since Feb 22.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Iraq a car bomb exploded near a bus for pilgrims in the Shiite city of Najaf, killing at least three people, including two Iranians, on the eve of key national elections.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In northern Mexico police in the city of San Nicolas de los Garza, a suburb of the industrial hub of Monterrey, protested hours after three of their colleagues were shot to death in an ambush and a fourth was wounded. Federal police announced the arrest of three men accused of running an extortion ring that targeted Ciudad Juarez businesses. The army announced it had seized 2.6 metric tons of marijuana and detained one suspect in a mountainous area of Chihuahua.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Pakistan Maulvi Noor Mohammad, a Pakistani Taliban commander, was ambushed near the main town of Miran Shah, North Waziristan, by relatives of a man he recently tortured and killed.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In the Philippines guerrillas of the communist New People's Army (NPA) killed 11 government soldiers in a gun battle on Mindoro island.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association said that Saudi security officers stormed a book stall at the Riyadh Int’l. Book Fair last week and confiscated all work by Abdellah Al-Hamid, a well-known reformer and critic of the royal family.
(SSFC, 3/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 6, In western Sudan 10 people were killed in renewed clashes between the Misseriya and Nuwayba tribes in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Tibet a truck loaded with people heading to an ancient monastery in the Shannan prefecture crashed killing 26 people.
(SSFC, 3/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 7, In the US Academy Awards the film “The Hurt Locker" triumphed with six prizes and made Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar. Sandra Bullock won as best actress for "The Blind Side"; Jeff Bridges as best actor for "Crazy Heart"; Mo'Nique as supporting actress for "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds." The best documentary feature was won by “The Cove," an examination of a bloody dolphin hunt filmed with hidden cameras in Taiji, Japan.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 7, Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an unannounced visit to the southern town of Marjah, promising angry elders that he will rebuild the former Taliban stronghold after a big NATO operation. Scores of Islamist militants defected and joined the Afghan government as infighting among rebel groups left dozens dead including civilians. Regional police spokesman Laal Mohammad Ahmadzai said 11 Hezb-i-Islami commanders and 68 of their men in Baghlan province had defected to the government. Over the weekend 3 men in Helmand and Laghman provinces and 2 children in Kandahar were killed in a wave of bomb blasts. 3 NATO service members were killed in attacks, one in the south and two in the east. A roadside bomb blew up a car in the southwestern province of Badghis killing 10 civilians. Another civilian died in a separate bomb blast in the same region.
(Reuters, 3/7/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 7, Sir Kenneth Dover (89), a distinguished British historian of Greek culture, died. He gained wider fame by admitting his wish to kill a fellow historian Trevor Aston (d.1985). His books included commentaries on Thucydides, Theocritus and Aristophanes; "Ancient Greek Literature" (1980), "Greek and the Greeks" (1987), "The Greeks and Their Legacy" (1989), "Greek Popular Morality in the Times of Plato and Aristotle" (1994), "The Evolution of Greek Prose Style" (1997) and a popular history, "The Greeks" (1981) written in conjunction with a television series for the British Broadcasting Corp.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 7, Ethiopia inaugurated a museum in Addis Ababa in memory of the victims of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's so-called Red Terror purge which killed tens of thousands in 1977-78.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Germany police said heavy snowfall over the weekend triggered a deadly avalanche and caused thousands of accidents, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens more injured.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Iran announced that it has started a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country's already imposing arsenal.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Iraq held its 2nd election since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein. 62% of Iraqis voted. Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at voters, killing at least 37 people in 136 attacks aimed at intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have plagued it since the 2003 US-led invasion. PM Nuri al-Maliki, the Shiite who helped ease Iraq's sectarian strife, soon emerged as a front-runner in a parliamentary election.
(AP, 3/7/10)(AFP, 3/8/10)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A3)(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 7, Jamaica said plans to open a music museum next year that officials say will feature rare pieces from the island's music history, such as the sole album that the late reggae star Bob Marley produced before he gained international fame.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, NATO said it is suspending the training of Kosovo's security troops after a military-style parade that broke the force's agreement to focus only on civil emergencies. An armed honor guard had appeared at a parade on March 5 marking the 12th anniversary of the killing of the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Nigeria some 500 people, mainly women and children, were allegedly killed in overnight attacks in the three villages of Dogo Nahawa, Ratsat and Zot near the city of Jos. Residents and local rights activists blamed the overnight attack on ethnic Fulani pastoralists. A military spokesman said security forces have arrested 24 people last week accused of stealing crude oil and illegally refining it. Security forces soon detained 95 suspects in the violence.
(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/8/10)(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 7, A skeptical Palestinian leadership agreed to hold US-mediated peace talks with Israel for four months, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in communications between the two sides.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Philippine marines killed at least seven al-Qaida-linked militants in a raid on a coastal hide-out but failed to capture a Malaysian terror suspect long wanted by Washington.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Thailand some 3,000 supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra demonstrated a week ahead of a crucial mass anti-government protest.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Togo's top opposition party said they have proof that the ruling party committed fraud to win the country's contentious presidential election and that they will show their evidence in court.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Yemen Sharif Mobley, an American al-Qaida prisoner receiving treatment in a hospital, attacked guards killing one and wounding another, while trying to escape. He was caught after a chase.
(AP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 8, The resignation of New York Rep. Eric Massa (50) took effect following an ethics investigation. He had earlier cited health reasons but added that Democratic House leadership forced him out due to his opposition last November to the House version of the Health Care bill.
(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 8, In California GOP State Sen. Roy Ashburn (55) announced that he was gay on a Kern County radio station. 5 days earlier he was arrested in Sacramento on suspicion of drunk driving.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 8, AIG agreed to sell its Alico unit to NY-based MetLife for $15.5 billion.
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.79)
2010 Mar 8, Gerald Flamm (93), former newspaper reporter, died at Stanford, Ca. His books included “Good Life in Hard Times" (1977), a look at the Bay Area during the Great Depression, and “Hometown San Francisco" (1994).
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.C6)
2010 Mar 8, In Alaska the body of rural teacher Candice Berner (32) was found a mile outside of Chignik Lake. Wolf tracks surrounded the body.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 8, In Australia Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina joined forces for a 2.96 billion US dollar bid for Australia's Arrow Energy, hoping for a bigger slice of the country's booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Afghanistan a pair of would-be suicide bombers armed with automatic rifles tried to storm government buildings in Khost, but were killed in a shoot-out with police.
(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, The EU said it plans to create a European Monetary Fund to better coordinate the economies of the 16 countries that use the euro and prevent financial debacles such as the Greek debt crisis from undermining the credibility of Europe's single currency.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Haiti US missionary Charisa Coulter (24), held for more than a month on kidnapping charges, was released from prison, while Laura Silsby (40), the leader of her Baptist group, remained in custody.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Iraq 2 American soldiers died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 8, Israel said it has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction.
(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, David Kimche, a British-born Israeli spy-turned-diplomat, died in Israel. He played a key role in the Iran-contra scandal that rocked President Ronald Reagan's administration.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 8, Myanmar announced the enactment of long awaited laws that set the stage for the country's first election in 20 years to be held sometime this year.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, Pakistani officials said an American member of al-Qaida was picked up in a raid in the southern city of Karachi, but reversed earlier assertions that the detained man was the terror network's US-born spokesman. They identified the suspect as Abu Yahya Majadin Adam. A suicide car bomber struck a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 13 people and wounding 61 more including women taking children to school.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, Portugal announced new austerity measures to avoid a debt crisis like the one engulfing Greece, cutting welfare benefits and government hiring as well as selling assets and raising taxes on the well-off.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In South Africa hip-hop artist Molemo Maarohanye, known as "Jub Jub," (Marshmallow) was involved in a drag race that left 4 children dead. He and another defendant, Themba Tshabalala, tested positive for cocaine and morphine. On March 19 Maarohanye was freed on $ 1,300 bail, as protesters chanted for their execution.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Togo security forces blocked off three roads leading to the opposition party headquarters, a day after the group had staged protests claiming presidential elections last week were rigged to favor the son of the country's longtime dictator.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Turkey a 5.9 magnitude, pre-dawn earthquake struck near the village of Basyurt in the remote, sparsely populated area of eastern Elazig province. 51 people were killed as it knocked down stone and mud-brick houses and minarets in at least six villages.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 9, In Washington, DC, same sex couple began to marry as the district became the 6th place in the US to conduct same sex marriages.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 9, San Francisco officials ordered the shutdown of all drug testing at the police crime lab amid allegations that Deborah J. Madden (60), a former technician, stole and used some of the cocaine she was supposed to analyze. Madden had officially retired this month. On March 15, 2013, Madden pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine possession.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/16/13, p.C1)
2010 Mar 9, Rodney Alcala (66), an amateur photographer, was convicted in southern California of killing a girl and 4 women between 1977 and 1979. The Santa Ana jury recommended a death penalty. Photographic evidence from a Seattle storage locker, rented before his arrest in 1979, linked him to at least one woman listed for decades as missing. On march 30 Alcala was sentenced to death.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A8)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C3)(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A7)
2010 Mar 9, University of Florida researcher Nam Dang and colleagues in Japan said that papaya leaf extract and its tea have dramatic cancer-fighting properties against a broad range of tumors, backing a belief held in a number of folk traditions.
(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, An Ohio State Univ. custodian, Nathaniel Brown (51), killed a supervisor and wounded another and then killed himself. Brown had been told that he was being fired.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 9, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed two Afghan border police and a civilian riding in their vehicle. A Taliban operative wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated NATO’s Chergotah base in Khost province and detonated his explosive vest next to a group of soldiers who were warming their hands beside a fire. 2 NATO service members were killed.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 9, China and India gave a qualified approval to the nonbinding Copenhagen climate accord brokered by Pres. Obama in the final hours of the December, 2009, climate summit.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 9, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew into Canberra with PM Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce waiting on the red carpet. He was soon appointed an honorary companion of the Order of Australia for his work after the 2002 Bali bombing. Yudhoyono will become the first Indonesian leader to address a joint sitting of Australia's parliament on March 10.
(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Indonesia 3 terror suspects were killed during raids near Jakarta. One of the dead included Dulmatin, one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings. Police soon confirmed his identity. An additional terror suspect was arrested in Jakarta earlier in the day, bringing to 24 the number of suspects taken into custody on Java and Aceh since Feb. 22 in a police crackdown on a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah cell.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 9, US Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel and pledged Washington's full commitment to Israel's security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus. Biden assured Israel of Washington's commitment to its security and preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons.
(AP, 3/9/10)(Reuters, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Israeli officials said Israel wants to build a nuclear power plant, a move that could bring new attention to the country's secretive nuclear activities.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Japan confirmed for the first time the existence of once-secret Cold War-era pacts with the US that tacitly allowed nuclear-armed warships to enter Japanese ports in violation of Tokyo's postwar principles.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Mexico Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico's federal police, said that Texas-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, nicknamed "La Barbie," is battling Hector Beltran Leyva for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Somalia fighting between Islamist insurgents and Somali government forces killed five people in Mogadishu. 4 masked gunmen also shot dead an Islamist commander in the capital's Bakara market.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Switzerland a senior Google executive welcomed a US decision to relax restrictions on exporting Internet communications services to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Venezuela's government seized control of two sugar mills and threatened to expropriate them, accusing managers of hoarding a basic good and violating the labor rights of employees. The government also raised the price of sugar by 30% as mill owners struggled to turn a profit due to price controls.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, Pres. Obama met with Haiti’s Pres. Rene Preval and assured him that the US was committed to Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction following the devastating January 12 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 10, The Kansas City, Mo., school board narrowly approved a plan to close nearly half the district’s schools in a desperate attempt to avoid a potential bankruptcy. 29 schools were closed.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A6)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.33)
2010 Mar 10, Virginia’s general assembly became the first state legislature to ban mandatory health insurance. Idaho followed suit a week later. Some 35 other states planned similar measures.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.34)
2010 Mar 10, Corey Haim (b.1971), a Canada-born 1980s teen heartthrob for his roles in the vampire films "Lucas" (1986) and "The Lost Boys" (1987) died in Los Angeles. His career was blighted by drug abuse.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Afghanistan a rocket attack killed an Afghan soldier at a security post in Paktika province. In southern Helmand province 3 men were killed by a bomb blast in Marjah.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Algeria almost 200 striking doctors, dentists and pharmacists demonstrated near the presidential palace to press their pay demands. The health professionals have been on strike since the end of December.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In London self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky won his libel case against RTR, a Kremlin-owned broadcaster, that aired allegations he masterminded the 2006 murder in London of former KGB renegade agent Alexander Litvinenko. RTR, which did not take part in the hearings, called the judgment illegal.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Cambodia said it will preserve 14 sites at the last bastion of the murderous Khmer Rouge, including the home of their leader Pol Pot, as tourist attractions.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, A UN official said 90 Rwandan rebels have been killed in eastern Congo during a two-week Congolese army operation conducted with the support of UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Top Egyptian cleric Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi (81), whose views often drew criticism from religious conservatives and secular Muslims, died of a heart attack during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Tantawi angered radicals by supporting organ transplants, denouncing female circumcision and ruling that women should be appointed to senior judicial and administrative positions in government. At the same time, he shocked many Muslims in 2004 by siding with France in its steps to ban the hijab head covering from state schools.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Germany the world's largest tourism fair, the ITB, kicked off in Berlin with the global travel industry hoping for better times following a crisis-hit 2009.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Haiti kidnappers freed two female European aid workers, one from the Czech Republic and the other Belgium, snatched off the streets of the capital and held for five days.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom signed a law making Holocaust denial punishable by three years in prison.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Iran hanged two convicted drug traffickers in the Shiite shrine city of Qom. Another man, convicted of drug trafficking, was hanged in the city of Ahvaz. The latest hangings bring to at least 30 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on news reports.
(AFP, 3/11/10)(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki underwent surgery. He was released from the hospital the next day in good health. US troops opened fire on a car in western Baghdad, killing Iraqi journalist Aseel al-Obeidi and her husband.
(AP, 3/11/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Italy allies of Premier Berlusconi pushed a controversial measure through parliament that shields the premier from prosecution in 2 ongoing trials.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 10, National police in Rome said 20 warrants have been issued so far in Palermo and six arrests have been made in the United States. Police say the crackdown targeted a Palermo-based Mafia crime family, and those named in the warrants are suspected of being mobsters and running extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Madagascar was hit by Tropical Storm Hubert. Disaster officials soon reported at least 10 people dead.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, Carlos Slim, Mexican telecom tycoon, jumped past Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett when Forbes magazine released its 2010 list of the world's wealthiest.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 10, The Moroccan government expelled 20 foreign Christian missionaries after religious authorities accused them of proselytism. The expelled missionaries included couples from Britain and The Netherlands who had adopted Moroccan children.
(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Nigeria some 5,000 activists staged a march in Abuja to demand the sacking of the cabinet and a public appearance by ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned to the country. 2 people were killed overnight by soldiers in Jos enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages. Plateau state police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba gave a breakdown of the list of people killed, saying the toll was 109. Aduba also revealed that 49 people were to be charged over the killings, saying they had already confessed to being on a revenge mission.
(AP, 3/10/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Pakistan suspected Islamist militants stormed the World Vision office, a US-based Christian aid agency, in Oghi village in Mansehra district killing six Pakistani aid workers after singling them out and then blowing up the building.
(Reuters, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, US Vice President Joe Biden met Palestinian leaders, telling them Israel's decision to expand settlement activity in east Jerusalem is undermining the peace efforts he is promoting.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Qatar's PM Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Arab states will respond to Israel's recent decision to expand an east Jerusalem settlement.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Rwanda told Carina Tertsakian, a Human Rights Watch researcher, that her work permit had been revoked. On April 23, she was given 24 hours to leave the country.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Mar 10, A UN Security Council report said up to half the food aid in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local UN workers.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 10, At least three Swedish newspapers published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after an alleged plot to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who created it, was uncovered in Ireland. Irish police said those arrested were two Algerians, two Libyans, a Palestinian, a Croatian and an American woman married to one of the Algerian suspects. They were not identified by name. On March 13 Irish police said they had released three of the arrested Muslims and American Jamie Paulin-Ramirez (31) without charges.
(AP, 3/10/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 11, US Republican senators sent a letter to the head of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America board of governors seeking detailed financial information about executive compensation, travel and lobbying expenses, and how the national charity awards grants to local clubs. The four senators said they were concerned that the chief executive of a charity that has been closing local clubs for lack of funding was compensated nearly $1 million in 2008.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 11, A US court-appointed examiner report investigating the failure of Lehman Bros. was unsealed. It said Lehman executives had manipulated balance sheets to temporarily remove $50 billion of troubled assets. Lehman’s bankruptcy in September, 2008, helped spread fear throughout the global financial system.
(SFC, 3/13/10, p.D1)
2010 Mar 11, In NYC lawyers representing construction companies, and rescue and recovery workers agreed to a settlement that could pay as much as $657.5 million to responders sickened by dust from the destroyed World Trade Center. On March 19 a federal judge rejected the ground zero settlement saying it was insufficient and that too much of it would go to legal fees. In June a $712 million settlement was reached.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)(SFC, 6/11/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 11, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, during a visit to Pakistan, said Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between Pakistan and India or anybody else fought on its soil. Five Afghan civilians, four of them children, were killed in an explosion in Kapisa province. A gunmen shot dead a South African construction contractor and his Afghan colleague in a separate attack in Khost province. One member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an explosion in the south of the country.
(Reuters, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Brazilian television network SBT broadcast a tape of Luiz Marques Barbosa (83) in bed with a 19-year-old that was widely distributed on the Internet. The station said the video was secretly filmed in January 2009 and sent anonymously to the network. Barbosa was detained in April out of fear he would flee the country.
(AP, 4/20/10)(http://tinyurl.com/y7vwfnz)
2010 Mar 11, British bank HSBC said information on 24,000 customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, potentially exposing large numbers of international clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Chile Sebastian Pinera began serving as president, succeeding Michele Bachelet, who went off to New York to head the UN organization for women. She resigned from the UN in 2013 and returned home to campaign.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.46)
2010 Mar 11, In Greece clashes between some 200 masked youths and riot police broke out as some 20,000 striking workers protested in central Athens against government austerity measures.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 11, In Honduras David Meza (51), a radio journalist whose career spanned three decades, was ambushed and killed in La Ceiba as he arrived home in his car.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 11, Preliminary election results released by Iraq's electoral commission showed PM Nouri al-Maliki leading in Babil province by nearly 14,000 votes and in Najaf by 7,000, two Shiite provinces in southern Iraq. Manaf Abdul al-Rawi, alleged Baghdad leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, was arrested. He soon gave investigators information that eventually led to the April 18 strike that killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
(AP, 3/11/10)(SFC, 4/23/10, p.A2)(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Kazakhstan a dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured, pouring water into several nearby villages and affecting 3,000 residents. A 2nd dam was washed away in the nearby Karatalsky district. Emergency officials said heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region of Kazakhstan neighboring China, flooding villages and claiming at least 35 lives.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AFP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Mexico 2 glowing brides in matching white gowns and four other same-sex couples made history in Mexico City as they wed under Latin America's first law that explicitly approves gay marriage.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Mexico gunmen burst into a home in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and opened fire, killing 5 young men and wounding 5 others, including a 10-year-old girl, during a wake being held for a young man shot to death in his car earlier in the week. The death toll rose to 6 the next day after a woman died of wounds suffered in the attack.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Pakistan a homemade bomb exploded on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing four people, including one child.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Somalia heavy fighting between insurgents and pro-government troops has killed at least 43 people over two days, as African Union peacekeepers used tanks to help the beleaguered government beat back an insurgent attack.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Sweden's parliament narrowly approved a resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, prompting the Turkish government to recall its ambassador in protest.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Ukrainian lawmakers formed a new majority coalition around President Viktor Yanukovych. Before forming the new governing coalition, Yanukovych signed a new law allowing individual deputies to break away from their parliamentary factions, which allowed his coalition to eventually control 235 of the chamber's 450 seats. Mykola Azarov, who served as Yanukovych's campaign strategist in this year's presidential elections, was chosen as premier.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Yemen 3 southern independence activists were killed and five wounded as demonstrations in southern towns sparked clashes with police and sympathy rallies in the north against the crackdown. Yemeni authorities confiscated Al-Jazeera television broadcasting equipment from the station's San'a offices after complaining of its coverage of the country's restive southern region.
(AP, 3/11/10)(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 11, The Zimbabwe Red Cross said at least 2.17 million Zimbabweans need food aid and the figures are set to rise because of an expected poor harvest this year.
(AFP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 12, The US government’s “vaccine court" ruled in 3 separate cases that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosol does not cause autism.
(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 12, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom formally announced that he is in the race for the office of California lieutenant governor.
(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 12, Austrian government officials said they have identified at least two mass graves of some 70 Nazi victims on property used by the army. The victims were concentration camp inmates and others, all killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, He Pingping (b.1988) of China, the world's shortest man, died in Rome while working on a TV show. He was 2 feet, 5.37 inches (74.6 cm) tall.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Egypt 23 Coptic Christians were wounded when extremist Muslims attacked a church community center in Marsa-Matruh. At least 27 people were arrested in northern Egypt after fighting erupted between Muslims and Christians over land.
(AP, 3/13/10)(Reuters, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, Georgian church leader Metropolitan Theodor said convicts would be able to build or maintain monasteries after clerics and prosecutors struck a deal allowing criminals convicted of minor crimes to serve their sentences in the monasteries.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, In India a troupe of 10,780 tribal villagers in northeast Mizoram state set a record for the largest dance ensemble in the world with a carefully choreographed routine to welcome in the summer.
(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, India signed 5 deals in New Delhi to purchase more than $7 billion in hardware and expertise from Russia. The agreements included the construction of at least 12 civilian nuclear reactors, an aircraft carrier and a fleet of MiG-29 fighters.
(AFP, 3/12/10)(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, Indonesian police killed two suspected Islamist militants in a firefight in remote Aceh province during the latest in a series of raids made since an extremist training camp was discovered there last month. Eight other suspects were arrested.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, It was reported that over 10% of the Buddha statues in Luang Prabang, Laos, had gone missing. Authorities suspected theft rings had stolen some 120 for resale.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, In Mexico gunmen burst into a party and killed 8 youths and left another person wounded in the Pacific coast township of Navolato, near the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan. Evaristo Pacheco, a journalist for the regional weekly Vision Informativa, was shot to death after being snatched from a nightclub in the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo.
(AP, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 12, A union representing Dutch nurses launched a national campaign against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care.
(Reuters, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other, killing at least 43 people in Lahore and wounding about 100. It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm. The death toll rose to 57 after more people died from their wounds.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 12, Serbian police detained nine former paramilitary fighters suspected of killing civilians and looting homes during the Kosovo war. The nine were accused of killing 41 ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Cuska in May 1999.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, Frightened Somalis stacked household goods on carts pulled by donkeys and fled the heaviest fighting the capital has seen in almost a year, after hundreds of heavily armed insurgents moved into an area this week previously controlled by government soldiers. Over 50 people had died in fighting over the last 3 days.
(AP, 3/12/10)(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, Sri Lanka's main ethnic Tamil party dropped its demand for an independent state and said it is ready to accept regional self-rule, following the defeat of separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in a 25-year civil war.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Thailand tens of thousands of supporters of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered near ministry buildings in Bangkok to rally against the government, sporting their signature red shirts. Two months of protests followed leaving 92 people dead.
(AFP, 3/13/10)(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.47)
2010 Mar 13, A storm battered parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut with gusts of up to 70 mph.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai backed off from a much-criticized move to control the previously independent monitoring body for upcoming parliamentary elections, offering to allow two foreigners on the commission. Afghanistan rowed back from a total ban on media broadcasts of "disturbing" images from insurgent attacks or live pictures of security operations. Police reported four explosions in Kandahar. Multiple bomb attacks in Kandahar killed 35 people, but failed to free insurgents from the city prison. The blasts included two car bombs, six suicide attackers on motorbikes and bicycles, and homemade bombs. The attackers targeted the city's prison, police headquarters, a wedding hall next door and other areas on roads leading to the prison.
(AP, 3/13/10)(Reuters, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Canada 2 people were killed and 30 hurt by an avalanche near Revelstoke, British Columbia, when the slide hit a snowmobile rally.
(Reuters, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, Cyclone Tomas began battering island groups off Fiji's northern coast, causing flooding, pounding seas and one death. Officials said the storm likely would only sideswipe the main islands of the South Pacific nation. At least 2 people were killed by the storm.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Georgia a hoax television broadcast said Russia had invaded and the president had been killed. It sparked wide anxiety in the country still traumatized by the August 2008 war in which Russian troops advanced deep into the country.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Honduras Nahum Palacios (36), director of a TV station in Tocoa near the Caribbean coast, was shot to death as he drove home and was intercepted by two other vehicles. This was the third such slaying in two weeks.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 13, In India Abdul Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali were arrested late in the day in Mumbai's Matunga suburb. Police said the two men were preparing to attack several targets in the city, the country's financial and entertainment hub. Police said the men had links with terror groups in Pakistan and were acting on directions from handlers there.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, Iran’s Fars the news agency said Iran has busted what it says was a US-funded cyber network group linked to an exiled opposition movement that collected data on its nuclear scientists. 30 members of the network with links to the outlawed People's Mujahedeen and monarchists were said to have been arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Mexico a series of shootings killed 24 people in a Pacific coast state plagued by drug gang violence. Nearly half died in one shootout between soldiers and armed men. Suspected drug gang hit men separately ambushed two cars carrying families with ties to the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez, killing an American couple and a Mexican man. Three young children survived, although two suffered wounds. On March 26 suspect Ricardo Valles de la Rosa (45), a member of the Barrio Azteca gang, was arrested for the US consulate linked killings. A confession by de la Rosa suggested that El Paso jail officer Arthur H. Redelfs was targeted in the Ciudad Juarez shootings that also killed his wife, Lesley A. Enriquez, an employee of the US consulate. The husband of another consulate worker was killed in the other vehicle attacked. In April Mexico arrested a 2nd suspect, a member of the Los Aztecas gang, who confessed to taking part in the killing of a US consulate official. In September Jesus Ernesto Chavez, was extradited to the US, for ordering the killing of Lesley A. Enriquez.
(AP, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 3/31/10)(AFP, 4/23/10)(SSFC, 9/5/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 13, Mozambique's health ministry spokesman said the country's cholera outbreak has now killed 42 people in the northern and central parts of the southern African country.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Myanmar ethnic rebels in Nam Zam township, Shan State, killed 20 government troops in an ambush aimed at deterring the military government from launching an offensive against them ahead of elections this year.
(Reuters, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 13, Several dozen Palestinian women scuffled with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem amid rising religious and political tensions in the disputed city.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Pakistan a renewed wave of violence struck Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of the Swat Valley, when a suicide bomber on a motorized rickshaw killed 13 people at a security checkpoint, raising fears the nation is sliding back into a period of relentless bloodletting.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Qatar a two week UN conference opened with a focus on the Atlantic bluefin tuna and other marine life in the world's overfished oceans. The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) discussed new proposals on regulating the trade in number of plant and animal species.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Somalia a fight over land rights between two rival clans in northern Amara village killed at least 15 people.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, The Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung quoted Swiss Abbot Martin Werlen saying around 60 people over the last 15 years have reported being victims of abuse by Catholic priests in Switzerland.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet while demanding authorities crack down on a critical news Web site that he accused of spreading false information. A Venezuelan police official said security forces have seized two tons of cocaine hidden in two bulldozers at a port in the central state of Carabobo. The cocaine was intended to be smuggled to the Netherlands.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, American rower Katie Spotz (22) completed a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean, touching a pier in the coffee-brown waters of Guyana to claim a record as the youngest person to accomplish the feat. The athlete from Mentor, Ohio, set out from Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 3 and endured rough seas during the 2,817-mile (4,533-km) crossing.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, Peter Graves (83), film and TV star, died. His calm and intelligent demeanor was a good fit to the intrigue of "Mission Impossible" (1967-1973 and 1988-1990) as well as the satire of the "Airplane" films.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Afghanistan one US Marine was killed in a road accident in Marjah. An unmanned Predator drone aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Chile a power failure at nightfall plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness, rattling a country already anxious after last month's 8.8-magnitude quake.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Colombia candidates from parties allied with outgoing President Alvaro Uribe dominated elections to replace a Congress tarnished by lawmakers' links to far-right criminal bands. Voters made the Party of National Integration (PIN), new party accused of ties to far-right criminal bands, Colombia's fourth-strongest party. Former Foreign Minister Noemi Sanin (60) defeated Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's hand-picked successor for the Conservative Party's presidential nomination in a close primary.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 14, Egypt's Constitutional Court backed the right of women judges to sit on the bench in the state's administrative courts, despite opposition from conservatives. The ruling was not "decisive" and debates within the administrative courts could still continue along the conservative-liberal fault line.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, France voted in regional polls. French voters scarred by economic crisis dealt President Nicolas Sarkozy and his conservative leadership a stern blow by strongly favoring leftist candidates in regional elections.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Iraq early results released by the electoral commission showed the prime minister's political coalition ahead in oil-rich Basra province, strengthening his lead in the country's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, Israeli security services overnight captured Maher Uda (47), a top Hamas commander, in Ramallah. He had been on the run for more than a decade for his implication in a series of suicide attacks in Israel which claimed 70 lives.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Kashmir 6 policemen were hurt when suspected separatist militants attacked their patrol with a grenade in Indian Kashmir's main city of Srinagar.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Pakistan helicopter gunships pounded Taliban hideouts in the northwestern tribal district, killing at least 17 insurgents.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(SFC, 3/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 14, Millions of Russians voted in regional elections in a mid-term test of President Dmitry Medvedev's pledge to loosen the Kremlin's grip on the political system. The ruling United Russia party appeared headed for an expected victory in regional elections, although many disgruntled voters threw their support behind opposition candidates.
(Reuters, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Thailand as many as 150,000 anti-government demonstrators vowed to march on military barracks housing Thailand's top leaders as their icon, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, urged them from exile not to give up.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.45)
2010 Mar 14, Yemen launched a preemptive strike was to forestall an imminent al-Qaida attack against a strategic site. The leader of Al-Qaeda in Abyan, Jamil Nasser Abdullah al-Ambari, Samir al-Sanaani and Ahmed Amzarba were killed in the raid.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, Honda Motor Co. notified the NHTSA it will recall 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element small trucks, from the 2007-2008 model years, due to braking system problems.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a rocket attack on Bagram Air Field killed one person. Afghan authorities in the eastern Paktika province prevented three would-be suicide bombers from attacking a security post in Barmal district. Six suspected Taliban also died after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province. 3 civilians were killed and 3 others were wounded when their vehicle hit a mine while they were moving household goods in Ghazni province. Fire from insurgents killed an Afghan child outside a NATO base in Kunar province.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Britain Louis Wainwright (18) and Nicholas Smith (19), both from Scunthorpe, were found dead at different addresses following a night out. They had both taken the drug mephedrone, sold online as plant food and also goes by the names meow meow, mcat and bubble. The deaths come a week after a secondary school in Leicestershire reported that 180 pupils had missed school after taking the drug, which can be bought for less than £10 a gram.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 15, British and Italian doctors carried out groundbreaking surgery to rebuild the windpipe of a 10-year-old boy using stem cells developed within his own body. Doctors at London's Great Ormond Street children's hospital implanted the boy with a donor trachea, or windpipe, that had been stripped of its cells and injected with his own.
(AFP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said Egyptian security officials have arrested Yotam Feldman, an Israeli journalist, as he tried to sneak across the porous Israeli-Egyptian border with African migrants. Feldman told his investigators he was reporting on African migrants sneaking into Israel from Egypt. Feldman returned home on March 22, saying he had been beaten in captivity and that some of his materials had been confiscated.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Iraq the US military turned over the Taji prison holding some 2,900 detainees to Iraqi authorities. A suicide car bomber killed 8 people and wounded 28 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the morning rush hour in Fallujah. In northern Iraq an American soldier died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, Irish police charged two men from Algeria and Libya with minor offenses following a weeklong investigation into Muslim extremists allegedly involved in efforts to kill a Swedish artist. Ali Charafe Damache (49) of Algeria was charged with sending a threatening text message. A Libyan who used the false name Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani was charged with immigration violations.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Italian police arrested the "postmen" of the Mafia's top boss, 19 close aides who delivered the notes Matteo Messina Denaro writes to impart orders from his hideout.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Mexican marines and Navy personnel announced they had launched a raid against an operations base run by the Zeta drug gang near Monterrey. A convoy of fleeing vehicles opened fire on a Marine helicopter following them. The Marines chased them down, some on foot, and killed eight suspects. Elsewhere in Chihuahua state, running gun battles in the tourist town of Creel left seven people dead and two seriously wounded. Farther south prosecutors reported the bodies of five men were found on the side of a highway. In the Gulf Coast town of Tierra Blanco some 90 city policemen were held for questioning about the kidnapping of undocumented Central American migrants.
(AP, 3/16/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 15, Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region detonated two car bombs near a government building in Warri where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled. Nigeria's intelligence agency later accused Henry Okah, an alleged ex-leader of militant group MEND, of having wired the bombs.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Mar 15, Pakistani police discovered a cache of bomb-making equipment and thousands of pounds of explosives in an empty Lahore shop where authorities said a string of attacks on the eastern city may have been plotted.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, At the CITES conference in Qatar a top official with the UN wildlife agency said the world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to "the verge of extinction."
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Somalia's transitional government (TFG) and a faction of the country's moderate Ahlu Sunna Sufi sect signed a deal in Addis Ababa to jointly fight extremist elements in Somalia.
(AFP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters vowed to splatter the seat of government with their own blood if their demands weren't met.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, in Venezuela representatives of a leftist party asserted their independence from President Hugo Chavez, accepting a dissident politician into their ranks while demanding increased tolerance from their socialist leader.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Yemen launched a 2nd day of strikes against al-Qaida hideouts. As many as 9 people were killed in the raids including some civilians.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said she is freezing funding for the SBInet project, the virtual border fence along the US-Mexican border, due to cost overruns and missed deadlines by Boeing Corp. The project has cost $2.4 billion between 2005 and 2009.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100317/ts_csm/288327)
2010 Mar 16, In Texas a tour bus headed for Mexico crashed and killed 2 people.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, In southern Afghanistan two NATO soldiers were killed by a crude bomb.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, Seven north African states held talks in Algeria to plan a coordinated response to Al-Qaeda following a dangerous rise in the terror threat in the Sahara-Sahel region.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Bolivian officials said they have fired prison director Col. Gilmar Oblitas for allowing imprisoned former Gen. Luis Garcia Meza (81) turn cells into a luxury apartment.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 16, Brazilian police and church officials said authorities were investigating three priests accused of sexually abusing altar boys after a video allegedly showing one case of abuse was broadcast on SBT television a week earlier.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, A French policeman (53) was killed outside Paris by a member of ETA, the Basque separatist group. France's anti-terrorism police interrogated one suspect and tried to track down at least one other assailant who escaped. A police official said the suspected ETA commando unit was allegedly trying to steal cars when it was surprised by police.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Haiti two off-duty officers were shot to death near an open-air market in the capital. Such shootings have increased since thousands of prisoners escaped during the Jan. 12 earthquake.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Indian Kashmir 2 civilians and a policeman were killed and 8 other people wounded when suspected militants attacked police patrols at two major markets in Sopore and Srinagar.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi, defying government warnings, said the Islamic republic was "plagued with despotism," in remarks published ahead of a national celebration that could trigger more protests.
(Reuters, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Mexico's government announced an austerity plan for trimming general spending $3.2 billion (40.1 billion pesos) over the next three years so it can provide more money for social and infrastructure programs. The military and some security, educational and health services were exempt from the measures.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, Pakistan and Iran signed a $7.6 billion deal in Turkey paving the way for the construction of a much-delayed pipeline pumping Iranian natural gas to the energy-starved South Asian country.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Peru President Alan Garcia fired Justice Minister Aurelio Pastor amid questions over the pardoning of Jose Enrique Crousillat (77), a former media executive convicted of taking payoffs to provide favorable coverage for a previous government.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, At the CITES meeting in Qatar a marine conservation group, Oceana, said surging demand for shark fin soup among Asia's booming middle classes is driving many species of these big fish to the brink of extinction.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, In northwest Pakistan a US missile strike and clashes between extremist gunmen and tribesmen killed at least 20 militants near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with security forces in east Jerusalem as tension boiled over in the city and a senior Hamas leader called for a new "intifada," or uprising.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Thai protesters poured several jugs of their own blood at the front gate of the government headquarters and outside the ruling party's offices in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 17, US federal authorities won a court order requiring officials in the US Virgin Islands to repair sewage plants that have dumped raw waste at beaches renowned for snorkeling and surfing.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In California US Border patrol agents seized 580 pounds of marijuana inside a tractor-trailer near Blythe in Riverside County.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 17, McAfee Inc. reported that hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.
(Reuters, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Alex Chilton (59), singer and guitarist, died in New Orleans. His song “The Letter" (“Gimme a ticket for an airplane…") reached the top of the charts in 1967.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 17, In Abu Dhabi Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace. She presented her 15-verse poem on the live TV “The Million's Poet" program.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Afghanistan 2 suicide attackers dressed in burqas were shot dead as they attempted to enter the compound of a US-linked aid organization in southern Lashkar Gah. Up to 35 people died when a bus carrying passengers taking home gas canisters collided with a truck on a treacherous mountain pass in northern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The Congolese army said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the country.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Uniformed Cuban security agents prevented the mothers and wives of dissidents from marching on the outskirts of Havana to demand release of their loved ones, shoving them into a bus when they lay down in the street in protest.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, A Guatemalan court approved the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to the US to face money laundering charges. He is charged in a New York federal court with embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations intended to buy school library books in Guatemala. He allegedly endorsed checks drawn from a New York bank and deposited them in a Miami account.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Iran released Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of the country's biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He was temporarily freed on $450,000 bail. Authorities also released filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, journalist Ali Akbar Montajabi and female activist Farzaneh Qassemi, all of whom were detained in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Israel lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Kyrgyzstan thousands of demonstrators rallied in the capital Bishkek to protest recent sharp increases in heating and electricity tariffs and alleged oppression of government opponents.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The African Union slapped sanctions on Madagascar's rulers for failing to implement accords to end a long political crisis, as fresh violence erupted in the island's capital.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then burned around a dozen Christians, mostly women and children, in the Riyom region of Plateau state, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
(AFP, 3/18/10)(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In northwest Pakistan 2 US missile strikes killed at least 10 militants in North Waziristan. Attackers armed with rockets and petrol bombs killed five policemen in a pre-dawn ambush near the Khyber tribal district. an Afghan was killed in an explosion while making a bomb on the outskirts of Quetta. Militants fixed a bomb to the tail end of a tanker with a magnet and the explosion burnt some 40,000 liters of fuel it was carrying for NATO forces in Afghanistan. A Pakistani court formally charged 5 young Americans of plotting terrorism in the country, in a case that has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet.
(AFP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Ramallah Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Silva because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, In southern Sudan at least 13 people were killed in fighting between northern nomads and the southern army.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Ugandan security forces fatally shot three people in the capital during clashes with rioters angry after the tombs of five traditional kings were destroyed overnight by fire. On March 30 man turned himself saying a vision told him the tombs were Satanic.
(AP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Zimbabwe South African President Jacob Zuma began talks with Zimbabwe's political leaders on his first trip as chief regional mediator to patch up differences in the troubled coalition government.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 18, Pres. Obama signed a $17.6 billion job-creation measure a day after it was passed by Congress.
(SFC, 3/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 18, The final version of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (FATCA) became law as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. FATCA was due to take effect July 1, 2014. FATCA required foreign financial institutions to spill the beans on American clients, turning it into an enforcement arms of the IRS.
(http://tinyurl.com/bljlcvz)(Econ, 9/15/12, p.71)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.38)(Econ, 7/27/19, p.61)
2010 Mar 18, David Coleman Headley (b.1960), Chicago-based Pakistani American, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of terrorism for his role as a scout for the 2008 coordinated assault in Mumbai that left 173 people dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Headley)(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 18, US federal and state agents swept across the El Paso area to round up and question members of the Barrio Azteca gang, which is believed to be behind the recent murder of US consular workers in neighboring Ciudad Juarez. Seven people were arrested.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, Fess Parker, former film and TV star, died at his home in Santa Ynez, Ca. He was best know for his role as Davy Crocket on the Disneyland TV show. He later played Daniel Boone in the 1964-1970 TV series “Daniel Boone."
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.C6)
2010 Mar 18, Astronauts from the US and Russia landed safely in northern Kazakhstan's chilly steppes after spending almost six months on the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, Afghan President Hamid Karzai boosted the power of an anti-corruption body that had faced fierce accusations of being toothless and half-hearted in its battle to wipe out official graft. US military officials said operations to push the Taliban out of their Afghan stronghold of Kandahar are under way and will steadily build in the months ahead.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, Michael Daly (49), a former detective with Scotland Yard's drug squad, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in a plot to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine into Ireland. Daly's plan was foiled when his boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and was shipwrecked off the Irish coast on July 2, 2007. Daly his co-conspirator Alan Wells, a former firefighter (57), have both admitted conspiring to supply to the drug. Wells was sentenced to 15 years.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, China’s state media reported that parts of southern China are suffering from the worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, In the Dominican Rep. Jorge Puello (32), a fugitive who once acted as the lawyer for a group of US Baptist missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children, was arrested on human-trafficking charges at the request of the United States.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, Israeli copycat drugs giant Teva made a major stride into Europe with the five-billion-dollar purchase of Ratiopharm, formerly owned by a German billionaire who killed himself.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Mexico gunmen in a convoy of six vehicles opened fire on a navy helicopter on a reconnaissance patrol in Fresnillo, outside of Monterrey. Marines aboard the chopper returned fire, killing one of the gunmen as suspected gang members blocked roads in the city.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 18, A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a Thai worker inside Israel, in the first death from such an attack since Israel's Gaza offensive last year. Israeli missiles hit smuggling tunnels and a metal workshop in Gaza.
(AP, 3/18/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, A Polish court convicted three men of the theft of the notorious "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) sign from the Auschwitz memorial site in December. The men, two of whom are brothers, were given prison sentences ranging from 18 months to 2 1/2 years.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Qatar the CITES convention said consumer appetite for caviar is pushing sturgeon to the brink of extinction. Fishing nations led by Japan rejected a US backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A proposal to ban the int’l. sale of polar bear skins also failed to pass.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A2,5)
2010 Mar 18, Sudan's government and a collection of Darfur rebel groups signed a cease-fire, opening the way for political negotiations ahead of a full peace agreement. Government representative Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani and rebel leader Al-Tijani Al-Sissi signed the truce in Doha, Qatar. Al-Sissi's Liberation and Justice Movement is an umbrella organization that includes several small Darfur rebel groups that recently united to negotiate with the government.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signed a cooperation agreement with Nikolai Bordyuzha, the head of the Collective Treaty Organization, a Moscow-dominated alliance that includes Russia and six other former Soviet republics.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, Zimbabwe's rival leaders faced fresh pressure to mend their differences and push toward new elections, as South African President Jacob Zuma led talks on the fragile unity government.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 19, A panel of the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Reserve must reveal documents identifying financial companies that received Fed loans to survive the financial crisis.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.D2)
2010 Mar 19, In Las Vegas a fire at the private Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary killed over 250 exotic birds and a dog.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 19, Australia's Hollywood A-listers, prime minister and top tycoons launched a new campaign for Aboriginal jobs with a spectacular light show at Sydney's iconic Opera House.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In London last-ditch talks aimed at preventing a strike by some 12,000 British Airways (BA) cabin crew collapsed, leaving thousands of passengers facing chaos within hours.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Cambodia has temporarily suspended marriages between South Koreans and its citizens to curb human trafficking. The latest ban came after the March 3 conviction of a Cambodian matchmaker who arranged marriages between Korean men and 25 Cambodian brides.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Colombia Clodomiro Castilla (50), a reporter and announcer at La Voz de Monteria radio, was gunned down on his front porch. Castilla, a father of four, had reported on far-right drug-funded militias known as paramilitaries and their friendly ties to the area's business elite.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 19, The US condemned Ethiopia's blocking of Voice of America broadcasts, calling the country's accusations of the US radio service "baseless and inflammatory."
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Haiti one of the heaviest rainfalls since the Jan. 12 earthquake swamped homeless camps, sweeping screaming residents into eddies of water, overflowing latrines and panicking thousands.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Iraq a roadside bomb and a gun attack killed four people and wounded seven others in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Japan said it will boost its aid to quake-hit Haiti to 100 million dollars as the country's foreign minister prepared to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation this weekend.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Mexico a shootout between soldiers and gunmen in the northern city of Monterrey killed two bystanders, graduate students studying engineering at Monterrey Tech University. Suspected gang members also blocked roads in the city for the second day, in a bold attempt to impede security patrols. The navy announced the capture of Alberto "Bad Boy" Mendoza, suspected of being a chief cartel operator linked to the Beltran Leyva gang and others in Monterrey.
(AP, 3/20/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 19, It was reported that February storms in Michoacan, Mexico, killed some 50-60% of the wintering monarch butterfly population.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 19, A Nigerian armed rebel group claimed to have blown up an oil facility in the restive oil-producing Niger Delta region and threatened to step up attacks in coming days.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank lobbed rocks at Israeli security forces, set garbage bins and tires ablaze and torched an Israeli flag in a new outbreak of violence over contested Jerusalem building plans and unsubstantiated rumors about threats to the city's holiest shrine. Israeli aircraft fired five missiles at Gaza's defunct airport and nearby border tunnels, wounding at least 12 people.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, A Krakow court ruled that allegations in the 2009 biography "Lech Walesa: The Idea and History" by Pawel Zyzak that Walesa served as a communist informant were slanderous. A 2000 special court already cleared Walesa of collaboration allegations.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Polish authorities said a herd of some 300 bison in southeastern Poland is at risk from tuberculosis after one recently died of the disease.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Russia the international Quartet for the Middle East met in Moscow in a bid to revive the peace process despite tensions after Israel's announcement of new settler homes and a deadly rocket attack.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Somalia at least three masked men armed with pistols shot Sheikh Daud Ali Hasan, a senior commander of the insurgent group al-Shabab, several times in the head and chest as he was coming out of a mosque in Kismayo.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 19, Spanish ministers approved a wide-ranging 10-year reform plan designed to wean the economy off its dependence on construction and create broader, more sustainable growth as the country fights to climb out of recession.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Thai anti-government protesters announced plans to snarl up the capital with a travelling rally in a bid to win support after rejecting a conditional offer of talks by PM Abhisit Vejjajiva.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Turkish authorities indicted 33 people in an alleged secularist plot to destabilize Turkey and overthrow the government. The suspects included three retired or active-duty admirals and dozens of other military officers.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Venezuelan prosecutors charged a government opponent with conspiracy and other crimes after he said on a television program that the country has become a haven for drug trafficking.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Yemen's Pres. Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the country's six-year war with northern rebels over, saying the Shiite militants are living up to a cease-fire agreement signed last month.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, The Plastiki, a boat with hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, departed from Sausalito, Ca. to Australia.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 20, In Florida 3 people were killed when a single-engine plane collided with a kit-built aircraft over Williston.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 20, British Airways canceled more than 1,000 flights after its cabin crew launched a three-day strike, wreaking havoc on the plans of tens of thousands of passengers just before the busy spring holiday season. .
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20 In Canada a 3rd deadly avalanche in a week killed 2 French skiers in British Columbia.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Croatia and Slovenia hosted the 1st locally organized conference of the heads of government of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.54)
2010 Mar 20, In Iraq the latest partial results showed PM al-Maliki's secular Shiite challenger, former PM Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the prime minister's coalition in the overall tally. Al-Maliki called on the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond to requests from political blocs for a recount.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Nepal's former PM Girija Prasad Koirala (86) died. He served five terms, led mass protests that ended the king's authoritarian rule and was a key figure in peace negotiations with communist rebels.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Pakistani police arrested three Taliban militants and seized a bomb-making factory in the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Russia thousands of protesters rallied in several cities to protest the government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Spanish surgeons completed the world’s most extensive full-face transplant. It was the 11th known face transplant in the world. The 24-hour operation provided a young farmer (30) a new nose, jaw and teeth.
(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/2fqgwfm)
2010 Mar 20, In Sudan 19 members of the Misseriya tribe and six from the rival Nuwayba tribe were killed as fighting broke out. More than 20 people were wounded.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Togo thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets in the West African nation to protest presidential election results.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 21, President Barack Obama announced that he will reaffirm a ban on using federal funds to pay for abortions, which convinced some holdout Democrats to support the healthcare overhaul but riled Republicans who said the decision could be easily reversed. US House Democrats voted 219-212 late in the day to send legislation to Obama that would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce deficits and ban insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
(Reuters, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Argentina 2 teenagers died, apparently after police tried to stop them for riding a motorcycle without helmets. Hundreds of angry residents torched the Baradero city hall to protest the death of the teenagers in a police chase.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Tropical Cyclone Ului blew across the coast of northeastern Australia leaving some 60,000 homes without power.
(AFP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 21, In southern Afghanistan at least ten people picnicking by a stream to celebrate the Afghan new year were killed in a suicide bomb attack. The blast struck a bridge on the main highway between the capital Kabul and Herat. In eastern Khost province a roadside bomb killed two construction company guards when it hit their car. In Wardak province an elderly man was shot and killed by a joint Afghan-int’l. force that mistakenly believed he was a threat.
(AFP, 3/21/10)(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 21, British Airways cabin crews walked off the job for a second day, upsetting travel plans for scores of customers, but the airline said its contingency plans were working well and more planes were taking off than expected.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In the eastern Central African Republic Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed at least 10 civilians in the village of Agoumar, including a woman burnt alive. One LRA rebel was killed by the villagers.
(Reuters, 3/22/10)(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 21, China’s state media reported that authorities in Xinjiang have restored access to email services and 32 Internet sites that were blocked after ethnic unrest broke out in the region in July.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, Cyprus police said grave robbers stole the remains of 3 Cyprus Archbishops who led the island's Greek Orthodox church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sofronios III and Kyrillos II led the Cypriot church between 1865 and 1916 during Ottoman and British colonial rule. Police arrested a Romanian man suspected of vandalizing the tombs.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Cairo, Egypt an international donors conference raised $850 million in pledges for projects intended to ensure the safe return of more than 2.7 million people displaced during the war in Darfur. The one-day conference was organized by the 57-nation Organization of The Islamic Conference and included representatives from the US, European nations, UN agencies and aid groups.
(AP, 3/21/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21 In France the second-round regional poll left Pres. Sarkozy's right-wing UMP in charge of only one of the mainland regions in the last ballot-box test of his popularity before the 2012 presidential vote. The Socialists won 54% of the vote.
(AFP, 3/22/10)(Econ, 3/27/10, p.18)
2010 Mar 21, Wolfgang Wagner (b.1919), custodian of the Bayreuth Festival, died in Germany.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.89)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Wagner)
2010 Mar 21, A small earthquake struck northern Haiti, collapsing an apartment building and killing at least three people.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In southern Iceland a volcano erupted overnight, forcing some 600 hundred people to evacuate the area and diverting flights after authorities declared a local state of emergency.
(Reuters, 3/21/10)(AF, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, India successfully tested a new, more maneuverable version of its BrahMos supersonic cruise missile that was jointly developed with Russia.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Indonesia a rare Sumatran tiger dragged a man, identified as Darmilus (26), from a hut in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park, and broke his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Iranian authorities detained Hasan Lahouti, the grandson of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, upon arrival from London. Rafsanjani, the most powerful opposition supporter inside the country's clerical leadership, has come under harsh criticism from hard-liners for his support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Lahouti was freed the next day on a $73,000 bail.
(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Jamaica Vivian Blake (53), founder of a cocaine-smuggling gang blamed for about 1,400 slayings, died of illnesses at hospital a year after returning to his native island following a prison term in the United States. In 2003 Blake's son, Duane Blake, authored "The Shower Posse: The Most Notorious Jamaican Crime Organization."
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Mexico gunmen targeting the police chief of a town outside Monterrey killed his bodyguard and wounded three other people. Marquez Compean, a drug suspect, and two others were arrested by Santa Catarina police officers who were part of a convoy carrying Castillo on official business. The next day Compean’s beaten body was found wrapped in a blanket in the nearby city of San Nicolas de los Garza. Rodrigo Medina, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, announced that he was firing 81 state police officers suspected of corruption. 5 men died in Acapulco after they pulled guns on each other during an early morning fight that began as an argument at a wedding the previous night. One man was killed in a following shootout between gunmen riding in separate vehicles.
(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 21, Nigerian authorities said police have arrested 164 people over a recent massacre near the central city of Jos and plan to charge most with offences ranging from terrorism to arson.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Pakistan the bullet-riddled bodies of four tribesmen, killed by the Taliban for allegedly spying for the United States, were found in a semiautonomous tribal region near the Afghan border. They had been kidnapped by the Taliban about 10 days earlier. A bomb exploded in the southwestern province of Baluchistan killing at least three people. Separately, helicopter gunships pounded Taliban hide-outs in the Kurram and Upper Orakzai tribal regions, killing 28 militants. Suspected US drones killed at least 4 people in a militant-dominated tribal region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/21/10)(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 21, In Panama Cheryl Lynn Hughes (50), an American, went missing in western Bocas del Toro province. Police on July 20 found her body and the skeletal remains of another person buried in the back patio of a hotel owned by William Adolfo Cortez, of Texas.
(AP, 7/24/10)(www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20100721130055598)
2010 Mar 21, Conservationists at the CITES meeting in Qatar said the Internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats to rare species, fueling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live baby lions to wine made from tiger bones.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Spain the Basque armed separatist movement ETA said it is ready to move forward on the path of political change, but it stopped short of renouncing violence as demanded by the Spanish government.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, Syrian police opened fire at a group of Kurds celebrating the new year, killing at least one person despite signs that tensions were easing between the government and its restive Kurdish minority.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 21, Thailand was mired in political deadlock as demonstrators used their own blood to create a giant piece of protest art and rejected the government's offer of talks designed to end their rally.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, Some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders, including one the US says mentored Osama bin Laden, declared supporters of a ban on child brides to be apostates. A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation next month.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Maryland Renee Bowman (44) was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms for killing her two adopted daughters and storing their bodies in a freezer. She had continued to collect subsidies paid to adoptive parents of special needs children.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.A7)
2010 Mar 22, Google announced that its China search engine, google.cn, would automatically redirect queries to its service in China's semiautonomous territory of Hong Kong, where Google is not legally required to censor searches.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, US scientist Rita Colwell (76) won the $150,000 Stockholm Water Prize for her research on the prevention of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, The radio of Spirit, NASA’s Mars rover, fell silent. In 2011 engineers gave up trying to re-establish contact.
(SFC, 5/26/11, p.A10)
2010 Mar 22, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met a senior delegation from the insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami in Kabul, an unprecedented step toward peace that may signal divisions within the insurgency. NATO reported two more service members were killed in separate explosions in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, West African farmers appealed for help as drought and famine menaced people and livestock, with malnutrition already affecting nearly a third of the population. Leaders of the nine countries in the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) planned to meet in N’Djamena on March 25.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, British Airways cabin crew held a 3rd day of strike action, prolonging travel misery for thousands. A business group warned the action threatens Britain's global reputation.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In China four executives of Australia mining giant Rio Tinto pleaded guilty in Shanghai to taking bribes.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.D3)
2010 Mar 22, Sandstorms whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand and grit, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Dubai Media reported that authorities planned to step up enforcement of a 2003 law prohibiting restaurants from using booze in food preparation.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Former US Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited Haiti’s capital to raise aid and investment in the country reeling from the Jan 12 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 22, In Iraq 4 people were killed, including two policemen, in shootings in Baghdad.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Israeli forces mistakenly shot and killed a fellow soldier while looking for three Palestinians who crossed the border from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Japan deported Abubakar Awudu Suraj, a Ghanaian who had lived illegally in Japan for 22 years and was married to a Japanese citizen. Suraj was forced onto a plane for Cairo and died shortly after his forced boarding.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 22, In Mexico the pre-dawn discovery of two bodies cut into pieces and shoved into two black bags brought a tragic end to a search for two missing police officers in southern Guerrero state. In the nearby resort of Acapulco, police later found another two mutilated bodies and a threatening message outside the house of the city's former deputy traffic police chief.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Mexico Paulette Gebara Farah (4), a disabled girl, was reported missing by her parents. On March 30 Her body was found under the mattress of her bed at her wealthy parents' apartment on the outskirts of Mexico City. On May 21 federal investigators she had smothered accidentally and was there the whole time police and family were hunting for her.
(AP, 4/1/10)(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Nigeria the Magajin Gari Sharia court in the northern city of Kaduna ordered the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), one of the country's leading rights groups, to suspend its Twitter and Facebook online debates on Malam Buba Bello Jangebe’s wrist amputation for theft, which was carried out in 2000.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, In southwestern Pakistan a roadside bomb exploded in Quetta, killing one person and injuring three more in an attack that police blamed on ethnic militants.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Venezuela former Zulia state Gov. Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, an outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez, said that police have taken him into custody while he awaits trial on conspiracy charges for saying Venezuela has become a haven for drug trafficking.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, President Barack Obama signed a historic $938 billion health care overhaul that guarantees coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans and will touch nearly every citizen's life, presiding over the biggest shift in US domestic policy since the 1960s and capping a divisive, yearlong debate that could define the November elections. Florida and 12 other states challenged it minutes later. Republican legislators in more than 3 dozen states sought to challenge the bill contending that it will infringe on state sovereignty and individual freedoms. The bill included a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices set to begin in 2013.
(AP, 3/23/10)(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A12)(SSFC, 3/28/10, p.A10)(Econ, 3/31/12, p.37)
2010 Mar 23, Talks between US President Barack Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu failed to produce signs they had ended a dispute which Netanyahu said could block the Middle East peace process for a year.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 23, The US Federal Reserve issued new rules to protect Americans from getting stung by unexpected fees or restrictions on gift cards.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In Texas 4 police officers were captured on videotape beating burglary suspect Chad Holley (16). The 4 officers were fired. In 2012 former officer Andrew Blomberg was found not guilty of official oppression.
(SFC, 5/17/12, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/75oebn2)
2010 Mar 23, Internet giant Google led high-profile criticism of Australia's controversial plan to filter the Internet, saying it went too far and could set a dangerous precedent.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Jim Marshall (b.1936), legendary rock and roll photographer, died in a NYC hotel.
(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 23, In northeastern Afghanistan the bodies of 30 people were recovered from the site of avalanche in the remote Arghang Khzahkha district north of Faizabad. The remains of five other people lost in the snow slide that occurred two weeks ago have not yet been located.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Austria’s Graz-Seckau diocese said a priest has resigned after admitting he abused a 17-year-old boy. The priest reportedly stepped down of his own accord for the abuse that happened more than 20 years ago on a vacation. 2 other priests have also been suspended as a precautionary measure because one was convicted of committing a homosexual act with a 17-year-old and the other was convicted of exhibitionism in cases dating back about 15 and 20 years.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat to rebuke Israel for its alleged use of forged British passports in the assassination of a Hamas operative in a suspected Mossad hit.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In eastern China a former doctor, Zheng Minsheng (41), armed with a large knife rampaged outside an elementary school, stabbing 8 young children to death and wounding 5 others at the Nanping City Experimental Elementary School in Fujian province. On April 8 the Intermediate People's Court in Nanping city sentenced Minsheng to death.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar 23, Colombian forces rescued 5 subcontractors of Occidental Petroleum, who were kidnapped near the Venezuelan last week by suspected leftist guerrillas.
(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 23, Luxury goods manufacturers said a ruling from the EU's highest court will stop Google Inc. selling their brand names as advertising keywords to unauthorized sellers or counterfeiters.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In India at least four people died and 18 others were injured when a fire engulfed a landmark building in the heart of the eastern city of Kolkata.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, The Macro Centre for Political Economics said in a report that spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the past 4 decades has totaled around $17.4 billion. An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip overnight injured four people.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Kyrgyzstan's Pres. Kurmanbek Bakiyev said that Western-style democracy has run its course in the ex-Soviet Central Asian country, prompting fears of a further decline in political freedoms.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In Libya Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said 34 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, including its leader, were sent home after they affirmed they had broken ties with the organization. The group is suspected of having links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 23, Two Nigerian oil workers were found dead in the oil-rich Niger Delta region after being kidnapped on March 13.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Pakistani hardliners vowed to wage a holy war to liberate the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir from Indian control. A suspected US missile struck a house in North Waziristan killing 3 people.
(AFP, 3/23/10)(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 23, At the CITES convention in Qatar Asian nations blocked US-backed proposals to protect the heavily fished hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks on concerns that regulating the booming trade in fins could hurt poor coastal nations.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Senegal's national assembly adopted a bill declaring slavery and the slave trade crimes against humanity, moving closer to becoming the first African nation to pass such legislation.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 23, Somali pirates hijacked the Malta-flagged MV Frigia, a Turkish ship with 21 crew on board. A 2nd hijacking, of the refrigerated MV Talca, took place off the coast of Oman. Private security guards shot and killed a Somali pirate during an attack on a merchant ship off the coast of East Africa in what is believed to be the first such killing by armed contractors. The guards were onboard the MV Almezaan when a pirate group approached it twice. During the 2nd approach on the Panamanian-flagged cargo ship, which is United Arab Emirates owned, there was an exchange of fire between the guards and the pirates. The Spanish warship Navarra intercepted two skiffs and a larger vessel believed to be a pirate mothership. Spanish forces arrested the six remaining pirates, took custody of the pirate's body and sunk the larger boat. The 6 pirates were soon released after the captain of the MV Almezaan said he could not identify the men detained by the Spanish navy as the group of pirates who attacked him. The Talca was freed on May 11 along with its 25 crew members 3 days after a ransom was paid. The Frigia was freed on July 29, 2010.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 3/24/10)(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A2)(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 5/11/10)(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Mar 23, Yemeni security courts sentenced two opposition leaders to prison for allegedly working against national unity and calling for secession of the country's south. Ahmed Bamualem, a leader in the southern movement and former member of parliament who was detained in April, was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Retired army Brig. Gen. Ali Mohammed al-Saadi, also active in the movement, received a 15-month sentence.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, President Barack Obama's administration named 54 alleged Mexican drug cartel lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins under a law that allows the US government to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their business associates.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, The US and Russia reached a breakthrough agreement for a historic treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals. Prague announced it will host the signing of a new US-Russian treaty to reduce long-range nuclear weapons. The deal would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
(AP, 3/24/10)(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 24, More than 1 million baby slings made by Infantino were recalled in the US after claims linking them to three infant deaths. Another 15,000 were recalled in Canada.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Robert Culp (b.1930), TV actor, died after hitting his head during a fall near his Hollywood home. Culp shot to fame thanks to his Kelly Robinson role in “I Spy" (1965-1968). During the 1980s, Culp also logged 44 episodes as Bill Maxwell in “The Greatest American Hero."
(www.popeater.com/2010/03/24/robert-culp-dead-i-spy/?ncid=webmaildl2)
2010 Mar 24, In southern Afghanistan a bombing killed two NATO service members. A NATO soldier was killed by small-arms attack in southern Afghanistan. Six Taliban fighters were killed in Marjah, an area in the southern province of Helmand captured last month by NATO, US and Afghan troops during a massive operation. Two Afghan civilians died in the crossfire of a gun battle between foreign troops and militants in Khost province.
(AP, 3/24/10)(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, Australia and China signed a multibillion dollar natural gas deal, pushing ahead with business as the trial of four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto ended in Shanghai with a verdict still to be announced.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Canada’s province of Quebec passed legislation stipulating that Muslim women will need to uncover their faces when dealing with Quebec government services.
(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 24, In China the presidents of Afghanistan and China oversaw the signing of new agreements aimed at strengthening the Afghan economy as a step toward combating the Taliban and achieving political stability.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Colombia a car bomb ripped open cars and storefronts in the administrative center of the Pacific port of Buenaventura, left 9 people dead and 56 wounded. The FARC was suspected.
(AP, 3/25/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.38)
2010 Mar 24, Egyptian police arrested 22 people suspected of involvement in smuggling goods into the Gaza Strip as part of major crackdown.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 24, El Salvador President Mauricio Funes publicly apologized on behalf of the state for the 1980 assassination of Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Funes said Romero was killed by right-wing death squads "who unfortunately acted with the protection, collaboration or participation of state agents."
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, Dozens of French sex workers proclaiming themselves proud to be prostitutes marched to protest a lawmaker's proposal to legalize brothels in France, arguing that such a law would deny them the freedom to work on their own.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Iceland’s parliament voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offense for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees. The ban takes effect on 1 July.
(http://news.scotsman.com/world/Strip-shows-offlimits-in-.6178649.jp)
2010 Mar 24, Indonesian police ordered the cancellation of a conference of Asian gay activists, saying it could prompt violent protests by conservative Muslim groups.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Iraq gunmen riding in two cars shot dead five Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in the suburbs of Baghdad. Iraqi forces arrested 17 suspects in the area.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Japan’s government passed a 92 trillion yen budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Mar 24, The Jerusalem municipality said it has approved 20 new apartments for Jews in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, in a move that could stir a new diplomatic crisis with the United States just as Israel's leader is in Washington on a fence-mending visit.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Libya some 200 former Islamist militants walked out the gate of at Tripoli's Abu Salim prison, accompanied by relatives weeping with joy, after a release brokered by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
(Reuters, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Mexican federal police arrested Jose Antonio Medina (36), Mexico's "King of Heroin," a powerful drug trafficker allegedly responsible for running thousands of pounds of heroin into Southern California each year. Medina was accused of moving 440 pounds of heroin into California each month.
(AP, 3/26/10)(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 24, Mozambican and donor officials say they have resolved questions over corruption and democracy that led to an aid freeze.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Most of Nigeria was shrouded in a thick dust storm, disrupting air travel and threatening to trigger respiratory problems.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Norway announced that John Tate, an American professor at the University of Texas, Austin, has won the 6 million kroner ($1 million) Abel Prize for mathematics. The prize jury praised Tate as "a prime architect" of number theory, a branch of mathematics that has played a key role in the development of modern computers.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Norway 16 empty cargo train cars careened downhill for 3 miles (5 km) on the outskirts of Oslo before slamming into a port and killing three dock workers. Faulty brakes were blamed for the accident.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, Pakistani security forces backed by jets pounded militant hide-outs near the Afghan border, killing 23 suspected Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Fitch Ratings, a leading credit rating agency, downgraded Portugal's debt amid growing concerns about the government's ability to service its borrowings, another piece of bad news for the eurozone as it struggles to deal with a debt crisis.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Saudi Arabia said it has foiled several planned attacks on oil installations with the arrests of 113 suspected al-Qaida militants in a months-long sweep.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Switzerland said it will lift a travel ban on senior Libyan officials to ease tensions in a dispute that has drawn in much of Europe. The Swiss government expressed hope that Libya would respond by ending visa restrictions against citizens of Switzerland and 24 other nations in Europe's passport-free zone.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop John Magee, a former papal aide who stands accused of endangering children by failing to follow the Irish church's own rules on reporting suspected pedophile priests to police.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, The UN and Interpol released a joint report saying gorillas in central Africa are in danger from illegal logging, mining and from hunters who are killing great apes for meat.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, A Zimbabwean rights group that organized a photo exhibit documenting human rights violations scrambled to re-hang its damaged displays just minutes before the show was slated to begin. Police had confiscated the photos a day earlier, but the show's organizers won a court ruling ordering the photos' return to the independent downtown Gallery Delta. The rights group abandoned the photo exhibit following fresh attempts by police to shut it down.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, The US Dept. of Defense announced stricter guidelines for discharging gay and lesbian service members allowing only generals to approve discharges.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 25, Florida Int’l. Univ. (FIU) running back Kendall Berry was stabbed late at night, after the 22-year-old junior from Haines City, Fla., was involved in an argument with another man outside the front doors of the school's student recreation center in Miami.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed into law America’s first blanket “extended producer responsibility" (EPR) framework law. It ordered manufacturers to assume the cost of disposing their products following consumer use. Maine’s EPR law for electronic waste went into effect in 2004.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.67)(http://tinyurl.com/y5ew8vk)
2010 Mar 25, In western Tennessee a medical helicopter crashed ion stormy weather killing its crew of three.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 25, The top UN envoy for Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, met with delegates from Hezb-e-Islami, the country's second-biggest militant group, who are in Kabul for talks on a possible peace deal. Hezb-e-Islami is headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is black-listed as a terrorist by the UN and the US.
(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden threatened in a new audio recording released to kill any captured Americans if the US executes the self-professed mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks or any other al-Qaida suspects.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, A top Australian official said about 100 Australian police are being investigated for circulating racist and pornographic e-mails via the internal police e-mail system, and one officer involved in the scandal has committed suicide.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Bangladesh set up a war crimes tribunal for long-delayed trials of people accused of murder, torture, rape and arson during its 1971 independence war.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Belarus some 2,000 opposition activists held a protest rally despite police blocks that authorities explained were part of security measures against an alleged bomb threat. March 25 has long been a traditional day of opposition demonstration, marking what they call Freedom Day, the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belarusian state.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In London a teenager (15) was stabbed in front of commuters during the evening rush hour at Victoria station. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate the boy. 20 detainees (14 to 17) and were being questioned in connection with the incident.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Chinese officials said emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water and caused more than 1,000 schools to close.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 25, In Colombia a package bomb killed a 12-year-old boy who may have been given it to take to a police station after school in the coca-growing southwest.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Dubai said it would inject 9.5 billion dollars into Dubai World, which announced it was asking creditors to wait for up to eight years to be repaid in full.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Leaders of the 16 eurozone countries agreed to a plan to rescue Greece if it finds itself unable to borrow.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Former French PM Dominique de Villepin announced the creation of a new center-right party set to challenge bitter rival President Nicolas Sarkozy in elections in two years' time.
(Reuters, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Ireland a judge in Limerick ruled that the city’s 110 pubs can open on April 2 because the city is hosting a major Irish rugby match. This will be the 1st time that pubs anywhere in Ireland will open on Good Friday.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 25, Kenyan police arrested an American of Somali origin who was on a terror watch list as he and two associates attempted to fly to Somalia. American Suleman Essa, Canadian Ahmed Ali Hassan and Kenyan Muhammed Hussein Hash were about to board a plane ferrying aid to Somalia when they were arrested. All 4 were released the next day.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Mexico police were searching for two prison guards and 40 prisoners who disappeared after a pre-dawn jailbreak in the Mexican city of Matamoros across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Gunmen killed a deputy police chief and his bodyguard in Nogales, Sonora state.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 25, A Netherlands court fined the owner of what was the biggest marijuana-selling "coffee shop" in the country almost euro10 million ($13.34 million) for violating liberal Dutch drug laws, in what is seen as a test for authorities seeking to rein in the growth of such cafes.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, injuring three crew members. Eight to 10 pirates with automatic weapons boarded the Ozay 5. They robbed the crew of money and cellphones but fled after the ship began making distress calls.
(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, It was reported that deaths from starvation in North Korea’s South Pyongan province was in the thousands since January and that the bodies of malnourished elderly people were being found in the streets of Pyongyang.
(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 25, Pakistani military airstrikes killed 61 suspected militants in an area near the Afghan border, including dozens at a seminary where Taliban commanders were believed to be meeting. Pakistani police said they had arrested two of the men who kidnapped a British boy (5) for 12 days this month, and paraded the hooded and shackled suspects before the media. Taliban fighters seized a security checkpoint in the Orakzai tribal region close to the Afghan border, sparking clashes that killed five soldiers and 32 insurgents in a region where the army is pressing an offensive.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Qatar the CITES UN wildlife meeting rejected efforts to regulate the trade in overfished porbeagle sharks, reversing an earlier ruling at the conference and leaving none of the proposed shark species with protection. Asia nations managed to reopen the debate on the final day of the conference and voted to kill the proposal.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Switzerland the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC) voted 20-17 for a text that lists the “defamation of religion" as an infringement of liberty.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.62)
2010 Mar 25, In Venezuela Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of Globovision, was arrested, raising concerns the government is pursuing a widening crackdown to silence opponents. Globovision is the country’s only remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against Pres. Chavez.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Pres. Obama concluded a new strategic arms reduction treaty in a call with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The Obama administration unveiled a revamped Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP).
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.78)
2010 Mar 26, Hacker Albert Gonzalez (28), who participated in a cybercrime ring that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, was sentenced in US District Court to 20 years in prison. Gonzalez was living in Miami at the time of the crimes in the three cases, which occurred over almost two years before he was arrested in May of 2008 and subsequently indicted in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/hackergonzalezsentencedto20yearsforexploits)
2010 Mar 26, In south-central Kentucky at least 10 people were killed in a fiery crash between a tractor-trailer and a van after the truck crossed over the median on an interstate highway.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The head of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, went missing after his glider crashed in Morocco. Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's glider went down in a lake in Morocco. The pilot of the aircraft was rescued in good condition. The body of al-Nahayan was found on March 30.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan a gunman attacked a group of German and Afghan aid workers inspecting a high school under renovation. 2 people died and a German employed by German humanitarian organization GTZ was among 10 people wounded when assailants opened fire on workers in Khost city.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the “City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 26, In Ecuador a district court judge convicted Emilio Palacio, a newspaper editorial writer for the newspaper El Universo, of insulting the head of the government's National Financial Corp. and sentenced him to three years in prison.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Egyptian police said they arrested 45 suspected smugglers over the past three days in an intensified crackdown on the supply line to Gaza by way of hundreds of cross-border tunnels. Among the suspects was a man accused of trying to deliver $242,000 in Egyptian pounds and US dollars to Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Iraq’s election commission announced that former PM Ayad Allawi edged out chief rival PM Nouri al-Maliki by two seats, 91-89, in the March 7 vote for a 325-member parliament.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Finland Juha Turunen, a corporate lawyer, was convicted of kidnapping heiress Minna Nurminen (26) and holding her captive for two weeks in 2009 until her family paid a multimillion euro (dollar) ransom. He had admitted during the trial that he had kidnapped Nurminen and held her captive at an apartment in Turku, western Finland. She was released unharmed and police recovered the ransom money.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Germany and Switzerland said they have reached a preliminary deal on an agreement to exchange information on suspected tax cheats, an important step toward defusing a long-festering irritant in their relations.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Honduras radio journalists Jose Bayardo (52) and Manuel de Jesus Juarez (55) were riddled with bullets late in the day as they drove on a highway in the rural province of Olancho. Three other journalists have been killed in March in Honduras, which is wracked by political divisions relating to a 2009 coup and common crime fueled by street gangs.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Israel insisted it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in the fighting. Militants reported one wounded and one missing. Israeli soldier withdrew the next day.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In northern Mexico the decapitated body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon state, and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck. Late in the day gunmen opened fired on a hotel in downtown Ciudad Juarez where federal agents stay, killing one and wounding two.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Mozambican police said they have arrested 7 people suspected of trafficking women to neighboring South Africa to work as prostitutes. The men were arrested last week through a police sting operation. The women were on sale for about $670 each.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Asad Qureshi, a British journalist, went missing while traveling to North Waziristan with a retired army officer Sultan Amir Tarar (Col. Imam), and Khalid Khawaja, a prominent Pakistani ex-spy. Khawaja was found killed by the captors on April 30. On Sep 9 it was reported that Qureshi and Col. Imam were released.
(AFP, 9/9/10)(http://cpj.org/2010/04/documentary-filmmaker-missing-in-pakistan.php)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island. An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued. A North Korean mine was later suspected as the cause of the explosion. South Korea's defense minister confirmed on May 10 that traces of an explosive chemical substance used to make torpedoes were found in the wreckage of the naval ship. It was later determined that a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan. Of the 104 officers and enlisted men onboard the ship, forty-six were killed. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 12/24/19)
2010 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians gathered in a Damascus square in a government-orchestrated "march of anger" against Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Togo's government and the opposition coalition signed a temporary truce committing both sides to peace, law and order following opposition protests against presidential election results.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Zimbabwe state media reported that PM Morgan Tsvangirai has backed President Robert Mugabe's stance against including gay rights in a new constitution. President Robert Mugabe said he would only implement terms of an agreement he signed in 2008 with rival Morgan Tsvangirai if the West removed sanctions on his allies.
(AFP, 3/26/10)(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 27, Robert Krentz (58), a prominent Arizona rancher near the Mexican border, was shot while working at his remote cattle ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border. His family's ranch sprawled over 35,000 acres. Investigators tracked the footprints of the suspected gunman about 20 miles south to the border with Mexico, prompting some authorities to blame smugglers or illegal immigrants for the killing.
(Reuters, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 27, Federal agents in southern Michigan raided the home of David Stone, the suspected leader of the Hutaree militia, a group of self-proclaimed Christian warriors. Authorities recovered hand grenade instructions and schematics, a container of potassium chlorate, and other items.
(SFC, 4/13/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 27, In southern Afghanistan an international service member was killed by a roadside bomb. 6 civilians were killed in two separate roadside bomb explosions, one in Sangin district and one in Nawa district.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Australia Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbor Bridge went dark along with millions of homes at the start of Earth Hour, a global switch-off aimed at revitalizing efforts against climate change.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, British Airways cabin crew launched a four-day strike, the second wave of action in a week as part of a bitter, long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Pirates off the coast of Cameroon’s Bakassi peninsula seized the MV Gull, a Ghanaian ship, and kidnapped two sailors for ransom. Pirates took control of the ship and kidnapped its captain and an officer on board once they found nothing worth stealing. Pirates freed the two West African sailors on March 31.
(AP, 3/30/10)(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 27, In China a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed in northern Shaanxi province and some 1,000 tons of oil sludge contaminated farmland and the Luohe River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 27, Iran used an ancient new year celebration to reach out to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey at a summit meeting that projected Iranian leadership in the strategic region straddling the Middle East and Central Asia.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Turin, Italy, Mao Asada (19) of Japan toppled Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim in a triumphant season finale which saw her claim her second world title at the world figure skating championships.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, A two-day Arab League summit opened in Sirte, Libya. Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, urged the 22-nation bloc to engage Iran directly over concerns about its growing influence in the region and its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Libya lifted a visa ban on citizens of 25 European countries after EU president Spain said a Swiss-instigated visa blacklist against 188 Libyans in those countries had been scrapped.
(Reuters, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 27, In western Mexico two police officers and two other men have been found shot to death at a gas station in Michoacan state. In Guerrero state a man was found tied up and fatally shot in a car in the resort of Acapulco. The bodies of four men and a woman were found on a rural road in a town not far from the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez. More than 7,000 people gathered in the northern city of Monterrey to protest a wave of violence that has affected the country's third largest city in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Pakistani air strikes killed at least 11 militants in a new offensive against foreign fighters in the restive northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Suspected US missiles killed 4 people in the northwest.
(AFP, 3/27/10)(SSFC, 3/28/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 27, Peruvian police said five people have been killed by a mudslide set off by heavy rains in a remote community of wildcat miners in the southeastern Andes.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Russia an apartment block west of Moscow partially collapsed following a suspected gas explosion, killing three people and possibly trapping others under the rubble.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Russia former Soviet world chess champion Vasily Smyslov (89) died of heart failure. Smyslov beat Mikhail Botvinnik in 1957 to become the seventh world champion, before losing in a re-match the following year. His career in the top flight of world chess spanned some four decades. He was beaten by Garry Kasparov in 1984 in the Candidates Final match for the right to challenge Anatoly Karpov for the world title, which Kasparov went on to capture.
(Reuters, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Somalia 3 people were killed and four injured in clashes between government soldiers and armed protesters opposing the demolition of their houses near Mogadishu's main airport.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Korea Life became the first big South Korean life insurer to go public. Others were expected to soon follow.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.81)
2010 Mar 27, In Sudan Darfur rebels allegedly shot down 2 Sudanese army helicopters in the latest reports of fighting that have marred faltering peace talks between Khartoum and other insurgents. Sudan's army said two of its helicopters crashed after developing technical problems.
(Reuters, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 27, Thai troops retreated from security posts in the capital, bowing to demands from 80,000 jubilant red-shirted protesters who mounted a rally to demand fresh elections.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Yemen policemen opened fire in Daleh on the funeral procession for a Southern Movement member killed by police gunfire a week earlier, wounding 28 mourners.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 27, Zimbabwe police shut down an art exhibit exploring violence blamed on President Robert Mugabe. Artist Owen Maseko had collected family photos of missing people, images of mine shafts where bodies were believed dumped and reports on an armed uprising after independence in 1980 in the western Matabeleland district that was crushed by troops loyal to Mugabe. Thousands of civilians were massacred in the fighting.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 28, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan for a firsthand look at the 8-year-old war he inherited and dramatically escalated. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere held talks in Afghanistan on stuttering progress in training the country's security forces. Russia accused the US of conniving with Afghanistan's drug producers by refusing to destroy opium crops, the second time in a week Moscow has taken a swipe at the West over drug policy.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AFP, 3/28/10)(Reuters, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, US federal agents in Ohio arrested 2 members of Hutaree, a Christian militia group “preparing for end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive." A 3rd person was arrested the next day in Indiana as part of an investigation led by the FBI in Michigan.
(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 28, The Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in Sanaa Ltd. of Tokyo. Their work included NYC’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 2007.
(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 28, In Colorado Kayleah Wilson (12) went missing as she walked to a b-day party in Greeley. On May 19 police retrieved her decomposing body from an irrigation ditch about a mile and a half from her home.
(SFC, 4/5/10, p.A4)(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 28, British Airways cabin crew entered the second day of a four-day strike, bringing further travel disruption with no end in sight for a dispute that has become increasingly political.
(AFP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Central Africa LRA elements were chased by the Ugandan army, which killed at least 15 rebels in the village of Dembia. More than 40 people were abducted from the three villages including in Bangassou, where about 400 people had taken refuge from the fighting.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 28, In northern China at least 153 miners were trapped underground after water gushed into the state-owned the Wangjialing coal mine. 115 Chinese miners were pulled out alive on April 5 after being trapped for over a week in the flooded mine. Some had eaten sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept. As of April 11 the death toll stood at 33 with 5 miners still missing.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Mar 28, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Cars unit for $1.8 billion, representing a coup for the independent Chinese automaker which is aiming to expand in Europe.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, Colombian rebels handed over Pvt. Josue Calvo (23) to the International Red Cross in their first release of a captive in more than a year. The insurgents are promising to soon free a second soldier they've held for far longer.
(AP, 3/28/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 28, In Guyana Sangeeta Persaud (15) died after neighbors and a local pastor tried to treat her convulsions with an exorcism at a church.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Iraq several bombs exploded near a house linked to a prominent Sunni figure who ran in this month's parliamentary elections, killing five people and wounding 26 others.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, Israel said it will restrict access to its territory from the occupied West Bank starting late today ahead of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Italy voters cast their ballots in regional elections. Premier Silvio Berlusconi emerged as the victor in the elections widely depicted as a test of his popularity. Only 64% bothered to vote.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/30/10)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.53)
2010 Mar 28, In Libya Arab leaders renewed their support for Mideast peace efforts, rejecting pressure from Syria and Libya on the Palestinians to abandon talks with Israel and resume armed resistance.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Mexico gunmen in Durango state killed 10 young people riding in pickup truck when they didn't stop at a gang's illegal roadblock. 3 gunmen died in a clash with soldiers near a park crowded with families in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. Tamaulipas state investigators said police found the bodies of three men who had been shot to death in the town of Miguel Aleman. In the Nuevo Leon city of Santa Catarina, three men and two women were killed in a shootout with soldiers inside a motel.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 28, Pakistani troops repulsed a Taliban attack on an army base and bombed two militant hide-outs close to the Afghan border, killing 22 insurgents in Orakzai tribal region where the army is pressing an offensive.
(AP, 3/28/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 28, In the Philippines 2 marines were wounded and several Abu Sayyaf fighters were believed killed as troops pursued militants in an offensive on Jolo island that ended today. At least one body of an Abu Sayyaf fighter, killed in the 2-day assault, was dug up by troops.
(AP, 3/28/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 28, Russia's Pres. Medvedev thought the country had too much time on its hands, so on Sunday he eliminated two of its 11 time zones.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Russia thousands of angry people demonstrated in the northwestern city of Arkhangelsk against the high cost of living and demanded that the government of PM Vladimir Putin quits.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Switzerland an armed gang of masked men raided the Grand Casino, packed with about 600 guests near Basel, and made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, Officials said the US and India have reached an agreement on reprocessing nuclear material, clearing a major hurdle in putting into practice a landmark atomic energy pact.
(AFP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, The US Treasury Department said it will begin selling the stake it owns in Citigroup Inc., which could result in a profit to the government of more than $8 billion.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, US Federal officials awarded Tennessee and Delaware $600 million in grants to improve failing schools as part of Pres. Obama’s $4 billion fund for education innovation and reform. Delaware won as much as $107 million. Tennessee could get $502 million.
(AP, 3/29/10)(SFC, 3/30/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 29, In Afghanistan a NATO helicopter crashed, injuring 14 people in Zabul province. Elsewhere in the south a service member was killed in a bomb strike.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In the Bahamas a tornado touched down during a fierce thunderstorm and toppled a port crane, killing three people and injuring at least four.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Canada a 2-day G-8 meeting opened in the Quebec town of Gatineau. Canada said it would press the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations to tighten UN sanctions on Iran.
(Reuters, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, In eastern China local residents and firefighters recovered the bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, which had washed ashore on the Guangfu River near the city of Jining, Shandong province. Tags on the feet of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Greece an overnight pipe bomb explosion outside an Athens business management institute killed an Afghan passer-by (15) and severely injured his sister (10).
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, A Guatemalan judge sentenced a man to two years in prison for his role in the May 10, 2009, killing of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who accused the country's president of his murder in a video made before his death. Cardona was convicted of illicit association, the first verdict among eight people on trial in the slaying of Rosenberg.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 29, An American doctor living in Guatemala was convicted of sexually abusing four 10-year-old boys and sentenced to six years in prison. Dr. Joshua T. Kotouc was arrested in 2008 with the four boys in bed.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Iraq the names of candidates elected for the 325-member parliament were published in newspapers. Several prominent politicians, long considered untouchable in the political arena, failed to make it into parliament following the country's March 7 elections. A pair of car bombs in the holy city of Karbala killed at least four people and wounded 22, with the second blast detonating near the provincial governor's home.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Japan more than 2,000 people who suffer from a rare neurological disorder agreed to accept a settlement proposal and abandon their lawsuits against the Japanese government and the company they say made them sick by dumping mercury. Minamata disease was first diagnosed in 1956 and later was linked to the consumption of fish from southern Kyushu island's Minamata Bay, where chemical company Chisso Corp. dumped tons of mercury compounds.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Myanmar's biggest opposition party said it would not register for this year's election, meaning Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party will have no role in the military-led political process.
(Reuters, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of anti-Taliban volunteers in northwestern Pakistan, killing one person and critically wounding two others in Tank city.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Hamas seized $270,000 from a Gaza bank that had been frozen by the Palestinian government in the West Bank, sparking new feuding between the Gaza militants and their Western-backed rivals.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, A Philippine court dismissed rebellion charges against a powerful clan leader and dozens of his followers but they remain in custody for their alleged role in the Nov 23, 2009, election-related massacre of 57 people. Prosecutors had charged Andal Ampatuan Sr., his four sons and followers with rebellion for allegedly plotting to stage an armed uprising after the government began to crack down on them when they were linked to the massacre.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Russia 2 female suicide bombers blew themselves up in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing 39 people. Officials blamed the carnage on rebels from the Caucasus region. Five people remained in critical condition out of 71 hospitalized after the blasts. The death toll soon rose to 40 as one of the injured died in a hospital.
(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 3/30/10)(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Mar 29, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency set up the world's first nuclear fuel bank, signing into life a plan meant to bridge shortages caused by snags in deliveries of low enriched uranium to power reactors.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Somalia hundreds of women and children marched through the rubble-strewn streets of Mogadishu to protest against al-Qaida-linked militants.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Somali pirates hijacked a cargo vessel, the Panama-flagged Iceberg I, off the coast of Yemen. The 24-member crew came from Yemen, India, Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and the Philippines.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 30, Pres. Obama signed into law the final changes to the sweeping medical plan approved by lawmakers last week, along with reforms in college student loan programs.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, A US federal court ruled that the US patents held by Myriad Genetics on the BRCA genes are unsustainable as a matter of law.
(Econ, 4/17/10, p.91)(http://tinyurl.com/y8camvj)
2010 Mar 30, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the escrow firm Rehab Financial Corp. after learning the company had abruptly shuttered its Huntington Beach office and drained accounts holding city funds. The suit accused the company of misappropriating several million dollars from SF and at least a dozen other California cities.
(SFC, 4/1/10, p.C2)
2010 Mar 30, A gunman sprayed bullets from a moving vehicle into a crowd in southeastern Washington, killing four and wounding at least five others, before leading police on a chase into neighboring Maryland. Three people were arrested in the drive-by shooting.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 30, Chevron said the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ruled in favor of its claim against Ecuador related to past operations of its Texaco unit. The tribunal ruled that Ecuador’s courts delayed rulings on a contract dispute and awarded Chevron about $700 million as of Dec 22, 2006. A separate case over a $27 billion pollution claim remained pending.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 30, Jaime Escalante (b.1930), a Bolivia-born math teacher in East Los Angeles, died. The 1987 film "Stand and Deliver," starring Lou Diamond Phillips, was based on the story of his success teaching math to inner-urban kids.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.C6)
2010 Mar 30, In western Afghanistan 5 civilians have been killed after their van hit a bomb planted in the road outside Herat.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Australian media groups and sports bodies signed a code of conduct aimed at ending years of disputes and boycotts over press coverage of major sporting events.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper told US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton that its military mission in Afghanistan will end in 2011.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 30, In Quebec, Canada, the world's leading industrial nations (G8) called for stronger action against Iran over its nuclear program and the United States said it was confident China would agree on the need for sanctions.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Google Inc said its mobile services have been partially blocked in China for two days, while searches on its Chinese-language site became erratic, about a week after the company shut its mainland Chinese portal and rerouted Web searches to a Hong Kong site.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Ecuador journalist Emilio Palacio, facing a 3-year prison sentence for defamation, accused President Rafael Correa of orchestrating his prosecution as a warning that critics of the government will be severely punished.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Amnesty International said Europe had its first year without executions in 2009. But the London-based organization said the spell was recently broken by the execution of two men in Belarus.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Britain's media watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, upheld a complaint against a blog written by a journalist in what was its first-ever move to censure a newspaper or magazine over comments by a blogger. Former BBC journalist and commentator Rod Liddle was censured over a blog in which he said that young Afro-Caribbean men carried out the "overwhelming majority" of violent crime in London. The blog which was published in December on the website of right-wing weekly magazine The Spectator.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In India Paramhamsa Nityananda (32), a Hindu holy man with thousands of followers across India, resigned as head of Dhyanapeetam (knowledge center) after police began investigating his role in a sex scandal. On April 21 Nityananda, who claims to have devotees in 33 countries, and an aide Nithya Bhaktananda, were nabbed in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh on charges including obscenity and hurting religious sentiments.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)(AFP, 4/21/10)
2010 Mar 30, An Indian naval spokesman said Somali pirates may be holding several dhows carrying an estimated 100 Indian sailors they have seized over the past five days.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Iran's state television reported that its intelligence agents mounted a "complicated" cross-border mission and freed an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in 2008 by gunmen in northwestern Pakistan. Heshmatollah Attarzadeh and his Pakistani bodyguard were driving over a narrow bridge in Peshawar on Nov. 13, 2008 when two gunmen blocked their way with a car and opened fire.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Japan’s government approved a plan to halt the privatization of Japan Post, the world’s biggest bank, and increased the amount of deposits it can take from a customer to 20 million yen. The government will retain a stake of over one-third, giving it veto power.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Mar 30, In northern Mexico dozens of gunmen mounted rare and apparently coordinated attacks targeting two army garrisons, touching off firefights that killed 18 attackers in the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 30, Russia's Pres. Medvedev signed an order formally implementing UN Security Council-approved sanctions against North Korea. The sanctions were passed in June by the Security Council, which includes Russia.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Serbia's parliament approved a declaration condemning the 1995 Serb massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, in a bid to distance the country from past warmongering under the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, said Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has long been working to ensure next month's elections are rigged, making the eventual winner illegitimate.
(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Switzerland scientists cheered the historic crash of two proton beams at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 30, Vietnam and the United States signed a pact described as a key foundation for development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Zimbabwe 13 legislators from both parties in the coalition government were not allowed to enter the Chiadzwa diamond district. They spent 2 days waiting for clearance.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, President Barack Obama announced an expansive new policy that could put oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, The US federal government and environmental groups reached an agreement that will end the ghost fleet of retired ships in Suisun Bay, Ca.
(SFC, 4/1/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 31, The CalNeva casino on the north shore of Lake Tahoe closed due to declining gambling revenues.
(SFC, 4/1/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 31, Flooding across the US Northeast forced hundreds of residents from their homes, knocked out sewage plants, and snarled traffic on major East Coast routes as roads. Rhode Island endured the most severe damage as the Pawtuxet reached 20.8 feet unleashing the worst flooding in over 200 years.
(AP, 3/31/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.32)
2010 Mar 31, US Navy Lt. Steven Zilberman's E-2C Hawkeye went down in the North Arabian Sea after it "experienced mechanical malfunctions." Three other crew members survived the crash without significant injuries.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 31, In southern Afghanistan a bomb concealed on a bicycle killed 13 people, as the Pentagon's top military officer said NATO forces hope to reverse the Taliban's momentum in the south with an upcoming offensive in Kandahar.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Antigua a judge ruled Wednesday that PM Baldwin Spencer and two other lawmakers were improperly elected last year, a decision potentially threatening the governing party's narrow hold on power in this Caribbean country. Earlier this month, Spencer's government announced that the International Monetary Fund agreed to lend the country $124 million over three years.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Belgium a parliamentary committee unanimously voted to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public, a major step in the legislative process that could make Belgium the first European country to impose such a religious prohibition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, US envoy Stephen Rapp said the US has pledged $5 million to Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal amid the troubled court's attempts to address corruption allegations.
(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In central China a gas explosion at a mine killed 12 workers and trapped 32 underground at the privately owned Guomin Mining Co. coal pit in Yichuan County, Luoyang City.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Dagestan 2 suicide bombers struck near the border with Chechnya, killing 12 people.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 31, Nearly 50 donors pledged $9.9 billion in reconstruction aid for Haiti at a UN donor conference, but leaders and businessmen stressed private investment would be the key to improving the lot of the hemisphere's poorest nation.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Six major world powers agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its opposition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Iraq gunmen fatally shot Mohammed Chillab, a health ministry official, at his home in Baghdad in the latest slaying apparently targeting government employees. A mobile phone shop owner was gunned down and killed as he was closing his store for the night.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Kashmir 4 Indian soldiers and 10 separatist guerrillas were killed in clashes, the highest number of people killed in firefights in 24 hours in recent months.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Mexico authorities in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco announced that Roberto Rivero Arana, the nephew of reputed Zetas gang leader Heriberto Lazcano, was captured together with Daniel Perez, an acting police chief of Ciudad del Carmen, accused of protecting the Zetas. 4 severed human heads were found in Apatzingan, a town in the western state of Michoacan. In Morelia, the Michoacan state capital, police reported finding the bodies of 3 young men who had been shot to death. Police in the border city of Nogales reported finding the bullet-ridden bodies of 3 men, including a city transport official, on a rural road along with three burned-out vehicles.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Niger's police director said police have arrested more than 600 people in an effort to crackdown on recent crime and insecurity in the capital.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped Chris Nnaji. a local employee of French oil group Total, on his way to work in the country's oil hub of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Pakistan US missiles and fighting in the mountains killed up to 36 militants and six Pakistani soldiers as violence swept the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In southern Russia 2 suicide bombers, including one impersonating a police officer, killed 12 people in Dagestan. PM Vladimir Putin said the blasts may have been organized by the same militants who attacked the Moscow subway. Russian police broke up anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, detaining dozens of demonstrators who had defied bans in holding the rallies.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Scotland and Northern Ireland were battered by snow, gale force winds and torrential rain, leaving thousands of people without power and causing havoc on roads.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Spain flight attendant Adriana Ricardo said attendants owed up to nine months' wages by a grounded Spanish airline have posed nude for a calendar to draw attention to their plight. Air Comet, run by the embattled chairman of Spain's main employers' association CEOE, Gerardo Ferran, filed for administration in December after a British court impounded nine of its aircraft at the request of German bank HSH Nordbank.
(Reuters, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Southern Sudan's main political party withdrew its candidate from the country's upcoming presidential election and said it will not contest parliamentary and local polls in Darfur, a move that erodes the credibility of Sudan's first multiparty election in decades.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Swiss authorities said they could not reopen a money-laundering case against the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as long as he enjoys legal immunity.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Taiwan officials lost contact with the 79-ton Jih-chun Tsai 68 fishing trawler and the government feared the boat may have been hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast. On May 10, 2011, Wu Lai-yu, captain of the Jih-Chun Tsai 68, was killed by ammunition fired from a US ship. He was buried at sea from his vessel, which was "unseaworthy after the exchange of fire and was sunk.
(AP, 4/1/10)(AFP, 7/25/11)
2010 Mar 31, Google Inc. says malicious software has been used to spy on Vietnamese computer users opposed to a controversial bauxite mine in the Southeast Asian country. Computer security firm McAfee said the perpetrators may be linked to the communist government.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar, US and Chilean engineers extracted Chile's last batch of highly enriched uranium (HEU), 18 kg (40 pounds), from reactors near Santiago and shipped it to the US. It was then driven to the Savannah River Site in SC and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Ten., where much of it would be converted to safer fuel and resold for nuclear power.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar, The number of Americans receiving food stamps topped 40 million this month as the jobless rate hovered near a 26-year high.
(SFC, 6/3/10, p.A7)
2010 Mar, In Oakland, Ca., gang shootings killed Victor Johns and John Jones. Deshawn Reed was later convicted of the double murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Reed spent seven years in prison before being declared factually innocent in 2018 and permitted to seek compensation from the state.
(SFC, 11/8/18, p.C1)
2010 Mar, British Grenadier Guardsman Daniel Crook stabbed Ghulam Nabi (10) while on a patrol in the Nad-e Ali district of southern Helmand province. In 2011 Crook was jailed for 18 months for bayoneting the boy. The boy's father said that he had received $800 (600 euros) in compensation but no apology.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2010 Mar, The Laotian government arrested an Uighur family: Memet Eli Rozi, his wife Gulbahar Sadiq, and their five children. They were later deported back to China.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Mar, In North Korea Pak Nam Gi, the ruling Workers' Party finance and planning department chief who spearheaded the November, 2009, currency reform, was executed by a firing squad in Pyongyang.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar, Iraq ranked 162nd in the world in income per head. It was also reported to be the 4th most corrupt country in the world and 153rd in the world for ease of doing business. 25% of Iraqis had access to adequate and the same percent received needed electricity, 22% of the people were malnourished. Unemployment in rural areas was said to approach 80%. Over the last 7 years the US has spent $800 billion on Iraq. [That would be about $2600 per every US man, woman and child.]
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.32,34)
2010 Mar, The Israeli TV series “Prisoner of War" debuted. It lasted two seasons, but was remade in 2011 as the American blockbuster “Homeland" starring Claire Danes.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_War_(TV_series))(Econ, 8/5/17, p.35)
Go to April 2010
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
End of file
Return to home
2010 Jan 1, About 15 New Hampshire gay couples braved the cold to exchange vows outside the Statehouse in Concord, as the state joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont in allowing gay marriage.
(SFC, 1/1/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 1, In the Rose Bowl at Pasadena Terrelle Pryor passed for a career-high 266 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for 72 more and threw a 17-yard scoring pass to DeVier Posey with 7:02 to play, leading the No. 8 Buckeyes to a 26-17 victory over No. 7 Oregon.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, Damon Martin (35) of Detroit was shot and killed in Hampton, Ga. Rap music producer Demetrius Lee Stewart (28), aka Shawnty Redd, was arrested for the murder.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A11)(www.rashaentertainment.com/blog/?p=5350)
2010 Jan 1, In Afghanistan 5 civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a bomb on a main road in Bala Murghab district in the northern province of Badghis. At least 4 security guards for a road construction crew were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern part of Khost province.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported that Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the deadly cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils, raising hopes that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In southwestern Bangladesh a speeding bus lost control and hit a tree before crashing into a canal, killing 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Brazil a rain-loosened slab of hillside collapsed on 3 houses and an upscale lodge after New Year celebrations at a resort on the island of Ilha Grande near Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 26 people. On the mainland, a torrent of reddish mud cascaded into the Carioca slum in the nearby coastal city of Angra dos Reis, killing at least 18 people and reducing rickety shacks to rubble. 10 people died in Sao Paulo state. 3 people died in Minas Gerais as heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides. Nearly 80 other mudslides have been reported throughout the region in recent days. Together with flooding, they have killed at least 76 people.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Britain the VAT returned to 17.5% after 13 months in which it was reduced to 15% to help combat the economic downturn.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.41)
2010 Jan 1, Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno called on rebel forces in the troubled central African nation to lay down their weapons, saying constant conflict was hindering development.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Colombia a New year’s Eve dessert, distributed to the homeless in Bogota’s El Calvario neighborhood, contained ground glass and poison that caused one death and sickened 44 others. Air and ground assaults on two rebel camps killed 18 insurgents and captured 13, 112 miles south of Bogota. An attack by guerrillas a few hours earlier killed a soldier and a teenage girl at a boardinghouse 164 miles southwest of Bogota.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A Congolese army officer said the Democratic Republic of Congo forces are to mount a new offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country with the backing of UN troops.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In the Czech Rep. liberalized drug laws went into effect. Those caught with small amounts of drugs intended for personal use faced only a fine.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Denmark Muhudiin Mohamed Geele (29), a Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda, broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard (74), a Danish cartoonist, whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage. The attacker, who was shot and wounded by police, was charged the next day with two counts of attempted murder. On Feb 3, 2011, Geele was convicted of terrorism. The next day he was sentenced to 9 years in prison to be followed by permanent expulsion.
(Reuters, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/3/11)(Reuters, 2/4/11)
2010 Jan 1, In Dubai a British woman (23) told police she had been raped the previous evening by a waiter at a 5-star hotel. Police arrested her after she revealed during questioning that she had drunk alcohol and had sex with her fiance, with whom she was on holiday.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.48)
2010 Jan 1, In Germany a technical problem left card holders unable to use cash machines. It was caused by microchips in about a quarter of all cards in circulation being unable to cope with the changeover to 2010. On Jan 8 retailers announced that the problem was mostly corrected.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iran a shootout with drug smugglers in an eastern desert region left 11 policemen dead.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iraq a US soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Ireland a new law against blasphemy went into effect. It was already a criminal offense under the country’s 1937 constitution, but the language was too murky to make prosecutions feasible.
(SFC, 1/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, In Japan a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth 300 million yen ($3.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. On Jan 7-8 three men and 3 women were arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the jewelry heist. Police suspect many of the watches were mailed from Japan to Hong Kong, with some then sent to mainland China.
(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 1, Malaysia’s Islamic morality police arrested 52 unmarried couples for sexual misconduct following raids in hotel rooms on New Year’s Day. The detained couples were expected to be charged with khalwat (close proximity), and faced a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison and a fine.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 1, In Mexico gunmen killed Jesus Escalante, the chief police investigator in the northern state of Sinaloa, hours after he started investigating the kidnapping of Jose Luis Romero (40), a local radio journalist. Mexico opened the New Year with 69 murders in one day, including 26 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico’s drug related killings for 2009 totaled over 6,500.
(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, North Korea called for an end of hostile relations with the United States in a New Year's message and said it was committed to making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden vehicle on a field during a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat city, killing 101 people and wounding more than 70. A suspected US missile struck a car carrying alleged militants in North Waziristan tribal region, killing 3 men. Karachi, the country's largest city, came to a virtual standstill after religious and political leaders called for a general strike to protest a Dec 28 bombing that killed 44 people and subsequent riots. A roadside bomb exploded near a car in the Bajur tribal region, killing an anti-Taliban tribal elder and five of his family members. A local Taliban commander and his four companions were killed in an exchange of fire with troops in Kolachi village, 25 km (16 miles) west of the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Peru a riot by about 500 inmates erupted New Year’s Eve at a northern prison and left two inmates dead. 6 guards were held hostage until negotiations got the prisoners to end their protest.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, The Russian government set a minimum price for vodka that more than doubles the cost of the cheapest vodka on the market in an effort to fight rampant alcoholism.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked a British-flagged cargo ship, the Asian Glory, with 25 crew including eight Bulgarians, 620 miles (1,000 km) east of Somalia. It was transporting cars from Singapore to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The Singaporean-flagged Pramoni, a chemical tanker with a crew of 24, was seized by pirates in the heavily defended Gulf of Aden. The ship was carrying fertilizer from the US to India. The Pramoni was released on Feb 26 after a ransom was delivered by parachute.
(AFP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Jan 1, Spain took over the presidency of the EU, with PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promising to work to end the continent's economic crisis.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Ugandan troops killed Bok Abudema, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, effectively the number two of the brutal militia, in the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars went into effect. This made it least the 29th state to ban smoking in restaurants and 24th for bars.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, Afghanistan's parliament dealt a stinging rebuke to President Hamid Karzai by rejecting 17 out of 24 of his nominees for a new cabinet, including a regionally powerful warlord and the country's only female minister.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Australia Indian accounting graduate Nitin Garg (21) was stabbed by unknown attackers before collapsing in the Melbourne burger restaurant where he worked. On June 17 a 15-year-old Australian boy was charged with the stabbing murder. On June 18 the boy (16) was charged with accessory to the killing. On April 20, 2011, the boy (16) pleaded guilty to the murder and one count of attempted armed robbery. On Dec 22 the boy was sentenced to up to 13 years in jail.
(AFP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 6/17/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP, 4/20/11)(Reuters, 12/22/11)
2010 Jan 2, French police said about 30 works of art, including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau, have been stolen from the home of a private collector in southern La Cadiere-d'Azur, near Marseilles. The theft comes days after a drawing by Impressionist Edgar Degas worth euro800,000 ($1.15 million) was stolen from the Cantini Museum in Marseilles.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 2, In northern India 4 trains collided in two separate accidents caused by dense winter fog, killing 10 people and injuring 47 others.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, Israeli warplanes struck and destroyed two tunnels under Gaza's border with Israel. The Israeli military says Gaza militants had planned to use the tunnels to enter Israel and carry out attacks.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In northern Mexico a bus carrying farm workers and their families home plunged off a cliff, killing 14 people and injuring 21. Hugo Hernandez (36) was kidnapped in Sonora state and taken to neighboring Sinaloa state where assailants skinned his face and stitched it onto a soccer ball. His body was later left on the streets of Los Mochis in seven pieces.
(AP, 1/3/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 2, Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in the capital to support the communist government's policies for the new year, including improved relations with the US and South Korea and a higher standard of living.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Somalia Al-Shabab attacked Dusamareb, 500km north of the capital Mogadishu, and captured it from Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, a traditional Sufi group, for a short while before being forced out again. At least 50 people died in the fighting.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycmkkye)(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 2, In southern Sudan armed Nuer tribesmen killed at least 139 members of a rival tribe in an attack in Tonj, one of the most remote parts of the oil-producing south.
(Reuters, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Tajikistan a magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck the Pamir Mountains. Some 783 people were left homeless. 98 houses were completely destroyed and nearly 1,000 others damaged by the quake that hit several villages in the Gorno-Badakhshansky region.
(AP, 1/3/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 2, Yemen security officials said they deployed several hundred extra troops to two mountainous eastern provinces that are al-Qaida's main strongholds in the country and where the suspected would-be Christmas airplane bomber may have visited.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 3, The US and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen in the face of al-Qaida threats, after both countries announced an increase in aid to the government to fight the terror group linked to the failed attempt to bomb a US airliner on Christmas.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, John Irwin (80), former criminal turned writer and criminologist, died at his SF home. Irwin was released from Soledad Prison in 1957 after serving 5 years for armed robbery. In 1967 He began teaching at SF Univ. and founded Project Rebound, a program to help those coming out of prison to go to college. His 6 books included “The Felon" (1970).
(SFC, 1/7/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 3, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered parliament to cancel its winter recess so lawmakers can consider his new cabinet nominees. In southern Afghanistan 4 US troops and a British soldier were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In southeastern Australia more than 1,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Coonamble, in central New South Wales, as the worst floodwaters to hit the area in a decade threatened to swamp a remote farming town.
(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr, the country's first and second biggest banks by assets, said they had agreed to accept real estate in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in public sector debt.
(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Eric Rohmer (b.1920), French new Wave film director and critic, died in Paris. His first feature film, “The Sign of Leo," was released in 1959.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 3, In northern India police said more than 30 people have died in cold weather-related incidents in the past 24 hours, including 10 people killed in train accidents caused by dense fog.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Pakistan's northwest tribal region a suspected US drone missile strike killed at least 2 people. A roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the Hangu district of North West Frontier Province, killing a former irrigation minister and 3 others. Another roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying anti-Taliban elders in the Bajur tribal area, killing 2 and critically wounding 4 others. The bullet-riddled bodies of a man and a woman were found in the Mamund area of Bajur with a note saying they were guilty of violating Islamic law.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Serbian police arrested Darko Jankovic, a war crimes suspect. He was wanted for the killing of at least 19 civilians in eastern Bosnia and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Switzerland avalanches killed at least four skiers and a rescue doctor. Two of the avalanches occurred in Diemtig Valley, the first hitting a group of skiers, the second the rescuers who came to their aid. A third avalanche buried two skiers near Switzerland's borders with France and Italy.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In northwestern Turkey a passenger train crashed head-on into another train, killing one of the engine drivers and injuring 14 other people.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 4, James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark. Along with "Titanic," the others are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $1.13 billion, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at $1.06 billion and "The Dark Knight" at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, The US Census Bureau kicked off its $300 million campaign to prod, coax and cajole the nation's more than 300 million residents to fill out their once-a-decade census forms.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Solis Palma, a Mexican migrant, was shot and killed after he reportedly attacked a US Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona with rocks.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 4, Bobby DeLaughter (55), a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, reported to federal prison for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation. DeLaughter was sentenced to 18 months in November after pleading guilty to lying about secret conversations he had with a lawyer while presiding over a dispute between wealthy attorneys over legal fees. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped conspiracy and mail fraud charges.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Nevada Las Vegas Johnny Lee Wicks (66), disgruntled over cuts in his Social Security benefits, opened fire in the lobby of the federal court house in Las Vegas killing a court security officer and wounding a deputy. Police officers returned fire and Wicks was killed as he fled across the street.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 4, Novartis, a Swiss drug company, agreed to buy a controlling 52% stake in Alcon, an American listed but Swiss-based eyecare company, from food giant Nestle Corp.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.66)
2010 Jan 4, NASA scientists reported that the new Kepler space telescope has discovered 5 fiery-hot planets in the depths of the Milky Way, each far larger than Earth.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 4, Edward Nathan (1919), longtime grantmaker for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, died in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 4, In Algeria an Algerian employee of Canadian construction firm SNC-Lavalin was kidnapped by insurgents southeast of Algiers. The engineer was freed on Jan 7.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 4, A new report by Canada's Alzheimer Society said Canadians are developing dementia at such a rapid rate that dealing with the problem will cost a total of more than C$870 billion ($835 billion) over the next 30 years unless preventive measures are taken.
(Reuters, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China 21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Dubai inaugurated the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, hoping to shift international attention away from the Gulf emirate's deep financial crisis and rekindle the optimism that fueled its turbocharged growth. The name was secretly switched from Burj Dubai and unveiled to the public as the Burj Khalifa, after the emir of Abu Dhabi and UAE president Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The observation deck was the only part of the tower that opened. It was closed in February following an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped. The deck reopened on April 4. Work continued on the rest of the building's interior.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/5/10)(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 4/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iran dozens of Tehran University professors appealed to the supreme leader to halt the ongoing violence against protesters, adding a new and respected voice in support of the opposition.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iraq 3 policemen were killed and eight people were wounded by two explosions in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Irish writer Colm Toibin was named novelist of the year in Britain's lucrative Costa Book Awards for his emigrant saga "Brooklyn."
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Israel approved construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the US is laboring to get peace talks moving again.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Kenya US citizen Sharon Brown (39) and her daughter Margaux (1) were trampled to death when a lone elephant charged out of the brush just outside Mount Kenya National Park.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Mexico Josefina Reyes, a human rights activist, was been killed in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Myanmar's ruling junta chief confirmed that the country's first general elections in two decades will be held this year but gave no date for the balloting, which is expected to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Nigerian soldiers shot 2 contract workers dead and injured 4 others at a Chevron plant under construction. This led to a riot and left several buildings destroyed and halted operations at the southern Escravos gas project.
(www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10293513)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 4, The Norwegian Chess Federation said Magnus Carlsen (19) is the youngest person to hold the title since ratings were introduced in 1971.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Serbia filed a lawsuit against Croatia at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide during the 1991-1995 Balkan war, which killed or displaced thousands of people.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, A tsunami unleashed by an earthquake plowed into the Solomon Islands with the crashing waters devastating at least one village, leaving over a thousand people homeless. The US Geological Survey recorded 8 earthquakes in the region since late Jan 3. The magnitude 7.2 was centered 64 miles (103 km) southeast of Gizo, and followed a 6.5 tremor less than two hours earlier centered 54 miles (90 km) southeast of Gizo at a depth of 6 miles (10 km).
(AP, 1/4/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Africa Pres. Jacob Zuma formalized his marriage to a third wife in a traditional ceremony in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Korea Seoul residents slogged through the heaviest snowfall in modern Korean history after a winter storm dumped more than 11 inches (28 cm), forcing airports to cancel flights and paralyzing traffic in the bustling capital.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Yemeni security forces killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in clashes outside the capital Sanaa, as the US and British embassies extended their closure for a second day because of threats of attack by the terror group's offshoot here. France became the latest foreign mission to close in Yemen as security around embassies and the airport was boosted.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 5, The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in SF overturned Washington state’s ban on voting by convicted felons. The ruling could extend ballots to prisoners in other states.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 5, US sports broadcaster ESPN said it will show some World Cup soccer matches live from South Africa in 3-D and Japan's Sony teamed up with Discovery and IMAX to launch a 3-D TV network in the United States.
(AFP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, Google introduced its Nexus One smart phone.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.D1)
2010 Jan 5, In California 3 biologists with the California Dept. of Fish and Game were killed along with their helicopter pilot while they were surveying deer in the foothills of Sierra national Forest after their vehicle clipped a power line and crashed.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.C2)
2010 Jan 5, In Illinois a small Learjet cargo plane crashed into the Des Plains River in Glenview killing two pilots onboard.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 5, Kentucky lottery officials said Rob Anderson (39) and his wife were winners of the $128.6 million Powerball jackpot, the largest in the state's history. The central Kentucky autoworker held on to the $128 million Powerball ticket he bought on Christmas Eve during some last-minute shopping, after it was printed by mistake.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 5, In Utah deputy sheriff Josie Greathouse Fox was killed following a traffic stop in Delta. Police searched for suspect Roberto Miramontes Roman, who had just sold drugs to a relative of the slain officer.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales said he's inviting activists, scientists and government officials from around the world to an alternative climate conference following the failure of a summit in Copenhagen to produce binding agreements.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, In Bulgaria gunmen shot dead Bobbie Tsankov, a popular radio show host and crime journalist, and critically injured two other men in a busy part of the capital, Sofia.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, A fire in a coal mine in central China killed at least 25 workers. Search efforts continued for at least three others trapped underground at the Lisheng coal mine in Xiangtan city in Hunan province.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 5, Iceland’s Pres. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson rejected a bill passed by parliament on Dec 30 on a state guarantee for €3.9 billion owed to British and Dutch governments. This amount would cover compensation paid to savers in those countries following the collapse of Landsbanki and its internet-banking scheme, Icesave, one of three stricken Icelandic banks nationalized in October 2008.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.52)
2010 Jan 5, In India global car manufacturers eyeing the explosive growth of the Indian market unveiled new compact models at the Delhi auto show as they sought to break the dominance of entrenched local producers.
(AFP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, In Nairobi, Kenya, public transit was paralyzed after minibus drivers went on a 3-day strike following claims of extortion and corruption by police.
(SSFC, 1/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 5, Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born radical Muslim cleric, was stuck in Kenya despite attempts to deport him because other nations are refusing to allow him to transit through their countries. He has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed. The British government has said he was a key influence on July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, The UN food agency said it is stopping aid distribution to about 1 million people in southern Somalia because of attacks against staff and demands by armed groups that aid organizations remove women from their teams.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 5, Taiwan’s parliament voted to reinstate a ban on imports of US ground beef and offal amid mad cow concerns, challenging a decision by Pres. Ma Ying-jeou to allow some shipments.
(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 6, It was reported that Santa Barbara-based Cybersitter has filed a $2.2 billion lawsuit against China, accusing Beijing of stealing its technology to bar Internet access to political and religious sites in China. The suit alleges that the Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally copied more than 3,000 lines of code from its filtering software, and conspired with China's rulers and computer manufacturers to distribute more than 56 million copies of the pirated software throughout China.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Gilbert Arenas, a Washington DC Wizards basketball guard, was suspended indefinitely without pay by NBA commissioner David Stern, for carrying guns into the Wizards' locker room. With each game he misses, Arenas will lose about $147,200 of the $16.2 million he will earn in the second season of a six-year, $111 million contract. The punishment came on his 28th birthday.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (56) resigned as part of a deal with prosecutors following allegations that she stole gift cards that had been donated to the poor.
(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 6, George Leonard (86), writer and pioneer in the human potential movement, died at his home in Mill Valley, Ca. From 1953 to 1970 he worked as a writer and editor for Look magazine. His best-selling books included “Education and Ecstasy" (1968).
(http://beststudentviolins.com/education.html)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A1)
2010 Jan 6, In Afghanistan an explosion tore through a group of children gathered around foreign soldiers visiting a US-funded road project, killing 4 kids and a policeman and wounding scores, including at least 3 American troops in eastern Nangarhar province. The blast occurred when a passing police vehicle hit a mine. In a separate attack in the province, 4 Afghan policeman were killed when a remote-controlled bomb blew up their vehicle in the Khagyani district. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at a market in eastern Khost city. Soldiers found more than 5,300 pounds (2,400 kg) of processed opium, more than 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) of wet opium paste, about 50 pounds (20 kilograms) of heroin and multiple firearms with ammunition in the Maywand district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, In the waters off Antarctica the trimaran Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boat, had its bow sheared off and was taking on water after it was struck by the Shonan Maru 2, a Japanese whaling ship. The trimaran’s 6 crew members were safely transferred to the bob Barker, another of the Society's vessels. The Ady Gil was left to sink the next day after a tow rope snapped and the Bob Barker resumed its pursuit of the Japanese whalers.
(AP, 1/6/10)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez ordered the military to declassify all "dirty war"-related documents.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Britain unusually heavy snowfall stranded hundreds of motorists, disrupted trains and shut down schools and airports across the land as the country suffered through its longest cold snap in nearly 30 years.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Chile investigators accused Rev. Ricardo Munoz Quinteros (55), a Catholic priest, and his girlfriend, Pamela Ampuero, of soliciting sex from young girls, including one who later bore his child.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Egyptian security forces and Palestinians clashed at the Gaza border over the delay of an international aid convoy, killing one Egyptian border guard and wounding 15 Palestinians. 3 gunmen in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd leaving a church in the town of Nag Hamadi, about 40 miles from the ancient ruins of Luxor. The lead attacker was identified as a Muslim. 6 male churchgoers and one security guard were killed on the Coptic Christmas Eve. The 3 suspects in the drive-by shooting gave themselves up to police on Jan 8 after being surrounded by security forces. On Jan 16, 2011, a court convicted and sentenced to death a Muslim man for his part in the drive-by shooting. "I am a victim; I did not do it," screamed Mohammed Ahmed Hassanein, whose trial lasted 11 months. He was convicted of first degree murder and terror-related charges.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Honduras the chief prosecutor asked the Supreme Court to issue arrest warrants charging Honduras' military commanders with abuse of power for sending President Manuel Zelaya out of the country in his June 28 ouster.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, A conservative Iranian Web site reported that a parliamentary probe has found Saeed Mortazavi, a former Tehran prosecutor, responsible for the death by torture of at least 3 anti-government protesters detained in the turmoil following the disputed June elections.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, A diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Norway told Norwegian television that he had resigned in protest over a crackdown on demonstrators in Iran. The government in Tehran denied the report. In mid-February the Norwegian Immigration Directorate gave Mohammed Reza Heydari and his family permission to remain in Norway as political refugees after going through "all necessary information pertaining to the case."
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Jan 6, Five Iraqis were killed and eight injured after their minibus collided with a US military vehicle that was traveling in the wrong lane 80 km south of Baghdad. In northern Iraq a US army soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Indian Kashmir suspected Muslim militants opened fire in the main market area of Srinagar, killing one police officer and sending residents running for cover. A suicide bomber struck an army facility in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, killing four soldiers and wounding 11 others in an area where such attacks are rare.
(AFP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Israel announced it successfully tested a high-tech shield against future mortar and rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled territory. Once installed later this year, the Iron Dome system could deprive Hamas of an important means of threatening Israel.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, Madagascar security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital near the presidential palace. The demonstrators, who are aligned with three of the country's previous presidents, went to present the country's military-backed leader with a letter questioning whether or not coup leader Andry Rajoelina still wants reconciliation.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, A Malaysian court charged an air force sergeant and a businessman with stealing two fighter jet engines. The engines, each worth 50 million ringgit ($14 million), were stolen while they were undergoing repairs and were allegedly shipped toward Argentina before being offloaded to another vessel bound for Uruguay.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Tijuana, Mexico, three 16-year-old students, two boys and a girl, were killed. At least one of the victims was a known drug dealer who frequently missed classes and sometimes peddled narcotics at or near the school.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Morocco the first Berber TV channel in the ancient but marginalized tongue of Amazigh was launched after a decades-long struggle.
(AFP, 1/18/10)(http://tinyurl.com/yfl4jpp)
2010 Jan 6, In Northern Ireland the major British Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defense Association, announced it has fully disarmed, finally meeting the key requirement of the province's 1998 peace accord.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Pakistan 2 suspected US drone missile strikes killed 13 people in North Waziristan, an area of the volatile northwest teeming with militants suspected in a recent suicide attack that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 6, Palestinian work crews broke ground on Rawabi, what they hope will be the first modern, planned Palestinian city, a step that officials say will help build an independent state in spite of the current deadlock in the peace process with Israel. The $500 million project hinges on Israel's approval of a short stretch of road.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new gas pipeline link to Iran from Turkmenistan, which he said would take ties to a "new level."
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Russia a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed car at a police station in Dagestan province, killing six officers and wounding at least 16 people on the outskirts of Makhachkala. Investigators determined that the homemade bomb packed into the Niva, a small Russian-made SUV, was equivalent to 80 to 100 km (175 to 220 pounds) of TNT.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, Yemeni security forces captured Mohammed al-Hanq, a key Al-Qaeda leader, and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa. The US embassy reopened after a 2-day closure due to terror threats.
(AFP, 1/6/10)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 6, Zimbabwe state media reported that Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has signed an eight million dollar deal with Botswana to revive a shut-down thermal power station and ease national blackouts.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, The so-called Liberty Head nickel, a rare 1913 US coin once owned by an Egyptian king and later featured in a famous US TV detective series, was sold for more than $3.7 million (2.3 million pounds) in a public auction in Florida.
(Reuters, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, US scientists released a paper saying that mountaintop coal mining is so destructive that the government should stop issuing permits to do it. Earlier in the week the EPA issued a new permit for the Hobet 45 mine in West Virginia.
(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A11)
2010 Jan 7, Intel CEO Paul Otellini introduced a technology called Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) that allows a user to beam the contents of a computer screen to a TV.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.D1)
2010 Jan 7, Oaksterdam Univ., a pioneering college dedicated to the cannabis industry, held its grand opening in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.E3)(www.oaksterdamuniversity.com/)
2010 Jan 7, In St. Louis, Mo., three people were killed and four wounded after a man armed with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire at a manufacturing plant.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 8 civilians and a senior security commander in Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province, hours after a provincial governor survived a blast in nearby Khost province. A roadside bombs in Uruzgan province killed 8 Afghan soldiers. Another roadside bomb in the east killed a US service member.
(AFP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/8/10)(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 7, In Algeria a stand-off with police began in the industrial town of Rouiba after the 5,000 employees of the state-owned National Company of Industrial Vehicles (SNVI) started an indefinite strike action to demand higher wages and better terms.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Argentina Martin Redrado (b.1961), governor of the central bank, was dismissed by Pres. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. She signed a decree firing him for refusing to use currency reserves to pay foreign debt.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8447428.stm)
2010 Jan 7, China executed 7 gang leaders in Hebei province for murder, gun sales, gambling and other crimes in what state media called their province's worst gang case since the founding of communist China 60 years ago. In eastern China some 100 hired thugs beat farmers who had resisted eviction in the city of Pizhou in Jiangsu province. One woman was killed and another woman was severely injured. The next day up to 2,000 angry villagers descended on government offices in Pizhou to protest the issue and clashed with police over the forced evictions.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 7, In the Dominican Republic 4 people, including two US citizens, went missing on a fishing trip off the southern coast. Robert Wayne and Laura Ricart left Boca Chica with Spaniard Javier Jorge and Dominican Plinio Jacobo, aboard a 24-foot (7m) boat.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 7, Eurostar passengers faced further disruption after one of its high-speed trains got stuck for 2 hours in the Channel Tunnel again, weeks after a major breakdown due to the cold.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Egypt thousands clashed with police during a funeral procession for the seven people killed in an attack on churchgoers leaving a midnight Mass for Coptic Christians.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Iran armed pro-government demonstrators opened fire on the car of former presidential candidate and opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi, as he was leaving a building in Qazvin .
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Iraq a series of 5 blasts killed at least 8 people in western Anbar province. In Diyala province a bomb exploded near a police station, killing one policeman and injuring ten other people near the Iranian border.
(AP, 1/7/10)(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 7, In Indian-controlled Kashmir government forces ended a 20-hour gunbattle with suspected rebels in Srinagar, shooting and killing the two attackers who paralyzed the region's main city.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Kenya attempted to deport Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born radical Muslim cleric, to Gambia after several countries, including the United States, denied him a transit visa. Kenya's immigration minister said Gambian authorities have agreed to help el-Faisal find his way home to Jamaica. Attempts to deport el-Faisal failed because he was denied a transit visa when he arrived in Nigeria en route to Gambia, which had agreed to host him. El-Faisal was flown back to Kenya on Jan 10.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Mexico gunmen attacked an army patrol in the western state of Michoacan with assault rifles and grenades, touching off a gunbattle that killed a soldier and four suspects.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, A Moroccan court sentenced 14 members of a suspected terror cell to prison terms of four to 15 years for planning attacks against tourist and government targets. Prosecutors had alleged that the group known as Fath Al Andalous (Conquest of Andalusia) was well advanced in planning attacks on tourist sites in the southern city of Agadir and a military barracks in Laayoune.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, Gaza militants fired at least 10 mortar shells at Israel, causing no injuries or damage. international activists delivered hundreds of tons of medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The convoy was led by maverick British lawmaker George Galloway, who said the group "will be back with more (aid) until this criminal siege imposed on the people of Gaza, to punish them for how they voted in a free election, is lifted."
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Nepal began releasing hundreds of former child soldiers, who once fought for the Maoist rebels, from the UN-monitored detention camps they have called home for the past three years to begin new lives as civilians.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Russian police in Dagestan killed two suspected militants in a counterterrorism operation launched in response to a suicide blast that took the lives of six officers. One of the slain militants was named as Ismail Ichakayev, a man reportedly wanted for masterminding several bombings and other attacks on officials.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Rwanda and France pledged to improve ties after a lengthy freeze in diplomatic relations triggered by a French judge issuing arrest warrants for top aides to President Paul Kagame.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Zimbabwe halted a controversial sale of 300,000 carats of diamonds, but blamed bureaucratic hold-ups rather than a scandal over rights abuses by the military in the diamond fields.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, A top UN human rights investigator said video footage purportedly showing troops shooting blindfolded, naked Tamils in the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war, appeared to be authentic. The video, reportedly shot by a soldier with a mobile phone, revived calls for a war crimes investigation and cast a shadow over the upcoming presidential elections.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In NYC 2 men linked to an alleged Al-Qaida associate were arrested after one of the men caused a traffic accident while under surveillance. Zarein Ahmedzay (24) and Adis Medunjanin (25), former classmates of Najibullah Zazi, were first publicly linked to an investigation of a plot to attack NYC with homemade bombs in September. Zazi was arrested in Denver on Sep 19 after investigators found evidence of a planned attack in his rented vehicle in NYC on Sep 10. On April 23 Ahmedzay pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He said Al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan in 2008 had encouraged him and Zazi to target structures in NYC.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A9)(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A7)
2010 Jan 8, Lashonda Booker, a former Federal Emergency Management employee and her cousin, Peggy, Hilton were charged with stealing over $721,000 in Hurricane Katrina relief money. Booker had worked in FEMA’s Biloxi, Miss., office.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/yer5crg)
2010 Jan 8, It was reported that YMax Corp., the company behind the magicJack, the cheap Internet phone gadget that's been heavily promoted on TV, has made a new version of the device that allows free calls from cell phones in the home, in a fashion that's sure to draw protest from cellular carriers.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Art Clokey (88), American animator, died in Los Osos, Ca. His bendable creation Gumby became a pop culture phenomenon through decades of toys, revivals and satires. Gumby grew out of a student project Clokey produced at the University of Southern California in the early 1950s called "Gumbasia."
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Afghanistan two local intelligence guards were killed at a dog fight in the provincial capital of Pul-e Alam in Logar province. A suspected suicide bomber had entered the dog fight and opened fire. Other intelligence officers killed the gunman, who never detonated his alleged cache.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Angola hooded gunmen sprayed the Togo soccer team’s bus with gunfire as it traveled through the restive northern Cabinda enclave. The bus driver was killed and 7 others were injured. The attack was claimed by the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which has been fighting for decades for the independence of the oil-rich territory. The next day media officer Stanislas Ocloo and assistant coach Amalete Abalo died from their wounds. Virgilio Santos, an official with the African Nations Cup local organizing committee COCAN, said teams had been told explicitly not to travel to the tournament by road.
(Reuters, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Australia angrily condemned an Indian newspaper cartoon likening its police to the Ku Klux Klan over their investigations into the recent murder of a young Indian man. 4 men reportedly poured an unidentified fluid on Jaspreet Singh (29), a man of Indian descent, and set him alight in a suburb of Melbourne, leaving him with 15% burns. Singh was later charged with making a false report to police and criminal damage with a view to gaining financial advantage over the incident, allegedly to make an insurance claim.
(AFP, 1/8/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 8, Virgin Money, part of Richard Branson's Virgin empire, took big strides towards becoming a major retail bank able to compete in a battered sector seeking to recover from the financial crisis.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, The beleaguered Eurostar train service cancelled half of its trains between London and Paris because of freezing temperatures.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Canada Wiebo Ludvig (68), an anti-energy-industry activist was arrested in Grande Prairie, Alberta, in connection with the investigation into a series of pipeline bombings in northeastern British Columbia. Ludwig had been convicted a decade ago of bombing oil and gas wells. The next day Ludwig was released without charges.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A2)(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 8, Charles Massi (57) a former minister and head of the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP), died following the torture he was subjected to. The Central African Ministry of Defense formally denied killing Massi in a statement on 21 January and said that the government did not know where he was.
(AFP, 1/16/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Massi)
2010 Jan 8, The China Passenger Car Association reported that China overtook the US as the biggest auto market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth this year.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In southeastern China a fire in coal mine trapped and killed 12 workers in Xinyu city, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, The EU said it will pursue a new deal on global warming through the Group of 20, since last month's UN climate conference of nearly 200 nations led to unwieldy negotiations that didn't accomplish much.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Officials said Guinea's No. 2 leader, Gen. Sekouba Konate, is going to Senegal for medical treatment for cirrhosis of the liver, heightening fears of a power vacuum since the country's president is already hospitalized in Morocco following an assassination attempt. Guinea's Health Minister denied reports that the nation's No. 2 leader was heading to Senegal to be hospitalized, rejecting rumors he was being evacuated for a medical emergency.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza killed three men in a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli cooks doubled the previous record for the world's biggest serving of hummus, set in October by cooks in Lebanon. An adjudicator sent from London by Guinness World Records, Jack Brockbank, confirmed that Israeli chefs now held the record for hummus. He put the exact amount of hummus in a giant satellite dish at 9,017 pounds (4,090 kg).
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Italy at least 37 people were wounded in Rosarno, following clashes between the migrants, police and local residents. The wounded included 5 migrants, 14 residents and 18 police officers.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Government forces in Indian Kashmir killed two suspected rebels in a gunbattle. The fighting started after troops cordoned off a house in Khrew village after receiving a tip that suspected militants were hiding there.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Malaysia 3 churches were attacked with firebombs, causing extensive damage to one, as Muslims pledged to prevent Christians from using the word "Allah," escalating religious tensions in the multiracial country. On Aug 13 a Malaysian court sentenced two Muslim brothers to five years in prison for torching a Christian church during the height of the dispute.
(AP, 1/8/10)(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Mexico a major regional newspaper in the northern city of Saltillo announced it would stop covering drug violence altogether after the body of a reporter was found outside a motel with a threatening message. Valentin Valdes (28) had written about the Dec. 29 arrests at the Marbella Motel of five alleged members of the Gulf drug cartel. He also covered the arrests on Jan 6 of five others who barged into the same hotel and stole the surveillance tapes. All 60 policemen in the embattled town of Tancitaro were fired because they had failed to stop a series of killings and other crimes. Michoacan state police and soldiers planned to take over security duties in the town. In Ciudad Juarez a man's body was found on a street with its hands and head cut off. Another man's body, with its head cut off and eyes gouged out, was found elsewhere in the city and two women's bodies were found in a vacant lot. The body of a man whose legs had been surgically amputated some time ago was also found on a dirt road on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. A man riding a bicycle was shot to death in the city. 5 people were killed in drive-by shootings and a group of 3 men were shot to death at a fast-food restaurant near a school.
(AP, 1/8/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Nigeria a crude-oil pipeline operated by Chevron was attacked by unknown gunmen in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Pakistan a US missile strike killed 4 militants in North Waziristan, as US Senator John McCain, visiting Islamabad, defended the attacks which fuel anti-American sentiment in the Muslim nation. 8 suspected insurgents were killed when explosives intended for a bomb attack accidentally blew up, destroying a militant safe house in Karachi.
(AFP, 1/8/10)(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 8, Portugal's parliament passed a bill that would make the predominantly Catholic nation the sixth in Europe to permit gay marriage.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Puerto Rico officials said they have killed 800 monkeys blamed for scavenging crops and damaging natural resources in southwest region. Most of those killed were patas monkeys. About 200 rhesus monkeys were sent to the Caribbean Primate Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico and to other countries. The monkeys had escaped from research labs in the 1960s and '70s.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, An avalanche in Russia's southern Caucasus mountain range killed five climbers including an instructor. The novice climbers, all from Moscow or St. Petersburg had undergone an intensive, six-day training course in the climbing base of Bezengi, in the province of Kabardino-Balkaria. Four climbers in a party of nine survived the snow slide, which struck as they were ascending the Gedan-tau peak.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 8, Steven Lin of Hsinchu-based Heli-Ocean Technology, a Taiwanese company, said his company had agreed to a request from a firm in China to procure sensitive components with nuclear uses, then shipped them to Iran. Such transactions violate UN sanctions imposed on the Middle Eastern nation. Lin said he received an Internet order from a Chinese firm in January or February 2008 to obtain an unspecified number of pressure transducers, which convert pressure into analog electrical signals.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez issued a presidential decree devaluing the currency by up to 50%.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.39)
2010 Jan 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez issued a presidential decree devaluing the currency by up to 50%. Finance minister Ali Rodriguez admitted that this would boost the inflation rate, 27% last year, by 3-5 percentage points.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.39)
2010 Jan 9, California-based eSolar Inc. said it will help build a series of solar thermal power plants in China, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases tries to decrease its heavy reliance on coal, imported gas and oil.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, A company called TrueCompanion premiered the "lifelike" sex robot, Roxxxy on the floor of the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb7w8gr)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.65)
2010 Jan 9, Afghan President Hamid Karzai presented a second slate of nominees to fill his Cabinet after parliament rejected 70 percent of his first picks. Afghan and NATO officials signed an agreement for NATO to hand over control of the prison at Bagram airbase near Kabul to Afghan authorities. A blast hit a convoy carrying a provincial council member from Wardak province, killing a bodyguard and wounding five others. Another explosion killed one policeman and wounded two in Kandahar. In southern Helmand province an explosion outside Nawa village killed a US Marine and Sunday Mirror journalist Rupert Hamer (39), a veteran war correspondent. Hamer became the first British journalist killed in the conflict. Photographer Philip Coburn (43) was seriously wounded. Mahmoud Mahdi Zeidan, a Jordanian militant who served as a bodyguard for al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, was killed in a US drone attack near the Afghan-Pakistan border.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, Algerian security forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in an ambush in the region of M'sila, 400 km (250 miles) east of Algiers. A "large quantity" of weapons were seized during the operation. Islamists looted and burned a Protestant church, suggesting they were inspired by a recent spate of religious intolerance in the Arab and Muslim world.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 9, British media reported that Iris Robinson (60), the disgraced wife of Northern Ireland's leader, will step down as a lawmaker within days as pressure mounted on Peter Robinson and the province's shaky coalition government. The reported move follows the revelation that she had an adulterous relationship with a man nearly 40 years her junior, and allegations that she solicited tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) from businessmen to help the teenager launch a cafe. She was 58 at the time, and the man was 19.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In the Central African Republic the wife of Charles Massi (57), head of the only rebel group in the CAR still fighting the government, said that he has been captured and is in a critical condition in jail. The former prime minister lead the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP). On Jan 16 Denise Massi and his party said in a statement that Massi has been dead since Jan 8 after being subjected to torture.
(AFP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Dagestan a car with three men inside exploded during a shootout with police in the Kumtorkala district. The men were part of a local terrorist group and were transporting explosives.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Egypt Muslims and Christians set fire to each others' homes and shops near the southern town of Nagaa Hamady, three days after a gunman killed six Coptic Christians in a drive-by shooting there.
(Reuters, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Four suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA were arrested in Portugal and France, one driving a van loaded with explosives near a police barracks. two police officers stopped the van in Spain when their suspicions were raised by its French license plates. The driver of the van then pushed passed the police and proceeded to flee the scene driving off in their patrol car which he stole. The police alerted their Portuguese counterparts who rapidly arrested the man and a woman, who had been following the van in a presumed getaway vehicle with French plates.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, Germans faced the cancellation of hundreds of flights as fresh snow blew in from the south, and Britons shivered through the country's longest cold snap in three decades as icy weather maintained its grip on Europe.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Iran about 30 "mourning mothers," with children who were killed or disappeared during the post-election unrest, were arrested in a Tehran park and taken to a detention center in the capital. The mothers had gather in Tehran's Laleh park every Saturday.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Italy some 300 African migrants were bused out of Rosarno, a southern Italian town rocked by two days of clashes between the migrants, police and local residents. The rioting began after two men, one from Nigeria and the other from Togo, were lightly wounded by a pellet gun attack on Jan 7. Migrants alleged they were earning illegally low wages, as little as euro20 euros ($30), for a 12-hour day picking citrus fruit and other crops.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, the Jordanian doctor who killed 7 CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, said in video clips broadcast posthumously today that all jihadists must attack US targets to avenge the death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Speaking in Arabic in the video shown on al-Jazeera, the Arabic network, and Aaj, a Pakistani channel, al-Balawi noted that the Pakistani Taliban had given shelter to "emigrants" — Muslim fighters from abroad.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Malaysia a fourth church was hit by firebombs, stoking concern among Christians as a dispute rages over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Pakistan 2 missiles fired by a suspected unmanned US drone hit a house in Data Khel, an area in North Waziristan that is a stronghold of the Haqqani militant network. 2 people were killed and 3 wounded. Intelligence officials later said the missile strike killed Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim. Pakistani officials called him an al-Qaida member, but the FBI says he was a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist group. According to an FBI Web site, Rahim is wanted for his alleged role in the Sept. 5, 1986, hijacking of Pan American World Airways Flight 73 during a stop in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Some 20 passengers and crew, including two American citizens, were killed during the attack.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 9, In Sri Lanka more than 700 former Tamil Tiger rebels were reunited with family members after months in rehabilitation camps since the country's decades-long civil war ended last year.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Togo's national soccer team, devastated by a shooting attack on its bus in Angola that killed at least 3 and left 8 gravely injured, withdrew from the African Cup of Nations.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 10, US Republicans moved to draw attention to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s racially tinged remarks about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race. Reid had acknowledged that he had described Obama as “light skinned" and possessing no “Negro dialect" in a private conversation with two reporters, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the new book “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" (2010).
(SFC, 1/11/10, p.A4)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A12)
2010 Jan 10, Juliet Anderson (71), adult film star born as Judith Carr, died at her home in Berkeley, Ca. She had begun her career in 1978 and appeared in some 80 hardcore porn films. In 1984 she cast and directed Nina Hartley in “Educating Nina."
(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.C12)
2010 Jan 10, Abu Dhabi Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family being tried in connection with the videotaped beating of an Afghan man, was cleared of all charges. The video showed the prince beating the man with stick, pouring salt on his wounds and driving over him in a car. The victim, identified as Afghani grain dealer Mohammed Shapoor, survived the beatings.
(AP, 1/10/10)(Econ, 1/16/10, p.48)
2010 Jan 10, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed three charity workers and wounded two others in Uruzgan province. Bombs killed an American service member and two Afghan road construction workers in separate attacks in Helmand province.
(AP, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Algeria a collision between a bus and a truck killed 15 people and injured another 15 on a major highway in the Ghardaia region in the Sahara desert.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, New data showed that China has overtaken Germany as the world's top exporter after December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In southeast Congo 6 people, including 5 children, died in a tin mine collapse. 2 people were left missing.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, Croatia held a presidential run-off vote pitting a left-wing professor against the populist Zagreb mayor. Front-runner Ivo Josipovic vowed to crack down on corruption and lead the recession-hit nation into the EU. Law expert and classical music composer Josipovic (b.1957) won the runoff presidential vote, beating popular Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic.
(AFP, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Dagestan 2 militants were gunned down in the provincial capital, Makhachkala, after police surrounded and stormed a house where a group of wanted terrorists was hiding.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Heavy snowfall caused havoc in parts of Europe, causing hundreds of traffic accidents, downing power lines in Poland, halting flights out of southern France and trapping more than 160 people overnight on a frozen highway in northeastern coastal Germany.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Voters in French Guiana overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give local government more autonomy while remaining a part of France. 70% voted "no," with 48% turnout.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Hong Kong police arrested a man after two bottles of corrosive liquid were hurled into a crowd in the city's Kowloon area. At least 30 people were injured in the city's latest acid attack.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Iran a parliamentary investigation was made public that found Saeed Mortazavi, the former Tehran prosecutor, responsible for the deaths of at least three anti-government protesters imprisoned in the turmoil following Iran's disputed June elections. Iran freed a Syrian journalist working for Dubai television who was detained during anti-government protests two weeks ago.
(AP, 1/10/10)(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Israel's government approved a plan for the construction of two massive fences along the long and porous southern border with Egypt. PM Netanyahu said he wants to stem a growing flood of African asylum seekers and to prevent Islamic militants from entering the country. The project is expected to cost about $400 million.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Malaysia firebombs were thrown at 3 more churches and another was splashed with black paint, the latest in a series of assaults on Christian houses of worship following a court decision allowing non-Muslims to use "Allah" to refer to God.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, Voters in Martinique overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give local government more autonomy while remaining a part of France. Election officials said 80% of voters rejected the plan, with 55% participation. An estimated 50,000 people were unemployed on Martinique, home to some 400,000 inhabitants.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Pakistan four bodies were found in Karachi, three of them headless, in a wave of targeted attacks among rival political groups that some say is aimed at destabilizing the country's ruling coalition. Pakistan's Interior Ministry said that 41 people have died in targeted killings in Karachi since the beginning of the year, including 10 MQM workers, 10 from a breakaway faction called Haqiqi, and 16 members of a committee set up by the ruling party in Lyari to control violence in the area.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, About 50,000 Philippine policemen began enforcing a 5-month ban on carrying guns in public in hopes of avoiding bloodshed in the buildup to May elections, arresting 18 violators at checkpoints across the country.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Somalia clashes began between rival Islamic militias battling for control of in Belet Weyne, a strategic western town. At least 14 people were killed as the clashes continued into the next day.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says there's too much capitalism on Venezuelan TV. So he's urging producers to start making films and TV shows that stress socialist values.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Fox News announced that Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate, would become a regular commentator on its cable channel.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 11, Mark McGwire ended more than a decade of denials and evasion admitting that steroids and human growth hormone helped make him a home run king. His record of 70 home runs in 1998 was surpassed by Barry Bonds' 73 homers in 2001, the year of McGwire's retirement and the apex of the Steroids Era. McGwire said he first used steroids between the 1989 and 1990 seasons, after helping the Oakland Athletics to a World Series sweep when he and Jose Canseco formed the Bash Brothers. He returned to steroids after the 1993 season, when he missed all but 27 games with a mysterious heel injury, after being told steroids might speed his recovery.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Afghanistan 6 NATO service members, including 3 Americans, were killed, making it the deadliest day for the international force in more than two months. The Americans died in a firefight with militants during an "operational patrol" in southern Afghanistan. A French officer was killed during a joint patrol with Afghan troops in Alasay, some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Kabul. A French service member was killed in the clash. A 6th NATO service member was killed by a roadside bomb in the south. A new poll was released that said nearly 7 in 10 Afghans support the presence of US forces in their country, and 61% favor the military buildup of 37,000 US and NATO reinforcements now deploying. A missile fired from an unmanned aircraft killed three insurgents farther south in the Nad Ali district of Helmand. A member of the Afghan National Police was killed and two others were wounded in a suicide at a police station in Uruzgan province. 13 insurgents were killed in the early hours when the Marines called in a Hellfire missile strike from an unmanned Predator drone into Bar Now Zad.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)(Reuters, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, Algeria's foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador to "strongly protest" the North African country's placing on a 14-nation terror watch list drawn up by the Obama administration.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Angola said it had arrested two people suspected of taking part in an attack on a bus carrying the Togo national soccer team to the African Nations Cup in which two delegation members were killed.
(Reuters, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Riversdale, an Australian mining firm, said the Mozambican government has given it the green light to build a 800-million-dollar coal mine in the country's northwest. Riversdale has predicted that the Benga project will produce some of the lowest-cost coking coal in the world.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Britain former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal lost a test case against Ministry of Defence over pension rights at the High Court in London.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Chile inaugurated the Museum of Memory in Santiago to make sure the tens of thousands of people who were imprisoned, killed or disappeared during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship are not forgotten.
(AP, 1/12/10)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.43)
2010 Jan 11, China's top prosecutorial office said thousands of Chinese officials have fled overseas with as much as $50 billion in their pockets in stolen government funds during the country's economic boom over the past three decades. Zhao Shiying, the secretary-general of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, was taken into custody by authorities from his home in southern Shenzhen. He was released on Jan 25.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 11, China’s state media reported that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020, citing a study that blamed sex-specific abortions as a major factor. A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned the imbalance will dash many young men's chance at marriage and lead to increased crime.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's military, according to state media, successfully tested a ground-based system for intercepting missiles in mid-flight.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Cyprus Andy Hadjicostis (41), the director of the Dias publishing group, was fatally shot outside his home in central Nicosia, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a contract killing. The gunman fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. 3 men were soon arrested and held pending formal charges. On Feb 5 Cyprus police formally pressed murder charges against TV host Elena Skordelli, her brother Anastasios Krasopoullis and Andreas Grigoriou in the suspected Jan 11 contract killing of Andy Hadjicostis (41), the island's most powerful publisher.
(AP, 1/12/10)(AP, 1/15/10)(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Ecuador Quito Mayor Augusto Barrera said his government will impose new driving restrictions to keep 80,000 private cars off the capital’s congested streets during rush hour.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Indian PM Manmohan Singh laid out ambitious plans to make his country a global leader in solar power as he launched a government initiative to boost use of the technology. Andy Pag (35) was detained in the western state of Rajasthan for having an unlicensed satellite phone. He (Andrea Pagnacco) was ordered held for 14 days while police investigate whether he is a threat to national security. The London-based environmental campaigner was traveling around the world in a biofuel-driven bus. In March ordered to pay a fine for illegally using a satellite phone and became free to leave India 69 days after his arrest.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Iraq a bomb attached to a pickup truck in an Iraqi Shiite lawmaker's convoy wounded five people, including three of his bodyguards, when it exploded in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Israel's parliament adopted legislation that bans the state from paying for the funeral of any citizen who commits terror attacks against the Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, Dutch brewer Heineken said it will buy the beer-making operations of Mexico’s Femsa, the maker of Dos Equis and Sol beers, in an all-share deal valued at $5.5 billion, excluding debt.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 11, Northern Ireland's speaker of the regional assembly said Protestant leader Peter Robinson will temporarily step down for 6 weeks in the wake of a scandal over his wife's affair with a 19-year-old man. He will be replaced by his Protestant colleague Arlene Foster.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, North Korea called for talks on a treaty to formally end the Korean War, saying it wants better ties with the United States and an end to sanctions before pushing ahead with nuclear disarmament.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Pakistani police in Karachi arrested a couple on charges of stabbing their 3-month-old baby to death. A witch doctor had advised them to kill the girl after telling them it would make them rich.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir retired as commander-in-chief of the army, in what sources said was a procedural move before the first multi-party elections in 24 years.
(Reuters, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 12, The US National Safety Council said 28% of all traffic accidents are caused when people talk on cell phones or send text messages while driving.
(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A11)
2010 Jan 12, In California a state commission voted unanimously to approve the most stringent, environmentally friendly building code standards of any state in the nation. The new code, dubbed Calgreen, will take effect next January.
(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A1)
2010 Jan 12, In Georgia a disgruntled ex-employee stormed a Penske Truck Rental facility in Kennesaw killing 2 people and critically wounding 3 others.
(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A11)
2010 Jan 12, Officials shut down a North Carolina port and urged people to leave the area after nine containers with highly explosive materials were accidentally punctured by a fork lift operator. The chemical involved is pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETV), a powerful explosive.
(AP, 1/12/10)(SFC, 1/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 12, Google's announced that it was considering a withdrawal from China, after what it said were attacks from China on human rights activists using its Gmail service and on dozens of companies.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, Texas-based Apache Corp. said it made its sixth oil and gas discovery in the Faghur Basin play in Egypt's far Western Desert near the Libyan border.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Kenn Allan Davis (78), newspaper illustrator and mystery novel writer, died at his home in Placer County, Ca. His 8 detective novels featured Carver Bascombe, an African American private eye. The first in the series was titled “The Dark Side" (1976), co-written with John Stanley.
(SFC, 1/19/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 12, In Afghanistan protesters claiming that international troops destroyed copies of the Quran clashed with Afghan and foreign security forces, leaving six people dead in Helmand province's Garmsir district. Coalition troops saw a group of insurgents near a safe house preparing ammunition as well as insurgent mortar teams moving equipment and launched one missile in the Naw Zad area of Helmand province, killing the 13 militants. A French army captain died of wounds suffered a day before during an insurgent ambush in the Alasay valley east of Kabul.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, China took new steps to control bank lending, ordering institutions to set aside more reserves in a move to avert a surge in credit that Beijing worries might fuel inflation or asset price bubbles.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, The European Court of Human Rights condemned British anti-terror legislation allowing people to be searched by police without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Guinea's wounded junta leader, Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara, arrived in Burkina Faso from Morocco to recuperate after last month's assassination attempt. One of his top opponents said the surprise move could help him avoid prosecution.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, A powerful 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti and crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace. Thousands of people were believed dead and untold numbers were trapped. An estimated 3 million people were in need of emergency aid. The quake left over 200,000 people dead. Some 4,500 prison inmates escaped during the earthquake. By April they were terrorizing neighborhoods and fighting turf battles. The UN later estimated 222,570 people were killed and 300,572 injured. In 2011 a report commissioned by USAID contended that between 46,000 and 85,000 people were killed by the quake, far below the Haitian government's death toll of 316,000.
(AP, 1/13/10)(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)(SFC, 4/8/10, p.A2)(Econ, 3/19/11, p.46)(AFP, 6/1/11)
2010 Jan 12, The Indonesian government, which has promised to stamp out corruption, was embarrassed by revelations that rich and powerful prisoners are living in luxury behind bars.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Iran Masoud Ali Mohammadi (50), a nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election, was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle blew up outside his home in Tehran. The government blamed the rare assassination on an armed Iranian opposition group that it said operated under the direction of Israel and the US. In 2011 Majid Jamali Fashi, charged with the killing of Mohammadi, went on trial. Fashi was also accused of cooperating with Mossad. On Aug 28 Fashi was sentenced to death.
(AP, 1/12/10)(AP, 8/23/11)(AP, 8/28/11)
2010 Jan 12, Iraqi security forces locked down large swathes of Baghdad, seized hundreds of pounds of explosives and arrested 25 men suspected of plotting terror attacks possibly timed to coincide with the run-up to parliamentary elections in March.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Israeli police broke up the harem of Goel Ratzon (60), who was suspected of enslaving a cult-like harem of at least 17 women and 37 children. Ratzon, who's lived this way for two decades, denied any wrongdoing. He maintained the harem with 17 women in a state of near-total obedience in apartments in the Tel Aviv area. On Feb 14 he was charged in a Tel Aviv court with enslavement, rape, incest and other sexual offenses.
(AP, 1/14/10)(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Mexico druglord Teodoro Garcia Simental, known as "El Teo," was seized by federal troops when they stormed a seaside vacation home near the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. He was accused of ordering massacres, beheadings and the dissolving of bodies in caustic soda.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, Nigerian lawmakers voted to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss "issues of national importance" with ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua as protests mounted for him to stand down. Gunmen seized 3 Britons and a Colombian, shooting dead their police escort in the first major kidnapping for six months in southern Niger Delta. Gunmen soon demanded a ransom of 300 million naira (1.98 million dollars, 1.38 million euros) for the release of three Britons and the Colombian. On Jan 18 gunmen freed the 3 British expatriate workers and their Colombian colleague.
(AFP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/15/10)(AFP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Papua New Guinea 38 people were killed and 18 others hospitalized after two speeding buses crashed head-on while trying to drive around potholes.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, A web site linked to leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Poland's tax office has levied a fine of 2.3 million zlotys ($820,000) on an unemployed woman for failing to pay tax on income worth at least 13.7 million zlotys she said she had earned as a prostitute.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 12, Saudi Arabia said that 82 Saudi soldiers been killed and 21 are missing since November when it joined the fighting in battling rebels along the Yemeni-Saudi border.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Sri Lanka Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying supporters of the main opposition presidential candidate, killing one political activist.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Novartis, a Swiss drug company, announced its decision to spend $24 million to secure exclusive licenses and options on drug delivery technologies developed by Proteus Biomedical, a California start-up.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.62)
2010 Jan 12, Switzerland's highest court ruled that $4.6 million seized from bank accounts linked to Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier can be handed over to his family. The decision was not published until Feb 3. Many in Haiti considered that money to be stolen from public funds. Duvalier was ousted in 1986.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Jan 12, Yemeni military forces killed 20 rebels in a door-to-door sweep of the main northern city Saada and arrested 20 more in an operation dubbed "Strike on the Head." Yemeni security forces killed Abdullah Mihzar, a suspected militant, who was on a government list of wanted al-Qaida figures. 4 others were arrested in a raid on a house in the remote mountainous province of Shabwa.
(AP, 1/12/10)(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, US hearings began by the 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate at least 22 potential causes of the financial crisis.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Crisis_Inquiry_Commission)
2010 Jan 13, Wall Street executives said they underestimated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and apologized for risky behavior and poor decisions. They also defended their bonus and compensation practices to a skeptical commission investigating what caused the collapse.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In the SF Bay Area aspiring bass player Dewey Tucker (24) of Vallejo, Ca., was shot a killed on I-80 near Crockett. A year later 4 suspected gang members from Santa Rosa were arrested for his murder. They included Raul Vega (19), the suspected shooter, Christopher Mancinas (29), Hector Barragan (28) and Javier Lopez (20).
(SFC, 1/13/11, p.C3)
2010 Jan 13, Prosecutors in New York City said that, after a series of hung juries, they would not seek a 5th retrial against John “Junior" Gotti on charges that he ordered several murders.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.A14)
2010 Jan 13, In Florida a 3-day state-coordinated hunt began to track down invasive pythons. It was feared that the African rock python would begin breeding with the Burmese python, which has already gained a foothold in the Everglades, and produce a new “super snake."
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle, Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling the world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with smuggling black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US citizen to buy guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and around the Quinault Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 13, R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass (b.1950) died of colon cancer. He was one of the most electric and successful figures in music until a 1982 car crash left him in a wheelchair.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, Edgar Vos (78), "the emperor of Dutch fashion," died of a heart attack while on vacation in Florida. Vos built a chain of 15 stores across the Netherlands, where he sold designer clothes cut to bring out the best from all figures and tailored to most budgets.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Afghanistan 2 US soldiers, a French trooper and 5 Afghans were killed in bomb blasts. The United Nations reported that 2,412 Afghan civilians killed in 2009, the highest toll since the US-led invasion in late 2001. Four would-be suicide bombers were killed in a premature explosion near the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 1/13/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, The head of Algeria's national oil corporation Sonatrach was suspended from his job and ordered to appear before investigators probing corruption. Mohamed Meziane was replaced in his job by vice-president Abdelhafid Feghouli.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 13, Heavy snow hit central London as a fresh whiteout covered much of the country, forcing airports to close as businesses counted the cost of the worst winter in decades.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Britain’s Huddersfield University launched an investigation after its students allegedly started an Internet craze for a Hitler drinking game. The original page on the social networking site had nearly 12,000 members but has now been shut down, although another similar page has since been set up.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Major Inuit organizations said Canada's Inuit people have filed a lawsuit against the European Union in a bid to overturn an EU ban on imports of seal products. The EU ban was imposed in July after decades of protests from animal activists, who said the annual seal hunt was cruel and inhumane. The ban will go into effect in time for the 2010 hunting season.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Amnesty Int’l. said the Czech Republic is defying a European court by continuing to place thousands of healthy Gypsy children in schools for the mentally disabled.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 13, Ethiopia’s biggest hydroelectric dam was opened by PM Meles Zenawi and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The Gilegel Gibe II dam was financed by Italy.
(AFP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, In France a Chinese student (26) stabbed to death a 49-year-old secretary and wounded three teachers in an attack at a university in the southern town of Perpignan.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Indonesia hundreds people pelted each other with stones outside parliament as lawmakers grilled Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over a controversial bank bailout. Some 400 anti-graft protesters from rival groups set upon each other in the latest sign of mounting anger over pervasive corruption.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Iraqi police arrested Khalid al-Khonfisi, a man wanted for his alleged involvement with al-Qaida in Iraq. He was captured in a police raid of his hideout near Jurf al-Sakhar, about 43 miles south of Baghdad. A water truck loaded with explosives was detonated in a suicide attack in Saqlawiya, Anbar province, killing 7 people.
(AP, 1/14/10)(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 13, Japanese prosecutors raided the fund-raising office of ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa over a widening money scandal, dealing a fresh blow to the troubled government.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Lebanon a bomb apparently meant for a Hezbollah figure went off in the village of Kfar Fila, a southern stronghold of the militant group, wounding his daughter and two other students waiting for their school bus.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Mexico hundreds of troops in combat gear fanned out in Ciudad Juarez, where 2,650 people died in narco violence last. Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna said 2,000 federal police reinforcements would arrive over the next few days.
(Reuters, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Nigerian high court ruled that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can take executive powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, in hospital in Saudi Arabia since November.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, North Korea said it will begin to allow in more American tourists after years of heavy restrictions on visits to the isolate country. North Korea's military warned that it would retaliate against South Korea if Seoul doesn't stop activists from launching propaganda leaflets across their divided border.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In eastern Pakistan a passenger train hit a school bus at an ungated railroad crossing in amid dense fog, killing at least 8 children and the bus driver.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Somalia 7 children were among ten people killed in shelling by Somali government forces in Mogadishu as troops backed by African Union peacekeepers fired mortars into districts held by Islamist insurgents.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Sudanese forces clashed with rebels in a key area of the troubled western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez indefinitely suspended rolling blackouts in Caracas, just a day after they began, and sacked his electricity minister saying he was responsible for mistakes in the way the rationing plan was applied.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, Zimbabwe civil servants, who earn only 150 US dollars a month, rejected the government's "paltry" offer to raise salaries by a maximum of 14%.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Zimbabwe state daily reported that the nation’s power utility has been ordered to stop electricity exports to Namibia until it can meet its own country's needs.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 14, Pres. Obama proposed that as many as 50 financial firms with assets greater than $50 billion each be hit by a levy to help recoup taxpayer bailout money and trim the federal budget deficit. The “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" was proposed to cover taxpayer losses of $117 billion on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
(AP, 1/14/10)(SFC, 1/15/10, p.D1)(Econ, 1/16/10, p.73)
2010 Jan 14, US union leaders bowed to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost medical insurance plans. The tentative agreement included significant concessions by the Obama administration.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 14, The Doomsday Clock, set up in 1947, was set back 1 minute for the first time in its 63-year history. In moving the clock from 5 minutes before midnight to 6 minutes before midnight, scientists expressed optimism for humanity's future. The actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS) office in Chicago, Ill.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/doomsdaydeferredendofworldclocksetback1minute)
2010 Jan 14, Los Angeles-based Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, the law firm representing a Santa Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet content filtering software, said its attorneys on Jan 11 started received emails containing Trojans, which can allow outside access to the target's computer.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Florida Chad Reed (33), a Dixie County sheriff’s deputy, died in a shootout with a man suspected of killing his sister and another woman near Brooksville. John Kalisz (55) was wounded in the shootout.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Massachusetts Phoebe Prince (15), an Irish immigrant, hanged herself following extensive bullying at South Hadley High School. 9 teenagers later faced charges including statutory rape by 2 boys and criminal harassment by 9 girls.
(SFC, 3/30/10, p.A10)
2010 Jan 14, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber apparently planning to attack a meeting of NATO and tribal officials blew himself up in a busy market district in Dihrawud, Uruzgan province, killing at least 20 people, making it the deadliest attack against civilians in more than three months. Another suicide bomber targeted a police patrol in the southern town of Musa Qala, killing an Afghan national police officer and wounding four civilians.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Austrian scientists stopped a 2-week old avalanche experiment that involved burying pigs in snow and monitoring their deaths, following vehement protests by animal rights activists.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 14, Hundreds of Bulgarians protested against planned legal amendments allowing mass monitoring of emails, electronic messages and phone calls to fight crime and corruption.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Colombia extradited William Suarez (42), a suspect in the nation's most notorious pyramid scheme, to face trial in the United States. Suarez was the principal partner of his brother-in-law David Murcia, creator of the company DMG, which offered investors interest rates far above what banks offer, but was actually a pyramid scheme that bilked Colombians out of millions of dollars.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Haiti planes carrying teams from China, France and Spain landed at Port-au-Prince's airport with searchers and tons of food, medicine and other supplies, with more promised from around the globe. Tens of thousands were feared dead in the Jan 12 earthquake and the international Red Cross estimated 3 million people, a third of the 9 million population, may need emergency relief.
(AP, 1/14/10)(Econ, 1/16/10, p.38)
2010 Jan 14, In India hundreds of thousands of Hindus bathed in waters considered sacred across large parts of India to mark the start of a religious festival. In West Bengal state six women were among seven people killed in a stampede as thousands bathed at the confluence of Ganges river and the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Iraq's electoral commission barred 500 candidates from running in March's parliamentary election, including a prominent Sunni lawmaker, in a decision that is sure to deepen Iraq's sectarian divides. A Baghdad court sentenced 11 Iraqis to death by hanging after convicting them of carrying out the first of a series of audacious attacks on Aug 19, 2009, targeting government buildings in the heart of the city.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Jordan there was an attack on a convoy of Israeli diplomats heading home for the weekend. It was the first roadside bombing in Jordan and exposed a security gap for Israeli diplomats. On Jan 31 a Jordanian security official said authorities have arrested dozens of Muslim militants in connection with the failed bomb attack.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 14, Mongolia's Pres. Elbegdorj Tsakhia announced a moratorium on the death penalty, a move that rights groups welcomed as a step toward changing Mongolian law to ban executions permanently.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, Key southern African leaders gathered in the Mozambican capital Maputo for a special summit on the political crises in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Leaders called for a return to dialogue in the ongoing political crisis in Madagascar. A medical aid group said Zimbabweans crossing illegally into neighboring South Africa after holidays at home are being raped and robbed by gangs on both sides of the border.
(AFP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Pakistan at least four missiles from unmanned drones pounded a militant training camp in the morning along the remote and mountainous border area between Taliban strongholds North and South Waziristan. The US drone missile strike targeted Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, but the militia denied reports that he was among the15 killed. Abdul Basit Usman, a Filipino militant wanted by the US, was believed to have been killed in an American drone strike close to the Afghan border. Another 11 militants were also killed in the strike on a militant compound.
(AFP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Panama former Pres. Ernesto Perez Balladares (194-1999) was put under house arrest while authorities investigate accusations that he laundered money.
(AP, 1/15/10)(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 14, A Russian Su-27 fighter jet disappeared while on a training mission in the country's far east. Late-night traffic on one of Moscow’s roads slowed as a couple's explicit escapades appeared across the 9-by-6-meter (yard) display. A hacker attack was likely to blame. City police said they have yet to receive any complaints and have not opened an investigation.
(AP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, The US State Department said it will soon give China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google Inc to threaten to pull out of China.
(Reuters, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Johnson & Johnson issued a massive recall of over-the-counter drugs including Tylenol, Motrin and St. Joseph's aspirin because of a moldy smell that has made people sick.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Arizona an oversight board voted to close 13 state parks in response to budget cuts. Since July the Legislature has cut 61% of the state parks budget.
(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 15, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck a family traveling home after visiting a shrine, killing five people, including four children. Kabul police investigated a rocket attack in the Shar-e-Naw district, home to embassies, businesses and residences in Kabul.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Afghanistan Pfc Andrew Holmes from 5 Joint Base Lewis-McChord killed an unarmed teenage villager from 15 feet away after fellow soldier Cpl. Morlock tossed a grenade at him. In 2011 Holmes pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Prosecutors said soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord killed three civilians for sport during patrols in January, February and May. Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs killed a second victim with Spc. Michael Wagnon, and tossed an AK-47 at the man's feet to make him appear to have been an enemy fighter. In May, Gibbs threw a grenade at the victim as he ordered them to shoot. In 2011 Gibbs (26) was sentenced to 10 years in prison. During his court-martial Gibbs acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses to keep as war trophies.
(http://tinyurl.com/42w29jn)(SFC, 9/24/11, p.A4)(SFC, 11/11/11, p.A18)
2010 Jan 15, A Brussels court sentenced Mark Frroku and three other Albanians in absentia to 10-year prison terms related to the March, 1999, murder of Aleksander Kurti. Prosecutors believed that Kurti's murder was the result of clashes between gangs involved in prostitution.
(http://tinyurl.com/na5hfrl)(AP, 4/2/15)
2010 Jan 15, Opposition parties in the Central African Republic announced that they were quitting the electoral process and demanded the resignation of the head of the Independent Electoral Commission. The walkout involved 15 of the 30 members of the commission, which was set up in August to organize and supervise elections at dates yet to be announced.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Chinese police in Beijing shut down what would have been the country’s first-ever gay pageant an hour before it was set to begin, highlighting the enduring sensitivity surrounding homosexuality and the struggle by gays to find mainstream acceptance.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Guinean military rulers decided to keep wounded junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara convalescing abroad, leaving his deputy and an opposition leader to restore civilian rule.
(Reuters, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Haiti the UN and other aid organizations struggled to get food and water to stricken millions. Fears spread of unrest among the people in their fourth day of desperation. France urged Haiti’s creditors to cancel the nation’s debt.
(AP, 1/15/10)(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 15, In Hong Kong protesters against a national high-speed rail network scuffled with police as they tried but failed to storm the legislature. Another 500 staged a sit-in in front of the Hong Kong leader's mansion, shutting down traffic. The $55 billion Hong Kong dollar ($7.1 billion) project to link Hong Kong to a national high-speed rail network has run into a growing protest movement.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In India suspected Maoist rebels blew up a police jeep in eastern Jharkhand state killing six officers and their civilian driver.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Iran's police chief warned opposition supporters not to use cell phones and e-mail messages to organize protest rallies against the government, saying those who do so will be prosecuted and punished.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Kenya at least 7 people were killed during a demonstration in Nairobi by Muslim youth protesting the arrest of a radical Jamaican-born Muslim cleric whose teachings influenced one of the 2005 London transport system bombers.
(AP, 1/15/10)(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 15, Malaysian student Mohamad Tasyrif Tajudin (25) was charged after allegedly posting comments on Facebook about throwing a gasoline bomb amid a recent spate of attacks on churches, most of which were hit by Molotov Cocktails. He was charged under Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of the Internet, which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine if found guilty.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Manuel Acosta (42), the lead investigator in the Dec 31 slaying in Mexico of Roberto Salcedo, a Southern California school board member, was shot several times in the chest and torso, but survived in critical condition. He succumbed to his wounds on Jan 26.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 15, A UN official said North Korea is meting out harsher punishment to citizens who try to flee the country, a sign that overall human rights conditions remain dire in the communist state.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Pakistan a US drone missile attack killed five militants in the tribal belt on the Afghan border, destroying their compound.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Russian lawmakers ended years of resistance and ratified an international agreement intended to strengthen and speed up the work of the European Court of Human Rights. The measure still needed to be approved by the upper house and signed by Pres. Medvedev, but both steps were expected to occur soon.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced a 25% increase in the minimum wage to try to blunt the effects of soaring inflation, and playing down criticism of his government's handling of an energy crisis and other domestic problems.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 15, A Yemeni airstrike killed six al-Qaida operatives, including a key leader, in a desert village bordering Saudi Arabia. Officials said four of those killed were on Yemen's list of most-wanted al-Qaida figures, including Qassim al-Raimi, who had been accused of plotting to assassinate the US ambassador in 2004. Al-Raimi escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006 with 21 other militants.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 16, President Barack Obama declared one of the largest relief efforts in US history to help Haiti four days after an earthquake killed up to 200,000 people and devastated the Caribbean nation's capital.
(Reuters, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, A small boat packed with illegal immigrants overturned off the San Diego coast at Torrey Pines State Park. 2 people died and 5 were injured. 16 people, all Mexican citizens, were accounted for. On Jan 28 two men were indicted on charges of illegal smuggling.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.A14)(SFC, 1/18/10, p.A6)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 16, Afghanistan's parliament rejected more than half of President Hamid Karzai's second list of Cabinet nominees, including two of three women, dealing him a fresh political blow as his government struggles to face the growing Taliban threat. The Taliban kidnapped two Chinese engineers and four Afghans accompanying them in the north of the country.
(AP, 1/16/10)(AFP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, A small part of Antarctica turned green as the ice-covered continent's biggest wind farm, which can generate enough electricity to power 500 homes, was formally switched on in a joint New Zealand-US project on Antarctica's Ross Sea coast.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, Egypt's largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood announced its new leader, Mohammed Badie (66), a member of the group's conservative faction. He was chosen by the movement's 30-member international council and becomes the group's eighth supreme leader since its foundation in 1928.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In Iraq gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on a police checkpoint in the western neighborhood of Baiyaa, killing two policemen.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In Israel the Yediot Ahronot daily reported that Lillian Peretz, who worked as the Netanyahu family housekeeper in their beachside home in the town of Caesaria for six years, has filed a lawsuit accusing Sara Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister's 3rd wife, of abusing her in the first scandal to hit Benjamin Netanyahu's year-old administration. Peretz claims Sara Netanyahu verbally abused her and forced her to change clothes and shower several times a day to keep a "sterile" environment. It also alleges she was paid less than minimum wage and forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath even though she is an observant Jew.
(AP, 1/17/10)(Econ, 1/23/10, p.45)
2010 Jan 16, Mexican authorities seized over 3 1/2 tons of pseudoephedrine, a chemical used in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, found hidden in a shipment of fire extinguishers at the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo.
(AP, 1/18/10)
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 16, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran said they had agreed to work together more closely to combat extremism, illegal weapons trading and drug trafficking.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In the Pakistani section of Kashmir a suicide bomber attacked an army vehicle, wounding two soldiers.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, In the Philippines a fire raced through a slum near the main port Manila, leaving 4,000 people homeless and killing a 5-year-old girl.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, Senegal offered free land to Haitians wishing to "return to their origins" following this week's devastating earthquake, which has destroyed the capital and buried thousands of people beneath rubble.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, Sudanese warplanes and artillery pounded insurgents in the troubled western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 16, Venezuelan authorities said they have captured Salomon Camacho Mora (65), a prominent Colombian drug trafficker wanted by the United States. Venezuelan intelligence and counter-drug agents captured Mora during the past week in the city of Valencia.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Hoover, Alabama, a fire at a Days Inn motel killed 4 college students from Mississippi Univ. for Women in Columbus, Miss.
(SFC, 1/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 17, Arizona made $735 million by selling more than a dozen state buildings, including the state's Capitol.
(http://tinyurl.com/yjd8vjr)
2010 Jan 17, In Texas 5 people were gunned down in a small home in Bellville. A man (20) who lived with them was arrested after trying to break into a nearby house.
(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 17, Glen Bell Jr. (86), founder of the Taco Bell fast food chain (1962), died at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Ca.
(SFC, 1/19/10, p.C4)
2010 Jan 17, Erich Segal (b.1937), former Yale professor and author of “Love Story" (1970), died at his home in London.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.C7)
2010 Jan 17, In Burkina Faso Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara, Guinea's exiled leader, appealed for tolerance and reconciliation after he agreed to resign and remain in exile following a tumultuous one-year rule that culminated in a December assassination attempt.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, Chile held presidential elections. Sebastian Pinera won the election by a 52-48%margin over former President Eduardo Frei. His election victory ended two decades of uninterrupted rule by a center-left coalition, and returned to power the same political parties that provided civic support for Augusto Pinochet's brutal 1973-1990 dictatorship.
(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 17, In China text messaging services restarted with some restrictions for cell phone users in far western China, more than six months after deadly ethnic rioting prompted the government to shut them down.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew to Haiti to support earthquake relief efforts and to visit his staff's devastated headquarters in what the agency is calling the most challenging disaster it has ever faced.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In India Jyoti Basu (95), communist leader of West Bengal’s opposition and the state’s chief minister for 23 years, died.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.82)
2010 Jan 17, In Iran lawyer Hooshang Pour-Babai said senior reformist and former MP Mohsen Safai Farahani (61), detained since June 20, has been sentenced to six years in jail. He was accused of "acting against national security, propaganda against the system, insulting officials and spreading lies."
(AFP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Iraq Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the gassing of Kurds in 1988, killing more than 5,000 in an air raid thought to be the worst single attack of its kind on civilians.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak began a one-day visit to Turkey. Israel and Turkey said they had smoothed over differences following a diplomatic spat and were working to develop relations and further military projects.
(AFP, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Mexico a severed human head and a flower were found in front of the tomb of deceased Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva. Police found the bodies of five men scattered around the Michoacan state capital of Morelia, each bearing a handwritten note suggesting they were killed by vigilantes.
(AP, 1/18/10)(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Nigeria clashes took place in the central city of Jos as tensions reignited between Muslims and Christian gangs, a year after similar fighting killed hundreds of its residents. Angry Muslim youths set a Catholic church filled with worshippers ablaze, starting a riot that killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 300 others.
(Reuters, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 17, At least one suspected US drone fired on a house in Pakistan's volatile tribal region, killing 20 people in the 11th such attack since militants in the area orchestrated a deadly suicide bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan. The house targeted was being used by Usman Jan, the head of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Five Uzbeks were killed in the strike. The other 15 people killed were Pakistani Taliban. Two anti-Taliban tribal elders were killed in separate attacks in the Bajur tribal.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, Ukrainians voted in presidential elections. Voters in the first round gave opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, the 2004 Orange Revolution's chief target, a big lead over his rival, Orange heroine and PM Yulia Tymoshenko. Analysts said Yanukovich's 35.4% to 25% lead over Tymoshenko, with 97.7% of votes counted, is misleading, because she is likely to pick up most of the votes of 16 also-rans in a Feb 7 runoff. Almost 67% of eligible voters cast ballots.
(Reuters, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, US officials said on some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that Alaska corporations and a multinational firm are planning to build the first fiber optic cable between Asia and Europe through the Arctic. The project estimated at $1 billion, involved laying 10,000 miles of undersea fiber optic cable from Tokyo, along the Alaska coast, through the Northwest Passage, past Greenland to London.
(SFC, 1/18/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 18, Robert B. Parker (77), crime novelist and author of the popular Spencer novels, died in Cambridge, Mass. Parker reinvigorated the detective novel genre with “The Godwulf Manuscript" (1973).
(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.F6)(SFC, 5/14/10, p.F6)
2010 Jan 18, Afghan Taliban militants wearing explosives vests launched a brazen assault on the heart of Kabul, as suicide bombings and gunbattles near the presidential palace and other government buildings paralyzed the capital for hours. The 12 people killed included 7 attackers, 2 of whom detonated suicide bombs.
(AP, 1/18/10)(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 18, Kate McGarrigle (63), Canadian folk singer, died of cancer at her home in Montreal. She performed with her sister Anna as the McGarrigle Sisters. Their songs included “Heart Like a Wheel."
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.C7)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that China was tightening smoking regulations by enforcing a ban on smoking in any indoor public space in seven provincial capitals.
(www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_478846.html)
2010 Jan 18, In China rescue workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of the northwest after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four people and left half a million snowed under. Storms in far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, EU finance ministers began 2 days of talks with worries over Greece's swelling debt expected to dominate the session, as the euro fell to a ten-day low against the dollar.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, The European Union said some 200,000 people may have been killed in the magnitude-7.0 quake, quoting Haitian officials who also said about 70,000 bodies have been recovered so far.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In Egypt and Israel heavy rains and flash floods left seven people dead, including a British tourist who was killed when a sailboat capsized on the Nile River.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, The OSCE, Europe's main security and human rights watchdog, said that Turkey was blocking some 3,700 Internet sites for "arbitrary and political reasons" and urged reforms to show its commitment to freedom of expression.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In Iran gunmen fatally shot Vali Hajgholizadeh, a court prosecutor, outside his home in the town of Khoy, near the Turkish border. An Iranian official said Kurdish rebels may have been involved in the assassination. Opposition groups flooded the Web with calls for a huge show of force on the Feb 11 commemoration of the Islamic Revolution.
(AP, 1/19/10)(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 18, In Iraq gunmen broke into the office of an Iraqi humanitarian organization in Baghdad and killed five employees.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israel's Cabinet convened for the first time in Berlin, the former heart of the Nazi regime, for a special joint session with the German government highlighting the two nations' strong bond six decades after the Holocaust.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israeli police arrested 9 people at a radical Jewish settlement in connection with the Dec 11, 2009, torching of a West Bank mosque and other attacks on Palestinian property.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. The leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Pakistani troops killed 10 Taliban militants and arrested five others in a clash in the northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border. Militants attacked anti-Taliban militiamen in the Bazai section of Mohmand tribal area near the Afghan border, killing one and wounding another. Authorities also found the bullet-riddled body of another anti-Taliban militiaman in a nearby area, two days after he was kidnapped.
(AFP, 1/18/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, A Spanish Foreign Ministry official said the country will take in two inmates from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In southern Sudan clashes began in the troubled southern state of Jonglei leaving 9 people dead.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 18, Swiss Reinsurance Co. said it transferred part of its US life insurance business to American investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.27 billion) to free up capital and invest it more profitably.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Mehmet Ali Agca (52), the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from prison after more than 29 years behind bars. Doctors at military hospital concluded that he was unfit for compulsory military service because of "severe anti-social personality disorder as Agca proclaimed that he was a messenger of God and that the world will end in this century.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko rushed to the east of the country after an explosion in a hospital killed seven people.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, The US Justice Dept. arrested 22 executives and employees at suppliers to the military and law enforcement agencies on the eve of their industry’s annual trade show following a 2½ year undercover sting operation aimed at schemes to bribe a foreign official.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 19, In Massachusetts Democrat Martha Coakley lost to Republican State Sen. Scott Brown (50) in a special election slowing down President Barack Obama's agenda and loosening the Democratic grip on the US Senate.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, In New Jersey Republican Chris Christie was sworn in as the state’s 55th governor. The state was plagued by the nation’s highest taxes and a deficit that could hit $10 billion by July as well as unemployment near 10%.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 19, In Virginia a gunmen killed 8 people before firing on law enforcement officers and hitting a police helicopter. Suspect Christopher Speight (39), a former security guard, surrendered the next morning in a wooded area of Appomattox County. On Feb 15, 2013, Speight was sentenced to 5 life terms.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A4)(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A6)(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)
2010 Jan 19, Nina Nilssen (29), a graduate student at San Francisco State Univ., was stabed to death during a port call in Antigua. On Jan 29 Suspect Tishara Daniel (24) was arrested and confessed to fatal stabbing of Nina Nilssen.
(SFC, 1/25/10, p.A1)(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 19, A UN report said corruption in Afghanistan is so entrenched that Afghans had to pay bribes worth nearly a quarter of the country's GDP last year. 13 Uighers and two Turks were killed by a missile fired by a US unmanned aircraft near the Pakistan border.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 19, An Angolan human rights lawyer said that police are rounding up peaceful activists and accusing them of responsibility in a deadly attack on the Togo national soccer team's bus as it headed to the African Cup of Nations tournament.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The British government said it will ban drinking contests in bars and force pub owners to offer patrons tap water in a bid to help tackle the country’s boozy culture.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, British chocolate bar maker Cadbury melted into the arms of US giant Kraft in a multi-billion-dollar deal to create a world leader in food and confectionery that sparked fears of job losses.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, China’s Foreign Ministry said Google Inc will not be treated as an exception to China's demand foreign companies obey its laws, a week after the world's largest search engine warned it could pull out of China. Google said it had postponed the launch of two mobile handsets in China, in the latest fallout from its threat last week to withdraw from the Asian giant over cyberattacks and censorship.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A former Chinese Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes. Huang Songyou, the court's former vice president, is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and convicted on such charges.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Cuba Mariela Castro, the daughter of pres. Raul Castro and head of the Center for Sex Education, said Cuba has begun performing state-sponsored sex-change operations. The government had lifted a longtime ban on the procedure in 2007.
(SFC, 1/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 19, A Guinean government spokesman said leaders have appointed Jean-Marie Dore, an opposition veteran, as prime minister, a key step to prepare the West African nation to transition from military rule to democratic elections later this year.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Troops in Haiti struggled to control looters in Port-au-Prince a week after the devastating earthquake, as rescuers continued to pull women and babies from the rubble and kept alive hope of finding more survivors. A riot in a prison in Les Cayes began when some of the 400-plus prisoners tried to escape a week after the Jan 12 earthquake, because they were terrified of aftershocks in the overcrowded prison. Police were later accused of then rushing into the building and opening fire killing at least 10 prisoners. In 2011 13 officers faced trial for murder, attempted murder and other crimes. On Jan 19, 2012, eight police officers were convicted for their role in the prison riot.
(www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/americas/22haiti.html)(AP, 11/8/11)(AP, 1/19/12)
2010 Jan 19, The head of an Iraqi national reconciliation committee said he hopes to place all the estimated 96,000 members of the Sons of Iraq movement in government jobs by the middle of the year. The government said it has found jobs for nearly 50,000 Sunni fighters who played a key role in US efforts to fight insurgents.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Japan Airlines filed for one of the country's largest bankruptcies ever, entering a restructuring that will shrink Asia's top carrier and its presence around the world.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Mexico "El Teo" Teodoro Garcia Simental, an alleged drug kingpin blamed for much of Tijuana's gang violence, was ordered to face trial. The military said it caught three purported members of his gang about to dissolve a body in chemicals. State police found the bodies of four young men in an abandoned car near a hotel in Guerrero's capital, Chilpancingo. A police report said the men appeared to have been asphyxiated by plastic tape covering their faces.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, Mexico’s telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim pledged $65 million for genetic research on cancer, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Nigeria religious violence between Christians and Muslims erupted again in central Nigeria. Gregory Anyating, Plateau state's police commissioner, declared a 24-hour curfew as the number of dead reached close to 150 in 3 days of violence.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, North and South Korea discussed development of their joint industrial complex, despite Pyongyang's recent threats it might break off all dialogue with its neighbor and could even stage an attack.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Pakistan a suspected US drone attacked a compound in the Deegan area of North Waziristan, killing four people as part of an unprecedented wave of strikes since a deadly attack against the CIA across the border in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A Saudi court sentenced a teenage girl (13) to a 90-lash flogging and two months in prison as punishment for assaulting a teacher. The assault happened after the girl was caught with a camera phone at school.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 19, The Slovak Foreign Ministry said the country has agreed to take in three inmates from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in an effort to help President Barack Obama to close it down.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Sudan's Pres. Bashir said he would support the country's oil-producing south if it chose independence in a looming referendum, in his closest acknowledgement of the possibility of separation. A Sudanese court sentenced another two Darfur rebels to death for a deadly 2008 attack, raising to 105 the number of Justice and Equality Movement fighters ordered hanged for the raid.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, Swiss bank Credit Suisse said that it would reduce bonuses paid to its top executives in London by about 30% in response to a tax announced last month by British authorities.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, The United States extradited to Bosnia Nedjo Ikonic (45), a former Serb policeman. He was suspected of taking part in genocide against Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, Europe's worst massacre since WWII.
(Reuters, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said about 1.5 million Graco strollers sold at Wal-Mart, Target and other major retailers are being recalled after some children's fingertips were amputated by hinges on the products. The strollers were made in China by Graco and sold at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Meijer, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers nationwide from October 2004 to December 2009.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, US researchers reported that shaving 3 grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States, while saving $24 billion in health costs per year.
(Reuters, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, The Afghan government and its international partners agreed to significantly increase the country's security forces and outlined plans to lure Taliban militants from the fight and combat corruption in a bid to turn the tide of the war. A NATO raid in the Qara Bagh district targeted a Taliban commander and killed 4 suspected insurgents, including a 15-year-old boy shot while allegedly reaching for a soldier's gun. Villagers insisted the dead were civilians.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Belgium the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, shut down production in its home country, in an escalation of a standoff over job cuts with its Belgian workers which is causing beer shortages in shops.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, A top regulator said China will slow its massive lending spree and step up monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in real estate and other assets while keeping the country's economic recovery on track.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The Dominican government announced a deal with Honduras' president-elect to give ousted leader Manuel Zelaya safe passage to this Caribbean nation.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (b.1960), one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, was poisoned and electrocuted overnight in his hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989. On Jan 29 Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating the veteran operative. In 2013 it was reported that Ben Zygier took part in the killing by a Mossad hit-team of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mahbouh.
(AP, 1/29/10)(Reuters, 2/14/13)
2010 Jan 20, Three more Egyptians died in flooding in the southern Sinai Desert, bringing the toll for three days of unseasonably heavy rains to 10.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, A French court ruled that a Russian Orthodox cathedral built on the French Riviera nearly a century ago under Czar Nicholas II now belongs to Moscow. The ruling was a defeat for an association founded by Russians who fled the Bolshevik Revolution that has been fighting to maintain its control over the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Nice, and its archbishop is accusing the Russian government of a land grab as part of a national pride campaign.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Greece dozens of prostitutes, most using headscarves or hoods to hide their faces, demonstrated in central Athens, demanding working licenses for brothels across Greece.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, A 6.1 aftershock struck Haiti, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Iraq an audacious robbery attempt in Baghdad left 3 dead and 6 wounded. The suspects escaped. A roadside bomb struck a patrol in Kirkuk killing a police lieutenant. A US soldier died of injuries from a vehicle accident that was not related to combat.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, Israel deported Jared Malsin, the American editor of a Palestinian news agency, back to NYC after he was questioned about his “anti-Israeli" views. Malsin was the chief English editor of the Maan News Agency based in Bethlehem.
(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 20, In Jerusalem, Israel, burglars broke into the Ashdod Museum where hundreds of artifacts recovered from the black-market were on show and snatched several valuable items, including a silver ring belonging to Alexander the Great and gold earrings.
(Reuters, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, Malaysian police announced the arrest of eight Muslim men who allegedly attacked a Christian church with a firebomb, the first suspects in a spate of assaults on churches after a court ruled that non-Muslims could use the word "Allah" to refer to God.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mexican authorities found seven corpses in two abandoned cars between the resort communities of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo along with written messages referring to drug cartels. 24 inmates were killed and several others injured during a prison brawl at a penitentiary in northern Durango city. 4 days of rain unleashed heavy flooding in parts of the border city of Tijuana, killing a 5-year-old girl and leaving at least 10 other people missing.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Jos, Nigeria, charred bodies with scorched hands reaching skyward lay in the streets and a mosque with blackened minarets smoldered after several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Pakistan’s government reached an agreement to hand back responsibility for maintaining order in South Waziristan to tribal leaders, following a 3-month military offensive.
(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 20, In Siberia Konstantin Popov (47), a reporter for Tomskaya Nedelya weekly, died after nearly two weeks in a coma. He had been taken in police custody to sober up. Police officer Alexei Mitayev (26) shot him in the genitals after beating him up. On Feb 11, 2011, Mitayev was convicted of beating and shooting Popov and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2010 Jan 20, South Korea’s health ministry said in a statement that switches will be flicked at 7.30 pm every third Wednesday in the month to "help staff get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing." Low birthrate was a pressing issue in this fast-ageing society.
(AFP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Turkey the independent Taraf newspaper exposed an alleged military plan, codenamed “Sledgehammer," which sought to create chaos and panic to justify a military takeover of the government.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/yhwj9sb)
2010 Jan 20, In Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez opened the new 1.8 km. Metro Cable in Caracas.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.27)(http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5176)
2010 Jan 20, Vietnam convicted 4 democracy activists of trying to overthrow the communist government and sentenced them to up to 16 years in prison for promoting multiparty democracy. Le cong Dinh (41), a lawyer, was sentenced for 5 years and activist Nguyen Tien Trung (26) was sentenced to 7 years. In May a court upheld the 16-year sentence against Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and the 5-year sentence against U.S.-trained human rights attorney Le Cong Dinh. It reduced the sentence of businessman Le Thang Long.
(AP, 1/20/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.52)(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 Jan 20, Yemeni airstrikes targeted Ayed al-Shabwani, one of the country's most wanted al-Qaida figures, for the second time in a week.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, The US Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections, ruling 5-4 that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress. The decision drastically altered who gives and gets hundreds of millions of dollars in elections. Super PACs, political action committees went on to reshape the 2012 presidential campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission)(Econ, 10/9/10, p.50)(Econ, 2/25/12, p.35)
2010 Jan 21, In North Carolina John Edwards, former Democratic presidential candidate, admitted that he fathered a child during an affair before his 2nd White House bid, dropping long-standing denials just ahead of a book by a former campaign aide.
(SFC, 1/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 21, Conan O'Brien told NBC good riddance in a $45 million deal for his exit from "The Tonight Show," allowing Jay Leno to return to the late-night program he hosted for 17 years.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Air America Radio, a radio network that was launched in 2004 as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, shut down abruptly due to financial woes.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 21, General Motor Co.'s Opel unit will cut 8,300 jobs across Europe, including 4,000 in Germany, and close a plant in Antwerp, Belgium, cutting over 2,300 jobs.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Silversea Cruises christened its newest ship, the Silver Spirit. It was built to accommodate 540 guests and became the largest and most luxurious of the company’s ships.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.67)
2010 Jan 21, Toyota said it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the US to fix accelerator pedals with mechanical problems that could cause them to become stuck. The announcement comes just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 21, New York State police found the body of Dean Pierson (59) in his Copake barn. They said the upstate dairy farmer had shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 21, Angola's parliament approved a new constitution under which the president would no longer be directly elected by the people, but would be chosen by the parliament. In effect the leader of the largest party in parliament automatically becomes president. The charter must now be approved by the Constitutional Court, a step seen as a formality. Critics said giving parliament the power to name the president will only further entrench President Eduardo Dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Economist, 9/1/12, p.52)
2010 Jan 21, China declared it is over the global crisis and signaled a shift in focus to controlling inflation, sparking concern it could hamper growth and the country's contribution to a worldwide rebound.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Finland’s Nokia Corp. said it will offer free navigation services globally for users of its smart phones, in a drive to counter a similar move by Google Inc.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Kenya radical Muslim cleric Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal was flown out of the country enroute to Jamaica. El-Faisal once served four years in a British jail for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Malaysia vandals tried to burn down two Muslim prayer rooms, following a string of arson attacks on churches amid a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, A Dutch airlift brought 106 children from quake-ravaged Haiti to new lives in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as anxious families waited to hug children they had been in the process of adopting for months.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, New Zealand said that biblical citations inscribed on US-manufactured weapon sights used by its troops in Afghanistan will be removed because they are inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions. The inscriptions on products from defense contractor Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, came to light this week in the US where Army officials said on Jan 19 they would investigate whether the gun sights, also used by US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, violate US procurement laws. Trijicon said biblical references were first put on the sites nearly 30 years ago by the company founder, Glyn Bindon, who was killed in a plane crash in 2003.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Nigeria religious leaders in Jos prepared for mass burials after four days of Christian-Muslim clashes left nearly 300 dead.
(AFP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, The Pakistani army said during a visit by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that it can't launch any new offensives against militants for six months to a year to give it time to stabilize existing gains.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In southern Sudan clashes continued for a 4th day in the troubled southern state of Jonglei leaving 15 more people dead.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 21, Sweden's Royal Academy of Sciences awarded Austria-born American scientist Walter Munk (92) the 2010 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences for his research on ocean circulation. The Crafoord award has been given annually since 1982 for scientific research in areas not covered by the Nobel Prizes.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Turkey a July, 2009, constitutional amendment paving the way for military officers to be tried in civilian courts was struck down by the constitutional court.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.57)(http://tinyurl.com/ybprno6)
2010 Jan 21, Officials said Yemen will stop issuing visas to foreign visitors upon arrival to try to prevent Islamic militants from sneaking in to meet and train with an al-Qaida offshoot that has established a stronghold in the fractured and impoverished country.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 22, James Mitchell (b.1920), theater, film and TV actor, died. For nearly three decades he played gruff patriarch Palmer Cortland on the ABC soap opera "All My Children." His film credits include "The Band Wagon" (1953) with Fred Astaire, "Deep in My Heart" (1954) and "Oklahoma" (1955).
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 22, Jean Simmons (80), British-born film actress, died in Santa Monica, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 22, Afghanistan banned the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which was also used to make bombs, giving farmers and other holders a month to turn in their supplies. 4 Afghan soldiers were killed and one wounded when the convoy of the governor of Wardak province near Kabul was struck by a bomb. 7 Afghan civilians were killed and one wounded in the north when they tried to dig out a bomb left over from the Soviet invasion.
(AP, 1/22/10)(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, Belgian scientists said nearly 80 percent of the 300,000 conflict-related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases like diarrhea, not violence.
(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, The British government raised its terror threat assessment from substantial to severe, suggesting an attack was "highly likely", ahead of international meetings on Yemen and Afghanistan in London next week.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Britain two brothers, ages 10 & 11, from the Yorkshire village of Edlington were convicted of torturing and sexually abusing two younger boys in an ordeal that one of them close to death.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.61)
2010 Jan 22, Sir Percy Cradock (86), the British diplomat who negotiated the terms for returning Hong Kong to Chinese rule, died. He was ambassador to Beijing in 1983 when Britain opened negotiations on the hand-over of Hong Kong. Britain gained an agreement on the principle of "one nation, two systems" which preserved some of Hong Kong's democratic and economic freedoms.
(AP, 1/29/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.87)
2010 Jan 22, Beijing issued a stinging response to US criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its "information imperialism" on China. An attorney for a US free speech group said US trade officials have asked for more information as they consider whether to pursue a possible World Trade Organization case against Chinese Internet barriers.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Some 124 refugees, who said they are Kurds and Tunisians, landed on the southern shore of Corsica after a lengthy journey at sea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In East Timor police launched a full-scale anti-ninja operation and later extended it for six months with support from the armed forces.
(AFP, 4/6/10)
2010 Jan 22, Aid officials said Haitians are fleeing their quake-ravaged capital by the hundreds of thousands, as their government promised to help nearly a half-million more move from squalid camps on curbsides and vacant lots into safer, cleaner tent cities.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Indonesia incessant rain caused floods in two remote villages in eastern Indonesia leaving eight people dead and 13 others missing.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In northern Iraq Saad Uwayid Obeid Mijbil al-Shammari, also known as Abu Khalaf, a key al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed during a joint Iraqi-US raid in Mosul. Intelligence officials said he was responsible for bringing hundreds of suicide bombers across the border from Syria.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 22, Police in Mexico City rescued 150 ferrets from armed robbers after a high speed chase. 14 boxes of ferrets imported from the US were taken by force by 3 robbers from a truck after it left the Mexico City airport. Two suspects were under arrest and another escaped.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, New Zealand’s commerce minister, Simon Power, said New Zealand is reviewing its liberal system of company registration after investigators found a shell company based here leased an airplane that smuggled arms from North Korea. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., leased an airplane seized last month in Thailand carrying an illegal arms shipment from North Korea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Pakistani gunship helicopters pounded a suspected militant hideout in a northwestern tribal area known for sheltering Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Russia a court sanctioned on fraud charges the arrest of Alexei Dymovsky, a police officer who has complained on YouTube of abuse and corruption in the country's law enforcement system. In November Dymovsky posted 3 videos on YouTube in which he said he was promised a promotion in return for jailing an innocent person. He also accused his superiors of forcing officers to fake reports on unsolved crimes. Dymovsky was fired and founded a rights defense group.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Rwanda the latest feature film on the 1994 Rwanda genocide premiered in Kigali. Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw shot "Le jour ou Dieu est parti en voyage" (The Day God Stayed Away) over two months -- June to August 2008 -- partly in Kigali, partly in the southwestern province of Cyangugu. It shows in excruciating detail what day-to-day life must have been like for those who survived beyond the first days of the killing.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Serbia Irinej Gavrilovic, a moderate who recently called for better ties with the Roman Catholics, was chosen as the new head of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Singapore rejected allegations by a US-based human rights group that it is a "politically repressive state."
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In South Africa the national parks authority said poachers have killed 14 rhinos this year. The parks authority announced military patrols in Kruger National Park, where 7 of the rhinos were killed. The other 7 were killed in the North West province.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Sri Lanka a key opposition activist was targeted at home by a bomb attack blamed on the ruling party as violence escalated ahead of next week's presidential election.
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, A Swiss court ruled that Switzerland cannot hand over files on 26 suspected tax cheats to US authorities because their failure to declare assets does not constitute fraud under Swiss law.
(SFC, 1/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 22, Turkish police launched a nationwide crackdown on suspected militants linked to the al-Qaida terror network, rounding up 120 people in simultaneous pre-dawn raids.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Vietnam 19 rare Asiatic moon bears, found at an illegal Taiwanese-owned operation in southern Vietnam, reached a new home at Tam Dao National Park, joining 29 bears already at the rescue center. Ultrasound tests had found evidence of thickened gall bladders, a telltale sign of gall bladder milking. Some may need to have the organ removed because of extensive damage.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Yemen rebel leader, Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi, appeared in a video posted on the group's Web site to disprove Yemeni government claims that he was killed in an attack last month. Al-Hawthi was shown sitting on a chair and speaking into a microphone.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, President Barack Obama said he can't imagine "anything more devastating to the public interest" than the Supreme Court's decision to ease limits on campaign spending by corporations and labor unions.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Abby Sunderland (16) of Thousand Oaks, Ca., sailed into the Pacific aboard a 4-foot craft called wild Eyes in an effort to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. On April 24 Sunderland wrote on her blog that it would be "foolish and irresponsible" to keep going after losing use of her boat's main autopilot.
(SFC, 1/25/10, p.A5)(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Texas an 800-foot oil tanker and towing vessel collided spilling oil in the southeast port of Port Arthur. The spill, estimated at 462,000 gallons, was contained to a 2-mile area along the Sabine Neches Waterway.
(AP, 1/24/10)(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.A10)(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 23, Afghanistan’s Pres. Karzai unveiled an ambitious Western-funded plan to offer money and jobs to tempt Taliban fighters to lay down their arms. Militants in the south killed two US soldiers and kidnapped a police chief in a series of attacks. Insurgents killed 3 Afghan women in the eastern province of Paktika. 12 militants were killed in Helmand.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Brazil extradited Manuel Juan Cordero Piacentini, a retired Uruguayan military officer, to Argentina to face charges of human rights abuses allegedly committed more than 30 years ago. Under "Operation Condor," the military dictatorships that ruled much of South America in the 1970s and 1980s secretly cooperated in the torture and disappearances of each others' citizens.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, The British Department for Business Innovation and Skills halted the export of the ADE651 after a Jan 22 BBC Newsnight investigation challenged the claims of the company, ATSC. The broadcaster took the key aspects of the device to a laboratory, which concluded that a component intended to detect explosives contained technology used to prevent theft in stores. The government banned its export to Iraq and Afghanistan because of the risk that it could hurt British and allied forces.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Haiti's government declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, saying there is little hope of finding more people alive 11 days after much of the capital was reduced to rubble.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, The US Marine Corps wrapped up nearly seven years in Iraq, handing over duties to the Army and signaling the beginning of an accelerated withdrawal of American troops as the US turns its focus away from the waning Iraqi war to a growing one in Afghanistan. Iraqi-American contractor Issa T. Salomi (60) went missing in Baghdad. Shiite militants executed the kidnapping after luring him into central Baghdad with promises of visiting distant relatives. In a video that later surfaced, his abductors from the League of the Righteous, demanded the release of militants and the prosecution of Blackwater security contractors accused of killing 17 Iraqis in 2007 in Baghdad. Salomi was freed on March 25 in exchange for 4 militants.
(AP, 1/23/10)(AP, 2/6/10)(SFC, 8/13/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 23, In southern Mexico about 150 migrants were pulled off a train by unidentified assailants in the state of Oaxaca. On Jan 26 a Salvadoran official filed a complaint with Mexican officials saying 3 men were slain and 4 women were raped in the attack.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 23, In New Zealand 48 pilot whales stranded at Port Levy on South Island, but scores of volunteers joined Department of Conservation workers to refloat them off the shallow, muddy inlet. By the next day rescuers managed to coax 33 back out into deep waters, but another 15 of the pod died.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 23, In central Nigeria a village headman said at least 150 bodies were recovered from wells following deadly Muslim-Christian clashes, taking the unofficial death toll past 400.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed at least four people including two children in northwestern Gomal. Militants destroyed a NATO tanker outside Peshawar. Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead two soldiers and wounded two others in Khuzdar town, 350km (217 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan. Militants ambushed Pakistani security forces at checkpoints in the Orkazai and Kurram regions close to the Afghan border, sparking gunbattles that left 22 insurgents and two troops dead.
(AFP, 1/23/10)(AP, 1/23/10)(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 23, Russian PM Vladimir Putin declared that peace has returned to North Caucasus, the center of a growing Islamist insurgency, and called for the region's economy to be rebuilt. He also ordered officials in the North Caucasus to ensure what he called the "normal work" of human rights groups operating in the volatile region.
(Reuters, 1/23/10)(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, Saudi Arabia’s assistant defense minister said Saudi forces have recovered the bodies of 20 soldiers who had been reported missing in fierce battles with Yemeni rebels on the border, raising the Saudi death toll in the conflict to 133.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Sudan a military spokesman said at least 24 people have been killed in clashes in the troubled southern Sudanese state of Jonglei in recent days.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In Venezuela tens of thousands opposed to President Hugo Chavez took to the streets, blaming him for rolling blackouts, water rationing, widespread crime and other problems they say are making daily life increasingly difficult. This day marked the 1958 uprising that ousted Venezuela’s last military dictator. The Chavez regime told cable TV operators to stop carrying RCTV, a pro-opposition channel.
(AP, 1/24/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 24, The US sent 3 detainees held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Slovakia, the latest transfers as the Obama administration tries to close the facility.
(Reuters, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, Wal-Mart Stores of Bentonville, Ark., said it will cut some 11,200 jobs at Sam’s Club warehouses as it turns the task of in-store product demonstrations to an outside marketing company, Shopper Events.
(SFC, 1/25/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 24, Daniel Kerrigan (70), the father of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, died after a disturbance at the family's Massachusetts home. Brother Mark Kerrigan (45) was charged with assaulting the 70-year-old father.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, Pernell Roberts (b.1928), TV actor, died at his home in Malibu, Ca. He played the eldest Cartwright son (1959-1965) in the “Bonanza" TV series. After Bonanza he played the lead in the “Trapper John M.D." TV series.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 24, Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message threatening more attacks on the US.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, An Afghan official said authorities have arrested the ringleader of a group that staged a brazen attack in Kabul and now believe the assault was coordinated by al-Qaida. 3 US service members were killed in two bombings in the south. An explosion in the southern of Helmand killed a British soldier. A rocket attack struck the Kandahar Air Field, injuring four Bulgarians and at least two Romanians.
(AP, 1/24/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged fire near a disputed border temple, the latest in a string of gun battles between the countries since last year.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Haiti’s communications minister said the confirmed death toll from the Jan 12 earthquake has topped 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, with many more thousands dead around the country or still buried under the rubble.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In India environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China said that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The group, known by the acronym BASIC, pledged to strengthen its unified stance but would seek consensus with developed countries.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Indonesia gunmen attacked a convoy near the world's largest gold mine in Papua, wounding at least seven people including a foreigner.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Iran a Russian-made Iranian Taban Air plane carrying 157 passengers and 13 crew caught fire upon landing at northeastern Mashhad airport injuring at least 46 people.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Israel's PM Netanyahu declared that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever, a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of visiting US envoy George Mitchell.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Japanese voters in Nago city on Okinawa island elected a mayor who opposes plans for a controversial new US air base, complicating a row with Washington over relocating troops.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In northern Mexico a shootout between troops and suspected drug traffickers killed two soldiers and four gunmen in Nuevo Leon state. In Veracruz state the mutilated body of Nayeli Reyes, a federal court official, was discovered in the same residential neighborhood of Boca del Rio, Vera Cruz state, where she was abducted.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Nigeria the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jos condemned clashes between Christians and Muslims there which are said to have claimed more than 450 lives. Reverend Peter Imasuen, the Anglican bishop of Benin City, was kidnapped in southern state of Edo shortly after saying mass.
(AFP, 1/24/10)(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 24, North Korea threatened South Korea with war after Seoul warned it would launch a pre-emptive strike if the North was preparing a nuclear attack, the latest salvo in a battle of rhetoric despite signs of improved cooperation across the militarized frontier.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, Pakistan intelligence officials and a local resident said a suspected US drone had crashed in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. The bodies of 7 men, accused by Taliban militants of spying for the US, were found shot dead in the northwest tribal belt. A paramilitary soldier was killed when Taliban militants fired a rocket at a convoy near Malik Deenkhel village in Khyber.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Peru some 3,900 tourists were cut off in villages near Machu Picchu in the Andes mountains, when mudslides blocked the railway to the city of Cuzco, which is the only way in or out of the area. Torrential rain, due to El Nino, in the Cusco area left at least 26 people dead and destroyed the homes and livelihood of some 20,000.
(AP, 1/27/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.42)
2010 Jan 24, In Sri Lanka dissident cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda did not return home. His disappearance triggered international condemnation of the island's rights record. The cartoonist was never seen again.
(AFP, 8/24/15)
2010 Jan 24, In Venezuela a cable television channel critical of President Hugo Chavez was yanked from the airwaves for defying new regulations requiring it to televise the socialist leader's speeches.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, The United States Justice Department approved the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, a concert promotion firm and ticketing company, pending certain conditions. The two companies had reached an agreement to merge in 2009.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation_Entertainment)
2010 Jan 25, In New York 2 Canadian men who pleaded guilty to conspiring to buy anti-aircraft missiles and other equipment for the Tamil Tigers rebel group in Sri Lanka were sentenced to 25 years in a US prison. Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam (41) and Sahilal Sabaratnam (30) were among four men arrested in Long Island, New York, in 2006 in an FBI sting operation as they tried to buy surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers and hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles to be used against Sri Lankan forces.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, In NYC Alfonso Portillo (b.1951), the former president of Guatemala (2000-2004), was charged with using foreign banks to launder millions of dollars plundered from charity and government coffers. He was charged with embezzling $15.7 million. Portillo’s whereabouts were unknown.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A4)(Econ, 6/19/10, p.42)
2010 Jan 25, In Pennsylvania Andrea Curry-Demus (40) was found to be mentally ill but guilty of 2nd degree murder and kidnapping for luring a pregnant teenager to her apartment, cutting out the baby and killing the mother. The infant, now 18 months old, was living with relatives.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 25, Electric vehicle network firm Better Place announced it has signed an agreement with an HSBC-led investor consortium for new equity financing of $350m (£217m), valuing the firm at $1.25bn. Better Place, led by former software entrepreneur Shai Agassi, hoped to be the leading infrastructure provider for the world’s growing fleet of electric cars.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/ycsyrdj)
2010 Jan 25, In Afghanistan a Norwegian soldier died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Faryab province in the north.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, The British and Irish governments launched a mission to save Northern Ireland's unraveling administration, a Catholic-Protestant coalition that the territory's 1998 peace accord intended would promote a lasting new era of nonviolent compromise.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to shut down its drug detention centers alleging abuses such as torture and rape, as well as the lockup of children and the mentally ill.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, China sharply rebuked the United States, denying involvement in any Internet attacks and defending its online restrictions as lawful after Washington urged Beijing to investigate an attack against Google.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In China the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi sentenced four more people to death for involvement in rioting last year in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, the country's worst ethnic violence in decades. Another person was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a penalty usually commuted to life in prison, while eight others were given sentences of up to life imprisonment.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 25, Official media reported that China is hoping to close thousands of local government lobbying offices in Beijing to cut down on waste and corruption.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, Cyprus police said they have busted a smuggling ring in Cyprus and recovered dozens of ancient artifacts it planned to sell for euro11 million (15.5 million), including a miniature gold coffin, silver coins and terra-cotta urns. Ten Cypriots were arrested during the raids over the weekend, and authorities were searching for another five suspects, including a Syrian man.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people caught fire and crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut. At least 34 bodies were recovered, but no survivors were found by nightfall. In 2012 a Lebanese report put the blame on pilot error and inexperience. Ethiopian Airlines immediately rejected the Lebanese findings saying the crash was likely caused by sabotage or a lightning strike.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/17/12)
2010 Jan 25, The National Bank of Hungary cut its main interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 6 percent, its lowest since September 2005.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Iraq suicide bombers struck near three hotels popular with Western journalists and businessmen just as Iraq announced the execution of Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin known as "Chemical Ali." At least 41 people were killed and more than 104 injured. The explosions came hours after an Iraqi security official defended the ADE651, made by the British company ATSC, a bomb-detecting device that Britain banned for export to Iraq because of questions about whether it works, saying it would be a "big mistake" to withdraw it from checkpoints.
(AP, 1/25/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.57)
2010 Jan 25, Sara Netanyahu sued the Maariv daily for libel and defamation of character, claiming it is "maliciously trying to humiliate" her. A story on Jan 22 stated that Mrs. Netanyahu fired a 70-year-old gardener at the prime minister's official residence. The gardener had lost a son in one of Israel's wars.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, The UN said that extreme winter weather in 19 of 21 provinces in Mongolia has killed over 1 million in livestock impacting the country’s food supply and worsening poverty.
(SFC, 1/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 25, A Nigerian state police commissioner said sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in Jos left 326 people dead last week. Police in central Plateau state have arrested 303 suspects from last week's inter-religious violence. In southwestern Ogun State gunmen shot dead Chief Dipo Dina, a prominent opposition politician, amid rising tensions ahead of general elections next year.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, North Korea detained an American man for illegally entering the country from China, the 2nd arrest of a US citizen it has reported in the past few weeks. On Jan 30, a news report said the American man has sought asylum and wants to join the North Korean military. On April 7, 2010, state media said Aijalon Mahli Gomes (30) of Boston has been sentenced to eight years of hard labor and ordered to pay a $700,000 fine for crossing into the communist country illegally.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 25, A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman said Saudi Arabia has donated $50 million in relief to Haiti to cope with the devastating earthquake that hit the country nearly two weeks ago, making it the largest donation from the Middle East to date.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Somalia a mortar shell smashed into an African Union peacekeeping mission base in Mogadishu, killing several people, including a soldier.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 25, South Korea's president offered to help energy-hungry India build more nuclear plants as the two Asian powerhouses set a goal of doubling bilateral trade by 2014.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, Sweden’s Ericsson, the world leader in phone network equipment, announced an extra 1,500 job cuts under restructuring which bit deeply into 4th-quarter net profit.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Venezuela police and supporters of President Hugo Chavez clashed with students in cities across the country during protests over the government forcing an opposition channel off cable TV. One youth was reported killed and 16 people suffered injuries. A government official said that Pres. Chavez has accepted the resignation of Ramon Carrizalez, who also served as defense minister. Carrizalez’s wife, the environment minister, also resigned.
(AP, 1/25/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.46)
2010 Jan 25, It was reported that Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi, the leader of Yemen's Shiite rebels, has declared the war with Saudi Arabia over and that he will pull his fighters out of Saudi territory. At least 133 Saudis soldiers have died in the months of fierce fighting in the rugged border region.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 26, The US Justice Department said an Uzbek detainee held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been sent to Switzerland.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Oregon voters approved Measures 66 and 67, passed by their legislature last year, endorsing higher taxes on businesses and the rich amid the current economic slump.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A8)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.36)
2010 Jan 26, Toyota Motor Corp. announced it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles. Toyota said it is also suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1. It gave no date on when production could restart.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, General Motors agreed to sell Saab, its Swedish subsidiary, to Spyker Cars, a Dutch maker of sports cars, for $74 million in cash and preference shares worth $326 million.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)
2010 Jan 26, In Afghanistan gunmen killed 4 policemen overnight in Helmand province. Hours later a suicide car bomber targeted a US base in Kabul, wounding six Afghans and 8 Americans. In eastern Kunar province a NATO airstrike killed several suspected insurgents who were maneuvering into fighting position in an area previously used to stage attacks on int’l forces.
(AP, 1/26/10)(SFC, 1/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 26, Leftists in Brazil for a week of protests against capitalism denounced corporate greed on the second day of the World Social Forum, saying that big companies humbled by the global meltdown must be prevented from controlling natural resources and harming the environment.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland held a second day of talks with political parties in Northern Ireland as they struggled to keep the fractious Catholic-Protestant government there from collapsing.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, British actress Joanna Lumley was named "Oldie of the Year" by the monthly Oldie magazine for campaigning for the rights of retired Nepalese Gurkha soldiers wanting to settle in Britain.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Guatemalan police captured ex-President Alfonso Portillo at a beach preparing to flee the country by boat, a day after US authorities charged him with laundering money stolen from foreign donations to buy children's books.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Guinea Jean Marie Dore, one of the fiercest critics of Guinea's military junta, became prime minister. The crucial step toward democracy came amid worries the country's wounded coup leader is trying to influence the political process from exile.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Honduras a Supreme Court judge found six generals innocent of abuse of power charges for ordering soldiers to escort Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint. Hours later, Congress voted to approve amnesty for both the military and Zelaya, who had been charged with abuse of power and treason.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Hong Kong 5 pro-democracy lawmakers resigned their seats, vowing to turn the resulting elections into a populist campaign for universal suffrage in defiance of warnings from China.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the US of trying to use the Internet as a tool to confront the Islamic Republic, declaring that such a policy only showed Washington's frustration. The US Senate voted in July to adopt the Victims of Iranian Censorship Act which authorizes up to $50 million for expanding Farsi language broadcasts, supporting Iranian Internet and countering government efforts to block it.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Iraq a suicide car bomber struck a police crime lab in central Baghdad, killing at least 22 people and injuring dozens a day after suicide attacks hit several hotels favored by Western journalists. Baghdad officials put the death toll at 17.
(AP, 1/26/10)(SFC, 1/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 26, In Kenya US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said the US has suspended a five-year plan to fund Kenya's education programs following allegations that more than $1 million in funds went missing at the Education Ministry. Britain announced in December it was suspending its funding of the program.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Myanmar the Palaung Women's Organization reported that opium cultivation in Shan State has tripled in certain areas over the past three years. The Palaung are an ethnic minority in the northern state.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, NATO and Russia formally resumed military ties in the latest sign of improving relations between the Cold War rivals as they move to boost cooperation in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, A Nigerian naval helicopter crashed in the Niger Delta, likely killing the four people onboard.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Peru an Argentine identified as Lucia Ramallo (23) and a Peruvian guide, Washington Huaraya, were in their tents when a slope near Machu Picchu gave way and crushed them. The deaths raised to five the number of people killed by rain-triggered floods and landslides in the area. Government and private helicopters flew out 475 tourists as US authorities sent four helicopters to bolster rescue efforts.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, Sri Lankans voted between two Sinhalese war heroes, the president and his former army chief, in an election that could be decided by minority Tamils, who suffered most from the government offensive to end the civil conflict. President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a resounding re-election victory.
(AP, 1/26/10)(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, The ruling party of St. Kitts and Nevis seized a fourth consecutive term in early elections. PM Denzil Douglas' Labor Party claimed six of eight parliamentary seats allotted to St. Kitts.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, Sudan's former PM Sadiq al-Mahdi vowed to put an end to "totalitarianism" and resolve the conflict in Darfur by taking power at elections in April.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Venezuela thousands of university students again protested against Pres. Chavez, accusing the socialist leader of forcing an opposition-allied TV channel off cable and satellite as a means of silencing his critics.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, A Yemeni court sentenced 7 suspected Al-Qaeda members between five and ten years in jail after convicting them of plotting to attack foreign interests and tourists.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 27, President Barack Obama, facing a divided Congress and a dissatisfied nation, unveiled a jobs-heavy agenda in his State of the Union address. Obama fought to recharge his embattled presidency with a State of the Union vow to get jobless millions back to work and stand on the side of Americans angry at Wall Street greed and Washington bickering.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story that Ishmael "Mike" Salinas admitted to bulk cash smuggling and failing to make a required report on currency brought into the US from Baghdad. The former employee of a New Mexico construction company with contracts in Iraq pleaded guilty to illegally bringing in more than $800,000.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In NYC an armed robber killed jewelry store worker Henry Menahem (71) and made off with nearly $1 million in jewels.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 27, Claude Irwin Jr. (62) of Spokane, a fugitive lawyer accused of stealing millions of dollars in an Idaho real estate development, was been captured in Los Angeles after living for years in Mexico. In 1998 he vanished and left his Powderhorn Ridge Ranch development near Harrison, Idaho, owing at least $3 million.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off a sleek tablet that it called the iPad, pitching the new gadget at $499, a surprisingly low price, to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops. It will go on sale in late March for $499-829.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.11)
2010 Jan 27, J.D. Salinger (b.1919), author of “Cather in the Rye" (1951), died at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. In 2013 David Shields and Shane Salerno authored “Salinger," a biography.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.F1)
2010 Jan 27, Howard Zinn (b.1922), Massachusetts-based historian, teacher and activist, died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Ca. His work included “A People’s History of the United States" (1980).
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 27, In northern Afghanistan a joint NATO-Afghan air and ground assault killed 11 suspected Taliban militants, including two senior commanders. Leaders of the Shinwari, one of the largest Pushtun tribes, agreed to support the Afghan government and battle insurgents. American commanders in exchange agreed to channel $1 million in development projects directly to the tribal leaders, bypassing the Afghan government.
(AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 27, In western Algeria the Oran criminal court sentenced eight people to jail terms for drug trafficking. Six of the convicted men were sentenced to 20 years, a seventh to life and the eighth, who was on the run, was also sentenced to life, after the seizure in 2008 of two tons of cannabis resin at Bechar in the southwest.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, Bangladesh executed 5 former soldiers for killing independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a 1975 military coup.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 27, In Belgium a five-story apartment building collapsed in Liege after an apparent gas explosion. At least 11 people were killed. An additional 21 people were injured, two of them seriously.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 27, Brazil's first working-class president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (64), got a hero's welcome at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, wowing 10,000 leftists with a vow to reproach the planet's business titans for causing the global meltdown when he meets with them this week at the Davos Swiss ski resort. Lula fell ill at the air force base in Recife where he was supposed to board a flight to Switzerland and his trip to Davos was canceled.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland presented a compromise plan to keep Northern Ireland's fractious politicians from breaking up their Catholic-Protestant government, but neither side accepted the deal.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Britain world powers gathered in London for talks on how to tackle Al-Qaeda militants operating out of Yemen. The conference was called to help world powers chart a roadmap out of Afghanistan amid rising US and NATO casualties and falling public support.
(AFP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, A Cambodian court convicted and sentenced in absentia Sam Rainsy, the nation's main opposition leader, to two years in jail on charges of uprooting border markings. Rainsy, who is in France, said by telephone that the court had made a "most unjust" ruling, saying the border markers he had uprooted in protest were illegally placed.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, France's main Jewish organization, CRIF, says at least 18 tombstones at the Cronenbourg cemetery in Strasbourg were found marked with swastikas and 13 of them were overturned. The desecration came as Jews marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Haiti teenager Darlene Etienne (17) was rescued from a collapsed home near St. Gerard University, 15 days after a great earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people, It was the first such recovery since Jan 23, when French rescuers extricated a man from the ruins of a hotel grocery store.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Honduras President-elect Porfirio Lobo, a conservative rancher, was sworn in as the new president, ending months of turmoil and the quest by ousted leader Manuel Zelaya to be restored to power. Lobo provided safe passage to Zelaya, who left his refuge at the Brazilian Embassy and flew to exile in the Dominican Rep.
(AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 27, In Indonesia Eko Budi Wardoyo (32), a suspected Islamist militant, was arrested in East Java province. He was allegedly involved in the 2005 bombing of a market that killed 22 people and the murder of a Christian priest in 2004.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 27, It was reported that Italian fashion house Armani has stopped selling online a T-shirt bearing a logo similar to Indonesia's national symbol, Garuda Pancasila, after some bloggers protested and other people called for the label to be sued.
(Reuters, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, Mexican authorities found a man's head and a threatening message referring to the La Familia drug cartel in the town square of Quiroga, Michoacan state. A headless body was found 60 miles (100km) away.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, NATO's top officer said that Russia had agreed to boost cooperation with the alliance in Afghanistan, including opening more transit routes for supplies to international troops and helping service Soviet-built helicopters used by the security forces. NATO said it had finalized an agreement with Kazakhstan to open the last leg on an overland route to Afghanistan from Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, offering an alternative to the one through Pakistan.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Nigeria Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria, said chilling text messages urged both Christians and Muslims to commit violence during rioting that left more than 300 people dead. He said his group has collected about 150 text messages that were sent before and during the violence in Jos.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, North Korea fired more than 80 shells into the sea near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, sparking an artillery exchange which fuelled tensions on the peninsula.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In northwestern Pakistan a bomb planted near a house in Upper Dir exploded after children playing nearby tried to open it, killing three of them. 13 police and civilian explosives experts were wounded when a homemade bomb they were trying to defuse in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir detonated.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, Panama's national police force killed three guerrillas from a Colombian rebel group in a confrontation along the sparsely populated frontier between the two countries. Two others were captured while and one escaped.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, A top Saudi defense official said Saudi forces have driven Yemeni rebels out of the border region between the two countries, suggesting that the three month conflict along the mountainous frontier may be winding down.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (8), a Somali boy, died just days after undergoing reconstructive surgery in Kenya. He had been horribly disfigured months ago by a stray bullet in Mogadishu. Ahmed personified the civilian toll in the brutal conflict in Somalia and drew offers of aid from around the world.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Sri Lanka the election commission declared Pres. Rajapaksa the winner with 57.8% of the vote to Sarath Fonseka's 40%. Rajapaksa beat back a challenge from his former army chief, who rejected the official results and said he feared arrest as troops surrounded his hotel. Dayanada Dissanayake, the distraught election commissioner, said the state media violated guidelines he had crafted, government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him, and he pleaded to be allowed to resign his post.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Thailand 13 tiger range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting their numbers. The meeting was being organized by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aimed to double tiger numbers by 2022. The 13 countries attending were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Zimbabwe a lawyer said the Supreme Court has ordered the central bank to safeguard millions of dollars' worth of diamonds from a mine where the military is accused of killings and forced labor. State media said a Zimbabwe high court has rejected a southern African court's ruling that blocked the government's move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned farms.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 28, A US government audit found that a $46 million American aid program aimed at strengthening the government in Pakistan's tribal regions and blunting the appeal of al-Qaida and the Taliban has achieved little since it began two years ago.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 28, The US formally pledged to the UN that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% (from what they were in 2005) by 2020. Meeting the target depended on getting a climate bill through Congress.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.38)
2010 Jan 28, In Arizona police Lt. Eric Shuhandler (42) was shot in the face as he walked back toward a pickup after finding the passenger had an arrest warrant. Shuhandler, the father of two girls, was rushed to a hospital, where he died shortly before midnight. A high-speed, 50-mile chase ended near the small mountain mining community of Superior when the suspects jumped out and opened fire on police before falling to the ground in a hail of bullets. The suspects were identified as Christopher A. Redondo (35) of Globe, and Daimen Irizarry (30) of Gilbert. Both were expected to survive.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Louisiana Mose Jefferson, the brother of former US Representative William Jefferson, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribing a former New Orleans school board president for her support in awarding contracts to a computer-based teaching system, which he sold.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co. said it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company behind the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.'s recent recall. Ford spokesman Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic built by a Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in December and only about 1,600 have been produced.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Oakland, Ca., Dhar Mann (25) opened iGrow, a one-stop shop for medical marijuana in a 15,000-square-foot warehouse near the Oakland Airport.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.C1)
2010 Jan 28, US researchers reported the development of a prototype vaccine that protects monkeys and mice against the emerging chikungunya virus. The mosquito-borne virus first appeared on Reunion Island in 2005 and has spread to more than 18 countries.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A13)
2010 Jan 28, The Afghan government invited the Taliban to a peace council of elders, the strongest signal yet that Kabul and its Western allies are looking for a way out of the eight-year war in Afghanistan. US soldiers shot and killed an Afghan cleric as he drove with his young son near an American base on the eastern edge of Kabul, underscoring the dangers facing civilians despite NATO efforts to minimize casualties. A homemade bomb killed a US soldier in southern Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Britain world powers agreed on a timetable for the handover of security duties in Afghan provinces starting in late 2010. The 70 nations said Pres. Karzai had promised to crack down on corruption and said a summit in Kabul later this year would offer specific plans to bolster his faltering government. The Afghan Taliban dismissed the London conference as a propaganda ploy and said the London summit will fail to produce results.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Denmark's government said that face-covering Muslim veils don't belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, France's ex-premier Dominique de Villepin was acquitted of charges of plotting to smear Nicolas Sarkozy and sabotage his presidential bid in a verdict seen as bolstering his chance at a comeback.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Honduras' new administration began its term saying the nation is bankrupt and will likely need international financial assistance to recover from months of diplomatic isolation over its June coup.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Iran executed two men, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmani Pour, accused of involvement in an armed anti-government group. The public prosecutor announced that new death sentences have been issued against opposition activists involved in protests over June's disputed presidential election.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Jan 28, In southern Iraq an American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdeljalil said he wants to resign because of "hindrances" and his inability to secure freedom for hundreds of prisoners who have been found innocent.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In southern Pakistan militants staged a rare attack against trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, wounding three people in the latest violence to plague the country's largest city. A bomb attached to a bicycle exploded, killing three people and wounding a dozen others in an area of Baluchistan province.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In the southern Philippines a decades-old military plane crashed into a residential area, killing a two-star air force general and eight other people.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Spanish police arrested two suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA in northern Spain and discovered a hidden cache containing explosives and bomb-making equipment.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Spain prosecutors say charges have been filed against Mohamed Benbrahim, a Muslim imam, for threatening a woman in Cunit, Catalonia, who refused to wear an Islamic headscarf.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Venezuela police fired tear gas to chase off thousands of students demonstrating in the capital, a fifth day of protests against President Hugo Chavez for pressuring cable and satellite TV providers to drop an opposition channel.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, President Barack Obama engaged in a rare face-to-face showdown with Republican critics and testily accused them of trying to block his policies while urging them to "join with me" in creating jobs.
(Reuters, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 29, A US storm that toppled power lines, closed major highways and buried parts of the southern Plains in heavy ice and snow began moving into the South, leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark. Nearly 142,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma were without power.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, According to a newly released audiotape Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for the world to boycott American goods and the US dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Afghan troops backed by NATO attack helicopters battled Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests who launched an assault in the heart of a Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province. 6 militants were killed in the assault. In Ghazni province 2 Afghans were killed after failing to stop their vehicle when ordered. An Afghan interpreter working for the US military shot dead two American soldiers in Wardak province. Iranian guards opened fire and killed 5 laborers as they crossed into Iran from the southwestern province of Nimroz.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AFP, 1/30/10)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A3)(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Brazil leftists who converged to protest what they view as uncontrolled capitalism ended the World Social Forum with vows to take advantage of the financial crisis to promote a global socialist agenda.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 29, Former British PM Tony Blair said there had been no "covert" deal with then US president George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, and robustly defended his decision to take Britain to war.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In China envoys of exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing for weekend talks amid subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive, riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized PM Meles Zenawi's statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia. The journalist was later identified as Ezedin Mohamed, editor of Al-Quds, a Muslim-orientated newspaper.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Haiti US soldiers halted a violent confrontation between looters and a private security guard who shot and killed one man inside an appliance store and appeared poised to shoot others.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir suspected Muslim rebels ambushed army soldiers, killing two troops.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Honda Motor Co. said it would recall a total 646,000 units of the Fit/Jazz and City models globally, including 140,000 in the United States. The recall was to fix a defective master switch, which could cause water to enter the power window switch and in some cases cause a fire.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, The office of Lithuanian Pres. Dalia Grybauskaite said in a statement that she would sign a decree to appoint Audronius Ažubalis as foreign minister. The tough-talking Grybauskaite forced the resignation of the last foreign minister Vygaudas Ušackas.
(http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/)
2010 Jan 29, Mexican authorities found the decapitated bodies of six men in Acahuato, Michoacan state. A group of at least a dozen armed men attacked a federal police convoy, opening fire on the vehicles from a highway overpass near the city of Maravatio, also in Michoacan, killing 5 officers and wounding 7. Four severely beaten men were seen walking along a busy street in the Michoacan town of Zamora carrying messages signed by La Familia. In Ciudad Juarez a group of rifle-bearing attackers opened fire on a family in a truck, killing a man, a woman and injuring a 5-month-old baby. A woman was later killed inside an ice cream parlor, a chase through the Galeana neighborhood left two dead, and a man was killed and a pregnant woman was injured in a spray of bullets in another part of town. Six more people were killed later in the day in four different locations, and when dawn broke the two decapitated bodies were found. Journalist Ochoa Martinez, director of El Sol de la Costa, was shot in the face as he left a food stand in the town of Ayutla. His small newspaper covered mostly local politics and community issues southeast of Acapulco.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AP, 1/31/10)(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Mexico a Texas man and his girlfriend were sentenced to nine years in prison for recruiting Mexican women to give birth in the US and sell their babies to couples there. Amado Torres, of Harlingen, Texas, and Maria Isabel Hernandez, of Mexico, had allegedly paid women up to $3,000 for their newborns.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Jan 29, In New Zealand police seized weapons used by two men to slaughter more than 30 dogs owned by a neighbor in what animal welfare authorities said could be the country's worst animal cruelty case.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Nigerian court rejected a demand by top lawyers that a caretaker head of state be appointed until ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua returns from hospital treatment in Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Pakistani security forces killed 24 suspected militants in air strikes and clashes in the northwest. One paramilitary soldier was also killed and three wounded in a clash in the town of Chinar in the district of Bajaur.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Russia test-flew a long-awaited new fighter aircraft, determined to challenge the United States for technical superiority in the skies and impress weapons buyers.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, Somali insurgents sparked the heaviest day of fighting in the capital in months, launching simultaneous attacks on government forces and AU peacekeepers killing at least 19 people including women and children.
(AP, 1/29/10)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 29, In Sri Lanka police raided the office of defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka and arrested 15 of its workers as monitors and rights groups criticized the Sri Lankan election that returned President Mahinda Rajapakse to power.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, At Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft co-founder and his wife said The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world's poorest countries.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Thailand a dozen Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their habitats. The 13 countries included Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Vietnamese court handed a four-year jail term to writer Pham Thanh Nghien (32) for anti-state "propaganda," the latest in a string of jailings of democracy activists by the communist state.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Las Vegas Caressa Cameron (22) of Virginia became the nation's newest Miss America, emerging from a field of 53 contestants picked for their beauty, compassion and interview savvy. Cameron, the first black Miss America since Ericka Dunlap in 2005, said she wants to get a master's degree and eventually become a news anchor.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 30, In NYC a fire housing Guatemalan immigrants killed at least 5 people in Brooklyn. Arson was suspected.
(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.A16)
2010 Jan 30, A joint US-Afghan force clashed with Afghan troops manning a snow-covered outpost and called in an airstrike, killing four Afghan soldiers. Both sides called the clash a case of mistaken identity.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, China suspended military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions against American defense companies, just hours after Washington announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, The European Union said Italy is to stop fishing for bluefin tuna, the lucrative but over-exploited species beloved of Japanese sushi fans, for 12 months.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Haiti about 20 armed men blockaded a street and attacked UN a convoy carrying food from the airport. Ten American Baptists were detained for trying to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic without documentation.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Jan 30, Ashes of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, kept for decades by a family friend after his assassination, were scattered off South Africa's coast.
(AFP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, Thousands of Iranians gathered at dusk against a snowy mountain backdrop to light giant bonfires in an ancient mid-winter festival. Sadeh was the national festival of ancient Persia when Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion, before the conquest of Islam in the 7th century.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at a restaurant popular with security forces in Samarra, a city that was once a flash point for sectarian slaughter, killing at least two people.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Italy hundreds of judges walked out of nationwide ceremonies held to mark the start of the judicial year in protest at "destructive legislation" introduced by PM Silvio Berlusconi.
(AFP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Japan thousands of protesters from across Japan marched in central Tokyo to protest the US military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to move a Marine base Washington considers crucial out of the country.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In the Marshall Islands the government considered invoking special powers of quarantine as an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been declared a public health emergency.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Mexico armed men stormed a party, killing 15 high school and college students in Ciudad Juarez in what witnesses thought was an attack prompted by false information. Ten people were found dead at the scene and six died at hospitals. An official later said gunmen were directed to the neighborhood by a resident who said members of a rival gang were planning a party.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Jan 30, Nigeria's main rebel group called off a truce in the oil-rich Niger Delta, threatening an "all-out onslaught" and adding to the country’s political and economic woes. A leak was observed on the Anglo-Dutch Trans-Ramos pipeline. The leak was stopped and an investigation confirmed the leak was due to a sabotage. Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell shut down some oil production following the sabotage.
(AFP, 1/30/10)(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed 16 people at a police checkpoint in the northwest Bajur tribal area. 3 suspected US missiles hit a compound and a bunker in the Mohammad Khel area of North Waziristan. 2 missiles hit the compound being used by the militants, killing 7 of them. The third killed two more insurgents in a bunker.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, Russian PM Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that Libya has signed an arms deal with Russia worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion).
(Reuters, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, Russia opened its first new casino, under a plan to limit legalized gambling to 4 comparatively remote areas, since it closed all casinos a half year earlier. Along with the opening in Azov city, the new law limits legalized gambling to the Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic Sea, the Altai region of Siberia, and the Primorski region of the Far East.
(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 30, In Sri Lanka police shut down the offices of an opposition newspaper, as international rights groups accused the authorities of a vendetta against critical media. The chief editor was arrested. A court lifted a ban on the paper on Feb 1. On Feb 16 the chief editor of the pro-opposition Lanka newspaper, Chandana Sirimalwatte, was ordered to be released from police custody because there was no evidence against him.
(AFP, 1/30/10)(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Davos, Switzerland, government regulators from the US and Europe laid out their financial reform plans before a skeptical banking industry, asking financiers for input but adamant that change was coming with or without their support.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Yemen militant Saleh al-Shaoush was arrested as he prepared to carry out a suicide bombing in the southeastern port of Mukalla. He had been stopped on his motorbike and found to be wearing an explosives belt and carrying two bombs. His trial began in October.
(AFP, 10/9/10)
2010 Jan 31, Beyonce, pop's reigning diva, earned six Grammys, more than any woman on a single night of the 52-year-old awards show. Taylor Swift won four Grammys.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Jan 31, Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai appealed to Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons and accept Afghan laws as the government and its international allies push a program to entice militants away from the insurgency. Karzai also said that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, is sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one trillion dollars.
(AP, 1/31/10)(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Argentina Tomas Eloy Martinez (75), author and journalist famed for his writings about former President Juan Domingo Peron and his glamorous wife Eva, died.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, An Egyptian security official said 25 Egyptians were arrested on suspicion of planning a bombing attack against Jewish pilgrims in the country and belonging to a militant Islamist group. The suspects, rounded up over the past few weeks in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahlia, were found in possession of explosives and rudimentary rocket warheads.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Ethiopia UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the AU's annual summit in Addis Ababa and again failed to pledge peacekeepers for Somalia. Ban Ki-Moon criticized power-grabs in Africa in a speech to the continent's leaders as Libya's Moamer Kadhafi reluctantly handed over the presidency of the African Union to Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika. The AU agreed to consider a Senegalese proposal to resettle Haiti's earthquake homeless and possibly create a state for them in Africa.
(Reuters, 1/31/10)(AFP, 1/31/10)(Reuters, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, Ten American Baptists were being held in the Haitian capital after trying take 33 children out of Haiti at a time of growing fears over possible child trafficking. Doctors skirted a bureaucratic logjam to save the life of two critically ill child victims of Haiti's earthquake, flying them to US hospitals on a private jet to avoid a military suspension of medical evacuation flights.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir Wamiq Farooq (14), a Muslim boy, died after being struck by a shell fired by police to quell a demonstration by separatists in Srinagar.
(AFP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Jan 31, Mexican President Felipe Calderon arrived in Japan for a three-day visit, as the countries mark 400 years of official ties.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, A Jordanian security official said more than 40 alleged Islamist extremists have been arrested in Jordan since a Jordanian blew himself up in Afghanistan in December, killing seven CIA agents.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, A Libyan appeal court overturned a jail term slapped on Swiss businessman Rashid Hamdani on a charge of overstaying his visa, easing a Tripoli-Bern diplomatic spat.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In New Zealand Xiao Zhen killed Auckland taxi driver Hiren Mohini (39) and then fled to China. Zhen was arrested in Shanghai and tried for murder in 2011. Xiao (24) expressed remorse over the killing, which he said was in self-defense when an argument escalated after he refused to pay Mohini adequate cab fare. On Aug 17 Xiao Zhen was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 8/2/11)(www.police.govt.nz/operation-edgewater-hiren-mohini-homicide)(AP, 8/17/11)
2010 Jan 31, In northwest Pakistan fighter jets and helicopters pounded a district where a suicide bomber in Khar killed 17 people a day earlier. A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Safi, killing two security personnel who were riding in a water tanker. Militants blew up a government-run girls' primary school on the outskirts of the northwestern garrison town of Bannu. State television reported that TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud was dead, reviving rumors that he was killed in a US missile strike in mid-January. But the Taliban denied the report and the army only said it was investigating.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Russia several hundred demonstrators shouting "Shame!" gathered in a central Moscow square, defying a ban imposed by authorities. Moscow police detained dozens of people at an anti-Kremlin protest, including several prominent opposition leaders. A separate demonstration was held by dozens of residents of the Rechnik settlement to protest the demolition of their homes ordered by Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
(AP, 1/31/10)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.57)
2010 Jan 31, In Somalia heavy mortar fire between African Union peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents killed at least 12 civilians and left scores wounded in Mogadishu.
(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Jan 31, Switzerland's justice minister warned in an interview that top bank UBS could collapse if sensitive talks with the US over a high-profile tax fraud investigation fall through.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Davos, Switzerland, the world's foremost gathering of business and government leaders wrapped up a five-day meeting with widespread agreement that a fragile recovery is under way but no consensus on what's going to spur job growth and prevent another global economic meltdown.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 31, Yemen said it would stop its war on Shiite northern rebels only if they agree to a six-point truce offer, including a pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia, as fighting raged on 3 fronts.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan, Angola at this time produced about 1.9 million barrels of oil per day. Its reserves were estimated at 13 billion barrels.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.55)
2010 Jan, In Cuba a cold spell left 26 patients dead at the Havana Psychiatric Hospital. On Jan 31, 2011, over a dozen employees and officials at the hospital were convicted of negligence and sentenced from 5 to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/1/11, p.A2)
2010 Jan, It was reported that German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz have found a way to use electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) to punch holes into steel.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.80)
2010 Jan, Five Iranian exiles issued a Manifesto from abroad calling for the resignation of Pres. Ahmadinejad, fresh elections and the lifting of restrictions on political activity.
(http://garysick.tumblr.com/)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.26)
2010 Jan, A North Korean firing squad publicly executed a factory worker for sneaking news out of the reclusive communist country via his illicit mobile phone.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Jan, Palestine’s Pres. Abbas appointed Leila Ghanem (35) as governor of Ramallah, the first woman to become a Palestinian governor. Ramallah is most important of the West Bank's 10 Palestinian administrative districts.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Jan, Scientists at Russia’s Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions announced internally that they had succeeded in detecting the decay of a new element with Z=117 using the reactions.
(SFC, 4/8/10, p.C5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununseptium)
2010 Jan, Russian authorities confiscated the computers of Baikal Environmental Wave in Irkutsk in an alleged search for pirated software. The group was protesting a decision by PM Putin to reopen a paper factory that had long polluted nearby Lake Baikal. Similar raids in recent years have taken place against dozens of outspoken advocacy groups.
(SSFC, 9/12/10, p.A10)
2010 Jan, In Sudan an attack targeted a convoy travelling from Khartoum to Nyala in South Darfur. JEM rebels killed the convoy commander and 53 soldiers and stole fuel trucks and food supplies. In 2011 a Sudanese court sentenced seven members of a Darfur rebel group to death by hanging for ambushing the convoy.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2010 Feb 1, President Barack Obama unveiled a multitrillion-dollar spending plan, pledging an intensified effort to combat high unemployment and asking Congress to quickly approve new job-creation efforts that would boost the deficit to a record-breaking $1.56 trillion. Obama also made his first YouTube interview and spent about 40 minutes answering about a dozen of over 11,000 questions submitted by YouTube users following his State of the Union address. This included $708 billion requested by the Pentagon for 2011.
(AP, 2/1/10)(SFC, 2/2/10, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/ycfdtxv)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.34)
2010 Feb 1, NASA’s back-to-the-moon program, Constellation, fell victim to budget cuts.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.86)
2010 Feb 1, FBI agents arrested Mohammed Wali Zad, the father of terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi, at his suburban Denver home. A new indictment accused him of conspiring with others to destroy or hide evidence in a foiled NYC terrorism plot.
(SFC, 2/2/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 1, US Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly a ton of marijuana hidden in a banana shipment at a cargo facility near the US-Mexico border. Officers opened boxes in a truck and found 235 packages of pot worth an estimated $1.1 million.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Brazil’s Cosan, a producer of ethanol, unveiled a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell to pool their retail operations.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.73)
2010 Feb 1, China launched a 10-day emergency crackdown on tainted milk products after several were found creeping back onto the market despite a massive scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, It was reported that Cuba has declared a two-month amnesty for citizens to register unlicensed guns. Starting Feb. 12, Cubans will have the "exceptional and one-time only" chance to register their guns with police, and will be allowed to keep them provided they are over 18 and have passed the proper tests administered at police stations.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Egypt’s Parliament amended an antiquities law to bring in stiffer punishments for the theft and smuggling of relics while granting patent rights to the country's antiquities council.
(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Many schools in Haiti's outlying provinces reopened for the first time since an earthquake devastated the nation, though it may take a month or more to open classrooms in the quake-crushed capital.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Iraq a female suicide bomber mingling among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people on the outskirts of the Shiite neighborhood of Shaab.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Israel two barrels, each containing 22 pounds (10kg) of explosives, washed up on Israel's shores late in the day. No one was hurt. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip said the failed attempt to send floating bombs toward Israeli beaches was meant to avenge the mysterious death of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Seven American and European scientists were named winners of Israel's prestigious $100,000 Wolf Prize. Its prize in medicine went to Axel Ullrich of Germany for groundbreaking cancer research that has led to development of new drugs. Sir David Baulcombe of Cambridge University was awarded for agriculture research in defending plants against viruses. The physics prize was shared by US professor John F. Clauser, Alain Aspect of France and Anton Zeilinger of Austria for their work in quantum physics. The mathematics prize was shared by two US-based professors: Shing-Tung Yau for geometric analysis, and Dennis Sullivan for contributions to algebraic topology and conformal dynamics. The Wolf Foundation was founded by the late German-born Dr. Ricardo Wolf, an inventor, philanthropist and former Cuban ambassador to Israel.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Lithuanian PM Andrius Kubilius visited Silicon Valley, San Francisco. He and his delegation met with managers at Oracle Corp., Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard. He also met with one of the most powerful groups in the IT sector, i.e. members of major Venture Capital Association Accel Partners and other IT investors. The participants of the meeting included Ilja Laurs, founder and CEO of GetJar, the only Lithuanian capital company with the head office in the Silicon Valley.
(http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/)(EW)
2010 Feb 1, In Mexico armed men burst into a bar Ciudad Juarez around dawn and killed four men and a woman. Gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 15 in a bar in Torreon, a city in the northern state of Coahuila. A shootout that began in a shopping center and spilled onto a highway in Torreon caused the death of 7 suspected Zetas gunmen and one federal police officer while freeing two kidnap victims. The La Familia gang, strung up about a dozen banners in the western state of Michoacan urging the public at large and other gangs to form a common "resistance" front against the Zetas.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 1, Polish scientists said they have discovered 3 Neanderthal teeth, dating back some 100,000 to 80,000 years, in the Stajnia Cave, north of the Carpathian Mountains.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100201/ap_on_re_eu/eu_poland_neanderthal_teeth)
2010 Feb 1, Officials from the two Koreas met in North Korea to discuss their joint industrial complex just days after an exchange of gunfire at sea emphasized the constant security threat on the divided peninsula.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Hayward, Ca., 2 men were killed outside the Manheim San Francisco Bay auto auction business. On Feb 4 police arrested Karl George Sanft (34) for the slaying of security guard Angelito Erasquin (63) and truck driver Jim Wightman (56). On June 24 Sanft, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, was convicted of two counts of first degree murder. On June 30 a judge ruled that Sanft was legally sane.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.C2)(SFC, 6/25/15, p.D3)(SFC, 7/1/15, p.D7)
2010 Feb 2, In Afghanistan gunmen on a motorcycle killed two associates of Pres. Karzai’s brother.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Australian researchers said they had discovered a gene associated with long-sightedness, a development they said could lead to drug treatments that will replace glasses.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, A remote Bosnian village, home to highly conservative Wahhabi Muslims, was raided by hundreds of police who said they were searching for an unspecified security threat.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Brazil’s government approved the 11 billion dollar Belo Monte project on the Xingu river that will flood 500 square km (193 square miles) and supply 11% of Brazil's electricity. Detractors said the dam in northern Para state will trigger droughts along a 100 km (60 mile) stretch of the Xingu, displace thousands of indigenous people, attract an army of job-seekers, and accelerate the deforestation and destruction of the rain forest.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Ethiopia African leaders wrapped up their annual summit less divided and looking at brighter economic prospects but still facing a raft of conflicts, including Sudan's predicted break-up. An AU official said leaders of the 53-member African Union want Madagascar's rival politicians to stick to the agreements meant to help the Indian Ocean island out of a prolonged crisis.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Germany and Switzerland headed for a fresh spat over banking secrecy after Berlin decided to buy a disc said to hold details of some 1,500 suspected tax-dodgers with funds in Swiss accounts.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Iran said it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the UN.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Kashmir Indian police and Muslim protesters clashed for the second day running over the death of a Muslim boy killed by a police tear-gas shell.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Latvia's government said it will accept one inmate from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, The key witness in a Mafia trial in Sicily told a court that a close ally of PM Silvio Berlusconi had direct links with the former "Boss of Bosses" of the Cosa Nostra.
(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Pakistan 8 missiles fired from US drones killed at least 4 militants in Dattakhel village, in North Waziristan. The death toll from the night time drone attacks, the heaviest ever in terms of the number of missiles fired, soon rose to 31.
(AFP, 2/2/10)(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Saudi Arabia said it will not get involved in peacemaking in Afghanistan unless the Taliban stops providing shelter and severs all ties with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Afghan Pres. Karzai was in Saudi Arabia hoping for an active Saudi role to persuade Taliban militants to switch sides.
(SFC, 2/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 2, UN and Sudanese officials said almost half the population of south Sudan is facing food shortages because of conflict and drought, a fourfold rise in the numbers needing aid since last year.
(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Venezuela deported alleged major drug traffickers to the US and France. Suspected Colombian drug kingpin Salomon Camacho Mora, French smuggling suspect Jean Marie Bonnamy and alleged Colombian paramilitary member Oscar Ospino were ferried to the nation's main airport for deportation.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The US government estimated that health care consumed a record 17.3% of all spending in the US economy last year.
(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 3, In NYC Aafia Siddiqui, a 37-year-old Pakistani-born mother and neuroscientist trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, armed assault, using and carrying a firearm and assault of US officers and employees and faces up to 60 years in prison. Siddiqui was arrested in July 2008 by US forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan on accusation of being a suicide bomber and alleged possession of "chemical and gel substances" for bomb making.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aafia_Siddiqui)
2010 Feb 3, In San Francisco Timothy Syed Anderson (66), billed as a dermatologist, was charged with 51 counts including practicing medicine without a license and grand theft through deception. He had been implicated in fraud in Sweden, before he left the country in 1996.
(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 3, In Vallejo, Ca., Amarjit Kaur (39), a widow raising 3 children, was found shot in the chest and slumped behind the wheel of a Tony’s Ice Cream truck. Two days later a boy (14) was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery. On Feb 18 another boy, Peter Montenegro (15), was charged as an adult in the shooting. Kaur was recovering from her wound. In 2011 Montenegro was sentenced to 7 years to life for attempted murder and 10 years for using a gun.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.C2)(SFC, 11/24/11, p.C3)
2010 Feb 3, In Florida Stephen Schafer (38) died following a shark attack off an Atlantic coast beach about 100 miles north of Miami.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 3, Afghan and NATO forces killed 32 suspected militants in southern Helmand province, the focus an imminent anti-Taliban offensive. Three Afghan soldiers were killed and four others wounded.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 3, New African Union President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi said that food security, transport infrastructure and energy will be his priorities.
(AFP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, "L'homme qui marche I" (Walking Man I), a 1961 life-size bronze statue of a man by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), smashed the world record for an art work at auction, selling in London for £65,001,250.
(AFP, 2/4/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Giacometti)
2010 Feb 3, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Lekang Dairy Company general manager Zhang Wenxue and vice general managers Zhu Shuming and Tong Tianhu have been charged with manufacturing and selling tainted milk powder in the latest crackdown. Xinhua quoted Health Minister Chen Zhu as saying "all melamine-tainted milk products will be found and destroyed," as part of the current 10-day crackdown.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The EU backed Greece's “stability and development" plan to shrink a massive budget gap as "achievable," but warned it would demand tougher cutbacks if Athens does not stick to promised spending curbs and reforms.
(AP, 2/3/10)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.55)
2010 Feb 3, Iran announced it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space. The launch of the rocket Kavoshgar-3, which means Explorer-3 in Farsi, was announced by Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi to mark the National Day of Space Technology.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, An Iraqi appeals court struck down a ban imposed on hundreds of candidates for suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing them to run in next month's election. A bomb planted on a parked motorcycle ripped through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 100, as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims made their way to an important annual Shiite religious observance. Hours earlier, two separate roadside bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims exploded in Baghdad, killing one and wounding seven others. A senior security official said agents arrested 13 suspects believed involved in making explosive belts for suicide attacks.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, Israel announced that British and American architects were named winners of its prestigious Wolf Prize. British architect David Chipperfield was recognized for overseeing the reconstruction of Berlin's Neues Museum in a building that had been abandoned since World War II. American architect Peter Eisenman designed the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, inaugurated in 2005.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The Lithuania’s Ministry of Finance announced that Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services has revised its outlook on Lithuania by increasing it from negative to stable.
(http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/)
2010 Feb 3, Mexico’s Agriculture Dept. said private companies there have begun the first legal plantings of genetically modified corn.
(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 3, At The Hague appeals judges said the International Criminal Court was wrong when it decided that Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir can't be charged with genocide in Darfur. The unprecedented ruling could lead al-Bashir's indictment with humanity's worst crime.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, New Zealand police warned that local teenager (19), who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money, did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal. Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than many countries. Prostitution among consenting adults is allowed in brothels and on the streets, and offering sexual services in print ads and online is also legal.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, In Pakistan a bomb killed 3 US soldiers, 3 children and a Pakistani soldier. 45 people, including 40 school girls, were wounded in the attack outside a girls school near Swat Valley. The Taliban claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks on Americans.
(Reuters, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 2, Somali pirates hijacked a North Korean cargo ship with an unknown number of crew on board. The MV Rim, owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya, was seized in the Gulf of Aden, outside the internationally recommended transit corridor patrolled by the anti-piracy naval coalition. The crew of one Romanian and 9 Syrians fought their way free on June 2 with the help of Ahmed, a pirate cook, who had smuggled food to the crew and then guns.
(AP, 2/3/10)(SFC, 6/19/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 3, South Africa's polygamist Pres. Jacob Zuma confirmed that he recently fathered a child with a woman who is not one of his three wives or fiancee, and criticized those who said his actions undermined the country's campaign against HIV/AIDS. The nation of about 50 million has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, In Sri Lanka thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of the capital to protest the results of the recent presidential election, which they say was marred by fraud.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, The Swiss government approved the resettlement of two Chinese inmates at Guantanamo as part of its commitment to help President Barack Obama's administration close the detention center.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 3, Ukraine's security service said 5 Russian FSB agents were detained last month after being caught trying to obtain confidential military information from a Ukrainian citizen. The FSB said the Ukrainian citizen its agents were working with had himself been apprehended in November while allegedly spying on neighboring Moldova's Moscow-backed breakaway Trans-Dniester republic.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 4, A US federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of Gerardo Castillo Chavez, an alleged drug cartel hit man, after a jury in the Texas-Mexico border town of Laredo acquitted him on a gun charge and deadlocked on other charges. Chavez, also known as "Cachetes" or "Cheeks" in Spanish, was accused of being a member of the Mexican Gulf Cartel's hit squads that killed and kidnapped people in Laredo in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Denver Miguel Angel Caro Quintero (46) was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for racketeering in Colorado and conspiracy to distribute marijuana in Arizona. His Sonora cartel was tied to the 1985 torture and killing of an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 4, The New York Attorney General’s filed civil charges against Bank of America and former CEO Ken Lewis for misleading investors about Merrill Lynch before it acquired the Wall Street firm in early 2009.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.D4)
2010 Feb 4, The US “Tea Party Nation," a decentralized grassroots movement, began its first national convention in Nashville, Tenn. The event’s grand finale was a tirade against Pres. Obama by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.31)
2010 Feb 4, Joseph McStay (40), his wife, Summer (43), and their two children disappeared from their San Diego County home. Their white, 1996 Isuzu Trooper was found four days later in a strip mall in San Ysidro, about 70 miles from their home. In 2013 The bodies of the family were found in a shallow graves near Victorville.
(AP, 2/25/10)(http://tinyurl.com/lllfc82)(SFC, 11/16/13, p.A6)
2010 Feb 4, Australia said it used an anti-weapons of mass destruction law to block three shipments to Iran but calls for new sanctions against the Islamic state opened up a new international divide.
(AFP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Britain's Treasury said it will rush through new legislation after a court ruled the way it freezes the bank accounts of suspected terrorists was unlawful. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled last week that the asset-freezing system was unlawful.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In China two courts in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced 25 people to death for their roles in nine kidnapping cases.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, China told other world powers that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was counterproductive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A Chinese ministry statement ordered schools to sever all ties and cooperation with Oxfam saying school administrators must ban all campus volunteer recruitment efforts run by the group's Hong Kong office. It accused the Hong Kong branch of having a hidden political agenda. Oxfam has operated in mainland China for 20 years and worked in cooperation with the government's poverty alleviation department. Oxfam, a confederation of 14 national organizations that works in about 100 countries, was founded in Britain in 1942.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 4, Dubai's government, under pressure to repay billions of dollars in debt, said it has discovered a new offshore oil field, the first such find by the city-state in decades.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, The Irish Catholic party Sinn Fein halted marathon negotiations to save Northern Ireland's power-sharing government and said it's now up to the Protestant side to accept a compromise deal.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Pakistan protests erupted across the country after a US court convicted a Pakistani scientist of trying to kill US servicemen in Afghanistan. A jury in New York found Aafia Siddiqui (37), a mother and neuroscientist trained, guilty on all charges.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A South Korean news report said the director of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's secret moneymaking "Room 39" bureau has been fired. Analysts said the move may be a way to get around international sanctions. Room 39 is described as the lynchpin of the North's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family. The department is believed to finance his family and top party officials with business ventures, some legitimate and some not, that include counterfeiting and drug-smuggling.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A leading Russian lawmaker said Russia and Western powers have moved closer to agreement on the need for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Romania’s Pres. Traian Basescu says the country's top defense body has approved a US proposal to place anti-ballistic interceptors in Romania as part of a revamped US missile shield. The measure passed the Supreme Defense Council and must be approved by Parliament.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Russia hailed a new agreement with the United States intended to boost joint anti-drug efforts, but urged the US and NATO to do more to stem a flow of drugs from Afghanistan that has sickened millions of Russians.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Sudan 16 people were killed in clashes between south Sudan troops and cattle herders from the northern Messeria tribe in the southern Unity state.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 4, Turkey’s government scrapped its controversial security and public order “Emsya") protocol, which allowed the army to take charge in the provinces when law and order breaks down.
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.56)
2010 Feb 4, Venezuelan police used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter hundreds of students protesting against the government, as Pres. Chavez's supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an army officer.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 5, The US White House increased its criticism of Republican Senators following reports that Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama had placed a blanket hold on more than 70 administration nominees in order to secure funding for home-state projects. On Feb 9 Shelby’s office said he will stop blocking Senate confirmation of some 70 nominees.
(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Alabama a boy (14) was shot by another student inside a middle school in Madison. The victim died at a hospital.
(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 5, In Pennsylvania about 18,000 people turned out before dawn for the 18th Wing Bowl, an eating competition dubbed the world's biggest, and an annual celebration of Philadelphia's raucous sports-crazed culture.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Afghanistan a bomb planted on a motorcycle ripped through a crowd gathered to watch a dog fight in southern Helmand province, killing three people and wounding more than 30. Afghan border police mistook a group of villagers gathering wood near the Pakistan border as insurgents and opened fire, killing seven civilians. US forces detained Atahullah Wahaab, deputy police chief in Kapisa province, for alleged corruption and links to insurgents.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 5, New Zealand explorers said 5 crates of whisky and brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered after being buried for more than 100 years under the Antarctic ice. The excavation of the whisky followed the discovery last month of two blocks of butter in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Defense giant BAE Systems said it had agreed to pay fines of nearly 288 million pounds settle charges brought by Britain's Serious Fraud Office and the US Department of Justice. The fines, 258 million pounds to the DoJ and 30 million pounds to the SFO, related to investigations into BAE deals with countries including Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Romania and South Africa.
(AFP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Britain’s chief prosecutor said 4 British lawmakers will face criminal charges and the prospect of jail for alleged shady accounting practices during Britain's 2009 expense claims scandal. A report issued a day earlier into the expense scandal ordered 392 current and former British legislators to repay a total of 1.12 million pounds ($1.7 million).
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, British actor Ian Carmichael (89) died at his home in northern England. He appeared in a series of comedies for the Boulting Brothers including "Private's Progress," "Brothers in Law," "Lucky Jim" and "I'm All Right Jack." Later in his career he played the upper-class twit Bertie Wooster, and Dorothy L. Sayers suave detective Lord Peter Wimsey, in television series.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 5, Canada and the US said they have reached a tentative deal with to end a dispute over "Buy American" provisions in US legislation that had strained bilateral ties.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, China said it will slap heavy anti-dumping duties on US chicken parts, a move likely to aggravate trade ties between two of the world's most important economies at a time of strained political relations.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Danish special forces disrupted the takeover by Somali pirates of the cargo ship Ariella in the Gulf of Aden. A frogmen unit scaled the sides of the ship using grappling hooks, secured the bridge, released the crew and then launched an hours-long search for a pirate the crew had seen.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In East Timor 20 members of dissident political group CPD-RDTL and underground political organization Bua-Malus were arrested on suspicion of involvement in "ninja" activities.
(AFP, 4/6/10)
2010 Feb 5, Guatemalan police say they have destroyed about 1,200 acres (500 hectares) of opium poppies along the border with Mexico. The plants were valued at $950 million.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Iraq twin car bombs tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims packing a highway as they walked to Karbala south of Baghdad for a major religious observance, killing at least 40 people and wounding 154 others. A roadside bomb struck a bus carrying pilgrims through Baghdad, killing one and wounding 13.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Indian Kashmir paramilitary soldiers charged at a group gathered in a playground in Srinagar, and began firing as they fled, killing Zahid Farooq Shah (17). The incident threatened to enflame protests that have rocked the city following the death of another boy on Jan 31.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Latvia sold a deserted town built around a Soviet-era radar station to a Russian investor who bid $3.1 million at an unusual auction. The town, formerly known as Skrunda-1, housed about 5,000 people during the Cold War but was abandoned over a decade ago.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Mexican authorities said they have found the decapitated bodies of six men in the western state of Michoacan. In central Mexico a landslide killed at least 11 people, adding to 18 deaths this week from severe and unseasonable winter storms that closed schools and freeways and flooded thousands of homes.
(AP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 5, A breakthrough deal to save Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government gave a new lease of life to an awkward partnership of former foes that still must overcome many obstacles to survive. The deal commits the Northern Ireland Assembly to elect a justice minister March 9 and Britain to transfer control of more than 20 criminal justice and law-enforcement agencies to Belfast on April 12.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Pakistan women and children were among the 12 people killed when a suicide attacker rammed a motorbike bomb into a bus carrying Shiites on one of Karachi's busiest roads. A 2nd bomber then killed 13 people, damaging ambulances and the entrance to the casualty department at Jinnah Hospital, where the victims of the first attack were being treated. Police defused a third bomb rigged inside a television and left in the hospital car park. By the next day 8 more people had died bringing the total death toll to 33.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 5, Portuguese police seized a large amount of explosives at a home being used by Basque separatist group ETA as a base to prepare attacks in neighboring Spain.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Russian PM Vladimir Putin criticized his party following an unusually large opposition protest, saying it has fed the country with empty promises.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, A Vietnamese court convicted Tran Khai Thanh Thuy (49), a journalist and democracy activist, of assault and sentenced her to three-and-a-half years in prison in a one-day trial that rights groups said was meant to silence government critics.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Zimbabwe's civil servants launched an open-ended strike, demanding that their wages be increased to at least 630 US dollars, from 150 dollars a month, piling pressure on the strained unity government struggling to fix the economy. Most of Zimbabwe's 230,000 civil servants appeared to have heeded the strike call.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 6, A blizzard battered the US Mid-Atlantic region, with emergency crews struggling to keep pace with the heavy, wet snow that has piled up on roadways, toppled trees and left thousands without electricity. A record 2 1/2 feet or more was predicted for Washington.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans, the first white man to hold the position since his father, Moon Landrieu, left office in 1978.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.A12)
2010 Feb 6, In Colorado 2 small planes collided in flames over Boulder's outskirts and killed all three people aboard, while a glider under tow by one aircraft cut loose and flew through the fireball to safety.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica — the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Australian miner Resourcehouse said it has signed a 60-billion-US-dollar coal deal with energy-hungry China, calling it the country's "biggest-ever export contract." The company said it had negotiated a 20-year agreement to supply China Power International Holding Limited with 30 million tons of coal a year from a proposed mine in central Queensland. The initial report mistakenly identified the Chinese company as China Power International Development (CPI).
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 6, Sir John Dankworth (b.1927), British jazz artist, died in London. His film score credits included “Darling" (1965), “Modesty Blaise" (1966) and the theme of television’s “The Avengers" (1961-1969).
(SFC, 2/8/10, p.C3)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060708/)
2010 Feb 6, G7 finance leaders met for a 2nd day in Iqaluit’s legislative building of Canada's Arctic territory of Nunavut. A senior official said Europe was determined to solve its problems without the International Monetary Fund. G7 countries told earthquake-ravaged Haiti that any debts it owes them needn't be repaid and international lenders should do the same.
(Reuters, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, China’s state media said a man who operated a porn website has been sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined 100,000 yuan (15,000 dollars), amid an ongoing campaign to crack down on online sexual content.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Ethiopia’s official news agency said US software giant Microsoft has launched Windows Vista in Amharic, the first operating system in its national language. 40 scholars from the Addis Ababa University had taken part in the translation of the software for the country of over 80 million people.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Interfax reported that French Pres. Sarkozy has sanctioned the sale of a Mistral amphibious assault ship to Russia.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 6, The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the number of sexual abuse cases in Germany by Catholic clerics and laymen is much higher than was previously thought. According to a poll by Spiegel more than 94 clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995. Only 30 have been prosecuted, due to the statute of limitations.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Iraqi leaders pushed the country's highest court to issue a quick ruling on hundreds of candidates who have been banned from running in March elections, warning that parliament will settle the controversy if the judges don't.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Japanese naval ships returned home at the close of an eight-year refueling mission in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, A Libyan court ordered Max Goeldi, one of two Swiss men entangled in a diplomatic row, to pay an 800-dollar fine for illegal business activities. Fellow businessman Rashid Hamdani was cleared last week of charges of overstaying his visa.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, In Mexico gunmen killed six people at a bar in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state. In Ciudad Juarez authorities announced the arrest of In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of a second suspect in last week's massacre of 15 people, many of them teenagers with no known criminal ties, the second suspect in last week's massacre of 15 people, many of them teenagers with no known criminal ties.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Nigerians voted to choose a governor for the politically turbulent state of Anambra in a race expected to test the country's readiness to hold credible presidential polls next year. The next day the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Peter Obi of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance victor despite glitches and fears the vote would be rigged in favor of President Umaru Yar'Adua's party.
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, The Irish National Liberation Army, a ruthless IRA splinter group responsible for some of Northern Ireland's most notorious killings, said it has surrendered its weapons just days before an Anglo-Irish disarmament deadline is due to expire.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, North Korea released Robert Park (28), who had strode illegally into the country on Christmas Day, shouting "I brought God's love" and carrying a Bible.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Pakistani security forces seized Damadola, a key Taliban stronghold in the northwestern Bajur area. The government had declared the area free of militants a year ago.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, In Rwanda Joseph Ntawangundi, an aide to the leader of the Unified Democratic Party (FDU), was arrested on a 2007 arrest warrant. He had been convicted in absentia for genocide by one of the grassroots courts known as gacaca in eastern Ngoma province. The FDU protested that Ntawangundi, sentence to 19 years in prison, was not in the country during the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 dead. In March he sentenced to 17 years in prison for genocide in a retrial by a local court.
(AFP, 2/8/10)(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Feb 6, In South Korea a giant steel float that will be part of a "floating island" in Seoul boasting off-shore entertainment facilities began a snails-paced trip towards Han River. The three-meter high float, 85 meters long and 49 meters wide, will be part of Viva, one of three artificial islets to be built near the southern end of Banpo Bridge.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Spanish matador Jairo Miguel Sanchez Alonso (16) killed six bulls in one afternoon, pulling off a feat normally attempted only by seasoned veterans and winning trophies for his skill, ears from animals he had just slain.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, Venezuela’s government announced that it will spend $15 billion over the next 5 years to increase electricity production.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 7, The New Orleans Saints capped off an outstanding season with an upset over the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, in Super Bowl XLIV. The Saints' victory over Indianapolis was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in US television history.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 7, In Daly City, Ca., a fight at the Little Caesars Pizza near King and Callan left Jessy Wiley (21) of South San Francisco dead. In 2012 three suspected Norteno gang members were convicted in relation to Wiley’s death.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A2)
2010 Feb 7, In Connecticut an explosion during a test of natural gas lines at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown killed at least 5 workers. The 620-megawatt plant was being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas.
(SFC, 2/8/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 7, In Afghanistan 2 two British soldiers were killed by an explosion in Sangin in Helmand Province, taking the death toll in Afghanistan to 255 since 2001. This raised Britain's death toll to that of the Falklands war.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 7, In Canada Air Force Col. Russell Williams (46) was arrested in Ottawa and charged with first degree murder in the deaths of 2 women. He was also charged in the sexual assaults of 2 other women. In late April Williams was also charged with 82 counts of burglary. On Oct 18 Williams pleaded guilty to more than 80 crimes over more than two years, including murder, sexual assault and burglary.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A2)(SFC, 4/30/10, p.A2)(Reuters, 10/19/10)
2010 Feb 7, Andre Kolingba (73), former Central African Republic general and coup leader (1981-1993), died in Paris.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Kolingba)(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 7, Costa Rica held elections and elected its first woman president. Laura Chinchilla (50), a mother and a social conservative, who opposed abortion and gay marriage, won 47% of the vote after campaigning to continue free market policies. She served as vice president under current Pres. Oscar Arias. Otton Solis of the Citizens Action Party, got 25% of the votes. He and the other main rival, Libertarian Otto Guevara, quickly conceded defeat. Chinchilla’s National Liberation Party was the largest in congress, but held only 24 of 57 seats.
(AP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/8/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.41)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.40)
2010 Feb 7, Newspapers said Toyota will recall 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of brake flaws. Toyota said that it will soon announce plans to deal with braking problems in its prized Prius hybrid amid reports it has decided to issue a recall for the latest model in Japan, a possible new embarrassment for the world's biggest automaker.
(AFP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, India again successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit targets across much of Asia and the Middle East. It was the fourth test of the Agni III missile.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's atomic agency to begin enriching uranium to a higher level, a move that's likely to deepen international suspicion over the country's intentions for its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Iran's state media said Tehran has arrested seven people linked to the US-funded Radio Farda and accused some them of working for American spy agencies.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, A Libyan court dropped a case against Rashid Hamdani, a Swiss businessman for alleged illegal business activities, clearing the way for him to go home after 19 months stuck in the country.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Ukrainians voted between two presidential candidates in a run-off between PM Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich which could push the country into a fresh bout of instability. Yanukovich ended with 48.95% to Tymoshenko's 45.47%, a lead of 3.48 percentage points or some 888,000 votes.
(Reuters, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 8, The US federal government was shuttered while the Mid-Atlantic region dug out from as much as three feet of snow that left tens of thousands without power and blocked trains, planes and cars, with another storm looming.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, The Obama administration said it will spend $78.5 million on efforts to contain the Asian carp, which threatened to endanger the Great Lakes’ $7 billion fishing industry.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, In California a federal judge sentenced Dongfan Chung (74), a Chinese-born engineer, to over 15 years in prison for economic espionage. During his career at Boeing Co. and Rockwell Intl. He had hoarded sensitive information about the space shuttle and a booster rocket and was arrested on Feb 11, 2008, for allegedly passing classified documents to China.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit on what's likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Boeing Co.’s 250-foot 747-8 freighter, the biggest plane it has ever built, successfully completed its first flight from Paine Field, in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, John Murtha (b.1932), Pennsylvania’s Democratic representative, died in Arlington, Va., following complications from gall bladder surgery. He had won a special House election in 1974 to become the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 8, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula number two Said al-Shihri called for attacks against US interests "everywhere," in an audio message released on the Internet.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Australia tightened its migration rules in favor of English speakers and professionals, saying the country has been attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and engineers.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Australia ITV Studios, producer of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here," was fined 3,000 Australian dollars ($2,615) after pleading guilty of animal cruelty after two reality show contestants skinned, cooked and ate a rat during filming in Australia.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 8, Byzantium Novum was founded as a micronation dedicated to the revival of Byzantine civilization and culture.
(www.byzantiumnovum.org)
2010 Feb 8, The China Daily newspaper reported officials have recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia. The current 10–day emergency crackdown has made it increasingly clear that many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued new guidelines to local authorities and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals acquiring .cn domain names. Individuals wanting to set up a website will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 8, In southern China a bus collided with a sport utility vehicle and plunged down a mountain ravine, killing seven people and injuring 50.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Egypt Mahmoud Ezzat, the new deputy leader of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, and two other top figures were among 16 people arrested by police in a dawn sweep across the country targeting members of the nation's most powerful opposition group. They were accused of trying to set up training camps for staging attacks.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 8, French engineering giant Areva said that it will buy Ausra, a Mountain View, Ca., startup specializing in large-scale solar power.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 8, In Haiti the UN warned that it will cut off shipments of free medicine beginning immediately to any Haitian hospitals that it finds are charging patients. Evans Monsigrace (28), a rice vendor, survived 27 days trapped under the rubble of a flea market following the devastating Jan 12 earthquake.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 8, Iran moved closer to being able to produce nuclear warheads with formal notification that it will enrich uranium to higher levels, even while insisting that the move was meant only to provide fuel for its research reactor. The semiofficial ISNA agency said that former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh was sentenced to six years in prison by a Revolutionary court. The defense minister announced that Iran has launched two production lines to build unmanned aircraft with surveillance and attack capabilities.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Iran said it will cut ties with the British Museum because of the museum's failure to lend Tehran the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient Babylonian artifact described as the world's earliest bill of rights.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Israeli security forces raided a Palestinian refugee camp in annexed east Jerusalem, arresting 11 people in an operation police said was aimed at putting "some order" in the area. Israel's Supreme Court ordered authorities to release two foreign activists seized in a Palestinian-controlled part of the West Bank. Ariadna Jove Marti of Spain and Bridgette Chappell of Australia, had been in a pre-dawn raid on their apartment in the heart of Ramallah.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Kashmir 17 Indian soldiers were killed in an avalanche that slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Mexican federal police arrested Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental, suspected leaders of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured in La Paz on Jan. 12. The drug cartel had terrorized Tijuana for several years. The military announced that soldiers had seized more than 12 tons of marijuana found beneath a false floor of a tractor trailer. The drugs were found during a routine search at a checkpoint near San Felipe, a town in the central part of the Baja California peninsula. Federal police arrested five Tijuana police officers along with six cartel members who were holding two rival gangsters captive. The arrests were based on information obtained following the capture of Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental. Two of the officers, Francisco Ortega and Juan Carlos Espinoza, had been recently lauded as part of a new breed of honest cop. 3 marines died in a shootout that also killed three suspected gang members in the border town of Reynosa.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 8, The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a paramilitary group responsible for dozens of murders during Northern Ireland's three decades of sectarian violence, said that it had disarmed.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Pakistani authorities arrested 6 suspected Taliban militants with a suicide vest and hand grenades allegedly on their way to kill Americans at the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in Lahore. Police seized 26 hand grenades and five detonators from the militants, who were traveling by car and motorcycle.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Sri Lanka opposition politician Rauff Hakeem said former army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka has been detained on sedition charges.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Sweden's unemployment agency was found guilty of discrimination for expelling a Muslim man from a job training program because he refused to shake hands with a woman.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, International monitors hailed Ukraine's presidential election as "professional, transparent and honest," increasing pressure on PM Yulia Tymoshenko to concede to opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, who held a 2.7% point lead with all but 1.7% of the ballots cast counted.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez declared a national emergency in the electricity sector as the worst drought in 50 years dried up water supplies in hydroelectric dams.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 8, A Yemen military official said 10 soldiers have been killed, most of them by snipers, and 18 wounded in a fresh outbreak of fighting with Shiite rebels in north Yemen.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, US Federal government offices were closed for a second straight day and utility workers struggled to restore power knocked out by a weekend blizzard.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, California lawmakers called for federal and state investigations into Anthem Blue Cross regarding new rates hikes of as much as 39% for thousands of policyholders statewide. On Feb 13 Anthem announced that it would delay the increase for two months to allow state regulators to conduct a review. On April 29 WellPoint, the parent of Anthem Blue Cross, said it was withdrawing the proposed rate increase and planned to file new rates.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/10, p.C1)
2010 Feb 9, Phil Harris (53), the fishing boat captain whose adventures off the Alaska coast were captured on the television show "Deadliest Catch", died in Anchorage following a massive stroke on Jan 29.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 9, Walter Fredrick Morrison (90), the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, died at his home in Monroe, Utah. Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948. He sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the "Frisbee," with sales surpassing 200 million discs.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Afghanistan US Army soldiers launched a preliminary operation in support of a planned US-Afghan attack on Marjah, the largest Taliban-controlled town in the south. Two NATO service members were killed in separate attacks, including an American who died in a bombing in the south. A French soldier was killed during a gunfight after insurgents attacked an Afghan army convoy being escorted by French troops in the eastern Kapisa province.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Afghanistan massive avalanches roared down a northern mountain pass. The death toll soon reached 171 and it was unclear how many more bodies might be buried in the snow. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said 3,000 people had been trapped in vehicles along the mountain pass at 3,400 meters (11,000) feet.
(AP, 2/9/10)(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 9, Chile’s President-elect Sebastian Pinera named a Cabinet of technocrats to run his government, calling more on political independents than members of the Chilean conservative parties that made him their standard-bearer.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, A Chinese court sentenced activist Tan Zuoren (56), who investigated the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the country's massive 2008 earthquake, to five years in jail for inciting subversion of state power. In 2010 the Sichuan provincial high court upheld the ruling.
(AP, 2/9/10)(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, China said its first national pollution census has mapped nearly 6 million sources of industrial, residential and agricultural waste. The 2-year survey results gave the government one year to shape the next 5-year environmental protection plan.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 9, In Germany GM's Opel unit asked European governments for billions of euros (dollars) in aid even as it formally presented a restructuring plan that will result in some 8,300 job cuts in Europe.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Guatemala Manuel Pop Sun and Reyes Collin Gualip, two former sergeants who belonged to a military squad specializing in counterinsurgency, were arrested for their roles in the 1982 massacre of more than 200 people in the village of Dos Erres in the country's northern Peten region. They were among 17 soldiers in the army's elite Kaibil unit blamed for the bloodshed.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 9, India halted the release of the world's first genetically modified eggplant, saying further study needed to be done to guarantee consumer safety before it could be cultivated in the country.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Indonesian police said 8 people have died after drinking liquor laced with methanol on the country's main island of Java. The victims had bought the drink from the same stall on Feb 5.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level over the vociferous objections of the US and its allies who fear the process could eventually be used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Toyota officials went to Japan's Transport Ministry to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid. The automaker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the US and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan. The total recall amounted to 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Honda Motor Co. added 378,000 US vehicles and 41,000 in Canada to its 15-month-old global recall for faulty air bags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker. The next day 17,000 cars in Japan were added to the list.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 9, Authorities in Malaysia caned three Muslim women for having extramarital sex, making them the first women in the country to receive such punishment under Islamic law. Each woman reportedly received between four and six strokes of a rattan cane.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 9, Nigeria's Parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over for ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, whose absence has stoked unrest.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Pakistan a suicide car-bomber killed 18 people in the Khyber region on the Afghan border. A military helicopter gunship crashed in another part of Khyber, where security forces are fighting militants, killing the two crew. Militants later opened fire on an army rescue party, killing a senior officer and wounding two men.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 9, The UN said in an international appeal that aid groups in Pakistan need nearly $538 million over the next six months to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by army clashes against the Taliban.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Philippine prosecutors filed charges against Andal Ampatuan senior, the head of a powerful clan, and 195 others in the biggest and deadliest murder case since the country's WW II war crimes trials.
(AP, 2/9/10)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.40)
2010 Feb 9, In South Africa a fire raged through the Hope in Christ Home orphanage at Newcastle in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. The blaze killed Sarah Holland, the director and founder of the Hope of Christ Home in KwaZulu-Natal province, along with two adults and eight children between the ages of 4 and 15. Holland died a hero, rescuing nine children as their rural home burned.
(AFP, 2/9/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 9, Sri Lanka's president dissolved the parliament, setting the stage for new elections a day after authorities arrested the leader of the opposition, a move analysts said was meant to prevent him from contesting the vote. The opposition called for countrywide protests after its defeated presidential candidate was arrested for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government while serving as army commander.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Sudan militias raided a Darfur refugee camp, shooting dead two people and injuring at least 10. The raid followed the murder of a militia member's relative who appeared to be searching the camps in Kass, South Darfur for the suspect.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, The US Treasury Department said it was freezing the assets in US jurisdictions of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction firm he runs because of their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 10, Snow, wind and slush hounded eastern commuters as blizzard warnings from Baltimore to New York City heralded the second major storm in a region already largely blanketed by weekend snowfall. Snow was falling from northern Virginia to Connecticut after crawling out of the Midwest, where the storm canceled hundreds of flights and was blamed for three traffic deaths in Michigan.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Charlie Wilson (b.1933), former Texas congressman (1973-1996), died. His deal-making funneled millions of dollars in weapons to Afghanistan to back rebels fighting the Soviet Army. He was also known as “Good Time Charlie" for his reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer. In 2003 George Crile authored “Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times." In 2007 the film “Charlie Wilson's War" starred Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson.
(SFC, 2/11/10, p.A8)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.84)
2010 Feb 10, Bolivia said it has created a space agency to build and launch the country’s first satellite. The government will initially invest $1 million in the Bolivian Space Agency.
(SFC, 2/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 10, In Brazil a TV news helicopter pilot steered his crippled, out-of-control aircraft away from a busy highway in Sao Paulo before crashing in a grassy field during rush hour, losing his own life but avoiding greater casualties. A cameraman onboard was seriously injured.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, A Brazilian health official said 32 elderly people had died in the southeastern city of Santos this week because of a heat wave that has pushed temperatures to unseasonably high levels.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 10, China declared a new food-safety campaign after contaminated milk products from an earlier scandal showed up repackaged in several places around the country, exposing weaknesses in the country's promise to stop such problems from happening again.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Greece a strike by civil servants shut schools and grounded flights across the country, as unions challenged cutbacks aimed at ending a government debt crisis that has shaken the entire European Union.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Iran's top police official says authorities have made a series of arrests of suspected opposition activists before expected Feb 11 protest rallies.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Iraq an American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 10, An Israeli TV station said it has uncovered evidence that Palestinian Authority officials have stolen millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Myanmar a court sentenced Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese-born American, to 3 years of hard labor for carrying a forged identity card, undeclared US currency and for not renouncing his nationality after becoming a US citizen. He was arrested last September when he returned to visit his mother, an imprisoned democracy activist suffering from cancer.
(SFC, 2/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 10, Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan removed the powerful justice minister in his first major step since assuming executive powers in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Outgoing Justice Minister and Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa had been among the group of ministers who held out most strenuously against formally transferring power to Jonathan.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Pakistan's top civilian security official said Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has died. It was the government's first categorical confirmation of Mehsud’s death, whose passing is likely to weaken, but not vanquish, the al-Qaida-linked insurgent network he led. On April 29 intelligence officials reversed claims that Mehsud had died, handing militants something of a propaganda victory.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Somalia at least 11 civilians were killed when African Union forces in Mogadishu responded to an insurgent mortar attack on their base. At least four security personnel and a civilian were killed when two groups of security officers fought over where to collect their salaries.
(AFP, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Sri Lanka opposition supporters protesting the arrest of their defeated presidential candidate scuffled with government-backers on the streets of Colombo before police fired tear gas and broke up the clashes.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Sudan Mohamed Musa (23), a Darfuri student, was abducted in Khartoum and later found dead. Fellow students later said they had seen his body, that his hands were burned, his head and body beaten, cut and swollen and his clothes soaked in blood.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 10, Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich called on defeated rival Yulia Tymoshenko to resign as prime minister, turning up the pressure even as her camp contested the result of the Feb 7 presidential election.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Uruguay former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, in office from 1971 to 1976, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating the constitution when he led a 1973 coup that began 12 years of dictatorship.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 10, Vietnam’s central bank devalued its currency, the dong, by 3.4%. This followed a devaluation of 5.4% last November.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.59)
2010 Feb 10, Twelve Yemeni soldiers and 24 Shiite rebels were killed in clashes despite the announcement of an imminent accord to end six months of fighting.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The US military used a laser gun aboard a Boeing 747 jumbo jet to shoot down a missile near Point Mugu, Ventura County, Ca. The airborne laser program began in 1996 and has cost billion of dollars.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 11, A Taliban suicide bomber wearing a border police uniform entered a US military base near the Pakistani border and blew himself up injuring five Americans. A joint Afghan-NATO force killed several insurgents during a raid on a compound where troops discovered the bodies of two men and two bound and gagged women. Family members accused US soldiers of killing innocent civilians.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 11, In the Antarctic Ocean Sea Shepherd protesters shot butyric acid, produced from stinking rancid butter, at Japanese whalers to try to disrupt the annual whale hunt. The activists maintained that butyric acid is nontoxic.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Australia a shadowy group of cyber-activists succeeded in jamming key Australian government websites for a second consecutive day and warned they could shut down the sites for months in protest over controversial plans to filter the Internet. Codenamed "Operation: Titstorm", the hacking campaign involved hundreds of people from around the world and used a technique called Distributed Denial of Service to jam web traffic.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Brazil gunfire erupted in a Rio de Janeiro slum, killing at least seven suspected drug traffickers and a policeman a day before the Carnival celebrations kick off. Jose Roberto Arruda (57), the governor of Brasilia, was detained after a witness in a corruption investigation accused the governor of trying to bribe him.
(AP, 2/11/10)(Econ, 2/27/10, p.43)
2010 Feb 11, Volkswagen announced it was recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in Brazil because of a problem with the rear wheels that could cause them to seize or fall off.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen (40) was found dead at his London home. McQueen received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, when she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion leadership. A Feb 17 coroner’s report gave the cause of the fashion designer's death as asphyxiation and hanging.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 11, Christopher Grady (41) drove his car into the freezing into the River Avon in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, while his daughter was in the passenger seat. Gabrielle was trapped inside the submerged car for two hours and died three days later in hospital. His then six-year-old son Ryan Grady, survived after being rescued from the water by police. On March 18, 2011, Christopher Grady was convicted of murdering his daughter.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2010 Feb 11, In Ecuador tens of thousands of protesters crowded into downtown Guayaquil, answering a call from the mayor of Ecuador's biggest city to demonstrate against the national government. Mayor Jaime Nebot, a conservative, accused President Rafael Correa of trying to build a system that Nebot called a copy of Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Indonesia's former anti-graft chief, Antasari Azhar (56), was convicted of plotting the murder of a businessman and sentenced to 18 years in prison, in a case that has undermined the country's fight against corruption.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the US imposed new sanctions. Hundreds of thousands of government supporters massed in central Tehran to mark the anniversary of the revolution that created Iran's Islamic republic, while a heavy security force that fanned across the city moved quickly to snuff out counter protests by the opposition.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Iraqi interior minister said he had expelled 250 ex-employees of the American security firm Blackwater, whose guards were charged with killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Opponents of Israel's contentious separation barrier in the West Bank scored a long-awaited victory when the government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of a Palestinian village that has become a symbol of anti-wall protests and the site of frequent clashes. A Palestinian militant was killed and two young girls wounded by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Italy's Fiat SpA and Russian automobile company Sollers announced a euro2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) joint venture to produce up to 500,000 vehicles per year in Russia in a bid to become the country's second-largest car maker.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, A Libyan appeal court reduced the 16-month jail sentence of Max Goeldi, a Swiss businessman, for overstaying his visa to four months.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Pakistan a double bombing targeted police killing up to 15 people and wounding 25 others in the northwestern town of Bannu.
(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Philippines launched a European-funded program to reduce the country's large number of extralegal killings and disappearances of activists, journalists and union workers. The EU has pledged euro3.9 million ($5.36 million) for the EU-Philippines Justice Support Program to provide technical aid and training to bolster the country's criminal justice system.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Russian government forces killed 4 innocent civilians in the North Caucasus. 4 garlic pickers died along with 18 suspected Islamic militants in a three-day shootout in the mountainous forests that straddle the North Caucasus provinces of Ingushetia and Chechnya.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Saudi religious police launched a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to the banned celebrations of Valentine's Day.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Spain Roberto Florez Garcia (44), a former Spanish intelligence officer, was convicted of trying to sell secrets to Russia and imprisoned for 12 years. Garcia worked at Spain's intelligence headquarters from 1991 to 2004, when he quit. He was arrested on the Canary island of Tenerife in 2007 and went on trial in January.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Sri Lankan police swinging batons dispersed a crowd protesting the detention of the defeated opposition presidential candidate, former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who appealed to his supporters for calm.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Tanzania a UN tribunal found former Rwandan Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi guilty of exhorting a crowd to kill Tutsis and destroy their homes during the 1994 genocide that ripped through the Central African nation. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Thai prosecutors said they have dropped charges against the five-man crew of an aircraft accused of smuggling weapons from North Korea, saying the men, arrested on Dec 12, might be guilty but would be deported to preserve good relations with their home countries. The decision was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 12, In Alabama Amy Bishop (42), a biology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, gunned down three of her colleagues during a faculty meeting in an apparent tenure dispute. On Sep 11, 2012, Bishop pleaded guilty to killing her colleagues. On Sep 24 she was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/13/10)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A8)(AP, 9/24/12)
2010 Feb 12, In Oregon Jeffrey Grahn (46), an off-duty sheriff’s sergeant, shot and killed his wife and another woman before fatally shooting himself at a bar in Gresham.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A8)
2010 Feb 12, In Pennsylvania Max Ray Vision, formerly Max Ray Butler, of San Francisco was sentenced to 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $27.5 million to the banks and credit card companies that he victimized. In 2009 Butler (36) had identified himself in court as “Max Vision," the name he gave himself in the 1990s when he became a superstar in the computer security community.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.D1)(www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/butler_court/)
2010 Feb 12, Afghan and US troops fought back small-scale attacks by Taliban fighters on the northern outskirts of Marjah, as tribal elders pleaded for NATO to finish its planned attack on the Taliban stronghold quickly and carefully to protect civilians. Cars and trucks jammed the main road out Marjah as hundreds of civilians defied militant orders and fled the area ahead of the anticipated US-Afghan assault. A joint international-Afghan patrol fired on two men mistakenly believed to be insurgents in Gardez, south of Kabul. 3 women were "accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men." NATO confirmed its responsibility for the 5 deaths on April 4.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(SFC, 4/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 12-2010 Feb 13, A massive iceberg, about the size of Luxembourg, struck Antarctica, dislodging another giant block of ice from the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 12 In Azerbaijan lawmakers revised the country’s media laws to forbid journalists from filming, recording or photographing subjects without their permission.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 12, In Brazil the World's Greatest Party opened, but the everything-goes atmosphere of Carnival that has turned Rio de Janeiro into a giant oceanside den of debauchery was under assault. Amid the law-and-order makeover, a 7-year-old girl prepared to samba before a crowd of thousands as a Carnival drum corps queen.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, The XXI Olympic Winter Games began in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the Olympics' first-ever indoor opening ceremony. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a horrific crash on a training run, casting a shadow as Vancouver opened the Winter Olympic Games with a daredevil snowboarder, an aboriginal welcome, and Wayne Gretzky lighting the cauldron.
(AP, 2/12/10)(Reuters, 2/13/10)(SFC, 2/22/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 12, China raised the level of reserves banks must hold for the second time this year, spooking financial markets on the eve of its New Year holiday by showing it was intent to curb lending and inflation.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 12, In India thousands of devout Hindus bathed in the waters of the Ganges river as part of the Kumbh Mela, often described as the world's largest religious gathering. The festival began on January 13 in Haridwar, a temple-filled town at the foothills of the Himalayas where the Ganges river enters the sprawling plains of northern India. The festival ends April 28.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, In India Rouvanjit Rawla (12), a pupil at the prestigious La Martiniere for Boys school in the eastern city of Kolkata, hanged himself in his room after being caned for bringing stink bombs into class. Illegal but often tolerated, caning was rife in India's school system, but the suicide of the pupil after a beating brought the practice out of the shadows.
(AFP, 7/03/10)(http://tinyurl.com/29t956x)
2010 Feb 12, In Iraq a joint raid by American and Iraqi security forces on suspected weapons smugglers in the village of Ali al-Sharqi near the Iranian border left at least five people dead. The troops were searching for weapons allegedly smuggled across the border by suspected Iranian-backed Kateb Hezbollah fighters.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 12, Ivory Coast Pres. Laurent Gbagbo declared that he is dissolving the government and election commission. The move threw into doubt a political reconciliation process that had former rebels serving in top ministerial posts.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 12, Palestinian officials rallied around Rafiq Husseini, the chief of staff to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after a video surfaced showing him in the nude in an alleged attempt to trade his influence for sex. Pres. Abbas fired Husseini on April 7.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Feb 12, The WHO said a cholera outbreak on Papua New Guinea has killed at least 40 people over the last several months.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 12, Russian officials said that at least 14 suspected Islamic militants had been killed and one police officer wounded in two days of fighting in the southern province of Ingushetia.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 12, In Somalia at least eight people, including a six-year-old, were killed as mortars pounded Mogadishu during an attack on government soldiers by al-Shabab fighters. Hundreds of residents fled Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, A senior Yemeni official accused northern rebels of violating a cease-fire agreement hours after it took effect, killing a soldier and wounding another in an attack on a police station.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 13, In California, South African Chris Bertish won the $50,000 first prize at the 7th Mavericks Surf Contest north of Half Moon Bay. Earlier in the day a series of waves crashed into some of the thousands of fans who had flocked to a beach to try to see the action.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 13, In Alaska an avalanche near Seward buried Jim Bowles, head of Conoco Phillips Alaska and Alan Gage, part of the company’s capital projects team. They were among a party of 12 snowmobilers.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 13, Thousands Afghan soldiers and US Marines stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by air and ground, meeting only scattered resistance but facing a daunting thicket of bombs and booby traps that slowed their advance. NATO reported two troop casualties, an American and a Briton, on the first day of the offensive, called "Moshtarak," or "Together."
(AP, 2/13/10)(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Canada on the opening day of Olympic competition Vancouver police in riot gear confronted more than 200 masked protesters who hurled newspaper boxes through display windows of a popular department store selling Olympic souvenirs. Guillame Joseph-Marc Beaulieu (27) led a group of about 100 black-masked anarchists who spray-painted vehicles and smashed storefront windows as they marched. On Feb 16 police reported his arrest. Beaulieu, charged with mischief, had also led a group that blocked a street and forced organizers to re-route a relay transporting the Olympic flame to the opening ceremonies.
(AP, 2/13/10)(Reuters, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 13, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned his people to keep a "sober mind" about the challenges ahead in the new year as the country welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Tiger with noisy celebrations. Feb 14 officially marked the first day of the Lunar new Year.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, French transport and utility group Veolia was given the green light to run passenger trains in France in competition with national rail operator SNCF.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In India a terror attack took place at the German Bakery restaurant in the western city of Pune. The death toll reached 17 people with some 60 others injured. A group called Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi claimed responsibility in response to India's "refusal" to discuss the disputed region of Kashmir. A terror cell responsible for the attack was broken up in 2011.
(AFP, 2/13/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)(AP, 11/30/11)
2010 Feb 13, Fourteen Indian border guards were suspended for suspected involvement in the Feb 5 shooting death of Zahid Farooq Shah (17) in the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Indonesia contestants took part in the Social Cultural Transvestite Queen beauty pageant in Banda Aceh, Aceh province. The transvestite beauty pageant was held for the first time in the country's only province that officially adopted Islamic sharia law.
(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Iraq about 10 rockets struck Camp Sparrowhawk near Amarah early in the morning, injuring two Iraqi soldiers and damaging equipment.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Italian police said they have confiscated 500,000 tons of counterfeit goods discovered in eight industrial hangars on the outskirts of Rome. Once labeled with Italian brands, They would have brought in several million euros for the counterfeiters. The goods were suspected of being imported from China.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Italy an Egyptian youth, Hamed Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Essayyed Abdou, was stabbed to death in Milan in a killing blamed on Peruvian and Ecuadorian youths. 36 Egyptians and one Ivorian national were detained following a rampage by around 100 North Africans.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 13, Ivory Coast's opposition declared it would no longer recognize Laurent Gbagbo as president, a move likely to complicate his efforts to form a new government.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Mexico hundreds of people marched against the drug gang violence besieging the border city of Ciudad Juarez, gathering at a bridge where they simulated the massacre of a group of teenagers last month. Police, meanwhile, found the bullet-ridden bodies of five men, missing since Feb 6., in a town in the southwestern corner of Chihuahua state. A decapitated body was found dumped beside the highway leading into Acapulco.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Myanmar Tin Oo (82), the deputy leader of the pro-democracy party, was released by the military regime after almost seven years in detention and said he hoped the party's leader Aung San Suu Kyi would also soon gain freedom.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least 20 bus passengers were killed in Port Harcourt when a cable fell onto the bus and electrocuted the people inside.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, This day marked a new year according to the Chinese calendar, as it moved from the reign of the Ox to the year of the Tiger. The Chinese calendar is thought to have been formulated around 500 BC, though elements of it date back at least to the Shang Dynasty at around 1,000 BC.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/yearofthetigerallaboutthechinesezodiac)
2010 Feb 14, Billionaire Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp., and the crew of his trimaran USA-17 won the America’s Cup after winning a 2nd race against Swiss biotech magnate Ernesto Bertarelli in the 39-mile course off Valencia, Spain.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 14, In Arizona a helicopter crashed north of Phoenix killing 5 people onboard including Thomas Stewart (64), the head of Services Group of America.
(SFC, 2/16/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 14, An apartment fire in Cicero, Ill., killed at least 7 people including 4 children. The fire spread to nearby buildings and over 20 people were left homeless. On March 4 landlord Lawrence Myers (60) and handyman Marion Comier (47) were each charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A9)(www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2085374,CST-NWS-fire05.article)
2010 Feb 14, Doug Fieger (57), leader of the power pop band The Knack, died in southern California. He sang on the 1979 hit "My Sharona." Fieger, a Detroit-area native, formed The Knack in Los Angeles in 1978.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 14, John Thorbjarnarson (52), crocodile advocate, died. In 1988 he drew up an action plan to save crocodiles. All 23 species were threatened or declining.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.95)
2010 Feb 14, Twelve Afghans, including 6 children, died when two rockets fired at insurgents missed their target and struck a house during the second day of NATO's most ambitious effort yet to break the militants' grip on the country's dangerous south. Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops encountered pockets of resistance, as they moved deeper into Marjah, a town of 80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network in Helmand province. Afghan officials said at least 27 insurgents have been killed in the operation. In the south two British service members died, one from small-arms fire and the other from a roadside bomb explosion.
(AP, 2/14/10)(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 14, British documentary filmmaker Paul Martin (55) was detained at a Gaza military tribunal where he was to testify on behalf of a local man accused of collaborating with Israel. Hamas officials said that he would detained for 15 days. Martin was released on March 11.
(AP, 2/15/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 14, British author Dick Francis (b.1920), a former jockey whose thrillers rode high in best-selling lists for decades, died at his Caribbean home in Grand Cayman. His first book was a 1957 autobiography titled “The sport of Queens." His first novel, “Dead Cert," came out in 1962 and was followed by 41 more.
(AFP, 2/14/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Francis)(SFC, 2/15/10, p.C3)
2010 Feb 14, In Canada Alexandre Bilodeau, skiing under huge pressure, finally won Canada's first Olympic gold on Cypress Mountain when he snatched victory in a thrilling finale to the men's freestyle moguls.
(Reuters, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, Iraqi officials said only one in five candidates accused of being loyalists to Saddam Hussein's regime successfully fought an order banning them from running in the national elections. Armed assailants in Mosul killed Rayan Salem Elias, a Chaldean, outside his home.
(AP, 2/14/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 14, Kuwait's state news agency said the Kuwaiti telecom group Zain has agreed to offload its African assets to India's Bharti Airtel, in a deal valued at $10.7 billion.
(Reuters, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, In New Zealand Department of Conservation workers found 9 whales dead on Stewart Island's West Ruggedy Beach after they were alerted by a passer-by. Wild seas and strong winds made it impossible to mount a rescue for 19 survivors. Conservation officials were forced to euthanize the animals.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 14, In Singapore the Resorts Worlds Centosa casino complex opened.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/4ep2owf)
2010 Feb 14, South Korea’s Samsung, the world's second-biggest handset maker, unveiled its first phone to use its own new operating system, called 'bada'.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 14, Ukraine's election commission proclaimed pro-Russian Victor Yanukovych the official winner of the presidential poll, even as his rival Yulia Tymoshenko vowed to contest the results in court.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, Venezuelan authorities said they have discovered 28 airplanes on the outskirts of El Sombrero that were presumably being used by drug traffickers. Federal police and National Guard troops took control of the hangar and impounded the planes.
(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, A Yemeni military helicopter crashed killing at least 10 troops in the north, as the government sought to implement a ceasefire with Shiite rebels in the mountainous area.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 15, The US Federal Housing Administration adopted home-valuation reforms, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct" (HVCC) that were implemented last year by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite complaints by real estate agents, home buyers and sellers, mortgage brokers and appraisers.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/yesbts6)
2010 Feb 15, Astronauts successfully attached a fancy new observation deck to the International Space Station after a long, frustrating night spent dealing with stuck bolts and wayward wiring.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In New Jersey a small plane crashed at Monmouth Executive airport killing 5 people aboard.
(SFC, 2/16/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 15, Art Van Damme (b.1920), jazz accordionist, died. From 1945 to 1960 he worked for NBC, performing on The Dinah Shore Show, Tonight, The Dave Garroway Show and other radio and TV shows with Garroway. He recorded 130 episodes of the 15-minute The Art Van Damme Show for NBC Radio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Van_Damme)
2010 Feb 15, Jeanne M. Holm, the first woman to rise to the rank of general in the US Air Force and the first woman to become a two-star general in any US armed service, died in Annapolis, Md.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.C5)
2010 Feb 15, In Afghanistan sniper teams attacked US Marines and Afghan troops across the Taliban haven of Marjah, as several gun battles erupted on the third day of a major offensive to seize the extremists' southern heartland.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Antarctic waters Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based Sea Shepherd activist group, jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski with the stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the ship's captain and presenting him with a $3 million bill for the destruction of a protest ship last month. The Japanese government said Bethune will be charged with trespassing and assault and tried under Japanese law.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Belgium two commuter trains collided head-on after one ran a stop light at rush hour in a Brussels suburb, killing at least 18 people and injuring 55.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Brazil Julia Lira, Rio's 7-year-old Carnival drum corps queen, danced at the front of the samba parade. She didn't like the cameras that homed in on her, and reacted as any child might, by having a good cry.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In London, England, a 33-year-old man was arrested after the body of a Saudi man (32) was discovered at the prestigious Landmark Hotel in the Marylebone area. The suspect claimed to be a member of the Saudi royal family. Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was soon charged for the killing of Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz. On Oct 19 the prince was convicted of murder. Photographs of Abdulaziz stored on a mobile phone had shown that there was a "sexual element" to the abuse.
(AFP, 2/17/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Feb 15, British Airways said it would use low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014 once Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant was built by US biofuels specialist Solena Group. A plant to be built in London will convert 500,000 tons of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel annually.
(AFP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Canada PM Harper began a 2-day visit to Haiti and said his country will build the Haitian government a temporary base.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, A Montreal financial adviser convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, like the one that landed Bernard Madoff in jail for life, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Bertram Earl Jones was accused of swindling investors out of as much as C$50 million ($46.7 million).
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Congo’s Radio Okapi, a UN-run station, said Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed at least 27 people in eastern Congo already this month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Dubai police held a stunning news conference and blamed the Jan 19 slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on a team of 10 men and one woman carrying passports from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Spain, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Apple announced its new Windows Phone 7 software. Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile handsets, said it would merge its Linux Maemo software platform, used in its flagship N900 phone, with Intel's Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-sourced software, to create a new platform, MeeGo. The software deal was set to boost Intel's chances of getting its chips into the cellphones of the Finnish company, which controls around 40% of the global phone market.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)(SFC, 2/16/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 15, In eastern India suspected armed Maoist rebels riding motorcycles killed at least 24 policemen in a daring gun and bomb attack on a security camp. Two Maoist guerrillas were also killed in the raid in West Bengal state's Midnapore district.
(AFP, 2/15/10)(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Iraq greengrocer Fatukhi Munir was gunned down inside his Mosul shop in a drive-by shooting.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 15, Israel's PM Netanyahu called for "crippling sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear program after a meeting in Moscow with Russia's top officials, whom he praised for showing "an understanding" over the issue.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Libya suspended the issuing of entry visas to European citizens apart from British nationals. Italy's foreign ministry confirmed the measure and said it was in retaliation for Switzerland's recent decision to publish a blacklist of 180 Libyans banned from entering the country.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Myanmar sentenced four activists to prison terms with hard labor as special UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana arrived to assess progress on human rights in the country. The four women were arrested last October after being accused of offering Buddhist monks alms that included religious literature.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yara, a Norwegian fertilizer maker, agreed to pay $4.1 billion for Terra, an American company. This would extend Yara’s lead as the world’s biggest maker of nitrogen-based fertilizer.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.62)
2010 Feb 15, In Pakistan a suspected US drone fired a missile at a vehicle in the northwest, killing three people in the second such strike in as many days.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Spain said it is willing to take in five inmates from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, not just the two it had announced last month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Cyclone Rene battered Tonga with powerful winds, cutting phone links, ripping off roofs and downing power lines in the South Pacific island nation.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yemeni Shiite rebels handed over the first of five Saudi soldiers held captive since their border war.
(AFP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Simon Property Group Inc sought to pluck General Growth Properties out of bankruptcy, offering to pay $7 billion to creditors and nearly $3 billion to shareholders in a deal that would combine the two largest U.S. shopping mall owners.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.64)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F2JS20100216)
2010 Feb 16, In New Jersey Shamsid-Din Abdul-Raheem (21) threw his 3-month-old daughter off the Garden State Parkway Driscoll Bridge after the mother filed a restraining order against him. The body of the infant was found on April 24.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 16, William Gordon (b.1918), American astronomer, died. He designed the Arecibo radio telescope, completed in 1963, in Puerto Rico.
(Econ, 2/27/10, p.87)
2010 Feb 16, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez issued a decree seeking to control all shipping to and from the Falkland Islands, escalating her fight with Britain over drilling for oil and gas in the South Atlantic.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 16, In Austria 14 countries and the European Commission adopted the Danube River Basin Management Plan, a cleanup plan for the Danube River and its tributaries. Participating countries included Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Canada Maelle Ricker thrilled a rowdy hometown crowd and easily won the women's Olympic snowboard cross title, bagging the first gold for a Canadian woman on home soil.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Jorge Puello, who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the 10 Americans jailed in Haiti, acknowledged in a phone interview from the Dominican Rep., that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States. He was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police said he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member European hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander on Jan 19 in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region said it would allow sponsor Russia to build a military base on its soil for land troops, strengthening the region's dependence on Moscow and provoking ire from Tbilisi..
(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F3JE20100216)
2010 Feb 16, Greek customs officials and finance ministry employees walked off the job for a 3-day strike as protests grew against the government’s austerity measures, which aimed at pulling the country out a debt crises.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 16, In Guinea a decree said that Cmdr. Claude Pivi will stay on as minister in charge of presidential security. Pivi is considered a rogue commander who is accused of torturing civilians, including a group of students he arrested outside a nightclub after discovering the side mirror on his SUV was missing. Lt. Col. Moussa Tiegboro was appointed to a special ministerial post within Gen. Sekouba Konate's office. Tiegboro has been named in a UN investigation as one of the principle actors behind a Sept. 28 massacre of at least 157 unarmed civilians.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shrugging off international concerns, announced the country was moving ahead to expand its nuclear enrichment capacities by installing more advanced machinery at its main enrichment facility.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Iraq Zia Toma (21), an engineering student, was killed in Mosul, the third in as many days, as community leaders warned of rising violence against the minority ahead of Iraq's March 7 general election. The gunman also wounded pharmacy student Ramsin Shmael (22), both Assyrian Christians.
(AFP, 2/16/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 16, Mexican authorities found the decapitated bodies of five men in the town of Escuinapa, Sinaloa state. 2 of the heads were missing their ears and two more had a "Z" carved on their backs in an apparent reference to the Zetas drug gang.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Mozambique state media reported that a mob attacked health workers in a town in the northern town of Macoroja, killing one and injuring three others, after accusing them of spreading cholera.
(AFP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it was freezing executive pay and revamping bonus policy in the wake of a shareholder rebellion at its annual meeting last year.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Pakistani intelligence officials said the Taliban's top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's No. 2 leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured some days ago in Karachi.
(AP, 2/16/10)(Reuters, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Sudan gunmen attacked a police convoy outside Nyala in south Darfur, wounding seven Pakistani police officers serving with the UN-AU force. 2 people were soon arrested in connection with an ambush.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 16, Thailand officials said tests conducted by the government have found that British-made bomb detectors it bought for a total of $21 million have an accuracy rate of only 20 percent, but they will continue to be used.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, UN Sec. General Ban Ki-moon announced that the int’l. convention banning cluster bombs has received the 30 ratifications required and will enter into force on August 1.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 17, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq a new name, "Operation New Dawn," effective Sept 1, to reflect the reduced role US troops will play in securing the country this year as troop levels fall.
(http://tinyurl.com/3dhn288)
2010 Feb 17, San Francisco police along with state and federal agents arrested 28 suspected gang members in a daylong operation to clear the “worst of the worst" off the streets.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.C4)
2010 Feb 17, In Palo Alto, Ca., a Cessna 310 crashed into a neighborhood after takeoff from the fogged-in Palo Alto Airport, killing all 3 people aboard. 4 houses were damaged, but no one on the ground was injured. Pilot Doug Bourn (56), Brian Finn (42) and Andrew Ingram (31) worked for Tesla Motors Inc.
(SFC, 2/18/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 17, It was reported that a mysterious illness was killing brown pelicans along the northern California coast. Some 100 birds were in for treatment at the Int’l. Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Some 300 others found treatment at the center’s San Pedro branch. Biologists on Feb 22 said stormy weather had caused the disappearance of prey in stirred up waters possible due to El Nino and recent big storms.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.C2)
2010 Feb 17, Military commanders raised the Afghan flag in the bullet-ridden main market of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Marjah as firefights continued to break out elsewhere in the town between holed-up militants and US and Afghan troops. Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal said about 40 insurgents have been killed since the offensive began Feb 13. Four NATO service members have been killed, and one Afghan soldier.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 17, In Brazil the Unidos da Tijuca samba group was crowned champion of the Rio Carnival parades for the first time in more than seven decades. Viradouro, which chose a 7-year-old as a drums corps queen, placed last out of 12 schools in the drum corps category, and scored even lower in the float category.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 17, France's Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy made the first visit ever by a French president to Haiti, once his nation's richest colony. Sarkozy said France will cancel Haiti’s 56 million in debt and pledged hundreds of millions in aid for the catastrophic Jan 12 earthquake.
(AP, 2/17/10)(SFC, 2/18/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 17, In Haiti 8 American missionaries were freed from jail and left for Miami, nearly three weeks after being arrested trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country. Group leader Laura Silsby and her former nanny Charisa Coulter remained in jail.
(AP, 2/17/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 17, In Iraq the bullet-riddled body of Assyrian Christian student Wissam George (20) was recovered in Mosul after he went missing the same morning.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 17, In Myanmar Gaw Thita, a Buddhist monk, was quietly sentenced to seven years in prison violating immigration laws by taking a trip to Taiwan last year.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 17, Pakistan's government was forced into an embarrassing U-turn, withdrawing the recent appointments of top judges that sparked a showdown with the Supreme Court and a fresh crisis in the country. Police in Karachi arrested a suspected Taliban commander. He was identified as Abdullah, also known as Abu Waqas, a commander from the Bajaur region on the Afghan border. Unknown gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying militants in the Kurrum region on the border, killing six Taliban and wounding two. A US drone fired a missile into the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, killing at least three militants.
(AFP, 2/17/10)(Reuters, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 17, A court in Sri Lanka freed 14 men held on suspicion of plotting a coup with opposition leader and ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka.
(AFP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 18, President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama at the White House, brushing aside China's warning that talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could further damage strained Sino-US ties.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Pres. Obama created a bipartisan debt-reduction commission.
(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 18, The Obama administration ratcheted up pressure on health insurers, saying some planned double-digit rate hikes while making billions in profits and paying executives multimillion-dollar salaries.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, An absent-minded attendee at the Republican National Committee (RNC) confab in Boca Grande, Florida, left a 72-page document from its 2010 strategizing session in a hotel room. The memo tracks the fundraising presentation that RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart delivered to the RNC's $2,500-a-head annual retreat and revealed a GOP plan to use scare tactics to raise money. This became public on March 4.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100304/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1217)
2010 Feb 18, US researchers unveiled a vehicle that earns money for its driver instead of guzzling it up in gasoline and maintenance costs. The presentation of the box-like, unassuming looking Scion was the researchers' way of introducing the "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) concept as it begins to gain momentum in the United States and around the world.
(AFP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Texas Joe Stack (b.1956), a software engineer, committed suicide by slamming his single-engine Piper PA-28 into an Austin office building that houses the IRS. One person was missing and 13 were injured. Stack felt the federal government, especially its tax code, had robbed him of his savings and destroyed his career while allowing corrupt executives to walk away with millions.
(AP, 2/19/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 18, It was reported that a new type of computer virus is known to have breached almost 75,000 computers in 2,500 organizations around the world. The virus, known as "Kneber botnet," gathers login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and email systems from infested computers and reports the information back to hackers.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Microsoft won unconditional European Union approval for its planned search deal with Yahoo Inc to challenge market leader Google.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, The Afghan Interior Ministry said a NATO airstrike aimed at insurgents missed its target, killing 7 policemen in northern Kunduz province. Another Afghan official said Pakistan has captured two "shadow governors" belonging to Afghanistan's Taliban movement. The Afghan governor for Kunduz said Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Mohammad, respectively the shadow governors of the northern Afghan provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan happened in Pakistan's Baluchistan province and were captured about a week ago. 9 militants linked to al-Qaida were nabbed overnight near Karachi. Six coalition troops were killed in the assault on Marjah, making it the deadliest day since the offensive began. The death toll so far is 11 NATO troops and one Afghan soldier.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, London police released Ray Gosling, a veteran British TV reporter, on bail after he was arrested and questioned about claims he made on the air that he killed his lover who was dying of AIDS.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Speed skater Christine Nesbitt of Canada mounted a gutsy charge to the finish line to claim gold in the women's 1,000 meters at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
(Reuters, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Dubai police directly accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of orchestrating the Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander as the number of suspects rose to 18.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Germany attorney Ursula Raue said 115 former students have come forward with charges of sexual abuse at schools run by Germany's Jesuit order. Victims had named 12 priests and several women among the attackers. Most of the victims were former students of one of Germany's most prestigious high schools, Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Haiti’s PM Jean-Max Bellerive said the government will appropriate land to build temporary camps for earthquake victims. The decision was potentially explosive in a country where a small elite owns most of the land in and around the capital.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In India suspected Maoist rebels raided a village in eastern Bihar state, and killed at least 12 people in an apparent act of revenge after several guerrillas were captured and turned over to police. The dead included a family of 4 burned to death in Kasari.
(AP, 2/18/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 18, In Iraq a suicide car bomb exploded outside the gate of the main government compound in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, killing at least 13 people, including 4 police. At least 26 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Vicente Zambada Niebla (34), a man accused of being an influential, second-generation member of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was extradited from Mexico to the US on charges he helped move tons of cocaine from Colombia to California, New York and Chicago.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Mozambique 7 people died in a riot in the district of Gurue sparked by false rumors that health workers were spreading cholera.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Niger armed soldiers stormed the presidential palace and witnesses said the president's whereabouts were unknown after heavy gunfire. Pres. Mamadou Tandja (72) was deposed in a military coup after he stayed in office months beyond his legal mandate.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 1/17/11)
2010 Feb 18, In Pakistan a bomb blast at a mosque in the northwestern Khyber tribal region killed 29 people including some militants. Missiles fired from a US unmanned drone aircraft killed Mohammad Haqqani, the brother of Afghan Taliban commander Siraj Haqqani, along with 3 associates. Both Haqqanis are sons of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former US ally in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(Reuters, 2/19/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 18, In northern Pakistan up to 37 people were feared dead after an avalanche slammed into a remote mountain village in Kohistan district.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Philippine troops arrested Jumadali Arad, a suspected Muslim militant accused in the high-profile kidnappings of three Americans, two of whom were later killed, and dozens of Filipinos nine years ago.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, Rwanda state radio said a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, Peday Ntihanabayo, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide by a grass-roots gacaca appeals court.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18, Turkmenistan Pres. Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said "If anyone wishes to propose creating a new political party, we can register one this year, as stipulated by the Constitution." The constitution, adopted in 1992, allows for the formation of political parties.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, Zimbabwe state newspapers reported that the Supreme Court has ordered two government mining firms to stop operations on British-owned diamond mining fields plagued by human rights abuses.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18-2010 Mar 3, In the northern Mexican border city of Reynosa 8 journalists were kidnapped over a period of two weeks in a wave of abductions unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere. Two were released alive and one was found dead with signs of torture.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 19, Pres. Obama, speaking in Nevada targeted Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada in a $1.5 billion “innovation fund" to assist homeowners struggling against foreclosure.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A1)
2010 Feb 19, The US Federal Reserve raised the rate banks pay for emergency loans by a quarter point to 0.75% effective today.
(SFC, 2/19/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 19, From Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Golf star Tiger Woods faced the world and formally apologized for his infidelity. Woods said part of his rehab would include a return to his Buddhist faith.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 19, A newly released study by a major US consulting firm found that premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase of only 5.2 percent the previous year.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Afghanistan a Western service member was killed in small arms fire as coalition forces continued to drive the Taliban from Marjah.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 19, Two Muslim women were stopped from boarding a flight at Manchester airport from Britain to Pakistan for refusing to go through new body scanners, citing religious and medical reasons.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 19, Lionel Jeffries (b.1926), British actor and film director, died. He played Grandpa Potts in the “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968). He wrote and directed the 1970 film “The Railway Children" adopted from the Edwardian children’s book by E. Nesbit.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.C11)
2010 Feb 19, A Canadian sailing ship, the three-masted SV Concordia, filled with high school and college students sank off the coast of Brazil in strong winds, but all 64 aboard were rescued. The students spent up to 16 hours on life boats before they were rescued by three passing cargo ships.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In the Central African Republic rebels of Uganda’s Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) kidnapped at least 40 people and wounded a soldier during an attack in the southwest.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 19, The German Tax Union said about 2,500 people in Germany have confessed to tax evasion to avoid punishment amid a heated debate over whether authorities should buy stolen data from Swiss bank accounts.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, Iraq rejected calls to abolish or suspend capital punishment made during a review by the UN's top human rights body. Iraq has also dismissed suggestions that it should reduce the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be imposed.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Ivory Coast anti-government demonstrations spread to at least eight cities. Police fired on demonstrators at a rally in Gagnoa, killing 5 people and wounding a dozen others in the latest protest since the president dissolved the government a week ago.
(AP, 2/19/10)(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 19, In Mexico one officer was killed and two others wounded when they were ambushed in Nogales, across the border from the Arizona city of the same name. The officers were responding to an apparently false report of a robbery at a beer store when gunmen opened fire on.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Morocco the minaret of the 18th century Bab Berdieyinne mosque collapsed in the city of Meknes, killing 41 people and injuring 76 others.
(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Niger a junta that seized power in a coup named a platoon commander as its leader, hours after soldiers announced on state TV that their group was in charge of the uranium-rich country.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, Hamas claimed that two ex-officers from the rival Fatah organization were involved in the Jan 20 assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai, and Fatah shot back by insinuating Hamas members were the ones who collaborated with the killers.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In the Philippines 2 soldiers were killed and one wounded on southern Basilan Island when they tripped the wire on a homemade bomb during an operation to track down militants.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Russia's Ingushetia region a series of bomb blasts killed at least two people and wounded 33, including senior police officials.
(Reuters, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Rwanda 3 grenade attacks in Kigali killed 1 person and injured 30. Another person died overnight from injuries in the attack.
(AP, 2/20/10)(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 19, Pope Benedict XVI approved sainthood for Mother Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), making the woman known for her work among the needy Australia's first saint. Sainthood was also approved for Stanislaw Soltys, a 15th-century Polish priest; Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Varano; Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola and a Canadian brother, Andre Bessette (d.1937). The formal canonization will take place Oct. 17 in Rome.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, Some 1,000 Zimbabwe civil servants marched through the streets of the capital Harare demanding hefty increases in their salaries.
(AFP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 20, It was reported that confidential US FDA reports have recommended the removal of Avandia, a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes, off the market. Also know as rosiglitazone, it was linked to 304 deaths due to heart attacks and heart failures during the 3rd quarter of 2009. GlaxoSmithKline held that Avandia should continue to be an option.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 20, Alexander Haig (b.1924), a former US Secretary of State and four-star general, died of complications from an infection. He had served as a top adviser to three presidents and had sought the Republican presidential nomination for the 1988 elections.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, In Florida 3 teenage girls crossing a bridge in Melbourne were killed by a freight train as they desperately tried to get out of its way. A helpless friend on the other side could only watch.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 20, Loni Ding (78), filmmaker, educator and activist, died in Oakland, Ca. Her work included “Ancestors in the Americas," a 1996 PBS documentary. Over 3 decades she turned out more than 250 programs for broadcast, many of which explored the experiences of Asians in the New World.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.C6)
2010 Feb 20, In Afghanistan 2 NATO service members were killed, one by rocket or mortar fire in the east and another in a bombing in the south. The fatalities was not related to the Marjah area fighting.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 20, China said 35 people were killed in fires during the week-long new year holiday as millions of people set off fireworks to usher in the Year of the Tiger.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, German weekly Der Spiegel reported that Germany's finance ministry has sketched out a plan in which countries using the euro currency will provide aid worth between 20 billion and 25 billion euros ($27-$33.7 billion) for Greece.
(Reuters, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, In India forestry officer Uday Vir Singh bluffed his way past private militia guarding the Belekeri port and proceeded to uncover a massive scam of illegal shipments of iron ore to China that involved hundreds of officials and politicians in Karnataka state.
(Econ, 3/15/14, p.23)
2010 Feb 20, Iraq's main Sunni party said it is dropping out of next month's national elections, seizing on U.S. concerns about Iran's influence in the political process as proof that the vote will not be legitimate. Iraqi police said they found Adnan al-Dahan (57), a Syrian Orthodox shopkeeper, shot to death in Mosul, the fifth Christian killing in a week thought to be related to March elections.
(AP, 2/20/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20 - 2010, Feb 23, In Iraq 8,080 computers, worth $1.8 million from US taxpayers, arrived at the port of Umm Qasr destined for school children in Babil, but failed to reached their destination. In August Iraqis auctioned 4,200 of the computers for $45,700. Whereabouts of the rest were unknown. In Sep arrest warrants were issued for 10 customs officials at Umm Qasr and investigations continued.
(SSFC, 9/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 20, Israeli forces wounded at least four Palestinians in a firefight in the southern Gaza Strip and two more in the West Bank as they tried to cross into Israel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade issued a joint statement saying their men had "attacked four Israeli army jeeps with rocket-propelled grenades, and they responded with machine-gun fire from an assault helicopter and tank fire."
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, Mexican police found the bound bodies of two men on a highway just outside the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The body of a third man, missing its head and limbs, was found in Ciudad Altamirano, an inland city in Guerrero.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, The Dutch coalition government collapsed over whether to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan, leaving the future of its 1,600 soldiers fighting there uncertain. An early election is now expected.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, A Pakistani army airstrike killed 30 militants in the Shawal mountains of the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Suicide attackers struck two police stations in Mansehra district, killing a police chief.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20, On Portugal’s Madeira Islands torrential flash floods and mudslides killed at least 42 people in the capital city of Funchal. The number of people missing soon rose to 29.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 20, Rwandan police arrested 3 suspects in connection with three Feb 19 grenade attacks in Kigali that left two people dead.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 20, Darfur's most heavily armed rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, said that it had signed a framework agreement with the Sudanese government in Chad that provides for a ceasefire. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was due to sign the same agreement with JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim in Qatar on Feb 23, watched by diplomats and the presidents of Chad and Eritrea.
(AFP, 2/20/10)(Reuters, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 20, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko dropped her legal challenge to her rival's presidential election victory, saying she had lost faith in the country's courts.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 21, The US space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida following an assembly mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 21, Afghan and US Marine units converged on a dangerous western quarter of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, with NATO forces facing "determined resistance" as their assault on the southern town entered its second week. One service member involved in the Marjah offensive was killed in a roadside bombing. A NATO airstrike killed at least 27 Afghan civilians in central Uruzgan province, in the third coalition strike this month to kill noncombatants. A military report released on May 29 said inexperienced operators of a US drone aircraft ignored or downplayed signs that Afghan civilians were in the convoy in Uruzgan in which 23 civilians were killed and 12 others wounded.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 5/29/10)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A7)
2010 Feb 21, The British public was introduced to what one political journalist has painted as the dark face as the country's prime minister: A man so whose rages were so damaging that the country's top bureaucrat had to intervene to comfort his distressed staff. The description, carried in book "The End of the Party," by The Observer journalist Andrew Rawnsley, was vigorously contested by Brown and his lieutenants.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" swept the board at the BAFTA awards in London, winning the best film and director awards and leaving ex-husband James Cameron almost empty-handed.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, In Canada US skier Bode Miller snatched his first Olympic gold medal and US ice hockey goalkeeper Ryan Miller stopped Canada in a heartbreaking loss for the hockey-crazed host nation.
(Reuters, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants as they attempted to enter Israel illegally. A man threw a suitcase containing a makeshift bomb at Cairo's main synagogue. There were no injuries or damage to the synagogue. A man (49), with a record of Islamic extremism and drug abuse, was detained on Feb 23.
(AFP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 21, Haiti’s Pres. Rene Preval said the death toll from his country's earthquake could reach 300,000 once all the bodies are recovered from wrecked buildings.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Iranian state television reported that intelligence agents have killed four members of an armed Kurdish separatist group near the Kurdish town of Sardasht. The report accused the four of killing three policemen in a clash on Dec 26.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem are additions to the list of national heritage sites. Israel's air force introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes that can fly as far as Iran. Air force officials said the Heron TP drones can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads. Israeli shelling wounded five Palestinian day laborers along the northern border of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Mexico’s federal police captured Jose Vasquez Villagrana (40), described as a key operator of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, in his home town of Santa Ana. He served briefly in the US army before taking on the trafficking of 2 tons of cocaine a month into the US. 14 deaths were reported in Sinaloa state. In the worst incident, six people, including two women and a minor, were found shot to death in a cemetery in Juan Jose Rios. In the same town, two men were found strangled in a house, one with the cable of an iron and another with a wire hanger.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, In Pakistan a suicide car bomber hit a military convoy killing nine people, including children, in the Swat district, just months after the army claimed to have quelled a Taliban uprising. The body of Jaspal Singh one of three Sikhs abducted later January in Bara, Khyber district, was found beheaded. Taliban militants had kidnapped and beheaded him after relatives failed to pay a ransom, due Feb 20, for his release. The Sikh community blamed the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the beheading.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, In the Philippines Albader Parad, a top commander of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, was among six militants killed in fighting on Jolo island. Another of those slain, Abdulhan Jumdail, was identified as the cousin of Umbra Jumdail, one of the core leaders of the Abu Sayyaf.
(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, In southern Sudan weekend fighting between armed clan members and soldiers killed at least 30 people over the last 24 hours. After the attempt to seize weapons, the armed Gok Dinka, a sub-clan of the Dinka, the south's largest tribe, carried out a spate of attacks on an army base in Cueibet town.
(Reuters, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, Pres. Barack Obama put forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year compromise that would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriated consumers. Obama produced a health care plan of his own. It used legislation already passed by the Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to House Democrats.
(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, A Delaware grand jury returned an indictment on pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley of Lewes with 471 counts of sexual crimes against 103 children.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 22, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 15 people in Nangarhar province, including a key tribal leader who played a major role in a failed attempt to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, Latin American and Caribbean nations backed Argentina's claim of sovereignty to the Falkland Islands in a growing dispute with Britain over plans to drill for oil off the islands in the Atlantic. British exploration company Desire Petroleum PLC said it started drilling for oil about 62 miles north of the disputed islands.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 22, In eastern CongoDRC 3 people were killed when Congolese soldiers attacked a UN agency car and tried to loot it in South Kivu province. A combination of military personnel from the US Special Operations Command Africa, including US special forces and civilian specialists under contract, were said to be conducting training a battalion of Congolese soldiers in the city of Kisangani. The 8-month program for the battalion, which can consist of about 1,000 soldiers, will cover military basics but also will focus on human rights training. Human rights groups have previously accused Congo's poorly trained and irregularly paid army forces of attacking civilians.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 22, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Total Chairman Thierry Desmarest for talks about a labor strike that has shuttered over half of France's oil refining capacity. Workers at all six of Total SA's French refineries and at six of its 31 fuel depots have been on strike for five days over the uncertain future of a plant in Dunkirk, in northern France. Workers at France's fourth-largest refinery, British-owned chemicals company INEOS, met to vote on whether they too would join the widening strike.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, German airline Lufthansa went to court in a bid to halt a strike by some 4,000 pilots that disrupted more than one third of its flights. Later in the day Lufthansa pilots agreed to suspend for two weeks a strike that grounded about 900 flights, just as rival British Airways' cabin crew voted to join the fray to protest harsh cost cuts.
(AP, 2/22/10)(Reuters, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Indonesia a villager was killed in crossfire and three suspected militants were arrested when police raided a possible paramilitary training ground for the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in Aceh province.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, Iran said it plans to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers trying to curb Tehran's nuclear program for fear it is aimed at making weapons.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Iraq assailants killed 8 members of a Shiite family in a village outside Baghdad, shooting some and beheading others, just one of a series of pre-election shooting and car bombing attacks that swept the country, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 2/22/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 22, In Ivory Coast at least two protesters died during an opposition demonstration that turned violent, deepening the crisis sparked by the president's dissolution of the government earlier this month.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Libya Rashid Hamdani, one of two Swiss businessmen held in Libya for 19 months amid a diplomatic row between the two states, left for home as Max Goeldi emerged from his country's embassy to serve 4 months in jail. Goeldi was released on June 10 and prepared to fly home.
(AFP, 2/22/10)(AFP, 6/11/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Nigeria Abdullahi Adamu, the former governor of Nasarawa state, was arrested for allegedly embezzling $100 million of government money meant for public projects. He was currently serving as secretary to the board of trustees of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria's ruling political party.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Northern Ireland a car bomb detonated in Newry, between Dublin and Belfast. Irish Republican Army dissidents gave police officers just 17 minutes to evacuate the center of a border town before the blast. The attack on the courthouse was the first of its kind in nearly a decade.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Pakistan a suicide bomber targeting security forces killed at least 8 people in Mingora, the capital of the Swat Valley district.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 22, A crowd of Palestinian youths in Hebron pelted Israeli soldiers with stones and empty bottles, drawing tear gas and stun grenades in the most serious violence to rock this volatile West Bank city in months.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Peru 2 buses crashed head-on along a remote stretch of highway in the northeast, killing at least 38 people and injuring 58.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Spain Hokman Joma tried to hit Turkey’s PM Erdogan with a shoe as the Turkish leader got into a car during a visit to the southern city of Seville. Hokman shouted "Long live Kurdistan" in Spanish before being arrested. In June the Syrian Kurd was sentenced to three years in jail in Spain.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, Turkish police detained more than 40 high-ranking military commanders for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The detentions followed the gathering of wiretap evidence and the discovery of secret weapons caches, revelations that dealt a blow to the military's credibility.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, The United Arab Emirates said it has picked former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Hans Blix to head an advisory board for its nuclear power program. Blix was director general of the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, from 1981 to 1997. He led the UN search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, A UN report said sales of household electrical gadgets will boom across the developing world in the next decade, wreaking environmental havoc if there are no new strategies to deal with the discarded TVs, cell phones and computers.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 23, Intel CEO Paul Otellini unveiled a broad initiative, the “Invest in America Alliance," to create jobs and boost the nation’s competitiveness. Intel and 24 venture capital firms planned to invest $3.5 billion in US technology startups over the next 2 years.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 23, In Littleton, Colorado, gunman Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood (32) wounded two students at Deer Creek Middle School before math teacher David Benke (57) subdued him.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/25/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 23, It was reported that Florida wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades. A $26 permit allow hunters to kill the reptiles from March 8 to April 17.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 23, In Afghan Gen. Stanley McChrystal apologized for the Feb 21 strike in central Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21 people. The Afghan Cabinet said 27 civilians were killed including 4 women and a child. The video was also posted on a NATO Web site. The civilian deaths occurred as 15,000 NATO, US and Afghan soldiers were in their 10th day of fighting insurgents in Marjah, Helmand province. A Romanian soldier was killed and another was wounded in a bombing in the south unrelated to the offensive. A morning explosion in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, left eight people dead and at least 16 others wounded. The death toll of US troops in the Afghan war surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 23, PM Kevin Rudd said Australia plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from about 10 high-risk countries in a bid to combat extremism, which is now a "permanent" threat. He added that Australia will spend 69 million dollars (62 million US) on new biometric facilities and will set up a national control centre to coordinate efforts to fight extremism.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Bangladesh at least 20 people were injured and dozens of houses torched in fresh clashes between tribal groups and Bengali settlers in the insurgency-hit southeastern hills.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, The Chinese Communist Party issued a new code of ethics as the country's fight against widespread corruption intensifies.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Cuba Orlando Zapata Tamayo (42), an opposition political activist imprisoned since 2003, died after a lengthy hunger strike. His 3 year prison sentence for disrespecting authority had been lengthened to 25 years, in part because of his political activism while behind bars. The next day Cuban President Raul Castro issued an unprecedented statement of regret over the death of Tamayo.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Denmark's PM Lars Loekke Rasmussen (45) announced a major government shake-up, changing more than a dozen Cabinet posts including the ministers of defense, justice and foreign affairs to build his own team 10 months after taking office.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, Egyptian newspapers reported that former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei has said he is prepared to run for president of Egypt. He said Mubarak, head of state since 1981, would not necessarily win a free election and went on to criticize corruption and poverty in Egypt. The constitution as it stands barred an ElBaradei candidacy. It requires candidates to have been a leading member of a party for at least one year and for the party to have existed for at least five years.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India responded cautiously to an offer by a top Maoist guerrilla leader for a cease-fire and talks with the government, with the home minister saying he would wait for a formal proposal before considering the offer.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India announced it has recalled 100,000 of its best-selling A-Star hatchback cars due to a fuel leakage problem.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Indonesia a rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on the main island of Java buried scores of workers. At least 46 people were killed or missing.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran formally set out its terms for giving up most of its cache of enriched uranium in a confidential document, and the conditions fall short of what has been demanded by the United States and other world powers.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran said that its security forces have captured Abdulmalik Rigi, leader of the Jundallah group (Soldiers of God), an armed Sunni group whose insurgency in the southeast has destabilized the border region with Pakistan. State-run English-language Press TV said that Rigi was captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Iraq an American soldier died in a vehicle related accident in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Italy an oil spill began and spread south down the Lambro to Piacenza and Cremona overnight, despite efforts to contain it. By the next day if reached the Po River, with officials warning of an ecological disaster as they scrambled to contain the sludge before it contaminated Italy's longest and most important river. Milan regional officials said the cause was certainly sabotage at a former refinery turned oil depot, since the cisterns were opened and the oil allowed to flow unimpeded into the Lambro River near Monza.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Ivory Coast PM Guillaume announced a new unity government. The opposition coalition said it will participate in a new government, raising hope for an end to nearly two weeks of deadly protests after the president dissolved the previous one.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico Latin America and Caribbean leaders, gathered at a summit in Playa de Carmen, united to create a regional bloc excluding Canada and the United States. The bloc's formation is expected to take years and faces many challenges. The leaders agreed to meet again in Venezuela in 2011.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico gunmen stormed the southern town of San Vicente Camalote and killed 13 people, including a rancher and his 3 sons. Gunmen attacked the police headquarters in the town of Miguel Aleman. 6 officers were missing and presumed to have been kidnapped. A series of clashes along the northern border killed 6 gunmen and one soldier. 10 soldiers and a police officer were wounded. A small military anti-drug patrol plane was reported missing in northern Mexico. Wreckage of the plane with 3 dead occupants was reported found on Feb 26.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/26/10)(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Myanmar a Cameroon football player fled temporarily to the French embassy in Yangon as he was being taken to court by police for allegedly counterfeiting currency notes. He surrendered to police a short time later could face life imprisonment.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 23, The New York Times and Washington Post cited unnamed Pakistani security officials saying Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the militia's ruling council, was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan's northwest.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, A Polish court said a government move to slash the pensions of communist leaders who imposed martial law in 1981 was illegal. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled the move violated the constitution. It said the portion of the pensions earned during the crackdown itself could be cut but the rest could not. The cut, which took effect Jan 1, was part of a wider law intended to punish former officials and security agents for supporting the communist regime.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 23, South African’s National Energy Regulator said approved electricity rate increases of about 25% would become effective April 1, and that the increases would continue for each of the next three years.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Darfur's most powerful rebel group and the Sudanese government signed a truce in Cairo after a year of internationally sponsored negotiations, raising hopes the bloody seven-year conflict could draw to a close. According to the framework agreement, JEM would take part in the government's executive, judicial and legislative branches.
(Reuters, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, In Turkey prosecutors interrogated 51 Turkish military commanders over alleged plans to destabilize the country by blowing up mosques to trigger a coup and topple the Islamic-rooted government.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Turkey 13 workers were killed after a methane gas explosion caused a coal mine collapse near Dursunbey, in northwest Balikesir province.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 24, The US got help from Europe in its troubled drive to shut down Guantanamo Bay, as Spain accepted a former inmate from the prison for terror suspects and the tiny Balkan nation of Albania took in three more.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Akio Toyoda, scion of the beleaguered Toyota empire, apologized before a US House committee investigating deadly flaws that sparked the recall of 8.5 million cars.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved fresh curbs on shorting stock.
(Econ, 2/27/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 24, In Texas Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, a drug kingpin who once headed the extensive Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, one of Mexico's most notoriously violent cartels, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million, following a closed hearing in Houston. Cardenas-Guillen was the first cartel leader to employ a paramilitary group, former Mexican special forces soldiers who called themselves the Zetas.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, In San Jose, Ca., stealth start-up Bloom Energy publicly unveiled an innovative fuel cell that promises to deliver affordable, clean energy to even remote corners of the world.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Orlando, Florida, SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed after Tilikum, a 12,000 pound killer whale, grabbed her hair and pulled her under water. The orca, profiled in the 2013 documentary Blackfish, died at SeaWorld Orlando in early 2017 at an estimated age of 36.
(AP, 2/25/10)(SFC, 1/7/17, p.A7)
2010 Feb 24, Afghanistan's main opposition criticized President Hamid Karzai's removal of foreign observers from a UN-backed electoral watchdog as "autocratic" and urged international pressure to ensure impartial elections. The decree took effect on February 13 and Karzai now has the power to choose the ECC's members after consulting with the chief justice and heads of parliament's two chambers.
(AP, 2/24/10)(Econ, 2/27/10, p.48)
2010 Feb 24, Australia resumed free-trade talks with China after a 14-month gap, sweeping aside a brief plunge in ties to focus on a booming partnership tipped to deliver decades of growth.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said a group of South American nations has committed to providing $100 million in aid for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Colombia Mario Uribe (60), a former senator and second cousin to President Alvaro Uribe, was arrested by authorities on charges of colluding with far-right death squads. Mario Uribe was imprisoned for four months in 2008 on charges of colluding with paramilitaries, but he was released in August of the same year after Colombia's No. 2 prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to hold him.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Dubai police linked at least 15 more suspects carrying foreign passports to the Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander that the police chief claimed was likely carried out by Israel's Mossad secret service.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, French oil giant Total said it is to invest seven billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) in Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production over the next four to five years.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Germany's top Protestant cleric, Margot Kaessmann (51), resigned after she was caught driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, an incident that she said had undermined her authority.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Greek police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Athens after some 50,000 people finished a peaceful march against cutbacks intended to fix the country's debt crisis.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Israel's Haaretz daily said Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of one of Hamas' founders, was one of the Shin Bet security service's most valuable sources. Dubbed as "the Green Prince" by his handlers he served as a top informant for Israel for more than a decade. Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas," was to be published next week in the US by Tyndale House Publishers.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, A Nobel official said Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has asked the Nobel Peace Prize committee to disregard his nomination for the prestigious award.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, An Italian court convicted three Google executives of privacy violations because they did not act quickly enough to remove an online video that showed sadistic teen bullies pummeling and mocking an autistic boy. Judge Oscar Magi sentenced the three in absentia to a six-month suspended sentence and absolved them of defamation charges. A fourth defendant, charged only with defamation, was acquitted. In the US, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 generally gives Internet service providers immunity in cases like this, but no such protections exist in Europe.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Mexican police found two severed arms in an icebox, along with a threatening message. Guerrero state police said an anonymous tip led them to the remains in the town of Ciudad Altamirano.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Nigeria's ailing Pres. Umaru Yar'Adua returned home after a three-month stay in a Saudi Arabian hospital. An advisor said the leader needed time to recuperate and so the vice president would remain in charge.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Northern Ireland an unidentified man, believed to be between 35 and 40, was found shot in the head with his wrists bound and wearing only his underwear on the outskirts of Londonderry, near the border with Ireland.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, In Pakistan suspected US missiles killed at least 13 people in an al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold in the Dargah Mandi area of North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistani Taliban commander Mohammed Qari Zafar was among those killed when 3 missiles hit a compound and vehicle in the Dargah Mandi area. The bodies of two men alleged by militants to be US spies were discovered in Mir Ali, North Waziristan.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 24, Qatar signed a defense pact with Iran.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.47)(www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=214868)
2010 Feb 24, Thailand officials seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, A Turkish court formally charged and jailed seven senior Turkish military officers for allegedly plotting years ago to overthrow the country's Islamic-leaning government.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko challenged her opponents to oust her in a no-confidence vote, aiming to show they don't have enough votes to do so.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Venezuela's highest court annulled the election of an opposition mayor, replacing him with a supporter of President Hugo Chavez until a new vote is held. The Supreme Court threw out the 2008 election of Jorge Barboza, mayor of the Sucre municipality in western Zulia state, on grounds that he failed to pay $292 in local taxes. On March 4 the court reinstated Barboza. The constitutional council said that last week's ruling was unconstitutional because it violated Barboza's political rights.
(AP, 2/25/10)(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 25, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies argued for sweeping health care overhaul in an extraordinary live-on-TV summit with Republicans who want far more modest changes.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In California Rick Ray Liles (51) shot and killed deputy Joel Wahlenmaier (49) in Minkler, Fresno County, during an investigation of arson blazes in the village. Liles took his own life in the gunbattle at his mobile home.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A7)
2010 Feb 25, In California Chelsea King (17) failed to return from a run at a San Diego park. On Feb 28 John Albert Gardner III (30) of Lake Elsinore man was arrested for investigation of murder and rape. King’s body was found buried on March 2 in a shallow grave on the south shore of Lake Hodges. On April 16, 2010, Gardner pleaded guilty to the murder of King and Amber Dubois (14), who had vanished in February, 2009. On May 15 Gardner was sentenced to life in prison for attacks on King and Amber Dubois (14).
(AP, 3/3/10)(SFC, 4/17/10, p.A5)(SFC, 5/18/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 25, In Texas a copy of the 1939 comic book, Detective Comics No. 27, in which Batman makes his debut, sold at a Dallas auction for more than $1 million, breaking a record set just three days earlier by a Superman comic. A copy of the first comic book featuring Superman, a 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, sold on Feb 22 for $1 million.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, The Afghan government took official control of the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, installing an administrator and raising the national flag while US-led troops worked to root out final pockets of militants.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Algeria a police official shot dead Colonel Ali Tounsi, the national police chief, during a blazing row in his office in central Algiers.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Bangladesh a fire started at the seven-storey Garib and Garib Sweater factory in the industrial town of Gazipur. Witnesses said the exit gates on the top floor were locked at the time. The fire started on the 2nd floor of the factory, trapping scores of workers. Police say 14 women and 7 men were killed and around 40 people injured.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, Prosecutors in England and Wales received fresh guidelines on assisted suicide that reduce the likelihood of people facing criminal charges for helping ailing loved ones to die.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Rajib Karim, a British Airways computer specialist, was arrested at his BA desk in Newcastle. On Feb 28, 2011, he was convicted after a trial at Woolwich crown Court in London of plotting with US-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to blow up an airplane. He pleaded guilty to helping produce a terrorist group's video, fundraising and volunteering for terror abroad, but insisted he never planned an attack in Britain. On March 18, 2011, Karim was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(www.globaljihad.net/view_news.asp?id=1400)(AP, 2/28/11)(AP, 3/18/11)
2010 Feb 25, In Canada Kim Yu-Na (19) of South Korea, achieved her country's first Olympic figure skating title with a resounding victory in the Pacific Coliseum.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, Canada's ice hockey women celebrated a gold medal win by taking to the ice afterwards drinking beer and smoking cigars.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Canada police found the body actor Andrew Koenig (41) in a wooded area in Vancouver. He had played Boner in the 1980’s TV sitcom “Growing Pains."
(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A13)
2010 Feb 25, In China the People’s Daily reported that 62 workers had been poisoned in a poorly ventilated factory in Suzhou run Wintek, a Taiwanese manufacturer that makes products for firms including apple and Nokia.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 25, In China at least 29 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in a magnitude 5.4 earthquake in southwestern Yunnan province.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Egypt Ahmed Mostafa (20), an engineering student, was detained and charged with publishing false news and "tarnishing the military's image" after blogging about a student forced to leave the military academy to make room for a candidate from a wealthier family. A military tribunal later agreed to suspend proceedings in return for an apology.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Feb 25, India and Pakistan held their first official talks since the 2008 Mumbai siege, with both sides saying they wanted to rebuild trust shattered in that attack but acknowledging that the meeting was just a first step toward a renewed peace process.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In India a Hindu newspaper said India's best-known painter M.F. Husain (94), who went into exile after death threats from Hindu hardliners, has been granted Qatari citizenship, sparking new soul-searching about his persecution at home. Husain, known as the "Picasso of India," had angered hardline Hindus by portraying Hindu deities in the nude or in a sexually suggestive manner.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Iraq Saleh al-Mutlaq, a top Sunni lawmaker who just last week pulled his party out of the upcoming election, announced that his National Dialogue Front would contest the crucial March 7 vote.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi turned up the heat in his country's dispute with Switzerland, calling for jihad over a recent Swiss ban on the construction of minarets.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Mali at least 15 people died in a stampede in a Timbuktu mosque during services celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Mexico 4 suspected cartel gunmen were killed outside the city of Matamoros after they attacked an army patrol on a highway.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 25, Mozambique's health minister, Leonardo Chavane, said 36 people have died this year from a cholera outbreak in the northern and central parts of the southern African country. he said the situation is worrying because new cases are being reported daily and are complicated by rumors that health staff are spreading cholera rather than fighting it.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Pakistan’s government confirmed the arrest of Afghan Taliban leader Maulavi Abdul Kabir. The paramilitary Frontier Corps killed 25 militants near the northwestern district of Darra Adam Khel during a joint 2-day operation with police.
(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A4)(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Russia the Moscow City Court said in a statement that 12 mostly underage neo-Nazis who called themselves "White Wolves" have been charged with 11 murders and one assault since April 2007. Nine ultranationalists were sentenced to up to 23 years in jail for 6 hate-motivated killings and one assault.
(AP, 2/25/10)(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 25, In Rwanda French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy visited with pres. Paul Kagame too cement improved diplomatic relations following years of acrimony, recriminations and diplomatic standoffs over events surrounding the 1994 genocide. He said France made serious errors of judgment over the genocide, and those responsible for the killings should be found and punished, including any who might be residing in France.
(Reuters, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Sudan the head of the most heavily armed Darfur rebel group ordered the release of 50 Sudanese government personnel following the signing of a peace deal. The move followed the government's release a day earlier of 57 fighters of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, some 50 of whom had been condemned to death for their part in an unprecedented assault on Khartoum in 2008. A Darfur rebel group accused the Sudanese army of attacking its positions a day earlier, the same day that the president declared the Darfur war over. Aid workers said 100,000 people had fled the surge of fighting.
(AFP, 2/25/10)(Reuters, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Syria and Iran defended their strong ties and dismissed US efforts to break up the 30-year-alliance, saying America should not dictate relationships in the Middle East.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Arusha, Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), found lieutenant colonel Ephrem Setako (60) guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and murder. "The Chamber found that Setako ordered the killings on 25 April 1994 of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira military camp in Ruhengeri prefecture and around 10 other Tutsis there on 11 May 1994."
(Reuters, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, An unceasing winter storm unleashed multiple dangers across the Northeast, blasting the coast with hurricane-force winds that fanned a New Hampshire hotel fire, flooding parts of Maine, dropping 2 feet of snow on parts of New York, and cutting power to more than a million homes and businesses.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, New York Gov. David Paterson abandoned his campaign for a full term as state governor.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Washington state Jed Waits (30) shot and killed Jennifer Paulson (30), a special education teacher as she walked into her Tacoma elementary school classroom. Waits, who was apparently infatuated with Paulson, was killed in a shootout with a deputy.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Afghanistan insurgents struck in the heart of the Kabul with suicide attackers and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens. Pres. Karzai said were aimed at Indians working in Kabul. The dead included 6 Indians, an Italian diplomat, a French filmmaker and 3 police officers.
(AP, 2/26/10)(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 26, Australia warned Japan that "diplomacy comes to an end this year" on whaling, after presenting a bold plan to phase out the controversial hunts in the Southern Ocean.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Belize a single-engine aircraft crashed. Michael and Jill Casey of Albany, NY, and their two young children died in the accident on the island of San Pedro along with former senator and bottling magnate Sir Barry Bowen as the group headed to a fundraising event hosted by Bowen. The Caseys taught at a school in northwestern Belize owned by Bowen.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, London-listed Petra Diamonds sold a 507-carat diamond for $35.3 million, breaking a record as the highest price ever paid for a rough diamond.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Canada won the Olympic men's short track 5,000 meters relay with Charles Hamelin picking up his second gold of the day.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Colombia a Constitutional Court ruling blocked a referendum on whether Alvaro Uribe should be allowed to seek a third consecutive term. The high court ruled, in a 7-2 decision that is not subject to appeal, that a law passed by Congress to set up the referendum was unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Danish daily Politiken newspaper apologized for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Egypt a Costa Europa luxury cruise liner carrying nearly 1,500 passengers slammed into the pier as it docked Friday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik in fierce winds, leaving three crew members dead. Bad weather wreaked havoc across Egypt, pelting the capital with a freak hail storm.
(AP, 2/26/10)(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In France a strike by air traffic controllers disrupted flight for a 4th day and some Air France pilots walked off the job to protest cost cutting measures.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 26, German lawmakers voted 429-111 with 46 abstentions to increase the maximum number of German troops allowed to serve in Afghanistan to 5,350 from 4,500.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Jundallah insurgency, which says it's fighting for equal rights for the Sunni minority in southeast Iran, named al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch as its new leader. The statement described the capture of former leader Abdulmalik Rigi's by Iranian forces on Feb 23, but said all the tribes of Baluchistan had pledged allegiance to the new leader.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, Iraq reinstated 20,000 former army officers dismissed after the 2003 US-led invasion for serving under the former dictator, a landmark gesture at reconciliation ahead of the March 7 elections.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Italy telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia spent the night in police custody after flying in by private jet from the Caribbean to face charges in a money-laundering probe. Scaglia, the founder of Italy's second biggest telecoms company, Fastweb, was among 56 people for whom arrest warrants were issued in a case where prosecutors allege more than 2 billion euros (1.8 billion pound) was laundered via fake international phone service purchases and sales from 2003-2006.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Liberia religious clashes in the northern county of Lofa killed four people. The violence erupted in the town of Vionjama after the body of a child "with body parts extracted" was found near a mosque. Witnesses said rioters had burned down the Catholic, Baptist and Episcopal churches in the area.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Mozambique state media said 2 young men accused of having sex with a goat in central Mozambique are facing criminal charges, and the goat's owner is demanding they make traditional wedding arrangements.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Health officials in Puerto Rico declared an epidemic of dengue fever. Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez says 210 cases have been confirmed for January, more than triple the number in the same month of 2007.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Sierra Leone and five other west African countries (Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea) signed onto an action plan in Freetown for sustainable mangrove management.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Somali pirates hijacked the Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel. It was reported freed on July 20, 2010.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Sudan rebels and UN officials said heavy fighting between government forces and a rebel group in central Darfur led a French-aid group to suspend its activities. A government offensive on the rebel Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA) stronghold in Jebel Marrah began two weeks ago, but fighting intensified in the last few days, with confirmed reports of aerial bombardments in Deribat, a town of 50,000, and two other surrounding areas.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Thailand's highest court ruled to seize 46 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.29 billion in frozen assets, saying he had abused his political power for personal gain.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Turkey's PM Erdogan vowed to put everyone who conspired against the country's democracy on trial, as the number of military officers charged and jailed for allegedly plotting a 2003 coup against his Islamic-based government rose to 31.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Zimbabwe a cabinet minister said Zimbabwe stands by a new law requiring major foreign firms to sell 51 percent stakes to locals, but will allow companies to choose their own partners. The law takes effect on March 1, giving 45 days for companies valued at more than 500,000 US dollars to sell 51 percent stakes to locals. The Indigenization and Empowerment Bill was passed by parliament in 2007 and signed by President Robert Mugabe in 2008, before the creation of a unity government with long-time rival, PM Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, President Barack Obama signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation's main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 27, In NYC a new visitor center opened near the rediscovered cemetery from the 17th and 18th centuries to celebrate the ethnic Africans who had toiled, many unpaid, to help make New York the nation's commercial capital.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 27, Militant anti-whalers declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese harpoon ships in Antarctic waters, saying it was their most successful and intensely fought campaign so far.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In Australia thousands of people in lavish costumes and various states of undress danced and partied their way through Sydney's streets, in the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Canada bagged another three gold medals on the penultimate day of the Winter Olympics to ensure they will finish top of the medal standings, triggering wild celebrations across the country.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said it was the most powerful quake to hit the country in a half-century. Authorities the next day put the death toll from the earthquake at over 700. The death toll was later revised to 486 with 79 missing. Some 1.5 million Chileans were affected and 150,000 people were left homeless. A tsunami caused by the quake swept across the Pacific and killed several people on a Chilean island. It devastated coastal communities near the epicenter, but caused little damage in other countries. Damages were later estimated at $30 billion. By the end of March Chilean officials confirmed 432 people dead and 98 still missing in the earthquake and tsunami.
(AP, 2/27/10)(AP, 2/28/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)(AP, 3/19/10)(Econ, 3/20/10, p.43)(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Feb 27, Egypt's parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to regulate organ transplants in a bid to curb illegal trafficking and tourism over the issue.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Haitian officials said eight people were killed and two missing after heavy rain pounded the southwest and caused widespread flooding.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Mexican authorities said they have arrested a third suspect in the Jan 30 massacre of 15 people in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Chihuahua state prosecutors said he is a former police officer believed to have worked as a hit man for the Juarez cartel.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, Mozambique's former transport minister was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing state funds, the highest-level corruption conviction ever in the southern African country. Antonio Munguambe, transport and communications minister from 2005 to 2008, was found guilty of acting as an accomplice in the embezzlement of 1.7 million dollars (1.25 million euros) from national airport company Airports of Mozambique.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In northwest Pakistan a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Karak, killing four people and wounding about two dozen. At least one person died and several others were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a procession in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In the southern Philippines Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants killed 11 people, hours after two hostages they were holding walked free.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 27, In Thailand 4 banks were targeted with small explosives, but no one was hurt.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, The US White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed 11 civilians in the southern province of Helmand. A security worker was killed in main Qalat town of Zabul province when his vehicle was hit by a similar bomb. Elsewhere in Zabul five insurgents were killed during clashes between Afghan security forces and militants.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Brazil workers cleared some 80 tons of dead fish from Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Increased levels of harmful algae were suspected as the cause of the fie-off.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, Canada beat the USA in an extraordinary men's ice hockey final to capture a record 14th gold medal and end the Vancouver Winter Olympics on top of the world. The victory at a single Winter Games surpassed the previous mark of 13 jointly held by the Soviet Union (Innsbruck, 1976) and Norway (Salt Lake City, 2002). The USA also set a record for the most overall medals at a single Winter Olympics with 37, one more than Germany in 2002.
(Reuters, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In the Central African Republic Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) kidnapped at least 23 people from the southeastern village of Yalinga after pillaging the police station, the hospital and a safari shop.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Feb 28, In China a bus veered off a sleet-covered road and plunged into a reservoir in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province killing 19 people and injuring 7 others.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Feb 28, A UN-backed military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was launched. The operation will involve 18 battalions from the Congolese FARDC army in a series of targeted attacks throughout north and south Kivu provinces in Congo's conflict-racked east.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 28, Dubai police said forensic tests show a Hamas operative, who was killed on Jan 19 in his hotel room by an alleged Israeli hit squad, was drugged with a fast-acting muscle relaxant and then suffocated with a pillow.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that archaeologists have unearthed the massive head of one Egypt's most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago. Amenhotep III, the grandfather of Tutankhamun, ruled from 1387-1348 B.C. at the height of Egypt's New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, A violent late winter storm named Xynthia battered France, Spain, Portugal and Germany with fierce rain and hurricane-strength winds. The storm smashed sea walls and killed at least 62 people across western Europe.
(AP, 2/28/10)(AP, 3/1/10)(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, The leader of the armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France, in another setback for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken into custody in the last two years. Eta chief Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected separatists, Jose Ayestaran and Beinat Aginagalde, were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation in the village of Cahan, France.
(AP, 2/28/10)(Econ, 3/6/10, p.69)
2010 Feb 28, Guatemalan Pres. Alvaro Colom announced that he has fired Interior Minister Raul Velasquez for alleged corruption and replaced him with Carlos Menocal, a former journalist. Local media said that Velasquez authorized a $6.2 million contract with a private company to buy fuel for police but that the company embezzled the money.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Israel 16 people including two Israeli policemen were wounded in clashes at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, after police entered to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they believed were Jewish extremists.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Mexico Red Cross volunteer Maria Rogers (20) was killed by a stray bullet when gunmen went into a Red Cross hospital in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, trying to finish off a man who had been shot minutes earlier. The man survived.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Myanmar Sai Thein Win, a former major in the army, defected and brought papers confirming Myanmar’s intent, if not yet capacity, to enrich uranium and eventually build a bomb.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/35vxtvh)
2010 Feb 28, In Saudi Arabia Indian PM Manmohan Singh pitched for investment in his economy and closer petroleum sector cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the second day of a visit to the Middle East oil giant.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Switzerland operators restarted the Large Hadron Collider following a winter shutdown for improvements.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, Tajikistan held parliamentary elections. The Central Elections Commission said that 85% of the country's 3.5 million eligible voters had cast ballots. The main government-backed party was set to coast to the easiest of victories. President Emomali Rakhmon's two-decade grip on power remained as strong as ever. An initial tally showed the government-backed party with 71.7% and the main opposition Islamic Revival Party with just 7.7%. Int’l. monitors from the OSCE said that while the vote was peaceful, it was marred by ballot-box stuffing and proxy voting.
(AP, 2/28/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of three provinces for a second successive day to demand the independence of the country's south.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb, RT America, a TV channel based in Washington, D.C., was launched as part of the RT network, a global multilingual television news network based in Moscow, Russia, and funded by the Russian government.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_America)
2010 Feb, In Afghanistan Mathew Golsteyn, an American Green Beret, reportedly captured, shot and buried a suspected IED bomb maker in the Marjah area of Helmand province. He later went back out with two others to cremate the body and dispose of the remains. In 2011 Golsteyn reported his actions to the CIA a few months before he was awarded a Silver Star for other actions. In 2014 the Silver Star was revoked and in 2015 he faced possible dismissal for violation Geneva Conventions.
(AP, 5/16/15)
2010 Feb, In northeast Congo up to 100 people were killed this month when the rebel Lord's Resistance Army attacked a village. News of the massacre did not become public until May 1 when UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said he learned of the killings when he visited Niangara, the nearest town which he reached by helicopter.
(AP, 5/2/10)(Reuters, 5/2/10)
2010 Feb, In Dagestan the Makhachkala police chief died when his car was strafed with automatic weapons. Two doctors were charged in the killing. On Nov 28, 2012, Nov. 28, Dr. Marat Gunashev had just put a patient under anesthesia when law enforcement agents appeared in the operating room and took him away, refusing to allow him to finish the operation. Dr. Shamil Gasanov was preparing to operate in another part of the hospital when a group of men came in and asked to talk to him outside. Gasanov’s decapitated body was later returned to his relatives.
(AP, 12/19/12)
2010 Feb, In East Timor construction workers uncovered human bones while digging the foundation of a five-star hotel. Experts later said the 9 blindfolded and buried bodies were likely East Timorese freedom fighters executed and put in a mass grave early in the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999).
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Feb, Hungarian lawmakers made it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison to publicly deny, call into question or minimize the Holocaust. In June, the law was amended to refer instead to crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi and communist regimes.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2010 Feb, In India four men ambushed Dimple Patel (27) as she returned to her home in Ahmedabad from college. She spent 10 months in a coma following the vicious attack that left her severely disabled. In 2014 she identified her alleged assailants in court. Her brother Dharmendra Patel said his wife's relatives assaulted his sister to get back at him after a row over money.
(AFP, 8/14/14)
2010 Feb, Latvia’s unemployment reached 22.8%, the highest in the EU.
(Econ, 2/27/10, p.59)
2010 Feb, In Uzbekistan the health ministry ordered all medical facilities to “strengthen control over the medical examination of women of childbearing age." Rights groups later alleged that hundreds of Uzbek women have been surgically sterilized without their knowledge or consent
(SSFC, 7/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 1, The US Department of Transportation furloughed nearly 2,000 employees without pay as the government began to feel the impact of Republican Sen. Jim Bunning's one-man blockage of legislation that would keep a host of federal programs operating. Bunning's home state of Kentucky has no projects affected by his action. Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning relented March 2, freeing the Senate to approve stopgap legislation extending for another month a host of programs, including highway funding, health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and benefits for the long-term jobless.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3439731)(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, General Motors Co. said it is recalling 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars sold in the US, Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Detroit, Mi., Monica Botello (26) and her boyfriend Purcell Carson (26) were shot to death in a slaying that was reported to a 911 dispatcher by Botello’s daughter (9). On March 20 US marshals arrested Derrick Smith (42) in Gardena, Ca., for the murders.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 1, Afghanistan announced a ban on news coverage of Taliban strikes, saying such coverage only emboldened the Islamist militants. The move was denounced by Afghan journalism and rights groups. Two blasts hours apart killed at least six people in Kandahar. Four NATO service members died in separate attacks, including a suicide car bomb that targeted an international military convey as it crossed a bridge in the Taliban-dominated south.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AFP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Australia about 5,200 naked people embraced each other on the steps of Sydney's iconic Opera House for a photo shoot by Spencer Tunick.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Daniel Houghton (25), a former MI6 spy, was arrested after British intelligence posed as the potential buyer of top secret files on intelligence gathering techniques. Prosecutor Piers Arnold later said Houghton, who is a dual Dutch and British national, is accused of copying top secret files from the domestic agency MI5 to CD and DVDs while working for the MI6 overseas intelligence service between September 2007 and May 2009. On Sep 3, 2010, Houghton was sentenced to one year in prison. He was expected to walk free as he has already spent 184 days in custody.
(AP, 3/3/10)(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, British insurer Prudential PLC said it will buy the Asian unit of bailed out American International Group Inc. in a deal worth $35.5 billion that will allow AIG to pay back some of the money it owes US taxpayers.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China 11 newspapers took a rare stand against a Mao Zedong-era system blamed for the wide gap between the country's rich and poor. Within hours their jointly signed editorial had largely disappeared online. 11 newspapers published a joint editorial calling on the National People’s Congress (NPC) to scrap the hukou system, which was originally intended to stop rural migrants flowing into the cities.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.26)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Chinese rescuers worked to save 31 coal miners trapped underground by a flood at the Luotoushan, or Camel Head Mountain, coal mine in Wuhai city in northern Inner Mongolia. One miner was reported killed. On May 2 state news agency Xinhua reported that emergency workers have recovered 28 bodies from the mine in China's Inner Mongolia region that flooded in early-March. 3 people were still missing.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, The European Union urged Greece to take extra austerity measures within days to tackle a debt crisis that has shaken the euro zone and promised to help Athens overcome the problem.
(Reuters, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, France and Russia pursued their burgeoning courtship with a formal state visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Paris, which is angling to sell Moscow a massive warship and secure stakes in pipelines pumping Russian gas to western Europe.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Georgia and Russia reopened their only direct border crossing, more than three years after it was closed amid rising tension that erupted into war in 2008.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In southern India nearly 3000 Muslims protested a newspaper article they say was critical of Islam, clashing with police and leaving at least two people dead and dozens injured in Shimoga, Karnataka state.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Iran editor Behrouz Behzadi of the Etemaad daily said his newspaper was banned by the Press Supervisory Board. The order cited article six of the press law without elaborating. That article allows newspapers to be closed for offenses from security violations to insulting articles. A weekly called Irandokht was also closed down. One of its editors was arrested last month. Iranian media said six journalists and opposition activists held for suspected involvement in the country's postelection turmoil have been released on bail. Jafar Panahi (49), an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, was taken into custody along with another person who was in his company. Panahi was released on bail on May 25. In December Panahi was sentenced to 6 years in prison and barred from making films or participating in political activities for two decades.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AP, 5/25/10)(SFC, 12/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 1, Niger coup chief Maj. Salou Djibou signed a decree appointing 20 ministers. Five of the posts went to women and five to officers.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Nigeria a spokesman said police detained 17 officers over the weekend for questioning after the Al-Jazeera news channel aired a video on Feb 9 showing uniformed men executing people in Boko Haram town where religious rioting left 700 people dead last year. Gunmen attacked a van carrying 21 people working for the network's SuperSport channels after the crew filmed a soccer match in the Niger Delta. One of three kidnapped sports journalists escaped his captors.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 1, Pakistani militants attacked a tanker carrying fuel to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan. One insurgent was killed and the tanker was destroyed.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A World Food Program spokesman militants in Somalia are preventing food from reaching more than 366,000 people who need it, following a statement by Islamists that aid agencies were helping "apostates" in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The Al Nisr Al Saudi usually carried fuel oil but was empty when it was taken with 14 crew onboard. NATO said one of its destroyers sank a pirate mothership off the Somali coast. Pirate crew members were transferred to a smaller boat and allowed to return to the mainland.
(AP, 3/3/10)(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 1, Ukraine’s Pres. Viktor Yanukovych visited Brussels saying "Our priorities will include integration into the European Union, bringing up constructive relations with the Russian Federation, and developing friendly relations with strategic partners such as the United States."
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A Yemen government raid left Ali Saleh al-Hadi, a southern activist, his wife and three children dead during an ongoing crackdown on southern separatists.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A UN source said hundreds of civilians were feared to have died last week in a surge of fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels in the turbulent Darfur region.
(Reuters, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, A Russian human rights group said the government of Uzbekistan has falsely accused about 200 people of killing officials and plotting a coup in the authoritarian Central Asian nation.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Uruguay Jose Mujica (74) took the presidential oath of office.
(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 1, In Zimbabwe a new law took effect, giving companies valued at more than 500,000 US dollars 45 days to inform the government of the racial make-up of their shareholders. The main labor body said the new law, requiring locals to own 51 percent of major foreign firms, could hurt the nation's economic recovery.
(AFP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 2, The Washington DC council voted to censure ex-mayor Marion Barry over a report accusing him of helping award a $15,000 city contract to a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 2, In California Jerry Brown, former 2-term Democrat state governor (1975-1983), announced that he would run for a 3rd term as governor.
(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 2, In Darien, Ill., the bodies of 3 family members were found shot to death. Prosecutors later said Johnny Borizov (28) had persuaded Jacob Nodarse (23) to kill the mother of his son, Angela Kramer, her parents and a brother over a custody dispute. Nodarse was arrested the next day in Florida.
(SFC, 3/8/10, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/yaejaep)
2010 Mar 2, In southeast New Mexico two employees at a Navajo oil refinery were killed and two others critically injured after a storage tank exploded into flames.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Rhode Island the Central Falls Teachers’ Union pledged to support reforms. The school board had voted last week to fire 93 teachers and staff from the high school after the end of the school year. On May 16 the school district announced that it had reached an agreement with the union to return all staffers.
(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A8)(SFC, 5/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 2, The Afghan government denied that it had banned live media coverage of insurgent attacks, saying it was developing guidelines, not restrictions, to prevent live footage from aiding fighters at the scene.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Australia Seth Enslow, an American motorcycle stuntman twice, broke the world record for the longest distance jumped on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, sailing through the air near Australia's Sydney Harbor to shatter the previous 10-year-old record. Bubba Blackwell set the previous record with a 157 foot (47.85 meters) jump in Las Vegas in 1999.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In London, England, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former Pakistani lawmaker and the leader of a global Muslim movement, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, that he calls an absolute condemnation of terrorism. The 600-page fatwa bans suicide bombing "without any excuses, any pretexts, or exceptions." The religious scholar is the founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran, a worldwide movement that promotes a nonpolitical, tolerant Islam.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, The BBC volunteered to become smaller.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.74)
2010 Mar 2, Egyptian newspapers reported that former UN atomic chief Mohamed ElBaradei has called for constitutional changes in his first statement since forming an opposition group.
(AFP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, French authorities arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan president killed in a plane crash, on a Rwandan warrant issued on genocide-related charges. She was soon freed on bail. The crash is widely considered the event that sparked the east African country's 1994 genocide. In 2004 France rejected her request for political asylum, alleging she was at the heart of the regime responsible for the genocide.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 3/6/10, p.65)
2010 Mar 2, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities retain data on telephone calls and e-mails, saying it marked a “grave intrusion" into personal privacy rights.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 2, Guatemalan authorities arrested Nelly Bonilla, the country’s anti-drug czar, Police Chief Baltazar Gomez, and police officer Fernando Carrillo, in a case involving stolen cocaine and slain police.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Ingushetia Russian forces killed Alexander Tikhomirov, also known as Said Buryatsky, in a gun battle near Nazran.
(Reuters, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Iran the kaleme opposition Web site reported that an appeals court has upheld the death sentence for Mohammad Amin Valian (20), a student who took part in an anti-government rally in December that left eight people dead. Valian was found guilty of Moharebeh, a religious offense that translates as defiance of God, a crime punishable by death under Iranian law.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, Mexico's interior department said prosecutors have detained 10 Mexican immigration agents and three airline workers at Cancun's international airport on suspicion of trafficking Chinese migrants. Oscar Arriola, reputed to have led a cartel that smuggled two tons of cocaine a month into the US before authorities dismantled the ring around 2004, was handed over to US officials and extradited to Colorado.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Reuters, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, The Moroccan state security service announced that police have dismantled a terrorist network “of six people imbued with Takfirist ideology," that was active in several towns in the northeast. Takfiris, a tiny minority of Muslims in Morocco, believe that society and its leaders have turned away from the narrow path of what they see as true Islam.
(AFP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Nigeria planted explosives in the Niger Delta damaged the Kokori oil flow station operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, marking the latest attack in a region supposedly brought under control by a government amnesty program.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, Ian Paisley (83), the hard-line Northern Ireland evangelist who led Protestants into power-sharing with Catholics, announced he will retire from the British Parliament after a 40-year career.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, It was reported that Spanish investigators, working with private computer-security firms, have arrested the three alleged ringleaders of the so-called Mariposa botnet, which appeared in December 2008 and grew into one of the biggest weapons of cybercrime. The Mariposa botnet infected almost 13 million computers across 190 countries. More arrests were expected soon in other countries.
(AP, 3/2/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.D1)
2010 Mar 2, South Sudan’s 17 rival political parties signed an election code of conduct, committing themselves to ensure upcoming polls in April are free and fair.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, Tajikistan's main opposition party said it plans to sue the Central Asian nation's elections board amid claims it abetted fraud in this weekend's parliamentary vote.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Ukraine PM Yulia Tymoshenko's pro-Western "Orange" coalition dissolved, losing its majority in parliament and paving the way for the new president to consolidate his power.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Uganda overnight landslides in the mountainous region of Bududa buried three villages and killed at least 92 people with 250 still missing.
(AP, 3/2/10)(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Uzbekistan an independent think-tank and a rights group claimed that authorities have instructed health workers to surgically sterilize women as part of a government campaign to reduce the birth rate.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, In southern Yemen a three-story building collapsed when explosives stored in its basement went off, killing at least eight people. Officials said the basement was used by an arms dealer to store dynamite and other explosives.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Connecticut Barbara Hamburg (48) was found bludgeoned to death outside her home at 44 Middle Beach Road in the quiet, affluent seaside town of Madison. The small amount of DNA collected at the scene remained unidentified. No one has been arrested for the crime. In 2020 the 4-part HBO documentary "Murder on Middle Beach," by Barbara's son Madison, revealed a tale rife with suspects—all of them Hamburg’s closest relatives, who had varying motives for wanting to kill his mother.
(https://tinyurl.com/y6p5u9a3)(The Daily Beast, 11/13/20)
2010 Mar 3, NYC Rep. Charles Rangel (b.1930), announced he will temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, saying he didn't want his ethics controversy to jeopardize election prospects for fellow Democrats.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed legislation adopting an official Wyoming state code. Its “cowboy ethics" admonishments to residents included such phrases as: “ to live courageously, take pride in work, and to keep promises."
(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 3, Arab nations gave the green light for Palestinians to enter indirect negotiations with Israel for a preliminary four-month period, a decision likely to break the months-long deadlock over resuming Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A British judge ordered former Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic held in custody despite a request to release him while he challenges a Serbian demand that he be extradited for alleged war crimes. Ganic was arrested March 1 at Heathrow Airport after Serbia issued an arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes in connection with the 1992 deaths of Serbian troops in Bosnia.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Michael Foot (b.1913), British left-wing politician, died. He led the Labour party long before its media-friendly transformation under Tony Blair. He became Labour leader from 1980 to 1983, advocating left-wing policies like nuclear disarmament which led one colleague to call his 1983 election manifesto "the longest suicide note in history."
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Germany Christoph Schmidt-Rose, mayor of Niederzimmern, told local radio station MDR that people can buy a hole in the town for 50 euros (68 dollars). In return the authorities will repair it.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Greece announced painful new austerity measures worth euro4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) to deal with a financial crisis that has hammered the euro and unsettled financial markets.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Iraq a string of three deadly suicide bombings killed 30 people in the former insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, including a blast from a suicide bomber who rode in an ambulance with the wounded before blowing himself up at a hospital.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Italian police arrested seven people on suspicion of trafficking arms to Iran, two Iranians they believe are secret agents and five Italians. Two more Iranians were being sought. On April 29 Ali Damirchi-Lou and state television reporter Hamid Masoumi-Nejad were released from jail and placed under house arrest.
(AP, 3/3/10)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Laos senior officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam met in Luang Prabang to discuss the Mekong River. The Mekong River Commission in a draft report said severe drought has dropped the river to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, halting some cargo traffic and boat tours on the waterway, the lifeblood for 65 million people in six countries.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A Mexican woman charged that Rev. Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), the deceased, scandal-tainted founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ (1941), led a double life and fathered two children with her.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 3, Pakistan's paramilitary forces said troops had killed 38 militants during a week-long operation against the Taliban under the codename "Spring Cleaning". In central Pakistan a local police chief and four officers were arrested after a video allegedly showed one officer publicly beating suspects with a fat leather strap as the other officers held down the victims in the small town of Bhuwana in Punjab province.
(AFP, 3/3/10)(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A Philippine official said a wildlife officer is suspected of stealing more than 1,500 pounds (700 kilograms) of smuggled elephant tusks seized last year, an embarrassing setback for the country's anti-poaching efforts. The ivory worth $65,000 was part of a 8,800-pound (4,000-kilogram) shipment of tusks that was impounded at Manila airport in July and turned over for disposal to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Somali pirates seized the Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 3, An American diplomat based in South Korea fled to the Philippines after facing charges that he swindled a local woman out of nearly $200,000 in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 3, Freak waves off the coast of Spain smashed into the Louis Majesty, a Mediterranean cruise ship, flooding cabins, breaking windows in a restaurant and terrifying many travelers in an ordeal that claimed two lives.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 3, In western Sudan 11 people died in fighting between the Misseriya and Nuwayba tribes in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 3, The Ukrainian parliament ousted the government of PM Yulia Tymoshenko in a no-confidence vote, dealing a final blow to the leadership of the pro-Western Orange Revolution and leaving her to lead the opposition in parliament. The no-confidence resolution passed with 243 votes in the 450-seat chamber.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Zimbabwe's the industry minister said the cabinet will review new local ownership rules that have sparked concern among business leaders, saying the law had been published "prematurely."
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 4, A US congressional panel voted to label as "genocide" the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador from Washington.
(Reuters, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In California thousands of protesters lashed out against budget cuts to the state’s educational system in the “Day of Action to Defend Public Education."
(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 4, In Virginia John Patrick Bedell (36) of Hollister, Calif., was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police. He died from head wounds received when the two injured officers and another officer returned fire. Bedell had driven cross-country and arrived at the Pentagon’s subway entrance armed with two semiautomatic weapons. Bedell apparently left behind Internet postings resentful of the government and airing suspicions about the 9/11 attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Australia Gurshan Singh (3), who was visiting from Punjab in northern India, disappeared from a suburban house in Melbourne. His body was found about six hours later some 30 km (20 miles) away, not far from the city's airport. On march 7 police alleged that Gursewak Dhillon (23), a part-time taxi driver who had been sharing a house with the boy and his family, was responsible for the boy’s death.
(AFP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 4, Bangladesh police said Mahbub Sarwar (26), a Dhaka-based Facebook stocks tipster with more than 10,000 followers, has been arrested on charges of illegally manipulating Bangladesh's overheated stock exchange.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency, Anvisa, ordered all 1,987 passengers and 765 crew to remain aboard the "Vision of the Seas" anchored at Buzios, while teams of doctors treat the 195 passengers suffering vomiting and diarrhea and determine the cause of their illness.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A collection of 300 films capturing the final days of the British Empire in India and other parts of south Asia was released by the University of Cambridge. The free archive footage is available at www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html. The silent films, taken between 1911 and 1956, celebrate unique moments in history, from life after the Quetta earthquake of 1935 to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Chile’s government said it had identified 279 dead, dropping the confirmed official death toll from 802. The Feb 27 magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the strongest on record, and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-km (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on the sidelines of a meeting of regional officials in Costa Rica, said the Obama administration will resume aid to Honduras that was suspended after a coup last year and urged Latin American nations to recognize the new Honduran government.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A German court jailed four Islamic militants who dreamed of "mounting a second September 11" for a thwarted plot to attack US soldiers and civilians in Germany. The two German converts to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, each received 12-year jail terms. Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, got 11 years while Atilla Selek, a German of Turkish origin, was given five years in prison for what the court called a supporting role in the plot.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Greece launched a critical 10-year bond issue, a key test of its ability to raise funds to pay off expiring debts, and dig out of a financial crisis that has shaken the EU.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In India a stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 women and children at a Hindu temple in Kunda, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Iraq a string of blasts ripped through Baghdad targeting early voters and killing 17 people, raising tensions in an already nervous city as early ballots are cast for the March 14 parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Liam Adams, the brother of Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, surrendered to Irish authorities to face 23 charges of sexually abusing his daughter. He fled to the Republic of Ireland to avoid a November 2008 Belfast hearing over the charges of abusing his daughter Aine for eight years when she was a child.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Israel's Supreme Court reprimanded Jerusalem police for not permitting groups to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in favor of Jewish settlers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, The new Ivory Coast government announced it is now made up of 16 ministers drawn from President Laurent Gbagbo's FPI party and the former New Forces rebels as well as 11 ministers representing opposition parties.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Throngs of Mexico City gay and lesbian couples registered for marriage licenses, the day Latin America's first gay-marriage law took effect.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Pakistan robbers kidnapped Sahil Saeed, a five-year-old British boy, in the town of Jhelum, about 100 km (65 miles) south of Islamabad, demanding a ransom of 100,000 pounds, prompting his mother to make a tearful plea for the return of her boy. In the northwest an overnight gunbattle left 30 insurgents and one soldier dead in the Chamarkand area of the Mohmand tribal region. Sahil Saeed was released on March 16. Spanish police arrested 3 suspects in the kidnapping in Tarragona province. They were suspected of having traveled to another European city to collect ransom money.
(AFP, 3/4/10)(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A2)(AFP, 3/16/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 4, Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas government banned men from working in women's hair salons. The announcement came amid a Hamas campaign to impose Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Rwanda 2 grenade blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 4, Somali pirates hit a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Kenya with a rocket-propelled grenade as private security on board returned fire and fended off the would-be hijackers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A Syrian archaeologist said more than 250 silver coins dating back to the time of Alexander the Great have been unearthed. The coins were discovered two weeks ago in a bronze box in northern Syria when a local man was digging the foundations of his new home.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Taiwan a powerful 6.4 earthquake and more than a dozen aftershocks jolted southern Taiwan, injuring 96 people, toppling farm houses and derailing a carriage on a high-speed train.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Togo held presidential elections. Jean-Pierre Fabre (57), a deputy in the National Assembly and the top opposition candidate, said that this time around the people will not let the ruling party steal the election. Provisional results on March 6 indicated that Gnassingbe won 1.2 million votes, representing 60.9% of the roughly 2 million votes cast.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 4, Yemen's Interior Ministry said it has arrested 11 suspected al-Qaida militants during a raid on one of their homes. The father of one of the suspects was killed by police when he opened fire on police during the raid. Sharif Mobley (26), one of the 11 suspects and a US citizen of Somali descent, had worked for contractors at nuclear plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland from 2002 to 2008, mostly hauling materials and setting up scaffolding. In 2015 Mobley was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/13/10)(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2010 Mar 5, In Alabama Larry Langford (63), the former mayor of Birmingham, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for taking $241,000 in bribes.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 5, In Arizona 6 people were killed when a passenger bus hit another vehicle and rolled over on the interstate south of Phoenix.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, Edgar Wayburn (103), former 5-term president of the Sierra Club, died in SF. In 1999 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his years of efforts in preserving wilderness.
(SFC, 3/8/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 5, An Australian court ruled that the once-popular painkiller Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack and was unfit for consumption, awarding a man leading a class action suit against the drug's maker 287,000 Australian dollars ($259,000) in compensation.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, It was reported that the advocacy group Big Brother Watch found, through a series of Freedom of Information requests, that many local governments, called councils in Britain, are installing microchips in trash cans distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated them — in part because officials know the move would be unpopular. Proponents called it a bid to push recycling. Microchips were first fitted into some British trash bins eight years ago, and the debate over whether the state has the right to weigh or otherwise analyze residents' refuse has surfaced periodically since.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, Dutch anti-Islam maverick Geert Wilders (46) took his cinematic assault on the Quran to Britain's House of Lords, sparking heated debate inside the building and angry protests outside. Wilders screened his 15-minute film "Fitna" to about 60 people, including a half-dozen peers, in a wood-paneled committee room in Parliament. The film associates the Quran with terrorism, homophobia and repression of women.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, Canada’s Tim Hortons Inc unveiled a fresh strategy to take on Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in the US market, saying it would open hundreds of new American cafes that break the mold of Tim's iconic Canadian coffee shops.
(Reuters, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Chile 3 strong aftershocks shook the center of the country, sending panicked residents rushing out of their homes and leveling more buildings in an area already hard hit by the Feb 6 monster earthquake.
(AFP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Ethiopia 25 African states agreed to step up efforts to regulate mercenary activity on the continent amid an explosion of private security companies on the continent.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, Eight Fijian men were sentenced to jail terms of three to seven years for their roles in a 2007 plot to assassinate the armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the island nation's prime minister, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 2006.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, French President Nicolas Sarkozy summoned bank leaders to his Elysee palace to order them to boost lending to the economy and smaller companies.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, Germany and the group of countries using the euro ruled out any immediate financial aid for debt-ridden Greece at the start of a diplomatic tour by PM George Papandreou.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Greece masked youths attacked the leader of the country’s biggest union and stoned police in Athens in an outbreak of violence over cutbacks proposed by PM George Papandreou, who was abroad seeking European leaders' support for his efforts to defuse the country's debt crisis.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Israel clashes erupted between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police at a sacred and disputed hilltop compound following a sermon on a recent Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Mexico heavily armed gunmen ambushed a convoy of federal police on a highway near the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state, killing two officers and wounding three. Soldiers seized 28,000 pounds of marijuana, seven vehicles and 18 high-powered weapons in Altar, Sonora, 35 miles south of the Arizona border.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Pakistan a suicide bomber targeted Shiite Muslims on two buses being escorted by security forces through a northwestern border area rife with sectarian and insurgent violence, killing 12 people. Pakistan army helicopters destroyed a sprawling hideout of a key al-Qaida-linked militant leader, Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, in the northwestern tribal region of Bajur, killing 25 insurgents. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed and fellow commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, top Taliban commanders close to al-Qaida, were believed to have been killed in the army airstrike.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Pakistan Obaidullah Akhund, the Taliban's former defense minister arrested in 2007, allegedly died of heart disease in a Karachi prison. His relatives were informed of his death in February, 2012.
(AP, 2/13/12)
2010 Mar 5, Swarms of Somali pirates moved into the waters off East Africa, triggering four shootouts with French and Spanish fishing vessels including a skirmish with French military personnel that sunk a pirate skiff. Somali pirates near Madagascar hijacked the Norwegian-owned ship with 21 crew members. The UBT Ocean chemical tanker was carrying fuel oil.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Spain the regions of Madrid, Valencia and southern Murcia said they will keep bullfighting legal and give the sport cultural heritage protection.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 5, Election officials in Tajikistan declared the governing party the overwhelming winner of parliamentary elections that international observers say were marred by widespread fraud. The Central Election Commission said that a definitive count of ballots cast in the Feb 28 contest showed the People's Democratic Party winning 70.6% of the vote. It was now set to take 54 of the 63 seats in the Central Asian nation's lower chamber of parliament. The Islamic Revival Party came a distant second with 8.2% of the vote.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 6, Sandra Bullock won worst-actress for her romantic comedy flop "All About Steve" at the Razzies, a spoof of the Oscars that mocks Hollywood's low-points of the year.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 6, British PM Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, An operation in Germany to remove the gall bladder of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was "successful" and he was in hospital convalescing.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Germany 4 men brandishing handguns and machetes stormed into Berlin's Grand Hyatt hotel during a million-euro poker tournament and made off with hundreds of thousands of euros in cash. A man (21), who admitted to taking part in the raid, turned himself into authorities on March 15 and identified 3 accomplices who remained on the run. Authorities issued photos of the three: Ahmad el-Awayti (20), of undetermined nationality; Jihad Chetwie, a 19-year-old German; and Mustafa Ucarkus, a 20-year-old Turkish citizen. On March 21 police arrested a 5th suspect, a Lebanese citizen (28), believed to be the organizer of the attack.
(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 6, Icelanders voted in a referendum on a $5 billion deal to repay Anglo-Dutch loans. The referendum resoundingly rejected a deal to pay Britain and The Netherlands billions for losses in the Icesave bank collapse.
(Reuters, 3/6/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Indonesia a group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh" claimed to be the target of a police crackdown. Police have arrested 16 suspected militants in a series of raids in the deeply conservative province of Aceh since Feb 22.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Iraq a car bomb exploded near a bus for pilgrims in the Shiite city of Najaf, killing at least three people, including two Iranians, on the eve of key national elections.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In northern Mexico police in the city of San Nicolas de los Garza, a suburb of the industrial hub of Monterrey, protested hours after three of their colleagues were shot to death in an ambush and a fourth was wounded. Federal police announced the arrest of three men accused of running an extortion ring that targeted Ciudad Juarez businesses. The army announced it had seized 2.6 metric tons of marijuana and detained one suspect in a mountainous area of Chihuahua.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Pakistan Maulvi Noor Mohammad, a Pakistani Taliban commander, was ambushed near the main town of Miran Shah, North Waziristan, by relatives of a man he recently tortured and killed.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In the Philippines guerrillas of the communist New People's Army (NPA) killed 11 government soldiers in a gun battle on Mindoro island.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association said that Saudi security officers stormed a book stall at the Riyadh Int’l. Book Fair last week and confiscated all work by Abdellah Al-Hamid, a well-known reformer and critic of the royal family.
(SSFC, 3/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 6, In western Sudan 10 people were killed in renewed clashes between the Misseriya and Nuwayba tribes in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Tibet a truck loaded with people heading to an ancient monastery in the Shannan prefecture crashed killing 26 people.
(SSFC, 3/7/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 7, In the US Academy Awards the film “The Hurt Locker" triumphed with six prizes and made Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar. Sandra Bullock won as best actress for "The Blind Side"; Jeff Bridges as best actor for "Crazy Heart"; Mo'Nique as supporting actress for "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds." The best documentary feature was won by “The Cove," an examination of a bloody dolphin hunt filmed with hidden cameras in Taiji, Japan.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 7, Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an unannounced visit to the southern town of Marjah, promising angry elders that he will rebuild the former Taliban stronghold after a big NATO operation. Scores of Islamist militants defected and joined the Afghan government as infighting among rebel groups left dozens dead including civilians. Regional police spokesman Laal Mohammad Ahmadzai said 11 Hezb-i-Islami commanders and 68 of their men in Baghlan province had defected to the government. Over the weekend 3 men in Helmand and Laghman provinces and 2 children in Kandahar were killed in a wave of bomb blasts. 3 NATO service members were killed in attacks, one in the south and two in the east. A roadside bomb blew up a car in the southwestern province of Badghis killing 10 civilians. Another civilian died in a separate bomb blast in the same region.
(Reuters, 3/7/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 7, Sir Kenneth Dover (89), a distinguished British historian of Greek culture, died. He gained wider fame by admitting his wish to kill a fellow historian Trevor Aston (d.1985). His books included commentaries on Thucydides, Theocritus and Aristophanes; "Ancient Greek Literature" (1980), "Greek and the Greeks" (1987), "The Greeks and Their Legacy" (1989), "Greek Popular Morality in the Times of Plato and Aristotle" (1994), "The Evolution of Greek Prose Style" (1997) and a popular history, "The Greeks" (1981) written in conjunction with a television series for the British Broadcasting Corp.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 7, Ethiopia inaugurated a museum in Addis Ababa in memory of the victims of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's so-called Red Terror purge which killed tens of thousands in 1977-78.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Germany police said heavy snowfall over the weekend triggered a deadly avalanche and caused thousands of accidents, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens more injured.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Iran announced that it has started a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country's already imposing arsenal.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Iraq held its 2nd election since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein. 62% of Iraqis voted. Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at voters, killing at least 37 people in 136 attacks aimed at intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have plagued it since the 2003 US-led invasion. PM Nuri al-Maliki, the Shiite who helped ease Iraq's sectarian strife, soon emerged as a front-runner in a parliamentary election.
(AP, 3/7/10)(AFP, 3/8/10)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A3)(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 7, Jamaica said plans to open a music museum next year that officials say will feature rare pieces from the island's music history, such as the sole album that the late reggae star Bob Marley produced before he gained international fame.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, NATO said it is suspending the training of Kosovo's security troops after a military-style parade that broke the force's agreement to focus only on civil emergencies. An armed honor guard had appeared at a parade on March 5 marking the 12th anniversary of the killing of the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Nigeria some 500 people, mainly women and children, were allegedly killed in overnight attacks in the three villages of Dogo Nahawa, Ratsat and Zot near the city of Jos. Residents and local rights activists blamed the overnight attack on ethnic Fulani pastoralists. A military spokesman said security forces have arrested 24 people last week accused of stealing crude oil and illegally refining it. Security forces soon detained 95 suspects in the violence.
(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/8/10)(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 7, A skeptical Palestinian leadership agreed to hold US-mediated peace talks with Israel for four months, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in communications between the two sides.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Philippine marines killed at least seven al-Qaida-linked militants in a raid on a coastal hide-out but failed to capture a Malaysian terror suspect long wanted by Washington.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Thailand some 3,000 supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra demonstrated a week ahead of a crucial mass anti-government protest.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, Togo's top opposition party said they have proof that the ruling party committed fraud to win the country's contentious presidential election and that they will show their evidence in court.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Yemen Sharif Mobley, an American al-Qaida prisoner receiving treatment in a hospital, attacked guards killing one and wounding another, while trying to escape. He was caught after a chase.
(AP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 8, The resignation of New York Rep. Eric Massa (50) took effect following an ethics investigation. He had earlier cited health reasons but added that Democratic House leadership forced him out due to his opposition last November to the House version of the Health Care bill.
(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 8, In California GOP State Sen. Roy Ashburn (55) announced that he was gay on a Kern County radio station. 5 days earlier he was arrested in Sacramento on suspicion of drunk driving.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 8, AIG agreed to sell its Alico unit to NY-based MetLife for $15.5 billion.
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.79)
2010 Mar 8, Gerald Flamm (93), former newspaper reporter, died at Stanford, Ca. His books included “Good Life in Hard Times" (1977), a look at the Bay Area during the Great Depression, and “Hometown San Francisco" (1994).
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.C6)
2010 Mar 8, In Alaska the body of rural teacher Candice Berner (32) was found a mile outside of Chignik Lake. Wolf tracks surrounded the body.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 8, In Australia Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina joined forces for a 2.96 billion US dollar bid for Australia's Arrow Energy, hoping for a bigger slice of the country's booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Afghanistan a pair of would-be suicide bombers armed with automatic rifles tried to storm government buildings in Khost, but were killed in a shoot-out with police.
(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, The EU said it plans to create a European Monetary Fund to better coordinate the economies of the 16 countries that use the euro and prevent financial debacles such as the Greek debt crisis from undermining the credibility of Europe's single currency.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Haiti US missionary Charisa Coulter (24), held for more than a month on kidnapping charges, was released from prison, while Laura Silsby (40), the leader of her Baptist group, remained in custody.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Iraq 2 American soldiers died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 8, Israel said it has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction.
(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, David Kimche, a British-born Israeli spy-turned-diplomat, died in Israel. He played a key role in the Iran-contra scandal that rocked President Ronald Reagan's administration.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 8, Myanmar announced the enactment of long awaited laws that set the stage for the country's first election in 20 years to be held sometime this year.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, Pakistani officials said an American member of al-Qaida was picked up in a raid in the southern city of Karachi, but reversed earlier assertions that the detained man was the terror network's US-born spokesman. They identified the suspect as Abu Yahya Majadin Adam. A suicide car bomber struck a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 13 people and wounding 61 more including women taking children to school.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, Portugal announced new austerity measures to avoid a debt crisis like the one engulfing Greece, cutting welfare benefits and government hiring as well as selling assets and raising taxes on the well-off.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In South Africa hip-hop artist Molemo Maarohanye, known as "Jub Jub," (Marshmallow) was involved in a drag race that left 4 children dead. He and another defendant, Themba Tshabalala, tested positive for cocaine and morphine. On March 19 Maarohanye was freed on $ 1,300 bail, as protesters chanted for their execution.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Togo security forces blocked off three roads leading to the opposition party headquarters, a day after the group had staged protests claiming presidential elections last week were rigged to favor the son of the country's longtime dictator.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Turkey a 5.9 magnitude, pre-dawn earthquake struck near the village of Basyurt in the remote, sparsely populated area of eastern Elazig province. 51 people were killed as it knocked down stone and mud-brick houses and minarets in at least six villages.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 9, In Washington, DC, same sex couple began to marry as the district became the 6th place in the US to conduct same sex marriages.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 9, San Francisco officials ordered the shutdown of all drug testing at the police crime lab amid allegations that Deborah J. Madden (60), a former technician, stole and used some of the cocaine she was supposed to analyze. Madden had officially retired this month. On March 15, 2013, Madden pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine possession.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/16/13, p.C1)
2010 Mar 9, Rodney Alcala (66), an amateur photographer, was convicted in southern California of killing a girl and 4 women between 1977 and 1979. The Santa Ana jury recommended a death penalty. Photographic evidence from a Seattle storage locker, rented before his arrest in 1979, linked him to at least one woman listed for decades as missing. On march 30 Alcala was sentenced to death.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A8)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C3)(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A7)
2010 Mar 9, University of Florida researcher Nam Dang and colleagues in Japan said that papaya leaf extract and its tea have dramatic cancer-fighting properties against a broad range of tumors, backing a belief held in a number of folk traditions.
(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, An Ohio State Univ. custodian, Nathaniel Brown (51), killed a supervisor and wounded another and then killed himself. Brown had been told that he was being fired.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 9, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed two Afghan border police and a civilian riding in their vehicle. A Taliban operative wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated NATO’s Chergotah base in Khost province and detonated his explosive vest next to a group of soldiers who were warming their hands beside a fire. 2 NATO service members were killed.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 9, China and India gave a qualified approval to the nonbinding Copenhagen climate accord brokered by Pres. Obama in the final hours of the December, 2009, climate summit.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 9, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew into Canberra with PM Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce waiting on the red carpet. He was soon appointed an honorary companion of the Order of Australia for his work after the 2002 Bali bombing. Yudhoyono will become the first Indonesian leader to address a joint sitting of Australia's parliament on March 10.
(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Indonesia 3 terror suspects were killed during raids near Jakarta. One of the dead included Dulmatin, one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings. Police soon confirmed his identity. An additional terror suspect was arrested in Jakarta earlier in the day, bringing to 24 the number of suspects taken into custody on Java and Aceh since Feb. 22 in a police crackdown on a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah cell.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 9, US Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel and pledged Washington's full commitment to Israel's security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus. Biden assured Israel of Washington's commitment to its security and preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons.
(AP, 3/9/10)(Reuters, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Israeli officials said Israel wants to build a nuclear power plant, a move that could bring new attention to the country's secretive nuclear activities.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Japan confirmed for the first time the existence of once-secret Cold War-era pacts with the US that tacitly allowed nuclear-armed warships to enter Japanese ports in violation of Tokyo's postwar principles.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Mexico Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico's federal police, said that Texas-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, nicknamed "La Barbie," is battling Hector Beltran Leyva for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Somalia fighting between Islamist insurgents and Somali government forces killed five people in Mogadishu. 4 masked gunmen also shot dead an Islamist commander in the capital's Bakara market.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Switzerland a senior Google executive welcomed a US decision to relax restrictions on exporting Internet communications services to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Venezuela's government seized control of two sugar mills and threatened to expropriate them, accusing managers of hoarding a basic good and violating the labor rights of employees. The government also raised the price of sugar by 30% as mill owners struggled to turn a profit due to price controls.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, Pres. Obama met with Haiti’s Pres. Rene Preval and assured him that the US was committed to Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction following the devastating January 12 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 10, The Kansas City, Mo., school board narrowly approved a plan to close nearly half the district’s schools in a desperate attempt to avoid a potential bankruptcy. 29 schools were closed.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A6)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.33)
2010 Mar 10, Virginia’s general assembly became the first state legislature to ban mandatory health insurance. Idaho followed suit a week later. Some 35 other states planned similar measures.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.34)
2010 Mar 10, Corey Haim (b.1971), a Canada-born 1980s teen heartthrob for his roles in the vampire films "Lucas" (1986) and "The Lost Boys" (1987) died in Los Angeles. His career was blighted by drug abuse.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Afghanistan a rocket attack killed an Afghan soldier at a security post in Paktika province. In southern Helmand province 3 men were killed by a bomb blast in Marjah.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Algeria almost 200 striking doctors, dentists and pharmacists demonstrated near the presidential palace to press their pay demands. The health professionals have been on strike since the end of December.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In London self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky won his libel case against RTR, a Kremlin-owned broadcaster, that aired allegations he masterminded the 2006 murder in London of former KGB renegade agent Alexander Litvinenko. RTR, which did not take part in the hearings, called the judgment illegal.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Cambodia said it will preserve 14 sites at the last bastion of the murderous Khmer Rouge, including the home of their leader Pol Pot, as tourist attractions.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, A UN official said 90 Rwandan rebels have been killed in eastern Congo during a two-week Congolese army operation conducted with the support of UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Top Egyptian cleric Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi (81), whose views often drew criticism from religious conservatives and secular Muslims, died of a heart attack during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Tantawi angered radicals by supporting organ transplants, denouncing female circumcision and ruling that women should be appointed to senior judicial and administrative positions in government. At the same time, he shocked many Muslims in 2004 by siding with France in its steps to ban the hijab head covering from state schools.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Germany the world's largest tourism fair, the ITB, kicked off in Berlin with the global travel industry hoping for better times following a crisis-hit 2009.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Haiti kidnappers freed two female European aid workers, one from the Czech Republic and the other Belgium, snatched off the streets of the capital and held for five days.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom signed a law making Holocaust denial punishable by three years in prison.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Iran hanged two convicted drug traffickers in the Shiite shrine city of Qom. Another man, convicted of drug trafficking, was hanged in the city of Ahvaz. The latest hangings bring to at least 30 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on news reports.
(AFP, 3/11/10)(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki underwent surgery. He was released from the hospital the next day in good health. US troops opened fire on a car in western Baghdad, killing Iraqi journalist Aseel al-Obeidi and her husband.
(AP, 3/11/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Italy allies of Premier Berlusconi pushed a controversial measure through parliament that shields the premier from prosecution in 2 ongoing trials.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 10, National police in Rome said 20 warrants have been issued so far in Palermo and six arrests have been made in the United States. Police say the crackdown targeted a Palermo-based Mafia crime family, and those named in the warrants are suspected of being mobsters and running extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Madagascar was hit by Tropical Storm Hubert. Disaster officials soon reported at least 10 people dead.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, Carlos Slim, Mexican telecom tycoon, jumped past Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett when Forbes magazine released its 2010 list of the world's wealthiest.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 10, The Moroccan government expelled 20 foreign Christian missionaries after religious authorities accused them of proselytism. The expelled missionaries included couples from Britain and The Netherlands who had adopted Moroccan children.
(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Nigeria some 5,000 activists staged a march in Abuja to demand the sacking of the cabinet and a public appearance by ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned to the country. 2 people were killed overnight by soldiers in Jos enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages. Plateau state police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba gave a breakdown of the list of people killed, saying the toll was 109. Aduba also revealed that 49 people were to be charged over the killings, saying they had already confessed to being on a revenge mission.
(AP, 3/10/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Pakistan suspected Islamist militants stormed the World Vision office, a US-based Christian aid agency, in Oghi village in Mansehra district killing six Pakistani aid workers after singling them out and then blowing up the building.
(Reuters, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, US Vice President Joe Biden met Palestinian leaders, telling them Israel's decision to expand settlement activity in east Jerusalem is undermining the peace efforts he is promoting.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Qatar's PM Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Arab states will respond to Israel's recent decision to expand an east Jerusalem settlement.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Rwanda told Carina Tertsakian, a Human Rights Watch researcher, that her work permit had been revoked. On April 23, she was given 24 hours to leave the country.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Mar 10, A UN Security Council report said up to half the food aid in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local UN workers.
(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 10, At least three Swedish newspapers published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after an alleged plot to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who created it, was uncovered in Ireland. Irish police said those arrested were two Algerians, two Libyans, a Palestinian, a Croatian and an American woman married to one of the Algerian suspects. They were not identified by name. On March 13 Irish police said they had released three of the arrested Muslims and American Jamie Paulin-Ramirez (31) without charges.
(AP, 3/10/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 11, US Republican senators sent a letter to the head of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America board of governors seeking detailed financial information about executive compensation, travel and lobbying expenses, and how the national charity awards grants to local clubs. The four senators said they were concerned that the chief executive of a charity that has been closing local clubs for lack of funding was compensated nearly $1 million in 2008.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 11, A US court-appointed examiner report investigating the failure of Lehman Bros. was unsealed. It said Lehman executives had manipulated balance sheets to temporarily remove $50 billion of troubled assets. Lehman’s bankruptcy in September, 2008, helped spread fear throughout the global financial system.
(SFC, 3/13/10, p.D1)
2010 Mar 11, In NYC lawyers representing construction companies, and rescue and recovery workers agreed to a settlement that could pay as much as $657.5 million to responders sickened by dust from the destroyed World Trade Center. On March 19 a federal judge rejected the ground zero settlement saying it was insufficient and that too much of it would go to legal fees. In June a $712 million settlement was reached.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)(SFC, 6/11/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 11, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, during a visit to Pakistan, said Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between Pakistan and India or anybody else fought on its soil. Five Afghan civilians, four of them children, were killed in an explosion in Kapisa province. A gunmen shot dead a South African construction contractor and his Afghan colleague in a separate attack in Khost province. One member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an explosion in the south of the country.
(Reuters, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Brazilian television network SBT broadcast a tape of Luiz Marques Barbosa (83) in bed with a 19-year-old that was widely distributed on the Internet. The station said the video was secretly filmed in January 2009 and sent anonymously to the network. Barbosa was detained in April out of fear he would flee the country.
(AP, 4/20/10)(http://tinyurl.com/y7vwfnz)
2010 Mar 11, British bank HSBC said information on 24,000 customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, potentially exposing large numbers of international clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Chile Sebastian Pinera began serving as president, succeeding Michele Bachelet, who went off to New York to head the UN organization for women. She resigned from the UN in 2013 and returned home to campaign.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.46)
2010 Mar 11, In Greece clashes between some 200 masked youths and riot police broke out as some 20,000 striking workers protested in central Athens against government austerity measures.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 11, In Honduras David Meza (51), a radio journalist whose career spanned three decades, was ambushed and killed in La Ceiba as he arrived home in his car.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 11, Preliminary election results released by Iraq's electoral commission showed PM Nouri al-Maliki leading in Babil province by nearly 14,000 votes and in Najaf by 7,000, two Shiite provinces in southern Iraq. Manaf Abdul al-Rawi, alleged Baghdad leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, was arrested. He soon gave investigators information that eventually led to the April 18 strike that killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
(AP, 3/11/10)(SFC, 4/23/10, p.A2)(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Kazakhstan a dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured, pouring water into several nearby villages and affecting 3,000 residents. A 2nd dam was washed away in the nearby Karatalsky district. Emergency officials said heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region of Kazakhstan neighboring China, flooding villages and claiming at least 35 lives.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AFP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Mexico 2 glowing brides in matching white gowns and four other same-sex couples made history in Mexico City as they wed under Latin America's first law that explicitly approves gay marriage.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Mexico gunmen burst into a home in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and opened fire, killing 5 young men and wounding 5 others, including a 10-year-old girl, during a wake being held for a young man shot to death in his car earlier in the week. The death toll rose to 6 the next day after a woman died of wounds suffered in the attack.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Pakistan a homemade bomb exploded on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing four people, including one child.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Somalia heavy fighting between insurgents and pro-government troops has killed at least 43 people over two days, as African Union peacekeepers used tanks to help the beleaguered government beat back an insurgent attack.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Sweden's parliament narrowly approved a resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, prompting the Turkish government to recall its ambassador in protest.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Ukrainian lawmakers formed a new majority coalition around President Viktor Yanukovych. Before forming the new governing coalition, Yanukovych signed a new law allowing individual deputies to break away from their parliamentary factions, which allowed his coalition to eventually control 235 of the chamber's 450 seats. Mykola Azarov, who served as Yanukovych's campaign strategist in this year's presidential elections, was chosen as premier.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Yemen 3 southern independence activists were killed and five wounded as demonstrations in southern towns sparked clashes with police and sympathy rallies in the north against the crackdown. Yemeni authorities confiscated Al-Jazeera television broadcasting equipment from the station's San'a offices after complaining of its coverage of the country's restive southern region.
(AP, 3/11/10)(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 11, The Zimbabwe Red Cross said at least 2.17 million Zimbabweans need food aid and the figures are set to rise because of an expected poor harvest this year.
(AFP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 12, The US government’s “vaccine court" ruled in 3 separate cases that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosol does not cause autism.
(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 12, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom formally announced that he is in the race for the office of California lieutenant governor.
(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 12, Austrian government officials said they have identified at least two mass graves of some 70 Nazi victims on property used by the army. The victims were concentration camp inmates and others, all killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, He Pingping (b.1988) of China, the world's shortest man, died in Rome while working on a TV show. He was 2 feet, 5.37 inches (74.6 cm) tall.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Egypt 23 Coptic Christians were wounded when extremist Muslims attacked a church community center in Marsa-Matruh. At least 27 people were arrested in northern Egypt after fighting erupted between Muslims and Christians over land.
(AP, 3/13/10)(Reuters, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, Georgian church leader Metropolitan Theodor said convicts would be able to build or maintain monasteries after clerics and prosecutors struck a deal allowing criminals convicted of minor crimes to serve their sentences in the monasteries.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, In India a troupe of 10,780 tribal villagers in northeast Mizoram state set a record for the largest dance ensemble in the world with a carefully choreographed routine to welcome in the summer.
(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, India signed 5 deals in New Delhi to purchase more than $7 billion in hardware and expertise from Russia. The agreements included the construction of at least 12 civilian nuclear reactors, an aircraft carrier and a fleet of MiG-29 fighters.
(AFP, 3/12/10)(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, Indonesian police killed two suspected Islamist militants in a firefight in remote Aceh province during the latest in a series of raids made since an extremist training camp was discovered there last month. Eight other suspects were arrested.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, It was reported that over 10% of the Buddha statues in Luang Prabang, Laos, had gone missing. Authorities suspected theft rings had stolen some 120 for resale.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, In Mexico gunmen burst into a party and killed 8 youths and left another person wounded in the Pacific coast township of Navolato, near the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan. Evaristo Pacheco, a journalist for the regional weekly Vision Informativa, was shot to death after being snatched from a nightclub in the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo.
(AP, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 12, A union representing Dutch nurses launched a national campaign against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care.
(Reuters, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other, killing at least 43 people in Lahore and wounding about 100. It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm. The death toll rose to 57 after more people died from their wounds.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 12, Serbian police detained nine former paramilitary fighters suspected of killing civilians and looting homes during the Kosovo war. The nine were accused of killing 41 ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Cuska in May 1999.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, Frightened Somalis stacked household goods on carts pulled by donkeys and fled the heaviest fighting the capital has seen in almost a year, after hundreds of heavily armed insurgents moved into an area this week previously controlled by government soldiers. Over 50 people had died in fighting over the last 3 days.
(AP, 3/12/10)(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, Sri Lanka's main ethnic Tamil party dropped its demand for an independent state and said it is ready to accept regional self-rule, following the defeat of separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in a 25-year civil war.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Thailand tens of thousands of supporters of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered near ministry buildings in Bangkok to rally against the government, sporting their signature red shirts. Two months of protests followed leaving 92 people dead.
(AFP, 3/13/10)(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.47)
2010 Mar 13, A storm battered parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut with gusts of up to 70 mph.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai backed off from a much-criticized move to control the previously independent monitoring body for upcoming parliamentary elections, offering to allow two foreigners on the commission. Afghanistan rowed back from a total ban on media broadcasts of "disturbing" images from insurgent attacks or live pictures of security operations. Police reported four explosions in Kandahar. Multiple bomb attacks in Kandahar killed 35 people, but failed to free insurgents from the city prison. The blasts included two car bombs, six suicide attackers on motorbikes and bicycles, and homemade bombs. The attackers targeted the city's prison, police headquarters, a wedding hall next door and other areas on roads leading to the prison.
(AP, 3/13/10)(Reuters, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Canada 2 people were killed and 30 hurt by an avalanche near Revelstoke, British Columbia, when the slide hit a snowmobile rally.
(Reuters, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, Cyclone Tomas began battering island groups off Fiji's northern coast, causing flooding, pounding seas and one death. Officials said the storm likely would only sideswipe the main islands of the South Pacific nation. At least 2 people were killed by the storm.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Georgia a hoax television broadcast said Russia had invaded and the president had been killed. It sparked wide anxiety in the country still traumatized by the August 2008 war in which Russian troops advanced deep into the country.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Honduras Nahum Palacios (36), director of a TV station in Tocoa near the Caribbean coast, was shot to death as he drove home and was intercepted by two other vehicles. This was the third such slaying in two weeks.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 13, In India Abdul Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali were arrested late in the day in Mumbai's Matunga suburb. Police said the two men were preparing to attack several targets in the city, the country's financial and entertainment hub. Police said the men had links with terror groups in Pakistan and were acting on directions from handlers there.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, Iran’s Fars the news agency said Iran has busted what it says was a US-funded cyber network group linked to an exiled opposition movement that collected data on its nuclear scientists. 30 members of the network with links to the outlawed People's Mujahedeen and monarchists were said to have been arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Mexico a series of shootings killed 24 people in a Pacific coast state plagued by drug gang violence. Nearly half died in one shootout between soldiers and armed men. Suspected drug gang hit men separately ambushed two cars carrying families with ties to the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez, killing an American couple and a Mexican man. Three young children survived, although two suffered wounds. On March 26 suspect Ricardo Valles de la Rosa (45), a member of the Barrio Azteca gang, was arrested for the US consulate linked killings. A confession by de la Rosa suggested that El Paso jail officer Arthur H. Redelfs was targeted in the Ciudad Juarez shootings that also killed his wife, Lesley A. Enriquez, an employee of the US consulate. The husband of another consulate worker was killed in the other vehicle attacked. In April Mexico arrested a 2nd suspect, a member of the Los Aztecas gang, who confessed to taking part in the killing of a US consulate official. In September Jesus Ernesto Chavez, was extradited to the US, for ordering the killing of Lesley A. Enriquez.
(AP, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 3/31/10)(AFP, 4/23/10)(SSFC, 9/5/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 13, Mozambique's health ministry spokesman said the country's cholera outbreak has now killed 42 people in the northern and central parts of the southern African country.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Myanmar ethnic rebels in Nam Zam township, Shan State, killed 20 government troops in an ambush aimed at deterring the military government from launching an offensive against them ahead of elections this year.
(Reuters, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 13, Several dozen Palestinian women scuffled with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem amid rising religious and political tensions in the disputed city.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Pakistan a renewed wave of violence struck Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of the Swat Valley, when a suicide bomber on a motorized rickshaw killed 13 people at a security checkpoint, raising fears the nation is sliding back into a period of relentless bloodletting.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Qatar a two week UN conference opened with a focus on the Atlantic bluefin tuna and other marine life in the world's overfished oceans. The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) discussed new proposals on regulating the trade in number of plant and animal species.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Somalia a fight over land rights between two rival clans in northern Amara village killed at least 15 people.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 13, The Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung quoted Swiss Abbot Martin Werlen saying around 60 people over the last 15 years have reported being victims of abuse by Catholic priests in Switzerland.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 13, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet while demanding authorities crack down on a critical news Web site that he accused of spreading false information. A Venezuelan police official said security forces have seized two tons of cocaine hidden in two bulldozers at a port in the central state of Carabobo. The cocaine was intended to be smuggled to the Netherlands.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, American rower Katie Spotz (22) completed a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean, touching a pier in the coffee-brown waters of Guyana to claim a record as the youngest person to accomplish the feat. The athlete from Mentor, Ohio, set out from Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 3 and endured rough seas during the 2,817-mile (4,533-km) crossing.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, Peter Graves (83), film and TV star, died. His calm and intelligent demeanor was a good fit to the intrigue of "Mission Impossible" (1967-1973 and 1988-1990) as well as the satire of the "Airplane" films.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Afghanistan one US Marine was killed in a road accident in Marjah. An unmanned Predator drone aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Chile a power failure at nightfall plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness, rattling a country already anxious after last month's 8.8-magnitude quake.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Colombia candidates from parties allied with outgoing President Alvaro Uribe dominated elections to replace a Congress tarnished by lawmakers' links to far-right criminal bands. Voters made the Party of National Integration (PIN), new party accused of ties to far-right criminal bands, Colombia's fourth-strongest party. Former Foreign Minister Noemi Sanin (60) defeated Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's hand-picked successor for the Conservative Party's presidential nomination in a close primary.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 14, Egypt's Constitutional Court backed the right of women judges to sit on the bench in the state's administrative courts, despite opposition from conservatives. The ruling was not "decisive" and debates within the administrative courts could still continue along the conservative-liberal fault line.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, France voted in regional polls. French voters scarred by economic crisis dealt President Nicolas Sarkozy and his conservative leadership a stern blow by strongly favoring leftist candidates in regional elections.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Iraq early results released by the electoral commission showed the prime minister's political coalition ahead in oil-rich Basra province, strengthening his lead in the country's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, Israeli security services overnight captured Maher Uda (47), a top Hamas commander, in Ramallah. He had been on the run for more than a decade for his implication in a series of suicide attacks in Israel which claimed 70 lives.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Kashmir 6 policemen were hurt when suspected separatist militants attacked their patrol with a grenade in Indian Kashmir's main city of Srinagar.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Pakistan helicopter gunships pounded Taliban hideouts in the northwestern tribal district, killing at least 17 insurgents.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(SFC, 3/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 14, Millions of Russians voted in regional elections in a mid-term test of President Dmitry Medvedev's pledge to loosen the Kremlin's grip on the political system. The ruling United Russia party appeared headed for an expected victory in regional elections, although many disgruntled voters threw their support behind opposition candidates.
(Reuters, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Thailand as many as 150,000 anti-government demonstrators vowed to march on military barracks housing Thailand's top leaders as their icon, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, urged them from exile not to give up.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.45)
2010 Mar 14, Yemen launched a preemptive strike was to forestall an imminent al-Qaida attack against a strategic site. The leader of Al-Qaeda in Abyan, Jamil Nasser Abdullah al-Ambari, Samir al-Sanaani and Ahmed Amzarba were killed in the raid.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, Honda Motor Co. notified the NHTSA it will recall 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element small trucks, from the 2007-2008 model years, due to braking system problems.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a rocket attack on Bagram Air Field killed one person. Afghan authorities in the eastern Paktika province prevented three would-be suicide bombers from attacking a security post in Barmal district. Six suspected Taliban also died after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province. 3 civilians were killed and 3 others were wounded when their vehicle hit a mine while they were moving household goods in Ghazni province. Fire from insurgents killed an Afghan child outside a NATO base in Kunar province.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Britain Louis Wainwright (18) and Nicholas Smith (19), both from Scunthorpe, were found dead at different addresses following a night out. They had both taken the drug mephedrone, sold online as plant food and also goes by the names meow meow, mcat and bubble. The deaths come a week after a secondary school in Leicestershire reported that 180 pupils had missed school after taking the drug, which can be bought for less than £10 a gram.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 15, British and Italian doctors carried out groundbreaking surgery to rebuild the windpipe of a 10-year-old boy using stem cells developed within his own body. Doctors at London's Great Ormond Street children's hospital implanted the boy with a donor trachea, or windpipe, that had been stripped of its cells and injected with his own.
(AFP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said Egyptian security officials have arrested Yotam Feldman, an Israeli journalist, as he tried to sneak across the porous Israeli-Egyptian border with African migrants. Feldman told his investigators he was reporting on African migrants sneaking into Israel from Egypt. Feldman returned home on March 22, saying he had been beaten in captivity and that some of his materials had been confiscated.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Iraq the US military turned over the Taji prison holding some 2,900 detainees to Iraqi authorities. A suicide car bomber killed 8 people and wounded 28 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the morning rush hour in Fallujah. In northern Iraq an American soldier died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, Irish police charged two men from Algeria and Libya with minor offenses following a weeklong investigation into Muslim extremists allegedly involved in efforts to kill a Swedish artist. Ali Charafe Damache (49) of Algeria was charged with sending a threatening text message. A Libyan who used the false name Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani was charged with immigration violations.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Italian police arrested the "postmen" of the Mafia's top boss, 19 close aides who delivered the notes Matteo Messina Denaro writes to impart orders from his hideout.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Mexican marines and Navy personnel announced they had launched a raid against an operations base run by the Zeta drug gang near Monterrey. A convoy of fleeing vehicles opened fire on a Marine helicopter following them. The Marines chased them down, some on foot, and killed eight suspects. Elsewhere in Chihuahua state, running gun battles in the tourist town of Creel left seven people dead and two seriously wounded. Farther south prosecutors reported the bodies of five men were found on the side of a highway. In the Gulf Coast town of Tierra Blanco some 90 city policemen were held for questioning about the kidnapping of undocumented Central American migrants.
(AP, 3/16/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 15, Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region detonated two car bombs near a government building in Warri where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled. Nigeria's intelligence agency later accused Henry Okah, an alleged ex-leader of militant group MEND, of having wired the bombs.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Mar 15, Pakistani police discovered a cache of bomb-making equipment and thousands of pounds of explosives in an empty Lahore shop where authorities said a string of attacks on the eastern city may have been plotted.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, At the CITES conference in Qatar a top official with the UN wildlife agency said the world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to "the verge of extinction."
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Somalia's transitional government (TFG) and a faction of the country's moderate Ahlu Sunna Sufi sect signed a deal in Addis Ababa to jointly fight extremist elements in Somalia.
(AFP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters vowed to splatter the seat of government with their own blood if their demands weren't met.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, in Venezuela representatives of a leftist party asserted their independence from President Hugo Chavez, accepting a dissident politician into their ranks while demanding increased tolerance from their socialist leader.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Yemen launched a 2nd day of strikes against al-Qaida hideouts. As many as 9 people were killed in the raids including some civilians.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said she is freezing funding for the SBInet project, the virtual border fence along the US-Mexican border, due to cost overruns and missed deadlines by Boeing Corp. The project has cost $2.4 billion between 2005 and 2009.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100317/ts_csm/288327)
2010 Mar 16, In Texas a tour bus headed for Mexico crashed and killed 2 people.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, In southern Afghanistan two NATO soldiers were killed by a crude bomb.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, Seven north African states held talks in Algeria to plan a coordinated response to Al-Qaeda following a dangerous rise in the terror threat in the Sahara-Sahel region.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Bolivian officials said they have fired prison director Col. Gilmar Oblitas for allowing imprisoned former Gen. Luis Garcia Meza (81) turn cells into a luxury apartment.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 16, Brazilian police and church officials said authorities were investigating three priests accused of sexually abusing altar boys after a video allegedly showing one case of abuse was broadcast on SBT television a week earlier.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, A French policeman (53) was killed outside Paris by a member of ETA, the Basque separatist group. France's anti-terrorism police interrogated one suspect and tried to track down at least one other assailant who escaped. A police official said the suspected ETA commando unit was allegedly trying to steal cars when it was surprised by police.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Haiti two off-duty officers were shot to death near an open-air market in the capital. Such shootings have increased since thousands of prisoners escaped during the Jan. 12 earthquake.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Indian Kashmir 2 civilians and a policeman were killed and 8 other people wounded when suspected militants attacked police patrols at two major markets in Sopore and Srinagar.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi, defying government warnings, said the Islamic republic was "plagued with despotism," in remarks published ahead of a national celebration that could trigger more protests.
(Reuters, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Mexico's government announced an austerity plan for trimming general spending $3.2 billion (40.1 billion pesos) over the next three years so it can provide more money for social and infrastructure programs. The military and some security, educational and health services were exempt from the measures.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, Pakistan and Iran signed a $7.6 billion deal in Turkey paving the way for the construction of a much-delayed pipeline pumping Iranian natural gas to the energy-starved South Asian country.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Peru President Alan Garcia fired Justice Minister Aurelio Pastor amid questions over the pardoning of Jose Enrique Crousillat (77), a former media executive convicted of taking payoffs to provide favorable coverage for a previous government.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, At the CITES meeting in Qatar a marine conservation group, Oceana, said surging demand for shark fin soup among Asia's booming middle classes is driving many species of these big fish to the brink of extinction.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, In northwest Pakistan a US missile strike and clashes between extremist gunmen and tribesmen killed at least 20 militants near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with security forces in east Jerusalem as tension boiled over in the city and a senior Hamas leader called for a new "intifada," or uprising.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 16, Thai protesters poured several jugs of their own blood at the front gate of the government headquarters and outside the ruling party's offices in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 17, US federal authorities won a court order requiring officials in the US Virgin Islands to repair sewage plants that have dumped raw waste at beaches renowned for snorkeling and surfing.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In California US Border patrol agents seized 580 pounds of marijuana inside a tractor-trailer near Blythe in Riverside County.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 17, McAfee Inc. reported that hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.
(Reuters, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Alex Chilton (59), singer and guitarist, died in New Orleans. His song “The Letter" (“Gimme a ticket for an airplane…") reached the top of the charts in 1967.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 17, In Abu Dhabi Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace. She presented her 15-verse poem on the live TV “The Million's Poet" program.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Afghanistan 2 suicide attackers dressed in burqas were shot dead as they attempted to enter the compound of a US-linked aid organization in southern Lashkar Gah. Up to 35 people died when a bus carrying passengers taking home gas canisters collided with a truck on a treacherous mountain pass in northern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The Congolese army said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the country.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Uniformed Cuban security agents prevented the mothers and wives of dissidents from marching on the outskirts of Havana to demand release of their loved ones, shoving them into a bus when they lay down in the street in protest.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, A Guatemalan court approved the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to the US to face money laundering charges. He is charged in a New York federal court with embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations intended to buy school library books in Guatemala. He allegedly endorsed checks drawn from a New York bank and deposited them in a Miami account.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Iran released Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of the country's biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He was temporarily freed on $450,000 bail. Authorities also released filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, journalist Ali Akbar Montajabi and female activist Farzaneh Qassemi, all of whom were detained in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Israel lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Kyrgyzstan thousands of demonstrators rallied in the capital Bishkek to protest recent sharp increases in heating and electricity tariffs and alleged oppression of government opponents.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The African Union slapped sanctions on Madagascar's rulers for failing to implement accords to end a long political crisis, as fresh violence erupted in the island's capital.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then burned around a dozen Christians, mostly women and children, in the Riyom region of Plateau state, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
(AFP, 3/18/10)(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In northwest Pakistan 2 US missile strikes killed at least 10 militants in North Waziristan. Attackers armed with rockets and petrol bombs killed five policemen in a pre-dawn ambush near the Khyber tribal district. an Afghan was killed in an explosion while making a bomb on the outskirts of Quetta. Militants fixed a bomb to the tail end of a tanker with a magnet and the explosion burnt some 40,000 liters of fuel it was carrying for NATO forces in Afghanistan. A Pakistani court formally charged 5 young Americans of plotting terrorism in the country, in a case that has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet.
(AFP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Ramallah Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Silva because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, In southern Sudan at least 13 people were killed in fighting between northern nomads and the southern army.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Ugandan security forces fatally shot three people in the capital during clashes with rioters angry after the tombs of five traditional kings were destroyed overnight by fire. On March 30 man turned himself saying a vision told him the tombs were Satanic.
(AP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Zimbabwe South African President Jacob Zuma began talks with Zimbabwe's political leaders on his first trip as chief regional mediator to patch up differences in the troubled coalition government.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 18, Pres. Obama signed a $17.6 billion job-creation measure a day after it was passed by Congress.
(SFC, 3/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 18, The final version of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (FATCA) became law as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. FATCA was due to take effect July 1, 2014. FATCA required foreign financial institutions to spill the beans on American clients, turning it into an enforcement arms of the IRS.
(http://tinyurl.com/bljlcvz)(Econ, 9/15/12, p.71)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.38)(Econ, 7/27/19, p.61)
2010 Mar 18, David Coleman Headley (b.1960), Chicago-based Pakistani American, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of terrorism for his role as a scout for the 2008 coordinated assault in Mumbai that left 173 people dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Headley)(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 18, US federal and state agents swept across the El Paso area to round up and question members of the Barrio Azteca gang, which is believed to be behind the recent murder of US consular workers in neighboring Ciudad Juarez. Seven people were arrested.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, Fess Parker, former film and TV star, died at his home in Santa Ynez, Ca. He was best know for his role as Davy Crocket on the Disneyland TV show. He later played Daniel Boone in the 1964-1970 TV series “Daniel Boone."
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.C6)
2010 Mar 18, Astronauts from the US and Russia landed safely in northern Kazakhstan's chilly steppes after spending almost six months on the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, Afghan President Hamid Karzai boosted the power of an anti-corruption body that had faced fierce accusations of being toothless and half-hearted in its battle to wipe out official graft. US military officials said operations to push the Taliban out of their Afghan stronghold of Kandahar are under way and will steadily build in the months ahead.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, Michael Daly (49), a former detective with Scotland Yard's drug squad, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in a plot to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine into Ireland. Daly's plan was foiled when his boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and was shipwrecked off the Irish coast on July 2, 2007. Daly his co-conspirator Alan Wells, a former firefighter (57), have both admitted conspiring to supply to the drug. Wells was sentenced to 15 years.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, China’s state media reported that parts of southern China are suffering from the worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, In the Dominican Rep. Jorge Puello (32), a fugitive who once acted as the lawyer for a group of US Baptist missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children, was arrested on human-trafficking charges at the request of the United States.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, Israeli copycat drugs giant Teva made a major stride into Europe with the five-billion-dollar purchase of Ratiopharm, formerly owned by a German billionaire who killed himself.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Mexico gunmen in a convoy of six vehicles opened fire on a navy helicopter on a reconnaissance patrol in Fresnillo, outside of Monterrey. Marines aboard the chopper returned fire, killing one of the gunmen as suspected gang members blocked roads in the city.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 18, A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a Thai worker inside Israel, in the first death from such an attack since Israel's Gaza offensive last year. Israeli missiles hit smuggling tunnels and a metal workshop in Gaza.
(AP, 3/18/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, A Polish court convicted three men of the theft of the notorious "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) sign from the Auschwitz memorial site in December. The men, two of whom are brothers, were given prison sentences ranging from 18 months to 2 1/2 years.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Qatar the CITES convention said consumer appetite for caviar is pushing sturgeon to the brink of extinction. Fishing nations led by Japan rejected a US backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A proposal to ban the int’l. sale of polar bear skins also failed to pass.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A2,5)
2010 Mar 18, Sudan's government and a collection of Darfur rebel groups signed a cease-fire, opening the way for political negotiations ahead of a full peace agreement. Government representative Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani and rebel leader Al-Tijani Al-Sissi signed the truce in Doha, Qatar. Al-Sissi's Liberation and Justice Movement is an umbrella organization that includes several small Darfur rebel groups that recently united to negotiate with the government.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signed a cooperation agreement with Nikolai Bordyuzha, the head of the Collective Treaty Organization, a Moscow-dominated alliance that includes Russia and six other former Soviet republics.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, Zimbabwe's rival leaders faced fresh pressure to mend their differences and push toward new elections, as South African President Jacob Zuma led talks on the fragile unity government.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 19, A panel of the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Reserve must reveal documents identifying financial companies that received Fed loans to survive the financial crisis.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.D2)
2010 Mar 19, In Las Vegas a fire at the private Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary killed over 250 exotic birds and a dog.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 19, Australia's Hollywood A-listers, prime minister and top tycoons launched a new campaign for Aboriginal jobs with a spectacular light show at Sydney's iconic Opera House.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In London last-ditch talks aimed at preventing a strike by some 12,000 British Airways (BA) cabin crew collapsed, leaving thousands of passengers facing chaos within hours.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Cambodia has temporarily suspended marriages between South Koreans and its citizens to curb human trafficking. The latest ban came after the March 3 conviction of a Cambodian matchmaker who arranged marriages between Korean men and 25 Cambodian brides.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Colombia Clodomiro Castilla (50), a reporter and announcer at La Voz de Monteria radio, was gunned down on his front porch. Castilla, a father of four, had reported on far-right drug-funded militias known as paramilitaries and their friendly ties to the area's business elite.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 19, The US condemned Ethiopia's blocking of Voice of America broadcasts, calling the country's accusations of the US radio service "baseless and inflammatory."
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Haiti one of the heaviest rainfalls since the Jan. 12 earthquake swamped homeless camps, sweeping screaming residents into eddies of water, overflowing latrines and panicking thousands.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Iraq a roadside bomb and a gun attack killed four people and wounded seven others in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Japan said it will boost its aid to quake-hit Haiti to 100 million dollars as the country's foreign minister prepared to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation this weekend.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Mexico a shootout between soldiers and gunmen in the northern city of Monterrey killed two bystanders, graduate students studying engineering at Monterrey Tech University. Suspected gang members also blocked roads in the city for the second day, in a bold attempt to impede security patrols. The navy announced the capture of Alberto "Bad Boy" Mendoza, suspected of being a chief cartel operator linked to the Beltran Leyva gang and others in Monterrey.
(AP, 3/20/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 19, It was reported that February storms in Michoacan, Mexico, killed some 50-60% of the wintering monarch butterfly population.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 19, A Nigerian armed rebel group claimed to have blown up an oil facility in the restive oil-producing Niger Delta region and threatened to step up attacks in coming days.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank lobbed rocks at Israeli security forces, set garbage bins and tires ablaze and torched an Israeli flag in a new outbreak of violence over contested Jerusalem building plans and unsubstantiated rumors about threats to the city's holiest shrine. Israeli aircraft fired five missiles at Gaza's defunct airport and nearby border tunnels, wounding at least 12 people.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, A Krakow court ruled that allegations in the 2009 biography "Lech Walesa: The Idea and History" by Pawel Zyzak that Walesa served as a communist informant were slanderous. A 2000 special court already cleared Walesa of collaboration allegations.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Polish authorities said a herd of some 300 bison in southeastern Poland is at risk from tuberculosis after one recently died of the disease.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Russia the international Quartet for the Middle East met in Moscow in a bid to revive the peace process despite tensions after Israel's announcement of new settler homes and a deadly rocket attack.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Somalia at least three masked men armed with pistols shot Sheikh Daud Ali Hasan, a senior commander of the insurgent group al-Shabab, several times in the head and chest as he was coming out of a mosque in Kismayo.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 19, Spanish ministers approved a wide-ranging 10-year reform plan designed to wean the economy off its dependence on construction and create broader, more sustainable growth as the country fights to climb out of recession.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Thai anti-government protesters announced plans to snarl up the capital with a travelling rally in a bid to win support after rejecting a conditional offer of talks by PM Abhisit Vejjajiva.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Turkish authorities indicted 33 people in an alleged secularist plot to destabilize Turkey and overthrow the government. The suspects included three retired or active-duty admirals and dozens of other military officers.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Venezuelan prosecutors charged a government opponent with conspiracy and other crimes after he said on a television program that the country has become a haven for drug trafficking.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Yemen's Pres. Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the country's six-year war with northern rebels over, saying the Shiite militants are living up to a cease-fire agreement signed last month.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, The Plastiki, a boat with hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, departed from Sausalito, Ca. to Australia.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 20, In Florida 3 people were killed when a single-engine plane collided with a kit-built aircraft over Williston.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 20, British Airways canceled more than 1,000 flights after its cabin crew launched a three-day strike, wreaking havoc on the plans of tens of thousands of passengers just before the busy spring holiday season. .
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20 In Canada a 3rd deadly avalanche in a week killed 2 French skiers in British Columbia.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Croatia and Slovenia hosted the 1st locally organized conference of the heads of government of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.54)
2010 Mar 20, In Iraq the latest partial results showed PM al-Maliki's secular Shiite challenger, former PM Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the prime minister's coalition in the overall tally. Al-Maliki called on the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond to requests from political blocs for a recount.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Nepal's former PM Girija Prasad Koirala (86) died. He served five terms, led mass protests that ended the king's authoritarian rule and was a key figure in peace negotiations with communist rebels.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Pakistani police arrested three Taliban militants and seized a bomb-making factory in the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Russia thousands of protesters rallied in several cities to protest the government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Spanish surgeons completed the world’s most extensive full-face transplant. It was the 11th known face transplant in the world. The 24-hour operation provided a young farmer (30) a new nose, jaw and teeth.
(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/2fqgwfm)
2010 Mar 20, In Sudan 19 members of the Misseriya tribe and six from the rival Nuwayba tribe were killed as fighting broke out. More than 20 people were wounded.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Togo thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets in the West African nation to protest presidential election results.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 21, President Barack Obama announced that he will reaffirm a ban on using federal funds to pay for abortions, which convinced some holdout Democrats to support the healthcare overhaul but riled Republicans who said the decision could be easily reversed. US House Democrats voted 219-212 late in the day to send legislation to Obama that would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce deficits and ban insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
(Reuters, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Argentina 2 teenagers died, apparently after police tried to stop them for riding a motorcycle without helmets. Hundreds of angry residents torched the Baradero city hall to protest the death of the teenagers in a police chase.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Tropical Cyclone Ului blew across the coast of northeastern Australia leaving some 60,000 homes without power.
(AFP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 21, In southern Afghanistan at least ten people picnicking by a stream to celebrate the Afghan new year were killed in a suicide bomb attack. The blast struck a bridge on the main highway between the capital Kabul and Herat. In eastern Khost province a roadside bomb killed two construction company guards when it hit their car. In Wardak province an elderly man was shot and killed by a joint Afghan-int’l. force that mistakenly believed he was a threat.
(AFP, 3/21/10)(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 21, British Airways cabin crews walked off the job for a second day, upsetting travel plans for scores of customers, but the airline said its contingency plans were working well and more planes were taking off than expected.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In the eastern Central African Republic Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed at least 10 civilians in the village of Agoumar, including a woman burnt alive. One LRA rebel was killed by the villagers.
(Reuters, 3/22/10)(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 21, China’s state media reported that authorities in Xinjiang have restored access to email services and 32 Internet sites that were blocked after ethnic unrest broke out in the region in July.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, Cyprus police said grave robbers stole the remains of 3 Cyprus Archbishops who led the island's Greek Orthodox church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sofronios III and Kyrillos II led the Cypriot church between 1865 and 1916 during Ottoman and British colonial rule. Police arrested a Romanian man suspected of vandalizing the tombs.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Cairo, Egypt an international donors conference raised $850 million in pledges for projects intended to ensure the safe return of more than 2.7 million people displaced during the war in Darfur. The one-day conference was organized by the 57-nation Organization of The Islamic Conference and included representatives from the US, European nations, UN agencies and aid groups.
(AP, 3/21/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21 In France the second-round regional poll left Pres. Sarkozy's right-wing UMP in charge of only one of the mainland regions in the last ballot-box test of his popularity before the 2012 presidential vote. The Socialists won 54% of the vote.
(AFP, 3/22/10)(Econ, 3/27/10, p.18)
2010 Mar 21, Wolfgang Wagner (b.1919), custodian of the Bayreuth Festival, died in Germany.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.89)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Wagner)
2010 Mar 21, A small earthquake struck northern Haiti, collapsing an apartment building and killing at least three people.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In southern Iceland a volcano erupted overnight, forcing some 600 hundred people to evacuate the area and diverting flights after authorities declared a local state of emergency.
(Reuters, 3/21/10)(AF, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, India successfully tested a new, more maneuverable version of its BrahMos supersonic cruise missile that was jointly developed with Russia.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Indonesia a rare Sumatran tiger dragged a man, identified as Darmilus (26), from a hut in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park, and broke his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Iranian authorities detained Hasan Lahouti, the grandson of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, upon arrival from London. Rafsanjani, the most powerful opposition supporter inside the country's clerical leadership, has come under harsh criticism from hard-liners for his support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Lahouti was freed the next day on a $73,000 bail.
(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Jamaica Vivian Blake (53), founder of a cocaine-smuggling gang blamed for about 1,400 slayings, died of illnesses at hospital a year after returning to his native island following a prison term in the United States. In 2003 Blake's son, Duane Blake, authored "The Shower Posse: The Most Notorious Jamaican Crime Organization."
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Mexico gunmen targeting the police chief of a town outside Monterrey killed his bodyguard and wounded three other people. Marquez Compean, a drug suspect, and two others were arrested by Santa Catarina police officers who were part of a convoy carrying Castillo on official business. The next day Compean’s beaten body was found wrapped in a blanket in the nearby city of San Nicolas de los Garza. Rodrigo Medina, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, announced that he was firing 81 state police officers suspected of corruption. 5 men died in Acapulco after they pulled guns on each other during an early morning fight that began as an argument at a wedding the previous night. One man was killed in a following shootout between gunmen riding in separate vehicles.
(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 21, Nigerian authorities said police have arrested 164 people over a recent massacre near the central city of Jos and plan to charge most with offences ranging from terrorism to arson.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Pakistan the bullet-riddled bodies of four tribesmen, killed by the Taliban for allegedly spying for the United States, were found in a semiautonomous tribal region near the Afghan border. They had been kidnapped by the Taliban about 10 days earlier. A bomb exploded in the southwestern province of Baluchistan killing at least three people. Separately, helicopter gunships pounded Taliban hide-outs in the Kurram and Upper Orakzai tribal regions, killing 28 militants. Suspected US drones killed at least 4 people in a militant-dominated tribal region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/21/10)(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 21, In Panama Cheryl Lynn Hughes (50), an American, went missing in western Bocas del Toro province. Police on July 20 found her body and the skeletal remains of another person buried in the back patio of a hotel owned by William Adolfo Cortez, of Texas.
(AP, 7/24/10)(www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20100721130055598)
2010 Mar 21, Conservationists at the CITES meeting in Qatar said the Internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats to rare species, fueling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live baby lions to wine made from tiger bones.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Spain the Basque armed separatist movement ETA said it is ready to move forward on the path of political change, but it stopped short of renouncing violence as demanded by the Spanish government.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, Syrian police opened fire at a group of Kurds celebrating the new year, killing at least one person despite signs that tensions were easing between the government and its restive Kurdish minority.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 21, Thailand was mired in political deadlock as demonstrators used their own blood to create a giant piece of protest art and rejected the government's offer of talks designed to end their rally.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, Some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders, including one the US says mentored Osama bin Laden, declared supporters of a ban on child brides to be apostates. A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation next month.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Maryland Renee Bowman (44) was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms for killing her two adopted daughters and storing their bodies in a freezer. She had continued to collect subsidies paid to adoptive parents of special needs children.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.A7)
2010 Mar 22, Google announced that its China search engine, google.cn, would automatically redirect queries to its service in China's semiautonomous territory of Hong Kong, where Google is not legally required to censor searches.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, US scientist Rita Colwell (76) won the $150,000 Stockholm Water Prize for her research on the prevention of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, The radio of Spirit, NASA’s Mars rover, fell silent. In 2011 engineers gave up trying to re-establish contact.
(SFC, 5/26/11, p.A10)
2010 Mar 22, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met a senior delegation from the insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami in Kabul, an unprecedented step toward peace that may signal divisions within the insurgency. NATO reported two more service members were killed in separate explosions in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, West African farmers appealed for help as drought and famine menaced people and livestock, with malnutrition already affecting nearly a third of the population. Leaders of the nine countries in the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) planned to meet in N’Djamena on March 25.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, British Airways cabin crew held a 3rd day of strike action, prolonging travel misery for thousands. A business group warned the action threatens Britain's global reputation.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In China four executives of Australia mining giant Rio Tinto pleaded guilty in Shanghai to taking bribes.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.D3)
2010 Mar 22, Sandstorms whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand and grit, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Dubai Media reported that authorities planned to step up enforcement of a 2003 law prohibiting restaurants from using booze in food preparation.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Former US Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited Haiti’s capital to raise aid and investment in the country reeling from the Jan 12 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 22, In Iraq 4 people were killed, including two policemen, in shootings in Baghdad.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Israeli forces mistakenly shot and killed a fellow soldier while looking for three Palestinians who crossed the border from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, Japan deported Abubakar Awudu Suraj, a Ghanaian who had lived illegally in Japan for 22 years and was married to a Japanese citizen. Suraj was forced onto a plane for Cairo and died shortly after his forced boarding.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 22, In Mexico the pre-dawn discovery of two bodies cut into pieces and shoved into two black bags brought a tragic end to a search for two missing police officers in southern Guerrero state. In the nearby resort of Acapulco, police later found another two mutilated bodies and a threatening message outside the house of the city's former deputy traffic police chief.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Mexico Paulette Gebara Farah (4), a disabled girl, was reported missing by her parents. On March 30 Her body was found under the mattress of her bed at her wealthy parents' apartment on the outskirts of Mexico City. On May 21 federal investigators she had smothered accidentally and was there the whole time police and family were hunting for her.
(AP, 4/1/10)(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Nigeria the Magajin Gari Sharia court in the northern city of Kaduna ordered the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), one of the country's leading rights groups, to suspend its Twitter and Facebook online debates on Malam Buba Bello Jangebe’s wrist amputation for theft, which was carried out in 2000.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, In southwestern Pakistan a roadside bomb exploded in Quetta, killing one person and injuring three more in an attack that police blamed on ethnic militants.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Venezuela former Zulia state Gov. Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, an outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez, said that police have taken him into custody while he awaits trial on conspiracy charges for saying Venezuela has become a haven for drug trafficking.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, President Barack Obama signed a historic $938 billion health care overhaul that guarantees coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans and will touch nearly every citizen's life, presiding over the biggest shift in US domestic policy since the 1960s and capping a divisive, yearlong debate that could define the November elections. Florida and 12 other states challenged it minutes later. Republican legislators in more than 3 dozen states sought to challenge the bill contending that it will infringe on state sovereignty and individual freedoms. The bill included a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices set to begin in 2013.
(AP, 3/23/10)(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A12)(SSFC, 3/28/10, p.A10)(Econ, 3/31/12, p.37)
2010 Mar 23, Talks between US President Barack Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu failed to produce signs they had ended a dispute which Netanyahu said could block the Middle East peace process for a year.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 23, The US Federal Reserve issued new rules to protect Americans from getting stung by unexpected fees or restrictions on gift cards.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In Texas 4 police officers were captured on videotape beating burglary suspect Chad Holley (16). The 4 officers were fired. In 2012 former officer Andrew Blomberg was found not guilty of official oppression.
(SFC, 5/17/12, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/75oebn2)
2010 Mar 23, Internet giant Google led high-profile criticism of Australia's controversial plan to filter the Internet, saying it went too far and could set a dangerous precedent.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Jim Marshall (b.1936), legendary rock and roll photographer, died in a NYC hotel.
(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 23, In northeastern Afghanistan the bodies of 30 people were recovered from the site of avalanche in the remote Arghang Khzahkha district north of Faizabad. The remains of five other people lost in the snow slide that occurred two weeks ago have not yet been located.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Austria’s Graz-Seckau diocese said a priest has resigned after admitting he abused a 17-year-old boy. The priest reportedly stepped down of his own accord for the abuse that happened more than 20 years ago on a vacation. 2 other priests have also been suspended as a precautionary measure because one was convicted of committing a homosexual act with a 17-year-old and the other was convicted of exhibitionism in cases dating back about 15 and 20 years.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat to rebuke Israel for its alleged use of forged British passports in the assassination of a Hamas operative in a suspected Mossad hit.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In eastern China a former doctor, Zheng Minsheng (41), armed with a large knife rampaged outside an elementary school, stabbing 8 young children to death and wounding 5 others at the Nanping City Experimental Elementary School in Fujian province. On April 8 the Intermediate People's Court in Nanping city sentenced Minsheng to death.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar 23, Colombian forces rescued 5 subcontractors of Occidental Petroleum, who were kidnapped near the Venezuelan last week by suspected leftist guerrillas.
(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 23, Luxury goods manufacturers said a ruling from the EU's highest court will stop Google Inc. selling their brand names as advertising keywords to unauthorized sellers or counterfeiters.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In India at least four people died and 18 others were injured when a fire engulfed a landmark building in the heart of the eastern city of Kolkata.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, The Macro Centre for Political Economics said in a report that spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the past 4 decades has totaled around $17.4 billion. An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip overnight injured four people.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Kyrgyzstan's Pres. Kurmanbek Bakiyev said that Western-style democracy has run its course in the ex-Soviet Central Asian country, prompting fears of a further decline in political freedoms.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, In Libya Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said 34 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, including its leader, were sent home after they affirmed they had broken ties with the organization. The group is suspected of having links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 23, Two Nigerian oil workers were found dead in the oil-rich Niger Delta region after being kidnapped on March 13.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Pakistani hardliners vowed to wage a holy war to liberate the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir from Indian control. A suspected US missile struck a house in North Waziristan killing 3 people.
(AFP, 3/23/10)(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 23, At the CITES convention in Qatar Asian nations blocked US-backed proposals to protect the heavily fished hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks on concerns that regulating the booming trade in fins could hurt poor coastal nations.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Senegal's national assembly adopted a bill declaring slavery and the slave trade crimes against humanity, moving closer to becoming the first African nation to pass such legislation.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 23, Somali pirates hijacked the Malta-flagged MV Frigia, a Turkish ship with 21 crew on board. A 2nd hijacking, of the refrigerated MV Talca, took place off the coast of Oman. Private security guards shot and killed a Somali pirate during an attack on a merchant ship off the coast of East Africa in what is believed to be the first such killing by armed contractors. The guards were onboard the MV Almezaan when a pirate group approached it twice. During the 2nd approach on the Panamanian-flagged cargo ship, which is United Arab Emirates owned, there was an exchange of fire between the guards and the pirates. The Spanish warship Navarra intercepted two skiffs and a larger vessel believed to be a pirate mothership. Spanish forces arrested the six remaining pirates, took custody of the pirate's body and sunk the larger boat. The 6 pirates were soon released after the captain of the MV Almezaan said he could not identify the men detained by the Spanish navy as the group of pirates who attacked him. The Talca was freed on May 11 along with its 25 crew members 3 days after a ransom was paid. The Frigia was freed on July 29, 2010.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 3/24/10)(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A2)(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 5/11/10)(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Mar 23, Yemeni security courts sentenced two opposition leaders to prison for allegedly working against national unity and calling for secession of the country's south. Ahmed Bamualem, a leader in the southern movement and former member of parliament who was detained in April, was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Retired army Brig. Gen. Ali Mohammed al-Saadi, also active in the movement, received a 15-month sentence.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, President Barack Obama's administration named 54 alleged Mexican drug cartel lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins under a law that allows the US government to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their business associates.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, The US and Russia reached a breakthrough agreement for a historic treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals. Prague announced it will host the signing of a new US-Russian treaty to reduce long-range nuclear weapons. The deal would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
(AP, 3/24/10)(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 24, More than 1 million baby slings made by Infantino were recalled in the US after claims linking them to three infant deaths. Another 15,000 were recalled in Canada.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Robert Culp (b.1930), TV actor, died after hitting his head during a fall near his Hollywood home. Culp shot to fame thanks to his Kelly Robinson role in “I Spy" (1965-1968). During the 1980s, Culp also logged 44 episodes as Bill Maxwell in “The Greatest American Hero."
(www.popeater.com/2010/03/24/robert-culp-dead-i-spy/?ncid=webmaildl2)
2010 Mar 24, In southern Afghanistan a bombing killed two NATO service members. A NATO soldier was killed by small-arms attack in southern Afghanistan. Six Taliban fighters were killed in Marjah, an area in the southern province of Helmand captured last month by NATO, US and Afghan troops during a massive operation. Two Afghan civilians died in the crossfire of a gun battle between foreign troops and militants in Khost province.
(AP, 3/24/10)(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, Australia and China signed a multibillion dollar natural gas deal, pushing ahead with business as the trial of four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto ended in Shanghai with a verdict still to be announced.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Canada’s province of Quebec passed legislation stipulating that Muslim women will need to uncover their faces when dealing with Quebec government services.
(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 24, In China the presidents of Afghanistan and China oversaw the signing of new agreements aimed at strengthening the Afghan economy as a step toward combating the Taliban and achieving political stability.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Colombia a car bomb ripped open cars and storefronts in the administrative center of the Pacific port of Buenaventura, left 9 people dead and 56 wounded. The FARC was suspected.
(AP, 3/25/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.38)
2010 Mar 24, Egyptian police arrested 22 people suspected of involvement in smuggling goods into the Gaza Strip as part of major crackdown.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 24, El Salvador President Mauricio Funes publicly apologized on behalf of the state for the 1980 assassination of Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Funes said Romero was killed by right-wing death squads "who unfortunately acted with the protection, collaboration or participation of state agents."
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, Dozens of French sex workers proclaiming themselves proud to be prostitutes marched to protest a lawmaker's proposal to legalize brothels in France, arguing that such a law would deny them the freedom to work on their own.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Iceland’s parliament voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offense for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees. The ban takes effect on 1 July.
(http://news.scotsman.com/world/Strip-shows-offlimits-in-.6178649.jp)
2010 Mar 24, Indonesian police ordered the cancellation of a conference of Asian gay activists, saying it could prompt violent protests by conservative Muslim groups.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Iraq gunmen riding in two cars shot dead five Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in the suburbs of Baghdad. Iraqi forces arrested 17 suspects in the area.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Japan’s government passed a 92 trillion yen budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Mar 24, The Jerusalem municipality said it has approved 20 new apartments for Jews in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, in a move that could stir a new diplomatic crisis with the United States just as Israel's leader is in Washington on a fence-mending visit.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Libya some 200 former Islamist militants walked out the gate of at Tripoli's Abu Salim prison, accompanied by relatives weeping with joy, after a release brokered by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
(Reuters, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Mexican federal police arrested Jose Antonio Medina (36), Mexico's "King of Heroin," a powerful drug trafficker allegedly responsible for running thousands of pounds of heroin into Southern California each year. Medina was accused of moving 440 pounds of heroin into California each month.
(AP, 3/26/10)(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 24, Mozambican and donor officials say they have resolved questions over corruption and democracy that led to an aid freeze.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Most of Nigeria was shrouded in a thick dust storm, disrupting air travel and threatening to trigger respiratory problems.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Norway announced that John Tate, an American professor at the University of Texas, Austin, has won the 6 million kroner ($1 million) Abel Prize for mathematics. The prize jury praised Tate as "a prime architect" of number theory, a branch of mathematics that has played a key role in the development of modern computers.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Norway 16 empty cargo train cars careened downhill for 3 miles (5 km) on the outskirts of Oslo before slamming into a port and killing three dock workers. Faulty brakes were blamed for the accident.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 24, Pakistani security forces backed by jets pounded militant hide-outs near the Afghan border, killing 23 suspected Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Fitch Ratings, a leading credit rating agency, downgraded Portugal's debt amid growing concerns about the government's ability to service its borrowings, another piece of bad news for the eurozone as it struggles to deal with a debt crisis.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Saudi Arabia said it has foiled several planned attacks on oil installations with the arrests of 113 suspected al-Qaida militants in a months-long sweep.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Switzerland said it will lift a travel ban on senior Libyan officials to ease tensions in a dispute that has drawn in much of Europe. The Swiss government expressed hope that Libya would respond by ending visa restrictions against citizens of Switzerland and 24 other nations in Europe's passport-free zone.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop John Magee, a former papal aide who stands accused of endangering children by failing to follow the Irish church's own rules on reporting suspected pedophile priests to police.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, The UN and Interpol released a joint report saying gorillas in central Africa are in danger from illegal logging, mining and from hunters who are killing great apes for meat.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, A Zimbabwean rights group that organized a photo exhibit documenting human rights violations scrambled to re-hang its damaged displays just minutes before the show was slated to begin. Police had confiscated the photos a day earlier, but the show's organizers won a court ruling ordering the photos' return to the independent downtown Gallery Delta. The rights group abandoned the photo exhibit following fresh attempts by police to shut it down.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, The US Dept. of Defense announced stricter guidelines for discharging gay and lesbian service members allowing only generals to approve discharges.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 25, Florida Int’l. Univ. (FIU) running back Kendall Berry was stabbed late at night, after the 22-year-old junior from Haines City, Fla., was involved in an argument with another man outside the front doors of the school's student recreation center in Miami.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed into law America’s first blanket “extended producer responsibility" (EPR) framework law. It ordered manufacturers to assume the cost of disposing their products following consumer use. Maine’s EPR law for electronic waste went into effect in 2004.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.67)(http://tinyurl.com/y5ew8vk)
2010 Mar 25, In western Tennessee a medical helicopter crashed ion stormy weather killing its crew of three.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 25, The top UN envoy for Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, met with delegates from Hezb-e-Islami, the country's second-biggest militant group, who are in Kabul for talks on a possible peace deal. Hezb-e-Islami is headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is black-listed as a terrorist by the UN and the US.
(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden threatened in a new audio recording released to kill any captured Americans if the US executes the self-professed mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks or any other al-Qaida suspects.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, A top Australian official said about 100 Australian police are being investigated for circulating racist and pornographic e-mails via the internal police e-mail system, and one officer involved in the scandal has committed suicide.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Bangladesh set up a war crimes tribunal for long-delayed trials of people accused of murder, torture, rape and arson during its 1971 independence war.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Belarus some 2,000 opposition activists held a protest rally despite police blocks that authorities explained were part of security measures against an alleged bomb threat. March 25 has long been a traditional day of opposition demonstration, marking what they call Freedom Day, the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belarusian state.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In London a teenager (15) was stabbed in front of commuters during the evening rush hour at Victoria station. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate the boy. 20 detainees (14 to 17) and were being questioned in connection with the incident.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Chinese officials said emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water and caused more than 1,000 schools to close.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 25, In Colombia a package bomb killed a 12-year-old boy who may have been given it to take to a police station after school in the coca-growing southwest.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Dubai said it would inject 9.5 billion dollars into Dubai World, which announced it was asking creditors to wait for up to eight years to be repaid in full.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Leaders of the 16 eurozone countries agreed to a plan to rescue Greece if it finds itself unable to borrow.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, Former French PM Dominique de Villepin announced the creation of a new center-right party set to challenge bitter rival President Nicolas Sarkozy in elections in two years' time.
(Reuters, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Ireland a judge in Limerick ruled that the city’s 110 pubs can open on April 2 because the city is hosting a major Irish rugby match. This will be the 1st time that pubs anywhere in Ireland will open on Good Friday.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 25, Kenyan police arrested an American of Somali origin who was on a terror watch list as he and two associates attempted to fly to Somalia. American Suleman Essa, Canadian Ahmed Ali Hassan and Kenyan Muhammed Hussein Hash were about to board a plane ferrying aid to Somalia when they were arrested. All 4 were released the next day.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Mexico police were searching for two prison guards and 40 prisoners who disappeared after a pre-dawn jailbreak in the Mexican city of Matamoros across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Gunmen killed a deputy police chief and his bodyguard in Nogales, Sonora state.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 25, A Netherlands court fined the owner of what was the biggest marijuana-selling "coffee shop" in the country almost euro10 million ($13.34 million) for violating liberal Dutch drug laws, in what is seen as a test for authorities seeking to rein in the growth of such cafes.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, Pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, injuring three crew members. Eight to 10 pirates with automatic weapons boarded the Ozay 5. They robbed the crew of money and cellphones but fled after the ship began making distress calls.
(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, It was reported that deaths from starvation in North Korea’s South Pyongan province was in the thousands since January and that the bodies of malnourished elderly people were being found in the streets of Pyongyang.
(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 25, Pakistani military airstrikes killed 61 suspected militants in an area near the Afghan border, including dozens at a seminary where Taliban commanders were believed to be meeting. Pakistani police said they had arrested two of the men who kidnapped a British boy (5) for 12 days this month, and paraded the hooded and shackled suspects before the media. Taliban fighters seized a security checkpoint in the Orakzai tribal region close to the Afghan border, sparking clashes that killed five soldiers and 32 insurgents in a region where the army is pressing an offensive.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Qatar the CITES UN wildlife meeting rejected efforts to regulate the trade in overfished porbeagle sharks, reversing an earlier ruling at the conference and leaving none of the proposed shark species with protection. Asia nations managed to reopen the debate on the final day of the conference and voted to kill the proposal.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Switzerland the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC) voted 20-17 for a text that lists the “defamation of religion" as an infringement of liberty.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.62)
2010 Mar 25, In Venezuela Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of Globovision, was arrested, raising concerns the government is pursuing a widening crackdown to silence opponents. Globovision is the country’s only remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against Pres. Chavez.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Pres. Obama concluded a new strategic arms reduction treaty in a call with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The Obama administration unveiled a revamped Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP).
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.78)
2010 Mar 26, Hacker Albert Gonzalez (28), who participated in a cybercrime ring that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, was sentenced in US District Court to 20 years in prison. Gonzalez was living in Miami at the time of the crimes in the three cases, which occurred over almost two years before he was arrested in May of 2008 and subsequently indicted in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/hackergonzalezsentencedto20yearsforexploits)
2010 Mar 26, In south-central Kentucky at least 10 people were killed in a fiery crash between a tractor-trailer and a van after the truck crossed over the median on an interstate highway.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The head of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, went missing after his glider crashed in Morocco. Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's glider went down in a lake in Morocco. The pilot of the aircraft was rescued in good condition. The body of al-Nahayan was found on March 30.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan a gunman attacked a group of German and Afghan aid workers inspecting a high school under renovation. 2 people died and a German employed by German humanitarian organization GTZ was among 10 people wounded when assailants opened fire on workers in Khost city.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the “City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 26, In Ecuador a district court judge convicted Emilio Palacio, a newspaper editorial writer for the newspaper El Universo, of insulting the head of the government's National Financial Corp. and sentenced him to three years in prison.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Egyptian police said they arrested 45 suspected smugglers over the past three days in an intensified crackdown on the supply line to Gaza by way of hundreds of cross-border tunnels. Among the suspects was a man accused of trying to deliver $242,000 in Egyptian pounds and US dollars to Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Iraq’s election commission announced that former PM Ayad Allawi edged out chief rival PM Nouri al-Maliki by two seats, 91-89, in the March 7 vote for a 325-member parliament.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Finland Juha Turunen, a corporate lawyer, was convicted of kidnapping heiress Minna Nurminen (26) and holding her captive for two weeks in 2009 until her family paid a multimillion euro (dollar) ransom. He had admitted during the trial that he had kidnapped Nurminen and held her captive at an apartment in Turku, western Finland. She was released unharmed and police recovered the ransom money.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Germany and Switzerland said they have reached a preliminary deal on an agreement to exchange information on suspected tax cheats, an important step toward defusing a long-festering irritant in their relations.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Honduras radio journalists Jose Bayardo (52) and Manuel de Jesus Juarez (55) were riddled with bullets late in the day as they drove on a highway in the rural province of Olancho. Three other journalists have been killed in March in Honduras, which is wracked by political divisions relating to a 2009 coup and common crime fueled by street gangs.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Israel insisted it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in the fighting. Militants reported one wounded and one missing. Israeli soldier withdrew the next day.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In northern Mexico the decapitated body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon state, and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck. Late in the day gunmen opened fired on a hotel in downtown Ciudad Juarez where federal agents stay, killing one and wounding two.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Mozambican police said they have arrested 7 people suspected of trafficking women to neighboring South Africa to work as prostitutes. The men were arrested last week through a police sting operation. The women were on sale for about $670 each.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Asad Qureshi, a British journalist, went missing while traveling to North Waziristan with a retired army officer Sultan Amir Tarar (Col. Imam), and Khalid Khawaja, a prominent Pakistani ex-spy. Khawaja was found killed by the captors on April 30. On Sep 9 it was reported that Qureshi and Col. Imam were released.
(AFP, 9/9/10)(http://cpj.org/2010/04/documentary-filmmaker-missing-in-pakistan.php)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island. An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued. A North Korean mine was later suspected as the cause of the explosion. South Korea's defense minister confirmed on May 10 that traces of an explosive chemical substance used to make torpedoes were found in the wreckage of the naval ship. It was later determined that a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan. Of the 104 officers and enlisted men onboard the ship, forty-six were killed. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 12/24/19)
2010 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians gathered in a Damascus square in a government-orchestrated "march of anger" against Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Togo's government and the opposition coalition signed a temporary truce committing both sides to peace, law and order following opposition protests against presidential election results.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Zimbabwe state media reported that PM Morgan Tsvangirai has backed President Robert Mugabe's stance against including gay rights in a new constitution. President Robert Mugabe said he would only implement terms of an agreement he signed in 2008 with rival Morgan Tsvangirai if the West removed sanctions on his allies.
(AFP, 3/26/10)(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 27, Robert Krentz (58), a prominent Arizona rancher near the Mexican border, was shot while working at his remote cattle ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border. His family's ranch sprawled over 35,000 acres. Investigators tracked the footprints of the suspected gunman about 20 miles south to the border with Mexico, prompting some authorities to blame smugglers or illegal immigrants for the killing.
(Reuters, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 27, Federal agents in southern Michigan raided the home of David Stone, the suspected leader of the Hutaree militia, a group of self-proclaimed Christian warriors. Authorities recovered hand grenade instructions and schematics, a container of potassium chlorate, and other items.
(SFC, 4/13/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 27, In southern Afghanistan an international service member was killed by a roadside bomb. 6 civilians were killed in two separate roadside bomb explosions, one in Sangin district and one in Nawa district.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Australia Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbor Bridge went dark along with millions of homes at the start of Earth Hour, a global switch-off aimed at revitalizing efforts against climate change.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, British Airways cabin crew launched a four-day strike, the second wave of action in a week as part of a bitter, long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Pirates off the coast of Cameroon’s Bakassi peninsula seized the MV Gull, a Ghanaian ship, and kidnapped two sailors for ransom. Pirates took control of the ship and kidnapped its captain and an officer on board once they found nothing worth stealing. Pirates freed the two West African sailors on March 31.
(AP, 3/30/10)(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 27, In China a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed in northern Shaanxi province and some 1,000 tons of oil sludge contaminated farmland and the Luohe River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 27, Iran used an ancient new year celebration to reach out to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey at a summit meeting that projected Iranian leadership in the strategic region straddling the Middle East and Central Asia.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Turin, Italy, Mao Asada (19) of Japan toppled Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim in a triumphant season finale which saw her claim her second world title at the world figure skating championships.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, A two-day Arab League summit opened in Sirte, Libya. Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, urged the 22-nation bloc to engage Iran directly over concerns about its growing influence in the region and its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Libya lifted a visa ban on citizens of 25 European countries after EU president Spain said a Swiss-instigated visa blacklist against 188 Libyans in those countries had been scrapped.
(Reuters, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 27, In western Mexico two police officers and two other men have been found shot to death at a gas station in Michoacan state. In Guerrero state a man was found tied up and fatally shot in a car in the resort of Acapulco. The bodies of four men and a woman were found on a rural road in a town not far from the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez. More than 7,000 people gathered in the northern city of Monterrey to protest a wave of violence that has affected the country's third largest city in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Pakistani air strikes killed at least 11 militants in a new offensive against foreign fighters in the restive northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Suspected US missiles killed 4 people in the northwest.
(AFP, 3/27/10)(SSFC, 3/28/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 27, Peruvian police said five people have been killed by a mudslide set off by heavy rains in a remote community of wildcat miners in the southeastern Andes.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Russia an apartment block west of Moscow partially collapsed following a suspected gas explosion, killing three people and possibly trapping others under the rubble.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Russia former Soviet world chess champion Vasily Smyslov (89) died of heart failure. Smyslov beat Mikhail Botvinnik in 1957 to become the seventh world champion, before losing in a re-match the following year. His career in the top flight of world chess spanned some four decades. He was beaten by Garry Kasparov in 1984 in the Candidates Final match for the right to challenge Anatoly Karpov for the world title, which Kasparov went on to capture.
(Reuters, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Somalia 3 people were killed and four injured in clashes between government soldiers and armed protesters opposing the demolition of their houses near Mogadishu's main airport.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Korea Life became the first big South Korean life insurer to go public. Others were expected to soon follow.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.81)
2010 Mar 27, In Sudan Darfur rebels allegedly shot down 2 Sudanese army helicopters in the latest reports of fighting that have marred faltering peace talks between Khartoum and other insurgents. Sudan's army said two of its helicopters crashed after developing technical problems.
(Reuters, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 27, Thai troops retreated from security posts in the capital, bowing to demands from 80,000 jubilant red-shirted protesters who mounted a rally to demand fresh elections.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In Yemen policemen opened fire in Daleh on the funeral procession for a Southern Movement member killed by police gunfire a week earlier, wounding 28 mourners.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 27, Zimbabwe police shut down an art exhibit exploring violence blamed on President Robert Mugabe. Artist Owen Maseko had collected family photos of missing people, images of mine shafts where bodies were believed dumped and reports on an armed uprising after independence in 1980 in the western Matabeleland district that was crushed by troops loyal to Mugabe. Thousands of civilians were massacred in the fighting.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 28, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan for a firsthand look at the 8-year-old war he inherited and dramatically escalated. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere held talks in Afghanistan on stuttering progress in training the country's security forces. Russia accused the US of conniving with Afghanistan's drug producers by refusing to destroy opium crops, the second time in a week Moscow has taken a swipe at the West over drug policy.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AFP, 3/28/10)(Reuters, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, US federal agents in Ohio arrested 2 members of Hutaree, a Christian militia group “preparing for end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive." A 3rd person was arrested the next day in Indiana as part of an investigation led by the FBI in Michigan.
(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 28, The Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in Sanaa Ltd. of Tokyo. Their work included NYC’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 2007.
(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 28, In Colorado Kayleah Wilson (12) went missing as she walked to a b-day party in Greeley. On May 19 police retrieved her decomposing body from an irrigation ditch about a mile and a half from her home.
(SFC, 4/5/10, p.A4)(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 28, British Airways cabin crew entered the second day of a four-day strike, bringing further travel disruption with no end in sight for a dispute that has become increasingly political.
(AFP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Central Africa LRA elements were chased by the Ugandan army, which killed at least 15 rebels in the village of Dembia. More than 40 people were abducted from the three villages including in Bangassou, where about 400 people had taken refuge from the fighting.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 28, In northern China at least 153 miners were trapped underground after water gushed into the state-owned the Wangjialing coal mine. 115 Chinese miners were pulled out alive on April 5 after being trapped for over a week in the flooded mine. Some had eaten sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept. As of April 11 the death toll stood at 33 with 5 miners still missing.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Mar 28, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Cars unit for $1.8 billion, representing a coup for the independent Chinese automaker which is aiming to expand in Europe.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, Colombian rebels handed over Pvt. Josue Calvo (23) to the International Red Cross in their first release of a captive in more than a year. The insurgents are promising to soon free a second soldier they've held for far longer.
(AP, 3/28/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 28, In Guyana Sangeeta Persaud (15) died after neighbors and a local pastor tried to treat her convulsions with an exorcism at a church.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Iraq several bombs exploded near a house linked to a prominent Sunni figure who ran in this month's parliamentary elections, killing five people and wounding 26 others.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, Israel said it will restrict access to its territory from the occupied West Bank starting late today ahead of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Italy voters cast their ballots in regional elections. Premier Silvio Berlusconi emerged as the victor in the elections widely depicted as a test of his popularity. Only 64% bothered to vote.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/30/10)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.53)
2010 Mar 28, In Libya Arab leaders renewed their support for Mideast peace efforts, rejecting pressure from Syria and Libya on the Palestinians to abandon talks with Israel and resume armed resistance.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Mexico gunmen in Durango state killed 10 young people riding in pickup truck when they didn't stop at a gang's illegal roadblock. 3 gunmen died in a clash with soldiers near a park crowded with families in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. Tamaulipas state investigators said police found the bodies of three men who had been shot to death in the town of Miguel Aleman. In the Nuevo Leon city of Santa Catarina, three men and two women were killed in a shootout with soldiers inside a motel.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 28, Pakistani troops repulsed a Taliban attack on an army base and bombed two militant hide-outs close to the Afghan border, killing 22 insurgents in Orakzai tribal region where the army is pressing an offensive.
(AP, 3/28/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 28, In the Philippines 2 marines were wounded and several Abu Sayyaf fighters were believed killed as troops pursued militants in an offensive on Jolo island that ended today. At least one body of an Abu Sayyaf fighter, killed in the 2-day assault, was dug up by troops.
(AP, 3/28/10)(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 28, Russia's Pres. Medvedev thought the country had too much time on its hands, so on Sunday he eliminated two of its 11 time zones.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Russia thousands of angry people demonstrated in the northwestern city of Arkhangelsk against the high cost of living and demanded that the government of PM Vladimir Putin quits.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Switzerland an armed gang of masked men raided the Grand Casino, packed with about 600 guests near Basel, and made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, Officials said the US and India have reached an agreement on reprocessing nuclear material, clearing a major hurdle in putting into practice a landmark atomic energy pact.
(AFP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, The US Treasury Department said it will begin selling the stake it owns in Citigroup Inc., which could result in a profit to the government of more than $8 billion.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, US Federal officials awarded Tennessee and Delaware $600 million in grants to improve failing schools as part of Pres. Obama’s $4 billion fund for education innovation and reform. Delaware won as much as $107 million. Tennessee could get $502 million.
(AP, 3/29/10)(SFC, 3/30/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 29, In Afghanistan a NATO helicopter crashed, injuring 14 people in Zabul province. Elsewhere in the south a service member was killed in a bomb strike.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In the Bahamas a tornado touched down during a fierce thunderstorm and toppled a port crane, killing three people and injuring at least four.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Canada a 2-day G-8 meeting opened in the Quebec town of Gatineau. Canada said it would press the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations to tighten UN sanctions on Iran.
(Reuters, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, In eastern China local residents and firefighters recovered the bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, which had washed ashore on the Guangfu River near the city of Jining, Shandong province. Tags on the feet of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Greece an overnight pipe bomb explosion outside an Athens business management institute killed an Afghan passer-by (15) and severely injured his sister (10).
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, A Guatemalan judge sentenced a man to two years in prison for his role in the May 10, 2009, killing of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who accused the country's president of his murder in a video made before his death. Cardona was convicted of illicit association, the first verdict among eight people on trial in the slaying of Rosenberg.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 29, An American doctor living in Guatemala was convicted of sexually abusing four 10-year-old boys and sentenced to six years in prison. Dr. Joshua T. Kotouc was arrested in 2008 with the four boys in bed.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Iraq the names of candidates elected for the 325-member parliament were published in newspapers. Several prominent politicians, long considered untouchable in the political arena, failed to make it into parliament following the country's March 7 elections. A pair of car bombs in the holy city of Karbala killed at least four people and wounded 22, with the second blast detonating near the provincial governor's home.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Japan more than 2,000 people who suffer from a rare neurological disorder agreed to accept a settlement proposal and abandon their lawsuits against the Japanese government and the company they say made them sick by dumping mercury. Minamata disease was first diagnosed in 1956 and later was linked to the consumption of fish from southern Kyushu island's Minamata Bay, where chemical company Chisso Corp. dumped tons of mercury compounds.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Myanmar's biggest opposition party said it would not register for this year's election, meaning Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party will have no role in the military-led political process.
(Reuters, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of anti-Taliban volunteers in northwestern Pakistan, killing one person and critically wounding two others in Tank city.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Hamas seized $270,000 from a Gaza bank that had been frozen by the Palestinian government in the West Bank, sparking new feuding between the Gaza militants and their Western-backed rivals.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, A Philippine court dismissed rebellion charges against a powerful clan leader and dozens of his followers but they remain in custody for their alleged role in the Nov 23, 2009, election-related massacre of 57 people. Prosecutors had charged Andal Ampatuan Sr., his four sons and followers with rebellion for allegedly plotting to stage an armed uprising after the government began to crack down on them when they were linked to the massacre.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Russia 2 female suicide bombers blew themselves up in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing 39 people. Officials blamed the carnage on rebels from the Caucasus region. Five people remained in critical condition out of 71 hospitalized after the blasts. The death toll soon rose to 40 as one of the injured died in a hospital.
(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 3/30/10)(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Mar 29, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency set up the world's first nuclear fuel bank, signing into life a plan meant to bridge shortages caused by snags in deliveries of low enriched uranium to power reactors.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Somalia hundreds of women and children marched through the rubble-strewn streets of Mogadishu to protest against al-Qaida-linked militants.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Somali pirates hijacked a cargo vessel, the Panama-flagged Iceberg I, off the coast of Yemen. The 24-member crew came from Yemen, India, Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and the Philippines.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 30, Pres. Obama signed into law the final changes to the sweeping medical plan approved by lawmakers last week, along with reforms in college student loan programs.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, A US federal court ruled that the US patents held by Myriad Genetics on the BRCA genes are unsustainable as a matter of law.
(Econ, 4/17/10, p.91)(http://tinyurl.com/y8camvj)
2010 Mar 30, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the escrow firm Rehab Financial Corp. after learning the company had abruptly shuttered its Huntington Beach office and drained accounts holding city funds. The suit accused the company of misappropriating several million dollars from SF and at least a dozen other California cities.
(SFC, 4/1/10, p.C2)
2010 Mar 30, A gunman sprayed bullets from a moving vehicle into a crowd in southeastern Washington, killing four and wounding at least five others, before leading police on a chase into neighboring Maryland. Three people were arrested in the drive-by shooting.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 30, Chevron said the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ruled in favor of its claim against Ecuador related to past operations of its Texaco unit. The tribunal ruled that Ecuador’s courts delayed rulings on a contract dispute and awarded Chevron about $700 million as of Dec 22, 2006. A separate case over a $27 billion pollution claim remained pending.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 30, Jaime Escalante (b.1930), a Bolivia-born math teacher in East Los Angeles, died. The 1987 film "Stand and Deliver," starring Lou Diamond Phillips, was based on the story of his success teaching math to inner-urban kids.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.C6)
2010 Mar 30, In western Afghanistan 5 civilians have been killed after their van hit a bomb planted in the road outside Herat.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Australian media groups and sports bodies signed a code of conduct aimed at ending years of disputes and boycotts over press coverage of major sporting events.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper told US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton that its military mission in Afghanistan will end in 2011.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 30, In Quebec, Canada, the world's leading industrial nations (G8) called for stronger action against Iran over its nuclear program and the United States said it was confident China would agree on the need for sanctions.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Google Inc said its mobile services have been partially blocked in China for two days, while searches on its Chinese-language site became erratic, about a week after the company shut its mainland Chinese portal and rerouted Web searches to a Hong Kong site.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Ecuador journalist Emilio Palacio, facing a 3-year prison sentence for defamation, accused President Rafael Correa of orchestrating his prosecution as a warning that critics of the government will be severely punished.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Amnesty International said Europe had its first year without executions in 2009. But the London-based organization said the spell was recently broken by the execution of two men in Belarus.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Britain's media watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, upheld a complaint against a blog written by a journalist in what was its first-ever move to censure a newspaper or magazine over comments by a blogger. Former BBC journalist and commentator Rod Liddle was censured over a blog in which he said that young Afro-Caribbean men carried out the "overwhelming majority" of violent crime in London. The blog which was published in December on the website of right-wing weekly magazine The Spectator.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In India Paramhamsa Nityananda (32), a Hindu holy man with thousands of followers across India, resigned as head of Dhyanapeetam (knowledge center) after police began investigating his role in a sex scandal. On April 21 Nityananda, who claims to have devotees in 33 countries, and an aide Nithya Bhaktananda, were nabbed in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh on charges including obscenity and hurting religious sentiments.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)(AFP, 4/21/10)
2010 Mar 30, An Indian naval spokesman said Somali pirates may be holding several dhows carrying an estimated 100 Indian sailors they have seized over the past five days.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Iran's state television reported that its intelligence agents mounted a "complicated" cross-border mission and freed an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in 2008 by gunmen in northwestern Pakistan. Heshmatollah Attarzadeh and his Pakistani bodyguard were driving over a narrow bridge in Peshawar on Nov. 13, 2008 when two gunmen blocked their way with a car and opened fire.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Japan’s government approved a plan to halt the privatization of Japan Post, the world’s biggest bank, and increased the amount of deposits it can take from a customer to 20 million yen. The government will retain a stake of over one-third, giving it veto power.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Mar 30, In northern Mexico dozens of gunmen mounted rare and apparently coordinated attacks targeting two army garrisons, touching off firefights that killed 18 attackers in the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 30, Russia's Pres. Medvedev signed an order formally implementing UN Security Council-approved sanctions against North Korea. The sanctions were passed in June by the Security Council, which includes Russia.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Serbia's parliament approved a declaration condemning the 1995 Serb massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, in a bid to distance the country from past warmongering under the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, said Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has long been working to ensure next month's elections are rigged, making the eventual winner illegitimate.
(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Switzerland scientists cheered the historic crash of two proton beams at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 30, Vietnam and the United States signed a pact described as a key foundation for development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Zimbabwe 13 legislators from both parties in the coalition government were not allowed to enter the Chiadzwa diamond district. They spent 2 days waiting for clearance.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, President Barack Obama announced an expansive new policy that could put oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, The US federal government and environmental groups reached an agreement that will end the ghost fleet of retired ships in Suisun Bay, Ca.
(SFC, 4/1/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 31, The CalNeva casino on the north shore of Lake Tahoe closed due to declining gambling revenues.
(SFC, 4/1/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 31, Flooding across the US Northeast forced hundreds of residents from their homes, knocked out sewage plants, and snarled traffic on major East Coast routes as roads. Rhode Island endured the most severe damage as the Pawtuxet reached 20.8 feet unleashing the worst flooding in over 200 years.
(AP, 3/31/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.32)
2010 Mar 31, US Navy Lt. Steven Zilberman's E-2C Hawkeye went down in the North Arabian Sea after it "experienced mechanical malfunctions." Three other crew members survived the crash without significant injuries.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 31, In southern Afghanistan a bomb concealed on a bicycle killed 13 people, as the Pentagon's top military officer said NATO forces hope to reverse the Taliban's momentum in the south with an upcoming offensive in Kandahar.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Antigua a judge ruled Wednesday that PM Baldwin Spencer and two other lawmakers were improperly elected last year, a decision potentially threatening the governing party's narrow hold on power in this Caribbean country. Earlier this month, Spencer's government announced that the International Monetary Fund agreed to lend the country $124 million over three years.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Belgium a parliamentary committee unanimously voted to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public, a major step in the legislative process that could make Belgium the first European country to impose such a religious prohibition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, US envoy Stephen Rapp said the US has pledged $5 million to Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal amid the troubled court's attempts to address corruption allegations.
(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In central China a gas explosion at a mine killed 12 workers and trapped 32 underground at the privately owned Guomin Mining Co. coal pit in Yichuan County, Luoyang City.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Dagestan 2 suicide bombers struck near the border with Chechnya, killing 12 people.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 31, Nearly 50 donors pledged $9.9 billion in reconstruction aid for Haiti at a UN donor conference, but leaders and businessmen stressed private investment would be the key to improving the lot of the hemisphere's poorest nation.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Six major world powers agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its opposition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Iraq gunmen fatally shot Mohammed Chillab, a health ministry official, at his home in Baghdad in the latest slaying apparently targeting government employees. A mobile phone shop owner was gunned down and killed as he was closing his store for the night.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Kashmir 4 Indian soldiers and 10 separatist guerrillas were killed in clashes, the highest number of people killed in firefights in 24 hours in recent months.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Mexico authorities in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco announced that Roberto Rivero Arana, the nephew of reputed Zetas gang leader Heriberto Lazcano, was captured together with Daniel Perez, an acting police chief of Ciudad del Carmen, accused of protecting the Zetas. 4 severed human heads were found in Apatzingan, a town in the western state of Michoacan. In Morelia, the Michoacan state capital, police reported finding the bodies of 3 young men who had been shot to death. Police in the border city of Nogales reported finding the bullet-ridden bodies of 3 men, including a city transport official, on a rural road along with three burned-out vehicles.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Niger's police director said police have arrested more than 600 people in an effort to crackdown on recent crime and insecurity in the capital.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped Chris Nnaji. a local employee of French oil group Total, on his way to work in the country's oil hub of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Pakistan US missiles and fighting in the mountains killed up to 36 militants and six Pakistani soldiers as violence swept the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In southern Russia 2 suicide bombers, including one impersonating a police officer, killed 12 people in Dagestan. PM Vladimir Putin said the blasts may have been organized by the same militants who attacked the Moscow subway. Russian police broke up anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, detaining dozens of demonstrators who had defied bans in holding the rallies.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Scotland and Northern Ireland were battered by snow, gale force winds and torrential rain, leaving thousands of people without power and causing havoc on roads.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Spain flight attendant Adriana Ricardo said attendants owed up to nine months' wages by a grounded Spanish airline have posed nude for a calendar to draw attention to their plight. Air Comet, run by the embattled chairman of Spain's main employers' association CEOE, Gerardo Ferran, filed for administration in December after a British court impounded nine of its aircraft at the request of German bank HSH Nordbank.
(Reuters, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Southern Sudan's main political party withdrew its candidate from the country's upcoming presidential election and said it will not contest parliamentary and local polls in Darfur, a move that erodes the credibility of Sudan's first multiparty election in decades.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Swiss authorities said they could not reopen a money-laundering case against the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as long as he enjoys legal immunity.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 31, Taiwan officials lost contact with the 79-ton Jih-chun Tsai 68 fishing trawler and the government feared the boat may have been hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast. On May 10, 2011, Wu Lai-yu, captain of the Jih-Chun Tsai 68, was killed by ammunition fired from a US ship. He was buried at sea from his vessel, which was "unseaworthy after the exchange of fire and was sunk.
(AP, 4/1/10)(AFP, 7/25/11)
2010 Mar 31, Google Inc. says malicious software has been used to spy on Vietnamese computer users opposed to a controversial bauxite mine in the Southeast Asian country. Computer security firm McAfee said the perpetrators may be linked to the communist government.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar, US and Chilean engineers extracted Chile's last batch of highly enriched uranium (HEU), 18 kg (40 pounds), from reactors near Santiago and shipped it to the US. It was then driven to the Savannah River Site in SC and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Ten., where much of it would be converted to safer fuel and resold for nuclear power.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar, The number of Americans receiving food stamps topped 40 million this month as the jobless rate hovered near a 26-year high.
(SFC, 6/3/10, p.A7)
2010 Mar, In Oakland, Ca., gang shootings killed Victor Johns and John Jones. Deshawn Reed was later convicted of the double murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Reed spent seven years in prison before being declared factually innocent in 2018 and permitted to seek compensation from the state.
(SFC, 11/8/18, p.C1)
2010 Mar, British Grenadier Guardsman Daniel Crook stabbed Ghulam Nabi (10) while on a patrol in the Nad-e Ali district of southern Helmand province. In 2011 Crook was jailed for 18 months for bayoneting the boy. The boy's father said that he had received $800 (600 euros) in compensation but no apology.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2010 Mar, The Laotian government arrested an Uighur family: Memet Eli Rozi, his wife Gulbahar Sadiq, and their five children. They were later deported back to China.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Mar, In North Korea Pak Nam Gi, the ruling Workers' Party finance and planning department chief who spearheaded the November, 2009, currency reform, was executed by a firing squad in Pyongyang.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar, Iraq ranked 162nd in the world in income per head. It was also reported to be the 4th most corrupt country in the world and 153rd in the world for ease of doing business. 25% of Iraqis had access to adequate and the same percent received needed electricity, 22% of the people were malnourished. Unemployment in rural areas was said to approach 80%. Over the last 7 years the US has spent $800 billion on Iraq. [That would be about $2600 per every US man, woman and child.]
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.32,34)
2010 Mar, The Israeli TV series “Prisoner of War" debuted. It lasted two seasons, but was remade in 2011 as the American blockbuster “Homeland" starring Claire Danes.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_War_(TV_series))(Econ, 8/5/17, p.35)
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